In this house I have a choice of watching Speedvision's FIA World Rally marathon, or keeping the peace and letting my pregnant GF watch TLC's Labor & Delivery/Maternity Ward marathon.
Oh well, at least today there appears to be a Magnum, PI marathon on A&E which is something we can both agree on. Now there's one of the coolest shows ever.
Fuel companies do sell so-called 'winter diesel' that will run at much lower temps than -20C. I live on a farm in western Canada where winter temps get as low as -40C or lower. During those months I have to feed cows every day and do it with a diesel-powered tractor. And of course the truckers keep going in that weather, too. Getting those engines started in that kind of weather is a bit trickier (plugging in block heaters at warmer temps than gas engines, as well as using starting fluid) but once they're running they're fine.
I read an article recently that stated that the Sask. government is looking at ways to provide high speed service to as many as 250 rural communities by 2005 and I suspect one of the ways they may try to provide this is high-speed wireless, such as is being provided by Image Wireless Communications (check out http://www.imagecable.com). I'm not sure if it's just them offering it, but Double T Computer Services tried unsuccessfully to get enough people signed up to provide a wireless service in Swift Current, and a tower went up just north of Chaplin (where I live) but I think that one isn't operational yet since I haven't heard a word about any kind of service here (TV or wireless). So maybe there's hope for us rural people yet...
I'm a flight-simmer, although my work keeps me from getting as into it as I'd like. But I grew out of the FPS style of game about the time Quake came along. Except for the odd game like Need For Speed, flight sims is all I play. I personally believe they offer a more varied environment and game play than games like Quake. Not to mention more outragious hardware environments. I run a K6-2 550, 128MB of RAM and a V3-3000 and still haven't bothered trying to play Janes F/A-18. "Scotty, I need more power!" "But Captain, I dinna think the engines kin take it!"
I think the difference here is that the projects mentioned in this article are 'combat' flight sims while FG is a civilian aircraft flight sim (if I remember correctly.
I'd love to see combat flight sims come to Linux. I think it's the only game genre that isn't well supported on Linux and it's what I prefer to play. Rather than run through darkened hallways firing rockets at strange monsters, I prefer flying at less than 500 feet at more than 500 knots to deliver a load of cluster bombs on poor unsuspecting (or perhaps quite suspecting!) enemies!
I've tried Falcon 4 but like the article said, it did seem to be overreaching. Rather like some other software projects, it seems the developers tried to stuff everything including the kitchen sink into that sim rather than work toward stability. It was an admirable attempt and the patches helped a lot, but in the end, it's simply easier to fire up European Air War than struggle with F4. Here's hoping that these open-source projects can come up with something exciting, fun and most of all, playable!
I agree that Cdn telecom is way ahead of the US. I'm on a farm in Saskatchewan 50 miles from the nearest city and I bet within a year I'll have high-speed wireless internet access. I think that prediction is pretty accurate because construction on the tower that will serve the area with the so-called 'wireless cable' TV has already begun and the same company offers the wireless company, too. Can't wait!
Hehe, yeah, Falcon 4.0 is truly the ultimate in graphics card stress test. What other game has users struggling to get something more than a slideshow in campaign mode? Who cares if a card gets 60fps in Quake 3 or whatever? Let me know if it gets 20fps in F4 or F18!
On the "Getting Gnome" page on the Gnome website, http://www.gnome.org , you can select which type of files you want to install with (RPM, tarballs, etc), and then the following page will list all the files you need to run that version of Gnome. Since this deals with stable releases, it may not include all files needed to run unstable releases like 1.1.4 (such as GdkPixbuf), but most of it will be relevant.
I'm in the same situation. I'm on a farm 50 miles from the nearest cable or ADSL internet access (province of Saskatchewan in Canada). Just getting a second line so I don't tie up our phone line when I'm online would cost a fortune! (last I heard it was $800) And similarily to you, on a good day my 56k connects at 36000 and I have to wonder if it'll get worse because it used to regularily connect at 38666. So I say bring on the wireless broadband! SaskTel is usually pretty good about rolling out new technology early (ADSL was in the larger cities two years ago) so I'm hopeful that I'll see this sooner rather than later.
