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Friday, January 29, 2010



Top 10 Nintendo Wii Games

Posted: 29 Jan 2010 02:23 AM PST

Nintendo Wii is without doubt the most popular video game console at the moment. As of December 31, more than 67 million units have been sold worldwide, outselling its rival Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony Playstation 3. Wii's popularity can be credited to its affordable price, innovative features, and all-around fun factor. However, a gaming console won't be successful if the games available are not as good. So what are the games that helped made Wii a smash hit?

I have here a list of top 10 Nintendo Wii games based on sales figures, rave reviews, ratings, and of course, based on my own experience playing these games:

1. Wii Sports
Wii Sports is a game developed by Nintendo that was released together with the launching of Wii console. It is a collection of 5 sport simulation games, which are designed to demonstrate the motion-sensing capabilities of the Wii Remote. The five sports included in Wii Sports are tennis, baseball, bowling, golf, and boxing. It also features training and fitness modes that monitor player progress in the sports. Wii Sports is currently the best-selling video game of all time (eclipsing Super Mario Bros.) with more than 50 million copies sold worldwide. Its sequel entitled Wii Sports Resort is also very popular right now.


2. The Beatles: Rock Band
As a huge Beatle fan (like probably most of you out there, I put this game high up on the list. The Beatles: Rock Band allows players to perform simulated rock music by providing up to six players with the ability to play three different controllers modeled after music instruments (a guitar controller for lead guitar and bass guitar gameplay, a drum controller and up to three microphones for vocals). The game includes 45 songs from twelve of The Beatles albums recorded during their 1962–1969 tenure with EMI Records. Additional songs and albums by The Beatles were made available for the game as downloadable content.


3. Mario Kart Wii
Mario Kart Wii is a racing game for all ages with online capability and large number of tracks (32 tracks), characters (up to 24 characters) and karts (36 vehicles). To top it all, each copy of the game comes with the wheel accessory that is designed to house the Wii Remote to allow more intuitive and conventional steering. Mario Kart Wii allows racing against other players from around the world via the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, which features online racing and battle modes, supporting up to twelve simultaneous competitors.


4. Wii Fit
Wii Fit is another best selling game developed by Nintendo. It uses a unique platform accessory called the Wii Balance Board, allowing the software to, among other uses, calculate body mass index (BMI) when told the user's height. The game has about 50 different activities, and the training is divided into four categories: yoga, strength training, aerobics, and balance games. Wii Fit really provides a challenging, effective, and entertaining way to workout.


5. New Super Mario Bros Wii
A Nintendo game console is never complete without a Super Mario Bros game. The Wii version of New Super Mario Bros. is the first game in the Mario main series since the Mario Bros. arcade game to feature simultaneous multiplayer gameplay, and the first title to include Nintendo's new 'Super Guide' feature. While the game is seen in 2D, some of the characters and objects are 3D polygonal renderings on 2D backgrounds, resulting in a 2.5D effect that visually simulates 3D computer graphics.


6. Wii Play
Wii Play is the counterpart to the games Wii Sports, Wii Music and Wii Fit, which features minigames (9 games) that use characters from the Mii Channel. All games are designed for 2 players, but can also be played by a single player, with a computer-controlled second player in games where it is necessary. Wii Play is considered as the best-selling console game of all time with over 24 million copies sold.


7. Toy Story Mania!
For those of you who have enjoyed watching the movie, you will be entertained more when you play the game on Wii. Toy Story Mania! features single-player and multi-player shooting-gallery style gameplay. Included in each game, are two pairs of 3D glasses that can be used in six 3D shooting galleries. Toy Story Mania! can be a great family pastime.


8. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is an action-adventure game that is hailed by numerous publications as the greatest Zelda game ever made, and has won plenty Game of the Year awards. The game features nine dungeons --large contained areas where Link battles enemies, collects items, and solves puzzles. The Wii version of the game makes use of the motion sensors and built-in speaker of the Wii Remote.


