So, this is a few days since the switch to that bad news ipw3945 driver to the "new" iwl4965 driver on my Acer laptop and I am ecstatic to write this post to say that the iwl4965 driver works like a charm. Ubuntu has been running for a while now and I can switch to my wireless at any time. It has also been wonderful to see that the list of wireless spots detected by my network manager constantly get updated. I am very much relieved to see this finally get squared away.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Ubuntu and my Intel Pro Wireless LAN Card
Okay, I have been wondering why my wireless network card refuses to function after a few days and I cannot fix it by rebooting. I've always had to reboot to Vista to sort of give the hardware a little kick. Maybe there is some residue in the hardware buffer of the wireless card, but for whatever reason, it has been testing my patience.
I also happen to remember when I got this laptop new, that Ubuntu did give me frequent problems with the wireless card unable to find my private access point.
This time, I really got pissed because it was again acting up when I really needed the wireless access to be working. So I decided to dig a little bit about the problem.
The laptop I bought is an Acer Aspire 5920g, and apart from the abysmal wireless performance, Ubuntu has been handling this baby pretty well. I even got the Crystal Eye camera to work.
Back to this problem. I did some reading and thankfully, there is a lot of resources from Ubuntu's very own forum. I discovered that my laptop has been running on Intel Pro 4965 AGN wireless card and that the driver Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon (7.10) had been using was the obsolete ipw3945.
I knew then from past experience with this sucker that I had to discard it and find a new one. Thankfully, the kernel already comes packed with the new (Well, relatively...) iwl4965 driver from Intel.
Ubuntu has a great documentation that I followed to switch over to iwl4965 from that dubious ipw3945 driver. Click here for the online documentation. I just changed it to modprobe iwl4965 instead of iwl3945 and of course, load iwl4965 on /etc/modules.
After the reboot, it seems to be working fine, but so did the last one. I am going to observe how this one operates, and hopefully, this one works better than the last one. If all else fails, I may have to use ndiswrapper, and I do not like using Windows network drivers on Linux.
Anyway, that is all for now and I will report back if this one takes care of the issue.
I also happen to remember when I got this laptop new, that Ubuntu did give me frequent problems with the wireless card unable to find my private access point.
This time, I really got pissed because it was again acting up when I really needed the wireless access to be working. So I decided to dig a little bit about the problem.
The laptop I bought is an Acer Aspire 5920g, and apart from the abysmal wireless performance, Ubuntu has been handling this baby pretty well. I even got the Crystal Eye camera to work.
Back to this problem. I did some reading and thankfully, there is a lot of resources from Ubuntu's very own forum. I discovered that my laptop has been running on Intel Pro 4965 AGN wireless card and that the driver Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon (7.10) had been using was the obsolete ipw3945.
I knew then from past experience with this sucker that I had to discard it and find a new one. Thankfully, the kernel already comes packed with the new (Well, relatively...) iwl4965 driver from Intel.
Ubuntu has a great documentation that I followed to switch over to iwl4965 from that dubious ipw3945 driver. Click here for the online documentation. I just changed it to modprobe iwl4965 instead of iwl3945 and of course, load iwl4965 on /etc/modules.
After the reboot, it seems to be working fine, but so did the last one. I am going to observe how this one operates, and hopefully, this one works better than the last one. If all else fails, I may have to use ndiswrapper, and I do not like using Windows network drivers on Linux.
Anyway, that is all for now and I will report back if this one takes care of the issue.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Thoughts: 428 〜封鎖された渋谷で〜
I have always been opened (or close-minded) as a gamer to odd and quirky genres. It is always interesting to see a fresh or unique take on familiar formula on the different game genre. So when I first came upon this strange 'Sound Novel' of a game, it was not surprising to see myself drawn on such a unique visual presentation.
428 ~Fuusa Sareta Shibuya de~ (note: 428 - In a Blockaded Shibuya, aka 428 - The World Does Not Change Even So) is a game that takes the typical visual novel formula that Japanese developers often produce and takes that idea for a unique spin.
Normally, visual novels tend to make for very bland products. Apart from a nice picture backdrop and heaps of heaps of Japanese to go through, they are not particularly very interactive. Some of these kind of games give you certain decisions and in essence provides a bit of a Choose Your Own Adventure style of play. That is not a bad idea as Choose Your Own Adventure books tend to be pretty cool assuming the narrative is right. Unfortunately, once you translate it into video game format, you are expected to have that little extra. Granted that my Japanese is severely limited, the visual/audio presentation as well as the content I come away with has been particularly boring.
If you are expecting 428 to miraculously make reading Japanese on backdrop stills to be exciting, you are definitely on the wrong mindset. 428 takes that format and instead provides the player with something that other visual novels seem to miss, total control.
