I'm on the @home service in Calgary, Alberta, Canada through Shaw Cable. As of 10:00 MST it looks like @home is gone. My @home web sites are offline, the mail and news server is down. Luckily shaw.ca here in Calgary (and other Canadian cities) had setup a way for users to move to the shaw.ca service so I still have cable services. Just no more @home.
This has got me thinking about the whole WineX thing. I think it's a good idea and brings off the shelf software to Linux users. However isn't Transgaming breaking this with their package and special versions of games? Transgaming has their own, apparently optimized version, of The Sims that they bundle with this package that runs under WineX. Apparantely the commerical Windows version doesn't. So it means that if you want to run The Sims under Linux you have to buy their version (and perhaps their future versions of other Windows games). I'm not sure what optimizations they make or how they make them or what involvement Maxis had in all this. The concept of WineX was to allow you to run Windows programs under Linux so it would open up more software (including games) to people wanting to run that operating system. So if you go down this route, you're stuck buying your "Windows" games from them (since they're somewhat changed from the off the shelf Windows versions) and thus if you decide to go back to Windows as an operating system, you have a game that might not work with it right? A little odd if you ask me. Anyways, one step closer to removing that multi-boot that I have to do everytime I want to run Linux.
I don't think it's completely necessary for anyone to mix languages. Certain languages have certain downfalls so if you pick a language to do a job, you need to ensure that the selected language will indeed do what you need given the constraints of the application. Having said that, it does give you some flexibility in your app if you mix languages, particularily if you use some kind of scripting language to access your lower level code.
A good example of this would be some kind of modelling application. You really don't want to bother spending time updating the program if you're just letting the user create widgets, and they have to wait for you to release version x to include the latest ones. So adding something like Python to a C++ app would be great for this. Let the user extend the app in whatever way he wants by providing simple primitives (that they themselves could be created with scripting) and a whole new world should open up for you.
Of course this all depends on the application. I think modularity and language interoperability should be used with caution. Don't do it just for the hell of it and don't do it because it's cool. If you think the app will benefit from it (the benefits don't have to be immediately obvious) then go ahead and have a little fun while you're at it.
Really now. Think about it. Is it really worth the time and effort in hacking the X-Box?
We know that MS has put in all kinds of encryption/protection schemes. The hardware isn't exactly your typical PC (no USB, etc.). Ethernet won't be availble for another year. Linear memory. All of these add up to one nut that's going to be tough to crack. I'm not saying it's going to be impossible, I'm sure it'll be done at some point but is it worth it?
After all this trouble in hacking through some MS hardware, they'll issue a firmware update and *poof*, all those efforts down the tubes. We return to the assembly debugger bench and begin anew. Months later another hack comes out and we rejoice and launch MAME, Linux and whatever else we want on our game consoles only to have another update that blows away our efforts.
And for what? To have MAME or Linux run on a game console? My suggestion would be to take all that time and skill you're thinking about investing into hacking the X-Box and make Linux that much better. Write those much needed office suites, 3D apps and sound editors that we need instead of playing around with a silly game console. Let MS keep plodding away and let them battle it out with Sony and Nintentdo. Fight the battles worth fighting.
Oh god. What a waste of TV space. I'm a hug fan of the original series and sure, the dubbed version on the Food Network is a little odd but that's what makes Iron Chef. The quirky commentary from the floor reporter, the goofy dubbing (and apparently brainless actions) of the food testers (1 of which is some pop star nobody ever knew, 1 is a ditzy actress, 1 is a distinguished person and 1 is a food critic). Master Takeshi unveiling the main ingrediant (which usually amounts to some endangered species where the beef of the creature is $3000/lb.) is the highlight of the program and from there on in, it's a wild ride.
UPN and Shatner? Yeah, right. Since when did putting a cooking show on UPN be something that would be a success. Then there's Shatner, who needs some serious help in the geriatric department not to mention the acting arena (T.J. Hooker, nuff said).
This is going to leave a base taste in any Iron Chef fans mouth no matter what they try to do with it. I've already seen some clips and Shatner and the floor reporter look awkward at best. Don't expect anything like the original and as someone else said, the U.S. seems to almost always ruin a good foreign show without even trying.
I would say that VA has it's problems. Like any.bomb company in the last 5 years, they grew too big and too fast for their own good. The bean counters sit down and take a look at what they have and realize that a site like SF hosting almost 30,000 projects and supporting almost 300,000 users isn't making any money. Really? Wow. What a revelation.
