Rapidshare Premium Service for Free?

Rapidshare is one of the biggest file hosting sites in the world. With a storage capacity of several petabytes and an internet connection that transfers hundreds of gigabytes simultaneously, RapidShare has the infrastructure required to meet most user demands.

Users can upload big files (up to 100MB) and subsequently make them available to friends and family via a download link. In theory, the download link can only be accessed by the person who has stored the file but there are search engines designed to just search the content of the site.

Anyone can download a file from the service for free. But only one at a time and there is often a delay between the time you finish downloading one file and the time you are permitted to download the next. Premium accounts are available that remove this limit but they cost.

However, you don't need a premium account to initiate simultaneous downloading if you use one of the following on-line services:

• http://www.rapidsharepremiumlinkgenerator.com
  
• http://www.rsrip.com/generator.php
  
• http://www.rapidcheat.com
  
• http://www.freerslinks.com
  
• http://www.rsfox.com/generator.php
  
• http://www.hellorapid.com/public/index.php
  
• http://khongbiet.com
  
• http://megaez.com
  

Garmin Bobcat and the Potential Removal of Windows

I run Parallels on my computer for one reason; so that I can manage routes on my Garmin StreetPilot 2610 GPS unit.

All the software that shipped with the GPS is Windows based. That sucks but what are you going to do?

Garmin make the best affordable GPS systems out there for my needs; on the bike and in the car.

The 2610 lets me plot routes on the computer and transfer them to the GPS. That capability allows me to plot to the street level the route I want to take. Not so important when you're going for the quickest route to an address you haven't been to before but really important when you're trying to plot a route for your friends to travel on a Sunday ride.

So Garmin have a beta of Bobcat that they're introducing. In theory, this software will allow me to do everything that I've been doing on my Windows virtual machine in the native Mac OS: transfer waypoints, tracks, and routes between your Mac and Garmin device and manage your data using your Garmin maps.

The software downlaod comes with a basic set of maps but you have to convert your Windows maps to be able to work with Bobcat. You need to use MapConverter on the PC and then MapInstall and MapManager on the Mac to be able to do that. All this software is free but the converter, in my experience, is the part of the software bundle is very buggy. So I can play with Bobcat using the base maps but I can't yet use the full maps for which I've paid.

If and when Garmin fixes the map conversion program or offers you the opportunity to trade in your Windows disks for Mac disks, this software might become a viable option. Right now, it's not.

Which is a real shame as it is the last Windows program that I have to use and the only reason I still have Windows on my Mac. I am excited to see how they proceed with the updates. But for now, I'm still holding out for the next beta version.

Edit (9.6.08): See updated post.

Douglas Adams, Mac Fanboy

One of my favorite authors (Roddy Doyle being the other) is Douglas Adams. He was probably best known as the author for the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy trilogy (in five books). Sadly, he died at the ridiculously young age of 49 on Friday 11 May, 2001. I can remember exactly what I was doing when I heard the news.

Douglas was a huge Apple fan from the days when it was hard to be an Apple fan. His last book, The Salmon of Doubt, which was an unfinished story, was published with other material to fill out the page count (for other authors, I'd use the term filler but not with Douglas Adams). Part of that other material was a couple of Apple computer reviews.

This guy loved Apple. I think he had the first Newton sold in England.

Anyway, the reason I'm posting this today is that I've just started listening to Douglas Adams at the BBC audiobook. Simon Jones, who played Arthur Dent in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, presents an alphbetical look back at Douglas Adams life and works. After finishing the book and finding it wonderful to hear Douglas' voice again, I'm currently going through the recording a second time. It is available from audible if you are a member. Highly recommended.

Mac Bluetooth Works, Why Doesn't Verizon's?

Verizon is my only realistic option for cell phone service where I live. It's really my only option where I ride. So I'm stuck with them.

Well, that's not really true. I've had pretty good service from them, the local techs know their stuff and are willing to help whenever a problem arises (all it takes is time). So, as far as cell phone carriers go, they're not aweful.

I have an older cell phone; a RAZR V3M. It works well enough. It actually has pretty good range and I can get a signal on it when friends using other phones can't. Again, very useful for when I ride. So I'm pretty happy with it and don't have a real reason to upgrade.

What I'm not happy about is the fact that, without telling me upfront, Verizon decided to cripple the Bluetooth capabilities of the phone (okay, they're not picking on me, they do this to all RAZRs). The phone can sync with (some) headsets and in-car units but it won't fully sync with my MacBook. Address Book sync works okay (not well, but okay) but I can't sync files of any kind (notes, music, picures).

