Payton Place

For some unknown reason I got into my head that it would be really cool if my Macbook Pro would say something when shutting down.
This is how I went about it…

OSX doesn’t natively support configuring a shutdown sound so the first thing I needed to do was finding a plug-in that would bring me the magic.
This is taken care of by SystemSound plug-in (click to download) from Kiwi Fruitware

And setting it up is as easy as scratching your… … well you get the picture!

When download is completed locate the “SystemSound.prefPane” file with in the “SystemSound Extension” folder.

Double click the “SystemSound.prefPane” file to install the plug-in and choose if the plug-in should have an effect on your account only or all users…

Make sure to mark the “Use shutdown sound”

Unless you already have a sound suitable for this little tweak (remember the sound file needs to be in the .aiff format) this is what we need to find now…
My love fell on a soundfile suitably called
“Shutdown” (hold down [Alt] and click here to download)

In order to use our newly obtained and totally cool sound we need to convert it from a “.wav” file to a “.aiff file” . This is best done by using iTunes. In order to convert our sound-file to the right format we need to configure iTunes…
(If you are an experienced Mac user you might wanna skip the iTunes part)

Open iTunes and choose “iTunes Preferences”

Choose the “Import” button and select “Import Using: AIFF Encoder“ leave settings on “Automatic”

Now we are ready fore the actual conversion and to do so first drag the “shutdown.aif” file from the desktop in to iTunes…

…then (right-click on mouse) or (hold down [ctrl] and click) on the selected tune and choose “Convert Selection to AIFF”

Drag the newly converted .aiff file back to the desktop ready for use.

In order to make this work all fine and dandy you should go to your “Music ” folder on your hard-drive and make and create a new folder called “system fx” or what ever makes you happy and so you doesn’t accidently erase it under influence or something, leaving you very annoyed so you call me in the middle of the night screaming why the f..?#?&! is my Mac not saying goodnight to me as usual… phew… don’t wanna go there!

Finally we just need learn the plug-in and the sound-file to be buddies…

Go to the little blue apple in the upper left corner and choose “System Preferences”

In the bottom of the system preferences menu you’ll find the installed plug-in “SystemSound”

When opened choose the button“Shutdown Sound”

Go to the bottom and choose the “Add Sound” button and give the path Music>System FX>shutdown.aif

Done… Try to restart.
I hope you will have fun.

Thrashing this site is something I do cyclically. Rather than tweak a little here — tweak a little there, I have?the tendency to store ideas for updates internally and then attempt to implement them all at once to keep my head from exploding! Of course, this leads to creation of entirely too many debugging issues because I’m trying to do too many things at once.

You could almost?term it Binge & Purge?Administration. Hmmm, that concept made more sense in my head than it does?now that its?visible on the page. But this week could certainly be considered one of the purge experiences. Although closer to my original ideas than initially implemented, I still need to tweak some things.

For instance, this week I implemented three new pages:

1. ?A / V (current Audio & Video interests tracking)
2. Micro-Blog (tracking?a new found interested)
3. Webb Alert (a daily technology news feed)

For quite some time I’ve wanted?automated “What I’m Listening to” and “What I’m watching right now” widgets incorporated on the site. Existing widgets are likely to exist but I just haven’t located them. So in the meantime I’ll just stick to two scripts adoped from my Last.fm and YouTube accounts.

The micro-blogging concept is just starting to come into it’s own. It’s a method of posting miniature status updates to a web site directly from your cell phone or web terminal. When using a cell phone you simply send a text message to the phone number of the service. I am using Jaiku at the moment and like the fact it aggregates other web feed information from my blog, my photos, music sites, and just about any service that will generate an RSS feed.

And finally, I added a direct video embedding of Morgan Webb’s Webb Alert, a daily technology blog summary news feed. Actually, I believe the proper description is, “Your Daily Tech Round-Up.” Megan is co-host of X-Play, a computer gaming reviews show on G4TV.

That summarizes the latest thrashings going on at the site . . . let me know if you have recommendations on compact widgets for Wordpress that will perform similar functions, OK?

~SP

A little while ago I was given an iBook with a faulty screen (as in not working at all).
Having a hard time just throwing it away, I was looking for a way to put it to use even though it was a fairly old 500mhz G3 ibook.
Things being as they were, I thought the only thing to do was using it as a server even if it would mean quite a makeover – hence the fun.

First of all we need to take the iBook apart to remove screen, optical drive and battery. All of these aren’t necessary since we are building a server. “But what about restoring of OSX – don’t we need the hard-drive for that?” Actually, you don’t, since you can do it just as well in target mode from another hard-drive. Another thing we need to keep in mind is that we really want to keep the footprint of the iBook as small as possible.

Before taking an iBook apart I strongly recommend visiting ifixit’s guide on how to disassemble an iBook so that nothing unintentionally gets broken.

I take absolutely no responsibility for any destroyed iBook. Making this is your own responsibility !!!

Carefully remove the Power circuit board without breaking the cables for it. The next thing to do is cutting the alu-frame as shown with the red markings (see picture below). Be very careful!!! The frame breaks easily.

Remove the modem-port. This is done easily just by gently pulling of the wires from the logic-board and thereafter the modem port itself. Now we have room for the power-plug.

The next step is to remove the power-plug from the power circuit board and afterwards solder 5 extension wires between the two. These should be about 20cm in length. This is done because there isn’t room for the power circuit board, when the incasing is fully assembled. Mount the power-plug with some tape with glue on both sides.

The last thing we need to do before assembly is to take off the old power button and replace it with a new one that would be easier to build in. It is easily soldered on the same wires as the old one. Drill a small hole (that fits the diameter of the new power button) into the alu-frame and mount it. The result should look as the picture above.
Cut the lower case so it fits the footprint of the alu-frame and mount it.

Use some tape with glue on both sides to hold the Power circuit board on to the lower case and some duck-tape for the power-cords. The end result should look as the picture above.

Cut the upper case so it fits the footprint of the alu-frame and the lower case. Cut a hole for the power switch in the corner, mount the upper case and use some tape to hold the wires in place on the upper case. The result should look as below.

Backview

The next step is to pimp the server up a bit, so it doesn’t just look like half an iBook.
I went to my nearest second-hand book pusher and found a hardback that fitted my chopped iBook in thickness and footprint. I brought it home and gutted it, leaving only the cover for my project. To hold the iBook together with the cardboard-back use two angled pieces of plastic (about 15cm long) and glue each of them at the inside of the cardboard-back so that they’ll work as a rest for the iBook to stand on (as shown on the image below).

First I thought about wrapping the book using the remaining Leopard plush I had from my OSX Leopard ready hard-drive project but it didn’t seem right since OSX Leopard won’t run on a G3 processor. Besides, a plush leopard HDD is pimp, but to make a server as well, would make me look as if I was playing for the wrong team…
So eventually I decided to use a matted black plastic film to wrap it in and decorate it with one of my many Apple stickers from the countless Apple products I’ve bought and some letter stickers from my local bookstore.
What remains is a way to ensure that the half iBook doesn’t end up on the floor when handling the server… For that I’d simply use velcro-tape at the bottom of the half iBook and the rest-plates, making it quite simple to disassemble the server, but also holding the half iBook in place when handled.

Some thoughts about the project.:
I did have some concern that there would be a heat problem after the modding, but this wasn’t the case, since I’ve had it running for some time now with no problems at all.

I didn’t have the time for finding a solution for building in Airport. That will have to come later. Meanwhile there’s a lot of info about the subject if you google it.

Oh god! Oh why even build it when a Mac mini has just about the same volume and isn’t all that expensive? Well. First of all, I already had the iBook so making the project costed me a fraction of the price of a new Mac mini. Second: A Mac mini wouldn’t fit so neatly on my bookshelf. Third: Because I’m able to do so and love the challenge.

Read this article in Jive thanks to gizoogle.com
Or some other language with translate.google.com