Under a Gibbous Moon

Sometimes it hurts to know what you’re talking about.

Hat Tip: xkcd

By some amazing quirk of fate, I dusted off X-COM and started playing again about a week before it hit the news. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the game, Shamus Young describes it best, “X-Com was an overhead turn based game where you directed a team of extremely expendable commandos.” Of course, he was being generous. The Zerg die in fewer numbers than your commandos do.

I was first introduced to the game back in 1995 in the form of its sequel X-COM: Terror from the Deep. The two games are functionally identical as back then sequels were nothing more than the same game just with better graphics (wait a minute…). The game takes about 15 minutes to learn and then you can sit back and let the aggravation begin.

As mentioned above your commandos (or aquanauts) won’t stand up to anything more than a stiff breeze. Causality rates approaching 50% are not uncommon. Not only do you have to contend advanced alien weaponry but your newly hired “elite” troops are weak, whiny, and can’t shoot straight. That and they get paid something like forty grand a month.

In order to keep them (and your other staff paid) it is your job to keep the countries of the world happy with you. If you don’t they will reduce or eliminate your funding (because that will make it better). Because of this, just like in the real world, you spend you time and energy focusing on protecting the rich countries.

Researching new technologies scavenged from the fighting aliens is a huge part of the game. Without access to better weapons and armor your soldiers will go from being slaughtered to massacred as the game progresses.  In order to research some technologies, though, you don’t just need the weapon or an alien corpse but you need live aliens to talk to. Of a certain rank. And all ranks look alike. There’s nothing like sacrificing the lives of your men to bring one back alive to find out it doesn’t know anything.

So now your saying, “That doesn’t sound like fun, that sounds like the video game equivalent of Sisyphus.” Well, kudos to you for making that reference but it is actually a hell of a lot of fun. Actually, it’s more like an addiction. Despite the pain (hair pulling frustration), you just want to play more.

I find this to be because of the games frustration and difficulty. As you move through the game, you have to fight for every inch of it. Every mission is difficult enough that it still feels like an accomplishment even after the hundredth time.

If you’re still brave enough to give it a try, I hear there is a version available under Valve’s Steam or if you can track down and old copy it runs great in DOSbox.

I have been using Ubuntu for a couple of years now and whenever a new version comes out (every six months) I take the plunge and get the latest beta version. I figure the least that I can do is help out by finding bugs and making sure everything gets ironed out by the time the final release date rolls around.

The impending (April 29th) release of Ubuntu 10.4 (codenamed Lucid Lynx) is no exception. For those interested, you can download a fresh iso here or you can upgrade your current install via:

sudo do-release-upgrade -d

Beta Disclaimer: as a beta, this version is not as stable as a full release and will have more bugs. I spent the first half hour or so after install just filling out bug reports.

It’ll open the upgrade manager and notify you of the new release and give you the option to install. It will take quite a while depending upon your connection and computer speed so be warned. Also, because of some semi-major component changes there is a bit of babysitting required for the package swap outs.

After this is all accomplished, Ubuntu will boot up. The first thing that I noticed is that my computer is now fabulous!

The picture came out terrible, but it is something like this. I have no idea why, but it is what it is. Boot time is supposed to have been reduced, but I didn’t really notice it so it must not have been too dramatic.

The desktop has changed and in some pretty dramatic ways. Aside from the new icon scheme the window dressing has changed in a very confusing manner.

Why they would suddenly decide to switch the window buttons to the opposite side is beyond me. It makes things difficult for people who already use Ubuntu and creates another hurdle for people who are trying to switch from Windows.

After Ubuntu’s jump to the cloud in Karmic with Ubuntu One, Lucid is going social with Ubuntu’s broadcast feature. Iti s kind of like an integrated Tweet Deck

It allows you to manage your instant messaging (via Empathy) as well as link into Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr. Seems like an interesting idea but I’m not sure how well it will hold out in functionality against, say, Tweet Deck.

As you can see from the menu, Ubuntu One is now integrated into the OS and is no longer a separate program. This is nice because it streamlines the synchronizing of individual folders to the service as it is now an option in the context menu.

