I have switched to Google’s Chrome 6.0.453.1 dev as my main web browser of choice from Apple’s Safari 5.0 (6533.16). Safari has been acting up more often recently. It will hang or freeze at seemingly random times. Facebook games do not work well with Safari any more. Getting the spinning beach ball too often with Safari 5 has made the decision for me. Firefox has always been too slow for me, with or without extensions. Safari has been twice as fast as Firefox.
Importing my Safari settings into Chrome was simple and fast. In Chrome tabs are located on the top of the window versus below the bookmark bar in Safari. There are other subtle differences that will be easy to adjust to as time goes by.
EDIT: Chrome imported all bookmarks from Safari but without my folder organization. Import order was as if folders did not exist, not alphabetically. This will make it easier to re-establish some kind of organization. Using six extensions with Chrome does seem to slow initial launch down a few seconds until google reader and gmail indications load, still not a decision to use deal breaker.
As the title states, I reached over 2,000,000 credits using BOINC. I am currently only participating in 9 projects. 2 have been inactive since the end of 2009 and another only gets very few sporadic jobs.
More details under my About tab.
I had my first real talk with an Apple Genius today about my failing 20” iMac. It went very well compared to my last drop-in visit. I described my problem and got the answers I expected. I was told that Apple will only replace the internal hard drive with the same size it already has. Strange since I was told last time that they would replace it with any size which would vary the price. Anyway, for a 320GB drive replacement I am looking at $500+.
It was suggested that I could take the iMac into a different authorized service provider in order to get an upgraded hard drive replacement. I did email and call the two local non-Apple authorized service providers but got no response after multiple tries over a week.
Essentially, that is just too much for me especially with only a 320 GB drive. My flakey internal optical drive appears to my a dirty or bad lens so to replace the internal optical drive would cost $300+. $800 to repair an over 3 year old computer is too high, so I opted for complete replacement – 27” iMac i7. Once I get my new computer up and running then I will buy a 1 TB drive from OWC for the 20” iMac and replace it myself.
Well, I finally got around to replacing my old 20” iMac 2.4 GHz (mid 2007). I have been living on borrowed time since the internal 320 GB hard drive in my 20” iMac is failing SMART. It could totally fail anytime. I do have multiple backups, so I am not worried when the time comes.
I briefly asked an Apple Genius a few weeks ago what the cost would be to replace the internal hard drive to a 500 GB model. After some confusion on their part not understanding what model I was describing and that I have NO warranty, I was told over $500. I made an official Genius appointment for tomorrow in order to ask about this in detail. Additionally, the internal optical drive is flakey. The drive does not always recognize disks, usually DVD movies I get from Netflix.
Next week after I receive my 27” iMac i7, I will replace the hard drive in my 20” iMac myself. There is plenty of videos and HD pictures available. OWC has 1TB drives for under $100 plus a tool kit. Since I was a tech in the military, taking apart the iMac is not too much of a hassle after watching some video procedures.
When trying to update my system software through Software Update to Mac OS X 10.5.6 I ran into a small snag. After downloading the update (190 MB) I did the required restart. During the install my Mac stalled on “Configuring Installation”. After about 15 minutes I gave up.
After a hard restart I checked MacFixIt for any suggestions. I downloaded the combo update directly from Apple (668 MB). Install of the Mac OS X 10.5.6 update work as expected.
Finally, got my original 3 projects that I have been running for a while above 95% ranking.
SETI@home
Rosetta@home
Einstein@home
I added 3 more projects a few weeks ago. Mainly due to a lot of down time on my other projects from maintenance issues. I added:
Malariacontrol.net
ABC@home
SZTAKI Desktop Grid
These projects are running on 4 different computers that I own. Two of the computers are older and are dedicated to only running BOINC.
Yesterday I finally achieved 100,000 credit on my 3 combined BOINC projects.
If you have available computing time and power download the BOINC client and support a project that could find extraterrestrials with SETI@home or cure some human disease with Rosetta@home.
No Mac OS X Leopard for me. I won’t be getting the new version of Mac OS X mainly due to the fact that I am still using an old Mac G4 (Quicksilver 2001). Even though I have a 1.2 Ghz G4 card installed the requirements are still on the minimum side. I don’t really need the new operating system, especially since I don’t own an Intel Mac.
I will seriously consider an new 24″ iMac in Jan 2008 after MacWorld and of course it will come with 10.5 Leopard. I am a die hard Mac user and don’t see the need to upgrade every six months. I do not consider my self an early adopter when it comes to most products mainly due to financial reasons.
I finally completed over 50,000 BOINC work units. Not bad when 80% of that is done on a 6 year old Mac G4. My next goal is to get under 100k on total world postion – currently 120k. Also get all 3 of the projects I participate in over 20k.
I re-added a computer useage/owner subpage to the About page.
I have been an Apple computer user since the late 1970′s and an owner since the mid 1990′s. The first computer I used was an Apple II plus. I still own this computer, rescued from my mother’s garage. The first computer that I purchased for myself was an Apple Power Macintosh 7100/66 AV. I still own this. I guess I am starting a Mac collection museum.
