Slashdot Mirror

zborgerd writes "Linux Game Publishing has announced the opening of their beta test for X2: The Threat. X2 was featured on Slashdot last month in LGP's mystery game contest. Linux gamers can apply for the beta at LGP's beta testing site. Per their usual policy, everyone who pre-orders the game from one of their resellers is automatically qualified to enter the beta test. X2: The Threat is Egosoft's epic space simulation that is often said to be greatly influenced by the the classic games of the Elite series. A third game in the series, X3: Reunion, will soon be available for Windows (and hopefully Linux and OS X as well, if the X2 ports attract a reasonable number of fans on these platforms)."

Dave Baumann writes "Beyond3D has put up an article based on Microsoft's games developers presentations given at Meltdown, looking at the future directions of MS's next generation DirectX - currently titled "DirectX Next" (DX10). With Pixel Shaders 2.0 and 3.0 already a part of DirectX9 this article gives a feel of what to expect from PS/VS4.0 and other DirectX features hardware developers will be expected to deliver with the likes of R500 and NV50."

Thanks to The UK Guardian for their book excerpt focusing on the creation of classic 3D space shooter Elite. The piece is introduced: "Computer games weren't very good in 1982.. which was what prompted two teenage mathematicians to create the cosmos of their dreams, making them a fortune and inspiring computer nerds the world over", going on to explain why Elite, originally for the BBC Micro but with "the best conversions... for the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Acorn Archimedes" innovated in 3D graphics, complex trading systems, and "having the computer generate the game universe" for the player. However, nothing can explain Elite: The Musical.

Thanks to The UK Guardian for their book excerpt focusing on the creation of classic 3D space shooter Elite. The piece is introduced: "Computer games weren't very good in 1982.. which was what prompted two teenage mathematicians to create the cosmos of their dreams, making them a fortune and inspiring computer nerds the world over", going on to explain why Elite, originally for the BBC Micro but with "the best conversions... for the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Acorn Archimedes" innovated in 3D graphics, complex trading systems, and "having the computer generate the game universe" for the player. However, nothing can explain Elite: The Musical.

Thanks to the TNL forum regulars for finding a French-language story showing that Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima's cult interactive fiction title, Policenauts, will be re-released for Playstation in Japan at a budget price this August. There's an excellent English-language Policenauts fan site which gives a little more information on this Japanese-heavy 'Lethal Weapon set in the future' title, which has Meryl Silverburgh of Metal Gear Solid fame as one of the main game characters. There's more info at a very comprehensive Kojima 'game gallery' over at JunkerHQ, but this follow-up to Snatcher is still missing an English translation, sadly.

Thanks to the TNL forum regulars for finding a French-language story showing that Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima's cult interactive fiction title, Policenauts, will be re-released for Playstation in Japan at a budget price this August. There's an excellent English-language Policenauts fan site which gives a little more information on this Japanese-heavy 'Lethal Weapon set in the future' title, which has Meryl Silverburgh of Metal Gear Solid fame as one of the main game characters. There's more info at a very comprehensive Kojima 'game gallery' over at JunkerHQ, but this follow-up to Snatcher is still missing an English translation, sadly.

Steeltoe writes "For those deeply familiar with crop circles, 2, they are truly an amazing wonder of the world. Not only are they getting unnervingly complex and beautiful, but last year researchers found themselves dumbfounded by an ET-face with an accompanying encoded CD-disc, 2, 3! Clearly, there are not enough wonders in the world, but lack of wonder and excitement! If you like adventure, you cannot turn your back on this, 2! Check out the cool circles of 2002 at Crop Circle Connector and at Circlemakers 'Top of the Crops 2002', or even take a physical *gasp* tour during the high-peak season next summer and see for yourself!! Only imagination may tell what will pop up from the crops in 2003."

Steeltoe writes "For those deeply familiar with crop circles, 2, they are truly an amazing wonder of the world. Not only are they getting unnervingly complex and beautiful, but last year researchers found themselves dumbfounded by an ET-face with an accompanying encoded CD-disc, 2, 3! Clearly, there are not enough wonders in the world, but lack of wonder and excitement! If you like adventure, you cannot turn your back on this, 2! Check out the cool circles of 2002 at Crop Circle Connector and at Circlemakers 'Top of the Crops 2002', or even take a physical *gasp* tour during the high-peak season next summer and see for yourself!! Only imagination may tell what will pop up from the crops in 2003."

