Archive for General
Is the open source software better for Mac than PC?
I have been using OS X excessively since the purchase of my Macbook, and the thing that drove me to this is the software. Sure there is an unlimited supply of software for Windows, but lets be honest most of its crapware. Sure there are some gems like Windows Live Suite, Alcohol 120%, and the all to essential Office 2003. But for me being a poor college student I can’t afford to buy a lot of software so the open source community is where I get my software. Since I have been on Mac I have found so many great problems like,
-
Quicksilver
Acquisition
VirtualBox
Adium
Alarm Clock
I cant imagine living without this software now, its really that great. Sure there are Windows equivalents of this software but I now prefer their OS X counterpart. Now before you call me a Windows hater, notice that I have VirtualBox on the list, this allows me to run Windows for the software that I have to use for school and to write this blog, I use Windows Live Writer, its awesome.
So what open source software do you use? It can be on OS X, Linux, or Windows let us know what you think is good.
Great Scott! My Mac is Having Kernel Panics!
When I decided to buy my MacBook I knew I was going to have to use Boot Camp to run some software for school, and the occasional game or two, I figured this process would be simple and straightforward, like most Mac software, but boy was I wrong. Upon opening the BootCamp partitioner every thing seemed normal, so I decided to partition the hard drive and give just 20 gigs to Windows XP, simple enough, eh? Well after 10 minutes of waiting, I got my first kernel panic - but wait, Macs don’t, crash right? So after rebooting I discovered that I lost 10 gigs on the Macintosh HD partition, so like any sane person I put in my OS X Leopard install disk and did a disk repair. Guess what? My ten gigs are back, but when trying to do BootCamp again I get the same kernel panic.
So how did I fix it?
Well I had to use the OS X Leopard install disk again and format the hard drive myself, which was very simple to do. After that I ran the BootCamp software; it recognized my partition and the install went fine, so I now have XP and Leopard running in perfect harmony.
3 things I have noticed with Vista SP1
I upgraded Vista to SP1 a week ago today and my experience so far has been mixed. A few things run faster here and there but somethings are now unresponsive and sometimes to frustrating to even want to deal with. Here is a list of the top 3 things I have noticed about Vista SP1.
1. Games run smoother. Running the same drivers before SP1 my computer will now play games at the same speed of XP. Before I was unable to play games like Sonic Heros, just tested the game not a fan of it at all, Call of Duty 1 works flawlessly now and Elder Scrolls 3 Morrowind seems to run fine but with a few issues with DirectX 10.
2. Network sharing is hit or miss now. For some reason I cannot move some files between computer on my home network. Its not like the files are large most are simple text and HTML documents and for what ever reason I cannot move them. This is not alwalys the case but it happens almost 40% of the time.
3. Better responsiveness. The ol computer seems to run a little faster and I have less errors than before. A lot of the small bugs are gone but its still not perfect.
While still not perfect SP1 fixes a good bit of the issues I have had with Vista but its still not enough for me to keep as my primary OS on my laptop so Kubuntu 8.04 I will be seeing you next month.
Looking To Do PC Gaming? Here Are 5 Things To Remember (For Newbies)
So look at you, you got your new shiny PC and your ready to play some awesome new PC games like Call of Duty 4 and Crysis, but can you? Getting into PC gaming can be a little tricky for new comers and sometimes confusing, so here are 5 things to look for before getting into gaming.
5. How much RAM do you have? RAM is temp memory in which your open applications use to run with, so the more the better. If you are running Windows Vista I would run at least 2 gigs of RAM and in Windows XP I would choose 1 gig but I would go on the safe side and up grade to at least run DirectX 10 games. RAM is one of the most important things in PC gaming and PCs in general.
4. Check the games system requirements. If a game says needs at least 256mb video card and you have a 128 chances are you wont be able to run it in its full glory. Most likely you will receive a low FPS and in some cases the game wont even load. So make sure you have at least the requirements but more always helps.
