Eve-Online is one of the only games I still play on a regular base … and now I’m kinda excited for what’s to come. The all new Eve-Online expansion is set for December 5th 2007. This is one of their biggest expansions as it features a whole new graphics engine. Spectacular effects and a lot of bling bling will fill the game. It will be a huge advancement, as you can see for yourself:

[QUICKTIME http://blog.amidala.be/vids/trinity.mov 420 240]

CCP made my day. They have released the client for Mac and Linux. I don’t know when it has been released and the fact that they haven’t announced it yet scares me a bit. On the other hand it’s an official download so I guess it’s meant to be quite stable. I haven’t had the chance to test the Linux client, but I downloaded the Mac client right away and it worked like a charm. It’s fast (same speeds as on windows), the starmap works, there’s sound … and I don’t have to emulate or change to windows any more. Thumbs up for CCP … got to make another patrol run now! Dearaek out!

Update: announcements have been made: patch update - news update (you have to be logged in for this one)

System requirements:

Cedega:

Minimum System Requirements:
OS: Ubuntu 7+, Suse 10+, Linspire 6
CPU: CPU speed equal to or greater than 1.8 GHz Centrino
RAM: 1024 MB
HD space: 6 GB
Video: NVidia 6600, ATI is not supported.

Recommended system configuration for running EVE Online:
OS: Ubuntu 7+, Suse 10+, Linspire 6
CPU: 2 GHz
RAM: 2 GB
HD space: 6 GB
Video: Nvidia 7600 or later, ATI is not supported.

Cider:

Minimal system requirements
OS: OS X 10.4.9 or later.
CPU: Intel based computer with CPU speed equal or greater than 1.8 GHz , the client does not run on a PPC.
Video: ATI X1600 or NVidia 7300
RAM: 1024 MB or more
HD space: 6 GB

Recommended system configuration for running EVE Online:
OS: OS X 10.4.9 or later
CPU: Intel based CPU 2 GHz or better, the client does not run on a PPC.
Video: ATI X1900 or Nvidia 7600
RAM: 2 GB
HD space: 6 GB

They must be kidding me at Apple?
People who bought their mac ON or AFTER october 1st will receive their copy of Leopard at the price of the shipping cost, being about 10$.
I bought my Mac Mini … yes … the 26th of september (that’s exactly 1 month prior to the launch, but at that time the date wasn’t public yet). I was hoping to find a voucher or something in the box but had no luck at that. No, it seems I’m not only out of luck but also get punished for being an early buyer!
Nonetheless I’ll send them a mail and ask, or beg (yes I already sold my soul to Apple) why they just don’t make this offer valid for all their new models. I’ll keep you all posted on this!

For the dutch people who want to read the full offer: the webpage.

transposia, publisher of some nice kiddy games like Pajama Sam, Freddie Fish, … has always been one of my favourite publisher for this category of software. I was even more surprised when I noticed the text on the cd’s: “Windows & Macintosh CD-Rom”. Wow nice … now my kids can play their favourite games even on the mac … pause … NOT!!!
Mac is supported only up to version 8.x, for the later versions you need to install a patch before it will work.
Ok, now I could live with this solutions , except … the patch doesn’t work for version 10.3 and up. How lame is that! And the following pseudo solution is even more adorable!

“Opm: Deze patch werkt op alle Mac OS 9 systemen en op alle Mac OS 10.0 (Cheetah), Mac OS 10.1 (Puma) en Mac OS 10.2 (Jaguar) systemen. Jammer genoeg werkt deze patch niet meer vanaf het besturingssysteem Mac OS 10.3 (Panther), dus ook niet op Mac Mac OS 10.4 (Tiger) en Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard) systemen. De enige oplossing om één van bovenstaande spelletjes op zo’n systeem te laten werken is om een dual boot op te zetten met een Mac OS waar het spelletje wél op draait.”

Translated this says: “if you want to play on a 10.3 or higher system you should install a dual boot system, with a MAC OS that does support the version”. Hahaha, yeah right … thanks very much transposia …you just lost 3 points and a capital!

The migration from Windows to OSX is going rather well. Everything works the way I like and sometimes even better. Or not?

A huge advantage of OSX is the fact you can open up a terminal screen and have the full power of linux commands. You can ‘grep’ yourself through logfiles or quickly edit some configs … pause … NOT! (Thx to Borat for this joke). Ok, the power is there, but Apple must be thinking:

SCREW YOU DUTCH PEOPLE, we’ll only give pipe and backslash keys to the qwerty users … that for being dutch. But because you have the best chocolate we’ll give you an easy accessible @ symbol on the topleft, 16 functions buttons and some other buttons even we don’t know the function of. Should you have any troubles you can always press the ‘HELP’ button that we have included on your keyboard. Ok we admit, it doesn’t really help you for you keyboard problems … but hey … what other keyboards have a help button?

After a long websearch (yes this took me more than 5 minutes to find) I found out that shift + alt is the solution!
Shift + alt + / gives me a nice \ (no DO NOT use the / on the keypad, that would be the-to-easy-way)
Shift + alt + L give me the much wanted | symbol (and I do hope this is the pipe symbol and not just some vertical line)

So we Azerty users are not left in the cold, only in the dark if it comes to information! Oh by the way Apple, thanks for including an easy accessible £ button, we really needed that since they introduced the … (goddamned where did they put that euro symbol???)

Today I finally bought an Apple Imac, after years of doubt, thinking, comparing … but now it’s here. My first impressions are super and if it continues like this, Apple is going to be a part of my life for a long time.

The reason why I made this step is not only because I like the Apple community, their design but especially because I am a complete Apple noob and I get more and more Apple questions. It will also help me test future websites for compatibility … and I even tend to design and layout future websites on this machine.

Does this mean Windows and it’s pc/laptop is history? Not at all, Windows and even Linux will continue their existence in my work and personal life, they’ll just have to share the time with the white, shiny, oh-so-good-looking Imac … and we’ll reconsider their positions when Leopard hits the stores