Archive for June, 2010
BTRFS
Posted by gavomatic57 in Kubuntu, Ubuntu on June 30, 2010
BTRFS is quite an exciting new file system coming to a Linux desktop near you.
Installing php5-gtk in Ubuntu 10.04 x64
Posted by gavomatic57 in Ubuntu on June 29, 2010
For those of you who like benchmarking ‘nix systems like Linux, OSX and BSD, you’ll be aware that the Phoronix Test Suite requires php5-gtk for the GUI to work. Unfortunately you won’t find this in a repository so you’ll have to build it yourself. After knocking my head against a wall a few times and googling the problem to death, I came across something that helped.
Velcro
Posted by gavomatic57 in Photography on June 28, 2010
‘m sorry, I’ve become one of those flickr people who photographs cats using a shallow depth of field. I’m sure it’ll pass as the novelty of having a house full of cats wears off.
OpenOffice 3.2.1 – Mac
Posted by gavomatic57 in Mac OSX on June 27, 2010
After reviewing iWork 09 and MS Office 2008, it is only fair that I give OpenOffice a look too. I’ve had OpenOffice installed on my mac for a while in case of emergencies but I have never really sat down and used it for any length of time. The main attraction with it is – to all intents and purposes – native, in that it doesn’t require X11, it is completely free and supports ODF. A version 3.2.1 has just been released, re-branding it from the now defunct Sun Microsystems brand to the Oracle one, but it is otherwise identical.
iReader for Chrome
Posted by gavomatic57 in Mac OSX, Ubuntu, Windows on June 25, 2010
‘ve previously mentioned how much I like the Reader function in Safari 5 and have longed for it in other browsers. Fortunately, someone has kindly ported it to Chrome and it looks and works “almost” exactly the same as the Safari version.
iPhone OS4 (iOS4)
Posted by gavomatic57 in iOS on June 21, 2010
Well, after weeks of eager anticipation and snippets of information from developers iOS4 finally landed in the UK at around 6pm, Monday 21st June. It was a reasonably hefty download – on the tubby side of 300mb and it took a good half hour to install once it had applied the update and re-synched several thousand photo’s from my Aperture library.
iOS4 – it’s “check for updates” repeatedly day
Posted by gavomatic57 in iOS on June 21, 2010
Well, the wait is on. Today is the day that weeks ago Apple announced the iPhone OS version 4 (iOS4) would be released. Annoyingly, nobody knows when this update is likely to appear, although chances are it’ll be around the time the people on the West Coast USA wake up – around 6:30-8:30pm here. So, to tide you over Apple Insider have given us a rundown of the features we’re going to get (providing you have an iPhone 3G, 3GS or the new 4).
Woodland
Posted by gavomatic57 in Photography on June 16, 2010
Get it here It was a pleasant evening tonight. The sun was shining, warm without being oppressive and there was very little wind. You have to make the most of these days here in the UK, they don’t happen often so I went for a walk in the woods with the camera. Armed with my trusty [...]
OSX 10.6.4 update – Mail Upgrade
Posted by gavomatic57 in Mac OSX on June 16, 2010
The 10.6.4 update has finally been released by Apple. The changes are as follows:
New Mac Mini (June 2010)
Posted by gavomatic57 in Mac OSX on June 15, 2010
t isn’t unusual for Apple to release a product and then have the price knock the wind out of your lungs. True to form, they have just released a new Mac Mini with some truly questionable prices.
Now, I know Apple products are invariably priced at the Freemason end of the market, that I am not debating. What I am confused by is its price in relation to other Apple computers. As the photo above shows, if you spec it up with a 2.66ghz CPU, 4gb RAM and a 500gb hard drive, then throw in a keyboard and mouse you reach a dizzying £1017. Compare this to the cheapest iMac…
The End of the World
Posted by gavomatic57 in Odds & Ends on June 13, 2010
I couldn’t help noticing that Sky TV is awash with disaster documentaries this week. There have been programmes talking about what would happen if the world stopped turning, the population doubled and the oil ran out. Most of them have so far involved lots of bad CGI, explosions and general anarchy, but beyond that they do provide some food for thought. Most of them are on Sky Anytime this week if you have a Sky+ box.
Red Dead Redemption – A short film by John Hillcoat
Posted by gavomatic57 in Games, Playstation 3 on June 12, 2010
I’m a big fan of Red Dead Redemption and Westerns in general, so I was amused to hear that Australian director John Hillcoat, who’s previous works include The Road and The Proposition, had done a 30 minute film comprised entirely of in-game footage.
What’s happening to PC gaming
Posted by gavomatic57 in Games, PC Games on June 9, 2010
There was a thread on the Bit-tech forums discussing the PC game market. It started off talking about prices but then morphed into a general discussion on the way things are going. I have a few thoughts on this and I responded with what you see below.
Whilst GPU’s have moved on, aside from higher resolutions, the PC-only titles like those coming from Russia/Ukraine are using new features that are subtle at best. How would Sony or MS market a console that is only offering slightly better graphics than what people already have now?
Safari 5 – The Reader
Posted by gavomatic57 in Internet, Mac OSX, Windows on June 8, 2010
I love the new Safari 5 reader function. Along with a bunch of HTML5 and Javascript related improvements and performance boosts, Safari 5 also has this cool function that strips out all of the extraneous junk from a typical website and then makes it look like a (iWork) Pages document. The above shot is of [...]
WWDC 2010
Posted by gavomatic57 in Internet, iOS, Mac OSX on June 7, 2010
One of the things that I find remarkable about Apple is that their products are launched with such fanfare and the internet is full of rumour for weeks, even months beforehand. This month saw their Developer Conference – just another major even with which to wow crowds of developers, fans and journalists.
Prior to the event there was the much publicised iPhone 4 bar-stool incident, which saw a prototype end up in Gizmodo’s hands and photo’s and details were leaked to the world.
Apple iPad
Posted by gavomatic57 in Internet, Odds & Ends, Photography on June 2, 2010
Took a wander into town earlier today and made the mistake of taking a slight detour to the Apple store for a look at the iPad. I fear this may have been a mistake because now I really want one.
Much has been said about the iPad and how it “is just a big ipod touch” and whilst that is technically true (ish), it is missing the point somewhat.
Half Life 2 – Engine update
Posted by gavomatic57 in Games, Mac OSX, Windows on June 1, 2010
The best game in the world (in my opinion) has recently had an upgrade. The game uses the Source engine, which when coupled with the Steam content delivery platform allows Valve to upgrade certain parts of the source engine, whether it be the physics engine, the textures or anything else. Since 2004 when Half Life 2 was released, the engine has seen a number of improvements, such as HDR lighting, more anti-aliasing and multicore rendering. Unfortunately until very recently it was only the later episodes of Half LIfe 2 that incorporated these features, which was a shame because the main game is arguably the most important part.
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“Youtube Comment Snob” and applications for the wider internet
Posted by gavomatic57 in Internet on June 6, 2010
Another tip from BBC Click caught my eye this weekend. Youtube Comment Snob is a plugin for Firefox created by a Mr Chris Finke, an apparently clever chap who obviously shares my dislike of all the keyboard warriors who are free to roam the internet and pass badly composed, badly spelt and frequently rude comments to people they don’t know. If you’ve ever spent time creating content be it a photograph, video or a program only to have some 15 year old keyboard warrior with a tenuous grasp of language, common sense or courtesy deride your work – this is just the sort of plugin you need.
comments, Firefox, Grammar, Plugin, Snob, Spelling, Youtube
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