Archive for June, 2008
Blizzard Announces Diablo 3
Jun 28th
It’s been a huge couple of years for Blizzard Entertainment — with the World of Warcraft being such a hit with the fans, as well as anticipation building up for the inevitable hit Starcraft 2, I couldn’t have expected anything more. Nonetheless, Blizzard Entertainment has once again shocked crowds by announcing the upcoming game Diablo 3. With the Diablo series already an extremely successful hit, I have to wonder — will Blizzard be able to pull it off once again? From all the demos that I’ve seen circulating around, it sure looks like it.
Source: http://www.maxfreak.com/diablo3/images/diablo-3-announcement.jpg
With myself not being a huge Diablo fanatic (I was always a bit creeped out by the freaky environment), I did have a chance to try Diablo 2 out. Diablo 3 will retain many of Diablo’s successful environments and characters, including character classes (a new one is called the Witch Doctor) and even the return of Deckard Cain!
Unfortunately, no release dates or even minimum specifications have been given by Blizzard yet, which I think is perfectly reasonable because they only announced Diablo 3 very recently.
It has been twenty years since the events of Diablo II. Of those who faced the Lords of Hatred, Terror, and Destruction in the battle over the fate of Sanctuary, there are few still living who can bear to remember the horrors that the Prime Evils wrought upon the world. And of those who did not witness the terrible events firsthand, most believe the stories to be little more than myth. But something evil is stirring once again in Tristram, and it may already have claimed its first victim: Deckard Cain.
That aside, I’ve got nothing more to give you but a bunch of links to more comprehensive sources that had a firsthand look at the demo, so I’ll give it to them from here.
Visit:
ObjectBar
Jun 16th
Before I proceed to blab on about what I think of ObjectBar, I think that I should make one thing clear – it’s definitely not the easiest thing to use. In truth, ObjectBar actually took me a heck of a lot longer to learn how to maneuver effectively in comparison to other customization software, such as WindowBlinds and ObjectDock. ObjectBar is actually free has a shareware version which is ad-supported and expires after 30 days, but the full version comes as part of the Stardock Object Desktop 2008 suite.
I personally don’t find any use for ObjectBar asides from Mac OS X Finder emulation for Vista. With that said, it’s an interesting piece of software to work with – if anyone ever does get the chance to conceive their own way to navigate around Windows like Cairo Shell aims to do, then it could be with ObjectBar.
Installing & Tweaking New Bars
You’re really not left with much in the beginning, so it’s almost inevitable you’re going to have to download & install new bars. I was surprised to see that Wincustomize, Stardock’s resident gallery for hosting, seemed to only support ObjectBar2, those bars actually are compatible with ObjectBar. Alas, I was still galled at the lack of bars being hosted there, so I searched around for more. And more I got.
Turns out DeviantArt’s got a pretty swell collection of ObjectBar bars – as well as Googling around got me what I really wanted; the Mac Finder. After installing OB Font and Lucida Grande font types into my computer, I found that the experience was beautiful. I was getting Mac OS X emulation on Windows Vista – something that I had thought previously near impossible.
Tweaking bars isn’t too difficult – most of your work will be done within the Theme Editor segment of ObjectBar. However, if you want to change the font, you’re going to have to open the included .obskin file with Notepad and manually tweak it yourself – a task that’s not too hard, to be honest. That said, finding out how to tweak it to my liking took my morning (I guess I just wasn’t feeling the vibe).
Performance
ObjectBar’s performance doesn’t really bug the RAM or the processor, contrary to belief. I ran ObjectBar easily with my pretty standard Core 2 Duo and 2GB of RAM. No performance damage (took 2.7MB of RAM, for the record). It does what it’s supposed to – offer an alternative to the Start Menu – pretty easily, although it wasn’t an easy feat accessing my programs without the Start Menu, without the use of Launchy (thank goodness for Launchy).
Any bugs that I had issues with were mainly because of the way the Finder works as well as errors/bugs on the user’s part, where ObjectBar or Stardock really doesn’t have control over because they didn’t host the bars. So, I guess I can’t blame them there (but just know there are bugs).
