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### I wonder how you are defining "flop".

The 'flop' part is that the DS still lacks games, especially games that make some decent use of the second screen. In the US this is quite a bit worse since the DS has there been out for ages without any games worth to talk about coming out, while in Europe its just a month out of the doors, making it kind of forgivable that there is no other decente game beside Mario64DS. The current Minigames are all fine and nice, but I doubt that I will be much interested in them in a few weeks/month when the first 'look cool new little feature' feeling has worn off. Even on the release list I couldn't find much interesting stuff at all, sure a new MarioKart would be nice and a new AdvanceWars might be fun as well, but been there done that.

About compatibilty of a new GBA with the DS, I kind of doubt it. The DS is simply a rather uniq device which makes compatibilty hard. Sure a new GBA might have a touchscreen, which I would actually like, but for sure it will not be the same size and resolution as the other screen, streching/blackborders like with Gameboy games on GBA is of course still possible. But then Nintendo has made it rather clear that DS is not a 'Gameboy', but some third kind of console, making it kind of hard to guess what their next step will be, they could either just dump the DS like the VirtualBoy and continue with GBA2, 'adopt' the DS into the Gameboy familay and let GBA2 follow its way or turn the DS into some kind of PDA widget with good game support and thus indeed hardening the 'third kind' thing. Compatibilty to the Gamecube might also be doable with a GBA2, but we will see what will come.

I think the major fault of the DS is not that it has a second screen, but that the second screen is the same size as the other one, which makes it very attractive to a bunch of minigames, but rather wasted for normal games in the long run. What they should have done is making the second screen a little bit smaller while making the primary screen quite a bit larger. After all if you would have a foldable handheld with a larger screen the space between the controll-pad and the buttons would be unused anyway, so sticking a mini-screen there would do no harm. Beside from that I think that the second screen actually adds quite a bit to gameplay, since it basically allows mode-less gameplay, where you don't have to constantly switch around between inventory/map and the game, but where you are in-game 100% of the time.

Aehm, no that doesn't produce a real one-pixel width circle either, just something that is somewhat close to a circle, but actually not even round. Beside that its a few orders of magnitudes harder to use then a simple circle tool which you will find in mainy other paint programms.

Even worse is that "Edit->Stroke" is not only hard to figure out and hard to use, it doesn't even work the same as a real shape tool would, when you want to get a simple one-pixel width cicrle you will have a real hard time with Gimp, since it will always give you a ugly two or more pixel width one.

XArchon

There's always XArchon for *nix :)

There is always xarchon. Personally, I prefer to use VICE to emulate the original C64 game.

Oddly enought, I found out the answer to that last night (and I wasn't even asking about that particular problem):

dd if=/dev/hda of=hda.mbr bs=512 count=1

Got that from this site. So take their word for it, not mine.

Had trouble finding them before, but here are some screenshots showing the progress...

Tuxkart (before, after)

Pingus (screenshots, improvement not as drastic as supertuxcart, but still)

Supertux (screenshots, you can see the progress just by scrolling down).

Alright, so these are all variations on a theme (linux motifs combined with older popular titles: Mariokart, Lemmings, Super Mario Bros) but if the artwork is any indication, it's pretty impressive what they've come up with so far.

• Boson
• Bsdgames
• Crimson Fields
• Dosbox (Emulator)
• Empire
• Konquest
• Mangoquest
• Pysol
• Tuxcart
• Zsnes (Emulator)
• Ace-of-penguin
• Battle for Wesnoth
• Bzflag, Bzflag-Server
• Clanbomber
• Crossfire (GTK client)
• Enigma
• Foobillard
• Freeciv, Freeciv-server
• Freesci
• Gltron
• Gnuchess
• Jump'n'Bump (joystick support patch, special graphic patches)
• Ksokoban
• Lbreakout2
• Lgeneral
• Miniracer
• Nethack
• Netpanzer
• Neverball
• Tuxracer
• Xgalaga
• XMame, XMess (Emulators)
• Xpilot

gEDA has a mixed mode simulator program called Gnucap. I haven't tried it, but seems to be quite powerful, even while it's still work in progress.

Sorry Tux, but you receiving awards at the Oscars? Please nooo....

