First the South Park tie in, now popular celebs stumping for the game. They've got some sharp marketing people over there at Blizzard. I love the Mr. T Spot. Gonna get me some Night Elf Mohawk.... Fool!!
Not to be outdone, one of my heros, old Mr. overacting himself, you know what to do dog!
They've also got Jean-Claude Van Damme in a French commercial
And for the Spanish speaking set there's Willy Toledo
And because Mr. T is the man *smirk* Here's a word from Snickers
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Ubuntu Installation Tips
We'll I've been using Ubuntu for almost a year now. I've been through 4 new installs and 5 upgrades, and I must say I'm still impressed. In going through a few installs I found a couple of gotchas that I wanted to pass along in the hopes that it might save someone some time. The Ubuntu community has been very good to me, so as they say, it's time to put back into the pot.
Sound
-------
Under Linux there are older programs that use oss or other methods that take over the sound card so that only one application can play sound at a time. I use artsd, but there is also aoss and other solutions. There's another article here on this blog that goes into more detail of how to implement artsd, but know that if you only get audio from one program at a time, it's probably because it is using oss or trying to talk directly to the sound card. If you are using wine to run Windows programs you can also run wine under aoss or arts so that it will play nice with other audio apps.
Flash, Windows and Other non-free stuff
-----------------------------------------
The easiest way I've found is to use the Synaptics package manger and install "Automatix". This nifty little program will go out and grab all the non-free stuff you need to play DVD's and other proprietary media on your machine. You can still get the pieces manually by adding the proper repositories and installing the right pieces, but Automatix makes this part a no-brainer.
Video and Network Cards
--------------------------
If you have an ATI or NVIDIA card or certain Network cards you'll probably want to install the non-free drivers for these. Automatix may take care of getting these installed, but if it doesn't, then you'll need to install the restricted drivers package (you can use Synaptics and do a search for restricted). Be sure that you have the "Proprietary drivers for devices (restricted)" checked in Synaptics->Repositories->Ubuntu Software Tab. You want to make sure you check "linux-restricted-modules-xxx" where xxx is the release/architecture of the kernel you are using.
64 Bit Installs
---------------
I did one of these installations and although I was very stoked to be running 64 bit, there was a bit of backbending I had to do to get 32 bit compiled apps to work as not everything is available yet in 64 bit. That being said, most of the important things are available in 64 bit, and you can always compile from source, the things that aren't but if you're lazy like me, 32 bit Ubuntu still kicks arse on anything else on the block.
Games
--------
I managed to get Warcraft, Eve-Online (albiet w/ only oss audio), and Steam w/ Team Fortress 2 working on Gutsy. Games that are written natively for Windoze will always run better there because tools like wine need to create a virtual machine to run the Windoze software. It's nice to be able to say you run games in Linux, but if you want peak performance, you've unfortunately got to run these in Windoze. That being said, if you've got enough horsepower, there's nothing like sticking it to the man in Redmond and running MS Free.
The Nitty Gritty and Support
------------------------------
If you have a problem and have to get into the guts, remember google is your friend, just put Ubuntu as your first keyword and you won't often fail to find an answer. If that doesn't work, posting on the Ubuntu forums has always worked well for me.
Upgrading from earlier releases
--------------------------------
I upgraded and now my video or network doesn't work. It's probably because you need to re-install the restricted modules for the new release. Upgrades will disable restricted modules and 3rd party software so after an upgrade be sure to re-install these restricted pieces (I've been bitten by this one more than once). Also re-installing other applications after an upgrade, or if parts of the install fail, re-installing via apt-get or Synaptics can often set you right.
That's about it for now. Remeber - In a world without fences, who needs Gates?
Sound
-------
Under Linux there are older programs that use oss or other methods that take over the sound card so that only one application can play sound at a time. I use artsd, but there is also aoss and other solutions. There's another article here on this blog that goes into more detail of how to implement artsd, but know that if you only get audio from one program at a time, it's probably because it is using oss or trying to talk directly to the sound card. If you are using wine to run Windows programs you can also run wine under aoss or arts so that it will play nice with other audio apps.
Flash, Windows and Other non-free stuff
-----------------------------------------
The easiest way I've found is to use the Synaptics package manger and install "Automatix". This nifty little program will go out and grab all the non-free stuff you need to play DVD's and other proprietary media on your machine. You can still get the pieces manually by adding the proper repositories and installing the right pieces, but Automatix makes this part a no-brainer.
Video and Network Cards
--------------------------
If you have an ATI or NVIDIA card or certain Network cards you'll probably want to install the non-free drivers for these. Automatix may take care of getting these installed, but if it doesn't, then you'll need to install the restricted drivers package (you can use Synaptics and do a search for restricted). Be sure that you have the "Proprietary drivers for devices (restricted)" checked in Synaptics->Repositories->Ubuntu Software Tab. You want to make sure you check "linux-restricted-modules-xxx" where xxx is the release/architecture of the kernel you are using.
