some new shoes
Well, it’s splendid weather overhere and yesterday I thought “Well, let’s buy some new shoes for the summer!” even though it’s April.
click to see the original size on flickr
as you can see, Bates seems to dig’em
*^_^*
For those who expect some news about the adapter, there’s a lot going on, but I won’t be publishing every detail here. As soon as everything is sorted out, I will send a mail to those who have showed interest and of course put it on my blog. In the mean time, I’ll try to come up with the usual overhere and the adapter will show up once it’s ready.
100 million iPods sold
Well, this seems fitting news. *^_^*
Apple today announced that it sold 100 Million iPods.
I guess they don’t mind me coming up with ways of extending the life of a couple of those beautiful players, or would they? *^_^*
What do you think?
previous on this site:
turn your iPod mini into a flash based iPod
flash based iPod mini update, now up to 8GB!
the iPod mini remastered, now with 16GB!
battery life on the flash based iPod minis
and last but most definately not least…
put flash memory into (almost) ANY iPod!
slashdotted
click to go to the /. article
Weeeeeell… of all the technology-related websites out there, there’s still a very special one, the mother of all the technology-related (news) websites sites and that’s, of course, slashdot
I always felt fortunate that my site made it to slashdot about two years ago with an OpenBSD-howto (the links in that /.-post don’t work anymore btw). And now, today, the headline is:
Hacker Replaces iPod HDD With Flash Memory
*^_^*
Well, what can I say? not much I guess… I’m glad someone in the comments says:
“Did you notice the word ‘hacker’? It was used correctly!”
^_^ I mean, being called a hacker on slashdot and in (imho) the right sense, that’s truly nice.
But, from another point of view, it’s striking to me that, of all the publicity that this has gained the last couple of days and of all the comments on all those sites (and the couple of hundred messages(!) in my mailbox), it seems the current slashdot-crowd grasps the concept behind this the least and somehow that surprises me. I mean, you’re not gonna tell me the current crowd out there would rather be throwing away their iPods instead of fixing them themselves and making them better than they ever were? I mean, where has the passion for tech gone? Or did they all of a sudden change to ideal consumers who are rendered useless when something breaks down? According to the most of them, the 88 million sold make that a hundred million sold are ready for the scrapheap once they stop working… Maybe they should start reading the Make:blog also… (just a hint) ^_^
Luckily, there’s another commenter who gets it.
But well, before I start to sound like I’m whining (because I’m not, I’m extremely happy with all the publicity!), and with or without the slashdot-crowd, this already gained enough momentum to put it into a next gear. So I’m gonna get back to work and get this adapter into production. Because, for those who may have had their doubts, that’s truly gonna happen! *^_^* (and very soon too!)
(and if you like a mail when this adapter is in production, just leave your mail address on the contact form and I’ll drop you a mail)
or, how yet another commenter puts it:
I guess the rest of the slashdot-crowd or whoever, will grasp the concept behind this when 32GB flash or more has dropped in price to, let’s say, $30 and you’re facing a dead 1G/2G/3G/4G iPod… I really would’ve thought that especially the slashdot-crowd would be visionary enough to see that, but well…
Oh, btw, about the slashdot effect... In contrary to two years ago, when I had to tweak and tune every last bit out of my then 1200MHz Athlon, I now spotted this in the RSS-feed of /. without having noticed it on my webserver… (!_!)
I guess a lot has changed in two years time… *^_^*
previous on this site:
slashdotted!
project: flash base (almost) ANY iPod!
This project has been the reason I’ve been living like a monk for the last four days… but I guess I did it… I made an adapter which enables you to upgrade 1G, 2G, 3G and 4G iPods to use Compact Flash. *^_^*
click to go to the projectpage
put flash memory into (almost) ANY iPod!
You can digg the engadget-article, that one hit the frontpage!
DIY trackback
MAKE:blog
engadget.com
Wired
TUAW
news.com
[H]ard|OCP
slashdot ^_^
geek technique is now officially a business!
Well, people who watch my flickr already saw I visited the Chamber of Commerce last friday
click to go to the corresponding pic on flickr
...but I forgot some paperwork and had to come back today. But… it’s final now, the ink on the paper is dry… geek technique now officially is a business!
click to enlarge
Now of course, this doesn’t say a thing on it’s own. It’s just something I wanted to do for a long time, but I also wanted to make sure this made sense. Until now I could very well do my business without a registration, just as a private person, but time has come this makes sense for Dutch taxes and such. So, a business it is!
About the type of business, translated literally, it’s a one-man-business and I guess that’s a perfect fit, because geek technique has been a one-man operation from day one.
As far as this site is concerned, nothing much will change I guess. This is just some paperwork to be able to continue what I love doing most and that’s everything you can see on this site. *^_^*
the missing part: battery life on the iPods
click to go to the projectpage
Almost one month after this iPod mini madness started on this website, I’d like to conclude it with an addendum to the three parts already written down.
addendum:
battery life on the flash based iPod minis
I truly love all the attention this got and it’s stuff like this that keeps me going. Thanks go out to PEAK hardware and Adam from iPodrepair.nl who both supported me, from the first project on, in getting this all done. But, of course, this project would’ve gone nowhere without all the attention/comments all the visitors gave this. So cheers to you all! *^_^*
earlier on this site
how to turn your iPod mini into a flash based iPod
traffic frenzy
flash based iPod, now up to 8GB!
the iPod mini remastered, now with 16GB!
wish me luck
Well, tomorrow is gonna be quite a day I guess… First, I’m gonna leave extremely early for Arnhem. I’m gonna give four workshops at an event called dig-e-vent. In these workshops I’m going to teach people how to make led throwies. ^_^
I just made 120 led-throwie packs, with the material for four throwies in each. That should keep people busy. If they’re not sure what to do with it, they can still use it on their bike, right? ^_^
LED throwie spare material
click to enlarge
Right after that, I leave for The Hague, to find out if I won something at the Dutch Bloggies. Since I’m also a little into life-hacking and making my life efficient and stuff and because of the fact that there’s such a slight chance of winning, I didn’t prepare a speech!
I mean, what are the odds? *^_^*
UPDATE
Well, still unsure what the odds are. I do know I didn’t win though... too bad… ;-)
earlier on this site:
...and then, nominated for a Dutch Bloggie?!?
LED throwie bike lighting
LED throwies at Brightlive
BRIGHT Nerd Alert: the video
my face in a magazine
<egotrip>
Dutch magazine HCC!Link decided they would post something about modding/hardware hacking in general and …euhm… me in particular *^_^*
Now I couldn’t find out what kind of magazine this actually is(...). HCC (Hobby Computer Club) is a very large computer club here in Holland, with 180 thousand members. But I’m not a member and the name of the magazine, HCC!Link, didn’t ring a bell. But I did know this computer club publishes several other magazines.
click to enlarge
click to enlarge
Now in the end, it seems it’s circulated along with one of these magazines, computer!totaal, (self-proclaimed) the biggest computer magazine in Holland(...). So… in about every bookstore in Holland, you can grab a copy of this magazine, turn it around and you get to see my old iBook!
click to enlarge
The photographer, Thomas Schlijper, who came to visit me a little while ago to shoot some pics, also shot some other pics which didn’t make it into the magazine, but… I can post’em here of course!
click to enlarge
Next to the pics, I’m actually quite happy with the article too! But I guess I’m not allowed to post that here (at this moment at least)... *^_^*
</egotrip>
Update
The article (in dutch) can be found online.
cleaning out some old machinery
the once unreachable Indigo2
About a month ago, I picked up a true Silicon Graphics Indigo2. Now for you who don’t know what kind of system this is, here’s a slight impression from a very old review (from 1993!):
“If a computer could be the stuff of dreams, the Indigo2 is it. The brand new Indigo2, the latest machine from Silicon Graphics, is not your average desktop PC; it is the stuff of dreams. Its turquoise case, crammed with leading edge technology, will set you back a mere 34,000 UKP.
Silicon Graphics (SGI) flew the Indigo2 into the country and gave it to PCW for a European exclusive review. Two days later it was back on another plane and flying home to SGI’s Mountain View headquarters in California. While it was winging its way back across the Atlantic, the PCW office was still abuzz. Talk was of the incredible moving 3D imaging, the size of the graphics ‘card’, the memory, the sound, and of course the cost. For that money you could buy a lot of other hardware, but the decision was unanimous. Thirty-four cheapo 486 PCs or an Indigo2? An Indigo2, please.”
Mind you, the choice was: thirty-four PCs or this one Silicon Graphics… And now, fourteen years later, the choice is: this one Silicon Graphics or taking your girl out for dinner (not too fancy though, otherwise you could’ve had two SGIs!)
Now, after making sure my Indigo2 was working, I decided it could use a nice cleaning-out before I do anything else with it. Actually, it was a friend of mine, Asim, who got me motivated in doing that. I gave him one of my Sun UltraSPARC2s and when he mailed me some pictures of the cleaning out of that machine, I started thinking “Now why haven’t I done that to my Indigo2?” and so it went…
People who also watch my flickr photos have seen these already, but with all the iPod madness going on, I didn’t have time to write it up any sooner.
clicking one of the pics takes you to the corresponding pic on flickr
The videocard consists of three PCBs. Four if you also count the live-video I/O-board…
clicking one of the pics takes you to the corresponding pic on flickr
Left, one of the raster-engines. Right, one of the quad geometry-engines…
clicking one of the pics takes you to the corresponding pic on flickr
left, the CPU without a fan. Right, the whole machine assembled back together.
all the pics can be found right here
Anyway, I keep having a soft spot for this stuff. Why? Because of the build quality, the mystique of this brand, everything on this kind of hardware oozes that they were on the right path back then. Mind you, it runs a very proper Unix, heck, it even has vectorized icons and a journaling filesystem. Stuff some OS-makers still don’t seem to get right(...) *^_^*
Somehow I just love spending time on this old gear, for one to wonder where we have gone wrong in this industry. People knew how to build computers but somewhere someone decided computers aren’t allowed to cost a thing anymore and production had to become cheaper and cheaper to a point where it sometimes is pathetic to see how nowadays computers are built. And don’t get me started on this or I’ll show you the innards of a VAX! ^_^
Next to the fact that it’s mere impossible to cut yourself on a machine like this, (people who ever tried to assemble something inside a cheap Chinese PC-case know what I’m talking about) there’s also a reason this stuff keeps running, it’s built properly, no component is overclocked in such a way that it’s lifespan is about the same period as its support contract… If a machine keeps running for fourteen years, you could say hardwarewise it’s a proper(ly built) machine and I guess this once $64,000 machine is just that. Nowadays you could get even more than thirty-four PCs for that kind of money. But still, there’s a lot to be learned in how these systems were built and engineered and if you’re eager to find out a thing or two about that, systems like this can be had for near to nothing. When you put in the time and start spending some hours on the truly unique IRIX even more questions will pop up about where all this knowledge has gone because a lot of it didn’t end up in the PC on your desk, that’s for sure! ^_^
To sum it all up: It’s old, it’s hardly useful in any way nowadays but boy, do I respect this stuff.
Oh and I didn’t pick up this system for no reason. The idea is to make this my obsolete video-editing system for some minor video-footage on this site. Mind you, all this has cost less than a new webcam (and this machine came with an Indycam) with some editing software…
part 3: iPod mini with 16GB and then some...
This weekend I thought it was about time to reassemble my mini back into something useful and so I did…
click to go to the project page
click to go to the project page
Read all the details on how (and why) it became black and how I got hold of a 16GB card on my project page:
the iPod mini remastered, now with 16GB!
