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Are you used to using the command ls in Linux, BSD and Mac OSX? Do you keep typing ls instead of dir in Windows? Well, you’ll be glad to know there is a simple solution to ease your burden. A submission to the Internet show Hak5 (episode 1019) suggested creating a file called ls.cmd which contained only the word dir and placing it in the c:\windows directory. Now, when you type ls it automatic replaces it with dir.

This alas has a bit of a glaring problem. If you typed ls *.bat it would only run dir not the logical expectation of dir *.bat. However, with a small re-write this is possible since the suggestion was basically a Windows batch file (.bat) and can come with a host of other commands.

So, I did a minor re-write which maintains some of the common parameters which are shared by both directory listing tools.

@echo off

dir %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9

This new file saved as ls.bat (I’ll call a spoon, a spoon, thanks) now executes dir and passes parameters. So if you type ls *.bat you get dir *.bat as expected.

There are a lot of other improvements to make like changing ls parameters into the dir equivalent. But that is a project for another day.

If you’re a major user of Facebook chat and Firefox, then this may be massively of interest to you. You can load Faceboook Chat so it is always present on one side of the window, and what’s more it’s not even a plugin.

Click on the bookmarks button (of Bookmarks at top of screen) then select Show All Bookmarks. No create a new bookmark somewhere convenient in your bookmarks menu and call it ‘Facebook Chat’ for example. Now the address to type in is

http://www.facebook.com/presence/popout.php

Now, and most impotently, click the box below which says “Load this bookmark in the sidebar” (you may have to click downward arrow button to see this).

Now, once you click on the bookmark, it will always open Facebook chat in your side bar and it will always be visible on any website. E.g. You could be looking at things you cannot afford on eBay while talking to your friends and never have to switch tabs.

This last fortnight, I have been mostly playing… Not a lot to be honest, been rather busy doing other things so spent the bare minimum amount of time playing.

• Runes of Magic – PC
• Sam & Max 101: Culture Shock – PC (bought all 16 games for £11.67 on Steam)
• Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty – PS3 (thanks Sony)
• Bulletstorm – Xbox 360
• American McGee’s Alice – PC (awesome game, catching up before sequal, Alice: Madness Returns)

This next week, I’m hoping to play more games. Alas I have to catch up with my reading, but I’ll probably put in a few hours on the following…

• World of Goo – PC/Mac
• Uno – iPod / Xbox 360
• Broken Sword II – Mac / PC / Linux / PSP / DS / whatever I fee like (Scummvm)
• Fallout: New Vegas – Xbox 360
• Red Faction – PC (just bought on Steam for £1.24, score)
• Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty – PS3
• American McGee’s Alice – PC
• Portal 2 CO-OP Levels – PC & PS3 (hopefully can manage this with brother on PS3 and me on PC)
• Sam & Max 101, 102 & etc – PC
• PLUS MANY MORE, hopefully!

The sequel to one of my my personal favourite games, Portal, comes to the Playstation 3, Xbox 360, PC and Mac.

My dilemma is that while my PCs & Mac will run the original game, I seriously doubt it will play the modern games. So which console version do I buy?

Generally speaking, when I buy a game available on both PS3 & Xbox 360, I will buy the Xbox 360 version since I’ve had it for longer and I prefer the UI.

However, since Valve have decided to bring Steam to Playstation 3, by buying said version you get the PC & Mac version for free as long as you link your PSN & Steam accounts. See the Destructoid article.

In this basis I’m giving great thought to buying the PS3 version to get the PC version for when I can play it. This way I’m getting 2 games for the price of 1. While if I bought the Xbox 360 all I’d get is Achievements.

Plus, if I want the extra Xbox Gamerscore points at a later date (and I probably will), I can rent it via Love Film or buy it cheaply second hand.

So, I think the Playstation 3 is likely the best choice… But what do you think?

