Airport extension

I've sung the praises of the Apple Airport Express before on this blog, and recently I've got myself another one - this time, the newer 802.11N version.

Although it's essentially the same, in upgrading it to "N" Apple have introduced a bit more functionality to the unit at the same time. Whilst tinkering with it, I've found something very useful - something which you can't do with the old "G" revision.

I've had a few problems with the wifi reception around my house - quite a few dead spots, and patchy signal strength - so I'm now using the Airport Express to boost things up a bit. It's widely publicised that the Express can lock onto the wifi signal from an Apple base station and then relay it to extend the coverage, but I don't have an Apple base station. I've configured it slightly differently.

I've taken an ethernet cable out of my existing Netgear wifi router (which is still on main wifi duties), and plugged this into the ethernet port of the Airport Express in another part of the house. Using the Airport Utility on my Mac, I've then set it up to rebroadcast the signal it's getting via it's inbuilt transmitter. All quite mundane so far - but the clever bit (as far as I'm concerned) is that the Express can use the same SSID as the existing network, so your client wifi devices only see one single network name in the list of available networks. Your wifi device - laptop, iPod Touch, phone, whatever - will use the strongest signal in any given place, and switch if necessary, all completely seamlessly.

I've now got a decent, strong signal virtually everywhere in the house - a clever solution from a VERY versatile Apple gadget!

If you want to know specifics about the setup, just ask in the comments.

Joi to the world

If you follow my Twitter feed you may have heard me mention a little application that I downloaded for my Nokia E63 called Joikuspot. It's a very clever little program that uses the phone's 3G connection and wi-fi to create a little personal hotspot for you to use to get internet access.

I'm pleased to report that it works incredibly well, particularly bearing in mind that it's free. There is a "premium" version but I'm quite happy to look at a landing page in my browser when first logging on in exchange for not having to pay!

As you might expect with plain old 3G, you're not going to set the internet alight with amazing download speeds (I'm getting about 256kbps) but when you're without a web connection, then it's a very neat option. It's essentially doing what the Three Mi-Fi does, but at very little cost. My phone network (Virgin) gives you 24 hours of unlimited browsing for just 30p, so for the few times I need to jump on the web away from home its perfect.

In fact, my Eee PC is connected via Joikuspot as I sit here and type this in a local (wifi-less) coffee shop. There's not many times that my budget Nokia phone option gets one over on my iPhone using friends, but this is one such occasion.

Decision made

After much faffing (i.e endless hours of internet research and many visits to shops) I've finally decided on my new mobile phone. And the winner is?

This one! (I'm going to make you click this link in a vain effort to create some suspense, rather than just telling you outright).

I've gone with the tried-and-tested Nokia/Symbian S60 platform, combined with the convenience of a QWERTY keyboard, which for an old man like me makes texting, emailing and web browsing considerably easier. Wifi too, which is nice.

I've previously gone on at some length about why I haven't got an iPhone, so don't start asking me about it okay? I know your phone is better than mine.

No half measures

As you may be aware, I've done a lot of tinkering with various distributions of Linux on my Eee 901 netbook over the past few months (mainly due to the evangelism of my mate Rich). I've tried Mandriva, Eeebuntu, Ubuntu, Xubuntu, Mint and Fedora - all with varying degrees of success.

I've either been running these distros as live versions from a USB stick, or (if they work reasonably well) installing them to the Eee's SD card. This has had the benefit of leaving the default Windows XP installation untouched, allowing me to choose which OS to boot on startup. The downside has been that trying to run an OS from an SD card hasn't exactly provided the smoothest or quickest experience.

So, to that end, I decided the other day to go the whole hog and remove XP and install Ubuntu (my preferred flavour) onto the main solid-state drive of the Eee. I'm pleased to report that this was a very simple process - I just went with all the default options, rather than having to mess about with partitions and boot loaders and the like.

As I've previously reported, Ubuntu 9.04 works with all the Eee hardware - wifi, audio, bluetooth, webcam etc - out of the box so there were no issues with any of that.

Pleasingly, running Ubuntu as the main OS from the SSD has provided an exceptionally quick user interface. Power on to login screen takes just 19 seconds, and from logging in to fully running desktop with active wifi connection takes just another 15 seconds after that. Compared to the minute and a half that XP was taking to perform the same actions, that's quite an achievement. Of course, the real benefit of Linux ownership comes from the refreshingly bloat-free nature of the OS - no extraneous rubbish running in the background to slow everything down, no need for virus checkers, no "helper" applications annoying you in the system tray.

And of course, like Ubuntu itself, all the  installed software is free and open source - OpenOffice, Firefox, GIMP - and with a quick trip to the Skype homepage that's been painlessly installed too.

All in all, a very successful and simple transition.

I'm not even remotely tempted to go back to XP after seeing how nicely Ubuntu works on the Eee - it's an ideal OS for a netbook. I may start tinkering again when Moblin gets properly established though!

Fixing my Denon DCD-825 CD player

Although it's 14 years old, I've grown very attached to my Denon CD player and when it stopped playing discs I was most upset. The most probable cause was a defective laser/lens assembly, so I found out that it's actually a generic Sony unit - the KSS-240A - which is still widely available. A quick visit to eBay and £20 later, and I soon had a new unit waiting to be fitted. I wasn't really sure how to do it, or even if it would work, but I figured the best way to learn was to try it!

See my Flickr set here.

Need for speed

I'd just like to say thank you to Virgin Media for my free upgrade... it's not often you get a whole lot more of something for no extra money. This time yesterday I was running at just under 2Mb/s, so this is quite an improvement!

Essential upgrade - maybe

Word on the street (i.e. internet) says that there will be a new version of the iPod Touch arriving as early as September this year. And, if rumours are to be believed, it could come complete with everything from a built-in camera to a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

The things I would most like to see, and the things that are most likely to be included in the update, are a camera (hopefully the autofocus/macro model from the iPhone 3GS) and the GPS capabilities (also from the iPhone). These two things would make the Touch even more indespensable than it already is. The number of apps that would benefit from a camera are immense, and equally GPS for being properly "location aware" would be brilliant. Less likely, but also high on my personal wishlist, would be a built-in microphone. I'm guessing a processor speed bump and more RAM are a given, as is the version 3.0 OS.

However, if these things really were included the the third-gen Touch, wouldn't it be straying just a bit *too* far into iPhone territory? Already it's 75% iPhone, and these additions would push it to about 90%. The only thing missing would be the telephony features. I'm thinking that Apple would be wary of eating into its iPhone sales (and associated revenue from the stupidly long and stupidly expensive tarriffs).

Needless to say though, if they did manage to put a camera and GPS in the next model, mine would be straight on eBay and I'd preorder the day it was announced - providing it can come in at a sensible price. Let's hope that the money men at Apple see the sales opportunities for a better Touch and don't fret too much about their iPhone contracts...

And... thanks for nothing.

So the WWDC keynote has been and gone, and it was all a bit... well... meh.

The iPhone 3.0 OS looks like a good upgrade, but it wasn't exactly a surprise as it was announced months ago - and if I want it on my iPod Touch it'll cost me, whereas iPhone users get it for free. What's that all about?! But it's definitely worth the outlay as it will give me the ability to CUT, COPY, PASTE AND UNDO!!

As for Snow Leopard, again it looks like a worthwhile step forward. And the best bit? Only $29! That's a serious bargain. Oh, wait... what's this?! Intel only? Ah. Not for me, this brave new world. There will be no snow on my ageing G5 Leopard.

And so on to the much anticipated new iPhone hardware - the iPhone 3GS! Marvel at the camera that is THREE WHOLE MEGAPIXELS WHICH CAN RECORD FRICKIN' VIDEO! Gasp in wonder at the introduction of HSDPA! WHOA! What is this, 2007?!

Way to go Apple. Sometimes you disappoint me greatly. But I still love you. I think.

WWDC today - but do I care enough?

With only a few hours to go until Apple's Worldwide Developer's Conference 2009, it is now pretty much accepted wisdom that there will be an announcement of a new iPhone. If this is true, it'll be the third year on the bounce that they've released new iPhone hardware. Now I'm all up for technological advancement, and bearing in mind I'm about 6 weeks away from the end of my current mobile phone contract I may well be in the market for just such a device.

However, I have a few issues with the whole iPhone sales model. If Apple continue this 12-month cycle of hardware upgrades, how are customers going to fare with this incessant pace of change? If I got myself a new 18-month contract for a 3rd generation iPhone as soon as it's released, I'm pretty much guaranteed to have an obsolete model after 12 months. So do I then get the 4th-gen iPhone when the contract expires, knowing that if I'm just a bit more patient I can have the 5th-gen in just another six months? My god, it's enough to make your head spin!

