MacBook review

Whoot, so I got a MacBook. Here's what I think about...

OS X complaints aside, it's an awesome laptop. It is exactly what I want. It's small, lightweight, looks great and is a hell of a lot faster than my old big clunky Pentium M 15.4" Dell laptop.

What I really like about it is its usability. It's the first laptop that I have owned where I don't feel the need to plug into an external keyboard/mouse/monitor. The keyboard feels great -- 90% as good as typing on a full keyboard. The track pad is fantastic. I love two finger scrolling (horizontally and vertically) and two finger tapping (right clicking). Between those two genius UI features, I barely miss mouse (highlighting text still isn't as easy).

It's not hot at all. I use it for hours on my bare legs and it's just warm.

The screen is pretty small (13.3") with low resolution (1280 x 800), but I wanted a small (1.08" x 12.78" x 8.92"), light (5.0 lbs) laptop, so that was just a compromise I had to make.

The only real complaint about the MacBook is the weak graphics processor (Intel GMA X3100). Expose and Spaces isn't nearly as smooth a Compiz Fusion in my 5 year old desktop with a budget Nvidia 7200 series graphics card. Who knows though, that might actually be an OS X problem.

Btw, VMware Fusion is the coolest, most mind blowingly awesome piece of software ever made. Ha, I've been saying that about VMware Workstation for years, but the Unity feature in Fusion takes the cake. ... but that is really for another blog post.

My MacBook fiasco, Amazon redeemed, UPS sucks!

Damn you, Joooobbsss! So I finally broke down and decided to get myself a MacBook. I had gotten a Mini (and iPod) for Aimee and she's complaining that I'm on it too much, heh.

I had my eye on the lowest MacBook, but at the last minute decided that the faster processor, larger hard drive and Superdrive (aka DVD burner) is worth the extra $200.

Buying from the Apple Store sucks because you have to pay tax, which is $107 for the $1300 MacBook. Also, Amazon gives a $75 rebate and $30 instant savings if you sign up for their Visa card, which I've been meaning to do for a while.

Aimee and I have a trial Amazon Prime account, so I got the $4 overnight shipping. I placed the order on Thursday with a supposed delivery day of Friday.

Up(s) yours, Brown! Naturally, I tracked the package. At 6am, I saw it scanned in Austin and by 8am, it was "out for delivery." At around Noon, a coworker said they saw the UPS truck out front, but it just stopped for a while, no one came inside, then it left. I checked the tracking page and it said my package was rescheduled for Monday!! Ugh!

So I call UPS to inquire. Funny thing about calling: you can only get the 800 number. They don't list, nor will customer service give you the numbers for the local hubs. Anyways, customer service couldn't tell me anything more than I knew already from looking at the tracking page on the web. I called a few times more and finally someone from the local hub called me back (a one way phone number, btw. I couldn't call it back). They said I could declare to pick it up from the local hub and it would be there at around 730 pm, but they would give me a call first to make sure it came back off the truck.

730 comes and no phone call, so I drive to the damn hub (because I have no way of calling them). Long story short, they lost the package. It's not on the truck, nor can they find it at the hub. Also, they didn't seem to care. "Take it up with Amazon to refund you."

Amazon, fix this! So I get on the phone with Amazon customer service at around 8am on Sat. The girl is super nice and almost before I finish explaining what happened, she says a replacement order has been made and will be shipped "overnight" for a Monday delivery. Wow, now that's customer service!

So Sunday rolls around and I'm wondering why I wasn't emailed a new order number or tracking number.

By Monday, I'm really wondering and get on the phone with Amazon (11am). Apparently the replacement order wasn't made. Annoying... being told one thing, then another thing actually (not) happening. So this time they assure me that the replacement order is made and it will be there on Tuesday.

Curious thing... 6pm comes and yet again no replacement order number or tracking number. So I call back (and speak to a "lead" this time) and just get told "a replacement order was made with overnight shipping." Yeah? Well if it's going to make the overnight plane, shouldn't it have been shipped already? "Hrm, yeah... you're right." So why the hell wasn't it?

I'm livid now. Having competitive prices and fulfilling orders in a timely fashion are the bare minimum requirements for a company to survive. How is Amazon different? What makes them stand out over, say, Newegg? (yes, I'm saying all this to the "lead") Any company can fulfill orders (if not, they are criminals), it's how a company handles "incidents" that gives it an opportunity to stand out above the others.

"So what are you going to do about it besides apologize?" Apparently nothing... at first. ..but then out of the blue the lead calls back and admits that Amazon screwed up (more than once) and they are willing to give me a $50 rebate on my next purchase. Not bad... but how about applying the rebate to this current purchase. "Yeah, we can do that." Sweet.

