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DCBassman: At some point, certainly.


Me: i was supposed to do that today but had to re JPG some artwork and built a website.
i have no idea why i am putting of such an important task since i have fresh paste and time!

Opening and tinkering always demands an undivided attention!
 
This is something that I can attest to from personal experience, having removed the wrong transistor during a session of soldering work because I wasn't paying full attention. :oops:
while reassembling a mac mini 2012 dual drive project the fan slot-holder popped off the logic board in 2022.
that mini eventually ceased in 2023 after several usb fans broke.
what i will do this time is keep the fan lodged, used electrical tape to secure the fan onto the board,
then carefully flip that over so i can re-paste those thermals today!

after a nice 37 mile ride on the road bike!
 
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Well, are you not entertained?

You certainly should be. After all, where else could you find a community with this level of appreciation of films, music, gaming, humour, popular culture and fierce/friendly discussions plus much more - all wrapped around the subject of the Apple Macintosh computer? Nowhere else but the Early Intel (and PPC) Mac forum. :)

What have I done with an early Intel Mac recently? This afternoon I dug out my DVB-T2 recording from a few years ago when Gladiator was broadcast in open matte format - the presentation makes for a nice supplement to the official 2.35:1 aspect ratio due to the vertical information.

I enjoyed this tour-de-force on my 2011 MBP with High Sierra and VLC and I'm definitely entertained. :D

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The only things I’ve done this morning with an Early Intel Mac is to log data on the latest cohort of migratory monarch butterflies* to emerge (eclose) from their chrysalids — three this morning — and to listen to Quincy’s “The Streetbeater” because no reason.

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From the other day, one I brought to a nectaring plant — goldenrod — after they emerged:

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* They’re monarchs I’ve been midwifing from eggs, recovering each egg from highly vulnerable zones where herbicide and/or insecticide spraying occurs, and where local and regional governments still mow over natural habitat. This is my second year of doing the rescues. This subspecies is threatened and, in several adjacent jurisdictions, are now listed as endangered. If you use RoundUp/glyphosate on your yard/land, and/or you live in a place where one of the tens of native milkweed species grow, just stop it. Also, if you have them, stop using neonicotinoid-based insecticides, as this sterilizes monarchs and many more unintended, vulnerable, interdependent native species. Glyphosate and neonics are two of the three reasons why monarch butterfly populations have crashed by about 90 per cent since 2000; the third is buying avocados (during boreal wintertime) from Mexico, where cartels are razing oyamel fir forests monarchs depend on for overwintering, to plant clandestine avocado orchards to fill that mass-demand for Superb Owl guac. There’s a fourth reason, but that heads into PRSI country. [UPDATE: No, heck it. All that ethanol in vehicle fuel comes from mono-cropping corn (carbon-positive af!) — not for food or feed, but for combusting. Not only is this mono-cropping depleting aquifers and adding even more CO₂, but the mono-cropping farms also depend on glyphosate-resistant corn seed supplied by glyphosate producers. Glyphosate-spraying can then proceed. It wipes out most native milkweed along the migratory route between México and temperate regions of North America.]

UPDATE EDIT bonus: what a monarch egg, on a milkweed leaf, looks like. It’s about the size of a head of a pin; if healthy, it’s cream-coloured , or, if about to hatch, the top turns silvery-grey.

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Not too much…

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This is a black metal keyboard/laptop stand I got a couple weeks ago, with the LCD light I got from Amazon about a week and a half ago. The stand didn't work out quite the way I wanted it to for the light so I came up with a way to make it work.

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Two brackets and some JB-Weld from Home Depot. Let it cure for 24 hours before using it. This stand is only ever going to be for the keyboard so to my mind, I am not 'ruining it' for laptop use by putting these brackets in. I have PLENTY of other laptop stands available and this stand only cost $13. So…

You'll notice the power cord attached to the MBA. I don't care for that so a USB extension cable I ordered last night should take care of that part. Going to run it to the USB hub under the desk so the MBA gets that port back and it doesn't look 'ugly'.

Final note, the clips for the light are plastic and simply resting on to of the brackets so that can be removed at any time with zero effort. I will also be visiting JoAnne today (a hobby shop) for a short and thin piece of wood that will slot in behind the brackets. That way I can put stuff (like pens) behind the lightbar.

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EDIT: The brackets were a particular choice. I needed them high enough so that the lightbar rose above the keyboard enough to be useful (right at keyboard height makes the whole thing useless), but still 'low profile' enough that it's not interfering with the MBA screen.
 
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The only things I’ve done this morning with an Early Intel Mac is to log data on the latest cohort of migratory monarch butterflies* to emerge (eclose) from their chrysalids — three this morning — and to listen to Quincy’s “The Streetbeater” because no reason
Monarch Butterflies are incredible! their color patterns are like nothing else on this planet!
 
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So, got my wood strip, cut it to size. Added a little bumper (the wood stick) so it's easier to get the pen out. Got a couple of mini u-clamps coming tomorrow so I can tighten this down. Then my unapologetically mickey mouse creation should be done.

But hey, at least this time I'm not using scrap cardboard from old USPS boxes.

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Just stumbled across this: they’re tapping into the CPU’s PCIe 3.0 lanes: full speed. :eek:


I remember @dosdude1 installing one of the early production/prototypes into a late 2011 A1297 last year.

It’s a radical trade-off — a bit too much so for me — but if one prefers to have the NVMe m.2 blade as an internal volume (and not an external volume, via Thunderbolt), it’s a good way to re-purpose the optical drive bay area.
 
I remember @dosdude1 installing one of the early production/prototypes into a late 2011 A1297 last year.
I saw that but the NevBolt bit must have slipped my mind. Thanks for the heads-up.

[…] if one prefers to have the NVMe m.2 blade as an internal volume (and not an external volume, via Thunderbolt) […]
Doing this on a 2011 MBP would still be faster than Thunderbolt 1 — and using an AHCI blade would retain full Snow Leopard compatibility. 😍
 
Bought myself my third Sena Parani. These are 100m USB Bluetooth 4.0 adapters. My E:09 Mini has one ('cause I messed up the BT antenna when swapping in an SSD), my Mac Pro uses one and now this is going to be for my 2011 MBA. The MBA likes to shut off the BT chip for some reason and only a restart fixes it. This will fix THAT.

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Note, that if you get the larger antenna (as my Mini and Mac Pro have) the range increases to 1000m. I opted for the stock antenna this time because the distance from the MBA to my Magic Mouse is less than two feet.
 
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Newest 2011 A1286: as expected, the original drive is toast. This was obviously a BTO machine, with HiRes anti-glare screen and 256GB SSD. 500GB Crucial BX500 installed. The dGPU is flaky, certainly on its way out, so nvram fix applied. Running @dosdude1 Catalina like a champ.
Today's other task is to order another BX500 and 8GB DDR3-1066 RAM for BiL's incoming 2009 17" MBP upgrade job.
 
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