Good for them to fork a version of their system and build a corporate version and good for them to those that purchase it. However, I doubt that even that is going to help their bottom line much. While the service is something useful for a collaboration based methodology in the corporate environment, it'll be a hard sell to companies that are already hooked into high priced alternatives like LiveLink, etc.
What I am concerned about is that SF (and perhaps/.?) might be affected by the VA fallout. Let's face it, they hurting in the financial area and I'm sure that's not helping morale. I doubt they're sitting in board rooms saying "We'll support open source even if it kills us". No. If the boat begins to sink, the first thing to pull is SF. I mean, how much bandwidth and server space can it be taking up?
I am concerned as a developer because I host a half dozen or so projects on SF and to see them vanish would be a little devastating. My advice for anyone who uses them, mirror your projects and don't subscribe to the "all your eggs in one basket" theory.
I can't seem to put my finger on it, oh wait. It's the complete lack of evidance that broadband defectors are on the rise.
The article says "Broadband defectors on the rise" yet only cites on person who was using DSL to telecommute and after losing her job, without the cash for the connection there wasn't much point in keeping it. Hey, if I got canned and bills were stacking up, the first thing to go would be my cable modem too. That's just silly.
They claim that a lot of people are dropping broadband, but then relate it to the loss of jobs in the high-tech sector. Hello! The high-tech sector is probably the primary user of this and yes, again, if you lost your job could you justify spending $40-$50/mo on an internet connection vs. paying the rent and putting food on the table. Talk about stating the obvious.
Even then, most of the ISPs they talked to said that growth was slow or subscriptions were rock steady. So where's this image of digital rats deserting the ship? The final blow came when they shifted the article towards @Home and Napster, trying to blame them for the downshift in broadband dwindling. @Home screwed up because they grew too fast and too large for their own good. Any company will suffer that. Napster, well, that's another story but again, it has nothing to do with broadband. They say there's no "killer app" for broadband. What the hell is that? You have a browser, an email and maybe and ftp client. What more do you need? What do you expect out of bandwidth?
Short of it is that I don't see any defectors in broadband subscriptions and like Kurt Rahn, an EarthLink spokesman said, high-speed subscribers would "rather sell their grandmothers" than go back to any modem solution.
Referral Denied
You don't have permission to access "http://applesw.download.akamai.com/ep2/breathing/ media/pro/ep2_breathing_640.mov" on this server.
Never seen that response before. Maybe it's the Apple version of the/. effect?
You may not believe this, but it really happened to me!
It was a late Friday night and we were really behind in the schedule. Our hard drive image wasn't ready yet but the client wanted it installed by Monday. I spent the better part of the day putting together a new machine complete with networking setup, our applications and user preferences. Then we were ready to go with our sample machine but still I wasn't sure how to get the image to the user. The internet was too slow for this and besides, they had to have some kind of media to install with. At the last minute, we came up with a simple solution that created and image of the hard drive, complete with operating system, which installed perfectly on Monday morning on the clients machine.
I'm also currently working on porting most of the Sims code as well as all of my Sims tools to native versions for Linux and the Mac. The reason was fairly straight forward. Wine emulation can only go so far, requires a bit of a techie person to use and given the nature of most of the Sims users, it's beyond them. I know that's a blanket statement that will probably come back and bite me in the ass, but it's true.
A native version is the way to go. I'm in the same boat as Don, although he's got more access to the code than I do. I generally go through him to get the code I need. When the issue of providing a Mac version came up because most of the utilities wouldn't work under VirtualPC, I looked toward some cross-platform library rather than emulating with Wine or whatever Transgamer is providing. I settled on wxWindows (between a choice of QT and wxWindows) just because of the licencising issues around QT (I'm not in a position to release any Sims code and bound by NDA to not).
The big issue was the fact that The Sims was completely dependant on DirectX (even though they try to abstract it out in some of the wrapper libraries they have) so the first thing I did was to port all the graphics code to OpenGL. Don and I have been communicating as well and had some success with porting some of the lower level functionality of the game engine to use Python via SWIG wrappers.
I think one of the key things here with any game development is that the commercial developers should look at writing portable code. Maybe they don't have to take the effort of writing the code for those other platforms (whatever they may be depending on what you call your base platform) but at least take the effort to provide those hooks with little effort. Don't tie yourself into a proprietary API and put the platform dependant features in the platform dependant code where it belongs, separate from the main code. But then that's just stating the obvious right?
