The Shift ~

From mactastical to Defy Necrosis, the change is upon us. From a mac driven view and love of things to something completely new. As tragedy unfolds, the winds of change bring a new stillness upon these lands.

My Macbook crashed for the 2nd time in 6 months!! Yup its true, macbooks are not those sacred gods we should praise for their strength and glory. They too like lesser mortals deal in corruption and are not immortal as claimed.

So the blog is now not totally directed towards macbooks, and as a sign of my rebellion i will stop writing about it. But the old posts stay, just because my macbook is still my macbook :)

Common Stereotypes

Here are a few examples of stereotypes.

1.) That all white women have flat booties.
2.) That all Jews are greedy.
3.) That all blacks are lazy, on welfare, and don't believe in marriage before child barring.
4.) That all Asians are good at math.
5.) That all Arabs are angry people that like to blow shit up.
6.) That ALL black men are hung like elephants.
7.) ALL white men are hung like squirrels.
8.) All blacks crave chicken and watermelon.
9.) All blacks are hostile and will quickly bust a cap in your ass.
10.) That all Mexicans like to drive around 15-17 deep in a small ass car.
11.) That all white people get angry when they cant get jobs and see others moving ahead.
12.) That all Asains like to eat rice and drive slow.
13. That all Irish people are drunks and eat potatoes.

Note: Most stereotypes are involuntarily lived out by a small segment of who they are made to offend.

Stereotyping

People ridicule and look down at stereotyping, but actually it is a quick first check as having a bad perception of someone is always better than having no perception at all. The only problem being, once you have this perception you should still keep an open mind so that if there is some variation you are flexible to change your mind.



This is what someone will call a "dumb blonde", that does not mean a blonde is generally dumb. It just means you can safely presume she is until she proves you wrong. But the catch is giving her a chance to. If she blows that chance(as in here) then well, you were right. Trust me, in more cases than not you will be proved correct.

Stereotyping is very similar to something that the FBI use in USA. The Profiler system is nothing but stereotyping, to increase accuracy and efficiency of the process, as more often than not people are predictable based on certain inherent characteristics. Just that profiler is a very subtle and well placed word.

Wikipedia says "A stereotype is a simplified and/or standardized conception or image with specific meaning, often held in common by members of a group. A stereotype can be a conventional and oversimplified conception, opinion, or image. Stereotypes can range from those that are wildly inaccurate and negative to those that are more than a little bit true and may even shed positive light upon the group of individuals. "

Thus, elaborating on both the positive and negative aspect. But mostly what we see is stereotyping being looked down upon. What you are doing is basically stereotyping someone that stereotypes, judging he has only the negative aspect of it in place, and this again is being unfair.

I take pride in being a stereotyper, or as in todays world a Profiler. I like it when 99% of the time i am proved right. I analyze another human being on the basis of his or her traits, and assign them some attributes. When placed in a simulated situation they react exactly as predicted. Most of these common attributes do originate from behavioral patterns but some of them do stem from the stereotyping traits found in people.

Thus as long as your stereotyping doesn't lead to prejudice and you are able to keep an open mind, dont stop :)

Tubes!

Well this is so weird, ever since youtube came out, people would go online in their spare time, and maybe learn a few dance moves or get a few laughs. But today, making youtube videos is a passtime and group activity for many kids in the USA and other countries. God only knows when this craze will hit India.

Furthermore, the world of tube is growing with pokertube, footytube, pornotube and so forth. A tube for every topic... makes you wonder how much information is out there anyways!!

Another life!

Well i finally figured out some use of Second Life other than just Go Karting and Para sailing. Yup it took me 3 whole months (more like 3 hours) but i finally figured out how to teleport, travel and attend Nuscore concerts and also, shop for free clothing.

Making money on Second Life is also getting easier, since Second Life went public and allowed people to transfer dollars to Linden. By abolishing the monthly salary, everything on Second Life except the ability to buy land has been made available to the casual user. Though there is a marketing motive of driving demand, and thus encourage people to buy land to set up shop, this ploy has made Second Life even more popular than anticipated.

Heres a List of things you should check out!

