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I always marvel at how all planets appear to have the exact same atmospheric pressure all over the galaxy...

That's not really a problem. Stargates were placed exclusively on Earth-like planets intentionally by the Ancients.

It's every bit as surprising as how well most aliens speak English.

That's a very serious, show stopping problem that very few people seem to notice or care about. It's also a problem other science fiction shows lack, or solve adequately. Congratulations, in a thread with over 500 comments, you were the first and only person to mention it (so far). :(

I did not claim otherwise. I find the business model he's using for the physical media fantastic and a great step forward. In that sense, art does sell and he's setting a great example.

The example he's not setting very well is on the digital download front. While $5 for 36 tracks is a great deal compared to what is common today, it still relies on the old and broken consumer-cost business model for digital downloads. A model which has been torn down time and time again by numerous economists - see articles like The Inevitable March of Recorded Music Toward Free, or the one I wrote, or one several others.

In a slight step backward from the NiggyTardust release, maybe because of disappointment surrounding it's profitability, despite licensing all of Ghosts under Creative Commons, Trent this time not only refuses to provide a free download on his own servers (for the whole album) but has failed to monetize the freeloaders. This is the same mistake he made with the NiggyTardust release all over again. His business model seems to rely on shaming his fans into paying $5; hardly a viable business model.

If I were him, I'd have ran my own torrent tracker and put ads on it. That way he'd make greater than $0 off the freeloaders and wouldn't look like a hypocrite by licensing the album under creative commons but refusing to provide a free download personally.

I did not claim otherwise. I find the business model he's using for the physical media fantastic and a great step forward. In that sense, art does sell and he's setting a great example.

The example he's not setting very well is on the digital download front. While $5 for 36 tracks is a great deal compared to what is common today, it still relies on the old and broken consumer-cost business model for digital downloads. A model which has been torn down time and time again by numerous economists - see articles like The Inevitable March of Recorded Music Toward Free, or the one I wrote, or one several others.

In a slight step backward from the NiggyTardust release, maybe because of disappointment surrounding it's profitability, despite licensing all of Ghosts under Creative Commons, Trent this time not only refuses to provide a free download on his own servers (for the whole album) but has failed to monetize the freeloaders. This is the same mistake he made with the NiggyTardust release all over again. His business model seems to rely on shaming his fans into paying $5; hardly a viable business model.

If I were him, I'd have ran my own torrent tracker and put ads on it. That way he'd make greater than $0 off the freeloaders and wouldn't look like a hypocrite by licensing the album under creative commons but refusing to provide a free download personally.

A month ago, I would have said Continuum (formerly called Subspace)... a wonderful free (as in beer) massively multiplayer online game, the oldest running one in history. Fast paced, extremely addictive, excellent gameplay.

But some nice people hacked WINE and got it working (see also WineHQ Notes), something I've been waiting for for years.

I'm now thoroughly wasting all my time in this game again, without the guilty feeling of booting Windows for it! Screenshot

wtf and lol:

Spock: "Two females. Sisters I believe. One calls herself 'Seven Of Nine.' The little one calls herself 'Six.'"

Adama: "What's with the numerical designations?"

Spock: "Unknown. They're both from a planet of nymphomaniacs. Wear tight clothing, are both linked to a 'hive collective consciousness'; and are right now. even as I speak, seducing all of the male crew members."

Adama: "And the problem is?"

Spock: "It's going on during office hours."

Adama: "I see your point."

Spock: "They have currently taken all of the 300 male crew members hostage in engineering. All 300 volunteered to be taken hostage."

Adama: "And their demands are?"

Spock: "They want the heads of two television producers from Earth stuffed, mounted, and placed on display."

Adama: "Television producers? What are their names?"

Spock: "Ronald D. Moore and David Eick."

Adama: "Why do those names sound familiar?"

Your comment has more humor than you know.

Ever hear of Languatron? He hates the new BSG so much that even his fellow classic BSG fanboy peers shun him away. So he created a messageboard where only he is allowed to post. Additionally, only he is allowed to read. If you read it too long, you will be banned.

