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:





 

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!













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

My Ubuntu Status January, 2009

I started this blog in 2006 and after 2+ years I am still blogging about this thing called Ubuntu. So many things have happened in my personal life and I've managed to have 9 more other blogs about things very much not Ubuntu or Open Source. I still feel like a newbie but I guess that's what keeps me yearning for more. I guess that if anyone assumes that he or she knows everything there is to know about something, that person is a fool. Wisdom after all is knowing that you know not everything.

I haven't used Debian for quite some time now, essentially because of the sheer amount of interest of other people in Ubuntu. Which I equate with the formula: 

More Interest = More New Applications = More Stuff You Can Do = More Features = More Fun!

I am sure the Debian people would disagree, my response to them would be - to each his own. The wonderful world of Linux is so diverse that everybody has his or her own place. There are the Ubuntu Christians, Ubuntu Gnomes, Ubuntu KDEs, Ubuntu XFCE's, Edubuntus, Enlightened Ubuntus, Gobuntus, Ubuntu Muslims, and even Ubuntu Satanists.

I beg to differ when people say that Ubuntu is a Newbie distribution. Well, in practice it is, but in principle, I believe that it is the best embodiment so far of what Open Source Software and Freedom is all about. The possibilities of Ubuntu emerging from the future ashes of the empire called Microsoft is very high. I am not saying this out of fanaticism, but out of pragmatic considerations. People will realize on their own, that Microsoft is no longer offering anything of value which deserves its value.

I haven't tried any other Linux distributions aside from Sidux, Debian, Arch, and the Play DVD thing, but I will be firm in my opinion that Ubuntu has the best community, the best infrastructure, and the best revenue model.

The revenue model is important because like it or not - (Personally I do not like it too) money is what drives people to do what they do.

Me as an Ubuntu User

I still have problems with the present set of Office applications available to Ubuntu/Linux. Open Office has to do something breathtaking or ground breaking because until they do they stand on shaky ground. Nobody wants to use slow and bloated software.

I have finally drifted over to IceWm as my primary Desktop Environment - or window manager. I no longer use icons on my desktop.

Ubuntu is a good platform for media applications, I can play VCDs, DVDs, basically everything that Hollywood Can Puke Out of the Netherworld.

I get my dose of CNN via Miro.

I browse the Internet grudgingly (I hate slow remember?) with Firefox

My kids play their kiddie windows games via wine.

I play tremulous as well as Master of Orion I, II, III via dosbox and wine respectively.

I gaze at the stars with Celestia.

I look at the planet via Google Earth.

I even organize "normal non porn" photos through PornView. Really.

For now, I will stick with Ubuntu, I keep my XP partition just in case there is something that I am required to do in a Windows Application that doesn't work with wine.

Maybe I am going to buy a new computer this year and buy my fastest yet.

But definitely, I am going to be dannybuntu.

[SOLVED] 01-26-2009 Winecfg Fonts Are Messed Up - Like Totally :/

[UPDATE] SOLVED 01-26-2009

Whenever I run 'winecfg' I get a configuration window with the texts all scrunched up.

I am running:

Intrepid
IceWm
Wine Version 1.1.13
msttcorefonts installed





I found the solution in Nanci Barthelmess' blog
Apparently this has something to do with an issue in nvidia legacy drivers as pointed out in my winehq post
For reference, please do check out a copy of the bug report filed 16146

Disclaimer: The following steps are the steps I did to fix the situation I described above. There is no guarantee that they would or could work in your system at all. The reason I posted this is for future reference in my case and maybe, just maybe, we have the same problem and conditions. Please don't hold me responsible if fire comes out of your PC, thanks :)

Steps:

1. Read my disclaimer above :)
2. Create a file named settings.txt in your home folder with the folliwing content:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Wine\X11 Driver]
"ClientSideWithRender"="N"

*note: I am not sure about this, but I also created a file named settings.txt in /home/name/.wine/drive_c/ because that is what the previous instructions said.

3. Execute the following command:

dan@ubuntu$ env WINEPREFIX="/home/[YourUsername]/.wine” regedit settings.txt

4.Then execute the following command: 

dan@ubuntu$ wine regedit settings.txt

5. That's it. Try running 'winecfg' now

Remembering 2PAC SHAKUR - Things Will Never Be the Same

"...although it seems heaven sent

We ain't ready, to see a black President,"

-Changes

--2PAC SHAKUR

"Changes"

[1]
Come on come on
I see no changes wake up in the morning and I ask myself
is life worth living should I blast myself?
I'm tired of bein' poor & even worse I'm black
my stomach hurts so I'm lookin' for a purse to snatch
Cops give a damn about a negro
pull the trigger kill a nigga he's a hero
Give the crack to the kids who the hell cares
one less hungry mouth on the welfare
First ship 'em dope & let 'em deal the brothers
give 'em guns step back watch 'em kill each other
It's time to fight back that's what Huey said
2 shots in the dark now Huey's dead
I got love for my brother but we can never go nowhere
unless we share with each other
We gotta start makin' changes
learn to see me as a brother instead of 2 distant strangers
and that's how it's supposed to be
How can the Devil take a brother if he's close to me?
I'd love to go back to when we played as kids
but things changed, and that's the way it is

[Bridge w/ changing ad libs]
Come on come on
That's just the way it is
Things'll never be the same
That's just the way it is
aww yeah
[Repeat]

[2]
I see no changes all I see is racist faces
misplaced hate makes disgrace to races
We under I wonder what it takes to make this
one better place, let's erase the wasted
Take the evil out the people they'll be acting right
'cause both black and white is smokin' crack tonight
and only time we chill is when we kill each other
it takes skill to be real, time to heal each other
And although it seems heaven sent
We ain't ready, to see a black President, uhh
It ain't a secret don't conceal the fact
the penitentiary's packed, and it's filled with blacks
But some things will never change
try to show another way but you stayin' in the dope game
Now tell me what's a mother to do
bein' real don't appeal to the brother in you
You gotta operate the easy way
"I made a G today" But you made it in a sleazy way
sellin' crack to the kid. " I gotta get paid,"
Well hey, well that's the way it is

[Bridge]

[Talking:]
We gotta make a change...
It's time for us as a people to start makin' some changes.
Let's change the way we eat, let's change the way we live
and let's change the way we treat each other.
You see the old way wasn't working so it's on us to do
what we gotta do, to survive.

