Well, the title is quite explicit.. What?? Linux??! WTF! You don't use Vista man? Nope, I don't! I don't want a resource hogger (15GB of disk space!) so I decided to give Kubuntu a chance... But I'm still a Linux n00b... for now!

So, after long chats with Sundeep a.k.a Dea-|-h, I decided to give Linux a try. He recommended that I start with Kubuntu on Live CD. I downloaded the 700MBs of Kubuntu, burned the ISO to a CD, and booted from it on my laptop. At first, it looks a bit geeky with lots of commands popping up, but after KDE appears, it's magnificent! The Desktop looks so clean and the menu so practicable. However, after some experimentation, I found that I could not access my NTFS partition on which WinXP resided. That kinda annoyed me. After some research on the net, I found that support for NTFS in Linux is still experimental, and that it could safely be read but not written to.

I refered to other sources and friends, and they did not seem to have this problem. Zlug recommended that I install Kubuntu to my hard-disk on my main pc and that it would be a lot better. However, I could not do it immediately since I had important files and didn't want to format.

Then? By some miracle bad luck, the hard-disk on the Laptop failed. I sent it for repairs (since I don't have access to laptop parts and am no laptop technician). It came back with a single 80GB NTFS partition with WinXP SP2 on that. Again, I could not format since I didn't have the SP2 update package at hand. Then I remembered that there are programs that can resize partitions! A quick google search returned quite a few, including Ranish Partition Manager. Another great program is Paragon Partition Manager that supports lots of File Systems, but unfortunately, it's not free. It's great anyways. So I stuck with Ranish. I booted from floppy (yea, call me archaic). I selected the NTFS partition and set the new sizes and it did the rest.

In the end, I came up with 16GB NTFS, 55GB FAT32, and around 10GB of RAW space. Why such a configuration? WinXP SP2 was left intact on the 16GB. I got 55GB of free space to be shared by both Linux and Windows (since NTFS is risky, I prefered FAT32). And got some RAW space to setup Linux. I was ready to go.

I booted on the Live CD and ran the installer. It was easy and well-guided. I had to manually edit the partition table.

Here I did a grave mistake. On the 10GB I formatted it to EXT3. After I proceeded, the Kubuntu Installer notified me that I did not set the Swap File partition. WTF? I returned and checked. Indeed, there was no Swap File in the step where I get to set mount points! :s

Then, I found that I had to create a Primary partition of around 9GB, and an Extended partition of around 1GB for the Swap File from the 10GB of RAW space! I formatted the 9GB with EXT3 and the 1GB with "Linux-Swap"! Here's how you determine Swap partition! Quite weird! How to create partitions? Manually edit the partition table, right-click an empty space on the schema given and select create. Set your sizes and File System and you are off. Simple. But the Linux-Swap was really well hidden! So it's worth paying attention here.

After that, things went smoothly and soon enough, I had a beautiful Kubuntu running on my Laptop, along with my WinXP SP2 untouched! :P

More to come soon...

What was even more surprising is that Renji was taught by...Ikkaku! :P

But what's really worth seeing in this episode is the look Zaraki had back then. Now, we all know how cool or badass or Zaraki is. But the way he looked back then is even better! Makes him more...untamed and savage. And yeah, no eye-patch! :s

Here is our guy. Way to go Zaraki-taicho!



P.s. Be sure to check the Shinigami Golden Cup too! Next episode's Golden Cup promises :P

Before we proceed, you may ask what is modding (modifying)? It's customizing one's computer. Depending on your tastes, you may limit yourself at software, changing your wallpapers and stuff. But if you want to go furthur, there is Shell Customization, OS changeover and things like that. And for the really passionate, there is Hardware Customization. Now this is what the article was talking about. Hardware Customization, or modding, is changing the appearance and parts inside your computer. You might add a fan, add a blowhole, cut a window in your side panel or if you are really talented, do your own overhaul, and custom every part you see fit to do. Note that in doing so, you can be sure of voiding the warranty of lots of stuff. Here's an example of modding:

You can turn something like this:


into this:


Now, some are truly passionate and could turn a computer into this:


And yes, it's a computer. Modeled after a bomb from the 24hrs series.

The problem is, we usually don't have quality tuning parts in Mauritius. If you go to UK, there is PC World, literally a Computer Supermarket. Here, we don't have such things. So we gotta mod our boxes with the tools at hand. Don't expect a Dremel to be available. You'll have to work with a drill and a hack saw. Nevertheless, it might be fun if you like DIY.

I've never tried my hand at modding, so I can't tell you if it's fun or safe or anything. However there are some good sites that can guide you. If you google something like "computer modding" or "case modding", you might come up with something that could satisfy your curiosity.

Modding is not limited to the computer case. You could mod your keyboard or mouse by adding some LEDs. You could mod your hard-disk by cutting a window in its outer case (RISKY!). It's just up to you, your creativity and your patience. Hell, you could even hammer out your case and produce something absolutely strange. (Somebody even made his case look like a motorcycle seat!).

