With the upcoming iPhone OS 3.0, Apple has announced support for tethering. Whether your local carrier would allow it is another matter altogether. Even if your carrier will support it, chances are you won’t get access to it without a fee. However, if you have a jailbroken iPhone, tethering has been around for a while and is free.

All the tethering applications are available via Cydia which is the application installer that is automatically installed when you jailbreak your iPhone. There are various tools for tethering such as Netshare, the nagware iPhoneModem, the free iPhoneModem, and my preffered app of choice called PdaNet.

PdaNet supports tethering via USB which is my preferred method because you no longer need to configure an adhoc network and your iPhone remains charging while you are using the connection. Both iPhoneModem versions in my experience are complicated and don’t always work out of the box. The free version of iPhoneModem is also hard to configure and has no documentation if you want to use it with Windows and not OSX. With PdaNet, you can use any application that needs a connection to the internet instead of configuring proxies and only being able to use applications that support SOCKS.

Save yourself the time, if you are using Windows, use PdaNet.

Every new release of Itunes seems to have become a test of my will and of my patience. I have very little of either when software that should just work shits on me every damn time.

First off, yes I have a Mac and a PC. I choose to run Itunes on my PC because I have a huge music library in excess of 500GB that takes a hell of a long time to load on a single core lowly Mac notebook. I manage my music (more accurately … I put up) with Itunes because I happen to like Apple mobile devices. That is where my love for Apple ends.

OS X does not impress me. There is nothing on OS X that I couldn’t do in Windows or Linux.

My hatred for Apple comes to a climax when they create software for Windows. If there was a decent application that could manage my library … playlists, import of ratings/playcounts, app store support … I would switch in a heartbeat. Instead, I have to put up with Itunes on Windows that makes me want to kick cute puppies every time I do it … yet do it I must for the sake of firmware upgrades.

The first Itunes I had issues with was with version 7.x. After an update to a newer version, Itunes refused to detect my Ipod Touch. My guess was it had something to do with the Apple Mobile Device software. I merrily hop my way to Itunes support and it suggests that I completely uninstall Itunes. The problem was the damn fucking installer didn’t want to uninstall Itunes. It kept rolling back before it finished uninstalling it. How fucking hard is it to delete the shit you put into a computer? I’m sure an army of Apple engineers could have figured that out … but yet didn’t because none of them probably use Windows, never mind test on it. That venture ended up in me reformatting my whole damn setup because I was so fed up with the installer.

That iPod touch by the way is sitting on my desk … a brick. Sending it to Apple for warranty repair got me a “Fuck you, there was physical damage”. Yes … a lot of physical damage just sitting on my desk after Apple yet again fucks me up the ass after a firmware update. No power, no nothing after a firmware update, yet they conveniently tell me I did physical damage to it. However, I come back to Apple for yet more pain and punishment and buy another 32GB iPod touch. I should have learned.

Fast forward a few months and Itunes 8 and the 2.1 firmware comes out. What a surprise, I get installation problems while installing iTunes. The install finishes with an error, so while the application was probably installed right (mostly), it wasn’t quite finished. Itunes still thought it wasn’t version 8 even though Help -> About Itunes clearly said I was running Itunes 8. Fucking Itunes and it’s bipolar disorder. Because of that, I couldn’t install the new firmware which was the very reasons I installed Itunes 8 in the first place.

I proceeded to uninstall Itunes and honest to God, it actually learned how to uninstall itself. Progress! I begin installation of Itunes again and it doesn’t install! It doesn’t even give you any damn hints on what might be wrong. Going to Apple’s support site pretty much told me what I already knew … that I did not like putting fingers up my ass. Very helpful.

If you have this problem, you can probably run msconfig and do a Selective Startup and unchecking Load startup items. Restart your computer and Apple should have a clean slate to do it’s install. I’m sorry Apple, you don’t own Windows, you are going to have to play nice with other software. You might be the head honcho over there with OS X, but I shouldn’t have to fucking do anything but install software to use a device I paid five hundred dollars for … TWICE. Get off your fucking high horse and get with the program or get the fuck out of my Windows. While I am on that subject, why the hell don’t you use Windows themes? I have Aero on because I happen to like Aero … so WTF!?

