well, i am back once more having done a complete format, reinstall, and reconfigure of my box only to find out that i had a bad ram chip. next time i know to check hardware before software to avoid the headaches.

apparently my middle ram chip went bad and was causing application instability problems. the system was stable, but applications were not. obviously the system loaded in the first chip of ram and i had no reason to look at the ram as the culprit.

well, back up and running, and back to making a post once every 80 days. i need to put this thing to use!

well, it has been awhile since my last post, but oh well. so maybe this whole blog thing just won’t happen as much as i had originally planned. no worries, life will go one.

moving on….i have recently succeeded in installing linux on a powerbook 1400. it is debian 3.0 (woody) and after a lot of frustrations, it was a successful install. i threw together a pretty comprehensive guide for the process, but it is as of yet complete. one day i will have to take it back up and add a few more remarks and corrections to it, but for now i just wanted to post it for the nubus linux community. comment if you have any.

here is the guide. Installing Debian 3.0 (woody) on a Powerbook 1400

ok, so apparently my mother felt that i really need a woman since my post of the chair, or as she put it, the “grand” chair. hey, i like my chair, but i figured i might as well post about an actual living, breathing, thing. my dog.

ok, so it isn’t a woman, but its also not a chair, so i am improving right?

his name is bt. bt stand for “black tears” because it looks like he has been crying black tears from one eye. coincidently, bt is also the name of one of my favorite trance musicians. he is an american bulldog and is currently only 4 months old. the pictures you can see where taken when he was only 2 months old, so i have a few more to take, but hey, i can’t say it enough…its not a chair.

click here.

ok, so i couldn’t resist. i have been looking for a new chair for sometime now. i spend too much time at this computer to not have a chair that i truly enjoy. i finally broke down and bought one from office depot having tested several. this thing not only looks good, but is extremely comfortable to sit in. it has that new leather smell to it and has the nice leather sounds to it when you move. not too loud, but enough for the listening pleasure (that is if you like leather).

i won’t go into detail about an office chair, but look at the pictures here.

well, here it is. the home setup. i have been meaning to snap a few shots and put it online, but have never gotten around to it. i couldn’t get far back enough to fit the whole thing in one shot, so i had to take multiples. i will try to do a little better next time, but these should be sufficient for right now.

the next thing to do will be painting the office a different color and putting a line of clocks along the wall behind the desk showing the world’s times. i am currently thinking of a charcoal color for the walls as i have never seen an office that color before, and i believe the metal desk pieces would look nice against the color as well. but that is for another day, another week, and quite possibly another month.

see it here.

i don’t know if you can really call it speculation, but ever since the mac mini was announced people have been drooling over the idea of the perfect home theater box. i for one could not agree more with the idea and am doing a little searching to find the perfect equipment that will work alongside the little machine to make it the perfect digital jukebox/moviebox.

the very first thing that needs to be tackled is the sound. yes, the mac mini has a stereo plug in the back, but what good is a 2 channel plug going to do when 5.1 has become the minimum anyone wants and 7.1 is the sound that people desire to have. well, the option is now simple really. the mac mini features some other very useful ports on the back, firewire and usb. since the mac mini doesn’t exactly have any pci slots to fill up, we have to go with an external soundcard. let’s look at our options:

griffin technology firewave - i mentioned this a few days ago when i initially talked about the possibility of the mac mini becoming a home theater system. this little box allows for 5.1 surround sound, and being from griffin, is mac compatible straight out of the box.

m-audio high resolution 7.1 sonica theater - this external soundcard is a usb interfaced soundcard that is fully powered by usb and offers up 7.1 surround sound in addition to the standard dolby digital 5.1 and dts.

terratec aureon 7.1 firewire - this looks to be the box i want, although i have yet to confirm mac compatibility. this beast gives out 7.1 surround sound through firewire and allows you to connect to it with analog line and phono inputs (with preamp) or digital i/o (s/pdif, optical). it has a headphone jack with separate volume control, a mic input with a gain knob, and a master knob to control the overall volume. an added benefit: it also comes with a remote.

sound blaster audigy 2 nx with remote - another one that i have been unable to confirm mac compatibility as all that is said is that it is the requirements are pc specs. this one is highly unlikely to be mac compatible, but certainly worthy of a mention. it has a usb interface, comes with a remote, and in addition to offering 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound, claims to improve cd and mp3 playback through eax acoustic enhancements.

next up: using the tv as your monitor (dvi, s-video, etc) and how to interface with the mac mini wirelessly.

it has been reported by the register that the next upgrade for ibooks and powerbooks will happen within the next 6 months (in q2 ‘05). this upgrade would not be just a speed bump for each machine, but rather a bump in processor from a g4 to a g5. let the speculation continue as i do not see how this is possible. this topic has come up many times before and recently as in the quarterly report conferences as reported by macslash. this news from the register is currently being discussed at slashdot with much doubt.