A blog of my thoughts about things 2008-02-01T08:35:50-06:00 David http://www.virtualsky.net/vt/index.html virtualsky.sk@gmail.com tag:virtualthoughtsblog,2008:VirtualThoughts Pivot Copyright (c) 2008, Authors of Virtual Thoughts 2008-01-18T08:30:00-06:00 2008-01-18T08:30:00-06:00 tag:virtualthoughtsblog,2008:VirtualThoughts.44

It's been stated (or asked) almost every year since the turn of the decade, will this be the "year of Linux". Of course, every year since it's appearance in computer technology circles, Linux has grown stronger, better, and more popular. However, I'm really excited about what is happening to GNU/Linux/FOSS so far this year. I really think Linux is going to gain some ground in 2008 and force other technology companies to re-think the way they do business, even more that what they've been forced to do thus far. A few examples of why I'm thinking this...

A few examples of why I'm thinking this...budget computer systems, with Linux as their default OS, appearing on major retailer websites (and in some brick-n-mortar stores) for purchase.

Yes, Dell, HP, and IBM/Lenovo have offered Linux PC options prior to (and during) 2007, but they were never competitively priced or were easy to find on their websites to purchase in the first place. But now (and during the latter part of last year), you could find the Everex gPC on Wal-mart's website after just a couple clicks of surfing around (Electronics -> Computers -> Desktops w/o Monitors).

Not long after that, ASUS comes along and launches their new ultra-mobile PC, the EeePC, which is kicking serious butt in the computer market. In Canada, the EeePC is being sold by major retailer The Source, not to mention several specialty shops across the country.

Soon, Everex is going to be selling their own ultra-mobile PC, the Cloudbook, to try to take advantage of the market ASUS has opened up (sold through Wal-mart as well); followed closely by Acer and Gigabyte (I've never heard of them before) who are going to selling their own UMPCs.

To compete with Walmart's gPC offering, it now appears that Sears is selling another $200 desktop PC, running Freespire.

So, just to recap the recent activity of Linux based PCs in the main-stream market:

Wal-mart - selling the gPC
The Source - selling the EeePC (also featured on their splash-page, no less)
Sears - selling Mirus Freespire

And then there's the upcoming release of Everex's Cloudbook, and the two UMPCs from Acer and Gigabyte... as well second generation EeePCs coming this Spring from ASUS.

When compared to what's been happening in the Linux world previously, 2008 really seems to be Linux's explosion onto the global market. Is it the "year of Linux"? It's difficult to say, as I don't know what 2009 will bring. But it certainly is looking good. ]]> David 2008-01-11T08:38:00-06:00 2008-01-11T08:38:00-06:00 tag:virtualthoughtsblog,2008:VirtualThoughts.43

Well, it's been a few weeks living and working with the Eee PC. Actually, we now have two Eee PCs in our household - my wife wanted one for herself, so I picked one up as a last minute Christmas gift for her. She's enjoying her Eee PC as much as I am. She hasn't touched her other laptop (which used to be her main PC) since Christmas day.

As for installing a new Linux distro. on my Eee PC, I don't think I'll be doing so any time soon. I've tried booting up a few live CDs (via a new DVD drive and IDE to USB enclosure I bought), but it looks as though it would take some effort to get any of them configured properly on the Eee's hardware. And, to be honest, the default OS is just fine for me.. most importantly, everything "just works".

I've added a couple Debian repositories to my Apt-get configuration and I've been able to add all the extra apps I need without a problem. So, for any distro. fanboys reading this blog, I suggest that, if you're considering buying an Eee PC, you leave your distro hang-ups at the door and see the Eee PC for what it is. You don't really need Ubuntu/Red Hat/Mandriva/Slackware/Gentoo installed to enjoy what the Eee has to offer. I thought I did, but I've proven myself wrong. It runs Linux and it runs Linux well. That's what really matters.

A few things I've been doing with my Eee:
* Ripping DVDs (installed mencoder and acidrip)
* Ripping MP3s and OGGs (installed grip and lame)
* Burning CDs (installed XCDRoast)
* Creating/editing web pages (installed SeaMonkey and using it's WYSIWYG editor)
* Editing photos and images (installed GIMP)
* Playing a few games (like Abuse and Eternal Lands)

]]> David 2007-12-18T16:04:00-06:00 2007-12-18T16:04:00-06:00 tag:virtualthoughtsblog,2008:VirtualThoughts.42

This past week I've been able to put the Eee through its paces to see how useful this little sub-notebook PC could really be. It wasn't long before I realized that I no longer wanted to - or needed to use - my full sized laptop that had been my "main" PC. Notice I put had there. Not only has the Eee met all of my expectations,

had there.

