Interview with LGames' Michael Speck

Gentu writes "OSNews interviews one of the two more influential Free game developers for Linux today, Michael Speck of LGames. Michael talks about the Linux game market, about Linux's performance as a multimedia platform, his future plans and much more."

Comments

better luck...

[skydude_20]

Hopefully he doesn't waste any support money on frivolous expenses or personal gains...

unlike this place

Re:better luck...

[NeoOokami]

I personally think that Loki's behavior as a company shows they had a lot more problems than a rumored bad leader. They ported game after game, without paying their programmers? Not being ABLE to? And no one questioned they they kept agreeing to more and more contracts to port games that they would have to pay back as well as their own people? And no one there questioned this? I'm sorry but it's impossible for this to be one mans fault. I'm tired of hearing pathetic excuses made by linux zealots. It's never linux or the community's fault that something falls though, it's always microsoft or some other nonsense. Zealots of all OSes are worthless, Windows, Mac, Linux, etc. None do any good for anyone.

Tetris?

[WilliamsDA]

You commie. Pacman is as American as apple pie! Oh... wait a sec...

What you say?

[Weffs11]

Tetris over Pacman?
Blasphemy!

Re:What you say?

[sejmeister]

Agreed.

Even Ms. Pacman was better.

Re:What you say?

[garcia]

I actually like them both. I just purchased two SNES controllers to continue my addiction there, but I also own a cocktail table Ms. Pacman machine (it needs some repairs but does work).

Whereas Tetris is fun, it is monotonous. Ms. Pacman owns you ;)

audio in linux

[dcstimm]

he couldnt find a good audio mixer for linux, so he had to use windows shareware to create the audio in his games. Hopefully reborn 1.0 and audicity 1.0 will fix his problem..

Re:audio in linux

[Bill Kendrick]

Audacity has been GREAT. I normally use random sounds I find on free sound archives on the 'net, but Audacity has been letting me create and tweak some of my own, original sound effects. It has a long way to go (it crashes on me sometimes, and there's not NEARLY enough filters and effects yet), but it's been #2 to The Gimp for me lately.

Re:audio in linux

[Anonymous Coward]

Try version 1.1 or compile from CVS and install some Ladspa plugins--I've got over 90 effects that do more things than I can shake a mixer at.

Re:audio in linux

[dcstimm]

awesome, I cant wait to try it, I am compiling it now..

I spelt it wrong

Audacity not Audicity..

oppps!

Re:audio in linux

[CoughDropAddict]

As one of the authors of Audacity, I'm glad to hear you like it! Re: effects, our development version allows you to use LADSPA plugins, giving you access to Steve Harris's excellent plugin collection.

Re:audio in linux

[Bill Kendrick]

Yummy! Thanks!

Re:audio in linux

[Lumpy]

It will if they remove the insane and outrageous dependancies...

All this comes to the same problem linux has.. The developers releasing the programs are too busy or outright don't want to release anything that can be easily used by the users.... (Except anything from loki,OpenOffice.org, Mozilla) statically linked binaries in a nice wrapper (rpm is even a good one if you are pressed for time... otherwise use the loki installer!)

Linux will lag way behind in most everything until the developers get statically linked version out that are not too painless to install.

Sad

[Starship Trooper]

While browsing the LGames website, and I noticed he prominently displays a "Legalise Marijuana" badge on his front page. This sort of puerile proselytising reflects badly both on the project and all Linux users, and I implore Mr. Speck to remove it. Regardless of your feelings about the drug war issue, a Linux games pages in not the place to raise it. What is the average Joe going to think when he searches for "linux games" on Google, comes to the lgames website, and is immediately assaulted with this image? When trying to get friends and coworkers to switch to Linux, by far the hardest hurdle I have to overcome is the stereotype of Linux users as freeloading, dirty, overzealous pigs who try to shove their dogma down the throats of anyone who talks to them. Things like Speck's shameless pot-promotion do little to help overcome this. I hope this post of mine will help him come to his senses.

Re:Sad

[Anonymous Coward]

You're an adult, cope. If he want to put it there, he has every right - just like you have the right to have the same nick as a crap film and a website with one of those disgusting crossword puzzles on it (note for the humour-impared: that was sarcasm). If you can't cope with other people's views, perhaps you should get off the planet. (note for the humour-impared: that wasn't, that was serious).

Re:Sad

[Fourier]

A "legalize marijuana" badge might be inappropriate on, say LinuxGames or Happy Penguin. But this is Michael's personal development page. He wrote all the games, he wrote the website. If he wants to lobby for something totally unrelated, that's his prerogative. Deal.

Re:Sad

[garcia]

I really hope this is supposed to be some sort of humor.

Whether you support it or not, the legalization of marijuana has plenty of good support and should be done. The recent drop in priority in the UK and the legislation attempting to pass in many US states should show that the general masses care little or less about the "so called" harmful effects of marijuana.

We really need to have more medical usage of marijuana (anything is better than fucking Oxy and morphine -- if you have never seen an individual using either of these painkillers, you might want to then give marijuana a second look).

Re:Sad

[zeno_2]

Until then I will run LGames as a hobby of mine.

Id really say he can put anything he wants to up on his website that is showing off his 'hobby'. We really shouldn't let political correctness control the way we live, and especially control our hobbyist nature.

comes to the lgames website, and is immediately assaulted with this image?

I also find it amusing that you would be immediately assaulted by an image of a pot leaf. I didn't even notice it when I first went there, I had to go back and look after reading your post..

Re:Sad

[t0qer]

When trying to get friends and coworkers to switch to Linux, by far the hardest hurdle I have to overcome is the stereotype of Linux users as freeloading, dirty, overzealous pigs who try to shove their dogma down the throats of anyone who talks to them. Things like Speck's shameless pot-promotion do little to help overcome this. I hope this post of mine will help him come to his senses.


*Cough* *Cough*

passes Starship Trooper the bong.

When you have a picture of linus taking a bong rip or the tux penguin with a spliff in his mouth then you can start to worry. Last time I heard linux was being used to decode folding protiens and search for aliens, not marijuana promotion.

Re:Sad

[Anonymous Coward]

Perhaps marijuana has allowed Michael to do work for the good of people everywhere instead of criticizing people and beliefs you don't understand.

Re:Sad

[RpiMatty1]

By "prominently" do you mean at the very bottom of the site?
Its his site, he can put what he wants on there.

Re:Sad

[Anonymous Coward]

I have to agree with you. This guy is very probably a terrorist too. Well known for smoking Marijuana, them. And won't somebody think about the kids for a moment! They'll be terrorists too if they see the pot plant on this communist's propaganda page!!!

Re:Sad

[iCEBaLM]

This sort of puerile proselytising reflects badly both on the project and all Linux users [...] When trying to get friends and coworkers to switch to Linux, by far the hardest hurdle I have to overcome is the stereotype of Linux users as freeloading, dirty, overzealous pigs who try to shove their dogma down the throats of anyone who talks to them.

Hrmm. Proselytizing you say? Show their own dogman down the throats of anyone who talks to them you say?

Perhaps you should practice what you preach?

-- iCEBaLM

Re:Sad

[Nurf]

Oh get off your whiney soapbox and get a sense of perspective.

It's his website and he can prominently display whatever he likes. And yes, I support your right to prominently whine about it, but it won't make me think any better of you (or from pointing out your faults).

If I have friends that go over to linux, they will do it because its something that is useful to them. All the "legalise marijauna" stickers in the world won't change that.

Of course, this might be because my friends aren't whiney gits, and are quite happy to let other people do things their own way as long as they don't hurt others.

"Shameless pot-promotion"? What a wonderfully mealy mouthed way of implying that pot is wrong and so is promoting its legalisation. I don't do any recreational drugs but I support the right of people to do what they like as long as it doesn't adversely affect others.

I think your comment is far more harmful than Mr Speck's. At least he isn't trying to shut someone up. ie. He isn't trying to adversely affect others.

About the only censorship I find worthy is the suppression of suppression by mealy mouthed moral police that are convinced their way is the only "true" way to live.

Your assumption of some dubious moral high ground deserves to be put in its place. I hope you consider this reply a small step on the way to that goal.

I find it incredibly sad that some idiots actually moderated you up. Looks like people will never just live and let live.

-Nurf

Re:Sad

[Anonymous Coward]

If there is nothing wrong with the chemical that makes up marijuana, then they should sythesise that chemical into either a pill or a liquid for injection. Smoking it is just not an option in a hospital, nursing home, areas where there are pure oxygene, or for people with emphasema (sp?).

Smoking it is just plain stupid. Then you're back to the second-hand smoke buisness.

I HAVE seen people on morphine, but not Oxy. It basically just sedates the hell out of them and they can hallucinate. Both my Grandma and great Uncle died of cancer this year and the last week they were alive they were on high amounts of morphine. Frankly, I can't see how marijuana would be any better. They'd have to have it so it dulled the pain as much as the other two. I'd like you to show me where I can read about how marijuana is so much better of a pain killer that it doesn't have any of the side-effects of Oxy and morphine and can keep the coherent. Give me links or medical journals I can read, not something off of a "Legalize Marijuana" web page.

