When to buy an iMac?

So here I am now almost decided on buying a 24″ iMac….  but as usually the “cool” edge has slipped from the current iMac offerings when comparing to the latest offerings in the PC world. I guess I just have to wait till the iMac range is update.  Last thing I want is a 2 month old machine when the next revision comes out… well lets say I hope its only another couple of months till there are revisions.

From Hackintosh to iMac

well only about 2 weeks after I built my hackintosh my wife finally got her repreive from vista and is now the proud new owner of an iMac (20″ Model).  Funny enough she never had to fight me off her machine when it was a Vista laptop, but now I keep finding excuses to go “tune” her iMac.

So the ability to run a hackintosh has led to apple getting one more sale, also im wishing I had the spare cash to splurge out on a 24″ iMac for myself too.   Been reading up on how to pull the thing apart. So i could upgrade the drive if I wanted….yeah im still a hardware hacker at heart!  Be sure that if I do get one and do upgrades I will post here.

A homemade Mac – Part 2

Just some further details I forgot from yesterday post. The case itself (and motherboard) isn’t much wider the back panel on an ATX panel.  Also the photo shows that i added an old firewire card I had (to the right)  and it works perfectly!

Hackintosh back panel

Was checking the Macs today at the local Apple store  and I must say the new Macbook seems a bit of an expensive change from the old Macbook… no firewire, bit more disk and a slightly nicer display and for $$$100s more.  I hope Apple know what they are doing in these financially troubled times.  I cant imagine as many students/parents splashing out fr the new Mac prices compared to the old Mac deals from last month.

A homemade Mac – for $155

This project has been coming for a while.  im a linux guy at heart, but work with Windows much of the day. Well since experiencing Vista on my wifes laptop (thank god my workplace sticks with XP) I know my future for a good GUI lies with either Linux or Apple.   Being too tight to just splash out a couple of Thousand $$ to get into Mac to see if I like it I decided a try before I buy. So browsing the local weekly sale at one my favourite local online computer retailers (http://www.ncix.com) I saw an Intel Mini-ITX board and case/PSU, and some RAM…. Figuring I already had A SATA drive and DVD drive for A total extra outlay of $155 im up and running with OSX…

The machine I built is based on the intel Atom D945GCLF2  Mini ITX Motherboard with a dual core Atom chip.

Intel Mini ITX motherboard

It comes as one complete unit with integrated GMA950 gfx chip.  Only has a space for 1 DIMM, so I added a 2GB stick.  It has 2 SATA and 1 PATA device, onboard sound, graphics, network and USB.  Every thing worked on the OSX install,   the only thing not working is the mic in on the soundcard. I also dropped in an old cheapo firewire card in the single PCI slot and it was supported!

As to how I installed OSX on this device, I used the really handy guide at http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=113623  This guide got me a fully working 10.5.4 install and ive been playing with it ever since.

Doesnt look like an Apple

The case my deal came with was a little bit of a tight fit, but with  patience I fitted everything in.  Noise is low and heat is manageable too. The case is strong  to stand an LCD monitor on. Doesn’t look like an Apple but hey that’s not what this about.

So final conclusions, performance probably way below current Mac standards. Compatibility, so far seems about 99% and it serving its purpose, its slowly convincing me of the merit of Macs without risking a serious amount of hard earned cash on the deal. Do I feel guilty? Not a bit, Apple has a long way to go to earn my trust and my $$$. I had the misfortune to be forced to use Macs a couple of time in the mid to early 90s…..  I’m breaking a lifelong vow NEVER to use a Mac again.  So old bad scars take a long time to mend.  But i’m saving for a Mac Pro now…..

Building my own E-book reader from an old laptop

Well my latest Geek project is make my own e-book reader. i have plenty of tech docs in PDF format (and a few comics too!) However I find getting the laptop out and trying to read feels unnatural. I like to see a full page at once, so I try turning the laptop on its side but it just feels bulky and wrong. Since then I tried using my old Dell Axim Pocket PC, just too small, display doesn’t fit. I tried a hack for my PSP to convert pdf to jpeg and view, it was pathetic. So im back to my first thought of a laptop. now if I was rich I would go out and buy a swivel laptop with a nice screen and swivel it round to lay the screen flat on the front. But im too cheap to do that.

