Thursday, May 31, 2007

Fascinating Article about A Cyber attack

Estonian Cyber Attack

Another reason to switch to Linux. Your computer won't be a Zomby.

Music

I enjoy listening to online music, especially techno. Here are a couple of my favorite stations:

SomaFM has a couple of great stations. My favorites are Groove Salad and Tag's Trance Trip. Thanks Theo for the link.

I also like RadioIO, both Beat and Ambient

I listen with VLC media player. It is a great media player that works on Windows, MAC, and Linux. I like it because it is a simple program. It doesn't have any adds, and it doesn't burn CD's or manage your music library, It just plays media. and does a very good job of it. It has a simple and straightforward interface. Check it out.

My Favorite Firefox Extensions

I am a big fan of Firefox(the new version 2.0.0.4 came out today)and one of the main reasons for my fanaticism is it's security, stability, and ability to be customized. The easiest way to customize Firefox is to download Extensions. These are plugins for the browser that allow it to do thing that it doesn't do by default. Over that last 2 years of using Firefox, I have tried about 30 different add-ons and found some I like and some I don't like.

Adblock Plus
This extension blocks adds. This is nice for 2 reasons. 1. It cleans up the clutter on web pages. 2. It is more secure because it blocks some of those unwanted tracking cookies that the adds use.

Adblock Filterset.G Updater
This extension updates Adblock with add signiatures, which allows the filter to do a better job of blocking adds.

Foxmarks
This extension is probably my favorite. It backs up and automatically synchronizes my bookmarks to an online server. What makes this extension so sweet is that when I switch between operating systems on my computer(Linux, Vista, XP) and any of the other computers I use in the office, I always have my bookmarks available, and if I find a new one, I add it to my bookmarks and it then gets synchronized to all the other computers and operating systems.

Google Toolbar
This is a nice piece of work that makes searching Google easy, and it makes blogging easy too. There is a button on the toolbar that automatically creates a post when I find an interesting web site I want to write a post about. I haven't been able to find a version of this for Ubuntu, but I haven't worked on it much yet.

IE Tabs
This extension allows you to open a tab that uses Internet Explorer instead of Firefox for the Rendering Engine. I used to use this quite a bit when Firefox first came out due to incompatibilities. Now I rarely find a web site that doesn't work correctly in Firefox, so this extension is used less and less by me. This also doesn't work in Linux for obvious reasons.

Bible Verse Toolbar

As the name implies, this extension displays a bible verse at the top of the screen right underneath the Google Toolbar. The verse changes every time you open Firefox, or when you click on the toolbar.

Download Statusbar
This is a great add-on that moves the download manager from a separate window to a bar that pops up on the bottom of the browser window. It really cleans up the download process, and it allows you to keep track of the status of the downloads while cruising the web.

Bugmenot
This is a great add-on that allows you to get into those pesky web sites that want you to register. Sometimes there are web sites like news sites that make you create a login just to read one article. This extension allows you to login in using someone else's login so that you don't have to give them your info. Pretty useful.

And that wraps up the list of my favorite extensions. In one of my next posts, I will be posting a list of some of the other extensions that I have used and liked, but I don't use enough to keep installed.

One of the things to remember with add-ons is that they are user created, so some of them have some flaws that cause memory leaks(slow your computer down), and/or cause instability in Firefox. I only use the ones that really provide value for me, and often disable them if they don't. All of the ones I am listing are ones I haven't found any issues with so far.

Nathan

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Halo 3 Beta

Last night, I had the opportunity to play the Halo 3 Beta. It was a lot of fun. It looks great at this point of the process. The water is beautiful, the textures are really crisp, and most importantly, the game play is classic Halo. The guns are different and it took a while to get used to the maps, but I really enjoyed the game. The Beta is limited to on-line, multilayer games on 3 new maps.

The thing I have noticed lately is that sometimes as the graphics on video games gets better and better, it is harder and harder to see the improvements. When a game is bad, you notice it, but when they improve something, it gets so good that you don't notice it any more. With things like textures, or grass the changes are really evident. If it is the same 3' by 3' section of grass replicated over and over again over a vast part of a map, that really sticks out, but when grass is really well done, you just ignore it and pay attention to the game play, and Halo looked so good, I forgot to pay attention to how good all the details were. And that's just the Beta.

My opinion is that September is going to be a good month, and Halo 3 is definitely something to look forward to.

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Dell and Ubuntu

Woohoo, You can now order a DELL with Ubuntu Linux pre-installed. Pretty cool. This is a big step in the world of Linux adoption. Hopefully it becomes a financially profitable venture for Dell, and Canonical(The company that support and funds Ubuntu Linux). Three models available. An entry level laptop and desktop, and a higher end desktop.

Friday, May 11, 2007

Folding@Home

I read about a really interesting way to contribute to disease research. It is called Folding@Home Distributed Computing. What you do is download the program and it uses your computer processor when you aren't using it to simulate protein folding which is useful as research for a couple of different diseases like cancer, Parkinson's, and Alzheimer's. Plus it is a cool screen saver.

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

funny cartoons

If you have a quirky sense of humor like I do, you may fihnd these funny. Trogdore has become a bit of a cult classic. In fact the song can be unlocked in One of the guitar hero games.
Trogdore
Here's Another One

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Ubuntu CE 3.0 (Feisty Fawn) Release

Ubuntu Christian Edition 3.0 which is based on The new version 7.04 Feisty Fawn version of Ubuntu was released today. It sports a new GUI for Dansguardian and a couple of applications for researching, studying, and searching the Bible.

Enjoy!!