A final push against TPP

I'm sure many of you know about the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement that the United States, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam have been working on for almost 10 years.  Well, they have recently been trying harder than ever to get it passed, but thanks to over 3 million people speaking out against it so far they have agreed to meet with OpenMedia, an international nonprofit that fights for internet rights and freedoms.

OpenMedia are making a final push to get an online petition and feedback from people to help guide them at these meetings with the TPP people.  You don't need to live in one of the nations above to sign the online petition and share your thoughts.  The link is below.

OpenMedia - Face to Face with Internet Censorship


The TPP will increase internet censorship and decrease privacy, so have your say while they're listening.

Tackling BSD

Before I head off in a couple weeks, I wanted to deal with a question I tend to get every 3-4 months.  The question is why don't I write a BSD guide, or can I help them install BSD from scratch.

These questions are a bit ridiculous, since that is not at all how one should approach BSD for the first time.  It is the type of thing that you read a book about before you even attempt using it.  There are BSD install guides out there, but that won't teach you most of the fundamentals you'll need to get by.  The main problem with install guides is that you don't really grasp what you're doing.  You're really just going through the motions that someone else figured out for you.  You can approach Linux like this in limited ways, but not BSD.

If you really want an install guide then use the ones on the BSD sites, but I won't be linking to any, since I cannot promote that way of learning if you're coming to the table with a totally blank BSD slate.  Instead, I will link to BSD books you should read first.

BSD is actually less user accessible than Linux, and that is saying something.  You need to use it to truly understand that.  It's not that it gets in your way, but more that it's just on another level.  BSD is the closest modern remnant to true UNIX.  Linux on the other hand is a UNIX-like OS, but in an off on its own sense; which means it's based on many of the same concepts and ideals, but not the same code or direction.  BSD is also technically UNIX-like, as it's not the original AT&T version, but it is the truest form of UNIX today.  The most proper thing to call BSD is a UNIX clone.  GNU/Linux was designed by largely UNIX people to be more user accessible, and include features those developers couldn't get into UNIX at the time; for whatever reasons.  GNU literally stands for GNU's Not UNIX.

These days things are a lot more open in the UNIX/BSD world, and there are multiple BSD variants that have been released in the last couple decades, but it's still BSD; the Everest of operating systems.

This is not an OS for the lighthearted user.  You've been warned.

A good list of BSD/UNIX books to read can be found here.  The list is a bit OpenBSD dominant, but that is my BSD of choice.  The next closest thing would be NetBSD. 

Hello from Houston

Hello everyone! I am very happy to be with you all. As you may already know, my name is Mark Elliott and I am going to be filling in for Zen while he is working abroad in Europe. I am very honored that Zen asked me to fill in for him. I have been a long time reader of PowerPC Liberation. Zen has been the driving force in motivating me to learn and use Debian. I am truly a better user and technician because of him. When he asked me to join the liberation the only natural answer was yes!

I do have some plans for a project involving my PowerMac G4 that I will be posting about here. My Power Mac is an upgraded Quicksilver. It has a 1.33ghz OWC Mercury Extreme CPU, a flashed Radeon 9800 pro and a PCI SATA controller with two drives attached. I have always wondered if I could improve the internal airflow by adding fans and possibly changing the existing fans with modern ones. I would like to keep the temperatures as low as possible while keeping fan noise at bearable levels. While experimenting I will use these thermometers to collect live data from various points inside of the case. This way we would have hard data to see if any changes made to the fans are helpful or detrimental.

I am absolutely thrilled to be here with you guys, it is going to be fun! If everyone would please join me in wishing Zen a safe, fun and productive trip to Europe.

Why negativity doesn't linger here

Negative things, or negative words, are the kinds of things that do need to be said from time to time, but that isn't the kind of information that should linger around.  This is why virtually all the negative things I have ever said about others, or their sites here, have been removed after a while.

It's the kind of information you get out there, but then ease off once everyone gets the point.  To linger in negativity is to live a negative life, or at least computing life.  I will be the first to admit that I have no qualms about speaking (or writing rather in this case) my mind, and don't mind being the rude but honest guy when I have to be, but the goal is always to do good things for the architecture and its users. 

There are things that need to be said from time to time; that is a fact of life.  After being said though, you should move on.  My goal is always for the well being  of computing on PowerPC, and in 2014 people can't stay in the 2007 bubble that Apple left PowerPC users in.  Because of the Apple culture, there are many people who never want to let it go.  They're addicted to the aesthetic and ease of use.  This has caused a lot of these people who also blog to spread the illogic of staying with 2007 Apple software tech.  Computing from the passenger seat with pride, and encouraging others to do so.  It is because of these people promoting devolution to others that has caused me to react in negative ways.

Since the main goal here is to help the architecture in the modern day, and do it in a way that promotes user evolution, not devolution; I always promote that users challenge themselves.  To push your own personal measuring stick past what you think the maximum length is.  Taking the role I have also requires me to tell the truth about the backward advice of certain blogs/sites.  It's a role that does weigh on me at times, but I am committed.

People who point out the honest and brutal truth are often seen as negative; even when all they're doing is telling truth.  I will admit that I have also added insults here and there, but the ignorant and limited nature of these people upsets my evolved user instincts.

Once these things have been said, whether about individuals, or even companies like CleverFiles, I let them sit here for a month or two, and then get rid of them.  I have done that consistently since I started this blog in August 2012.  The point is to keep the focus here on evolving the architecture and users; getting on with the task of helping more users become capable and self reliant at a computer.  Even if you really do prefer the passenger seat, you first need a thorough test drive in the drivers seat to be sure you made the right choice.  You can never truly have this with Mac OS.  You can still do all the offline things you like on Mac OS, and even online things you know aren't a security risk; like visiting a trusted website.

So in the spirit of keeping the focus on the helpful content here, I never really let negativity linger here.

The only things I have kept here are a fraction of the content that dealt with Low End Mac, and only because of the extreme eagerness of Dan Knight to encourage devolution.  He is the worst of the worst.  That information is on a whole other plane than negativity.  It's more like a legitimate warning to stay away from a devolved cult.

Social change

You may have noticed that the social networking share buttons that were here have all been removed, and it's on purpose.  There have been far too many facebook and other bots clogging up my stats and such.  I am also not at all a supporter of social networking, and want the people who find this place to find it because they intended to, and not because they stumbled upon some link on facebook or twitter.

I am not after pointless hits just to beef up my stats.  I couldn't care less about the amount of hits I get.

My main aversion to social networking is that it brings a lot of the ignorant masses this way; people who compute at a very simplistic and remedial level, and will find nothing of use here for the most part.  This is generally followed by questions from them; questions of the type that if you need to ask it, you won't be able to understand the answer in the first place.  People who just don't get it, and need to ask what is so great about PowerPC.

This place will always serve the more rare user who actually tries to advance themselves; rather than have a user lobotomy like most people give themselves when sitting at a computer.

The main point is that people who need to be spoon fed a link to this place to know about it, are usually (but not always) people who won't be after what is offered here.  There is no Apple fanboyism here, no help on how to stay in the passenger seat at your computer, and certainly no ignorant conjecture, so there is little here to appeal to the typical Apple user who is happy to stay in their user prison.

You still have the right to share the content here on social networks, but I have simply made it harder to do so.  If you find other ways to share it, be sure you follow all of the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License that this blog is licensed under.

