OCNix Alpha Released

Check out http://www.overclock.net/software-news/746107-ocn-ocnix-alpha-now-available.html#post9547131 for the full story.

Semi-recently, I released the alpha build of OCNix. You should check it out! :D

Here's the news story I wrote up.

OCNix: The Alpha is now available for download!

What is OCNix (OverClock.Net + lInuX) you ask? Let's get the rundown.

Born from the ashes of a dead project (we'd like to stop and thank Biatchi and version2 for being our forefathers) OCNix has been given a complete over haul.

OCNix is a Linux distribution (heavily) based on Arch Linux.It is designed to be a liveCD that you can benchmark/stress-test your machine with. Designed with the impatient overclocker in mind, OCNix's goal is to be easy to use, full of useful tools, fast, use little resources (for power for your benchmarks!) and to promote the use of Linux to computer enthusiasts.

--So what's included in this release?
I'll try not to get to technical.

You'll get:
Openbox (a light weight Window Manager)
Firefox (ArchLinux's optimized version)
Phoronix's Test Suite
Yaourt (a pacman wrapper to include AUR)
For a full list of software, please visit our forum at www.overclock.net/ocnix

--So what can I expect out of this Alpha?
More or less, a functioning product. With this release we are asking that you test our software, and give us a report on:
What works
What does not
Things that could be improved
Software suggestions
Bugs

We ask that you submit bugs to https://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/ocnix/newticket

However, all other requests and opinions should be directed to www.overclock.net/ocnix where you may make a new thread or add to one already created!

--Wow! What can't this OCNix do?!
Well, let's not get to ahead of ourselves. We haven't included video or wireless drivers so benching video cards and wireless network tests aren't possible. They should be included in the beta release however.

--Is there anything else I should know about?
You will see some half included features. For instances, conky (the thing at the top of the screen) isn't very well designed and will not work on most systems. While we are aware of some of these, please create a bug ticket for anything you deem half-finished.

--So how can I get it?
For the Alpha, we're going to start out doing torrent releases only. You can download the torrent files from sourceforge here.
Alternatively, if you're running ArchLinux already, and want to build from the SVN you can follow our wiki page which will walk you through it.

--Is there anyway I can help?
Of course! We're always looking for help! Everything from Artists, Musicians, Testers, Developers, Programmers, and Public Relation positions are open and waiting to be filled! All you need to do is make a post over at www.overclock.net/ocnix or PM on of the leaders (xtascox, GodofGrunts) or our sectary (FoC400). We'd prefer if you made a post though.

Not sure if you can do any of those? One of the best ways you can help is simply by seeding our torrents! Well, that's all for now! Get to it!

Kiva

I'm a part of the kiva lending community. From now on, I'll be posting the people I'm currently supporting over on the left. Please lend them money if you feel the same way I do. These people are hard working and just need a little help.

OCNix

I currently am working on a new project with some friends over at overclock.net

We're are creating a Linux Distro (based off of Arch Linux) designed for overclockers and benchmarkers. Our progress can be on our progress thread and you're more than welcome to jump into our IRC. We're on freenode under #ocnix.

Here is my description of OCNix:

OCNix is a Linux [distribution] aimed at computer enthusiasts who want to be able to stress test and benchmark their hardware without taking the time to install a full operating system.

What that means is that it will be a live CD with an option to install. Right now we're working on getting a kernel figured out (we'd like to have the zen kernel patches with BFS instead of CFS)

We got it mostly work, but we're still having issues with it. After the kernel gets fixed we'll have what I would call our pre-alpha. You're more than welcome to try it out yourself.

svn co https://ocnix.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/ocnix ocnix

This should be considered a testing release, and we are not responsible for any mishaps they may happen. It's a live CD so you should be fine, but no guarantees.

rTorrent: Recieve text messages when torrents are done! (With Gmail)

Maybe you have heard of rTorrent, maybe you haven't. But here's a little trick you should use that will make rTorrent your favorite torrent client!

*NOTE: These instructions are for Arch Linux. Your mileage may vary.

