All posts by kobaan

Todays special: Mac Mini – IntelStyle

Year after year I enviously watch he
development on Apple’s newest Mac creations, Mac OS X, iPod’s,
iMac’s, Mac mini and this year finally Apple decided to switch over
processor technology from PowerPC over to Intel CPU’s.The biggest showstopper for me was their high selling prices . But
with their new Intel Core chips which you can’t buy yet for the PC
market, and a relatively low price for a new revolutionary
technology assembled together in a tiny little box, I couldn’t any
longer resist buying a Mac mini.

Calculating together all the pieces, shows that the price is fair
enough to buy, and as usual for Apple you can count on reliable
prices for a long time period. So, if you buy later, it will cost
almost the same and you will miss the technology advantage.
DSC02215
Compared to other processors, the Intel Core definitely has it’s
place, especially compared to power consumption (31Watts).

So here’re some pictures of my new baby, the Mac mini Core
Duo:
DSC02226DSC02220DSC02225

A new mac fan.

Support privacy !

This time I want to encourage all
folks of you owning a router which is capable of running the
OpenWrt system.What you need:
OpenWrt can be installed on many different router-hardware.
See here for a list of supported devices.

What you get:
Compared to other router system-software, OpenWrt by default is a
very slim system. You can think of “minimalistic”=”more
secure”.

Almost everything you’ll ever need can be simply installed as
packages or compiled by yourself. (e.g. a webserver/VoIP-proxy
a.s.o.)

For GUI-enthusiasts the white-russian-release also offers the
possibility to update, and configure your router via web-interface,
although most of you people will be happy to have ssh-access and
therefore full control over you linux-routerdevice.

Getting even more:
Most of the listed hardware devices, can use external or internal
memory-sticks, sd-cards or at least nfs or samba shares, to install
more software or hold more data accessible from your router.

How you can help:
Back to my initial thought for this blogentry.
As your router is usually up 24/7, and most people have flatrates,
there’s a great possibility to support the TOR network by
installing a tor-server on your router and use it(or not) from
within your LAN by accessing privoxy on your router to browse the
web anonymously for example.

What is TOR:
TOR (The Onion Router network) is a concept to tunnel
networktraffic through multiple other nodes before connecting to
the final destination node. That way it will be harder for
evesdroppers to trace your origin IP-address, and for hosters more
safe to offer content without the danger of being shutdown when a
server-ip might get blocked by someone.

Further you can provide access to the whole internet, dedicated
services or even dedicated addresses through your own TOR
server.
If you don’t want others to use your router to access the internet,
you can just contribute as a tunnel-peer for other
TOR-servers.

Where to get:
All required packages for OpenWrt-capable routers can be found here
and a precompiled privoxy-package here.

I’m addicted:
Of course you can do even more crazy stuff with OpenWrt see
here.

Peace !

Support privacy !

This time I want to encourage all
folks of you owning a router which is capable of running the
OpenWrt system.

What you need:
OpenWrt can be installed on many different router-hardware.
See here for a list of supported devices.

What you get:
Compared to other router system-software, OpenWrt by default is a
very slim system. You can think of “minimalistic”=”more
secure”.

Almost everything you’ll ever need can be simply installed as
packages or compiled by yourself. (e.g. a webserver/VoIP-proxy
a.s.o.)

For GUI-enthusiasts the white-russian-release also offers the
possibility to update, and configure your router via web-interface,
although most of you people will be happy to have ssh-access and
therefore full control over you linux-routerdevice.

Getting even more:
Most of the listed hardware devices, can use external or internal
memory-sticks, sd-cards or at least nfs or samba shares, to install
more software or hold more data accessible from your router.

How you can help:
Back to my initial thought for this blogentry.
As your router is usually up 24/7, and most people have flatrates,
there’s a great possibility to support the TOR network by
installing a tor-server on your router and use it(or not) from
within your LAN by accessing privoxy on your router to browse the
web anonymously for example.

What is TOR:
TOR (The Onion Router network) is a concept to tunnel
networktraffic through multiple other nodes before connecting to
the final destination node. That way it will be harder for
evesdroppers to trace your origin IP-address, and for hosters more
safe to offer content without the danger of being shutdown when a
server-ip might get blocked by someone.

Further you can provide access to the whole internet, dedicated
services or even dedicated addresses through your own TOR
server.
If you don’t want others to use your router to access the internet,
you can just contribute as a tunnel-peer for other
TOR-servers.

Where to get:
All required packages for OpenWrt-capable routers can be found here
and a precompiled privoxy-package here.

I’m addicted:
Of course you can do even more crazy stuff with OpenWrt see
here.

Peace !