I have no issue with other blogs or sites linking to me here, as they are typically like-minded; much like the people and organizations I link to in the "Recommended Elsewhere" section of the sidebar here.  It's only the social network sharing of content here that concerns me.

This is not some elitist move to keep out the average user; simply a diversion to keep away most of the people who likely won't want what is offered here to begin with, and a VERY large portion of the social networking user base are these people.


If you're someone who truly wants to advance your ability as a computer user, then welcome home.

MintPPC: Debian for the novice

Since this blog switched from Lubuntu to Debian as the Linux covered (almost a year ago now), there have been a number of people who visit here looking for an easier path to a complete Debian install.  One that is ready to go out of the box, with little or nothing left to configure or install afterward.

Debian, in its pure form, is not at all geared to be user friendly.  It has always been geared to people who are at least at an intermediate user level, if not advanced.  Even the largest standard Debian installs (GNOME and KDE) leave you with many things left to install and configure in most cases.  Which brings up my one gripe about Debian; they use GNOME as the default GUI.  If you've read any of the Linux content here, you know I am a big fan of lightweight GUI like LXDE.  In fact, Debian LXDE is my standard Linux these days, which is the same GUI found in MintPPC.

LXDE has a far lower CPU tax compared to GNOME or KDE, but in its raw form is a lot more simplistic in look and behaviour.  MintPPC puts a lot more polish on LXDE than I have ever seen, and in a good way. The last thing that aging hardware needs is a bloated GUI, and with MintPPC you get the perfect combo of light and pretty.

Everything from the custom LXDE menu, the default icons, wallpaper, the included software packages, and very user friendly package manager has a unique MintPPC feel, while still being the greatest Linux ever made.  MintPPC is exactly what Lubuntu should have been, but never was, and never will be.

The last time I installed MintPPC 11 (newest) was almost 2 years ago now, so I reinstalled it again last night on my testing system to refresh my memory.  The install couldn't have been more easy, and I would even describe it as easier than my Quick and dirty; light and fast method. 

Now you may be asking yourself...  'if the newest version is at least 2 years old, should I be installing it in 2014?'.  The answer is a resounding yes.  While Mint 11 was released in 2011, it was based on Debian Wheezy, which at the time was the testing release, but is now the stable.  That means it's secure, modern, and updated as needed for as long as Wheezy is supported by the Debian developers.  Since Wheezy has only been the stable release for about a year, it still has at least another year to go before Jessie (currently testing) will be the stable.

I would say that for at least the next 2 or more years, MintPPC 11 is a very viable and secure option for those who find standard Debian a bit too steep a learning curve, or those who just want a much more pretty and capable Linux out of the box, while still enjoying the performance benefits of LXDE.  There are even some added GUI tools (such as 'Powerprefs') which give you abilities normally only available via config file edits and terminal commands.

Think of it as a custom Debian LXDE, which is a lot more geared (whether by intent or not) to someone moving from Mac OS or Windows to Linux.  This is my number one recommendation to either a Debian novice, or any Linux novice.  Even advanced users who don't like things as stripped down as I normally do will find all they need.  I like it one hell of a lot, but I just personally prefer a very minimal Linux.  Many of you don't though, so here is your solution.  This one OS has all the qualities of real Debian, while also offering the much more user friendly and out of the box capability of Lubuntu; without all the Canonical BS.

The only things I felt the need to install afterward were Netatalk and Kupfer.

If you have any issues, the MintPPC website is a great place to go; where you can get help from fellow Mint users, along with the people who developed it.

So again, if you're new to Debian, and find it a bit intimidating, or just new to Linux in general, this is the way to go without a doubt.

 

I also took a couple screens myself:

Now accepting Bitcoin donations

There have been at least a few readers here who were interested in donating, but not with Paypal.  They asked for another option like Bitcoin or Litecoin, so today I finally got around to it, and PowerPC Liberation is now setup with a Bitcoin wallet to receive donations.

I just wanted to let those who were asking know.  Here in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada where I live, we actually have the worlds first Bitcoin ATM.  It converts your bitcoins into regular currency.

To make a Bitcoin donation, please go to the Support PowerPC Liberation page.

The belated tale of how I shut down the copycat

I never actually got around to telling the full story, but there really isn't much to tell; it was all really very simple to do.  I will tell the story, as I know some of you are interested to hear.

The first thing I did was report Aman Rai's copycat blog to Google through Blogger; this took about 2 weeks or more for a response, but they're Google.  They get millions of reports per day for all their services total.

While waiting for Google to get around to things, I contacted the company that Aman Rai had advertising on the copycat blog; Click 4 Support dot net.  After just 2 phone calls, I got through to their main payroll guy at their Boston-area headquarters.  This was the man directly responsible for paying everything for the company.  This included paying Google to advertise through their Adsense program.

This man was very understanding, and took action right away.  This got results within days, as the ad was removed before Google deleted the copycat blog.

About a week after that, I finally heard back from Google.  They asked me to clarify a couple things (so I did), and then a day or two later the copycat blog was gone, and Google informed me directly of this as well.  

People can say what they want about Google, but they stand up for their users content rights.

Everything I explained above was all the effort it took.  A report to Google, a couple phone calls, and a couple emails.  Done.  There really aren't any other details to tell.

I have had thoughts in the past about moving to wordpress, but this outcome has made me feel that my writing is very well protected on Blogger, so this is where I'll stay.

The most reliable Power Macs

A reader recently asked me a question I have been asked several times before via email. The question is usually somewhere along the line of "since Power Macs (pro towers) are the most reliable Macs, can you please list the specific ones that are best".

First off... "best" can be different with different people, as it depends on personal need as much as anything. That is something which is obviously a bit different with everyone.  For myself, reliability is paramount, and more important than performance.  For many users though, that is not the case.  Not that reliability isn't important to these people, but rather that performance with the stock CPU might be more important.

As I mention in my Why the Sawtooth is the greatest Mac ever made post from 2012, the Sawtooth is the most reliable, but every Power Mac tower made from February 1997 - July 2002 has a level of reliability that every Mac before or since has lacked.

For people who don't want to buy CPU upgrades, the Sawtooth isn't as good of a choice.  The stock CPU's range from 350-500MHz singles.  If you want more ready to go power, then the later Power Mac systems are the way to go.

If you're one of the loyal 8600/9600 luddites, then you have some of the most vast expandability in this group.  Sporting 6 PCI slots, a 1.5GB RAM capacity (double the newer beige G3), and the early stages of the easy open cases Apple became known for, the 9600 is a true beast.  The 8600 holds 1GB RAM, and has 3 PCI.   If you do things that can still be done on a 604 CPU, these are a very good choice.  Many of them also have G3 and G4 upgrades, but via a PCI based CPU socket.  Not the onboard socket, as it cannot fit a G3/G4.  The 8600/9600 towers are also about the biggest Apple towers ever made.  The G5 towers are about 2" taller, but that includes the handles, and the 8600/9600 are wider/bulkier.

For doing more modern or internet based tasks, it would be best to stick with the AGP equipped G4 towers, which only excludes the Yikes.  The Sawtooth and up also have a much faster memory controller.  The 8600 through to the Yikes move the RAM at speeds ranging from 50-280MB/sec, compared to 500MB-1GB+/sec for the AGP fitted G4's.

This is a list of all the truly reliable Power Mac towers (in chronological order):

• Power Mac 8600
• Power Mac 9600
• Power Mac G3 Beige
• Power Mac G3 Blue & White
• Power Mac G4 Yikes (PCI Graphics)
• Power Mac G4 Sawtooth (AGP Graphics)
• Power Mac G4 Mystic (Gigabit Ethernet)
• Power Mac G4 Tangent (Digital Audio)
• Power Mac G4 Titan (Quicksilver)

The nine systems listed above give the ultimate combination of reliability and expandability.  They are virtually immortal.

There is no Power Mac G4 MDD or any G5 tower in the mix, because they both don't deserve to be in the same company as the above systems, unless you're a fan of your hardware having a good chance of potentially being dead one day.  The MDD ranges from 2-11x in how many times less reliable than all the above systems, and the G5's range from being 10-30x less reliable.  No joke.  I'm a certified Mac tech (and have been since before any of these towers were ever made), and know exactly what I'm talking about.

If you need as much performance as possible; without a CPU upgrade, along with reliability, then a dual 1.0GHz Quicksilver would be the best choice.

If you're like me and want reliability first, but still have good performance; a heavily upgraded Sawtooth is the way to go.  You also get an extra 512MB memory capacity with the Sawtooth vs. the Quicksilver and Digital Audio.  I have invested well over $1000 in upgrades on my main Sawtooth, so be sure this is what you want first.

Please direct any other questions related to this in the comments here.  That way everyone gets to read it, and read my answers.

A Highly Rated Win

The donated hardware, from Mark who runs Rated Win, arrived today, and with a couple bonus video cards that I wasn't aware were being sent.  I love surprise video cards!


Here is what was inside of the very well packed box he sent:

-Mac Mini G4 1.25GHz, 256MB RAM, 40GB HD

-iBook G3 600MHz, 14" screen, 256MB RAM, 40GB HD (painted blue)

-ATI Radeon 9600 XT 128MB AGP video card (DVI/ADC)

-ATI Radeon 9000 Pro 64MB AGP video card (DVI/ADC)


A big thanks to Mark once again!  A true contributing member in the PowerPC community!

I have already ordered a 1GB memory stick for the mini.  Only $22 new.

Freescale and the missing plane from Malaysia

Freescale has confirmed what I heard on local news a couple days ago.  They announced in this release that 20 of their employees were on that flight.

For those that don't know, Freescale is the creation of its parent company, Motorola.  I have been a massive supporter of theirs for decades, and long before Freescale existed, and were just called the Motorola CPU division.

This is a very sad day for me, but I cannot even imagine what the people and families of Freescale must be going through.

My heart goes out to everyone involved.

I don't really know what else to say about it.  It's too stunning to really put into words properly.

Lubuntu Purge

As a BSD user since the 80's, Lubuntu was my first real venture into the Linux realm.  Prior to that I had only toyed with Linux a few times for brief periods.  This was pretty much at the same time I started this blog in 2012.

Lubuntu was the first distro I had ever given a true test drive to, and during my 'I know BSD, but I need to adapt that knowledge to a Linux' state.  I had always known of Debian through reputation, but somehow chose Lubuntu first.

In the end, Debian is a far better choice, and it will be the only Linux covered here moving forward.  All of the Lubuntu content here will be removed soon, so if you want to archive some of it, do it now.  I am no longer going to promote, in any manner, an OS I wouldn't use myself any longer.

By next weekend, all the Lubuntu content here will be gone.  As it should be. 

Lubuntu, and all the different flavours of Ubuntu, are all built on a foundation of Debian; upon which they then add their own shitty, unstable, user friendly and bloated code.

This is not meant as an insult to Canonical, but fact is fact, and I no longer want anything to do with what they call an OS.

Creative Commons

I have decided to drop the copyright I had, and adopt a Creative Commons 4.0 International license to protect the content here.  The reason is that CC gives the users/readers more freedom here, and it actually protects the content more with a recognized and legal license.

The truly great thing about Creative Commons licenses, is that you can customize them to suit you personally.  You can decide what freedoms and limitations people have with your work through some simple settings you select when creating your license.

The specific license I chose was a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International.


Note the three terms listed in that license name (quoted text is CC's own summary):

Attribution -  "You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use."

Very simple and easy to understand language. 


Non-Commercial - "You may not use the material for commercial purposes."

This was added to prevent what happened with the copycat blog trying to mimic this blog for advertising money.


No Derivatives - "If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material."

I added this to stop the spread of misinformation, to stop people (like those that run Low End Mac) from latching on to my work, then adding ignorance to it.

If you feel you have worthy things to contribute to any and all content here, please feel free to contact me and ask permission.  If I find your additions sound and accurate, I will allow them.


A big thank you to Creative Commons for their nonprofit work.


Want to add a Creative Commons license to your work?  Create one here.

The copycat is no more

Good news!  Google has removed the copycat blog!

Before they did, I had the content thieves advertising funding source removed also.

A big thanks to Google for removing the blog, and to Click4Support.net for removing payments, and their ad, from the copycat blog.

I will tell the whole story in detail, and help others learn from my experience through all this.  For now I am a bit unmotivated to write here after having my work stolen.

I think this speaks largely about the current state of things in the world.  An individual is almost a rare thing now, and many people are not bothered by others stealing writing.  So many people pretend to know things now by latching on to the education, experience, and hard work, of others.  Originality, and more importantly self education, are how I got where I am.  Not emulating others, or even worse, stealing work from others.

Dan at PPC Luddite spoke up on his blog about it, so a big thanks also goes to him.  A true member of the PowerPC community, and someone I consider to be the greatest friend and ally of this blog.  He's a true individual also. 

More when I'm motivated again.

Sketchy little copycat

Every so often I google "PowerPC Liberation" to see what results spring up besides the pages here.  I did so this morning and found that some sketchy little senseless ape named Aman Rai has made a copycat blog to this one.  They have even used the same blog name but added a hyphen between, ie. powerpc-liberation in the blog address.  I am not going to link to it, as I don't want to encourage them more, but if you want to see their copy of this blog just enter a hyphen in the address and see for yourself.  If you do go there be warned, everything you click, even blank space, is a 3rd party pay per click link.

This person has literally copied this entire blog, and every word of every post, onto theirs and is passing it off as their own.  A truly sketchy ape brain at work.

I want to officially state that they have no authorization from me, no support from me, and have no involvement with the true PowerPC Liberation here. 


To Aman Rai I say:  Stop now or suffer my wrath.  You're illegally using every word I have ever written here as your own, and not giving any credit to the original author (myself and dr.dave), so stop now and take down your blog or I will use every possible legal means to make you suffer for being so pathetic and unoriginal.

Also, even if I had no issue with it, which I do, you're still not allowed to use every word someone else writes.  Check your "Fair Use" laws.  You also legally need my permission to use anything here.

If you take your blog, with all it's sketchy 3rd party links to make you money from my writing, down in the next week I won't pursue legal action against you.

You clearly have no shame though, so I don't expect you to take the easy way out.

People like you don't even deserve internet access.

XviD

In my opinion, XviD is the greatest overall, and most balanced video codec.  It's the open and more refined version of DivX.  Both are MPEG-4 based, but because XviD is open, a lot of different developers have tried to perfect it.  This has resulted in some great block smoothing advances in XviD which DivX lacks.

For people on PowerPC hardware (even as low as a G3 350MHz), XviD gives you the ability to have a respectable playback system with stock 13-14 year old hardware.  Something h.264 could never dream of.  DivX gives the same CPU efficient results as XviD but lacks some of the clarity.

I used DivX a lot myself in Handbrake for years, until I really took the time to see the visual advantages of XviD.  XviD in Handbrake 0.9.3 with a 1500+ kbps bitrate, and a 2-pass encode, can compete with h.264 of similar size.  The 1500kbps and 2-pass encode are key to that.

DivX in Handbrake is called FFmpeg, aka DX50, aka DivX 5.  Handbrake still retained FFmpeg in versions past 0.9.3, but dropped XviD and .avi wrapper support.  For these reasons, Handbrake 0.9.3 is the best overall version because every version after it is more limited.  I covered the same point in part 3 of the Video on PowerPC series.

A lot of the video industry has turned its back on XviD, but for us PowerPC users it's our best friend.  XviD makes 720p HD playable on a G4 under 1.0GHz.  Although I typically rip 400p XviD so that it will also play well on my slowest 400MHz CPU if ever needed.  400p XviD at 1500-2000kb in a 2-pass encode can compete with 480p h.264 for quality/clarity.

The main things that increase CPU use (after the codec of course) are resolution and framerate.  Bitrates under 3000kbps all use about the same amount of juice.  This is the key to making a low resolution look better than it is.  Keep the framerate at or under 30fps for best results on PowerPC hardware.  DVD are typically 24fps, but most video is 25-30.  If you rip something where the original is over 30fps, be sure to set your rip to 29.97 for best playback results.

Handbrake 0.9.3 needs Leopard, but if on Tiger then use 0.9.1.  Again, any version past 0.9.3 doesn't have XviD support.

Even those running modern Macs or any newer hardware can benefit from XviD.  XviD only consumes 1/2 to 1/3 of the CPU resources vs h.264 of the same resolution.  That means energy savings in your home for desktops, and longer battery life for portables vs. h.264.  Handbrake 0.9.3 runs perfectly on 10.6/10.7/10.8, but the version I link to below is PowerPC only.

The lesser appealing XviD is the mainstream stuff.  Most is only ripped around 1000kbps which is the main reason most who dislike XviD do, whether they realize that or not.  Once you get under 1300kbps it looks like a lesser codec.  Higher bitrates do equal bigger file sizes, but that is why I have almost 12TB of storage. Storage is infinite, CPU resources and energy aren't.

You could even say that XviD is a green alternative to h.264.

MP3 audio is typically best with XviD, but you can experiment with AC3 and AAC also if you desire.  128kbps for heavy dialogue, 256kbps for content with a lot of music.

Remember, 1500kbps+ and 2-pass = perfection!


Download Handbrake 0.9.3 for Leopard

Download Handbrake 0.9.1 for Tiger


This is how I would summarize the 3 codecs found in Handbrake 0.9.3 and 0.9.1:

DivX - rips fastest, efficient playback, looks the worst of the 3

h.264 - rips slowest, inefficient playback, quality only slightly better than HQ XviD

XviD - rips about 30% slower than DivX, efficient playback, quality only slightly lower than h.264, best of both worlds

Early review of PowerPC

I saw this years ago and enjoyed it.  It's from a PBS show called the Computer Chronicles.  This episode would be from 1994 when the PowerPC 601 was introduced by Apple.  The 601 was the first PowerPC chip.  The chip came out in 92, but wasn't released in an Apple system until 94, and it was still ahead of Intel tech at the time.

Keep in mind that this is the sub-100 MHz era.


The Computer Chronicles - PowerPC

Nvidia finally reaches out to Linux

Any Linux user knows what a pain it's always been to get even moderate function out of Nvidia GPU.  For a couple decades now, Nvidia has seemed very disinterested in working with most of the open source market.

It looks like they have finally seen the light.  Hopefully this will mean much better Nvidia drivers for Linux in the future.


Read the full story here

The truth about Linux

A lot of people have always claimed that Linux isn't very good.  They have also claimed that PowerPC Linux is buggy.  This is all very wrong for the most part.

Ubuntu is really the only distro that is overly buggy, and on x86 as well.  It's the curse of the constant release cycle that is to blame for this.  For those that don't know, every 6 months they release a new version, whether it's ready for the masses or not.  No matter how many bugs exist, they just keep pushing them out.

With Debian, this is not the case at all.  The Debian developer team doesn't promote their testing builds to stable until they are truly ready.  The testing builds (currently Jessie) spend at least 2 years in that state.

The downfall for most people is that Debian is aimed at the intermediate to advanced level users.  The ones that don't need their hand held.  It comes a lot more raw out of the box compared to Ubuntu, and thats the point.  Most Linux users like to configure everything themselves.  They don't want a bloated and eye candy rich experience, because that defeats the whole purpose of running Linux in the first place.

Linux is very much a DIY OS.  It is what you make it.  Nothing more, nothing less.

There are even some people that use Mac OS who have the balls to say Linux is dead on PowerPC.  What are these people smoking?  It is Mac OS that is dead on PowerPC, not Linux.  Linux is still very actively developed for PowerPC.  When it comes to Debian it is still officially supported.  That means it's not a community development project like Ubuntu/Lubuntu PowerPC, and it's not just limited to PowerPC and x86.  There are a total of 13 CPU types with official support, including ARM and SPARC.  All 13 of these chip types get full support from the official development team.

In the end, any OS is only going to be as capable as the person using it.  Period.  That is an indisputable stone cold fact.  If the user has limited ability, then so will the OS.

Don't blame Linux because you don't have the ability to make it do all you desire.  If you cannot bend it to your will, then you need to gain more skills so you can.  Again, it will not hold your hand like Mac OS.  You need real ability that goes far beyond pointing and clicking, and you need to learn most of it yourself, or it will never sink in.  These are not things you can have spoon fed to you.  You need to learn the theory behind what you're trying to do first, and then learn the steps you need to take.  People who say that Linux isn't good are really saying that they lack ability; whether they realize that or not.

I learned all that I know on my own.  I didn't have anyone to spoon feed me all these things.  You can do the same.  If all you want to do forever is point and click, and put as little thought as possible into your computing, then you'll be stuck in that rut forever.

I understand that most of you come from the Mac OS world.  A place where you can point and click your way out of any issue or task.  This is not at all what Linux is, and it never will be.

Linux allows the freedom to do anything you desire.  All you need is the ability to use it properly; this takes time.  If you put in the effort, I can promise that you will get great returns from it.  If you just want to compute at the lowest common denominator level, then I'm not even sure why you would visit this blog in the first place.


Linux and BSD = total control, and ongoing skill advancement.

Mac OS and Windows = very little control, and ongoing skill decline.

Choose wisely!     

Our first birthday!

I started this blog a year ago today, and a lot has happened in that time.  I have taken on everything from the greatness of the PowerPC architecture, to the backward immorality of Low End Mac.

In January of this year, the blog was made even better with the addition of Dr.Dave.  A veterinarian, and a man of many skills, Dave has been one of the greatest things to ever happen to this blog.  Together we have made this place a lightning rod for progressive ideas on how to move this amazing architecture forward, and keep those PowerPC Macs the healthiest and most secure they can be.

We have fought against the backward thinking ignoramuses that try to convince people to use only outdated and non-secure MacOS.  The good news is that this group is shrinking all the time.  Almost on a daily basis, in fact.  To those that were in denial, but have now seen the light, that is what this blog is all about.  There are now a lot less people pushing this backward thinking, so this has given the Dr. and myself a lot more time to concentrate on what is important, security and computing skill advancement.

Looking forward, we will continue on the same path we have always taken.  A path of advancement, with a big dose of unfiltered truth to munch on along the journey.

A big thanks to all our readers also.  Without you guys there would be no one to read what we write.

To help us celebrate our first birthday, we ask you to share what this blog has meant to you, and how it has helped you not only learn, but understand things you already knew in a different light.


Long live PowerPC, skill advancement, Debian, BSD, and this blog.

Three boring weeks with Debian 7

Debian 7.1 is boring. There, I said it and I meant it. Now, you have to understand that in my day job I do surgery, taking animals to a plane of existence not far from death, and boring is good. Very good. Sudden and unexplained jumps or drops in heart rate, drops in blood pressure, crashes of any kind are bad, very bad. Boring is what I want in the surgery suite, and, thanks to Debian I am discovering it is also what I want from my computing experience. In three weeks with Debian 7.1 I have yet to experience a crash, an application lock up, anything....it just works. Boring may just be the highest compliment any Linux distro or any OS can receive.

The Universal Operating System indeed.

I liked my boring Debian PowerPC experience so much that I decided to put Debian 7.1 on a old Dell laptop I had a end of life version of Linux Mint on, and discovered Debian can be all exciting and crashy, if you have a weird exotic hardware configuration, as the Dell does. This is a PowerPC blog so I won't bore you with the details, but suffice to say early 2000 Dells with Pentium M's present some unique challenges.

Now....for the ultimate question, can it play youtube? It's still amazing to me that now, above all else watching funny cat videos is the litmus test for any computer in 2013. I am happy to report that yes, I can play youtube on this old Powermac. Firstly, all of the cross platform alternatives detailed so eloquently by the ppcluddite here work. My preferred method he describes is the Youtube EZ Download/Open With method. Why? Well, you can hand the video off to mplayer, and in the preferences for Open With you can add some of the luddites' mplayer arguments and thereby get good playback without issue. For some people however this seems to be a right click to far, and they have to be able to watch youtube inside the bloody browser. I am happy to say even that is easy peasy, with the Greasemonkey script Viewtube. Now, in the past I've tried using Totem and mplayers mozilla plugins with this method on other PowerPC Linux distros and it does not work, period. But VLC's plugin works well for me, and has a couple advantages to boot.

If you haven't already done so, install Greasemonkey in Iceweasel from the add ons (under tools, just like Firefox, cause it is Firefox) and head over to userscripts.org. You have two options there, either plain old vanilla Viewtube or Viewtube_VLC. In regular Viewtube you select the VLC plugin from the drop down menu at the top of the player window that says "Auto". Viewtube_VLC will only use VLC's plugin, so that step is already done for you. You of course need to install the VLC plugin by firing up a terminal and typing at the prompt (assuming you have added yourself to the sudoers file, otherwise you will need to do this as root):

sudo apt-get install mozilla-plugin-vlc

I have not bothered with mplayer or Totem's plugin due to past experience, but if you are willing to install them and report back in the comments I'd appreciate knowing if the past issues are sorted and they work for you.

Advantages? Unlike Totem and mplayer plugins which, if they work, insist on loading upwards of 20% of the video into cache before they play, VLC's pretty much starts playing the video immediately. Also, search ahead works (doesn't in either of the above plugins, on any platform), which is quite nice. The VLC plugin controls are limited, but with Viewtube's controls you have all of the control you need over the video. The fake fullscreen feature (it's the plus button on the right hand side) in viewtube also works well. Basically its all good.

Other options for youtube playback on Debian are minitube or smtube. Current versions of both are in the experimental (Sid) repositories. I have not tried either as I personally have no desire to descend into the fires of dependency hell. Minitube uses ffmpeg and gstreamer, and in my experience loading experimental versions of both will absolutely, positvely break something. Recall that I want my Debian boring. Speaking of which, below are some incredibly boring screenshots of applications on Debian 7.1 in action on my Powermac G4.

Next up for the dr., loading Debian 7 onto a Tangerine ibook with a couple compact flash cards to replace the ancient, tiny and loud stock HD. I suspect that this endeavour will not be boring, at all.

7448 chip is ready for space

Running at 1267 MHz, and with Altivec to assist it, this radiation hardened version of the G4 based 7448 will be a big boost over the G3 chips in the 200-300 MHz range that are currently being used.

I wonder if the next Mars Rover will be 7448 powered.  It takes at least a few years to implement new chips into hardware that will go to space, simply because of how deep the engineering and testing has to go. 


Read more about it here:

e2v Release Space Qualified GHz-Class Microprocessor

Ubuntu forum has been compromised

For those of you with accounts on the Ubuntu forum, I wanted to let you know it has been compromised. 


I received this email from the forum sysadmin:

Hello,

You are receiving this message because you have an account registered with this address on ubuntuforums.org.

The Ubuntu forums software was compromised by an external attacker. As a result, the attacker has gained access to read your username, email address and an encrypted copy of your password from the forum database.

If you have used this password and email address to authenticate at any other website, you are urged to reset the password on those accounts immediately as the attacker may be able to use the compromised personal information to access these other accounts. It is important to have a distinct password for different accounts.

The ubuntuforums.org website is currently offline and we are working to restore this service. Please take the time to change your ubuntuforums.org account password when service is restored.

We apologize for any inconvenience to the Ubuntu community, thank you for your understanding.

The Canonical Sysadmins.

I doubt that Debian would ever suffer such an exploit on their forum.  Canonical has become more sloppy as the days, months and years go by.

Shame on you, Canonical.

Quick and dirty; light and fast

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About three days ago, a reader asked me to just write a short Debian install guide for a PowerPC system with a very small hard drive.  A guide isn't even needed.  All you need to know are a couple basic steps and you'll have a nice lightweight Debian install, with a very small drive footprint.

The light and small footprint factors are very complimentary indeed.  The PowerPC systems with the smallest drives are generally the slowest ones.  Their small drive actually forces you to make the right OS choice if you want any semblance of performance.

While this type of install is most beneficial to the slowest of PowerPC hardware, it can also have a good benefit on productivity with the fastest of hardware.  I keep it light no matter what OS or hardware I use, and I see the benefits all round with everything I use.  If you have any G3 or a slower G4, then you should at least give this method a test drive on your machine.

Here are the very simple steps to getting an ultra-light Debian install.  One that is actually lighter than Puppy Linux, and just about any Linux with a GUI.  For PowerPC users, this is the absolute best method to get the most out of your hardware on Linux.  This is easily the best route to take for a slower machine you want to dedicate to internet use.

I am going to use Debian stable (Jessie) in this install.



Step 1:

Download the Netinstall ISO image



Step 2:

Burn the image to a CD and boot it by holding down C.  At the Yaboot prompt, press enter or return to start the install.



Step 3:

When shown the options of what to install, deselect everything (even the GUI) but utilities at the very bottom.  Laptop users will also see a preselected option called "Laptop"; you will obviously want this selected for best hardware support.

The reason I say to deselect the GUI, even though these options are extended in the Jessie installer, is that installing a GUI from the Debian installer adds a lot of extra software packages that you may not want.  Installing the GUI manually afterward gives you just the GUI itself, without all the extras like LibreOffice, Gimp etc.  Remember, this is supposed to be a light install. 



Step 4:

Once it reboots you need to login as root with root/root pass you chose at install.



Step 5:

Once you have logged in as root, simply type the following:

apt-get install lxde

It will default to getting it from the same mirror you chose for the Debian install.


When the LXDE install is done type:

reboot

 It will then boot to a GUI login screen for LXDE.  Login with your user account.



Step 6:

Install whatever else you desire once logged into LXDE with your user account.  When you install this way you get no extra apps at all; not even Iceweasel, which is Debian's fork of Firefox.  It's not exactly lightweight, but is needed for the times when you need a heavily standardized experience.  It just works when the lightweight browsers need config.

Fire up the "LXTerminal" and type su to give install privileges to your user account.  After you enter your root password type:

apt-get install iceweasel

Then simply keep using apt-get to install whatever else you desire.  Once the terminal is done an install you can simply tap the up arrow and get your last command.  Then you simply just replace the package name to keep installing everything else.  Jennifer didn't want office software or anything, just the OS and browser.


Other things I recommend installing for basic internet and system use:

• sylpheed (lightweight email client)
• luakit (lightweight webkit based browser)
• xxxterm (lightweight webkit based browser) 
• transmission (lightweight bit torrent client) 
• pidgin (multi-protocol instant messenger)
• netatalk (package for networking with Mac OS systems)
• synaptic (gui for apt) (useful when you have a need but don't know package names)
• hardinfo (system profiler-like app with benchmarks)
• kupfer (very powerful but light app/document launcher)

If you also want some music on the system, I would try either 'rhythmbox' or 'audacious'.


Thats about it.  If you want LibreOffice, GIMP and all the other stuff that installs with the other Debian images then just use one of them.  The purpose of this install method is to stay light.  You could easily get by on 128 MB RAM with the install I just took a brisk pace through. 

You also get Openbox with LXDE, so you can still take advantage of all the configuration possibilities that Dan the PPC Luddite offers on his blog, along with Urukrama's guide. 

If you need any other details about the install then just ask in comments and I will add them.  I wrote this quickly without much time to spare.  Debian is very easy to install.  Just follow the onscreen instructions and you'll be fine.

Keep in mind that this install is designed around the idea of Debian being the only OS for a dedicated, lightweight and secure system.  I made this as simple and direct as possible.  Use your oldest/slowest PowerPC hardware first to see the true value of light.

When I do the exact above type of install, I am left with a Debian LXDE setup that only uses about 49-54 MB RAM after login.  You really can't beat that for a modern OS.  It would even be hard to beat that if you went back 5-10 years.

Debian's path is already lit by the Luddite

A couple readers have asked me to write a Debian Install guide, but there is no need.  There is already a great guide in existence from our close friend Dan the PPC Luddite.  Dan is a Debian chef of master class levels, and his guide can help you turn your install into a gourmet dish.

If you just want Debian as the only OS on the hardware in question, then you can easily install it without help in most situations.  You don't need to know any commands unless you tell it not to install a GUI.  If you want to tinker with other OS and such on the same machine, and other more specific things, then Dan's guide is for you.

The best reason to use Dan's guide is all the PowerPC-specific configuration help it gives.  Proper configuration is key to having a great Linux install when you're done.


Here are all five parts of his install guide, which he updates continually:

Part I - Pre-Installation

Part II - Installing the Base System

Part III - Installing the GUI 

Part IV - Configuring Stuff 

Part V - Bugs & Quirks 


The only real thing I would change is installing LXDE, rather than just Openbox as Dan does.  With LXDE you still get Openbox, along with all the added LXDE greatness.  Openbox comes totally raw out of the box.  It takes a lot of config to get it just right.  LXDE is more of a personal choice, but I can promise that a lot of Linux newbies will adapt far better to it.  I also recommend Fluxbox.  It's kind of a middle ground between LXDE and Openbox in terms of pre-configured things. 

I am working on more Debian content of my own, but I don't like redundancy in the community, so there will be no Debian install guide here, at least for now.  The Luddite's guide is very well done, and has a very capable user with legitimate experience behind every word.  You can trust Dan as much as us to look out for your computing well-being.

All Apologies

Dr. Dave here, it's been a month since my last post so I thought I'd apologize for the big break. This is not due to a lack of interest in PowerPC! It is in part due to a very hectic and full work schedule, but also due to yet another video chip failure on my ibook G4 1.07 ghz. This is now the third ibook (one G3 and two G4's) that has gone south due to the video chip becoming unseated from the board. I could of course try and "flame it" back down as others have famously done, but at this point I really want to move away from the ibook line as a whole. In part I kept with ibooks so I could use one machine as a parts mule for the other, but that is clearly a flawed plan when the video chips keep failing. I was debating my next PowerPC step when...

...A retired University professor I've known forever called. He was about to toss a Power Mac G4 he hadn't turned on in three years into a dumpster, after removing the hard drive of course. The specs? A 1.4 ghz (Giga Designs) upgraded Sawtooth (AGP graphics), 2 GB of RAM with a ATI Radeon 9200 with 128 MB of VRAM. I think everyone who reads this blog would sensibly do what I did, and throw themselves between the dumpster and the Power Mac.

Inspired by Zen's recent post  I decided to skip Lubuntu PPC or MintPPC and just go the the heart of the matter, ie the shiny new Debian 7. As with Zen, I'm happy to report the install was utterly painless, just a click or two here and there. In fact, I'd have to say it was one of the least painful Linux or Mac OS X installs I've ever done. Hat's off to the Debian PowerPC team, whoever and wherever you are! It's early days for me and Debian 7, but so far it is hella impressive. Debian 7 PowerPC is stable, secure and sweet. There are a few things to learn and do differently if you are more familiar with 'buntu land, but nothing major.

After 25 years I now no longer have any working Mac OS installs, PowerPC or Intel. It's my intention to use Linux exclusively in the future, as I don't really do any content creation that would require OS X, and find VLC and Mplayer wholly adequate for my media playback needs. With Debian 7 I've got Firefox 17.0.7 and luakit for my web browsing, and a host of audio players to choose from. Who needs OS X Maverick, anyway?

Near future posts will cover youtube playback, office suites and other neat things.

New policy on Mac OS content

As of this post we will no longer be covering Mac OS PowerPC when it comes to any internet related activities.  With it being 4 years since the last meaningful security update, Leopard or older versions of Mac OS simply cannot cut it anymore to keep you and your system/data safe.

When it comes to internet based activity we will only be covering Linux and maybe even a bit of BSD.

My (our) stance is even if you truly do prefer Mac OS on your PowerPC system, you should still use Linux for internet based tasks.  Mac OS is still fine for browsing trusted sites where you know 100% there is nothing to worry about but other than that and email I don't recommend using it any longer.

Just because your hardware is several years old doesn't mean it needs to be stuck in a prison of old non-secure software.  I will keep using OS X PowerPC for offline tasks like content creation and video playback for years or even decades to come.  Having my small army of PowerPC hardware helps.

Use each OS for it's strength.  Linux dominates on security so use it online.  Mac OS X PowerPC dominates with content creation, multimedia playback and gaming.

We will do all we can to help ease the transition for those who are awake to the reality and take the plunge.  If you're in denial, and many are, we can't help you.

Remember, adopting Linux does not equal abandoning Mac OS.

Debian: Unrelenting Quality

I have mentioned before that I chose to cover Lubuntu, because Dan at PPC Luddite did such an amazing job writing about Debian.  I don't like to leave good software unwritten about, but if Lubuntu is good, then Debian is great.  I can no longer contain my unrelenting love for Debian, and its unrelenting quality standards for its software, and anything they package with it.

Debian is the poster child for what software standards should be, which is why so many distros are based on it.  The Ubuntu's, Mint, Crunchbang and Finnix (just to name a few) are all born from Debian code.  Debian have been setting the benchmark for quality, clean, reliable code since the mid 90's, and continue to do so today.  In 20 years there have only been 7 stable releases.  It's because when they release a stable build, they truly stand behind that.  The gap between 6 and 7 was quite short by their standards.  The project actually has about 1000 official developers overall.


This is pretty much how Debian developers operate:

1. Test
2. Test some more
3. Test some more
4. Test some more
5. Test some more
6. Check everything over again and again then test some more
7. Test some more
8. Test one last time just to be really really certain.


While these practices keep the stable build a good mile from the bleeding edge, the end result is stable, secure, never fail you code.  There is a reason Debian is usually a top choice for servers.   If you really desire the bleeding edge kernel and default apps then you can simply install Debian testing.  I honestly have more faith in their testing builds than the finals of pretty much every other distro.

Debian PowerPC is also about the last Linux distro with official support on the architecture still, and there are no signs of it ever stopping. Another thing Debain PowerPC does is allow apt to work perfectly.  In my experiences the Ubuntu's and other distros mess this up at some level.  As someone who prefers some command line on a daily basis this is a big selling point for me and I know it is for Dr.Dave also. 

I have been doing a lot of playing around and testing the newest stable release of Wheezy (7.1 currently) and several different GUI.  The memory usage difference between the various environments is quite significant.


Here are the memory usage totals for each GUI after simply logging in, and with nothing else running:

GNOME 3 - 188 MB

XFCE - 167 MB

Openbox - 101 MB (a bit higher than usual)

Fluxbox - 93 MB

LXDE - 81 MB (I have gotten it down to 69.8 MB now thanks to some trimming)

The system has 1.5 GB (1536 MB) RAM


LXDE is the reining champ, and is so much easier to use for Linux newbs than Openbox or Fluxbox, which use more memory.  I started with the Debian LXDE image and then installed the other enviroments.  LXDE, Fluxbox and Openbox fly while GNOME and XFCE sputter a bit on my G4 1.0GHz Sawtooth testing system.  GNOME and XFCE are still very usable but they simply can't compare performance-wise.  There is also a KDE offering but I have never used it with Deb7.  While KDE is very capable it's one of the most bloated GUI.  It's almost as bad as Unity in terms of system resource consumption.

I will be writing a lot more about Debian 7 soon but I wanted to get out some early observations on Wheezy stable which is only about a month old.  


A couple screens:

They all use the standard Debian installer, which is not a GUI like Lubuntu.  Don't worry though, there are no commands you need to know.  All you ever have to type are usernames and passwords you want.  Tab selects actions, arrows move selections, space makes selections and return/enter executes.  It's actually quite simple to use and should only take a person one use to learn.


It's good.  It's great.  It's all it should be.  It's all any OS should be.  It's free in every sense.

I put Debian on equal ground with BSD.  It's one of only 3 Linux distros I would say that about.  The other two would be Arch and Gentoo, but even they can't touch Debian in my mind.

The twitter situation

Using twitter the last few days has been moderately interesting, but for the most part I have been reminded why I never used my personal account.  I'm pretty much officially over Twitter (again) already.

Another thing of note is that the amount of visitors we get is at least 300-500 unique ip hits per day, yet we only have gotten 21 followers in the first week.  This tells me that the regular readers here are pretty much as crotchety about social networking as I am.  After all, it does take a specific kind of person to appreciate the angle this blog comes from.  People who think like the Dr. and myself have no time for trends of any type.  While Twitter is one of the better parts of the social networking world, it's still part of a culture that I really cannot relate to.

I can't speak for Dr. Dave, but I am over Twitter already.  I may post something now and then or we may just agree to delete the account.

All I really care to spend free tech time on is writing for this blog and using Linux more.  That is what I shall continue doing.

I tried...  140 characters just isn't for me.  Far too limiting and I also tend to hate popular things by default.

This blog will not make any other attempts at social networking.  All that matters is the forward motion of PowerPC and you can get that right here.

Note:  The twitter account has now been deactivated as of June 21.  


Side note

Debian 7 LXDE is amazingly good BTW.  The stable release was introduced in the recent past.  It puts Lubuntu to shame in terms of pure functionality and reliability.  Debian is not as bleeding edge with the kernel and default app versions as Lubuntu is but it's as rock solid as you can get. 

More on that soon.

The devolution of computing

I have been reflecting a lot lately about the state of computing today.  The state of both the development and the users, along with what drives the majority of people from both groups.  For myself, and anyone who prefers to compute from the drivers seat, the state of things is bad on almost all fronts; at least in terms of mainstream computing.

Computing at a high level in the 70's, 80's, and even the early 90's was much better, because any other users around you were at a high level also.  Almost everyone had real capability to compute far beyond pointing and clicking.  Before the GUI existed you literally had to know command lines, and have a catalog of them in your head at your disposal whenever needed.  There were no guides on websites to copy/paste commands from, which is the peak of text computing skills these days for the pointy clicky imprisoned types.  Even with how far the GUI has come, there are still many capabilities that even the most robust OS's UI would lack.  I have mentioned before that only about 60-70% of the full OS X capability is found in its GUI.  Everything else is accessed from the command line.  It is based on BSD after all.  Text/terminal use is the actual human language of computing, not pointy clicky.  A GUI can only do what it gives you options to click on.  A GUI is essentially just an OS hand holder.  All you need is basic hand-eye coordination, and all it's doing is typing the commands for you while you click away.

The user friendly obsession of MS and Apple software over the last couple decades has truly dumbed down the average user a great deal.  The sad truth is that most people only have the capability to point a mouse, and type in whatever language(s) they're literate in.  The even sadder truth is that some actually mistake this for having computer skills.  Some even go as far as to think such skills qualify them to "help" someone else by sharing their "experience".  Experience based on nothing.  When you can only compute at the level of a person that many would consider computer illiterate, then you have no experience to give. 

I'm sorry, but moving a pointing device around, and being literate in your language, is no type of computer "skill".  People who compute at that level need to keep their devolved computing culture to themselves, and focus on learning new ability, rather than trying to spread devolution.

The devolved ones are on some insane mission to spread their 'newer/faster hardware is always better' illogic, and follow Apple or MS blindly.  No one needs help to do such things, because all it requires is no thought.  Anyone can do that.  Give people true technical insight, not what they can get from a wikipedia or google visit.  If that is where you're getting your "experience" from, then you've turned yourself into a fake, and a redundant fake at that.  Pretty shameful.  I assume the goal was never to be a double negative, but that is the end result for some of you.

The people who spread such things know who they are and they need to stop.  Your blind follower no skill thinking is a cancer to anything that resembles good information.  Stop it please.


Lastly

I am sorry if some of this sounds mean, but every word I have written here is nothing but true.  The truth shall set you free, as the saying goes, is as apt with computing as it is with anything else.

Anyone who feels the desire to help others, needs to first do it with something they can help with.  Something you have legitimate experience, knowledge and insight with.  Not something you wish to, but don't yet have, those qualities with.

Don't pretend or devolve.  Learn.

Stop letting billionaires control how you compute, and keeping most of you in a limited and fearful of evolving type of state.  The very reason most of you don't want to evolve your computing skills is that you've been conditioned to think that computing and real brain work don't go together.  Essentially a mainstream/self-induced computer user lobotomy.  That is the true end result of decades of user friendly obsession by the mainstream.

We're still alive!

It has been over two weeks since our last post, and I wanted to mention what has been going on.

Dr. Dave hurt his back a couple weeks ago, so that has put him out of commission for the time being.  Please join me in wishing him well and hopes for a quick recovery.  I am sure he will be feeling better soon enough.

I myself have been more busy than normal with the OpenBSD project in it's last phase of development.  The last phase (for me at least) is dealing with every bug so this has left my life with zero free time.  In the next week to 10 days I will be 100% done the project and I already have a couple things in mind to write about.

OS X: Disable your v-sync

This post falls under the heading of "maybe not the single greatest idea in the world, but perhaps not the worst either." As we all know, Apple, in its infinite wisdom put some (ok, lots of) extra eye candy into OS X when it leaped from 10.4 to 10.5, and as a result you and all your loved ones took a graphics hit moving from Tiger to Leopard. Many argue the hit is minimal, and Leopard has so much more software and hardware compatibility that is more than worth it, a sentiment to which I firmly adhere. I do miss Classic, but otherwise Leopard...rocks. On x86 Linux I got used to doing all kinds of tweaks to get better video performance out of older machines, and one of the main ways was to set the v-sync to blank. Usually this was achieved by clicking a box deep within the bowels of compiz or editing a metacity preference file in nano. I'm no expert, but on LCD monitors I've read the benefits afforded by v-sync are pretty much a non issue. Lets face it, not many people are sitting in front of CRT's in 2013. If I've just deeply insulted Al in Syracuse, who is still in love with his 21inch ViewSonic purchased for $1500 (no, for real) from MacMall back in 1997, I apologize.

Honestly I never knew this tweak was possible in OS X. I thought Apple just locked all of that graphics stuff down tight to keep it away from those pesky end users. Then I stumbled upon a youtube video from a fellow PowerPC enthusiast, which sadly now seems to have been taken down or I'd post a link to it for reference. He had a bunch of good tips for improving graphics performance, most of which are well known, like using a 2-D instead of a 3-D dock, etc, etc. I was just about to stop watching when he showed viewers how to disable v-sync, and that caught my attention.

In order to perform this maneuver safely you'll need to have Xcode installed. If you don't have it its a free download from Apple, you will have to register as a developer and then sign over your first born child for ritual sacrifice, but once that's done its just a 300 MB download. You'll need an older version of Xcode, 3.3.1, as the newer ones are naturally Intel only. It is possible to do this in Text Edit, but personally I lack the intestinal fortitude to do so, see..I once hosed a Panther install fiddling around with a preference file in Text Edit. Xcode makes this simple, and for reasons probably only in my head it feels much safer.

What you want to do is go to your Hard Drive and open up the Library folder, then the Preferences folder. What you are looking for is com.apple.windowserver.plist, right click on that file, if you have Xcode you'll have the Property List Editor as an option, and open it with that. Now under Compositor look for "deferred updates" and set that to zero. Congratulations, you have just set your v-sync to blank on 10.5. There are some other settings which some turn off in there relating to Quartz Extreme and OpenGL but personally, I left those well enough alone.

Now anytime one fools around with system files, especially com.apple.plist's, bad things can happen. So, readers beware, and exercise all due caution. I followed the above steps and nothing bad happened, and, upon reboot I noted some definite improvements in overall window snappiness (such a technical term). Dock minimizations, even the hated "genie" effect were now lightning quick. The vicious tear I had passing my cursor over the dock in 3-D mode was also gone. Personally I use the 2-D dock so it wasn't a huge win for me, but overall this was a satisfying tweak.

On PowerPC OS X in 2013 its all about them little victories.

Help the Children Learn

Today someone, probably well under the age of 15, excitedly sent this Doctor a Youtube link to a recently posted video which they claimed showed a user how to install Flash 11.5 on a PowerPC Mac. It was of course no such thing, just a redo of the old "Facebook" hack which tricks some websites into offering up Flash video to your tired, unsupported, enough security holes to drive a (pun intended) Mack truck through 10.1 Flash plugin. I will not bother to repost the video or link here, as I do not like to spread bad or misleading information around the interwebs. But this does bring up a very important point. PowerPC macs are now so cheap they are an easy entry point for young mac enthusiasts eager to test out the OS X and Linux waters. I think that's great, but as with all things, kids need to be educated. So if you know one of these young PowerPC mac enthusiasts, don't be embarrassed, sit them down and give them the talk. Not that talk, this talk:

"Now young man (or woman), you need to know Adobe Flash was never a great piece of software on PowerPC. It was poorly written and never optimized for your machine. Today its old, and such a crap-tastic performer that will bring your otherwise excellent system to a screeching halt. It should be avoided on OS X PowerPC, at all costs. On PowerPC Linux this is a non issue, as there never was nor will there ever be Flash Player or Plugin. In this here year of 2013 you are far, far better using Flash workarounds. Here are few you can try..

Mactubes. Its been often said that this is an awesome piece of kit that keeps PowerPC Macs alive and well in the age of youtube. Make sure to set your player to Quicktime for best results, and have Perian installed as well. This makes many larger format flash files available for download and playback. The version of Quicktime that works with Mactubes well is 7.6.4.

Youview. This software pretty much does what Mactubes does, but unlike Mactubes you have to pay for certain features, like downloading. But it's handy to have in reserve.

Viewtube. This is a Greasemonkey script for Tenfourfox, it can be made to work with Safari as well by installing SIMBL and Greasekit. First go to Add-ons under tools and install Greasemonkey. You'll have to stick with Tenfourfox 17.X.X, as anything newer has plugins disabled and it just won't work. It works with some other sites besides youtube too, and the developer is a decent guy who is constantly improving and updating the script. It'll also use the Quicktime plugin, but right in the browser.

ClicktoFlash and ClicktoPlugin these work great with Safari (and Leopard webkit). By installing both you can do the same thing your trying to do with the Flash hack, that is, trick the website into believing you have the latest Flash installed. Many websites will then offer you up video. You'll have to click on the "QT Player" logo, and it will launch a standalone Quicktime player.

There are some other methods too, they're a little trickier, so try these ones out first. And remember... on PowerPC the only good Flash is no Flash. Tell all your mac loving friends."

It's a tired old cliche, but the kids really are the future, especially it seems when it comes to PowerPC macs...