Senin, 30 Maret 2009
Mercedes-Benz Parts Online
Traditionally, finding a source for OEM and aftermarket Mercedes Benz parts meant having to live in or close to a large city. Now the power of the internet allows for the luxury of finding Mercedes Benz parts and accessories from the comfort of your own home. Whether you are shopping for Mercedes Benz parts & accessories to upgrade your interior or exterior, or repair parts to replace your
Something You Should Know About Aftermarket Accessories
Aftermarket Auto AccessoriesCounterfeit Aftermarket Accessories and parts are as prevalent as a street vendor selling a fake Rolex on the corner. Aftermarket accessories are not any different, and consumers should be on the lookout when shopping for discount car accessories.Since the 1980’s, criminals have been selling fraudulent high performance aftermarket accessories at a cheaper price. The
Top Tips for Classic Car Restoration
Car RestorationClassic car restoration is one of the most rewarding activities a car enthusiast can perform. Transforming a “seemingly old car” back into a classic vehicle in all of its glory is nothing less than art.Car owner must know how to properly evaluate the condition of a car and then establish the level of car restoration to be performed to such vehicle. There are 4 levels of classic car
Useful BMW Accessories for Your Stylish BMW
BMW Accessories not only represent style, they are also high quality and totally reliable. These BMW accessories are designed to make your ride more pleasurable and long-term maintenance benefits. If you are looking for state-of-the-art BMW accessories, do check out this online site that provided BMW Accessories to worldwide customers. You will find tons of beautiful and long-lasting BMW
Volkswagen Accessories: a Legacy of Greatness
Quality has never been stressed by German automobile manufacturer Volkswagen. Volkswagen is responsible for the sale and service of Audi, Bentley and Lamborghini. Known throughout the entire world for its blue Volkswagen logo, the company redefined innovation and efficiency in every vehicle that they have released in the market.One of the many Volkswagen accessories that can supplement the
Range and cost information of fuel cells (FC EXPO 2009)
An important issue for fuel cell vehicle at the moment, “range”, “sub-zero start”, “FC improving the durability of the stack” and “cost reduction” in the fourth.The range is as was mentioned earlier, on par with gasoline vehicles already achieved more than 500km. Loss and loss of electrical energy and heat loss of the inverter stack 15 percent reduction by increasing the amount of regenerative
Hydrogen-diesel from BMW
Hydrogen-diesel from BMW Hydrogen-diesel from BMWEngineers from the BMW developed a new cylinder head for hydrogen operation based on a production diesel engine. BMW designed high pressure injectors for direct injection of hydrogen into the combustion chamber with pressures of up to 300 bar, nearly 4500 psi. With the diesel base, however a much better efficiency, with the new technology reached
High-speed Detroit-Lansing rail line envisioned
A company called Worldwide Hydrogen Super Highways says it has designed a magnetic-levitation rail line to run near existing highways between Detroit, Lansing and Ann Arbor.The elevated rail line would use cars “built by Detroit Three automakers” that would use solar energy to power hydrogen batteries, said Justin Sutton of Whitmore Lake, founder of Worldwide Hydrogen Super Highways, which has
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Mazda Premacy Hydrogen RE Hybrid
Mazda5 hydrogen About the hybrid is the second model available in the trade of the manufacturer with the rotatory hydrogen engine. Since 2006, the RE of hydrogen RX-8 for the businesses of leasing released, contrary to Mazda5 hydrogen About the hybrid, but of him is only by its rotatory engine and any additional electrical motor on board.The hydrogen of Premacy About the hybrid comprises a hybrid
Harvick Wins Truck Race
Kevin Harvick got by the indomitable Kyle Busch for the lead with 10 laps to go Monday and held on to win the Kroger 250 Camping World Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway.
Driving his own No. 2 Kevin Harvick Inc. Chevrolet, Harvick obtained his fourth career truck win in his 97th start in an event that had been postponed because of rain on Saturday.
"I was able to get to his bumper there and just kind of get him up about half a groove and got up under him." said Harvick, who ran the final 185 laps, including one extra lap because of a green-white-checkered-flag finish, on one tank of fuel.
Busch was subsequently penalized for a commitment line violation when he intentionally ran against the inside backstretch wall under caution in an attempt to straighten out a fender that was bashed in. Busch led a race-high 139 laps and finished 17th.
KHI's Ron Hornaday finished second, and Mike Skinner, Johnny Benson and polesitter Rick Crawford rounded out the top five.
The race had 13 cautions, the first on Lap 1.
After the fifth caution, Busch needed less than three laps to dispose of Jason White and take the lead on Lap 102. Busch held the spot until Harvick moved underneath him in the final laps.
Busch remained the series points leader over Todd Bodine, who finished 18th after being involved in two separate accidents, including one with two laps to go that forced the race to finish under caution.
Busch, who is running a partial schedule, won't compete in the series' next race, April 25 at Kansas Speedway.
Notes: Mike Bliss finished 15th in his 200th truck start. ... Ken Schrader finished 10th for his first top-10 since a fourth-place finish last year at Martinsville. ... James Buescher, who turned 19 last week, finished 11th, the highest finish among the six rookies in the race.
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service
Driving his own No. 2 Kevin Harvick Inc. Chevrolet, Harvick obtained his fourth career truck win in his 97th start in an event that had been postponed because of rain on Saturday.
"I was able to get to his bumper there and just kind of get him up about half a groove and got up under him." said Harvick, who ran the final 185 laps, including one extra lap because of a green-white-checkered-flag finish, on one tank of fuel.
Busch was subsequently penalized for a commitment line violation when he intentionally ran against the inside backstretch wall under caution in an attempt to straighten out a fender that was bashed in. Busch led a race-high 139 laps and finished 17th.
KHI's Ron Hornaday finished second, and Mike Skinner, Johnny Benson and polesitter Rick Crawford rounded out the top five.
The race had 13 cautions, the first on Lap 1.
After the fifth caution, Busch needed less than three laps to dispose of Jason White and take the lead on Lap 102. Busch held the spot until Harvick moved underneath him in the final laps.
Busch remained the series points leader over Todd Bodine, who finished 18th after being involved in two separate accidents, including one with two laps to go that forced the race to finish under caution.
Busch, who is running a partial schedule, won't compete in the series' next race, April 25 at Kansas Speedway.
Notes: Mike Bliss finished 15th in his 200th truck start. ... Ken Schrader finished 10th for his first top-10 since a fourth-place finish last year at Martinsville. ... James Buescher, who turned 19 last week, finished 11th, the highest finish among the six rookies in the race.
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service
Tip of the Day: Easily Start a Dedicated Urban Terror Server
Here is an example for starting a dedicated Urban Terror server:
/usr/local/games/ioquake3/ioq3ded.i386 +set fs_game q3ut4 +set dedicated 2 +set net_IP <IP> +set net_port 27960 +set com_hunkmegs 256 +set sv_maxclients 12 +exec server.cfg
Don't forget to replace <IP> with the machine's IP. You will also have to configure your server.cfg file (more details in the official documentation, here). Once everything is in place the server should be listed in the in-game Internet server browser.
/usr/local/games/ioquake3/ioq3ded.i386 +set fs_game q3ut4 +set dedicated 2 +set net_IP <IP> +set net_port 27960 +set com_hunkmegs 256 +set sv_maxclients 12 +exec server.cfg
Don't forget to replace <IP> with the machine's IP. You will also have to configure your server.cfg file (more details in the official documentation, here). Once everything is in place the server should be listed in the in-game Internet server browser.
Review: Dolphin 1.2.1 File Manager
Introduction
Dolphin was intended to replace Konqueror as the default file manager in KDE 4. The scope of Dolphin was to only provide a compact and easy-to-use file manager, without all the features and uses Konqueror has. And (I think) it succeeded. In the beginning most of the users were reticent regarding this idea, since Konqueror provided anything one could possibly ask from a file manager. Besides, most KDE fans thought Dolphin looks too much like with Nautilus and may be limited regarding usability and configuration. However, I see in Dolphin an appropriate manager for day-to-day use.
