Monday, December 3, 2012

Public Laboratory Spectrometer

for those who've missed the Kickstarter for Public Lab's spectrometer, here it is (the paper version):
http://publiclaboratory.org/notes/mathew/11-30-2012/final-fold-mini-spectrometer-print-files-and-instructions

Can't wait for my aluminium desktop USB one, although the first thing I want to test is HK water (and why it tastes funny, and requires boiling/filtration) and I got them to send it to Australia ...


Also on Kickstarter, Star Citizen raised 6.2mil in total for the campaign, with >$2mil from Kickstarter. Since, they've raised a bajillion dollars and are now at almost $7mil. (You can still 'pledge' and buy ships till what I'm assuming is alpha (they say "12 months from now"). However, there are less benefits than the campaign pledges like no life-time insurance on ships.) Totally can't wait for this! Especially if Oculus Rift fairs well with Star Citizen, will defs try this euphoric combo.

Friday, November 16, 2012

Star Citizen - RSI, from the makers of Freelancer etc.

from the makers of Freelancer ... THIS. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cig/star-citizen
  • A rich universe focused on epic space adventure, trading and dogfighting in first person.
  • Single Player – Offline or Online(Drop in / Drop out co-op play)
  • Persistent Universe (hosted by US)
  • Mod-able multiplayer (hosted by YOU)
  • No Subscriptions
  • No Pay to Win
Only thing missing from it is shiny MMORPGFPS gameplay on the planetary surface found in the likes of Precursors (which gameplay-wise was amazing =D).
What makes me so excited: MMO persistent universe, FPS elements, Ship combat which is like Freelancer and not MOBA-style (sorry DoTA2, D3, Torchlight, just not so into click click click =P).
Shameless plug for my favourite game of all time (Tribes 1) remade into an arcade style FPS: less gameplay complexity, and weird speed gain when skiing but nevertheless FUN.


BOARDING SHIP MECHANIC explained
Multiplayer and Single player instancing explained.
Because, FIREFLY for inspiration. =) - would love that job xD
Support Linux at the poll for stretch goals (click thru to RSI website for the poll), give CryEngine3 the incentive to go to the quickest growing gaming platform right now with Source, Steam, Unity supporting =) Linux. Speaking of Linux, Humble Bundle for Android 4 finishes in 6 days!


Final-week's (3 days left to pledge!) pitch:


FINAL WEEK PUSH from Roberts Space Industries on Vimeo.

So a few points of our next major stretch goal (from boarding ship mechanic post and RSI star citizen website):
$4.0 million Level Additions
  • Melee & Heavy Weapons
  • Zero-gravity Simulation
  • Suit HUD Options
  • Increased Customization
  • Outside-the-ship combat (magnetic boots on a hull; think Moonraker)
  • Pro MOD TOOLS FREE to players!
  • Persistent Universe (forever instead of 30 months), 50 star systems
  • More Squardron 42 campaign gameplay
  • Increased community updates
- According to RSI website, we need $250k left till $4mil. Also, back on Kickstarter, your pledge will go towards stretch goals of BOTH kickstarter and the overall stretch goals at RSI.  
SO PLEDGE ON KICKSTARTER NOW =D.


I've always wanted to do Precursors MMO'd with friends. This is the closest thing I have ever seen. No amount of procedural universe generation, even if done by big industry pros would sway me. Just damn good gameplay with friends =).
That said, I've had my eye on Infinity Universe for years, because dang-it, its got great gameplay and scale, just without the FPS element >=| and definitely will be happily playing when it comes out.

Sunday, November 11, 2012

WLM going down, MS proves once again games are its only strongpoint

and not support, end-user OS/applications or anything else =P
Although I must say I prefer the PC to XBox/any console for gaming as it doesn't lock you into a particular device/device family. FOSS ftw!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20222998
Didn't realise MS bought Skype 1.5 years ago at $8.5bn massive.
WLM aka MSN will be turned off "by March 2013 worldwide, with the exception of China.".
Bye bye MSN protocol in Pidgin. Over these 10 years, you have served me well ='/

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Steam for Linux finally arrives! (in beta, x86, with more than a score of games)

HELLO new era of gaming, with Steam's big picture mode (finally, console experience on PC! wireless controller on wishlist! =D) saw it on steamforlinux's FB, post here: http://steamforlinux.com/?q=en/node/130

