Vista on SPARC

Microsoft's Vista has finally been ported to SPARC architecture!

Now I can finally run a modern OS on SparcStation 10 since Sun dropped Solaris 10's support for it.

The Orange Box

Time: Thu Oct 11 19:48:13 AUSEST 2007

Status: Completed

Just finished Episode 2 with a positive feel. This episode has improved upon the original Half-Life2 game-play considerably. Semi-linear action packed story's the biggest plus in this episode installment, and more Gman was always desirable. There's plenty of original Half-Life references within the cut scenes, while Gman manages to keep the player puzzled about the "behind the scenes" happenings (actually he managed to make me look into WordWeb on more than one occasion to figure out what he was saying). ;)

Variety of gameplay terrains ranges from caves, forests, mountains, bridges, to underground bases. Ambientish music & sound within the game were worth putting up loud on HD555. And finally this episode seemed to be quite longer than HL2:EP1. Personally I'll be glad to see Episode 3 be the last 'episode' installment. Valve's initial reasoning behind the episodes concept has been largely due to faster ability to pump out new releases. Turns out at the end of the day each episode release took much longer than expected with Valve's almost usual promise-and-delay saga.

Team-Fortress 2's looking quite promising. Gameplay's quite different compared to Counter Strike Source in terms of nearly everything looking "bulky" and cartoonish giving it a feel of non-precision oriented gaming. I'm yet to properly play it though. Glad to see Internode's got plenty of TF2 servers around. I wonder how long before half of them are shut down...

And lastly Portal's quite an interesting game concept, contrary to my initial expectations. For those who like in-game physics, don't miss out!

CS:S Setup

Very Niiice...

So long ago

So clear

Thx Vj

Touch Screen

Self timed touch screen rebooting Windows box.

Ubuntu on main PC

I've finally rolled up my sleeves and put Linux on main desktop PC, which has been for long a Windows XP box. Looked around a few Linux & BSD distributions and finalised the choice to Ubuntu. Finally a Linux distribution which is 'usable'. This OS is quite a joy to use with XGL and Beryl in action. Ubuntu is not only well integrated and automated, it's also based upon Debian's proven and mature packaging system. All the packages are specifically made for and 'supported' under Ubuntu, making software installations & dependency handling a breeze. Simply install and use.

By saying 'supported' I'm referring to the software begin specifically packaged for Ubuntu, this implies any software you install will work and be 'integrated' with it's surrounding environment. This practically eliminates post installation configurations & maintenance. (An example for the sceptics: install Enlightenment, and you'll have no need to go back handle dependencies and reconfigure your login manager to include it as a login session window manager option). In addition you will be notified about any software updates as new supported versions roll out.

Main struggle with Linux on main desktop PC has been non-integration, non-automation and things simply "breaking"/not working for whatever valid or invalid reason. This is quite history with Ubuntu (even Dell realises it).

Ubuntu Desk by ~eking on deviantART

Random notes:

• NTFS write support works well via NTFS-3G (although still chews up CPU).
• USB storage's detected, mounted and recognised automatically (iPod is different to USB Key).
• Plenty of Gkrellm plugins pre-packages (# apt-cache search gkrellm)
• RTCW:ET @ 1680x1050 32Bpp works just fine (if not better than in XP, # xmodmap -e "clear control", ~-Alt-Enter to "minimise" ingame)
• Internode usage meter for GNOME's neat, so is wmium
• Radio an TV Tuner card working by default

Slackware still remains steady on the server end for me.

Back to ET

Just like the good old times, never too late to overdo it:

Eastwoods's Duo

Clint Eastwood's Letters from Iwo Jima & Flags of Our Fathers are a truly unequaled movies when combined together. Two differing perspectives on the same historical event show the differences and similarities between both sides of the conflict in a very neutral manner. It's relieving to see that Clint at his 76 years of age still manages to retain his character, whether he'd be on stage or behind the scenes. His son, Kyle Eastwood, is now in a "family business", co-creating the movies' soundtracks. To my unexpected surprise, soundtrack are actually quite decent. The stories and side comparisons are the best characteristics of the two movies. Definitely worthy of a watch...

Renaissance 2054

A movie like Renaissance 2054 manages to come along once in a long while. The combination of computer graphics (on IBM equipmet), motion capture and fine attention to detail make this a real eye candy. Most of the scenes come to life when motion captured physics are revealed. Somehow the French lyrics audio track adds a nice essence to the movie. I'm suspecting this is the fact either because of the usual stylishness associated with the French or more technically all the motion capture was tuned to French lyrics...

Check out some of the hi-res in movie screens here. You could almost call this a French anime comic film. Attitude Studio has really entered the market well, with a great 1st full length movie production.

All-in-all: Big thumbs up, a definitive keeper.