First let me go over a bit of my Linux experience. I started using Linux when I was very young, way before Ubuntu or Fedora was around. This was when Redhat was the most popular distro in my opinion and such. I started toying with it on a 286… Since then I have been using Linux in many different uses. I’ve used it for multiple desktops. Setup and managed multiple servers. At work now I even use it to develop on for cross platform compatibility. So to put it short I have plenty of Linux experience.

The idea of me switching to Linux on the netbook was to have an easy to use system for basic stuff like Email, Surfing, and chatting. At the same time wanted a system so when I let other people use it the system doesn’t get screwed up. Because of the screen size and such I figured the netbook editions would be ideal. Boy was I wrong, I’ll get more into that later.

Like I mentioned earlier I started with Ubuntu 10.04LTS Netbook edition. It ran great and the interface was okay. It wasn’t my ideal interface. The interface was not what most users are used to when it comes to a desktop interface. One issue I had with it and was preventing me to keeping with it was the Gnome Power Monitor. The monitor for whatever reason could not read power state correctly. It would randomly say my battery was critical (1% left) and hybernate. So I tried upgrading to 10.10 hoping it would fix the problem…

In 10.10 the same problem persisted and the interface was clunky. In 10.10 it uses Unity for the desktop which on netbooks is not ideal for me. It’s slow and not as user friendly as I would like. I changed it to the 2D interface which doesn’t use Unity as far as I know. This interface is very similar to the interface in 10.04. The icons are larger and such but due to the power issue I could not use it. If I disabled the power monitor the system would not sleep and such when I closed the lid which I feel I need. Like I said also the interface is a bit odd and not a normal desktop interface. It’s a great idea just not for me. Also since the desktop editions use the same power monitor they have the same issues.

So I decided to try Kubuntu 10.10 Netbook… It did not have the power issue but I had other issues. There is an issue when switching users it gives a blank screen. There is a work around for this but it does not work 100%. Also the ability to switch users is no where as nice as Ubuntu. You essentially start new sessions and is not presented easy to the user to continue a previous session and such. Biggest issue I had with 10.10 was the constant crashes. Seemed like I also had crashes.

So I went to Kubuntu 10.04 Netbook… Didn’t have the crash issues but I did have the other issues I mentioned. The same issues persisted in the desktop editions also. Another huge issue I had with Kubuntu was tethering. I use wireless tether on my phone for my netbook occasionally so it’s a must have.

I tried Fedora and Mint OS… I found the systems to basic and not intuitive at all. Also tried EasyPeasy but it is just Ubuntu basically and had the same issues. I did try Jolicloud. It has an interesting concept. In my opinion it is to web orientated and I don’t like the idea of that. I use Empathy for my IM client on linux which I really like but when I installed Empathy on Jolicloud it just didn’t feel right. It really only supports “officially” supported applications that you install from them directly which are mostly web apps. I tried many other distro’s like Suse and Mandriva. None really cut it.

Now how I got to my final solution… I did try Xubuntu which uses Xfce… It didn’t have the power issues but did have the simplistic issue. What I ended up doing was pretty straight forward in the end. I installed Ubuntu 10.04LTS Desktop. Disabled the Gnome power monitor and installed the Xfce power monitor. This worked great. Few preferences like showing the icon all the time. Removed the bottom bar and put everything up to. No trash can needed and such. Just need one desktop. Everything works great now without any issues…

So final solution… Ubuntu 10.04 desktop, Disable Gnome-Power-Monitor, install Xfce Power Monitor. If anyone needs actual instructions like packages to remove/install let me know in comments and I will post them. I am posting this article from the netbook now. It’s been running like this for about a month now. Now I do have to say. Battery life does not seem to last as long as it does in Windows. But everything does work and I am sure I can do tweaks to take care of the battery problem… I do run it max performance though.

