The Sims 3:Ubuntu Fullscreen Issues

Posted on November 15, 2009 by Jesse Zylstra

Issue: The Sims 3 under Ubuntu Linux with PlayOnLinux or WINE will not run in fullscreen mode

An easy fix to this problem: (it must be done each time you start the game)

Open up your Options menu (The “…” icon), and go to Display Settings.

Uncheck the “Fullscreen” box, and apply the settings by clicking the checkbox.

At this point, you will see a box asking you if you want to keep the changes. Click nothing, just let it go by. It will revert the settings and go into proper fullscreen.

I have failed to find a peremenent solution, but this takes very little time to complete.

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Internet Neutrality

Posted on November 13, 2009 by Jesse Zylstra

This is a short research paper on Network Neutrality, providing the consequences of allowing individual, powerful companies to control the Internet.

Zylstra, Jesse

Internet Neutrality

The Neutrality Internet of the Internet is important, and individual companies must not be in control of the Internet. Currently, the Internet is a completely free resource with no central control. Many people argue that Internet is ruining social abilities. This is just not true; According to Jeffery Boase, “People who email the vast majority (80%-100%) of their core ties weekly are in phone contact with 25% more of their core ties than non-emailers. Moreover, those who email the vast majority of their significant ties weekly are in phone contact with twice as many of their significant ties than non-emailers.” Communication is an important part of the Internet, and it must remain open. “Imagine you were choosing whether to buy a book from Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble’s website, and you knew that Amazon’s site would load much faster”… “Or that whitehouse.gov loaded quickly while the site of a contentious political magazine was plagued by delays” (Haugen and Musser). Right now, anyone can start up their own website or host their own server. The changes that large companies want to make would make the creation of websites and servers with various resources; consequently, this would alter the Internet as we know it. This kind of change can never be reversed after it is put into action. The neutrality of the Internet must be maintained.

Works Cited:

Furchtgott-Roth, Harold. “The United Nations Should Not Interfere with the Internet.” At Issue: United Nations. Ed. Susan C. Hunnicutt. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2008. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. 19 Oct. 200.

Jeffrey Boase et al. “The Internet Connects People.” Opposing Viewpoints: Technology and Society. Ed. David Haugen and Susan Musser. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2007. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Web. 19 Oct. 2009.

Republic, The New. “The Government Should Support Internet Neutrality.” Ed. Haugen and Musser. Detroit: Greenhaven Press. Opposing Viewpoints: Technology and Society, 2007. Web. 20 Oct. 2009.

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Sansa Fuze Review

Posted on November 8, 2009 by Jesse Zylstra

This is a review of my new (Refurbished) Sansa Fuze 4GB Player (Blue).

The Sansa Fuze comes in various colors and various storage sizes. It can be upgraded via. a microSD Card, and supports high-density microSD cards (allowing you to use up to 12GB total).

Colors Available

The main-screen interface is okay, aesthetically it looks a little goofy (in my opinion), but the rest of the navigation is fine. It is very similar to an iPod.

The Good

  • Great, easy-to-read screen
  • Supports multiple file types
  • Customizable equalizer
  • Great 24 hour battery life
  • Good operating system support (Windows, Linux, and even Mac)
  • Great upgrade options (microSD Card) and great size options (2GB, 4GB, 8GB)
  • The device has a good feel to it, it’s perfect for holding. It does not feel cheap, and is very solid.
  • USB Modes can be switched so the device will act like a FlashDrive, providing more support for older or uncommon operating systems.

    Sansa Fuze

    Sansa Fuze

  • Supports album art
  • No proprietary software needed to upload music to the device

The Bad

  • The screen is still a bit small for watching entire movies, however this is the case on any device this small.
  • Videos must be converted to a smaller size before they can be viewed on the device. This is also said for photos, but I copied regular photos and viewed them without a problem.
  • The included headphones are pretty cheap, but easily replaced.
  • Proprietary cable. Mini-USB would be nice, but the cable in particular does not seem like it is going to break over time. It is similar to the iPod connector cable.
  • Does not include a wall-charger, so it must be charged with your computer.

Other thoughts:

This device can not be used while on the charger, which is common for most MP3 players.

I would be comfortable giving this to a kid, it is not a delicate device. The device’ long battery life and descent storage (expandable) won me over when compared to many of the other devices I looked over.

Sansa Fuze

Sansa Fuze

I purchased the refurbished version of this device. My total purchase added up to about $44, which is great for this device and the features it came with. I have noticed no problems with having the refurbished version, however many other users on Newegg had mentioned problems which they were unable to receive a return for.

The price was such that I would not be devastated if it were to be stolen or lost.

