Ubuntu Linux - From Switzerland with Love

Among the mist of the Windows x64 RAID installation, this past saturday I finally received my Ubuntu Linux Cds. I ordered them around...some months back.. and they finally came to Argentina to me.

I would like to point out the great service Ubuntu gives to everyone for Free. Besides having an awesome, Debian-based Linux Distro, their offer CDs for shipment at no cost. A great alternative for those with narrowband. Sure you may have to wait a while for them to ship, but if you are on 56k you have mastered the art of patience already ;). You are welcomed to ordered as many CDs of the 3 flavors they offer. As you can see, I order one for my Shuttle -64 ed, one for Macs -Power PC ed, and one for regular Pcs -x86 ed, just in case. Each version comes with a install CD as well as a live CD for those that want to try out before buying kinda thing. The live cd makes as well, a great recovery tool, should your Windows install mess up and you want to recover your files.

Defenitely check them out, my hat has been take off for the Ubuntu guys, awesome stuff. While most linux distros make you pay for at least shipment, these guys do it for free. I love the Swiss, and Volvo cars (S60 is a great car).

http://shipit.ubuntulinux.org/

Pardon me. I have slacked. The trials of Win x64..

Four days have passed since I have last updated Void. To say the least, it sucks, and it shows my lack of consistency when it comes to certain things. Truth be told, I have been dealing for the past 4 days with trying to install Windows x64 on my Shuttle SN85G4V2.

As you may all know (or not) this small form factor Shuttles, don't come with an available floppy drive slot. This is the year 2005, who needs a floppy? Do you need one to install OSX? Of course not...but thats on mac..ok.. Do you need a floppy to install Linux to install it on this computer (I have installed Ubuntu 5.04 64 ed.)? Of course not. Why does Microsoft insists on having drivers been loaded on the oldest piece of crap technology ever made? I know floppies are predominant on the IT field, and mostly everywhere, I'm not saying kill the thing, but give Options.

Easiest solutions. How about loading from a CD drivers? That wouldn't be too hard, since well u loaded all the freaking CD-Drive drivers, and you are reading from the CD while in text mode. Press F6 to load Storage Drivers from an OEM CD. Not hard to implement now. Please take out your Windows CD, and place your OEM Drivers CD. Load them in, swap CD, and go your way. Support loading drivers from USB Storage devices like USB pen drives, the support for USB storage devices in text mode is there. Why not use it? Because its Microsoft. Although this feature seems to be coming in Vista.

Yes! close to 2006, we will be almost close to finally ditch the floppy when trying to install a Windows OS. I'm not even going to bother with harder solutions, like loading network support, and get the drivers from the network, oh no that would be too "advanced". Sure linux can do it, but it is Microsoft.

So what do I do when I have to install Windows on this? I slipstream. I have used so far with success, at least with the 32-bit ver. of Windows, N-lite. I have tried it with the x64 edition, no success although there's support for it. I have even done the slipstream by hand, no luck.

According to this Shuttle page It says you need:

• BIOS Ver. FN85S23F - Checked!


• Use Drivers from the FTP - Checked!


• Slipstream to CD - Checked!


• Have it not work - Checked!

Well, I have wasted 4 days and come to nothing, I'll probably post in the N-lite forums, see if anyone can help me. Otherwise, o well...

That's life meh...

Damn it.

So I had finished writing the post regarding good podcasts and vidcasts you may want to check out, when it all went to crap. I had everything set, links to each pod/vid-cast to the iTunes store, when i decide to preview it and check the links. Bad thing to do, when i click on one of the links, it takes you to an intermediate page, that basically says "Wait, we are opening in iTunes", then kicks you back to where you were. Turns out when I'm back, my whole written post is gone. Crap. I backed back and forth, nope gone forever. So now I gotta write everything from scratch, go find the links again etc. I will do it again, but not now, for right now I'm pissed and I gotta vent. Oh well.

Google's Talk IM Service

In the past months, there has been alot of talk of Google offering an IM service. There rumors became stronger when people noticed that google had a subdomain set up (talk.google.com) and also a jabber server. Well today is for certain, Google is enetering the IM war to square off against AIM, Skype, MSN Yahoo etc. Good thing is that it works with a Jabber server, so connecting to the network is pretty easy should you have a Jabber compatible IM client (iChat, Adium, Trillian i believe as well) and a gmail address. What you need is the following settings, if you want to join now, and dont want to wait for the Google talk client (more on that later).

• Jabber Id: yourname@gmail.com


• Password:your_gmail_password



• Server: talk.google.com Port:5223


• Location: Up to you

You should connect no problem and be ready to add people to your buddy list by typing their gmail address. Neat feature, whoever you add to your contact list, is added to your gmail's contact list.

