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<channel>
	<title>Ask Saro</title>
	
	<link>http://www.asksaro.com</link>
	<description>Saro's opinions &amp; reviews.</description>
	<pubDate>Sat, 27 Jun 2009 23:47:12 +0000</pubDate>
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		<title>Write Anything and Everything About Montreal City</title>
		<link>http://www.asksaro.com/285-write-anything-and-everything-about-montreal-city/</link>
		<comments>http://www.asksaro.com/285-write-anything-and-everything-about-montreal-city/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 27 Jun 2009 23:38:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Saro</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Montreal]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[montrealing]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.asksaro.com/?p=285</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Do you want to get paid to write articles and opinions on places in the city and island of Montreal?
Basically, I will pay you 20$ CASH (or PayPal) per submission on reviews (and opinions) concerning bars, clubs, events, restaurants, sports, nightlife, the mayor, your local neighbourhood, poutine, Bill 101, your favourite shisha spot, the Canadiens, [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Do you want to get paid to write articles and opinions on places in the city and island of Montreal?</p>
<p>Basically, I will pay you 20$ CASH (or PayPal) per submission on reviews (and opinions) concerning bars, clubs, events, restaurants, sports, nightlife, the mayor, your local neighbourhood, poutine, Bill 101, your favourite shisha spot, the Canadiens, your favourite DJ, bartender, bouncer, promoters &amp; teams, La Tour de l&#8217;Ile, the bums downtown, Hollywood, etc. There&#8217;s no set standard for these things, but your article must be coherent, properly formatted, typed in proper English, checked for grammar and actually be <em>readable</em>. I&#8217;m looking for 3-4 paragraphs of text, or 300-400 words per article. Your style can be laid-back, professional, satirical, cocky, rant-y or something else I can&#8217;t think of right now. You will receive full credit for the article (unless you oppose). Articles will be posted on <a title="Montreal city reviews" href="http://www.montrealing.com" target="_blank">Montrealing.com</a> for everyone to see and read.</p>
<p>If you manage to submit an article every week, I will pay you more per article. We would like to hire consistent writers/journalists for the website. Montrealing.com is considered to be an <strong>alternative news and media outlet</strong> for the public. If you like going out, trying out new places and enjoy Montreal city, then this job is for you.</p>
<p>Please note that upon payment, your article will become the property of Montrealing.com.</p>
<p>Do you want to see examples? Check out this <a title="Review of Upstairs in Montreal city" href="http://www.montrealing.com/2009/03/upstairs-its-jazztastic/" target="_blank">Upstairs review</a> or one of <a title="Review on Time Supperclub in Montreal" href="http://www.montrealing.com/2009/03/time-supper-club-for-ballers-only/" target="_blank">Time Supperclub</a>.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Montrealing.com is all about Montreal city</title>
		<link>http://www.asksaro.com/270-montrealingcom-is-all-about-montreal-city/</link>
		<comments>http://www.asksaro.com/270-montrealingcom-is-all-about-montreal-city/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 31 Mar 2009 02:47:14 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Saro</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Montreal]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Reviews]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Websites]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[city]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[montreal city]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[montrealing]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[opinions]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[polls]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.asksaro.com/?p=270</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[There&#8217;s a new website in town that deals all there is to do in the city of Montreal: Montrealing. It&#8217;s not just a directory or reviews about restaurants, and it&#8217;s not a nightlife photo website either. Montrealing is all about what&#8217;s fresh and what&#8217;s not in the city. For example, what is currently the best [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>There&#8217;s a new website in town that deals all there is to do in the city of Montreal: <a title="Montrealing - Montreal reviews, opinions and polls." href="http://www.montrealing.com" target="_blank">Montrealing</a>. It&#8217;s not just a directory or reviews about restaurants, and it&#8217;s not a nightlife photo website either. Montrealing is all about what&#8217;s fresh and what&#8217;s not in the city. For example, <a title="Best shisha lounges in Montreal" href="http://www.montrealing.com/2009/03/vote-for-best-shisha-lounge/" target="_blank">what is currently the best shisha lounge in Montreal</a>? You can go ahead and vote or simply see the current results. Montrealers are able to decide what&#8217;s good or bad and voice their own opinions instead of a review website telling them how it&#8217;s supposed to be. It&#8217;s democracy all the way.</p>
<p>There is, of course, a directory of clubs, lounges, bars and restaurants&#8230; but it doesn&#8217;t stop there. At Montrealing, you&#8217;ll be able to find a list of famous Montrealers, talk show and radio hosts, bartenders, bouncers, local DJs and news about local University and CEGEP teams. Oh yes, you&#8217;ll find plenty of editorials on the Habs too. For the tourists, there&#8217;s a compiled list of landmarks, hot spots and other fun facts about Montreal.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>What’s in the Box?</title>
		<link>http://www.asksaro.com/274-whats-in-the-box/</link>
		<comments>http://www.asksaro.com/274-whats-in-the-box/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 26 Mar 2009 01:44:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Saro</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Movies]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[box]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[half-life]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[test film]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[test film 2009]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[valve]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[what's in the box?]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[youtube]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.asksaro.com/?p=274</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Take a look at this wicked first-person shooter-like video my friend Jaime found on YouTube. I did some digging around and it&#8217;s not from Valve but from an independent studio that should definitely get hired by Valve to make a Half-Life movie (if ever). The amount of suspense that this film brings is crazy. I [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Take a look at this wicked first-person shooter-like video my friend Jaime found on YouTube. I did some digging around and it&#8217;s not from Valve but from an independent studio that should definitely get hired by Valve to make a Half-Life movie (if ever). The amount of suspense that this film brings is crazy. I can&#8217;t wait to see <a href="http://www.whatsinthebox.nl" target="_blank">what the filmmakers have in store</a> for us. The whole set is based in an unknown city in The Netherlands.</p>
