Apple Boot Camp

Now I know it's been almost a week since the official release of this software, but it isn't until now that I have come to fully understand and appreciate the ripple in the pond.
Boot Camp goes beyond any emulation software available on the Macintosh and Allows the Intel Mac User to install natively Windows XP 2nd Edition on their hard drive on a separate partition. The install process although warned to be very hard and is provided with a .pdf file with step by step instructions as the process could be potentially fatal (Erasing your whole hard drive).
Although this task may seem daunting (either finding a legitimate copy of XP or Installing or both) the one thing that is most challenging is accepting the fact that XP can run on a Mac. For a Mac Fan it's very difficult to accept the login sound and the cheesy hills background. However, what was most pleasing was that we could now play the video games in which we had once been denied. Although I saw first hand how the drivers can be a bit flaky I can be only optimistic as to what the future holds for apple and the overall effect this will have on the PC community.

http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/

New Server.

IMG_0840
Originally uploaded by zeusfaber.

This is the new server that my brother and I bought. (more pics on Flickr) Dell PowerEdge 2550: 2GB of ECC RAM, 4 x 18GB SCSI drives and two Pentium 3 1GHz processors. Pretty sweet box.

Watch out Google, we are coming for ya!!

Update to my Homeland Security Post

Here is a good example of what I was talking about: "Terrorist 007, Exposed". Here's an excerpt:

In one instance, Irhabi posted a 20-page message titled "Seminar on Hacking Websites," to the Ekhlas forum. It provided detailed information on the art of hacking, listing dozens of vulnerable Web sites to which one could upload shared media. Irhabi used this strategy himself, uploading data to a Web site run by the state of Arkansas, and then to another run by George Washington University. This stunt led many experts to believe -- erroneously -- that Irhabi was based in the United States.

Irhabi used countless other Web sites as free hosts for material that the jihadists needed to upload and share. In addition to these sites, Irhabi provided techniques for discovering server vulnerabilities, in the event that his suggested sites became secure. In this way, jihadists could use third-party hosts to disseminate propaganda so that they did not have to risk using their own web space and, more importantly, their own money.


Trust me, it's not going to get any better.

Department of Homeland Security

My rant for the week:


If this doesn't cook your noodle I'm not sure what will. Read: DHS Gets Another F in Computer Security.

The Department of Homeland Security, which is charged with setting the government's cyber security agenda, earned a grade of F for the third straight year from the House Government Reform Committee.

This is not a good situation. I think about this...If you wanted to cause irreputable harm to the US without touching our soil or air space, how would you do it? Attack the government and corporate computer systems. Don't think for a second that terrorist groups and countries alike have not started preparing for just that. I don't want to sound fanatical but this could be the types of things we see in the next wave of terrorism and for that matter warfare in general. Luckily this will likely lead to no innocents dying, but may lead to the demise of corporate and government assets and privacy.

The worst part about this is that the people that run the government and the people who elect them are not aware of this notion of computer security. These are likely the same people that have a post-it note on their monitor with their password on it. Change of this type will have to come from the bottom, young people that are computer knowledgable eventually growing up and running this country and it's businesses. Sadly, I doubt that we have that much time before the cyber version of 9/11 happens.

Define:Mung

For those of us whom have seen too much South Park and think Mung is some perverted word I give you the actual definition in this "Blogs" context.

Wikipedia Definition of Mung

Easy Vinyl to MP3 Conversion.

This one is easy and if you have some old (and new) records like I do you may want to check it out.

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Checklist:

* Record Player w/ RCA Jacks or something that can be converted to the headphone mini jack (male). If you haven't seen one before:


* RCA (female) to mini converter (male). Should look like this:


* Computer with sound card with line-in jack. Looks like this:


* Records. Like this one:


* Download and install Audacity (free, open source and works on linux, windows and mac)

* Download and install a WAV to MP3 converter like Lame (Multiplatform) or CDex (Windows).

---------

Now plug the mini jack into the sound card's line-in jack.

Open Audacity.

Play the wax.

Hit the record button in Audacity.

Soon you should see some activity in Audacity. If you don't it may be a configuration issue or you don't have the cable plugged in the right jack.

Do a short recording and then listen to it using Audacity. Make a note of the volume of bass and etc. If it sounds crappy when the beat hits then you may need to lower the recording volume. I use 0.4 as my recording volume. But depending on the record player and sound card yours may be different.

Now record an entire song. You will notice the end of the song by the lack of activity in Audacity. Hit stop.

Now you can export the song as WAV.

At this point you can either convert it to MP3 or burn it to a CD to listen to.

On linux I use command line based Lame to convert WAV files to MP3. In Windows CDex is really good.

The command I use is: 'lame -b 224 name.wav name.mp3' this will get you an mp3 at 224 bit rate.

Thats it! Your done. Acutally not, if you have a few records to do, it does take a while.

Windows Users Prepare for Updates.

Seven updates in total.

Lots of updates.
More

New IPod Video - First Impressions.

IMG_0768
Originally uploaded by zeusfaber.

I decided to sell the IPod Photo to Silent Dan and got the new video version.

It's pretty sweet. The first thing you notice is how thin it is, much thiner than the old models. The video is surprisingly clear and vivid. Additionaly, the larger screen is only a half inch bigger but it feels twice as big as the old version. The battery lasts over three episodes of Lost. around 2.5 - 3 hrs. Listening to music is lasts much longer.

Cool stuff.