Just backported Pidgin 2.7.9 on... Gutsy!

I find it very funny that I'm too freaking lazy to upgrade my Ubuntu install on my Acer laptop. It's stuck on Gutsy Gibbon which is really ages ago. When MSN stopped working, I just knew eventually I would have to roll up my sleeves and cut myself a custom release.

I got the pidgin source packages from Ubuntu Natty (I believe) and rebuilt the damn thing. What is impressive is that it's taken me a very short time to get this working. I took painstaking time rebuilding dependencies of Pidgin for my previous backporting effort so it seems that the pidgin releases match those dependencies more.

I only fixed the control files to match the versions I have and changes compat to 4 (5 will probably work). Then on rules, I disabled video and voice (I am so not going to backport the gstreamer libraries!).

A couple of minutes later, I have pidgin 2.7.9 on Gutsy and it's worked like a charm.

Death of a Zaurus

For these past few months, I have found a way to make my Zaurus SL-5600 more useful than it has been for a while. The bulky mp3 player that has a measly 1 GB CF card and a wifi CF card couldn't get me to surf websites without low memory errors, much less surf for more than an hour or so. As I've managed to get my mind wrapped around mobile devices and the internet, I've found ways around them.

My Zaurus is also my mobile device for grabbing e-mails and serves as a repository for my contacts and it is sad to say that it is now gone. It would not turn on and no matter how I tried to resurrect it, it was not meant to be.

Fortunately, I am very happy to own a Nintendo DSi which serves as a better online mobile device for the simple reason of having better battery life. The Zaurus is a powerful little device, and one that I will surely miss.

Don King's Prizefighter: Andrew Golota vs Buster Dog

A couple of hours ago, I entertained the thought of giving myself an interesting bout on Don King's Prizefighter for the DS. For most of my time playing the game, I've used my created boxer, Buster Dog to mow down the opposition. Being the strongest boxer in the game with decent skills overall, I figured it would be more interesting this time around if the tables were turned against me. Specifically, a boxer of my choosing versus Buster Dog.

In choosing the boxer I would use, I wanted to use one who would have very standard statistics if not underpowered in comparison to this fictional boxer. Once I bumped into Andrew Golota and checked the statistics 2k had given him, I knew the match was set.

It would be Andrew Golota vs Buster Dog, 12 rounds in the Trump Taj Mahal. I set the difficulty to 'Hard' knowing that using any boxer other than my customized ones, it would provide an interesting challenge.

When the first round came, I was in for some highly intense combinations and I did not expect anything less. Buster Dog gave me all I could chew and then more. None of my punches would hurt and he would slip in some slick combinations that left Golota stunned for most of the round. I made a critical error in trying to beat him to the punch thinking my jabs would disrupt his attacks opening up some combinations. Suffice to say that I paid the price dearly with one knockdown in his favour.

Much of the opening two rounds were the same as I tried to figure out what I could do to stop this monster from completely annihilating me. Eventually I started to find my own rhythm, fighting much smarter and moving away when I could. I believe it was the third round that I manage to get a knockdown of my own, a clear sign that this was going to be a war.

I tried to fight as smart as I could and learned a few more as I went to deeper waters. Buster was not slowing down in spite of the two knockdowns I have given him. There were rare instances where I hurt him bad enough to see him cover up, but many times I could not capitalize those instances. At the same time however, I had kept my defense as best as I could and manage to scupper much of his assault, save for two critical errors, giving Buster two rounds via knockdowns.

At the last few rounds, I decided that if I tried to keep trying to knock Buster out, I would get a few my way. Struggling in survival mode, I decided that even though I probably have lost the fight on the judge's cards, it was worth a shot to try and outbox Buster and force a decision.

The final bell rung to end round 12 of this thrilling war. In an instant, the judge's rendered their decision and surprised was I from the scoring that I just could not let this pass without some photographs.

You read it right. Buster Dog won the fight though from the judge's cards, I would have figured it would have been a majority draw instead. A part of me feels that had I fought smarter in the first two rounds, I may have squeaked it out. Regardless of the outcome, I had a great time with this bout as well as learned a few things should I go for another match of this kind.

Another screenshot below for the statistics of the bout. You decide who fought the better fight.

The Fate of the Mirror's Shadow

I recently wrote and finished a short story. It's called the Fate of the Mirror's Shadow and is hosted on Scribd.com

Check it out here!

Finally found gotten around to surfing with my Z!

Anyone who's handled the Zaurus SL-5x00 line of PDAs know how utterly useless the Opera browser is as viewing websites is a slow and painful process. Not to mention that trying to surf the web is an exercise of frustration from Out of Memory woes.

