Tag: opinion

iMessage solved and Jim finds joy with his Hackintosh

So there were a couple things tried to get iMessage working.  This post on tonymacx86.com is where I started.  I will admit, I didn’t follow the instructions completely.  I wanted to fill in the gaps that I didn’t have cause I have a working installation and just installed days worth of software so didn’t want to bork it all up for something I’ve been living without for years now.

But it was this post on reddit that clued me into an essential piece I was apparently missing.  “Board Serial Number” … I got that in there and iMessage now works a treat.  The original post covers this.  I just think the simplicity of the reddit post cleared things up for me.  It also has you delete all your old Messages – maybe they contain something that causes iMessage to regress?

That’s the thing about a Hackintosh.  If you buy the suggested hardware, it should “just work.”  When it doesn’t, there’s something you’re missing and you just don’t know what it is.  I mean if you’re not a systems engineer on Cupertino’s payroll that has all the answers.  And it can be very frustrating.

This brings us to Jim’s solution.  Seems the motherboard series he purchased required the installation of a particular Clover thingamahbob.  Once that was installed, “BOOM” as he said, everything started working.  After that solution, he moved on to his individual problems and fixed them one by one.

Again, if you’ve got the time and patience to work these things out.  Sometimes wait for answers.  It most definitely pays off in the end.

October Macworld Mac Virus FUD

October-MacworldAs part of the package of the purchase of my new Mac, I was offered a subscription to Macworld.  I agreed to the subscription and then offered to extend it at a very low price, so I did …

Each month I browse through the issue quickly.  Sometimes I find things that help me with my daily Mac computing or software that I may have otherwise not been aware existed.  There is also iPhone stuff periodically and reviews of peripheral hardware.

The Mac vs. PC controversy exists.  No matter what.  There’s the John Hodgman & Justin Long commercials and Microsoft’s commercials saving money buying a PC stuff.  I’ve gone through the Linux vs. Microsoft stuff too, just so happens I choose FreeBSD (why I like the Mac so much). There should be a distinction that we’re talking about a PC running MS-Windows.  A PC running FreeBSD is solid as a rock.

BUT!  Macworld … keep it real … There’s no reason to start spreading FUD about the Mac and viruses.  In two articles (in an issue that targets saving money utilizing your Mac as well as after the purchase of your Mac), Jason Snell and Dan Frakes mention the expense of viruses and it’s simply not true.  It’s not an added expense to the PC, nor the Mac.

I’ve been computing since 1984, and I’ve never spent money on virus software.  The BBS I started in 1990 used McAffe’s virus protection, and it was always free to use and download for BBS Sysops, and I think it was free to end users as well (I may still have an old copy on an old machine and I can look that up).  Anyway, through the early years running PC-DOS and MS-DOS, I simply didn’t run stuff I didn’t know where it came from, and there was always some form of a free piece of Virus Software, now being called Anti-Virus software.

Regardless, I just wanted to post this since it’s simply not true, there is no expense in the Anti-Virus market (or just about any other) if you take the time and know where to look.  These softwares offer free daily updates to virus signatures as well, so no subscription to pay for.  They’re normally much more up to date than any of the pay subscriptions as well.

FREE MS-Windows Anti-Virus Software called AVG.

FREE Mac (and all others) Anti-Virus software called ClamAV.

It’s already a fact that any PC sucks if it has some version of MS-Windows on it, you don’t have to make stuff up.