With an educational discount, Windows 2003 server costs my department $142 (sure, it's more in a commercial environment), I can install it, set it up, run updates on it once in a while, run the baseline security analyzer on it, and forget about it. Give me a linux that does all this in an easy to use manner, and I'll switch. Sure, I could use apt and the others, but it just takes too much time, and you have to worry about various dependencies and what not.

At $142, that's $142 more you have to spend compared to FOSS solutions. What you've described, proved either that your educational institution is filthy rich and caters only for the rich and snobs, or you're just plain lazy.

Most educational institutions, whether state-run or even privately operated (esp. private with visions of education rather than for profit), are almost always tight budget! This is especially true in third world countries! That is why various bodies such as SchoolForge (and their Case Studies), K12OS, Moodle, OpenSourceSchools, KDE Edutainment Project and a lot more others are being founded and.. surprise! Thrives!

Personally, I love the K12LTSP Project. A branch out of the K12OS Project, which when deployed properly throughout the campus, can provide access to all students to high-grade apps in a very stable environment. Access from any terminal in any labs, authenticating via NIS, LDAP or whatever you prefer and access your mail accounts, website or whatever. With backend support tools available such as MySQL or PgSQL and PHP/Perl (okay, maybe that's a bit far out, but I've met 12 year olds who can code!)

Software cost? $0

... and join BoS so we can finish a cool OSS 2D RTS Game. I just joined the other week.

http://pingus.seul.org/~grumbel/tmp/gimp-onepixelb ug.png

The right image is what I want, the left images show what Gimp gives you (stroke with width 1 and stroke with pencil tool and one-pixel brush).

I mostly write technical documents. troff takes less effort to write, I'll continue using that instead of AbiWord/OpenOffice/MS Word. WYSIWYG is generally not that useful if you do mainly structured documents or if you need fine control of typesetting. Typesetting languages with the right scripts are generally the easiest. If you need purely structured documents then DocBook-SGML is not a bad route to go. (SGML is fancier and more human-friendly than XML, which is what you really want if you are manually editing tags)

Also when doing resumes you really have to make sure that the resume looks correct in Wordpad, Word97 and Office2k/XP. Seems that these are what recruiters use (wordpad appearing to be the most common). Hint: save as word97 RTF and rename .rtf to .doc. This will make it load correctly in wordpad, without getting too fancy/bizarre on the formatting that Office2K likes to put in.

Recruiters seem to hate PDFs (I guess they prefer file formats with macro viruses). Although I've had a great deal of luck with HTML. Mostly I just do my resume in troff and provide it as PDF to the manager/engineers and HTML to the recruiters and everyone is happy.

Guide to doing your resume in troff (and taking advantage of macros to painlessly customize your resume).
Your Resume: Part 1 Your Resume: Part 2

If you do a lot of technical documents these tools work well with troff (or LaTeX):
Graphviz for doing automated diagrams
Gnuplot for doing scientific graphing (it can output postscript and ascii)
TGIF a 2-d drawing tool with a light-weigh intuitive UI.
gEDA for schematics and pcb layout
xcircuit extremely powerful 2-d drawing tool. originally designed for schematics, but is useful for any sort of diagram.

Also if you were wondering: Résumé == Curriculum vitae (CV)

I agree that 3D is over-used. It doesn't *have* to be used to create fun games -- all of these play on Linux, and most (maybe all?) play on Windows and other platforms as well.

SuperTux is a Mario Brothers "clone" that's really quite nice. Apparently it was the Linux Game Tome Game of the Month for March 2004, which is like Extreme Makeover for Linux games. OpenGL acceleration is nice (gives me about 30fps extra on my AMD64 3200+ with nVidia FX5900XT card), but it runs pretty decently without it. You should note that to make Tux run or shoot fireballs in the game, you need to hold down the left Control key... I didn't know that and ended up cheating with the level editor. I finally discovered the key-mappings, and I'm currently slightly addicted to it... :)

Pingus is a cool, open-source, penguin-themed (of course :) Lemmings-like game that doesn't require any kind of acceleration, just a decent system. There aren't many levels available yet, but it's a good-looking game and fun to play around with.

Project: Starfighter is also pretty good, although I find the levels a little too hard for my liking. Hardware acceleration is pretty much required, unfortunately.

