The plan was to leave Saturday morning at 5 am from here, the Inland Empire. We met a the usual meeting place and went to go picked up Lawrence. And with a stroke of bad luck, we actually left in time. In leaving so early in the morning, there was no traffic on the way to Pasadena, with the exception with a few dumb-asses on the freeway. At Pasadena, we found the right exit and headed south to the Pasadena Convention Center.

The first order of business…to find parking space. With it being so early, it wasn’t a problem. After parking, the second order of business…to eat breakfast. Most of us didn’t eat breakfast before we left or didn’t eat a good meal for some time. We walked around the Paseo del Coronado looking for a Denny’s, Coco’s or some other family-style restaurant where they serve good breakfast meals. There wasn’t any tp be found. Instead, after walking for some time, we decided to eat breakfast at the Sheraton nearby. The third and final order of business…to find the registration line. After eating our good but pricy meal, we left for the convention center. There was already a line on each side of the main entrance. But it wasn’t the registration line. We were told the line was at the front the of the box office. There was about half a dozen people already in line. So the waiting and testing of patience beings. But while waiting, we saw “Weird” Al Yankovich walk by with his entourage to his first gig that morning, where attendee began lining up before 6 am. We took some pics. There was also some convention dude selling programs. I wasted the $5 to get one.

We “heard” the box office opens at 8:30. When the time came around, a second line formed for the “early bird special.” If was for those easily swayed to part with $50 just to get in the dealer’s hall an hour before everyone else. In this time of economic upheaval, only a a dozen or so suckers got in that line. Us, general attendees, in the “econo-line” waited another hour before we could get it. When we paid our $15 and 75¢, instead of getting a badge, hold and neck strap, general attendees got Ticket Master ticket’s. How gay is that? They also could’ve rounded up the 75¢. With a convention (“con” for short)with big names, they could’ve much, much better in this aspect. Even with a first-time, unknown con like Anime Matsuri, with no big names (except for Peter Cullen) had actual badges. Again to another line, but this time, the actual line to get into the convention center. Meanwhile, I was wondering what happened to Marvin. He was supposed to be here by 9. But when we got hold of each other, he was already on his way and won’t be here until 10:30.

One of the convention ushers said “Smile while going in and turning in your ticket.” I thought is was really cheesy, but a good way to ease the tension for waiting in lines all morning. He also said “If you can’t smile right now, YOU will when get inside.” Now that’s the truth. When we walked in the main entrance, we were greeted by an almost scale mode of Bumble Bee (from the first Transformers movie). We were immediately “herded” in the exhibit hall. Wow! That’s all I can say. It was just like walking into a small anime convention dealer’s room...literally. With a big name like “Transformers,” you would expect a much, much larger hall for the dealer’s exhibit (“room” or “hall” used synonymously). It was wall-to-wall Transformers merchandise...old (G1 or first generation from the early 80s) to the new (cheaper quality, with very few exceptions unfortunately).

For about an hour in the room—looking at this, looking at that, deciding to buy this, deciding to buy that, we met outside the con to catch our breath. Though there was relatively not a lot of people yet, the air the getting stuffy. Outside, we were looking at a list of what “exclusive” merchandise to buy. With just looking around the dealers hall and the exclusives list, there was nothing I really considered to buy. Maybe it’s just me. I realized at one time, I was was a really big fan. Some of you who knew me back in the day would know. I could name every character and everything else. Now I have become a “general” fan, not tied down to one show, movie or whatever. There’s just too much to know. As a final decision, I settled for a con t-shirt, which I found out later…was sold out. Then out of the blue, I heard someone yell my name down the ways. Marvin finally made it. He still had to get his ticket so he I pointed the way to the reg line, which was really, really, really long.



Round two. We went back into the dealer’s room to get the stuff we decided on. Adrian took care of that. Instead, I was wandering around the room again. When I finally decided to buy something, they were not Transformers related. Dang. Later on, I ran into Lawrence. When he decided also, he settled for two t-shirts, non-Transformers. You’d figure, at a Tranformers con, to buy but something related. Funny.

