Testing Grounds

Leopard OS X 10.5.6 On Your PC

2009-04-02T17:19:00.008-04:00

This post covers how to install Leopard 10.5.6 on your PC using the iPC release. This release has a MASSIVE amount of hardware support. It is truly staggering. So as to not make you scroll for a straight minute, here is a thumbnail you can click on for the full version. Yes, you are allowed to drool.

The above pic courtesy of the folks at iPC

By the way, I am only writing a tutorial for how to do this. I take absolutely no credit for the spectacular job the people at iPC have done in making this distro of Leopard. You can visit their site here:

http://pcwizcomputer.com/ipcosx86/

So a little background of OSX86 in general is needed:

In previous posts I showed you how to install Tiger and Leopard on your boring PC and cut its chains of slavery to Windows operating systems. Installing Tiger involved quite a bit of work, and may have taken someone with advanced knowledge of computer software an entire weekend to perfect. Drivers were hard to come by, and it was largely luck of the draw if you were able to get your particular hardware to work with Tiger. Leopard was an evolutionary step forward, automating much of the process and having great compatibility with PC architecture. More modern devices are supported automatically, both through default Leopard software, and from the lovely folks who compiled these hacks in order to liberate OSX for the masses.

OS X Leopard was cracked for PC consumption the day of its release. This was mostly accomplished because Leopard was meant from the beginning to be used on computers with the x86 Intel architecture. The roadblock keeping OS X from naturally running on any pc is something called EFI, or Extensible Firmware Interface. The EFI that Leopard uses is only tooled to work with Apple hardware, which means that it needs to be patched. The original method of patching was to use a thumbdrive attached to the computer and utilize the terminal to transfer files from the thumbdrive to the operating system files of Leopard. Compared to installing Tiger onto a PC, this method was ridiculously easy and was all that was required to have a successful boot of Leopard. But a better solution is now available, one where no thumbdrive is required and installation is streamlined and so easy that nearly anyone can do it.

OK, first thing's first.

This is a set of guidelines for installing OS X Leopard onto a PC. What you choose to do with this information is up to you, and I am in no way responsible for whatever happens to your machine.

The things you need for this project are as follows:

High Speed Internet Connection (Useful if you want the disk image before the end of time)
Blank DVD-R
ISO Recorder (Free software, can be found here: http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm)
A BitTorrent program such as BitComet, Vuze, or Transmission
A computer with the following attributes:

Processor with either SSE2, SSE3, or SSE2/3 capabilities.
at least 512 MB RAM
at least 9 GB of free disk space
A DVD drive for installation

Now that all of the essentials are taken care of, we can get to the nitty gritty. In my personal opinion, this is one of the easiest installations of any operating system that I have ever had experience with. If all of your devices are supported, and your system has reasonable specs, you may expect to be cruising on your new Leopard in under and hour and a half. If you have just the bare minimum system requirements, it may take considerably longer.

Preparations:

In order to install Leopard, you first need to get the Leopard OSX86 installation disk. Now, the legality of this is somewhat questionable. The general consensus is that there are three ways to go about this, and I will order them in the most painful to least painful:

Become an Apple developer. After several years or decades of convincing Apple Corp. that it would be a great idea to open up their kick ass operating system to the public for use on PC's, you can probably install the now defunct and outdated leopard onto your PC free of legal worries.
Buy a Leopard License, and then go and download Leopard from one of a plethora of Torrent websites. So that way at least your giving your money for a Leopard license and choosing to use it on a computer. Even though the license agreement specifically states that you cannot use OS X on anything but apple hardware. Oh well, it happens.
Who cares, just download it. This is the most common method, and also the least legal.

For the two practical options, you need to download the latest and greatest OSX86 distro. At the time of this articles conception, the latest and greatest would be a release from the lovely people at iPC and it would be version 10.5.6. Now, it is important to note that there are several versions of iPC 10.5.6 floating around on the less than legal side of the internet. You need to look for one that says "final" and/or "PPF5" with the newest upload date and is more than 3 GB in size. If you find one thats less than that, it is probably a patch of some kind meant for eariler versions of iPC's distro. Unless you have a crazy good connection, expect to wait upwards of 2-3 days for the whole thing to download. It is a large file and will take a considerable time to acquire.

Then you need to burn the .iso file to the blank DVD. Recently I have lost my love of Nero, that is why I have linked above a free utility that burns .iso files to disks. Free software is nice.

If you’ve never booted from a CD or DVD on your system, then follow the outlined steps. If you already know how then just skip the next paragraph.

Insert the dvd into your dvd drive and shutdown the computer. Then whenever the computer boots up, pay attention to if it says anything about boot sequence or BIOS setup in the first few seconds of booting. For most Dell systems that I’ve come across the Boot Sequence option can be reached by hitting F12 at startup. For HP it is usually F2. Other BIOS’s might be Del or any of the F keys. Then select your CD/DVD drive, and the computer will boot from it after hitting enter.

Here is what a Dell Dimension 3000 BIOS boot selection screen looks like:
(The CD/DVD drive is highlighted)

And now the possible difficulties begin. If you wait a while and let the DVD boot up, it will eventually say something like "Press any key to begin or F8 for options . . ." (I know it isn't exactly that, but it is similar), if you press any key the next screen pops up:

Now, if your CD/DVD drive is still spinning at this point and the light is working, than chances are you are perfectly fine, nothing to worry about. If however it becomes stuck then you obviously have a problem. It is almost guaranteed that this problem stems from a hardware compatibility of some kind. I myself have seen this problem with newer hardware. I solved my problem by using Verbose mode at the F8 startup screen. This gives a diagnostic of each and every single step the OSX86 bootloader is going through in order to start the installation. You can then Google the last thing that happens in this diagnostic and hopefully find out what your problem is and solve it.

My problem was with a Dell Studio 540. I found that if i booted with the flags "-v cpus=1" then I would not have any problems. With some quad core machines this "cpus=1" may be a vital missing component.

Dell Studio 540 Booting up:

Here is a screen that might tip you off that you have a problem with your hardware:

And this is what -v does (otherwise known as diagnostic mode)

If you are having trouble booting, please visit the InsanelyMac forums:

http://www.insanelymac.com/

I cannot help you, they can.

Now, lets get back to the happy case where there are no boot problems.

After all the thinking, your computer will actually furnish you with a cursor and screen:

Followed quickly by the same pinwheel cursor and the Leopard background:

Then the Language Selection screen comes up. Needless to say, choose your language and continue:

Installation Preparation:

Welcome Screen with the Macintosh toolbar at the top. Pay attention to the options you have at the top, you will be using some of them shortly. Hit continue.

You are presented with the "Software License Agreement" for this particular distro of Leopard. Instead of simply skipping through it like you would normally do with every single other software license agreement you have ever met, it might be good to actually read this one. Its not an agreement, rather it is the features that this distro has. It has useful information if you find you cannot get your install to work.

For instance it says to use the boot flag -f to load all the kexts on your first boot. This is important, we will get to it later.

After "agreeing" you will come to the Select Destination screen. Unless you already have a Macintosh hard drive partitioned correctly, your screen should look like this:

Well, that doesn't really give you many options does it? Don't worry, now is when you use the menu bar at the top. Go to Utilities -> Disk Utility and click it:

Now you will find the Disk Utility application:

If you are doing a fresh install with a blank hard drive, click on the hard drive (NOT any partitions) and then click on the Erase tab. Where it says Volume Format choose "Mac OS Extended Journaled". You may be able to use another type, but I know for a fact that that does indeed work. Then name the partition whatever you would like, I'm partial to something plain like Leopard.

Once that is accomplished (It may take some time depending on your hard drive size and system configuration) click the red x button to exit the Disk Utility and return to the Select Destination screen. Only this time it will not be blank, it will have a volume you can choose:

Click Continue and the Install Summary Page will show up:

VERY IMPORTANT!!!!!

You MUST Click Customize!! If you do not, your install will not work. The Customize screen will show you several options that you will need to select or de-select based on your own hardware configuration. If your first install does not work correctly, chances are you need to choose different options in the Customize screen:

Click on the arrows to see all of the lovely options you can choose from:

Notice how that list continues? It continues for a long long time. Remember that thumbnail I had at the top of this article? Click it for detailed info. Yup, thats a lot of stuff isn't it? The folks at iPC have really outdone themselves.

The number one reason for failed installs is that you do not have proper hardware support. This is hopefully fixed by choosing the correct settings at the above screen. If you cannot find the correct settings, PLEASE VISIT THE INSANELYMAC FORUMS! The threads there are priceless and will lead you in the right direction.

After choosing the correct options, accept and return to the previous Install Summary screen:

The disk will now check itself for errors. You may want to let this run for the very first time. At this point you will find out if your disk is too scratched, burned incorrectly, or downloaded incorrectly. But if your install failed and you are forced to install again, you probably don't need to check your disk again, you can hit cancel.

After the disk check the Installation will begin. Cross your fingers:

Once that is done hopefully you are greeted with the encouraging green checkmark:

If not, well you tried. Install again, if that doesn't work then check the InsanelyMac forums. Notice how I say to check those forums a lot? You really should.

Now your machine will restart. When it gets to the Darwin bootloader hit any key and type in the following boot flags:

-v -f

This will put it in verbose and force a consolidation of Kexts. Kexts in OSX86 are sort of like drivers.

If you needed to put in "cpus=1" in order to get your install disk to boot, you may notice infinite restarting at this point. In the Customize Installation screen a few pics ago there was a cpus=1 fix that would have been nice to check. You can still type it every time your computer boots, but that will get annoying fast. You may want to either re-install or customize your installation when you are finished to include that automatically.

If you didn't need the cpus=1 fix and it is rebooting itself anyway, well you have a hardware problem. You know how to fix hardware problems? InsanelyMac. Nuff said.

If you don't have any problems, it will look like you do have a problem. When you type in -f the kextloading causes the screen to look very much like one of the Matrix movies:

But don't worry, this is supposed to happen.

After the kext loading, you will come to the normal diagnostic page:

And then a nice video will play:

After the video plays you will be greeted with a Welcome Screen. Pick your country:

Then select your keyboard:

The Do You Already Own A Mac? Screen. Chances are you just want to say No to this one:

The next screen prompts you to enter your Apple ID. You may or may not have one, so don't worry if you don't.

Then the Registration screen. You may or may not want to enter false info here:

Create your local account. This will be your user count when you use Leopard:

Try Mobile Me? Probably not:

And Finally the Thank You Screen:

You are now done, congratulations!

That is if all of your hardware is supported. If it is not, I suggest checking out these sources:

http://www.insanelymac.com/
http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

How to patch the iDeneb iso file (In Windows)

2008-10-22T16:52:00.007-04:00

Hello everyone, many of you may have been having issues with the latest release of OSX86. The iDeneb team put together a fantastic version of Leopard that works on a lot of x86 hardware, but the first release had compatibility issues with some nVidia hardware. Either a white apple screen would pop up, or if you installed using the diagnostic view (pressing F8 and then -v when the disk loads) you may have noticed a message similar to "Still waiting for root device". I myself have had plenty of trouble with this, and it was only after several hours of searching that I found the iDeneb team's patch for the .iso. Unfortuantly they just give the patch out, and have no instructions for how to actually apply the patch. As it turns out it is a raw sort of patch, one that is applied through the command line or terminal of your operating system.

When the patch is downloaded there are three folders, Linux, OSX, and Windows. I have tried installing the patch in OSX and have run into errors that I could not solve, so that is the reason why this tutorial is Windows oriented.

Materials Needed:

A Windows Operating System
the original .iso file you downloaded from a torrent site
the patch folder you downloaded from the link below

Some basic knowledge of the windows command line is needed. For those of you who don't know what the Windows command line is, it looks similar to this:

This is the old style of computing before windows. The screenshot above is from Vista, but the same basic look goes back to Windows 95.

You can get to it by pressing and holding the button between the Ctrl and Alt buttons on the bottom left hand side of your keyboard - the one that looks like the windows symbol - and pressing the r key. This will bring up the run command menu. Type in cmd and hit enter.

Now to get started! Let the fun times begin.

