Does your Lenovo Ideapad U400 run hot under Ubuntu 11.10?

Posted on January 20, 2012 by Cheese

It turns out the excessive heat and constant fan on my U400 was being caused by the switchable graphics, which so far have proven themselves to be more effort than their worth. The situation isn’t even that much better under Windows, not being able to play more graphically intensive OpenGL games like Minecraft (yes, I just that about Minecraft). Maybe the Nvidia cards are better off, but next time I won’t take that chance and just get a laptop without any kind of switchable graphics if I can.

I haven’t yet figured out how to get AMD card working at all under Linux, so if that’s what your looking for, sorry. The integrated card has worked surprisingly well for me though, so long as I stick to graphically simpler games. Minecraft even works well enough with it, maybe even better than it ran with the integrated card in Windows.

This article might also apply to other laptops with switchable AMD graphics that are running Ubuntu 11.10 (and anything based on Ubuntu). So if you have a laptop like that which you want to run cooler, keep reading.

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Posted in Hardware | Tagged laptop, linux, pc, u400 | Comments (0)

1989 Honda Accord Review

Posted on January 19, 2012 by Tehsocks

This lagview is of a bit of a different theme. Its not the newest first person shooter, nor a computer or anything like that, this is a car I have recently bought. Normally i wouldn’t bother to “lagview” a car, only reason I am is because of this special group of people we have here. Our first cars were all american cars from the 80′s with a bit of character. We didn’t go the more common route of…. Getting a Honda.

My parents aren’t at all car savvy, however when I was looking for my first car. This whole “Honda” thing was all they’d talk about. Show me this one, show me that one. Honestly, because of this, I didn’t want one. They were rather shocked when i did end up choosing my first car (1985 Chevy Camaro). I’m sure it wasn’t just my parents that wanted me to get a Honda, I heard they were good, reliable, small, easy, safe cars blablabla. Well, I chose a more risque route with my first car and scored great. My 1985 Camaro was great, after 85,000 km she’s still a tickin. But, what if i had gone the Honda route, What did I miss… Continue reading →

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Lagview – Trine (PC)

Posted on January 18, 2012 by Cheese

One of the games featured in the Humble Frozenbyte Bundle was Trine, it took me a while to get around to playing it but I’m glad I finally did. Trine is a side-scrolling game with RPG elements and some interesting physics-based puzzles. New side-scrolling games are few and far between these days (especially PC ones) so it’s quite a refreshing change from the mainstream games of the past few years.

One of the focal points of Trine’s gameplay is the ability to switch your character instantaneously. You can choose between a wizard, thief, or knight. The wizard is strictly for solving puzzles and navigating the world by spawning objects such as boxes and planks. The thief is the most mobile of the bunch with a grappling hook that allows her to swing over gaps and reach high up platforms, and a bow to kill far away enemies. The knight is simply used for killing things. Instead of sharing health and magic, each character has their own. Likewise, when one character dies, the others will still be alive and usable. As you may expect, when one of your character dies it can really stall your progress but fortunately there are strategically placed checkpoints throughout the level which will restore some health and magic for you as well as resurrecting any slain characters. Continue reading →

Posted in Lagview | Tagged frozenbyte, humble bundle, lagview, pc | Comments (4)

Quake Live Review (PC)

Posted on January 16, 2012 by Cheese

Quake Live is far from being a new game, it was officially released to the public in February 2009 but it’s really just a more refined re-release of a game that was released in 1999, Quake 3. I wasn’t really into Quake 3, so I’m not aware of all the changes. What I do know is that many of the maps were cleaned up to meet today’s expectations, the weapons were tweaked, and the movement was tweaked, and the game is now launched through a web portal. The game’s engine may not support many of the graphics effects that are now taken for granted, but that doesn’t matter. While a great looking game may be a good way to attract attention, ultimately what matters most is the overall experience, not how pretty it is. Quake Live provides a great overall experience, but perhaps not for everyone.

On the surface, Quake Live is a simple game. Run around, pick up guns, shoot at your opponent. Of course, the same could be said of most FPS games. I’ve played a lot of them, and I feel Quake is actually one of the more complicated ones, with the most amount of strategy. Though at the same time it can also be the simplest one. It all depends on how you choose to play it. Continue reading →

Posted in Lagview | Tagged FPS, id, lagview, pc, quake | Comments (5)

Lagview – Metro 2033 (PC)

Posted on January 15, 2012 by Tetchro

80/100

A little over a year and a half now I was at work. Well, I still often am at work, but this day was special. A friend there told me that he had recently finished a game called Metro 2033, that he was impressed with it and thought it was pretty cool, and I should check it out.

Normally I’m kind of in my own little world when it comes to games, and I only really trust a few people’s opinions. Usually when some one says “hey, check out this game!” and I respond “yeah, man! Sure!” I’m actually thinking “oh my God you pompous moron that game looks like another terrible piece of crap put out by a useless publisher who only cares about making money rather than producing a good game.” And most of the time I’m right. How do I know I’m right, if I don’t play the games? Don’t ask stupid questions.

Anyways, I did decide to buy the game. At the time it was fairly new and still about $40 (or $50?) on Steam, and I waited a while and picked it up for $25 (which is a bit of a sting considering I’ve seen it around $10 on sale on Steam. Right now, without a sale on, it’s $20). I immediately proceeded to install it, and then eagerly wait over a year to actually start it up for the first time.