There are PC alternatives to be able to facilitate file synchonization, especially music. You can buy a kit that will let you move things around but this is PC only with nothing for the mac.

BUT, the mac doesn't need anything extra IF VERIZON HADN'T CRIPPLED BLUETOOTH.

AAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!

Some idiot in Verizon was probably under the misconception that I'd pay for a ring-tone!

Creating, Managing and Using GOOD Passwords

It seems that every web site out there now wants you to log-in to use even the most basic features. You can use the passwords at bugmenot if it's a site you'll go to once (Firefox has a bugmenot add-on to make that even easier) or you can use a password you generate.

The problem with passwords that a human generates (you, me, anyone) is that they are either:

1. Too easy to crack,
2. Too hard to remember or
   
3. Hard to crack but the same for every site you go to.

What happens if your password is stolen if you use the same hard to crack password on each of the web sites you access?

One solution is to use a password generator and manager such as 1Password. I was lucky enough to get a free version through the MacHeist competition but this is one program worth paying for if you are worried about security.

1Password integrates into most browsers facilitating use. It works with Apple's Keychain and the autofill options in Safari and Firefox. It is a strong password generator with built-in anti-phishing and keylogger protection.

But most of all, it allows you to use one simple, easy to remember password that activates multiple different secure passwords for use on each web site.

This is highly recommended software.

Who Turned Out the Lights?

A mini-hack today for those that like to use their MacBooks to watch video clips.

If you watch a movie on your MacBook, the computer realizes you're doing something and doesn't either darken the screen or initiate the screensaver.

However, if you're watching a video embedded in a web page, it doesn't.

So what do you do? You can sit and move your mouse every few minutes or stroke the keypad to keep the screen alive or you can use a nice piece of free software called Caffeine.

Caffeine is a tiny program that puts an icon in the menu bar. Click it to prevent your Mac from automatically going to sleep, dimming the screen or starting screen savers. The software is very easy to use and does the job as advertised.

One thing to be aware of though. Keeping the screen lit bright will shorten the length of time that you can run on battery power so you might want to remember to turn the application off after you've finished watching your videos. You can access the menu and set the amount of time for which Caffeine is active but that isn't the default.

Great Free, Open-Source, On-line Game for the Mac

Did I get all the buzzwords? I think I forgot monetize, advertisement-driven and community-building, but I got most of them, right?

Anyway, back to business. I'm not much of a gamer but one of the few games I do enjoy is Aleph One, an open-source descendant of Bungie's Marathon 2: Durandal first person 3D shooting game. Software is available in a number of formats including MacOSX and Mac OS9.

Okay, the graphics aren't high definition but that means that the graphics card in my lowly MacBook can easily keep up with play. The demands of the software are not too high (did I mention you can play it in Mac OS9?) so that works out pretty well for all users.

Play is free.

Software is free.

All it's going to cost you is time.

And maybe a few ego points if you get killed as frequently as I seem to.....

The BEST iTunes Hack

It's unrealistic to carry around a set of external powered speakers with your portable computer. That may be an option for desktop users or when you use your portable computer at home. But certainly not on the road.

Your tunes sound great on your iPod but when you listen to them on your MacBook they sound tiny and tinny. It's got to be the speakers, right? A hardware issue, nothing you can do about it?

Well, maybe not.


Enter iWoW. A brilliant little program put together by the guys at the SRS sound labs that will really get the full performance from your speakers (or headphones). This incredibly easy to use, yet fully customizable program will fill your music with deeper and richer bass and fuller sound all around. There are even Podcast - Voice settings that make the spoken word clearer, crisper, easier to understand.

The program is installed and accessed through iTunes. Select Window -> SRS iWoW to access the control panel. Then select the type of speakers you are using and try one of the presets that most closely resembles the type of audio to which you are listening. If the presets don't do it for you, try sliding the control bars around until you get just the sound you want.

But be warned, once you've listened to iTunes with iWoW installed, you won't ever want to go back.

A definite buy for even the casual iTunes user.

Overclocking the MacBook

Well they said it couldn't be done but the guys at Ziff Davis in Germany have produced a free download that will let you overclock the MacBook Pro from 2.8GHz to 3.2GHz without increasing voltage to the CPU and without losing stability.

We were playing around with this software today and it seemed to work fine.

However, if you want to try this yourself, you do so at your own risk.

Macs in the Comics Business

Not a hack but as I'm a huge comics book fan, I wanted to bring attention to Apple's latest promo piece on how Dark Horse Comics (home of Grendel, HellBoy, etc.) use macs in their day-to-day production. Nothing too new to jump up and down about, but interesting none-the-less.

