But in the context of your assumption, the CIO's comment of, "it's got to get the final tier of reliability and predictability that I'm going to bet a multi-billion dollar corporation's future on." that would NOT be the case. And considering that MS has flaws in their stuff that's nigh unpatchable (Something came up that renders 2000 wide-open vulnerable and may well be unpatchable- there's sure to be other stuff like it within XP with all that more code than 2k had in it...), it's far from the reliability and predictability that one would bet a multi-billion dollar corp's future on.
Can one get a FiOS line out in the middle of rural America? NO?
Then that's not an answer, now is it. Please adopt a little less parochial view on things you might even understand what they're on about. You see, FiOS isn't offered everywhere (Hell, it's only in a dozen or so of Verizon's markets...) but you could have ubiquitous access with WiFi/WiMax if they'd just roll it out; and you could STILL have your FiOS.
Just because you don't have the same priorities shouldn't mean I should accept yours as more valid than other peoples...
If one steals a Rolex and then returns it with a fake reciept for cash or credit, one has stolen money instead of the Rolex, using the stolen Rolex to achieve this.
...if Majesty doesn't work, have you bothered to let us know it's broken? If not, how do you expect us to fix it for you (speaking as an LGP representative right at the moment...)
To the best of MY knowlege, Majesty works just fine- or at least it did with Fedora Core 3 when I'd last installed it all on my laptop. And so did Sid Meiers Alpha Centauri. I don't know what distribution you're running, or if this just recently broke on you- but I've a little difficulty believing you 100% on this one.
"I own a large number of Loki-ported titles, Jagged Alliance, Quake 3 Arena, Majesty, and NWN. The *only* game that works properly out-of-box on a Fedora Core 4 system is NWN. I have put extensive work into troubleshooting my games, I am running the most mainstream Linux distro around, and I would like to hear what your explanation for this state of affairs is."
glibc bugs. Pure and simple, they did some things to glibc in recent times that even statically linked apps that relied on some functions broke completely. We discussed this on #lgpdev back when we saw it happening- there's apparenly some shared object action that was going on in one or more of the earlier glibc sets that got undone in later revisions, but because that happened, it broke the apps that were linked statically against the flakey glibc (mostly the apps you're having bad luck with...).
This could have happened with any OS, if you honestly want to know- besides, I challenge you to try running something like Ascendancy on XP, without DosBOX. Can't happen. I challenge you to attempt to run some games that were written for Win95 on XP. That'd be a crapshoot. Simply put, your statements about Windows having long lifespans for games is bogus at best.
I know how tempting it is to post something without reading more than the headline, but really, give in and try it sometime- oh, I forgot, this is/.
If you read the grandparent, they were mentioning libraries that have ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with game development. If you'd read MY post, you'd have seen that I'd mentioned this and ammended their suggestion from personal experience and what they apparently used in the first place.
I guess this all explains why you've got poor karma...
...our efforts will prove not to be in vain. We're sorting out an 11th hour rendering bug on one game and should have that one out the door in another week or so. Also worth noting is that we're trying to lever a couple more betas out the door, and Michael's scored a gem (can't say what it is) with the prospects of an even bigger one (sequel to the one we scored...) if things work out as well as we hope them to.
Sadly, Michael pulled it a while back. It was before FakeAP amongst other things. He's a pretty good White Hat, when you get down to brass tacks- it's just that his current employer sold him out out of fear of Cisco's legal might. Sad, really. He's something of the real thing- even if I can't manage to get him in our fold, someone ought to snap him up all the same...
That'd be about a T1's rate for about a T1's price. Now, in light of other broadband offerings, it's wayyy pricey, but considering that they're allowing mobile service and can cover areas that the Telcos and Comcast have no apparent desire to support...
Lugaru's a 3rd person "shooter" type game where your avatar is a Lagamorph- a humaniform rabbit.
Since it's 3D, your suggestions are a little less than helpful for this gent's problems...
Now, considering that they're coming from MacOS to Windows to Linux (from what I gathered from the forum discussions...) it's not as hard as it could be. Technically, the studio could do it all themselves as most of the libraries for game development of this type tend to be the same ones for Linux and Windows as well.