Once upon a time game companies could glean users' system info from registration cards or online registration. I would think that these mediums would be more appropriate for getting this kind of information. For one thing the user would obviously be giving permission because it would be up to the user to provide the info, and secondly the info could be matched to a user in some way. And of course the link would be appropriate because the user would be the one supplying a name or email address or whatever.
Perhaps the reason for this clandestine information retrieval is because there aren't enough people registering the typical way, but as we saw from the RealJukebox problem recently, even if it is harmless information, the general public isn't going to like the idea of not knowing that someone is snooping around their computer and I'd have thought id would have known that.
I just thought I'd mention that I had the reverse situation a few months ago. A certain song gave the clicks and underwater sounds when being played in X11Amp0.9alpha2 (I think that was the version), but played perfectly in GQmpeg (the latest version at the time, which I happen to forget). A newer version of X11Amp plays the song well now, though.
I usually destest 'me, too' posts, but I just have to echo the sentiments in this thread. Doom was, and still is, the only game I've ever played that made me feel pure terror. I haven't played in a long time, but I can still cleary hear that frightening shredding noise that meant I was about to die a horrible death at the hands of imps I would never see.
I'm into flight sims lately and I love 'em, but I can't say I've ever felt the same shivers up my spine, or have my hair stand on end when frantically trying to evade enemy SAMs like I did walking those dark halls of DOOM and just feeling an immense dread before opening that next door because I only had five shotgun shells left.
I guess it just depends on where one lives then. I gladly bear the pain of downloading all my Linux software, including distros, because here in Saskatchewan it would cost me a whole lot of $$ in gas (at least an hour drive from the farm) just to try to find some place that would stock even RedHat CDs.
I'm a farmer in Western Canada. In this part of the world, Monstanta is one of three or four companies who recently started marketing genetically-altered canola seed that is tolerant to the herbicide glyphosate (you may know it better as Roundup, Monsanto's brand name). This program has become quite popular since glyphosate products can be more economical than other herbicides used in canola.
Farmers wanting to use Monsanta's 'Roundup-Ready' canola have to jump through a few hoops and spend quite a large sum of money to get their seed.
First they must take a half-day course in the rules regarding the Technology Use Agreement, a contract that says the farmer will buy plant Monsanto's seed, use Monsanto's herbicide only (Roundup) to control weeds, and keep none of the seed for reseeding next year.
The certified seed costs probably around $30/acre (an educated guess since I'm not a canola grower), the TUA is $15/acre and the Roundup averages $10/acre. The harvested canola would be worth less than $10/bushel. If we assume the farmer gets 30/bushels per acre, over one-sixth of the yield is needed just to pay back Monsanto.
There is currently a case before the courts here in Saskatchewan where Monsanto has charged a farmer with seeding Roundup-Ready canola without a TUA. The farmer says the seed must have blown in from an adjoining field or from trucks hauling canola to market on the road beside his field because he didn't use Monsanto seed. Case isn't settled yet.
Another issue is what happens when glyphosate-tolerant seed gets into fields where it's not wanted. Roundup is a popular non-selective herbicide around here, used a lot on farms practicing minimum- or zero-tillage where they rely on chemicals to kill weeds rather than disturb the soil with tillage equipment (to prevent wind and water erosion of the soil as well as preserve moisture for crops). A farmer would suddenly see plants he cannot kill in the usual way and would face extra costs and headaches dealing with that problem. This would be the one case where a 'Terminator'-type variety of seed would be a benefit. Unfortunately, there is still the question of what would happen if it could possibly mix with traditional varieties. That would be a HUGE problem unless a farmer did a germination test (in this area many farmers do in fact use seed they've grown themselves).
Anyway, that's another look at the workings of Monsanto, not quite the M$ of the ag world, but damn close to it.
