In the current financial turmoil felt worldwide, many have been hoping for some respite from the continuing gloom and the win by Obama may just be the catalyst we have been waiting for. Listening to his call on Americans and fellow humans worldwide, I feel that he could bring about positive change for the future…

It’s important to keep hope alive and Obama could be the man for the job…only time will tell. Best wishes and congratulations to his family and the democrats for their landslide victory. Much respect is deserved by Senator McCain for his gracious speech, and taking his defeat like a true gentleman - there is always a ‘bigger’ picture.

So I found this really great post on playing Zork on OS X, and install/setup is really simple.

Many thanks to Silent Corner for the great info and you can also get Zork II and III.

Featuring re-designed internals and Intel Xeon “Harpertown” octa-cores running at 2.8 GHz, fully buffered ECC RAM, and space for up to two optical drives.

The dual Quad-Core (8-cores) processors aren’t the only only bonus in this machine but also unlike the older G5, it sports capacity for four hard drives, up to 1TB capacity for each one.

Dual PCI-e 2.0 x16 slots (for video cards) and dual PCI-e x4 slots offer ample expansion options. I hope M-Audio decide to bring back the Rev 7.1 in a PCI-e format with Leopard support.

As for the HDDs, it will come with a default 320GB HDD. I have a couple 250GB drives lying about so I will setup a RAID ‘mirrored’ pair as the boot drive. This will allow for lower downtime if/when one of the boot drives fail, although the accessible size of the RAID set will limited to the smallest drive, ~250GB. The remaining two drive bays will accommodate my 2x 1TB Samsung Spinpoint drives which were running inside my late G5.

This will also be my first encounter in running Leopard as I have been sticking with 10.4.11 for the most part - it has been performing quite reliably and therefore I decided against upgrading the OS on my other machines (MacBook Pro/iMac).

Keep posted for the ‘official’ unboxing in about two weeks…

Photo credit: Chung Lee

Few days ago, Joon posted a comment on this post pointing out a ‘typo’ in the program output. It should read, ASCII String ‘123456789′ rather than what was originally posted.

Also, the output in that article is the ‘XModem’ variety, using an initialiser of ‘0000′.

If it is initialised with ‘FFFF’ the output is still in fact CRC-CCITT, and the following was obtained:

File ‘crc_ccitt_direct.c’ compiled on Oct 12 2008 at 14:38:06

CRC pre-conditioner 0xFFFF for CRC-CCITT

ASCII ‘A’ / 0×0041 / 65
CRC-CCITT = 0xB915 / 47381

ASCII String ‘123456789′
CRC-CCITT = 0×29B1 / 10673

ASCII String ‘ABC…XYZ’
CRC-CCITT = 0xD8E1 / 55521

Rolex has a style - all its own. Frequently imitated, often replicated, but never duplicated. No other brand can offer such a varied and extensive selection, in such fine fashion. From two-tones to two timezones; platinum to rose gold, white gold and yellow gold and stainless steel. Ceramic bezel, black bezel, black and red bezel, green bezel, red and blue bezel, platinum bezel diamond bezel, fluted bezel, engine turned bezel, smooth bezel, domed bezel, green saphire crystal, lightin’ bolt second hand and red second hand. Date or no date, day and date. A daytona cosmograph that’s a chronograph. From Patrizzi to Celini, from a Prince to a King - Rolex sets the pace. On the land, in the air, on the sea and under the sea, and from the mountain top - it’s been there and done that!

The ‘classic’ bracelet design has not changed much, until the GMTII-C was released. This was the ‘dawn’ of a new era for Rolex with many changes that were, initially, met with much disappointment.

A comfortable wristwatch is one that is well balanced on the wrist, and the extremely light ’stamped’ steel bracelets with hollow links do not help matters at all. If one is lucky, they will have Solid End Links (SELs) but this does not prevent the bracelets from constantly ‘rattling’ on your wrist either.

One must argue, for this price point should one not expect much more from Rolex? With the recent price increases and continuing worldwide economic crisis, Rolex have started to price themselves with brands far higher up the horological food chain and for this reason need to offer more bang per $.

Your average consumer is also more likely to be used to decent bracelets from the likes of Omega and Tissot for example. The problem with the classic bracelet from Rolex is not so much a question of whether it will perform its duties, but the ‘cheap’ look when one opens the clasp…and the rattling doesn’t help either.

The first two Rolexes I purchased presented me with this very problem; they both had terrible bracelets in terms of quality, the watches wore top heavy, and the rattling was gnawing on my nerves. …and I did the unthinkable; I purchased the 116201 DateJust which featured a completely solid bracelet with newer style clasp with comfort link and solid rose gold links as well.

With much pondering I decided that it was best to let go of the first two watches in favour of the TT GMTIIC; therefore, my entire collection now sporting the best of Rolex bracelets and then some.

Schematic of the Rolex GMTIIC clasp, detailing its complexity.

Many Rolex enthusiasts however, will continue to blindly defend the classic bracelets. They do offer one advantage, where one is able to ‘micro-adjust’ the length and tension of the bracelet at will. This alone does not justify the poor quality by Rolex in this department, and the new clasp design for the Deepsea Sea-Dweller is testament to this.

116713 above, 116201 below: Notice the solid gold links in the bracelets.

It’s not a question of why bother, but rather why not?

During the past couple years I have bought and parted with a few Rolexes, visited ADs in London and Geneva in particular - hunting down the ‘perfect’ Rolex. My journey began with my obsession of the Sea-Dweller 16600 - it sang to the engineer within me; a statement of over engineering with an equally illustrious past linked with COMEX and the depths of the ocean…the promise of adventure.

Another model that appealed to me greatly was the ‘classic’ GMT-Master II 16710 - conceived during the dawn of travelling by aeroplanes to combat ‘jet lag’; another masterpiece by Rolex.

