If MacGyver were here...

Easily Secure Erase an SSD (alternate to HDDerase.exe)

noreply@blogger.com (Angus Terry) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 06:05:00 +0000

I was recently looking for a way to run a Secure Erase command on my SSD to ensure its performance wasn't being hampered. I tried a ton of different ways (including HDDerase.exe and hdparm) but all failed due to the security on my mother board (and laptop) that stops certain harmful commands like Secure Erase being issued to a hard drive.

If you don't know what performance issues I'm referring too then you should stop and do a little reading. AnandTech has a great article on it here, and just to be clear this post has nothing to do with data security on SSD's, its only about performance.

If you're like me and have had trouble finding an easy solution to issuing a secure erase command to your SSD's controller then this might be a solution for you.

You will need Parted Magic for this (free and opensource), and obviously ability to boot to it. I used 6.6 from a CDRom but I'm positive it will work just as well from any other version and any other medium (USB, network).

Warning, this will completely erase your drive, be careful! If you have important data on other drives in the same system then it you should probably unplug them, just in case :)

1. When booted, hit the menu button in the bottom left, head to System Tools and then Erase Disk

2. A menu will be displayed like the picture below. You want to choose Internal:Secure Erase command writes zeroes to entire data area (Parted Magic is using hdparm to perform this)

3. Choose your disk

4. Here is the tricky that Parted Magic handles much better than the rest of the utilities out there. You need to tell the computer to Sleep so that, when it wakes, the drives security will be unfrozen.

5. Wake the computer up, go through 1, 2 and 3 and you should have a different menu instead of what was displayed in 4. If you don't, then run through the process again. If that doesn't work then your system may be e a little more secure then most and this probably wont work. Don't change the password, just leave it as NULL (unless you know what you are doing of course)

6. Confirm the erase

7. And your done, and yes, it is normal for it to only take a couple of seconds. On a normal platter hard drive it would take longer, but this is normal for an SSD. Its faster because basically SECURE ERASE command just resets the SSD's controller instead of erasing each sector, like it would on a platter based drive. If it take longer than 30 seconds you have an problem or you have chosen a platter drive.

8. Jump into GParted to confirm your that the erase has worked, your should have an entirely blank SSD. If it still has a partition then the Secure Erase command hasn't worked or you have erase the wrong drive.

This is a really easy, GUI way to use hdparm utility to issue Secure Erase command, and the 'sleep' trick seems to work on everything I've tried (ASUS P5KC, MacBook Pro 6.2).

Sorry for the bad photos, I did this in a rush.

Is HP really killing the Touchpad, or is it all a massive ruse?

noreply@blogger.com (Angus Terry) — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 12:04:00 +0000

Back story here and here

I managed to get my hands on two HP Touchpads earlier this week, both at the crazy prices of $98AU for a 16GB and $148AU for a 32GB (finally, Australia has cheaper tech than the US). It was a mad rush. If a work mate and I weren't watching twitter for rumors we would have been none the wiser.

We got to the local Harvey Norman store around 15 minutes after their staff got the call from the head office instructing them to go ahead with the reduced pricing. Five others were already waiting for the stock to be brought out and more steadily came walking (fast) in behind us. They had 70 in store and they were all gone within the hour.

Was it worth it? Completely. WebOS does lack a lot of polish and some really important features, but it's really not as bad as what some are making it out to be, and it's certainly not bad enough to kill the entire product line so soon. It had only spent four days on the shop shelves in Australia before the big axing.

You can easily see that a lot of hard work has gone into the OS over its short life. Some of the WebOS aspects actually thrash the rivals, like multitasking. It's absolutely a ton better at multitasking than its rivals. I think that if it was given the same time that Android and IOS have had to mature I think WebOS would have been (and possible still will be) a very strong player in the ARM operating system game.

The hardware is great. Again its missing a few features but its one of the fastest tablets (CPU and GPU) in the current market. It feels strong, looks strong, was packaged well, has a good screen and was released along side some high quality accessories. I quickly grabbed covers for both and a touchstone charger in fear they would be hard to get after a few days, which another work mate is unfortunately confirming right now.

It all seems crazy to the point where I'm starting to question HP's motive. Six days after they had internationally killed the entire line they released/updated a HP branded application which is specifically designed for the Touchpad. Then today they have switch on paid app support for Australia. Not bad for a "completely unsupported software" platform. Why would they bother? To make it even more confusing HP have just rewarded Touchpad owners with a free "6-Pack" of paid apps in the U.S.

