The recent (June ‘07) article over on TorrentFreak about uTorrent for Mac doesn’t seem hopeful or at least soon coming. They do have another article explaining ways to run uTorrent on your Mac via Crossover Office (beta) or Parallels.

As I migrated away from Windows I bought a copy of Parallels thinking I’d run them side by side so I could use some of those Windows-only apps like XnView and my old copy of Fontlab Using Windows apps so seldomly, I don’t like the idea of installing (and making me buy) a whole copy of Windows onto my Macbook Pro for an occasional use.

Enter uTorrent.

I had been using Azureus for my torrenting needs until Comcast started blocking resetting my upload transfers. I read that uTorrent was so much better but alas, Windows only. Well, after trying the ie4osx kit, I ended up not using the IE part so much as the intel native Darwine kit and it’s accompanying WinHelper.app. I gave it a try, downloaded the uTorrent installer, ran it through WineHelper.app and seconds later, a successful install. The real test was would it launch and better yet, access the internets? It does.

Required Parts for uTorrent on the Mac:

1] Install X11 from your Mac OSX install CD or DVD. This is necessary for running any Windows apps without using Parallels.

2] Download and install Darwine for your Mac’s CPU architecture
Mount the DMG and drag the “Darwine” folder to your “Applications” folder. Run the various wine* apps in the “Sample Applications” folder inside the “Darwine” folder. These will help better configure the environment.

Links to both Intel and PowerPC builds of Darwine:

Darwine for Intel Macs
Darwine for PPC Macs

3] Download the install package for uTorrent.
Run the install.exe and let uTorrent install to the “Program Files” directory (a hidden “.wine” folder within your home folder).
uTorrent

4] Launch WineHelper.app from the “Darwine” folder then go to File > Open, Program Files > utorrent > utorrent.exe
This will launch X11, a log window and a terminal window. You can safely close both the log and terminal windows without hurting the uTorrent process.

5] Open a torrent from uTorrent’s File menu, point it to where you want to save the file and you’re off!

Note: You can’t hide uTorrent like a normal Mac app, you can hide X11 but not the uTorrent window itself. However, you can minimize it like a normal Windows app, except it will minimize down to the bottom left of your screen, sort of hovering near the top edge of the dock. Clicking the reduced title bar will present you with a pop-up menu of options like “Restore”, “Close” “Maximize” and a few uTorrent specific options.

Note2: If the option “Minimize uTorrent to tray” it checked, uTorrent will disappear to a tiny rectangular window and icon at the top left of your screen, directly under the menu bar. This icon can be right-clicked to access all of uTorrent’s system tray icon options.

Hopefully, the uTorrent for Mac project will continue but this works (for me) in the meantime.

I was going to post the following as a comment to the article “The Most Dangerous Appliance in Your Home: The Television” but their captcha anti-spam thing doesn’t work (I f**king HATE captchas) so I’m posting it here in an extended form.

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I also agree with all of these statements. The best step you can take in fighting the constant feed of manipulation is to TURN IT OFF or better yet, cancel your cable subscription. I do watch some tv, mostly on dvd of downloaded episodes of currently running shows I actually enjoy.

Many Americans are in a habitual state of behavior by which the tv is turned on immediately after coming home from work, school or whatever fills their day. Often, the tv stays on through dinner and remains on until bedtime. Many of these people then watch more tv in their bedroom prior to sleep. Some fall asleep with the tv on, set to a sleep timer. “I can’t fall asleep without the tv” is one argument. The tv delivering some feeling of comfort and security is frightening to me. In these kinds of all too common cases, the bombardment of messages, suggestions and advertising is constant.

Try, for one week, to not turn on the tv when you walk into your home. The desire to watch will seem, at first, almost unbearable. After that week, you may just realize how little tv contributes to your life and, in fact, how much it takes away.
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Sure, I’ve gotten annoyed by the eyesore of Leopard’s new Stacks feature. Looks like a jumbled mess and since the icons change based on the contents, it’s hard to tell the Stacks apart if you have multiple Stacks without constant icons. I briefly read over the modified date hack to keep a constant icon and it seems like a hassle. I wanted something quick and easy to implement so I figured out a better way. Here’s an easy tip for creating a static icon (or custom icon) at the front of the Stack.
Myself, I have four Stacks in the Dock: /Applications, Utilities, Documents and Downloads (pic 1).

