Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
The Hackintosh Post, Part 2
In a previous post I discussed ordering my Dell Mini 10v and all the fun of installing OS X on it. I've had a couple weeks to use it, and here's a few thoughts on using it.
Right, so let's get this one out right away. The thing is small. It's funny, opening up my PowerBook, the 15 inch screen looks absolutely EPIC in comparison with the 10 inches on the Dell. So it's definitely small, but generally it's not a problem. Occasionally there will be a problem due to the height of the screen - 576 pixels isn't very tall, and there's been a couple times that hitting the "continue" button isn't possible because it's off the bottom of the screen. Well, maybe a couple times, maybe just once, I forget. I use Google Reader on it a lot, and I do find myself collapsing everything possible on the left side. So screen size...yeah, it can be a little annoying, but it's no deal-breaker. I wouldn't want to go any smaller though.
Also to contend with is the keyboard size, 93% (I think) of a full-size keyboard. This hasn't been a big deal for me either. Definitely typing long emails or whatever is a pain. But would it be any better on a full size laptop keyboard? I'm not sure. Sometimes hitting the keys towards the outside of the keyboard is a bit challenging, though again, not a deal-breaker. Easily manageable I'll say.
Another concern of the netbook is horsepower, especially with OS X. I never ran 10.5 on it, only 10.6, so I have no idea if that made it slower or faster (I've read both reports). In general usage - the internet, basically - I haven't had any speed issues. Firefox is great, YouTube works great, iTunes even streams music just fine (although the speakers are mega-miserable, as expected). Hulu...yeah, that can be a little sketchy. I've used Hulu Desktop as well as just the web version, and it just seems like some clips play better than others. But if you don't touch it and let the menus disappear, for me it seems to settle into a groove and is totally watchable. It may drop a frame here and there, but come on you're watching it on a 10 inch screen, no big deal.
I've read reports that upgrading the ram to 2gb can make a big difference, and given OS X's memory usage I wouldn't doubt that at all. I may attack that, one day. But speed-wise, everything that I've tried to do has been fine. I did run Geekbench on it, and it scored like 996 - which is almost twice my 1ghz PowerBook G4. That's strictly a processor benchmark, so it doesn't mean much, but it makes me feel better.
The actual unit is well built, despite being tiny it doesn't feel real cheap. I mean, it's no titanium PowerBook, no doubt, but it appears solid. The screen is quite glossy - I've never been a fan of this, and I definitely see why. However I had totally forgotten about that until just now. So you get used to it in a hurry. If I had the option, I still would pick a matte screen, but whatever, no biggie. Also glossy is the backside of the screen, which picks up fingerprints just like the back of the iPhone. I've given up trying to keep it clean (actually I kinda forgot). I wonder if it would be better with a non-black variety?
Ports are pretty standard - there's a VGA out that I really wish was HDMI though. Hooking this puppy up to a HDTV? Yeah buddy. Although I'm not positive if it could push that many pixels given it's limited hardware, I'd like to try. Anyway I probably wouldn't ever actually do that, but it would be nice.
Now this is what I'm talking about. In my couple weeks, I haven't actually gotten the battery under 50%. I've checked the estimated times a couple times, and with a full charge it's claiming over 6 hours of battery life remaining. Generally I trust the numbers that OS X tells me on my PowerBook, but even if it was massively wrong (which again I doubt) and battery life was like 5 hours, that would still be awesome. And this is all battery life with the screen at like 70% brightness, wifi and bluetooth both on. I can sit through a whole 2-hour Monday Night Raw using my netbook and not have to plug it in! How awesome!!
Okay, so it can't be all roses and sunshine. Straight up, the trackpad sucks. The trackpad is supported by OS X's trackpad drivers (I think anyway) so you can get some of the gestures, like two finger tap for right click and even a three finger swipe. Unfortunately, the trackpad is really short in the vertical direction, so I find myself hitting the edges a lot. It also seems to get confused all the time about what is a two-finger tap for right click and a two finger scroll. Maybe I need to play with some settings, but the trackpad really is a pain.