Conclusion
Overall, I guess I was pretty impressed with ObjectBar – it took 2.7MB of RAM, it provided a viable alternative to the typical boring Start menu, and it’s free! If you’re on Vista and bored with your Start Menu, pick it up now. And if you need help with it, feel free to leave a comment.
TweakVista
Jun 14th
TweakVista is a piece of Stardock’s Object Desktop Ultimate 2008 that makes system-tweaking look good. It’s not exactly a piece of software that allows you to customize the look and feel of Vista – and it’s not to be confused with a piece of software called TweakVI, which tweaks the quirkier items that Vista does not allow by default.
I like to see TweakVista as a sort of aggregator or central location for the user to have easy-access to all the Windows Vista software tweaks allowed by default. As I noticed – everything kind of led to a system file or window of some sort. For example, clicking on the Display tab would have links leading to monitor configuration, etc. However, I see this is as a positive – for users new to Windows Vista, it can be a rough neighbourhood to run through, thanks to UAC patrol. I think that this piece of software, although not a necessity, could be useful to have handy if you run into trouble tweaking.
That’s TweakVista in two paragraphs, I really can’t say much more about it because it’s all pretty self-explanatory. Also, to fix up our review schedule – TweakShell is incompatible with Vista – so it looks like we’re finally done two weeks worth of reviews (took longer than two weeks – yeah, I know).
Downloading and Installing Ubuntu 8.04
Jun 13th
The downloading and installation of a new operating system is definitely a major hill to overcome, mainly because of information overload. All of a sudden, you have to know about .iso files, bootloaders, burning software, partitions, and a ton of other jargon. With Ubuntu, you don’t need to worry about any of that. In fact, with a virtual CD/DVD drive, you don’t even need to worry about burning to a CD or DVD and choosing software.
If you really want to, Canonical (the corporate force behind Ubuntu) will send you a free CD, but the wait is 6-10 weeks. Don’t do it – rather, download Ubuntu from any server located near you. I used the Michigan server, but I believe that they’re all pretty fast. I was receiving speed rates peaking at around 700kb/s – the whole 600MB download finished in less than half an hour (I’d know, I was watching Fresh Prince of Bel-Air at the time). If you don’t have speedy Internet, you can just leave the computer on while you go to work or sleep and have Ubuntu download while you spend time elsewhere. That’s half the battle. Onto the fortress of installation!
Usually, installation is an easy battle with Windows – click a few buttons, check the Terms & Conditions, wait a bit. But with many distributions of Linux, there are text-based installers and command lines – and you don’t want to open the can of worms. Ubuntu is different; it uses the Wubi installer, making installation no more difficult than a regular piece of software. You can actually burn the Ubuntu .iso file you downloaded to a CD or DVD, and then stick it into your computer. You don’t have to reboot or shut down, just stick it in like you would a normal CD, and run it. Click a few buttons. Wait a while. Ubuntu will automatically begin installation and prompt a reboot – which will then continue the setup, provided you choose to boot into Ubuntu and not Windows XP or Vista by accident.
As the tech consumer’s blogger, I’m obligated to find an absolutely free method to installing Ubuntu – so put that Loonie or dollar bill away, folks – we won’t need a CD or DVD. Simply navigate your way to the ocean of Daemon and pull out your Excalibur – Daemon Tools Lite. Basically, what Daemon Tools does is mount the .iso file into a virtual CD or DVD drive. For example, if you had a Starcraft .iso, you could run the game just on your computer – without the physical CD required (I’ll let you decide whether that’s legal or not). Thus, following this principle, we can mount the Ubuntu .iso file and run it just like that. Usually, this scenario would not have worked with other Ubuntu versions, as they need a rebooting which means deactivating Daemon Tools along with your computer. But, because Ubuntu 8.04 allows for a simple installation within Windows, then you will be able to mount .iso file right from Windows. Read on, because the battle’s almost won.
