I think Transgaming is a valid exception and here's why.
Getting games to work well under Linux is a very important step and not an easy one. These folks are not trying to get rich doing this either, since they only charge $5 a month ($60.00 a year) which is about the price of one good game. All indications are they're just trying to pay their way while the work gets done.
I subscribe and it's well worth it. I don't have to reboot to play Diablo II or Starcraft or Command and Conquer, etc. I don't have to buy special Linux specific versions of the games, the windows versions work right out of the box.
One last point. Don't let the press release fool you into thinking only a few games are working at this point. Go to Transgaming's website, click on the games link and then on the "browse all games" link at the bottom. Any game you see listed as a 4 or 5 is working good enough to play and that's a big, big list of 4 and 5 rated games.
Re:A KVM switch with a VNC server!!!
on
USB KVMs Compared
·
· Score: 2
What you may want is a console server. Console servers work through via a network and serial ports; one machine is the control machine where you connect via network and the other machines are accessable via serial ports from that one machine.
Console servers are very nice for some situations where you need to control a number of servers remotely. Sun sells these as do other vendors (Avocent sells them I think.) Remember, they're different from KVMs in that you don't plug in keyboards, mice and monitors, usually just a serial port.
If you need X (GUI environment), using ssh over a switched subnet is the best performance I've found. Have a central machine running X, ssh to the other machines and export the display variable to your central machine. Easy to control a number of machines from one monitor, keyboard and mouse, especially if you're using a multi-screen window manager like WindowMaker and its kin: Just setup a virtual screen for each machine and you're ready to rock and roll.
I'm so glad I saw this article here before I ran into one while hiking and found myself wishing I had brought a change of underwear. Not only that, but I'd probably never, ever again eat those funny mushrooms.
Yes, but there are tradeoffs, of course. Having the cable/DSL modem on all the time is something of a pain (think security issues - logs fill up with output from portsentry, etc.) I find myself thinking at times that perhaps the modem/phone line isn't so bad as I want to remember but then reality kicks me in the head and I get over that vague feeling quick
Still, the fees for cable broadband seem to be increaxing whilst the things you can do with the connection are shrinking. I can see if this trend continues I'll seriously have to consider going back to modem/phone because all the benefits of broadband will either have become too expensive or vanished all together.
Heh, interpret it as you like. I can't believe I got an "Offtopic" moderation on this. Apparently the moderator didn't bother to think about the implications of the quote.
Oh well, I suppose even the lazy and the just plain dumb are entitled to moderation points.
...the mandatory use of IPv6 by all ISPs with each individual assigned an IP number at birth which will be theirs for life. This, combined with mandatory MAC address registration/matching with IP numbers will be the end of anonymity on the web. Before you can gain access, you must first identify yourself.
You may think it absurd, but this (or something to the same effect) is more likely than not. I remember the end of the BBS days when the ACs were screened out by most SysOps via mandatory IDing of the user before an account was allowed on the systems. This due to rampant abuse by ACs and the coming of the concept of legal accountability to those running the systems.
I have mixed feelings in that I'm not sure if it's good or bad as there are good arguments on both sides. Guess we'll get to watch it play out in time.
The.pdf didn't indicate (it's a PR/marketing piece,) so I'm assuming that the new extensions will be contributed to the OpenGL folks for inclusion. Is this correct? If so, a very nice contribution by the Apple folks!
Compliments to the Apple folks on this work: If the screenshots in the.pdf are a true indication, then this is surely the bomb as concerns state-of-the-art desktop eye candy.
Sheesh, now I'm being nice to Apple. What's next, MS? Heh, very unlikely.
I'll wager that before too long instead of buying manufacturered processors, we'll be growing our own to spec in tubs of organic chemicals much like we brew beer. If I'm esta-guessing correctly, there's more processing power potential in a cup of tea than all the world's current processing power combined.
