Tomb Raider Underworld

I always loved the Tomb Raider series, even in the dark days when the critics seemed to hate it.

Tomb Raider has been developed by a new company for the last 3 releases and they are doing a good job.

The latest release Underworld was really good, was old school Tomb Raider, but it seems I am in the minority when compared to newer games like Drake's Fortune.

I still need to play Drake's Fortune and maybe then too I will not be satisfied with Tomb Raider anymore, but I doubt it.

Assassin's Creed

I finished Assassin's Creed on the PS3 yesterday.

The game was very good. I liked the story line but the missions could get a bit repetitive at times.

The Informant missions was dumb as hell, didn't like them much.

The fighting engine was especially good.

Bioshock

I finished Bioshock for PS3. Took me a few days but being on leave I can play almost 8 hours a day now.

The game was really good. The story was very rich and I haven't had this much fun playing a game since Fallout 3.

So a game worthwhile investing my time.

My Playstation 3

I have been wanting to buy a PS3 for a while now, but I never got to it. I bought one today and I am very happy with it. Already I am streaming my media (movies, videos and photos) over the LAN to the PS3 to display on my new LCD TV.

I have no games yet and with South Africa's horrible broadband costs I also can't download any games. So Take2 will be my next stop for some games and maybe a Blu-Ray movie.

It seems to have been a worthwhile investment. No more ugly PC's in my living room.

I am a dad at last.

Alexis was born today. 2.85kg and 45cm tall.

Geat stuff.

Sinotec 42" Full HD LCD

My 84cm CRT TV broke for the second time, so I decided to buy the Sinotec 42" LCD TV.

Works amazing sofar. It even has a D-Sub input and can do 1360x768, so 720p movies on my hard disk can be displayed at great detail.

Video streaming wirelessly 2

Ok so I invested in the Ellies wireless AV sender / receiver. So far it works great. Only problems so far is when a heavy Thunderstorm is raging, the signal is very weak then, but other than that is seems to work great.

So now I can record my DSTV shows without the need for my PC in my living room.

Pinnacle Studio

So I tried a few things to get Pinnacle to record my shows in MPEG2 correctly but I failed. Now I just record the shows in DV quality and the use VirtualDub afterwards to encode it into DivX format. So no more sound sync problems and DivX is supported by most hardware these days anyway.

DarkStar One Cheat

I started playing DarkStar One and it is a very nice game but the level system sucks. You have to collect stupid crystals and that becomes boring very quickly.

So I used Artmoney to find the memory addresses for money and the crystals. So now I can set the crystal count, collect one more crystal and then levelling is all sorted.

The downside is the higher the ship level the more difficult the enemies become, but that is fine, I like the fighting part it was just the mundane crystal hunting I didn't like. So I added these 2 cheats in the .amt file.

Artmoney

I found a new way of cheating in my games. Some games are just so boring or mundane that cheating is the only way to enhance the experience. Low level cheating of course, just that little extra to take the boring out of it. This usually boils down to cheating with money. I found this nice tool to help. It is called Artmoney and works well.

American Road Trip

I decided that starting 2009 I will start saving for my American road trip. The current draft route is quite long but I would manage to see all the stuff I want to see.

We will have to do some miles in South Africa first before we attempt this one. Maybe a nice Southern African tour as soon as Bob is out of the picture.

94.7 Mountain Bike Challenge

So I did the 94.7 MTB Challenge, 40km. Finished in 3 hours and 20 minutes. The route was very muddy, so maybe I will have a faster time next year, but still I am happy with the time I did.

HTML Signatures in GMail

I always wanted an HTML signature in GMail but could never get it right. Now with some Firefox magic I can.

BlackCanvas has a plugin that does just that.

So now I can have this as my signature

Ubuntu 8.04

So Windows Vista kept on complaining about me not buying it yet, so I decided to get legal and get rid of Vista. My previous experience with Ubuntu on my laptop was good but I had to do a lot of tweaking.

I decided that this time around if it does not install out of the box I am not installing it, will get Vista or XP instead then. Much to my surprise it worked out of the box first time. Even Compiz works in Ubuntu 8.

So all in all a very good experience.

Winter gloves

Commuting to work and back with the motorcycle gets very cold now that the winter is starting. So I invested in the IXS Mirage gloves. Swiss made apparently and hopefully it helps. I do not want to invest in heated grips, not at 10x the price of the gloves, so here's hoping it works.

Kawasaki Z750

I currently own the Kawasaki 250cc baby Ninja, but I went to look at the Kawasaki Z750 in real life and I am convinced this is the bike I want. The thing is awesome, and with the optional extras the bike is really going to rock. Unfortunately I will only be able to buy it in April 2009 or even later, which really sucks.

MPEG2 sound sync problem

The Pinnacle Studio software I am using to encode my movies to MPEG2 always seems to have a sound sync problem. Apparently it is a known problem so this tool might help.

I will give it a whirl today and see if it works.