First travel to iDeneb's website for some basic info:

http://ideneb.ihackintosh.net/index.php/lang-en/homepage/58-ideneb-v13-1055-nforce-patch.html

If you want to get right down to business, you can download the patch here:

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=ce22f281381ab62ed2db6fb9a8902bda

Once the .zip file has finished downloading, right click on it and hit extract all or extract here. The resulting folder should have the three main folders and some miscellaneous files.

find the folder that was unzipped with the name: iDeneb_v1.3_nForce_Patch

It will have this stuff in it:

Now I'm going to tell you a few things that will save you hastle when you are in the command prompt. Move this folder to the very root of your C:/ drive. Go into My Computer and open the C: drive and place it there.

Inside the folder is a file called iDeneb_v1.3_nForce_Patch.ppf. Move this file to the Windows folder.

Find your .iso file that you downloaded, and place it in the Windows folder. Notice how it has a rather large and crappy name? Rename it to something simple like iDeneb.iso (once again this is for ease of use in the command line).

Ok, so now the fun really begins. Open up the command line prompt. (You can get to it by pressing and holding the button between the Ctrl and Alt buttons on the bottom left hand side of your keyboard - the one that looks like the windows symbol - andpressing the r key. This will bring up the run command menu. Type in cmd and hit enter.)

Type in cd.. twice (this is the change directory command, and the .. is the symbol used for the folder above the current folder)

Now type cd iDeneb_v1.3_nForce_Patch

then cd Windows

and then type ApplyPPF3:

Nothing has happened yet, but you have just accessed the file that will patch the .iso image. When you execute the program it shows you the instructions. Press the up arrow on your keyboard, this will place the most recently used command in the command prompt, saving you the trouble of typing it again. You will need to type in a space followed by "a iDeneb_v1.3_nForce_Patch.ppf iDeneb.iso". (You don't need the ""). This command will apply the patch to the .iso file.

It should look like this:

You should take special care and make sure you have the correct iDeneb_v1.3_nForce_Patch.ppf file in the Windows Folder. There is a file that is just labeled iDeneb_v1.3_nForce_Patch, but it DOES NOT have the .ppf extension. This is not the correct file! you need iDeneb_v1.3_nForce_Patch.ppf! You will be staring at a screen that says something to the effect that the file does not exist - which is extremely frustrating.

After a while it will finish patching the .iso file. Hopefully you will get this message somewhere in the command prompt:

Congratulations! You now have a patched .iso file. Use burning software to burn the .iso file to a DVD and try installing Leopard again.

Please note:

You have just patched the .iso file. For some people this will fix their problem and let them install OSX86 onto their PC. But for some people this will still not fix their problems. This is most likely due to other hardware compatibility, not just an nVidia related issue. For those people I suggest visiting the InsanelyMac forums. The website is an incredible resource with a community of people who know their stuff and will hopefully have an answer to your problem.

InsanelyMac: http://www.insanelymac.com/

I hope this post helped all of the people struggling to install the patch.

No Root For You, a Book By Gordon Johnson

2008-10-13T00:05:00.002-04:00

Hacker's Database

A BOOK! I am proud to present the publication of a new book, written by the founder/developer of leetupload.com. The book, as seen below, is entitled "No Root for You: A Series of Tutorials, Rants and Raves, and Other Random Nuances Therein. It is about network auditing, a step by step tutorial guide explaining how one would go about auditing, securing, and learning why certain exploits work, etc. Purchase your copy now, by clicking HERE.To read more (view table of contents and the like) click here.

About the Book
Gordon Johnson:

As I have noticed over the years, spoon-fed information on anything that involves network auditing, or anything of the sort, has been rather scarce. It is for this reason that my book has spawned in its current form. The idea is to prove that such tasks may be explained in an articulate manner, while still maintaining a proper rapport with the individual. People tend to speak in lofty tongue when they have a superiority complex; I eliminate this completely by drawing back the verbal curtain and cutting straight to the point. This is done by speaking in layman’s terms, while still maintaining proper terminology when absolutely necessary, and utilizing metaphors to express the idea in a more
descriptive form. As you may have guessed, this is a network auditor’s quick-reference bible. Not only does it contain step-by-step, illustrated tutorials, but an explanation in regards to why each exploitation, or what have you, works, and how to defend against such attacks. Be prepared, one might also discover a few “rants and raves,” as well as other random nuances.

About the Author

Gordon L. Johnson is currently a junior at Indiana University in Bloomington, and is 20 years of age. His major is Informatics, with minors in computer science and cyber security. He has written for Hakin9 I.T. Magazine entitled Remote and Local File Inclusion Explained, which may be found in this book. He has experience in the I.T. field, as well as a consulting computer technician. As an aspiring network auditor, he has many computer related interests as well. His background encompasses knowledge in the following: programming in C, C#, Visual Basic, VB.net, HTML, PHP, Scheme, MATLAB, scripting, 3D interior design, hardware modification/development, and maintaining IRC/game servers as well as his website: leetupload.com.

OSX Leopard 10.5.5 On A PC

2008-10-12T22:36:00.012-04:00

Please see update at end of post!

In previous posts I showed you how to install Tiger and Leopard on your boring PC and cut its chains of slavery to Windows operating systems. Installing Tiger involved quite a bit of work, and may have taken someone with advanced knowledge of computer software an entire weekend to perfect. Drivers were hard to come by, and it was largely luck of the draw if you were able to get your particular hardware to work with Tiger. Leopard was an evolutionary step forward, automating much of the process and having great compatibility with PC architecture. More modern devices are supported automatically, both through default Leopard software, and from the lovely folks who compiled these hacks in order to liberate OSX for the masses.

OS X Leopard was cracked for PC consumption the day of its release. This was mostly accomplished because Leopard was meant from the beginning to be used on computers with the x86 Intel architecture. The roadblock keeping OS X from naturally running on any pc is something called EFI, or Extensible Firmware Interface. The EFI that Leopard uses is only tooled to work with Apple hardware, which means that it needs to be patched. The original method of patching was to use a thumbdrive attached to the computer and utilize the terminal to transfer files from the thumbdrive to the operating system files of Leopard. Compared to installing Tiger onto a PC, this method was ridiculously easy and was all that was required to have a successful boot of Leopard. But a better solution is now available, one where no thumbdrive is required and installation is streamlined and so easy that nearly anyone can do it.

OK, first thing's first.

High Speed Internet Connection (Useful if you want the disk image before the end of time)
Blank DVD-R (or two, I'll get to that later)
Nero, or some other program that allows the burning of disk images to blank media
A BitTorrent program such as BitComet or Transmission
A computer with the following attributes:

Processor with either SSE2, SSE3, or SSE2/3 capabilities.
at least 512 MB RAM
at least 9 GB of free disk space
A DVD drive for installation

Become an Apple developer. After several years or decades of convincing Apple Corp. that it would be a great idea to open up their kick ass operating system to the public for use on PC's, you can probably install the now defunct and outdated leopard onto your PC free of legal worries.
Buy a Leopard License, and then go and download Leopard from one of a plethora of Torrent websites. So that way at least your giving your money for a Leopard license and choosing to use it on a computer. Even though the license agreement specifically states that you cannot use OS X on anything but apple hardware. Oh well, it happens.
Who cares, just download it. This is the most common method, and also the least legal.

Now, for the two practical options you need to download the Leopard distribution. The latest one out on the internet is from a development team named iDeneb. They have the latest Leopard release - 10.5.5, so go to a popular torrent site (I cannot link or suggest one for legal reasons) and if you happen to type in something similar to "iDeneb 10.5.5" you might happen to find what you need. Unless you have a crazy good connection, expect to wait upwards of 2-3 days for the whole thing to download. It is a large file and will take a considerable time to acquire.

Then you need to burn the .iso file to the blank DVD. I prefer using Nero to do the burning, but you may have another program that does a similar job.

If you’ve never booted from a CD or DVD on your system, then follow the outlined steps. If you already know how then just skip the next paragraph.

Insert the dvd into your dvd drive and shutdown the computer. Then whenever the computer boots up, pay attention to if it says anything about boot sequence or BIOS setup in the first few seconds of booting. For most Dell systems that I’ve come across the Boot Sequence option can be reached by hitting F12 at startup. For HP it is usually F2. Other BIOS’s might be Del or any of the F keys. Then select your CD/DVD drive, and the computer will boot from it after hitting enter.

Here is what a Dell Dimension 3000 BIOS boot selection screen looks like:
(The CD/DVD drive is highlighted)

Now, if your CD/DVD drive is still spinning at this point and the light is working, than chances are you are perfectly fine, nothing to worry about. But unfortunately with this particular distribution of OSX86, there are some issues with older hardware. You will need to go through a lengthy process in order to get back on the right track to install Leopard. From what I've seen the problem mostly involves NVidia chipsets, but it could be other hardware that causes its malfunction as well. Here is the website that has the patch, you may be able to find instructions as to how it is used as well. (It involves messing with the .iso file that you downloaded earlier, and you will need some basic knowledge of the Windows command line or Linux Terminal)

The Patch website:
http://ideneb.ihackintosh.net/index.php/lang-en/homepage/58-ideneb-v13-1055-nforce-patch.html

Remember when i said in the materials needed section that you may need 2 blank DVD-R's? It's because if you have this problem you will need to burn the patched .iso to a new disk in order to use it.

Here is a screen that might tip you off that you have a problem:

The link shown above is part of the iDeneb website. If you have further problems with this particular distro, consult that website and the forums at InsanelyMac.

(Also, when first booting the DVD at the part where it prompts with "press any key . . ." press F8 and then -v in order to boot in diagnostic mode. This may be useful for troubleshooting)

This is the screen (in diagnostic mode) where the failure usually occurs:

Back to the ideal installation case, these failures are depressing!

A gray screen will load with a cursor or colorful pinwheel in the upper left corner. Then a Blue iDeneb screen will appear:

Then the language selection screen will appear (English for this tutorial):

Loading Screen:

Welcome Screen:

Now it gets more complicated. You need to format the hard drive at this point in the installation. To do this, go to the Utilities button on the upper OS X bar as pictured below. Then go to Disk Utilities.

The disk utility will come up. Click on your hard drive (Not any partitions you may have, see below - its in the right hand column) and then click the erase tab:

Click on the Volume Format drop down menu. I always use Mac OS Extended Journaled. You may be able to use another type, but I know for a fact that that does indeed work. Then name the partition whatever you would like, I'm partial to something plain like Leopard.

Once that is accomplished (It may take some time depending on your hard drive size and system configuration) click the red x button to exit the Disk Utility and return to the installation Welcome screen.

NOTE: Make sure there is a partition on the left hand side that says "Leopard" (Or whatever you named it). If there is not then go to the Partition tab, select 1 partition, and partition the hard drive properly.

iDeneb's changelog will appear, click Agree:

Then the following screen will appear telling you where you can install Leopard. It should show the partition and hard drive you just formated. If it does not then something went wrong in the formating process, but don't worry, you can still go to the Disk Utility and try it again. (Please note that in this photo an external hard drive icon is used, unless you are installing on an external drive, a hard drive icon should appear)

Click continue and the Install Summary page comes up:

VERY IMPORTANT!!!!!

You MUST Click Customize!! If you do not, your install probably will not work. The Customize screen will show you several options that you will need to select or de-select based on your own hardware configuration. If your first install does not work correctly, chances are you need to choose different options in the Customize screen:

Click Done and return to the Installation Summary Page:

The installer will now check the disk. If you are feeling particularly daring you can skip this process. However, I recommend going through the process at least once. There may have been an error in burning the disk, or the .iso file itself may have been slightly corrupted. As long as the disk hasn't been scratched, you really only need to check the disk once if you need to install Leopard again.

WHOO HOO! Leopard is installing!

Once this is complete a green circle with a checkmark comes up saying that the Installation was successful. You will need to restart the computer (I think it may do it automatically if you are not around) and after it goes through the Darwin Bootloader, another Apple loading screen appears:

Now all you need to do is set up the Leopard Basics. I have noticed that the setup process is much less painful with the iDeneb distribution of Leopard 10.5.5. The other versions of OSX86 I have encountered have several more steps, which in my opinion can lead to extra problems.

Select your keyboard:

Do you already own a mac screen:

How do you connect to the internet screen:
(I said this computer will not connect to the internet)

Enter registration information (you may or may not want to put fake information here):

A few more questions:

Account Creation screen:

If you chose to not connect to the internet, this screen about not forgetting to register might appear:

The iDeneb loading screen:

You now have Leopard 10.5.5 loaded onto your personal computer. Congratulations!