<p>For anyone that&#8217;s curious, the dramatic song/track that plays in the background while the character picks up the &#8220;Computer Brain Interface&#8221; device is called &#8220;<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oELyxEsXGMk" target="_blank">Monsters Are Such Interesting People</a>&#8221; by Michael Giacchino from the Lost television show soundtrack. It really adds some awesome suspense to the film.</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s the video in all its glory. High Definition also <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IU_reTt7Hj4" target="_blank">available here</a>.<br />
<object width="560" height="340" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/IU_reTt7Hj4&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/IU_reTt7Hj4&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /></object></p>
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		<item>
		<title>HTC Fuze (Touch Pro) and the Rogers Network (GPRS/EDGE/3G Settings)</title>
		<link>http://www.asksaro.com/265-htc-fuze-touch-pro-and-the-rogers-network-gprsedge3g-settings/</link>
		<comments>http://www.asksaro.com/265-htc-fuze-touch-pro-and-the-rogers-network-gprsedge3g-settings/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 27 Feb 2009 02:54:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Saro</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Gadgets]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[3g]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[3g settings]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[edge]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[gprs]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[htc]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[htc fuze]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[htc touch pro]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[internet]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[rogers]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[rogers 3g settings]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[rogers data settings]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[rogers internet]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.asksaro.com/?p=265</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I recently got my hands on a HTC Fuze (AT&#38;T&#8217;s version of the Touch Pro) as a new mobile phone. I&#8217;m a Rogers user, so I went ahead and got a data plan to go with my wireless services. I soon realized it wasn&#8217;t as easy to set the whole thing up, especially with the [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I recently got my hands on a HTC Fuze (AT&amp;T&#8217;s version of the Touch Pro) as a new mobile phone. I&#8217;m a Rogers user, so I went ahead and got a data plan to go with my wireless services. I soon realized it wasn&#8217;t as easy to set the whole thing up, especially with the amount of outdated information out there. I managed to piece together all the available information and have the damn thing work in the end as frustrating as it was.</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s what you have to do to get it working. Please note that this is for people who have a data plan (e.g. 500 MB, 1 GB, 6 GB, etc.) and not the Vision/on-device WAP browsing plans. For those types of connections, you will have to substitute the APNs for something else.</p>
<p><strong>Step 1: Create the Rogers Internet connection</strong></p>
<ol>
<li>Go to Start -&gt; Settings</li>
<li>Connections tab</li>
<li>Click on Connections</li>
<li>Click &#8220;Add a new modem connection&#8221; under My ISP (or whatever you have it named)</li>
<li>Enter the following settings:
<ul>
<li>Name: Rogers Internet</li>
<li>Modem type: Cellular Line (GPRS, 3G)</li>
<li>Access point name: internet.com</li>
<li>Username: wapuser1</li>
<li>Password: wap</li>
<li>Leave Domain empty, and don&#8217;t touch anything in Advanced. Just click Finish.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Press the Ok button and save your settings. You&#8217;re done for this section.</li>
</ol>
<p><strong>Step 2: Switch over to PAP Authentication</strong></p>
<p>Rogers does not work with CHAP authentication, so let&#8217;s go ahead and switch over to PAP.<strong><br />
</strong></p>
<ol>
<li>Go to Start -&gt; Settings</li>
<li>Connections tab</li>
<li>Click on Advanced Network</li>
<li>First tab, simply choose &#8220;Enable HSDPA only&#8221;</li>
<li>In GPRS tab, select &#8220;PAP authentication&#8221;</li>
<li>In SMS Service tab, select &#8220;GSM only&#8221;</li>
</ol>
<p><strong>Step 3: Remove the hidden proxy</strong></p>
<p><a title="HTC Fuze - Disable hidden proxy" href="http://rapidshare.com/files/141702945/removeHiddenProxy4CWS_1219.cab" target="_blank">Download and run this file on your Fuze</a>. This will now disable and remove the hidden proxy that comes shipped with the HTC Fuze. Opera at this point will not work as far as I have tested, but Internet Explorer and everything else will work just fine, including weather updates on the TouchFLO 3D interface. The fix for Opera is below, keep reading!</p>
<p><strong>Step 4: Soft reset the device</strong></p>
<p>Reset the device by turning it on and off.</p>
<p><strong>Step 5: Enable Data Connections</strong></p>
<ol>
<li>Go To Start -&gt; Settings</li>
<li>Connections tab</li>
<li>Click on Comm Manager</li>
<li>Scroll all the way at the bottom and click on Data Connection to turn it on.</li>
<li>Click Exit.</li>
</ol>
<p><strong>Step 6: Test with Internet Explorer</strong></p>
<p>Launch Internet Explorer and test your connection. It should work at this point if I haven&#8217;t forgotten to mention anything. Try going to Google or any other fast loading site, and try doing a search just to be safe that you&#8217;re not loading the pages through cache.</p>
<p><strong>Step 7: Remove and reinstall Opera 9.5 (stock)</strong></p>
<p>Basically, the version that comes with the HTC Fuze contains the proxy settings hard-coded into it. Even though you disable the proxy in IE, it still remains in Opera. The only fix I know for this without modifying registry or configurations files is to remove Opera through Add/Remove programs and reinstall it from the <a title="Opera Mobile Download" href="http://www.opera.com/mobile/download/" target="_blank">official Opera Mobile website</a>. After doing this step, you&#8217;re ready to surf the web on your Fuze. Enjoy!</p>
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		<item>