But my *real* problem with the iPhone is unfortunately more fundamental than the obsolescense of the hardware. The cost is just a bit rich for my blood. I know that you're getting what is arguably the best mobile phone in the world, but the monthly cost is what's putting me off. The cheapest contract for an iPhone is £30 a month, for 18 months, with an upfront cost of £100 for the 8GB model. For that outlay, you get 75 minutes and 125 texts and unlimited data.

Now I can get a super-shiny Nokia E71 (which admittedly, isn't an iPhone but is widely recognised to be the best smart phone on the market bar none) for free on an 18-month contract with 200 minutes, unlimited texts and unlimited data for £20 a month from three.co.uk.

There's an interesting comparison between the two phones from Wired.com - just try to ignore the geeks and concentrate on the phones...



So over the life of the 18-month contract the iPhone will set me back £640, the Nokia will cost me £360. That's some significant margin - £280 is a lot in my world.

So there's my problem - I *know* the iPhone is better. I *know* it's cooler. I *know* it's made by the almighty Apple. But when I already have an iPod Touch (which is 75% of the iPhone anyway), I just can't justify the cost. My iPhone-owning friends have all said "but it's only an extra £10 a month", but the flip side of that is that "it's a WHOLE £10 extra a month".

So yes, let's have some shiny new hardware. Let's make the best phone in the world even better. Let's bask in the glory of Apple's design and vision. But more than any of those things, LET'S MAKE THE DAMN THING CHEAPER.

*** UPDATE ***

So now the WWDC keynote has been and gone, and Apple have announced their new iPhone model, the iPhone 3GS. So far as I can tell, it's very similar to the old model but now sports HSDPA and a 3 megapixel camera with video capability. Both of which the Nokia E71 has had since it's introduction over a year ago. But the best bit? The upfront cost for the 8GB iPhone 3GS is a bargain at only £185. Which, from my earlier calculations, pushes the total 18-month cost up to £725. Excuse me if I don't rush to buy one.

I almost didn't notice it was spam...

I was checking through the recent comments I've received on my postings earlier on, and as I was going through and deleting all the obvious Cyrillic-character rubbish and adverts for Viagra, I ALMOST DIDN'T NOTICE THIS LITTLE BEAUTY WAS SPAM. Honestly - it could almost have been a real comment couldn't it?! Incidentally, I've deleted out the hyperlinks just in case anyone felt the urge to click through.

"Once in a while my internet disconnects and reconnects all eveningand one day every 2-3 weeks. stiga quickplay indoor outdoor table tennis table. It's bewildering, seeing as flanders valley proper for flanders valley the most part0 my internet works penalize and is trouble-free. sampras tennis star sampras tennis star. Although the infrequent cosmos of the disconnections is not all that bothersome,lee on solent tennis clublee on solent tennis club it is EXTRAORDINARILY annoying and apt to the character of my deal with I ask for a unchanged, sure and unwearied connection at all times."

Yeah. Good point, well made. Couldn't have said it better myself. SPAM FAIL.

Pump up the volume

I've had a Nokia N73 mobile phone for about 15 months now, which means it's getting a bit long in the tooth. I don't know about you, my phones seem to take quite a battering - sometimes literally - and when most phone contracts these days are for 18 months, the last six months prior to an upgrade can be a bit touch and go as to whether the phone will survive. Needless to say, I'm not about to spend an extra £7 a month for a luxury like phone insurance either.

So my N73 started playing up the other day. The rocker switch - which controls the earpiece volume when making a call or the zoom when in camera mode - went worryingly flaccid and refused to function. Rather annoyingly, I managed to turn the volume right down and then couldn't turn it back up again. Doh!

Upon opening the phone up (always have a T6 torx to hand I say) I discovered that the microswitch which controlled it had broken right off the mainboard and my soldering is in no way up to the job of replacing it. I sent it off to have it looked at under Nokia's fairly generous 2-year warranty, but they sent it back unrepaired saying that the warranty doesn't cover "physical damage". What the hell does it cover then?

Anyway, I discovered a way round the problem. Go and find that headset that came in the box with your phone (probably still shrink wrapped and unused...) and plug it in. This has a button on it that allows you to control the volume remotely. Get it back to the level that you want, unplug and your problem's solved.

Doesn't fix the camera zoom, but you'll just have to walk closer to your subject... :o)

Ubuntu 9.04 on the Eee PC 901 - U, K or X?

So you'll no doubt be aware that a while back I wrestled with trying to get a fully-functional version of Ubuntu onto my Asus EeePC 901, and had to jump through some fairly complicated hoops to get it all working. Then Canonical went and released their beta version of Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope and all my problems were solved - all the Eee hardware working out of the box. Superb.

So, with the arrival of the official release of 9.04 Jaunty, I decided I'd try out the three main distros of Ubuntu - plain GNOME-based Ubuntu, KDE-based Kubuntu and the stripped down XFCE-based Xubuntu. In addition, I also thought I'd give the official Netbook Remix of Ubuntu a spin as well, just for the sake of completeness. For all four distros, I downloaded the ISO, and set up a 2GB USB flash drive using Unetbootin to run a live version, and then used this to install to an 8GB SD card in the Eee 901's card slot.

I have to say, I'm surprised by the performance differences between these four versions - because they are quite marked. Good old vanilla Ubuntu runs just fine and dandy. The only thing wrong as far as I can tell is that it's a bit sluggish running from SD, but I guess that's to be expected. The package is well-rounded and it includes most things that you'd need, apart from maybe Skype (but that's a doddle to install).

I tested the Netbook Remix (NBR) version next. Now undoubtedly this cosmetic tweak makes things a bit easier to navigate on the small 9-inch screen of the Eee, but I really noticed a performance hit. It showed a remarkable amount of slowdown over ordinary Ubuntu, and changing between the tabs was quite painful - about a second between clicking and it actually changing. The general sluggishness meant that I couldn't put up with it, so it had to go.

Then I tried Kubuntu, with it's all-singing-all-dancing KDE 4 interface that I've been hearing so many good things about. Now I'm sure if I was installing it on a fully-fledged desktop machine it'd fly along, but running off the SD card was - again - just too slow to be usable. In addition, the interface isn't at all suitable for the tiny Eee screen, as the top and bottom of each window were not visible. Also, no Firefox as standard is a black mark against it as far as I'm concerned.

So onto Xubuntu. The whole idea of the XCFE interface is that it's designed for lower-spec machines. As such, on the Eee it positively flies along! Admittedly it's not quite the slick, full package that ordinary Ubuntu is, but it still has everything I need, particularly on a netbook which really only uses Firefox in anger. I quick trip onto the interweb to install Skype and I'm as happy as Larry. I reckon this will be the distro that's staying on my Eee, at least until I feel the urge to start tinkering again.

Just to clarify - my comments above are my personal experiences of running these distros from an SD card on an Eee PC. This is NOT the ideal means of running these distributions, and if you're up for it you'd be far better installing to the primary SSD instead, and you'd be even better off installing to a proper desktop machine. However, for my purposes, Xubuntu is the one for me.

Offsite

I've recently got my hands on Leopard and I've started using Time Machine for backups - and I have to say it really takes the hard work out of backing stuff up. However, as good as it is I've also started being extra cautious and begun a strategy of off-site backups. I figure that all the backup in the world won't help if some scumbag burgles your house and nicks not only your computer but your backup drive as well. Believe me, in my line of work I see it all the time.

I've burnt all my photos (one year per disc) to DVD and also backed up all my iTunes music to DVD too, and shipped them off to a trusted source. I know that iTunes isn't strictly necessary bearing in mind I still have (most of) the original CDs, so I can always re-rip, but thats a bit of a long task really - and if the aforementioned scumbag steals your CD collection as well as your computer then you're really scuppered, particularly if you've got some classic discs that have now been deleted.

There's not a huge amount else of importance. I make very regular backups of all the websites I work on, but those are fairly small files, so not only do they go on to backup drive AND USB stick, they also get burnt to CD for good measure every so often and I've just started chucking the odd folder of documents and stuff onto DropBox (www.getdropbox.com). I figure you can't be too careful.

Think about it - you might not want to put all your eggs in one hard-drive-shaped basket, regardless of how good your backup strategy is. Just something to think about...

Pigeon post - getting to grips with the Unikon ETS

Now you're going to have to give me a bit of latitude here, as this isn't something that I'd normally be talking about on this blog. However, it is vaguely gadget-related, and there's also virtually no coverage of this topic on t'interweb so you'll have to indulge me.

My dad is well into his pigeon racing. Always has been, always will be. However, he does enjoy a good gadget and he's just bought something to try and bring his - and everyone else's - pigeon racing kicking and screaming into the 21st century (or at the very least, the late 1990s).

The gadget in question is an electronic timing system, or ETS. For those of you who know nowt about pigeon racing, the deal is that you put your birds, along with hundreds of others, onto a lorry which transports them to a predetermined release point. They all get simultaneously released, and the first one home is the winner. Obviously, every pigeon has a slightly different distance to fly to get home, so there's a lot of complex calculations to be done to work out exactly who the winner is, but you get the drift, yes?

