nVidia Geforce GTX Titan GK110 works on Hackintosh with Mac OSX 10.8.4 and official Drivers, including CUDA support!
This is big news from the hackintosh front: since you are limited to using single GPU graphic cards on hackintosh (Mac OS X only supports single GPU systems) the best possible card up to now was the Geforce GTX 680 (see our previous article).
Not anymore, since the Nvidia Geforce GTX Titan (GK110 chipset) is working on OSX 10.8.4 with official Nvidia drivers. There are already some awesome hackintosh case mods and builds out there.
Netkas reported the card working on April 2nd. Furthermore, there is a possible ROM-hack to get the card working on Mac Pro machines, making it the fastest video card you can possibly put into your Apple Mac Pro.
The current discussions and experiences from the hackintosh community are promising, though we might see several driver updates in the coming weeks. CUDA is supported, also OpenCL is reported working, though strangely not with all different vendor models.
If you want to stay on the bleeding edge, here are recommended cards that people reported working with hackintosh:
ASUS GeForce GTX TITAN 6GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 SLI Support Video Card GTXTITAN-6GD5
If you want to be on the safe side, get the EVGA GeForce GTX 680 2048MB GDDR5, DVI, DVI-D, HDMI, DisplayPort, 4-way SLI Ready Graphics Card Graphics Cards 02G-P4-2680-KR which is working flawlessly and costs only half of the current Titan price...
Nikon D5200 24.1 MP CMOS Digital SLR has Clean HDMI Out, works perfectly with Atomos Ninja or Black Magic Hyperdeck Shuttle
Nikon really made it with the D5200 this time: the cheapo-camera is every DSLR-Filmers dream. Currently available for $796.95 new and around $600 used, it features clean HDMI out and an awesome color due to a sensor produced by Toshiba (the D600 and D800 feature a Sony sensor).
So we clearly have a winner here, which works perfectly together with the Atomos Ninja (available for $649.00) and also the Black Magic Hyperdeck Shuttle (available for $327.75)
With the current hype around the Black Magic Cinema Camera, this one might be a gadget to ease the waiting - since i already own a D800E, i ordered the Nikon D5200 as a second camera for filming only. The APS-C sensor of the camera offers a good and affordable solution to double the available optics (crop mode of ca. 2x). I might get additional wide angle lenses to cover 48mm and 70mm with the D5200.
Black Magic Cinema Camera BMCC is available and already shipping! (3 days shipping time)
I could not believe it myself, but the Black Magic Cinema Camera is available to order from various sellers, some of them even offering free shipping within 3 days (!).
We already reported various times about the Black Magic Cinema Camera (BMCC) on nanofunk (you can read more about it in our archives) , but officially the camera was very hard to get hands on yet. Blackmagic made lots of local press viewings and there are a bunch of demo-units out, but this is big news. We just ordered an EF-Mount version. Be fast though - the demand is very high on this camera. As EOSHD pointed out: the Blackmagic Cinema Camera can be seen as disruptive technology, since it might be a game changer in terms of production-workflow speed (SSD recorder included), picture quality and especially since it comes with the color correction suite "Davinci", which makes it perfect for independent filmers.
For people in Europe: there is only one Black Magic Cinema camera in Berlin, ready to pick up, all the other offers are international orders.
Ableton Live 9 Upgrade and Push Controller: Upgrade Options
Ableton Live 9 is here. Until March 12th 2013 the upgrade prices are cheaper:
* 129 EUR for the upgrade to Ableton Live 9 Standard
* 169 EUR for the upgrade to Ableton Live Suite 9
* 618 EUR for the Upgrade to Ableton Live Suite 9 including the new Push Controller
Ableton Live 9 features 3000+ Sounds (54 GB), 9 Instruments, 40 Effects and 'Max for Live'. Sadly there is no additional discount for people that bought a Max4Live license, which was 99 EUR back then. Push is a new controller by Ableton, which looks quite similar to the Akai APC - and actually the hardware was built by Akai for Ableton:
Push is a new instrument that solves an old problem: how to make a song from scratch. With hands-on control of melody and harmony, beats, sounds, and song structure, Push puts the fundamental elements of music making at your fingertips - and it fits in a backpack alongside your laptop.
Push has the same approach like Native Instruments' Machine hardware controller - only it features 64 pads which is significantly more. Integration with Ableton Live is perfect, we would not expect anything else. Still this device is not the all-in-one solution for your mobile studio. You will need a device with knobs and a small keyboard to make your mobile studio perfect.
Recommendation: get the Korg MicroKey as mobile Keyboard and a Kenton Killamix Mini top have some more knobs on the go. If you are brave, get the Korg MS-20 mini, which is not available yet. It features a keyboard, knobs and interface with USB-port.
Miasma.is: Intermedial Theatre and Film Project using New Media Technologies
Nanofunk just received a press release from the group ArtisticBokeh and Miasma (The Eel House) about their upcoming production on Donaufestival 2013 in Krems, Austria.
Miasma [...] first caught public attention with their large-scale theatrical vision “Call for Reduction! (in effigie)”, staged in summer 2012 at the former Ankerbrotfabrik in Vienna. [...] manifested as an intermedial happening with more than 70 participating artists from very diverse genres. A stunning installation provided the framework for the theatrical aspect of the performance and its realisation with various media. A number of HD cameras and the latest streaming technologies were employed to edit the images live and broadcast them online in real time. (Source: Donaufestival)
You can get more information about the show on their twitter account @miasmatotal, their facebook page or watch a trailer of their last production on youtube.
