Peppermint's desktop these days...

Peppermint is getting Burnt

*bleah*

Cleaning the Keyboard Cover...

Peppermint has a lot of accessories adorning her beautiful body, one of them is a cover for her keyboard to enable a smoother typing as well as spill-proofing her.

Over time, this plastic piece of "clothing" became dusty and icky to type with. After a few failed attempts of cleaning with tissue, tissue with water, tissue with alcohol, dry cloth, wet cloth, plus alot of "air-blown" effect to get rid of the dust, finally I cannot take the dust anymore, I gave the keyboard cover a bath...



And guess what? I forgot all about it! ha ha ha, next morning when I took it out, thankfully its still in one piece, perfectly cleaned!

Ha ha, so it works! Next time it feels icky again, I'm so going to give it another bubble bath! ;)

The Scare of my Academic Career

As with every career, especially those which you are going to see the end of the project, there are usually some "excitement". Mine is no different.

Just in the last few days, there was an active discussion among those in the community about how postgrads have "displacement activities" as Alvin calls it. Most were to describe how different individuals would be extremely productive in all other aspects of their lives EXCEPT for that ONE thing they had to do, that is their thesis! ha ha ha

Today, I noticed that my main harddisk space is dropping very quickly (HD is partitioned for Applications and another for DaTa). So I happily backedup my photos, music etc, deleted those music files that I hardly listen to.

NEVER for ONE single moment did I actually think of backingup my OWN research data which I've been working on for the past few years.... (my last backup was 1month back). I'm not sure why I'm so careless!

After happily deleting most of the files, I started to work on some of my data until 2pm when hunger pangs took control over my body, I had to run some errands during lunch, so I put Peppermint to sleep and went off.

When I returned, I was shocked beyond words.... imagine if someone just took away 4yrs of your research, analysis without your knowledge, you did not even get to say goodbye....

I have absolutely NO idea where my DaTA drive went!????

*panic*

(quickly open my trash bin... nope, I have diligently emptied my trash as well)

*more panic*

I recall Jr saying that these data are never really "deleted" off your machines, they just get over-written.

Ad is in KL on his way to a meeting... what do I do? I cant possibly wait till 11pm! I called Jr, hanged on to the foreign sounding ringtone.... I guess he's overseas as well, but he's my BEST BEST bet at recovering anything....

Thankfully, Jr picked up my call and Thank God that he was quick-minded to give me some VERY useful instructions in VERY simple steps in addition to his assurances.

OK, here are the steps, just in case anyone needs them, (but pls do YOUR backUP NOW!)

1. shutdown the computer
2. unplug power cable from machine
3. remove battery from machine
4. Do NOT do anything at all to the machine until....

a. you find another Mac (Jr calls it the Happy Mac)
b. download the trial version of SubRosaSoft
(use the trial copy first to check if its "powerful" enough to see the documents that you want to recover before you pay for it)
alternatively, you can use Virtual Mac Lab or Boomerang Data Recovery
(Jr was the BEST, he gave these links to me within mins of my panic phone call, kept me on the line to ensure that I got the steps right...)
c. Close all software on the Happy Mac and just open the data recovery software
d. ensure that both Macs (Peppermint was Sad Mac for a while...) are plugged in with power (so reassemble Sad Mac withOUT turning the power on) If either one runs out of juice during the recovery, it'll be total failure!
e. Find a firewire cable and connect Sad Mac to Happy Mac
f. Power your Sad Mac while holding on to the "T" on the keyboard until you see the Firewire Logo flashing on your Sad Mac's blue background
g. Recovery software will be able to "see" the files that you might have lost on Sad Mac, so copy them out to an external harddisk or to Happy Mac first
h. leave both Happy & Sad Macs alone to do their stuff - to take a pee/coffee break
i. JUMP up and Down in joy if you can "see" & recover ALL your files, if not, try another software.

I got lucky, I could see my Data Drive on Peppermint without the recovery software's assistance.

YEP, I backed up and backed up and backed up like mad.

And after the backing up exercise, I had to sit around to physically, emotionally recover from the shock, when that wasnt enough, I headed out for Retail Therapy to "remove the cache" from my system... ha ha ha

I must admit I got a pretty nice dress :P

Once again, thank you to Jr for his calm, collected assistance and patience, he makes a great instructor in a crisis anytime.