Well as I'm finding it increasingly difficult to manage my first life, I'm going to give Second Life a break while i leave you with things to do, and obviously admire me :)

Macbook Video Attempt 1

All along i struggled in making my assignment videos on WIndows Movie Maker, and trust me though it isn't as hard as i make it out to be, Movie HD is way better. The options and themes you get as part of the old iLife package itself are so diverse and professional that making a top notch video takes nothing more than fiddling around with speeds and timers.

I admit it took me a while to get used to the functions and explore the possibilities, but thats the case with every windows convert for every mac product. Before i show you my video, i'll give a little introduction.

I was required to make a video promoting the M-Pod, an iPod look alike from Microsoft. This is what i came up with, i know the recording wasn't the greatest but I'm just asking you to look at the entire video as a whole and not single out the fact I'm not totally audible in one scene.



Comments appreciated!

Makes you wonder

Watching this clip made me seriously wonder, what is the future going to be like? When one thinks of the ipod, all the other Apple products do come next in line. So watch this video and see if it inspires you to spoof any other Apple product. I am not going to share my wild non word-able wandering thoughts that make me belief that there is indeed a big surprise awaiting us in the not so distant future, but instead ask you to think for yourself. But what i am going to do, is take this time and thank everyone who has been kind enough to make such thought provoking films, for not just the ipod, or for that matter not just Apple products, but all the spoofs whether they make us ponder as in this case, or just simply laugh at the outrageous prospects that we are being asked to believe.

And as far as the future of technology goes, from Second Life to Google Earth, i am convinced that it will be Apple leading the way in this new era of smaller sizes and bigger capacities combined with better looks and sleeker designs.

Oh and please do check out other related spoofs, everyone needs a laugh..

The Mac Spin

Well after 3 months of loving my mac, i trusted it with the original and only copies of all my music, videos, pictures and games. Obviously like any normal intelligent person, the mac betrayed me and then said sorry. It was before the eve of my exams and i was running open office using X11 on my macbook looking through some presentations, that my macbook hung.

So i got worried, pressed a few buttons, and then finally just shut it down in the most barbaric of fashions. Having not completed my course content and running 4hrs behind schedule i was really "pissed off". Reluctantly restarting my macbook, hearing it make sounds never uttered by its kind before, i was truly scared.

What followed was lots of worry, few phone calls waking up unaware friends, and worst of all, an unplanned late night on the eve of my exam. The dreaded question mark appeared while i was loading the screen. I was smart enough to know that it was because my hard-disk wasn't booting up, but not smart enough to know what to do about it.



Vary of opening up the system myself, and tired of waking people up and asking them for answers, i decided to consult the manual. After following all the given steps, to no avail mind you, i was forced to admit defeat. I knew the problem would be fixed, but this was not supposed to happen to my macbook after only 3 months, specially when i took so much trouble taking care of it. For a general messy person, cleaning his hands before using a laptop is a big thing.

The very next day i took it to the service centre. Few days and a lot of pestering phone calls from my side i found out it needed a new hard-disk as the old one stopped spinning. Being told something i already knew was not why i had given it to the service centre, and when they told me they had no idea why the hard-disk had stopped spinning, i was even more "pissed off" as i was hoping i could avoid a repeat of this incident by finding the cause of the problem.

Finally i got a new hard-disk in dirty, poorly handled macbook, and all my data lost. Having to re-install all my updates and re-download all my software was a big pain. This lesson taught me to take creating backups as a serious part of using my macbook.

Now i create a backup every month, and make sure i am ready to face another mac spin challenge. Also after having my ipod replaced twice within 6 months and my macbook's hard-disk replaced in its first 3 months, i have understood the importance of warrantee with apple products.

I'm about to get my warrantee renewed and i suggest you do the same :)

Macbook Cleaning

Anything not white, is just not a macbook. I realized my macbook kept getting dirty, this yellowish spot that just never went away. It was across the scroll pad, and on the left side where i rest my hand while browsing. I tried cleaning it with a dry cloth to no avail. Luckily for me i actually read the manual so i knew i shouldn't use water on it with the battery still inside. Removing the battery, and getting it cleaned was just the beginning.