Okay then. Not wanting to go into too much detail (that's not exactly my point here) but the old-fashioned method involved lots of writing by hand, little rubber rings, wind-up clocks and old blokes with calculators. Not exactly high tech. So this new system - called the Unikon, and made by German company Deister - aims to streamline the whole process. It's quite clever but not without its foibles, so I'm going to document how it works, and hopefully provide some instructions to help others.

Firstly - the equipment. It consists of a club system, used for marking pigeons, and a home system for the pigeon fancier (daft name) to use at his or her loft. Here's a pic of the club system:



So what's that on the right hand side? Is that a... wait... no it can't be. Is that a PARALLEL PRINTER?! Indeed it is. See, I told you this was a bit 1990s. The box with the number keys in the middle is the master club clock and the thing on the left is the unit for scanning the pigeons.

So how do you "scan" a pigeon exactly? Well this isn't Mission Impossible-style retina scanning or anything - it's a bit simpler. You put a plastic ring containing an RFID chip onto the leg of each pigeon. This chip has a unique alphanumeric code embedded in it which can't be altered. Here are the rings:



So the RFID ring goes on one leg, and on the other leg the pigeon has its association ring - which has a number on it which is registered to a particular fancier (in the photo below, the association ring is on the right). This ring is put on the bird when it's a baby, and subsequently can never be removed without destroying the ring.



In order to link these two rings together (figuratively speaking), you use a piece of software whereby you list all the association ring numbers belonging to that person and then upload them to the fancier's personal clock. This is done using a PC and a USB cable. Once it's done, there's no more need for the computer, the rest is done through the standalone unit. Here's the fancier's personal loft clock:



You can see that there's a little box which detaches from the main unit - this is the bit that contains the data. You give that bit to the pigeon club and they use the master system to upload all your association ring numbers, as well as the race dates and locations for that particular season. Once that's done, the linking can begin. You scroll through to the particular pigeon in question, and once you've found the right one, you pass the pigeon's RFID ring over the scanner.



The software then links the RFID ring to the association ring, so you know which pigeon is wearing which RFID ring. Once all this is done (and this has to be well before the racing season starts) then you're all set up to go. To enter your pigeons for a particular race, you take your chosen birds along to the club along with the cartridge from your loft clock and it's a simple matter of choosing the correct race from the list on the screen of the club system, scanning your pigeon over the sensor and that's about it. Once it's all done, the printer will churn out a sheet containing the information of all the pigeons you're sending to that particular race. Not only that but the club system will set the time on all the clocks using the MSF radio time signal broadcast by the National Physical Laboratory so that everyone's clocks are synchronised (which is much more reliable than the old way of attempting to switch everyone's clocks on simultaneously... no, I'm not joking).

Then, on race day, the magic happens. When the pigeons arrive home, they enter the pigeon loft and as they do so they pass over an RFID reader, installed just under the entrance hatch:



This reader scans the RFID chip in the ring and sends a signal to the fancier's loft clock, and this records exactly which pigeon arrived (it knows this because you linked the RFID ring and association ring together remember?) and what time it arrived at. All the data is stored in the little cartridge, and then the fancier detaches this and takes it along to the club later that day. They plug it into their master clock and the printer spits out a sheet with all the timings on. Genius! The main advantage is that the system will be quite happy to do all this without anyone being present, so you can go out and do something else and your birds will still get timed in. Also, it's a lot quicker than the old method, saving valuable seconds (which, in reality, can mean the difference between first place and second).

So there you go - a very happy Easter weekend spent pigeon-wrangling. Reports are that the system worked just fine and dandy for the first race of the season, so let's hope that continues. It's not exactly bleeding-edge technology, but in the world of pigeon racing it might as well be warp-drive.

If anyone's interested in exactly how I got it all working (including the lessons learnt from making mistakes), then drop me a line. The next post will be business as usual, I promise.

Wi-fi to go

As you may recall (if you've been here before) I recently got myself an Airport Express for the purpose of streaming music from my iMac to my hifi, in conjunction with my iPod Touch and the Remote app. This, as I've already reported, works wonderfully.

I was off to my folks' for the Easter weekend, and I was wondering how I would manage for four days with no wi-fi. Although they have broadband, it only goes directly to their desktop machine and nowhere else. I figured I could take my Airport Express with me, and somehow get it to broadcast a wi-fi signal - thereby allowing me to use my iPod Touch and netbook.

I wasn't entirely sure about the best way of doing this (and I'm not even sure this is the correct way now), but allow me to share how I got it all to work.

The AE has a feature built in to the setup software which allows you to set up profiles. Basically a profile is a batch of settings instructing the AE to function in a certain manner. My default profile was to connect as a client device to my home wifi network and stream music from my iMac. However, I knew when I got to my parents' that this wouldn't work. I needed it to accept the broadband signal via its ethernet port and then act as a wifi base station to broadcast the signal. So I set up a second profile telling the AE to work in the fashion, then packed it in my bag and set off.

Upon my arrival, I plugged in the Airport Express, but the setup software on my netbook simply would *not* find the device at all. I began to wonder how I'd ever manage to switch to my other profile if I couldn't connect to the AE in the first place. After some Googling (on the desktop machine of course!) I discovered that I needed to reset the AE. I held down the reset button for a few seconds, and when the light flashed I knew it had reset itself.

Sure enough, straight away the AE appeared in the Airport software, and it asked me which of my saved profiles I'd like to enable. I chose the new one that I'd set up before I left, and then the unit rebooted. When it restarted, it began broadcasting the wi-fi, which I was able to connect to with both my Eee and my Touch. Result!

Upon my return home, I reversed the process - reset the unit, selected the original profile in the Airport software and it was back in client mode. Simple when you know how...

iMac G5 open-heart surgery

So, after months of blogging about upgrading my G5 iMac, I finally got round to doing it at the weekend. Ably assisted by Olitee, I swapped out the existing hard drive for a much larger, faster model. I went for a 640GB Western Digital Blue in the end, mainly because it's a good combination of price, features and (hopefully) reliability. Having read through Apple's instructions for replacing the hard drive, it seemed a reasonably easy process. And, I'm pleased to report, it was.


Firstly, I made sure everything was backed up before we started. Then it was a matter of opening up the case on the iMac, which is a simple job of loosening three captive screws on the bottom and lifting the whole back plate off. Once inside, the hard drive was easy to find, being located at the top right corner. To get to the screws holding it in place, you have to remove the rubber fan cover. Then the hard drive is held in with three small screws. Loosen these, and the drive comes out attached to a metal chassis.


There are three cables attached - one for data, one for power and a small one on the rear of the chassis which we decided was a temperature sensor. Detach these, and the drive lifts out. Take the chassis off the existing drive and attach it to the new one, and then reverse the procedure to get the drive back in.


To get your OS back on to the drive - which in my case was an upgrade from Tiger to Leopard - you need to boot up the machine with the DVD in the drive whilst holding down the 'c' key. (Good job Olitee was present, because I didn't know about that bit). Once the machine boots, you use Disk Utility to partition the drive and then crack on with the install.


The whole thing was a very simple, painless process and I'm pleased to report that my faithful iMac is now running beautifully. Hurrah!

Free software roundup

There's no such thing as a free lunch - but clearly that old adage doesn't apply to software, because "free" is most definitely the way forward.

I've been downloading/using/evaluating a number of free apps for both Mac and PC recently, so here's my two pence worth.

1) If you're a Firefox user (and why the hell would you not be?!) then I've discovered a rather fine plugin for handling FTP called FireFTP. It basically turns Firefox into a fairly nifty FTP client. Type your remote FTP details into the interface, and you'll be uploading in no time at all. Beats having a separate app in my opinion, and great for the occasional time you need to access your webspace when you're out and about away from your desktop machine.

2) When I'm away from home and forced to use someone else's PC, I like to know I've got my tried-and-tested applications with me rather than having to use "standard" (i.e. sh!te) software. This is where PortableApps comes in. Install this to your USB stick and you'll have a fairly comprehensive selection of free, open-source, decent software at your disposal.

The standard install gives you Firefox, Thunderbird, the full OpenOffice suite and Pidgin, amongst other things. You can then select additional software to install - I've opted for the VLC player, GIMP and 7Zip. The install is persistent, so, for example, you can install Firefox add-ons (Xmarks and FireFTP naturally!) and have all your bookmarks at your fingertips, as well as email settings etc.

For times when you can't use a Linux LiveUSB, this is the next best thing as it'll run on any XP machine and won't leave any trace once the stick is unplugged. I've got this installed on an 8GB stick, and there's still loads of space for documents, photos and even a few music tracks. Works very well indeed.

