Blog | OSX | mechdrew

Good news, folks! meklort has put together the 0.8.3 release candidate 5 for NetbookInstaller and NetbookBootMaker. Among the important changes in RC5 (compared to RC4) are a faster booting time, fixed dsdt.aml generator, temporary fixes for the Dell Mini 9 audio and 10v BIOS A06 issues, and rudimentary GMA 500 support for the Dell Mini 10 and similar netbooks. Remember, this is a release candidate, and not every bug has been squashed yet. But it is recommended that this be used in place of any reference to NetbookInstaller or NetbookBootMaker in any of the guides.

Learn more over at Meklort’s Blog

Since this will most likely be made into the final release for 0.8.3, I will be updating the guides this next week to reflect this change. I’m hoping to have them done by Christmas, but I can’t guarantee it so please be patient. Update: Please, please, please DO NOT contact me about bugs, feature requests or adding models to the software. I don’t do the programming!!!

Update: It’s over, we have a winner! Thanks to everyone who bid on this Mini. I may be posting a Mini 10v soon, so be on the lookout!

This is it, folks: after a long, soap opera-esque journey, my Dell Mini 9 is finally back up for auction! I’ve resolved everything as far as I can tell with eBay and Apple (I hate how both treated me like an idiot during the process) so this time it should go end with an actual sale.

Just to recap: this is a normal Dell Mini 9 with the standard Windows XP Home preinstalled, a 16 GB solid state drive (SSD) and 1 GB of RAM. It served me well for many months, I just don’t need it anymore.

For anyone wondering why my auction is all of sudden missing, there’s a stupid answer for that. Here’s a section of the e-mail eBay sent to inform me of its deletion:

“The listing was removed because it violated eBay policy.

The rights owner or an agent authorized to act on behalf of the rights owner, Apple, Inc., notified eBay that this listing violates intellectual property rights. When eBay receives a report of this type of violation, we remove the listing to comply with the law.

Only copyright owners can copy, distribute, perform, or publicly display their work. eBay doesn’t allow sellers to list unauthorized copies of copyrighted works, even if they’re unpublished. Unauthorized copies include (but aren’t limited to) backup, pirated, duplicated, or bootlegged copies.”

Uh, hi eBay. Did you check the freaking auction? Mac OS X was not included! It was coming with Windows XP installed ONLY. The same Windows XP that is licensed for use only on that specific computer. Imbeciles. The best part is that supposedly Apple contacted them regarding this. I doubt that very much, but if they did that is doubly stupid.

So while I try to get this sorted out with eBay, if anyone would like to send me an e-mail with an offer for my Dell Mini 9, just use the Contact page.

A few months ago I upgraded from my Mini 9 to a Mini 10v. The Mini 9 is a great machine, but I don’t use it anymore and could use the money. As such I’ve posted the Mini 9 up on eBay for sale. You can find all of the details on the listing.

I held on to it for so long because it actually has a little sentimental value to me. It was my first netbook, and my first real “hackintosh” (I hate that word). It served me so well up until I upgraded, otherwise I would still be using it today. I wrote many of my beginning guides on its somewhat cramped keyboard, and without it I wouldn’t be in the glorious world of Mac OS X so heavily as I am today.

Feel free to bid on it. And as a bonus for those reading on this blog, I still have the Apple logo pasted over the Dell Logo on the lid, I can keep it there if you want and you are the winning bidder.