Andrew Schwabe's Blog - Macintosh

iPhone 4 goodness

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 21:23:00 -0400

Well the day has come. I have an iphone 4. It has been jailbroken, and unlocked for t-mobile and other carriers. I even trimmed my old-school full size t-mobile sim card to fit in as a "micro sim." Overall, the process was not bad at all, although I did manage to play with some settings that messed up my network and had to restore from the firmware once -- such a newbie move, i know... This time around its nice and healthy :) Want to know what else my little pocket workhorse has? Flash player. Thats right. A nifty little port of the flash 10.1 for android has been hacked to run on iphone (ipad too). Its called "frash" and was an app to click and install right from cydia. Can't get any easier than that. Chew on that Apple. So far, I am very pleased with the new phone. It performs great, multitasking works surprisingly well, and even my bits of flash content work right in mobile safari. Whatever credibility Steve Jobs had left about his war on Flash, and Flash not running well on iphone hardware blah blah is all gone. The public answered and brought it anyway. Its not polished (yet), but thats only because theres just a handful of hackers releasing the software that people want while the big software companies sit in their seats of power scowling, pointing fingers and blaming each other for not meeting the consumer's needs. Why was flash such a big deal anyway? It don't NEED it to live, but on occasion I really WANT it. The last thing any techno gadget poweruser wants to be told is "you can't do what you want." Besides, how can anybody ignore technology in use by 90+% of the web? Steve Jobs can apparently, but nobody knows why. I don't understand why you don't just give customers what they want? Well anyway, I'm just happy knowing that when I need or even just want it, I've got it. Way to go flash, you finally made it home to my little iphone :) (that little unintentional rhyme is no crime, just an added bonus for the rest of us)

Upgraded the internal HDD of my Mac Mini today

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 13:49:00 -0400

I consider myself reasonably computer savvy, and I've done my fair share of PC upgrades over the years. Today I tackled an upgrade for my Mac Mini, and upgraded the internal hard drive. The first thing that messed me up were the specs. I'm not sure why, but I thought there was a standard 3.5" drive inside these things. There is NOT. It is a 2.5" sata drive, just like a notebook computer. Once I corrected that error, I was ready to begin. I used this youtube video as reference, which was very helpful: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIiSaunTWWM. Overall the process wasn't too bad. I wouldn't let a novice do it however. PCs are usually easy to work on, and any ambitious individual who WANTS to learn can usually do so easily. Not so for the Mac Mini. If you don't know what you are doing, let somebody with skills do it. Again, not that hard, but very very different. I used to think that Compaq computers were a pain in the butt to replace components, but the Mac Mini comes in a close second. My main hang up is the need for a putty knife to open the case. Maybe you other computer guys have a putty knife handy, but I don't, so I had to take a trip to Home Depot. I nicely asked where to find a putty knife, trying hard to give the impression that I have a clue what I am doing in a Home Depot.... Other than that, it went relatively smooth, and its up and running now. To sum up, it wasn't really difficult once I had the right tools, it was simply very different than working on a PC. I guess it was more like opening a notebook than a desktop.

