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In our previous post about customized Linux Distros we got you to a web app for creating customized linux distros based on ubuntu.

Maybe you’re not an ubuntu fan but an OpenSUSE fan..Well we still have another one for you.

Make your way to SuseStudio. It’s my personal favorite.

You get a nice intuitive ajax/jquery powered GUI and interface specifically designed to help you customize your very own openSuse distro.

Although at this moment they are constantly reaching their capacity and the only way you can gain access is by requesting an invitation from them.  As far as I remember it did not take very long (maybe a week or two at most?) to get my invitation.  From then on you can sign in using your google account and others.

Picking Your Purpose

The first part is where you decide what the purpose of your build will be.  Will it be a server?  Will it be a desktop GUI environment?  What are you going to use it for?

These are all the thoughts I had going through my head when I first started customizing my version of OpenSUSE.

You get to pick between Server, GNOME Desktop, KDE Desktop, Just Enough OS or Minimal (for the most part).  Again, this is just a baseline of what your disc will contain.

The rest of the software configuration is up to you later on in the setup of your custom OpenSuse LiveCD or install disc.

You will get to start out on the general configuration tab where you get to choose network settings and have it set as static, DHCP client, and whether or not you want the firewall on by default. as well as default language, keyboard, and time zone.  You will also have a chance to edit the default users.

Root will of course be there by default with a default password of “linux” which should be changed.  You can also add and delete extra users, set their passwords and home directories as well as their groups.

Customize Look

One of the phases that may come next (or later if you don’t care for it much) is to customize the look and feel.

This basically amounts to setting a custom logo and setting a custom wallpaper for it to use by default.

Unfortunately in terms of customization of looks this is pretty much as far as it goes since there is no *desktop theme* customization feature (for now anyways).

Either way the customization is one of the more exciting aspects because you know someone, even if it’s just you, will see it each time it’s booted up.

Appliance Settings

At the appliance tab of the configuration menu you can customize settings as if you were going to run it as a virtual machine.

Select memory size and amounts, add Live installers, VMWare support as well as Xen support.

Startup

Startup configuration is…well, startup configuration.  Although it sounds promising it only allows the configuration of the user modes and whether or not you want it to show a customized EULA.

The EULA part I like as well as choosing which run-level it starts in but I still think it needs some more customization to startup.

The run levels you have to choose from… Single User (1), Multi user / No Network (2), Normal Console (3), and Graphical (5).

The software customization tab is obviously the most useful piece of this entire “distro-generator”.  Add software packages, add programs, add repositories, etc.  It’s all there and it’s all for the adding (or removing).

Software

This of course is the main feature of any distribution authoring/editing/remixing web-app or third party software.

..and alas, the easiest part is building the distro because of course all you have to do now is wait.

You can have it built a few different ways.  ISO format for easy burning, VMDK for virtual machine disk images as a quick loading type (also a good way to test it), a Xen guest or a USB thumb flash drive.

Since there’s a few different ways to have it built it really cuts back on the whole *oh great I have to convert it 4 times* factor.

Building the Image

Also, after it is done being built, you can have susestudio open it in a virtual machine-esque web app for up to an hour.  You can then SSH to it and use the desktop GUI (if required) to check it out and make sure everything is A-OK before you download it.

Plenty of tools out there but OpenSUSE Studio is by far my favorite.

Go sign up for OpenSUSE Studio invites.

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Web 2.0 Suicide Machine

Who doesn’t love being on the latest social networking site?

That’s what I thought.

…but, if you are one of the millions that are on Facebook, Myspace, twitter, and wish you had never joined; don’t worry.  There is hope.

A friend of mine was going out for a job interview with a very important company.  Of course he had a profile on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and a few others.  Being worried about evidence of activities they wouldn’t like for obvious reasons he had to go through and scrape as much of his pictures, status updates, friends, etc that he could.  My friend spent a good day removing whatever he could find. Of course, this could have been easier..

The Web 2.0 Suicide Machine will take care of all the work for you.  The automated website / script will login to your accounts, remove all your friends, remove all status updates and tweets, and make your profile and information completely private and removed.  Basically, it kills your “social network” profiles.

If you watch South Park at all, you already know about this and probably wondered, “Hm…I wonder if it’s real” and I can assure you it is.  The only difference is you won’t be sucked into a Tron 2.0-like Facebook internet mall environment where everyone ignores you while you are transported by Facebook-Guards.

If you are wondering which episode of South Park this was featured on follow the link below to download the episode via ThePirateBay.

http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/5505157 – South Park : Episode 04, Season 14 :: “You have 0 Friends.”

Commit Web 2.0 Suicide Here

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Connecting...