Not only has the Eee met all of my expectations,it has succeeded them. Over the weekend, I sold my Compaq Presario laptop to a co-worker of mine and now my Eee is my main workstation. It works wonderfully as a full-sized desktop PC. All I do is plug in my USB keyboard, USB mouse, and 17" LCD monitor to the expansion ports on the side and I have all comforts of a standard desktop PC. You'd never know that everything was being run by the little black tablet sitting next to the monitor.



Unplug the keyboard, mouse and monitor and I've got an ultra-portable laptop ready to go where ever I need it.

At first, I thought that I wouldn't like using Xandros as an OS, just because I much prefer Mandriva as an OS. I still prefer Mandriva, but I'm not as addamant in getting it installed over the default OS of Xandros. ASUS has reconfigured so much that I consider Eee's version a Linux distro in it's own right.

With a few Apt-get commands, I've been able to easily install some of the applications I'm accustomed to using (like GIMP). But I've also been trying out some of the apps that came with the system that I wasn't familiar with. The most useful so far has been the e-book reader.

By flipping the display ninety degrees, which FBReader allows you do, and the size of the Eee, it's the perfect device to be used as an e-book that I've come across.



I'll say it again, the ASUS Eee PC is one of the best pieces of technology to hit the market in a long time. The combination of hardware and software for this device has been chosen wisely... it fits and performs wonderfully.

I hope this changes the way other manufacturers see the world of personal computing; not to mention how much better devices like the Eee PC are better for our environment and current demand on energy. ]]> David 2007-12-12T20:33:00-06:00 2007-12-12T20:33:00-06:00 tag:virtualthoughtsblog,2008:VirtualThoughts.41

As everyone's favorite Jedi master has proven to us, time and time again, good things come in small packages. The same can be said about a funny little laptop made by ASUS, called the Eee PC - a fully functional laptop, not much larger than a DVD case, with Linux as it's OS.

I've been hearing - or rather reading - about ASUS's latest entry into the sub-laptop market and became most intrigued. What made me decide to try and track one down for myself was what I came away with after a recent boardroom meeting at the office.

When the meeting was over, I had in my hand a notebook with a couple pages of notes that I had to quickly scribble down, as I watched a fellow co-worker's slide show presentation - in a darkened boardroom, no less. Needless to say, I had some questions when I tried to read my notes afterwards.

During such meetings, some people bring along their full-sized laptops to take notes, but they're noisy (when the room is full of them) and it's a pain to have to disconnect and reconnect the power chord, monitor and USB devices every time I want to take it to a meeting.

So, I thought that the Eee PC would be the perfect tool for the job, not too mention having this cool little Linux device in my clutches in the first place.

Once I decided that I wanted one, I wasn't sure how (or where) I'd be able to find one. I knew that New Egg was selling them, but I wanted to find a distributor in Canada, if I could.

Strangely enough, I discovered that The Source (what used to be Radio Shack) was offering pre-orders of a couple Eee PC models. But, because they were pre-orders, I was concerned if they'd even be shipped any time before Christmas.

Because this is an ASUS device, I took a shot and check my favorite local computer shop, OTV Technologies. I purchased ASUS brand parts from them in the past, so I thought they'd be my best bet. Jackpot! They had them listed in their products list so I headed over to the shop after work.

Selling out of them once already, I was glad to find that a shipment of 5 units arrived that day. Four hundred and eighty coin later (after taxes) and I was in business.

My impression? This is a wonderful little machine, and being a Linux device makes it even more appealing to me.

I took it into the office today and it was the topic of discussion for quite a while. Many people seemed very impressed, and I don't think the remaining four units will last long at OTV. One co-worker thought the Eee PC would be a perfect gift for her son who's attending University. Other people just thought it would be just nice to have a laptop that was much easier to tote around with them. Seeing what came pre-installed on the Eee PC and how easy it was to use, being a Linux device didn't seem to be a barrier at all for them. In fact, they were most impressed with how versatile Linux really was.