Re:Sad

[garcia]

They have made it into pill form. Doesn't do everything that the smoking of it does.

At that point who the fuck cares if there is second hand or harmful side effects? They are ill w/terminal cancer... Use a closed system. Smoke goes in and out and is trapped. That stops others from inhaling it.

My grandmother would pass out in mid sentence. Wake up 3, 4, 10 mins later still talking as if the conversation had not ended.

At least w/Marijuana she would have been able to converse normally.

Before you start shooting off your mouth as if you knew what you were talking about, I suggest that you read or do some sort of preliminary research so you don't sound like such an uneducated person.

Re:Sad

[Anonymous Coward]

Or [erhaps it's being used by all those terrorists to plot and study DEA movments and extrapolate the best path for planes full of weed to take. Or maybe by drug companies to produce synthetic THC..but as we all know...it has no medical vaule.. *caugh* B.S. *caugh*

Re:Sad

[inerte]

You need to smoke a peace pipe!!

Re:Sad

[Anonymous Coward]

>Deal.

And it's my perogative not to go to his site or have anything to do with anything he writes. I think that 'Deals' with it rather nicely.

Re:Sad

[Anonymous Coward]

>We really shouldn't let political correctness control the way we live, and especially control our hobbyist nature.

And you should understand what political correctness is and isen't before you use it as a generic catchall to bash everything you don't like.

Re:Sad

[Fourier]

Your choice. And your loss... he does write some nice games.

Re:Sad

[zeno_2]

And you should understand what political correctness is and isen't before you use it as a generic catchall to bash everything you don't like.

Oh I understand what political correctness is. Marijuana is illegal for only political reasons. I say this because alcohol is legal and it is a much more dangerous drug. There are some very big players involved that do not want marijuana to be legalized, mainly because of hemp (think dupont). So yes, the only reason why him having this image on his website is because it doesn't jive with today's politics. If you have ever seen Super Troopers, or many many other movies which put marijuana in a different light then being 'a bad thing' then you might understand. Who gives a flying f*ck if he has a legalize marijuana image on his website, its his website, and its his hobby. And im wondering why you think I use this term, "political correct" to bash things I do not like, I don't post much, so I doubt you have read my previous posts. Ah well, too much time spent on an AC..

"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." - Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

OK

[thasmudyan]

Michael seems to be a nice guy allright. And the games he did are really enjoyable little funny things. And it's clear hat he knows more about programming than me or 98% of the SlashDot crowd. ...BUT it REALLY surprises me that he is attributed "one of the two more influential Free game developers for Linux today". Look at a professional games developer for comparison and you know what I mean. I'm sure there would be a lot of fun games around if there where more people like Michael Speck but he has not yet done anything of (even moderately) big scope in the gaming scene. I'm only writing this because the SlashDot article implicitly suggested there was an interview with some sort of Linux games guru, when instead there was an interview with a gifted young hobby programmer learning his way through the SDL...

Re:OK

[0x0d0a]

Probably because there *aren't* all that many Linux game developers out there at all. I've thought about game development a few times, but it comes down to the fact that games take a lot of work to do, do less good for people than "real" software like the GIMP and bash do, and that there aren't a lot of game graphic artists willing to volunteer their time. If you wanted to make something like an open-source Fallout 2, that's what you need. There are plenty of programmers -- not nearly enough artists involved. I think that some of this can be aleviated by producing better tools for them (or perhaps this is just wishful thinking, as I program). Make GIMP better, get more graphic artists on Linux willing to do stuff. Want better fonts? Make a *good* Linux vector font editor.

Re:OK

[wsapplegate]

[...] a gifted young hobby programmer learning his way through the SDL

And so ? Have you forgotten how the best game designers started their career ? The ID Software programmers started by coding Commander Keen. And who remember that the authors of Unreal were responsible for z-rated underdogs such as Jill Of The Jungle ? Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if some day, we heard that the author of the LGames has been hired by a commercial game studio. In contrast, few Linux game programmers have been as prolific, and an awful lot of Linux games are horrendous (crappy or stolen graphics, no sound, early releases with no story or levels, bad gameplay, etc.). The LGames have at least the quality you would expect from a good Windows shareware game, while being free (as in beer, I mean) at the same time. Could you name many other influential Linux game designers that lie in the realm of Open Source ? If you take out the library programmers (Sam Lantinga/SDL, Shawn Hargreaves/Allegro, Jorrit Tyberghein/Crystal Space, Brian Paul/Mesa), the programmers of big (or considered so) projects that are heard of frequently (FreeCraft, FreeCiv, FlightGear, WorldForge,...), there is not many people left. So, I *definitely* think that interviewing people that make fun games is a Good Thing. But the questions should (IMHO) be oriented as to help other prospective game programmers make their games fun, too. That would be more productive than a SDL-versus-the-other-game-libraries troll :-)

Oh, well, just my .2 anyway...

Re:OK

[Spy Hunter]

Well, the Free Linux games scene is not very big. Most of the Free games available for Linux are, to put it bluntly, not fun. Some are not fun because they have performance problems (GL games w/o 3D card), some are not fun because you can't get them to work, some are not fun because they have horrible graphics (I'm talking to you, POV-Ray obsessed people!), some are not fun because they are just not good games.

The L-games avoid all these problems. They are high-quality, easy to install, they work without 3D hardware, they have nice fast graphics, and the gameplay is there. They are arguably some of the best Free games out there for Linux. The guy may be a learning hobbyist programmer, but the fact is that he has created some of the most fun Free Linux games. If that doesn't make him a "Linux games guru" I don't know what does.

Re:OK

[thasmudyan]

I didn't troll about SDL versus other libraries at all, not in one word. All I was complaining about was the fact that this guy was heralded as some sort of Linux games celebrity when he is really not (yet). I have nothing against small developers, I think they are important, I believe some of them can make it big. I thought my comment was clear about that point.

I don't know what is the reason people are always annoyed when I say something, even though I'm almost always nice about it. Like I get modded Flamebait in my other post in this thread where I complain about the heighest moderated posts not being about Linux games, but instead being about Marijuana. No seriously what am I doing wrong?

Re:OK

[wsapplegate]

I didn't troll about SDL versus other libraries at all, not in one word

And I never said you did. I said Michael Speck did in the interview (the point was that the interviewer should have asked more productive questions). I thought my English was readable enough to avoid misunderstandings. Apparently, that's not the case. I'll reinstate the standard disclaimer at the next post. Sorry.

I don't know what is the reason people are always annoyed when I say something

I don't know, too, since I cannot remember having read one of your posts since yesterday (I don't read most comments on /.). BTW, the things I wanted to make clear is that Mr. Speck is a promising programmer, and one of the most creative on the Linux scene. That makes him enough of a celebrity in my mind... As for you being moderated down, I think you can safely assume that there is a lot of unfair people on /. (they've invented the meta-moderation just to counter that trend, if I remember well). My post wasn't mean to be an attack on you. Sorry if you thought so.

[ BEGIN STANDARD DISCLAIMER : this post is written in b0rkenEnglish[tm]. The speling as been corekted to the beste of our nowlege. Beare withe us if there are stile erorrs. ]

Re:OK

[thasmudyan]

Thanks for the reply. I guess I'm a little over the top, recently. (It's not that I normally think all people are out there just to diss me or something...) You are right, I didn't read your post correctly. Ehem. Well. Happens. Really sorry. *apologizes*

Re:mod parent down.

[t0qer]

How about we mod you down?

Even though I don't agree with the parent post (look at my name for petes sake) I think he pointed out something very interesting that made me go back and take a second look. Now we can have a nice thread amungsts us geeks about marijuana prohibition here on slash and I have the parent post to thank for that.

A comment should never be moderated down unless it's completely stupid.

Mod parent down.

[Anonymous Coward]

A comment should never be moderated down unless it's completely stupid

The original comment was clearly a troll (Starship also participates in trolltalk), and is evident as such to anyone with any experience on Slashdot at all.

Re:Uh...moderators? Do you know what a troll is?

[Anonymous Coward]

The poster is right.

This thing gives an impression of a website that is being run by a teenager who had smoked pot a lot and still does. This also gives the image of a teenager to his software. It would be much more appropriate for him to appear at a pro-pot website than to attach this theme to a linux/games/open-source website.

Bah...

[Anonymous Coward]

"talks about the Linux game market"

There is no such thing.

Woah! I see my name!

[Bill Kendrick]

I know the folks at LinuxGames.com call me 'prolific' every time they mention my name, since I churn out so many titles...

But this OSNews article (I'm mentioned at the top, before the actual interview with Michael) was a surprise! Cool!

