Hackintosh verdict

Progress on the Dot Project!

Purchased from NCIX.com:
- Asus P5K motherboard
- EVGA 8600 GTS video card
- Antec Truepower 650W PSU
- LG GH20LS10 optical drive
- Patriot Extreme Performance 2x2GB RAM

(all at sale price, and with shipping, GST, and insurance, it came to about $490)

From my cousin, plus GST and PST:
- Antec NSK-44ADD case - $70
- Logitech mouse/keyboard set - $20

From Computer Avenue:
- Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 processor - $189

Still need a monitor and hard drive. So far, so good, though!


As for the LaCie hard drive, it's kaputz. Crossing my fingers to find a replacement part and get the data off of there...

Issues

"Issues" is the name of one of the recent UN1TE Dance Company sets. But I've been experiencing other issues today.

This isn't a tech blog. If the issues I was having were technical, I'd at least have some sort of solid faith that these problems could be solved. Instead, this is an emotional matter.

I've tried and tried to put my own artistic voice into my dance company, and I am constantly rejected. I'm at a point where I feel like giving up. I make sacrifices for the team, but some people don't recognize that. It's not that I don't understand the whole "for the good of the team" ethic, but I can't contribute to the team if I feel crushed by it. And the one person I thought would understand isn't helping - rather, she's part of the problem.

I'm being deliberately vague so as to not hurt anyone's feelings. The team is full of amazing people. I'm just in a bad position right now, and need a way to vent...

I wish I was a kid again and didn't have to deal with this shit.

OF COURSE

I can't have things go smoothly, can I? My stupid LaCie hard drive is not working. I may have to pay someone to recover the data off of it, which apparently can cost hundreds of dollars. I'm contacting people as we speak.

This is making my job for Dance Manitoba very very difficult. I need to get that done before I can get paid, and I need to get paid before I can buy new computer parts, and I need computer parts to make a computer, and I need a computer to do video editing in AVCHD. It's one horrible chain of events that won't happen because I HAVE NO MONEY. Zip.

I'm not a haphazard spender of money, either. But no income for two weeks has taken its toll on me...

At a loss for words...

I don't normally blog about personal matters, but I just experienced something new that I feel needs to be shared - my dad insulted me a couple of minutes ago. He laughed as though I'd find it funny, too, and I tried to force a smile, but I was just taken aback. It may have been unintentional, but it was still upsetting.

I've grown up with amazing parents. They've always been supportive and caring, and now that I'm older they give me quite a bit of freedom. I think I only realized this blessing when my father dropped down a bit on the totem pole of fatherliness and insulted me.

I have friends who are constantly criticized by their parents and insulted in more explicit ways. I can't imagine what it's like to be in their position - how do you figure out what's right when your parents are never pleased with you? I respect my friends even more for staying true to themselves when others doubted them. I've never come up against that, but it seems that

Detoxing

I've been trying to kick caffeine for the last few days, and it's been rough. I was motivated to do it when I had a huge hangover - unable to keep coffee down, suffering from a headache anyway, I figured that there was no better time to do it. With all the money I'll save, maybe I'll be able to afford the computer parts I'm looking for.

My cousin, a computer wizard, directed me to the hackint0sh.org forums. I'll read them ASAP, but it "possible" is nigh impossible. It's as if my social inactivity for the past two weeks is being made up for with this week of craziness.

The light at the end of the tunnel is the M.I.A. concert I'm going to on Friday. While I'm pumped for that, I'm counting the dollars that I've been spending on concerts lately... and it's slightly depressing. I'm now going to Nine Inch Nails and Tom Petty (eclectic enough?) and am planning a couple of shows for the Jazz Festival and maybe even FolkFest. Maybe coffee isn't the only thing I'll have to give up.

Need comp ASAP! Video files to be edited...

And I still haven't got the parts.

I'm now looking for a P5E-VM HDMI board rather than a DO... I don't know the diff (monitor connection?) but it seems to have more troubleshooting info already developed, so I won't have to do much myself.

I want a true Apple keyboard and mouse, because I'm used to that design.

And I want a case with lots of fans and noise reducers.

I want it all! Still researching the specs....

Grossed Out Now

I just drank a Cappuccino Moolatte from DQ, and I want to hurl.