There are those who speculate that the goo in the tub will _be_ the processor. Beats the hell out of me as to how you connect wires to such a mess. Perhaps that's where the wireless tech will really prove to be invaluable.
So you need a new processor? Break out the blender and the crockpot and get crackin;!
Hiya MaDROMer! Glad to see there's more than just me from MaDROM who visits this geeky place.
Should I go into a vast diatribe describing the many wonderous advantages of text-based over graphics based RPGs? No, fact is both have their advantages.
...the yearly Summer Festival known as "Burning Man" will be held at Times Square, New York City. When asked why the festival was moving the organizers muttered sometime about "sausages are better there" and quickly changed the subject.
Re:More interesting will be...
on
Micro Air Vehicles
·
· Score: 1, Offtopic
Yes it was.
Re:Let's Get Back Our Access to the Courts
on
Copyright as Cudgel
·
· Score: 2
Well, if they saw it coming, they surely didn't put much preventitive medicine in the Constitution. I just had a quick read of it the other day and all I saw mentioned was treason and fraud in the context of misbehaving congress critters. Nothing about "thou shalt not be bought nor thy actions be bought by huge corporations at the expense of the freedoms of the people."
"Where I draw the line is when they use their congressional clout to prevent anyone else from accessing that cultural material forever."
Ah, you're talking about fair use -- forget it, it's gonna die because Disney Corp. needs to squeeze every penny it can out of everyone on the planet so the Disney CEO can say to the stockholders, "See, I'm doing my job!"
Which reminds me of an old Pogo cartoon quote, "We've seen the enemy and they is us!"
Hmmm, that's kinda like asking people how they drive and what's a good method. For every programmer, you're going to find somewhat differing technique.
Personally, I debug as I go, function by function, sometimes line-by-line. Others whip up a pile of code and then try to figure out what the hell's wrong with it _this_ time. Still others run it through a program to make some other programmer tell them what the hell's wrong _this_ time (debuggers.)
Search freshmeat using the word "bug" and see what comes up. Here's what I found:
Search on "bug" - 335 entries returned. Search on "debug" - 199 entries returned. Search on "debugger" - 78 entries returned.
...to catch space rocks. If you let them hit the water, they splash all over everything and heat up the air. Better to catch them _before_ they enter the atmosphere.
See, if the dinosaurs had been smarter, they wouldn't be extinct. Q.E.D.
More interesting will be...
on
Micro Air Vehicles
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
...the nanotech devices which are so light they don't need to fly, just float with flagellum for guidance mechanisms.
Gotta read "Diamond Age" again soon, it was a good read.
And then there's the argument that academia contributed greatly to the "death" of poetry as it was practiced up through the 19th century. Excessive use of deconstructionism and free form combined with the attitude that anyone without a PhD in (insert language of choice here) was and is not qualified to write or be published.
Re:Let's Get Back Our Access to the Courts
on
Copyright as Cudgel
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
"America's system of government is supposed to work on checks and balances."
Yes, it (the federal government) does work on checks and balances within itself, but the framers of our constitution didn't see that these huge corporations would have the power via money they now have.
The framers also didn't anticipate institutionalized graft as a political way of life. They thought those running for office would be like them; educated, landed gentlemen with enough self-interest not to sell out their country, its ideals and its future for chump change just to get re-elected every time until they dropped dead.
Face the music: we're seeing a serious push by big corporations to make an end run around our freedoms so that Disney can keep making money from Mickey Mouse forever. The restrictions on the federal government do not apply to corporations. So what you say? Think which has more impact on your daily life.
Stephenson wasn't just joking when he painted in Snowcrash a society where the federal government was still functional, just irrelevant in the face of the huge corporations. I really hope we don't go there.
Combine it with heavy editing of/etc/inetd.conf and entries in hosts.allow and hosts.deny, you can keep the pests away from your boxen with very little effort. Tail -f/var/log/messages and you can see the little buggers trying to pester you right before *SWAT* they're locked out!