Speedtraps

I had the great fortune today to drive 120km/h in a 60km/h zone with my new motorcycle. There was a retarded cop with his radar gun and I thought damn! That is when I remembered my motorcycle does not have a license plate in the front only the back, so these retards with their radar guns can keep on coming I do not care anymore, they can't catch me. Maybe they will start doing some real work now instead of just sleeping under a tree with the radar gun pointing to the oncoming traffic.

Detecting the screen resolution in Ubuntu

To detect your monitor's correct settings to allow the correct resolutions just run this command from the console: sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

Install Ubuntu 7.10 in Virtual Server

I need to install Ubuntu 7.10 onto a Microsoft Virtual Server VPC and this post might be a good place to start.

Samsung DVD-R Sucks

So in my previous post I talked about my new Samsung DVD Recorder. What a piece of junk it turned out to be. The thing broke after just 6 weeks of use. I had to fight with Makro for almost 2 months to get my money back I paid for this piece of junk.

Makro's policy on electronic replacements are horrible to say the least, but I suspect all the retailers in South Africa has the same type of return policy, so I am between a rock and a hard place with this.

I took my money and went to HiFi Corp and bought myself a standard cheap Philips DVD player that support DivX playback.

Searching for comics online

This Tech Recipe shows how to search for electronic versions of comics using Google.

Video streaming wirelessly

I previously contemplated using VLC to stream video wirelessly around my house, but I recently discovered that Ellies already has the hardware available at a very affordable price.

The AV sender / receiver combo uses standard WiFi to transmit incoming audio and video. All I need to do is just hookup the sender to my PVR and the receiver to my monitor and magic starts.

I am also considering the USB2800 or the Pinnacle Studio 500 video capture devices. So in conjuction with the Ellies AV sender, I can play videos on my PVR / Camcorder / VCR and record it on my PC using the USB video capture devices.

Windows Vista

I decided to format my laptop's hard disk and install Windows Vista. Gone was my Windows XP and Ubuntu dual boot setup. The reason? I gave up the fight with my tech. department regarding their network which is very unfriendly to any OS except Windows. I could not VPN into work from my home using standard VPN protocols, I needed to boot Windows XP to enable the use of some Microsoft propriety software just to get into the VPN.

So I decided it is too much hassle to get it working, so I installed Vista and now everything should go smoothly and if it doesn't at least I can log a call at the tech. dept. to fix the problem.

PowerToys

My company bought me a 22" Acer LCD monitor the other day. Unfortunately my fonts didn't seem quite right with the new monitor. I forgot about the PowerToys utility from Microsoft and my boss mentioned to me that PowerToys has some ClearType tweaking tool. I downloaded it and now my fonts are all clear and smooth again, definitely recommended for any LCD monitor user.

Comic book subscription

My Spider-Man subscription with Sci-Fi Genre was less than ideal. I subscribed with the understanding that my comics will only be shipped once my basket was worth $20, what I did not know was that the will ship my comics every two months regardless, so now my first shipment is on its way but the comics are worth $6 and my shipping costs are $13, so my shipping is double what my comics are worth. So I unsubscribed from the service.

What I will test next is the possibility of using the back issue order feature to order my comics in bulk but in arrears, basically I will order 12 issues at the end of the year and it will be shipped to me in one shipment.

My DC and Marvel subscription has been going strong so far without any hiccups, so I am considering just using the direct subscriptions again and just backorder the issues I am missing.

GSpace

A colleague I work with mentioned the GSpace service to me a while back but I never thought it will be of any benefit to me. The idea behind GSpace is simple, it allows you to upload files to your GMail account as if it was just another off site storage medium.

I have my own always online off site server so I never saw the need for yet another. What I did not know was that GSpace not only uploads the files to GMail but it simulates standard email, thus I can use the standard GMail features to manipulate these files.

The benefit only came to full realization when I used GSpace to backup my Excel and Word documents from my new Palm Treo 750 to GMail. I can now access any of my Word or Excel documents anywhere plus I can edit them using the standard Google documents feature, so updating my documents via the web is easy and when I sync with my Palm I just download the latest versions of the documents from GMail onto the Palm again.

It is a bit manual at this point in time but it works surprisingly well.

Spb Software

I have been using my new Palm Treo 750v for a while now and I bought a few applications already. I will not be able to use my Treo without these applications anymore.

Most of my applications were developed by Spb Software but I did buy a simple list manager from PDA House. My current list of must have software is

• Spb Diary
• Spb GPRS Monitor
• Spb Mobile Shell
• My Checklist

I am investigating Spb Phone Suite but my Palm Treo 750v has most of the functionality it offers so $20 just for the profile management is a bit steep. I mailed Spb Software to find out if they could re-package Spb Phone Suite into a Spb Phone Suite Lite version for $10.

MMS support on the Treo 750v

So I received an MMS but my phone refused to download the MMS from the server. My MMS settings was not setup out of the box. Very disappointing for a Vodafone branded phone, I am definitely not impressed.