We’re resting in the convention hall once again. My feet were getting tired already. I’m not “gellin’” after all. These damn things don’t work if you’re on your feet for too long. They make great heat insulators though. Lawrence and I waited for the Brillo brothers to come out of the hall. It was already past noon and we were getting hungry again. Marvin was still in line to get his ticket. Over an hours past since we last talked. He was really getting upset on the long wait and irritating kids. We told him we were going to get lunch and that we’ll meet up afterwards.

While at lunch at the Island Cafe, we saw Peter Cullen (the voice for Optimus Prime in the G1 series and movie) across the walkway having a smoke after his lunch. We tried to scramble to take his pick, but we procrastinated for too long, as always. Only a blurry shot. After lunch, there was really nothing to do. We had to kill time ‘till 4, which was Peter Cullen’s Q&A panel. Back at the convention center, we finally got to meet up with Marvin. Now he’s more of a Transformers fan than I am. But before Marvin met up with us, Marvin’s other reason to be at this con is to meet “Screamer,” an internet blog celebrity. I recognized her as she was passing out flyers, so I immediately called up Marvin to come where we were, not realizing whether or not he was still in the reg line. When Marvin arrived, I introduced ad reintroduced him to the guys. But we immediately stepped outside to meet with Screamer. Marvin got a big-o bear hug from her and I got a handshake. It was cool meeting her. Fascinating. For those interested in her 80s blog, she’s on myspace and look up her handle. At the “real” entrance of the convention center, Stan Bush, singer of the G1 movie theme song, came out. As always, we procrastinated about taking a picture, but this time, we completely missed it.



The other people we were going to meet up with is the Brillo’s cousin, Eugene and his fiancé. They were still in line to get their tickets. Meanwhile…round three…of the dealer’s room. This time, it was Marvin and I looking around. Marvin was in earlier, but for a little while when I called him up to meet up. This time we were in the damn cattle pen much longer. There was also a much larger herd this time around too. I think I was suffering from oxygen depravation! While inside, we caught Stan Bush again. This time he was playing Rockband, sining his song while some attendees played along with the other instruments. That was cool. Marvin got a video this time. The pictures of him we took was of his back.

Thank god that was the last round of the dealer’s room. We chilled outside again. The weather was on out side today. I was nice and cool. We still had an hour to wait until the panel. While wandering around, we ended up just inside the entrance to the convention center. There was a line for some event, assumed it was for the panel. But when I asked one of the used, it was for the autograph signing that was still going on. I then asked her where the line for the panel was, but was told to get a ticket. This was beginning to sound like AX, where staff and ushers don’t have clue on what’s going on. We walked over to the info booth and asked that dude also. He said there wasn’t one yet and that it would help to start a line for the panel. I can’t help but, WTF? Is this guy an idiot too? Someone at the info booth who don’t know what’s going on? Where do you start a line? Unbelievable! Yes, the staff is just like the staff at AX.

Good thing that Marvin asked someone else about the panel. There was never a line nor did we ever had to wait. It was just walk in. When we did go in, the previous panel was just coming to and end. When Peter Cullen came up on stage, he received a standing ovation. So thus, the question and answer panel started. It started as a continuation to his autographing panel. The first dozen idiots asked for autographs, pictures, handshakes and what not. Even as people began asked “real” questions that demanded “real” answers, not were really, really idiotic questions. Amid the entire panel, there were maybe two to four good questions. And for the finale…some idiot, who didn’t take his redlin medication, put Peter on the spot with a totally uncalled for unethical question.

In conclusion, so ended BotCon 2009. At 5 pm, everything pertaining to general attendees ended. For the “inside” club members, there was a party at Paramount Studios. Everyone else was left out in the cold. Even AX (Anime Expo–as a comparison that I could only compare to) has events scheduled for general attendee until at least 10 pm for three of it’s four days. There was nothing else left on Saturday’s schedule. But, the day before, Friday, there were events that lated until midnight. Usually there would be a schedule of event’s posted on the website, but the website itself was extremely poorly designed. There was information, but it wasn’t easy to find or if found, was vague and no clear details.