Interface
Dolphin is split in three main components (except for the menubar and toolbar). The first one would be the Places widget, located by default to the left, and containing shortcuts to the most important places like home directory, root, trash, and mounted devices. The center is occupied with the file browser, while to the right there is the file information widget. The good thing is that the Places and Information widgets can be moved and grouped wherever one likes. Another plus is the way the icons in the Places tab resize depending on the tab's width.
Features
Dolphin comes with tab support (the usual CTRL+T and CTRL+N shortcuts by default, also the KDE-specific CTRL+, and CTRL+. for switching to the previous and, respectively, next tab). Although not visible by default, the location bar can be shown using the standard CTRL+L shortcut.
Regarding configuration, Dolphin offers all the necessary and specific options for a regular file manager: from sorting files by name, size, date, type etc to file previews, a huge number of zoom levels for icons (with a zoom slider which can be shown or hidden via Settings -> Configure Dolphin -> General tab), the ability to browse through archives (by embedding Ark) and several more. It allows three view modes for files: icons, details and columns, and it also includes the option to split tabs vertically (left/right). Basically, all the important features in Konqueror's file manager can be found in Dolphin too.
As in every standard KDE application, you can configure the shortcuts in the Settings -> Configure shortcuts menu option.
If you miss buttons like Up (Alt+Up) or Zoom In/Out from the toolbar, you can add these by right-clicking on the toolbar and going to the Configure Toolbars... option.
Conclusion
Since my main system is Debian Lenny (KDE3) I must say I did not have much time to test KDE4 (although lately I spent some time with Kubuntu Jaunty Beta), but I was impressed in a pleasant way by Dolphin. What I've read before was mostly how crappy of a file manager it is, how limited it is and so on. Although I prefer Konqueror, I must say this isn't true: Dolphin is actually pretty feature-complete and easy to use.
It's true that once you get used in Konqueror, for example, to open pictures, text files etc. in a new tab, it will be hard to get unused to this when in Dolphin. But Dolphin's purpose is not to be Konqueror and that's it. And it is not so 'basic' and tiny as some make it look. In time, it will probably become the file manager of choice for the majority of KDE4 users (if not already).
Do you use Dolphin on a daily basis? Do you prefer it over Konqueror or use another file manager in KDE4? Please share it in the comments below.
Homepage
Dolphin was intended to replace Konqueror as the default file manager in KDE 4. The scope of Dolphin was to only provide a compact and easy-to-use file manager, without all the features and uses Konqueror has. And (I think) it succeeded. In the beginning most of the users were reticent regarding this idea, since Konqueror provided anything one could possibly ask from a file manager. Besides, most KDE fans thought Dolphin looks too much like with Nautilus and may be limited regarding usability and configuration. However, I see in Dolphin an appropriate manager for day-to-day use.
Interface
Dolphin is split in three main components (except for the menubar and toolbar). The first one would be the Places widget, located by default to the left, and containing shortcuts to the most important places like home directory, root, trash, and mounted devices. The center is occupied with the file browser, while to the right there is the file information widget. The good thing is that the Places and Information widgets can be moved and grouped wherever one likes. Another plus is the way the icons in the Places tab resize depending on the tab's width.
Features
Dolphin comes with tab support (the usual CTRL+T and CTRL+N shortcuts by default, also the KDE-specific CTRL+, and CTRL+. for switching to the previous and, respectively, next tab). Although not visible by default, the location bar can be shown using the standard CTRL+L shortcut.
Regarding configuration, Dolphin offers all the necessary and specific options for a regular file manager: from sorting files by name, size, date, type etc to file previews, a huge number of zoom levels for icons (with a zoom slider which can be shown or hidden via Settings -> Configure Dolphin -> General tab), the ability to browse through archives (by embedding Ark) and several more. It allows three view modes for files: icons, details and columns, and it also includes the option to split tabs vertically (left/right). Basically, all the important features in Konqueror's file manager can be found in Dolphin too.
Split left/right
As in every standard KDE application, you can configure the shortcuts in the Settings -> Configure shortcuts menu option.
If you miss buttons like Up (Alt+Up) or Zoom In/Out from the toolbar, you can add these by right-clicking on the toolbar and going to the Configure Toolbars... option.
Conclusion
Since my main system is Debian Lenny (KDE3) I must say I did not have much time to test KDE4 (although lately I spent some time with Kubuntu Jaunty Beta), but I was impressed in a pleasant way by Dolphin. What I've read before was mostly how crappy of a file manager it is, how limited it is and so on. Although I prefer Konqueror, I must say this isn't true: Dolphin is actually pretty feature-complete and easy to use.
It's true that once you get used in Konqueror, for example, to open pictures, text files etc. in a new tab, it will be hard to get unused to this when in Dolphin. But Dolphin's purpose is not to be Konqueror and that's it. And it is not so 'basic' and tiny as some make it look. In time, it will probably become the file manager of choice for the majority of KDE4 users (if not already).
About
Do you use Dolphin on a daily basis? Do you prefer it over Konqueror or use another file manager in KDE4? Please share it in the comments below.
Homepage
Upcoming Nationwide Races
April 4 at Texas will kick off a string of six consecutive race weekends for the Nationwide series, this will be the longest running race string of the season thus far.
And all upcoming races will be on different types of tracks.
Following Texas, the last of three consecutive events, are races at the 1.33-mile concrete Nashville Superspeedway (April 11), the 1-mile Phoenix International Raceway (April 17), the 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway (April 25), the .75-mile Richmond International Raceway (May 1) and the 1.366-mile Darlington Raceway (May 8).
The series' next break will come during the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race weekend.
Nice... NBaP likes the Natiowide events... it breaks up that long weekend wait until Cup Sunday (Or Saturday) and they're short and fun races!!
source: NASCAR
And all upcoming races will be on different types of tracks.
Following Texas, the last of three consecutive events, are races at the 1.33-mile concrete Nashville Superspeedway (April 11), the 1-mile Phoenix International Raceway (April 17), the 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway (April 25), the .75-mile Richmond International Raceway (May 1) and the 1.366-mile Darlington Raceway (May 8).
The series' next break will come during the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race weekend.
Nice... NBaP likes the Natiowide events... it breaks up that long weekend wait until Cup Sunday (Or Saturday) and they're short and fun races!!
source: NASCAR
Bodykit Headlight Taillight CRV2004
Bodykit, Headlight Taillight buat CRV2004The second-generation CR-V was all-new for the 2002 model year and remains one of the most popular compact sport-utility vehicles on the road, offering a unique blend of SUV versatility, top level safety performance, car-like handling and Honda quality. The Honda CR-V is powered by a 2.0-litre, 16-valve, DOHC 4-cylinder i-VTEC engine producing 150 hp and
Body kit new Honda FIT/JAZZ 2008
Body kit new Honda FIT/JAZZ 2008Body kit new Honda FIT/JAZZ 2008Body kit new Honda FIT/JAZZ 2008
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Scissor Door - Bolt On car modification concepsmodifications to the car with the door trim and this trend is being target modification of the young nowadays
Osram H1 12V 55W 64150NBR Night Breaker +90 More Light And +10 White
Osram H1 12V 55W 64150NBR Night Breaker +90 More Light And +10 WhiteH1 - 64150 NBR12 V 55 W Test voltage: 13.2 V Base: P14.5s ECE approval: E1The ideal lamp for drivers who want to drive with more light for greater safety.Thanks to a newly-developed high output coil and the blue ring coating, the headlight lamps of the NIGHT BREAKER product family.latest high-power technology shine up to 90% more
Cuting Sticker modification car
Cuting Sticker modification car cepersuzuki apv cuting sticker modificationhonda jazz with cuting sticker styleCuting Sticker modification carpeople who have cars, especially young people like certain modifications in the car, and this is being now trend with cuting sticker so stylis car more elegant and beautiful in perspective. cuting the sticker is being guest sekrang this modification in the
Minggu, 29 Maret 2009
Digger Cam - We Finally See It!
Ever since its inception, I've been wondering what the "Digger" cam looked like.
Check it out over at my new location, in the article titled This Is Fox's Digger Cam.
Check it out over at my new location, in the article titled This Is Fox's Digger Cam.
It's Clear and 70 AT Martinsville
It's time for some Cup Racing.
The trucks have been postponed until Monday.
To my newsletter readers... oops. You don't get my posts until the next day.
So my newsletter that came out Sunday morning said it was raining.
