Elvis has left the building

After another couple of days of hard work, we're happy to report that JavaScript and Ajax for the Web, Sixth Edition, Visual QuickStart Guide, has been put to bed. We made our deadline, and we're so happy. And so tired.

After we left the Peachpit offices yesterday, we went cruising around Berkeley for dinner, and ended up at Saul's Deli, which was just what we needed. One of the few bad things about living in Sonoma County is that you just can't get good Jew food, and Dori desperately needed The Comfort Food of Her People. Dori had Matzoh ball soup and a corned beef sandwich, and I had a pastrami sandwich and Dr. Brown's Cream Soda. Then we both had some New York cheesecake, cause We Done Good. The meat, from Niman Ranch, was terrific, by the way. My pastrami was so moist and flavorful that I didn't even put any condiments on it.

The book is on an incredibly accelerated printing schedule, so we should have books in our hands before the end of the month. Peachpit tells us we have very healthy advance orders, and it should be out in time to fill academic orders (it's used a lot at the college level as a textbook). Glad it's done; now we can book that massage.

MacMini not compatible with a Cinema Display?

I got this note from my brother-in-law, pointing out an incredible incompatibility with his new MacMini and his old Cinema Display. Anyone know of an adaptor that can get these things to work together? Please put it in the comments if you do.

Apple advertises the Mac Mini as a 'plug and play' option for people who need a new CPU and already have a monitor, keyboard and mouse. "BYODKM: Bring your own monitor, keyboard and mouse (or buy new ones). Either way you¹ll be up and running in minutes." They also say that "You can connect any display with DVI or VGA connectors."

It's not true. My monitor is the 22" Apple Cinema Display. It has a DVI connector. So I bought a Mac Mini online at Apple.com.

It arrived. I opened it. Lo and behold, the connectors don't match. I use the enclosed adaptor. No go. I use every monitor connection adaptor I can locate. Still no go. So I search the Apple site for support. Then I find this from a chart listing compatible monitors:

Apple Cinema Display (22-inch)
M7478xx/A
DVI
NOT compatible

That sucks. And they misled me.

So I call Apple support. The tech guy seems surprised to hear that the Mac Mini won't work with my monitor but doesn't disagree. I tell him I want to return the Mac Mini. He says I can't because I had Apple upgrade the RAM to 1 gig so it is a "personalized" product not subject to return. I complain that I was misled so he agrees to ask a supervisor for a waiver of this exclusion. He comes back a few minutes later to say he got approval for the waiver, but I will have to pay a 10% re-stocking fee as I opened the box. Of course I opened the box -- how else was I to learn the Mac Mini won't work with my monitor? Certainly not from Apple's promo materials.

I quickly weigh eating the 10% versus re-selling on e-bay and decide to forego the 10%. And to hold (a probably short-lived) grudge against Apple.

Still here. Still slogging.

We haven't posted for a while because we're in the last few days of the Heroic Struggle to get the Sixth Edition of our JavaScript book done. It must go to the printer on Friday, though, so the end really is in sight.

Normal blogging will resume next week, after much sleeping. In the meantime, thanks to our friend Marc Harris for brightening up my day with this: Star Trek Inspirational Posters.