I phoned Vodacom SA to try and get the correct settings from them but they failed to give me the correct information to setup my MMS.

Luckily a friend of mine had the same problem with his HP PDA Phone so I mailed him and he pointed me to this forum post.

Unfortunately it still did not work but luckily I only needed to make one small change, the gateway server IP and port needs to be supplied for the Treo 750v to work. Thus 196.6.x.x became 196.6.x.x:9201.

A bit of a headache just to send and receive MMS messages.

MIDP 2.0 Support on my Treo 750v

The first thing I noticed of my new phone was that it is missing J2ME support. Luckily other people had the same problem than me and I quickly found the solution in Intent Midlet Manager for Windows Mobile.

So now I can use my standard GMail client as well as Opera Mini.

My baby is 12 weeks in the making

Images of the latest sonar scan is available.

Palm Treo 750v

It seems Vodacom SA is Vodafone obsessed lately. I asked Vodacom SA to supply me with a Palm Treo 750 and they insist on giving me the Palm Treo 750v. Unfortunately for me the only way to get the Palm Treo 750 is to switch service providers, so I took the Treo 750v.

Lucky according to the comparison between the two Treos the only lacking thing on the 750v is HSDPA. That and the fact that my default theme is red and gray.

Treo 750

It is cell phone contract upgrade time again and this time I am getting the Palm Treo 750. It has Windows Mobile 5.0 as OS and not the standard PalmOS, which in my opinion is dying and needs a major rework. To me Windows Mobile is the only mobile OS that is still evolving and growing. Symbian and PalmOS are both not really growing and as with anything if it is not growing it is dying.

I still do prefer the Palm devices over the other devices from other manufacturers because of the design principles followed by the Palm company and the Palm Treo 750 seems to be the perfect device for me. The small thumb keyboard to me is better than the HTC TyTN's keyboard because it allows me to type SMS messages with just one hand without the need to flip the phone sideways to get access to the keyboard.

For larger documents etc. I am investigating a way of hacking my iPAQ bluetooth keyboard to work with my Treo 750, so meeting notes etc. will not be a big problem.

Some missing functionality I would have liked on this device is

• WiFi
• 3" LCD screen instead of 2.5"
• 320x240 resolution instead of 240x240
• 2MP camera instead of 1.3MP
• 400MHz CPU instead of 300MHz
• Have a docking station included as part of the package

Unfortunately the Treo 750 is on back order, so I might get the phone on the 12th of June.

Star Trek Voyager Season 1-7 DVD set

I received my Star Trek Voyager DVD collection yesterday and it all seems original and all but since I ordered it directly from China I do have my doubts. The video quality seems to be standard SDTV quality which would make sense since HDTV was not really that big when the series was aired. The soundtrack is also Dolby Digital 5.1, so it seems to checkout.

Video Streaming Hardware

I am very interested in the idea of streaming all my content via Wi-Fi at my house. The software seems to be available and ready. VideoLAN will take care of the streaming for me.

My problem is the hardware. If I want to be able to watch the streams anywhere in the house, I would need some portable media device which will be able to connect to the wireless network as well as output the stream via composite to some display device, either a TV or projector. It seems Gigabyte might have a solution in the form of a new motherboard. All I need then is a very small case that will allow me to carry the solution around the house.

Student Urinates on PS2

I found this interesting article on Kotaku today. Apparently some student decided it will be a good idea to urinate on his PS2. It seems the student was not part of the engineering faculty otherwise he would have known to unplug the PS2 from the wall socket first.

Baby Progress

My new baby is 9 weeks in development now. According to the manual he / she is now as big as a jelly baby. So just to put everything into context I bought a packet of jelly babies just to see how big my baby is now.

Notebook Suspend

Something I have noticed using Ubuntu 7.04 is that the suspend function works much better than Ubuntu 6.10. My notebook has been put into suspend mode and brought out of suspend mode frequently over the past weekend and Ubuntu 7.04 did it flawlessly every time. Ubuntu 6.10 would always fail to come out of suspend mode after a few suspends.

Program my DSTV PVR over the Internet

I was curious whether I could schedule recording times over the Internet. Basically I would use the DSTV website to set my recording times and then Multichoice would send the information to my PVR via the satellite connection.

Apparently a few other people also had the same idea as can be deducted from this forum post of mine. So hopefully by 2009 I will have this functionality.

Another instance where DRM causes more distress for the paying customer than the actual pirate they want to get rid of. If it was not for tight DRM policies DSTV could have opened their PVR for homebrew development which would have allowed this functionality to be developed by hobbyists like MythTV currently is.

I got DSTV

Since my wife fell pregnant we decided to get DSTV for the home. I had DSTV a few years back but I could not justify the cost of the subscription compared to the amount of TV I watched anymore. The problem usually was that the shows I wanted to see was screened at times I could not watch them and the amount of hassle involved in setting the VCR to record the shows every time was not worth it, not to even mention the amount of VHS tapes I required.

