My main concern is OpenAL and Linux support. First off, Creative is pretty much the only company maintaining OpenAL, so what happens if they go down? OpenGL provides an alternative to Direct3D in the graphics area, and at the moment OpenAL provides the best alternative to DirectSound in the audio area, especially since it's cross-platform like OpenGL.
And more importantly, do these alternatives to Creative, such as MAudio and Asus, provide the same support for OpenAL that the Creative cards do? What about Linux? Creative is hardly the best example of cross platform audio drivers (see the X-Fi on Linux issues), but what about MAudio and Asus?
As much as I'd like to move on from Creative and use my consumer voting powers on a brand that's better for the consumer, I'm hard-pressed to find an alternative.
Normally I would agree. Let the poor guy do what he enjoys doing. It's not like he's being rewarded for it anymore (as his movies flop regularly), and it is kinda harsh to get the entire world telling you you suck at what you love to do . . .
But then Deus Ex was mentioned and I decided it was best not to tempt fate. *Signs Petition*
Didn't Carson Williams do this a couple years ago? I saw someone linking to Lightorama, which is the software he used, but I don't see a link to his video. In any case, while it may not have quite as many lights, I feel his Wizards in Winter performance was a lot better orchestrated.
It's rather shocking to see that so many people are against Bush/his daughters on this. It doesn't matter what your political viewpoints are here, because this has very little to do with Bush's decisions. It has more to do with the RIAA being their usual selves. (It's perfectly legal to make a mix cd from music you own and give it to a family member for personal use.)
And think about it for a moment. If Bush wins, it helps shake up the RIAA even more, especially since it's a more high-profile case. If the RIAA wins, it gives them firmer ground on taking away people's right to actually enjoy their purchases. But the outcome will have absolutely no effect on whatever issue is the cause for your intense dislike for Bush.
It's kind of disappointing to see so many people assume that just because one does not believe in evolution, they're stupid or poorly educated. This certainly isn't the case, as a majority of those people are quite intelligent and do well in school and in the field as well. For example, I know of several Christian families that have home-schooled their kids, and while they've taught them of the principles of evolution, those kids do not believe that evolution is a proven fact. Yet all of these kids are quite smart, the younger ones having been taught advanced concepts like calculus and advanced physics in their early teens, while the older ones have been accepted to some pretty prestigious universities. And it's not just the home-schooled kids either. I've seen plenty of public-schooled kids who don't believe in evolution do the same. Granted this probably doesn't apply to everyone who disbelieves evolution, but there is enough of a majority that they can't be generalized in that manner.
And really, does the belief of whether evolution is a fact or not really affect much today? I mean, someone who disbelieves it is probably not going to encounter difficulties living his life, even as an intellectual. Whether evolution actually occurred or not doesn't affect the fact that humanity is here today.
But more importantly, this whole argument is really causing a lot of people to consider others "second class citizens" of a kind, just because they don't believe what everyone else does. Speaking only for the US here, our country was founded on the idea that people would be free to believe what they wanted to believe, whether it be a particular sect of Christianity, Mormonism, Buddhism, or even Scientology. Heck, people don't even have to believe in anything and that's just fine as well. (Not to say that the US is alone in this regard, as there are several other countries that follow this ideal as well.)
Let's not judge people's intelligences by what they believe . . .
I was thinking the exact same thing. Of all the little sci-fi references people have been dropping here, this one is the most pertinent. In any case, you might be interested to see this: http://www.anotherworld.fr/anotherworld_uk/
People have already mentioned Rosegarden, Ardour, etc as alternatives to commercial apps, like Logic Pro, Cubase, Reason, etc, but I should also mention that there are several distributions, such as Ubuntu Studio (mentioned previously on/.) and Demudi (the inspiration for the former) that are specifically built around supporting these apps. Personally, I think it's all a lot more flexible than the commercial apps, despite being harder to use.
In any case, it's a pity that Violet isn't available for Linux users yet, though I'm sure it will be ported over reasonably soon. I'll be keeping my eye on it . . .
