A Map of the World's Undersea Internet Cables

I thought this was interesting. Click to enlarge!

Install Compiz-Fusion on Ubuntu

Seems a fellow Blogger has posted detailed instructions for installing Compiz-Fusion on Ubuntu for new Ubuntu users. I thought I would post a link to it since it seems pretty straightforward. As of Ubuntu 8.04, Compiz comes by default and is enabled if your correct graphic card drivers are installed. The only thing you need to do then is to install the Compiz Configuration Settings Manager.
Open a terminal and type:

   sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager

and it shall be installed. After that navigate to:

   System --> Preferences --> Advanced Desktop Effects Settings

and there you may enable/disable any plugin you want.

Heres the fellow Bloggers post on getting Compiz-Fusion installed:
http://puttabutta.blogspot.com/2007/06/how-exactly-to-get-compiz-fusion.html

Here's one I used with great success: http://kevin.vanzonneveld.net/techblog/article/enable_compizfusion_in_ubuntu_feisty/

and another to enable the effects and plugins: http://forlong.blogage.de/article/2007/8/29/How-to-set-up-Compiz-Fusion

You can learn about what Compiz-Fusion is, how it works and where it came from:
http://www.techenclave.com/open-source/compiz-fusion-an-unparalleled-3d-environment-114472.html

Terrifying Workplace Safety Commercial

This is a pretty terrifying and graphic Canadian commercial from the WSIB (Workplace Safety & Insurance Board) at Prevent-it.ca

My Nvidia 7600GT

Switching out my old video card ATI Radeon 9250, I am now using a new video card - NVidia GeForce 7600GT. Obviously, it's a step up from my ATI card and has really worked wonders. It will play any video or high graphic PC game I throw at it. It has Shader Model 3.0 support which makes graphics in computer games looking stunning. Most of the newer high-intense graphic games require Shader Model 3.0 support in DirectX. It also has High Definiton support and is SLI (Scan Line Interleaving) ready. This means if you have another identical card and if your computer motherboard has another PCI-e slot, you can connect them together using a little special cable. This will double your speed and performance of your existing graphic/video capability.

My ultimate reason for the upgrade was the lack of stability ATI has in Linux. I was having difficulty with compiling the ATI driver in the Linux kernel, among other things like getting Beryl to run. Now I'm using Compiz-Fusion in Ubuntu Linux, which is a nice Desktop Environment to show off to friends.

The card has 2 DVI out connections and 1 S-Video. I am using 1 of the DVI ports for my 19" LCD Monitor and using the S-Video out to run to my TV. This gives me a Dual-Monitor setup on my computer. In Linux, it is two seperate desktops (a desktop on my LCD monitor and a desktop on my TV). For example, I can browse the internet, check email and download music on my LCD monitor display, then at the same time, move my cursor off the screen to the desktop showing on my TV display, launch a movie in fullscreen and watch a movie on the couch. Hopefully soon, I will get a HDTV and ditch the S-Video and run out from the 2nd DVI port with a DVI-to-HDMI cable to the HDTV and watch some High-Def video from my PC's Hard Drive.