**Update: This pretty much means Steam's Big Picture mode pwned Ouya for me, PCs are more open than consoles, in terms of compatibility and you're not locked into a certain device anyway =P
Pictures of me playing World of Goo thru Steam on Linux soon in a post another time =)
***

Valve stuff:
Press release: http://store.steampowered.com/news/9289/
Hub (latest news): http://steamcommunity.com/linux or http://steamcommunity.com/app/221410
Game group page (not sure what this is used for anymore): http://steamcommunity.com/games/221410

Got so excited, downloaded the .deb, realised it was built for x86. And I also didn't have a 'key' but I heard there were ways of getting around that on the hub >.>
Just waiting for 64-bit release or source with lovely configure and make files =D
In the meantime, will CrossOver/WINE my Client/TF2 ^^

This news probably released just after/around the same time as this one, but nVidia's news travelled faster?? =S:
nVidia supports Steam Linux beta in latest drivers:
http://steamforlinux.com/?q=en/node/127

Also, all you friends out there, add me on Steam!! >=D

Now .. that I've got that out of my system .. time to study >=D

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

omg 150k/year making hats!!

***Update 7/11/2012 (yes, Aussie/UK date format)***

nVidia supports Steam Linux beta in latest drivers:
http://steamforlinux.com/?q=en/node/127
Yay! I'm on nVidia GT330M on my laptop (Samsung R580-JS02AU) but I didn't really care which manufacturer: ATI or nVidia I got, as long as it was Linux-supported well. 
And yes, this post is basically another Steam fanboying post =P

*************************************************


Yes, TF2 hats woooot! xD
And yes, another Steam on Linux post and windows is =/ post .. =P

http://gamingbolt.com/gabe-newell-windows-8-is-a-catastrophe-for-everyone-in-the-pc-space
Wish I could make $150k/year making hats!!!

Found the link from here:
http://gamingbolt.com/valve-engineer-drew-bliss-explains-why-they-favor-linux-over-windows

And I didn't know Gabe Newell worked 13 years on Windows o_O
Source: http://www.inquisitr.com/378666/the-battle-between-windows-8-and-computer-game-developers/

Monday, November 5, 2012

News post #11?



http://www.technologyreview.com/news/506466/given-tablets-but-no-teachers-ethiopian-children-teach-themselves/
Woot, u go, hacker children!!
Personally, I think humans are naturally hackers and makers, curious about things, tinkering with them, and wanting to make/create things. This bit of news kind of supports my thought =P
Also, good to see OLPC is doing stuff, their $100 XO-1 is pretty neat too, I've seen it in action before at ASSC, one of the guys from Lunar Numbat brought it along =)
Speaking of which, haven't heard much news from LN and White Label Space, but Canberra UAV had a pretty good year, and they presented at CLUG too! =D

Yep, lots of group dropping there =P Don't forget the hackerspaces I follow: MHV and HackJamHK@Dimsumlabs(-their FB page is pretty well updated) =D
Being a Melbourne boy, it's kinda sad I dont' follow these guys (CCHS) nearly as much (due to me not being around Melbourne -my fav city- as much as the other two places these days! ><") though some of them are LN and they've had some pretty cool projects. Their computer-in-car is especially cool =P and is part of the inspiration for Project Sheila (now much easier with mobile computing and Li batteries =D) which first requires a car and license (lol) xD Anyone get the project name reference? (Hint, my AI will be called Sheila).

----------------------------------------------------------------------

In other cool news:
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2012/october/carbon-solar-cell-103112.html
First whole carbon solar cell including electrodes (apparently some researchers as engadget points out, has made the energy transducer part before)
Pretty cool.

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Don't link to dropbox folder in windows anymore!

ARGHHHH!!!
OK, so putting folders outside your Dropbox folder into your Dropbox sync by linking to said folders with ln -s works perfectly in Linux, but using mklink in Windows it fails miserable.
Bad Idea.

This is the 3rd time I've had to restore my files from Dropbox, after this somehow makes Dropbox delete all my files in them.
Another reminder to self.

Now to find a syncing solution between the windows Dropbox folder and those folders outside my dropbox ... Probably will just use synctoy.