We had a short Skype interview with the group ArtisticBokeh, telling us more about the technical background and the challenge of working with extended theatre in the time of the internet and fragmented narrations. (Read the full interview inside)
Guides with earlyadopterdemands: Hackintosh Mini Guide: which Hardware, how to hack? 10.7, 10.8
Second partner for our new guides is earlyadopterdemands, who is a frequent contributor to this blog. The first guide deals with creating a hackintosh mini setup.
You can create a decent Mac Mini Clone for as cheap as $311.23 - earlyadopterdemands compiled three different builds:
Recommended Cheap Build: Hackintosh Mini i3/4GB RAM/250GB HD
Recommended Mid-Range Build: Hackintosh Mini i5/8GB RAM/500GB HD
Recommended High-End Build: Hackintosh Mini i7/16GB RAM/Solid State Hybrid/Geforce 650
You can read more details at the guide page. Please let us know if you want to see guides for specific topics or have tips you want to share with us.
Guides with dslr4video: Black Magic Cinema Camera, Panasonic GH2 and GH3 Hacking
The first part of our new guide-format has been written together with dslr4video:
* DSLR Video: Panasonic GH2 and GH3 hacked
* Guide to BlackMagic Design Cinema Camera
The guides are by no means complete, they should be an initial aim to compile all the existing information to said topics - please send us feedback and links to resources or more information you want to see included. Also, if you have ideas or request for other guides, let us know.
Black Magic Cinema Camera Canon-EF Mount (NEW) Available via eBay!
Believe it or not, the Blackmagic Design - Blackmagic Cinema Camera CINECAM26KEFis currently being sold on ebay, shipping internationally.
I will keep you updated on possible ways to order the Black Magic Cinema Camera (EF as well as MFT mount), since I am also actively searching for this camera. Expect various offers on ebay and amazon (as well as on other sites) to pop up soon.
I was able to recently test the EF-Version at a local BMD-distributor store and I have to say, it is awsome. I could not test the included software bundle, but the camera handling itself was great. I will post a review video with photos and more info once I get my hands on again (which will be soon, believe me). Also, drop us an email if you have sample videos or recent information on availability!
ioSafe Solo: fireproof, waterproof and drop-proof HardDisk with forensic recovery plan
I already lost lot of my data in the last years due to faulty harddisks and once I dropped one of my HDDs from the table. I admit, I am more careful now. But for those of you who want to be absolutely sure: meet the ioSafe Solo Hard Drive line that promises you a better sleep, not worrying about your data anymore:
"protect against data loss in temperatures up to 1550° F for 30 minutes per ASTM E119 or being submerged to a depth of 10 feet for up to 3 days. 12 months Data Recovery Service Standard. Up to $2,500.00 towards the cost of third-party forensic data recovery, one time, for any reason including accidental deletion, hard drive failure, fires, floods, etc. Upgradeable to 3 or 5 years. Microsoft Server, Linux, Mac and PC Compatible, USB 3.0 or eSATA, and USB 2.0 Connectivity."
The ioSafe SoloPRO 1 TB is the entry-level that starts at $234.99 while the ioSafe SK3TB SOLO G3 Fireproof and Waterproof External Hard Drive 3TB sells for around $400 on amazon.
Creating an Apple Mac OS X 10.8 ML Mountain Lion USB Stick to Boot your Hackintosh
ScottishDuck posted a guide on MacRumors: How to create a bootable USB Stick with Apple Mac OSX 10.8 Mountain Lion GM (Golden Master). The process is quite easy:
* Show Package Contents -> mount InstallESD.dmg
* "restore" BaseSystem.dmg to your USB drive
* System -> Installation -> Delete the link called "Packages" and then create a new folder with the same name
* Copy all the Packages to the USB Disk
* cp /Volumes/Mac\ OS\ X\ Install\ ESD/mach_kernel /Volumes/lionUSBinstaller/.
Done!
Recommended SSD Solid State Drives for your Apple Mac, MacBook Pro and your Hackintosh
Since the SSD technology already matured a lot and the drives are mostly more stable than Hard Disk, the only question remains on which drive to choose. Actually, the answer is more simple than you might have thought: go for the longest warranty.
The OCZ Vertex 3 is a very cheap and awesome piece of hardware (read the benchmarks here: OCZ Vertex 3 vs. Intel 520 SSD) but the Vertex 3 has one major problem: it features only 3 years of warranty. So what drives are currently offering more than 3 years? The OCZ Vertex 4 and the Intel 520 SSD drives, both the cutting edge of speed and durability offer 5 years of warranty.
OCZ Vertex 4 features the best 4K random performance, so this is the drive to look out for! highly recommended!
Both drives feature a 5 year warranty, which shows us that the drives are really high quality.
The Intel 520 Cherryville Solid State Drives are built with duarbility in mind: Intel has a very good reputation when it comes to Solid State Drives - nanofunk can highly recommend this SSD for Hackintosh or Apple usage!
Optibay Replica for $14 for a second HDD or SSD in your Apple MacBook or MacBook Pro, including external case for your optical drive
A lot of readers and friends keep asking me about the Optibay and the modding possibilities of their MacBooks and MacBook Pros. Here is a current and up-to-date information on what you can do to tweak your Mac Notebooks to the extent:
First of all, you might want to max your RAM: read our article "Confirmed: 16GB RAM Upgrade for Unibody MacBook Pros" to see how to obtain the cheapest RAM upgrades possible. Second, you might want to consider an SSD replacement for your internal drive. Intel and OCZ are currently the best brands to look out for, you can read our article "OCZ Vertex 3 vs. Intel 520 SSD Benchmarks on OSX (Hackintosh)" for details.