Guess what. Your done - that is if all of your hardware is supported. If it is not, I suggest checking out these sources:

http://www.insanelymac.com/

http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

If you have any questions or comments, please post a comment at the bottom of this post. I have documented what experience I have had with OSX86 Leopard, I leave this open to you now. Please help one another.

IMPORTANT!

There are a few things that you should be aware of if you are doing this for the first time. The first one is that you should NEVER use the Apple updater to update your installation of Leopard. For instance, if the Apple updater pops up and says that you can update from 10.5.5 to 10.5.6 DO NOT UPGRADE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!!! It will brick your machine and you will need to re-install Leopard again.

The second thing that may be of use is a program called SIW, or System Information for Windows. This is useful if you do not know if your Intel processor is SSE2 or SSE3. Of course you need to have an installation of Windows to run the software, but many people do so I am providing the link:

http://www.gtopala.com/

Enjoy!

UPDATE:
For everyone having worried about their hardware setup, there is a website that lists hardware components and whole computer systems:

For computer rigs:
http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/HCL

For individual components:
http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/HCL_10.5.2

Granted the above lists are for 10.5.2 and now 10.5.5, but for the most part the same rules should apply with patches and compatibility.

For those of you receiving an apple loading screen with a crossed circle in it, this usually means that a patch needs to be applied to the .iso file in order for it to work. Applying the patch is somewhat complicated and I have decided to make a post about applying the patch. It can be found here:

http://tgrounds.blogspot.com/2008/10/how-to-patch-ideneb-iso-file-in-windows.html

Xbox 360 Red Ring of Death . . . In a Meijers

2008-04-23T15:11:00.005-04:00

Normally I don't delve into current events, or for that matter any event. I like to give information on technical problems and show people how to do projects on my blog. But while I was traveling through a Meijer store a week ago I found something so ironic it needed to be shared on the internet. (For those of you who are not familiar with Meijers, it is a shopping center like Wal-Mart only based in the mid-western United States.) While looking to see if there were any PC games on clearance I passed by an inactive Xbox 360 display. But it wasn't turned off, the Xbox on display was just suffering a disturbingly common problem called the Red Ring of Death.

I think it is funny how a store expects you to buy a product that has obvious flaws. True, microsoft is addressing those problems, but that still didn't stifle the chuckle I got walking by this.

Oh yea, I've heard from reliable sources that Meijers has let this go on since at least December. Great business practice.

And if you think that was photoshoped, here is the video:

How to Backup Any Encrypted DVD

2008-04-08T18:13:00.002-04:00

I've been wanting to write about this topic for quite a while now, but have been unable until recently to find a foolproof method for copying even the most encrypted dvd's. In my opinion, the hardest DVD's to crack are made by Sony and Disney. I'm not exactly sure what it is that makes them so hard to decrypt, but I have found a series of programs that work hand in hand to defeat any DVD encryption on the market today.

Now why would you need to backup your DVD? Maybe your brother or sister is a complete jerk and likes to scratch your DVD's and you want a backup just in case. Maybe you just like to backup stuff so much you feel the need to backup the movie. Or maybe you just like to copy everything in sight, whether or not you actually own it. I do not advise the last option, and this post/poster does not encourage the copying of copy-protected DVD's. There, thats my legal notice for the day.

The list of programs you need is quite impressive, but they are necessary if you want the ability to copy any DVD out on the market. You may be able to copy using only 2 of the programs, but you may end up wasting about a half hour when towards the end of copying Bee Movie you get the always dreaded "Cyclic redundancy Check" error. I hate that error, and so should you. The programs are as follows:

AnyDVD by Slysoft
Ripit4Me
DVD Decrypter
DVD Shrink
Nero

Number 1 and 5 are proprietary, meaning you have to pay money to use them. However, I know you can use AnyDVD for a 30 day free trial, and can do the same for Nero. But you may not care if you are one of those people who copies DVD's they don't own, because you're probably downloading those programs for a torrent site. Movie pirate and software pirate, you people put the fear into ninjas.

So let me explain what some of this stuff does. They are ordered by what time you need to use them, AnyDVD being the first.

AnyDVD - http://www.slysoft.com/en/anydvd.html
Here is an excerpt from the makers webpage:

"AnyDVD works in the background to automatically remove the copy protection of a DVD movie as soon as it's inserted into the drive, allowing you then to backup the movie using a DVD backup tool such as CloneDVD and CloneDVD mobile. You can also remove the RPC region code, thereby making the movie region free and viewable on any DVD player and with any DVD player software."

This is one of the handiest pieces of software available. I absolutely love it. It runs in the background and you never even have to mess with it, beautiful.

RipIt4Me - http://www.videohelp.com/tools/RipIt4Me
From the webpage above:

"RipIt4Me is a freeware utility that helps you backup your copy protected DVDs. Recently released DVDs are now very often equipped with stronger copy protections - such as ARccOS and RipGuard DVD. Programs like DVD Shrink or DVD Decrypter cannot handle these types of discs. RipIt4Me is fully automated and the wizard will guide you through all the necessary steps involved. If you prefer, there is also a true "1-Click" mode that will perform all the involved steps automatically for you. Development stopped April 1 2007. "

All I have to say is that 1-Click mode is amazing, and I love this program. Using the 1-Click mode, RipIt4Me automatically contacts DVD Decrypter for you, and then DVD Decrypter contacts DVD Shrink, which then contacts Nero to burn the DVD! Synergy is beautiful.

DVD Decrypter - http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/DVD_Decrypter/1011845169/1
From above site:

"DVD Decrypter is a free tool which enables you decrypt and copy a DVD to your PC's hard disk. From there you can choose to watch them with the likes of PowerDVD and WinDVD or you can re-encode them to MPEG1 (VCD) or DivX. Advanced functionality can be found in the DVD Decrypter context menus."

Works like a charm

DVD Shrink - http://www.dvdshrink.org/
From above site:

"DVDShrink is software to backup DVD discs. You can use this software in conjunction with DVD burning software of your choice, to make a backup copy of any DVD video disc.

DVDShrink will also burn your backup DVD, if you have installed the latest version of Nero. You can also download a demo version of Nero here. If you already possess alternative burning software and prefer to stick with it, then you can still use DVD Shrink. The output from DVDShrink can be saved as files on your hard drive, which you can then burn with software of your choice.

DVDShrink is free software. You should never pay for DVDShrink."

Great program, if you feel lucky you may be able to copy DVD's using only this program and Nero, but I do not recommend it.

Nero 8 - http://www.nero.com/eng/index.html
From above site:

"Nero StartSmart, the project launcher for Nero 8, lets you directly access features and perform one-click functions. The intuitive interface makes creating and managing digital projects easy and enjoyable. Optimized for use with Windows Vista®, Nero StartSmart even has an integrated newsfeed system."

Not only does nero burn DVD's, but it can edit video, burn data CD's/DVD's, test your drive, and contains many other useful features. Its a multipurpose program with more features than I can list here.

I said earlier that any DVD out on the market can be cracked using this technique. That is true, but with one stipulation - the DVD you are trying to copy cannot be scratched beyond a certain point, otherwise the programs listed here cannot do their job properly. It's an example of GIGO - Garbage In, Garbage Out.

There you have it, how to copy any DVD. Enjoy!

Upgrading OSX86 Leopard 10.5.1 to 10.5.2

2008-04-03T19:16:00.004-04:00

This tutorial is a simple guide for showing someone how to upgrade their install of 10.5.1 Leopard OSX86 to 10.5.2. For those of you who have suffered through an Apple update and have had a bricked machine, this is a good alternative.

If you have not installed 10.5.1 Leopard, my tutorial can be found here:

http://tgrounds.blogspot.com/2008/03/osx-leopard-1051-on-pc.html

Let me first explain that this update is not perfect. By that I mean that it may, in fact, do exactly what the Apple update will do to your system - brick it. It all depends on your system configuration.

For example, I encountered a serious problem during my experience of upgrading. The install went perfectly fine, but when it rebooted and the white apple loading screen came up for a few seconds, the monitor turned black and said it lost signal. I waited for about 2 min because the computer seemed to be still loading and eventually the Leopard desktop came up like nothing had happened. I later traced the problem to a graphics card issue. This is just one example of what may happen if your upgrade goes wrong.

With that in mind,

I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY PROBLEMS YOU MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE WHEN YOU INSTALL THIS UPDATE.

Materials Needed:

Blank CD, DVD or thumbdrive*
A Bittorent client
High Speed Internet
A computer with 10.5.1 Leopard OSX already installed
CD

*These could be optional if you download the update files using Leopard and just run the installation from there.
Step 1.)

BACK ALL DATA UP.
BACK ALL DATA UP.
BACK ALL DATA UP.
BACK ALL DATA UP.
BACK ALL DATA UP.

I cannot stress enough the importance of backing data up. If the upgrade goes badly and you need to re-install Leopard 10.5.1, then at least you have all your data.

Step 2.)
Go to the torrent hosting website of your choice and theoretically, if you input something like "Kalyway 10.5.2 update" you should find what you are looking for. It might come in the form of a zipped file containing the package file which automatically installs the needed updates. Download this and either burn it to a CD or DVD, or copy it to a thumbdrive. If you are using your Leopard machine to download the torrent you can just run the installer from there without the need for a storage device.

Step 3.)

Open up the storage medium you used to save the files, or just click the folder you downloaded, and double click on "KalywayUpdCombo10.5.2.pkg" to open up the automatic installer.

As seen above, the installer will guide you through the steps. However, I'm a fan of pictures, so here is what to expect:

The installer asks you for your admin password for security reasons.

The actual installation, cross your fingers!

Yay, you now have 10.5.2!

Like the installer says, you need to restart your computer for the changes to take effect. After the restart is the telling time on whether or not your upgrade was successful. If you get a blank monitor after the white apple loading screen, just be patient for up to five minutes to see if Leopard will show up. Sometimes there are graphics issues that make for a slow boot.

If you have any problems, post them and see if other viewers can assist you. If you need a place to search for solutions, i suggest the two following websites:

http://www.insanelymac.com/

and

http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

If your installation went completely sour and you need to re-install Leopard, please check out my guide on how to install OSX86 Leopard 10.5.1:

http://tgrounds.blogspot.com/2008/03/osx-leopard-1051-on-pc.html

Enjoy!

OSX Leopard 10.5.1 On A PC

2008-03-28T19:40:00.013-04:00

In a previous post I showed you how an ordinary and boring windows PC could be converted into a OS X Tiger powerhouse. That project might have taken someone with advanced knowledge of computing an entire weekend to perfect. The most difficult part of the operation was ensuring that all of the computer components worked correctly. Improvements have been made since Leopards release, and more modern devices are supported automatically. Needless to say, this is a handy feature for people with cutting edge computers.

OS X Leopard was cracked for PC consumption the day of its release. This was mostly accomplished because Leopard was meant from the beginning to be used on computers with the x86 Intel architecture. The roadblock keeping OS X from naturally running on any pc is something called EFI, or Extensible Firmware Interface. The EFI that Leopard uses is only tooled to work with Apple hardware, which means that it needs to be patched. The original method of patching was to use a thumbdrive attached to the computer and utilize the terminal to transfer files from the thumbdrive to the operating system files of Leopard. Compared to installing Tiger onto a PC, this method was ridiculously easy and was all that was required to have a successful boot of Leopard. But a better solution is now available, one where no thumbdrive is required and installation is streamlined and so easy that nearly anyone can do it.

OK, first thing's first.

This is a set of guidelines for installing OS X Leopard onto a PC. What you choose to do with this information is up to you, and I am in no way responsible for whatever happens to your machine.

The things you need for this project are as follows:

High Speed Internet Connection (Useful if you want the disk image before the end of time)
Blank DVD-R
Nero, or some other program that allows the burning of disk images to blank media
A BitTorrent program such as BitComet or Transmission
A computer with the following attributes:

Processor with either SSE2, SSE3, or SSE2/3 capabilities.
at least 512 MB RAM
at least 9 GB of free disk space
A DVD drive for installation

Become an Apple developer. After several years or decades of convincing Apple Corp. that it would be a great idea to open up their kick ass operating system to the public for use on PC's, you can probably install the now defunct and outdated leopard onto your PC free of legal worries.
Buy a Leopard License, and then go and download Leopard from one of a plethora of Torrent websites. So that way at least your giving your money for a Leopard license and choosing to use it on a computer. Even though the license agreement specifically states that you cannot use OS X on anything but apple software. Oh well, it happens.
Who cares, just download it. This is the most common method, and also the least legal.

