kingsley: October 2007 Archives

My 4-year old PowerBook G4 is running Leopard from an external drive, because last night when I tried to install it on the internal drive, it gave me the blue screen of death. No kidding. The installation went smoothly at first, when it was completed, it rebooted itself, then moments after the normal white screen with the animated moving circle, the blue screen appeared and stayed there. The cursor moves but nothing else. I waited a long time before I forced restart it, then again and again. Each time it hanged at the blue screen. I grew impatient, so I ran First Aid from the Leopard disc but to no avail. Then I did the unthinkable and ran DiskWarrior out of desperation, knowing full well that I shouldn't use a disk utility that hasn't been updated for a new operating system. Sure enough my worst nightmare was confirmed, as my hard disk became unreadable after that. Luckily, God was good to me and at least let me mount the drive as an external, but with a very firm warning that the disk is bad and that I should get whatever I need out of there and reformat the drive. Who am I to disagree with God? I immediately caught up with my backup, which I had let lapse for 5 months. How shameful. I promise I won't let that happen again with Time Machine. However, I still haven't reformat the drive. I'm hoping that DiskWarrior will get an update soon that will undo the voodoo and make my drive miraculously work again, then i can have my PowerBook back just the way it was. Meanwhile, I'll just let it run off the external.

The Leopard launch was held today at the Shangri-La Hotel in Kowloon, about 16 hours before it debuts in the states. The ballroom was packed, with participation and excitement matching that of a Steve Jobs keynote. I was shocked of the enthusiasm of the Hong Kong people about Macs, but it's apparent their popularity is growing leaps and bounds, especially compared to 2005 when Tiger debuted here. After the seminar, hordes of people stood in line to turn in their questionnaire in exchange for a free Leopard t-shirt. Retail boxes of 10.5 were available for HK$1,000 (single) and HK$1,500 (family) through authorized resellers there on the spot.

Just called to cancel my Leopard order. Why? Because right after I posted my Ordered Leopard entry, I received an e-mail invite from Apple Hong Kong for a Leopard seminar this Friday, its official launch date. I called Apple and was told copies will be sold there on the spot, but how many is unknown. The operator suggested that I should order it online to be safe, but I did just the opposite; I cancelled my order right after I got off the phone. So I'm risking either getting Leopard on the 26th or not at all...or at least not till next week.

I just placed an ordered for Leopard online. The Apple Store promised to ship it on the day of its release. Since Hong Kong time is one day ahead of the U.S., and local delivery takes about a day, I should get my copy by Saturday, which is really Friday in the states. I asked my local Apple retailer whether it will get stock on Friday, but it wasn't sure yet, and if it did, it might only get a few copies. So it's safer and more convenient that I just buy it online. I'm not taking any chances.

I'm writing this entry from my iPhone using Safari, with the iMT plugin already installed on my Movable Type server. It makes the MT interface iPhone-friendly. I'm typing with the iPhone tilted sideways, so I have lots of room to move my thumbs. I finally see how mobile blogging can actually work. With Apple's iWeb, I'm tied to my MacBook, but with MT, I can use my iPhone or any other computer. So much more freedom.