The best way to mod your Apple MacBook or MacBook Pro is the Optibay still: for around $14 you can get the full shebang, including the Optibay (replica) as well as an USB casing for your optical drive, should you need it ever (i don't).
Optibay Replica for as low as $6.99
External Case for your optical drive: if you ever need it again, you can use your SuperDrive or ComboDrive via USB 2.0 on your MacBook or MacBook Pro
If you don't like the white color, the external drive is also available in black and there is even a slim version (slot-in) in silver. Don't worry about the replicas, they are not really different to the original Optibay - anyway you are mounting them inside your MacBook Pro and you won't see them any time soon.
Also take a look at our previous post "2011 Macbook Pro and SATA III 6Gbps, Optibay: two HD drives – setup explained". There, we recommended saving the few bucks for the external casing and getting a bluray drive instead, a recommendation i can still emphasize.
Adobe Creative Suite CS6 is online and can be downloaded
Adobe just recently released their Creative Suite CS6 - which can be downloaded already. The Trial changed from being authorized online, so no trial-prolonging anymore. But since the pricing of Adobe CS6 Suite changed so dramatically, it might be not even needed anymore: the whole Creative Suite 6 Master Collection can be "rented" for $49.90 per month.
Adobe CS6 Design Standard Student and Teacher Edition starts at $349 while the whole Adobe CS6 Master Edition currently costs $2599.
You can read our initial posting on Adobe CS6 - just judging from a short review, the speed increase from version 5.5 is dramatically. All the apps are significantly faster, especially Photoshop and After Effects.
Panasonic Lumix GH2 DSLR Video Shooter Kits for Sale: For Professionals and Starters
dslr4video asked me to point readers of the Nanofunk Blog to their current offer of Panasonic GH2 Video Shooter Starter KITS they are offering.
Their KITS offer not only the Panasonic GH2 Camera, but also 3 Lenses, high-quality Novoflex Adapter Systems and Tripods as well as other goodies such as the Rode VideoMic and Adapters to run the cameras from a power source.
Nanofunk already has the Panasonic GH2 and is totally hooked - currently the Panasonic GH2 beats the crap out of the Nikon D800 and the Canon EOS 5D MKIII when it comes to image quality in filming.
RECOMMENDED!
Canon 5D Mark III is hacked (Hello World) Magic Lantern soon
as reported by eoshd: the Canon EOS 5D MKIII was already hacked by the Magic Lantern team showing a "Hello World" on the internal LCD of the camera. That means Magic Lantern for the Canon EOS 5D MK3 is around the corner! If we will see a clean HDMI output and a solution to the rather soft image of the 5D3 compared to the Nikon D800 is not sure at the moment.
If we get clean HDMI, that means we could use RAW HDMI recorders such as the Black Magic Design Hyperdeck Shuttle or the Atomos Ninja 2 to record the best output image possible - but maybe the internal cranked-up codec from Magic Lantern will already do the trick, as can be seen on the Panasonic GH2 which beats the crap out of the internal codec of the 5D MKIII by simply providing a smarter and better looking image quality on the software-side.
The soft image of the Canon 5D MKIII is a disappointment up to now, we can only hope for things to get better with a little help from the modding scene.
Mozilla Firefox 12 adds silent Updates, makes the Web more secure
Mozilla Firefox was updated to Version 12 and can be downloaded for Windows, Mac OSX, and Linux. Besides updating the interface and squashed bugs, Firefox 12 offers an essential feature: silent updates. That means automatic closing of security holes and auto-updates, which is very welcome for web developers, who don't have to support legacy browsers in the future. Mozilla Firefox 12 also got a little faster, for me it is the recommended Browser on Linux and Mac.
Google introduces Google Drive (GDrive) with 5GB free space in the cloud
Google presented its new cloud storage solution, directly aimed at competing with Dropbox, Microsoft Skydrive and Apple's iCloud: Google Drive offers 5GB of free data storage in the cloud.
The extra-pricing is very competitive, 25GB of extra space costs 2.49$ per month, 100GB are $4.99. For 1000GB (1TB) Google charges 50 dollars a month. Price drops at Dropbox should appear soon.
Remember: if you sign up to Dropbox with our Affiliate Link, you get 1GB of extra storage for free (a total of 3GB).
Adobe Presents Creative Suite CS6 with Tons of Updates, introduces Subscription Service
Adobe officially announced the the launch of Creative Suite 6 (CS6) which can already be read about on the Adobe CS6 Website. Adobe also presented a new payment method for the usage of CS6: for $49,99 per Month, the whole Bundle of Software can be used on a subscription basis, which is significantly lower than assumed. Small project-teams and low-budget productions can benefit from this service. Updates of Premiere have some highlights such as "native DSLR and Video Camera support", where Adobe also lists the ARRI Alexa, Red EPIC, Red Scarlet, Canon EOS C2300, as newly supported devices. Adobe After Effects finally supports Illustrator path-import. All in all, the whole Suite is said to be much faster, as the new Mercury Engine speeds up overall usage with improved GPU support.
Android HD Resolution Mobiles: HTC One X vs LG Optimus 4X HD vs Samsung Galaxy Nexus I9250
Since my iPhone 4S was stolen I need to chose a new mobile phone. As I decided to go with an Android device next, I wanted to share my research and opinions on three of the hottest Android powered mobile smartphones out there.