I just did a search for "Windows OEM" on eBay and came up with 40 hits. Not bad for an organization 'cracking' down on OEM sales.
What I find interesting is that most of the auctions have something like this added to the description:
"This item will ship with a hard drive or motherboard in order to comply with eBay, Microsoft, and Corel rules and requirements.
The hard drive or motherboard is used, probably defective, untested, and there is no warranty of any kind with it."
Napster is turned into a pathetic excuse for a service and looses all users. The users then flock to other alternatives (Morpheus, Grokster, et. al) and these become the shining beacons in file sharing. Then they go after them and shut them down. 9 more alternatives popup which are quickly shut down. Then 27, 81, 243 then thousands of file sharing programs ream the planet and nobody can keep up.
In the meantime, the RIAA shuts down all playing of CDs on computers by copy-protecting them. DVDs are banned from computer players as well. So much for that multi-media concept. Your computer is back to being a system that runs software, but forget about running anything except Winamp playing MP3s that are deemed "acceptable" (whatever that means and whatever Barry Manillow songs you can download from the web).
I still fail to see any proof that Napster or any of these file sharing programs (central based or not) are making any impact on the reduced sales of music media. If anything that has been learned by this fairly time wasting effort it's that Napster promoted the songs and artists and let people make more informed decisions about buying or not buying that album. The RIAA should treat this as an educational lesson not an attack. The artists should look at it as a godsend and start making albums that have content that people want, not just filler material to cram onto a 12 song CD.
Of course this battle will go on forever. We have open source alternatives, engines and libraries that allow anyone with a compiler and half a brain to make the next Napster. So for every one the RIAA shuts down, three more will be right around the corner to replace it. If you can't beat them, then join them. What's next? Let's shut down Google, Alta Vista and Yahoo because they allow people to search for music (just like Napster, Morpheus, etc.) and you can download copyright material right to your hard drive! Oh my. What is the world coming to.
Wake up RIAA. You're just pissing more people off and you can't win, but there are alternatives to fighting.
Nostradamus was a philosopher from the 15th century who apparently predicted most of the world events through his writings. One such writing went something like this:
"In the City of God there will be a great thunder, Two brothers torn apart by Chaos, while the fortress endures, the great leader will succumb" , "The third big war will begin when the big city is burning" - Nostradamus 1654
True that some people have said the City of God is Mecca or something and the brothers represented some form of government however if you dice this apart you get:
Two brothers (the World Trade Center towers) torn apart (collapse) by Chaos, while the fortress endures (The White House? Pentagon?)...
I'm not a big believer in this sort of thing, but one of Nostradamus' quatrains seems to be very eerily shadowed in this verse which has yet to married with a historical event, until now.
While this is rather eerie let's keep our heads about us. People tend to treat these in such a way that they become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Much like music lyrics of rock songs. The more obscure the language or symbolism, the more ominous it seems and the more likely some wack-job will use it as his creed. Let's hope old Nostie is wrong this time.
Is it just me or is this just another old piece of news. This news is from June 7 (or perhaps June 20) of this year so everyone's hyped over this 2 1/2 months later?
Sure, they claim they're innovators and all that but what's really stirring here is the fact that Microsoft could make some truely unique advancements if they just opened their eyes.
The biggest issue with everything that's going on here is fair play in the software market. Windows isn't an operating system anymore (well, it never was). XP contains new software (developed by Microsoft) that are in direct competition with Adobe, Roxio, Nullsoft, Real and a host of others. The big bruhaha is that XP, while supposidly a new operating system for the new millenium is really a whack of applications that will make you use MS products exclusively. Why bother paying for or downloading other media players since they're already bundled in the OS? Okay, so for most of us we'll end up doing just that but the average consumer who buys a machine from Gateway or Dell isn't as download savvy as we might be and having everything bundled together makes sense. Did you ever notice that buying new PCs a few years ago came with a dozen or so CDs chock full of apps, games and other goodies. In most cases they were pre-loaded on the PC when we got them into our house. So where's the harm in that? Well, those dozen CDs that you got made money for a dozen companies the provide the software and support.
