Hopefully I will see you back soon. My old wordpress blog

http://visio159.wordpress.com

will be updated about the new domain name info so as you can synchronize your bookmarks or linkbacks.

What is World of Goo ?

It’s one of those games which make you think out of the box. A three developer wonder and a new milestone in games_can_be_awesome_without_big_budget_and_gluttonous_publishers.

Should you get it ?

Yep, a must play game for all. From school going kids to your Grandpa, everyone will like it and enjoy it. Show some love to developers too.

Promote it !

If you liked it then please digg about it or stumble about it or blog about it

Please note, I’m not affiliated or given money to write about it.

How is the game ?

Let me answer it in five points.

• It’s awesome
• It’s radical
• It’s innovative
• It’s music to ears
• It’s least tedious

How is the gameplay ?

Simply a mouse is needed to play the game. Just point, click and drag the Goo balls. It’s that simple. But can be quite brain twisting at times, though nothing like brain fcuking.

If you are not good in basic principles of physics then you will suck at it. Fear not, you don’t need a degree to finish it.

There are around 48 levels to enjoy.

What are the hardware requirements ?

It will virtually run on every machine which is not pathetic enough.

Though if you are skeptic then download the demo for Windows or Mac. There is Linux version coming soon too :W00t:

Good things about World of Goo from a Geek’s perspective ?

• No whacky DRM (Digital Restriction management) and no codes to fill in. Just an exe file to install and play anytime, when you wish and where you wish.
• It uses various open source technologies to bring you the best. Open Dynamics Engine for physics, irrKlang for sound, TinyXML for configuration of animation and some other too.
• Ogg format is used for sound files, which means you don’t have to pay a royalty in addition to it’s actual price.
• Almost every resource can be found in World of Goo directory inside Program Files which is fortunately not packed into some encrypted archive format. Even the whole Sound Track files are intact in ogg format.
• Developer showed some love for PCs and released it for Windows, Mac and Linux (soon to be released). Though a Wii version is too released. But there are no XBOX 3sh!tty or PeeS 3 versions. It feels so good that PCs are not given step motherly treatment by some developers.

Can I play it on Linux ?

Yes, though there is no Linux version released till now, It will be released soon as promised by developers.

But you can use WINE to install the Windows version in Linux and play it. Yes it works perfectly fine and the performance is same as tested by me. I played it on Ubuntu 8.04 - Hardy Heron with WINE.

Instead it is a pleasure to play it in Linux. Why ? Let me quote two good reasons. Please don’t take it as a flame bait, it’s just my observation and not any rant.

You can always take screenshot with Print Screen Key in Linux. But in Windows XP you have to first press Print Screen key and then paste it in MS Paint to get the screenshot or get Fraps/other third party addon to do the job.

Alt + Tab doesn’t work well and if it works then too the game gets minimized and swapped at times to virtual memory. But in Linux I just switched (Ctrl + Alt + Arrow Keys) to another Virtual Desktop and was simultaneously checking my downloads and browser to see updates about blogs, the game was still running on previous Virtual Desktop. Though you can get third party Virtual Desktop applications for Windows too.

Here are some Screeshots !

Useful Links !

• Tower of Goo

• Experimental GamePlay

• 2D Boy !

]]> http://t.webofgoo.com/2008/11/13/video-game-review-world-of-goo-a-precious-gem/feed/ http://t.webofgoo.com/2008/11/13/video-game-review-world-of-goo-a-precious-gem/ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Visio159com/~3/461452645/ http://t.webofgoo.com/2008/11/09/one-more-win/#comments Sun, 09 Nov 2008 09:27:39 +0000 T http://visio159.com/?p=1073 Consumers are not dumb. Here is the proof (personal blog of the one who retaliated):

Koshy John’s HP Customer Care Horror

For more detail about it check out the forum where it all started:

Taking Hewlett-Packard India to Court

Though, for me justice delayed is justice denied and he should deserve more than just 96k INR.

Arumdabda - Not for casual viewers

Arumdabda [Beautiful] (Korean) - Not a popcorn flick with your girlfriend. It’s not even a least bit of entertainment unless you have some deranged sense of humor. It’s a bitter truth and disturbing throughout. Hard to digest movie for people (especially males), obviously the reason for low rating on IMDB. It was really difficult for me to find out who was good and who was bad, took me whole sleepless night to came to a coherent conclusion. Watch it if you are into serious cinema. The characters are mere caricature of the social evils and the script writer Kim Ki Duk has once again proven his skills. Though since the movie is directed by different director, you will hear a lot of dialogs unlike the dialog-less movies directed by Kim Ki Duk.

End credit music takes you into a realm of intriguing music. I was hooked up till the last line of credit rolled.

