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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/

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.

Creative Suite (CS) is a wonderful suite of software for creative professionals, and it’s the best there is… or is it? Many people know there’s a free alternative to Microsoft Office called OpenOffice, but did you know that many of the Adobe CS applications also have a free open-source equivalent?

Let’s take a look at some…

Adobe: PHOTOSHOP Open Source: GIMP

http://www.gimp.org/

The Gimp is one of the best open source programs, and certainly the next-best thing to Photoshop for bitmap/raster image editing. Photoshop users will feel right at home with filters, layers, adjustments, brushes, and many of the more powerful unique items Photoshop sports. The Gimp is so good in fact, I almost consider it true competition to Photoshop.

Adobe: DREAMWEAVER Open Source: Kompozer, NVU

http://kompozer.net/

Kompozer and NVU have a similar heritage from Mozilla. Like Firefox, Kompozer spun off from Mozilla’s old HTML editor. I will admit that Dreamweaver is an amazing program, but if you have to settle for free - Kompozer can more than get the job done. Similar interface items such as toolbars, insert menus, etc - will make the Dreamweaver web slinger feel right at home.

Adobe: ILLUSTRATOR Open Source: InkScape

http://www.inkscape.org/

I am personally from the Photoshop camp, but many people swear by the power of Illustrator. As far as vector graphic editing goes, InkScape easily covers all the bases. In addition to the obvious support for paths, layers, and such - InkScape also provides niceties such as the warp/tweak tool, text on a path, effects, and more. Not to mention the native support for SVG.

Adobe: INDESIGN Open Source: Scribus

http://www.scribus.net/

Scribus is an award-winning piece of software that ranks right up there along side Publisher, Quark, and InDesign. As with the other refined Open Source programs on this list, you can expect a solid user experience, all the right tools, and ease of use. Scribus features compatability along with it’s own unique features (scripts, etc). Desktop Publishers will have no problem quickly picking up this powerful page layout program.

But wait there’s more!

As open source software becomes more refined and more popular, we will begin to see even more possabilities emerge. Linux has begun to draw attention for it’s video-editing capabilities which will even raise eyebows on the biggest AfterEffects users. There are open source Flash players, and new standards such as HTML 5 which will quicky become a true alternative to Flash.

And one of the real benefits of OpenSource is there is no real harm in trying, you may even find your prefernece falls with one of the above programs rather than their expensive commercial rivals.

Some things get better with age, and if you’re a retro game fan like me - then you’re in luck.

What is Abandonware?

Abandonware refers to software that is old, abandoned, and usually no longer supported or protected by the creators. It can be a gray area because companies are usually very protective about their copyrights - even those that are quite old. Nintendo, for example, has traditionally held a tight grip on their copyrights to older titles. Now that we have Virtual Console, we can understand why.

Old computer games are a little different.  (Sometimes) There are many games that have gone free, open source, or just fallen out of the interest of the orginating companies - if they even still exist. If you grew up with DOS or MAC you may have some old favorites you might like to play again.

This article will focus on old DOS games and getting them to play - not just on Windows but also Mac and Linux.

First up, you need something that can run the games. In many cases emulation or virtualization will do the trick. For old DOS games many people turn to DOSBOX. It’s a great little program that is available on various platforms.

Get DOS BOX here: http://www.dosbox.com/

Other ideas include VirtualBox, Virtual PC, VM Ware Fusion, or Parallels

If you’re using DOS BOX you have some configuration to do. When you run the program you get a usual DOS prompt. To get at your files, you have to mount the location. So, if in Windows you have a directory of games at c:\games you can type “mount c: c:\games” to get that directory into DOS BOX.

Other useful things will be going full screen (alt-enter) and adjusting the speed of emulation: ctrl-f11, ctrl-f12. Many old games will run extremely fast on newer machines, so some throttling will be necissary.

DOS BOX also has many front ends available for it, dosshell, boxer, and so forth. These make it easier to have multiple configurations for multiple games. It also simplifies the loading proess for your programs. If you enjoy tweaking your system, you can locate the DOS BOX configuration file (in Windows it’s in your install directory) — in the configuration file you can change defaults such as starting full screen, sound/graphics options, speed, and so forht.

All you need now is some programs. There are many sites out there with Abandonware galore. One I used to find some of my old favorites was: TheOldComputer.com

Here’s a brief top-10 of apps I can’t get by without on a Windows machine. Most are free, too! Just google any of these to find the website and download link. Ok here goes (not in any order)

AVG Antivirus

Not a bad idea to start here, keeps your machine virus clean.

Notepad++

I used to be a diehard TextPad fan, but I will say this editor is even better. Every good nerd needs their editor. On Windows, this is mine. (vim for linux, and TextWrangler for Mac, if you’re interested!)

