Having moved in to a new place a few months ago I was once again greeted with the issue of not having an internet connection until the powers that be connected the relevant wires and flicked their respective switches. This; an all far too familiar occurrence I’ve had dealt with in a timely fashion in times gone by (it helped when you worked for a telco) would this time blow out to well over a month to which point relying on my iPhone would not cut it. Coming to my rescue a good friend (thank you Gavlar) bestowed upon me a USB wireless internet dongle that would suffice my addiction until normality was restored with some ADSL.

Armed with an Optus flashed Huawei E169 I was quick to find that at the time there was no software around that was compatible with the relevantly new Mac OS X – Snow Leopard (10.6.x). The solution was to set up the device as you would any other modem and install some lovely modem scripts and what not from Huawei’s website, this got you online but I then found my next problem, reception! It seemed that the Optus network had a little difficulty in particular areas of my CBD apartment and not having an real software to report things like signal strength and data network I spent a good amount of time walking around my place laptop in hands “guessing” that the reception was actually best 1m to the left of my kitchen stove at ground level laying on the floor.

As you can imagine I quickly got sick of that game and thusly decided I’d take a look at just how complicated it was to find out the signal strength was directly from the device. A few googles later and I’d opened a connection directly to the serial device through the terminal and was now actively seeing what I was after albeit in a rather nerdy fashion. Coincidently at the same time as this I was ploughing through Aaron Hillegass’ 3rd edition of “Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X” and thought to myself “Hey, why not create a program to scrape this nerdy jargon and present it visually.” and that’s exactly what I did.

So here you’ll find a little program I like to call the E169 Monitor, because that’s pretty much what it does, monitor your E169’s data connection reporting back on things like signal strength and network connection type (WCDMA, HSDPA, etc) as well as giving you a couple of buttons to connect and disconnect.

Credit where credit is due; a lot of the code in here would not have been possible had it not been for the wonderful AMSerialPort project that makes connecting and reading from serial (USB) connections so much easier than the standard Cocoa libraries and to make the whole connect/disconnect functionality work (and I’m still not sure I understand) I’ve borrowed heavily from the source of the now defunct CheetahWatch, a program which essentially did everything I’ve done and more back in the days of the E220 and OS X 10.4. I really wish this project was picked up again and nurtured because it is a really fantastic effort, if I actually owned one of these wireless cards I think I’d even try an revive it myself, even with my rather fledgling cocoa skills.

Rambling and thanks aside a link to my Xcode project is available here & below. Do with it as you will but please be aware that I’m offering no support, this is all just a learning experience for me that I thought others may find useful. I’ve only tested this code on my own machine, an Intel based MBP running 10.6.2. I hope you can get some use out of it, I had fun doing it and throwing back to the days I used to have to manually enter AT commands to dial the local BBS.

Download my E169 Monitor Xcode Project files. (3.1MB)

Useful Resources: AMSerialPort Project, CheetahWatch application

Unfortunately it’s been a while since I’ve had a chance to do anything particularly nerdy let alone blog about it, thankfully for my adorning masses I’ve chosen to make my “back-in-the-saddle” return with a jump straight in to the deep end. That and quietly going for the record of how many cliche metaphors one can use in the same sentence.

You see just this week gone by I found myself in the unusual position of nerd boredom. I hadn’t done anything really “hands-dirty-nerdy” and my little girly hands were an itch with possibilities. The new Apple Macbook Pro’s had just been released for starters and it took all my will power to not just dash out and buy one for example but I was blessed (or smote) by the good lords of geek with the ghastly sound of a hard drive platter scraping from inside my Macbook Pro’s Aluminium enclosure. Again, scrounging every last fiber of restraint to not run out and buy a new laptop I decided to take the high road and upgrade the hard drive and keep my existing rig, both satisfying my need for nerd and keeping my costs at a 20th of the cost.

Normally, had I opted to purchase a new machine, I start from scratch, reinstalling everything, copying over Mail Libraries, Photos, etc manually and giving myself a fresh start, but as I was only giving the old girl a new ticker I thought I’d do a straight copy restoring my file hierarchy to its full glory via the use of my Time Machine backups. A trick of the Mac trade I’ve yet to make use of.

The hard drive install was as straight forward as can be, a few screws here a torque screwdriver there and Bob’s your Grandfather’s Nephew she was humming to the new tune of a 500GB 7200rpm drive. The next and what i’d also envisaged to be the more lengthy portion of the process of the restoration process then began.