3. XP Or Vista? Most new games will be made for Vista so you will probably want to buy it but some older games don’t run very smooth on it, like GTA: San Andreas in my case. XP at this point has better driver support so its a safe bet that you can run your games in their full glory on the system so you should wait until SP1 of Vista is released later in the month.
2. Don’t be cheap, go Dual Core. At this point playing games are best suited to have two processors. Of course older games run fine without two so if you are going to go with a solo processor don’t go below 2.8ghz.
1. The most important thing of all in gaming, YOUR VIDEO CARD!!! Make sure your video card is not integrated graphics, like mine :(, because you will want a at least a PCI card with its own built in RAM. At this point you can find a cheap Nividia card like the GeForce 5500 for about $50 and it can play most games before 2006 but I would recommend the Geforce 7800, which can handle most games on the market today. Also do not buy a video card with less than 256mb of built in memory because most games require at least that much.
Do you have any other pointers for people looking to get into PC gaming? If so leave it as a comment!
Loco about Ubuntu?
Looking for a good place to learn more about Ubuntu or meet other Ubuntu users? Here are some websites that are dedicated to the use of Ubuntu.
-Loco about Ubuntu
-Ubuntu Forms
-Matt Hartley’s blog
-Official Ubuntu website
-Distro Watch
There are tons of other websites out there dedicated to Ubuntu and Linux in general, I am sure you have some other ones so please leave them as a comment to share with the community, and yes you can spam your Linux blog :)
5 Things I Love About Ubuntu
Ubuntu has silently made its way to my desktop as the primary OS of choice. There are litterly hundreds of things that I adore about Ubuntu but heres the top five, in no order.
- Customization, You can make Ubuntu look how ever you want! You can choose between different colors for the windows, change visual effects, and even change the whole desktop from Gnome to KDE if you like. Nothing is off limits in Linux and its a nice thing.
- Every 6 months it gets better, There is nothing more I love than a new version of Ubuntu and in fact we get a new one every 6 months. The Ubuntu team seems to make strides forward with the new updates, unlike another OS company, and every upgrade is a welcomed addition. 8.04 is just around the corner and with all of the new Alpha versions coming out it seems this will be the best version of Ubuntu yet.
- The community, Chances are if you have a problem with Ubuntu somebody out there has had the same issue and has posted a fix. You can expect to get lost for days inside the Ubuntu forums learning all kinds of new things. If you have a problem and can’t kind it just sign up for the forum and ask the question and some nice Ubuntu/Linux user will try and help you out. Once you start to use Ubuntu you join a community of nice,helpful, and smart people who will guide you through Linux experience.
- Free software, After installing Ubuntu you should have all the software you need to do things for school, home, and work. Of course this is all free and is of the up most quality. Just think the Ubuntu system updates you can expect to receive new updates for the software regularly. If you need any new software you can find it in the Add/Remove Applications section, which leads me to my next point.
- The process of installing and uninstalling software, Ubuntu is years ahead of OS X and Windows with the way you can install and remove software because of its ease of use. All of the software you will ever need is in one place and to install all you need to do is a “check” next to a program and hit install, thats it! Its the same to uninstall a program expect you remove the check mark, simple enough?
So whats the things that you love most about Ubuntu?
Why do you use Windows?
I at one point was a big Microsoft fan, still am on a few things, I lived by the newest release of Windows but recently that has changed. A few years ago I started to use Ubuntu as a hobby and it turned into my secondary OS to Windows XP. Also in that time I bought a G4 iMac and started to use Tiger and really started to like it but once again I still used Windows XP over the Apple OS, but all of that has changed. With the release of Vista I was so excited to get my hands on a copy and I ignored all of the early reviews because of my excitement for the new release.
But like many others Vista left me saying why?
After two days of use I had to downgrade back to XP because things just seemed so unstable to me and I refuse to use anything that doesn’t work right. After leaving Vista the first time I have been back a few times and each time leading to frustration and just asking why? Finally after the final uninstalling I decided to step back from the Windows world and I installed Ubuntu 7.10 on my laptop. I am still using it and I have had minimal problems but its problems that I can over come because Ubuntu just feels more stable then Vista does.