Io Non Ho Paura

Io Non Ho Paura [I'm Not Scared] (Italian) - Some childhood memories are not meant to be remembered, well thats just one part of the movie. What if you were the same boy and went through an adventure or tragedy. At times it’s downright freaky and other it’s exhilarating. A criminal perspective is too added to the movie. Honestly, it will change the way you look down upon most of the crimes. Not all are done for a sh!tty reason. Watch this one and go back to the awesome childhood of Michele and at times a relatively dark one too, but to a child it doesn’t matter much. For he believed in helping without knowing the cause. Oh and don’t miss the flawless acting by her little sister, it’s amazing.

A Wednesday

A Wednesday (Bollywood) - A cult classic. I would say it’s a ray of hope among all other stereotype movies coming in hordes, remind me of floods in Halo. Surprisingly I was least expecting a movie on terrorism to do that well, but hell it’s just not about terrorism. You will see fine performances and a nice twist at the end. I wouldn’t spoil the movie for you. Except some good amount of action too, albeit realistic one. However background score was a letdown for me.

Coming next week are Taegukgi, Assembly and Mind Game ;p

So the challenge was to convert the DWG format to DXF. Here too I couldn’t find a native application. But fear not the obvious, I had Wine at my disposal

Just downloaded any dwg dxf converter trial edition for windows and installed it in Ubuntu using Wine. Wine acts like a compatibility layer to install windows application in Linux.

Here is the visual walkthrough to the whole process.

1: INSTALL WINE

• Type in terminal

2: INSTALL Any DWG DXF Converter

• Download the setup exe file from the below link

http://anydwg.com/dxf-to-dwg-ex.html

• After downloading the exe file, double click on it or right click on it and click on “Open with Wine”. You will be prompted with installation screen.

3: CONVERT DWG to DXF

• Open the Any DWG DXF converter by double clicking on desktop icon

desktop icon

Add a File…

My file is under folder “Autocad Files” on Desktop

browse to the dwg file

Now click on Browser… to set the same folder as Output Folder just for convenience

set the output folder to Autocad Files (the same where dwg file is)

yup, the output folder has changed

just a limitation of trial version, but who cares !

Just click no and browse to the folder manually

Look… there it is, the new Drawing22.DXF file

4: USE QCAD TO EDIT/OPEN IT

• Install QCad by typing this command in terminal

• Open it from the menu

• Start editing :p Commands are similar to Autocad and there is a few minutes learning curve (as told by my bro, he has a sound knowledge of Autocad)

A typical QCad window

Browse to the DXF file

OMG its the friggin home plan :p

Step by step solution is:

1. Find the user.ltx file:

• Find the user.ltx file, its generally inside \Documents and Settings\All Users\Shared Documents\STALKER-STCS directory in Windows XP, or the \Users\Public\Documents\STALKER-STCS directory in Windows Vista inside the drive in which your operating system is installed

or

• Alternatively you can find out the location of user.ltx from the fsgame.ltx file inside the game directory (S.T.A.L.K.E.R - Clear Sky). Open fsgame.ltx in text editor and read the first line, the path to the game setting folder is written there. Just navigate to that folder through File Explorer and find the User.ltx file there.

Look here is the user.ltx

2. Edit the User.ltx file:

• Now search for “rs_refresh_60hz” string by opening it in notepad or any text editor and then pressing CTRL+F. There the secret lies. Just change the value written after it from “off” to “on“.
• Save (CTRL+S) it and close it.

set the value to on

3. Start game and play

• So what actually happend was that you have set the refresh limit and thus there is no chance of your monitor going out of frequency, unless it’s from some antique shop :p
• Enjoy the game ! It’s awesome despite of bugs, which are fixed to a large extent in latest patch 1.5.05.