I think if Microsoft simply ripped out all the controversial software that was built into XP and delivered a new OS then everyone would be happy. MS would have dozens of products they could line the shelves with, the DOJ would be fine with their tactics (after all, if you're not embedding software into something you call an OS where's the monopoly) and consumers would have a better choice of what package to buy for their needs. Well, okay, it's not reality but it seems like a simple solution to a problem that is probably going to rage on for years (or longer).
It really saddens me when a professor, someone who should be one that would really research their facts, comes out with something like this. I mean, all it takes is a few minutes searching the web to realize that Doom was certainly not the first game done in an immersive first-person perspective. Wolf 3D (by id as well) came in May 1992, a full year before Doom and was just as immersive (IMHO). There are dozens of "history" sites (most point to Wolf3D as the grand-daddy of them all) that this professor should have visited to check some quick facts:
I already have clothes that change sizes, fade and come pre-wrinkled. It's called being a bachelor. Why would I want some Borg technology injected into my laundry heap to do this? There's already something crawling inside of it, I just don't know what yet.
I rememeber something about a personal, portable device that was supposed to revolutionize urban life, city travel and all that jazz. I can't for the life of me remember what IT was it but IT was referred to as IT (I think) and had some interest from Steve Jobs and others in investing. IT was supposed to come out early next year. Could this be what they were talking about? Doesn't anyone remember what I'm talking about??
Oh well. I just finished typing this up as a submission to Ask Slashdot as I wondered what the future might hold with respect to this. Maybe someone can comment here on the future direction and implications this might hold if such an agreement were carried over to.net compilers and such. Here's the submission:
Here's something odd I found buried on an MSDN page at Microsoft. Apparently MS is prohibiting developers from releasing software created under an OpenSource license like the GPL. It's a license agreement to something called the "Microsoft Mobile Internet Toolkit Beta 2" but it goes on to speak about releasing software created with it and specifically about OpenSource:
Open Source. Recipient's license rights to the Software are conditioned upon Recipient (i) not distributing such Software, in whole or in part, in conjunction with Potentially Viral Software (as defined below);
It goes on to describe Publically Availalble Software and Potentially Viral Software as:
Recipient shall not distribute the Software, in whole or in part, in conjunction with any Publicly Available Software. "Publicly Available Software" means each of (i) any software that contains, or is derived in any manner (in whole or in part) from, any software that is distributed as free software, open source software (e.g. Linux) or similar licensing or distribution models
As the maintainer of a free, OpenSource C++ DirectX wrapper (http://www.cdxlib.com), I don't think this affects groups like mine but could this be paving a way towards other MS tactics like this? I'm not sure how this affects us but would like to hear commments from the SlashDot community on this.
Wonderful. So if this catches on, now Kevin won't even be able to write notes to himself or messages like "Back in 5 minutes". And you can only imagine if they start using this stuff for toliet paper...
I'm very happy someone has abstracted this part of Quake out (sure, a year later, but still good work). I can just imagine now a new series of Quake releases. A Matrix Quake ala Neos view of the world at the end of the movie (although unless you're a genius, the numbers just won't make much sense) and others spring to mind.
Now if id would just release the quake 2 source we could get moving with the new versions of it!
I work for a large railway in Canada (CP) and we already have this. They're special attachments you add to a regular truck to ride the rails. From inside the cab you can retract the wheels and ride off the track onto a normal road.
The problem inherent with a transportation system like this is the huge overhead to lay out the track system. They talk about being able to drive from a home to a RUF station, so that means that there's some way for the car to get onto the track? How is this supposed to be accomplished? I can see two ways. 1) Lay track to every persons house (which let's be realistic, this is pretty much impossible). 2) The RUF vehicle is pretty much like what we have in the railway now. A set of retractable wheels that are added to a car to rail-enable it. Realistically, this isn't something the average person is going to want. We already have roads. Why would you want to ride on RUF. And RUF is what it'll be. Ever drive over a RR crossing at 60mph. It's not a smooth ride.
The second flaw in this system is the fact that someone has to be responsible for traffic control. In traditional road safety, you can ALWAYS pull off the road if trouble is ahead (not easy in winter, but at least you have some options). On a track system, you're at the mercy of the operators or other drivers. There is no way to simply turn off to avoid an accident. Not only that but you're also at the mercy of following someone. There is no way to pass easily, unless they lay double rail and have crossovers at various junctions. I write software for train control systems and know how difficult it is just to keep trains separated. This is a common problem in railroads today. Knowing where everything is and keeping things safe by positive train separation. Now multiply that by 10,000 or more in an average city. Sheesh, I wouldn't want to be the person to write that system or use it for that matter.