This post was not submitted to Digg as it's just a pointer to an interesting article.

10 Reasons I Won't be Buying an iPhone

10. Is it IM capable yet? How about SMS? Fixable
9. Crippled Bluetooth. Stereo would be nice on an MP3 player. Fixable
8. No choice in browser - or anything really. To quote an M$ exec,"It's iWay or the highway". Fixable
7. Is that the best speaker they could have installed? Fixable
6. Have you tried typing on it? Fixable (maybe)
5. GPS battery drainage but no turn-by-turn directions. Fixable
4. No Flash for on-line video playback. Fixable
3. 2M Pixel Camera but no flash, no zoom, no video - no video conferencing. Fixable in the next iteration
2. No G3 service but they'll charge me a G3 price. Fixable but unlikely as this is controlled by AT&T
1. AT&T service is pathetic in this area. And that, my friends, is the real killer and not likely to be fixed any time soon

The Second Hack Every MacBook Owner Should Do

After you've bumped up the RAM in your MacBook (the first hack any MacBook owner should do) you'll probably start looking at the limited size of your hard drive. The minimal amount of options that you have in purchasing a MacBook means that you probably didn't get as much hard drive as you really wanted.

So first things first. You need to buy a hard drive that will work with your MacBook. That means a 2.5 inch SATA drive. There are a lot to choose from. I went with a Toshiba / Hitachi 250GB 5400rpm hard drive. Perhaps not the fastest drive ever built but very affordable and from a know resource. And under $100.



Next thing to decide is what do you want to do with the old drive. I decided I wanted to make it into a portable drive for backing up the photos I take when out on extended vacations. That meant buying a hard drive enclosure. Again, there are a lot to choose from but I chose a USB 2.0 SATA 2.5 HDD/HD Hard Drive/Disk Enclosure/Case that I got from e-bay. That new part cost me under $10 with free shipping. You might want to go with a Firewire enclosure that will permit faster data transfer but I liked the fact that the USB case was self powered and didn't need another power adapter.

The drive enclosure made transferring data from my old drive to my new drive a snip. I plugged the new drive into the enclosure and plugged the enclosure into the MacBook's USB port. I formatted the drive using Apple's Disk Utility (it's already on your mac) in the Mac OS Extended Volume Hard Drive Format. I used the wonderful SuperDuper! to clone the contents of my original drive onto the new replacement. SuperDuper! creates an exact bootable copy so there's nothing else you need to do.



Then it's just a matter of switching out the drives which is very easy to do. I repeat, this is very easy to do. Especially if you follow ifixit.com's excellent instructions. You will need the following tools which you can get from iFixit or Radio Shack if you don't already have them (or cheaper elsewhere on-line).

• #00 Phillips Screwdriver
• T8 Torx Screwdriver

Once the hard drive is installed in the computer, turn on the mac to make sure everything works as you want it to. Install the old drive into the new enclosure. I reformatted the old drive (which is now in the external enclosure), again using Apple's Disk utility, to clean off all the old data.

So, for $110, I got an increase in the size of my internal drive (80GB to 250GB) and a new external 80GB drive. The total time to complete this task was around 2 hours but most of that time was in backing-up the date. Actual bench time was around 25 minutes.

Apple History in Two Books and a Movie

I just finished watching (for about the hundredth time) The Pirates of Silicon Valley. This made-for-TV movies from about 10 years ago gives a pretty accurate account of Apple's early years and their tie-ins with Microsoft. Well acted and well directed with only Steve Wozniak (Woz) coming off as a truly likable character. I know all the fanboys think Steve Jobs is the greatest thing to happen to Apple, and perhaps as a business man he is, but I think I'd rather share a drink with Woz. It amazes me, when I talk to younger Mac fanboys or newer converts just how little they know of Woz's contribution to Apple. This is a must-see for all interested in Apple history.


On the other hand, the book (or audiobook in my case) iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It is just a little too self-indulgent for my taste. A little more self-scrutiny about why he walked away from the company, how he let Steve Jobs push him around and a little less repeated stories of pranks might have made this a better read. Still, it's a fair book and worth the the price of admission and a little time to explore.


iCon: Steve Jobs: The Second Greatest Act in the History of Business is not in the same class. It is an unauthorized biography and as-such provides little new incite into the man or the company that isn't already available in public record. I'd borrow this book from the library if you are interested in reading it for completions sake.

The Worst Made Hardware Apple Currently Sells

Two down, how many more to go?

I'm talking of course about the Portable Power Adapter block that Apple ships with it's notebook computers. You'll recall a couple of years back how Apple was touting the virtues of the Magsafe magnetic connector. Their ad campaign had John Hodgman riding around in a wheel chair.


