The Digital Age

Installing Mac OS X Snow Leopard in Virtualbox

ctpctech — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 22:26:47 +0000

I’m currently getting more and more Apple computers and iDevices to do repair on and I’ve been in need of the Mac operating system. As everyone knows there is a heavy duty Mac tax that keeps me from buying an Appple computer. With that being said, I needed something that would allow me to test Apple hardware and software without paying alot of money. After doing plenty of research I found out that I can use Oracles Virtualbox to virtualize an install of Mac OS X Snow Leopard and run it on my work computer. FANTASTIC! So I followed these instructions on my Windows 7 PC to get it installed on non-apple hardware virtulized. Here is where my clause is inserted to keep me from getting sued by apple: You shouldn’t run long term since you technically have to own a mac to run any Mac OS end clause You can pick up Snow Leopard for $30 so it didn’t barely cost me anything. Here are the steps I took:

Required for Mac OS X Snow Leopard Install:

1) Oracle VirtualBox 3.2 or above Dowload

2) Mac OS X 10. 6 Snow Leopard Retail DVD or ISO

Don’t try to use a burned copy virtual box doesn’t like it.

3) EFI Boot Loader – Helps us boot into Snow Leopard

32 and 64 Bit Intel Processor (for 64bit use legacyempire_efi1085.iso from same folder)

AMD Processor

My PC Specifications:

Intel Corei7 2.8Ghz, 8Gb DDR3 Ram, Intel P55 chipset and Win 7 64bit OS.

How to install

1) Create a new Virtual Machine. Give it a name and select Mac OS X Server.

2)Memory around 2Gb if you have it as long as its at least 1GB.

Display Give the the display memory size at least 64mb and enable 3d support under display settings.

Processor Cores – 1 or more
Enable PAE/NX, VT-x,
Nesting Page – Enabled
Enable IO APIC and Enable Absolute pointing device.
Remove Enable EFI. Built in EFI loader may work with apple hardware only.

3) Go to the Storage settings and add a SATA hard disk. Make sure to have the drive size at least 20Gb. Also make sure the Type is ICH6.

4) Make sure that the CDROM drive is set to boot first.

5) Mount empireEFIv1085.iso to CD drive. Make CD ROM as first boot device. Keep your Snow Leopard DVD or ISO file ready.

6) Start the virtual machine. When following screen appears, eject loader ISO and load Mac installation DVD or ISO.

To do the swap you right click on CD drive in the bottom right and select drive or ISO image of Snow Leopard Install disc. Wait a bit , Press F5 and ENTER Key on the Snow Leopard Install disc.

7) Go through the installation process like usual.

If you hard drives are available to install you need to go to the Utilities at the top, Disk Utility, and partition the Vbox hard drive. When its done close out of it and it should be available then.

IF you get an installation failed message at the end dont worry about it. Manually close the virtualbox window, mount the empireEFI ISO again and start back up again.

9) Now you can see your mac hard drive on the boot loader screen to choose from.It should load up and allow you to boot to your new Snow Leopard install.

10) Not everything will work 100%. I luckily got a very compatible chipset so my video card (9800GTX), audio and everything worked fine out of the box.

11) The last step is to install a boot loader to avoid from having to use the empireEFI disc. I used the chameleon boot loader. If you open the empire EFI disc that is already mounted and open the Post Installation folder. Run the myHack Installer package, Select Customize in Installation Type. DONT UNCHECK ANYTHING.

Before you go through and change anything make a VM snapshot in case something is broken from customizations made that way you can roll back those changes. Just play with the settings till you figure out what works the best.

Viola! You are running Snow Leopard. Enjoy

-Chase

Overclock ASUS 1005ha Atom N270

ctpctech — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 07:51:04 +0000

So I’ve been making it a point to use my netbook more often because I get more work done. I tend to do more coding, web design and just plain work because I cant play any decent games on it. For the most part its speedy enough to get most things done. I don’t expect it to be a workstation type machine but I want to be able to run songbird for music, about 5+ Firefox tabs, notepad and Gimp without having it stutter. Even some Youtube videos stutter with a 20Mbit internet connection. Of course, I began googling and checking youtube and found that I can use a program called setFSB to overclock my atom N270 CPU. All the info I found was for 2.2Ghz, but I didnt want to prematurely fry my netbook so I decided on 1.92Ghz. The setFSB tool is not free any longer, but I found an older version on the internet that was still free. Unfortunately I lost my bookmark and don’t remember where I downloaded it at. You can Google it though. The Super Hybrid Engine needs to be turned off to be able overclock without it crashing. Turn it off in msconfig (start>run>msconfig>uncheck the program in the startup list) Here are my settings to achieve this over clock:

Overclocking Settings:

click get FSB button then set to 240 and then click set FSB button.

