PS3 - Doesn't recognize external hard drive formatted in FAT32

I searched everywhere on the internet.. clearly not enough, for my hard drive wasn't recognized by my PS3. The most common issue was not being in FAT32 format. Which everyone says every modern OS supports, but clearly they do not support it enough, because the most common response to formatting the drive was to buy new windows software.
I tried many approaches that did not work, but maybe they did and I didn't know it, its still not clear why my eventual solution did work. After trying to format on Linux, Windows vista, Windows 7 and even putting the drive in the PS3 and then back in the USB, plugging it into the PS3, it was still not recognized.
I connect the drive to my Mac and formatted it in FAT filesystem. In 10.6 it doesn't say FAT32 but it is. Don't try exFAT either, that doesn't work. Then I created some folders, based on this article. I plugged it in and it was instantly recognized. I'm not sure if the Mac got the formatting right, or it was the folders. It seems hard to believe the PS3 couldn't get the formatting right.
Not a single article in the dozens I read said anything about making these folders to do a backup before swapping out a drive, or trying to get an external drive to work. Everyone seemed to format in FAT32 and it just worked. If you think your drive is in the proper FAT32 and it still isn't being recognized, you might give the folders a try.

Mac Battery - Replace Now - Then good??

After my upgrade to Snow leopard my battery suddenly died for good. Lots of suspicion on the internet about why that happens. I'm sure Apple didn't want to up the stock price or anything more accessory sales, but who knows. I needed a new battery so I braved the Mac Store at lunch time no less, stupid, but I did it. It was packed. The mall was empty, it was packed. I snagged a geek and in drive by, rude, interrupting question and found what I needed. Seamless check out from another geek and I was on my way. On the way out I realized they were actually having a camp for kids there, teaching kids to make videos. Who knew. I was just happy to escape in less than 20 mins. I get the battery home, swap out the old one and boot up. Then the anger sets in when its says replace now on my battery status. I finished the charge and still no luck. Before scheduling time with the geek I did a reboot, and it appears to be fully functional. Hopefully that continues to be the case. Many people online complained the new battery only lasted about a year. My first battery lasted 5 years, before snow leopard killed in a week.

Ubuntu 10.4 only had 3.2GB instead of 4gb

I noticed my Ubuntu box only had 3.2GB of RAM the other day when I was using RStudio for something. I was a little shocked. I went to the Ubuntu site which says it installs the PAE enabled kernel by default, but it clearly had not done so. The fix was easy enough:

sudo sudo apt-get install linux-headers-server linux-image-server linux-server

Then reboot and now I have 3.9 GB. I recently upgrade a windows laptop to Ubuntu 10.04 and it did install the PAE support just fine. I'm not sure why mine was not enabled, but its worth a 30 sec check to find out if you are using all your memory.