Mac OS X install DVD whirring away in the drive, we arrived at the “Migration Assistant” portion of the install offering the option of “Restoring from a Time Machine backup”. Excellent, that’s exactly what I’d like to do thanks. A click or two later I had a screen asking me what user accounts and applications I’d like to restore, selecting them all and clicking Next I began the two hour wait for the copying process to complete. One movie length break later I returned to see that the progress bar and status text had indeed indicated that everything was all tikity-boo but I was unable to continue on to the next step. I thought I’d just let it whir away for a while, sometimes these progress bars are less than accurate (at a stretch) and I figured it’d all be over soon enough. Two episodes of Deadwood later and there was still no movement to which I threw it in and restarted the `puter myself. Everything booted up fine, even had my user account there for me to log in to but that was about the end of the good news. A Dock riddled with question marks and no mail to be found it looked like the only things that had actually been copied successfully was my Network System Preferences, connecting to my Wi-Fi as soon as it logged in. Balls.

By this time it was about 10pm and I couldn’t be ferked sitting there doing a manual copy so I thought, “You know what Time Machine/Migration Assistant Restore Process, I’m going to give you one more crack of the whip. Balls this up again and the engagement is off!!” So after reformatting and going through the OS X install process again to begin the restoration it was about midnight and I left it all to whizz away as I dreamt of ponies and unicorns battling to death in the Roman Colosseum; as you do.

Waking the next morn to find a beautiful dew adorning my bedroom windows there was a smell of success in the air. Perhaps it was the restoration had worked and I was about to be full of glee, yet again it could’ve been the new air freshener I’d purchased the day before permeating its aroma through out the house? Fortunately for my sanity and the now back on again wedding between myself and Apple technology it was the former and there before me stood the exact same desktop as a day before, same wallpaper, same icons, same file system, same launch items on login, had Time Machine fulfilled its end of the bargain to my wildest dreams?! It would appear so!

Everything appeared to be exactly where I’d left it prior to the transplant. Wrapped! No idea exactly how long it took to complete having let it go whilst asleep but we can safely say it was over two hours (120Gb of data to copy via USB2) and less than twelve (I slept in!) But really, who cares, IT’S ALIVE!!!

Now all of that was a few days ago… and while everything seemed perfect from the casual observers point of view, it would seem that deep down in the bowels of a file system that I roll with there have been a few “issues”, allow me to list them for you now…

• Pretty much anything out of the normal “Mac” root folders gets missed. For instance my SVN repository in /svn hasn’t been backed up or restored.
• Similarly all of the stupid OS X apache example files are back in /Library/WebServer/Documents and my /etc/httpd.conf file has been overwritten
• Aperture wouldn’t launch, my photos were fine but I had to reinstall the application
• I had to do OS X updates all over again from 10.5.2 (Which was on the discs that came with the Mac)
• My Nortel/Apani VPN software had to be reinstalled and didn’t work at all to begin with

All in all, a very small price to pay, and not a lot of work to get things back to normal considering all of my preferences, my mail, calendars, contacts, images, movies, music, applications were back and working. So I guess the question is whether or not I’d use this method the next time or not. Well, yes I would, but if it was a new Mac I was about to obtain I’d most likely stick to my tried and true method of a fresh install & manual copy. Why? Well, I come from an old school and tend to “clutter” a machine over time, an issue your average ham sandwich [person] is unlikely to have.

So go forth, propagate your Mac’s hard drive Guy Pearce style and feel safe about doing so, the process actually works.

While the rest of the world enjoys the spoils of Harmonix’s latest efforts with the recent release of Rock Band 2 Australians, whom have yet to see any version of the franchise land upon its shores, will have to be content with the announcement that coming November 7th they too can finally begin their rock journeys with the release of the first iteration, the same version that is now over a year old for everyone else.

For anyone that has played Guitar Hero, Rock Band is going to be of familiar territory. The game revolves around the usual rhythm formula of coloured “notes” flowing down the screen that need to be hit when crossing a particular point. The more notes you hit in a row the more your score multiplier increases and should you not hit enough you bomb out of the song to the boos of a disappointed virtual crowd. Where Rock Band differentiates itself is that you not only have the option of playing the guitar portions of the songs but you know have a complete “band” of instruments to play (and sing) including lead guitar, bass guitar, drums and vocals. Think of it as Guitar Hero meets SingStar with a drum kit.

