My long weekend

What did I get up to on my long weekend? Well I made myself an auto-shuffling audio DVD. This took a long time to figure out, but the result was worth it -- I just throw the disc in any player and I have (so far) 84 tracks that randomise themselves continuously. With all the nice stuff that DVD offers like a menu to turn off shuffle if I want to focus on an album, and album art and the name of each track on screen. (Almost) all with free software. Go Linux!!!

That and I have hacked apart my new IPCop firewall box adding cool stuff to it (hopefully without reducing its effectiveness too much).

I'm very impressed especially with IPCop. Look out for me to post some instructions (and packages if you're lucky!)

Have I also said how much I love Xbox Media Centre (link to news updates)? Okay, okay that'll do for now...

MacZOT geniuses team up with TheCodingMonkeys...

Who said the Internet wasn't fun anymore? I'm having a great time with MacZOT.com, getting at least one piece of cool software per week that I want. Speaking of which, this weekend I got some good use out of Matinee, Multimedia Tiler from the MyzsteryZOT as well as Media Rage -- which is an awesome little Mac program.

Today is different though -- it's BLOGZOT 2.0 on MacZOT.com where those with blogs give a free plug to make software cheaper. This one's about SubEthaEdit from CodingMonkeys which is an awesome concept in collaborative document editing. Some of the possibilities of this program are interesting, but I'm a one-person household and Macs are vetoed at work so hmmm...

MacZOT and TheCodingMonkeys will award $105,000 in Mac software to the first people to ask for it if enough blog articles get posted... let's see if the Mac blogging community can do it again!

If the price is right and SubEthaEdit suits your needs I hope I've helped you out -- otherwise keep your eye on MacZOT.com again tomorrow because who knows what it'll be!

I want my macZOT!

Mac users: visit macZOT.com -- a VERY interesting new approach to getting people to pay for shareware!

They prey on curiousity and 'myzstery' and heavy discounting to keep Mac developers and users happy... sounds interesting... I'm trying out this week's Your First/Extended/Exploded Myztery ZOT.

They accept PayPal which is great... but I wish they'd just finish adding to the ZOT so I can find out what I've got.

Excellent concept guys -- if it all comes through it's going to Recommended -- visiting the site already is... the suspense is killing me!

Recommended: XBOX Media Center

Okay, so I just got an XBOX (no, not a 360). And I've modded it. I'm a big media center freak so the first thing I reached for was XBOX Media Center.

And I'm pretty impressed. Okay, so it's a bit crashy, and it's a little hard to find, but it IS free, and while it works it works great. Get yourself one of the latest CVS builds and you'll be going off.

The nice thing about XBMC, as it is often called, is that it is expandable. You can use XML to customise it, and Python to program it (lucky that I have a book on Python already). This is great, as it means such things as TV guides can be added to it. Not to mention direct support (via MySQL and SAMBA) for my MythTV recordings.

Brilliant!

PS. To mod the XBOX don't go past Softmod Installer Deluxe, which you can find here, but make sure you get the latest version 4.5, especially if you have a PAL XBOX (this caused me no end of confusion). And if you use Splinter Cell to softmod, make sure you get the matching (PAL/NTSC) game save!

Kudos to Datel/Codejunkies for making the Action Replay product that makes this possible, and Liksang.com for the XBOX to USB goodies.

If anyone has a script for ecto...

I'd be grateful if anyone has a script that implements expandable post summaries in ecto -- the one's Blogger suggests

here or better.

Revitalising my blog...

Okay, I'm finally going to put a concentrated effort into getting this back off the ground.

There's a lot of software and things that I see or play with in a week, so I want to be able to comment quickly on them here.

To make my life easier I'm also going to be trying out some different weblog clients, the first of which is ecto. Let's see how this goes, and maybe I'll recommend it.
[posted with ecto]

Perth Metro Project for Google Earth

I've been inspired by some of the hacks in my last article (as well as the ease of programming Google Earth) to make a layer, or as close to one as I can come, with the Perth, Australia public transport system in it. So far I've done most of the train stations, their connections and some 11 bus routes. Maybe a community mapping project (map the areas you know or use) would be a way to get useful map data into Google Earth, much like the very successful www.tvguide.org.au does for television schedules. Comments anyone? I'll post a link to my Earth file later on. Watch this space.

Google Earth Mac leaked beta

By now you're probably all aware of the Google Earth beta for Mac OS X that has been leaked. This is the best news ever! I've been playing with it for the last couple of days, clearly there's a lot of work to go, but the good news is that it works well now.
A couple of tips, the Help, Email and Plus features aren't there, and fullscreen doesn't work for me. However, anything you can't do directly you can write in KML using XCode. To get the format, follow the APIs link on code.google.com
There's heaps out there that you can add to the maps - I can recommend searching the lists on www.googleearthhacks.com
The satellite imagery and terrain models are really good, even in Australia, though we don't get roads (UBD, please sell, Google, please buy!) So all of the search features are superfluous. Worth the download, though be careful and test it on a non-critical Mac first.

Back door to a Mac MythTV frontend

This is how I now watch TV on my Mac: Apple DVD Player. This application has the unfair advantage in MPEG2 decoding. However the combination of Tiger allowing reading of VIDEO_TS folders and Myth's improved MPEG2 transcode means DVD Player and hence acceleration is possible. The job queue allows me to have the DVD folders prepared within minutes and my laptop now makes an okay frontend. Comment if you want to know more and I'll post some files.

Y! On 3

3 have added Yahoo! Messenger to it's growing list of services. This one looks good. It is delivered as a Java application which on my phone means I should be able to stay online permanently. $5 per month for this one.
Also recently added is TransportInfo for bus and train timetables. It's not perfect and the interface is a little inefficient, but it's the most useful $2 per month service on Planet 3.