If HP are trying to show possible buyers of their consumer line that they still have confidence in the Touchpad/WebOS product its a ~~very~~ extremely weak attempt, especially after their drastic and sudden actions to wipe their hands of it all.

Whats with this half/lingering interest HP? I know I'm not the only one who is thinking along these lines. Could HP turn around now and say "now we have hundreds of thousands of users on the platform we will continue with the line"? Sony and Microsoft sell their consoles at a loss at the start of their lives to get customers on the platform, is it that hard to imagine a company like HP could be doing the same? If I was a hardware manufacturer and I'd just bought a reasonably fresh OS I would certainly think about doing it. Maybe I'm just being over inquisitive/over speculative...?

Either way I think I have won. I'd put $100 on an Android build being publicly released before the end of the year. If that doesn't happen I'm happy to continue to use WebOS in its current state.

BIOS Update for Sunix SATA4000 (Silicon Image 3114) PCI Raid Card

noreply@blogger.com (Angus Terry) — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 21:17:00 +0000

I've had one of these Sunix SATA4000 PCI Raid (fake raid) cards for a while now, and although they are pretty limited in terms of abilities and performance they are reasonably reliable (500+ days on mine without a problem) and very cheap (I paid $10 delivered on Ebay). They use a Silicon Image Sil3114 chip and BIOS so software is pretty easy to get for it as well link.

It's one major drawback is the card ships with a much older BIOS than what's available through Silicon Image, which cant recognise larger hard drives (1TB and up). You can upgrade the BIOS using the Silicon Image BIOS and tool but you need to know what flash chip the cards uses.

The original post here that I found (which has been removed for some time now) stated that it used an AMD 29LV010B 1MB compatible. Using that worked fine for me and now I'm running a 2TB drive on the card without any problem. I also noticed around 20-30MBps more in IO to the older drives on the card. I thought I'd make a quick post about this just in case someone else wanted to know, references to it seem to be disappearing quickly.

My tips for a happy Linux home server (for users new to the Linux scene).

noreply@blogger.com (Angus Terry) — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 23:51:00 +0000

I've recently moved from a FreeNAS 7 server to an Ubuntu Server 10.04 LTS install. The move went well, but I thought I'd share my tips/thoughts that may help some of the newer Linux home server users.

Why did I choose Ubuntu Server and not Fedora, CentOS, OpenSUSE, FreeBSD? A very arguable point to start with, Ubuntu Server was really the only distribution that I could find that was a concentrated server-only distribution that had a well managed life cycle. Others like Fedora could easily be customised to be a server but I really liked that Ubuntu Server was specifically built for this use. I'm still very new to the linux server arena so that alone gave me a little more confidence. Ubuntu's life-cycle was also a big winner for me, explained here link.
You didn't pick Ubuntu, that's fine but know your distributions roots. Ubuntu is based on Debian so I know I can use a lot of Debian resources. Simile Fedora and CentOS are based on Redhat. You need to know this.
Use Webmin link. It's a fantastic webGUI that will ease you into the headless server lifestyle, saving you time and helping you monitor your new system easily. It plugs into a ton of different areas and services (like Samba) and is supported by all of the major distributions. Its very light on system resources and its installation (for Ubuntu) is a good introduction into adding sources and installing using apt.
You need to know how to install and update software. For Ubuntu's it's apt, and here are the basics on how to use it link.
Update software and the OS as soon as you install (for Ubuntu use the apt methods above). Get everything up-to-date before you start working on the server, just in case a major change is due to come down and potentially break your fresh sever. In my experience this is pretty unlikely for a basic server (file serving, basic webpage) but its also makes sure you have the best tools to set-up your server.
Software raid is fine, don't be afraid to use it. I wont go too far into this point, as I think this page by Jeff Garzik sums everything up really well.
Mix your brands of hard drives/models (if possible). This opinion is very arguable as well, and again I wont go too far into the opinion. The idea is you will minimise the chance of more than one disk failure. Robin Harris explains it really well here link.
Stay away from cheap raid cards. If you do decide do go with a hardware raid instead of software raid, or even if you just want more SATA ports make sure you get an real raid card, or at least a SATA card that has known support for your Linux distribution. Fake raid cards are painful to work with. For instance I wanted to create a software raid array over five ports, using all four on-board Intel ports and a single port from my Silicon Image 3114 based PCI card. Everything was ok until the system was rebooted. It appears that my 3114 card will read the mdadm software raid metadata on any drive attached to it and assumes it should be managing that array. So it created a failed array in itself, and as the single drive wasn't available to the OS the software raid failed that disk. Very annoying.
Research hard drive support for your distribution. Some drives, in particular 4K sector drives, may need to be partitioned in a particular way to ensure full IO speed. Drives like 2TB western digital EARS model drives have this problem. This forum post describes it well. Just remember to a little pre-research and all should be ok.
If you want timely redundancy and diversity with your server stick with common gear. Unless you need your sever to be the size of a shoe box stick with a nice compact full ATX case and power supply. If my server motherboard dies tomorrow I have access to around 5 other motherboards that will plug straight in and get me back up and running. Or if I install a service tomorrow that really pushes my CPU I know I can get a more powerful 775 CPU very easily and cheaply.
Know your config files. Config file locations can get a little hard to remember. Write them down in a text file to help remind you.
Use Nano instead of VI for editing config files to begin with. I find its much easier for new comers.
Do you want to share a music folder with iTunes installs on the same network? mt-daapd, also know as Firefly media server, (included in the Ubuntu repositories) is light weight and easy to configure. Here is a great how to install for Ubuntu.
Want to virtualise from within your server? You want your CPU to have the VT extension link. You can virtualise without it but you will take a massive hit on performance.
Learn how to compile and install source just in case link.
Lastly, google google google google and then google. If you cant get something to work don't post your problem on a forum straight away, give it a decent search first. The chance you're problem hasn't been experienced before is extremely unlikely.