In the end, that's what it all boils down to. Personally, I'm glad to see that we have a desktop manager like Gnome available that's simple, limited, and easy to use. And to balance it out, on the other end we have KDE, which is flexible and very customizable. And then there's XFCE, for the older computers. And there are all the numerous other window managers and desktop environments that give everyone numerous choices as to what they can use.
Personally, I really like KDE's flexibility, and that's my desktop manager of choice. Meanwhile, I've set up my mom's computer to use Gnome, which she has had very little trouble jumping in and using, despite never having touched Linux before. After all, Windows doesn't exactly have the most flexible desktop environment, yet people live with it.
However, I think I can see where Linus is coming from here. Gnome has a pretty significant hold as the primary Linux DE in use, while KDE isn't quite as popular with many distributions. (Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's how I see it.) I'm not sure why this is the case, but the most notable example is Ubuntu, where Gnome is the center of attention and Kubuntu (with KDE) is struggling to keep up. Instead of attacking the folks working on Gnome, though, what about a little more support for KDE, which is certainly as worthy as Gnome.
Maybe you realize this, and it was meant to be tongue-in-cheek, but maybe not. Yes, it was tongue-in-cheek. I was merely using it as an extreme example of how one might not consider Ubuntu to be truly free. (I mean, there's no denying that Ubuntu does use the Firefox name and icon, and that the Debian folks insist on NOT using them . ..)
And in what way did my statement spread fear, uncertainty, or doubt? No offense to you, of course, but I think that acronym is getting a little too much use lately . ..
No, that's not true. It's true by default, but you can go in and add repos that will deliver you nonfree software without adding any non-Ubuntu repos. That includes nvidia-glx and fglrx. Yes, they are drivers. Yes, I am fine with it. No, they are not Free Software. As I said in my previous statement, the default Ubuntu setup only allows free software repositories. It does have other repositories that aren't enabled by default, so those who don't want non-free stuff don't need to access them, but those that do want it need only to enable those repositories. (And it's clearly stated that those repositories have non-free software, so it wouldn't be hard to make the mistake.)
I think that minus a communication error somewhere, we're pretty much in agreement here.;-)
What a lot of people seem to be forgetting is that running Ubuntu with proprietary binaries is optional. They still have their restricted/universe/multiverse repositories, and so you make the choice of whether to include proprietary/unstable/etc packages. And that's what Linux is all about, being given a choice.
If you want to support free software, just don't install proprietary packages. If you just want things to work as best they can, then having these extra options is a good thing.
And honestly, if one is such a zealot for free software, why would that person be using Ubuntu anyway? Last I checked, it included the "controversial" Firefox browser, as opposed to something truly free, like Iceweasel.
The point is that Ubuntu hasn't entirely been strictly free software for quite some time now. But their default setup is, (else why would people be using scripts like Automatix to install all the non-free stuff quickly) and they only offer the choice of using non-free packages. They don't force people to use it.
Since threads are moderated by many people, it's likely that some threads will be moderated as "Trolls" or in a negative fashion early on, by moderators who do indeed consider it to be a Troll thread. However, as time goes on, more moderators will pass by and in the end the person will receive the rating/label that they deserve.
Also note that while there may be moderators that go out and toss around negative mods freely, their decisions get moderated through meta-moderation. In other words, meta-moderators go through their mods and decide whether they made a fair decision or not. This will result in more fair moderators and less negative moderators.
On a final note, there are many moderators that look at spelling and grammar with a critical eye, and while your sister may have made a good point, her writing may have swayed the moderator to a negative decision. Overall, spelling and grammar shouldn't count towards moderation points (as much as it grieves some), since not everyone is as deliberate when they type.
Of all the multiplayer FPSs I've found out there, America's Army is the only one I really stick to and play regularly. Despite it's flaws, (and it's hardly a perfectly designed game) it encourages strategic gameplay and teamwork. Perhaps it's because I suck at fast-twitch FPSs, but the idea of actually outthinking your opponents really appeals to me. Quite simply, the game is fun.
Now I know the game is propaganda for the US Army and any ideals it holds, but I haven't joined the forces yet, nor do I ever plan to. The game doesn't get too in-your-face about it, and in all honesty, I'd rather put up with a bit of propaganda as opposed to the in-game advertising that's starting to fill most modern games. At least it fits the context of the game and keeps me immersed.
