yup, what was i thinking not taking a look at this app earlier when davak mentioned it in his blog….   handbrake is an all in one video converter program.  its for both apples and pcs and does basically all the major file types/device types from iphone to psp to ps3 to apple tv to x360 to quicktime..

anywho, handbrake is able to convert a dvd to a ps3 mp4 file in about 2 hours on my setup (2gb memory, athlon 64 dual core) the quality is very good and the consistency and stability is topnotch vs ps3 video 9.  i have not had the av sync problems i had w/PS3 video 9 (very annoying when the audio would get behind the video by a minute towards the end of some movies)

now if only i could put an even bigger hdd in my ps3! oh handbrake.. how i love thee..

htpc, ps3, osx86, iphone, x360, hd, geek, windows, mac, gaming, music, console, apple | 2 Comments »

well… its official…  i sold my TC1100 tablet pc today on eBay.  my work did decide to go the route of the Dell Latitude XT tablets (heck yea!) and in turn i’ll be getting one from work so i figured i’d sell my ole sturdy, fun baby; my tc1100.  she’s been a great companion but lately has been sitting on my desk just gathering dust since i have a vaio in the living room and an XT at my desk at work (along w/3 other laptops or parts of them and 2 desktops; gotta love hardware rollouts and testing!)

i still wish other tablet makers would try the TC1100s combination slate/convertible design.  ahh, the  memories i’ve had with my TC1100.. installing of vista and ubuntu; rekindling my love of ubuntu, the failed attempts of OSX, perfection of usb booting and ghosting.. 

(pours some beer on the floor) for my tablet.. 

so, now what do i get w/that money from selling my tablet?  i was thinking of getting my camera since that would be coming out here in the next couple weeks (Sony Cybershot DSC-T300) but realized that i will be doing a TON of traveling for work in the next couple of months and also will be going to the WES 2008 conference too.  so i decided that i needed a good mobile, surfing and basic word processing/writing/blogging computer. 

(more…)

fanboy, blogging, geek, life, ubuntu, eee, tablet pc, handheld, mobile, hardware, mac, linux, windows, opinion, vista, general gadgets | 3 Comments »

i love it.. as a windows user/pc user, i love how the other side claims that its product/os is nearly unhackable but yet only less than a day after being released; Leopard has been hacked and patched to work on an Intel/AMD based pc hardware. 

Daily Apps has the full guide to making your own patched dvd and installing over here:

http://dailyapps.net/2007/10/hack-attack-install-leopard-on-your-pc-in-3-easy-steps/

i plan to try the patch myself on my Tiger partition.  hopefully my network cards (one of the two hopefully) will be recognized and then i can try using Leopard as a main os for a week or two and give a write up on it.

just thought i’d let the uninformed informed! Go OSX86 Hackers and pc geeks!

fanboy, news, osx86, culture, geek, apple, mac, hardware, pc | 5 Comments »

I love computers and gadgets, especially shiny new ones or ones that i don’t have to pay for.

My work is currently evaluating a few newer Dell laptops to see which one we will be upgrading to early next year. One of the models that we had purchased for testing got pushed off of our list due to several quirks/downfalls and in turn ended up in my little geeky, gruby hands.

Today I will give a quick mini-review of a Dell Latitude D430. This review will be using Vista 64-Bit as the OS and part of the review.

(more…)

opinion, review, laptop, vista, windows, general gadgets, mac, hardware, pc | 7 Comments »

well, a few weeks back i did a full system rebuild from scratch and originally had planned to do a six os install but decided to cut back to just a quad booting system.  i realized that installing windows98se and windows 2000 was just a waste of partitions and space since i really have no need for them. 

(more…)

geek, htpc, osx86, vista, windows, apple, mac, hardware, pc | 3 Comments »

well, today shamanstears inquired on what it takes to get osx up on a pc so i thought i’d get up a quickie on osx on an amd/intel pc.

first thing you will need to have is a p-ata harddrive.  thus far, you can not install on a s-ata drive since the current builds for pcs of osx86 do not have the driver support….

(more…)

fanboy, guides, osx86, geek, opinion, mac, hardware, web, pc | 3 Comments »

is july the official RMA month? sure seems so for me, had to RMA three items this last week: my new W810i phone (arrived DOA, argh!!), a 1GB MicroSD card, and of course my Western Digital 80GB laptop hd.  however, i guess i can’t really complain since prior to this month i’ve only had to RMA 4 items in the last 5 years (considering how many geek toys/items i buy, not a bad number).

i’ve officially given up on getting OSX on my HP TC1100.  using a different external cd/dvd drive did not seem to resolve any of the install problems/slowness.  i might try the deedmo image method but at this point don’t see any reason to try since it will prob run slow as heck.  so instead, i’m back to my dual booting XP/Vista setup.

