A few extra “Mortal Combat” Phrases from the Announcer
(100% flash so may not render well in RSS readers):
You down with LHC?
Be afraid:
I built myself a new toy (computer, that is)..
So I finally decided to do a complete computer makeover and now enjoy the wonders of PCI-E vs AGP land. Here are the results of this endeavor (Newegg links but actually mostly purchased @Fry’s Eectronics):
OS:
It has been a busy week at work so I am still tweaking and installing software but besides upping the level of eye candy, so far, Vista is neither the bane or salvation of Windows operating systems. And probably if AMD/ATI would actually release a better OpenGL implementation in its Linux driver (so I can play Oblivion under wine) this may have been a single boot machine.
64-bit is the new 32-bit (AMD64 Ubuntu Install)
Never one to be satisfied with a boring working OS, I decided that since 32-bit Ubuntu “just worked” I would attempt to install 64-bit Ubuntu. Installation and hardware recognition went just as smoothly as with 32-bit Ubuntu. And my first impression of 64-bit Ubuntu is that is appears to be a little “snappier” than 32-bit but both blow away XP. After installation of the OS and application of updates everything seemed just as smooth as before with the 32-bit version including the restricted ATI driver. I then proceeded to again follow:
http://linuxondesktop.blogspot.com/2008/04/things-to-do-on-your-new-ubuntu-804.html
Things that seems to be a little different:
– Sun will not create a 64-bit Java browser plugin until Java 7 (sometime in 2008) so you will need to use the GCJ plugin (Iced Tea) for java applets, although there may be compatibility issues with some sites. Alternatively you can install 32-bit Firefox and all the 32-bit plugins you want. There will also be a subsequent Java 6 plugin to follow sometime in early 2009(See bug fix)
– If you are one to install w32codecs, they are not available by that name, you need to use: non-free-codecs
– There doesn’t appear to be a 64-bit Shockwave plugin although Adobe flash seems to work without issue.
– Again although Acrobat does install, the acrobat plug-in does not seems to be available for 64-bit Firefox. Of course, this is not earth shattering by any stretch of the imagination.
– (Is anyone else detecting a pattern concerning 64-bit Closed Source plugins for linux?)
Well, that’s it for now. I will attempt the wine & Oblivion install in 64-bit and let you know what happens.
Ubuntu – it just works
Well I finally blew away and reinstalled Ubuntu from scratch and I am now a much happier camper. I had done an upgrade from 7.10 -> 8.04 alpha -> 8.04 final release and my video driver was not in a happy place (could not use the restricted driver at all and any attempt to enable it resulted in debugging pain). Today I burned the Ubuntu ISO onto a disc and installed over my Ubuntu partition. The install went relatively quickly and hassle free.
And best of all everything just plain works! Huzzah!
I then proceeded to follow this guide for getting some of the non-default features:
http://linuxondesktop.blogspot.com/2008/04/things-to-do-on-your-new-ubuntu-804.html
I’ve heard of some relatively recent good developments on the Wine & Oblivion front so that may be an exercise left for the near future. (And if that exercise messes up the OS, I at least know its pretty quick and easy to get back to a stable system)
The People’s Mario
Saw this on Wil Wheaton’s blog. Apparently at one point there was a rumor that Super Mario Brothers had a “communist agenda”. You can find the … err… proof here:
http://nedmartin.org/amused/communist-mario
So all of that reading just to setup this animation of how the game would have actually played if it were true:
http://terminal71.com/flash/mario.php
I like Crayons …
When I grow up I want to be able to play this game, actually, I want it now:
Here is a link to the game’s site, unfortunately it is still under development:
http://www.kloonigames.com/crayon/
A Great Bioshock review
I have not bought Bioshock yet as I need to find some time to play as well as perform a computer upgrade in order to play it. But I hope to get to it “soon”. But in the meantime I really enjoyed this review of it which I am blatantly borrowing the linkage from a friend’s blog.
Enjoy!
Etc : March 1 – 18
Babies take a lot of time … so here is a reader’s digest version of a post:
If you have an old Xbox lying around collecting dust, you may want to take a look here at an interesting project you can undertake relatively painlessly:
How to Go from Xbox to Xbox Media Center in 30 minutes
Pigeons appear to be relatively immune to avian flu and do not appear to spread it :
Avian flu virus H5N1 and pigeons: the facts
The Invincible, Flu-Immune Pigeon
Linux it’s not just for dual boot systems anymore:
30 days with Linux
I have never really gotten into myspace, or classmates.com, etc but I do have to say that I am really liking LinkedIn.com as a “professional” networking site. Check it out.
