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I sent my MacBook Pro for repairs last week. (And as I translate this, I got it.)
Its SuperDrive wouldn’t read discs (especially my Windows 7 disc), and Airport driver is acting weird, so I decided to take a stab at fixing it in Korea, since they fix it much faster than those in Apple Store Genius Bar.
I hopefully will have it by the end of this week, and I hope it really bad because I miss OS X. I’ve been using just over 2 years now, and it did change a lot of my life.
I was outside yesterday the whole time. I had some Twitter gatherings for first thing, then New Hampton dinner, then KUBA (Korean Undergraduates Business Association) gathering, where I got to watch the match between Korea and Uruguay. I went out at 10 AM, and came back at 3 AM. I’m still very tired. Weekdays are the days most people get tired, but for me, weekdays are the days for recharge and rest. I guess that’s what the summer break is all about.
I won’t talk much about the soccer. I don’t know well about it, just barely enough to enjoy it during times like this. You know, World Cup. But, I think Korea team was at its best. It’s just that they weren’t so lucky.
Let me brag a bit Wi-Fi hotspots in Korea. Since I don’t have 3G on my iPhone when I come to Korea, so I tend to live on Wi-Fi. Anyway, I’d like to compare the hotspots of two carriers, SKT and KT. First, let’s talk about SKT and its network, T spot. SKT actually opened up the network so anyone, even devices not bounded to SKT. I totally welcome the decision, even though I suspect SKT only did that because KT was dominating on that business with its Nespot. (More on KT and Nespot later.) However, there were few problems, like firstly, at yesterday (26th), the hotspot didn’t work. Since T spot on the other places worked perfectly, maybe they were fixing up the network. Also, while the guys in SKT put the network password-protected, but then they revealed the password on their official Twitter account. Then why did they move through all the hassle to lock it up? By the way, the password is ‘sktelecom.’ Simple, right?
Next up, KT. Oh dear, I’ve got plenty of problems to talk about. First up, Nespot’s limitations. Since it began as a paid subscription-based service, I understand the fact that you have to pay in order to use it except for certain devices that KT’s data plans includes the free usage of Nespot. (Like, iPhones serviced by KT. KT iPhone’s data plans actually include free use of Nespot, just like AT&T iPhone data plan includes free use of AT&T wifi hotspots.) But then, KT opened the network up to several places like Starbucks for free Internet use on laptops. There are some problems though. Firstly, it’s not open to mobile devices, like iPod touch or smartphones not serviced by KT. Why? I mean, packets sent by these devices are far less. The second, and the exacerbated problem, is that they closed the access of Mac OS-based devices. This includes not only iPads, whose OS is based on Mac OS X, (Since iPad’s display is bigger than 800×600, it is treated by Nespot as a computer.) but even also Macs. My MacBook Pro didn’t work, and person next to me who also had a MacBook Pro, seemed not to get it working. So, in my case, I turned on the virtual machine to use that to connect my Mac to the Internet, but that even has its flaws, because if I turn the virtual machine off, the Internet connection snaps as well. I have no idea how this happened. And KT, if you really want to earn money from your hardly-installed network, give people access. For example, an iOS app for the connection to Nespot doesn’t hurt. I used this way in Boingo Hotspot when I came to Korea, and this works. I mean, even if Korea has one of the fastest internet in the world, it is still difficult to connect.
I have something big coming this week. My birthday, which is at June 30. I’m still not sure what I’ll do yet. Well, I’ll think when it comes.