Ubuntu and Linux beat Windows to Death

I couldn’t think of a more nicer title for this post, so basically you know what this is about. Me bashing Windows and praising Ubuntu.

What is my case you may ask?

It all started on Saturday when I was thinking about how I could use Ubuntu to my advantage and I remembered a long time ago (I believe 2 or 3 years ago?) I tried it once but after a few weeks I switched back. I was reading some of my old blog posts and came upon my Linux tips. Then I started thinking you know, Linux is actually amazing. So I got out my Ubuntu 9.04 disk and installed the system onto my computer. Now, I still had my Windows XP installation with the GRUB bootloader when I came across a problem. I put Ubuntu on the Largest Continuous Free Space on my hard drive, which was 2.4 GB…Just enough for an install of Ubuntu. I realized this when I tried to install the updates and it said I had 216 MB of hard disk space left, not enough to update. Then I knew I was in trouble. What could I do? I thought. I got gparted and tried to edit the partition when I came across, heh funny thing, a triangle icon with an exclamation point inside of it. This meant it couldn’t be resized and had to be formatted. Great, so now what? I tried to get it checked with CHKDISK (I believe that’s the program, too bad if I’m wrong!) and when it finished the exclamation point went away in gparted. So I thought yes! I can change it now, right? Wrong. It just gave me an error message and eventually leading me to just deleting the partition.

So now I put Ubuntu on with 80GB, and the other 50GB goes to Windows XP. So now that that was out of the way there was another problem. GRUB disappeared! Huh? I installed Ubuntu first and then Windows XP. So then I thought about trying to be smart. Maybe I can edit the Windows bootloader! So I go in there, set it so that it boots to partition 1, remove the ugly windows stuff, and try it and…..FAIL. So now what….? It failed. I brought out my Ubuntu Live CD, popped it in, and accessed my ext3 filesystem drive with ubuntu. Hooray! I have access to it! I looked up how to get GRUB installed using Linux Live CD. Since it came with the wireless driver, no worries about having to deal with that. So I reinstalled GRUB by itself, I changed the GRUB Bootloader file and tada! I had a working bootloader again that was GRUB and booted into Linux and Windows XP. After that I simply said, Screw Windows! You can’t do anything Linux can do!

And that is so true. Think about it…. Linux can do anything Windows can do, but Windows can’t do everything Linux can do? Eh…Maybe Microsoft should learn something from this. So guess what Microsoft? I’m a Ubuntu freak now! For real though.

So why is this time different? Well you see, I finally realized how much more I can do with Linux than with Windows. I am still able to do my daily things, I am still able to play my games I like, and I get to do all this in lovely Linux. Who cares if I have lost some of the high-awesome graphics games? I don’t play games all my life, sheesh. I like to make practical use of my life. So what did I do once Linux got installed? (Jeeze, lots of questions today, right?)

I started putting stuff on there, I backed up about 3GB of my stuff I needed to keep, installed Diablo 2 and Diablo 2 MedianXL on there, and they work perfectly fine with Wine. Then I tried Game Maker, and boy was that fun to deal with. You see, I’ve been using Game Maker for about 5 years now, and if I didn’t have this, as you know with the Z-Gamers V.3 website, I would be saddened alot because I wouldn’t be able to use Linux all the time now. But guess what? I got it working under Virtualbox Windows XP installation! Awesomeness! There are three catches to it, but they are minor:
1) I have to import a mouse cursor so that I know where the real position is if it is offset.
2) There are no sounds. But that’s not hard to add in because you just play them….And that’s it! I could go on XP for 2 seconds if I needed to verify if it worked or not.
3)Games must not be 3D and must be tested in fullscreen. No 3D may be a big deal, but here’s my plan for FF3D. Most of the stuff I have to develop is through code. I develop all my code, just run it on Linux to make sure no errors occur, and LATER deal with the 3D coding if there are problems. I think I am so fluent in GML coding and trust my abilities with it that I will not need to test every little aspect of it to know it is working. In fact, I found out you can test stuff in 2D mode, and then just activate 3D mode with the models and 3D drawing once you get on Windows XP. And fullscreen? No big deal, just aligns stuff. Again, number 1 with the mouse cursor makes sure it is not off center.

