I did some more research and got the MacBook Pro happy living on the Windows workgroup. Of course, TopDawg (a Windows7 machine) isn't even completely happy living on a mere 'workgroup' with the other Windows machines. In fact, it's apparently the most finicky machine on my network now. Everything else seems happy to be there - even the MBP - but oh well. I can finally dump some tunes from my stash onto the MBP so I can travel with it next month and not be completely devoid of music. I usually have some tunes playing via WinAmp while I'm surfing or checking e-mail... mostly just because I can.

The MBP can see everything on BigDawg and can 'see' TopDawg,' but can't get in. TopDawg can do whatever it needs to do wherever, and so can BigDawg for the most part. So dumping or grabbing files from the Windows environment is no biggie... just like getting into BigDawg from the MBP... but TopDawg from there not so much.

Oh well - it's working well enough... for now.

A few months ago, I picked up an HP Color LaserJet CP1518ni and hooked it up to BigDawg, my Windows XP box that's been a trooper for several years. The printer's happy and works like a champ.

Then, I ran into some issues trying to get TopDawg (running Windows7 RC) to print. After some research, I followed some directions that had me crackin' a couple of Registry settings and everything was finally working - a Windows7 (RC) box printing across the network to a Color LaserJet mounted to an XP box and shared out to the network. Good stuff... just like it's supposed to (albeit with some Registry hacks that people shouldn't have to do).

As I mentioned in February, Microsoft decides they will turn-off support for Windows7 RC in March - no biggie... I'll just run without support. Wrong, what Mr. Gates meant to say was, "No more support for Windows7 RC... and it won't work anymore either without nagging the crap out of you every two hours to send me your money." Oh... well... since you put it THAT way... Bleh.

Yeah... I caved and bought Windows7 Ultimate for TopDawg. What can I say, I like Windows7 so far, and couldn't see going back to XP full-time. So you'd think it would be a matter of just dropping the Windows7 DVD in and let it install all the new stuff onto the hard drive and no worries about losing anything. Wrong. It demanded a complete reload and wiped everything out (OK... well, it renamed all of the important stuff into something that was a PITA to find).

After getting Windows7 running like it's supposed to (which is pretty nice, BTW), I found the need to print something. No problem - I'll just download the latest Windows7 drivers from HP and install them. Silly me - there are still no Windows7 drivers for this printer. Huh?! OK - well, I should be able to use standard drivers since the printer's installed on an XP machine, right? Nope - Win7 won't even recognize the fact that there's even a printer shared out there on the network. What?! Seriously?! Crap!

So I lived with just saving my print stuff to a share on the BigDawg and printed from there... but that's kind of a hassle, so I decided to give this whole thing another shot today. After several attempts at re-downloading the same stuff I already had, re-installing those drivers again, and checking all of the sharing parameters for the network, I went online and did some more research into installing and printing across the network. Turns out, that Windows7 STILL does not really work and play well with others (no doubt, Microsoft's attempt to herd the sheeple away from anything XP or older).

Not having any part of that (and not wanting to buy another $300 copy of Windows7 for BigDawg), I did some more reading and came up with installing the printer to a completely new port, and manually programming the network share for the printer into its 'location' entry (an old 'XP, "don't-know-what-else-to-do-to-get-this-thing-running" trick' for network printing). That seems to have solved it. Pisser that it has to be such a jacked-up way to set things up though. Most people will wind up paying The Geek Squad WAY too much money to have them attempt the same thing, give up, then sell them a new printer when there's nothing wrong with the one they already have.

Still gotta get my MacBook Pro to be happy living in the Windows network environment, though. Maybe I'll throw it a bone and install Unbuntu or Fedora onto BigDawg and make it my central server. I don't know... maybe later, we'll see.

So after a couple days of now having to squint while looking at the CRT (after having gotten the MBP, I decided to start checking out newer LCDs. I was wanting a 24" widescreen, but there weren't any to be had locally (I prefer checking them out in-person and walking out with one if that's what I decide on).