And don't worry, I'm keeping it up, despite worrying about my job and my wedding this October. :^)

Overrated

[thasmudyan]

1. It's his personal homepage, he can put on it whatever he wants.
2. It's a games page, it's not intended to be The Definitive Linux Reference Page For The Politically Correct.
3. This guy is from Germany. Smoking this stuff in moderate amounts is NOT EXACTLY ILLEGAL there!
4. Like many creative minds he likely consumes alcohol and pot. Face the fact, it's very common, even *gasp* in the U.S.! It only get's bad if it is illegal (see 4) or you bomb your brain out with this stuff (but then he wouldn't be able to code anymore).
So cool down, man. And anyway it's not as if the guy posted a large banner on his page saying "SMOKE LARGE AMOUNTS OF POT AND F*CK THE POLICE". He just posted a little picture of the plant on the bottom of his page!

Re:Overrated

[Anonymous Coward]

So since some creative people drink alcohol and smoke marijuana, its ok. I'll bet there are "creative minds" that are pedophoiles, murderers, con men, etc... too. Does that make it correct? No. So stop using stupid logic.

This is SO a troll

[Anonymous Coward]

Starship is very well KNOWN FOR POSTING TROLLS. The things he says are totally out of proportion, BUT HE MUST HAVE ACCIDENTALLY TRIGGERED THE AUTOMATED POLITICAL CORRECTNESS PROGRAMM here on /. Mod this guy down FOR GODS sake or whatever you believe in!!! Score 5, I cannot believe this!!!! If only I had mod points now!

EFF pimps for own self interests

[Anonymous Coward]

and you say Microsoft is the devil:
http://www.theregus.com/content/4/25911.html

EFF pimps X-Box cracker 'victory'
By Thomas C Greene in Washington
Posted: 08/09/2002 at 03:04 EST

"The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is pleased to announce that former MIT doctoral student Andrew 'Bunnie' Huang will present a paper explaining a security flaw in the Microsoft Xbox (TM) videogame system," a recent press release begins.

Of course the paper has been available from Huang's account at MIT since April, so any danger from his appearance at a conference is largely imaginary. Huang long ago notified MS of his paper with EFF supervision, presumably appealing to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) exclusion for cryprographic research.

MS replied that while it would prefer that Huang not publish his findings, it had no intention of trying to jam him up with the DMCA. If there were an issue here worth reporting, it would have come up some time ago.

This is pure recycled news. Huang's talk is simply an occassion for the EFF to get some publicity mileage for its selfless struggle to liberate us all.

We recall the last non-issue which EFF inflated into gargantuan proportions as Princeton University Computer Science Professor Edward Felten -- who credited himself and his team with cracking the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI) Public Challenge -- claimed his 'speech was being chilled' by a vague nastygram from the Recording Industry Ass. of America (RIAA) which cited potential DMCA complications if he delivered his findings in public.

After coaching Felten to voluntarily withdraw from a talk in which he was scheduled to spill the beans, the EFF trumpeted this as an example of protected speech being chilled by DMCA threats. Once he'd enacted that choreographed media stunt, Felten later gave his talk at a different conference and survived without a scratch.

EFF has apparently taught Huang to parrot its victim rap verbatim, as the gentleman is quoted in an organization press release fretting conspicuously that, "the DMCA clearly had a chilling effect on my work. I was afraid to submit my research for peer review until after the EFF's efforts to clear potential legal restraints."

Another close call with catastrophe narrowly averted by EFF vigilance, we're sure. ®

Another thing that would be nice.

[Anonymous Coward]

It would be nice to see a few more articles about successful businesses, not just another student paid by the government doing stuff in their free time.

God knows that we at this point are REALLY in need of successful companies that actually afford to pay the bills and salaries (long term), this depression has lasted long enough.

They gonna interview me? ;) (Was Re:OK)

[Bill Kendrick]

So are they going to interview me next?

-bill!
(not sure I've "done anything of (even moderately) big scope"...)

Re:They gonna interview me? ;) (Was Re:OK)

[big.ears]

I sure hope they interview you. I love TuxPaint! Nice job. It makes me want to have kids so that I can make them use it (don't tell my girlfriend).

Re:They gonna interview me? ;) (Was Re:OK)

[Bill Kendrick]

Hehe.. I know how you feel. If only my cats would use the computer. (No puns about 'mice,' please)

Then I'd have some VERY inexpensive (and cuddly) beta testers.

You couldn't be more right

[NightHwk]

I couldn't agree with you more. This really reflects poorly on the GNU project.

Linking Free Software with a subculture that funds terrorists should not be tolerated.
Marijuana causes loss of memory, exacerbates epileptic symptoms, and causes violent and irrational behaviour in people who use it habitually.

My friends cousin was killed in college in a car accident by a driver who had smoked marijuana. He was a top notch programmer in his senior year, and had contributed code to the XFree86 project and the GNU/netBSD kernel. I think his death is a strong mesage to open sources developers on what is morale and what is subversion of a wholesome U.S. culture.

-NightHawk

Re:You couldn't be more right

[Anonymous Coward]

Ha, I couldnt wait till someone linked this _WITH TERRORISTS_, haha! What took you so long?

Re:You couldn't be more right

[garcia]

I think you need to re-learn the facts.

In 1972, after reviewing the scientific evidence, the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse concluded that while marijuana was not entirely safe, its dangers had been grossly overstated. Since then, researchers have conducted thousands of studies of humans, animals, and cell cultures. None reveal any findings dramatically different from those described by the National Commission in 1972. In 1995, based on thirty years of scientific research, editors of the British medical journal Lancet concluded that 'the smoking of cannabis, even long term, is not harmful to health.

Another obvious failure of DARE.

Re:You couldn't be more right

[electricmonk]

I think you need to re-learn the facts.

That is absolutely the most Orwellian thing that I've ever seen on this site. Why can't you self-righteous potheads just leave the rest of us alone and live your lives without trying to "reeducate" us and force your viewpoint down our throats?

Re:You couldn't be more right

[garcia]

ok, so someone points out false information usually supplied by DARE or some other bullshit orgranization found on the principles of attempting to stop the "drug war". Yet I am the one that is a "self-righteous pothead" (note, I am not a pothead) trying to force MY viewpoint (note: this is fact, not a viewpoint).

Get real.

Re:You couldn't be more right

[JPriest]

subculture that funds terrorists

What percentage of marijuana is imported to the US from Islamic nations?

Now what percentage of petroleum is imported from those nations?

Re:You couldn't be more right

[Anomolous Cow Herd]

Lancet? What in the world are you talking about? Why would you cite such a publication while trying to make a serious argument? Lancet is on level with The National Institute for Discovery Science in terms of credibility.

How about next time, you cite an honest-to-God academic publication instead of your quasi-academic British pseudoscience.

Re:You couldn't be more right

[evilquaker]

Marijuana causes loss of memory, exacerbates epileptic symptoms, and causes violent and irrational behaviour in people who use it habitually.

• Loss of memory... check.
• exacerbates epileptic symptoms... okay, sounds reaonsable.
• violent and irrational behavior... WTF are you talking about? I have never met a violent stoner. By and large, stoners are the most laid-back people I know... Now, when you throw alcohol or other drugs into the mix, then that's a different story... but I've never known marijuana to make someone violent.

Re:You couldn't be more right

[Anonymous Coward]

Linking Free Software with a subculture that funds terrorists should not be tolerated.

Dearest NightHwk,

Adequacy called, and they want their troll back at your earliest convenience. Thanks.

Sincerely,
Anonymous Coward

Re:You couldn't be more right

[jdcook]

"Linking Free Software with a subculture that funds terrorists should not be tolerated."

Rrrriiiiigghhhtt. If it we're legalized, it wouldn't "fund terrorists." And since in the US much (most? figures anyone?) marijuana is domestically cultivated, it probably isn't funding terrorists to any great extent. (Those of you with an interest in opiates and a desire to patriotically only use domestic sources should puruse Opium for the Masses: A Practical Guide to Growing Poppies and Making Opium.) And if we're even going to discuss the ludicrous topic of free software and terrorism, shouldn't we start with PGP?

"Marijuana causes loss of memory, exacerbates epileptic symptoms, and causes violent and irrational behaviour in people who use it habitually."

I don't suppose you have a citation from something within throwing distance of a peer reviewed journal for any of this? There *are* some results showing a problem with memory loss. But there are other papers claiming that the memory loss in the first test (I assume you're referencing the New Zealand test.) was because the people had gotten old since 24 years had passed. In any event, alcohol is, of course, the great recreational drug with this problem. Similarly with violence. I'm not sure how to test for irrationality (as opposed to paranoia) so I'll let that slide. There's plenty of evidence for violence surrounding the marijuana *trade* but that, ta da, is because it's illegal so criminals engage in it. And epliepsy is weird. There seems to be a great many people who use it to help seizures and others who say it exacerbates them. Surely it's terrible for your lungs but you didn't list that.

"My friends cousin was killed in college in a car accident by a driver who had smoked marijuana."

