Bilsta57’s Official Blog

I was just on the Tech 101 podcast, have a listen here:

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Also check out Glens website here: http://flashpointgaming.com I will also be putting a few new posts up maybe about some apps and what not but yeh the app that I’m looking most forward to right now is the Tom Tom app for iPhone it looks really good I mean REALLY good check out the vid on YouTube if you want to see an add demo. So yeh that was just a quick update and yeh stay tuned because there is more to come. Also check out the Tech Webcast

Well today I got the iPhone 3G S and as promised I will review it for everyone, there is also a test and unboxing vid below :D. Ok so to start, when I first opened it and gave it its first boot I was wowed with its speed booting took only a few seconds and more importantly everything was ready to go on it I went straight into Safari with no lag what so ever, obviously after I wend into safari I went in to check out the video recording and new camera and yes it is a huge improvement having 3.0MP vs 2.0MP.

Video recording on the 3G S is superb for a phone, most phones, even phones that have 8.0MP cameras take pretty crappy video, but I am pleased to say this is the best quality phone video I have ever seen and you can trim and edit it right from your phone which is great as well. I noticed its 3G speed has increased which is great it technically went to 7.2 mbps which, again, is great obviously the biggest improvement is its speed difference and I can confidently say you wont be disappointed if you decide to buy the 3G S especially if you own a 2G iPhone however I think this update is that good I would recommend it to 3G users as well.

Its aesthetics pleasing granted it still has the same design, but it still looks great despite that there was no design change obviously also I got a Black model because last year when I got my 3G iPhone I went with White so I decided to go with a change I also see a lot of people who got black are going with white such as Jon4lakers etc. but it really doesn’t matter what color you get they all look great.

The software changes to the iPhone 3G S were pretty small but there was a fair bit that was changed such as the compass app which would be handy if you were hiking or you needed a compass even for school but the main reason Apple put a compass in the iPhone 3G S was to give the user a better experience in Google maps and soon the Tom tom app for the iPhone which I definitely will be getting it looks great , check it out if you haven’t already but yeh the compass is nice they also gave the iPhone 3G S video recording capabilities through its camera app and there is also voice control on the iPhone 3G S.

The list of software changes is:

• Voice control
• Video Recording/Camera Autofocus
• Compass
• Advanced google maps with compass integration
• And so on, there is also a bigger battery in the 3G S

In all if you have the iPhone 2G you should definitely get this I would even go as far as recommending this for existing iPhone 3G users I would give it an 8/10 for overall ease of use and speed. Also enjoy the pics and videos below :D.

-Bilsta57

So the first thing that you need is a copy of Yellow Dog Linux which you can grab from here http://us.fixstars.com/support/downloads/ actually before I get into this, basically Yellow Dog Linux is a version of Linux that is designed to run the PS3 so essentially you can install another OS on your PS3 which is cool right?.

Anyway, now that you know that, what you need to do is select the mirror that is closest to your country, obviously mine was the Australian FTP mirror which for me opened up in Cyberduck (An FTP program for mac) if your on windows you can use Winscp from there it will open up Cyberduck or Winscp or whatever you have and you need to navigate to iso then download “yellowdog-6.0-DVD_20080207.iso”.

Ok so once you have the image either open disk utility (/Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility) on mac then put a blank DVD into your DVD drive and click burn then select your iso or use Nero if your on windows and it will guide you through the steps. (Note: Make sure you have it connected via HDMI) Once its burnt you need to:

• Insert the Yellow Dog Linux DVD Into your PS3
• Go to System settings on your PS3 and select the format utility then go to Format hard disk then select yes and select other as the partition setting also select quick format. ** This will delete your save games and photos etc. so back them all up **
• After it has partitioned your drive go to Settings> System settings then go to Install other OS and it will look for the disk once it has found the YDL disk press X to confirm that it has found your YDL disk and then go to System Settings then Default System and set OtherOS as your default system when it asks you to boot OtherOS confirm.
• Your PS3 should now start booting the YDL Disk after it reboots, once it reaches kboot plug in an external USB keyboard and mouse and enter “install_ps3_MYRES” without quotes but REMEMBER to replace MYRES with your TV resolution for e.g install_ps3_1080p
• It will automatically start the installation process, once it has started the installation process just basically say yes to everything and just to note, Yellow Dog says that you wont screw up your PS3 partition during the installation.
• Once it has installed just enter your desire username and password etc. and it will boot.