• Criticize to gain attention - Now this sounds a little intriguing but believe me it works and I have some practical tarts falling for the bait. It worked in many ways for me. I mostly use Open Source softwares for my daily use, Linux is a crucial part of that. It’s a good OS (well…it’s just a kernel honestly) so why not other people let it try and use. But the barricade is that people (read tarts) will not be impressed by the good things in it, they will most probably deny the obvious while defending their proprietary OS. So what I did was to take another approach. Every once in a while when there happens to be talk about Linux, or someone want to try it. I criticize Linux and tell them to not to try it, sarcastically. To my surprise it had a positive effect on them (or rather say implications went my way), they were just more curious enough to try it. Many installed it and found it decent. It’s natural for a human to defend his own decisions while you scathe them.
• Let the customer solve his problems - It’s not a surprise that if you are a specialist in something then arguably you will try to impose your ways on your customers and convince them that what you are doing is much better and efficient. But this is kind of a turn off for customer, face it. The other approach which is much better is to let the customer speak out for the possible solution and you just slip in subtly you ideas in harmony with customer’s view. Hey but watch out for certain brain dead tarts too, you don’t want to create a zombie software.
• Listen to people (read tarts) - This goes specifically for ladies (no pun intended, I have come across a situation where one lady threatened to kill my girlfriend…albeit an imaginary girlfriend). But works well with some overly ambitious tarts too. Works wonder when you have those rhythmic facial expressions to show that you are actually interested despite of a dull boring routine.
• Present the negative covered with best positive - In another word make the worst more digestible and tangible to tongue. Instead of saying “I hate to say”, make it “I don’t like to say”. Use Euphemism - a way of describing an offensive thing by an inoffensive expression. It’s more appropriate to call someone Daredevil than acute vision. Calling opportunity to reinstall an OS instead of pain in arse to install an OS. More technically, calling DRM (digital restriction management) a much better way to make your rights flexible.
• Love is just a feeling - Yes, not much different from pain and happiness. It’s not something much heavenly but an excuse that we are still living in a better world and still not lonely.
• There are no limits for desires - A year or two back, I was an technology upgrade maniac. If there is something released then I wanted to be the one getting it as soon as possible. But as they say with age comes wisdom, I too realized that it wasn’t worth doing. My desires took the best part of me. Keep your desires and ambitions in closet inside the basement. Ambitions make people sick.
• Innovation is yet another name for advertised recycling - There is not much left to innovate, the basic is same. Creativity is all about hiding your sources, rightly said by Einstein. You are just another brain in here among gazillions of others. So its a joke to talk about innovation. It’s more like who copyrighted it first or who patented it first. This system, however, is flawed design.

Now some future speculations, with reference to technology.

• Internet will be a subscription based service. You pay for what website you visit.
• Your insurance will depend upon you genes. You will be tested for genetic defects before lending out a huge sum.
• Some corporates (draconian) are trying hard to restrict your access to digital media such as audio, video and softwares. It’s called as DRM. The effect is in nascent stage, stomp over it before it’s too late. You don’t want others to decide on which device you play your favorite album and how many times you can install a software on you home computer. Search for EA+spore+DRM for more details about it. Music industry has indeed turned fugly (wink wink iTunes store).

Oh I almost forgot my old habit of embedding some of my favorite songs. Here is one for this post.

Before it’s too late by The Goo Goo Dolls. Seems like this video is not available for my country, I had to switch to worldwide URL. Friggin youtube :/

Some Java window fixes and Firefox/Thunderbird/Evolution fix has been rectified. Though I’m not happy with metacity minimize/maximize/restore/close button animation, anyone can help me out it making much better ?

Also the icon pack Eclectic-Buuf has been also slimmed down with symbolic links and added other icons too to fill the gap. Test it and if you like it then do comment :p Suggestions and criticism are welcome too but don’t tear me down

Take your time to explore.

ElegantTabe:

ElegantTabe

(~313 KB)

INSTALLATION:

• Unpack the archive and move the resulting folder to folder named .themes inside your home directory.
• Then select the theme from System>Preferences>Appearance. Its named ElegantTabe.

Eclectic-Buuf:

Eclectic-Buuf

(~7.8 MB)

INSTALLATION:

• Unpack the archive and move the resulting folder to folder named .icons inside your home directory.

• Then select the icon pack from System>Preferences>Appearance>Customize>Icons. It’s named Eclectic-Buuf

Screenshots:

Copyright: Free to modify/share it as long as you keep it free to download or use.

Thanks: To the person who created Elegant Brit and Buuf icon pack All other people contributing directly/indirectly to open source. GIMP, Geany and rhythmbox deserves some goodies too.

NOTE: Listen to Goo Goo Dolls and play Silent Hill. Despise DRM, spread freedom of use. Share and care generously.

Wanda the Fish !

Weapon of mass Destruction :p

Zombie infested program :/ (28 Days Later ?)

The proof of Zombie infestation, Rage Virus alert

To read more about this Zombie Infestation and the measures to prevent it, please visit the discussion thread in Arch Linux Forum.

Arch Linux is zombie infested !!!

Should I click on Agree ?

Dunno why ? But staring at it makes me cynical :p

Doesn’t seem to be funny…eh !

Disclaimer: No viruses were executed or harmed in making of this post. No fishes were harmed either. Take care before using any weapon of mass destruction.

Further if anyone want to know what is a Zombie process then head over to wikipedia entry.

This is about one of the most important incident in my life, fortunately I did succeed. I confess that I have witnessed myself as being dumb at 2 moments where I could have saved two lives. But NOT this time ! For past one month my family was trying to pull out our pet from the claws of death.

When did the not so fatal looking symptoms turned into this ? Tipu (my pet’s name after the one who passed away before) started showing a lack of endurance in his hind legs for even short walks, and then for some time he would wander around in every room sniffing every other thing like as if he was not able to see. We called the vet, he said that it was a case of worms in his stomach. So we treated him with the prescribed pills. It seemed like he was slowly recovering, but that was just a temporary effect. His appetite soon increased and drinking a lots of water after each walk became a normal thing.

