Geoff's Random Thoughts

I spent 2 hours last night pulling my Powerbook to pieces very, very carefully. I had a problem with White Spots on the screen and took it into Apple for them to fix it. I use my Powerbook all of the time and usually leave it open on my desk, or shut it down and take it with me. It was only recently that I noticed that it wouldn't go to sleep anymore. After some research (And some help from the Mac community here on LJ) I found out that it was a magnet in the Lid that activated the sleep and I reasoned that it had probably been left disconnected when they replaced the screen. After much struggling to remove the back of the screen, I found the tiniest magnet you've ever seen which wasn't powered, had a play with the position and it was about 1/4 of an inch out of position, you'd have thought that the Genii would be able to test and get it right. Put it all back together and felt very, VERY accomplished. 24 screws on the casing of a Powerbook + 3 that hold the h...

I watched the last episode of The West Wing last night, Seven Seasons, over 140 Episodes, many wonderful characters and situations. Don't want to spoil anyone else's experience, LOTS of spoilers I've got to admit that I had a tear in my eye as the last ever episode finished and a lot of things were tied off. CJ and Danny got together, Sam Returned Donna and Josh got together Toby was Pardoned Mallory left something for President Bartlett. President Santos took the Oath and became President. I know a lot of people feel that it jumped the shark when Aaron Sorkin left, and the Fifth Season was disappointing, but after the Sixth Season I went back to watch the Fifth again and while it's not up to the standard of other Seasons, there are some fantastic episodes in there. I'm going to miss that fact that I will never ever see a New episode of The West Wing. I remember seeing an early episode and becoming hooked, I've spent a lot of money buyi...

1) Working with fellow Geeks 2) Playing with new Technology 3) Always learning, never standing still 4) New challenges every day 5) It means that you're not isolated from other people in the company, you have to work with everyone.

1) I have a wonderful Family who support me through thick and thin, who allow me to be me 2) My 2 daughters make me enjoy every single day 3) I work in a job I enjoy, in a company I like working for 4) My friends are there for me when I need them, I'm always happy to help them when they need help 5) I live in Manchester, which I consider to be a wonderful City.

On the 5th of July I posted This regarding the experience of booking my Powerbook in for it's screen to be replaced. Since then, I'd checked the Website regularly, unfortunately the information was not helpful, just that my Powerbook was awaiting repair. A little more info on this page would have been useful, e.g. 'awaiting parts', 'On the bench', 'Final Testing' this would show progress to the customer. I was told that the repair would take between 7 - 10 days, and I put my expectation firmly at the 10 day end of the scale, with this being a Free repair, I would expect paying customers to get the better service, however Wednesday came and went. I did think about phoning the store, but knew that it would be completed as soon as possible, on top of this I've been manic at work and I've not had much time to use the Powerbook anyway. Last night I got a phone call at around 16:40 to say that the Machine was in final testing, was expected to pa...

Lets do the whole thing start to finish, I wanted to document this 1) For my own memory 2) For others who had never used the Genius Bar before. I went on the Apple.com/uk site this morning and booked a spot at the Trafford Centre Genius Bar, this was really easy, fill in a few minor details (Your name, email address and Mobile phone number) and select a slot from those available. These are in 20 Minute segments. I was aiming to leave work at 15:00, the store is about 40 minutes from work and knowing my record for leaving when I want, I booked for 16:40, this would allow me a leeway of an hour for holdups and getting caught on the way out of work. The webpage then confirmed the appointment date and time and had basic instructions. If I had any criticism of this process, it was that there was no email confirmation to both remind and reassure that the booking has been made, this would be nitpicking though. I got to the Apple Store in the Trafford centre and Looked at the kit, but t...

This is a good book, it links well between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, the writing is good and the story moves well. My only downer on it is that it's not as good as a Zahn Novel, it's not got as many plot threads as any of the Thrawn Books. Definitely worth a read, especially if you're a Star Wars nut, the last short chapter alone is worth the purchase price alone.

After recently upgrading from iPhoto 2 I've been playing with iPhoto 6 a little, and I've seen a lot of good points, but also some bad points. Now I appreciate that this is probably a far larger leap than a lot of you may have made, so some of these features may have been in iPhoto 5 Full Screen editing it's excellent, with the gallery along the top and the features at the bottom, I now find it easier to focus on the photo with the black background now Keywords I use Keywords a lot they make my life a lot easier. They are now part of the main window, I did prefer them to be on a movable 'pallet' type arrangement, I could move it around at will, I don't like it fixed on the right hand side, and I certainly don't like it sharing space with the Source window, for me they both need more space. I don't like the fact that you have to go into preferences to alter, add or delete keywords, too clunk by far, why not a button on the bottom toolbar, there...

For Christmas, I got four things, and Lauren got one that took AG13 Batteries. Now I hadn't seen these before, but they're like big watch batteries. I had a scoot about on the internet and Battery Force looked like the cheapest. I ordered the batteries on Boxing day, they were shipped on the 28th (The first non Bank Holiday Day) and arrived on the 29th. Oh, and 'Free' shipping also. Now THAT'S what I call service, and for that I RECOMMEND Battery Force.