I wouldn't pigeon-hole all "right-wingers" in that manner. In "Fast Food Nation", sure, the majority of companies seem to follow in that mold, but what surprised me was a company called "In 'N Out". When I was in Cali, this was by far my favorite hamburger chain, and now I have even more reasons to like them.
Basically, instead of relying upon poor schmucks with little to no education and paying them "peanuts", they decided to give their workers an actual "competitive" wage and pay their managers *real* salaries. In doing so, their turnover is extremely low, the workers tend to be more productive, the management more honest and more responsive to employee needs, etc, and all *without* unions. FedEx, until recently, had similar policies (although their pay is certainly nothing to laugh at, their policies regarding employees have degenerated quite a bit): You pay your workers, listen and react to their concerns, make the employees feel like they are actually making a difference, and the employees work HARDER for you and are more apt to be more dependable, more honest (less shrinkage), and more productive in general. When you begin to look at your employees as "just another number", then you face all sorts of morale problems ("Why should I give a fuck if the company doesn't give a fuck about me?"). Unfortunately, there seems to be too many "just another number" MBA types and not enough In N Outs.:(
I'm a Memphian, btw, and no I'm not recommending this technological backwater unless you have a desire to see FedEx, PC/MacMall, or whatever, but here's some things I've seen in my "travels" that might interest you: Huntsville, AL: NASA and all that stuff Portland, OR: Powell's motherfucking City of Books. My god, I'd move to Portland just to have access to that place. Los Angeles, CA: LaBrea Tar Pits (if you like paleontology and stuff), various other museums, and the Burbank Frye's. Well, I miss the Burbank Frye's now that I'm back in Memphis. If you like aquariums: The Tennessee State Aquarium in Chattanooga, TN is pretty awesome for freshwater stuff (and not too far from Huntsville!). Then there's the nice big aquarium down in New Orleans. I'm sure others will direct you to cool stuff on the W. Coast (Seaworld and what-not). Hope this helps some.
Indeed. Well, it will depend on several factors: 1) the consumer public saying "NO" to foreign produced consumables. This doesn't require a union or legislation, but mass action. Unfortunately, most people just don't give a shit. What I find is absurd is that people KNOW that those Nikes only cost Nike about $3 in material, labor and shipping, and yet still have no qualms about forking out $120 for them. I guess there are suckers born every day.. 2) Workers refusing to work for companies that employ such employment practices. If you disagree with your company's policies (employment or otherwise), then leave, but make sure your discontent is heard. If enough people had enough backbone to say "fuck you" to the companies that give bad names to major employment everywhere, then the companies would have to change their behavior just to attract workers. I know a lot of people say "I'm just a worker, I don't make policy", but frankly, if you continue to work for an employer whose ethics you abhor or disagree with without trying to make a change, then you're just as guilty. Times are tough, but sometimes you just have to put your foot down. America has been placated by TV and mass-media and the courts have been bought out. Maybe it's time for a change? (this is coming from a guy who just put in a 5 week notice to one of his current employers... Yeah, I'm a loser)
No, what he's saying is: "They invest money in companies that invest in workers."
The company is US based. The workers are working for $1.50/day in Malaysia. Granted, I don't know any Americans that would be willing to work for $1.50/day, but them's the breaks.
/* It's different because the GPL is not relevant to a software user. */
Semantics. I'm a developer. I download the source. I modify the source. Am I not still a user? I'm definately using the source and using the application in question.