Yes, but the article suggests some interesting questions:
"What does it matter?"
or
"Does the new matter matter to hatter?"
or the obvious, "What's the (new) matter?"
Yes, the article is certainly weak, mostly due to the fact that, as the one fella in the article says, it's all somewhat premature.
Perhaps the most important point made in the article is the one about the Bush administration killing funding for the research: Where do the Bushies think all the new technology they can lock up for corporations comes from, anyway?
Sorry dude, I have no mod points or I'd give you a good one as you make the one good observation so far in these posts.
I'm convinced these asteroids (and the ones that come closer) are our key to future development off planet. We should be putting some serious research into these little rocks first, the big rocks (planets) less so.
I think the limiting factors for improved GUIs are hardware related, not lack of imagination or creativity on the part of developers. Simply, the mouse/keyboard/monitor combination for Human Interface (HI) imposes limitations as to what you can do. Frankly, I don't think it's possible to get much more than what we have with these hardware limitations; it's as good as it's going to get, discounting further eye candy (I love eye candy, yum!)
So, I'm suggesting we need new hardware with which to build Human Interfaces (of which the GUI is just a subset) and until we have such hardware, we're not going to see much improvement in the GUIs -- they're as good as they're going to be with current technology.
You want to see the future, do some searching on Human Interfaces for computers and you'll find some interesting stuff being researched and developed.
Hmmm, personal attacks against me instead of addressing the points I make in my post? I suggest you look again at my original post when compared with the post I'm answering now (hey, that's your post.) Please apply your maturity gage to your own post and act according to your own advice.
I find it most interesting that you're ready to make personal attacks against others while hiding behind the AC skirt, especially considering that your main point against my original post is "people like you...just don't add anything here and worsen the signal to noise ratio." Me thinks your kettle is seriously black; in other words, you're a hypocrite or at least you're acting hypocritically today.
Slashdot Mirror
I think Transgaming is a valid exception and here's why.
Getting games to work well under Linux is a very important step and not an easy one. These folks are not trying to get rich doing this either, since they only charge $5 a month ($60.00 a year) which is about the price of one good game. All indications are they're just trying to pay their way while the work gets done.
I subscribe and it's well worth it. I don't have to reboot to play Diablo II or Starcraft or Command and Conquer, etc. I don't have to buy special Linux specific versions of the games, the windows versions work right out of the box.
One last point. Don't let the press release fool you into thinking only a few games are working at this point. Go to Transgaming's website, click on the games link and then on the "browse all games" link at the bottom. Any game you see listed as a 4 or 5 is working good enough to play and that's a big, big list of 4 and 5 rated games.
What you may want is a console server. Console servers work through via a network and serial ports; one machine is the control machine where you connect via network and the other machines are accessable via serial ports from that one machine.
Console servers are very nice for some situations where you need to control a number of servers remotely. Sun sells these as do other vendors (Avocent sells them I think.) Remember, they're different from KVMs in that you don't plug in keyboards, mice and monitors, usually just a serial port.
If you need X (GUI environment), using ssh over a switched subnet is the best performance I've found. Have a central machine running X, ssh to the other machines and export the display variable to your central machine. Easy to control a number of machines from one monitor, keyboard and mouse, especially if you're using a multi-screen window manager like WindowMaker and its kin: Just setup a virtual screen for each machine and you're ready to rock and roll.
I'm so glad I saw this article here before I ran into one while hiking and found myself wishing I had brought a change of underwear. Not only that, but I'd probably never, ever again eat those funny mushrooms.
Thanks Slashdot!
Anyone who thinks people should be dragged out into the street and shot should be dragged out into the street and shot.
Yikes, that's me too! Let me rephrase that....
