Excelsior! OS X Leopard On A PC!

No one thought it could be done! It was just an impossible dream; a dream that would never come to fruition. Well, kiddos, it's finally happened. OS X... on a...

...PC!

Yes! With a dead-simple patch of the DVD image; you, yes, you, can have OS X running on your PC.

Oh, and before running off to the link below, I must warn you. After installing, it's most likely that absolutely nothing will work. Oh well, you've got MAC...ON A FREAKIN' PC!!!

Hack Attack: Install Leopard on your PC in 3 easy steps! [Dailyapps]

My Switch To Linux, FINALLY.

I've finally done it. I didn't just install Linux, but I was finally able to install software successfully as well.

I've wanted to switch to Linux fully for a very long time. Ever since I tried Ubuntu for the first time (5.10) I knew that someday it was going to be big. With 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon, it finally is.

Let's make a little performance comparison before I get into my installation and configuration journey.

With Vista, 1GB of my system's memory was used by all of the Windows eye-candy. With Ubuntu, and the much-more-badass-than-Aero Compiz, I was using only 230MB of memory. I also have noticed that my laptop doesn't run as hot with Ubuntu as it did with Vista. Now that you're interested, let's get on to the story.

My Dell E1505 came with Vista. The "Wow" started right as I cracked open the box from the Dell Outlet, to the moment I pressed Windows+Tab. Then, that was it. The "Wow" quickly faded into:

"This is dual-core computing? Why does it take thirty seconds to open Notepad?"

"I shelled out extra for this?"

"I'm gonna go get a snack."

After the delicious crackers, my computer experience reverted back into the old XP rut I was looking to escape.

After a few months, I started looking at Linux a lot more seriously. I installed Ubuntu 7.04 on my old HP desktop, just to try it out. I was impressed, and soon installed it on my laptop, much to my regret.

Most things worked perfectly, except on of the most important features I can think of on my laptop, the wireless. I tried for days trying to get the thing to work, but it just never happened. In my travels of forum after forum, I found out that Suse 10.3 was compatible with my wireless card, an Intel 4965 AGN. I promptly downloaded Suse and installed it. All was well. The wireless worked, I got VMware to work, and everything was hunky-dory, until I got the bright idea to actually install something.

I had a simple request. I wanted a video editor for the near nonexistent times whenever I actually edit video. I proceeded to attempt to install pitivi, with disastrous results. Don't ask me what I did, but when I did it, absolutely nothing worked. The wireless was dead, the ethernet was dead, none of my music would play, and I was furious. After a little bit of clueless fiddling, I decided that it was time to switch, yet again, back to Ubuntu.

By this time, Gutsy Gibbon had been released to rave reviews, so I was feeling pretty good about this go around. I installed it, and like magic, everything worked like a charm. I was installing programs, configuring wired and wireless networks, and syncing my iPod with ease. Now I was truly happy.

But the real "Wow" started once I enabled the built-in desktop effects and installed the Compiz settings manager. Once I pressed Control-Alt-Left click, my jaw dropped to the floor. Right there, before my very eyes, I had done in five minutes what I had tried weeks to do in different distros. At that point, my search, and switch, was over.

About a week after taking the plunge successfully, I am proud to say that I am satisfied with Linux, and I will be using it for hopefully a very long time. I'm even going to scrape off the Windows Vista sticker today.

Apple Make Typo In Ad; Rumors Fly

Apple made a no-no. It appears a slight typo could have possibly leaked the upcoming iPod Touch models. The ad, which is for a leather sleeve for the Touch, has this little tidbit.

"Custom fit for 80GB and 160GB iPod touch models."

Come again, Apple? This could either be a legitimate typo, or a legitimate tease.

Apple Blunder; Advertisement Reads 80GB / 160GB iPod Touch [Gizmodo]

Wear your Halo Legendary Edition Helmet!

FInally! A reason to buy the damn thing! Now you can tweak the Master Chief helmet/disc case so you can actually wear it! People with no lives rejoice!

read more | digg story

Amazon MP3 Downloads: THE Music Store For Linux

I just now delved deeper into Amazon's new music store, which I mentioned a few days ago, and I was quite impressed with my experience.

I made my first purchase One Night in Bangkok by Murray Head. Yes, I'm an 80's kind of guy. I'm probably the only man under the age of 18 in Cooke County, Texas who has Fleetwood Mac, The Pretenders, AND Haddaway on my iPod. C'mon, I challenge you.

