The MacBook Pro heat problem - is it the CPU or the GPU

I know two people who bought an early MacBook Pro. 100% of the machines died, both have been rebuilt under warranty.

Macintouch's quality survey indicated a high mortality rate on the early MacBook Pro (the 17" has done well though). Apple tried to launch with the original PowerBook enclosure and they evidently failed. Lots of pain for the early adopters, but Apple people are used to that.

The usual suspect is the Intel CPU. Did it fail to live up to the MIPS/watt hype? I wonder about the GPU though. How much of the MacBook Pro's heat problems are from the Intel CPU vs. the GPU? Does thermal efficiency favor integrated GPU/CPU solutions or not?

I'd like to see a discussion on this. I'm looking.

Microsoft LifeCam VX-6000 - personal impressions

[See Update. As of 8/9/06 this is NOT ready for use.]

Microsoft's latest hardware product is now available at Best Buy. I don't know if you get it anywhere else, Amazon still has it on wait list. I've taken it out of the box and run through some basic paces. Historically these products have been popular in unseemly markets, so I feel obliged to say that I bought it to transmit hand sketches and whiteboard work from my office to a remote office.

I tried this years ago with a Logitech USB 1 webcam and the results were almost good enough. I coul d see then that USB 2 and twice the resolution would suffice, though I thought in-device MP4 compression would be required for high frame video. Happily I don't care about frame rate -- 1 frame per second would do. I care about edge discrimination, contrast, noise and resolution.

First of all, I can recommend this review: Microsoft LifeCam VX-6000 - Review. Excellent job. Good comment on the wide-angle lens choice -- it's a waste for face-to-face viewing in typical settings. Additional impressions:

1. This is almost pre-release. You can't download the installer software yet, and the included disk is version 1.0. That's pretty raw. Parts of the software don't work. The button that's supposed to post to the Windows Live Blog does nothing - no error message, no action, con configuration files. Actually, this is pre-release.

2. The install of the basic webcam software takes a long time. The executable file only holds 40MB, but the CD has about 150MB in the lifecam folder (compressed). My guess is that this software was designed for Vista and it installs a lot of baggage, including some Vista video libraries, when run on XP.

3. Microsoft should have included a lens cap. It would have cost a dime.

4. The hi-res video is not supported by Microsoft's chat software. It's probably only useful right now for local video storage.

5. Don't try this with a slow machine. The software moves like molasses (another hint that it's Vista style software) on my XP box. True it's a few years old, but this is the first thing that's made it seem slow. (Note: I don't do games.)

6. It doesn't work on a Mac. Not recognized.

7. If the lens is focused you can read size 14 point letters on a sheet of paper held about 1-2 feet from the lens. That's impressive. It would be interesting to compare it to Apple's iSight.

8. The lens/software combination is better in low light and better at adapting to light levels than I'd expected.

More later ...

Update 8/7: Beware shareware webcam products. After installing, testing, and deleting two of them, I discovered a worm infection.

Update 8/9/06: It installed well on my home machine. On my pure, clean, office laptop however, it produced the XP Blue Screen of Death (STOP error) on launch. I don't remember ever seeing the XP BSOD. I think it's produced by an 'inner ring' memory error, something that only device drivers can do. There's something odd about the device driver approach for LifeCam, I'm suspicious that it's a Vista approach that Microsoft has hacked to sell this device into the XP base.

This is what one sees in white on blue text:

A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer ...

STOP: VX6000xp.sys
kmixer.sys

Happens every time on launch of LifeCam (is it doing some kind of dynamic device driver hack?). When you get these errors, btw, you get to file a special bug report with Microsoft on system restart.

I restored the system to health per Microsoft troubleshooting recommendations:

System restore: restored to the point set by the LifeCam install.
sfc /scanonce: ran sfc.exe to verify core XP files were intact. See xp resource kit, system file tools

I'll try again in September when Microsoft says they'll put the installer files online.

Update 7/22/2008: This never worked satisfactorily in XP, though I did finally find some device drivers that sort of worked with Office Communicator 2003. I suspect Microsoft abandoned XP support for this device. A crummy Microsoft experience all around.

