Can the joystick nunchuck sense motion, too? If not, you could use two Wiimotes...
Richard Simmons the video game. Not a joke, played totally straight. Take a Simmons workout video, add a Wii-ified DDR for the upper body. Get him on O'Brien, Letterman, and Leno and advertise the shit out of it. No real marketing, just Richard Simmons playing this stupid little game on late night television.
BOOM. You've just sold the Wii to at least a half million people who would have never played a video game before. Hell, hook up four Wiimotes and two fat housewives can compete at how hard they can out-workout Richard Simmons!
Dunno if you'll see this, but... meh. I'll reply anyways.
I haven't played the post-SNES MMX games, so I only know 1-3. The first one is good, but it doesn't 'flow' well. Especially when you haven't gotten the dash boots yet and can't dash... grr.
3 tried too hard to be cool and failed. There's so much extra crap in the game that it doesn't 'flow' well, either.
2 is just perfect. Map the run button to 'R' and always dash. Use the bubble weapon to get through stages once you get it. Excellent flow. After beating it a few times you start to learn how to just tear through the levels like they were nothing and it becomes a favorite "kick back and blow crap up" kind of game. Very well done.
Agreed with the "old school dieing" part. It's sad. The best games gave great depth through their simplicity. Metroid3 being a perfect example of that - from such simple items come great gameplay depth.
Fuckin' kids don't know what they're missing. And I'm only 25.:(
Since we seem to have close to the same taste in games, I'll tack on two of my favorites onto yours:
Super Metroid 3 - This game is the absolute bomb for speed runners! Give yourself some random limitations (no high jump boots or grappling beam, etc) and go to town. I've played my way through dozens of times and it still feels "new".
Megaman X 2 - Another fun one to master, once you get really good you end up just tearing through the levels without stopping. No real strategy, just a slaughter fest.;)
Oh, and there's this game for the NES called "Kickle's Cubicle" which is highly underrated. Don't let the kiddy graphics and easy levels at the beginning fool you, it's one of the best puzzle games for the NES once you get to later levels.
Hey, Malda? What's with you being so active lately? I've been here for years on various accounts and you've never been this active with the community as far as I can remember. I like it, it's just... hey, something different.
Works perfectly on Konqueror 3.5 (Gentoo GNU/Linux KDE 3.5), btw.
Could someone please do many of us a huge favor and mirror that announcement? As a Konqueror user I don't even have Firefox installed and try as I must I can't get to it.:(
My mother had a major stroke at the beginning of the year. After taking a few tests and shrugging their shoulders they sent her home. While trying to get her into the car she was obviously very disoriented and it took ten minutes to get her in because she couldn't understand even the simplest of commands. I trusted the doctor. My mistake.
When we got home it took half an hour to get her inside and into bed because she couldn't understand how to walk. After a few hours she shat herself, and we called the ambulance again. They could not believe that the hospital sent her home, and they drove her to the same hospital. The nurses on that shift took one look at her and said "Oh yeah, that's a HUGE stroke. We're surprised she survived."
While walking outside to get a breath of fresh air I noticed a billboard on the wall of the ER. On it was a graph on a huge poster proudly showing that the amount of time patients spent at the emergency room was well below quota. As if this was a good thing.
This was a hospital in Wichita, Kansas, USA. From personal experience, it doesn't matter if you're having a cough or an obvious life threatening stroke, if they can find even the slightest reason to send you home then they will. In my mother's case, the tests said nothing was wrong even though something was visibly wrong.
I'll second this from personal experience. I live in a small town and we have one grocery store that was privately owned since before I was born (I'm 25 now). About three months ago it got sold to some godforsaken company, and the first thing they did was institute a card program as was mentioned in previous posts.
Before the buy out a box of hot pockets was $2. Now they're $3, with card and signs telling you of your HUGE savings with the card - they're $2 with the card. Cheap bag of chips were $1.50, now they're $1.50 with card, $2 without. Diet Coke $1 before and with card now, $1.50 without. And so on with damn near everything in the store.
