Mah Blog

It seems that someone recently got Internet Explorer 7 to run under Linux. Now, my first thought is, “Why?”

I personally use both operating systems on a regular basis (Ubuntu being my current Linux distro of choice, though I’m considering moving to Debian, or possibly one of the BSDs [I’m looking into FreeBSD at the moment]), and I believe both have their strengths and weaknesses (I don’t think I’ll go into that at them moment, it could surely fill up a whole blog post).

Now, I’m sure this could be useful in some fashion to web developers who want to test their work in the operating system they’re most comfortable with, but still, there are many pit falls when using this method:

The following documents the relatively short process needed to get Internet Explorer 7 running on a Linux system. So far, I have found one (two) problems with this method: it seems transparent GIFs appear as filled-black boxes in IE7, and secondly (this is actually a good thing for me), this won’t give you the IE7 interface running in Linux, but rather the IE7 rendering engine inside the IE6 interface. What this means is that you won’t be seeing IE7 tabs or the RSS reader, but you will be able to debug webpages and fix layout problems.

And personally, if I’m in Linux, I don’t even want to see any traces of IE (I barely want to see it in Windows), and I’m not even one of those “Hardcore” Linux users. Give me a browser that supports the standards (by and large) instead of that piece of crap IE. I do realize that IE is the dominant browser (even with all the inroads Firefox has made into IE’s market share), and that if it doesn’t work right in IE, then there’s a lot of people who, if the site doesn’t work right in IE (even if it’s written by the standards to the book), they’ll just move along to the next site.

Personally, I think Microsoft should give up on IE (at least in its current form). They should just scrap the current code base, and re-write it completely. Maybe not the interface, since that’s what a majority of the people are familiar with, but the rendering engine needs to die a quick death. The likelihood of this happening?

Almost nil, but one can dream, neh?

And I’m not talking about some water-based adventure theme park either.

In case you don’t know, Sealand is an autonomous collective roughly ten kilometers from the coast of Brittain. It is populated by the family members of one Paddy Roy Bates, and is ruled by him and his family.

Sealand’s claims to sovereignty and legitimacy are not recognised by any country, yet it is sometimes cited in debates as an interesting case study of how various principles of international law can be applied to a territorial dispute.

Now, apparently, this man-made island has either gone up for sale, or the members of the Piratbyrån, the Sweedish anti-copyright organization that runs The Pirate Bay have decided that they just want to raise enough money to buy it from ‘ole Paddy.

They’ve set up a website (who, in an interesting, but off topic tangent, went up from 44 to 51 comments in the roughly 3 minutes between when I first opened the page to when I refreshed it. That’s more comments in three minutes than my whole blog has received since inception…) that details their plans.

It would be quite interesting if this plan came to fruition. Though, I wouldn’t want to lay data cable to that platform to run TPB’s servers. :p

So, today, I went to Hastings again, and ran into another person I know! What is it about Hastings that just draws people I know to it at the same time it draws me?

Take that thought home with you. Chew on it. It’s delicious.

Yesterday, again Clent and I went to the movies (along with some other stuff). We went and saw The Good Shepherd.

But first, some other stuff. We went to Conway, and ate at this wonderful new Italian place on Dave Ward Drive called “Due Amicches” (I have no idea if I butchered that, or not, but it’s at least phonetically right), and it’s definitely a really good restaurant. And (at least for now), the prices are very reasonable. I got Chicken Parmigiana (chicken with spaghetti topped with a marinara sauce and cheese), and not only was it extremely good, but it was only about $7 (usually, at other Italian places, it’s about $10-12).

Then we went to the Home Depot to pick up some supplies for a “secret” project we’ve been planning for… I dunno… probably at least two or three years. Hopefully there will be an entry on that (maybe with some pictures) in the future.

Then, we went to Hastings, where Clent bought a single CD from The Shins, and a Shaun of the Dead action figure (don’t ask, I don’t know, either… it’s just like his favorite movie of all time, or something like that). We also ran into CmdrTaco at Hastings (no, not that CmdrTaco, it’s a nickname for one of the teachers that was at our High School). It led to an interesting conversation.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, the moment you’ve all been waiting for! The movie review!

So, yes, our movie of choice for this excursion was The Good Shepherd. It is the tale of a CIA agent (played by Matt Damon, and loosely based on two real people), who must find out who the “mole” is inside the CIA after the Bay of Pigs Invasion fails. This is not, however your regular “spy games” movie. Though the main plot line is to figure out who is the mole in the CIA, most of the movie is about flashbacks that slowly show more and more about his life, and all happen to relate to the “main” plot in the end.

The story was very well written, having many small, seeming unrelated thread, that in the end tie together in the end of the film. The actors were very good, and I think Damon did an extremely good job with his character. The music was well-composed, and fit the movie well, too.

