Computers

Monolingual: Delete unused language packs on your Mac.

I personally use only one language on my Mac computers, English. Unless you’re multi-lingual or unless you’re like Judie and plan on taking up another language, chances are you only need one language on your computer as well. The Mac comes preinstalled with several language packs. These packs includes fonts, and other things which all take up hard drive space. That’s where Monolingual comes in. Monolingual is a free application (donations are accepted) which allows you to selectively remove any language pack from your Mac that you choose.

Gear Bits

Giving the 17″ MacBook Pro Laptop a Try

I’ve been greatly enjoying the HP dv6 that I recently upgraded to Windows 7, and that got me wondering about Snow Leopard (OSX 10.6). Dan was evil kind enough to send me a link to the latest Apple refurb sales last week, and I couldn’t help myself…after perusing the wares, I bit.

Reviews

The HP Pavilion dv2-1199us Laptop Reviewed

photos by Kevin As many of you know, two different MacBook Airs in a row have performed as my main computer for over a year. I can get away with using what others have called an “oversized netbook” because I don’t do a lot of processor-intensive computing beyond basic video and photo editing, and much of what I do can be done “in the cloud.” I would be lying if I didn’t say that part of the Mac’s attraction for me has always been hardware based. From the first time I laid eyes on Mitchell’s MacBook Pro, I knew it…

How to Do It Yourself!

My Dell Mini 9 Hackintosh – The Installation

This is Part One in a series about my journey with my new Dell Mini 9 into Hacktinosh territory…I’ll be talking about my installation process, my impressions of the Mini as a Mac netbook, performance, software, and more. I was pretty early to jump on the netbook bandwagon. When I saw the original 7″ Asus Eee PC for the first time, I knew that I had to have it. I had been lusting after computers like the Sony Picturebook for a long time–something that could fit in my purse and go with me everywhere! As a writer, having a full…

Reviews

Unboxing the HP Pavilion dv2-1199us Laptop

HP and Microsoft sent me an HP Pavilion dv2-1199us Entertainment PC to try out. Once I got past the fact that the model number is a mouthful, I couldn’t help but notice how lovely this moonlight white computer is – both in appearance and specifications. The exterior is described as a “magnesium-aluminum-alloy case in a white imprint finish,” but that barely describes it; the look is stunning. The touch pad is a mirrored surface, and it runs Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 (64-bit). The dv2 has a bunch of bells and whistles…both in the hardware and in…

How to Do It Yourself!

Take Control of Time Machine

I’m a Apple fanboy through and through. This I admit freely. But I’m also man enough to admit that not everything Apple does is perfect. Time Machine, Apple’s default back up program, is one of those not so perfect things. My biggest problem with Time Machine is the inability to customize just when Time Machine backs up. The only time management setting offered by Time Machine is on or off. When it’s on it backs up everything on your Mac, every hour. I find this to be a major nuisance as it seems my iMac is always backing itself up and it’s…

Reviews

Mercury Elite-AL Pro Qx2 Storage Array Review

If your drive goes south, without backup storage and some type of backup strategy, you could be in a world of hurt. Everyone here at Gear Diary knows what that means… We’ve had a couple of server issues over the past few years that have caused all of us some major pain. Enter the Elite-AL Pro Qz2. It’s a RAID drive system and backup device that will accommodate up to 8TB (yes… that’s 8 TERABYTES) of data in a single drive array. Let’s take a look and see how it does with both Windows and Mac systems. The Elite-AL Pro…

Reviews

Blue Icicle XLR-USB Interface Review

Blue has been making microphones for a while now but this is their first adapter. This adapter takes any microphone with an XLR connector and converts it to a USB connector making it possible to record high quality audio through your computer.

How to Do It Yourself!

Blowing in the Breeze Part 2 – OSX 10.5.6 & the MSI Wind

Before I get started, I wanted to say special thanks go out to Dan Cohen, who stayed up with me until 3am Eastern/2am Central working on the Flash drive needed to get this all done. So… OSX 10.5.6 and the MSI Wind… Yah ok… maybe not so much. Quick update – I’ve got OSX installed on my Wind (calling it miniMBP); and I’ve learned some interesting things as of this morning. 1. I can still survive and be human on as little as 2.5 hours of sleep as long as there’s good, strong coffee around…somewhere. 2. You have to find…

How to Do It Yourself!

The Creation of a Hackintosh

(Note- This post is done in order to share my experience creating a Hackintosh. It is not intended to recommend or encourage similar hacks. Gear Diary neither recommends, nor takes any liability, if you choose to do the same.) I’ve been through the whole UMPC thing from the start. I had a TabletKiosk UMPC the day they were shipped. I had a Samsung Q1P, Q1Ultra, Q1Ultra Premium and a Sony UX 280P in rapid succession. I loved the whole UMPC concept but none of the machines ever fit the bill quite well enough for me. Each was either returned or,…

Editorials

Is 64bit Vista Ready for Prime Time?

There’s been a big push by Microsoft to get everyone to cross over to the 64bit version of Vista. Are you and your hardware ready for it? I’ve got a MacBook Pro. I purchased the notebook in December of 2006. It’s the low end unit, with a 2.16 GHz C2D processor, 4GB of RAM (yes, Leopard will see and use all 4GB of RAM, despite what you might think, or are told), and a 120GB hard drive. It’s not a bad unit; and has treated me well in the almost 20 months that I’ve been using it. The biggest problem…

Reviews

The Toshiba Qosmio Review: Better, Stronger, Faster Than Anything You Have Seen Before

[Note: This is the second part of my look at the Toshiba Qosmio. For my unboxing and initial impressions, take a look at Part 1] When I first started looking at the Qosmio laptop, I thought I was going to have a panic attack. There were just so many different features here. How was I possibly going to discuss them all? Was I in over my head? In fact, I came close to wondering whether I should have asked for it at all. Yikes! Talk about a crisis of confidence. Luckily, I had a chance to discuss this with Judie,…

Reviews

The Toshiba Tecra M8 Laptop Computer Review

For the last month or so, I have known that this would be a very hard review to write. Not because of the subject matter, but because once the review is finished I’ll no longer have an excuse to keep “my” Toshiba Tecra M8 loaner. Ah well, the deadline has come and gone (eep!) and I can’t procrastinate any longer…so let’s jump right in. Toshiba has different lines of laptops designed to meet different people’s needs: Satellite, Qosimo, Tecra, and Portégé. Satellite are listed as “Laptop PCs with all the new mobile technologies at affordable prices;” Qosimos as “Entertainment media…

Reviews

The Kohjinsha SA1-1 Ultra Portable Laptop Review

Back in 1991, when the HP 95LX was my daily driver, I used to anticipate the day when handhelds would have color displays and be even closer to the laptop computers which they seemed to emulate. When color displays became available, I looked forward to the time when these handhelds would have more memory, better battery life, better connectivity, and a faster processor. As each item on my wish list was ticked off, I finally decided that what I might have wanted all along was a more robust operating system; a true mini PC. Now it’s 2007, and UMPCs are…

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