When prompted to reboot, please save any other work you might’ve been working on and do so. After booting up, you will have the option of either loading Windows Vista/XP or Ubuntu (I used Windows Vista, but I’m not completely sure about XP – I’ll assume that they have similar booting options). Boot into Ubuntu and allow the setup to continue. Fifteen minutes later, you will have Ubuntu 8.04 working right on your computer – the whole process will probably take an hour, so I’d suggest turning on the TV, grabbing a book or playing some video games – just make sure the computer’s close by, because there will be some buttons that still need to be clicked.
RightClick
Jun 10th
The right-click menu; the menu where everyone just wants to clean. No more Add to Archive or Add to Zip, just the necessities. Of course, no one expects much more of the right-click menu, right? I mean – how outrageous would it be if I could run a program from the right-click menu? Folks, if you’re sick of the Start Menu or want a faster way to get around, let me introduce you to Stardock’s RightClick.
RightClick doesn’t add any buttons to your current right-click menu; rather, it is a whole new menu on its own – complete with its own skins, functions, and a ton of other stuff. Skins can be customized to correspond with your current WindowBlinds theme, or you can choose from one of the other presets. I chose to use the Windows Classic skin…hey, I like it retro, alright?
Stardock’s RightClick allows you to do a heck of a lot of stuff with just an easy right-click of your mouse on the desktop. That might’ve been one of your concerns – what about the menu that allows you to copy and paste, and do all that other stuff? Don’t worry – right-clicking in applications and folders will not make it launch the RightClick menu – rather, it only works on the desktop, as I had mentioned. The RightClick menu allows you easy access to applications – the same programs on your Start Menu, but it also allows for quick access to programs that you create shortcuts toward – for example, in our scenario, I created a shortcut for Mozilla Firefox.
What if you want to change your wallpaper or desktop resolution though? Simple, just unload RightClick and the menu reverts back to normal.
RightClick takes up .7MB of RAM – practically nothing. RightClick does come as part of the Object Desktop 2008 package, but it can also be purchased individually for $9.95 at Stardock. My opinion: it’s kind of a minor convenience, because the Start Menu in Windows Vista and XP is already pretty optimized and requires just a left click. However, the shortcuts are pretty convenient, especially if you want to keep your desktop clean – RightClick is one of the easier methods to access your programs (Launchy’s great too). I personally would suggest saving up and purchasing all of Object Desktop 2008 Ultimate, rather than buy this program separately.
Ubuntu: A Window to Open-Source
Jun 7th
Choosing a reliable, stable, and yet sensational operating system nowadays is hard work. There’s the alternative of paying a high premium for Apple’s Macintosh just for OS X Leopard; alas, for the budget consumer, there really is only two options: Windows or Linux. Team Windows is alluring in the sense that it can run on all PC’s, provide a genuine GUI experience without prior knowledge of coding, and is relatively affordable to purchase. On the other side of the court, we have Team Linux, the team with a content penguin for a mascot. While Linux is known for its ability to be indefinitely customized via commands and code, it is the very same ability that turns mainstream users off. Rather, it’s the required knowledge in coding and commands.
I’m no Linux fanatic – in fact, I had tried Ubuntu 7.04 on a virtual PC before. It was unimpressive – there were problems connecting to the Internet, and worse yet: the standard-aspect resolution didn’t fit the widescreen display on my laptop. For crying out loud, I couldn’t even figure out how to install Flash or those Windows fonts because the bloody tutorials gave me some code I couldn’t understand.
However, lately, I’ve been thinking of switching back to Ubuntu for a variety of reasons:
- I needed a new environment to get away from my formal work where I could perform some research – on anything and everything, from holistic learning to customizing Ubuntu.
- I wasn’t pleased when Vista’s Aero – which does look pretty, in my opinion – was turned off by Java to revert to Vista’s Basic theme. Sorry, I’m picky.
- I wanted to try Ubuntu to take advantage of the open-source liberty: free, both price-wise and limit-wise.
- My Co-op supervisor encouraged me to cultivate my interest in open-source technology – which I did, a bit too much. I had discovered Ubuntu 8.04 was released; this release was apparently a major one that finally featured a display manager and simple installation.
