MAIL CALL: New keyboard cover, Kindle, and DVDs

Yesterday we stopped by to pick up our mail. One package was my new keyboard cover and it is so pretty (it is a darker blue than in the photo below).

Bought through Amazon: Blue Keyboard Skin Compatible with Apple Macbook

My computer looks new again... although I have to put some new tape around the edge of my MacBook's top case where the edge has broken away. This is due to Apple's design fault where the two little ridges above the monitor will eventually crack the case where they touch when closed. I should have had Apple replace both of our top cases last year when they were still under AppleCare but I thought our policy had expired the year before. It can be difficult to keep track of things when you are on Island Time.

The protective cover only cost a couple of dollars... Well worth the investment to keep my keyboard clean and DRY! The skin is very thin and doesn't cause difficulties in typing. No problems installing it either. It fits over the keys without any problem. The letters on the keys below do not show through. It gives the impression that the keytops are blue. You cannot really see that it is a covering... Very cool...

I ordered mine through "Listen Up" and received it via 1st class mail within 3 days to the USVI. It came in a perfectly-sized manilla, non-padded, flat envelope.  I am very happy that it was OK because one of the DVDs we received has a big dent in it.

See the dent at about the 5 o'clock position?

My picture to show the bump on the opposite face didn't come out too well but you can see that it is definitely not playable.

Since this was ordered through Amazon, I'm sure we will have customer satisfaction and either receive a refund or replacement. (UPDATE: Received my refund the same day I notified them of a problem! Unfortunately, the seller doesn't have a replacement)

I sure love my pretty keyboard... it is helping to keep my mind off of the ^%#&^% wifi "service".

The Kindle is also very cool but I'll talk about it in another post.

The swell has calmed down a bit this morning but it is picking up now after the RAIN! OK, so we can't epoxy because of the threat of rain, but you cannot go on to a different project that requires the use an angle grinder when the roll is tossing you from side to side. I'm more into the "safe and sane" firework mindset rather than "dumb and dangerous"... What's another day... especially when our internet service is so slow and time consuming :)

We'll go into Christiansted this afternoon and get a couple of jerrycans of water and check the mail for more DVDs.

This water is the "good" water (left) we get from the Bucaneer Yacht-less Club on the boardwalk.  A little bit brown and we need to backflush the filter as it is clogged, but it is much better and cheaper (10 cents/gallon as opposed to 15) than the water we would get at St Croix Marine fuel dock (right).  Gives the coffee a nice, rich color :)

Speaking of clean water, you might be interested in Gifts of Hope on the PlanUSA.org site
.

So it goes...

12 Volt Power Cord for MacBook

We recently purchased a 12-volt power cord for our 13-inch MacBooks through Amazon.  Works great so we will definitely be buying a second one.

This way, we don't have to use our inverter to use our 110V power cords. Seems like a waste to convert 12 volts to 110 volts and then back down.

There are two versions (16.5V & 18.5V) according to what Mac you have:

• Our magsafe cord has specs of DC-Output : 16.5V-3.65A-60W - Input : DC 12V
• The other is DC-Output : 18.5V-4.6A-85W - Input : DC 12V

I'd also like to mention that we are very pleased with a few of our recent purchases...

The mattress from Cabelas and also our Coleman French Press stainless steel coffee maker : Click here for PREVIOUS post. We've been using these items every day for the last 6-8 weeks and we are very happy campers.

My next bit of shopping research will be for a 12-volt router solution.

Might do a bit of sewing today after lunch, etc... Although, it is Sunday and I just started a new book, and the bay has calmed down so perhaps a swim, but then there's a bit of work I want to do for our barging site, perhaps a bit of video editing... So It Goes...
:)

Tips for Hard Drives

I noticed that Lifehacker had an interesting post today about hard drives: Top 10 Hard Drive Upgrades and Fixes

I have some interesting links to check out when I have time... hopefully before my hard drive craps out... you know how that goes :)

Hope this might help you, too.