My bad.
It was an emotional post and I should have indicated it was Saturday, and it was the Trucks.
Hope I didn't throw anyone off.
--
Bruce
The trucks have been postponed until Monday.
To my newsletter readers... oops. You don't get my posts until the next day.
So my newsletter that came out Sunday morning said it was raining.
My bad.
It was an emotional post and I should have indicated it was Saturday, and it was the Trucks.
Hope I didn't throw anyone off.
--
Bruce
10 Essential Applications Included in Kubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope
While I agree that there are applications for KDE 4.2 which still lack several important features (like for example the equalizer and ability to go to the previous/next song using the tag editor in Amarok), I must say that it also improved very much since the last time I had a look at it. It is definitely faster, the desktop looks nicer, it does not seem a beta environment any more. Overall, the improvements in KDE 4 are really visible and I'm glad for that from a user's point of view. The only drawback is that (at least on my system - an Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8 GHz, 1 GB DDRAM2 and GeForce FX 7600GS) I had to disable desktop effects (OpenGL support) when playing Unreal Tournament 2004. The nVIDIA driver I used was the last one from the official website (180.29). I also tried the ones included in the repositories (all 4 versions of the packaged nvidia-glx) but this one seemed to work best for me. I'll give it another go when Jaunty will be stable and eventually make a full review.
Back to the main topic of this article. I will briefly review no less than ten applications which are included by default on the Kubuntu 9.04 CD. The Kubuntu team released the first Jaunty Jackalope beta on March 26, so after installing it on a separate 10 GB partition (my other system is Debian Lenny) I performed a sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade to make sure the last updates were included. Kubuntu 9.04 comes with KDE 4.2.1, Amarok 2.0.2 and OpenOffice 3.0.1 as an office suite (still no inclusion of KOffice).
Music player: Amarok 2.0.2
This is the KDE 4 port of the famous Amarok audio player. It has some issues with scanning the music collection, but it's usable overall. It comes with a lot of features, including a powerful collection manager, cover manager, support for services like Last.fm and Jamendo. One of the great features introduced in Amarok 2.x was the widget support, which allows you to embed lyrics, song info and many more in the central area of the player.
Official website
Movie player: Dragon Player 2.0
Although not as powerful as players like SMPlayer or Kaffeine, Dragon Player (formerly known as Codeine) will play all the popular video formats (including Matroska MKV) and DVDs. It is a small, basic player with support for subtitles but not any other options.
Official website
Web browser: Konqueror 4.2.1
This is the port of the famous and default file manager, viewer and web browser in KDE3. Currently it still has some issues, especially crashes when pressing some web buttons or filling in forms. For example, I couldn't write a Blogspot post using Konqueror. Still, it is the default web browser which ships with KDE 4 and implicitly Kubuntu Jaunty and I hope it will be fixed in the versions to come.
Official website
File manager: Dolphin 1.2.1
Praised by some and highly criticised by others, Dolphin is now the default file manager in KDE 4. Although there are many (including me) which prefer to use Konqueror as the file manager, Dolphin has a nice clean interface and it's pretty simple and intuitive to use.
Official website
CD/DVD burner: K3b 1.0.5
Probably the most loved and the most complete burning application available for Linux, K3b still is at version 1.0.5 for KDE3, which will make it look a little ugly compared to the way KDE 4 applications look now. Although Kubuntu 9.04 will come with this K3b version, the official maintainer of this wonderful application started working at a KDE 4 port for it.
Official website
BitTorrent client: KTorrent 3.2.0
Together with clients like Azureus or Deluge, KTorrent was always one of the top BitTorrent clients available for Linux, and definitely the number one choice for KDE users. It's just feature-complete, it has support for plugins and the default ones are more than enough, you can download many torrents at one time without any problems, it can download only specific files from inside a torrent, you can search for torrents directly from within KTorrent and many, many more.
Official website
IM client: Kopete 0.70.0
Kopete hasn't changed much compared to its KDE 3 counterpart. It currently has no more features, it's just the same old client ported to KDE 4 with a changed interface here and there. It supports many networks like Yahoo, AIM, ICQ, Jabber and WLM.
Official website
Image viewer: Gwenview 2.2.0
Gwenview was always my default image viewer of choice. It is powerful enough, well-designed, with a clean interface and all the options one needs from an image viewing application. It also comes with a bunch of plugins which will turn out quite useful for basic image manipulation.
Official website
IRC client: Quassel 0.4.1
Quassel is an IRC client which is new to me, and I've never used it before. Since the Konversation port to KDE 4 is yet to be complete as far as I know, Kubuntu includes this one. It's a basic client with no scripting support, but it includes enough configuration options to make it useful for getting on IRC. Those who never bothered making various plugins or customising their IRC client using event-based scripting will be fine with Quassel. There are, however, some problems with Quassel. I couldn't change the chat window font and it doesn't seem to remember the size of the nicklist.
Official website
Terminal application: Konsole 2.2.1
I couldn't exclude a terminal application from an 'essential applications' list in Linux. Konsole is the default shell in KDE and it supports configurable profiles (together with font sizes and colours).
Official website
Together with those there are also included OpenOffice 3.0.1 as the office suite, Okular, which is the universal document viewer in KDE 4, and KOrganizer.
Back to the main topic of this article. I will briefly review no less than ten applications which are included by default on the Kubuntu 9.04 CD. The Kubuntu team released the first Jaunty Jackalope beta on March 26, so after installing it on a separate 10 GB partition (my other system is Debian Lenny) I performed a sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade to make sure the last updates were included. Kubuntu 9.04 comes with KDE 4.2.1, Amarok 2.0.2 and OpenOffice 3.0.1 as an office suite (still no inclusion of KOffice).
Music player: Amarok 2.0.2
This is the KDE 4 port of the famous Amarok audio player. It has some issues with scanning the music collection, but it's usable overall. It comes with a lot of features, including a powerful collection manager, cover manager, support for services like Last.fm and Jamendo. One of the great features introduced in Amarok 2.x was the widget support, which allows you to embed lyrics, song info and many more in the central area of the player.
Official website
Movie player: Dragon Player 2.0
Although not as powerful as players like SMPlayer or Kaffeine, Dragon Player (formerly known as Codeine) will play all the popular video formats (including Matroska MKV) and DVDs. It is a small, basic player with support for subtitles but not any other options.
Official website
Web browser: Konqueror 4.2.1
This is the port of the famous and default file manager, viewer and web browser in KDE3. Currently it still has some issues, especially crashes when pressing some web buttons or filling in forms. For example, I couldn't write a Blogspot post using Konqueror. Still, it is the default web browser which ships with KDE 4 and implicitly Kubuntu Jaunty and I hope it will be fixed in the versions to come.
Official website
File manager: Dolphin 1.2.1
Praised by some and highly criticised by others, Dolphin is now the default file manager in KDE 4. Although there are many (including me) which prefer to use Konqueror as the file manager, Dolphin has a nice clean interface and it's pretty simple and intuitive to use.
Official website
CD/DVD burner: K3b 1.0.5
Probably the most loved and the most complete burning application available for Linux, K3b still is at version 1.0.5 for KDE3, which will make it look a little ugly compared to the way KDE 4 applications look now. Although Kubuntu 9.04 will come with this K3b version, the official maintainer of this wonderful application started working at a KDE 4 port for it.
Official website
BitTorrent client: KTorrent 3.2.0
Together with clients like Azureus or Deluge, KTorrent was always one of the top BitTorrent clients available for Linux, and definitely the number one choice for KDE users. It's just feature-complete, it has support for plugins and the default ones are more than enough, you can download many torrents at one time without any problems, it can download only specific files from inside a torrent, you can search for torrents directly from within KTorrent and many, many more.
Official website
IM client: Kopete 0.70.0
Kopete hasn't changed much compared to its KDE 3 counterpart. It currently has no more features, it's just the same old client ported to KDE 4 with a changed interface here and there. It supports many networks like Yahoo, AIM, ICQ, Jabber and WLM.
Official website
Image viewer: Gwenview 2.2.0
Gwenview was always my default image viewer of choice. It is powerful enough, well-designed, with a clean interface and all the options one needs from an image viewing application. It also comes with a bunch of plugins which will turn out quite useful for basic image manipulation.
