Now a Casual Mac User September 18, 2008

I previously said I was unswitchable. I took a side step.
I got a great deal from a friend selling his Mac Mini G4. Still in pristine condition.
I’m using it to get acquainted with Mac OS, and to see if Objective-C/Cocoa programming is for me. 
Even if I’m into mobile dev, I’m not going into Mac for [...]

Hacking Tosh March 23, 2008

I gave in. I am now trying to install the OSX86. Hackintosh. SteveOS.

I’m now trying “Kalway” 10.5.1. My best bet is the Acer 4710Z Gemstone, which is an Intel T2080, a Yonah like the original MacBook, with an Intel 943GML chipset. I was able to reach the installer application. The hard drive needs to be [...]

Linux setup status March 11, 2008

Linux setup pending problems:

No CPU/system temperature from ACPI. (Ironically, hard drive temp is available but not in Windows.)
Ubuntu 7.10 installer is not compatible with KVM (Kernel Virtualization). It segfaults due to the fancy splash screen. Intel VT does not support x86 real mode instructions, but AMD virtualization does.
KVM in QEMU emulator mode crashes halfway [...]

Linux hard drive temp, hibernation March 10, 2008

Installed smartmontools on Linux. Now I have hard drive temp. 52 degrees! I guess I need a case or some mods to bring that down.

“Hibernate” needs some extra work. The machine doesn’t go back up. It’s probably the NVidia card+driver. Not that important anyway – but it would be critical on a laptop!

Mac Envy December 12, 2006

I’m having Mac envy.
More people are using Macs locally. Learning Mac OS X has been one of my goals for a time. No opportunity yet. Mac OS is supposed to be good for Java and Rails development.
Unfortunately, the stuff I work with need Windows. (I know you can run Windows on the Mac hardware but [...]

PC Upgrade Plans November 27, 2006

I’m planning to upgrade my old PC which is now the “family computer.” This is already four years old, but still working well. However, the Duron 1.1 Ghz can’t keep up with multitasking office use and Azureus and other P2P programs running in the background.
The Conroe platform is too expensive and needs a discrete video [...]

In the Company of Heroes November 22, 2006

Even with my lowly (by gamer standards) GeForce FX5500, I am able to play Company of Heroes! I have to lower the settings to the minimum, and the first campaign on the beach is terrible. My Celeron D 320 with 2×512 DDR400 is adequate.
I’m back to RTS gaming, my favorite genre. That is not saying [...]

PC Fan Tweaks November 6, 2006

While fixing up my hard drive partitions, I always rebooted in the middle of running the PC. So, I noticed that the CPU temperature went up to an alarming 55 degrees in the daytime. At night, it’s around 45 degrees.
I’m on a two-year old Celeron D 320 (2.4 Ghz, 256 MB L2). A Preshott Prescott. [...]