MediaRight
06-14-2008, 11:26 AM
I figure I'd get all of this out of my system now. We've done some fun stuff, but this hasn't been the most fun vacation ever. My family wanted to do a California trip with me before I went back to school, so we did.
We live in Atlanta, so we flew out to a few weeks ago SF: a place with more bums per square block than anywhere else I've ever been. Was rudely asked to stand up by some evil witch on a cable car, and thus conquered my fear of being on the running board. We visited Apple flagship in San-Fran, which wasn't too exciting as the iPhone wasn't released until the next Monday. I did email my tech hero, Leo Laporte, who lives and works up in Petaluma, about 10 miles from where we'd be staying in Navato. I asked if I could sit-in on the radio show that weekend, since I had previously done some theme music work for him. I was surprised when he said yes the next morning. By the way, don't try to find free wifi in SF, as everything is locked down. I had to balance my laptop on my hand outside the Apple store to get a signal one morning (the Apple store wasn't open yet).
We did do a Segway tour of SF, which was amazing. The segway itself is an amazing invention. Too bad it never took off. It's even more magnificent when you realize the handlebars are a mere formality. You could take your hands off, and it'd still balance you. It's the most intuitive device ever: lean a tiny bit forward, and it goes forward; lean further forward, and you go faster; move your hips back, and it stops or goes backwards. Has a 0 degree turning radius, so it turns on a dime. Ours were limited to 10mph, but I think it could go a bit faster if you could take the governors off.
After SF, it was off to Navato, about an hour or so north of San Fransisco. We stayed with family in what was the most picturesque setting I've ever been in. Blue skies, rolling grassy hills, cool breezes, simply wonderful!
The day with Leo Laporte was great too. It was very meta watching a guy podcast and do radio who I had been listening to for years. He's really nice, and is truly passionate about making tech media content work. He signed a hat, and took a few pictures with me, I'll post them somewhere eventually.
Then, we were off to Yosemite National Park, a beautiful valley with towering waterfalls, and unbelievable rock formations. Also home to the poorest food in the states.
This is when the trouble started however. The wifi and connection sucked at Yosemite, which didn't surprise me. But...it was Monday, the day of the keynote. After an exhausting hike, I wanted to come back and stream the thing in the lobby, but the speed was so bad, I could only get audio, and no video.
In what really made this vacation unbearable, a few hours later that night, my PowerBook G4 decided to die on me. We had had problems since we landed in SF getting it to boot. It'd come up to a grey screen, but then hang, and we'd have to power down and try again, but usually it'd boot correctly after 3-4 tries. This time, however, it just randomly shut down, and then booted to the apple screen, and then kernel panicked. We couldn't get it booted up at all.
On our way to our next destination, Lake Arrowhead (staying with family), we took a detour to an Apple store in Rancho Cocomonga, where they kindly fit us in, I was told it was a bad logic board. However, after consulting a friend...I'm not so sure. My HD has been through a lot, so it could be a bad drive as well. The thing does boot up into open firmware. Didn't test it with a Leopard CD yet though. That when we get home. The challenge was that I could have shipped it off to Apple repair at that store, and they'd get it back to me in Atlanta, but if I wanted them to back-up the drive (if they could), I'd have to return to that Apple Store in RC the next week, not an option as we'd be back in Atlanta by then.
So now I'm stuck with a dead computer, and have to leech off of the computers of those we're staying with, and that's only on days when we're not traveling.
Lake Arrowhead was absolutely gorgeous. Beautiful lake, celebrity homes on the banks. Great trees, great weather. Our hosts had an HD projector too, so we took a look at the championship Lakers game. I'm not into basketball, but it just looked so pretty.
Another day of travel, and we're currently in LA. Smog filled and dirty, but we've found some good food, and it's cooled down a lot. I'm currently pretty depressed. I really loved Tim Russert of NBC. I didn't cry when I found out he died, but I was close. We're spending a good deal of time with one of my fathers writer friends (a friend since childhood) who's written for everything: Mork and Mindy, Arrested Development, Family Guy, King of Queens, he's now doing Big Bang Theory.
