British Brain

Dinosaur-eating snake discovered

2010-03-03T08:00:00.001Z

The BBC have reported here that the fossil of a dinosaur-eating snake has been discovered which, apparently, is 67 million years old!

The report does not explain how they arrived at the date of 67 millions years, but don't forget...
...we're just the public. We should just accept what these scientists say without question. Please see these 2 excellent articles from CMI about current dating methods: How Dating Methods Work & Radiometric Dating Questions and Answers

The thing that really struck me about this article was the unintentional truth stated by the researchers:

"The researchers now believe that the snake was attacking a hatchling that had just emerged from the egg. The event was then overcome by a natural disaster, possibly a storm, and the whole scene was frozen in time."

A natural disaster? Possibly a storm? Frozen in time? It's almost an exact description of the events of Noah's flood. The fact that this long age, evolution based view is still pressed upon the masses as truth is just a shocking reflection of the Godlessness of this country and, indeed, the world.

Genesis 7

[18] And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters.
[19] And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered.
[20] Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.
[21] And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man:
[22] All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died.
[23] And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.
[24] And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.

DL380 G5 Hanging / Freezing

2010-02-26T08:49:00.001Z

I've recently had the misfortune to spend a large amount of my time suffering at the hand of a DL380 G5 server. This server is being used for file and print and seemed to be ok at first, at least until people started using it!

The problems reported were as follows:

* Sever slow when reading and writing files.
* Server hanging/freezing when writing files.
* Server hang causing all desktops to freeze for periods of around 30 seconds.

Hardware checks showed no issues and even Microsoft seemed to be stumped. They spent a long time looking into the problems, changing settings, analysing server dumps etc.

In the end, I discovered the cause of the problems completely by chance. The server had a P400 raid controller with 256mb cache serving the disks. However, it did not have the battery backup unit connected to it. Apparently, without this battery backup, the cache is redundant.

A battery was purchased and plugged into the P400 and immediately the problems disappeared. No more hanging or freezing!

My conclusion on all of this:

* The P400 hardware is junk on it's own.
* A battery backup is essential when using this card.

If you've been experiencing the same issues, either buy the battery from hp or your usual supplier (don't forget the cable too) or you could buy the entire upgrade pack which includes the battery, 512mb cache and the cable to connect it all up with.

You can find the entire upgrade kit here: P400 512mb BBWC Upgrade Kit

Amazing Website

2009-05-22T23:37:00.000+01:00

I discovered this site a while back but have only recently had the time to go through it. It is an absolutely amazing site with an almost unfathomable amount of information on it! What I like about the site is that it doesn’t conform to any web standards or layouts. It’s not trying to be flashy or big headed, it’s just presenting the information honestly and matter-of-fact.

http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/

The Folly of Facebook

2009-03-05T21:52:00.000Z

DOWN WITH FACEBOOK!!! And here’s why.....

As a one time member of Facebook, I feel that this gives me the right to express my feelings here. This is something that has bothered me for a while now and I’ve finally taken it upon myself to write it down.

What does Facebook actually offer the masses? Here’s a short list of the services offered by Facebook, as taken from the Facebook website*
(*OK, so I made these up, but it doesn’t make them any less true!)

- Relinquish your personal information! That’s right, we’ll take your info, pass it around and even sell it so that we make money and you get spammed!

- Ever wanted to stalk or be stalked? Join Facebook! You can stalk/be stalked by friends, colleagues and even people you don’t know!

- Have photos of yourself spread around the internet without your authorisation! We offer such an amazing service that ANYONE can upload a picture of you ANYTIME they want WITHOUT your consent!

- Too much time on your hands? Happily waste away the hours on Facebook! Seconds turn into minutes, minutes into hours....oh look...Tracy’s just updated her profile and she’s purchased a plum from Tesco! Hurrah!

- Are you a person of moral substance? Fear no more! We’ll drag your reputation down by allowing you to make ‘friends’ with people whose friends listen to ‘death metal’ 24 hours a day and enjoy immorality!

So I left Facebook. When I joined, I did it mainly to get in touch with some old school friends. But the thing about old school friends is that, once you’ve said ‘hello’, there isn’t really much to discuss with them. So you join some groups and make ‘friends’ with your friend’s friends. People that you don’t know. All the time, you’re bombarded with status updates from people.....

