9 posts tagged “macbook pro”

So I was busy writing a new post for the Notebook, photographing subjects under the light of my decorative table lamp, and the moment it was switched off, I thought I had a headache. No, what really happened was the much-feared 'vertical striping LED backlight' phenomenon on my MBP's display!!!

This post discusses the eccentricities of my MBP and my hopes for Apple in the future.

Odd characteristics.

Electric shocks.
This freakiness reminds me of my father's Titanium PowerBook [an RM 16 000 machine that doesn't even run on OS X] which zaps my wrists when it's in contact with the edge of the notebook. Didn't occur when I had my Glaucon Fortran. But now, it happens with my MBP. Whenever it is plugged to a power source for a battery charge, my wrists gets zapped, which can be annoyingly painful. It even extends to my legs, whenever they touch my steel drawer underneath my desk. Does anyone have a scientific explanation? It's sucky!

iSight fear.

Knowing that there are so many lunatics in this world who'd do anything just to lurk into other people's system for fun, I have applied a square of duct tape on my iSight. This surprisingly has limited my time on Photo Booth, especially during those midnight hours when the online life is the last thing I want to live in. But don't worry, I have exercised the method of de-stickifying the duct tape [like how you'd stick masking tape to your clothes several times to lose its adhesive factor before taping it on your tracing paper to draw over your plan (flashback to interior architecture classes)], before it covers my iSight.

Nooks and crevices of rubbish.
Even though I try to avoid eating cookies, tuna puffs, crisps or kaya toast near my MBP, it's impossible to stop crumbs of food / microscopic mites / dust bunnies / glitter accumulating underneath the keyboard, the narrow gap by the click pad, the latch catchers, speaker grille and ventilation ducts. I wish I could just suck them all out of there but, is it OK to use a household vacuum cleaner [no, that would just suck out the keys altogether]?

MagSafe and its disappearing act.
Those who are familiar with power cords that existed before MagSafe, remember the detachable tubular plastic thingie that covers the plug when not attached to the portable? And three weeks into usage, the tubular plastic thingie disappears into oblivion? Now with MagSafe, there's no more tubular plastic thingie to protect the plug, but a different plastic thingie in an indescribable shape. I lost it two weeks ago. "Even the power cord is a feature". Hah! How about making the cover for it a practical feature, too?

Hm, oddly enough, the tubular plastic thingie is still intact with Glaucon's power cord, which I still keep.

Caps Lock forever.
I use the shift key to enter shortcuts, commands and type in characters like !, @, #, $ and so on. But never for capital letters!!! I am diehard caps lock user. So when I came across the caps lock key lag on my MBP, I had no choice but to either type slower, or type as normal before realising that my sentences turn into this:

mACbOOK pRO FOR LIFE!

before deleting the typotic sentence and construct it the right way. It's frustrating. I don't type blazingly fast, even, so I don't know why my caps lock key behaves this way.

What I want from Apple.

- Thanks for including a suede-like cleaning cloth, but what's more important is a case/sleeve/envelope to go with the MBP. I mean, like an official one, with an understated embossed logo of Apple on the same spot where the one on the MBP is at. Or maybe in gauze, so that the logo peeps through.

- Bring back Classic OS!

- Better resolution for iSight [might be revised in the next fleet of MBPs]. A dual-sided iSight would be great for producing live broadcasts, but then it would wreck the minimalist facade and go one step closer to looking like a gross non-Mac laptop.

- No need to look for third party apps like Undercover to trace stolen MBPs. Apple should have their own department for handling those cases!

- Make .Mac free for all Mac users.

- And after we all get our free .Mac accounts, there would be an official website serving as a portal for all Mac users. I mean... let me explain it this way. When you meet someone new, you'll find things that both of you have in common. Using Macs can be one of them. But you can't say the same about Windows users, right? It just doesn't sound right when you hear, "Fanny and Manny both are Windows users". And if this portal idea thing comes through, the Mac-utilising community won't be so fragmented like how it is now. But... well, with every other person saying that they want to switch to Mac nowadays [with the enticing ads, better-than-everything-else industrial design, the 'cool' factor] Apple will soon have a larger slice of the market pie and... Macs won't be something to get excited about when you learn that your idol/crush/stalkee uses the same OS as you. Hm... I am dreaming of an advanced search engine with my query reading, "MacBook Pro user, male, 14-17, IQ 140+, interests: Fritz Lang, geothermal energy, charting maps..." [I could go on for hours on this].