The drink itself isn't bad - it's kind of sweet and has a nice texture. But the girl at DQ put some shit sprinkles on top. They didn't look particularly appealing, but I thought, "What the heck? I'll try em," and ended up spitting out my drink and dumping the whole thing down the drain. They were piercingly bitter and disturbingly crunchy. Either DQ regularly serves people that crap or it's gone bad. The only alternative is that I was served grossness on purpose (which I hope to God isn't true - only now do I recognize the similarity between the sprinkles and rat droppings).

I labeled this as "coffee", but it really isn't. DQ uses a coffee syrup in their drinks, and when I asked if it actually contained caffeine, the employees gave me blank stares.

I've had time to try the coffee in the Exchange District - mainly from the Fyxx. I'm extremely happy that they don't have "Cafe au Lait" or "Coffee Misto" on their menu, and that they just charge the cost of a regular cup of coffee. Cheap and yummy!

But the lattes there disappoint. I always get espresso that has oxidized. One time I ordered an iced cap on the rocks. I watched the barista, waiting for her to pull the espresso. I don't know how she made the drink (she stood in front of her work area) but I do know that she wasn't making fresh espresso for me. The drink I had tasted rather burnt, but still not too bad.

I got coffee at the Pastry Castle once. It was strong and dark. Pretty cheap, too - $1.50 for a large. Not bad, but it was a little out of my way, and I always find myself waiting for service for a couple of minutes when I arrive there. They need a service bell, stat.

I'm going to wash the taste of that Moolatte out of my mouth...

Cut Off

I've been meaning to research Hackintosh for a while now, but the lack of wireless Internet access at Festival has been preventing me from doing much. I'm currently sitting in a cafe, using the free wireless of the business across the street. While it's nice in here, I can't sit long - I have to be back in half an hour. Definitely missing my freedom right about now.

I've run into technical difficulties at Festival, too - one of my external hard drives conked out. Operating on just a 40 gB hard drive is HARD. I deleted my Morcheeba and Beirut albums and burned some files onto CD-R. A temporary solution.

Dropped Cornelius the other day. Now there's a crack down its (his?) side. Poor thing! Still works fine, though.

Well I'm going squeeze some research into my remaining minutes. If I open a bunch of related tabs now, I can read them later.

Other than that, I'm enjoying my time at Festival. Watching cute kiddies dance... who wouldn't smile! Of course, there are the disturbing parts. See my previous post.

Five down...

... and eight to go. That's right, it's been five days since Manitoba Dance Festival started, and I've had no life since then.

It's been pretty fun so far. The adjudicators are all awesome, very different people, and I'm glad that I get the chance to hang out with them. And I've found a renewed love for ballet and a fresh interest in modern. In short, I'm antsy to get in the studio and choreograph, teach, etc... And that's basically what's going to happen this summer.

There are a few things that have really disturbed me so far in Festival, though. First off, on day one or two I witnessed a girl struggle to smile on stage. It was adjudication time, when dancers no longer have to perform and merely stand politely on stage while their dances are commented on. This particular girl continued to perform in this casual setting, and it freaked me out. She would smile the biggest, falsest smile in the world and stare relentlessly at the adjudicator in a sort of contrived admiration. Every few seconds, she would stop smiling to lick her lips, readjust her facial expression, and start again. It was like clockwork, and it looked EXHAUSTING and FAKE and altogether very very wrong.

Another bizarre thing I saw was a girl who could not control her head on stage. She would dance and her head would just flop around on her shoulders, but it seemed that she thought that this looked good, and she would milk it by doing it with a smile. Where she got this idea from, I don't want to know. But it was frustrating to see a very clean group look messy because one member decided to emulate a bobble-head doll.

There were also the usual "amateur" mistakes that stuck out to me. One girl stopped dancing a few times to fix a costume piece on her hand, and struggled to get back on track. The thing is, this girl was 10 or 11 years old, and not in a novice category! Did their teacher never say anything about costumes? Then there were the dancers who chewed gum on stage. These people were noobs, for sure.

I need to get some sleep now - early morning tomorrow. Hooray.

Thanks, Starbucks!

I just posted, but I forgot to mention something that made my day a little awesomer today: I went to Starbucks to buy a tall coffee, and instead walked out with an Americano. They had run out of filters and therefore couldn't brew coffee, and I was lucky enough to come at the RIGHT TIME to get a more expensive, smooth-tasting coffee for the price of a regular coffee. Right on! No complaints here.