The third flaw is the huge cost associated with providing these rails. They're going to have to be all new elevated rails (or whatever they're proposing) however right now it costs us $1 million a mile to lay signaled track. I can't see it being much cheaper for this system so who's going to pay for a $1 billion dollar road system when they already have one that needs to be maintained at a fairly large cost as well.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm on the @home service in Calgary, Alberta, Canada through Shaw Cable. As of 10:00 MST it looks like @home is gone. My @home web sites are offline, the mail and news server is down. Luckily shaw.ca here in Calgary (and other Canadian cities) had setup a way for users to move to the shaw.ca service so I still have cable services. Just no more @home.
liB
This has got me thinking about the whole WineX thing. I think it's a good idea and brings off the shelf software to Linux users. However isn't Transgaming breaking this with their package and special versions of games? Transgaming has their own, apparently optimized version, of The Sims that they bundle with this package that runs under WineX. Apparantely the commerical Windows version doesn't. So it means that if you want to run The Sims under Linux you have to buy their version (and perhaps their future versions of other Windows games). I'm not sure what optimizations they make or how they make them or what involvement Maxis had in all this. The concept of WineX was to allow you to run Windows programs under Linux so it would open up more software (including games) to people wanting to run that operating system. So if you go down this route, you're stuck buying your "Windows" games from them (since they're somewhat changed from the off the shelf Windows versions) and thus if you decide to go back to Windows as an operating system, you have a game that might not work with it right? A little odd if you ask me. Anyways, one step closer to removing that multi-boot that I have to do everytime I want to run Linux.
liB
I don't think it's completely necessary for anyone to mix languages. Certain languages have certain downfalls so if you pick a language to do a job, you need to ensure that the selected language will indeed do what you need given the constraints of the application. Having said that, it does give you some flexibility in your app if you mix languages, particularily if you use some kind of scripting language to access your lower level code.
A good example of this would be some kind of modelling application. You really don't want to bother spending time updating the program if you're just letting the user create widgets, and they have to wait for you to release version x to include the latest ones. So adding something like Python to a C++ app would be great for this. Let the user extend the app in whatever way he wants by providing simple primitives (that they themselves could be created with scripting) and a whole new world should open up for you.
Of course this all depends on the application. I think modularity and language interoperability should be used with caution. Don't do it just for the hell of it and don't do it because it's cool. If you think the app will benefit from it (the benefits don't have to be immediately obvious) then go ahead and have a little fun while you're at it.
liB
Really now. Think about it. Is it really worth the time and effort in hacking the X-Box?
We know that MS has put in all kinds of encryption/protection schemes. The hardware isn't exactly your typical PC (no USB, etc.). Ethernet won't be availble for another year. Linear memory. All of these add up to one nut that's going to be tough to crack. I'm not saying it's going to be impossible, I'm sure it'll be done at some point but is it worth it?
After all this trouble in hacking through some MS hardware, they'll issue a firmware update and *poof*, all those efforts down the tubes. We return to the assembly debugger bench and begin anew. Months later another hack comes out and we rejoice and launch MAME, Linux and whatever else we want on our game consoles only to have another update that blows away our efforts.
And for what? To have MAME or Linux run on a game console? My suggestion would be to take all that time and skill you're thinking about investing into hacking the X-Box and make Linux that much better. Write those much needed office suites, 3D apps and sound editors that we need instead of playing around with a silly game console. Let MS keep plodding away and let them battle it out with Sony and Nintentdo. Fight the battles worth fighting.
liB
Oh god. What a waste of TV space. I'm a hug fan of the original series and sure, the dubbed version on the Food Network is a little odd but that's what makes Iron Chef. The quirky commentary from the floor reporter, the goofy dubbing (and apparently brainless actions) of the food testers (1 of which is some pop star nobody ever knew, 1 is a ditzy actress, 1 is a distinguished person and 1 is a food critic). Master Takeshi unveiling the main ingrediant (which usually amounts to some endangered species where the beef of the creature is $3000/lb.) is the highlight of the program and from there on in, it's a wild ride.
UPN and Shatner? Yeah, right. Since when did putting a cooking show on UPN be something that would be a success. Then there's Shatner, who needs some serious help in the geriatric department not to mention the acting arena (T.J. Hooker, nuff said).
