Just for giggles (obviously)

Things you will need

1. VirtualBox
2. A copy of 10.6 (SL_10.6.6i_by_Hazard.iso is what I used)
3. A PC With the VTX extensions
4. Some time and patience

• Install VirtualBox onto the PC, and install the extensions
• Fire up VirtualBox, and create a new Virtual Machine by clicking new at the top
• Name it MacOSX (or whatever, but use the word Mac and it will auto select Mac OSX as the OS, if mot make sure you select it) 
  
• Click next throught most of the rest of it, I’d say give it as much ram as you can, but my laptop chugs along quiet happily with 768mb, and create a new virtual disk.
• Right click the new VM, and select Settings, pop to System and untick the enable EFI option (and floppy). I set the boot order to HDD then CD because I always forget to unmount the disk, but that’s upto you. Also check the Display option to make sure 3D Acceleration is enabled. 
  
• Mount the DVD into the virtual DVD Drive 
  
• Fire up the VM and it will load the Chameleon, press enter to load the OS Installer and wait for it to get into OSX. 
  
• Select your language, and agree to the licenses etc, now select Utilities, Disk Utility, Select the raw disk, click Partition, select 1 Partition, name the disk, and make sure the format is Extended (Journaled) and click Apply. 
   
• Click close on the Disk Utility and you will be back to the installer screen, don’t click install just yet, rather click Customize 
  
• From there expand Chameleon Boot loaders, select Chameleon RC5, and Chameleon Options and select Ethernet Builtin and Graphics Enabler, then scroll down to Patches and select USB Fix and NTFS (if you want to read Win formatted disks). Anything else you want installing (Fonts, X11, whatnot) now’s the time to pick it. 
  
• Ok out of that, and click install, go make a cup of tea, as it will take a few minutes to do it’s thing. After it finishes it will reboot, sometimes the reboot will fail with a kernel panic, don’t worry, just reset the VM (right CTRL-R) and make sure to either eject the CD, or change the boot order so the Hard disk boots, not the CD.
• That will bring you into OSX, and have you go through the initial configuration. You don’t need to use an AppleID, but doesn’t seem to hurt if you do use one. Just make sure to give yourself a login with a password (makes that the SU password then)
• Right, we now have 10.6 up and running, however that’s not the latest build, and there will be updates. DONT do them from the updater! it will overwrite the Kernel, then it wont boot properly (if doing this on Physical, most modern Intel CPU’s can do this, as the standard kernel will be fine). Right we need to download the update and do it manually, so pop to the Apple OSX 10.6.7 Combo Update page and download it to the machine (the OSX machine), and also before clicking anything, download the 10.6.7 Legacy Kernel Package
• Right then, install the Combo update, but whatever you do leave it on the screen saying Restart, DONT RESTART Rather now run the Legacy Kernel 10.7 Package installer. Continue through, and select Legacy Kernel (if your on an AMD, then select that as well) and let it install. When finished select the restart option in the Combo update. When you see the Kernel Panic Press Right CTRL-R. 
  
• Well done, your successfully now running MacOSX 10.6.7, have fun with your ‘Mac’. 
  

I thought I would pop a quick post together to rundown how to get yourself a Google Voice number outside the USA.

Why? well it’s handy if you have US friends to have a US number, and hell, it’s fun to play.

First up, we need a US number to start with.

• First up, pop over to Callcentric and signup for a new account, doesn’t take long, just go through the confirmation email as well, and yes you can use your UK address to signup.
• OK, so halfway to getting a US number as Callcentric is a SIP only number (1777*), login to your Callcentric account, Click Preferences and copy your SIP number into the clipboard.
• Now let’s get that SIP number responding to a proper US phone number. Head on over to IPKall for that.
• Make sure the account type is set to SIP, pick an area code you like and pop the 177 number into the SIP Username field, set the hostname to in.callcentric.com and the email address and password to the same as you used for Callcentric.
• You will get an email from IPKall with your new phone number on it, keep that safe, we will need it in a moment.
• Now to activate the SIP account, download the Callcentric Softphone and install and run it, that will register it on your account (check by going to your dashboard and make sure it says registered in status)
• Next step is to get yourself a VPN tunnel to the USA, I use PrivateInternetAccess (payfor) but I know that HotSpotShield works as well, whichever way you go, make sure your in the USA, well at least as far as google thinks (Check Here)
• goto voice.google.com and login.
• Pick a number, user either the create me a number method, or whatever you fancy, upto you
• pop a 4 digit pin in when asked
• Right, here’s where we need the US phone number we got earlier from IPKall, pop it in when asked, and make sure your Callcentric softphone is up and running, as Google will call you to verify you now. Just pop the number in, and the next screen say call me now, pop the code into the keypad that they give you and hey prsto, Google Voice.
• Pop over to marketplace/Appstore and download the mobile app for it.
• You now have a US telephone number (well 2 actually), hopefully when/if Google enable SIP direct to Google Voice you can make US calls for nothing/little