TF2 Beta

If you own TF2, you probably noticed the new game that has arrived in your Steam Library. The TF2 beta has been launched as of last week. It is Valve's way of letting the player test the changes to the game without including them. The biggest change in the beta so far is balancing a weapon known as Natascha, which is very over powered outside of the beta. There will be many changes tested in the weeks to come, some new weapons will even be added. For the full low down, you can read the official write up here.

~Dave

Installing Linux Netbook

A while ago I decided to install Ubuntu Netbook Edition, just so I could see how it worked. It is not that hard to install. It is, in fact, very straight forward. Before we start, you will need either a 4GB USB or a 4.7 GB DVD-R. You will also need to download the latest Ubuntu Netbook Edition from here. The file, for me, was about 600 MB. I recommend doing this in Ubuntu Desktop Edition, as I found it the easiest way to burn the .iso file to a CD. You can also do it just as well with Windows or Mac. If you use Ubuntu Desktop, all you need to do is insert the blank DVD, then right click on the .iso and select "Burn to disc" and then let it burn. The same can be done with Windows 7, simply right click on the file and select "Burn to disk image". Follow the prompts and you will have the DVD ready. Finally, on Mac, you have to open up Disk Utility. This application can be found in your Utilities folder, or just by searching your Mac using spotlight. Once open, drag your .iso file to the left sidebar of Disk Utility. When it is there, go to the menu bar and click "Images", then "Burn", and finally go through the prompts to burn the .iso to the disk.

Next we must install Ubuntu Netbook. I am using a Mac to do this, if you are on Windows the process will be different. When the Macbook boots, hold down the Option key when you here the start up sound. Keep holding until you see a hard drive on the screen. At this point you must insert your DVD which you burned. If done correctly, your DVD will show up next to the hard drive. Select it and boot from it. When you boot from the DVD you will boot into the Live Installer. It is all straight forward from here, the only thing you must be careful of is when you are partitioning. Make sure not to wipe your hard drive when doing this, read everything very carefully. I take not responsibility for any damage done to your computer if you make a mistake. If you don't know something when installing this OS, or any OS, I suggest you go to another computer and search for what you don't understand. When you partition, I suggest about 10 GB be set aside for the OS, and maybe another 2.5-5 GB for swap space. You don't need swap space, but it acts as more ram in a sense and thus is good to have. In total you will have set aside 15 GB. Feel free to set aside more or less then that amount. Once done, click next through the installer. When you get to choosing a keyboard, Mac users should scroll down and choose the US-Macintosh keyboard. Finally, click next and let it install.

At this point you may be wondering how you will boot into Ubuntu. Well, Ubuntu comes fitted with Grub, a boot loader which allows you to select which OS you want to boot into. Once you are into Ubuntu, you will need to update somethings. If your wifi card is not yet supported, just plug into an ethernet cable and get internet that way. Once you have internet, make sure that you update your drivers first, those are the most important. Most likely, there will be a message that shows up in the right corner, if not you can find the driver program under "System" ---> "Administration"----> "Additional Drivers". Once you are all updated, you are ready to go!

~Dave

Why I Hate Product Keys

Mentioned in yesterday's post, was the fact that I was having a small issue with Grand Theft Auto's product key. It was not that it wasn't working, but more or less the fact that I had revoked it on one computer and activated it on another. This left me with one use remaining when in reality I should have had two. So, like any good paying customer, I went to the games support page. I sent out an email about how I had revoked the key and would like my product key to have a token added to it. I got a prompt response from someone who had no idea what I was talking about. Having read this, I called up the support line for the game and got on the phone with someone in less then 2 minutes. That impressed me. Anyway, I get on the phone and start explaining to the guy what happened. He told me I had to go to another company that makes the product keys for them. So I head over to the other companies website and send them an email. Within minutes I get an automated response to please check their FAQ before sending an email, so I did. In their FAQ they stated they could not add tokens to Product Keys. At this point I am pretty mad. I call up the maker of the game and explain my situation so far, and even mention that I got the game as a digital download. And of course, that made all the difference. I was then told that if you digitally download a game, some sites provide their own product key. I said thank you, hung up, and moved on. I proceeded to checking my email and acquiring the number for the digital distributer which I had purchased from. I called them up, and after a five minute wait or so, was connected with the support worker. I explained my whole situation in the best English I could due to the fact that she did not have perfect English. She then clarified with me that she understood, and proceeded to tell me that the company can not hand out new sets of game keys until the old set expired. So after hours of running between support services, I got my answer. I have to run out of activations on one key, then call up the people I bought from and have them get me a new key. This is why I hate product activation keys.

~Dave

Easeus Todo Backup

Recently I picked up a new hard drive to replace my old Windows hard drive. The problem that confronted me immediately was how to get all my information from the old drive to the new one. I had settings on there I didn't want to change again, many games installed, and a few applications. I asked a friend of mine about it and he recommended I use Easeus Todo Backup. This application can back-up, restore, or clone hard drives. Cloning is exactly what I needed. I installed the program and ran the cloning option. I selected my current drive as the "Source Drive", the one where the information was being taken from. Then, I selected my new 1 TB Wester Digital drive as my "Target Drive", the one where the information was being sent to. I started at about 7:50 PM last night, but I am not quite sure when it finished because I went to sleep and left my computer running. To give you an idea, it was about 30% total completion by 10:30 PM. After copying my information, I booted into the new drive. My second problem was that my new drive was only formatted to read 149 GB in total, since that was the max size of the old drive. To fix this, I went into the Control Panel, and selected "Administrative Tools". Next, I selected "Computer Hardware" and in the new window selected "Storage" from the side bar. It then listed for me all of the hard drives in my computer. I found my 1TB drive, which showed 149 GB formatted and about 780 GB free space. I clicked on the section that was formatted for 149 GB and then right clicked. In the new menu that appeared I selected "Extend Partition". It asked how much I wished to extend, and I choose the maximum amount and clicked "OK". Now my drive is all setup. The only error I had after that was my GTA IV install asked me to use my product key again. I am in the midsts of dealing with that.

~Dave

Incompatibility Won't Stop Me

During the weekend of amazing sales I was able to buy Grand Theft Auto 4 for the PC. The game took me about two hours to download because of the sheer size of it, 13 GB to be exact. I finally had it downloaded, then I had to wait another two hours for the installer to unpack all the files. Finally, I got the installation screen. What happens next? It tells me the game is incompatible with my system and does not let me install. I was not happy to read that. So, I jumped onto Google to see what I could find. It turns out that the game is build for Windows XP and Vista, but not Windows 7. After reading quite a few articles, I decided to try running the installer in compatibility mode. To do this I right clicked on it, clicked on properties, and choose the Compatibility tab and check "Run in compatibility". I then selected the drop down menu and choose "Windows XP Service Pack 3". After running the installer again, and waiting three hours for it to unpack the items, I finally got to the GTA install screen. I clicked through it and waited another couple of hours for it to install. And now, I finally have GTA 4 installed on my computer. One last problem confronted me. When I ran the game, I couldn't sign into Games for Windows Live. I didn't know why, but I had a feeling the game was not up to date, and thus was not allowing me to sign in. Next, I checked Rockstar's website and found that GTA 4 indeed needed an update. I downloaded it and ran the installer, and now everything works fine. I didn't give up, I just kept at it until I found the answer.

~Dave