using a 32gb sdhc class 10 as a boot drive for asus netbook running ubuntu 12.04 works pretty well!

My brother has an eee pc 900A white netbook-- dual core 1.6Ghz Atom CPU, and a small internal 4GB SSD drive running some crap version of Linux.  It has since been upgraded to Ubuntu 10 and then Ubuntu 11.10 but . . . the problem is that the internal drive is too small for updates and i can't upgrade it to Ubuntu 12.04 due to lack of space.

SSDs are pricey so . . . the solution was to get a sd card-- mainly a 32GB SDHC Class 10 (which is the fastest for regular SD cards) and i got it for $17 on sale @ Frys Electronics here in sunny California.

I formatted the 32GB SDHC card in native ubuntu linux format -- ext4 and not fat32.

I have to tell ya, Ubuntu running of this is a lot more usable in version 12.04 than version 11.10.

It is very usable and not very laggy as some people would think.

Remember to set the sd card as the primary boot drive in the BIOS and you are set!

It is a nice cost effective solution to a pricey ssd drive.

After the ubuntu 12.04 install, i ran a system update-- 329 files to update, which took about an hour and a half and after that , a reboot and everything was fine and dandy.

websites load fast in firefox, libreoffice writer launches in seconds and is ready to use, youtube flash videos play just fine in windowed mode and full screen mode.

ubuntu 12.04 is a fine os and it is free and works well with the sd card and  my brother's netbook and he is one happy customer!

A big thank you to Linus Torvalds and the open source linux developer community for fixing the Linux kernel in the way it handles sd cards! Now sdhc class 10 cards are usable in Linux as a boot drive and over all storage device!

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Software updates! VLC 2.03 and Tenfourfox 14 are released!

Software updates! VLC 2.03 and Tenfourfox 14 are released!


-VLC 2.03 was recently updated.

Get the Mac PPC & Intel versions here:

Mac PPC 32 bit: https://www.macupdate.com/download/42363/vlc-2.0.3-powerpc.dmg
Mac Intel 32bit: https://www.macupdate.com/download/36650/vlc-2.0.3-intel32.dmg
Mac Intel 64bit: https://www.macupdate.com/download/5758/vlc-2.0.3.dmg

** requires Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.8 and up!

What's New

Version 2.0.3:

--This release mostly targets the Mac OS X platform and adds support for OS X Mountain Lion. It also fixes the Qt interface's appearance on Windows 8 and includes improvements for the flv and ape demuxers as well as the http access module. Additionally, it includes updates for 18 translations and adds support for Uzbek and Marathi

-Tenfourfox 14 came out! 

G3: https://code.google.com/p/tenfourfox/downloads/detail?name=TenFourFoxG3-14.0.app.zip&can=2&q=

G4: https://code.google.com/p/tenfourfox/downloads/detail?name=TenFourFox7400-14.0.app.zip&can=2&q=

G4e: https://code.google.com/p/tenfourfox/downloads/detail?name=TenFourFox7450-14.0.app.zip&can=2&q=

G5: https://code.google.com/p/tenfourfox/downloads/detail?name=TenFourFoxG5-14.0.app.zip&can=2&q=

** Tenfourfox 10.0.6 can be downloaded @ its homepage:
http://www.floodgap.com/software/tenfourfox/

enjoy!

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ibook G4- the best cheap mac notebook for daily use

 The iBook G4- the Greatest yet overlooked deal in the aftermarket of used notebook computers

I recently bought a used iBook G4 from craigslist for $75.  It is a 1.2 Ghz G4 w/ 768mb ram, 30gb hard drive, combo drive (that still works!), airport extreme running Mac OSX 10.3.9 Panther. The seller thought his iBook G4 had a defective airport extreme card and told me the wireless was finicky and goes out a lot.  What he didn't know was that he didn't set up the networking settings properly-- he needed to specify the dns servers in the network settings and it will be ok.  He was tech illiterate and sold it to me for cheap-- one man's loss is another man's gain!

When i took it home, i wiped the hard drive and did an erase and install of Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.8 and installed iLife 09, VLC 2.03, MacTubes, LibreOffice, AuroraFox, TenfourFox, Ultima 3, and Power64.

I also ordered a 1gb ram stick from OWC for about $31.