On the subjet of Ubuntu One, this is the first time I have gotten it to work since it was introduced. Which I’m rather happy about. I have it set to automatically back up my Documents and Pictures folder to the cloud. Should make catastrophic hard drive failure a little easier to stomach.

Graphics performance so far seems to be a little below Karmic. Of course I’m running the shitty Intel 940 chipset but the number of GPU crashes is disturbing.

So far it seems to be a very uninteresting update to Ubuntu. This is not surprising with it being a LTS (Long Term Support) release. They’re trying to avoid breaking anything but because of that they aren’t pushing the envelope either.

That being said, I am looking forward to the future beta releases and the final release on April 29th. If you’re using Ubuntu might as well give it a spin and if you’re not you should test drive a live CD, it’ll be worth your while.

Gnome, for those who don’t know, is a Graphical User Interface for Linux. It’s the default GUI that ships with Ubuntu. I’ve used Gnome off and on for several years and for that time it has been reminiscent of Mac OS.

The main task bar runs along the top of the screen with another bar running along the bottom that lists the various windows that you have open. A whole gallery of widgets can also bad added (along with additional bars) to further customize your experience. Gnome also supports multiple virtual desktops which I find to be exceptionally useful to organize all the different programs and windows that I have running at any given time.

Gnome 3, which will come by default with the next version of Ubuntu, is available for testing via the following code:

sudo apt-get install gnome-shell

This will install the proper packages, then restart and run

gnome-shell –replace

This will close out your Gnome 2.x and start Gnome 3. Gnome 3 is a complete overhaul. The first thing that you will notice is that there is no longer a bottom bar. The application menu has been replaced with an Activities menu. When you drop it down there is a menu on the left that has all of you applications and recent documents. On the right, the space is used to display your desktops and thumbnails of all the windows contained within. This screen is now used to switch between running applications (you can also bring up this menu with the Windows key or switch applications with alt-tab as usual). Virtual desktops are no handled more fluidly with a ‘Plus’ button to add more desktops and then each additional desktop having a minus button the remove it.

The system setting have been consolidated under the user menu in the upper right corner. There is also a sidebar option for those who can’t get by without some type of bar on the screen.

Now, for the things I don’t like. Most of these complaints, I believe are do to it not being fully integrated into the distribution. The IM button is gone and there doesn’t seem to be a way to customize the activities button. Of course, this completely different way of organizing your desktops introduces a learning curve to Gnome 3.

I do like it, I wonder if it is such a good idea since it could add yet another hurdle to adoption by Windows based users. I’ve alsoread of graphics instability (though haven’t experienced any) but that is probably due to its relatively early development phase and will hopefully be ironed out by the final release.

The recent document menu, which is something that the Gnome developers are obsessed with, is far too prominent. It takes up almost half of the application menu. While hopefully it will be customizable but I doubt it given that the Gnome developers have been unwilling to even give you the option to turn it off.

Finally, you cannot kill a window from the activities menu without bringing it into focus first. This just adds completely unnecessary step to something that people do very regularly.

In conclusion, I do like Gnome 3. The new interface is slick, much faster, and I see how it can be a dramatic improvement over other GUIs that I have used. It currently has some shortcomings that I hope will be addressed in future releases, particularly with regard to being more customizable.

After watching the Google Buzz controversy play out over the last week or so, I can honestly say that I am completely confused.

I signed up on Buzz the day it became available in my Gmail account, which was, I believe, the day after launch (and definitely before the shit storm started). When I did so it was quite explicit about what was going on and what it was going to do. It even listed who would be listed me following and gave me the opportunity to edit this list (which I did).

From reading much of the fury around the internet, it seems that my experience was totally unique. Apparently everyone else had Buzz just load up on its own and suddenly steal their identities and head for Vegas.

Now, admittedly, if you started up Buzz and clicked through the first couple of screens, you could be unpleasantly surprised.

I personally believe that much of the confusion comes from the fact that the Buzz icon was placed into the Gmail menu whether or not you have activated it, leading people to believe that was automatically activated.

This simply could have been handled by placing it in the text menu at the top of the screen where the various Google services appear even if you are not currently signed up for them.

Could this have been handled better by Google, certainly. Is the internet’s response to it radically overblown, yes.