64 Bit Installs
---------------
I did one of these installations and although I was very stoked to be running 64 bit, there was a bit of backbending I had to do to get 32 bit compiled apps to work as not everything is available yet in 64 bit. That being said, most of the important things are available in 64 bit, and you can always compile from source, the things that aren't but if you're lazy like me, 32 bit Ubuntu still kicks arse on anything else on the block.
Games
--------
I managed to get Warcraft, Eve-Online (albiet w/ only oss audio), and Steam w/ Team Fortress 2 working on Gutsy. Games that are written natively for Windoze will always run better there because tools like wine need to create a virtual machine to run the Windoze software. It's nice to be able to say you run games in Linux, but if you want peak performance, you've unfortunately got to run these in Windoze. That being said, if you've got enough horsepower, there's nothing like sticking it to the man in Redmond and running MS Free.
The Nitty Gritty and Support
------------------------------
If you have a problem and have to get into the guts, remember google is your friend, just put Ubuntu as your first keyword and you won't often fail to find an answer. If that doesn't work, posting on the Ubuntu forums has always worked well for me.
Upgrading from earlier releases
--------------------------------
I upgraded and now my video or network doesn't work. It's probably because you need to re-install the restricted modules for the new release. Upgrades will disable restricted modules and 3rd party software so after an upgrade be sure to re-install these restricted pieces (I've been bitten by this one more than once). Also re-installing other applications after an upgrade, or if parts of the install fail, re-installing via apt-get or Synaptics can often set you right.
That's about it for now. Remeber - In a world without fences, who needs Gates?
Monday, December 3, 2007
Paros Proxy - Web Debugging/Testing at it's finest.
I just got this one up and running under Ubuntu Gutsy. This is a very nice Web Development Tool as well as a nice debugging tool for seeing exactly what is going on in an HTTP connection. I think it's really intended as a security auditing tool, but I think people in Web Development are missing the boat if they don't take a look at this tool to test development modifications to existing live sites.
The big thing I like about it is the ability to modify HTML on the fly as it goes from the Web Server to the browser. This is a must have for anyone that needs to get down the the nitty gritty level of debugging sites at the HTTP protocol level as well as picking through generated HTML and Javascript code.
I write different Javascript for Websites. With this tool I can intercept the code in any site, then modify the code before my browser sees it. By doing this I can easily test pieces of Javascript in a live site to see if they work before giving them to the customer.
This is written in Java so you should be able to run it on pretty much anything. Since I run it on Ubuntu I've included a couple of notes about running it there.
This one will require sun Java 6. as the gcj Java that comes with Ubuntu won't work with Paros (at least with the 3.2.13 release I worked with).
If you are on Gutsy you can use apt-get or synaptic package manager to install java-6-sun.
Then in the startserver.sh script uncomment the line that sets
JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun
And change the line to run /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/bin/java instead of just java (which will run /usr/bin/java which by default will be gcj)
If you don't make these changes you'll get a java.security.NoSuchAlgorithmException for SunX509. I've sent the small change needed in the Javascript to eliminate this particular error so we'll hope to see it as a fix in a future release, in the meantime though, It seems to work very well on Ubuntu with the Sun Java 6. It's a must have for anyone in Web Development. There is an equivalent product called "Fiddler" for Windoze, but it only runs in Windoze, so there you have it. Bop on over to the Paros Website grab a copy give and give it a go.
Sunday, December 2, 2007
ATI, Ubuntu Gutsy , Compiz, BigDesktop - Beautiful :)
Even in 2D mode without Compiz, Ubuntu Linux with Big Desktop is the shiznit. Turn on Compiz and it's a desktop experience that makes is a pleasure to sit at the computer.
So far I've gotten the following goodness working on Ubuntu:
World of Warcraft
Team Fortress 2 (w/ voice coms)
Eve Online (Although I'm still trying to figure out how to get the sound to share)
The key things to watch out for when configuring games is that wine and some of the older Linux audio applications will us oss and/or talk to the sound card directly and not be nice and share.
I couple of options exist to share the sound hardware.
aoss, esd and arts. For me arts has worked the best, I haven't tried esd and I got static with aoss.
To start arts, first start the server by doing the following:
$ artsd -d &
The -d tells it to go full duplex so you can use voice comm applications.
Then do:
$ artsdsp TeamSpeak
or
$ artsdsp wine WoW.exe
Other than that, but "ubuntu" before your searches and there are lots of awesome folks in the Ubuntu community that have been there and documented what they have done to get it to all work.
I have been having a few issues with the ATI card and BigDesktop w/ 3D Acceleration, but on the whole I've been very happy with my new install. You can get the nitty gritty of it on the Ubuntu forums at http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=3882866#post3882866
Enjoy and have a nice big cup of Ubuntu!!
So far I've gotten the following goodness working on Ubuntu:
World of Warcraft
Team Fortress 2 (w/ voice coms)
Eve Online (Although I'm still trying to figure out how to get the sound to share)
The key things to watch out for when configuring games is that wine and some of the older Linux audio applications will us oss and/or talk to the sound card directly and not be nice and share.
