Author: Hannah Nicklin

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RAM upgrade for a unibody MacbookPro

So my macbook has required a lot of comfort recently. Comfort in the way of ice packs and a small whispering “shhh, it’ll be ok, I’m sorry, I won’t make you play flash while I also try and edit audio”. I upgraded to Lion a little while ago, because I realised I had a free license, and I really wanted to use my recipe app on my macbook as well as mobile devices. After mostly altering all the settings and installing ‘fixes’ to make it act *exactly* like Snow Leopard (except for the scrolling, I like that) all was well… for a while. Either it was the OS upgrade, or generally old age (this laptop is a mid 2009 unibody 13″, so 3 years, nearly, which by-the-by is roughly 2 years longer than any other laptop I had) but it was beginning, for the first time, to struggle a little. I did a lot of Terminal>Purge, and killing operations (flash mostly) in Activity Monitor (Mac for Task Manager), but it was just starting to get a little annoying, mostly it was the overheating, the fan would whirr away like anything no matter what I did. So after balking at upgrade costs via Apple, I decided to DIY it. And why am I sharing it here? 1) because it’s SO EASY 2) because it will save you SO MUCH MONEY 3) because it will make the machine RUN LIKE IT’S MADE OF SILK. This is aimed at all you artists, companies and creatives out there who really can’t afford to do anything else. I promise you, don’t be scared, this will be fine. There are ace instructions for all the different types of machines on the Apple site, but I wanted to put photos up, so you see it really is just like that. Obviously it’s done at your own risk, but really the worst that’s likely to happen is that you lose a screw. TOP TIP have a ball of blu tac and stick them in that. Now, let’s go.

First off, RAM (memory, it’s what does all the immediate thinking on your computer, and talks to everything else, sort of. Go read Wikipedia) should be installed in this case in 2 x equal size. e.g. 2 x 4GB modules in this case. This cost £39.99 on Amazon, Crucial is a reliable manufacturer, this link will work if you have the same model mac as me, a bit of googling (‘ram upgrade kit <insert year, size> macbook pro’) should sort you. Once you have that you’ll need a very small crosshead screwdriver that is quite shallow. Use blu tac to take an imprint of it to your local Maplin if you’re unsure. Anyway, this is what the kit arrives like:

Step one: back up, then turn the laptop off, unplug, and turn it over so it’s base-up. Use your screwdriver… to unscrew the screws on the back of the laptop case, there should be 3 long screws back right, and the rest are tiny and short. Watch they don’t escape.


The base should lift off really easily, with a little prising, no tools needed, just nails. Look, insides! Continue reading RAM upgrade for a unibody MacbookPro

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Introducing… #PitpPI

Performance in the Pub Post Its

Hurrah! So you may have noticed that I and Performance in the Pub have been taking a short summer break while most artists are in Edinburgh, my audience are at music festivals, and I am stuck in Loughborough University library trying to wring a final PhD draft out of my brain. But as I hinted at the last Performance in the Pub event, there are to be exciting things afoot on the  Facebook or @performancepub accounts. Enter: Performance in the Pub Post Its, or #pitpPI on the twitters (I tried a full #pitppostits but all I can see in that hashtag is the word ‘tits’. Extra traffic maybe, but it’ll only probably be disappointed).

I chose post its for a few reasons, because they kind of feel like a tactile, visual version of a status update in length, they stick places (which is always fun), and because I and a lot of people I know use them quite a lot in devising and writing processes; it felt nice to make a feature of them. What are Performance in the Pub Post Its? Well, quite simply a series of provocations, miniature plays, poems, collaborations, drawings, and links to exciting things made especially for Performance in the Pub fans and followers. From next week I’ll be (attempting to, give or take PhD and the rate I get them in from other busy artists) curating a series of creative reactions to the Performance in the Pub Post It challenge. The first is a collaboration (or perhaps a challenge?) between Andy Field and me, and will appear on the PitP  Facebook and @performancepub feed next Thursday evening. Then, hopefully, there’ll be a different artist’s contribution each Thursday. Until I run out.

Andy’s work is totally awesome, he has a fascinating turn to his reactions and thoughts about the world, and is brilliant at always challenging the premise of the question you didn’t know you were asking. A lot of his work is interested in the city, which is the kind of stuff I write a bit about, and I was totally in love with Zilla (part one) when I saw it at Sampled festival. That’s what the picture below is from. A little bird tells me it’s on its way to the East Midlands, soon too (not brought by me, unfortunately, though I’d love to be able to afford to). Anyway, this is how Andy has described next Thursday’s #pitpPI to me:

“It’s a game that you and I are playing together. A challenge perhaps, in response to the utterly charming and honest self-portraits that you often post on twitter.”

There’ll also be the chance for you to respond to the provocation/s, too, if you want… I promise this will all make sense soon enough.

So, hang around after 8pm on Thursday evening on Facebook or @performancepub, and see what you think! Oh, and give @andytfield a follow, too. He’s brilliant.

a picture from Zilla part one by Andy Field