Actually, they look EXACTLY alike to me, from an end-user standpoint. Look, it's a distribution license (the GPL) that allows gives you explicit freedoms of use, right? It seems that a EULA, then, is some sort of the same thing, except that it "restricts" freedoms in some sort? What's the difference other than intent? Can you not create a EULA that says "By using this software, the user agrees to abide by the GPL?" While it's not explicitly defined by most GPL software, it's certainly implied. The point is, it's a matter of legal semantics and right now just by saying "The GPL is not a EULA!" is misleading, because it most certainly IS a *license agreement* of sorts that is backed by copyright law (indeed, without copyright law the GPL is worthless, as well). Just because they put a clause that says "This is not a valid license" clause in the GPL doesn't mean that it's not a valid license. Notice the caveat at the end that says "violation of international copyright law". If I create a simple EULA that says the same thing (out of context of the GPL), would it be "invalidated"? Of course, then again, I could be mixing up *contract* law with *copyright* law, which is probably the case.
/* The BK license is a click-through EULA like any other. Just like all of them, it's not valid. */
Whoa there cowboy. If you think "click-through" EULA's are not valid, then what about GPL'd software? For most GPL'd software, I've never even SEEN the GPL (who reads the source?), so does that make it any *less* valid? There's a can of worms we don't want to open.
Anyone ever notice that the folks who scream loudest about "free software" and the pro-GPL arguments, which is entirely based upon copyright law, are also the ones who have no qualms about violating copyright law by "sharing" their music collection via P2P and whatnot? Interesting.
And yet there are "artists" who piss in a bucket and set it on an American Flag and get to call it art.
And why is there a need to "prove" that they're real-time rendered? The idea is to "tell a story", "express ideas" and the message is more important than the damn engine you used to create it. Are you going to say that a work created in Maya is more "important" than one created in 3DS Max?
You've obviously missed the real point about the possibilities Machinima create. How about "Create a film with your script with no annoying actors, no annoying film-permits, etc, tell a STORY and present it to the masses" in a matter of "hours" (compared to the days it would take for a "real render" for each SCENE)?
Again, as an artist, I don't give a FUCK about the engine except to know what limitations it may have so that I can work around them. My intentions are to present STORIES and show them to the world.
I recall seeing a list a while back of artists and/or labels that were represented by the RIAA (surprisingly, a lot of indie labels were on that list). Does anyone know where I can find that list again? Boycotting the RIAA doesn't mean to stop buying CD's, but to stop buying CD's that the RIAA "protects".
Sometimes I just don't know how I should react: 1) Kill Microsoft! They're a convicted Monopolist! Why are they spending our taxdollars on that overpriced crap when they could dump half the money into Linux and some dedicated developers and have complete control over the product! or 2) Shit. Homeland Security. Microsoft..
When I drove to California and back from my home in TN, it was almost a 4000 mile round-trip. Now, this guy is driving from England, to Slovakia and is going to pass through how many countries to get there? How many languages? How many cultures?
Nothing insightful, but I find that just amazing that crossing half of the US is really and truly an amazing trek. I couldn't imagine driving Key West, FL -> Seattle, WA (or, hey, Alaska for that matter). (btw, mapquest: 3530 miles). We live in a fucking huge country.
You're right. I could've sworn he bought those on DVD, but he actually bought the VHS set, then the Special Edition (enhanced) set. And when they release the DVD's, rest assured he will have those, as well.:P
Actually, take a gander at your local community colleges. Sure, they're "tech schools" and don't teach all that lovely theory behind the Operating System, but they're starting to warm up to linux, big time. My local community college, Southwest Tennessee Community College offers a degree in "Programming, UNIX Concentration", where most of your skills are honed on Redhat systems (we also got development exposure on AIX, SCO and Solaris). There were always 20-30 people in all my classes, so the interest is definately there. Granted, the "Windows" side is a bit larger (not by much, and most of those guys are also in the UNIX track.. remember that just because some people are "Linux-only" zealots, a lot of us like diversity), its definately not by a giant, overwhelming margin. Take a look around, you might be surprised where you can find *NIX centric instruction.
I'm waiting this one out. I bought the first Matrix DVD (because I didn't know there would be a sequel). I've been a "victim" too many times of the "release DVD. buy DVD. release Special Edition DVD with special features and extra scenes. buy DVD. release boxed set of all the series on DVD. Buy set. Release special edition boxed set of all series on DVD. ARGH! buy new set." I think my roomate easily spent $200 just on the Star Wars DVD's.
