Captain FTP

I kept having problems with Transmit 2 & 3 locking up during a file transfer upload. Frustrated with Transmit and tired of fixing directories from the command line ftp, I decided to give Captain FTP a try. Works like a charm. I highly recommend it for OS X users. The interface is a little strange but the program works great.

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Apple iPhone has a Knockoff Called the Meizi M8

http://www.vr-zone.com/?i=4548

I smell a lawsuit brewing. It's definitely a knockoff. The Cal, Calc, Phone, and Mail icons look very close. The rounded plastic edges look the same. The Meizu M8 should be called the ©iPhone for Copyright infringement Phone.

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Mactactic.com New website that gauges when to buy a new Mac / Lifecycle.

http://Mactactic.com suggests to by a machine at the beginning or middle of its life cycle. While this may be a good value money wise, would it be better to buy a machine at the end of its life cycle because nearly all the kinks would be worked out by that time?

For instance the Mirror Door G4 and 604e processors at the end of their life cycle were really good buys for me. In my college years, I used to always buy machines at the end of their life cycle refurbished. Not to mention there were very few problems with these boxes.

What do you think?

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Intel to Introduce and Demonstrate an 80 Core CPU!

Great. First we had the Megahertz race, now we are already in the Cores race. Let's see who can get to 1,024 Cores First.

Then they will probably say, Mmmm. This many cores is just not fast enough and it's way too hot, I think we need a platform change and incorporate a Venus Fly Trap CPU. We've been developing this secretly since the beginning of time. Now all we will need for power are a few bugs and water.

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Halo running on Hackintosh. Dell E207 Monitor, Don't get one! The E207 is not a good buy.

I got Halo Combat Evolved running on my Hacktinosh. I plays pretty good. I moved my better monitor, the Dell 2100fp to my main workstation. I might return my E207 for a 2407wfp or a 2007wfp. I didn't know this but the E207 is based on TN technology. It does not have as wide of a viewing angle top to bottom. It's color reproduction is also not ad good as my 2100fp. I may even try to find another 2100fp. The E207 does seems to be sharper, but it almost seems too sharp. Photos and text sometimes looks blotchy. Kind of annoying when you get used to a good screen.

Dell does not really make this apparent about the Econo displays. It tells you what options that you're not gonna got like USB 2.0, Extra video outputs, Picture in Picture, but they don't say, "we are using less pleasing 6bit imaging technology." I am probably going to return this display and try out a different model. I am really happy with the 2100fp. It has a really solid base that doesn't shake at all. This E207 is flimsy too. This is what usually happens. The 1st models are rock solid and well engineered. Now is it less give you something about 100 dollars cheaper brand new and see if you miss all the shortcuts we took to make boo-coo money.

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update: I traded my Dell E207 for a 2407WFP. If you are getting a new monitor go for a 2007FP or 2407WFP or find a used 2001FP or 2405WFP. Cheers!

Runing JaS Semthex 10.4.8 OSx86

I have been running the last JaS 10.4.8 DVD install for a few months now. It is great. I have any kernel panics. I am running Natit with a XFX GeForce 7300 Card with 2 Gigs of Ram, over a terabyte of hard disk space. I just love it. I built this Mac from Scratch last year and it still runs suberb.

Here are some of my notes for a month ago:

It the most unusual system that I ever put together.

This week, I made some improvements to DarthVader, my Intel Mac clone.

I added a Dual Display GeForce 7300 GT PCIe card like the ones in the MacPro's. Using a Dual Head Natit.kext v.02 to get dual displays working. Also added an inexpensive Dell E207 20" widescreen display with attached speakers. The display is clear and crisp. But you get what you pay for. Pixels might be over sharp. Darth is using a hacked 10.4.8 v8.8.1 kernel made by Mifki. For me building Darth is a fun hobby and don't wish it upon anyone unless you like messing around with Kext's and other innards of OSX. Darth's goal was to create a cheap usable Mac-like system for running Photoshop and Apple's Developer Tools to build Universal Applications. DVDs on Darth play really nice, especially with the built in sound bar directly below the screen.

