Firefox version 3.5 has been released and available for download. Firefox 3.5 is the fastest web browser yet. It is twice as fast as Firefox 3!

As a result javascript and multimedia enabled web apps loads faster. Firefox is also the first browser to support open video and audio formats, allowing practically limitless new ways for sites to display rich content. This is based upon the open formats (HTML 5) which allow displaying media without a plug-in and/or proprietary software.

Here's some command for generic Linux installation:

cd /tmp
wget 'http://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox 3.5&os=linux&lang=en-US'
tar -jxvf firefox-3.5.tar.bz2
cp -avr firefox/* /opt/firefox/

Nice

It is official. Starcraft 2 will have no LAN support and gamers are pissed.

Hundreds of negative comments are found nearly anywhere the LAN news has been posted, petitions are launching, and some long-time Starcraft gamers are even considering a boycott despite their desire to play the highly-anticipated and long-time coming sequel.

Why would Blizzard do this considering that people are still playing the original in a multi-player LAN setting over a decade after its release in 1998? Blizzard claims it is to safeguard against piracy.

What still is not clear is what this will do to the South Korean market where Starcraft is a televised professional sport!

Here is Blizzard's Official Response to the Fan Outcry:

"We don't currently plan to support LAN play with StarCraft II, as we are building Battle.net to be the ideal destination for multiplayer gaming with StarCraft II and future Blizzard Entertainment games. While this was a difficult decision for us, we felt that moving away from LAN play [read more]

Does your ISP block you from downloading torrents? Most now do. Still want to get your grubby little paws on "free" music or movies? Then try this:

1) Open a Google search page
2) Type "intitle:index of" + what you are looking for eg.

"intitle:index of" avi star trek

or

"intitle:index of" mp3 radiohead

You will now get access to all unprotected file directories on the net! This is the fault of both Google (for returning these results) and the site admins (for not protecting the files using a .htaccess file or just putting a simple index.php in there).

Enjoy

We are all familiar with the original Quake, the game that spawned (hehe) a generation. It's multiplayer derivative Quakeworld is still played online today, 13 years later. Some of you may even remember running the game originally in a DOS mode, complete with chunky low-res, software rendered graphics.

Later on, along came sldquake and glquake, to make the game look better on newer graphics cards. I've been using sdlquake up until recently, and it still looks good.

However, now with my new high-spec laptop, and my tendancy to carry my old games from machine to machine, I wanted good ol' classic Quake to look f*cking awesome, if possible, alongside Doom 3, Quake 4 and all the other games I have installed. I also wanted to run 64 bit binaries of the game.

I took a look at Tenebrae Quake, but it wasn't really for me, although it does look sweet. However, installation is for not the faint-hearted - and the game runs slow even on fast PCs, and currently so does their website(!). What I really [read more]

I was only getting sound in Enemy Territory if I run it as root, which we all know is a BAD idea. So I came across this solution, and it worked!

Edit rc.local as root:

sudo gedit /etc/rc.local

Add the following line just before "exit 0":

echo "et.x86 0 0 direct" > /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/oss

Save and exit. Now you have sound each time you launch the game. The more linux savvy of you will now why this works

Well feck me, if this isn't the most useful little thing ever!

getlibs automatically solves dependencies for 32-bit programs on 64-bit systems. On 64-bit systems it downloads and installs libraries needed for 32-bit programs and 64-bit programs

On 32-bit systems it downloads and installs libraries needed for 32-bit programs!

So, here I am tonight trying to get all my games running on my new (sweet) 64 bit dual core lapatop (17" screen, 256mb ATI Card, 4 GB RAM - thank you) and I've hit a wall with Smokin' Guns (as it has no 64 bit binary) even though I have all the 32 bit libraries installed:

sudo apt-get install ia32-libs

The game is doing this:

error while loading shared libraries: libXxf86dga.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

because the libXxf86dga.so.1 I have is 64 bit.

Then I came across getlibs, and used it like this:

sudo getlibs smokinguns.x86
libXxf86dga.so.1: libxxf86dga1
The following i386 packages will be installed:
libxxf86dga1
Continue [Y/n]? y
Downl [read more]

ZeniMax Media, better known as the parent company of Bethesda, announced today that it has acquired id Software. id is best known for its various shooter franchises like Doom, Quake and the upcoming Rage, while Bethesda is notable for its RPGs -- including the RPG-shooter hybrid Fallout 3. With the acquisition, Bethesda will be publishing id Software titles.

Under the new arrangement, id will continue to operate as an independent studio under the direction of John Carmack. The company makes clear that Bethesda doesn't have an eye for changing any of their operations, and many people who are the driving forces behind id games have signed long-term contracts, so they're not going anywhere. "We will now be able to grow and extend all of our franchises under one roof," said John Carmack in a press release, "leveraging our capabilities across multiple teams. We will be bigger and stronger, as we recruit the best talent to help us build the landmark games of the future. As trite as it may be [read more]

I'm coming out the other end of a weekend that mostly involved shooting and maiming zombies in one form or another!

I went to finally purchase Resident Evil 5 on Sunday morning, but while I was there in my local GameStop I also eyed a second-hand copy of Dead Rising, and took it too.

While RE5 is excellent, as you would expect it to be, Dead Rising is just plain fun. It's basically the game version of Dawn Of The Dead, complete with shotguns, chainsaws and a giant shopping mall. I'd highly recommend it

Now, this brings me to Dead Rising 2, shortly to be released on several platforms.

The game is set a few years after the events of the original. The zombie virus that originated in Santa Cabeza has spread all over the United States. The game will take place in the fictional city of Fortune City, which is modeled after the real city of Las Vegas, Nevada. The new player character, Chuck Greene, is a former national motocross champion who is caught in the zombie attack on Fortune City.

It loo [read more]

We've installed a new game on our 64 bit AMD powered server (pushing it to the the max now) - behold, World of Padman is here!

WoP is the domain of (professional cartoonist and illustrator) ENTE's comic strip super-hero bad-boy Padman and his motley crew, and their mission is to make your game with some seriously addictive fun, whatever your skill level, and whatever character role you jump into.

Details of required files and how to connect are all there on the server page. Let us know how it performs, we may still need to tweak the memory settings a bit. Have fun

Quantum cryptography has been a Holy Grail for security researchers since the idea was proposed, the promise of a new standard in absolutely unbreakable communications. But it's a new standard in the Microsoft sense: "Use our brilliant new system, because we're making sure the old one doesn't work anymore."

The most common security algorithm used online is RSA, an encryption system designed by MIT researchers Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir and Leonard Adlemen in 1977 (hence RSA, Rivest-Shamir-Adlemen). The idea is that any numerical code can be cracked, so rather than try to invent one that's unbreakable you settle for one that would take a really long time - everybody involved is dead because the sun has exploded five billion years later kind of long time. The system is scalable too - every time computers improve, you just make your RSA bit-string longer to exponentially increase the processing power needed to crack it before the user dies of old age.

That's where quantum computers come in. [read more]