3 Things That Annoy Me Today: BP, Apple, and Ignorant Drivers

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 12:55:00 -0400

Its been a while since I posted a rant, hasn't it ? Keep in mind that you do NOT have to keep reading. If you do, its your choice to keep reading. Good, you are still here. #1 BP. Well, let me expand this to include the President's administration. As a US citizen, I support our President and our government, however it doesn't mean I have to like everything that goes down. I am hideously offended and annoyed that an oil leak this bad is being passed around as a "paper issue." Nobody wants to pony up and get this resolved the right way. In my opinion, significant effort should have been made from day one. BP not cutting it? Fine, bring in US Military Corp of Engineers, and send the bill to BP. For Heaven's sake, do SOMETHING other than post a webcam on the leak and say "oh my, this is pretty bad." #2 Apple. Steve is out of control. Bordering on mad man I think. The "holy war" he has waged on Flash is just school yard bullying. He is playing with the technology industry as if it were his big box of legos, and when he finds a piece that isn't a color he approves of, he discards it. Read this blog entry, about a company who had jumped through Apple's hoops to publish an ipad application. And even got several updates published. Apple called them and said they are pulling the plug on their app -- effectively wasting all that company's time and money invested into Steve's lego mansion. The best part is that Apple offers no reason, and no way to address the problem. Just a "good bye." Read here. They screwed Adobe after they spent a ton of money building iphone development tools, and now they are doing it to the small software companies. And as of May 27 of this year, Apple is now bigger than Microsoft. Remember Microsoft monopolistic bullying? and the anti-trust crap that wasted time and money, just for Microsoft to laugh and sidestep the rulings against them? Get ready for it again, as Steve Jobs decides he is the new "Emperor of Technology" and knows better than anybody else about how the world should be. If only Apple's products were crappy, like Microsoft's, then maybe we could resist... #3 Ignorant Drivers. Nothing makes a BP hating, Apple bashing day worse than irresponsible car drivers who decided that 2 years after they got their license, all turn signals are optional. I know responsible drivers who have not been in accidents that for some reason just don't think turn signals are "worth it" anymore. Maybe they haven't SAID that, but their actions speak volumes. If you drivers CARED at all for anybody else on the road but yourself, you would notice that people LOOK for your turn signals. Maybe you can save somebody stress and time by using a turn signal LIKE THE LAW SAYS YOU SHOULD, so people can actually anticipate what you already intend to do. Yes, lane changes too. NOT using them is breaking the law. As a motorcycle driver, I am often terrified to make turns or lane changes in any kind of traffic because I have no idea what people around me will do. It is more stress than a single person deserves while just driving to or from work. I try my best to use signals, and honestly, I don't know if anybody cares. All I DO know is that if I was in traffic coming toward myself, I would appreciate the proper use of signals. I'm done for today.

Netbooks, iPads and Slate Thingies, sheesh

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 18:39:00 -0400

Is it me, or is anybody else slightly annoyed at the current round of "innovation" for ultraportable computers ? There was this big hype about iPad, and when it finally came out, it lacked the absolutely critical things I need as a technology professional: 1) Flash support (duh!), 2) A camera for video conferencing, and 3) any way to use external storage, be it USB or SD, or micro SD. I myself was intrigued by the hype of tablet computing, and tried out the Lenovo S10-3t convertible tablet PC. I found it a little flimsy and clumsy, and my hope was that I could run Mac OSX on it, which failed (note: technically it does run, but none of the good hardware is supported). I was quite disappointed when I found out that Lenovo decided to install Windows 7 Starter edition on their already expensive netbook. Windows 7 has great support for tablet computers, but not in the Starter edition. So, somebody there thought "lets release a cool netbook, but lets distribute a crippled version of the OS, just to annoy people." I can't figure it out. Now we have the HP slate coming out later this year. At first glance it looks pretty decent, until you realize that it is just a plain netbook with a touchscreen and a resolution less than full 6:9 video. This is HP's chance to make it all right, but they need to take advantage of ALL the technology that is out there. Why aren't manufacturers using nVidia's ION chips ??? why wouldn't you choose to use a standard resolution screen? If HP charged a little more money but got it all right, they would have a lot of happy customers. I wonder if the slate can run OSX... hmmm Technology has advanced to a point where there are certain things people need. If manufacturers simply ignore the customers need, then once the "hype" is gone, you only have loyalty to fall back on. If you aren't careful with taking care of your people, then you will ultimately lose them. A great example is Palm Computing. I LOVED their treo phones -- the first smartphone I used, and it did everything I needed. Palm got sloppy and stopped fixing bugs, and never innovated enough on the Palm OS, until it was too late. They should have been doing the WebOS and apps thing when Apple was doing it. They waited years, and now there is no market share for them. Lots of innovation happens in the bits and pieces. I don't understand why somebody can't say, Ok, I'm going to make an ultraportable computer, and actually put in the things people want: video camera, a proper HD screen, and a video chip that will handle HD video, good battery life, and external storage? Seems like HP's slate is closest, but still not there yet.

