Firstly let me clarify a few things, this post does not apply to Linux users but Windows users who use MSN, AIM, AOL or ICQ. Also the title should read "Why you should use Google Talk (or other Jabber client) over MSN, AIM or ICQ but that was too long ".

We all know MSN user's can't talk to AIM users and ICQ user can't talk to AOL users and so on. No one expects them to be able to either, it's the way we have come to accept instant messaging clients to work. No one is surprised that AOL don't make their IM protcol an open standard to allow MSN, AIM or ICQ to co-operate with AOL. It's just a fact we accept and it would be very odd if something like that were to happen.

Email. It too uses a protocol, only it's an open protocol and is the reason that we don't have MS Outlook/Outlook Express users not being able to talk to a user using software other than MS Outlook/Outlook Express for his/her email client. This is again something we have come to expect - That with any email client you use you will be able to email everyone else.

Google Talk, it's not the most popular and it's not the most featured IM client, but what makes it different to AIM, MSN, ICQ and AOL's IM clients? It uses open protocols for both voice chat and text chat. Meaning MSN, AIM, ICQ or AOL could easily allow you to add Google Talk users and you don't have to use Google Talk to talk to Google Talk users.

Imagine now having choice! Being able to use an IM client because it suits your needs better rather than being forced to use it because your friends do. The same way that you have a choice regarding which email client you'd rather use. We do need one standard open protocol for IM which has become a widely used medium for communication. That protocol is Jabber and is the protocol that Google Talk uses. Now it's true that there are lots of Jabber clients out there but none of them are made by Google which means none of them have the advantage of being marketed by a media giant. This is why Google Talk is important.

What can you do to help the adoption of an open protocol? Well at the very minimum you can get Google Talk or one of the many IM clients that interface with it and start using it alongside your current IM client(s). Perhaps your friends don't use it so tell them about it and why they should be. The most extreme stance you could take is to not use your old protocol in an attempt to push people who wish to contact you via IM use the Jabber protocol.

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After a bit of fiddling it works sort of, the graphics aren't great and the FPS is poor but it's playable... until it crashes lol. Some location tend to crash the game, I haven't looked into why or if it's possible to fix, I was just pleased to see it running. ATi cards are useless under Linux, I have ordered an nVidia 6800 GT and can't wait to get rid of my ATi card. It'll be very interesting to see the performance difference in Guild Wars



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Well after having experimented with XGL/Compiz yesterday using a live CD I could no longer wait to use it on Ubuntu. Originally I had planned to use it when Ubuntu Dapper Drake was out but a combination of boredom and lust for wobbly windows drove me to give it ago. First thigns first Google for a guide. The one I found was this Xgl and Compiz under Breezy I followed it pretty much to the letter but doing things my own way. The only important things to note because I'm currently running an ATI card are that I had to make 0=Xgl into 1=Xgl and the line command=/usr/X11R6/bin/Xgl :0 -fullscreen -ac -accel glx:fbo -accel xv:fbo into command=/usr/X11R6/bin/Xgl :1 -fullscreen -ac -accel glx:fbo -accel xv:fbo. Also this is probably regardless of graphics card type, I found the current animation when you lauch an program from a gnome panel launcher conflicted with Compiz and slowed it down, this is easily fixed via gConf and disabling /apps/panel/global/enable_animations

All of that took around five minutes. I have never even looking into installing XGL/Compiz on Breezy before so given that it only took five minutes I was very impressed to see it up and running in such time. XGL/Compiz are great and I use very little CPU which is what you'd expect from an accelerated desktop, infact moving windows around now actaully consumes less CPU than when I didn't have XGL/Compiz installed

EDIT: OK I have a few tweaks I performed later on that I thought I'd list here.

To get a UK keyboard layout:
xmodmap /usr/share/xmodmap/xmodmap.uk

To change window transparency with ctrl+shift and mouse wheel:
Download http://www.downwithnumbers.com/files/compiz_opacity.tar.gz.
Extract it and copy libopacity.so to /usr/lib/compiz.
Then in gConf editor edit /apps/compiz/general/allscreens/options/active_plugins and add opacity to the list and it should be activated instantly

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I rarely play computer games, unless I find them to be particularly worth of taking my time, the majority of games are not however a select few are. Classics such as HL2, the Zelda series, Mafia are a few examples. Typically I only play the most popular games.

