This Will Haunt Your Dreams

Or make you literally fall off your chair laughing:

Facebook Privacy Checker

So recently Facebook has become even more open than before, but not the good kind of open, unfortunately. I'm talking about letting almost everyone know everything about anyone, by default. If you're a paranoid person (like me) or are simply concerned about your personal information and just who is seeing it, then you should definitely check this site out: http://www.reclaimprivacy.org/facebook

Give it a try, it's really good and in constant development.

Peace!

Ubuntu 10.04: Usability Shot To Hell... Kindda (At Least For Me)

I had promised myself that I wouldn't post about operating systems or the like again, but the changes made to Ubuntu 10.04 are, to say the least, horrendous. Now, I know I'm very late to complain, but I like to make my upgrades a little late, after I'm sure it won't break my computer in any way. I'm paranoid like that.

But I digress. The upgrade process went smoothly, with everything done as planned. Then I rebooted the computer and, lo and behold, I backed up in horror.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, what you're looking at up there is a PURPLE load up screen. It almost gave me an aneurysm as soon as I saw it, and I still haven't been able to change it. So now I just push the power button and go do something else while the system boots. But wait, there's more! You also see it when you shut down the system, the joy! Seriously, if any of you know how to change that screen, let me know, please. PLEASE.

Next on the agenda was the log on screen. I can't complain about that, though, because it really is nice. I even found a few commands to customize the background and theme of the log on screen while on my quest to get rid of the purple load up screen, so that's a plus. In case you're wondering, the commands can be found here.

So now that I was logged in on my computer again I went to surfing some forums, when I saw the first idiotic change of this version: the order of the minimize/maximize/close buttons. You know how in every other version of Ubuntu they were Windows-like, being on the right of the windows? Well, now they threw it to the left. Not only is this a pain since it forces to take new usage habits, but in the time it took me to figure out how to change them back to where they are supposed to be, I accidentally closed 2 windows, one with loss of information (compiler messages on a GNOME terminal window. Easy to recover, yes, but time consuming).

I found out by reading the bug report on Launchpad (which has more than 750 comments and 360 users marked as "affected" at the time of this writing and can be found here) that this change can be worked around by selecting an older theme. So I went to System->Preferences->Appearance and selected New Wave, which seems decent enough and has the buttons on the place I like them to be.

A few minutes later, when I realized I was working WITHOUT music (imagine the shock), I fired up Rhytmbox and let the random number generator pick a song for me. A few songs after that it landed on one I couldn't recognize, so I placed the mouse over the Rhytmbox tray icon, hoping to get the tooltip, and waited. And then waited some more. And then some more. I moved the mouse to the next icon over, the battery level icon, and waited for the tooltip. Nothing. Tried with the volume control. Nothing. Bluetooth? Nothing. Then, suddenly, Network Manager's tooltip DOES work. I thought something was seriously broken, so off to google I was... yet again.

A few clicks later I was on yet another Launchpad bug report, this one with almost 150 comments and more than 160 users marked as "affected" (found here) where I read that I could get my tooltips back... in another life, or something like that. I had to read all of the comments to understand just what the hell was going on, and found something that truly shocked me: both the removal of tooltips and the moving of buttons were decisions taken by Ubuntu's design team (spearheaded by Mark Shuttleworth) without as little as a fine print warning to the community. Yes, there was a wiki, but then again, the decisions of the design team were final, no matter what the users said about them.

Reading about this matter, and the long, long threads and discussions held over the beta period that I completely missed, a question popped into my mind: Where (because we have an idea of when) in the FUCK did Mark Shuttleworth and his design team forget about what Open Source means? Yes, it means you can change stuff to do whatever you want, but you either discuss it with the community or place it as an option in the interface (and that last option is normally done AFTER discussing it with the community). These changes came out of nowhere (at the time) and with no way to revert to the "old way", which in some cases made for horrible regressions (in the case of the tooltips). Now I'm sure I'm missing something here, but I don't think a Long Term Support version of Ubuntu (which the 10.04 version IS) is the place to experiment with the graphical design, breaking it for people that have been using it perfectly for years and that have a deeply set muscle memory. Hell, the reasons Mark Shuttleworth gave in defense of the changes during the discussions weren't even applicable in many of the cases presented, but he seemed to ignore that and mark the bugs "WontFix" anyway.

