Yes, that was a long time between posts. I’ve been… busy (killing time). I haven’t felt so motivated to bother doing the alt-tab mouse input thing in Metacity (the official window manager for GNOME), as other things which seem to eclipse it are being developed:
- Gimmie (which looks awesome!)
- AIGLX (Redhat)
- XGL (Novel) (very nice demo | src )
3D is on it’s way to the Linux desktop. 3D cards – This has always bothered me. Put aside the fact that the drivers are not open. ATI cards always looked nice, to me, and they’re a Canadian company, so I would choose to support them given a choice of NVidia or ATI. However, ATI clearly does not offer competent drivers for Linux to support their nice cards. If I want any kind of performance, there’s no choice, really: NVidia. Since I’m not playing intensive games all the time, however (I did enjoy the Doom3 demo, though), I would be willing to go with a card that is backed by an OSS supporting company. Not sure what my options would be then.
The USB flash card reader I got is working awesome. Yes, it’s pretty small w/a short cable for using on your PC, but it’s got GREAT portability. Doesn’t need any extra drivers for Linux or Windows (the reader is cross platform!) heh. I’m ecstatic with it for $9. I almost bought a second when I saw them on sale again at NCIX.
Google Page Creator got slashdotted, so I didn’t get a chance to try it. Oh well.
And after watching a wicked sweet 30 minute gameplay video (140MB) of Spore, I’m not sure if I can resist setting up a windows box that can run it. I mean… Oh My God. Best game evah!~
I should upload some pix. So behind on pix it’s ridiculous. I thought about flickr… but i’m convinced there is a better personal solution, if I don’t care about the communities (that much). Maybe take a look at WordPress Gallery2 when I have time.
Oh yeah… I was working on a new blog design (like I said I would) and things were going ok. Then I stopped for a while (a week?) and wanted to work on it again after. But.. I couldn’t find it!! I thought I had accidentally deleted it in my clensing! I was pretty irritated with myself. Luckily, I only moved it… and I found it just today.
Oh man, stupid-me number two (far outdoes the first): I was keeping my laptop on the floor of my bedroom, near my bed. You know, for easy access to porn… on my bed. Anyways, when I stepped closer to my mirror to examine a couple odd hairs on my head (what else?), I felt something bend under my foot, and looked down. FUCK! My wireless card that was poking out of the pcmcia slot in my laptop! :'( I now present it dead. RIP 1000yen wireless card. Anyone know where I can get a cheap wireless card? Laptop’s pretty useless without it. And a cheap CF wireless card, for that matter… would be nice for my zaurus.
UPDATE:
On second inspection, the PCMCIA slots are totally shot. One doesn’t work at all, and the other never successfully registers a card… (BEEP beep). I’ve tried both my wireless card and a regular CF adapter. So possibly in addition to my 1000yen wireless card, I have to do something about my $2000 laptop. *sigh* Guess I’ll be heading to Futureshop again… I hope they don’t remember me. 😐 Damnit, this sucks.
Aren’t all card readers cross-platform by default? It’s just an USB mass storage interface like any usb key or camera?
My laptop ac adaptor died and futureshop would only replace it if I leave them my laptop.
Even if they don’t remember you, how do you explain a physical damage to them?
i can explain the damage to the sockets.
laptop, near bed for porn. The stepping on the wireless card story is just a clever ruse. I know what you’ve been doing…I know all to well. Futureshop knows to, I told them so.
So yeah to fix your sockets try Masculout(tm)
Shirley, my understanding is that as long as they don’t implement their own funky protocol, and identify themselves as USB Mass Storage devices (and follow protocol) then yes, there should not be any problem because drivers for this already exist for linux. But I don’t think camera’s are the best example, because many camera’s do not do this, and probably have their own proprietary communication protocol. Even so, a year ago I’m not sure it would have worked. Perhaps the drivers were there, but distro’s were not building them in their kernel. And if you roll your own, then you may end up kicking yourself for not having added support. I know I did. 🙂
As for the physical damage, … what physical damage?
Jesse, you’re supposed to provide links to these things so as people other than me can laugh.
masculout video
… Bastard.
I meant the cameras that implement the usb storage interface (like sony), and there are only two major protocols anyway.
I would be very surprised if you can find an usb card reader that isn’t cross-platform.
I assumed when you stepped on your card, the card also damaged some parts inside the slot? I don’t think it’s possible to find a 1000yen wifi card here, but those tiny usb ones are quite cheap. Get the white nintendo one.
yes, it must have damaged the slot… bad. I had 2 slots. Now, one doesn’t work at all, and the other recognizes a card is inserted, but recognizes it as gibberish, so it fails. I tried my wireless card and a CF adapter on both. Nothin.
It’ll be total crap if I get stuck with USB 1.1 for wireless. 🙁 Nintendo wireless usb sounds cool, though…
I didn’t even step on it that hard….. *sigh*
good luck with your futureshop trip!
isn’t there a slight chance that they’d give you a new laptop? they like to say that when they try to sell the warranty.
The warranty isn’t as great as they make it sound when they sell it to you. Great laptops -> mediocre ones. Mediocre laptops -> no name ones.
Steve, you don’t know how heavy you weigh? 🙂
I twice let the card-reader slip past me. I was kinda hoping I could get a floppy+cardreader because my desktop has no floppy (and some things simply requires floppy).
Masculout video is funny. 🙂 And good luck with your futureshop trip. I don’t like putting up with futureshop sales people.
I’m relieved to report a successful trip to Futureshop! yay! I’ll blog about it in a sec.
Yes, John, it’s “possible” they’ll replace it, but I’m not getting my hopes up. And you’re correct, it’s they’re primary selling point.
Alex, I didn’t even know such combo drives existed. Cool. But I think flash can totally replace floppy. Why couldn’t it? Unless you count nostalgia of the good ‘ol days and data corruption. 🙂