If you are on a 3G iPad and check your “Cellular Data” and click “View Account” and get a USIM9997 error, it could be a simple fix.  I was connected to the internet via WiFi since it is fast.  Apparently if you are not connected via the AT&T network, you will get an error.  So, it turns out that turning on “Cellular Data” so that you are using the AT&T 3G network fixed the problem for me.  Just a helpful hint.  😉

Pictures of un-boxing (e.g. un-packing) the Apple TV 2 for those of you who are interested:

Continued… Continue reading Un-boxing the Apple TV 2 →

After testing the first version of the Seagate 3TB with xbench on a 12-core Mac Pro, here are the results.  It should be noted that this is the first version of the 3TB Seagate Barracuda XT and that the widely available versions due out soon(?) will likely have improved performance characteristics.

Four 2TB Seagate Barracudas on RAID Card, RAID 5:

3TB Seagate Barracuda on RAID Card (single disk, not RAID 5):

3TB Seagate Barracuda Drive not on RAID Card:

1TB Western Digitial Black not on RAID:

3TB Drives in a Mac Pro RAID Card show up as 2.2 TB in RAID Utility and Disk Utility.  Screen Continue reading 3TB Drives in a Mac Pro RAID Card →

We’ve been experimenting with the Seagate Barracuda XT 3000GB on various Macintosh configurations. In the past one could take out, for example, four 500 GB drives and replace them with four 1TB, 1.5TB, or 2TB internal drives.

The result for four 2TB drives configured in RAID 5 is a drive that is about 5.23TB with redundancy.

With the release of 3TB internal hard drives, such as the Seagate Barracuda XT above, many Windows PCs can’t make use of more than approximately 2.2TB due to the use of MBR (see 1, 2). Apple on the other hand, has been using the GUID partition table (GPT) for some time (since 10.4.0 in early 2005) so the Mac OS X should be able to make use of larger than 2.2 TB hard drives.

In some respects the tests so far demonstrate this. The results so far:
1. On a 2008 Mac Pro (MacPro3,1 Quad-Core Intel Xeon, 3 GHz, 2 processors, 8 cores) with RAID Card (1.00, M-2.0.5.5), the drives only show up as 2.2 TB.
2. On a 2008 Mac Pro (MacPro3,1) without the RAID Card, the drives show up as 3.0 TB.
3. On a 2010 Mac Pro (MacPro5,1) with RAID Card (2.00, E-1.3.2.0, 0018) the drives show up as 2.2 TB.
4. On a 2010 Mac Pro (MacPro5,1) without the RAID Card, the drives show up as a full 3.0 TB.

In short, Mac OS X appears to have no difficultly using hard disks that are larger than 2.2TB, except when those drives are connected to an Apple RAID Card.  Apple does warn “Do not assume that the block size is always going to be 512 bytes” and does not support SSD with the current RAID card.  Apple states that “Solid-state drives are not compatible with the Mac Pro RAID Card in either RAID or Enhanced JBOD mode.”  My hypothesis as of now is that Apple did not heed their own warnings on block sizes on the Apple RAID card which is why hard drives attached to the RAID Card seem to be limited to 2.2TB.

Some performance notes on the 3TB Seagate Barracuda’s will follow shortly.

I’ve been running an iPhone 4 with iOS 4.0.0 and 4.0.1 on the T-Mobile USA network for about 2.5 weeks now so thought I’d give an update:

Here are the steps so far:
1. Had to cut down my mini-sim to micro-sim size. That was not difficult. If there is interest, I’ll post the pictures from the process. Took about 20-25 minutes to get it to the correct dimensions, primarily shaving off the last little slivers to make it fit snuggly.
2. Had to get it from Europe (UK) so it was factory unlocked. Not difficult, but not subsidized. However, if you think you spend $70-100 more per month on the plan (about $154 from AT&T to get a plan close to what I have with T-Mobile) it does not take long to make up the difference. And you end up with an unlocked phone so you can use it anywhere.
3. Works nicely except only on EDGE, not 3G – presumably due to the frequency differences. In theory, it should be relatively easy for Apple to open up the new frequency (e.g. no additional antenna/chip needed etc, just tuning to another frequency like a regular radio). Hopefully the chips support it, if Apple wanted to support T-Mobile and it didn’t violate their exclusivity with AT&T.
4. No visual voicemail. Not a big deal so far for me.
5. T-Mobile on iPhone 3GS (on 3.x and 4.0.0) was having trouble receiving MMS, but sending okay (e.g. Google “the media content was not included due to a picture resolution or message size restriction”). Not sure if iPhone 4 running 4.01 is still doing it.
6. Since it uses EDGE and not 3G, I can’t using internet/mail etc while on the phone. Not a big deal for me.
7. Gets equivalent or better reception in the areas (Florida only so far) I use it with iPhone 3GS’s on AT&T – e.g. same areas, bars etc. (EDGE vs 3G of course).
8. iPhone 4 has performed equal or better in reception and dropped calls in the 2.5 weeks I’ve been running it on T-Mobile US as compared to previously with iPhone 3GS.

All in all, it (and 3GS and 3G) have worked great on T-Mobile USA with the exception of 3G vs EDGE so far.

Worth repeating:

Rep. Paul Introduces Legislation to Abolish Withholding Taxes
“There are a lot of questions that people can raise about how the tax system in this country is structured, how the tax code is structured, but that’s why we have a democracy. We have a Congress and everybody has the right to go talk to their congressman or senator about what they like and don’t like about the tax code.”  IRS Commissioner Charles Rossotti, commenting on small business owners challenging withholding tax rules, CBS 60 Minutes II, Tuesday April 3

Congressman Ron Paul agrees with the Commissioner- taxpayers do have a right to present their grievances to Congress. Paul also believes it is time for Congress to Continue reading Ron Paul on Withholding taxes →