And there is a physical button on the trackpad...just...it IS the trackpad. Yeah. The bottom of the trackpad clicks down like a button. Which seems like a good idea...except when you click the trackpad, invariably you slightly move your finger, which moves the cursor, probably off of whatever you tried to click on. In Linux, tapping the right side of the button did a right-click - well I haven't found that same behavior in OS X (unless it's a setting somewhere I missed?), so right clicks can't be done via the hardware button at all.
So definitely, the trackpad is the weak point of the whole system. But to be fair, I do use it successfully quite a bit - it's not unusable. It is not a terribly fun experience though. It's not terrible enough for me to haul out my bluetooth mighty mouse every time, if that says anything. And incidentally, for whatever reason that bluetooth mouse works way better with my netbook than my desktop. Maybe it's just that much better than the trackpad, I dunno, but I'll take it.
In conclusion, definitely this was a worthwhile investment. Other than the trackpad situation, my main concern is that Apple is going to release something awesomer in January. I am also a little concerned with Hulu video playback...if it can barely handle it now, that doesn't bode well for the future.
But I can't complain at the moment. It's cheap, mega-portable, has ridiculous battery life, boots up in like 20 seconds, runs 1Password, and lets me check my email and Google Reader. Running OS X 10.6 doesn't seem to have too negative of an effect on the speed of my system, which I am pleasantly surprised by. Upgrading to 2gb of ram seems like it will give OS X some room to stretch as well, probably a good investment.
In eBay terms, that's an A+++, would definitely do business with again.
Size
Right, so let's get this one out right away. The thing is small. It's funny, opening up my PowerBook, the 15 inch screen looks absolutely EPIC in comparison with the 10 inches on the Dell. So it's definitely small, but generally it's not a problem. Occasionally there will be a problem due to the height of the screen - 576 pixels isn't very tall, and there's been a couple times that hitting the "continue" button isn't possible because it's off the bottom of the screen. Well, maybe a couple times, maybe just once, I forget. I use Google Reader on it a lot, and I do find myself collapsing everything possible on the left side. So screen size...yeah, it can be a little annoying, but it's no deal-breaker. I wouldn't want to go any smaller though.
Also to contend with is the keyboard size, 93% (I think) of a full-size keyboard. This hasn't been a big deal for me either. Definitely typing long emails or whatever is a pain. But would it be any better on a full size laptop keyboard? I'm not sure. Sometimes hitting the keys towards the outside of the keyboard is a bit challenging, though again, not a deal-breaker. Easily manageable I'll say.
Speed
Another concern of the netbook is horsepower, especially with OS X. I never ran 10.5 on it, only 10.6, so I have no idea if that made it slower or faster (I've read both reports). In general usage - the internet, basically - I haven't had any speed issues. Firefox is great, YouTube works great, iTunes even streams music just fine (although the speakers are mega-miserable, as expected). Hulu...yeah, that can be a little sketchy. I've used Hulu Desktop as well as just the web version, and it just seems like some clips play better than others. But if you don't touch it and let the menus disappear, for me it seems to settle into a groove and is totally watchable. It may drop a frame here and there, but come on you're watching it on a 10 inch screen, no big deal.
I've read reports that upgrading the ram to 2gb can make a big difference, and given OS X's memory usage I wouldn't doubt that at all. I may attack that, one day. But speed-wise, everything that I've tried to do has been fine. I did run Geekbench on it, and it scored like 996 - which is almost twice my 1ghz PowerBook G4. That's strictly a processor benchmark, so it doesn't mean much, but it makes me feel better.
Hardware
The actual unit is well built, despite being tiny it doesn't feel real cheap. I mean, it's no titanium PowerBook, no doubt, but it appears solid. The screen is quite glossy - I've never been a fan of this, and I definitely see why. However I had totally forgotten about that until just now. So you get used to it in a hurry. If I had the option, I still would pick a matte screen, but whatever, no biggie. Also glossy is the backside of the screen, which picks up fingerprints just like the back of the iPhone. I've given up trying to keep it clean (actually I kinda forgot). I wonder if it would be better with a non-black variety?
Ports are pretty standard - there's a VGA out that I really wish was HDMI though. Hooking this puppy up to a HDTV? Yeah buddy. Although I'm not positive if it could push that many pixels given it's limited hardware, I'd like to try. Anyway I probably wouldn't ever actually do that, but it would be nice.