I researched the Viewsonic, Dell, HP, and LG LCDs that Best Buy had and went to the store Friday night. The biggest one they had was a 23" widescreen... so I figured that would be good enough. In watching the canned video on all of the screens, I was disappointed with just about every one of them that was in the price range I wanted had bad refresh lag, leaving artifacts as things zipped across the screen, or were not all that much brighter and crispier than my CRT. Then I saw the LG E2350V LED-backlit LCD was the only one not doing any of that - it was pretty sweet, in fact. Then I saw the Samsung SyncMaster in action (the almost-$400 screen) and it wasn't even as bright and smooth as the LG E2350V I was looking at. So, I saw the price was only about $60 more than the non-LED-backlit LG I was looking at, so I decided to get it.

I got it home, plugged it in and was really happy when Windows 7 discovered the bigger screen and auto-adjusted the resolution to max. SWEET!

Now I'm finally up-to-speed with my machine not having a clunky old CRT monitor dominating my desk. All I can say to my friends who pick on me about some of the techie things I do - I'm glad I waited and didn't just go out and snag the 1st-gen LCDs... the LED-backlit is the only way to go.

So a few weeks ago, a buddy asked about helping him repair a MacBook Pro (A1226) that he fished out of a dumpster - the LCD had two 1-inch-wide vertical 'dead zone' stripes blocking part of the desktop. It also had a password lock from the previous owner who tossed it out after he [most likely] dropped it. So I brought it home and worked on getting past the password - no biggee. Mac OSX is very Linux-like, so it was no problem to reset the password from a command prompt. After I informed my friend that the password was cracked, he ordered a new LED-backlit LCD to replace the damaged screen.

A few days later, it showed up. So I got onto powerbookmedic.com and watched repair videos to see how to tear it apart. I had the LCD replaced and the whole thing all back together after about an hour and was playing with the machine in no time. The next day, I took the machine back to him and asked what he was going to do with it. He said his daughter wanted a Mac and he was going to give it to her. She also had a newer Dell laptop that she might be interested in selling, so I told him to let me know what she decided to do - LapDawg isn't getting any younger, after all. I told him if she wanted to get rid of the Dell to make me a deal... and if she didn't like the MacBook Pro, to let me know and I'd give him what he had into the machine so far... which he was cool with.

I got a call the very next Saturday (I gave him the machine back on Tuesday) saying she couldn't get used to using the Mac and asked if I was still interested. Which... YEAH - of course! He was wanting to get his $375 back, which was fine with me. So, he brought it in the following Monday, paid him, and took possession of the machine. $375 for a slightly-used 2.5-yr-old $2200 machine... I can live with that.

So far, so good. It's an awesome little laptop. The LED-backlit LCD is WAY brighter and crispier than my 21" CRT... which is making me want a new monitor for the desktop since it looks all tired compared to the MBP's new screen... kinda like when you buy some brand-new white sneakers and wear old white socks with them. Blah. Oh well, 24" LCDs are relatively cheap these days.

I spent the evening trying to get the the Mac to live on my Windows network so I can share files and printers and stuff. I haven't quite gotten it all squared away yet, but it's fun playing with a new toy. After poking around on this machine a bit, I've also discovered some great applications that the previous owner installed and looks like never used. Adobe CS3, Microsoft Office (at least Word and Excel that I've noticed so far), iTunes (of course - which I'm jamming to 'KISS - Rock and Roll All Night' on one of the streaming 80s Rock Stations). I also watched '24' on the machine when the cable company scrambled my DVR's channels this past Monday evening which caused it to not record.

I also snagged a nice Logitech M305 wireless laser mouse to use with it since I'm not quite used to the one-button mouse thing (Mac weirdness...). It installed right onto the machine and works great. Now I can even right-click and scroll and everything (like things are supposed to be) without having to do some weird three-key salutes or whatever other kind of Mac-robatics needed for the same functions that Windows users are accustomed to.

I must say I'm very pleased and quite impressed with the machine so far. It seems to be very powerful and of course having newer equipment never hurts. My other laptop (LapDawg) is a 2004 model Dell Inspiron 600M and is showing its age. So, I guess I have scored yet another awesome 'puter deal. Now, I just need to get it broken in and integrated into my network so I can dump my music and other cool stuff onto it for when I'm feeling like being a laptop user.