Continued from powermac7500 [powermac7500, powermac7500-2]
This afternoon I went up to the garage and cleaned five years of garage crud off of the PowerMac 7500 [powermac7500, powermac7500-2] that's been sitting up there. Turns out that the big-ass monitor is actually a 21 inch Raster Ops Model 2168, circa 1992. It weighs nearly 70 pounds!
I popped the top on the PowerMac and discovered that it has actually been upgraded once before. There is an Apple 604 150Mhz upgrade card in the CPU slot, and the hard drive is a 1GB Quantum with the Apple logo (as opposed to the original 750MB drive according to the specs at apple-history.com). I didn't remove the drive bay to see how much RAM was in there, so I can only assume it too has been upgraded, maybe in the 32MB range. All three PCI slots are empty.
The Mac actually powers up and displays the 'Happy Mac', but then sits forever until it complains about a missing boot disk. Possibly a dead hard drive. Unless I find another drive at a surplus store or ebay for somewhere close to free, I probably won't spend much more time with this computer.
Funny thing I also noticed today: this company seems to be actually selling upgraded beige PowerMacs. Why on earth would somebody actually buy one?
If you run a recent version of MS Outlook like Outlook 2003, you may have noticed a security dialog like this:
This dialog prevents unsigned apps like malware ![[WikiPedia]](http://www.mikeyp.com/css/external.gif)
and worms from accessing your address book and from sending email without your explicit permission.
Programs like Chapura's PocketMirror need to access Outlook's data in order to sync it with your PalmOS handheld, so to prevent this dialog from appearing, apps like PocketMirror need to be signed or needs to use the correct API. But instead of signing their code, Chapura added an extremely nasty hack in PocketMirror 3.0 by which the app takes control of your cursor, relocates it to the on-screen security dialog and forces a click on the 'Yes' button. This is really bad. You basically can't user your computer while a HotSync is happening because the app will take your cursor and start clicking without you - even in the wrong window. This is so annoying and non-user friendly that I've actually considered switching to the despised IntelliSync, or even ditching PalmOS entirely in favor of Windows Mobile and ActiveSync. Heck, I'd like to see if Chapura's PocketMirror Pro product has the same issue, but they don't offer a downloadable trial version, or even an upgrade incentive for users of the standard version. Way to botch the marketing there, Chapura.
Fortunately, Chapura has finally released an update that seems to mostly, but not entirely, fix this issue. PocketMirror 3.1.7 syncs properly without showing the Outlook security dialog and without taking control of the cursor. Let's just hope they did this correctly (with signed code or proper API usage) rather than another hack.
As a kid, I had the entire collection of Star Wars action figures (and still do), but I think my favorite action figure toys were actually Micronauts. These things were so cool - you could take them apart and snap pieces from different figures together. And they had a super-cool pneumatic tube transportation thing. Totally cool stuff.
It looks like after 25 years, the Micronauts are returning!
(caught this on BoingBoing)
The AutoSpies got to test drive the new 2005/06 Audi A4's this week, and reported on the new Navigation systems. (It's about time Audi!) But a sweet surprise is this: The system has two SD card slots that will allow the stereo system to play back SD cards filled with MP3s. How cool is that!
This solution is a lot more elegant than hacking up your own Audi iPod adapter.
Paul, an Englishman at my office, turned me on to a brilliant reality show on BBC America called Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares. Gordon Ramsey is a famous English chef who's called in each week to help struggling restaurants get in shape and get better business.
Ramsey is also an acerbic, arrogant, intimidating, cuss-up-a-storm bastard.
Seeing Ramsey barge in to a kitchen and humiliate the entire staff, belittle the head chef, and tell clueless owners that they've got no business running a restaurant is a total blast to watch. It's a little like watching a train wreck unfold in reverse.
Don't miss it. (FYI, I have no idea when it airs, as I set it up in my Comcast DVR, so Tivo it!)
Pedro: If I win, you can be my secretary or something.
Napoleon Dynamite: Sweet!
Pedro offers you his protection
So I have this PowerMac 7500 sitting in my garage under a giant 20" Radius CRT. I haven't booted it up in at least five years. I was planning to clean it up and sell it on eBay until I realized that they're selling for a whopping $45 - not exactly worth my time. But yesterday I stumbled across something interesting at http://lowendmac.com:
You can run OSX on a 7500.