been thinking about a few of the mods i want to do w/my new phone (that is once i get a replacement and verify that it works fine since my mods will nullify the warranty).  so far these are the mods i plan to do (given the phone is CID36 not CID49; the RMAd W810i was a CID49 so i may be limited on what i can do w/the filesystem and UI hacks).  glad i held onto my buddies dead K750 so that i can use those parts w/my W810i. i love how sony ericsson phones are so moddable! now if only they could get rid of that WSOD; however i think the problem i had w/my phone was mainly because it was really not a NIB phone (phone had signs of wear and tear; the camera lense had a nasty coating on it and the memory card slot was broken and the LCD display was not properly centered; i could see light on the side of the lcd). so hopefully get that back soon.   here’s the mods list i want to try:

-housing mod:  going to use K750i camera cover side, replace all black buttons w/silver K750 buttons

-software mods: complete overhaul of UI (black/orange brushed metal style) and Walkman player.  Possible camera and acoustic driver hacks (use drivers from K750, W800). I may see its possible to add the camera lense switch from the K750 (given there this is supported on the W810i, which it may not be).

and i’ll see if i can get tethering working too since i was able to get the non-existant VPN Internet plan from Tmobile (the $19.99 that doesn’t include wifi since who wants hotspot service to start with eh?).

i’ll be posting up some recipes to my hacks/mods later next week.  btw, if your a sony ericsson user, head over to my other fave SE hangout area: http://se-nse.com  some good SE fanboys/hackers over there.

peace

geek, fanboy, guides, osx86, handheld, modding, apple, mac, hardware, gaming, general gadgets | 4 Comments »

well, i figure its time for me to do a follow up post on my recent experience on getting Mac OSX 10.4.6 on my HP TC1100.  previously i was having some major problems getting OSX86 to install and to even boot after install.  sadly, my situation/experience has not changed in regards to getting OSX86 installed and running on my TC1100 tablet pc.

my installation will take over 5 hours to complete (if it does complete) but never boots.  i have tried using all of the known flags for darwin to see if that would speed up the install but none of them seem to have any effect (ie tried platform=x86pc and acpi, tried idehalt=0 and cpu=1, nothing seems to help).  i also have tried using a different install dvd (10.4.6 and 1.04.8, both JaS versions w/the amd/intel patches built in), different harddrive (since my 80gb died, but should be back this week), removed my 1GB memory and used only the builtin memory (512mb), removed the battery; again still over 5 hours to install and no luck on booting.

(more…)

geek, culture, tablet pc, osx86, applications, hardware, general gadgets, apple, mac, pc | 1 Comment »

just recently two huge breakthroughs were made in the PSP underground/hacking world.  Noobz and Archaemic found an exploit in the game Lumines that basically allow all PSP firmware versions (1.5 to 3.50) and allow it to run homebrew.  this is a pretty huge find, so much so that for a few days Lumines sales on amazon exploded, at one point its sales were up 5,700%! whoa.

however, this is not the first instance that a game exploit/buffer overflow has been the entry point for hackers into a gaming console.  with the xbox there came to be a way to softmod it via a hacked game save file, i believe the game used was mech assault. 

the gamecube also had a game hack too, that game was phantasy star online. it allowed users to even put linux on the gamecube.

so i’ve always wondered, do developers purposedly leave the rare exploit in their code in hopes to drive their own software sales due to the exploit? even though the console maker and other software makers may not like the idea, it really seems to be plausible thought.  one that i am sure that most devs would ever speak of. 

anywho, i also see that the iphone activation has been hacked, DVD Jon has figured out a way to emulate the apple activation servers, however you will not have any cell phone abilities (but give this some time, once the sim card lock has been broken, a combination of this hack and a future one could allow those non-cingular/att users to have actual working iphones; not saying it will be me but ya never know.. i like a good hack!).

peace

wii, culture, geek, handheld, ps3, fanboy, osx86, xbox, ds lite, console, applications, windows, web, hardware, mac, gaming, psp, modding, mobile, vista, pc | 1 Comment »

yes, you heard that correctly.  the iphone launch has come and gone yet honestly i still could care less about this phone.  to me its still an overpriced, uber locked down, last years feature phone… 

i guess i have not really ever bought into the whole hype of the phone.  as a self-proclaimed phone geek, the iphone does not offer me the features i want for a phone that costs that much.  i’d much rather save my pennies and get sony ericsson’s new replacement to the K800/K790.  hey, atleast then i get a 5.0 mp camera and a phone thats capable of sending MMS.  and again, i hate itunes and refuse to use it on my windows machine. 

plus, i’ve grown up in life and need to actually be able to access work emails to justify such a price for a phone (hell, my MDA cost me only $349 and prob still can offer the same exact features w/appropriate add-ons or hacks).

as for the iphone.. i’ll pass… to me, its just a glorified music sidekick…  plus, i want that damn sliding qwerty keyboard; software keyboards will never live up to an actual full qwerty keyboard.

however, to each his/her own.  perhaps that is why i still don’t own an ipod too..

geek, fanboy, handheld, mobile, windows, opinion, mac | 6 Comments »