“Just going out” - said Jason.
“Watching telly” - said Brian.
“Thinking about reading a book” - said Madeline.
“Just come back in” - said Jason.

.....and it becomes like an obsession. Forever checking in to see if you’ve had a message, been poked or if there’s a status update that you might find interesting. “Finished watching telly” - said Brian.

Then there’s endless games to play, puzzles to solve, pictures to look at, polls to fill in. It’s a never ending torrent of ..... well.... nothing.

“But I use it to keep in touch with people!” I hear you cry, along with about 6,000,000 others. And so did I, for a while. Until I realised that you don’t need to be in contact with people 24 hours a day. You don’t need to know if people are ‘just going to the shops’. You don’t need to tittle-tattle and make small talk with people. You don’t need to join a group. At all!

Facebook, for me, was a massive drain on my time and resources and so I left. What a relief when I finally made the break. (Apart from the fact that it was extremely difficult to delete my account. Facebook did NOT want to do it. They were adamant on keeping my information and data until I sternly insisted.

What do I do with my spare time that I get from not using Facebook? I get to use the real Face-Book.....

Romans 12:2 [2] And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

iLife 09

2009-01-07T11:00:00.000Z

iLife 09 has been announced at the Macworld 2009 event. The renewal of the iLife package can’t come soon enough as far as I’m concerned! The updates to iMovie alone make this package worth while. Let’s have a look at some of the features of the new iLife 09.....

So here’s some of the features of iLife 09. I won’t list all of the updates because some of them don’t interest me. Here are the ones that do:

iPhoto 09

iPhoto 08 was the first version of iPhoto that I used as I only swapped to being a Macalite just over a year ago. iPhoto, for me, is a revelation. The ability to store your pictures in a nice easy database and then show them via events, which are skimmable, is just fantastic. Here’s a couple of nice things in the latest version.

Faces

‘Faces’ is the name of the new feature that allows you to organise photo’s by whose in them. You simply select somebody’s face in a couple of photo’s and assign a name to them and iPhoto then uses it’s face recognition tech to show you pictures with that person in. Neat huh? It sounds pretty good and it looks nice, especially the cork-board of tagged people. But I’ve already read reports on the internet from people who got a chance to play with this at Macworld and apparently it’s doesn’t quite live up to it’s claim. It is reported that it doesn’t detect people properly and often detects a tagged face as somebody completely different! I suppose we don’t know for sure about all this until we can test it with our own photos. I’m sure it’s quite useful even if it’s not 100% accurate. Thinking about it, how can it be? It’s only a program!

Themed Slideshows

New slideshows with whizzy new templates. Hurrah! Everybody loves a good slideshow. I love creating photo slideshows especially when they look this good! These can be shared with your AppleTV, iPod or iPhone.

Travel Maps

Well. Just look at it. Lovely, isn’t it? iPhoto 09 will use your location data from your camera (or you can type that place names if you’ve got a normal camera that just takes pictures...) and it will create a beautiful map of your journey and the places you visited. I can’t wait to use this. I’ve only ordered one photo book from Apple so far, but this kind of thing will make my future orders so much nicer. Imagine sitting down with your family and showing them this!

iMovie 09

I like iMovie 08. I know that a lot of people hate it and although I’ve had problems, I like it. The main problem for me is the fact that you can no longer share videos directly with iDVD and that the export of video discards frames if you are using interlaced footage. This is because Steve Jobs doesn’t think people should be creating home movie DVD’s any more as the internet is the future. Huh. I doubt this will be changed in this version, but there are some things that MANY people have been screaming about.

Advanced Drag and Drop

This is a simple change but should make all the difference. You can now select a clip and drag it into the middle of another clip. It will bring up a context menu asking you what you want to do with the clip ie, insert, replace.

Precision Editor

This feature displays a magnified filmstrip for advanced, precision editing. OCD sufferers - rejoice!

Dynamic Themes

Now this really is something good. I never used themes in iMovie HD but I know that a lot of people were upset that they were removed from iMovie 08. Well, they’re back.... with a vengeance! It inserts the theme, animated titles and intelligent transitions and, I can tell you now, it looks absolutely fab. They can be swapped in real time and it only changes the theme if you do this so that your titles and what-not stay untouched. These should really spruce up those home made movies!

Animated Travel Maps

This is similar to the Travel Maps feature in iPhoto but is animated and is very reminiscent of the old Indiana Jones travel clips. There are 4 different globes and flat maps included. I can’t wait to start using this in my holiday videos. What a great idea!