So yes, Apple Itunes installed successful after much bitching at the wall which I lovingly called Apple.

I proceed to plug my iPod in and Blue Screen of Fucking Death. I have not once encountered a BSOD in Vista since I began using it on launch date … yet Apple seems to bring the best out of Windows. A search around the internet seems to tell me the same thing … Apple is a douchebag. It’s so frustrating that it’s funny that every release of a new Itunes version is always like this. They never fucking ever do anything right … at least not on Windows … where oh yeah … more Apple device users use Windows than Macs. After reading through a forum thread where other people have been getting the same error, I start turning off other USB devices. It turns out, my HP printer is have emotional conflicts with Apple devices. The question is then, how did they work together before? The official Apple stance seems to always be … “it’s not me baby, it’s your other woman”. Seriously, own up to your damn mistakes. No one should have to start turning devices off because you fucked up when it was unfucked before.

Time wasted this go-around with Itunes … four hours.

Thank you very much … and oh yeah … can’t wait for a new version of the Zune. Please get the import of Apple libraries right.

I’ve had a Logitech G15 for a few weeks now and I’ve put off complaining/praising it until I got used to it … so far my personal thoughts are … meh. It has lots of things about it that are promising, but so far … it’s been a normal keyboard, a big one. It hardly fits on my pull out keyboard tray where I also have my mouse. The keyboard on has a set of 18 keys with 3 “M” keys, effectively giving you 18*3 keys on the left hand side that although nice, it could have been better. The software allows you to macro keystrokes to single key, but what would have been better is the ability to actually bind these “G” keys to an action instead of it mimicking keystrokes. It’s great for monotonous office tasks I guess, but for gaming … it isn’t all that spectacular.

The other most notable feature of the keyboard is the LCD display. A great idea … but the display just doesn’t have enough software out there. Logitech expected to get this keyboard out and then have developers make the software instead of supporting it themselves on release. Currently the only games I have with support for the G15 are World of Warcraft and Battlefield 2. Even then, the games could have done better. World of Warcraft gives you stats and battleground information when they could have added so many things … mana? life? targetting? You can also develop your own apps with the right knowhow. Others have already made some neat apps at g15forums and g15mods which include a weather app, bandwidth monitor, system monitor, media monitor, although Counter-Strike: Source/1.6 doesn’t have native support for the g15, you can download a statistic app for it, and many more. One of my favorite little apps is the built in g15 support Ventrilo has and if you use Teamspeak, theres an app for it as well. There are so many possibilities that could be done using the LCD, but the software just isn’t out there.

Other features of the keyboard include 2 USB ports, a switch to disable the Windows key (I know people who buy the keyboard just for this), media controls, illuminated keys and mute keys.

Overall, a solid keyboard with lots of potential if it was given a chance.

My 19inch LCD did not come however. UPS was nubbing it up by first sending it to Dallas from Memphis instead of sending it straight up to Minnesota like it did with other packages. UPS for the lose!

I am in the process of getting everything updated now and getting my games installed. Almost through! I might be done before sunrise!

In other news, WordPress 2.0.3 has been released. I would update, but I am having way too much fun as any person would on a new rig.

Here I the specs I ordered (copy/pasted from Newegg) …

ABIT KN8 Ultra Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard – Very affordable. I didn’t need SLI and this provided everything I required.

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Toledo 2000MHz HT Socket 939 Dual Core Processor Model ADA4400CDBOX – About time I went to dual-core. I looked at all the dual core prices and this offered the best bang for the buck.

Antec LifeStyle SONATA II Piano Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 450Watt SmartPower 2.0 ATX 12V V2.0 for AMD & Intel systems Power Supply – I am now past the stage where I needed a full tower with a million fans. Silence is most important to me when I chose a case and Sonata from experience has been very quiet.

Maxtor DiamondMax 10 6V250F0 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive – A hard drive (is there anything left to say?) … I don’t do anything that will make me notice the slight speed increase of faster HDs. I already have external drives as well as network drives for over a terrabyte of data if needed.