IrfanView

Of course, photoshop is an essential as far as I’m concerned. Gimp is a great free alternative - but even more bare bones and essential is IrfanView.

IsoRecorder

This should be part of Windows, and it kind of is. In Windows 7 it will be. But this is a free and easy way to burn ISOs.

uTorrent

Sooner or later I find myself downloading a torrent. This is a great client for Mac and Windows.

PuTTY

A great SSH and terminal program

Pidgin

The mutli-client chat program for AIM, ICQ, and everything else. (For Mac, use Adium)

VLC

Plays pretty much everything. This is a must for every platform.

WinMerge

A handy tool for comparing files visually

FoxitReader

A lightweight and clean PDF reader

WinStatDir

Handy-dandy visualizer for disk space… oh wait, this last one makes 11..

Misc / Other obvious winners:

Office, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Visual Studio, Firefox (I suppose)

One of the first things I did with my new Windows PC from Best Buy was to torch the OS and install a clean copy of Vista Ultimate. The fact it came preloaded with the google toolbar, and various demo installations just freaked me out. If you have a retail copy of Windows, I’d say round up your drivers and do the same.

Anyways the whole reinstallation deal lead to an observation of mine - I had a 20 gig partition that the Windows installer could not get at, nor could the Computer Management control panel (Disk Management snap-in)

20 gigs on a 750gig hard drive isn’t really a whole lot - but it’s the principle!

So before you embark down this road I’ll give you my usual disclaimer of proceed at your own risk. Back your stuff up! Also, I have a legit copy of Vista Ultimate to fall back on if I really screw crap up. (Not to mention all the Linux utilities and bootloaders) Ok now that all that’s out of the way, let’s get down to business.

1. Go to start, run, type “cmd” to get to the command line. (Do this as a system admin)

2. type diskpart, press enter

3. now you should be in the diskpart utility, you’ll see a special diskpart promp. At it, type rescan and press enter.

4. type list disk and press enter. You should be looking at a list of the drives installed in your machine.

5. now type “select disk x” where x is the number corresponding to the disk with the locked oem partition. e.g. “select disk 0″ press enter.

6. if you type “list partition” you can see the partitions on this drive. you should see in this list the locked oem partition

7. now we need to select that partition. type “select partition x” where x is the locked oem partition

8. this is it, once you’ve selected the disk and restore partition you can type “delete partition override” to blow it away.

9.now, exit out of the terminal window and go into the control panels (classic view), administrative tools

10. in administrative tools you should see computer management, inside that is disk management

11. in disk management you can easily right-click the newly freed up partition, format, and bring up as usable space in your system.

OTHER IDEAS

If you’re hurting for space and don’t want to do a reinstall, you could relocate your swap file to this partition if it’s big enough. This will free up space on your primary drive for more programs and whatnot. Alternatively you could use partition magic and try and merge the partitions together. Or, if you have a copy of Windows, you can drop both partitions within the Windows installer and install a clean copy of Windows on the one, big, partition.

Happy Hacking.

The Basics

You’ll need a computer and a TV. My TV made it easy because it has VGA output. But ideally you could even run HDMI if your PC had it. The machine I used for the job was my old Mac Mini. Not only was it small and unobtrusive, but it has infrared for remote-control and frontrow - apple’s media center software that comes with pretty much every mac now.

Along with this machine I brought along a spacious external hard drive with my music collection, movies, and other stuff. The thing is on all the time and shares it’s filesystem so I can get at it from my laptop.

Oh and if you’re not into Macs, check out Windows Media Center or Myth TV for Windows and Linux respectfully.

Universal Remote

I have a “learning” remote which I can point a remote to it and it learns the commands automatically. This made it very easy to have my Mac respond to my universal remote commands. For example, hit menu for front row, volume, next tracks, arrows, etc. Again I think you’d have to have a learning remote for this to work… but it works PERFECTLY

Keyboard/Mouse - or lack thereof

The last thing I wanted was a wired keyboard and mouse running across the floor. You can get a wireless keyboard and mouse for around $30 at Target, but I was kind of a chump and sprung for the Logitech diNovo edge. It has an integrated touchpad and all the media buttons, plus it’s small and rechargeable. It’s pricey but it’s the best thing out there. They made a smaller version just for this purpose. http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/keyboards/keyboard/devices/192&cl=US,EN

Oh yeah, they make a mac and a pc version… but the pc version is cheaper and works on the mac anyways

Recording Video

You’ll need either a video capture card or a similar usb device if you want to have your media center perform dvr functions. I’m not the person to ask about this because this wasn’t one of my goals with the project - verizon already provides a multi-room dvr so the pc doesn’t worry about this.