Now, for the two practical options you need to download the Leopard distribution. My personal favorite, and in my opinion the easiest to install, is the Kalyway 10.5.1 disk. To do this go to a torrent site (I cannot link or suggest ones for legal reasons) and you might want to consider typing in "Kalyway 10.5.1" and use the torrent program of your choice to download it. Unless you have a crazy good connection, expect to wait upwards of 2-3 days for the whole thing to download. It is a large file and will take a considerable time to acquire.

Then you need to burn the .iso file to the blank DVD. I prefer using Nero to do the burning, but you may have another program that does a similar job.

If you’ve never booted from a CD or DVD on your system, then follow the outlined steps. If you already know how then just skip the next paragraph.

Insert the dvd into your dvd drive and shutdown the computer. Then whenever the computer boots up, pay attention to if it says anything about boot sequence or BIOS setup in the first few seconds of booting. For most Dell systems that I’ve come across the Boot Sequence option can be reached by hitting F12 at startup. For HP it is usually F2. Other BIOS’s might be Del or any of the F keys. Then select your CD/DVD drive, and the computer will boot from it after hitting enter.

Unfortunately I was not able to get a good screenshot of the first few stages of the installation process, but I will tell about every screen that you should come across until I can show actual screenshots.

Something along the lines of “Press any key to start the disk. . .” will appear on the screen.

You will need to press a key in order to start the installation process, otherwise the disk may boot into a bootable partition that it finds on your hardrive.

“Loading Darwin x86 . . .”

The length of loading depends on your system configuration, but mostly depends on how much RAM you have. Having 2 GB of RAM is very nice compared to 512 MB.

Now I have pictures. They will go through each screen that is encountered throughout installation.

Apple Loading Screen

Choose Your Language (English for this tutorial)

Apple Loves Loading Screens

This is the Welcome Screen. Notice the silhouette break dancer. This is an image added by Kalyway. If you click on More Information, it will show you all the features Kalyway packed into the disk.

Now it gets more complicated. You need to format the hard drive at this point in the installation. To do this, go to the Utilities button on the upper OS X bar as pictured below. Then go to Disk Utilities.

The disk utility will come up. Click on your hard drive (Not any partitions you may have, see below - its in the right hand column) and then click the erase tab:

Click on the Volume Format drop down menu. I always use Mac OS Extended Journaled. You may be able to use another type, but I know for a fact that that does indeed work. Then name the partition whatever you would like, I'm partial to something plain like Leopard.

Once that is accomplished (It may take some time depending on your hard drive size and system configuration) click the red x button to exit the Disk Utility and return to the installation Welcome screen.

Click on Continue and the Agreement page will come up. Click Agree.

Then the following screen will appear telling you where you can install Leopard. It should show the partition and hard drive you just formated. If it does not then something went wrong in the formating process, but don't worry, you can still go to the Disk Utility and try it again.

Click continue and the Install Summary page comes up

VERY IMPORTANT!!!!!

You MUST Click Customize!! If you do not, your install probably will not work. The Customize screen will show you several options that you will need to select or de-select based on your own hardware configuration. If your first install does not work correctly, chances are you need to choose different options in the Customize screen:

This is the setup used for a Dell Dimension 3000 with a nVidia card in a PCI slot. The bootloader patcher used is MBR and not GUID because there is only one partition on the drive. If there is more than one bootable parition on the hard drive, and the paritions are set in GUID, then use the coresponding patcher.

Click Done, and then Install

The installer will now check the disk. If you are feeling particularly daring you can skip this process. However, I recommend going through the process at least once. There may have been an error in burning the disk, or the .iso file itself may have been slightly corrupted. As long as the disk hasn't been scratched, you really only need to check the disk once if you need to install Leopard again.

WHOO HOO! Leopard is installing!

If you did not check your disk and it has an error on it, this is the most likely step to encounter problems.

Once this is complete a green circle with a checkmark comes up saying that the Installation was successful. You will need to restart the computer (I think it may do it automatically if you are not around) and after it goes through the Darwin Bootloader, another Apple loading screen appears:

Then a very fancy video will play that welcomes you in many different languages.

Now all you need to do is set up the Leopard Basics.

Because you most likely don't have an Apple Keyboard, all you have to do is press the buttons to the right and left of the two shift keys.

Then you have to pick the type of keyboard.

Then choose your country:

THEN, select the country your keyboard is from.

The transfer screen. I did not need to transfer anything, but if you have another mac you may wish to transfer things.

Then you can input your Apple ID so that Apple can fill in your information for you. I do not know if they can detect that you are not using actual Apple hardware or not. The risk is yours to take.

Registration Information. If you input your Apple ID, it will show up here. But I blurred the stuff out because I'm not an idiot.

A Few More Questions. ENOUGH WITH THE QUESTIONS, I WANT LEOPARD! But Apple must have their way with you. Answer the questions and advance one step.

Then you need to create your user account:

Now its time for Apple to try to get you to purchase a .mac account. Personally I don't like .mac accounts because I don't think they are worth it. But you are of course entitled to your own opinion.

If you don't have .Mac, they will let you try it for free. (I said no)

ALL DONE! The Thank You Screen!

You are all done. Congratulations.

This is the default desktop and settings that Kalyway decided to use.

The file explorer has an orange background. To change this go through the following steps:

Open up an explorer:

Right click and select Show View Options:

View Options - Where it says Background: change it back to White, and then click Use as Defaults

Guess what. Your done - that is if all of your hardware is supported. If it is not, I suggest checking out these sources:

http://www.insanelymac.com/

http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

If you have any questions or comments, please post a comment at the bottom of this post. I have documented what experience I have had with OSX86 Leopard, I leave this open to you now. Please help one another.

UPDATE:

There are a few things that you should be aware of if you are doing this for the first time. The first one is that you should NEVER use the Apple updater to update your installation of Leopard. For instance, if the Apple updater pops up and says that you can update from 10.5.1 to 10.5.2 or .3, DO NOT UPGRADE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!!! It will brick your machine and you will need to re-install Leopard again. I have created a tutorial for updating Leopard OSX86 to 10.5.2 and it is located here:

http://tgrounds.blogspot.com/2008/04/upgrading-osx86-leopard-1051-to-1052.html

The second thing that may be of use is a program called SIW, or System Information for Windows. This is useful if you do not know if your Intel processor is SSE2 or SSE3. Of course you need to have an installation of Windows to run the software, but many people do so I am providing the link:

http://www.gtopala.com/

Enjoy!

Control a Windows Machine Using Remote Desktop - Through OS X

2007-11-01T23:18:00.000-04:00

Ever find yourself sitting at your mac, needing to connect to a windows machine and run the Remote Desktop? Do you think that Windows and Mac hate each other so much, that it is hopeless to assume that you can use Remote Desktop Connection through a Macintosh? Well think again, because Microsoft has created Remote Desktop Connection for mac.

First things first, this has been out for a while. For those of you who don't know much about RDC (Remote Desktop Connection), it has traditionally been a program that allows windows users to remotely login to another windows machine. Features include cutting/copying from one machine and pasting into the other, to printing a document on another machine that is connected to a printer. It comes in handy, much more efficient than emailing a file to yourself, using a thumbdrive to transfer a file, or having a network attached storage device (NAS). This comes in handy when it comes to the file systems of the two operating systems, while windows refuses to even acknowledge the OSX file system, OSX will for the most part recognize the NTFS file system and read from it, but will not write to it.

Without further ado, here is where you may download RDC for Macintosh:

Remote Desktop

The URL is huge, but if you need to paste it into your browser it is:
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.aspx?pid=download&location=
/mac/download/misc/rdc_update_103.xml&secid=80&ssid=10&
flgnosysreq=True

Now here is a photo odyssey of what it takes to use this software. Keep in mind that this setup is a mac using RDC to connect to a Windows 2003 Server.

These icons appear on your desktop now:

Oh look, I can access the user files on the server:

Odd looking, isn't it?

Open DNS, The Faster Domain Name System!

2007-07-31T09:25:00.000-04:00

When you type in an address at the top of your browser, lets say you want to visit www.weather.com for instance, your computer sends a request to a DNS server that it is connected to. In most cases this is provided by your ISP (Internet Service Provider), and is usually retrieved automatically using DHCP. The DNS server is like a phone book for the internet. It takes the address you typed in (www.weather.com) and looks it up, finding the IP address of the server containing the web page. This accounts for part of the time it takes to load a web page, because your request is put in line with a thousand others and it takes a few milliseconds to process. Once the server has found the appropriate IP address for the page you are looking for, it directs it your way.

Now, why change which DNS server you use? Well maybe your ISP provides you with a crappy one, maybe you think your internet is a bit slower than it should be, or maybe you just want to be a propper geek, and change everything about your computing experience that you can. It doesn't matter, because in almost every case, changing from ISP DNS to Open DNS will improve performance, it may not be noticible and only visible in added milliseconds, but the improvement will be there.

How can you change your DNS server's address? I'll show you how to do so in Windows and in OS X. If someone would like to share how to do so in Linux, let me know.

In OS X:

Go to System Preferences, Network, click on your Ethernet or Wireless network settings and click Configure, And where it has DNS Servers, add these two IP addresses:

208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

There, all done for OS X!

In Windows (basically all versions):

Go to Control Panel, Network Connections, click on your connection(s) - whether they are wireless or not, then double click on the correct icon, hit properties, then scroll down to TCP/IP and hit properties. De select Obtain DNS automatically, and input the same IP addresses as in OS X:

208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

If you want to learn more about what Open DNS is, and how they operate, visit their website at:
http://www.opendns.com/

Hope you enjoy!

How to Soft-Mod an Xbox - No Modchips Required!

2007-07-09T10:20:00.001-04:00

Have an old Xbox lying around collecting dust? Does your 360 scoff at its 1st generation counterpart and its inability to play Gears of War? Well put that thing to good use. Put Linux, or better yet, Xbox Media Center on it and create a low-powered media PC capable of receiving streamed content over your home network! An amazing mod that only requires a day or two, but is well worth it.

First thing's first, I didn't come up with this technique, and there is a good chance that if you don't know what you're doing, or you mess up in some way (hey, accidents happen) that you may end up losing your Xbox completely. You have been warned, do this at your own risk, if you mess up, its not my fault, or the fault of the person who thought of this.

Another thing to consider is the cost of this venture. If you already have an Xbox, it will cost around $45 in materials to put the mod onto the Xbox. Thats if you buy everything brand new, if you buy it used, you can probably get everything for $10ish.

I am not going to explain step by step detail on the process, because I found out about it from this website:

http://www.productwiki.com/microsoft-xbox/article/how-to-go-from-
xbox-to-xbox-media-center-in-30-minutes.html

Here is a list of the materials you will need:

Microsoft Xbox ($150)
Networked PC Computer ($???)
Original MechAssault game ($20)
Datel Xbox Action Replay ($25)
Krayzie's NDURE installer ($0)
Xbox Media Center (XBMC) ($0)
uTorrent ($0)
FlashFXP ($0)
Winrar ($0)

MechAssault is used to exploit the Xbox and load a different operating system onto the Xbox. You can also use 007: Agent Under Fire, and the original Splinter Cell.

I'm not much of a cut and paster, and besides, I don't want to generalize on a very complicated process, so visit the Product wiki website and follow their instructions to the letter.

Xbox SoftModding: ProductWiki

Safari for Windows, Should You Get It?

2007-06-25T15:15:00.001-04:00

For those of you who haven't found out yet, Apple has thrown their own web browser, Safari, into the fray of Windows browsers. Some people scoffed at the announcement, after all, who uses Safari on the Mac? Doesn't everyone use Opera or Mozilla by now? While this is true, Safari for Windows does have a few benefits. For an interesting graph that shows how fast Safari executes HTML code, JavaScript, and application launch, visit the homepage here:

http://www.apple.com/safari/

Interesting, apparently Internet Explorer is worst in 2 out of 3 examples - who would have guessed that?

Back to Safari, while it's execution speeds are impressive, it's ability to pass the Acid 2 test is even more impressive. The Acid 2 test is a HTML page that shows a smiley face. Opera 9 passes the test, while Firefox 2 does not. Here is a comparison to the Safari browser and Firefox:

Safari:

Firefox:

As you can see, Firefox comes nowhere near passing what Safari can do easily and with considerable speed.