		<title>Taken (2008) Film Review</title>
		<link>http://www.asksaro.com/229-taken-2008-film-review/</link>
		<comments>http://www.asksaro.com/229-taken-2008-film-review/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 25 Jan 2009 23:51:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Saro</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Movies]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Reviews]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[2008]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[film]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[films]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[movie]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[review]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[taken]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.asksaro.com/?p=229</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[When I first heard about this movie, it was mentioned by two of my friends who happened to come across a bootleg copy of it several months ago. Taken hasn&#8217;t been released in North America yet (coming out January 30th) but I managed to watch a Blu-ray copy for this review this week, as it [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>When I first heard about this movie, it was mentioned by two of my friends who happened to come across a bootleg copy of it several months ago. <em>Taken</em> hasn&#8217;t been released in North America yet (coming out January 30th) but I managed to watch a Blu-ray copy for this review this week, as it has been released in Europe first ages ago. Before I continue, I want to summarize the movie in a few words as quoted by my good friend: &#8220;It starts with Liam Neeson&#8217;s daughter getting kidnapped. For the remaining 1 hour of the movie, the screen is filled with the father going around stomping balls and kicking ass from left to right, non-stop.&#8221; I&#8217;ll do my best not to spoil this movie.</p>
<p><em>Taken</em> starts off slow, but that&#8217;s the beauty of it as we must first introduce the characters and give a bit of background to the hero of the story. Bryan Mills (the father) is an ex-CIA agent who was divorced due to his job (lack of time spent with family I guess). His hot daughter Kim now lives with Bryan&#8217;s ex-wife, Lenore (who&#8217;s also hot) and the new husband, Stuart, who&#8217;s apparently loaded judging from the house and the horse he buys for Kim&#8217;s birthday. Seriously, who buys a horse as a birthday present? That is definitely something a wealthy person would do. Regardless, Bryan only cares for his daughter and wants to make up for the lost time he didn&#8217;t spend with her while overseas working.</p>
<p>To make some extra cash on the side, Bryan partakes in a small job of safeguarding a famous singer with his buddies from the CIA. We get a small glimpse of Bryan laying down the law on an assailant with a knife. Now we know that he&#8217;s not an old goof-ball but rather an ass-kicking machine that can use his hands and get dirty. While I&#8217;m not sure what the attacker wanted to do in the first place, it seems that he should have brought a gun instead of a butter-knife.</p>
<div id="attachment_234" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 610px"><img class="size-full wp-image-234" title="The assailant with a knife" src="http://www.asksaro.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/assailant_with_knife.png" alt="The assailant with a knife" width="600" height="264" /><p class="wp-caption-text">In the background is Bryan and the hot singer he&#39;s taking to safety. In the foreground is the guy who&#39;s ass is about to get handed to him.</p></div>
<p>Fast forward a bit, it seems that Kim and her best friend Amanda want to go to Europe to follow <em>U2</em> around like a bunch of groupies. I would have much rather preferred they followed <em>Pantera</em> around instead, but I then realized that they don&#8217;t play anymore and that the drummer was shot a few years ago, which totally sucks. Anyway, the two hot chicks get captured by an Albanian criminal organization who drug girls into prostitution &amp; slaves and then sell them off around the globe to various wealthy clients. So far, we&#8217;ve got a nice list of ingredients to make this movie worthwhile: ex-CIA father, hot daughter, hand-to-hand combat, city of Paris, knives, Liam Neeson, Albanian human traffickers, Audi automobiles, kidnapping, drugs, prostitutes and vengeance. Also, this hot Swiss chick makes an appearance.</p>
<div id="attachment_249" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 610px"><img class="size-full wp-image-249" title="Hot Swiss Girl" src="http://www.asksaro.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/hot_swiss_tourist.png" alt="Hot Swiss Girl" width="600" height="264" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Switzerland has the best girls and cheese.</p></div>
<p>Throughout the course of the movie, Bryan manages to track down the criminals clue by clue, since he&#8217;s a former CIA agent after all. He&#8217;s got all the tools and skills necessary to accomplish such a feat. This movie reinforces the fact that you should never fuck with government agents. God forbid you accidentally rear-end their car, forget to water their plants while they&#8217;re on vacation or you don&#8217;t have their favourite breakfast cereal in stock at your grocery store they shop at: these agents will use whatever they can to find you, and they <em>will</em> kill you.</p>
<div id="attachment_230" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 610px"><img class="size-full wp-image-230" title="Taxi Ass-Kicking" src="http://www.asksaro.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/taxi_ass_kicking.png" alt="Liam Neeson delivers justice with charley horses." width="600" height="264" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Liam Neeson delivers justice with Charley horses.</p></div>
<p><em>Taken</em> does not disappoint when it comes to action: Liam Neeson does a terrific job portraying a paranoid father and an ass-kicking expert who manages to take down groups of terrorists down in a single sitting. Every step he takes results in the death of a mobster. Slowly, he creeps into the whole organization&#8217;s efforts to traffic humans worldwide by visiting every base they have and taking them down several bullets at a time. The body-count of this movie must total over fifty if I&#8217;m not mistaken. While it&#8217;s not a lot (compared to Commando, for example) every shot he takes and necks he breaks quenches the thirst of violence a viewer may have. The way Neeson works is <em>smart</em>, as in he takes cover when appropriate and does not just fire random shots into the air.</p>
<div id="attachment_238" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 610px"><img class="size-full wp-image-238" title="Bryan with the Albanians" src="http://www.asksaro.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/bryan_albanians_table.png" alt="Bryan with the Albanians" width="600" height="264" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Bryan having some coffee with the Albanians before he busts some colons.</p></div>
