Funny, that Tetris can be so effective in removing similar games, but I Hasbro (which now owns Microprose) hasn't seemed to have complained about FreeCiv.
Not that I'm complaining. I've played FreeCiv and I still bought Civ III - I don't think sales are suffering because of it - both games are fun in different ways.
$95,000 USD is fairly cheap to move all of Blender's IP into GPL. Ton's proposal for the Foundation didn't explicitly state (unless I missed it) how the group would obtain the starting cash. It outlined a membership for exclusive offers.
We should keep an eye out for the Foundation to be set up and gathering capital. I would also be curious to see any big corporation (Red Hat, IBM, Mandrake, etc.) donate a few thousand each to the cause. It used to be that the best way to support Blender was to buy the manual (which I did, VERY nice looking btw), but now we'll have a non-profit organization handling the continued development and support of Blender. 'Tis a good day.
You're going to hear many comments saying the same thing, "set them up to use the file server for storage." Here are a few things to consider with that central file server:
Set up the file server nicely (if possible) in the first place. I would recommend an inexpensive Promise IDE RAID (they're cheap, fast, and reasonably reliable). The number of drives will determine what kind of RAID strategy you'll take, but be sure to include redundancy in the hard drives themselves.
Make sure permissions are set properly. Set up a user for each workstation to access their files on the central server.
Disable all unnecessary services on the file server. Install the latest service pack and hotfix packages. A good virus scan program will be helpful as well, and perhaps a software firewall if you don't have another solution implemented.
Good luck.
Re:Heres the post everyone should read first
on
Mozilla RC3 Released
·
· Score: 2
At least on Linux the mozilla user interface is slower than opera's and I have a 1Ghz processor. Especially scrolling pages takes noticeably more cpu time on mozilla.
The speed of scrolling is incredibly dependant upon which video card you are using, which version of XFree86 (3.x or 4.x), and the quality of the video drivers. If you can, try changing your hardware or software configuration a bit. It will probably make a noticable difference.
People hate hearing "free" when it means $4.95 shipping for something that's cheap to make and ship.
Instead, they should've said that the CDs were $4.95 with free shipping. Then we wouldn't feel like we're being lured in by "free", it'd just be a good deal.
It's just wording, I know, but it makes or breaks this company's "image".
For Debian fans...
on
KDE 3.0.1 Ships
·
· Score: 3, Informative
I've been casually monitoring the Debian-KDE mailing list (May archive). Apparently the KDE packagers for Debian are working off of 3.0.1, so when they do arrive in official unstable they'll be quite up-to-date.
Instructions for how to use experimental unofficial packages can be found here. I haven't tried them myself - I'll wait until they appear in unstable. Check out the mailing list to see others' impressions.
I know it's asking much, but many students can obtain cheap copies of Microsoft Office from their universities for $25-100. I'm personally interested in helping out Sun's development and sales of Star Office (being able to install on 5 computers is very gracious of them), but I'd rather not pay 3x what I can get Microsoft Office for.
I'm sure students like myself would snatch up Star Office (download version only, to save on boxed-set material costs) for $25. It's hard for me to justify a $75 purchase for features I'd only occasionally use just in the name of my support of Star Office/Open Office. I'd rather spend $25 on SO, then spend that $50 on some other open source software or donation to my favorite distro - Debian.
Hmm..I experienced the auto-load of the LOTR soundtrack, but I had no problems whatsoever ripping the CD into my beloved 256 kbit ogg files. I bought it the day it came out, (the movie), checked to make sure it wasn't from Universal (it's Warner Bros I believe), and ripped it right away. Most CDs now I don't even listen to before I rip.
Give it a try, but don't tarnish the beautiful music by ripping it into crappy 128 kbit mp3s.
Minor correction: I meant "them" instead of "it". I think I saw a flash ad at least twice, but bothered to confirm it once (the plugin allows you to zoom in, etc, easily showing it to be flash). The one I confirmed was last week, but like I said, I didn't copy down the link.
I wish I would've copied down the link when I did see it. I figured this was the case, but in the future I'll keep an eye out for them (as probably others will), and you'll get an e-mail about it.
From what I could tell on the IRC conversation, the/. editors promised to avoid Flash ads. I have noticed a few in the past couple of weeks, along with the "extra-big" sized banner ads on the top. Has anyone seen a statement where they said they would start accepting Flash ads now?
