Monday, September 4, 2000

NFL Week #1: Results -- 11:30 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

The first week in the NFL is done and I did quite well with my picks (story). I ended up 11-4 for a handsome .733 winning percentage. A glance at next week's schedule leads me to believe that I won't have it so easy. We shall see!

GeForce2 MX Shootout -- 7:03 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

If you are like The Master and I are (and heaven help you if you are), then you like to upgrade your computer in steps that will not result in divorce or spontaneous decapitation. With just such folks in mind, Tom's Hardware presents a GeForce2 MX Shootout. They put a number of cards based on NVIDIA's low-end solution through their paces to see which really gives the most bang for the buck. Thanks sCary.

More on the Micron Suit -- 6:48 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Lost Circuits has an article discussing the basis for Micron suing RAMBUS. Micron alleges that RAMBUS patented JEDEC (an electronics standard consortium) standards without disclosing said patents, a violation of JEDEC policy. They also allege that RAMBUS patented designs retroactively after they had been established as open standards. If this is all true, I hope Micron and Hyundai take them for all their worth. Thanks Ars Technica.

The Master comments: Personally, I hope they lose so much money over this fiasco that Intel has to buy them out and public-domain the patents just to calm the furor. Friggin' lawyers-they're trying really dang hard to stifle innovation in the marketplace. Must be greed talking.

Linux Elitism -- 11:19 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Linux Power posted an interesting commentary, talking about elitism in the Linux/Open Source community. There are a vociferous few who frown on anyone who don't do Linux (or the Open Source movement) their way. These tend to be the ones who fall into the "Open Source as religion/ideology" camp. Thankfully, these folks are few and far between but unfortunately they make enough noise to make the rest of us look bad. Thanks Linux Today.

Qt to be GPL'd -- 8:57 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

According to LinuxPlanet, the next version of the Qt GUI library will be released under the GPL. Qt is the library used by the KDE desktop for Linux. This announcement means that programmers can develop applications for KDE without having to worry about licensing issues with Qt. Qt's old license never stopped me from using KDE as my Linux desktop, but non-Linux users would be amazed at the number of people who got their undies in a SERIOUS bundle about it. I suppose then the best part of this announcement is that all those people will shut up. Thanks Slashdot.

J.t.Qbe comments: Of course, all those whining zealots will have to pay attention long enough to read/hear the announcement in the first place--can't take it for granted that they will. I'm glad to see that Trolltech is keeping their licensing model, though--Qt is free if you're developing free software, or you pay for it if you're developing commercial software. That's fair. I get tired of those who whine that "KDE isn't really free." Yes it is. Regardless of the zealots' complaints, KDE is free, and it's one of the best desktops available for any platform.

Parsec Demo Soonish? -- 12:07 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

According to the Parsec homepage, there may be a "LAN-Test" available within a month to a month and a half. Parsec is a multi-platform free multiplayer space-combat sim. If the self-running demo is any indication, it could end up being quite cool. Thanks Linux Games.

Sunday, September 3, 2000

NFL Week #1 Update -- 8:01 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

So far so good! I'm 10-3 in my picks (story) so far today with tonight's and tomorrow night's games to go. I had a gut feeling I should have gone with Philly over Dallas, but I didn't expect a blow-out. My beloved Lions won in a squeaker without their starting QB, among others.

NVIDIA and Epic Agreement -- 7:50 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

NVIDIA and Epic announced a strategic partnership. The two will be working close together to make sure that future versions of the Unreal Engine work well on NVIDIA hardware and make use of hardware transform and lighting. This is great news for us NVIDIA fans, but a big kick in the teeth to 3dfx, since Epic had been very closely associated with them (remember that the Unreal Tourney demo first came out on 3dfx' site). Thanks Shugashack.

Bleh -- 6:03 pm CST, Update by The Master

Ya know, I'm getting sick of the banner ads I see on Blues and the Shack. These are being served from a "decent" provider (UGO), and yet, it seems like damn near every one of them has a half-naked woman on them, even if that has NOTHING to do with their content. I saw a good one on UGO Underground today that basically dripped sex, and was the front for an article on a new NVIDIA graphics board. Come ON people, is sex the ONLY thing that sells anymore? Heck, back in the day a good car chase did the job :-)

Oh, and spammers must die too. Thank you.

A.T. Hun comments: UGO is one of the most notorious advertising offenders. In that respect, I'm glad that we can run The Haus sans ads because I'm not sure I could find a network that would a) pay us (see Lowtax' problems on Something Awful), or b) have ads that wouldn't make me want to tear my eyes out. There needs to be a new revenue model for web advertising or the whole thing's going to go down the proverbial toilet.

HaX0r Your Cell Phone -- 1:38 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

CNN is reporting that by sending a certain type of message you can lock up a Nokia 7110 cell phone. As a matter of fact, the battery must be removed and put back in to get the phone to work again. Nice when your phone can be haX0red. Thanks Slashdot.

NOLF Demo DL'd -- 11:47 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I managed to get the No One Lives Forever demo downloaded last night (it took a small amount of forever). I only played it a few minutes, so I really can't give any impressions on it yet. I'll have to tweak some of the graphics and give it a good run-through.

Past Two Days' News

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