My iBook G4 is truly the workhorse!  They are great for everyday usage and great to lug around for places you don't want to take an expensive MacBook or iPad.  In my honest opinion, the iBook G4 is the best alternative to a netbook.

If you want to get an iBook G4, i recommend getting ones from 1.07Ghz and up because these iBook G4s can use a 1gb ram stick and these are faster. These machines could max out @ 1.25 Gb ram or 1.5 Gb ram.

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Leopard Assist: Installing and running Mac OSX Leopard on a PowerMac G4 below system requirements

I upgraded and installed Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.8 on 2 PowerMac G4s in my house.  They are both below the system requirements; one is 400 Mhz and the other is dual 450 Mhz.  I was able to install it via a hack called Leopard assist.  Leopard Assist tricks the installer into thinking it is a 933Mhz machine and reverts back to normal after installation.  You HAVE to run Leopard Assist from an Admin account.

I have to say, Leopard is a lot snappier and more responsive on both the PowerMac G4s than Tiger for some reason.  Leopard on these PowerMac G4s work well! The key is to max out the ram with 2 GB and install a decent GPU; both these machines have Nvidia G4MX 64mb GPU- which is ok-- Rage 128 won't work or run in Leopard.

Leopard Assist is available here @ Macupdate.com:
https://www.macupdate.com/download/26562/la233.zip

All you have to do is provide the Mac OSX Leopard Install DVD and run Leopard Assist and that is it.

With Leopard, we get the benefit of having Safari 5.06-- remember to install the clicktoflash safari extenstion, and set the html 5 player setting resolution to 240p and this will allow a 400Mhz PowerMac G4 to play youtube videos smoothly! Ofcourse flash player has to be installed too but the clicktoflash will default the video playback to 240p html 5 video.

Leopard has breathed new life into these G4s!

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VLC Player 2.02 releases and fixes a lot of bugs and finally works as should on PPC G4 Macs w/ radeon 9000 gpu

Wow! the Mac developers of VLC Player has been updated to version 2.02 and it fixes a lot of bugs and finally works with PPC G4 Macs w. Radeon 7500/8500/9000/9200 and Nvidia Geforce 2MX/4MX! The performance issues has also been fixed.

VLC 2.02 for the Mac requires Mac OSX Leopard and up for both PPC Macs and Intel Macs.

VLC Media Player is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, ...) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network.

Mac ppc VLC PLAYER 2.02:Download for OS 10.5

Mac INTEL 32BIT VLC PLAYER 2.02: Download for OS 10.5+ 

Mac INTEL 64BIT VLC PLAYER 2.02: Download for OS 10.5+

WHAT'S NEW

Version 2.0.2:

Video Output:

• More accurate colourspaces conversions for YUV->RGB in OpenGL
• Add menu support for libvlc / VLCKit applications on Mac OS X
• Various fixes on Mac OS X, notably for crop, zoom, osd and menu support
• Misc fixes in OpenGL module, on all platforms
• Fix video output on PowerPC-based Macs equipped with an ATI Radeon 7500, an ATI Radeon 9200 or a NVIDIA GeForceFX 5200 Ultra.
• Fix video output of 10bit encoded contents on Intel-based Macs equipped with an Intel GMA 950 chipset running OS X 10.6 or later.
• Add support for the HiDPI mode used on recent Apple products with so-called Retina Displays.

Access:

• Rework Digital TV module for Windows. DVB-T and DVB-C should work again
• Fixes for RAR compressed files
• Fix DirectShow crashes on exit
• Improve PulseAudio input latency
• Fixes for HTTP access through a proxy
• v4l2 webcam outputting H264 can now be used directly (use --v4l2-chroma=h264)
• Fix subtitles auto-detection in subfolders and detection behaviour
• IE http proxy is not used anymore by VLC on Win32
• Accept more extensions for DVD images
• Fix crash in VC1 packetizer
• Improvements in Blu-Ray playback
• Improvements and fixes in HLS support

Codec:

• Fix crashes in AAC decoder on channels changes, notably in ISDB streams
• Fix compilation with multiple FFmpeg and libav versions
• Fix G726 support
• Fix MP3 free format support

Demuxers:

• Fixes for MKV segments, seeking and MKV title display
• Fix for some mp4, voc, midi and au crashes
• Fix for Real .ram, .f4v, .avi and .ra files support
• Fix for DVB channels file support
• Fixes for alac, vorbis, DTS, VC-1 and Dirac in mp4

