Monday, July 16, 2007
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Interesting Argument About Global Warming�Video
Interesting Argument About Global Warming�Video:
I won't add anything to it for now, because I'm overload with work, but I'm sure I can add to this argument... in a probabilistic way...
I won't add anything to it for now, because I'm overload with work, but I'm sure I can add to this argument... in a probabilistic way...
Friday, June 08, 2007
The Linux vs Windows Devices Showcase
I had fun comparing the The Linux Devices Showcase to the The Windows Devices Showcase. Both site are own by the same group, but not sponsored by the same peoples.
It is fun to compare the kind of really bizarre devices you get running linux compared to those running on windows.
The other category is pretty interesting:
On the Windows side, you have:
-An automated sewing machine
-A GPS-enabled diesel performance controller
-A workout bike
-A low payload industrial robot
-A humanoid robot
-A wearable technical assistance computer
On the linux side:
-A vehicule tracking device
-A glass cockpit
-Military robots...
-... or Military trucks
-A bus tracking system
-A cow milking system
-A system in an RJ-45 Connector
-An ice cream making machine
-A ship building robot
Of course, the thing I find really interesting (for the type of job I do) would be the Etherscope network analyser.. but at 5.500 US$, it's a bit pricey..
It is fun to compare the kind of really bizarre devices you get running linux compared to those running on windows.
The other category is pretty interesting:
On the Windows side, you have:
-An automated sewing machine
-A GPS-enabled diesel performance controller
-A workout bike
-A low payload industrial robot
-A humanoid robot
-A wearable technical assistance computer
On the linux side:
-A vehicule tracking device
-A glass cockpit
-Military robots...
-... or Military trucks
-A bus tracking system
-A cow milking system
-A system in an RJ-45 Connector
-An ice cream making machine
-A ship building robot
Of course, the thing I find really interesting (for the type of job I do) would be the Etherscope network analyser.. but at 5.500 US$, it's a bit pricey..
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess was fun to play. Especially on the Nintendo Wii.
It's a traditionnal Zelda game which you collect items in dungeons, but since it's playable on the wii, the Wiimote (and the 3d puzzles) gives a twist to the game. The controls on the Wii are easy to master. Only one move was hard for me to make, and the horse-riding was sometimes hard to do, but overall, it's easy to play with the auto-targeting.
Most of the puzzle are easy to solve with some thinking and most monsters could easily be defeated. Two exception to this rules: Bosses and Dark Knights.
Bosses are easy to defeat once you find their weak spot, but it can sometimes be tricky to find this weak spot. Dark knights are the other exception, as while you can easily kill one, they will block every attack, and find every opening to attack... They are especially troublesome in the Cave of Ordeals because they are never alone. I managed to get to the very last part of the Cave, only to die at the hand of 3 Dark knights.
So, a very good game with some frustrations, and little replay value. But a worthy investment for the initial 60 hours of fun it took me to finish the game.
It's a traditionnal Zelda game which you collect items in dungeons, but since it's playable on the wii, the Wiimote (and the 3d puzzles) gives a twist to the game. The controls on the Wii are easy to master. Only one move was hard for me to make, and the horse-riding was sometimes hard to do, but overall, it's easy to play with the auto-targeting.
Most of the puzzle are easy to solve with some thinking and most monsters could easily be defeated. Two exception to this rules: Bosses and Dark Knights.
Bosses are easy to defeat once you find their weak spot, but it can sometimes be tricky to find this weak spot. Dark knights are the other exception, as while you can easily kill one, they will block every attack, and find every opening to attack... They are especially troublesome in the Cave of Ordeals because they are never alone. I managed to get to the very last part of the Cave, only to die at the hand of 3 Dark knights.
So, a very good game with some frustrations, and little replay value. But a worthy investment for the initial 60 hours of fun it took me to finish the game.
Sunday, June 03, 2007
Railroad Tycoon 3
Railroad Tycoon 3 Info
I love simulation games. The type that doesn't really have an ending, but there is still a challenge in doing it. That's why I like playing the railroad tycoon 2 (or RT2). It also was one of the rare game that got ported to Linux by the now dead Loki Games, but it had so drawbacks. Most notably, you couldn't built any type of industries. Thus if, for example, you would try to sell raw milk at city locations, past a certain date, it would just pile-up because the houses demanded pasteurized milk only, and if there is only one milk processor in the entire map, it become hard to ship everything there and then back to the various cities.