The features that got the most attention was the built-in webcam and the voice recognition.

I think that, with more innovative devices like this coming into the market, Linux will finally be able to claim more of the OS market-share as people realize what can be accomplished with open source software.

Good job, ASUS! ]]> David 2007-12-02T11:41:00-06:00 2007-12-02T11:41:00-06:00 tag:virtualthoughtsblog,2008:VirtualThoughts.40

Time sure does fly by sometimes. Been a pretty busy November around here... work at the office being the focus. But, during the past month, there's been some time of leasure and fun with the Wii.

free of charge, all I had to do was ask for them. I didn't even have to pay shipping charges. Personally, I think this was very gracious of Nintendo to offer this to their customers.



Basically, what it is is a rubber skin that helps protects the Wii-motes from bumps and what-not. Of course my wife and I are not in the habit of dropping, throwing, or clocking each other with our Wii-motes as we play. But, the jacket also provides a sturdier and more comfortable grip, as it also adds a layer of cushioning. It's also made in such a way that when it comes time to change the batteries, it's easy to slip off and on.

This month I also picked up Lego Star Wars: the Complete Saga for the Wii, as well as a Wii-Zapper (just this weekend).



I saw the Wii-Zapper in FutureShop last week but didn't pick it up at the time, as I thought they wouldn't be all that difficult to get a hold of later on. Well, I was a little mistaken, as they seem to be pretty hot sellers. During this past week, all the retailers I called said they were out of stock. Only by chance did I notice on Friday evening that Zellers was advertising the Wii-Zapper in their Saturday flyer. So, we made it a point to stop by Zellers early in the day yesterday to pick one up.

They were also advertising that they would have a minimum of 10 Wii consoles on Saturday morning. Of course, they were gone by the time we got there, closer to noon-time.

The Wii-Zapper took a few minutes, and a couple of rounds of Link's Crossbow Trainer (which comes packages with the zapper) to get used to, but we find that it adds to the gaming experience. I'm looking forward to trying it with a game, like Ghost Squad or Resident Evil.

Lego Star Wars has been fun, too. However, I just wish LucasArts took better advantage of the Wii-mote's capabilities. I was a little disappointed to discover that this game is basically a port from the other console versions, which don't have motion sensor capabilities. Swinging the Wii-mote to use one's lightsaber is merely a gimmick. Pressing the "B" button achieves the same results.

Aside from this let-down, I've been having fun playing it. It certainly makes it clear to me that these 3rd party game developers really do have a difficult time thinking out of the box. They could achieve so much, if they just spent some time thinking creatively on how to make use of what Nintendo is providing to them. There's some real potential for truly unique gaming experiences with the Wii if the developers would invest more time in their creations.

Nintendo, however, are really taking advantage of what they have. Titles, like Wii Sports, Wii Play and Metroid Prime 3, are setting the standards... at least standards that I'm looking to when playing 3rd party games. ]]> David 2007-10-26T21:02:00-06:00 2007-10-26T21:02:00-06:00 tag:virtualthoughtsblog,2008:VirtualThoughts.39

Today I was reading that Microsoft (or, what I more accurately call them, MicroSHAFT) is now releasing a different version of their XBox gaming console, called XBox Arcade. More details on this can be found here. It's decisions like this that clearly demonstrates to me what products are actually worth the money you pay for them and what products are crap. I mean, not even MS is confident enough in their gaming system to allow it to stand on it own merits. What do I mean by this? Well, let's examine this for a moment...

here.

It's decisions like this that clearly demonstrates to me what products are actually worth the money you pay for them and what products are crap. I mean, not even MS is confident enough in their gaming system to allow it to stand on it own merits. What do I mean by this? Well, let's examine this for a moment...Sony has their new Playstation 3. They sell it as a solid gaming system for, what has become know as, the "hard core gamer". It's quite pricey and isn't the sort of gaming system a "casual" gamer might be motivated to buy. No matter how great a PS3 game might look, I'm not really interested because I really can't stand the button bashing controls. But, it's clear (at least to me) who Sony are trying to market too, and I'm fine with that.