There is, of course, a response from Apple. And of course, obviously, we, the consumers are doing it wrong. Well there's a surprise, it's not Apple's fault. There's even a YouTube video detailing how we're supposed to use the brilliantly designed hardware.

Don't you love washed out photos of white parts on white backgrounds?

It's a power plug. You plug it in when you want power and the company that makes it should do at least a little stress testing to ensure that you can unplug it and still have something that works. Of course, Apple decided to patent this wonderful technology so I can't buy an aftermarket version that just works.

Will Apple replace the badly designed hardware? Not Apple. No, they want you to pay another (just under) $100 (piece, tax, shipping) to replace the POS that they supplied. And the problem exists with both the 60W to the larger 85W unit (macBook and MacBook pro items).

Come on Apple. Either make a better product or at least open up the technology so someone can design the unit correctly.

Copy Music from an iPod for Free

There are legitimate reasons why you'd want to legally copy music from an iPod to your computer. For instance, Khan Jr.'s iPod was synced with Mrs. Khan's computer and she tidied all his music files (this happened this week).

There are also obviously less than legal reason why someone would want to copy songs from an iPod, such as downloading all of your friends music collection. But I can't imagine that anyone would do such a thing.

Anyway, back to the problem at hand. Mrs. Khan has trashed Khan Jr.'s music collection and he wants some more tracks added to his iPod for your family road trip out west. If you just add tracks, you'll loose the old tracks already on the iPod. So somehow you've got to get the old tracks back before you can add the new stuff.

Did I mention Mrs. Khan never backs anything up?

Enter Senuti (iTunes spelled backwards). This program is a one trick pony but it does that trick really well and it's free. Senuti is a simple application that allows you to transfer songs from your iPod to your computer. It reads the iTunesDB file that stores all the information of on every song on your iPod. You can also use it to replace iTunes as the program with which you manage your music library and sync with your iPod. You can, but most of us are comfortable using iTunes to do that.


Still, it fills the gap iTunes leaves and is worth every penny you pay for it, and then some.

Stopping Programs from Phoning Home

An update for a program comes out and the next time you start it up, there's a message telling you about the update.

How'd they do that?

Well, pretty obviously, the program has used your internet connection to call back to the developers web site to check.

Now, that's all well and good. But what other information are they sending back? Are you comfortable knowing that the program has access to all the information on your hard drive and that it could be sending your address, what web sites you visited, etc.?

If not, there's a wonderful little program called Little Snitch that acts kind of like a reverse firewall. A standard firewall blocks packets from coming in; Little snitch stops packets going out. It's very easily customizable allowing you to specify which programs can get out.


And if you still want to check for updates to your programs periodically, you can go to sites like MacUpdate or else install AppFresh which will check your installed software for updates.

Add-ons for Firefox 3

Firefox 3 came out about a week ago and I think it's put Mozilla back on top of the browser pile again. All of the memory leak problems that Firefox 2 was plagued with seem to have disappeared and page load times are significantly improved.


But that's not the topic of this post.

Most people know that Firefox's capabilities can be enhanced with add-ons. These small programs work inside Firefox to add functionality. There are a number of add-ons for Firefox that I find invaluable and a few others that are more for entertainment. My must-haves include:

• Foxmarks - If you use more than one computer and want to have the same set of bookmarks across them all, then Foxmarks is the extension to use. Google Sync used to do this but that has been discontinued. Firefox has also introduced Weave as an alternative but the beta isn't quite there yet. Foxmarks just works.
• Adblock Plus - Fed up with seeing all those ads plastered all over the place? Adblock Plus removes Adsense served advertisements from web sites.
  
• Customize Google - A little bit belt and braces here as Customize Google also blocks ads but it does so much more including forcing gmail to a secure connection. Very useful.
  
• Torbutton - Tor, in my experience, really slows down browsing but sometimes you need to ensure privacy. Torbutton will toggle on/off use of Tor for times when you need to prevent IP address leakage, cookie leakage, and general privacy attacks, etc.
  

Some of the other add-ons that I find entertaining include:

• FireNES - Remember all of those great old Nintendo games from a decade or so ago? FireNES gives you access to thousands of old games that you can play directly in the browser. All for free.
  
• StumbleUpon - So you've been to all your regular sites and you've got a little time to kill. StumbleUpon will take you to random web sites on topics that interest you.
  
• PicLens - An innovative way of looking at images on the web (cover flow in 2-D). PicLens works great with FLICKR. It would be nice to see them develop compatibility with Blogger. That might move this from my gee wiz section to the must-have group.