<p>The sound effects in this movie are well done. Every shot fired, grunt and scream is well placed and executed to add onto the already gritty feeling of the movie. One scene has Bryan taking out an entire base of Albanians, and the shots fired are pleasant to the ear; they had this loud thud noise that had an amazing impact. The music was also pretty good, with the last scene of the movie having a nice fast-paced electronic beat to get the blood going.</p>
<div id="attachment_242" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 610px"><img class="size-full wp-image-242" title="Bryan weilding a gun" src="http://www.asksaro.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/bryan_holding_gun.png" alt="Bryan weilding a gun" width="600" height="264" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Each time a shot is fired, someone definitely dies at the mercy of Bryan.</p></div>
<p>Every action movie out there has to have a memorable moment for the viewer to walk away remembering. This results in the viewer then re-watching the movie at a future point or buying the DVD when it comes out because of a certain scene that stuck in their head. For example, a popular action movie is Rambo 2, and the one scene that stands out is when Stallone takes out the entire army base through covert means (the waterfall camouflage comes to mind for me). <em>Taken</em> has several of these scenes which are all memorable, and in my opinion an action movie should be this way: memorable scenes one right after the other to please the senses non-stop. The worst action movies are the ones where a hero must chase the enemy through a series of mazes in the dark, in hopes of catching him in time before he&#8217;s gone forever. This movie does away with all that crap and puts Neeson into the hot seat of a Formula 1 vehicle, with the car&#8217;s bumper replaced with knives &amp; weapons and the accelerator glued to the floor.</p>
<div id="attachment_246" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 610px"><img class="size-full wp-image-246" title="Bryan holding nails" src="http://www.asksaro.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/bryan_nails.png" alt="Bryan holding nails" width="600" height="264" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Bryan and nails. You will not forget this scene.</p></div>
<p>There&#8217;s only a select few movies of this caliber out there in the world, and sad to say, I can count them on one hand right now: Transporter, <a title="Dawn of the Dead review by Maddox" href="http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=dawn_rules" target="_blank">Dawn of the Dead</a>, The Bourne Identity and District B13 are on the same level of quality and action. If I&#8217;m not mistaken, all of these movies except Dawn of the Dead are made by European directors and companies, and are all based in European cities. It&#8217;s time for Hollywood to stop making their shitty action movies and learn from the pros for once. <em>Taken</em> is a prime example that an action movie can have several scenes (car chases, gun fights, martial arts, boats, explosions, social engineering, hostage rescuing, torture, etc.) stitched together in a logical flow that add value to the overall feel of the film. I predict the movie to be a great hit when it comes out next week. Go see it!</p>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Powertech P-HC Dual Hyper-extension / Roman Chair Review</title>
		<link>http://www.asksaro.com/201-powertech-p-hc-dual-hyper-extension-roman-chair-review/</link>
		<comments>http://www.asksaro.com/201-powertech-p-hc-dual-hyper-extension-roman-chair-review/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 17 Nov 2008 01:57:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Saro</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Reviews]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[hyper extension]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[hyper-extensions]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[hyperextension]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[hypers]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[p-hc]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[phc]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[powertec]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[powertec p-hc]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[powertec phc]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[powertech]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[powertech p-hc]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[roman chair]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.asksaro.com/?p=201</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A lot of you know that I&#8217;m the proud owner of a Powertec rack system since last February. This month, I have decided to purchase a Powertec P-HC hyperextension/roman chair to do back and ab exercises. Here&#8217;s my initial impressions on the unit and why I decided to purchase it.
I have noticed that my lower [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>A lot of you know that I&#8217;m the proud owner of a <a title="Powertec Rack System review" href="http://www.asksaro.com/2008/02/07/powertec-power-rack-system-review-part-1-of-2/" target="_blank">Powertec rack system</a> since last February. This month, I have decided to purchase a <a title="Powertech P-HC from Amazon" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000P7ANRI?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=asksaro-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=B000P7ANRI" target="_blank">Powertec P-HC</a> hyperextension/roman chair to do back and ab exercises. Here&#8217;s my initial impressions on the unit and why I decided to purchase it.</p>
<p>I have noticed that my lower back has gotten really weak as of late, and my abs are almost non-existent. Since I am tight on space in my basement, I wanted a machine that could do both jobs. A roman chair with an adjustable hyper-extension unit was just the thing. Luckily, Powertec has a model dubbed the P-HC. I headed over to <a title="Fitness Nutrition" href="http://www.fitnessnutritions.com" target="_blank">Fitness Nutrition</a> to see if they had this model in stock and see if I could get a deal. Unfortunately, they didn&#8217;t, but they promised me that they would have it in within two to three weeks. I paid a 50$ deposit using my credit card and left, patiently waiting for the exercise machine to come in. Total price was 350.00$ CDN plus taxes.</p>
<p>Fast forward three weeks, the unit is in. I went over to the store and picked up this rather medium-sized box. I drove home rather excited to put this thing together and work out on it, as my lower back has been killing me on the other exercises (notable the squat and rows&#8230;). Once home, I rushed downstairs, ripped open the box and assembled the unit within forty-five minutes using my trusty Mastercraft tools. Finally assembled, this thing takes up quite a bit of space! I didn&#8217;t know how I was going to fit it in with the rest of my equipment in the storage room, but I somehow managed to squeeze it next to the rack.</p>