Players that originally bought the game automatically get a Premium account according to the FAQs and my experience from the game. If you have just the free account it’s a little limited like you are only allowed to characters, 2 ships in dock etc… Trust me you need more than 2 ships in dock. They also have an account type that is paid which is called Captains Club which costs about $15/month. After one month of captains club you can cancel and will automatically have the Premium account which is free from that point on. The only real thing that seems different about the Captains Club and the Premium is you get all “epic” missions is how I believe they described it which I assume isn’t even needed until cap. You can get these missions on the Premium buy paying for them individually also as far as I know. Other then that you get all the same stuff. Can have 100 ships or something like that. For details on the account differences Click Here.

Now on to the game itself… I am actually really enjoying this game now. It’s been a while since I have said that about any MMO. The combination of ground fighting and ship to ship combat is fun. I love taking down a ship then boarding it for some reason. Of course I can just sink the bastard. The game has plenty of PvP for those who enjoy that. The PvP of the game is like a conquest type thing. Conquer ports etc… Yes you can conquer a port and even become the mayor of ports. Which of course has it’s own corruptible perks. I have had a couple issues with the game and from my reading they seem to be caused from the F2P. Zone loading some times can be slow at peak. I also got impatient (as many of you know I can be very impatient) and closed the game while in one of these loading states which got my character stuck and could not connect to the server. I opened a ticket and they had me fixed in 15 minutes which I was surprised about. I wasn’t expecting a solution till the next day.

The missions are fun and unique. I haven’t found any missions yet that seem repetitive. They may be by nature but the lore and such that goes along with them is fun. All the combat is instanced. When in the open seas you can engage basically anyone you want. I play as a pirate so that makes things a bit more interesting. Speaking of being a pirate there is 4 factions… French (who would want to play as the French?), Spanish, British, and of course Pirate (my choice). British and Pirate seem to be the popular ones. You are only allowed characters on one faction at a time until it resets. It resets when a faction reaches 300 points and then you have 24hours to switch if you choose to.

There are plenty classes of ships that appear different. As far as your character, you customize it to you liking and thats it. Armor and other items really don’t show up. Not saying nothing shows up… For example I got a rat from a quest that shows up on my shoulder. You are also allowed to change your looks after the fact… Like my girlfriend changed hers to be in what appears to be a school girl outfit .

I am not high level at all yet but I do find some of the missions can be difficult but fun at the same time. The game is definitely worth trying out in my opinion. I’ll post an update when I have played it some more.

I signed up for Netflix recent to try out their online streaming. I do gotta admit, I do like it. I think online streaming may be the media of the future. You’re already seeing ISP’s prep for it with 50Mbps+ connections. I do wish it had more content for the online streaming but what it does have is great. Netflix seems to have a contract with Starz so any shows and/or movies that air on Starz you can stream instantly on Netflix. I am really not getting any of the DVD’s via snail mail so I just have the basic plan with the unlimited streaming and 1 DVD at a time. It seems to meet my needs.

In an article I wrote about Boxee earlier I mentioned you could use Netflix directly in it. This also can be said for Windows Media Center, XBox 360, PS3 and others. This brings it to a whole new level. I have tried other online streaming media’s like Hulu and the quality just isn’t there. That review is for another time though.  The quality matches your internet speed. It buffers and optimizes the stream according to what the latency and bandwidth is like. A lot of times I forget I am even streaming it over the internet. Even with the awesome quality my other internet applications are not affected. I can browse the web, download, play games etc.. without any issues.

To anyone who likes to watch a lot of movies or watch something they have yet to see or never even heard of I definitely recommend Netflix.

I have tried Boxee on both Linux (Ubuntu 9.10) and Windows 7. I ended up using it on Windows 7 as my primary use. The issue with using it in Linux or other OS’ for that matter is the quality of video’s. If you have ever watched a video on a large LCD TV on Linux or an Operating system before Windows Vista the quality can be blocky and not look as good as expected. In windows vista/7 it has this technology called VRM9 which does some very nice video rendering. So in my personal recommendation no matter how much you are a fanboy for this usage I would recommend using Windows 7. Also I would recommend a Dual Core 3.0Ghz or better CPU, 2GB or more of Ram, and a decent video card to do hardware video rendering/decoding. With these requirements you should be able to watch HD video’s without any issues.