First of all, we have to be clear that those devices are already full blown computer/console replacements, for their CPU speed and GPU power. But what about the only things I personally care about: a high resolution screen and long battery life?
Here is a specs roundup:
| HTC One X | LG Optimus 4X HD | Samsung Galaxy Nexus I9250 |
 |
 |
 |
| HTC One X - people call it the King of Android mobiles. Quad Core and fastest phone out there, best screen evar. Only a bit pricey. | LG Optimus 4X HD: LG's new superphone. Not really out yet, but specs look promising. | Samsung Galaxy Nexus I9250: a cheap bargain for what it offers. No SD-card slot though. |
| please treat the benchmarks with some grain of salt: they reflect individual seettings of individual people and should just give a brief overview of what the phones are capable of. | ||
| Quadrant benchmark: 4,907 | Quadrant benchmark: 4,512 | Quadrant benchmark: 2140 |
| AnTuTu benchmark: 11542 | AnTuTu benchmark: 11,147 | AnTuTu benchmark: 6,149 |
| CPU: 4x 1.5GHz Cortex-A9 (nVidia Tegra 3) • GPU: GeForce ULP (nVidia Tegra 3) • RAM: 1024MB • 1280x720 | CPU: 4x 1.5GHz (nVidia Tegra 3) • GPU: GeForce ULP (nVidia Tegra 3) • RAM: 1024MB • True HD IPS 1280x720 | CPU: 2x 1.2GHz Cortex-A9 (TI OMAP 4460) • GPU: PowerVR SGX540 • RAM: 1024MB • 1280x720 Super AMOLED |
Conclusion
* if you are on a budget, go for the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. It currently sells for $450 new, which is a bargain for what it offers.
* if you care about the best screen, go and get the HTC One X. For a price of $650 it is not exactly cheap, but the 4.7 Inch 720p HD Screen (1280 x 720) is really mind blowing. Going into details - the HTC One X screen has not such a good black level as the Samsung Galaxy S2, although wins when it comes to realistic color representation.
(image via soyacincau.com)
On the horizon
If you have time, maybe you want to wait for the Samsung Galaxy S3, which is said to come with a 4.6-inch Super AMOLED Plus full HD screen and 1,280×720-pixel resolution. Rumors suggest that the S3 might come with an edge-to-edge display and a much larger chassis. Samsung might launch the S3 as its first phone with a 3D screen and a peculiar S-shaped bend in the 4.6-inch screen. The S3 can also receive a revamped light and scratch-resistant ceramic encasing. The processor could be a quad-core ARM A9-based Exynos 4212 chipset, clocked at 1.8GHz with 2GB RAM.
Mac Java Trojan: over 600.000 Macs affected – how to secure your Mac [Update]
Update: F-Secure offers a FlashbackRemoval Tool, the Flashback Checker app tells you if your machine is infected.
The Flashback Trojan for Apple's Mac OSX already infected over 600.000 Machines, according to @hexminer on twitter. There is an existing Java Security Update from Apple, all users should update immediately.
Apple is too slow in releasing security fixes - the last known security holes in Mac OSX Java took Apple over 6 months to fix.
F-Secure shows how to secure your Mac by disabling Java. Lion does not come with Java by default, although most of the times it is installed afterwards (running Java applets or Java applications, the Systems asks to install the Java package).
The Flashback Trojan hides as Adobe Flash Player, so the most secure thing to do is to remove Java and Flash from your system. Adobe Flash still does not completely work with Mac OSX Lion, bugs that were reported by Nanofunk over 6 months ago are still open.
Gizmodo posted a simple way how to test if you are infected:
Run the following command in Terminal:
defaults read /Applications/Safari.app/Contents/Info LSEnvironment
Take note of the value, DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES
The expected output should be:
"The domain/default pair of (/Applications/Safari.app/Contents/Info, LSEnvironment) does not exist"
Then, run this command:
defaults read ~/.MacOSX/environment DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES
"The domain/default pair of (/Users/joe/.MacOSX/environment, DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES) does not exist"
"does not exist" means you've got a healthy rig. If there is any other message, keep following F-Secure's instructions to vanquish the intruder.
Dropbox Cloud Storage increases Free Accounts to 16GB (maximum), increased Referrals from 250MB to 500MB
Dropbox increased the maximum space for Free Users to 16GB: referrals were upped from 250MB to 500Mb per invited user, for "Pro" Account holders, the referral space was even upped to 1GB per accepted invitation. If you sign up to Dropbox with this link, you get an extra 500MB for your signup - that means you will start with initial 2.5GB free cloud storage. A maximum of 16GB is possible, if you invite some more people.
I mainly use Dropbox for Backups and Syncing my data between devices - the Dropbox application/client is available for almost all platforms. We can recommend using the free service as long as possible, since Google plans a new service that will be a strong competitor: the Google Drive Service (GDRIVE) could force Dropbox to lower prices drastically.
Nikon D800 and D800E user manual available for download
The user manual from the Nikon D800 and D800E is online on nikon usa.
MultiBeast 4.3 Update for booting Hackintosh systems: Chimera 1.8, OpenCL for GeForce and more
tonymacx86 released Multibeast 4.3 today - the bootloader that powers alternative hardware to boot up Mac OSX. It includes the upgrade 10.8 of Chimera, to also support Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. Furthermore, lots of other updates and changes were made (read about them below).