Those are the pro's to Safari, so you're probably wondering "My goodness, Safari sounds like it kicks ass, why don't I get it?" The answer is simple: security. Safari 3.0 is a Beta release. Which means that it is currently in development and that there are many, many bugs. One of those bugs is that it had a zero day exploit found only hours after its public release. This means it will execute malicious code without the user ever knowing - a big no - no in the web browsing and security world. This one flaw is enough for most people to shy away, after all, who wants their precious computer turned into a zombie PC?

Because of the security issues, I recommend holding off on Safari until the final release, and even then, ONLY if Apple fixes the security issues.

Speed up XP by Removing Unwanted Processes!

2007-06-19T02:07:00.000-04:00

Want to keep your computer running at tip-top performance? Have you defragged, reformatted, scanned for viruses, spyware, and adware, and yet you still want better performance out of that less-than-stellar computer of yours? I’ll show you a few tricks to squeeze a few extra horse power out of that XP machine of yours.

Before I begin telling you the nitty-gritty details of what you need to do, why you’re doing it, and what it will mean performance wise, I need to warn you about a few things that could possibly go wrong. You have to know what you are doing when you mess around with some of these settings, otherwise you may need to re-install Windows XP. That is the absolute worst case scenario; less destructive possibilities include various programs not working, XP crashing, or instead of improving performance, you may degrade performance. So when I warn you to be careful and make educated decisions, I mean it.

Ok, let’s start off with some relatively easy methods. Go to the Start button and click Run. Type in Services.msc. A window like the one below should show up:

In this list are all of the programs that either start up automatically at startup, or have the potential to initialize at start up. There are different columns with the name, description, status, and startup type. These are the important columns. Now is the part where you need to use some intelligent personal discretion. Look through this list and decide what you can do without. If you find some suspicious processes that do not look in any way familiar, check the path on the last column on the right in the picture and see where its coming from. If it still looks suspicious, look it up on Google and see if it is a viral process. If it is, run a virus scan and/or remove it from this list. Anyway, back to deciding what you can do without. Once you find something you don’t like (Example: you find a QuickTime or Real Player process, who needs those at startup?) right click it and delete. If you have never done this before, there might be quite a few things in there that you can get rid of safely. But like I warned you earlier, there are some things in there that you shouldn’t remove, things like Win32. Anyway, if you sort out the gold from the garbage you should have a faster startup and better XP performance!

Alternate way of removing processes:

Go to My Computer, your hard drive that Windows XP is installed on, click the folder called WINDOWS, and look for this icon:

Double click it. This is Windows XP’s built in Registry editor. It shows all of the processes your computer is capable of. Now here is where it gets tricky, follow these navigation instructions:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Software
Microsoft
Windows
CurrentVersion
Run

Now something like this should be shown:

Use the same discretion you did with the msconfig tip, these are some processes that start at startup/run while your computer is in use. They slow your precious CPU down, so the bad processes need to be dealt with. I have found a few viruses by looking into these processes, so keep that in mind when looking through the list and finding names you don’t recognize.
Another place to check for useless processes is:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Software
Microsoft
Windows
CurrentVersion
Runonce

And one more place is:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SOFTWARE
Microsoft
Windows
CurrentVersion
Run.

If you have further issues with XP (Honestly, who doesn’t have issues with any form of Windows.) I suggest visiting tweakxp.com

And if you are an unfortunate soul running Windows Vista, visit tweakvista.com.

Free 411 Service Through Google!

2007-06-13T16:37:00.001-04:00

Ever find yourself shopping around somewhere, getting hungry, and you don't know if your favorite restaurant is open? Don't have their number and your mall doesn't have phone books near the pay phones? Well Google has the perfect solution for you.

1-800-GOOG-411
1800-4664-411

Sure, there are other free 411 services out there, but you have to listen to boring and irrelevant ads just to get an answer. With Google, all you do is tell the city, state, business name or category, and Google will give you the top 8 or so results. NO AD'S! Tell Google the number of the result you like, it will read out the address and phone number and offer to connect you. Just say connect and you will be on the phone with the corner Bistro or Pizza Hut. (It also works if you want to call and see if the local computer store has the right RAM ; )

The lookup service is free, but if you choose to connect to the number Google lists, phone charges will apply as if you are calling the number.

As a side note, Goog 411 is in beta right now. Hopefully Google decides it likes the program and finds ways to improve its algorithms. I use this service at least once a week, and it has only failed me once, only because I wasn't sure about the exact city something was in, and the number may have been unlisted anyway.

How and Why You Should Defrag Your Hard Drive

2007-06-12T23:12:00.000-04:00

Is your computer acting a bit sluggish lately? When you try to open a file or get onto the internet, does it take a lot longer than it used to? It might be a virus, spyware, or adware, but if you've never defragmented your hard drive, that's a great place to start. It's simple enough to do, you don't need to download a program or anything for it, as it is built into the Windows operating system. There is nothing destructive about it, nothing bad can really happen - about the only thing that I can think of to go wrong is if your power went out when it was defraging. When you start the defraging process, don't be surprised if it takes a few hours. I usually let it run before I go to bed, that way I know I won't interrupt it.

So what does the defragmenting process do exactly? Well whenever Windows saves a file, sometimes it can't allocate a continuous space on your hard drive. So it saves a piece on one part of the platter, and another on another part, and so on. The bad side of this is that when Windows reads the fragmented file, it takes longer than it would if it was continuous on the hard drive. When you defragment the hard drive, it does exactly what it's name says, it puts all of the fragmented pieces and puts them together so that when Windows reads the file, it doesn't have to search for the next piece of the puzzle, and is therefore much faster.

Here is a screenshot showing how to get to the defragment utility:

I hope those of you experiencing slow computers are helped by this tip.

Free Programs to Replace Those Expensive Proprietary Ones

2007-05-30T01:23:00.000-04:00

Let me start by explaining what an open source program is. It is a program that anyone can edit, anyone can use, and anyone can obtain for absolutely free. The main example is Linux, the free open source operating system. There are many types of Linux, from personal OS's on PC's to web servers, Linux can do anything. But its not the only open source thing out there, and I'll show you some of the most useful applications out there.

There are also Freeware programs made by companies or people who decide to do the world an awesome favor and create a free program that rocks. These people can range from individuals coding for hours, to multi-billion dollar corporations. I personally don't care, I love free stuff.

Let's start off with the open source options:

GIMP

http://www.gimp.org/downloads/

GIMP is an open source image editing program. While some call it a Photoshop replacement, I think it has some work ahead of it before that claim can be accurate. Still, it is an awesome image editor with many features, and is worth a download.

2. OpenOffice.org

http://www.openoffice.org/

Who wants to pay $300 for an Office suite? Not many people. Open Office has most if not all of the features of Microsoft Office - for free.

3. Blender
http://www.blender.org/

Blender is an open source 3D creation suite. Create 3D characters, models, animations, pretty much anything and everything you want - for free. Gotta love GNU Public Licenses.

4. Nvu (N- View)
http://www.nvu.com/index.php

Nvu is a WYSIWYG web site development program. Being one of the only open-source solutions to Microsoft's FrontPage or Adobe/Macromedia's Dreamweaver, it is good at what it does.

While there are many many more open source programs available, these are the ones I find most useful. If anyone would like me to add some more, leave a comment.

Ok, now for the freeware programs.

1. Pidgin
Download:
http://www.download.com/Pidgin/3000-2150_4-10672586.html?tag=lst-0-1
Features:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pidgin_(software)

Pidgin (formerly called Gaim) is a multi-platform instant messaging client that can interface with many different messaging services. I like to use this instead of AIM sometimes, simply for the reason that I view AOL as evil. Who doesn't? And the fact that it interfaces with Yahoo chat, IRC, and about 7 other services makes it one of the best instant messaging programs out there.

2. Mozilla Firefox

You can't talk about free programs without mentioning Firefox. One of the best web browsing utilities available, which means if you're viewing this page in Internet Explorer - do yourself a favor and get Firefox. You will enjoy faster browsing, more security, and the knowledge that you're not helping Bill Gates take over the world. You can get it from one of the buttons on the side of this page.

3. Opera
http://www.opera.com/

Opera is another wonderful web browsing utility. It has a built in P2P utility, beautiful security, great interface, and over-all it makes web surfing fun. If there were a browser to rival Firefox, it would be Opera.

4. SciTE
http://www.scintilla.org/SciTE.html

SciTE is a text/code editing software that supports 31 languages. It has syntax highlighting, which makes it a thousand times better than notepad. Better still, it can be places on your thumbdrive for portable coding wherever you go. It is the only code editor I ever use.

5. Google Pack

A while back Google came out with a suite of programs that helps a lot in daily computing. Its called the Google Pack. It includes image editing software, security software, voice communication software, screensavers, Google Earth, PDF reader, and video players. It is one of the most useful software packs ever created. You can download it from one of the buttons to the right of this page.

Those are all the programs I find useful (and free) that I use on a daily or weekly basis. I hope you find them as useful as I do, leave me some feedback if you think I should add some more.

Use Google Maps to See Where Your Website Traffic Comes From

2007-05-29T17:58:00.000-04:00

My friend, the admin from leetupload.com recently showed me a way to track your websites' international traffic using Google Maps. The website is called statisfy.net, and once you do a quick registration, you can see your traffic around the globe! Here is an example for the traffic Testing Grounds gets:

http://statisfy.net/tgroundsmap

See if you can find yourself on it. Here is a thumbnail for the screenshot:

Enjoy!

Erase Data on Your Hard Drive

2007-05-23T23:12:00.001-04:00

Many people have heard about how to format a hard drive. Some mistakenly believe that just because you can't view your data, that means its not there anymore. Formatting C:/ does nothing but delete the references to your data, the data is still there for people to find if they are looking for it. There are many programs that can detect this data and recover it - for both good and bad purposes. I know of a few live Linux installs that can do this, see my earlier about live Linux CD's for those those.

I would like to mention that there is no sure-fire way of deleting data from magnetic media. If you overwrite it, delete it, or wipe it, there will always be a way to recover the original data. However, there is a bright side to that flaw, just because you can recover it, doesn't mean it will be cost productive for a thief or other interested party to do so. The following tip will help reduce the likelihood of data recovery, but once again there is no sure fire way of protecting your magnetic data - short of igniting a pound of thermite over your hard drive and melting it.

If you are selling your computer you either want to wipe the hard drive completely, or destroy it and make the buyer get their own. Personally, I like taking the hard drive out and making a clock out of it. But for those who need to sell the hard drive too, here is a free (I'm all about some free) program that has 4 built in flavors of wiping your hard drive - or just individual files. It's called Eraser, and its homepage is here:

http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/

Eraser uses 4 main algorithms that overwrite the data you tell it to. It will overwrite 1, 5, 7, or 35 times. The 1st option uses only random data to overwrite the data, the second and third options use a Department of Defense algorithm, and the last one uses the Gutmann method. It is one of the best methods out there to reduce the likelihood of data recovery.

With Eraser you can create automated erasure events, erase the free space on your hard drive, and choose a custom method for erasing. Meaning that you can customize the number of times Eraser overwrites data. It can be set anywhere from 1 to something around 999,999 times. Needless to say, It would take a long time for your hard drive to complete that many cycles, but if you had something you absolutely had to make sure that nobody ever saw, you might need to pick that option.

What I like most about Eraser is the addition of an "Erase" option when you left click on files and folders in Windows. I never "delete" anything anymore, I erase it.

Free Virus Scanning Program

2007-05-17T14:11:00.000-04:00

If you surf the internet regularly, open the occasional spam email, or noticed your computer acting funny lately, and you don't have a virus killing program, chances are you have a virus. If you think the only way to protect yourself from viruses is to pay a monthly fee to Norton or McAfee, I'm here to show you a better way.

There are a bunch of services out there that offer "free" virus scanning. If you go to a website like Veloz or StopSign, they'll scan your computer and tell you that you have a virus, then they will try to charge you a fee to buy software that will eliminate it. I do not like these people. I have scanned my computer after testing with them, and what they downloaded onto my computer was listed as spyware/malware - which is ironic.

Without further delay, I'll show you my best pick to hunt down and kill the software which those sick people so lovingly give you to make your life hard. Its AVG anti-virus, and can be found here:

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5

It is developed by GriSoft, and is completely free. They have other editions that offer more protection and support, but for run-of-the-mill computer users, AVG free is all you will ever need. No monthly payments to Norton or McAfee. Don't you just love saving money?