I couple of options exist to share the sound hardware.
aoss, esd and arts. For me arts has worked the best, I haven't tried esd and I got static with aoss.
To start arts, first start the server by doing the following:
$ artsd -d &
The -d tells it to go full duplex so you can use voice comm applications.
Then do:
$ artsdsp TeamSpeak
or
$ artsdsp wine WoW.exe
Other than that, but "ubuntu" before your searches and there are lots of awesome folks in the Ubuntu community that have been there and documented what they have done to get it to all work.
I have been having a few issues with the ATI card and BigDesktop w/ 3D Acceleration, but on the whole I've been very happy with my new install. You can get the nitty gritty of it on the Ubuntu forums at http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=3882866#post3882866
Enjoy and have a nice big cup of Ubuntu!!
Saturday, December 1, 2007
World of Warcraft on Ubuntu Gutsy w/ Teamspeak (and Music)
So I've gone upgrade crazy. I've got the Latest Ubuntu Gutsy Gabon (7.10) installed. And I got all my doo-dads working as well.
First off, I found the most useful walk-throughs on answers by prefacing my searches with "Ubuntu"
For example "ubuntu warcraft install howto" on google did wonders. Lots of good advice, etc.
In a nutshell the procedure is
1. Install wine on Ubuntu
2. Get the WOW download or copy the contents of all 4 install CD's into a single directory.
3. enter "wine Installer.exe"
There are many other details depending on your video card, etc. but probably the most useful notes are as follows:
1. Wine will try to "own" the audio device. So only one program at a time when running under wine will have audio. The solution to this is to use either aoss or arts on Ubuntu.
With aoss you do something like:
aoss wine wow.exe
aoss TeamSpeak # the linux binary
I found aoss to be not so good and had static when using TeamSpeak.
I personally use arts. You start up artsd first (the daemon) as follows:
artsd -d
The -d puts it in full duplex mode so you can use your mic.
Then start your applications like aoss, i.e.
artsdsp wine wow.exe
artsdsp TeamSpeak
artsdsp rythmbox
Anything that uses audio in wine or any linux programs that use oss audio need to use either aoss or arts if you want to run more than one program with audio output at a time.
Enjoy...
First off, I found the most useful walk-throughs on answers by prefacing my searches with "Ubuntu"
For example "ubuntu warcraft install howto" on google did wonders. Lots of good advice, etc.
In a nutshell the procedure is
1. Install wine on Ubuntu
2. Get the WOW download or copy the contents of all 4 install CD's into a single directory.
3. enter "wine Installer.exe"
There are many other details depending on your video card, etc. but probably the most useful notes are as follows:
1. Wine will try to "own" the audio device. So only one program at a time when running under wine will have audio. The solution to this is to use either aoss or arts on Ubuntu.
With aoss you do something like:
aoss wine wow.exe
aoss TeamSpeak # the linux binary
I found aoss to be not so good and had static when using TeamSpeak.
I personally use arts. You start up artsd first (the daemon) as follows:
artsd -d
The -d puts it in full duplex mode so you can use your mic.
Then start your applications like aoss, i.e.
artsdsp wine wow.exe
artsdsp TeamSpeak
artsdsp rythmbox
Anything that uses audio in wine or any linux programs that use oss audio need to use either aoss or arts if you want to run more than one program with audio output at a time.
Enjoy...
Seamless Mouse and Keyboard Switching on Windows and Linux
This is by far one of the handiest utilities I've seen for a computer in many years.
It's called Synergy. And what it does is this: Let's say you have two computers a laptop and a deskop. Your laptop is on the left desktop on the right. When you start up Synergy you can move your mouse to the left side of your desktop screen and it shows up on the right side of the laptop screen. You can also use your keyboard input and you can do this with several computers. What it means is you can use one keyboard an mouse to seamlessly control several computers.
It works on both Linux and Windows and is interoperable so you could have 2 windows, 2 linux or a windows and a linux or any combination of up to 5 computers (center, top, bottom, left and right). It's very easy to set up, I've been using it frequently for the last couple of days and it seems to work beautifully.
You can get this baby at http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/
Bye bye desk full of keyboards and mice, Yeah!!!
It's called Synergy. And what it does is this: Let's say you have two computers a laptop and a deskop. Your laptop is on the left desktop on the right. When you start up Synergy you can move your mouse to the left side of your desktop screen and it shows up on the right side of the laptop screen. You can also use your keyboard input and you can do this with several computers. What it means is you can use one keyboard an mouse to seamlessly control several computers.
It works on both Linux and Windows and is interoperable so you could have 2 windows, 2 linux or a windows and a linux or any combination of up to 5 computers (center, top, bottom, left and right). It's very easy to set up, I've been using it frequently for the last couple of days and it seems to work beautifully.
You can get this baby at http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/
Bye bye desk full of keyboards and mice, Yeah!!!
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