Computer/Network Systems Engineer would be a more accurate description. He's designed his own, and the very first, wireless intrusion detection and prevention system (Intrusion prevention? Yep- AirIDS was designed to chaff and other things to make it very difficult for a snooper to obtain a solid lock on an AP's WEP key without needing WPA upgrades...). I remember having numerous conversations with him about it while we were working on projects at Coollogic when they were still just doing set-top boxes. There was a difference of opinion on several levels with some of the management and he quit (for good reason...won't go into details there) which was a disappointment to me because the management that was the problem was fired (Which would tickle him to no end, along with all the details about the same...)
Right now, I'm one of the people waiting to line up to give the man a shiny new job- and one in the same arena that he's been working in for the past 3-4 years running. I'm just trying to find a way to reach him since all my contact means have kind of gone poof with him being dismissed from ISS as a researcher. Any of you all that know Mike personally, I'd love to get contact info from him so I can get back in touch at the very least.
Is that the "proper channels" weren't at all interested in conveying the info to everyone- because it was bad for business.
At that point, you're left with two decisions- let it all blow up, or whistle blow.
Considering what I know of Michael (I worked with him for some time at one of his previous jobs- Michael, if you're seeing this, try to get in touch with me, you already know how...) he had only one- to whistle blow.
Can you do this unless you go out of your way to do it? No? Can you buy an assembled PC from CompUSA/Fry's/Micro Center/Best Buy/Circuit City without Windows? No? The places I mentioned are scattered throughout the country and unless you're online or in one of those towns you WILL NOT BE ABLE TO PURCHASE WITHOUT WINDOWS- and if you don't have a credit card, you can forget even that. When you DO get the shot at a machine, you end up paying for the privilege of having someone install Windows on the machine first and THEN putting Linux on it- so you spend more money than you would on Windows machines, all artificially, by the way.
You didn't get your point proved at all except in your own mind. That's fine, but you're still just wrong- but as I can see you're still repeating the same BS, there's no convincing you. Have fun while it lasts- they don't have your best interests in mind at all and they're working on removing your ability to exercise the rights that you have by law. Of course, with the attitude you have, you'll be happy with that until they personally bend you over- at which it'll be too damn late and you'll be doing a lot of yowling and nobody will be listening to you.
In fact, I don't hold out hope anymore that they'll wise up. So, I try to listen to the quality stuff they used to produce that I currently own and listen to indie stuff for the large part. Each sale or copy of something that you pirate of theirs is another piece contributing to the network effect that fuels the power they have to screw us up.
DRM. It comes from this absolute desire to control all aspects of the media and computing. It's come time to quit paying these people attention and money- they don't have anyone's interests in mind but their own, and even though your interests might coincide with theirs now, they won't at some point in the near to medium future and then you will get screwed by them as it's only about the almighty dollar.
* discovered and promoted on worldwide TV by
* signed a nearly-lifetime contract with
* and practically sold their souls to...the RIAA? Those artists?
Well, many of the label signed artists aren't promoted on worldwide TV- Clearchannel's crap radio stations, perhaps, but TV? Most of them don't get airtime on MTV or anywhere else. Only the most popular (Or, rather, the ones they WANT to be the most popular...) end up with that situation.
Nearly lifetime contracts don't happen, but they do sign untenable contracts- typically 10 or so albums over 10-20 years time with the verbiage that even if the band implodes, loses members via various means of attrition, they can't produce anything until the label accepts and produces the 10 albums or they pay back all the money given to them under the contract. Might as well be nearly-lifetime contracts, but they're not really.
Oh, and it's not the RIAA that these artists signed their souls away to- it's to the labels that RIAA represents in the media and courts.
Besides, I'm much more keen on things like RenRadio (http://www.renradio.com) where the people are all independents; and the performances have music in my not so humble opinion, instead of "music" (Read: CRAP...) like the labels oh so often parade around as Music. I've little interests in their crap and if I can manage to help keep this sort of thing going, I will do everything that I can including subsidizing the performers directly by way of helping them set up, buying gear, etc.
Wonder why nobody seems to have recieved the punishments ordered by the Sherman Antitrust Act, then... Seems to me that Bill and Steve should have been put in Club Fed for some amount of time or placed in Probation for that- you'd have thought it'd been in the papers had it been done.