So what else do I love about Ubuntu? I can access my server directly from the OS….awesome.
I can install packages right on the fly and have new programs….Awesome.
Starting to learn Java Object-Oriented Programming….Awesome also.
Improving my Bash programming skills….Awesome.
Learning new things about Ubuntu everyday….Great!
Able to do alot more than with Windows and still do everything I did with Windows…EPIC.

I have to say….I just LOVE Ubuntu now. I just can’t stop now…I haven’t logged on XP since that epic failure described above…I do not wish to go back unless I have a super problem, which is fixable with Linux of course and not Windows . I guess that is about it.

Continue to support us on http://z-gamers.net! Read my previous blog post for more info on donating to our server!

Z-Gamers V.3 Fundraising!

Let me start off this post by saying that Z-Gamers Version 3 is very epic. It has a very nice design, with a very nice layout, and all the pages are consistent and very nice-looking.

But there is an even more important task at hand than that. Michael Raines, the owner of the server has given me a task to attempt to raise $500 for a new server box. $500 is ALOT of money! I mean seriously, I don’t even think I can do it, but I need people to start donating! Even $5 or even $1 from various people will help contribute! And it’s not for a scam either, we really need a new server box before the hard drive fails and things start breaking down. The server will also run faster than it is currently running and thus will make pages come up faster and make my visitors and I very happy. Where can I donate and help? Go to http://z-gamers.net or http://www.chipin.com/contribute/id/72ec841e5b2f9b4c for direct pay to me. Just type in the value, fill out card/Bank info (Don’t worry, paypal is secure) and the money will not be used for anything other than what I told you above. Michael Raines will make sure of that. In addition, I hope somebody out there is nice enough to help out because frankly, we are small and don’t get much help but we are trying to go on with what we can.

Seriously, please think about donating for Z-Gamers, we really need help with the server and this is the only way…

(9:04:31 PM) sigonasr2: If I ever get money, I’ll be sure to donate it to the cause also lol
(9:04:40 PM) mikeyr71730: Yeah. I hate asking for money, but I have to do it this time before the system goes down.
(Later on in life…)
(6:00:26 PM) mikeyr71730: I’d hate for the server to go offline for good.

So After you donate or at least think about donating, click the more button to find out what I have been up to, because it’s a lot.

Interesting Times

Let me start off this post with something amazing I have never mentioned about me with Spore. Maybe you have wondered what was the awesomest thing I ever made on spore was? It was a building. Huh? A building? Buildings are boring usually, yes? Just normal buildings? Check this out:

Awesome? It’s a Toaster! Cool huh? Yeah, built that like 3 months ago, but it’s a building, you might be wondering how my species got into the building….Well, if you were a smart enough species like mine were, you could figure out how to enter without getting burnt. You can even see part of the little plug I made which was very tough to make, but I ended up doing it. So there you have it, Toaster!

Onto some other things I haven’t discussed on my blog yet. My brother brought home his homework (2nd grader) and he was doing it when he got to the last problem of his homework:

You can see the answer we chose which I’ll explain in a second. The problem is:
Circle the shape that goes in the shaded part.
You then have one of three choices: A letter “R”, A “?”, or a flower shape.

So, if you look at the diagram, you can see that there’s three of them, take awhile and think about how it would work out. It took me 25 minutes to figure this out for my 2nd grader’s homework, but once I realized that I was thinking too hard, it came right to me and we circled the “?”.