Uchuu Kyoudai dubbing from space =P

Haha, just watched the episode that aired today from Uchuu Kyoudai aka Space Brothers!
The dubbing part (aka 1st voice acting in space) was funny although he was a bit monotone ><
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com.au/news/2012-10-08/astronaut-successfully-dubs-space-brothers-anime-from-space
よく頑張ったな!
coughgetyourepisodesfromcyber12orwatchliveatkeyholetvmaybeandbuythestuffwhenitbecomeavailableinyourregion=Dcough

Watch him speak IRL in a google hangout with some funs =P
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36zs0w1fEZA&feature=share&list=UUfMIdADo6FQayQCOkLYGhrQ
OMG at 1:25:35 you see the author of the Uchuu Kyoudai manga appear =O =D

For my Australian friends, the movie's screening in Sydney and Melbourne:
http://www.japanesefilmfestival.net/film-spacebrothers.html
Too bad I'm in neither city at the time it's being aired =(
Will have to wait for DVD to come out or go to Japan and watch it =P


-----------------------------

Again, ETA of Ubunchu -  out this week =)

Ohloh - track Open Source projects!

Ohloh - Wow, stumbled upon this through Linux Mint's tumblr. 

Contains really cool stats, go to a project page, and click the stuff under "In a Nutshell ..."
Especially under /factoids/, there's number of comments as a %!!! xD documentation ftw =P

=) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =) =)

Also, what happens when closed-source stuff has nothing more to offer (both entertaining and informative!):
http://www.businessinsider.com/dear-apple-im-leaving-you-2012-11
 Includes the (only) apple ad I actually liked on youtube!



---------

P.S. I'm thinking I'll be able to push my lil Ubunchu project release out at the end of next week. =D

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Troubleshooting on Windows >='(

I found this to be actually a lot more annoying than on Linux.
I usually haven't had to do much of this, but when I have had to really troubleshoot Windows, I always pull out my hair. Whereas Linux could range from: 10 minutes later done =D to, lol nope can't do it with my knowledge and resources online.

Situation/Problem
So I couldn't install a Libre Office package for a couple of days ... [lol, sounds Linuxy] I mean application package in the form of .msi
I kept getting this error: "Error 1935 ... missing dynamic link library ... policy.9.0.Microsoft.VC90.CRT ...".
I started using Libre Office exclusively about 3 months back when I reinstalled/upgraded Windows to 64-bit (the same Windows 7 license gives you access to both 32-bit and 64-bit versions!) And recently had to reinstall Windows just to get Steam service to run, so the client actually ran. It was after this most recent Windows reinstall (I usually don't reinstall Windows if I don't have to, went for like 2 years on the original install my laptop -a Samsung R580-JS02AU named Chopper- came with).

Research + Rant
I found the online resources in the form of forums answering questions lacking, and Windows documentation has always been horrible. Also, the Windows admin/system tools and settings is horrible to get to, I mean, who would know you had to right click My Computer to Manage it or msconfig.exe or services.msc or cmd.exe and THEN run some obscure command? Not to mention horrible network settings and internet options >_>
At least most Linux DEs provide pretty much all you usually require in usually two menus, System/Admin Tools and System Settings. And the only hardcore thing you'd have to do is custom scripts/configs in your home folder or elsewhere as advised from heaps of online resources. 

So after looking at http://forum.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=10913 and http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_vista-hardware/error-1935-when-trying-to-install-anything/bf5c834a-6f79-4bd3-b1b4-d4fdd3fe4a28 and running sfc /scannow with no problems, as well as Windows' famous "NEVER WORKING DIAGNOSTICS/SOLUTIONS" (I mean, if a program needs to be ended/force closed/killed, just do it, don't be misleading and pretend to "FIND A SOLUTION" in your fictitious dreams.)
 


Final Solution
I finally landed on http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2438651#reso1
"Method 2: Make sure that the Windows Installer service is not set to Disabled"










And realised, while I did follow the openoffice forum advice of making sure my 'Windows Modules Installer' service was up and running, my 'Windows Installer' service wasn't, and I promptly set it to start on startup automatically, ran it, and my Libre Office msi worked like a charm.






The fix was so simple, I can't believe it took me that long to find the solution. If only the windows support(lol) website was easier to navigate.












Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Cross Over FREE!! (24 hours only)

Right now Cross Over from Code Weavers is free!!
http://flock.codeweavers.com/
For 24 hours only, it's WINE plus a few proprietary packages and includes 1 year support!