What I have stumbled upon and maybe I'm simply slow on using this PDA device is that the only way to make sure you get a good surfing experience is to keep your surfing experience to websites with mobile versions. They work wonders and don't kill your PDA memory resources with one or two clicks.

You should also use Google Mobile or the tool it relies on as it automatically converts the sites to display easier on mobile devices. It is also less resource intensive so this at least gives you some good surfing period without the Zaurus screaming for more memory. Hope this little tidbit helps.

Grand Prix (1966)

A day ago I was privileged enough to catch viewing of an old film entitled Grand Prix, which is quite possibly the first and only movie to have use Formula One as the backdrop and have complete approval and compliance with the Formula One community. This film is directed by John Frankenheimer and is purportedly his first coloured movie as well as the first to show onboard shots of real Formula One cars. Being a fan (although lapsed) of Formula One, this movie has certainly piqued my interest. This movie captures an age of Formula One that people will never see again. The cars, the circuits, the dangers involved.

John Frankenheimer flexes his prowess to capture racing footage and the footage he does show gives F1 fans plenty to like in this movie. In fact, there is a lot of good things in this movie, and some story content that are certainly worth talking about in the world of grand prix racing. However, there's also a lot not to like in this movie. There are a lot of unnecessary subplots and unnecessary characters, not to mention a total mismanagement of time and story telling.

The movie opens with a breathtaking recreation of the 1966 Monaco Grand Prix and this has been really spectacular as you see the 1966 configuration of the grand prix and all the really nice racing footage that Frankenheimer captured. Interesting note here for F1 buffs is that the Rascasse is missing and in its place is the Gasometer hairpin. It is unfortunate however that the lead character of the movie is an American Grand Prix driver, Pete Aron. In the course of the race he experienced a faulty gearbox which meant eventually falling back and being on the verge of getting lapped by his much quicker teammate and race leader, Scott Stoddard. You immediately despise the American for blocking Scott for an entire lap despite blue flags being waved. Going into the swimmingpool complex, Pete attempts to give way to the English man only to brake test and wipe out both cars out of the race and send Scott to the hospital in pieces. This despicable action makes me totally be apathetic to his plight, especially after being so defiant and defensive when Jeff Jordan, team boss of the BRM fires him for his stunt.

The races that Frankenheimer does show properly are exquisitely done. For the uninitiated, this shows some of the inner workings of a grand prix weekend. John Frankenheimer had captured onboard driving footages of F1 cars being driven by grand prix drivers such as Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart, John Surtees, Graham Hill, Joechen Rindt, and Jack Brabham. The racing shots that their actors do drive in are F3 cars modified to look like F1 cars. There are also some race footages used and it does properly recreate the racing. There is a lot of F1 history in this movie and a lot of nods to special events and F1 fans will surely won't want to miss them.

The movie is also at its best when it tackles driver issues like team preferential treatment, driver safety issues, lavish lifestyle etc. I especially love the scene with Pete Aron and Comandatore Manetta, head of the Ferrari F1 effort while having access to the real Ferrari building. My feeling is that Ferrari as a team there seemed to reflect the mindset Ferrari has now in modern times which makes it seem like that Ferrari has always operated in that fashion.

The movie has its own problems and frankly the movie is at its worst when they crop up. For one, the story is just too thick even at approximate running time of three hours. There are story arcs that are complete waste of time and others that simply take too much time to accomplish. Several of the more compelling plot threads take a backseat and seemingly have been forgotten for a good portion of the entire movie. John clearly seems to have trouble with his time management. He also seems to have a great deal of trouble keeping the audience with him as he takes them for ride in the races as well as into the offtrack drama. At times, there is an F1 commentator that gives you context to the action happening on screen, but there are also a lot of time when John attempts to let the driving do the talking. Don't get me wrong, listening to the engines roar and seeing Jackie Stewart fly on the limit is nice to watch, but sometimes you aren't even sure if it's him running. There are strange scene cuts and awkward scenes that further confuse whether they are still in the same day or have time lapsed. One major problem with the film is the fact that an entire F1 season is very difficult to capture even at three hours. A lot of the races were compressed and only two races were allowed to breathe in this movie, Monaco and the finale at Monza. The Nuerburgring is woefully represented by a single dialog and Watkins Glen is only shown as a trophy in a scene. Speaking of the lack of racing, this also brings up my final gripe of this movie. There just isn't enough of the racing story. Ultimately, the movie is about 4 grand prix drivers and deals with their struggles and passions throughout. While I'm fine when the story goes off track, I find the romantic story arcs completely predictable and boring.