Official website
IRC client: Quassel 0.4.1
Quassel is an IRC client which is new to me, and I've never used it before. Since the Konversation port to KDE 4 is yet to be complete as far as I know, Kubuntu includes this one. It's a basic client with no scripting support, but it includes enough configuration options to make it useful for getting on IRC. Those who never bothered making various plugins or customising their IRC client using event-based scripting will be fine with Quassel. There are, however, some problems with Quassel. I couldn't change the chat window font and it doesn't seem to remember the size of the nicklist.
Official website
Terminal application: Konsole 2.2.1
I couldn't exclude a terminal application from an 'essential applications' list in Linux. Konsole is the default shell in KDE and it supports configurable profiles (together with font sizes and colours).
Official website
Together with those there are also included OpenOffice 3.0.1 as the office suite, Okular, which is the universal document viewer in KDE 4, and KOrganizer.
Sabtu, 28 Maret 2009
Sunny Day
It was a beautiful Saturday in Sacramento, so my parents and I got some yard work done and then I went out with friends to play miniature golf, hang out at Big Spoon, see Bayside's new bleachers and finished the night up at Island's.
Tomorrow, a Mexican Fiesta, Bradley style, in lieu of actually going to Mexicali this year.
Tomorrow, a Mexican Fiesta, Bradley style, in lieu of actually going to Mexicali this year.
It's Raining At Martinsville
So much for DVD'ing the race to watch later!
It's pouring (or has) there on Saturday.
Does NBaP smell sick time coming up Monday?
It's pouring (or has) there on Saturday.
Does NBaP smell sick time coming up Monday?
Jumat, 27 Maret 2009
10 Geological Wonders you didn’t know
1.The Wave (between Arizona and Utah - USA)
2.Antelope Canyon (Arizona - USA)
3.Great Blue Hole (Belize)
4.Crystal Cave of the Giants (Mexico)
5.Eye of the Sahara (Mauritania)
6.Blue Lake Cave (Brazil)
7.Giants Causeway (Ireland)
8.Hell Gate (Uzbekistan)
9.Wave Rock (Australia)
10.Chocolate Hills (Philippines)
2.Antelope Canyon (Arizona - USA)
3.Great Blue Hole (Belize)
4.Crystal Cave of the Giants (Mexico)
5.Eye of the Sahara (Mauritania)
6.Blue Lake Cave (Brazil)
7.Giants Causeway (Ireland)
8.Hell Gate (Uzbekistan)
9.Wave Rock (Australia)
10.Chocolate Hills (Philippines)
Truck Series At Martinsville
Martinsville Speedway will host the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series this weekend. After that, they take a break then head off to Kansas looking for Toto at the Kansas Speedway for the O’Reilly Auto Parts 250 on Saturday, April 25.
Defending race winner Ron Hornaday Jr. led 136 of 167 laps on his way to Victory Lane. He was also the first to win from the pole. NBaP kind of roots for Ron since we hail from the same region!
Fast Facts From Martinsville (Is there any such thing as a slow fact?)
The Race: Kroger 250
The Place: Martinsville Speedway
The Date: Sat., March 28, 2009
The Time: 2 p.m. ET
Race Distance: 250 laps / 131.5 miles
TV: FOX, 2:00 p.m. ET
Radio: MRN, SIRIUS XM. Listen locally on WZBB-FM 99.9.
Track Layout: .526-mile oval
2008 Winner: Dennis Setzer
2008 Pole: Jack Sprague
Schedule:
Friday—Practice, 11-11:50 a.m.; 1:45 - 3:30 p.m.
Saturday—Qualifying, 9:10 a.m.
2009 Driver Standings Truck Series
Driver Points
1 Kyle Busch 560
2 Todd Bodine 535
3 Mike Skinner 441
4 Ron Hornaday Jr. 436
5 Chad McCumbee 426
6 Matt Crafton 423
7 Terry Cook 413
8 TJ Bell 412
9 Timothy Peters 406
10 David Starr 384
Defending race winner Ron Hornaday Jr. led 136 of 167 laps on his way to Victory Lane. He was also the first to win from the pole. NBaP kind of roots for Ron since we hail from the same region!
Fast Facts From Martinsville (Is there any such thing as a slow fact?)
The Race: Kroger 250
The Place: Martinsville Speedway
The Date: Sat., March 28, 2009
The Time: 2 p.m. ET
Race Distance: 250 laps / 131.5 miles
TV: FOX, 2:00 p.m. ET
Radio: MRN, SIRIUS XM. Listen locally on WZBB-FM 99.9.
Track Layout: .526-mile oval
2008 Winner: Dennis Setzer
2008 Pole: Jack Sprague
Schedule:
Friday—Practice, 11-11:50 a.m.; 1:45 - 3:30 p.m.
Saturday—Qualifying, 9:10 a.m.
2009 Driver Standings Truck Series
Driver Points
1 Kyle Busch 560
2 Todd Bodine 535
3 Mike Skinner 441
4 Ron Hornaday Jr. 436
5 Chad McCumbee 426
6 Matt Crafton 423
7 Terry Cook 413
8 TJ Bell 412
9 Timothy Peters 406
10 David Starr 384
Are There Any Takers At Martinsville?
Statistically, the Jimmie Johnson-Jeff Gordon, Hendrick Motorsports tandem is the clear favorite to outperform most others this weekend at Martinsville Speedway.
But statistically, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Mark Martin – are no slouches at the Virginia short track either.
Of the two, Earnhardt has scored top-10 finishes in three of the last four races there, and since the inception of Loop Data, ranks high in a number of key statistics.
Earnhardt has the 4th best Driver Rating of 102.4, and an Average Running Position of 10.4, which is also 4th on the list. But I'm not too worried about him this week. NBaP doesn't think he's got it together to conquer this track. At least not from the way things are looking lately.
Though Earnhardt has never won here, Martin has two Martinsville wins, but has finished out of the top 10 in his last three Martinsville races, with his last top five finish coming in the spring race of 2005.
Since 2005, he has a Driver Rating of 78.2, an Average Running Position of 17.0.
Stats say look out for Tony Stewart though.
Stewart has a Driver Rating of 113.7, and an Average Running Position of 7.4.
Stewart won in 2006, breaking up the win streek that Gordon and Johnson were buliding.
Actually, Stewart, Denny Hamlin and Rusty Wallace are the only other drivers to win since 2003.
But statistically, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Mark Martin – are no slouches at the Virginia short track either.
Of the two, Earnhardt has scored top-10 finishes in three of the last four races there, and since the inception of Loop Data, ranks high in a number of key statistics.
Earnhardt has the 4th best Driver Rating of 102.4, and an Average Running Position of 10.4, which is also 4th on the list. But I'm not too worried about him this week. NBaP doesn't think he's got it together to conquer this track. At least not from the way things are looking lately.
Though Earnhardt has never won here, Martin has two Martinsville wins, but has finished out of the top 10 in his last three Martinsville races, with his last top five finish coming in the spring race of 2005.
Since 2005, he has a Driver Rating of 78.2, an Average Running Position of 17.0.
Stats say look out for Tony Stewart though.
Stewart has a Driver Rating of 113.7, and an Average Running Position of 7.4.
Stewart won in 2006, breaking up the win streek that Gordon and Johnson were buliding.
Actually, Stewart, Denny Hamlin and Rusty Wallace are the only other drivers to win since 2003.
Kamis, 26 Maret 2009
How-To: Change the Wine Theme to Something More Appealing
Notice: I tested this tutorial using Wine 1.1.17, but it should work successfully on previous versions too.
By default, Windows applications which run through Wine don't look very well, since that's the look and feel of Windows 98 at best, to mention nothing about XP:
So what follows are a few easy steps which will allow to change the way applications ran through Wine look like. If you need guidance for installing Wine, here are two tutorials I recently wrote, for Ubuntu 8.04 here and here, and for Debian Lenny here. These should also work in Ubuntu 8.10 (and the upcoming 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope) and the latest Wine release.
1. Download some MS styles from deviantART
First, you will need to get some themes from here. For my example I will be using VistaPerfection X4 (direct download link). After saving it, uncompress the ZIP file and copy the .msstyles file (in our example the file is called VistaPerfection.msstyles) in a location of your choice.
