The seller kindly sent me a replacement 1GB stick as it looked like one of the RAM slots was faulty. I had been running fine for about 5 months, then last month I did a re-boot after OS X 10.5.5 was released and boom….the mini wouldn’t boot. After spending about 5 days trying to fix it, even trying to reinstall OS X I gave in. It looked like OS X stopped running if there were memory issues.

I installed Ubuntu which worked flawlessly….for 5 days. I’m still running Ubuntu and have to re-boot every 5 or so days as it locks up. Nothing in the logs, it just locks up. I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s something not right hardware wise and cant be fixed.

I’m going to be looking into replacing it, but cant really afford to splash out on another MacMini. I think I’ll be making a new server using an Intel Atom package. I can still run at 1.6 Ghz and its still a small sized motherboard.

Since the Atom integrated motherboards are fairly cheap, I will be able to spend some money on getting system to boot on a solid state drive. I found that you can get 32GB CF Cards, and a CF to SATA drive for under £50 which is great! You can even get duel CF readers, thus giving you a 64GB solid state drive on the cheap!

So heres my spec plan:

1.6Ghz Intel Atom
2GB DDR2 RAM
2x 32GB CF solid drives (using a SATA -> CF adaptor)
A small case (not much bigger than the MacMini case hopefully)
DVD RW +/-

Since I’m off on holiday soon I cant really afford to build this, however when I’m over in the states, I’ll pop into circuit city, Best Buy and a few other places to see if I can get some of the parts….will be much cheaper than buying here!

So, whats been going on? Well the first thing, WebmasterStash had a refurb, and merged with another webmaster community, giving us a much larger array of content in the forums. I decided to close the main site as we simply didn’t have time to add new tutorials, templates and scripts due to work and life commitments. I think we tried biting off more than we could chew with WebmasterStash. Anyway, take a look at the new site (well, forums) and feel free to provide some feedback!

Next up, CLUBdb. This is still a fairly secretive project so I cant go into much detail at the moment. All I can say is that its being backed by a large club in the UK. CLUBdb is to fill a huge void in the market and provide some fantastic features. This probably makes no sense at all due to its secrecy…but don’t worry. It will make plenty of sense soon!

Mike has been working hard at a new Rike script. He started off working on a download manager, much like FMDeluxe (if anyone reading this can remember that far back! :p). However decided that his time would be better spent on a non open-source script, that way it could be marketed and licensed out to other companies. Mike is now working on an e-commerce based script with some fantastic new features that rival some of the best shopping carts out there!

The RikeMedia website will also be making a return soon with a new design and company blog. We will be issuning press releases and updates on projects, plus have sections showing what services and products are offered by the company.

Well I think thats about it for now. I’ll be launching the WSDReg Christmas promotion in the next few days and will be offering some fantastic offers! Be sure to keep your eyes on WSDReg.com for the full details!

They are also giving all existing customers a free year extension on their existing licenses. Great work guys!

Hi,

I’ve got you down as an Advocate for CrossOver, which means that from
time to time, I ask you to advocate on our behalf.  If you don’t want to
be an Advocate, holler back, and I’ll remove you.

However, I have made a grave error in judgment, and I’d like your help
in spreading my apology.  It also creates a great opportunity to
encourage others to try CrossOver.

Specifically, I had no idea when we launched the CodeWeavers Lame Duck
Challenge:
http://lameduck.codeweavers.com
that George Bush would take it so seriously.  And it was truly
remarkable of him to engineer a complete collapse of our financial
industry just to prove he could meet my challenge.  My fault; I had
thought he would try more prudent methods.

However, this does create a great opportunity for you to spread the word
about CrossOver, as tomorrow, anyone can get a fully functioning, fully
supported copy of CrossOver, for free.  Existing customers can get
another year of support, again for free.  It’s a great day for any
CrossOver user, and a great time for anyone to try CrossOver.