Grand Prix is a very flawed movie and it caters to a specific audience. If you can forgive its problems there is a lot to like here. But you need to dig deep to find them and I'm not sure a lot of people are willing to do that now. F1 fans will have plenty to sink their teeth in, but others may find the movie plodding and the story ultimately standard fare.

Dungeons and Dragons Online Linux

Introduction

As you may have noticed with the blog posts, I have been quite a gamer for a number of years, especially in my younger years. For the most part though, I have always been more of a solo player, which is why Massive Multiplayer Online games barely cross my mind in terms of gaming options. I have played some online games before and they never seem adequate. Great games have that special element that is not quantifiable. Things that you just know are there when you play it.

I have avoided MMO titles like the plague but what caught my eye was Dungeons and Dragons Online which has been running for a few years now. The title is now launching, or more aptly relaunching, as a free service and since D&D has been a huge game in my youth, I thought to give it a shot.

I write this article for two reasons: First to address this issue for Linux gamers looking to get this running, and second, my recollection of the experience.

Getting It Running

Linux has always been my platform of choice for personal computing, entertainment and everything else. Of course, on the gaming side, Linux has very few options although the landscape now has improved tenfold. Inspite of this however, much of the solutions in the horizon are not for the feint of heart. Sometimes, it just seems you have to earn your way to getting the game you like to play. So it comes as no real surprise for me that DDO does not have official support on Linux. I always knew that from the very start there was no free pass.

To start of this sojourn, I started browsing forum threads and articles discussing this and was pleasantly surprised to see that most of the game is running already, with emphasis on MOST. You will need several resources at your disposal to getting this game to work. The most fruitful resources I have seen are from the Wine Application Database and the Codeweavers Tips section. I presume that the free WINE flavour will work just as well as described in the Wine documentation, but I was fortunate to get CrossOver Games off the Lame Duck Promotion.

The first thing I noticed with most resources was that to get the game running, I needed to install and copy the files from a Windows box. OUT OF THE QUESTION. I do not use Windows and will not get Windows just to see this game. I searched and read even further and noticed an interesting detail. The old installer might work, so I began to look for that. and with a little guess work, produced download links to the old Stormreach installers. Fortunately, you do not have to look harder than I did. Here are the two download links for the Standard Version and the High Resolution Version.

As expected, the new installer did not show any signs that it was working and almost immediately, I had switched to plan B. These installers on the other hand worked very perfectly. I had downloaded the entire installer which had taken half a day and proceeded to install the game. The installers went on without incident and then I proceeded to apply the PyLotrO launchers (look at the Wine documentation earlier). From there, you need to spend more time waiting as you need to update the game to the latest version. MMO games can be such a tedium when it comes to these updates and frankly, I was having trouble remembering why I bothered to play this game. It took so long that I had decided to leave it running and went to bed.

Playing the Game

So alas, the next day comes and I have finally been able to get it running. My hunch proved right also. The Stormreach installation would update itself into Eberron Unlimited. I am pleased of the mere fact the game works on Linux, if it means more options for the Linux gaming public. In my opinion, finding out that little bit more information on the installers is reward in and of itself. Now it was time to try it.

I spent the next few days squeezing a little of the game into my free time and finished a couple of quests. I have come up with a word. Inadequate. In two? Inadequate again. MMO games are funny in that apart from what players do, it has always been NPCs standing around to give quests and monsters to slay. Roleplaying in these parameters are very crude at best and left solely to the players themselves. I have often wondered why paper and pencil games were more fascinating and I think it has been because of how much what you do or say matters. The Dungeon Master makes the world react to you, and you react based on the world. That has been severely lacking in DDO. It has hardly been an immersive affair, with a village choking full of players running and leaping, and how you know that all the players are going through the same quests and going through the same narrative as if they are the only heroes in the game. And for all the narration of the so-called DM, there has been nothing more to do than to slaughter and kill. I also found it funny that as soon as you leave the village, you come across even more monsters and cultists that are probably camping nearby just to see if they can get a jump on you. These game worlds need the little things to make it work. Not this lack of spontaneity and tremendously archaic style of play.

I have always enjoyed single player RPGs and only from a select few. DDO is functional, but lacks aspects that take it to the next level. I do not particularly rate MMO games very highly and chances are I do not ever see myself spending more time on another.

On the bright side, I have taken my loot from this endeavor and hope that for those who are looking to get this game running on Linux can see some value in what I have written.