Video Games I am currently playing…

• inFamous (Playstation 3)
• Perfect Dark (Xbox 360 Arcade)
• Call of Duty: Black Ops [MULTIPLAYER] (Xbox 360)
• Torchlight (PC / Mac)

Well, Black Ops for the multiplayer. Perfect Dark because I felt like finishing it. Torchlight cos I’ve had it since Christmas and wanted to play something not on a console. And, as for inFamous, it’s so damn good and I’d barely played since I bought it at Christmas.

Actually, all of the above games came out of the post Christmas sales or presents.

The following is a review I submitted to the IGN Game Changer competition to find new writers. Unfortunately it was not selected…

Some of my fondest gaming experiences from my childhood and teenage years were those associated to the Point-And-Click Adventure. But in 2004 the studio Lucas Arts, synonymous with Star Wars and Adventure gaming, decided to cease its Adventure lineup and merge the staff with its other projects.

This was signaled, by many, to be the death of the Point-and-Click Adventure. And, in the most part, was true. But, in secret, many people were working to continue the legacy.

The Open Source project known as ScummVM, have made it their goal to make all classic Point & Click games playable on modern systems including Monkey Island, Broken Sword and Discworld. They have largely been successful and most games boast 90%+ compatibility. As a bonus, these 160 games are now capable of running on some 35 platforms, including Windows 7, Mac OS-X, Linux and even iOS. This dedication to the genre has greatly increased the market for the games, seeing continued sales of Lucas Arts classics since its inception.

Similarly, Telltale Games was formed by three former employees of Lucas Arts as a response to public outcry over the cancellation of the Sam & Max sequel, Freelance Police. Now this company boasts several IPs, including Sam & Max and Monkey Island (licensed from Lucas Arts). Telltale have also expanded their market by developing for Xbox 360, PS3, Wii and iPhone to complement their traditionally PC-centric genre.

The Renaissance of the Point-And-Click Adventure is here, it’s cross-platform and it’s brilliantly nostalgic.

The following is a review I submitted to the IGN Game Changer competition to find new writers. Unfortunately it was not selected…

Chrono Trigger (1995) and its sequel Chrono Cross (1999) were never released in Europe quite to the dismay of many Square Enix (formally Squaresoft) fans. An updated version of Chrono Trigger was finally released in European the Nintendo DS in 2009.

Until the DS release, dedicated fans were required to import the game or run an illegally downloaded version in an emulator. Imported versions also had to be run using a modified console or a pass-through cartridge.

The question is… Why would you not bring out a game in Europe when it has sold almost 3 million units? The only logical reason is that it was believed to be a loss leader in europe because of being translated into several languages.

After playing the game myself, I can say it really does live up to the expectations, and then some. The game is so completely involving which is a real surprise for a game of its age. The storyline is engrossing, the characters are well written and likeable. The winding storyline where you’re traveling through different time periods of the same location is inspired and manages very well to not be too confusing.

It is truly a shame this game was never released in Europe until the DS version, it’s excellently written and truly a joy to play. Frankly, I think that SquareSoft and Nintendo were idiots not to release it, for it would have had a huge market, but it’s their loss. Buy it, loose yourself in it!

Ever noticed that when you select open with in Firefox it downloads the file to the desktop of the current user. Well, I have been getting seriously ticked at Firefox doing this so I’ve been trying to figure out how to make it save somewhere more convenient!

Well, after scouring the net I found no good answer of how to change the default download location which was at fault here. Someone did find out where the offending setting was and I followed this…

Anyhow… The file you want to look at is…

com.apple.internetconfig.plist

Now, these files are formatted in a non standard way… It’s not like editing a .ini file in Windows… This is a little more complicated. However there are a number of apps for editing said plist files… I used PlistEdit Pro by Fat Cat Software which is available free for a undesclosed trial period.

Ok, once you’ve got the file open… You can find it in, /Users//Library/Preferences… Although the easy way is to use Spotlight instead.