Actually, walk down the streets on any given garbage night and you can find all sorts of perfectly "usable" machines for gratis. Considering that we're looking at ways to dispose of those machines, I'm sure that Afghanistan and other rebuilding countries could put them to good use (what good is QuakeIII when you don't have reliable electricity? Build the infrastructure first, the entertainment/hobby aspect comes later). Sure, $300 is cheap (but how much to ship to Afghanistan?), but consider that you can ship a whole pallet-load of used/old machines for less and suddenly you free up $300.
Also, some of these guys just finished training. Many may not have extensive hardware troubleshooting knowledge (I didn't RTFA, sorry.:( ), so handing them a pallet-load of questionable computers and under the guidance of a veteran tech could prove invaluable for "kick-starting" their hardware troubleshooting skills. I found that when I did telephone tech support that the odd times that I was allowed to help the customer, I learned so much because you just get so many problems thrown at you in a short amount of time. If you're a good tech, you learn to fix problems. You just can't get that kind of experience dorking with just your computer at home (hence, the typical "My computer doesn't have that problem so I can't help you" responses you get on a lot of tech forums.. Not to mention the "You should use another distro" jerks).
Yes, in 2 years, OO will probably be fantastic. The problem is, people who will need OO to be fantastic in 2 years need it to be fantastic now. There's nothing we can do about that.
The biggest issue is that with IT budgets being cut and money for training and general expenditures becoming slim to none, it's really hard to sell Linux. Sure, the long-term costs are cheaper in most instances, but in the short term, the money just isn't in the budget and the shareholders don't want to hear "well, this will pay off in 10 years". The truth sucks, doesn't it?
But has anyone considered selling Linux to those guys? Considering that most of the "information mining" they will be doing could be done more efficiently and faster by automating it, consider: Cheap, commodity x86 Beowulf clusters (see google) Free OS (consider a giant community to provide your organization with bug-fixes for your main OS and tools) OpenSource tools and OS (easier to modify for your own nefarious deeds) etc From my shoes, 169 million would buy one hell of a beowulf cluster, several admins, and a nice group of software developers to write and modify the programs needed. Not to mention that they could earmark parts of that money to fund grants for academically interesting projects that could help further the technology used by the TIA. Hell, Be, Inc survived on the equivalent of 50 million bucks for several years and they managed to crank out a really nice OS.
What the hell? Materialist? Talking about " out-of-context". The poster was saying that most people in the world cannot even afford to to post a post on slashdot, count your blessings. In fact, we (in the 1st world) live a very affluent life that the rich and famous of yesteryear could not even dream of. And this is how we live. Our Bums have it better than many of the rich of yesteryear (or even of some of our contemporaries in the 3rd world). The point that you so dismissely, ah, dismissed was that if you can afford to post on slashdot, then you can afford to do OTHER THINGS, too.
You dont' have to like the poster's suggestions. Those things may NOT be fun for you, but the other point you missed out on was that its up to YOU to figure out what you like to do.
Dude, I'm 30. I've worked 2 jobs and gone to school part time for the better part of 12 years. I realized that I just wasted a bunch of time and always bitched about never getting anything done and never doing anything. You know what? I quit one of my jobs, got out and started finding stuff to do. I go for walks every day through the park (that's free and better than sitting around posting on/. or playing CS). I play guitar. I ride my bike, talk to friends, bake cookies, whatever, I do STUFF. You don't have to like doing that stuff either, and frankly I didn't know I enjoyed it until I tried it. Go find stuff to do and figure out what it is that YOU want to do.
So, my advice to you: Go out, find something you like to do and do it. Until then, shut the fuck or kill yourself.
