World of Goo, on Linux!

This is a new thing for me, to review Linux games. Really, I am an avid gamer, but because of the Linux gaming chicken-and-egg problem, there really isn't much for Linux that is actually worth playing.

Some of you will argue with the various FOSS games out there, and those are okay, but they are generally multiplayer only, and the few single player ones are rather limited.

In any case, World of Goo is a game that I tried out awhile ago and I found it strangely addicting.

Now, playing it on Linux made me appreciate the awesomeness of the game even more. World of Goo is really a very interesting game.

The performance on World of Goo on Linux is very nice. I didn't even have to disable compositing and Compiz to run it well, even though it was advised! I ran into virtually no issues, which is strange in my experience with commercial games. I am very pleased with the development, polish, and release of World of Goo for Linux.

However, I'm still stuck on the last level of Chapter one. It's annoying that I still  can't figure out how to build that bridge!

I would definitely recommend the game. In fact, I have recommended it to my brothers to play. Hopefully they will find it as addicting as I did.

Back to Blogspot!

I lost my other blog when I stopped paying for my web hosting, so I'm back to here.

Moved to a new location!

Well, I have had been updating at the new location for quite some time now, but I really should be posting the locations of my new blog site. Just in case.....

Back to Blogger, so link is dead

Solaris? Linux? Sun vs. FOSS? Sun with FOSS? OpenSolaris?

Confused yet?

Anyways, I put that there as a culminating topic name. What is the deal with Solaris? What about OpenSolaris?

Well, Solaris is what SVR4/SVR5 implementation of Unix by Sun Microsystems. SunOS, which was its predecessor, was more towards BSD. So, Sun Microsystems does have some background in the OSS community. Solaris is what Sun calls the most advanced OS on the planet. Well, I cannot agree or dispute the claim because I STILL HAVE NOT GOTTEN MY SOLARIS DISCS!!! I ordered them about two or three weeks ago and I still have not gotten them!!! I want to do some work on Solaris especially with QA work of the Enano CMS Project, which I am the QA Manager for that project. I saw a lot of ads for Solaris about their new advanced process isolation systems, and I figured that it would be important enough to test for. Well, I thought, maybe OpenSolaris. The problem is that OpenSolaris is just a bunch source packages…. No binary ISOs to download, though I don’t have the space for Solaris downloading. On top of that, I only download Linux ISOs, but I am being tempted greatly to re-order those DVDs.

The CEO of Sun Microsystems requested some time ago that Linus and himself have dinner at his place to discuss the Linux and Solaris debate and the Openness of Sun. Linus should go there and see, and since I posted so late, it may have already happened, but so far, no results.

ZFS on Linux is already possible thanks to ZFS-FUSE. So, the one thing Linus says that he wants from Solaris is already available, but I think he still wants ZFS in kernel space instead of Userspace. Oh well, to each his own.

I like to keep myself open-minded about the UNIX world, and Solaris is something that piqued my interest. But I am getting mad about that order not going through.

TTFN!

Update on RGW-Net main site restructuring!

I had previously posted about my stupid error in updating the software and the updated software was really messed up. Unfortunately the database restore software would not accept my insanely large SQL file and kept generating ridiculous errors. So, I had set up phpBB3 as an interim install.

Well, I tried out Drupal as a replacement interim, and I have never been more frustrated on working on a CMS than I had been with Drupal. It really doesn’t have a good organization of administration and the system itself is somewhat illogical in my opinion. I mean, why would you make it hard to find permissions stuff and then have forum creation automatically not permissible to most users?! So I said, “Screw this!” and pretty much left alone the current interim phpBB3 site.

It has been a very long time since I last talked about Linux technologies itself (my rpm stuff doesn’t count ) And I will talk about something about that…

RPM.RGW-NET.COM launched! OggConvert package built, signed, and released!

Well, last night, I worked myself to like 4am in the morning setting up a new site, the RGW RPM Repository. I spent quite a bit of time wikifying all the licenses, categorizing them, and having proper legal disclaimers on the bottom of the site. The content on the site by default is dual licensed GFDL and CC-BY-SA 3.0. The RPM packages and specs are by default licensed GNU GPL. In certain conditions, the RPM packaging files and specfiles are licensed under the GNU LGPL. The first package I set up there is OggConvert.

OggConvert is a tiny little pyGTK application that can convert videos and music from any format GStreamer supports to Theora/Vorbis formats. This application is available here and even the author of the actual application, Tristan Brindle, has linked to it on his site! Doesn’t helping out the FOSS community give you a warm, fuzzy feeling inside?