Well Railroad tycoon 3 changed that, you can still buy the industries, like in RT2, but you can also build your own. While you cannot build the basic-product producing ones, any transformation industry is available at prices comparable to buying an existing one. Goods also move on their own (to simulate boats along rivers and slower-moving horses) so you don't have to build a station right next to every resources in the map, and still be able to exchange every kind of good there is.
Even if the game was released in 2003,the graphics still looks good (although a little dated). This game also has high replay value in skirmish mode (multiplayer mode is also available, but I didn't try it) and it even has a sandbox-mode where you can simple lay out rails at your heart content and build a large model railroad.
I think I'm ready to try Sid Meier's Railroads now. It will probably make this game obsolete, the same why RT3 made RT2 a shelved game.
I love simulation games. The type that doesn't really have an ending, but there is still a challenge in doing it. That's why I like playing the railroad tycoon 2 (or RT2). It also was one of the rare game that got ported to Linux by the now dead Loki Games, but it had so drawbacks. Most notably, you couldn't built any type of industries. Thus if, for example, you would try to sell raw milk at city locations, past a certain date, it would just pile-up because the houses demanded pasteurized milk only, and if there is only one milk processor in the entire map, it become hard to ship everything there and then back to the various cities.
Well Railroad tycoon 3 changed that, you can still buy the industries, like in RT2, but you can also build your own. While you cannot build the basic-product producing ones, any transformation industry is available at prices comparable to buying an existing one. Goods also move on their own (to simulate boats along rivers and slower-moving horses) so you don't have to build a station right next to every resources in the map, and still be able to exchange every kind of good there is.
Even if the game was released in 2003,the graphics still looks good (although a little dated). This game also has high replay value in skirmish mode (multiplayer mode is also available, but I didn't try it) and it even has a sandbox-mode where you can simple lay out rails at your heart content and build a large model railroad.
I think I'm ready to try Sid Meier's Railroads now. It will probably make this game obsolete, the same why RT3 made RT2 a shelved game.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
last games
I just finished Railroad Tycoon 3, Zelda: Twilight Princess and I'm starting Supreme Commander...
I've enjoyed each of these games and I'll give my own impression in several posts...
Also, I've been very busy with work... and with my sister's marriage.
I've enjoyed each of these games and I'll give my own impression in several posts...
Also, I've been very busy with work... and with my sister's marriage.
Thursday, May 03, 2007
HD-DVD key fiasco is an example of 21st century digital revolt - Download Squad
HD-DVD key fiasco is an example of 21st century digital revolt - Download Squad
I especially like the Joe Rogan Quote: "Dude, you can't remove something from the Internet... It's like removing pee from a swimming poll"... So True...
I especially like the Joe Rogan Quote: "Dude, you can't remove something from the Internet... It's like removing pee from a swimming poll"... So True...
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Installing Cups on HP-UX
Important Note: Installing CUPS on HP-UX will overwrite important files. I was not aware that swremove did not restore the previous binaries. Make sure you make a backup of the lp basic back-end or are able to re-install the package from the install medium. I do not have access to an HP-UX machine and cannot help anyone with more than what is written here.
Guide to installing Cups on HP-UX
(copied here for future reference, and for anyone on the net who needs this information)
Taken from several sources on the net, with the official one being:
http://www.cups.org/doc-1.1/sam.html#BUILDING_INSTALLING
CUPS is supposed to be the "Common Unix printing system". It compiled on all the Unix platforms I ever worked on, although sometimes I thing it should be renamed CLiPS ("Common Linux printing system")
Important note: the guide does not include the Foomatic-rip filters and is therefore very limited in functionalities. To install the Foomatic filters once you have completed this guide see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foomatic and http://www.linux-foundation.org/en/OpenPrinting/Database/Foomatic
1)The Basics
We'll build from source, so you need to have the latest compiler and makefile Gnu tools. (at minimum GNU make is required) You can get those from:
http://hpux.connect.org.uk/
http://hpux.connect.org.uk/hppd/hpux/Gnu/make-3.81/
http://hpux.connect.org.uk/hppd/hpux/Gnu/gcc-4.1.2/
And the run-time dependencies (for GCC):
http://hpux.connect.org.uk/hppd/hpux/Gnu/gettext-0.16.1/
http://hpux.connect.org.uk/hppd/hpux/Development/Libraries/libiconv-1.11/
You also need some libraries from for Jpeg, tiff, png and zlib support (theses are used at CUPS compile time)
http://hpux.connect.org.uk/hppd/hpux/X11/Graphics/jpeg-6b/
http://hpux.connect.org.uk/hppd/hpux/X11/Graphics/tiff-3.8.2/
http://hpux.connect.org.uk/hppd/hpux/X11/Graphics/libpng-1.2.16/
http://hpux.connect.org.uk/hppd/hpux/Misc/zlib-1.2.3/
once copied, install using (do this for each file):
swinstall -s /tmp/filename-version-0.1.depot \*
you might want to copy all the software into a depot, and install from there:
swcopy -s /tmp/filename-version-0.1.depot \* @ hostA:/tmp/sw
swinstall -s hostA:/tmp/sw
2)EPM
You'll want to make packages for the HP software depot(or maybe another package in case you to install it on something else). We'll use EPM, the package-builder from ESP, the company behind Cups.