Yes, but there are tradeoffs, of course. Having the cable/DSL modem on all the time is something of a pain (think security issues - logs fill up with output from portsentry, etc.) I find myself thinking at times that perhaps the modem/phone line isn't so bad as I want to remember but then reality kicks me in the head and I get over that vague feeling quick
Still, the fees for cable broadband seem to be increaxing whilst the things you can do with the connection are shrinking. I can see if this trend continues I'll seriously have to consider going back to modem/phone because all the benefits of broadband will either have become too expensive or vanished all together.
Heh, interpret it as you like. I can't believe I got an "Offtopic" moderation on this. Apparently the moderator didn't bother to think about the implications of the quote.
Oh well, I suppose even the lazy and the just plain dumb are entitled to moderation points.
Thanks for the reply and the info.
Yes, I have to agree, there's some mighty fine work going on at Apple -- those screenshots are beautiful.
Thanks again.
Richarrd Clarke saying, "I have a cunning plan!"
...the mandatory use of IPv6 by all ISPs with each individual assigned an IP number at birth which will be theirs for life. This, combined with mandatory MAC address registration/matching with IP numbers will be the end of anonymity on the web. Before you can gain access, you must first identify yourself.
You may think it absurd, but this (or something to the same effect) is more likely than not. I remember the end of the BBS days when the ACs were screened out by most SysOps via mandatory IDing of the user before an account was allowed on the systems. This due to rampant abuse by ACs and the coming of the concept of legal accountability to those running the systems.
I have mixed feelings in that I'm not sure if it's good or bad as there are good arguments on both sides. Guess we'll get to watch it play out in time.
The .pdf didn't indicate (it's a PR/marketing piece,) so I'm assuming that the new extensions will be contributed to the OpenGL folks for inclusion. Is this correct? If so, a very nice contribution by the Apple folks!
.pdf are a true indication, then this is surely the bomb as concerns state-of-the-art desktop eye candy.
Compliments to the Apple folks on this work: If the screenshots in the
Sheesh, now I'm being nice to Apple. What's next, MS? Heh, very unlikely.
I'll wager that before too long instead of buying manufacturered processors, we'll be growing our own to spec in tubs of organic chemicals much like we brew beer. If I'm esta-guessing correctly, there's more processing power potential in a cup of tea than all the world's current processing power combined.
There are those who speculate that the goo in the tub will _be_ the processor. Beats the hell out of me as to how you connect wires to such a mess. Perhaps that's where the wireless tech will really prove to be invaluable.
So you need a new processor? Break out the blender and the crockpot and get crackin;!
Hiya MaDROMer! Glad to see there's more than just me from MaDROM who visits this geeky place.
Should I go into a vast diatribe describing the many wonderous advantages of text-based over graphics based RPGs? No, fact is both have their advantages.
Cheers from MP,
...the yearly Summer Festival known as "Burning Man" will be held at Times Square, New York City. When asked why the festival was moving the organizers muttered sometime about "sausages are better there" and quickly changed the subject.
Yes it was.
Well, if they saw it coming, they surely didn't put much preventitive medicine in the Constitution. I just had a quick read of it the other day and all I saw mentioned was treason and fraud in the context of misbehaving congress critters. Nothing about "thou shalt not be bought nor thy actions be bought by huge corporations at the expense of the freedoms of the people."
"Where I draw the line is when they use their congressional clout to prevent anyone else from accessing that cultural material forever."
Ah, you're talking about fair use -- forget it, it's gonna die because Disney Corp. needs to squeeze every penny it can out of everyone on the planet so the Disney CEO can say to the stockholders, "See, I'm doing my job!"
Which reminds me of an old Pogo cartoon quote, "We've seen the enemy and they is us!"
Hmmm, that's kinda like asking people how they drive and what's a good method. For every programmer, you're going to find somewhat differing technique.
Personally, I debug as I go, function by function, sometimes line-by-line. Others whip up a pile of code and then try to figure out what the hell's wrong with it _this_ time. Still others run it through a program to make some other programmer tell them what the hell's wrong _this_ time (debuggers.)
