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Cryptic Talks Star Trek Online's Space Combat, Away Missions, and Competing with WoW

Norman Chan — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:00:00 -0600

We chat with Craig Zinkievich, executive producer at Cryptic Studios, about making a game for Trekkers and competing with World of Warcraft

Set 30 years after Star Trek: Nemesis (the last film before the J.J. Abrams reboot), Star Trek Online puts you in the shoes of a captain in a newly sparked war between the goody-two-shoes Federation and savage Klingon empire. The promise of exploring the final frontier, massive space battles, and obscure Star Trek references fills us with geeky glee. We went down to Cryptic Studios’ offices to play the game and quiz Executive Producer Craig Zinkievich to ensure that fans of Star Trek and MMOs are getting the best of both worlds.

Maximum PC: It looks like Star Trek Online is focusing more on action, as opposed to boring bits like interstellar diplomacy.

Craig Zinkievich: The game is set in 2409, about 30 years after the events of the Star Trek: Nemesis movie. A lot of stuff has happened since then. The Borg have returned to the Alpha Quadrant, bent on assimilation. The Romulan Empire still exists, but they have to deal with the fact that they don’t have a home world – so there’s a power vacuum there. The most important aspect is that the Kitomer Accord – the treaty between the Klingon Empire and Federation – has broken down. In STO, you play either as a Captain in Starfleet, the military wing of the Federation, or the Klingon Defense Force.

We’ve really tried to make the content in Star Trek Online feel as though you’re in one of the Star Trek shows or movies. You’re never just in one place. You can be on a ship, get a distress call, beam down to a planet, then beam up to a satellite that’s on fire, and finally back to your ship for a climactic space battle. You’re constantly moving between ground and space to really get that cinematic feel.

The biggest challenge in creating STO is that it’s two whole games—you have your ground combat and your space combat. But the game demands it; you have to go back and forth, and I think it’ll be the strongest aspect of the game.

On Space Combat

CZ: Space combat is very much like the shows. It’s not a dogfight—you’re not zipping around. You’re in huge 1,000-meter starships with hundreds of crew onboard. In the shows, it’s all about tactics and positioning. It’s about bolstering a shield that’s taken damage, transferring power from your deflector dish to your weapons or engines at the right time. It’s about knocking your enemy’s shields down with phasers and taking them out with photon torpedoes.

Each ship has four directional shields – though some of the smaller ships only have one shield. All weapons in STO have facing and firing arcs to them. For example, a ship can have forward facing photo torpedoes with a 90 degree arc, and two phaser banks with broad-side arcs. So in battle, you would flank broadside along your enemy to use both phasers to knock down enemy shields and then turn toward the enemy to finish them off.

MPC: Is the point of the battle to destroy the ship?

CZ: Yes, because it’s wartime, the battle does come down to destroying your enemy’s ship. Most of the time, they don’t give up at the end. There are certain instances there the enemy will surrender to move the story along, but most of the time it’s a fight to the death.

MPC: How does respawn work, then, if your ship is destroyed?

CZ: Well, first and foremost, it’s a game. We thought of a whole bunch of different ways to do interesting things for respawn, but it really came down to getting players back into the action. You don’t lose your ship [if it blows up]; you just respawn at the beginning of the map with a little damage done to your systems. But overall, we don’t want you to spend 80 hours getting that Sovereign class vessel, get owned, and then lose that ship.

MPC: How does your crew and shuttles factor into the gameplay?

CZ: Each ship has a crew bar, which affects your hull regeneration rate – how fast you can repair systems that get damaged. There are certain powers that allow you to send boarding parties to other ships with shuttles, which takes crew. You can even send healing parties to repair other vessels during co-op.

The really cool powers come from your bridge officers. Like the shows, it’s all about the people—who’s there on the bridge during a crisis defines how the ship deals with it. You have a roster of bridge officers (starting off with one) that you can upgrade over time. These guys are like MMO pets, but taken to the next level. You name them, customize their look, give them equipment, and level them up with new skills and specializations. And the skills they have really end up defining what role you play in missions.

Some skills include tractor beams, which can hold enemies in place during combat, or high yield torpedoes that deal super damage. Each officer has one ability to begin with, but as you level them up, they get up to four skills. Each officer seat can also be upgraded, too. Officers in Ensign seats can only use one skill, while those in Lieutenant or Commander seats can activate more of their skills at once. With bigger ships, you gain more weapon slots and more bridge officer seats as well. The maximum is six officers with 12 skills total.

MPC: How does ship upgrading work?

CZ: Players start off with a generic Light Cruiser ship. Several hours into the game, you replace that with one of three different classes of ships – Engineering, Science, and Tactical, each with five tiers that you can advance through. Every ship has weapons, deflector shields, impulse engines, and Officer seats, all of which can be upgraded. But when you actually reach a different tier of ship, you get a new ship [of that class] entirely.

MPC: Can you re-spec your ship in the middle of the game?

CZ: You can change ship classes at any time if you want to try a different style of play. You just use your Starfleet “merit” and buy the ship at a Space dock. You don’t lose the previous ships that you had, either. You’ll always have the Light Cruiser, for example, if you wanted to use it for a specific mission. One night you could use a Defiant class ship for a quick space battle, and the next night, you could change to a Science class ship – the healer – to support your guild. You can really change what role you play on the fly.

MPC: So there are 16 different ship types in the game?

CZ: Yes, there are 16 total configurations total, from three ship classes with five ships in each tier, plus the first Light Cruiser. But within each configuration, we want you to be able to customize your ship’s appearance.

MPC: Like designing your character in any other MMO.

CZ: Yes, but still want you to be able to look at somebody’s ship, and know what configuration and class that ship is in.

MPC: Does the game have the “hot rod” style Enterprise from the new Star Trek movie?

CZ: [Laughs] No, we don’t have the new J. J. Abrams “hot rod” ship in the game yet, but we do have access to that in terms of our license. We’re focusing on filling out and rounding out what [the Federation of] 2409 looks like.

[Craig then loads up several ships on a computer, including ones based on the Intrepid, Excelsior, Miranda, and even Prometheus classes that will be recognizable to hardcore Star Trek fans.]

Our artists have done a fantastic job designing these ships and the elements that’ll let you customize each configuration.

Away Mission Gameplay

MPC: Let's talk about the ground-based away missions.

CZ: When you go down to a ground mission, you always play in a five-person away team. If you’re playing by yourself, you beam down with four bridge officers. If you’re teaming up with other players, you’re going to all go as captains.

MPC: Sounds like that would be against protocol!

CZ: Yeah, it’s funny. You have protocols like the Prime Directive, but those things never come up in the shows unless they have to break them! So, yes, you’re constantly breaking protocol by beaming down, but it wouldn’t be fun just to sit on your ship.

But this is another one of those places where you can change your style of play depending on which Bridge officers you slot. You can choose to bring medical officers if you’re playing with a Leroy Jenkins-type player one night, or bring a tactical officer if you’re going on the offensive.

MPC: Which player in a party gets to decide who to bring down, if you’re not playing with a full roster?

CZ: The team leader gets to assign which players go in the away team slots, and who has control of extra slots.

MPC: And the biggest group you can play with is five players?

CZ: Exactly, it’s five people per normal instanced team, which is the same for instanced space battles. There are larger persistent areas, like large fleet actions, where you can have dozens of ships. The same goes with large away missions, where you can have several teams [of five players each] on one planet at once.

Bridge officers on the ground are fully-functional MMO pets. They’ll follow you, use their abilities, and go into combat. If you want to, you can micro-manage them. You can tell them to stay in one spot, be aggressive, and even set their targets before combat. You can ask them to use special abilities on the ground, like healing or setting down minefields. Ground combat is fast-paced run-and-gun. It’s about maneuvering around your enemies and flanking them from the side, which does more damage. As a Captain, you can equip yourself with two weapons that you can switch at will, including melee weapons and martial arts skills.

MPC: And what kinds of things are you doing on away missions? Just killing everyone?

CZ: Just think of all the myriad things you’ve seen in an episode of Star Trek. For example, after you dispatch Klingon ships above a planet, you may have to beam down to the planet to save the locals from the Klingon landing party. Some missions ask you to recover artifacts and others have you following people back in time.

MPC: What type of loot will you be able to collect from missions and random exploration?

CZ: With bridge officers, they all have a paper doll that needs to be equipped with armor, personal shields, weapons, and other tools, which you’ll find on your missions. The same goes with your own character avatar. There are plenty of items and loot that you’ll find within the game, which you can sell or trade at spaceports. You can even find potential bridge officers.

MPC: Like an alien that you meet on a random world.

CZ: Yes. Another one of the loot items that is very important on the ground missions is your kit, which is a career-limited loot item. The kit gives you really cool powers on the ground, like Security Escort, which lets you beam in extra NPC characters for this mission.

MPC: A bunch of red shirts?

CZ: Exactly! They should have a much higher aggressiveness factor. These kits end up defining your role. Medical science players can deploy stasis fields with their medical tricorders. And over time, as you level them up, each kit can have up to four powers.

MPC: Will you be allowed to team up with friends who are at a much higher or lower level than your character?

CZ: The missions themselves are set level, and you can bring in a range of levels to play in them. Like City of Heroes, we have a sidekick system that lets your team scale to one level, with the experience rewards scaled along the same line as well.

MPC: What will be the level cap for the game?

CZ: We don’t have levels, per se. We have five ranks in the game, ranging from Lieutenant to Admiral. Each of those has 10 sub-ranks, so that ends up being 50 “levels.” And that’s indicated by the pins on your uniform, just like on the show.

MPC: You mentioned spaceports. Do you mean space stations like Deep Space Nine?

CZ: There are several large social hubs within the game. Earth Space Dock is probably the largest one for the Federation. That’s where you go to repair your ship, visit the auction house, and get access to new ships. There are major ones like Deep Space Nine, and minor ones like Memory Alpha, which have similar amenities.