If you at any stage want to go back to your Game OS just enter ps3-boot-game-os then hit enter at kboot before linux boots and it will take you back to the regular PS3 software. Enjoy! :D. Also check out Tech webcast at http://techwebcast.info

Ok so today I will be letting everyone know how to install and set up PCSX2 on Windows, So the first thing you need is this PCSX2 pre configured rar file which within this rar folder it contains the bios as well and some plugins and other stuff. Once you have that your going to need to un-rar it by using an unraring program I recommend Winrar which you can get from here:  WinRAR x86 (32 bit) 3.90 beta 3

Once you have un-rared everything just basically open up PCSX2 and get one of your old beloved PS2 game discs and put it into your DVD drive then open up PCSX2 and go to config>Cdvdrom from within PCSX2 and set the D drive as your DVD drive, generally it is the D drive if not just chose your DVD drive from the drop down menu and once that’s all configured just hit run and it will boot just like a real PS2 and it plays it straight off the disc just like a real PS2.

If you want to make multiple copies (better known as .iso files) of your original PS2 games you can and you can make them run off your hard drive by first ripping your original PS2 game using any .iso maker like Mindsoft’s iso maker then save the .iso file to your desktop, now to use .iso game backup files efficiently your going to change your DVD plugin, to do that go to config>Configure and choose EFP Iso CDVD Driver and go to Config>Cdvdrom to change where it will start or boot your ISO from its that easy e.g /Users/Example/Desktop/Example.iso .

The .rar archive will uncompress to about 100mb and it has everything you need in it to make it simple. One thing to note is that if you are from Australia you are going to want to go to Config>Configure and change the bios to Europe V2.0 14/06/2004 Console. and if you are from another country set your bios according to your country obviously.

Also remember that performance will vary depending on how good your computer is it may run at 50FPS or it could run at 20FPS there is not an error with the emulator if that happens it all depends on your system if its getting really bad FPS you can try the speed hacks in Config>Speed Hacks. **Like always please remember to use legitimate PS2 games that you bought and don’t be a bum and steal especially PS2 games, you can pick up pretty much any PS2 game off ebay for like $10 or less.**

As you may know over the past few days I have been upgrading the speed on my site and have successfully managed to get it from 17 seconds loading time to 9 seconds loading time so it takes on average 2-4 seconds to see the web page then 5-7 seconds to load everything else, which is a very nice upgrade I asked a few people if they noticed the speed difference and they all agreed that its loading time has been dramatically reduced.

Also stay tuned for a review of iPhone firmware 3.0 and my T-shirt pics/review and just to let everyone know I should be getting the 3G S I will review that but personally I feel that the 3G S will be worth it in the long run as I said on Twitter because there are new apps coming out every day that are more cpu/ram even GPU intensive then before so that should be good, sorry about the short post but that was just to let everyone know whats going on.

-Bilsta57

So in case you didnt know a lot of companies such as Optus and most likely Telstra/Virgin as well will be charging $10 a month just to use your existing data allowance, no extra data included it will be $10 a month access fee, to tether your iPhone to your computer. That sucks so here is the free way to do it. Also this method works to tether unlocked phones on networks that are not Apple supported such as 3 and T-mobile etc.

OPTUS has confirmed it will charge customers who wish to use Apple’s iPhone as a tethered modem to access the internet.

From next Monday, Optus post-paid customers will be able to use the iPhone as a modem to connect a laptop to the internet, but will be charged a monthly access fee of $9.99. Excess usage is charged at 35c per megabyte.The new mobile internet plans range from $4.99 for 25MB of data download.

Now the the easiest way to Tether your iPhone for free on 3.0 is to simply update to iPhone 3.0 then open Safari on your iPhone and navigate to this site http://help.benm.at/help.php from there choose Mobileconfigs then choose your country and network provider mine is Optus so I obviously chose Australia>Optus from there just click install and once everything is finished go to Settings>General>Network>Internet Tethering then turn it on.

once you have turned it on open up bluetooth on your mac and click on set up Bluetooth device then select Mobile Phone and from there just follow the steps and enter the passcode on your iPhone. Please note that this method also lets you tether with AT&T even though you are not supposed to. Enjoy!. A review of iPhone 3.0 will be coming soon, however I have only used it for a couple hours. *Edit: Optus will still charge you for using this method, however I am pretty sure AT&T wont, even though you are not supposed to tether ;)*

Every week I will be on the Tech Webcast generally on a Thursday so tune into my blog and you will find a post on the latest ep of the Tech Webcast, have a listen here:

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I will also be posting some updates soon amoung them will be my shirt review, I have been a bit busy lately so I have not had time to post that, I also appologize for this episode as it was not our best however we will make next weeks episode better lol but like I have said before we do not edit this at all, enjoy!.