Well, you know what? FUCK. THAT. SHIT. I'm looking for a different distro at the moment where I can run all the stuff I normally use and need so I can take a break from this broken version that 10.04 turned out to be. I may downgrade to 9.10 instead if I can't find anything to my tastes, though. It's a good thing I only upgraded one of my computers, so I won't have to deal with this thing all the time.

Peace.

Super Mario Bros. Crossover

A friend of mine found this neat little game which, besides being really well made, will bring waves of nostalgia for those who spent good part of their childhood playing with a NES. Enjoy!


http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/534416

Windows XP Error Music

Surfing the tubes tonight I found this nice video, using Windows XP error sounds:





In case you are wondering what song it is, it's from The Revenge Of Meta Knight.

The Shadow

Here's something a bit old, but really, really nice nonetheless. Enjoy!

PSP Game Review: Best RPG+Something-Else So Far

I was going to write about the good racing games today, but decided instead to tell you all about a jewel I found not too long ago, called Half-Minute Hero.

Developed by Marvelous Entertainment of Japan, Half-Minute Hero uses old-school 8-bit style graphics, a rock/techno soundtrack and lots of pop culture and videogame culture references mixed with a countdown timer. That's right, a countdown timer. See, the idea behind this game is to finish every one of it's levels in less than 30 seconds, hence the name of the game (duh!). It may sound hard (and sometimes, it is) but, thankfully, there's plenty of divine intervention to help the hero in saving the world.

The game is actually a hybrid RPG/Real Time Strategy/Shoot 'em Up, where you first select the mode and the way the divine intervention is provided depends on that. For example, on Hero 30, the RPG mode of the game, the player must pay at Goddess Statues in towns for the countdown timer to reset to 30 seconds. In Princess 30, the Shoot 'em Up mode, the player must travel over a red carpet, where the Goddess starts draining money from the player in exchange of making the timer count up to 30 seconds instead of to 0 and to the end of the princess' 30 second curfew.

All in all, this game is lots of fun, not only because of the quick-paced gameplay, but also because of the imaginative dialogue and numerous references all over the place. The soundtrack is also very good, giving the player a sense of urgency and rush. The replay value is also good, since every level has several achievements and, in some cases, different outcomes depending on what you accomplish, which means you'll be going back (if you're like me, at least) to the earlier levels to play them again and try to get everything. There is also an ad-hoc mode, but I haven't tried that one out yet (HINT, David and Hyatt-kun!)

So, Half-Minute Hero, highly recommended, get it if you can, you won't be disappointed.

PSP Game Review: Bad Racing Games

So I got me a PSP last December and have been playing with it nonstop (or at least every chance I get), so I thought it would be a good idea to write about the games I have played. So, let's start with racing games. I have always been a fan of this genre, be it the arcade kind or the simulator kind, there is always place in my gaming platforms for at least one good racing game. But today's post is about the bad (and in some cases utterly hideous) games I have tested so far: DIRT 2, NFS: Most Wanted and NFS: Shift.

Now let's start with Collin McRae: DIRT 2, since it actually starts as a good game, but then it takes a bad turn somewhere. DIRT 2 is a rally simulation game by Codemasters, or at least it's PC version is (the only other version I have played). The PSP version, although using some realistic-feeling physics, plays pretty much like an arcade, off-road racing game. Every race is played against 3 other cars at the same time, so it's not really a rally at all, just a race, as I said earlier (here's a quick explanation for those of you who don't know how a rally is run: the cars leave the starting line, one at a time, at regular intervals and every driver runs against the clock. The one with the least time at the end of the rally, wins). What I did like about this game where it's graphics and the car selection. Oh, and the kick-ass autotesting video after I beat the game. Oh, and that's another thing: it was way too short.