I took the jump – and I reaped the rewards. No driver installation – everything just works. I know this must be weird to hear, because typically OS X or Windows would convey such an image, as opposed to Linux. In the following series of posts, I will show you what I absolutely love about Ubuntu – but also, why I can’t uninstall Windows Vista yet.
1. Download & Installation of Ubuntu 8.04
2. The major issue: command knowledge and why you don’t need it to use Ubuntu.
3. GUI: ordinarily simple, but can be pushed to look much smoother and more modern.
4. Work: a lack of fonts, but otherwise online documents and Open Office make up for it.
5. Play: iPod Connection? Tons of free games – amongst my favourites are Gnotris.
6. Customization: Hack ubuntu, please.
7. Support: community support works!
8. Try it in reality, not virtually – it doesn’t do it justice and takes away from the Ubuntu experience.
Here’s some motivation to get you moving; a screenshot of the beautiful Ubuntu. Its visual effects are actually somewhat reminiscent of those of Mac OS X’s – speaking of which, is actually based on Linux FreeBSD, another UNIX-like operating system. Take that.
Download it here: http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download
Tab Launchpad
Jun 5th
Tab Launchpad is similar to Keyboard Launchpad in that it launches other programs. It’s a program that launches other programs. Thus, it allows for all of your most used programs to be cleaned off your desktop and into one of the platforms of Tab Launchpad.
My favourite aspect of the program was the different tabs – they can be arranged so that different programs are fitted under different categories. For example, my most used programs are fitted in Herbert’s Applications. If I was a graphic designer, I could put programs such as Paint.NET or Photoshop in a tab called Graphics. A gamer would put his games in a Games tab. The tabs can be created as you wish, and even icon-spacing can be altered.
What makes it interesting is how applications are added into tabs – I couldn’t for the life of me figure it out until I explored the program files. Turns out that you drag and drop short-cuts of applications or locations into the tab’s folder to make the corresponding shortcut or location appear in the tab. For example, in our scenario, my tab is named Herbert’s Applications. I dragged in the Mozilla Firefox shortcut to the folder, and – behold, the shortcut appeared on my launchpad.
Although this technology is still relatively new to me, it looks kind of outdated – the whole icon and colour scheme just doesn’t seem up to date.
In my opinion, I would have to consider Tab Launchpad kind of redundant – the word “obsolete” did come to mind, but that would be a stretch. Not because of its looks, but rather, because of the evolution of launching technology. Mac users have Quicksilver, and us Windows users have Launchy – a software that launches software through the keyboard (not functions though, so it’s different from Keyboard Launchpad). In my opinion, Launchy makes things a lot faster – in fact, I found myself launching Tab Launchpad with Launchy. Productive-wise, Launchy is a lot faster, but if you prefer to use a mouse or tabs, then try Tab Launchpad.
Unfortunately, Tab Launchpad isn’t available for download on its own – it comes with Object Desktop; I feel that even though it does bring something unique to the table, it’s in urgent need of a makeover.
My Keyboard given new Life with Launchy
Jun 2nd
I started using a program called Launchy a couple of weeks ago, even though I first heard of it a couple of months ago. As you can imagine, I was a bit skeptical: how could a keyboard solution be better than the mouse I’ve been using this whole time? Let me show you how.
This post started with my calling Launchy a program, but I think it’d be better described as a process running in the background of Windows. It starts with the computer (that can be changed), and takes up around five megabytes of RAM – so by no means do you need an Alienware to run Launchy. When you hit two keys, Alt+Space by default, the Launchy box pops up. Key in the name of a program and hit Enter. The program will then launch.
For example, typing in “Windows Live Writer”, or just “Writer” will launch the program Windows Live Writer.
Launchy’s open-source and can be skinned. If you don’t like the default skin, don’t use it! DeviantArt’s got a great collection of Launchy skins. Launchy is free, so you can try it and see whether it works for you or not – I know that I personally love it and found it to be the best thing since sliced bread, but other people might not be so enthusiastic about it.
No more taking a minute in the Start menu to look for my programs, even though the time was reduced by using the Windows key. Now, I just call up Launchy. I hope it’s as useful for you, dear reader, as it was for me.
For more information about Launchy, visit their official website at http://launchy.net.