Steeltoe writes "For those deeply familiar with crop circles, 2, they are truly an amazing wonder of the world. Not only are they getting unnervingly complex and beautiful, but last year researchers found themselves dumbfounded by an ET-face with an accompanying encoded CD-disc, 2, 3! Clearly, there are not enough wonders in the world, but lack of wonder and excitement! If you like adventure, you cannot turn your back on this, 2! Check out the cool circles of 2002 at Crop Circle Connector and at Circlemakers 'Top of the Crops 2002', or even take a physical *gasp* tour during the high-peak season next summer and see for yourself!! Only imagination may tell what will pop up from the crops in 2003."

Georgwe Russell writes "The Winners have been announced at the official web site. Looks like OCaml and functional programming have won again, with the 3 member TAPLAS team. There is somewhat of an upset, though. Second place goes to 3-member team Radical TOO, whose entry was written in C! In the lightning round, the virtues of Python as a quick prototyping language were shown in the lightning division's winning entry by the OaSys one-man team. Does the skill of the programmer prevail over the limitations of the language and paradigm used, or is C nearly as good a language as OCaml?"

blown.penguin writes: "Reuters UK reports that Microsoft and RealNetworks plan to "wean customers way from MP3 files" and "limit the quality" of MP3 files that can be recorded on a computer running Windows XP. You can read all about it here." The entire Wall Street Journal story is here. Read it and weep. Dave Farber (who, incidentally, does understand the issues and isn't making this comment in a "get used to it" sense) has a great quote: "The consumer is going to eat what he's given."

Davy Mitchell writes "Interesting article on emulation on the BBC's site Good interview with Paul Burgin - author of several Dragon 32/64 emulators. This makes his views on copyright quite surprising!" It's a good article on emulation, and the revival of the old style computers. Good nostalgia.

AndrewD writes: "Picked this up from the print edition of New Scientist. It's about the development of web browsers for animals, in this case a 17-month-old african grey parrot. Here is the researcher's site." This does explain all that aol.com traffic.

Kazparr writes "This source code was posted earlier today at Livid. Derek Fawcus confirms that this is his decryption routine for the DVD css encoding scheme. Hopefully, LinuxDVD is one step closer. " So, now we've got some source - but how many of the keys do it actually have in there?

George Russell writes "I have created a web page to show themes for KDE, and am willing to accept submissions of themes with screenshots. Themes for KDE a sets of pixmaps for window decoration and a colour scheme, or collections of media files for KDE."

George Russell writes "I have created a web page to show themes for KDE, and am willing to accept submissions of themes with screenshots. Themes for KDE a sets of pixmaps for window decoration and a colour scheme, or collections of media files for KDE."

George Russell. posted his predictions for the future to c.o.l.a. and sent a copy of it here as well. Hit the link below to read his predictions- I think he's pretty much right on with most of his guesses. The following is a reprint of an article posted to c.o.l.a. by George Russell.

This is a list of my predictions of the future of computing - software, hardware, platforms and vendors, and the possibilities for new killer applications. ( and indeed, a fervent wishlist as well )

Prediction 1 ) Linux - and its future.

Kernel 2.2 (Summer of 98) will vastly improve hardware support under Linux, and will improve scalability and performance under heavy loads.

Kernel 2.3 will include universal graphics driver support in the kernel - ie on any platform, a tux logo could be shown at bootup. The whole graphics system will be simplified and of course optional - ie unneeded by a server - but no more suid root doom.

The use of kmod ( and hopefully its simplification of modules ) will lend itself to plug and play autodetection of hardware under Linux - as a consequence, Linux will no longer be so hard to install.

Gimp, Netscape 5, and Lyx will demonstate the worth of free (open source) software to the non technical end user.

Enlightenment, KDE and GNOME will demonstrate the range, power and flexibility of GUI's on Linux, and make GUI linux ( ie X ) more user friendly. And hopefully, any application using the athena widget set will die a slow death ( just personal prejudice )

Hopefully, a complete linux configuration and administration system will have been adopted by multiple vendors - everything from adding a new user to pushing a button to download a new kernel patch, apply it, recompile and insert a new lilo entry ni lilo.conf - in order that linux newbies can maintain a system. This system should be accessible from command line with optional flags ( for scripting, i guess) , a curses based character/menu interface, from within X, and a java/html interface for remote use with a browser ( no more need for telnet, hopefully)

Dosemu will be completed as it chases a stable target. Wine will be incomplete, but usable (in beta at least)

These will lead to more market penetration in server and desktop arenas, and to more ports of commercial software and more favourable publicity.