What I really like about Boxee is it’s integration with everything. I use it for Hulu, Netflix, Pandora, my personal video libraries and much more. In the browsing for TV Shows it will list shows available on Hulu as well so if you don’t have it you can still watch it. It also lists them from Syfy and many other channels that have internet feeds. There is a built in Netflix app to stream movies from netflix. It works with the recommendation system and such. The pandora app in it can login to your account and play your stations as create new ones. The quality on all these feeds is outstanding. The quality matches as if you streamed directly from the sites in full screen.

Boxee takes a different approach and ties in with social networks like Facebook and Twitter. It can sync with Digg, Flickr, Facebook, Netflix, Tumblr, Friendfeed, Facebook, and Twitter. The program is still in beta and needs a bit of work. It does get a few movies titles wrong every once in a while.

If you are looking for a new media center I would definitely recommend using Boxee. I think it’s better then any other media center software I have used out there.

Boxee Beta from boxee on Vimeo.

There have been a number of MMO’s released recently. Aion, Star Trek Online, Champions Online, and the list goes on. Ever since World of Warcraft released in my opinion MMORPG’s quality have gone down. My experience of MMO’s is huge. I’ve played Eve-online , Everquest , Everquest II, WoW, Neocron, Aion, STO, and many more. WoW has ruined the games, it’s made them want to compete with an overall easy game with little basis on content. When I play an MMO I am in it for the social playing and content. The game needs to feel like a real world with many adventures to do.

Companies like Blizzard and SOE are all in it for the money and don’t care about the players. A lot of people play the games still because they have nothing to do and won’t give up something they have spent so much time on. WoW got it’s player base from an series called Diablo by Blizzard, once WoW released all the players from Diablo flocked over to WoW. The general culture of Diablo was 14-16 year olds, not saying anything is wrong with this age they just aren’t that mature. So you get these players who all they care about is getting to max level and getting the best gear as fast as possible. They don’t care about lore, role playing (You know the R in MMORPG), or content. This brings me to my next point.

Games just have no creativity anymore. If you have played any MMO from WoW or newer there just isn’t anything new. They are all button mashing, getting the same type of quests done over and over, no real AI, and majority of the NPCs are the same just higher level with more points. If you want to have a PvP based MMORPG that is fine, but you better have the content to support it. When Neocron was going before Dome of York (DoY) it was a fun game to play with in a clan (Neocron’s version of Guilds). All the area’s were unique. All the NPC’s were unique. You could really work together to accomplish goals. It had a real faction system, with all the player ran clans in it. To me the game was fun and had a lot of potential of the company making it could ever get their act together and make it stable.

Eve online is a decent MMO. It’s been around for a while and really has a culture behind it. The AI is retarded in the game but they make up for that with the PvP and market systems. The game definetly isn’t for everyone. It’s a very complex game. Everquest was another great game until SOE took over. Once SOE took over they did the whole mentality of making the game easier to play, which gets rid of any challenge and it becomes just a grind. Same thing happened with Everquest II. The game was great until they decided to compete with WoW. They made the game far to solo friendly and it became all about grinding. There are some games I am looking forward to like SWTOR but we will have to wait and see. As for me I will never buy another MMO without the ability to try it at least for 2 weeks prior to paying for it. I have paid for far to many MMO’s and quit them within a week.

If a new MMO wants to come out and really compete with a game like WoW or Eve-Online which have such huge player basis will have to do a lot. Player controlled area’s with real PvP is always a plus. Real content for PvE that relies on Guild/Clan’s to work together to accomplish. The game needs real goals instead of just Max Level and gear. I don’t work for or own a multi-million(Billion?) dollar company so I obviously can’t come up with everything. But with some complexity that actually makes sense and in a way makes it understandable, smarter AI, and a lot to do for every type of player you may actually have a decent game.