Then, we're back home on Tuesday. I'll probably have my Powerbook fixed in another week or so, depending on if it's the drive or the board, and how I decide to get it fixed. End rant.
We live in Atlanta, so we flew out to a few weeks ago SF: a place with more bums per square block than anywhere else I've ever been. Was rudely asked to stand up by some evil witch on a cable car, and thus conquered my fear of being on the running board. We visited Apple flagship in San-Fran, which wasn't too exciting as the iPhone wasn't released until the next Monday. I did email my tech hero, Leo Laporte, who lives and works up in Petaluma, about 10 miles from where we'd be staying in Navato. I asked if I could sit-in on the radio show that weekend, since I had previously done some theme music work for him. I was surprised when he said yes the next morning. By the way, don't try to find free wifi in SF, as everything is locked down. I had to balance my laptop on my hand outside the Apple store to get a signal one morning (the Apple store wasn't open yet).
We did do a Segway tour of SF, which was amazing. The segway itself is an amazing invention. Too bad it never took off. It's even more magnificent when you realize the handlebars are a mere formality. You could take your hands off, and it'd still balance you. It's the most intuitive device ever: lean a tiny bit forward, and it goes forward; lean further forward, and you go faster; move your hips back, and it stops or goes backwards. Has a 0 degree turning radius, so it turns on a dime. Ours were limited to 10mph, but I think it could go a bit faster if you could take the governors off.
After SF, it was off to Navato, about an hour or so north of San Fransisco. We stayed with family in what was the most picturesque setting I've ever been in. Blue skies, rolling grassy hills, cool breezes, simply wonderful!
The day with Leo Laporte was great too. It was very meta watching a guy podcast and do radio who I had been listening to for years. He's really nice, and is truly passionate about making tech media content work. He signed a hat, and took a few pictures with me, I'll post them somewhere eventually.
Then, we were off to Yosemite National Park, a beautiful valley with towering waterfalls, and unbelievable rock formations. Also home to the poorest food in the states.
This is when the trouble started however. The wifi and connection sucked at Yosemite, which didn't surprise me. But...it was Monday, the day of the keynote. After an exhausting hike, I wanted to come back and stream the thing in the lobby, but the speed was so bad, I could only get audio, and no video.
In what really made this vacation unbearable, a few hours later that night, my PowerBook G4 decided to die on me. We had had problems since we landed in SF getting it to boot. It'd come up to a grey screen, but then hang, and we'd have to power down and try again, but usually it'd boot correctly after 3-4 tries. This time, however, it just randomly shut down, and then booted to the apple screen, and then kernel panicked. We couldn't get it booted up at all.
On our way to our next destination, Lake Arrowhead (staying with family), we took a detour to an Apple store in Rancho Cocomonga, where they kindly fit us in, I was told it was a bad logic board. However, after consulting a friend...I'm not so sure. My HD has been through a lot, so it could be a bad drive as well. The thing does boot up into open firmware. Didn't test it with a Leopard CD yet though. That when we get home. The challenge was that I could have shipped it off to Apple repair at that store, and they'd get it back to me in Atlanta, but if I wanted them to back-up the drive (if they could), I'd have to return to that Apple Store in RC the next week, not an option as we'd be back in Atlanta by then.
So now I'm stuck with a dead computer, and have to leech off of the computers of those we're staying with, and that's only on days when we're not traveling.
Lake Arrowhead was absolutely gorgeous. Beautiful lake, celebrity homes on the banks. Great trees, great weather. Our hosts had an HD projector too, so we took a look at the championship Lakers game. I'm not into basketball, but it just looked so pretty.
Another day of travel, and we're currently in LA. Smog filled and dirty, but we've found some good food, and it's cooled down a lot. I'm currently pretty depressed. I really loved Tim Russert of NBC. I didn't cry when I found out he died, but I was close. We're spending a good deal of time with one of my fathers writer friends (a friend since childhood) who's written for everything: Mork and Mindy, Arrested Development, Family Guy, King of Queens, he's now doing Big Bang Theory.
Then, we're back home on Tuesday. I'll probably have my Powerbook fixed in another week or so, depending on if it's the drive or the board, and how I decide to get it fixed. End rant.