MPC: Sounds like you’re including a lot of details from the shows.

CZ: In almost all of the content that we’ve made, there are Star Trek references, like a familiar character’s grandson or something that was alluded to once in an episode. We have pretty hardcore writers who end up getting all of those references in.

The Genesis Device

MPC: In terms of art assets and content creation, how much of that is crafted by designers and how much is randomly generated?

CZ: If you’re going to make a Star Trek MMO, you’ve to let players boldly go where no one has gone before, right? So we needed to make hundreds and thousands of planetary systems that you could explore. We did that by creating a Genesis game engine that could procedurally generate maps and systems.

Not all of the content is automatically generated. A good deal is first procedurally generated, and then given to our artists to hand-craft to coincide with story-driven missions. The pure procedurally generated content is more for exploration, when you want to make contact with someone who’s never heard of the Federation before. Genesis has been a really powerful toolset that allows us to create the foundation for our artists and designers to add the really cool content, as opposed to spending their time on the more boring tasks.

MPC: Do players then experience the same content or see different worlds when completing mission on their own?

CZ: The main episodic story content will be the same for all players. There are also Patrol missions, which will also be the same for everyone. But the exploration content, when you go to star cluster, for example, will be different for each player. There may be some similarities, but you’ll end up seeing different stuff.

MPC: How much of the Star Trek universe can you explore?

CZ: The game is split into four hubs – Federation/Klingon (where you start), Romulan, Cardassian, and finally Borg at the end. We liken each of these hubs to a season of Star Trek, each season with a set number of episode missions based there. Each will have major and minor story arcs, as well as one-off episodes. There’s an overarching story arc for the whole game, so that always shows up in each hub, story-wise.

Each hub is split in sectors, where are high-level maps that you’ll use to fly between planets and spaceports. This is one of the persistent areas where you’ll see hundreds of ships flying around, in addition to the large fleet action zones.

Making the Game Appealing to Star Trek Fans

MPC: What kinds of compromises did you have to make for this to appeal to both MMO players and Star Trek fans who might never have played an MMO?

CZ: There are some compromises we’ve had to make, license-wise, like adding many phaser weapons variations [in addition to the two main types in Star Trek canon]. In terms of gameplay, our goal is to make a really deep MMO that doesn’t scare away someone who has never played an MMO before. For example, the power-level interface has a complex mode where you can move individual power bars, but there’s also a mode where you can use preset power levels for offensive or defensive stances.

MPC: Do you base the content on materials like the Star Trek technical manuals and the Klingon language?

CZ: We definitely use the technical manuals to get the scale right. We don’t have plans to translate the game into Klingon, but who knows, maybe we’ll figure out a way to get the community to localize it for us.

MPC: What about playing as the Klingons

CZ: We’re not ready to reveal too much, but the Klingon gameplay will be drastically different from the Federation. It’ll open up a couple of hours into the game, and will be more PVP focused.

MPC: Is there going to be a lot of interaction between the two factions?

CZ: Yes, through the PVP and the indirect PVP gameplay throughout the Neutral Zone. But the storyline on the Klingon side is not the same as the one on the Federation side.

The 800-Pound MMO in the Room

MPC: When you’re designing a new MMO, how do you design it to compete with World of Warcraft?

CZ: I don’t know if there will ever be another World of Warcraft [-sized game]. The fact that WoW has so many subscribers is awesome, because it’s exposed so many people to MMOs. Whether or not there will be another game that gets millions upon millions of subscribers isn’t really [our concern]—we didn’t sit down and ask ourselves how we could steal WoW subscribers.

We first asked ourselves how we could make a decent MMO, how we could develop a reasonable business model, and have reasonable expectations. And then, we tried to make it the MMO that the Star Trek universe deserves.

MPC: And what business models work, if you don’t want to compete with WoW?

CZ: You can look at games like Warhammer and Conan, which launched with a few hundred thousand purchases. You can have a pretty nice business with a few hundred thousand users, or even fewer. So, I don’t think many people going into the MMO market sanely think they need 10 million subscribers to make money.

MPC: Is it a chicken-and-egg scenario where you need to have enough subscriber revenue to make new content to attract new subscribers?

CZ: Definitely. There’s a barrier. From our experience, if you don’t break 100,000 subscribers at any point in time, your game tends to just go away. Most games that don’t break that 100,000-subscriber mark tend to just be flashes in the pan. But once you do, you tend to get a really solid fan base with enough revenue to keep adding to the game, and things go pretty well.

MPC: What do you think about different business models, like opting for micro-transactions instead of subscriptions?

CZ: We like the subscription model, and will probably be using that in the near term. We are looking at micro-transactions and how that would work – Star Trek will have micro-transactions, but most of those will be cosmetic things. Some will augment gameplay, but won’t replace any gameplay.

MPC: Is there a risk in Cryptic having multiple MMOs in the market at the same time?

CZ: I don’t think there’s a risk as long as long as the products are different. If we were making fantasy MMO after fantasy MMO and competing with ourselves, we’d eventually run into problems. I also don’t think that we’re banking of people to play our games based on our name, either. We just want to make games that we want to play, and hope that other people will want to play as well.

MPC: How do you determine the long-term plans for an MMO, given the uncertainty of success?

CZ: We don’t have life spans on our games, and we go into the first year with an expansion and update plan. That being said, though, from our experience, the longer you plan ahead, the more likely the plan is useless, because the subscribers will tell you what they like and dislike, and what they want to see more of. So, even though we put a plan out there, we have to be flexible and listen to our captive audience. Which is kind of the cool part about making MMOs. [Once it’s released], it’s not just us making the game—everyone contributes.

Cryptic has also provided five keys to the Star Trek Online closed-beta going on right now. Post a comment on our Facebook page, under the Star Trek Online post, to get your name in the random drawing. We'll pick five readers to receive beta keys on Monday, November 23rd, at noon PST.

8 Things You Need to Know about Chrome OS

Will Smith & Norman Chan — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:00:12 -0600

Google pulled the wraps off of Chrome OS today, and while there isn't a general availability announcement today, they spoke briefly about the Chrome browser (Linux and Mac versions due this year, along with support for extensions) before diving into the nascent OS. You can expect to see Chrome ship in about a year, and showed the first glimpses of the new OS, details about the architecture, the hardware it will run on, and gave us the first hints about what the Google Cloud OS will really look like.

Here's why Chrome OS won't be replacing Windows anytime soon.

Chrome OS is a hardware platform as well as an OS

Chrome will have very specific platform requirements. It won’t run on machines with physical hard drives, only SSDs. Only certain Wi-Fi chipsets will be supported. Chrome OS will also have requirements for screen size, a full-sized keyboard, and a decent sized touchpad. They demoed Chrome OS working on an eeePC today, and said that you'd be able to upgrade some netbooks on the market today using a screwdriver.

Google didn't announce hardware specs, but confirmed that Chrome OS will work with x86 and ARM-based machines, and is designed with the 802.11n Wi-Fi spec in mind.

Chrome is Open Source

Chrome OS uses code from Linux, Webkit, Ubuntu, and Moblin. It's based on what seems like a heavily modified Linux kernel. While there's no beta announcement today, the code is open source as of today, so people can download and work on the code, as well as contribute submissions back to the project.

The Chrome Browser is the Primary Interface

If you've used the Chrome browser, Chrome OS will look very familiar to you. There is no conventional Desktop, so to speak. The browser window is your web interface, file explorer, and web app launcher. You can open multiple Chrome windows (think multiple desktops), each with their own set of tabs and swap between them from an even zoomed out further desktop.

Data is Stored in the Cloud

While the user can save data locally, whether it's photos, videos, etc, everything in the user's /home folder is synced to the cloud. The local copy is just a cache, presumably to allow you to use the netbook offline or where there's poor Internet. This is very similar to the thin clients that Sun pushed in the late 90s, in that there are relatively slow computers with ubiquitous network connections that rely on the Internet for most of their usability.

When you use any Chrome OS device, you log in and all of your data is there immediately. This means that presumably you log into your Chrome machine using your Google account. Of course, the big question is what happens when Google's servers go down. How accessible will your data be when you're away from the Internet for a few days?

Chrome OS uses a New Security Model

Because the Chrome browser is the OS, users don't have access to the root folders of the machine. You won't be able to install applications on the OS, but there will be a plugin/extension architecture, presumably that works with extensions similar to the Chrome browser.

The OS kernel and browser will be digitally signed, so the OS will be able to check itself at boot. (Web apps won't require digital signatures.) If it detects something amiss, it will simply restore the affected areas of the OS, leaving your home partition alone. The OS will also automatically update at launch, during its verified boot.

Chrome OS is for Secondary Computers

Google doesn't anticipate Chrome OS being used on your desktop PCs (at least, not yet). Dual-boot will not be possible, and it won't work with your third-party peripherals that use non-standard drivers. Keyboards, mice, and USB hard drives will work, but it's extremely unlikely that you'll be able to sync your iPhone with Chrome OS. They say that they'll have a novel solution for printing in the future.

Chrome OS Runs Web Apps Exclusively

We've said it before, but we'll say it again now. The only native app for Chrome OS is the browser. There's no mail application, no control panels, no application launcher outside of the browser. The OS is the Chrome browser--anything you can run in the Chrome browser runs inside that. Google showed web Excel from Microsoft and specifically mentioned Yahoo and other providers during the demo. Anything that runs in the Chrome browser on Windows, will run on Chrome OS. All of the applications you'll run on Chrome OS are web applications.

During the Q&A Michael Arrington explicitly pointed out that this strategy exactly mirrors Steve Jobs' comments during the initial iPhone launch. The response? The iPhone has native apps, Chrome OS only has a browser.

Chrome is more like a TV than a Computer

It's instant-on, cold booting in about 7 seconds, and on the desktop about 3 seconds after that. This is why they're using a unique platform, so they control the hardware and software and can get performance and experience they need.