EPM support the following packages type (from the makefile):
aix, bsd, deb, gui, inst tardist, pkg, native, osx, portable, rpm, swintall depot
And the website says it support the following OS:
AIX, Debian GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, HP-UX, IRIX, Mac OS X, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Red Hat Linux, Slackware Linux, Solaris, and Tru64 UNIX.
http://www.easysw.com/epm/
Download the source from:
http://www.easysw.com/epm/software.php
and copy to /tmp
Extract using:
gunzip epm-4.0-source.tar.gz
tar -xvf epm-4.0-source.tar
Compile:
cd /tmp/epm-4.0
./compile
gmake swinstall depot
This will make a .depot file in the hpux-version directory. Install this software using
gunzip /tmp/epm-4.0/hpux-11.11-hppa/epm-4.0-hpux-11.11-hppa.depot.gz
swinstall -s /tmp/epm-4.0/hpux-11.11-hppa/epm-4.0-hpux-11.11-hppa.depot \*
Again, you might want to copy it first:
gunzip /tmp/epm-4.0/hpux-11.11-hppa/epm-4.0-hpux-11.11-hppa.depot.gz
swcopy -s /tmp/epm-4.0/hpux-11.11-hppa/epm-4.0-hpux-11.11-hppa.depot \* @ hostA:/tmp/sw
swinstall -s hostA:/tmp/sw
3)CUPS
Get cups
http://www.easysw.com/cups/software.php
and copy to /tmp
Extract using:
gunzip cups-1.2.8.tar.gz
tar -xvf cups-1.2.8.tar
Compile
cd /tmp/cups-1.2.8
./configure
gmake depot
If it does find the Jpeg, Zlib, Tiff or Png Librairies, see:
http://www.cups.org/doc-1.1/sam.html#BUILDING_INSTALLING
Install
gunzip /tmp/cups-1.2.8/dist/cups-1.2.8-hpux-11.11-hppa.depot.gz
swinstall -s /tmp/cups-1.2.8/dist/cups-1.2.8-hpux-11.11-hppa.depot \*
or
gunzip /tmp/cups-1.2.8/dist/cups-1.2.8-hpux-11.11-hppa.depot.gz
swcopy -s /tmp/cups-1.2.8/dist/cups-1.2.8-hpux-11.11-hppa.depot \* @ hostA:/tmp/sw
swinstall -s hostA:/tmp/sw
Congratulation, you have a basic (almost nothing included) working Cups!
