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[9 Apr 2012 | | ]
Wordsler: Quiddler for your N900

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Are you a fan of word games? Well, I know I am, so when I found Wordsler in the repos, I just couldn’t pass it by.

Now, Wordsler is a fun word game, which is basically Quiddler, but on your N900‘s screen. If you’re not familiar with Quiddler, the game’s simple: you are given a set of cards and you form words out of them. For every word you form, you receive points based on the cards you used. For example, a card with Q is worth more than the one with A, as there are less words that have the letter Q in it.

Wordsler has a few game modes aside from the standard Quiddler: Time Trial, which is pretty much self-explanatory and Online Challenge, where you can compete with other players online, adding quite some fun into the game. Wordsler also features an achievement system, which also adds some playing value.
I myself found the game a good time sinker, I have spent at least an hour playing after discovering it. So, if you want to check it out, grab it from Extras with:
sudo gainroot
apt-get install wordsler
And dive into Quiddler without physical cards!

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[6 Apr 2012 | | ]
Slysics: Sleigh simulations on your N900

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Have a like for simulation games like Numpty Physics? Slysics is something you’ll definitely enjoy.

Slysics is a fun simulation game where you build sleigh tracks and then watch the figure gracefully (or painfully) slide down them.
With not that many tools you can nonetheless build some really great simulations and you are only limited with your imagination. Build a giant track with a ramp to see how far the sleigh will travel? Maybe a beautiful scenery? Or a sadistic track full of traps and rough falls? You are free to do anything.
Slysics is currently available in the Extras-Devel, which you’ll have to enable before getting it with
sudo gainroot
apt-get install slysics
The game is moving on to OpenGL, which will soon bring it better graphics, but even with it’s 2D now, it’s still very fun.
A fun little time sinker, Slysics will sure keep you busy for quite some time.

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[5 Apr 2012 | | ]
[How-To] MMS on the N900 with fMMS

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Using MMS? Or want to try? Well, unfortunately, N900 doesn’t support MMS out-of-the-box, but fMMS can help us with that! In this guide, I will show you how to setup fMMS on your N900.

First, get fMMS from the Extras repository with these commands:
sudo gainroot
apt-get install fmms
Now, for the settings! Run fMMS and go to the settings:

Once there, tap another Settings button. Now go to this page and carefully fill in all the information for your mobile carrier. Make sure to double-check all the settings after you did so, a typo in the AP name can cost you quite a lot (literally, your carrier might charge you heavily if you try to connect to a wrong AP).
Now, a little note, if the data on the wiki page says “Use Proxy: No”, you will have to take another few steps:
1. Tap the system Menu button, go to Settings -> Internet connections -> Connections -> MMS -> Edit
2. Tap Next -> Next -> Advanced
3. Uncheck the “Use proxy” checkbox and click Save.
If it says “Use Proxy: Yes”, ignore the above and continue.
Now to test all your settings, set the “Polite” Setting in the fMMS settings menu and (via the statusbar menu) connect to an internet connection called “MMS”. Open up MicroB and go to the MMSC URL you put in fMMS settings (don’t worry, unless your carrier is crazy and charges for receiving MMS, you won’t lose money). If everything is setup correctly, you should have a blank page. If you have something like “HTTP Response: 400″ or any text like that, then you’ve got something wrong, check all your settings again.

There, now fMMS is set up and you can send and receive MMS messages! If you have still have any troubles (after you’ve passed the testing), please see the Troubleshooting here.
Enjoy!

Guide requested by Steven Kierath, our reader. Have your own suggestions/requests/problems? Contact us on our Facebook page (you can find the link on the homepage) or send me an email.

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[4 Apr 2012 | | ]
[How-to] Play music from a remote machine

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Just yesterday, I was on my way home. Usually, I listen to the music while out on the street, but my audio player wasn’t with me and it’s been a while since I have uploaded any fresh music into my N900. Luckily, I had all my music on my home PC (which was conveniently running) and with an N900, I sure can access and listen to it. Want to know how? I’ll show you in this guide.

This guide assumes the machine you’re connecting to runs a *nix system (GNU/Linux, BSD, MacOS). For getting SSH up with Windows, refer to this guide by Lifehacker.
First things first, you would want to have SSH running on your machine with the music. Make sure you start it and have the SSH port unlocked on the machine.
If you are unsure how to do that, see this guide for Ubuntu, which will work for most other GNU/Linux distros with minor changes, or refer to your system’s documentation.
Obviously, you also need OpenSSH on your N900, which you can get with
sudo gainroot
apt-get install openssh
if you don’t have it already. Now, let’s look at the methods you can use to start playing music from a remote machine on your N900.
You can use MPlayer + SSH. This is a faster, but a slightly inconvenient way, for which you need MPlayer on your N900.
If you don’t have it, get it with
sudo gainroot
apt-get install mplayer
Then, you can use this command:
ssh <user>@<remote-address> “cat <full-path-to-file>” | mplayer -
Where <user> is your username on the machine, <remote-address> is your machine’s IP address and <full-path-to-file> is the full path to the file you want to play.
The inconvenience of this is that you won’t be able to play many files at once and you’ll have to use the full path to the file.
A better method is sshfs. Again, if you don’t have sshfs, grab it with
sudo gainroot
apt-get install sshfs
Create a directory, which you’ll use (as root):
mkdir /home/user/Home-PC
Finally, mount your machine’s filesystem on that directory with sshfs:
sshfs <user>@<remote-address>: /home/user/Home-PC
There, you can now access the whole home directory of your home PC via /home/user/Home-PC and that means (besides other files) you can …

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[10 Mar 2012 | | ]
Vulture’s Eye: Nethack on your N900

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Are you a roguelike enthusiast? Want to take your beloved NetHack with you? Or want to try it out?
Well, then you’ll be happy to know that a “Vulture’s Eye” Maemo port exists and works very well.

Vulture’s Eye is accessible from the Extras, so get it with
sudo gainroot
apt-get install vultures
NetHack surely can be played without it’s graphical version, but you should take in mind that the N900‘s keyboard is not the best thing you can play roguelikes with. While having a dislike for “tiled” roguelikes myself, I found Vulture’s Eye very sweet to play with a touchscreen. It works very well, and still allows you to feel this dungeon atmosphere. Sure, sometimes you will have to slide down the keyboard, but most of the time you wouldn’t need it, and this allows you to explore the dungeon while you’re in a bus/queue/whatnot.
So don’t wait, fetch vultures from Extras and dive into the quest for the Amulet of Yendor!