Battery Life
Now this is what I'm talking about. In my couple weeks, I haven't actually gotten the battery under 50%. I've checked the estimated times a couple times, and with a full charge it's claiming over 6 hours of battery life remaining. Generally I trust the numbers that OS X tells me on my PowerBook, but even if it was massively wrong (which again I doubt) and battery life was like 5 hours, that would still be awesome. And this is all battery life with the screen at like 70% brightness, wifi and bluetooth both on. I can sit through a whole 2-hour Monday Night Raw using my netbook and not have to plug it in! How awesome!!
The Trackpad
Okay, so it can't be all roses and sunshine. Straight up, the trackpad sucks. The trackpad is supported by OS X's trackpad drivers (I think anyway) so you can get some of the gestures, like two finger tap for right click and even a three finger swipe. Unfortunately, the trackpad is really short in the vertical direction, so I find myself hitting the edges a lot. It also seems to get confused all the time about what is a two-finger tap for right click and a two finger scroll. Maybe I need to play with some settings, but the trackpad really is a pain.
And there is a physical button on the trackpad...just...it IS the trackpad. Yeah. The bottom of the trackpad clicks down like a button. Which seems like a good idea...except when you click the trackpad, invariably you slightly move your finger, which moves the cursor, probably off of whatever you tried to click on. In Linux, tapping the right side of the button did a right-click - well I haven't found that same behavior in OS X (unless it's a setting somewhere I missed?), so right clicks can't be done via the hardware button at all.
So definitely, the trackpad is the weak point of the whole system. But to be fair, I do use it successfully quite a bit - it's not unusable. It is not a terribly fun experience though. It's not terrible enough for me to haul out my bluetooth mighty mouse every time, if that says anything. And incidentally, for whatever reason that bluetooth mouse works way better with my netbook than my desktop. Maybe it's just that much better than the trackpad, I dunno, but I'll take it.
Overall
In conclusion, definitely this was a worthwhile investment. Other than the trackpad situation, my main concern is that Apple is going to release something awesomer in January. I am also a little concerned with Hulu video playback...if it can barely handle it now, that doesn't bode well for the future.
But I can't complain at the moment. It's cheap, mega-portable, has ridiculous battery life, boots up in like 20 seconds, runs 1Password, and lets me check my email and Google Reader. Running OS X 10.6 doesn't seem to have too negative of an effect on the speed of my system, which I am pleasantly surprised by. Upgrading to 2gb of ram seems like it will give OS X some room to stretch as well, probably a good investment.
In eBay terms, that's an A+++, would definitely do business with again.
Arcade cabinet update
EDIT: Long-time readers (hah) may remember about a year ago I attempted to upgrade the arcade cabinet control panel. Mostly it worked, but unfortunately I failed at hooking up the LEDs. Yeah, I wired all 24 LEDs backwards. That's 48 solders, 96 wire-end-strips, and 8 crimped disconnectors all that needed to be removed. Luckily, the ridiculousness that I went through to get all 24 resistors connected to the controller board still was usable.
I finally got around to looking at this again, and after ordering a new set of LEDs and a close inspection of what I needed to achieve, I have something working. The photo shows player 4's buttons lit up in glorious yellow. Unfortunately that was like 2 hours of work. Hopefully the last three players go a bit faster now that I'm back in the swing of soldering.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
The Hackintosh Post, Part 1
I mentioned in a previous post that I got a Dell Mini 10v, and successfully installed OS X on it. The Dell Mini 10v, if you don't know, is in the class of laptops called "netbooks" these days. It's a small, low powered laptop designed to be used mainly to surf the internet. The screen is 10 inches diagonally, and features a keyboard that's supposedly 93% of a full-size keyboard.
My laptop (a 1ghz PowerBook G4) is getting long in the tooth these days, even for standard browsing tasks. Even YouTube can overwhelm it, which is a bad sign. Perhaps a good reformatting would help it, but it's not winning my heart over with battery life either - about 40 minutes with mega dim screen brightness, tops. Sure, I could get a new battery...but buying a battery for equipment this old is starting to enter into the "vintage" territory, and that means it's going to get pricey for a new one. And a used battery...yeah, doesn't that defeat the point, sorta? So that's why I wanted a new laptop. And not to mention that sadly, finding PowerPC compatible software is slowly becoming harder and harder, which is way annoying.
