Category: Technology

If you have an ATI Radeon 9500 and higher video card as well as the latest video drivers (currently Catalyst 3.8) then you can play with some of above graphics using the built-in Smartshader effects.

If you open the advanced video driver properties and look under the “3D” tab, you’ll notice you can change the custom settings for both Direct 3D and OpenGL. Within the custom settings, you’ll find another tab for “Smartshader”, which will apply such effects as a Sobel edge detection algorithm based “sketch” mode, as well as stylized black and white, which converts low intensity pixels to gray scale, leaving a nice effect of only certain objects containing color. The “classic” effect turns everything into a sepia colored mode which resembles older movies, and which helps the immersiveness of games like Mafia or IL-2 Sturmovik.

A useless, yet fun, little addition, and example of the possibilities of smartshader technology.

Wired magazine has a nice article on Linus Torvalds, the man behind the Linux revolution, written for those who need an introduction to the man.

It’s a geek saturday night here, as I play with the new $149 DVD-burner I purchased this afternoon.

I would have been much further along with installation, but I ended up having to return it to Best Buy as it wouldn’t power up, and had obviously been bought previously, opened up and returned then put back on the shelf without even so much as an “open-box” sticker.

The store manager called me a liar for stating that they either have an incompetant return and exchanges staff, or there’s been some internal theft going on. Ah well.