Video Stabilisation

Now this is clever. Very clever. Especially considering the intended audience using iMovie - amateurs. This feature will analyse on a clip-by-clip basis or your entire video. The only downside to this is that it takes a while to analyse the video. I recommend a nice cup of tea and an episode of ‘Come Dine with Me’ while you wait. Once it’s finished it promises that your footage will be smooooooooooth and you can edit the settings as you wish to lessen or add more smooooooooooothness. If you’ve been filming while on the back of a camel racing across the cobbles in Coronation Street then the likelihood is that your footage is beyond help. If so, iMovie will highlight it with a red squiggly line and you can choose to remove this footage if you so wish. Nice!

New Titiles, Transitions and Effects

Here are some more features that have been re-inserted after their omission from iMovie 08. You get 18 new animated titles to play with and each one is preview-able before you apply it. There are 8 new transitions and these are preview-able by skimming over them and are applied with a single click, apparently. Sounds too easy to be true to me, as all these things look easy when you see them demonstrated but I usually end up in a mess, thumping the keyboard in the vain hope that something good will happen. Here’s hoping that it is as easy as claimed.
There are 19 video effects too such as ‘Aged Film’, ‘Cartoon’, ‘Dream’, etc and footage can be slowed down, sped up or reversed with such simplicity it seems almost frightening.
I think a lot of people will be happy with these changes as iMovie 09 seems to be a finished product whereas iMovie 08 felt like a beta.

GarageBand 09

Basic Music Lessons and Artist Lessons

This is interesting. GarageBand 09 introduces music lessons to each and every user! You can learn to play basic piano and guitar and also run through the Artist Lessons with the ‘stars’ showing you how to do it. These come in the shaped of Sting, Ben Folds etc. This is something very new and quite exciting for music lovers. I’ve also heard that you’ll be able to buy more advanced lessons later on down the road.

iWeb 09

Widgets

Remember that HTML widget from the previous iWeb? This goes one better and gives you nice drag and drop widgets such as YouTube video, Countdown, RSS feeds etc. The best feature of iWeb 09, in my opinion, is the fact that you can now manage multiple sites and publish them independently via FTP to any hosting service you like. It’s about time. This is actually the thing that made me migrate from iWeb to Rapidweaver as it was so painful to manually upload everything after a change. Hurrah for this, but also tut-tut for taking so long.

So there you go. Exciting eh? The only thing that I haven’t mentioned is iDVD and that is because it appears to have been left untouched. This is a real shame. iDVD could have done with some new templates as well as the ability to burn HD-DVD or Blu-Ray compatible video onto a DVD. What’s the point in having a HD Camcorder if you have to burn it to DVD resolution? (Users - get Toast to burn HD footage to DVD)

To check out the online tutorials, guided tours and full feature set, visit Apple here: iLife 09 Info

It’s out late January and can be pre-ordered from Apple for £69 here: Purchase iLife 09

The Watchmaker

2008-12-14T22:05:00.000Z

A simple but powerful message. Click the image above to view.

Offline Files Corrupt DB

2008-11-11T21:55:00.001Z

Ever had the unfortunate opportunity to deal with Offline Files? If so, then you’ve probably experienced problems. I can’t imagine anybody who hasn’t! Not too long ago, I experienced corruption with the offline files database and something very strange occurred. Fortunately, I found a way to fix it!

The situation I experienced was where a user had logged a fault explaining that they couldn’t open any of their files. I took a look at the machine and, lo and behold, twas true. Whether the machine was connected to the network or not, the error message was the same. Something along the line of “You do not have access to this file”.

The setup is as follows: Each user’s ‘My Documents’ folder is redirected to the file and print server. The redirected folder is then taken offline so that the user can work on their documents on the network when in the office and work on the same files locally when at home. The files sync up when the user logs on/off.

The user couldn’t access any file in any environment. I took a look at the files and they appeared to be 0k in size. Uh-oh. No data? Gulp.
After some searching on the internet I came to the conclusion that the offline files database was corrupt and the only solution was to re-initialise the local offline files cache. However, this would also delete all the files, some of which had been worked on but could not be copied or backed up because the system said that there was no access for anybody. Even the lowly administrator!

