Nerding it up!

My Wacom Works Out Of The Box Under Linux!

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I got that creative itch recently to revisit drawing, and I also wanted to see how easy it was to get it running under Manjaro. So today I killed two birds with one stone, and surprisingly it’s quite a lot easier to setup compared to Windows. The drivers were installed by default, and it was practically working right from the get go! The only “difficult” thing I really had to do was configure it to run on one monitor with an easy shell script:

Now I can shitscribble to my hearts content! I played around under Krita for a bit, just doing different doodles and playing with different brush settings. I’m waaaay out of practice, my drawing hand is kinda shaky, and it gets tired after about an hour. I really need to build up my drawing muscles again. 😛 I’ve been meaning to get back into drawing, but the time was never there. That’s the problem with having too many hobbies, but hey! you’re never bored.

I’m glad I’ve waited on getting the Steam Controller

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I’ve been drooling to get my hands on this shiny thing.

steamcontroller

But having read feedback on it so far on the Steam forums, and reading the first big review on it on PC Gamer I’m happy I didn’t go with the bleeding edge. I’m still interested in it though, perhaps after they work out the kinks and add more support to it I’ll pick one up. But for now it looks like Valve has their work cut out for themselves. In the meantime I’ll continue to enjoy my relaxation time with the ol reliable Logitech F710.

Microsoft admits to neglecting the PC gaming platform

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It’s been far beyond obvious for a quite some time that Microsoft hasn’t exactly had much interest in the PC Gaming market. Not when they have been trying to sell a console, and the failure of GFWL not only proves this but also this article where Microsoft basically wishes they could have done what Steam has accomplished to keep PC Gaming alive and well.

“Valve is right down the street from us,” Spencer noted. “They’ve done a great job of keeping the PC ecosystem strong at a time where I don’t mind saying that we could have been more focused on what was going on in PC gaming.”

He also goes on to say:

“We were probably too focused purely on console,” Spencer admitted. “With Steam, [Valve has] done an amazing job of building this thing that, in a lot of ways, we should have been building as well at Microsoft.”

It’s amazing to think of in retrospect. Considering that back in the 90’s Microsoft wanted Windows to be the future platform of gaming.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gun4erVV8CM

My how times change.

Open Thread: Progress!

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Back running under Fedora with kernal 3.11.6-201, and I have to say that game performance is highly noticeable. I tried playing TF2’s Helltower map and it kept choking on the particle systems. Now it’s smooth like a baby’s arse. Later today I think I’ll test one of the sawmill maps since it literally rains down particles. But yeah, now I can finish up my hunt for swag in the comfort of Linux, just how the GabeN intended.

I also installed an Open Source driver for my Logitech G510 which gives me full control of my G Keys plus some new keyboard apps. Sooooo nice to be able to color my keyboard under Linux instead of being stuck with vanilla keys. Think tomorrow I’ll put my binds back together so that I can raise proper hell.

And finally I decided to transfer over some old DOS games to play under DosBOX (which works great btw). Mounting is a bit different but thanks to the instructions included within the program I managed to figure it out. I mounted my /usr/local/games directory as drive C and went to town playing Cosmo’s Cosmic Adventure… now that’s old.

Oh this is too good.

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Taken from Kotaku:

In Manhattan’s Greenwich Village neighborhood sits Alamo, a giant cube sculpture by Tony Rosenthal which dates back to 1967. The artwork, a.ka. the Cube, lives not far from New York University, The New School, and few other landmarks. It’s been in music videos by Cypress Hill and other groups and has been the subject of a few pranks, including one that turned it into a giant Rubik’s Cube.

This morning, the latest stunt involving Alamo turned it into the Weighted Companion Cube from Valve’s popular Portal games. Oversized swaths of fabric covered one of the city’s most famous sculptures in the beloved inanimate object’s signature hearts-and-squares. A note from the Caltech Prank Club claims responsibility in the distinctive language of Portal’s Aperture Science corporation. Sadly, there wasn’t any cake to celebrate the occasion.

That is just all levels of awesome.