JLP's Blog

It is more then one day now that I have been using my new Geforce 6800. So now I can say what I think about it. In general I'm very pleased (I guess I should be, as it wasn't exactly cheap). Maybe I'm the most happy because it works very well in Linux. I've tried a couple of OpenGL screensavers and games and they all run smoothly. Even the 32-bit drivers from ATI don't work that well and they don't even have 64-bit drivers for AMD64. Good job nVidia!

As expected, the card also performs very well in Windows. Here are some benchmark comparisons of my old and new graphics card:

Benchmark	Radeon 9600XT	Geforce 6800
3DMark2001	14334	19035
3DMark03	4010	8920
3DMark05	(not tested)	3349
Aquamark 3	31825	51594

ATI Radeon 8500 in my sister's computer started to freak out. It crashes for no reason in games and sometimes it even freezes while working with 2D apps. So I decided to move my current ATI Radeon 9600 XT to her computer and buy myself some new graphics card. I decided to go with Leadtek WinFast A400 TDH (nVidia Geforce 6800). It has great value for the money and one of the main reasons I choose it over any ATI card is that nVidia has very solid 64-bit Linux drivers for AMD64, while ATI has no 64-bit drivers at all.

And what to say about the card that is about to retire? Well, it served me very well and for a very long time. I bought it in Italy where it was a loooot cheaper then here in Slovenia. At that time it impressed me with speed and image quality and features like TrueForm. Rest In Peace!

I have just come across this picture showing paths of recent hurricanes over Florida. It looks like all three of them are going over counties where Bush won in past elections. Is God sending us a warning?

And here is another comic related to this:

Along with the release of latest version of Firefox browser a new site has been set up to bring together the community of extremely happy users to promote it to others who still don't know about it. The site is named Spread Firefox and their goal was to count one million downloads of the browser in ten days. But it looks like the product is so hot that the target was reached in only four days. If you still don't know why people are grabbing Firefox so fast then: Wait no more!

While reading the KDE CVS mailing list today I found out that the theme Plastik will become the default in the next KDE version and it will replace the current one: Keramik. I think this is a great move as Plastik looks more polished and professional looking and is probably the favourite choice for majority of users. This also means that all the screenshots in the documentation will have to be updated. But as I found out this will all be automated.

Me and my sister are big fans of adventure games. After playing Syberia series we were searching for a new adventure. Monkey Island series is one of the funniest and most interesting. We played all games from the series but the very first one. So yesterday we decided to play the very first part: The Secret of Monkey Island. It is so entertaining to guide the witty wannabe pirate Guybrush Threepwood in his quest to defeat the evil ghost pirate LeChuck and win the heart of lovely Elaine Marley. We spent six hours playing it. Yeah it is so good.

I've been subscribed to Slovenian astronomy magazine Spika (named after a star in the constellation of Virgo) from the very beginning when I was still in primary school. I keep all the issues somewhere safe because you never know when I will need to read something or scan some image.

About two months ago I noticed that I stopped receiving this great magazine. At first I was afraid that Spika is no more (it happened before, but this time there was no notice about it). Today I finally sent an e-mail to the main editor and it turned out that I forgot to pay the subscription bill. Silly me. I renewed the subscription and also ordered missing issues (it is nice to have a complete collection). Can't wait to see Spika in my mailbox again :)

A fellow amateur astronomer, Toni, visited me today. He brought a CD with photos he took during our observation of the Venus transit. But he also brought some bad news. He told me that the owner of the big 40cm Newtonian telescope would like to get it back. I don't blame him, it is a very nice and useful instrument. A big thanks goes to him to let us borrow it for so long. We have seen a lot more while using it and it enabled children at our local primary school (and some other visitors) to see Mercury and Venus transits. We will all miss it. Too bad we don't have the money to buy something similar or make it ourselves (lack of free time is more of a problem in this case) :(

Hard working people at Mozilla.org have released some very nice updates to their popular opensource apps.

First they updated Mozilla internet suite to version 1.7.3. It brings you some security fixes. Download it here.

The most interesting app is probably Firefox browser. Version 0.10 (1.0 Preview Release) brings you:

• Live Bookmarks
• Improved Find
• Improved Managing Annoyances and Protecting Security
• Better Bookmarks
• Strong Encryption For Passwords Available
• Improved Compatibility for IE users
• Better System Integration for GNOME users

You can see details and download links here.

The last one is the e-mail client Thunderbird. In version 0.8 you get:

• Global Inbox
• Comprehensive Data Migration
• RSS Integration
• Improved Privacy Controls
• Improved Quick Search
• Better System Integration for GNOME users

Details and downloads here.

In the morning I had a math exam. I solved 3 out of 5 tasks. I sure hope I solved them right and that I passed the exam. Ah well, if I didn't, I guess I'll have to learn harder next time. Now I have to start learning for the next exam from chemistry.

After I returned home I found out that the books I've ordered have finally arrived. Sort of. One book (Ernest Hemingway - For Whom the Bell Tolls) was missing. I checked my e-mail and it appears that they have some copyright problems and that it might not even go to press. So I got two books: a lexicon of astronomy (Marijan Prosen - Leksikon astronomije) and a book with writing guidelines (Milan Vodopivec & Matija Vodopivec - Kako raziskujem, pišem, nastopam: sporočilna tehnika pisanja). I'm sure they will come in handy some day.

Finally!! After about a month KDEPIM package from KDE CVS is compiling normally again. Now KOrganizer also works fine and doesn't crash right on startup on AMD64. See more about the problem (which is also present in KDE 3.3) in this bug report. During this kdepim-doesn't-compile period we found out that most (if not all) KDEPIM developers use unsermake instead of automake. I'll have to check this out at some later time.

As you can see, I have just added a second blog link to my sidebar: j4b0 bLog site. This is a blog of a very good friend of mine. Together we try to learn as much as possible at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics (and have as much fun at the same time :) ). This is his first blog and let's hope we see a lot of interesting posts in the future. The starting post is already there, so if you have some time, you could go there and say hello.

While reading blogs on Planet Mozilla, I've come accross this funny photo from the anti-Bush/Republican protests in New York:

You can read more comments about this photo here: When Nerds Protest The RNC.

Firefox is a great browser even in its default installation. And you can make it even better with extensions which can add a feature or change the way Firefox works. There are a lot of extensions available here and here. If you don't know what you need yet, you can read this guide that people at Flexbeta.net have written for you:
A Guide To Firefox Extensions

Software patenting, already in use in the USA, allows established companies to control the innovation of others.

The European Union is expected to vote at the end of September on a bill aimed at instituting software patents. We are all concerned and this law must be opposed.

You can help as a blogger, by opening your own debate. You can also post this article on your blog and add your signature. If you are not a blogger you may add a comment at this article.

More info...

I have 5 GMail invitations left to give away. So if you would like to get one, click on one of the buttons on the left (Firefox or Thunderbird) and send me an e-mail with all the reasons (bold text on those pages) why use these two excellent apps. And also don't forget to try them out if you don't use them already. The first five will get the invitation.