When clicking on the Stack, I think the trick becomes pretty clear, as seen here
(pic 2).

This trick is simply achieved by creating a folder within the folder you intend to use as a Stack and change its name to a space character. After that, just do a Cmd+I (Get Info) on the icon you’d like to use, select the icon, copy it (cmd+c) then Get Info again on the new folder and paste the icon onto the existing folder icon. Voila! new constant icon (pic 3).

The only drawback here is you can’t sort the Stack by anything except “Name” because it will obviously sort to whatever matches that criteria. I prefer sorting by name anyway so this works out great for me and I hope it works for you too.

Every damn post or review I read states something about the iPhone’s non-removable battery. I have had my LG Chocolate phone for over a year and I have NEVER replaced the battery. I don’t know anyone who carries a spare battery with them. My girlfriend (who just bought the iPhone yesterday) and I have wall and car chargers for our phones. If you charge the battery you won’t need a spare. If there’s a problem with the iPhone’s battery it’s COVERED UNDER WARRANTY. Take it in and have it repaired or replaced. Apple is fantastic about hardware repair and support. The battery thing isn’t an issue and should not be used as a “competitive feature” other phones have over the iPhone. Seriously.

I keep seeing it on the internets, this is Verizon’s “iPhone killer”. Please, not even close.
I am currently a VZW customer who’s stuck with the original LG Chocolate (vx8500) and dissatisfied more every day. It’s not a bad phone, it just doesn’t suit my needs anymore. I have grown to need a full (qwerty) keyboard, a bigger screen, full HTML web browsing and a better camera. I am willing to pay for these features. Since I am locked into a contract for another year, I am looking at paying full retail price for ANY device I want. When the phone’s price becomes a non-issue, the playing field levels out considerably when comparing devices, regardless of carrier.
This is my personal review and partial rant about the new LG Voyager (vx10000) and Verizon. Weighing in at $469 retail, it doesn’t offer much outside of looks that other, less attractive devices like the Samsung i760 do for slightly more money without being crippled by the always disappointing Verizon interface.

The Voyager does a good job in the looks department, it’s not a bad looking phone overall with gloss black and chrome trim, large front screen and a big keyboard. The branding is muted, small and stamped in chrome, similar to the original chocolate. Most LG devices are nice to look at, which is what initially roped me into the Chocolate, my first non-pay as you go phone. It stole enough look from the iPod to make it alluring. Same deal with the Voyager, steals enough of the iPhone’s simple visual design to warrant an immediate comparison. However, the front screen is smaller than it could have been, same with the second screen once flipped open. The front screen could have stretched farther, north and south, gaining about another inch of screen real estate. Inner screen could have been a tad wider also. Both screens are low res. I’m supposed to watch video and surf the net on this thing? Hey Verizon, bump up the number of pixels!
The overall size is smaller than I expected. It looked much bigger in photos I had seen. Then there’s the weight, it’s extremely light, which to me, makes it feel cheaply made. My chocolate phone weighs more than the Voyager and it’s tiny! The Voyager is strong on looks but skimps on quality of build parts.

The Voyager could have been all that without treading into smartphone territory, big touch screen, 2 MP auto-focus camera, html web browsing, full keyboard, mobile tv, music & movie playback and function as a mass storage device but no Verizon drops the ball again.

The touch screen is nice but it’s a gimmick. Same tired VZW UI, menus, and options. There is a virtual keyboard but you only see it when using the web browser, you can’t use it to write text messages. I have this giant screen and I have to use an alphanumeric keypad unless I open the phone? At least make using it an option.
The HTML web browser is decent but sluggish and I can live without Flash. No java since the phone runs on BREW, which sucks. Pages render s-l-o-w-l-y and navigating by dragging your finger is a joke since the phone takes at least a second to move the page after dragging. Drag, wait, drag wait. No thanks. After adding a full HTML browser seems like a waste when you have to switch to “optimized web” in order for it to perform reasonably well. Oh, and it’s EVDO is the slower Rev.0. Why no Rev.A? I have a side business selling online so more and more, internet access becomes important but I’m not ready for a (usually ugly) PDA with a slew of features I’ll never use.
Adding VCast for unlimited data is a must to get the full functionality out of this phone but it adds MobileTV. I haven’t tried this but it seems interesting. The camera is a mediocre 2 MP with slow auto-focus. For being a flagship phone, this thing should have had 3MP minimum AND a flash. The physical keyboard is similar to the enV but I like the rubber coating present on the Samsung i760 keyboard.