2. Run winecfg and install the theme
Next, run the Wine configuration utility, winecfg, and under the Desktop Integration tab, click the Install theme... button, then navigate to where your .msstyles file is located and select it.
Now under the Theme drop-down menu, select the VistaPerfection X4 theme and then click OK. This should be all and the new theme should be now installed. Notice that you can still configure the colors if you don't like the default ones.
Notice: I bumped into this short tutorial in a post on UbuntuForums, here.
By default, Windows applications which run through Wine don't look very well, since that's the look and feel of Windows 98 at best, to mention nothing about XP:
So what follows are a few easy steps which will allow to change the way applications ran through Wine look like. If you need guidance for installing Wine, here are two tutorials I recently wrote, for Ubuntu 8.04 here and here, and for Debian Lenny here. These should also work in Ubuntu 8.10 (and the upcoming 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope) and the latest Wine release.
1. Download some MS styles from deviantART
First, you will need to get some themes from here. For my example I will be using VistaPerfection X4 (direct download link). After saving it, uncompress the ZIP file and copy the .msstyles file (in our example the file is called VistaPerfection.msstyles) in a location of your choice.
2. Run winecfg and install the theme
Next, run the Wine configuration utility, winecfg, and under the Desktop Integration tab, click the Install theme... button, then navigate to where your .msstyles file is located and select it.
Select the .msstyles file for installation
Now under the Theme drop-down menu, select the VistaPerfection X4 theme and then click OK. This should be all and the new theme should be now installed. Notice that you can still configure the colors if you don't like the default ones.
The look of Wine applications with VistaPerfection X4
Running Notepad
The VistaX theme
Notice: I bumped into this short tutorial in a post on UbuntuForums, here.
Bristol - Reflecting On Last Week
Bristol confuses me.
Before they repaved it into the banked mini-monster-superspeedway that it is today, it was relatively flat. Flat and harmful. It only had one groove and bumpers were the main course on this menu when looking to pass other drivers during the race.
By the end of the race, there was a lot of E-Bay sheet metal looking for buyers and nary a car came off the track not looking like... well, like it was at Bristol, or just came off a demolition derby.
But the reconfiguration has me stymied.
The first race I watched after the reconfiguration, I liked it.
Suddenly we had some racing where they could play with each other, side by side. Now the race finished in under 6 hours. That is awesome in and of itself. OK, NBaP is joking about the "under 6 hours" thing, but sometimes it felt like it.
I really don't mind not seeing a caution every 15 to 30 laps.
But the flare that WAS Bristol is gone.
No one came off the track pissed off. No one was called to the hauler. Most of the cars were only rumpled, and not crumpled.
WTH is that about?
It's still a cup race and all, but now, it looks like we only have Martinsville to give us the old style skill and bumper driving.
I wonder when they're going to bank the paperclip? I hope never.
Before they repaved it into the banked mini-monster-superspeedway that it is today, it was relatively flat. Flat and harmful. It only had one groove and bumpers were the main course on this menu when looking to pass other drivers during the race.
By the end of the race, there was a lot of E-Bay sheet metal looking for buyers and nary a car came off the track not looking like... well, like it was at Bristol, or just came off a demolition derby.
But the reconfiguration has me stymied.
The first race I watched after the reconfiguration, I liked it.
Suddenly we had some racing where they could play with each other, side by side. Now the race finished in under 6 hours. That is awesome in and of itself. OK, NBaP is joking about the "under 6 hours" thing, but sometimes it felt like it.
I really don't mind not seeing a caution every 15 to 30 laps.
But the flare that WAS Bristol is gone.
No one came off the track pissed off. No one was called to the hauler. Most of the cars were only rumpled, and not crumpled.
WTH is that about?
It's still a cup race and all, but now, it looks like we only have Martinsville to give us the old style skill and bumper driving.
I wonder when they're going to bank the paperclip? I hope never.
Kyle Busch Still Has To Beat The Paperclip
Kyle Busch won last week at the mini-superspeedway called Bristol. He's now fourth in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings. But Martinsville looms over him like Jason from Friday the 13th does over most of his victims.
Kyle Busch in the No. 18 M&M’s Toyota has had three top fives and four top 10s in eight Cup starts there.
NASCAR Loop Data statistics for Martinsville says Busch has an Average Running Position of 14.9, with his best finishes a pair of fourths in 2007.
He finished 38th there last spring and 29th last fall, both due to brake problems. They've done some testing over at Little Rock to "get our brakes squared away" and they believe they ahve fixed the problem.
THat's bad news for the rest of the field.
If he masters this place, and NBaP has no doubt he will, then we be headed for trouble.
Kyle Busch in the No. 18 M&M’s Toyota has had three top fives and four top 10s in eight Cup starts there.
NASCAR Loop Data statistics for Martinsville says Busch has an Average Running Position of 14.9, with his best finishes a pair of fourths in 2007.
He finished 38th there last spring and 29th last fall, both due to brake problems. They've done some testing over at Little Rock to "get our brakes squared away" and they believe they ahve fixed the problem.
THat's bad news for the rest of the field.
If he masters this place, and NBaP has no doubt he will, then we be headed for trouble.
Who Is Mr. Martinsville
So do you think is Mr Martinsville? Jimmy Johnson, the reigning three-time series champion or Jeff Gordon, the four-time series champion.
They both love the place and both have fond memories of the place.
NBaP thinks that they should have a 25 lap trophy dash with just those two on track. Hmm, maybe even mix in a little Kyle Busch and see who wrecks who!
But seriously, more than likely we'll see any of these three up front at Sunday’s Goody’s Fast Pain Relief 500.
Gordon and Johnson have won the last 9 of 12 races here at Martinsville. I don't think we'll ever forget that finish in the spring of 2007. I mean how can we, we see it every week in ads.
They rank one-two in the NASCAR Loop Data category, Driver Ratings.
Johnson is ranked at 124.7.
Gordon is ranked at 124.0.
But Gordon leads all active drivers with seven wins and seven poles at Martinsville.
Do you dare hit the betting window on this one?
They both love the place and both have fond memories of the place.
NBaP thinks that they should have a 25 lap trophy dash with just those two on track. Hmm, maybe even mix in a little Kyle Busch and see who wrecks who!
But seriously, more than likely we'll see any of these three up front at Sunday’s Goody’s Fast Pain Relief 500.
Gordon and Johnson have won the last 9 of 12 races here at Martinsville. I don't think we'll ever forget that finish in the spring of 2007. I mean how can we, we see it every week in ads.
They rank one-two in the NASCAR Loop Data category, Driver Ratings.
Johnson is ranked at 124.7.
Gordon is ranked at 124.0.
But Gordon leads all active drivers with seven wins and seven poles at Martinsville.
Do you dare hit the betting window on this one?
Tip of the Day: Convert AC3 to WAV Using MPlayer
Say you have an audio AC3 file and you want to convert it to WAV in order to work with it in Audacity or some other audio manipulation application. One of the methods is to use mplayer, included in the Debian Multimedia repositories.
The command to convert the desired file to WAV is:
mplayer -ao pcm:file=output_file.wav input_file.ac3
This command will convert input_file.ac3 to output_file.wav, using the PCM audio output driver.
The command to convert the desired file to WAV is:
mplayer -ao pcm:file=output_file.wav input_file.ac3
This command will convert input_file.ac3 to output_file.wav, using the PCM audio output driver.
Media Voting on Truck Series Champ and Rookie
We the media have voted in the first-ever poll to predict who they thought would be the 2009 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion and Raybestos Rookie of the Year.
The results are in.
The media, including NBaP, are claiming that Ron Hornaday Jr. (No. 33 VFW/Longhorn Chevrolet) will be the champion come Homestead. Hornaday edged Todd Bodine (No. 30 Germain Toyota) in the poll.
Johnny Benson (No. 1 Red Horse Racing Toyota) isn’t predicted to grab a historic back-to-back championship as they have him slated to finish third.
