Labels are back

Since Blogger is no more in beta, many issues have been solved. Therefore, I'm resuming labels. So you may read/search articles of your particular interest.

Happy reading!

Playing Half-Life 2, the best game ever

Half-Life is a shooter-game developed by Valve Software and published by Sierra. It was released in November 1998. By brother and (he-)cousin were really crazy about the game at the time and played it for more than 12 hours a day for a whole month at least! No wonder, the game was rated 'best game ever' by PC Gamer many times. That's because the game was innovative in terms of technologies that are used.



Then came Half-Life 2, released in 2004. It's only now that I have started to play it and I must admit it really is the best game ever. All Half-Life games have been given the award many times. It is a real pleasure to play such a nice game. I love it because it tries to achieve perfection for its

• advanced facial animation
• respect for the laws of physics, such as that of mass, friction and gravity
• high graphics
• good AI

Then there's Counter-Strike, an online game and Half-Life 2 Episode One out. Phew! What an array of games! I think there's more than enough for me to enjoy!

Some related sites:

Half-Life at Wikipedia
Half-Life 2 at Wikipedia

Tom Snare live in Mauritius

Tom Snare is a French association of DJ Steed, guitarist Steve Watt and producer Xavier De Canter. They play techno, dance and electro music. Tom Snare's first album Tom Snare's World was released in October this year (2006). It contains the following 16 tracks:

1. Waterfalls (Radio Edit)
2. Philosophy (song)
3. My Mother Says
4. Homeworld
5. Electro Choc
6. Love Sensation
7. Lick It
8. Running (I Can't Stop Loving You)
9. Rock On You
10. Fashion Avenue
11. More Than A Surprise
12. No Dreams
13. Philosophy (Le Remix)
14. My Mother Says (Extended Mix)
15. Waterfalls (Electro Extended Mix)
16. My Mother Says (My Piano Mix)

The group has made a phenomenal success with the track Philosophy. A second album is to get out soon.

The group is ranked 1564 on TheDJList.com.



On Saturday 2^nd December, Liquid and The Hippies organised a fantastic techno night with guest DJ Tom Snare (DJ Steed) at La Citadelle, Mauritius. The event was broadcast live on Kool FM's Liquid/Essential Kool Mix.

I was happy to attend since I obtained a Liquid key-holder and nice discount at all Liquid shops.

There was a long warm-up session by DJ Prakash Samputh, DJ Patrice D'Avrincourt, DJ Giovanni Paul and DJ Bernard Desmarais prior to the world star DJ session.

The music was really nice and nicer when DJ Steed got his hands on the mixer. I should say that mixing is DJ Tom Snare's second nature. He's in always in phase with the track that he's mixing and he makes the audience feel the music. I should admit that Tom Snare will soon be among the world's top DJs and that his ranking will climb considerably. DJ Tom Snare even presented us with an exclusive track that they will be releasing shortly.

Here are some pictures which I took:




More pictures of the night are available here.

Apologies for no recent updates

I am really sorry for not being able to write at least once a week for the past month. I was really busy at work and was so tired that I couldn't even post updates from home. However, I should also say that I tasted some games and played for hours and hours and looked at TV too much at other times.

Enter Fedora Core 5

It's only after a long time that I finally decided to install the Linux distro from Redhat, Fedora Core 5. Yes I know, FC 6 was released last week. But I cannot afford to download such a huge OS DVD using my rather slow 'broadband' connection...

As I feared, the installation process reminds me of Window$. I only have to press the famous 'Next' button, unlike Debian, which asks me for different configuration options.

The only problem that I encountered while installing was where to put the GRUB bootloader. I first put it in the second partition but the bootloader didn't load. Instead the Windows XP bootloader loaded. So I re-installed FC 5 and placed the GRUB bootloader in MBR and this time it was OK!

However I do agree that Fedora Core might be good for those who 'fear' Linux and who are not so technical. Debian might be better for experienced computer users who know their hardware well. But installing Debian Linux is nice since we are 'forced' to know our hardware better!

To make things better, I decided to do a Google Fight to see which one wins!


And great, it's Debian Linux who wins!!

Exit Windows Vista and removing Windows Vista boot menu items

OK well, Windows Vista RC 1 has a long way to go. So better remove it, right? So I just formatted the partition hoping that I will boot in Windows XP automatically. But oops! The Windows Vista boot menu showing options to boot in 'Earlier version of Windows' or 'Windows Vista'.

I downloaded a software called Vista Boot Pro to remove the Vista bootloader. And it works! Great!

Enter Windows Vista RC 1

I finally decided to download and test the upcoming Windows Vista OS that Microsoft's been promising for more than a year.

Last month I was able to download the RC 1 version; RC 2 had been removed from Microsoft's servers. I've been given a license number that may be used on 10 computers. And unfortunately, the license expires on 1^st July 2007... And once the software is installed, I have 14 days to activate it, else some things won't run...

There's an excellent review of the new features of Windows Vista at Wikipedia.org. Here's my personal addition though...

The good

• There's a lot of transparency effects on menu bars
• There's some nice fading animation when minimising and maximising windows
• The gadgets seem OK
• Nice Flip3d
• New Internet Explorer has tabs
• New 'cooler' font
  
• Here's my desktop:
  

• I also like the snipping tool that's good to take part of the desktop's screenshot.
  

The bad

• Flip3d is not new; it's a package that exists since a long ago in Linux distro and used in Mac OS X Tiger
• Gadgets also is an idea from Mac OS X
• Tabing was introduced by Mozilla Firefox
• Though the Windows sound setup plays 5.1 surround sound, Windows Media Player 11 does not do so. It plays tracks in 2.0 only!
• My Wanadoo USB ZTE modem drivers are not compatible, so I can't connect to the Internet (more precisely it's the PPPoA WAN adapter that doesn't work)
• The new font resembles more like the one used in Mac OS X

Enjoy Vista while it's free! But don't spend on it!

Or more: test it to see why you shouldn't buy the final version!! Use a Linux distro...