To get this card I have to give out my home phone number, address, email address, and show my drivers license to prove I am who I say I am. My state uses my social security number as my driver's license number.
My mom signed up for this and they took that information to spam her email box, do telemarketing, put her on a crapload of junk mail lists, sell that information all over the place, and fuck knows what else. For what? To pay what I paid at regular prices before they bought the store. And then when I decline to sign up for the card the employees not only look at me like I have a third arm growing out of my forehead, but actively argue with me.
This seriously pisses me off. I miss the days when the owners lived a few streets down from me, I really do. I now pay a $30-60/mo surcharge just to be left the hell alone.:(
I've used KDE and GNOME and presently use GNOME at home and at work because it meets my modest needs. Perhaps KDE has improved drastically since I used it in the SUSE 8 days; then it was so unstable I could cause it to crash by staring at the screen too hard.
I started out on SuSE 7.3 (with KDE 2.something). After several distros and literally every WM out there that I could find, I am now happily on Gentoo with KDE 3.5.
Good god, forget everything you know about KDE. The difference between then and now is like night and day. My only major gripe about KDE is that it takes me an hour to get everything configured to where it feels just right, but then again I could never get GNOME or anything else to feel just right so that's some major points for KDE in my book. I've never had the 3.x line crash on me in any way that forces me to restart it, compared to GNOME it's practically lightweight, has tons of little touches that make you very productive (the fish protocol comes to mind), and looks damn snazzy if you muck with it a bit. (Hint: #808080 is the perfect color for windows.)
The KDE 2.x that you tried sucked. Try 3.5, not only will you be blown away but your wife will more likely than not find switching to it is easy and enjoyable.
If you got broadband I'd highly suggest you watch Patrolling with Sean Kennedy, which explains the basics of survival equipment/thinking in a way that just about any Joe Blow could understand, with emphasis on making it work in the real world. The core of the show is two mottos - "Function over form" and "What does it do, how well does it do it?" It is an excellent show which will teach you the basics that you need, free download, and is under a Creative Commons license.
I just wanted to break through the crappy posts in this thread and say that this was an interesting and heartwarming story to read. I'm a retro gamer (NES and SNES eras mainly), but I really want to buy a PS3 now just to support that company by buying the game. It feels good to see small independant companies cranking out the art, as they're usually the ones that are pushing the envelope and making the world just a little bit cooler.
Kudos. We need more little guys in the gaming industry.
But the first person that offers a variable length game concept, where you can add more or less content depending you how long you want to play the game for would be a real coup, this may re-invent the RPG industry.
It has already been done. It's called Final Fantasy VI.
With free software I am a user, the software a tool. My data and programs are my own to do with as I please.
With proprietary software I must prove myself to not be a criminal before I can use the program, the software is a locked down box which prevents me from having full control over my system. Should I unwittingly violate a draconian contract, my copy is as legit as a copy found off a P2P network. My data and programs are in the hands of another company, held to their whims.
EULAs generally restrict my ability to use my system in any way I choose, even if I am paying for each and every program on the machine. Should one of my employees get pissed at me, he or she can call the BSA and they'll send some nice armed marshals to my door to audit every nook and cranny of my system.
When I have a need, I like to scratch it. With free software, if program X doesn't have a functionality I need then I can have it modified. If proprietary program Y doesn't have a functionality that I need, then the only thing I can do is beg and plead for them to add it. (And don't even get me started with support running out when a program becomes "obsolete".)
When I use free software, I download, compile, and run. Boom, done, simple. With proprietary software, I must enter activation numbers, pray a dongle works, and/or call up the parent company and say "Can I please have the ability to use this software that I paid some damn good money for?"
Proprietary software does not fit my needs. Free software does.
As a lifetime resident of Kansas (Wichita), if you think we have philosophy classes in our public schools then you're just dillusional.
Although, from the inside looking out, I honestly think that the education system is just as bad everywhere else as it is here. The American school system as a whole is just completely knackered beyond all hope. We Kansans just have the hardcore Jesus freaks openly invading through every crack they can find at the same time.