And there's always the venerable and *highly* addictive Frozen Bubble... that game has wasted so much of my time... and I've enjoyed every minute!

I've been really impressed -- there seems to be an explosion of good, free games for Linux lately, though it could just be that I'm finally finding out about them. Although I don't have too much of a problem with 3D, I knew Neverball was getting to me when I started dreaming about it...

...i nearly always install on new systems:
CoreWar: simulation game where a number of warriors try to crash each other while they are running in a virtual computer.
Battle for Wesnoth: fantasy turn-based strategy game.
BZFlag: multiplayer 3D tank battle game.
Crimson Fields: tactical war game in the tradition of Battle Isle.
Crossfire: cooperative multiplayer graphical RPG and adventure game.
Enigma: inspired by Oxyd on the Atari ST and Rock'n'Roll on the Amiga.
FlightGear: Flight simulator.
FreeDroid: clone of the classic game "Paradroid" on Commodore 64.
Frozen Bubble: puzzle-bobble clone.
Globulation 2: Real-Time Strategy.
LinCity: city/country simulation game.
LBreakout 2: breakout-style arcade game in the manner of Arkanoid.
NetHack - Falcon's Eye: mouse-driven interface for NetHack that enhances the visuals, audio and accessibility of the game, yet retains all the original gameplay and game features.
netPanzer: online multiplayer tactical warfare game designed for FAST ACTION combat.
Pathological: enriched clone of the game "Logical" by Rainbow Arts.
Project StarFighter: xy-axis star fighting game.
SuperTux: classic 2D jump'n run sidescroller game.
XKobo: astpaced multiway scrolling shoot-em-up.
XRick: clone of Rick Dangerous.
XScorch: Scorched Earth clone.

Have fun!

Lots of people are saying you can't build the chip yourself. That's not exactly true.

Go through CMP and you can get say the AMS C35B4C3, a 0.35um 4 metal, 2 poly CMOS process, for 650 Euro/mm2. I'm sure lots of people will cringe at the 0.35um, saying that it is ancient. Well, maybe in digital terms, but it is quite nice for analogue/mixed chips imo. 0.8um is still around (290 euro/mm2)!

Alternatively, if you are part of an Educational Institution or Research Laboratory, how about the ST Microlelectronics 0.18um CMOS process for 990 euro/mm2?

Now get hold of a copy of Electric some spice or other and learn how to design design electronic circuits. geda may also be of interest.

That last step might take a while.

Design your chip, submit it to CMP, wait three or four months and you'll get it back. Now go on to do what the other comments are talking about with pin hole cameras etc.

Let's do a rough price breakdown. Suppose you want VGA (640x480) in grey scale. Let's also suppose you can get your pixel element down to 5um*5um (which would be quite small imho). This gives:

Width: 640*5um + 2*400um = 4mm

Height: 480*5um + 2*400um = 3.2mm

The 400um gaps are for the pads on each side. This doesn't include any other electronics, so let's just say it is 4mm*4mm = 16mm2.

You need packaging as well and are probably limited to JLCC packages because it needs to be exposed to the light. Let's assume a JLCC68 package. You get 20 chips back and each package costs 48 euro.

So, 16*650 + 20*48 = 11360 euro. Put another way, 568 euro per chip. Don't forget to add VAT if you pay it. For the UK, this means 9343 or 476/chip.

Now consider that 16mm2 is still a small chip (and colour would be at least 3 times larger). If you have access to a webcam and can get inside it to look at the light sensitive area, measure it and figure out how much it would cost!

Cheers,

Roger

Exactly. My Dual Pentium Pro 200MHz Machine is perfect for what I need to do. Yet people tell me all the time that I need to update. I tell them why ?. There answer is always "So you can play games". Here is the thing, the only games I play is like little ones like Pingus and sometimes some small java/flash games.

People don't understand that you don't need a top of the line computer to do simple tasks. Maybe if they removed some of the bloaty spyware bogging down there computer it wouldn't run like a 386.

:D

I always install Fprot antivirus, ethereal, nmap, and gftp. Installation of linux isn't complete without these tools. I use Nmap to test the firewalls on my network, Ethereal to look for unwanted traffic or communication problems behind my router, and gFTP is a nice GUI FTP client that never seems to come with default installs. Although, Linux isn't as susceptible to virus and trojan issues, it's nice to at least have a scanner available.

