Posts filed under 'Software'
I'm just so freakin' glad to live in a free and prosperous country such as this one... In fact, Serbia is so great and righteous, that it has to remain the last on the list for all things good, and at the very top for all things bad, just for the sake of feeling important while pouring sacks of 10 day old manure on the head of every normal person that resides within.
If you haven't noticed yet, I'm pissed. Very much so.
What I tried to do today looked too good to be true (needless to say, it was) - I tried using Microsoft DreamSpark to download some free software for students (for educational purposes). The process includes a verification procedure that confirms that you are truly a valid student of any listed university. Allot of countries in Europe are supported, but not mine, nor does it look like it will be any time soon. It sucks not having an unified student filing system, like that's so hard to accomplish. Although loads more laws, decrees, important people, general democracy realizations in Serbia are on my "I will slice your spine in two" list, this made my stomack do a 360 degree spin. Thank you, oh so great country of mine...
July 4th, 2008
I needed to install a Linux distro on a server machine for (currently) testing purposes, and it's quite weird to not be able to find any install CDs when dozens of them are just lying around - either it's a prehistoric version of Ubuntu, or SuSe 9.x, or Ubuntu for PPC (how the hell did that get there?) or the fist two CDs of SuSe 10.1 (the remaining 3 probably ened up being somebody elses beer coaster).
So, I managed to grab a Slackware 12 install DVD and slipped it in the server's drive bay. The greeting I got was certainly not as graphically pleasing as one might expect it to be with Fedora, Mandriva, SuSe etc. Only text based dialogs were letting me choose a font, keyboard map etc. The setup is started by running a command called (obviously) - "setup". Although the setup procedure it's pretty ugly (non-graphical), it's quick to do and is quick to finish (but I can't stand the fact that there is no progress bar while installing).
Eventually, the setup finished - telling me to reboot... After the first startup, a text-based login was waiting for me. Every successful login spits out a "message of the day" which are usually some quotes. So, how to go graphical? "startx" didn't do the trick, so I ended up running "xorgsetup" which got me going. KDE quickly popped up without the unnecessary bloat that most other distros put in - it was quite refreshing to see. But, I needed fluxbox, so I changed the default window manager to that and logged in again.
To give a hint about the ease of use for Fluxbox - here's how to change the default desktop wallpaper:
fbsetbg -f /home/me/.fluxbox/backgrounds/wallpaper.jpg
The conclusion? When using "KISS" distros, such as Slackware, allot of effort is needed to get things going, but once it's done, don't touch ANYTHING else! To be honest, although I feel a bit proud for configuring such a disasterous user-unfriendly (yet stable) Linux distro, I would trade it for OpenSuSe or Fedora any time! (if anyone asks, the server is a test HTTP server... it works.)
May 23rd, 2008
Back in the days where I would beg on my knees all day - every day in front of my dad to buy me a Sega - Mega Drive 2 game console, it would be quite a weird thing to hear that today I would be able to play that very same game console on a computer that has a great screen and huge processing power (along with everything else that comes along with owning a x86 PC 
). Even though I have hundreds of great advanced 3D games to choose from, there's something really special when playing Sonic in all it's glory... To achieve this, I use Gens, but there are many others to choose from. Sadly, Aero and Windows Vista DreamScene get broken when running it, but still, it's pretty much worth the hassle...
May 12th, 2008
Well, seems like the Windows Vista Data backup feature failed on me... It refused to install my existing programs and restore my existing preferences... (but it did what it was obviously meant to do - backup your personal files). Fortunately, I had a full "Complete PC backup" copy made with the same backup tool that worked perfectly, so I'm back at x86 level. It's a pitty, but I'll hold on... Wish there was an easier way to switch from x86 to x64...
April 28th, 2008
To upgrade from a 32bit version of Windows Vista to a 64bit one is a pain, because it is not possible without a clean install. That's why I'm making a complete PC backup using Windows' backup and restore center. If all goes well, I should be running a 64bit Vista in a few hours... The advantages? Possibly speed and the ability to add more RAM. Tis' all.
April 27th, 2008
Well, Microsoft is certainly in a giving mood today
If you own Windows Vista Ultimate, and use Windows Update, you should check whether you have some Windows Ultimate extras available. 3 new dream scenes and 2 new sound schemes should be waiting to be downloaded. They look awesome, and the sound schemes are so-so, but worth a download.
April 23rd, 2008
Although I would always prefer the built in Nokia Symbian browsers (Java will always be a synonym to S-L-O-W for me), the concept of Opera Mini is a top solution right now for mobile phones that do not have regular browsers built in on their phones, and for others who like to save on cash when surfing on an expensive GPRS data rate (like me). Using this tiny JAR file, I can browse the full web without having to count the kilobytes that just fly by when visiting a few pages (although I do turn off picture displaying - much less traffic). The only thing that gets my goose is the lack of support for custom fonts that I can install on my phone... Pity.
Here are some screenshots of the newest beta - 4.1:
April 15th, 2008
Previous Posts
I'm just so freakin' glad to live in a free and prosperous country such as this one... In fact, Serbia is so great and righteous, that it has to remain the last on the list for all things good, and at the very top for all things bad, just for the sake of feeling important while pouring sacks of 10 day old manure on the head of every normal person that resides within.