Prediction 2) Microsoft

Microsoft - will go from strength to strength. NT will gain market share, and with new releases of Windows 98 and 5 the critics of windows and bill will be submerged in the general "rejoicing" of a new release from redmond ( and more owners of obsoleted hardware will look outside the windows world. )

Prediction 3) Commercial Unix

Commercial Unix will suffer. The least capable will falter, and a new Unix vendor in both software and hardware will arise. Apple will eventually drop MacOS and promote its unix varient - while losing market share to everyone else. SGI,HP,Sun, will live on, SCO will die to NT, free unix and ported Unix on Merced. Digital will allow VMS to die while promoting the fastest NT servers. In the high end, Unix will expand the possibilities while in the low end losing out to cheaper hardware which gives more performance per pound.

Prediction 4) Any further killer applications will occur outwith the PC/Server domain, and instead in the field of consumer goods. These might include PDAS, set top boxes ( on say an Acorn Risc chip with ROM or CD-ROM based OS and applications - like PlayStation.

To round it off, OS/2 is dead and will fade yet further, Netware may cling on, DOS will be relegated completely to microcontrol systems and displace CPM there for the last time. Sun, Digital, ARM, Motorola will be the last major players in CPU's - Sun,Digital,Motorala in servers and Intel compatible on desktops - ARM chips for set top or embedded systems use.

Many ommisions, and innacuracies to be sure, but a plausible view of the future?

George Russell (posted to c.o.l.a)

George Russell. posted his predictions for the future to c.o.l.a. and sent a copy of it here as well. Hit the link below to read his predictions- I think he's pretty much right on with most of his guesses. The following is a reprint of an article posted to c.o.l.a. by George Russell.

This is a list of my predictions of the future of computing - software, hardware, platforms and vendors, and the possibilities for new killer applications. ( and indeed, a fervent wishlist as well )

Prediction 1 ) Linux - and its future.

Kernel 2.2 (Summer of 98) will vastly improve hardware support under Linux, and will improve scalability and performance under heavy loads.

Kernel 2.3 will include universal graphics driver support in the kernel - ie on any platform, a tux logo could be shown at bootup. The whole graphics system will be simplified and of course optional - ie unneeded by a server - but no more suid root doom.

The use of kmod ( and hopefully its simplification of modules ) will lend itself to plug and play autodetection of hardware under Linux - as a consequence, Linux will no longer be so hard to install.

Gimp, Netscape 5, and Lyx will demonstate the worth of free (open source) software to the non technical end user.

Enlightenment, KDE and GNOME will demonstrate the range, power and flexibility of GUI's on Linux, and make GUI linux ( ie X ) more user friendly. And hopefully, any application using the athena widget set will die a slow death ( just personal prejudice )

Hopefully, a complete linux configuration and administration system will have been adopted by multiple vendors - everything from adding a new user to pushing a button to download a new kernel patch, apply it, recompile and insert a new lilo entry ni lilo.conf - in order that linux newbies can maintain a system. This system should be accessible from command line with optional flags ( for scripting, i guess) , a curses based character/menu interface, from within X, and a java/html interface for remote use with a browser ( no more need for telnet, hopefully)

Dosemu will be completed as it chases a stable target. Wine will be incomplete, but usable (in beta at least)

These will lead to more market penetration in server and desktop arenas, and to more ports of commercial software and more favourable publicity.

Prediction 2) Microsoft

Microsoft - will go from strength to strength. NT will gain market share, and with new releases of Windows 98 and 5 the critics of windows and bill will be submerged in the general "rejoicing" of a new release from redmond ( and more owners of obsoleted hardware will look outside the windows world. )

Prediction 3) Commercial Unix

Commercial Unix will suffer. The least capable will falter, and a new Unix vendor in both software and hardware will arise. Apple will eventually drop MacOS and promote its unix varient - while losing market share to everyone else. SGI,HP,Sun, will live on, SCO will die to NT, free unix and ported Unix on Merced. Digital will allow VMS to die while promoting the fastest NT servers. In the high end, Unix will expand the possibilities while in the low end losing out to cheaper hardware which gives more performance per pound.

Prediction 4) Any further killer applications will occur outwith the PC/Server domain, and instead in the field of consumer goods. These might include PDAS, set top boxes ( on say an Acorn Risc chip with ROM or CD-ROM based OS and applications - like PlayStation.

To round it off, OS/2 is dead and will fade yet further, Netware may cling on, DOS will be relegated completely to microcontrol systems and displace CPM there for the last time. Sun, Digital, ARM, Motorola will be the last major players in CPU's - Sun,Digital,Motorala in servers and Intel compatible on desktops - ARM chips for set top or embedded systems use.

Many ommisions, and innacuracies to be sure, but a plausible view of the future?

George Russell (posted to c.o.l.a)