Jonny Thirkill

A day of Hackint0sh

Today me and my friend set out to install Hackint0sh, we had all the necessary files burned to DVD disks. We had 2 PC’s, one Intel and one AMD.

We were armed with 2 Macbooks (Black & White) to do research if we got stuck. We used the white to read tuts from and the black to do any other research. I was taking pictures with my P&S to document the event ^^.

So we got off on a good start, the disk booted into the installation window, good start. We stared to follow the tuts explaining what to click, step by step. Obviously with something like this every PC has different drivers to inconsistent results were expected (and inconsistent we got). My friend started by deleting his current XP partition and replacing with one we dubbed “Leopard”. So far so good. He selected his drivers, well close enough…

The installation began, quickly cancelling the disk check. It took approx 25 Minutes from boot to the Green tick. So it looks good but that’s when it started to go downhill.

He rebooted and was faced with an error, one that’s caused by incompatible hardware (OW!). It was time to Google the error to see if there was anything we could do but it looks like we were stuck. We tried playing with the BIOS but to no effect.

I took the disk home and tried on my AMD machine this time I installed but at the same point instead of freezing my PC restarted but displayed no text to say why. Stuck again (!!).

So here I am now, still on vista. O well! The new Ubuntu is out in 10 Days as of writing this.

The Credit Cruch Bright Side

As a teenager in the UK during the credit crunch I get to watch first hand whats going on whilst not been directly affected as bad as if I was an adult. I am finding it really interesting how all the companys are finding it hard just to survive with banks going down left and right.

I thought I would share my favourite songs about the credit crunch. These videos will hopefully make you feel a little better.

Current Desk

I am getting my room done on Monday, new curtains, new wallpaper, and touch of paint, new bed and new carpet.

I thought it would be a good idea to try my computer in this position, in fact I posted a picture asking what you thought.

I got 6 wholes put in my cabinet on Friday and wired it all in.

This is the finished product.

The Ubuntu effect…

…you start to sit in a dark room with only one monitor on looking at ubuntu forums.

Unattractive Photobooth Photos

You know the time, you have some mates round your mac and the first thing they know is cool on a mac is photobooth (so true!). Then they go to effects and start manipulating their faces. Everyone has got some classic unattractive photos.

Your challenge to share them, right her right now.

Ill start the ball rolling with one of me…

..and a few of a mate.

Three Hardware and Sim Issues

I have been using a wireless broadband dongle from Three for about 6 months now. Recently I’ve had some issues with the quality of the hardware. The dongles are designed to be used on the go so should be especially resilient to wear and tear. About a 3 weeks ago my dongle connector snapped, the bit where the usb cable connects to the unit. I quickly took it to the three store which luckily is only a 10 minute walk from my house. They said because its under warrantee that they can get it fixed within 3 days, which they did.

I was using my dongle for about 1 week until I snagged another problem, this time the Sim card stopped working, for no reason what so ever. This time though it wasn’t as clear as the only message I got was “Limited Service” instead of the usual “3G”. I tryed to top up again wondering if this was the cause of the issue with no luck. I proceeded to ring Three up who told me to try the sim card in out other dongle which is how we worked out that the sim card was broken.

Hear where it gets good. I then took my dongle into the local store. I told them about how I have £10 on the sim and that the sim is faulty. The employee said that he didn’t know what to do and took a phone number so he could contact me telling me what to do. Guess what, no phone call.

Today I went in again, this time getting slightly annoyed but trying not to show it. This time I was dealing with a different person, he said that he didn’t know either but this time he rang up there and then. He was talking to someone at their call centre, or at least it sounded that way. I had to verify my account the same way as I would if I had phoned. The guy over the phone told me my credit runs out on the 4th November and he told me that they WOULD be able to transfer the credit as the new sim would be the same number. It then turned out that in store they couldn’t do that, they wouldn’t be able to “duplicate” a sim card and that I would need to get a new sim which would mean I would lose my top up. The employee explained that I should ring up and open a dispute to try get my account credited with the £10 a lost.

I ended up buying £10 of credit at the store and a new sim card (which came free with the £10 top up)

I have now basically spend £20 on 2 months of credit but only received 1 month of service. And the fact they can’t get my credit back easily is appalling. I’m going to be contacting their customer support.

Explained: Tilt Shift

There is a very cool effect in photography called “Tilt Shift” it gives images a shallow depth of field which can be used to make everythign look like a model set.

The effect can be used in photography and videos and can be applyed with special lenses or using software in post. There are loads of examples on the internet of how to do it. Here are my favs:

Stressful Hardware

Tonight has been so stessful. I was experimenting with a new desk layout. I moved my base of my pc to see what it would look like but decided against permanent move.

You can see what it looked like below:

When I moved my computer back and booted it up after only been moved about 3 feed it started turning itself off. I then tryed every possible fix for 4H without getting anywhere.

I then decided to take my server that i use to run the live stream and use it as my main pc untill I can get my pc fixed. I got so stressed about it all, but now im ok. Thinking now I realise that as long as my family and I am ok then why worrie, its only a temp problem that Im sure will be able to be fixed by a professional.

I will be taking it to a local specialist tomorrow the Oct 9th. Im hoping they will be able to take a look and fix it the same day or the day after. I wil keep everyone up to date on this blog with the status.

If anyone has any ideas why its turning itself off leave a comment. To make it more clear the PC powers off at random times. Sometimes it will just show the bios logo and power down and other times it will start to load vista and then power off, I have not been able to reach the login screen.

Update:

I have taken my PC to the repair shop. Apparently they needed my HD to get the PC working “properly” but I insisted that they don’t + I need all my stuff, its very important and they will not have as much respect for the data thats on their. My HD stays with me, that way I feel in control. Sad Picture:

Update #2:

The computer has been fixed now and is fully working. It turned out that my motherboard was shorting on my computer case, it must have slipped somehow even though it was screwed in. Its now 100% working and I took the opportunity to install another fan at the back to suck the hot air out.

Thanks for everyone who gave me tips, I tried all of them. I was very impressed with the under 24h turn around time of the computer store, I will be using them again for any upgrades I need.

Yellow Austin Martin

Yellow is my new favorite colour ^_^