DSTV in their wisdom decided to release the PVR decoder and that put the whole subscription fee issue in a whole new light. The PVR allows me to set recording times for all my favorite shows thus insuring that I do not miss any of my shows, which means I finally get what I pay for, well almost.

I am a bit disappointed that DSTV decided to cancel the Sci-Fi channel, but I do like the extra nature shows and the new Disney channel. My frame of reference for old and new is 2002 vs. 2007, so the Disney channel might have been created a long time ago, but to me it is new.

I also bought myself a new Samsung DVD recorder. My LG DVD player packed up so I needed to replace it so I bought the DVD recorder instead of just a player. The upside is I can now play my recorded shows through my DVD recorder and record the shows I want to keep onto DVD-R. Shows like Nigella Feasts and Jamie's Kitchen are really shows I want to keep on DVD-R instead of on the PVR's hard drive.

Ubuntu Feisty Fawn

So I just upgraded from Edgy to Feisty using the Update Manager. I wasn't planning on upgrading just yet, but fears that my software updates and support will become lacking I decided to do the upgrade.

At first glance everything seems to be the same, my settings, customizations etc. One thing I did notice is my boot splash image that looks much better now. I have a HP laptop with ATI graphics and the boot splash images was always a bit off, the palette was all wrong etc.

My laptop is one of those that just would not install Ubuntu out of the box, my monitor was blank all the time, I had to boot with some custom boot option flags to force standard VGA to actually do the install of Edgy Eft. Since I used the standard Update Manager upgrade I can not comment on the current installation process regarding Feisty Fawn when you have to install from scratch.

I am a dad!

Well what a surprise it was for us to find out that we are expecting a brand new baby! It wasn't entirely by accident but still a surprise to see it happen so fast. We weren't really expecting to fall pregnant this fast. Anyway the first sonar pictures are available over at MarthinusSwart.com.

Superman #661

Superman #661 just arrived in the mail. So far the postal service has not disappointed me, really hope they keep up with the good service.

I like my Superman subscription but I must admit I prefer the Dark Knight (Batman) over Superman. The comics are darker and more mature. I think the Superman/Batman crossover comic books might be interesting.

I also discovered The Outer Limits close to my house. They have older issues available at reasonable prices so I think every now and again I will go and visit them to catch up on some past events in the DC as well as the Marvel universe.

Batman #664

It seems my comics are now arriving in a more consistent manner. I received Batman #664 today. I also received my copy of Star Trek Elite Force from my eBay seller today so I haven't read my Batman comic yet.

Judging from the cover it promises to be an action filled edition.
I will definitely make time to read it tomorrow.

Sci-Fi Genre

I do not have a subscription to Spider-Man yet so I decided to test Sci-Fi Genre and it seems to be a nice service. I added Amazing Spider-Man as my subscription and a set my subscription to mail me my comics as soon as my total cost is $20, this roughly translates to 8 comics. The delivery charge is $19 but then it is 4-10 business day air mail, which I feel is safer and more reliable than the normal Dark African postal service.

If the Sci-Fi Genre service works out fine I will not renew my DC or Marvel subscriptions after the 12 issue expiry. Sci-Fi Genre also gives a 10% discount if you subscribe to 5 or more comics. So Superman, Batman, Uncanny X-Men and Amazing Spider-Man, maybe Justice League America will be my 5th comic book subscription.

Superman #660

At long last I received my first issue of Superman. I am a bit disappointed with the DC Direct service. I placed my order 18 January 2007 and my first Superman comic was only mailed in March 2007. I inquired about my Batman comics and apparently my first Batman issue will be #664 and that will only be mailed to me within 2 weeks time. Adding the 6 - 8 week delivery time I will only get my first Batman comic at the end of May 2007.

In comparison Marvel started shipping comics the same month I ordered them. I also came across Sci-Fi Genre and it seems they may have a better deal for me. I can buy a subscription from them and they will keep all my comics until my counter is reached and then Air Mail all the comics to me in one go. The downside of this is that I will have to wait long periods of time before my comics get to me, but with the current Dark African postal service I guess it can't be worse.

Uncanny X-Men

Staying in South Africa it is very difficult to get hold of comic books, DC as well as Marvel, but I decided to take a leap of faith and buy a year's subscription directly from Marvel and DC of Uncanny X-Men, Superman and Batman.

Now Marvel and DC warned me that the first issue might take up to 10 weeks to reach me. Today was the exact 10th week from when I ordered my Uncanny X-Men and I received my first two issues in the mail today.

Now I am just waiting for my DC shipment.

Mono and 3D Games

I stumbled upon this interesting blog article regarding Mono and the Microsoft deal. It seems there is actually a company called Unity that is using Mono to create cross platform 3D engines.

It seems they only support Windows and Mac currently, which is strange but maybe it has something to do with the state the 3D drivers on Linux are in currently.

Vista Analyzed

I use Ubuntu as my exclusive desktop OS to get things done, but I am actually a C#.NET developer by profession. It is a weird combination but I prefer GNU/Linux over Windows because of the F/OSS philosophy.

