Mac Book Pro Retina with Mountain Lion screen flicker, solved by turning off WebGL

Update Mar 12, 2013.  It looks like the real problem is resolved in 10.8.3 update.  I currently have beta 12D76 and 12D78 and the problems look like they went away.  http://www.greenm3.com/gdcblog/2013/3/12/bunch-of-retina-macbook-pro-problems-went-away-with-1083-bet.html

It looks like a lot of people had this same problem as many times I was getting hits to this blog post.

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One of my friends just traded in three of his old Macs and got a MacBook Pro Retina.  I’ve had mine Retina MacBook Pro for a couple of months, and it’s worked great.

Except for yesterday it started to have an intermittent screen flicker problem.  At seemingly random times, the screen would flicker, refreshing parts of the screen, mostly from in the bottom 50%.  This was a real pain given the Retina Display is one of the main features of the new MacBook Pro.  After looking at some mac forums to see about the problem, and found no good answers.  Wondering whether I would have a warranty event which would be another pain.

I remembered I was playing around with MapGL in Google maps, and Safari was not compatible.

In order to use MapGL I needed to enable WebGL in the “Develop” pull down menu in Safari.  That’s when the screen flicker problem started after WebGL was turned on.

So, let’s turning off WebGL, reboot.  Screen flicker problem is gone.  Wooh!  glad there is nothing wrong with my hardware and I am not hunting all over to figure out how to fix a screen flicker problem.

For you Mac users, which is about 22% of GreenM3 readers, you may find this screen flicker MapGL tip useful.  

I am surprised that 4.94% are from iPhone and 3.86% are from Android.

Here are the smallest % of readers.  It is funny to think these devices hit this blog.

Adding TSA Pre beyond your sponsor airline, watch out for picking Canada Travel

I am in the Alaska Airlines TSA Pre program as a frequent flyer, and 4 months ago was curious how TSA Pre works.  It was just automatic that I was signed up for Alaska.  Didn't have to do anything.  Which is kind of worrisome as how do you maintain the status?

The TSA Pre web site is here.  Coverage is pretty good in major airports. The most glaring missing points are the SFO, and SJC airports.

TSA Pre✓™ is an expedited screening initiative that is expanding to airports across the country. Implementing a key component of the agency’s intelligence-driven, risk-based approach to security, TSA Pre✓™ enhances aviation security by placing more focus on pre-screening individuals who volunteer to participate to expedite the travel experience.

The problem is I don't know what my "Known Traveler Number" is to register as Alaska takes care of this on my reservation. 

Certain frequent travelers from Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, US Airways and certain members of CBP's Trusted Traveler programs, including Global Entry, SENTRI, and NEXUS who are U.S. citizens are eligible to participate. TSA plans to expand TSA Pre✓™ to include additional airlines, as well as airports that participate in a CBP Trusted Traveler program, once operationally ready. In addition, accompanying passengers 12 and younger are allowed through TSA Pre✓™ lanes with eligible passengers.

So, getting a Global Entry card seemed the easiest way to do this.  I filled out all the paper work back in Apr/May 2012.  In June I was conditionally approved with approval to schedule an interview.  The first available interview was three months later in Seattle's Boeing field which is convenient for me being a 1/2 drive.

Why so long?  I found out a contributing problem in the interview process yesterday when talking to Canada border personnel.  When you fill the USA Global Online Enrollment System one of the questions is "will you travel to Canada?" or something like that.  Anyone who travels frequently in the USA would with a high degree of certainty say yes.  The problem is when you pick this option, the system puts in the process for the USA/Canada Nexus program.  OK, go ahead and do this.  Which makes total sense to me being in Seattle.  But, if you live in let's say San Diego like the guy in line with me.  This means the guy in San Diego had to schedule his approval interview from a short list of offices near the USA/Canada border.  I don't think Canada is going to station border agents in San Diego. :-)

The gal from Canada Border said all day long she has had people who have been from far away to get their Nexus approval, but they really only need the Trusted Traveler program from Global Entry.

So, if you want to get in that TSA Pre line which is totally sweet, less than 5 minutes.  I've at the most had 2 people in front of me.  Keep your shoes on, laptop in the bag, don't take liquids out, keep your light weight jacket on.  And, you want to be able to have TSA Pre work beyond your sponsor airline.  Being approved as a Trusted Traveler makes sense and get your Known Traveler Number.  But, watch out for picking the travel to Canada option if you don't live near one of the Nexus interview offices.

4 Good Rules to build Kick Ass Ideas

Fast Company has an article by KAIHAN KRIPPENDORFF on 4 steps to breakthrough ideas.  These are good rules to use when you want to kick ass on your competitors and build solutions that they have a hard time copying.  Here are the 4 four rules.

