A question I get asked all the time is what kind of computer I use on a regular basis. Today, I had some spare time to take a few pictures of my custom laptop that I put together using parts from a couple of donor MacBooks. Here's my workhorse, the PandaBook. :)

This was a fun project piecing together all the different parts to complete a fully working MacBook. The black display was from a MacBook with a fried logic board, and the bottom white enclosure was from a white MacBook with a broken display. All the keys were swapped between the 2 MacBooks, one by one... a very painful process (mentally and physically). After all said and done, it took me almost 5 hours to put together this rather unique and interesting looking PandaBook.

Micro Center has a great deal on this amazing Apple laptop. This same laptop is currently on Apple.com for $999.

$799 MacBook at Micro Center

As shown in this video on Youtube, anyone with a computer and can follow instructions could hack a WEP protected Wifi network in a matter of minutes. So if you are currently using WEP password to protect your network, change it to WPA or better yet, enable MAC address filter immediately.

How to hack WEP Wireless network video

Knowledge is power, but power doesn't mean you should be a jerk, or do anything illegal. Knowing how to pick a lock doesn't make you a thief. Consider this post educational, or a proof-of-concept intellectual exercise.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs took the stage Wednesday to deliver a keynote in which he introduced Apple's highly anticipated tablet device, the Apple iPad. Jobs called the iPad his most important work to date.

All name jokes aside, the men who were in attendance had a valid reason to cheer and applaud. The iPad may first seem like it has no reason for being. It is after all just an iPod Touch on steroids. Someone with an iPod Touch wouldn't want to upgrade, and those with a full size laptop wouldn't give it a second glance.

What is so special about this new device, then? First, let's look at Apple's core business and its phenomenal growth in the past decade. Apple reinvented the way people listen to music on the go with the iPod. The iPod is what saved the company and made Apple hip and cool once more. However, the life cycle of this product line is approaching saturation, and if there's a company that's going to kill the iPod, it may as well be Apple.

There's no doubt that Jobs has one of the sharpest minds in his industry. He put his engineers to work years ago on this new product line. The ultimate goal Apple has for the iPad is to reach a new target market, namely people who oppose using computers but have to in order to stay connected with extended family and loved ones. Soon enough, the women in our lives will have another kind of pad to call a necessity.

Every January since the second coming of Jobs, Steve has been sending out his messages via a keynote to once again solidify Apple's commanding lead in the computer/personal electronics industry. This year is no exception. Perhaps it is even more exciting than ever with the anticipated arrival of a brand spanking new Tablet.

Among our Mac-geek-circle, we refer to Steve's keynote as Apple's State of the Union. And as of right now, the field of reality distortion is in full force at one special place in southern California. I'm heading there virtually to see what magic Steve has this year besides the iPad. :)

CUPERTINO, California—January 25, 2010—Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2010 first quarter ended December 26, 2009. The Company posted revenue of $15.68 billion and a net quarterly profit of $3.38 billion, or $3.67 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $11.88 billion and net quarterly profit of $2.26 billion, or $2.50 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 40.9 percent, up from 37.9 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 58 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

Apple sold 3.36 million Macintosh® computers during the quarter, representing a 33 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 8.7 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 100 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 21 million iPods during the quarter, representing an eight percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter.

During the quarter Apple elected retrospective adoption of the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s amended accounting standards* related to certain revenue recognition. Adoption of the new accounting standards significantly changes how the Company accounts for certain items, particularly sales of iPhone® and Apple TV®.

“If you annualize our quarterly revenue, it’s surprising that Apple is now a $50+ billion company,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “The new products we are planning to release this year are very strong, starting this week with a major new product that we’re really excited about.”

“We are very pleased to have generated $5.8 billion in cash during the quarter,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead to the second fiscal quarter of 2010, we expect revenue in the range of about $11.0 billion to $11.4 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share in the range of about $2.06 to $2.18.”

Apple will provide live streaming of its Q1 2010 financial results conference call utilizing QuickTime®, Apple’s standards-based technology for live and on-demand audio and video streaming. The live webcast will begin at 2:00 p.m. PST on January 25, 2010 at www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/earningsq110/ and will also be available for replay for approximately two weeks thereafter.

A couple weeks ago I got a call to assist with an iMac that failed to boot into Mac OS X. A quick assessment over the phone gave me enough information to know it's the hard drive which was on its last leg. I took the iMac home attempting to retrieve the data on it and replace the hard drive. It's worthy to note that the iMac was not even 2 years old, very unusual for a hard drive to die in such short period of use.

The moment I had the iMac opened, I knew exactly why the hard drive had such short life. There was dust pilling up every where inside the iMac. Essentially the dust blocked the air flow and kept all the heat trapped inside the computer. The hard drive on these Aluminum iMac is right in the middle of the chassis and arguably take the most punishment from the heat build-up. Luckily though, the hard drive was the only component that failed and not the other crucial parts (which are much more expensive to replace).

So if you have an aluminum iMac at home and in a room without much ventilation, check the bottom vents often to make sure there's no blockage of air flow. A quick way to do so is the tap either the bottom right or left of the iMac and watch to see if there dust particles falling out. Seeing a chunk of dust drops out of the vent is a sign you should call The IT Guy for help immediately. :)

I had the chance to meet Rev. Tomkin Coleman this evening to help him fix the broken superdrive in his Apple MacBook Pro 17". He contacted me a couple weeks ago for help and I was able to point him to an online store that sells these OEM drives at a really good price. He proceeded to order it and kept me updated once the superdrive arrives so that we can set up a time for me to perform the replacement on his Mac laptop.

Normally this procedure of replacing an optical drive on a MacBook Pro would take over an hour to complete which I quoted Mr. Coleman through our brief phone conversation. However, he told me he would have to run in 45 minutes upon my arrival. He said I can stay to finish the job, but I felt that wasn't going to work for me. That put me on the hot seat to get it done in 40 minutes or so. Boy, was I glad to see it took me less than half an hour when I put the last screw back in the laptop.

Since yesterday, many have noticed that they're seeing something strange in their search results on Google. Well, wouldn't you like to know that real time search came to Google yesterday? The new addition is live feeds from Twitter being streamed to the top of Google search results. You may now be able to keep up to date with who's the latest attention-whore who claims she's one of Tiger Woods' mistresses.

Click here to watch video demo of Google real time search