Ultimate Boot CD

UBCD is perfect when you just installed the newest Ubuntu with GRUB2, which happily kills all other Linux partition MBR's and installs it self as the sole booting OS. It doesn't even try to detect GRUB partitions! This is absurd. With this console-based CD you can fix most partition woes, but I was not able to restore Linux partitions on logical partitions. I had the following partition setup:

UBCD Homepage: http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

sda1 (Primary, bootable) WinXP
sda2 (Extended)
sda5 (Logic) Slackware
sda8 (Logic)Windows 7
sda6 (Logic, bootable (on an extended partition??)Ubuntu 8.04
sda7 (Logic)Linux Swap

After I installed Ubuntu 11.04 it suddenly had shifted some partitions up one step and created a new unused partition, even no resizing or partition changes where made in the installer other than setting sda6 as home partition.

sda1 (Primary, bootable) WinXP
sda2 (Extended)
sda4 (Logic)Unused Partition
sda5 (Logic)Ubuntu 11.04
sda6 (Logic)Windows 7
sda7 (Logic, bootable)Ubuntu 8.04
sda8 (Logic)Linux Swap

Later I tried to install Linux Mint 5 (based on Ubuntu 8.04) over 11.04 to get a new GRUB, but to no avail. (It thinks the partitions are invalid).

Also tried Testdisk to restore MBR from backup sectors, but that made all partition unreadable. So I had to revert.

So I am stuck booting into Windows via UBCD's Super GRUB Disk. If I try to boot into a Linux partition I get 'unbootable partition', I can only boot into Windows 7's bootloader, wich happily let's me boot into XP too.

If anyone has ideas about what is wrong, please comment.

Vid: An underrated group: UFO

Some time ago I came across the group UFO after reading about the influences of my favorite band, Metallica. So I loaded up my torrent client and headed for one of my favorite bootleg sites, TTD. By chance, I somehow downloaded what was probably their best live performance, in London in 1974. Fast-forwarding trough the (seemingly uninteresting at first) DVD, I got sucked into a song called "This Kids", with this awesome guitar solo and really catchy riffs. I knew I had stumbled across a real talent. That was the door-opener I needed, and I started to listen more carefully to more of their records. That performance is with Michael Schenker on lead guitar, wich I found out was one of the founders of Scorpions. He also played in other bands, and was a bit on and off with UFO. He is said to be the guitarist that brought fast metal-style solos to the rock scene, and he also got famous for his sound. John Marshall was one of the people who tried to duplicate it. Kirk Hammett of Metallica usually mentions UFO when talking about past influences. I am almost finished with tabbing the whole song, let me know if you want it posted!

Recent Linux kernels doesn't like SB600 the chipset?

It seems kernels that came after or shortly after 2.6.24-29 does not support ATI's SB600 south bridge chipset that powers AMD's FX790 platform.

I've tried all recent Ubuntu variants as well as the newest OpenSUSE, FreeBSD and others. All of them fail to detect my SATA disks (because it doesn't detect the SCSI/SATA interface) and it's getting annoying now.
I can always install a module for a sound or network card. It would be different if it wasn't the hard disks.

I even tried several 'alternate ISO installs' and those found my disk during install and all went well, but it seems it couldn't just use that same driver again when the OS was supposed to boot. That would be too clever.

It appears that Ubuntu Hardy and it's forks are the last ones to operate my computer. Slackware 13.37 actually found my disks, but did not find my network interface.Sadly, I don't know much about Slackware and so I could not be bothered to figure out how to locate and install a proper driver. I've been dealing mostly with Ubuntu and it's Debian-based layout and tools.A commodity Realtek chipset from 4 years back MUST be supported in every distro. So must the SB600 chipset too!

I have installed an 8.04 based Mint version but it seems I somehow I managed to nuke all the Linux MBR's. (I am looking at you, various bootloaders that doesn't operate on the principle of least surprise).

Instead of shoveling out distros with less and less hardware support, why don't they cut down on other bloat instead? I am really excited about Puppy Linux and it's future, because it seems like this is the approach they take on it.

And so I can only boot into Windows at the moment. Oh the irony!

Coding: Pixel ripple effect

Obfuscated C code! This is the inner core loop of a water rippling effect, though I spent some time rearranging the code, because it looked cool for some reason. Do you get what is going on here ? :p