WARNING: MacBooks Don't Accept Small mini CDs

I think I already knew this, but.... duh!

This afternoon we bought an ALFA USB Highpower Adaptor as a backup to our Engenius Bridge WiFi system.  It came with a mini-CD with the manual and drivers.  Hmmmm, can I put a small, mini-CD into my MacBook optical drive slot? Nothing on the box that says not to do so... It says this disk is for a bunch of Window OS and Mac OS... OK, let's give it a try...

Now, in hindsight, I think I had a situation like this once before and I had looked it up to see if I could put one of these little cute disks into the CD slot of my Apple MacBook, as I realized that there is no paperclip emergency pop out hole to use if/when the eject button won't work and I didn't do it.

So, back to the a few minutes ago... I kind of went, it should work... let's see if it will suck the disk in. No, it's not in far enough to suck it in so push it in a bit more... maybe a bit more.  I now have the little CD completely in the slot and nothing is happening.  No sucking in the disk sound, no spinning sound, no CD icon on the screen.... Oh Shucky Darn! So, maybe if I use the DVD we just rented and try to push it in a bit further... duh! That was a dumb thing to do.  Actually, I was probably lucky that I didn't get it onto the spindle (I assume there's a spindle that the hole goes onto).

So, for some reason I'm actually calm and not TOO panicked. I go to the apple.com site. I think their support & troubleshooting system sucks but it seems better than when I've used it in the past but no help here except it says only to use standard sized 120mm optical disks.

So I Google "macbook manual eject small cd". This gives me a few possible good leads to forums where people have asked about mini-cds and MacBooks.  One asked "can I insert a mini-CD in my MacBook" and someone answered "yes but have fun getting it out".

Oh, yes indeed, I did try the Restart computer and hold down trackbar to manually eject CD, but that didn't work as the CD wasn't really mounted. Since it's not mounted I couldn't use the helpful Go to Disk Utility, select the disk and eject.  Oh yes, the eject button itself didn't work either...

Fortunately, the 3rd choice I clicked on was helpful.  It said to shut the computer down. Hold it up so the CD slot is facing down and gently, very gently, shake the computer and hopefully the disk will slide out with gravity.

This didn't work.

So, we got out one of those thin plastic disks that come with blank DVDs as we didn't want to damage a DVD with a movie on it, and this protective disk is thinner.  Bob cut the disk in half and gently inserted it into the optical slot. He tried to pinch it with both halves (I'm holding the flashlight... I'm good at that... must be from doing time in the Emergency Room).  We then try tweezers but they are too big/thick to open in the little narrow slot.  He does some more manipulating with the plastic disks. It seems to have moved toward the opening but you can't see it due to the velour/pile at the opening.  He then gets this other tool from the manicure set that we don't know what it is for... maybe it is the special removing disk bonus tool!  Anyway, he used this to try and maneuver the disk closer to the front and out.

Then Bob asked me to get our Radio Shack electrical leatherman tool.  Where is it? In the electrical toolbox. But, before I had time to find the tool, Bob gently shook the computer as he was setting it down on the table and the CD dropped out onto the floor.  Buffy pounced on it!

HAPPY DANCE TIME !!!

Standard-size DVD - Mini CD - Manicure Mystery Tool - Tweezers 7 - Plastic Disk Halves

Well, not too fast... Let's start up the MacBook and see if it hasn't suffered from the "gentle shaking"...  I just inserted the new DVD it loaded up DVD Player but dark screen... I pressed the Play button and everything works. I quit DVD Player and ejected the DVD... Life is good...

and now it is sundowner time, althought the sun has been down for more an hour... So It Goes...

I hope this helps someone!

Another method to try is to put a post-it or some double-sided tape onto a thin card and put it in the slot so it will stick to the disc...

iPhone app : Tiki Drinks application

Bob spotted this post on BeachBum Berry.