(some of you might be wondering hey where's Ad in all this action? later I found out that the sms never got to him... *sigh*)

Best Recycling Effort ever!

Initially, I was hesitant about keeping my "jumbo" Sony 17" monitor around after we gave away its CPU. I was hoping for more desk space to spread my numerous documents, logbook, files, books etc.

BUT the moment that I started using it, I totally changed my mind about it! (Thank You Darling for making it happen!) Yah, Ad was the one who kept telling me to try it...

So what did we do? Check it out:

Window-fied Peppermint

Peppermint is adapting well to her new OS sitting on a partitioned harddisk (10Gb) which was already sufficient to run some of the heavy duty softwares which I had to install to do some of my research analysis.

Peppermint truly surprised me with her versatility of adopting a new OS without any hinges.

I kept the Windows program on via VMware Fusion program on my desktop for the past week with frequent usage, switching between the Mac & Windows platform seamlessly.

Impressive, this experience has debunked all the previous myths of hanging, bugs etc....

Peppermint Rocks!

Missing Peppermint

I ventured to school today without Peppermint thinking that I WILL have enough work to fill up my time....

But there were a few instances when I HAVE to use a PC and it felt weird, like I'm betraying Peppermint by not using her.

Like I'm without something close to me, felt so strange to be without Peppermint....

Like when you leave the house without your mobile phone or wallet...

Eeks, do I have Peppermint withdrawal syndrome??

Peppermint is Window-fied

Am delighted to see that Peppermint is doing well with a duo system running off her 160Gb hardisk.

Am forced to install windows on my beloved Peppermint by circumstances.

But very pleased that Peppermint is handling all the changes well as if its just another software that is running off her.

*applause* to the Mac!

Peppermint in Heat

These days, Peppermint seems to be in heat. She's always hot down under and I'm not even running alot of softwares on her!

Even when she's asleep, she's HOT!

So strange.

I read somewhere that battery life is not shortened by the number of charging cycles rather is the amount of heat that is generated on the machine throughout its lifespan and that itself will weaken the battery architecture....


HOW??? Peppermint is barely 1 yr old! She's going to celebrate her first birthday next month!

hmm.... shall we throw her a party? would be fun to get all the Macs for a get together...hee....

Peppermint Celebrates NDP!

Yeah, aint it great to be seeing happy colors flooding the nation?

Peppermint also joined in the Dress in Red celebrations for our country!





its a slip in cover which give Peppermint enough space to plug in all the additional wires/power/discs and allow air ventilation through her ass. The trackpad is nicely covered by the skin to expose the exact space, gotta click through the leather padding though, a little not used to it, but I'm sure I'll be fine soon.

This cover was designed specifically for the MacBooks, hence it fits snuggly with any MacBooks. I was skeptical about having problems putting Peppermint to sleep properly as the magnetic catch may not work through the leather, however, as the sales girl has "advertised" this cover, I had no problems with it!

Cool!

Auto Audio

I din know that the audio selection on Peppermint is Automatic!

Audio settings was put to mute when there is no ear piece/speakers plugged in.

But when I attached a pair of ear phones into the jet, it recognised that there's live audio output and turns on the "sound" for me at the previous settings.

So cool!

Peppermint got new cloths!

Finally after months of resisting, Peppermint got new keyboard skin, its transparent, see-through kind. At least I would be able to see the LED for number lock & caps lock unlike the black skin for the black macbook, its non-see through, there maybe just one day that you find that all your password are entered wrongly and you dunno why. ha ha

I have to whack alot harder to type as compared to my PB previously, now with an added lining of rubber, I think I have to use additional 10% of energy, no wonder I'm feeling hungry so frequently these days! ha ha

my trackpad has got a new coat too! now Peppermint feels very plasticky.
the trackpad feels smooth smooth but also have to click harder, training for the strongest thumb competition!

Peppermint is so dressed up now, we are not afraid of spilling food or drinks over her nor getting black marks from hours of usage.

thanks dear for pampering Peppermint and ME :)