Sorry about your friend's cousin. Any chance the driver of that vehicle had had a few beers to go with their weed? In any event, yours is an argument against driving while impaired. It is not an argument (at least not a good one) against legalizing marijuana.

And your sig:

"Tyranny =Gov. choosing how much power to give the People.
"Freedom =People choosing how much power to give the Gov."

just kills me in the context of your being against marijuana legalization.

Much better reasons to oppose marijuana are its foul smell (especially those big sticky buds; nasty!), its boring users, and its role in the Frito-Lay cabal. Bill Hicks, why did you leave us when we need you most?

Re:You couldn't be more right

[Morphine007]

What percentage of marijuana is imported to the US from Islamic nations?

Now what percentage of petroleum is imported from those nations?...erm.... last I checked, Canada supplied the US with the most crude oil... ... does that make Canadians terrorists??... right on... pass da toke....

Re:You couldn't be more right

[antirename]

OK... this is bullshit. People seem to be whining that "if a politically correct soccer mom sees this, she might be offended, so change the page". Personally, I agree with the guy. And no, I don't smoke pot. I did, however, get knifed by a mugger who got turned loose. Did he walk because they needed more room for potheads? Yeah, at least in my state. And so, the government has their collective head up thier collective ass. I've never had a stoner come up out of the blue on the street and stick a knife in me. Who gives a shit how it looks to have that banner up? The average citizen IS a moron. Sorry, but that is also how it is. If you want to fight, assuming you already vote, start a NPO and get a PAC. Then whine, once you're playing the game on the level that everyone else is. I'd rather use the cell for the guy that stuck a knife in me than my buddy that enjoys a joint after work... but that doesn't get anyone elected, now does it?

Re:You couldn't be more right

[antirename]

Orwellian? Give me a break. You tell me, would you rather have murderers, rapists, and pedophiles loose on the streets, or stoners? Did you have to think about that? And no, I don't smoke. Now, how many of the first three categories have been turned loose onto YOUR streets because they had to make room for more stoners? Google it and weep. You need to get self righteous and tell and your congressmen that, now don't you? Or run for office yourself; that way you could force your misguided viewpoint down other people's throats.

Re:You couldn't be more right

[antirename]

My grandmother's dog got epilepsy. I got epilepsy because it chased chipmunks. You see, the chipmunk would go up, and the dog went straight, therefore banging its head into the tree. There is very simple solution to this, just ban chipmunks. This simple action, while not interfering with anyone's personal freedoms, would REALLY HELP the stupid dogs of this world. Write your congress critter. NOW.

Now it's fashionalble to bash Loki.

[maynard]

Previously you would have received numerous fanatical replies filled with personal insults and scatological references, not to mention a share of "flamebait" moderations. I can attest to this.

I've been known for saying some harsh things about poor Loki customer service, orders of multiple products left unshipped for six months or more due to one product being held up, etc. And, boy, did I take a personal shit storm from many in the Linux community who stood up for Loki (and it's staff). I'm sure they had good motivation: to help the success of the Linux desktop through gaming. Unfortunately for the community, the company was run by a scam artist. I mean, what else do you call a guy who doesn't pay his employees for months on end, gets another employee to pony up with his personal credit card for payroll expenses, and never pays the guy a dime back? Scumbag comes to mind.

Yet, even in the worst of circumstances the engineers at Loki produced much wonderful work. They deserve real community kudos for their porting success, especially in the face of Scott's and Kayt's shenanigans. I still enjoy a few of the twelve or so games I bought from them, and I'm glad I tried to honestly support Linux gaming. I bought games from Loki on impulse, happy to know that the money was going toward a community effort. Sadly, I should have just donated the money to the EFF, FSF, EPIC, Debian, or whatever. Transgaming looks like the place to be for now, and that bunch seems to publicly work with the community a whole lot closer than Loki ever did. When I get a better machine I'll subscribe to their service.

I still think there's a good future for playing commercial games on x86/Linux. I'm glad another company has stepped up into Loki's shoes (just like economists predict). But I hope the community learns a good lesson from Loki and recognizes that every company must both serve its market and behave with a good set of ethical guidelines, or it will (in the long run) go out of business with massive damage to its employees and customers.

Loki did neither, due to lapses in it's management. Sadly, this kind of ethical failure isn't limited to the Linux community (where so many thought it was too small to be affected by corporate malfeasance), as the likes of Global crossing, Enron, Tyco (and on and on and on) shows.

I should note that I never worked for Loki or knew any of the participants at the company. I'm simply a customer who some time back felt completely fucked over by their customer service, or lack thereof. So I got pissed and wrote about it. But the news reports which have come out since show how little Draeker thought of the community, and how willing he was to screw over his own staff and customers without regard to basic business ethics. It's an honest shame for the community, and one we should face up to -- lest it should happen again.

--Maynard

Re:Now it's fashionalble to bash Loki.

[Tet]

Transgaming looks like the place to be for now, and that bunch seems to publicly work with the community a whole lot closer than Loki ever did.

Errm... Transgaming aren't exactly whiter than white in that regard, having refused to give back their Direct X code to the Wine community (for sound economic reasons, sure, but then so are most unethical business practices). I understand they're in a tricky situation, and are contributing back as much as they feel able, but they're not exactly model citizens...

Re:Now it's fashionalble to bash Loki.

[Galvatron]

Well, Loki never gave ANY of their game code (not that I would have expected them to), so when he says they work more closely with the community, that still seems like a fair statement. And, if they run out of money, it seems reasonable to assume that they will give the rest of their code away. So, supporting Transgaming is more likely to result in permanent benefits to the Linux community than Loki, I think.

Re:Now it's fashionalble to bash Loki.

[Anonymous Coward]

You were critized because you were blaming Loki for problems caused by Digital River. It really wasn't something Loki could handle, since it was technically out of their hands. Once they finally had their own online store, things were a lot better, I believe. Hell, I could even order direct from Loki with money order.

Linux games... not quite there yet.

[NamShubCMX]

I agree that Michael Speck has done a lot for the linux game world, but I find it quite sad that he's "one of the two more influential Free game developers for Linux today". I mean, I didnt know about this guy beofre this story was posted on slashdot (I did play LBreakout already, though). If he was programming those games for windows, he would just be considered "yet another amateur game programmer". My point is we need even bigger games, because frankly, we're not à at 'mainstream' or 'commercial' level yet. Being a game designer, I can understand why it would be really difficult to release a big Free (Open Source) game. (even the smallest games today have budget of million$) but we should still get support from major game companies. Transgaming' WineX is great but we shouldn't be needing it. We should make pressure on game companies to release a linux version of their games. How? By buying their games! Loki went out of business, despite releasing so far the best games for Linux. But the problem is not me not buying games, its me having trouble getting the performance I should have (with my 3d card). It took me at least 1 hour of messing with my settings for quake2 to work on my linux box. In windows this was a simple matter of clicking "install". I could get to play Quake II on linux, but I know, for example that my friends wouldn't because they could never fix the problems.

Get gamers on linux, games will follow.

Re:Linux games... not quite there yet.

[SilentStrike]

Even if companies started releasing their best selling titles for Linux, (and I hope they will, I am simply refusing to play or buy UT 2003 until it is port it to Linux, which may, sadly, never occur) it would not change Speck's standing in as a Free game developer for Linux. As for problems getting satisfactory performance out of Linux, I haven't had any real problems. Perhaps having to edit the XF86-Config file so the nvidia drivers work is too much, but every game I've installed on Linux wasn't too painful (Quake 3, Unreal Tournament, Return to Castle Wolfenstein). Given, however, I never tried to get Quake 2 to run.

Re:Linux games... not quite there yet.

[Anonymous Coward]

still waiting for a neverwinter nights linux client...

considering they need to port from directx to openGL, i don't envy that task, would be sad but not surprising if they don't do it..

the problem is making a windows game to sell 3 million copies, then re-writing it for openGL to sell another 50,000 - economies of scale! :(

need more demand for a linux client or, the demand is there, and we just need a company to take a risk with one of their releases. i know i would pay $10 more or so for a linux version, just to support it, I'm sure most people would.

if it's true that the next generation of nvidia hardware will be built for directx, i.e. have a lot of the code as hardware, it may be too late for linux as a game platform...

Shame

[thasmudyan]

I cannot believe that the highest moderated post in here is a discussion about the political incorrectness of placing a pot plant logo on the bottom of your site (and how that affiliates you with terrorists), while on-topic posts about Linux gaming and Michael Speck's work have been virtually IGNORED. What's wrong with the moderators?

Re:Shame

[Anonymous Coward]

I can't understand where this connection between weed, and terrorists came about, other than government funded comercials. Sure columbia produces alot of weed, but the large majority, at least where I live in Sonoma County California, comes from private growers. Andmost acid also comes fromnorthern california, most shrooms are picked wild or grown in peopels houses, crack, heroine, and speed can all be easily made in ones home. The only drug that I know of that really poses a challenge to home production is opium, simply becauseof the number of poppies needed to produce a decent yield. totse.com is a great source of info.

