Farewell, My 1st Mini MacBook

No, that's not my HP Mini 1001TU in the picture above, neither is the girl holding the 1001TU moi. I wouldn't be a geek if I looked anything like that.

But enough of murdering my own self-esteem in terms of physical appearance and get on with the main point of this post: Today is the day I said goodbye to my very first "Mini MacBook" or "MacBook Mini". 

Well, in the course of months, I've come to prefer the the term "Mini MacBook" over "MacBook Mini". There's been a confusion with MyMacBookMini.com with MyMacBookMini.blogspot.com - they're not one and the same - for a time they were related, but not anymore now, here is where "My MacBook Mini" started, just to make things clear. :D

So anyway, I decided to sell my HP Mini 1001TU shortly after I'd gotten my new Atheros AR9280 b/g/n WiFi card and restored the BCM94312HMG card where it really belonged. The whole package, accessories and all went and was gone for around $ 200 or maybe even less.

I know that this is hardly worth posting about but I felt I just had to mark this event in my experience as a hackintosher.

Things I learned with the HP Mini 1001TU:

• How to do a Retail Install
• How to do a Vanilla Install
• How to replace a netbook keyboard after accidentally destroying it with a hairdryer
• How to destroy an SDHC card slot with a Sony Memory Stick from my nephew's PSP
• And other absurdities. XD

About half of the posts here in "MyMacBookMini" is about the HP Mini 1001TU - from March to December 2009 plus some more even after I've got an HP Mini 311.

So to my dear little 1001TU, mommy loves you still. I hope your new family loves you more than I did. No, they may not crack your shell open as often as I did, exposing your innards, with the final goal of extricating that precious Snow Leo compatible WiFi card of yours to feed to your newer, meaner, brother. 

But bear in mind that love can be expressed in many ways; the screw driver is just one. Please try to appreciate the other ways.

Hap-P1

Couldn't resist it.

Got myself a new, dirt cheap, Cherry Mobile P1.

It's your most basic of cellphones - SMS and call features only. Ok, if we count the "alarm" as "organizer", 3 features then. D'oh! 

I love the small form factor. It's hardly bigger than the square area of a regular credit card, or as seen in the pic below, an MRT stored value card.

I would've wanted a more colorful unit but they only had black remaining when I checked out their booth at a nearby mall.

the red one looks decent enough

Apparently these babies are selling like hot cakes!

Haven't we heard netbooks described that way too - "selling like hot cakes" - before?

If it's worth its Php 999 ($ 22) price tag, that I'll see as I use it as a secondary cellphone mainly for dealing on line for sourcing my PC stuff :D

The HP Mini 311 Is A Sad Mac* After All?

*or a PC, if you didn't hackintosh it.

It's no secret that my HP Mini 311 died on me a few months ago and before that, my HP Mini 1000 did too at about a month before its 1 year international warranty expired. But then it's also no secret how "intimate" I've been getting with these two machines -- and before you color me perverted, that is, a perverted geek-wannabe to be exact -- the "intimacy" described here deals with logic boards (Apple parlance, hello!), PCI slots, U.fl antenna connectors, 2.5" hard drive bracket mounts, and DIMM slot clips.

To cut the story short, the HP Mini 311 died because I fried its bios chip with the wrong bus speeds while learning how to over-clock hands-on. That the HP Mini 1000 still lives is a miracle given the many times I've cracked its shell open to extract and restore its infamous BCM94312HMG WiFi card. In my case, the less than stellar user experience has been self-inflicted.

We are also aware of the controversy claiming that netbooks are not at all made to last. It's something that's been circulating on the web for quite some time now, since the advent of this new machine category and I bet Timmy C. and Stevie J. have been effervescently delighted with that, but most of us "netbookers" trudged on happily with our little wonder gadgets to our fave cafés.

But now, after reading a post at blogeee.net, I feel imminently disturbed: HP netbooks have been pointed (again) in particular to have the shortest life span of them all!

The thought of my Mini 311 deteriorating within 12 months - that's before I can even complete the installment payment plan - is just troubling.

You, how's your HP experience so far?