jsbowden: (Default)
jsbowden ([personal profile] jsbowden) wrote2005-09-23 04:45 pm

More Mac Daddy...

So it turns out that the firmware in the Pioneer drive in the Mac reports itself as a DVR 117 DVD-RW. This is odd, because the label on the drive (of course I disassembled the machine and checked out the insides before I turned it on, doesn't everyone?) was definately showing DVR 108. That's a shame, the 108 does DVD+/-RW, DVD-R DL, and DVD+R DL, reads every optical medium known to man at the time it was built (so DVD-HD and BluRay don't work in it, but every other DVD and CD format do). Still not a bad drive. Looks equivalent to the DVR-105 in [livejournal.com profile] robeli's machine except faster.

Oh, and I can't believe no one has brought up Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead in the Shakespeare meme. It was such an awesome movie, and it's a great bit in Hamlet as well. I thought of it, but Mercutio's death scene is one of my favorites in all of Willy's works, so I had to go with that.

I started new meds today. So far they seem to be working okay, though I might ask for a slightly higher dosage. I'm still a little edgy. In celebration I wore my Heavily Medicated for Your Safety t-shirt today.

[identity profile] melallen.livejournal.com 2005-09-23 01:58 pm (UTC)(link)
I hope your new meds do not include Effexor. It is of the devil.

While it will make you feel normal for a while, anything that causes the witdrawl symptoms of that drug is obviously Evil. With a capital E.

[identity profile] jsbowden.livejournal.com 2005-09-24 08:17 am (UTC)(link)
It's Adderol(sp?) XR. It's only good for eight hours, so I might also ask to switch to Concerta, since it's good for for 12 - 14. The Strattera was great because it was a 24 hour effect, but the side effects; ick.

[identity profile] corruptedjasper.livejournal.com 2005-09-23 01:59 pm (UTC)(link)
There seem to be a lot of firmware flash thingies around to go from the 117 to the full 108, if you google on DVR-117.

[identity profile] jsbowden.livejournal.com 2005-09-24 08:17 am (UTC)(link)
It's not worth all that. For what this machine is going to be used for, that it has a DVD writer in it at all is superfluous.
kjn: (Default)

[personal profile] kjn 2005-09-24 08:00 am (UTC)(link)
It's not really odd at all. Back in the day when hard drives were small, you could end up with a hard drive of 40-43 MB when you bought a Mac with a drive rated at 40 MB.

It all came down to availability and price when Apple were due to buy their next batch. Then the drives were all formatted to 40 MB, but you could reclaim the wasted space with third-party programs.

What happened here might be that Apple's supplier ran out of DVR 108 drives, and made up the lack with crippled DVR 117 drives.

[identity profile] jsbowden.livejournal.com 2005-09-24 08:19 am (UTC)(link)
Reading the specs on what Apple calls the Superdrive, it's actually exactly what it's supposed to be. I'm just curious why they ship a firmware crippled drive that's obviously a DVR-108. That's the highest rated DVD writer out there right now save for the Plextor PX-16 SA.