August 2006 - Posts

WINDOWS: Get your Windows Vista Beta 2 DVD filling out a quiz...

Get a copy of the Windows Vista Beta 2 DVDs in the mail by filling out a short Quiz on seeing if you know your stuff...

So not to spoil it for everyone, the answers (incase your really stuck) are below!!
  • Vista
  • Clarity (but confusion wouldnt be wrong either with all the editions they're considering!)
  • November 2006
  • True
  • Aero
  • All of teh above
  • All of the above
  • 512Mb
One thing (not that I'm any better) i noticed was that the title of the page mis-spells the company name, instead of "Microsoft", its "Microsft"... Dont forget to untick the option for "If my Profile Center contact preferences permit Microsoft to contact me, I am interested in receiving information on Microsoft India updates/promotions." that is unless you want MSFT India contacting you (maybe its open to Indian/Subcontinent folks only?)... Good Luck:-)
posted Wednesday, August 16, 2006 9:46 AM by Thushan Fernando with 0 Comments

LINUX: Switched to Ubuntu, well not completely...

Yes thats right, I've finally took the plunge and gone hardcore with Linux! My first encounter was with Red Hat 6 in 2000 (I got free install CDs from somewhere) while I thought the installer was good i didnt like RH itself or what Linux was back then. But 6 years later taking a fresh-no-preconcieved-thoughts-look at Ubuntu (and Fedora Core) I feel the difference.

So much so that my now-ancient Inspiron 8600 I bought back around this time in 2004 is now running Ubuntu 6.06 which was previously booting Windows 2003 (for work purposes). Another workhorse (Inspiron 6400) is still running Windows Server 2003. I'm finding more and more that I tend not to use the Windows dual-boot on the 8600 (unless its at uni - Wireless/VPN etc) and instead happy enough with Ubuntu + WINE if i really need to run anything. Main desktops are still happy chugging along to Windows XP Pro and probably wont change.

So time to start blogging about Ubuntu and my adventures...

First of all why Ubuntu? Why not Fedora or another distro like - ewww - Lindows?

I've found the neat packaging system useful and the fact that its based off Debian (which i've used for a while as a "toybox" in the past) I'm used to the feel. Ubuntu's like the "hot new distro" (not new!) this year (like Gentoo was a year or so ago). Currently i'm using GNOME (didnt like KDE) and just got XGL running natively on a desktop box yesterday (not that hard at all following this guide!)

First things first, after the lovely installer handles all the hard work partitioning, installing and maybe fixing GRUB to dual boot the first thing you should do is to go ahead and have a good look through the Ubuntu Guide for Dapper. Heres a rough outline of what I did (dont forget I'm still a Linux-n00b) with my 8 or so installs (keep in mind that all the machines/notebook are powered by ATI cards) so far:
  • UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE!
    Greatest thing I enjoy about Ubuntu (and debian) is the updating, its so seamless! Goto System > Administration > Update Manager and download all the updates you need for your box!
  • Get Easy Ubuntu
    Previously I went through and manually installed most of the apps that this beauty will automate for you. Installs (taken from Ubuntu Forms post):
    • Add extra repositories for installing a lot of additional software.
    • Install multimedia codecs for reading all videos, musics and DVDs.
    • Activate the "audio preview" feature in Nautilus.
    • Install the most needed Firefox plugins: Flash, Java, Real, videos. Adds Microsoft fonts, GNOME's Firefox buttons, officials Firefox icons.
    • Install archiving support for RAR and ACE.
    • Install the most used peer-to-peer softwares: aMule (a clone of eMule) and Azureus (for Bittorent).
    • Install the Skype voice-over-IP software.
    • MSN: Install AMSN cvs with webcam support.
    • Num lock: Active the num lock at system startup.
    • Replace the GNOME foot logo with Ubuntu's logo.
    • Install the NVIDIA or ATI driver for 3D support.
    This alone will get you the basic necessities you'll need.