Not out of the box, it seems, but according to several sources, if you buy a couple of upgrade cards, you can turn a 7500 (and other PCI PowerMacs) in to a G3 or G4 and run OS 9.2 or OSX (even Panther). Here's what it looks like I would need at a minimum to upgrade this thing on a budget:
| Item | Street Price (including eBay) |
|---|---|
| Sonnet Crescendo G3 400-500Mhz | <$100 (G4 cards seem to be >$200 right now) |
| ATI Radeon 7000 PCI | <$45 |
| Firewire or USB 2.0 PCI Card | <$30 (I already have an extra one that might work) |
| Firewire / USB2.0 Drive Enclosure | <$35 (I already have a spare drive) |
| Max Total | ~$210 |
That seems like a good bargain to get an OSX machine up and running. But with Mac mini's now available for about twice the cost of an upgraded 7500, I just can't figure out why I would bother doing the upgrade, other than for pure geekyness.
Here are the system hardware specs for my home Linux server. Although old, it is plenty powerful for file serving, web serving, A/V streaming, DHCP, DNS, etc. It is also nearly silent.
System Name: spock
Believe it or not, until I installed the Seagate drive, the noisiest component in the system was the buzzing from the LCD monitor. However, even in the Nexus enclosure, the Seagate drive noise is slightly noticable. It might be resonating with the drive cage in the rack case, so I plan to move it to another location.
Using ECC RAM is a clear benefit in a server. I went through two sets of generic RAM, and often had mysterious lockups. I've never had a lockup since I installed the ECC RAM.
(FWIW, I'm putting my system specs up here for my own reference, because once I button up a machine, I hardly ever remember what the heck I put in it 
)
Newman's Own Organics, a company run by Paul Newman's daughter Nell, makes some tasty organic snacks. In particular, they make some damned fine pretzels.
Unlike the boring and bland pretzels you usually find in supermarkets and vending machines, Newman's pretzels have a full, wheaty taste with a perfect amount of big chunks of kosher salt. And they have a subtle smoky flavor reminiscent of a hickory-smoked brisket. Mmmmmm, good stuff.
(BTW, did you know that Newman's Own Organics is a separate company from the other Newman's Own that makes salad dressing and popcorn?)
If you have a PDA that runs PalmOS 5, you probably have a high-res display of 320×320 or better. If so, it is worth your while to download and install Fonts4OS5. Fonts4OS5 lets you substitute the normal system font with any other font you choose to install. But better, you can also specify the font size, and you can do it on an application-by-application basis. For example, web browsing becomes a completely different (and very usable) experience when you use Xiino or WebPro with an 18 point Sans Serif font rather than the default 22 point font. Do you have good eyesight? Check out how much text you can cram on-screen with a 16 point font!
Now I just wish a font anti-aliasing companion app called FontSmoother would work on the Zodiac. Come on guys, what's the hold up!?
From the Department of the Obvious comes this news: According to the test at WxPlotter.com, I am a High-Level Nerd.
Are you?
I've been using a Sony Ericsson T616 on AT&T Wireless for about 8 months now. The phone is great, as it is very lightweight, small enough to fit in my pocket along side a PDA , and has several features that I use, such as AIM and Yahoo IM, an IMAP email client, a small but usable camera, voice dialing and bluetooth-hosted internet dial-up. Unfortunately, the menus on the phone are tediously slow, and worse, the reception is poor enough to cause frequent dropouts and garbled calls.
Per a recommendation from my friend Jimbo, I upgraded to the newer T637. It has an identical feature set to the T616, but the menus are noticeably snappier, and the reception is excellent. I haven't had a dropped call yet. And as a bonus, it has an easier-to-dial keypad, and it's a hair lighter and a millimeter or two thinner. This is the perfect phone to get me through the year until all of the groovy gadgets being shown at the 3GSM World Congress come out.
When shopping for a ThinkPad, IBM's web site can be a bit unwieldy, especially if you want to compare two models of the same series. For example, IBM makes almost 40 versions of the X40, and many are different in very subtle ways.
Luckily, there is a better way to shop. Head to IBM's 'notebooks literature' page at ibm.com, and download the PDF file tabbook.pdf. It lists every current ThinkPad model side-by-side with detailed specs and even the release date. Perfect!
Thanks to Bill at http://www.thinkpads.com for posting a copy of tabbook.pdf on his site.
Somewhere along the line when I wasn't paying attention, Comcast High-Speed Internet revealed that they outsource their usenet feed (netnews.comcast.net) to Giganews, a respected and reliable usenet feed provider. For Comcast subscribers, there is a 2GB/month download limit.
I did not know that. 
Last month I downloaded 2GB of insert_random_binaries_here from netnews.comcast.net. Apparently, when you hit the 2GB limit, you are banned from the service for an undocumented period of time. Nice, thanks for the warning.
Maybe time to try an alternate service. http://www.usenet-provider.com/ has reviews of many public (fee-based) usenet newsfeed providers.
I wish Giganews had pricing options like AstraWeb or Teranews. Daily limits make a lot more sense than monthly limits.