I hope that helps a few people. If anyone has any questions about this or running an Ubuntu Server at home feel free to leave a comment or give me a shout on Twitter @iammacgyver.

Damn mouse plauge...

noreply@blogger.com (Angus Terry) — Fri, 06 May 2011 02:10:00 +0000

My cisco wireless mesh access points are at war with some particularly hungry mice, and the battle isn't going well...

Not the best SSID....

noreply@blogger.com (Angus Terry) — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 09:25:00 +0000

I'm not sure why the Coles supermarket IT providers in Wodonga thought this was a good SSID name for the businesses wireless, it just makes me want try and crack it....

Enable Download Mode on Galaxy S with USB jig

noreply@blogger.com (Angus Terry) — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 11:24:00 +0000

Just a quick post. I stumbled on a 'how to make a usb jig' that would allow any Samsung Galaxy S to boot into download mode, meaning any Galaxy S that couldn't perform '3 button recovery' can now boot into download mode (like mine)!

So all you need is a 301k resistor (I made mine from a 300k and a 1k), 1% tolerance, connected to pins 4 and 5 of the micro usb plug. There are plenty of youtube videos showing how to join and position the resistor/resistors without soldering and even without using a micro usb plug, but I wanted to more permanent jig so I soldered and heat-shrink'ed it.

Here's the pin layout for the micro UBS on the Galaxy S. I stripped mine from a $2 (delivered) cable from ebay.

So pin 5 (red) is Power, 2 (white) and 3 (green) are USB data, 4 is not used normally, and 5 is ground (usually black but mine was blue).

My trial run, which happily worked.

Cleaned it up a little (excuse my soldering, not my finest work).

A little heat-shrink...

...and after a few layers more and its done. Just turn the phone completely off, plug the dongle in, wait a few seconds and its booted to download mode.

I've had perfect success with 301k and 1% tolerance. There are varied reviews saying 300 or even 270 will do it but I'm not sure about the specifics. 301 has been 100% successful for me so I'm happy to endorse that :)

So after booting to download mode I flashed the leaked 2.3.3 European rom, which ended up flashing my boot so I now have 3 button recovery. That made me pretty happy but I've kept using the USB jig anyway just because its so simple.

All up it cost about $2.90AU (including the cable) and 3 minutes of my time. These jigs go for $25+ on ebay.

Easy Voodoo lagfix for Galaxy S I9000 Froyo (without 2e recovery, 3 button recovery, Odin)

noreply@blogger.com (Angus Terry) — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 10:09:00 +0000

I really like my Samsung Galaxy S I9000, and after 6 months I still think its the best phone for me. Unfortunately it still has its faults just like any other phone. Without going into crazy detail here is the gist of the infamous lag issue and what I think is the easiest way to fix it on any I9000 running Froyo (Android 2.2).

Samsung's proprietary file system (RFS) simply lacks what it needs to perform properly on the I9000 and other related models (I9000T for the Aussie Telstra users). Access and write times start to increase over time when accessing the different system, cache and application storage drives/partitions, lagging dramatically after a few months of use and a decent collection of apps installed. (here is a much better description than I can put together).