Considering 2/3rds of the state is hardcore red and we have such 'entertaining' politicians as Tihart, I think the sane people of the state have held up better than anyone could expect.
The basic hypothesis of intelligent design is that our genetic makeup was designed by a higher power, as such complexity could not have simply "happened".
The basic hypothesis of evolution is that our genetic makeup was slowly grown and improved on by a process called "natural selection" over billions of years. Evidence for this hypothesis includes similar yet slightly differing species with abilities adapted to their different environments, a long and evolving fossil record, and the evolution of microorganisms witnessed both in the lab and the real world. I will specifically state HIV's growing resistance to therapudic drugs as an example.
Hypothesis, test, and review. When the proponents of ID can show strong evidence that a god-like entity exists, then the hypothesis might be taken seriously. Until the results of the god-test are peer reviewed, it is the ID guys who are presenting a dogmatic defense of pre-concieved ideas, not the scientists.
I've checked out the license (link), and it for the most part mirrors the GPL, with the addition of a clause which grants patent rights. However, 2.F provides this following gem:
F. In an effort to track usage and maintain accurate records of the Subject Software, each Recipient, upon receipt of the Subject Software, is requested to register with Government Agency by visiting the following website: http://opensource.arc.nasa.gov. Recipient's name and personal information shall be used for statistical purposes only. Once a Recipient makes a Modification available, it is requested that the Recipient inform Government Agency at the web site provided above how to access the Modification.
Note that I am not doubting that this is indeed Free Software, as it follows the four freedoms:
The freedom to run the program, for any purpose
The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor.
The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
From what I can tell, this is definitely a true Free Software license. However, you have to register with an agency of the United States government in order to muck with the code. Some may have a problem with this, be forewarned.
That's why we have all these marches and activism. The marches aren't for the bigots...
Actually, they are. The first gay pride parade was held after the Stonewall riots. Prior to this they were constantly harassed, beaten, jailed, institutionalized, and sometimes even killed just for being gay. The first pride parade was held as a way of showing the world "We refuse to hide ourselves anymore, so we're going to march right down the street and be as noticable as possible!"
That's why gay pride parades are so goddamn gawdy (and potentially offensive to a large portion of the population). It's not because of wickedness or anything of the sort. It's because it's an open act of defiance against repression and each and every crew cut having obese topless bull dyke on a motorcycle [1] is a huge flashing arrow pointing at this group saying "We're not going to hide anymore."
Gay pride parades exist specificaly for the bigots.
[1] No offense intended. I've had the pleasure of knowing quite a large number of lesbians during my short journey on this planet, and I must note that they are nothing like what you see in the pornos. However, if you need your truck fixed or some plumbing work done then by all means hunt down a lesbian. They're quite handy creatures to have around. Plus they usually accept beer as payment, which comes in handy when you have a full fridge and an empty wallet.
Final Fantasy 6 is an awesome game and I personally don't think that a game has bested it yet. However, to me it didn't define the modern console RPG. That honor goes to its grandfather, Final Fantasy 4.
While it wasn't the first of its kind, FF4 defines all the aspects of a modern console RPG and was the framework on which everything else built on top of. It gave us ATB and a battle system that was fast, fun, and at times totally insane. (Remember Plague?) The storyline was fairly deep for its time, and you gained a lot of respect for the characters even in the crappy US translation. In the real Japanese FF4 you had a small yet noticable amount of strategy in battles.
Moreover, while it seems primitive today it was mindblowingly awesome when it came out. Everything was simply perfect in its simplicity - nothing really stood out on its own but instead everything just blended together seamlessly to produce this memorable piece of art. The music was the best of its time. The graphics were primitive, but blended into the game wonderfully. The story gripped you. (Name a single video game character that went through half the crap Cecil went through by the first quarter of the game.) The characters were the most well developed of its time. (Rydia is the penultimate video game heroine, IMO.)
It all just came together so perfectly that you can literally see a "pre-FF4" and a "post-FF4" split in console RPGS. FF6 is a work of art, but those who played FF4 when it was released will know that it can easily hold its own against FF6.