Having trouble with the Backspace or Delete key when using vi or vim in XTerm? Does pressing the Backspace key echo the characters ^? instead of deleting the charater in front of the cursor? Just edit your .Xdefaults file and change or add these lines to make the keys work as you would expect them to:
XTerm*deleteIsDEL: false
XTerm*backarrowKey: false
XTerm*ttyModes: erase ^?
My current cordless drill is an old 9v Craftsman that I inherited. It works fine, but doesn't have the strength or battery life for anything beyond light duty housework. Plus, it has an old ¼ inch chuck with ratchet and key, which is small and clumsy compared to modern chucks.
I want a new one.
I've been eyeing the highly rated, but expensive, Panasonic 15.4v drill:
But as of this posting, Amazon has a sweet-looking Makita on sale for $125 after coupon and rebate. I have a Makita random orbital sander that I like quite a bit. This might be an offer I can't refuse.
UPDATE: Looks like amazon sold out of the Makita! Maybe I'll get the Panasonic after all. It's over a pound lighter than the Makita, which is a big deal for wussies like me, and Amazon's $25 discount still applies (making it ~$175).
UPDATE 2: The Makita's are back in stock, and at the same deal price.
The pervasive automatic spell-checking in Microsoft's Office product line has had the net effect of making me a lazy… and lousy… speller. That can be a problem when I enter text in a system like my blog, which uses an HTML textarea element for input.
Fortunately, there is a really nice spell-checker plug-in for Internet Explorer called ieSpell. When you right-click on a text field, it adds a simple menu item that allows you to check the spelling in the field. It works with the custom.dic dictionary used by MS Office, and you can configure it to skip word patterns like WikiWords (aka CamelCase ).
Best of all, you can't beat the price: free for individual use (preferably with a donation).
UPDATE: Looks like the new Google Toolbar beta 3 has a built-in spell-checker.
Both Bind (named) and dhcpd can be tricky to configure. And it would seem to be natural that getting them to talk to each other for dynamic DNS updates would be convoluted. I know I thought so, and so did Matt, who provides his config files to help hapless hackers like me.
In reality, if you have a working dhcpd config, and a working Bind config, everything you need to get dhcp client names in to DNS via Bind is described in the man file for dhcpd.conf. Just look for the section titled DYNAMIC DNS UPDATE SECURITY and copy the example code in to your dhcpd.conf and named.conf files. Restart both deamons, and shazaam, you can address all of the dhcp clients on your network by name.
Even though I seem to get called for jury duty every year, this week is the first time I've actually been selected for a jury. The jury selection process and trial so far has been a lot more interesting than I expected. Obviously, I'm under oath to not discuss the details, so I'll just mention this:
[CENSORED]
You can now use tikiformatting in writebacks, including Wiki-style links to other blog entries on this site, interwiki links, and of course, emoticons.
My Perl mostly sucks, so please let me know if (when) you find a glitch.
There were several articles last week about a reported decrease in PDA shipments, with some articles even mentioning this as the sunset of the PDA .
Jeff over at Writing on Your Palm notes an interesting fact that is missing from the reports: the Treo is not counted in the PDA shipment figures, as it is a 'SmartPhone'. Considering that, he thinks Treo sales more than account for the apparent drop in PDA shipments.
Interesting, no?
We saw Badi Assad at the International Guitar Night performance last night in San Francisco. Badi (pronounced 'BAH-djee') is a great guitarist and outstanding singer from Brazil, but what makes her really unique is her ability to make rhythmic and musical sounds and noises with her voice, hands, and it seems, her whole body. She'll make percussion 'clicks' with her tongue as she hums a melody, and as she plays, you can see her almost comically slap her own cheek while her mouth is open to make a sweet 'pop' sound that fits the song perfectly.
Although I've been listening to her music for several years now, this was the first time I've seen her live, and it was a performance of pure musical talent that I'll never forget.
I discovered Badi by listening to an Audiophile Chesky Records CD I was using to tune my sound system. Chesky included an nicely produced recording of Badi on the CD, and I recognized her name from Guitar Player magazine.
Seems like I'm not the only one who thinks the Lenovo deal to buy IBM's computer business is a bad thing for ThinkPad fans and laptop users in general. James Gaskin at http://www.ITWorld.com describes the deal by saying 'management stupidity has no boundaries'. Bill Howard at PC Magazine is ever so slightly more hopeful, but still thinks the ThinkPad R&D team might start heading for the door, or at least Austin.
Maybe this idea from Gaskin is better late than never, '…let's go to Armonk and whack two of every three executives with a pink slip and see if the PC division can make a profit now. Bet it will."