Despite the mass user complaints over the last 8 months is doesn't look like Samsung will be moving away from RFS any time soon. Around a week ago an Official European I9000 Android 2.3.3 update (supposedly final version) was leaked, and after a little probing a senior Android kernel developer named supercurio (François Simond) found the new firmware still uses and formats to RFS. Android 2.3 supposedly corrects the issues which required the use of RFS so this decision has left few people puzzled as to why samsung has kept persisting with it.

Fortunately there are some great projects and tools that will help anyone willing to convert or replace their phones RFS partitions over to a more friendly and proven file system. One of the most notable ones being the open source Project Voodoo, who's main author is previously mentioned supercurio. The Voodoo mod replaces the stock Android kernel and converts the concerned drives to Ext4, which is a major improvement over RFS (it also tweaks and adds some other features relating to sound and colour but I'm not going to go into that in this post). This is a proven mod and arguably the most popular/highly regarded. It's certainly the best out of the three I've tried.

Here's what I think is the simplest way to get the Voodoo mod onto any Galaxy S I9000 (the 'international version' of the Galaxy S).

Before you begin... This method is for Android 2.2 only. This method doesn't require "3 button recovery". Any kind of root exploit, kernel changing/tweaking and flashing is bound to void warranty and involves a large amount of risk. If an instruction doesn't make sense don't keep pushing through, ask questions.

Gain root your Galaxy S I9000. Most users who would be interested in fixing the lag issue would probably have root access to their i9000 already, but if you haven't you will need to do so. I've had a lot of success with z4root, get it here (you will need to create a free account with xda-developers, but its worth it).
Copy the downloaded z4root app to your phones SD card.
Turn on the ability to install from non-Market applications, goto Settings -> Applications then tick Unknown sources.
Browse to your SD card and touch the z4root.1.3.0.apk file to install and follow the prompts.
Once installed head to your applications menu and run the z4root. Touce the Permanent root button. After a couple of seconds your phone will reboot and you will see the Superuser app has been installed.

Install SGS Kernel Flasher. This step is pretty easy, simply head to the market and search for SGS Kernel Flasher or head to http://t.co/MTlXb8H.
Run the app once its installed, and touch the backup kernerl button.

Prepping and flashing Voodoo mod. Head to http://dl.project-voodoo.org/ and download the latest stable Froyo (Android 2.2) Voodoo mod. It should be in the form of Voodoo-stable-5.5.3-Froyo-GT-I9000-unsigned-update.zip. Only download the undate-unsigned.zip version (the .tar version is designed for a completely different flashing method).
Place it the download in a folder called Voodoo on the phones main SD 16GB storage.
Run SGS Kernel Flasher, touch choose kernel, locate the Voodoo file in the newly created Voodoo folder, and finally touch flash kernel. It should take around 20 seconds and then your phone will reboot.

After the phone has rebooted it will sit on the first Galaxy S screen for around 3 minutes while it converts the file system. While this is happening you should get a female voice telling you what is being performed and how much time is remaining. If you don't get this I think its pretty safe to say it hasn't worked, and you should start asking questions before trying again.

When your phone finally boots the entire process is complete! To confirm the mod is up and running install the Voodoo Control app from the Market, heres the direct link http://t.co/vAf7JqJ (or the donate app if you found it useful http://t.co/UHr01YT). It should look like this when scrolling to the bottom (Note the Status: Ext4 lagfix active).

You should notice a speed difference straight away, especially when installing and running apps. Hopefully this helps anyone who stumbles across my blog and wants a simply way to stop the lag issues, or even provides a method for users who don't know/don't want to use the flash tool Odin, and any user who doesn't have access to 3 button recovery (like me).

TuneUp Discount

noreply@blogger.com (Angus Terry) — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 23:41:00 +0000

A few days after writing the last post this offer from TuneUp conveniently popped into my inbox, I thought I'd share it.

20% off either TuneUp Gold or Annual, offer ends 2nd of March 2011. Promo code BEMYVALENTINE

TuneUp

noreply@blogger.com (Angus Terry) — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 22:58:00 +0000

TuneUp is a complementary app/plug-in to iTunes or Windows Media Player. Its main selling point is the ability to fix mislabeled song information and fill missing cover art, both of which it performs a fine job.

I’m not usually ultra keen on running software trails but as my music collection seemed to be getting worse each day (and I can't see my iTunes shackles being broken anytime soon) I though I’d give TuneUp a go. It worked surprisingly well, especially on some of the Australian music that I fully expected TuneUp to fail on.