Two Friday's ago I added another game to that list. The game in question was an MMORPG called Guild Wars, a type of game I have never played before but as my mates at Uni went into lengthy conversations about them I decided perhaps I should give one a go and see what the fuss is about. My mate Lee picked up a copy of Guild Wars Special Edition when we were in a game shop and pointed it out. Since Guild Wars was only £20 and had no subscription fee like the majority of MMORPG's I figured it was worth a gamble. To be honest the whole idea of a fantasy game with hit points and attack points and so forth put me off trying on in the first place, I have since been told that Guild Wars is not a "hardcore" RPG however.

After starting the game up, immediate confusion was upon me. This was no FPS! The style of play gave rise to hundreds of unanswered questions making settling into this type of game esp for a newcomer to MMORPG's quite daunting. However it was not long until the concept had set in and I quickly started learning from there on. First impressions of a game are very important in my opinion and my first impression of this game was that it was great. To me music is very important in a game and the score of this games soundtrack is very impressive indeed. Graphics are less important but I still like to see a good attempt have been made (technically there's no reason why every game can't look like HL2 if the dev's put the time into it). The graphics in this game are great. They are not on par with HL2 but are not that far away either. What I particularly like about them is how well they have been used. Good graphics is not just about a high poly count. Games with a low poly count can look good with a few special effects, the right lighting and good texture and Guild Wars is very good with the three mentioned above. This provides a very seamless playing experience where the user in not constantly reminded that about the virtual environment they are playing in due to lack of "atmosphere" created by poor lighting or fuzzy textures. Instead you can just get on with the game, taking the graphics for granted in many instances which is how a game should play.

From the cut scene you are treated to the track "Autumn in Ascalon" (perhaps my favorite track in the game) and some impressive graphics/cut scene/camera play. After that your on your own working your way through the game. You pick up quickly the fact that to make the most of this game, and in some cases the only way to play this game is with a party of real players (not computer players) and this is where the whole Multiplayer aspect comes in. First two players are needed to complete all the missions, later on the number of people you can have in a party grows. The best way to get members for your party is to join a guild which isn't hard as there are usually many people asking for members, I was recruited by Cult of Rakdos pretty early on . Otherwise you'll have to visit a public area and ask if anyone is interested in helping you do mission X.

As for gameplay I can't really comment on how this ranks as an MMORPG due to in being the only one I have played but I should imagine it's fairly similar to most and I have certainly enjoyed it to the point where I have spent far too much time on it after becoming addicted to it.

On a final note, if you want to trial the next version of this game for free I have three invites available. Just drop me an email at the usual address deusiah at gmail dot com and I'll email you back. You must do this before the 24th.

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There's a simple answer to that, it's not OSX with it's fancy tab switching, exposé or dashboard and it's certainly not Windows with it's lame attempt at making Vista look nice. The answer is of course Linux and whilst Linux eye candy is in very early stages and run by few people it certainly has it and certainly has the upper hand. I must clarify what I mean by eye candy, I do not mean the look of a desktop, but the animation effects it can achieve. It's true that the way a desktop looks is eye candy however this type of eye candy is easily available by switching desktop themes and Linux has been capable of doing this for some time. What Linux has that is new is snazzy animations that's to the work of some talented hackers and some input from the guys at Novell.

I'm not going to add pictures or screencasts to this blog. I have seen videos of it before and none of them justify it. So here's my advice, download an ISO of Kororaa, a live CD which you can run safely that does not touch your hard drive but runs straight from the disk. This special version of Kororaa is designed to showcase XGL which gives Linux such fancy effects as wobby windows and cubed desktop switching.

This distro worked flawlessly, detecting all my hardware and working perfectly with my ATI 9800XT without further tweaking. Indeed I have been so impressed by the distro that I have been working in it all day despite the fact that opening programs is not as quick as my Ubuntu installation due to running them from a CD.

Download it, burn it, slap it in your drive, reboot and enjoy.

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