This is going to leave a base taste in any Iron Chef fans mouth no matter what they try to do with it. I've already seen some clips and Shatner and the floor reporter look awkward at best. Don't expect anything like the original and as someone else said, the U.S. seems to almost always ruin a good foreign show without even trying.
liB
I would say that VA has it's problems. Like any .bomb company in the last 5 years, they grew too big and too fast for their own good. The bean counters sit down and take a look at what they have and realize that a site like SF hosting almost 30,000 projects and supporting almost 300,000 users isn't making any money. Really? Wow. What a revelation.
/.?) might be affected by the VA fallout. Let's face it, they hurting in the financial area and I'm sure that's not helping morale. I doubt they're sitting in board rooms saying "We'll support open source even if it kills us". No. If the boat begins to sink, the first thing to pull is SF. I mean, how much bandwidth and server space can it be taking up?
Good for them to fork a version of their system and build a corporate version and good for them to those that purchase it. However, I doubt that even that is going to help their bottom line much. While the service is something useful for a collaboration based methodology in the corporate environment, it'll be a hard sell to companies that are already hooked into high priced alternatives like LiveLink, etc.
What I am concerned about is that SF (and perhaps
I am concerned as a developer because I host a half dozen or so projects on SF and to see them vanish would be a little devastating. My advice for anyone who uses them, mirror your projects and don't subscribe to the "all your eggs in one basket" theory.
liB
I can't seem to put my finger on it, oh wait. It's the complete lack of evidance that broadband defectors are on the rise.
The article says "Broadband defectors on the rise" yet only cites on person who was using DSL to telecommute and after losing her job, without the cash for the connection there wasn't much point in keeping it. Hey, if I got canned and bills were stacking up, the first thing to go would be my cable modem too. That's just silly.
They claim that a lot of people are dropping broadband, but then relate it to the loss of jobs in the high-tech sector. Hello! The high-tech sector is probably the primary user of this and yes, again, if you lost your job could you justify spending $40-$50/mo on an internet connection vs. paying the rent and putting food on the table. Talk about stating the obvious.
Even then, most of the ISPs they talked to said that growth was slow or subscriptions were rock steady. So where's this image of digital rats deserting the ship? The final blow came when they shifted the article towards @Home and Napster, trying to blame them for the downshift in broadband dwindling. @Home screwed up because they grew too fast and too large for their own good. Any company will suffer that. Napster, well, that's another story but again, it has nothing to do with broadband. They say there's no "killer app" for broadband. What the hell is that? You have a browser, an email and maybe and ftp client. What more do you need? What do you expect out of bandwidth?
Short of it is that I don't see any defectors in broadband subscriptions and like Kurt Rahn, an EarthLink spokesman said, high-speed subscribers would "rather sell their grandmothers" than go back to any modem solution.
liB
Referral Denied/ media/pro/ep2_breathing_640.mov" on this server.
You don't have permission to access "http://applesw.download.akamai.com/ep2/breathing
Never seen that response before. Maybe it's the Apple version of the /. effect?
liB
It was a late Friday night and we were really behind in the schedule. Our hard drive image wasn't ready yet but the client wanted it installed by Monday. I spent the better part of the day putting together a new machine complete with networking setup, our applications and user preferences. Then we were ready to go with our sample machine but still I wasn't sure how to get the image to the user. The internet was too slow for this and besides, they had to have some kind of media to install with. At the last minute, we came up with a simple solution that created and image of the hard drive, complete with operating system, which installed perfectly on Monday morning on the clients machine.
Thank god for Norton Ghost.
liB
A native version is the way to go. I'm in the same boat as Don, although he's got more access to the code than I do. I generally go through him to get the code I need. When the issue of providing a Mac version came up because most of the utilities wouldn't work under VirtualPC, I looked toward some cross-platform library rather than emulating with Wine or whatever Transgamer is providing. I settled on wxWindows (between a choice of QT and wxWindows) just because of the licencising issues around QT (I'm not in a position to release any Sims code and bound by NDA to not).
The big issue was the fact that The Sims was completely dependant on DirectX (even though they try to abstract it out in some of the wrapper libraries they have) so the first thing I did was to port all the graphics code to OpenGL. Don and I have been communicating as well and had some success with porting some of the lower level functionality of the game engine to use Python via SWIG wrappers.