So finally the replacement order is really made (I got an order number and tracking number this time, yay!) The lead said his boss had to get it approved by her boss which is why it took so long. Jeez, once the corporate gears are moving, it's hard to stop them, eh? That's for another blog post though.

So the (really) cool part is that there is a note attached to my order number, again apologizing, but also saying that I'm getting a $265 discount on the purchase! Apparently the lead's boss didn't think $50 was enough and decided to give me 20% off, plus refund the all shipping costs!

Yes that made up for everything, Amazon, and you're again in my cool book (I've always loved you though)!

The bottom line So let's tally up the damage!

From Amazon with discounts and rebates...
($1299 + $4) - ($75 + $30 + $260 + $4) = $935

How much it would have cost from the Apple Store...
($1299 + 107) = $1406

Total savings... $471

I'm so glad, not only because of the money, but because I actually like Amazon (despite generally hating huge corporations). They've always had good price, great return policy and good customer service... and I'm glad it turned out that way again for me in the end of this debacle.

P.S. I blame Steve Jobs for UPS losing the original package and for the replacement order mix ups. Damn you, Joooooobbbbssss!!

Disabling Spotlight in Leopard (10.5.x)

There are a ton of guides out there for this already, but this is just for me personally so I don't have to search Google. Also, most of the guides are specific to Tiger. The ones that are specific for Leopard are incomplete.

Disable Spotlight...
Edit /etc/hostconfig and replace

SPOTLIGHT=-YES-

with

SPOTLIGHT=-NO-

Delete the Spotlight indexes...
Execute

sudo mdutil -i off /
sudo mdutil -E /

Remove Spotlight from the menubar...

sudo chmod 0000 /System/Library/CoreServices/Spotlight.app

To reverse the process.

Enable Spotlight...
Edit /etc/hostconfig and replace

SPOTLIGHT=-NO-

with

SPOTLIGHT=-YES-

Turn on the indexes...

sudo mdutil -i on /

Restore Spotlight in the menubar...

sudo chmod 755 /System/Library/CoreServices/Spotlight.app

My third HPDE

All the Corvette guys took a group photo. That's me in the exact middle (third row, second column, green shirt).

Whoot! Just finished my 3rd HPDE this past weekend. It was a blast as usual! Every time I get back from one, it just rekindles my fire and passion for the sport (which tends to die down between events).

Chasing down an NSX.

I did really well, I think. I passed (I would guess) about 40 cars and only got passed twice. The two that got me were my pit buddy Jason (~570 hp C6 Z06) and someone in a modified Porsche Cayman S (racing slicks and engine mods). To be perfectly honest, Jason got me twice and the second time an instructor driving a Porsche 911 took the pass with him even though I only signaled to Jason. I stayed with him though and eventually returned the favor... :)

Jason in front and me about take my position back from the 911.

Mike (C6) and Justin (Mustang GT) were there again. Always nice to see those two familiar faces keeping me company in the pits. This time Mike's son Brady was there, sharing Mike's car. It was funny to hear the three of them talking shit to each other the entire weekend. Out of the three, Justin was the fastest, then Brady, then Mike... each about 2 seconds faster than the next (per lap). Justin cracks me up. He's a super nice and jovial guy, but he's pretty competitive (in a friendly way). He always jokes about how it is a competition, despite how many times the organizers emphasize that it's not... ;)

Justin likes to change his passing signal into "the bird" right as I go by... I usually return it... ;)

Two interesting things my instructor taught me. First, I'm driving too hard a lot of the time. I'm driving at 110% and roasting my tires which leads to overall slower times in the end. He said to back off a bit to keep the tires from getting greasy towards to the end of the session. Second, he said that I'm taking some corners artificially fast... the car's computer (competition driving mode) is saving my ass. So the latter half of the event was driven without the computer at all (zero traction control and zero stability control).

I enjoy driving solo (see shit eatin' grin), I find it strangely relaxing.

As much as I want to pretend I'm a good driver, I'm not... none of us really are at this level. We're just extensions of our instructors. They show us the racing line and give us their opinions on how to take each corner, we memorize it, then it's just a matter of how much balls we have and how capable our cars are. Lucky for me, my car is on the top of the food chain and I have shockingly? surprisingly little fear of wrecking it. :)

Hunting down a G35 Coupe.

It's also a little depressing going to these things. A lot of the people into racing are usually wealthy (it's an expensive sport), and I'm reminded of how little money I make and how I simply can't afford to take it to the next level, despite how badly I want to. Wheels, racing tires, racing brakes, trailer and a place to store the trailer will cost several grand... of which I don't really have. Sigh.

iPod Nano Brick

Picture says it all... you will brick your iPod Nano (3rd generation) if you use the stopwatch feature while listening to music.

I happened to Aimee and it could happen to you too! Jeez, we haven't been having a very good Apple experience thus far. Oh well, still beats the hell out of Windows.