Recent Posts

1651

Living Room / It's official: Steam is coming to Linux

« Last post by Edvard on May 14, 2010, 11:29 AM »

OK, I admit, I'm not a gamer.
I've played a few games on Linux and there's fun to be had, rest assured, but if I had a dime for every time I've heard somebody say "I'll totally switch to Linux when I can play my favorite games on it.", I would be a VERY rich man..
So now this news comes along and despite a lack of personal excitement, I know this IS going to be a big deal for the Linux universe.

REALLY big.

First a little history...

• Some time in 2008, somebody contacted the folks at Phoronix about Linux libraries in the Left 4 Dead demo.
  
• Then they found explicit references to Linux in the Mac OSX launcher script.
  
• The next day, they found Linux binaries of the steam client on Valve's servers, saw updates happening (indicating it was a 'live' project), and then Valve pulled the files.
  
• On May 1, Phoronix posted a screenshot of a running Linux Steam client.

Guess what happened this Wednesday?

The UK Telegraph broke the news of Valve porting the Steam client to Mac OSX.
OK, whatever, BUT in a sentence at the bottom of the announcement we read:

Valve has also confirmed that it will make Steam available to Linux users in the coming months.

Phoronix nearly wet themselves with excitement and now the news is everywhere:
http://www.google.co...linux+steam+official

w00t!!

1652

General Software Discussion / Re: Virtual Slide Rules

« Last post by Edvard on May 02, 2010, 05:11 AM »

MOAR SLIDE RULEZ PLZ!!11!1
http://www.engcom.ne...option=com_sliderule
http://www.stefanv.c...aristo970/index.html
http://www.taswegian...tual/UniVirtual.html

You like these but you'd like something standalone? Here go!
http://solo.dc3.com/VirtRule.html

Flight Computer? Circular slide rule? Gimme!
http://people.cs.ubc....php/Flight_computer

Klingon?!? WTH?!?
http://sliderule.mrklingon.org/

And if you're too young to have ever learned and wondered just how the heck the darn things work:
http://sliderulemuseum.com/SR_Course.htm

1653

Living Room / Re: Geek gadgets - Calculators...

« Last post by Edvard on May 02, 2010, 05:06 AM »

Darwin, don't forget this thread if you're going to post such juicy photos... 

1654

Living Room / Re: Geek gadgets - Calculators...

« Last post by Edvard on May 01, 2010, 10:50 AM »

App, I've got like 3 of those kinds of calculators hanging around my house (somewhere), and a small paint bucket full of brand-new ribbons for them all. 

I also have a Casio CFX-9800G color graphing calculator that I wrote an RC filter program on when I first started experimenting with fuzz boxes.
Army green and still works like a champ!

1655

Living Room / Re: Pure Boredom Post: The 3 Word Story Game

« Last post by Edvard on May 01, 2010, 10:39 AM »

leather boot laces

1656

Living Room / Re: For when your PC next plays up...

« Last post by Edvard on May 01, 2010, 10:37 AM »

Very nice, esolto!

Speaking of Writers, whatever happened to Ralf Maximus? 

1657

Living Room / Re: Apple acquires music service Lala

« Last post by Edvard on May 01, 2010, 10:15 AM »

 

Let's hope Last.fm doesn't fall anytime soon...

1658

Living Room / Re: Which prize would you choose?

« Last post by Edvard on April 17, 2010, 03:53 AM »

I voted for the grand, not because I'm greedy, but because I sure could use the cash! 
I either win or not, so I figure my chances are 50/50 either way...
 

(/me ducks before the math class pelts me with statistical tables...)

1659

Living Room / Re: "The More You Use Google, the More Google Knows about you"

« Last post by Edvard on April 16, 2010, 10:57 AM »

Just don't goose me!

1660

Living Room / Re: now we have nettops... but portable monitors?

« Last post by Edvard on April 16, 2010, 10:56 AM »

Flexible Organic LED displays would go a long way towards making monitors truly portable.
Imagine a monitor that weighs less than a pound and can be rolled up like a wall poster. 
Sony's already on it:
http://www.oled-disp...ay.net/flexible-oled

1661

Living Room / Re: "The More You Use Google, the More Google Knows about you"

« Last post by Edvard on April 16, 2010, 10:41 AM »

But, waddle I search for?

1662

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: [Freeware] BatchBlitz - batch process digital photos

« Last post by Edvard on April 11, 2010, 12:11 AM »

Dude, somebody is making 40 bucks a pop off your freeware:
http://www.shareup.c...-download-50377.html
 
Who do we call?
 

-Edvard (April 04, 2010, 07:16 AM)

Take it easy. BatchBlitz once was shareware. This site hosts an outdated version.

-sunlitgreen (April 06, 2010, 08:55 AM)

Oh.
OK.
I guess I should say thanks for making it freeware.
I'm going to be testing it out tonight (haven't had an opportunity 'til now...).

1663

Living Room / Re: Stephen's Weekly Tech News - Edition 7

« Last post by Edvard on April 05, 2010, 10:08 PM »

Moar April Fools here:
http://aprilfoolsdayontheweb.com/

Maybe I'm getting old, but 2008 & 9 were the best for web jokes on Apr 1.
Seems like the number went up exponentially this year, but none were as good...

P.S. One of my favorites:
Star Wars: The Old Republic game gets a new character class - The Sarlaac Enforcer

http://www.swtor.com...ses/sarlacc-enforcer

Patient, Calculating, & Elusive

The galaxy is filled with every sort of riffraff, refuse and space trash imaginable. For thousands of years the brave souls who answer to the name Sarlacc have made sure it doesn’t pile up....

(hint: watch the "combat tactics" videos... hehe)

1664

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: [Freeware] BatchBlitz - batch process digital photos

« Last post by Edvard on April 04, 2010, 07:16 AM »

Dude, somebody is making 40 bucks a pop off your freeware:
http://www.shareup.c...-download-50377.html
 
Who do we call?
 

1665

General Software Discussion / Re: Dell: No refunds for Linux users who reject Microsoft's OS EULA

« Last post by Edvard on March 21, 2010, 11:06 AM »

I think the real point here is that the wording of the agreement itself makes the issue crystal clear:

By using the software, you accept these terms. If you do not accept them, do not use the software. Instead, return it to the retailer for a refund or credit.

Whether the software has a value of a hundred bucks or two cents makes NO difference.
The man's point is that whatever costs are involved, the terms of his purchase clearly state that he is entitled to a reimbursement of that cost if he disagrees with the license of the software in question.
Period.

Whether he "knew what he was doing" or not (that scheming, conniving little Linux fanboi...) is really beside the point.
What he is trying to do is what he is legally entitled to do.
At the end of the day, Dell and/or Microsoft are guilty of breach of contract if they refuse to give him a refund.
End of story.

I'd also wish you good luck getting them to honor the warranty on your hardware if you switch your OS.

40Hz: You may be interested in this:
Linux FUD Pattern #8: Linux will void your warranty.

1666

Living Room / Re: Jetpacks are real!

« Last post by Edvard on March 13, 2010, 04:56 AM »

'sokay... He lands with a parachute.

1667

Living Room / Re: Jetpacks are real!

« Last post by Edvard on March 12, 2010, 11:48 AM »

Dude, that's Yves Rossy, the crazy-a... ahem... courageous former airline pilot.
http://www.jet-man.c...m/prod/index_en.html
His last outburst of insanity brave endeavour was to jet-pack it from Morocco to Spain.
http://challenge.web...i/english/index.html
 

1668

Living Room / Re: In rememberance of....The antiquated hardware/software reminiscence thread

« Last post by Edvard on March 08, 2010, 09:58 AM »

"Memory, turn your face to the moonlight..."

For me, the fondest memories are of the Beagle Bros.

Top quality software,



Programming tips right there in the advertisements,



Foolproof disk care advice,



and that inimitable programming humor.



Aw, crap. Now I gotta go download an Apple ][ emulator...  

Images courtesy of the Beagle Bros Online Museum and the Beagle Bros Software Repository.

1669

Living Room / Re: Stephen's Weekly Tech News - Edition 3

« Last post by Edvard on March 05, 2010, 09:51 AM »

RE: The Awful Anti-Pirate System That Will Probably Work

Ubisoft's notorious "uncrackable" unfair game DRM falls in less than 24h

http://www.boingboin...fts-notorious-u.html
 

1670

Living Room / Re: good Videos [short films] here :)

« Last post by Edvard on March 04, 2010, 10:40 AM »

Very nice Tomos! 

If you remember this one, you'll also enjoy Parts 2 and 3:

http://www.benditomachine.com/

All at once, weird, beautiful, hideous, fascinating...

1671

General Software Discussion / Re: Open Source Uninstaller Windows 7?

« Last post by Edvard on March 02, 2010, 07:24 AM »

I don't know if this works on Windows 7, and it seems to have been abandoned in 2005, but it IS open source...
http://wistinga.online.fr/safarp/

I no longer use the standard uninstaller when I have to work with Windows XP machines.

1672

General Software Discussion / Re: Free Pascal - Lazarus?

« Last post by Edvard on February 21, 2010, 10:04 AM »

In what way is Lazarus painful?
As long as a given IDE has a parser to handle Pascal, perhaps a better one could be found?
How about Bloodshed Dev-Pascal?

Apparently Borland Delphi has changed hands a few times, and now resides with Embarcadero.
It's Windows-only, 32-bit only, so if you want to go cross-platform, you'll have to look elsewhere.

I've kicked around the idea of learning Pascal for a while, but everyone I've talked to about it seems to think it's going the way of the buffalo.
Sure doesn't look that way...

1673

General Software Discussion / Re: Installing Linux over ME, is it possible?

« Last post by Edvard on February 20, 2010, 06:45 AM »

Hi,

Friends of mine have a computer with ME on it.
As you know, it is just awful.

Was thinking of installing Linux over it in the hopes that it would become more stable and secure.
Is it possible?

-dantheman (February 18, 2010, 08:47 AM)

Yes.

If so, will Linux recognize the CDRW and USB ports?
Also, the fact that it's on a network it would also need to install the HP Printer drive right?

Yes.

Thanks for your comments!

You're welcome.

Listen, Linux is an OS, it can be unstable and insecure if you do unwise things with it like with ANY other OS.
What some people mistakenly call "more secure" is simply being NOT vulnerable to the standard Windows-specific exploits.

Now, if you consider your friend to be intelligent, good at helping himself and adventurous, hell... WHY NOT?!?!
Go ahead and slap a Linux on there and give it a go!
You could listen to all the "Linux is Scary" advice in the world, but you'll never know until you try it.
Almost every Linux user in the world started out wondering if it was possible (myself included), and here we are, threatening the folks in Redmond with less than 5% market share.
 

Come on, you only live once... 

1674

General Software Discussion / Re: Why OpenOffice? Why Microsoft Office? Each one makes their argument

« Last post by Edvard on February 20, 2010, 06:20 AM »

Jeez, I must be an alien or something...

I LOVE OpenOffice, and now that I'm running the 64-bit version, speed is better than acceptable (though I'll admit it's still not MS Office fast...).
I spend more time at work in the MS environment, so it's not my Linux bias showing, I promise.

:shrug:

1675

Living Room / Simple Desktop Wallpaper

« Last post by Edvard on February 15, 2010, 09:50 PM »

I admit that, like many of us, I go on a wallpaper-gawking spree once a month or so.
This month it wasn't the latest digital swirls-and-clouds eyeball saccharine that caught my attention...
No, this month it was something... simpler.

Do you often find yourself spending time looking for something that isn't a beautiful photograph but also isn't a gradient and drop shadowed mess with a little lens flare and some annoying copyright information in the corner?

Do you want less, but not boring? Then you want Simple Desktops.

Simple Desktops: a collection of bling, drop shadow, and gradient free desktops to help keep you stay focused but also provide just enough eye candy to not be bored.

http://simpledesktops.com/browse/photos/

And if that's a little too minimalist, check these out from Microsoft Technical Evangelist, Mike Swanson.

I've been asked many times if there is central location for my wallpaper images. So, instead of posting them in individual blog entries, I've assembled the collection here. Each is available at 1920 x 1200 (16:10 aspect ratio, "widescreen") and 1600 x 1200 (4:3 aspect ratio, "standard"). Some of them are also available at 2560 x 1600 (which is also a 16:10 aspect ratio).

http://blogs.msdn.co...icles/wallpaper.aspx

from http://linuxhelp.blogspot.com/