There is a captainFTP with a free version, at least for educational purpose. And I am using Axy FTP via Fink

http://pingus.seul.org/~grumbel/tmp/kdesucks/kdecl oningwindows.png
http://pingus.seul.org/~grumbel/tmp/kdesucks/kdewa steofspace.png
http://pingus.seul.org/~grumbel/tmp/kdesucks/kdewa steofspace2.png

all these thingies look *exactly* the same as in Windows, sure the background color or stuff might be different, but they way icons that don't fit into the window are handled, and the layout of the buttons in konqueror is pretty much exactly the same as in Windows, the behaviour is pretty much just copied. And this isn't a case where KDE copied something good, this stuff already sucked majorly in Windows, its sucks the same way in KDE, which makes me wonder why they copied it in the first place.

http://pingus.seul.org/~grumbel/tmp/kdesucks/kdecl oningwindows.png
http://pingus.seul.org/~grumbel/tmp/kdesucks/kdewa steofspace.png
http://pingus.seul.org/~grumbel/tmp/kdesucks/kdewa steofspace2.png

all these thingies look *exactly* the same as in Windows, sure the background color or stuff might be different, but they way icons that don't fit into the window are handled, and the layout of the buttons in konqueror is pretty much exactly the same as in Windows, the behaviour is pretty much just copied. And this isn't a case where KDE copied something good, this stuff already sucked majorly in Windows, its sucks the same way in KDE, which makes me wonder why they copied it in the first place.

http://pingus.seul.org/~grumbel/tmp/kdesucks/kdecl oningwindows.png
http://pingus.seul.org/~grumbel/tmp/kdesucks/kdewa steofspace.png
http://pingus.seul.org/~grumbel/tmp/kdesucks/kdewa steofspace2.png

all these thingies look *exactly* the same as in Windows, sure the background color or stuff might be different, but they way icons that don't fit into the window are handled, and the layout of the buttons in konqueror is pretty much exactly the same as in Windows, the behaviour is pretty much just copied. And this isn't a case where KDE copied something good, this stuff already sucked majorly in Windows, its sucks the same way in KDE, which makes me wonder why they copied it in the first place.

Scripting?

(That's not the best GIMP-script tutorial I've seen, just the first one that Google returned on "gimp script tutorial".)

try here (text description), here (text) and question/answer 1 (also text) on a *retro* '99, slashdot. I remember seeing a picture of carmack long ago (probably quake 2 - that I couldn't find) with a dual monitor LCD setup in a darkened windowless room, back when they where pretty rare. One screen with an editor, the other with a debugger or renderer. The thing I remember most was the ugly pink/red screen - though I reckon this is chosen due to low contrast (easier on the eyes). Nothing there but code.

I got my masters degree in engineering (M.Sc. - E) two days ago and for my thesis I used several open source tools designs for electrical engineering.

A site gathering many tools and aiming to be a complete design and analysis package is, gEDA: GPL Electronic Design Automation.

Another promising project is SystemC, which is an open source HDL (Hardware description language). The language is C-based and easy to learn (if you know C). With some (very expensive) commercial tools from Synopsys, it is possible to translate SystemC code to VHDL and do synthesis.

Moving a bit more towards software, but for embedded devices, a project from Berkeley is TinyOS. Completely open source.

Many things can be done without spending a dime but actual engineering, i.e. a product, does require commercial products before a design can be shipped of to the factory. But a startup can go a long way before spending anything on commercial software, very much like many software companies have done for many years now.

• Linux Terminal Server Project,
  
• Open Source Schools magazine, and
  
• Open Source Classroom
  
• Simple End User Linux
  
• SchoolForge
  

I know some of the 'history', if you can call it that. I admit to a specific bias on this, so take it for what it's worth.

When all versions of TuxRacer were open, nearly nobody contributed to it. At the same time, it was the #1 download at SourceForge. Since it was so popular, and he was getting little help, the owner of the code removed the parts that weren't his, and relicenced it so he could sell it.

There were gripes, but mostly from folks who didn't understand what the GPL is and how copyright works. These folks took it as a personal snub, though the GPLed open source branch was not taken away or lessened at all.