Slashdot Mirror
In this house I have a choice of watching Speedvision's FIA World Rally marathon, or keeping the peace and letting my pregnant GF watch TLC's Labor & Delivery/Maternity Ward marathon.
Oh well, at least today there appears to be a Magnum, PI marathon on A&E which is something we can both agree on. Now there's one of the coolest shows ever.
Fuel companies do sell so-called 'winter diesel' that will run at much lower temps than -20C. I live on a farm in western Canada where winter temps get as low as -40C or lower. During those months I have to feed cows every day and do it with a diesel-powered tractor. And of course the truckers keep going in that weather, too. Getting those engines started in that kind of weather is a bit trickier (plugging in block heaters at warmer temps than gas engines, as well as using starting fluid) but once they're running they're fine.
I read an article recently that stated that the Sask. government is looking at ways to provide high speed service to as many as 250 rural communities by 2005 and I suspect one of the ways they may try to provide this is high-speed wireless, such as is being provided by Image Wireless Communications (check out http://www.imagecable.com). I'm not sure if it's just them offering it, but Double T Computer Services tried unsuccessfully to get enough people signed up to provide a wireless service in Swift Current, and a tower went up just north of Chaplin (where I live) but I think that one isn't operational yet since I haven't heard a word about any kind of service here (TV or wireless). So maybe there's hope for us rural people yet...
I'm a flight-simmer, although my work keeps me from getting as into it as I'd like. But I grew out of the FPS style of game about the time Quake came along. Except for the odd game like Need For Speed, flight sims is all I play. I personally believe they offer a more varied environment and game play than games like Quake. Not to mention more outragious hardware environments. I run a K6-2 550, 128MB of RAM and a V3-3000 and still haven't bothered trying to play Janes F/A-18. "Scotty, I need more power!" "But Captain, I dinna think the engines kin take it!"
I think the difference here is that the projects mentioned in this article are 'combat' flight sims while FG is a civilian aircraft flight sim (if I remember correctly.
I'd love to see combat flight sims come to Linux. I think it's the only game genre that isn't well supported on Linux and it's what I prefer to play. Rather than run through darkened hallways firing rockets at strange monsters, I prefer flying at less than 500 feet at more than 500 knots to deliver a load of cluster bombs on poor unsuspecting (or perhaps quite suspecting!) enemies!
I've tried Falcon 4 but like the article said, it did seem to be overreaching. Rather like some other software projects, it seems the developers tried to stuff everything including the kitchen sink into that sim rather than work toward stability. It was an admirable attempt and the patches helped a lot, but in the end, it's simply easier to fire up European Air War than struggle with F4. Here's hoping that these open-source projects can come up with something exciting, fun and most of all, playable!
I agree that Cdn telecom is way ahead of the US. I'm on a farm in Saskatchewan 50 miles from the nearest city and I bet within a year I'll have high-speed wireless internet access. I think that prediction is pretty accurate because construction on the tower that will serve the area with the so-called 'wireless cable' TV has already begun and the same company offers the wireless company, too. Can't wait!
Hehe, yeah, Falcon 4.0 is truly the ultimate in graphics card stress test. What other game has users struggling to get something more than a slideshow in campaign mode? Who cares if a card gets 60fps in Quake 3 or whatever? Let me know if it gets 20fps in F4 or F18!
On the "Getting Gnome" page on the Gnome website, http://www.gnome.org , you can select which type of files you want to install with (RPM, tarballs, etc), and then the following page will list all the files you need to run that version of Gnome. Since this deals with stable releases, it may not include all files needed to run unstable releases like 1.1.4 (such as GdkPixbuf), but most of it will be relevant.
I'm in the same situation. I'm on a farm 50 miles from the nearest cable or ADSL internet access (province of Saskatchewan in Canada). Just getting a second line so I don't tie up our phone line when I'm online would cost a fortune! (last I heard it was $800) And similarily to you, on a good day my 56k connects at 36000 and I have to wonder if it'll get worse because it used to regularily connect at 38666. So I say bring on the wireless broadband! SaskTel is usually pretty good about rolling out new technology early (ADSL was in the larger cities two years ago) so I'm hopeful that I'll see this sooner rather than later.