Encoders:

• Fix for MPEG Audio encoding, use layer2 when using fourcc "mp2 " and "mp2a"
• Fix for JPEG generation, when doing snapshots

Audio filters and output:

• Limitation of spatializer volume output
• Fix DirectSound device selection
• Correct PulseAudio volume control
• Do not apply volume in file output
• Fix sampling rate in JACK output
• Fixes in ALSA output for latency and for broken drivers

Mac OS X:

• Enable drag and drop of playlist items between the temporary playlist and the persistant media library
• Enable import of playlist items taken from the service discovery modules to the media library or the temporary playlist
• Media key support for keyboards by other manufacturers than Apple This fix was facilitated through a hardware donation by ZF Friedrichshafen AG manufacturing keyboards under the brand "Cherry".
• Add support for the Apple Remote to set the Mac to sleep using a longer press on the Play/Pause button
• Remove libfontconfig's font cache by an Apple Type Services lookup. This removes the "Updating Cache" dialog, before finding all fonts.
• Re-add an option to hide the window decoration during video playback
• Improve compatibility with other 3rd party apps using SPMediaKeyTap
• Many Fullscreen fixes
• Keep Aspect Ratio when resizing is back
• Add controls to manipulate the Subtitles Duration to the Track Synchronization panel
• Hidden items in the sidebar are being retained for the next launch now
• Fix crash when trying to open an Audio CD by drag & drop
• Improve reliability when opening DVDs or BDs by drag & drop
• Fix crashes on exit
• Fix crash when mounting a device with multiple logical volumes while VLC is running
• Chosen audio output device is retained throughout multiple sessions
• Since running the Mac OS X interface as an Extra Interface or Control Interface can lead to undefined results, eventual settings will be automatically reset on the first launch.- This fixes issues with unresponsive playback controls and crashes on quit.
• Update Growl plugin for use with Growl 1.3
• Miscellaneous minor interface improvements

Lua Scripts:

• Fixes for stdin/stdout and for different locale issues
• Fixes for icecast SD

Qt:

• Fix preferences for audio devices on Windows
• Fix playlist search and selector behaviour
• Fix multiple issues in the Open Disc dialog
• Miscellaneous fixes in preferences, buttons, EPG, playlist and customize dialog
• Fix tags and file names display
• Fix various crashes, display issues and usability issues

Skins2:

• Fix mousewheel on Windows
• Fix for key events and focus loss

Web interface:

• Fix display of some buttons
• Fix listing of files in the Open interface
• Fixes for widgets behaviour and vlm dialog

Security:

• Fix Ogg Heap buffer overflow
• Update taglib (CVE-2012-2396)
• Update libavcodec and other codecs libraries

Translation:

• Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Walloon, Slovak, Polish, Khmer, Japanese, Italian, French, Czech, Belarusian, Breton, Greek, Spanish, Estonian, Irish, Galician, Hungarian, Japanese, Dutch, Telugu, Ukranian, Thai translations update
• New Scottish Gaelic translation

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Google releases Chrome browser for iOS!

Today Google released the Chrome Browser for iOS- and it is a universal app that runs natively on iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch!

It is very similar to the desktop Mac & PC version except there is no custom v8 javascript engine and no flash support.  It uses the same webkit core as Apple Safari due to restrictions in iOS but it still works great!

Clicking on the star icon in the search bar bookmarks a webpage and clicking on the mic icon in the search bar allows for web search via voice-- which is really cool! The voice recognition is really good and i tried it while listening to a podcast on my Mac at the same time.

Kudos to Google! Nice Job!  I now have Apple Safari, Photon Flash browser (for Flash Content) and Google Chrome for my web browsers on my iPad but Google Chrome will be my main browser!

It is free and available now at the App Store!

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The official Gmail app for iOS now supports notifications!

It is official! The official Gmail app for iOS by Google supports notifications!  I used to use the app Secure Gmail and i now i've switched to the official Gmail app! I waited long and hard for a Gmail client that supports notifications and my wish is answered.

The new features as listed in the Gmail app description:

* Notification center support. Banners, alerts and lock screen notification options.
* "Send-as." alternative sender support, if configured within Gmail.
* Persistent login. Sessions no longer expire.

Thank Google for answering my prayers! And it is free!

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