Ordering it was a bit of a challenge. I wanted a solid state drive (SSD), for sure. When attempting to configure the Windows XP model with the 16gb SSD, the website complained that it wasn't valid for my operating system. So...yeah. On the Windows XP laptop, the SSD is not possible, despite being an option on the page.
Instead, I had to find the Ubuntu Linux version, which offers a whole different track of options. Here I could get the SSD, but the 802.11n wireless module wasn't available (g only). I decided I wanted the SSD over the n-wireless which I don't even have a router for yet, so I ordered the Ubuntu version. The configurator was really quite frustrating, as the whole point of buying it here was to configure it exactly how I wanted it. Oh well I suppose.
I also opted for the 6-cell battery, which in retrospect was an awesome move. Here's why - the battery life is ridiculous. It's rated for over 6 hours, which seems to be right in line with what OS X is estimating. I haven't used it that long to find out for sure, but in my usage so far, I haven't come even close to draining it.
Just for completeness' sake, here's the specs of what I got. Note that a large majority of netbooks sold these days use the exact same 1.6ghz Atom processor, which I was quite surprised to see.
Before I installed OS X, I wasn't terribly excited about the Dell-ified version of Ubuntu 8 that came with the machine. I thought being Linux, that I might be spared all the garbage that Dell ships with their machines - but not the case. The Firefox install had the Yahoo! toolbar, there was some shady "Dell support" option on the menu bar, and some other similar ghettoness. It lasted all of about 30 minutes before getting a fresh 9.04 install (which by the way, upgraded without any issues).
Installing OS X 10.6.1 was cake (after all, it's a piece of cake to bake a pretty cake), thanks to this handy guide from Gizmodo. After achieving a 16gb flash drive (I'm getting a stable of flash drives these days) it took a couple hours, but there weren't any major issues. The only issue that I find at this point is if it falls asleep on its own, it's a little flaky waking back up - i.e. it doesn't wake up. But I've been able to shut the lid and open it again, and it's ready to rock and roll. A minor workaround I'd say.
NOTE a large reason why I got the Dell 10v was the ease of Hackintoshing - for whatever reason, there's lots of support for it out there. I know other Atom-based netbooks are Hackintosh-able, but possibly not quite as easily as the Dell 10v.
And I considered sticking with Ubuntu - after all, given the usage of this machine, what's the point, right? Seems like Ubuntu might even be a better choice, assuming it's a little speedier on the admittedly limited hardware. However, I was swayed not only because OS X is awesome, but 1Password is awesome too. I know I've mentioned 1Password before, but if you forgot - it's a password manager for OS X that includes browser plugins and is generally awesome. Real easy, convenient way to improve your password security. I really want to get to the point that every password I use is generated by 1Password, and thus is mega long and complicated. Without 1Password, that's not going to happen.
That's the story of getting my Dell Mini 10v, now Hackintosh. I'll offer some thoughts on using the little guy in a future post.
My laptop (a 1ghz PowerBook G4) is getting long in the tooth these days, even for standard browsing tasks. Even YouTube can overwhelm it, which is a bad sign. Perhaps a good reformatting would help it, but it's not winning my heart over with battery life either - about 40 minutes with mega dim screen brightness, tops. Sure, I could get a new battery...but buying a battery for equipment this old is starting to enter into the "vintage" territory, and that means it's going to get pricey for a new one. And a used battery...yeah, doesn't that defeat the point, sorta? So that's why I wanted a new laptop. And not to mention that sadly, finding PowerPC compatible software is slowly becoming harder and harder, which is way annoying.
Ordering it was a bit of a challenge. I wanted a solid state drive (SSD), for sure. When attempting to configure the Windows XP model with the 16gb SSD, the website complained that it wasn't valid for my operating system. So...yeah. On the Windows XP laptop, the SSD is not possible, despite being an option on the page.