Star Citizen - Space Sim MMORPG on Kickstarter!


*** Update: ***
 GLXP posted about it on FB!

 https://www.facebook.com/googlelunarxprize/posts/284421335009192
***

Kickstarter: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cig/star-citizen
Website: http://www.robertsspaceindustries.com/star-citizen/

Donate at kickstarter, because funds at kickstarter help stretch goals both at kickstarter AND the website!! =)
The whole project is funded, with 19 days to go and rapid increasing in funding.

I've always wanted an MMORPG Space Sim with FPS elements. Sort of like Precursors with multiplayer and a persistent player-affected evolving universe. It would be up there with my favourite games of all time (Tribes 1- Annihilation mod, Team Fortress 2). The Freelancer, X series, Vega Strike and Wing Commander (this made by the same company) have all been great space sims, but I think lacked planetary/out of cockpit exploration/gameplay. 

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cig/star-citizen/posts/332531 
This update post answered all my questions lol. 
While they said has "first person shooter" elements like running around on the ship, the demo vid only has 3rd person running around on the flight deck. Planetary exploration is probably what will tip me to buying it, but they're not promising it T_T
I liked Precursors as it was as much a normal FPS/RPG on planets and ships/stations as it was space ship pew pews complete with space anomalies, upgrades, the works. 
 
If they do put planetary walk around in, it'll have a leg up on http://www.infinity-universe.com/Infinity/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14&Itemid=35 [oo Joomla] which allows you to land on planets but not walk on them. 

And at Nov 2014 release date, it looks like it may arrive faster than Infinity. Especially if I get to play the Alpha/Betas.
=P

I will most likely back this, it's sooooo tempting!! Just backed this as the last $30 digital download pledge on Kickstarter xD.
Making it the first game related project I backed on Kickstarter, passing by Ooya, Planetary Annihilation, That adventure game,  Homestuck, FTL, etc. Been wanting an MMORPG Space Sim for aaages (Been following that Infinity project for more than a few years now xD) 

Only downsides are: no Linux support on CryEngine3 (although Android is supported), is possible there will be pay 2 not grind instead of subscription, which would be horrible (though you need to pay a once off fee, which hopefully should prevent that, and if the devs are as community oriented as this game relies on, then it would be in their best interests not to payORgrind). They're also allowing community content like TF2 hats and levels =P


Monday, October 29, 2012

Steam closed beta for Linux is here! (+ other news)

You may have read http://vcpd12.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/tf2-beta-on-steam-for-linux.html
Which has pretty cool infos and links =)

If you were lurking http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/linux/ like me, you may have missed this important link:
http://www.valvesoftware.com/linuxsurvey.php
It was open since 27th of October! Enjoy!

You may also want to take a look at:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/221410





In other project news:
Ubunchu ch.8 is more than half way done =)

Speaking of manga/anime, check this out:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com.au/news/2012-10-08/astronaut-successfully-dubs-space-brothers-anime-from-space
First voice acting done in space! Woot! =D

Friday, October 26, 2012

Parrallella Epiphany Kickstarter by Adapteva

$100 credit card sized Parallella combines FPGA, ARM, & DSPs. 18CPUs @800MHz with 5Watts! o New vid, so tempting! xD http://kck.st/UGQjG3

I wouldn't really know what to do with it that I wouldn't be able to do on a gumstix/raspberry pi ... apart from BOINC and testing 2048-bit RSA or AES cracking solving chess.

Here's an excerpt cos I'm too lazy to iframe, just click the kickstarter link above for full updates, videos and graphics. The project still needs $185k/$750k in 48 hours so if you want to see this project go ahead, support!

The following list shows the major components planned for the Parallella computer:
  • Zynq-7010 Dual-core ARM A9 CPU
  • Epiphany Multicore Accelerator (16 or 64 cores)
  • 1GB RAM 
  • MicroSD Card
  • USB 2.0 (two) 
  • Two general purpose expansion connectors
  • Ethernet 10/100/1000
  • HDMI connection
  • Ships with Ubuntu OS
  • Ships with free open source Epiphany development tools that include C compiler, multicore debugger, Eclipse IDE, OpenCL SDK/compiler, and run time libraries. 
  • Dimensions are 3.4'' x 2.1''  
Wow, it ships with Ubuntu ... no more annoying qemu images (from my experiences with the gumstix) I guess =P

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

TF2 beta on Steam for Linux!