Alright, so I am in my school’s Robotics Team. We are Team 1726 and I was very glad that I decided to join the Robotics Team this year. Man did I wish I joined earlier because this club is FUN! I mean seriously, I like everyone in there and we all are smart and think alike and we all love technology and robots. I think it is really interesting. The largest reason I wanted to do it was to contribute to the team in many ways as possible since I had lots of technical knowledge. So I am already heading into the team by helping to design the 2009-2010 website, so pretty cool. We are also doing an Inner-Club Mini Vex Competition which seems really cool. I think Robotics is just awesome and I love to be a part of it and I’ve met some awesome people in the club.

What have I been doing lately? Playing Diablo II MedianXL. Hmm, a twist to Diablo 2? No, way more than that. Created by Brother Laz as he refers to himself as, he created this mod and it has gained lots of community support for something new and completely different than the original Diablo 2. What starts off as the normal game turns into tons more. Each class has completely new skill trees and types of skills. Tons of different and new weapons, armor, special, magic, and other kinds of items that just changes the gameplay so much, you’ll feel like you’re not playing the normal Diablo 2 anymore! And on top of all that, you can also play online with other friends not using Battle.net, but by LAN play. But most people have problems with that, so they need to get Hamachi and join networks to play. So I created my own called Median-nubz (And now a Median-nubz2 also) in which newbie players can join up with me and start on their own “newb” adventures. Hey, you have to start somewhere, right? (If you’re interested in joining this network, then head to the Diablo 2 MedianXL forums which you have to google for, and then find my topic by sigonasr2 [my username] in the Pandemonium Category which is for just Multiplayer topics).

So that’s that. I guess I am starting to get pretty darn good at web design and game coding that I think those are my two biggest highlights so far. Not sure how much more I’ll do, but we’ll see what happens eventually. Guess that’s all to this month’s post. Oh yeah, it’s Z-Gamers 3rd birthday! And I forgot to create the new V.3 website! Oops, did I just say that? Um…bye!

Driver’s License!

(Started writing on September 1st, so this first part when I mention “today” is for September 1st. Beyond the more line is written in present tense as in today.)

I would consider today to be one of the best days of my life. I finally got a dang driver’s license I have been waiting SO long for! Well I got it, already drove the PT Cruiser once just by myself. My mother got a new car today also so I probably will be driving the PT Cruiser for awhile. It’s a nice little car, works for me. The driving test wasn’t too hard. In general, I’ve driven so much and waited so long since I got my permit that it was all casual and nothing was surprising. I even parked perfectly which was a first. I was so scared when I did the 3-point turn as if you can’t stay in the lines and cones you failed and it’s quite tight, but luckily I didn’t fail (I practiced it like 20 times beforehand).

So now I just need car insurance. When my father told me the price of it, my jaw almost dropped (Which it almost never does), that’s a LOT of money, I feel sorry he has to pay that much to insure me, myself. It was quite fun driving by myself, I loved it. I said to myself, “I’m finally free!” finally part of the real world in a sense. I guess the next big thing I can look forward in my steps through life is college. Until then, probably the feeling and intensity of today won’t come by very often.

(Read more for everything else that happened to me since my last post)

Welcome to August…School…Yes…

So, this morning I promised to myself I would make a post. Yes, I’m still alive, living fairly well, and doing things on a daily basis, but haven’t gotten much chance (Or have been too lazy) to post on here. It’s usually easier for me to work from the most recent things to the furthest back events that are in my head, so it’s time to start.

First off, I have rejoined Fiesta for a third time. Sheesh, when am I gonna stop? But that’s beside the point, explained further below, Warinthestar has convinced me to start playing and doing things that I was doing 2 years ago. Man has it really been that long? Ah yeah, it has. So just yesterday, my cleric on Teva has reached Level 67, and I’m telling you, it doesn’t get easier. Joined guild SoulReaver, Warinthestar’s current guild, looks pretty fun, I’ll tell you that. So I guess I’m back to Fiesta.