Anyway back to Windows Vista, I am not planning on switching from Ubuntu to Windows Vista but I am planning on developing software for Windows Vista using C#.NET and this article just made me more excited. The new .NET Framework 3.0, previously known as WinFX is not just an add-on to the OS anymore but actually part of the OS.

The article is a bit long but worth the read I think.

WebmailCompose

At long last I found the Firefox plug-in I was searching for, the plug-in is called WebmailCompose but sadly it does not work in Firefox 2.x.

There is a hacked version available from Soaked & Soaped however that does work in Firefox 2.x. I installed it and it seems to work as I remembered.

Gmail Filesystem

I vaguely remember having a Firefox plug-in that allow me to send email via Gmail whenever I click on a mailto: link on any web page. In my search for this plug-in I stumbled across this site. Nothing spectacular about it until you read about the Gmail FS.

Now the Gmail FS allows any Linux system to mount the free space on your Gmail account as another filesystem. Now there is a Firefox plug-in called Gspace that also allows you to use your free Gmail storage but this to me makes more sense since I am using Ubuntu and I do love my console.

I haven't tried it yet, but maybe soon I will give it spin. I still haven't found the Gmail mailto: plug-in, maybe I dreamed it.

Tilda console

One thing of Linux in general I like and prefer is my console. For me the console is really not a nightmarish thing to fear, as a matter of fact I always had one console window open in Windows XP. I also installed Launchy on my Windows XP box because I find that typing what I want to do is faster than clicking the "Start" menu etc.

I recently subscribed to the Debian Package of the Day RSS feed and I was pointed to this amazing little application. It is called Tilda and it works a lot like the Quake console when you press the "~" key.






This is definitely a very nice application if you like consoles like I do.

FreeProxy

I decided to use only Ubuntu at office and home even if my VPN does not work in Ubuntu. The VPN problem was solved with a Windows XP vm that just connects to my office to get email etc.

My internet browsing was still a problem, I could not connect to the company via VPN to allow my Ubuntu notebook to connect to the company's proxy server. This I solved now by installing FreeProxy on a Windows XP box.

So my Ubuntu box uses the Windows XP box's proxy server and in turn the Windows XP box uses the company's proxy server via the VPN. So now I can surf the Internet using Firefox / Ubuntu.

As soon as bandwidth costs come down in good old SA, I will not need this proxy chaining anymore but until then, this approach really keeps my bandwidth costs down.

phpAlbum

I recently had the urge to upload my favorite photos to my website, but the amount of effort required to do so was too much for me, that was until I was pointed into the direction of phpAlbum.

Now this library is really good. To test drive just hit my album.

Ubuntu VPN, Microsoft Remote Access Quarantine

I finally discovered why my Ubuntu connects to my office via VPN and then disconnects shortly thereafter. My company's VPN server is Windows 2003 server machine and theyinstalled what is called Remote Access Quarantine, so if my client machine does not let the VPN server know that my machine is clean and safe, the VPN server disconnects me.

The tool required to do this is called "Remote Quarantine Connect (rqc.exe)", now I have not found any Linux tool that has the same functionality than rqc.exe to let my server know my machine is safe for use on the VPN.

I will just need to create a VM to connect to work from my Ubuntu box or just keep on using my Windows XP at home and Ubuntu at work.

Ubuntu vs Windows XP, Default fonts screen shots

I reconsidered posting screen shots of the fonts used on Ubuntu and Windows XP. Both screen shots are from Firefox 2.0.

The Windows XP screen shot.


The Ubuntu screen shot.



Also take note of my Amiga theme running on Ubuntu, I like it for some reason.

Ubuntu vs Windows XP, Default Fonts

Maybe it is because I have a laptop whose native resolution is 1920x1200 but whatever it is I prefer the default fonts used in Ubuntu over that of Windows XP.

I know some people want the Windows XP fonts otherwise Automatix would not have had a "msttcorefonts" option to install on Ubuntu.

For me personally the Windows XP fonts does not look as good on my laptop as the Ubuntu fonts especially when browsing the internet. I guess I could change the fonts manually on Windows XP, but out of the box I prefer Ubuntu over Windows XP when it comes to fonts.

Amarok Error

Today was the first day I used Parallels on my Ubuntu desktop and all of the sudden Amarok started acting up. When Amarok runs together with Parallels it seems my Ubuntu looses it 'DISPLAY', all my applications start up but none of them are visible.

After installing Listen music player again, it seems that my Ubuntu desktop is back to normal again with Parallels running. It is a pity because Amarok is a great music player, Listen unfortunately is just functional and that is it, no bells and whistles to this one.

Ubuntu vs Windows XP, VPN Access

Since I installed my ADSL connection, I am working from home two days of the week, which means I need VPN access to my office. Now I tried connection to my office using two different approaches in Ubuntu but I failed on both occasions.