Yay! My 2nd favourite game of all time (Tribes 1 being my most favourite) is here!
http://marlamin.com/cdr/search.php?s=linux&searchby=os

The above links to the data streamed from Steam CDR (read the about page for more details).
There are at least 38 games listed for Linux, including a lot of games from the Humble Bundles.
It's great to know that alongside TF2, there's Killing Floor =)

Can't wait to get my hands on the client (set to run on Ubuntu and closed beta release this month) and test their >200fps L4D2
http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/linux/

There's also some good news occasionally updated here:
http://steamforlinux.com/

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Google Chrome and them devs =P

http://www.google.com/chrome/intl/en/w00t.html in an iframe:

Lol. Deving for google MUST be fun =P

Found this while wanted a fast browser for Firefox-not-compatible things and fed up with Chromium as it often crashes now.

Obligatory Linux Fix #?25 - KDE PulseAudio

 saw this:


$ start-pulseaudio-kde
fixed it. yep.

Thanks
http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/PulseAudio/Desktops/KDE
=D

Monday, October 8, 2012

Ubunchu!~

WOW (lolwut). Just found this on linuxmint's Tumblr. ( http://linuxmint.tumblr.com/post/33029338128/episode-12-of-ubunchu-a-manga-about-ubuntu )
There's a manga about Ubuntu?! Seriously?!

https://seotch.wordpress.com/ubunchu/
http://www.aerialline.com/comics/ubunchu (japanese page)
http://divajutta.com/doctormo/ubunchu/c.html (translation project page!)



Another great CC project =) [It's CC BY-NC]
Basically Japanese manga on a computer club in highschool that is discovering Ubuntu.
First made in 2009 so it would be the 9.04-9.10 releases of Ubuntu; I personally started using it somewhere in the 7-8.x range. This was before the polished product 10.04 was though, and none of the stupid Unity stuff from 11.04 onwards (KDE/xfce ftw), so it can't comment on those in the first chapters. However, the series is ongoing, hence the post from mint.

The art's alright (but I seriously don't care too much about the art in my manga/anime - look at Initial D, I liked it a lot but all the faces looked ugly to me =P).
The plot and characterisation doesn't have the depth and force of a regular shonen (ONE PIECE!!! =D) but you do get the regular Japanese manga stuff in there (love the stereotypes, melodrama etc.), and it's interesting to see how a manga would work with the whole topic based on a linux distro. lol.

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Initial thoughts on JellyTime R7 (CM)

Check my previous post for more regarding ROMs and Android for the HTC Desire HD. 

Just notes to myself mainly; thoughts on JT R7 (CM) by randomblame from having upgraded from IceColdSandwich 8.4 by LordClockaN

TL;DR - it's REALLY smooth that's for sure. phone feels a lot less lagy. (and more stable than ICS =o)
battery life is pretty much a little bit worse probably by 5-10% but i just came from AOKP and these are pretty early releases, will switch to AOKP soon.
Pretty much everything works fine atm, but video camera .
defs feels like a 4.1 instead of 5.0

Video recorder broken
(even though changelog says 720p OK) -gallery stopped (vid cam illusion works 480p), stock camera app greatly improved, touch focus.
recording audio unbroken. No mic mute problem when speaker turned on in call. 

Screen on when turned off with light bands - saw this once, fixed by turning screen on then off. 
 
Updating Google Play apps not jaggered-frozen/slow anymore, the Play Store app is generally faster/smoother.
A lot less lagyness, not near as frequent force close messages
(prob occured when nand recovered back into ICS8.4).

Toggles work flawlessly, however CM has no powersaver option. Must manually turn off stuff before turning off screen.
Battery life is a bit worse, 3-7mA idle vs. ~10(-80)mA. Battery overall probably lasts 2 hours less, although music with screen off is still ~75mA. Probably a combination of no power saver in CM and project butter pumping my CPU to the higher freqs more often.

CM does indeed have less options than AOKP and lockscreen gestures doesn't work/no option for them, only 5-slider lockscreen. Custom Apps/Shortcuts don't work atm, I think this was in the changelog. 

Apollo music app - lockscreen no artist, widget - only white, has black theme. Luckily still uses DSP Manager. Change to google Music - the one that comes with AOKP. 
Switch to AOKP ASAP.