Marvin brought up a good point earlier in the day when we were talking on the cell. He was irritated by all the kids. I felt the same way. I was also talking to someone who was seasoned con-goer also. He also felt the same way. What I was told, the last time BotCon came around, it wasn’t crowded and that there were very little kids running around. As I talked to more and more seasoned con-goers, the number of kids caused the post irritation. I don’t have anything against kids personally, except for parent who don’t control their kids in public places, but having kids around in a convention for industry and real fans, young adults and older is just…irritating. There was just too many families with children around. This is the result of Transformers going “mainstream,” namely the 2007 movie. There’s nothing wrong with the movie itself, but it’s the way the franchise has been “kid-afied,” made to market and appeal to children regardless to movie rating. This could be the beginning of the end of the franchise in the US. For example, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 20 years ago became kid-afied and lost a lot of it’s credibility. I could already see this from the Star Trek movie that was recently released. I guess that morals in the industry have changed in the US when you have R or PG-13 movies containing a lot of violence and sexual innuendoes being marketed to children to make money. This has been the case with the anime genre for the past decade already…unfortunately.

As a general impression for going to BotCon the first time around, it was a good experience, but not the best. With a name like “Transformers” and “Hasbo,” the con could have been at a larger, much larger venue with the number of attendees. The Pasadena Convention Center was too small. Maybe there were more rooms at the center could have been utilized, which should have been. At one time during the day, the fire department had to remove a lot of the people from the dealer’s room because it was filled to over capacity. With a convention with one specific theme, four days seem to much with so little to do. Two to three days would have been much better. And having the con end at 5 pm, on a Saturday, with the most number of attendees for that day is just poor judgement. Even with the party for the regular club member, there should have been some event or panel for the general attendee until 7 or 9 pm. That way they, we, feel that they got most of the their money and waiting an average of 2 hours in the registration line. This convention should have been named “TransCon” or something to that effect. Only Transformers were presented at “BotCon.” What about the other “bots” from other shows? So the name is a misnomer in itself. I guess I did have a lot to say about one day at BotCon. I didn't bring a camera this time, we did take a lot of pictures. I'll have to get them for the guys and post them on the website. I'll keep you posted.

How It Started

This project has been brought to my attention almost a year ago. Last year, as I was having my taxes done at my Uncle’s. My Uncle came up to me to ask about home brew Macs. I new about them and the possibility of them but played dumb. This was my Uncle, “A,” whom I had a sort-a “Computer Cold War” with for more than a decade. I have another Uncle, “B,” a PC technician who came down to visit the week before. Apparently, some months before, Uncle A bragged to Uncle B about how great Macs are. This is not surprising since Uncle A has mild case of a superiority complex, therefore the constant bragging of his “minor” accomplishments and other miscellaneous stuff. As a PC tech, Uncle B had some knowledge about Macs and bragged that he could build one. Uncle A finally told me that Uncle B build a home brew Mac which he showed off during his visit. I was really reluctant to believe it. I was never told the details of Uncle B’s project so it was really hard to believe. The only details I heard was that it was a quad core and it was fast, nothing else.

All this poppycock talk intrigued me to try out this project too. I found this website with information on hardware and software. At first, it was a little confusing, but I got used to the info eventually. I had to rethink everything back to days when I was studying to get my A+ certification, which I gave up and focus on Macs instead. I sorted though all the compatible hardware; processors, motherboards, I/O chipsets, video cards, network cards and miscellaneous add-ons. At the time, there were only two “hacked” versions of latest OSX to use on home brew Macs. One was a hacked work-around requiring an NTFS and a HFS+ partitions with a boot loader, a primary OS and secondary OS. The other is another work-around requiring two partitions (like the previous) with a boot loader, linux OS and a secondary OS. I opted for the first option with compatible hardware which I shelled out $400 for this foolish project.

After ordering and receiving all the parts, I put the ugly box together. It looked like any other PC out there with no class. By the way, have you noticed that more and more PC manufacturers are trying trying to design their products to look like Apple’s? Sure they could have more better designs, but the fact remains that the same “damien” operating system is still used.