<p>Those who know Powertec will whole-heartedly agree that they are absolute quality: the P-HC is made of pure carbon steel, and it&#8217;s a rock solid piece of machinery. The equipment once assembled, can&#8217;t be budged that easily, which is a good thing as I don&#8217;t want the machine to topple over or senselessly shake while I do my exercises on it!</p>
<p>I did some hypers and crunches on the PH-C today, and I&#8217;m happy to report that it does the job with no problems. The unit is well-built and solid, with no budging or rattles whatsoever.</p>
<p>For anyone looking for a great piece of equipment at a decent price, the Powertech P-HC is the way to go. American customers can <a title="Powertech P-HC from Amazon" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000P7ANRI?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=asksaro-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=B000P7ANRI" target="_blank">order it from Amazon</a> for 300.00$ USD + shipping.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Montreal’s New “M” Logo</title>
		<link>http://www.asksaro.com/220-montreals-new-m-logo/</link>
		<comments>http://www.asksaro.com/220-montreals-new-m-logo/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 29 Oct 2008 20:06:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Saro</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Montreal]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Reviews]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[logo]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[m]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[m logo]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[montreal city]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[montreal metropolitan community]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.asksaro.com/?p=220</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A lot of Montrealers are quite displeased with the city&#8217;s new international logo. For those who don&#8217;t know what I&#8217;m talking about, the Montreal Metropolitan Community decided to come up with a new image to brand itself on the international scene. Here&#8217;s the beauty in a nutshell:
The logo&#8217;s cost? 487,000$ CDN. An additional 200,000$ will [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>A lot of Montrealers are quite displeased with the city&#8217;s new international logo. For those who don&#8217;t know what I&#8217;m talking about, the Montreal Metropolitan Community <a title="New Montreal Logo" href="http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/posted/archive/2008/10/29/montreal-s-half-million-dollar-logo.aspx" target="_blank">decided to come up with a new image</a> to brand itself on the international scene. Here&#8217;s the beauty in a nutshell:</p>
<div id="attachment_221" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 220px"><a href="http://www.asksaro.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/montreal-m-logo.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-221" title="Montreal's M Logo" src="http://www.asksaro.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/montreal-m-logo.jpg" alt="Montreal's M Logo" width="210" height="210" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Montreal&#39;s M Logo</p></div>
<p>The logo&#8217;s cost? 487,000$ CDN. An additional 200,000$ will be spent to market the thing. There are so many things that are wrong here besides how the logo looks, but I don&#8217;t know where to begin. Half a million dollars are being spent on a graphic&#8230; did anyone recently take a look at the market we are currently living in?</p>
<p>The Gazette (newspaper) had some humorous comments today. One I will remember the most is some guy saying we can get 2/3 of our money back by selling the logo to Winnipeg and Edmonton by flipping the image around (a W and an E). Classic.</p>
<p>In all honesty, the stylized M looks nice, but the colours really throw it off. If we were to stick to 2 colours (ones that weren&#8217;t quite fruity) the logo would definitely look a lot better. See an example with blue:</p>
<div id="attachment_222" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 220px"><a href="http://www.asksaro.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/montreal-m-logo-blue.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-222" title="Montreal M Logo Blue" src="http://www.asksaro.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/montreal-m-logo-blue.jpg" alt="Montreal M Logo Blue" width="210" height="210" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Montreal&#39;s M Logo in a Blue Gradient</p></div>
<p>See? An improvement already. I&#8217;ll be sending my bill to the city shortly for collection.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Fallout 3 Review</title>
		<link>http://www.asksaro.com/213-fallout-3-review/</link>
		<comments>http://www.asksaro.com/213-fallout-3-review/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 29 Oct 2008 18:21:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Saro</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Games]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Reviews]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[bethesda]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[fallout]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[fallout 3]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[fallout3]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[role playing game]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[rpg]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.asksaro.com/?p=213</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I have been waiting ages for this game to come out (specifically since its announcement, which was over 5 years ago) and I&#8217;m proud to say it has finally been released. Fallout 3 came out yesterday (October 28th) and was released to retail stores and on Valve&#8217;s Steam. Since I&#8217;m a big fan of digital [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I have been waiting ages for this game to come out (specifically since its announcement, which was over 5 years ago) and I&#8217;m proud to say it has finally been released. Fallout 3 came out yesterday (October 28th) and was released to <a title="Fallout 3 on Amazon" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&amp;location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fs%3Fie%3DUTF8%26x%3D0%26ref%255F%3Dnb%255Fss%255Fgw%26y%3D0%26field-keywords%3Dfallout%25203%26url%3Dsearch-alias%253Daps&amp;tag=asksaro-20&amp;linkCode=ur2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957" target="_blank">retail stores</a> and on Valve&#8217;s <a title="Steam" href="http://www.steampowered.com" target="_blank">Steam</a>. Since I&#8217;m a big fan of digital downloads, I opted for Steam as I hate dealing with CDs and serial numbers. Plus, it was less expensive than the boxed copy. Within 2.5 hours, I had the game loaded onto my computer and ready for me to start playing. Here&#8217;s my initial review and thoughts on the game.</p>