At very least, America's Army is fun, and that's a lot more than can be said for many of the other shooters out there.
As for this new game in the works, well, a lot of the fun in AA comes from the challenge of your limitations. If you remove those limitations, it would make the game a bit too easy to be fun, and that's what I see this as. With futuristic weapons and tech, you can't follow real-world rules because you don't know what those rules will be, and thus you lose some of the limitations out there. (And perhaps make up unnecessary ones.) So while I find this development interesting, I'm going to wait and see what comes of it.
I'm guessing that Shuttleworth was merely making an offer to any disillusioned developers for openSUSE who may have been considering leaving anyway, in essence offering them a place to go if they do leave. As far as I know, a developer jumping ship from one distro can't just sign on to another distro all that quickly (at least, not for the larger ones), and this offer would just be to inform the developers that they're welcome to work on Ubuntu. After all, the Shuttleworth was polite in the offer, only questioning Novell's business decision rather than the quality of openSUSE. Granted he goes into detail on the structure of Ubuntu's community, but better to give some information than none at all.
But then, I'm rather ignorant of the politics between distros, so perhaps I missed something . . .
The website I run came with a tool called "Boxtrapper." Basically, if a new email comes in from an unknown address, it sends an email back to verify that the sender is human. Once the email is verified, it adds that sender to a whitelist and their subsequent emails come through to me. Also, any email addresses I send messages out to are automatically added to my whitelist. (The list is editable, of course.) Thus I am able to display my address on my website with no fear, and not become the target of spam. And I have yet to receive any incoming spam, despite having run the website for 2 years. Now granted this runs off of a whitelist/blacklist system, and there is a possibility of it being fallable, but thus far it's run smoothly, so I'll take it for what it is until it fails me. Also, Boxtrapper is a part of cPanel, which is not free software (to my knowledge), so people running their own servers may have to look elsewhere if they prefer a FOSS solution.
#Kirk may have beaten up a Klingon with his bare hands, but Picard has the balls to stand in the middle of an entire roomful of Klingons and ARGUE with them!
Dude, that's not such a hot idea. All it needs to do is fail its WGA check just once, and then you get to experience the adventure of installing a valid copy of Windows on a snail somewhere in the vicinity of your colon.
Firefox already has an extension for this called "Distrust." When it's off, you browse normally, gathering cookies and the usual thang. When it's on, it enters "distrust mode" and takes note of all the cookies added, cache changes, etc. These changes are all deleted when distrust is turned off, or when Firefox exits. I can't say for certain whether Opera has something like this, and I'm pretty certain IE doesn't, but in any case, what's the point of having yet another browser which touts a "feature" that's already available in a more popular browser? It seems to me we've been getting a lot of these specialized browsers implemented lately (Flock being another), so I'm rather suspicious about the intent of the developers. (Though maybe it's just paranoia.)
I'm really trying to think of how this would be useful in any way. Sure it's a pretty cool gimmick to be slapping your laptop around, especially for all the folks out there with sadistic tendencies, but can it really accomplish anything that couldn't be accomplished with an ordinary laptop? Which would be easier, switching desktops by hitting Ctrl+F2 or reaching up and tapping the side of your laptop screen? It takes longer and is a waste of energy. (I mean, isn't that the reason people are so crazy about Vim and Emacs? The fact that you don't have to lift your hands from the keyboard?)
I will admit that being able to lock and unlock your computer through a series of taps is pretty nifty, but the same feature could be accomplished through timed keystrokes and so forth. And people have already mentioned possible affects on the hardware.
It seems to me that this will be more of a niche product, sort of like the thumbprint scanners seem to be nowadays.
I'm a swimmer myself, and when I was younger I trained with the ordinary, plain-vanilla speedos. Lately, our coach has been encouraging the use of the more high-tech suit designs for competitions, so I got ahold of one of those "fastskin" suits that Speedo sells. Surprisingly enough, you can actually feel the difference. (And it shaved a second or two off my times as well.)