Damage List:

Case,Intel D915GUX Mobo, 80 GB HD,1 GB, 16xDVDR, 3Ghz P4HT 64bit $500
Two WD 250 GB SATA HDs $200
Dell 2407WFP Monitor with Sound Bar attached speakers $300 (Got a great dell on it).
1 GB Additional RAM, Generic (installed it later this week) $088
PCIe 7300 GT Dual Display DVI Video Card $100
External 100 GB WD USB/FW HD. Upgraded from free drive to 250GB $040
External 250 GB Drive USB/FW ROCK Mobile HD $100
Dell Keyboard and Mouse $030
Dell 17" Display from rummage sale $040 (just stopped using it, 24" is all I need right now).
2nd 100 BT PCI Card (internal is 1GB Ethernet used with my G4) $040
End PC Noise FAN $035
USB 2.0 WiFi Card from Previous system FREE (went back to LAN, Ethernet,) going to sell this on eBay.
USB 1.1/Firewire Card from recycled system FREE
Wacom Tablet.. used from old system FREE
Estimated total $1475.00

It runs as good as many G5's on the Market. It is by no means a speed demon like the latest and greatest Xeon Macs. The MoBo is already a year old. But I would consider it a good Mid Range system that currently suits my needs and it has 1 Terabyte of storage. I am going to evenutally add another 20" widescreen monitor and trash my CRT. So, I started around the Mac Mini price gradually worked my way up to the 20" iMac range. Most of the parts were bought on eBay. It's still much cheaper than the bottom of the line MacPro, but it did require more effort to put together and configure than any normal Mac user would consider attempting. Nevertheless, it was a great learning experience and I know more now about Macs and PCs than I ever did.

Pros: cheap, Dual Display, Supports QE,CI, and QE2D Extreme, runs Tiger 10.4.8. 64bit enabled. 6 USB 2.0 Ports, 4 USB 1.1 ports, 2 Firewire 800 Ports. RAM is Expandable to 4 GB. No viruses.
Cons: It's not a Mac, may not run 10.5. Do it yourself means fix it yourself. Getting very good at both.

If you ever wish to take on a project like this. I highly recommended joining http://insanelymac.com. Also, if you want to chat with my, I am often on IRC at: irc.macspeak.net with the username: gt. Common rooms that I am in: kernel and clonetool.

Clonetool is my pet programming project. For far it's made a few dollars. I hope to earn enough money with CT for either a Mac Mini or a MacBook to fully support cloning Hard disks of any Mac or Hackintosh user. Clonetool, a command line based cloning utility, was started to fill a need for Hackintosh users. They didn't have a simple way to clone their OSX boot drive and allow it to boot with little user intervention. Clonetool today has been downloaded worldwide, from over 80 countries, and supports PowerPC and Hackintosh users. 75% of my downloads are from Hackintosh users. 25% are PowerPC users. With my next version, I hope to get Intel Mac users and bring it to a 50/50 split between real Mac users and Hackintosh OSx86 users. Clonetool Hatchery will be released by Easter and will support all Macs including Intel Macs and Hackintoshes and of course be more Mac like with a GUI.

I have not done much promoting of Clonetool, but was amazed how many downloads it gets. Each week my tiny homepage gets about 5000 visitors and Clonetool gets about 125 downloads per week. There are other cloning tools out there, but many of them haven't been updated in a while. I am hoping to close the gap and keep developing it. Cloning Mac hard drives is also a departure from my previous programming endeavors which were Prepress based and did not have much life outside of the work I do at my full-time job.

Happy New Year,

Goodtime
http://art5dog.com

Mac OS X 10.5 and Blu-Ray or HD-DVD Macs from Apple!

When 10.5. is released and it does support HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, it will immediately start selling computers with either a HD-DVD or Blu-Ray. It would be crazy not to, plus including a Mac that supports either or both formats would boost sales.

If I want to watch HD-DVD movies, I need a HDCP compatible Video Card (my 7300 GT is does not that I know of), I do have a HDCP monitor, then I would need a HD-DVD or Blu-Ray player. After all that, my CPU might not be fast enough to play 1080p content, so then I would probably just get a brand new mac that already supports it and it would be much faster.

What's funny is video cards first got better because of Prepress and Graphic Design. Next Video Gamers needed better video cards, now HD computers need better video cards and Processors to keep up with HD-DVD decyption. Seems endless.

Computer manufacturers should have a Computer Club Membership. For $1000/yr. Apple could send you a new computer. A year later if you return that computer, Apple would send you another new one as long as you keep your membership in good standing. If you opt out of the Membership, then you would owe Apple the balance due on the $2500 machine ($1500) and could keep the computer which would probably be obsolete in another year because of some new technology. I would probably pay $1000/yr. if I was guaranteed a computer that would be up-to-date on both the hardware and software side. Think about it, we probably pay Cable this much and see don't get better service year after year for the same money.

GoDaddy.com

I just loved that GoDaddy.com commercial. "Everybody wants to be in Marketing." I like the girl on their web banner Ads too. It's sexy and clean. Way to go GoDaddy! I am definitely going to get my next Domain name from GoDaddy.com. They are a cool internet company with a sense of humor that just happen to sell domain names and web services. Sweet!