Rock Band provide two primary modes of gameplay, a “Solo Tour” mode and “Band World Tour” mode, which requires at least two players. The solo mode follows the same tried and tested formula of performing a few tracks on your desired instrument (excluding bass, which is only available in Band World Tour mode) until you’ve done enough to unlock the next venue and the new tracks that come along with it whilst growing in difficulty to play/sing. Depending on which instrument you choose to use the track list changes order due to the songs being of different difficulties for the individual mediums.

Band World Tour mode breaks the regular mould of linear track progression. Requiring at least one other person in the room rocking out with you, the World Tour mode challenges you to create a band poised to take over the world, earning fans, money, and accolades throughout your bands evolution. Starting with gigs in your hometown your band will go on to earn vans, tour buses and even private jets to play in any of the 41 venues in over 17 cities around the globe. You can even choose to play benefit gigs that earn you a larger fan base but no monetary reward all the time creating your own set-lists to accommodate your next gigs fans, introducing what Harmonix refers to as a “risk versus reward” system into the game, requiring a dedicated thought process behind your decision making somewhat similar to a real life band progressing through their musical career.

One of the decidedly major advantage the Rock Band franchise has over its competitors is its comprehensive track listing and music store. I love the loaded tracks in Rock Band, more so than any offering from Guitar Hero or even the US released Rock Band 2. Classics such as Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun” and Stone Temple Pilots “Vaseline” are just the tip of the iceberg of this rock monolith’s 58 playable tracks, 51 of which are master recordings.
The in built music store allows further expansion buy allowing users to download new “track packs” or individual songs at a price of 160 Microsoft Points (US$1.99) per song. Currently there are over 250 tracks available for download from the Rock Band Music Store but it is unclear at this stage if all we be made available upon the Australian release, nor if their pricing will differ.

The Instruments
Guitar/Bass – The Rock Band guitar is by no means an evolutionary step in musical peripherals. In fact its quite the opposite as are all of Rock Band’s instrumental ensemble via their USB tethers. Connectivity aside the guitar unit is modeled against the famous Fender Stratocaster and, in my opinion, a far more recognizable shape of rock guitaring that most are more likely to identify with than that of Guitar Hero III’s Les Paul knock off. Unfortunately for Rock Band that’s pretty much where the praise ends. The guitar feels cumbersome, there’s little to no feedback when it’s fret buttons are depressed and the strum bar feels as though you’re pushing it through a pool of super glue. The familiar “click” when strumming on any of the previous Guitar Hero units is completely absent leaving me unsure as to whether or not I’ve actually played the note at all! It’s of general Internet consensus that the included guitar is rubbish and many are applauding Harmonix for the new upgrade with Rock Band 2 but unfortunately that’s not what Australia’s getting.

Drums – Harmonix received a lot of flack over the supplied drum kit when they first released Rock Band in the US. Complaints of the foot pedal snapping in two were more common than not and they went on record as to saying some of their initial units were admittedly faulty. Providing your foot pedal stays in one piece I can honestly say banging away on the drums is by far the most rewarding, and realistic, experience of Rock Band (for me). They’re loud, and housemates who aren’t joining in will quickly alert you to that fact, don’t think banging away on plastic pads is any less annoying than a real drum kit. You’ll also need to find a brick to put in front of them as the whole set up tends to move forward with each fervid kick of the foot pedal but boy is it a hell of a lot of fun. Be prepared to work a little on the drums too, if you’ve never drummed before teaching your mind to separate your three limbs (you generally only use one leg) to work independently is a challenge and one that’s not quickly mastered.

Microphone – I am most definitely not one for any form of karaoke. I know I can’t sing to save myself and I don’t see how forcing others listen to my hideous pitchless screams can be fun for anyone that isn’t deaf. I’d much prefer to bounce around the lounge room with a plastic guitar than sound like a fool singing! That said, in the spirit of gaming journalism I have (in solidarity) tried “singing” a tune or two. Fortunately as with pretty much every karaoke-like game available Rock Band calculates your performance on the ranging pitches your voice takes and not on you actually singing anything at all. It’s quite simple to get through a song with nothing more than a well controlled hum and whilst that may not be in the spirit of the game it was a most welcome relief for me.

