February 21, 2006
OSx86 Project
With the release of the new Apple computer running on the Intel processors a number of sites are starting to pop up in order to run operating systems other than OSX on these machines. OSx86 project is a nicely laid out site that is trying to keep tabs on any developments. It is already reporting the progress people are making with getting Knoppix 4 running on the Apple Intel hardware (commonly known as Macintel). What I really keen to see is the ability to run windows programs within OSX without too much of a noticeable speed slowdown. This would allow me to run the IBM software that I use for work within the elegant Apple OSX operating system. There is an opensource project called Darwine, which is trying to achieve just this and there has also been noise from Microsoft that they will update their Virtual PC software to run on Macintel; however, I will not hold my breath for that one as I would most likely go blue in the face (I expect end of 2006 or early 2007 for Virtual PC to be released).
Links
OSx86 Project
Darwine Homepage
New Site Link Images
One of my friends wanted to link to my new site so wanted some images to link to so I have created a few. They are shown below with the URL to the original image if you want to link to it as well.
http://www.egg-tech.com/images/egg_site_link_small_banner.png
http://www.egg-tech.com/images/egg_site_link_centre_banner.png
http://www.egg-tech.com/images/egg_site_link_tiny.png
February 19, 2006
egg-tech Site now up and running
Well I have been able to move everything over to the new egg-tech.com site and it seems to be working perfectly again. All that remains is for me to put in the redirects from the old site for all those out there who are to slack to make the updates in their RSS clients and web browsers :) .
Links
egg-tech Homepage
egg-tech Blog
Mac Backup Article Updated
My friend Matthew Phillips has updated his great article on backing up your mac using RsyncX that I host on my website for him. The latest version is available via the link below
Links
How To Backup a Mac Using Rsync Article
RsyncX (via VersionTracker)
February 18, 2006
New Domain Name: egg-tech.com
I have a new domain name now. Therefore over the next week or so I will be moving this site over to www.egg-tech.com. I will make sure that there is a redirect in place from the labf.org domain so that people can still find me. I will also post another article when the migration has been completed. The reason for the domain change is because Mof who was hosting labf.org has decided to go for an online website hosting service rather than do it himself as it ends up being cheaper and gaining better service. So we are now moving everything over to Dreamhosts, who have unbelievable prices. So what will you see as the user, well the first is the new domain name egg-tech.com and secondly it should be much faster and I will be able to do so much more. See you on the new domain.
Links
http://www.egg-tech.com/
Dreamhosts Web Hosting
Monitor for Sale
Ok so I am a geek and this is the first time that I am actually selling something on eBay. I just put it down to being slack. Well anyway if there is any of you out there who wants to get a great deal on a 19“ CRT monitor, which is in perfect condition then end on over to my eBay listing. The listing is nothing flash and really I just want the monitor out of my house as it does not look good around all my other LCDs and shiny gadgets :). I am not doing postage on this item because it is too big and heavy so local pickup only in Adelaide (Australia), sorry to all the interstate and international readers. Heck you might even see me start selling some of my other gadgets that I no longer require or have upgraded.
Links
eBay Monitor Listing
February 07, 2006
Impressive Computer Graphics
This has to some of the most impressive computer graphic animations I have seen. It is not because they are interesting or really all that good to look at, it is because they are all calculated rather than the traditional hand animated. This means that all the water, fire or material interactions are all being calculated by the computer. This allows for a much easier job for the animator and results in realistic animations. Have a look for yourself as it really is quite impressive as water is one of the hardest things to calculate.
Links
Ron Fedkiw's Computer Graphics
February 05, 2006
Spam filter using Gmail
Recently I started automatically forwarding my email from my original email server on labf.org to my google account so that when I am not at home I can read my email on Gmail as it has a wonderful web interface. This way when I am not at home my email client will not download emails (because the computer is not on) and therefore all my emails are left in my Gmail account for online viewing. If I am at home then I use the POP download feature of Gmail to get my mail and automatically remove it from the Gmail server. Now I receive a very large amount of spam, like most of us with a web presence. Both my labf.org and Gmail server have spam filters and I also use the Apple Mail junk filter. Since redirecting my email through Gmail I have noticed that the spam filter on labf.org that only marks emails as potential spam are then filtered by Gmail so that when I actually download my email to my email client I only receive the very occasional spam message which is easily handled by Apple Mail. The upshot is that I now do not have to download large amounts of spam just to get a few messages.
Therefore, if you want to reduce the amount of spam you are downloading I would recommend to either use Gmail directly and use the POP access feature to download you email to your computer or forward you existing email account to your Gmail account and then download it through POP. By doing this you will drastically reduce the amount of spam that actually needs to be downloaded. A word of warning though, this does mean that you need to check both the Apple Mail junk filter folder and also the Gmail spam folder to make sure that no legitimate emails are deleted.
Links
Gmail
February 01, 2006
Optimus Mini Three Keyboard
A while ago I blogged about a keyboard design that contains mini OLED displays in the keys of the keyboard. This allowed for the keys to be remapped or even display the full colour icons the key's function. However at the time the keyboard was not available and was only a mock up. Well now it has all changed, no the full keyboard is still not available but it does have a delivery timeframe of late 2006. What is available (in the next month, may) is the optimus mini three keyboard (pictured on the right). Rather than a full keyboard the mini three is just that, three buttons with OLED displays. Have a look at the website as it shows examples of the types of uses, although the real power will be the plugins that others will write for the keyboard. I would really love to see one of these in real life.
Links
Optimus Mini Three Keyboard site
