The great British take-away! OK, so we know that take-aways aren't exactly the healthy option, but every now and then the temptation is too great and a pizza is the only cure.
Being a child of the internet age (well, second childhood anyway) I rather like being able to order and pay for my takeaways online rather than having to hunt out menus, phone the restaurant (how old-fashioned!) and hope that I've got enough cash on me to pay for it.
Dominoes Pizza used to be my online take-away of choice, although at the time it was a choice of one. Now, however many companies are vying for our online orders. So alongside established regulars like Dominoes and Pizza Hut (which sadly doesn't deliver to where I live) are newcomers Just-Eat.
The Just-Eat service doesn't just provide pizzas. They provide online services for existing local take-away restaurants, so depending on where in the country you live they may provide links to Kebab Shops, Indian Restaurants, Chinese Takeaways or Fish and Chip shops. A copy of the restaurants menu is provided online, and you place the order over the web.
If you aren't sure about paying upfront for your meal then you can also choose to pay cash-on-delivery. After placing the order you'll receive an e-mail confirmation of the order, as well as an order number and an estimated delivery time (around 45 minutes for our local take-away).
I've used this service a few times in the past couple of months, and generally speaking it has worked well, with the food arriving within the estimated time.
Last night, however, things didn't go as smoothly. After placing the order, paying for it, and receiving the e-mail confirmation I sat down to watch TV, safe in the knowledge that some take-away treats were winging their way towards me. This was at 9.25pm. The estimated delivery time was 10:05pm.
Time passes. So does the delivery deadline.
More time passes. By 10:30pm I was getting a bit concerned. But, as it was a Friday night maybe they were busy. Patience is a virtue.
Even more time passes. By 10.45pm patience may be a virtue, but starvation was a distinct possibility. At this point I gave in and phoned the restaurant to check on the order.
"Ah, erm, we haven't had any internet orders."
After a short discussion the restaurant's manager (and even though this wasn't their fault) they re-took the order, sent it out to me, and even though they couldn't get in touch with anyone at Just-Eat to double-check it, they sent me my meal without charging me a second time for it.
The manager even phoned me back to apologise about it, and to let me know that the couldn't reach anyone at Just-Eat regarding this.
As Just-Eat do have a complaints procedure I filled in a complaints form and submitted it.
This is the confirmation that you receive:
Your query message has been sent to Just-Eat.co.uk!
Our Customer Care personel will look into your query as soon as possible and get back to you with a reply at the earliest possible time. Usually this happens within 10-20 minutes. Please note that during busy hours reply can take longer.
Thank you for contacting us!
Can take longer? I'm still waiting for any contact from them (as a side note - I suppose I should be worried about the spelling mistakes on the website. Can you spot the one in the above message which was copied directly from their site?).
The meal finally arrived at 11:25pm - two hours after ordering, and an hour and a quarter after the estimated delivery time. I've got to admit that by the time I received it I didn't really want it any more, but as I couldn't get in touch with anyone at Just-Eat, canceling the order wasn't an option.
Checking through their website it appears that their customer service stops at 10pm. This is a bit of a problem for take-aways, as they tend to deliver through to the early hours of the morning. So if you do have any problems "out of hours" as it were, then forget any help from their customer services. They've already gone home. Presumably picking up a take-away en-route rather than trusting to their online ordering service.
Next time I feel a bit peckish on an evening I think I'll just make a sandwich. It'll be healthier, cheaper, and I'll get the damn thing when I want it rather than a couple of hours later.
Saturday 31 May 2008
Wednesday 28 May 2008
Arcadia - Test 4 coming soon
As I said in my previous post I'm updating and polishing some of my existing games before moving on to the new stuff, and Arcadia is the second game to get the treatment.
I've had a lot more to do here to get the code up to scratch, but now there are separate Windows and Linux releases of the game (rather than two binaries in one archive), all the graphics are embedded into the game, the joystick code has been updated to include a "deadzone" (required for some analogue joypads), separate DirectX and OpenGL modes for Windows and some other bug fixes and code cleanups.