Liberal Myth

[NightHwk]

The 1972 NCMDA study quote was long ago proven to be fraudulent. The NCMDA never made any such conclusions based on the BMJ findings. It is established in over a hundred lab studies that marijuana is a toxic substance.

The British Medical journal is a laughing stock of the psuedo/'New Age' science movement. My friends dead cousin and all the half brain dead stoners I see working in the food court are all the evidence I need to know that marijuana is a poison on our society.

-NightHawk

Re:Liberal Myth

[Anonymous Coward]

But THC is not! The plant itself may containmore tar and what not than tobacco. Marijuana is illeagle for little to no good reason. It was origionaly introduced in this country by Mexican farmers who used it to relax at the end of a hard day working. If anything, tobacco and alchahol should be illeagle.

California leagalized THC for many reasons (as the plant itself is not illeagle, just the chemical, same as with fungus from the Psyilocybe Cubensis family, which is another discussion unto it self) mainly it's ability to limit pain,a nd sooth and calm people. Lake County california has leagalized Marijuana plants for personal use, I forget the exact number allowed.

Needless to say, government and even univerity funded studies are useualy skewed.

MOD PARENT UP [n/t]

[Anonymous Coward]

< >

audio in linux (Score:1)
by dcstimm on Sunday August 11, @04:40PM (#4051413)
(User #556797 Info)
he couldnt find a good audio mixer for linux, so he had to use windows shareware to create the audio in his games. Hopefully reborn 1.0 and audicity 1.0 will fix his problem..

[ Reply to This | Parent ]

Re:audio in linux (Score:2)
by Bill Kendrick on Sunday August 11, @05:14PM (#4051551)
(User #19287 Info | http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/bill/)
Audacity [sourceforge.net] has been GREAT. I normally use random sounds I find on free sound archives on the 'net, but Audacity has been letting me create and tweak some of my own, original sound effects. It has a long way to go (it crashes on me sometimes, and there's not NEARLY enough filters and effects yet), but it's been #2 to The Gimp for me lately.

[ Reply to This | Parent ]

Re:audio in linux (Score:0)
by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 11, @05:27PM (#4051608)
Try version 1.1 or compile from CVS and install some Ladspa plugins--I've got over 90 effects that do more things than I can shake a mixer at.

[ Reply to This | Parent ]

Re:audio in linux (Score:1)
by dcstimm on Sunday August 11, @05:31PM (#4051619)
(User #556797 Info)
awesome, I cant wait to try it, I am compiling it now..

I spelt it wrong

Audacity not Audicity..

oppps!

[ Reply to This | Parent ]

The Linux Game Market... (Score:-1, Troll)
by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 11, @04:43PM (#4051430)
Ha! Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! That's funny.

Linux games are invariably shit. xbill is clearly the most advanced thing that a Lunix coder can come up with.

And the BEST thing about Linux games is... When you plug in your joypad, you have to recompile your entire fucking OS!

Nice one you IP-stealing yEncoded pedophilia faggots.

[ Reply to This | Parent ]

Sad (Score:2, Insightful)
by Starship Trooper on Sunday August 11, @04:44PM (#4051434)
(User #523907 Info | http://www.geocities.com/tirnothy | Last Journal: Wednesday June 19, @11:41PM)
While browsing the LGames website [sf.net], and I noticed he prominently displays a "Legalise Marijuana" badge on his front page. This sort of puerile proselytising reflects badly both on the project and all Linux users, and I implore Mr. Speck to remove it. Regardless of your feelings about the drug war issue, a Linux games pages in not the place to raise it. What is the average Joe going to think when he searches for "linux games" on Google, comes to the lgames website, and is immediately assaulted with this image? When trying to get friends and coworkers to switch to Linux, by far the hardest hurdle I have to overcome is the stereotype of Linux users as freeloading, dirty, overzealous pigs who try to shove their dogma down the throats of anyone who talks to them. Things like Speck's shameless pot-promotion do little to help overcome this. I hope this post of mine will help him come to his senses.
--
If you like Apple, then please press your right mouse button.
[ Reply to This | Parent ]

Re:Sad (Score:1)
by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 11, @04:52PM (#4051464)
You're an adult, cope. If he want to put it there, he has every right - just like you have the right to have the same nick as a crap film and a website with one of those disgusting crossword puzzles on it (note for the humour-impared: that was sarcasm). If you can't cope with other people's views, perhaps you should get off the planet. (note for the humour-impared: that wasn't, that was serious).

[ Reply to This | Parent ]

Re:Sad (Score:3, Insightful)
by Fourier on Sunday August 11, @04:53PM (#4051465)
(User #60719 Info | Last Journal: Saturday March 02, @04:06PM)
A "legalize marijuana" badge might be inappropriate on, say LinuxGames [linuxgames.com] or Happy Penguin [happypenguin.org]. But this is Michael's personal development page. He wrote all the games, he wrote the website. If he wants to lobby for something totally unrelated, that's his prerogative. Deal.

[ Reply to This | Parent ]

Re:Sad (Score:1)
by garcia on Sunday August 11, @04:54PM (#4051470)
(User #6573 Info)
I really hope this is supposed to be some sort of humor.

Whether you support it or not, the legalization of marijuana has plenty of good support and should be done. The recent drop in priority in the UK and the legislation attempting to pass in many US states should show that the general masses care little or less about the "so called" harmful effects of marijuana.

We really need to have more medical usage of marijuana (anything is better than fucking Oxy and morphine -- if you have never seen an individual using either of these painkillers, you might want to then give marijuana a second look).

Bill

[ Reply to This | Parent ]

Re:Sad (Score:2)
by zeno_2 on Sunday August 11, @04:57PM (#4051484)
(User #518291 Info)
Until then I will run LGames as a hobby of mine.
Id really say he can put anything he wants to up on his website that is showing off his 'hobby'. We really shouldn't let political correctness control the way we live, and especially control our hobbyist nature.

comes to the lgames website, and is immediately assaulted with this image?

I also find it amusing that you would be immediately assaulted by an image of a pot leaf. I didn't even notice it when I first went there, I had to go back and look after reading your post..

[ Reply to This | Parent ]

mod parent down. (Score:-1, Offtopic)
by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 11, @04:58PM (#4051487)
Then again it's his site, and he can put it on there if he wants to. The image is not offensive, and i had to look through the page twice to notice it. Personally i find pages that link to religious sites which try to convert people (or tell them they'll go to hell if they don't) far more offensive. It's a cultural thing - people in some countries would have a similar reaction to the idea of abortion being legalised.

[ Reply to This | Parent ]

Re:mod parent down. (Score:2, Insightful)
by t0qer on Sunday August 11, @05:02PM (#4051499)
(User #230538 Info | http://www.kaillera....topic=1743&forum=5& 0 | Last Journal: Saturday August 10, @04:44PM)
How about we mod you down?

Even though I don't agree with the parent post (look at my name for petes sake) I think he pointed out something very interesting that made me go back and take a second look. Now we can have a nice thread amungsts us geeks about marijuana prohibition here on slash and I have the parent post to thank for that.

A comment should never be moderated down unless it's completely stupid.

[ Reply to This | Parent ]

Mod parent down. (Score:0)
by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 11, @05:05PM (#4051505)
A comment should never be moderated down unless it's completely stupid

The original comment was clearly a troll (Starship also participates in trolltalk), and is evident as such to anyone with any experience on Slashdot at all.

[ Reply to This | Parent ]

Re:mod parent down. (Score:-1, Offtopic)
by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 11, @05:07PM (#4051512)
Personally i find pages that link to religious sites which try to convert people (or tell them they'll go to hell if they don't) far more offensive.
I dunno, most potheads I've seen take raise their wonder-drug to the level of religion too.

[ Reply to This | Parent ]

Uh...moderators? Do you know what a troll is? (Score:-1, Offtopic)
by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 11, @05:00PM (#4051493)
This is the prototypical example of a troll, and seeing moderators actually mod it up is a riot.

[ Reply to This | Parent ]

Re:Uh...moderators? Do you know what a troll is? (Score:0)
by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 11, @05:06PM (#4051507)
The poster is right.

This thing gives an impression of a website that is being run by a teenager who had smoked pot a lot and still does. This also gives the image of a teenager to his software. It would be much more appropriate for him to appear at a pro-pot website than to attach this theme to a linux/games/open-source website.

[ Reply to This | Parent ]

Re:Sad (Score:2)
by t0qer on Sunday August 11, @05:08PM (#4051516)
(User #230538 Info | http://www.kaillera....topic=1743&forum=5& 0 | Last Journal: Saturday August 10, @04:44PM)
When trying to get friends and coworkers to switch to Linux, by far the hardest hurdle I have to overcome is the stereotype of Linux users as freeloading, dirty, overzealous pigs who try to shove their dogma down the throats of anyone who talks to them. Things like Speck's shameless pot-promotion do little to help overcome this. I hope this post of mine will help him come to his senses.