Today MultiBeast was updated to version 4.3 for Lion. We've added a new Combo OpenCL Enabler, which when combined with Chimera 1.8 will enable full QE/CI and OpenCL for all NVIDIA GeForce 4xx and 5xx graphics cards. Two more big additions are the flAked SpeedStepper for UEFI power management fixes, and maolj's Atheros ethernet driver. The latest version of MultiBeast is now available at tonymacx86.com/downloads.
Full changelog inside.
Confirmed: 16GB RAM Upgrade for Unibody MacBook Pros
I just confirmed that 16GB RAM modules will work in the early 2011 Macbook Pro Models - and in the other Sandy Bridge Models as well, including
* Macbook Pro Early 2011 (13", 15", 17")
* Macbook Pro Late 2011 (13", 15", 17")
Corsair RAM SO-DIMM DDR3 16GB / 1333Mhz [2x8GB] KIT CL9 Apple
EUR 123,13 in Europe, $116.98 in the USA.
Theoretically, other RAM Modules with the same specs should work as well, but I can definitely suggest and confirm the Corsair Modules to work, as they show "Mac Memory" on the German Amazon page and reviewers are reporting successful installs.
Please tell us in the comments section if other RAM modules worked for you. 16GB is currently the largest supported Memory Upgrade for the Unibody Macbook Pro. OWC still sells the same KIT for $239.99.
Booting and Installing Mac OSX 10.8 Mountain Lion on Hackintosh (and 10.7 as well)
Besides running hackintosh on Intel Sandy Bridge-E, there are more good news from the front:
Chimera, the bootloader that powers standard PC hardware to boot up Mac OS X, received an update allowing it to support OS X Mountain Lion. To obtain OS X Mountain Lion you need an Apple Developer Account that'll cost you $99 per year, but of course your might already know where to find Mac OSX 10.8 Mountain Lion by yourself.
Today MacMan updated Chimera to version 1.8. For Mac OS X developers, OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion support has been added. This version will be included in the next MultiBeast release. (via tonymacx86)
[SOLUTION] Steam.app Apple Mac OSX SteamStartup failed with error 1: Failed create pipe:0
[update] Valve fixed the issues for Steam.app on Mac OSX. We will keep the file mirror for Steam active, since there will be faulty updates in the future for sure. Thanks for all the nice responses and donate us some TF2 hats, if you want to thank us ;)
Ok here is the solution for all you people that suffer from the current bug since the last Steam.app Update on Apple Mac OSX. Solution: Download an older version of Steam.app and replace Steam in your Applications folder of OSX until a new patch has been released from Valve.
SteamStartup(0xf,0x0xbfffec4c) failed with error 1: Failed create pipe:0
This is generally a good (temporary) solution for various Steam issues on Mac OSX, if you need to get your TF2 or Portal fix. Just use an older version of steam.app.
Download the old version of steam.app hosted by nanofunk.net to access your games! (currently all "source" games are affected such as TF2, Portal2, CS, Left4Dead)
osxfuse: successor to macfuse brings NTFS and lots of file systems to Mac OS X
Since I wanted to use write-support for Windows NTFS drives on Apple Mac OS X, I was researching on alternatives and possibilities. I knew about the macfuse FUSE Project (File System in Userspace), but since it was not maintained anymore - what would one do?
Meet FUSEOSX (FUSE for OS X), the successor to MacFuse.
FUSE for OS X allows you to extend OS X's native file handling capabilities via third-party file systems. OSXFUSE is a successor to MacFUSE, which has been used as a software building block by dozens of products, but is no longer being maintained.
As a user, installing the "FUSE for OS X" software package will let you use any third-party file system written atop "FUSE for OS X" or MacFUSE, if you choose to install the MacFUSE compatibility layer. As a developer, you can use the OSXFUSE SDK to write numerous types of new file systems as regular user space programs.
The most used extensions are SSHFS and NTFS-3G for Mac OS X, but there are lots of them out there.
How to get 5GB of free Dropbox space extra for free, using the beta client
[Update 2012-03-11] with the Experimental Forum Build 1.3.21 the total of free space was reduced to 3GB and the import of 3gpp files was added.
I just confirmed this and got some 5GB of free permanent extra space on my dropbox account: using the Experimental Forum Build and being part of the beta test concerning the new foto/video upload feature. The beta client is available for mac, windows and linux.
What's new?
The "Dropbox Camera Import" feature automatically uploads your photo and video content, when plugging in a SD-card or connecting your smartphone. The autostart of the Dropbox importer did actually not work when I tried on Linux and Mac OSX 10.4. On Windows, you'll need to have Autoplay enabled to get the automatic uploader working.
During this beta period, we are also offering additional free space to test automatic uploading of photos and videos. For every 500MB of photos and videos automatically uploaded, you'll receive another 500MB space bonus, up to 5GB total. The Dropbox space you earn is permanent. You can use it for the life of your account.
[Update 2012-2-22] the latest version of the Experimental Forum Build is 1.3.17 that fixes a lot of bugs and issues. I updated the links accordingly. If you are getting started with Dropbox, use this referral link to get 250MB of extra free space on signup.
Creating your own Mac OSX Lion 10.7 Thumb Drive in 4 easy steps (How-to)
Apple is selling Mac OSX on a Thumb Drive, but you can save some bucks and roll your own as simple as this:
1. Preparation: USB Stick
Insert an USB Stick that is big enough to fit the whole Mac OSX Lion installer. I can recommend the SanDisk Cruzer Blade 8GB, which you can get for less than $5.
