OK, don't take this as a troll (and no I'm not just saying that to Karma Whore), but what kind of a choice is this for a Linux port? Having never played the game myself, I won't comment on whether it's good or not, but I can comment on the interest this will recieve with your average gamer: 0.
Seriously, if you're going to go to all the trouble of porting a game, why wouldn't you want to port a big-name title that might actually generate some interest? Where's The Sims? Where's Civilization 3? Where's Warcraft 3? Where's Unreal Tournament? Hell, where's the Half Life client?
Is it just the developers that make this difficult? Are the small guys (or obscure games) the only ones willing to play ball? Are there GPL issues at work here? I really can't understand how a developer/publisher would object to some company wanting to port their game to another platform, assuming they could work out some kind of deal where the original developer/publishing house would get a portion of profits made. Is it a fear of quality control? (Which, if true, is really funny if you've patched...er, played a major release video game in the past 5 years).
Seriously, this is not meant to be an anti-linux troll or flame. I'm really interested in what the major road-block here is. Sorry to any Disciples 2 fans out there, but releases like this will do next to nothing to generate interest in big-time Linux gaming.
As others have pointed out, this is a blatent cut-and-paste plagiarizing from a rant Gabe at PA had about Equilibrium this past week. Please moderate accordingly.
Non functioning walk routines don't exactly fall under the category of last-minute bug fixes, assuming they intend to implement it. This is something that should be done almost from Day 1, if for no other reason than implementing this code will probably have unexpected effects on other things in the game (i.e. weird collision detection with floors, etc).
If it is true that characters don't walk in this game, and they are intended to, the fact that this is still a problem in a beta is evidence of sloppy project management, sub-standard programming, or both.
This is great and all, but I wonder how important it will turn out being. After all, who the hell buys Seagate drives? I mean besides people like eMachines and Compaq?
Damn, in all seriousness, the most suprising thing about this is that it's not IBM.
No, what I'm saying is that IT departments work for their customers, not the other way around. You can suggest, recommend, push towards, and even whine all you want. But when it comes down to brass tacks, when the customer "just wants it to work", you're going to do what it takes to make it "just work", even if that means continuing to use MS products against your better judgement.
The point here is that there's no way in hell most companies can just throw away MS products cold turkey. This sort of thing might work for IT shops or code developers, but in most other sectors it's a pipe dream. Not every company can afford (in time and money) to hire on extra people or train up existing staff to the point where they can custom-code apps to replace existing ones, just like they can't expect all the companies or entities they communicate with to suddenly bend to the quirks of their suddenly "not quite compatible" software.
So yes, I do sort of take offense when someone mouths off with "Just drop MS and use Linux" as a solution to problems like this, like it was as easy as switching from Coke to Pepsi in the breakroom.
Yeah, I know. You should see some of the BS documents we wrote up for a couple departments to put in grant proposals. Lots of fancy phrases like "...have a way to secure workstations (use Windows 2000/XP and show users how to lock their machines)", "...offer a secure networking environment (no one has keys to the coms closets but us)", "...offer secure servers for confidential information (we know how to map a drive to a server on a seperate vlan)".
It's pretty funny actually. All these departments come to us in a panic about HIPPA, we give them these fancy documents and reassuring words, and then don't hear about it again for two months. Seems to me this HIPPA stuff (right now anyway) is more about making things look good on your grant proposals and what not.
Oh, and it is possible to run a secure IIS server guys, if you know what you're doing.
Elitist IT Moron: We have decided that Microsoft products are no good, and we're going to switch all of our operations to Linux-based solutions.
Docs: Well, OK, just as long as we can still get our work done. Will we still be able to send our grant applications and other records to the various governmental agencies, other hospitals, and such without and problems?
Elitist IT Moron: Well you'll be using this open source word processing program that is designed to be compatible with Word, but there is a chance that some places won't be able to view it properly, or it will look slightly different. Medical companies aren't sticklers for complete and total accuracy, are they?
Docs: What about these hundreds of legacy DOS and Windows applications that do one thing for us, but do it incredibly well, that we absolutely have to have? Will they still run?
Elitist IT Moron: Umm...No. But there may be 0.85 pre-beta versions of comperable apps up at SourceForge we could try! Or we could maybe try Wine and see if we can get a few of them to work.
Docs: So basically you're telling us that by switching to Linux, we won't be able to properly communicate with the people we need to, and we won't be able to use the applications we need to.
Elitist IT Moron: Uhh....W1nd0ze suxxor?
We're currently struggling with HIPPA where I work as well. I'm no expert, but a few things I'd look at:
- Your W2k workstations should not be exposed to the outside world. Firewall or NAT them (or both), and remove the WindowsUpdate icons from them and let your IT staff update them manually (or via pushed updates through your domain, if you have one).
- Ideally, the server with your HIPPA stuff on it should be hidden from view as well. Dedicate a server to nothing but HIPPA file serving if you have to. If it's absolutely necessary to access the information from remote locations (i.e., one's outside your lan/wan), consider serving that information up on a web page via an IIS/SQL type of solution of some kind, but with those services running on another server. I'm not sure if HIPPA guidelines provide for this sort of thing, though.
If I'm not mistaken, Group Policy requires a Windows Domain Controller everyone is logging into and such. Some offices don't use or require such things, either because of lack of need or finances.
Read the article. The author isn't trying to say the DMCA isn't a bad law, but that it does not hamper research, speeches, talks and the like as much as most of us think it does.
Dmitry was involved with a for-sale product that defeated e-book copyright restrictions, which clearly falls under the jurisdiction of the DMCA.
People shoplift from grocery stores every day also, but I don't have to get new licenses for my soup if I move it from one cabinet to another.
Yes, but there are no "Soup-uters" out there that allow you to make unlimited, perfect copies of your can of soup and instantly deliver the soup to millions of people around the globe for free. If there were, you can bet Campbells would be very interested in controlling what you did with your can of soup.
Um, maybe, maybe not. So far all Toho has done is asked Davezilla to change his logo. There's no indication that they intend to "set a precedent" and "go after" anyone else.
Granted, this all does seem a little suspicious. For all we know, though, some executive just had a nephew graduate from law school, and decided to give him a pet project to pad his resume. I'd say at least wait until the lawyer-letters go out before hitting the panic button.
...the more likely reason the grain was refused is that the Zimbabwe government is currently on a militaristic campaign to take land away from white farmers and give it to black ones as part of a Land Acquisition Act. President Mugabe can use the starvation of his own people to further cast blame on the white farmers and rally more support for the governments policies. Pretty good K5 article on the whole situation here.
Please note, also, that I'm not trying to make commentary on whether land distribution in Zimbabwe is right or not, only on the methods used by the government to achieve that end.
"Hey Bob?" "Yeah Mike?" "There's something wrong with your Dreamcast, I can't get it to boot up Soul Calibur." "My Dreamcast? What Dreamcast?" "Your Dreamcast...you know, the one you had plugged into the 2nd floor comms closet?" "That's not my Dreamcast. Did you ask Dave?" "Yeah, both he and Shirley say they've never seen it before." "And you say it won't play Soul Calibur? Did you try booting it with no disc?" "Yeah, it comes up with some weird black screen and says it's beginning port scan, or some such nonsense like that." "Huh, I wonder what made it do that?" "Who knows. Oh well, guess I'll go plug it back into the router that it was plugged into."
Slashdot Mirror
OK, don't take this as a troll (and no I'm not just saying that to Karma Whore), but what kind of a choice is this for a Linux port? Having never played the game myself, I won't comment on whether it's good or not, but I can comment on the interest this will recieve with your average gamer: 0.
Seriously, if you're going to go to all the trouble of porting a game, why wouldn't you want to port a big-name title that might actually generate some interest? Where's The Sims? Where's Civilization 3? Where's Warcraft 3? Where's Unreal Tournament? Hell, where's the Half Life client?
Is it just the developers that make this difficult? Are the small guys (or obscure games) the only ones willing to play ball? Are there GPL issues at work here? I really can't understand how a developer/publisher would object to some company wanting to port their game to another platform, assuming they could work out some kind of deal where the original developer/publishing house would get a portion of profits made. Is it a fear of quality control? (Which, if true, is really funny if you've patched...er, played a major release video game in the past 5 years).
Seriously, this is not meant to be an anti-linux troll or flame. I'm really interested in what the major road-block here is. Sorry to any Disciples 2 fans out there, but releases like this will do next to nothing to generate interest in big-time Linux gaming.
As others have pointed out, this is a blatent cut-and-paste plagiarizing from a rant Gabe at PA had about Equilibrium this past week. Please moderate accordingly.
I'm sure I'm not the first to mention this, but everyone knows what the real key to making a good RPG is.
Dwarves.
Non functioning walk routines don't exactly fall under the category of last-minute bug fixes, assuming they intend to implement it. This is something that should be done almost from Day 1, if for no other reason than implementing this code will probably have unexpected effects on other things in the game (i.e. weird collision detection with floors, etc).
If it is true that characters don't walk in this game, and they are intended to, the fact that this is still a problem in a beta is evidence of sloppy project management, sub-standard programming, or both.
So let me get this straight: If my business charges for goods or services, it may make a profit?
Way to reaffirm my faith in true geeks.
Sorry, I'm sure someone has said it already, but I'm feeling a little reactionary.
Both list Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos as an inventor...
It's good to be the king, eh Jeff? God Bless non-disclosure agreements and contracts with IP ownership clauses.
This is great and all, but I wonder how important it will turn out being. After all, who the hell buys Seagate drives? I mean besides people like eMachines and Compaq?
Damn, in all seriousness, the most suprising thing about this is that it's not IBM.
Nice. Just remember, "You don't want to do that to Mo's mailbox."
No, what I'm saying is that IT departments work for their customers, not the other way around. You can suggest, recommend, push towards, and even whine all you want. But when it comes down to brass tacks, when the customer "just wants it to work", you're going to do what it takes to make it "just work", even if that means continuing to use MS products against your better judgement.
The point here is that there's no way in hell most companies can just throw away MS products cold turkey. This sort of thing might work for IT shops or code developers, but in most other sectors it's a pipe dream. Not every company can afford (in time and money) to hire on extra people or train up existing staff to the point where they can custom-code apps to replace existing ones, just like they can't expect all the companies or entities they communicate with to suddenly bend to the quirks of their suddenly "not quite compatible" software.
So yes, I do sort of take offense when someone mouths off with "Just drop MS and use Linux" as a solution to problems like this, like it was as easy as switching from Coke to Pepsi in the breakroom.
Yeah, I know. You should see some of the BS documents we wrote up for a couple departments to put in grant proposals. Lots of fancy phrases like "...have a way to secure workstations (use Windows 2000/XP and show users how to lock their machines)", "...offer a secure networking environment (no one has keys to the coms closets but us)", "...offer secure servers for confidential information (we know how to map a drive to a server on a seperate vlan)".
It's pretty funny actually. All these departments come to us in a panic about HIPPA, we give them these fancy documents and reassuring words, and then don't hear about it again for two months. Seems to me this HIPPA stuff (right now anyway) is more about making things look good on your grant proposals and what not.
Oh, and it is possible to run a secure IIS server guys, if you know what you're doing.
Yeah, that'll go over real good.
Elitist IT Moron: We have decided that Microsoft products are no good, and we're going to switch all of our operations to Linux-based solutions.
Docs: Well, OK, just as long as we can still get our work done. Will we still be able to send our grant applications and other records to the various governmental agencies, other hospitals, and such without and problems?
Elitist IT Moron: Well you'll be using this open source word processing program that is designed to be compatible with Word, but there is a chance that some places won't be able to view it properly, or it will look slightly different. Medical companies aren't sticklers for complete and total accuracy, are they?
Docs: What about these hundreds of legacy DOS and Windows applications that do one thing for us, but do it incredibly well, that we absolutely have to have? Will they still run?
Elitist IT Moron: Umm...No. But there may be 0.85 pre-beta versions of comperable apps up at SourceForge we could try! Or we could maybe try Wine and see if we can get a few of them to work.
Docs: So basically you're telling us that by switching to Linux, we won't be able to properly communicate with the people we need to, and we won't be able to use the applications we need to.
Elitist IT Moron: Uhh....W1nd0ze suxxor?
We're currently struggling with HIPPA where I work as well. I'm no expert, but a few things I'd look at:
- Your W2k workstations should not be exposed to the outside world. Firewall or NAT them (or both), and remove the WindowsUpdate icons from them and let your IT staff update them manually (or via pushed updates through your domain, if you have one).
- Ideally, the server with your HIPPA stuff on it should be hidden from view as well. Dedicate a server to nothing but HIPPA file serving if you have to. If it's absolutely necessary to access the information from remote locations (i.e., one's outside your lan/wan), consider serving that information up on a web page via an IIS/SQL type of solution of some kind, but with those services running on another server. I'm not sure if HIPPA guidelines provide for this sort of thing, though.
Funny, I would have thought those guys had more pressing matters to attend to during that period of time.
Well, the reasoning probably was, "If we break this code, we could potentially use it or a derivative of it as our own code."
If I'm not mistaken, Group Policy requires a Windows Domain Controller everyone is logging into and such. Some offices don't use or require such things, either because of lack of need or finances.
I think he probably just read the line "I've been working for a website development firm..." and figured it was good enough.
Oh yeah, that's real good
We definitely need more
Bad Haiku on Net
Read the article. The author isn't trying to say the DMCA isn't a bad law, but that it does not hamper research, speeches, talks and the like as much as most of us think it does.
Dmitry was involved with a for-sale product that defeated e-book copyright restrictions, which clearly falls under the jurisdiction of the DMCA.
People shoplift from grocery stores every day also, but I don't have to get new licenses for my soup if I move it from one cabinet to another.
Yes, but there are no "Soup-uters" out there that allow you to make unlimited, perfect copies of your can of soup and instantly deliver the soup to millions of people around the globe for free. If there were, you can bet Campbells would be very interested in controlling what you did with your can of soup.
... to set a precedent before attacking Mozilla.
Um, maybe, maybe not. So far all Toho has done is asked Davezilla to change his logo. There's no indication that they intend to "set a precedent" and "go after" anyone else.
Granted, this all does seem a little suspicious. For all we know, though, some executive just had a nephew graduate from law school, and decided to give him a pet project to pad his resume. I'd say at least wait until the lawyer-letters go out before hitting the panic button.
At the Coffee Shop, It's Always a Tall Order
Or, "Stories I Pull Out of My File Cabinet When I Don't Want to Work For a Week."
Before the lawyers get wind of it that is.
...the more likely reason the grain was refused is that the Zimbabwe government is currently on a militaristic campaign to take land away from white farmers and give it to black ones as part of a Land Acquisition Act. President Mugabe can use the starvation of his own people to further cast blame on the white farmers and rally more support for the governments policies. Pretty good K5 article on the whole situation here.
Please note, also, that I'm not trying to make commentary on whether land distribution in Zimbabwe is right or not, only on the methods used by the government to achieve that end.
"Hey Bob?"
"Yeah Mike?"
"There's something wrong with your Dreamcast, I can't get it to boot up Soul Calibur."
"My Dreamcast? What Dreamcast?"
"Your Dreamcast...you know, the one you had plugged into the 2nd floor comms closet?"
"That's not my Dreamcast. Did you ask Dave?"
"Yeah, both he and Shirley say they've never seen it before."
"And you say it won't play Soul Calibur? Did you try booting it with no disc?"
"Yeah, it comes up with some weird black screen and says it's beginning port scan, or some such nonsense like that."
"Huh, I wonder what made it do that?"
"Who knows. Oh well, guess I'll go plug it back into the router that it was plugged into."
...it's pretty much like the average user-submitted Slashdot product/book review, huh?