Next up, as you may know, Warinthestar originally was an admin on the Twilight Server for the game BZFlag. Well guess what? I’m back to playing that too! (Now a third time also) So let’s see, Twilight has changed its global groups to TWILIGHT.SRADMIN, TWILIGHT.ADMIN, and TWILIGHT.COP, as in we’re in TWILIGHT.SRADMIN, and TWILIGHT.ADMIN is now for the original Jr. Admins. We’re trying to recruit old members from our past times playing Twilight, found Saber and boresnake who still get on every once in awhile. Twilight now runs 5 servers, 4 of them public including: Twilight Main Server, Party Time Server, Jumping Skillz Server, and BZSports Server. The private one is the Twilight Test Server. Also, we have started a new site on my http://sigonasr2.servegame.org server with my newfound web-designing skills I gained over the summer, we created a nice looking site and forum fairly easily. Check it out at http://twilight.servegame.org, and please join if you’re interested.

(Read onward for stuff that happened further back.)

1 Month has Passed…

Oh man, last time I posted on here seems to be forever ago. So this summer has been quite fun but at the same time most wasteful. I’ve been wasting my time playing games this summer, but I’ve done some studying and a little game-making. So, let’s get started with what’s been happening.

After I got out of school, first there was not much to do. Fiesta’s Cypion Server Release was coming, and I was in action to get ready to play. Me and Dan were going to try to level fast, but we can’t possibly get the 1 million sparkcash, at least we can just grind as fast as possible. Whatever that happens, we were going to get to 105 eventually and not start an alt. However, things have changed recently (which I’ll explain below) and I’ve quit Fiesta again. (I also quitted Drift City not too far back.)

First off, Fiesta is pretty boring. I think eventually it gets old, you just kill monster after monster and nothing really happens after that. You have to grind now 105 levels and it is insanely hard to do. In fact, I don’t think it was meant to be done in less than a month and some people are killing themselves over trying to reach that 1 million, but I’m just giving up in general.

Now, an argument between my friend and I [and previously before] was that why do I always quit games and never stay “committed” to one. Well, here’s my case-and-point:
Games are meant to keep us entertained, right? So when we end up getting bored by them, the game has no purpose anymore. We need a new game that’ll keep you entertained again. So why should you be committed to a game if the whole point of them is to keep you entertained and you’re not being entertained? Yeah, you don’t and you pay more money to get a new game. xD

So then I obviously was bored and needed a new game. I tried to entertain myself with Game Maker, but you know…I really think I need to learn C++ or C and I’m gonna try using OpenGL eventually.

And now I bring myself into the present and past week. My sister and I always get along and sometimes we do stuff together. Well recently, we’ve been playing The Sims: Life Stories together, and even though you may think what the, this isn’t the kind of games Josh would normally play (Or you would) but I swear, it’s very fun. Maybe part of it is because we used to play The Sims on the Gamecube quite often. So I guess now I play The Sims: Life Stories. And we don’t just play it, we have a huge family tree thing we created awhile ago and we’re going to re-enact all the stories in the game. We’ve both almost completed the first family with their kids, and it is very fun. What makes it so fun? I think it’s the depth and complexity of the game yet how simple it is all implemented. I have fun building the houses, gaining relationships, and raising the kids from young babies to teenagers. If you like simulation games and haven’t tried it, The Sims: Life Stories is fun. And not just that, I heard The Sims 3 is going to be real good too.

So, that catches you up on what I’ve been up to. Sorry to my Fiesta people in the Cryptic_Fate guild on Cypion, I decided to give up…Again. So that is all, I am off now.

School’s Out!

I am so happy. School is finally out and summer starts once again! And to think I started this blog only a year and a month ago, I never thought it’s been so long and I’ve gotten so far! But yeah, another 3 months to chill out and work on stuff I’ve been dying to work on!

