6. May 2008 by Winn Schwartau.

Troubleshooting the Mac Clone Right Out of the Box

Remember, no manual. No instructions… and this is for Ma & Pa? Not a good start, gang. PsyStar… think about this please.

Power down. Power on. Push DVD button. Insert video driver CD. Guessing here.
Still nothing. Look on rear. Aha! Second VGA connector. Try that one. (No manual…) Got a screen! Disk Boot Failure. Remove VGA disk. Power down-up. Boot failure. Asking for System Disk. Put in OS X Install disk. Power up-down. The “Press Enter” instruction does not work.

System Disk failure again, with OS X install disk. This sucks so far. Especially for Ma & Pa. Try roboot with F2 for BIOS. Nothing. Boot disk failure.

Damn. Will get back to you.

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

6. May 2008 by Winn Schwartau.

Pretending to be a n00b…

Hey… there is nothing wrong with n00bs. 95% of the population of computer users are n00bs and should largely remain so. Computers for most of humanity should be useful tools… appliances… and most folks want them to do one or two or three things well. I am a n00b on cars; I can fill the tank with gas. That’s it. There are three state and one federal court orders against me ever using a screwdriver or a hammer. I call 911 to change a light bulb. I am most definitely a n00b.

So, n00bs unite! This review is for you… if the Mac Clone is all it’s supposed to be, it could make a lot of folks’ lives a whole hell of a lot easier and cheaper than buying dedicated Apple hardware.

Hey Apple! No offense; I own a lot of your stuff and like it. I buy it from your refurb store and save a ton. But face it, your stuff is expensive… and when up against a $399 HP (even though it might be total crap and underpowered and using ugh Vista) a $1200 Mac doesn’t come close in the minds of consumers today. Ma & Pa live at Best Buy not Apple stores.

Ergo: if the Mac Clone Experiment is successful, OS X on commodity hardware could be a boon for everyone – and the national security of this and other countries. (We’ll get to that.)

PLUG IT TOGETHER:
I plugged in the wireless mouse & keyboard into a USB on the rear along with a standard VGA monitor. I did not use the VGA-DVI adapter as I tend to believe that Ma & Pa on a budget are going to get a cheap 15” monitor for $79 instead of the $1995 Apple monitor. But that’s just me.

Plug in power. Power on.

Blue power light on. Hum. Whirr. Nothing on monitor. No hourglass icon. Nothing telling me to wait. Now what?

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

6. May 2008 by Winn Schwartau.

My Mac Clone got here. Cool. Remember, I am doing my Mac Clone Experiment as though I was a total n00b. My interest is in how Ma & Pa will deal with this new machine. Comments always welcome, but keep in mind who I am doing this for.
The box. Upon opening, the Mac Clone was not wrapped in plastic. It was merely shoved into peanuts. Not my first choice. Then there was the anti-static bag. Nothing else. No instructions. Fair enough.

Inside the anti-static bag are a power cable, a VGA-DVI video adapter, a couple of drive ribbon cables and Intel and video card manuals and disks.

This reminds me of the days when we bought our machines from local PC shops or built our own. Lots of disks and manuals. I had a minor freak here… but reminded myself this is an Experiment.

My contribution, which is all I should need (theoretically) is a mouse & keyboard, wirelessly connected via USB, a generic 15” LCD monitor and OS X Leopard master disks. (Yes, Mr. Jobs, I am breaking the EULA. But it is a dumb EULA and besides, this is for Educational purposes only.) ☺

My problem for Ma & Pa is now… “What do I do? Where are the instructions? Where’s the keyboard? The mouse? Oh, dear, what do I do now?” And the Mac Clone sits idly by as a doorstop until a neighborhood teen shows up to help.
Technically we call this, “A Bad Thing.”
- No manual
- No “Here are the parts you should have”.
- No quick set up guide
- No slow set up guide.
- No nada.

Since I know what to do, it’s time to wire it up.

Posted in Mac Experiment | No Comments »