Mike Skinner (No. 5 Bad Boy Mowers Toyota), Matt Crafton (No. 88 Menards Chevrolet), Kyle Busch (No. 51 Miccosukee Resorts/NOS Energy Drink Toyota), Rick Crawford (No. 14 Circle Bar Truck Corral/International Engine Ford), Colin Braun (No. 6 Con-Way Freight Ford), Terry Cook (No. 25 Harris Trucking Toyota), and Chad McCumbee (No. 07 SS Green Light Racing Chevrolet) rounded out the top 10.
In the rookie corner, the media claim Rick Carmichael (No. 4 Oakley/Moster Energy Drink Chevrolet) will be the series’ Raybestos Rookie of the Year.
So say we all!
The results are in.
The media, including NBaP, are claiming that Ron Hornaday Jr. (No. 33 VFW/Longhorn Chevrolet) will be the champion come Homestead. Hornaday edged Todd Bodine (No. 30 Germain Toyota) in the poll.
Johnny Benson (No. 1 Red Horse Racing Toyota) isn’t predicted to grab a historic back-to-back championship as they have him slated to finish third.
Mike Skinner (No. 5 Bad Boy Mowers Toyota), Matt Crafton (No. 88 Menards Chevrolet), Kyle Busch (No. 51 Miccosukee Resorts/NOS Energy Drink Toyota), Rick Crawford (No. 14 Circle Bar Truck Corral/International Engine Ford), Colin Braun (No. 6 Con-Way Freight Ford), Terry Cook (No. 25 Harris Trucking Toyota), and Chad McCumbee (No. 07 SS Green Light Racing Chevrolet) rounded out the top 10.
In the rookie corner, the media claim Rick Carmichael (No. 4 Oakley/Moster Energy Drink Chevrolet) will be the series’ Raybestos Rookie of the Year.
So say we all!
Kroger 250 Truck Race Look At Martinsville
Next Race: Kroger 250
The Place: Martinsville Speedway
The Date: Sat., March 28, 2009
The Time: 2 p.m. ET
Race Distance: 250 laps / 131.5 miles
TV: FOX, 2 p.m. ET
Radio: MRN, SIRIUS XM. Listen locally on WZBB-FM 99.9.
Track Layout: .526-mile oval
2008 Winner: Dennis Setzer
2008 Polesitter: Jack Sprague
Schedule: Friday—Practice, 11-11:50 a.m.; 1:45 - 3:30 p.m. Saturday—Qualifying, 9:10 a.m.
Track Contact: Mike Smith, (276) 956-7232 or mksmith@martinsvillespeedway.com
2009 Driver Standings
Driver Points
1 Kyle Busch 560
2 Todd Bodine 535
3 Mike Skinner 441
4 Ron Hornaday Jr. 436
5 Chad McCumbee 426
6 Matt Crafton 423
7 Terry Cook 413
8 TJ Bell 412
9 Timothy Peters 406
10 David Starr 384
Rabu, 25 Maret 2009
Johnny Benson On The Outside, Looking In
Johnny Benson, the defending NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion, sits 29 points out of the top 10 – a position he and everyone else did not figure to be in at the close of 2008.
Now, after three races, his next race to regain standings prominence is Martinsville – and the last time the series visited the short track, Benson won.
So optimism is high. Benson has been solid at Martinsville since the inception of Loop Data in 2005. In his last eight races there, Benson has a Driver Rating of 90.5, an Average Running Position of 12.8, 59 Fastest Laps Run and a Laps in the Top 15 percentage of 66.8%.
But there’s a snag. David Starr, who is 10th in points, ranks above Benson in almost every key statistical category. Starr, who won at this race in 2006, has a Martinsville Driver Rating of 92.6, an Average Running Position of 12.6, 60 Fastest Laps Run, a Laps in the Top 15 percentage of 65.7% and has been passed only 74 times in the last eight races, the fewest of any driver during that span.
Starr struggled during the last Martinsville race, finishing 33rd, but has finished in the top 10 in four of the last six Martinsville races.
NBaP likes both drivers, but I think we have to pull for the classic fave of Johnny Benson!
Now, after three races, his next race to regain standings prominence is Martinsville – and the last time the series visited the short track, Benson won.
So optimism is high. Benson has been solid at Martinsville since the inception of Loop Data in 2005. In his last eight races there, Benson has a Driver Rating of 90.5, an Average Running Position of 12.8, 59 Fastest Laps Run and a Laps in the Top 15 percentage of 66.8%.
But there’s a snag. David Starr, who is 10th in points, ranks above Benson in almost every key statistical category. Starr, who won at this race in 2006, has a Martinsville Driver Rating of 92.6, an Average Running Position of 12.6, 60 Fastest Laps Run, a Laps in the Top 15 percentage of 65.7% and has been passed only 74 times in the last eight races, the fewest of any driver during that span.
Starr struggled during the last Martinsville race, finishing 33rd, but has finished in the top 10 in four of the last six Martinsville races.
NBaP likes both drivers, but I think we have to pull for the classic fave of Johnny Benson!
Kerry and Jeffrey Earnhardt join Rick Ware Racing
NASCAR Bits and Pieces (NBaP) see's that Kerry and Jeffrey Earnhardt have joined Rick Ware Racing in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.
Kerry will debut April 4th at Texas Motor Speedway in the No 31 Chevrolet. His son Jeffrey, 19, is scheduled to make his NASCAR Nationwide Series debut May 30 at Dover International Speedway.
Kerry is the son of seven-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Dale Earnhardt. Kerry has 70 career starts in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, with three top fives and six top-10 finishes. He competed full time in 2002, finishing 22nd in points. He last raced in the series in 2008.
Jeffery has raced in the NASCAR Camping World Series East where he was fifth in the standings as a rookie in 2007 and finished 15th last year. NASCAR Bits and Pieces hopes that Jeffery has some of that fire that Dale Sr. has!
Both father and son will be paired with former NASCAR champion crew chief Paul Andrews until they do battle at Atlanta Motor Speedway this fall. At that juncture, Clyde McCloud will serve as crew chief for the younger Earnhardt.
Atlanta also will highlight three Earnhardts in series competition. Jeffrey's uncle, Dale Earnhardt Jr., a two-time series champion, also is slated to compete in the NASCAR Nationwide Series race there.
Jeffrey will race a progressive schedule this year, running seven events from a 1-mile track to a 2-mile oval as he prepares for the 2010 season and a Raybestos Rookie of the Year campaign.
The Earnhardts will be driving in events when Stanton Barrett will be competing in IRL races. The No. 31 will be the organization's primary car and the No. 41 Chevrolet will be the second car for races in which Barrett, Tim Andrews, Travis Kittleson, Tim Brown (seven-time NASCAR Whelen Modified track champion) or Jeffrey compete.
NBaP hopes that Kerry can do something this time around. We've liked Kerry and have pulled for Kerry but it just hasn't panned out. The last time we saw Kerry race was at Irwindale in the Allstar Race and we watched him get lapped, and lapped and well, it was a bummer.
Good luck to all the Earnhardt's and BRING IT JEFFREY!!!
Kerry will debut April 4th at Texas Motor Speedway in the No 31 Chevrolet. His son Jeffrey, 19, is scheduled to make his NASCAR Nationwide Series debut May 30 at Dover International Speedway.
Kerry is the son of seven-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Dale Earnhardt. Kerry has 70 career starts in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, with three top fives and six top-10 finishes. He competed full time in 2002, finishing 22nd in points. He last raced in the series in 2008.
Jeffery has raced in the NASCAR Camping World Series East where he was fifth in the standings as a rookie in 2007 and finished 15th last year. NASCAR Bits and Pieces hopes that Jeffery has some of that fire that Dale Sr. has!
Both father and son will be paired with former NASCAR champion crew chief Paul Andrews until they do battle at Atlanta Motor Speedway this fall. At that juncture, Clyde McCloud will serve as crew chief for the younger Earnhardt.
Atlanta also will highlight three Earnhardts in series competition. Jeffrey's uncle, Dale Earnhardt Jr., a two-time series champion, also is slated to compete in the NASCAR Nationwide Series race there.
Jeffrey will race a progressive schedule this year, running seven events from a 1-mile track to a 2-mile oval as he prepares for the 2010 season and a Raybestos Rookie of the Year campaign.
The Earnhardts will be driving in events when Stanton Barrett will be competing in IRL races. The No. 31 will be the organization's primary car and the No. 41 Chevrolet will be the second car for races in which Barrett, Tim Andrews, Travis Kittleson, Tim Brown (seven-time NASCAR Whelen Modified track champion) or Jeffrey compete.
