Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Warcraft III Frozen Throne on Ubuntu 7.10

*** UPDATE ***
Unfortunately, multi-player is broken in wine version 0.9.46, and the whole game is broken in 0.9.55. Version 0.9.51 works but hosting is broken, only joining games is possible. Alternatively, use 0.9.45 as suggested by this ArchWiki site.
**************

Since Ubuntu 6.06, I have been able to play Defense of the Ancients in Linux with the support of the WINE compatibility layer. Recently I have decided to get Warcraft III working on 7.10 as well. The steps are simple. First, install WINE using Synaptic as shown below.

The version at the time of my installation is wine-0.9.46. Then set the settings for video and audio using the wine configuration tool. The settings I used are shown below.

Then, create a launcher on the panel. Note that the -opengl option should be used as shown in my configuration below. Also, I am using a NO-CD exe (alternatively, the latest update for Frozen Throne does not require the CD or so I read somewhere online). Since I cannot find a Frozen Throne icon online, I decided to use the one for World of Warcraft available here.

That's it! Now I can play DotA!

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Happy New Year


Here is to wishing everyone a happy and prosperous lunar new year of the rat!

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Interesting Quote

An interesting statement I heard from someone that in turn heard from someone else,

Never argue with irrational people as they will first bring you to their level, then beat you with experience.

Melbourne, Second Week - Night View of City


To read the first post in this series click here.
To read the previous related post click here.

14 Jan 08 -- 18 Jan 08

The last week of work kept me busy with pretty much no time to do any site seeing. Most of the week's highlights were dinner. On the last night, I decided to go take some evening and night pictures around the city.

KFC
Monday's Dinner. Some KFC wrap.

Fish and Chips at the Corkman
Tuesday's Dinner, Fish and Chips at the Corkman. I think it was 12 AU.

Corkman
Wednesday, back at the Corkman.

steak
300g Steak and all these for just 14.50 AU.

central business district
Walking in the CBD. It is summer. I have to wait till about 9:30pm to take night shots!

Flinders Street Station
Flinders Street Station at sunset, it looks even better at night with the lighting (see below)

Church opposite Flinders Street Station
Some church opposite the station

Yarra River bridge
A bridge across the Yarra River to South Gate (some place with restaurants)

melbourne skyline
Skyline at sunset. It is still not dark!

melbourne migrant statistics bridge
melbourne migrant statistics bridge
melbourne migrant statistics bridge
melbourne migrant statistics bridge
This bridge had statistics of all the migrants to Victoria, Australia

melbourne nightscene
melbourne nightscene
It is getting darker

Crown Casino
Crown Casino

Skyline with Flinders Street Station in the foreground
Skyline with Flinders Street Station in the foreground
Finally the sun is gone! Skyline with Flinders Street Station in the foreground.

Ferris Wheel, Yarra River
Ferris Wheel, Yarra River

Ferris Wheel

swans, yarra river
Suddenly I heard something coming out of the water. It's a family of black swans. The little ones tried to scare me off.

arts center
The Arts Center

yarra river
Last take of the river view. Time to walk back

Flinders Street Station at night
Flinders Street Station on my way back

tram
I decided to tram back

memorial park
Some memorial at a park on the way back

the corkman
Last stop-by at the Corkman

guiness, the corkman
*Slurp*

the corkman
Spot anything interesting?

the corkman
Cigarette Dispenser

melbourne
Back at work the next day, leaving at lunchtime

melbourne international airport
Waiting for my flight


Check out the technology used to load the aircraft

SIA food
Haven't had curry in a long while!

SIA food
Snack

The flight back was much better. The entertainment system had video on demand. Hence I spent the entire flight sipping wine and watching movies like Balls of Fury, and some others that I cannot remember. However I did remember "The Brave One" starring Jodie Foster that I did not manage to complete before touch down. It was so boring, I was glad I did not spend to watch it on the big screen. Thus ends my two weeks in Melbourne. Nice.

Return to first post and index here.

Sunday, February 3, 2008

Great Ocean Road - 12 Apostles

To view the first post in this series click here.
To view the previous related post click here.