But one day, Saturday, he started showing same blindness symptom and then started limping. Next thing I could see was a sudden collapse and muscular atrophy. I could feel the pain and perplexed state of his mind. Of course he is over 2 years old but still the pain was unbearable. We took him to nearest vet care. The vet said that it was a fatal incurable disease, Canine Distemper. The symptoms implied same, the virus was inside his nervous system, removing the protective sheath to render seizures for short time intervals. We were quite hopeless at that moment. I searched on net but couldn’t found a solutions, in fact it looked like we had no choice but to take care of him till he breathes his last breathe.

At home he got those seizures again at random intervals. He couldn’t walk or stand on his legs. But if this was not any better, he suffered from seizures too. For a moment it looked like everything was normal but then again seizure started, it was like as if someone was trying to stretch his legs beyond limits and then he was enduring muscular contractions at very high rate. My brother searched on net and forums outside his office (its fckuing sad that my net was down and his office has blocked every other site which is not related to their company), he came home with some neuro relaxants (Valium and Phenobarbitone). Somehow giving these pills helped him a bit, may be this helped to suppress the erratic nerve impulses to bearable limit. I could see a desire for life in his eyes.

The next thing was to take care of him 24×7. We appointed ourselves for different time intervals so that he could be taken care of and  to keep hygiene. One thing that was most important at his moment was the presence of us for him. It could decide a thin line between his desire to live or leave the pain forever.

Few things that moved me most was that he tried to go outside for excretion. But how could he walk with those numb limbs. I was surprised that somehow he managed to reach near bathroom and urinated there. How come this be possible when someone is seriously ill to the condition that one can’t even walk. Another point is that he didn’t excrete, dunno but why ? Now just think about that all animals are in fact more intelligent than what we think. Of course we never ever trained him or told him to do all pee/poo outside. It was like as if coded into his DNA. Even I recall when he was just a months old, he used to move out of his sleeping place before pee/poo.

Something bad that vet did was to give him sleep inducing injections, so it took some 3 days for him to become totally conscious. In the mean time we massaged his body with warm clothes. Took care of supplements. Every possible trial to make him walk failed, even supporting him manually with two persons at a time didn’t make a difference. But by the end of 3rd day we manually took him outside and made him stand somehow. And this time he excreted, now that was some relief for him. We took him back and as per schedule I looked after him from 2AM to 6AM.

At around 3AM to my surprise he started walking (still limping) and made it to my room before collapsing down. So that was first sign of some hope considering it was just not a fake consolidation. Next day we went to the vet and he was pretty amazed to see that he could actually walk a little bit, how incompetent are these vets now. All they could do was to tell us that he won’t live and now taking their words back. Even at one time they made my dad to go to a medical store far away just to get a vial which was available with them, guess they get some profit margin for these things. Bloody disgusting.

So now by 5th day he was able to roam around in house. But the fact that the disease was incurable and how did he recover made us doubt. We went to another vet and the vet did a Canine Distemper serum test (funny thing is that the test kit was an import from Korea). It took some 3 hours to get it done. First he took out the blood and tried to clot it, but it didn’t. So he put it in a freeze. Later separated the serum and did the test. The result was NEGATIVE ! He said that it was not Canine Distemper but Canine Epilepsy. So was it curable ? Yes.

But what I found on net is that it depends upon the source of the epilepsy. If its dying lever or kidney then its not possible without transplant. But if its some stray tangled nerve fibre bundle then it can be reduced or cured to some extent. This vet was not much different than what I have generalized about other vets. First he tried to keep the syringe in the vein so that the next day same syringe can be used, how can my mom let it be that way ? She removed that syringe as soon as glucose bottle emptied. We told him that we were already giving him Valium and Phenobarbitone but again the incompetent vet prescribed same meds with a new addition of one capsule (GABA). And if it wasn’t enough he gave the sleeping injection too… Now the condition was like, we went to him with a fairly good walking pet and came back with not able to walk dull pet. Though one thing most relieving was that the test was negative (though success rate is 80% for that test).

This time one bad thing happened and that was the side effect of the capsule (GABA), Dysentery. Now thats something one could never wish to have if one can’t walk to a proper place to do it. Somehow we were more determined to save him now than be set back by any other thing. Did a lot of cleaning, as this time it wasn’t in his control too. One thing I must tell you is that it was the worst eek thing I had to deal with  but still it was more than necessary.  Lord showed some mercy and the dysentery was gone within one day :p This time we took one last chance and removed any other meds prescribed, returned back to Valium and Phenobarbitone. By the 5th day he was able to walk a little bit as he gained consciousness and strength.

Its been a months to closing and now he is perfectly normal :p But still on these two pills (Valium and Phenobarbitone). As removing them soon may cause withdrawal symptoms, that will impose a greater danger of acute epilepsy. Its better to remove it gradually over a month or so by reducing amount and no. of timings per day. Also remember that on every pet the dosage varies.