That particular Starbucks location is renowned for its customer service and acts of kindness. When a car was rear-ended across the street, someone from Starbucks ran to the scene of the accident to give free coffee to the stressed-out folks involved. I love the idea that a cup of coffee can bring people together and help ease a bad situation.

Dotty

I made a trip to Computer Avenue yesterday. Excellent service there - I recommend it to anyone. The following combination would cost about $1000, including installation.

What I'd be paying for:
- Asus P5E-VM DO motherboard
- Seagate 500GB (7200/32MB) SATA hard drive
- basic DVD reader/writer
- USB2 cardreader
- Antec Sonata 3 ATX Tower 500W
- Logitech keyboard and mouse
- Logitech 5.1 speakers
- Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 processor
- OCZ 2x2GB PC2-6400 Platinum RAM
- hardware assembly

I plan to remove the keyboard and mouse ($24), find a cheaper hard drive (I like this one) and change the tower case (I have to look into that more). Other than that, the most important specs (mobo, processor, ram) seem okay. I have to check the OSx86 forums to make sure everything will work out.

After that, all that's left is a monitor (for about $200-250) and software (still determining the best way to do this part).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

While I'm dealing with this, I also have to deal with mother's day (which is fast approaching), finalizing the music for Manitoba Dance Festival (which is also fast approaching), a couple of new video projects that have fallen into my lap, and (strangely) an exchange that may actually be a scam.

It's not too bad, though. I've been trying to eke the last drops of freedom before I start my two-week 14-hours-per-day job. I've gone through at least three seasons of Penn and Teller's Bullshit! If that's not a worthwhile way to spend my time, I don't know what is.

Mother's Day?

I'm literally feet away from the kiosk that I work at. Isn't that awesome? I love owning a laptop.

However, the half hour I've spent on this laptop has taken down the battery to 61%. And that's ONLY web browsing. Poor Cornelius.

Dot is in the works... I'm currently too busy to finalize the specs. But I'm going with an Asus mobo, Samsung hard drive (if I can find one in Winnipeg), Intel Core 2 Duo processor (currently picking a model)...

I dislike work. It is distracting me from my Dot Project. But it's also funding it.

With all this going on, I'm finding it difficult to plan for Mother's Day.

Dot Project

As if I didn't have enough projects on the go. Enter the Dot Project.

I need a new computer for editing video - specifically, AVCHD. I was looking at a MacBook Pro, but I'm worried that whatever I buy will become obsolete within the next year (and that I'll have more trouble with external hard drives - AVCHD, when converted for editing, takes up a lot of space and I'd be basically living off of external hard drives. Not my idea of a good system).

I've been asking for many people's opinions on the dilemna. The cheapest and most exciting option so far is.... (drumroll please?) the Hackintosh. Unfortunately, that would mean building my own computer. Which, as I said, is exciting. It's also time-consuming, though. I'd have to track down the best parts, then assemble the thing. Then there are licensing issues with the Mac OS.

But wouldn't it be worth it?

Basically, I've given up mobility and convenience for a longer-lasting, more flexible system. Cornelius will be my mobile option - the iBook still has the audio software on there, which is (so far) what I mostly use the computer for (aside from web browsing) .

I'm going to pursue this option for today (tomorrow I may change my mind again).

And I'm going to name the new desktop Dot. So it will be a "Dot Hack-intosh". I'm a geek - so what? Thus, the Dot Project. I wonder if this project will actually work out?

Let's Get Reasonable.

So, Saturday I was acting a little unreasonable. I take back what I said about Advance - they're good guys.

I think I was overreacting. I thought I was in an unsolvable position, but now it seems that I have options.

AVCHD... is cool. If only it worked with my computer. Or ANY computer. I now understand that the intermediate format that it's converted into in the editing suite is 10x the size of the original file. No computer I will ever own will be able to hold that much information, and I would HATE to keep buying hard drives for some of this crappy video that I shoot. Yes, some of it is crappy, I'll admit.

I was misinformed when I bought the camcorder. I thought it could record SD. It can't. I thought I could find a converter for my computer. I can't. I thought that a newer computer would have no trouble editing the video. It wouldn't - it would run out of hard drive space after filling the camcorder's memory card 8 times.

