Upgrades

Ordered Intel X-25M (80GB, 2nd generation) in Lithuania. Price is 180 EUR, which is better than in Latvia (205 EUR), and have to wait around 1 month for delivery.

Also, purchased the latest and the greatest from ATI. XFX HD5870. Had to upgrade PSU too.

Now, all my games have very friendly framerates (Core 2 Duo E7300 overclocked to 3.2GHz, 4GB RAM, XFX HD5870), and it became much easier to make headshots in 3d shooters (Left4Dead, TF2, Bioshock). Another strange, but pleasing side effect appeared in a racing game (GRID). It was very difficult to keep a car on the road while racing, but now motion is very smooth, and controlling the car is much easier. Probably, has something to do with the fact, that previously, with lower frame-rate, by the time when I saw car loosing traction, it was too late to react. Nice.

Google Maps for Symbian update, Opera Mobile 10 Beta 2

Google Maps 3.3 now supports syncing of Nokia Landmarks and Google Maps favourites between handset and the mighty google cloud. Looks like another nail into the coffin of Nokia Maps?

Opera Mobile 10 Beta 2 for symbian has got Opera Sync and Download manager, but the sweetest thing comes from the fixes to memory management and rendering speed. It was quick on Omnia HD i8910, and it is (subjectively) twice faster now.

Switch between laptop LCD and external monitor in Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic)

It is easy to switch display modes through system/preferences/display, but I wanted to make it even faster with keyboard shortcuts. It also gives you ability to force resolutions and relative display positions when using both displays at the same time.

Use XRANDR in the command prompt to find out names of connected displays.  In my case VGA1 = external monitor and LVDS1 = laptop LCD.

$ xrandr

Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 1024, maximum 8192 x 8192

VGA1 connected 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 338mm x 270mm

   1280x1024      60.0*+   75.0 

   1152x864       75.0 

   1024x768       75.1     70.1     60.0 

   832x624        74.6 

   800x600        72.2     75.0     60.3     56.2 

   640x480        72.8     75.0     66.7     60.0 

   720x400        70.1 

LVDS1 connected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

   1280x800       60.0 +

   1024x768       85.0     75.0     70.1     60.0 

   832x624        74.6 

   800x600        85.1     72.2     75.0     60.3     56.2 

   640x480        85.0     72.8     75.0     59.9 

   720x400        85.0 

   640x400        85.1 

   640x350        85.1 

HDMI1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

DP1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

DP2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

go to System/Preferences/Keyboard shortcuts and add

WIN+F5 use only laptop LCD

xrandr --output VGA1 --off --output LVDS1 --auto

WIN+F6 use only external monitor

xrandr --output LVDS1 --off --output VGA1 --auto

WIN+F7 use both (laptop on the left)

xrandr --output LVDS1 --auto --left-of VGA1 --auto

WIN+F8 use both (laptop above)

xrandr --output LVDS1 --auto --above VGA1 --auto

Opera Mobile 10 Beta for Symbian

This is important. This is hilarious if you have got fast symbian phone with lots of RAM. Opera Mobile 10 is here. Installed it on my Omnia HD i8910 and immediately  tweaked RAM cache to some 50MB. Running well and not getting any “low memory” erros, like poor N97 guys. :)

It’s fast. It’s fucking Ajax compliant.

Gmail. It opened gmail in “standard view” and works fast.

Google Reader also opened in “standard ajaxy” mode. Wow.

Google Wave opened with errors. Not usable.

Youtube. Hmm, it doesn’t play youtube yet, but I have heard it from Opera some time ago, that Flash will be supported.

Friendfeed  works, as does Facebook.

(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.

In search of the holy grail of home servers

ATM my home server runs Windows 7 Ultimate (trial mode till end of December) and I am researching free alternatives like freenas, openfiler, ubuntuserver, freebsd. Need this machine to support administration via web gui and provide following services for me

1. file sharing via SMB/Samba
2. torrenting with webgui
3. http web server
4. webdav
5. vpn
6. upnp/dlna media serving to multiple upnp/dlna players simultaneously
7. continuous data backup (windows live sync style, propagating changes between machines immediately, rather than overnight)
8. advanced disk/RAID management, described below.
9. seems that vitrtualisation is high on my list too.

Found this thread discussing freenas and drobo functionality, and thought that this post decsribes my needs too.