Here's Google's over-simplified explanation of Chrome OS:

Image credits: Gizmodo and Google

Complete Guide to Troubleshooting USB Problems

Mark Edward Soper — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:30:00 -0600

The "U" in USB stands for "Universal", and no other I/O port does so much for so many computer users as USB. From providing a home for keyboards and mice to driving printers, scanners, all-in-one units, and providing access to terabytes of storage and the Internet, USB ports do it all. That also means that USB-related problems can cripple your PC, leaving it unable to access storage, input, and output devices.

Tracking down the causes of USB-related woes can be difficult, but in this article, we show you the common and uncommon causes for USB problems – and their solutions.

USB Troubleshooting 101

Recent operating systems include drivers for common USB devices, such as keyboards, mice, and storage devices. If one of these devices is not recognized when you plug it into a USB port, try another USB port on the computer itself (we'll discuss troubleshooting ports built into hubs later), preferably a USB port built into the port cluster on the rear of a desktop PC.

If the device works in some USB ports, but not others, note the ports that are not working. This information will be used to help determine if the cause is the hardware setup at the BIOS level or at the Windows driver or Device Manager level.

If the device works on another PC, but not on yours, the problem lies with your PC. However, if the device doesn't work on any PC, it's time to replace the cable, or the device itself.

Even if you never have a USB device that doesn't work at all, you might see one of the following messages when you plug a USB device into your computer or into an external hub:

"This device can perform faster"

To solve this problem, we need to see how USB ports are configured in the system BIOS – and find out what type of USB hub is in use.

"Hub power exceeded"

This problem, on the other hand, requires a trip to the Windows Device Manager.

Diagnosing USB Port Problems in BIOS Setup

BIOS setup is the place to check if you have any of the following USB problems:

- Your system doesn't recognize a mainstream USB device, such as a printer, mouse, or storage device, in any USB port.

- You get a "This device can perform faster" error message when you plug a Hi-Speed USB (aka USB 2.0) device into any port on a recent computer.

- You can use a USB drive for storage, but you can't boot from it, and you've verified the drive is a bootable device.

- You can use a USB keyboard in Windows, but not for accessing the BIOS at system startup.

To check BIOS settings, restart your computer and press the appropriate key to open the BIOS setup menu.

Tip: If you are unable to access the BIOS setup menu with a USB keyboard, plug in a PS/2 (6-pin DIN) keyboard (if your system has a PS/2 keyboard port). It's worthwhile keeping an old PS/2 keyboard around for troubleshooting. Some USB keyboards can also be adapted to PS/2.

Checking for "Missing" USB Ports in BIOS Setup

Once you have the BIOS settings menu open, what's next? Typically, you will find USB port settings in the Integrated Ports or Integrated Peripherals menu:

If the USB controller or host controller is disabled, no USB ports will be recognized by Windows, and consequently no USB devices will be recognized either.

What if some USB ports are usable, but others are not? Some systems enable you to specify the number of USB ports in BIOS setup.

To solve problems with "missing" USB ports, make sure the following settings are enabled:

USB controller

USB 2.0 controller (aka USB EHCI controller)

USB legacy support

Save changes, exit BIOS setup, and your system will restart, providing access to USB ports.

Tip: If you are unable to use a USB keyboard in BIOS setup, but it works after Windows boots, there's a problem with USB keyboard or legacy support. Change the setting, or contact your system or motherboard vendor for a BIOS update.

Missing USB 2.0 Support

USB 2.0 support has been included in virtually all systems built in the last five years or so. However, it's possible to configure a system so USB 2.0 support is disabled.

On most systems that include USB port options in the system BIOS, you can specify whether to run USB ports in 1.1 or 2.0 (Hi-Speed USB) modes. Depending upon the system, you might see separate entries for USB controller and USB 2.0 controller in BIOS setup, or BIOS setup might have a single entry for USB controller with the option to enable 1.1 support only or 1.1/2.0 support.

Make sure USB 2.0 support is enabled, save changes, exit BIOS setup, and your system will restart, providing USB 2.0 support.

Note: If you have an old system that was never updated to Windows XP SP1 or later, its USB 2.0 ports will run only in USB 1.1 mode, regardless of the BIOS setting, until SP1 or later is installed (SP1 added USB 2.0 support). So, if you're reinstalling Windows XP original edition, make sure you install SP3 immediately, if not sooner (see our article on using the free nLite utility to do this).

Diagnosing USB Power Management Problems

Some systems cannot wake up a system from S3 (deep sleep) power management mode unless this option is enabled in the system BIOS. If you are unable to wake up your system by tapping on a USB keyboard or moving the mouse, make sure this option is enabled in the system BIOS.

Diagnosing USB Problems with Device Manager

If you're still having problems with some USB ports after making sure that the BIOS settings are correct, the next stop for Windows users is Device Manager.

In Device Manager, USB 2.0 controllers are listed as Enhanced, while USB 1.1 are listed as OpenHCD. Note that a single USB 2.0 controller can manage all USB ports built into the motherboard, while each root hub requires its own OpenHCD controller.

Note: If your system does not have USB 2.0 support enabled in the BIOS, an Enhanced controller entry will not appear in Device Manager.

Root Hubs and Generic Hubs

You won't find USB ports listed by that name in Device Manager. Instead, Device Manager lists USB ports by host device:

- Root hub

- Generic hub

Root hubs host USB ports connected to the computer's motherboard or add-on USB host adapter card. A root hub typically hosts two USB ports in 1.1 mode, and the root hub on a system with USB 2.0 support hosts all of the USB ports built into the system. To determine the number of ports a root hub hosts, open a root hub's properties sheet in Device Manager and click the Power tab.

If a root hub is disabled in Device Manager, devices connected to the hub cannot be used and are no longer displayed in Device Manager.

To enable a disabled root hub, right-click the hub and select Enable from the right-click menu. Follow any prompts displayed to complete the process.

Generic hubs are external devices that host USB ports. A generic hub plugs into a USB port, enabling the port to service multiple devices. By daisy-chaining generic hubs to a root hub, a single USB port can support up to 127 devices.

Generic hubs are available in a variety of forms, from standalone devices that include four or more USB ports to keyboards and monitors that include USB ports. Because some generic hubs are self-powered, and some are bus-powered, generic hubs can cause power problems for some USB devices.

Hubs and USB Power Problems

One of the most poorly understood causes of USB problems is the difference between self-powered and bus-powered hubs. Self-powered hubs include root hubs (which draw current from the computer's power supply) and generic hubs that are connected to AC power. These hubs provide 500mA of current to each USB port.

Generic hubs that do not have an AC power source are bus-powered, and provide only 100mA of current to each USB port.

Bus-powered hubs are suitable hosts for USB devices that use little power, such as keyboards, most mice, printers, and external hard disks that use AC power. However, device power requirements vary widely, and other types of popular devices, such as portable hard disks, flash memory drives and card readers, and game controllers with force feedback often cannot operate when plugged into a bus-powered hub.

To determine the power requirements for any USB device, open the Power tab for the root or generic hub the device is plugged into.

The devices shown in this example must be plugged into a self-powered USB hub, as they require more than 100mA of current.

However, the devices shown in this example can be plugged into either a bus-powered or self-powered hub, as they require less than 100mA of current.

Dangers of Exceeding Available Hub Power

If you plug a device that requires more power than the hub can provide, what happens?

If you plug a device that requires more than 100mA of current into a bus-powered hub, you will see a "Hub Power Exceeded" message.

Click the message to see a listing of other ports that you can use.

While the listing isn't specific, keep in mind that any built-in USB port is connected to a root hub, and will therefore provide 500mA of power – enough for almost all devices.

What happens if you plug a device that requires more than 100mA of power into a self-powered hub that becomes disconnected from its AC power supply? At that point, the hub becomes a bus-powered hub, the voltage per port drops to 100mA, and, if you have a flash drive plugged into the port, you might destroy it.

To avoid disaster, consider this advice:

- Think twice before using a bus-powered hub.

- If you use a bus-powered hub, make sure you know the current requirements for all USB devices you plan to use with the hub. Any device that requires more than 100mA of current will not work with a bus-powered hub.

- If you're worried about forgetting to check current requirements before you plug in a new device, use a self-powered hub.

- If you already have a bus-powered hub and are frustrated because some devices will not work with it, replace it or connect the hub to a compatible AC adapter.

Hubs and USB Performance Problems

Most, but not all, USB generic hubs sold today support USB 2.0 speeds – but there are innumerable USB 1.1-only hubs still in use. If you plug a USB 2.0 device into a USB 1.1 hub, you will see the same "This device can perform faster" error message you would see if you had plugged the device into a USB 1.1 port on the computer.

How can you tell how fast a USB hub will run? There are two methods I use:

- Check for markings on the hub

- Check the properties sheet for the hub

Most USB 2.0 hubs are labeled as such. However, an unlabeled hub might also support USB 2.0 speeds.

To determine the speeds supported by a USB hub, follow this procedure:

1. Plug a USB 2.0 device, such as a storage device or wireless adapter, into one of the ports on the hub.

2. Open Device Manager.

3. Expand the Universal Serial Bus Controllers category.

4. Open the properties sheet for the hub.

5. Open the Power tab and look for the device you connected in Step 1.

6. Repeat steps 4-5 until you find the correct hub.

7. Open the Advanced tab and note the hub's performance level. A hub that supports USB 2.0 speeds will run at high-speed. A hub that supports only USB 1.1 speeds will run at full-speed.

Note that some desktops with front-mounted USB ports run these ports in USB 1.1 mode only.

USB Hub and Device Power Management Problems and Solutions

By default, USB root and generic hubs are configured to enable the PC to turn off the device automatically to save power. However, USB devices are configured by default to enable the device to wake up the system.

If your system cannot be awakened from standby, check these settings, as well as the power management settings in the system BIOS.