The first approach was standard linux-pptp with a few scripts. I was successful to some extend, I did connect to my VPN and was able to browse the company network, but within a few seconds my connection to the VPN will close and I would have to reconnect to the VPN again.

So it was off to the drawing board again, this time I used the network-manager-gnome but again I would only connect for a few seconds to my VPN and then the connection would close. I did stumble across this section on the linux-pptp site, but I could not determine whether this was my problem.

The Windows XP approach was much better and easier. Given the company's VPN server is a Windows server and it is a Windows VPN it would make sense, but I would at least expected the VPN functionality on Ubuntu to be as easy and useful as the brilliant rDesktop but unfortunately it is not, and because of this whenever I work from home I am forced to boot into Windows to connect to my company's VPN.

Ubuntu vs Windows XP, Introduction

I recently had a chat with a friend of mine and he suggested since I am using both Ubuntu and Windows on a daily basis I should blog about the applications I find in useful and compare it to the equivalent application in Windows.

So every now and then I will post a blog about some GNU/Linux applications versus the Windows counterpart.

Broadband Access

I finally decided to take the plunge and install ADSL at home. Unfortunately here in good old South Africa the boradband options aren't that good so I will only get a 384kbps pipe into my house, but it should be fine.

Telkom, the service provider, also does not have a very good track record. I will have to wait for at least 3 weeks, hopefully not more.

Amarok

Being a devout gnome user I don't like installing KDE software on by Ubuntu machine but all the talk on the wire about Amarok made me curious enough to install it and try it out.

I must say that all the talk is justified, Amarok is really an amazing piece of software and I am thoroughly impressed.

Nokia 9300

I just received my Nokia 9300 and I am impressed so far. I downloaded the mobile GMail application and it works good. I think it works better than on my SE w550i.

The standard Inbox

Conversation view

Edgy Eft Power Management Applet

I was pleasantly surprised this morning to see my Edgy Eft power management applet support my wireless Logitech mouse.

Very nice touch.

flv2mpg

I regularly download movies from YouTube but they are always in Flash format which is no good for most people I want to email funny bits.

After some searching on the web I found that ffmpeg will be able to convert all my .flv files to .mpg files. I also found a nice script to do the job.

With some modifications to those scripts I created two scripts that will allow you to right click any .flv file in Nautilus and convert it to a .mpg file. The new .mpg file will have to same name than the .flv file and will be in the same directory.

Also it is possible to select multiple .flv files and convert all of them. The script will also check for a valid .flv file before converting it so to convert a lot of .flv files is a simple as Ctrl+A and then flv2mpg.

The attached flv2mp3.tar.gz contains both scripts and it should be as simple as just extracting the tar file into your home directory.

Ubuntu 6.10 Installed

Finally I installed Edgy Eft on my laptop. I had an unfortunate bug with my ATI FireGL drivers but the Ubuntu help sorted it out.

All I need to do now is install Automatix and all my other nice tools I am used to, will have to wait for Monday though, no broadband at home.

rDesktop 1.4 that comes with Edgy rocks, had some issues while my FireGL was still detected as Mesa compatible and not as fglrx compatible, but after the ATI fix my rDesktop is fast and very efficient.

Ubuntu 6.10 Released

At long last last Edgy Eft is available for download, unfortunately staying in South Africa with the Telscum (Telkom) monopoly it means my download will be done by sometime tomorrow if I am lucky.

So this weekend seems to be the Edgy Eft weekend I've been waiting for.

rDesktop

It seems I do not need to try and make Remote Desktop work on my Linux machine via Wine anymore. Apparently I can use rDesktop to connect to my Windows boxes via the RDP protocol, if this works well it will be brilliant.

Will try rDesktop as soon as I installed Ubuntu 6.10 on my Laptop.

Ubuntu 6.10

I can not wait for Ubuntu 6.10 to be released. I almost forgot how much Windows XP sucked. The last week of using XP again brought all my bad memories back. One more week and then I have my Ubuntu back again. Brilliant.

I broke Ubuntu

I recently reconfigured my partitions on my notebook and I broke Ubuntu in the process. My bootup process gets stuck at Mount root filesystem..., I tried all the fixes I could lay my hands on but to no avail, so now I will just wait for the new 6.10 release and reinstall which should be by the end of October.

So for now I will use Windows XP again.

VM Keyboard Problem

I always had a nagging issue with my Windows 2000 vm whenever my laptop is not docked into my docking station, for some reason the keyboard would have a lag, so I would press a key and the character will only appear a second or two later.

I sort of found a hack for the problem over at the VMWare knowledge base, it is not pretty but it seems to work, so now my clock is very fast when I am docked into my docking station but at least my clock is running at an acceptable speed when I am not docked.

Firefox has sound!

My Firefox on Ubuntu 6.06 never had sound, not when watching YouTube videos and not when using Meebo, but today I realized with a shock that YouTube and Meebo has sound all of the sudden.

