Dual Boot Status: Successful

I got a dual boot working on my eMachine! I’m currently running Ubuntu Linux and XP! Dual boot means that when I turn on my computer, I’m able to select what operating system I want to run. So, I can pick Ubuntu or XP depending on my needs. The first time I tried to set a a dual boot with Fedora, I messed up, the bootloader didn’t recognize the existance XP, and I paniced and reformatted. This time I was prepared and read the manual. Ubuntu seems much more user-friendly than Fedora, and faster, although the basic layout is about the same as both Fedora and Windows. The equivalent of the start menu is at the top, for those who have been limited to standard Windows. However, the downside that I’ve already encountered is that installing things isn’t as easy as Windows. With Windows, installing means double-clicking a downloaded file, clicking next a few times or putting in a name or two, and waiting. On Ubuntu, I wanted to update Firefox from the 1.5 that comes packaged to the latest 2.0. I downloaded the file, which was an archive, and extracted it. In it were loads of files, which I assume were supposed to be overwriting the files in my current installation. There are tutorials, but it takes some doing nonetheless. It’s worth it for freedom from M$, however. ^^

EDIT: Gotta love Google, and its ability to index the vast and active community of people doing stuff for Ubuntu! Once they gave me a script, I just had to type in what they said. I have Firefox 2.0 now! Link: http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/firefox

Concerned Over

Concerned is over!! Link (hlcomic) on the side. 🙁
Either it’s just me, or the latest WordPress is faster. Feel free to tell me I’m utterly wrong, Gregori. 😛 I installed SpamAssassin on my mailserver, so hopefully that won’t catch any ham by accident (ham=wanted mail in SA terms, opposite of SPAM <- trivia for t3h day!!) so use my gmail if need be. (eg i don't reply for a long time... unless i don't feel like replying. but if you think i didn't get it use gmail which is: asksteved[dot][nospamness]com[at]gmail[dot]com (replace dot with . and at with @ remove nospamness) <- duh btw social studies is stupid and seems to consists mostly of a ceaseless monotonous flow of guided reading homework

Starcraft mod + site problems *sigh*

Well, the modem’s on its last legs and is needing to be restarted sometimes several times a day, so rest assured that I’m trying to keep the site up, just not always successful. In other words: don’t spaz if you get a modem status page instead of my site. Argh I hate my modem now.

Games: Apparently there’s a StarCraft mod for C&C generals: zero hour! *w00t*

I don’t have the game, so I guess this post is aimed at Walter, as he’s the only one I know with the game. Link!

World of Warcraft Monologue

After getting Guest Pass to acquire World of Warcraft, obtaining the game wasn’t nearly the seamless process I expect from Steam games. After downloading a hulking 2.84GB file (3 hours!) that required me to use a “download manager,” it took quite a while to extract and install the game. I booted up the game, marveled at the beautiful intro cinematic, and wondered why they had spoiled the dramatic text in the beginning by appending everything with ®. The movie got me really excited about playing. Seeing the login screen reminded me of my need to register. So, I went to the account creation page, fed it my guest pass authentication code they had emailed me, and agreed to all the contracts without reading them. (8 pages?! I want to play the game already!) Alas, such was only a wish at this point.

Blizzard wanted a credit card number, the reason turned out to be preventing people from creating multiple Guest Accounts. Dad came over, and insisted on skimming the contracts before he told them anything. I printed off the confirmation page, booted up the game, and logged in. Update successful. Press restart to download and install the patch. Patch? Didn’t I just download 3GB worth of this game? Oh, well. Hopefully it’s a small one. 0MB out of 485MB. 5 hours remaining. WHAT?! As I explored the menus of the “Blizzard Downloader,” I realized it was a poorly hacked-up Bittorrent client. It had a peer list and everything, the difference being a sickly “HTTP Direct Download” was one of my peers. Despite a peer list as long as my arm, I got pitiful download speeds, even after forwarding ports. As with most torrents, download speeds were sporadic. No matter what speed I was downloading at, the client ate bandwidth alive. It seemed as though Blizzard were determined to stop new people from getting World of Warcraft.

When it finally reached around 98%, the downloader started predicting times of around three minutes left. Yay! Then the download stopped. Zip. Zilch. Zero. Nada. It wasn’t done. No, even the combined might of several peers with 100% complete and the HTTP download couldn’t overcome the hasty construction of what I felt was a crime to all software in existence. Apparently the speed managed to stay at a trickle, as the downloaded file size crawled upwards.

I started up the game again, logged in, and discovered I needed another patch. To be fair, this one was only 3.12MB. When I downloaded the game again on my other computer, I got the game and both patches at once. Then after the whole long, laborious process of creating an account and squeezing insane amounts of patch data into my machine, I logged on, created a character, and started playing. It all became worthwhile in that moment. Within less than a week, my sister and I had become addicted enough to share the $15 monthly cost, and in my opinion the investment is well worth it.

PS: Undead mages rule! Horde foreva!

EDIT: It’s been long enough since I wrote this that I’d like to point out that Blizzard has offered up a much more recent version of the game for initial download, (2.0.0) that the patch downloader has been greatly improved, and a download manager is no longer needed. Instead, both patch and main game downloads use the Blizzard Downloader, which has been improved since this article.

Published
Categorized as Games

Colbert w00t

Up until this day, I hadn’t the faintest idea that none other than Stephen Colbert had been the featured speaker at the 2006 White House Correspondence Dinner! Google Video bought the rights to it after YouTube and iFilm were asked to take the video down by C-Span. Colbert makes powerful points under the guise of supporting Bush. Link!

Source: Wikipedia

Blog Improved

Who knew one checkbox could cause so much trouble? Unregistered users can comment now. W00t. Email or PM me with any problems.

Choir and Snow

This morning after choir, I finally realized the difference between Mrs. Borton and Mr. Dewald that had been bugging me. Mrs. Borton treats her students like friends, and has fun with them by singing. Mr. Dewald treats his students as though they were a tool that’s, usually, not doing what he wants them to do (read: talking during stops and even during singing.)

The “Nature?!” part of this post has to do with the insane snow-situation that happened after school. I grabbed a camera, and admittedly didn’t make very good pictures, but enough to get the basic idea. Link!

YouTube Bought by Google for 1.6 Billion!!

Title says it all! According to not only the front page of The Lansing State Journal, but also numerous other online resources, Google bought YouTube! I for one, think Google will make no harmful changes to YouTube. The reason YouTube was bought was because Google recognized that Google Video was much less popular. I, for one, am ecstatic. This means not only will YouTube employees hopefully get real salaries, but Google will be able to allow YouTube to channel their vast resources! This hopefully means a YouTube that’s even better! Just my two cents. You can see the video of the YouTube creators/leaders on the YouTube homepage.

Interactive Story

I was browsing through an old Game Informer, and came across an article on freeware games I had read, but hadn’t checked out the games it listed. One of them I looked at what a “game” called Façade. It’s not so much a game as an experience. You are a character that is invited to a party. You are the only guest, and the couple starts arguing right in front of you. It’s your job to try to help. Download link.

Published
Categorized as Games

MySQL Faster

I’ve noticed, maybe you have too, that the SQL parts (blog,forum) are now fast again. I don’t know if it’s because I reinstalled and re-filled the MySql, or if it’s just because I forwarded 3306. I’m hoping that it’s 3306, meaning I’ll know what to check first if it gets slow again