The sad thing is that Sunspire Studios commercial offering was bad mouthed by the same people who didn't understand copyright, didn't contribute, and didn't understand the GPL. Personally, I bought 2 copies; one for a niece of mine, and one for myself.

The open source branch still exists and lives on as OpenRacer.

As for the character "Tux", the video game version, is not quite the same as Larry Ewing's Tux. I haven't heard Larry complaining, so it's probably not an issue for him either.

If the Lemmings were running Linux

Then they'd be Pingus

Why study Lemmings when you can study Pingus?

What impossibly things are made possible that aren't that way under MacOS XAllow me to quote from Linux.org: "...and a vast number of software programmers have taken Linux's source code and adapted it to their individual needs
By it's very nature (being open source), Linux lets you alter it for whatever you want to do with it, something not possible in MacOS.
Here's a whole list of reasons why Linux is better than other Operating Systems (including MacOS).

#1: Kobo Deluxe - addictive overhead space shooter
#2: nethack - THE RPG. Prepare to not get any work done.
#3: Frozen Bubble - A clone of Puzzle Bobble (aka bust-a-move) that's so good, I think it even outdoes the orginal. The music is just plain awesome... my friend burned it onto a CD and we listen to it in the car whenever we go driving.
#4: Armagetron - It's like... Tron lightcycles.... except in 3D... and so much more awesome.
#5: Ur Quan Masters - This is basically Star Control 2 released open source. What are you waiting for? GO!!!!
#6: Pingus - Lemmings for Linux, really. Includes functional level editor. Really, I couldn't ask for anything more.

I'm an old time HP calc user (still have my trusty 12C (which is still running on original batteries!) and my 48G) I first fell in love with them back when I was in high school and a friend of the family brought his old (pocket size LED display model, not sure which) HP over and taught me how to use it.

I recently got a Palm OS device I can use, a Treo 300 (I'm Graffiti-challenged - way to sloppy a handwriter to ever train myself to make the symbols consistently enough) and have been looking around for a good RPN calculator for it. So far I'm using RPN, a simple RPN calc released freely under the GPL, but I've also discovered another one that I'm tempted to check out even though it's probably way more than I actually need these days. From the sound of it, if this calc is all it claims to be, it may be exactly what the poster was looking for (if he/she has a Palm device). There are also several other versions for whatever your needs.

I am not associated with Infinity Softwaorks, the developers of this calculator. In fact I haven't even tried the calculator I mentioned, I just happened to have discovered it recently and thought it was relevant.

It's a GTK-based program that has its own i18n/l10n functionality (mainly because I don't like how gettext is designed) for investigating graph theoretic mathematics.

...tremors in the Force I feel...:-) Interesting this is! Have your admins check out: Case studies of schools around the world using Linux They'll find examples of many schools that are already using Linux, (and these are just the ones we know about...:-)). This really, really scares M$, since they depend on getting each new generation hooked on their products while they are still young and impressionable, etc. (Old I am! LOL)

That's one of the reasons you may think we're being very quiet--we're not talking directly to you! But if you're interested in what's actually going on with open resources in education, go to any of the websites above, or to Schoolforge and look around and follow the links.

Another reason is that whenever we've submitted links about such things to /. (I asked Paul about this a minute ago, and his experience has been the same as mine) they have been rejected. If you're not interested in telling people about what's being done, don't expect them to know about it! We've stopped submitting our stories here, since they're never used. We try to use our energy more constructively now, but submitting our stories to educational journals, etc.

Well, I think we should add to the list, Shadow of the Beast, Stunt Car Racer, Racing Destruction Set, Marble Madness, Impossible Mission, and Frontier/Elite...

Now, there is work being done on a Shadow of the Beast 3D.

There is also work being done on...

Space Racer - Update of Stunt Car Racer
Trophy - looks real close to Racing Destruction Set
GLTron - one of many clones of the old tron cycles games
Vega Strike - Clone of Elite (I know there's an Elite 4 listed on Frontier Development's page, but judging from the copyright notice at the bottom, it hasn't been updated since some time in 2001)
TrackBalls - Clone of Marble Madness

and...

