metalbabble.com/technobabble

With all bias aside, a question many netbook enthusiasts debate is which OS to install on a netbook. Today there are a lot of powerful netbooks on the market with large hard drives capable of running any distro of Linux or Windows 7. My focus is on a low end or older netbook. I still love my Eee PC which is now a few years old. But even upgraded it has 2gigs of ram and 4gigs of storage (plus another 8 on sd) — the model shipped with 512mb ram, and just the 4gig ssd. This really brings us to two realistic contenders in my opinion:

Windows XP or Xubuntu.

Before anybody complains about me forgetting about their favorite, obsucure, runs-on-an-atari lightweight distro, keep in mind me choices are based around actually doing modern or real work using real applications and modern websites.

Here are the pros and cons…

Windows XP
PROS
* Customizable install with nLite
* High compatability
* XP is small enough you will still have room for apps like older versions of office, photoshop, etc
CONS
* Security. Realistically you should consider running antivirus as well which is a big setback on a netbook.
* Becomes slow and bloated over time
* Difficult to install without use of external cd drive.

Xubuntu
PROS
* Being free, it’s a lot easier to obtain, customize, and install (even via a USB drive)
* High UI customization to optimize screen real-estate
* Customization - only install what you need
* Fast, runs chrome perfectly.
* Decent apps, still have the ability to install Gimp, maybe open office with room to spare
CONS
* The learning curve associated with Linux (maybe not to the people who are installing OS’s on netbooks, but still!)
* Some maintenance issues, such as preserving disk space after package management.
* Less compatible

OVERALL
* Any OS install on these will require setting up a usb drive to boot and install from. This is somewhat easier with linux, but not impossible with windows. An external CD drive is even easier.
* Both OS - linux or windows - require customization to run well regardless. In windows, you’ll need to avoid swap files, tweak your registry, reduce disk writes and caches, and similarly in linux you’ll want to avoid swap as well and customize some scripts to reduce disk writes. Both will also require some tweaking to run well in the low memory environemtn.
* It’s tempting to spring for ubuntu, vista, 7, or something newer but honestly xp and xubuntu are slim and have a very small footprint and are essentially as capable as today’s OS’s.
* Using an SD card is tempting as a home directory or even a home and program directory - not only will this reduce writes to your more-expensive SSD, but you can reinstall and retain some of your stuff.
* Both XP and xubuntu waste space after it updates, see the old technobabble article on this!

Some users complain that iTunes is somewhat limited to how music is managed, and to complicate it further iPods will seemingly only operate with computers they are set up to sync with. This technobabble article will go through some easy steps you can take to get music off your iPod without using iTunes.

Normally, people use iTunes to copy music on and off of their iPods. To prevent unauthorized music redistribution iTunes won’t work with someone else’s iPod on your computer. These restrictions are unfortunate - but this is the sacrifice Apple made for making deals with record labels to sell their music online. Regardless of why or what - if you legitimately have music (say, something you wrote) on your iPod - wouldn’t it be handy to be able to plug that iPod into you’re friend’s computer and share your work?

Navigate your iPod

The iPod works like a USB hard drive. iTunes even has a setting to enable disk use. So when you plug your iPod into your computer you should see it (Windows users will see a drive in My Computer, and Mac users will see the icon on the desktop)

View hidden files

The folders that actually store your music are hidden on the iPod. So first, make sure you are seeing hidden and protected files. Window users can check out the control panel -> “folder options” for this. For mac users, hop into terminal and try this:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
killall Finder

Yes, Apple is TRYING to make it hard to get at it Oh, and if you want to hide hidden stuff again try:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE
killall Finder

Access your music

Now that you can see hidden stuff, you should see a folder called iPod_Control in your iPod. Inside this folder is another folder called “Music” which contains all the songs on your iPod. Unfortunately, iTunes renames the files with short codes - but the real names of the songs are retained in the MP3 tags. If you copy these files to your computer there are various organizational utilities on the web that will help rename them back, based off the ID3 tags. Hop on google and look for mp3 organization or renaming utilities.

Avoid iTunes alltogether

There are even utilities out there that will allow you to copy files to and from iPods. This is a common thing for Linux users as there is no iTunes in linux. Some example programs: Amarock, Banshee (those are Linux only) also SongBird which is cross-platform. http://getsongbird.com/

Somebody recently asked me what game I had the most fun making, and then which game I thought came out the best on metalbabble.com - turns out it’s the same answer to both questions: MegaMac 5.

If you’re new to metalbabble.com you’ve probably never heard of MegaMac before - if you’re asking what it is, well you should probably just download it and see for yourself. The MegaMac series is a cross between an ode and a loving parody to classic console games like Super Mario Bros, MegaMan, etc. Music and other elements are brought in to make an experience like none other.

The format of the game is just like MegaMan: pick a boss, play the level, get a new ability. If you grew up with these classic console games, and even if you didn’t - you’ll love MegaMac!

MegaMac 5, and all the MegaMac games were simply loads of fun to make, and I’m always playing around with ideas of where to bring the series next!

Check out this gallery of old, vintage, classic, and weird gadgets. All stuff I don’t have room for but can’t bring myself to get rid of. (Apple ][, Mac Pluses, Tandys, Commodore 64s and more)

http://tinyurl.com/y9h8yen

So the news is out, and Apple has finally unveiled the iPad - it’s tablet device that fills a whole new role in the marketplace. Well, here’s my take on it.

