Archive for March, 2005
Two great internet radio stations
Posted by Biffster in Digital music, Web on March 29th, 2005
I’ve found two great internet radio stations recently, thanks to pointers from two different blogs.
First up is Egg Radio, which is “Streaming Alternative Classic Modern Rock on the Internet 24 hours a day.” And they’re doing a damned good job of it. I listened for a couple of hours the first night I found the link (via Wil Wheaton dot Net), and did not hear one song I didn’t like. Ditto on the times I’ve returned since.
I found the second tonight via Metafilter: Radio DavidByrne. This is a very eclectic mix of music – about what one would expect from Byrne. It’s also a lot like a mix that I would build myself. The last three tracks were from Outkast, Paul Simon and Pietra Montecorvino. And it worked. very well.
Best teeny-tiny crontab tip EVER
Posted by Biffster in Debian/Linux on March 29th, 2005
This seeming innocuous article on wait and sleep contains the best crontab hint I’ve ever seen. It’s tiny, just a small portion of the article, but it’s amazing. You’ll have to scroll down on the page to find it; look for the big yellow box.
This might also be one of the coolest use of comments I’ve seen, too.
PCWorld.com writes up my desktop manager: Xfce
Posted by Biffster in Debian/Linux on March 28th, 2005
PCWorld.com published a great review of Xfce in February. I’m just posting the article now for two reasons: this blog didn’t exist when the article was published, and I wasn’t using Xfce then.
I actually just switched over this weekend. (One has a surprising amount of free time when one has a combination of flu and sinus infection.) After doing a
apt-get install xfce4 xfce4-goodies xfce4-utils
I fired up an Xfce session and started playing around with the interface. I was impressed with the speed right off the bat. My Debian system isn’t exactly a speed demon (Athlon 700MHz with 512mb ram), but it sure felt like it under Xfce. Xfce runs faster than anything I’ve tried – with the notable exception of fluxbox. I was also impressed with the aesthetics. The default Xfce desktop is very pleasant to look at.
And then I started tinkering under the covers. Xfce is nicely configurable. I was able to tweak the panel, add a bunch of panel applets, set up new color, icon and widget themes, and set a pleasing default font. Oh, and set Konqueror to be my default browser, of course. All in all, I am pleasantly surprised. I think I’ll be sticking with Xfce, for at least a little while.
Oh, here’s what PCWorld had to say: “Xfce. This interface has been in active development for many years; it’s now up to version 4.2; and it’s both attractive and lightweight, making it ideal for older machines. It also sports some extremely geeky features that power users will definitely enjoy.”
Decemberists release music video via bittorrent
Posted by Biffster in Digital music on March 26th, 2005
I knew there was a reason why I love the Decemberists! As if putting out very good indie alternative isn’t good enough, the Decemberists have released the video for “16 Military Wives” for download via bittorrent! Included are instructions for how to download and install bittorrent and Azareus.
That, my friends, is cool!
New video card = massive hardware re-config
Well, this ought to be a lot of fun. I make use of two personal computers. One is a Gateway Select, powered by an Athlon 700MHz processor. This was once my main computer (back when 700MHz was a pretty beefy system), then got demoted to the wife’s computer, and then got re-commissioned as my main Debian PC. It is now basically my main PC again, since I run Debian (Sarge) all the time. It’s not fast, but it doesn’t need to be for what I use it for.
My second PC is a home-built Athlon 2500+ system. I run WinXP on this, and use it as my game machine. Aside from games and Quicken, this machine doesn’t get much use. I have a GeForce 2Ti in this system, a video card I originally had in the Gateway.
Erin bought me Half-Life 2 for Christmas. I played this for a while, but I got tired of the lag and the sometimes-awful framerate, so I put it away in favor of finishing Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Now that I have done that, I decided it was time to upgrade my video card so I can finish Half-Life 2.
