This brings back memories. In the early 90's a couple of Amiga magazines in England (Amiga Format and Commodore Abu^H^H^H User) made a big deal about it and asked people to write in when they saw an Amiga on TV. One showed up regularly on the Aussie soap "Neighbours", that's the only one I can remember offhand.
While this story is hardly "News for Nerds" and it certainly isn't "Stuff that Matters", it's kinda amusing to know Linux has made it that far into the mainstream. What next? The Pres on "West Wing" using KDE? ER running their medical systems on Debian?
What's the betting that the reason they used Linux is so they didn't have to licence a copy of Windows for it... Just a thought... Wouldn't cut much off the overall budget, but a couple of hundred dollars would pay a fair few extras I would think.
the govt. wanting to keep tabs on the country with snooping like this to stop potential terrorists, one thing that just occured to me is what happens if you piss off someone who works on the Echelon project? I mean it's bad enough if you piss a friend off who know some of your secrets it's bad enough that your secrets get spread, but if you piss off someone involved in Echelon they could REALLY screw you over. While I agree that govts. should prevent terrorism any way they can (growing up in England I grew up with IRA pricks blowing up my country) the potential for abuse of Echelon is just FAR to great.
I know this isn't entirely on topic with the story, but I just made a mental note of which friends may be involved with the project. Scary.
If you hate cubicle life, you should check the above named film out. After a hard day at work (when I had an office job) I loved watching this movie. Made me feel SO much better...
I honestly can't remember. I think the site was called Starhack. You're asking me to remember a LONG way back:) He had the guts to stand up and they caved. The thing is, for every person that stands up and says "screw you" to the corporations, there's 5 who'll back down. This just goes back to my original post. A collective unit stands a better chance of winning a battle than single units. Whatever the hell the site was that had hassle from Blizzard, I remember being very impressed with the guy for standing up to them.
I seem to recall going back when Starcraft came out that someone reverse engineered it to write, I believe, a Battlenet server type program. Blizzard sent the guy a cease and desist order and said reverse engineering was illegaly, usual legal spiel. He stood up to them and said no and they threatened legal action but he stood his ground and they backed down.
A collective community dedicated to reverse engineering, say, the Cuecat would stand a much better chance of fighting the stupidity of the designers claims than if the developers stay in disparate camps. One collective force will put up more of a fight then a bunch of little camps. I think that is probably the only way that reverse engineerings laws will be changed, and even then it is going to take a LONG time.
From what I gather they backed down after they were deluged with protests and WILL be releasing the DVD with the japanese dialogue. The site I read this on is usually reliable.
Dammit! Somehow clicked on the anonymous button! That's what I get for posting to Slashdot having only had 5 hours sleep in the last 36 hours...
Hmm... A thought occurs. I complain about Slashdot posting this story, then contribute to the message forum devoted to the article vociferously. Methinks I'm a hypocrite. Yes. Methinks I need sleep.
Thanks for the comments on Python! I'm sitting here, Python book by my side, currently trying to learn it. Was getting disheartened but reading posts like yours fill me with confidence again.
I've done some VB coding, only small stuff (a dice roller program for AD&D'ers), but I did NOT like the language itself. I wrote that one program and never went back to to VB again. Nice to see you make the Python comparison since I'm having WAY more fun (when it's not doing my head in) learning Python than I did VB. I am really not sure of the logic of designing a VB'esque program for Linux. There are far better options than making a version of BASIC.
PS, please note that nowhere in this post did I claim Python was better than Perl, so you "Perl is better than Python" people can just go post somewhere else or something:)
Welcome to Slashmeat... Er, sorry, I mean Freshdot...
I don't mean to start any wars, but WHY in the name of all that's holy was this story posted on Slashdot? In the words of Dennis Miller, I don't want to get off on a rant here, but how does this qualify as "News for Nerds. Stuff that matters."? Take the first part. No disrespect to anyone who writes in BASIC, but I would wager that 90% of nerds sneer at BASIC, and those that don't would never use it anyway. (I am learning to program, and I am NOT going anywhere NEAR BASIC) Also this project is MILES from even being considered for the end user (the post on dot.kde.org says as much) so why is it being posted? Freshmeat is a MUCH more approriate forum. As for stuff that matters, the only reason I can possibly think of to post this on Slashdot is if the poster has some bias toward KDE or stands to benefit from KBasic.
it's potentially a great project, but I don't think Slashdot is the right place to announce it...
I have made a decision, and that is that when I die, my brain is to be released as open source. Currently I am transcribing my entire life experience and every nuance of my personality into C and Python, though I may have to go from C to C++ as I am rather object oriented. (Cars, computers, CD's, breasts...) Assuming I don't die before I finish coding the prior portions of my life, on the instant of my death, a website will be created on Sourceforge and my brain will be released under the GPL. Thus, users can download my brain or the sourcecode for my brain (estimated download size one GZipped is anticipated at being just under 3 megs) and use my brain to perhaps live experiences they've never had, or to automatically acquire knowledge they don't possess that I do. If they so desire they can make improvements to my brain, or perhaps port my brain to other platforms such as cows, sheep or dogs. A word of warning on ports though, an attempted port failed recently when the wrong source was used and an early alpha version of my brain was ported to the Siberian hampster. Thus it's recommended that you don't port to animals with a brain smaller than a walnut, such as mice, rats and the entire MPAA.
Should I die before the code is complete, the partially written code will be released under the GPL for people to finish my brain.
Inflammatory language? The eloquent ones among us are more than capable of flaming without using any foul language... Only people with an IQ lower than their shoe size have to revert to swear words to get their point across.
Now I'd be more impressed if it bitched when someone tried to send out a mail that was badly spelt, all lower or uppercase and has no punctuation. THAT is a much better idea for a filter.
I mean think about it for a second. If Joe Layman (or Laywoman... I'd like to lay a woman, but wait, I digress...) finds out your a programmer and you say you write in Perl, it doesn't sound manly. Say you code in Scheme, and that just makes you sound like a Schemer (ho ho, how we laughed...). Tell them you program in Python and they can visualize a huge manly snake... Or something.
GNOME or KDE? NO port is specific to either of those 2 monstrosities. All of Loki's stuff uses SDL for example.
As for poor sales, sure. But if any company could weather it, Blizzard could.
As for the free version, don't make me laugh. Most of the free versions of games require the data files from the original. If you mean someone writing a version of the game from scratch, gimme a break...
As for zealots, eh? I have yet to see one zealot claim they DON'T want Diablo 2 for Linux, so quite what you mean by this comment is beyond me...
Blizzard, while putting out some of the coolest games, are a scared of trying anything on Linux. For a company with such talented developers, you'd think they'd have some balls. I would kill (particularly my noisy bastard neighbours) for a Starcraft port to Linux...
But no, they sit on their asses because they're scared... Poor babies...
The CDDB is a great concept, but poorly executed. Some of the information is woefully inaccurate, particularly on my obscure CD's. Typos abound in the listings as well.
An "open source" (for want of a better word) replacement would need to have a verification step. Any data submitted, before being added, should be checked by someone. Maybe have a crew of volunteers (hell, I'd volunteer) who spend a few minutes a day verifiying entries. Maybe have the volunteers list their musical preferences so they would get music they know. With enough volunteers
there would be a good chance that 95% of CD's would be already known. Failing that, a simple verification system to check spelling before admission would be good. (Okay, so some songs are spelt wrong deliberately...)
I hope someone with the resources decides to run with this "open source" idea.
It's too bad that a boycott wouldn't do anything. The only people with a clue as to what these corporate types are doing make up a real small percentage of the user base. *sigh*
This is another good example of the conflict I mentioned in an earlier post. Hardware support. There is a major factor here. Windows as an OS rewards those with newer hardware. Windows games are what make or break hardware. A game will run better for you if you have newer hardware.
Then there's Linux. An OS that rewards those who stay back from the bleeding edge by working with older hardware better than newer. I have a system that's 3 years old. Nothing in the machine is less than 18 months old, and it's supported in Linux fine. Go to Windows and ALL games released these days run like crap on it.
So in short, Linux is better on systems with older hardware, which is the total opposite of what is needed for a good gaming system.
One consistent problem I've found with ALL of Loki's games is the fact that for some inexplicable reason, on games where you scroll the map, IE HMM3, CTP, RTycoon 2, when I try to scroll to the right with the mouse, it flat out doesn't work. My mouse works just fine in X, but for some reason stick it in a Loki game, and you can't scroll right. You can scroll left just fine, but try right and it simply won't work.
It's a minor issue, but little things like this will annoy some people and put them off Linux gaming.
Plus of course in Myth and Heroes, there is a significant delay between clicking a button and the click actually registering.
As far as Quake 3 goes, is it really any surprise that the sales were low? It shipped later than the Windows version for starters. On top of that, Quake 3 is a game with VERY steep system requirements released on an OS that prides itself on running well on low spec hardware. Am I the only one who sees a conflict here? A lot of my friends use Linux, and yet none have a system powerful enough to run Quake 3.
Carmack should shut up and go back to what he does best. With everything I've read the last few days about "Carmack said this" and "Carmack said that", I'm starting to get pretty tired of him. As I said the other day in reply to a post of his, release a game with sensible system specs at the same time as the Windows release, THEN you can whine if the sales are poor.
Still, at least if no more games come to Linux, we'll never have to put up with that shitty Army Men franchise. I will, however, lament the possibility of never seeing Starcraft make it to Linux.
Slashdot Mirror
While this story is hardly "News for Nerds" and it certainly isn't "Stuff that Matters", it's kinda amusing to know Linux has made it that far into the mainstream. What next? The Pres on "West Wing" using KDE? ER running their medical systems on Debian?
What's the betting that the reason they used Linux is so they didn't have to licence a copy of Windows for it... Just a thought... Wouldn't cut much off the overall budget, but a couple of hundred dollars would pay a fair few extras I would think.
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I know this isn't entirely on topic with the story, but I just made a mental note of which friends may be involved with the project. Scary.
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A collective community dedicated to reverse engineering, say, the Cuecat would stand a much better chance of fighting the stupidity of the designers claims than if the developers stay in disparate camps. One collective force will put up more of a fight then a bunch of little camps. I think that is probably the only way that reverse engineerings laws will be changed, and even then it is going to take a LONG time.
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Because Redhat actually fix their bugs.
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Hmm... A thought occurs. I complain about Slashdot posting this story, then contribute to the message forum devoted to the article vociferously. Methinks I'm a hypocrite. Yes. Methinks I need sleep.
Goodnight.
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I've done some VB coding, only small stuff (a dice roller program for AD&D'ers), but I did NOT like the language itself. I wrote that one program and never went back to to VB again. Nice to see you make the Python comparison since I'm having WAY more fun (when it's not doing my head in) learning Python than I did VB. I am really not sure of the logic of designing a VB'esque program for Linux. There are far better options than making a version of BASIC.
PS, please note that nowhere in this post did I claim Python was better than Perl, so you "Perl is better than Python" people can just go post somewhere else or something:)
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I don't mean to start any wars, but WHY in the name of all that's holy was this story posted on Slashdot? In the words of Dennis Miller, I don't want to get off on a rant here, but how does this qualify as "News for Nerds. Stuff that matters."? Take the first part. No disrespect to anyone who writes in BASIC, but I would wager that 90% of nerds sneer at BASIC, and those that don't would never use it anyway. (I am learning to program, and I am NOT going anywhere NEAR BASIC) Also this project is MILES from even being considered for the end user (the post on dot.kde.org says as much) so why is it being posted? Freshmeat is a MUCH more approriate forum. As for stuff that matters, the only reason I can possibly think of to post this on Slashdot is if the poster has some bias toward KDE or stands to benefit from KBasic.
it's potentially a great project, but I don't think Slashdot is the right place to announce it...
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Should I die before the code is complete, the partially written code will be released under the GPL for people to finish my brain.
Thank you.
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u r gay
Oh, such shining wit... Oh I'm sorry, that was a spoonerism... Ironic you chose that remark after mentioning Wilde BTW:)
Question is, what I just typed, would that get past the filter? (The translation, not the bit about Wilde:))
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Now I'd be more impressed if it bitched when someone tried to send out a mail that was badly spelt, all lower or uppercase and has no punctuation. THAT is a much better idea for a filter.
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I mean think about it for a second. If Joe Layman (or Laywoman... I'd like to lay a woman, but wait, I digress...) finds out your a programmer and you say you write in Perl, it doesn't sound manly. Say you code in Scheme, and that just makes you sound like a Schemer (ho ho, how we laughed...). Tell them you program in Python and they can visualize a huge manly snake... Or something.
Erm... What was I saying again?...
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But no, they sit on their asses because they're scared... Poor babies...
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An "open source" (for want of a better word) replacement would need to have a verification step. Any data submitted, before being added, should be checked by someone. Maybe have a crew of volunteers (hell, I'd volunteer) who spend a few minutes a day verifiying entries. Maybe have the volunteers list their musical preferences so they would get music they know. With enough volunteers there would be a good chance that 95% of CD's would be already known. Failing that, a simple verification system to check spelling before admission would be good. (Okay, so some songs are spelt wrong deliberately...)
I hope someone with the resources decides to run with this "open source" idea.
It's too bad that a boycott wouldn't do anything. The only people with a clue as to what these corporate types are doing make up a real small percentage of the user base. *sigh*
Mark my words. Google will be next.
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He wouldn't be much use though. After all he's only good with guilty people.
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It's quite easy, you just store it in nitrogen...
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Then there's Linux. An OS that rewards those who stay back from the bleeding edge by working with older hardware better than newer. I have a system that's 3 years old. Nothing in the machine is less than 18 months old, and it's supported in Linux fine. Go to Windows and ALL games released these days run like crap on it.
So in short, Linux is better on systems with older hardware, which is the total opposite of what is needed for a good gaming system.
Garmonbozia!
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It's a minor issue, but little things like this will annoy some people and put them off Linux gaming.
Plus of course in Myth and Heroes, there is a significant delay between clicking a button and the click actually registering.
BTW, the Windows versions work just fine for me.
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Carmack should shut up and go back to what he does best. With everything I've read the last few days about "Carmack said this" and "Carmack said that", I'm starting to get pretty tired of him. As I said the other day in reply to a post of his, release a game with sensible system specs at the same time as the Windows release, THEN you can whine if the sales are poor.
Still, at least if no more games come to Linux, we'll never have to put up with that shitty Army Men franchise. I will, however, lament the possibility of never seeing Starcraft make it to Linux.
Garmonbozia!
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