Now, Nintendo decides that they want to open up the gaming world for those of us who are considered"casual" gamers, the moms and dads, the gramps and grams, those who care about games that are fun and are easy to pick up and just play. They want to make a gaming system that most anyone can enjoy. They designed the Wii and it's proving to be something the world actually wants. It's selling like hot-cakes and bringing gaming to more people than ever before. Nintendo makes no excuses about their decision. This is what they wanted to do to the industry, and they're doing it. It's clear who Nintendo are interested in selling to, and I'm glad that they're making games that my wife and I enjoy playing.

Now here's MicroSHAFT. First, they wanted to get in on the "hard core" gamer market. Why? Because Sony (and the earlier days of Nintendo) has already done the ground work. So, in standard MS fashion, they do what they do best - imitate other people's work. Do they make a gaming system for the "casual" gamer? Of course not. There's no market in that because no one else has established that market yet. They're only interested in taking market share away from others in the industry, not make their own and actually INNOVATE anything.

Now, Nintendo has developed a gaming system that is revolutionary and designed for a totally different kind of game play. Nintendo see an opportunity to create an entirely new market and does so like gang-busters. So what does MicroSHAFT do? Rebrand the same piece of crap hardware they made for the "hard core gamers," calling it XBox "Arcade" in the hopes of cutting into the "casual" gamer market, now established by Nintendo. It's the same gaming system, but with different packaging. No longer is their XBox being toted as a "hard core gamer" machine... now it's a "casual gamer" machine.

So, here you have it: there's Sony, the ultimate machine for the "hard core gamer" and there's Nintendo, the "family fun" machine that anyone can play. Now here's MicroSHAFT with the XBox, which they have no idea what it's really good for... it's a game machine that is marketed as being made for both markets, but does neither of them very well. I mean, c'mon... games like Pac-Man and UNO are supposed to be good reasons to buy an XBox Arcade machine? Give me a break. You can download those fricken games for your PC over the Net, for crying out loud.

Reading any articles I could find on the XBox Arcade, all I see is the comments (from MS itself) that it's there for the sole purpose of cutting into the Nintendo Wii sales. It's not like it brings any value or innovation to the casual gaming scene... it's just there to hopefully trick people into buying it when they can't find a Wii or don't want to pay for a PS3.

I mean, if the XBox was any good - if there was anything revolutionary about - you would think that MS would just sell the XBox as it was originally designed because it was a great system and people would realize that when they played it. You'd think, if it was worth the box it was packaged in, MS wouldn't be concerned about cutting in to Wii or PS3 sales because they had something that could compete on it's own merits.

Obviously, that's not the case. In order to make any sort of sales, it seems to me that MS needs to rely on flim-flam and mis-direction. What a bunch of snake oil salesmen. ]]> David 2007-10-24T20:08:00-06:00 2007-10-24T20:08:00-06:00 tag:virtualthoughtsblog,2008:VirtualThoughts.38

I just received my confirmation e-mail this evening that Nintendo has sent my new Wii-mote jackets on to me and should be here in a couple of days. It seems as though Nintendo has decided to ship all new Wiis with padded jackets for the Wii-motes for the bone-heads who can't seem to keep a grip on their controllers while they're playing. Myself, I can't quite understand why some people have such a difficult time holding on to their Wii-motes and not bash it into the heads of nearby observers/players. Anyway...

I just received my confirmation e-mail this evening that Nintendo has sent my new Wii-mote jackets on to me and should be here in a couple of days.

It seems as though Nintendo has decided to ship all new Wiis with padded jackets for the Wii-motes for the bone-heads who can't seem to keep a grip on their controllers while they're playing. Myself, I can't quite understand why some people have such a difficult time holding on to their Wii-motes and not bash it into the heads of nearby observers/players. Anyway...About a month ago I saw that Nintendo was offering people who already own their Wiis and Wii-motes the option of ordering Wii-mote jackets for themselves, free of charge... not even a shipping or handling fee.

I have to hand it to Nintendo for taking this initiative in such a way. It's a rare thing to get free stuff from a company who's already got your money. If anything, I would have expected that if I wanted a Wii-mote jacket, I'd be able to order one at a "limited time reduced price." But being given 4 of them for FREE is totally unexpected, but welcomed.

Even though I don't have the problem of flying Wii-motes, I still thought having a set of jackets would be a good idea... for company to use, you know. Thanks, Nintedo, for taking care of your customers so well.