I really really hate people that use arguments like:/* This is no different than in the old USSR */ It just shows that you're clueless and have absolutely zero respect for the millions who did suffer under the USSR. What's the penalty for disagreeing with USSR politics when you were in the USSR? Imprisonment, confinement, exile to Siberia, "disappearance". What's the penalty for not liking Microsoft? Linux. MacOS. BeOS. (indeed, some people wouldn't even consider that to be "punishment") Whatever, the point is that comparing "user choice" to "user choice dictated at gunpoint" is callous.
Here's something for you: Turn the computer off. Go outside. Do something else.
Well then, you've got a few choices: 1) Don't buy a Wildcat. Vote with your wallet and pick up a nice nVidia card with "proper" (Open Source notwithstanding) drivers. 2) Buy a Wildcat and put up with Redhat 7.3 (or figure out a way to get them working with something you like) 3) Buy a Wildcat and use Windows.
In any case, shoot 3D Labs an email with a brief discussion about why you didn't purchase their product. Chances are, they don't care because quite a few hardware companies have realized that creating Linux drivers is going to bring out the trolls and it quickly becomes a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" scenario.
company: "We released drivers for our product under Linux!" Linux Fan Boi: "What? But *I* don't use that distro! It's worthless to me!" Linux Fan Boi2: "Psssshhh.. The drivers aren't open source! I'll just go back to my Matrox.." Linux Fan Boi3: "GNU/LINUX, dude."
While conveniently ignoring that SOMEONE somewhere spent money and development time to get something working under some distribution. They don't even get the A for effort. Such a sad sad day.
Proof positive that being a nice, sensitive guy who listens to girls' feelings and wants and desires only gets you put into the "gay" zone while being a parasitic leech who only uses girls for food and fucks gets all the play.
Jerking off is pretty fun and it's generally free. Seeings that I'm on the internet alot and not out meeting chicks, I've gotten pretty good at it, too.;)
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I wouldn't pigeon-hole all "right-wingers" in that manner. In "Fast Food Nation", sure, the majority of companies seem to follow in that mold, but what surprised me was a company called "In 'N Out". When I was in Cali, this was by far my favorite hamburger chain, and now I have even more reasons to like them.
:(
Basically, instead of relying upon poor schmucks with little to no education and paying them "peanuts", they decided to give their workers an actual "competitive" wage and pay their managers *real* salaries. In doing so, their turnover is extremely low, the workers tend to be more productive, the management more honest and more responsive to employee needs, etc, and all *without* unions. FedEx, until recently, had similar policies (although their pay is certainly nothing to laugh at, their policies regarding employees have degenerated quite a bit): You pay your workers, listen and react to their concerns, make the employees feel like they are actually making a difference, and the employees work HARDER for you and are more apt to be more dependable, more honest (less shrinkage), and more productive in general. When you begin to look at your employees as "just another number", then you face all sorts of morale problems ("Why should I give a fuck if the company doesn't give a fuck about me?"). Unfortunately, there seems to be too many "just another number" MBA types and not enough In N Outs.
I'm a Memphian, btw, and no I'm not recommending this technological backwater unless you have a desire to see FedEx, PC/MacMall, or whatever, but here's some things I've seen in my "travels" that might interest you:
Huntsville, AL: NASA and all that stuff
Portland, OR: Powell's motherfucking City of Books. My god, I'd move to Portland just to have access to that place.
Los Angeles, CA: LaBrea Tar Pits (if you like paleontology and stuff), various other museums, and the Burbank Frye's. Well, I miss the Burbank Frye's now that I'm back in Memphis.
If you like aquariums: The Tennessee State Aquarium in Chattanooga, TN is pretty awesome for freshwater stuff (and not too far from Huntsville!). Then there's the nice big aquarium down in New Orleans. I'm sure others will direct you to cool stuff on the W. Coast (Seaworld and what-not).
Hope this helps some.
