LoLoCoJr

After reading about all the trouble folks went through in getting an iPhone I felt super lucky!! Yesterday I phoned the local BelCompany store to see if they were getting any delivered. There seems to be a reservation list so I asked the guy if it still made sense to sign up. He said sure.. I was number 20 on the list (what, only 20 ppl??). Early this morning I got a call saying I was the last one to secure a phone in the from first batch!! Woaw! The T-Mobile activation system was severely overloaded so the only thing I could do is sign a pre-agreement and wait untill tomorrow (12th) to pick it up. If only I was so lucky playing the lotto!. More as soon as I actually have it in physical possession!

Update: Well got the iPhone 2 months ago. Apart from the terrible battery life, dropped calls, horrible 3G reception and Apple's draconian developer restrictions, a wonderful phone! Time to jailbreak it...

So about 6 weeks ago I happily ran this thing called Apple "Software Update..."

Then after 2 weeks I decided the burn a backup DVD but what's this? Where the heck is my Superdrive?? My burning software can't see it, it doesn't even show up in the system info "Disc Burning" section, WTF? Careful analysis of the log file shows the following: during the Software Update 2 items were downloaded, the Mac OS X 10.4.10 update and the Apple superdrive firmware update 2.1. Here's the scary thing, after the 10.4.10 update was installed it continued on installing the firmware update. However, right in the middle of the firmware update the 10.4.10 update decides it's a good time to reboot my Macbook Pro! I can't remember what I was doing during the update procedure but I guess I just continued working on after the reboot..for 2 weeks. Now comes the worse part, my Macbook Pro warranty expired just 2-3 days before the update!! So there I was, bricked superdrive, no Apple warranty, no AppleCare since I spent the extra €400,- maxing out the Macbook Pro with disk and RAM. Stupid, stupid!!
A quick Google search showed up quite a few posts of people in the exact same predicament as me! However, not a single post offered any sane fix other than bringing the Mac in for repairs, if you were lucky enough to have it under warranty or had AppleCare. Aargh!! Oh well, got nothing to loose so I called Apple Benelux and explained my situation. The kind person on the other side suggested I bring in the machine to an authorized dealer to check it out. Okay, so I brought it to RAF Amsterdam, which is the closest Apple authorized repair service to me. 3 weeks and a lot of calls to RAF later (apparantly their Mac guy went on vacation and they forgot to mention that during the intake) I finally got the verdict, new superdrive required, price tag: €410,- @#$@!!@#$%??!!!! That's got to be the most expensive DVD burner on the planet!
I called Apple again explaining them I was really upset I had to dish out this much money to fix a problem that was clearly caused by not properly testing their update procedure. I mean how hard is it to detect and stop a reboot in a firmware updater?? Firefox annoyingly stops reboots all the time, so a piece of Apple software should definitely be able to do this do. "I understand sir, let me talk to the tech people.. please hold..".. 2 minutes later: "Sir, we have OK'd this repair under warranty..".. WOAAH!!!
One week later I picked up my Macbook Pro, new superdrive installed, everything working. Charge: € 0,00!!
Big kudo's to the Apple Customer Satisfaction department!! That was 2 weeks ago.. It must be said though that a lot of folks around the world did not have this much luck with Apple. As of today there is also not a single official word from Apple regarding this issue, the firmware update was silently pulled from Apple's website and all traces of it have disappeared.

Forum thread 1: Superdrive update 2.1 killed my drive.
Forum thread 2: Superdrive Update 2.1 killed drive.

Still keeping an eye on how Apple handles this...

We purchased a couple of dirt cheap LaserJet 1020 printers for the office and home. While they work fine in Windows and Ubuntu Linux (with proper hackery applied) getting it to work on OSX is not straight forward. If you google around you’ll find both success and horror stories on this printer. It seems HP supports the newer 1022 model officially but not the 1020. Turns out the 1022 driver will work fine for a 1020 if, and that’s a big IF, you get Mac OSX to list it in the printer list. This thread on macosxhints.com was the most informative of all. I tried the suggestions a couple of days ago but to no avail. This morning I tried again and with success! All the steps seem to be there, but the following order worked for me:

1. Download; http://www.railsguru.com/assets/2007/4/16/1601_LJ_1022_Series_OSX.dmg;
2. If you have anything for the HP 1020 in ”/Library/Reciepts” delete it.
3. Delete anything for the HP 1020 in Printer in “Printer Setup Utility”
4. Install the downloaded printer drivers
5. Remove all files from /Library/Printers/hp/laserjet. Leave the 1020 subfolder! You’ll need the contents in the next step;
6. Move all files from the 1020 subfolder to /Library/Printers/hp/laserjet (the parent);
7. Restart Mac OSX, just for luck;
8. Add new printer in “Printer Setup Utility”, select HP LaserJet 1020, driver should come up, click ADD

Disclaimer: this worked for me™. No guarantee the above steps will hose your printer setup or other things.