No CSS all May.

Just a quick note. As of today, I won’t be playing CSS until June 1st (which I just found out is taken up all day with a science camp :(). Anyway, here is a thread I started over at CSAU.

Quick note on phone.

Firstly, I’m very angry at Telstra for making me lose $6.37 credit. I didn’t realise that message bank cost money to use (I’m awful at using phones :p) and anyway, about a minute after I’d activated my phone it wanted me to phone message bank because I had a message. I left it for a bit but then eventually phoned. After having set the message bank up I listened to the message. It was several minutes of trains/cars, typing and occassional beeping noises. The chance of this coming from someone else is approximately nil considering the time that it arrived. However, I might be swapping to Vodafone soon (found out the $30 to go to Vodafone was actually $30 credit).

Got phone and Learning PHP.

Well, yesterday I got my phone which is good! However, it is setup with Telstra which is not good Checking my balance doesn’t always work, I’ve got $10 credit (came with the phone), $2 of which was wasted trying to find out that something I was told had worked then hadn’t worked had in fact actually worked. To swap to Vodafone within 6 months will cost me a total of $80 ($50 to leave telstra and $30 to go to Vodafone) or $57.50 after 6 months. Looking at Telstra’s prices, they are much higher than Vodafones but hopefully that won’t matter too much because I shouldn’t be using the phone very often.

Secondly today, I’ve got PHP working (actually got it setup last night). I’m running WAMP (Windows Apache MySql PHP) and not LAMP. Thanks to some idiocy on my behalf and the fact that running PHP on Ubuntu isn’t that good, I’ve got to use Windows. However, I am soon going to set up the server which I was supposed to get before (actually got it now) just as soon as Fedora Core 6 (x86, I’ve currently only got the 64 bit edition) has finished downloading.

Phone + Microsoft is dead.

Firstly, the phone. I’ve got no idea what’s happening with this now so I’ve got nothing really to say about it. I’ll just let it sort itself out. Secondly, Microsoft. I found this today on Slashdot, very interesting in my opinion. Very informative. Well, that’s about it. Also, Happy Easter to everyone

Testing Blog Entry Poster

This post will just be short and is simply a test. I’ve been looking around for WordPress clients in Ubuntu and I’ve found this one which apparently has detected my blog. The app’s name is Blog Entry Poster. Seems pretty nice and if you get this then it is worth getting :p Well, that’s about it. Clicking Post Entry now…

Ubuntu 7.04 Beta Released. Wireless and CSS working!

Yesterday I found out about the Ubuntu 7.04 beta having been released and I thought that it might be worth getting and might actually work (only one of the three alphas worked for me and even then it wasn’t worth using). But anyway, after having downloaded it and booted up the LiveCD it tells me that I’m not connected to a wireless network, I click the little icon and choose my network. It then requests my network key and then a keychain to store it in so that I don’t have to enter it every time. This is an incredible improvement over previous versions which I could never make work due to awful wireless tools.

After installing I started configuring it. Now, instead of having to either install MPlayer or go searching for codecs I can run a terminal command which downloads all the codecs I need (ie: mp3, java, flash etc). I also found a system menu similar to the SuSE Slab. Installation was as simple as running a .deb file and then adding it to my top panel.

I also installed WINE 9.33 as well as Steam which runs much more nicely than it did on openSuSE. For example, I no longer need to write something in a Linux window and then copy/paste it into steam to write. I started my CSS download yesterday and tried it out today. Graphics aren’t perfect but I don’t care, I play the game to have fun, not to see what it’s like. It also runs at almost full speed and this it without running anything like FIXME! I’ve been considering for some time getting CS 1.6 and CZ so if I do I’ll probably be able to run them even better. Good bye Windows!

Buying a mobile phone.

Due to an inccident yesterday in which I was left waiting around my school for over an hour I’ve finally found the need to buy a phone. Unlike most people my age who already have phones and have had for several years, I’ve never had the need for one (I doubt many others need them but just have to be “with it”). Anyway, instead of just going out and buying one I’ve decided that I will spend some time choosing one which will save me money. Currently I’m looking at vodaphone for two main reasons (over Telstra). One, I’m told that they’re cheaper and two, they don’t have a load of little asterik thingies all over the place and far too many pages to find some simple info.

Firstly, I will choose the phone. All the phone needs to do is make phone calls and sms which I think they all do, along with all those totally unnecessary features like internet and the phone. After that I will look for the best “plan” by working out how many hours talk time I can get for the lowest possible price. Hopefully within the week I might have something to show (I might actually have something when I say will this time because I need it pretty soon).

Vista Backlash

Vista backlash.
This is an article I read today, really the point of this post is to “plug it” (although it was a featured post on wordpress.com so this isn’t really going to help). The article talks about how people who have actually tried to like Vista have gone back and really, there is now “WOW”. For the open source community this is good news, people don’t want to have to use Vista are going to start looking for alternatives. Moving to Apple involves buying a new computer whereas Linux only needs a CD Burner (or in the case of Distros like Debian and Ubuntu, simply an internet connection, being able to now boot up in the installer and download the rest of the files) and obviously an internet connection.

For almost everyone except gamers and those who need to use professional apps such as Photoshop and 3DS Max etc Linux will do whatever you want it to. According to a top game designer, (sorry I can’t remember his name so I would understand if you don’t believe me on this) DirectX 10 won’t really be uesd extensively until Mid-2008. Microsoft is dying. Microsoft fanboys will disagree but that’s because they’re too blind to see what’s happening.

Skin change!

Well, I haven’t posted for a while, haven’t really been doing anything exciting but to keep the blog active I thought that I’d make another post. About a week after the mini LAN at my friend’s house, my skills once more dropped to their previous state and I started playing awfully again. Not fun. So I decided to ask on the CSAU forums about how I could improve my skills. The general response was, play Deathmatch (DM). DM apparently improves your reflexes greatly (which I really need, especially if I want to learn how to AWP well, yes, AWPing does take skill to do properly, anyone can spawn camp with an AWP but nowhere near as many AWPers can get out there and play the way you’re supposed to).

I also decided that it was about time I changed the skin, for now I’m using “sun burn” and it’s a very nice skin in my opinion. If I ever get the time I might make my own, just use some pre-exisiting CSS with my own artwork.

Vista vs openSuSE challenge dead. Thanks Microsoft.

Well, like the title says the challenge is no more. Thanks to Microsoft changing the boot loader stuff using Linux alongside Vista is going to be pretty damn hard apparently, and will most likely require a clean install of at least one of my OSes. Brilliant. Anyway, in other news, tomorrow (tonight maybe?) I should be starting work on setting up my Linux web server. It’ll be running Fedora Core 4 (that’s what the book uses, dated I know but I’m not bothered, it’s really only for testing purposes) which is already installed on it (from when I used it once before). Finally, I’ve switched back from KDE to GNOME. I found that although KDE is nice in my opinion it’s a bit too fancy and flashy where as GNOME is just nice, plain and simple. That’s about it for today, I should have more news tomorrow after having worked on my server a bit.