Summer 2009 Goals:
Finish Fighter’s Field 3D Version 1.0 (An official release!)
Finish Z-Tower Defense
Become more adept at Alto Sax.
Get to Lv80 at least on Drift City
Play through World of Warcraft
Beat Spore on Hard Mode

Well, there might be some more, but I cannot think of anything else. Anyways, so we got out on March 20th, so it’s been a week. Things have been going pretty smoothly. Each day I got to relax and have fun with my brothers and sister. Our family has gone out swimming, we’ve talked about plans to go to places with our Church, and I have been working on games and playing some Final Fantasy 7. So it’s been a pretty good summer so far. Last year, I remembered being into BZFlag and starting Fiesta, but this year, it seems I almost have no game I’m caught on. I mean, I have been playing some Drift City, but…It’s been getting hard to level now but it’s still fun. I’m waiting for more G-Coins to get my Nova V6 to Nova V9, or waiting for a Duel. Either one.

Recently, I’ve had a flash drive go dead. It was because of bad sectors which probably happened while I was transferring files and after pulling it out and plugging it in, I lost all my flash drive data. It wasn’t too major, but it was definitely a disappointment. The biggest file I lost, was my Fighter’s Field 3D file. So, what was I to do? Well, me and my 5-year-old bro Jonathan are always playing/working on the game, and I remembered that I gave him an “alpha” testing executable just 2 days ago. And I thought, I needed it. Using my backup flash drive (with only 128 MB instead of my original 2GB), I got it on my computer and downloaded the Game Maker EXE Decompiler. Now, I know what you may be thinking if you know what I mean. I’m a bad person now. No, not really. Because I am using it for first off, a very legitimate purpose. I needed to decompile my Fighter’s Field 3D exe file so I could get all my months of typed codes and all my objects and sprites back! And I promise you. Once I have decompiled the game, I have permanantly removed the decompiler from my computer. If some legal dude or anybody wanted to inspect my hard drive for any signs of the decompiler (or my flash drives/CDs/any media storage device) I assure you there is no trace of it anymore! Therefore, I have no possibility of decompiling any of your games, got it? So don’t go commenting on here “You suck, you loser decompiling others’ games.” or anything of that sort. Also, it is my game, and if you don’t believe me, you can read previous posts that go months back about the development of it, you can read about it at http://z-gamers.net, find it on GMC, and you can ask one of the members on Z-Gamers about it, they’ll tell you, so there’s plenty of proof it’s mine along with my full name being in the executables of the Fighter’s Field 3D games.

Sorry about going on and on about that, it’s just I don’t want anybody thinking I’m doing anything bad in particular, and I have plenty of proof to make sure nothing bad can be thought of me. (Sorry, keeping rep is a thing for me xD.)

Fighter’s Field 3D development if going well. Mining system is complete, PvE system is completed, and I’m now working on the new skills. There are 8 skills per class, making it 32 skills, but you can only get a new skill once every 10 levels. You get your first one after the Class Upgrade 3 at lv60, and you get one every 10 levels. This patch goes up to lv100, so you get 5 total. So you can get 5/8 skills from the skill shop for your new class, and each one does different things. If you are interested in seeing what they are, I will be posting up a Word file with a list of them in a later post.

That’s all I got for now. Stay tuned.

Icosikaiterahedron! (Or 24-gon)

So on the 11th of May, Monday, I got 12 pieces of posterboard that were of 4 different colors and I started creating what is called an Icosikaiterahedron, also known as a 24-sided tessalated figure. (At least I’m pretty sure, I could use some clarity on it.)

But yeah, it took about 3 hours to build, and now that it is complete and I’ve turned it in for extra credit, I brought it home to take pics. So you can click the images below to view them!

Yeah, it’s really large. I could’ve used regular white paper and made it normal sized, but I decided to go large. It is about 16″x16″ from end to end so it is very large, about up to your knees if you stand. It is also heavier than it looks too. About 3~5 pounds which is quite alot for paper.

Windows XP is Back!

