Slashdot Mirror

The more people who refuse to help cover the costs of web-sites passivly by viewing ads, the more sites that are going to force people to pay actively with subscriptions or whatnot.

Speaking from experience, subscriptions work really well, even for a not so major web-site like IcarusIndie.com

Currently I just use banner ads for intersite advertising (my site is huge), to allow other game development sites to get some free exposure and to plug web-sites I'm a fan of. I still have a number of text ads you'd never notice unless you clicked on them to get statistics on how well they work (at least for exposure). I've yet to make a dime on them.

As a result of using subscriptions I have a lot more bandwidth available to offer more free stuff.

Like this Survey on who people think the US should attack and tons of material including video on the war

So, block all you want. It's a very simple thing to go to a subscription model. For sites that are struggling with bandwidth usage and costs, I highly recommend it.

Ben

I've mirrored that blog at
http://www.icarusindie.com/waroniraq

in the documents folder. I'll update the mirror every day or so.

If you havn't already, please vote at

http://www.icarusindie.com/survey

You can view the current results of that poll at

http://www.icarusindie.com/survey/results.php

Thanks,

Ben

I've mirrored that blog at
http://www.icarusindie.com/waroniraq

in the documents folder. I'll update the mirror every day or so.

If you havn't already, please vote at

http://www.icarusindie.com/survey

You can view the current results of that poll at

http://www.icarusindie.com/survey/results.php

Thanks,

Ben

I've mirrored that blog at
http://www.icarusindie.com/waroniraq

in the documents folder. I'll update the mirror every day or so.

If you havn't already, please vote at

http://www.icarusindie.com/survey

You can view the current results of that poll at

http://www.icarusindie.com/survey/results.php

Thanks,

Ben

The anticipated War on Iraq is pissing a lot of people off. There are polls all over the place. Nobody really knows how many people actually support it. Some even question who the US should attack. So I propose a survey ( http://www.icarusindie.com/survey ). All you need to do is enter who we should attack (if anybody) and then click on that country's location on the map to submit your vote. Eventually, a more formal report will be created showing exact percentages for every country submitted. Your IP is logged and only one vote per IP is used to create the map so don't spam please.

You can see the live results map at
http://www.icarusindie.com/survey/results.php

Thanks for your participation.

Ben

The anticipated War on Iraq is pissing a lot of people off. There are polls all over the place. Nobody really knows how many people actually support it. Some even question who the US should attack. So I propose a survey ( http://www.icarusindie.com/survey ). All you need to do is enter who we should attack (if anybody) and then click on that country's location on the map to submit your vote. Eventually, a more formal report will be created showing exact percentages for every country submitted. Your IP is logged and only one vote per IP is used to create the map so don't spam please.

You can see the live results map at
http://www.icarusindie.com/survey/results.php

Thanks for your participation.

Ben

I'll be posting various clips from the news (including Bush's latest speech) at

http://www.icarusindie.com/waroniraq/

No one is gung ho about killing Iraqis and the fact someone wrote a letter pointing it out shows just how out of touch they are. 70%+ of people polled on MSNBC today are for the war to GET SADDAM. GOT IT. WE'RE GUNG HO TO GET SADDAM. NOT IRAQIS. Maybe if people would stop shouting "NANANANANA I'M OPEN MINDED" while covering their ears every time pro-war people speak they'd be less prone to make fools of themselves by writting such ill informed dribble.

Way to succumb to the anti-war BS and miss the boat. I'm proud to be an American. It's great to be a part of a country that takes an active role in taking out leaders who oppress people.

Ben

Politics as Usual

The above is a collection of various political writings including such works as

Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler
Manifesto of the Communist Party
The Unabomber's Manifesto

If you know of any more political documents that are preferably controversial and are freely available, post their title. I'd like to add them to my site.

I'm also looking for original video/audio clips of Bin Laden without any editing or commentary over laid. If he's written any documents, I'd like to get a hold of those too. Some recent material from Saddam would be nice as well.

Ben

The Head Mounted Display Virtual Boy

That was really what it needed: to be head mounted. And it wasn't difficult to do. Seperating the system from the display was impossible due to what I assume was the timing (when I extended the wires the mirrors couldn't sync up). Fortunatly there was enough unneccessary crap that could be removed to lessen the weight enough to make it wearable.

I have many of the games and two systems (one is HMD now). I don't think console makers will take the plunge again though until little LCDs can display the quality of a full size LCD at a reasonable price.

With dirt cheap little LCD monitors comming out I don't think it's too far off. It's really the next logical step. I think Nintendo just took it too soon.

They should just have a dual video out for their next console and offer 3D glasses as an option. That would be nice. Trying to embed it all together is just a bad idea.

Ben

I like your solution, but I think it would be more effective if you took a little bigger approach. Instead of using Verisign or Paypal for the actual transactions, do it yourself. This is of course impractical for small discrete payments, but if you implemented it as a certain number of page views for $10 (like Slashdot did) it might be feasible.

What I meant by thinking bigger is to record page views across several sites web users visit. That way I can pay $10 and get 1000 page views at DevZone, WDVL, 4GuysFromRolla, jguru, and other sites who chose to participate.

DirectX 9 is now available from Microsoft but in very large files. Icarus Independent now offers an alternative here at the DevZone. Download as much or as little as you need. Each section of DirectX 9 is neatly zipped up in it's own file.

If the download is still a bit daunting head to here and request the DirectX 9 SDK be included on a Content CD which costs only $2 per 650MB plus shipping which is typically less than $2 within the US.

Ben

DirectX 9 is now available from Microsoft but in very large files. Icarus Independent now offers an alternative here at the DevZone. Download as much or as little as you need. Each section of DirectX 9 is neatly zipped up in it's own file.

If the download is still a bit daunting head to here and request the DirectX 9 SDK be included on a Content CD which costs only $2 per 650MB plus shipping which is typically less than $2 within the US.

Ben

I run www.icarusindie.com out of house on a 256K up /640K down DSL line for $70 a month through Inficad/Getnet. Last month I did over 50GB of transfer and suffered a number of "Server not found" errors during peak times. It's $200 a month to go to 1Mbit both ways.

With a NAT I can run as many services on as many computers of any OS I want. It's a nice "cheap" way to get your feet wet before going for a professional solution.

dotcom

has everything listed you need to get a server going.

Ben

It Sounded Like a Good Idea (actual quotes from Carter on Larry King Live not too long ago)

We can use all those unused military outfits to make a nice big "Kick Me" sign for the White House.

Ben

DevZone

The DevZone has a very large collection of free compilers, books, and SDKs available for download.

If you're leaning more towards game development, GameDev.net is an excellent resource. It's more a game development community but you can find help for anything programming related in the forums.

Ben

"I don't want to download the whole file through a dial-up connection..."

Get just what you want at tricks.icarusindie.com in the Source Code section.

Direct Link to the FreeSpace 2 code unpackaged.

Ben

"I don't want to download the whole file through a dial-up connection..."

Get just what you want at tricks.icarusindie.com in the Source Code section.

Direct Link to the FreeSpace 2 code unpackaged.

Ben