Indeed. Well, it will depend on several factors:
1) the consumer public saying "NO" to foreign produced consumables. This doesn't require a union or legislation, but mass action. Unfortunately, most people just don't give a shit. What I find is absurd is that people KNOW that those Nikes only cost Nike about $3 in material, labor and shipping, and yet still have no qualms about forking out $120 for them. I guess there are suckers born every day..
2) Workers refusing to work for companies that employ such employment practices. If you disagree with your company's policies (employment or otherwise), then leave, but make sure your discontent is heard. If enough people had enough backbone to say "fuck you" to the companies that give bad names to major employment everywhere, then the companies would have to change their behavior just to attract workers. I know a lot of people say "I'm just a worker, I don't make policy", but frankly, if you continue to work for an employer whose ethics you abhor or disagree with without trying to make a change, then you're just as guilty. Times are tough, but sometimes you just have to put your foot down. America has been placated by TV and mass-media and the courts have been bought out. Maybe it's time for a change? (this is coming from a guy who just put in a 5 week notice to one of his current employers... Yeah, I'm a loser)
No, what he's saying is:
"They invest money in companies that invest in workers."
The company is US based. The workers are working for $1.50/day in Malaysia. Granted, I don't know any Americans that would be willing to work for $1.50/day, but them's the breaks.
/* It's different because the GPL is not relevant to a software user. */
Semantics. I'm a developer. I download the source. I modify the source. Am I not still a user? I'm definately using the source and using the application in question.
Actually, they look EXACTLY alike to me, from an end-user standpoint. Look, it's a distribution license (the GPL) that allows gives you explicit freedoms of use, right? It seems that a EULA, then, is some sort of the same thing, except that it "restricts" freedoms in some sort? What's the difference other than intent? Can you not create a EULA that says "By using this software, the user agrees to abide by the GPL?" While it's not explicitly defined by most GPL software, it's certainly implied. The point is, it's a matter of legal semantics and right now just by saying "The GPL is not a EULA!" is misleading, because it most certainly IS a *license agreement* of sorts that is backed by copyright law (indeed, without copyright law the GPL is worthless, as well). Just because they put a clause that says "This is not a valid license" clause in the GPL doesn't mean that it's not a valid license. Notice the caveat at the end that says "violation of international copyright law". If I create a simple EULA that says the same thing (out of context of the GPL), would it be "invalidated"? Of course, then again, I could be mixing up *contract* law with *copyright* law, which is probably the case.
/* The BK license is a click-through EULA like any other. Just like all of them, it's not valid. */
Whoa there cowboy. If you think "click-through" EULA's are not valid, then what about GPL'd software? For most GPL'd software, I've never even SEEN the GPL (who reads the source?), so does that make it any *less* valid? There's a can of worms we don't want to open.
Anyone ever notice that the folks who scream loudest about "free software" and the pro-GPL arguments, which is entirely based upon copyright law, are also the ones who have no qualms about violating copyright law by "sharing" their music collection via P2P and whatnot? Interesting.
And yet there are "artists" who piss in a bucket and set it on an American Flag and get to call it art.
And why is there a need to "prove" that they're real-time rendered? The idea is to "tell a story", "express ideas" and the message is more important than the damn engine you used to create it. Are you going to say that a work created in Maya is more "important" than one created in 3DS Max?
You've obviously missed the real point about the possibilities Machinima create. How about "Create a film with your script with no annoying actors, no annoying film-permits, etc, tell a STORY and present it to the masses" in a matter of "hours" (compared to the days it would take for a "real render" for each SCENE)?
Again, as an artist, I don't give a FUCK about the engine except to know what limitations it may have so that I can work around them. My intentions are to present STORIES and show them to the world.
I recall seeing a list a while back of artists and/or labels that were represented by the RIAA (surprisingly, a lot of indie labels were on that list). Does anyone know where I can find that list again? Boycotting the RIAA doesn't mean to stop buying CD's, but to stop buying CD's that the RIAA "protects".