X3 Reunion – Patch 1.3 – Xenon/KhaakInvasion Massacre

Since Patch 1.3 Khaak and Xenon become
once more a real
threat in the X universe.
Isolder_MK1
Some people already roll back to Version 1.2.01, as they suffer
from massive universe wide khaak, xenon and even pirate
attacks backed by multiple carriers and destroyers.
CrazyTroniX2
The problem is that in former version, enemies that were
killed
didn’t respawn, that way the universe became more and more
quiet by time. Now with v1.3 all the destroyed ships
recoreded
in the savefile will be respawned at once, thus sending huge
waves of enemies to the player and other races.
-YS-Khabarakh ABK2
As a result, it might happen that complete sectors will be
entirely destructed by huge invasions, supply stations and
their
ships being attacked, the whole economy that you knew before
will be gone.
x3-khaakdestroyer
But if you recall the beginning of the story in X3, you’ve
been
warned by the senator, who said, that they can hardly hold
30%
of their fleet because of the war.
CrazyTroniX4
But that’s bad news for us traders, who cannot afford an
armada
of defence-ships or even destroyers to push back the enemies
or secure their stations and sectors.
CrazyTroniX3
Help is needed by other races KI ships, but as they might be
also destroyed and their supplies cut, you’ll be finally on your
own.
CMW_86-3
However further improvements have been done to the graphics
engine and overall speed is greatly improved allover.
Some storyelements should’ve been fixed too, but who will
have
the time to find out that.
durden2
Protection of your profitssssss is what you need to care
about
now.Good luck.

X3 Reunion – Patch 1.3 – Xenon/Khaak Invasion Massacre

Since Patch 1.3 Khaak and Xenon become
once more a real
threat in the X universe.
Isolder_MK1
Some people already roll back to Version 1.2.01, as they suffer
from massive universe wide khaak, xenon and even pirate
attacks backed by multiple carriers and destroyers.
CrazyTroniX2
The problem is that in former version, enemies that were
killed
didn’t respawn, that way the universe became more and more
quiet by time. Now with v1.3 all the destroyed ships
recoreded
in the savefile will be respawned at once, thus sending huge
waves of enemies to the player and other races.
-YS-Khabarakh ABK2
As a result, it might happen that complete sectors will be
entirely destructed by huge invasions, supply stations and
their
ships being attacked, the whole economy that you knew before
will be gone.
x3-khaakdestroyer
But if you recall the beginning of the story in X3, you’ve
been
warned by the senator, who said, that they can hardly hold
30%
of their fleet because of the war.
CrazyTroniX4
But that’s bad news for us traders, who cannot afford an
armada
of defence-ships or even destroyers to push back the enemies
or secure their stations and sectors.
CrazyTroniX3
Help is needed by other races KI ships, but as they might be
also destroyed and their supplies cut, you’ll be finally on your
own.
CMW_86-3
However further improvements have been done to the graphics
engine and overall speed is greatly improved allover.
Some storyelements should’ve been fixed too, but who will
have
the time to find out that.
durden2
Protection of your profitssssss is what you need to care
about
now.

Good luck.

X3 Reunion – Patch 1.3 – Xenon/Khaak Invasion Massacre

Since Patch 1.3 Khaak and Xenon become
once more a real
threat in the X universe.
Isolder_MK1
Some people already roll back to Version 1.2.01, as they suffer
from massive universe wide khaak, xenon and even pirate
attacks backed by multiple carriers and destroyers.
CrazyTroniX2
The problem is that in former version, enemies that were
killed
didn’t respawn, that way the universe became more and more
quiet by time. Now with v1.3 all the destroyed ships
recoreded
in the savefile will be respawned at once, thus sending huge
waves of enemies to the player and other races.
-YS-Khabarakh ABK2
As a result, it might happen that complete sectors will be
entirely destructed by huge invasions, supply stations and
their
ships being attacked, the whole economy that you knew before
will be gone.
x3-khaakdestroyer
But if you recall the beginning of the story in X3, you’ve
been
warned by the senator, who said, that they can hardly hold
30%
of their fleet because of the war.
CrazyTroniX4
But that’s bad news for us traders, who cannot afford an
armada
of defence-ships or even destroyers to push back the enemies
or secure their stations and sectors.
CrazyTroniX3
Help is needed by other races KI ships, but as they might be
also destroyed and their supplies cut, you’ll be finally on your
own.
CMW_86-3
However further improvements have been done to the graphics
engine and overall speed is greatly improved allover.
Some storyelements should’ve been fixed too, but who will
have
the time to find out that.
durden2
Protection of your profitssssss is what you need to care
about
now.Good luck.