Okay, so now on to one of the games that has been keeping me occupied... Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. This one I decided to buy, rather than rent, as I thought it looked so good from the reviews. I'm happy to say, I wasn't disappointed.

MP3 is a first person shooter like no other. I won't go into all of the details of the game, because there are lots of game reviews on the Net that cover that already. What I'll post is my opinions of the game instead.

What makes MP3 a unique experience for me is the complexity of the tasks and objectives you're given. It's not a straight forward point and shoot, reach your goal and beat the boss kind of game. There are some areas in the game that are completely unreachable, that is until much later in the game when Samus (that's you) wins weapon upgrades. At this point, you can then go back to levels in the game you've already completed to open up entirely new areas to get even more bonuses.

The plot of the game is linear, yet it isn't. There's a lot of back and forth, but completely up to the player to decide which areas need revisiting. There's a lot of exploration in this game and a lot of puzzle solving.

Not everyone will like this kind of thing. In fact, I didn't at first just because it's been a long time since I've played such a game. I forgot how much fun the exploration aspect is.

Another thing I didn't quite like about the game at first was how difficult I found the "bosses" to beat. I'll admit, I've gotten used to PC games that have cheat codes to help make the game play easier. But, with MP3, I don't have that option. I actually have to win my battles on the game's terms, and my battle skills are rusty, to say the least.

But, even though I find the bosses to be unbelievably frustrating, I'm getting better and I am now enjoying the satisfaction of beating these b*stards fair and square. They still frustrate me, but in a good way. And if you like a good boss battle, MP3 is a game you'd really enjoy.

The graphics are really spectacular and the Wii-mote controls are smooth and accurate. My only criticism is that I think the cross-hairs of Samus' gun could be more prominent. I find that I'm frequently losing track of the cross-hairs in the heat of battle.

You get a wide range of weapons as the story unfolds. I really like the laser grapple and how it's incorporated into the game controls, that is flicking the Nunchuck and then giving it a good pull backwards when you've latched on to something.

I'm also impressed at how much game there actually is in MP3. I've been playing for several hours during Friday and Saturday evenings of the past month and I've only completed 40% of the game (according to the stats page). I'd probably have completed more if I didn't do as much exploration, but there's just so much to see.

I guess, to summarize, I enjoy playing Metroid Prime 3 very much and think it's one of the best first person shooters (or platformers for that matter) I've played in a long time.

Metroid Prime 3 game play demo link. ]]> David 2007-10-20T20:41:00-06:00 2007-10-20T20:41:00-06:00 tag:virtualthoughtsblog,2008:VirtualThoughts.37

I thought I'd start posting some entries regarding some of the games we've recently been playing our our Nintendo Wii. As the holiday season approaches, Nintendo has been making plans to release some very interesting titles for the Wii console. So, I thought I'd share my opinions on some of the titles we've rented and/or purchased. First up:Splinter Cell: Double Agent. It's not a new release, but I just got around to renting it this weekend. Here are my thoughts....

I thought I'd start posting some entries regarding some of the games we've recently been playing our our Nintendo Wii. As the holiday season approaches, Nintendo has been making plans to release some very interesting titles for the Wii console. So, I thought I'd share my opinions on some of the titles we've rented and/or purchased.

First up:Splinter Cell: Double Agent. It's not a new release, but I just got around to renting it this weekend. Here are my thoughts....First/third person shooters have been a favorite of mine in the past, but I haven't really enjoyed modern-day releases from this genre because of the complexity of the controls that go along with them. Up-down-left-left-right button combos just irritate the heck out of me, which is why I'm not an X-Box or Playstation owner.

However, after ten minutes of playing Splinter Cell on the Wii, I was able to control my virtual soldier with relative ease... thanks to the functionality of the Wii-mote. I liked the way Ubisoft had mapped the game controls over to the Wii-mote. I didn't find it too difficult to learn and it wasn't long before I could focus my attention on the action, rather than the controls.

Camera controls were also done the way I like them to be done. Some games for the Wii force you to use the directional keypad to control the camera angles. But, in Splinter Cell, you pan the camera by pointing the Wii-mote at the TV screen, like a laser pointer. Metroid Prime 3 does this the same way and I think it's the best way to go. With the nunchuck thumbstick controlling the movements of the player, and the Wii-mote pointer controlling camera angles, moving about the game environment in Splinter Cell is very quick and fluid. Very handy when you're trying to avoid being seen by the baddies.