2. Mac OSX Lion 10.7
get Mac OSX Lion from the App Store and download it.
3. Extracting the Install Data
Right click (option-click) on the just downloaded file and select "Show Package Contents". Get the file Contents/SharedSupport/InstallESD.dmg and copy it to your Desktop.
4. Disk Utility
Open "Disk Utility" and drag InstallESD.dmg from the desktop to the left sidebar. Select the attached USB from left side and click on “Partition” tab. Select "1 Partion" and from choose “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” as partition type. Click on “Option” at the bottom, select “GUID Partition Table” and press OK -> Apply.
After formatting is done, select "Restore" and choose the USB Drive as destination and InstallESD.dmg as source. Click on "Restore" to have your Mac OSX Lion Boot drive created.
OCZ Vertex 3 Fail: “Runtime corruption detected on SSD” and why SSD drives are not safe yet.
After almost 9 months with the OCZ Vertex 3 SATA-6GBPs (read about my OptiBay two-drive setup) and mostly no issues, the drive died on me. Starting with several GSOD (Grey Screens of Death) on my OSX Lion MacBook Pro, the drive became more and more unreliable.
Nov 28 18:30:42 mbp kernel[0]: hfs: FindNextLeafNode: Error from hfs_swap_BTNode (node 9852)
Nov 28 18:30:42 mbp kernel[0]: hfs_swap_HFSPlusBTInternalNode: catalog key #54 too big
Nov 28 18:30:42 mbp kernel[0]: hfs: Runtime corruption detected on SSD, fsck will be forced on next mount.
Nov 28 18:30:42 mbp kernel[0]: hfs: FindNextLeafNode: Error from hfs_swap_BTNode (node 10370)
Nov 28 18:30:42 mbp kernel[0]: hfs_swap_HFSPlusBTInternalNode: catalog record #22 keyLength=32 expected=65568
Nov 28 18:30:42 mbp kernel[0]: hfs: node=10965 fileID=4 volume=SSD device=/dev/disk0s2
Nov 28 18:30:43 mbp kernel[0]: hfs: Runtime corruption detected on SSD, fsck will be forced on next mount.
Nov 28 18:30:43 mbp kernel[0]: hfs: FindNextLeafNode: Error from hfs_swap_BTNode (node 14503)
Nov 28 18:30:43 mbp kernel[0]: hfs_swap_BTNode: record #55 invalid offset (0x9B46)
It was getting slower and slower, reporting tons of errors in the Console.app. Then, it did not reboot anymore. Even in an external USB drive enclosure the drive did not mount anymore. Contacting OCZ about this issue, they sent me an RMA number right away and told me they will replace the drive. Does this mean our data is not safe in SSD? What can we learn from this?
First of all, it is a myth that SSDs are more reliable than hard drives. Secondly, they are not even fully supported on OSX yet (see Should I use Trim Enabler on Lion for the OCZ Vertex 3? No!) - at least if you install the drives yourself (which is also what I would suggest, since Apple does not offer any decent SATA 6GBPs drives yet).
So where is the proof, you ask?
Proof #1: The Hot/Crazy Solid State Drive Scale (via Coding Horror)
Super Talent 32 GB SSD, failed after 137 days
OCZ Vertex 1 250 GB SSD, failed after 512 days
G.Skill 64 GB SSD, failed after 251 days
G.Skill 64 GB SSD, failed after 276 days
Crucial 64 GB SSD, failed after 350 days
OCZ Agility 60 GB SSD, failed after 72 days
Intel X25-M 80 GB SSD, failed after 15 days
Intel X25-M 80 GB SSD, failed after 206 days
As a commenter put it: "Average life of SSD = 227.375 days (based on Wills' data)" - which is also what I can confirm.
SOLUTION: Backup early, backup often. Don't rely on the SSD and make two local backups plus one backup in the cloud.
Proof #2: long-term study of SSD failure rates (via Tomshardware)
SOLUTION: Buy drives that come with a very long warranty. Be prepared to let your drive replace for several times.
I am still waiting for my replacement OCZ Vertex and I will benchmark how fast it will die again. Since OCZ told me, it can take up to three weeks for my replacement to arrive, I bought myself a Seagate ST750LX003 750 GB SATA 600, Momentus XT, 8 GB SLC - it's a hybrid 750GB HDD with an 8GB SLC cache. The drive shifts data that is used often in the 8GB SLC SSD space automatically. While the SSD part of this hybrid drive can also fail, the data won't be lost and it will suffer just some minor speed loss (if it fails, since SLC is said to be more reliable than MLC chips). While this disk is now my main startup disk, i will go back to using the OCZ Vertex 3 again, once the replacement arrives. I just need to backup regularly - the speed gain is really worth the trouble.
Apple iCloud is for iOS devices only, sorry OSX Lion users, you need Dropbox still.
Apple's latest hot shit, iCloud is in everyone's mouth, since it comes right with the 10.7.2 OSX Lion Update. But what does it actually bring for OSX-only users? Nada.
First of all the bad news: currently there is no way to store any files directly in iCloud. That makes Apple iCloud not a competitor for Dropbox at all. But why do they state "you can access your content on all your devices" when they actually don't mean your MacBook or Macbook Pro? Well, they currently mean "all your iOS devices". While Apple could offer such a service (Backups from your Computer to iCloud) in the near future, currently it really doesn't make any sense to use iCloud if you are not using any iOS 5 Device - and if you also care about backing up other things besides your address book and photographs, let's say your 3D-models or local databases. In this context I can totally recommend iBackup, a free tool for OSX users that need point-and-click backups. In this case, you can backup right to FTP or your Dropbox, which gives you cloud-power as well.