At first glance it was both amazing and exactly what I expected. Creating a product between the iPods and MacBooks makes perfect sense, and I think the tablet couldn’t be done any other way. Apple has always made consumer appliances - just plug it in and go! This is exactly that. As a techie I’m a little disappointed that it won’t run the real Mac OS X, and sure enough the cynical geeks online are going to start complaining about having to jail break it or that it’s just an oversized iPod touch. But that’s missing the point - it’s a consumer product and it fills a gap in the marketplace. And it wouldn’t work any other way. Tablets have never really taken off with consumers because of these things - the desktop metaphor based OS, trying to tack on a mouse and keyboard, that sort of thing.

So pros and cons. It’s hard to say without using it firsthand, but here’s my take:

CONS:

* Meant for consumers, not geeks (who probably want a tablet the most right now)

* No camera

* Low storage

* No means of using a desktop OS on it… you’re stuck with the app store!

PROS:

* Highly affordable

* Should have very high market appeal (status symbol)

* Prepaid plans will bring in a flood of people who wanted the iphone but wern’t At&t customers

* Elegant, looks responsive, decent specs (10hr battery life, etc)

So what’s next?

I think we’ll see a flood of “i know better” type people claiming it sucks because it misses a feature they wanted, although some of these features would over complicate it and kill it in the marketplace.

It’s going to start shipping in a month or two. There’ll be the lines, the camp outs, the works.

I want to grab one as soon as I can too, but sure enough there will probably be a new version that comes out a year later that has features we early-adopters can’t live without! And then people will complain about that too!

But the thing is, if this takes off, it’s really a game changer. It’s going to create a whole new market, and redefine what netbooks and tablets are all about. The success isn’t in pleasing the nerds who want multitasking, it’s changing the tech universe with a new way for users to access technology. And that, it appears, the iPad does very well.

Here’s a quick round-up of some of the awesome, nerdy, and delicious cakes Amy has made for me…

* Slime cake - from Dragon Quest

* Penguin cake - Linux, and of course penguins are awesome!

* Black Truck - Looks like a Chevy Colorado (even has pin stripes)

* 1-Up - from the Mario series

* Katamari - I made this one, which is why it’s a bit lop-sided!

(See photos!)

Hello! I’ll be doing the updates to metalbabble.com this week, in the meantime the site is redirecting here - to the technobabble. I’m hoping to be done mid this week. Note that the games and software areas are still accessible using the links at the top of the page. Thanks!

Years ago I had a job as a “Virtual Tour” photographer. I went all around Massachusetts and photographed virtual tours for homes for sale. I have to say it was an interesting experience - so much so that I have the equipment still and experiment once and a while with it. (Unfortunately I don’t have the really high-end equipment I had from the job!)

Here’s what I do have.

The equipment

In this photo is an old 2 megapixel (I said it was old) Sony CD Mavica. I use this because of the large lens size and ability to adapt to the 360 lense. The actual lense sits on top with the camera aimed up.

The photo it takes looks like a donut (see second picture)

On the computer, the 360 software interpenetrates this donut-shaped image and unwraps it giving you the illusion of image all around you, but in reallity you’re just looking at transformed sections of the donut. It’s actually a very easy process.

You do need a precision camera though, my Mavica doesn’t really cut the mustard. The 10 megapixel that I used to take a picture OF the mavica has much more horsepower but I don’t have an adapter… yet.

In any case, you get the idea - here’s the final product (again remember my camera is old and crappy: http://www.metalbabble.com/360/metalbabble%20360/)

Donut Image

The classic Final Fantasy on NES provides fond memories for some, and frustrations for other. Often times, the amount of grinding it takes to proceed is a major turn-off to some players. Others are turned off by the dated graphics. So, to address both of these roadblocks - here are some nifty tools that will crack open this classic.

Final Fantasy Save Game Editor

http://games.technoplaza.net/ffse/

For Linux, Mac, and Windows is this easy-to-use save game editor. With it you’ll be able to fudge the amount of money, experience, items, and magic your characters have.

Hacks and patches

http://www.derok.net/emulation0/finalfantasy.html

This page contains just a few patches that can be applied to the Final Fantasy ROM to update the game in various ways. My favorites here are “Final Fantasy Plus” which follows the original game but with updated graphics, enemies, items, and skill/gameplay. Also, is “Final Fantasy World of Chaos” which uses the original engine but gives the players a whole new world and storyline to explore. These patches can be applied using any IPS patching tool.

Check out the screenshots for both.

FrontRow is the media center software that comes on every Mac - it’s pretty basic, but this makes for a great platform to build a great, customized media center. Below, are a few essential plugins (or “Appliances”) that you can add to FrontRow to give it some really powerful capabilities.

UNDERSTUDY

http://code.google.com/p/understudy/

Understudy is a quick and dirty way to get Hulu feeds in FrontRow. It’s simple but if you have HuluDesktop installed there’s an ever better solution:

HULU DESKTOP LAUNCHER

http://www.nullweb.com/?p=7

The beauty of FrontRow might be it’s ease of use with the remote control. Hulu does a good job with this in Hulu Desktop. Adding this plugin will allow you to access Hulu Desktop quickly and easily.

BOXEE

http://www.holeintheceiling.com/blog/2008/12/12/front-row-boxee/

In a similar fashion, using Front Row as a starting point makes a lot of sense of a Mac media center. Boxee is a great way to explore your videos, pictures, media… and pretty much everything. Adding this to FrontRow gives you another easy way to pick up the remote and start surfin’

HONORABLE MENTIONS

In addition, EyeTV, NetFlix, YouTube and other popular media center items can be integrated into FrontRow. Depending on your needs there’s FrontRow extensions for almost anything media-center related!

My set up is a Mac Mini. I automatically boot to FrontRow, and use a universal remote to access FrontRow which is the starting point to my video, music, photos, and internet TV.