For those tossing up between Rock Band and Guitar Hero World Tour (which is basically Rock Band with different tracks) I have to recommend Rock Band for its track list and music store, but ideally I’d want the hardware from Guitar Hero and the game from Rock Band. Even though this game is over a year old for the majority of the video game world you will find its popularity no shorter than ridiculous in Australia. What’s fantastic about Rock Band is that it has such a wide appeal including those whom want to rock their nights away pretending to be the latest Dave Grohl to that of the karaoke junkie; this game appeals to you all and what’s more you can now play together! Yay! One big happy family!

Related Links:
Rock Band Official Website
Rock Band track list
Downloadable tracks for Rock Band

Recently I was asked by the lovely ladies of “The Blue Skittle” magazine to offer my reasoning behind exactly why I’m looking forward to this years Penny Arcade Expo (PAX). I’ve pasted my paragraph below but be sure to check out the rest of the issue at http://theblueskittle.com

“My favourite response when people ask me about attending PAX is “I may have had to sell a kidney to afford it but it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity for me to go.” It’s when they ask to see the scar that I have to that I disappoint them and explain that I’m speaking figuratively. In all honesty though, for me, coming from Australia to attend; PAX is one of the remaining Mecca’s for game “consumers” since the retarding of E3 and I’ll be damned if I’d miss it while I’m staying in North America even if I am all the way on the East Coast living in Canada.”

For the unfamiliar TVShows is a fantastic (and more importantly free) application that does a wonderful job of monitoring a series of RSS feeds and downloading the latest torrent for your beloved TV shows.

Up until recently TVShows would run in the background checking tvRSS.net for new torrents at a predetermined interval, downloading a new episode’s torrent if there was one to collect. Unfortunately that was until about a month or two ago when all of a sudden it seemed that nothing was being retrieved anymore even though it was sitting there plain as day on tvRSS.net.

Not knowing what was going on, and not having a clue when it comes to Ruby programming I jumped into the SourceForge forum and found that I wasn’t the only one having the problem. It seems (although it’s not confirmed) that tvRSS.net has decided to block the application from connecting to the site and scanning it for new episode information. Fortunately, and full credit goes to the forum here, those wiley geeks have found a way around this and will have you downloading torrents again faster than you can say “sesquipedalian“.

Here’s how you do it…

1. Open up the main guts of TVShows in your favourite text editor. The file you want is:
   “/Users/[your username]/Library/Application\ Support/TVShows/TVShowsScript/TVShows.rb”
2. At line 172 you’ll see: (this is all on 1 line, just in case your browser has wrapped it)
   rawEpisodes = SimpleRSS.parse(open(FEED % @exactName,”User-Agent”=>”TVShows/#{@preferences['PREFS_SCRIPTVERSION']}”))
   Change this to:
   rawEpisodes = SimpleRSS.parse(open(FEED % @exactName,”User-Agent”=>”Apple-PubSub/65.1″))
3. Save the file and you’re done. You might have to reboot to restart the daemon but I didn’t.

To give you a quick explanation of what’s actually being changed (as far as I can tell) is that we’re simply telling the tvRSS.net webserver that we’re actually using a Safari RSS reader instead of another application. Simple.

Woopra is a great new web analytics package that is currently in private beta. I’m not here to talk about how exciting this fantastic service is, instead I’m here to let you know how to get their application to actually RUN under OS X. It’s not that hard, they’ve just made a little mistake when packing it for the Mac. Lets get to it, but before we do let me just add you must be running OS X 10.5.1+ and a 64bit Intel Mac.

1. Download the Woopra installer. You’ll need to to log into your Woopra account to do this
2. Next run off to Apple’s Developer Connection and download Java SE 6 (currently preview 9). You’ll need an ADC login (which is free) or run Software Update as Apple have just released this as a stable upgrade.

At this point you’d think all you’d have to do is run the Woopra Installer application but if you do that all you get is this stupid message that you don’t have Java 1.6 installed, which as we all know you just did.

