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Injecting New Life into KDE with Oxygen and Plasma, KDE 4 Quick Review

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I have been a silent fan of KDE though I use Gnome on a daily basis for my laptop, Suzaku. I love great KDE set-ups on desktops, though for some reason I can’t like it for laptops. Though after today… I will definitely keep my eyes out on KDE 4’s development. The trial didn’t last too long, due to somethings needing a refined polish, but my impressions on it were great.

Disclaimer: Due to the nature of me just installing the KDE 4 core, rather than using the Kubuntu Desktop install and then stacking the KDE 4 install, I didn’t get to experience all the new items of KDE 4 on a completely integrated scale. The openSUSE KDE 4 Live CD didn’t quite play too nice with me either… Keep in mind I was playing with the CORE technologies of KDE 4. I will leave my Gnome bias at the door and focus on the mindset of a KDE 3.5.7 user.

KDE has come a long way since I even remembered my first experience with it when I had tried out SUSE 9.0 Professional back in 2001 or 2002. Back then, it just seemed so coarse and uncut rather than the ignorance I had from Windows XP. I had not used Gnome yet and I didn’t delve much into Linux until much later in 2007. When I just jumped over to Linux back in February, I remembered missing the comfort of the Windows XP Start Menu configuration. I installed Kubuntu on top of Ubuntu on my desktop and the experience just didn’t do it for me. The eye candy just didn’t work well as it did in Gnome… But when I had set up a full Kubuntu set-up for my family, I rather liked the simplistic experience.

KDE 4 was touted as a complete revamp from under the hood for the KDE experience. I can still remember the baren placeholder pages for the Oxygen art team and the Plasma interface. It looked really promising. There was speculation on the next Kubuntu release (Gutsy) sporting KDE 4 by this past October, but the KDE team had pushed back the release date to make sure that the 4.0 release would be truly ready. So it was a push to late December, around Christmas and many people were once again met with disappointment to see it being pushed back to January of this year. It wouldn’t be until last night at 12am that a news bulletin hit Digg basically saying “KDE 4.0 is LIVE! Get the Live CD NOW!”

On booting into KDE, you’re taken to a wonderful black backdrop and a set of icons on a small window showing all the procedure calls being started for things like network initialization, hard drives, etc. From there, a tranquil chime lets you know you have entered KDE. The desktop is just dead on pretty. It’s a lot better than the bland entrance from KDE 3.5 and just has a great wow factor. I like the bottom panel bar being a nice black as it just seems to polish up the theme that much more.

KDE 4 Desktop

A new thing is the fact that KDE can do on-board compositing, with no need for things like Compiz Fusion. This is good as the common user is not going to want to muck about with something that could break their workspace. If anyone remembers my rant about how Compiz Fusion shattered on me, then they know what I mean. The compositing is all from KWin powering it all and most of the “eye candy” is more on the side of refining the experience and to increase productivity, rather than trying to do pretty things. The compositing also allows for widgets to be used in conjunction to the desktop. In the above screen shot, you’ll see that there’s a computer icon with a box above for “recently connected devices”. That’s for any hot-swapping USB items and it will associate them with their appropriate programs. For those who want to know more about the eye candy, KDE 4 does do the “widget space” like how the OS X folks have theirs for Mac. Definitely something for the silent productivity fan.

The improvements for the experience are finally showing. The KRunner app is very nice and can definitely help narrow things down if you’re trying to run a command for a program that you can’t quite remember. While you type, KRunner index searches the system for any matching commands and has them in a list below the search. You can see what the command does in addition to that. The geek factor is that you can also use KRunner as a quick calculator should that need arise.

The Kicker Panel is like the K Menu on steroids, with regards to finding app launchers faster. The novice is able to search for programs by using the search function, while the system indexes all the programs to facilitate an expedited process. In addition, the large icons make it easy to narrow down what you want to do. This makes for a much pleasant experience, nothing like the confusing muck-about seen in most Windows machines. The favorites tab is nice as you can add programs that you use all the time there and just make it a one stop shop for any programs you wish to use.