All in all the game isn't in too bad a shape now, so once I've compiled the Windows and MacOS X versions (and uploaded them onto the site) then it'll be on to the next target: RetroVaders.
I've had a lot more to do here to get the code up to scratch, but now there are separate Windows and Linux releases of the game (rather than two binaries in one archive), all the graphics are embedded into the game, the joystick code has been updated to include a "deadzone" (required for some analogue joypads), separate DirectX and OpenGL modes for Windows and some other bug fixes and code cleanups.
All in all the game isn't in too bad a shape now, so once I've compiled the Windows and MacOS X versions (and uploaded them onto the site) then it'll be on to the next target: RetroVaders.
Tuesday 27 May 2008
Dan's Remakes - May Update
After a quiet couple of months on the remakes front I'm back in business.
There have been a couple of issues that I've been wanting to resolve before moving on with newer stuff, one relating to Windows, the other to Windows and Linux.
The main one with Windows is to do with BlitzMax and they way it works (or fails to) with some graphics cards. The method I'd been trying of autodetecting what display mode should work (DirectX or OpenGL) doesn't always work - sometimes leaving you with a black screen.
I didn't want to have to go back to having two binaries for Windows, so I've set RetroRoids up to accept command-line parameters to force it to use one method or the other. I've also used an MSI installer package to distribute the game, which includes shortcuts for both modes (and for the readme).
Hopefully that should sort things out permanently for Windows.
The other issue relates to packing games. If RetroRoids is going to work for regular users when installed then the configuration file needs to be written somewhere other than the install directory. This is true on Windows as well as on Linux. So the other change is for the configuration files to be written into the users home directory / user profile.
Now that this is sorted I'll be putting some effort into trying to provide Debian / Ubuntu packages of my games.
There have been a couple of issues that I've been wanting to resolve before moving on with newer stuff, one relating to Windows, the other to Windows and Linux.
The main one with Windows is to do with BlitzMax and they way it works (or fails to) with some graphics cards. The method I'd been trying of autodetecting what display mode should work (DirectX or OpenGL) doesn't always work - sometimes leaving you with a black screen.
I didn't want to have to go back to having two binaries for Windows, so I've set RetroRoids up to accept command-line parameters to force it to use one method or the other. I've also used an MSI installer package to distribute the game, which includes shortcuts for both modes (and for the readme).
Hopefully that should sort things out permanently for Windows.
The other issue relates to packing games. If RetroRoids is going to work for regular users when installed then the configuration file needs to be written somewhere other than the install directory. This is true on Windows as well as on Linux. So the other change is for the configuration files to be written into the users home directory / user profile.
Now that this is sorted I'll be putting some effort into trying to provide Debian / Ubuntu packages of my games.
Wednesday 21 May 2008
On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness - Episode 1
I've made no secret of the fact that I use Linux as my OS of choice on my home PC. For me it does what I need, and doesn't get in my way. The only disadvantage I've found is that there is a severe lack of games available, so when a new game supports Linux it tends to be a newsworthy event.
Today is such an event.
I'm sure you've heard of Penny-Arcade. If not then may I say welcome to our planet, and I hope the cave you were living in was pleasant. It has been no secret that they were developing a game, but what was less well known was what systems it would be released on.
Windows, MacOS, XBox Live and. . . . . . Linux.
Damn it, they are supporting us! Bless their black and jaded hearts they are supporting us!
Download the demo here and see what you think.
Today is such an event.
I'm sure you've heard of Penny-Arcade. If not then may I say welcome to our planet, and I hope the cave you were living in was pleasant. It has been no secret that they were developing a game, but what was less well known was what systems it would be released on.
Windows, MacOS, XBox Live and. . . . . . Linux.
Damn it, they are supporting us! Bless their black and jaded hearts they are supporting us!
Download the demo here and see what you think.
Monday 12 May 2008
Ubuntu vs XP - Old Hardware Shootout
Now that I've upgraded the hard drive in my testbed laptop it is time to do a re-install to get things back to the way I want them.
Seeing as I'm setting up the laptop for Dual Booting, this is a good chance to compare the "out of the box" settings for Windows XP versus Ubuntu 7.10.