To fix this and get everything up and running we need to tell the application that we want it to use the newly installed Java runtime. Just out of interest OS X doesn’t automatically switch to the new version because it’s a preview and not deemed stable. Here’s how you fix the installer…

1. Copy the “Woopra Installer” application from the disk image to your hard drive. If you do not do this you will not be able to edit & save the required files
2. Right (Control Click) on the “Woopra Installer” application
3. Select “Show Package Contents”
4. Open the file “Contents/Info.plist” in your favourite text editor
5. Under the line <key>JVMVersion</key> change <string>1.3+</string> to <string>1.6+</string>
6. That’s it, save the file & launch the installer again

Now you’d think that would be it now wouldn’t you, but no you need to now repeat the process for the installed application, which if you’ve gone for the default location will be in your Applications folder. Once you’ve done all of that (again) you can finally launch “Woopra” and get your fantastic looking web stats!!

Finally!!

When you come in to the office on a Monday morning and people ask you “So what did you get up to on the weekend?” I tend to cringe and perhaps quickly think of something a tad less nerdy than tell them the truth, which this weekend happened to be… “Oh, I spent Saturday night writing a better PHP Class for Pownce’s 2.0 API because what was available currently didn’t work the way I wanted it to.”

nerd.

Download the PHP Class file here.

Basic Usage:
// Send a message to public
$pownce = new Pownce("username", "password", "apikey");
$pownce->postMessage("public", "just say hi to everyone");
$pownce->execute();

Tutorial:
Below is a short screentcast of how to use the class:

Notes:

• When using the “addOption” method if you try to add an option that is not used with the particular API call you’re invoking a string error message will be returned rather than XML or JSON. eg.
  $pownce->getPublicNotes();
$pownce->addOption("filter", "sent");will returnInvalid option "filter"
• The $format argument in most methods is defaulted to xml but can be set to json if you wish

We’re all fairly aware that Apple’s implementation of Bluetooth in the iPhone is retarded to say the least. At this point in time Apple has limited the iPhone to doing nothing more than pairing with a Bluetooth headset, and even then that seems to be difficult for some of your more “independent” accessory manufacturers. Features like file transfer, computer syncing or even talk-thru that you can find on any two-bit phone these days are AWOL and we’re all still waiting for a postcard!

You’ve got to ask yourself why Apple has limited the iPhone’s Bluetooth capabilities so much so lets pop the shoe on the proverbial “other foot” for a moment. The iPhone is designed on top of the iPod, yes we all thought we’d have the ability to sync those wirelessly by now too but it was never going to be over Bluetooth. Bluetooth’s transfer rate is so pathetic transferring 8GB of music & video would take you an entire weekend and that’s provided the connection actually stayed active. With that in mind you could still sync contacts & calenders via Bluetooth but if you’re plugging it in to do music why would you want to sync it a 2nd time for your contacts? Apple have done the right thing keeping everything in one place under iTunes even if it does put iSync out in the cold.

When it comes to file transfers, Apple doesn’t even let you browse an iPhone when it’s connected via a cable or on your wi-fi network (well, until you hack it yourself) so why would they want to give you access via Bluetooth? You could argue that’s fine, but what about iPhone to iPhone transfers? I can only put this one day to security, the last thing Apple want is some script kiddie writing a Bluetooth virus that renders every phone it connects to useless.

OK, Apple Fan-Boy hat off now. There is one Bluetooth connectivity area that I think Apple have really dropped the ball on when it comes to the iPhone. Do you remember way back when Address Book got all cuddly with your phone and iSync was running a high pulling and pushing your contacts to that brand new Sony Ericsson T610 you’d just bought? Well there was also the fantastic ability to pair the phone with your Mac and send text messages (SMS) to any of your contacts with a mobile phone number from your computer! Not to mention when you received a new SMS it would pop up on the screen and you’d could reply promptly without having to lift your hands from the keyboard. Where’s my SMS functionality Apple? You wrote Address Book, I’m pretty sure you made the iPhone and wrote OS X’s Bluetooth bits too but I can’t even pair the thing with my computer let alone send an SMS through it! Come on guys, someone’s dropped the ball big time here! My brand new US$399 iPhone has less integrated ability than my four year old Sony Ericsson.

Oh and P.S. Apple, the T610 it did MMS too!

To the casual observer Apple’s latest MacBook Pro (MBP) would undoubtably be indistinguishable over it previous iterations. Right now sitting side by side with my previous, now 10 month old, MBP the only way I can tell them apart is the one on the left has that new machine feel on its keys and is a tad cleaner overall. Aesthetically there is very little different between the two machines, adorning the F7 through F9 keys you now have the iTunes controls we’ve come to love on Apple’s newer external keyboards, as well as the Expose & Dashboard icons on the F3 & F4 keys respectively. Personally I’d rather the F3 & F4 keys to not be branded as one of the first things I do is remap these functions to others, but thats by the by.

