No iPod for me...

For some time ago I bought a portable CD player that plays MP3 audio too. Sure it isn't as small as an iPod but it was a lot cheaper. I paid 30 Euros for it. With it came a lot of accessories:

• carry pouch
• headphone
• AC adapter
• rechargable batteries
• an adapter for use with cassette players

A real bargain. I decided to use this as a portable player instead of buying an iPod, because empty CD media is really cheap if you order it online, and burning my mp3 audio onto cd's is a lot cheaper and convenient than having to boot up my Mini everytime I want to change my music on the iPod.

Annoying ad service terminated...

Today I surfed the net and came across a site that had an image that the Adblock extension for Firefox could not block. What to do? Well, I used a "hack" I remembered that I also used on my Linux PC. The site I wanted to block was ad.doubleclick.net. Now, what I am about to write about now is quite technical, and following this tip is entirely at your own risk, I accept no responsibility for anything which might happen if you use this tip, even if you break your system ;) Ok, now that part is over and done with, so this is what I did:

• Start Terminal
• Type sudo -s
• Give your root user password and press the Return key.
• Edit the file hosts file in /etc/ with the following command nano -w /etc/hosts
• Add the following line at the end of the file:
  

  127.0.0.1 ad.doubleclick.net
  

• Note that the space between 127.0.0.1 and ad.doubleclick.net should be a tab space not a regular space character. Blogger doesn't allow inserting tab characters it seems, even though I used the pre formatting HTML tag.
  
• Press the key combo CTRL X
• Press the key y
• Press the key Return (remember not to alter the name of the hosts file as the hosts file is a critical systemfile).
• Quit Terminal, and restart Firefox.
  
• This tip will work for any annoying ad service out there or any other site for that matter you wish to block that Adblock or any other blocking extension out there is not able to block.
  

There you have it fellow netsurfers, those pesky irritating ad services terminated once and for all. Oh, there might be a problem with this solution though. If you are running a webserver (Apache) on you Mac and it responds to calls on port 80, you may have to edit your httpd.conf in order to tell Apache that it shouldn't listen to the localhost IP 127.0.0.1.

This site has a more detailed and extensive hosts file for you to download and install. Although there may be some extra steps needed to do in order for it to work properly. Good surfing, everyone.

OSX Systemwide Audio Equalizer...

Today I was surfing on Pandora and MySpace and listening to music in order to find some new music to buy. However, I've realized a new systemwide function is needed in OSX, and that is a systemwide Equalizer. It's great that it is possible to fiddle around with equalizer settings in iTunes, but when playing embedded music in any other application like when browsing the net in Firefox I really miss an equalizer to fiddle around with in Sound properties for the system. A suggestion to Apple, is that in order to enrich the audio experiences within OSX, is that they need to incorporate a software based equalizer into the system. Then any application that use audio, can use these settings as a default. If a user is not happy with the audio being generated through the system equalizer, the application would override it and use the default unequalized audio stream which we have today, and then use its own audio equalizer settings. Surely this must be possible to accomplish in a modern operatingsystem as OSX. Anyways, here's to hoping that Apple will have this function in Leopard :)

Oh, and I sent a suggestion to the Apple Feedback Team with this idea. Let's hope they listen :)

Firefox and iTunes...

Oh yeah, now I almost never need to switch back to iTunes when using Firefox. Check out FoxyTunes, this is a very neccessary extension to Firefox. It can control many more media players than only iTunes. Check out this list if you want to know more about the supported media players. I have also installed the extension in Thunderbird. So, install this extension and your control over your media players will be great. And if you aren't a Firefox user (oh the horror, the horror ;) ) get Firefox and be happy.

Sennheiser HD-201...

Today I bought a new headphone, the Sennheiser HD-201. This is a headphone I like. It doesn't press on the ears, good audio quality, very good price (I paid 26 Euros for it). The cord is long, which is good when I use them with the stereo when playing on any of my consoles. If you are looking for a good headphone at a very reasonable price, check out the Sennheiser HD-201.

Logitech Premium 350 USB again...

Ok. After flaming Logitech's support, I sat down and really began to tinker around with equalizer settings in iTunes. Well it seems that in order to get rather decent audio out of these headphones, I had to really play with the equalizer settings quite a lot in order to acquire optimal treble and bass settings. Now I'm quite happy with the audio properties of this headset. However, that doesn't mean I'm totally pleased with them. They press on the ears, making them uncomfortable to wear. I also have to mute/unmute them in order to get both the headset speakers and microphone to work. Really odd that. Maybe it has to do something with me running them through a USB 1.1 hub. Anyways, besides these above mentioned issues, they seem to work quite well. The microphone is really good. However, due to the issue of being uncomfortable to wear for long periods at a time, I ordered a Sennheiser HD 201 headphone. Cheap, but they have nonetheless recieved good reviews. Oh, and btw, if you are looking for a good site for audio reviews, look no further than www.audioreview.com.