Steel Storm Indie Game Review

White ship icon for Steel Storm with red backgroundAs the indie game market continues to grow, we thought it would be timely to kick off 2011 with another game review. Steel Storm, a game produced by a small company called Kot in Action Creative Artel, is a top-down arcade shooter that puts you in control of a small futuristic aircraft. Like the addictive space shooters of the past, Steel Storm keeps the action and explosions coming.

Steel Storm: Episode I is available for free download for Linux, Mac, and Windows. Episode II is still in beta, but those who pre-order at a reduced price can play the beta version now. This review will cover Episode I.
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How to Setup HDMI Digital Playback in Linux

HDMI cableLike many people, I have an HDTV in my house that supports HDMI input devices, such as Blu-ray players. I also like to watch streaming content over the Internet, downloaded videos, and listen to music all from my TV and home theater system. Unfortunately, I do not have a Boxee box or a Roku box. All I have is a Blu-ray player that supports very few video formats and only offers a few streaming options, such as Netflix.

Fortunately, I can run Boxee from any computer, but rather than buying a dedicated box just for that, I can use my Eee PC, which has HDMI output. Many laptop manufacturers are adding HDMI out connectors to their devices specifically for this purpose, so that customers can display their content on big screen televisions.

If you happen to be one of those people and have chosen Linux for your laptop or computer with HDMI out, this brief tutorial should help you get video and sound working.
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How to Change Linux Displays on the Fly with Disper

Monitor display (oxygen icon set)Using Linux on a laptop has always been a hit and miss affair. With sometimes obscure proprietary hardware, many laptop manufacturers have showed no interest in supporting the free operating system. Nevertheless, through hard work by developers and support from some hardware manufacturers, Linux now supports a wide variety of laptops and netbooks.

Many laptop owners often connect their machines to external displays, whether monitors, televisions, or projectors. For display chips that support XrandR, the setup is usually rather simple. For users with Nvidia chips, it is still easy but not quick. To switch to an external display, you either have to configure it in the xorg.conf file to automatically recognize it or use nvidia-settings and click through a series of options each time you want to use it.

With Disper, a free on-the-fly display switching utility, you can quickly and easily switch to an external display, clone your screens, extend a display, and choose from any of the supported resolutions. Disper is a command line utility, but after a few initial command entries, you can easily bind it to a shortcut key or run it from a single command by using a basic script.
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Synapse: A Useful Zeitgeist-based Application Launcher

synapse-logoIf you have used Gnome-Do in Linux, you will find some resemblance in Synapse. The user-interface is the same – activate the launcher, type the search term, press Enter to execute. The only difference is that Synapse makes use of the Zeitgeist engine to display your search result. An appropriate description would be: Synapse is the launcher for your recently used files/folders/applications while Gnome-Do is the launcher for any file/folder/application.
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Configuring Places, Bookmarks, and Locations in KDE

kde-dolphin-logoPart of the free software experience is having the freedom to setup your workspace the way you want it. KDE, the popular free software compilation for Linux and other Unix-like operating systems, offers a plethora of configuration and customization options. Among those options are a number of methods for accessing files quickly and easily.
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4 More Linux Games to Distract You From Work

A hand scrolling a mouse wheelAs Linux gains more popularity, the number of major commercial game vendors supporting Linux has not increased, but independent developers are certainly taking notice. Here are four more Linux games that are sure to distract you from real work. Be sure to play them only when your boss is not looking. Enjoy!
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DoudouLinux: A Fun Linux Distro For Kids

doudoulinux-logoLinux is really a versatile piece of software. You can use it as your daily working OS, a server that runs most of the website in the world, as a multimedia center or even as a way to promote your religion. A more creative use of Linux is to turn it into an educational piece of software for kids. We have gone through several ways of configuring Linux for kids. DoudouLinux is yet another Linux distro that you will want to check out.
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2ClickUpdate Maintains And Clean Up Ubuntu With A Single Click

2clickupdate-mainWe have previously came up with 8 ways to clean up your Ubuntu machine, but 2ClickUpdate manages to reduce all the steps to just a single click. If you are looking for a quick and easy way to update, maintain and clean up your *buntu machine, you have just found it.

By itself, the update manager in Ubuntu has done a really good job in performing regular check with the repository and prompts you when there are update available. What it doesn’t do is to remove junk files and clean up your system. This is where 2ClickUpdate comes in. In addition to the regular system update, 2ClickUpdate also removes junk files, cleans used space and optimizes RAM memory.
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10 Useful Tools, Websites And Tricks to Help You Master Linux Command

lcommand-mainWhen it comes to Linux command, it is always a love and hate affair. Newbies tend to shun away from the command line as much as possible while the intermediate to expert users who are used to it will swear by it, and boost how much faster and more productive they have become due to the command line.

Regardless which camp you belong, as long as you are using Linux (doesn’t matter which distro), you are sure to hit the terminal and type some commands into it at some point of time. Why not embrace it and take the opportunity to learn something new?

Here are some websites, tools and tricks that you can make use of to learn Linux command line. This is in no way a comprehensive list, but will be a good start for those who wish to get started.
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How to Install Ubuntu Maverick On Your Mac Virtualbox

mac-ubuntu-logoUbuntu is all the rage lately in the tech world. While Linux has been largely an operating system for hobbyists and geeks, its popularity is growing with every new release of Ubuntu. From its simple installation to its touch screen friendliness and built in social networking features, Ubuntu is more viable an option today than ever before. For Mac users, there is no easy way for you to dual boot your Mac and Ubuntu, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get your hands on one. Here, we will show you how you can run Ubuntu in your Mac, via Virtualbox.
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