It's a shame that the "young pups" can't see past a game's graphics. This is a often overlooked gem that made a huge mark in video game history.
My mother has had two strokes, one in '99 and another one literally one month ago today. She's not all there nowadays, but has recovered a lot. Then again, she wasn't exactly the brightest bulb to begin with. (Not insulting her, just hey, that's my mom.)
My advice - get rid of her TV. This is the #1 thing you can do for her right now, getting rid of her TV. My mother spent her life sitting in front of the TV stuffing her face and growing more obese. She used this to wallow in her own self-misery and avoidance of the world. Then she had her first stroke, and in the aftermath she spent much time out of the house with therapists and started losing about ten pounds of weight. Then therapy ended, and she was back in her recliner 24/7 stuffing her face full of junk foods and watching the most mindless crap they show.
Last month she had a second stroke. Five days later she was out of the hospital. The first thing she did when she got home? Went to the kitchen, grabbed some high fat foods, plopped down in her recliner, and turned the TV on. Five days before that she was shitting all over herself as five medics tried to get her on the stretcher. She was completely incapable of understanding even the simplest sentence, and I had pretty much written her off as forever a vegetable. After almost dieing or becoming brain dead, she hasn't learned a thing.
The number one thing you can do for her is get rid of her television. As her brain rewires itself it needs a lot of positive random input. She should be reading. Or going for walks. Or talking with friends. Or just enjoying the local park. Anything, anything except the idiot box, which does nothing positive for her mind. Indeed, I would go so far as to say from personal experience that it retards and even prevents recovery. "I could go out but I'm tired, I think I'll watch TV instead." "I think I'll have the TV on in the background while I cook dinner." (Why not Beethoven or some decent music?)
The television is an enabler, helping people waste thier time that could be spent doing entertaining yet productive. That. Box. Is. Not. Doing. Her. Any. Good. Get rid of it. I wish I did.
You start off trying to get GTK+ compiled, which means pango, atk, and glib needs to be installed. In order to get those installed, I need fontconfig, freetype, some XML crap, and a few other programs/libraries which slip me at the moment. Fontconfig (or Freetype? Forget which) is a notorious pain to compile.
After that you got roughly twenty different programs to get a full GNOME system up and running, each with thier own personality quirks and workarounds. I have literally spent multiple weeks trying to get a GNOME system up and running, and even then there were many problems which showed that it was not installed correctly.
Nothing in GNOME works unless the whole bloody thing is installed, and even then you don't quite know what's going wrong when something is going wrong (and something _will_ go wrong). Is that startup error because of X? Misconfiguration of Y? Is there a bug between the versions of X and Z or something?
The compile time is not an issue, GNOME and KDE take roughly the same time to compile. You just do GNOME in stages, whereas KDE is a one time deal.
I don't know where I'm going with this, but GNOME is not easier and more modular than KDE. You just don't notice the fact that you've recompiled all of the GNOME libraries because you do it over time instead of once every 6 months or so.
For the most part I agree with you. And then I poke my head up and look around... and I can't help but to feel passionate about this.
Software patent laws make it almost completely impossible to legally be a programmer nowadays. Copyright laws make it so that nothing returns to the public domain, making our common culture forever a property to be bought and sold. Companies lobby congress to create laws which allow them to enforce their copyrights at the cost of due process (DMCA). One entity in particular owns the software which runs 90% of the world's computers, and is flexing this power to it's fullest extent at the detriment of the public good. Draconian licenses are included with the programs that run the world, forcing the users to give unmoral control of their computers to the software authors.
This all has gotten so far out of hand that a lot of ebooks come with licenses which restrict you from reading an ebook out loud. Want to read a copy of a Dr. Seuss book from your PDA to your 4 year old daughter? Tough, can't legally do it.
As I look at how we allow ourselves to be chained by our own laws and software which runs this modern world, I can't help but to be eternally grateful that Free Software exists. When I someday have children I want to be able for them to take things apart and tinker with them like I did, for example.