All I can think of why it is suddenly working is that I upgraded to Firefox 1.5.0.7 recently and my Ubuntu installed approx. 70 updates in the last week. Whatever it was, it is great to have sound in my browser.

Windows Vista RC1

One of our clients decided their new product must work on Windows Vista RC1. I installed Windows Vista Ultimate on my Linux machine using VMWare Server and VMPlayer.

A full screen image is available here.

Why I like VMPlayer

I am using VMWare's VMPlayer extensively now and a feature I only recently discovered is that the VMPlayer will dynamically change the resolution of the guest OS when I resize the VMPlayer window, thus it is possible to have unlikely resolutions of 433x900 etc.

To me this is great, I can now run my VM alongside my other applications and it looks like just another application actually. I have a screenshot available just to give some background to why I am so impressed, just be warned it is a 1920x1200 PNG image.

Opera 8.6 for PocketPC

I downloaded the new Opera for PocketPC and it is very stable and much better than Pocket IE. At last I have JavaScript 1.2 support and some other goodies Pocket IE does not have.

Unfortunately Opera for PPC is not free so I will have to fork out $29 for my full copy soon. At least it will be money well spent.

iPAQ Bluetooth Keyboard

I bought myself an iPAQ hx4700 PDA a bit more than a year ago and I have been using it mosly everyday. I just recently decided to by the iPAQ bluetooth keyboard as well.

The keyboard works like a charm, I am actually typing this blog using my iPAQ, the BT keyboard and my Sony Ericsson W550i cell phone.

VMware Player vs. Workstation

I am currently using VMware Workstation 5.5 to do my Windows development on my Ubuntu laptop, the problem is I need to buy VMware Workstation to keep on using it and I do not really have $189 to spent on it, especially since I am only using it run Microsoft Visual Studio 2005.

I considered using the VMware Player instead but could not find any meaningful benchmarks or comparisons so I decided to download SiSoft Sandra 2005 and do some tests myself and I am very impressed with the Player's speed.

I am not allowed to publish any benchmarks but suffice to say that I will be using the free VMware player to do my development on from now on and not the VMware workstation anymore.

JDiskReport and Unison

In my search to find utilities that can replace the Windows utilities I was used to I discovered these two applications.

jDiskReport is a utility that allows me to analyze my hard disk to find directories that are becoming a bit bloated. The added benefit is that it is a 100% Java application which allows for easy installation.

Unison is a utility that allows me to synchronize my files on my hard disk to my backup hard disk. I always used FileSync for this on my Windows machine and this utility has equivalent functionality.

CodeWeavers' CrossOver Office

I use Ubuntu exclusively now but my job requires me to still use Microsoft Office. Now I used MS Office inside my Windows 2000 VM but then I tried a product called CrossOver Office and it works great.

I am now using Microsoft Office XP on my Ubuntu machine without any problems, the little envelope from Outlook even appears in my Ubuntu notification area. I am definitely going to invest in this application very soon.

My Desktop even has the MS Office icons as any other Windows PC would have.

Just more reason not to ever go back to Windows again except maybe for gaming.

Ubuntu Printing

Again I am very impressed with Ubuntu, everything just works so far. I setup my machine to be able to print to PDF from any application and I setup my network printing to our company's network printer on the Windows server.

Both work perfectly and it took my only 30 minutes about to do it all. Still a bit longer than in Windows but I think I am able to setup a printer in Windows much quicker because I've done it so many times before.

VMWare on Ubuntu

Well I have been using my new Ubuntu laptop for almost 3 weeks now exclusively and it has been working great. I am still developing on my desktop machine remotely via VNC but I also installed VMWare for Linux to develop at home without having to resort to dual booting.

So far I am very impressed with VMWare on my Ubuntu Dapper Drake installation, the install went smoothly and the Windows 2000 virtual machine is fast and flawless, given I will not be able to play games using the virtual machine but for development it works just fine.

When I want to play games I would probably just dual boot or get hold of Cedega.

Mozilla Thunderbird

I really like Mozilla Firefox so I decided to use Mozilla Thunderbird as my email client. Unfortunately Mozilla Thunderbird seems unable to communicate with my companies Exchange Server, something Evolution has no problem doing.

This is really sad because Evolution's interface is not as catchy as Thunderbird's but until Thunderbird fixes the Exchange incompatiblity I will be forced to use Evolution.

Ubuntu Dapper Drake Switch

So I finally switched to Ubuntu Dapper Drake. I am currently dual booting just to keep my options open, but I am currently only booting Ubuntu and no Windows at all.

To do my work I remote terminal to my Windows Desktop to develop in my Microsoft IDE. Until I start working on the Java side of our product I will be developing on my Desktop machine via remote access.

Sounds complex but isn't really, now I am able to keep work baggage off my machine, no more compulsory anti software installed on my laptop because it is company policy.

I managed to get everything I used to using up and running, and so far I have no dependency on Windows anymore except for my .NET development. The Visual Studio 2005 IDE is still my favourite IDE to develop in, but that is where the remote desktop comes in. I may consider a VM to eliminate the whole desktop entirely for development but that I still need to think over.