However, there were a few drawbacks, mainly the length of the movie. It’s a 2 hour and 30 minute movie, but it seemed much longer than that to me. Another was the “strangeness” of the movie. Though it was well-written, sometimes the plot would suddenly change, or otherwise make you go, “Wait… what just happened?” Which, I suppose it’s supposed to do, as it’s a “spy movie”, but it just threw me off.

Overall, it was a good movie, and if you haven’t seen it, then you should definitely check it out.

Rating: A-

So, yup. As I write this, I am officially 14 minutes into the new year. How do I feel? No different than 15 minutes ago, when it was still 2006. How did I spend the night, you may ask? Partying? Drinking? Enjoying the company of some fine hookers… er… ladies of the night?

Nope, none of that for me. In fact, I think this is the least-celebrated New Years I’ve ever had. Usually, I at least do something with my family or friends. Last year, I think I was at one of my friend’s house, and we watched the New Year’s Ball in Times Square drop and played some Halo. The year before, I think my family went to Conway, where they had a little New Years downtown. But this year, there was none of that hullabaloo for me.

I sat at home and watched TV, until about 11:30, then I got on my computer and wrote my friend a message on Facebook. That lasted until about 11:55 (yeah, it really was that long), when I got on MSN Messenger/IRC to wish everyone I knew a Happy New Years.

All in all, a rather boring night, I must admit. And after all that, I still feel the exact same as I did at now 24 minutes ago, when it was still good ‘ole 2006.

I hope all of you who read this had a much more exciting New Years than I, and you also have a wonderful 2007.

Yesterday, I went with my friend Clent to the semi-local movie theatre and watched Eragon.

I thought it was a pretty good movie.

Now, I warn you beforehand that I have had absolutely no experience with the book. The closest I’ve gotten to reading it is looking at the cover. Thus, I don’t want any feedback to the tune of, “How could you like that piece of crap, the book was so much better?!?” After watching the movie, I may now pick it up at the library sometime.

Now, on to the review. And forgive me for not knowing the names.

First of all, I think the audio/visual effects from the movie were done quite well. In the visual side, I think the dragon was rendered quite well, and the Shade’s magic was also well-conceived. On the audio portion, the music was really good, and fit with the movie quite well. If you know me, you know that music is “my thing”, and a movie has to have good music or else it takes me out of the experience. I’m happy to say that this movie’s music didn’t do that.

The storyline seemed sort of bland, the usual fantasy “you’re the chose one, now you’re destined to save the world” type of story. I’m not saying it was bad, but it seemed like a variant of the millions of other similar story lines out there in the fantasy genre.

Finally, the one major thing that wasn’t well-done in my opinion was the acting. Some of it was superb. Eragon, the old dragon-rinding guy, and the Shade-man were extremely good choices for the characters, in my opinion. However, some of the characters just seemed to be “over-acted”, expecially the dragon’s voice. It seemed that the voice actor tried too hard to make the voice “dragon-like”, and it just didn’t come off as a good job in acting. Another character that I didn’t like was the King. I got the impression that this guy was supposed to be a dark, foreboding evil emperor, but all I got was this seemingly weak guy. Sure, I suppose that the physical appearance of the guy was good, but his voice was not “right”.

All-in-all, it was a good movie, and if you’re a fan of the fantasy genre, I would definitely recommend it.

Rating: B+

As you should know, yesterday (December 25) was Christmas Day, that wonderful time of the year were you get together with your family/friends/random other people you know and just enjoy their presence, and eat, share experience, and maybe even open presents. Yes, it’s a lovely time of the year.

So, this Christmas was, for me, mediocre… at best. (extra points if you recognized the Homestar Runner reference there) Sure, I loved to get together with my family (on both sides) and the food was good, but the presents weren’t all that good this year. Sure I got the two things that I really only wanted for Christmas (more later), but other than that, I didn’t get much else good.

At my dad’s side of the family’s gathering, we had the traditional Christmas meal (at least for us): ham, turkey, dressing (some call it stuffing). Pretty much Thanksgiving dinner + ham.

At my mom’s side of the family’s gathering, we had something totally not traditional. We decided to have a Mexican-style meal (some people call the style of food Tex-Mex). It was definitely a different experience, but the food was really good (especially this one thing that someone had made that was like a taco, but instead of a taco shell, the taco meat was held inside a croissant shell. It was completely amazing).

So, onto the haul: a ton of candy, a few My Sonic Cards, a couple of shirts, some flannel sleeping pants, an Xbox Live 12-month Gold Subscription card, and the Holy Grail of this year’s Christmas presents, a 23 inch HDTV. (In case you were wondering, it was the Xbox live subscription and the HDTV that I really wanted for Christmas.)

So, yes, even though I really wanted the TV, there wasn’t much surprise in it. In fact, about 3 weeks earlier, I went with my mom to CompUSA to pick it out. And for the past two weeks or so, I’ve been messing with it, because I was like, “I already know about my present, may I just use it?” to which my parents replied, “Sure.” (Alright, there was a little more to that exchange, but I won’t bore you with the details.) So, for a while, I’ve been using it to watch videos on my computer and DVDs. I must say that it is very sweet. I can’t wait to go back to college and use it with my roomate’s Xbox 360. (Hi-Def + 360 + Gears of War = gasmic.)