The Dolphin File Manager really impressed me. I never personally liked using Konqueror for file management and felt it just did a sloppy job. I liked how clean and simple it was able to display files with options to change how you wanted to display them. I loved the split view to be able to view 2 directories at the same time. That could easily be something useful for things like doing redundant memory card back-ups or anything that is similar. Dolphin is just balls out simple, functional, and quick. The traits that a good graphical file manager should have, no exceptions.

Here’s a screen with the split-view mode

Konqueror, I can’t really say too much as I use Firefox for my day to day uses. They have picked up on making the experience much more polished and I can say that there is much more improvement than how I have seen it running on KDE 3.5. Konqueror seems to run much faster now… I don’t know if that is due to some new changes in Konqueror or if it’s from the zippy performance of KDE 4 and KWin. It’s definitely something I could be happy with as a casual user. In the Oxygen skinning theme, it does make Konqueror look almost like Apple’s Safari browser.

My only gripe with KDE 4 is the lack of ability to change the size of the bottom panel. In KDE 3.5, you can change it to a single line set-up rather than a double in the KSysGuard menus… but in KDE 4, there’s no option for that. I am sure that when the final touches are done, the experience should be much cleaner and this minor issue would be fixed. Other than that minor gripe… I am definitely in love with KDE 4. It’s great and I am looking forward to the changes due to come for the future versions of KDE. I just wish Canonical would give the Kubuntu 8.04 release the LTS status with KDE 4 on it, instead of giving it second class priority.

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Flight of Cabernet Sauvignons from The Parlour Wine Bar

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I went to The Parlour Wine Bar with a dear friend to savor life and try to relax from all the bad luck my office has had. I had opted out of any appetizers or things to add to my night, but on the flight listings the cabernet sauvignon listing really piqued my interest. I had fallen in love with the Stevenot estates cabernet sauvignon, so I kept with that to experiment and try to get a better appreciation for cabernets.

The wines were as follows from the menu:

  • Joel Gott 815 (California)
  • Craneford Ally Parson’s (Barossa)
  • Montes Alpha (Alpata Vineyard, Colchagua)

The first wine was the lightest of them all. There were very strong floral notes from smelling the wine from the glass after a light swirl. The floral scent was also a bit savory and made my mouth water a bit, but also there was a light hint of the alcohols from the wine blossoming. On tasting the Joel Gott 815, I could taste a touch of sweetness with in a fusion of mixed berries and smoke. It settled very nicely on my palette and was far from drowning me in flavors. The taste was simple, but also elegant to my inexperienced tongue. The finish was a very bold one and had a tinge of a linger. The linger was one that almost like a parting kiss. This is a wine I would love to share with many and have a few cases on hand.

The Craneford Ally Parson’s was one I was not much of a fan of. It was the middle of the flight. This wine had more of a berry note with a splash of citrus and alcohol notes after a swirl in the glass. On taking a taste, the wine seemed to have a bitter attack on first sip… but then slowly opening up with notes of citrus and berries. The finish was a little bitter with just a touch of spices when it lingered. This one just gave me a mood of parting ways with a good friend from how the wine finishes off.

The Montes Alpha was a wine I was impressed by greatly. This one had the most time to blossom and mix with the air, so I knew that the scent would have much to offer. After giving the glass a swirl, I would take a good deep sniff to try to absorb the scents. I was hit by a wave of berries with just a touch of floral and spice notes. The scent had very little alcohol backing the the wonderful bouquet of smells. The taste was actually easier than the wine before it, though it had more of a focus on flavors of leather (I think) and spices rather the fruits and flowers I sniffed before. The finish was one that fused both the smell and taste into a powerful linger that was very savory at the end. This one was a wine I would love to pair with a nice filet mignon or some dark chocolate covered strawberries for a very special occasion.

I would like to thank The Parlour for their great staff assisting me that night and I will definitely be returning for another flight of wines or spirits to explore my horizons.