Having said all of this, then, there's not a whole lot one can do in this matter- the Government, including the Courts, are NOT doing their job here.
If I "wasted" money, it's only because I had no other options- I can't not get Windows on a machine for the large part. You can't either. That's really what they're on about. Used to, you'd buy the PC and the OS seperately so you could do with the machine what you wanted. Hell, if you wrote your own OS, you didn't even need to buy a thing other than the machine.
Nowadays, you can't buy a PC off the shelf without Windows XP on it unless you're buying from a specialty vendor; and in many cases, you're still paying for Windows, but the vendor selling you a "Linux system" burned it down and put Mandriva, Red Hat, SuSE, etc. on it before handing it to you. That, folks, is why a Non-Windows machine oftentimes is more expensive than a Windows machine- you're getting the privilege of installing and testing XP on the machine, and then paying for someone to burn it down and install your given Linux distribution choice on it.
THAT, I have a problem with- and it's no mere political/philosophical irritation. I have issues with being made to pay for something I don't want or have use for. I can use that money elsewhere, and it's roughly analogous to someone holding me at gunpoint and making me hand over $150 to them every time I buy a PC.
It's not illegal unless they use that position to maintain said monopoly or to wedge their way into other markets. Otherwise, you'd see Microsoft shut down much like Enron was, etc.
It's not an "illegal" monopoly. It's an effective monopoly that has been found to have been and possibly currently engaged in illegal activity. The only way I could envision an "illegal" monopoly would be someone who'd cornered the market on some illegal or illicit activity. Illegal monopolies would probably be best defined as the Mob, the Columbian Drug Cartel, the media piracy cartels, etc.
In order to obtain an OEM priced copy of certain products (To whit, not all MS products are offered at the OEM leve...), one has to buy a machine from a supplier like Dell, HP, etc. OR buy a piece of internal hardware such as a power supply, etc. from a place like Fry's or Micro Center. If you do not purchase it that way, you're NOT buying a legitimate copy (though it won't flunk the test... However, having said this, if MS knew you'd bought an OEM copy without meeting the criteria, they'd consider you having bought a Counterfeit copy and bust the balls of the retailer that sold you your copy...).
...called it stolen property and went off on the "sick (sic) the cops on each and every person using a pirated copy" as you put it. It's INFRINGEMENT and it's not theft- it's duplication of an intellectual work without the permission of the duplication/production rights holder. Different crime- and you can own a copy, you just can't be making and giving out or selling them yourself in the US.
Please, please, please don't be propagating the falsehoods that the RIAA, MPAA, and similar organizations have been putting forward to futher their cause. Don't be making the Lie the Truth by repeating it for them.
Slashdot Mirror
But in the context of your assumption, the CIO's comment of, "it's got to get the final tier of reliability and predictability that I'm going to bet a multi-billion dollar corporation's future on." that would NOT be the case. And considering that MS has flaws in their stuff that's nigh unpatchable (Something came up that renders 2000 wide-open vulnerable and may well be unpatchable- there's sure to be other stuff like it within XP with all that more code than 2k had in it...), it's far from the reliability and predictability that one would bet a multi-billion dollar corp's future on.
This implies that you CAN get it properly patched...
- 2000-wide-open
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2140780/windows
Can one get a FiOS line out in the middle of rural America? NO?
Then that's not an answer, now is it. Please adopt a little less parochial view on things you might even understand what they're on about. You see, FiOS isn't offered everywhere (Hell, it's only in a dozen or so of Verizon's markets...) but you could have ubiquitous access with WiFi/WiMax if they'd just roll it out; and you could STILL have your FiOS.
Just because you don't have the same priorities shouldn't mean I should accept yours as more valid than other peoples...
If one steals a Rolex and then returns it with a fake reciept for cash or credit , one has stolen money instead of the Rolex, using the stolen Rolex to achieve this.
...if Majesty doesn't work, have you bothered to let us know it's broken? If not, how do you expect us to fix it for you (speaking as an LGP representative right at the moment...)