Oh, and I already walked the dog today. She. Loves. Squirrels. And the sunrise was beautiful glistening off the pond at the park. Fun fact - Let's say I make a video of the sunrise on that pond. I'd be able to take snapshots of that movie and email it to you easily, but you wouldn't because Windows Media Player doesn't allow you to take screenshots of a video running, even if it is your own video that you made. That whole piracy thing needs to be stopped, and lord knows what someone could do with a screengrab...
Slashdot Mirror
Hmm.
Can the joystick nunchuck sense motion, too? If not, you could use two Wiimotes...
Richard Simmons the video game. Not a joke, played totally straight. Take a Simmons workout video, add a Wii-ified DDR for the upper body. Get him on O'Brien, Letterman, and Leno and advertise the shit out of it. No real marketing, just Richard Simmons playing this stupid little game on late night television.
BOOM. You've just sold the Wii to at least a half million people who would have never played a video game before. Hell, hook up four Wiimotes and two fat housewives can compete at how hard they can out-workout Richard Simmons!
It was named the Revolution for a reason.
Dunno if you'll see this, but... meh. I'll reply anyways.
:(
I haven't played the post-SNES MMX games, so I only know 1-3. The first one is good, but it doesn't 'flow' well. Especially when you haven't gotten the dash boots yet and can't dash... grr.
3 tried too hard to be cool and failed. There's so much extra crap in the game that it doesn't 'flow' well, either.
2 is just perfect. Map the run button to 'R' and always dash. Use the bubble weapon to get through stages once you get it. Excellent flow. After beating it a few times you start to learn how to just tear through the levels like they were nothing and it becomes a favorite "kick back and blow crap up" kind of game. Very well done.
Agreed with the "old school dieing" part. It's sad. The best games gave great depth through their simplicity. Metroid3 being a perfect example of that - from such simple items come great gameplay depth.
Fuckin' kids don't know what they're missing. And I'm only 25.
Since we seem to have close to the same taste in games, I'll tack on two of my favorites onto yours:
;)
Super Metroid 3 - This game is the absolute bomb for speed runners! Give yourself some random limitations (no high jump boots or grappling beam, etc) and go to town. I've played my way through dozens of times and it still feels "new".
Megaman X 2 - Another fun one to master, once you get really good you end up just tearing through the levels without stopping. No real strategy, just a slaughter fest.
Oh, and there's this game for the NES called "Kickle's Cubicle" which is highly underrated. Don't let the kiddy graphics and easy levels at the beginning fool you, it's one of the best puzzle games for the NES once you get to later levels.
Hey, Malda? What's with you being so active lately? I've been here for years on various accounts and you've never been this active with the community as far as I can remember. I like it, it's just... hey, something different.
Works perfectly on Konqueror 3.5 (Gentoo GNU/Linux KDE 3.5), btw.
Could someone please do many of us a huge favor and mirror that announcement? As a Konqueror user I don't even have Firefox installed and try as I must I can't get to it. :(
My mother had a major stroke at the beginning of the year. After taking a few tests and shrugging their shoulders they sent her home. While trying to get her into the car she was obviously very disoriented and it took ten minutes to get her in because she couldn't understand even the simplest of commands. I trusted the doctor. My mistake.
When we got home it took half an hour to get her inside and into bed because she couldn't understand how to walk. After a few hours she shat herself, and we called the ambulance again. They could not believe that the hospital sent her home, and they drove her to the same hospital. The nurses on that shift took one look at her and said "Oh yeah, that's a HUGE stroke. We're surprised she survived."
While walking outside to get a breath of fresh air I noticed a billboard on the wall of the ER. On it was a graph on a huge poster proudly showing that the amount of time patients spent at the emergency room was well below quota. As if this was a good thing.
This was a hospital in Wichita, Kansas, USA. From personal experience, it doesn't matter if you're having a cough or an obvious life threatening stroke, if they can find even the slightest reason to send you home then they will. In my mother's case, the tests said nothing was wrong even though something was visibly wrong.
This story is entirely plausible.
