To check out
Over the past term I’ve been putting together a list of bands to check out. Never really had the time or mood to do so though.
Now that it’s term break, I figure this should be able to kill a few days.
Then I’ll be left with only about 3 and a half weeks of boredom.
Meh.
OpenSUSE 11.2!
Installed OpenSUSE 11.2 KDE, and it’s not bad. The install took quite some time, and the system configuration is a fucking bitch. Was unable to connect to TP-Secure, because of what I narrowed down to KNetworkManager having issues with connecting to a hidden network. Went home and installed GNOME’s NetworkManager instead, then spent a bit of time figuring how to autostart it instead of KNM.
Then I found that the system didn’t have media codecs, but I suppose that’s to be expected from a Linux system. I don’t think I needed to manually install codecs for Ubuntu 9.10 though. Whatever, simple installation.
Now I’m working on getting Wine up and running.
… This install is anything but painless.
#Mandatory screenshot coming soon.
Windows 7!
Installed Windows 7, and it’s pretty awesome. The install was absolutely painless, and it was working as expected out of the box; the box being figurative, of course. I got the ISO and key from MSDNAA, so it’s legit! :D
Spent the large part of Wednesday configuring the system and installing my applications. Come to think of it, I should probably back up a disk image of my HDD. The weekend, I suppose.
#Mandatory screenshot coming soon.
But right now, it’s soooooo sleek. There’re a few really small things I don’t like; like how the right-click menu from the taskbar is so far from the cursor. On the other hand though, they’re a lot of things I feel that Windows should have had for a long, long time. Subtle features like being able to split windows to half the workspace and the “Show desktop” button being way better positioned.
Windows 7 & OpenSUSE
Hopefully I’ll get my hands on Windows 7 this week. Can’t wait to do a reformat on my Windows partition. Actually, I would have reformatted it a long time ago; the only thing is that I don’t have a Vista disk so I wouldn’t have been able to reinstall Windows. But now… Windows 7!
I just played around with a LiveCD of OpenSUSE 11.2, KDE, and fuck it’s awesome! It’s like soooo pretty, and with definitely more functionality out-of-the-box. That said, GNOME is way more intuitive, but whatever; I’m willing to put in a bit of effort to get more out of my computing experience.
I think I’ll do a full installation of Windows 7, then install OpenSUSE alongside it.
Dropbox: File synchronization across multiple computers.
Ever found yourself with multiple storage devices with all your documents scattered across them? What if instead of worrying which thumbdrive your project report is in, you could have everything synchronized in one place? Instead of transfering files via a thumbdrive, you could have those files automatically synchronize themselves between your desktop and notebook.
What if?
Link: Dropbox solves that problem!
… Pardon the cheesy intro. The post above was done as part of my CDS (SiWM); 1 post per week. It’s part of my schoolwork. I figure I might as well link to it through this blog as well.
Torchlight
Today I figured I’d play something different, it being the the last day of the weekend and all. So I was watching a Diablo LP, and I thought it’d be nice to do something a little more “updated”, yet with a similar style of gameplay. That’s Torchlight!
Torchlight is yet another one of those point-and-click RPG with a hack-and-slash gameplay. If you’ve ever played Diablo — great game, by the way — Torchlight will bring back lots of those memories. It’s not much of a surprise that it does, either; at the head of Torchlight are the co-designers of the original Diablo I and II.
When I tell you that a lot of Diablo elements are incorporated into this game, I mean a lot. From the more subtle ones like holding alt to show items on the ground, to Diablo-esque shrines scattered across the map, to the enchanted mobs; everything just makes you go, “eh, I think I’ve seen this before.” But there’s nothing wrong with imitation. I mean, if something is working perfectly well, why bother to deviate? While Torchlight doesn’t present any new gameplay elements, it’s still fun as hell.
Then there’s the audio. The environmental audio is suitably atmospheric and the sound effects are well produced. Thank goodness for the audio quality. I feel that these sort of games will fall flat if they don’t present their audio well. Would get boring reaaaally quickly.
Of course, the plot isn’t as deep considering Torchlight is a relatively small game. There are only 3 classes you can play as, and as in the very first Diablo, you basically have a warrior, mage and ranger (not their real names).
Only thing I’m confused about is why “Torchlight?” Of all names to call your game, what the fuck is “Torchlight?” Every time when I’m in the loading screen, I’m left wondering what the hell does a torchlight have to do with anything.
2012 pseudo-review
The only thing that really stood out is the sheer ridiculousness of the action scenes. Utterly ridiculous. This is especially so during the protagonist and his family’s escape to the ark. Collapsing bridges, buildings, trees; flying cars, trucks, rubble; huge ruptures in the ground; and oh look — they all miss the family car by about 3 inches. I’m not even exaggerating; it was literally 3 inches for much of the time. The scenes where the ground crumbles just behind the moving car/plane were especially absurd.
That said, I guess the show was sort of a letdown. Not exactly a great action flick, and the plot kind of got submerged beneath the absurdity of everything.
I don’t know why film like these keep putting in small children; it always cheapens it. Honestly, I don’t believe that any child can watch the world fall apart and not be traumatized after.
TP and MSDNAA (Part 2)
I figure I’ll do a post since I happen to be getting a number of hits regarding MSDNAA. Half a month or so ago I posted the reply I got from TP’s program admin in charge of MSDNAA. Back then they were still “sorting out issues with MSDNAA licenses”.
Not a week ago, mail arrived in our TP mail accounts! I don’t know if it’s just IIT students, but it looks like it. Anyway, go to the link provided, and you’ll find a neat little announcement on the availability of Windows 7.
The MSDNAA Windows 7 will be available after the 30th Nov Maega Launch.
Yeah, Windows 7 will be available, free. If you don’t know, MSDNAA is essentially a Microsoft programme that provides licensed schools with access to certain software. That means you, dear IIT student!
So… As per the announcement, look out for details in OLE. Hopefully the Nov 30 date won’t be postponed, because I’m personally looking forward to getting rid of Vista and running a Windows 7/Ubuntu set-up!
Google and you!
You know you wouldn’t be able to live without a search engine like Google when you make over 200 unique searches a day.
Looking at my history today, there’s everything from “stephen hawking” to “local peer discovery to “define: alliteration“. Almost totally random searches.
I think that’s what sets me apart from the general public; whenever I come across something interesting or not sure about, I Google it. It’s like being independent. If I don’t know how to split a string into seperate characters then store those characters in an array, my first instinct is to search; apparently for others it’s to message someone else who may know.
Tip: Not useful. Search for yourself. Lots more effective that way.
Anyway, I’m planning on keeping my Google history for a week and see how many searches there are. Just out of curiosity. Originally planned on keeping track on a per-day basis, but that’d be too troublesome.
How To Eat A Chicken Wing
How do you eat a chicken wing? Do you gnaw your way around the two bones, leaving a small flap of meat between? I know that’s what most people do.
Here’s how it’s really done!