The solution is to take the following steps:

1. Log in as administrator

2. Download the updated v1.1 CSCCMD.EXE

3. Extract the csccmd.exe to the root of c:

4. Extract the offline files to the C drive using the following command: csccmd.exe /EXTRACT:\\Server\Share[\Path]] /TARGET:Path. This will extract the FULL contents of the offline files database to the location specified in /TARGET. I highly recommend extracting this to a folder on the C drive, not to the root as you’ll end up in a right pickle.

5. Re-initialise the Offline Files Database: Go to Control Panel > Folder Options and go to the Offline Files tab. Hold down CTRL + SHIFT then click Delete Files. Click Yes to accept any messages and reboot when finished.

6. After the reboot, copy the extracted files back to the server side of the offline files cache.

7. Wait for offline files to start again. This sometimes takes a very long time. I’ve no idea why, but I’ve not usually seen offline files start working again until at least 1 full day has passed. Weird huh?

Anyway, if that’s any help to anybody at all then my work here is done. If you have experienced problems with Offline files and want to share your comments or would like some help with an Offline Files issue, please mail me: nez@britishbrain.com

Widescreen Apple Mail

2008-10-20T21:17:00.001+01:00

Ever wanted to view your Apple Mail email in widescreen, 3 column style ala Outlook? Then read on....

Enter Letterbox.

I’ve actually been using this software for a while now and, it has to be said, it is super. It allows you to view your email in 3 columns similar to Outlook, with your folders on the left, inbox in the middle and the mail previews on the right.

I can’t tell you how much nicer this makes the Apple Mail app. I would recommend everybody downloads this tool immediately. Well.... go on then!

You can download Letterbox for free at http://harnly.net/software/letterbox/

RIP VisualHub

2008-10-05T14:17:00.001+01:00

I’m sorry to report that Techspansion, creators of iSquint, AudialHub and the amazing VisualHub, has decided to close the doors on all projects. Taken from the front of the Techspansion website:

“VisualHub, AudialHub, and iSquint have been discontinued.

...After much soul-searching (it's not you, it's me), for personal reasons, Techspansion is closing its virtual doors.

The Support Forum and Support E-mail will be available for a while longer to take care of any remaining issues for you.

Thanks for all your support. It's been a fun ride.
...and a special thanks to all the well-wishers that have e-mailed. I'm sorry I don't have the time to respond to every e-mail, but please know that it's very appreciated.”

Sad news indeed. Anybody who has ever used VisualHub will know what an amazing app it is and what a great loss this is to the Mac software community.

Food Review - The Boathouse

2008-09-28T21:35:00.001+01:00

The Boathouse is a wonderful restaurant set in the heart of Sutton Park (West Midlands) on the bank of Bracebridge Pool. It is a 16th Century building, once used by Henry VIII as a hunting lodge.

To get to The Boathouse you first have to enter Sutton Park and drive through a lovely little lane surrounded by woods and trees. If you’re lucky enough your path will sometimes be blocked by the wild ponies that wander around Sutton Park. When you get to the building, the first thing that grabs you is the view.

The view of Bracebridge Pool is simply stunning. You can see this view from almost every table in The Boathouse and it makes the whole experience just so much better to be able to see such beauty.

Once inside the staff are warm and friendly and will take you to your table and bring you some freshly baked bread while you try and choose from the fab menu. Mmmmmm, warm bread! The place itself is nicely decorated and comfortable and there’s an open fire at the back which is usually on in the colder months.

Anyway, let’s get onto the stuff that really matters - the food. The Boathouse is my favourite restaurant and for good reason. The food in this place is fabulous. So fabulous that I had my Wedding Reception here. For the purpose of this review I ordered my starter: Deep-fried brie with almond bread crumbs, Amaretto and strawberry sauce.

As you can see it’s simple, elegant and extremely delicious. My wife ordered baby fishcake with lemon and dill dressing. I don’t like fish at all but I tasted her start and loved it. Praise indeed!

After gulping down the starter we only waited about 10 minutes for our main course. 10 minutes goes very fast when you’ve got such beautiful scenery to gaze at! I had ordered fillet of pork, apricot and sage gravy and apple fritter, and my wife had ordered pan fried free range chicken breast stuffed with red pepper and brie with spinach cream. The main courses come with new potatoes, scallion mash and fries. (or Chips if you’re not American....). We also ordered a selection of vegetables because The Boathouse server the most delicious vegetables known to man. I mean, just look at it....

