hertenberger.co.za

The year that is 2006 is at an end. As busy as the last one, we’ll be looking forward to a more restful 2007! Much has happened to make the house more complete. We still have a way to go, but it’s no longer that hectic.

We got a dog. Alexander started nursery school.

November and December were probably crazier than any of the other months. Within a very short time, I visited Great Britain (London and Bracknell), the USA (Orlando and New York) and Germany (Düsseldorf and Frankfurt) with a healthy dose of Cape Town.

I attended some very interesting conferences and got involved in some rather fascinating projects. Let’s hope there’s more of that to come.

To all of you reading this: here’s wishing you and yours the very best 2007 has to offer!

Pillow fight

Originally uploaded by MHertenberger.

As a break from my usual Ridge Racer addiction on the PSP, I selected a fighter aircraft simulator. Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception is another Namco title, so it seems as though I can’t stray too far from the Ridge Racer stable

Visually, Ace Combat X is a treat. In the same way Ridge Racer provides an incredible sensation of speed, Ace Combat X is able to impart the sensation of flight and movement in three dimensions. Thankfully, the controls are fairly easy to master and there is an option to make use of more advanced controls. There are numerous options for game play. I jumped straight into the campaign mode, in which one pilots an aircraft belonging to the Gryphus Squadron of the Federal Republic of Aurelia. There’s a storyline too, so it’s not just about senseless flying about. Pplenty of narration supported by detailed graphics tella the story of the war and provides a great entry point. Missions are planned and plans for attack provided. Given the requisite hardware, you’re ready for action.

You start off as a pilot in an F-4 Phantom with a small selection of weaponry. Most of the missiles are of the fire-and-forget type, but targeting is still required. There’s enemy fire to contend with and a time limit for each mission. A great feature is the ability to follow a missile to its target and watch the ensuing destruction. Or not… After each mission, the number of points earned permit the purchase of additional aircraft and weapons. As missions differ, the right type of aircraft has to be selected to ensure success.

The ultimate goal is to kill the enemy super weapon – the oddly named Gleipnir flying fortress. In between, you will battle air, ground and sea-based targets, both stationary and moving. Ace Combat X is a superb game with a wealth of options and appealing gameplay that should keep all armchair pilots entertained for quite a while.

Eagerly anticipated, Casino Royale attempts to revive the Bond franchise. I couldn’t wait to get myself to a theatre on opening night. That was thwarted by an incompetent Computicket: incapable of selling me two tickets after five attempts at different times and days online, then by phone and eventually by personal visit. For the extra ten bucks they want to pocket per ticket, they can do a lot better. Eventually we made it ten days later… Things have not improved – this post should have followed that viewing. I beg your indulgence

Many things are different. A new Bond. A remake of an existing, albeit ridiculous attempt many years ago. Instead of a continuation, this is the first mission for the British agent – he earns his 00 status and is provided the opportunity of blowing millions of tax dollars in a game of cards. He enjoys a sadistic round of torture at the hands of Le Chiffre and resigns. In between all that, he gets to do what Bond does best. Drink plenty of martinis, drive fast cars, hang out with women and survive fights, falls and gunshots.

Daniel Craig is an excellent choice to play the role of Bond. He bruises, has a wry wit and isn’t a goody-two-shoes like Brosnan. Le Chiffre is not exactly a match for Bond, but is portrayed in much the same way as Fleming describes him in his first novel. Stunts are excellent – the sequence of Bond chasing down Mollaka through a construction site is quite spectacular. The black and white opening scene and alternative Bond intro makes for interesting viewing. The action is fast and furious, though at times a bit unbelievable. Then again, this is James Bond we’re talking about! Only he can have a fully kitted out Aston Martin that doubles as an ICU to rescue him from a certainly fatal poison. The same Aston Martin that flips, crashes and burns to avoid Vesper. Vesper Lynd is irritating at times. The casting of Eva Green a possible flaw, in my opinion. With so many actresses turning the role down, the director was obviously in a bit of quandary.

All in all, this is Bond’s finest hour. A great movie and excellent entertainment. I doubt you’ve waited this long to see it. If you have, get down to the nearest theatre right away. You won’t regret it!

There’s little time to fiddle with cool things, even though it’s holiday time. I’ve not even blogged about Casino Royale, and it’s been more than a week ago that we went to see it. If you’ve noticed the change of banner, you’ll get some idea of what we’re up to. At least there is a spare hour here and there (never enough) to play around with Linux. One of the first things I did after quite a while is to update the entire system. That took a fair bit of time. I also installed Kismet and Alexander and I have had some fun playing SuperTux.

The next big update and system change was to accommodate the KDE desktop environment. By default, Ubuntu is supplied with the Gnome environment. That’s been skinned and customized to look like a Mac OS X desktop with some desklets added for good measure. KDE is different and offers support for various graphical effects add-ons. Enter Kubuntu, the Ubuntu version with support for KDE.

It’s not necessary to download an entire distribution, though that may be useful for a brand new installation. You simply need to be a bit handy with the command line: after an update with sudo aptitude update, install the KDE environment with sudo aptitude install kubuntu-desktop. Be warned: this takes quite a bit of time, and you’ll need you’re installation CD if that’s how your current system came to be. KDE is a nice, clean environment that can be customized to your heart’s content. Want to make Vista-philes envious? Install Beryl…

Ubuntu is based on Debian. Since Linux is all about experimentation, why not step out of your comfort zone For some Gentoo for dessert, try out the mini edition of Sabayon.

The download weighs in at about 700MB and provides an ISO of a bootable CD to try out. It’s KDE-based and quite flashy. The complete distro is around 3.2GB, so better get thee to a bandwidth-friendly node with no cap…maybe Kismet can help

It’s that time of year again, seemingly happening quicker and quicker each time.

Have a good one, wherever you may be!

Ok – it’s you too, and you, and you over there. And everyone else…

…is Perfect Draft!

Regulates temperature for various personalparty-sized vats and includes the requisite hardware to make sure every glass is perfectly poured. Beer will remain fresh for up to 28 days, but for most that’s about 27.5 days too long.

JNB to FRA

Originally uploaded by MHertenberger.

A new version of Skype is available. Skype version 3.0 provides some new features, primary among which is the support for SkypeCasts. SkypeCasts are like interactive podcasts – you can listen in or pipe up and provide your opinions to a group of like-minded individuals.

The check for new version feature in version 2 doesn’t seem to be able to pick the update up. The new version has to be downloaded manually.