Games, Reviews, Technology

Memories of Yesteryear – Guilty Gear Judgment (US/PSP)

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Take a trip back in time with me. The era is the early to mid 1990’s. An era where the most advanced popular systems were 16-bit and you finally had stereo soundtracks or multiprocessor audio synthesizers. A time when games were challenging, fun, and (most importantly) 2D. This was an era that games like Contra 3, Streets of Rage, and Final Fight reigned as kings in their prime. These games still continue to be cult classics with gaming enthusiasts and fans alike! As history has shown… there are always competitors that tried to steal the thunder away from the original product. The market would eventually just see titles trying to saturate the market, such as the Splatterhouse series et al. I remember as a child that these games were almost as good as the arcade versions. One of the offshoots from the “beat ’em up” genre that I am sure many of the 1980’s born children remember is the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game that supported up to 4 players on the arcade edition. When the late 1990’s finally set in, these games would slowly fade from the lime light and the focus became “3D is the in thing! 2D is so lame!” with many developers. There would be some companies like Capcom who to merge 3D with a beat ’em up flavor, but that didn’t pan out so well (ps2.IGN.com – Final Fight: Streetwise – PS2). I have always had a place in my heart for the classic beat ’em up games, but with most of them disappearing I just left them as a memory. Fighting games still have a vestige of a place in the world in 2D form, but with pretty 3D effect work for things like special fighting moves. The new Street Fighter games and the Guilty Gear series are (in my mind) canonical definitions of the new era of fighting games

Do not take this above preface as an attack on 3D games, let me make this clear. I don’t mean to offend those who love 3D games, but I will say that there are quite good 3D games out there.

I love the Guilty Gear series as it blends a fresh fighting experience to the scene of games with characters that aren’t just composed of a color change and minor pixel art changes. I have played the original Guilty Gear for PlayStation and even up to the last recent title, Guilty Gear Isuka. (For those readers of my blog who wonder about my endearing nickname for my cousin is Sol, it’s a “throwback” to Sol Badguy from the Guilty Gear games as that is his favorite character.) From the series, I have much love for Ky Kiske, Millia Rage, Chipp Zanuff as my “picks” of characters. From the series, I loved Guilty Gear XX #reload the most. When the Japanese market was getting a Guilty Gear beat ’em up game titled “Guilty Gear Judgment” for PSP. I remember lamenting that it may not make it to the American market. I had contemplated getting it, but at the price of $45 for the UMD… I was not too keen on it. About a week later, the Japanese market got another announcement that they were getting Guilty Gear XX #reload for PSP with wireless play for roughly the same price ($45). Again, I was a bit angered that the American market was going to miss out again. My disappointment would just eventually come to pass when Majesco would announce that they would be publishing “Guilty Gear Judgment” for the US that my interest would pique.

The American release of Guilty Gear Judgment is a little unique to the Japanese/Asian release, as it merges both Guilty Gear Judgment and the Guilty Gear XX #reload discs into one. This is one of the few titles that the American gamers got a break on versus those who paid for the import copies. I personally could never fathom paying $90 and shipping for 2 standard edition Guilty Gear games when this American release goes for $19.99. (Note: I understand paying $90+ for limited edition games, that’s something for the die-hard fan.) The only thing about this game is that most normal retailers won’t have it in stock, which leads me to believe that this game may be a limited print. The going price is about that range, so don’t fret about the price skyrocketing any time soon.

Guilty Gear Judgment plays pretty well for a beat ’em up game. The story is a bit varied from the original plot of the War of the Gears, but it does give more flavor to the Guilty Gear story. The game play looks just as great as Guilty Gear XX #reload with the anime style animations with a hint of 3D effects for things like special projectiles or dust being kicked up from dashes. These are things that make the most discriminating Guilty Gear fan will be at home in. The characters do have their “handicaps” just like they do in the fighting game that are applied to Judgment. Things like Chipp’s triple jump, Ky’s 1.2 damage ratio, or Potemkin’s 0.8 damage ratio are all here which make the game an additional challenge. The characters are unlocked through story modes to give more background story to them with access to most of the cast.