4)Finishing touch
Configuration files are in:
/etc/cups
Logs are in
/var/log/cups
To add a printer:
lpadmin -p printer -E -v device -m ppd_file
To add a printer using the old system V interface files:
lpadmin -i/path_to_file/file
Guide to installing Cups on HP-UX
(copied here for future reference, and for anyone on the net who needs this information)
Taken from several sources on the net, with the official one being:
http://www.cups.org/doc-1.1/sam.html#BUILDING_INSTALLING
CUPS is supposed to be the "Common Unix printing system". It compiled on all the Unix platforms I ever worked on, although sometimes I thing it should be renamed CLiPS ("Common Linux printing system")
Important note: the guide does not include the Foomatic-rip filters and is therefore very limited in functionalities. To install the Foomatic filters once you have completed this guide see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foomatic and http://www.linux-foundation.org/en/OpenPrinting/Database/Foomatic
1)The Basics
We'll build from source, so you need to have the latest compiler and makefile Gnu tools. (at minimum GNU make is required) You can get those from:
http://hpux.connect.org.uk/
http://hpux.connect.org.uk/hppd/hpux/Gnu/make-3.81/
http://hpux.connect.org.uk/hppd/hpux/Gnu/gcc-4.1.2/
And the run-time dependencies (for GCC):
http://hpux.connect.org.uk/hppd/hpux/Gnu/gettext-0.16.1/
http://hpux.connect.org.uk/hppd/hpux/Development/Libraries/libiconv-1.11/
You also need some libraries from for Jpeg, tiff, png and zlib support (theses are used at CUPS compile time)
http://hpux.connect.org.uk/hppd/hpux/X11/Graphics/jpeg-6b/
http://hpux.connect.org.uk/hppd/hpux/X11/Graphics/tiff-3.8.2/
http://hpux.connect.org.uk/hppd/hpux/X11/Graphics/libpng-1.2.16/
http://hpux.connect.org.uk/hppd/hpux/Misc/zlib-1.2.3/
once copied, install using (do this for each file):
swinstall -s /tmp/filename-version-0.1.depot \*
you might want to copy all the software into a depot, and install from there:
swcopy -s /tmp/filename-version-0.1.depot \* @ hostA:/tmp/sw
swinstall -s hostA:/tmp/sw
2)EPM
You'll want to make packages for the HP software depot(or maybe another package in case you to install it on something else). We'll use EPM, the package-builder from ESP, the company behind Cups.
EPM support the following packages type (from the makefile):
aix, bsd, deb, gui, inst tardist, pkg, native, osx, portable, rpm, swintall depot
And the website says it support the following OS:
AIX, Debian GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, HP-UX, IRIX, Mac OS X, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Red Hat Linux, Slackware Linux, Solaris, and Tru64 UNIX.
http://www.easysw.com/epm/
Download the source from:
http://www.easysw.com/epm/software.php
and copy to /tmp
Extract using:
gunzip epm-4.0-source.tar.gz
tar -xvf epm-4.0-source.tar
Compile:
cd /tmp/epm-4.0
./compile
gmake swinstall depot
This will make a .depot file in the hpux-version directory. Install this software using
gunzip /tmp/epm-4.0/hpux-11.11-hppa/epm-4.0-hpux-11.11-hppa.depot.gz
swinstall -s /tmp/epm-4.0/hpux-11.11-hppa/epm-4.0-hpux-11.11-hppa.depot \*
Again, you might want to copy it first:
gunzip /tmp/epm-4.0/hpux-11.11-hppa/epm-4.0-hpux-11.11-hppa.depot.gz
swcopy -s /tmp/epm-4.0/hpux-11.11-hppa/epm-4.0-hpux-11.11-hppa.depot \* @ hostA:/tmp/sw
swinstall -s hostA:/tmp/sw
3)CUPS
Get cups
http://www.easysw.com/cups/software.php
and copy to /tmp
Extract using:
gunzip cups-1.2.8.tar.gz
tar -xvf cups-1.2.8.tar
Compile
cd /tmp/cups-1.2.8
./configure
gmake depot
If it does find the Jpeg, Zlib, Tiff or Png Librairies, see:
http://www.cups.org/doc-1.1/sam.html#BUILDING_INSTALLING
Install
gunzip /tmp/cups-1.2.8/dist/cups-1.2.8-hpux-11.11-hppa.depot.gz
swinstall -s /tmp/cups-1.2.8/dist/cups-1.2.8-hpux-11.11-hppa.depot \*
or
gunzip /tmp/cups-1.2.8/dist/cups-1.2.8-hpux-11.11-hppa.depot.gz
swcopy -s /tmp/cups-1.2.8/dist/cups-1.2.8-hpux-11.11-hppa.depot \* @ hostA:/tmp/sw
swinstall -s hostA:/tmp/sw
Congratulation, you have a basic (almost nothing included) working Cups!
4)Finishing touch
Configuration files are in:
/etc/cups
Logs are in
/var/log/cups
To add a printer:
lpadmin -p printer -E -v device -m ppd_file
To add a printer using the old system V interface files:
lpadmin -i/path_to_file/file
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