Next Steps

This is the fun part, you can set up your machine to behave however you want. See what goodies are available for your platform. I made a “TV” guest login with just the essential icons - web browser, tv listings (widget), games, and links to watching shows on iTunes, Hulu, and other TV stations. I also have all of my games ready to play full screen and on the nice surround sound setup. This part just takes some creativity.

Feeling lazy? Have a couple of Macs around the house? This one’s for you!

Being able to remote control a computer is nothing new, and the Mac OS has supported it for a long while. But with 10.5 it’s never been easier. But before we set up a remote controlled Mac, let’s talk about some of the ways this work.

VNC

VNC - this is a standard that can be found on Linux machines as well as Mac OS. Essentially one computer acts as a VNC server an a VNC client connects to observe or control the server. The Mac OS can run as a VNC server out of the box. In 10.5 this feature can be found in the sharing control panel. One Mac VNC client I’ve used in the past is “Chicken of the VNC” a quick google should turn up a download for this app, if you’re interested

A BETTER WAY

Apple Remote Desktop is a swell way to remote control Macs on your Network, however it’s not free. It is an application designed for a system administrator to monitor or control a bunch of machines. The lite version that comes with 10.5 can be found in iChat - the screen sharing feature! The cool thing, and the hack I’m getting to, is using this screen sharing service to remote control your Macs with the same elegance the full version of Remote Desktop gives you. It’s all there - just disabled!

1) Look in your hard drive in /System/Library/CoreServices - you should find “Screen Sharing” - the application which will allow you to remote control the machines. I put mine in my dock.

2) If you load it, it asks where to connect. You can use the IP as provided by the sharing control panel, but there’s an easier way. Hop into terminal and type this: defaults write com.apple.ScreenSharing ShowBonjourBrowser_Debug 1

3) Now when you load Screen Sharing, you’ll see a more detailed window with a list of computers on the network using bonjour and remote management in the sharing control panel.

WHY?

This is useful if you have a desktop Mac in the house - you can connect to and control it from a laptop. It’s also fun for pranks The ScreenSharing solution is also nice because it will scale the higher resolution desktop to fit on your laptop’s screen - Chicken of the VNC doesn’t do this. Most Linux distributions have a VNC client as well so you can get at your desktop Mac from pretty much anything or anywhere. That’s right - if you’re confident with exposing your machine to the world, you can share out this service to the internet and get at your home computer anywhere in the world.

This photo was created with 10 snapshots

A picture might be worth a thousand words, but sometimes you want even more. At Epcot, the World Showcase is a massive attraction that isn’t easily captured with a single photo. In this example, I’ve stiched together 10 photos with a regular digital camera to create a huge panoramic. It’s quick, easy, and painless… here’s how to do it.

The process is called photo stitching where you take regular, overlapping/adjecent photos and the computer finds similar features (The corner of a building, or a drain in the road, for example) on the photos and merges them together. Additionally, to make up for the different lighting values of the photos - blending is performed to make the panoramic seamless.  Let’s see how to do it…

The EASY way

If you have a newer version of Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, creating a photo panoramic is just a couple of clicks. Using a bunch of adjecent photos, load up Photoshop. Under File choose Automate and then “Photo Merge” I beleive Elements includes the Photomerge feature directly under file. In the window that opens, use the browse button to pick the individual adjecent photos you’ve taken. In this window you’ll see several layout modes with samples so you can help the program perform the mergeing in a way that will look best - but sometimes experimentation is the way to go. You’ll see a checkbox to blend the image. The blend process just fades the pictures together so you can’t see where they meet (you know, the lighting could be different in each - for instance) When you click OK the process will start, and can take some time. My 10 pictures from my 10 MP camera ate up almost 20 gigs on my sctrach disk - so having free space for this is a good thing. If you run into a problem you can shrink down your originals and still get a decent product.

The FREE way

Photoshop is a must-have program as far as I’m concerned but if you don’t have it you can still do photo merges - it’s just harder. There are plenty of programs online that will do the stiching besides photoshop, many rely on a common photo-stiching library. Perhaps a good place to start is here: http://www.all-in-one.ee/~dersch/

These process using these tools is similar, just manual. The separate photos are warped, stiched, aligned, blended. You may even find different programs you are comfortable with for different parts of the procedure - just do some googling.

More tools: Autopano, which can be easily found on google. PTGui is another (http://www.ptgui.com/) Another is AutoStitch (http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~mbrown/autostitch/autostitch.html) — what it comes down to here is to google, try, and see which you are most comfortable with. Many are available for Mac/Linux/Windows.