Ed Hewitt

Quick post, what is your favourite game or game series? I want just get some feed back from you, about your all time favourite video game.

My favourite game is the Call of Duty series. I absoultly love this series, ducking & diving from bullets, explosions and none stop fun. The single player missions really pulled me into the game, fighting in WW2 and now in the present day is fantastic. Its hard for me to choose my favourite Call of Duty game. I think Call of Duty had the best missions, Call of Duty 2 was more fun and had memorable characters and Call of Duty 4 has the best multiplayer by far.

Thats my all time favourite game, what is yours?

Tags: Gaming, Other Stuff by Ed
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In almost every cafe you go into, there is a WiFi hotspot. Its a great to be able to sit in a coffee shop and browse the internet on your laptop. However, one thing which frustrates me with these hotspots, is all the different providers. Here in the UK, there are three main providers, BT, Orange & T-Mobile, there is more. Each coffee shop uses one of these providers, so if you go into different coffee shops each day, you will have to sign to all three. Why can’t there be just one provider, we sign up once and then browse the internet. We can all just go from one cafe to another, all over the country and login, thats it. Instead, we have to mess about signing, putting our card details in and then we can connect. I have not signed up to any of these services, because I’m not sure which provider I would choose, since there are so many in many different cafe.

However, some companies have seen the problem. Both McDonalds and Starbucks allow you to surf the net for free. Its a great idea, I have purchased food/drink and by offering free internet is a great bonus. Although, I would not want to be drinking coffee and using my laptop in McDonalds.

Tags: Other Stuff by Ed
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Its Wednesday, it is another post about Linux. Last week, I posted about my top 5 reasons to switch to Linux. This week, I’m making sure I have a balanced argument why Linux is great, by giving you my reasons why not to use Linux. However, I have only come up with 4 reasons, if you have any, please post them in the comments.

• Gaming - Linux has 100s of great games, many with online play. Many Windows games, such as Quake series and Doom series have been ported to Linux. However, most Windows games don’t work on Linux. If you are a huge PC gamer, stay away from Linux. However, advancements in WINE, has allowed Windows applications and games to be able to run on Linux, sometimes with better performance. In some cases, games have run as much as 100 frames per seconds more when playing on Linux than Windows! However, it can be hard to get all your games to work.
• Propriety Software - Linux has 1000s of applications to meet everyone’s need. However, you may much prefer using Microsoft Office than Open Office or prefer using Photoshop than GIMP. If so, you may want to stick with Windows or Mac. Thankfully, WINE has enabled many Windows applications able to run on Linux, a good example is Microsoft Office. It has been very successful in running with Wine with very little issues. Like games, not all applications will work.
• Hardware - Hardware issues is a huge problem on Linux. I see many posts each day on the Ubuntu Forums of users unable to get their hardware to work, even my last post was me explaining how to get the ATi cards working. Usually, sound cards, graphics cards and wifi cards cause the most problems. However, the Linux community are working together to create drivers for each piece of Hardware. Even companies like HP and nVidia do a great job producing Linux drivers for their products.
• Terminal - Linux is all the time improving and becoming far easier to use. Sadly, many applications and fixes require the use of the terminal. From the start, I had to learn commands to input into the terminal to get errors fixed or install applications. Luckily, as Linux improves there is less need for the terminal, but it is still very likely you will have to use it.

That is my reasons for people to stick with Windows and Mac, but if you can think of any more reasons, please leave your comments.

Tags: General, Linux by Ed
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The main problem with Linux is hardware compatibility. Manufactures produce drivers for Windows and Mac, but hardly ever for Linux. Luckily, the linux community create drivers for 1000s of different pieces of hardware. However, sometimes they don’t work great. One of the worst hardware manufactures for Linux is ATi. If you are using Linux or want to start using it, it is far better to use nVidia, all their cards have great support.

For years, the Linux community has had to make ATi drivers. However recently, ATi have create their own drivers for ATi Radeon 8500 & above. People, such as myself, who have older cards have to use the binary driver. They are generally good, but they have their issues. One of the big issues is 3D acceleration. For some reason, they only come with 2D support. Finally, I have got full 3D acceleration.

It is very simple to do. All you need to do is go to the terminal and type ’sudo aptitude install libgl1-mesa-dri’, and let your computer do the rest. Once done, type ‘glxinfo’ into the terminal, you will see that you have 3D acceleration enabled.

This will work with both ‘ati’ and ‘radeon’ binary drivers. Personally I recommend you use the radeon driver, it has better performance for the radeon cards. For people who have an 8500 or above, you may want to consider using the binary ‘radeon’ driver than the official ATi drivers, it has been proven that you can get a far greater performance using the ‘radeon’ driver than the official ATi drivers, as much as 20 to 30fps more.

Tags: How-To, Linux, Tips by Ed
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The countdown starts now…

The next release of Ubuntu is out 24th April, its going to be a very important release, since it will be a long term support and it will hopefully get more people to start using Linux as it gets more user-friendly.

Tags: Linux, Other Stuff by Ed
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Its Wednesday, so its time for me to do my post about me & linux. This post is a little later than usual, just been relaxing after a hard term, finally its the Easter holidays!

