TheJoe gets a Unibody 17″ MacBook Pro… Twice
Let me start by saying, “I did not NEED to upgrade my laptop”. I did so because I promised Andrew that when certain things happened, that he would get my late 2008 17″ MacBook Pro. Those things occurred and I made good on my promise. So, I had to get a new computer. This is where the adventure begins.
After some hiccups at the Santa Monica Apple store (idiot clerk and manager), I have a unibody MacBook Pro 17″ with the Anti-Glare (matte) option in hand and take it home. It sits on the shelf for a couple of days while I get the stuff that I normally add to my MacBooks when I buy them. Palmguard, keyboard protector, etc. (this took an act of congress because everyone was out of stock and I had to order it all) Read more
My Switch from World of Warcraft to VMWare Fusion
I found out that VMWare is doing a contest to win a Macbook Air. You need to post a video to YouTube with the tag ‘switchtofusion‘. I decided to do an entry a while ago. However, I have been busy with a lot of different things and was unable to do the wonderful video ’showing off’ what VMWare can do. I am a VMWare NUT, and I LOVE Fusion even more. (It was one of the deciding factors in my going Mac)
In it’s stead, I decided to throw together a quick video of why I switched from World of Warcraft to VMWare Fusion. (I know, I know.. it’s not the same type of app. I just thought it would be fun) Enjoy:
Anyways, I do want to say that I have been a virtualization user for quite some time. From the very early days of VMWare (geez, what years ago). I have tried Parallels, Virtual PC, and a host of others. I have not found anything to work quite as well as VMWare does. I use all of their products, Fusion, GSX/ESX, Server, and Workstation.
I was really happy when they came out with a Mac version, VMWare Fusion. It was very instrumental in my switching over to the Mac platform. I have to say, that I am quite pleased with how it runs. I really like the Unity interface. (See my MacVista post in this blog) I love the seamless integration. It just plain ROCKS!
OK OK, I’ll stop raving about it, I just wanted to share all of this with you.
GO BUY VMWare Fusion! If you don’t have a Mac, GO BUY A MAC, THEN BUY VMWare Fusion! 
See more about switching to fusion: http://www.vmware.com/switchtofusion/
Macbook Pro 500 Gig HD Install
I went and did it. I put the 500 Gig Hitachi drive I got today into my Macbook Pro. I shot video of the whole thing. I shot video of the 320 Gig install, but since I got the 500 so shortly after, I just decided to do the one.
Here it is:
For some odd reason, my camera imports are acting up. It took 4 or so imports to get most of what you see in the video. As you can see, certain sections of the video there is jitter, I did the best I could. I was planning on doing a time-lapse of the rebuild, but it was just unusable. So, I added a text ending instead. I hope you like it!
One note on the drive. This drive is 12.5mm vs the 9.5mm most 2.5″ drives are. From my understanding, the Macbook Pro 17″ is the only Macbook that this drive will fit inside.
Anyways, this time I did a Time Machine restore to the drive once installed, and it went flawlessly.
It’s a nice drive, I did the video you see on the Macbook Pro with the new drive in it.
As usual, we plan on referencing our videos on the Techno Chubby Site when it gets up and running.
Good Stuff!
AHHH! There’s a 500GB 2.5″ Drive out there!
I just finish installing the Western Digital 320GB Drive in my MacBook Pro. Get everything installed and OH SNAP! I find a 500GB Hitachi 2.5″ Drive.
Well, needless to say, I am a space whore. So, I ordered one from Other World Computing. I did the Express overnight. I ordered it yesterday morning, and today, it’s sitting on my desk. It’s slightly larger than the regular 2.5″ drives. It’s 12.5mm vs th 9.5mm height that most 2.5’s are. However, I have done some research and it looks like it will go into a MacBook Pro 17″ with no issues. I guess we’ll find out.
I am going to install it soon. I’ll let you know how it all goes.
Here’s the link to what I got: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Hitachi/0A53487/
MacBook Pro 320GB Hard Drive Upgrade
I spent part of my afternoon today upgrading my Macbook Pro’s Hard Drive to 320 Gigabyte from the 200 that was in it originally. Boy, does Apple pack some stuff in the space.
Anyways, I took video of the whole deal. I’ll be working on it at some point this week and get it up on YouTube. It was fairly painless.
After the install, I just did a fresh install from the Leopard disks that came with the system. When it got to the point when it asks if I want to restore an account. I just inserted the old drive in my trusty Thermaltake BlacX and it found all my settings and went to town. It even transferred my VM’s with no issues.
Great stuff!
MacVista – Mac on top, Vista on the bottom
I have almost got my new MacBook Pro set up the way I like it. I have VMWare installed with Vista 32 in a VM. I run vista in Unity mode which allows the windows applications to seem directly integrated into the OS X desktop.
I call it “MacVista – Mac on top, Vista on the bottom.” Plus, I am trying out Skitch, a new screen grabber that looks like it has promise.
Now all I need is some sort of Unity mode for Linux in a VM and I can call my machine MacVistux lol.
Wha Hoo! MacBook Pro
So, we’re back from the Apple store. I returned the MacBook Air and got the MacBook Pro. 17 inch jobby at 1920×1200 resolution and 200 Gig 7200 RPM hard drive. It’s got 2 Gigabytes of Ram but I have some good ol’ 4 GB corsair memory that I can pop in it.
We’ll be shooting the video today on the un-boxing and some video of our current set-up.
Thanks to Heather and Jared at the Apple Store!