First, let's get/update rTorrent

# pacman -Sy rtorrent

(If you installing rtorrent for the first time, please follow these instructions to get everything else setup)

And we'll need Heriloom's mailx program.

# pacman -S mailx-heirloom

Alrighty. Now, we're going to delete the /etc/nail.rc and then remake it.

# rm /etc/nail.rc
# touch /etc/nail.rc

Now edit with your favorite editor (I chose nano, but anything should work)

# nano /etc/nail.rc

And add this. (Where USERNAME is your username for gmail and PASSWORD is your password for gmail)

set smtp=smtp.gmail.com:587
set smtp-use-starttls
set ssl-verify=ignore
set ssl-auth=login
set smtp-auth-user=USERNAME@gmail.com
set smtp-auth-password=PASSWORD

Okay, now let's create our script.

$ touch ~/.mail.sh

Okay so here's where you need to find out what your email-to-text is.

Verizon: 10digitphonenumber@vtext.com
AT&T: 10digitphonenumber@txt.att.net
Former AT&T customers: 10digitphonenumber@mmode.com
Sprint: 10digitphonenumber@messaging.sprintpcs.com
T-Mobile: 10digitphonenumber@tmomail.net
Nextel: 10digitphonenumber@messaging.nextel.com
Cingular: 10digitphonenumber@cingularme.com
Virgin Mobile: 10digitphonenumber@vmobl.com
Alltel: 10digitphonenumber@alltelmessage.com OR
10digitphonenumber@message.alltel.com
CellularOne: 10digitphonenumber@mobile.celloneusa.com
Omnipoint: 10digitphonenumber@omnipointpcs.com
Qwest: 10digitphonenumber@qwestmp.com

I have sprint, but change the script to fit your needs.

So let's edit out script.

$ nano ~/.mail.sh

And add

echo "$@: Done" | mailx 5555555555@messaging.sprintpcs.com

Now we need to make it executable.

$ chmod +x ~/.mail.sh

Okay that's done. Basically, what that's going to do is take whatever is passed to it ($@): Done and pipe it through mailx which goes back to /etc/nail.rc to login into your gmail account and send you an SMS.

Now, we need to add a line to the bottom our ~/.rtorrent file (you should have one, if not go back to the top)

$ nano ~/.rtorrent

and add:

system.method.set_key = event.download.finished,notify_me,"execute=~/.mail.sh,$d.get_name="

So say you were downloading "Completely-Legal-Files.rar". When it gets done, you'll get a text message that says "Completely-Legal-Files.rar: Done"

Oh happy day! Now you can rush home and un-rar it!

Worst software ever made.

This title goes to the trouble ticket software Connect Wise.

I don't know for sure, but I think this sorry excuse for software was programmed in VB.NET (from the way it looks and the awful sluggishness) and terribly at that (stupid thing crashes all the time when you try to set preferences). It doesn't save databases locally either, which is really dumb. It takes like 5-10 seconds to pull up the search "feature" because it has to load the database EVERY SINGLE TIME.

And from what our networking guys tell me, it requires an incredibly beefy server (We're taking dual quad-core Xeons with 32GBs of RAM) and it still is slow as crap.

Next, it uses IE to render all it's pages. Awesome, so now not only is it slow, riddled with bugs, ugly, and a resource hog, but now it works on the most insecure browser ever made! I just love sending customer data over semi-secure connections in IE! Usernames, passwords, SSN numbers, phone numbers, works places. It just makes me all warm and tingly inside!

/sarcasm

If any business owners come across this, please don't subject your employees to this junk. It makes my life miserable.

Note:
We're using Core2Duo computers running XP SP3 with 2 Gigs of RAM which is pretty beefy for work computers.

Here's a better open-source ticketing system that is used in at least one government agency here in America.

OpenGL vs Direct3D

It has recently come to my attention that some people (Windows users) think that OpenGL is dead. I was goaded into nerd rage after reading this post; however, for the sake of this being a blog post, I will reorganize my thoughts and repost my answer in a more blog post friendly manner.

"But wait Ryan!", you're thinking. "Won't your obvious fealty to all things Open and Standard make this post bias?"