The scroll-wheel physically turns, unlike what you may expect on a device like the iPod. I do not think this is a weak point of the device, it functions just as it should and appears to be attached very well.

Overall:

I would recommend this device to anyone seeking a MP3 player with a good battery life and descent music storage. People who might have disadvantage of this device might be people traveling in areas where there is no place to recharge using a computer/laptop, however USB wall chargers can be purchased for relatively cheap.

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Sansa Fuze Freezes or Locks Up under Linux

Posted on November 7, 2009 by Jesse Zylstra

Sansa Fuze (2GB, 4GB, and 8GB) freezes or locks up when connected to a Ubuntu Linux system

There is a very easy solution to this problem.

Disconnect your Sansa Fuze from your computer. If the device is still locked up, hold the power switch all the way up for 10 seconds until it powers off, then let go, and push the power switch up once to power on again.

On your Sansa Fuze, navagate to Settings> System Settings> USB

Select Autodetect (scroll to it, press the center button in the middle of the scroll-wheel)

Attempt to connect the device. If this fails, go back to USB settings and try selecting “Autodetect” again

If it still does not work, select MSC instead, MSC will allow the device to function as a Flash Drive.

Kudos to Littlebear91 on irc.freenode.net ##linux for recommending this very quick solution for this type of issue.

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Webmasters Best Friends

Posted on November 6, 2009 by Jesse Zylstra
This document was published by Jesse Zylstra on another website, and was a collaborative effort. Please, check out the website where this was originally hosted at:  www.computerhope.com

« on: August 02, 2007, 02:09:36 AM »
Webmasters Best Friends

I would like to draw your attention to two websites, both operating great services
www.browsershots.org
Yeah, its true. Not every user uses the same browser as you (the webmaster)
This service allows you to see what your website looks like on other browsers. This is great for finding errors, since some sites are simply incapable of handling on certain browsers, especially less common used browsers, like Safari (for the MacOS)

www.oswd.org
This website is for the web designers out there who are not very creative (like myself) who want to have a good looking site, but just don’t know how to create one.
With this, you don’t have to worry about excessive advertisements.

Free Website Hosters
There is no such thing as a free domain name, but there are sub domains (eg: yoursitetitle.sitehost.com)
Firstly, one great thing to match a subdomain with is a shorter, but free, domain service, like co.nr
Check co.nr out at www.co.nr domain. They will provide you with a free www.yoursite.co.nr domain.
Also available for domains: www.dot.tk (also contains ads)

www.110mb.com
Comes with an application to install some web applications. 110MB no longer supports MySQL on box4/5/9/10. If you want to run any web applications, you will have to use an alternative, such as YaBB for a forum.
(Users do not need ads)

www.site90.net/
Features: 1500MB of disk space, 100GB of bandwidth, cPanel, no ads, PHP, MySQL, FTP, Cron Jobs, GD POP3 Email Accounts with webmail, phpMyAdmin
Full List of Features: http://www.000webhost.com/features

Pay-for hosts

TCH TotalChoiceHosting
Sub Domains, cPanel, CGI, FTP, Apache servers, Perl, PHP, MySQL (Unlimited Databases), ans SSL

Lunar Pages
24×7 support, PHP, MySQL, cPanel, FTP, Unlimited Emails, Subdomains, Parked Domains, and MySQL Databases

Host Gator
Host Gator is a fine service, offering packages that should fit your basic and even more advanced needs. Has your main server modules (PHP, MySQL, Perl, etc) and also has cPanel

Godaddy Hosting
Various packages to meet your needs, many email accounts, FTP, support.

Lets Host
Lets Host Offers the main, and most important server features, (PHP, MySQL, Perl, etc), and also features cPanel.
Dont be put off by the title of the page, though, “Irish web hosting, IE domains”. They offer .com, .net, .org, .co.uk, .info, .biz, and .ie.
For a list of all the features included with Lets Host, click here.

Users: If you know of any other free hosters, or pay hosts, tell us about them, and how well they work.

How do I get my site on Google?
Read this document, it explains everything. http://www.computerhope.com/promote.htm
Also, once you have done all that, check this out: http://www.google.com/addurl/

Free HTML Editors: (and related)
Notepad++ , a source editor for Windows
Quanta Plus, a HTML editor for the Linux OS, built on KDE
Nvu, a HTML editor for the Windows Operating System (also available for Linux)
HTML-Kit, a free syntax-highlighting editor. It has a preview (IE-Rendering only), Split view, and can open pages in any browser it detects.