"But Windows XP is old hat now!" I hear you cry. Well, not so. In fact Microsoft are targeting XP on the new low-spec laptops such as the Asus Eee PC, system specs that aren't a million miles away from my test laptop.
System spec: Toshiba Satellite Pro 2600 @800mhz, 256meg ram, 40gb hd, 1024x768 lcd display, built-in wireless.
Working hard drive transferred from older PC
OK, so this isn't something that the regular user is going to do very often, but sometimes if you are upgrading your hardware moving the OS may be something you need to do.
In my case a hard drive was taken from a working dual-booting laptop, which had been set to boot between Windows XP Service Pack 2 and FreeSpire.
On booting the disk on the new PC, FreeSpire autodetected all the new hardware including the on-board wireless card, the higher-resolution screen and sound. Even the new wireless network card auto-connected to my home network.
Windows XP refused to boot. Not even into Safe Mode.
Winner: Linux
Installing a Dual Boot system from scratch
If you do want a dual boot system then the easiest way to do so is to install XP first, making sure that you size your Windows partition to leave enough space to install Linux. In my case I'm dedicating 15GB to Windows XP and the remainder of the 40GB drive to Ubuntu.
Installing XP is a breeze, boot from the CD, follow the prompts and an hour or so later we have a working version of XP. Surprisingly XP actually detected all the hardware. Usually this isn't the case, but here I've been really lucky. Everything including the on-board 3D, built-in wireless card and sound works perfectly.
Ubuntu is installed next. Again, installation is a piece of cake and took a similar amount of time. Ubuntu detected the Windows install and added it into the boot menu. All the hardware except for the 3D card worked perfectly. Accelerated 2D is supported on Linux for the onboard graphics, but no 3D support. Sound and wireless worked perfectly. Even the onboard modem Toshiba Soft-Modem was detected and worked. Ubuntu also mounted the XP partition at login.
Winner: Windows XP
Security
Windows XP Pro makes the first created user account a full administrator. This account has full control over the system. The Windows XP firewall is automatically installed and active. Windows also gives warnings relating to missing AV software.
The first created account in Ubuntu is given regular user access, but can perform administrative tasks by re-entering your password. A firewall is available (it is part of the Kernel) but not configured. GUI front ends for the firewall can be installed via the package manager. Generally speaking AV software is not required but can also be installed in the same way.
Pro's and cons on both sides here (although personally I'd edge towards Linux).
Winner: Draw
OS Updates
For OS updates both Windows XP and Ubuntu performed identically, both allow you to either have notifications, download ready for install, or automatic install of updates.
Windows Update now allows updates for some Microsoft products, such as Office. Ubuntu allows updates for all software packages that have been installed via its package manager.
Ubuntu also allows a complete distribution upgrade via the package manager, so if you've installed Ubuntu 7.10 upgrading to 8.04 is a simple task.
Winner: Linux
Wireless Support
Both XP and Ubuntu were identical in network support. Both were able to connect to my home wireless point, both were able to browse the network from the GUI, both saved the network password and auto-connected every time after.
Winner: Draw
Power Saving support
This is another case where both OS's were identical. Both support suspend to RAM, both support full hibernation. The CPU's speed-step facilities were supported on both. Soft power-down worked identically.
Winner: Draw
Internet / Email support
Both OS's come with web browsers, both support install of Flash Player via the browser.
Both can connect to a variety of instant messenging services.
Both come with email packages (although the Linux one has more features).
Winner: Draw
Multimedia Support
First with Windows we have Media Player. Browsing to my videos share I chose a couple of videos using a variety of codecs (XVid / DivX, Ogg). On each occasion Media Player gave the message that it was searching for the codec, before giving up and failing to play. After manually searching for codecs on the internet and running the installers most videos were able to play. MP3 support was there out of the box.
Ubuntu defaults to Totem for its media player. On trying the first video (which used XVid) Totem gives the message that it is searching for the required codecs, launches the installer, allows you to choose three sets of codec packages, installs them and plays the video. After the initial codec install all other videos played without any problems. MP3 support was added the same way.