I would like to share a personal account about how much this program helped me. A friend of mine called me up one day and said his computer was acting up. I asked if he had any virus programs, he said he had Norton, but it hasn't been updated in about 4 years. In my head I'm secretly thinking "OH MY GOD", and this will suck. After I miraculously got AVG to install on his crippled machine and started to scan its contents, it found no fewer than 700 infected files after only a half hour. It kept scanning and scanning and scanning until finally i left it alone, went home, and returned the next day. It had found a few thousand infected files, processes, registry values, and countless other nasty objects. I then removed these and his computer actually worked fine for the first time in about a year.

Viruses are not the only programs that can harm your coputer. Spyware and Adware can also cripple your beloved machines. A free solution to this comes in the form of Spybot: Search and Destroy, and Ad-Aware. Both can be found here:

http://www.download.com/Spybot-Search-Destroy/3000-8022_4-10401314.html?tag=lst-0-1

http://www.download.com/3000-2144-10045910.html

If you have a crippled PC, these three programs will give it a fighting chance to live. Enjoy.

The Oil Filled PC

2007-05-15T21:48:00.000-04:00

You may have heard the various exploits of PC modders out there who decide to get a clear acrylic case and turn their computers into oil filled silent machines of death and destruction. The problem with most of them is that they are filled with vegetable oil, or some other heavily organic oil that will spoil after a month or two and needs to be replaced. There is an easier alternative: Mineral Oil. It doesn't spoil, it doesn't smell, and it is absolutely crystal clear and has the appearance of water. Which begs the question, why not put a computer in an aquarium filled with mineral oil?

Well that's what my friend, the admin of leetupload.com, and I did. We got our inspiration from http://www.pugetsystems.com/submerged.php and made a few changes of our own.

This project is so unnatural, it defies logic. Drop an expensive piece of electronics INTO A VAT OF CLEAR LIQUID?!?!? WHATS WRONG WITH YOU MAN?!?

Nothing, mineral oil is an insulator. This means it has no effect on electronic equipment. Gotta love chemistry and physics.

If you are going to attempt this project on your own, here are a few things to keep in mind:

If you have all of the hardware necessary (a computer), it will cost you about $30 to get a 5 gallon aquarium from somewhere like K-Mart or Wal-Mart.
Finding 5 gallons of mineral oil is INSANELY HARD. It is considered a strong laxative, and can be used on horses. Some farm equipment dealers might have gallon jugs for about $11 apiece, or you can do what we had to do, and buy 37 individual pints and buy out two Wal-Marts and a K-Mart worth of mineral oil:

That's a LOT of laxative. The total was just a tick over $60 for that, Which brings the total cost of the project to about $90 - $100

Ok, now to get started on putting the computer into the aquarium. I used a sheet of plexiglass to hold the motherboard in place, so that way when it is filled with mineral oil, the mobo will appear to be floating.

I scored onto the plexiglass where the screw holes on the motherboard are, and drilled where it was scored, so that way I could screw the motherboard onto the plexiglass. If you are doing this project, DO NOT try to screw the motherboard onto the plexi without drilling it first! It will crack!

Check out how the power supply will fit at the bottom:

Then see how the plexi/mobo combo fit into the aquarium with the power supply:

Now your probably wondering how we kept the plexi upright? Do you see that piece of duct-tape holding a clear cube up towards the top of the mobo? I super glued 4 pieces of plexiglass together, glued that onto the plexi/mobo, and am getting ready to glue that to the side of the aquarium.

We got lucky and the aquarium came with a suitable top to seal everything up in nicely. It even had a place where we could have the exit to the cables, but it was in the wrong spot. So I fixed that with a dremel and a carbide bit:

Here is what it looks like from the top:

We made absolutely sure the glue is dry before we continued. There was a gap of about 3 days before we began the next phase of the project. After you connect all of the cables, fans, and other junk, its time to put the oil in. We decided to just go for it rather than test it out, and everything turned out fine. The following pictures are of us filling it with mineral oil, and it still working.

Before oil:

Monitor with dry computer, with bag underneath to prevent spillage from harming the floor.

It boots before the oil:

Trust me, use a funnel

Linux boot screen:

From the back:

The hard drive needs to be outside of the oil. There is a membrane pressure switch that will shutdown the hard drive if it is submerged in anything.

Had to hot glue the wires and everything on the top. This was to seal it in case of accidental bumping, and help prevents what little evaporation will happen over the years:

After we emptied the bottles:

And just in case you don't believe us, here is some video proof. Pay special attention to how smoothly the fans operate in the oil, and the ripples they make in it:

Here is the leetupload.com tutorial on how to do the project.
http://www.leetupload.com/tutorials/1337_fleet/

Please Digg this story at: http://digg.com/mods/Oil_Cooled_PC_5_Gallons_of_Silent_Death

Why you need to re-install Windows XP, and how to do it

2007-05-13T22:39:00.000-04:00

Does your computer seem a bit sluggish compared to when you bought it a few years ago? Are the memories of quick startup and shutdown time becoming mere fancies of the past? Well this guide will show you how to take that aging computer of yours and make it rise from the pits of Windows XP hell. It shows 99% of the screens you will see in installation, it is my belief that pictures are always worth at least 1,000 words, so I have about a book written in this post.

Why You Should do This:
Every Windows system to date has shown its age after a year or two. Windows XP is no exception. Every time you shutdown and restart your computer, it wears down the operating system. Nobody knows why or how, but eventually after so many restarts, XP will become unstable and will need an overhaul. You might be getting strange errors randomly, random freezes, load screens, hardware installs, software installs, communist propaganda messages, fascist propaganda messages, rabid dogs, hailstorms, locust plagues, and last but not least, the dreaded BSOD - the Blue Screen Of Death! While it is not guaranteed that re-installing Windows XP will get rid of all of these problems, it may help them to a great extent.

So, the first thing you need to do is back up all of your stuff! IT rule number 1, always keep backups of your stuff. Keep backups of your backups, and backups of those backups. You can never ever ever EVER have too many backups. If you have a DVD burner, that's awesome, if you have an external hard drive, even better. So lets get started shall we?

You will need to gather the following items:

Windows XP CD that came with your computer, or that you used to install on your PC
The XP serial number that came with your computer/CD
All of the CD's that have your hardware drivers on them
All the CD's that have your printer drivers or other peripherals
All the CD's that have your programs on them
about 1.5 - 2 hours depending on hardware configuration

Now, pop the XP install CD into your computers CD/DVD ROM drive. Then restart it, and when the BIOS screen pops up (It will have your computer/motherboard manufacturers name, mine says DELL) look around for an option like "Press F12 for boot options". That is what my computer says, you may need to hit F1, F2, Del, or any number of other keys. when you reach that stage, something like this will pop up:

Navigate to your CD/DVD drive and press enter. A black and white screen should come up that says "Press Any Key to Continue." - you know what to do.

The next screen will take a few minutes. This is the install CD installing drivers to let it do its job. After it does all of that, this screen will pop up:

Press Enter, then a massive list of things you have to agree to appears, press F8 after you either read these things, or laugh in the direction of Redmond Washington for their idiocy.

The next screen to pop up will ask you a few options and show you your current Windows XP install. Because you want a clean install, press the esc key.

(Note: I hate repairing windows. It's not worth it, just go through and start from scratch.)

The next lovely screen shows you the list of partitions on your hard drive. Delete the one with the old Windows XP install on it, do that by pressing D.

Then another screen will come up yelling at you saying it is a "System Partition" ignore it and press Enter to confirm your deletion of the selected partition.

Then another screen will come up where you need to press L to confirm. Gotta love the redundancy.

Now it goes back the the partition screen, and it labels it as unpartitioned space. Press Enter

Now you have two options at this next screen:

If you are in a hurry, go with the obvious (quick) option. But if you want a real thorough job, stick with the second one highlighted in the above picture.

Setup will format the partition:

Then when it's done formatting, it begins copying some files:

Then a restart screen will come up:

If you left your computer for a while and you notice it restarts randomly out of the corner of your eye, it was probably the step above that did it, don't freak out.

When it restarts, it will load the first hint of a normal XP experience:

And now it will install yet more stuff.
(By this time you may want to consider switching to Mac OS X - just a thought)

(OOOoooOOO! An Exciting New Look!)

Then the next series of prompts appears, they are self explanatory:

FINALLY! YOU'RE DONE!!

NOT! Now is the absolute worst part about owning a PC. The Drivers. Drivers are evil, they are meant to suck the very soul from your body.

After your done with the device drivers, install all the programs you like to have.

After that, hook yourself up to the Internet and download ALL of the Windows XP Updates. This is not an option, if you don't, your security level will be outrageously bad and you will be loaded down with viruses before you know it. Find a way to download them all, even if you have dial-up.

How to Dual Boot OS X and Windows XP the easy way

2007-05-13T21:23:00.000-04:00

This is a good way for OSX86 beginners to get their feet wet without jumping all in. You will need to keep a few things in mind if you plan on doing this though:

It is only legal to install OS X on a PC if you are an apple developer, and are in good with the folks at Apple. But if that were the case, you probably don't need this guide, so most people should probably stop reading now. For those more adventurous, keep readin.

Ok? Good. This tutorial involves the use of the Acronis Disk Director Suite, which can either be bought, or like most things in this world, found on torrent sites. You individual sense of ethics (or your pocketbook) will determine if you will go with the Jedi or join the Dark Side on that one. However, I am not using the Acronis Boot Loader, as I think it is a piece of garbage and deserves death in a fire.

If you have Windows already loaded onto your system, install your Acronis, and partition your hard drive in whatever ratio you like. Me being a bit OC, I liked exactly in half. You will need at least 10 GB for each partition though.

If you have a blank hard drive, there may be an option in the Windows installation screen that allows for partitioning. I know in Server 2003 there is, but not that sure on Windows XP.

Once you have done that, visit this website and follow the directions!

http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/Simple_Dual_Boot

Pay special attention to the part about Darwin loading time and modifying the file to allow for 8 seconds of time to elapse.

If you did not like that, there is another option that involves actually using the Acronis Boot Loader. If you are an absolute beginner, and want a GUI boot loader, this is the option for you. This is brought to you by someone who goes by Dilnalomo, and he has several guides (Including a few Vista ones) to help you:

http://dilnalomo.googlepages.com/

Well that's it, everything I've ever had experience with is on those two pages. They sum up everything nicely, and I hope they help you out as much as they helped me. If you have any questions or comments, give me an email or drop a comment.

How to make a clock out of a hard drive

2007-05-09T13:29:00.000-04:00

Have an old Quantum Fireball laying around collecting dust? Does that 1990's era, 4 GB hard drive in your desk drawer make you laugh when you think of your 1 TB RAID Array? Well turn it into something useful! This tutorial will show you how to turn that craptastic HDD into a thing of beauty, a clock.

First lets get the material list. It is quite large, and depending on the hard drive you have, you may need more, or less. This is what I needed for a 9.something GB Quantum Fireball from 1998:

Old/Neglected Hard drive
Hammer
Punch
Drill
Massive set of drill bits
Hobby Lobby Clock kit ($5.99)
Epoxy or other extremely strong glue
Set of latex gloves (if you have superglue - I've glue my fingers together many a time)
3/8" Drill bit capable of drilling through metal
Parts dish
Hack saw
Nail file capable of filing metal
2 Hours of free time
a vice
6 inches of stranded copper wire

I think that's it. A lot of stuff eh? But its worth it, you will be known as the classy geek.

Take all the screws on the outside that you can see off. Then take the ones that you can't see off. These will be hidden under stickers that said "Warranty Void If Removed". Screw warranties, we're making a clock! When you're done, it should look like this:

Concentrate on the read write head block in the lower left hand corner of the HDD. Take off all the screws circled:

Now you can take that 1st metal piece off. It will have one of the most powerful magnets you have ever seen, and it will take some prying to get off. If it looks like there are no screws holding it together - there isn't any - its just how powerful the magnet is.

Now take off the final screw holding it all together. Then pop out the read/write block from the HDD. It should now look like this:

Now, start dissembling the screws holding the HDD platters in.

Once that is done, remove all the metal pieces holding the platters in, remove the platters, and you should have this:

Now you get to hammer stuff! See how there is no convenient hole in the middle there to put the shaft of the clock mechanism? Make one. If you're lucky, the next step will make a hole big enough. If your not, follow the step after and drill a hole in the middle.

