25 years ago, in a prior life, I was a fully ticketed mechanical engineer. When doing my tickets, my final "thesis" was about bearings. There is more wear on a bearing in the first minute-90 seconds of operation, than in the subsequent 200 miles of driving when the engine (should) achieve operating temperature. There are many variables, including bearing type/construction, lubricant type/viscosity range, and the condition of the oil filter and oil pump efficiency.

If it is a newish car and you don't intend to keep it long, OK, why should you care? If, however, you either have limited funds, or, like me, you have restored an historic vehicle, then you may wish to be more aware of these things. The US military used to routinely build fires under the crankcases of their trucks for 15 minutes prior to even attempting a start in arctic conditions.

If any of my old (military) trucks have been standing awhile, I will turn the engine over a few times before turning on the ignition. The best engineering cliche I ever heard:

Oil is cheaper than metal.
;)

I completely agree. I simply don't believe that idling (slower moving parts/less lubrication) vs. revving (faster moving parts/enhanced lubrication) the engine makes much difference during those first 90 seconds. It's the engine warming to a good operating temperature that best limits the wear. A warmer engine reduces the viscosity of the oil, and allows the parts to expand to their intended sizes (and clearances).

25 years ago, in a prior life, I was a fully ticketed mechanical engineer. When doing my tickets, my final "thesis" was about bearings. There is more wear on a bearing in the first minute-90 seconds of operation, than in the subsequent 200 miles of driving when the engine (should) achieve operating temperature. There are many variables, including bearing type/construction, lubricant type/viscosity range, and the condition of the oil filter and oil pump efficiency.

If it is a newish car and you don't intend to keep it long, OK, why should you care? If, however, you either have limited funds, or, like me, you have restored an historic vehicle, then you may wish to be more aware of these things. The US military used to routinely build fires under the crankcases of their trucks for 15 minutes prior to even attempting a start in arctic conditions.

If any of my old (military) trucks have been standing awhile, I will turn the engine over a few times before turning on the ignition. The best engineering cliche I ever heard:

Oil is cheaper than metal.
;)

Back to security…
 

Today, at an Apple store, I saw a MacBook Air.

The presumption of Apple is florid, outrageous!!!!

Of COURSE it needs to be secure. Apple invented their own alarming gizmo that is a pass-through on the USB port, that alarms if disconnected.

But I? You? The chow? We can go, uh, jump in the lake. Apple does not SELL this device (but they put it on the MacBook Air units in their stores, to keep them from flying out the door).

I? I have to take the thing into the bathroom with me and decide where I want to put it in the bathroom, if I plan to ever see it again after I emerge from the bathroom.

Bah!

This is a toy for people so rich they either do no substantial work outside their residence, or have an office to which access is severely restricted by armed guards, alert minions, &c.

Wow. No place for me to lock it, but Apple locks it with a not for sale gizmo. They acknowledge the problem, and spit in my eye.

Am I bitter?

You decide.

Uh, Apple does support USB booting
 

tlarkin: As of Intel, you can boot Mac OS X, at least OS X 10.4.11, from USB.

The USB device must have the _GUID partition map_.

Not only is this in Help, but I do it. I have Lexar Jump (some fast little thumb drive) and it is my maintenance boot volume, with DiskWarrior & the usual suspects on it.

Boots Intel Macs just fine.

Did I misunderstand your thrust? (Three pages back --- sorry, I took a nap)

An Arctic toast
 

Florida?
Isn’t that the God-forsaken place (no, I’m not thinking of politics) where clothes go moldy just from lying in a drawer or hanging too packed in a closet?

I studied at UC Davis, where temperatures frequently hit 100–110˚F in the summer. That heat was pure agony! But it least it wasn’t humid at the same time.

Right now it’s sunny and a comfortable 40˚F here in Bergen, Norway, but it hit 50˚F a few days ago. The snow has melted (for now), my car started like a dream this morning -- and I’m about to take a coffee break in our garden where the Helleborus and the Galanthus (snowdrops) are in full flower. In this mild weather, other bulbs and perennials are coming fast.

A coffee toast to all ye sweltering Floridians!


Spring greetings,
ArcticStones


Back on topic: Sumleilmus, I would love to see Apple make that security device available to end users.
.

The only problem I see with this (and thanks for the update on the usb boot) is that if you have a small thumb drive formatted with HFS+ it will cause issues. You never want a small disk formatted in a journaling file system because it can cause issues if it runs out of free space. Not to mention that OS X requires like, what at least 8 gigs to install?

Striving for the right … tone
 

tlarkin,

It's hard for me to understand what you mean. My thumb drive is nominally 4 GB. Because I use it just for maintenance, during installation I deselected almost all options, and afterwards I trashed most apps not relevant to my purpose. In terms of journaling and the size of the file system, it's true that it sometimes complains that it is nearly full during large updates such as 10.4.11, but after such an update, and removal by me of programs I don't need, it becomes happy again.

Screenshots could have been counterfeited in a graphics editor, but are genuine:

http://idisk.mac.com/billpollard/Pub...will_boot_.jpg

But -- back to topic -- Apple should have understood the implicit disrespect for their customers that would attach to their inventing, using, and withholding from sale a means of securing the MacBook Air in their stores while making it very inconvenient for the purchaser of such a unit to try to secure it in his/her momentarily unattended office, &c. Will they offer a neck pouch for it, so one can hang it around one's neck when in the bathroom?

Here are some videos of the new MacBook Air SSD booting and launching apps. Thought you all might want to check it out.

I doubt it. Since the MacBook Air is a laptop, I presume Apple wants a say in your position and posture when using said facilities. ;)

No gigabit ethernet, no fast bus optical drive. Well, it's cute and it's small, and it's very tightly engineered. That seems to be the trend…

I won't argue the god-forsakenness of this state, but I haven't had any problems with spontaneous mold growth with my clothes.

:eek: 40˚F?!?!? Anything below 60˚F is frigid. Below 40˚ during waking hours is simply uninhabitable! ;) (I'm getting tough in my old age. When I lived in Hawaii, 69˚F was the point at which a heavy winter coat was required.)

It did reach 90˚F last week, which was very nice. :)

Probably just a (sub)urban legend. ;)

I've had spontaneous mould growth but it was in winter ( 4-15˚C ) in an unheated ground floor unit where we were getting a lot of condensation on the inside of exterior walls. Anything left resting against a wall would develop a growth within a couple of days.