Rhavin's Gate

Mouse’s Big Brother Arrives. Meet R.A.T. 9

admin — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 21:40:50 +0000

Ars Technica has an interesting article about a new mouse from the geniouses at Mad Catz. The R.A.T. 9 is a fully adjustable, programmable, metal framed mouse firmly targeted at the serious gamer. Here’s the fun feature for you sniper fans, there’s a button on the thumb rest that when pressed, reduces the DPI of the mouse making it highly precise for those long distance head-shots. The price ranges from $49.99 at the low end to $129.99 for the top of the line model.

Karmic Koala Bites the Hand that Feeds It

admin — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:20:39 +0000

Early adopters of Canonical’s new Ubuntu 9.10 release lovingly called “Karmic Koala” are getting a little more than they bargained for. Apparently the cuddly marsupial has an evil dark side. Everything from hard drives not being detected to encryption hiccups and downgraded Linux kernels being installed have plagued those upgrading from Jaunty Jackalope. El Reg reports that even those doing clean installs are encountering issues.

For a Linux Distro that has earned a reputation as being the distro of choice for the less technically minded, the issues with Karmic Koala are shocking (shocking!). Hopefully the cuddly critter will get it’s act together quickly and scrape this rather healthy helping of egg of its face soon. In the meantime…. stick with Jaunty Jackalope.

How To Perform a Clean Install of Windows 7

admin — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 02:16:54 +0000

The absolute best install method for any operating system is a clean install. Whether you’re installing Windows 7 on a new hard drive or creating a Virtual Machine for testing in a lab environment, the clean install is your best choice. A clean install means that you’re installing a fresh copy of Windows, not performing an upgrade.

To begin, boot your computer from the installation DVD. You may need to either change the boot order to place the DVD drive before the hard drive or hit a hotkey(F12 key on Dell) to open a boot menu during post. I’ll be installing Window 7 Enterprise version. The install method for the other flavors of Windows 7 should be identical.

Much like the Vista install process, Windows 7 is completely GUI based. The first thing you’re prompted for is your install language. Make that selection and click Next .

Select Language

Next click Install Now

: Click Install Now

Accept the License Agreement and click Next

Next click on Custom (advanced) to continue with the install. You’ll next be presented with a window that lets you make changes to your hard drive. You can use this window to delete partitions and manually format the hard drive if necessary. If you’re installing to an old hard drive, you’ll want to delete any existing partitions. Since Windows 7 is an image based installation, it’s not necessary to format the drive if you delete the partition.

The bulk of the installation now begins. It’s a good time to go refill your coffee or grab some snackie cakes and chessy poofs.

The PC may reboot a couple of times during the install, this is normal. Eventually it will come up to the following window. Enter a Username and the computer is automagically filled in. You can either accept the autogenerated computer name or enter your own.

Next enter a password and a password hint.

Now set up the automatic behavior of automatic updates and Windows Defender. It’s strongly recommended that you choose Use Recommended Settings.

Next set your timezone and make any adjustments to the time and date as needed.

Select the type of network that best reflects where the computer will be used. Typically this will be either Home network or Work network.

The next thing you’re presented with is Homegroup setup. WARNING: Unless ALL of the computers in your home network are WINDOWS 7, DO NOT use Homegroups. Either choose Skip or complete the required information and click next.

You’re in the home stretch. The Install will be finalized and then the computer will reboot for the final time.

All Done! Welcome to Windows 7.

iDon’t Just Might – Verizon’s New Droid Phone

admin — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 01:41:41 +0000

If you haven’t seen the commercial, then you should. Happy, cheery, Apple-esque music with a list of all the things that the iPhone isn’t followed by a cut to a dark graphic that simply says Droid Does. It’s enough to make the iPhone fanboys cringe and the iPhone haters sit-up and take notice.

No, Droid isn’t some huge leap forward in design by those bodacious boffins at Forrest Gumps favorite fruit company. It’s none other than the latest in the line of Andriod based smart phones. What makes Droid different is that it may actually have a chance, however miniscule, to wrest a little market share away from the great white monolith that is the iPhone.

First off, Droid is a significant leap forward for the Google Andriod based phones in that it actually has some muscle under the hood. It’s sporting a Texas Instruments OMAP 3430 processor which runs at a respectable 600 mHz. The cheeky chip integrates graphics and other goodies onto a single chip giving the Droid the ability to run multiple apps simultaneously. Secondly, it’s exclusively a Verizon product. Some would say this is a wonderful thing due to Verizon’s 3G network and reliability… that remains to be seen. Regardless of whether you love or hate Verizon, it’s time that a serious competitor for the iPhone/AT&T goliath emerged.

The lucky few who have been able to preview the Droid have had quite a few nice things to say about it. The guys over at boygeniusreport.com have a really good hands-on review that’s worth the read. The bottom line is that this phone is a good step forward for the Android line and offers some nice improvements to the inherent limitations of the iPhone. The Droid has a long road ahead of it, however, as the iPhone already has significant momentum in the market coupled with a well established AppStore and iTunes integration. We’ll find out in November.