Cables and USB Device Compatibility

USB cables not made for high-power (over 100mA) devices can cause those devices to fail. Typically, thicker cables (such as the white cable shown below) use 28AWG cable, which is capable of carrying full power to any USB device, while thinner cables (such as the gray one shown below) use thinner cable of unspecified gauge. Smaller-gauge cable prevents full power transmission to the device.

While using an underperforming USB cable won't cause the device to be damaged, it can be frustrating to need an extension or other cable doesn't work with some devices.

The second factor is the rise of alternative device cable connections. At one time, virtually all USB devices, with the exception of digital cameras, used the standard B cable connector. With most current devices, except for printers, the standard B connector has been replaced by the five-pin mini-B cable. And, some devices use four-pin mini-B cables or Mini-A cables. To be prepared for any eventuality, consider keeping a universal USB 2.0 cable handy (like the one in the photo below).

The third factor is the need to exceed 500mA at startup with some portable USB hard disk drives. Some onboard USB ports are capable of proving more current to spin up these drives, while others are not. Keep in mind that self-powered generic hubs typically cannot provide additional power for these drives.

If you cannot use a single USB cable to provide sufficient power with some systems, use a double-headed cable. One connector provides power and data services from a single USB port, while the other provides additional power from a second USB port. Some portable hard disk vendors supply this type of cable, while others make it an extra-cost option.

USB Driver Problems and Solutions

Because recent versions of Windows recognize standard USB devices such as mice, keyboards, and storage devices without the need to install drivers, it's easy to forget that a plug-and-play installation is possible only when the computer has the appropriate driver already installed.

If you plug a USB device into a computer that does not already have the appropriate drivers installed, you will be prompted to run the Found New Hardware Wizard.

Continue only if the installation instructions for the device recommend doing so. In most cases, however, you need to run the device installation program provided on the device's driver CD before Windows can install the device. In such cases, click Cancel, disconnect the device, and install the driver for the device first.

Once the device is installed, you might be able to update the drivers with the device's Driver tab on the properties sheet in Device Manager.

Conclusion

Want to avoid having USB problems at all? Here are some best practices that you should follow to get your ports in order.

- Make sure your computer is configured to run USB ports in USB 2.0 mode

- Upgrade systems running original Windows XP to SP1 or greater

- Avoid using bus-powered USB hubs with most bus-powered peripherals other than mice, keyboards, and some types of game controllers

- Avoid using USB 1.1-compatible hubs with USB 2.0 devices such as storage, printer, scanner, and multifunction devices

- Use the Device Manager properties sheets for USB ports and devices to solve problems

- Make sure you install driver software for new USB devices before you connect them to your system

- Replace USB cables not designed for high-powered devices with thicker USB 2.0-compliant cables

- Check power management settings in BIOS and Device Manager for USB ports and devices

Mark Edward Soper is the co-author of the new book CompTIA A+ 220-701 220-702 Cert Guide, with Scott Mueller and David L. Prowse (Pearson).

ATI Radeon HD 5970: The Undisputed Performance Champ

Loyd Case & Gordon Mah Ung — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:00:00 -0600

AMD’s Radeon HD 5970 takes the performance crown, and now offers DirectX 11 GPUs top to bottom.

You can forgive AMD for stealing a line from Nvidia’s playbook. From the name and marketing materials, it’s not obvious that this card is a dual GPU card. One AMD chart even refers to the card as the “ATI Radeon HD 5970 GPU,” much like Nvidia’s 295 GTX is a dual GPU card that’s sold as if it were a normal graphics card.

Let’s take a quick look at the speeds and feeds of the new card, and then discuss additional features. We’ll compare them to the Radeon HD 5870 single GPU card; there are differences in core and memory clock speeds.

ATI Radeon GPUs Compared

Model	HD 4870	HD 5970
GPU	Single HD 5870 GPU	Dual HD 5870 GPUs
Stream Processors	1600	3200
Core Clock	850MHz	725MHz
Memory	1GB 1200MHz GDDR5	2GB 1000MHz GDDR5
Texture Units	80	160
ROPs	32	64
Memory Data Rate	4.8Gbps	4.0Gbps
Compute Performance	2.72TFLOPs	4.64TFLOPs
Idle Power	27W	42W
Max Power	188W	294W

Most features simply double, since there are two identical GPUs with the same memory per GPU. However, note the memory bandwidth is lower, since the memory clock is lower. Also, overall compute performance isn’t quite double, since the engine clock for each GPU defaults to 725MHz, rather than the single GPU 5870’s 850MHz.

In addition to the paired GPUs, the card maximizes performance with a new second generation PLX PCI Express 2.1 bridge chip. This speeds up communications between the two GPUs.

The older Radeon HD 4870 X2, AMD’s last dual GPU card, often suffered from serious overheating problems, so AIT has taken steps to improve overall thermal efficiency. The first step is to used specially screened GPU chips with the minimum amount of leakage current. The thermal system consists of a vapor chamber, with heat dissipation via a fully vented exhaust system. Finally, a multipoint, programmable PWM fan controller ensures fan speeds consistent with overall thermal output. The whole affair is rated to dissipate 400W, or over 100W of headroom.

The use of low leakage GPUs suggests that the core clock speeds could be pushed higher than the default 725MHz. Given that the card can dissipate 400W of overall thermal output, ATI has decided to leave the card unlocked, letting users overclock it to their heart’s content. The company is even making available an overvoltage tool, and suggests that the card has enough headroom to push the engine clock to above the 850MHz of the single GPU HD 5870 and the memory speeds up to the 1200MHz of the 5870. In The HD 5970 also sports sophisticated digital voltage regulators, real time power monitoring and Japanese pure ceramic capacitors, which facilitate higher clock speeds. (The reason for the more conservative default clock speeds is that the company needs to make allowances for the thermal environment inside PC cases, which may be less optimal.)

What about power efficiency? The HD 5970 offers the same clock gating capability as the single GPU variant. In addition, the card offers an ultra low power state that puts one GPU to sleep, which cuts the overall power draw of that GPU by half the normal idle performance. The card idles at 42W, only 15W higher than the 27W of the HD 5870. Of course, the card sucks 294W at full throttle – and that’s at the default clock speeds. So you’ll need a power supply with the later PCI Express 8-pin power connector – the HD 5970 uses one eight pin and one six pin connector from the PSU.

The onboard connectors are slightly different from the original HD 5870: two DVI-I connectors and one mini-DisplayPort attachment, first popularized with Apple’s MacBook Pro laptops and iMacs. All three can be attached simultaneously, and drive three displays at the same time. Note that most DisplayPort enabled monitors which aren’t Apple displays ship with standard sized DisplayPort cables, so you’ll need to obtain a mini-DisplayPort to standard DisplayPort cable if you want to take advantage of that connection option.

Performance

We tested three graphics cards: the Radeon HD 5970, the Radeon HD 4870 X2 and the GeForce 295 GTX. Note that the 295 GTX only ships with 1792MB of GDDR3 memory (896MB per GPU). The Nvidia GPUs on the 295 GTX have a full complement of 240 shaders, like the 285GTX, but only a 448 bit wide memory bus, similar to the GeForce GTX 260 line of graphics chips.

All games were run at two settings: 1920x1200, 4xAA and 2560x1600 4xAA. All detail settings on all games were maxed out. We also report the results from 3DMark Vantage’sdefault, performance setting and the extreme setting. In addition, we’re tossing in the results from the eVGA GeForce 285 GTX SSC and XFX Radeon HD 5870 at the 1920x1200 resolutions, so you can get an idea as to how much you gain from the dual GPU cards.

We used our standard graphics test system for benchmarking graphics cards:

Test System

Component	Model
CPU	Intel Core i7 975 @ 3.33GHz
Motherboard	Asus Rampage II ExtremeX58
Memory	6GB Corsair Dominator DDR3-1600 @ 1333MHz
Hard Drive	Seagate 7200.12 1TB
PSU	Corsair 850W
Operating System	Windows 7

The HD 5890 seems much better behaved than its predecessor, the HD 4870 X2. Although the HD 5970 fan noise became quite audible at high loads, it seemed much quieter than the 4870 X2. More telling was our experience removing the cards immediately after completed benchmarking runs. The 4870 X2 was extremely hot to the touch – we had to handle it carefully to avoid burnt fingers – while the 5970 was cooler to handle (though still very warm.) Much of this was no doubt due to the vapor chamber covering the back side of the card.

As we expected from our previous experience with the Radeon HD 5870, the dual GPU HD 5970 pretty much smokes the competition. At its targeted $599 price point, the performance needs to be stellar – and it is. Let’s check out the performance charts.

1920X1200 4XAA

Model	eVGA 285 GTX SSC	Radeon HD 4870 x2	GeForce GTX 295	XFX 5870	Radeon HD 5970
3DMark Vantage (Perf)	13941	14458	19342	17089	21089
3DMark Vantage (Extreme)	6276	6574	9241	8312	12084
HAWX	62	78	93	68	104
Far Cry 2 (Action)	47	67	62	62	75
Far Cry 2 (Ranch Long)	56	77	73	74	116
BattleForge (DX10)	46	36	33	47	61
Crysis (DX10)	22	33	29	32	44
Resident Evil 5	87	126	115	100	135
X3: Terran Conflict	93	101	100	101	107
STALKER: Clear Skies	27	38	40	36	53

2560x1600 4XAA

Model	Radeon HD 4870 X2	GeForce GTX 295	Radeon HD 5970
HAWX	53	54	76
Far Cry 2 (Action)	18	59	65
Far Cry 2 (Ranch Long)	50	55	82
BattleForge (DX10)	23	20	39
Crysis (DX10)	19	18	24
Resident Evil 5	88	85	102
X3: Terran Conflict	90	59	101
STALKER: Clear Skies	22	20	31

There’s no question the Radeon HD 5970 is the fastest single desktop graphics card you can buy today. The real question is if it’s worth $200 more than a single Radeon HD 5870. Certainly if you’re running a 1920x1200 display, we’d recommend the single GPU card. But if you’re running triple displays, or a 30-inch, 2560x1600 monitor, and you want to push polygons at full resolution, you should consider the Radeon HD 5970. But make sure you’re willing to pay the cost.