XArchon - Update of Archon

And they're all open source...which means that you can play current beta versions in most cases...

I think this demonstrates (again) how an industry that refuses to innovate will be left in the dust. Just like the music and movie industries, this one has refused to change with the times.

From bootlegging grandmas
After all, needlepoint designs are hard to come by, especially for women like Davis who live in rural areas. A trip to the nearest hobby shop can mean a three-hour drive. "There aren't very many stores that carry needlepoint patterns anymore," Davis said.

Evidently, there is a demand for easily available patterns. It is only fair (by the rules of capitalism) that these companies evolve or become extinct. Don't misunderstand me piracy is wrong, but so are industries that no longer value their customers. I don't think these people are out to screw the designers and am willing to bet they would pay for some type of internet service if it existed (which must not be the case).

No update since last year, but still worth a look... http://xarchon.seul.org/ have fun!

Have you tried automake? (autotut, autobook)

When office copiers were first coming out, publishers of recipe books fought to prevent them from being available too easily. Their fear? Secretaries, who at the time were mainly female, would copy recipes out of books for swapping amongst

Anybody else remember the brou-ha-ha from the (of all things) sewing pattern companies which kicked up right around the same time as Lars was badmouthing Napster?

Seems grannies were swapping sewing patterns on-line and not paying for them, and it got quite a bit of press.

Here's a post (the article link in the post doesn't work, but the post has the full story as text in it).

gftp in linux supports sftp. For windows there's SSH.com's workstation, which is free for non-commercial use has a nice sftp GUI. There's also FileZilla for windows, which does both ftp and sftp. They all work quite well and have GUI goodness.

For steps to lock some preferences in Mozilla and/or Phoenix, take a look at this post on the seul-edu mailing list.

• SchoolForge.net - "A complete Listing of Open Source groups working with schools."
  
• Open Source Schools -
  for the on-line Journal of Open Source Software in schools
  
• SEUL/edu - "the discussion group for those interested in using Linux for education. This covers all aspects of educational uses of Linux, by teachers, parents, and students."
  
• K12OS.org - "Discussion forums for help, news and information related to Linux in schools"
  
• Multnomah ESD - "has successfully moved most of its core network services to Linux." The folks who built the original K12 Linx, AFAIK.
  

Do you think there is any chance Microsoft could release GNU/Linux or GNU/Hurd version of Microsoft Bob in a form of X11 window manager? It has very low system requirements (80486, 8MB RAM, 32MB HD) which makes it perfect for teaching kids the basics of computer usage (together with such projects like Debian Junior, GNU and Education, LinuxForKids, SEUL/edu, etc.) on low-end PC hardware. Some time ago, I was looking for a good window manager/desktop environment and, while there are many good applications, I couldn't find any graphical user interface itself, which would be similar to Microsoft Bob. What I need is not only something easy to learn, but also actually fun to play with, so the kids will want to learn the basics of computer science. Do you know any projects, which I could use here? (Free software would be the best.) Thanks.

Linux works fine as a home OS, unless you try to make it be Windows -- which it isn't, and by and large isn't trying to be. It has its own educational apps (though mostly not of the same caliber), and a whole lot of childrens' apps are web-based and so should work just fine out of the box. Look at the native software available -- sure, it's not as pretty, but kids were using computers long before 256-color graphics (or even GUIs at all) were available. See a list of the educational games included in the the SEUL/edu (Simple End User Linux/Educational) project's index.

That said, if you still want to run your Windows-based apps, my vote is for Win4Lin -- it's cheaper than a new windows install (or running a separate machine), more reliable than WINE and will work with your existing win98 media and license. If it's strictly for your kids, you can call them and ask about an educational discount -- they've had those in the past, to about $40 or $50.

Finally, if you haven't used Linux before, go into this expecting an educational experience for yourself as well!

Your first stop should be Here

Your second stop should be here

Your third stop should be here

Your forth stop should be here

Your fifth stop should be here

Open Office would be my choice for an office suite (that or Star Office)

KDevelop is a decent enough development suite for use in a school, but with
this age group I would use this
project

For a good teaching language This
is a good place to start.

Hope this helps!

Seul/Edu Educational Application Index
Suel.org Home Page
Dmoz.org Linux: Projects: Education
tux4kids