Nerve-wracking

While scanning the evening’s RSS feeds, I noticed a story in El Reg about a security update for Quicktime. Naturally I ran Software Update… to see if the patch was ready to instal. ((“Install” in the US, “Instal” in the UK.)) It was, so I downloaded it, answered the relevant questions, and was surprised when it told me that a reboot was necessary. “But it’s an application; why would… oh, never mind.” So I rebooted. A message appeared, saying that something was being installed, and then the screen went black.
Odd. Press Enter. Check screen brightness. Listen to fan. Nothing. Press the power button. Nothing. Hold down the power button. Nothing. Press the power button. The fan comes on, and I can hear the disk spinning up, but otherwise nothing. Hold down power button again, fan stops. Nothing. Change batteries. Nothing. Insert bootable DVD, try to boot off it. Nothing. Try to eject DVD. Nothing.
Hmm. I’m now starting to speculate on the price and availability of a new MacBook Pro. Down, boy! Try zapping PRAM (booting with cmd-opt-P-R). Nothing. Unplug power, try booting on battery. Nothing.
Log in on second ((Of many…)) computer. Go to Apple.com. Resist temptation to check online store, head over to Support. Double-check procedure for zapping PRAM. See link to page for Resetting PowerBook and iBook Power Management Unit (PMU). The description suggests that this is the Last Chance Saloon. So I try it:

  1. If the computer is on, turn it off.
  2. Disconnect the AC Adapter and remove the computer’s battery.
  3. Press and hold down the power button for 5 seconds and then release the button.
  4. Reconnect the battery and AC Adapter.
  5. Press the Power button to restart the computer.

Follow the instructions. No sounds, no lights, no feedback of any kind. ((Computers need blinking lights!!)) Finally press Power, and the system starts up. Whew! Log in. The poor beast has forgotten many things: the clock is set to January 1, 1969; I have to re-enter the WiFi key… no matter. It’s back.
Just for the record, the optimum MacBook configuration would be $2,067 and the MacBook Pro would be $3,048. ((Amazon has cheaper but slower configurations; I think Apple is holding back the 7200 rpm disk units for itself.)) Both available by 12/24.
And yes, Quicktime works OK.

"Life On Mars", season 2

Finally! The US broadcast of the second season of Life On Mars started this evening. I’ve watched the first episode, and it’s as compelling as ever. Now if they could just release season 1 on DVD over here… ((There was a review of the new season in today’s San Jose Mercury News, which I’m testing on my Kindle, and the writer got me all excited by stating that the season 1 DVD was “readily available”. Well, yes, if you have a DVD player that takes Region 2 discs, and you order it from the UK. I’d rather have a kosher Region 1 copy.))

Secularism before democracy, please

Peter Watson’s piece in today’s Times – Here’s an improvement on democracy – has a lousy title but is spot-on otherwise:

The inconvenient truth is that the West should be exporting secularism around the world before it exports democracy. Democracy implies not just one person one vote but – no less important – that the political process proceeds by rational means, by argument, by persuasion, and is based on knowledge that is as objective, as scientific, as one can make it. The objective knowledge has to come first.

In other words, secularism is a necessary precondition for effective democracy. Without it, nascent democracies rarely survive.

An exception?

Regular readers will know that I’m a pretty hard-core atheist. It’s not just that I disbelieve in god; I find the whole concept of god incoherent.
However, having observed the rituals and manifestation associated with this particular deity, I might be persuaded to make an exception:

Cricket pads look rather good on an elephant, don’t you think?
😉 🙂 😉

heading home early

I’m just about to board my flight home from SFO to SEA. I got to the airport early, added myself to the standby list for an earlier flight, and it came up trumps – window seat, exit row. Sweet.
I had a great weekend, took lots of photos, saw lots of friends, and made some new ones. More details when I have access to my computer. (I’m composing this on my iPhone.)