I think one of the key things here with any game development is that the commercial developers should look at writing portable code. Maybe they don't have to take the effort of writing the code for those other platforms (whatever they may be depending on what you call your base platform) but at least take the effort to provide those hooks with little effort. Don't tie yourself into a proprietary API and put the platform dependant features in the platform dependant code where it belongs, separate from the main code. But then that's just stating the obvious right?
liB
I just did a search for "Windows OEM" on eBay and came up with 40 hits. Not bad for an organization 'cracking' down on OEM sales.
What I find interesting is that most of the auctions have something like this added to the description:
"This item will ship with a hard drive or motherboard in order to comply with eBay, Microsoft, and Corel rules and requirements.
The hard drive or motherboard is used, probably defective, untested, and there is no warranty of any kind with it."
Leave it to someone to come up with a workaround.
liB
So the future's looking pretty bright here.
Napster is turned into a pathetic excuse for a service and looses all users. The users then flock to other alternatives (Morpheus, Grokster, et. al) and these become the shining beacons in file sharing. Then they go after them and shut them down. 9 more alternatives popup which are quickly shut down. Then 27, 81, 243 then thousands of file sharing programs ream the planet and nobody can keep up.
In the meantime, the RIAA shuts down all playing of CDs on computers by copy-protecting them. DVDs are banned from computer players as well. So much for that multi-media concept. Your computer is back to being a system that runs software, but forget about running anything except Winamp playing MP3s that are deemed "acceptable" (whatever that means and whatever Barry Manillow songs you can download from the web).
I still fail to see any proof that Napster or any of these file sharing programs (central based or not) are making any impact on the reduced sales of music media. If anything that has been learned by this fairly time wasting effort it's that Napster promoted the songs and artists and let people make more informed decisions about buying or not buying that album. The RIAA should treat this as an educational lesson not an attack. The artists should look at it as a godsend and start making albums that have content that people want, not just filler material to cram onto a 12 song CD.
Of course this battle will go on forever. We have open source alternatives, engines and libraries that allow anyone with a compiler and half a brain to make the next Napster. So for every one the RIAA shuts down, three more will be right around the corner to replace it. If you can't beat them, then join them. What's next? Let's shut down Google, Alta Vista and Yahoo because they allow people to search for music (just like Napster, Morpheus, etc.) and you can download copyright material right to your hard drive! Oh my. What is the world coming to.
Wake up RIAA. You're just pissing more people off and you can't win, but there are alternatives to fighting.
liB
Here's the page with the pics and a spec sheet:
http://www.psionteklogix.com/main/netpad.htm
Personally we already use ruggedized Windows boxes that are like this so I don't see much use for a PDA that can do the same.
liB
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?rel easeid=31154
Enjoy!
liB
"In the City of God there will be a great thunder, Two brothers torn apart by Chaos, while the fortress endures, the great leader will succumb" , "The third big war will begin when the big city is burning" - Nostradamus 1654
True that some people have said the City of God is Mecca or something and the brothers represented some form of government however if you dice this apart you get:
Two brothers (the World Trade Center towers) torn apart (collapse) by Chaos, while the fortress endures (The White House? Pentagon?)...
I'm not a big believer in this sort of thing, but one of Nostradamus' quatrains seems to be very eerily shadowed in this verse which has yet to married with a historical event, until now.
While this is rather eerie let's keep our heads about us. People tend to treat these in such a way that they become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Much like music lyrics of rock songs. The more obscure the language or symbolism, the more ominous it seems and the more likely some wack-job will use it as his creed. Let's hope old Nostie is wrong this time.
Scary stuff.
liB
Is it just me or is this just another old piece of news. This news is from June 7 (or perhaps June 20) of this year so everyone's hyped over this 2 1/2 months later?
liB
The biggest issue with everything that's going on here is fair play in the software market. Windows isn't an operating system anymore (well, it never was). XP contains new software (developed by Microsoft) that are in direct competition with Adobe, Roxio, Nullsoft, Real and a host of others. The big bruhaha is that XP, while supposidly a new operating system for the new millenium is really a whack of applications that will make you use MS products exclusively. Why bother paying for or downloading other media players since they're already bundled in the OS? Okay, so for most of us we'll end up doing just that but the average consumer who buys a machine from Gateway or Dell isn't as download savvy as we might be and having everything bundled together makes sense. Did you ever notice that buying new PCs a few years ago came with a dozen or so CDs chock full of apps, games and other goodies. In most cases they were pre-loaded on the PC when we got them into our house. So where's the harm in that? Well, those dozen CDs that you got made money for a dozen companies the provide the software and support.
