‘Twas my B’Day and Life’s just on @the Pinnacle…
Posted by Prashanth | Filed under Birdwatching, Blogging, College, FIITJEE Pinnacle, General, It's My Life, Linux, Photography, Quizzing, School Life, Shutterbugs, Technology
Sorry to intercept your flow of feeds from several blogs around cyberspace with this distantly familiar web page with a forgotten author(s), but well, my blog did miss attention from people everywhere including me. And so did I. Loads of things happened since June, when I last made any kind of an update, (not referring to the blogroll) on the blog. Anyway, its nearly 2 months since then, with a few sharable events.
- Uma Leaves to NIFT B’lore
You people must have read this previously on the blog that Uma is not between us anymore. She left this place on the 24th of July. Anyway, things have been fun there as per what I hear from her these days. I am quite sure things must be very different in an all new place where someone has to get used to not having those family pampers in all it’s bounty amongst many other things. After all, it is kind of impossible to fit eighteen years worth of an eventful lifetime in three suitcases and one tiny little skull! (This line is by Uma herself!) And it isn’t everyday that your bestest friend in the whole world leaves to another place and sudden change in how often you speak or the detail in which you tell things just doesn’t feel right. There is immense nostalgia for so many things in her head for now. Just wish her good luck. She is finally studying what she wanted to, something very few people realize in time. You people MIGHT hear more from her once she gets her PC there.
- My Birthday
Yes, I turned seventeen last Thursday, the 28th of August. Not particularly eventful, except that I almost had my hips and my back broken. Had dinner at Chopstix, an amazing place near Siri Fort Auditorium. More on that later, but then nothing really worth too much mention. Coming to gifts, my parents decided not to buy me anything that could engage me, like for instance books, or new hardware for the PC, etc. I didn’t turn up at Matrix-Ecomm 2008, @ MSM as these days I am more serious about getting into IIT and doing well with my subjects than I ever was before.
- Got a new puppy!
Yes, I now am a proud owner of a month old Pomeranian puppy whose name is still in the beta testing stages. It’s biscuit brown in color and is really small, soft and cuddly. It feels like a lovely toy. When it first entered the house, I thought of naming it on people whom I really consider as dogs, but then eventually I fell in love with it so much that, now I don’t want it to remind me of dogs anymore! It learnt barking just a week ago. Anyway, a few pictures should be enough to have all of you green here…
Suggest me some cute and catchy names please… And, before I forget, its a GUY!
- Had another meet at Basant Lok
Had a really fun meet at Yo! China with Abhishek, Roshan, Ayush, and Uma before Uma left Delhi. The meet was ornamented with PJs and fun talks followed with window shopping at Om Book Shop.
- Upgraded to Ubuntu 8.04.1 LTS 64bit
I used Gutsy(7.10) previously, and upgrading wasn’t really hard and it isn’t as bad as some people claim it to be. Heck, I have even heard of Linux enthusiasts migrating to Windows Vista after using it! On the contrary, it is zippier and the experience really isn’t very different from what I used before. The bug fixes and performance tweaks and other minor changes make it a release with nothing much to be excited about, but then you wouldn’t regret an upgrade. With better hardware support, I finally got my ancient HP 1100 printer working with Ubuntu.
- Movies I saw this Summer
- The Dark Knight - Awesome! A review is scheduled soon. Take my word, it isn’t your normal superhero flick.
- 21 - “Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!” An amazing watch again. really brilliant camera work and direction. The girl was good too. MIT is reason enough for many to watch it.
- The Man from the Earth - An unconventional movie which is nothing more than a gripping discussion between university professors. Simply brilliant. I wish I could write this movie a review.
- Sicko - Micheal Moore. Period.
- Disney’s Mulan - If you liked Pocahontas, you should find this one okay.
- Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dam - Had seen it long time ago, but saw it once more and I still find it just as good.
- Pulp Fiction - I guess I would be the only person on the planet to hate it. Before you hurl curses and other vegetables on my taste in movies, just know that I really love South Park, Friends and even Simpsons. I just hated this movie. Even with the subtitles!
- Goodbye Lenin - Another recommendation by Uma, just like many others in this list. Was fun.
- Stranger than Fiction - Fabulous. Really witty and engaging. Suttle yet a powerful comic storyline. Amazing direction! This was Roshan’s recommendation.
- Following - Christopher Nolan zindabad!
- Sarkar Raj - Copied storyline or not, the movie is a refreshing watch. Brilliant camera work. Wonderful dialogues!
- Khuda Ke Liye - Angering plot. Makes you wonder - just how many problems could you put on one family? It might frustrate you a lot. But nice music scores, especially those in the background. Good camera work and filled with appealing/pleasing colors.