I'm also looking for the holy grail of RAID solutions and really hope someone can come up with or find something. I want the following features: REQUIRED: - Redundancy, allowing for at least 1 drive failure - Mix and match drive sizes WITHOUT being limited by the smallest drive (and thus wasting space) - Ability to add drives to increase capacity - Ability to replace drives and increase capacity - NAS functionality, accessible via a Windows share - Ability to create multiple partitions, with respective shares (or one large partition with multiple shares mapped to folders on the NAS? Who really cares about the "internal" file structure..) PREFERRED: - Performance that isn't terrible - In my case, fast enough to steam 1080P over ethernet - Minimal data capacity loss due to parity (< 50% - Else I'd just mirror.) - "NTFS" Volumes larger than 2TB (Not sure if this is possible via a share.. perhaps "Emulate" NTFS and actually store on a file system with larger volume capacities to achieve this? I could care less if Windows reports my remaining space correctly, as long as the NAS would.) - Software-based, so I can also use the box for other purposes.

I already run freenas in virtualbox on my server with bridged network interface on my server, and it appears as separate machine with web gui on my network. I already see some of the drawbacks of freenas, like no webdav, vpn, virtualisation (the kind that allows me to test freenas in VM like I do it now).

Downloading freebsd, openfiler and ubuntu server to install as VMs too and give ‘em a try this month.

Wake Ubuntu with USB keyboard/mouse

I have Logitech DiNovo USB Bluetooth Keyboard. To make it wake your computer please follow this thread . Worked for me.

Unfortunately, it doesn't work through hub. In that case, the whole hub is either in sleep mode, or it awake all time and prevents my PC from going into sleep. Had to connect this keyboard directly to PC then. Strangely, the same keyboard woke Windows 7 even via hub.

Want a super fast SSD for your lappie? Live in Latvia? Bad luck.

Due to economical crisis, prices of computer hardware been falling faster than usual. But. For a small country of Latvia, full of unemployed and bankrupt citizens, that means that sometimes, you can't buy nice things, because nobody imports them here.

Here I am, tried to order Intel X-25 80GB SSD (generation 2) and got answers from all shop that damn thing is not available in Latvia, minimum order from Poland or Estonia is 10pcs, and, obviously, nobody cares to order it for Latvia, 'cause they are not sure that they can sell 10 pcs. here? C'mon Intel, try harder...

If you've got any idea how to get SSDSA2MH080G2C1 for about 200 EUR in Riga, ping me. :(

Update. After failing to get it anywhere in the usual retail channels, I turned to ebay. Found 2 sellers that shipped from European country (Germany) and ordered 2 units (on 3rd of January,2010). Cost is 194 EUR x 2 for the goods, plus 16 EUR for shipping to Latvia with UPS. It arrived today (8th of January). Yeehah!

Installing Steam game demos under WINE, Ubuntu

There is a problem with Steam client under wine, that it allows to install only games from your purchased games list. If you want to try demo that you found on a steam client, "install game" button doesn't perform any action.

Workaround: to install demos with steam under wine use

cd ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/Steam
wine Steam.exe -applaunch XXXX

where XXXX is a code of the game you want, can be seen in the url of the game (for that you need to open store.steampowered.com in the browser in linux)

Windows 7 Home Premium upgrade in Latvia

So, Windows 7 is here. Since trying W7 beta in the beginning of 2009, I knew that this was the first OS that I’ll upgrade my home computers to and will be willing to pay for it. I will need several copies for my home:

1. gaming/multimedia PC – currently runs W7 RC. It absolutely needs a Windows license, because I use it to for playing games, and Linux just can’t compete here. Will update it to Windows 7 Home Premium (which has all I need, including Windows Media Center).

2. home server- has Ubuntu and W7 trials at the moment. I can use it in this mode for another 100 days. It is now fully configured to provide the functionality I need – filesharing, utorrent, orb, wuala, https web server, webdav and vpn. In the upcoming 3 months I will try get same functionality (except orb) under Ubuntu. If that works, fine. Otherwise, will upgrade to W7 too. Home Premium does not support Remote Desktop server, but I can manage with VNC I think.

3. 2 laptops – running W7 trials atm, need to upgrade.

So, I am going to buy 3-4 upgrade licenses. Today, I checked pricing and availability of Windows 7 here in Riga, Latvia. Unfortunately, there is no Family Pack available (some people say it might appear after Oct, 31st, when Latvian language Windows is promised). But, price for Home Premium OEM upgrade is quite good ($70 or 50 EUR). Buying Family pack of 3 licenses at amazon UK, would cost the same after shipment. I think I will rather buy HP OEM upgrades here.

I do not have that many Vista or XP licenses (basically all my PC were self made, and laptops came with Linux), but will try to find some old/written-off licenses from sysadmin friends. I know that OEM will work only with one machine, but Retail copy is almost 4 times more expensive (180 EUR) and for that money, I can buy new OEM upgrades later if needed.

I checked to computer shops today and in both, was asked to prove that I have a copy of Windows to upgrade from. Windows label on the bottom of laptop is enough of the proof they said. Interesting, can I show the same laptop in various shops to buy 3-4 upgrade licenses? I think I can.