Ok so the other day I got a 1TB Iomega drive and seeing as I have a couple TB’s already on my Mac Pro I put it on the next best thing, the server :D. All joking aside I actually needed some more space on my server though, and it does a great job, basically my server distributes files throughout my network so if I have a 10.5.8 update for e.g I can send it to my server from my Mac Pro and go on all the other computers and access the server and get the update file off it without having to re download it which is great in Australia because we have pretty bad usage.

Getting onto the features, basically its a 1TB 7200RPM Iomega drive nothing too special its USB 2.0 and just a basic drive, which is good in my case because I have it sitting next to my printer and my printer looks pretty plain so they both go together lol, the drive has a basic design its matte black with a curved front and an LED light at the back which actually looks nice where I have it stationed (pics below).

I would definitely recommend this drive to anyone who has similar circumstances as me because it works great and it looks good. I will also take some pics of my custom shirt that arrived last week it came out of the wash today lol so check back for that.

Ok So as you may or may not know at WWDC Apple recently announced the new iPhone 3G S (The “S” stands for speed lol), now the changes that they made to the 3G S was they:

• changed the processor to a 600MHZ chip from 400MHZ
• they doubled the ram to 256MB from 128MB
• they bumped up the 2MP camera to 3MP with auto-focusing
• in addition to that the new 3GS will have the ability to record video and it has voice control
• they added a compass to the 3G S
• they also bumped up the battery giving it a few more hours of battery
• they also added water resistant and fingerprint proof casing

Those features are nice but not really revolutionary as most phones had it in 2004, however for the iPhone its a good upgrade, the extra software  features on 3.0 will probably make a lot of people buy the 3G S, I don’t know whether I will get one because to me this upgrade to the iPhone was not that great, to me anyway, they didn’t change the design either. I apologize that this post was short, I don’t really have a lot to say about the 3G S lol.

I was just on the Tech Webcast check it out here :D 

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I will also be doing some new posts in the next few days probably about WWDC and the new iPhone 3G S

So The last time a “Predictions” post was on my site was when Liam was writing for my site way back in ‘08 so I though I might as well make a post about what I think might get released at WWDC 2009. The first thing that I really thing will be released is obviously a new iPhone and iPhone/iPod Touch firmware 3.0, now the new iPhone may have the firmware before any one else gets it like 3-9 days  because thats what they did with 2.0 but its not that big of a deal.

The second thing I believe will be released is Snow Leopard, keep in mind that Snow Leopard may not be released until 2010 but I do believe they will announce its release date and put a countdown on their website like they did with Leopard and hand out a final copy of it for free to all the devs like they always do, There are rumors of a new iPod Touch floating around I don’t really know whether they will release another iPod Touch just yet but they may, again these are all just rumors so yeh. Feel free to post your predictions below :D . Oh and my custom shirt arrived last week and the quality was amazing if your going to order a custom shirt Zazzle is definitely FTW.

Ok so the first thing that you will need is firefox why? you may ask, well its simple, Windows 7 wont download without it and Safari does not work at all so grab that here http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/firefox.html then you are going to need to go here with firefox http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/download.aspx once you have those 2 crucial things follow the steps below:

1. Open the BootCamp Assistant in /Applications/Utilities or search for it.
2. Make a partition for windows by following the steps, I would recommend probably something over 32GB if available.
3. Open Disk utility and burn the .iso of Windows 7 that you downloaded by clicking the burn icon in the top left corner to a blank DVD if you haven’t already done that.
4. Restart your mac and hold down the alt/option key, I would highly recommend a wired keyboard as wireless does not seem to work.
5. Boot into the windows 7 installation DVD by selecting it in the menu.
6. Once you have booted into the DVD you are going to need to format the partition that you made for boot camp, you can do that by selecting the partition you made for windows and click on the gear in the bottom right corner aka the options menu and select format.
7. Just follow the steps and once its installed just reboot and make sure that when you want to go to windows just hold down the alt/option key, you can make the windows partition the default OS to boot just go into System preferences on mac and go into Startup Disk and select windows.
8. Thats it, enjoy Windows 7!.

Just a note: I would definitely NOT recommend installing the Leopard drivers for Windows that come on the Leopard disk it semi-broke my Windows installation. Windows 7 should just have all the drivers for your mac pre installed if not you could give it a try but it did like I said semi-break my Windows installation on my Mac Pro.