So enter an old Dell Laptop. P3 era, runs XP ok. its seen better days and not up to the task really now. So i have started reconstructing the laptop so that I can fold the LCD round to the back of the laptop and connect it underneath. So f ar so good. I will post pictures soon to explain how this works. The result will be a little bulky, but much less so than trying to read sideways from a normal laptop.

A letter to the TV stations regarding Olympic coverage – less talking, more action

Having moved to Canada a few years ago and after pathetic TV coverage here of the last winter Olympics I vowed never to waste my time trying to watch it….  and with good reason.  So with so many events happening every day,  the TV stations give hardly any coverage to the action.  Here is an idea,  how about showing us the action now,  you can talk all you like for next  3 years 10 months till the next summer Olympics.  So many events, so many countries, and whats covered…. well very little actually.  But hey we have plenty of time for some interviews and some idle chat.

If I had the money to start I would say bring a new TV channel online specially for the Olympics only. People pay to subscribe,   commercials are allowed between events….  just lots and lots of coverage of the events.  If the channel makes money, put it to a fund to pay for Athletes to travel to the next games.  It saddens me that the Olympics is one big money grab by the Olympic committee…     Yet the Athletes… the ones who are the whole point of this, have to raise money to even pay for damn flights to from the country…  its a bloody joke!

My “wow cool” software product of the week – Indigo Renderer

I came across this amazing software by accident while searching on information for Google Sketchup. Now my abilities as a 3d Artist are probably about as good as a 3 year… but nevertheless I was becoming quite proud of my Sketchup results, but the internal renderer isn’t exactly “lifelike”. So I discover Indigo which from the gallery on the site can render the most jaw dropping results. So I found out that a plugin for Sketchup exists called Skindigo that will let me design in sketchup and export to Indigo which renders the result in a much higher quality output than Sketchup shows.

Try it out! http://www.indigorenderer.com/joomla/

My “wow cool” software product of the week – Google Sketchup

My “Wow cool” thoughts are not trying to talk about new software but stuff that I have only just discovered or finally had the time to sit down and use. For Google Sketchup I remember downloading it when it was first released by Google. It didnt grab me as a “Wow cool” solution as I had no use for it but it seemed nice enough but a bit limited. Im no 3D artist and I found that I really couldnt visualize how to get the results I wanted so I left it. Now roll forward to today and I tried the current version to moke up some construction projects I have planned. I finally took 10 minutes to watch the videos google provide and I am very impressed by the power of this free software. The videos take you quickly though creating models quick and easy. Within 15 minutes I had produced my first half decent model, complete with materials applied, As the project was for my garden, 5 minutes later I had figured out how to add the results into my back garden as an object exported into Google Earth. So now I could view the object in 3d planted against the satellite imagery of my property. Also it was really easy to ensure my design was to scale thanks to some easy control of measurements.

if you want to try some simple 3d object creation, want to do it for free, with a real easy to use toolset then Google Sketchup is a great tool. To go find more head to http://sketchup.google.com/

Welcome to the Wii

So yet again, im such a technology trend setter (following hot on the heals of my first ever iPod purchase), I finally got a Wii last night.

This was very much a family purchase as my wife and kids got to try one at the weekend, and it was highly enjoyable!  So what if it doesnt do  1080p , BluRay, or lots of the other “Features” that are touted in the other next-gen consoles…. but I have to admit playing it has been real FUN.  I am truely a convert…  However the geek hacker in me wonders what weird and wonderful things I wish I could use it for…. I like to integrate and alter….  Im going to try and be good with this purchase and not be silly, its for the family after all.

Goodbye Vista, Hello Mac – Part 2

So the saving continues.  I know a mac isn’t cheap, it isn’t perfect but whenever my doubt about buying it creeps up on me, I go and fire up my wifes laptop…and 5 minutes later im happy to be making my move.  My XP box still works fine, but my upgrade path has a little apple in it for sure   About the only thing worrying me now is that Microsoft flightsim is the only game/simulation I play, can I do without???    Xplane never really hooked me last time I tried it…

Ive already signed up as an Apple developer…  I am a bit concerned that Java 6 isnt yet supported, but im hoping that good sense will prevail at Apple and by the time I get my Mac it wont be an issue.