the cole family blarg

I have been looking around at alternatives for Ammanda’s macmini. The poor machine is being tasked with heavy video encoding tasks and it simply cannot keep up. Even though I upgraded the machine to 512MB from the factory 256MB (wow, I know), the 1.4GHz G4 processor and 5400rpm laptop-style harddrive add up to pitiful performance.

Shopping around for Macintosh computers is a real annoyance. Apple has 3 different classes of machines:

• the minis which are inexpensive, but not particularly impressive performance-wise and extremely limited for upgradability (you can upgrade the RAM, and that is even a nightmare);
• the iMac computers which have all of the hardware built into the screen - acceptable performance, fairly expensive for what you are getting, and still very limited upgradability.
• the mac pros which sport very powerful Xeon processors (we are talking about 2 x dual core processors here!), have a case that has some potential for upgrading (although you are still limited to Apple supported hardware) are quite expensive - >$2500 CDN!

All this has made me very annoyed, as in the PC world, it is quite possible to get some very good deals if you know what to buy.

After doing some further reading, I came across the OSX86Project. A few hardcore hackers have bypassed the need for EFI (the standard firmware for Apple x86 machines) and have made it possible to boot OS X with standard PC hardware (i.e. with a BIOS).

I had an old Prescott 3.0GHz machine and AGP GeForce 6800 lying around, and decided to give this a try. After downloading numberous bad ISOs and failed bootups, I managed to get the OS installed on this machine. You need to choose your hardware very carefully in order for this to work. For instance, you should have a processor that has SSE3 capabilities, one of about 10 different network cards, one of about 5 different AC’97 compliant soundcards (all onboard strangely enough, and no support for Sound Blaster anything!). I can’t run the OS on my primary machine, as it does not have an Intel chipset, which is necessary as things like IDE controllers get really dicey.

In the end, this experiment has resulted in an excellent Mac-like computer. The machine is ugly as hell (pictured to the right), but it has all of the functions of a fairly decent Mac - included Core Image, Quartz Extreme, and all the other polish that makes the OS so very elegant.

Unfortunately all of this is completely illegal, and so I will have to delete everything. It was only an experiment after all.

Hi!

Here is my first video ever!

Where Am I?

Wow - Carys is almost 2 weeks old now.
This time has been a daze!

Nothing else to say for now — must sleep…….

omg i’m only 11 days old and I started my first blog.

pwned!!!1

One Week Old!

We’ve survived the first week of parenthood…now only 25 years to go!

She’s Here!

Damen and I are happy to announce the safe arrival of our daughter, Carys Alison Cole on February 2, 2007. We are all doing well, certainly adjusting to all of the changes that having a baby requires. It is hard work, and there have definitely been high and low points, but overall the experience has been wonderful.

I had to have an emergency c-section, and so far the recovery process has been fine. I am not experiencing too much discomfort, and I have the support of my friends and family to help get me through. I especially am thankful to have Damen as my husband, as he keeps me grounded and somewhat sane

Carys Alison Cole was born today - February 2nd, 2007. This event brings many new challanges and exciting times ahead. I am looking forward to all of it.

The picture is from “the future” - February 19th, 2007.