Anyway, buying was simple and quick. I just clicked on the buy button, passed up the MP3 downloader software offer, and then was taken to a screen where I could download my song. Once I downloaded it, I loaded it to my iPod and listened to it in all of it's high-bitrate, non-DRM, sickeningly-over-the-top synthesizer goodness.

Oh, and did I mention that I did all of this in Linux?

Uh-huh. Because of the lack of DRM, and the help of some special applications, I was able to take the downlaoded song and sync it to my iPod with no fuss.

What do you think I paid for this little gem of a song? $1.99? Nope. Unlike iTunes Plus, this song only cost me 89 cents. Pretty sweet, huh?

The only downside to using Amazon MP3 with Linux is that if you want to buy a whole album, you're out of luck, as you'll have to download the Windows/Mac OS X compatible downloader client. I'm sure you could get it running in Wine, but I haven't had the chance to try. For now, I'll just have to download my music singularly.

So for anyone looking for a new music store, especially the Linux crowd, you need to take a look at this place. iTunes might want to keep an eye out for these guys.

Excuse My Absence

I've been doing a lot of work as of late. I've been considering moving to Linux on my laptop this week, which should make for a good ongoing series here soon, but first I have to cover all of my bases before I take the leap.

I'm planning to use Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy, and I've heard it includes an easy-to-use migration assistant for moving all of your documents from Windows. I'll see how that goes. Stay tuned.

Yahoo Mail Turns 10

The Y!'s online mail service turns ten years old today.

Ah, it seems like yesterday when I was the ripe age of 7, giddy with excitement with my new e-mail address. It was a Juno account, and e-mail was all we had. No pricey internet for my family! We didn't get full-blown e-mail until a couple of years later.

Anyway, here's a birthday cake for good ol' Yahoo!

iGoogle Gets Google Desktop Support

Google's Google Desktop Blog has now reported that all Google Desktop apps are now able to be displayed on your iGoogle home page.

This means that on your home page, you can do anything from play music, view your battery status, you wireless signal and anything else a Google gadget can do.

The new Google Desktop has a few new features as well, like multiple gadget instances and a new quick search box.

Amazon MP3 Will Be A Winner...If It Has Songs

I haven't had the chance to actually download a song from them yet, but the Amazon MP3 store looks pretty promising.

Released to the public just a few days ago, Amazon has made quite a contender for the iTunes Store.

The number one selling point with Amazon is its DRM-free music. That's right. When you download it, it's yours. No strings attached. Sure, Apple has DRM-free songs with EMI, but that's the problem. It's from EMI.

The interface looks pretty good. It's pretty much typical Amazon fashion, and I've heard both good and bad reviews of their Music Downloader software that's required to download from the service. I'll try it out and give my two cents on it soon.

Amazon's done a great job so far, but the big thing that needs to be done is what will make or break the service. Selection. There isn't much of it now, but soon they should grab the attention of the big labels.

Nintendo Releases Wiimote Jacket

The Big N released a special jacket that adds better grip and stability to the Wii Remote a couple of days ago. In fact, the message from Nintendo landed on my Wii yesterday. Soon after reading I dashed to the Nintendo website to nab me one, only to find that the page fails after you enter your serial number. I don't know if it's just me or what, but I was very disappointed. Guess I'll have to wait.

At least I have the super-dee-duper, non-snapping, anti-fly-into-your-plasma wrist straps. It's all good.

OMFG! New Sony Reader! It's Still Expensive!!!ONE!1!

Look! It's the new Sony eBook Reader! Is it better than the last one? It's supposed to be! Smaller? It is! Any cheaper?

No.

Sony is giving it another try with the PRS-505, a smaller, lighter revision of the last failure model. It reads the usual PDF, Word, and other eBook formats; and also TXT and RTF files.

"Well this sounds great, T! What could be wrong with this bundle of eBook joy?!"

Well, dear reader who has just somehow typed on my computer internet page screen, the bad thing is its price. $300. Just as exorbitantly priced as the last one.

Now don't get me wrong! I love this product. I tried one at the sto' once, and the e-ink technology in the screen is nothing short of incredible. Sure, the refresh rate is abysmal, but the text on the page looks just like an actual paper page out of a book. It's that clear. If Sony ever gave it a price drop, I would definitely get one. So would a lot of other people.

New Zunes To Be Released

Silicon Alley Insider reports that Microsoft revealed three new Zune models; two with 4GB and 8GB of flash memory, and one with an 80GB hard drive. They start at $149 and it's said that Microsoft will also attempt to sell DRM-free music. We'll learn more in the coming days.