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Converting a Heretic

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With your Dell Inspiron Mini 10v in hand, it’s time to make the leap of faith. Yes, this step is scary since you could actually mess up and be left with a dead computer. But with all the Hackintosh success stories and help guides out there, don’t worry too much. Just be sure to read the instructions and have everything prepped before you begin.

I started with Gizmodo’s article, How To: Hackintosh a Dell Mini 10v Into the Ultimate Snow Leopard Netbook but also took hints from MyDellMini.com. As described in my previous notes post, here are some of my experiences:

  • Downgraded the BIOS from A06 to A04. Some articles say this is necessary, some recommend keeping the latest A06. If you do downgrade, be ready for lots of loud beeping as the firmware updater runs.
  • Be sure to have a flash drive for the BIOS updater and another drive for the Mac OS X install files. You might be able to create a single drive that does both, but the Mac OS X installation files need lots of space (~16 GB). Since I don’t have a big flash drive, I used an old 20 GB external USB hard drive for the OS X install files.
  • Use Netbook BootMaker to modify the Mac OS X install files (after copying the the files from a Snow Leopard install DVD). Use Netbook Installer after Mac OS X is installed.
  • I had to use Netbook BootMaker 0.8.2 to prep the Mac OS X install files. I had initially used the latest 0.8.3RC4 version which didn’t work, causing kernel panic errors at the start of Mac OS X installation.  Note: Netbook BootMaker and Installer 0.8.3RC5 have just been released, but I haven’t check them out yet.
  • While I don’t recall installing the trackpad fix as described in the Gizmodo article, I think I let Netbook Installer 0.8.3RC4 handle the trackpad fix.

I have a few more notes here, but in general, everything in the Gizmodo howto worked and after several hours, you should see something like this.

Dell Mini 10v Running Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard

Congratulations! The scariest part is done, and you’ve now got a Hackintosh!

Sinning with a Dell Inspiron Mini 10v Series

Sinning with a Dell Inspiron Mini 10v

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Forgive me Steve for I have sinned. I have not been true to my values and have had an unfaithful transgression. I have befriended a heretic and willingly welcomed this heathen into my home. But Steve, please accept my humble apologies and understand the true reason for this crime – to convert this pagan to the light, the light of Mac.

Yes, dear readers, I am now an owner of a Dell computer along with Windows 7. I’ve never owned a non-Apple computer in my life until now. So what happened and why the change? Hackintosh happened is what. Some smart people out there figured how how to install Mac OS X on Intel-based hardware made from vendors other than Apple. So my Dell Mini Inspiron 10v is no longer running Windows 7 but is purring along with Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6).

I’ll be writing a few posts about my experiences with my Hackintosh, so you can see if this is for you.

Why a Hackintosh?

The first obvious question is why? Why a Dell (or other vendor) and not stick with Apple? Well, I still have my Apples but was essentially looking for a disposable secondary computer. Have you ever been on a trip where a computer would be handy, but you didn’t want the hassles? Do you risk leaving the computer in the hotel room or bring it with you to Disneyland? What about all those digital pictures you’re taking? What if your camera’s memory card gets swiped out? There goes all the memories? Wouldn’t you want a backup of these keepsakes? Wouldn’t access to email, directions, Facebook, and in general, the Internet be very useful while on travel. You with me?

Now, do you want to bring that $2000+ MacBook Pro with you? Sure it’s high speed and portable but not that portable. You’d be lugging the computer around, possibly damaging it or losing it or worse having it stolen? Is your beloved Apple worth that worry? Maybe not, but a $300 Netbook sure is. Though very small and admittedly underpowered, a Netbook is just right as a secondary disposable computer.

For my Hackintosh Netbook, I went with the popular Dell Inspiron Mini 10v which is well documented as a Hackintosh. Note: the 10v model number is 1011. Available at Amazon.com for just under $300, this Netbook features:

  • 10-in screen
  • 1 GB of RAM
  • 160 GB hard drive
  • built-in webcam
  • one VGA port
  • 3 USB ports
  • SD memory card reader
  • RJ-45 jack
  • WiFi (802.11b/g)
  • Bluetooth

You can customize a Mini 10v at Dell’s web site, but this stock configuration is good enough (and Mac compatible).