The cult icon that is most sought after in SS, the Rolex Daytona, with an in-house manufacture calibre from Rolex and available in SS, WG, YG, and Everose Rose Gold. Other watches on offer include their ever popular DateJust for men and ladies alike as well as the Day-Date at 36 mm as well as the latest offering of Basel 2008: the Day-Date II in 41 mm. Rolex also feature their Yachmaster line with the YMII ‘egg timer’ and Cellini models.

Adhering to the title, ‘The Best of Rolex’, the requirements were:

Latest movement in its class from Rolex
Parachrom Bleu hairspring
The Ceramic bezel
Triplock crown
Solid links and Solid End Links (SEL) bracelet
The best clasp available.

The answer quite simply is, without much of a surprise, the Rolex GMT-Master II 116710, 116713, and 116718. Available in SS, two tone SS/YG, or solid 18K YG (includes an Anniversary model featuring a green dial with glit writing). Technologically, this updated version of the GMTII now referred to among enthusiasts as the GMTII-C (C for Ceramic), it offers the best of Rolex as of 2008 featuring the 3186 movement with Parachrom Bleu hairspring and satisfies all the requirements set forth.

Although the SS GMTIIC is a favourite, with Platinum blasted atom by atom into the bezel numerals, the 116713 and 116718 are coveted by many for the unique blend of black and yellow gold which is masterfully executed by Rolex especially in the two tone model.

Here are some photos of these two models,

Photocredit: TimeZone.com Rolex Forum Member (unknown).

Explorer 114270 £2,920
Exp II 16570 £3,420
Sub non-date £3,140
Sub date 16610 £3,470
ditto 16613 £5,370
Dipsy 116660 £5,340
Daytona 116520 £5,730
GMT 116710 £4,050
GMT 116713 £5,970
Milgauss 116400 £3,580
Milgauss 116400 GV £3,800
Air-King 114200 £2,430
Datejust 116200 £3,190
Datejust 116233 £5,070
Datejust 116201 with dia dial on oyster £5,920
ditto with dia dial £6,000
Datejust 179173 on jubilee £4,130
ditto with dia dial £5,070
Day-Date 118238 £14,310
Day-Date 118206, President brac, no diamonds £27,570
Day-Date II 218238 £15,960

The days of using linux to hack the volume limit on the early iPods are no more; instead we are greeted with shiny OS X native applications for the task at hand - all thanks to the folks at blog.iphone-dev.org and their continuing work on this front.

There are two main tools involved in pwning an iPhone: (i) Quickpwn and (ii) PwnageTool. Since the SIM unlocking and jailbreaking of the 3G iPhones are still being tackled, today I decided to ‘pwn’ my iPhone 2G instead of my iPhone 3G.

I first tried Quickpwn v1.1 to take care of my iphone but to my dismay I found that it only jailbreaked it and the SIM unlock feature wasn’t working - which is what I *REALLY* needed.

Therefore, I next tried the PwnageTool v2.1 and this time around it felt like things were working right. Once the iPhone was restored with the custom iPSW, on rebooting BootNeuter kicked in and took care of the SIM unlocking.

You can obtain the files for this here. You will also require the bootloaders for PwnageTool: This guide at lifehacker.com was extremely helpful, with links to many of the files as well as bootloaders.

I am completely taken by Cydia - it is very quick and the download/installing of applications is extremely fast. At times I seriously wonder why installing applications from the Apple Store takes ages instead.

Please note the ‘errata’ information posted on the YouTube page.

I ordered two Leatherman products from Heinnie Haynes a couple days ago. One was classed as a 2.8″ knife, the e306X, and the other was classed a ‘tool’ with a knife, the Skeletool CX. The latter of the two is located at the bottom of the photo below,

Although, I had the e306X about two days longer than the CX, I was pleased to find that I liked the CX far more than the e306X. The CX was also priced about £15 cheaper.

The similarities of both the tools are listed below:

• Both have a blade, of similar or identical length. They are both well under 3″ and are legal for everyday carry in the UK. The CX features a 154CM blade with a much sexier blade profile.
• The CX has a built-in carbiner clip/bottle opener. This is also available on the e306X but has to be first deployed.
• Even though the e306X has you deploying tools more (this becomes a real pain), they are both the same physical size with the e306X with all tools closed - the e306X is far longer with tools open when compared to the CX.
• The e306X has one extra ‘bit’. Not a deal breaker considering there is a 21-bit kit available from Leatherman. The CX carries two in total.

The similarities between the two products pretty much ends there. Take a look at the CX in the photo below, with its needle nose plier folded open,

The CX has a very nice heft to it - just right in my opinion. The added carbon fibre in the handle is a gimmick tbh, as it is still as heavy as the older non-CX Skeletool…what gives? The Tungsten DLC coating is guaranteed to wear off if you simply treat it for what it is - a great tool, so in comparison the all SS version would probably look better after a hard beating.

However, the non-CX does not have the combination serrated and non-serrated edged blade, which is fantastic on the CX. It has a nifty groove on the thumb so that one can open it single handedly.

So what’s the verdict? The e306X is going back to Heinnie tomorrow and I’m hanging on to the CX…I love it. Even if I end up only using it for the bottle opener and knife, it’s still a fabulous idea and I adore its ‘raw’ skeletal look. It has the allure akin to that of a Porsche or Aston Martin DB9 Vanquish - the Swiss Army Knife is simply your run of the mill ‘Ford’…

Now where did I put that bottle of Heineken at?

However, due to the lack of PI/PID control implemented I may have to continue developing it further to obtain data from the robot to compare with ‘instructed commands’ and what it actually does for including in a paper that I will have to author after I submit my bound thesis.

Back to returning to my ‘infinite while loop’ of a life