Hack your way into Google Buzz

If your mobile phone is not Android or iPhone… or your gmail still does not have Google buzz folder, you still can get into buzz, albeit only mobile version. Use Firefox extension – UserAgentSwitcher. Choose iPhone3.0 profile, go to buzz.google.com.

You can also buzz from symbian (and I presume winmo, although I haven’t tested it) goole maps (v.4.0) which was updated yesterday on google servers. Works on Symbian s60v5.

(Virus-) Free gaming under Wine in Linux

In Windows world, you can play any game for free, but it usually comes with some payload from virus writers. Having realized that, I made it a rule to only play games that I purchased legally. Then, yesterday, I found some of those old Windows games archives. Don’t know why I have not deleted those virus-ridden wares long time ago.

I have already seen that many games work in Linux under Wine, and then I thought, why not try these ones, because they can not infect my Ubuntu anyway. And, voila! Both franchises of Bejeweled (2 and Twist) work in HD/3D accelerated, and they are “free”. True, they try to propagate on the game exit, and (moment of glory) simply error out in wine. Seems, that I will never ever have to pay for Windows games that do not use intensive 3D graphics or online authorization.

Playing Steam games on Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala)

Installation of Wine 1.31 amd64 went ok, but Steam client failed after installation and self update. Had to switch to 1.3 amd64 deb and also make sure that Windows version=XP in wine configuration tool. Now Steam works and I am downloading my games. Quickly tried Ricochet Infinity and it work well, in full screen, in windowed mode and downloading extension packs from internet works too.

Virtual Box 3.0 Beta has DirectX9 support

But fails Windows Performance Index, so no Aero yet. Google Earth hangs too. :(

CoLinux Ubuntu 9.04

Yesterday I played with CoLinux on my laptop with Vista x32. Tried it first with Windows 7 x64 but turns out that CoLinux is only available for x32 bit environments. Anyway, it started find with Vista x32 and I even upgraded the original image (Ubuntu 8.04) in two steps to 8.10 and then to 9.4. Had to increase image size from 1.7GB to 8GB. Increasing image size involves creating a new empty image file under windows, then mounting it under CoLinux and copying all information to it, quitting CoLinux and restarting with new image file. Instructions are in the Colinux FAQ section. Maybe 8GB is an overkill, and 4GB would have been enough, but I made it bigger just in case I will want to install more programs.

It works great, faster than virtual machine. Internet works, but I still have to figure out how to see local network.

Try OpenSolaris without downloads and installation - online

I keep studying options for my new home server, and one of the ideas that intrigued me, is that people swear by OpenSolaris filesystem called ZFS. Went to OpenSolaris sandbox. I haven’t tried it yet, but I already like the note in bold at the bottom.

:)

Update: So, I tried it. On the surface is the same Gnome 2.24 as in many other Linux distributions. Seems that I need to go elsewhere to understand the benefits of ZFS.

Ubuntu + Compiz + Virtual Box

Bad dudes vs Dragonninja

 

Occasionally stumbled upon this youtube video. I must confess that this was one of my favourites some 20 years ago. Now I need to figure out how to get it to play under Vista in full HD.

Update: Here are links to Bad Dudes ROM, NeoGeo BIOS, latest MAME commandline emulator, Extramame GUI for MAME (Vista compatible). Installation is well explained under last link (ExtraMame). I couldn't get the games running in full screen, with strange error "failure to create direct3d device", but it runs well in windowed mode. 

 

There is a movie based on this game (or vice-versa) and I am going to download it if I find it. So far, quick search over piratebay did not return any results.