Xbox 360: Australia March 2 2006

XB360INFO.com has an article suggesting that March 2 2006 will be Australia's 'green circle' day. Yay. Prices are also quoted, $50 more than I predicted here, but as I feared, the exchange rate hasn't been our friend recently, and Microsoft will be hedging I guess.

The fairly early launch is very pleasant, considering I was reading an article on IGN recently where Microsoft couldn't commit to any quarter (!) of 2006.

Sony Music CDs infect Macs, too!

(via digg and macintouch) I was very concerned about the nastiness being employed in the music world thanks to Sony BMG kicking off the rootkit wars, but was confident I was immune, thanks to almost exclusively using Macs.
Well the good times are over friends, Macs are no longer immune -- however the SHIFT key still looks to be your friend on Windows (to stop AutoPlay) and it appears you still had to run an Installer on the Mac side too (owing to not having AutoPlay).
This really stops me buying CDs (not that I bought many), though I'm loving the iTunes Music Store, but guess what? Sony BMG's not on that!
I'd love to see Sony BMG's market share and revenue drop this and future quarters, just to prove a couple of points...

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SE K600i/K608i/V600i now Mac-supported

If you download and install Mac OS X 10.4.3, released this week you will no longer need to modify iSync or Address Book. All three versions of the phone are now supported by Apple. (Information from apple.com, and tested with my K608i and iMac G5.)

Australian iTunes Music Store opens

Again this is old news. The store has been open for a week now and has food much damage to Australian credit cards. Given the lack of Sony, it has an excellent range, interface, and is very fast. It's worth getting a prepaid card for the free tracks alone (last week's was Shadowland by Youth Group and was excellent). I highly recommend using a shopping cart and prepaid cards, otherwise it can get dangerous! :-)
I must say I feel for the New Zealanders who missed out. Along with the Sony issue I hope that gets resolved, though the chances of either soon is remote.

iMac Software Review

There is so much installed on my new iMac, over 20GB, that I haven't got through it all yet.
I spent most of my time in Front Row, the new fullscreen media application. It is very simple to use, which unfortunately translates to some simplifications. Dig beneath the surface and you can see it's just a frontend. An excellent example is the DVD playback. Front Row offers no way of controlling Zoom (a feature of Tiger's DVD Player), however if change the Zoom setting manually it holds for Front Row.
Another nice thing I discovered is that you can start a Music playlist, then exit to the menu and select Photos and have a video and music slideshow (hint: since the iMac has TV out with an adapter you could record this instantly to tape or DVD!)
Movie trailers come up really well, King Kong was an awesome example of this, however the movie poster interface was a bit sluggish for me.
I was a little disappointed by the lack of streaming radio and no visualiser mode in the Music mode.
No doubt Front Row will be refined and I expect to see in iLife '06 come January.
As for other software, almost everything was pre-installed, except for Apple X11, which stopped OpenOffice.org from working out of the box. More when I've had more of a play.

Back to Blog: The new iMac G5

Well I'm almost done with uni, and so have time to blog again. Let's start with Apple's new iMac G5 that I received yesterday.
Firstly, it's a very nice box. The hardware itself is excellent, though the Mighty Mouse did take and Apple still force you to turn on the right mouse button yourself. The remote control is also very nice to use, working not only in Front Row, but also to sleep and wake the computer and change the volume from the desktop. Unlike my iBook the fans haven't disturbed me so far and the speakers go very loud. The widescreen display is also excellent, for both desktop use and movies. It has a decent viewing angle horizontally, which was a problem I had with DVDs on my iBook. If you can get your hands on one (they're in very short supply) it's worth it. (By the way, I have the 17-inch model.)

SE phone tip for AMR audio

This is a tip that probably applies to many Sony Ericsson smartphones, including my K608i. AMR, or Adaptive Multi Rate, makes really small sound files, mainly for voice. However if you create AMR files, the phone's Media player doesn't read them. (The File manager does play them.) The key is to make a 3GP file with only an AMR audio track, this will play, and enables seeking, minimizing, pausing, playlists and all the cool features of the Media player. Apple's QuickTime or possibly the open source ffmpeg programs can create such files.

You have to see Serenity!

Fans of Firefly have been waiting a long time for this and boy was it worth it.
4.5 stars
It's got action sequences that outclass Star Wars, the wit of Joss Whedon, and actors that really know their characters (having had the TV show to hone them).
However it is one for the fans, with a steep learning curve if you haven't seen at least the Serenity pilot episode of Firefly.
Highly recommended. Run don't walk to the cinema for this one.
Join the GeekiNtainment Serenity Launch Party and visit the messageboards for more at http://www.geekshow.us (jking_ok)

You have got to be kidding... Podcasts in 5.1 Surround

Next week's Diggnation will be offered in Dolby 5.1 Surround. Personally I
think this is insane (and anyway totally the wrong podcast for this
technology). I'm surprised that this is happening firstly to a podcast,
although it fits perfectly with the podcast appearance of being
anti-corporation and giving the users what they want (our commercial
broadcasters won't even give us Dolby 5.1 Surround and the technology is
there as well as the bitstream).

PR stunt, won't last, while it's nice to see 5.1 being pushed the Internet
is not the place (will the audio bitrate exceed the video bitrate on this
episode???)

I want less definition in my podcasts.

Source: Systm-announce e-mail message. I'm sure you'll find the press
release on digg.com or revision3.com

Hidden Tiger option: Use CD/DVD at login

The macosxhints team have uncovered another hidden Apple gem -- this one allows you to ask Mac OS X Tiger to open a media item (for example, audio CD or DVD) upon login. In the past you had to kludge this with AppleScripts, now it's built-in.

More Apple Mac OS X hints can be found at macosxhints.com.

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