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Joining VOB files on mac

Don't bother. Just open the VIDEO_TS folder from the DVD Player.app... Damn :)

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The Internet's Submarine Cable System

The Süddeutsche Newspaper last week ran an interesting article on defective cables that cut off Asia from the Internet. It was likely a ships anchor which went down where it wasn't expected and tore through three essential cables. 95% of the worlds data is pumped through sea cables. One such fiber optic cable is less than 2 cm thick. Its core holds a bundle of fiber glass cables, each thinner than a human hair. A pair of those apparently carries one terabyte of data per second. The cables are wrapped in layers of copper, plastics and steel mesh. Special ships are used to lay those cables on the bottom of the sea. In many places around the globe, there's repair ships on hold to go out and fix damaged cables. The current damage was in the Mediterranean sea and the cable ship Raymond Croze belonging to France Télécom went to fix the cables with the remote controlled submarine robot "Hector". Read more on BBC NEWS

The Guardian earlier posted a good graphic impression of the world's submarine Internet cables:

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Our new prints shop is online

Picture 3-7

Looking for a picture to put on your wall? Check out prints.urbanfields.net

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Show hidden files in Finder

More of a reminder to myself, - sometimes you may need to see those hidden files on your system.

In Terminal type:
"defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE" press the return key, then
"killall Finder" and obviously press return again.

To revert this, write "TRUE" instead of "FALSE"

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Memory testing utility

If you need to test your RAM, Microsoft offer a free tool called windiag. The tool has its own loader, so it works autonomously for Intel or AMD processors, this means it works for Intel Macs or Linux Systems just as well as for Windows machines. You can download the ISO file here, burn a bootable CD and boot your computer from the CD. That's it.

Go here for the German windiag website.

windiag screenshot

And here's a reminder on how to burn an ISO disc image in Mac OS X:

1. Insert a blank disc.
2. Start Disk Utility.
3. From the File menu, choose Open Disk Image and select the ISO to be burned.
4. In the list of volumes, you will now see an item representing the ISO file. Select it.
5. Click the Burn button and follow the instructions.

This reminder is courtesy of vocaro on macosxhints.com. Thanks!

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Headset trouble

headset on macbook

Had to get a second headset and opting for a cheap model, mistakingly got one with analogue in- and output. The microphone didn't work and only after a long time - and taking back the headset to the shop to get it replaced - did I find out newer MacBooks and PowerBooks don't have a built in microphone amplifier :(
So if you don't want to build your own amp, stick to a USB headset for your Macbook.

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A use for Apple's remote control thingy
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A use for Apple's remote control thingy

Warning: banal content! Apple's remote control that comes with all new Macs was fun to fiddle with ONCE. Then it lay there getting ever more dusty. Working at my desk today i listened to iTunes on shuffle mode and often I'd move my cursor to the iTunes Dock icon, pause a little and select "next" to skip to a better song. It just seemed like too much effort, too much distraction from work. So I tried the remote, wondering if it works without the Front Row app running - and it does! And it reacts instantly. So the next track is now one push of the button away. Nice! Now PLEASE get back to work ;)

apple's remote control

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