Life with a windy hackintosh

I dropped my expensive macbook pro. It broke. Fortunately insurance paid out and I bought a new one. Then I dropped it, in exactly the same circumstances (although this one didn't break). So yes, I'm an idiot. Because I'm not as wealthy as Stephen Fry I can't afford to keep buying Macs so decided I needed something cheaper as a day to day carry about computer.

I'd been interested by netbooks but the few I'd looked at didn't suit my needs. However the MSI Wind U100 seemed to be getting generally good reviews, and a lot of people had successfully installed OS X.

I ended up with the Advent branded version called the 4211C (£200 from the PC World online refurb section). Installed a bigger hard disk, another gig of RAM, OS X Leopard and I'm very happy. I also bought an extended battery, it adds weight and bulk to the machine, but also doubles up as a handy carry handle. That wouldn't be for everyone but it gives me a good 5+ hours use. I like that.

I've been using this machine now for several months and it's become my main day to day computer. The wind is a well built little machine for the money with a very usable keyboard and a nice bright screen. It runs OS X well. The user experience is nicer than the installed Windows XP Home, then again I do just prefer OS X. Give it some serious thinking to do and you soon encounter the limitations of the Atom N270 processor, but I'm even using the machine to put together some radio programmes for the BBC. Rendering the project on Reaper can take a little while, but that isn't the end of the world.

There are a few little niggles with Leopard on the Wind however. It's necessary to mess about with some drivers (.kext files) to get the display working in the correct resolution. Sound isn't perfect: on install it's built in speakers only. A bit of messing about can give you the headphone socket but no mic or external input. I also haven't managed to get the webcam to work at all. Wifi is something of a compromise: the standard realtek card isn't recognized by OS X, but realtek have made a utility that makes it work well enough. On the subject of networking the ethernet needs a manual DHCP prod after the machine's been asleep.

That's quite a list of niggles, but for me it really hasn't been a problem. What I've gained in a small, cheap, highly portable and adequately powerful computer running my favourite OS makes it worth dealing with these things.

I do hope Apple enter the netbook fray and build something like this, complete with the perfectly smooth user experience us Apple users have come to expect. In the meantime idiots like me who can't be trusted not to drop their Macbook can instead potentially destroy something that's about a 7th of the cost.

Would you second this?

Something currently doing the rounds of e-mail, that you may come across at some point is a letter supposedly sent by an American housewife to a local paper. I received this from a Christian friend with the tag line of "Will you second this? I do".

The full text is below, but in essence it's a pro-American, pro-war, pro-army, anti-Islamic list. I'm not going to go into my thoughts on other religions, or any religion for that matter. But the sad thing about this letter is the way it uses the name of Jesus Christ. The idea seems to be that if you're pro-Christ, you must be anti... everything else.

For me this represents a fundamentally skewed view of the Christian faith.

Christ commanded his followers to love their enemy and to forgive others their sins. How many people across the globe regularly say the Lord's prayer that contains the phrase "forgive us our sins/trespasses, as we forgive those who sin/trespass against us."

For Christians this means forgiving the moron who cuts you up when driving. It means forgiving the inconsiderate colleague. It means forgiving the terrorists who blew up a train on the London underground. It means forgiving those behind the 9/11 twin towers outrage.

As that great philosopher Sheryl Crow once said: "No-one said it would be easy, but no-one said it'd be this hard".

So no. I can't second this:

Written by a housewife in New Brunswick, to her local newspaper. This is one
Ticked off lady..

'Are we fighting a war on terror or aren't we? Was it or was it not started
By Islamic people who brought it to our shores on September 11, 2001 and
Have continually threatened to do so since?

Were people from all over the world, not brutally murdered that day, in
Downtown Manhattan , across the Potomac from the nation's capitol and in a
Field in Pennsylvania ?

Did nearly three thousand men, women and children die a horrible, burning
Or crushing death that day, or didn't they?

And I'm supposed to care that a few Taliban were claiming to be tortured
By a justice system of the nation they come from and are fighting against in
A brutal insurgency.

I'll start caring when Osama bin Laden turns himself in and repents for
Incinerating all those innocent people on 9/11.

I'll care about the Koran when the fanatics in the Middle East start caring
About the Holy Bible, the mere belief of which is a crime punishable by
Beheading in Afghanistan .

I'll care when these thugs tell the world they are sorry for hacking off
Nick Berg's head while Berg screamed through his gurgling slashed throat..

I'll care when the cowardly so-called 'insurgents' in Afghanistan come out
And fight like men instead of disrespecting their own religion by hiding in
Mosques.

I'll care when the mindless zealots who blows themselves up in search of
Nirvana care about the innocent children within range of their suicide
Bombs.

I'll care when the Canadian media stops pretending that their freedom of
Speech on stories is more important than the lives of the soldiers on the
Ground or their families waiting a home to hear about them when something
happens.

In the meantime, when I hear a story about a CANADIAN soldier roughing up an
Insurgent terrorist to obtain information, know this:

I don't care.

When I see a wounded terrorist get shot in the head when he is told not to
Move because he might be booby-trapped, you can take it to the bank ..

I don't care.

When I hear that a prisoner, who was issued a Koran and a prayer mat, and
Fed 'special' food that is paid for by my tax dollars, is complaining that
His holy book is being 'mishandled,' you can absolutely believe in your
Heart of hearts:

I don't care.

And oh, by the way, I've noticed that sometimes it's spelled 'Koran' and
Other times 'Quran.' Well, Jimmy Crack Corn you guessed it,

I don't care!!

If you agree with this viewpoint, pass this on to all your E-mail friends
Sooner or later, it'll get to the people responsible for this ridiculous
Behaviour!

