Few Things

Beautiful CG water by Scanline Flowline VFX:



Converting Pi to binary: do not do it.


On the Edge of Blade Runner: documentary.

Finished

Just updated to Edgy and installed Beryl following these instructions.

Added these to my sources:

deb http://www.beerorkid.com/compiz edgy main-edgy
deb http://media.blutkind.org/xgl/ edgy main-edgy
deb http://compiz-mirror.lupine.me.uk/ edgy main-edgy
deb http://ubuntu.compiz.net/ edgy main-edgy

Then:

sudo apt-get update

Since I use an Intel card:

Add to Section "Device":

Option "XAANoOffscreenPixmaps" "true"

And at the end of the file:

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "true"
EndSection

In /etc/X11/xorg.conf.

Then install Beryl:

sudo apt-get install beryl-core beryl-plugins beryl-plugins-data emerald beryl-settings beryl-manager beryl beryl-dev emerald-themes

Then just start with beryl-manager.

Works like a charm, and quite fast too after tinkering with some effects and themes.

Oki Printers In Ubuntu

Just wanted to share this quick story: recently I had to install Oki C5700 drivers on an Ubuntu machine. A quick look at the web panel revealed that it was not supporting ipp (Cups). So you have to set it up as a Unix Printer (LPR).

After that it seems to work fine. (It is a great laser printer by the way.)

Edgy Tomorrow!

Ah the suspense: Edgy Eft is coming out tomorrow (if all goes well).

Here are the update instructions once more:

• (Backup.)
• gksu "update-manager -c -d" for the masses: quick and easy.
• Or replace dapper with edgy in /etc/apt/sources.list and do a sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade.
• Make sure everything is ok:
  sudo apt-get -f install
  sudo dpkg --configure -a

Of course, this is all over Digg and others. But I just couldn't help sharing this. It'll be a tense day tomorrow...

A Linkdump

Here are some links I found to be interesting the past few days:

• Google acquires YouTube. This didn't exactly came as a surprise.
• "Insults - they just don't make them as they used to" - via Reluctant Nomad, a great post with - indeed - some great "insults". For example:
  "He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts...for support rather than illumination." -- Andrew Lang
• "How to create professional HDR images" - via Backing Winds.
• No silver bullet, by Brooks. I had to read this last year in an "informatics" class and saw it mentioned on Delicious. It still is a good read.
• 10 Windows Explorer alternatives compared and reviewed. I know that a lot of people I know love Total Commander.
• Hacking Web 2.0 applications with Firefox.
• Lifehacker special: Practice your personal Kaizen.
• The 7 worst fonts. I fully agree. Especially with number one.
• Kevin Tiell photographs pinball games.
• Social bookmarking icons. So that's where you found them! A great list.
• Have some fun with these Unicode block elements. Or even better: use this.
• A Javascript web spider...
• 3 easy steps to avoid Javascript memory leaks.
• Adventures in Javascript testing.
• Lazarus review. (Also: an Ubuntu .deb of Lazarus in multi/uni-verse would be really nice... pretty please?)
• How the immune system avoids attacking itself.
• Software startup myths debunked.
• Samsung is doing very well these days and is about to release a 10 Megapixel phone.
• Free classical music.
• The top 100 NES games - ever.
• A woman drawn from inside out. A well-done animation.
• 10 techniques to get more comments on your blog.
• What happens if you stop smoking now?
• Warhammer RPG article (in German).
• Original Transformers movie, with original adverts too.
• Google Docs & Spreadsheets launches, completing the integration between Writely and Spreadsheets. A few days before, I was wondering when this would happen.

Enjoy, I'm out. Stay tuned for more posts.

Game: Scarface

I've finally figured out what was causing the error-on-startup in Scarface, Just Cause, and probably F.E.A.R.: Combat. The cause: Securom 7.

(If you experience a crash after the game actually started, e.g.: after the intro, then it's probably your sound drivers, update OpenAL and others...)

You see, I don't know why Securom 7 doesn't like my computer, but it probably has something to do with Daemon Tools. I don't know for you, but I for one does not like to swap CDs every hour of the day, so I make images and it's damn handy.

Yesterday I downloaded a no-cd crack for the game, it was my last hope to get it running. And what'd ya know: it starts... Sigh, this brings back memories of Starforce (anyone else remember that piece of...?), if this trend continues, I will be better of pirating all my games because then it'll at least work!

Anyway, the game itself isn't that special, the storyline and atmosphere are very GTA: Vice City-like, but that's a good thing. The controls on the other hand are just terrible, the game suffers from the much-too-common consolitas disease, what a pity.

If you have a console: just buy it for your PS2 or Xbox, you'll be much better of. If the controls could be patched (make them customizable and more responsive), then I would be happy to give this game another chance (the dialogue with all the swearing is funny as hell).

And then the cars: why do they drive like bricks? This driving reminds me of that other game... (Damn, I can't remember the name.)

So dear developers: fix controls and driving. Thanks.

Maybe I'll search for a crack for Just Cause too, which is lying here somewhere still uninstalled...

Google Code Search (And Other) Fun

Google Code Search has been providing bloggers with a lot of searching-fun. Most talked about? Winzip key generation code. There are also a lot of passwords floating around. Just as potential buffer overflows. Some geek jokes and a lot of things which need to be fixed or need to be done.

On a side note: be sure to watch the South Park World Of Warcraft episode ;).

Defcon Is Out

A few weeks ago I posted a little something about Introversion's upcoming game: Defcon. The Windows version has been released and I've been playing the demo for a bit. The game itself is nothing breathtakingly special but it is a really nice game to play between the hours (in fact, I've been saying "just one more round" in the middle of the night). It's a game you play in a window at the office when no-one's watching (in fact: the game does have an "office"-mode where you can quickly use a boss-key).

I suggest you go download the demo and buy it when you like it: these guys really deserve it.

A Mac and Linux version will be out later, but in fact I could run this game very smoothly in Wine in Linux (only one crash but I'm not sure that was Wine/Defcon-related). Since the game is programmed using OpenGL, what would you expect? (Maybe I'll post a screenshot of Wine running Defcon later.) So porting it to Linux should go without problems.

Conclusion: nice game for when you don't want to spend a whole evening playing a game ("just a quickie") or when you liked the movie "Wargames" or when you love planning strategies, because the multiplayer aspect really makes this game fun!

Another hit in the shops? Probably not. A cult classic: probably yes.

Via Digg: Cool Spyware Video

This just made the frontpage and is just too 'awesome' to miss. A video of a Windows installation becoming infected with spyware. Remember: update often, update early, or/and use Firefox/Opera.