Flip the HDD around and use a punch to hammer out the spindle shaft:

When that is accomplished flip it over and take the spindle assembly off:

NOW you have a hole to put a clock mechanism into. Or do you? In this case the hole is not big enough. This is where the drill bit comes in handy:

The Hobby Lobby clock mechanism is roughly 3/8" wide. I have that size drill bit, so i drilled and hollowed it out a bit:

Now get your epoxy/superglue and glue the clock mechanism face:

And put that on the back of the HDD:

Depending on which glue you chose, wait until it is completely dry. In the meantime, working on the clock hands would be a good idea. Put the read/write heads in the vice and stark hacking each individual head off:

With the two heads that will become the minute and hour hands separated from the rest of the read/write block, file one down until it is short and the size of an hour hand:

Use some super glue or epoxy to affix these to their respective parts in the Hobby Lobby clock kit. Depending on your tastes, you might want to snap off part of the hands and glue it directly to the base of the ring that connects the hands to the clock mechanism (That's what I did).

Now start work on the second hand. Take a stranded copper wire, and wrap it around the second hand until it is completely covered - then snap off the excess at the other side of the base:

Do you remember some of the leftover parts you had when you took the platters off of the spindle? There should be 2 rings that just barely cover the edges of the platters. Glue two of them together to make one big one, this will keep the platter off of the hard drive case, and make it look better:

When that sets, glue that spindle to the HDD platter of your choice:

Glue that platter to the HDD case:

Now your clock hands should be dry enough to handle. Put those onto the mechanism poking out through the hole in the middle:

Polish the surface up a bit, and add the second hand and a battery - and guess what? YOU'RE DONE! Congratulations, you have an awesome bit of geek hardware!

The hardware side of protecting yourself from War-Driving

2007-05-08T23:05:00.000-04:00

First, let me define what war-driving is. Its where someone drives around and tries to find a Wi-Fi hotspot in a neighborhood, business, park, whatever. They want free Internet access - or if they are a different kind of person, they want to intercept information that could compromise your passwords, online bank accounts, even your identity. There are ways to protect yourself from these people using software that helps to encrypt your traffic. I'm not much of a software guy, so I'll go into the hardware options.

Wi-Fi Paint

New invention, you can either buy paint, or an additive that you add to latex paint

A physical sheet of metal, such as sheet aluminum, aluminum foil, brass screen, or any other metal that can be used as a Faraday cage.

I have no experience with the first option. It seems rather simple, the concept is that it it turns the paint in your home or office into a Faraday cage. If you don't know what that is, check out the Wikipedia article here.

What I do have experience with, is the sheet metal option. If you go to your local hardware store you can find some aluminum flashing. This stuff is awesome. You can make just about anything with it, but it comes in especially handy with this hardware mod. The design I am showing in this post is for one-directional shielding. If you have a road near your house, this is a good thing to have. Or if you suspect a neighbor is dropping in on your wi-fi, use this to block him/her out.

WARNING! USE GLOVES! SHEET METAL IS EXTREMELY SHARP AND EVEN IF YOU ARE CAREFUL, YOU WILL GET CUT! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

I think I got it from Home Depot a few years ago, can't remember. Anyway, you need to cut a section about 1.5' by 10" and fold it into thirds, kind of like an open tri-fold board. then trace the bottom of that onto a second piece of aluminum, cut that out, and put that on the bottom like so:

now, you can do a few different things depending on your resources. You can epoxy the two sheets of metal together, duct tape them, aluminum tape them, or if your like me - do all three. Let's see how that's done shall we?

Glue the bottom:

Use aluminum tape to tape the sides, this will prevent any excess radiation from leaking through the tiniest of cracks. It is used for the ducts in your house, but i love using it for just about anything.

Now, the reason for the duct tape. If your actually doing this project, and have it in front of you, you will realize that the edges are insanely sharp. If you have a small child, dog, or pet rodent around, its probably not the safest thing. So you have to idiot proof the thing with even more tape:

Now its relatively safe.

I've experimented with different positions and the results they give, and found that this configuration with your wireless router is the best:

Depending on if you have a second story on your house or not, you might not want the top as I have it. If your wondering on what proof I have, here is photographic evidence that you have not just wasted your time, and that in fact, that piece of metal actually does something:

BEFORE:

(This is a hotspot finder available at electronics stores)

AFTER:

So it looks like it cut it in half. The difference was probably greater, because I live in a suburban neighborhood, I may have been picking up a neighbor's wi-fi and not my own. I like to think this because sitting in my living room on a good day I can find about 5 routers to connect to. Hope you have as much luck as I did.

How to get Ubuntu (Linux) to talk with Mac OS X 10.4.8

2007-05-08T22:09:00.000-04:00

This post was written by a friend of mine, the admin of www.leetupload.com. This is if you have a version of linux called Ubuntu burned onto a disk. It should work for just about any Linux distro, but is untested for all but Ubuntu. Let’s see what he has to say:

Alright, after having followed how to burn an .iso of linux to a CD, we are ready to show her off.

Go ahead and turn on your computer, place in the CD and either wait for a prompt before your alternative OS loads, or find a function key that allows you to choose the boot order, (or rearrange the order in your BIOS). Once the menu loads, simply hit enter. Let it do the dirty work, and you will eventually make it to a login prompt. Once again, strike the enter key, and Ubuntu will load. On the desktop, double click on the "Install" icon, and follow the easy click through install. It’s best if you make it a clean install on one hdd, or install on a seperate hdd. It’s best to take a quick look over Gparted within the installer and make your partitioning needs there. Continue with the installation.

It may take a while, depending on the speed of your r/rw on your hdd, plus CPU speed. Now for a successful bootup. Assuming all went accordingly, load Ubuntu fully, and login with the proper credentials you supplied. Make sure that the network is properly connected to Ubuntu in the physical sense, (in terms of a switch or hub between your *nix box and OSX box). Ubuntu is nice enough to automatically recognize all the drivers that are needed to complete the given task. Let's pull up a terminal. Click "Applications > Accessories > Terminal." You will now get a fairly spiffy terminal with a command line that states your user name, not root. Let's correct this so we get full admin privellages. Type "sudo su", then your password, then enter. It will now look something like root@whatever:~$. First, we need to make sure that our main ethernet device is recognized. Type ifconfig and look for something along the lines of eth0, eth1, or what have you. This is how Ubuntu, (or any *nix operating system) represents a network device. Assuming that you saw something that was stated prior, let us proceed. We need to create an IP address for this internal network, (note: if you have this on an internet enabled network, and wish to have it apart of it, then skip down to the DHCP section).

We will make Linux the dominant machine, and decide the proper internal IP address for it first. Take from the example and modify it as you wish.

$ ifconfig eth0 inet 172.16.1.39

The code above explained; ifconfig is the program used to modify such specifications, eth0 is your device, explained earlier, inet is the internal IP address you specify, which may be whatever sets of numbers you please, as long as they follow the basic subnet mask rules, and the 172.16.1.39 is a class C IP address. The 39 defines what computer it is, and all the rest must remain the same for it to talk to another computer on that range.

Let's change the subnet mask so the TCP/IP stack can interpret what range it must use.

$ ifconfig eth0 netmask 255.255.0.0

Pretty much the same idea as above, except a few variables have been changed. Netmask is the flag for ifconfig that allows us to alter the subnet mask for the given device specified. The 255.255.0.0 is what is used to give a proper range, (pretty much the default mask that works for this class without it getting cranky).

$ ifconfig eth0

Marvel in all your glory, should appear to be changed to your liking. Go ahead and reboot. While we're waiting, run the same commands shown above on your Mac OS 10. Since OS 10 is based off of Unix, the commands are interchangeable. But first make sure what device you are using on your Mac. Obviously, if you chose 172.16.1.39, then you would want to make your MAc's internal IP address 172.16.1.40, or something of that flavor so the two can have a conversation with each other. Reboot the Mac, and have a look at your Ubuntu box. Pull up the terminal and type

$ ping 172.16.1.40

This is the IP address that you gave your Mac, if not; change it to fit your needs. Perform the same command in the reverse fashion with your Mac. If you receive data from both, then consider yourself dominant.

DHCP

Assuming that you skipped the prior section since you wish to use internet as well as other computers on your network with your now physically networked boxes, then let the easiness begin. Pull up a terminal in root by typing:

$ sudo su

$ dhcpcd

If it says command not found, then we'll do it the GUI way. By the by, this automatically pulls the proper IP address from your router, and assigns it stress free without you to worry. Click System > Administration > Networking. Right click your wired connection and select properties. Select DHCP, apply, and reboot.

Now that our units talk the talk, let's see them walk the walk. Time to create an SMB share. SMB is the protocol used to share files between NFS or Windows systems without skipping a beat. Share a folder on your Mac, and move back over to your Ubuntu box. Just click on Places > Network Servers. A new folder will appear, and will eventually load the servers that it discovered. Just to be on the safe side, manual will be the way we go. To get an address bar, hold ctrl + L. type the following:

smb:///172.16.1.40

Replace the address above with the one your Mac is currently using. Your shared folder should appear, and if you have ownership, you will be able to transmit files between the Mac and the Linux box.

Congratulations, you have now successfully made a nix and an OSX box talk with each other flawlessly. Stay tuned for the next tutorial, getting a Mac and a Linux client login to the Windows Server 2003 Active Directory.

-leetupload www.leetupload.com

How to make a Live Linux CD

2007-05-08T20:03:00.000-04:00

If you've never gotten to try out Linux before, this is an easy way to get your feet wet without going all in. It's my opinion that everyone should try every OS they can, and with live Linux CD's, this becomes much easier. In order to do all this you need the following items:

Blank CD-R or DVD-R
.iso burning software such as Nero

There, that's it. Now go to this website:

http://www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php

Do you see the massive list? Isn't it awesome?! There are options upon options. Features have features, if you can dream up what you want an OS to do, its there. It never touches the hard drive either! if you think your hard drive crashed, or if you want to test to see if your computer is working, go here and burn a live Linux CD to check it out.

1.) Download the Linux of your choice

2.) Burn the image to a CD or DVD using Nero or another software suite that will allow the burning of images to disk.

3.) Pop the disk in, and re-boot

4.) This is the tricky part, you need to hit the boot options screen that your system BIOS has as soon as you power up. For me its F12, for others its Delete, you need to pay real attention to discover what it is. From the list that will pop up, select the CD or DVD drive with the disk in it.

5.) A bunch of text will scroll up the screen, this is Linux finding what hardware you have, finding internal drivers for that hardware, and loading system software into your RAM. The first time I saw this tangled mess of words i was worried, but whatever it says, its not hurting anything.

Note: If during this process you happen to get a Kernel Panic, or any other catastrophic error message, hopefully you were using the Linux disk to check for hardware trouble. Usually this means that there is some logic errors in your processor, or something is otherwise not connected right in your computer. Personally, I have never gotten this error message, and can only attest to what others have told me.

6.) A nice boot screen will pop up, depending on your Linux version you might need to type in something. It might tell you at the screen what to do, you might only need to hit enter, or if the distribution has a name, you might need to type that in followed by enter. An example would be a distro based off of knoppix, type in Knoppix and press enter.

7.) Pat yourself on the back. You have a live Linux disk! Your now officially cool.

Some things to keep in mind:

Most likely your experience with live cd's will be slow. Because your CD drive does not spin nearly as fast as a hard drive, it can't execute programs as fast.
If you can do this, you can make a Linux install disk. This will cause a Linux distribution like Fedora, Ubuntu, or whatever else you like to be installed onto your hard drive as an OS like windows. It requires more work, but its free. Who dosen't like FREE?!

How to get Mac OS X 10.4.8 to play nice with Windows Server 2003

2007-05-08T13:22:00.000-04:00

First off, I want you to note the wording of that title. This post will show you how to get them to "play nice", but I was never able to get them to be best friends. By being best friends I mean to have the Mac be able to log into the server as a client. I spent hours and hours looking at forums, reading threads, messing with OS options, and never found the answer to that one. So if anyone out there knows how, PLEASE post a comment or email me. The world needs to know.

To start, I want to warn you that in order to get them to play nice, the security settings on Windows Server 2003 will have to be slightly lowered. If you are in a closed/private environment like a home then this is no problem. But if you're a business, I'm not sure that I would try it. Once again because of this I am not responsible for anything that happens, this is just a suggestion on how to get them to share files and have the Mac access things on the Windows server.