Once upon a time game companies could glean users' system info from registration cards or online registration. I would think that these mediums would be more appropriate for getting this kind of information. For one thing the user would obviously be giving permission because it would be up to the user to provide the info, and secondly the info could be matched to a user in some way. And of course the link would be appropriate because the user would be the one supplying a name or email address or whatever.
Perhaps the reason for this clandestine information retrieval is because there aren't enough people registering the typical way, but as we saw from the RealJukebox problem recently, even if it is harmless information, the general public isn't going to like the idea of not knowing that someone is snooping around their computer and I'd have thought id would have known that.
I just thought I'd mention that I had the reverse situation a few months ago. A certain song gave the clicks and underwater sounds when being played in X11Amp0.9alpha2 (I think that was the version), but played perfectly in GQmpeg (the latest version at the time, which I happen to forget). A newer version of X11Amp plays the song well now, though.
I usually destest 'me, too' posts, but I just have to echo the sentiments in this thread. Doom was, and still is, the only game I've ever played that made me feel pure terror. I haven't played in a long time, but I can still cleary hear that frightening shredding noise that meant I was about to die a horrible death at the hands of imps I would never see.
I'm into flight sims lately and I love 'em, but I can't say I've ever felt the same shivers up my spine, or have my hair stand on end when frantically trying to evade enemy SAMs like I did walking those dark halls of DOOM and just feeling an immense dread before opening that next door because I only had five shotgun shells left.
I guess it just depends on where one lives then. I gladly bear the pain of downloading all my Linux software, including distros, because here in Saskatchewan it would cost me a whole lot of $$ in gas (at least an hour drive from the farm) just to try to find some place that would stock even RedHat CDs.
I'm a farmer in Western Canada. In this part of the world, Monstanta is one of three or four companies who recently started marketing genetically-altered canola seed that is tolerant to the herbicide glyphosate (you may know it better as Roundup, Monsanto's brand name). This program has become quite popular since glyphosate products can be more economical than other herbicides used in canola.
Farmers wanting to use Monsanta's 'Roundup-Ready' canola have to jump through a few hoops and spend quite a large sum of money to get their seed.
First they must take a half-day course in the rules regarding the Technology Use Agreement, a contract that says the farmer will buy plant Monsanto's seed, use Monsanto's herbicide only (Roundup) to control weeds, and keep none of the seed for reseeding next year.
The certified seed costs probably around $30/acre (an educated guess since I'm not a canola grower), the TUA is $15/acre and the Roundup averages $10/acre. The harvested canola would be worth less than $10/bushel. If we assume the farmer gets 30/bushels per acre, over one-sixth of the yield is needed just to pay back Monsanto.
There is currently a case before the courts here in Saskatchewan where Monsanto has charged a farmer with seeding Roundup-Ready canola without a TUA. The farmer says the seed must have blown in from an adjoining field or from trucks hauling canola to market on the road beside his field because he didn't use Monsanto seed. Case isn't settled yet.
Another issue is what happens when glyphosate-tolerant seed gets into fields where it's not wanted. Roundup is a popular non-selective herbicide around here, used a lot on farms practicing minimum- or zero-tillage where they rely on chemicals to kill weeds rather than disturb the soil with tillage equipment (to prevent wind and water erosion of the soil as well as preserve moisture for crops). A farmer would suddenly see plants he cannot kill in the usual way and would face extra costs and headaches dealing with that problem. This would be the one case where a 'Terminator'-type variety of seed would be a benefit. Unfortunately, there is still the question of what would happen if it could possibly mix with traditional varieties. That would be a HUGE problem unless a farmer did a germination test (in this area many farmers do in fact use seed they've grown themselves).
Anyway, that's another look at the workings of Monsanto, not quite the M$ of the ag world, but damn close to it.