You know, one of these days I'm going to suck it up and not use aging, outdated hardware anymore. Since I've been living here, I've had two (2) computers let out their Magic Smoke. Although, to be honest, they were getting rather old. And, recently, I had the most recent addition to the parade of failures, as my 'system' hard disk decided to give up the ghost and go to the Great RAID Setup In The Sky.
"Hmm," I think. "I believe I'm in trouble."
You see, since I bought my computer used, I didn't actually, technically speaking, have any of the requisite disks or CDs for installing a Quadra version of System 7.5 on it. And, although I'd been smart in that I'd managed to get a copy of my previous system burned onto CD, it was not, in fact, a bootable CD, and was thus useless for resuscitation.
I am, however, a ludicrous pack-rat, and so a brief search through my piles of Macintosh related kipple produced a system 7.5 bootable CD intended for use to setup Performa systems. But hey, a Performa is close enough to a Quadra, right? Right? Eh heh.
One brief swap-in of a spare hard disk (I have tons of the darn things) later, and the CD is booted from. Install full system? Sure, why not. After all, in previous Macintosh systems, it would then be trivial to copy over my own system backup and then switch them.
Unfortunately, Macintosh systems had gotten 'smarter' since then. The phrase 'too smart for their own good' comes to mind.
Regardless, boot into new system, try to read my backup CD. It fails. Hmm, I think. I tested that CD. Oops. I also created it at "4x" speed. And the default system CD driver only handles 1x (and maybe 2x) speed CDs.
Scrabble around, manage to download and install SSH so I can connect to Eyrie and pester people to get the location of the proper CD driver (since www.info.apple.com is hopelessly lagged). Get it. Install it. Problem one solved.
So, boot from new system, go to do the wonderful copy-thing. Run into problem two. The system has apparently decided that I can't be trusted by default, and installed 'At Ease', a program that prevents you from making modifications to applications and system files and such. Fine, I think, I'll just find the setup and turn the damn thing off. Run setup application. Discover that it is, indeed, on and the default (unpassworded) user is set to be locked out of all the good bits. Which seems rather stupid, since if you're going to turn on obnoxious security by default, it doesn't seem right to leave it unpassworded. Still, no problem, I think, as I switch the thing to off, quit the application and... hmm. Error. That can't be right.
Much amusement ensues as I realize that 1) I can't swap systems with At Ease installed, 2) I can't trash it because it won't let me, 3) I can't even deactivate it because the Setup program won't work properly.
"Okay, fine," I mutter, as I discover that the default system install includes the wonderful Extension Manager, a 'control panel' that boots first and turns other stuff on and off. A brief search through it uncovers a few things that seem to be associated with 'At Ease', and these are shortly disabled.
At Ease is still functional. Increasingly surly, I tell Extension Manager to kick the crap out of everything else that tries to get its grubby little hands into system memory. Reboot. Finally, the scourge of At Ease is defeated.
Pause. Realize that I've also disabled the CD driver. Turn it back on. Reboot.
Now, on old Macintosh systems, changing systems essentially meant 1) Changing the name of the old System Folder, 2) Copying in a new System Folder. Whatever was in the directory named 'System Folder' on the startup disk would be used as the system. Unfortunately, new Macintosh systems were no longer that stupid, and this one remembers where its System File is. Finally settle for moving everything BUT the system file to a new directory, and then moving all the stuff from my old system in.
Pause, think, compare files between 'my' system and the new one. New one's System File, although the exact same version, is 200k smaller. Become concerned. Reboot.
Everything seems to work. "Cool," I think, "All is well in the land of Macintosh." Make a note to create a BOOTABLE system CD next time. Futz around getting things in order. Shut down for the night. Well, try to anyway. More like watch system hang as it tries to shut down. What kind of cheap-ass operating system fails on _SHUTDOWN_, for crying out loud?
Tune in next time as we explore the possibilities of cdev and init conflicts, plus the Mystery Of The Missing 200 Kilobytes Of System File. Same Surl-Time, Same Surl-Channel.
