2007 Audi RS4 Cabriolet

Although I’m not a fan of convertibles, the new 2007 Audi RS4 Cabriolet looks stunning. Click the picture to go to the gallery and the press release is after the jump.

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Popularity: 13% [?]

March 14, 2006 | Filed Under Cars | Comments Off 

Windows XP on Mac Hysteria

Technology related hubs such as Slashdot and Engadget are running a story regarding the potential of success of narf2006‘s solution to booting Windows XP on EFI-equipped Intel-based Macs. The problem has centered around the fact that Intel-based Macs have the Compatibility Support Module (CSM) removed from the EFI implementation because Apple’s OS X does not require a legacy layer to boot. narf2006 originally posted a message declaring the goal of WinXP on Mac had been achieved. Almost immediately a thread asked for nine testers: three Mac Pro, three iMac and three Mac mini owners. A forum member even proclaimed the feat had been recreated twice in a message titled “Mission Accomplished – Almost Twice.” Although narf2006 is said to be submitting the directions to Colin directly after cleaning up the instruction for the $12,000 prize pot. As of now, they haven’t been received yet by Colin. The only proof given thus far are a few fuzzy pictures on Flickr in the original thread.

What we do know is Amit Singh, employed at the IBM Almaden Research Center and author of Mac OS X Internals, has found a method to allow operating systems requiring a legacy BIOS and legacy VGA BIOS to boot on Intel-based EFI Macs. The software is called “BAMBIOS.” The process is fairly straight forward. Singh has suggested EFI Macs can be equipped with a custom EFI bootloader to set up an emulated BIOS and video BIOS in DRAM that can then pass control to a legacy bootloader allowing the operating system of choice to boot. The key is using Bochs BIOS core that has been extended and customized for the Intel 945 Express chipset. The VGA BIOS core also comes from Bochs with a few customizations for the ATI X1600 linear framebuffer. Singh has said that Linux distributions lacking support for EFI and an unmodified version of Windows XP have been booting successfully.

Either narf2006‘s or Singh’s solution should almost certainly allow XP and 32-bit Windows Vista (no EFI support) to boot on Intel-based Macs very soon. This achievement is important for many reasons but the main one is access to the enormous library of software available for Windows. Developers benefit from having Linux, Windows and OS X a reboot away on the same machine. While gamers will aso be able to finally enjoy the newest titles coming out for Windows without waiting weeks or months for Mac binaries. This scenario has the added benefit of making the switch to Apple products a little less risky for the consumer since Windows can be run on the hardware if necessary.

The real breakthrough most of the computing world is waiting for is a virtualization solution under OS X. VMWare or Parallels would great additions to the library for Macs but these products do not provide the best graphics or I/O performance. The true holy grail is support for Intel’s Virtualization Technology (VT) solution coupled with Xen 3.0. Computer users would get the best of both worlds: no rebooting to change operating systems that are running side-by-side and excellent near-native performance.

Unfortunately, it seems like the first reaction these days to most any contest or story on forums rampant with fanboyism is a type FUD that destroys any desire for people to contribute these sorts of hacks. Without fail people jumped on the “zOMG its photochopped” bandwagon without even being patient enough for Colin’s verdict. The most ridiculous thing is the loudest trolls actually don’t own Apple hardware but that isn’t a reason to stop them from joining in the trollfest. Could narf2006‘s solution be a hoax? Sure it can but without more information it would be very premature to declare it as such. Even then, Singh’s BAMBIOS solution should surface very soon. It is for that reason that I scorn this type of nonsense and will wait until we hear more.

Update (3.15.2006): narf2006 has posted a video showing XP installing and then booting on an iMac. Naysayers will insist the video is too blurry to be sure but to my eyes it looks like the real deal. About the only mildly credible doubt that I’m willing accept is narf2006 opened up his iMac and figured out a way to plug in the LCD directly to a PC behind the scenes. However, if anyone has ever opened up a laptop and tried to connect the LCD panel to an external computer will know that it is very difficult (but not impossible) to accomplish. Quite frankly, doing that would make this supposed hoax far too much work. With that said, I still think we need to wait it out for the instructions.

Update (3.15.2006): OSNews also posted about BAMBIOS. Amit Singh, the brains behind this project, chimed in by saying:

“To EFI, our software looks like a regular EFI program which happens to be a bootloader. This bootloader contains a binary payload which is an entire BIOS, VGA BIOS, and other x86-specific glue needed to boot the machine. This binary payload is loaded into memory in the legacy BIOS space. To all software on the machine, it appears as if the machine has a traditional BIOS. An important aspect of BAMBIOS is that its goal is to be non-disruptive.”

Update (3.16.2006): The contest is officially over. narf2006 and blanka will take home the $14k prize pot. The solution is available for download now. According to this Flickr comment, narf2006 may have had to patch the XP Kernel to get VGA working. The BIOS part of the solution did not involve using Bochs but instead took the route of using a barebones CSM module. Could a non-EFI Linux distribution boot? That is unknown but the next few weeks will hopefully provide more answers.

Popularity: 3% [?]

March 14, 2006 | Filed Under Tech/Gadgets | Comments Off 

Microsoft KB Article: How to Remove Linux and Install Windows XP

While hunting around today for information on the Windows XP bootloader, I ran across a very interesting Microsoft Knowledge Base article #314458 titled How to Remove Linux and Install Windows XP. The article introduction reads:

This article explains how to remove the Linux operating system from your computer and install Windows XP. This article assumes that Linux is already installed on your computer’s hard disk, that Linux native and Linux swap partitions are in use (which are incompatible with Windows XP), and that there is no free space left on the hard disk.

I scratched my head, at first, wondering why something like this would need to be published. Although many usability advances have taken place in the Linux world over the past few years, most people who install Linux these days can navigate their way around partition tables, master boot records and other “advanced” topics. The answer to this question can be found as a direct response to the influx of cheap computers at Walmart, Fry’s Electronics (Outpost), and other online retailers offering Linux pre-installed. Although the only thing I want to know now is how a consumer feels when they purchase a $200 computer and put another $130 into purchasing a copy of Windows XP?

Popularity: 1% [?]

March 13, 2006 | Filed Under Tech/Gadgets | Leave a Comment 

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