CALLING ALL BUMS: iPHONE NOW HAS A TIKI DRINK APP

Thanks to our co-conspirator, Martin Doudoroff of Cocktail DB, the app also features scads of vintage Tiki cocktail illustrations and new drink photos, many of the latter taken by Martin himself. READ FULL POST.

Make sure you have this iPhone Tiki Drink application for your next Tiki Party.

Visit our Amazon Tiki Party store... Too late for 4th July 2009, but there's still lots of summertime partytime left :)

Interesting iPhone app for working while walking

Here's an interesting post from Lifehacker.com ...

Email 'n Walk Lets You Multitask Without Getting Hit By a Car
iPhone only: Email n' Walk overlays an email composition window on top of the view from your iPhone's camera, so you can type out an email and watch where you're going.
Read more...

I'll have to get this when/if we get an iPhone.

Installing Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 (MAC)

We just received the Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 (MAC version) that we ordered from Amazon.com the other day when they had that killer sale!

Before installing I remembered to run DiskUtility and do a Verify & Repair Permissions. It had quite a few files to change the permission on from our new HP printer installation.

So, that done, I popped in the disk to install PSE6. I was surprised that it didn't automatically launch the installation, but there was a ReadMe file, so I read that. Didn't say much and it didn't say anything about how to install.

This is a screenshot of what appeared after inserting the CD:

I double-clicked on the folder with the stripe and the camera that says "Adobe Photoshop Elements 6" next to it and it gave me another directory.

I didn't want to mess things up, so I Googled for "problems installing elements 6 for mac" or something like that. That took a while trying to read this and that. (You may have a problem if you had previously installed a trial version, but this wasn't my case).

Seems like everyone has this problem. Why can't Adobe just give a simple "how to install" instructions?

I started to rant but I have spared you and deleted it :)

What it comes down to is, double-click on the "Setup.app" file and then read a book or take a nap. I think it took close to 30 minutes. I was getting worried that it had stalled and wondering what to do (the "progress" bar had just a teensy bit to go) when I heard the CD drive make a noise and the bar moved again and then after a couple of minutes it finished. HURRAY!

I launched the application and entered the serial number. I opened a psd file, made a change, did "Save for the web" and it worked finest kind.

Hope this helps.

iPhone app for Sailors - Wind Meter

Don't know how well this works, but for $0.99 it is worth a try for you folks with iPhones.

Wind Meter - use your iPhone to measure wind speed. Wind Meter works by measuring the volume of the wind on your iPhone microphone and converts it into a wind speed reading.

You can get it here: http://appshopper.com/utilities/wind-meter


Looks fun.

Adobe Photoshop Elements PC & MAC

This morning I received an email from Amazon.com to let me know about the great deals they have on Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 (PC version) and Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 (MAC version).

I used Photoshop Elements on my old MacBook which died last year. I was sad that the version of Photoshop Elements that I had did not work with my new MacBook's operating system (10.5).

They talk about the product for storing photos, etc (sort of like iPhoto). I liked it for it's graphics potential. I could use drawing tools and remove backgrounds, blend images, add text, etc. This is what I want it for...

I believe that the user interface of this program has changed somewhat between version 2 and version 6, but it was such a good, easy to use tool and, at an affordable price of $76.99, I think I'll bite the bullet and go for it!

It's another beautiful day in St. Maarten!

Skype on iPhone and iPod Touch

It's here! Skype has arrived for the iPhone and iPod Touch.



This is so cool. I've been looking for a VOIP phone and we've been wanting a iPod Touch, so why wait any longer!

I'm going to check them out on AMAZON and probably get mine there!

iPod Touch

We find Amazon really easy to work with. They are a great solution for boat folks like us!

MacBook Hard Drive Replacement

We get a lot of people coming to our All About Boats... So it goes sailing blog using various search terms regarding Apple Macintosh MacBook Hard Drive problems / failures.

