Walt-O-Matic

I own a Garmin GPSmap 60CSx in order to geoencode my photography using HoudahGeo.

Garmin now has a means up updating the firmware in their GPSs by using a WebUpdater, of which I use the version for the Mac.

I Got Myself Into Trouble
In retrospect, I got myself into trouble by starting the program, it failed to detect the GPS, to which I turn on the GPS, and plugged it into the USB port. While the WebUpdater saw the device and went to update, it stayed in the “Erasing… Do Not Unplug” state for about two hours before I got brave.

What I Did, And Boy Was I Lucky
I couldn’t cancel. I couldn’t Quit. So I had to Force Quite by using Command-Option-Escape, that at least got WebUpdater to stop. The GPS was still stating “Loader Loading…” when I pulled the USB, and when that didn’t change anything, I turned off the power to it. I wasn’t so sure I was going to see much of anything when I powered it back on.

I got lucky. I turn the power back on and I was still at the old revision. Then plugged in the USB to the computer. Then started WebUpdater, which again noticed the GPS version, downloaded the firmware again, and had no problems installing it. Seems doing things in this order works just fine.

My Plans If I Was Unlucky
Over on Bill Turner’s site, he’s written an article about Fixing a Dead Garmin GPSMap 60CSx. It seems he’s learned holding down the Power Button and the Up Arrow at the same time while starting the WebUpdater software (I think he has three hands to pull this off), he’s able to force the GPS to identify itself to the updater. Problem is, according to his instructions, you have to keep holding down these button chord during the update; some comments on the blog state it isn’t necessary, and there’ve been mixed results as to whether this works universally or not.

I’m not sure I would have had the bravery to just go killing processes plain outright, but since Bill did such a nice job of providing an alternative, I felt it was worth the risk — even if I didn’t have to go that route. Thanks Bill for blogging your GPS recovery notes.

Today I learned that there’s a nifty little utility called Maintenance 3.8 out on Apple’s site. You can find it by going to Apple / Mac OS X Software…, and when the web page pops up, type Maintenance in the search box.

It’s an automator script to repair permissions, verify preferences, updating prebindings, do cleanup, update databased, rebuild indexes, empty Trash, and so forth. My guess is it’s much like Onyx.

Deciding to give it a try, I downloaded it, opened the .DMG file, and double clicked the automator icon, selecting Restart when done. And while I got a very little in the confirmation department that things were working, I saw a lot of CPU activity running utilities I was familiar with.

So, with the laptop plugged in, I left to to chug away. I heard the restart sound several minutes later. And, I ignored it.

Later, I picked up my laptop and went to login.

Nothing.

The “breathing LED” on the front was off, and nothing was responding keyboard or mouse wise. The screen was black.

So, I decided to check the battery. Full power.

But then I noticed something. At the steep angle, in the near pitch black of my LCD screen, I saw the login window. What was happening: the backlight wasn’t coming on. Fiddling with the brightness control didn’t help either.

Sure enough, I could make out the cursor once I located where it was.

I tried opening and closing the lid. Nope. Backlight still off.

So, I restarted (as I mentioned, it was operational, I could barely make out the GUI).

The machine sprang to life, showed me the blue background, and right before it went to the login screen, the backlight cut out again, leaving me in pitch black.

Titling the screen back again (with the keyboard sticking up in the air and the screen flat on the table), again I could make out the login box and mouse. I did a restart again.

This time I held down Command-V as it booted. And I watched as it came up, lots of normal diagnostic messages, and then the blue background, and right as the login screen appeared, back to pitch black.

Annoying. But now I’m wondering if all the times I’ve ever woken my laptop after a case where the lid didn’t quite clasp perfectly, was this what was happening — could the machine be up, but the backlight off?

So, one last time, I restarted. Only I held down Command-Option-P-R (four fingers) to reset the power management settings. Several chimes later, I let go, and the machine booted perfectly, and the login box appeared, backlight and all.

I’m hoping that my experience may lead to an additional piece of the puzzle about the Mac waking up funny. I would have never have noticed anything on the screen if I looked at it dead on, as I always do.

It’s fairly well known that if you close the Mac’s lid, but down engage it fully, the lid will pop back up, but not after putting the machine to sleep. At that point, it becomes a little dance with the lid, trying to get the lid back down, so that the machine can see it re-open, and that usually wakes it. But sometimes the screen is still dark, and you have to play with the power button (and if frustrated, hold it down to restart).

Sometimes this same problem manifests when you wake the machine, enter your password, and suddenly everything goes dark. You wiggle the cursor and hit the keys and nothing happens. Caps Lock toggles, but it feels like it’s gone back to sleep.

Well no more. From now on, I’m going to tilt my screen back and see if I’m operational. That way I won’t lose data from an unnecessary restart.

This will give you an idea of how long it’s been since I’ve used Windows at home.

I had to hook up an LCD monitor to the Windows box, boot the system, and install a pile of updates [1 WGA; 34 express; 2 custom]. However, something else gave me a true sense of the time that had passed: when I moved the mouse, I felt something oily and sticky on my thumb. The plastic mouse had degraded.

Upon closer inspection of my Logitech iFeel MouseMan (M/N: M-UN53b; P/N: 830445-0000), the thumb button had ooze dripping on it.