Expandable memory up to 8 GB microSD is nice but means I have to spend MORE money for moderate storage (internal 184 MB doesn’t cut it for a media-centric device). A better Mobile Email app is nice but I would prefer to install Mobile Gmail. Oh, Verizon phones don’t do Java, guess I’m out of luck.

In conclusion, the LG Voyager may be on a decent network and look nice but it’s a half-hearted attempt at capturing a burgeoning US market that wants more out of their phone without jumping into PDA/smartphone territory. LG needs to stop buckling to Verizon and crippling their phone to the point where they are practically useless for anything except making phone calls.

After seeing earlier today that Samsung’s recent F700 is coming to VZW under the model number U940 (it’s crippled too with a 2 MP camera instead of the original 5 MP or even later 3 MP, probably VZW’s awful UI instead of the slick Croix interface.. WTF?!?!) I will probably hold out for that phone and see if it improves in any of the areas where the Voyager has failed.

People like(d) to complain about the iPhone’s price but when you’re in a spot like me and forced to pay full retail so you don’t have to get another contract, the iPhone doesn’t seem so expensive anymore. Add to the fact that and SDK will be out for the iPhone in February 2008, this is just the beginning of what the iPhone is capable of offering customers. More and more it seems the iPhone is a platform and not just a phone/iPod. It would be nice if the big carriers (I’m looking at you, Verizon!) would learn to get out of the phone makers’ way so we could see some truly innovative devices hit the US market.

So I attended the Pittsburgh visit of the Adobe AIR (adobe integrated runtime) Bus Tour tonight (posted late, happened on Aug 17). I missed most of the opening keynote, walking in on the last 15 minutes. Right after, they moved into the first of several evening lectures. During the first two or three I felt exhilaration, getting ideas and inspiration to dive into a new web framework. How couldn’t I after being greeted with a goody bag containing a CD of Flex Builder 3 Beta 1 and other SDKs, two PDF O’Reilly AIR reference books and a load of examples, one print copy of the O’Reilly books “AIR for Javascript Developers Pocket Guide”, 40% off my next O’Reilly purchase, 3 FREE months of Media Temple hosting and up to $129 off the full event pricing for Adobe’s MAX conference in Chicago when they’re launching AIR 1.0?

I was meeting a friend at this event but he eventually didn’t make it, thanks to being stuck late at work (till 11pm!). As the night wore on and we came up on the first break I came to a harsh realization.. I was in over my head. I’ve been seriously struggling to learn ANY programming language and getting besieged with ActionScript and JavaScript jargon, I could feel the floor sinking like quicksand. I didn’t want to leave, hell, they were giving away a copy of CS3 Master Collection! How couldn’t I stay for that?

I didn’t win it.
Boo!

This AIR seminar got me pumped though so it’s tempting to jump ship again for Flex and AIR. Initially, I was bummed when I went home. Programming seemed so hard and they covered material so quickly that I felt lost after the first hour. Most of the attendees are already programmers, they already get it. Thinking about the whole talk the next day got me thinking about WHY I wanted to program at all. I really like desktop apps and really like the Mac way apps work but web developers are always in demand and I felt that would give me more job options. AIR bridges that gap between the desktop and the web. In fact, it bridges the Mac/Windows divide as well.

The lecture “Building your First AIR App with Flex” is really cool. It showcases the ease of building the app base in Flex, creating your UI and adding some functionality with Actionscript.
Later on Kevin Hoyt re-built all the apps with HTML and Javascript to show off the flexibility of AIR for both Flash/Flex and HTML/Javascript developers.
Go watch all the onAIR videos posted to date.

AIR actually works a lot like the guts of OSX which runs on Core Data, Core Image, Core Audio & Core Animation. Common frameworks that all apps can take advantage of thereby saving the programmer time and allowing he or she to focus on how to make the app BETTER instead of just making it at all. After 10+ years there doesn’t seem to be anything like that in any version of Windows. AIR fixes that enough that an indy developer could build true cross-platform apps that look and work great, finally bringing some of the Mac class over to Windows.