How to permanently set your overclock:

Click “Create” button. You need to click capture then export. When you restart your overclock will be auto applied.

Proof:

The ironic thing is that my temps are much cooler then before the overclock. On average I’m operating at 65 Celcius which before it was in the 70′s. When I’ve got a heavy load it still barely gets to 70 Celcius.

Now I can run Gimp, few tabs of Firefox, all my default apps, 2 IM’s, few notepad docs for editing code, and FTP tools as well as a song app like songbird all without causing hiccups. All done without extra added heat. I am content

P.s. I should also mention I do use a cooling pad of sorts. My netbook is proped up with old CPU chips and is cooled with a desktop fan under it. That will obviously keep it cooler, but still very good temps with it being a hot running netbook to begin with.

Shish kabob and Shrimp Tempura

ctpctech — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 19:58:59 +0000

Shish kabob and Shrimp Tempura

I was really wanting to make my own shrimp tempura lately because it costs too much to buy at the store already made. I had some shrimp that I had froze when I bought it on sale at the grocery store that was still very fresh. I finally found a big bag of tempura mix so all I had to do was batter the shrimp. Now I wasn’t going to eat the shrimp alone like that and I didn’t want to make Ramen at that time so I decided on some meat and vegatable shishkabobs. Here are some pictures. I skipped the oil cooking part because it would have splatterd all over my camera.

To make the shrimp tempura I loosely followed these instructions, of course skipping the batter making part:http://japanesefood.about.com/od/tempura/ss/tempurashrimpss_10.htm

Shishkabob and Shrimp Tempura

Quick Anime Renamer Tool

ctpctech — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 17:00:03 +0000

For all of you who like to get thier anime digitally through torrenting or ripping it from the discs you already have,, I have found a program that helps renaming them a little bit easier. Its called the Quick Anime Renamer. Not a complex program by any means that a decent coder would easily be able to create, but hey it saves us all the work from doing it right? All you do is pic the directory and the files will come up with an original view then a preview of the changes. To change how you want the format is as easy as clicking a few buttons. Found it very usefull for changing folders FULL anime with various tags. IE: [Eclipse]_Full_Metal_Alchemist_Brotherhood- 01 changes to Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood-01. I know it doesn’t seem like much but do that to hundreds of anime files and you have quite a bit of work to do. Nice little tool I thought I would share. You also have an option to do custom “search and replaced” options so you have quite a few options then just the standard available. Sorry for the cramped picture but the program maxes at this window size.

Download Link: http://animerenamer.codeplex.com/

Homemade Ramen Noodles

ctpctech — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 02:56:05 +0000

Some of you may say, “Home made ramen noodles how hard is that?” Well its not the 10 cent ramen you pickup at the grocery store. This is Tokyo style ramen noodles that is much healthier for you. Not to mention that it tastes WAYYYY BETTER! There are much more than just noodles with a flavoring packet with this recipee. I need to warn you that I didnt really measure anything out I just played it by my taste buds.

All of these ingredience were pretty much cooked or prepared at almost the same time. The key in this dish is freshness. If its not all freshly done it wont taste as good. You need to have all your ingredience and almost the whole stove ready with pots to cook everything at once.

To make the stock I just used bulyon cubes. Specifically beef flavored. I boiled some water and melted the cubes completely. While that was being done I was boiling some fresh noodles. After the bulyon was dissolved I added the noodles without the water, tasted the stock flavor and if it was too strong I added some water and vice versa with the cubes for it to not having enough flavor.

