Blanka and narf get their 15 minutes
By Marc Perton 
posted March 21st 2006 5:31PM
posted March 21st 2006 5:31PM
Blanka and narf may have created the solution to get XP booting
on a Mac for the challenge -- as well as for the $13 grand -- but they're also getting a bit of celebrity buzz out of
their efforts. In the past few days, we've seen at least one full interview with blanka (aka Jesus Lopez), along with
some shorter quotes and video footage of their solution in action. In his interview, blanka provides a little more info
about the bootloader he and narf created, and also comments that one of his reasons for entering the contest was to
learn enough about the Mac mini to turn it into a Windows-based car computer. Blanka also reveals that he never owned a
Mac prior to learning about the contest, and was persuaded to enter by narf (aka Eric Wasserman), a long-time Mac user
who relished the challenge. We imagine it won't be long until the two appear on the cover of Wired, endorse a line of
clothing and shoot their first music video. Or not. Eric, er, narf remains media-shy, leaving the press spotlight to
blanka, so he may be content to fade back into obscurity, secure in the notion that he accomplished something others
said would be impossible.Read - blanka interviewed by AppleTalk
Read - blanka quoted by AP
Watch - video of MacTel boot sequence
Come on narf, you deserve some time in the spotlight too.
You are just full of wisdom Jan. What is your secret?
Hey Blanka, stop being a media whore and get your ass back to work on an X1600 video driver!
Just kidding. Take a break, Narf and Blanka, you guys deserve it.
I don't recall reading anything that said it was not possible to boot Windows on a Mac.
First of all, many computer professionals said it would not be possible to boot Windows on a Mac. First because the new Intel Macs use EFI instead of BIOS and second even the new Windows Vista was said to not be able to install on a Mac because although it would too use EFI, it had a different means of addressing the EFI or something.
Finally, it even says up in the engadget article that many people said it would be impossible to install Windows on a Mac. DUH!
Say what you will about pc dweebs ;-) they might be better skilled hackers.
I wonder what Apple is saying/thinking about all this? I wonder if maybe they already had their own solution in place.
-- Elias
I'm a Mac fan but did you notice this Freudian slip in the typo on the AppleTalk article:
"The Mac Mini seems like the perfect computer for a personal project I've had in mind for the past few months: Building a car computer (craputer)* with GPS, Internet, Media library, etc. Unfortunately, most carputer software is for Windows."
*Craputer. Now that's a new one. hehe.