NBaP hopes that Kerry can do something this time around. We've liked Kerry and have pulled for Kerry but it just hasn't panned out. The last time we saw Kerry race was at Irwindale in the Allstar Race and we watched him get lapped, and lapped and well, it was a bummer.
Good luck to all the Earnhardt's and BRING IT JEFFREY!!!
Truck Series Rookies
Though none of the eight Raybestos Rookie of the Year candidates are in the top 10, four are showing veteran like promise.
J.R. Fitzpatrick
Fitzpatrick is 25 points outside the top 10 in 11th.
He has a Driver Rating of 77.4, an Average Running Position of 16.6, eight Fastest Laps Run and has 17 Laps Led, which is tops among rookies. He is also the only rookie to score a top-five finish this year – he finished fourth at Daytona.
Tayler Malsam
Malsam is 13th in points.
He has a Driver Rating of 75.7, an Average Running Position of 15.7 and a Laps in the Top 15 percentage of 52.1%.
Prepare to be confused:
Though he's 19th in points, James Buescher has been the top rookie. He has the 12th-best Driver Rating (78.1), the 13th-best Average Running Position (15.1) and an 11th-best Laps in the Top 15 percentage of 62.1%.
Then there's Ricky Carmichael, who is making the transition from motocross.
Carmichael, 8th in points, has a Driver Rating of 77.5, an Average Running Position of 13.7, five Fastest Laps Run and a Laps in the Top 15 percentage of 65.5%.
Raybestos Rookie-of-the-Year Standings after three races of the 2009 season:
1. J.R. Fitzpatrick 33
2. Ricky Carmichael 30
3. Tayler Malsam 28
4. James Buescher 27
5. Johnny Sauter 24
6. Chase Austin 16
7. Brent Raymer 6
8. Chris Jones 5
source: nascar press release
Selasa, 24 Maret 2009
Tip of the Day: Create an ISO Image from a Directory Using CLI
For this tip we'll be using genisoimage, a command-line tool which allows the creation of ISO9660 filesystems with Rock Ridge attributes (which provide support for file permissions and ownership).
To install it, type in the terminal the following command as root:
apt-get install genisoimage
The simplest way to create an ISO image is like this:
genisoimage -o cd.iso directory_name
This command will create an ISO image with directory_name being the root directory. If you want to include more than one file (or directory) inside the image (without having a single root directory), you can run it like this:
genisoimage -o cd.iso filename_1 filename_2 filename_3
If you need the Rock Ridge extensions, then issue:
genisoimage -o cd.iso -R directory_name
To install it, type in the terminal the following command as root:
apt-get install genisoimage
The simplest way to create an ISO image is like this:
genisoimage -o cd.iso directory_name
This command will create an ISO image with directory_name being the root directory. If you want to include more than one file (or directory) inside the image (without having a single root directory), you can run it like this:
genisoimage -o cd.iso filename_1 filename_2 filename_3
If you need the Rock Ridge extensions, then issue:
genisoimage -o cd.iso -R directory_name
Kenny Wallace Eyeing Top 5 In NNS
It may be the same old thing for some of the top 10 drivers in the NASCAR Nationwide Series point standings like Carl Edwards (No. 60 Scott�s/Save-A-Lot Ford) leading for the second straight week and into the series' next race at Texas.
But there are some new top 10 drivers who haven't been there in awhile.
Kenny Wallace (No. 28 U.S. Border Patrol Chevrolet) hasn't been in the top 10 since 2006. Currently, he's ninth. It's also the first time Jay Robinson Racing has had a driver crack the top 10 in its 10-year history.
Go Kenny!!! NBaP is rooting for you!
But there are some new top 10 drivers who haven't been there in awhile.
Kenny Wallace (No. 28 U.S. Border Patrol Chevrolet) hasn't been in the top 10 since 2006. Currently, he's ninth. It's also the first time Jay Robinson Racing has had a driver crack the top 10 in its 10-year history.
Go Kenny!!! NBaP is rooting for you!
Review: Battle for Wesnoth 1.6
After more than a year of constant development, The Battle for Wesnoth 1.6 was put out on March 22. This release comes with new graphics and unit portraits, a new campaign, called 'Legend of Wesmere', the possibility to log into the multiplayer with the forum account, and many, many other improvements.
For those who don't know, Battle for Wesnoth is a wonderful, completely free (licensed under the GPL) turn-based strategy game, with a huge community, developed continuously and at a fast rate.
Before proceeding with the review of 1.6, I'd like to point out that the 1.4.x series (the now old stable release) was also a very good and polished release, so what more can Wesnoth provide with this release?
First of all, one of the features which was always subject of debate on the forums was now implemented: the ability to own a nickname in the multiplayer game. You can now join the multiplayer lobby using your own username and password from the Wesnoth forums, so you won't have problems with someone else 'stealing' your nickname or identifying friends. This feature was awaited for a long time and now it's available.
Regarding the game interface, it didn't change much. The main menu has a background which resembles the one in 1.4, which looks very good anyway.
Major changes were done at the graphics, unit portraits, terrain, and the way in-game messages are displayed. Although there are still default faction units which don't have a portrait, most of them have refined portraits which now look awesome compared to the older ones used in 1.4.x. There are also new graphics for terrain like forest and villages, but all in all the way the terrain looks did not change much.
Most of the maps were re-done, for example the popular Isar's Cross is now larger and Fallenstar Lake (former Meteor Lake in versions pre-1.4) will need a different approach to play it in the middle of the map.
Regarding campaigns, 1.6 includes no less than 14 official ones, and most of them were available before only as add-ons. Also, the new campaign 'Legend of Wesmere' tells the story of Kalenz, an Elvish hero probably best known from the campaign Heir to the Throne. In one scenario, this campaign allows the AI to control one of your allied sides too.
The WML (Wesnoth Markup Language) also received many improvements and the map editor can be started now from within the game's main menu. The background music hasn't changed much but that's OK since 1.4 had pretty appealing music. However, there are five new original background tracks.
Like all the default features are not enough, there are plenty of add-ons available, which definitely turn Wesnoth into an even more appealing TBS game.
All in all, this release is one step ahead for Wesnoth regarding both graphics and gameplay, and although in my opinion the difference from 1.4 to 1.6 does not seem to be as big as the changes from 1.2 to 1.4, it is definitely a good and long-awaited improvement.
Update: Here is a video of Wesnoth 1.6 on the Colosseum map:
Battle for Wesnoth 1.6 - main menu
For those who don't know, Battle for Wesnoth is a wonderful, completely free (licensed under the GPL) turn-based strategy game, with a huge community, developed continuously and at a fast rate.
Before proceeding with the review of 1.6, I'd like to point out that the 1.4.x series (the now old stable release) was also a very good and polished release, so what more can Wesnoth provide with this release?
First of all, one of the features which was always subject of debate on the forums was now implemented: the ability to own a nickname in the multiplayer game. You can now join the multiplayer lobby using your own username and password from the Wesnoth forums, so you won't have problems with someone else 'stealing' your nickname or identifying friends. This feature was awaited for a long time and now it's available.
Regarding the game interface, it didn't change much. The main menu has a background which resembles the one in 1.4, which looks very good anyway.
Major changes were done at the graphics, unit portraits, terrain, and the way in-game messages are displayed. Although there are still default faction units which don't have a portrait, most of them have refined portraits which now look awesome compared to the older ones used in 1.4.x. There are also new graphics for terrain like forest and villages, but all in all the way the terrain looks did not change much.
Playing vs. AI on Isar's Cross - notice the changes in the map
Most of the maps were re-done, for example the popular Isar's Cross is now larger and Fallenstar Lake (former Meteor Lake in versions pre-1.4) will need a different approach to play it in the middle of the map.
Comparing Fallenstar Lake in 1.4 vs 1.6
Regarding campaigns, 1.6 includes no less than 14 official ones, and most of them were available before only as add-ons. Also, the new campaign 'Legend of Wesmere' tells the story of Kalenz, an Elvish hero probably best known from the campaign Heir to the Throne. In one scenario, this campaign allows the AI to control one of your allied sides too.