3) I really like the OpenOffice suite and recommend it at every opportunity - it almost always gets a favourable reaction, particularly because it's free. Family, friends and colleagues are consistently amazed that it's every bit as good as Microshite Office, but has a price tag of precisely nothing. And now there's a great option for those Mac users who want to get in on the OpenOffice action, and it's called NeoOffice. It's essentially a spruced-up rebuild of OpenOffice, with some extra little Mac-specific tweaks and a welcome speed boost over the PC version.

I see no reason for the VAST majority of people to use Microsoft Office at all when there's free software that's this good - and in case you're concerned, it even saves your documents as .doc or .xls files if you need cross-compatibility with Microsoft's overpriced bloatware.

4) Lastly - and I doff my hat in Olitee's direction for this one - Spotify is quite marvellous. Did someone say "FREE MUSIC"?! I'll have some of that. Ta.

Incoming

Nothing particularly earth-shattering, but (as part of the ongoing upgrade saga) I have just ordered a new hard drive for my iMac, which should be arriving before the weekend. Went for a 640GB Western Digital Blue. Should hopefully be a marked improvement over the HDD that's currently installed.

Good friend and fellow blogger Olitee is coming over on Saturday and we're going to see if we can't get the trusty old G5 up and running with Leopard at the same time as installing the new disk - it would seem sensible to do both at once. Standby for progress report... and maybe even photos if you're lucky.

Cancel my last - just do it the jaunty way

Feel free to ignore everything I've written up to now about installing Linux on the EeePC. It has become officially irrelevant.

If you want a fully working install of Ubuntu without all the buggering about, then just get yourself the beta version of Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope. It's had some significant tweakery since 8.10 Intrepid and now handles all the Eee hardware straight OOTB. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, because the latest Mandriva 2009 can do it so Ubuntu would be lagging behind if they didn't implement it as well.

Not only that, it runs beautifully on my desktop machine too, which Intrepid Ibex point blank refused to do.

So there you have it - all your Ubuntu issues sorted. Should have tried it sooner.

It's still a beta - but it seems pretty stable to me. If you're concerned about running a beta, then the official release is on 23rd April, so not long to wait.

Ubuntu 8.10 - fully working on an Eee near you

So you're probably aware that I've been doing quite a bit of tinkering with Linux recently, and you're also probably aware that I installed Eeebuntu 2.0 NBR onto my EeePC. Whilst it's a good solution, it does need rather a lot of tweaking to get it working correctly (which, by rights, it shouldn't) and after using it for a few days I'm really not convinced by the NBR interface any more (it's a bit prescriptive).

What I really wanted was to run the latest 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) release of good old plain vanilla Ubuntu on the Eee rather than "making do" with the cut-and-shut Eeebuntu version. However, it's a known fact that the Eee hardware simply doesn't work properly with a standard Ubuntu install - most notably the wi-fi and audio don't work. I knew there had to be a way to overcome this though, and after some prodigious Googling, I've found the answer.

First, get the Ubuntu 8.10 ISO onto a USB stick using Unetbootin (I've explained how to do this before, so if you're confused, see previous posts). Boot up the Eee using this USB and install Ubuntu onto your chosen destination drive - I'm still sticking with the SD card for the time being. Once the install is complete, you won't have an internet connection so you're going to need to hook the Eee up with a trusty bit of CAT5 until we get things working.

Reboot into your fresh new Ubuntu install, and then fire up a Terminal window. You're now going to install a custom Eee-specific kernel (courtesy of the wonderful people at www.array.org) which will get all your hardware working properly.

In Terminal, type the following lines, one at a time - there will be some downloading and reconfiguration in between each one when you hit enter, so be patient:

wget http://www.array.org/ubuntu/array-intrepid.list
sudo mv -v array-intrepid.list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/
wget http://www.array.org/ubuntu/array-apt-key.asc
sudo apt-key add array-apt-key.asc
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install linux-eeepc

Once this is done, you'll need to reboot the machine back into Ubuntu, but when your bootloader comes up, you'll now see the option to boot into either standard Ubuntu, or the newly-installed Ubuntu Eee kernel (should show something like "Ubuntu 2.6.27-8-eeepc"). Choose the latter, and once it has loaded you'll now have fully functioning hardware! Easy when you know how...

*** UPDATE ***

I can't get a definitive answer, but from what I've been reading around the interwebs, Ubuntu 9.04 "Jaunty Jackalope" (due for release on 23rd April) should have full hardware support for netbooks out of the box, so no need for any tweakery at all. Now that *would* be something...

Superuser sandwich

I've been Twittering about my ongoing fight with Ubuntu's terminal window, so Bill steered me towards this... how very "apt"...

X marks the fox

A while back, I extolled the virtues of the Foxmarks bookmarking add-on for Firefox, which syncs all your bookmarks across all your computers. It's a great tool, and works brilliantly.

As of yesterday, Foxmarks got a major overhaul as well as a new name - Xmarks (I guess due to the fact that it is no longer Firefox-specific). It now has a very clever address bar icon which, when you click it, tells you all about other similar sites that fellow Xmarks users have bookmarked in addition to the previous bookmark sync functionality.

I love it - and I'd be stumped without it. If you need something to keep your online life in check, it's highly recommended.

Remotely interesting

I've had two Roku Soundbridges for quite a while now. I started with just the one soon after they were first released in the UK, and I loved it so much that I bought a second one soon after for another room. The principle is simple - they're merely audio streamers that use your iTunes library to wirelessly pipe your music to an attached hi-fi. The good bit is, the system works seamlessly and they look nice, which is always a bonus.

However, a couple of months back, my original Soundbridge gave up the ghost. After extensive testing, I came to the conclusion that it was shafted (I think it may have been the power supply) but try as I might, I couldn't get it working again. I looked around for a replacement unit, but it turns out they're now as rare as rocking horse poo, and the only place I could get one was secondhand on Fleabay. I considered alternative options like the Squeezebox Duet and the Sonos multiroom system, but they were way out of my price range. I thought about an Apple Airport Express, but discounted it because I needed to be able to control it without sitting at my computer.

However, it was while I was researching these options that I came across the iPhone/Touch remote app for controlling iTunes. I'd never really noticed it existed before as I had no real need to use it, but I decided that it just might be what I was looking for to make the Airport Express a viable option. I searched around a bit more, but strangely I couldn't get a definitive answer about whether I would be able to use it to remotely control an Airport Express attached to iTunes. Not even the combined geek-knowledge of Richbos and OliTee could answer the question.

I figured that there *should* be a way of using the Remote app to control iTunes to, in turn, stream its music to the Airport Express - all via wi-fi. If it did what I wanted - and if it worked correctly - it would be quite an elegant solution. I could be sat in the kitchen, use the Touch to browse the iTunes library held on my iMac, choose some music and tell it to be sent to the Airport Express in the lounge. Or was I just expecting too much?



First things first - I downloaded the free Remote app via the Apple App Store. Dead easy, and all done in seconds via the Touch itself. Within no time I was enjoying controlling iTunes using it, despite being sat only two feet from my iMac. So far, so good - but a bit pointless without the Airport Express.

I managed to secure myself an Airport Express on eBay for the very reasonable sum of £45, and just two days later I was feverishly unboxing it. I figured that I might be able to just plug it in and get cracking, but even though its an Apple product, it's not *that* clever. There's still some configuration to be done - but it's reasonably simple.

Firstly, my Airport Express was still configured to its previous owner's settings, so as soon as I tried to connect to it with my iMac it requested a password. Fortunately, it's an easy job to do a factory reset and wipe the unit of its configuration. Hold down the reset button for ten seconds, and there you go.

Once that was done, I ran the Airport Setup Utility on my iMac. My mac is normally hooked up via ethernet, but for this step I had to activate the built-in wi-fi so that the iMac and Airport Express could talk to each other. Very quickly the iMac had detected the wireless signal that the AE was broadcasting, and I connected to it. The utility then takes you through some simple steps to find out how you want to use the AE. I opted to make it a client device on my existing wi-fi network (which was sufficient for my purposes) and with that it was set up and raring to go. A 3.5mm jack to stereo RCA lead to connect it to the AUX input on my hi-fi and I was ready to unleash some tunes.



I fired up iTunes, and after a bit of searching I located a previously unseen dropdown menu in the bottom right of the screen which listed both my computer and the new Airport Express as speaker options. From this you can choose one or both to determine where the audio from iTunes gets sent. I chose both, just for fun, and hit play. I was pleasantly surprised to hear my music emanating from both my computer speakers and my hi-fi speakers in the other room, both in perfect sync with each other. Result!

So then - moment of truth. I switched on the iPod Touch and selected the Remote app. I went to the 'settings' screen (from where you choose which iTunes library to connect to) and, right there in front of me, were two new menu options for 'Speakers' - it listed my iMac and my Airport Express, with on/off switches next to them! I navigated through to my library, found a new album and pressed play on the Touch. Again, without so much as a hiccup, the music changed on both computer and AE.