So if Speedo is going through such great lengths to improve their suits, I wouldn't be surprised. I'm just impressed that a suit design can make such a big difference.
Still, I'm a traditionalist. I don't need no newfangled swimsuits to win a competition! Skinnydipping forever!
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My main concern is OpenAL and Linux support. First off, Creative is pretty much the only company maintaining OpenAL, so what happens if they go down? OpenGL provides an alternative to Direct3D in the graphics area, and at the moment OpenAL provides the best alternative to DirectSound in the audio area, especially since it's cross-platform like OpenGL.
And more importantly, do these alternatives to Creative, such as MAudio and Asus, provide the same support for OpenAL that the Creative cards do? What about Linux? Creative is hardly the best example of cross platform audio drivers (see the X-Fi on Linux issues), but what about MAudio and Asus?
As much as I'd like to move on from Creative and use my consumer voting powers on a brand that's better for the consumer, I'm hard-pressed to find an alternative.
Normally I would agree. Let the poor guy do what he enjoys doing. It's not like he's being rewarded for it anymore (as his movies flop regularly), and it is kinda harsh to get the entire world telling you you suck at what you love to do . . .
But then Deus Ex was mentioned and I decided it was best not to tempt fate.
*Signs Petition*
Whoops, looks like the article already mentions Williams. My apologies.
Didn't Carson Williams do this a couple years ago? I saw someone linking to Lightorama, which is the software he used, but I don't see a link to his video. In any case, while it may not have quite as many lights, I feel his Wizards in Winter performance was a lot better orchestrated.
It's rather shocking to see that so many people are against Bush/his daughters on this. It doesn't matter what your political viewpoints are here, because this has very little to do with Bush's decisions. It has more to do with the RIAA being their usual selves. (It's perfectly legal to make a mix cd from music you own and give it to a family member for personal use.)
And think about it for a moment. If Bush wins, it helps shake up the RIAA even more, especially since it's a more high-profile case. If the RIAA wins, it gives them firmer ground on taking away people's right to actually enjoy their purchases. But the outcome will have absolutely no effect on whatever issue is the cause for your intense dislike for Bush.
Don't let your emotions cloud your judgement.
It's kind of disappointing to see so many people assume that just because one does not believe in evolution, they're stupid or poorly educated. This certainly isn't the case, as a majority of those people are quite intelligent and do well in school and in the field as well. For example, I know of several Christian families that have home-schooled their kids, and while they've taught them of the principles of evolution, those kids do not believe that evolution is a proven fact. Yet all of these kids are quite smart, the younger ones having been taught advanced concepts like calculus and advanced physics in their early teens, while the older ones have been accepted to some pretty prestigious universities. And it's not just the home-schooled kids either. I've seen plenty of public-schooled kids who don't believe in evolution do the same. Granted this probably doesn't apply to everyone who disbelieves evolution, but there is enough of a majority that they can't be generalized in that manner.
And really, does the belief of whether evolution is a fact or not really affect much today? I mean, someone who disbelieves it is probably not going to encounter difficulties living his life, even as an intellectual. Whether evolution actually occurred or not doesn't affect the fact that humanity is here today.
But more importantly, this whole argument is really causing a lot of people to consider others "second class citizens" of a kind, just because they don't believe what everyone else does. Speaking only for the US here, our country was founded on the idea that people would be free to believe what they wanted to believe, whether it be a particular sect of Christianity, Mormonism, Buddhism, or even Scientology. Heck, people don't even have to believe in anything and that's just fine as well. (Not to say that the US is alone in this regard, as there are several other countries that follow this ideal as well.)
Let's not judge people's intelligences by what they believe . . .
I was thinking the exact same thing. Of all the little sci-fi references people have been dropping here, this one is the most pertinent. In any case, you might be interested to see this:
http://www.anotherworld.fr/anotherworld_uk/
People have already mentioned Rosegarden, Ardour, etc as alternatives to commercial apps, like Logic Pro, Cubase, Reason, etc, but I should also mention that there are several distributions, such as Ubuntu Studio (mentioned previously on /.) and Demudi (the inspiration for the former) that are specifically built around supporting these apps. Personally, I think it's all a lot more flexible than the commercial apps, despite being harder to use.
