Wednesday, November 24, 2010
How to Set Bluetooth Off by Default On Linux (Ubuntu 10.10)
If you want to save power, likely make your laptop more secure, and you do not use bluetooth all the time then why not have it disabled by default and still be able to turn it on using all the usual methods. If you are using Linux then all you have to do is to run “rfkill block bluetooth” at start-up. To do this add the line to an existing file (I already had a file named bluetooth, so I used that) in /etc/init.d/ or create a new file with that line.
Monday, November 22, 2010
The Fall Trilogy: Chapter 2 Reconstruction
The Fall Trilogy is an amalgam of two genres, point and click adventure and hidden object; It was developed by Kheops Studios and the first two chapters have been released earlier this year. The first game had the unnamed protagonist, apparently suffering from amnesia, fall into a strange jungle temple and have to work his way out by solving puzzles and finding objects. But just as he discovered the exit he, for no apparent reason, started falling again through what appeared to be a high-rise laundry or garbage shoot. Now in the second chapter, Reconstruction, you wake up in the basement of a office building. A phone starts to ring and a mysterious man talks to you, calling you John and tells you to make your way to the 13th floor and search for a USB drive. The conversation seems to imply you are some type of spy or secret agent. With no other direction in your life you decide to follow the mans directions and head to the 13th floor search of the USB drive, a task that will take up the rest of this chapter.
Probably the most lacking part of the entire game is the story. For the most part, in both games, you are dropped into an environment, told little or nothing, and periodically given glimpses of your family as you start to remember your past. In both games you never really see anyone, but in the second chapter you do get instructions once from a mysterious voice and have to avoid security guards in at least one occasion. This lack of plot is really compounded by the bland lifeless environments in both games; These environments really seem like they could never really exist and only exist to hold the next random puzzle that is blocking your path, if you can call following the only available route simply for something to do, a path.
Taking a broad overview on the series looking for clues to what might be going on I first contemplate the name of the series, The Fall Trilogy. After playing the first two chapters I have come to the conclusion that Fall might simply refer to the character falling all the time, which is not a really interesting conclusion. The first game seemed to have a lot of allusions to Indiana Jones, and kind of portrayed the protagonist as an adventuring archaeologist, while the second, disjointedly, seemed to say that the protagonist was a secret agent or spy; The only incite I can gleam from this is that the protagonist must be completely insane and hallucinating or possibly in a coma and simply imagining all of this.
But the game is not nearly all bad, it has many redeeming qualities, and comes off at least as a somewhat average game. It has moderately enjoyable puzzles, and unlike the first game some challenging ones. Additionally, you cannot really get stuck as there are layers upon layers of hints, tips, and help, all intelligently incorporated into the game.
Positives:
Some interesting and even mildly challenging puzzles.
Negatives:
The new location is even more bland then the first game's.
Summery:
A solid game that does not really standout, if you where a fan of the first game then it is mostly more of the same and you will probably enjoy this game, but if like me you were getting bored of the game even before the first chapter finished then there is nothing in this game likely to reawaken your interest.
Rating:
3/5
Developer:
Kheops Studio
Publisher:
Kheops Studio
Release Date:
September 29, 2010
System Requirements:
http://www.the-fall-trilogy.com/chapter2-reconstruction
Probably the most lacking part of the entire game is the story. For the most part, in both games, you are dropped into an environment, told little or nothing, and periodically given glimpses of your family as you start to remember your past. In both games you never really see anyone, but in the second chapter you do get instructions once from a mysterious voice and have to avoid security guards in at least one occasion. This lack of plot is really compounded by the bland lifeless environments in both games; These environments really seem like they could never really exist and only exist to hold the next random puzzle that is blocking your path, if you can call following the only available route simply for something to do, a path.
Taking a broad overview on the series looking for clues to what might be going on I first contemplate the name of the series, The Fall Trilogy. After playing the first two chapters I have come to the conclusion that Fall might simply refer to the character falling all the time, which is not a really interesting conclusion. The first game seemed to have a lot of allusions to Indiana Jones, and kind of portrayed the protagonist as an adventuring archaeologist, while the second, disjointedly, seemed to say that the protagonist was a secret agent or spy; The only incite I can gleam from this is that the protagonist must be completely insane and hallucinating or possibly in a coma and simply imagining all of this.
But the game is not nearly all bad, it has many redeeming qualities, and comes off at least as a somewhat average game. It has moderately enjoyable puzzles, and unlike the first game some challenging ones. Additionally, you cannot really get stuck as there are layers upon layers of hints, tips, and help, all intelligently incorporated into the game.
Positives:
Some interesting and even mildly challenging puzzles.
Negatives:
The new location is even more bland then the first game's.