We are happy that we were able to save him. But I do feel bad for the incident I remained dumb and could’ve saved more lives.

Bad thing is that am left with no money to fill server cost, well am doing something to pay the due bill. I hope this post helps someone, its not the meds mainly but how much do you care for the one you care defines the line between life and death. If I were to believe on vets only then may be I could’ve lost him either by side effects of meds or by lack of care.

Internet is a medium through which you can get as much help as you want, its just about looking into right places. I thank to all those people and sources which helped me to deal with this matter.

Yoru No Pikunikku

Yoru No Pikunikku [Night Time Picnic] (Japanese) - Its one of the best you can get from Japan (yes most of the Japanese movies are not always good). Some good tracks you will enjoy (mix of english and Japanese). Story is a good concept, I kinda wish that we have such night time picnic of 80Kms. Its really cool to see how one reveals himself/herself when there is nothing more than walking 80Kms with school friends. There are moments of comedy which will surely make you giggle. One interesting twist at the end, which may leave you wanting for another part. Avoids some cliches which movies generally unintentionally fall into. Watch to experience something new, albeit I was not satisfied with the ending, there are some questions that are still left unanswered. Hope a second part will come.

realization moment

One cool band I just discovered from this movie is Monkey Majik. Its an English guy who sings Japanese and English combo. Music is like what you hear from Jack Johnson but IMO a bit better than him. Listen to the songs Long Shot Penny, Akari, I Miss You and Futari on youtube. I just love this band now. Hope to get whole discography.

Rock On!!

Rock On!! (Bollywood) - First thing, its an OKish movie. What makes it more appealing is that there are not many good movies to compete (I think I have to watch A Wednesday) and the charisma with rock band is on high in India. Soundtrack is not what I classify as rock but a beat down version of it. Some funny untimely guitar riffs too..lolz…wonder what were they thinking but I was giggling while watching it. Only piece I liked was the slow song (Tumhari Meri Baatein) sung by some lady when the band starts rehearsal after reunion, almost every beat was perfect and modest.

Dandia scene was the only awesome part !

The most likable character is the lead guitarist, he kinda reflects the very good nature which you don’t find now in others. Other characters were just fine, could have been better with gradual char development. Good acting is something which I missed too. But then its a fair one among other crap releasing everyday.

Les Poupees Russes - Intelligent humor

Les Poupees Russes [The Russian Dolls] (French) - Must say its an intelligent comedy. Of course, what that means is you wont be laughing your guts off for short burst of moments but a wicked grin on your face throughout the movie. Its similar to 101 Reykjavik, not in story but that both have the protagonist as losers (not really losers). The mild music that kinda drives me crazy when it comes to the chemistry between male protagonist and Wendy is just priceless. It looks like someone ripped my future into a movie…lolz. But yeah you may find it boring if you dont feel like understanding expressions and reading subbies.

this scene will brick your iPhone :p

And………THE DESKTOP !!!

So what about the other icons ? I will start top to bottom from left side.

Kate Beckinsale, Heather (Silent Hill 3 - one of the best survival horror game), Kate Beckinsale (yup I made two icons), Park Hyo Joo (watch The Chaser movie), Han Ga In  and Manny Calavera (Grim Fandango - one of the best adventure game by Luca’s Arts).

Here am again with a second list of must watch Korean movies. Han cinema is much diverse than what you get in Hollywood. There are those undisputed horror flick and then there are those sweet rom-coms. Melodrama has been an undivided part of 70% movies. Music has always been a plus point for me when it comes to watching a Korean movie. One thing I appreciate is that they have come up with movies out of mainstream, it means you get to see the imagination of director and some never before seen scripts.

In no particular order, here is the list (with brief review):p

A Millionaire’s First Love (The guy is a Millionaire’s son, quite a lavish life…huh…with least bit of concern with anybody. But to claim his dad’s capital he has to pass through a test, now the test is a secret you will find out. But the story doesn’t end here, in the course of it he finds someone who will be the happiest moment in his life. The drama rehersal scene where a tiny little secret is revealed is a tear jerking moment. Yup if you liked A Moment to Remember then do watch this one. Though I would have to say that school concept was a bit stupid in my opinion but the girl’s acting is just awesome.)

Resurrection of The Little Match Girl (This is a sci-fi movie based on a poem with some awesome cinematography and makeup/costume design. Soundtrack is worth listening, notably the “Dreams come True” by S.E.S and “Seom by Kangta”. The story is based on virtual reality and video game. Some strange comic scenes are guaranteed. If there is any least bit of similarity then you can relate it to Matrix, but that too is too far to be similar. Don’t miss this movie, its a cult classic.)