So its pretty simple to use, TuneUp starts alongside iTunes and you simply drag and drop the tracks you want fixed. TuneUp takes a few seconds per track while it contacts its servers, then displays its results with a rough rating on how close it thinks it is to being right. I assume it uses the wave form of the track, comparing it to either TuneUp's database or one of the many others.

Most of the time the results was spot on, even finding tracks that had been cut from radio recordings many years ago. I estimate Its saved me around 2 full days of cleaning, and I think that's a fairly modest estimate.

At the moment you can purchase a years license for around $20US, or a lifetime license for around $30US. Both of these licenses are restricted to one system activation, which can easily be moved to another system later on (simply install, activate and the previous will be deactivated). I managed to buy a lifetime for $22US via an email offer which made the deal a little sweeter.

I was a little annoyed to see that the trail version had adds when I first ran the app. I think if you are trying to sell an app you should make it as clutter free and as little annoying as possible, especially when the trail has limits on how many tracks it can do. I was further annoyed when the adds didn't automatically turn off when I entered my newly purchased license key. I eventually found I could turn them off in the preferences, but the annoyance continued with a static social media bar (albeit a small one) at the bottom of the screen, dedicated to sharing the TuneUp name through the users profiles and accounts.

Anyway, I’ll get over it. Apart from the bar down the bottom the UI could use a small amount of tweaking to reduce a few clicks or two (only a very small amount), but all in all its pretty clean and fast.

Pros

Relatively cheap, leave your email with them and you might get it on sale. They seem to do sale every quarter or so.
Decent accuracy (depending on your music taste that is). My collection is from all over the place. 10 year old radio recordings and Australian artist who haven't released albums outside of Victoria, all the way through to Elvis and Muse. Id say my success rate was around 92%.
Relatively fast at getting results.
Has saved me a massive amount of cleaning time (which I’ve been putting off for years).

Cons

Stupid adds and a social media bar should have turned off when I punched in the license key (or scrapped altogether). Stupid mistake in my opinion. both are negative to the look and feel of the app, not sure why the developers don't see that.
Needs a very small amount of UI tweaking, but not a big issue.

Conclusion
Worth the money, does a fine job. Happy I bought it on sale but even at $30US I think its decent value.

EDIT: One more thing, in TuneUps preferences I noticed I could increase the searched genres from 250 to 750. It seem to help on a few of the more strange albums, and didn't seem to cause any problems with other searches.

Easy RDP 6.0 from WinPE 3.0 (Simple Boot WinPE straight to RDP)

noreply@blogger.com (Angus Terry) — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 21:54:00 +0000

I've had a large break from blogging over the past year and thought this would be a good way to get back into the swing of things.

Easily being able to run RDP 6.0 (mstsc) from within a WinPE boot disk has several uses. Either adding the ability to an already setup PE environment (SCCM boot image), or even creating a custom engineer PE disk specific to a corporate environment. For me the really attractive use is very small (around 150MB) WinPE 3.0 install (based on Windows 7) that automatically boots to an RDP session.

Why RDP 6.0 instead of 7.0? Simply because I couldn't get 7.0 working in the stock WinPE environment. That didn't bother me too much though as none of my needs requires any more than version 6.0.

Requirements

WAIK - Windows Automated Installation Kit (1.7GB download)

Get it from Microsoft or here Google if the first link is broken
Windows 7/2008R2 is required

Batch files - These files save a lot of time as a ton of commands are required

Available here
Or if that doesn't work here is where I got them from. Important stuff starts at post 10. Great directions on how to make the bat files and what they do.

RDP Files - mstsc.exe, mstscax.dll, mstsc.exe.mui and mstscax.dll.mui (the last two sit in a folder called en-US)

Extract it from the installer for XP or 2003, or simple grab them from an existing (up to date) install. They are all located in C:\Windows\System32\ and C:\Windows\System32\en-US\

Sleep.exe

Get it here

VirtualBox is free and handy to test your build (and to get the mstsc files). Most people trying to make a custom PE build would probably know about virtual box and its alternatives, however if you don't you should give it a go.

So first off install WAIK. Install to the default directories otherwise the batch files wont work. Unzip the batch files somewhere that will be easy to get to from the command prompt, I’m using C:\PE Tools\.

Start running the batch files and run them administratively (right click on the batch file, Run as administrator). 1-MakePE Directory.bat creates the needed folders and copies the necessary files from the WAIK install. 2-Mount.bat mounts the stock WinPE image to the directory C:\PE\winpe_x86\mount.