I thought that the sounds were done very well, however I did find the "action music" (which played when ever I had to drop someone) seemed a little too distracting. I found that it took me out of my element from time to time.

The only thing that I found most annoying were the "how-to" demos that appeared during most of the first mission. They were helpful, yes, but I was glad to see the last of them as I got further into the game.

As for the graphics, I thought they were done very well. Although the Wii doesn't have the processor power of the X-Box 360 or Playstation 3, Ubisoft seemed to compensate very well.

This isn't the sort of Wii game the family could play, but if you like a good spy story from time to time and you like games that make you think a little bit, Splinter Cell: Double Agent would probably be a good one to rent for the weekend. The Wii-mote makes learning the controls very easy and the story-line is involved enough that you'll have enough to keep you occupied for the weekend.

YouTube Game Demo ]]> David 2007-10-18T15:41:00-06:00 2007-10-18T15:41:00-06:00 tag:virtualthoughtsblog,2008:VirtualThoughts.36

I'm on week two with the new Mandriva OS and, I have to say, it's the best experience I've ever had with a PC. Mandriva 2008 has proved itself to be a fast, stable, robust and easy... really easy. I have it installed on my 1.8GHz laptop (with 512MB of RAM), as well as my wife's 1.2Ghz laptop (with 256MB of RAM) and it works like a dream on both machines.

Mandriva 2008 has proved itself to be a fast, stable, robust and easy... really easy. I have it installed on my 1.8GHz laptop (with 512MB of RAM), as well as my wife's 1.2Ghz laptop (with 256MB of RAM) and it works like a dream on both machines.Next, I'll be upgrading my Mandriva 2007 servers with it, but perhaps hold out until 2008.1, as I'll still be getting updates for 2007 until then.

I've been very impressed with Mandriva's implimentation of the Compiz/Fusion 3D desktop. It's stable and performs very well on both laptops. I was also impressed to see the Mandriva install wizard properly configure the laptop version of the kernel and implement the power-saving and hibernating features.

I have to applaude the Mandriva dev. team for the work they've done for this release. There's no other Linux OS that compares to what Mandriva have been able to accomplish. If you haven't tried using Mandriva 2008, you're really missing out on a wonderful computing experience. ]]> David 2007-10-08T19:39:00-06:00 2007-10-08T19:39:00-06:00 tag:virtualthoughtsblog,2008:VirtualThoughts.35

Wow, it's been a long time since I last posted. However, I don't think many people have noticed. What brought me back to my blog was that I wanted to pass along the news that Mandriva is about to release their new Linux operating system, Mandriva 2008.0! I've signed up to be one of their "official" seeders on Bittorrent, so this past weekend, we got advanced access to the torrent files so we can get ready for the official release in a couple of days.

Wow, it's been a long time since I last posted. However, I don't think many people have noticed.

What brought me back to my blog was that I wanted to pass along the news that Mandriva is about to release their new Linux operating system, Mandriva 2008.0! I've signed up to be one of their "official" seeders on Bittorrent, so this past weekend, we got advanced access to the torrent files so we can get ready for the official release in a couple of days.

---

You won't be surprised to read that I'm astounded by Mandriva's latest OS. They just keep getting better and better with every release. 2008.0 blows the doors off of every other operating system I've tried... not just Linux based OS's either.

The new Compiz is stable and faster than ever. I don't know what the folks over at Mandriva have done, but my Compiz enabled KDE desktop is "snappy", to say the least. There are also quite a few neat things you can do with Compiz. I don't know why OSs, like MS-Windows and Mac, need so much power to do the really basic things they do, while I can do so much on my Linux laptop with a mere 512MB of RAM.

Well, I guess I know why, really. Microsoft and Apple are crap. It's just that simple.

Anyway, back on the subject; Mandriva has also incorporated an option in the KDE menu launcher, allowing you to choose between the standard KDE nested menu system, or the new-style "Kickstart" (I believe it is called) menu system. You can see what it looks like by visiting my Flickr album link, appearing below.

They've also done some work on the Mandriva Control Center, which makes it even easier to use and have improved upon the URPMI package manager.

I could go on and on, but how about checking it out for yourself in a day or so. In the mean time, here's a LINK to my Flickr album, where I've posted a few screen pics for you to look at. ]]> David