Step 1: Change the question

Step 2: Find a new metaphor

Step 3: Reuse what you have

Step 4: Perform a quick and dirty test

The article is short, and finishes reiterating the 4 points.

Ask yourself:

1. If you reversed the question you have been asking for the past few weeks, what question would you end up with?

2. What metaphor is your competitor using and what alternative metaphor could you battle them with?

3. What can you reuse from your current (or past) business to create something new?

4. What quick and dirty test can you perform to test the viability of the idea you created through steps 1-3?

There are a few people in the data center industry who use this approach, and these are some of the funnest most interesting people to talk to.

Kaihan has a web site http://www.kaihan.net/index.html and a Book on Outthink the Competition.

Asia Pacific Nations agree to cut duties on Green Technologies

Reuters has a post on an agreement between APEC nations.

Will slash tariffs on environmental technology by 2015

* U.S.-led regional free trade talks to push ahead

* Pacific rim trade forecast to grow rapidly

* APEC leaders hold summit at weekend

By Douglas Busvine

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Asia-Pacific nations have made a breakthrough in promoting trade in 'green' technology, and the United States is pressing ahead with efforts to carve out a regional free-trade zone, a senior U.S. official said on Friday.

I can't find the exact list of technologies, but there are 54.

Ministers agreed on a list of 54 green technologies that will be subject to import duties of 5 percent or less from 2015, following through on a commitment made by leaders at the last APEC summit in Honolulu a year ago.

Google Announces LATAM Green Data Center Construction, Where are the other two?

Google announced its first LATAM data center in Chile.

Quilicura, Chile

Located in a community just outside of Santiago, Chile, this will be Google's first data center in Latin America.

Read more about our Chile data center

Hello Chile!

In September 2012, we announced our plans to build a data center in the municipality of Quilicura, near Santiago, Chile. We’re now beginning construction, and we plan to start bringing the facility online by the end of 2013.

Building this data center in Chile is an exciting step for us. As Internet usage in Latin America grows, people are looking for information and entertainment, new business opportunities and better ways to connect with friends and family near and far. We’re building this data center to make sure that our users across Latin America and the world have the fastest and most reliable access possible to all of Google’s services.

We are also really excited about the facility itself. We estimate that our long-term investment in this data center will reach $150 million USD and will be one of the most efficient and environmentally friendly in Latin America, built to the same high standards we use around the world. Once operational, the data center will employ up to 20 people in a variety of full-time and contractor roles, including computer technicians, engineers and catering and security staff.

The news coverage is pretty good, but I haven't found anyone who asks the questions, where are the other two.   What other two?  Google building reliable Web 2.0 services tries to have three sites for availability.

One of the more interesting site is emol.com's coverage.  Google's Dan Costello was the data center spokesman and makes the good statement for a Green Data Center, being energy efficient with air cooling and low water use.

As revealed Dan Costello, director of data center operations for Google, the company's growth has made each day receive 3 billion searches, to climb 10 years of video to YouTube and 5 million businesses use Google Apps services . The data center facility will allow users Chilean and Latin America have better access to all services of the company, "fast and reliable" and promoting the migration to cloud computing.

Costello noted that Chile's temperate climate is ideal for the operation of the center as it will allow the cooling air through the atmosphere and water use will not affect the drinking water system Quilicura.

The data center of Gauteng will join other eight centers installed in the northern hemisphere (North America and Europe), plus four others that are currently under construction. Is expected to be ready by mid-2013.

So, where are the other two?  Well, maybe three.  I've known about this for a while, but didn't have a good reason to blog it.  How, just look at the Google job postings.

Operations Program Manager, Geo Operations - Sao Paulo - Google Jobs   Operations Program Manager, Geo Operations. Location: São Paulo. Team: Program Management. Apply now. This position is based in Sao Paulo, Brazil. ... www.google.com/.../operations-program-manager-geo-operations-sao-paulo. html

Data Center Program Manager - Latin America - Google Jobs   Data Center Program Manager. Location: Belo Horizonte. Team: Program Management. Apply now. This position is based in Latin America. ... www.google.com/.../data-center-program-manager-latin-america-2.html

Data Center Program Manager - Latin America - Google Jobs   Data Center Program Manager. Location: Lima. Team: Program Management. Apply now . This position is based in Latin America. ... www.google.com/.../data-center-program-manager-latin-america-7.html

When you map theses locations it looks like this.

Doesn't that make sense for a Google presence in LATAM vs. this?

Note, the other LATAM data center locations do not mean that Google will construct a data center.  The spaces could be in wholesale data center space.