Obviously, I could make it work. But I don't think any computer I can afford can handle AVCHD.


I hate to say it, but Job is gonna get replaced. And Cornelius is probably still going to get a younger brother. I wanted to wait until an exciting Macbook release came out, but it seems that now is the time to get a new computer. I had a blind spot when it came to my iBook - I didn't want to give it up or step outside of my comfort zone, so I kept making excuses. "It's four years old, so it can't handle it." "It has a crappy processor. But it does its job." No... it does not do its job. I need a computer that can edit video, and Cornelius is not going to cut it.

Misinformation

One thing I should mention... I was misinformed when I bought the Panasonic camcorder. I'd assumed that an HD camcorder would also be able to record in SD.

On Monday, when I asked the sales guy at Advance, "The quality of SD that this camcorder records is probably still better than the old SD cameras you've got here?" he replied, "Not really." Which I took to mean that the quality is the same. I did not know that there was no SD capability.

So, while I was stupid to buy the camcorder, it was not all my fault.

Now I'm off to work for eight and a half hours while my last day to return the thing expires. Hooray.

The Format

A friend introduced me to the music of The Format the other day. They're a great band, but I haven't had time to listen to them much. I'm a little preoccupied with another kind of format - AVCHD.

I've got some ideas, but I think each idea will require some form of payment. I may just ask my parents to use their (dare I say it) Windows computer. I haven't ever had to revert to the old PC, but there may be no other option - Windows software for AVCHD is more abundant and less expensive. And I have a feeling there will be at least a couple programs for XP.

It just occurred to me that the conversion software I was looking for might have taken a lot of time to process anyhow.

I've been reading this blog quite a lot in search of an option for my camcorder. I have until the end of the day to change my mind, because tomorrow the store is closed. How does that work?? I had "seven days" to return it, but the store is only open for six... Is it seven business days?

I called Advance and some guy told me that returning it on Monday could be done, but it was an exception made for specific customers. What the fuck?

The guy was so uncaring when I asked him for advice, it really rattled me. First of all, he assumed that I knew nothing about computers, which is good retail smarts but FRUSTRATING when trying to get to the point. I told him that the FCP at school doesn't allow me to import AVCHD files and he said, "Come in and I'll show you that it works." That's all well and good, but if it doesn't work at my school, it doesn't work. And when I told him of conversion software, he said "It is what it is. There's no point converting it, because it will still be the format." What the hell does that mean? I left a voicemail message for some manager, asking him to call me back.

My experiences at Advance were great until just now. The salesperson did not attempt to empathize with me, just talked the technical stuff, and could not help me find any real solution to my problem. If there was no solution, then he should have just told me so. I was trying to work WITH the guy to keep the item I'd purchased from their store. But he merely blocked me at every opening. Did he bother asking if I had access to other computers? No. He just assumed that my Apple iBook was the only computer I could use, even after I told him about the computers at school.

Obviously, a $1000 camcorder is a big thing to a full-time student, and when I can't even playback the footage on ANY computer I have access to, I begin to worry that my money was wasted. I still want a camera. Actually, I NEED a camera. But I don't want a whole new computer system to go with it.

Rowling vs. Dostoevsky - Not even a competition

I awoke this morning with "Accio Deathly Hallows" in my head. Why? Last night I felt tempted to crack open Book 6 (those dang fiveawesomegirls keep reminding me of my teenage obsession with the series). I discovered that the book is much less interesting to me now.

Now the series isn't a guilty pleasure to me. It's just guilt. Can I justify the hours I wasted wondering about whether Harry would die in Book 7 and imagining what would happen next? I wonder how many people have been killed reading Harry Potter and writing fanfic and such. I used to think it was harmless, but I'm pretty sure that there are better ways that we could be spending our time than daydreaming about fictional characters.

I sound like a hater! But I'm not. The first and (maybe) second time I read each book of the series, I felt really good about it - they're entertaining and compelling. But after that, my mind was merely idly going over the books. It was unhealthy.

I felt especially guilty because I was supposed to be reading The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky for my To Be Educated project. Of course, since the project has fallen through I don't necessarily need to read the book. But once I got past page 5 or so, I started really loving it (despite the warm weather - it is my firm belief that Dostoevsky should be read while it's raining or snowing, as it would add to the experience of the novel).

All in all, The Idiot beats Harry Potter today, and I think it will forever.