His rants are totally hilarious, this guy is totally off his rocker. Since getting banned over and over isn't my cup of tea, I decided instead to archive his entire website. It's funny stuff. I love crazy people.

Google toolbar's spellcheck is better than Safari's on Mac because it highlights words that are misspelled within the form. In Safari, you have to right click on each one.

Take a look at this screenshot

I've already written a proof of concept for a mapping system for a web based space strategy game I'm working that makes use of SVG for line drawing. I've been testing it in the Firefox betas.

You can take a look at it if you want. Right click to change the zoom level. It's powered by Javascript HTTP request, the DOM, and hefty doses of SVG for line drawing.

For Mozilla / Firefox betas: http://halo43.com/ladder4/map_view.xml

For IE (replacing SVG with VML and JS HTTP request with ActiveX, etc): http://halo43.com/ladder4/map_view.html

Code's pretty ugly in both versions, but it works.

I've already written a proof of concept for a mapping system for a web based space strategy game I'm working that makes use of SVG for line drawing. I've been testing it in the Firefox betas.

You can take a look at it if you want. Right click to change the zoom level. It's powered by Javascript HTTP request, the DOM, and hefty doses of SVG for line drawing.

For Mozilla / Firefox betas: http://halo43.com/ladder4/map_view.xml

For IE (replacing SVG with VML and JS HTTP request with ActiveX, etc): http://halo43.com/ladder4/map_view.html

Code's pretty ugly in both versions, but it works.

"Khaaaaaaaannnnn!"

The reputation of GNU/Linux advocates suffers because the concept of all software being free is too hard for many of today's computer users to grasp. A lot of businesses make their money by hiring developers and selling software. This is a business model many of us would like to see die.

The big FUD statement we always hear is how is FOSS profitable if it's all being done for free? I always cite the Linux kernel itself as a model for the future; most of the people working on the kernel are paid developers. Companies like IBM sponser FOSS development. If every company which needs software to use worked in the same manner, the world would be perfect.

There are simply too many people who can't shake the idea that software is a "product" to be bought and sold. I've seen some pretty nasty things said to FOSS advocates. I've even seen some of the conservative opposition refer to FOSS as "Communism" and "Anti-American". Facing blatant ignorance and bigotry every day, it's no wonder that *nix people can seem condescending at times.

Isn't the human brain supposed to be equivalent to a supercomputer running at about ~100 teraflops? And if so, shouldn't this computer be smarter than us?

Of course it's not the only option. Poisoning the water supply could be far more effective, and probably easier to get away with. It doesn't make a great game plot, though. And it's hard work (you need lots of poison).

Hehe, yeah, thanks. I like that too. The reason for that is I like Debian as a distro better than Redhat, but I think Redhat's artwork is awesome. So I just did some scripting and aliening to get my GNOME and KDE Bluecurved. You can do it on your own Debian install using my installer

Or a screenshot of a slashdotter posting a message to slashdot?

Upgrading PHP on mac systems is a little difficult. It isn't as easy as apt-get upgrade or emerge sync.

Fortunately, I have nothing to worry about as my forum software albeit still alpha experimental work, does not have this vulnerability.

funny, i see many more borders is gnome-terminal ?!?!

funny, i see many more borders is gnome-terminal ?!?!

Argh! That's Final Fantasy FOUR and SIX. And I've got news for you. If all you've ever played was the American version of FF4 released as FF2, then you have barely scratched the surface of that game. See my article on the game for more details.

As for your statement claiming that modern games lack quality and fun, buy a GameCube and play Smash Bros Melee, Metroid Prime, Windwaker, etc. If you think all those games lack quality and fun, then you need your head examined.

So my money is on the former in your statement. I think you're just outgrowing gaming and/or getting bored with it. Just because you're bored doesn't mean all modern games suck.