Post Fail Documentation on Lenovo S10-3t w/Snow Leopard

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 12:14:00 -0400

A few people have asked me how I managed to get snow leopard installed on the lenovo. I did in fact get the OS running, and if you were happy with no video acceleration, no sound, and no wifi/ethernet and no touchscreen support, then this is a viable solution for you (ha). If I could get the wifi to work, that would at least be something useful, but as my previous post outlined, I was unable to get any of the above hardware to work. This doesn't mean that it can't be done -- it just means that I lost interest. Ok, so to get Snow Leo running on your lenovo S10-3, heres how it goes: 1. Make sure you have a backup of your factory config, or a proper win7 dvd to install from when you get sick of non-working devices. Even better is to swap in a difference 2.5" sata drive to experiment on. 2. Get a retail version of snow leopard from Apple. Its cheap, so don't pir8 it. 3. Go get "GA-EP45-DS3L BootCD" from here: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=%20180954 Yes it is for a desktop computer, no I'm not sure why it works, but it does. Burn it to a cd of course. 4. Hook up a USB keyboard and mouse. The keyboard and mouse on the lenovo are PS2, and by default snow leo does not load ps2 drivers. An external keyboard and mouse worked great. 5. Boot from GA-EP45-DS3L BootCD. Follow the prompts and insert the snow leo install disc. Do the install on a GUID partition, just like any other osx install. 6. reboot, and use the same boot cd to boot your newly installed snow leo. Install chameleon boot loader. Here are instructions: http://www.ihackintosh.com/2009/04/how-to-install-chameleon-20-rc1/ 7. Install Voodoo ps2 kext to get your keyboard and mouse working. Now after you reboot, you should have a functional snow leopard, just with no accel video, sound, ethernet or wifi, and no touchscreen.

iPad Killer? Not yet... FAIL report on lenovo s10-3t

Thu, 25 Mar 2010 12:45:00 -0400

After a few weeks of working in my spare time, here is what I managed to accomplish: 1. I could get a copy of 10.5.4 (slipstreamed for MSI wind) to install, and bluetooth worked, which I could hack to give me internet access. No Wifi, no QE/CI video, no ethernet, no touchscreen support, never bothered with sound, but supposedly it is similar to the lenovo s10-2 and should work. 2. With a custom chameleon 2 rc3 cd, i could boot and install snow leopard 10.6.0. Bluetooth worked out of the box, no wifi, native resolution 1024x600, but no QE/CI acceleration, no ethernet, no touchscreen, again, never bothered with sound. 3. Since Wifi is a deal breaker, I bought a dell 1395 WLAN 1/2 height card to drop in. No go :( The lenovo bios detected a WLAN card that it will not support, and won't boot. I've read on how you can hack the bios, or hack the rom on the WLAN card to fudge it, but yeeeshhhh.... thats not the simple $15 fix i was looking for. So after evaluating all of the above, I've decided that although the hardware is very cool (and with win7 ultimate, this is a VERY cool little machine), it just isn't ready to be made into a hackintosh. Real shame tho, i would have liked a proper mac tablet. If you like windows 7, I highly recommend this netbook. If you are holding out for mac osx, I hope it comes some day. Not looking good right now. So what is next? because I never just give up without changing my strategy... ? The HP slate looks pretty fantastic... I can't wait to see the specs on it, and see if it can be made to run mac osx. Other than that, I think I will use my iphone more :)

Lenovo S10-3t Hackintosh Report

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:16:00 -0400

First reports are a little frustrating, but I will update this as I go along and find some wins. boot 132 final + retail 10.6 dvd = hangs at boot of SL disc. Not sure whats up. boot 132 final + retail 10.5.4 dvd = boots to installer (space screen) and sits at the pinwheel screen indefinitely. I'm going to try some bios changes to see if I can get it to go. Using the handy old MSI Wind slipstream dvd = installed osx 10.5.4 no worries, nice and smooth. The only problem is, all my kexts = fail. I thought I had kexts from various places for wifi, touchscreen, and audio, but none of them seem to work yet. The wifi is a broadcom

iPad killer project is underway!

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 19:56:00 -0400

I went ahead and placed my order today for a lenovo s10-3t today from amazon. They say it is in stock, and i'm looking forward to playing with it. My intention (for scientific purposes only! haha) is to set it up as a dual boot with the windows 7 starter that comes installed on it, and mac osx. [More]

Lenovo S10-3t netbook hackintosh - iPad Killer?

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:03:00 -0400

Lenovo's netbooks have had pretty good press, but they haven't really stood out of the competition... yet. When it comes to building hackintosh netbooks, Dell's mini line has had all the press. Do a few searches, and you will see that there are numerous guides for installing mac osx 10.5 and even 10.6 on dell hardware. This may all change... [More]

iPad from Apple... thumbs up or thumbs down ? -or- Another Adobe Flash Crusade

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:35:00 -0400

Hmm, can anybody guess what my first question was about the new Apple tablet computer-like-device-thing ? [More]

Railo 3.1 Install on Linux -- Caucho security note

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 13:56:00 -0400

Now that Railo 3.1 is out, I think we will see a jump in commercial usage. I have done a few installs on production machines now, and wanted to point out a security note. By default when you install Railo 3.1 (with caucho) on Linux (prob the same for OSX), it adds the following to your apache httpd.conf file:


LoadModule caucho_module /usr/lib/httpd/modules/mod_caucho.so

ResinConfigServer localhost 6800
CauchoConfigCacheDirectory /tmp
CauchoStatus yes

The bottom one is the problem -- it enables CauchoStatus by default. That means that you can open up a web browser to http://your.host.com/caucho-status and see status info, but there is a lot of detailed info there, including the names of each of the hosts you configured in resin, so people can snoop and see all the railo-enabled sites on that machine. This might also give a would-be-attacker the info they need to plan a DOS attack, SQL injection attack, etc.. especially since they can see how the server is responding to their attacks. Pessimistic, I know, but who can you trust on the Internet anymore ? Kid hackers are emerging just following directions posted online, and some don't even really know what they are doing, but they are causing trouble for you and I. Better to be safe. So the simple fix is to update your httpd.conf file and set the status option to no:


CauchoStatus no

For those so inclined, check out Nessus, an open source vulnerability scanner, which picked this up on one of our servers.

Mac OSX 10.5.4 on Dell XPS m1330

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 12:57:00 -0400

Yes, it violates Apple's license, so I am classifying this as "experimentation" aka lab fun. I have managed to get a reasonably usable Mac OSX installed on my dell. I've tried various distributions, but had limited success. If you follow my blog, you have seen that I had good success putting Mac OSX on my Dell Mini 9. That uses the new Dell EFI emulation, and works 100% -- very nice. The dell XPS was a bit more work to get going. My first attempt on the Dell Mini was using a Mac OSX dvd made for the MSI Wind netbook. It was easy but had some issues, and almost worked. Out of frustration of not being able to get anything stable on my XPS m1330, I popped in the MSI Wind DVD into the XPS and it installed with minimal headache! When it was done, a bunch of things didn't work, as was expected. I then downloaded and ran the Dell Post Installer from here: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=97966 (self explanatory on how to use) And only recently found a stable audio kext here: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=142521&pid=1012224&mode=threaded&start= (google "Kext helper" and use that to install) When it was all done, I have the following working: Working: nvidia drivers audio wifi bluetooth external display limited usb support (connect the usb device before booting) What is not working is: ethernet fingerprint scanner shutdown doesn't fully process, i have to hold the power button to cut the power dual cores (mac osx sees it as one processor) I can live without the "not working" list -- and I am thrilled to have a working mac, especially with audio, which seems to be the kicker for most. Now lets encourage Apple to make the next OSX a lot more open with licensing. I know a LOT of people who will buy OSX and install it on their PCs if it wasn't a serious chore. Hope this helps somebody out!

FusionDox 2009 is released!

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 23:53:00 -0400

After many months of hard work, we have released the 2009 edition of FusionDox. Lots of fun things in this edition, including PDF previews of documents, a document conversion API so you can write your own code to convert documents, split/merge PDFs and more. New Flex/AIR based FusionDox client (aka the FusionDox Authoring System) for live editing MS Office/OpenOffice documents directly through your browser, and it works for Macintosh and Linux computers too! There is some preliminary info online, with more to come. http://www.fusiondox.com/

Viva la Hackintosh!

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 14:34:00 -0400

I have a wonderful new ultra-portable that arrived just the other day, a new Dell Mini 9. For those not familiar, it is a micro notebook computer with a 9" screen, and a 16gb solid state flash hard drive -- thats right, no magnetic/spinning drive in this thing. First observations: VERY small, the micro keyboard takes some getting used to, but its not too bad -- i am typing this from the mini now. It came with windows xp sp3 on it, and you can also order them from dell with a linux OS (ubuntu) which is supposed to be quite good. I myself researched ahead of time and planned to install Apple's Mac OSX 10.5 on it. There have been reports of success with this on the net. Update: I have been sucessful installing mac osx 10.5 on the mini. All in all not too bad to get it all up and running using a slipstreamed osx dvd originally designed for the msi wind. I have to add that, not only is the coolest micro mac around, but it performs fantastic -- definitely better than windows xp did. I'm no mac osx expert, so i could probably tweak things better too, but the OS takes up about 7 gb afrer i installed firefox and a few other utils i like. Overall i am quite pleased with the dell mini, and you can't beat the convenience of its size. Great for troubleshooting tech issues, great for couch surfing, and great for meetings to take notes on. I am looking forward to using it a lot.
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