Summery:
A solid game that does not really standout, if you where a fan of the first game then it is mostly more of the same and you will probably enjoy this game, but if like me you were getting bored of the game even before the first chapter finished then there is nothing in this game likely to reawaken your interest.
Rating:
3/5
Developer:
Kheops Studio
Publisher:
Kheops Studio
Release Date:
September 29, 2010
System Requirements:
- OS: Windows XP or newer
- CPU: 800 Mhz
- RAM: 1 GB
- Video: 64 MB, DirectX 9.0c
- Hard Drive: 133 MB
http://www.the-fall-trilogy.com/chapter2-reconstruction
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Setting Up A Laptop To Work Well with a Desktop
I just got new laptop computer and had to spend a lot of time and visit many different tutorials to get it interacting with my main correctly. I believe that what I have done would be very helpful to most people with a portable and non portable computer, so here is all that I have done in one simple (hopefully) easy to follow source.
Note: The instructions that follow are for a Linux based laptop and a Windows 7 main, but it is possible to do the same things with any combination of operating systems.
Note: If you are interesting in doing anything that is mentioned here but find the instructions too advanced for you please leave a comment and I can explain in more detail.
Note: Many of the solutions need a restart before they will take effect.
Note: I am not even close to a expert in Linux, so if you know any better ways of doing what I am doing then please share your opinion.
What I have done:
Setup Custom Script Folder
If you have custom scripts that you have created or discovered and you want to run them from anywhere in the terminal (just like the built in commands) then you have to add the path of your custom script folder to your PATH variable.
To do this edit ~/.bash_profile and add the line PATH=$PATH:(custom scripts) replacing (custom scripts) with the folder you created (I used $HOME/bin).
This will work for all normal script executions, but will encounter problems with use with the sudo command on some Linux systems (including Ubuntu), as sudo changes the PATH variable in some Linux distros. To fix this edit ~/.bashrc and add the command alias sudo='sudo env PATH=$PATH' .
Example of Use:
1. ~/bin has been added to your PATH as show in previous instructions
2. HelloWorld.sh has been added to the ~/bin folder
3. Now from anywhere in the terminal the HelloWorld script can be run by typing HelloWorld.sh
Mount Main Computer Shares with Read and Write Access
Windows Desktop Steps:
Right click My Computer - Management - Shared Folders - Shares - RC New Share...
Input what you want to share - Enter the share name - I suggest using “Administrators have full access; other users have read-only access”(you need some users with full access)
Linux Laptop Steps:
Install Samba so that you can work with windows shares.
To mount share use: mount -t smbfs -o username=(desktop username with correct permissions),password=(password for specified user),uid=(laptop user that you want to have permission to use the files shared) //(desktop name)/(share name) (mount location)
Sync Folders Between Laptop and Main
I have files that I want to be able to access on both my desktop and my laptop, regardless of where I am and if I am connected to my lan or the internet, and these files are constantly changing. So the only real solution is to have a program sync these folders between my two computers. Since I want to be able to update the files from both my laptop and desktop I want a two way sync, unfortunately the program that seems the best for this on first glance unison did not work for no apparent reason; So I used grsync, a GUI for rsync, and I am glad I did as it seems to have far more options and works quite well.
To start first install grsync (you could of course use the non GUI version, but if you that hard core you probably would not be reading this). Then create two new sessions for all folders you want to sync (one for each direction).
Note: Depending on how much data you have to transfer, the first run could take a long time.
Note: You will need read/write access to both folders for the sync to complete successfully.
Wake On LAN
The desktop, of course, needs to be on to access its shares; And who wants to actually go and turn them on personally? Well their is no need because computers and network adaptors have be designed for a long time now with the functionality to turn themselves on when certain packets are sent to them.
Windows Desktop Setup:
Lan Adaptor properties - Configure - Advanced (for older machines) OR Power Management (on my machine) - Enable wake-on-lan and special packet only.
Restart computer and go into the bios - Under Power Management (or other depending on version) enable wake from S5, or other similar title (S5 means shutdown but plugged into wall).
Linux Laptop Setup:
install the command line utility wakeonlan.
To start up computer use: wakeonlan (mac address of desktop) OR wakeonlan -i (IP address of desktop) to start up computer.
Remote Shutdown
If you are able to turn on your computer remotely then why not be able to turn it off remotely?
Windows Desktop Setup:
To allow remote shutdown edit: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
Create or edit the 32-bit DWORD LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy to hold the value 1, deleting this entry or making it equal to 0 will reverse the effect.
Note: this apparently will make your computer less secure.
To shutdown the desktop use: net rpc shutdown -f -I (IP address of desktop) -U (desktop username)%(password for specified user)
Note: The instructions that follow are for a Linux based laptop and a Windows 7 main, but it is possible to do the same things with any combination of operating systems.