Instead, I had to find the Ubuntu Linux version, which offers a whole different track of options. Here I could get the SSD, but the 802.11n wireless module wasn't available (g only). I decided I wanted the SSD over the n-wireless which I don't even have a router for yet, so I ordered the Ubuntu version. The configurator was really quite frustrating, as the whole point of buying it here was to configure it exactly how I wanted it. Oh well I suppose.
I also opted for the 6-cell battery, which in retrospect was an awesome move. Here's why - the battery life is ridiculous. It's rated for over 6 hours, which seems to be right in line with what OS X is estimating. I haven't used it that long to find out for sure, but in my usage so far, I haven't come even close to draining it.
Just for completeness' sake, here's the specs of what I got. Note that a large majority of netbooks sold these days use the exact same 1.6ghz Atom processor, which I was quite surprised to see.
- 10.1 inch glossy display (1024x576)
- Intel® Atom Z530 (1.60GHz/533MHz FSB/512K L2Cache)
- 6-cell battery
- 1gb ram
- 16gb SSD
- Bluetooth 2.1
Before I installed OS X, I wasn't terribly excited about the Dell-ified version of Ubuntu 8 that came with the machine. I thought being Linux, that I might be spared all the garbage that Dell ships with their machines - but not the case. The Firefox install had the Yahoo! toolbar, there was some shady "Dell support" option on the menu bar, and some other similar ghettoness. It lasted all of about 30 minutes before getting a fresh 9.04 install (which by the way, upgraded without any issues).
Installing OS X 10.6.1 was cake (after all, it's a piece of cake to bake a pretty cake), thanks to this handy guide from Gizmodo. After achieving a 16gb flash drive (I'm getting a stable of flash drives these days) it took a couple hours, but there weren't any major issues. The only issue that I find at this point is if it falls asleep on its own, it's a little flaky waking back up - i.e. it doesn't wake up. But I've been able to shut the lid and open it again, and it's ready to rock and roll. A minor workaround I'd say.
NOTE a large reason why I got the Dell 10v was the ease of Hackintoshing - for whatever reason, there's lots of support for it out there. I know other Atom-based netbooks are Hackintosh-able, but possibly not quite as easily as the Dell 10v.
And I considered sticking with Ubuntu - after all, given the usage of this machine, what's the point, right? Seems like Ubuntu might even be a better choice, assuming it's a little speedier on the admittedly limited hardware. However, I was swayed not only because OS X is awesome, but 1Password is awesome too. I know I've mentioned 1Password before, but if you forgot - it's a password manager for OS X that includes browser plugins and is generally awesome. Real easy, convenient way to improve your password security. I really want to get to the point that every password I use is generated by 1Password, and thus is mega long and complicated. Without 1Password, that's not going to happen.
That's the story of getting my Dell Mini 10v, now Hackintosh. I'll offer some thoughts on using the little guy in a future post.
Spammers are stupid
I haven't gotten a ton of spam comments on my blog, but it's been more than I'd like. So you've now got to be logged in to comment. I don't remember if anybody legit has been commenting as anonymous? Mom/Dad if you were, you gotta login with your gmail information (i.e. you don't have to sign up again!).
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Dell Mini 10v Hackintosh
Just a quick note, if for nothing else to make me revisit this later - I picked up a Dell Mini 10v over Thanksgiving. I thought it was a Black Friday deal, but turns out it was regular price, which does make me sad. Only a little sad though, because I got OS X installed on it! It's got a 10 inch screen - a bit small, though plenty for the brief internet usage that I'll be doing on it. The highlight is certainly the 6-cell battery, which OS X claims will last over 7 hours on a full charge, with wifi on! I don't necessarily believe that, but reviews have said over 6 hours of solid usage, and that's outstanding.
Full review, and description of the ridiculousness that occurred when trying to configure my options from Dell's website to come later.
Amazon's Payphrase
Today I ordered my first round of Christmas presents from Amazon.com. Still more to achieve, which I need to get taken care of soon, but I feel better getting at least part of them ordered. I also tried out this "Payphrase" business that Amazon is promoting. I just realized you get 5% "cashback" when using it, information that I wish I would have seen earlier!
