Excellent Beryl - edgy -aiglx HOWTO

I'm very happy that the tutorial below actually got me up and running with beryl. I had to shut off compiz as bad things were happening, and I downloaded the beta Nvidia drivers for x86 instead of x86_64, but after typing a crazy long URL for wget, I got the drivers running, got everything downloaded, and I was off to the races. Oh, the other thing this guide didn't mention is the AMD64 repo for beryl, namely, http://compiz-mirror.lupine.me.uk/ edgy main-edgy main-edgy-amd64

As for beryl, man I hated the zig-zag fading menus. I switched it to a straight fade and that's OK but too slow. Will have to fiddle now that it's running

HOWTO: Edgy, beryl, and aiglx with nvidia beta drivers

Edgy Eft Ubuntu Upgrade

I liked the alliteration.

The goofily-named Edgy Eft (aka Ubuntu 6.10) was released a couple days ago. (It's pretty amazing that Edgy Eft actually makes Breezy Badger look professional as a code name.) I decided to upgrade from 6.06LTS by following the instructions on the wiki. Sure enough, it connected, downloaded a raft of stuff (very slowly, I'm sure their servers were being slammed--it basically took overnight), upgraded my system, and asked me to reboot.

The good news is that my system did not explode. The new startup screen isn't displaying properly, though. Maybe a reboot will solve that. Everything looks good, but I have a feeling I'm going to have to rip compiz out and get beryl up and running... I'm seeing the same problems I saw when compiz wasn't working quite right.

Beyond that, can't say how well this is working. Looks nice though.

EdgyReleaseNotes - Ubuntu Wiki

Halo movie canned for now

Interesting news... Universal and Fox have backed out of their deal with Microsoft and pulled the plug on the Halo movie. I guess another studio could pick it up but the budget was heading towards $200 mil so we're not talking an indie film. Plus Microsoft's desired cut was reportedly steep. Oh well, wasn't that big a fan anyway, and they'd probably screw it up, Peter Jackson involvement or not.

Universal and Fox pull out of Halo movie

HDTV resolution tests

Wow, new issue of HDTV magazine and a big feature on how many of the HD sets they tested failed miserably at deinterlacing... some merely throwing out one of two fields and line doubling the result, effectively dropping resolution to 540p. Plus, a whopping 80% of the sets didn't properly handle the 2:3 pulldown on the test disc. Pioneer sets, of course, handled both superbly. Guess you get what you pay for...

Home Theater: Are You Getting All of the HDTV Resolution You Expected?

Final tracklist for Guitar Hero II

Man, I've got to get on the ball and order this thing. Lots of fun tracks, along with lots of tracks from groups I'm only vaguely familiar with. I can already feel a repetitive stress disorder setting in...

Guitar Hero II Final Tracklist Revealed.

2006 ATM -- a fun run

I'll get the complaints out of the way first... even though I've never worn either a water belt or an iPod for any of my races, I don't see why they should be prohibited. Maybe you want your own special flavor of Gatorade, or maybe you're a Powerade person. And, frankly, if I do the Marine Corps Marathon again, I'm bringing an iPod specifically for the hell that is Hanes Point.

But the Army Ten Miler specifically prohibited both water belts and iPods for security concerns. OK, let's discuss the stupidity involved here. First, we can now carry fluids onto planes again. Why prohibit it from the race? Second, I get MUCH closer to the Pentagon while riding the Metro to the race start. Why isn't anyone screening me on the Metro, rather than at the security checkpoints, if there is a "security concern"? Third, if the concern is for other runners, uh, hello, the race course is wide open. Some evil iPod-listening Camelback-wearing person could jump in at any point.

Whatever. I'm just getting agitated thinking about the stupidity involved. I will concentrate on the positive. Serenity now.

It was a great day for a run, and since I'm about 10 pounds heavier than I'd like to be, I decided to take it easy and run with Maria. We did it in about 8:40 miles... slower than my 7:45 miles for the Cherry Blossom but hey, I got to run it with my wife, which I hadn't done before. We had a great time and, unless they ban Asics from the race next year due to their having the word "Gel" on the side, we'll probably run it again.

A must-have purchase

Easily my biggest laugh of the day. I saw this on Digg... everyone needs one... how have you gotten by without it... I give you, the DVD Rewinder!

The DVD rewinder - DV Guru

Heroes -- I'm done

Watched last night's Heroes this morning on the treadmill. Firstly, the local NBC affiliate forgot to flip the "high definition" switch, apparently, because most off the show was in SD. Then, as an experiment, I have MythTV show me the show at 1.2x actual speed... and the show is still dragging along. Third, the painter also does comic books on the side? Huh? Fourth, they find a USB flash drive in the dead Indian father's office. The college professor son says "what's this?" The cute next-door-neighbor says "It's a portable hard disk!" UGH! And then, after the son has (somehow) stumbled across not one, but TWO people ransacking and bugging his dad's apartment, he starts blabbing on about how the USB drive has the key to tracking the "heroes" down. Do you want to talk a little louder? The multiple listening devices in the apartment MIGHT not have heard you!

Yep, trying to be smart and Lost-ey, and merely succeeding in being dumb. I'm done.