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3D Graphics in a VM on Mac OS X Fusion? Yes!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF_CoXsXtk4

This is impressive to see 3D Graphics Acceleration on Mac OS X within a Windows Virtual Machine. This brings Mac gaming to a whole new level! I don't know if this will work on Hacktinoshes, but seeing it running on several Mac Book Pro's and MacPro's is really cool.

a 3D Graphics Environment in a Sandbox. Nice.

I just might have to purchase the latest version of VMware's Fusion this year and give it a whirl. My kids would love to play the Windows version of Star Wars lego I & II on a Mac instead of a PC. :)

Now it's time for Parallels to step it up because VMWare's Fusion now has a leg up on you guys. Parallels was headed out the gate first, but now Fusion is catching up and is passing Parallels. This is going to be some tough competition for both companies. This will be really good for the consumer. Speaking of competition, where is VirtualPC for the Mac? Looks like Microsoft killed another Mac product. Here is what Bill Gates is thinking to himself, "Oops, I did it again. I got lost in the game and screwed another product. At least we will still have Tiger, I mean Vista and Aqua, I mean Aero. I'm not that innocent." Great job M$, you poisoned another up an coming product. Smooth move.

Go Fusion Go! I hope Parallels stays in the game. :)

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Casual Games coming to AppleTV. Reminds me of my C-64/Atari days.

Casual games is really not a bad idea for AppleTV. It would be like having access to Hotel games on your TV.

I could see having Nintendo games like Super Mario Brothers or Donkey Kong. Arcade classics and simple shoot 'em up games. Card games: Sudoku, Chess, Poker, Black Jack. Board games like: Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, Monopoly and You Don't Know Jack. Atari classic games like Pole Position, Asteriods, Tank and Pong. And of course newly created games but keep them simple.

As long as the games are not terribly complicated, many of today's non-gamers might buy a few to keep around for parties and stuff.

This would be great for the casual gamer like what we had with the Atari 2600 back in 1978. Those games were simple, but very socially entertaining.

That reminds me, I used to write shoot 'em up arcade style games for the C-64 using Gary Kitchen's Game Maker. One of my games is still on the internet called "Laser Eagle V2". V1 was never released, it was written in BASIC. V2 made it to the top twenty downloads on QuantumLink. The game can be played using a C-64 emulator.

The game was created 21 years ago. It's a home grown classic.

http://www.fragit.net/cbm/c64/games/eagleg.prg
http://www.fragit.net/cbm/c64/games/index.html

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PowerBook Pismo G3 for $ale

Anyone want to buy a PowerBook Pismo G3 with a custom internal WiFi 802.11b card, 386 MB RAM? It does not have a battery but the power adapter still works. Runs good for general web stuff, slight bulge in keyboard from my Frankenstein WiFi card that came from an original AirPort Base station. I am thinking about selling it on eBay soon

Where's all the Mac viruses? Apple says there are 114,000 on the PC.

Apple's website says there are 114,000 PC Viruses.

So far I can count the Mac OS X viruses on one of my hands.

Now, I am not saying that Mac viruses are not possible. In fact it would be easy to write one. It could be a phishing virus, a key stroke recorder, a virus that phones home and sends personal information without your knowledge, a malware virus that clicks on ads off screen, a virus that swaps out the kernel, takes over and all bets are off. Now most of these viruses would probably require the user to enter their password. One way to get the Mac victim to enter there password would be to modify a multi pkg installer as add in a custom package that inserts the virus. Put the hacked software up on a torrent site (make it a popular program like iLife) and you've got yourself a pool of users.

While Mac viruses are entirely possible. Mac hackers that I know are not malicious. They are more interested in figuring out what makes OS X tick from a curiousity level than from a destructive force level. Many PC hackers are interested in controlling a botnet and using their skills to make money. There is a big difference between the average Macintosh hacker and a PC hacker. Don't get me wrong, I am sure there are PC hackers that work for the forces of good and not evil. I am just saying that I don't think there are many Mac hackers that try to hurt someone's computer or try to take a computer over. Plus, many IT departments are afraid of Macs, and I assume many Windows/PC only hackers are afraid of Macs as well. Market share is too low for most bad hackers to worry about Macs. I think that is why there are not many Mac viruses. Think different. Use the force, Luke.

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Apple to support HD-DVD and Blue-Ray in 10.5?

I read rumors that Apple's DVD Player will sport a new interface and also support HD-DVD and Blue-Ray. Apple's website says that version 4.6 of DVD Player support High Definition video and with DV Studio Pro 4 it can play authored HD-DVDs. But can it play HD-DVDs now? Many sites say no.

I haven't found any concrete evidence from Apple about full support for HD-DVD and Blue-Ray, but I would think it needs to support these new standards before somebody else does like VLC.

Right now I would like to use the USB HD-DVD Player for the Xbox on my Mac, but without software its a little early to spend the 200 bucks for it.

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