The veg is always fresh and crispy and tastes just yummy. The meat on both courses was tender and juicy and the gravy was to die for. Once you’ve dished up all the spuds and veg onto a plate, it makes a meal that would satisfy any man.

This was literally the tastiest meal I have had for months and months. I don’t know how they do it but it is just heavenly. I reckon they’ve secretly got Gordon Ramsay working in the back because I can’t understand any other way to explain how nice this food is.

Finally, onto the desserts. I ordered creme brulee with shortbread and my wife ordered chocolate and orange bread and butter pudding serviced with custard.

Again, very nice. The only thing that bothered me about this was that the top of my creme brulee was not caramelised so it was soft. I’ve seen them being served here like this before and I think it’s just the way they do them, but I prefer a glacial top that I have to break into. Still, it tasted good and my wife certainly enjoyed hers.

The pricing in The Boathouse is as you would expect from a high quality restaurant with starters costing between £4 - £6 and main courses costing between £14 - £25. These prices are for the evening meals. They also provide a lunch time menu which consists of 2 or 3 courses and costs between £11 - £13. Bargain eh?

Overall, I can’t do anything else but give The Boathouse full marks. It’s a wonderful building situated in a wonderful setting populated by wonderful staff and heavenly food. Be sure to try this place if at all possible and I guarantee that you will NOT be disappointed!

10 out of 10
“Amazing in every respect. The building, location and most importantly the food. My favourite restaurant of all time. Book now to avoid disappointment!”

http://www.boathouseatbracebridge.co.uk/

iPhone 2_1 - Thoughts

2008-09-19T20:08:00.001+01:00

So, I've been using the iPhone 2.1 firmware for a week now. Have Apple done all that they claimed? The simple answer is 'Yes', sort of....

The 2.1 update is a significant improvement over the previous 2.x firmwares. The first thing I noticed is that the backup within iTunes is sooooo much faster it's unreal. Previously, I could have been waiting anything up to 30 mins for the backup to complete but now it is less than a minute every time and is frequently less than 10 seconds. Well done Apple
.
Secondly, the battery seems to last much longer with this update. I managed to go nearly 3 days without charging the iPhone and in that time I was texting, web browsing, making calls etc. Well done again Apple.

Thirdly, the device feels snappier but there is still a slight lag on the Contacts app. It is far less than before but never the less it is still there.

Something else that I noticed was that installation of games/apps is significantly faster. This seems true whether the app is installed via iTunes or the mobile AppStore.
Also, the device crashes have almost been eliminated. I say almost because I have experienced a couple of issues. The first is a problem carried over from the 2.x firmwares where the apps launch and then immediately close. A simple reboot sorts this out.

The second problem is more serious. I have had 2 complete lockups - one whilst browsing the AppStore and one whilst attempting to make a call. When I say complete lockup, I mean COMPLETE lockup! The iPhone would not respond to anything apart from holding the power and home button to do a hard reset. That is not good. I'm interested to know if anybody else has experienced similar issues.

Still, the 2.1 firmware is a great update and everybody should apply it immediately. I only wonder why Apple didn't resolve the problems until now as I'm sure a lot of people, up until now, have been extremely upset with them regarding the constant crashes on 2.x.

Apple Release New iPhone Firmware

2008-09-12T23:34:00.001+01:00

The new 2.1 firmware for the iPhone has been released today and is available for download via iTunes. Although I’m unable to test it at the moment for reasons not specified, it claims to have a lot of features, including:

significantly improve battery life for most users
dramatically reduced time to backup to iTunes
improve email reliability, notably fetching email from POP and Exchange accounts
faster installation of 3rd party applications
fixed bugs causing hangs and crashes if you have lots of 3rd party applications
improved performance in text messaging
faster loading and searching of contacts
improved accuracy of the 3G signal strength display
repeat alert up to two additional times for incoming text messages
option to wipe data after ten failed passcode attempts
Genius playlist creation

I’m quite anxious to try this firmware because, at the moment on 2.0.2, my email refuses to connect to it’s imap server, backing up takes 30 mins or more, applications fail to install sometimes etc etc. Has anybody out there tried this yet? If so, does it deliver on it’s promises. Comments please.

A quick thank-you!

2008-09-12T07:00:00.001+01:00

I would just like to say a quick thank-you to Thomas Reiner who designed the brilliant title bar for this site. Wonderful isn’t it!
Thanks also to Ben at Digital Initiatives who is hosting this site. He also sorted out all of the domain reg stuff for me. Thanks Ben!