Even though I have the Comcast DVR with HDTV over cable, I'm watching today's SuperBowl in HD via my trusty RCA DCT-100 and rooftop antenna. Why? The picture quality is better. Granted, the Comcast picture is good, and plenty watchable, but here are some of the differences I can see with today's game:
Is the Comcast DVR recompressing HD on-the-fly, like it is with the SD channels? Or perhaps, do I have a stronger signal via OTA than cable?
Now that I have a decent amount of content on this site, I realized that my blosxom config wouldn't allow me to view more than my maximum number of entries per page (set in $num_entries). I have $num_entries set at 7 to provide fast page loading and minimum bandwidth usage for mobile and low-bandwidth users. (I wish all bloggers would consider the mobile/lo-fi world.)
Fortunately, Steve at AgilityNerd has a nice mod of the moreentries plugin that enables previous and next links, and it worked more or less drop-in-and-go. Thanks Steve (and the original moreentries author, Jason Clark)
Would anybody mind if I changed the default font for this blog to be the font from the Slayer logo?
Nah, I didn't think you would. (Link found on today's GMSV)
I hacked up Rael's (formerly) elegant wikiwordish plugin for blosxom to add support for custom amazon.com 'Buy Now' boxes. Here's an example:
Don't you just feeeeel like spending some money now? I know I do!
When the Help item first appeared on the Windows Start Menu back in Win95 or Win98, is was a complete joke for the majority of us who actually knew how to use a computer. Ever since then, I've never bothered to click on the Help item, and have usually used PowerToys to make it go away.
It turns out, the Help and Support Center menu item in Windows XP Pro SP2 is actually useful! Pretty much everything you need to know about administrating the system is available there. Its a little like having an abridged MS Knowledge Base pre-installed on your local machine.
My favorite find in the Help and Support Center? Click on the System administration link, then click on the link for Tools in the 'See Also' section. There you'll find a sweet reference for cmd, the surprisingly robust and scriptable Windows command prompt. BATCH lives!
This evening, I was trying to play a bittorrent of (insert_random_video_here) on Windows XP, and Windows Media Player 10 puked on the file. It wouldn't give me any clue as to why it wouldn't play, wouldn't let me view the file's properties, nothing.
I had to open the file in filesnoop to find out that it is was encoded in XviD, and I just needed to install the latest codecs. But after getting the codec, the video would play, but without any sound. Again, no clue from Windows Media Player as to the cause, no detailed info about the file or codecs anywhere in the app.
Finally just copied the file over to my linux box, ran mplayer on the command line, and pow, the video plays on the framebuffer just fine. Nice.
And the bonus is that mplayer listed exactly what codecs it was using (which was AC3 for the audio).
I like mplayer.
If you have an outdoor security camera, like a Lorex, the Lorex VQ2120 Night Vision module is a must-have add-on. It has a whopping 68 infrared LEDs that enable a night vision range of nearly 35 feet.
The Night Vision includes a Y-adapter to share the power supply with a Lorex Camera such as the Lorex Pro VQ-1530 , but don't use it! When the two devices share the same power supply, the camera will show a rolling noise pattern that will confuse the heck out of any Motion Capture [motion, motionrpm] software. Luckily, it also includes its own power supply, which solves the issue, and allows you to see very cleary which neighbor's dog is pooping in your front yard.
UPDATE Feb 5: As it turns out, while the camera includes a 300mA power supply, the night vision includes a larger 500mA power supply. If you use the Y-adapter with the 500mA PS instead of the 300mA PS (like I initially did), there are no noise issues whatsoever. My mistake - RTFM! 
For some reason, the latest Mandrake RPM available for Motion [motion, motionrpm] is version 3.0.7. There are a lot of nice improvements in the most recent version, so I used the .spec file included in the latest motion build and made a Mandrake RPM.
You can download it here: motion-3.1.17-1mdk.i586.rpm
In this RPM, Motion was configured with these options:
************************
* Configure status *
************************
pthread Support: Yes
jpeg Support: Yes
Curl Support: Yes
V4L included: Yes
FFmpeg Support: Yes
xmlrpc-c Support: No
MYSQL Support: Yes
PostgreSQL Support: No
Disclaimer: I'm kinda new at making RPMs, but the spec file from the Motion guys looked fine with a tweak or two. Works well for me, but use at your own risk.
If you are considering a video security system, don't bother buying a special security video tape recorder. Instead, install Linux on an old PC, and set up a great piece of software called Motion.
I installed Motion on an old K6-233 running Linux Mandrake 10.1, and configured it to capture frames from a Lorex Video Camera. Unlike regular webcam software, Motion only saves images if it detects motion in the frame. Once you have the images, you can do anything you want with them (like browse them through a web browser).
I wrote a couple of bash scripts that take a full day's set of motion capture images and create a time-lapsed QuickTime movie of the day's activity. Pretty cool to watch a movie of a full day pass in just a few minutes!