OK, time for the nitty gritty Windows part. Set the security settings for the following options according to what they say:

In Administrative tools, navigate to Domain Controller Security Policy. Inside you'll find:

Microsoft Network Server: Digitally sign communications (always) - set this to Disabled

Microsoft Network Server: Digitally sign communications (if client agrees) - set this to Enabled

Microsoft Network Client: Digitally sign communications (always) - set this to Disabled

Microsoft Network Client: Digitally sign communications (if server agrees) - set this to Enabled

Domain Member: Digitally encrypt or sign secure data channel (always) - set to Disabled

Domain Member: Digitally encrypt secure data channel (when possible) - set to Enabled

Domain Member: Digitally sign secure data channel (when possible) - set to Enabled

So what did you just do? The reason Windows doesn't play nice with OS X (I believe, correct me if I'm wrong) is because OS X doesn't encrypt its SMB or local network traffic. If I'm wrong and it does, then Windows sure doesn't like it anyway. If you set the above options correctly, everything should be ready to rock-and-roll on the Windows Server 2003 side.

I found the above information from macosxhints.com

Now for the actual good stuff. OS X makes life easy for you as far as connecting to Windows (or any other server). My detailed pictures show how to do it:

(By the way, all the computer names are fake or blurred out.)

Go into system preferences and click on Sharing. A screen like the one you see below should pop up. That shows my options, yours might need to be different. Make sure you have at least Personal File Sharing and Windows File Sharing enabled. You might want to throw in FTP Access and Printer Sharing based on your needs.

Now you're going to need to click on the Internet tab in the sharing window and click on the Start button for Internet Sharing.

Now go back to System Preferences and click on Network. Double click on your Ethernet setup:

Then come to this screen (minus the blur):

This is a VERY important step. You need to have the same Subnet Mask as your Server. Whether or not you can do this manually or automatically is up to you, I had mine set to manual because I like the control I have. Click Apply Now and go to the next step.

Navigate to Finder, and select Network. It might look something like this:

If it does, double check to make sure all of your network connections are hooked up - u can do this by opening up Terminal and pinging the IP address of the server:

If it doesn't ping, then either something is not connected right, the Mac and the Server are on different Subnets, or something else is screwed up that you will need to figure out on your own.

Restart the server and Mac - I'm not sure what purpose this has, but once I saw that they could ping each other, and the Mac couldn't find any folders on the Server, I restarted and everything worked. This screen should appear after you click Network in the Finder:

IT FOUND THE WINDOWS SERVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yay! By the way, my Windows server was called Nirvana. Select the folder with the name of your server, then click the name of the computer, and this screen should pop up:

Guess what? Click connect. This screen will pop up, and select which options you want:

Then this login screen will show up:

It wont look exactly like that, but input the name of the server, the account name that has administrative rights, and that administrator's password. OS X will then create an icon on the desktop that leads to the location on the server you selected two pictures ago.

There you go. You've now gotten Server 2003 and OS X to chat and play nice. You should get a Nobel Peace Prize for this achievement.

OSX86 on a PC

2007-05-06T20:08:00.000-04:00

Putting the OSX operating system on a PC might sound intimidating at first, but a person new to installing OSX86 can easily get it perfected in a weekend. Some would say you can get it done in much less time, but there are usually hiccups, and to be on the safe side, you need to account for those hiccups. For the most part, those hiccups include audio issues and ethernet issues, and occasionally a video card issue. It takes a while to discover the fixes for these, but after you apply them, they usually work perfectly. OK, to get started you will have to have the following pieces of the puzzle:

A PC that meets the compatibility requirements for OSX86 you can find this list at

OSX86 Project HCL Wiki

Blank DVD-R
Broadband connection
Software for burning an iso to a disk, like Nero for example

There you go, that's it! Now you can start the process. But before you do, you need to understand a few basic things.

YOU HAVE TO BACKUP YOUR STUFF!!!
It is only legal to install OS X on a PC if you are an apple developer, and are in good with the folks at Apple. But if that were the case, you probably don't need this guide, so most people should probably stop reading now. For those more adventurous, keep readin.
I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE THIS MAY CAUSE this is a tip showing how one might go about putting OSX on a Dell, I in no way condone doing so. Any damage to hard drives, data, or any other unforeseeable issues are not my fault, you brought them on yourself.

Now that we have the pleasantries out of the way, we can get down to the nitty gritty. You have to find a copy of the Jas installation DVD version 10.4.8. You might possibly want to start looking in Pirate Bay or the other usual sites. Keep in mind the legal stuff if you decide to do so. Then your going to need to burn that ISO to a disk, you might have some software that will do it for you, otherwise use Nero. Let the fun begin.

1.) BACK EVERYTHING UP!!!!!

2.) With the Jas 10.4.8 disk in hand, put it in your DVD-ROM drive in the computer and reboot. Press any key to continue, and let it load up with its crazy text screens.

3.) Let it spin for a while, depending on your exact hardware configuration, it could take anywhere from 2 - 10 min. Be patient young padowan. Eventually a blue screen with a pinwheel will come up and stare you in the face for about a min.

4.) Then a language selection screen will pop up, select whatever works for you, for me its English, and click the arrow

5.) An introduction screen will pop up, click continue:

6.) The next screen asks you where you would like to install OSX, but seeing as how you have a PC, nothing is available.

Don't worry! go into the utilities button in the upper left hand corner and click on Disk Utility. In about a minuet the Disk Utility Screen will pop up:

7.) Select your hard drive, and click on the erase button. Then for the format select the Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and name it whatever you want. Untitled is so drab, make a good name. When your done with that, click the erase button.

8.) Erasing won't take too long, and when you can see that its renamed the hard drive (Or hard drive partition) click the red x in the corner to exit out. The disk will spin for a bit, then get back to the installation screen seen in step 6, only this time it will have the picture of a hard drive in it. Click on this Hard Drive, click continue, and come to the next screen.

9.) This screen is called installation options. It will have various extras you may or may not need to install OS X onto the PC. It has an AMD processor option, an Intel option, various language supports, printer support, X11, NVIDIA Titan/ATI drivers for graphics cards (Install only one if you need to, I made the mistake of choosing both and it screwed it up a bit) And if somewhere in the options there is a choice between SSE2 or SSE3, pick only one (SSE3 if you can, its the bomb), otherwise it will mess something up. But if there is only one choice(SSE2/SSE3), that makes it easier. Depending on your language and hardware setup, this step is crucial. This one screen can make or break your install, so choose wisely. If you screw something up its easy to start over, and if you do end up messing it up, don't worry, it happens to everyone.

10.) After you've decided your installation fate, click the button. I'm pretty sure once you click that button, there is no going back. you can pull the plug on the computer, but other than that I think its full steam ahead. OSX will install after a thorough disk check. Unless time is an enormous factor, Don't skip the disk check! It checks the DVD for errors, I made the mistake of doing that once and paid for it with about 5 wasted hours of frustration. My install was somehow corrupted and i had to re-download the torrent. Hiccups people, they happen.

Like most installations on PC hardware, the length of time all depends on your hardware configuration. It usually takes about an hour, so don't worry about the time factor.

11.) Believe it or not, the hard parts are over! Once the installation has finalized, optimized, and caused you to hold your breath, OSX will need to restart. When your PC/OSX86 beast restarts, remove the installation DVD and go through the setting up your Mac steps. It might not recognize your keyboard, it'll need your time zone, it'll need other info and so on and so forth. After that you have a brand new Mac!

UPDATE: Because of this articles popularity (over 300 hits per day) and all of the questions people are having, I will not be able to help answer people’s questions anymore. Every computer is a different case, and with many cases OSX86 will not take. Sometimes when it does, the network card will not work, the graphics will be screwy, or the sound might not work. Because of the individuality of each and every computer, I cannot help you. Instead I will show you the places where I got my help at. The main resource for OSX86 problems/solutions is the InsanelyMac Forum.

http://www.insanelymac.com/

It is a website with news, rumors, and most importantly, solutions to various OSX86 problems.

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?s=7aff1723af5a81c52a2a2765cca079df&showforum=85

That is the link to the Homebrew Macs section of the Forums. It has helped me many times.

I hope you find all the answers you are looking for in these websites. I wish you the best of luck.

OSX86 on Dell Optiplex GX620

2007-05-05T15:56:00.000-04:00

Putting OSX on the Dell Optiplex GX620 was the easiest installation I have ever done. Mostly this is from experience, but I had zero hassles. The two main problems are Ethernet and sound. I have fixed the Ethernet, but didn't get the chance to fix the sound. I have heard fixes for it, and I will look into them. If someone has a surefire way, drop a comment or an email to me.

First follow my first post about how to install OSX on a PC. You won't need to install either the NVIDIA or ATI options if you have a stock GX620, but you know your hardware configuration better than I do, so its up to you.

Second, the Ethernet problem. To fix this hassle you need to install a .kext file, which I have hosted here:

Broadcom Netxtreme 57xx kext

Third, you will need to know the MAC address of your NIC card. Hopefully you wrote it down somewhere for future use, but seeing as how this is doubtful, I'll discuss that in the last part of this post

Unzip the file and place it in the Extensions folder. To get there open the Finder and go to your hard drive/partition that has OS X installed on it, and click System > Library > Extensions.

Now, to get it to work you need to go to the Terminal by clicking Go > Utilities > Terminal. Once you get the opening screen you need to type EXACTLY these lines of code. Each line is a new line of code, which means you need to press enter after each line.

sudo -s

chown -R root:wheel /System/Library/Extensions/

cd /System/Library/Extensions

chmod -R 755 AppleBCM5751Ethernet.kext

OK, you're done with the hard part. Now would be a good time to repair your disk permissions. To do that click on Go > Utilities > Disk Utility, and in that screen select your hard drive/partition with OS X installed.

So, you've got your Ethernet card working eh? Almost. I never did test if it works at this stage, but there is one problem. Right now your MAC address is 00:00:00:00:00:00. You're going to need to change that, so here's the instructions for that:

Open the terminal again and type in:

sudo -s

ifconfig en0 ether __________

That ___________ is for your MAC address. it needs to be 16 numbers with a : after every two. I found one forum post that used a live Linux cd to find the MAC address, I will link to that list in my next blog post. One thing I never got the chance to test is just BS'ing the MAC address and typing in whatever you want. Try it. Let me know what happens so i can post the results.

OK, after all that junk your Dell Optiplex GX620 should have internet! Woo-Hoo for you!

Thanks to the following thread for information and the original file. Special thanks to Nisa-it
http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=4987&st=180&p=129957&#

OSX86 on a Dell Dimension 3000

2007-05-05T13:40:00.000-04:00

There are a few hiccups related to putting the OSX86 operating system on a Dell Dimension 3000, but like almost all cases with the OS, there are ways around these issues. The two main issues are sound and Ethernet access. Both are easy to fix, IF you follow the steps! The sound and Ethernet cards I have installed in the Dell Dimension 3000 are integrated. I am not sure whether this hardware would be stock for all Dimension 3000's, but i know it is featured in a lot of other computers. The Ethernet is:

Intel PRO/VE 100

And the sound card is:

SoundMAX Integrated Digital Audio

Hmmm, I'll start off with the easiest fix first. The SoundMAX card only needs a little sound setting tweaking, however the Intel PRO/VE 100 requires some coding surgery. To fix the sound card you need to follow these steps:

1.) Click Go in the navigation bar at the top of your screen. Navigate to utilities, and in that screen click Audio MIDI Setup. In the screen that pops up is a drop down menu (Circled below) which has two options, one for input and one for output. You need to click the second one. Then click Configure Speakers.

This screen should pop up. Use the drop down menu to set the speakers to numbers 3 and 6.

In the end your screen will look like this. Congratulations, you now have sound! Easy wasn't it?

OK, now it's the hard part. Getting Ethernet to work. As a reformed PC user, I found this extremely challenging. The reason your Ethernet dosen't work is because it doesn't have the proper device driver. You will need the AppleIntel8255x.kext file. I have that file hosted here:

AppleIntel8255x.kext

If there is any problem downloading, notify me and I will straighten it out as soon as possible. It is a .zip file, and will need to be extracted.

Inside is a text file with the explanation of what to do. You need to follow it TO THE LETTER! Otherwise it will not work! If the explanation is not clear enough let me know and I can post a clearer version.

Special thanks to all of the posters in Insanley Mac, I found the following topic extremely helpful:

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=42782