I think if Microsoft simply ripped out all the controversial software that was built into XP and delivered a new OS then everyone would be happy. MS would have dozens of products they could line the shelves with, the DOJ would be fine with their tactics (after all, if you're not embedding software into something you call an OS where's the monopoly) and consumers would have a better choice of what package to buy for their needs. Well, okay, it's not reality but it seems like a simple solution to a problem that is probably going to rage on for years (or longer).
TechTVs History of the First-Person Shooter
Blue's News FPS Guide and History
First Person Shooters
MediaPipes History of the First Person Shooter
3D Action Planets History of the FPS Shooter.
Also, here's a link to Spasism that claims to be the first First-Person Shooter 3D multiplayer networked game, circa 1974!.
If anything, you could say Doom was the first game to show that the PC could now be considered a serious games playing machine.
liB
liB
I rememeber something about a personal, portable device that was supposed to revolutionize urban life, city travel and all that jazz. I can't for the life of me remember what IT was it but IT was referred to as IT (I think) and had some interest from Steve Jobs and others in investing. IT was supposed to come out early next year. Could this be what they were talking about? Doesn't anyone remember what I'm talking about??
liB
Here's something odd I found buried on an MSDN page at Microsoft. Apparently MS is prohibiting developers from releasing software created under an OpenSource license like the GPL. It's a license agreement to something called the "Microsoft Mobile Internet Toolkit Beta 2" but it goes on to speak about releasing software created with it and specifically about OpenSource:
Open Source. Recipient's license rights to the Software are conditioned upon Recipient (i) not distributing such Software, in whole or in part, in conjunction with Potentially Viral Software (as defined below);
It goes on to describe Publically Availalble Software and Potentially Viral Software as:
Recipient shall not distribute the Software, in whole or in part, in conjunction with any Publicly Available Software. "Publicly Available Software" means each of (i) any software that contains, or is derived in any manner (in whole or in part) from, any software that is distributed as free software, open source software (e.g. Linux) or similar licensing or distribution models
As the maintainer of a free, OpenSource C++ DirectX wrapper (http://www.cdxlib.com), I don't think this affects groups like mine but could this be paving a way towards other MS tactics like this? I'm not sure how this affects us but would like to hear commments from the SlashDot community on this.
The full agreement can be found here:e ula_mit.htm
http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdn-files/027/001/516/
liB
Now if id would just release the quake 2 source we could get moving with the new versions of it!
liB
The problem inherent with a transportation system like this is the huge overhead to lay out the track system. They talk about being able to drive from a home to a RUF station, so that means that there's some way for the car to get onto the track? How is this supposed to be accomplished? I can see two ways. 1) Lay track to every persons house (which let's be realistic, this is pretty much impossible). 2) The RUF vehicle is pretty much like what we have in the railway now. A set of retractable wheels that are added to a car to rail-enable it. Realistically, this isn't something the average person is going to want. We already have roads. Why would you want to ride on RUF. And RUF is what it'll be. Ever drive over a RR crossing at 60mph. It's not a smooth ride.
The second flaw in this system is the fact that someone has to be responsible for traffic control. In traditional road safety, you can ALWAYS pull off the road if trouble is ahead (not easy in winter, but at least you have some options). On a track system, you're at the mercy of the operators or other drivers. There is no way to simply turn off to avoid an accident. Not only that but you're also at the mercy of following someone. There is no way to pass easily, unless they lay double rail and have crossovers at various junctions. I write software for train control systems and know how difficult it is just to keep trains separated. This is a common problem in railroads today. Knowing where everything is and keeping things safe by positive train separation. Now multiply that by 10,000 or more in an average city. Sheesh, I wouldn't want to be the person to write that system or use it for that matter.
The third flaw is the huge cost associated with providing these rails. They're going to have to be all new elevated rails (or whatever they're proposing) however right now it costs us $1 million a mile to lay signaled track. I can't see it being much cheaper for this system so who's going to pay for a $1 billion dollar road system when they already have one that needs to be maintained at a fairly large cost as well.
Dumb, dumb, dumb.
liB