Monday, September 29, 2008

Playdeb - what fun!

Ok, I don't know what rock I've been living under.  But today I found a link from our friends at GetDeb to a new beta site called PlayDeb.
Playdeb logo
MAN!  I've not seen a more comprehensive selection of games for Linux in a long time.  Anyone who tells you there are no games for Linux is lying or very uneducated. 

This site actually adds a repository so you can add/remove games the same way you would any other application.  As well, it should follow that when they repackage new versions of the games, they would come down via the normal system updates.

There is a fab list of the games available on the front page of the site.  They range from First Person Shooters, to car racing and puzzle type games.  Some are simple, some are complex.  It really is a great list if you are tired of snake and mahjong games.

Don't just take my word for it, check it out!  And remember to play as hard as you geek.

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CafeNinja

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Compiz sometimes doesn't play nice

I was just looking around some of my favorite linux blogs and found a great little post at TomUbuntu.com for a great fix of something that was bugging me.

Some applications just don't work the Compiz (fancy 3d effects for the linux desktop) on.  As well, sometimes when trying to use an external monitor it doesn't help matters.  Well with the keen post from TomUbuntu I was able to fix the problem quick and easy.

The answer was a package called "fusion-icon" which puts an icon in the systray and with a simple right-click you can activate or de-activate the compiz effects or go to the compiz control panel.  I won't steal Tom's thunder and will ask you to go to his blog and read how to install the appliation.  I highly recommend it and give Tom "two thumbs up" for his pick.

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CafeNinja

Saturday, September 27, 2008

First Political Post for me

Well, I don't normally get involved or concern myself with political views here.  Only in this case it mildly affects my geek.  The Italian National Government has decided to block Piratebay because it is the "way" that italian citizens are able to get copyrighted material that belongs to the privately owned national TV station.  It just so happens that the current Premier of Italy owns said station.  And now the torrent host service of Piratebay (who physically stores none of the material in question) has been blocked not just via DNS blacklist but has also mandated that all Italian National ISP's block it by IP address.

I normally wouldn't care so much except that I transfer movies of my family back to the States this way as well as download current ISO images of Linux distributions.  It's very disheartening to see a civilized "free" state resort to aggressive internet content control for the commercial interest of it's leader.  Somehow it feels much more Chinese than Italian.

Anyway, that's enough of my soapbox.  More geek to come to prevent me from going mad over stupid DNS filtering policies here in Italy.

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CafeNinja

Friday, September 12, 2008

Google Language Preference - for real

Ok, My wife showed this to me and I wanted to blog it. I have been remiss and will be picking up again now that all the holiday season stuff here in Italy is over. And I may just start doing more screenshots, I like visual and it would expedite my posting. So here it goes, my strange google language preference in the wild.



Yes, it's Elmer Fudd and it's effects if selected seem limited and temporary. Enjoy!


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CafeNinja