The second time was the charm. The install made it all the way through. It took about 45 minutes in total.

Installing it onto a 40 GB partition, I was left with over 32 GB. That really isn't representative of the OS size because I had the installer migrate over stuff from my Leopard partition automatically. It was really cool. I had my user accounts, preferences, and even applications migrated over. It was really neat. I have never seen a Windows box do that for a side-by-side install. Apple really makes things easy.

I have to admit when Snow Leopard finally started I knew that the OS was different, but it really felt comfortably the same. My Dock was migrated over as well so that looked like exactly the same. Stacks looked different at first when it was loading my stack info into the cache. At first glance the completely re-written Finder didn't look different at all.

Apps fired lightening fast. For almost all I tried it was click-boom. Obviously part of that is a virgin OS, but still it was pretty neat. The big clunker was MS Word. It took 15 seconds or so to start to a blank page.

I duplicated my crashing bug pretty quickly. The slightly redesigned crash reporter already gave me a big pointer. The app is crashing in a dealloc call in the open source networking library I am using. Hopefully it should be an easy fix.

I am going to spend more time tomorrow going through the OS. I looking forward to digging deeper.

I changed my mind about the USB key to do the Snow Leopard install. I got to Best Buy and they seemed to do the 'ole bait and switch. The advertised price for the USB Key I wanted was $20 more. I ended up getting DVD R+ DL discs to do the install. It really makes me question whether the store should have a question mark after it in the marquee. That would be a great Fight Club homework assignment. :)

So far I am not too impressed with Dual Layer DVDs. This was my first attempt to burn a DVD using them and I already made a coaster. $1.50 down the drain.

The second attempt seems to be going a little better. The install starts off with a progress bar which starts at 30 minutes remaining. However, I seem to be stuck at 29 minutes for the last 5 minutes yet the progress bar is moving.

I am in the process of downloading what is rumored to be the last seed of Snow Leopard (10a432) -- aka the GM build. The download is 6.13 GB.

I have to fix a Snow Leopard-only bug for our software and it will be the first time I have setup a single system with two Mac OSs. On my Mac Pro, I have a Boot Camp partition setup alongside my Leopard install, but to me that doesn't really count. Apple took all of the complexity out of the Mac/Windows dual boot equation by making the Boot Camp Assistant. I am curious to see how a side-by-side installation will go.

I've already done the research on the best way to do it. Even though I have a dual layer DVD burner, I think I am going with the USB key install that I found on this blog. DL DVD media is just way too expensive. I could spend the exact same money and go get a 8 Gb USB drive for the amazing low price of $29.99.

I've already created a 40 GB partition on my main drive for the new OS. I want to keep it lean and mean since I don't plan on doing much except fixing this bug and maybe play with the performance. I am hoping to be wowed. I played with Snow Leopard at WWDC, but seeing it run on my year old hardware will make it a reality that the OS is coming soon.

Whew. I am not sure how often the posting will go this week. I just finished my second long 10 hour day of work (stretched over 13 hrs).

August and the first part of September is always the roughest part of the work year for us because we always try to get a release out in mid-September. I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, but there is still a lot to do.

At some point I need to get back to my iPhone project too.

I watched the movie last night on Disc.

I can't say that I really liked it or disliked it. I have never really been a big fan of movies within a movie. I picked it up because of Robert Downey, Jr and he was definitely the best part of the movie. Tom Cruise was good for about 5 seconds after the reality sinks in that he is ug'd down. Jack Black and Matthew McConaughey were throwaways.

I have to say that I had a big laugh when the director meets his untimely end after his big speech, but that is the only big laugh I can remember.

One other thing I got a laugh from was actually the disc's commentary track. At the beginning of the movie there is a faux trailer for where Robert Downey, Jr and Tobey Maguire are doing a love story. The funny line being "Oh look Iron Man and Spider Man are in the same room together".

I give it 2 out of 4 stars.

I watched Valkyrie last night on Blu-Ray. I liked a number of parts of the movie. The supporting cast was fantastically cast. Tom Cruise was just so-so. I am not sure if I just didn't think he was believable as a German officer, but he just didn't seem to fit.

The scene driving into the Wolf's Lair and the other scene where they are driving up the mountain to Hitler's retreat was beautifully filmed. The North African attack was poorly done I thought.

I think I was more intrigued by the part of the film where Kenneth Branaugh's character was trying to get the wine back than most of the setup for Operation Valkyrie. The only three real engaging Tom Cruise scenes was when he had to get Hitler to sign off at his retreat, the aborted assassination attempt at the Wolf's Lair, and trying to get out of the Wolf's Lair after the bomb went off.

I give the movie 2.5 stars out of 4. Likable for the supporting cast, but I can't imagine watching it ever again.

Ouch. Apparently it was my fault that the Prius was acting up. I get a call this morning and they found the problem. When I replaced the battery there was one connector that was not tight enough and it was just enough to cause all of my problems. I usually am good about those things, but considering where the battery is in the Prius (behind the right rear tire well) it doesn't surprise me.

Oh well, at least it was only $50 to fix.

I jump started the Prius today (thankfully that worked) and got it over to the local Toyota dealer for servicing. I figured it would at least be an all day affair so I brought my laptop over with me and worked until my wife had a break from the kid to pick me up.

At 5pm we get a call from the Toyota service rep that they have two guys working on it, but they have no idea why the battery is draining so fast. He said he'd give us a call as soon as they know something.

I don't think my wife has ever liked my car. I love it. It has been my favorite car I've ever owned. She was very quick to call my car a POS when it wouldn't start early in the week. :) All cars have some kind of problem especially when they get past the 5 year mark. Even my first car, a 1981 Toyota Corolla, had electrical problems. It was the Corolla where I first learned how to jump start a battery.

For now I think I am going to cut Toyota a little slack on this one. I know the electrical problem isn't anyway connected to the transmission because the auxiliary battery is what is getting drained. Maybe I will change my tune though when I find out what the problem is.

I read the entire blog from the guy who went into the gym and killed those women. His blog was already taken down but it exists in a Google cache.

It is a long and rather chilling read. The guy definitely had some issues with women. To go almost 20 years without having an intimate relationship is sort of mind boggling in this day and age. And I don't just mean sex. There are so many outlets for meeting people online in a non-threatening environment, establishing a relationship and taking it to the next level.

This quote also kind of stuck with me:

But this guy teaches (and convinced me) you can commit mass murder then still go to heaven.

Obviously this guy is a nut job and is trying to justify what he is about to do. But it is a quote that really puts into my mind something that is logically wrong with morality and religion. I have been to church when a priest has said "even the worst sinners can make it to heaven". That gives hope to those who are honestly seeking redemption, but what about those who haven't committed a sin but plan to do something bad and see that as their "get out of jail card" (like this guy obviously thought). And I am not just talking about murder. When I used to be a believer, I know for a fact that I used that "get out of jail" excuse when I did something that I didn't think was morally correct. I really just think it is a wrong message to send. Actions have consequences and repercussions.

My wife got in the car on Sunday morning to go run an errand. Again it won't turn on. Crap.

A couple of weeks ago I replaced the battery so I was unsure what it could be. So I pop the trunk, flip on the multimeter and the battery is putting out 12 volts. Weird. It is not the 14 volts when I first got the battery, but it is still up there. Certainly enough to get the car to start.

This week I am going to have to figure out how to get it to the dealer. I am not looking forward to that procedure.