We just read this posting in Boing Boing titled "How to Install a New Hard Drive in a MacBook". This post then refers to a TechBlog post. If he can do it and WE can do it, so can YOU!

iFixIt is an excellent resource for "how to's". This is where we found the info to replace our first hard drive... iFixIt.com They have lots of photos which is a big help!

If you are having computer problems, we feel for you!

All the best!

Amazon's Kindle Reader - New in our Amazon.com Store

We like books, but unfortunately there is not enough room on our CAL-34 for all the books and everything else we would like to have with us.

We do have a few electronic magazine subscriptions with Zinio which is cool. We have subscriptions to American Cinematographer, Mac World, Cruising World, Saveur, etc. I prefer to read paper but the magazines are easily damaged (especially now that we have two kittens!) and they are heavy and space-consuming things. I find Zinio's interface easy to use and easy to read.

So, now Amazon.com has come out with their new-fangled Kindle Reader. Cool. They have thousands of books, plus magazines and newspapers!

We have added a KINDLE section to our AMAZON STORE: CLICK HERE

I also included the new Apple MacBook AIR computers to the store: CLICK HERE

Write a bit more later, as I'm now busy adding stuff to the store.

Nice day today in SXM... a bit breezy and a few drops of rain but definitely better than a lot of places!

MacBook Kernal Panic

Not another kernal panic! I was writing a blog entry using Firefox and also had Calculator & Entourage open, plus using Airport and I was shut down with the dreaded kernal panic.

A few weeks ago I had a kernal panic followed by another and another.... and finally it just quit and I had to get a new logic board.

I was in the process of writing a blog and ranting about getting water at Island Water World in Simpson Bay Lagoon, St. Maarten. I take this as a sign as to just feel good about typing the rant but not to actually post it :)

Hope my MacBook is OK. We will be purchasing the AppleCare Extended Protection Plan for MacBook and thus extend our warranty for another two years, as it looks like it is a necessary and wise purchase... plus I save $50 instead of buying directly from Apple.

My MacBook is back!

Two weeks from tomorrow, my almost 10-month old MacBook went on the fritz. Started with a kernal panic. I crashed the computer and it restarted. I thought I might not have enough hard drive space for system swap files, so I decided I should move a video off the computer and onto a DVD. During the copying, it had another kernal panic. Yikes! What's going on?

OK, I just went and deleted the large video file and fortunately, instead of poking around the computer to try and suss out what was wrong, I immediately saved my email (Entourage database) and a few other very important files to an external hard drive in case something horrible was about to come my way.

Good thing because not too much later, the computer just shut down on its own. Turned on the MacBook and I got a black screen and the little sleep light on the front was on solid. Tried so many things such as boot from the install disk... which stalled... Tried hardware test on install disk... which stalled. Couldn't remove disk. It did start up once when I did the hold down option key while turning on power. That way I got to select the startup folder off of the hard drive and after it booted, I was able to eject the disk. It didn't last though... Sometimes it didn't make the "suck in the disk" sound at startup, or it was really weak. The battery was fully charged. I reset the PRam, but nothing. I reset the PMU, after which it started up once... might have just been a coincidence.

I called Apple but they were only concerned about selling me the extended AppleCare warranty, even though I was still covered. They must get a commission, because I was on the phone for 10 minutes and still hadn't received a case number or described my problem. I was disconnected and with three different people, they only wanted to sell me AppleCare. The Sunday afternoon Bush League crowd, I guess.

I decided to call Small Dog up in Vermont for their advice and possibly ship my MacBook to them. Super nice people, and he said it should be repaired within 3-5 days working days of them receiving my MacBook. Of course, shipping from St. Maarten to Vermont and back would be costly, but hey I was seriously considering $180 for shipping as they are a reputable company. Check them out and subscribe to their newsletter.

