freshbytes

There it is, the last swimming carnival of my school life is now done and dusted. Sure, I didn’t participate in any of the races, but by ‘doing my part’ and taking photos for the school magazine, I managed to go ‘participate’ in an event that I would not normally participated in. Sure, I’ll freely admit that I missed out on last year’s swimming carnival cos I was working – but I managed to make it to this years, unlike some people I know… YOU BLUDGERS!

Now, even though I was taking photos at the swimming carnival – some would call me nasty things – I was just making my contribution to the school society, I promise.

Anyway, I noticed that even though a lot of non-seniors (that’s the year 7-10’s, folks), were actually in attendance, they weren’t doing a whole lot in the way of actually getting into the spirit of things, like, they weren’t getting involved. Some were doing homework. Others read. Others still hung out with their friends – sure, they were having a good time, but not exactly participating in the swimming carnival as such.

So, what to do? Well, we were at a Student Council meeting, and we were discussing the finer points of the swimming carnival (as you do at these sorts of meetings). Someone came up with the idea of completely revamping the swimming carnival to be more… participant friendly. Something that not only the athletic types would enjoy, but also the less athletic among us.

What about… a beach carnival. Yeah, I know, at first it sounds a little corny/in-formal/inappropriate, but maybe if there was a swimming carnival with beach cricket, beach volleyball, and for the non-participants among us, sunbaking, mucking around in the surf, and all that kind of stuff. My question to you is, would any of you be interested? Interested more so than the present swimming carnival?

Thoughts? Post ‘em in comments…

written by Benny Ling \\ tags: carnival, magazine, photos, swimming

Well, we’ve (unofficially) decided to have a weekly gaming session.

No, you don’t have to bring your computers to some obscene location in the middle of nowhere; you don’t have to pay for anything, no, these gaming sessions are from the comfort of your own home!

So, if you have nothing to do from the hours of 8pm-12am on a friday night, then come join us. We’ll probably be on GamingSA CZ #2.

Join us on Weed’s TeamSpeak server, and we can chat on there while we’re gaming!

Get a client here, and join weedman.isa-geek.org as your TeamSpeak server. For more info, contact us.

We own.

-=(NoSpoon)=- FTW!

Happy camping,

The -=(NoSpoon)=- Tassie gaming clan.

written by Benny Ling \\ tags: Blog, condition zero, counter strike, NoSpoon

Welcome to the fortnightly ‘Clan Mail’ Status report!

I thought this was an apt time to update everyone. Status reports are nice, aren’t they.
The ‘clan mail’ a status report on WTF is goin’ on around here. You know, as a reminder to what you mighta missed, or forgotten.
Anyway, on towards a Purple Haze….

Pipelined main ideas and statuses:

VPN:
Hasn’t got far off the ground yet. It appears that we are waiting on a server to try this out with. Pilgs was going to sort something out at some stage, but I think it was one of the ‘2+ backburner’ projects (if you don’t know what i’m on about, ADSL2+ is a hint…). Testing will occur sometime, I assume prolly using my server as a testing platform.
Timeframe: Can’t say. Hasn’t been tested yet.
Status: alpha, pre-alpha

Teamspeak server:
Has been strenuously tested in a CZ session with 3 players. Concept is proven. Server is running. However, we need to figure out some permenant arrangement. As was said in another email, I am happy to continue leaving this up on my server. I think that this was another one of the ‘2+ backburner’ projects…correct me if I am wrong.
Timeframe: Working currently, in a quick-and-dirty way.
Status: Release candidate, works, but a permenant arrangement might need to be sorted out (but is not required).

Gmail/Gtalk:
Has been used for a long time now, proven technology. Works 99% of the time. However, client is not cross-platform. Was tested with online games (CZ mostly), and was found to reduce ping times (according to darth), and Just Works (TM). Still works reliably with general voice chat, as TS would prolly overload a personal server at that quality.
Timeframe: Already used.
Status: Full release. Has been made redundant for gaming by TS.