Ubuntu Dapper Drake

Being South African I am very attracted to the name Ubuntu but liking a name does not make the OS good enough. I decided to give Ubuntu Dapper Drake a try in my everyday development shores.

I have a very complex setup going now. I am using Dapper Drake inside my VM. Having a dual monitor setup all my Windows apps are running in the secondary window and my Dapper Drake OS is running on my primary display.

This allows me to develop on Dapper Drake whilst still remaining compatible with all my colleagues. I am planning to do my Java development using Eclipse on Dapper Drake and my .NET development on standard Windows XP and Visual Studio 2005.

So far it has not been to eventful but the compile speed of my Eclipse environment inside a VM might give me a headache.

Google and Yahoo listing

At long last my site is listed on Google as well as Yahoo. I do not care to much about MSN for now, maybe next year will be a different story.

To make it all happen I had remove all my invisible text, in my case innocent keywords and description meta tags. Also I removed all meta tags my html editor added.

I registered with Google's sitemaps program and I submitted my site regularly on Yahoo and Google.

I must also comment on the Network Solutions experience. Though NS is more expensive than GoDaddy I find NS to be more compatible with me. The whole user experience is just different, but if you need lots of space for cheap then GoDaddy is the way to go.

Linux go where?

I periodically upgrade my virtual machines with the latest and greatest Linux distro I can find just to see the progress of the Linux "revolution". Every time I am excited by the new interface and new installation, my general first impression is usually good. I actually have some hope of switching my home machines to Linux at long last, but alas just 30 minutes into using the latest and greatest Linux I realize that this will not be the case.

I might have been content in the early days of Linux to do everything by hand in text mode but not anymore and my wife will definitely not do any text based tasks to do her work. She is not an I.T. professional, she is in the arts industry. She needs to create sound tracks, DVD movies etc. and expecting her to have in depth knowledge of the inner workings of a tool just to create a DVD is not realistic.

I really have some high hopes for OpenOffice but having just one tool that is acceptable is not good enough. There is no software available on the Linux platform that I know of that can touch Sound Forge for audio manipulation for the masses i.e. people not in I.T. and when it comes to DVD authoring the software available to Linux is just horrible, I will not even consider using it myself much less my wife.

So I guess I will wait another 6 to 12 months, load up the latest distro of any Linux and reevaluate the Linux packages and software, but for now I am sticking to Windows.

BPEL4WS

Something I need to research very soon is BPEL4WS. It all sounds very exciting and promising but I still need to do an in depth analysis of it.

Exceptions and Error Code

I was pointed to this article by a colleague. Brad Adams is one of the guys I really respect when it comes to .NET. I whole heartily agree with his statements. Exceptions just plain and simple RULE! I lack any other better word for them.

Opera 8.5 For Pocket PC

At long last Opera released its Opera browser for the Pocket PC. I own an HP hx4700 Pocket PC and Pocket Explorer is just plain horrible. No JavaScript support and the image quality is just unacceptable.

With Opera I have most of the benefits I would have using my PC and Firefox. It is even possible to do internet banking using JavaScript. Just beautiful. The download is available here.

Mount St. Helens Crater

Being a lover of everything science I really liked this pictured of Mount St. Helens Crater growing a rock. Very nice picture. The full article is available here.

Why I like Firefox

I could never really quantify why I preferred Firefox over Opera or Internet Explorer, maybe it was because Opera isn't free or maybe because I just got tired of Internet Explorer.

Opera is "free" if you are willing to live with the adware in the browser.

I recently discovered the plugin side of Firefox. Admittandly it has been there for quite sometime but I for some reason never looked at it. Now with the new plugins of Firefox I can really quantify why I use Firefox. I haven't even started really exploring the plugin pages but my Firefox is now customized to such an extend that I actually removed some applications because I do not need them anymore.

I am very impressed with Firefox.

Great AJAX Frameworks

I stumbled across this blog. It contains a list of a few AJAX frameworks the author has tried out or used before. Definitely worth a quick glance.

Network Solutions first impressions

Well I moved my site to Network Solutions and my first impressions are good. Much less in your face advertisements when accessing my account manager and the account manager interface is also less busy and easier to use.

The verdict is still out on my Google search engine problem. Hopefully I will have an answer soon.

Move from GoDaddy to Network Solutions

My website has been hosted by GoDaddy for the last 6 months. In that time I tried my utmost best to get my site listed on Google and even Yahoo for that matter. I started investigating and came across the following two articles

• GoDaddy says ...
  
• Search Engine Optimization ...

According to these two articles GoDaddy is to blame for this. I decided to open a new hosting account with Network Solutions to see if it is better. I will only know after the next few days.

I also changed my domain name from TheSystemArchitects to MarthinusSwart, after working on my site over the past 6 months I realized I will not be able to maintain the TheSystemArchitects website as I would have liked to.