Mark Shaw

Each morning I check a variety of news sources to skim the headlines to find things of interest to me. I had to double-take when I read the numerous amount of headlines regarding the announcement of the Microsoft Surface. I said to myself, “Seriously? They’re going to actually release that big ass table computer?” I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that it was a tablet computer. Not just any tablet either. A tablet you can actually use.

I’m sure the majority of us wouldn’t mind owning a tablet if you don’t already have one. Wouldn’t it be nice to sit back on the couch, browse the web, check your emails, and play some Angry Birds? As much as I absolutely love Google Android tablets and despise Apple iPads, there has been a huge disconnect from the massive amount of PC users running Microsoft Windows on a daily basis. We all want a tablet and have felt the urge. But I feel that some of us have reserved feelings about spending so much money for just another meaningless device to have around the house. Continue reading →

The biggest issue with compiling eggdrop from source on the Raspberry Pi running Debian Squeeze is that the tcl-dev libraries do not exist when you simply try to install tcl8.5. Here’s some steps to save fellow Raspberry Pi users a bit.

Luckily Debian Squeeze for the Raspberry Pi has most of the important dev tools ready to go. Warning, this is the Raspberry Pi not some Intel Core i7, so heed the messages told by the compilation process and “Go get some runts”. Continue reading →

If you tried flashing your BIOS on the CR-48 and totally disregarded the warnings about ensuring that you have removed the bottom casing and covered up the little square with electrical tape and now your CR-48 no longer boots, you’ve come to the right place. You will first need access to a functional computer running Linux.

Here’s what you need to do.

1. First download a developers build of Chrome OS for the CR-48. Unfortunately Todd Vierling removed all of his old builds EXCEPT THIS ONE.. -> https://www.strongspace.com/shared/uhm6ydrg1p
2. Download the Chrome OS Image Creator – When writing the .bin image, be sure to have at least a 4 GB Flash Drive and click the “Local Image” button. (NO OTHER IMAGE WRITER WILL PROPERLY BURN THE DEVELOPERS BUILD FOR SOME REASON, tried dd, unetbootin, Ubuntu Startup Disk Creator, none worked.) http://support.google.com/chromeos/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1080595
3. Download a copy of the Luigi BIOS for the CR-48. This will give you a regular BIOS that will allow you to install ANY OS you want. http://www.techjawa.com/cr48bios.bin
4. With your freshly written USB drive, insert it in to a Linux box such as Ubuntu. It should automatically mount your C-ROOT and C-STATE volumes. Your easiest method for accessing this partition would be to open up a terminal as root, and go to the /media/C-ROOT folder or whatever your distribution auto mounts it under.
5. Within that mounted folder as root, edit the usr/sbin/chromeos-install script. Replace the ENTIRE CONTENTS OF THIS FOLDER WITH THIS

   #!/bin/bash
   flashrom -w /home/chronos/cr48bios.bin

6. Copy the cr48bios.bin file to the home/chronos folder.
7. Properly unmount your flash drive.
8. Make sure your CR-48 HAS A PIECE OF ELECTRICAL TAPE OVER THE BIOS PROTECTION RECTANGLE.
9. Turn on DEVELOPER MODE on your CR-48.
10. Boot up your CR-48 and do not insert the USB Flash Drive until you see the error “Chrome OS is Missing or Damaged”.
11. Let the recovery process finish completely. This will take up to 10 minutes or so. Remove the USB drive when it tells you to and feel free to shutdown the machine and reboot. You’ll now see an actual BIOS! By default, the Chrome OS build will boot. But feel free to install any OS you want thereafter.

this thing sounds great!