Except I'm not really sure what the point is? So you have this phrase setup that's connected to your shipping and billing information. You put in the phrase, and a pin number, and that's all you have to enter. They appear to be positioning it between the 1-click ordering and traditional shopping cart style ordering.
With the traditional method, you add stuff to the cart, review your cart, then click through all the various screens checking your billing info, shipping info, etc etc etc. With 1-click, once you have your default stuff setup, it's literally one click (well, two clicks if you want to order more than one of a given item). This is somewhere in the middle - after entering your phrase and PIN, you are given a basic screen where you can pick your shipping speed, and that may be about it. Hit submit, and you're good to go.
So...is that really necessary? I mean, really. How hard is it to put in your whole email address and password, that you already know?
In my case too, it caused me a lot of confusion ordering with shipping when I was more than one different thing. The way it works is you have a half hour to order additional items, and they will be shipped together to save on shipping costs. So the first item I ordered, I made sure it qualified for free shipping (I don't think that was strictly necessary, but I wanted to do it that way). Then the next item I ordered, when I hit "checkout", I didn't have a free shipping option because the item wasn't over $25. I confirmed actually paying for shipping, but then when I looked in "My Orders", it had combined it with the previous item's free shipping shipment.
All in all, that's a rather intelligent feature. Obviously yes I want the free shipping, and it's really cool that it's hooking me up like that. However, the price that I confirmed was WITH shipping, and that wasn't the price that I actually paid. That part is a little sketchy if you ask me. I want to know EXACTLY what price I paid for the item, shipping and all. And what if I had chosen a more expensive shipping option for the first one? Who knows what would have happened. I assume they wouldn't/couldn't charge me MORE than I agreed to, right?
So Payphrase, really I'm not sure what your purpose is. I did read briefly that you could see the payphrase featured on non-Amazon sites somehow. That seems like a feature that might make it at least somewhat reasonable to exist, although I still don't see the benefit in making me learn another set of credentials. But as long as you're giving me 5% cashback (through the end of the year they claim, FYI), I'll be playing your game Amazon. Still a sucker for deals.
Except I'm not really sure what the point is? So you have this phrase setup that's connected to your shipping and billing information. You put in the phrase, and a pin number, and that's all you have to enter. They appear to be positioning it between the 1-click ordering and traditional shopping cart style ordering.
With the traditional method, you add stuff to the cart, review your cart, then click through all the various screens checking your billing info, shipping info, etc etc etc. With 1-click, once you have your default stuff setup, it's literally one click (well, two clicks if you want to order more than one of a given item). This is somewhere in the middle - after entering your phrase and PIN, you are given a basic screen where you can pick your shipping speed, and that may be about it. Hit submit, and you're good to go.
So...is that really necessary? I mean, really. How hard is it to put in your whole email address and password, that you already know?
In my case too, it caused me a lot of confusion ordering with shipping when I was more than one different thing. The way it works is you have a half hour to order additional items, and they will be shipped together to save on shipping costs. So the first item I ordered, I made sure it qualified for free shipping (I don't think that was strictly necessary, but I wanted to do it that way). Then the next item I ordered, when I hit "checkout", I didn't have a free shipping option because the item wasn't over $25. I confirmed actually paying for shipping, but then when I looked in "My Orders", it had combined it with the previous item's free shipping shipment.
All in all, that's a rather intelligent feature. Obviously yes I want the free shipping, and it's really cool that it's hooking me up like that. However, the price that I confirmed was WITH shipping, and that wasn't the price that I actually paid. That part is a little sketchy if you ask me. I want to know EXACTLY what price I paid for the item, shipping and all. And what if I had chosen a more expensive shipping option for the first one? Who knows what would have happened. I assume they wouldn't/couldn't charge me MORE than I agreed to, right?
So Payphrase, really I'm not sure what your purpose is. I did read briefly that you could see the payphrase featured on non-Amazon sites somehow. That seems like a feature that might make it at least somewhat reasonable to exist, although I still don't see the benefit in making me learn another set of credentials. But as long as you're giving me 5% cashback (through the end of the year they claim, FYI), I'll be playing your game Amazon. Still a sucker for deals.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Monday, December 7, 2009
Friday, December 4, 2009
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