Another note: this card is enormous. It’s an actual foot-long graphics card; make sure you’ve got a case deep enough to handle it.

Then there’s the whole issue of CrossFire. The HD 5970 is essentially a pair of downclocked HD 5870s in CrossFire mode. When the game can take advantage of CrossFire – as it does in our benchmarks – you can see huge performance gains. If the game can’t make use of CrossFire, then you own a pricey single GPU card that doesn’t run as fast as the HD 5870.

But what about running TWO of these cards in CrossFire mode? Find out on the next page.

Dual-5970 CrossFire Performance

We were fortunate enough to get not one, but two 5970 cards to test in our lab. The two cards came in Falcon Northwest's brand new Talon PC, which is the first 5970-equipped system we've reviewed.

You can read our full review of the kick-ass Falcon Northwest Talon here, but the system specs are below for your reference. Note that the Talon is a Lynnfield-based Core-i7 system, overclocked to 3.93GHz, as opposed to the 3.33GHz Core i7-975 Bloomfield proc we used in our testbed to benchmark the lone 5970 card.

Specifications

Processor	Intel 2.93GHz Core i7-870 @3.83GHz
MOBO	MSI P55-GD65
RAM	8GB Crucial DDR3/1600
Videocard	Two MSI Radeon HD 5970 in CrossFire mode
Soundcard	Onboard
Storage	Two Intel X25-M 80GB in RAID 0; 1TB Samsung Spinpoint 7,20rpm hard drive
Optical	Lite-On 22x DVD burner
Case/PSU	Silverstone case with Exotix paint job and 1,000 Silverstone PSU

In addition to a 48-hour plus burn-in period, we wanted to push Falcon Northwest’s dual-Radeon HD 5970 cards on something a bit harder so we connected the FNW Talon to a 30-inch 2560x1600 panel and cranked several benchmarks to maximum. The result? Impressive. Although, the drivers we used were still fairly early, the performance of the card is unquestionable. We had some concerns of running the card in a dual x8 mode (a limitation of the P55 chipset and Lynnfield platform) instead of full x16’s that an X58 platform would give us but the results don’t seem to show too much to be concerned about. The cards seem to offer better than expected scaling, even with early drivers.

Dual-5970s on Falcon Northwest's Talon PC

	HD 5970 Crossfire On	HD 5970 Crossfire Off
3DMark Extreme Overall (1900x1200)	18954	11686
3DMark Extreme GPU (1900x1200)	18763	11384
3DMark Extreme CPU (1900x1200)	23498	23561
3DMark Extreme GPU (2560x1600)	13494	9076
3DMark Extreme CPU (2560x1600)	23387	23399
Crysis, Very High, (2560x1600)	34.4 FPS	27.1 FPS
Far Cry 2 Ultra High (2560x1600)	185.2 FPS	107.4 FPS

Crysis, 1900x1200 (NO AA)	66.3 FPS	(did not run)
Crysis, 1900x1200 (16X AA)	64.3 FPS	(did not run)

Note that in Crysis, enabling 16X Anti-Aliasing doesn't seem to affect the framerate with CrossFire enabled.

Finally, a note on overclocking. The AMD overvolting tool has two settings for core and memory. You can overvolt the GPUs, overvolt the memory or both. Using the tool, we pumped up both voltage settings, then found the card to be stable at 870MHz core and 1250MHz memory (17 and 25% respectively.) Curiously, though, we saw little actual performance gain. 3DMark Vantage (extreme setting) only saw a 1% increase, from 12084 to 12182. We got two additional FPS in Crysis and either no increase or slight decreases in frame rate for Far Cry 2 and STALKER: Clear Skies. We probably need to do a better job of balancing memory and core clocks, but our initial experiences suggest that overclocking may not be worth the effort.

20 Essential Tips Every Ubuntu User Should Know

Will Kraft — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:30:00 -0600

So you've read our Complete Beginner's Guide to Linux and have decided to adopt an open-source operating system--congratulations! But diving right into a new OS is daunting, even if it is as polished and stable as Ubuntu. That's OK though, because we're here to help. We've compiled a list of the 20 most important skills that every Ubuntu user should have. These tips, ranging from basic GUI manipulation to advanced system recovery, are essential to your Windows-free computing experience. Whether you've just installed Ubuntu for the first time or have been a Linux acolyte for years, you'll want to read our refresher. And if you have any tips you can't live without, we'd love to hear about them in the comments section!

Turn Your Audio Up to 11

The sound dialog menu has been a staple in every version of Ubuntu (and GNOME in general) for many years, but in 9.10 it has received a significant overhaul and no longer resembles a traditional mixer. Previously, the maximum volume of a system was determined by hardware and other factors and could not be easily exceeded on a system-wide level. This was sometimes a problem, since the maximum volume of a system could be well below what the hardware could actually deliver. In 9.10, the volume slider has been modified to boost audio up to roughly 150%, so it is now possible to compensate for any discrepancy. However, you should be careful with this feature—you could potentially damage your speakers if you exceed their limits. (Generally, the volume is too loud if there is distortion.)

Ubuntu 9.10 also features a new ability to choose between several different sound themes for various system events. This feature was present in older versions, but is greatly refined in 9.10.

Create Custom Keyboard Shortcuts

Ubuntu offers extensive keyboard shortcut functionality, including support for some of the keys on multimedia keyboards. These are often detected and appropriately bound out of the box, so there is no need to assign them manually. Keyboard shortcuts are managed through the appropriately named entry in the Preferences sub-menu. To create a new keyboard shortcut combination, scroll down to the desired action in the list and click on the existing combination. When the current entry switches to “new shortcut...” press the new key combination you want to use for that action. To cancel the change, left-click on “new shortcut...”.

Control Your System Remotely with Nautilus

Ubuntu features a powerful file manager called Nautilus that is closely integrated into GNOME. This tool allows you to work with local files in an intuitive interface, but it also has remote-connection capabilities comparable to what can be found in an FTP client. In addition to regular FTP access, it provides a graphical interface for SSH-based remote access to other Linux/Unix systems and support for browsing shared folders on Windows systems on the network.

This functionality is accessed through the “Connect to Server” option in Ubuntu's Places menu. The dialog box allows you to select a protocol, location, user name, (and password, if necessary) and port number. Once you have established a connection, the remote server will be accessible through a folder and can be used and unmounted like any type of storage media.

Customize Your UI with Desktop Compositing

If you have a video card (or even an onboard video chipset) you can turn on various desktop effects with a utility called Compiz Fusion. (We covered Compiz Fusion in depth in a previous article.) Although it is possible to fine-tune the performance of these desktop effects with Compiz-Config Settings Manager (CCSM), Ubuntu also features a built-in interface with several preset functions. This is located on a tab called Visual effects in the Appearance dialog (reached through the Preferences sub-menu under System). There are three preset options: none, normal (a moderate level of effects), and Extra (massive levels of eye candy). If you use CCSM instead, none of the presets will be selected.

Boot and Install Ubuntu from a USB Stick

Most people have several old low-capacity USB sticks lying around that they no longer use in favor of higher-capacity sticks that have become increasingly affordable. An ideal use for an older stick with a capacity of 1 GB or less is as a boot medium for a Linux distro. (At least 700 MB capacity is required.) If your BIOS supports USB booting, it is possible to create an installation stick for Ubuntu instead of a more traditional CD. USB sticks have the advantage of being reusable with later versions, so you won't eventually end up with a big pile of obsolete installation discs. USB sticks can also be used to store data files from the live session, using extra space that has been set aside for that purpose. (Files created during a normal liveCD session are usually destroyed at shutdown because a temporary ramdisk is used to store them.) External hard drives may be used to boot from as well, but USB sticks are much more practical for the purpose.

To create your own USB stick, open the USB Startup disk Creator in the administration sub-menu. You will need to provide an Ubuntu ISO or CD as a source medium, so make sure you have that on hand before you begin. The Disk Creator tool will not accept other distros (and you can't fool it by renaming any other ISO image to “ubuntu-9.10-desktop-i386.iso” or something to that effect), so you will still have to use UNetbootin to create USB sticks for non-Ubuntu distros.

Sweep Away Old Files

Although Linux systems do not routinely accumulate obsolete files, it still happens on installations that have been upgraded a few times. Sometimes, old software packages may be left behind during the Ubuntu upgrade process (although the upgrade utility has a stage where obsolete packages are removed) and Ubuntu has a utility called Computer Janitor that allows you to deal with them. This tool keeps a tally of all old and/or deprecated packages on your system and makes recommendations for removal. This tool is located in the Administration sub-menu.

Find the Right Hardware Drivers

Unlike many other distros, Ubuntu has a special utility called Hardware Drivers (sometimes called Restricted Drivers). This utility will search your system for any hardware that needs proprietary drivers to function under Linux and will make these drivers available for download if possible. The Hardware Drivers manager can handle various types of hardware, including Nvidia video cards/chipsets, Broadcom wireless, and more. The Hardware Drivers tool is located in the Administration sub-menu.

To activate a driver, highlight its entry in the list and click the Activate button. If there is more than one driver available for a device, you should choose the recommended version. The Hardware Drivers manager will then acquire and enable the driver for you. In most instances, a reboot is necessary before a driver becomes fully active.

Get NTFS Compatibility

The NTFS-Config tool auto-detects NTFS-based partitions and sets a new mount point for them in /media. To enable support for a device, check the box next to it when it is detected. Once mount points for all devices have been set, you are able to enable or disable write support on internal and external NTFS devices with one click. To enable NTFFS write support on your system, install ntfs-config: “sudo apt-get install ntfs-config”. From that point on, you can access it through the Administration sub-menu.