Winner: Linux
Software Installation
On Windows you'll need to download and run installers for any apps you require. There is a good selection of commercial apps, and many FOSS (Free Open Source Software) apps are available for Windows.
Ubuntu has less commercial software available, but a wealth of FOSS applications, many of which can be downloaded, installed and upgraded through Ubuntu's package management tools.
If you want to use FOSS software and would like proper package management then Ubuntu wins. If, on the other hand, you want to use commercial software (and the majority of games) but have no real package management then go for Windows XP.
Winner: Draw
Overall Winner: Linux
OK, so a lot of this is down to personal opinion. Both systems work equally well for many tasks, both can give a good user experience. Ubuntu wins out on ease of use, especially when it comes to multimedia functions. Windows XP wins for choice of commercial software (especially games).
On low end hardware though Ubuntu does give a more up-to-date user experience, and comes with a full range of productivity / entertainment software, something that Windows XP will never be able to match.
I was very lucky that Windows XP detected all the hardware. It's been my experience that this usually doesn't happen. Normally you would need to install at least some separate drivers (although usually driver CDs are provided). Increasingly Linux works "out of the box."
Seeing as I'm setting up the laptop for Dual Booting, this is a good chance to compare the "out of the box" settings for Windows XP versus Ubuntu 7.10.
"But Windows XP is old hat now!" I hear you cry. Well, not so. In fact Microsoft are targeting XP on the new low-spec laptops such as the Asus Eee PC, system specs that aren't a million miles away from my test laptop.
System spec: Toshiba Satellite Pro 2600 @800mhz, 256meg ram, 40gb hd, 1024x768 lcd display, built-in wireless.
Working hard drive transferred from older PC
OK, so this isn't something that the regular user is going to do very often, but sometimes if you are upgrading your hardware moving the OS may be something you need to do.
In my case a hard drive was taken from a working dual-booting laptop, which had been set to boot between Windows XP Service Pack 2 and FreeSpire.
On booting the disk on the new PC, FreeSpire autodetected all the new hardware including the on-board wireless card, the higher-resolution screen and sound. Even the new wireless network card auto-connected to my home network.
Windows XP refused to boot. Not even into Safe Mode.
Winner: Linux
Installing a Dual Boot system from scratch
If you do want a dual boot system then the easiest way to do so is to install XP first, making sure that you size your Windows partition to leave enough space to install Linux. In my case I'm dedicating 15GB to Windows XP and the remainder of the 40GB drive to Ubuntu.
Installing XP is a breeze, boot from the CD, follow the prompts and an hour or so later we have a working version of XP. Surprisingly XP actually detected all the hardware. Usually this isn't the case, but here I've been really lucky. Everything including the on-board 3D, built-in wireless card and sound works perfectly.
Ubuntu is installed next. Again, installation is a piece of cake and took a similar amount of time. Ubuntu detected the Windows install and added it into the boot menu. All the hardware except for the 3D card worked perfectly. Accelerated 2D is supported on Linux for the onboard graphics, but no 3D support. Sound and wireless worked perfectly. Even the onboard modem Toshiba Soft-Modem was detected and worked. Ubuntu also mounted the XP partition at login.
Winner: Windows XP
Security
Windows XP Pro makes the first created user account a full administrator. This account has full control over the system. The Windows XP firewall is automatically installed and active. Windows also gives warnings relating to missing AV software.
The first created account in Ubuntu is given regular user access, but can perform administrative tasks by re-entering your password. A firewall is available (it is part of the Kernel) but not configured. GUI front ends for the firewall can be installed via the package manager. Generally speaking AV software is not required but can also be installed in the same way.
Pro's and cons on both sides here (although personally I'd edge towards Linux).
Winner: Draw
OS Updates
For OS updates both Windows XP and Ubuntu performed identically, both allow you to either have notifications, download ready for install, or automatic install of updates.
Windows Update now allows updates for some Microsoft products, such as Office. Ubuntu allows updates for all software packages that have been installed via its package manager.