Also, you can hack the save files emulators produce at the hex level. Cheating in console games is important to me (but only on certain levels) because I like to completely conquer the games I play. This is why I vastly enjoy the save and load state features that are present in most emulators. For example, saving and loading at certain times in FF7 chocobo racing can increase your chances of getting the extremely uber rare 3 pieces of materia the races have to offer. Shortens 3 straight days of gaming into 3 hours. Great for college students with tight schedules ;)

A good example of where (hex edit) cheating is necessary is FF4 for the SNES. In order to get some of the game's items, you have to fight millions of battles! The odds are so much against you that I know people who have had the actual cartridge for upwards of twelve years and still haven't gotten it all.

So in response to this practically impossible difficulty I have created a guide for hacking FF4 ZSNES save states at the hex level, to be found here.

See, I see using console emulation like using open source software. If you don't like something about a console, too fucking bad. If you emulate it, chances are you can do something about it. Just like if you don't like something about closed source software, too fucking bad. But with open source, chances are you can do something about it. :)

Uhm okay, I don't know who the fuck thinks it's funny to plaigiarize my writing, but I am the original author of this essay. I wrote it on January 8th of this year, the original text can be found here.

Hmm. I don't know whether or not to say "mod parent down!" After all, it got a freakin' +5. In a way, now I almost wish I thought of copy/pasting my rant to Slashdot first. A pity. Could have done wonders for my karma ;)

Parent poster is a cocksucker with no brain. Don't bother trying anything poster has produced, as it has to be shit. Kethinov is stupid and ignorant. He is truly a garbage human being. I mean look at this faggot! He's such a loser.

phpBB is NOT lightweight. Granted it's not the most bloated forum on earth, it does have tons of totally pointless "features" that go beyond the scope of most websites. If you want true minimalism, try mine out. Of course mine is still in the developmental stages and there are bugs. But it is totally bloat-free.

Okay, done with my shameless plug. Move along now.

SoM's best feature was very original and rich graphics and really good music. The plot was rather poorly stitched together and the multiplayer was useless because the screen wasn't split, making quick decisions and dealing with group actions and dealing quickly with more difficult situations (like needing to use a whip to cross a gap away from powerful enemies in the Mana Fortress) is a pain in the ass.

The best feature really was the ring system which made doing repetitive actions on multiple characters easy, and finding new actions very easy and fast.

Side note: if you got your magic up to 8:99, there was a secret "9th level" to all the magic spells with more drastic animations.

For more "maxed out" information on SoM look here.

The fact is *most* open source projects are done by students or the unemployed. [snip] However I think the concept of open source, giving something away that could be sold is pretty unique to software development right now. I find it humorous that people just give away all their work myself.

The fact is *most* open source projects are done by students or the unemployed. [snip] However I think the concept of open source, giving something away that could be sold is pretty unique to software development right now. I find it humorous that people just give away all their work myself.

This article reads oh so similar to my rant on the same topic. But the last time I quoted my main points from my rant (which are nearly identical to this article) I got modded as flamebait! So my belief that console gaming is inferior to PC gaming goes from Slashdot flamebait to Slashdot article? How ironic. [/end_irony]

I read your post and was impressed, then I read this on the site you reference:
http://eric.halo43.com/ranting.php?id=25

Exactly how is this attitude any different?

consoles are, in the long run, more expensive than computers. In order to be able to play every single good console game in existence, you'd need to stick with the updates of two to four major makers. Buying that many consoles a year ultimately costs more money than buying a computer.

Computers are upgradable, consoles are not. Computers have internet connections extending replay value, console multiplayer capacity is limited to just a few people. And to top it all off, computers have many more games available to them. Furthermore, computer internet connections have nearly infinitely more uses than just gaming.

As a result of this, people who only bought consoles to play the latest and greatest games now begin buying computers, further standardizing their use, and computer users who never bought the uber expensive consoles are now buying console games for their computers. The companies now have a larger customer base with an ultimately better product.

That headline has been on my website for 4 days.

I wouldn't pay a dime for something that doesn't run on Linux.