Manually Run Programs

Many times, you will need to run a program and it may not be in the Applications menu. Normally, you would have to open a terminal and launch the program from there, but there is an easier way. By pressing ALT and F2, you can initiate a Run dialog that allows you to launch a program (with any necessary switches/options) without having to bind it to a terminal.

By default, programs launched with this method run with your own account's permission levels, but it is possible to launch programs that need superuser permissions by running “gksu $program”. Gksu is a frontend for Sudo that allows temporary privilege escalation. You can also view a full list of programs (hidden by default) and populate the run dialog with them by clicking on the list entry. Both native and Wine programs will appear in the list.

Gksu has its own benefits as well. Although it defaults to root, running gksu by itself will produce a dialog that shows a list of ALL users and services. You may then launch a program from any account.

Handy Window Tricks

Ubuntu offers many options for working with open windows. Some require compositing to be enabled while others will still work on non-accelerated systems:

• To shade a window, (i.e. hide all but the title bar) ensure that compositing effects are enabled and move your pointer to the title bar. To hide a window, scroll up with your mouse wheel. To show the window again, scroll down.

• Sometimes, it is necessary to keep a window on top of the others even when it loses focus. To do this, right-click on the title bar and select the “Always On Top” checkbox. To restore normal behavior, clear the checkbox by clicking on it again.

• Since Ubuntu and most other distros have support for multiple desktops, (also called workspaces) it is convenient to allocate open programs between them to keep things from getting too crowded on your monitor. To move a program to a different desktop, right-click on the title bar and select either “Move to Workspace Left/Right” or “Move to Another Workspace”. Furthermore, it is possible to drag windows from one desktop to another using the mouse if certain compositing effects are enabled.

Import Documents from Windows

When you are setting up a dual-boot system with Ubuntu, it is possible to import your documents and settings (web browser favorites, etc.) During installation, Ubiquity (the Ubuntu installer) will detect any Windows partitions that exist on the system and will present you with an opportunity to migrate your settings to Ubuntu. By expanding the list, you are able to pick and choose which parts of the system to import (selecting the main checkbox will import all of them).

Encrypt Your Home Directory

Home directory encryption is a feature that was introduced in Ubuntu 9.04. During installation you have the option of checking a box in the setup utility that will cause your home directory to be encrypted automatically. This will help prevent your files from being compromised. Encryption/decryption is automatically handled behind the scenes, so you don't need to worry about securing your files manually. On the first boot after setting up an encrypted home directory, you will be prompted to learn the master password for your home directory. (To view it again, run the “encryptfs-unwrap-passphrase” command.) This master encryption password is automatically generated by Ubuntu and is NOT your login password. You will need this master password to recover your files if you are not able to boot normally, so store a hard copy of it in a safe place.

Dual Boot with Wubi

Although preparing a traditional dual-boot system is easier and safer than ever, Ubuntu has a completely zero-risk way of doing it, thanks to a tool called Wubi. Unlike a conventional tool that repartitions your system and replaces the bootloader (arguably the most dangerous parts of dual-booting), Wubu creates a virtual file-system that piggybacks on top of Windows. Wubi then reconfigures Windows' own bootloader to be able to boot into a normal Ubuntu environment. Unlike a LiveCD, a Wubi installation is fully functional apart from a few features such as hibernation. Furthermore, a Wubi installation can be completely uninstalled from within Windows like any other program, whereas a conventional dual-boot configuration cannot.

Modify Software Sources

Most software for Ubuntu is made available through online repositories. The available repositories are managed through a file in /etc/apt called sources.list. While it is possible to edit this file manually, (many experienced users prefer this method) newer users may be more comfortable with Ubuntu's Software Sources tool (located in the Administration sub-menu). This front end splits the various repositories listed in sources.list into categories to make them easier to identify and manage. The tool allows you to check/uncheck boxes for the official Ubuntu repositories and easily add GPG keys used for repository authentication.

Smooth Out Fonts

Ubuntu supports font anti-aliasing similar to Microsoft's ClearType. This feature (found as a tab on the appearance tool in the Preferences sub-menu) smoothes out screen fonts in Ubuntu, making them easier to read. There are several presets to choose from, each producing a different effect:

• None/Monochrome: Quite unsightly. There is no conceivable reason to use this, but it does allow you to disable anti-aliasing altogether.

• Best shapes: This focuses on presenting characters most accurately and with a moderate amount of anti-aliasing.

• Best contrast: This attempts to provide the best character contrast with less anti-aliasing. This generally looks similar to Best Shapes except at very large font sizes.

• Sub-Pixel Smoothing: This heavily anti-aliased mode is specifically designed for use with LCD displays. It produces the smoothest-looking type but tends to make fonts appear bolder than they would otherwise.

Install Packages Yourself

Ubuntu uses automated package management to handle most software installation and maintenance, so it is very seldom necessary to download and install packages yourself. If you ever have to do this, there is a front end that makes the process much easier than it would be otherwise. Once you have the package (deb) that you want to install, double-click on it from within Nautilus to bring up the Gdebi package installation tool. This tool will install the package for you and will also resolve dependencies.

Once a package has been installed, it can be further managed or removed with the regular package management system.

Restart the GUI

Although the GUI (Xorg) in Linux is quite resilient, there are still instances where it may crash (however, a crash will not bring the whole system down). In most cases if there is a problem, the GUI should restart by itself, but if all else fails it is possible to start it manually (assuming that your system is still configured correctly). To restart the GUI properly and return to the Ubuntu login screen, log into your account (if you have not already done so) and run “sudo gdm”.

Set Up Recovery Mode

Ubuntu's recovery mode (accessible through the GRUB menu) has several tools that are designed to help you recover from various problems. Each tool is presented in a list with a brief description of what it does. You can fix broken packages, get a root command prompt, attempt to repair a broken GUI system, etc.

Dual-boot systems will always show the GRUB menu to let you choose your operating system for that session, but single-boot systems will just load Ubuntu automatically. If the GRUB menu is not displayed on startup, press ESC quickly (and repeatedly, if necessary) immediately after power-on to force the GRUB list to display.

The Ubuntu GRUB menu also has the memtest86+ utility for RAM testing. If you often get random crashes or kernel panics, faulty memory may be the cause of the problem.

Turn on a Firewall

Even though Ubuntu does not need anti-virus and anti-malware utilities, a firewall is still beneficial because it allows you to fine-tune your network settings and limit which programs may communicate freely with the Internet. Linux has a firewall management tool called iptables, but it can be rather difficult to work with it directly. Fortunately, there is a tool called Firewall Builder that is capable of configuring iptables based on parameters you specify. The tool is far too complex to cover in a simple tip such as this, but it allows you to set firewall rules and manage device and service behavior. It is best used by network administrators who know what they are doing.

To install Firewall Builder, run “sudo apt-get install fwbuilder”.

Use Remote Desktop

Ubuntu offers extensive remote desktop functionality out of the box. Using the Vinagre tool, you can access other Linux boxes on your network through VNC. (Windows support is planned through RDP in future releases.) To launch Vinagre, run the Remote Desktop Viewer utility located in the Internet sub-menu of Applications. To configure how Vinagre can interact with your system, modify the Remote Desktop Preferences located in the Preferences sub-menu.

Play Windows Games in Ubuntu

Although the various Linux distributions have a wide variety of software available, you may have a few Windows programs that you may not be willing or able to part with. Although many people dual-boot or use virtual machines to get around this problem, there is yet another potential option that many people new to Linux may not have considered--- Wine. Wine stands out from the other options because it does not require a separate Windows license. Check out our Wine guide here!

ATI Mangles the Competition: 8 Hot New Video Cards Reviewed

Loyd Case — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:30:00 -0600

We burn up kilowatts testing eight hot new videocards to see why the Radeon reigns supreme

AMD’s recent release of its RV870 GPU line makes the company the undisputed graphics performance leader. The Radeon HD 5870 is the fastest single-GPU graphics card on the market currently. But at roughly $380, it’s not inexpensive, so AMD has also rolled out the Radeon HD 5850, 5770, and 5750 cards. All are DirectX 11–capable, at lower price points than the flagship HD 5870.

The HD 5850 uses the same RV870 GPU as the 5870, but with a couple of functional units disabled. Priced at around $260, the 5850 occupies the lower tier of the high-end cards. The recently released 5770/5750 cards use a different chip. Based on the same DirectX 11 architecture as their big brothers, the 5770/5750 are built with 1.04 billion transistors—just slightly more than the 956 million used in the previous-generation Radeon HD 4870/4890 products. Contrast these numbers with the 2.15 billion transistors in the Radeon HD 5870.

Current prices for 5770s are roughly the same as older 4870s, around $150–$160. So the 5770 is firmly positioned as a midrange graphics card.

We put eight cards to the test, from six companies: three Radeon HD 5870s, three HD 5850s, one HD 5770, and a factory-overclocked Nvidia GTX 260 from Gigabyte, our token Nvidia card in the mix. We compared each card against the fastest previous single-GPU champ, the EVGA 285 GTX SSC. Our test bed consisted of a 3.3GHz Intel Core i7-975 on an Asus Rampage Extreme II X58 motherboard, 6GB Corsair DDR3/1600 at 1,333MHz, a Seagate 7200.12 1TB hard drive, a Lite-On DVD+/-RW optical drive, a Corsair 850W PSU, and the 64-bit version of Windows 7.

At the start of any new GPU’s cycle, board vendors adhere to the reference design, making performance virtually identical among competing cards. This changes as OEMs tweak their designs. Still, as you’ll see from our reviews, differences exist in terms of warranty, software bundle, availability, and price.