Next up is Need For Speed: Most Wanted 5-1-0, which was the first PSP game I tried after buying mine. The game itself is not so bad, even though EA took away the free-roaming mode I liked so much from the PC version. The one thing I didn't like was the police. The cops in this game are literally impossible to leave behind during a race. You can push them against a roadblock, making sure they crash, and they will still catch up to you after 5 to 15 seconds. And they are very aggressive, too, which means that you spend more time making sure they don't catch you, than trying to win the race. It got really frustrating having to play the same race over and over again for hours, trying not to get knocked out in the last lap, for example, so it actually became a game of testing-my-patience instead of a racing game at times.

And finally (for today's post) it's Need For Speed: Shift. I was really taken by the concept of a simulation-kind racing game in the NFS franchise and, even though I haven't played the PC version yet, I can tell from gameplay videos that it is really, really good. But the PSP version is utter crap. To begin, it's not even a simulation, it's an arcade racing game, which is really disappointing. And not only is the gameplay almost like a slow motion ripoff of Burnout Legends (which is actually an awesome game which will be discussed in a later post), but there isn't even a decent car customization system, something all modern NFS games are known for (even NFS:MW 5-1-0 has a good customization system). I really tried playing this game, mostly because of the arcade-drifting bit, but even that comes out as awkward when you need it most.

Concluding, EA should work on a more direct porting of their NFS games to the PSP, IMHO, maybe then they will sell better. DIRT 2 could have been great, if only they added a rally racing mode (or replaced the main racing mode, whichever). None of those games is worth your money, but if you really want to play some bad racing games and you have a bunch of money burning a hole in your pocket, go for DIRT 2. Or send the money to me. I actually think the second option is the better choice: instead of submitting yourself to all that crap, I get something with which to buy the next games to review! But I digress.

Stay tuned for more reviews, maybe next time is the GOOD racing games.

US Customs: Privacy? What's That?

To those planing to travel to the US (or simply passing through) with a laptop, beware. Now the Department of Homeland Security said that "customs agents can routinely--as a matter of course--seize, make copies of, and "analyze the information transported by any individual attempting to enter, re-enter, depart, pass through, or reside in the United States.". Excellent, eh? Repeat after me, people: "before leaving on my trip to the US, I'll set up a full disk encryption system on my laptop." If they are going to try and get to your information, make them fight for it! Here's a CNET article that better describes the situation and gives a few tricks and tips for all you travelers.

Apple's Next Laptop

Apart from the fact that I want one really bad (although less bad than I want an Alienware laptop :p), there's been a lot of talk going about what hardware is it going to have. There are several options, some better than others, but nobody seems inclined to leave all the "fanboyery" behind and do a proper analisys of the posibilities. until now:

The rumorosphere has come up with five competing scenarios for the new Apple laptops:
* Apple may, as Shrout contends, switch to an Nvidia chipset and keep the Intel processor.
* Apple may dump Intel entirely, and adopt an AMD processor and a chipset from AMD’s 2006 acquisition, ATI.
* Apple may stick with an Intel processor, but switch to an ATI chipset.
* Apple may stick with Intel for both processor and chipset, embarrassing all the rumormongers.
* Apple may stick with Intel processors, but design its own chipset, much as the company did in the pre-Intel days.

Of all those options, the one I like the best is the first one (I've had really bad experiences with ATI graphic cards that I'm not willing to repeat and although AMD processors are almost always at Intel's level, IMO they aren't that good for mobile platforms... yet) and guess what, according to the analisys, that's the more likely path to be taken by Apple. Here's to hoping they do. And here's to hoping I'll have enough money for one.