Can you tell which one is the new version? I can’t!

Beyond the keyboard the only other distinguishable visual difference is the semi-new LED backlit screen. Whilst this screen has been available in the prior model it wasn’t until this release that it has been available across the board in both the 15 and 17 inch variations. The evenness of the backlight provides a much needed colour boost to the screen almost comparable with “gloss” screens, which is still an option should you not have an issue with glare in your work area. To be honest I’ve had to turn down the brightness a tad off full because it felt like the white was cooking my retinas from the inside out, an experience that completely shames my prior machine.

Aesthetics aside, its under the hood of the new MBP’s now tired shell where this new model really starts to break away. At the heart of the machine is the new Intel Penryn 45nm processor, ranging from 2.4Ghz to 2.6Ghz depending on your selected configuration. As with the exterior of the machine, looking at the clock speed itself you’d think nothing’s changed but its the 45nm build of the chip that makes both a difference in operating temperatures and battery life. No longer will you endure 3rd degree burns after 15 minutes of use, instead they’ll only be 2nd degree and take an extra 10 minutes! w00t! There’s also the added bonus of 6MB of L2 cache on the CPU also for that extra kick.

Standard now in all models is what I’d consider an above average laptop hard drive size of 250GB @ 5400rpm. This is a nice improvement over previous pitiful options topping out at 160GB. Should you have the cash to burn there’s even a 300GB option available in the 17″ model however you take a speed hit with the drive only running at 4800rpm. For the video editors out there there’s also the 7200rpm option but Apple tops out at 200GB.

The video card also receives a mild bump, more to “keep up with the Jones’s”, than anything else. Retaining the same Nvidia 8600M GT card the VRAM is boosted to 512MB in the top 15″ and 17″ models but stays at 256MB in the cheaper 15″ option.

Lastly, in line with the recently released MacBook Air the MBP receives the new Multi-Touch trackpad. The trackpad enables the user to make use of the “pinch” and other movements to manipulate photos and other rudimentary functions that the majority of people will dismiss or probably never even know the trackpad can do. Luckily there’s a new, slightly more useful, function Multi-Touch can do in allowing you to swipe between webpages by using 3 fingers on the trackpad instead of 2 fingers that you would use for scrolling. OK, so maybe its not the innovation of the century but I might use it once in a while.

With all of these new components, most important of which is the CPU, Apple claim a new battery life of 5 “wireless working” hours. It seems with this new release Apple PR have decided to now measure battery life in how long their laptops can actually be used continuously with a wireless network connection. A bold move considering their prior models were advertised with 4.5 hours of “optimal” life and now to the average Joe their new machine does basically the same?! How many are going to read the fine print to figure out you can actually use it for that full 5 hours instead of about 3 (if you’re lucky) on the previous model? Whilst the newly advertised 5 is probably a stretch, I’m sitting at 3.5 now and still have 15% left in the pack so I’m happy.

Tech specs and changes aside lets have a look at some real life figures to see if there is any difference at all, and whether or not my extra A$250 to spring for the 2.6Ghz CPU was worth it. I’ll be comparing my previous model (Mid 2007 – 2.4Ghz, 2GB RAM, 120GB @5400rpm HDD) against the brand new Penryn based MBP (Early 2008 – 2.6Ghz, 2GB RAM, 250GB @5400rpm). Both machines have a fresh install of Mac OS X 10.5.2.

Test 1: Boot time (to desktop, with autologin enabled)
Mid 2007: 59 seconds
Early 2008: 48 seconds

Test 2: AAC Encode (4 minute 160kbps CBR MP3 converted to 160kbps CBR AAC using iTunes)
Mid 2007: 8.9 seconds
Early 2008: 7.4 seconds

Test 3: Video Encode (190MB DivX to 2 pass H.264 using ffmpeg via VisualHub)
Mid 2007: 18 minutes, 29 seconds
Early 2008: 15 minutes, 37 seconds
Note: The old model had its fan running at full speed almost from the second I started the encode where as the new machine barely even spun the fan at all.