Network interface mystery
I did something yesterday I hadn’t done in a while, I rebooted my Gentoo Linux box. I use it for samba shares/backups, DNS & DHCP (using dnsmasq), and it also does a good job of protein folding in its spare time(Foldingathome). I have also been extremely good about keeping the system up to date using the portage package manager. After the reboot though, my poor little box was isolated from the network and it made no sense. The routing was correct, the link lights were lit on my two network cards. I have two because one is used to talk to the rest of the network through my router and the other plugs into my Vonage IAD (Integrated Access Device for those of you not into telecom voip lingo) for maintenance of that box, if needed. So everything looks correct, and I am driving myself somewhat insane resetting the router, re-verifying everything but still no love … I’ve been using this static IP setup since sometime in 2004 and if this box isn’t talking to the network everything goes to a bad place since no dns & dhcp are available. Looking online I found little (once I got a computer talking to the internet by bypassing things). So here is the punchline … apparently the latest and greatest version of udev initializes my ethernet cards in a different order, so my former eth0 is now eth1 and vice versa. After changing some config files around to use the eth0 interface instead of eth1 all is now well (after the fact though, I do realize I could have just swapped the cables in the network cards to achieve the same effect).
If you have this problem sometime in the future, I hope this helps.
Essential Windows Software
As I’m probably going to be building a computer in the near future as a gift, I figured I would go ahead and share what I consider to be the essential free software to add to a fresh windows installation. You may disagree but here it is :
Documents :
FoxIt Reader – Faster than Acrobat, and feels more lightweight
PDF Creator – create a virtual printer to print PDFs from any app that prints
OpenOffice – Office suite compatible with that other guy’s
Yahoo! Desktop Search – fast, and easy search for your files
Picture Organizer/Touchup :
Picassa – From Google, easy and ituitive
Browser :
Firefox – fast, and just as bloated as you make it
Firefox Extensions :
Sage – RSS Feed Reader, integrates with live bookmarks, and feeds are customisable with style sheets.
Google Browser Sync – Just use the bookmarks (don’t use the cookies, history, or password synchonization as it make me a little quesy)
Google Notebook – Notebook meet bookmarks
BugMeNot – Never register for a one use password again
Media Players :
Itunes – maybe a little bloated but works really well
Media Player Classic – nice video player, plays several formats, harkens back to the days before MS went overboard with Windows Media Player
Virus/Spyware :
Avast! – antivirus suite, frequently updated, easy to use
Windows Defender – Spyware removal for dummies
Spybot S&D and Ad-aware – Backup Spyware detectors
Paranoia :
Eraser – really get rid of files, or whole drives
Extra Geeky :
Sun Java – java runtime/compiler
Cygwin – posix layer for windows, give you access to *nix tools
PuTTY – Windows Telnet/SSH client
TightVNC – Remote Control Software for you computer
Diet Coke & Mentos
Is there anthing those two things can’t do?
From the wacky folks at EepyBird.com, please enjoy!
Google : Calendar
Looks like Google launched their online calendar program this evening. Seems pretty spiffy. You can find it at :
Quick Feature Rundown :
Imports from:
- Microsoft Outlook
- Yahoo! Calendar
- Apple iCal
Notifications :
- Pop-up, if app is open
- SMS, text message
General :
- You can create multiple calendars
- You can share a calendar
- You can make a calendar private or public
- You can create invites (Evite competition, anyone?)
Will revisit in a few days after I have played with it some.
Phosphor : A FPS In your browser
As seen on HardOCP.com, ever want to play a first person shooter, in your browser. Well some one has coded up a 7MB shockwave execcutable and yes it does include multiplayer among other features. Take a look over at :
 http://www.rasterwerks.com/game/phosphor/beta1.asp
Harry Potter’s Car has been stolen
The “Flying” Ford Anglia from the Harry Potter movies has been stolen off of the studio lot. Here is the article :
Reuters
BTW, Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire opens on 11/18.
Noooooooooooo!
Seen on digg.com :
If rumors are to be believed the new Star Wars : Revenge of the Sith DVD contains a hidden Easter egg of Yoda getting funky to “The Roots – Don’t Say Nuthin“. (Lyrics)
The Easter egg, if real, has leaked onto the internet and can be found :
Here and Here
I still haven’t gone out to buy this DVD and I’m not sure if this is a motivator. (Although Episode III was definately better than The Phantom Menace and The Clone Wars as a whole.)