Welcome to Dongmakgol (An officer with two other comrades from North Korea and two runaway soldiers from South Korea happen to encounter each other in a village named Dongmakgol. There the people are kind of shut off from outside world, atleast they enjoy their living without worrying about petty things. No disputes and hatred among the villagers, a peace and calm Dongmakgol. But something weird happens and USA orders air raid over the forest where this village is situated, unknown to everyone. Now will the officer and other soldier try to save the town or they indulge into an embroil. You will appreciate the simple life of villagers. A must watch movie to see what’s the real face of war, every side loses. Except for one uber stupid wild boar hunt scene, this movie is awesome. You will see some lush green scenery)

Love Phobia (It’s in the league of Lover’s Concerto. A boy fell in love with a girl in yellow raincoat named Ari. So why does she is said to be cursed, even touching her will be an onset for bad luck. Whats about this stupid logic, see it and you will appreciate the wisdom. She disappears after few days. The boy, who is now in high school, gets a call from her. 10 years has passed but still they spend some good time together. Then again after few days she disappears leaving the boy alone. So what is the reason about sudden disappearances ? There are some reference to crop/magic circles too and a twist at the end which will blow you away. The movie is simplistic in approach, neither the girl is extremely beautifu but she is kind of attractive. Another classic movie where you see some amazing acting talent.)

Please Teach me English (If you are looking for an innocent clean comedy then this one is for you. The girl is a geeky public official, yes she is beautiful but stupid. one day a customer comes to her and inquires about the bill in English, from that they onward she is elected to learn English. The guy is a Footwear saloon salesman, his reason to learn Englsih is to say “I love you” to someone, but who is that someone is a secret you should divulge while watching this movie. The girl falls in love with the guy with some really funny sequences. The thing I like about this movie is the realistic portrayal of every character, I mean it happens in real life too. The crying girl at the last half hour is priceless, don’t get me wrong but she just looks so good in every mood…lolz. Ending is done brilliantly, though quite funny.)

The Chaser (I was awaiting for a good movie like Memories of Murder. And then someone came up with The Chaser. Its one of the greatest hit in Korea this year. So is it similar to Memories of Murder ? YES basic plot is same but NO as the serial killer is apprehended within half an hour of movie time. It avoids the cliches of typical thriller movies intelligently. There are moments of hope and then darkness. One man is trying to save someone, but will he reach in time or the killer will succeed ? Watch and see if you can predict it well. This movie uncovers some exploits in our own law which needs a proof and witness to do anything. Enjoy the acting from one cute kid too, there are some funny moments too to make this movie light.)

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring (Another Kim Ki Duk’s masterpiece. Almost all the movies by him are about the important questions posed in life. There is less to no verbal dialog in his movies. This movie is to be enjoyed when you are in a calm, relaxing and thoughtful mood. A monk lives in a house floating between water with an orphan child. A complete life cycle is depicted in the movie, Some great cinematography. Some questions, of which you wanted to get an answer are elaborated in this movie. If you watch it with a thoughtful mood you will be gifted with a priceless wisdom.)

Bad Guy (Ok first thing is that one shouldn’t watch this movie if he/she is offended by some rated content and cruelty to women. But then if you do have an open view, this movie will be another step towards understanding the real evil in our society, the flawed design. If one was not a bad guy, will the girl he wanted will listen to him. We all are the same, same flesh…same anatomy but then there is artificial division of society which engenders the evil. This movie is a look on the same thing. But remember understanding it takes more than just your pretending_to_be_open_minded attitude. Was the Bad Guy really bad ?)

This Charming Girl (Yes there is a charm in this movie, but not fairy tale type. Its rough and gritty charm. The girl has a past which is revealed gradually. A tense situation is tackled at the end. Yup I liked the very nature of the character portrayed by the girl, I respect her decisions. Watch it if you are in a thoughtful mood. A really nice movie)

Oldboy (One of the most twisted movie after A Tale of Two Sisters. Some content is explicit. A guy is confined for 15 years in a private prison on her daughter’s birthday and no reasons are stated for such prolonged hiatus from normal life. Then he is released one day to find out why he was left rotting in the private prison.)

The Host (We all like monster movies, except for some dumb monster movies. This movie is kind of funny and blends other mixed emotions. So there is something for everyone in here. The monster is a mutated fish, not a scary one until you try to be a superman. Some satirical American intervention too…lolz)

Failan (It’s a movie which will teach you that one can be so caring about someone without even meeting him/her in person. You will be in a dilemma at the end as to feel good or sad about the protagonist as he got something that he never could have or the melodramatic end. Two persons without even spending some time together started caring and loving each other. Watch it yourself and see the art direction)

Three…Extremes (Last but one of the finest horror you will ever see. Yes, there are three short stories in this single movie by the horror masters from Korea, Japan and Honk-Kong. There is something for everyone, each story is quite different and extreme. Watch it and select the one you liked more. May be you will like to see the full version of Dumplings too after watching its stripped down 1 hour version. Remind you this movie has violence, creepy moments, disturbing visuals and some damn good acting)

Probably I will come up with a Must watch Japanese movies soon ;p

Added Installing Dropbox in Ubuntu entry

Here I will provide a brief tutorial on installing Dropbox in Linux. I will be covering the installation in Arch Linux. A how to for Ubuntu will be coming soon when I log on to Ubuntu ;p

What is Dropbox ?

