Category: general

When I don’t have any place better to put it

When bad RAM happens to good PowerBooks…

Posted on by david

I’ve just spent a couple of very frustrating days rebuilding my PowerBook. It started with a constantly crashing Finder:

  • open Finder window
  • crash
  • write crash log
  • launch
  • crash
  • write crash log
  • launch
  • crash
  • …

Once I’d thought I’d resolved that (be restoring from my backup) the iChat daemon started quitting. I re-installed iChat and … the Finder started crashing again. So, burn some Panther install CD’s – Archive and Install (and all of the upgrades that entails – Xcode 1.2, WebObjects 5.2, Java 1.4.2, WebObjects 5.2.2, WebObjects 5.2.3…). Tried to install MySQL, and the installer quits. OK, just going to restart and … the Finders starts crashing again. Deep breath – AARGH!

I finally pulled a third party 512MB stick of RAM – which had successfully passed memtest – and sanity is once again restored. Between my TiBook, and my 17inch AlBook that makes 4 – FOUR! 512MB dimms I’ve had fail.

I know everyone offers lifetime warranties but this just sucks. RAM – can’t live with it, can’t shoot it.

No, not dead

Posted on by david

The past month has been crazy. I’ve been working my tail off to complete one project (that should go live very soon) and just started a full time contract that is suppose to last a month…

So, no I’m not dead, but I do wish I were sleeping…

Micro nostalgia

Posted on by david

I bought my first "computer" in 1979; an RCA Cosmac VIP. It had a CDP1802 processor running at a staggering 1.7MHz and came with a whopping 1 KBytes of RAM, a video port (that required an hour of hand coding to initialize), and a hex keypad.

Fast-forward 25 years — David Ruske has released an 1802 emulator for OS X.

Great.

That’s just Great.

Now I’m compelled to go back and relive the trauma of programming in 1802 machine language. The event that made me avoid coding for 15 years… yeah, great