The Unofficial Mac

Thursday, 25 December 2008

Moved out

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Thursday, 24 July 2008

The device failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media

I have been getting the error "The device failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media" when burning a DVD on my MacBook Pro for a while. I have read around the web to see if there are some answers. There are answers ranging from using a DVD cleaner to change the international settings. I decided to do in my own way so I first tried to reset the SMC (System Management Controller) on my MacBook Pro by shutting it down, disconnecting the power, removing battery and then pressing the power button for 5 seconds.
After the Mac is powered up I re-started the burn process and it is now complete as I am writing this. I am not sure whether this can solve your problems though it solved mine.
Good luck, and thanks for all the fish.

Google Knol

It is that time of the year again. I am urged to start writing, on something, anything.

Google has just unveiled a new software called the Google Knol. It is some sort of a wiki, however each writer can identify herself. The idea is to provide information from experts with their signature underneath.

It is very similar to a focused blog or a personal webpage on a specific subject, though you get the chance of a higher ranking as this page would definitely be linked to. Also I have read somewhere that writers can publish their work and use Google contextual ads with their articles to earn some Google Adsense money.

I am not sure how this will be received by the community. However I think that the close moderation, a setting forbidding other users to edit the content will somehow decrease the value as your comments will be everything you can say for the subject (yet I am not sure if it is possible to add multiple content over the same subject). Also the site is very slow currently, however with a nice Googly touch on the design.