Ubuntu also allows a complete distribution upgrade via the package manager, so if you've installed Ubuntu 7.10 upgrading to 8.04 is a simple task.
Winner: Linux
Wireless Support
Both XP and Ubuntu were identical in network support. Both were able to connect to my home wireless point, both were able to browse the network from the GUI, both saved the network password and auto-connected every time after.
Winner: Draw
Power Saving support
This is another case where both OS's were identical. Both support suspend to RAM, both support full hibernation. The CPU's speed-step facilities were supported on both. Soft power-down worked identically.
Winner: Draw
Internet / Email support
Both OS's come with web browsers, both support install of Flash Player via the browser.
Both can connect to a variety of instant messenging services.
Both come with email packages (although the Linux one has more features).
Winner: Draw
Multimedia Support
First with Windows we have Media Player. Browsing to my videos share I chose a couple of videos using a variety of codecs (XVid / DivX, Ogg). On each occasion Media Player gave the message that it was searching for the codec, before giving up and failing to play. After manually searching for codecs on the internet and running the installers most videos were able to play. MP3 support was there out of the box.
Ubuntu defaults to Totem for its media player. On trying the first video (which used XVid) Totem gives the message that it is searching for the required codecs, launches the installer, allows you to choose three sets of codec packages, installs them and plays the video. After the initial codec install all other videos played without any problems. MP3 support was added the same way.
Winner: Linux
Software Installation
On Windows you'll need to download and run installers for any apps you require. There is a good selection of commercial apps, and many FOSS (Free Open Source Software) apps are available for Windows.
Ubuntu has less commercial software available, but a wealth of FOSS applications, many of which can be downloaded, installed and upgraded through Ubuntu's package management tools.
If you want to use FOSS software and would like proper package management then Ubuntu wins. If, on the other hand, you want to use commercial software (and the majority of games) but have no real package management then go for Windows XP.
Winner: Draw
Overall Winner: Linux
OK, so a lot of this is down to personal opinion. Both systems work equally well for many tasks, both can give a good user experience. Ubuntu wins out on ease of use, especially when it comes to multimedia functions. Windows XP wins for choice of commercial software (especially games).
On low end hardware though Ubuntu does give a more up-to-date user experience, and comes with a full range of productivity / entertainment software, something that Windows XP will never be able to match.
I was very lucky that Windows XP detected all the hardware. It's been my experience that this usually doesn't happen. Normally you would need to install at least some separate drivers (although usually driver CDs are provided). Increasingly Linux works "out of the box."
Saturday 10 May 2008
Random stuff from my week
This has been quite a busy week, both at work and at home. Having to children at home keeps you busy at the best of times, starting to prepare for the new baby (due date October 21 folks!) is keeping us in a permanent state of panic.
Work has been busier than usual. Last week was spent on a fast-track Windows Server 2003 Active Directory Planning, Implementing and Maintaining course (Microsoft 2279B and 2282A). Since I've spent the last year or so battling with our current AD setup most of this was pretty familiar, but it is nice to get an insight into the less well used aspects of AD, and also to see the new features for AD 2003. Now all that remains it to persuade my boss to buy the licenses to upgrade our AD controllers to Windows Server 2003.
This week has been varied at work (to say the least). We had a major crash on our main editorial server (running on Solaris) that took a little while to sort out. The problem looks like it was either caused by the network card or by some corruption in the /devs directory. Either way the outcome was the same - neither of the network cards would start on boot-up. After removing and re-seating the gigabit card I was able to start it manually.
After trying quite a few alternatives (checking the network and so forth) we did a "boot -r" to recreate the device nodes, followed by another reboot which got everything up and running again.
This was followed by spending some time upgrading our backup Editorial server to give it enough disk space to adequately hold a copy of our editorial data. Finding out how to get the extra disks added to the A1000 controller was fun, to say the least. To cut that story short you need to be running Array Manager 6.22.1 to get it to run on Solaris 8. A word of warning - don't be tempted to install an earlier version. I did, and had one hell of a time getting access back to the existing raid arrays.
Luckily for me Sun still provides downloads of Array Manager 6.22.1 as well as some decent documentation on installing and running it.