I then discovered that you can activate and deactivate the speakers from the 'Now playing' screen without having to go back to the 'Settings' page every time. Simply tap the album cover, and not only do you get shuffle, repeat and genius options at the top you also get speaker options at the bottom. I spent a good five minutes switching the speakers on and off - just for fun!

So the upshot of all this is - yes, it works as I wanted it to. And it does it beautifully. So well, in fact, that I'm thinking of eBaying my other Soundbridge and buying another Airport Express. It's a brilliant, elegant and simple solution - how very "Apple"...

Linux me up

If you've been following any of my tweets over the last few days, you'll be aware that I've been putting a toe in the Linux water and trying to find a distribution suitable for both my EeePC and my desktop PC. Both are currently on XP, and although I have no desire (yet) to spurn Windows completely, I am in the market for testing out some other options. Linux has a lot of advantages - free, light, quick and open source - all of which make it a very attractive proposition. It has its downsides as well for sure, but with a little bit of experimentation and some technical nouse most of these can be overcome. In my case, a knowledgable friend and Google came in very handy too.

I've been through about ten different distributions on both desktop and Eee, and as of this moment I've selected and installed my distro of choice on the Eee (it was quite a simple choice in the end) but the desktop machine still remains Linux-free for the time being.

The final choice for the EeePC was Eeebuntu 2.0 which comes in three versions - standard, netbook remix and base. In the end I opted for the Netbook Remix, simply because the interface is a lot simpler to navigate on a small screen with a touchpad than the standard version. The thing that made Eeebuntu the easy choice is that everything works immediately - wi-fi, function keys, ACPI, sound, bluetooth - without needing any tinkering with drivers or suchlike. No other distro I came across managed this feat.

However - Linux being Linux - there were still some things to do to get the Eee running to my satisfaction, so if you want to know exactly what, read on...

Firstly, the Eee doesn't have an optical drive, so burning the Eeebuntu ISO to CD and running a live session from that was out of the question. Instead I discovered a very nice little program called Unetbootin, which allows you to create a bootable USB stick from an ISO image. Fire up Unetbootin, tell it where to find your newly downloaded ISO and which USB drive to put it on and press start. Ten minutes later, you have a bootable USB stick with your chosen distro on it. This isn't, however, a persistent install - so there is still more to do.

So the next thing was to get Eeebuntu installed from the live USB onto the Eee's SD card. I've got an 8GB SDHC card in the slot specifically for the purpose of a Linux install - you could use something smaller, but I wanted plenty of space for updates and files. Also, the swap file for Eeebuntu lives on the card as well so the more breathing space the better really. To do the install, make sure your live USB stick is plugged in and reboot the machine. When the Asus splash screen comes up, press 'ESC' and you'll get an option to boot from the USB rather than the primary disk. Choose that option, and soon you'll be looking at Eeebuntu. From there, select the option to install, and when given the choice, opt to install to the SD card. If the SD doesn't show up as one of the options, make sure you've not got it mounted already. If you have, unmount it and try the install again.

Before you start emailing me about the wisdom of installing an OS onto an SD card, let me stop you there. I know that the constant write cycles to the card probably won't do it any good, and yes, eventually the card will wear out. But come on, how long will that take in a real-world situation? And even if it does knacker the card, it cost me £9.99. By the time I need another one, they'll probably cost half that. Can you tell that I really don't think this is an issue? Good. I'll continue...

Once the install from USB stick to SD card is complete (it'll take about 30 mins) then you can go ahead and remove the USB stick and reboot. Again, hit ESC on startup and this time choose to boot from the SD. Hey presto, in a few seconds you'll be looking at your shiny new Eeebuntu install.

First things first, get the wi-fi hooked up. Left-click on the network icon in the top right, and it'll show you all the networks within range. Choose yours, and away it goes. Once you've got an internet connection, then the rest of the tweakery can begin.

Next thing to do is that all-important 'sudo apt-get update' from within Terminal. This will update all the repositories and locate current versions of all the preinstalled software. I don't know whether it was just a quirk with my install, but the first time I did this, I encountered an error because one of the public keys wasn't correct. I shall attempt to explain how to correct it.

The error I got was as follows:

An error occurred during the signature verification. The repository is not updated and the previous index files will be used. GPG error: http://ppa.launchpad.net intrepid Release: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available:
NO_PUBKEY 3F2A5EE4B796B6FE

Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/netbook-remix-team/ubuntu/dists/intrepid/Release
Some index files failed to download, they have been ignored, or old ones used instead.
You may want to run apt-get update to correct these problems.

After a spot of Googling, it turns out this isn't uncommon, and is relatively easy to fix. Stay within terminal, and type the following:

gpg --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv B796B6FE

The trick here is to type the last eight digits of the missing public key - you know, the one listed in the error message?  I've underlined the specific bit above. Your public key WILL be different. Capiche? Hit enter, and you'll get:

gpg: keyring `/home/yourusername/.gnupg/secring.gpg' created
gpg: keyring `/home/yourusername/.gnupg/pubring.gpg' created
gpg: requesting key B796B6FE from hkp server keyserver.ubuntu.com
gpg: /home/yourusername/.gnupg/trustdb.gpg: trustdb created
gpg: key B796B6FE: public key "Launchpad PPA for Ubuntu Netbook Remix Team" imported
gpg: Total number processed: 1
gpg: imported: 1 (RSA: 1)

Hurrah! Now we're getting there, but still one bit to do. Type this command:

gpg --export --armor B796B6FE | sudo apt-key add -

Again, the eight digits in bold need to be the last eight digits of YOUR missing public key, not mine. Hit enter, and you simply get:

OK

Then, try your sudo apt-get update again. It'll work properly this time - trust me. Then once it's done it's business, download and install all the suggested updates. This will probably be quite a lot of files.

Next thing to fix is the biggest glaring omission from Eebuntu in my opinion - no Skype! Again, very easy to fix, so here goes:

Run the Synaptic Package Manager, and once there, go to Settings -> Repositories and click the 'Third Party Software' tab at the top. Click the 'Add' button, and type this into the box

http://download.skype.com/linux/repos/debian/stable non-free

Click OK, then click the 'Reload" button. Synaptic will do an update, and once complete, click the search box and type 'Skype' in to it. Sure enough, it'll find Skype for you. Mark it for download, and apply your upgrades. Sure enough, once it has finished, Skype will be raring and ready to go under your 'Internet' tab.

Last thing you might need is to tweak Firefox to your liking. For some reason, my install didn't have a working Flash plugin, so again this is simple to fix. Head over to the Adobe Flash download page (at time of writing http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/) and choose the '.deb for Ubuntu 8.04+' option from the dropdown. Tell it to download and install, and just follow the instructions from there. The last thing to do to get Firefox running just the way I wanted it was to install the quite wonderful Foxmarks plugin to import all my bookmarks.

And that, as they say, is that. A fully-featured, fully-working persistent install of Eeebuntu installed onto SD card for maximum EeePC flexibility. When my wife uses the machine, it just boots straight into XP without asking any questions. When I use it, I boot from SD and indulge myself in some quality open-source geekery. Splendid.

Please let it be true

So then... according to MacRumors, the interwebs seem to believe that there's an Apple netbook/tablet in the works. Lots of gossip amongst news agencies including Reuters and Dow Jones about Apple placing a large order for 10-inch touchscreens.

Whether it's true or not remains to be seen, but if it is, then this Asus Eee 901 that I'm currently typing on is on borrowed time...

Nintendo DS wi-fi workaround

In my continuing "ways I've found to overcome technology problems" series, I've just found a good way of taming the truculent wi-fi on my Nintendo DS Lite.

When set to "auto everything" mode, I could NOT get it to connect to my wireless network at all. Nothing. Not a jot. So, in true problem-solving mode I hit the internet for answers.

Turns out - as with all these things - that I'm not the only one to be having issues. Seems like when the DS is set to obtain IP and DNS settings automatically, it can get confused very easily, particularly when there are lots of other wireless devices on the network.

Turns out the easiest way around the problem is to configure the DS manually, so here comes a step-by-step on how to do it. Needless to say, if the automatic settings work for you, there's no point in fiddling, but if the DS is refusing to play ball this might be what you're looking for.