We noticed that Apple lists an Authorized Service Center which is across from Simpson Bay Marina. We decided to drop on by and check him out even though we had heard a bad report on the VHF cruisers' net. He seemed like a nice guy and we wouldn't have to ship the MacBook off-island. He said that he'd receive the parts in 3-5 working days from Apple. This was Monday and we decided on Tuesday to go with the local guy. I asked if I'd have it back by next Friday and he said Oh yes, before then... Well, we got the call on Friday (surprise!) that we could come and pick it up... I'll tell you more after we get Bob's MacBook warranty repair taken care of in a couple of days.

But, it has given us the incentive to buy the extended AppleCare which extends our warranty by another 2 years. CLICK FOR MORE => (AppleCare Extended Protection Plan for MacBook) It's a good price, too.


Walk the plank... aargh!

MacBook Hard Drive Failure

As Roseanne Rosannadanna used to say, "It's always something"...

Yesterday when Bob turned on his 8-month old MacBook and was greeted with the flashing question mark. The computer was asking where's the system folder? We tried a few things such as starting up in safe mode but same old question mark. We found the install disk and when that booted up the computer we looked at disk utility and it did not display the hard drive... Oooh, that doesn't look good.

I did a search on "macbook does not recognize hard drive" and found some interesting and informative links. Seems like there has been lots of hard drive issues with MacBooks but I'd probably get lots of results if I replace the word MacBook by Sony...

We were very pleased to find that removing the hard drive on the MacBook is very easy. Remove the battery, remove the metal RAM retainer, pull out drive. With our iBooks you had to almost remove everything to get to the drive.

We were kind of discouraged as it had been a while since his last back up but so it goes... But then, I read this posting on the THINGYMAJIG blog. This is what the ever-so-helpful Anonymous had to say:

A tip for the broken-hard-drived...
by Anonymous (not verified)
Hi all, after being an onsite engineer (PC and Mac) for what seemed forever, a PC IT Manager for far too long and happily working as an AppleCentre Manager for a couple of years, I'd love to pass on this little gem that *sometimes* can give a dying drive one last blast from the paddles of life. This has worked on countless occasions for me personally, on PCs, Macs and HD based iPods:
Remove the drive from it's enclosure (excluding iPods, obviously!), hold it in one hand and give it a SINGLE brisk flat-handed slap on the top of the drive. Don't panic, when hard drives are powered down they can withstand multiple G's of shock force and not sustain damage. What prevents this (and is also the problem culprit) is the hard disk seek heads being parked away from the platters inside in their safe place. What is extremely common is for the heads to stick in the parking bay, especially when the drive has been exposed to quick temperature change. If the drive is unable to unpark the heads and continue spin-up, it will shut itself down until the next time it is powered off and on, hence the drive appears unavailable to the OS.
The reality is, it's not going now, so what have you got to lose. Just be sensible and resist the temptation to imagine Apple Customer Relations officers faces on the drive and don't belt the crap out of it. If the technique is going to work for you, it'll work with one slap. If no go after that, she be toasted.

So, Bob removed his hard drive, gave it a "Proby slap" upside the head (NCIS reference), put it back in, and his MacBook started up normally. Cool! We then went up to the computer store and bought a 120GB replacement drive which we will be installing soon.

Here's another thing that MacBook & MacBook Pro users should be aware of:

Read this link about how you may damage your hard drive if you move your computer too soon after closing the lid...

This is what Apple’s MBP manual states:

Warning: Wait a few seconds until the white sleep indicator light on the display latch starts pulsating (indicating that the computer is in sleep and the hard disk has stopped spinning) before you move your MacBook Pro. Moving your computer while the hard disk is spinning can damage the hard disk, causing loss of data or the inability to start up from the hard disk.

So, you wonder - what difference does it make, Apple notebooks have the Sudden Motion Sensor and will prevent any data loss or disk damage ?

Wrong again! The Sudden Motion Sensor has no effect in this situation, so you’ll be better off to leave your computer to finish the job it has to do.

I feel fortunate that I haven't experienced this problem. I'll now be more careful.


Hope this helps other Mac users...