Mangler – A native Linux Ventrilo Client!
Mangler is an open source VOIP client capable of connecting to Ventrilo 3.x servers. It is capable of performing almost all standard user functionality found in a Windows Ventrilo client. Mangler is developed and maintained by Eric Kilfoil and Daniel Sloof. -mangler.org
In my experience, using Ventrilo on Linux (using Wine) has always been troublesome at best. Often I would have to resort to using hacked patches, or giving up some functionality just so I could use Ventrilo while raiding. Some newer versions would completely break functionality on Wine. This problem has all come to an end with the release of a fantastic new software called Mangler. It was released a month ago. It is a native Ventrilo client for Linux systems. I have used this software flawlessly for a few weeks now. I personally use this software while playing World of Warcraft on Wine. The interface is clean, and supports PTT functionality (both keyboard and mouse options). Mangler also claims to support both GSM and Speex codecs, thought I have only tested it with Speex. Mangler also supports individual user volume control. This is quite a list of functionality for a version 1.0. I consider this a must have piece of software if you need Ventrilo on a Linux system.
Adjust ATI Fan Speed in Ubuntu
I found this post hovering in my Drafts folder today, the blog post is old but the information still applies.
Currently ATI drivers do not have the ability to modify fan speeds from their GUI. Here is a quick and easy way to manually adjust fan speeds via Terminal. The commands below work with my ATI Radeon 4870 card, I would assume they will also work with any ATI card with a fan though. Note: ATI drivers from ATI website are required.
To check the temperature of your card:
aticonfig --adapter=0 --od-gettemperature
To change the fan speed:
aticonfig --pplib-cmd "set fanspeed 0 XX"
(Where the XX is replace it with the fan speed percentage)
Reduce WoW Latency in Windows 7
While playing World of Warcraft in Windows XP my average ping was between 80ms and 100ms. In Windows 7 my ping was averaging over 300ms most of the time. After applying the tweaks below my latency dropped to around 120ms, a little higher then I was experiencing in Windows XP, but a great improvement compared to what I was getting before in Windows 7.
Note, this tweak involves changing registry values. If you are not familiar with the registry, I would suggest not doing this tweak as it could cause your OS to become unbootable.
- Open Regedit
- Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces
- Find the interface folder that is currently in use. It will be the one that has an IPAddress and the most fields.
- Right click on the interface and choose New -> DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name it: “TcpAckFrequency”
- Right click on TcpAckFrequency, select modify and change the "0" value to "1".
- Right click on the interface and choose New -> DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name it: “TCPNoDelay”
- Right click on TCPNoDelay, select modify and change the "0" value to "1".
Restart your computer for changes to take effect. If all goes well, you should notice a lower latency while playing WoW.
iPhone Dev Tip – Determining Connection Type
I am working on an iPhone application that requires the ability to recognize which type of internet connection is currently being used (Wifi, 3G, Edge, etc). I found a simple way to check by using Apples Reachability sample code. There seems to be a shortage of information about this online, I hope this can help someone.
First copy Reachability.m/.h into your project and include #include "Reachability.h" into your class.
Reachability *reach = [[Reachability alloc]init];
if (reach.internetConnectionStatus == NotReachable) {
NSLog(@"No Connection Found");
} else if (reach.internetConnectionStatus == ReachableViaCarrierDataNetwork) {
NSLog(@"3G or Edge");
} else if (reach.internetConnectionStatus == ReachableViaWiFiNetwork) {
NSLog(@"Wifi Connection");
}
[reach release];
This code may not be the best way to accomplish this, but it appears to be the most simple approach.
iPhone Apps
I have had my iPhone for about three months now. The first few weeks I had my phone I found myself constantly trying new applications. I had a hard time decided which apps were the best. Now, three months after getting my phone, I have noticed that I rarely add new applications, I find myself more then often deleting unused apps. I am curious to see what others are using for their iPhone apps. I am sure there are some great apps out there that I missed!
