Beer testing

OK - here's something to cheer about, taken from Smile of the Day (Beer Testing, February 8):

Yesterday, scientists for the USDA suggested that men should take a look at their beer consumption,considering the results of a recent analysis that revealed the presence of female hormones in beer.

The theory is that drinking beer makes men turn into women. To test the finding, 100 men were fed 8 pints of beer each. It was then observed that 100% of the men gained weight, talked excessively without making sense, became overly emotional, could not drive, failed to think rationally, argued over nothing, and refused to apologise when wrong.

No further testing is planned.

Live CD saves my files

After having changed my mainboard due to a terrible thunderstorm (see previous post), my Windows and Ubuntu OS wouldn't boot. I had gigabytes of data-files to back up, including saved Need for Speed Carbon games and Half-Life 2 games (see post), personal files and music. That would have been impossible unless to transfer the hard disk to another computer as slave and then perform the operation.

However, thanks to Live CD technology from Linux, I was able to boot my computer and transfer my files via LAN to my old P3 for backup! Mounting the drives using Kubuntu Live CD was a breeze and a fun experience.

Unfornately, I couldn't test to see whether we can burn DVDs using Live CD in Kubuntu since I have only one DVD-drive on my P4 - that's why I had to make a LAN transfer!

Pain of a thunderstorm

Usually, people who use their desktop computers frequently know that having an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) is important - it helps protect the computer from unexpected power disruption. So saying, it should supply some amount of power to allow us to shut down our computer, after having saved all our data, nicely when a power cut occurs. And it should also protect us against voltage spikes which may occur, especially during thunderstorms.

However, my UPS did not achieve the second goal three weeks ago during a thunderstorm. I should admit that it might have achieved it during the last three years since my dad bought it and that we had no problems at all, but not three weeks ago, despite the fact that it is labeled 'surge protection system'.

Consequence: the power supply and mainboard on my P4 burnt! However, my P3, which is also connected to the same UPS, was working fine!!

My dad and brother took the P4 to BBCWYSE Ltd which is found near where I live. The guy there told me later that the UPS does not protect against voltage spike! despite the fact that it is labeled 'surge protection'!!

So far, no huge pain - we only have to buy a new mainboard... But alas! When we bought the P4 three years ago from Leal Informatics Ltd, we had a Gigabyte socket 478 mainboard with 5 PCI slots and extension bracket for 5.1 surround sound. However, we couldn't find one which matches this criterion - socket 478 with 5 PCI slots! Why we're after this: because as the years passed by, we bought PCI modem, firewire (IEEE 1394) PCI card, PCI LAN card, etc...

After three weeks search at nearly all stores in Mauritius, we came to the conclusion that we couldn't replace our mainboard with an identical or near-identical one since the mainboard was no longer being manufactured. Huh, this is expected since in the IT world, everything changes fast.

But we were disappointed since we had to buy a cheap integrated MSI mainboard with no Game and MIDI ports, no 5.1 surround sound extension bracket, no serial port, etc... it provided only the basics!!

After passing three weeks without a good computer at home, I will now have to pass the next months thinking on what to invest money - a PCI 5.1 surround sound card or a MIDI PCI port... since I have only one PCI port left empty! I may get both on the same card at some store but that may be really expensive and rare... so I'm keeping my fingers crossed...

Discover Audacity, a free, open source software for recording and editing sounds

A friend of mine was looking for some great application to record his voice and play it for his little adoring girl when he's not at home. We searched the net for the right software, but many were not available freely and were just packed with too many features that we're never gonna use. Moreover, they were not intuitive to use.


So here comes Audacity: a free, open source software for recording and editing sounds, available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems!

It has an intuitive GUI (Graphical User Interface) and is packed with many essential features. With Audacity, you may:

• record from microphone, line input, or other sources
• import and export WAV, AIFF, AU, and Ogg Vorbis files
• apply a wide array of effects like chorus, flanger, echo, phaser...
• record any sound on your sound card (through wave, CD, line in, AUX...) in crystal-clear quality

Who says that on a Windows system you're limited to the 60 seconds recording allowed in the crap Windows Sound Recorder? No more now!

Audacity is shipped with many Linux distros including Ubuntu.

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.