If you don't agree, then by all means hit the delete button. Should you
Choose the latter, then please don't complain when more atrocities committed
By radical Muslims happen here in our great Country! And may I add:

'Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in
The world. But, the Soldiers don't have that problem.'

I have another quote that I would like to add, AND.......I hope you forward
All this.

One last thought for the day:

Only five defining forces have ever offered to die for you:

1. Jesus Christ

2. The Canadian Soldier.

3. The British Soldier.

4. The US Soldier, and

5. The Australian Soldier

One died for your soul, the other 4 for your freedom..

Orange really has got better

So it's been a while since my Orange broadband connection suddenly seemed to be getting a half decent speed... And, it's held up.

So I have a new benchmark. A domestic Orange 8Mb ADSL line is giving a real world 6Mb+. This contrasts sharply with BT Internet domestic 8Mb which gives under 2Mb. Not only that but at work we have a BT Internet Business connection. This promises to be faster with lower contention ratios. Download speed still doesn't even reach 2Mb though and upload is no better than Orange.

BT, you really are holding Britain back.

Orange broadband suddenly seems better

Because I live in a village our local exchange isn't scheduled to support LLU (Local Link Unbundling) until about 2012 which means we don't have access to all those tasty ADSL2+ services offered by the likes of Bethere.co.uk

I've used Be's service and it's very good. A reliable 15Mb/s realistic download speed is pretty good in my book.

But we've got the Orange broadband Max 8Mb service. I've always found any 8Mb service only seems to offer a realistic 2Mb downstream at best. My parents have BT Internet's 8Mb service and it's terrible.

However I tried the BBC iPlayer network performance test and it reported I was getting 6Mb/s download and the Orange connection now seems to be able to support upwards of 5Mb/s streaming.

Last time I checked I was only getting around the 2Mb/s mark... so what's happened? Is this some sort of fluke or have Orange/BT done something with their networks in recognition that it really isn't ok to charge for an 8Mb connection and only provide 2Mb.

I'll keep an eye on it.

Virtual piracy

It was the era of tapes and Sony Walkmans but vinyl was still king and CDs only found a home in hifi cabinet of serious audiophiles. I used to tape songs off the radio, usually Radio 1's top 40 countdown on a Sunday evening (long before the dreadful Fearn and Reggie). This was of course illegal. I knew lots of people who did the same but somehow the world kept on turning and people kept buying records.

Record company execs weren't happy that it was easy to record from vinyl onto audio cassette and then lend, or even give this copy to someone else, but the first time I remember the copyright protectors declaring the end of music for all time was the advent of the twin tape deck. At the press of a button you could copy a tape, sometimes even at high speed. But somehow the world kept on turning and people kept buying music.

Fast forward a few years to the next big technology jump - the domestic PC CD burner. Not only could you now copy music, but it was an exact copy (more or less) with no loss of quality. This really would bring about the end of music. But somehow the world...etc etc.

Today's 'end of the world' technology has been around for a surprisingly long time with MP3s circulating from the early 90s. Initially those distributing large numbers of MP3 files tended to do it on website. Easy to deal with those, just shut them down. What's really spoiling the business lunches of record company execs is bittorrent - filesharing.

Bittorrent allows me to make files on my computer available to other people. As others download the files, they make them available too. The result is a world wide network of computers all offering the files meaning the download is spread across lots of machines. It's very clever, very efficient and quite difficult to deal with.

If you've been paying any attention to the news circulating around nerdy tech circles then you'll know about this. The Pirate Bay people were offering a bittorrent tracker, and so were an easy target. Targetting those who are actually doing the sharing is much harder, not least because there are so many.

Here lies the crux of the problem; a generation of people now exist who think media (music, TV programmes, movies, even newspapers) cost nothing.

There are lots of places 'blame' can lie for this and I think it's too simplistic to argue that filesharing is entirely responsible. It has a big part to play, but so does advertising supported services that are so common.

People who create should get paid for their efforts unless they choose otherwise. Therefore taking music, movies, software, etc for free when you should pay for it isn't fair. However what's equally unfair, particuarly in the music industy, are the HUGE profits made by record companies when the artists may get very little if anything.

What's particularly concerning is that across the world increasingly complex and punitive legislation is being used to combat copyright violation. It's bad in the US and could get particularly bad in the UK.

Because of all this it's incumbent on responsible adults to lobby politicians to combat unfair and unreasonable legislation. Be under no illusion that highly resourced companies with lots of lawyers are doing exactly this. We should question and combat the FUD circulated that copyright violation is theft (it isn't), that copyright violation is funding terrorism (there's no evidence it is) and that any change to the status quo will ruin the world (it won't, but it might ruin the bank balances of a few individuals). We should demand fair use; a system that allows the use of music clips, movie clips and credited photos for no commercial gain, and allows trialing of software without restrictions.

Just as importantly we should also do our bit to educate others, particularly the young, that just because you can get something for nothing, doesn't mean you should.

I could go on. A great deal needs to be overhauled, not least the highly questionable Performing Rights Society in the UK. The bottom line is fairness. Treat me unfairly, force draconian DRM measures and awkward software copy controls and I won't treat you fairly in return.

In other news...

It was nice to put together the ragbag of bits that is by PA system for the first time in a year and find it all works as expected. Got an irritating and difficult to trace fault with a Tascam digital mixing desk. The desk keeps losing track of where one particular fader is. Tried replacing it, no different. Probably means there's some impedance measuring going wrong. Actually I have no idea how it works... only that sometimes it doesn't.

What's the point of Duffy?

that something or other avenue song was ok... but for the most part she sounds like someone who's accidentally swallowed a party squeeky thing. Rubbish.