Coded Cultures – New Media Arts Festival in Vienna, Austria
This is an information from our Partner, 5uper.net:
In Autumn of 2011 the Festival Coded Cultures takes place for the 4th time, this year focusing on the topic "City as Interface". Ever since the foundation of the Festival in 2004 lay the general emphasis on creative practices of cultural development on the intersections of art, technology, science and design. It is our concern to decode de- velopments, concepts and projects in those “coded” structures of digital and (new) media production, which won’t open up easily to broader audiences. Over the years the alignment of Coded Cultures and its variations were orientated internation- ally with the focus on eastern Europe in 2004, Brasil in the following years and Japan in 2009. This year, Coded Cultures involves mainly participants from Europe with prominent attendees such as transmediale from Berlin, Media Lab Prado from Madrid, Amber Festival from Istanbul and the Enter Festival from Prague.
Coded Cultures 2011 presents itself on many different locations in Vienna, with the main focus on the Donaukanal (Danube Channel) and the surrounding Viennese city districts.
From 21st to 25th of September focus days will be held, which mainly will take place at the Viennese Danube Channel, the 2nd district of Vienna, Museums Quarter Vienna, the Badeschiff and the Odeon Theatre. From the 26th of September to the 2nd of Octo- ber workshops, presentations and artist-talks are taking place. Partners are Transmediale Berlin, Media Lab Prado Madrid, Enter Festival Prag and Amber Festival Istanbul (among many others). On the 1st of October the Festival is ending with a big event at the Badeschiff in cooperation with the viennese Waves Festival.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
CODED CULTURES was initiated by the group »5uper.net«: a network of producers, theorists, artists, designers, architects and programmers, which is active in the field of knowledge-work based on digital media related forms of art and culture. Recently, the Book "Coded Cultures: New Creative Practices Out of Diversity" published by Springer.
http://codedcultures.net
http://5uper.net
http://www.facebook.com/codedcultures
http://twitter.com/codedcultures
Coded Cultures: New Creative Practices Out of Diversity
Ableton Live 8.2.5 fixes Apple Mac OSX 10.7 Lion compatibility
Live 8.2.5, the latest version of Live 8, is currently available. This update includes full compatibility with Max OS X 10.7 Lion, improved synchronization with external MIDI devices, and other improvements and fixes. The update is free to all users of Ableton Live Lite 8, Live Intro, Live 8, and Suite 8.
Currently, Ableton Live 8 is $499.00 (new) and $425.00 (used).
Comparison: Canon Camera Roundup for Pro-DSLR Video
Since lot of people ask me, which (photo) cameras to buy which also work for filming, here is a short roundup of cameras that I find worth mentioning. All of the cameras mentioned will work with Magic Lantern:
Price/Value/Feature Comparison
|
Canon Rebel T1i Canon EOS 500D |
Canon Rebel T2i Canon EOS 550D |
Canon Rebel T3i Canon EOS 600D |
Canon EOS 60D |
Canon EOS 5D MKII |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| USA: $579.90 Europe: 449.00€ (used) |
USA: $629.00 Europe: 549.99€ |
USA: $699.95 Europe: 646.99€ |
USA: 1,029.00$ Europe: 879.00€ |
USA: 2,499.00$ Europe: 1,890.00€ |
| The Revel T1i was a great camera, although we cannot recommend it, since its successor is the 550D and the 600D. If you can get a cheap second hand alternative at ebay, you might get a deal, though. (Seen on ebay for $199 used) |
The 550D is a great camera, although the 600D beats it in price/value. If you can get your hands on a cheap second-hand 550D, you might be able to even save some more bucks. (Seen on ebay for $399 used |
The 600D is our definite winner in price/value: feature-rich, reasonably priced, enjoyable to use and, most importantly, takes great pictures. It's relatively small, but is fully supported by Magic Lantern and you should be really happy with that camera if you use good lenses and fast Compact Flash Cards. | The 60D is a great camera, although almost in the same range as the 7D (which has no Magic Lantern support yet). If you are only shooting photos, go for the 7D - if you are doing video, save some bucks and go for the 600D. Invest the spare money in good lenses. | The best of all the cameras compared, if we leave out the price. While this is also the most pricy camera, it certainly gets beaten by the 600D when it comes to price/value. The Canon EOS 5D MKII is the best camera for digital video out there, although with the 600D and with fast enough SDXC cards, you will almost match the quality of the 5D MKII. |
Conclusio: get the 600D if you need to save money, get the 5D MKII if you have some spare 3000$. Invest in good lenses, such as the Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM
Excessive Logging on Mac OSX 10.7 Lion: Repair the Keychain to solve the issues. ( deny file-read-data )
Lots of people complain about slow Mac OSX Lion performance, mostly caused by thousands of Log-Messages being written to the system log files. As Chief Tarun points out at the Apple Support Forums
I opened up the console app, and there were hundreds, if not thousands of logs just in the past 2 hours. And when I say 'get info' on Macintosh HD the used disk space is increasing every 5 to 10 seconds. This is the only concerning bug/glitch of noticed in Lion since upgrading.