In any case, it's a pity that Violet isn't available for Linux users yet, though I'm sure it will be ported over reasonably soon. I'll be keeping my eye on it . . .
In the end, that's what it all boils down to. Personally, I'm glad to see that we have a desktop manager like Gnome available that's simple, limited, and easy to use. And to balance it out, on the other end we have KDE, which is flexible and very customizable. And then there's XFCE, for the older computers. And there are all the numerous other window managers and desktop environments that give everyone numerous choices as to what they can use.
Personally, I really like KDE's flexibility, and that's my desktop manager of choice. Meanwhile, I've set up my mom's computer to use Gnome, which she has had very little trouble jumping in and using, despite never having touched Linux before. After all, Windows doesn't exactly have the most flexible desktop environment, yet people live with it.
However, I think I can see where Linus is coming from here. Gnome has a pretty significant hold as the primary Linux DE in use, while KDE isn't quite as popular with many distributions. (Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's how I see it.) I'm not sure why this is the case, but the most notable example is Ubuntu, where Gnome is the center of attention and Kubuntu (with KDE) is struggling to keep up. Instead of attacking the folks working on Gnome, though, what about a little more support for KDE, which is certainly as worthy as Gnome.
And in what way did my statement spread fear, uncertainty, or doubt? No offense to you, of course, but I think that acronym is getting a little too much use lately . .
I think that minus a communication error somewhere, we're pretty much in agreement here.
What a lot of people seem to be forgetting is that running Ubuntu with proprietary binaries is optional. They still have their restricted/universe/multiverse repositories, and so you make the choice of whether to include proprietary/unstable/etc packages. And that's what Linux is all about, being given a choice.
If you want to support free software, just don't install proprietary packages. If you just want things to work as best they can, then having these extra options is a good thing.
And honestly, if one is such a zealot for free software, why would that person be using Ubuntu anyway? Last I checked, it included the "controversial" Firefox browser, as opposed to something truly free, like Iceweasel.
The point is that Ubuntu hasn't entirely been strictly free software for quite some time now. But their default setup is, (else why would people be using scripts like Automatix to install all the non-free stuff quickly) and they only offer the choice of using non-free packages. They don't force people to use it.
Since threads are moderated by many people, it's likely that some threads will be moderated as "Trolls" or in a negative fashion early on, by moderators who do indeed consider it to be a Troll thread. However, as time goes on, more moderators will pass by and in the end the person will receive the rating/label that they deserve.
Also note that while there may be moderators that go out and toss around negative mods freely, their decisions get moderated through meta-moderation. In other words, meta-moderators go through their mods and decide whether they made a fair decision or not. This will result in more fair moderators and less negative moderators.
On a final note, there are many moderators that look at spelling and grammar with a critical eye, and while your sister may have made a good point, her writing may have swayed the moderator to a negative decision. Overall, spelling and grammar shouldn't count towards moderation points (as much as it grieves some), since not everyone is as deliberate when they type.
Of all the multiplayer FPSs I've found out there, America's Army is the only one I really stick to and play regularly. Despite it's flaws, (and it's hardly a perfectly designed game) it encourages strategic gameplay and teamwork. Perhaps it's because I suck at fast-twitch FPSs, but the idea of actually outthinking your opponents really appeals to me. Quite simply, the game is fun.
Now I know the game is propaganda for the US Army and any ideals it holds, but I haven't joined the forces yet, nor do I ever plan to. The game doesn't get too in-your-face about it, and in all honesty, I'd rather put up with a bit of propaganda as opposed to the in-game advertising that's starting to fill most modern games. At least it fits the context of the game and keeps me immersed.
At very least, America's Army is fun, and that's a lot more than can be said for many of the other shooters out there.
As for this new game in the works, well, a lot of the fun in AA comes from the challenge of your limitations. If you remove those limitations, it would make the game a bit too easy to be fun, and that's what I see this as. With futuristic weapons and tech, you can't follow real-world rules because you don't know what those rules will be, and thus you lose some of the limitations out there. (And perhaps make up unnecessary ones.) So while I find this development interesting, I'm going to wait and see what comes of it.