Note: If you are interesting in doing anything that is mentioned here but find the instructions too advanced for you please leave a comment and I can explain in more detail.
Note: Many of the solutions need a restart before they will take effect.
Note: I am not even close to a expert in Linux, so if you know any better ways of doing what I am doing then please share your opinion.
What I have done:
- Setup a custom script folder on the laptop to allow easy executing of your scripts (needed to make the completed system easy to execute/automate)
- Mount main computers shares onto laptop with read and write access
- Sync important folders between laptop and main
- Remotely turn on main computer from laptop on same network (wake on lan)
- Remotely turn off main computer from laptop on same network
Setup Custom Script Folder
If you have custom scripts that you have created or discovered and you want to run them from anywhere in the terminal (just like the built in commands) then you have to add the path of your custom script folder to your PATH variable.
To do this edit ~/.bash_profile and add the line PATH=$PATH:(custom scripts) replacing (custom scripts) with the folder you created (I used $HOME/bin).
This will work for all normal script executions, but will encounter problems with use with the sudo command on some Linux systems (including Ubuntu), as sudo changes the PATH variable in some Linux distros. To fix this edit ~/.bashrc and add the command alias sudo='sudo env PATH=$PATH' .
Example of Use:
1. ~/bin has been added to your PATH as show in previous instructions
2. HelloWorld.sh has been added to the ~/bin folder
3. Now from anywhere in the terminal the HelloWorld script can be run by typing HelloWorld.sh
Mount Main Computer Shares with Read and Write Access
Windows Desktop Steps:
Right click My Computer - Management - Shared Folders - Shares - RC New Share...
Input what you want to share - Enter the share name - I suggest using “Administrators have full access; other users have read-only access”(you need some users with full access)
Linux Laptop Steps:
Install Samba so that you can work with windows shares.
To mount share use: mount -t smbfs -o username=(desktop username with correct permissions),password=(password for specified user),uid=(laptop user that you want to have permission to use the files shared) //(desktop name)/(share name) (mount location)
Sync Folders Between Laptop and Main
I have files that I want to be able to access on both my desktop and my laptop, regardless of where I am and if I am connected to my lan or the internet, and these files are constantly changing. So the only real solution is to have a program sync these folders between my two computers. Since I want to be able to update the files from both my laptop and desktop I want a two way sync, unfortunately the program that seems the best for this on first glance unison did not work for no apparent reason; So I used grsync, a GUI for rsync, and I am glad I did as it seems to have far more options and works quite well.
To start first install grsync (you could of course use the non GUI version, but if you that hard core you probably would not be reading this). Then create two new sessions for all folders you want to sync (one for each direction).
Note: Depending on how much data you have to transfer, the first run could take a long time.
Note: You will need read/write access to both folders for the sync to complete successfully.
Wake On LAN
The desktop, of course, needs to be on to access its shares; And who wants to actually go and turn them on personally? Well their is no need because computers and network adaptors have be designed for a long time now with the functionality to turn themselves on when certain packets are sent to them.
Windows Desktop Setup:
Lan Adaptor properties - Configure - Advanced (for older machines) OR Power Management (on my machine) - Enable wake-on-lan and special packet only.
Restart computer and go into the bios - Under Power Management (or other depending on version) enable wake from S5, or other similar title (S5 means shutdown but plugged into wall).
Linux Laptop Setup:
install the command line utility wakeonlan.
To start up computer use: wakeonlan (mac address of desktop) OR wakeonlan -i (IP address of desktop) to start up computer.
Remote Shutdown
If you are able to turn on your computer remotely then why not be able to turn it off remotely?
Windows Desktop Setup:
To allow remote shutdown edit: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
Create or edit the 32-bit DWORD LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy to hold the value 1, deleting this entry or making it equal to 0 will reverse the effect.
Note: this apparently will make your computer less secure.
To shutdown the desktop use: net rpc shutdown -f -I (IP address of desktop) -U (desktop username)%(password for specified user)
Saturday, November 20, 2010
My Top Ten Role Playing Games (RPGs)
CaptainD's just posted my top ten role playing games list over at his blog. Just like last time, this list has never before been seen and can be read at Jonathon Wisnoski's Top Ten Role Playing Games.
In summery:
In summery:
- Super Mario RPG
- Mount & Blade
- Final Fantasy IV
- Deus Ex
- Chrono Trigger
- Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
- Fable
- Breath of Fire
- Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
- Mr. Robot
Friday, November 19, 2010
And Yet It Moves Pay What you Want Today Only
I only played a small part of it, but have always wanted to own and play more of it. And for anyone else who does not own it and likes platforming games, today is your lucky day. For today only AYIM is on sale for whatever you want to pay, even $0. You only have to sign up at the site (which requires nothing special) and click the PWYW button on the right!
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