www.TheJoe.com

Back in January, we started working on a Home Media Center/Home Server configuration. I started moving some of the equipment that was normally found in my home office to the living room.

We started to build this monster machine that I thought would handle everything. Theoretically, it would and could but when it came to practice, it just didn’t work out. Here’s the YouTube of where we started with this thing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqcJ45XRNDM

I decided to turn that computer to our media editing machine and it worked fine, but not great. From my perspective, Vista was just not ready to handle the larger demands we were placing on this machine. So, we decided to throw OS X on it. We were quite surprised at how well it worked. So much so that we have decided to move to the Mac platform throughout our household. (As some of you have been reading)

Moving forward, we decided to look into the feasibility of using the Mac platform as our main Media Center that is connected to the living room television. We’re gonna re-configure our big black quad core and set it up and test it. If this works out for us, we’re planning on getting a full Mac Pro and do the same.

Here is the configuration:

Motherboard: Asus Maximus Formula
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
Memory: 8 Gigabytes of Corsair DDR2 (4 x 2GB sticks)
Boot Drive: 500 Gigabyte Seagate
Data Drive: 1 Terabyte Seagate
Video: xFx nVidia GeForce 8800GT w/ 512 MB DDR3
NAS: ReadyNAS NV+ w/ 4 x 750 Gigabyte Seagate drives

Operating System: Leopard OS X 10.5.2 via Leo4All (See NOTE)

“Server” Capabilities:

We will configure the DATA drive to do sharing via bonjour and smb to share our data throughout the house computers.

The ReadyNAS NV+ will be set up as our Time Machine backup drive over the network.

We are still looking into several DLNA/uPNP solutions.

This machine will have iTunes library sharing enabled as well.

Software to be installed and configuration:

VMWare Fusion

We will use VMWare Fusion to run various linux and windows VM’s for our needs. The main Windows VM will be running Vista Ultimate and will provide extender capabilities to our Xbox 360’s.

Toast 9 Titanium

We will use Toast with it’s Tivo functionality to pull and archive our favorite TV shows. We will also set up automatic conversion for use on our iphones.

That’s about it. We’re gonna try to do a full video of this when we do it and will add it to the technochubby stuff on YouTube.

Wish us Luck!

NOTE: Yes, we own a full copy of Leopard. We’d also like to point out that this machine is purely for testing. If this meets our wants/needs we will be purchasing a full Mac Pro. (Just like I just finished purchasing a MacBook Pro once I decided the platform was for me)

Also we do own licenses for all the commercial software that we install on our computers.

Well, the upgrade went fine. I am still using a very old theme, so it will be interesting to see how it holds up. I need to get around to updating it soon.

So much to do, so little time!

Figure I would take the afternoon and get this dang site updated to Wordpress 2.5.

So, if things seem to stop working or things start to look funny, I am just upgrading the site.

Hopefully, all goes well.

I have almost got my new MacBook Pro set up the way I like it. I have VMWare installed with Vista 32 in a VM. I run vista in Unity mode which allows the windows applications to seem directly integrated into the OS X desktop.

Uploaded with plasq’s Skitch!

I call it “MacVista - Mac on top, Vista on the bottom.” Plus, I am trying out Skitch, a new screen grabber that looks like it has promise.

Now all I need is some sort of Unity mode for Linux in a VM and I can call my machine MacVistux  lol.

We’ve updated the TechnoChubby videos over at http://www.youtube.com/technochubby

Added the MacBook Pro unboxing and how to upgrade the ram on it.

We’re still working on getting the main TechnoChubby site up and running.  It should rock once we get there.

Enjoy

So, we’re back from the Apple store.   I returned the MacBook Air and got the MacBook Pro.  17 inch jobby at 1920×1200 resolution and 200 Gig 7200 RPM hard drive.  It’s got 2 Gigabytes of Ram but I have some good ol’ 4 GB corsair memory that I can pop in it.

We’ll be shooting the video today on the un-boxing and some video of our current set-up.

Thanks to Heather and Jared at the Apple Store!

Well, I have had the MacBook Air now for 1 day. (well, almost 1 day) I like the form factor and the weight of it. It surprisingly fast for what it is. However, for what I do, here are some issues I have found. Read on…

First off, let me start by saying that I do not believe in dual booting. With all the various virtualization technologies out there, I believe one can achieve almost anything they want to do with a computer with one key OS. This is one of the reasons I went with the Mac platform. OS X, to me, is an extremely stable platform and from my point of view, I should be able to run my windows and linux apps all on one machine.

With that said, I don’t think the MacBook Air has enough juice/hard drive space to drive the applications that I want to run. With just a base install of VMWare Fusion and Vista Business 32-Bit and nothing else running. I am using 2o27 MB of ram with 21 MB free. With my base applications installed and the above Virtual machine, I am using almost half the hard drive space already.

For me and for my needs, I don’t think the MacBook Air will cut it. I kinda knew this going in. I was just hoping that I could make it work.