9. Super Mario Galaxy
Super Mario Galaxy is a 3D platform game that has been hailed by several gaming websites as one of the best video games of all time. The game is set in outer space, where Mario travels from galaxy to galaxy in order to collect Power Stars, which are earned by completing quests or defeating enemies. The character is controlled via the Wii Remote and Nunchuk. While most of Mario's abilities are taken directly from Super Mario 64, such as the long jump, wall jumps, and a variety of somersaults, Mario is given new moves that take advantage of the Wii Remote's pointer and motion sensing.


10. Resident Evil 4
I've always been a big fan of the Resident Evil ever since its first release on PlayStation. The Wii version of the game is more realistic as it features new controls involving the Wii Remote and Nunchuk. The Wii Remote is able to aim and shoot anywhere on the screen with a reticle that replaces the laser sight found in the other versions. It can also be flicked to use the knife to instantly target an enemy. Resident Evil is an extremely graphic game so you may have to keep it away from kids.


How about you? What are your top 10 favorite Wii games?

Thursday, January 28, 2010



How to Install and Use Mac Fonts on Ubuntu

Posted: 28 Jan 2010 01:27 AM PST

If you have used a Macintosh before and want to know if you could install those Mac fonts like AppleGaramond, Aquabase, LITHOGRL, Lucida Grande, Lucida Mac, lucon, and MacGrand on you Ubuntu Linux desktop, then rejoice because you easily could. Just follow these simple steps on installing and then using Mac fonts on Ubuntu:


Installing the fonts:

1. From the Linux terminal, download Mac fonts with this command:
$ wget http://ubuntu-debs.googlecode.com/files

2. Untar or extract the downloaded file:
$ tar zxvf macfonts.tar.gz

3. Move macfonts folder to the /fonts directory:
$ sudo mv macfonts /usr/share/fonts/

4. Reload the font cache:

$ sudo fc-cache -f -v

Using the fonts:

You can now test or use the fonts by going to System --> Preferences --> Appearance, and then clicking on the "Fonts" tab. Here is a sample setup on using the Mac fonts:

Application font: Lucida MAC 10
Document font: Lucida MAC 10
Desktop font: Lucida MAC 10
Window title font: LucidaMacBold 10
Fixed width font: Lucida Console 10


That's about it. Enjoy your new fonts.

You may also like this article: Download 100+ Free Fonts for Ubuntu

[HowtoForge] Newsletter 01/28/2010

HowtoForge Newsletter 01/28/2010
================================

New HOWTOs:
===========

* How To Set Up A USB-Over-IP Server And Client With Debian Lenny
* Building Kernel Modules With Module-Assistant On Debian Lenny
* How To Set Up A Terminal Server In Linux Using Ubuntu 9.10 And FreeNX
* Striping Across Four Storage Nodes With GlusterFS On Ubuntu 9.10
* Virtual Hosting With PureFTPd And MySQL (Incl. Quota And Bandwidth Management) On Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala)
* Installing Lighttpd With PHP5 And MySQL Support On CentOS 5.4
* How To Install Ailurus 10.01.5 On Fedora
* Configuring Active Directory Or LDAP Authentication And Defining User Or Group Based Access With SafeSquid

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How To Set Up A USB-Over-IP Server And Client With Debian Lenny
===============================================================

This tutorial shows how to set up a USB-over-IP server with Debian Lenny as well as a USB-over-IP client (also running Debian Lenny). The USB/IP Project aims to develop a general USB device sharing system over IP network. To share USB devices between computers with their full functionality, USB/IP encapsulates "USB I/O messages" into TCP/IP payloads and transmits them between computers. USB-over-IP can be useful for virtual machines, for example, that don't have access to the host system's hardware - USB-over-IP allows virtual machines to use remote USB devices.

You can find the document here:
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http://www.howtoforge.com/how-to-set-up-a-usb-over-ip-server-and-client-with-debian-lenny


Building Kernel Modules With Module-Assistant On Debian Lenny
=============================================================

module-assistant is a tool for building Debian kernel modules from source, without having to rebuild the whole kernel. It fetches module-source packages that have been prepared for the Debian distribution via apt and produces .deb packages. This tutorial shows how to use module-assistant in command-line mode and in interactive mode.

