I dropped my Macbook Pro laptop on the concrete sidewalk on the short walk to work a couple weeks ago. I had popped the messenger bag shoulder strap up off my shoulder to pull my coat out, and didn’t quite catch it on the way down. Blammo. Turns out that when push comes to shove, concrete retains its shape a lot better than aluminum. All the USB ports on my Macbook Pro 5.2 were instantly transformed into trapezoids, as the corner crumpled up like a soft soda can.

Those Apple folks know what they’ve got going, and do a good job of treating people with no regard for money well. $600 later I had a lot of heartburn, but also had a 50% brand new MBP that worked perfectly. Too bad the 50% included the hard drive. 🙁

Anyway… long story short -too late-… my clean hard drive emboldened me to finally install all the OSes I needed. What does it take to get my four favorite ones squeezed onto one fat-assed macbook pro? A little more pain than should really be necessary. The moral of the story is that this is the stuff you play with when you don’t really care if you blow all your data away. No, really. Back up anything you care about first. Technical details start up after the break… (continued…)

Realtek audio is used in almost every cheap-assed mobo these days, and they HIDE THE DEVICE that lets you capture sound! Wow, this is apparently done to PREVENT COPYRIGHT ABUSE, when will the world get a grip? Anyway, here’s what you do:

  • Right-click the tray sound icon, and select Recording Devices…
  • SUPER TOP SECRET TIP rofl… Right-click on list of devices, and select both Show Disabled and Disconnected Devices
  • Enable and set Stereo Mix as the default
  • Fire up Audacity and get some sampling done! It will help you grab LAME to export to MP3, so you can record cool stuff like this.

Realtek TOP SECRET CLASSIFIED DRIVER ACCESS rofl