Thursday, May 3, 2001

Alan Cox Rebuttal -- 8:32 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Linux kernel guru Alan Cox issued his response to the speech delivered by Microsoft's Craig Mundie earlier today. Good stuff. Thanks Linux Today.

The Master comments: That site is getting hammered right now, so it takes a bit to load. Good rebuttal, and I hope Microsoft's PR department is having a bad case of congestive heart failure right now.

Pool of Radiance II Preview -- 7:58 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Gamespot has a preview of the upcoming AD&D RPG, Pool of Radiance II. Pool of Radiance II will use the AD&D 3rd edition rules and will be turn-based. This title might interest me, since J.t. and I wasted quite a bit of time on the original Pool of Radiance in college, if memory serves me correctly. I could never get used to the real-time combat of Baldur's Gate II. Thanks Blue's News.

J.t.Qbe comments: Your memory still serves you correctly. I remember many hours spent in front of my old 8MHz 8086 system playing that game. In fact, that game is where the name J.t.Qbe originated, I believe. I'm with you on the real-time combat thing. I really wanted to like Baldur's Gate.

The Master comments: Heh-I played this game on my old Apple //c. Awesome game, I hope the second iteration is as good.

More Shogo Walkthroughs -- 6:55 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

In an effort to lighten up the post-Microsoft-speech mood around here, I added a couple more Shogo level walkthroughs. These two are actually pretty easy: 27_New_MCA: Bullet in the Head and 28_Airshipdock: An Old Friend.

M$ Declares War on OSS -- 1:40 pm CST, Update by The Master

Check this out: Microsoft declares War on Open Source Movement.

Okay, what right does Microsoft have to declare war on anything? Those losers are gradually driving the cost of basic software right through the bloody roof, and since it's all about the Benjamins, they could give a damn about the poor schmucks that have to pay the bill. Go lay by your dish M$. Open Source is here to stay. I especially like this part:

He said open source programming created software with greater danger of security risks, product instability, a breakdown of common industry design standards that could force valuable intellectual property into the public domain.

Now, considering that ANY open source OS is more secure, stable, and reliable than Windows 2000, I find that little comment a bit hard to swallow. Intellectual property is another place where I get the heebie-jeebies. Too many patents and property rights have been doled out for common-sense programming techniques over the years, and I for one am tired of hearing companies rant over their rights for things they have no right to own.

A.T. Hun comments: Hmmm, anybody nervous up there in Redmond? :) The full text of his speech is available here. The cynic in me says that MS must be paranoid if they are bothering to even acknowledge open source this much. You can sum up his speech very easily by saying, "If it doesn't make money for us, it's bad." Read it yourself and then tell me he's saying something else. I also love how he mentions the failure of companies to give away software and try to make money elsewhere, yet MS has not been above using that very model if it means crushing the competition. IE comes to mind . . .

J.t.Qbe comments: Open source software is Microsoft's biggest nightmare: an enemy which can't be bought or crushed by the usual methods, an enemy which can't be pinned down to one place or time. Microsoft will fight this war the only way it can: with FUD, misinformation and outright lies. You can see it already in this speech. Microsoft wants to redefine terms to its own advantage and then be the sole source of information: if you'll just listen to Microsoft, you'll stay away from that evil, unamerican free software. Problem is, fewer and fewer are listening to Microsoft without a fair dose of skepticism. Watching Microsoft fight this war is like watching the lunatic swinging at bugs only he can see. We're seeing the implosion of Microsoft. Get'cher popcorn here.

Shogo for Linux Review Updated -- 1:06 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I made a minor update to my review of Shogo for Linux. I discovered that my problems with getting the Shogo multiplayer wizard to refresh more than one server at a time is indeed a problem with my wireless setup and not with Shogo itself.

Wednesday, May 2, 2001

ISS 5.0 Exploit -- 11:33 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

A rather nasty buffer overflow vulnerability was found in Microsoft's Windows 2000 IIS 5.0. It could allow a cracker to run any code of his choice on the webserver. If you use IIS 5.0, read Microsoft's security bulletin and get patching! Thanks /.

The Master comments: Personally, I would NEVER run an unnecessary ISAPI extension on my server-heck, that's one of the best practices on Microsoft's security site. However, I find it rather ironic that M$ hasn't learned from all of these buffer-overflow exploits they've been dealing with over the last two years . . .

A Look Back at Baldur's Gate II -- 8:14 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Dr. Ray Muzyka wrote a look back at the development of Baldur's Gate II for Gamasutra. Muzyka is one of the CEOs of BioWare and co-Executive Producer of BGII. The article is very similar in style to Gamasutra's famous game post mortems. It's well worth your time.

More Shogo Walkthroughs -- 4:36 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I added two more Shogo walkthroughs for your, um, walking-through pleasure! 19_Rendezvous: The Mecca and 20_Maritropa1: Shinara District.

UPDATE! 10:50 P.M. I just added three more! 24_CMC_Sec1: Rescue Attempt, 25_CMC_Sec2: The Favor, and 26_Tram: Runaway Train

Visor In Red Hat 7.1 -- 2:18 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I managed to get my Handspring Visor to sync in my Red Hat Linux 7.1 install! It was really easy actually since most of the necessary stuff is install already by default:

1. Install jpilot-0.99-1.i386.rpm from the RH 7.1 Powertools CD
2. As root, issue these two commands:
   1. ln -s /dev/ttyUSB1 /dev/pilot
   2. chmod 666 /dev/ttyUSB1
3. Run jpilot
4. Hit the sync button on the cradle and then click "Backup" or "Sync" in jpilot

Getting Over Daily Radar -- 10:00 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

For those of you still mourning the loss of Daily Radar, Lowtax has whipped up something special for you in today's update on Something Awful. As always, SA is not for the easily offended, so The Master might want to avoid this link.

The Master comments: Now, you'd think from that comment from A.T. that I'm some kind of straight-laced person. However, he knows I could easily turn The Haus into a somethingawful if I didn't keep myself under control :-)

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