The characters do still have their trademark moves and overdrive attacks, but some of them are performed differently due to the button map change to allow for a jump button. The maneuvers are not easy to perform for a casual gamer and take heed not to blister your thumbs from it. The control scheme works alright and serves for a tolerable Final Fight/Streets of Rage experience, but you will find that relying on special moves will become a staple later in the game. In my opinion, I feel this takes a little away from the experience. However, I understand why… It is to go hand-in-hand with the combo counter system in the game which rewards you for racking up hits together. The issue with relying on the special maneuvers is that the game quickly becomes a tiring experience, almost to the point that the game becomes a chore. The other side of the combo counter and special moves are things like the Tension Gauge and the Burst Gauge are integrated to the game to make things a little fair. The Tension Gauge doing the same thing as in the original games and the Burst Gauge functions as a corner trap escape with HP regeneration equal to the amount of damage outputted from a Burst attack. The jumps can be a bit of a sensitive topic as being just a simple pixel off will have you plummeting to a penalty of life loss. The character differences can have a definite bearing on how hard some fights can be sometimes. I have had times where there’s a stage where Ky just simply cannot dish out the pain, while Sol or Chipp are just slaying anything and everything. This can be a bit of an issue to some, as the frustration may inspire you to throw your console around from sheer rage. Other than this game being a blister busting, rage inducing beat ’em up game, it can be great for getting your fix for classical style gaming. I have not been able to try the wireless co-op mode, but I’d imagine that could be a little more of a fair experience.

As far as the Guilty Gear XX #reload game on the disc, it’s nothing new to write home about. The good part is all of the “unlockable” characters from the game are already accessible from the get-go, instead of having to unlock them through normal means. The main difference is wireless play and I don’t have another friend to try that one out to test out latency or lag for the game. Unfortunately, no internet play is available on the game.

Kudos to Arc System Works for releasing these two games for the PSP. There could have been some minor improvements, but at the price of $19.99 it isn’t too steep. Majesco did a great job on combining the two games into one disc, making this a great buy! However, they could have given better documentation and presentation of the game’s instructions and details about the wireless game play.

Zero’s Rating: 3 of 5 stars
Zero’s Verdict: For the Guilty Gear fan who would like to do battle on the go either in story or competitive modes. It would definitely not hurt the casual buyer.

Reviews, Technology

Quick Thoughts on openSUSE 10.3

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A while back, I played around with openSUSE via live CD on both my desktop and laptops. I had been meaning to pen a review down, but never played too much with the distribution before I wanted to return to Ubuntu. Before anyone shoots me for being an “Ubuntu fanatic”, let me make it clear… I like Ubuntu, but after the sloppy dist-upgrade from Feisty (perfect) to Gutsy (rushed, maybe) and how it broke lots of things, I am leery on saying I am a “die-hard” fan of Ubuntu.

Disclaimer: This is not a “full” review, take this quick review for what it is worth.

Novell has been more of an enterprise/corporate player in the grand scheme of Linux and network related technologies. Many have probably used corporate machines powered by Novell NetWare for Windows for example. For the folks who are looking for a very tight corporate office set-up but powered by open source software, Novell has the SUSE Enterprise Linux Desktop package that they market with a choice of varied years for tech support. Novell’s project openSUSE, however, is more like an open playground for enthusiasts, fans, and developers to join together and help push SUSE Linux further in developments.

One thing that Novell did right for the 10.3 release is that they packaged the distribution with live CD versions as well. Ever since Ubuntu and its other flavors had live CD’s to give potential new users a try rather than forcing a user to install to see, a lot of distributions lost ground. To see Novell do this gave me much more incentive to give the distro a try as I don’t have a machine to wipe and test. I would pull both the KDE and Gnome versions from their http server and fire them up on CD-R’s to test them out.

The boot procedure is nice and quick on both versions and the environments load up without any delay. After all the initial processes loaded, I was greeted with a rather friendly green and silver themed desktop. The set-up is very akin to Windows XP and that’s to both the KDE and Gnome environments. The Gnome environment has Novell’s custom “Gnome SLAB” for the interface that makes the Gnome experience very much like a Windows one for the ease of transition.