I'm guessing that Shuttleworth was merely making an offer to any disillusioned developers for openSUSE who may have been considering leaving anyway, in essence offering them a place to go if they do leave. As far as I know, a developer jumping ship from one distro can't just sign on to another distro all that quickly (at least, not for the larger ones), and this offer would just be to inform the developers that they're welcome to work on Ubuntu. After all, the Shuttleworth was polite in the offer, only questioning Novell's business decision rather than the quality of openSUSE. Granted he goes into detail on the structure of Ubuntu's community, but better to give some information than none at all.
But then, I'm rather ignorant of the politics between distros, so perhaps I missed something . . .
I second that. At very least she should replace Paris Hilton.
The website I run came with a tool called "Boxtrapper." Basically, if a new email comes in from an unknown address, it sends an email back to verify that the sender is human. Once the email is verified, it adds that sender to a whitelist and their subsequent emails come through to me. Also, any email addresses I send messages out to are automatically added to my whitelist. (The list is editable, of course.) Thus I am able to display my address on my website with no fear, and not become the target of spam. And I have yet to receive any incoming spam, despite having run the website for 2 years.
Now granted this runs off of a whitelist/blacklist system, and there is a possibility of it being fallable, but thus far it's run smoothly, so I'll take it for what it is until it fails me. Also, Boxtrapper is a part of cPanel, which is not free software (to my knowledge), so people running their own servers may have to look elsewhere if they prefer a FOSS solution.
#Kirk may have beaten up a Klingon with his bare hands, but Picard has the balls to stand in the middle of an entire roomful of Klingons and ARGUE with them!
Dude, that's not such a hot idea. All it needs to do is fail its WGA check just once, and then you get to experience the adventure of installing a valid copy of Windows on a snail somewhere in the vicinity of your colon.
I dunno, Cowboy Bebop was pretty darn popular outside the US, and it definitely had the whole "Space Cowboy" theme going . . .
Besides, good writing has a universal appeal.
Firefox already has an extension for this called "Distrust." When it's off, you browse normally, gathering cookies and the usual thang. When it's on, it enters "distrust mode" and takes note of all the cookies added, cache changes, etc. These changes are all deleted when distrust is turned off, or when Firefox exits.
I can't say for certain whether Opera has something like this, and I'm pretty certain IE doesn't, but in any case, what's the point of having yet another browser which touts a "feature" that's already available in a more popular browser?
It seems to me we've been getting a lot of these specialized browsers implemented lately (Flock being another), so I'm rather suspicious about the intent of the developers. (Though maybe it's just paranoia.)
Nah, I prefer to use this for situations like that.
I'm really trying to think of how this would be useful in any way. Sure it's a pretty cool gimmick to be slapping your laptop around, especially for all the folks out there with sadistic tendencies, but can it really accomplish anything that couldn't be accomplished with an ordinary laptop? Which would be easier, switching desktops by hitting Ctrl+F2 or reaching up and tapping the side of your laptop screen? It takes longer and is a waste of energy. (I mean, isn't that the reason people are so crazy about Vim and Emacs? The fact that you don't have to lift your hands from the keyboard?)
I will admit that being able to lock and unlock your computer through a series of taps is pretty nifty, but the same feature could be accomplished through timed keystrokes and so forth. And people have already mentioned possible affects on the hardware.
It seems to me that this will be more of a niche product, sort of like the thumbprint scanners seem to be nowadays.
I'm a swimmer myself, and when I was younger I trained with the ordinary, plain-vanilla speedos. Lately, our coach has been encouraging the use of the more high-tech suit designs for competitions, so I got ahold of one of those "fastskin" suits that Speedo sells. Surprisingly enough, you can actually feel the difference. (And it shaved a second or two off my times as well.)
So if Speedo is going through such great lengths to improve their suits, I wouldn't be surprised. I'm just impressed that a suit design can make such a big difference.
Still, I'm a traditionalist. I don't need no newfangled swimsuits to win a competition! Skinnydipping forever!