You can find the document here:
-------------------------------
http://www.howtoforge.com/building-kernel-modules-with-module-assistant-on-debian-lenny


How To Set Up A Terminal Server In Linux Using Ubuntu 9.10 And FreeNX
=====================================================================

FreeNX is an open source implementation of NoMachine's NX Server. It is a bit more akin to Microsoft's RDP protocol that the usual VNC, so while keeping bandwidth to a minimum, it maintains good visual quality and responsiveness.

You can find the document here:
-------------------------------
http://www.howtoforge.com/how-to-set-up-a-terminal-server-in-linux-using-ubuntu-9.10-and-freenx


Striping Across Four Storage Nodes With GlusterFS On Ubuntu 9.10
================================================================

This tutorial shows how to do data striping (segmentation of logically sequential data, such as a single file, so that segments can be assigned to multiple physical devices in a round-robin fashion and thus written concurrently) across four single storage servers (running Ubuntu 9.10) with GlusterFS. The client system (Ubuntu 9.10 as well) will be able to access the storage as if it was a local filesystem. GlusterFS is a clustered file-system capable of scaling to several peta-bytes. It aggregates various storage bricks over Infiniband RDMA or TCP/IP interconnect into one large parallel network file system. Storage bricks can be made of any commodity hardware such as x86_64 servers with SATA-II RAID and Infiniband HBA.

You can find the document here:
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http://www.howtoforge.com/striping-across-four-storage-nodes-with-glusterfs-on-ubuntu-9.10


Virtual Hosting With PureFTPd And MySQL (Incl. Quota And Bandwidth Management) On Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala)
============================================================================================================

This document describes how to install a PureFTPd server that uses virtual users from a MySQL database instead of real system users. This is much more performant and allows to have thousands of ftp users on a single machine. In addition to that I will show the use of quota and upload/download bandwidth limits with this setup. Passwords will be stored encrypted as MD5 strings in the database.

You can find the document here:
-------------------------------
http://www.howtoforge.com/virtual-hosting-with-pureftpd-and-mysql-incl-quota-and-bandwidth-management-on-ubuntu-9.10


Installing Lighttpd With PHP5 And MySQL Support On CentOS 5.4
=============================================================

Lighttpd is a secure, fast, standards-compliant web server designed for speed-critical environments. This tutorial shows how you can install Lighttpd on a CentOS 5.4 server with PHP5 support (through FastCGI) and MySQL support.

You can find the document here:
-------------------------------
http://www.howtoforge.com/installing-lighttpd-with-php5-and-mysql-support-on-centos-5.4


How To Install Ailurus 10.01.5 On Fedora
========================================

This document describes how to install Ailurus on Fedora 10, 11 or 12. Ailurus is an application which aims at making Linux easier to use. It provides these features: install some software which is not provided in official repository; enable/disable some third-party repositories; change some system settings; help you study Linux skills.

You can find the document here:
-------------------------------
http://www.howtoforge.com/how-to-install-ailurus-10.01.5-on-fedora


Configuring Active Directory Or LDAP Authentication And Defining User Or Group Based Access With SafeSquid
==========================================================================================================

This tutorial explains how you can integrate an Active Directory or LDAP with SafeSquid for user authentication, and create granular user or group based access policies. This tutorial applies to both, Linux and Windows editions.

You can find the document here:
-------------------------------
http://www.howtoforge.com/configuring-active-directory-or-ldap-authentication-and-defining-user-or-group-based-access-with-safesquid


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You can now support HowtoForge by becoming a subscriber:

HowtoForge Subscription
=======================

For a monthly fee of 5 EUR or 25 EUR for half a year, you can become a HowtoForge supporter and help us cover our costs (servers, bandwidth, etc.) and support ISPConfig development. In return, you receive the following benefits:

1. Access the whole HowtoForge web site without any ads.
2. Download the results of our tutorials as VMware images (where available) (a list of downloadable VMware images is available here: http://www.howtoforge.com/list-of-downloadable-vmware-images).
3. Download our tutorials as PDF files.
4. View our tutorials as printer-friendly pages.
5. You will be marked as a "HowtoForge Supporter" in your forum posts.

If you have the free VMware Server or Player installed, you can import our VMware images and start playing around with the results of our tutorials immediately. It's a great way to track down problems with your own setup or simply to save time. ;-)

More details can be found on http://www.howtoforge.com/subscription.