At a Glance: ATI's New Line of GPUs

ATI Radeon GPUs

Model	HD 4870	HD 5770	HD 5750	HD 5850	HD 5870
Stream Processors	800	800	720	1440	1600
Core Clock	750MHz	850MHz	700MHz	725MHz	850MHz
Memory Clock	900MHz	1.2GHz	700MHz	1GHz	1.2GHz
Memory Width	256	128	128	256	256
Max Power Use	150W	108W	86W	151W	188W
Price	$150	$160	$130	$260	$380

All these have 1GB of memory; there’s also a 512MB version of the 5750 available, at around $110.

The Reviews (Click the picture or headline for the full review and benchmarks, and verdict)

XFX Radeon HD 5870

All of the Radeon HD 5870s reviewed here are essentially identical—they’re the fastest single-GPU graphics cards you can buy currently. Out of the box, you get a typical one-year limited warranty. But if you register XFX’s product online. within 30 days of purchase, the warranty lasts for “the duration of your life.” Not a bad deal, assuming the company is around that long.

HIS Radeon HD 5870

HIS is based in Hong Kong, but its cards are readily available in U.S. outlets. They often cost slightly less than the competition, but that’s not the case with the company’s Radeon HD 5870, which is priced the same as its competitors. When we first unpacked the card, we thought it was the lesser HD 5850 model, due to its relatively compact packaging.

Sapphire Radeon HD 5870

As with all Radeon HD 5870s, Sapphire’s version offers superlative performance, making it one of the fastest single-GPU cards available today. At its core is AMD’s 2.15 billion transistor Cypress chip, coupled with 1GB of 1,200MHz GDDR5 memory. Two DVI, one HDMI, and one DisplayPort connection allow for flexible monitor attachment.

More reviews on the next page!

Asus EAH5850

All of the Radeon cards tested here are based on AMD’s reference design, including this Asus card. However, Asus includes Smart Doctor software, which allows you to easily overclock its card.

Diamond Radeon HD 5850

We admit to mixed feelings about Diamond’s Radeon HD 5850. On one hand, it offers the same strong performance as other Radeon HD 5850 cards—second only to their big-brother HD 5870 cards. But unlike other manufacturers, you don’t get a coupon for Dirt 2 in the box. Instead, you need to register the card at Diamond’s website to get the perk. You also won’t get the two-year warranty unless you register the card.

Sapphire Radeon HD 5850

As with Sapphire’s Radeon HD 5870, the company’s HD 5850 card ships with coupons for two games: Dirt 2 and Battlestations: Pacific. Sapphire’s HD 5850 delivers a stock Radeon HD 5850, with its 1,440 stream processors, 72 texture units, and DirectX 11 support.

Gigabyte 260 GTX Super OC

It’s easy to be seduced by the latest and greatest graphics cards, but you can sometimes find excellent deals in older-generation cards that can still keep up with today’s shader-heavy PC games. Gigabyte’s 260 GTX SuperOC is a good example.

To make the cards, Gigabyte starts with cherry-picked 260 GTX chips from the factory.

HIS Radeon HD 5770

AMD has wasted no time bringing its DirectX 11 GPU architecture to a more affordable, mainstream-class GPU in the HD 5770. HIS is one of the first manufacturers to bring the HD 5770 to market.

At around $160, the card is priced similarly to existing Radeon HD 4870 cards. It’s the lowest-cost card in the roundup, and given the 180mm2 die size (that’s incredibly tiny for a GPU), prices are likely to eventually come down even further.

Next: Tools to Boost Your Graphics Card Performance

Tools to Boost Your Graphics Card Performance

The Asus EAH5850 might be the only card here to ship with the Smart Doctor software tool for overclocking, but the fact is, you can overclock any of the graphics cards in this roundup.

AMD’s own Catalyst software suite that’s installed with the Radeon drivers has a built-in overclocking control panel known as Overdrive.

While you can’t tweak the voltage—something that’s fairly dangerous, anyway—you can set GPU and memory clocks, manually control your fans, and use Overdrive’s auto-tune feature to try to automatically set higher clock speeds. Our experience with auto-tune is that it’s fairly conservative; we were able to boost core clocks from 850MHz to 890MHz, and memory clocks from 1,200MHz to a scant 1,230MHz. When you click auto-tune, expect to wait about 15–20 minutes for the process to complete.

Nvidia also lets you overclock cards based on its GPUs, but you have to work at it a little. First, you need to download the Nvidia System Tools software from here. Look for the link “Nvidia System Tools with ESA support.”

Download and install System Tools. You can do this even if you don’t have an Nvidia-based motherboard. An additional panel is installed in the Nvidia graphics control panel, allowing you to manage clock speeds.

As with AMD’s Overdrive, Nvidia’s tool has an auto-tune feature.

Third-party apps also exist for overclocking graphics cards. Probably the most popular graphics overclocking tool is RivaTuner, which works with both ATI- and Nvidia-based cards. You can find RivaTuner at Guru3D. Currently, RivaTuner hasn’t been updated to work with the 5800 series. Also, you may have issues with 64-bit Vista and Windows 7, due to its use of an unsigned driver.

Making the Most of Multiple Monitors

Eyefinity is AMD’s moniker for the Radeon HD 5000 series’ ability to connect to multiple displays. Even the lowest-cost Radeon HD 5750 offers four display connections; you can use any three of them simultaneously. Note that if you use more than two displays, one must be DisplayPort capable—but you can use an active DisplayPort-to-DVI adapter to connect a third display via that monitor’s DVI port.

Of course, the HD 5000 cards support standard Windows multiple-display capability, so you can clone or extend a display if you have more than one attached. But Eyefinity takes this a step further, by enabling you to create monitor groups. If all the displays in a monitor group are the same resolution, then you can configure the driver to see all of them as one large surface.

Three 1680x1050-pixel panels can therefore be configured as a single 5040x1050 panel in a three-wide configuration. Or, you could configure them as a single 1680x3150 stacked display. When you do this, games and apps see the group as a single display. Not all games will necessarily look correct—you’ll probably need to manually tweak the field of view, for example. Note that the panels don’t have to be the same physical size, but they do need to have identical resolutions.

If you don’t have three monitors of the same resolution, you can still use Eyefinity groups—you just can’t configure the group to be a single surface. We used three displays—a 2560x1600 monitor with DisplayPort and two DVI-equipped 1920x1200 24-inch panels. The two 24-inchers were set up in portrait (tall) mode, so they were seen as 1200x1920 displays. The 30-inch Dell 3008WFP was set up in landscape (wide).

While you can use Eyefinity with two displays, it’s a far better gaming experience with three, particularly in games with a targeting reticule or similar feature. With two displays, the reticule is split over the center bezels. That makes aiming a little chancy in fast-paced shooters.

$1500 Gaming PC Buyer's Guide -- November 2009

Norman Chan — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:00:00 -0600

It's that time again! This month, we've priced out an amazing $1500 gaming PC. If you recall from our Dream Machine feature, the $1500 "Budget Surplus" of mid-2009 was powered by a Core i7-920 and Radeon 4870 X2. Today--a few months later--we're able to make a few adjustments to upgrade to a Radeon 5870-based machine. The introduction of Intel's Lynnfield processor and the final retail release of Windows 7 also forced us to reevaluate our spending priorities, but we're very pleased with the outcome. As gamers, this is a system we'd be proud to build ourselves--it will play any game released in the foreseeable future.

Read on for our parts picks, and let us know what you think!

*All prices are as of November 13th and do not include rebates, sales, clearance, or whatever else makes computer parts really cheap these days.

CPU

Core i7-860

$290, www.intel.com

Let's start off with the CPU. We've said this many times before: Intel's Lynnfield is Nehalem for the masses. Sure, the Bloomfield-based Core i7-920 is almost exactly the same price as this Core i7-860 we've picked, but going the Bloomfield route means you'll still have to buy a pricey X58 motherboard. The i7-860, based on Lynnfield, actually runs at a higher clock speed than the i7-920 (2.8GHz to 2.66GHz), and its performance tops the 920 in many gaming benchmarks. The absence of tri-channel DDR3 and dual X16 PCI-E2.0 support is almost a non-issue--the 860 makes up for that by being more easily overclockable to the 3+GHz range. The only reason to go with a Bloomfield system is the upgrade path, but Intel has vowed to keep up support for both 1366 and 1156 socket processors.

Motherboard

Asus P7P55D Deluxe

$220, www.asus.com

Our $1000 PC used an Asus P7P55D motherboard, but this time around, we have enough cash for the Deluxe version. We definitely sympathize with PC builders when it comes to confusing branding schemes--Asus has no fewer than six different versions of the P7P55D motherboards (LE, stock, PRO, EVO, Deluxe, and Premium). The Deluxe version comes with four 1.5V DIMM slots, two gigabit ethernet controllers, two PCI-E X16 slots, and is incredibly stable for overclocking. In fact, this board is specifically designed for overclocking. Asus has bundled a "TurboV Remote" with the system to use for manual overclocking (an easy 20% boost), and there are even three switches to let you override BIOS limits on RAM, memory controller, and CPU voltage.

CPU Cooler

Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus

$30, www.coolermaster.com

Even without a $1500 budget, it would be foolish not to pick up an aftermarket CPU cooler, especially if you're planning on overclocking. The decision is made even easier with Cooler Master's recently released Hyper 212 Plus cooler, which isn't just the best air cooler we've tested, but also one of the cheapest. The previous champ, the Thermalright Ultra 120E, sold for $70, and this cooler is less than half the price of that. The skyscraper design isn't particularly innovative, but we can't argue with the performance numbers. A stock cooler heats up to 61 C on a full load, while the Hyper 212 Plus keeps its cool at 43 C.

Memory

Corsair XMS3 4GB DDR3/1600

$92, www.corsair.com

Well, it had to end sometime. The era of ridiculously cheap memory may be over. In the summer, you could buy 6GB of DDR3 memory for under $80. Today, you'll be lucky if you find 4GB for under $100. Of course, you're not going to want to skimp out on RAM quality for overclocking, so we're recommending a pair of rock-solid DIMMs from Corsair. Other performance memory makers will also suffice (Patriot, Crucial, OCZ, etc), but you'll want to stick with name brands for reliability and a decent warranty.