Revert Exec Assist. lockscreen to non-ad. Possible future android app dev project - lockscreen/widget.
FB app running faster, could be FB devs or FB-JB compatibility. 


USB storage connection with computer breaks regularly, or could be this new cable I'm using, will test with original cable soon. 

Monday, September 17, 2012

Android ROMs on the HTC Desire HD & Flashing Checklist

Most of your DHD ROMs can be found right here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=765

Glossary/Links:
CM - http://www.cyanogenmod.com/
AOKP - http://aokp.co/index.php/about
AOSP - http://source.android.com/ (Hurray for FOSS!!)
ROM, Flashing, radios, etc. - Google and xda site search are your friends. (i.e. RTFriendlyM)

Here's a list of the ROMs I've used previously:

- Stock 2.3 Gingerbread with Sense. Yuk. (My opinion of manufacturer Android distributions/overlays - being launcher, widgets, lockscreen - is that they love to make them hard to use and ugly.
- Android Revolution HD (by mike), pretty good Android 2.3 ROM
- Virtuous Quattro, didn't really like it

Current ROM: 
- Ice Cold Sandwich by LorD ClockaN
It's been great, got it before the Camera even took photos without cutting off bits. Then came the 480p video recording mod and my phone was complete =) I mainly upgraded to Android 4.0 ICS because I wanted to be able to access my university's wpa2 wifi network. When I tried moving back to ARHD or any 2.3 ROM I just didn't like all the missing features.
It's more or less stable (with the odd reboot, which could be triggered by certain app versions misbehaving), with great battery life (lasts the day) and AOKP's power saver works well to achieve that. Camera's still no where near as good as the Sense camera (only thing good about sense) but it does come pretty close to the AOSP one.
From the AOKP ROM Control, I use an octo-lockscreen, toggles, custom auto backlight levels, custom clock battery and signal icons/text colours etc. =D
Nova launcher is my preferred launcher, especially now that it has backup and restore function. Good for regular ROM flashing, speaking of which, I'll have a little checklist at the end of the guide that I use to make sure I don't brick my device (check those checksum hashes of the ROM/radios people).
Apparently BFS kernel and smartassV2 CPU scheduler (default is ondemand) yield freeze/boot-free results and better CPU respectively.

ROM I'm thinking of using:
JellyTime, since it's basically the only ROM based on AOKP which you can find updated regularly on the xda forums. ATM I'm thinking of using the CM based build just because it seems to be updated a bit more and possibly more polished. (It's AOKP's fault for being a bit slow on the ball for JellyBean.) I am however, an AOKP fan as it just seems to have all the settings I want so I'll be moving to AOKP soon.
Here's the links on xda:
AOKP-based JellyTime by randomblame
CM10-based JellyTime by randomblame



 

 My ROM flashing checklist (useful if you flash constantly and need to remember stuff so as not to screw up or brick your device).


Pre-Flashing Checklist
SMS log      - SMS BackUp Restore
Call log     - Call log BU&R
Whatsapp etc.- Backup Convos In-App & Account with Titanium Backup
Home Screen  - Nova Settings/Layout Backup
Apps         - Titanium Backup (data),
             - Astro (APK for Easy Installer),
             - APK Batch INstaller [PC]
ROM settings - AOKP Backup settings
(Rebackup Data for SMS/Call/Home Apps)

Nandbackup  !!
--------------------------------------------
Flashing:

Boot Recovery (Nandbackup reminder)
Full wipe (incl. Wipe cache + dalvik cache)
Install/Flash ROM
Flash Gapps if needed

Boot into ROM

(Flash kernel - BFS if needed)
--------------------------------------------
Post-flash:

Reinstall: Easy Installer/Astro/Titanium Backup
Restore all apps (Easy Installer/APK Batch Installer[PC])
Restore all app-data (Titanium Backup/APK Batch Installer[PC])
Restore SMS
Restore Call log
Restore Whatsapp, Viber, Line etc.
Restore Home Screen

Redo ROM settings. - AOKP Backup/Restore




Optional custom DPI:
Restore DPI - 210/220
Flash market/ install GPlay apk (Phonesky, Google Services Framework)
Clear Market Data
Redo DPI method


Saturday, September 15, 2012

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Random notes to self



Kubuntu 12.04 amd64 performance
- I've noticed a marked decrease in performance (read massive lag, must kill offending program with too much memory usage) when I reach 98% of RAM utilised and start using swap disk space. That said, I'm running relatively lag/stutter free.

