a little slice of geek

Ubuntu 8.04 Alpha 5 Released (Hardy Heron)

The latest alpha of the next version of ubuntu has surfaced on the internet. The final build of 8.04 (named Hardy Heron to continue ubuntu’s strange alphabetical naming system…) is due to be released mid-april this year (2008).

Now, back to this alpha (alpha 5) it’s already starting to show some fo the goodies that we shoudl expect in the final build. For starters it’s now running on the latest linux kernel, version 2.6.24, this is a good thing, a very good thing, especially if you’re a lover of obscure hardware. 2.6.24 makes emphasis on it’s ability to work with a wider range of new and older hardware than previous kernels did.

The second point to highlight is the GUI is now handled by Xorg 7.3. This now uses a simplified configuration file and a new control panel to make things a bit easier for the novice user.

Also included int he alpha release is Firefox 3 Beta 3, not quite sure why, theres nothign wrong with Firefox 2, I suppose it’s just keeping up with times, or perhaps that they are planning to incorporate the final build of Firefox 3 into the final build of Hardy Heron…. who knows, strange decision.

The last major point I want to highlight here is that it uses the wonderful Wubi Installer. This allows people who enjoy the comfort of Windows (either Vista or XP) to install 8.04 without leaving the Windows Desktop Environment, no command line, no bash terminal, no partitioning, just a windows GUI to install ubuntu 8.04 Alpha 5, perfect… Bring on the final release!

nVidia release the G94 based 9600GT

Once again nVidia ups the game and steps ahead of ATi…. almost. The 9600GT runs it with a 650Mhz core speed, 1625Mhz shader clock and effective (DDR) memory clock of 1800Mhz. It’s 512Mb of V-RAM, 64 steam processors and 32 texture units help round the card off nicely.

A look at nVidia’s recent history should explain what the purpose of this card is. Obviously it is being bought up to follow in the footsteps of the ultra massively popular 8800GT 512Mb which at times rivalled the performance of the 8800GTX. The 9600GT 512Mb, however, doest really fit in…

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Toshiba to drop HD-DVD - The end of the format war?

We could all see it nearing, the speck on the horizon was getting ever closer, today that speck just got a whole lot closer. Toshiba has announced that it is to ceise development, manufacture and marketing of any and all current and future HD-DVD player and recorders in it’s line-up. This comes just a few weeks after Warner Bros and Universal stated they were to move exclusively to Blu-Ray.

This was inevitable and it is now just a matter of time before people like Panasonic, Samsung and Philips follow suit. These events signify the end of the high-definition format war, Blu-Ray seems to be emerging as the winner, not surprising really, backed by Sony and the PS3 gives something a lot of bargaining power. HD-DVD didnt stand a chance after the first few studios pulled away.

Toshiba released this statement earlier:

“We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called ‘next-generation format war’ and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop,” said Atsutoshi Nishida, president and CEO of Toshiba. “While we are disappointed for the company and more importantly, for the consumer, the real mass market opportunity for high definition content remains untapped and Toshiba is both able and determined to use our talent, technology and intellectual property to make digital convergence a reality.”

Now we can all go out and buy a blu-ray player, cue the massive price drops…

Play.com now sell DRM-Free MP3’s

Suddenyl, out of nowhere, play.com have suddenyl started digitalpurchase of music. Nothing new you might say, well, perhaps not, the same old tripe just rebranded and rejigged, same old DRM filled tracks with a play count limit and a device registration clause, nice eh? Well, seems play.com have got the right end of the stick for once. 100% DRM free tracks from just 65p, (cheaper than that of itunes DRM yuckiness at 79p per track) Albums can also be had for as little as £4.95 (again, in contrast to to itunes DRM filled crap running in at £7.99)

Good on you play.com, hopefully it will take off, be so massive that it shows the record industries and labels that they don’t have to be real shits to ensure their music gets heard and paid for.

Still, nothing beats a good ol’ fashioned torrent. Private trackers ftw!!

Panasonic Release 32Gb SDHC-Class 6 SD Memory Card

That’s right, that’s not a typo, Panasonic really have just released a 32Gb SD Card… It’s not just any normal card either, a class 6 no less. To those non-techies out there, class 6 pertains to the minimum write speed of the device (MINIMUM!!!) Class 6 denoted a min write speed of 6Mb/s. Not too shabby for a hefty 32Gb card. Panasonic maintain that the card can achieve 20Mb/s without hassle, whether this is a sustained long write period or a burst transfer, we don’t know, but still, very impressive stuff.

Obviously this is SDHC not SD so don’t go thinking you can shove this card into your old 2.4MP point and shoot and be able to capture over 15,000 photos (assuming 2Mb each, hehe). Nonono… of course you’ll need an SDHC compatible device, granted that pretty much EVERY dSLR camera these days and most “new” card readers _SHOULD_ have SDHC support.

