Bot Cyborg

With the SSD prices dropping significantly in last few weeks, I couldn't resist the temptation to open up my Intel Mac Mini (unibody mid 2011 model) and pop in one. Although, Apple prohibits users to upgrade anything apart from the RAM, I love voiding warranties. Apple uses a proprietary connector to hook up the SATA disk. Fortunately the people at Other World Computing and iFixit are selling DIY second hard disk installation kit with nicely made video tutorials. iFixit, was showing out of stock, which made my task of choosing, whom to order from, much easier. For the SSD I went with 240 GB one from the trusted and reliable Intel 520 series. Some, Mac users were cursing at SSDs from other brands at various forums, though it wasn't very clear whether the problem was with the competence of the SSD manufactures in making their products compatible with Apple (or vice versa) or with the incompetence of the users performing the DIY upgrades! Anyway, most were satisfied wit...

Earlier this month I bought a Core i5 Mac Mini. It was quite an impulsive decision, partly influenced by the fact that it was a bit annoying frequently rebooting my office Dell desktop to switch back and forth between Windows and Linux. I have been using Linux for everything (like browsing, programming, creating Tex documents as well as for music and movies) since the last 4+ years. However, when I joined as a Grad student in CQT , earlier this year, my requirements changed a bit, which made be quite a bit dependent on Windows. I got involved in some device driver development in Windows, creating/maintaining several VIs in Labview and working in AutoDesk occasionally to coordinate with workshop technicians. Moreover the lab-notebooks were traditionally being maintained in MS OneNote. Since I am heavily reluctant to completely move away from *nix for my computing needs, I tried dual-booting my Core i7 desktop with Windows 7 and Ubuntu 11.10. Primarily I was using Ubuntu, but had to freq...