*Cough* *Cough*

passes Starship Trooper the bong.

When you have a picture of linus taking a bong rip or the tux penguin with a spliff in his mouth then you can start to worry. Last time I heard linux was being used to decode folding protiens and search for aliens, not marijuana promotion.

[ Reply to This | Parent ]

Re:Sad (Score:0)
by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 11, @05:11PM (#4051541)
Perhaps marijuana has allowed Michael to do work for the good of people everywhere instead of criticizing people and beliefs you don't understand.

[ Reply to This | Parent ]

Overrated (Score:1)
by thasmudyan (thasmudyan.gmx@net) on Sunday August 11, @05:12PM (#4051544)
(User #460603 Info | http://www.openrpg.org/)
1. It's his personal homepage, he can put on it whatever he wants.
2. It's a games page, it's not intended to be The Definitive Linux Reference Page For The Politically Correct.
3. This guy is from Germany. Smoking this stuff in moderate amounts is NOT EXACTLY ILLEGAL there!
4. Like many creative minds he likely consumes alcohol and pot. Face the fact, it's very common, even *gasp* in the U.S.! It only get's bad if it is illegal (see 4) or you bomb your brain out with this stuff (but then he wouldn't be able to code anymore).
So cool down, man. And anyway it's not as if the guy posted a large banner on his page saying "SMOKE LARGE AMOUNTS OF POT AND F*CK THE POLICE". He just posted a little picture of the plant on the bottom of his page!
OpenRPG [openrpg.org] - Roleplaying Games, a geek's idea of fun...
[ Reply to This | Parent ]

This is SO a troll (Score:0)
by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 11, @05:16PM (#4051558)
Starship is very well KNOWN FOR POSTING TROLLS. The things he says are totally out of proportion, BUT HE MUST HAVE ACCIDENTALLY TRIGGERED THE AUTOMATED POLITICAL CORRECTNESS PROGRAMM here on /. Mod this guy down FOR GODS sake or whatever you believe in!!! Score 5, I cannot believe this!!!! If only I had mod points now!

[ Reply to This | Parent ]

Re:Sad (Score:1)
by RpiMatty1 on Sunday August 11, @05:23PM (#4051585)
(User #471296 Info)
By "prominently" do you mean at the very bottom of the site?
Its his site, he can put what he wants on there.

[ Reply to This | Parent ]

You couldn't be more right (Score:3, Insightful)
by NightHwk on Sunday August 11, @05:29PM (#4051613)
(User #111982 Info)
I couldn't agree with you more. This really reflects poorly on the GNU project.

Linking Free Software with a subculture that funds terrorists should not be tolerated.
Marijuana causes loss of memory, exacerbates epileptic symptoms, and causes violent and irrational behaviour in people who use it habitually.

My friends cousin was killed in college in a car accident by a driver who had smoked marijuana. He was a top notch programmer in his senior year, and had contributed code to the XFree86 project and the GNU/netBSD kernel. I think his death is a strong mesage to open sources developers on what is morale and what is subversion of a wholesome U.S. culture.

-NightHawk

Tyranny =Gov. choosing how much power to give the People.
Freedom =People choosing how much power to give the Gov.

[ Reply to This | Parent ]

Re:You couldn't be more right (Score:0)
by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 11, @05:34PM (#4051628)
Ha, I couldnt wait till someone linked this _WITH TERRORISTS_, haha! What took you so long?

[ Reply to This | Parent ]

Re:You couldn't be more right (Score:1)
by garcia on Sunday August 11, @05:35PM (#4051630)
(User #6573 Info)
I think you need to re-learn the facts.

In 1972, after reviewing the scientific evidence, the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse concluded that while marijuana was not entirely safe, its dangers had been grossly overstated. Since then, researchers have conducted thousands of studies of humans, animals, and cell cultures. None reveal any findings dramatically different from those described by the National Commission in 1972. In 1995, based on thirty years of scientific research, editors of the British medical journal Lancet concluded that 'the smoking of cannabis, even long term, is not harmful to health.

Another obvious failure of DARE.

Bill

[ Reply to This | Parent ]

Re:You couldn't be more right (Score:1)
by electricmonk (linuxcsbabe@yahoo.com) on Sunday August 11, @05:37PM (#4051638)
(User #169355 Info | http://slashdot.org/)
I think you need to re-learn the facts.
That is absolutely the most Orwellian thing that I've ever seen on this site. Why can't you self-righteous potheads just leave the rest of us alone and live your lives without trying to "reeducate" us and force your viewpoint down our throats?

[ Reply to This | Parent ]

Re:You couldn't be more right (Score:1)
by garcia on Sunday August 11, @05:43PM (#4051650)
(User #6573 Info)
ok, so someone points out false information usually supplied by DARE or some other bullshit orgranization found on the principles of attempting to stop the "drug war". Yet I am the one that is a "self-righteous pothead" (note, I am not a pothead) trying to force MY viewpoint (note: this is fact, not a viewpoint).

Get real.

Bill

[ Reply to This | Parent ]

Liberal Myth (Score:1)
by NightHwk on Sunday August 11, @05:55PM (#4051697)
(User #111982 Info)
The 1972 NCMDA study quote was long ago proven to be fraudulent. The NCMDA never made any such conclusions based on the BMJ findings. It is established in over a hundred lab studies that marijuana is a toxic substance.

The British Medical journal is a laughing stock of the psuedo/'New Age' science movement. My friends dead cousin and all the half brain dead stoners I see working in the food court are all the evidence I need to know that marijuana is a poison on our society.

-NightHawk

Tyranny =Gov. choosing how much power to give the People.
Freedom =People choosing how much power to give the Gov.

[ Reply to This | Parent ]

Re:You couldn't be more right (Score:1)
by Anomolous Cow Herd on Sunday August 11, @05:56PM (#4051702)
(User #457746 Info | Last Journal: Tuesday July 02, @11:08PM)
Lancet? What in the world are you talking about? Why would you cite such a publication while trying to make a serious argument? Lancet is on level with The National Institute for Discovery Science [nidsci.org] in terms of credibility.
How about next time, you cite an honest-to-God academic publication [nejm.org] instead of your quasi-academic British pseudoscience.

"I don't know that atheists should be considered citizens, nor should they be considered patriots." - George Bush

[ Reply to This | Parent ]

Re:You couldn't be more right (Score:1)
by JPriest on Sunday August 11, @05:45PM (#4051655)
(User #547211 Info | http://pocomail.com/)
subculture that funds terrorists
What percentage of marijuana is imported to the US from Islamic nations?

Now what percentage of petroleum is imported from those nations?

[ Reply to This | Parent ]

Re:Sad (Score:0)
by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 11, @05:32PM (#4051622)
I have to agree with you. This guy is very probably a terrorist too. Well known for smoking Marijuana, them. And won't somebody think about the kids for a moment! They'll be terrorists too if they see the pot plant on this communist's propaganda page!!!

[ Reply to This | Parent ]

Re:Sad (Score:2)
by iCEBaLM (icebalm@[NOSPAM]bigfoot.com) on Sunday August 11, @05:46PM (#4051663)
(User #34905 Info | http://www.lucid.dyndns.org)
This sort of puerile proselytising reflects badly both on the project and all Linux users [...] When trying to get friends and coworkers to switch to Linux, by far the hardest hurdle I have to overcome is the stereotype of Linux users as freeloading, dirty, overzealous pigs who try to shove their dogma down the throats of anyone who talks to them.

Hrmm. Proselytizing you say? Show their own dogman down the throats of anyone who talks to them you say?

Perhaps you should practice what you preach?

-- iCEBaLM

[ Reply to This | Parent ]

Re:Sad (Score:2)
by Nurf on Sunday August 11, @05:59PM (#4051717)
(User #11774 Info | http://www.mythral.org/~ray)
Oh get off your whiney soapbox and get a sense of perspective.

It's his website and he can prominently display whatever he likes. And yes, I support your right to prominently whine about it, but it won't make me think any better of you (or from pointing out your faults).

If I have friends that go over to linux, they will do it because its something that is useful to them. All the "legalise marijauna" stickers in the world won't change that.

Of course, this might be because my friends aren't whiney gits, and are quite happy to let other people do things their own way as long as they don't hurt others.

"Shameless pot-promotion"? What a wonderfully mealy mouthed way of implying that pot is wrong and so is promoting its legalisation. I don't do any recreational drugs but I support the right of people to do what they like as long as it doesn't adversely affect others.

I think your comment is far more harmful than Mr Speck's. At least he isn't trying to shut someone up. ie. He isn't trying to adversely affect others.

About the only censorship I find worthy is the suppression of suppression by mealy mouthed moral police that are convinced their way is the only "true" way to live.

Your assumption of some dubious moral high ground deserves to be put in its place. I hope you consider this reply a small step on the way to that goal.

I find it incredibly sad that some idiots actually moderated you up. Looks like people will never just live and let live.

-Nurf

-- OIC [mythral.org] - The open video codec for the masses.

[ Reply to This | Parent ]

Problem with Linux gaming..

[Chicane-UK]

Because certain hardware vendors are still not interested in releasing proper Linux drivers for their video cards, or opening up the information to their products to projects who are willing to write drivers, we as users are stuck somewhere in the middle.

I experienced this recently whilst trying to get my ATI Radeon 7200 working under Linux. ATI dont produce a Linux driver of their own for this card, so I had to use drivers from the DRI project. Trying to get this to work was confusing enough.. the main example of this came after I visted the DRI page to try and get some FAQ's to read through.. there I spotted a message that said something along the lines of "Dont use the DRI modules that ship with the kernel! Use these ones instead!" - well why bother making them a feature of the kernel at all? Seeing as you are all in one big boat together, why not get projects like this syncronized?

I am left a little unsatisfied with the end result. I appreciate that the DRI guys can only do so much, but as I said the attitudes of some companies leave them in such a situation. As a result of this, my subscription to Transgaming WineX (which I hear is really good) has been wasted.. I can't get the card working reliably enough so I might as well just boot into Windows for gaming.

In contrast, I attempted the same with my work computer which has a TNT2 card in it.. downloaded the drivers from Nvidia, ran their install script, and restarted X. I was greeted with an Nvidia splash screen and everything worked.

Re:Problem with Linux gaming..

[benmhall]

Even worse, the integrated S3 ProSavage 4 chip that's built into my laptop has _no HW-accel 3D whatsoever_ My only option is an $80USD driver from xi.com. $80USD!! That's a tenth of the cost of the laptop for a driver! What's worse: The 2D driver from Via that ships with XFree86 is buggier than you can imagine. Launching OpenOffice locks the laptop up hard. Luckily someone has fixed this, but I'd guess that there will never be HW 3D support for this chip under Linux. And this is a rather prolific chipset! Unlike you, I can't replace it with an nVidia card... :(

Re:Problem with Linux gaming..

[0x0d0a]

Matrox had good Linux support for a while, but this seems to have falled by the wayside recently -- perhaps they didn't make enough Linux $$$ to justify further development.

Re:Problem with Linux gaming..

[Bingo Foo]

Even worse, the integrated S3 ProSavage 4 chip that's built into my laptop has _no HW-accel 3D whatsoever_

That's nothing! the Hercules CGA card I have wouldn't even do 16 color VGA, even if I could boot Linux in the IBM/XT box it's in! Boy, talk about a lack of good open source drivers!

Re:Problem with Linux gaming..

[Anonymous Coward]

your fault for buying an ATI card for linux... everyone has big DONT BUY ATI banners on their linux graphics/video sites...

Hmmm, why doesnt this Macintosh card work with my windows@K box... windows has a long way to go...

get real and dont blame the OS for your misinformed purchases....

So a beer advert would be ok ?

[sh0rtie]

Ill bite..

First give the guy a break, he has a image of something he believes in on his website and all of a sudden we are discussing that your friends cousin was killed by someone under the influence of POT and how bad it is on a project that he is good enough to contribute his time to for "free"

lets see how many people where killed last year by people under the influence of legal substances
iam sure for every talented programmer (OS&CS) that dies of a car accident with a pothead driver drink driving will match it * 100, not including people out of their faces on prescription drugs that their "therapist" gave them.

Driving under the influence of anything is a bad thing to do , we all know, its bad, yet millions of people think "it won't happen to me" every night they have a "just a couple of beers" on their way home from the office/work/site even tho its a imprisonable offence in most countries around the world we (as in people) think nothing of it.

and im not even going into the bad things that drink can do to your body, needless to say how many bar fights involve alcohol vs the wrath of violence you get from a hippy pot smoker ?

Drinks on me !

Re:Sad -- yes you are

[zeeboy]

ProselytiZing..hmm...let's see...we have a government who's been disseminating false information and outright lying about cannabis for nearly THIRTY years...yet you call one small image proselytizing.....sounds like your the dogmatist.

What is the average Joe going to think when he searches for "linux games" on Google
...hmmm...maybe the average Joe WILL THINK...that's the point! Our government can't very well bend around on it's own ass when it's been pushing false propaganda for so long. It's up to brave people who have the guts to say hey "it's really not that bad, and people shouldn't be imprisoned for possessing it."

Linux games pages in not the place to raise it ...well your just wrong for too many reasons... besides one could argue that /. is not the place to debate this (it's really not, but hey, I didn't start it!).

Re:They gonna interview me? ;) (Was Re:OK)

[Bill Kendrick]

Well, I guess they are. :)

Wrong!

[Anonymous Coward]

Game code was not Loki's to give away. I know it has been a while now, but Loki was in the PORTING business not the GAME DEVELOPMENT business.
The game code belonged to the likes of Epic, Timegate, and Bungie to name a few. Just a hunch, but I don't think those companies wanted their code freely distributed.

And Loki was much better about sharing code that they could share. For example, loki_setup, update, smpeg, smjpeg.

I'm not convinced that transgaming is a good thing at all for Linux on the desktop.
Although they provide a half-way decent service at a cheap price, they seem to discourage native game ports. They maintain forums for Quake3, Quake2, Unreal Tournament, Return To Castle Wolfenstien, Sim City 3000, Railroad Tycoon2 and others. All of which already have native ports.

In the beginning they said they would not compete with native ports, and they said they would realease their code once they had so many users.
So far they've done neither.

If you want to support Linux gaming buy the games that have been natively ported from tuxgames.com or linuxcentral.com or wherever you can find them. And Doom3, UT2003 and NWN for linux when they come out.

Re:Wrong!

[Anonymous Coward]

>. . . and they said they would realease their code once they had so many users.
So far they've done neither.

And have they reached that number of subscribers? No. So what's your point?

Re:Wrong!

[Anonymous Coward]

Read the subject.
My point is that Galvatron is wrong.

Loki released the code they could, Transgaming has been nothing but pricks.
Pretty simple point actually.

Moderation.

[oh]

Offtopic=1, Troll=1, Insightful=2, Overrated=3, Underrated=1, Total=8.

Are peole moderating this because they think they don't agree with the viewpoint or because they don't think it contributed to the discussion.

Oh, this is probably Offtopic=1

Influential? Why?

[Junks Jerzey]

one of the two more influential Free game developers for Linux today

I went to the LGames site and saw versions of Tetris, Breakout, the old memory game, and so on. Now don't get me wrong, I like Linux, and I like games, and I'm not a 3D bigot, but we're talking about stale old stuff here. If this is what an influential developer puts out, then I just don't know.

Re:Uh...moderators? Do you know what a troll is?

[lazarius]

This thing gives an impression of a website that is being run by a teenager who had smoked pot a lot and still does. This also gives the image of a teenager to his software. It would be much more appropriate for him to appear at a pro-pot website than to attach this theme to a linux/games/open-source website.

It's his life with his games. you can ignore him if you want. he's just some private coder who writes games and smokes pot. doesn't mean his games aren't any good or that playing his games supports his habit.

I personally feel that pot should be legalized and normal cigarettes banned. (I don't smoke either of them, tho) marijuana (I believe, I don't have support) is less dangerous than tobacco cigarettes, yet we let those go on. And alcohol. Plus, if countries legalized pot, then they'd get 1) more jail space 2) more court space 3) (and here's the big one) more money. Think about #3 for a minute: in normal smokes, the gov't gets tax money. Why wouldn't they just distribute pot the same way with the same restrictions? (note: I don't smoke pot - already stated - nor do I ever intend on smoking it)

MIKE

Sloppy Code, security holes

[Anonymous Coward]

http://lgames.sourceforge.net/index.php?project=LB ill

see what no input validation gets you?

Re:Uh...moderators? Do you know what a troll is?

[Anonymous Coward]

not to mention, his code sucks, 5 minutes after trying games:
http://lgames.sourceforge.net/index.php?project=LB ill

His code is cheap, buggy, and has security holes.

[Anonymous Coward]

see http://lgames.sourceforge.net/index.php?project=LB ill for an example of what I mean. No input validation whatsoever.

I hope if he codes for non gmaes projects, he thinks about this a little more.

Transgaming: better community input

[maynard]

Errm... Transgaming aren't exactly whiter than white in that regard, having refused to give back their Direct X code to the Wine community (for sound economic reasons, sure, but then so are most unethical business practices).

I like their voting system, which allows customers to decide on which games they will try to support. That definitely connects them closer to their community than the average software company; most usually just offering a product, take it or leave it.

Also: I'm not opposed to a company making money off of BSD or LGPL licenced code. I don't see anything wrong in Transgaming's behavior, as long as they legally meet all licensing restrictions for any code they expropriate into their product. BSD code is licensed such for that very purpose; it is at least one valid expression of the word "freedom". Transgaming, or any other company, owes no code back to the community unless the license says so. To expect them to do otherwise, even when they only used code which was licensed specifically so they could choose not to do so, I think passes into the land of zealotry. Particularly when trying to compare such intended practices with the plain -- outright -- fraud that was Enron. No way.

I wish Transgaming they best. May they see many profitable years servicing their market, and may many happy Linux users keep gaming -- whoever may enter the market later on.

Cheers,
--Maynard

Re:Transgaming: better community input

[Breakfast Pants]

Hey fucktard, he compared loki with enron not transgaming.

Re:Transgaming: better community input

[maynard]

"Hey fucktard, he compared loki with enron not transgaming."

I compared Loki with Enron in a reply to skydude_20.

Then Tet wrote back:

"Errm... Transgaming aren't exactly whiter than white in that regard, having refused to give back their Direct X code to the Wine community (for sound economic reasons, sure, but then so are most unethical business practices). I understand they're in a tricky situation, and are contributing back as much as they feel able, but they're not exactly model citizens..."

He -- by implication -- suggested that by not giving back source, Transgaming is engaging in an "unethical business practice"... suggestive of something similar to Enron's business practices given the thread of the discussion, though not explicitely stated. I disagree with that position, because not only are what they doing legal, but they are following the intended purpose of the Wine developers as expressed by the their chosen license. JMO.

'Nother thing... Hey -- it's a nit pick -- but just where did you learn your manners? --M

ps - I know, IHBT

Responsibility to the customer

[maynard]

There were many things Loki could have done to provide reasonable customer service given the situation. Or even a rational explanation. Digital River certainly caused the bulk of their problems WRT: shipping. But since getting product to customers in order to collect payment should be the first order of business, for any company, not dealing with the issue (from a policy standpoint) made little sense. I have had a few emails from other people who were in similar shoes as me with Loki orders and they got pretty pissed as well. Pissed off people bitch and soon the company loses customers A call from Loki to DR to clear up the mess should have been feasible. Or at least a better explanation other than, hey why not sign up for this expensive subscription service instead of us solving your problem?

I'll bitch publicly about any company that I feel provides rotten customer service, or sells an inferior/dangerous product. It has to piss me off -- then I write. But, of course, I had no idea what was really going on in the company. And I feel truly sorry for those employees who were harmed by the outcome.

--Maynard

Re:Responsibility to the customer

[Anonymous Coward]

I remember you!

You're the guy who, when offered alternate ordering options and when informed at the time of order that you would need to split your order to avoid the whole thing waiting for one game to be released, demanded all your games for FREE instead of splitting up your order like the reasonable person you pretend to be!

(I refer anyone who wants more information to the Kuro5hin article posted by this individual -- it speaks for itself. "Hi, I'm not going to abide by your policies, and then I'm going to demand your products for free when I don't comply.")

Re:Responsibility to the customer

[Anonymous Coward]

Irate Loki Employee?

Nope. Not at all.

[maynard]

I never demanded anything for free from Loki, you have your facts wrong. I simply wanted the games which had been released to be shipped as ordered in a timely way. I paid for every Loki game I own. --M

Taking a sponge to a knife fight.

[piznut]

I love linux...on my servers.

While getting linux on the desktop is a noble cause it is so far behind the commercial alternatives that I doubt it will ever catch up. While perfectly adequate, Linux is making no innovations on the desktop, only playing catchup. Mind you, Im just talking about the user interface. Games on Linux are irrelevant. I have counted out linux on the desktop or as a gaming OS, but it's on the ropes.

Re:Taking a sponge to a knife fight.

[Anonymous Coward]

wow keep smoking that crack....

Linux is so ready for the desktop I use it on 25% of my CORPERATE WORKSTATIONS!

so please, keep saying no....

because I'll get your job when I walk in and say yes..

only admins that have the balls to stand behind their desisions win and get the best jobs...

people like you are part of the wake we leave behind...

so keep telling yourself that... you are really smart and know better.... Yup.... you do... you just know.... you dont have to actually try.... yup....

Re:Taking a sponge to a knife fight.

[piznut]

Wow, a whopping 25%. That number speaks for itself. It may be ready for your desktop, and the desktops of other people with copious free time that can be spent tweaking stuff. For the people that need to get real work done, we use windows and os x. Personally, I'd rather not spend 75% of my time answering support calls about why they can't open document x, or why some video can't be displayed or what this kernel message is that keeps popping up.

Like I said before, Linux owns on servers. I wont run anything but. You are seriously delusional if you actually think that KDE/Gnome/x comes anywhere close to the functionality/polish/ease of use enjoyed by Windows XP or OS X users.

Speck makes classic mistake regarding market ...

[AHumbleOpinion]

Michael Speck: If games are developed platform-independant from the start which allows to sell it for different platforms in one package with one price then there will definitely be a market under Linux.

As long as nearly all Linux gamers dual boot or emulate there is no Linux game market from a commercial point of view. Speck makes a classic mistake when determining the size of the Linux game market. The Linux game market is not the number of people who would buy a Linux version of a game, it is the number who would only buy the Linux version and never buy the Win32. He seems to fail to consider that replacing a Win32 sale with a Linux sale does no good for a publisher, there is no new sale.

Re:Speck makes classic mistake regarding market ..

[squaretorus]

The market for Linux games, or games on any non Windows / PS2 platform is going to be tough.

The only thing that makes people want to play a game on an OS is the game. If Linux has Doom 4 before windows, or even INSTEAD of windows then te market for Linux as a gaming platform will burst forth.

To have the choice of the windows of linux is, as you say, not advancing linux as a platform as the total sales are likely to be the same.

Linux needs some advantage to become a serious games platform - and new versions of pong and tetris are not that advantage!

Legalise It!

[kulkanie]

I had a good time laughing when I read this thread. Why? I haven't smoked pot for more than 8 months. I dropped it because it causes loss of concentration and drains energy, two things that are quite incompatible with challenging tasks like exams and programming. So I don't take any drugs to get in the mood for coding (neither alcohol or dope) as I consider this to be contra-productive.

BUT I'm not satisfied with the legal status of marijuana! From the medicial point of view and my own experience I think that it's not correct to forbid marijuana while keeping alcohol open.

freeloading, dirty, overzealous pigs who try to shove their dogma down the throats of anyone who talks to them
Do you really know enough about me to state such a comment or are you just stereotyping? And have you even tried to talk to me and did I answer 'Legalise! Legalise! Legalise!' or are you just stereotyping again?

Regardless of your feelings about the drug war issue, a Linux games pages in not the place to raise it.
Yes, and I thought a long time about it. But what is freedom of speech good for if I'm bound to special places? It's like: Hey buddy, you're free to say whatever you want but you have to do it over there because this corner is dedicated to another opinion.

I will not remove the badge but I hope you learn tolerance against other people's opinions. Thanks.

Dependencies a red herring

[leandrod]

He complains a lot about dependencies.

Whomever complains about dependencies is still in RPM Dark Ages, having not seen yet the dpkg light as witnessed by apt and dselect.

Seriously, it is just another case of a half-baked industry standard namely, RPM long surviving its own due lifespan, thus becoming a hindrance to the whole industry and giving a bad name to GNU/Linux.

Ironic that RPM was just a stop gap before dpkg was finished, or perhaps a bit of Not Invented Here syndrome.

Re:Dependencies a red herring

[scrytch]

Gee. A debian developer trashes RPM. How unexpected. You should talk about trashing the reputation of linux: you guys were responsible for dselect.

Linux market not hard to get into ...

[AHumbleOpinion]

The market for Linux games, or games on any non Windows / PS2 platform is going to be tough.

Not really, targetting a niche platform like Linux or Mac is a plausible way to start. If a company is developed enough that they can target both Win32 and Linux then the Linux sales often canabalized Win32 sales and do no good for the publisher. However for a startup making a Mac-only or a Linux-only game can be a way to fund and grow a very small developer until they reach the point where they can afford to enter the Win32 realm. Example: Bungie. The niche markets have far less competition and are less demanding/very forgiving of platform-specific games. Examle: Mac, Clanlord.

If Linux has Doom 4 before windows, or even INSTEAD of windows then te market for Linux as a gaming platform will burst forth

In the sense that Linux gamers who normally buy Win32 would buy Linux, yes, in that gamers would switch platforms, no. The platform switchers would be few, at best there would be a handful of new dual booters who would normally buy Win32. However, the whole concept of a Linux-first/only game from an established Win32 capable developer is dubious. There is no commercial upside, it would essentially be a large charitable contribution where you don't even get a tax write-off.

Re:Linux market not hard to get into ...

[squaretorus]

There is no commercial upside, it would essentially be a large charitable contribution where you don't even get a tax write-off.


Which, sadly, is the end of the story for Linux. Unless there is a compelling reason, be it technical, ethical or financial (are there any other reasons??) for the best developers to adopt a platform it wont happen.

If Linux had kick ass libraries and stability and development tools which created a dream environment for developers to ... develop then the technical side would begin to be compelling IF that environment was many times better than on Windows.

That aint gonna happen. Sadly.