Ancient Trees Recorded In Mines...

2008-09-09T23:02:00.001+01:00

Reported on the BBC website

“These were among the first forests to evolve on the planet.”....apparantly....

But just how DID those trees get buried?

First of all, how old are these ancient trees?

“The forests grew just a few million years apart some 300 million years ago; and are now stacked one on top of another.”

300 million years ago!? Say what? And how was that measured? No mention of that in the article I see. Hmmm. I would assume that it was measured using the well respected, scientific method known as ‘Imagination’. There appears to be a lot of this going on these days. Dates are given and accepted by the public without any question so long as it abides by the theory of evolution.

Anyway, that aside, the real bit that struck me about this article was this:

“It appears the ancient land experienced repeated periods of subsidence and flooding which buried the forests in a vertical sequence.”

They’re so close you can almost taste it. Could this, by any chance, indicate a huge flood? A world wide flood maybe that not only destroyed the forests but the animals too? The effects of a world wide flood would be catastrophic causing major re-landscaping and rapid burial of fauna and animals. This is exactly what we see today. It would take quite a lot of water to flatten and bury a forest.

I have no doubt that this, along with the animal fossils that are found in sedimentary rock, is a result of the flood of Noah.

Food Review - Eyam Tea Rooms

2008-09-07T22:10:00.001+01:00

The village of Eyam in Derbyshire is well known as it suffered death and isolation as a result of the plague in the 1600’s. After visiting the village and feeling thoroughly depressed at the death and gloom, it’s nice have a sit down and a cup of tea. We chose to rest at Eyam Tea Rooms which sits at the bottom of the hill, just out of plague distance(I hope!).

Eyam Tea Rooms is a place run by two ex-teachers who pride themselves on their homemade caked and fine tea’s. And pride themselves they should!
Initially I was a little shocked at the prices when I opened the menu. The Ploughman’s Lunch was listed at £7.95. That seemed a lot to me for what is essentially a bit of salad and cheese. Still, I took the plunge and ordered it, along with a pot of tea.

The wait for the food was approx 10-15 minutes which seemed a little long as, when we ordered (the wife and I), we were the only people in the place! Still, I thought, it’s all homemade so the wait may be a good sign. I was right in thinking that. The waitress placed my plate in front of me and I almost gasped at how big the plate was. I’m a big eater but the prospect of eating everything on the plate worried me a little. The pot of tea was served in a lovely china tea pot with a lovely china tea cup.

As you can see, there’s a fair amount there. I can confidently say that it was the best Ploughman’s Lunch I have ever had and took away the sour taste of the £7.95 price tag.
I am awarding Eyam Tea Rooms:

9 out of 10.
“Highly Recommended. Just make sure you have that wonderful Ploughman’s”

http://www.eyamtearooms.co.uk

Disgruntled Mac User....

2008-09-05T22:12:00.002+01:00

My love for all things Apple has wavered. Let me tell you my story....

I have been a happy Mac user for a year now. I have a 20” iMac and what a great machine it is. Apart from the so called ‘Superdrive’. The drive is advertised at 8x, but rarely goes above 2x. I never really let this bother me much until the drive recently threw a proper wobbler and decided to start scratching my disks. I called AppleCare and they told me I could take it to my local Apple Store for repair, which I did.
I dropped it off on a Wednesday and was told it would take about a week. I baulked at this initially but there was nothing I could do about it so I exited the premises a little bit sadder than I entered but I felt rest assured that my iMac was in good hands. Until I got a call the following Monday....

AppleBod: “Hello, it’s ***** from the Apple Store”
Me: “Oh, hello. You’ve got some good news for me I hope!”
AppleBod: “Well, yes and no.”
Me: “Go on....”
AppleBod: “While the engineer was replacing your drive, he knocked the iMac off the desk and shattered the screen.”

After checking that Jeremy Beadle wasn’t hanging around anywhere, the conversation continued....

Me: “..................................................... I hope that’s a joke.”
AppleBod: “I’m afraid not sir. I need authorisation from you to copy your data to a new iMac”
Me: “Well......ok then. I haven’t really got any choice have I?”
AppleBod: “Not really sir. Come to the store at 12 and it will be ready for you.”

So off I trotted and picked up my iMac. Much to my delight, the iMac they had swapped it with was the newer, higher spec iMac. Result!
Until I got it home and noticed the dead pixel on the screen.
I took it back the next morning and explained my issue. They offered to swap it on the spot. Instead, I asked if I could pay the additional £200 and upgrade to the 24” iMac. After all, they look wonderful in the store. Richer colours, better contrast and a full HD panel. They agreed and I left the store a very happy man.
Until I got it home and noticed the horrific gradient across the screen. What I mean by this is that the left hand side of the screen was much, much brighter than the right. I set the background to solid light grey as a test. The right hand side was grey but the left hand side was white! Also, there were dark smudges actually on the screen, under the glass. Terrible.
I decided to burn a disk before I took it back and was amazed when the disk burned at 8x. I took a look at the system info to find that the drive manufacturer was Matshita. The previous drive in my 20” iMac was an Optiarc. Hmmm, interesting.

I took it back the next morning and explained my issue. They offered to swap it on the spot, but I insisted that they tested it first. The ‘genius’ got the new iMac out of the box and set it up. The screen looked ok so I decided to check the Superdrive. It was an Optiarc one. I explained that I believed that the Optiarc drives didn’t work properly and decided to demonstrate this to the ‘genius’. The iMac with the Matshita drive burned a 4.5gb image to DVD in approx 7 mins. The iMac with the Optiarc drive burned a 4.5gb image to DVD in approx 23 mins. I told him that I didn’t want the iMac with that drive so he went and unboxed another 24” iMac. The screen looked ok and the drive was Matshita so I accepted it and left the store a happy man.
Until I got it home and noticed the horrific gradient across the screen, the yellow tinge in the middle and the buzzing from the screen when the brightness was lowered any less than 100%.
The thing about the Apple Store is that it’s so bright in there that it makes all the iMac screen very reflective. You can’t see any issues with the screens until you get it home and put it in your natural working environment.

I took it back the next morning and the offered me a final swap or a full refund. They said that they couldn’t keep opening boxes and I fully understand that but on the other hand, these products should be PERFECT. Goodness knows they cost enough!
I asked if I could swap back to the 20” iMac because although the screen isn’t as colour rich, at least it was uniform in colour and without defects. They agreed and got one out of the box. It looked great but I checked the Superdrive and it was the dreaded Optiarc. I explained my situation again to the member of staff that was dealing with me and burned a 4.5gb image to show him what I meant. By this time the store manager had become involved and had spoken to the general manager. He was stressing that they couldn’t open another box. I didn’t know what to do so went away for a think.

I returned in the afternoon and found the same chap I was speaking to earlier. He had smoothed it out so that I could open another box. We sat down, fingers crossed & booted the new iMac. The screen looked wonderful.... but argh..... an Optiarc drive. My heart sank and I think the member of staff felt the same.
In the end, the offered me a full refund or 10% discount on the machine so that I could buy an external DVD writer. I took the latter and am using said machine now.

I suppose it’s not all bad. I got a brand new machine with better CPU and faster RAM, another years warranty on the new iMac and a £95 discount too. It’s a shame it was such a painful experience. Apple obviously have serious quality control issues with the iMac Superdrives and the Screens(particularly on the £1149+ 24” model which wasn’t even fit for reading text)
I must point out that the staff at the Apple Store (Bullring, Birmingham) were wonderful and understanding throughout this whole experience. They allowed me to open an obscene amount of boxes to check machines, offered me this, that and the other and were generally very polite, courteous and caring about my issues.

A summary:
1. Optiarc drive are JUNK.
2. 24” iMac screens are JUNK.
3. Apple Store staff are great.

This whole experience has left me with a sour taste in my mouth. Has Apple turned bad? A quick Google search shows that there are thousands of people suffering the same problems as me and Apple have not officially acknowledged any kind of problems. That’s just not on really.
After all I’ve said above though, I don’t think I could ever return to Windows land. The Mac OS X is just fantastic and will no doubt help me forget this difficult period in my Mac adventure.

Welcome!

2008-08-06T22:40:00.002+01:00

Welcome to British Brain!
This website contains the thoughts, ramblings and discoveries of me....Nez.
On here you’ll find a variety of topics such as IT, Creation/Evolution, TV, Mac’s and Waffle Sandwiches.

So fasten your seat belts and get ready to take a trip into my British Brain! :)