switch    (renderflag)          {
case      0                  :  {
for(int i=1; i < resy-1 ; i  ++ )  {
for(int j=1; j < resx-1 ; j  ++ )  {
    buf1   [ j ]     [ i     ]  =
    ((                          (
    buf2   [ j + 1 ] [ i     ]  +
    buf2   [ j - 1 ] [ i     ]  +
    buf2   [ j ]     [ i - 1 ]  +
    buf2   [ j ]     [ i + 1 ]  )
    >>                     1 )  -
    buf1   [ j ]     [ i     ] );
    buf1   [ j ]     [ i     ] -=
    buf1   [ j ]     [ i     ] >>
    7                           ;
    offsetx                     =
    buf1   [ j ]     [ i     ]  -
    buf1   [ j + 1 ] [ i     ]  ;
    offsety                     =
    buf1   [ j ]     [ i     ]  -
    buf1   [ j ]     [ i + 1 ]  ;
    _putpixel(  water, j , i   ,(
    128      -  offsetx        )&
    255                        );
    offsetx                   >>=
    8        ;  offsety       >>=
    8                           ;
    indexu   =  offsetx  + j    ;
    indexv   =  offsety  + i    ;
    if       (  indexu         >=
    resx     )  indexu         -=
    resx                        ;
    else if  (  indexu   < 0    )
    indexu                     +=
    resx                        ;
    if       (  indexv         >=
    resy     )  indexv         -=
    resy                        ;
    else if  (  indexv   < 0    )
    indexv                     +=
    resy                        ;
    _putpixel(  vscreen  , j    ,
    i                         ,((
    _getpixel(  backdrop        ,
    indexu                      ,
    indexv   )                 <<
    8                          )+
    _getpixel(  water, j , i   ))
    >>                     8   );
    }}}         break           ;
case 1                         :{
for(int i=1; i < resy-1 ; i  ++ )  {
for(int j=1; j < resx-1 ; j  ++ )  {
    buf2   [ j ]     [ i     ]  =
    ((                          (
    buf1   [ j + 1 ] [ i     ]  +
    buf1   [ j - 1 ] [ i     ]  +
    buf1   [ j ]     [ i - 1 ]  +
    buf1   [ j ]     [ i + 1 ]  )
    >>                     1 )  -
    buf2   [ j ]     [ i     ] );
    buf2   [ j ]     [ i     ] -=
    buf2   [ j ]     [ i     ] >>
    7                           ;
    offsetx                     =
    buf2   [ j ]     [ i     ]  -
    buf2   [ j + 1 ] [ i     ]  ;
    offsety                     =
    buf2   [ j ]     [ i     ]  -
    buf2   [ j ]     [ i + 1 ]  ;
    _putpixel(  water, j , i   ,(
    128      -  offsetx        )&
    255                        );
    offsetx                   >>=
    8        ;  offsety       >>=
    8                           ;
    indexu   =  offsetx  + j    ;
    indexv   =  offsety  + i    ;
    if       (  indexu         >=
    resx     )  indexu         -=
    resx                        ;
    else if  (  indexu   < 0    )
    indexu                     +=
    resx                        ;
    if       (  indexv         >=
    resy     )  indexv         -=
    resy                        ;
    else if  (  indexv   < 0    )
    indexv                     +=
    resy                        ;
    _putpixel(  vscreen  , j    ,
    i                         ,((
    _getpixel(  backdrop        ,
    indexu                      ,
    indexv   )                 <<
    8                          )+
    _getpixel(  water, j , i   ))
    >>                     8   );
    }}}         break           ;
    default:    break;          }

Tab: Soulshimmer

"Soulshimmer" - Written by me ca. anno. 2006


EM

------0---0-----------0---------------
------0---0-----------0---------------
---0----0---0-------0------0----------
------------------2-------------------
-------------------------2------------
-0------------------------------------

C

------0---0-------
------1---1-------
---0----0---0-----
------------------
--3---------------
------------------


C
------0---0-------
------1---1-------
---0----0---------
------------------
--2----------0----
---------------3--




G
------3---3~~-----
------0---0h1-----
---0----0---------
------------------
------------------
--3---------------

------3---3~~-----
------0---1p0-----
---0----0---------
------------------
------------------
--3---------------

------3---3~~-----
------3---3-------
---0----0----0----
------------------
------------------
--3---------------

------3---3~~-----
------3---3p0-----
---0----0----0----
------------------
------------------
--3---------------



------------------
------------------
------------------
------------------
------------------
---2b3b2----------




---------0-----0---h----
---------12----12--10---
------12----12-12--11---
------------------------
------------------------
--0---------------------


---------0-----0--------
---------10----10-s-8---
------11----11-11-s-9---
------------------------
------------------------
--0---------------------


---------0----0---------
---------8----8-s-7-----
------9----9--9---8-----
------------------------
------------------------
--0---------------------


---------0-----0--------
---------8-----0--------
------9----9------------
------------------------
------------------------
--0---------------------

Games: PS2 games

Here's our stack of PS2 games.

Unfortunately, we have one of the last PS2 Slimline's to ever be produced, and it does not allow for any chipping or anything. If you have a recent PS2 SL, check your model number before you attempt to get it chipped!

Some good PS2 games: Spiderman 2, Matrix Path of Neo, GTA: Vice City. Psyvariar, Mobile Light Force, and the SEGA MegaDrive Collection wich has 20-25 retro games!

New Metallica bootlegs

Recently aquired:

Double DVD transfers of Quebec'86 and Toronto'86. Awesome quality now!