I've been itching to write this blogpost for a while...
I'm an avid retro-gamer, as well as a contemporary gamer. My emulation-antics took off in the late 90s when I started getting nostalgic about old DOS-games from the late 80s and early 90s. For the most part, DOS-emulation was pretty accurate even in the early days.
But these days emulation is pretty much a native thing. CPU-cycle-imitation and other emulation-techniques have pretty much reached the runtime-levels of the actual systems they are emulating.
I don't favor the new idea of releasing limited special-editions of consoles, like the NES classic mini and the SNES classic mini, when you can build a COTS-computer (or even use a deprecated laptop/desktop), load it up with RetroPie and ROMs, and you basically have a multi-emulation box that runs EVERYTHING, and can be CUSTOMIZED.
If you go for a Raspberry Pi 3, such a system could even cost you as low as $30 (apart from cables and gamepads / arcade-sticks, then it would cost you a minimum of $50).
Sure, a few people argue that the RPi3 is a fad, or that the SD-card gets worn out so it's not made to last, etc.
Well, a $30 credit-card computer isn't really that hard to replace, and SD-cards are a dime a dozen these days and are even getting cheaper, not to mention quite easy to back up (making a copy-image on your computer harddrive / usb-drive).
Sure you cannot for example use exotic console-hardware, like the microphone gamepad for the Japanese NES. Nor can you play roms made from FX-gamepaks (Nintendo addon-technology to render pseudo-3D on the SNES). Then again, would you want to? Hey, if that's your thing, have at it. I don't give a flying f**k...
Emulation is king - imho.
RetroPie allows you to turn your Raspberry Pi, ODroid C1/C2, or PC into a retro-gaming machine. It builds upon Raspbian, EmulationStation, RetroArch and many other projects to enable you to play your favourite Arcade, home-console, and classic PC games with the minimum set-up.
Recently got a really nifty Pi-hat (addon-card for Raspberry Pi) called "HiFiBerry" - model "Digi+ Pro".
"In reality, politics have straddled the digital and meatspace for decades. Though government officials may have just learned about "the cyber," people working in computer security have been dealing with criminal and whimsical incursions into their systems since the late 20th century. It was 1990 when the infamous Operation Sundevil swept up innocents in a massive Secret Service dragnet operation to stop carders. The Stuxnet worm, which affected physical operations of centrifuges at a uranium enrichment plant in Iran, is only the most obvious example of how digital ops can have consequences away from the keyboard."
Yes, my sites were affected by this outage. A lot of big-name sites were too (Twitter, Spotify, github, SoundCloud, Reddit, etc.).
And no, I don't use DNS management software like Netflix' Denominator, I really don't have a need for 24/7 uptime on any of my sites / sub-domains. They are strictly for demonstration- / entertainment- and hobby-purposes.
http://www.zdnet.com/article/dyn-ddos-part-2-the-hackers-strike-back/
Two words: corrupt, busted.
I lost all my consoles in a lightning-strike back in March, and after using most of the money meant for replacement-consoles on my computer-upgrade instead; I'm NEVER going back to console-gaming ever again...
They're completely overpriced, the games are as well and games/apps get slower patching than any other gaming-platform.
Not to mention the hardware is usually 2-3 years behind current PC-hardware, and usually under-powered as fuck. Actually, current-gen consoles (PS4 / Xbone) also utilize "Radeon-based" graphics (graphic-accelerators), which is severely sub-par compared to almost any other graphic-solution.
Nope!, spank you very much...
FUCK. CONSOLES.
Because of a recent lightning-strike, my gaming-rig literally spiked... and died...
But, thanks to very nice family-members I got replacement components, very quickly ;) :P since I was getting quite a few bucks in insurance (eventually, may'16) I decided to completely upgrade the whole rig.
After spending an afternoon researching (after months of contemplating on models and makes), I eventually landed on the following choices:
 |
| Component selection |
 |
| All components assembled into north+south-bridge(s) |
 |
| Corsair RM850x PSU (Power Supply Unit) |
 |
| Added extra 92mm Cooler Master cpu-fan as exhaust-booster |
Been pretty productive (read: teh buzy) the last 6-7 months, doing some (quite heavy) service- and maintenance-work for a local IT-startup.
Been responsible for the x86_64 Linux-rack(s) based infrastructure and backend driving the various product-frameworks, the domain- and network-security, plus client host-security throughout the organization. Quite a lot of networking and some aggregated WiFi-APs etc.
The Linux-rack servers have also been host-hardened and properly secured (SSH/TLS/SSL) for the threats facing online services in 2015.
Without going into too much detail, it all revolves around embedded GPS-tracking, web-apps for viewing and controlling said- tracking system, and the accompanying maintenance / service / troubleshooting involved in said systems and their server-backends.
