Black Bezel for Macbook Air

Hello everyone I’m going to talk about a project I just finished.

Last year, I bought the 13″ Macbook Air (MBA), and though I love it, I was really waiting for the 13″ retina Macbook Pro (rMBP) to be released this year. However once it finally came out, I was a bit disappointed.  Yes, it had a retina display, however even that does not run at native resolution, instead scaling to 1280×800, 1440×900, or 1680×1050.   The MBA runs at native 1440×900, and the 2012 model features similar graphics/processor performance to the new rMBP.

So, I decided that rather then buy the new rMBP, I’d upgrade my MBA to this years model which gives me improved graphics performance, the 720p HD front camera (from VGA, .3 vs 1.3mp), and nearly double SSD speed.  However, one aesthetic feature that I really liked about the MBP line was the black bezel around the screen.

So the DIY’er in me searched the net for a way to make it happen.  I checked a few sites and found  a guy who was selling black bezel stickers.  I sent him a few emails and soon a kit was on its way 😉  Below are the steps I took to apply the sticker 🙂

Quick Tip: Trim memory usage on your Mac

Ok, I’ve been using Lion since it came out and unlike previous OSX versions, this one has occasionally been freezing up and showing me the beach ball often enough that I decided to investigate.

Immediately I realized this problem was tied to running out of memory.  But wait, I have 4GB of memory… how am I running out?

Well with more memory comes more usage… now that lion has so much memory, it tries to run everything as 64-bit processes, rather then the 32bit of yesteryear (or 16bit before that).  To be honest, for my Macbook Air and its’ limited space, 32bit’s of address space was fine.  64 bits is no faster, only allows other systems with more memory/disk space to utilize the extra resources.  Unfortunately this one size fits all design hurts hardware on the lower end of the scale.

Luckily I’m able to explicitly run my two most common apps in 32-bit mode.  Simply show the process in finder, “Get Info”, and check the “Open in 32-bit mode” checkbox.

Fix for virtual hosts in OS X 10.7, Lion Apache Web Server

(*skip down to ‘Now the problem with Lion’ for the quick problem/solution*)

Yesterday I decided to leave Nginx server and go back to Apache for my primary webserver.  Having upgraded to Lion a few weeks ago, I began a fresh setup of apache.  When setting up other parts of Lion, I remember reading about some Apache server problem, but at the time I wasn’t interested in Apache so I didn’t pay them attention.  Well that certainly changed yesterday when I spent half the day reading numerous posts about Lion and its’ inherent problems with Apache.  Because it was such a common problem, I spent most of my time on complex solutions, however it turned out to be quite simple, albiet a little non-intuitive.

A Reminder That We’re Only as Old as we Think

I had the pleasure of spending my weekend at my brothers house surrounded by great friends and two days of intense sport. We spent sunday playing basketball and afterwards we all chatted about how old we were getting : ) I realized that how I felt wasn’t so much the age, but how long it had been since we played last, yet saying it was “age” was something everyone could agree with and easily understand. Later we talked about success and the importance of “commitment” to goals.

Both of those subjects reminded me of a story in a book I recently read called, “Luck is no Accident.” Since I still have it, I’ll copy the story here in the hopes that it might inspire others.

Mix It Up, Yet Another Reason to Resist Routine ;)

Earlier today, at the gym, I noticed something that I’d like to share.  Typically my visits to the gym are pretty routine and partly just a diversion from my normal chaotic day.  Usually I hit the recline bike, where I can sit down and pass the time with my iphone and always interesting Civilization app (I’ve beaten this game more times that I can count, but always enjoy it).  I stop after nearly to an hour of pedaling, go shower, then spend 10-15mins in the pool taking laps.

Today, things were a bit different.

Compensation vs Contentment

Yesterday I was practicing basketball, partly because I love the sport, and partly because I haven’t played in months but will be playing with a bunch of friends today :).  While shooting, I remembered something I realized long ago, that I do not have much in the way of “natural” basketball traits, in-fact I’m typically the smallest player on the court, and due to an injury as a kid, the cornea of my right eye was scratched, therefore my depth perception is quite poor. The previous effects rebounding, and the later shooting. Both of which are important in a sport like basketball. But, among those I usually play with, i’m typically… in the top 30%. Why is that? Even compared to my brother, who is well suited for basketball, he’s 6′, 210lbs with perfect vision, we match up fairly evenly. The answer is because of a human trait we all have called compensation.

iPhone Setup Guide

I’m here in Bangkok Thailand, and brought an extra iPhone with me. Rather then just give the phone, I wanted to prepare a guide so they would understand the steps I’ve taken to setup it up. Since others might also be interested in understanding Jailbreaking and unlocking as well as a initial dashboard setup, I’ve decided to write and publish the guide here 🙂

Enjoy, -Paul

Stars in Alignment: Last Minute Trip to NYC :)

Ok, so monday I was doing some research at the library when I get a message from a fellow vagabond about a flight deal, this time it was with JetBlue. I walk over to the nearest computer and start looking. The promotion was to celebrate their 10 year anniversary. Any flights on tuesday and wednesday, 10 dollars one-way or 17 roundtrip + taxes/fees. Ok, where to? To maximize the deal, I’d fly out tuesday, and back wednesday. That ruled out long flights like west coast trips. After some thought, I decided on New York City. I hadn’t been there in a while, I wouldn’t need to rent a car, and I wouldn’t spend long on the plane.

Success by Chance?

We are imprisoned by habit, born of: comfort, social norms, repeated behavior, conditioning, and complacency.

Today I thought about two things, one to appreciate what we have at that exact moment, and second to live life to our potential at each moment.

Often we take for granted not only what we have, but also our ability to bring change, our capabilities.  We often function with a day-to-day routine which neither uses the gifts we have, nor expands the boundaries which our daily activities continue to fortify.

Is the point of work to hurry up and retire, or to enjoy life as we live it?

I had a discussion with my brother, Peter, and it got me thinking.  Later when explaining things to Isaac, I could hardly believe how obvious it seemed, yet how programed we have been to resist it.

I learned many things in San Francisco, most jewels coming from my experiences at OneTaste.  One lesson was to follow your desire, especially if you hesitate for some useless reason like social norms, public embarrassment, fear of tarnishing your image, etc.  Those reasons just don’t make real sense, however they provide a “safe” sandbox for us to live our lives in.