1) Grab your nearest wi-fi enabled DS game and slap it in the DS. When it boots up, find the "wi-fi settings" in the game menu (different games have it in different places).
2) Tap the "Nintendo Wi-fi Connection Settings" button on the next screen. If you've got any current settings saved, you might want to erase them at this point, or alternatively choose one of the other free slots - your choice.
3) This is where we're going to get "manual", so you're going to need some settings. The best place to get these is from your computer. In Windows XP, go to the "Run" dialog box and type CMD to get you to the command prompt. Once you're there, type IPCONFIG/ALL. This command will bring up a whole load of settings - might look a bit daunting, but bear with me here.
4) On your DS, change the "Auto-obtain IP Address" to "No" rather than yes. This will alllow you to type in the next lot of settings.
5) Now you need to choose your IP address. Look at the information in the IPCONFIG window and you'll see your current IP listed there - probably something like 192.168.0.x. You'll be keeping the first three numbers the same on your DS but changing the last one to something else. What number you choose will depend on how many devices (not just wireless ones) you've got on your network. I can routinely have ten things connected at once, so I opted to have this last number as 20. Choose something significantly higher than you're likely to need so there are no conflicts later on.
6) Type your chosen IP into the DS by tapping the "edit" button and punching them in with your stylus (you need all four sets of numbers).
7) Back on the IPCONFIG window on your computer, you'll now need the numbers listed as SUBNET MASK and DEFAULT GATEWAY.
8) Type these numbers into your DS in the same way you did with your chosen IP. On the DS, the default gateway is just called "gateway", in case you were wondering.
9) Set "Auto obtain DNS" on the DS to "no", then find the two sets of numbers listed as DNS SERVERS in your IPCONFIG window.
10) Type the first DNS SERVER number into your DS under the "Primary DNS" setting and the second number into the "Secondary DNS".
11) Tap "Save settings" and you should be good to go! Tap "test connection" at the top of the DS window and if all is well, you'll be greeted with a "Connection successful" message.
12) Play online games to your heart's content and get your ass whipped by a seven year old Chinese kid that you've never even met...

I realise this information is already out there on the internets, but the more places it's available the better in my opinion.

Phase two complete

Nothing exactly earth-shattering, but I've just completed the next step of my iMac upgrade plan. Not blessed with a mountain of cash this month, I decided to go for the least expensive (but most pretty) option and added a new Apple aluminium wired keyboard. To be honest, I don't know why I didn't do it sooner - not only does it look fabulous, but it's also a joy to type on, the media keys across the top are very handy and the best bit is that it was only £28.

The 1TB hard drive, OSX 10.5 and iLife 09 will have to wait a bit longer. Can't make up my mind whether to change the HDD first (and reinstall 10.4) or whether to do everything at once and change the hard drive and install the new OS at the same time (which would seem to make sense). If I do it all at once though, that's about £220 (£90 HDD and £130 Mac Box Set) I'll have to drop. Ouch.

Ah well. For the time being, at least I've got a lovely keyboard...

Touch the Snake...

If you've got an iPhone or iPod Touch, you might be as excited as me about this...



Of course, it could end up being pants, but the concept is quite tantalising.

I just can't help myself...

So I've been sat here for the last few hours, "organising" an assortment of files on my computer. I've been going through and creating new folders, moving files around, renaming stuff to make more sense and generally "tidying up". I had loads of individual files just thrown into my "documents" folder and it was starting to get unweildy, and I didn't know what was in there. Despite the fact that OSX's wonderful "Spotlight" search feature makes it a doddle to find stuff, I felt like I needed to get a handle on what I had, and where it was.

After doing all that, I decided to start on a few iTunes files to make sure they were organised sensibly too - particularly the ones that I've bought from the iTMS store. I cannot stand it when things are all categorised using different conventions - it makes things really untidy. Again, iTunes itself does a pretty good job of organising things for you but occasionally it does things wrong. Well, maybe not "wrong" per se, but certainly not the way I'd do it. Particularly the way it handles compilation albums does my head it, so I take matters into my own hands for those.

Whilst going through, I then noticed that virtually every track you buy on iTunes has different metadata embedded in it - I think it depends on the record label, but some tracks have the bare minimum, some are stuffed to the gunnels with irrelevant bits and pieces. So, me being me, I've had to go through and standardise things a bit. You'd think this was easy wouldn't you? But I've come up against all sorts of headaches - there's a lot of hidden data in some of those files and it's a bitch to get to. But eventually I've managed to go through and wipe a lot of the unnecessary stuff, and then complete the more important bits.

A few weeks back, when Apple announced that they were making the entire iTunes Music Store 256kbps non-DRM files, they offered the option of upgrading your existing purchases for 20p a track to change them from 128kbps DRM-protected tracks to the new non-DRM higher bit rate ones. I was quite pleased about this (I hated the 5-burn limit on those tracks more than anything) so I duly clicked the "upgrade" button and prepared to take a hit for about a tenner's worth of non-DRM goodness. However, things are never that simple. Seven of my purchased tracks are not yet available in the new format, so they're still the 128kbps versions. That's annoying me immensely, as you can imagine. Apple reckon they'll soon be available to upgrade too, but I don't know when.

This has presented me with another issue though. Now I have these new shiny versions in 256kbps, but I've ripped the rest of my library as 128kbps and that means THEY NO LONGER MATCH.

I'm quite convinced I can't/won't hear the difference between the two bit rates, but knowing that they ARE different makes me uneasy. I'm seriously considering reripping my CDs at 256kbps now. You see, this is why I'd never be able to get rid of my CD collection in favour of digital versions - there's too much to go wrong in the virtual world. One day, (Apple heresy coming up here...) there will be no iTunes. Then what will we all do?

And then I got to thinking - why am I bothering with all this? Why don't I just leave stuff alone? I've come to the conclusion that I have some kind of computer-related OCD. I need help. Seriously.

Download gMail Mobile app v2.0 for Nokia/Symbian

If, like me, you've been wrestling with your Nokia Symbian S60 smartphone trying to get it to download the new gMail Mobile 2.0 app via your phone's browser (which is a well-documented issue), I'd suggest heading here and downloading it straight to your computer instead. Then you can bluetooth or sync it to your phone directly and Robert's your mother's brother. For some reason Google doesn't want you to do it like this, but it's so much quicker and easier than doing it the "proper" way.

And whilst I'm dispensing advice, I've just discovered Foxmarks, a Firefox add-on which keeps your bookmarks synced across multiple machines. Just what I've been looking for! And if you want to try it out, they've just released betas for Internet Explorer (why would you be using that?!) and Safari too.

Thanks for the memory

This morning, I received the 2GB RAM kit that I ordered, and I've just installed it in my iMac. Now - those of you that have been around for a while (you know who you are) - will remember back in 2005 when I got myself worked up into a frenzy the last time I installed new RAM into my machine. I did have just the 512MB that came pre-installed, so when I found out that optimal performance was to be gained from having two matching RAM modules I bought another one to boost things to 1GB and hopefully unlock the wonders of the mythical "128-bit pipeline".

Now when I had just 512MB, Terminal reported this:
phil-laceys-imac-g5:~ Phil$ ioreg -p IODeviceTree -n memory -S | grep ram-
| "ram-layout-architecture" = <00000002>
| "ram-bus-width" = <00000040>

Then, when I went up to 1GB, I got this:
phil-laceys-imac-g5:~ Phil$ ioreg -p IODeviceTree -n memory -S | grep ram-
| "ram-layout-architecture" = <00000002>
| "ram-bus-width" = <00000080>

At the time, I really couldn't work out whether this meant I was using the 128-bit pipe or not - the bus width had changed, but not the architecture value. But more RAM is always good regardless, so I was happy. Things nipped along quite nicely.

So, for the sake of consistency, I tried the terminal report again now I have two matched 1GB sticks in the iMac - just to see what it would say. So we now have:
phil-laceys-imac-g5:~ Phil$ ioreg -p IODeviceTree -n memory -S | grep ram-
| "ram-layout-architecture" = <00000001>
| "ram-bus-width" = <00000080>

Which is different yet again. However, this Apple knowledgebase article would seem to suggest I am now at the very pinnacle of G5 iMac memory nirvana - 2GB of RAM, in a perfectly matched pair, running on the 128-bit pipeline.

That, my friends, is as good as it gets.

Backup your backup

Whilst I have an Apple iMac, my better half still uses a Windows XP-based PC.  Although the ultimate aim is to downsize to just one computer (the Mac) at the moment we're still a two OS family.

Before I saw the Apple Mac light, I was quite invested in PCs. After getting my first one (a 386) as a hand-me-down in my university years, I then bought a brand new Pentium model in 1998. Since then, I've gone through numerous hardware iterations to the cheap and cheerful Dell machine we have now.

I've always been quite thorough with my data backups, and have been very glad of that fact on more than one occasion in the past. However, a peculiar situation reared its head yesterday - and, I hate to say, it was all of my own doing.

Both my Mac and my PC have external hard drives which I use for backups. I tend to keep my old backups, and just create new ones each time until I run out of space and then start deleting the oldest ones to make some room. There were about 4 years' worth of files on my PC backup drive, and I decided that I wanted to copy some of them over to my Mac. They were too big for a memory stick, and the PC doesn't have a DVD writer, so I decided that I'd move the drive from the PC to the Mac and plug it in directly. Both drives have the same power connector and both use USB 2.0, so to save time I left all the cables in situ and just moved the drive.