[3]
And still I see no changes can't a brother get a little peace
It's war on the streets & the war in the Middle East
Instead of war on poverty they got a war on drugs
so the police can bother me
And I ain't never did a crime I ain't have to do
But now I'm back with the facts givin' it back to you
Don't let 'em jack you up, back you up,
crack you up and pimp smack you up
You gotta learn to hold ya own
they get jealous when they see ya with ya mobile phone
But tell the cops they can't touch this
I don't trust this when they try to rush I bust this
That's the sound of my tool you say it ain't cool
my mama didn't raise no fool
And as long as I stay black I gotta stay strapped
& I never get to lay back
'Cause I always got to worry 'bout the pay backs
some punk that I roughed up way back
comin' back after all these years
rat-tat-tat-tat-tat that's the way it is uhh

[Bridge 'til fade:]
Some things will never change

Download the Ubuntu Pocket Guide for Free

Get the Ubuntu Pocket Guide by Keir Thomas for Free.








About the Author

Keir Thomas is one of the world's most prolific authors writing about Ubuntu Linux.

In 2005 he was amongst the first to realize the massive potential of Ubuntu. He persuaded Apress to let him write a book and the result was Beginning Ubuntu Linux.

Published in March 2006, Beginning Ubuntu Linux was the first English-language book to cover Ubuntu and went on to win a Linux Journal Editor's Choice award. It was followed by a second and then third edition, the last of which was published in June 2008.

In 2008 Thomas joined forces with The Pragmatic Programers to publish Ubuntu Kung Fu. Described by Thomas as "a one-chapter book full of fun tips", it is an innovative title that provides over 300 tips, tricks, hints, and hacks for Ubuntu. Like Beginning Ubuntu Linux, it has proven to be a best-seller.

I recommend checking out this guy who played the violin just in front of the Sydney Opera House, Australia when you're in Sydney

If I could tame a wild animal

Plinky post

RAWR! by hobvias sudoneighm (striatic)

I'd pick a lion. Well, it can't be my rug. My rug is okay, since I'd put the lion outside with a bunch of bunnies. I'd have to buy or maybe plant lots of vegetables to feed the rabbits who in turn will be fed to the lion. I'd take my lion for a walk, brush its hair, give it a nice collar, gps tranceiver, sharpen its claws and brush its teeth.

Plinky is Alive

To all of those who are waiting for the launching of Plinky - they're now officially online. What is Plinky? Well it's a service from a former Google Executive named Jason Shellen who resigned from Google to form his own startup.

Plinky is more than just a microblogging service. I could say that it is a gentle nudge of inspiration for bloggers and microbloggers who have run out of stuff to write. Like twitter, it is a highly social application that requires you to send updates about yourself to friends and strangers. The twist is - you don't get to choose where the spotlight falls. Be it your choice of favorite songs or whatever you are wearing tonight, plinky, plinkifies you enough.

It's like truth or dare - without dare.

With twitter reportedly surpassing digg, the prospects for embeddable social microblogging services could have a bright future ahead of them.

But remember, plinky is not microblogging - as Plinky founder said "It's only microblogging if you don't write much."

Don't mind my previous post (the boxer short thing), which came from plinky by the way, it's just the result of mid morning drowsy horniness....

Pretty Neat IceWM Themes

I am a fan of IceWM.

I found some pretty neat IceWM Themes.

Here they are: klikme

I hope you like em. They're simple and fast.

HowTo: Find command line name of a program?

Sometimes, we'd like to install programs that aren't really part of the Ubuntu Repositories. That's not really recommended, but we do it anyway. We would compile it from source and then execute it with a ./ or a sh . Too often than not, when we'd like to run that program again, we do so through the command line. But what if the command to run it isn't its name? For example, let's say we compiled program-name: foo. To run foo we assume that we type foo on the command line. But when we run foo we get this:

dan@ubuntu:~$ foo
bash: foo: command not found

So what do we do? There are two solutions that I've managed to come accross in Ubuntuforums:

1. If the said program is a GUI program, we can do this solution by caljohnsmith:

If the program name you are looking for is for a GUI app, one trick you can do is run the GUI app from the menus, and then in a terminal do:

Code:

xprop | grep WM_CLASS

Then click on the GUI app Window, and most of the time the "WM_CLASS" field of xprop will tell you the GUI app name that can be run in the terminal. Is that maybe what you are looking for?

2. Another is by lwsb

2.a You can use synaptic, search for the package, then click on the tab that says "installed files" Look for one that is in one of the bin directories. From the command line you can use something like
dpkg -L packagename|grep bin

2.b Use the "locate" command. For example, say you know that there is a command for tweaking linux filesystems that has the word "fox" in it, but can't remember the exact name.

locate bin/foo

 

2.c "man -k", used like "man -k foo" This will search all man pages for "keyword" and return a list of commands and short descriptions.

As usual I got this tip from Ubuntuforums.

Ubuntuforums is a great resource not only for Ubuntu specific concerns but also for General GNU/Linux concerns. It's awesome.