Technical Blog of Richard Hughes

Long shot: Anybody got any advice on how to use a tool such as SoftIce to log all EC and ACPI accesses during the Windows XP suspend? I can't believe I'm reverse engineering a closed source windows DLL just to find out why resume won't work in Linux…

Hypothetically, if I was to buy a new laptop for geeky work I'm thinking I might go crazy: An Apple Macbook.
I'm avoiding the Macbook Pro due to the non-free video and significant price increase, and also that I could do with something more portable than what I have now.

So far, I'm thinking:

• [X] Dual core, lots of memory
• [X] Suspend and Hibernate work
• [X] Screen brightness works
• [?] Ambient light sensor
• [X] DVD burner
• [  ] Wireless without ndiswrapper
• [?] Second monitor out working with VGA and DVI
• [X] Intel GMA graphics card
• [?] XRANDR support for video driver
• [X] Bluetooth that works
• [X] Integrated camera
• [X] Can blast OSX off the drive completely.
• [?] Can run xen or vmware

So, does anybody know if:

1. You can retrofit another pcie wifi card?
2. madwifi_ng will actually work reliably in F7?
3. the super-reflective screen will annoy me?
4. you can run vmware or xen on a macbook?
5. the macbook has a brightness sensor like the pro?
6. The keyboard is any good?
7. You can actually cope in GNOME having one mouse button?

Now, I'm thinking I might buy this in the US rather than the UK… It's still significantly cheaper (about £200) even after taking into account the stonking exchange rate. Bad plan?

Anyone got any success or horror stories? Thanks.

p.s. two exams down, two to go. So far, so good.