Maybe a little bit, but the proof is in the final product. First, let us have some history. (The following a direct copy-paste from blog.wolfire.com

What is OpenGL?
In 1982, Silicon Graphics started selling high-performance graphics terminals using a proprietary API called Iris GL (GL is short for "graphics library"). Over the years, Iris GL grew bloated and hard to maintain, until Silicon Graphics took a radical new step: they completely refactored Iris GL and made it an open standard. Their competitors could use the new Open Graphics Library (OpenGL), but in return, they had to help maintain it and keep it up to date.

Today, OpenGL is managed by the Khronos Group -- a non-profit organization with representatives from many companies that are interested in maintaining high-quality media APIs. At a lower level, it's managed by the OpenGL Architecture Review Board (ARB). OpenGL is supported on every gaming platform, including Mac, Windows, Linux, PS3 (as a GCM wrapper), Wii, iPhone, PSP, and DS. Well, every gaming platform except for the XBox -- which brings us to our next topic:

What is DirectX?
Ever since MS-DOS, Microsoft has understood that games play an important role in users' choice of operating systems. For this reason, in 1995, they created a proprietary set of libraries in order to encourage exclusive games for their new Windows 95 operating system. These libraries included Direct3D, DirectInput and DirectSound, and the entire collection came to be known as DirectX. When Microsoft entered the gaming market in 2001, it introduced the DirectX Box, or XBox for short. The XBox was a loss leader (losing over 4 billion dollars), intended to set the stage to dominate the games market in the next generation.

Looking at the games scene now, it's clear that this strategy is succeeding. Most major PC games now use DirectX, and run on both Windows and XBox 360. With few exceptions, they don't work on competing platforms, such as Playstation, Mac OS, and Wii.

This rest of the article can be read here. I would definitely recommend you go read it.

"Well that's nice and all Ryan, but what's the point?"

The point is, that even though OpenGL is a superior API, Direct3D is used more.
Currently, I'm trying to get a certain company to provide me with real time renders using both OpenGL 3.X and DirectX 11 as it seems impossible to find any comparisons. Unfortunately, I'll be forced to use OpenGL 2.1 and DirectX 11 examples, but I think my point will be made clear enough.


As you probably can tell, the OpenGL images look a whole lot more realistic.

"Then why are most commercial games built on DirectX?"
You can read about it over at blog.wolfire.com but I'll list the points.

1.Network effects and vicious cycles

2.FUD about OpenGL and Vista

3.Misleading marketing campaigns

Hopefully, there will be a part 2 of this, if I can get this certain company to return my email. That way, I can show you the latest and greatest of both instead of showing you ancient technology.

Here is a youtube video of the new Ungine engine benchmark. I'm not sure what version of OpenGL it is using though...

Your ISP could be Google!

Finally, my favorite company is going to step up the internet game.

Everyone seems to always complain about their ISP and for good reason. I've had three in my life:

AOL (Now part of Time Warner Cable)
Comcast
Time Warner Cable

The last two are who I want to talk about. Comcast's service was pretty good actually. I can't remember having downtime that last very long (except due to winter storms) and their customer support was... meh.

However, recently they started a 250 GB limit per household and that has a lot of people pissed off and for good reason. Prices go up, speed goes down, and now a download limit...

Now Time Warner Cable... Where to begin? They're service is very flaky, customer support personal are rude and unintelligent. They're sales people are commissioned based and therefore are really pushy. I'm also supposed to get about 12 Mb/s down but the reality is closer to 7. That's almost half! But, even though they're a terrible company, what can you do?

At this moment nothing. DSL is the only other option and the speeds are even slower... But there is some light at the end of the tunnel! Google is promising 1Gb/s connections. Yeah, you didn't read that wrong. ONE GIGABIT PER SECOND. That's freaking awesome. Even if they only get a fourth of that to my house, my current network couldn't handle it. I'd finally have to switch to a N router and a gigabit switch.

Oh man! One can only dream that they'd bring to my area. :3 I've already signed up Hamilton, Ohio but I encourage you to sign your community up here