Just One More Geek

How To Behave On An Internet Forum

justonemoregeek — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 16:35:51 +0000

Just in case you need a few hints and tips on how to behave when you are on internet forums, here’s a little instructional video for you.

So, go out and take part in some forum action – responsibly!

Linux Foundation to Revamp Linux.com

justonemoregeek — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 20:58:01 +0000

You may well have heard by now that the Linux Foundation is taking over Linux.com. Much like Linux itself, the plan is to have the user community dictate how Linux.com evolves. To that end they have started something called IdeaForge which is a forum that allows user to suggest the things they would like to see at Linux.com. Users can then comment and / or vote on the suggestions.

Suggestions that are already on IdeaForge include the request for their own ‘micro-blogging’ platform, a request to have a ‘Get The Facts’ campaign that gives people the reasons why they should choose Linux over Windows, as well as calls for the whole Linux.com site to become much more Web2.0 and become a Social Networking platform.

Head over there if you want to see what people are recommending and have your say.

The Linux Foundation themselves state that ‘Linux.com will be the central source for Linux information, software, documentation and answers across the server, desktop/netbook, mobile, and embedded areas’ and that it will be created ‘by the community, for the community’.

Sounds good. Looking forward to seeing how this pans out.

Is Facebook going all Twitter on us?

justonemoregeek — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 12:43:07 +0000

In an announcement yesterday, Mark Zuckerberg laid out the plans for some fairly big changes that are on the cards at Facebook. Changes to home pages, the scrapping of ‘Facebook pages’ in favor of everything being ‘profile’ based and a much more ‘real-time’ capability are all in the pipeline. You can’t help but notice the slant toward offering Twitter-like capabilities within Facebook.

The page to profile change will allow public figures and organizations to have profiles that look and function just like regular user profiles, such that users can ‘connect’ with celebrities in the same way as they currently connect with friends on Facebook.

The new-style home page will allow real-time updating of your contacts, be they friends or people that you are just ‘connected with’ (found it hard not to type ‘following’ there!). The aim is that this will break down some of the barriers previously imposed by the split between profiles for friends and pages for celebrities, organizations etc. You will soon be able to see what famous people are doing right next to what your mum and best friend are up to. So, as is the case with Twitter, there will no longer be a distinction between friends and people you just want to keep an eye on. There will also be a more immediate way of seeing what your contacts are doing, again a strong parallel with Twitter.

Will this improve Facebook? Almost certainly. Will these changes worry Twitter? Probably not, at least not yet. Twitter does a very good job of providing the ‘mini-blog’ platform in a no-frills way. I’m sure current Facebook users will make good use of the new Twitter-like features, but I doubt many Twitter users will give up Tweeting and move over to Facebook.

The new style home pages are due for roll-out next week, so I’m sure we’ll know more very soon.

For comment on the upcoming changes at Facebook and the announcement itself from Facebook, titled ‘Improving Your Ability to Share and Connect’, see the following:

Google Android, G1, G2 and ASUS

justonemoregeek — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 13:05:25 +0000

Just a quick post to summarize the latest developments and hot topics on the Google Android mobile operating system and associated gadgets.

The Android platform was unveiled back in 2007 and the first device to market making use of the OS was the HTC Dream mobile phone, more commonly known as the G1 Android, or more specifically the T-Mobile G1 as this was the US variant. The Android based G1 was released in October 2008 and has become a bit of a geek must-have device. Android is ‘completely’ open source so naturally there are a load of people out there developing apps for the OS and more specifically the G1.

In more recent developments, ASUS (the makers of the ASUS Eee PC) are apparently planning to release a netbook based on the Android platform. They are initially aiming toward an end of year release for one of their mini-netbooks based on the platform – but I imagine that date will slip! It is thought that the release of such a notebook could push Microsoft further out of the low-cost end of the netbook market as being a Linux based mobile OS it’s requirements on hardware are less intensive than Windows and of course there is no license fee to bump up the cost.

The much talked-about successor to the Android G1, the G2, is also almost upon us. Initally due for release in Europe as the HTC Magic under Vodaphone a US version is also in the pipline from T-Mobile named the G2 Android. The most debated difference between the G1 and the G2 is the fact that the G2 will have a software touch keyboard similar to that found on the iPhone rather than a physical hardware keyboard. There are pros and cons to both and I’m sure almost everyone will have their own opinion on this one!

Some more Android stuff:

Quake Zero Enters Open Beta, But Not Without A Few Hitches

justonemoregeek — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 22:06:14 +0000

It probably hasn’t escaped your notice that a certain video game called Quake Live (aka Quake Zero) entered ‘open beta’ earlier this week.

Just in case you don’t know what Quake Live is, basically it’s the latest offering from id Software in the Quake series. Quake Live follows on from Quake III Arena – which came out nearly 10 years ago believe it or not! The ‘subtle’ difference with Quake Live is that it’s a free browser based game, funded by advertising that pops up within the game. This sort of goes back to id Software’s original launch of Doom, where they released the first few levels of the game free with the hope of getting people hooked so they then paid for more. While on the subject of Doom, id Software also have Doom 4 in the pipeline.

Back to Quake Live. Being browser based it means you can play it anywhere with an internet connection and hardware that meets it’s minimum spec. With many players of Quake III Arena still out there despite it’s age the number of people waiting to jump online and give Quake Live a go was not surprisingly farily large. After opening on 24th February the Quake Live servers were hit pretty hard, despite the queuing system they had in place. The game had 113,000 registrations within the first 6 hours and rapidly went on to over 290,000 registrations and hit a milestone of having 8,500 concurrent players online.

More Quake Live Stuff – including the link to the site so you can join the queue for registration:

An introduction to Just One More Geek

justonemoregeek — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 20:39:49 +0000

No prizes for guessing what this blog is going to be about….that’s right, my pets, Bernard the German Shepherd and Billy the budgie. All right, so actually it’s about geeky stuff. You may think that’s a pretty broad category and I guess you’d be right. So what exactly am I going to post about? To be honest, whatever grabs my attention. So, stay tuned and join me in my geeky obsession.