OCZ Value Series 1GB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered System Memory Model OCZ4001024V3 x 2 – Cheap memory. Again, I do not require the ultra low latency provided by memory multiple times the price. 2 gigs is nice.

Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound – Couldn’t find the thermal compound I had … so yeah.

ViewSonic VX922 Black/Silver 19″ 2ms LCD Monitor – 2ms. ’nuff said.

LITE-ON 16X DVD±R DVD Burner W/5X DVD-RAM Write Black ATAPI/E-IDE Model SHM-165P6S – OEM – I could’ve settled for a regular dvd rom, but these weren’t much more.

eVGA Geforce 7900GTX 512-P2-N570-AX Video Card – The most important part of any self respecting gaming rig. This will last me a while. It better considering the almost 500 dollar pricetag.

Everything is packed and shipped via UPS 3 day ground. Everything should arrive this Friday. I would have used the regular Newegg Federal Express shipping, but I didn’t feel the extra 150 dollars in shipping fees was something I was willing to pay when I can wait.

I am also thinking of putting XP x64. The only thing that will prevent me from using x64 is if my USB wireless adapter does not have x64 drivers. I have DSL … I just didn’t want to run cat5 around the pad.

I have always been a PC gamer at heart. Two more days and I’m back.

Link:

ROUND ROCK, Texas–(BUSINESS WIRE)–March 22, 2006–Dell (NASDAQ:DELL – News) announced today it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Alienware to further satisfy the growing number of consumers and businesses seeking the highest-performance PC products, including those used for gaming and multimedia digital content management. Terms of the planned purchase will not be disclosed.

Links:

• Dell
• Alienware

1. 2
2. True
3. True
4. True

Here’s to Microsoft!

Links:

• Microsoft – Mystery Solved
• Microsoft Corporation

Setup and installation was a breeze. The default router IP address is 192.168.0.1 so all you really have to do to weild administrative power over it is start up a web browser and connect to it with the default username (admin) and password (password). Make sure you change the administrator password before you connect to Qwest. Select your country and all you have left to do is setup the router to connect to Qwest. You can try to have setup autodetect your configuration but I find the easiest and fastest way to setup the router is to do it manually.

Here is what you need to enter to get it to connect to Qwest:

Basic Settings:

• Does Your Internet Connection Require A Login? – YES
• Encapsulation – PPPoA (PPP over ATM)
• Login – Your username. If you do not know this, check the configuration of your old modem or call Qwest. In my experience, they are very helpful in helping you out with account settings.
• Password – Your password. You can get this from Qwest as well if you don’t know it.
• Internet IP Address & Domain Name Server (DNS) Address – Get this automatically
• NAT (Network Address Translation) – Enable

ADSL Settings:

• Multiplexing Method – LLC-BASED
• VPI – 0
• VCI – 32

That is all the information you need to connect to Qwest’s network. I did run into some problems while setting everything up though. The modem seemed to reset and get disconnected constantly. I could connect, but only for a few minutes. I decided to quickly download the latest firmware (remember to get the right firmware for your version of the router) before the connection went down the ter again. After installing the latest firmware everything has been going great. You can configure the router to your heart’s desire even setting up VPN. Did I mention that the router is really stylish and y? Yes it is.

Links:
Netgear DG834G Product Page
Netgear DG834G Firmware Page

I just got new external storage today. It’s basically an external enclosure with a 300 gig Maxtor drive in it. It comes with software that enables one touch backup of your entire drive or certain folders. The neat thing is that the whole thing was less than thirty-five dollars. This gives me almost 1.5TB of total storage on local and network drives.

I needed to backup some files to external storage while I play around with Ubuntu. The install went smoothly and even mounted my external HD as read-only media. Now I need to get my wireless card to work. It detects it, and it is enabled, but it simply doesn’t work. It also only seems to support WEP, so for now, I’ve gone from WPA to WEP. When I get wireless with WEP working, then I’ll figure out WPA.