|
Own X3 Map released
I know there are already some good
sectormaps available, even for the latest Release X2 of the
X-universe saga.There’re also quite a few lists with some more information
available, so I decided to include as much information as possible
into my very own map.
If you’re interested you can download it here:
http://home.mnet-online.de/tuxine/x3kobaanmap.jpg (gif and png
version also available)x3-seksize10

Features:

Showing all sectors for X3 by their names
Graphical Sectorsize
Mark Solar Power Plants
Mark Shipyards
Mark Docks
Mark Pirate Bases
List Superfreighter I/II availability
Relative Spacegate Positions
Mark profitable asteroids for each sector by ore, silicon,
nividium
List sector protection M1,M2,M6 and TL availability
Energie Support/Shortage mapping through the whole map
Prepared non-functional space-gates
Marketprice comparison
Rocket Damage/Speed/Range data

Changes:
V0.5
Included marketprice comparison list
Included rocket-data list
Included Race color-coding

V0.4
High resolution clean-ups
set non-functional gates visibility

V0.3
Energy-Support and shoratge highlighted through the map (blueish
background)
Legend scaled to a more readable size
Scaled some known wide sectors in width t.b.c.

V0.2
Translated Sectorname Avarice to german Habgier
Include information on highest asteroid value: ore, silicon,
nividium
Added pinpoints (yet invisible) for non-functional spacegates
List Superfreighter I/II availability

V0.1
Include information on shipyards, docks, pirate bases, solar power
plants
Include information on spacegate positions
List sector protection M1,M2,M6 and TL availability

V0.0
Scaled sectors by their size (middle spacegate distance)
Initial version based on old maps, with additional sectors

I didn’t translate the map to english yet, this may follow someday
later.

|
Last minute XMAS gifts
To all of you seeking for last minute
xmas-presents, I can suggest this great audio CD of the korean band
Bulldog Mansion which has a wide variety of different music styles
as they play some funk, bigband, ballad, ska and rock.
In my eyes a perfect xmas gift for all people who want to escape
the last frustating 5 years of english and/or german top100
music.
theresheis
I just loved the songs of Bulldog Mansion when I did find a nice
flash cartoon on the net: there she is (goto->amalloc) another
part of this cartoon series will be published soon.
http://www.sambakza.net
http://www.bulldogmansion.com

|
X3 Reunion – First Impressions
Time to spend some time on blogging
about my X3 Reunion progress
.DSC01807.0
Whenever you want to enjoy space / flight sims having a joystick is
a must, even better when you got force-feedback Winking So if you bump,
it will bump back to you, physically.
x3screen00008
Reunion, is the 3rd part of Egosoft’s space trading and combat
series, above we can see Nikonofune which is the ship of
Saya.
x3screen00001.0
This is mine, at the very beginning, you’ll already get a M4 Argon
Buster and a Mercury TS,
but earning money is still hard to achive at the beginning.
x3screen00002
This shows the landing lights of a solar power plant.
x3screen00005
Space stations are huge, and there are only a few docking bays now,
most of the time they’ll be in the middle.
x3screen00015
Nebula rendering, atmosphere and lighting textures are incredibly
improved.
x3screen00012
As well as station design. Most of them don’t differ anymore
between races, but their designs textures, bumpmapping and light
effects are really eye-candy.
x3screen00009
Dockingclamps. Although it’s a space game there’s good sound
effects too, even in space, well it’s a game so that goes ok.
x3screen00014
And there is a great variety of BGM for all the space-sectors, some
frightning, depressing or relaxing… as in Kingdoms End.
x3screen00011
Are you still reading this text ? Enjoy the pictures.
x3screen00032
This one is a bit obscure, this is the station in Grand Exchange,
which obviously was sprayed by some teenagers ? Winking))
x3screen00030
Inside of the station it seems someone painted some japanese kanjis
on the walls…. strange.
x3screen00028
Where am I ?
x3screen00019
One of my f****ing expensive superfreighters.
x3screen00023
Being attacked by the side…. shame on them. My turret is in the
rear.
x3screen00034
Someone’s in a hurry…. profitsssss….
x3screen00033
A nice shot from the side, lighting is really great here. Each edge
will reflect sunlight when moving… wow.
x3screen00037
Asteroid fields are beatiful, as long as you see them early enough
when flying through thick sight-killing shield-eating nebulas. (X2
had acid nebulas damaging your hull, I guess it’s still the same, I
don’t wanna try this. But in X2 the shielding was weakened by
lightning charges inside nebulas, which I haven’t experienced yet
in X3.
x3screen00036
The weather is cloudy, beautiful storms cycling in the planets
atmosphere.
x3screen00035
A huge carrier ship of the Teladi. Slow but deadly. But who wants
to be on war with that trading geniuses.Expect more, when I find some time and mysterious places…Andy.