I am not at all surprised by some people's reaction to theKompany. However, I think it is terrible that the Linux community (which does not necessarily equal the Open Source or Free Software community) acts hostile towards commercial software. Most people agree that not all software can be reasonably free - not enough end users would pay.
Frankly, in many cases we as a community are spoiled. We've lived through the internet bubble of free services and negative cash flow companies having free websites, and now we can't accept the fact that all software and internet sites can be free. Some sites are simply too expensive to operate without subscriptions, and some software simply doesn't have the developer support to create a competitive Open Source version. For proof just look at the KOffice interview from earlier - creating Word filters is tough work that people simply don't want to do for free. Open Office, Mozilla, and many other Open Source software is created in part by paid programmers from big companies (AOL/TW, Red Hat, IBM, etc.). But certain software projects will inevitably not prove worth the time of those companies.
I think it is important to remember that not all commercial software companies are as bad as Microsoft. Commercial software (especially games) is a HUGE market, with a very successful business plan. We need more commercial developers for Linux - users will want to see their familiar software, games, etc. available for Linux before they decide to switch. Even the simple presence of more Linux software at your local Best Buy will get Joe Windows User to think about Linux if he's tired of Windows.
I think it's wonderful that I can build an entire system from nothing but Open Source software and have it perform a good majority of my daily work. Much of this software is worth purchasing, but we are lucky in that we have the choice with who and how we choose to support the software programmers. In the end, regardless of whether or not you like theKompany's software, the fact that they remain one of a few commercial software developers for Linux is important. Other companies will be looking to it as an example of how viable the future Linux market is. Loki has already stained Linux's reputation for commercial software.
I wish theKompany the best of luck in developing high quality commercial software.
Cable modems are more than just a speed improvement. For many people, the always-on access is very convenient. Some of the cost of broadband is saved by eliminating a second phone line. Another important benefit for many users is the ability to share the connection with multiple computers in one household.
After switching to broadband, I simply can't go back to dialup access. I've been forced to use or test it occasionally, and even the most trivial web surfing seems painfully slow. It's like being used to a remote control on a tv for fast channel switching and having to go up to the tv each time you want to change the channel. You get used to it, and all these things combined make it worth the price.
How is Sun supposed to make money from Star Office if they don't eventually charge for it? I, for one, would be willing to pay a small fee to use Star Office on my two desktops. $35/computer seems reasonable to me. The license shouldn't be tied to an OS, but rather a computer.
Given interoperability, I may purchase one commercial copy of Star Office for my main desktop use, and use Open Office on every other computer, it depends on how well each is distributed.
In some ways, charging for Star Office may be a good thing. Charging for software in the business world gives it some degree of credibility - that software has value if one must pay for it. I'd be even more happy if Sun offered free education and/or personal licenses to try to gain market share, while charging a fair fee to businesses.
Living in the northern midwest my entire life (but not much longer, I hope). I can tell you that acceleration in snowy weather is the least of my problems. People who have 4WD think that they can somehow brake faster and with more accuracy than the rest of us.
Every car has 4 wheel braking. Good cars have anti-lock brakes. Get anti-lock brakes on a small car and you have less momentum to counter when trying to stop (momentum = mass*velocity).
The last thing we need is more careless drivers in huge SUVs thinking they can drive faster in snow, or any other weather.
I am dissappointed with the direction SG-1 apparently has taken. I see mostly the syndicated version on the local UPN, which apparently was the first several seasons. I liked many of the planetary expedition episodes. They had a slight star-trek feel without always the crappy technical solution.
I could never get into the X-Files. Frankly, the constant plot of a government conspiracy became tiresome. Occasionally (maybe once per season), it works ok, but I'm not surprised they too it too far.
Yes, Daniel Jackson was the best character on the show. Definately not for the "sensistive" reasons given, but that he was the most intelligenct and logical character. Anyone who liked the Spock/Data/Tuvok character sees that Jackson is the Stargate equivalent. And, of course, being a geek I can relate to how the character is portrayed. It is weird that shows are portrayeing the geeks as the sex symbols now (just look at the Vulcan on Enterprise).
To my knowledge, Debian KDE packages are separated. To install KWord, the dependency koffice-libs (to my recollection) is installed with it. I could be wrong (I'm not at my comp right now to check how apt-get handles everything), but when you do apt-get install koffice it installs all of the individual components quite nicely. Check out this page to see the list of KDE application packages. I also checked the library page and confirmed koffice-libs.
Granted, you get a small amount of bloat if you just want KWord (compared to a more standalone wordprocessor), but it beats the RPM distributions easily. The quality and ease with which KDE is handled in Debian was one of the major deciding factors in me switching to Debian from Red Hat.
The Planetary Society is dedicated to promoting robotic exploration off the planet and is mildly biased against such projects as the ISS and human exploration of Mars and the Moon.
There is something to be said for a well-written dead-tree version in a comprehensive, tutorial form. If a tutorial online is longer than about 8 pages, I end up printing it anyway. I might as well have it been in a cohesive fashion and save myself the paper.
Most Linux programming books deal almost exclusively with C, since a good number of programs (and the kernel) are C. However, I am looking for a high-quality book about Linux programming with C++.
I have a good C++ book that covers the fundamentals of OO programming and the language, but I would like a book that is a bit more Linux-specific. Makefiles, QT, gtk-- (perhaps), database programming would all be nice. I have seen QT books, but I am looking for something a bit more general/comprehensive. Any recommendations?
Now, if we want to buy a Universal music CD, we have to agree to a license agreement comparable to the average MS EULA.
Many of us probably feared that the customer backlash will be softened by some heavily encrypted files and a proprietary player on each CD. For all too many people, that functionality will be good enough.
Here's to hoping that the general public will still be pissed about:
1.) Not being able to use their favorite music software
2.) Not being able to transfer to mp3 players
Of course, in a few years, we may be in the horrible situation of having the RIAA agree on a new encryption standard, and all major music players and devices will read it. However, those music devices could be forced to tie in with just one computer, or something stupid like that.
I don't share my music, but I listen to all high-bitrate mp3s and use my mp3 player often. I have already decided against purchasing a CD I would almost certainly own by now if it weren't for Universal's copy protection. Let's hope Universal's sales suffer dearly for this.
Slashdot Mirror
Funny, that Tetris can be so effective in removing similar games, but I Hasbro (which now owns Microprose) hasn't seemed to have complained about FreeCiv.
Not that I'm complaining. I've played FreeCiv and I still bought Civ III - I don't think sales are suffering because of it - both games are fun in different ways.
$95,000 USD is fairly cheap to move all of Blender's IP into GPL. Ton's proposal for the Foundation didn't explicitly state (unless I missed it) how the group would obtain the starting cash. It outlined a membership for exclusive offers.
We should keep an eye out for the Foundation to be set up and gathering capital. I would also be curious to see any big corporation (Red Hat, IBM, Mandrake, etc.) donate a few thousand each to the cause. It used to be that the best way to support Blender was to buy the manual (which I did, VERY nice looking btw), but now we'll have a non-profit organization handling the continued development and support of Blender. 'Tis a good day.
Too bad the "Quantum Teleportation" project listed on this page: http://photonics.anu.edu.au/qoptics/projects.htmll eads to a page that is still "Under Construction".
You're going to hear many comments saying the same thing, "set them up to use the file server for storage." Here are a few things to consider with that central file server:
Set up the file server nicely (if possible) in the first place. I would recommend an inexpensive Promise IDE RAID (they're cheap, fast, and reasonably reliable). The number of drives will determine what kind of RAID strategy you'll take, but be sure to include redundancy in the hard drives themselves.
Make sure permissions are set properly. Set up a user for each workstation to access their files on the central server.
Disable all unnecessary services on the file server. Install the latest service pack and hotfix packages. A good virus scan program will be helpful as well, and perhaps a software firewall if you don't have another solution implemented.
Good luck.
At least on Linux the mozilla user interface is slower than opera's and I have a 1Ghz processor.
Especially scrolling pages takes noticeably more cpu time on mozilla.
The speed of scrolling is incredibly dependant upon which video card you are using, which version of XFree86 (3.x or 4.x), and the quality of the video drivers. If you can, try changing your hardware or software configuration a bit. It will probably make a noticable difference.
People hate hearing "free" when it means $4.95 shipping for something that's cheap to make and ship.
Instead, they should've said that the CDs were $4.95 with free shipping. Then we wouldn't feel like we're being lured in by "free", it'd just be a good deal.
It's just wording, I know, but it makes or breaks this company's "image".
I've been casually monitoring the Debian-KDE mailing list (May archive). Apparently the KDE packagers for Debian are working off of 3.0.1, so when they do arrive in official unstable they'll be quite up-to-date.
Instructions for how to use experimental unofficial packages can be found here. I haven't tried them myself - I'll wait until they appear in unstable. Check out the mailing list to see others' impressions.
I know it's asking much, but many students can obtain cheap copies of Microsoft Office from their universities for $25-100. I'm personally interested in helping out Sun's development and sales of Star Office (being able to install on 5 computers is very gracious of them), but I'd rather not pay 3x what I can get Microsoft Office for.
I'm sure students like myself would snatch up Star Office (download version only, to save on boxed-set material costs) for $25. It's hard for me to justify a $75 purchase for features I'd only occasionally use just in the name of my support of Star Office/Open Office. I'd rather spend $25 on SO, then spend that $50 on some other open source software or donation to my favorite distro - Debian.
Hmm..I experienced the auto-load of the LOTR soundtrack, but I had no problems whatsoever ripping the CD into my beloved 256 kbit ogg files. I bought it the day it came out, (the movie), checked to make sure it wasn't from Universal (it's Warner Bros I believe), and ripped it right away. Most CDs now I don't even listen to before I rip.
Give it a try, but don't tarnish the beautiful music by ripping it into crappy 128 kbit mp3s.
Minor correction: I meant "them" instead of "it". I think I saw a flash ad at least twice, but bothered to confirm it once (the plugin allows you to zoom in, etc, easily showing it to be flash). The one I confirmed was last week, but like I said, I didn't copy down the link.
I wish I would've copied down the link when I did see it. I figured this was the case, but in the future I'll keep an eye out for them (as probably others will), and you'll get an e-mail about it.
Thanks for the response.
From what I could tell on the IRC conversation, the /. editors promised to avoid Flash ads. I have noticed a few in the past couple of weeks, along with the "extra-big" sized banner ads on the top. Has anyone seen a statement where they said they would start accepting Flash ads now?
I am not at all surprised by some people's reaction to theKompany. However, I think it is terrible that the Linux community (which does not necessarily equal the Open Source or Free Software community) acts hostile towards commercial software. Most people agree that not all software can be reasonably free - not enough end users would pay.
Frankly, in many cases we as a community are spoiled. We've lived through the internet bubble of free services and negative cash flow companies having free websites, and now we can't accept the fact that all software and internet sites can be free. Some sites are simply too expensive to operate without subscriptions, and some software simply doesn't have the developer support to create a competitive Open Source version. For proof just look at the KOffice interview from earlier - creating Word filters is tough work that people simply don't want to do for free. Open Office, Mozilla, and many other Open Source software is created in part by paid programmers from big companies (AOL/TW, Red Hat, IBM, etc.). But certain software projects will inevitably not prove worth the time of those companies.
I think it is important to remember that not all commercial software companies are as bad as Microsoft. Commercial software (especially games) is a HUGE market, with a very successful business plan. We need more commercial developers for Linux - users will want to see their familiar software, games, etc. available for Linux before they decide to switch. Even the simple presence of more Linux software at your local Best Buy will get Joe Windows User to think about Linux if he's tired of Windows.
I think it's wonderful that I can build an entire system from nothing but Open Source software and have it perform a good majority of my daily work. Much of this software is worth purchasing, but we are lucky in that we have the choice with who and how we choose to support the software programmers. In the end, regardless of whether or not you like theKompany's software, the fact that they remain one of a few commercial software developers for Linux is important. Other companies will be looking to it as an example of how viable the future Linux market is. Loki has already stained Linux's reputation for commercial software.
I wish theKompany the best of luck in developing high quality commercial software.
Cable modems are more than just a speed improvement. For many people, the always-on access is very convenient. Some of the cost of broadband is saved by eliminating a second phone line. Another important benefit for many users is the ability to share the connection with multiple computers in one household.
After switching to broadband, I simply can't go back to dialup access. I've been forced to use or test it occasionally, and even the most trivial web surfing seems painfully slow. It's like being used to a remote control on a tv for fast channel switching and having to go up to the tv each time you want to change the channel. You get used to it, and all these things combined make it worth the price.
IIRC, the downloadable version of Star Office 5.2 can be used for commercial purposes.
How is Sun supposed to make money from Star Office if they don't eventually charge for it? I, for one, would be willing to pay a small fee to use Star Office on my two desktops. $35/computer seems reasonable to me. The license shouldn't be tied to an OS, but rather a computer.