Today Microsoft announced the Windows Phone 7 series a World Mobile Congress 2010, in Barcelona. With this new phone series Microsoft is finally changing the entire design from the ground up. Everything from look and feel to the code behind it, it’s all brand new. Hopefully this is just the beginning and Microsoft will one again be a serious competitor against the other makers out there. The completely altered home screen now tightly integrates with XBox Live and Zune. New and improved social networking tools. Gone is the Today screen we have all grown to hate, now replaced with “tiles” which scroll vertically which can be customized into quick launches, links to contacts, or self contained widgets.

The look as been radically changed and now more looks like the popular Zune HD experience. The OS is heavily dependent on social networking, providing integrated contact pages which show status updates from multiple services and allow fast jumps to richer cloud content (such as photo galleries). The Xbox integration will include LIVE games, avatars, and profiles, while the Zune end of things appears to be a carbon copy of the standalone device’s features (including FM radio).

Unlike before with Windows Phone 7 Microsoft is setting rigid requirements for the hardware. A Specific CPU,  speed, aspect ratio, resolution, memory, and even button configuration. So no more Sense or other customizations like that. I’m sure when the first phones start rolling out they will all look and feel pretty much the same, so there will be a single Windows Phone identity.

]]> http://superpenguin.net/2010/02/windows-phone-7-series-officially-announced/feed/ 0 http://superpenguin.net/2010/02/htc-hero-my-1-day-review/ http://superpenguin.net/2010/02/htc-hero-my-1-day-review/#comments Mon, 15 Feb 2010 01:45:07 +0000 Aaron Beauvais http://superpenguin.net/?p=11

I’ve been watching the HTC Hero for a while now. I’ve waited to get it for 2 reasons. 1. cause I didn’t qualify for an upgrade until January 1st, 2010. 2. Cause I wanted to wait till it went back on sale. Both finally happened. It was on sale for $99 at Best Buy while everyone else still had it at $179 (after a $100 M.I.R.). So I decided to pick it up this weekend.

I’ve been using an HTC Touch for the last year (Not the pro). This came with Windows Mobile 6.1 I had upgraded it to Windows Mobile 6.5 and eventually redid the whole thing and loaded it with Android 1.5. On this phone I tried the various flavors of Android from version 1.5 to 2.1. Once I started using Android I instantly fell in love with it. It has the open development I require, sleek interface, quick and responsiveness. Now the HTC Touch was not designed for Android so it’s interface/button mapping could be weird. For example it doesn’t detect orientation, there is no back or home button (this is the Camera button as mapped), it is pressure sensitive touch screen.

The HTC Hero though is way better. It has a light sensor to automatically adjust brightness based on your surrounds, brighter if it’s bright out dimmer if its dark out. The screen is very responsive. This was the first thing I had to get use to. Like I said my HTC Touch was pressure sensitive, this is not. Simple tap of my finger and it works, while before I had to use my thumbnail or stylus. It has a 5MP camera which seems great for taking pictures so far, it doesn’t have a flash which would help out in low light situations. Phone calls are clear.

One huge feature that I really liked was the built in support provided by HTC to sync with Microsoft Exchange servers. It supports direct push for both google (seems to anyways) and Microsoft Exchange. Syncs all my contacts, calendars, and email. Prior with Android you have to get 3rd party software to sync with Microsoft Exchange and that software isn’t free either. So to me this was a huge plus.

Rumor has it that it will be upgraded to Android 2.1 in March. No official answer from HTC or Sprint that I have seen. The only “Official” word I have seen is it will be upgraded to 2.1 in the first half of 2010. For now I will just deal with 1.5. I have downloaded a number of Apps but I will only list off the ones I recommend in no specific order:

• Google Maps
• Barcode Scanner
• Reality Browser 3.0
• AK Notepad
• Advanced Task Killer
• Pandora Radio
• Shazam
• Meebo IM
• Movies
• Astro File manager
• Facebook for Android

If you want an inexpensive Android phone for Sprint PCS I would definitely recommend this phone. Especially since it will be getting 2.1. I’ll give an update after a week or 2 on my experience’s, issues, pro’s, etc..