As time went buy, i noticed the stains recurring in the exact same locations. So i started to get more careful while using my macbook. I would clean my hands every time before sitting to work(or play) on it. This did wonders, for a bit. Then again i noticed the exact same stains.



My conclusion, using the macbook for long hours will lead to stains caused by sweat(or moisture). These stains take a hell of a lot to get rid of, so i did some research to see if Apple was aware of this problem and had some solution for it.

Sure they did! Another product in the market for the exact same problem. I was flattered by Apple's concern making the product available at their stores, till i realized it just adds to their sales. First you buy a cool white macbook, then you dirty it and pay us more money to clean it. Unfortunately for them i decided against purchasing this cleaner.

It all boils down to where does one draw the line. Some people would have bought this cleaner, then there would be some of them who would buy a screen cleaner. Some would buy Hot-Spots for their keypad and extra cooling fans for their macbook base. Its all a big cycle. Make an awesome machine so fragile, that you have to either pray your fine, or pay to reduce your chances of damaging your macbook.

But my macbook still needed protection, so i decided to make it a co(ndom)vering. Seriously though, i did come up with a "protective layer". The white fabric keeps the macbook style intact, this covering was my little baby.

What this covering basically did was keep the sweat from dirtying the sides of my macbook where i rested my palm. It has a opening that lets me use the scroll-pad without any hassles.

Now that i got this problem sorted out, im a happy macbook user once again.

So remember, you can either do it yourself and feel satisfied, or buy it and feel relieved. The choice is yours..

Happy Macbooking :)

What you need for your Mac!

Now that you have got your macbook, you need to "Pimp it up" or as i call it, "Personalize it". This is the most fun part, as there is so much you can do with your macbook without having to install softwares.

You got the system preferences to adjust your display to just the way you want it. I recommend you play around with it, explore it, and most importantly get used to the "drag and drop" nature of your new macbook. Its how everything works, right from installation all the way to dragging a link from one chat window to another. Plus it feels all neat after working on a windows operating system.

Now you begin to get used to your new macbook. It looks all nice with a cool wallpaper, or if you have a random set of pictures its fun too. The dashboard enhances its appeal. But something is missing? Thats right, you dont have anything worthwhile to do as you dont have any programs on it!! This wont take too long to solve, just some downloads you need to make. Pay if you like the product is my policy, we all know nowdays everything can be gotten for free if one wishes.

So i decided im not going to give you a big list of things you can download. I'll just tell you the essentials. Something you will need if your using a macbook, sometime or the other.

This list below just comprises of software i currently use or have used in the past. The views are mine alone and are based on my experience with the product.

Toast Titanium - This does exactly what Daemon tools did on your windows, but so much more. It has insane capabilities if you go pro on it, and a must have for all those dvd image users.

ISOlator - The only function the Toast cant do is convert a mac image file (.dmg) to a windows image file (.iso), and this is exactly what this application is for.

Azureus - The best torrent downloader if you ask me. I tried them all, this worked best for me.

Limewire - A mac must, cause all those trojens cant touch you :)

Mozilla Firefox - For those rare pages your safari wont open properly.

VLC Player - Plays about all your possible media needs. A must if you rip of youtube and download videos.

Adobe Photoshop CS3 - Works like a charm on the dual cores. I suggest buyin it though.

Isquint - Convert your video files to ipod or iphone format for free, and its pretty damm fast trust me.

HandBrake - For all your conversion needs. Dvd ripping free software.

Msn Messenger - Obvious chatting program. But doesnt support video chat yet for the mac.

Now this interesting software that you might have heard of. Remember i mentioned bootcamp in my last post? Well bootcamp is free, but you have to either be on OSX or Windows operating system. Lets say you need to use both simultaneously for whatever reason. Then what?

Well there are two programs, Parallels and VMWare Fusion. Both cost a lot of money and i have tried both. Im not going to make another 1 in a million post comparing the two, thats something you can google if you want to. Personally i prefer VMWare Fusion. Check it out!

Well thats all i need. I tried a lot of other programs, but in the end i just removed them as they just did partly what all these programs do now.

So good luck setting up your new mac, and remember, all feedback is welcome :)