Why’d I wait a year? I actually have no idea why. I guess I was falling out of love with FPS games at the time, my heart recently crushed by the mutation of my beloved Call of Duty series into some casual teenage and middle-aged beer-drinking good-for-nothing couch-potato icon by people who can’t appreciate a mouse. And, as much as I hate to use the excuse “I was busy,” which is overused nowadays, I suppose that was a little true as well. I guess in reality though I was really too lazy to start up another game. But last month I finally mustered up the courage to enter the Russian Metro, 21 years in the future (or 22 at the time since I started in December)! Continue reading →

Posted in Lagview | Tagged 4A Games, FPS, lagview, metro 2033, pc, post apocalyptic, tetchro, THQ | Comments (11)

Mac vs. PC (A review of my early 2009 Macbook)

Posted on January 4, 2012 by Tetchro

Expose/Mission Control in action. You can see all the windows I currently have open and I can simply click the one I was to focus on. Great if you have a bunch of stuff open at once. Does not display minimized windows, though.

What this Lagview/review is is a resource for those of you who are on the fence about whether or not to make the transition from PC to Mac. Despite the review being for a Macbook a few years old now, most of the information below is relevant for people like you, and nearly all of the points I make are applicable to the current generation of Macbooks, and any Macbook currently running OS X 10.7 (Lion).

If you want to get down to the real facts, scroll down to the bottom of the article where I list my Mac Myths and my Pros and Cons list. This might come in handy if you’re on your phone in the middle of Best Buy seriously considering buying that Macbook right in front of you.

It occurred to me the other day that I hadn’t written a Lagview in a while, but I quickly ran into a problem. What with school (especially near finals) and just life in general, I haven’t really been able to muster up the time to play any games. So what could I possibly review? Then it occurred to me. I promised to review my Macbook when I bought it a loooong time ago. So, here we go!

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Posted in Hardware, Lagview | Tagged 2009, apple, compare, imac, laptop, logic, mac, macbook, notebook, pc | Comments (17)

VVVVVV Review (Pandora)

Posted on December 22, 2011 by Cheese

VVVVVV, what kind of name is that? I think it has something to do with the incredible amount of spikes you’ll encounter. Or maybe the developer’s cat named the game by stepping on the keyboard. Whatever the case, you can tell the by name alone that the game is going to be a bit weird, and it is.

This is my first game review for a Pandora game, and actually only the 3rd game I’ve completed on it so far. We are fortunate in the Pandora community to have people willing and able to port these games and even more fortunate that the original developers allow this to happen. The game isn’t open source, so I think in this case VVVVVV’s developer specifically gave permission for it to be ported, nice! I had actually tried this game on my PC previously, but gave up when I reached a point where I did nothing but die. The game isn’t anywhere near as hard as say, Super Meat Boy, but it does benefit from a proper controller, which the Pandora does have.

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Posted in Lagview | Tagged humble bundle, lagview, pandora | Comments (6)

Wireless and Ubuntu Linux on the Lenovo Ideapad U400

Posted on December 12, 2011 by Cheese

After lots of time fighting to get my wireless going in Ubuntu 11.10 (more specifically, Kubuntu 11.10), here’s what I’ve learned. (This may also apply to the U300 & U300s)

First:

Before installing Ubuntu, make sure that the wireless is working under Windows, specifically that the hardware switch (Fn + F7) is set to on. If it’s set to off, you’ll be forced to reinstall Windows to do it – apparently there’s currently no way this can be done within Linux on this laptop.

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Posted in Hardware | Tagged laptop, linux, u400 | Comments (3)

Review of the Lenovo Ideapad U400

Posted on December 10, 2011 by Cheese

I recently purchased an Ideapad U400 for myself as my next laptop. From what I gather, this is part of a new class of laptop referred to as an “Ultrabook”. I think the idea is that they’re supposed to be thin and light, but not so thin an light as to be considered a netbook. Edit: Apparently it’s the U300s which is the ultrabook, this is a step up from that… seems somewhat arbitrary to me. Let’s start with the specs, my configuration has the following:

Intel Core i3 2330M (2.2GHz)
4GB DDR3 RAM (8GB max.)
500GB 5400RPM Hard Drive
Radeon HD6470M Graphics (switchable with the integrated Intel graphics)
14″ 1366×768 LCD
DVD-RW
4 Cell battery

Not bad, but not wonderful either. The video card should be capable of playing most modern games on low settings and the CPU is ample for my needs. I have a desktop PC for anything more demanding and real gaming (as opposed to casual gaming). Unfortunately I never got an opportunity to see how the video card’s performance is for DirectX games on Windows, but I’ll get to that in a bit.

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Posted in Hardware | Tagged laptop, linux, pc, u400 | Comments (3)

Tutorial: The Ganzfeld Experiment

Posted on December 9, 2011 by Johnay

Hello, everybody! Sorry, I haven’t posted in a while now, but since I am back I figure I may as well contribute something awesome! What I will be telling you guys about today, is obviously the Ganzfeld experiment.

What it is, is basically a technique of depriving yourself from certain senses, and seeing how your mind reacts. There are some materials you will need, before trying it.

A ping pong ball.
A tool used to cut the ping pong ball in half, like an x-acto knife, or a razor blade.
A place to rest your head and body comfortably.
A bright light source, across from your face.
An excellent source of sound, in order to play “whitenoise” or “pinknoise.” Headphones with a lot of bass are preferred to create the best effect, but stereo speakers are alright too, if they have a nice bass sound.

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