I'll second this from personal experience. I live in a small town and we have one grocery store that was privately owned since before I was born (I'm 25 now). About three months ago it got sold to some godforsaken company, and the first thing they did was institute a card program as was mentioned in previous posts.
:(
Before the buy out a box of hot pockets was $2. Now they're $3, with card and signs telling you of your HUGE savings with the card - they're $2 with the card. Cheap bag of chips were $1.50, now they're $1.50 with card, $2 without. Diet Coke $1 before and with card now, $1.50 without. And so on with damn near everything in the store.
To get this card I have to give out my home phone number, address, email address, and show my drivers license to prove I am who I say I am. My state uses my social security number as my driver's license number.
My mom signed up for this and they took that information to spam her email box, do telemarketing, put her on a crapload of junk mail lists, sell that information all over the place, and fuck knows what else. For what? To pay what I paid at regular prices before they bought the store. And then when I decline to sign up for the card the employees not only look at me like I have a third arm growing out of my forehead, but actively argue with me.
This seriously pisses me off. I miss the days when the owners lived a few streets down from me, I really do. I now pay a $30-60/mo surcharge just to be left the hell alone.
Good god, forget everything you know about KDE. The difference between then and now is like night and day. My only major gripe about KDE is that it takes me an hour to get everything configured to where it feels just right, but then again I could never get GNOME or anything else to feel just right so that's some major points for KDE in my book. I've never had the 3.x line crash on me in any way that forces me to restart it, compared to GNOME it's practically lightweight, has tons of little touches that make you very productive (the fish protocol comes to mind), and looks damn snazzy if you muck with it a bit. (Hint: #808080 is the perfect color for windows.)
The KDE 2.x that you tried sucked. Try 3.5, not only will you be blown away but your wife will more likely than not find switching to it is easy and enjoyable.
If you got broadband I'd highly suggest you watch Patrolling with Sean Kennedy, which explains the basics of survival equipment/thinking in a way that just about any Joe Blow could understand, with emphasis on making it work in the real world. The core of the show is two mottos - "Function over form" and "What does it do, how well does it do it?" It is an excellent show which will teach you the basics that you need, free download, and is under a Creative Commons license.
Possibly because he is, and that's the whole point of his presidency?
I just wanted to break through the crappy posts in this thread and say that this was an interesting and heartwarming story to read. I'm a retro gamer (NES and SNES eras mainly), but I really want to buy a PS3 now just to support that company by buying the game. It feels good to see small independant companies cranking out the art, as they're usually the ones that are pushing the envelope and making the world just a little bit cooler.
Kudos. We need more little guys in the gaming industry.
With free software I am a user, the software a tool. My data and programs are my own to do with as I please.
With proprietary software I must prove myself to not be a criminal before I can use the program, the software is a locked down box which prevents me from having full control over my system. Should I unwittingly violate a draconian contract, my copy is as legit as a copy found off a P2P network. My data and programs are in the hands of another company, held to their whims.
EULAs generally restrict my ability to use my system in any way I choose, even if I am paying for each and every program on the machine. Should one of my employees get pissed at me, he or she can call the BSA and they'll send some nice armed marshals to my door to audit every nook and cranny of my system.
When I have a need, I like to scratch it. With free software, if program X doesn't have a functionality I need then I can have it modified. If proprietary program Y doesn't have a functionality that I need, then the only thing I can do is beg and plead for them to add it. (And don't even get me started with support running out when a program becomes "obsolete".)
When I use free software, I download, compile, and run. Boom, done, simple. With proprietary software, I must enter activation numbers, pray a dongle works, and/or call up the parent company and say "Can I please have the ability to use this software that I paid some damn good money for?"
Proprietary software does not fit my needs. Free software does.
Seeing the notion that there are "real" Americans modded as insightful shows how much of a distopian joke American politics have become.
Signed,
A fake American whose opinions, hopes, dreams, and fears don't matter.
As a lifetime resident of Kansas (Wichita), if you think we have philosophy classes in our public schools then you're just dillusional.