<p>First, let&#8217;s get the less important matter out of the way: the graphics. All I&#8217;m going to say is &#8220;Wow&#8221;&#8230; the wastelands, characters and the whole post-nuclear environment never looked so great. I am running the game at the highest quality settings, and it&#8217;s a real treat. The 8800 GT 512MB I bought a few months back is really paying it off right now.</p>
<p>Now that the graphics topic is out of the way, time to move on what the game is really about: gameplay. I consider the game&#8217;s predecessor, Fallout 2, to be my all-time favourite game. If there&#8217;s one game I&#8217;d like to have on a desert island, it would be Fallout 2. The gameplay, multiple scenarios and story were what stood out in the original. How does Fallout 3 compare, you may ask? Let&#8217;s find out.</p>
<p>Just so you know, I have only played the game for about 3 hours now, so I don&#8217;t know what awaits further down the game. I could, however, tell you that it looks quite promising as the developers, Bethesda Game Studios, really hit the nail on the head with the first few levels and quests. The interactivity, character development, weapons, skill system, perks&#8230; it&#8217;s all there and well done. You can definitely tell the developers sat down and played Fallout 1 and 2 from scratch to make this game. When you first start selecting your character&#8217;s stats, the way they presented it really got me laughing (you have to play the game to see). They make it really easy and fun, just the way a game is supposed to be.</p>
<p>In my game, I managed to venture out into the wastelands and get some combat action with some raiders. Fallout 3 is not just a FPS &#8212; I&#8217;d like to think that&#8217;s its a bit more <em>evolved</em>. You can&#8217;t just run around shooting and wasting bullets on your targets: you&#8217;re limited on ammo and if you take your time to use the V.A.T.S., you can do a lot more damage and become a more efficient marksman. However, I must say that using VATS is a bit too easy and almost cheating-like, as you get to pause the game, analyze your enemy&#8217;s weak points and shoot efficiently. I guess the developers added this feature to please the turn-based action crowd. I, for one, am not complaining about this mode as it&#8217;s crazy fun to see your character do some serious damage in slow-motion.</p>
<p>Finally, the game&#8217;s player controls and overall user-interoperability: moving around the wastelands is easy as pie and plays like any other first-person shooter (keyboard and mouse). There&#8217;s not much to say here, as a company can&#8217;t really screw up player controls these days. If there&#8217;s one gripe here, it would be the weapon selection process. In your basic FPS, you can use the scroll wheel to cycle through your weapons. In Fallout 3, you must go through your Pip-Boy and select the weapon you wish to arm yourself with. I don&#8217;t think I can really argue about this aspect of the game, since I don&#8217;t see Fallout 3 as a first-person shooter. Going through the PB3000 pauses the game mind you, so this function of the game is tolerable.</p>
<p>If I have one more complaint about this game, it would be the following: I noticed Bethesda crammed every aspect of the game into the Pip-Boy 3000, which I find can be a pain sometimes to navigate through. I find the Pip-Boy screen is a bit too small for inventory management, and there&#8217;s a lot of stealth menus and buttons that the player must figure out to click on.</p>
<p>If I were to develop a Fallout game in 3D, Fallout 3 would be it. Bethesda managed to do an excellent job at recreating the post-nuclear environment in all its eye-candy glory. I honestly don&#8217;t know what the general public and hardcore fans think of this game, but I&#8217;m pretty sure there will be the ones that hate it and ones that love it. You can&#8217;t always please everyone of course. One must realize that Fallout 3 is NOT Fallout 2, and that&#8217;s a good thing. Fallout 3 isn&#8217;t even considered a sequel to the two previous games. What we have here is an excellent alternative in the Fallout universe, giving us a look at what happened on the eastern side of North America.</p>
<p>I believe this game is going to kill my social life for a while. I suggest you <a title="Fallout 3 on Amazon" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&amp;location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fs%3Fie%3DUTF8%26x%3D0%26ref%255F%3Dnb%255Fss%255Fgw%26y%3D0%26field-keywords%3Dfallout%25203%26url%3Dsearch-alias%253Daps&amp;tag=asksaro-20&amp;linkCode=ur2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957" target="_blank">snag yourself a copy</a> if you want to hide under a rock for a while. <img src='http://www.asksaro.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<item>
		<title>How to get Clip-Share 4.0.9 Working on FreeBSD 6.3</title>
		<link>http://www.asksaro.com/199-how-to-get-clip-share-409-working-on-freebsd-63/</link>
		<comments>http://www.asksaro.com/199-how-to-get-clip-share-409-working-on-freebsd-63/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 11 Oct 2008 23:36:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Saro</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Computers]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Software]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Websites]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[clip-share]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[clipshare]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[directadmin]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[freebsd]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[mencoder]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[mplayer]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[php5]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[ports]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[youtube clone]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.asksaro.com/?p=199</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[REVISED: Mencoder 1.0rc2 has too many problems with WMV files. Modified the guide to work with Mencoder 1.0rc1 instead. Also, added the necessary steps to install GCC 4.2 to compile FFMPEG correctly.
Introduction
For the past week, I have been trying to figure out how to get Clip-Share 4.0.9 working on a FreeBSD system. Uploading script files [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>REVISED</strong>: Mencoder 1.0rc2 has too many problems with WMV files. Modified the guide to work with Mencoder 1.0rc1 instead. Also, added the necessary steps to install GCC 4.2 to compile FFMPEG correctly.</p>
<h2>Introduction</h2>