Immense Stupidity! RGW-Net main site destroyed! Horrible Final Exams! PAIN!!!

I cannot believe I actually stupidly upgraded the Fully Modded phpBB system on my site! Now I cannot restore the database because phpMyAdmin AND the mysql tools cannot ‘read’ the file. And sometimes, when it does, it is unable to create the database. Apparently my rights to create databases under phpMyAdmin are gone! So, now I am stuck with a simple phpBB3 forum that is interim between the new setup of the main site and the old phpBBFM site. I cannot say that this was a complete loss. This provides the opportunity I need to start afresh. I still can’t believe that RGW-Net’s phpbbFM system required 193 tables in a single database……

The new system currently does not have a downloads manager that is restricted and controlled by the ACLs in place, so I am designing an impromptu downloads system with my limited knowledge of scripting and programming along with a great friend of mine, who will be porting some of the download ACL systems he wrote for me to the new CMS.

However, this week is exams week, so I will be devoting an unusually large amount of time towards studying for my final exams.

This does not mean that work will completely stop. My friend has been working on the CMS for some time and continues to work on it, while I am preparing our testing systems for the QA which I usually supply for. Also, this new CMS is valid XHTML, valid CSS, and valid RSS! And its quite lightweight.

Though it may seem that all this was sprung at the last moment, I have been planning the replacement of phpBBFM for quite some time.

I have looked into various CMS systems: phpNuke, phpBBFM, plone, drupal, MediaWiki + phpBB2/SMF 1.1.x, etc.

PHPNUKE is out because it has a bad business model and the software itself I would consider on the unstable side.
Plone is a python based system, so its out.
Drupal is out because I did not like the feel of it.
MediaWiki + phpBB2/SMF 1.1.x is out because phpBB3 support is not available to work with MediaWiki.

In the end, I settled on one combination of systems. However, if it is not ready by 5/25/2007-5/27/2007, then I am going to set up an interim Drupal installation until it is. I panicked initally, so that is why phpBB3 is up there. I thought about putting my new planned system, but it just was not ready yet.

And I hurt myself four times today! Sprained my ankle, cut my thigh on the bus rail (how does that happen?), hit my head on the cabinets, and tripped over a cable onto the floor (barely missed the laptop in front of me, lazy housemates)…

Vista down! Up next?

We all know about the damned hype about Windows Vista.

“Oooh! Flip3D!” … ok…. Fedora has the compiz/beryl cube that rotates workspaces showing all your stuff.

“New Aero Glass!” Got me there, however there are better stuff out there, and WindowBlinds produces the exact same effects on XP because Stardock developed the theming engine for Windows XP and Vista. Fedora yet again can produce these effects with Beryl and compiz.

“User Access Control!” Umm, ever heard of limited and root accounts? Linux and UNIX have had them for years, decades before Microsoft even thought about multiuser environments!

Here, though, it is proven that most people don’t see Vista as anything worth a grain of salt. We can see that Microsoft has had it coming. I agree that Microsoft is failing because they don’t hold all the cards anymore. Mac OS X is now officially available on the Intel core, and many have gotten Tiger to work on a regular PC. Linux has been around for years, and recently, Ubuntu Linux (now at Feisty), has many headway on the desktop Linux platform with high usability and flexibility.

More people are seeing the alternatives available. For instance, Microsoft Internet Explorer held complete dominance until Firefox 1.0 came out. It spilled through the internet in waves, more and more people downloading and using it. I remember saying that I would never use Firefox back at its 0.9 release, and here I am now, using Firefox 2.0 to type up this post.

As long as there is demand for more quality, with the consumer in mind, Free/Open Source Software will always be around to try to satisfy these desires. WordPress, the software I am using now for blogging, is considered FOSS software. Many people use WordPress because of its simplicity and extensibility.

People wanted a cheaper alternative to Microsoft Office, and StarOffice was created from this desire. Sun Microsystems purchased StarOffice company and took it under its wing. It was extended, enhanced, and finally, released as FOSS code to improve. Now, we have OpenOffice.org 2.2, which the latest StarOffice suite is based on.

It is only a manner of time before people realize that there are alternatives out there, cheaper and free, just ripe for the picking.

PC Crashed!

