Well it’s my very first laptop. The Asus EEE PC 900 which is a so-called “ultra portable” that is small, light (about 2lbs) and contains no moving parts (aside form the keyboard).  Like the Mac Book Air, it has no optical drive, nor a typical hard drive.  It uses a solid state hard drive (SSD) to store data and to boot from. Which is ironic since it COMES with a recovery DVD, yet it has no optical drive at all. It has a total of 20gb of storage (one 4gb drive to boot from, and 14gb for extra storage) 1gb RAM, 9inch widescreen (1024×600), a few USB ports, SD card slot, VGA, RJ-45, and Wifi.

It comes with Linux that’s very Windows XP-ish style that Asus created to a point.  You don’t really have a desktop, you just have a tabbed window that’s broken down into “internet” “work” “games” and so forth.  Anyone familiarized with Windows XP will have no problem using this.  All the apps you’ll never need (well nearly) are pre-installed.  Comes with Firefox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice, as well as many KDE apps.  Even it’s “File management” app looks spookingly familaure to Windows Explorer.  It even refers to external storage devices with a drive letter.  But it is linux under the hood, so you don’t see a C: drive.

If you have a USB CD drive, you can install Windows XP on this with no problems.  It is afterall a full PC with normal BIOS you can  get into by press F1 when it boots up.  You can also buy this with Window XP already preinstalled, but it comes with a smaller SSD storage.  Not sure why this is, but both units cost the same price, so the smaller SSD must be offsetting the cost of purchasing a WinXP license.

I can’t get Second Life to run on this little Lappy.  I’ve been able to run SL Linux port on Ubuntu with no problems, but It seems this OS that the EEE PC uses isn’t’ in 32bit color mode.  Not sure if I can change it to 32bit color mode, and if I did it might degrade it’s performace, since it’s a very low powered Celeron M 900mhz machine.  The video is apparently some Intel chipset, but THAT should be enough for minimum system requirements for SL.  So, I may need to install Windows XP to make this a little easier, since I know my way around windows more than this.  But this little OS is stripped down comared to even Ubuntu, which at least lets me change video modes and settings.  I’m not even sure how to get into the linux console and screw around on the command line.

Despite it not being in 32-bit color mode, video playback is actually not to shabby.  Playing back a Dvix (or Xvid) movie I downloaded off bit torrent, looks fine.  Best with the power plugged in so the CPU is in full swing.

So I will try installing Windows XP to see if I can get SL to work.  I could also try a different flavor of Linux (maybe ubuntu) and see how that works out.  The lappy came with another CD that holds drivers for all the hardware for Windows XP.  So they really don’t mind if you install Windows XP on your own.

Lindens made a post that they are planing on dropping support for OS X “Panther” that was released back in 2002. Keep in mind this was back before Macs switched over to Intel. “Tiger” and now “Leopard” had followed the Intel switch. LL will simply stop testing to see if the SL viewer will function on Panther, and no longer support it in their SDK. Many Mac software producers have already dropped support for Panther also, so it’s logical for LL to do the same since they see only 0.25% of all their users are running Panther.

Which is still 15,000 users, if you believe there are over 6 million users (which the login screen no longer displays, lol). But on any given day there’s about 50,000 users online, so that makes it only 125 users! So yeah fuck those 125 Mac users Running on old G3’s!

As most people know as a stereotype, Mac users tend to buy up whatever is new that Apple makes. So if there’s a new Mac laptop, people come in droves and form lines over night (or a week) to buy them. So it’s a no-brainier for these users to instantly upgrade to a newer version of their OS, even if they have to pay for it. And if thier hardware is too old to run the new OS, then they buy a new Mac. Apple has always been known to orphan their users when they come out with something new. So this is old hat for Mac users anyway, and they don’t seem to mind acting like zombified sheep buying everything Steve Jobs shits out of his ass.

