Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Upgrading Macbook HDD - My Experience

I have a 1st generation Black Macbook that's at least already 2 years old, but still going strong. I haven't upgraded to Leopard, either - don't feel like spending that much money. Then again, I did spend almost the same amount of money yesterday on something more immediate - upgrading the harddisk!

After doing a much-needed RAM upgrade last year (to 2 GB, which is the max for this model), I used up my yearly bonus and splurged on the upgrade. Indowebstore was offering good prices on internal HDDs for MacBooks, so I contacted them and they agreed to pick up the MB from work, install the new HDD, and deliver it back to the office. There's a catch though - they won't do any data backups for you, and won't move the data from the old HDD to the new one. I think this is pretty reasonable as every customer would have different preferences on what they want to do with their data.

This left me with a small problem - how to transfer the data? I first simply copied all the user files to an external harddisk I borrowed from my wife, but copying the OS and applications was a problem. After asking around, I was introduced to SuperDuper! which is a pretty simple program. Just choose your source disk, and select your target disk. So I did that. After days of agonizing and tweaking the configuration, and asking around again, apparently the problem was that the backup was done over USB - which is simply too slow for copying 80 GB of data. The only option was via Firewire - and I don't have an external Firewire drive.

This time I just searched the web for an answer, and found this article. It was certainly helpful - although I would of preferred to be able to ask someone directly about this.

So following the instructions on the website, I send the MB to the store for installment, and asked them to install a Firewire enclosure for the old HDD. Unfortunately, they didn't have any in stock, and I spend my lunchtime scouring Ratu Plaza to no avail.

I had to ask someone again, and the id-mac mailing list was very helpful - apparently the JakartaNotebook.com store was walking distance from my office, so I walked over and bought myself the Firewire enclosure. Not long after I reached the office, the MB arrived with its new HDD!

When I reached home, I followed the instructions on how to start the MB from an external Firewire drive, format and partition the new HDD, and then use SuperDuper!to copy the contents of the old HDD to the new HDD. A few hours later, the MB with a new HDD is ready to go!

I spend a few early hours organizing the data and transferring stuff from external HDDs that were getting too full, and now my eyes are a bit puffy :P

Well, that's my story folks, hopefully it will be useful to someone else.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Balance

It's all about balance.
If the company needs you more than you need them, it's time to think about options.
If you need the company more than it needs you, better shut up and do your job properly.
If the need level is mutual, then it makes sense.

Bahaya Facebook... Mungkin.

Sebuah pembicaraan singkat mengena Facebook beberapa waktu lalu:

dia: gue selalu deg-degan kalo ada yang nge-tag foto di Facebook.
gue: kenapa emang?
dia: iya kan ada foto2 yang gue gak pengen seluruh dunia liat. Kayak waktu itu yang kita jaman TA, keliling kampus tapi *sensor* (tebak aja sendiri ngapain)
gue: lha kan itu ide lu juga!! lu yang bujukin kita semua!
dia: ya dulu gue nggak tau bakal ada Facebook


Bener juga sih...

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Tiba-tiba Kepikiran MLM

Hmmm... MLM.
Gue bukan penentang bisnis multi-level marketing, atau MLM. Beneran. Untuk berbagai produk dan bisnis, metode yang ditawarkan oleh MLM cocok, dan malah mungkin bisa lebih efektif di masa social networking dan peer reviews bisa lebih kuat ketimbang gelombang media dan iklan.

Tapi mohon maaf ya, kawan-kawan yang mungkin ikut semacam MLM, kenapa gue gak suka ya?
Mungkin karena setiap kali ada yang berusaha mengajak gue ikut program jenis MLM ini, selalu membicarakan 'cari uang di waktu luang', atau 'dapat uang banyak', atau 'bikin jaringan luas', dan lain-lain. Kata-kata kunci yang senang sekali didengar oleh orang Indonesia, yang mudah sekali teriming-iming. Tapi ga pernah ada yang ngomongin sebenernya dia jual produk apa. Kadang cuma sekilas. Wong gue pernah kok sampai ikut presentasi ke orang banyak gitu, dan ada beberapa orang maju ke depan dan berbicara, semua ngomong bahwa 'dulu saya bla bla bla sekarang saya bla bla bla pesiar ke Eropa bla bla bla' tapi gak ada yang jelasin produk yang dijual apa.

Bisa aja sih gue selama ini belum ketemu orang yang tepat, yang bisa meyakinkan gue. Tapi ya, gue kan cuma satu orang, dengan pendapat yang mungkin beda dengan orang kebanyakan.

Mungkin juga gara-gara ada orang yang ikut MLM begitu ketemu orang dikit - siapapun - pasti berusaha ngebujuk buat ikut juga, jadinya ada konotasi seperti itu, padahal harusnya gak gitu juga kan. Mungkin juga gara-gara berkali-kali gue denger orang lagi sales pitch program MLM dia, tapi dia ga terlalu menyentuh produknya sendiri, tapi lebih ke cari uang dan jaringan. Buat gue itu agak aneh, karena menurut gue seorang marketer bagus harus percaya pada produknya, terlepas dari sistem menjualnya lewat MLM atau cara lain. Kalau lu yakin produknya bagus dan bisa meyakinkan orang lain bahwa produknya bagus, orang itu minimal pasti terpikir juga kan untuk menginvestasikan uang atau waktu untuk produk itu, kalau ada kesempatan?

Biasanya abis ngomel gini gue kepatil - liat aja, kali-kali aja 2 bulan lagi gue lagi jualan MLM. He he. Tapi paling tidak, gue akan jualan produknya, bukan MLMnya aja.