Continue onto the 3-Packages.bat, it includes some handy components to the image. 4-Drivers.bat and 5-Additions.bat are optional and I wont go into them right now. Open each of them in notepad to see a description of what they do.

Now we need to copy over the mstsc files and create an auto loading script. Copy mstsc.exe and mstscax.dll to C:\PE\winpe_x86\mount\Windows\System32, and copy mstsc.exe.mui and mstscax.dll.mui to C:\PE\winpe_x86\mount\Windows\System32\en-US. Lastly create a folder called Tools in C:\PE\winpe_x86\mount\ and dump Sleep.exe in it. Using Sleep.exe just helps make sure the network card is up and has obtained an IP.

Now launch notepad and create a file containing the following.

[LaunchApps]
%SYSTEMDRIVE%\Windows\System32\wpeinit.exe
%SYSTEMDRIVE%\Tools\sleep.exe, "10"
%SYSTEMDRIVE%\Windows\System32\mstsc.exe, /v:RDS1 /f

RDS1 is my Remote Desktop Services (Terminal Services) server. Either change it to your own or get rid of the /v to stop it automatically connecting to a server. /f is launch in full screen. Call the text document Winpeshl.ini. Save it to a temp directory and then copy it into C:\PE\winpe_x86\mount\Windows\System32.

Finnally, administritivly run 6-Unmount.bat and then 7-MakeISO.bat. If all goes well your new ISO should be located in C:\PE\winpe_x86.

If you have trouble getting the disk to work try adding %SYSTEMDRIVE%\Windows\System32\cmd.exe before %SYSTEMDRIVE%\Windows\System32\mstsc.exe in Winpeshl.ini. It will load a command prompt before the RDP client, giving you a chance to run things like ipconfig.

The most likely cause for the disk to not work properly is missing drivers. WinPE 3.0 is just a very small Windows 7 so if you need to install drivers to get Windows 7 fully working on the same machine you will need to look at integrating the same drivers into the WinPE disk (batch file number 4).

One last note thing. You don't need to store the mstsc files within System32, I just did that because its a little more clean. If you move them elsewhere remember to maintain the folder structure or en-US.

Update: Handy WinPE resource http://blog.brianleejackson.com/deployment-image-servicing-and-management-dism-winpe-3-0-boot-environment

Update: I'm getting a lot of interest in this so I'll try revisit it again soon.

How to easily test memory (for free) on any Intel Apple Mac

noreply@blogger.com (Angus Terry) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:51:00 +0000

So I've notice a few people are looking for a free memory testing program for Apple Mac, with most answers saying that the popular PC program, Memtest86+, doesn't work. Thats not true at all. It works perfectly fine, and its extremely easy. Here's how (and its also how to boot any other PC bootable CD on your Intel Mac).

You will need...
Memtest86+ CD, Download here http://www.memtest.org/. Hit the 'Download (Pre-built & ISOs)', unzip and burn onto a CD.

Boot your system while holding down the 'alt/option' key, keep holding until you see a boot menu showing your main hard drive icon (you don't have to have the memtest CD in at this moment, but you can, its up to you).

Slide in your Memtest86+ CD, and after a few seconds you will see a CD image pop up called 'Windows'.

And here's what it looks like on a machine with bootcamp configured.

Use the arrows or the mouse to select the 'Windows' CD and hit Return, or mouse click. Done! Memtest will start running. Here's Memtest86+ Version 4.00 running on my 2007 MacBook, its on its third pass (a pass is one complete test of the entire memory).
http://imgur.com/29uVb.jpg

And here's a video of booting and running Memtest86+ 2.11 on a first generation MacBook Air (please excuse the lighting and audio... i filmed in a rush before work).

And on my work 2008 MacPro
http://imgur.com/pdbJx.jpg
(Notice the MacPro was the only mac that didn't diplay SPD information).

Any bootable PC based disks can be booted like this, regardless of whether you have bootcamp setup or not. So if you slide in an Ubuntu Live CD in and hold down alt it show up saying 'Windows', hit return and it will boot perfectly fine.

The last thing to note is pressing the Escape key like you would on a PC will not restart the system, well it didn't on the three machines i tried. Besides that, it works completely fine. Don't worry if it doesn't detect all the hardware information (like the SPD information on my MacPro), its not important.

In the past I have had systems that haven't failed until the second or third pass, so for best results always run Memtest86+ 3 or 4 passes.

Update: So it looks like my 2010 MacBook Pro i7 will throw errors in memtest regardless if its good ram or not, and no matter what version of memtest is being used. Apparently its a known problem, but no word if future versions of memtest will fix it. Back to the Apple hardware test disk I guess.

