Macbook Air Won’t Turn On
Hi -
That’s a bummer. I haven’t seen many dead Macbook Airs. I can stop tomorrow and take a look at it.
Might just need a PMU reset (power management unit). You can even try it now – it’s easy:
1. Turn off the MacBook Air. 2. Connect the power adapter and plug it in. 3. On the LEFT side of the keyboard (Yes, the left side only), hold down Shift, Option and Control. 4. Press the power button. 5. Wait 5 seconds, then release all keys. 6. Push power button to turn your MacBook Air back on. Caution, make sure the MacBook Air is completely shut down before reseting the PMU to avoid damage to your file system.
Let me know if that has any affect at all.
Best,
hunter
On Sep 28, 2010, at 7:47 PM, Liz Costley wrote:
> Hunter, > > Please come as soon as possible to take a look at Luke’s laptop. “It’s dead.” > > Thanks, > > >
The Myth of USB 2.0
USB 2.0 was introduced to replace the limited USB 1.0 interface with something more robust and capable of handling faster data transfers for devices that required it. It was also introduced to combat with Apple’s Firewire-400. USB 2.0 claims to boast transfer speeds of 400Mbps.
Yet I sit here with a brand new HP Pavilion dv6 and a Western Digital MyBook 500GB external hard drive and can only muster 20Mbps. The MyBook is fully USB 2.0 compliant, as are all the ports on the Pavilion. Why would anyone advertise an interface as being capable of transferring data at a maximum speed of 400Mpbs, when I have never seen it – on any system or drive – move much faster than 20Mpbs. That’s a 95% decrease in the purported speed.
Laptop Opinion
Hi Madeline -
Tough question.
The Macs are the best. They last a long time and require the least about of maintenance. They’re worth every cent of the extra $$.
But the cheapest Mac laptop is $950.
Aside from that, all the PCs are the same. The warranties are bad, support is awful, and the software (WIndows) stinks. You can get a PC laptop for as little as $300 – and up depending on the features (webcam, better battery, larger screen, LED display, Bluetooth, extra memory, larger hard drive, less weight, better video, etc). A ‘good’ PC is usually about $700. Compare:
We support PCs every day – and hate them – but everyone can’t be fortunate enough to own a Mac.
hunter
On Sep 7, 2010, at 8:17 AM, Madeline wrote:
> Hey Hunter, > > My daughter Shelley is shopping for a laptop. Do you have any opinions as to which are the best value/most reliable for the (least) money? Thanks. > > BTW, don’t need the MS-Works….let’s just say he’s on his own 
> > Madeline
MS Office/OpenOffice compatibility issues and use
This issue is always going to be a problem.
While the MS Office suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher) is poorly engineered, it remains a global standard. Unfortunately, this makes it very difficult to break from it. It’s also expensive – and not worth the money.
Google Docs is great for sharing documents and providing access to them from multiple locations. It is severely limited with respect to precise formatting.
OpenOffice is a nice suite, if the compatibility issues with MS Office don’t prove to be problematic.
I would also recommend checking out MS Office Web Apps:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/web-apps/office-web-apps-FX101825822.aspx
Microsoft came up with the idea in order to compete with Google’s Web Apps. It’s sort-of free. Free for Personal use – the corporate licensing is ugly because you have to run it on a local server – which defeats the purpose of having a suite that doesn’t require maintenance or hosting.
Anything that can be done in the cloud as well or better than on the desktop is a step in the right direction. We won’t even have operating systems in the immediately future – just web browsers.
hunter
On Sep 3, 2010, at 8:34 AM, Marc wrote:
> re: MS Office software compatibility > > Over this year we will probably have several incidents of software incompatibility between MS Office, and OpenOffice. > > OpenOffice is the free Office suite alternative to MS Office. We’ve installed it on all new pc’s over the past 1.5 year. All of buffalo uses this. Future sites will be using something like this. About 15% of our computers now use this. > > Mostly the software is compatible, and readily usable…most of the menus are identical, and one can pick up the other in moments. > > However, MS Office 2007 documnets can be opened in OpenOffice, but not saved in OpenOffice. Some formatting features don’t readily transfer. MSOffice now has a 2010 suite. A few issues have been reported to me over the past year. > > Over this year we should consider what to transition to. > > I recommend exploring 2 options: > a: Google Docs. this has great usage for shared documents, as well as documents that one uses for preparing classes, etc. This has lots of uses. And, it has the advantage of automatically saving the documents online > > b. OpenOffice. Free, Widely used. 99% compatible w/ MS Office. Even most of the formula in it’s spreadsheets are identical. This would be for local computer use, and sharing. Google docs saves in this format. Lotus Symphony saves in this format as well. > > > Meanwhile, to minimize compatibility issues, I recommend that staff with MS Office 2007 save documents in 2003 format. I could email folks to do that. > > What are your thoughts? > > Marc
Mike, Williamstown
Posted by webadmin@brainspiral.com on September 27, 2010 · Leave a Comment
Hunter, I wanted you to know that Jackie did a great job the other day, and thank you for following up so quickly on my initial request. It’s good knowing you folks are in town!
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Regarding: Mac OS 10.6 System Optimizations; Compatibility checks with
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