So, although the present portion of this year’s Christmas wasn’t all that good, the part with food and family was great, which more than makes up for the mediocrity.

For those who read this blog, I hope you had/will have a wonderful Holiday Season, no matter what religion you follow/holiday you celebrate this time of the year.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

For those of you who don’t know, I am what I would consider an “active” member of the Halo Glitching/Tricking forum High Impact Halo. Now, being a whole site based on a game for the Xbox (and subsequently, the Xbox 360), one wouldn’t expect much support for the new Playstation 3. Even I, one who really doesn’t care about the console wars, think that Sony has really messed it up with this one. I won’t get into the details on why I don’t like the PS3, as most of my opinions will be made in the post I made on HIH that I will mention and quote, so there’s not much reason to re-write it here.

Back to the rant on fanboism. So, to put things in perspective, someone on HIH made a thread on how they were excited about getting a new PS3. I hope they immediately donned their flame-protective suits, because those armed with flames were instantly on the thread. In three days, the thread has gotten over 100 replies (quite a feat), most of them bashing the PS3, with the original poster and about 3 others defending the PS3.

Here’s a selection of quotes from the would-be “flamers”:

I feel bad for you, unless you already have a 360.

Yeah… I hope you weren’t wanting MGS:4 on your PS3. Rumor has that it’s only a 360 exclusive now…

sony lost their best game.. HA

(By the way, this is completely false. Though there will be a version for the 360, it will come far later than the PS3 version.)

Break it up girls, it’s just a $600 paperwight.

We dont like [the PS3] because it is crap. The games blow, the controllers still blow, the size blows and the price blows. Nothing about it is good.

It really got bad when a member calling himself “billygoat920“ started flaming the PS3 whenever he had the chance. He would make posts, people would refute his claims, and then he would be “cool” and just flame more. Some of the creamy nuggets of flame-kissed goodness he made:

Why did you post that picture? I don’t get it.
A grill next to a 360…?
Oooooooh, now I see it! The little Gaystation symbol.
Ok, nvm then.

Did you seriously just give me credit for the Grill joke. Seriously. Cuz I’ll take it.

And let me just say, the PS3 is a gaming device, but Sony, the company that makes it, is HORRIBLE.

What a retard. So, then, I proceeded to make a fool of his fanboism. Since it’s much too long to paste here, I’ll just give a link to said post. Of course, he resumed the stupidity in his next post.

Some people just don’t know how to handle an actual discussion. They just spit out the same old arguments that they think sound good, when in all actuality, they’re just making themselves appear more stupid. Fanbois have my pity.

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Apparently, the staff has taken note of the thread, and although one of my Moderator-friends has said that it won’t be deleted, I’ve made a copy of it in its entirety, just in case. Below are links to all the pages. They’re just a straight save of the page from Firefox, so don’t expect any of the links to work if the thread is deleted, or for it to look exactly right. But a copy is a copy, no matter what.

Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Though you may not have noticed it, dear reader, I’ve changed domains for my blog. It has finally found it’s last resting place (no, it’s not dead) at www.galador.org. I finally took the initiative to buy some hosting and a domain to put this puppy on. Now my only problem is to figure out what to do with all the extra bandwidth.

I would really like to thank Jordan (some of you may know him as Shdw Shinobi) of Adelais Hosting for putting up with me and walking me through the process of setting things up, even when there were a few un-wanted snags along the way. I would also take this time to pimp the Adelais services, as they are top notch. If you’re in need for some hosting, I would definitely recommend Adelais first and foremost.

Don’t worry, though, if you’ve directed someone to the old galador.eastforums.com domain, it will redirect here. Though I would greatly appreciate it if you update any of your bookmarks or links that you have made.

A Japanese Group has taken it upon themselves to do the unthinkable — to get the Wiimote to work on the Playstation 3. And they’ve succeeded. To get it to work, the group wrote a Wiimote driver for Linux, and ported that driver over to the version of Linux that the PS3 runs (it wasn’t made clear whether it was the official Yellow Dog Linux, Fedora Core, or Gentoo, all of which have been reported to work with the PS3).

There’s not much information on the announcement page except for a few screenshots and pictures of the Wiimote hooked up to the PS3, and the driver information page, but it looks to be legit.

Now, on to my argument: Why? I mean, seriously, it’s not like you’re even going to be close to playing any PS3 game while using the Wiimote. Unless they make like a Wii Emulator for the PS3 (which would be cool, but pretty useless especially considering that you cna almost get 3 Wiis for the cost of one PS3), then there’s really no point to having the ability to hook up your Wiimote to your PS3. I suppose it’s one of those, “Hey, look what we can do!” things, but there’s no purpose, really.