I unplugged the power supply and USB cable from the Mac backup drive and then set about reconnecting them to the PC drive. I switched the drive on, and then... nothing. Apart from a strange electrical burning smell. Where on earth was that coming from? And why wasn't the drive spinning up?

Now when I said that both drives have the same power connector, that much was indeed true. What I neglected to appreciate was that they use rather diffferent amounts of current. Only 0.2 amps difference, but when a hard drive uses just milliamps that's enough to fry the circuitry.

Needless to say,  I was a bit annoyed with myself. But then I started thinking. Exactly what was on that fried drive? Was there anything that I didn't have a copy of somewhere else? Had I inadvertently created a situation where I had forgotten to backup my backup?

Now I knew there was a lot of stuff on there, but it was difficult to remember exactly what. I decided that if it was possible, I'd need to get the drive working again - if only so I could reassure myself that there was nothing on it that I needed.

So, as always, I asked the internet - and found a YouTube video from some dude who had a very similar problem to my own. He had managed to fix his drive by swapping the logic board from his fried hard disk with one from an old drive he had kicking about.

Unconvinced, I went hunting through all my old computer spares, and found an old Maxtor drive that had been sitting gathering dust. Same make as my crispy drive, but a different model. Still, the logic boards looked similar - despite the differing names printed on some of the chips. I thought it'd be worth a crack.

I carefully removed the board from the knackered disk (which still smelt a bit toasty) and screwed on the (hopefully fully functional) one from my old drive. I then fitted it back into its enclosure and prepared to plug it back in. Click. Whirr. Well, at least it was spinning up now. But would it mount? A few seconds of trepidation... and there it was - F: Backup. Success!

I decided to work quickly as I was certain there was no way my fortune would last long. I quickly scanned through all the files, and established exactly what was there. I picked out a few essentials that I wasn't sure I had elsewhere and copied them over to the main hard disk and out of harm's way. The more files I copied, the more the drive sounded unhealthy, making all sorts of deathly grinding noises and rattles. Clearly, it didn't like my Frankenstein approach to hard drive surgery. Eventually, it gave up entirely and refused to do anything else. But at least I had copied a good chunk of data back to my PC to peruse at my leisure.

And this, in turn, got me thinking. Those backups - made incrementally, every two or three months - represented little snapshots of my life. This website for example. It has been going, in one form or another, for over five years now. Every time I redesigned the site, there would be a new "index.html" file containing the latest idea I'd had, and overwriting the old one. But there, on that hard disk, were versions of the site long since gone from the realms of the internet. I'd kind of forgotten about them entirely. And the same with my backups of email messages. Sure, the version I have here and now contains everything I deem to be worth keeping, but the backups have all those messages that I've consigned to the great trash can in the ether.

Anyway, the upshot is that the drive actually contained nothing really important that I didn't have saved elsewhere - but I did manage to salvage some little bits of history.

No brainer?

You probably don't need me to mention this again, but I'm a bit of an Apple fanboy. But however beautiful, intuitive and user-friendly their hardware and software is, it still goes out of date. Technology does that unfortunately. You can have the most up-to-date, bleeding edge kit one day, and it's relegated to second-best the next. If there's an upside, it's that Apple kit does stand the test of time. The hardware's built to last and the software gets support for quite some time before its completely obsolete.

As I've mentioned in passing already, my iMac is a G5 Power PC running OSX 10.4 Tiger. Both the hardware and the software were superceded quite some time ago. I've resisted the lure of 10.5 Leopard for some time (so long in fact that I thought I could miss it out entirely and just jump straight to 10.6). This isn't to be though. 10.6 is for Intel processors only, so I've hit the upgrade wall with that one I fear.

I could save up my pennies and opt for a whole new machine preinstalled with 10.6 when it finally arrives, but I think by the time I'd saved up enough we may well be on 10.9 and I'd still be lingering in the unsupported software dark ages in the interim.

So what to do? If I can't afford a whole new machine, and my current one won't run the new OSX, I think my only option is to upgrade this iMac to make it as good as it can be to tide me over until funds allow something better.

So far as I can tell, the best way of me doing this is threefold. 1) Install a great big hard disk - this current one is stuffed to the gunnels, 2) cram in 2GB of RAM and 3) replace Tiger with Leopard. That would take this machine to its technological ceiling - it can't get any better than that.

Something else that came to mind was that my iLife suite is currently the '06 version (and that, in computer terms, is practically prehistoric). Apple have just released iLife '09. I was never tempted by '08, as it never got very good write ups (particularly iMovie 08) and seemed a bit of an incremental update rather than anything genuinely new, so I never felt the need to change. (There was never an '07, in case you were wondering.)

However, this new iLife 09 looks the business. Already people are raving about it, and it does look very tempting. And the best thing? Apple are bundling Leopard, iLife 09 and iWork 09 (their latest productivity package) for £149. If you bought Leopard and iLife separately they would set you back £152. iWork costs £69 on its own. Erm... is that a difficult decision? So I can have the two pieces of software I want for £3 cheaper than buying them separately AND you'll throw in iWork for free? Can I phone a friend?

When I finally get round to this mammoth upgrade, I shall be documenting the process (maybe even with photos) for your delectation. Mind you, I'll probably change my mind six times before then. That's half the fun though. Isn't it?

*** UPDATE 30/01/2009 ***

I've decided to bite the bullet and start the upgrade process, but rather than do it all at once I've opted for the "little by little" approach. I figured that changing the hard drive and upgrading the OS would best be done together, so the logical (and less expensive) first step is to max out the RAM. The iMac can handle 2GB, so that's what I've ordered. The down side is that because PC3200 DDR RAM is a fairly niche market now, the price is comparably high. If I had wanted DDR2, it would be half the price. Typical. Anyway, I've secured myself a shiny new matching pair of Crucial 1GB sticks for £50 and they'll be arriving next week.

OSX Address Book & gMail contacts - import workaround

My OSX Address Book is usually my most up-to-date list of all my contacts. Every so often I iSync my Nokia N73 with it, and my iPod Touch syncs every time I plug it in via iTunes. I also, from time to time import my Address Book into my gMail contacts list as well.

In order to do this - because gMail can't seem to get its head around a native Address Book importer - you need some third party software to export your contacts as a CSV file and then import that into gMail. I have used A to G in the past, but I've recently found AB2CSV which offers more functionality.

However, I came up against a bit of a problem this morning. Every time I tried to import my latest CSV file, I just kept getting an error. Try as I might, gMail was just not playing. So I turned to the internet for help - someone must have cracked this problem. And sure enough, they have, over at Breakitdownblog. Turns out the new "improved" gMail interface is the problem. If you click the link at the top of your gMail window to revert to the "older version", and then try it, your CSV file will import just fine and dandy. How very backward.

Test Post for Twitter Auto Update

Ignore me...

Tweety Pie

After becoming increasingly disillusioned with the chav-tastic mess that Facebook is becoming, I decided (rather than delete my FB account completely, although I was sorely tempted) to take the plunge with Twitter. So I've got myself an account, and I've set everything up to update Facebook using my tweets. No need to constantly go to Facebook anymore, but not cut off from it completely. Ideal. Also, my most recent tweets should show up over there in the sidebar... hopefully. If you're a Twitter user, feel free to follow me here.

*** Update 25/01/09 ***

No, sorry. It's no good. I've had to take it a step further. I've stopped updating Facebook entirely, opting to steer people towards my Twitter page if they're even remotely interested in what I'm doing. I figure those tech-savvy enough will do it, and everyone else won't bother. Which is fine by me. I think I've become a technology snob. Frankly, Facebook is now largely the preserve of Sun-reading Jeremy Kyle fans. And that won't do at all.

Physicality

A curious notion has been swilling around in my head for some time now regarding "our" relationship with the physical media I love so much. Were it not for the books, CDs, DVDs, computer games, photo albums and vinyl records (yes, VINYL!) there would be so much more space in my house. I'm very attached to this stuff, and it got me thinking about the brave new digital world we're living in now.

My good friend Rich did one of the most brave and awe-inspiring things I can think of a while back. He jacked in his job, sold his house and waved goodbye to almost all his worldly possessions - and then upped sticks to the other side of the world.

Whilst I am incredibly impressed with this exciting (and slightly extreme) take on downsizing, I was thinking the other day that I don't think I could be without all my "stuff". However, I constantly think we have far too much of it, and that it could be streamlined and much better organized.

I've ripped nearly my entire 300-strong CD collection into iTunes, so why don't I just sell/donate/bin the discs? Surely I don't need them any more? They're just taking up room?

I could buy a huge hard-drive, rip my huge DVD collection as DiVX movies and then ditch all the discs that are filling a floor-to-ceiling set of shelves next to me as I type this.

All the books in the house have been read over and over - surely we could donate them to a library?