In 428, you take the role of five character perspectives in a timeline that spans ten hours of a single day in city of Shibuya, a business district of Japan. Multiple characters are nothing new in this genre nor in regular adventure games. 428 also employs decision making for each character to progress the story. That also is nothing new either. But two distinct differences sets this game apart. The first is that the character decisions do have subtle changes on other characters. This allows one character to inadvertently assist or interfere with the progress of another character. The second feature, which I think is the real key to making this entire project work so well is that you can view a time chart of events that have transpired and change the decisions for all of the characters. Hence, while you may arrive at a poor decision causing the demise of another character, you have every chance to go back and rectify it.
Does that make for an easy game? Not necessarily either. Logic plays a huge part in this title, and we are not talking about the 'challenged' logic adventure game developers try to peddle into their products. When you start playing other characters, you will notice details and realize when and how something may have altered the events of another character. And managing five characters while remember key details is not always a straightforward affair. Of course, for non-Japanese players, the language barrier plays another role in adding to that difficulty. Having limited Japanese takes me longer to figure out how events are and sometimes even how the events are supposed to transpire, but it has gotten me pretty far yet. You will inevitably stumble on bad endings, but the game encourages you to take a step back in time and rectify these issues. It is the point of the entire game.
Couple this very neat idea with a very striking presentation style and you have a very engaging adventure title in your hands. Real actors are used in filming and screenshot backdrops of the story and they are adequate to deliver the events of the game. The soundtrack of this title is also amazingly solid. It really does give you a cinematic sense of the entire game.
If there is one complaint over this title, it would be that I would have preferred Chunsoft go a little extra and provide more in terms of visual delivery. For a genre that hinges on story for suspense and substance, it would not hurt to provide video cutscenes alongside the textual narrative to aid in delivering the atmosphere and story.
Albeit, this genre is for a niche audience, 428 manages to deliver a unique experience in spades. It can be slow at times, but it never takes too long to get back to the action and the time chart feature really makes up for it.
Adventure game developers should take some time and look at what other developers in other regions are doing. Sometimes, coming from two different regions provides two different perspectives on how something is done. 428 deserves a look for Western developers. It is a fresh take on a genre that no developer seems to be interested in pushing forward beyond the 1990s formula.
428 ~Fuusa Sareta Shibuya de~ (note: 428 - In a Blockaded Shibuya, aka 428 - The World Does Not Change Even So) is a game that takes the typical visual novel formula that Japanese developers often produce and takes that idea for a unique spin.
Normally, visual novels tend to make for very bland products. Apart from a nice picture backdrop and heaps of heaps of Japanese to go through, they are not particularly very interactive. Some of these kind of games give you certain decisions and in essence provides a bit of a Choose Your Own Adventure style of play. That is not a bad idea as Choose Your Own Adventure books tend to be pretty cool assuming the narrative is right. Unfortunately, once you translate it into video game format, you are expected to have that little extra. Granted that my Japanese is severely limited, the visual/audio presentation as well as the content I come away with has been particularly boring.
If you are expecting 428 to miraculously make reading Japanese on backdrop stills to be exciting, you are definitely on the wrong mindset. 428 takes that format and instead provides the player with something that other visual novels seem to miss, total control.
In 428, you take the role of five character perspectives in a timeline that spans ten hours of a single day in city of Shibuya, a business district of Japan. Multiple characters are nothing new in this genre nor in regular adventure games. 428 also employs decision making for each character to progress the story. That also is nothing new either. But two distinct differences sets this game apart. The first is that the character decisions do have subtle changes on other characters. This allows one character to inadvertently assist or interfere with the progress of another character. The second feature, which I think is the real key to making this entire project work so well is that you can view a time chart of events that have transpired and change the decisions for all of the characters. Hence, while you may arrive at a poor decision causing the demise of another character, you have every chance to go back and rectify it.
Does that make for an easy game? Not necessarily either. Logic plays a huge part in this title, and we are not talking about the 'challenged' logic adventure game developers try to peddle into their products. When you start playing other characters, you will notice details and realize when and how something may have altered the events of another character. And managing five characters while remember key details is not always a straightforward affair. Of course, for non-Japanese players, the language barrier plays another role in adding to that difficulty. Having limited Japanese takes me longer to figure out how events are and sometimes even how the events are supposed to transpire, but it has gotten me pretty far yet. You will inevitably stumble on bad endings, but the game encourages you to take a step back in time and rectify these issues. It is the point of the entire game.
Couple this very neat idea with a very striking presentation style and you have a very engaging adventure title in your hands. Real actors are used in filming and screenshot backdrops of the story and they are adequate to deliver the events of the game. The soundtrack of this title is also amazingly solid. It really does give you a cinematic sense of the entire game.