Sometimes I just don't know how I should react:
1) Kill Microsoft! They're a convicted Monopolist! Why are they spending our taxdollars on that overpriced crap when they could dump half the money into Linux and some dedicated developers and have complete control over the product!
or
2) Shit. Homeland Security. Microsoft..
Maybe some battles aren't worth the fight.
When I drove to California and back from my home in TN, it was almost a 4000 mile round-trip. Now, this guy is driving from England, to Slovakia and is going to pass through how many countries to get there? How many languages? How many cultures?
Nothing insightful, but I find that just amazing that crossing half of the US is really and truly an amazing trek. I couldn't imagine driving Key West, FL -> Seattle, WA (or, hey, Alaska for that matter). (btw, mapquest: 3530 miles). We live in a fucking huge country.
You're right. I could've sworn he bought those on DVD, but he actually bought the VHS set, then the Special Edition (enhanced) set. And when they release the DVD's, rest assured he will have those, as well. :P
Actually, take a gander at your local community colleges. Sure, they're "tech schools" and don't teach all that lovely theory behind the Operating System, but they're starting to warm up to linux, big time. My local community college, Southwest Tennessee Community College offers a degree in "Programming, UNIX Concentration", where most of your skills are honed on Redhat systems (we also got development exposure on AIX, SCO and Solaris). There were always 20-30 people in all my classes, so the interest is definately there. Granted, the "Windows" side is a bit larger (not by much, and most of those guys are also in the UNIX track.. remember that just because some people are "Linux-only" zealots, a lot of us like diversity), its definately not by a giant, overwhelming margin. Take a look around, you might be surprised where you can find *NIX centric instruction.
I'm waiting this one out. I bought the first Matrix DVD (because I didn't know there would be a sequel). I've been a "victim" too many times of the "release DVD. buy DVD. release Special Edition DVD with special features and extra scenes. buy DVD. release boxed set of all the series on DVD. Buy set. Release special edition boxed set of all series on DVD. ARGH! buy new set." I think my roomate easily spent $200 just on the Star Wars DVD's.
Actually, walk down the streets on any given garbage night and you can find all sorts of perfectly "usable" machines for gratis. Considering that we're looking at ways to dispose of those machines, I'm sure that Afghanistan and other rebuilding countries could put them to good use (what good is QuakeIII when you don't have reliable electricity? Build the infrastructure first, the entertainment/hobby aspect comes later). Sure, $300 is cheap (but how much to ship to Afghanistan?), but consider that you can ship a whole pallet-load of used/old machines for less and suddenly you free up $300.
:( ), so handing them a pallet-load of questionable computers and under the guidance of a veteran tech could prove invaluable for "kick-starting" their hardware troubleshooting skills. I found that when I did telephone tech support that the odd times that I was allowed to help the customer, I learned so much because you just get so many problems thrown at you in a short amount of time. If you're a good tech, you learn to fix problems. You just can't get that kind of experience dorking with just your computer at home (hence, the typical "My computer doesn't have that problem so I can't help you" responses you get on a lot of tech forums.. Not to mention the "You should use another distro" jerks).
Also, some of these guys just finished training. Many may not have extensive hardware troubleshooting knowledge (I didn't RTFA, sorry.
Yes, in 2 years, OO will probably be fantastic. The problem is, people who will need OO to be fantastic in 2 years need it to be fantastic now. There's nothing we can do about that.
The biggest issue is that with IT budgets being cut and money for training and general expenditures becoming slim to none, it's really hard to sell Linux. Sure, the long-term costs are cheaper in most instances, but in the short term, the money just isn't in the budget and the shareholders don't want to hear "well, this will pay off in 10 years". The truth sucks, doesn't it?
