Total Conversion

Some history... I *love* gadgets. I am insanely fussy about which phones I have. Before my contracts are ready for upgrade, I research and plan and drool about my next phone. My history of phones goes back to 1995 when I got my Ericsson 388. Lovely tiny phone. Followed over the hears with an Sony Ericsson T610, P910 and eventually got my first Nokia, the N95. Often when phones are released, they ship with one or two features missing. Either a lower spec camera or no FM Radio or something to make you want more. For the first time, with the N95, I got the perfect phone. When my two years were up (September 2009) 6 months ago, I couldn't find a single phone that could do all the things it could. Finally 6 months later, I realised that it was a once off event. I would not be so lucky again. I'd have to compromise when I bought my replacement. The fact that it took 6 months before I did shows you how much I love that phone. This blog post is supposed to be about my new HT...

So I wanted to burn some video clips to disk, but the resultant disk image was too big to fit on a dvd. I could have removed one file and it would fit, but the issue was that it was only a few megabytes too much. It seemed like I needed to lose 1 or 2 minutes of video to make it fit. I immediately reached for my usual answer to the problem ffmpeg. FFMpeg, as everybody should know, is the video editing command line tool of choice. It was a simple matter of setting start and end times and clipping the file. However, it normally requires a bit of work getting the parameters right and converting times to seconds, etc. I wasn't in the mood. Secondly, I'm using OSX. There's supposed to be a GUI way to do this. So a few searches later, I had my answer. http://www.squared5.com/svideo/mpeg-streamclip-mac.html Enter Streamclip. OpenFile. Seek to the Point you wish to clip. Don't drag a selection, just select the frame you wish to use as the trim point. Now, in the edit...

So. One of my biggest complaints with Linux has been the Audio popping I've been getting which I blamed on PulseAudio. I had gotten used to using my computer with the sound turned low, so didn't notice that the same problem existing using it on OSX. I finally realised it was a speaker problem when I tried to use the speakers without the computer to provide music at a pool party. Lo and behold. Clicking and popping like crazy. So all the time I blamed it on Kubuntu, or PulseAudio, or whatever, it was just the bloody broken speakers...

Part of me thought I would have left Snow Leopard and gone back to Linux for my desktop use, but so far, nope. I'm very happy and think that for most of my needs, OSX is as good or better than using Linux. I miss using KWIN + Plasma as my desktop, but with a little adjustment, most of my workflows have been replaced with suitable alternatives. I guess because I use mostly cross platform apps (Songbird, Picasa, Virtualbox, XBMC, etc), my daily routine remains largely unaffected. In addition my Hauppage USB card works better in Mac along with my printer (Canon), Scanner (Epson), and Keyboard (Logitech G15). This isn't a bash linux post. On the contrary, I miss the lack of boundaries that working on linux gives. I miss the freedom to change things, install from source, etc. Most of all, I miss being able to go into /etc/*.conf and fine tune things! I still use my openSUSE VM and now and then run an XP VM for work related tasks. All in all, a very comfortable setup.

There's just no substitute for good quality apps on your desktop. I missed using Krusader, Marble and even Dolphin! To get KDE 4.3 working, I followed the guide at : http://n0tablog.wordpress.com/2009/06/24/installing-krusader-orthodox-file-manager-on-mac-os-x/ This got me 99% of the way there. For the last %, I needed to edit a plist file as per the following post. http://old.nabble.com/Re%3A-dbus-%401.2.12_5-apparent-regression%2C-can%27t-%22launchctl-load%22-p23700119.html The first post is quite lengthy and the bits that worked for me are in the comments. I am posting it here, but do visit the original post for more info. All credit and thanks to the respective authors and commenters, they are the real heroes. once off. sudo chown -R ~/Library/Preferences/KDE launchctl load /Library/LaunchAgents/org.freedesktop.dbus-session.plist once per login open /Applications/MacPorts/KDE4/kdeinit4.app

I've been running Snow Leopard for 2 weeks. Its been remarkably dull. Everything works as expected. No major hassles thus far. Have installed macports and kde4 to have some apps I can't live without. Everything from nano to krusader ;)

For most of what I need to do in Linux, the current releases of openSUSE 11.2 meets my needs. I have a number of hardware issues related to poor driver support from the manufacturers which makes my current setup 99% of what I want it to be. More specifically, my Canon Pixma ip5200 printer whose support is okay for normal printing, but for cd label printing, which is my primary need, its pretty poor. In the last 2 weeks, I also read some posts from linux users who are considering moving to OSX and was amazed (although not surprised) at the hostile reaction there posts caused. So much for a community spirit. When a linux user criticises linux, its not always about bashing developers and their hard work. Its about recognising where we need to improve and to suggest ways forward. Its crazy to think that Linux is ready for everyone and all use cases, because quite simply, it isn't. If you have a relative that's hooked on Sims 3, Windows (or OSX) are better platforms for that ...