Advances in computer hardware:
Roughly the Same RRPs: s02au and js02au (note I have a R580 most like JS02AU and it has an i5-520M processor)
http://www.samsung.com/au/consumer/pc-peripherals/notebook-pc/productcompare?prda=NP550P5C-S02AU&prdb=NP550P5C-S03AU&prdc=NP-R580-JS02AU
http://ark.intel.com/compare/64899,47341
Also according to:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html
Pretty much double in 3D mark and Cinebench test scores. I'd imagine something like 2x+ FPS when gaming if GPU bound.

Future posts types:
#online-shopping (all my online/ebay items)
#drupal [projects]
#android [projects]
#3D glasses, video, screens [project/s]


Monday, August 20, 2012

test networked blogs fb app #3

let's hope this is the last time
#3

test networked blogs fb app #2

test #2
X fingers

Also, what's with this FB-Google hate?

test networked blogs fb app

testing the networked blogs FB app's post to FB feature
#1
#1a edited
 

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Cuda on linux =3

So following this link here https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Cuda , I got Cuda working on Linux!! (My main Kubuntu 12.04)

The FluidGL thing works really well! If only the colours would change depending on velocity ...

Hiccups:
  • Note to self - installed it in default directory /usr/local/bin instead of /opt as suggested by Ubuntu/Cannonical's philosphy thing
  • Forgot to install dependencies before building as usual -_-" according to:
  • Then, install required packages:
    sudo apt-get install libxi-dev libxmu-dev freeglut3-dev build-essential binutils-gold

So the plan now is to see if BOINC can utilise some of this CUDA action =)
IF I can get it working that is ...

Copenhagen Suborbitals first LES+capsule test

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/08/copenhagen-suborbitals-test/?pid=4590&viewall=true

So check out the stuff there.
Or click here for full article right here:

I hope this code from http://bungtutor.blogspot.com.au/2011/02/how-to-make-spoler-in-blogspot-blogger.html works ...


Dave Mosher
Dave Mosher is a Wired.com contributor and freelance science journalist obsessed with space, physics, biology, technology and more. He lives in New York City. G+
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Or just watch the cool vid here:

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Desktop Environments

So after a long absence, I've decided to post again in the interests of keeping a record of my personalised settings in my distribution(s) of linux.
Yes, I always break something and then reinstall >_>

So this post isn't exactly a post about changes I've made: maybe I'll post on my up to date exploits in another post. It's a post about DE's for Linux distros, namely Ubuntu. It's also my record of optimizations.

Without further ado, here are the main Ubuntu Desktop Environments I have tried.
KDE
I started out with Kubuntu 12.04 LTS, which I really like, except for the fact that mount.ntfs (I'm neomutix(?) indexing 2.8TB of NTFS but that should have completed a while ago. I think it restarted and has gone on forever for a week now, but whatever.) and Xorg take up quite a lot of CPU and sometimes the whole KDE lags a lot and/or freezes. Amarok also runs pretty badly optimized in KDE, which is weird for a KDE distro.
KDE also offers perfect (read: everything is tweakable) customizations, workspace and activities are great! Plasma-desktop really doesn't crash as much as in 10.10-11.10. (Or maybe it's just KDE 4.8)
I have a thing against window borders taking up a lot of my precious laptop screen space. KDE and XFCE are the greatest in this regard allowing customizations to utilise screen space effectively.
[Edit: Kwin also allows you (via right-click Title-bar, More actions ->Special Window settings) to set many custom window settings for particular windows with many different window matching rules! That More Actions menu is wonderful! Alt-F3 to get titlebar menu if you enable "No Border" and can't right-click the title-bar again =P]
I use the standard style with the shortest window bar (it's blue, my favourite colour - bonus!), seeing as my 16:9 15.6" laptop's vertical real estate is very precious. 

Unity - the default DE. I remember when it first came standard in Ubu 11.04 or something I cried. People have been saying it's not that bad anymore, so I decided to give it a shot. It still sucks as a DE. Maybe it'll be a great tablet environment but still too simple and unflexible for my desktop workhorse.