<p>For the past week, I have been trying to figure out how to get Clip-Share 4.0.9 working on a FreeBSD system. Uploading script files are easy, but when it comes to compiling and installing binaries, everything can go wrong and then some. I wanted to install everything from ports to keep the system clean and organized, and to make future upgrades easy. I also wanted all the options in CS 4.0.9 to work with minimal customization of the scripts, so if I ever update to the next version, I don’t have to worry about overwriting files that are heavily customized. This guide is for the user who can’t get Clip-Share to work on a FreeBSD 6.3 system. Basic understanding of the operating system is required to follow this guide.</p>
<p>My installation guide works with the following installs:</p>
<blockquote><p>FreeBSD 6.3, Apache 1.3.41, PHP 5.2.6, MySQL 5.0.51a<br />
Mplayer (mplayer-0.99.11_7)<br />
Mencoder 1.0rc1 (compiled from sources)<br />
FFMPEG (ffmpeg-2008.07.27_7)<br />
libvorbis-1.2.0_2,3<br />
libogg-1.1.3,4<br />
lame-3.97_1</p></blockquote>
<p>You will need root access to perform certain functions in this guide. If all the binaries are already installed for you, you might want to skip down a section or two and probably go to the convert.php file modification part.</p>
<p>While I have tried to simplify and remove unnecessary steps from this guide, I might become a bit redundant during the ports install. I have listed all the ports that you will need to install. Sometimes, installing one port (e.g. Mplayer) might install everything else for you automatically. Chances are that x264, xvid, speex, libtheora, faac, win32codecs, lame, etc. will all be compiled &amp; installed for you as they can be dependencies (if selected during the configure step).</p>
<p>Just so you know, there is no need for ffmpeg-PHP or phpVideoToolkit. Lastly, you can follow this guide whether or not you have DirectAdmin or any other control panel installed.</p>
<h2>Installation</h2>
<p>First, let’s do some basic httpd.conf configuration. Open up your domain’s httpd.conf file (or global httpd.conf) and find the VirtualHost section for the domain you’re installing Clip-Share on. You will have to insert the following lines between the &lt;VirtualHost&gt;&lt;/VirtualHost&gt; directives of your domain.</p>
<p>DirectAdmin users: login as Admin, go to “Custom HTTPD Configurations”. Select the domain you are installing Clip-Share on. Add the following lines in the top box (“Httpd.conf Customization for yourdomain.com”).</p>
<blockquote><p>php_value upload_max_filesize 100M<br />
php_value post_max_size 100M<br />
php_value max_execution_time 1000<br />
php_value session.gc_maxlifetime 14000<br />
php_value output_buffering on<br />
php_admin_value suhosin.executor.func.whitelist exec //if using suhosin</p></blockquote>
<h3>Ports, Binaries &amp; Sources</h3>
<p>Using your favourite SSH client (putty, SecureCRT, direct console access, etc.) login to your server as root.</p>
<p>While this is not required, I put this setting in make.conf to prevent any of the ports from installing X11 garbage. There is no place for X11 or GUIs on a web server, so this little setting enforces the rule.</p>
<p>In /etc/make.conf, put:</p>
<blockquote><p>WITHOUT_X11=yes</p></blockquote>
<p>Now, we get to install the necessary applications and libraries via Ports. Before you actually start installing everything, make sure your ports system is up to date. If you don’t know how to do this, check the FreeBSD handbook, section CVS.</p>
<p>Installing ports is very straight-forward and fun.</p>
<ul>
<li>Install GD Library 2: cd /usr/ports/graphics/gd &amp;&amp; make install clean</li>
<li>Install Flvtool++: cd /usr/ports/multimedia/flvtool++ &amp;&amp; make install clean</li>
<li>Install lame: cd /usr/ports/audio/lame &amp;&amp; make install clean</li>
<li>Install libogg: cd /usr/ports/audio/libogg &amp;&amp; make install clean</li>
<li>Install libvorbis: cd /usr/ports/audio/libvorbis &amp;&amp; make install clean</li>
<li>Install GCC 4.2 (for proper FFMPEG compilation): cd /usr/ports/lang/gcc42/ &amp;&amp; make install clean<br />
<strong>Note</strong>: this may take a few minutes, as compiling GCC 4.2 takes a while.</li>
<li>Install FFMPEG: cd /usr/ports/multimedia/ffmpeg &amp;&amp; make USE_GCC=4.2 install clean<br />
<strong>Note the USE_GCC=4.2 argument</strong> to enforce compiling of FFMPEG with a more recent version of GCC.</li>
<li>Install Mplayer: cd /usr/ports/multimedia/mplayer &amp;&amp; make install clean<br />
(make sure to disable X11 stuff and select the codecs you want to support)</li>
<li>Install Mencoder: The one from ports is version 1.0rc1 (which doesn&#8217;t work well). We&#8217;re going to compile this binary from source instead.As root, do the following at the console:<br />
# wget http://www.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/releases/MPlayer-1.0rc1.tar.bz2<br />
# tar zxvf MPlayer-1.0rc1.tar.bz2<br />
# cd MPlayer-1.0rc1<br />
# ./configure<br />
# gmake</p>
<p>Next, we&#8217;re going to copy the compiled binary to /usr/local/bin/. Just type:<br />
# cp mencoder /usr/local/bin/</li>
</ul>
<p>We need to do a small tweak to get things running smoothly. Flvtool++ installs itself under /usr/local/bin/, while Clip-Share looks for this utility under /usr/bin/ (beats me as to why). Rather than have duplicate binaries, we’ll create a symlink. Just do the following (as root):</p>
<blockquote><p># cd /usr/bin/<br />
# ln –s flvtool2 /usr/local/bin/flvtool++</p></blockquote>
<h3>Upload Clip-Share Files</h3>
<p>Now it’s time to go ahead and upload the Clip-Share files. Don’t forget to transfer the files in Binary mode (as recommended by the developers).</p>
<p>Make sure the .htaccess file is uploaded correctly and that it’s present in the root directory of your website. On an OSX workstation, you won’t see this file as Leopard hides files that begin with a dot. Your best bet is to upload the entire Clip-Share archive file and extract it via console, this way making sure all the files are uploaded correctly and are present.</p>
<p>Make sure the CGI-BIN directory is chmod’ed 755, and both the user AND the group belong to YOUR username on the server. Double-check this now; it’ll take you 30 seconds and save you a lot of trouble. If it is different, do the following via the console:</p>
<blockquote><p># chown username:username cgi-bin</p></blockquote>
<p>Where username is your login name on the server.</p>
<p>Follow the rest of the CS installation file. Change the absolute path in ubr_upload.pl accordingly and verify that it is correct. On a FreeBSD system with DirectAdmin installed, it’ll look like: /home/username/domains/yourdomain.com/public_html/</p>
<h3>Changes to Script Files</h3>
<p>Modify the convert.php script as follows:</p>
<p><em> *** Removed previous $encodecommand changes as we&#8217;re working with Mencoder 1.0rc1 now. ***</em></p>
<blockquote><p><strong>Replace:</strong><br />
exec($config['metainject']. &#8216; –Uv &#8216; .$config['FLVDO_DIR']. &#8216;/&#8217; .$vid. &#8216;x.flv &#8216; .$config['FLVDO_DIR']. &#8216;/&#8217; .$vid. &#8216;.flv&#8217;);</p>
<p><strong>With:</strong><br />
exec($config['metainject']. &#8216; &#8216; .$config['FLVDO_DIR']. &#8216;/&#8217; .$vid. &#8216;x.flv &#8216; .$config['FLVDO_DIR']. &#8216;/&#8217; .$vid. &#8216;.flv&#8217;);</p></blockquote>
<h3>Testing, Verification and Miscellaneous Configuration</h3>
