Linden labs shut down gambling, segregated all porn to its own island, and now 2nd life's "wholesome areas" are now ghost towns because everyone's hanging out in porn island and spending their money there for virtual kinkiness. Also, writer speculates that most of 2nd life's revenue is now from porn island.
Well, meanwhile, you can relive Duke Nukem 3D in hi-res 3D glory with the Duke Nukem 3D: High Resolution Pack. All the sprites have been replaced with 3D models and the textures replaced with hi-res textures - you get to play it in a modern Windows environment with hardware OpenGL acceleration too.
More people would use Linux if more top-notch commercial apps were available to it.
Thus, I beg to differ with the poster of this story.
If anything, the proliferation of commercial proprietary apps on Android will be good for everyone, even the FOSS community as the platform will become a bigger success and more developers (professional, hobbyist and beginner) looking for an audience to target for their free apps (should they wish to create free apps) will target Android since it will have a wider user base.
Take a look at the chicken and egg problem with any new platform:
A)Q: How do you increase user base? A: Have a lot of good apps for the platform.
B)Q: Why choose a particular platform to develop apps for? A: Because that platorm has a large user base/audience.
So as you can see, the proliferation of these commercial apps can only help the Android platform, and not make it worse (unless it gets flooded by crapware and there aren't enough compelling apps are developed for it).
How is this different from running proprietary PHP & MySQL code on a Linux-Apache-MySQL-PHP server?
The platform underneath is FOSS, but what developers choose to do with the open source tools is their business.
I don't have to show you my PHP & MySQL code running on my website which runs either advertisements or subscription-based models.
Why does proprietary software for sale on the Android pose a threat to FOSS?
On the contrary, I say this is a good thing as more people will use the platform as more software is made available to it.
Moreover, Just because software is free doesn't make it good. GIMP is no substitute for Photoshop as any professional graphic designer will attest. I've used GIMP, and it's rather clunky and not enough for my professional needs. And Tremulous/Saurbaten is no Left 4 Dead/Modern Warfare/Crysis.
Now back to the topic of free platforms:
I fell in love with the newest versions of Ubuntu/Linux Mint and with a few customizations and enabling of the Compiz/Fusion desktop eye-candy, my mind was blown away and found 'em even better than Mac desktop interfaces.
When I switched back to WinXP, I felt really, really limited as a lot of features on GNOME + Compiz Fusion were amazing for productivity and VERY VERY pretty.
Anyway, long story short, although I really prefer Linux Mint + GNOME + Compiz Fusion over WinXP, unfortunately, my professional tools of Adobe Photoshop CS4 + Flash CS4 IDE only run on WinXP and don't run on Linux (and don't forget my games! most of them don't run on linux!)
As much as I love the FOSS platform I mentioned above, the stuff I use to make a living and for entertainment doesn't run on it, so tough beans.
If anything, proprietary software should be welcomed with very very open arms on Android as it enriches the ecosystem. What good is a platform if there are not enough decent apps for it?
And PLEASE, people need to make a living from creating software. You can't expect everything to be free so pony up and reward developers for creating good apps by buying their products.
And also, notice that a lot of people developing games for mobile phones now are indie developers. Reward indie developers! Buy their games if they are good and are decently priced!
There's a company that made commercial console emulators for Nokia Series 60 phones:
Vampent - http://vampent.com
Their products are:
VNES = NES Emulator
VBOY = Gameboy Color Emulator
VSUN = SNES Emulator
VBAG/VBAGX = Gameboy Advance Emulator
In Oblivion, this was terribly implemented, where all enemies would also level up as you leveled up. At higher levels, you ended up with ultra-powerful enemies that took just too long to kill and made the game a tiring slog to fight through if you didn't particularly like the combat mechanics and just wanted to get on with the story. It was also as if you weren't an uber-leveled up character because *all* enemies were uber-high-level around you at high levels.
In Bioshock, the game would adapt to how well you were playing by raising enemy hitpoints if you were skilled enough at killing them quickly. Basically, my same complaint with Oblivion. I just want the enemies to die fast so I can get on with the story, but they get tougher and tougher to kill, making things very tiring for me.
Actually, what the guys at OLPC did was to ensure that the OLPC XO-1 laptops would still be able to dual-boot to Linux in case Windows was installed.
See this email from the OLPC Developer mailing list from Mitch Bradley, one of the developers at OLPC:
At the moment, OLPC is doing approximately zero work on Windows. That wasn't true last year. I spent several months last year making it possible to boot Windows from Open Firmware. The reason I did that was to prevent Microsoft from "taking over" the XO machine. Their plan was to purchase machines and instruct the factory to reflash their SPI FLASH boot ROM with a conventional BIOS - which would have prevented OLPC's Linux from working. It would have been possible to boot a different Linux distro from that BIOS, but it would not have been bootable from NAND FLASH, the OLPC security would not have been available, OLPC's special power management would not have worked, and the OFW-resident management features like diagnostics and NAND update would have been lost. Essentially it would have been a one-way ticket to Microsoft land.
That one-way road was unacceptable to Nicholas. He insisted that, if any machines were to be able to run Windows, they must be able to dual-boot.
In fact, this shows Negroponte is actually pro-linux.
Actually, what the guys at OLPC did was to ensure that the OLPC XO-1 laptops would still be able to dual-boot to Linux in case Windows was installed.
See this email from the OLPC Developer mailing list from Mitch Bradley, one of the developers at OLPC:
At the moment, OLPC is doing approximately zero work on Windows. That
wasn't true last year. I spent several months last year making it
possible to boot Windows from Open Firmware. The reason I did that was
to prevent Microsoft from "taking over" the XO machine. Their plan was
to purchase machines and instruct the factory to reflash their SPI FLASH
boot ROM with a conventional BIOS - which would have prevented OLPC's
Linux from working. It would have been possible to boot a different
Linux distro from that BIOS, but it would not have been bootable from
NAND FLASH, the OLPC security would not have been available, OLPC's
special power management would not have worked, and the OFW-resident
management features like diagnostics and NAND update would have been
lost. Essentially it would have been a one-way ticket to Microsoft land.
That one-way road was unacceptable to Nicholas. He insisted that, if
any machines were to be able to run Windows, they must be able to dual-boot.
In fact, this shows Negroponte is actually pro-linux.
Slashdot Mirror
Article Summary:
Linden labs shut down gambling, segregated all porn to its own island, and now 2nd life's "wholesome areas" are now ghost towns because everyone's hanging out in porn island and spending their money there for virtual kinkiness. Also, writer speculates that most of 2nd life's revenue is now from porn island.
Yet another corollary:
Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day.
Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
Well, meanwhile, you can relive Duke Nukem 3D in hi-res 3D glory with the Duke Nukem 3D: High Resolution Pack. All the sprites have been replaced with 3D models and the textures replaced with hi-res textures - you get to play it in a modern Windows environment with hardware OpenGL acceleration too.
:)
Enjoy!
Oh, and I forgot:
More people would use Linux if more top-notch commercial apps were available to it.
Thus, I beg to differ with the poster of this story.
If anything, the proliferation of commercial proprietary apps on Android will be good for everyone, even the FOSS community as the platform will become a bigger success and more developers (professional, hobbyist and beginner) looking for an audience to target for their free apps (should they wish to create free apps) will target Android since it will have a wider user base.
Take a look at the chicken and egg problem with any new platform:
A)Q: How do you increase user base? A: Have a lot of good apps for the platform.
B)Q: Why choose a particular platform to develop apps for? A: Because that platorm has a large user base/audience.
So as you can see, the proliferation of these commercial apps can only help the Android platform, and not make it worse (unless it gets flooded by crapware and there aren't enough compelling apps are developed for it).
How is this different from running proprietary PHP & MySQL code on a Linux-Apache-MySQL-PHP server?
The platform underneath is FOSS, but what developers choose to do with the open source tools is their business.
I don't have to show you my PHP & MySQL code running on my website which runs either advertisements or subscription-based models.
Why does proprietary software for sale on the Android pose a threat to FOSS?
On the contrary, I say this is a good thing as more people will use the platform as more software is made available to it.
Moreover, Just because software is free doesn't make it good. GIMP is no substitute for Photoshop as any professional graphic designer will attest. I've used GIMP, and it's rather clunky and not enough for my professional needs. And Tremulous/Saurbaten is no Left 4 Dead/Modern Warfare/Crysis. Now back to the topic of free platforms:
I fell in love with the newest versions of Ubuntu/Linux Mint and with a few customizations and enabling of the Compiz/Fusion desktop eye-candy, my mind was blown away and found 'em even better than Mac desktop interfaces.
When I switched back to WinXP, I felt really, really limited as a lot of features on GNOME + Compiz Fusion were amazing for productivity and VERY VERY pretty.
Anyway, long story short, although I really prefer Linux Mint + GNOME + Compiz Fusion over WinXP, unfortunately, my professional tools of Adobe Photoshop CS4 + Flash CS4 IDE only run on WinXP and don't run on Linux (and don't forget my games! most of them don't run on linux!)
As much as I love the FOSS platform I mentioned above, the stuff I use to make a living and for entertainment doesn't run on it, so tough beans.
If anything, proprietary software should be welcomed with very very open arms on Android as it enriches the ecosystem. What good is a platform if there are not enough decent apps for it?
And PLEASE, people need to make a living from creating software. You can't expect everything to be free so pony up and reward developers for creating good apps by buying their products.
And also, notice that a lot of people developing games for mobile phones now are indie developers. Reward indie developers! Buy their games if they are good and are decently priced!
That is all.
I find that coding/hacking becomes more awesome while listening to techno music. It is essential when you are trying to pwn Gibson Supercomputers.
There's a company that made commercial console emulators for Nokia Series 60 phones:
Vampent - http://vampent.com
Their products are: VNES = NES Emulator
VBOY = Gameboy Color Emulator
VSUN = SNES Emulator
VBAG/VBAGX = Gameboy Advance Emulator
The ScummVM emulator for running classic Lucasarts games like Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tentacle and the Monkey Island series also has a nice set of scalers and graphics filters.
But what about the trolls and griefers? Please think about them! o noes! D:
In Oblivion, this was terribly implemented, where all enemies would also level up as you leveled up. At higher levels, you ended up with ultra-powerful enemies that took just too long to kill and made the game a tiring slog to fight through if you didn't particularly like the combat mechanics and just wanted to get on with the story. It was also as if you weren't an uber-leveled up character because *all* enemies were uber-high-level around you at high levels.
In Bioshock, the game would adapt to how well you were playing by raising enemy hitpoints if you were skilled enough at killing them quickly. Basically, my same complaint with Oblivion. I just want the enemies to die fast so I can get on with the story, but they get tougher and tougher to kill, making things very tiring for me.
>I fear just what kind of pre-existing crapware this will enable on the iPhone.
:D
Addicting Flash games of course!
I look forward to seeing some of the better Flash games ported to the iPhone.
And this is believed to be the 1st image on the internet. It was of the parody doo-wop girl band Les Horribles Cernettes from CERN.
Yeah, I think there was a documentary on this some years ago and here's a Wired.com article on it from 2007: Mixed Feelings - See with your tongue
Here's a CBS News video on the Brainport from January 2007: Blind Learn To See With Tongue
And here's an article on the tech from way back in 2004: Tongue-Vision Allows The Blind To Lap-Up The Sights
Behold!
;)
Left 4 Dead in 4kb: Left 4k Dead!
pretty cool spin-off for 4 kilobytes
All this Windows-OLPC debacle is rather unfair.
Actually, what the guys at OLPC did was to ensure that the OLPC XO-1 laptops would still be able to dual-boot to Linux in case Windows was installed.
See this email from the OLPC Developer mailing list from Mitch Bradley, one of the developers at OLPC:
At the moment, OLPC is doing approximately zero work on Windows. That wasn't true last year. I spent several months last year making it possible to boot Windows from Open Firmware. The reason I did that was to prevent Microsoft from "taking over" the XO machine. Their plan was to purchase machines and instruct the factory to reflash their SPI FLASH boot ROM with a conventional BIOS - which would have prevented OLPC's Linux from working. It would have been possible to boot a different Linux distro from that BIOS, but it would not have been bootable from NAND FLASH, the OLPC security would not have been available, OLPC's special power management would not have worked, and the OFW-resident management features like diagnostics and NAND update would have been lost. Essentially it would have been a one-way ticket to Microsoft land.
That one-way road was unacceptable to Nicholas. He insisted that, if any machines were to be able to run Windows, they must be able to dual-boot.
In fact, this shows Negroponte is actually pro-linux.
Support Bacteria! It's the only culture some people have!
Actually, what the guys at OLPC did was to ensure that the OLPC XO-1 laptops would still be able to dual-boot to Linux in case Windows was installed.
See this email from the OLPC Developer mailing list from Mitch Bradley, one of the developers at OLPC:
At the moment, OLPC is doing approximately zero work on Windows. That wasn't true last year. I spent several months last year making it possible to boot Windows from Open Firmware. The reason I did that was to prevent Microsoft from "taking over" the XO machine. Their plan was to purchase machines and instruct the factory to reflash their SPI FLASH boot ROM with a conventional BIOS - which would have prevented OLPC's Linux from working. It would have been possible to boot a different Linux distro from that BIOS, but it would not have been bootable from NAND FLASH, the OLPC security would not have been available, OLPC's special power management would not have worked, and the OFW-resident management features like diagnostics and NAND update would have been lost. Essentially it would have been a one-way ticket to Microsoft land.
That one-way road was unacceptable to Nicholas. He insisted that, if any machines were to be able to run Windows, they must be able to dual-boot.
In fact, this shows Negroponte is actually pro-linux.
You have been eaten by a grue.
... and in Soviet Russia, grues are likely to be eaten by YOU!!!
Check out Left 4k Dead -> Left 4 Dead in 4kb! It's pretty fun and the sourcecode's available too.
Augh! The light! It burns! It burnsssssss!
now all we need is for scientists to discover a way to turn humans into mice! :D
I'm still waiting for the Ninja Party!
mod article up +5 awesometastic!!!
and He still is!
Steve Polge was the king