Given interoperability, I may purchase one commercial copy of Star Office for my main desktop use, and use Open Office on every other computer, it depends on how well each is distributed.
In some ways, charging for Star Office may be a good thing. Charging for software in the business world gives it some degree of credibility - that software has value if one must pay for it. I'd be even more happy if Sun offered free education and/or personal licenses to try to gain market share, while charging a fair fee to businesses.
I eagerly await Star Office 6 and Open Office 1.
Living in the northern midwest my entire life (but not much longer, I hope). I can tell you that acceleration in snowy weather is the least of my problems. People who have 4WD think that they can somehow brake faster and with more accuracy than the rest of us.
Every car has 4 wheel braking. Good cars have anti-lock brakes. Get anti-lock brakes on a small car and you have less momentum to counter when trying to stop (momentum = mass*velocity).
The last thing we need is more careless drivers in huge SUVs thinking they can drive faster in snow, or any other weather.
I am dissappointed with the direction SG-1 apparently has taken. I see mostly the syndicated version on the local UPN, which apparently was the first several seasons. I liked many of the planetary expedition episodes. They had a slight star-trek feel without always the crappy technical solution.
I could never get into the X-Files. Frankly, the constant plot of a government conspiracy became tiresome. Occasionally (maybe once per season), it works ok, but I'm not surprised they too it too far.
Yes, Daniel Jackson was the best character on the show. Definately not for the "sensistive" reasons given, but that he was the most intelligenct and logical character. Anyone who liked the Spock/Data/Tuvok character sees that Jackson is the Stargate equivalent. And, of course, being a geek I can relate to how the character is portrayed. It is weird that shows are portrayeing the geeks as the sex symbols now (just look at the Vulcan on Enterprise).
To my knowledge, Debian KDE packages are separated. To install KWord, the dependency koffice-libs (to my recollection) is installed with it. I could be wrong (I'm not at my comp right now to check how apt-get handles everything), but when you do apt-get install koffice it installs all of the individual components quite nicely. Check out this page to see the list of KDE application packages. I also checked the library page and confirmed koffice-libs.
Granted, you get a small amount of bloat if you just want KWord (compared to a more standalone wordprocessor), but it beats the RPM distributions easily. The quality and ease with which KDE is handled in Debian was one of the major deciding factors in me switching to Debian from Red Hat.
The Planetary Society is dedicated to promoting robotic exploration off the planet and is mildly biased against such projects as the ISS and human exploration of Mars and the Moon.
Wrong.
Check out this page.
Since its inception, the Planetary Society has advocated the exploration of Mars?with the ultimate goal of sending humans to the Red Planet
The Planetary Society promotes all types of space exploration to other planets, especially Mars.
The Blender plugin for Internet Explorer has been available for some time. Here is the link to the Blender 3D plugin download page.
There is something to be said for a well-written dead-tree version in a comprehensive, tutorial form. If a tutorial online is longer than about 8 pages, I end up printing it anyway. I might as well have it been in a cohesive fashion and save myself the paper.
Most Linux programming books deal almost exclusively with C, since a good number of programs (and the kernel) are C. However, I am looking for a high-quality book about Linux programming with C++.
I have a good C++ book that covers the fundamentals of OO programming and the language, but I would like a book that is a bit more Linux-specific. Makefiles, QT, gtk-- (perhaps), database programming would all be nice. I have seen QT books, but I am looking for something a bit more general/comprehensive. Any recommendations?
Now, if we want to buy a Universal music CD, we have to agree to a license agreement comparable to the average MS EULA.
Many of us probably feared that the customer backlash will be softened by some heavily encrypted files and a proprietary player on each CD. For all too many people, that functionality will be good enough.
Here's to hoping that the general public will still be pissed about:
1.) Not being able to use their favorite music software
2.) Not being able to transfer to mp3 players
Of course, in a few years, we may be in the horrible situation of having the RIAA agree on a new encryption standard, and all major music players and devices will read it. However, those music devices could be forced to tie in with just one computer, or something stupid like that.
I don't share my music, but I listen to all high-bitrate mp3s and use my mp3 player often. I have already decided against purchasing a CD I would almost certainly own by now if it weren't for Universal's copy protection. Let's hope Universal's sales suffer dearly for this.
patch != feature upgrade
patch == bug fix