Not so for PC users, since we are STILL rooted, even after about 20 years, on Intel’s old 80386 CPU. This is mostly due to boring cooperations who bought up so much WinTel hardware, and prefer the stats quo. They don’t want fix something that isn’t broken (or break it more than it already is), and since so many office workers use Windows machines they get the same thing for home use. Thus this is how Microsoft has such a huge marketshare, especially when you consider people are STILL using Windows 95 to this day (maybe even DOS, and Windows 3.1x for some esoteric reason)

So when I read they were about to drop Panther support, because it came out SO long ago, the first thing I thought of was that Windows XP should be dropped too, since it came out in 2001. Of course this will not occur since the majority of users STILL use windows XP! Duh, why would Linden Labs kill off the majority of their user base? Though it would cut down 99% of the noobtards that login.

But if you look the system requirements for Second Life, they still support Windows 2000 (which came out in 1999), which I don’t think even Microsoft supports anymore. But Win2k is actually a really GOOD little OS, it has a much smaller foot print than Windows XP (w2k installs under 1 gig), a LOT more stable, runs just about everything XP runs, and uses the exact same drivers as XP. Linden Labs would probably support Windows 95, 98, and M.E. if they were based on Windows NT (as 2000, XP and vista are).

Also you should know that LL officially supported Windows Vista was only just this past FEBRUARY! Seems LL is slow on supporting, and dropping, on many OSes. Thanks Gawd that most of the Linux support is open source. I have a 2nd PC with Ubuntu installed, and it works fine, but it’s a slow PC. I’m considering to dabble on the OS X scene eventually, and play with it.

Sometimes it’s more fun to be OS agnostic… Assuming that’s the correct term in this case. >shrug<

I’m seeing 90% of my online friends on XBL who also have GTA4 and some of the achevements I found really odd in how my friends even got it, when it clearly shows they haven’t advanced much into the game based on the achevements they already have. The main one is the one where you survive five minutes with a six star wanted level. Early in the game you can’t really get more than three star wanted level anyway. Until I found the helecopters!

All you gotta do is find the choppers on the 2nd island (south east end), jack one of the helicopters, and fly over towards the 3rd island. The moment you’re over the 3rd island (you’re not supposed to be there yet) you’ll get an instant SIX star wanted level. woot! All you gotta do is fly around for 5 mins and you’ll get the achevement. It’s really easy, just take a lap around all the island’s coast lines, and that should take about 5 minutes. It’s not to hard to out run the police helicopters while you’re just stalling for more time. But after you’re done, and you wanna land, you’ll be in a world of shit.

One of the things they did to make GTA4 more realistic are how the Paint ‘n Sprays (PnS) work. First of all you can’t use them till you’re introduced to them in the game. Also once you use one, three hours will pass. People standing around won’t be there anymore when you pull out; even vehicles parked near by will be gone or changed. This is a lot more realistic than the instant paint job and the police who were chancing you before suddenly act stupid and lose track of you pulling into the garage. In fact if the police DO see you pull into the PnS, the door won’t close. You can only use the PnS when the cops don’t see you going into it. I learned that the hard way when I had the six star wanted level, and you’re totally swarmed by cop cars shooting at you. I’m not really sure it’s possible to run away from a six star wanted level because that “zone” on the map that encompasses you never seems to slide away from you as you move away from it, as it does with lower wanted levels. One of the achievements is to slip out of a four star wanted level, with out using a PnS apparently.

I also picked up Bully and it’s not bad so far, and I don’t seem to be having problems running it on my older Xbox 360. There was an update to the game the moment I popped it into my 360, so I assume they fixed those problems.

I’m also planning on getting those cool little EEE PC made by Asus. But the model I want is the 900 series that has a bigger 8.9 inch display, more ram, and a bigger SSD, as well as a newer touch pad that works a lot like the iPhone finger gestures. And it comes with either Windows XP or a custom version of Linux. Unfortunately the 900 series won’t be out for a couple more months for the States. And it might be powerful enough to run Second Life, since I have ran SL on desktop PCs with somewhat lesser hardware as the EEE PC has. It’s just a matter if it’s video is decent enough. I’ve not read all the specs on the newer EEE PC; it may even have a faster CPU then the older models.

Today, I’m going out to buy both Grand Theft Auto IV, and Bully (tSE). Unfortunately PG&E (my local power company) plans on shutting my power off for six hours due to power pole replacements. They already have a dozen trucks parked out around my neighborhood with wood poles all ready to be installed.