Where did it come from? The answer was obvious. There was a thumb print above the button, where the hand naturally rests.

Apparently the natural oil in my hand left a finger print on the mouse. Undisturbed for so long, the plastic broke down and started becoming liquid mush in that one spot.

I’ve never heard of a mouse breaking down like that, but I’m holding the evidence in the palm of my hand.

Now, the larger question: do I buy a new mouse? Nah, Windows isn’t worth the pocket change or that level of effort to me anymore.

Today’s tip comes from John Cook, who reports that upon purchasing a new Dell Inspiron E1505 laptop with an ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 graphics card running Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 2 (build 2600) and using the “Synaptics PS/2 Port Pointing Device” as a mouse, the cursor appears as a vertical bar.

Unfortunately, there’s nothing on the Internet that tells how to correct the problem.

SOLUTION: The problem is with the hardware acceleration.

Right click the desktop, choose properties, go to the Settings tab, click Advanced, choose the Troubleshoot tab, and slide the slider one notch to the left. Click Ok, then OK.

When Apple recalled batteries from its 15″ laptops, I would have thought that common sense would have prevailed in that if any battery exhibited a physical defect, such as exploding from its own case, that would be more than enough to exchange the battery.

Unfortunately for my friend Marcus, when he went to the Apple Store, with an exploded battery from a 17″ laptop (his is shown above), the manager wanted him to mail the battery and laptop back to Apple. This made no sense, as there was nothing wrong with the laptop. And, furthermore, the US Postal Service might take issue with a battery that is about to have its chemicals bust out of its shell.

17-Inch MacBook Pro Rechargeable Battery
Model A1189, Li-ion, 6N6184M9US0A

What he wanted was to simply have the hazardous waste properly disposed of, even if it meant buying a new battery.

She explained that the Apple Store didn’t have laptop batteries, he’d have to special order one. And to verify his battery was really damaged (she handled it!), he’d have to see an Apple Genius. And, unfortunately for Marcus, the Genius Bar was all filled up with appointments, and he’d have to return the next day. …meanwhile, the battery was still growing out of its shell; something that made Marcus feel very unsafe.

I’m totally of mixed minds on this. First of all, the battery fault isn’t Apple’s doing, it’s a bad batch they got them from. Second, when a battery dies or doesn’t hold a charge out of warranty, you don’t get a replacement. Third, if you take standard flashlight battery and let it age and leak, that’s not a warranty problem. So, on this hand Apple is under no obligation to replace the battery.

On the other hand, this wasn’t a matter of the battery being dead - it still held a full charge. It just would no longer fit in the machine because it was physically defective. In my mind, Apple should replace the battery, and then go back and beat up on the vendor. Even for customer service reasons alone, it’s the right thing to do.

Apple’s stance was if it was a battery for a 15″ laptop, they’d replace it, even out of warranty. But, since it was a 17″ battery, and even though it was made of the same stuff, by the same people, and exhibiting the same visibly defective problem, it wasn’t. That’s just not right.

Basically, Apple was saying that this was a “new” battery problem, and because not enough people reported the model number (A1189), their replacement warranty didn’t cover it.

Marcus came back the next day, stood in line, talked to a Genius who took his old battery to dispose while pointing him at an entire shelf of 17″ batteries. Marcus bought a new one.

Genius Bar Conversation | Register Conversation

Of course, after Marcus gets the run around and has to buy a new battery, we learn about this link: MacBook and MacBook Pro Battery Update

In it, it states that if a battery is visibly deformed, then Apple will replace it. …why didn’t the Apple Store know this?

Having just read an analysis of the iPhone terms of service, what’s hidden in the fine print is a deal breaker for me.

Until some of this settles down, I’ll not be getting the iPhone as planned.

Poop.

Realistically though, this may have pushed me more seriously at OpenMoko, the open source phone.

I’m especially developing the development kit.

So at this point it’s a race. Either Apple drops the price, adds some features, and addresses some pretty stressful points in the terms of service, or enough applications and positive reports come from OpenMoko.

UPDATE: These points have all been rebutted.

As someone who does a lot of photography, and I mean a lot of photography, I decided to invest in something that would do color calibration on my monitor.

A while back I purchased Pantone’s Huey and wrote a review saying just how much I loved it. [Pantone Software Update Page]

Since that review, Pantone has only made things better. My primary wish for dual monitor support has been granted in the form of the Pantone hueyPRO.

Once again, a fine quality product at an affordable price to end consumers rolls out the doors of Pantone. Not only do you get the device, a KlearScreen Starter Kit (with a polishing cloth), but you also get a Pantone Book of swatches of 100 Top Colors.

By simply dragging the application to the corresponding monitor, it’s possible to independently calibrate a monitor. That’s just plain cool, much better than drop down boxes and such.

This is where a new mystery appeared. As I was exploring how to manually calibrate a monitor, by setting the Brightness / Contrast by hand, I was startled to discover that my Dell 2001FP monitor wouldn’t allow me to adjust the contrast. It was like the firmware knew about it, but things were disabled.

Then I found this tidbit in the Brightness/Contrast section of the Dell 2001FP Documentation:

Makes sense. When a DVI connection is used, as I had done, the contrast control is no longer needed. My monitor doesn’t have a problem, all is well with the world.

REVIEW: Walt gives the Pantone hueyPRO a big thumbs up!!!