Monthly Archives: March 2008

[MacOS] Enable and Disable Hibernation

OSX supports real hibernation not only that sleep mode that costs electricity. It really supports it. But you gotta enable or disable it manually. So what to do:

  • open terminal window (I assume you’re logged in with your normal user account)
  • to disable hibernation, and enable standard sleep
    enter this: sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0
  • to enable hibernation when closing the lid
    enter this: sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 1

Enjoy folks…

[MacOS] Change Time Machine’s Backup Intervalls

We all know Time Machine is handy (at least since update 10.5.2 which fixed tons of issues). But one thing is not very handy: we usually cannot change the intervall of the backups. Before I will show you a simple solution please do me the favor to tell me:

Where do you come from?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...

Do the following (I assume you’re logged in with your normal user account):

  • open terminal
  • for 30 minutes intervalls enter this:
    sudo defaults write /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.backupd-auto StartInterval -int 1800
  • for 60 minutes intervalls (standard) enter this:
    sudo defaults write /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.backupd-auto StartInterval -int 3600
  • for 6 hours intervalls enter this:
    sudo defaults write /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.backupd-auto StartInterval -int 21600
  • for 12 hours intervalls enter this:
    sudo defaults write /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.backupd-auto StartInterval -int 43200
  • and so on…

The simple formula is just a conversion from minutes or hours to seconds. Means: 1800 seconds = 30 minutes…
You can also go smack to the /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.backupd-auto file and edit it using a texteditor and change the StartInterval values. But I feel like the solution above might be faster… Kudos fly to mactricksandtips.com.

[ID59] Was the information provided above helpful?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...

[internal] Welcome people from around the world…

As of today we got 2,000 unique visitors. This is one thing to be glad of. But the far more thing we xreally like: we are an international community. You are visiting this newz site from all the continents we got on planet earth:

Welcome Europe, Middle East, Africa, India, Asia, Australia and North and South America. Make yourself comfortable here and let me know if I can be of any help…

Kind regards from Berlin/Germany,

MetaPapa

Where do you come from?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...

[iPhone] Convert Avi’s to iPhone mp4’s for free

“and first for something complete different”: Muzaq… coding or administrating system can’t do without gooood muzaq. Check our latest tunes here :-)

english

Deutschsprachige Version weiter unten…

Sadly but the iPhone and the iPod Touch doesn’t understand a regular DivX, XviD or anything else in AVI containers. So if you don’t like commercial software either there is a very nice way using the VideoLanClient MediaPlayer. Follow these steps:

  1. Download VLC (link) for your platform and install it.
  2. start VLC Media Player
  3. click “File -> Open File” – a dialog pops up
  4. Browse” to the file you wanna convert (see pic for reference)
  5. Enable “Streaming/Saving” and click on “Settings” – a new dialog pops up

    openfiledialog

  6. here you choose the name and folder of the then converted file (means: target filename and folder)
  7. choose “Encapsulation” as “mp4
  8. choose “Video” as “mp4v”
  9. set video’s bitrate to “512 - 2048” kb/s (problems may occur above 2500 kb/s – btw: there is no need to convert an xvid with 800kb/s to mp4 with 2000kb/s. My experience says: 1024kb/s is way sufficient for the iPhone’s little display)
  10. choose “Audio” as “mp4a
  11. set audio’s bitrate to “64 - 256” kb/s (I am really satisfied with 192kb/s but don’t hesitate to play with these configs)
    Window2en
  12. click “OK” ;-) – you will land in the first window again
  13. click here “OK" aswell
  14. transcoding will begin
  15. [Update] after transcoding you can start iTunes and import the movie into your iTunes’ movie database, then just sync it with your iPhone

Prolly some errors occur with dropped frames or something: you can almost forget them. So far I didn’t have any video that did not play properly on the iPhone…

This howto is based on notes by Tim Fick.

deutsch

See above for english language version…

Ok also für das Land der Filmfreunde eine kurze Übersetzung mit deutschen Bildern… Ihr kennt möglicherweise das Problem schon: das iPhone kann mit den allermeisten Eurer Videos nichts anfangen, außer mit diesem merkwürdigen .mp4 Format, mit dem sich Euer DVD Player oder das XBMC gar nicht gut vertragen. Das iPhone braucht also mal wieder eine Extrawurst und die lassen sich viele Hersteller von Konvertierungsprogrammen gerne ein wenig bezahlen. Im Folgenden findet Ihr allerdings eine Anleitung, bei der Ihr mit einem einzigen kostenlosen Tool (dem VideoLan Client) nach iPhone kompatiblem .mp4 konvertiert. Die Fotos sind von der Mac Version, der VLC sieht aber unter Windows (nahezu) identisch aus…

  1. VLC herunterladen (link) und installieren
  2. dann den VLC Media Player starten
  3. klick “Ablage -> Datei öffnen” (unter Windows wird das “Datei -> Datei öffnen sein”) und ein Dialogfenster wird sich öffnen
  4. Durchsuchen“, um die zu konvertierende Datei auszuwählen (siehe Bild)
  5. Haken rein bei “Streamen/Sichern” and klick auf “Einstellungen” – und es öffnet sich ein neues Dialogfenster
    Window1dt
  6. hier wählt Ihr nun den Zielnamen und das Zielverzeichnis
  7. als “Verkapselungsmethode” (schon ein geiles Wort auf Deutsch, tsts…) nehmt Ihr “mp4
  8. dann “Video” auf “mp4v” stellen
  9. und die Videobitrate zwischen “512 - 2048” kb/s festlegen (ab 2500 kb/s soll es wohl Probleme geben mit der Wiedergabe auf dem iPhone – aber es macht ohnehin keinen Sinn ein 800kb/s XViD nach 2000kb/s mp4 zu transkodieren. In meinen Fällen haben 1024kb/s für das Minidisplay the iPhones vollkommen ausgereicht und ich meine vollkommen ausgereicht)
  10. dann noch “Audio” auf “mp4a” stellen
  11. und die Audio Bitrate zwischen “64 - 256” kb/s festlegen (mir reichen 192kb/s vollkommen ;-)
    Window2dt
  12. dann auf “OK” klicken und Ihr landet wieder in dem ersten Dialogfenster
  13. hier dann auch einfach “OK" klicken
  14. und die Konvertierung beginnt
  15. [Update] nach der Konvertierung startet Ihr iTunes und importiert den Film in die lokale iTunes Filmdatenbank. Diese kann dann aufs iPhone synchronisiert werden.

Enjoy

[MultiPlatform] TrueCrypt 5.1 Update

english

Only four weeks after the initial 5.0 release the TrueCrypt Team released version 5.1 of their encryption package. New and fixed features as follows:

  • Hybernation on encrypted system bootpartitions :-) Yeah!!!!
  • Mount encrypted system bootpartions from outside
  • Increased speed on AES volumes by 30%-90%
  • TrueCrypt bootloader is now compressed and is therefore smaller than before (27KB instead of 42KB)

Download here

deutsch

Nach gerade mal vier Wochen hat das TrueCrypt Team das Update auf Version 5.1 veröffentlicht. Die wesentlichen Neuerung (und Bugfixes):

  • Hybernation funktioniert auch mit verschlüsselten Systempartitionen
  • Verschlüsselte Systempartitionen sind nun von außen mountbar (z.B. um Reparaturmaßnahmen durchzuführen)
  • Zugriffe auf AES verschlüsselte Partitionen sind um 30%-90% schneller
  • Der TrueCrypt Bootloader ist nun komprimiert und verbraucht nur noch 27KB statt 24

Zum Download hierlang

[iPhone] Gomite.com announces GPS for the iPhone and iPod Touch

The California based company Gomite.com today announced a GPS module for the iPhone and the iPod Touch. The iPhone and iPod Touch connect to the system called “locoGPS” via wlan and therefore may be used with other devices having wlan enabled aswell. The “locoGPS” module is only as large as a little box of matches and the battery will last for about 6 hours. It will be made available in summer 2008 and will cost about 100€.

Datentarif zu teuer? Für nur 0,09€/min gibt’s Datenverbindung via UMTS/GPRS beicallmobile

[MacOS] Read HFS+ Drives and DMG Images on Windows

english

As a dualbooter you are often confronted with the problem that you just saved a file on the other system. While being on OS X this is not a too big problem since you can at least access those NTFS (read only) and Fat32 (read/write support) drives. But being confronted with Microsoft Windows you are stuck.