Dropbox is the easiest way to share and store your files online.

Features

• After the completion you will be prompted with a GUI screen to start-up. One can either create a new account or if you have already created an account, only need to fill in email and password.

• Few steps to set up

I have a Dropbox account already

Fill in th appropriate details !

linking with the server

• Skip the tour and finish configuration.

Press on Skip tour and finish button if you don’t want to be bugged !

Finish and go to My Dropbox

sweet notifications !

• Now you will be greeted with Dropbox folder, here is mine :p

Folders are syncing

Folder synced !

• Look the synced folders are on your account:

Only two…huh !

Menu options

• Tray menu is something like this

Tray menu

• So I added one image to the Photos folder, one can see the recently changed entry to track the changes one made (adding, modifying, deleting and renaming etc.)

recent changes !

• A more verbose detail about changes can be found on your Dropbox home page

Isn’t it cool !

Preferences:

• Clicking on Preferences will let you change these settings:

Change directory or disable notifications

Throttle the bandwidth or change proxy setting

Folder/File Context Menu Options

• Folder context menu:

Will let you browse the folder via web interface (web brower)

• File context menu:

Will let you see the revisions of a file

Work in Action !!!

• Here I added an image to images folder

Syncing

Synced !!

• Here is the uploaded image and the things you can do with it.

Cut it, paste it, move it , rename it, delete it (did I sound like Daft Punk fan ?)

Share Files with Friends and umm…with your sucky project team:

• Add a user to share files with

Add the name and email

• A folder with corresponding name will be created in Dropbox folder.

jit folder is created

• I added a text file in this folder to share with jit.

linuxthingy !

• You can see the shared files via web interface and other verbosity

Verbose details about shared files !

Performance

• CPU usage for client is fairly low for most of the time and Memory usage is below 30MB uptil now. Its still in beta so further improvements are to be seen. Here is a screenshot of usage.

All is good till now !

• Web interface is light and unobtrusive. I hope they don’t add lots of Ajax or Javascript animations to make it a bloat. I like it the way it is now. But a bit of Ajax wouldn’t hurt if it doesn’t sacrifice the ease.

Some thoughts

• Initially I thought that they are more inclined towards Windows and Mac. So I was a least bit interested as my primary desktop is Linux.
• But then today I got an email from them. When I clicked on the link, to my surprise, I was directed to the page where linux specific installation files were given for download. And yeah they did a great job in creating it. It doesn’t feel like port but a genuine effort.
• I appreciate the development team for their efforts. But please don’t fcuk this service like many others did. I want it to be nice and clean.
• Nautilus file manager is required for dropbox to function.

]]> http://t.webofgoo.com/2008/09/12/dropbox-installation-on-linux-and-a-brief-review/feed/ http://t.webofgoo.com/2008/09/12/dropbox-installation-on-linux-and-a-brief-review/ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Visio159com/~3/461452657/ http://t.webofgoo.com/2008/09/11/eclectic-buuf-icon-pack-for-gnome/#comments Thu, 11 Sep 2008 10:01:26 +0000 T http://visio159.com/?p=888 Update On: 21 Sep, 2008 at 5:00PM IST

Changelog:

21 Sep, 2008

• Added revamped icon pack with lots of icon fixes and new additions :p

19 Oct, 2008

• Slimmed down icon-pack and added new icons

Its just a hack and redesign of Buuf icon theme and is made for the Tabe theme for Gnome.

You may like to see the original post about the Tabe theme:

Tabe v1.08.09b Gnome Theme !

Download Eclectic-Buuf:

Eclectic-Buuf.tar.gz

(~7.8 MB)

Icon Preview:

Mimetypes:

Tools Used

GIMP (i wonder how could i have ever thought of competing it without it)
Geany (a nice lightweight IDE, does the job like a jinni)
Rhythmbox (for all those boring sessions of editing files and Gimping monotonously)

Thanks To:

Eclectic Buuf is based on Buuf icon pack ( http://mattahan.deviantart.com ). Its modified and tweaked by me. Many thanks to the original creator for such a nice icons.

]]> http://t.webofgoo.com/2008/09/11/eclectic-buuf-icon-pack-for-gnome/feed/ http://t.webofgoo.com/2008/09/11/eclectic-buuf-icon-pack-for-gnome/ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Visio159com/~3/461452658/ http://t.webofgoo.com/2008/09/10/mal-is-brutal/#comments Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:37:16 +0000 T http://visio159.com/?p=886 Some of the words that are quite negative in meaning and all starts with MAL. We have gathered up more words to describe negative feelings than any other in our dictionaries…lolz

MALADROIT - clumsy, tactless

MALADY - illness

MALAPROPISM - humorous misuse of a word

MALCONTENT - one who holds a grudge

MALEDICTION - curse

MALEFACTOR - evil-doer

MALEVOLENT - ill-willed

MALFUNCTION - failure

MALICE - animosity, hatred

MALINGER - to evade responsibility by pretending to be ill

MALNUTRITION - undernourishment

MALODOROUS - foul-smelling

Now the one who invented the word root was sure a begrudged soul.