Videocard

HIS H587F1GDG Radeon HD 5870

$400, www.hisdigital.com

Things get really interesting with our videocard pick. ATI's Radeon HD 5870 is the new GPU champ, and it doesn't look like Nvidia will have a rival released to market anytime soon. We toyed with the idea of going with a lower-clocked 5850, but decided to make some cuts in other categories to go all-out on the GPU. Even at $400 (which is $20 higher than the launch price, due to high demand), its much more reasonable pricing than flagship videocard launches in the past. Unfortunately, the card is in a bit of short supply, so you'll have to hunt around to find it in stock. There also really isn't much difference between the 5870s released from HIS and other makers, so you'll be fine with one from Sapphire or PowerColor. Just make sure to read the fine print in the warranty before you buy!

Optical Drive

Samsung SH-S223

$31, www.samsungodd.com

This is starting to get a little embarrassing. Samsung's SH-S223 DVD burner hasn't faced a challenger worthy of its blazing read and write speeds, so it remains our pick for best optical drive for yet another month. Its price has gone up a little since the summer, but $30 for a fast and reliable (and did we mention fast?) 22x drive is well worth the money. Unless you're willing to dish out the bucks for Blu-Ray (and deal with HDCP hassles), you'll be fine with a DVD burner.

Hard Drive

Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB

$100, www.westerndigital.com

We decided to go for a 1TB drive (instead of the 1.5TB Seagate in the Budget Surplus) this go-around to save money for other components. But while we sacrificed a bit of capacity, we definitely didn't want to skimp on speed. The Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB is as affordable as it is functional. As a WD Black drive (as opposed to Western Digital's Green lineup), its emphasis is on performance over power conservation. And that promise is delivered--it's one of the faster 3-platter terabyte drives we've tested, delivering truly impressive random-access speeds. Sure, you can buy a two-platter terabyte drive these days, but the price premium makes that jump difficult to stomach. With modest specifications and an abundance of storage room for the average computer user, the WD Digital Caviar Black 1TB is totally worth a Benjamin. And if you have the dough, an awesome 2TB Caviar Black drive is also available.

Power Supply

Corsair 850TX

$140 ($120 after rebate), www.corsair.com

The Corsair 850TX is the same power supply we chose for our $1500 Dream Machine, and it'll the do the trick for this build. It's $15 cheaper than when we last priced out a system (with $20 rebate), and you'll need the wattage to keep your system stable through overclocking on a hot summer day. There's enough juice to power the efficient Lynnfield processor and 5870, with enough left over to add a second video card if you want to upgrade to Crossfire in the future.

Case

Antec 900 Two

$120 ($95 after rebate), www.antec.com

We've long recommended the Antec 900 as the go-to mid-tower case (the NZXT tempest was just a 900 clone, after all). But it's time to finally put the original to bed and move up to the 900 Two. This successor shares many of the great features of the 900 that make it easy to build in, but its emphasis is on usability. Cut-outs and tie-downs on the motherboard tray help with cabling, and the chassis fans' speed knobs are mounted directly onto the front bezel. These modest improvements make it a more viable case than the 900, and we're glad that its price (after rebate) still squeaks in under the $100 mark.

Operating System

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Edition

$105, www.microsoft.com

You know our position on Windows 7: it kicks ass. So much so that we've recommended it as a primary OS since Microsoft released the public Release Candidate. But since we can't get away with recommending the RC version anymore, the OEM version is the way to go for your new PC, since it's the cheapest way to get a full copy. If you're truly a penny pincher, you can also just buy an upgrade copy of Windows 7 and run it as a fresh install (Check out how with this guide). We're also recommending the 64-bit edition, so you can utilize all 4GB of memory. Since our last price guide, the OEM version of Home Premium has dropped by 3 dollars. That's 300 pennies saved!

Price Breakdown

So how does it all break down? First, let's look at the specs for the last $1500 machine we built this past summer:

Part:	Model:	Price:
Motherboard	Gigabyte GA-EX58	$189
CPU	Intel Core i7-920	$280
Memory	Patreot 6GB Viper DDR3	$79
Cooler	Thermalright Ultra 120E-1366	$70
Video Card	Diamond Radeon HD 4870 X2	$389
Optical Drive	Samsung SH-S223	$25
Power Supply	Corsair 850TX	$135
Case	Thermaltake Element S	$120
Hard Drive	Seagate 1.5TB 7200.11 Barracuda	$130
OS	Windows 7 RC	$0

Below is the $1500 we've spec'd out today. The biggest difference lies in our decision to go with a Lynnfield processor instead of a lower-clocked Bloomfield, even though we actually spent more money on the processor/motherboard of this new machine. The video cards are similarly priced, but performance is far from comparable--the Radeon 5780 absolutely stomps the 4870 X2 of last year, and its a single-GPU card, to boot. Of course, we had to spend a small amount of the budget on operating system, but that's $105 well spent. $1500 is a magic price point for enthusiasts building a new system, and we're amazed at what you can get for the price.

Part:	Model:	Price:	(Price after rebate)	Newegg Link
Motherboard	Asus P7P55D Delue	$220		Link
CPU	Intel Core i7-860 (Lynnfield)	$290		Link
Memory	Corsair XMS3 4GB DDR3/1600	$92		Link
Cooler	Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus	$30		Link
Video Card	HIS H587F1GDG Radeon 5870	$400		Link
Optical Drive	Samsung SH-S223A	$30		Link
Power Supply	Corsair 850TX	$140	$120	Link
Case	Antec 900 Two	$120	$95	Link
Hard Drive	WD Caviar Black 1TB	$100		Link
OS	Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit	$105		Link

Total: $1527 ($1482 after rebates)

Agree with our choices? Have a better configuration for a $1500 gaming PC? Post your thoughts in the comments below!

Freeware Files: Five Mozilla Jetpack Add-ons to Fuel Your Firefox

David Murphy — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 10:30:00 -0600

What, you ask, is Jetpack?

Right now, it's just an add-on for Mozilla Firefox. But it could also represent the future of browser-based extensions as we know it, depending on how much developers can twist and craft this new open framework to their advantage. Unlike normal Firefox add-ons, which require a decently skilled knowledge of Javascript and XUL, Jetpack add-ons use a combination of HTML, CSS, and Javascript to deliver new features and functionality directly through the browser. According to Mozilla, one could theoretically write an easy-to-use Jetpack add-on in "under a dozen lines of code." And the benefit for the casual Web browser? Jetpack add-ons promise universal compatibility with different versions of Firefox and, the kicker, require no browser restart to function.

Mozilla just launched the official gallery for this new framework last week. As you might expect, there aren't a ton of browser add-ons to play with. However, I'm going to take a look at five of the more innovative, interesting, and downright install-worthy of the Jetpack add-ons that are currently available in this week's freeware roundup. And remember--you can install and uninstall these add-ons without mucking up your browser session whatsoever, so feel free to be a Firefox Rocketeer and grab as many as you want to try out!

Thumbtabs

One of the fussier points of Firefox is that you can't natively get a thumbnail view of a site when you hover your mouse over its tab in your browser. Thumbtabs adds this functionality into your Web surfing experience by building a little, clickable arrow on the left-hand side of your tab toolbar. When you jam it with your mouse, a sidebar pops open to show you exactly what the pages represented by your various tabs look like. It's not quite as slick as, say, a mouseover window popping up, but Thumbtabs certainly gets the job done.

Download it here!

JetWave

If you're one of the many who use some variant of the Firefox Gmail Manager add-on to show you when you have new messages in your Inbox, you'll love JetWave. In short, it borrows the same functionality from Gmail Manager and pops a little Google Wave icon in the lower-right corner of your browser. When someone adds a message to one of your Google Waves, a little window pops up and lets you know. Clicking on the icon itself will take you right to the Google Wave home page, giving you a quick, easy way to add a reply. You can also access individual waves via a handy little sidebar on the left side of your screen.

Download it here!

Jetstatus

That didn't take long. Of course, Jetstatus is the Twitter tie-in of Jetpack add-ons. Just like JetWave, little pop-up windows appear in the lower-right hand corner of your browser whenever one of your Twitter followers posts a link. If you're popular like Associate Editor Nathan Edwards, then your browser should be a flurry of activity each time you open the window. Although you can't reply or otherwise engage your "Tweeps" via these Jetstatus pop-ups, you can at least use the add-on's built-in sidebar window to jump to the homepage of any of your followers, as well as any links they've posted in their Tweets.

Download it here!

ClicktoFlash

Are you ever bothered by Web sites that just bombard you with Flash content when all you really want to do is navigate a page? Yeah. ClicktoFlash is perhaps the world's easiest method for turning Flash on and off at your leisure. When you toggle the little button on the lower-right corner of your Firefox window to "off," or the big "F" with a circle and a line through it, then no Flash content will load on any page you surf to. If you change your mind and really want to see what a site looks like with the Flash content going crazy, then just click on the "Flash" button that now appears where Flash content used to be. Presto--up it loads!

Download it here!

Image Editor

This add-on is, in a word, crazy. All it really does is add a little menu option, "Edit Image," to the right-click context menu whenever you click an image on a Web page. From there, Image Editor loads said picture into a Lightbox of Pixlr. It's no Adobe Photoshop, but Pixlr is nevertheless a great way to accomplish a number of editing tasks--from drawing, to resizing, to screwing-up-with-lots-of-filters--straight out of your browser window. When you're done playing around, you can save the image directly out of Pixlr to your desktop just as if you were doing it in a standard, installed program. Awesome.

Download it here!

David Murphy (@ Acererak) is a technology journalist and former Maximum PC editor. He writes weekly columns about the wide world of open-source as well as weekly roundups of awesome, freebie software. Befriend him on Twitter, especially if you have an awesome app or game you're dying to recommend!