Catalyst 8.5 on Linux aka fglrx

Well I just upgraded to the Catalyst 8.5 drivers on Linux and they say that 2d should be fast. I ran a gtkperf test and the change was negligible.

So if you are expecting a big speed bump, I would lower your expectations.

Sprint Unlimited Plans

Well I read a rumor today that Sprint was eliminating the Unlimited part of its broadband access cards Terms of Service. I REALLY hope this is not true since we don't have a lot of choice for internet. And the Sprint broadband card is the best way to get on the net.

Application idea

I have an idea for some software that would be cool eye candy I think, but I don't have time to learn how to do it. But I think it would be something cool to implement.

Anyway, the idea is to take the Mac dock and the Nautilus desktop and merge the eye candy. As you mouse over the icons on the desktop, they get bigger and the other icons move out of the way, like the icons on the Mac dock.

I think that clutter could be used to complete this pretty easily.

Any takers?

Gnome MPlayer - Next

I added a feature to the DVD w/ menus playback yesterday that adds a menu button to the panel buttons that if you click this it takes you back to the main DVD Menu.

I also found that the latest svn of libdvdnav and mplayer don't get along. I've found that libdvdnav r1031 is the last one that works properly with mplayer if there is an error in the dvd audio decoding.

I think I'm getting close to wrapping up this next version of Gnome MPlayer.

Picked a camera

Since my Kodak camera broke I did some research on cameras out there. I liked the Canon SD890 (as seen on the web) but nobody at the big box stores had one. So we looked at a few and found the Olympus Stylus 1010. The price was ok, the zoom lens was huge at 7x and 10mp was right where I wanted it. The size of the camera is great as well, with it being about the size of my cell phone. So far the few pictures I have taken with it have come out well. I'll take it out to the house later today and take some outdoor pictures with it.

Sticking with the Asus EAH3650 Silent Magic

So after a few days of working with the card and the drivers I think I got a good solution here. Driver installation was painless and the quiet of the card is great. The heat from the card raised the temp of the box about 10 degrees F, but I was able to mitigate that by installing a small case fan that came with the case (Antec NSK1380). I still would like to avoid putting in the case fan. The machine with the fan runs at 49C/120F and 55C/130C without the fan. The fan is quiet enough that I can ignore it especially with a radio playing. I hear the Thermaltake Slot Fan only runs at 21db, so maybe next time I order something from NewEgg, I'll get it.