Monday, July 16, 2007

Google Sees All, and All Use It.


So I stumbled upon this page which, of itself, has almost no practical use, but is cool to see none the less. It is called Daylightmap and what it does is take the images from Google Earth, and overlay them with a day and night time map. It will also show you lights from the ground as seen from space. It also has a kinda cool spin-off, Clouds, by DaylightMap. I kinda like to see the clouds map, then look out the window to see if it is correct. Supposedly the cloud imagery is about 6 hours old, so more often then not, the clouds are not acurate. But what the hell, it's not like it's for research or anything, right?!

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Ubuntu+ATI+Xgl+Compiz= Wtf?


Ok, wow. I'm finally done. That was a crazy ordeal that I don't even wish upon my enemies. Ugh but it was worth it. Over the past few days I have been setting up Linux, the Ubuntu Feisty version to be exact. And of course I want to cool eye candy that you can use.
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But, ATI is a bitch when it comes to us Linux users. Their drivers don't support some key features in the desktop effects software, Compiz Fusion; formally 2 groups, Beryl and Compiz. So, I needed to have a lengthy work-around to fix the problem with ATI's crappy drivers. I gotta tell you though, it was worth it. Check out this video and see for yourself!



Pretty much, since ATI doesn't support some of Linux's technologies, you must improvise and use a software that ATI will use. Unfortunately in Ubuntu, it is not activated by default. In fact, it is not even installed to begin with. What you have to do is run an "Xgl" session when you load the OS. I posted the instructions I followed below, so all you geek ATI users can get this thing rolling.
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http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=488385&highlight=7.04+feisty+xgl