HTML Reference sites (HTML, CSS, Javascript, etc)
MSDN Library – Microsoft Technical Reference for html, css, and other scripting languages
w3.org – Site for standardized HTML references and tutorials
webmonkey – Tons of good tutorials for html, css, javascript, php, flash, and more
Dynamic Drive – Free scripts to use in your site

Server Software (great for testing HTML, or just setting up a server)
Xampp – Set up an Apache, MySQL, PHP server on your own computer (easily). Either for testing before you upload, or for your actual server.

Ubuntu Server – A server operating system. Has the basic server packages. Great community support avaliable for all Linux systems on IRC server: irc.freenode.net    Channel: linux

Credits:
Calum
Providing information on free domains, and more information on 110MB hosting

michaewlewis
Providing information on HTML editors, HTML standardizing links, many more links, and server information
(and reminding me this topic existed)
Also for Lunarpages hosting, GoDaddy Hosting, (and once again reminding me this topic existed)

Dilbert
Provided HTML-Kit link for HTML Editors

Soybean
Provided TCH TotalChoice Hosting

kpac
Provided Lets Host hosting


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Free Home Banking Software (Multi-Platform)

Posted on November 5, 2009 by Jesse Zylstra

I found a program a while back that operates perfectly as a home banking program, providing enough easy-to-use functions to get the job done without being filled with excessive, un-needed features.

Ironically, it’s called HomeBank.

HomeBank is a multi-platform open source application for manging your personal banking accounts.

HomeBank works in Windows, Mac OSX, various distributions of Linux — or it can be manually compiled. HomeBank is also available in the Ubuntu/Debian repositories.

From their website:

“«HomeBank» is free software. Use it to manage your personal accounts. It is designed to easy to use. Analyse your finances in detail using powerful filtering tools and graphs.

«HomeBank» benefits from more than 14 years of user experience and feedback. Its development started in 1995 on Amiga computers. It is available for 57 languages on GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, Microsoft Windows, MacOSX, Nokia N*** and Amiga.

If you are looking for an easy way to manage your accounts then «HomeBank» should be the software of choice. Take some time to try it out, you won’t regret it.” (http://homebank.free.fr/)

Give it a try. HomeBank can import all major export options provided by most banks.

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Quote

Posted on November 1, 2009 by Jesse Zylstra

“If you have money to make war, you have money to help people.”

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Best Archive Manager for Windows

Posted on October 30, 2009 by Jesse Zylstra

I no longer support using IZarc. 
For a very long time, I used IZarc for archives of all sorts. Unfortunately, they have made some interesting choices to fund their developments by including adware bundled with their software. You can opt out of these during the installer, but the amount of trickery in doing so exceeds the benefits of the program. 
I now suggest 7-Zip as a do-all, end-all to most archive formats. 

See my new review for 7-Zip here:
https://zylblog.com/2014/06/7-zip/

What is the best free archive manager for Windows?

With so many archive managers available for Windows, and so many that are either trial or possibly contain viruses, it’s hard to find a descent one.

logoBy far, the best one I have ever used is IZArc, It supports many different archive formats.
Filehippo lists a few in it’s description:

“IZArc is a freeware archive utility supporting many archive formats like: 7-ZIP, A, ACE, ARC, ARJ, B64, BH, BIN, BZ2, BZA, C2D, CAB, CDI, CPIO, DEB, ENC, GCA, GZ, GZA, HA, IMG, ISO, JAR, LHA, LIB, LZH, MDF, MBF, MIM, NRG, PAK, PDI, PK3, RAR, RPM, TAR, TAZ, TBZ, TGZ, TZ, UUE, WAR, XXE, YZ1, Z, ZIP, ZOO.“

Download IZArc for Windows here:
http://filehippo.com/download_izarc/

IZArc is Freeware, and completely advertisement free (a wonderful thing).

IZArc is somewhat actively under development, and has no outstanding bugs that will widely affect its performance.

“One of the best I have used by far. I install it on most of my client’s computers as well and they all enjoy it. It’s small enough to download over low-grade DSL, and installs very quickly.“ – User

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Run The Sims 3 under Linux

Posted on October 30, 2009 by Jesse Zylstra

Note: August 6, 2012, This has become the second most popular article on Zylblog.

Is it possible to run The Sims 3 under Ubuntu Linux? (or any version of Linux, really)
In order to play, you must meet system hardware requirements

Yes, it is. In fact, it’s not as complicated as you might think it would be.

Just a pre-note: This is not a refined article. Information might be written incorrectly, or entirely missing. Do let us know by commenting, or emailing. Thank you.

Preparation:

Be sure to enable your 3d graphics drivers. Click System> Administration> “Hardware Drivers”.
This can take a moment to open.

Look for your video driver. If you see multiple drivers, select the one with “Recommended” next to it. If you do not see “Recommended” next to anything, just select the newest version. Click the driver and then click the “Activate” button. This requires Internet access, and can take a while for the installation to complete.