Of course, Google had a client ready as well, which just has been released at 00:19 Argie time. This client, offers IM capabilities as well as VoIP capabilities. Skype killer? Too early to tell, but we all know how Google revolutionized free email with their Gmail service. The bad, well its just for Windows currently. Sure you can connect with other clients (as seen on my screenshot) but you are just limited to the IM part, no voice.

Hopefully Google comes with a Mac version soon, if they plan to go against the other services a native client on every platform is a must. Take a look a skype, they offer their client for not just Windows, but Mac, linux, and even PocketPc.

We will see what develops from this, so far it seems promising. If you need a gmail account to join Google talk, I have 50 invites leave a comment, let me know. Its a gmail-invite fest.

What happened to the sundays? It's a monday.

If you have been a regular visitor to the blog. Perhaps only one of you *salutes The Captain*, you may have noticed that I tried to create one-post-a-day thing. What happened to the sundays? After the long rambling on saturday I decided to take a day off. So much writing can be done during a week, before your hands have no more words to type. That's my excuse.

Short recap of Sunday: -Formula 1 GP Turkey. Kimmi won (yet again) Alonso second, after Montoya Screwed up..by himself.

Standings: Alonso 95 points Kimmi 71 points Shumi 55 points (interesting year for him, although rumors say he may go to Mclaren next year..but shhh)

-I found a website that shows you how to fold your shirt in 2 seconds flat. Japanese efficiency MIYAMOTO-SAN!!

And now for the last 4 minutes of this monday. Well noteworthy today, is that I may join an ongoing redesign project for a computer company's website, not that I ever left, but I work on-demand basis. Stay tuned to that, as I will later explain why redesign a website, tends to be harder than creating one from scratch, again my point of view will drive that post. I may reacquaint again with Macromedia Flash in the process. Long lost love? Hmmm..

Well that its all, short and sweet. My podcasts have finished downloading, I'm out to listen to that (TwiT #19) and call it a day.

Sneak pick of the week to come in void (in any order):

-My recommendations of some podcasts/vidcasts.
-Why redesigning a website, is harder than making one from scratch
-Music trends, and why they suck (just like many other trends).
-And who knows what else.

And look its a tuesday..

Running Mac OS Tiger on your PC -The next geek thing to do?

We live in a world filled with coming and outgoing trends. From wearing baggy pants with one leg up (as mastered by Mr. LL COOL J in the 90s) to wearing yellow wristbands (although for a good cause for the most part, aside from looking "cool") and iPods today.

The internet, been the world that it is, is no exception to this. We have had regular trends, some everybody remembers, and some geek trends, which only geeks remember. Been the geek that I am , fancy title for resumé : "IT professional", I will talk about about some here.

First and and keep this in mind, most geek trend involve Hax0ring. You know reverse engineering stuff to make it work, function some way or another from its original form. Secondly, a lot of geek trends involve running Beta software. You know all geeks have done this at one point or another. Running beta builds of OSes, as a main OS, then crying after it crashed, or you had no driver support for your _______ and you had to wait for JimmyTehCool at that certain forum to Hax0r sum driver there, post it, and you downloading it. Finally these trends also embrace game leaks. You are no geek, if you haven't run a game leak at one time or another,and you know there have been quite a few (see below).

Here are some note worthy geek trends, as compile by me:

• Running Windows Whistler Beta #24-- : After waiting 5 hours in queue at the Winbeta IRC channel, you installed it, and u looked at the pretty new Fisher Price Windows theme..OOOOooo. THIS IS AWESOME!!111!!.
  
  2005 Trend: Get Vista, and look at how Microsoft has gone to a very similar look as MAC OS, and yes IE still sucks...even in version 7 with tabs.


• Getting the WPA Crack for Whistler/XP Corp: Angel of Death, yes Death himself hax0red the Product Activation and let you installed XP. He also provived the .ISO and the FCKGW product key. Who wouldve thought that Mr Death was so hax0r cool.


• Getting the leaked DOOM3 E3 Ati Demo, AND getting above 15 FPS: Oh yea baby...DOOM3 in all its glory. People already whined about the poor peformance of the game, and everybody said "YOU NEED AN ATI Card man!!"...wait wasn't that for HL2?


• Get the HL2 leak now.. and you gotta say that Steam sucks, and get the ATI Card it comes with free HL2!: HL2 got leaked and people got to see some of the physics and shoot water with the MP5. Meanwhile in forums legion of users embraced Steam as the next fertilizer for sun flowers (and some still do).
  
  2005 Trend: *waits for Quake 4 leak by 911RAZORPWNAGE!!11!1 or something*


• Run linux in some device powered by electricity/God: XBOX, PS2, iPod, Mac, PC, PDA,Cellphone, toaster, food grinder with aluminum sharp blades..etc etc. Its the obsession of many geek senseis, MUST HAVE LINUX EVERYWHERE!!!1!!
  