I have made the switch.
During this time I have also bought a copy of Leopard for my Mac and it has just blown my mind. Everything works just as described and is worth the $129 price tag. So I have moved about 80% of my computer needs to Mac and the other 20% on to Ubuntu. So now I am officially off of Windows as my operating system, I am sure that within the next few weeks I will install XP within a virtual machine on the Mac, but my days with Windows is over.
Sorry Windows its been a great 10 years but I have met someone new who understands my needs.
So my question to you is why are you still using Windows? Thats if you are running Windows! If you are a recent switcher like myself please leave your story as a comment.
What’s a bare-bones kit? How do I build a computer with one?
The term bare-bone kit refers to a computer with the most basic of components needed. So what’s included? Usually with most bare-bones computers, like on TigerDirect, you get a case a motherboard, and a processor, usually already installed on the motherboard. Also within the case you will get a nice fan and with the CPU you should get a heat sink so you don’t have to buy any cooling products to start off with. Often you can save some cash buying these kits. You can now buy a good bare-bone kit with a duel-core processor for under $200 and save yourself some cash when building a new computer.
So what else do I need to buy?
Four things,
Memory, hard drive, dvd-rom and a decent video card.
For memory you should look to buy at least a gig of RAM if you are going the Windows route, you can get away with 512mb on a Linux distro like Ubuntu.
Hard drive size is purely up to you. Myself I usually save a bunch of cash and buy a smaller one like 80gb.
It might cost a little more but its worth buying a DVD/CD burner drive. I made the mistake of buying my laptop without a DVD burner and regretted it shortly after, You can a cheap DVD burner from Wal-Mart.
Now the video card is optional because your motherboard may come with a built in video card. Of course you should buy a better card for HD movies and gaming, or if you have Vista for the “Aero Experience” or with Ubuntu the desktop effects.
Of course there are other accessories you can buy like a wireless card, TV tuner, or even a card reader.
If you have any tips on building a computer from a bare-bones kit please leave it as a comment!
I’m starting to like Ubuntu; can I switch from Windows?
For the past year I have been playing around with Ubuntu Link as a hobby just for fun, but recently I have started to seriously think about using it as the primary OS on my Dell Laptop.
Right now my Dell is running Vista and the only reason it is running a Windows operating system is because of the fact that I have a Zune, but recently I have used my iPod Touch even more. As I mentioned for a about a year now I have used Ubuntu inside of VMware and even on a Wubi installation, unfortunately its not very stable.
I like Ubuntu as a whole. While the default look isn’t very pleasing to me it is very customizable and my only limit is myself when it comes to customizing the experience. I also like the free software but like the overall look some of its just ugly, I am a sucker for pretty things, though it is very powerful. Probably my favorite thing is that my laptop, 1.66 ghz solo-core, 1gig of ram, and built in intel graphics card, runs Ubuntu about 10 times faster than Vista. In Vista I had problems with the 3d effects and the “Aero” experience, but with Ubuntu I have their 3d effects turned all the way up with no issues.
So here’s my question to you, should I just leave Windows behind and jump on board to the Linux train? Have you made the switch? If so let me know via comment.
Also here are some things that might hinder me in my switch,
My wireless card, Dell mini-1390, doesn’t seem to work(which leads me to my next problem)
I am not very good with the terminal codes and commands.
I use Windows Live Writer, is there any good blog posting software available in Ubuntu?
Zeitgeist movie
Recently I have watched this movie and was blown away by its claims from everything from religion to government. Its a great movie for those of us who don’t expect the mainstream answer for things. While I have yet to research these claims for myself I do suggest that you watch the video(its right above this paragraph). If you have already seen the video or watching it now then please leave a comment about it on how you feel,
Lets try to get smart America.
Technorati Tags: Government,Zeitgeist movie
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