So. Are they hiring? ;)
But has anyone considered selling Linux to those guys? Considering that most of the "information mining" they will be doing could be done more efficiently and faster by automating it, consider:
Cheap, commodity x86 Beowulf clusters (see google)
Free OS (consider a giant community to provide your organization with bug-fixes for your main OS and tools)
OpenSource tools and OS (easier to modify for your own nefarious deeds)
etc
From my shoes, 169 million would buy one hell of a beowulf cluster, several admins, and a nice group of software developers to write and modify the programs needed. Not to mention that they could earmark parts of that money to fund grants for academically interesting projects that could help further the technology used by the TIA. Hell, Be, Inc survived on the equivalent of 50 million bucks for several years and they managed to crank out a really nice OS.
What the hell? Materialist? Talking about "
/. or playing CS). I play guitar. I ride my bike, talk to friends, bake cookies, whatever, I do STUFF. You don't have to like doing that stuff either, and frankly I didn't know I enjoyed it until I tried it. Go find stuff to do and figure out what it is that YOU want to do.
out-of-context". The poster was saying that most people in the world cannot even afford to to post a post on slashdot, count your blessings. In fact, we (in the 1st world) live a very affluent life that the rich and famous of yesteryear could not even dream of. And this is how we live. Our Bums have it better than many of the rich of yesteryear (or even of some of our contemporaries in the 3rd world). The point that you so dismissely, ah, dismissed was that if you can afford to post on slashdot, then you can afford to do OTHER THINGS, too.
You dont' have to like the poster's suggestions. Those things may NOT be fun for you, but the other point you missed out on was that its up to YOU to figure out what you like to do.
Dude, I'm 30. I've worked 2 jobs and gone to school part time for the better part of 12 years. I realized that I just wasted a bunch of time and always bitched about never getting anything done and never doing anything. You know what? I quit one of my jobs, got out and started finding stuff to do. I go for walks every day through the park (that's free and better than sitting around posting on
So, my advice to you: Go out, find something you like to do and do it. Until then, shut the fuck or kill yourself.
I really really hate people that use arguments like: /* This is no different than in the old USSR */
It just shows that you're clueless and have absolutely zero respect for the millions who did suffer under the USSR. What's the penalty for disagreeing with USSR politics when you were in the USSR? Imprisonment, confinement, exile to Siberia, "disappearance". What's the penalty for not liking Microsoft? Linux. MacOS. BeOS. (indeed, some people wouldn't even consider that to be "punishment") Whatever, the point is that comparing "user choice" to "user choice dictated at gunpoint" is callous.
Here's something for you: Turn the computer off. Go outside. Do something else.
Well then, you've got a few choices:
1) Don't buy a Wildcat. Vote with your wallet and pick up a nice nVidia card with "proper" (Open Source notwithstanding) drivers.
2) Buy a Wildcat and put up with Redhat 7.3 (or figure out a way to get them working with something you like)
3) Buy a Wildcat and use Windows.
In any case, shoot 3D Labs an email with a brief discussion about why you didn't purchase their product. Chances are, they don't care because quite a few hardware companies have realized that creating Linux drivers is going to bring out the trolls and it quickly becomes a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" scenario.
company: "We released drivers for our product under Linux!"
Linux Fan Boi: "What? But *I* don't use that distro! It's worthless to me!"
Linux Fan Boi2: "Psssshhh.. The drivers aren't open source! I'll just go back to my Matrox.."
Linux Fan Boi3: "GNU/LINUX, dude."
While conveniently ignoring that SOMEONE somewhere spent money and development time to get something working under some distribution. They don't even get the A for effort. Such a sad sad day.
I wonder if someone around here will get the point of this post.. ;)
Proof positive that being a nice, sensitive guy who listens to girls' feelings and wants and desires only gets you put into the "gay" zone while being a parasitic leech who only uses girls for food and fucks gets all the play.
Jerking off is pretty fun and it's generally free. Seeings that I'm on the internet alot and not out meeting chicks, I've gotten pretty good at it, too. ;)