What do you wish my master !

NOTE: Gecko is the name of the rendering/layout engine used in web browser Mozilla Firefox

Changelog:

11 Sep, 2008

• Completed Icon-pack, just few icons may be missing.

• Added Startup and Exit sound wav files

21 Sep, 2008

• Added revamped icon pack with lots of icon fixes and new additions :p

27 Sep, 2008

• Corrected shadows and frame separators
• Added new notebook pixmap
• Added new menu and menu-item pixmap

19 Oct, 2008

• Slimmed down icon-pack and added new icons

Here is the first beta release of Gnome theme Tabe.
Its a blend of matte-black, shiny-torquise-green and grey-gradient.

GTK and Metacity Theme

Tabe.tar.gz

(~91 KB)

MPlayer Skin (Jun)

Jun.tar.gz

(~594 KB)

Icon Pack (Eclectic Buuf)

Eclectic-Buuf.tar.gz

(~7.8 MB)

updated !!!

Sounds:

Startup Sound (edited version of Forest from Silent Hill 2):

startupsh.wav

(~4.6 MB)

Exit Sound (edited version of She Sailed Away from Grim Fandango):

exitgf.wav

(~3.9 MB)

GDM Skin

Coming soon

VLC Skin

Coming Soon

Other Settings:

Fonts:

Cursor Theme:

Comix Cursor Torquise-blue

Icon Theme:

Eclectic Buuf (nearly completed, link provided)

Terms and Conditions

You may need to satisfy any one or all of these conditions:
Do one selfless act every day without any exaggeration of your acts
Contribute to Open Source
Help the weak and the wounded
Spread love and smile
Love nature and other beings, for every life is as precious as yours

Tools Used

GIMP (i wonder how could i have ever thought of competing it without it)
Geany (a nice lightweight IDE, does the job like a jinni)
Rhythmbox (for all those boring sessions of editing files and Gimping monotonously)

Dedicated to

People who believe in idea of free open source ideology and those who contributed to open source.

Thanks to

GTK and Metacity theme inspired from Elegant Brit(gtk), Overglossed(Metacity).
MPlayer skin inspired from Ater skin by Laszlo Simon
Thanks to ANi (Mac4Lin) for his well documented gtkrc file.
Thanks to Werner Pantke (Gnome-Color-Chooser) for providing nifty nautilus tweaks.
Eclectic Buuf is based on Buuf1.04 icon pack. Its modified and tweaked by me. Many thanks to the original creator for such a nice icons.

Tested On

OS:
Ubuntu 8.04 and Arch Linux
Resolution:
1280×960@60Hz, LG Studioworks 700E 17`
Rig:
E6300, DG965RY, 1GB 553MHz RAM, 160×2 seagate SATA, 80×1 seagate Barracuda

Feedback

Bug reports and suggestions are welcome till I complete Icon Pack and VLC skin.

Screenshots

Desktop:

Panel-Menu:

Nautilus:

GIMPY:

Exaile:

Rhythmbox:

Choose a file:

Upload a File:

File Management Preference:

MPlayer video playing:

MPlayer:

The second thing that made me a fan of this game is the villain character design. Dr. Killjoy, Hermes, Horace, Torque’s inner demon, Puritan Girls, WW 2 Colonel and the visions of his family members make it an enriching surreal story. Voice acting for Dr. Killjoy and Hermes is stupendous, I can still feel the deepness and sadism in Dr. Killjoy dialogs.

The last important thing that gripped me to this game was the monster design. Yes, it’s kind of “twist your brain” (David Lynch, anyone ?) and “torment your heart”. It’s unimaginable to predict the very roots of each monster. And always a suspense to know what was the reason behind that monster design. Surreal and  twisted imagery.

So here are some of the quotes from this game, yup these are chapter names but serve as quotes too :p

The worst place on Earth

Slumber of the dead

Abbot prison blues

I can sleep when I’m dead

Everything beautiful is gone

Darkest night, eternal blight

Oblivion regained

You’ve mistaken me for someone else

Hate the sin, not the sinner

A lonely place to die

Dancing at the dawn of apocalypse

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind

Who wants to deny forever ?

Death be not proud

Single bullet theory

And a child shall lead them

Last breath before dying

There are quite profanity clad dialogs too. But If you like the concept of this game then do play, its one of its own kind game. Some nice easter eggs too. A reference to Ring, Johnny Cash etc. Hidden goodies like flamethrower etc.