I would really appreciate it if you could spread the word.  Tell your
friends and family, post it to your blogs.  We’d really appreciate extra
diggs on our announcement:
http://digg.com/software/CodeWeavers_giving_away_all_software_Tuesday_Oct_28th

But do it quick - it’s one day only, and after tomorrow, the opportunity
is gone.

Thanks, and again, please accept my humble apologies for any harm done
to your retirement savings.

Jeremy White
CEO
CodeWeavers, Inc.

Well Jeremy….you’ve got my vote! Anyone who is prepared to give away a fantastic piece of software for free deserves a pat on the back!

Be sure to digg their post using the link in the above quote.

I’m now a full time student studying Computer Science at the University of Hertfordshire. The best bit is that on my induction interview I was asked “You do know you got a £3,000 scholarship?” to which my reply was “Uh…no….but thank you!” :p

With my little (free) nest egg, I’ll be buying whatever new Apple laptop gets released tonight/tomorrow morning! I’m going to be buying a MacBook Pro to replace my 8 month old MacBook!

So, tomorrow afternoon I will post the unboxing pictures!

(ok, ok….this was a poor excuse for a blog post, but I am getting quite excited at the prospect of finally owning a MacBook Pro!)

I found that to run Windows games or apps I needed to use bootcamp (which results in tedius rebooting to switch between the two operating systems) or Parallels (which is great for apps, but not for games). Another alternative was Crossover. I had used WINE on Linux before and loved it, however knew it had limitations, as did Crossover.

I’ve pretty much stopped playing games on my mac as I’ve got an Xbox 360 however I still have the piles of Windows only games. Well, today I decided to give the new crossover a whirl as well as crossover games and was amazed. I tried a few games (RCT2, Train Simulator and Joint Operations). They all worked flawlessly! What surprized me was that the crossover site said they wouldnt work!

Basically the new crossover release, supports almost anything. I’ve yet to find something that doesnt work! Another fantasic reason why Windows users should get a mac!

For anyone interested in crossover office, check out their site: http://www.codeweavers.com

Alternatively you can try the free WINE app: http://www.winehq.org

If you’ve not yet read Google’s blog post announcing their own Web Browser, click here. Now, I’ve read that many people are not liking this. Sure there’s umpteen browsers out there, do we need another one? Yes, actually we do.

The Google browser is not about Google getting into bigger markets. Its not about power, money or popularity. Its about filling a void which currently no other company has even looked at, let alone attempted to fill.

The new browser promises “Multi-Threading” which allows processes to be managed, much like they are in Activity Monitor (OS X) and Task Manager (Windows). For instance, you can quit processes for javascript, or audio, movies, etc exclusively, allowing the rest of the web-page to function as usual.

This is a browser for cloud computing. Like it or lump it, cloud computing exists, sure its a fancy term for something thats always been around, but thats just how it works.

I’ll post a follow up review once the browser gets released later today. (I’ll be trying to get it running under WINE or Crossover on OS X first )

I’ve now started the mammoth task of moving from one room, to another…why you ask? To fit in 2 brand new desks! I was all prepared to put them in the current room, just about to go and buy them and did a final measurement of where they were going to go….only to find they weren’t going to fit! So I’m now moving to a MUCH bigger room, with lots of space for the desks. I decided whilst I was at it I may as well go all out and get wooden/laminate flooring put in too. So today I’ve gotta get everything out of my room (which is currently pretty cluttered with total crap so its gotta be a good thing!)

So, once I’ve moved in to my new room, I’ll post some pics of the workspace. I know members over at the MacRumors forums love seeing other peoples work spaces (and I have to say, so do I) for inspiration, so that should make a few people happy!

So yeah, that’s about it…I know this post probably wont interest many people, but I’m excited and had to air that excitement somewhere! (Yes, I can be sad :p)

VPSLink have issued me with a coupon to give away to readers of my blog. It will give you 10% off any plan at VPSLink for the lifetime of your account! There’s no limit on the number of people that can use it either!

Simply enter 2SDG38 in the coupon field on the registration form and the 10% discount will be applied.

Alternatively you can just click this link and the code will be entered for you!

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Wont happen again!