I had exactly the same issue, checking my Console.app messages that told
"WebProcess(225) deny file-read-data /Users/foobert/Library/Application Support/Adobe/AIR/ELS/com.adobe.amp.4875E02D9FB21EE389F73B8D1702B320485DF8CE.1/ PrivateEncryptedDatak"
While one would think that uninstalling Adobe AIR would fix the issue, the problem resides at another point.
Solution:
1) Open "Keychain.app"
2) Go To "Keychain Access -> Keychain First Aid" to repair your Keychain.
Now the console messages disappeared and the system runs in "silent mode" again.
[Update] you console Messages might also be due to a bug in Adobe Flash and AiR, causing the messages "kernel: IOSurface: buffer allocation size is zero" to appear in Console.app. You can read all about it in the nanofunk archives.
Install OS X 10.7 Lion on any Supported Intel Core 2 or Core i based PC & Make an OSX Lion Boot Disc
TonyMac recently described how to install Apple OS X 10.7 Lion on any Supported Intel Core 2 or Core i based PC. Here is the short version:
1. Get Mac OSX 10.7 Lion
A Retail Version has already been spotted in the german amazon store
* MacRumors Forums: Make an OS X Lion Boot Disc
* Download the Lion Boot Disc via Torrent (of course, only if you already legally own Mac OSX 10.7 Lion)
2. Get a Cheap USB Stick that works with OSX
3. Boot the Chimera Installer
4. Install Multibeast
Of course, you can also try the method outlined by tonymac: Installation of 10.7 Lion with Snow Leopard and Boot Partition. Please post any success or fail information in the comments section.
Bliptronic 5000: the $39.90 Monome Rival
The Bliptronic 5000
createdigitalmusic posted some hacking tips, including information on how to build your own MIDI clocking and how to create a "switchonome". Another post by runagate describes how to Turn A $50 Bliptronic 5000 Into A Monome Controller [update: Bliptronome conversion kit for $68 USD].
Information via ThinkGeek:
Product Features
* Unusual retro synthesizer is played with a grid of glowing buttons
* Create looping patterns and change them dynamically while playing
* Chain multiple units together and create more complex melodies
* One octave range. 8 notes can be played simultaneously
* 8 different old-skool synth sounding instruments to choose from
* Sounds created using FM waveform synthesis
* Set the BPM (beats per minute) from 60 to 180 in 20 BPM increments
* Built in speaker with headphone jack and line-out jack
* Front panel is constructed from brushed aluminum
* Includes, manual and 2 link cables for connecting additional Bliptronic units
* Requires 4 x AA batteries (not included)
Install Mac OS X Lion 10.7 on PC Hackintosh
Its now possible to Install Mac OS X 10.7 Lion on your PC with the standard Hackintosh techniques. That means, everything stays the same to get your hackintosh up and running, no worries. More information on the geeknizer blog entry or alternatively, watch the video below:
Steps to install OSX Lion:
1. Get the "GM" (Golden Master) of Lion via torrent
2. Get an EFI Boot Loader
3. Get a decent 8GB USB thumb drive
4. Install using iBoot.
You can get detailed information on installing Mac OSX Lion 10.7 by reading the geeknizer blog howto.
[UPDATE] tonymacx86 showed how to Install OS X 10.7 Lion on any Supported Intel Core 2 or Core i based PC with xMove + MultiBeast. Furthermore, there is a Mac OSX Lion v10.7.2-HOTiSO that should also boot from any PC. Don't forget that you need to buy Apple Mac OS X Lion from the App Store to legally use it.
Gem SK 760 88 880, EMU, Akai, Roland synthesizer RAM 16MB Modules (for a total of 32MB) – HOWTO: which modules to use
As various people were asking me which modules to use for their old retro synthesizers, here is an update on that issue. Lots of those RAM are hard to find, but if you know what to search for you can easily order them in the internet.
Make sure you get RAM that have the speeds from 50ns to a maximum of 70ns. 80ns SIMM modules are not recommended for synth upgrades!
(2) Apple RAM 30pin
Apple RAM 30pin work very good in the GEM Synthesizers, as well as in other older synths that take 30pin RAM SIMM modules, as they have the same specs.
If you are searching for old SIMM, SIPP or 72pin RAM, you can also drop us a mail, since we have lots of old memory modules that we collected. We are not a business but would be willing selling those.
SoundCloud: New features, new premium accounts and more flexibility
SoundCloud gets cheaper. The new minimal paid account is now 29US$ per year. Lots of changes for the previous PRO users, since there are 5 account types now (they are called PREMIUM Users as of today). My current account - previously PRO LITE - has now changed to a PREMIUM SOLO account. They changed the counting of uploads from file counts to total length in minutes. Long-time PRO users got a mail yesterday, were they were given 60minutes extra as a gift (although this "gift" does not really show up in the upload panel, yet UPDATE: after mailing with soundcloud this seems to work as announced now. I got 12hrs 9min). 
Read more about all the changes in the article detail.
Ableton Live 8 Package Ressources (ALP Packages)
Since there are lots of ALP Packages that could be installed on older Ableton versions, i compiled a list of Packages in the Web that will work as well with Ableton Live 8 (although sometimes it is stated they would only work with older versions) - sometimes a bit tweaking is required, but nothing more than moving some files around in the file browser of Ableton. Besides the obvious ressource, ableton.com, i compiled a list of free 3rd party package ressources, that will keep your sequencer experience interesting. For importing and recovering old Ableton Sets i wrote a specific article, though some of the compatibility Packages are also listed here. The steps described and the package recommendations are for Mac OSX as well as for Microsoft Windows. If you know of some more ressources not listed here, please drop a comment!
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