Saturday, February 14, 2009

Linux-Games: New Linux/Ubuntu Game - World of Goo

I heard about the game World of Goo from kees over at www.outflux.net

"World of Goo is a physics based puzzle / construction game. The millions of Goo Balls who live in the beautiful World of Goo don't know that they are in a game, or that they are extremely delicious.


- 2DBoy Games"



I am trying out the demo version now.


View video of game here: World of Goo


Download DEMO version here:
http://worldofgoo.com/dl2.php?lk=demo&filename=WorldOfGooDemo.1.40.deb

Thursday, February 12, 2009

HowTo: Play Mp3 on Terminal

Let's see, I have shared with you guys how to Browse the Internet using a Terminal, how to use Bittorrent on the Terminal, and how to Chat on IRC using the Terminal, how to Encrypt Files on the Terminal using CCRYPT, and now I am going to share how to Play Mp3s using XMMS2 on the Terminal.

It isn't much really and is fairly straightforward.

Heard any good Audiobooks lately? Get one free!For most of us, XMMS is really a Linux clone of the famous Windows application called WinAmp. I got confused myself when I tried to install XMMS2 and did not find any gui. Anyway, if you do want a GUI to have that WinAmp feel, do install Audacious.

For those of us who want to save precious screen real estate and just want to play music here is what we have to do:

STEPS

1. Install XMMS2

dan@ubuntu$ sudo apt-get install xmms2

That's it.



1. PLAYING A SONG

Now most of us keep our mp3s in those things called folders. I for example, arrange my music folders according to Album. Let's start with an example:

I want to play this song: song.mp3 located in /home/dan/music/album1/song.mp3

To play that, I run this command:

dan@ubuntu$ xmms2 play /home/dan/music/album1/song.mp3

There is no visual feedback and no fancy schmancy Album art and graphics, that's just the way it is. Lean and mean.



2. ADDING A FOLDER TO THE PLAYLIST

I admit that the whole process is too long specially if you have to type in the path of the song every time you play a song. So, another way to resolve that is to add the whole Albums folder to the playlist.

Using our example above, we can do that by typing in the following command:

dan@ubuntu$ xmms2 radd /home/dan/music/album1

Now, to make sure that our playlist actually has something on it, and that the folder has been added, we execute this command:

dan@ubuntu$ xmms2 list
-> Random Artist - song (1:00)

    Random Artist - song2 (1:00)
    Random Artist - song3 (1:00)
    Random Artist - song4 (1:00)
    Random Artist - song5 (1:00)
    Random Artist - song6 (1:00)
    Random Artist - song7 (1:00)
    Random Artist - song8 (1:00)
    Random Artist - song9 (1:00)
    Random Artist - song10 (1:00) 

Total Playtime is 00:10:00

    
Take note of this sign: -> 
This shows you the currently selected track. It also shows the following information from left to right:

1. Artist name
2. Song Title
3. Time of Playback
4. At the bottom you'll see the Total Playtime which simply is the sum of all the playback times of each song in the playlist.

After adding the folder to the playlist, xmms2 would still have to be told to play the songs in its playlist. To start playing the songs in the playlist execute:

dan@ubuntu$ xmms2 play

Basically that's it. To show a list of commands that you could use simply do this:

dan@ubuntu$ xmms2   

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Do You Love iGoogle?

Official Google Blog: Share the iGoogle love

I am led to believe that loving inanimate objects could lead to dementia. I suppose dementia is becoming a widespread disease since the marketing geniuses at Google, in all their omnipotence and glory decided that we should share our love for some bits of 0's and 1's. 010100010001.

So in the spirit of unfettered allegiance to the great zombie maker called Google, I would share this information about our professed affliction and devotion to this particular agglomeration of 0's and 1's called iGoogle.

Do I love iGoogle?

Uh, I think so. I use it everyday, before going to sleep, just when I wake up, I spend most of my time with it, I play with it, I put things and gadgets in and out of it, I get inspired by it, I get motivated by it, I stare at it all day, and sometimes - I even see things in it, things that I shouldn't see!

Okay, can I get my sticker now? Oh, wait. I don't have a laptop to put the sticker on. And I am not a resident of the United States.

Humbug.





In the spirit of Valentine's Day, we're asking all iGoogle fans to share the love by submitting a written story or video describing what's special about their homepage. Your story can mention anything you want about your page — from something practical to something heartwarming. If you aren't a video whiz, don't worry. You can just tell it like it is. But we do encourage you to spice up your submission however you'd like — the best ones will be showcased for all to see.


For each entry received, we will 'share the love' back by sending you a free set of iGoogle artist theme laptop stickers.* You can choose from six popular themes, by Radiohead, Michael Kors, Diane von Furstenberg, Marc Ecko, kate spade and Paul Frank.


Visit www.google.com/sharethelove09 to find out how to submit your story and receive your stickers. We're looking forward to reading (and watching) your love stories. To help you get inspired, we've put together this short video that shows some of our favorite ways to use iGoogle.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

HowTo: Chat on IRC via Terminal

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Well, I know that several blokes have already written on how to chat on irc via the terminal, I am doing this to entertain myself.

Yes.

