Tali'Zorah knows that even in the future, corded headphones are the way to go.

I really enjoyed Mass Effect 2, so much so that I like to imagine talking to people with a choice selector near the bottom of my vision. I usually choose paragon options but I know the usefulness of a well placed renegade response. Be careful with the interrupts though!

Like many good games, I find myself drawn to the soundtrack as a way of reliving our times together. I went searching for it but unfortunately they only released it in MP3 and M4A formats so far.

Call me a snob but I think our future should be filled with upgrades and that means something better than or equal to the sound quality of a Compact Disc.

No worries though because with a bit of patience you too can…

Make your own Mass Effect 2 Soundtrack

These instructions assume you are using the PC version of the game.

• Download
  • Mass Effect 2 .AFC extractor | mirror
  • Audiokinetic Wwise RIFF/RIFX Vorbis to Ogg Vorbis converter | mirror
  • Extract, Convert and Rename scripts.
• Unzip everything into a new folder.
• Copy “C:\Games\Mass Effect 2\BioGame\CookedPC\*Music.afc ” to the new folder.
  • Your path may be slightly different depending on where you installed the game.
• Run “Extract, Convert.bat”
• Run “Rename.vbs”

Epilogue

Now you can enjoy 508 pieces of Ogg Vorbis encoded music while you wait for EA to release a proper Compact Disc.

Oh and special thanks to Extirpator for the original instructions on how to accomplish this.

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A server with more than 4 GB of memory is usually a beautiful thing. Unless that extra hardware is going to waste that is. *cry*

Allow me to explain.

A 32-bit system can’t use more than 4 GB of memory without the help from something called Physical Address Extension (PAE).

PAE allows for extra breathing room through a special mapping area. Up to 64 GB in fact. All you need need is a CPU purchased in the last 8 years along with Microsoft Windows Server 2000 and above.

Of course, if you are already running the 64-bit Windows Server 2008 R2 then please go enjoy your 2 TB of memory, 256 processors and lack of female companionship elsewhere please.

For the rest of us, let’s get our memory back!

Enabling PAE

These instructions are for Windows Server 2003 although they can easily apply to other versions.

Right click on “My Computer” and choose properties.

Click on the “Advanced” tab.

Click on “Settings” within the “Startup and Recovery” section.

Click “Edit”.

Add the option “/pae” to the end of the line for your particular OS under “[operating systems]“.

Save the boot.ini file.

Reboot.

Success

After the reboot, right click on “My Computer” and choose properties again. You should see more memory and the term “Physical Address Extension” undernearth your CPU and RAM metrics.

Enjoy!

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For me, the iPhone was the gateway to all things Apple. So much so that I became interested in programming for it and that meant procuring a Macintosh. Doing so would mean parting with 17 Benjamin Franklins though. So, while my mild mannered wallet hid, my mentat mind went to work on a solution.

I already owned a very capable Asus G1-S laptop so buying a new Macbook Pro was out of the question. I could however consider it expendable and try to hack it…

With a bit of luck I’d make a hackintosh although a fried machine, temporarily upset wife and new Macbook wouldn’t be so bad either.

The Journey

I was unsure of how to even proceed until the kindly @jeffreed guided me to light side of hackintoshing . This entailed using real retail discs which maintains software update functionality unlike some pirate flavoured distros. A big relief to me too since I’ve worked hard to leave my pirate skills where they belong, in the 1990s.

After intial course guidance came hours of research and painstaking trial and error. Incremental progress was very slow at first but persistance payed off eventually and I reinstalled (only crom knows how many times) my way to success.

I couldn’t have accomplished any of this without oodles of helpful guides and the fine forum folks of InsanelyMac.

Instructions

• Remove any existing partitions on your hard disk by using GParted.
• Flash your motherboard using the modded ASUS G1S BIOS for better Mac OS X support.
• Load BIOS manufacturer defaults and then customize to your liking.
• Boot up with the GRUB-DFE.iso disc.
  • This disc combines a GNU GRUB boot loader with a Boot-132 method to allow installation of  non-hacked, retail copies of Mac OS X.
• At the Darwin/x86 command prompt press enter.
• Switch your GRUB-DFE disc with a Mac OS X 10.5 Retail DVD.
• Wait for the drive indicator light on your DVD drive to stop flashing and then press enter to choose the default boot device.
  • In my case, default was the hexadecimal code [ef] also known as the dvd drive.
• Plug in a USB mouse.
• Install Mac OS X.
  • If your only see a blank screen or the system becomes unresponsive for several minutes, reboot with the GRUB-DFE disc and try again. In my experience it always seemed to work the second time.
• Reboot with the GRUB-DFE disc and choose hex code 80 to boot to first HD.
• Press enter at the next Darwin prompt to boot to the hard disk.
• Plug in a USB keyboard.
• Plug in an ethernet cable for internet access.
• Finish the Mac OS X install.
• Download Chameleon DFE for HD.
• Open the grub-dfe.iso disc and copy the Extensions folder under /boot/initrd.img/Library/Application Support/DarwinBoot/Extra/ to the “Extra Contents” folder within the mounted Chameleon DFE for HD.
• Run Chameleon DFE for HD.
• Reboot without any helper discs.
• Install the Mac OS X 10.5.8 Combo Update.
• Reboot.
• Download and uncompress the NVinjectGo 0.2.0 video driver.
• Run OSX86 Tools 1.0.150 and use the “Install Kexts” feature to install the NVinjectGo.kext video driver.
• Reboot.
• Download and run PS2FixKeyboard (mirror) to enable the built-in keyboard and trackpad.
• Reboot.
• Download and uncompress Apple HDA Patcher 1.20 (mirror).
• Download ALC660.txt (mirror) and drag it on top of the Apple HDA Patcher.
• Download the ALC660_660VD.mpkg.zip (mirror) audio drivers, uncompress and run.
• Choose the second driver option and install.
• Reboot.
• Go to Apple > System Preferences > Sound > Output and choose “Internal Speakers”.
• Bask in the warm glow of success.

Limitations

Everything seems to works except eSata, the memory card reader and wireless. Of these I only miss the wireless but I’m sure a compatible USB device could remedy that.

Epilogue

While many of my previous computer endeavors were based simply on the joy of discovery, I find that I’m now drawn to challenges that require tenacity. A migration from simple pleasures to the greater rewards of delayed gratification perhaps?

Either way… confidence gained is a wonderful currency for future ventures.

Cheers!

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