IRC:
Has been used in spurts. For those who haven’t used it, it basically gets around the issue of network requirements (RE: gchat timeout). It is also the only way to get 3+ user chat working. Freenode is worldwide, clients are everywhere (including Pidgin, Xchat and mac clients). Is relatively reliable. Benny Says: Freshbytes IRC to be considered.
Timeframe: Well, some of us have used it, others not. It is a great collaboration tool. Is in use now, just not all the time.
Status: Release candidate. Some are still to test it.

Proxy:
Has had plenty of use at school. Pilg’s proxy works really well, but cannot be used for certain activities. I wouldn’t mind figuring what program he uses on there….might have to do some googling… It is a great way to ‘get out’ at school.
Timeframe: Already in use, just not for all activities. Is not public.
Status: Full release binary, no source. A public version may go on Freshbytes eventually.

Hosting:
4 people have hosting, w00t. You’re all sorted there!
Turkeybrain.com: games,forum, private proxy
freshbytes.com.au: games,forum, proxy (if we can fix it properly), ssh
(Pilcher’s site): ssh, and other stuff
Timeframe: In use. What are you worried about?
Status: Full release, in use. Smoke it.

Internet Access (ISP’s etc.):
gEveryone has proper net now, so we are sorted. There are a few ppl who need Steam accounts, and clan signups. Unfortunately, Internode have been having backhaul issues for a few weeks now, so bling and I have been having net issues. At least, Internode claim it is fixed as of yesterday. Pilgs is waiting for ADSL2+, which way be a while off (Please wait for Internode…FTW!).
Timeframe: Unknown, little things to sort out.
Status: In good standing, patches here and there.

Other little notes:
Torrent client of the day: Deluge.
Site of the day: Pirate Bay
Game of the day: Flash Portal

That’s all i’ve got time for. And i’ve run out of ideas. Post back something relevant to this email.

Chris J (‘z’ weedman)

written by Chris Jacques \\ tags: april, gmail, hosting, irc, isp, proxy, report, status, teamspeak, vpn

OSX>Linux>Windows

Yeah, so the rumours are true. I DO like OSX better then Linux. Before you get all Linus Torvalds on me, just hear me out…

I used to love Linux, I did. Sure, the freeness was really, really, good – as was the security, and the feeling of “Wow, I’m using something that doesn’t contribute to MS”. But like anything, the novelty wore off a bit – suddenly, apt-get was screwing up installs of programs, numerous compatibility issues rose their head(s), and finally, after stuffing around with a binary operating system (I’m looking straight at you, Ubuntu) it was time to go hard-core – and compile things from source.

Enter Gentoo, from the Gentoo Penguin – designed for speed. Well, source code takes ages to compile when you’re running on ancient hardware, and needless to say – Gentoo was a cruel operating system. Sure, after the code compiled, it was (reasonably) fast, and all was good. That is, until the minor issues like USB drives not auto-mounting on insert, doing the deluge of incredible, arcane stuff that you had to get things working “just right” – you know what I mean, like setting the CFLAGS, USE-FLAGS, and the kernel config – just seemed like too much work. Operating systems are supposed to be easy, not a battle of wills between the OS and the user! Far out, at least in Ubuntu, things “just worked”. I didn’t need to install a program/daemon just to get USB sticks automount on insertion! You know there is something wrong when simple things like that just don’t work.

Sure, maybe I was being a bit of a n00b when I installed it. Maybe I didn’t read all the instructions properly. But everything else worked fine! I don’t understand why it has to be that hard to get things to work properly. Anyway, as a direct result of this, I have now given up Linux. Sure, I’d still use it over Windows any day (cept for games – Windows for games) but other than that, Linux is only a tiny blip on the radar of this particular blogger.

Why Mac? Well, it “just works”. No messing about. No fussing with crazy configs, man pages, or anything like that. While those features are still there in OSX, you don’t need to touch them once to become proficient in OSX. No, becuase the GUI is so powerful in OSX, you have Linux command-line tools such as netcat become integrated into an awesome GUI – albeit without the more advanced options so that even novice users can use OSX. In Leopard, FSEvents (derived from yet another Linux command-line tool) has become the background workings to the best backup system available in any OS today – Time Machine. All this just contributes to the awesome power of the GU – flawless, yet so easy to use and advanced enough for the average user.

Windows is only good for games. Enough said.

Comments below, thanks.

written by Benny Ling \\ tags: apple, linux, osx, pc, windows