In the next few posts, I’ll be writing about:

Stay tuned and sin with me!

Tuneless in the Morning

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Since I’ll be returning my recalled Belkin TuneBase iPod adapter, I am now tuneless for the work commute. Back to the FM airwaves it is. Listening to Rory and Gregg on 98.5 again brought up mixed emotions – the pair is great, but the music format is not for me.

The morning music on 93.9 seems to have ratcheted back to the days of the Wake-Up Crew, less aggressive and more mainstream. Maleko on the 93.9 Morning Show was okay but made me proud when I heard the “buy a Mac” comment. Maleko was talking about upgrading to Windows 7, and one of his suggestions (or was it from Flash?) was to “get a Mac.” That made me smile.

Norah Jones Had to Forgo Aloha for Apple

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Norah Jones was supposed to perform at the Hawaii Writers Conference but had to cancel due to poor sales of the $100-500 tickets. The conference itself took place, just without the gala fundraiser featuring Jones.

Although Norah couldn’t perform in the Aloha state, she definitely landed on her feet this week, performing at Apple’s Special Event that featured the return of Steve Jobs.

Image from Engadget.com
Image from Engadget.com

I’m hoping her Apple appearance had nothing to do with her Hawaii cancellation.

Apple and the Big Three of Social Media Marketing

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Quick, what are your guesses of the top three social media sites used by corporations for marketing purposes? Is is MySpace? How about Facebook? Is YouTube used?

My limited, unofficial research brought me across these sites:

Here’s the gallery of screen shots from these sites:

From these various sites, the most popular that are surfacing are Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. This trio is becoming the big three of social media marketing used by companies to engage and interact with their customers.

But is there room for one more?  The inclusion of iTunes (and the App Store) in the above samples is very interesting and could hint at Apple’s next move.  No, I’m not suggesting that Apple enter the social media space to challenge the current contenders.  That’s not Apple’s way.  Historically, Apple only enters the fray when the company feels it can dominate the space or effectively change the game.

This is where Apple could make a definite impact, providing users with the preeminent means of engaging with social media.  No, Apple should not make their own version of Facebook (sorry MobileMe), but instead get people connected to Facebook.  As in mobile or desktop access to Facebook using an iPhone, iPod, or a Mac, as in publishing pictures to Facebook using iPhoto, as in sharing musical tastes with Facebook using iTunes, as in sharing movies on Facebook using iMovie, as in feeding other content to Facebook via integration with an iPhone app.  Same with YouTube, iMovie ’08 included exporting to YouTube, the recent iPhone 3GS supports mobile movie uploads to YouTube, and now Snow Leopard’s QuickTime X can export to YouTube straight from the OS.  You see a trend here?

By approaching the social media space not as a service, but as a connector to these services, Apple can change the game and really ingrain itself in the social media landscape.  That is Apple’s way.

Font Conflicts From Snow Leopard

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Anyone else experience font conflicts after upgrading to Mac OS X Snow Leopard? I didn’t realize I had issues until trying to read the install instructions for YOURLS. Here’s a screen shot of what it looks for me.

yourls-shot

I was like this must be some developer code or something. But copying and pasting the instructions gives me a readable view:

  1. Unzip the YOURLS archive
  2. Copy includes/config-sample.php to includes/config.php
  3. Open includes/config.php with a raw text editor (like Notepad) and fill in the required settings
  4. Upload the unzipped files to your domain public_html or www folder
  5. Create a new database (see Configuration – you can also use an existing one)
  6. Point your browser to http://yoursite.com/admin/install.php

Opening Fontbook, I have a ton of duplicate fonts being reported. I think that once I resolve all these dupes, things will display normally again.

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