The clean set-up is impressive to say the least. The menus are intuitive and a user could quickly get oriented with little instruction. The live CD comes with the bare basics, so things like Open Office, a media player, etc are all there. The system is also armed with Novell’s App Armor which is more like a GUI powered form of SELinux. So a great experience with security in mind. What’s there not to love?

My only bit with openSUSE is that YAST (the application grabber) is horridly slow. It’s not a efficient as apt (on Debian based distros) and the server checks take serious time. I just got a bit fed up with it and just quit bothering with it. The rest of the distro is quick… but YAST is a serious buzz kill for me. I know that you can throw on an apt system for openSUSE, but it’s not without it’s own hoops and ladders.

For people looking for a nicely polished up distro for business and work, openSUSE is a great distro to get your feet wet before plunking down the cash for SLED (SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop). The quality polish on it is refined and could easily fool Windows users at an office as a skin for Windows. With safeguards there to protect end users from being exploited from App Armor, it could really ease headaches for those aiming to be an at-home sys-admin. YAST is the Achilles heel of the distribution, but it has gotten better than when I played with SUSE Linux 9.3 a few years back.

Games, Reviews, Technology

Zelda Remix: The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass for Nintendo DS

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I have been a Zelda fan since I was about 5 years old, so Zelda has a big impact on me. I remember playing the original Legend of Zelda for the Nintendo Entertainment System and the pure frustration of fighting the later bosses. It was fun but frustrating to my childish mind. After that game, there was the release of Zelda II: The Adventures of Link. It was definitely a change from the bird’s eye view scope of the game. The dungeons in 2D were frustrating and borderline aggravating! I remember spending almost 3 hours as a kid trying to fight Horsehead. (I can kill Horsehead like cake now, but it still can be a grueling fight.) The Super Nintendo release of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (Zelda III), it was received well by fans who liked the bird’s eye view form of battle and puzzles. I enjoyed this return to a “pure” experience. The side story games like Zelda DX: Link’s Awakening and other games that were for the portable platforms used the bird’s eye view method to display the action.

When the Zelda franchise went 3D, you had some purists who were angered because the “pure” experience was ruined. At the same time, you had fans who were praying for the moment to “see” Link’s realm from his eyes. Ocarina of Time’s release and the two off-shoots (Majora’s Mask and Master Quest) were well liked by the consumers and fans while winning awards all around. Many thought all was well, until Nintendo tried to take the next Zelda to the cell-shading craze. Wind Waker had a unique reception on its release… Some hailed it as a refreshing take on the franchise by remixing the story a bit. Some felt that the “childish” experience dulled the game from being part of the “pure” storyline. When the last major console release game returned to a pure Link experience and not the antics of young Link… Fans were overjoyed to see the series return to its “roots”.

The DS has been Nintendo’s pride and joy of the portable gaming world lately. With most of the games that have come out, they have seriously remixed how to play some of the most classic Nintendo franchise games. Zelda is no exception, it was one that got remixed to the DS “touch and play” approach. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass is a brilliant game that takes some of the basic features of the system and incorporate it into the game play. This is boldly advertised on the case of the game:

Take Control of an Epic New Adventure!

The cover even has screenshots of the game and methods of how to play the game being demonstrated. For those curious about what the story line is about… it’s not the “traditional” story. It is an offshoot of the Wind Waker story realm, so for those who do not like the cell shaded designs and such… You will have to get it over that to really enjoy the game. A synopsis of the story is that after the adventures of Tetra and Link killing the dark lord, they took to the high seas to be treasure hunting pirates. Tetra hears rumors of a ghost ship full of treasures and that search leads to disaster and new adventures. A very non-traditional take on the Zelda story. The main focus of the story is on the secrets of the Phantom Hourglass and the old temple of the starting island.

The graphics are pretty good for a bird’s eye view sort of Zelda with 3D graphics. The character models are a bit rough, so don’t expect something super clean like Final Fantasy XI. The playful graphics go well with the game, so I don’t mind or bitch about them. The game plays 95% with the touch screen, so I will emphasize that patience and tolerance are required virtues for this game. The battle system is pretty simple and same for movement. Make slash marks to slash at enemies, tap on enemies to do the lunging jump slash, and make a circle around Link to do the spinning slash. For movement, just point the direction and Link moves. Rolling is a much harder issue… point your stylus to the edge of the screen and make a swirl motion. The feature that really makes this game shine out is the ability to annotate maps. I can’t even begin to tell you how many times map annotation has saved my bacon… Especially for switch puzzles that mention pulling certain switches in numeric order. The fun doesn’t stop there… Sailing is pretty interesting. That process is completely touch oriented too. To sail to a new location, it essentially becomes a game of connect the dots to go to where you want. The thing that makes it a challenge are the enemies and obstacles that get in the way. The cannon and jump function of the ship allow for you to evade and fight off adversaries at sea in an efficient manner. The open sea maps are much like the land maps with freedom to completely annotate what you need to remember. The top screen primarily functions as your map/radar screen. I say “radar” as some enemies you will encounter will be invisible to your battle view, but show up there. The radar has a “Metal Gear Solid” aspect as you can see the “viewing cone” of your enemies in certain dungeons. During some boss battles, the top screen may act like an extended arena. This makes for a very unique experience to the game.

[POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT!!!!!]

Most of the important bits of the game do focus on the old temple at the starting island (Mercay Isle). What makes this temple such a challenge is that certain parts of the dungeons architecture are “safe zones” and don’t drain away at your hearts… but when you’re on the main dungeon every second saps away about 1/2 a heart. It won’t be until you can claim the powers of the Phantom Hourglass, that the challenge gets “easier”. The magic hourglass basically has a limited allotment of time in which the life draining powers of the dungeon are nullified as long as the hourglass has magic sand in it. Safe zones basically lock the time from draining away, but the game throws in Phantoms (nearly invulnerable sentries) to the dungeon that up the challenge factor. The Phantoms move rather quickly and on striking Link, the game takes one whole minute off of your Phantom Hourglass and you restart at the beginning of the floor you were last at. This can get aggravating when you’re not observing patterns as escaping to a safe zone may end up being a task that wastes time on the hourglass and being potentially risky. As you go lower and lower, the game will challenge you with much stiffer things, but at the same time, the new tools you gain will give you an edge over previous runs and may even cut down your times.

While the touch feature is one way to play the game… The buttons get used only as “shortcuts” to the map, inventory, and equipping subweapons (bombs, boomerang, shovel, etc). Nintendo does realize that there are left handed gamers, so you can even adjust the settings to accommodate your dexterity, definitely a great move on their part. The microphone is also used as well, surprisingly. One of the uses is in a dungeon where there’s an enemy is weak to “loud noises”. How do you make noise? Yell into the microphone, of course! On yelling, the enemy shrivels up into a blob and basically cowers in fear while you kill it with a death slash. The “sleep” mode of the DS is used and, believe me, it’s not in any way I would have imagined it… The development team really got creative with the game, kudos to Nintendo for simply brilliant concepts being put to use!

My only gripe with the game is that the touch game play can be a bit of a pain in the side rather than fun… Like in dungeons with time limited switches, if you mess up on your stylus position, Link may end up jumping off a ledge when you may have actually needed him to run across a thin bridge. This not only end up killing your time, but it aggravates you because you may have to reset the room just to get the puzzle to work properly again. Another thing that’s minor at best is map related puzzles may not be accurate if you have an issue drawing straight lines. You may find that you may be off by a single space, but not a serious issue, more user related if anything.

I like this game and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a great Zelda game on the go. The save times are quick, so you could play a part of a dungeon during a break or lunch period and pick back up when you returned home. The casual fan could probably pick up this game quickly and end up being addicted rather quick. I have found myself having to beat myself over the head to get to sleep all because I wanted to knock out 2 dungeons in a night. Patience is required to not get too frustrated with it, but definitely worth the expense.

Zero’s Rating: 9/10
Good: Innovative and refreshing take on game play, challenging puzzles, fun battles!
Bad: Quirky touch only approach can make some dungeons a frustrating experience.

Check out Nintendo’s official site for more details about the game: The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass