Bernie’s Ramblings

Go on, try it. Talk about a fix for the command-line addicts. It’s a command-line interface to the Google search engine, achieved using Web 2.0 stuff.

That’s a rhetorical question, since I’ve already filled it up. With flash storage prices so low, I got myself a Sandisk 4 GB microSDHC (class 4, if you must know) for my Palm Centro last week. Initially I had wanted to download the whole Tomeraider’s version of Wikipedia onto it but at 3GB++ for the complete version, I decided it wasn’t worth it. There wouldn’t be any room for anything else. Maybe when the 8 or 16 GB cards are more affordable, I’ll reconsider.

So here’s what I did instead

• filled it up with reference and dictionaries for the English language
• keep videos of my little nephew
• sync 600 or 3.02GB worth songs from iTunes using iTunes Agent
• copied a couple of ebooks for eReader and Mobipocket Reader

Even though PocketTunes Deluxe, the audio player software bundled with the Centro, has native syncing with Windows Media Player, I chose to go the long way so that I can sync with iTunes. This is because I find iTunes much easier to use, not to mention I rely on its smart playlists to compile my select which songs get synced. The smart playlist is like a query tool for songs, yes, it’s pretty neat. I use it to select songs that meets the following criteria for syncing

• a limit of 600 songs
• is rated 3 stars and above
• is frequently played
• hasn’t been played for the last 15 days (so I don’t forget about the older songs, happens when you have 13+ GB of audio)
• hasn’t been skipped more than 5 times (just to be certain I don’t sync songs I dislike)

By relying on smart playlists, I’ll almost guarantee only songs I like or songs I’ve not played for quite a while get’s synced to my Centro. Now if only there’s a way to rate songs on it.

I assembled my current PC on Oct 30th 2006. That’s more than a year ago. I was looking at the possibility of upgrading my processor to a newer one, considering Intel just announced a new affordable CPU - the Core 2 E7200. However, reading through the article, I notice its specs were much lower than my CPU (2.55GHz, 3MB of cache, 1067MHz bus, VT disabled vs 2.8GHz, 4MB of cache, 1600MHz bus, VT enabled).

How is it possible that a CPU I bought more than a year ago outspec the one just announced? Furthermore, the current high end dual-core CPUs max out at the lower end of the 3GHz spectrum - not enough to warrant an upgrade. Typically, you need a close to a GHz of clockspeed to see noticeable performance difference, all else being equal. The answer is simple - I bought my current CPU with overclocking in mind. The official speed is a measly 1.86GHz, 1066MHz bus.

In other words, done properly, overclocking does stretch your ringgit by quite a bit. Of course, the initial investment might be slightly higher - getting a good PSU and CPU fan is a must but in the long run, you save an upgrade cycle.

As do many others, and here’s a way to outright replace notepad with notepad2 on Windows XP - How to Replace Notepad.exe - Roland Weigelt. Get Notepad2 here. Even if you don’t crave for its added features (such as syntax highlighting, support for Unix & Linux formats, etc.) and wish to use it much like the original Notepad, you’ll appreciate its speed - it doesn’t get bogged down even if you open multi-megabyte text files. I’ve viewed and edited (log) files that are hundreds of megabytes with this little fella just fine.

Oh, if you don’t want it to replace notepad outright, it works as a standalone program as well. No installation required.

Google Maps now has Malaysian streets displayed, as opposed to just satellite images. With this, you can start annotating it (see Subang Jaya Medical Centre example). Can anyone verify whether this is available in the various mobile versions of Google Maps?

Firstly, I’ll say that this isn’t for the IT-challenged. If you freakout when you see command lines and wonder if ‘kernel’ is a brand of cereal, look elsewhere, you don’t want to endanger yourself. Grab someone to do it for ya instead

Hack Attack: Build a Hackintosh Mac for Under $800 is a very comprehensive guide from LifeHacker on how to get Mac OS X Leapord running on an Intel machine. At the very least, the article is a good read because of the pictures of the beautiful Mac OS GUI running on a self-assembled PC.

A shame that the Hackintosh seems to only run a select set of hardware components and the need for a Mac OS X DVD in the drive to boot properly.

Note: I don’t know if this is legal or not and in no way condoning it, you know, the kind of projects you’d do for educational purposes *cough*.