Here is what I currently use:
The first page consists of the applications I tend to use on an almost daily basis. The usual culprits are here: Safari, Phone, Mail, App Store(Haven't used this much lately, but it still deserves a spot on the front page), Settings(Constantly turning on/off Wifi and other services. I wish Apple would have made it easier to enable or disable services on the fly), and Text. I use these mainly because there are limited other options to use without Jailbreaking my iPhone.
Three of my absolute favorite apps are on this page: Facebook, Stanza and Twitterfon apps. I use these three extensively on a near daily basis. The Facebook app is self explanatory, if you have a Facebook account you probably already have the iPhone Facebook app.
Twitterfon on the other hand took me a while to find. I originally started out with the free version of the Twitterific app. The ads got to me after a short while, so I switched over to Twinkle. I never cared for the layout of Twinkle, but it was ad-free and worked very well for a month or so until one of the updates caused the application to crash constantly. From a recommendation of someone on Twitter, I tried Twitterfon and never looked back. The layout of Twitterfon is perfect. It has every feature I need.
Stanza is the app that persuaded me not to buy an Amazon Kindle. The thing I absolutely LOVE about Stanza is that it has a desktop app that allows me to sync my current eBook collection on my computer with my iPhone. Other eBook readers I tried before Stanza would not allow this. They would only allow books to be purchased via the iPhone.
Lose It! is a calorie monitoring weight tracking app. I was a bit skeptical when I started using this app, but I have lost seven pounds using this app so far. I am on a <1900 calorie diet and it is really showing results. Lose It has a large library of different foods and their nutrition value. It takes seconds to look up. It was a real eye opener to see how some of my favorite foods are extremely high calories.
Shovel is the best application for Digg I have found. Digg is one of my favorite news websites. Shovel allows me to access Digg without going through Safari. My only complaint is I cannot 'Digg' articles through this app. Evidently the Digg API does not allow this. Weird huh?
The only game I have on my iPhone is iMob. I am not really sure if you can even consider it a game. It is more like a good way to waste five minutes. It does get addicting after a while though. If you also play iMob, feel free to add me: 148-152-001. I have yet to find any games that really have made me want to download them. Any suggestions?
Page two is a little less exciting then page one. These applications I use on a weekly/monthly basis. They are not used enough to warrant being put on the front page. The highlight of this page is Things. Things is a GTD app for the iPhone. I originally bought this app to manage my college homework and projects. I found it was too much of a hassle to add all my small assignments into Things. I chose to hang an eight foot whiteboard from my wall in my bedroom instead. While it may not be as organized as Things, it certainly gets the job done. I currently use Things for larger projects I have planned for We Know's website along with other larger college related projects I am working on. Things also has a OSX desktop app available that will sync with the Things app. The app is extremely simple to use and syncing is easy. if you are looking for a GTD app for the iPhone, I suggest taking a look at Things.
I currently have three World of Warcraft applications on this page. WarcraftStat shows the status of all realms. I find this app handy at times. I frequent this app on Tuesdays maintenance. I use WoWTalents when I have free time or when I am thinking about modifying my current talent tree. Characters is an app that pulls armory data for selected characters. It is a nice app to look up details on a character or multiple characters on the go.
I guess the proper name for page three would be the graveyard. These are applications I either cannot remove/hide(Thanks, Apple.) or hardly ever use. Not much to say about this page sadly.
Backgrounds is a neat little app, I like to change my unlock screen background every few weeks, or when I am feeling particularly bored. I suppose that is the only reason I keep the app on my phone.
Surprisingly, I have never used the Google app. My GMail account goes through Mail, I use iCal rather then Google Calender, etc etc... I keep it there because I know better then to under estimate Google. I am confident that one day I will need to use it.
I still carry my old 30g iPod with me, I only have a few audio books on my iPhone at the moment. I like keeping my music and phone separate.
There is a look at my iPhone. What applications do you use on a daily or weekly basis?
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