<p>Login to your website’s administration panel (/siteadmin) and go to “System Checks”. Make sure there are no binaries missing, other than THEORA and FAAC support.</p>
<p>Go to “Media Settings” and enable “Video resize” if you want.</p>
<p>Upload several test videos of varying sizes and formats. Make sure the audio is in sync and that Clip-Share is resizing them accordingly. Take a look at your server load and see if everything is looking ok. The videos you upload must be error-free and encoded properly. I’ve noticed that videos that are poorly encoded or corrupt won’t convert correctly.</p>
<p>Pay attention to Apache error log file in case something goes wrong. If you get “No file given” errors, it’s related to Mencoder from my experience. Make sure you have 1.0rc1 or 1.0rc2 installed and nothing else.</p>
<p>I hope this guide helps someone out. Feedback is much appreciated. Enjoy!</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Fix Apple OSX 10.5.5 Update Problems</title>
		<link>http://www.asksaro.com/197-fix-apple-osx-1055-update-problems/</link>
		<comments>http://www.asksaro.com/197-fix-apple-osx-1055-update-problems/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 19 Sep 2008 01:11:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Saro</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Apple OSX]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Computers]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[10.5.4]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[10.5.5]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[apple]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[combo update]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[kalyway]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[leopard]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[osx]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[software update]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.asksaro.com/?p=197</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[For anyone who screwed up the 10.5.5 update (either via Software Update or forgot to remove the AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext) don&#8217;t fret. You can remove the problematic extension by booting off your OSX installation media (in my case, Kalyway 10.5.2) and using the Terminal console (under Utilities). This will drop you directly onto the root drive of [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>For anyone who screwed up the 10.5.5 update (either via Software Update or forgot to remove the AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext) don&#8217;t fret. You can remove the problematic extension by booting off your OSX installation media (in my case, Kalyway 10.5.2) and using the Terminal console (under Utilities). This will drop you directly onto the root drive of OSX and allow you to do some modifications.</p>
<p>The next step is to find where your OSX is installed and modify whatever is needed. In my case, it was /Volumes/OSX/. Your volume name may differ. You can figure out what it is by typing &#8220;df&#8221; at the console and get a list of hard drives with their mount points.</p>
<p>Type in the following (by substituting &lt;OSX&gt; with your volume&#8217;s name):</p>
<blockquote><p># rm -rf /Volumes/&lt;OSX&gt;/System/Library/Extensions/AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext</p></blockquote>
<p>Next step is to repair the drive&#8217;s permissions. Quit the Terminal console entirely, and go to Disk Utility under Utilities. From there, find your OSX drive and click on &#8220;Repair Disk Permissions&#8221;. It&#8217;ll take a few minutes. Once the repair is complete, time to reboot.</p>
<p>At the boot prompt, type in the following: &#8220;-x -v -f&#8221;</p>
<p>After a few minutes, OSX should start up in Safe Boot and allow you to login. In my attempt, the desktop and top bar did not appear. Launching any available application in the dock started up the top bar in my case, so I was able to use Spotlight and launch Terminal. Now, we&#8217;re going to redo the 10.5.5 update. Hopefully you saved it somewhere reachable, such as your desktop.</p>
<p>First, let&#8217;s start by running the following command in a Terminal window:</p>
<blockquote><p># while sleep 1 ; do rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions/AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext ; done</p></blockquote>
<p>While this is running in the background, let&#8217;s go ahead and launch the Disk Utility. Now, we&#8217;re going to mount the MacOSXUpd10.5.5.dmg (or the Combo or Delta update file). Go to File -&gt; Open and find your .dmg file. It should successfully mount it.</p>
<p>Next step is to launch another Terminal window. This time, we&#8217;re going to start the 10.5.5 update package. In the console, type:</p>
<blockquote><p># cd /Volumes/Mac\ OS \X 10.5.5\ Update/<br />
(HINT: or type &#8220;cd /Volumes/Mac &lt;tab key&gt; for it to autocomplete).</p></blockquote>
<p>You should be in the mounted .DMG file&#8217;s contents. You can go ahead and type:</p>
<blockquote><p># open MacOSXUpd10.5.5.pkg</p></blockquote>
<p>The 10.5.5 update application should begin. Within moments, you&#8217;ll notice your desktop reappear and everything seem  like it&#8217;s back to normal. Once the installation is finished, [b]don&#8217;t reboot[/b]! We still have one more step to do.</p>
<p>Go to the Terminal window where we had the &#8220;while sleep 1&#8230;&#8221; command running (it was deleting the AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext for us). Press CTRL + C to terminate the command. Using this window, it&#8217;s time to go to the InstallAtStartup directory and do a minor modification. Type:</p>
<blockquote><p># pico /System/InstallAtStartup/scripts/1</p></blockquote>
<p>Look for the following string: &#8220;/System/Library/Extensions/Dont Steal Mac OS X.kext&#8221;</p>
<p>If you find it, rename it to: &#8220;/System/Library/Extensions/dsmos.kext&#8221;</p>
<p>If you cannot find it, don&#8217;t worry. I didn&#8217;t find it in my file, so it&#8217;s not mandatory. I added this step for precautionary reasons.</p>
<p>At this point, you can go ahead and modify or reinstall any .kexts your system needs. If you aren&#8217;t sure what to do in this step, cross your fingers.</p>
<p>Ok, time to reboot. Once OSX starts to load, you&#8217;ll notice that it reboots right away after showing a black screen. <strong>Don&#8217;t panic</strong>, this is normal. Your computer will restart once again. OSX should finally load at this point, and everything should be back to normal.</p>
<p>Tested on:<br />
Kalyway 10.5.2 (base) -&gt; 10.5.3 (Kalyway update) -&gt; 10.5.4 (Software Update)<br />
Asus P5K-VM, BFGTech 8800 GT OC</p>
<p>P5K-VM users will need to reinstall audio drivers after the 10.5.5 update.</p>
<p>Thanks to <a title="Netkas" href="http://netkas.org" target="_blank">netkas.org</a>. I hope this guide helps someone out. <img src='http://www.asksaro.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p>This is for anyone who is getting the &#8220;No HPETs available&#8221; during OSX bootup.</p>
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