Luke Sheldrick's Blog

I bought a MacMini the other day to replace my old nettop at home. Until I get the new storage for it, I figured I’d quickly setup a LUN on my NAS for it. It seems OS X, even Lion, still doesn’t include an iSCSI initiator (wtf, really?). Anyway the typical freebie that you’d use on Leopard/Snow Leopard was GlobalSAN’s free initiator. However seems that as of version 5, it’s not a freebie.

I gave it a try, and went through their process (read giving them my details twice – once to download, then again to get a trial key)… tried it out, and didn’t rate it. So using their provided uninstall script I see the below:

WTF is that all about? Their uninstaller is trying to delet / . .. /sbin ..etc, someone really hasn’t QA’ed their code.

Have emailed them to see what they say about it. Poor show.

“The Cellular network you are using is not encrypted. This call can be intercepted by unauthorized listeners”

Running the first iOS 5 beta on my iPhone 4. Got this come up when I received a call this afternoon.

Apple looking to put in end-to-end encryption of calls?

I was browsing around the Covent Garden Apple store the other day, as I needed to get a new SuperDrive for my MacBook Air (MBA), as I’d cleverly managed to throw my other one out when I was having a clear out the other day.

I’d always been interested in the new Apple TV (ATV) , but never got one, as I have XBMC setup at home. On a nettop in the bedroom connected to my LCD, and actually on an original Xbox in the front room, so didn’t see the need. A few friends have total Apple houses (iMacs, Macbooks, iPads, iPhones, TVs, you name it, they have it)… they’re all very nice and all, but I never really felt the need to have the ATV.

Until, in the pub the other evening, a friend at work mentioned he’d bought one, odd I thought as he’s not the usual Apple fanboy. He explained that he’d bought one, jailbroken it, and installed XBMC.

I’d been battling with the Nvidia ION drivers on my nettop, so HD content wasn’t perfect. So when I was shopping, the impulse in me took over, and one was bought.

Jailbreaking was fun. Seas0nPass doesn’t work if you have FileVault turned on, which I do. Creating a new user on the MBA, and making the IPSW on that user (without FileVault enabled). Then the way the ATV is constructed makes it somewhat difficult to plug the HDMI and MicroUSB cable in at the same time. On reflection, I think this is on purpose, as you don’t really need to. I was then getting 1602 errors in iTunes when restoring the custom IPSW, later turns out, you can’t have the power and USB connected. Restoring with just the USB cable connected did the trick. Seas0npass is currently tethered only, so anytime I power off the ATV, I have to connect to the Mac. Not a huge issue, as don’t plan on turning off too often, and have set it not to power off.

Once jailbroken with seas0npass, installing XBMC was easy, and setup in a few minutes. Have it playing full HD content from my NAS. The remote, optical out, and HDMI resolution alll work flawlessly.

The other nice feature is AirPlay, so I can stream the media from my MBA or iPhone 4. I would have been able to from my iPad too, but I sold that as hadn’t used it a single time since getting the MBA.

Overall am really impressed with the ATV2, for the price of it, it’s a stunning piece of kit.

Again let down by Apple. They cocked up the first repair (see previous blog) but apparently the part would be in on Tuesday, fixed, they’d call me and couriered to me for Wednesday. Well today is Wednesday, no call, no laptop, no biscuit.

Called up the store, and they said they would look into it and get it repaired. Hmm would they have repaired it if I hadn’t called? me thinks not, even though apparently a ‘Second Repair’ has priority. Later this afternoon, the store called me back, saying it had been fixed, would need to be tested tomorrow, and then shipped out, for delivery that evening. When I asked the ‘Genius’ to check the address, he correctly identified it was my work address, and couldn’t see a problem of it being delivered in the evening. Anyways.

He also said the squeaky hinge problem was not covered under the warranty, and there would be a charge normally, but as I asked for this to be repaired at the same time as the back being fixed, they would do it for free. Hmm this is interesting, as I have never mentioned a squeaky hinge, didn’t know it had one to be honest.

I am thinking these ‘Genius’s would fail an interview for McDonalds at this rate.

Saga continues… maybe on Monday they will launch a Genius v2 rather than a 3g iPhone… that would be nice

Pft. I retract my last blog entry regarding my MacBook.

You know I said it would be fixed next day, well the Apple Store called me this morning saying that it had been repaired, only 4 days late. I thought well, wasn’t really a huge problem.

Got up a couple of hours early (am on the night-shift at the moment, so sleep during the day), and thought I would take a detor on the drive to work, via Bluewater.

Got to the store, and had to wait about 15 minutes for someone to ackowledge I was there (the two people in the Genius bar were clearly too busy with their iPhones). Anyways a nice lady genius took my details, and presented me with my ‘fixed’ MacBook.

Well fixed, as in half-fixed. They had only changed half the case, so I still had cracks all over the bottom half. When I pointed this out, the genius said they had just carried out what I asked for. When I said all I said was here is my mac, fix it please, I didn’t specifiy what part of the case. I also pointed out that it said on the repair receipt to replace all panels. Grrrr, see seems quite nice about it all, but still the point is they cocked up.

She said she would need to take it back in for a 2nd repair, but they didn’t have the parts in stock, and don’t get a delivery until Tuesday. woop!

Naturally not happy at this point, as it’s quite a drive their from my house, and it’s always pissed me off that I bought the mac online, yet they don’t seem to offer any ‘mail’ support.

I had a word with one of the managers, and she said she could get it couriered back to me, once it had been repaired. Still super-chuffed off, such a waste of my time. GRRR