To the best of MY knowlege, Majesty works just fine- or at least it did with Fedora Core 3 when I'd last installed it all on my laptop. And so did Sid Meiers Alpha Centauri. I don't know what distribution you're running, or if this just recently broke on you- but I've a little difficulty believing you 100% on this one.
glibc bugs. Pure and simple, they did some things to glibc in recent times that even statically linked apps that relied on some functions broke completely. We discussed this on #lgpdev back when we saw it happening- there's apparenly some shared object action that was going on in one or more of the earlier glibc sets that got undone in later revisions, but because that happened, it broke the apps that were linked statically against the flakey glibc (mostly the apps you're having bad luck with...).
This could have happened with any OS, if you honestly want to know- besides, I challenge you to try running something like Ascendancy on XP, without DosBOX. Can't happen. I challenge you to attempt to run some games that were written for Win95 on XP. That'd be a crapshoot. Simply put, your statements about Windows having long lifespans for games is bogus at best.
I know how tempting it is to post something without reading more than the headline, but really, give in and try it sometime- oh, I forgot, this is /.
If you read the grandparent, they were mentioning libraries that have ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with game development. If you'd read MY post, you'd have seen that I'd mentioned this and ammended their suggestion from personal experience and what they apparently used in the first place.
I guess this all explains why you've got poor karma...
...our efforts will prove not to be in vain. We're sorting out an 11th hour rendering bug on one game and should have that one out the door in another week or so. Also worth noting is that we're trying to lever a couple more betas out the door, and Michael's scored a gem (can't say what it is) with the prospects of an even bigger one (sequel to the one we scored...) if things work out as well as we hope them to.
But, it seems Ryan's already got us beat to the punch- he's contacted them already and is offering to do the work for free...
Sadly, Michael pulled it a while back. It was before FakeAP amongst other things. He's a pretty good White Hat, when you get down to brass tacks- it's just that his current employer sold him out out of fear of Cisco's legal might. Sad, really. He's something of the real thing- even if I can't manage to get him in our fold, someone ought to snap him up all the same...
That'd be about a T1's rate for about a T1's price. Now, in light of other broadband offerings, it's wayyy pricey, but considering that they're allowing mobile service and can cover areas that the Telcos and Comcast have no apparent desire to support...
Lugaru's a 3rd person "shooter" type game where your avatar is a Lagamorph- a humaniform rabbit.
Since it's 3D, your suggestions are a little less than helpful for this gent's problems...
Now, considering that they're coming from MacOS to Windows to Linux (from what I gathered from the forum discussions...) it's not as hard as it could be. Technically, the studio could do it all themselves as most of the libraries for game development of this type tend to be the same ones for Linux and Windows as well.
Considering that we're working with DOE/DHS for this sort of thing, it's a push- but you're right, they're probably interested in him themselves...
...were already knocking on the door.
It's probably a good thing that Mike did what he did- the ability to run arbitrary code on a Cisco box is far more serious than Cisco's spinning it.
Computer/Network Systems Engineer would be a more accurate description. He's designed his own, and the very first, wireless intrusion detection and prevention system (Intrusion prevention? Yep- AirIDS was designed to chaff and other things to make it very difficult for a snooper to obtain a solid lock on an AP's WEP key without needing WPA upgrades...). I remember having numerous conversations with him about it while we were working on projects at Coollogic when they were still just doing set-top boxes. There was a difference of opinion on several levels with some of the management and he quit (for good reason...won't go into details there) which was a disappointment to me because the management that was the problem was fired (Which would tickle him to no end, along with all the details about the same...)
Right now, I'm one of the people waiting to line up to give the man a shiny new job- and one in the same arena that he's been working in for the past 3-4 years running. I'm just trying to find a way to reach him since all my contact means have kind of gone poof with him being dismissed from ISS as a researcher. Any of you all that know Mike personally, I'd love to get contact info from him so I can get back in touch at the very least.
Is that the "proper channels" weren't at all interested in conveying the info to everyone- because it was bad for business.
At that point, you're left with two decisions- let it all blow up, or whistle blow.
Considering what I know of Michael (I worked with him for some time at one of his previous jobs- Michael, if you're seeing this, try to get in touch with me, you already know how...) he had only one- to whistle blow.