    I cant recall if hte ATI driver installed is the Messa one or the ATI one, but make sure if your running an ATI card you use the latest ATI release (v8.27.10 as of writing) by running 'fglrxinfo' at terminal: 
    thushan@NOTEBOOK04:~$ fglrxinfo
display: :0.0  screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: MOBILITY RADEON 9600 Generic
OpenGL version string: 2.0.5946 (8.27.10)
thushan@NOTEBOOK04:~$
    Check its using the accelerated version of the driver by running: 
    thushan@NOTEBOOK04:~$ glxinfo | grep -i direct
direct rendering: Yes
  • Make sure your using DMA where possible!
    Edit hdparam.conf: 
    # sudo gedit /etc/hdparm.conf
    Make sure you enable DMA, this is whats in mine: 
    /dev/hda {
        io32_support = 1
        dma = on
}
/dev/hdc {
        io32_support = 1
        dma = on
}
  • Get a copy of SwiftFox
    Dapper comes with Firefox by default (and its the default browser installed) but you'd want to try SwiftFox, an optimised (and always recent) builds of Firefox for Linux (much like Moox was for Windows - no longer maintained!) aimed for several CPUss, theres also a neat Installer script to set it up for you! I always add these extensions
  • Get Build-Essentials and manuals
    sudo apt-get install build-essential manpages-dev
  • Get WINE
    WINE has matured so much since I last touched it. 
    sudo apt-get install wine msttcorefonts
  • Get Skype
    I'm a VoIP junkie... 
    sudo apt-get install skype
  • Install some cool apps from 'Add/Remove'
    There's an abundant amount of apps in the Add/Remove list (tick 'Show unsupported applications' & optionally 'Show Commerical APplications' to see stuff like Adobe Acrobat viewer etc and go nuts! I've got too many apps to list but some small selection of handy tools:
    • AbiWord
      OpenOffice is tweakable (Tools -> Options -> Memory, Steps=40 | Graphics Cache: 128Mb | Memory Per Object: 1Mb) but i prefer AbiWord
    • Acrobat Reader
      Theres lots of alternatives but I went with Adobe's v7.x (I use ePDFViewer too)
    • Alacarte Menu Editor
      Cool tool to add/remove/change stuff in the menus in GNOME
    • Configuration Editor
      Configuration Editor
    • Ethereal
      Best network traffic analysis tool around!
    • GAIM
      Probably like all companies, at vividas we use alot of IM to talk/spam you-tube videos etc..
    • gDesklets
      Applets on your desktop
    • GKreIIM
      Monitors your system
    • Klipper
      Clipboard history tool!
    • PuTTY
      Its small, its fast and its so damm cool!
    • Text Editor
      I seem to like this one
    • VLC Player
      Its either totem or VLC, VLC has more options
    • Wireless Assistant
      No need to say why!
    • XMMS
      A WinAMP for Linux
  • UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE take 2!
    Do another update to make sure you've got everything!
I also added a launcher on my toolbars which by default run nautilus with root privellages (command is 'gksudo nautilus')... i'll post a screenshot of my desk later.

XGL baby yeaH!
If your in for some sweet sweet eye candy try out XGL, its deliciously smooth! Theres a guide on Compiz that worked for me (too many HOW-TOs but most fail!)

Good Resource Sites
Two of the best resources (theres lots if you google but these tend to be where I go) for Ubuntu: Phew, this was a long post... More later...
posted Sunday, August 13, 2006 4:23 AM by Thushan Fernando with 2 Comments Rated Excellent [5 out of 5].

HARDWARE: Sapphire X1900 treats and ATI's Future...

I got some juicy hardware sent over from Sapphire for testing, first up a couple of weeks ago I got sent one of 20 X1900XTX Toxic units ever sent into Australia (so you can buy one of the other 19 that are scattered around Australia!). What so special about these? Instead of a stock Heatsink+Fan option of cooling the TOXIC models use liquid cooling (built by Thermaltake). I've had engineering samples of this product for quite some time now but to be able to use the final product was quite a moment. Oh yes, overclocking these babies are just what I did (it would be wrong of me to do otherwise).

This week i got my final revisions of the X1900 Cross-fire editions as well, these include the X1900 Cross-fire Edition and the X1900XTX card. Unfortunately the Cross-fire edition had some PCB flaws (see the last image in the right and see if you can spot whats wrong with the TOP card in the Cross-fire setup), but after a bit of work I got it working again. Its running off a Intel D975XBX with a X6800 Core 2 CPU (Corsair 8000UL memory), probably the finest benchtop test boxes i have lying around at home right now...

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Photos of The X1900 Family, collection of Sapphire cards (and a longly NVIDIA card) & a slightly bent X1900 Cross fire card (top)!

While these things are all fine and dandy with the announcement of the AMD-ATI merger I've began to realise something, will the days of having addin cards change in order to buy ATI products? Would they even commit to seperate addin cards? I left NVIDIA when ATI released the 9700 PRO (I bought a All-In-Wonder 9700 PRO from Sapphire) and havent really used any NVIDIA card apart from the odd benchmark on my machines. With the merger and possible plans of making a CPU+GPU combo (by 2008) may mean that our days of enjoying such luxuries may be numbered (and maybe some hard times ahead for companies like Sapphire who work so closely with ATI). But on the plus side, the introduction of a GPU to the CPU silicon would greatly improve latency from CPU-Chipset-Memory access and the patents filed seem to indicate that they do infact mean business.

In either case it does mean alot of new innovation and a major bump in the way things are done. Two horses (AMD-ATI) in two different races (CPU-GPU) who compete against another two horses (Intel - NVIDIA) should mean that we wont be seeing anymore "Intel wins this one" or "ATI slaughters NVIDIA" after which the other horse takes the reign... i just hope that by merging they dont stop making addon boards (maybe not now, maybe not next year but maybe 2-3 years time - which again is a long time in the IT Industry so things may be quite different).

Then we have Ageia PhysX PPU in the corner battling the ranks... Well thats my random thought of the day... still alot of uncertainty in the air and information to be digested... I wonder if Apple is pissed about this decision?
posted Friday, August 04, 2006 10:13 AM by Thushan Fernando with 5 Comments