Praise Be! Google ads saved locations to maps

Overdue!

Official Google Blog: Saved locations on Google Maps

To get started, click on the 'Saved Locations' link in the upper right corner of the site and sign in to your Google Account. If you're already signed in, this link will take you to your saved locations list -- Google Maps will automatically save every location you search for. You can also go to the Saved Locations list to disable auto-saving of locations or to add, modify, or delete previously-saved locations.

From here, you can also add a label (your choice of an easy-to-remember name, e.g.'home') to any of your saved locations. The next time you start entering an address or a label into Google Maps, we'll offer to auto-complete it for you if it's in your saved locations. Auto-completion is also available when you're searching for businesses. If you've labeled the address '1600 Amphitheatre Pky, Mountain View, CA' as 'work' (as some Googlers would), when you start typing [pizza near work], we'll offer to auto-complete it as [pizza near 1600 Amphitheatre Pky, Mountain View, CA].

Here’s a tip: When a list of auto-completions is offered, you can hit the Tab key to select the first one.

It's late, but they did do a terrific job. The default is to save every location, which you can then go back and tag. Another brick in the wall ...

TinkerTool System

I came across this via ATPM, an OS X insider site. TinkerTool System does sound appealing, and it's not much money. I'll download and give it a trial. I like when they say:

The latest version comes with a new deinstallation helper for applications or other software components which had been installed by "drag and drop", a tool to eliminate unneeded code support in Universal Applications, and a feature to manipulate the Services menu of Mac OS X

TinkerTool System is very different from other maintenance applications because it never uses any scripts and is fully integrated into the security architecture of Mac OS X. For example, it never asks for your password itself but lets Mac OS X do this when necessary, always verifying whether an operation you have selected is allowed to be performed with your current user credentials or not.

Somehow that language is soothing ...

Update: TinkerTool has a very sophisticated system for allowing evaluation while preventing piracy. So sophisticated it wouldn't let me evaluate it. Delete.

Screenshot Plus: another useful (free) widget

Glory be! If this keeps up I'll have to start using widgets. Sounds a bit more conventient that the built in screenshot options, and it's free.

Screenshot Plus Widget @ osx.iusethis.com

Take screen captures quickly and easily. Screenshot Plus can take full screen captures, grab portions of the screen, and even capture windows, desktop icons, and other widgets. Captures may be saved to the clipboard or to the hard drive, or they may be imported to any application directly from the widget.

Captures may be saved in the formats: png, tiff, jpg, jp2, pdf, gif, bmp, or pict.

Update: Ugh. It just hung with a "loading" message. I suspect it didn't like my non-admin default account. This one is for the trash.

Apple's hardware reliability problems

Apple has significant reliability problems with its new Intel based laptops. The heat issues are disappointing. I wonder if we won't see devices worth buying until Apple switches to the Intel CPUs. If my iBook dies, however, I will buy a MacBook. This Macintouch data is about the best we're going to get from anyone. Emphases mine:

MacBook/MacBook Pro Initial Reliability

... Based on what we've seen in this survey, we'd be cautious buying a white or black MacBook until Apple more effectively addresses the heat, noise and trackpad button issues. We'd be reasonably confident buying a brand new 15' MacBook Pro, but keep an eye out for sleep and shutdown problems, and call AppleCare the moment they appear. We would have no hesitation at all buying the 17' MacBook Pro, with or without glossy display...

The iBook G4 was a remarkably stable machine. Rocky times ahead!

Google's web albums -- Access from OS X

Google now has an iPhoto plugin to facilitate uploads to Google's Picasa Albums. Like much of their OS X work it was a 20 percenter project. I'll certainly try it out.

Update 9/3/06:

I uploaded 600MB of images. Worked great. Obviously I paid the $25 or so for the 9GB limit, but that could go pretty darned fasts. Albums are very simple, no cusomization really. RSS feed for each album; iPhoto renders it as a photocast but only shows the thumbs, no way for iPhoto to get the whole thing. XP users can install Picasa and download an entire album, no way for OS X users to do that. Upload was very fast. Can download full res images. Way they display album is different -- no paging, everything on one page. I kind of like it. Good slideshow. No way to order prints.