Search freshmeat using the word "bug" and see what comes up. Here's what I found:
Search on "bug" - 335 entries returned.
Search on "debug" - 199 entries returned.
Search on "debugger" - 78 entries returned.
Go for it, dude!
...to catch space rocks. If you let them hit the water, they splash all over everything and heat up the air. Better to catch them _before_ they enter the atmosphere.
See, if the dinosaurs had been smarter, they wouldn't be extinct. Q.E.D.
...the nanotech devices which are so light they don't need to fly, just float with flagellum for guidance mechanisms.
Gotta read "Diamond Age" again soon, it was a good read.
And then there's the argument that academia contributed greatly to the "death" of poetry as it was practiced up through the 19th century. Excessive use of deconstructionism and free form combined with the attitude that anyone without a PhD in (insert language of choice here) was and is not qualified to write or be published.
"America's system of government is supposed to work on checks and balances."
Yes, it (the federal government) does work on checks and balances within itself, but the framers of our constitution didn't see that these huge corporations would have the power via money they now have.
The framers also didn't anticipate institutionalized graft as a political way of life. They thought those running for office would be like them; educated, landed gentlemen with enough self-interest not to sell out their country, its ideals and its future for chump change just to get re-elected every time until they dropped dead.
Face the music: we're seeing a serious push by big corporations to make an end run around our freedoms so that Disney can keep making money from Mickey Mouse forever. The restrictions on the federal government do not apply to corporations. So what you say? Think which has more impact on your daily life.
Stephenson wasn't just joking when he painted in Snowcrash a society where the federal government was still functional, just irrelevant in the face of the huge corporations. I really hope we don't go there.
is portsentry: repels dozens of pests every day!
/etc/inetd.conf and entries in hosts.allow and hosts.deny, you can keep the pests away from your boxen with very little effort. Tail -f /var/log/messages and you can see the little buggers trying to pester you right before *SWAT* they're locked out!
Combine it with heavy editing of
Yes, but the article suggests some interesting questions:
"What does it matter?"
or
"Does the new matter matter to hatter?"
or the obvious, "What's the (new) matter?"
Yes, the article is certainly weak, mostly due to the fact that, as the one fella in the article says, it's all somewhat premature.
Perhaps the most important point made in the article is the one about the Bush administration killing funding for the research: Where do the Bushies think all the new technology they can lock up for corporations comes from, anyway?
Sorry dude, I have no mod points or I'd give you a good one as you make the one good observation so far in these posts.
I'm convinced these asteroids (and the ones that come closer) are our key to future development off planet. We should be putting some serious research into these little rocks first, the big rocks (planets) less so.
Just my opinion, of course.
I think the limiting factors for improved GUIs are hardware related, not lack of imagination or creativity on the part of developers. Simply, the mouse/keyboard/monitor combination for Human Interface (HI) imposes limitations as to what you can do. Frankly, I don't think it's possible to get much more than what we have with these hardware limitations; it's as good as it's going to get, discounting further eye candy (I love eye candy, yum!)
So, I'm suggesting we need new hardware with which to build Human Interfaces (of which the GUI is just a subset) and until we have such hardware, we're not going to see much improvement in the GUIs -- they're as good as they're going to be with current technology.
You want to see the future, do some searching on Human Interfaces for computers and you'll find some interesting stuff being researched and developed.
Hmmm, personal attacks against me instead of addressing the points I make in my post? I suggest you look again at my original post when compared with the post I'm answering now (hey, that's your post.) Please apply your maturity gage to your own post and act according to your own advice.
I find it most interesting that you're ready to make personal attacks against others while hiding behind the AC skirt, especially considering that your main point against my original post is "people like you...just don't add anything here and worsen the signal to noise ratio." Me thinks your kettle is seriously black; in other words, you're a hypocrite or at least you're acting hypocritically today.
Cheers,