Own X3 Map released

I know there are already some good
sectormaps available, even for the latest Release X2 of the
X-universe saga.There’re also quite a few lists with some more information
available, so I decided to include as much information as possible
into my very own map.
If you’re interested you can download it here:
http://home.mnet-online.de/tuxine/x3kobaanmap.jpg (gif and png
version also available)

x3-seksize10

Features:

Showing all sectors for X3 by their names
Graphical Sectorsize
Mark Solar Power Plants
Mark Shipyards
Mark Docks
Mark Pirate Bases
List Superfreighter I/II availability
Relative Spacegate Positions
Mark profitable asteroids for each sector by ore, silicon,
nividium
List sector protection M1,M2,M6 and TL availability
Energie Support/Shortage mapping through the whole map
Prepared non-functional space-gates
Marketprice comparison
Rocket Damage/Speed/Range data

Changes:
V0.5
Included marketprice comparison list
Included rocket-data list
Included Race color-coding

V0.4
High resolution clean-ups
set non-functional gates visibility

V0.3
Energy-Support and shoratge highlighted through the map (blueish
background)
Legend scaled to a more readable size
Scaled some known wide sectors in width t.b.c.

V0.2
Translated Sectorname Avarice to german Habgier
Include information on highest asteroid value: ore, silicon,
nividium
Added pinpoints (yet invisible) for non-functional spacegates
List Superfreighter I/II availability

V0.1
Include information on shipyards, docks, pirate bases, solar power
plants
Include information on spacegate positions
List sector protection M1,M2,M6 and TL availability

V0.0
Scaled sectors by their size (middle spacegate distance)
Initial version based on old maps, with additional sectors

I didn’t translate the map to english yet, this may follow someday
later.

Own X3 Map released

I know there are already some good
sectormaps available, even for the latest Release X2 of the
X-universe saga.

There’re also quite a few lists with some more information
available, so I decided to include as much information as possible
into my very own map.
If you’re interested you can download it here:
http://home.mnet-online.de/tuxine/x3kobaanmap.jpg (gif and png
version also available)

x3-seksize10

Features:

Showing all sectors for X3 by their names
Graphical Sectorsize
Mark Solar Power Plants
Mark Shipyards
Mark Docks
Mark Pirate Bases
List Superfreighter I/II availability
Relative Spacegate Positions
Mark profitable asteroids for each sector by ore, silicon,
nividium
List sector protection M1,M2,M6 and TL availability
Energie Support/Shortage mapping through the whole map
Prepared non-functional space-gates
Marketprice comparison
Rocket Damage/Speed/Range data

Changes:
V0.5
Included marketprice comparison list
Included rocket-data list
Included Race color-coding

V0.4
High resolution clean-ups
set non-functional gates visibility

V0.3
Energy-Support and shoratge highlighted through the map (blueish
background)
Legend scaled to a more readable size
Scaled some known wide sectors in width t.b.c.

V0.2
Translated Sectorname Avarice to german Habgier
Include information on highest asteroid value: ore, silicon,
nividium
Added pinpoints (yet invisible) for non-functional spacegates
List Superfreighter I/II availability

V0.1
Include information on shipyards, docks, pirate bases, solar power
plants
Include information on spacegate positions
List sector protection M1,M2,M6 and TL availability

V0.0
Scaled sectors by their size (middle spacegate distance)
Initial version based on old maps, with additional sectors

I didn’t translate the map to english yet, this may follow someday
later.

Last minute XMAS gifts

To all of you seeking for last minute
xmas-presents, I can suggest this great audio CD of the korean band
Bulldog Mansion which has a wide variety of different music styles
as they play some funk, bigband, ballad, ska and rock.
In my eyes a perfect xmas gift for all people who want to escape
the last frustating 5 years of english and/or german top100
music.
theresheis
I just loved the songs of Bulldog Mansion when I did find a nice
flash cartoon on the net: there she is (goto->amalloc) another
part of this cartoon series will be published soon.
http://www.sambakza.net
http://www.bulldogmansion.com

Last minute XMAS gifts

To all of you seeking for last minute
xmas-presents, I can suggest this great audio CD of the korean band
Bulldog Mansion which has a wide variety of different music styles
as they play some funk, bigband, ballad, ska and rock.
In my eyes a perfect xmas gift for all people who want to escape
the last frustating 5 years of english and/or german top100
music.
theresheis
I just loved the songs of Bulldog Mansion when I did find a nice
flash cartoon on the net: there she is (goto->amalloc) another
part of this cartoon series will be published soon.
http://www.sambakza.net
http://www.bulldogmansion.com