As you can see there’s a small improvement in each task, the video encoding especially a welcome relief whenever there is less time involved, but realistically if you currently own a MBP from 2007 is it really worth the upgrade? If you’re happy with your current machine and tossing up whether to fork out the cash that you may not necessarily have lying around then my answer is no, it’s not particularly worth it and with rumours already circulating about another update in June with Intel’s new line of chips as well as the long awaited Blu-Ray drive and hopefully new enclosure I’d recommend holding off. Video/Photographic professionals and gamers will most likely be the ones to benefit from the new CPU and increased VRAM but thats where the benefits end in my opinion.

I *love* Guitar Hero (or as I like to call it “The Heterosexual Man’s Singstar” *). To this date there hasn’t been a game, on any platform, that I’ve returned to as many times as I have with Guitar Hero. It really doesn’t matter how much of an idiot you might look like thumping away at a tiny plastic guitar that’s more likely to have been manufactured by Fisher-Price than Fender because for those few precious moments I am The-Rock-God and you will bow to my power of awesome-ness!

So with all that praise and admiration for myself Guitar Hero why wouldn’t I want the next imminent edition of this fantastic saga? Well you see, like many things in the world, I have a little problem with the Guitar Hero franchise. Personally I feel, as a game, there’s not a lot more that you can really add on in terms of gameplay. You plug in your guitar, you watch pretty coloured balls of light float down the screen and you do your best to co-ordinate your fingers pressing the same coloured buttons on your plastic axe, that’s pretty much the description on the box word for word. No really, it is… I’m sure that’s what it said.

The point is there isn’t much else to change or do; before you know it the developers try and lure you with fanciful ideas like having “battles” (ask any Guitar Hero fan boy about that and you’ll quickly find a unison feeling of hatred) and see the game incorporate tangents off a core functionality that works and is what people want. Sure, all the little additions haven’t been complete waste of time, and with the advent of “Rock Band” it wont be long before Guitar Hero will no doubt join the multi-faceted instrument world of its new competitor, but again it’s pretty much the same coloured blobs and timing.

If that’s the case then the only real desire for me purchase any new iteration of Guitar Hero is purely to gain access to a new range of new tracks that I can jump around the lounge room to, staring in my own personal sold out concert for one. In this my friends is where my problem ensues… Each Guitar Hero disc contains a range of songs, some you like more than others and some you only play once to get past them to finish the game and gain those precious Gamerscore points (you gamer-whore you!). What I’ve come to quickly learn is that there’s tracks on GHII that I really enjoy playing, Freebird for example, and occasionally I want to jam out it but the GHIII disc is in my xBox’s drive and now I’ve got to stand up and switch discs and re-load the game, blah, blah. OK, so doing it once isn’t too bad, but now I want to play 3’s & 7’s so it’s a disc switch again… and again… and again… and… well I’m sure you get my point.

It’s pretty annoying, I mean I can understand that a disc is a disc and that’s what’s stored on the thing, but when you buy tracks for GHII online which are stored on your console’s drive why can’t they be read by GHIII too? Have the guys at Red Octane changed the track’s code/format that much after their bust up with Harmonix? Come on people, a little thing called “backwards compatibility” springs to mind (even if I could care less about it on a console, that’s another story kids).

This is my big solution to make the new Guitar Hero 4 worth while as a purchase for little-old-me. Give me a disc, hell I’ll even pay double and take another plastic guitar too, for a game that works just as well and as fun as the others before it with a whole bunch of new tracks and low and behold it can read (at the bare minimum) all of my paid for downloaded tracks from GHII & GHIII. Now that would be great, but to make it awesome give me the ability to pop in my previous copies of Guitar Hero and copy those tracks to my drive and play them in GHIV too! Yeah!! That idea kicks royal arse! Sure there’d need to be some security, copyright bullshit so you can’t just have your mate pop around with their old disc and leech the tracks, I get that, but figure that shit out dudes, I’m the ideas man!

So there you have it, my idea for selling a ba-jillion copies of GHIV and perhaps even providing a reason to back-sell a crap load of old stock out there. I’m sure it’ll probably never happen though, and you know what, I’m pretty sure, come the later half of the year when the new version does come out, I’ll be one of the millions of consumers out there that add that game to my shelf right next to it’s older sisters regardless of my dreams coming true or not.

ROCK ON!

* Before you start sending the flame emails let me just clarify that in by saying that it doesn’t mean homosexual people wouldn’t enjoy Guitar Hero just the same as heterosexual people. I just don’t do Singstar… regardless of how drunk I get. lol.