If there is one complaint over this title, it would be that I would have preferred Chunsoft go a little extra and provide more in terms of visual delivery. For a genre that hinges on story for suspense and substance, it would not hurt to provide video cutscenes alongside the textual narrative to aid in delivering the atmosphere and story.
Albeit, this genre is for a niche audience, 428 manages to deliver a unique experience in spades. It can be slow at times, but it never takes too long to get back to the action and the time chart feature really makes up for it.
Adventure game developers should take some time and look at what other developers in other regions are doing. Sometimes, coming from two different regions provides two different perspectives on how something is done. 428 deserves a look for Western developers. It is a fresh take on a genre that no developer seems to be interested in pushing forward beyond the 1990s formula.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Multiple running instances of nm-applet! OH NOES!!!
I've always had the notion that wifi support on Linux just plain sucks. And perhaps that's because the few times I have tried to make it work has turned into a tedious exercise of setting SSIDs, whatever keys and what not, not to mention the multitude of security options from WEP to WPA. I've also never particularly bothered with trying to improve my wifi solution on Xubuntu Gutsy install in my Acer Aspire 5920g laptop. That was until yesterday...
The weather yesterday was extremely terrible and with power failures and intermittent internet connectivity issues, I had a chat with a co-worker on how his experience was with wifi and Ubuntu. And he was being straight serious that it was a very painless affair. That perhaps got me thinking of what the bloody hell I was doing with my Xubuntu. I thought it was worth a try to dive in and see what was happening.
I remember having installed wifi-radar a while back as it was, I made a mental note of, the only way I could check for existing wifi hot spots. My friend never had a look at what his Ubuntu was using but after a short inspection he said I should be using NetworkManager.
What's strange is that I already have that running and wifi has always been a nightmare. Checking a bit further, I had noticed from Ubuntu documentation that my wireless setting did not have roaming enabled. And while this was happening, I had tried to manually run NetworkManager from commandline (Mental note: a BIG no-no! That's why this article is entitled like that).
After a reboot, I had found out that I had managed to get the wifi to spot nearby hot spots and connect to my brother's WEP-secured hot spot. I also remembered at that point I had foolishly disabled roaming when I freshly installed Xubuntu. That was real sweet to know, except I had two instances of nm-applet running (you know, the network icon on your system tray!).
After much trouble, I had realized two things. Apart from Gnome having its own startup sequence, XFCE storing my desktop sessions played a part in duplicating nm-applet. Second was that when I ran NetworkManager, it inadvertently let XFCE make a note that I needed to have it running. So, while Gnome would launch the nm-applet as planned, XFCE would start its own. Sweet to know how these problems happen.
In case anyone wonders how to fix that, check your ~/.cache/sessions/xfce4-session-* files. Open them and remove nm-applet entries inside. Save and log out without saving your session.
When you login, you should have only one running nm-applet instance (the one gnome starts).
Alright, that's all for now.
The weather yesterday was extremely terrible and with power failures and intermittent internet connectivity issues, I had a chat with a co-worker on how his experience was with wifi and Ubuntu. And he was being straight serious that it was a very painless affair. That perhaps got me thinking of what the bloody hell I was doing with my Xubuntu. I thought it was worth a try to dive in and see what was happening.
I remember having installed wifi-radar a while back as it was, I made a mental note of, the only way I could check for existing wifi hot spots. My friend never had a look at what his Ubuntu was using but after a short inspection he said I should be using NetworkManager.
What's strange is that I already have that running and wifi has always been a nightmare. Checking a bit further, I had noticed from Ubuntu documentation that my wireless setting did not have roaming enabled. And while this was happening, I had tried to manually run NetworkManager from commandline (Mental note: a BIG no-no! That's why this article is entitled like that).
After a reboot, I had found out that I had managed to get the wifi to spot nearby hot spots and connect to my brother's WEP-secured hot spot. I also remembered at that point I had foolishly disabled roaming when I freshly installed Xubuntu. That was real sweet to know, except I had two instances of nm-applet running (you know, the network icon on your system tray!).
After much trouble, I had realized two things. Apart from Gnome having its own startup sequence, XFCE storing my desktop sessions played a part in duplicating nm-applet. Second was that when I ran NetworkManager, it inadvertently let XFCE make a note that I needed to have it running. So, while Gnome would launch the nm-applet as planned, XFCE would start its own. Sweet to know how these problems happen.
In case anyone wonders how to fix that, check your ~/.cache/sessions/xfce4-session-* files. Open them and remove nm-applet entries inside. Save and log out without saving your session.
When you login, you should have only one running nm-applet instance (the one gnome starts).
Alright, that's all for now.
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