Now you need to install PlayOnLinux. I recommend installing from their website using the DEB installer, or by using the provided commands. Select your distribution for installation instructions: http://www.playonlinux.com/en/download.html

The Installation

Open PlayOnLinux under Applications> Games> “Play On Linux”

On the first run of Play On Linux, you will have to install a few things before it will actually work. The program will walk you through this, you will need Internet to install these additions. They are critical to the proper operation of PlayOnLinux.

Once PlayOnLinux is done doing it’s own setup, click the “Install” button. At this time, if you have not already, you should insert your legal Sims 3 disc. A mounted ISO will most likely not work, you need the actual DVD.

Select your drive. Normally, it will start with cdrom, or cdrom0. Try all that are listed if neither of these exist or they do not work.

Fun Fact! When I use things such as bold italic underlined text to point out important things, it makes it easier for the reader to keep track of where they are and makes the blog visually look better.

Installing a No-CD Patch for The Sims 3

In order to run The Sims 3 under Linux, you must install a No-CD patch. These are often heavily debated patches, and some people consider them program cracks as well. An important point to make:
1. No one has legally declared No-CD Patches to be “Illegal”.
2. Yes, many of the patches of these types will contain viruses. Don’t worry, I know of a few valid ones.
3. Don’t feel bad. You already bought the software, there is no reason why you should have to keep the CD.
4. Using drive virtualization software will not work for this program in particular in Linux.

Okay? Feel morally able to do it now? Great!

Go to http://m0008.gamecopyworld.com/games/pc_the_sims_3.shtml
(I warn you, I have seen some pretty inappropriate ads on this website… not complete nudity but pretty darn close. Still, I haven’t had virus problems with this website)

and scroll down to:

The Sims 3 v1.2.7 [MULTI] No-DVD/Fixed EXE 26-06-2009
Razor 1911
File Archive [3.7 MB] – Removes DVD-Checks Only!

And click the floppy-disk icon next to it. (I don’t agree with direct links, despite how much easier it would make it for you)
Select a random mirror. It’s not a large file, don’t worry about getting the “slow” server.

Right click the downloaded file, and click “Extract To… Here” (do this in a folder where you can extract and be able to get back to it…)

Two files will be located within. TS3.exe, and TSLHost.dll.

Before copying the game patch over, run the game once without the patch through PlayOnLinux.

Copying the CD Patch

Open your home folder. Press CTRL+H to view hidden files, and navigate to a folder called:

.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/TheSims3/drive_c/program files/electronic arts/the sims 3/game/bin

Copy the files in this folder called TS3.exe and TSLHost.dll so as to make a backup. Just copy them to your desktop for now, until you know if it works or not. Once you have those backed up, delete them from the game folder, then go ahead and copy the no-cd versions that you downloaded and extracted earlier to the game folder.

That’s all. Start up the game and see how it all went.

Important Notes

Do not go to the Sims 3 website and install their patches. PlayOnLinux will patch your system for you.

Legal notice:

I am not responsible for any damage.
The information in this article is no provided for illegal use, it is assumed that you legally own the game; furthermore, you must abide by your terms of service.

The following was added August 6th, 2012:

Need assistance? 

While you are welcome to comment asking others for help, I (the author) really do not have much that I can provide in assistance. If you run across an issue, try the PlayOnLinux forums:
http://www.playonlinux.com/en/forums.html
To report and debug issues with WINE specifically, check out their forums or Bugzilla (but please search their database for the same issue first, they are short-tempered when it comes to repeated requests).
http://www.winehq.org/
Issues with the game can be resolved at The Sims 3 official website forum, here:
http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/

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Messenger Alternatives for Windows Mobile

Posted on October 30, 2009 by Jesse Zylstra

Getting tired of Windows Live Messenger for your mobile phone?
A while back, I found the default messenger program included with Windows Mobile 5 and 6 to be a pain. In search of a new program, I found Nimbuzz, a great little program for Windows Mobile that is easy enough to use and supports multiple protocols.

From the Nimbuzz website:

Nimbuzz Mobile lets you call, chat, message, and send files on the go, for free. It combines all your buddies from Skype, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, AIM, Google Talk and more. One login, one contact list, all accounts.

More information about features is available here: http://www.nimbuzz.com/en/mobile/

Nimbuzz even supports voice chat that works fine with a phone’s WiFi connection.

http://www.nimbuzz.com/en/

The program is small enough to be installed on your phone’s main memory, and in general: It’s absolutely lovable. I especially enjoy the fact that it does support multiple messenger protocols, allowing you to use more than just MSN.

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