Simple, direct, to the point. While Vegeta and Goku nap and Freeza races towards them, Gohan, Krillan and Dende have summoned the Eternal Dragon of Namek, Purunga, to grant them three wishes. Krillan, having wasted enough time, now instructs Dende to wish for the earth heroes slain by Vegeta to be returned to this dimension. Apparently, although the Eternal Dragon speaks English, the wishes have to be given in Namek (an elegantly simple protection method). "Sha, whatever," is the Eternal Dragon's response. One wish per person returned to life.
"Oh, bugger," is our heroes response. Since they have FOUR dead friends in the Next Dimension.
In the Next Dimension, King Ki senses this and passes it on to said four dead guys, who immediately start fighting over who gets to go back. All their chummy nature is forgotten in a hail of surl, except for Piccolo, who persuades King Ki to let him talk to Gohan. King Ki forges a telepathic link to Gohan and Krillan, over the objections of the other three Earth heroes, until Piccolo explains his plan - if he's brought back to life, then the Dragonballs of Earth will return (due to a lot of extremely complex backstory), and Our Heroes can happily quest away until they've brought back everyone. This settles down everyone, as they have to admit that Piccolo has a good plan. But Piccolo isn't done yet, as he points out more of his plan - he's pissed about Freeza killing most of the population of his homeworld, and wants Gohan to wish him to Namek so he can take revenge. King Ki is shocked by this, and accuses Piccolo of turning on him after all the training and help he's provided, since King Ki's been trying desperately to persuade everyone not to fight Freeza. "Well, yeah," Piccolo replies. "That's pretty much it."
Back on Namek, the Eternal Dragon is getting a bit pissed off that this is taking so long (Dende: "Guys! DON'T piss off the Dragon of Luck!") and begins insisting that Our Heroes make their wishes already. Gohan conveys the wishes to Dende, and Piccolo is ressurected, then teleported to Namek. Our Heroes pause, look around... and realize that they didn't specify WHERE on Namek to bring Piccolo, with the result that the increasingly surly dragon just dropped him in some random spot.
Meanwhile, back on the ship, Vegeta wakes up with a start, sensing Freeza's approach, and looks out a porthole... seeing the sky dark, he panics, until he realizes the horizon is still light, and REALLY panics, as he figures out something's up. Goku's still healing, Freeza's incoming... Vegeta starts to lose it as he tears out of the ship, looking for the Dragonballs... and finds them gone. Of course, this little maneuver isn't all that effective when Vegeta is easily able to spot the giant, looming, Eternal Dragon filling the sky. Realizing he's been betrayed, the enraged Saiyan noble rockets towards the summoning site.
Piccolo, meantime, looks around his home world, a place he's never seen before, and is briefly contemplative before remembering his purpose here. It takes him a while to sense the distant location of Our Heroes, but he nonetheless eventually detects them and tears off to their aid.
Gohan, Krillan and Dende are interrupted in their ruminations by the arrival of Vegeta, who demands an explanation. He does have somewhat of a point, too, when he rants about how he saved the lives of Our Heroes, helped them heal Goku, re-outfitted them, joined against a common foe... well, sure, he's a villain, but he's got some standards. But not anymore, as Vegeta is transcendantly pissed that his trust in his allies was betrayed like that. Gohan, however, staves off death when he points out that there's still one wish left. Vegeta figures things out right quick, and stalks over to Dende, trying to bully the Namek into conveying his wish - immortality. Much concern takes place for Our Heroes, but even Krillan has to admit that Vegeta has a point. Sure, he might betray them in the end, but Freeza WILL kill them if they don't join forces. Dende is persuaded by the three to make the wish... but just as he finishes, the Eternal Dragon implodes, the Dragonballs dropping to the ground as inert stones. Guru just couldn't hold out any longer. Realizing that he's screwed, Vegeta nonetheless decides that first he'll kill the Earther heroes... but is interrupted by the arrival of a very, very surly Freeza.
Next: Almost certainly the beginning of one of DBZ's famed multi-episode fight scenes!
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