Would love to go on in this list, but there are other events to cover.
- Photography Expedition at JNU
Or perhaps a get-together that Uma, Roshan and I had planned in JNU with our cameras. Had a fun time laughing, throwing lame PJs, bickering, birdwatching, trailing in the woods, getting caught in the rain, eating canteen food, and even watching a movie in the end. Will dedicate a post on this. ‘Twas a memorable time spent there.
- Columban Open Quiz 2008
Went with an all new team consisting of two ex-DPS Damanjodi students and Sourabh from the previous team. Reached the semis, and were tanked out after that. Wasn’t really good as I heard that many questions were rip offs from other quizzing events. Too bad I couldn’t take advantage of the situation. Was kind of boring this time. I don’t think I would dedicate a post on it now.
- @the Pinnacle
Our JEE syllabus is almost complete now. really gearing up for 2-2.5 months of review sessions. Solving the entire 25 year IIT-JEE archive end to end making sure that everything is crystal clear. CBSE based exams are bugging in the middle of all this and to my surprise (read: shock!) it isn’t seeming as easy as swatting a fly this time. Nonetheless, the situation seems to be in control, but then I do need to take a long term Sanyaas or a penance to the sins committed against IIT-JEE prep last year. This year, I plan to waste very little of my time in the least no. of competitive events. Delhi students need not start celebrating yet, as I might surprise you! 
Tons of changes at school. Will write a lot about it too. Also, upgraded to Wordpress 2.6…
For now, please don’t unsubscribe to the feeds or don’t get rid of my blog’s link yet. I would keep it active for a very long time for now.
Gaming on Linux… (Un)Happy Feet!
Posted by Prashanth | Filed under Headshot, Linux, Open Source, Technology
Whenever I try and convert myself to into a total Linux geek and into the guy who would ditch and literally break free from the ‘closed’ Windows once and for all, there is one temptation that comes in my way and that just doesn’t allow me to become an aggressive Linux activist and also not convincingly make someone else use Linux. Each time someone comes to my place, he gets wooed with my Ubuntu Desktop and its features but then at the end of the day, the situation is something like this…
Fortunately for now, people who feel passionate about gaming at the same time know the better platform can have an easy time without that tedious reboot. I know how hard it is to reboot for those who love hibernating and working for long hours, but that’s life. You can’t have everything you ask for at one place, right? Maybe not this time…
Option A
For those who believe gaming is an absolute impossibility on Linux, here you go. That’s an emulation software or something that fools the game that it is actually running on windows and not something else. Although the free implementation of the same thing, better known as Wine doesn’t really pack that punch to run technically complex software like games or apps like Photoshop, this one as per its claims does. I cannot really test it for several reasons. Firstly, I own a Radeon Xpress 200 motherboard whose on-board graphics do not have as good of drivers for Linux. And secondly, the Radeon HD 2400 that I own hasn’t got very efficient graphics drivers for Linux either. Although ATI does have a high performance Open Source driver in the pipeline, but for now I am stuck. Claims, reviews and discussions across cyberspace suggest that games run better on Cedega/Linux than they run natively on Windows.
Now this is something worth a thought. A CPU game running on Linux runs an emulation software for interoperability and the game itself. But then windows doesn’t need that compatibility layer. So proving that Linux technically has a better potential to extract more juice out of your PC, I head on with another problem. Not all games are supported, especially the DX10/10.1 ones which are here/yet to to come.
The only problem is that the site calls a Cedega user as a Trans-Gamer… which sounds on the same lines as Trans-Sexual. 
A Cedegan or a Tuxegan might sound better!
Option B
There is this project, although currently in testing stages called Project Alky which aims at an open source solution to to liberate DirectX 10 gaming from the confines of Vista and bring it first to Windows XP, and then to Linux and OS X. The project plans to do this by building a converter that can take in a DX10 game executable and spit out a modified version that can be run on a (non-Vista) target OS. Now that means celebration for people who love Open Source, Linux and Crysis all the three just as much… Not only just that, but also the upcoming Direct X10 based desktop applications…
Option C
Linux based games aren’t bad either. You have quite a few of them which give some of the older Windows games a hard punch. But then, one in a million developers make Linux versions of their games as well. Take Unreal for example. Epic Games has been sincerely making Linux versions of its series since the beginning. Coming back to Linux native games, you have Tremulous, Nexuiz, Alien Arena and Wormux (the Linux and OSS clone of the popular Worms, for non-gamers!). With greater adoption of Linux, this number is predicted to increase with a number of developers bringing out Linux native versions of their games…
