BSD & Gaming

I tried, I really tried with Firefox 3 to learn to like the “Awesome Bar“. To begin with, the name bugged me, “awesome bar”… really?

Ok be good, that voice in my head told me in that sickening patronizing tone that is so prevalent in today’s politically correct culture.  The voice continued to badger me with guilt saying – just give it a try and stay open minded.

Grumbles…. fine fine whatever.

I’m a card carrying member of the “If it ain’t broke, don’t goddam fix it!” and the “Keep It Simple…ya Stupid idiot!” groups. SO, needless to say every time I hear about how someone somewhere gets what they think is a bright idea, usually in my world….it ain’t.

Well here I am many many, months later and my final conclusion? It sucks the big one. It almost never gives me anything related to what I want. Instead of saving me time it wastes it by feeding me useless crap to look at.  I end up typing the URL by hand if I know it or hitting up a search engine to find it.

Fine… it’s faster that way anyhow… so how do I get rid of it? Ahhhh the ever helpful about:config

Search for browser.urlbar.maxRichResults and change the value to “-1“, you can change it to “0” which most sites suggest, but I find it creates a slight flicker at the bottom of the URL entry field. By using a value of “-1” that flicker does not appear for me.

If you haven’t already found SomaFM yourself,  you should really give it a listen.

SomaFM is a listener-supported, commercial-free internet-only radio station. This means no advertising or annoying commercial interruptions.

My two personal favorite stations are “Mission Control” and “Space Station”. There’s plenty more to choose from so it’s definitely worth taking a look.

You can find SomaFM here – [LINK]

For those on operating systems besides something windows based, you can listen with the VLC media player.

Don’t forget you can order the study DVD to become certified as a BSD Associate on the BSDCertification.org web site.

Here is the complete collection of all four of the BSD operating systems, their applications, and guides in a single handy reference. Simply select which BSD to install from the boot menu on the DVD and you have all the essential tools to prepare for the BSDA certification.

PCBSD 8.0 Hubble Edition is out!

Take a look – [LINK]

I’m putting together a little list of the FireFox add-ons I have found to be useful.

Please take a look at the page Recommended add-ons for FireFox.

Tiberian Sun and the Firestorm expansion pack are now free from the official Command and Conquer home page under the classic games section.

Get it now! – [LINK]

I loved Tiberian Sun and Red Alert 2, they are some of my all time favorites. It’s funny I was just looking for those cd’s in my collection the other day and couldn’t find them. I just downloaded a copy and will be giving it a run with WINE as soon as I get a chance.

[Update] – WINE 1.1.31 runs Tiberian Sun just fine, in fact it’s more stable than when I ran it under WinXP Pro. I don’t know why but under XP it crashes after playing for 30-45min, none of my other games do…..  go figure.

Setup winecfg for Win98 mode and the recommended registry settings are pasted below. Enjoy!

Improving performance

• Run ‘wine regedit’, browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Wine. If there is no key (the stuff with folder icons) called AppDefaults, then create it
• Right-click on that key and create a new key game.exe
• Create a new subkey Direct3D. In that key create two string variables:
  DirectDrawRenderer with value opengl
  RenderTargetLockMode with value readtex

“TICKETS, Get your TICKETS!!”

Calling all Steampunk enthusiasts out there! March 12-14, 2010 in Emeryville, CA will be the date and location for the upcoming convention. I really wish I could be there, but being on the east coast and money shy will make it a no go situation for me.

[LINK]

Yea baby!!! It’s about damn time!!

By now most Fallout fans have seen the PC Gamer layout, and I have to say after looking at it myself I think it will be fun.

If you have not seen the spread yet check out N.M.A.’s info here – [LINK]