Today I’m going to do my top 5 reasons to switch to Linux, which none of them are about Linux being free. These are in no order, they are all great reasons to switch (or at least try Linux).

• Linux is Stable & Secure! I have been using Linux for over 3 months now, and I have never had a crash. My PC is slow machine, when I had windows on it, I got the blue screen every week, it was just the norm. However, now with Linux, I don’t ever have problems with my PC slowing down or crashing. Even if there is a bug, it will be fixed within a matter of hours. This is a huge plus for windows users, Linux has no viruses or trojans or worms. They don’t exist. So there is no need for protection against these. You won’t even have to worry about what you download and if you need to update your virus scanner. Linux is very secure.
• Great Community! One thing Microsoft is missing is a community. When you buy your copy of XP or Vista, you install and just use it. But what happens if you have problems, you don’t know how to do something, you find a bug, what can you do. Linux, especially Ubuntu, have a great community. 1000s of people using the Ubuntu forums and IRC each day. All talking about Ubuntu, asking questions, asking for suggestions, asking for help. With Ubuntu you can very quickly get an answer from a member of the Ubuntu community very quickly. The Ubuntu dev team is also very closely related with the community, so an bugs or suggestions can be discussed with the dev team and then added or fixed if needed.
• 1000s of applications & games! Windows and Mac users may be thinking that Linux has no applications and games, because they are not in the shops. Well, Linux has 1000s of apps and games. You can get a free application to meet anyones need. Many distros, like Ubuntu have a thing called the package manager. It is very large database which allows you to search for an application or game you want. This will then download and install the app or game for you. There are also many applications and games which you can find on windows, also on Linux. Such as Firefox (which is basically designed for linux) Quake series, Doom series and Unreal Tournament.
• Runs on Old Hardware! As software gets more advanced, the hardware needs to be faster. OSs like OS X and Vista have many great new features, but all require fast computers. Linux has also many great new features which were originally on Linux but now on Windows and Mac. The difference is that Linux has been able to run on old hardware. Distros like Damn Small Linux can run on a flash drive and only require about 16mb RAM. The more advanced distros, like Ubuntu needs as little as 128mb. My setup is a prime example, 7 years old PC and can still easily run Ubuntu quickly.
• Fancy Desktop! As I was just talking about, advanced operating systems with new features. Well this is a great example, you have seen fancy desktops on Mac OS X and Vista. Well, Linux has been doing it years. If you see my Ubuntu Advert post, you will understand and see what Linux’s fancy desktops are really like. “see through” windows, animated windows and virtual desktops are just a few of great features which can be found on the Linux desktop.

That is my brief list of my reasons why I like Linux and why you should try it out using a live CD. If you will like to see more reasons to switch which goes into more detail, go to whylinuxisbetter.org (also, reason why not to switch). Next week, I’m going to do my reasons why to stay away from Linux.

Tags: General, Linux by Ed
3 Comments »

This is a video on youtube which I want to share with you all. Basically, its a Ubuntu advert which has been made by a user of Ubuntu. I just like it so much, because it shows everyone what is so great about Ubuntu. It makes me feel so glad I use Ubuntu, the same glee that Mac users get when using OS X. Its just something about the operating system, I love so much.

I will let the video do the talking.

Tags: General, Linux by Ed
1 Comment »

For a few weeks now, Microsoft have been talking about their take on the disc format war. Before they lost the war, I believe HD-DVD was going to win, primarily down to them being able to block the use of Blu-Ray of 90% of PCs. However, as we all know, Blu-Ray won.

For the past few weeks, Microsoft have said nothing regarding HD-DVD, I don’t even think they have even emitted that they have lost, only Toshiba have. They have only been rejected claims of a Blu-Ray Xbox 360. However, now they have lost, its been all about downloading. They have been expressing how the use of storing films on discs are not the future, but downloading films is. Only a few weeks ago, they were saying how great HD-DVD is for the future!

To me it looks like that can’t accept that they have lost. I’m not a Microsoft hater, but it does look like that they can’t accept losing to Sony. Microsoft have managed to come up with a their new idea, very quickly, to how we will be watching our movies in the next few years.

Tags: General by Ed
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Just idea I have primarily aimed at Ubuntu, but it could be done on other distros. I believe it is about time that Ubuntu had a email address which users of the operating system could use. My idea is to have “@ubuntu.com” email address which all users of Ubuntu could sign up to and use.

Also, when a user installs Ubuntu for the first time, when they setup their username and password, they will be asked to setup an ubuntu.com email address. This then will setup the email account with the default email client, so the user can start sending and receiving emails straight. This will make Ubuntu a more professional operating system, with even more great features.

I have posted this idea to the Ubuntu Brainstorm website.

Tags: General, Linux by Ed
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Mass Effect, one of the biggest Xbox 360 titles of last year, has now got downloadable content from Xbox Live. For 400 points, you can download Bring Down the Sky. It includes a new uncharted world introducing the Batarians, described as a ‘notorious and feared alien race’.

The plot follows a Batarian extremist group who have hijacked a mobile asteroid station in the Asgard system, setting it on a collision course with the nearby colony world of Terra Nova.

The new pack claims to content 90 minutes of content. It is the first in a planned series of Xbox Live downloadable content.

Tags: Gaming, News by Ed
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