  2005 trend: see above...trend will never die. MUST HAVE LINUX EVERYWHERE!!!1!!

And finally the new, coolest must-do geek trend:

Put Apple.OS.X.x86.Developer.Kit.Install.DVD-pheNIX on your x86 PC!

You KNOW this is big when there's over 1,810,000 hits at google regarding this.They have made this a project and thus a website is born for the project. That project has a crap load of active members and users. Countless forums posts regarding the success and failure of getting it to boot, run across the web. One of the biggest torrent sites has a direct link to the file in their front page.

So what's the big fuzz? I'm a mac user, and also have a PC will I install it on the PC? Nope. Why? because its pointless. First its a pain to get it to work. Of course it involves some hax0ring! I have installed linux,dealt with partions blah blah blah, but thats not the point.

You are installing something, thats just to say you did it, most likely thats why, to brag in a forum, to prove ur mac friend, to say "LOOK I DONT HAVE TO PAY "MORE" TO RUN MAC... OOOO look Steve Jobs I have Mac on my DELL..!!!" Yea thats cool, but can you run every application on it? Can you update it? Is it stable as Mac running in a ...well Mac? No. So all this big deal for what? Just to make a quick video of system profiler saying Intel Pentium 3.x Ghz? No worth it, as I see it. This has as much use as running that PearPC thing. Its there, but its not the real thing. The mac experience is the hardware AND the software. When you say I'm running mac, you automatically see in your head a mac, powerbook, powermac, imac with Mac OS. At the end, running OSX on your PC is just a feat, a hack, in 2 months, you won't care, and you will be back to Windows, after the whole "OOOO cool factor" is gone. Meanwhile some of us will keep "Tiger'in"and enjoying the mac experience, with our mac hardware.

As you can see trends, come and go..who said all trends had a point behind them, this Mac x86 thing, to me, clearly doesn't have a point.

Starwars Ep 3 English -> Chinese -> English

These are screen shots from a dvd that was translated into Chinese and then subtitled back into English. Makes for some very, very funny engrish sentences.

He is in my behind.



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Hey it looks pretty, and I headed out somewhere..

Well as you can tell, I have updated the look a bit for most part, nice and simple, based on the KISS principle. No not that rock band, the Keep It Simple Stupid thing. Structural layout is the same for the most part, except for the links been put on the bottom. The difference comes in the colors (well that sounded kinda gay..). BUT its true man!!.

Worth noting is that the updated look appears when i see the template to edit, however visiting the blog by the address u still get the black look. If you are reading this with a black background, well that sucks and I shall take some Brownie points away from u Blogger.com..

Should you be a graphic designer, or be slightly interested in web design. Well heres what I can tell you. Colors used are:

#9CADB7
#687A76
#33393C

I also molested some of the CSS code here and there as well, and I added 2 buttons. One is the RSS Feed button, click on that subscribe to it. Harness the power of real simple syndication says I. The second is a home made, photoshopped created void inside button. I think it looks nice and I will use it to spread void inside awareness through other forums and what not, that I tend to visit.

And to close things up. I stepped out of my cardboard box today for sometime. After some requests of Mother, to accompany her downtown. So i went with her..saw sum hot chicks..some of them too young ..some of them acting too stupid. Damn high school chicks*. Overall it was alright, some time was killed out this friday, and I got to enjoy riding public transporation..weee!!

They say a picture is worth a 1000 words. Well whenever i get a chance, I'll snap a pic of my whereabouts, and Ill post it along a post. So you can associate with what I am trying to say. I will use my camera phone for the most part to snatch a pic. So it may be worth 475 words, instead of 1000 due to the crappy quality. O well. Enjoy it. Please now direct your view to the top of this post. Thank you.

*If you are a high school chick, please don't be offended, not all of you are stupid :).

Yay..another blog on the internet...

Giving in to my originality once again, I now involve myself into the so call art of "blogging". As unique and one of a kind as a kid wanting to be a fire fighter at the age of 7, and a dog named Max.

End of lack of originality disclaimer I must say this. The service is free, so no hassle of setting up PHP, MySQL DB, Download blogging software, set it up..blah blah blah. By the time u got done with all of that, you are tired as hell, and wait you have to design it as well, so u give up on that as well. Thus, another default themed worpress blog is born.

From what I see here, at least you can change the theme (which i kinda like this theme, so it shouldnt be much different when I'm done with it). So ill whip out the Dreamweaver..and weave away some crap there.

And so the first post is done. Lets see if I can add some high quality content to this, not just "I Woke up with a zit on my left ass chick, Im tired. End of blog."

Well..time will tell..the end.