GREAT timing isn’t it? I’m actually going to buy the games while the power is out, and try to kill some time before I get back home when the power is back. Power should be back at 3pm, but this seems like a major job, so it might take longer, and I’ll be sure to unplug ALL my hardware in case there’s power surges when the power is brought back on.

Also, Second Life is on Twitter now.  @SLGridStatus grid problems are so excessive and problematic that they are making updates too twitter several times a day.  It’s not to replace updates on the Linden Blog though it seems they do post more often on twitter than on the Linden Blog, so it’s a good tweet to follow.

Seems like Nick got around to building a new version of the SL viewer based on the current 1.19.1.4.  Which seems kinda moot since the 1.20.x RC2 is already out, and the full version of it should be out any time now.

After reading his long soliloquy, Nick will no longer be releasing new versions of SL Viewer that he’s been sucsesfully creating.  He’s fixed a lot of bugs that the Lindens don’t seem to bother implementing, and has polished out a very stable viewer compared to what the Lindens have created.

After reading his blog he seems not only short on time to make a new build of the viewer based on 1.19x, but he seems utterly disgusted towards the Lindens to the point of burn out.  The main reason why he made this, was to squash bugs HE saw the need to fix, and not wait around for the Lindens to get around to it (if at all).  But since the Lindens haven’t yet released any new source code, and the fact that the binary crash reporter is removed from the viewer; he can’t debug anything!  Add to the constant asset problems that occur on a daily basis now, can you really blame Nick from just giving up?  Good luck Nick!

Can you believe this? And for once it’s not fully the Lindens fault that everything is fucked up.  However it wasn’t too long ago when they upgraded the grid to the new 1.20.x (havok4) build, as well as forcing an upgrade to a new client that contains the Windlight client.

Everyone is up in arms about everything going on.  Half the people can’t use the new client, which is moot now since no one can login.  I’ve had zero problems with the new client, it even works fine in ubuntu, except it seems to be missing the second life icon file.  The nice thing about this new version is that it does a very good job at detecting what sort of hardware you have, and adjusts the quality of it accordingly, AND it supports more lower-end hardware than it did before. If you don’t like the windlight special effects, you can turn it off, and it renders like the viewer.

People who are having problems with this probably have some issues with thier PCs anyway.  I mean seriously, these people will claim other games have no problems on their PCs yet the new SL viewer crashes thier machine all the time.  Yet these are problably the same people who’ve had the same install of Windows XP for the past 5 years, and god knows what kind of bit-rot and malware might be lingering on thier old PCs.

So apparently who ever Linden’s ISP is at the root of this problem, from the sounds of that blog post, could you say that perhaps this has been the cause of the daily asset server issues we’ve had all year?  Especially now after a grid wide update, and viewer update, the ISP’s internal networking “bundle” just couldn’t handle it every day, and last night was the final straw?

Perhaps Lindens should consider getting a new ISP?  The can’t really, they have so much riding on their current ISP it would take days to move things to a new ISP.  Maybe they should consider simply running servers in-house, instead of using a hosting service?  Hell maybe they should become their own ISP, with multiple peer connections to the backbone of the internet?  Then they won’t have to worry about some sort of weird priority internal networking setup that seems to be incompatible with how Second Life grid operates.  Especially when it comes to database/asset server actually working properly.

For a unique service like Second Life, you can just call up any common ISP/hosting service to run your business.  I don’t think GoDaddy.com has a MMO hosting service that anyone can use.  I really do think the Lindens need to take this into their own hands and not rely on a 3rd party hosting service which I’m starting to believe is the reason for the asset problems we’ve been having the several months now.  And I think with the new 1.20.x sim updates, and new viewer updates were simply the final straw on this ISP’s back that broke everything.

I finally beat all the songs in Rock Band, in expert guitar.  This includes all the bonus and DLC songs I have, but I don’t have them all.  The two biggest songs I couldn’t get past were Green Grass and High Tides (by The Outlaws) which I was able to pass about a month ago, which lead me to beat the game in expert (final song for guitar) as well as finnish off the Endless set list in Expert (Platinum artist).  Recently I just FIVE stared GG&HT! \m/

The last song that I wasn’t able to beat, until just now, was Metalica’s “Ride the Lightning” which has an almost impossible solo. (Woot! Overdrive!) All of Metalica’s songs are fucking hard, with the possible expection of “Enter Sandman” which comes with Rock Band on the game disc, and isn’t hard, but really fun!  The Metalica DLC pack contains all very hard songs, including Blackend (which is THE most hardest song, which I beat a while ago, even before GG&HT) and “…And Justice for All” also a song I already had beaten.