Say farewell to everything I ever did in the last year, because it all is gone, thanks to the unreliable drives that OEMs put in the PCs during assembly. It has been a year and a half since I purchased my computer, and the hard disk has failed on me. Pray for me so that I can manage to fix this HUGE mess and get back on track. ::SNIFF:: All my precious data! ::SNIFF::

Microsoft Windows Vista Beta 2 Reviewed

Alright, I finished my testing of Windows Vista Beta a few days ago, and I can summerize the newest version of Vista in one word, “HORRIBLE!” And for those who like the gory details, the review the Windows Beta here.

Well, I’m gonna review step by step.

Installation

Well, I liked that the GUI installation system was restored, but I do not like that there are no choices on what to install. And, this system was a clean one, it became slower than Windows 98SE during installation routine of Vista! Why does it need all the special stuff during install? I would settle for Winodws 2000 backend during the installation process, since that is more efficient. Also, Windows Vista installation was rather skimpy on the details, even in expert mode. And the installation totally destroyed the LVM used to maintain my Linux OS, Fedora Core. Fortunately, I repaired it and imaged the bootloader from Vista into GRUB to chainload. Also, it should definitely recognize at least ext3 and LVMs, since they are talking about interoperability, it should have basic Linux FS support. Pretty much the rest of it was fine.

First Boot

The first loading of Windows Vista was pretty good, although why have all the special effects ENABLED during this period? I would think that it should be enabled after that, since typically the first boot is the slowest period that the OS is ever in.

Normal Operation

I like the new style, and I have to admit, I was getting sick of the Start button. I like that its simpler and uses the Windows Logo only on the app menu button. The search feature is good, but i would like a XP mode available as well for the start menu, simply because i install LOTS of programs, and it would take a while to search through all of it. It is snappy in Aero Basic, but Aero Glass is pathetic. Microsoft, the system’s WVDDM was introduced FOR THIS?!?!? This is crap compared to compiz on AIGLX in Fedora Core! And Fedora Core does not even require much modification to the drivers to work! Also, it is too slow to be useful, unlike compiz, which utilizes mesa’s 3D pretty efficiently. Aero Basic is UGLY! I switched to it for a bit, just to see if it was any good, and boy was it UGLY! I cannot describe how UGLY it is. Even Clearlooks1 on FC4 looks better than this! And that is saying something! Microsoft, you need to learn from the Fedora Project. They do a lot of things the RIGHT WAY.

Driver Installation

Of course, there is the sound driver bit. For some reason, it refuses to autodetect my extremely common Intel i945 sound chip. Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Red Hat Linux 8 have all identified it, but for some reason, Vista refuses to. I had to go through a lot of work to override the PnP system and force it to let me define driver settings manually. I even grabbed the NT4 services control panel and used it to temporarily shut down the PnP system, because I could not find it in Vista Services Manager. After that, it was a piece of cake to set up sound and various other devices. However, PnP does not go down without a fight. As soon as I restarted, my settings were ignored, and all of a sudden, sound did not work again! It activated PnP on all configured devices and requested the drivers. I had to “reinstall” my drivers, and then it rebooted once for each device! Ugh, that was painfully slow experience.

Program Installation

Most of my applications that I used in Windows are DVD burning, OpenOffice, etc. Well, software for hardware obviously did not work. However, software that links into the system to do stuff such as play DVDs, movies, mp3s, TV, etc. will be getting the “unDRMed” monitor problem. The video quality is horrible on my monitor, simply because of the DRM in the video machanisms… However, I borrowed a monitor from a friend that has an identical monitor except for the DRM, and it played very well. Digital Restrictions Management in MONITORS is rediculous. And DRM is starting to hurt the customer’s pockets too… Since these monitors with DRM in them are very expensive, this is more like a global scandal. And one of my favorite apps, Cygwin, does not seem to work on it, which is a shame. Cygwin is much better than Services for UNIX in Vista Ultimate, and it is opensource.

Tweaking and Extra stuff

I guess because it is beta, virtually no tweaking tools exist yet, so that is a good (bad?) thing. Ultimate Extras is missing though, and I think it is stupid that it was not included in the beta. Perhaps the release candidate….

Conclusion

Vista sucks as a development platform, and for a end-user platform, it will reduce productivity with how slow it is. Even MESA with an graphics card with little 3D support performs better than Vista with full 3D support in hardware. I think I will stick to Windows XP for my site development for IIS. And I definitely use Fedora Core for my 3D accelerated user platform most of the time. When Microsoft gets the picture and actually does some interoperability stuff, I may consider it….