The new Legend of Wesmere campaign
The WML (Wesnoth Markup Language) also received many improvements and the map editor can be started now from within the game's main menu. The background music hasn't changed much but that's OK since 1.4 had pretty appealing music. However, there are five new original background tracks.
Like all the default features are not enough, there are plenty of add-ons available, which definitely turn Wesnoth into an even more appealing TBS game.
This is how the new in-game dialogues look like now
All in all, this release is one step ahead for Wesnoth regarding both graphics and gameplay, and although in my opinion the difference from 1.4 to 1.6 does not seem to be as big as the changes from 1.2 to 1.4, it is definitely a good and long-awaited improvement.
Update: Here is a video of Wesnoth 1.6 on the Colosseum map:
How-To: Compile and Install GIMP 2.6.6 in Debian Lenny
GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is the most popular and powerful image editor on the Linux platform. It benefits from detailed official documentation, as well as a huge number of community-made tutorials and dedicated websites.The latest stable series, 2.6.x, include several UI improvements, new filters, and the introduction of the GEGL (Generic Graphics Library) framework.
Although the version which comes with Debian Lenny (2.4.7) is stable enough and full-featured, if you want the latest release you can easily compile your own version by following the steps below.
1. Install build-essential and the development libraries
apt-get install build-essential
Next, make sure the sources repositories are enabled (there should be a line which starts with deb-src in /etc/apt/sources.list), for example:
deb-src ftp://ftp.ro.debian.org/debian/ lenny main contrib non-free
Update the package lists:
apt-get update
Install the development libraries:
apt-get build-dep gimp
Install additional dependencies:
apt-get install libgegl-0.0-dev
3. Download the source code
Download the GIMP 2.6.6 source tarball from here, then uncompress it:
tar -xjf gimp-2.6.6.tar.bz2
4. Compile and install GIMP 2.6.6
To compile and install GIMP, just issue the usual commands inside the gimp-2.6.6 directory:
./configure
make
make install
The last one as root. You can also install as normal user using the --prefix parameter, e.g.:
./configure --prefix=/home/USER/usr
Tip of the Day: Easily Get Audio from DVD .VOB Files
Notice: This tip should work for both Debian and Ubuntu, except for the way of installing mplayer which differs (in Ubuntu you should use Medibuntu, while in Debian you have the debian-multimedia.org repositories).
This is usually useful when you only need some audio recording from a live performance DVD or some other recording of some kind. If you have a DVD image and you need to mount it, you can do so by typing as root:
mkdir /mnt/iso0
mount -o loop /path/to/dvd/image.iso /mnt/iso0
You can choose any empty directory for mounting the image, in the above example I chose /mnt/iso0. It's also a good idea to eventually concatenate the VOB files you want to extract audio from, e.g.:
cat /mnt/iso0/VIDEO_TS/VTS_01_[1-3].VOB > ~/my_vob.vob
This will concatenate files VTS_01_1.VOB, VTS_01_2.VOB and VTS_01_1.VOB into one single VOB file, my_vob.vob, inside the home directory. The same can be accomplished using, for example:
cd /mnt/iso0/VIDEO_TS/
cat VTS_01_1.VOB VTS_01_2.VOB VTS_01_3.VOB > ~/my_vob.vob
Next, install mplayer (read here for instructions to get it from debian-multimedia.org repositories - after adding it, type as root apt-get install mplayer) and issue the following command inside the directory where the my_vob.vob file is located:
mplayer my_vob.vob -aid ${AID} -dumpaudio -dumpfile my_audio.ac3
Notice that you will have to replace ${AID} with a number corresponding to the audio channel, for VOB + AC3 that number is between 128-159. So our command should look like this:
mplayer my_vob.vob -aid 128 -dumpaudio -dumpfile my_audio.ac3
And there you go, the extracted audio file is my_audio.ac3.
This is usually useful when you only need some audio recording from a live performance DVD or some other recording of some kind. If you have a DVD image and you need to mount it, you can do so by typing as root:
mkdir /mnt/iso0
mount -o loop /path/to/dvd/image.iso /mnt/iso0
You can choose any empty directory for mounting the image, in the above example I chose /mnt/iso0. It's also a good idea to eventually concatenate the VOB files you want to extract audio from, e.g.:
cat /mnt/iso0/VIDEO_TS/VTS_01_[1-3].VOB > ~/my_vob.vob
This will concatenate files VTS_01_1.VOB, VTS_01_2.VOB and VTS_01_1.VOB into one single VOB file, my_vob.vob, inside the home directory. The same can be accomplished using, for example:
cd /mnt/iso0/VIDEO_TS/
cat VTS_01_1.VOB VTS_01_2.VOB VTS_01_3.VOB > ~/my_vob.vob
Next, install mplayer (read here for instructions to get it from debian-multimedia.org repositories - after adding it, type as root apt-get install mplayer) and issue the following command inside the directory where the my_vob.vob file is located:
mplayer my_vob.vob -aid ${AID} -dumpaudio -dumpfile my_audio.ac3
Notice that you will have to replace ${AID} with a number corresponding to the audio channel, for VOB + AC3 that number is between 128-159. So our command should look like this:
mplayer my_vob.vob -aid 128 -dumpaudio -dumpfile my_audio.ac3
And there you go, the extracted audio file is my_audio.ac3.
Awesome paints on discarded swan plumes
Painted onto elegant swan quills, these beautiful examples of feather-art really are fit for a Queen.
Senin, 23 Maret 2009
How-To: Compile and Install Banshee 1.4.3 in Debian Lenny
Banshee is a popular audio player written using the GTK toolkit. Currently at version 1.4.3, Banshee is a good alternative to players like Rhythmbox or Exaile for GNOME or Amarok for KDE.
This release comes with improved MTP (media transfer protocol) support and several bug fixes.
Here are several easy to follow steps for compiling Banshee on Debian Lenny (since Debian comes with Banshee 1.0):
Notice that iPod support will not be available!
1. Install the tools needed for compilation
Type in a terminal as root:
apt-get install build-essential
2. Install the dependencies
Make sure the sources repositories are enabled in the /etc/apt/sources.list file (you should have a line which starts with deb-src, like deb-src ftp://ftp.ro.debian.org/debian/ lenny main contrib non-free) and then issue the following commands as root:
apt-get update
apt-get build-dep banshee
3. Download the source tarball
Download the tarball from the official website, here (direct link), then uncompress it:
tar -xjf banshee-1-1.4.3.tar.bz2
4. Compile and install Banshee
Issue the following commands inside the banshee-1-1.4.3 directory:
./configure --disable-ipod
make
make install
The last one as root.
Although I tried to install Banshee as normal user too (using ./configure --prefix), I've got an error when it was still trying to write to /usr so I'm not sure whether it can be installed as normal user this way.
You can run Banshee by pressing ALT+F2 and typing banshee-1 in the Run dialogue that appears.
To uninstall it, just issue the command make uninstall as root from inside the banshee-1-1.4.3 directory.
This release comes with improved MTP (media transfer protocol) support and several bug fixes.
Here are several easy to follow steps for compiling Banshee on Debian Lenny (since Debian comes with Banshee 1.0):
Notice that iPod support will not be available!
1. Install the tools needed for compilation
Type in a terminal as root:
apt-get install build-essential
2. Install the dependencies
Make sure the sources repositories are enabled in the /etc/apt/sources.list file (you should have a line which starts with deb-src, like deb-src ftp://ftp.ro.debian.org/debian/ lenny main contrib non-free) and then issue the following commands as root:
apt-get update
apt-get build-dep banshee
3. Download the source tarball
Download the tarball from the official website, here (direct link), then uncompress it:
tar -xjf banshee-1-1.4.3.tar.bz2
4. Compile and install Banshee
Issue the following commands inside the banshee-1-1.4.3 directory:
./configure --disable-ipod
make
make install
The last one as root.
Although I tried to install Banshee as normal user too (using ./configure --prefix), I've got an error when it was still trying to write to /usr so I'm not sure whether it can be installed as normal user this way.
You can run Banshee by pressing ALT+F2 and typing banshee-1 in the Run dialogue that appears.
To uninstall it, just issue the command make uninstall as root from inside the banshee-1-1.4.3 directory.
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