4,000ltrs

noreply@blogger.com (Angus Terry) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 02:04:00 +0000

This is a new add running in Brazil, apparently the average family house can save as much as 4,000 liters of water per year by peeing in the shower.

Im too good for the Program Files

noreply@blogger.com (Angus Terry) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 00:25:00 +0000

What is the deal with app developers/programmers not using 'C:\Program Files\' as the default place to install their application?

I asked a developer recently why they gave 'C:\' as the default install point, they replied with "well the coding in the program actually needs it to be in the root of C:". I of course then asked "so why do you even give the choice in the installer?". The reply didn't make sense, used random words and lacked intelligence and didn't address my question at all.

This is all google images could give in the way of "stupid programmers", rather boring...

The interuption skill

noreply@blogger.com (Angus Terry) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Its seems to be growing trend in my workplace, having the ability to cut someone off mid sentence and re-direct the topic to something you want to bring up. I’m sick of being left out so I thought I’d give it a try, but I don't seem to have the 'skill' needed.

I kind of take pride in giving (maybe that should be 'try to give') people respect where it is deserved, and I'm always trying to better my communication skills to make my respect evident. If I cut someone off mid conversation or laugh at their communication skills in a demeaning way I am always deeply ashamed of myself. It may take a few minutes but I always get to that conclusion if I have offended. I know I'm far from perfect and I'm know I still make mistakes, but I'm pretty sure I have a decent grasp on what is considered rude and disrespectful.

Almost all of the people I work with seem to have adapted this to their daily conversation rituals. Whether it’s a conversation about what someone did on the weekend, over to a meeting with the department head you can always count on watching the skill being used in its full force. It even gets to a point where the person using the skill performs so well that the alternate person won’t even bother to continue with what they were going to say. This was my tactic at shielding myself from this skill, in the hope that the inflicting person would realise and ask me to continue after they have finished. This doesn't work. It’s really starting to kill me.
A couple of good uni friends of mine would interrupt me when I interrupted them, and tell me when I was doing it. I value that, I'd rather him/her tell me so I can revert what I've done. I can't seem to do that though (not to the people at work anyway). I'm just not gutsy enough. Maybe I should be, but I'm not.

So instead I thought I'd give the trendy new interruption skill a go... I don't have it. I have no idea what I'm getting wrong. I followed the directions of my esteemed colleges, which I have been educated on so many occasions. I basically got put in my place, “I was talking...” I was told. Two minutes later when I was mid sentence the SAME person cut me off.

I just don't know what to do. I'm sick of being interrupted and I'm sick of seeing people being interrupted. I wish I had the guts to say "please don't interrupt me".... or at least have to ability to knock them unconscious with just a single thought! Matt Parkman can I borrow your power?

2DGalleria

noreply@blogger.com (Angus Terry) — Mon, 18 May 2009 13:32:00 +0000

I have so many talented friends, and this man can certainly take a nice pic.

Growing Old Is Getting Old by ~2DGalleria on deviant ART

Super growth man!

noreply@blogger.com (Angus Terry) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 23:08:00 +0000

For the last couple of months something weird has been happening to my body, my finger and toe nails have been growing stupidly fast!

How did i arrive at this conclusion, well, when i was in my late teens a friend and i pondered how long it took for nails to grow and if it was always the same. So we ran a little experiment and found out it took around a month for my fingers and around two months for my toes (very approx). I think the friend i was doing the experiment with forgot all about it a day after we had discussed it so when i took my findings to him many months later it was rather humorous, nether less i had a rough benchmark in my head.

All of a sudden, they are all growing a triple the speed! Each week I've had to take my clippers to them, and it seems to have been fairly consistent for the last two months. I haven't changed my diet, i haven't been eating/drinking any gelatin or other nail growing mixtures, I'm a little puzzled by it.

If this is a mutation and I'm getting some sort of super power its lame, and i wish it would stop.

I want some of that leadership

noreply@blogger.com (Angus Terry) — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 23:18:00 +0000

While eating breakfast I was watching the ABC's (Australian Broadcast Corporation) version of channel 9 and 7's morning show this morning. It’s basically the same but without the plentiful crap and more real news. One of the latest news stories was a recent announcement from the Obama administration and how they were going to tackle the US' reliance on foreign oil.