But hey wait: try this nice Java Open Source Project: Catacombae HFS Explorer (link). It opens and extracts files from drives and images formatted in HFS+. Sadly it seems not be able to write to those disks. For having read and write access to your HFS+ disks I strongly recommend Macdrive 7.

tomanisch

Jeder von MacBook Pro oder Hackintosh Dualbootern kennt die Situation, dass wir gerade nach Microsoft Windows gebootet haben, aber eine bestimmte Datei leider eben unter OS X liegt. Für Leute, die nur lesend auf ihre OSX Partition zugreifen wollen, gibt es das Open Source Projekt Catacombae HFS Explorer (link). Schreiben kann dieses Programm auf HFS+ Dateisysteme aber leider noch nicht. Um lesend und schreibend auf die OS X Partition zuzugreifen, empfehle ich Macdrive 7.

[iPhone] Sun Java to be released in June

english

The german Tech News Service Heise.de (link) reports that Sun is currently developing a special Java version for the iPhone. It will be released in June when the iPhone Firmware 2.0 will be ready.

german

Der Heise.de Newsticker (link) berichtet, dass Sun im Juni – zeitgleich mit der Veröffentlichung der iPhone Firmware 2.0 – eine speziell fürs iPhone angepasste Java Version veröffentlichen wird.

Datentarif zu teuer? Für nur 0,09€/min gibt’s Datenverbindung via UMTS/GPRS beicallmobile

[MacOS] Enable Quartz Extreme 2D

english

T_h_e___f_a_s_t___w_a_y

  • open terminal
  • enter: sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver Quartz2DExtremeEnabled 1
  • By the way: you may find this command on the net aswell: sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver Quartz2DExtremeEnabled -boolean YES – it does perfectly the same like the first command and is only a matter of taste!
  • then reboot and be happy.

There is also another way via using QuartzDebug (search for it on the net, it required the Development tools on the Leopard disk)…

[MacOS] Experiences with Sapphire ATI HD 2600XT 256MB (Device ID 9588)

Abstract

After having had too much hazzle with the Gigabyte ATI x1650 (Device ID 71c6) I decided to buy a new graphics card. What made me buy that ATI (or in general an ATI card) again?

Where to obtain

German users are provided with a link to Amazon.de where they can buy exactly the graphics card I used for the following howto. But in contrast to my fellow german users the american users cannot be provided with such a link, because Amazon.com doesn’t offer that card. Search it elsewhere or just order from the german Amazon store using this link: Sapphire RADEON HD 2600 XT PCIe ). This should be most hazzle-free way for you…

How to install (_t_h_e___h_a_z_z_l_e___f_r_e_e___w_a_y_)

Ok so, after having bought this new graphic card, don’t just install it yet into your tower or desktop. Instead boot your system into OS X while having your old graphics card installed. Follow those steps:

  1. Login into OS X as root.
  2. Get the new Netkas Natit Driver (link)
  3. install it to /System/Library/Extensions/
  4. Make sure you set the right permissions to the Natit.kext : open terminal and type: chown -R root:wheel /System/Library/Extensions/Natit.kext
  5. shutdown your system, unplug electricity and replace your graphics cards
  6. plug power chord and boot your system.
  7. you should be done…

Circumventing issues

If anything does not work and your screen looks garbled. I recommend having an XP or Vista installed on another drive and use MediaFour’s MacDrive 7. So you can download the driver again and copy to your OSX partition and install it manually in single user mode (provide -s at OSX boottime).

id41_w2207screen

Sapphire ATI2600 XT 256MB
with HP w2207 (click to enlarge)

Final words

We hope you had some fun and we could provide you with some help here. If you are satisfied with this solution, you may consider our sponsors. They really got the coolest offers. Thanks :-)

Addendums for the german speaking community

Falls Ihr Fragen zu der Anleitung habt, bitte in die Kommentare. Wenn sich mehr als fünf deutschsprachige Leute melden, übersetze ich den Artikel. Ansonsten: wer exakt die Karte sucht, die ich verwendet habe, kauft bitte im deutschen Amazon Shop genau diese Karte hier: Sapphire RADEON HD 2600 XT PCIe 256 MB DDR3 128 Bit, Dual DVI, TV-Out, HDMI, OpenGL, DirectX10 Retail!!!