I have a 256mb nVidia GeForce 6600 waiting at home for me to install. But since I’m going to have to crack open one of the boxes, I figured I might as well do some other hardware swaps while I am at it. So I am going to make the following changes:
- The Windows box gets the GeForce 6600
- The Debian box gets the GeForce 2Ti
- The Debian box loses its DVD-ROM drive
- The Windows box gets the DVD-ROM drive, but loses its CD-RW drive
- The Debian box then gets the CD-RW drive
The end result is the Debian box will have a faster video card, plus a 48x CD-RW drive for use with K3b. The Windows box will get a kick-ass video card for Half-Life 2, and it will become a full-fledged DVD burning station, as it will now have both a DVD+-RW and a DVD-ROM drive.
I love shuffling hardware!
Finally finished – Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
First, a little back story here. I love pretty much Legend of Zelda game that has ever been made. I rememeber standing in line to get the original game for the Nintendo Game System. I played it for hours. I tried to play every game that was released since then. And I waited with baited breath for the release of Ocarina of Time.
However, I was going back to college when Ocarina of Time was released, and figured that I didn’t want to wreck my GPA because of the game. So I held of ’til I graduated. I finally bought a Nintendo 64 with Ocarina of Time in July of 2000. And I started playing it quite consistently.
But then life intruded on me. My fiancee (at the time) and I were planning our wedding, so I had to take time away from the game. I finally got back to it the next year, but got myself stuck in a dungeon. I realized that I was going to have to start over, but didn’t want to do that. So I put the game on hold again.
I then decided I wanted to go to graduate school. Fast forward two years later, and now I have a baby. It is winter 2004 when I finally feel like I have time to play the game again.
So through the last couple of months of 2004, I played my way back through most of the game. I took a two-month break to play Half-Life 2, but finally got back into Zelda the past few months. And today, finally, I defeated Ganon and the game. Almost 5 years later than I ever imagined!
But I am done. And it was such a wonderful experience! The final battle with Ganondorf is great, but the atmosphere and the environment is even better. You have to meet Ganondorf at the very top tower of his castle. To get there, you have to fight your way up, and up, and up, and up. The rooms get very small, and it’s easy to tell which way to go one you clear a room: look for the stairs going up.
After the final battles, there is an excellent 10-minute long CGI scene that wraps up the story. And then the credits roll. I was surprised to find myself sad that I was finished with the game. The world of Ocarina of Time is so vibrant, so endearing, that it really grabs you emotionally. I couldn’t tear myself away from the end credits. And fortunately I didn’t, because the game rewards you with a great final scene.
This truly may be the greatest video game ever made.
Now, on to my GameCube and Legend of Zelda: The WindWaker!
The new Doctor Who…
In case you haven’t heard, the first episode of the new Doctor Who is available online via a bittorrent torrent. I nabbed the 340mb AVI file and watched it this morning. And I was very impressed. After all the talk about the changes that would be made to the show had me very worried that what we ended up with would be something else. But this episode, at least, was classic Doctor Who.
Christopher Eccleston is very good as the Doctor. Eccleston is charming and funny – reminiscent, in a way, of Sylvester McCoy. He plays the Doctor as self-deprecatingly arrogant. Aside from the fact that his wardrobe is too human (do we need more heroes in black leather jackets?), everything was good.
And the TARDIS! The new TARDIS interior is amazing. It’s a blend of the circular-design of the last few Doctors and the sprawling elegance of the TARDIS in the TV movie, along with a little H. R. Giger thrown in. This TARDIS definitely has an alien feel to it that most previous TARDIS interiors did not have.
Billie Piper plays the Doctor’s new companion, Rose (hence the name of the episode). She seems decent enough, but doesn’t really have much to do. This is normal, though: most new companions require a good half-dozen or so episodes to really click. Piper does look extraordinarly like Scarlet Johansson in Lost In Translation in some scenes.
I was heartened to see that the show gave several nods to the original series. The most obvious is, of course, the TARDIS. But the Doctor also carries his sonic screwdriver. He takes the time to comment on his current body (though this is not a regeneration episode). The Autons appear in this episode – a flashback to the wonderful Pertwee-era story, “Spearhead From Space” (which, it must be noted, was Pertwee’s first story as the Doctor).
I am looking forward to nabbing each episode off of bittorrent so I can keep up with this. I have renewed optimism for the rebirth of Doctor Who!