There are several applications you could use to do the trick. But I would only be discussing: irssi 

Description as found on: irssi homepage

Irssi is a terminal based IRC client for UNIX systems. It also supports SILC and ICB protocols via plugins.


Joost Vunderink wrote a summary of the most beneficial Irssi features.
# Autologging

Irssi will automatically log any channels, queries or special windows that you want. The logfiles will be separated per IRC network, and even log rotation is supported. Log file formats, themes and destination directories can be easily configured with the Irssi log settings.

# Formats and themes

Theming is a popular item in todays desktop enviroments, it's an easy yet powerful way to customize your Irssi client's look and feel. Irssi's formatting is modular which means you can just change the appearance of the objects and all items contaning that object will change into that format.

# Configurable keybindings

This feature is a piece of art; it allows you to modify the default keybindings and create your own so you can customize your client. If these keybindings are tuned, you can switch through the windows in no time, execute commands and even complete objects with these bindings.

# Paste detection

If you have ever pasted a bunchload of text into a wrong channel, you know how hard the consequences can be. Irssi tries to detect when you are pasting large amounts of text, by looking at the speed that characters are entered; if such pasting is detected [TAB]-characters are sent as-is instead of being tab-completed and eventually ending up in a wrong destination window. When Irssi detects such a pasting, you will get the option to either abort the paste or execute the paste, this way you have total control of the pasting.








irssi irc client


# Perl scripting

Perl is one of the most used programming languages around the globe and integrating Perl into applications means flexible and powerful scripting capabilities. The entire behavior and appearence of Irssi can be modified within these Perl scripts. Irssi provides a script archive with many contributed Irssi scripts which provide both useful extra features and the required assistance to make your own scripts.

# Irssi-proxy

This is much more than just a bouncer, Irssi-proxy is a plugin which allows to bind a port to each IRC server you are connected to. This means that instead of having to remember to identify with a password, you can just connect to the Irssi-proxy with a server password. The copy of Irssi running the proxy works just as a normal client which you can use, but you can also connect one or more clients to it to share the connections. Using Irssi as a proxy has the major advantage of Irssi's power as an IRC client. You never have to worry about losing your connection to IRC. Even if you don't want to use Issi as a client, I can strongly recommend it as a proxy because you can just connect to it with any IRC client by just connecting to the specified port instead of SSH-ing to the machine that your Irssi is running on.

# Upgrades

Upgrading your Irssi client to the latest version can be easily done without losing the connections to the IRC servers and without restarting Irssi. You can use the UPGRADE command to load the new Irssi binary and restoring your connections.


Installation on Ubuntu

To install on Ubuntu simply do the following:

1. Install via the apt-get command

dan@ubuntu$ sudo apt-get install -y irssi
password:

2. Run on terminal

dan@ubuntu$ irssi

3.  To connect to a server (for example freenode) type:

/connect irc.freenode.org

4. To join a channel (like #ubuntu) type:

/join #ubuntu

5. To switch between 'screens' (for example from The Message of the Day Screen to #ubuntu) press:

ALT+RIGHT ARROW KEY or ALT+LEFT ARROW KEY

6. To change your nick name, simple type:

/nick yournewnickname

7* For more information type:

dan@ubuntu$ man irssi 

8* To make irssi beep whenever someone types your nick do this:

/set bell_beeps ON 
/set beep_msg_level MSGS NOTICES DCC DCCMSGS HILIGHT

From: http://pookey.co.uk/blog/archives/2-Irssi-making-it-beep-when-your-nick-is-mentioned.html

9* For further information go and visit their documentation web page:

http://www.irssi.org/documentation/manual

Monday, February 09, 2009

Linux Games: Chromium BSU - The Not Browser

First, there's Google's browser Chromium , which is described as "an open-source browser project that aims to build a safer, faster, and more stable way for all Internet users to experience the web. The Chromium codebase is the basis for Google’s Chrome browser" and there is Chromium B.S.U., which is is a fast paced, arcade-style, top-scrolling space shooter that runs in Linux. So there. Let's get that out of the way.

Chromium B.S.U. is cool. Very cool. Here are a few pics to prove it:


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Sunday, February 08, 2009

Linux-Games: StarVoyager

StarVoyager is a 2D space game inspired by the hit TV Trek Series, Star Trek Voyager. It's an explore, kill, upgrade space game where you play the role of a Star Trek, Klingon, Dominion (Jem Hadar),  Navigator / Commander / Communications Officer / Engineering and Captain. You get to explore new planets and annihilate enemies. You could install Klingon cloaking devices and Transporters to beam up Phasors, Micro Torpedos, Quasor Torpedoes, etc.

The most dominant enemies of course would be the Borg cubes (invulnerable bastards they are). It's kind of old and no matter how hard I try, I cannot seem to get hold of Mr. Richard Thrippleton who is the one who created this venerable masterpiece.

Call me old fashioned but the old games rock!






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To Install on Ubuntu

1. Open up your Terminal Application (eg., Konsole, Xterm, Gnome-Terminal)

2. Type this:

dan@ubuntu$ sudo apt-get install starvoyager

3. Run

dan@ubuntu$ starvoyager -f

-f    fullscreen
-h   large window

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