Excessively-incredible features of my MBP, in the fourth part of 'My MacBook Pro'.

Second post for the month of May and I am NOT DONE with my MacBook Pro, just yet. If I could write about the recent general elections for three posts long, I could probably write ten posts just on my MacBook Pro. It's better than young freckled Caucasian school boys, the colour green, Henrik Preutz's designs for IKEA, Tunku Abdul Rahman [not really]..... the only thing that's better than a MacBook Pro is [are] two MacBook Pros.

I have my Stickies open all the time to write in whatever I feel about my MBP since day one. This is the first essay:

First of all I would like to apologise to myself for not beginning my ownership of a MacBook Pro with an unboxing ceremony. I know it is the most crucial moment in an MBP's life, but it was spoilt by my own ignorance. You see, I thought that there would be a lengthy process of installing Mac OS X, like how it was when I got my Glaucon Fortran. I was too afraid to do it by myself [a regret] so I decided to unbox it half-heartedly at the store.

My mind was really furious, Q saying, "What the hell are you doing? Why are you introducing the MBP to the world in a lifeless shop like this? Shouldn't you and only you be the one to greet it in your own room? You'll lose the factory-fresh scent, you won't have the right to cut the sticker that seals the non-weave envelope which holds the MBP, you'll have other people's fingerprints on everything....." but A was in charge at that time. "I can always pretend that it didn't happen and stage a second unboxing ceremony in my room later". Q shouted, "It wouldn't be the same!!!" but its mouth was quickly duct taped.

So I let that store guy unravel my gift. I got to open the lid and press the power button, and soon, a pleasant montage of the word 'welcome' flew by in all sorts of languages. When it ended, I immediately ask the store guy if it is possible to start all over again. He blankly said, "No, it only comes by once. Another way to see the 'welcome thing' is when you reformat the whole machine and that would take a very long time". I stare at the space between a display of iPod accessories and me, with the duct tape on Q's mouth peeling off, hearing it go, "You suck at life". Almost immediately, A went, "I'll make sure I have my own private unboxing ceremony the next time I get a Mac".

After that, there was no fun at all. I registered my details and saw the first glimpse of my desktop. Then, it went back to its packaging. This was nothing like December 2004. The man [named Hisyam, if I remember] who sold a 15-inch PowerBook G4 to me delivered to my house and helped me installed the OS and we had a Q & A session. At that time, the price of that said notebook was at least RM 2 000 more expensive than the cheapest MBP model today. Not including the price of an Adobe CS software, adding a thousand plus Ringgit. When I received it, I felt that life was unbelievable. I waited for this machine for a year, and even hung PowerBook G4 pamphlets all over my bookshelf to welcome this machine. I named it Glaucon Fortran.

More than three years apart.

But on Sunday the 13th of April, 2008, I felt nearly nothing. It is like... you know, life goes on. It's just a Mac. I'm going to use it to play music, store digital images, write notes on Stickies, proof-reading my VOX posts, watch DVDs in very rare cases... the things I can do on my iMac. So the latest mystery in my life would be: where's the excitement?

Though, figuring out that mystery is pointless, so I started to have fun with my MBP.

Speaking of 'pointless' and 'fun', the first thing I thought of downloading is MacSaber. Finally! I heard of this hilarious application around the time when the earliest MBP [or was it the latest version of the PowerBook] models are equipped with Sudden Motion Sensor technology [it works to protect the hard disk from getting damaged from falls and knocks]. Some person developed MacSaber, which works with that technology, so that those with nothing better to do  are able to have a lightsaber fight by swinging their MBPs around, creating the crazy hums, clashes and 'wwweeuunnggg!!!' sounds a lightsaber would make. This was very very fun and entertaining for the first 2 minutes, before I realised that I am putting my MBP in danger, and it gets boring when I have no one to play it with.

I installed iWork '08 with ease and thought, "I can now make slideshows..... I mean Keynotes, that look better than anyone else's in the world". Then I downloaded Firefox, because I can't accept Safari just yet. I tried out iPhoto by importing some pictures of my latest I Got Shot post and snickered to the coolness of 'pinching', 'sweeping' and other finger movements that my Multi Touch trackpad can detect. After that, I made my first VOX post on the MBP.

Now, march on to Part III!

My MacBook Pro is very photogenic. Here are some vanity shots of my favourite object in the world.

I know that a sizeable percentage of my microscopic pool of readers are wondering whatever happened to myself. You can say that I have been lazy, or busy, or ran out of ideas, or becoming a boring person, or others. Work [a word not to be taken literally] has taken most of my time and attention, until I had to forget about everything else. Receiving a MacBook Pro out of the blue and not having an internet connection in my room made things worse.

But I love my MBP. I still have not decided what to name it. It won't be talked about in this post; it'll go into a 'My MacBook Pro' special.

How about a review of April 2008?

On the eleventh, my father took my brother and me to a supper buffet at Hotel Equatorial. This hotel can be considered as my family's number one hangout back in the 1990s, for Saturday night dinners. This night was the last night for the Scandinavian cuisine promotion, happening at Etoile Bistro. The sight of Scandinavian country flags make everything almost better.

Nothing much was to be seen, because the Swedish chef has packed up everything. So we headed to the coffee house downstairs and ate several dishes from curry mee to samosas to nasi beryani to baguettes.

Just a few days after I received my MBP, my brother came back from Frankfurt with an issue of Fantastic Man. Sadly to say, HE magazine was nowhere to be found. And since that I will be gifting Fantastic Man to JK, I made a copy for myself at the photocopy shop.

... and had a Photo Booth-aided shoot.

There was one day when I had to bring my mother to Sooka Sentral to meet someone, and while they had their discussion, I toured the complex to find food outlets, appealing young Caucasian office workers and a brand-new but incomplete fitness centre called Synar, which has a rock-climbing wall.

And on the seventeenth, I went to UiTM Shah Alam to see my mother giving a speech to graduate design students. It was a very hot day. There is something about this corridor that reminded me of a retro movie called Ali Setan.

On the twenty-forth, I hung out at Borders at The Gardens to make use of Starbucks' free WiFi. The speed was perfect to hold a video IM with one of my e-friends. Now my iSight is truly devirginised.

Oh, on the same day, I was having lunch with my mother at Nyonya Colors. I took pictures of the cafe when this guy [said to be a police officer] went ballistic over me and grabbed my camera away. I thought he was going to crush it as he explained how paranoid he was to have his picture taken. Luckily my mother was there to defend me.

Haha, on the 27th I participated in a creative writing workshop guided by Kam Raslan, the It author of the season. I expected a group of young secondary school kids but in reality, it was mostly people from the aged group, the kind who frequents Silverfish and thebookaholic.

Kam was very selamba in his speech. He was telling us about the techniques of... writing well [I don't have his notes right now]. After the free sandwiches, tea and coffee, I asked Kam to sign my journal. He chirped, "Oooh! A Moleskine!" [the way he said it was 'mowl-less-keen']. I said, "I thought it was pronounced as 'mo-luss-kee-na'". Then Kam made his trademark ambivalent face. It followed quickly by a photo session. I did an array of facial expressions, which confused him a little. Though in this picture, I'm the one who's looking confused.

A mystery was solved. Kam Raslan is NOT Karim Raslan. So for the past few months, I have been admiring two different men whom I thought was the same person. Remember, Kam writes stories, while Karim writes political stuff [meaning that that guy I saw at The Star election forum was NOT Kam].

Um, I guess that is it for April.

I couldn't contain myself.

No more teaser trailer-esque pictures appearing throughout the week.

I thought of doing a '2007 in review' post to end the year, but then I don't want to celebrate things I don't believe in, like New Year celebrations, Mother's Day, Wear Everything Backwards Day and others. A new year is nothing more than a time to change the calendar [that's what it means to me, anyway], so I am just going to write about the things I saw / did / attended / experienced in the month of December.

Buildings and architecture.

A new building is fast a-rising at the corner of Jalan Esfahan and Jalan Raja Laut. It's CIMB's [a local bank] new building, possibly going to be its HQ. How do you find the criss-crossing frame? Does it serve a purpose, to hold the entire structure together like a massive scaffolding, or is it just to hold fluorescent lamp tubes so that it will outstand DBKL building's light display at night?

I was having a leisure walk in the old parts of KL, from Masjid Jamek to Jalan Gereja to Central Market when I saw this old-school kopitiam at a row of pre-war shophouses nearby Medan Pasar called Sekawan Kopichop. I've never eaten Siamese Lemak Laksa and Mee Jawa in my life, so I might consider this place if I were to be hungry when I am in the area [and also if it conforms to my eating standards].

I was about to head back to PJ the other day using the Dataran Merdeka - Padang Merbok route. Just behind Bank Rakyat's Modernist-looking building, there is a street called Jalan Tangsi, where Wisma Ekran is located. I see this Art Deco building each time I go through this route, but only now have I the chance to check it out.

I am very glad to see such architecture still standing in KL. No need to destroy old buildings to build skyscrapers when we've got so much land! But then... we'd have to clear out forests and all, so...

A leap away from Wisma Ekran is Galeri Tangsi, an art gallery that's a hit among the intellects and PAM-heads [to be explained in the next paragraph]. Check out the elaborateness of this one.

Galeri Tangsi is connected to Pertubuhan Akitek Malaysia's [PAM] office. It was closed for the day, but what I saw from the window is a pretty airwell in the middle of the building, with some posters of projects PAM has done.

Culinary adventures.

I've written a bit about this restaurant in TTDI called Wak Chai, which serves Johorean cuisine and free WiFi to MacBook Pro users. I was there with my mother to enjoy a plate of Mee Siam, which is a favourite of Loloq, a very famous local composer [who was there to enjoy Mee Siam, too].

For some peculiar reason, Mee Siam is very popular in [and might be from] Singapore. It's rice noodles served with sourish gravy filled with Tau Choo.

And since that I am well-known for my Mac fangirl tendencies, I approached this man [named Hafiz, I believe] to congratulate him for using a MacBook Pro.

On a different day, my mother and I had a lunch of Laksa Johor at the same restaurant. The portion was huge, which is good enough for two people. My mother commented that it would be perfect if there weren't any excess oil.

This will be the third time I am posting a picture of Capital Cafe's Meehoon Hailam. This is probably my Food of the Year [though, Mee Bandung comes close]. There is nothing extraordinary about it, but only Capital Cafe can give you the lovely 'dining' experience [sharing tables with strangers, the multi-racial crowd, the smoke from the satay grill].

Luncheon with my mother at Sentidos Tapas, Starhill Gallery, which we think, has the best Tapas in KL [we don't agree with La Bodega]. A wonderful meal of oxtail, prawns, stuffed potato and grilled button mushrooms. Layer them on top of an olive oil-drenched bread and chew slowly. It will put a smile on your face.

One night, my mother made a su'un soup with potato and beef, and cereal-covered butter prawns to eat while watching Friday night TV shows.

Spending [more like wasting] loads of valuable time at Pavilion makes me hungry. My favourite stall in the food court Food Republic is Toast Box, a stall that grills their bread the old-school way. My favourite item on their menu is Nasi Lemak special, which has some meat floss-looking thingies and a piece of fish cake, alongside sambal, anchovies, cucumbers and a tiny piece of omelette. Though, the amazing-looking thing at this stall is the butter mountain, which goes onto your roti bakar that you will dip in a tasty cup of kopi.