The meat I used was pork which I had precut into 1/4 in. by 1/2 in. pieces. I cooked them in a pan to get the majority of it cooked then I put it in the hot soup which did the rest of the cooking without drying the meat out. Thats very key! Dry meat makes this meal terrible so make sure it stays tastey but only cooking it halfway in the pan. Let the hot boiling water do the rest the work. For seasoning I used garlic salt and celery salt to flavor the meat.

I boiled a regular egg and stopped 1-2min before it would be fully done to keep it a little wet. When you cook it all the way it crumbles all over in your soup and makes it an egg soup instead Cut the egg in half and add it at the end right before you eat the soup.

I cut 1 green onion up some in small pieces like chives and the rest of the stalk i cut into a couple inch pieces. This will help flavor your sup. I saved the smaller chive like pieces untill I was ready to eat and let the longer pieces soak a bit to help with flavor.

The last thing you add at the end is komaboko. Komaboko is a steamed fish cake that is packaged onto a small piece of wood. All you need is 2 thinly sliced pieces dropped in there and enjoy ^_^.

Classic Beef Rice Bowl

ctpctech — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 02:00:42 +0000

Here is a classic rice bowl you will find as a “fast food” in various asian countries. I know for sure that japan has these as a quick meal. I’ve just done it my way with using seasoned steak so its a more filling meal. The

Here is how it was made:

The night before I cut the meat up while it was still freshly bough from the store into 1/8 in. slices and stuck them in a ziplock bag with various seasonings. I used:

-Celary Salt, garlic salt, pepper, ginger powder and soy sauce.

I mixed it around really well in the bag and put it in the fridge to marinate. All I had to do was steam the rice, dump the newly cooked meat on top and munch away. I had the meat on medium temp to slowly cook. If you over cook the meat or cook the meat till its dry then it wont taste as good. Keeping the meat as moist and fresh as possible is the key. Reults of my labor

Enable Compositing while using Metacity

ctpctech — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 06:00:37 +0000

Have you ever wanted to use something like special effects and compiz effects but metacity wont let you? Well if you are using metacity and you want the special effects then here is how you enable it:

You don’t need accelerated graphics to run Metacity with compositing. It even works well inside VirtualBox! If your computer can’t run Compiz, give this a try.

Metacity compositing is still being tested, so their’s no simple interface for turning it on. You can enable it through the GNOME Configuration Editor, or using the terminal.

Open the GNOME Configuration Editor; press Alt-F2 to open the Run Application dialog and type gconf-editor. Click Run. Navigate to Apps->metacity->general. Check the compositing_manager box, and Metacity will immediately restart with compositing!

If you’d rather just run a quick terminal command, run this to enable compositing:
gconftool-2 -s ‘/apps/metacity/general/compositing_manager’ –type bool true

And this command to disable it:
gconftool-2 -s ‘/apps/metacity/general/compositing_manager’ –type bool false

Anime/Manga Review: Claymore

ctpctech — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 01:02:53 +0000

(Quick Wikipedia Exerp):
Madhouse produced a twenty-six episode anime series based on the manga series.Directed by Hiroyuki Tanaka, the series aired between April 2007 and September 2007 in Japan on Nippon Television. The series adapts the first eleven volumes of its source material over the first 24 episodes, then uses an alternate ending for its final two episodes.

I have watched all the episodes of course, but the manga is still being not finished coming out with new book every couple months.

I would have to say the anime was pretty enjoyable. I found it a little unique compared to other anime I’ve watched. I’ve seen countless take people away, brain wash them, train them and make them killers, but this one very structured in how the plot was wet up. They gave just enough info about what was going on to keep your attention and not keep you confused then throw you a bone every once in a while to keep adding to the plot making it gradually more complex as the story goes on. The manga goe further and keeps that same concept going. The story never gets old. The first few episodes do a lot to inform you of all characters, the most current conflict in the plot and what not like any other anime. New characters are gradually added and the characters are all nicely devloped throughout the shows. Overall I was impressed with the structure of the anime series and the manga.