:)
Although, from the inside looking out, I honestly think that the education system is just as bad everywhere else as it is here. The American school system as a whole is just completely knackered beyond all hope. We Kansans just have the hardcore Jesus freaks openly invading through every crack they can find at the same time.
Considering 2/3rds of the state is hardcore red and we have such 'entertaining' politicians as Tihart, I think the sane people of the state have held up better than anyone could expect.
I went off topic. I do not care.
The basic hypothesis of intelligent design is that our genetic makeup was designed by a higher power, as such complexity could not have simply "happened".
The basic hypothesis of evolution is that our genetic makeup was slowly grown and improved on by a process called "natural selection" over billions of years. Evidence for this hypothesis includes similar yet slightly differing species with abilities adapted to their different environments, a long and evolving fossil record, and the evolution of microorganisms witnessed both in the lab and the real world. I will specifically state HIV's growing resistance to therapudic drugs as an example.
Hypothesis, test, and review. When the proponents of ID can show strong evidence that a god-like entity exists, then the hypothesis might be taken seriously. Until the results of the god-test are peer reviewed, it is the ID guys who are presenting a dogmatic defense of pre-concieved ideas, not the scientists.
You are correct, I admit my mistake and my apologies.
- The freedom to run the program, for any purpose
- The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
- The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor.
- The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
From what I can tell, this is definitely a true Free Software license. However, you have to register with an agency of the United States government in order to muck with the code. Some may have a problem with this, be forewarned.My mother basically dropped out of life "addicted to TV". I got friends who have done the same with the internet, alcohol, and yes, video games.
Same root, different drug, same end result.
That's why gay pride parades are so goddamn gawdy (and potentially offensive to a large portion of the population). It's not because of wickedness or anything of the sort. It's because it's an open act of defiance against repression and each and every crew cut having obese topless bull dyke on a motorcycle [1] is a huge flashing arrow pointing at this group saying "We're not going to hide anymore."
Gay pride parades exist specificaly for the bigots.
[1] No offense intended. I've had the pleasure of knowing quite a large number of lesbians during my short journey on this planet, and I must note that they are nothing like what you see in the pornos. However, if you need your truck fixed or some plumbing work done then by all means hunt down a lesbian. They're quite handy creatures to have around. Plus they usually accept beer as payment, which comes in handy when you have a full fridge and an empty wallet.
Final Fantasy 6 is an awesome game and I personally don't think that a game has bested it yet. However, to me it didn't define the modern console RPG. That honor goes to its grandfather, Final Fantasy 4.
While it wasn't the first of its kind, FF4 defines all the aspects of a modern console RPG and was the framework on which everything else built on top of. It gave us ATB and a battle system that was fast, fun, and at times totally insane. (Remember Plague?) The storyline was fairly deep for its time, and you gained a lot of respect for the characters even in the crappy US translation. In the real Japanese FF4 you had a small yet noticable amount of strategy in battles.
Moreover, while it seems primitive today it was mindblowingly awesome when it came out. Everything was simply perfect in its simplicity - nothing really stood out on its own but instead everything just blended together seamlessly to produce this memorable piece of art. The music was the best of its time. The graphics were primitive, but blended into the game wonderfully. The story gripped you. (Name a single video game character that went through half the crap Cecil went through by the first quarter of the game.) The characters were the most well developed of its time. (Rydia is the penultimate video game heroine, IMO.)
It all just came together so perfectly that you can literally see a "pre-FF4" and a "post-FF4" split in console RPGS. FF6 is a work of art, but those who played FF4 when it was released will know that it can easily hold its own against FF6.
It's a shame that the "young pups" can't see past a game's graphics. This is a often overlooked gem that made a huge mark in video game history.
My mother has had two strokes, one in '99 and another one literally one month ago today. She's not all there nowadays, but has recovered a lot. Then again, she wasn't exactly the brightest bulb to begin with. (Not insulting her, just hey, that's my mom.)
