New: graphics card + screen

A few days ago my screen came in the post, and yesterday the graphics card came aswell. (see post below). Until now I haven't been able to use Compiz Fusion special effects (opencompositing.org or compiz-fusion.org), as my old graphics card was a nVidia Vanta with 16MB RAM (!). Here is a screenshot of me running the desktop cube and fire (compiz fusion plugins):

Running DSL in a VM...

DSL stands for Damn Small Linux and is a Linux distro with a GUI that fits in roughly 50MB. Thought I might share this screen shot of me running it in vmware server:

VMware: Hardy Alpha 4

I just compiled VMware server and have done a quick test of the latest build of Ubuntu 8.04 "Hardy". Here are the inevitable screenshots:

















^ The default desktop. The theme looks like it's still an embryo in development.

















^ Add/remove, the more user-friendly version of synaptic
















^doesn't include Firefox 3 beta yet, but give an alpha a chance!

































^ Two new GUI apps: top one is GParted, a partition manager tool. Bottom one is Seahorse, a Keyring/Password manager that so totally smacks of Apple's Keychain Access utility. UPDATE 9/2/08: according to Mal, Gparted is a standard LiveCD app that doesn't get installed on a standard HDD install (not new in hardy). Credit goes to Mal for informing me.

This is just an alpha, and I can already see quite a few new stuff just from a five minute test. I'm sure when Hardy comes out in April it will be a swell upgrade.

MalFela Supertux world

MalFela Supertux world
beta version

We've been working on a SuperTux level for a while now.
With both levels from me, Mal, and srynznfyra (fela),
this worldmap is getting pretty big.

With creative solutions to problems:

















Nice-looking design:
















And much, much more.

EnemyFactory is not compatible with supertux 0.3.1.
Please use the 0.3.1 archive if you plan
to use this with 0.3.1.

Download:
0.3.0 Package: 0.3.0-supertuxworld
0.3.1 Package: 0.3.1-supertuxworld

My screen came, except...

Yeah, the 19" Samsung Syncmaster 920NW widescreen came yesterday, but until it gets replaced by a GeForce FX5200 128MB (which should be coming very soon), the nVidia Vanta 16MB in my linux box is going to have a hard time driving it! That's right, my graphics card is using all the same drivers etc. as before, it's just that it doesn't like screens as big as mine. It works fine, just the graphics is a bit slow.

My webcam specs

Here are the specs of my Pico iMage webcam that i can think of off the top of my head:

640x480px;
USB 2.0;
Officially supports Mac OS X and Windows;


I might fix this post some time in the near future to include stuff like refresh rate and advanced things like that.

My web cam! Few

As a birthday gift i got a web cam:


Here are the specks:

Image Sensor:	1/7" color progressive CMOS, 352 x 288 pixels 10 bit RGB raw data.
Sensitivity:	15 Lux @ 7.5 fps
Lens Specification:	F2.4, f=2.9 mm, view angle 52o
White Balance:	Auto
Exposure:	Auto
Frame Rate:	320 x 240 pixels @ 30fps 160 x 120 pixels @ 30fps
Focus Range:	Manual focus, 1cm to infinity
Depth of Field:	50cm to infinity
PC Interface:	USB 1.1
Video Format:	AVI
Video Capture Res.:	320x240/ 160x120 pixels
Snapshot:	Hardware
Still Capture Res.:	Up to 320 x 240 pixels
Flicker Control:	50Hz, 60Hz
Power:	From USB port
Bundled Software:	Ark Soft VideoImpression 2.0

B-Day

It was my birthday yesterday and this is what i got:

USB Microscope up to 1280x magnification;
1GB RAM for my Ubuntu PC (so that now I have 1.1GB or 1152MB RAM in it :));
Snakehead (the seventh Alex Rider book developed by Anthony Horowitz);
£90;
DVD (can't remember what);
Chocolate thingy saying Happy Birthday;
A tent;
A backpack that you fill with water (called a 'bladder');

I've also ordered for myself (partly with the £90):

Samsung Syncmaster 920NW 19" Widescreen 16:10, up to 1440x900 @ 75Hz;
nVidia Geforce FX5200 128MB PCI Graphics card w/ DVI, VGA, S-Video out;

I'm very happy about the screen and the graphics card, those right now are probably the lowest spec things in my Ubuntu PC (apart from maybe the Intel P4 1.8GHz, i hate to say).

14" CRT 1024x768 @ 60Hz ==>> 19" LCD 1440x900 @ 75Hz;
nVidia Vanta w/ VGA 16MB ==>> nVidia Geforce w/ DVI+VGA+SVideo 128MB;

the first ones are the specs i have now, the second are the ones i'm upgrading to.

Hopefully sometime in the near future i should also upgrade my CPU (as it's upgradeable, i have a Compaq Evo D500 Small Form Factor), and the 20GB HDD. Then it would basically be a new computer! so far (as in when the graphics card comes) it's new/upgraded:

RAM;
Graphics;
CD-ROM (upgraded to DVD+-RW DL);
USB 2.0 card;
OS (from Windows to Ubuntu, i consider that an upgrade ;))