Apple has recalled all off the by sony build batteries for some Mac laptops build after October 2003. Mine included! The battery can explode (see picture of some poor sole…) I’ve submitted my Exchange Process Information and a new battery will arrive within 6 weeks. After my new battery is here, I’ve to send back my old one. Apple suggests that I don’t use the battery anymore.

I’ve got it working with this iSync plugin. You should read the readme! It works with 9300, 9300i and the 9500. There are two iSync plugins in the package, one for iSync 2.1 and one for 2.2.

I like my Mac, the only thing is the iSync app! Apple did everything to the OS to make it realy nice to work with. But when you have a PDA with linux or windows you have a problem syncing it. I have KDE installed, compiled every sync app I could find, but still no luck! Yes with Pocket PC it worked, but I had to buy the missing-sync app. And every nice tool I wanted, is also not available in GPL or freeware. So back to Opie. Again the sync problem… Why is .Mac only SyncML compatible an not free?! Why? Why?! Apple’s Xcode tools includes stuff to build new plugins for other devices, only Cocoa is not my thing… (Any volunteers?) Now found a few possibilities to make my own sync tool. I found out that Opie runs a Qtopia FTP server on port 4242. It’s GPL, so all the commands are in the source ;) Just search for "FTP SERVICE COMMANDS". Opie saves everything in xml. Only I didn’t found the description/reference yet. But it could be backwards engineerd. Apple’s iCal saves standard iCalendar format and can be used in every programming language. Now I know PHP, and this is all do-able with PHP ;) And it’s standard on every Mac OS X box. Just get the datebook.xml from Opie’s FTP and read it into an array. Do the same with the .ics file from the Mac (more work, but again it can be done). Than make a routine that matches/merge the two array’s. That write 2 files again from the merged array and write them back the same way they’ve come. My only consern is the memory the array’s consume. I need a backend. MySQL rules, but isn’t standard. Maybe XML is an option, but slow. (Any ideas are welcome.) As frontend I can use a simple AppleScript app with only one button ‘iFinalySyncOpie’… When this all works, I should thake a look how this can be done with the Addressbook and the notes… And than maybe rewrite it in Java and make a nice frontend. If somebody knows a goodway to sync Opie with Apple’s iCal and Addressbook, please drop me at daantje dot nl a email. Mind the at and dot ;)

In June 2003, the Microsoft Macintosh Business Unit announced that Internet Explorer for Mac would undergo no further development, and support would cease in 2005. In accordance with published support lifecycle policies, Microsoft will end support for Internet Explorer for Mac on December 31st, 2005, and will provide no further security or performance updates. Additionally, as of January 31st, 2006, Internet Explorer for the Mac will no longer be available for download from Mactopia. It is recommended that Macintosh users migrate to more recent web browsing technologies such as Firefox.

I had troubles compiling ncurses with the fink packagement system. Every time i did a ‘fink selfupdate’ the compiler stopped on a error. I fiddled with it for 2 days, and the answer is simple. You need Apple’s gcc-4.0.8, available in Xcode 2.2. However the fink site is telling they have troubles, I don’t!

I’ve got a brand new iPod (European version, 20Gb). But here in europe all the iPods have a limiter on it… It’s a dumb european law. Here’s a great tool to get rid of the limiter!! I’ve set it to boost the volume with 50% and now my neighbours are complaining about the music! ;)

I’ve installed Debian unstable on an iMac (PowerPC). I will upload my configuration files of XFree and my kernel here. I’ve used the ‘jigdo-lite’ application to master a Debian-non-us (woody) installer iso for the ppc. It worked very easy! Than I altered the /etc/apt/sources.list to the unstable sources, did an apt-get update and apt-get dist-upgrade and after a hour I had Debian Sid running on it! I had some difficulties configuring my Firewire LaCie DVD wirter, but it’s working now. You must apt-get install hotplug and compile the sbp2 and enable ieee1394 in the kernel to make it work. Did not get it to work with dvdrecord. I use ‘dvd+rw-tools’ instead. I use the 2.4.25 kernel on it now.

It is possible to run MacOS-X within a Linux or Windows desktop, by running this PPC emulator. I’ve tested it under Debian (sid) and it works great. Check it! PearPC is great! And open source! Why buy expensive emulators when you’ve got better GPL-ed ones?

I found a better solution for OpenOffice on MacOS-X. This is also OpenOffice only it runs native on the mac. The project is called ‘NeoOffice/J‘. It now still is a beta version, but it runs realy nice and you don’t need X11 to run it! Try it when you need office and/or excell. It’s free, naturaly ;)

I found the port of Wine for MacOS-X named ‘Darwine‘. I’m going to test it and will provide more info later on…