Can you do this unless you go out of your way to do it? No? Can you buy an assembled PC from CompUSA/Fry's/Micro Center/Best Buy/Circuit City without Windows? No? The places I mentioned are scattered throughout the country and unless you're online or in one of those towns you WILL NOT BE ABLE TO PURCHASE WITHOUT WINDOWS- and if you don't have a credit card, you can forget even that. When you DO get the shot at a machine, you end up paying for the privilege of having someone install Windows on the machine first and THEN putting Linux on it- so you spend more money than you would on Windows machines, all artificially, by the way.
You didn't get your point proved at all except in your own mind. That's fine, but you're still just wrong- but as I can see you're still repeating the same BS, there's no convincing you. Have fun while it lasts- they don't have your best interests in mind at all and they're working on removing your ability to exercise the rights that you have by law. Of course, with the attitude you have, you'll be happy with that until they personally bend you over- at which it'll be too damn late and you'll be doing a lot of yowling and nobody will be listening to you.
In fact, I don't hold out hope anymore that they'll wise up. So, I try to listen to the quality stuff they used to produce that I currently own and listen to indie stuff for the large part. Each sale or copy of something that you pirate of theirs is another piece contributing to the network effect that fuels the power they have to screw us up.
DRM. It comes from this absolute desire to control all aspects of the media and computing. It's come time to quit paying these people attention and money- they don't have anyone's interests in mind but their own, and even though your interests might coincide with theirs now, they won't at some point in the near to medium future and then you will get screwed by them as it's only about the almighty dollar.
I didn't know THAT aspect of it.
Wonder why nobody seems to have recieved the punishments ordered by the Sherman Antitrust Act, then... Seems to me that Bill and Steve should have been put in Club Fed for some amount of time or placed in Probation for that- you'd have thought it'd been in the papers had it been done.
Having said all of this, then, there's not a whole lot one can do in this matter- the Government, including the Courts, are NOT doing their job here.
If I "wasted" money, it's only because I had no other options- I can't not get Windows on a machine for the large part. You can't either. That's really what they're on about. Used to, you'd buy the PC and the OS seperately so you could do with the machine what you wanted. Hell, if you wrote your own OS, you didn't even need to buy a thing other than the machine.
Nowadays, you can't buy a PC off the shelf without Windows XP on it unless you're buying from a specialty vendor; and in many cases, you're still paying for Windows, but the vendor selling you a "Linux system" burned it down and put Mandriva, Red Hat, SuSE, etc. on it before handing it to you. That, folks, is why a Non-Windows machine oftentimes is more expensive than a Windows machine- you're getting the privilege of installing and testing XP on the machine, and then paying for someone to burn it down and install your given Linux distribution choice on it.
THAT , I have a problem with- and it's no mere political/philosophical irritation. I have issues with being made to pay for something I don't want or have use for. I can use that money elsewhere, and it's roughly analogous to someone holding me at gunpoint and making me hand over $150 to them every time I buy a PC.
It's not illegal unless they use that position to maintain said monopoly or to wedge their way into other markets. Otherwise, you'd see Microsoft shut down much like Enron was, etc.
Believing it to be so, doesn't make it so, sadly.
It's not an "illegal" monopoly. It's an effective monopoly that has been found to have been and possibly currently engaged in illegal activity. The only way I could envision an "illegal" monopoly would be someone who'd cornered the market on some illegal or illicit activity. Illegal monopolies would probably be best defined as the Mob, the Columbian Drug Cartel, the media piracy cartels, etc.
In order to obtain an OEM priced copy of certain products (To whit, not all MS products are offered at the OEM leve...), one has to buy a machine from a supplier like Dell, HP, etc. OR buy a piece of internal hardware such as a power supply, etc. from a place like Fry's or Micro Center. If you do not purchase it that way, you're NOT buying a legitimate copy (though it won't flunk the test... However, having said this, if MS knew you'd bought an OEM copy without meeting the criteria, they'd consider you having bought a Counterfeit copy and bust the balls of the retailer that sold you your copy...).
...called it stolen property and went off on the "sick (sic) the cops on each and every person using a pirated copy" as you put it. It's INFRINGEMENT and it's not theft- it's duplication of an intellectual work without the permission of the duplication/production rights holder. Different crime- and you can own a copy, you just can't be making and giving out or selling them yourself in the US.
Please, please, please don't be propagating the falsehoods that the RIAA, MPAA, and similar organizations have been putting forward to futher their cause. Don't be making the Lie the Truth by repeating it for them.