General plot outline:
There are basicaly 2 sides:
The organization and the “Awakend Ones” which is a compilation of the strongest Yoma Bosses. The organiation have taken women who usually volenteer to be injected with a small amount of Yoma DNA while they are young to give them the yoma monster powers. Since they are only part yoma they are able to control thier guts eating urge like the monsters. They have the ability to heal quickly, eat once a month, and be rediculously strong and fast. Each girl developes a defensive or offensive ability. They either heal quickly or have strong attacks. As they are trained they are brain washed and given a ranking. 47th being the worste or the weakest rank. There is where the main character Clare begins. She runs into a human boy she saves on a mission who follows her around and becomes her cook. From there they go on an adventure slowly growing a strong relationship. I wont spoil any part of the story for anyone wanting to watch it so I’ll stop with my review there. its definately an anime or manga worth watching/reading. I give it 7/10 where 10 is epic or classic.(not many anime get that rating to 7 is pretty decent.)

Blacklight: Tango Down

ctpctech — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 22:53:35 +0000

Lately I have noticed games on Steam or just games in general are coming out with great content for a lower price. Even games that have been out for a while have had great sales with the economy the way it has been for quite some time. One of the most recent games I purchased for $15 called Blacklight: Tango Down made by Zombie Studios. It has both single player and multiplayer included in the game. The game was released for xbox 360, PS3, and PC. The game is nothing complex like Battlefield BC2 , but more like the older F.E.A.R. game. There are a handful of basic weapons that have thier own perks. Nothing complex just a bunch of running around and shooting people. One thing that stuck out to me that was different about this game is a few things: Run speeds vary depending on the main weapon you choose and they have EMP grenades. They dont do damage necessarily they just completely blur your vision with 8bit graphics untill it wears off or the effected area finaly clears out.

There are only a couple things that bother me in the game, which aren’t huge compaints because I only paid $15 for this game:

You HAVE to make a windows live account and invitations to games and other friend related management is all done through windows live. The other issue is that all weapons have rediculous amounts of accuracy so death is quick. Luckily you spawn quick so its not a huge deal.

Some other new features I’ve seen a little about in other games are reload stations for ammo and health. It wont auto fill everything you have to sit there and let it fill up in increments.

The game speed is something else I LOVED about the game…ITS FAST!

Its not a strategic type of game where its slow and price, its a run and gun game. The single player part of the game is HARD! no matter what difficulty setting its on. Reminds me of some older NES games I never beat back in the day because it was rediculously hard. Im alright with that because most games are much too easy now days. It gives me a challenge.

Windows/Linux Server Virtualization through free VMware vSphere Hypervisor(ESXi)

ctpctech — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 04:51:46 +0000

I do alot of creating, testing, and building of servers all from my home computer because being an individual who does not have company funding or make alot of money, I cannot afford to have a couple servers running in my office to test and build with. So I use my home computer to run these virtual servers to practice working on networking setups. One night I had a nerdspasm and I needed to build a windows and linux server to refresh my memory on initial setup and working with active directory. Working for HP answering phone calls about how to plug in laptops doesn’t exactly make use of my expensive knowledge I earned from college. I needed to build a couple virtual servers on the same network and subnet so they could interact with each other. IE Domain controllers in and Active Directory. I try and make all software as legal as possible and with VMware making such quality software I didnt want to just pirate it because I felt like their software deserved my money. I began my quest to search for free server virtualization software. The internetz kept pointing to VMware ESXi software because it was free. I didn’t quite believe it. There had to be some kind of cost, membership fee, requirement to fill out a million surveys to obtain a copy of such powerful software in Windows for free. I pulled up this website which informed me that its completely free with activation. There is no trial ending date from what I see. So its PERFECT server virtualization freeware.

Download Link:

http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2010/07/introducing-vmware-sphere-hypervisor-41-the-free-edition-of-vmware-vsphere-41.html

Now it IS barebones software, but thats all I require for now. Ran through the install(which I actually used VMware workstation and virtualized it) then started it up. After that I started up the vSphere client and installed a Ubuntu server and a Windows server 2008. By the time I was finished setting up everything, I only had enough ram to run 2 virtual servers, the ESXi server and my host machines OS Windows 7. Only have 4Gb of ram limited my testing, but does not completely hinder it. Once the ESX server is running you really dont touch it. You manage it completely(or remotely) through the vSphere client…

If you want to get more information like this for free legitimate software visit my website: