Apple Bluetooth working on PC - OS X

one of the issues with building a hackintosh is sleep, using a PC type bluetooth adapter will work but it will not wake from sleep. One solution is to use USB wired keyboard or mouse but I like having the full Apple OS X experience so I use the Bluetooth keyboard and magic/trackpad mouse.

To get an Apple Bluetooth module you have to buy one taken out of a Mac laptop, these can be found on ebay for $6 to $12, do not use a module from a G4 or Mac pro, these will not work and the Mac Pro module does not have pin outs for USB. The Apple module is also 3.3v and PC USB has 5v so a converter is needed, this is also on ebay as well.

Once these two items are wired up you are good to go, plugs into the USB port and now my hackintosh wakes after sleep on bluetooth keyboard or mouse.

5v to 3.3v converter to Apple Bluetooth module

I hate adobe

This says it all

Mac OS X 10.7 Preview 3

I friend of mine got me OS X 10.7 P3, after reading the cool features and of course integrated FaceTime, I was interested in giving it a test drive. Before installing, I did some reading of user experiences and decided to do a clean install of Snow Leopard and then upgrade.

Here is the method I used on my MacBookPro (2008).

Installed clean 80GB hard disk
Booted and installed SnowLeopard DVD (hold down the C key and hit power)
Download 10.6.8 Combo update from Apple and install
Go to software update and install updates
install 10.7 P3 update (this is a App update)
Install apps I use.. Office 2011, Lotus Notes

I am not experiencing the same issues others are that updated from 10.7 P2 or from a system that started out with Leopard - SnowLeopard - 10.7, Maybe some issues with kexts or other software carried over from the later that causes issues with 10.7 P3.

If you want to see some of the new features OS 10.7 google it, looks like a great OS for us Mac users.

Ubuntu 11.04

Ubuntu 11.04 is in beta and scheduled to be released on April 28th, I have been running the beta version on my old laptop and so far I am please. The OS interface is very clean and app doc on the side is very easy to use and configure. The software is easy to use and finding the apps you need is fast. Just about everything you need can be downloaded within minutes and you can be online in a few hours after install.

One of Ubuntu strengths is it's ability to run fast on older / slower PC's, giving them new life and usefulness. If you need a good internet machine with office capabilities and social networking Ubuntu may be the right choice.

www.ubuntu.com

Windows 7 NIC

In my office I have Windows 7 and experienced issues with coping large files (2 to 8 gig) from my Mac, seemed that the NIC card just stopped working. Frustrated I started thinking why it would do this and took a look at the NIC card properties. I turned off Power Management and everything works fine now, speed has improved too.

Yeah, you probably already knew that but I didn't. Seems Windows 7 will engage power management on the NIC even if it is the middle of network traffic.

Digital footprint

Today we have yet another thing to think about, our digital footprint. We all have digital camera's and cell phones that take pictures and now even HD video camera's. So, how are you dealing with this digital media?. With gigabytes of pictures and video on our hard disks we need to make sure we are backing this stuff up. I have had the unfortunate task of recovering customers data on bad hard disk because they didn't practice backup processes. External hard disks are cheap and easy to use as backup sources for your digital media. A problem with this technology is remembering to back up your stuff. On a Mac we have  Time Machine and it is a great tool for backing up your data, Windows 7 has back up tools as well that will remind you to back up but both these cases you can over ride the message and continue with your tasks thus not backing up. Don't wait till its too late. always have a copy of your data on anther external drive, you may even want to consider keeping a third copy in an offsite location for even safer backups.

Please backup your data, all your memories can be gone by the next power outage.

Quansheng TG-UV2

Ham radio just got cheaper with Quansheng TG-UV2 dual band HT

I heard about these radios from another Ham and decided to buy one. I paid $90 shipped from Hong Kong and $14 for the programming cable.

Lots of specs online so I will just give you my experience with it

for the price you get the radio, battery, drop in charger, and a manual.

The menu's and manual need a little work but once you start programming you understand it, things like repeater offset are called frequency deviation.  The radio uses Kenwood accessories so speaker mics and programming cables are easy to find.

I programmed some local repeaters and called into some nets with no issues, the radio performs great and feels very well built in the hand.

The one I got was unlocked, TX on 136 173.995MHz, 400-469.995MHz and RX 470-519.995MHz
It also has RX for FM radio 88-108MHz

With this radio you can program in the FRS and Marine bands.
With RX at 470-520 I can program local PD and FD.

For the price and what you can do, its a hands down a winner, I leave mine at the office so I have emergency communications at all times, great disaster preparedness addition.