The servers run both the MariaDB and the PostgreSQL database-systems for serving application- / geo- / PostGIS-data in various parts of the application-flow. I became responsible for servicing / doing maintenance of and fascilitating import / export of SQL-data for backup(s), re-location, and the like. The PostgreSQL database is even served from an iSCSI pool through a dedicated jumbo-frame ethernet connection to a NAS-rack for extra speed when handling huge datasets.
I've also been playing around with the web-framework, doing some development for myself to learn the technology, and also fixing various components in the active applications.
I've known for some time now that AMD has a serious lack of effort on their native implementation of OpenGL on Linux, especially when used for gaming. Not to mention their proprietary (binary) graphics-driver: "AMD Catalyst", which is a story all on it's own...
They JUST RECENTLY aqcuired OpenGL v4.5-compatibility, which by now is over 1 year old! In technology-tems, that's just sad.
They released ('2013 for the wider public) an in-house developed perf-tool (GPUPerfServer2), for optimizing Linux games using OpenGL. Though they did *NOT* release a linux client for this client/server framework; only a linux-based server for running local OpenGL-games, of which they could then connect to via the OSX- / Windows-client (figures...).
A couple of days ago, I stumbled upon this picture in a Google+ post with the following title "Feral Interactive Buys AMD Hardware To Optimize Linux Games":
Upgrade-time! :) ...and this time h3x is undergoing a complete cabinet+gfx upgrade. From a rather minimalistic HTPC starter-cabinet, into a completely new 2-sectioned, airflow-designed multi-cabinet :)
 |
| Fractal Design Node 804 cabinet Corsair CX600 PSU 3 x Corsair SP120 "Quiet Ed" fans |
 |
| My new XFX Radeon R9 270X 2GB GDDR5: 1xHDMI - 2xDVI-D - 2xDP |
 |
| Silverstone MILO (ML03) when first built (nov'2011) |
 |
| Silverstone MILO (ML03) disassembled. |
 |
| Right side. |
 |
| Back-right profile. |
 |
| Front-left profile. |
 |
| Left side. |
 |
| Left side: Component-compartment. |
 |
| Right side: Storage- / power-compartment. |
This article really grinds my gears. The author tries to discount the use of command line interfaces by saying it is an obsolete interface-technology (mostly reserved for developers and advanced system administrators).
Pontificating that modern Unices (like Mac OS X and Linux) suffer at exactly the same areas of complexity because of their Unix-heritage. Well, I call bullshit...
Ok, I'll admit to fronting AMD's graphic-cards the past few years... but, that ain't happening anymore. After struggling with *broken* driver-updates the past 2, I'm getting quite fed up.
Purging FGLRX and all it's components EVERY TIME THEY GET UPDATED is seriously testing my patience. Not to mention the piss-poor OpenGL performance in heavy-3d-engine games (especially games that feature NVIDIAs PhysX).
The bugs, video-artifacts and crashes eventually got so bad that I actually had to revert to the open-sauce driver (Gallium3D / MESA), just to play my Steam-games... not that video-acceleration worked flawlessly either (VLC / XBMC).And I have to say; with the right config Gallium3D can deliver as good, if not even better 3D-performance than the binary proprietary driver ever could. Gallium3D/MESA works, but not perfectly. If you plan on gaming with an AMD-card on Linux, their binary driver (FGLRX) is the safer bet.
Researching AMD / NVIDIA lately got me angry on both holds, but for different reasons.
AMD for being (completely) incompetent (Linux-)driver-wise. I kind of suspect they're trying the old "your shit is unsupported, buy new shit!"-routine to pressure new sales. Well, good luck with that AMD... you'll need it. Especially with that crappy driver.
NVIDIA for dropping more lock-in effects (like: PhysX / GameWorks / HairWorks) than actual bug-fixes and/or updates to their driver(s). But at least their driver works!
So, next time I'm thinking of upgrading my graphics, the choice will be fairly easy... NVIDIA.
AMD; seriously... get your shit together!
I recently had to replace all my peripherals for my primary desktop / workstation, and as always; the choice fell on Logitech. I ended up getting so-called "Unify" wireless devices (mouse / keyboard).
Upon reading about using Unify-devices on Linux, I realized some smart fellow had made a simple management-suite for Linux-systems, called Solaar.
Solaar allows pairing of multiple Unify-devices to one "Unifying Receiver" (the USB-receiver dongle), through either a simple GUI tray-application (GTK-interface) or a simple command-line tool. It also offers monitoring on battery-levels (with notifications) and checks if wireless links are using encryption or not. Much like the applications used on both Windows and Mac OS X.
 |
| Solaar, running as an Ubuntu desktop-tray widget. |
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:daniel.pavel/solaar && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install solaar;Solaar on the web: http://pwr.github.io/Solaar/
Posts
All Comments
Norwegian posts contain this flag:
