So, What’s Up with the Yasu Icon Contest?
I’m sure at least one of you is curious to know what happened with the Yasu icon contest, right? Well, I’ll tell you what happened. My domain host is what happened. They’ve had some issues over the past couple of months, and I found that when I went to check the results to make the tally final, I couldn’t access the sub-domain anymore. Everything was still in place as it should be, but no matter what I did to try to get it back, it was a no go. So, I had to just wipe it out completely. Darn…
So, these results are as good as it gets, and are approximate based on what I can remember from the last time I looked at them before the site got hosed:
- Jim Mitchell (18 votes)
- Yoram Blumenberg (17 votes)
- Orignial Yasu Icon (10 votes)
There you have it.
But wait…
Since the race was so close between my creation and Yoram’s, I’ve decided to go with his instead. It’s a very fine piece of work, and will help to add to his growing portfolio. For those who voted for my icon, will you be miffed if I withdraw my entry and give your votes to the number two result? It’s done specifically to support an up and coming design artist with a load of talent, so you’ll be helping him out more than you would me.
A huge thanks goes out to Yoram Blumenberg for his submission. I’m looking forward to including it in the next release of of Yasu.
A Change in the Air
If you’re a regular reader, you may (or may not) have noticed that some things have changed with the site, namely the name of it. For those who are new, it was Jim Mitchell Designs for the past couple of years, now it’s just “jimmitchell.org”
I’ve been tossing around the idea of changing the name for quite a while now. Jim Mitchell Designs was what I went by when I was doing graphic design work years ago. I don’t do that much any more – except for friends, so it just doesn’t seem to fit – to me anyway.
But the biggest reason is yet to come. I’ve been asked to get involved with some online ventures (more to come on them later) that I would rather devote my “Mac” time to, and my doing so will be a great benefit to users (that’s you) too. So instead of trying to maintain a “business” mindset here, while devoting time to the other stuff, this space is going to become more of a personal outlet, remaining Mac specific (naturally), since that’s what I’m passionate about.
Rest easy that all links & email addresses will continue to work well into the future, as the ‘jimmitchelldesigns.com’ domain is not set to expire for almost a year. The change will be gradual, and barely noticeable.
Change is good. So here’s to what’s coming up! (Exciting stuff, guaranteed…)
Almost as Good as New
All of my newly ordered iBook replacement goodies showed up via UPS today, and it was like Christmas all over again.
I use my trusty “Little White” just about every day. In fact, I can only recall a handful of times that I didn’t use it on a given day in the last two years that I’ve owned it. And in that time, it’s never once given me any kind of trouble. So as a reward to it (and myself), I picked up a new keyboard assembly. The old one was just a little worn, as you can see from this image…
Once the lettering on the keys started coming off, Little White just didn’t seem as new anymore. Now that I have a fresh keyboard, it feels almost as good as the day I first bought it. Very nice.
I also picked up a 1GB SO DIMM to replace the 512MB module I’d originally installed. 512MB always did me pretty good, but now that I’ve nearly doubled my memory, I can definitely feel the difference. Bottom line – more RAM, better performance. (duh).
In addition to that, I picked up a NewerTech 4800mAh high capacity battery, which is supposed to give me an additional 30% amount of time over the stock battery. The old one was at 65% capacity with 302 load cycles and would only last a couple of hours without having to be charged, so it was time to replace it.
Finally, I snagged a Seagate 120GB internal HD to replace the nearly full 60GB stock drive. Unfortunately, I didn’t think far enough ahead, and will have to pick up a foot replacement kit for when I crack the case open to install the drive. I’ll order it tomorrow, and should have the part sometime next week. Then I’ll be able to clone the old drive using SuperDuper! (my favorite clone app), pop out the old, drop in the new, clone my system back and everything is done.
And to think, I was considering retiring Little White and buying a Dell instead… Shame on me!
Booked To Speak Again
I’ve been lined up to do a seminar at the MacGathering and SoHo Tech Show again this year, which runs May 19th & 20th at the Beverly Garland Holiday Inn in Studio City, CA. I’ll be presenting my “Mac Tuneup” talk for users who are not technically minded, and prefer to stay that way. Simple, effective maintenance – presented in a simple, effective way.
If you’re a SoCal resident, and Mac user (duh), this show is for you. There will be lots of cool vendors to speak with, as well as great seminars that cover the gamut of all things Mac. I had a ball as a speaker for the first time last year, and plan to have even more fun this time around. Seriously… Consider coming out to join in the fun if you can.
Has This Happened to You?
If you’re an iBook G4 owner, I’d like to know if this has happened to you too. You can see from the image below that I’ve developed a nasty crack in the palm rest of my trusty “little white” iBook 14″. This crack is NOT from dropping it (before one of you makes that comment). Rather, it is a stress fracture that has grown over the last few months, I presume from the fact that I rest my left wrist at just that spot.
I’ve looked high and low for a replacement part online. I came across one once, but lost the link or forgot to bookmark it. Either way, I’m curious to know if any readers have had the same problem & how did you take care of it? Did you replace the palm rest yourself, or have an authorized repair shop do it for you? Or did you break out a tube of super glue & do a patch job on your own? What were the results? Better yet, were you able to find the part online and know where I can get my hands on it?
The crack is starting to bug me now, as it looks pretty ugly. Plus, I’m worried that the whole corner is going to come off eventually. I’m going to be revamping trusty “little white” this week (bigger hard drive, max the ram, new battery & replacement keyboard) and wouldn’t mind fixing this as part of it.
Technorati Tags: iBook
Cache Out X 4.7.2 Released
It’s been a while coming, but I finally got off my back side and wrapped up development on Cache Out X. It’s available for download over at NoName Scriptware. Go grab yours here.
This version addresses the following issues:
- Built as a Universal Binary for Intel machines
- Fixed a bug that prevented the secure removal of internet related files
- Changed user domain cache cleaning to no longer require authentication
- Added methods to remove invalid keychain entries for the application
- Several other under-the-hood code optimizations
Yasu 1.3.6 Released for Intel Based Macs
Just a quick (not “quit” if you’re one of the lucky ones to get a message through the mailing list – don’t rag on me about it. I was in a hurry…) note to say that Yasu 1.3.6 has been released today as a Universal Binary to run natively on Intel based Macs. No other changes were made, so if you’re using a PPC chipped machine, there’s no need to update, unless you’re like me and HAVE to have the latest release, no matter what.
Pop on over to the Yasu page and get yours if you need/want it.
That’s it. Gotta get on the road to the office.