Once open, click the arrow next to Version 2.5.4 then the arrow next to ic-added, lastly on the arrow next to DownloadFolder. Now you can see your default download folder, ooops, it’s not in a readable stste! Right-click on the item, go to View As, then Alias Record… Lowe and behold, your default download directory in a readable and more importantly alterable state, something like… /Users//Desktop.

To edit, right-click and select Edit. You can change the value to a number of different values depending on preference… The most obvious is to change it to /tmp which OS-X is supposed to automatically delete on a regular basis (don’t hold me to this tho as I hear of mixed messages on this one).

I however created my own temp folder to use for this at /Users//Temp. This is complimenting my /Users//Downloads folder which is where I keep the files I know I want to keep! This way I could keep the files I wanted but could periodically delete the contents of the Temp folder without worrying about it.

Someone said that if you change the Safari default download location that it changed the global setting… This is unfortunately not true in recent versions of Safari… So don’t bother trying, it gets you nowhere!

My next plan is to write an Apple Script to delete the files on Shutdown… However can’t quite figure out how yet!

Hope this info was useful, I’d not found detailed info on how to change these settings so had to blunder in the dark on my own. Now that’s changed!

UPDATE 2: I’ve added a “NOTE” below of how to do this on Snow Leopard (and maybe Leopard) which was helpfully supplied by our helpful contributor, Brian (see below). This should help with hopefully all if not most of your problems. Thanks Brian.

UPDATE: I’ve had a few comments from people in regards to errors or oversights… So I’ll point this out now, this particular tutorial is for Mac OS-X Tiger (10.4) and may differ greatly from the way in which Leopard (10.5) and Snow Leopard (10.6) function. It does work perfectly with Tiger on my testing with the printers I have used with in (various Epsons). If you’re using 10.5 or 10.6 then this particular tutorial can only really be considered “for guidance” and you may need to figure it out for yourself.

Ok, so I wanted to avoid changing the colour settings whenever I wanted to print something in an attempt to be economical with printer ink. And, our printer tends to have issues with running out of one colour anyhow!

To do this is not as easy as one would have thought! You have to actually go into the CUPS settings file in order to change the defaults.

Open the Terminal… Found in Utilities folder under Applications.
Go to the printer settings folder typing cd /etc/cups/ppd.
To list the files (one for each printer driver you have set up), type ls.

Now you need to look for your printer file… It is the name set within the System Preferences pane followed by the extension ppd. In my case it still has the name of the IP address on our local network the printer is… 10.0.0.16, but OSX don’t like full stops in filenames so the file is called _10_0_0_16.ppd.

To open the file with editing privaledges you will need to use sudo to gain superuser privaledges. You will need to type in your password to use this command… Just like when installing software and altering some settings.

Didn’t know this before now but OSX does infact include the Linux command line editor pico… Which I have been using for years prior to having my trusty iMac.

So, to edit the settings file in my case type the following… sudo pico _10_0_0_16.ppd

Now you have the file open you need to look for the correct line to alter… You need to look for occurances of RGB. You can do this quickly using the Ctrl (not apple)+W to bring up the search box.

The first time I tried to re-write this I found the entry…

*DefaultColorSpace: RGB

I changed this thinking it was enough (it is in Ubuntu anyhow), but it didn’t work so looked again for an RGB entry. Lowe and behold found this entry…

*DefaultColorModel: RGB

After changing it to…

*DefaultColorModel: Grayscale

… it worked perfectly.

NOTE: According to our very helpful contributor, Brian (see below), in Snow Leopard the phrase “RGB” has been replaced by the word “Color” (yes, American English spelling). Therefore it should now read *DefaultColorModel: Color and *DefaultColorSpace: Color instead. Simply change “Color” to “Grayscale” should sort anyones problems in Snow Leopard and possibly Leopard.

To save the file you need to type Ctrl (not apple)+O then Ctrl (not apple)+X to quit pico.

From now on all your printouts should default to being in Black & White but you can still select to print out in Colour instead.