13 Jan 08

Woke up early in the morning at around 6:30am. Having gone to bed at 1am last night, it was awful not to be able to have a nice long snooze on Sunday. I quickly gathered my things and headed out to the pick up point at 7:15am for my second day trip of the weekend to the Great Ocean Road in Victoria. Sure enough the mini-bus arrived promptly and after picking up the other passengers, off I was to the road.

Bell's beach
The first stop past the city of Geelong was Bell's beach; it is supposed to be famous for surfing


Ah a first look at the Ocean

surfer, Bell's beach
A surfer

great ocean road
The start of the Great Ocean Road

great ocean road writeup
It was built so that the soldiers returning from WWI had a job to keep their minds busy. The idea was to rival a similar road in California.

beach, great ocean road
Another beach, the sky was overcast with clouds. It looks relaxing to fish and have a drink here.

Angelsea
We arrived a town for breakfast, I think it is Angelsea.

Angelsea beach
Beaches with nice sand are everywhere.

Angelsea surfers
More surfers

Angelsea panaroma Panorama of the beach

lookout point
Looking out over a headland at one of the many look out points along the Great Ocean Road

Kennet River tourist park

Kennet River tourist park, where we hope to catch a glimpse of some Koalas in the wild

Kennet River tourist park koala
Ahah! Found one!


great ocean road trip
Scenic shots taken from the bus as we traveled along the road

Apollo Bay
We stopped for lunch at another town, I think it is Apollo Bay

Apollo Bay
The canned drinks here are all 375ml

Apollo Bay, smpled salmon sandwich
A smoked salmon sandwich with raw bean sprouts (yes yucks!), somehow as a whole, the sandwich tasted quite alright.



Every town here has a beautiful beach

great ocean road seagulls
Seagulls slacking off

After lunch, we headed off the costal region into the forested region of the great ocean road. The sun was beginning to peek out over the clouds much to my delight. That was goodbye to the beautiful beaches. What awaits is a rainforest and the final destination -- a part of the road that is along some scenic cliffs.

rainforest trail, carnivorous snails
A short rainforest trail, hmmm... carnivorous snails...

rainforest trail, old trees
Old trees with large holes at the bottom; some trees were over a hundred years old.


There isn't that much undergrowth here

ferns
Huge ferns are commonplace

tree hole
Some of these holes are so large, one can actually sleep in them.

tree hole
Another large hole blocked up


The hole was part of this dead tree that may collapse at any moment

near 12 Apostles
We are nearing the 12 Apostles, where the ocean has eroded the cliffs to give rise to scenic land forms.

12 Apostles
This is what I woke up early for

flora
Some flora

warning
Always stick to the path!

12 Apostles

A few of them apostles, unfortunately the sun was not in my favour


Great Ocean Road
The vast ocean

cliffs
The cliffs here are constantly assaulted at the base by the ocean



12 Apostles
More scenic shots


One wonders what would happen to the people there if this cliff suddenly collapses.

A friend of mine decided to take a helicopter ride over the twelve apostles. Since his camera battery was almost used up I lent him my camera to capture some aerial shots.

aerial photo, 12 Apostles



Aerial shots give a good overview of the land forms in this area.


A short video clip from the helicopter

Next, we left this section and headed towards the other sections of the park. One of those sections has a land form called the "London Bridge". The ocean had eroded two arch ways in the cliffs giving rise to the shape of a bridge. According to the guide, a few years ago, one arch collapsed (hence "London Bridge") and a couple was stranded on the other arch. After they were rescued by helicopter they avoided the media much to everyone's surprise. It turns out that they were actually having an extra-marital affair on the bridge.

great ocean road trip
Other scenic views

The Razor
Razor, victoria
This is the "Razor"

arch
An arch way

London Bridge, victoria
London Bridge, victoria
London Bridge fell down! Hey isn't "falling down" bad English?

great ocean road trip
Alas! It is time to go, but before that, dinner!

red rooster
Indigenous fast food

red rooster
It actually looks better than it tastes

red rooster
Why red?

The Melbourne Skyline
The Melbourne Skyline


Time to drop off a bus load of people. As per yesterday, I am the last to go again.

Reached Melbourne at about 8pm. This was certainly one of the most tiring weekends. At 95 AU for this trip from Go West Tours, I would recommend it for those that like scenic trips. That was about all the trips I will be making until I leave on the coming Friday after another week of work.

Read about the next related post here.

Return to the trip index here.