So, it’s back to the Apple Store later today and I am going to look at the 15″ MacBook Pro. From comparing the specifications, I think that’s the one I will be most happy with. (Damn, I was hoping for a good 13 inch Mac)

I don’t want to leave you with a bad impression of the Air. So, I will say the following about it: It’s a great laptop. I would say, for most users out there that want a good very portable laptop the MacBook Air is not a bad machine. As many others have pointed out, it’s a great supplementary laptop. (Which originally was what I was looking for) Supplementary meaning that you do not use the Air to replace your main computer, but use it for quick trips, traveling where you need quick portable access etc.

So, I leave you guys with a couple screenshots of my “MacVista Air”’s Desktop. I have GeekTools running with my console and top on my desktop. The second picture was to show Safari running side by side with Internet Explorer from the Vista virtual Machine in Unity mode.

Yes, I am a big fan of IronMan. Good Stuff!

PS We shot video of the unboxing of the MacBook Air and will upload it to www.youtube.com/technochubby when I get all this crap organized

Quick Edit: Right after I wrote this entry, I found the following article by Eric Benderoff: Apple’s MacBook Air Love Affair in which he sums it all up with “I don’t think I’m ready for the commitment the Air wants.” That there says it all

Well, I went and bought a MacBook Air today. I was going to go buy the black MacBook but once I looked at it compared to the Air. I went for the Air. We’ll get some videos done of it later today.  (quick kudos:  Thanks to Mary at the Apple Store at Town Square Las Vegas for the help)

Also, since we’ve been going towards the Mac platform of late, we are now in the process of selling our old laptops. I’ll be eBay-ing again this week.

On a final note, I’ll be updating this site to Wordpress 2.5 sometime this weekend.

Well, I broke down a while ago and bought a real Mac. Just a Mac mini. I decided after using it for several days that I really felt at home in the Mac environment. I like it so much, that I am now budgeting to buy a full blown Mac Pro and a Macbook Pro.

However, for the time being, we can’t afford to start switching everyone in the household to Mac, so we decided to play with putting the Mac OS on the PC’s that we have. (I do plan on buying Mac hardware as we are able)

I tried various “Hackintosh” “distros” as it were, Kalyway, Zephyroth, and other methods. However, for me, I have found the leo4all “distro” to be the easiest to install. I have had some issues with the “V2″ of leo4all. But, the original version works fine and has given me the least amount of configuration issues.

With that said, this is what I have running now:

Machine #1: (the same one we built at http://www.youtube.com/technochubby )

Processor: Intel Q6600
Motherboard: Asus Maximus Formula
Memory: Corsair 4×2gb DDR2
HDDs: Seagate 500GB, 500GB, 500GB, 1TB
Graphics: XFX nVidia GeForce 8800GT w/ 512

System Notes: On board LAN works no issues, SATA set to AHCI 4 of the 6 ports work no problem. Sound worked fine with the ADI1988 patch on the leo4all.

System #2:

Processor: AMD 5600+
Motherboard: Asus M2NPV-VM
Memory: OCZ 4×2gb DDR2
HDDs: Seagate 300GB
Graphics: onboard 6150

System Notes: On board LAN did not work, I installed a Netgear GA311 for wired and Hawking HWU8DDA for wireless. Sound Required the HDA patch with Linux Codec method. I could not get the on board 6150 to work right. Threw in a PCI GeForce 5200 and worked with no issues (nvinstaller)

System 3:

Processor: Intel Q6600
Motherboard: Asus P5E-VM
Memory: OCZ 4×2gb DDR2
HDDs: Seagate 300GB & 1TB
Graphics: eVGA nVidia GeForce 8600GT w/ 512

System Notes: On board LAN did not work, I used a Netgear GA311 instead, SATA set to AHCI 4 of the 6 ports work no problem. Sound worked fine with the ADI1988 patch on the leo4all. Did not try the on-board video, video card worked great with nvinstaller.

– — –

I have also been working on getting OSX on my UX280P with no luck. The leo4all install method gets the farthest. But it does not seem to want to play nice on the screen and I can’t even get to the initial install choices. I need to do some more research on this.

I have given my mac mini to Angel and she is liking it. Dana is still pushing back on the switch for her. (she finally got her vista laptop set up the way she likes it, I understand) I gave system 3 to Andrew.

Eventually, we plan on going full blown Mac hardware, it’s just not feasible for us to do so at the moment. but we’ll get there.

Welp, it’s been a couple months since I have updated.  I figure I better get around to it.  Anyways, we’re settled and are liking our new digs.  We’ve been re-organizing and getting ready to do some cools stuff in the coming months. My son turned 6 (wow, they get big fast!)  I had another birthday.

We’ve been working on a tech site that I am going to start posting my tech stuff too.  It’s going to be at www.TechnoChubby.com .  We plan to use this site for everything we like tech.  (By we, me and my friends and some of you :P)  If you go to that site now, it’s got our first iteration of it, but it’s going to be getting a major revamp here soon.

After that transition takes place, I am going to use this site more on personal stuff.  I’ve always wanted to blog more on my thoughts and views on things, not sure why I haven’t.  But, I plan to…  lol.

We’ll see how this all goes in the coming weeks.