There was a BIG huge update to Rock Band this past week, adding a music store right in the main menu, making it VERY VERY easy to get songs and it’s well organized so you don’t mistakenly download a single if it’s included into a pack.

Each song plays a preview sample (you have to select it first, and then DL the sample, and it stays on your Xbox forever) it also gives you a rating on difficulty for every insturment as well as “band play” showing how hard the song is.

You can also sort this list in any way you like, by song, by artist, by overall difficulty, and genre.  There’s even cover art of the album the song comes in, unless it’s a cover song by Rock Band, it just shows Rock Band’s logo title.

Only thing missing (asside from free DLC for Rock Band) are in-game videos of the songs so we can get an idea on how these songs play.  But until then we have YouTube and this cool guy named Npeaen who seems to have downloaded every DLC avaliable for Rock Band, and has recorded both Guitar and Bass play so we can see if we want to buy these songs.  He also has a few band plays.  For Drum and vocal players, you can easily find said videos on Youtube.

I’m constantly asked “Are you a shemale in real life?”  And if you’re someone who desperately needs to know that, perhaps you’re better off staying in your REAL LIFE and don’t bother with Second Life.  If you’re looking for a “real” shemale; second life (or anywhere on the internet for that matter) is the LAST place you should look for one.  Reguardless if the person behind the avatar is really male, female, or both in RL.  Just because someone refuses to reveal their true self to total strangers, DOESN’T automatically mean they are males.  What’s the point of playing a fantasy game if you have to act like RL self all the time?

If I tell someone I’m just a fat ugly balled headed male in his mid 30s, then that will instantly turn off any potential clients I’m talking too.  If I tell them I’m a shemale  in RL (or even if just female) then they will want to see pics of me, and want to talk to me outside of SL.  Do voice chat and webcams, bla bla bla.  Either way it’s bad.

Since this is JUST a fantasy world it will REMAIN a fantasy world.  If you want your fantasies to be reality, then you should log off now, and find REAL LIFE ways to make it happen in real life.

I’m getting that same creapy feeling I got when I heard the CEO of There.com was stepping down, back 3+ years ago, and after he left there.com basically went to shit. Now I’m getting that same feeling now with Phillip stepping down.  I just saw the last GigaOhm show (rev3) where they interviewed him, and it reminded me when I met Tom, CEO of there.com back years ago when we all had a conference.  Then less than a week after that he announced he was leaving the company.

Sure there.com is still online and runing, but it’s very stagnent, and barely any progress has been made.  Oh sure you can buy Coca-Cola shwag now, but who gives a shit?  There.com has squandered since the core people who created (and who’ve I’ve met in person, Tom, Steve, Ken, etc.) and built that technology, left.  Leaving the company with employees who only seem to know how half the system works, and don’t know the nuances of that system.

Usually when a CEO leaves a company, especially when they FOUNDED the fucking business, can mean one of two things.  The responsibilities of the CEO have grown too much, and Phillip is stressing out too much.  Or, Phillip is not a really good CEO, or dosen’t want to take responsibility for “mean” decisions (not necessarily bad) if the decied to lay off a huge number of employees, Phillip won’t be the responsible, since the new CEO would be, so they need a professional with a past reputation to step in to do the job right.

Apple did something similar back in the 80’s when Jobs left to form NeXT, brought in an ex-CEO from Pepsi, co. and Apple nearly fell off the map before Jobs returned and revializied the company with a new produict that WASN’T a personal computer (iPod).

Maybe Phillip Linden will come back in four years just before Linden Labs files for bankruptcy and invent the lPod (that’s a small “L” for Linden-Pod), so we can all play SecondLife on a portible device, and we will all rejoice!  Doesn’t sound far fetched though. in 4-5 years technology could be advanced where a computer PC system of today’s midrage specs could be compressed down to the size of a PSP to play Second Life (or any MMO) portably.