The next post will be about the events I have attended, and some special sights I have shot during my long long KL walks.

I recently realised that the entire living area of my house is all made from IKEA furniture. FIXHULT fake black leather sofa [which I don't dig much, and leather should NEVER be fake], SVANSBO coffee table [height is too low], a peculiar rug BETTAN LINJE and a newcomer - SOLSTA OLARP fake black leather armchair. Also new on the dining table - LÅGIS mouse pads in black and white. This is quite a sad phenomenon.

Black and white furniture doesn't work in a house that was designed to look semi-mediterranean, semi-Italian villa etc.

I have dug the plastic bags cabinet and found my father's IKEA shopping list. Other than SOLSTA OLARP, he also wrote on POÄNG [famous bent plywood armchair] and ROY [foldable side table / stool]. Meaning, he's in the spending spirit right now. Hm.... hopefully he can spend an extra RM 8 000+ on a MacBook Pro =D

And how about a new house?

Hm, VOX [and most things online] does not work by itself.

VOX's objective is to 'connect' these 'people' who have 'neighbours', 'families' and 'friends'. What if you have none to connect with? What if you are like me, a person who has given up on friendship and whatever, blog by themselves, expecting random people to comment on their writes, because they don't want anyone they know to know what they are up to.

Oh fuck it, making friends is harder than making enemies. And I am talking crap.

Hm, on a lighter note, I'd like to say hello to those people at Great Eastern Mall's Starbucks for giving me a Toffee Nut Latte at a Latte's price. But you should have made it hotter because I thought the heat of the drink was cooler than a hot shower.

A huge Danke to Matthew of D.C. for giving me his second middle name as my birthday present.

A very sad frowny goes out to James Kim's family. I got very upset by the news. I couldn't imagine what that funny geek had gone through in an attempt to seek help for his family. Wowie. You had a cool life, James. Good luck to Mrs. James Kim and kids.

Back to Starbucks. Are there just three sleeve patterns for the holiday season? So far I have collected the one with the circles ala Louis Vuitton, five-point red snowflakes and the vine-on-the-gates pattern.

You know, this will be the third time I am writing about my 19th birthday which is coming on the 20th. I really don't know what to do on that day. It's on a Wednesday. I thought of going out early in the morning to get a good breakfast somewhere in KL, then go buy and outfit, and then drive around idly before going home and continue on my homework. BORING!

Speaking of which, I am trying to ask my father to buy me a MacBook Pro. No need explanation on that. If that's not enough, I want a new digital camera and cellular to go with it. Laptop, camera, phone. That's already a necessity nowadays. And I am sure my FREITAG will be very very happy to hold them all together. And also, iPod speakers, so that I can throw away my stereo.

I hate Gap. Gap as in the clothing store. I have been there once at their outlet at OU, and wow. The only colour I see is dark blue, white, some black and the ocassional brown. BORING. I don't understand, their tagline in magazine ads is 'Celebrate Individuality'. Well, how the hell do blue denim, itchy wool pullovers and striped rugby tops count as 'individual'?! I can get that kind of crap at Giordano or U2 or even KL Sentral cheapo markets! This isn't America, where people are willing to pay $ 60 on a shirt. Especially when they look just like the ones in Reject Shop. And yes, they do sell Gap there. For a tenth of the retail store's prices. I don't think Gap will last for more than five years here, just like Debenhams at Times Square.

Attention. One of the best Nasi Lemak in PJ is situated in PJ New Town [situated at a food court, just opposite the police barracks]. A large bowl of rice, fried egg, sambal, fried chicken, cucumbers, anchovies and peanuts costs only RM 3.50. Less than a fucking dollar, and two people can eat one packet. I think the stall is called AZMI RASA RIA... or was it the stall beside it? Well, other than Nasi Lemak, there's also a spread of various Malay dishes, the usual. I haven't tried those yet. But seriously. Best self-serve Nasi Lemak in PJ!

At the moment, I am open to anyone who would like to be my 'friends', 'neighbours' and 'family'. Just as long as you write good things like me.