First off I can’t knock this game too much.  It’s a real blast to play with friends; especially the Co-op missions which is what we look for in a game first before it’s even released.  So far since Modern Warfare (the first one) each one has been the same.  Play more, level up, unlock, restart.

Since the first release each Call of Duty game has been really good.  Not only that, each one has spawned other games that attempt the same concept of leveling up while blowing opponents away.  There is just something about games that you gain levels in that makes them addicting.  Maybe it’s the increases in power making you feel like a monster?  I don’t know.  It’s a new phenomenon that has emerged with some of these games.

With the recent release of of the “Stimulus Map Pack DLC” comes 5 new multiplayer maps.  Think about what you are paying for.

I can think of a few reasons off the top of my head to not buy this extra content.

• No Dedicated Server Software – This is one of those things that separates PC Gaming from consoles.  From what I have read there are millions of PC gamers that are quite frankly, pissed off, about this.  When joining a game it chooses the “best host”.  This is a bad idea considering I have ended up with some of the laggiest games ever conceivable.  I was once connected to a host that was running on wireless using a laptop with an AMD @ 1.8 ghz.  Imagine how quickly this game ended once everyone left.  Another point that needs to be made is the fact that since you can’t join a specific server/game/map, you don’t get to play where you want.  YOU ARE LIMITED to what the game gives you.  You wanted to play Terminal?  Too bad.  Oh there’s a cheater in your game?  That’s also a shame because you can’t kick, ban, mute, etc.  Which brings me to the next bullet.
• Hackers – Need I say more?  Of course Valve is responsible for the anti-cheat side (I guess..) running VAC but how up to date is that?  Get this, my roommate and I decided to play one Saturday afternoon.  We were put into a game with 2 players using aimbots.  We left and clicked “Find game” again.  It put us in the same game.  We left again and did the same thing but this time picked a different game mode.  We were put into another game with another aimbot that had just launched a nuke.  Wonderful.  This happened a (not surprisingly) SEVEN times.  Would you like to be level 70?  Maybe you’ll get put into one of those hacked hosts that instantly gives you 10e-11 experience points.  With that happening you’ve unlocked everything so why play anymore?  Waste of money if you ask me…
• IWNet does not care. – Welcome to earth.  IWNet’s forums have been flooded with numerous posts like this very one you’re reading.  Everyone is complaining about the hackers, lack of software and updates, glitches that need to be fixed, etc etc.  This goes on for pages and pages and there will be no response to them since, well, we are still giving them money.  The lack of response to the *needs* of the game are sickening.
• You are paying for maps. – The reason I made this post.  You’ve already payed $50 for a game that has been saturated with cheats, fails to release updates to fix reported glitches, etc.  You are giving them an extra $15 for something that should be free in the first place.  I can understand if you get bored with the maps it already has but guess what you can do with dedicated servers?  THAT’S RIGHT! Custom maps!  One of the biggest things that brings someone in the PC Gaming is not only the look at flexibility but the ability in itself to play maps that have been contributed by the community.

I’m sure there are a million reasons TO buy the game.  It’s fun, fast, and it’s good for LAN’s.  Problem is : this was a game that was to be made for the console and should have had major changes in it for PC release.

I’m sure the screenshot at the top of this post looks very familiar to console and PC gamers alike.

Update : Apparently there have been numerous reports of hackers being able to send trojans to other players machines..

“It’s possible if you host a game for a hacker client, and it’s possible if you don’t host a game, but are connected to a hacker hosting the game. If the game’s net code is not 100% secure then it could be possible to craft special packets of data to cause buffer over-runs (stack smashing). This injects hackers code into your computer, which executes it, and hey presto you have a remote code execution hack. If the code’s written well it’s possible to make it secure, but stack-smashing bugs are so often overlooked.  Yet another reason we need dedicated servers.”  -  Quoted from IW Forums ( Link )

Link to Steam Forums post stating this discovery in the IW Net Forums.

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Ah, a long standing battle of which is better…although the main battle is between Ventrilo and TeamSpeak, Mumble is a good alternative to either of these.

With the recent release of Teamspeak 3, Ventrilo is having more and more competition to go up against.

There really are no online posts with hard-proof and real data about the bandwidth, cpu usage, memory usage, etc is for each one of these programs it is all linked more to personal preference.

If you have your own server boxes like we do you can run the free ventrilo server which is limited to 8 connections while Teamspeak has a limit I cannot remember what it was.  As far as I can remember, Mumble has no limit.

While some may worry about bandwidth used by these programs there is no real difference between them.  It all depends on what voice codec is used coupled with its bit rate and whether stereo or mono.

Like I said, it boils down to personal preference.  Ventrilo is certainly easier to install and maintain and use rather than Teamspeak but I consider ventrilo to be like apple.  Closed off to innovation and source.

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