Now for the painful part, the price… The card runs in at a $699 USD (which is a shade over £350 GBP in proper money)… ouch…

Interesting facts though, with 32Gb in an HD video camera you could record about 4hours and 10minutes of video at 1080i (1920×1080 res)

Now wheres that spare £350 I had lying on my desk…

DisplayLink :: USB 2.0 to DVI

A while back Samsung showcased a prototype monitor which ran from a USB connection to get it’s video feed (well sort of), not including power of course. The trick was to embed a DispalyLink chip inside the monitor, with a few nifty bits of electronics, the dispalylink chip acted as a semi-graphics processor all by itself, thus rendering the actual amount of data from the USB port a lot less than streaming ultra high definition video to the monitor…

A good idea, praised by many, but of course, as with anything this out of character and out of place in the market, it sort of died off, never became mainstream and faded away. Until now that is…

Yep, some bright spark over at DisplayLink has managed to embed a universal displaylink chip into an external box which will output to DVI, pretty swish if ya ask me…

I wonder how it fares up in 3D gaming environments…

eBay blocking all negative feedback left from sellers…

Theres been an explosion of fury on the net over the past 2-3 days, and it’s justified too… (Look at that, justified fury on the internet, not something you see everyday). Anyway, as a full on user of eBay, both buying and selling on multiple accounts for different purposes, I’m well worn in with the process of unpaid item reports and other seller-buyer disputes.

So what do you do if your buyer doesn’t pay for your sold item, you file a report that undoubtedly gets eBay siding with the buyer. (eBay’s infamous buyer protection scheme) OK, so the report got you nowhere, time to cut your losses, re-list the item, pay the extra and sell it again, and of course you leave a negative comment for your non-paying buyer. No..? wait.. what?!

Yup, thats right, eBay are implementing a “feature” where sellers will be restricted as to what feedback they can leave for buyers, this still works as normal in reverse though, buyers feedback leaving antics are un-hindered. As sellers we are supposed to contact eBay to initiate disputes. Bollocks are we, since when has eBay EVER sided with the seller, you need a 74-page dossier categorising you’re family’s whereabouts and you’re cats fingerprints before eBay and PayPal will even consider you as a buyer to be in the right. It’s ridiculous

Well, the people have spoken (and are still speaking for that matter), eBay will listen soon enough, this is SOOO not the way to go.

Possible alternatives to this:

• Only allow feedback to be credited to feedback scores and to be viewed in profiles after both seller and buyer have left feedback.
• Make sellers leave feedback first (force them to)

By the way, eBay’s reason behind this, was that negative feedback was slowing down trade… I think they have cause and effect mixed up here… It’s not the feedback that slows it down, its the cause of the feedback, buyers who do not know what they are doing or are just out to screw people over, silly eBay.

Crysis has gone platinum - 1m copies sold… EA makes a loss?

That’s right, in less than 3months after it’s official release date, Crysis has now sold over One Million copies. For the third quarter (ending December ‘07) they reported world record breaking sales revenue of £1.503 billion, despite this, Electronic Arts (EA) has still recorded a £33 million loss for end of quarter 3. Apparently to be put down to obscene research and development costs surrounding crysis in conjunction with rising staffing costs to meet deadlines.

Fair play to EA, they worked their socks off with crysis, and it’s an awesome game, shame they made a loss… EA report they are unhappy with sales, apparently they were expecting more..!

No satisfying some people…

Subliminal Messaging - Blatant Harassment, whos to say?

Well, I succumbed… I bought myself an Xbox 360 and got Assassins Creed to go with it. I’m not entirely sure why I bought it, sure it seems like a good purchase right now, but at no point before I got one did I ever think “Hey, I know what I really want…. an Xbox 360, that would be fantastic!”. In truth..? I lie… I know why I bought it, peer pressure, or rather, blatant harassment from my assistant manager at work.

Anyway, I know have to buy a 37″ LCD as well, can;t buy one without the other really can you… But, I have to redecorate and re-design my room from the floor up before I have any wallspace to put it… So let’s level this out, Xbox 360 - £260. GOOD DEAL! Xbox 360 - £260 + New Room Design - £650 + 37″ LCD - £400 = £1,310 NOT SO MUCH OF A GOOD DEAL!!! Poo…

Assassins Creed, btw, frickin’ awesome game, such a massive twist at the end, usually games are predictable, gotta admit I didn’t see that one coming…

Why Portal wasn’t good…

So here I am again, late on the gaming bandwagon, and only just recently acquiring a copy of The Orange Box. Judging by peoples reactions and posts in numerous forums about how uber-chunky-massively great Portal was, I was eager to check it out, and see what the hype was all about.

Needless to say, it won’t be played again until there’s nothing left for me to do but chew on my own fingers for fun… Reasons after the jump… Read the rest of this entry »