Experiment 1

The documentation that came with this install required some miscellaneous utilities to be used. The directions were a little bit difficult to follow, but became clear after a while. I had to install the primary OS (you know WxxxxP) and partitioned the hard drive 10%-80% (anyway you want, actually). Next, I had to install the boot loader and other software to emulate EFI bios that’s used in all new “modern” computers. The hacked OS is last to be installed. This was actually the tricky part. I had to read up on linux stuff and “kexts.” There’s a myriad of options you need to be aware of; kernels, chipsets, video and other settings you need to choose to match your hardware. After several installation attempts, changing settings by trial and error, I finally succeeded. It was quite exciting to see it boot up to the OS.

Drawbacks to Experiment 1

When I started using the new “hackintosh,” there were a lot of drawbacks. The first drawback is that you cannot update the OS with the latest versions, fixes and security patches. There’s no easy way to do it. The first time I tried to update, it rendered the box to a brick. I had to reinstall the OS all over again. I did not even try the work-around for the updates. Driver problems were the next major drawback. Even with matching the “kext” drivers with the hardware, it doesn’t always work. Some even require additional patching which had to be searched for around the net. The problems are wrong video resolution, no sound, slow HD access and “wishy-washy” USB connections. I did find one solution…I had to buy a USB audio adapter for sound. And now the major drawback. Software from Apple cannot be installed. I consider this major. But for many who use third party software, this shouldn’t be an issue.

Experiment 2

After several months of not using the hackintosh, I’m beginning to feel cheated out of all the money I spent and time I wasted for this foolish project. And with the way the economy is, it made it feel that much worse. At this point, the only useful piece of this project is the hard drive. I used it for storage. And then winter arrived. Upon exploring my regular hunting grounds for stuff out of boredom, I came across a new version of the hacked OS. This time there’s no work around. There’s just a straight install, but with the usual settings to choose. Again after choosing the “closest” settings and re-installing a few times, I got it work. This version was a lot more easy to work with. Even people with “some” technical knowledge could do this. It started up with no problem which was good to see.

Drawbacks to Experiment 2

Since no hackintosh will ever be 100% like the original, there’s always drawbacks due to many factors. Most to all have to do with bad programming and making drivers work with the hardware components. This time, I did not try to install additional programs so I don’t know if Apple products will install. Instead, what I did find out was that the network driver I used chose for the installation didn’t work. No internet connection. I stopped there. Another useless brick.

Experiment 3

A couple months went by and I found another hacked OS. This version also didn’t have a workaround and is a straight install. This time, I checked and double checked the correct drivers-to-hardware. After only just a couple re-installs because driver tweaking, it boot straight up. This time, start-up screen was different but it seemed to work. The first thing I did was to update the OS. To my surprise, it worked. No random problems came up after the updates. I also tried to install my Apple software…it worked. At this point, I tried other things which also all work.

Drawbacks to Experiment 3

Again it’s not 100%, but pretty damn close. The only major problem I have is that the firewire ports don’t work as well as the built-in audio. Hardware-wise, it major, but doesn’t really affect me since the only use I have for firewire is video capturing which I could use my other Macs for. Another problem I came across was during updating the OS. After restart, USB ports that had connections failed to work. But reconnecting to another port works. Another solution is to shutdown. It doesn’t shutdown automatically, but only manually. Restarting manually makes all USB ports work again. The last problem I found is that connecting too many external drives and coping one to the other causes a system crash.

Afterthought

It’s great that the last experiment worked. I do not recommend anyone to try this this project unless you have a lot of PC, technical experience, money to spend and a lot of time to waste. The reason for this is that there are too many unforeseeable problems that could come up and the “average” person doesn’t know how to deal with it. And if you decide to do this for friends, prepare for a million phone calls. If you think that major OS is “damien” or satan reincarnate, hacked OS’s are minor evil beings. I also don’t recommend this because it doesn’t give you the full Mac experience, so it’s always better to get a real one.

The only reasons I even spent time and money for this project are to keep my tech training in check, for self satisfaction and to prove that it could be done. Right now I have this overwhelming feeling to gloat at both my uncles, but that would leave me open for them to try to make me make them a hackintosh. So mum’s the word. As you, the reader have noticed, I tried not to give out the specifics on what I used and name names due to copyright issues. There’s only a screenshot of the success. So for you curious ones out there, you could do your own research on how to do this. If you really want a Mac, but have no or little money and don’t mind dealing with all the technical headaches (without me involved), this is one option…I don’t recommend. Get a real Mac.