As for the vinyl - I must be living in the dark ages.

But no. It's not going to happen, for two (maybe more) reasons.

1) I like having this stuff. "Physical" items are reassuringly real and tangible. Files on a computer just don't seem the same. The feel of the pages, the colourful artwork, the fidelity of the sound and pictures. It all adds up to something quite distinct, and something that I really enjoy.

2) What if you DO ditch all this stuff, and then - god forbid - something happened to the backups? Hard drives fail all the time. Now don't get me wrong, I'm fairly anal with my backup routine, but there's a nagging (irrational) voice at the back of my head saying "but what if the backup failed as well?!? Had you thought of that?"

The thing that's really been making me think, though, is that - for me - the ownership experience is just evaporating. I used to cherish going out and buying an album or a DVD that I had been looking forward to for months. I knew the release date well in advance, and the expectation was something to be cherished. I realise that we're only talking about relatively cheap items, but I selected my purchases with care. DVDs were always released on a Monday, and I'd even go so far as to pre-order items because I knew other people coveted these things as much as I did, and not to get my hands on them on release day would be sacrilege. I knew exactly when the "2-disc director's cut special collector's edition DVD with remastered footage, DTS sound and all the extras" was going to hit the shops, and I'd make the pilgrimage into town during my lunch hour to get it. I'd get back to work and occasionally take the sacred item out of its carrier bag and look at it, even going as far as to open the cellophane packaging so that I could wonder at the gatefold packaging and inlay cards.

Now I realise that you can still buy these things in real high-street shops, but I just don't any more. Whilst I enjoy/enjoyed the "retail" experience, I'm not so attached to it that I can afford to burn money. Internet retailers undercut prices by massive margins - why would you spend an extra fiver just so you could have the item in your possession on "release day". Just stick your order in on the website, and in a few days your faceless postie will manhandle a scruffy jiffy bag through your letterbox. You probably won't even bother opening it straight away.

We're so inundated with "stuff" these days that it's impossible to keep track of it. Who knows when that new album's being released, and honestly, who cares? And, as the volume increases, the quality goes down. Do manufacturers put the care and attention to detail into their releases these days? Do they hell. Stick the disc in a box and shovel it out as cheap as possible. No-one really cares these days. Better still, make it a digital download and we don't even have to worry about a box.

"Back in the day" there would only be one major DVD being released on the hallowed Monday, or computer game on the Friday. Now you don't know where to look - JUST TOO MUCH STUFF.

As far as I can tell - to my mind at least - there's only one retail experience that still lives up to my rose-tinted view of the world, and that's console releases. They still are real events. Witness the queues at midnight, the frenzied pre-ordering, the internet "unboxing" photographs. Ordering on the internet doesn't gain you anything - prices are fixed, and delivery will take positively AGES.

Funnily enough, the best products that still live up to my peculiar ideal recently have all been made by Nintendo. First there was the Gameboy Advance, then the Gamecube, then the Gameboy Advance SP, then the DS, the DS Lite and the Wii. I watched their development with feverish excitement, consuming every last bit of news I could get my hands on, then got excited when the release date was announced. I pre-ordered as soon as I could, and then the day would come where you I walk into a shop, slap the cash down on the counter and walk out with a real, tangible item that I had just bought there and then. Take it home, set it up - marvel at its shinyness. Bliss. But saying that, even hardware isn't that exciting any more - it's just a means to an end.

Quite honestly, the "ownership experience" is going, if not already gone. Digital downloads, streaming media and BitTorrent - why would you need anything else? The youth of today measure their musical and cinematic appreciation in how many gigabytes they've got, not whether it's actually any good - both in terms of content AND quality.  Will they ever understand or appreciate the wonder of buying, owning and using something "real"? I doubt it. The physical world is dead. Jack in grandad, and shut up.

Wholly unnecesssary

Much to the despair of my better half, I've just spent ten US dollars on a piece of really cool - but utterly pointless - software called Delicious Library. You may be aware of it already (it has been around a while) but essentially it's a cataloguing/library management tool for keeping track of DVDs, video games, CDs and books. It's Mac only (because it's too cool for Windows) and the killer feature - purely because it's so beautifully geeky - is that it scans the barcodes on your media in order to import it into the libray. You can do this via a firewire camera or if you're lucky enough to have a Mac with a built in iSight camera then you can use that instead.

I can't begin to tell you about the unadulterated peurile joy I've been having scanning in all my DVDs and games. I still need to do my CDs, but that's a mammoth task for another day!

At the moment, due to being stuck in the Mac dark ages with OSX 10.4 Tiger, I've had to limit myself to version 1.66 as opposed to the new and very shiny version 2.0 which only runs on Leopard.

And whilst I'm on the subject of OSX upgrades, I've been reading that OSX 10.6 "Snow Leopard" will only be for Intel-based Macs. So that's me stuffed then. I was going to miss out 10.5 altogether and jump straight to 10.6, but that now looks like it won't be possible. So is 10.5 the end of the road for my dearly beloved G5 iMac? It certainly looks that way.

Controversial?

After getting my new HDTV just after Christmas, I decided that the DVD playback from my Sony DVD/HDD recorder (which I've had for five years, so it's practically prehistoric) wasn't really up to much on the new screen. The player had no option for any kind of upscaling and was plugged in via SCART so the picture really wasn't looking very clever.

I decided that an upgrade in the DVD department was in order and it came down to two choices. First - the expensive option - was to go down the Blu-Ray route. A decent "entry level" player currently stands at about the £175 mark. The DVD playback is supposed to be good as it handles SD upscaling pretty well, and then you have the brave new world of HD blu-ray movies to get into. However, BD discs are pretty expensive at the moment - in the region of £15-20 each so things would get pricey fairly quickly, even if I only got 2 or 3 discs to start with.

The thing that I had to consider was not only the cost. The TV I bought was not a particularly expensive one - in fact, really quite a bargain choice. It's not 1080p, and only 32" and I sit about 3.5 metres away from it. With that screen size at that distance on a 720p set I wasn't entirely convinced blu-ray was the way to go.

Option two therefore, was to go for the budget option - a DVD player with HDMI and upscaling. You can get these for anything between £50 and £100 and the results are supposed to be pretty good. I had heard good things about Toshiba's latest foray into DVD upscaling, called XDE, but their first XDE player - the XD-E500 - was supposed to be £120 so I discounted that as too expensive (almost into blu-ray terroitory really).

However, I'm a regular visitor over at AVForums.com and I spotted a post about the XDE player that said Comet were selling it in the January sales at half price. That's more like it, I thought, and promptly headed out to get one.

I have t0 say I'm extremely impressed. The picture quality, upscaled to 1080i via HDMI with the XDE trickery switched on, is fantastic - really crisp and sharp. Much, much better than what I had been getting on a five-year old player via SCART that's for certain!

My DVD collection is fairly sizeable (250 discs) and I'm pleased I can wring out some more enjoyment from it. I'm going back through favourite movies just to watch them in new and improved XDE-Vision! Another bonus is that the player came with a free 12 month subscription to LoveFilm so that's about £60 worth of rentals too.

The real icing on the cake though is the price of DVDs at the moment. I picked up a 2-disc special edition DVD of Mission Impossible at Sainsburys the other morning for £3. The equivalent blu-ray is £20. Case closed.

All Cabled Up

My 360 audio dongle arrived today, and I've just plumbed it in - HDMI and optical audio living side by side in perfect harmony! Wonderful.

I also indulged in a Nintendo component cable for the Wii, rather than using SCART. Although it produces a 480 line picture as opposed to SCART's 576 lines, it is progressive scan so looks lovely and crisp. The step up in quality from composite to RGB SCART was good, but this is a step further - pretty much as good as you're going to get from a humble standard def Wii.

So there you have it - all cables now in place, and raring and ready to go. I had a bit of a fight with my Harmony universal remote to make it work with all this new kit, but I've cracked it now.

With the exception of swapping out the HDMI lead that came in the box with the DVD player for something a bit better, I think that's it for cables and interconnects now. Good job.

Optical Illusion

I've just been on the mighty fleabay and got hold of an official Microsoft audio dongle so that I can use both HDMI and optical digital outputs of my Xbox 360. Bizarrely, Microsoft have opted to have the optical out built into the AV lead rather than the Xbox itself. There is an optical audio output built into the standard component hi-def lead which comes in the box, and there's even one on the SCART lead, but if you opt for HDMI then you're scuppered. Weird. Obviously it's not an issue if you're plugging the HDMI into an AV receiver that accepts audio over HDMI, but I'm not. I still need "old-fashioned" optical. And the other thing is Microsoft bundles the dongle with the top-of-the-range 360 Elite, but not with the lower models, meaning you have to shell out extra. Typical.

Anyway, it is bought now, so I'm looking forward to an HD picture and 5.1 Dolby Digital any day now.