The US has a massive impact on our economy, but I think some Australians are making a little too much fuss over Mr Obama. I certainly don't want to become one of these aUStralians, but dam can that man talk. I think if I was terminally ill, I'd want Obama break it to me. Apart from the small errors in his inauguration 'swear in' I don't think he has messed up once? It's not only his decisions and directions, its how he talks about and tackles the issues. He has a presence too me like no other politician I have ever known, form any country.

I didn't vote for our Mr Rudd, I'm from a very rural area so the 'farmer conscious' National party got my vote, but Mr Rudd certainly hasn't upset me and I think he is doing a very fine job. Obama just hits the right note on everything for me.

Meanwhile, for the last couple of weeks I dont remeber seeing Rudds face on the news at all due to the all the Obama excitment. Anyone would think Austalia was the 51st state.

Modding the Gamcube with the Xeno Modchip

noreply@blogger.com (Angus Terry) — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 21:36:00 +0000

Well i know the Nintendo Gamecube isn't the most popular console of the sixth generation, but they certainly weren't bad in my books. Not forgetting that my precious little cube was a 21st birthday present and was actually my first ever console that i completely owned (apposed from 50/50 with my brother). The graphic design and game play of most of the cubes games tantalized my more traditional/cartoon style of gaming taste. Paper Mario: thousand year door is definitely one of my top five favorite games. And the gameboy add on certainly helped its longevity.

Games are getting harder to find and a few of my disks aren't looking the healthiest, it's time for a mod. The mod community was only built very late in the Gamecubes life so there isn't a massive amount of chips to choose from, but they are still floating around if you try hard enough.

After a lot of searching and extended use of the Way Back Machine (most of the sites were dead) i found the cheapest ($15 AU), simplest mod was the Xeno 2.0 chip. An easy 6 solder points, a small amount of pulling apart, and a smaller amount of risk made it perfect.

The Xeno chip (the way I understand it) is basically an extended firmware replacement for the cubes DVD drive, like most of the mods for the Wii and the Xbox 360. Other cube mods like the Viper and the Qoob chips replace the systems firmware or OS and can give a whole stack of other features, which I didn't really want to dive into or pay for (I just want to run backups).

Above is the bottom of the cubes 8cm DVD drive with the placement of a Xeno chip.

Here is the bottom of my drive, I've just touched up the contacts with solder and marked them. I was working with a pair of electronics magnifying goggles and it still wasn't too easy for my shaky hands. I dont get to do this as often as i used to, so concentration was at a maximum.

Here is a small amount of fine wire on the points (please excuse my soldering, i was a little more jittery than usual). This basically makes the bridge between the chip and the contact and saves trying to use stupid amounts of solder to try and jump the distance.

And finally the chip installed. Again, don't look to closely at my soldering, its rough but its good enough (my Dad would be frowning).

All back together, on the right of the fan you can see the status light glowing green on the chip. It glows red when the chip is doing its thing like working around DRE (Disk Read Errors).

I was also running a full sized DVD to test it. My cube didn't like the SONY 8cm Mini DVD's i bought, gets into the game ok but had a few DRE's on the way. 12cm Imation DVD-R's work flawlessly so i think the next task is to either mod the case to take the larger disks or source out a Team Xecutor case thats built to take the larger disks.

So the mod works fine, but unfortunately their was one slight problem. Xeno made two versions 1.0 and 2.0, and unfortunately the supplier i used sent me the 1.0 version (they both look identical and the only way to tell the difference is to install it). Version 2.0 gives multi game disk support and a little more DRE control from what I've read.

After a few emails describing what i was missing to the supplier, they agreed to send a replacement in the form of a Qoob SX. I wasn't aiming for that kind of chip but I'll gladly try it out (the fact that it was free was a sweetener). So ill have another post in a week or so with the Qoob SX install. Its a little more involved and should be fun. Hopefully it fixes the DRE problems i had with the SONY's i bought.

Until then, LONG LIVE THE CUBE!

Update 27/1/09 - I've received the new qoob chip, post to come soon.

Update 18/5/09 - Still not qoob'ed. Soon (ish)

Seths Mario

noreply@blogger.com (Angus Terry) — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:22:00 +0000

BaratsAndBereta - Bible in a Minute

noreply@blogger.com (Angus Terry) — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 21:05:00 +0000

BaratsAndBereta - Double Dragon

noreply@blogger.com (Angus Terry) — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 21:04:00 +0000

Living Fonts

noreply@blogger.com (Angus Terry) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 23:03:00 +0000

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Hitachi explains the terabyte... WTF!

noreply@blogger.com (Angus Terry) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 22:45:00 +0000

noreply@blogger.com (Angus Terry) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 11:03:00 +0000