My advice - get rid of her TV. This is the #1 thing you can do for her right now, getting rid of her TV. My mother spent her life sitting in front of the TV stuffing her face and growing more obese. She used this to wallow in her own self-misery and avoidance of the world. Then she had her first stroke, and in the aftermath she spent much time out of the house with therapists and started losing about ten pounds of weight. Then therapy ended, and she was back in her recliner 24/7 stuffing her face full of junk foods and watching the most mindless crap they show.
Last month she had a second stroke. Five days later she was out of the hospital. The first thing she did when she got home? Went to the kitchen, grabbed some high fat foods, plopped down in her recliner, and turned the TV on. Five days before that she was shitting all over herself as five medics tried to get her on the stretcher. She was completely incapable of understanding even the simplest sentence, and I had pretty much written her off as forever a vegetable. After almost dieing or becoming brain dead, she hasn't learned a thing.
The number one thing you can do for her is get rid of her television. As her brain rewires itself it needs a lot of positive random input. She should be reading. Or going for walks. Or talking with friends. Or just enjoying the local park. Anything, anything except the idiot box, which does nothing positive for her mind. Indeed, I would go so far as to say from personal experience that it retards and even prevents recovery. "I could go out but I'm tired, I think I'll watch TV instead." "I think I'll have the TV on in the background while I cook dinner." (Why not Beethoven or some decent music?)
The television is an enabler, helping people waste thier time that could be spent doing entertaining yet productive. That. Box. Is. Not. Doing. Her. Any. Good. Get rid of it. I wish I did.
Already being slashdotted, here's the mirrordot mirror.
Posted with karma bonus so everyone will see this post, please don't mod me up as there's no point.
Have you ever tried to compile GNOME from source?
You start off trying to get GTK+ compiled, which means pango, atk, and glib needs to be installed. In order to get those installed, I need fontconfig, freetype, some XML crap, and a few other programs/libraries which slip me at the moment. Fontconfig (or Freetype? Forget which) is a notorious pain to compile.
After that you got roughly twenty different programs to get a full GNOME system up and running, each with thier own personality quirks and workarounds. I have literally spent multiple weeks trying to get a GNOME system up and running, and even then there were many problems which showed that it was not installed correctly.
Nothing in GNOME works unless the whole bloody thing is installed, and even then you don't quite know what's going wrong when something is going wrong (and something _will_ go wrong). Is that startup error because of X? Misconfiguration of Y? Is there a bug between the versions of X and Z or something?
The compile time is not an issue, GNOME and KDE take roughly the same time to compile. You just do GNOME in stages, whereas KDE is a one time deal.
I don't know where I'm going with this, but GNOME is not easier and more modular than KDE. You just don't notice the fact that you've recompiled all of the GNOME libraries because you do it over time instead of once every 6 months or so.
For the most part I agree with you. And then I poke my head up and look around... and I can't help but to feel passionate about this.
Software patent laws make it almost completely impossible to legally be a programmer nowadays. Copyright laws make it so that nothing returns to the public domain, making our common culture forever a property to be bought and sold. Companies lobby congress to create laws which allow them to enforce their copyrights at the cost of due process (DMCA). One entity in particular owns the software which runs 90% of the world's computers, and is flexing this power to it's fullest extent at the detriment of the public good. Draconian licenses are included with the programs that run the world, forcing the users to give unmoral control of their computers to the software authors.
This all has gotten so far out of hand that a lot of ebooks come with licenses which restrict you from reading an ebook out loud. Want to read a copy of a Dr. Seuss book from your PDA to your 4 year old daughter? Tough, can't legally do it.
As I look at how we allow ourselves to be chained by our own laws and software which runs this modern world, I can't help but to be eternally grateful that Free Software exists. When I someday have children I want to be able for them to take things apart and tinker with them like I did, for example.
Oh, and I already walked the dog today. She. Loves. Squirrels. And the sunrise was beautiful glistening off the pond at the park. Fun fact - Let's say I make a video of the sunrise on that pond. I'd be able to take snapshots of that movie and email it to you easily, but you wouldn't because Windows Media Player doesn't allow you to take screenshots of a video running, even if it is your own video that you made. That whole piracy thing needs to be stopped, and lord knows what someone could do with a screengrab...