***I have noticed a lot of people are coming to my site for help on this, if you have any questions just leave a comment and I will answer your question ASAP***

Ok so to start what you are going to need is:

• SD <=*4GB* card
• AN EXTERNAL USB HD
• My custom Zip folder containing every file you will need ;)

“The very first thing your going to do is connect to the internet, then open software update, and update, yes I am serious I updated to the latest 4.0 Wii firmware and had success no downgrading required.”

*Just a quick note before I get into this DO NOT, I REPEAT DO NOT USE ILLEGAL GAMES DOWNLOADED OFF THE INTERNET THEY CAN TRACE YOUR IP AND GET YOUR HOME ADRESS, ONLY BACKUP/PLAY GAMES YOU HAVE PURCHASED AS THEY CAN TRACE THE GAMES YOU OWN BUT THEY CAN SEE THAT IT IS INFACT A LEGIT LEGAL WII GAME*.

Step 1, Get your IOS Downgraded and Homebrew Installed etc:

1. Plug in your SD Card <=4GB, (Now assuming that this is a stock Wii you are performing this on with no hacks on it this method should work great It should work ok with a hacked one as well.)
2. Download my *STARTER* Zip file (I made a starter zip file because It will make things easier, you just copy the files/folders to the SD card)
3. Copy the files within the starter kit to the root or / of the SD card
4. Plug your SD card into your Wii’s front SD card slot
5. Go to settings then go to data management then go to channels and click SD card in the upper right corner and a box should pop up saying load boot.dol/elf? select yes, if it freezes check here
6. Now just go through the steps and just install the homebrew channel.
7. Once you have the Homebrew channel installed Restart your Wii and take out your SD card and plug it back into the computer and delete all the files on it then download my custom folder here
8. After you have copied all the files off my custom folder to your SD card plug the SD card back into your Wii and open the Homebrew channel then open the cIOSDowngrade app and downgrade your IOS.
9. Once restarted open back up the homebrew channel and open the cIOS36_rev10 app and chose *Network install* by scrolling through the options with the > arrow keys on the Wiimote and just click install and follow the instructions.
10. Once it is finished restart your wii and open the homebrew channel and open the usbloader app, that is going to be the app that will load all your games once you have formated your drive (described below), thats it! CLICK READ MORE FOR MORE INFO.

(more…)

Listen here: 

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From now on I should be on the Tech webcast every week so if you want weekly updates by me you can subscribe to this podcast in itunes if you want and I might post a new way to backup or download games online and play them on your Wii using a stock 4.0 version no downgrading required, mine works quite well so stay tuned for updates and there will be reviews of some new stuff coming up.

I actually ordered one of my shirts for myself and it should be arriving in a couple days do ill take some photos of that and see how it turned out if it turned out good I might get some more and give some away, Brad of the tech webcast said he might also be doing that so if you want a shirt me and Brad might be giving them out and we could probably work out a deal like to win one you go and leave a good comment on Brad’s blog and my blog, this is not confirmed at all yet but stay tuned for more updates.

-Bilsta57

Today my copy of Final cut express arrived and I have to say its a HUGE upgrade from the last version its really nice I got out of using Final Cut Express when Imovie 08/09 came along but I am giving it another go, anyway, this program looks very promising as my new full time movie editing program. Also if you don’t use Aperture 2 you need to check it out it is in the pro series of Apple applications and it is hands down the best Image program I have ever used.

getting back on to Final cut express 4…. basically it just does everything I need it to. The only problem with FCE4 is that it can get fairly complicated, so if you are a beginner to movie editing I would definitely not recommend this program as you most likely will not know what to do. Sometimes even the most simple of things like trimming the video can get very very complicated which can get annoying but like all programs and skills you need to train and work at it to get better.

FCE4 has support for pretty much any camera and is obviously capable of handling HD video files, in all the main things that a novice video editor would see in terms of different is that it has a few new effects, thats it, they would not notice that much difference from Imovie 09/08 if you are a pro however thats a different story. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who likes video editing a lot and needs more than what Imovie can offer.

Ok so today I decided to get a custom shirt from zazzle.com with my website address and username on it and here it is (The online preview):

Front:

Its pretty cool if anyone is interested I can sell this but yeh I just though I would share this with everyone and I will show you pics of what it looks like when it gets here, I realize this is a very short post but its better than nothing, right?. Update: The shirts are now for sale :D check in the sidebar.