So I’m finally back to good old Windows XP. I know you might be thinking that Windows XP is outdated with Windows 7 coming in and Vista being sold in stores everywhere, but I plan to stick with XP for a few more years. I couldn’t believe that I went from 800 MB of free RAM from boot up on Vista, to 1.5~1.6 GB of free RAM everytime I started up on Windows XP. Pretty neat.

I noticed the big difference in speed and I am quite happy with the results. I ran into one little snag earlier which is explained below.

So I first tried to install XP next to Vista, but I couldn’t because the drive was protected with SATA ACPI I think it was? (Not sure since my memory isn’t serving me well right now so, sorry if I’m wrong) So of course, my first source of reference was the internet. I read a few articles and found one where I have to switch the SATA/RAID setting (I forgot which one it was so I list both) to ATA. Then I was able to visibly see my drive, but by that time I forgot about the putting XP with Vista and just moving stuff from Vista and decided to wipe about 110 GB of my 140 GB hard drive. Took awhile for it to go through the NTFS file system setup process, but after that it was pretty simple.

Watched the Windows XP install screens, let it run through for about half an hour, then we go into the Windows XP screen with surprise surprise no drivers (as usual). So I pull out my Dell drivers disk I got and put it in. Used Inspiron 1525 model drivers with Windows XP drivers (Kind of glad they had those) and got my wireless card, graphics enhancement, webcam, touchpad, and a few other drivers placed on. It wouldn’t install my Sigmatel sound card driver for some reason which is where I got kind of frustrated. Everytime I ran the installer, it’d start up, scan my audio hardware configuration, then just mysteriously disappear.

So I reboot my computer, then when I start up, Sigmatel installation window pops up. I’m like, interesting…When it finishes I’m happy because it successfully installs my sound card in and I am done. I immediately get the SP3 update from XP (By now they have fixed all the bugs compared to my last test if you read about 4 or 5 months back with me testing SP3 in its early stages. I get avast! antivirus again, and start reinstalling items. SCWebcam3, Pidgin, WinSCP, Spore, Drift City, Diablo 2, Microsoft Office 2007, Firefox, and a few other programs that I often used. So I’m happy now, my computer’s officially Windows XP. I save RAM, I still have all my programs, and I get to do stuff super fast now.

That’s about it for today, we’ll see what happens later.

Back To Activity

So it’s been about a month since I have made another new post on here, but now I am making one. What I have been up to I’ll explain in a second. I named today’s post “Back to Activity” because I have been doing lots of things lately and I plan to share them below.

First off, I am planning to go back to Windows XP pretty soon. Why? Mostly because I want a fast computer. I admit that Vista is great, and has things we all love, but I think Vista is getting a little annoying as I boot up each day, wait 30 seconds, type in a password, then wait 30 more seconds before I can finally begin working. It adds up and I just want it to be more responsive and active. So, today I officially make the switch. I have backed up Documents and Pictures, and am starting it as soon as I finish this blog post. I know it’ll take a few hours, but it’ll be worth it. So how am I doing it? I’m using PC Magazine’s May 2008 “Return to Windows XP” as a guide, and am using the first tip they provide which is installing XP over Vista without wiping the hard drive. Then from there, I just transfer my old files, reinstall applications, and delete the Vista junk left behind. I was thinking about a reformat, but it’s not really much of something in my head to do right now. Actually, now that I think about it, it may just be easier to reformat…Hmm, either way I want to get it done. I have burned a few disks containing all of my document files in .rar format and have them separated by 700 MB archives.

So, now my second topic is basically about my gaming life. First off, I want to say that I am Lv49 on Drift City. Pretty neat. I’ve quit Fiesta so I won’t be talking about that anymore by the way. I have chosen some nice cars now, sold off my older version cars. I have pics of each one on the next page. Just click More to go through them. The post continues on the More link after the images and I included some older images while driving so you can see what cars I used earlier along with some nice scenery and such. (I chose to stick with OMD.)