Conclusion? It might be fun but it's risky. I saw that article in Scope and said I could blog something about it. That article is a nice read for people who don't know about modding. But the problem, as I stated earlier, is the lack of parts and tools available in Mauritius.. Too bad. It might have been a fun past-time for me! :P

This is my second post here, and I thought... Maybe it's time to introduce myself a bit more... So here goes:

Infinity. That's my nick. Why? Don't ask! There is a meaning to it just in case you are asking. I'm giving no definite details, except that it related to the Infinity symbol. :P Go figure!

Now, I'm a student. Just completed my secondary education and should be moving to university now. Been a long but interesting journey! I made my first steps at Bethlehem pre-primary school on Edith Cavell street. I don't have many memories of the place. I was too young then...

After that, I moved on to Raoul Rivet govt. school which is one street after Bethlehem! There, I spent 6 years, playing "football" with a tennis ball ("Boule cass cote"), or with a plastic juice bottle filled with paper. We avoided plastic bottles because getting a hit on the head, with the cap pointing in hurts like hell! Raoul Rivet was fun. First class (1st) was LOL! But everybody was crying around me... I worked with Mr.Khoodruth in my last years there. Before that was Mrs. Mungra. In between, I don't remember! :s We spent all our times playing, or sitting under the mango trees in the backyard! Was fun! The long games of "mayer" among the students were always fun... but often resulted in cries! Then came the thing called CPE! The final year, 6th, we were all stressed to our limits. The stress comes from 5th class, on to the 6th! Believe me, for young kids of barely 10 years of age, it is kinda hard! The revision, parent pressure, teacher aspirations and everything else was ENORMOUS! That was some dark times. Revising till late at night, etc etc. Results came soon enough, and my hard works were rewarded. I got a seat at JKC college, ever so notorious for being a lair of "fouter-desordres", or trouble-makers.

There too, my first steps there were good, but somewhat strange. Knowing that JKC had a name for harbouring trouble-makers, I was somewhat reticent. Thinking, "Ban la pu faire dominaire ar moi", or that there will be ragging! In fact, there was hardly any! The older pupils somewhat welcomed the young ones! (Perhaps they thought we were mascots? Or plush toys?)... Anyways... JKC too was fun. The Form1-3 were the eternal football matches and bearing with the load of around 13 subjects, including Science, Arts, Technical studies, Commerce, Social studies and Computing. The latter was always my fav! Then came the dreaded SC period. Endless periods of revision, of past exam papers worked, of questions asked and of swearings earned! The exam came. The first major exam in a student's life. Indeed, there was some apprehension, and lots (i mean LOTS) of trying to estimate what result we would get. Again, it went well, and results came.

Now, since JKC was kinda far from my home, I chose to go to RCPL. I can say one thing about RCPL: I spend my most memorable years there! RCPL is fantastic. It's not a college! It's more like a home. Students would be the children, older students would be brothers. And teachers? They would be... no not parents! They would be bigger brothers and sisters!

I've never seen that level of student-teacher interaction in any other school! The environment itself is different, compelling a student to give the best of his potential. It was truly a magical place (in front of a graveyard) I entered RCPL, and was soon made member of the student council. Then, I got the opportunity to work on the RCPL magazine 2006, which enabled me to polish my skills on graphic designing, and being witness to the abominable cute smile of Ameel! :D

Again, exams came bringing along its load of stress, and apprehension. Again, all went well (ok not *that* well). But still, my 2 years at RCPL were really fantastic. The administration, teachers and students often work as one entity, and students are allowed/encouraged to take up initiatives like organizing things. (Like the IT Day in Upper Six). Even if we spent most of our time escaping, or to quote our rector, "SHIRKING CLASSES"!!!

Now a new level is about to start, and I took the opportunity to start a blog before. This level is called Tertiary Education, or University Life! I've got no idea of how it will be... Let's hope it will be great and fun! :D

And on those lines, I will be forever grateful to all of my teachers, school, tuition, private and others. My parents were also my teachers, so my extended gratitude are with them.

Now.. some after-thoughts. Why is this blog called Infinity-Sama? Well... Sama is a honorific title in Japanese, given to masters and lords. No, I am not narcissic. It's just that a friend of mine likes to call me that. So I thought.. Why not? I'd thought of Infinity-san (which is a bit like Mr. Infinity).. but anyways. A choice made and I don't want to go back. How the hell did I learn japanese btw?

Simple! By over watching japanese animes and manga! I picked up quite a few words from the language. Never know when it might come useful. And Bleach is so much fun, while Rukia is ever so cute!! Apart from anime and manga, I also like computers, so expect to see lots of things about computers in my blog. Computing (and internet) is an addiction for me.. I got my first touch at computers when my mom bought a 486. That time, I used it only for paint-brushing and of course..games! I also got to use computers here and there, switching from one Windows environment to another. It's just recently that I've been trying my hand at Linux. It's fun! I particularly like to customize things my way. My desktop is the living (artificial?) proof, with Blackbox on it. I still don't have much Linux experience... But I hope to gain some quickly!

Last thing.. If you don't want to bear with my rare (quite frequent) rantings, then.. you will have to! Because I will also use this blog as a platform of expression for my rantings against the world! Trust me, they are usually fun reads! M'enfin, it depends on you.

I believe I got nothing more to say for now.. Check back for more posts! :D

See ya folks,

Infinity :D