Obsessed with USB

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/get_your_hack_on?page=0,1

I was browsing Lifehacker today and found an inspiring article. I'm going to totally make a few USB accessories ASAP. Progress to follow

Upcoming Projects

I may not have things to post all the time, but stay tuned.. In about 2 weeks, I'll be moving back to school for one more semester, and the apartment will be a media heaven by the time I get done with it :-D

Also, I'm currently trying out the MobileNavigator iPhone app, and comparing it to xGPS. So far it has some ups, but there are still some small things that xGPS does better. I'll have my final thoughts real soon.

Trying to conquer the stream!

After getting my music library all sorted out, I've now moved on to fixing my movies to have them all stream smoothly and of the best quality possible. I recently acquired some component cables for my X(bmc)box and the quality is AMAZING! So now, how to carry that HD-ish quality over the network without the choppy-ness I've been accustomed to dealing with so far?

Obviously I can accomplish this with the ever popular Handbrake. If you don't have this software installed you're missing out. So far, I've been a retard when it comes to encoding videos properly. I've never taken the time to sort it all out and put two and two together, until now.

Best forum post I could find was this: HandBrake • View topic - XBMC on Xbox: optimal HB settings to convert 720p x264 mkv?

Most of my HD quality videos start off as .mkv (Matroska) files. While it's a great format for high quality movies, it's a bitch for Xbmc to decode. Hell, anything besides an avi is chancy ;-) I've started to take notice of which encoding to use, and what seems to work best is Xvid/MPEG-4, with a slightly dialed down resolution from the 720p standard. Mix in the audio right (for those pesky DTS audio codecs, use the mp3 to at least salvage 2ch stereo, otherwise use AC3) and voila! In some cases, Xvid was still sloppy, so I tried FFmpeg. I'm giving the Xvid another shot with the dialed down resolution and see if there's still chop. I can't fast forward on the FFmpeg videos!

Your mileage may vary, but I am enjoying Transformers and other 720p/1080i movies on my Xbox currently :-D

Fixing the Notes app on the iPhone

When I upgraded my iPhone to 2.2.1, I did a full restore on my phone. I backed up everything and wiped the phone clean. Man, it was fast! Check out this link to keep your iPhone in top shape:

How to have a blazing fast jailbroken phone

Anyways.. after I did this, my phone was indeed fast. However, all my notes that I had in the Notes app was un-editable. In fact, I couldn't create any new notes, or delete the current notes. 2 weeks later, I finally get time to fix the issue. Here's how you fix it: (Thanks to the MMI forums)

SSH into your iphone go to /private/var/mobile/Library and change the owner to the Notes directory and it's files:

Open up terminal in WinSCP, and type:
chown -R mobile Notes

and test if you can save or modify any note.

PS2 Softmod.. Whew what a mindblower!

So 2 months ago roughly, I acuired an Xbox and a PS2 off my cousin-in-law Billy while my father and I were up in Detroit. Both were in decent shape, and the first thing was do XBMC with the Xbox. That has been a killer softmod, and the guys and I love it here at the apartment for movies.

http://ashholt.googlepages.com/ps2softmod

It's only been until recently that I went through with softmodding the PS2. I bought an 80GB Maxtor which is the recommended HD to use for the Network adapter. This weekend I did some research, and with limited places to look, I ended up with an OLD school Gameshark 2 to use as the swap disc initiator. After much researching, it seems that there was only certain USB drives that could work to swap data from the USB to Mem Card. Without the data on the Mem Card, nothing will work.

After much consultation with my work buddy Josh, we found a burnable install disc (Here:http://blog.e-tutorial.info/2008/10/how-to-install-ps2-memory-card-exploit.html) that would work with the Gameshark to get the data onto the Mem Card. Everything went through, and now we can harness the power of the 80GB HD and HDLoader!

Follow what both guides have done, the only variance is the cheat system you use (Codebreaker, Action Replay Max, Gameshark, etc)

Use a PS1 game that you never use! The game will have to stay in as the trigger if you run the PS2

Been a month or so, but I has updates!!

First bit of info is only this... It's amazing how much difference it makes when you un-kink a coaxial cable:
from 200KB/s to 1.1MB/s like it was when we first moved in. Can't belive I didn't notice it until now.

Second thing.. I recently started fresh on a new hard drive and found out that transferring all the program data over to the new HD isn't all that hard, but the trickiest thing was iTunes and my iPhone. Make sure you have program folders and your documents and settings folders backed up!! I never realized how many things are located in application data.. especially iTunes. Windows Address Book saved me after I realized my contacts were wiped from my phone. Location of your contacts from there are: C:/Documents and Settings/[username]/Application Data/Microsoft/Address Book. You'll see your .wab file there and all you need to do is import!