One problem I did encounter is that once we had installed the new disks, created a new LUN and a raid 5 stipe set (with one disk left over for a hot spare) we couldn't create a file system on the disks. In fact we kept getting the error that the disk geometry was unrecognised.
Running format against the new disk set provided the fix for this - the labels on the newly added disks were incorrect. Once they had been re-labeled by format it was a simple task to create the new file system and migrate over the old data from the old disk to the new one.
To top off the week was my yearly assessment. A couple of hours of being told how wonderful I am by my manager is great. Now about that pay rise. . . . . .
. . . . .
To finish off with I've just got round to upgrading the hard disk on my current test laptop. It has a 15gb drive, but I wanted to use the 40gb one from my previous tester. Swapping the drives is the work of a few minutes. How about re-installing the OS?
The original machine dual booted between Windows XP and FreeSpire, the current one was just using Ubuntu. Booting up the new laptop was great. FreeSpire autodetected all the new hardware, went straight into X, started the onboard wireless and connected to my network. Amount of reconfiguring to do - none. Everything works perfectly and at the higher resolution that the new laptop supports.
Now for Windows XP. The story here is not so good. Windows "Blue Screens" about two seconds into the boot process. It won't go into safe mode either.
I'll have to decide whether XP goes back on when I re-format to put back on Ubuntu.
Work has been busier than usual. Last week was spent on a fast-track Windows Server 2003 Active Directory Planning, Implementing and Maintaining course (Microsoft 2279B and 2282A). Since I've spent the last year or so battling with our current AD setup most of this was pretty familiar, but it is nice to get an insight into the less well used aspects of AD, and also to see the new features for AD 2003. Now all that remains it to persuade my boss to buy the licenses to upgrade our AD controllers to Windows Server 2003.
This week has been varied at work (to say the least). We had a major crash on our main editorial server (running on Solaris) that took a little while to sort out. The problem looks like it was either caused by the network card or by some corruption in the /devs directory. Either way the outcome was the same - neither of the network cards would start on boot-up. After removing and re-seating the gigabit card I was able to start it manually.
After trying quite a few alternatives (checking the network and so forth) we did a "boot -r" to recreate the device nodes, followed by another reboot which got everything up and running again.
This was followed by spending some time upgrading our backup Editorial server to give it enough disk space to adequately hold a copy of our editorial data. Finding out how to get the extra disks added to the A1000 controller was fun, to say the least. To cut that story short you need to be running Array Manager 6.22.1 to get it to run on Solaris 8. A word of warning - don't be tempted to install an earlier version. I did, and had one hell of a time getting access back to the existing raid arrays.
Luckily for me Sun still provides downloads of Array Manager 6.22.1 as well as some decent documentation on installing and running it.
One problem I did encounter is that once we had installed the new disks, created a new LUN and a raid 5 stipe set (with one disk left over for a hot spare) we couldn't create a file system on the disks. In fact we kept getting the error that the disk geometry was unrecognised.
Running format against the new disk set provided the fix for this - the labels on the newly added disks were incorrect. Once they had been re-labeled by format it was a simple task to create the new file system and migrate over the old data from the old disk to the new one.
To top off the week was my yearly assessment. A couple of hours of being told how wonderful I am by my manager is great. Now about that pay rise. . . . . .
. . . . .
To finish off with I've just got round to upgrading the hard disk on my current test laptop. It has a 15gb drive, but I wanted to use the 40gb one from my previous tester. Swapping the drives is the work of a few minutes. How about re-installing the OS?
The original machine dual booted between Windows XP and FreeSpire, the current one was just using Ubuntu. Booting up the new laptop was great. FreeSpire autodetected all the new hardware, went straight into X, started the onboard wireless and connected to my network. Amount of reconfiguring to do - none. Everything works perfectly and at the higher resolution that the new laptop supports.
Now for Windows XP. The story here is not so good. Windows "Blue Screens" about two seconds into the boot process. It won't go into safe mode either.
I'll have to decide whether XP goes back on when I re-format to put back on Ubuntu.
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