Gnome - it's like these guys followed suit with Unity and went 3.0rd time unlucky. I loved Gnome 2. (The default in 10.04 LTS) Gnome (3) classic looks good, but it's like Gnome 2 without customizability (no panel widgets, icons, etc.) Still, it's better than the default Gnome 3 app menu. Speaking of which, I can't believe Unity actually beats Gnome in the app menu. Gnome has sections, while the Unity one includes sections and filters in its app menu. I still like the Gnome 2 menu better.

MATE. GNOME 2's fork. Although this has the tried and true features I loved with G2 panels and G2 configuration - there wasn't enough to satisfy my appetite after KDE. (Everything has to look and work just right for optimal efficiency! =@ rawr) Screenshotting's pretty cool, Amarok works well, no GUI lag, and although light like Gnome2.0 on wings, the appearance was a bit too bulky for my taste after KDE and XFCE.

XFCE - Which brings me to XFCE. This is like Gnome 2 compacted. Lightweight but offering more customizability than the Gnome 2 original, I really like this one. It's actually what I've decided to use [edit: for less powerful systems].
It uses ALSA for audio I think (opposed to pulse audio for KDE/Unity/Gnome)
Has Gnome 2 style panels with extra customizations,
However, when i chose the oxygen-gtk style, it all went a bit weird. I liked the xfce 4.6 style.
The Greatest setting would be a custom DPI (I used 93).
The Amarok keyboard shortcuts worked like a charm and Amarok even lagged way less than in KDE!! And when it lags, it doesn't lag the whole DE like in KDE.
Dolphin and Konsole are available in their full glory, except konsole's background colour (see profiles) can't be transparent.

LXDE - the other compulsory light-weight mention. In fact, this is so lightweight I once ran this on something like a 400MHz ARM Gumstix running lubuntu-desktop on ubuntu. It's even lighter than XFCE, which would be perfect for your legacy CPU/components need. I don't know about driver compatibility but I'd expect it to be the same for Ubuntu. It's a lot lighter than XFCE with way less customization. It uses the openbox window manager (as opposed to metacity (gnome/unity?) and kwin (kde)) but I'm not actually too sure of their merits apart from the fact that openbox is light and can go on top of gnome and kde etc. (wiki the page on comparison between window managers if you have to). One cool feature though, is the able to get rid of the top window title bar with "Undecorate" after right clicking said bar. [Edit: You can do this in KDE too Right click titlebar, More Actions -> No Border. Alt-F3 to get the titlebar menu back to enable border again.]
This was the 2nd best surprise feature I've found this month apart from Ctrl+H in VLC which almost let's me watch in fullscreen, and in some cases, the video would be the same size as in fullscreen.

[Edit:
i3
If you want to feel like a hacker and want to control everything window/desktop environment-related from a keyboard, this is your thing. It's actually not as hard as it looks. Make sure you have googled a cheat sheet though! =)  ]

Window managers
Finally, if you ever tried to log into a window manager 'session' like me (haha) don't panic!
What happened when I booted into metacity was, I got into an ubuntu like background with no menus or shortcuts at all. Alt+F#s didn't work either. I probably tried Ctrl+Alt+Del too. I rebooted once and of course, with my settings as 'load the last session', I was stuck into metacity again. Fortunately, it's quite easy to get out: just go Ctrl+Alt+T, bring up a bash shell/terminal, then sudo top or your choice of task/process manager. Finally, kill metacity. (In top, 'K', then type in the PID of metacity, and enter, enter).
These window managers work with DE's like metacity for Ubuntu 10.04 (and i presume unity and gnome in 12.04) and Openbox for LXDE (and can also be used optionally on other DE's in place of their default like KDE, Gnome etc. They're not really supposed to be used stand-alone as DEs but can be if you want.
[Edit: In most Window managers, a nifty trick is Alt-LeftClick to move windows (click anywhere on the window) and Alt-RightClick to resize window. No need to find that 1px width edge to resize! =)]


Conclusion: I'll stick with KDE for its configurability and looks, but if I ever need something lighter that doesn't lag then XFCE (with its great configurability) it is.


Have fun linuxing and having a truly free desktop! Lol, imagine if Windows 8 was the default DE for the next windows desktop version. Oh wait ...
At least the OS X interface and Win 7/XP ain't that bad.