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Your HowtoForge Team
Email: info@howtoforge.com
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Wednesday, January 27, 2010



The Technology Behind Avatar (Movie)

Posted: 26 Jan 2010 10:34 PM PST

James Cameron's Avatar is now officially the top grossing movie of all time eclipsing Titanic (also by James Cameron). Probably the main reason of its huge success is the use of innovative filmmaking technology like its development of 3D viewing and stereoscopic filmmaking with cameras that were specially designed for the movie's production. It's amazing that Cameron wrote the scriptment for the film more than 15 years ago, but the technology available at that moment was very limited to portray his vision of the film, a major cause of the long delay of its release.

I've seen Avatar in 3D and I must say that it's the best movie since Star Wars. If you are like me who are curious to know how this stunning movie was made, here a quick look at some of the technology behind this masterpiece:

* Linux's silent but important role
Weta Digital, the visual effects company that gave life to the flora and fauna on Pandora, uses Linux and other Linux-based software to achieve all those cutting edge graphics. It utilizes one of the world's largest Linux clusters (ranked #193 amongst the top 500 supercomputers) for film rendering, with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) as their OS. The CGI are created using 64-bit Linux-based software for painting textures and 3D modeling.

* Building the stage
There were more than 90 cameras (configured in a grid) that hang around the perimeter of a sound stage. Later on, a computer replaces the studio walls, the floor and the ceiling with digitally rendered three-dimensional environments and structures.


* The 3-D Fusion Camera System
The 3-D Fusion Camera System uses two high-definition cameras in a single camera body to create depth perception. The line of sight of the lenses can be adjusted so that they can be angled closer together to focus on nearby objects, or farther apart for those in the distance, just as your eyes do.


* The virtual camera
Cameron made use of his very own virtual camera system, a new way of directing motion-capture filmmaking. According to him, "It's like a big, powerful game engine. The system displays an augmented reality on a monitor, placing the actor's virtual counterparts into their digital surroundings in real time, allowing the director to adjust and direct scenes just as if shooting live action.


* Motion-capture
They use a motion-capture stage (dubbed as "The Volume") six times larger than any previously used, and an improved method of capturing facial expressions, enabling full performance capture. Actors wore individually made skull-caps fitted with a tiny camera placed in front of the actors' faces. The information gathered from their facial expressions and eyes is then transmitted to computers. According to Cameron, the method made it possible for the filmmakers to transfer 100% of the actors' physical performances to their digital counterparts.


* The Visual effects
Creating the virtual world of Pandora required over a petabyte of digital storage (Transformers "Revenge of the Fallen" needed about 140 terabytes). The final footage for Avatar occupied 17.28 gigabytes of storage per minute. To help finish preparing the special effects sequences on time, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) was brought in, working alongside Weta Digital to create the battle sequences.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010



How to Find and Clean up Duplicate Files in Ubuntu Linux

Posted: 26 Jan 2010 01:45 AM PST

If you are like me who have accumulated thousands of audio, movies, and other files over the years, it is not unusual to have tons and tons of duplicate contents that are scattered throughout the hard drive. Even though our storage devices are getting bigger, those duplicate files are still a waste of space. So what should you do with them? Should you manually find those files and clean them up one by one. Well, that's not necessary because there's a good utility that can help you in searching and cleaning duplicate files and more.

The program that you will have to install is called FsLint (Filesystem Lint). It has both a GUI as well as a command line interface. Aside from finding duplicate files, FsLint is also capable of searching for problematic filenames, temporary files, bad symlinks, empty directories and non-stripped binaries. So let me show you how to install and use FsLint.

In Ubuntu, you can install FsLint using Synaptic Package Manager or via the command line:

sudo apt-get install fslint

After installing FsLint, you can find it at Applications-->System Tools-->FsLint.

FsLint has a simple GUI. By default, the search path is your home directory but you can add other directories or use the "Advanced search parameters" as well.


Once you've added the search path, simply click on the "Find" button and the program will immediately start looking for duplicate files and others mentioned above. After the searching is done, the names and directories with issues are displayed. You are then given options to save, delete, or merge those duplicate files.


That's about it. Now go on and start cleaning those duplicates files.