Tuesday, August 14, 2001

Reigning in the Web -- 10:53 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Technology Review has an excellent article showing why the web will be tamed. He argues that it is not a question of if but when the Internet will be brought under governmental or corporate control. Those who claim the 'Net is uncontrollable might not realize how wrong they are until it is too late. The careful reader will note the author's obvious dislike for the Free Software Foundation. Thanks Slashdot.

The Master comments: What I think most internet users, and almost every single "free is the only acceptable option" fanatic forgets is this: the internet is not free. Somebody is paying BIG money to run OC-192s so you can download and upload your free software. Those backbones make the internet work. When somebody decides to make those toll roads, the internet is going to be in big trouble. If controls are going to be put in place, that's where it's going to be done.

ATI Reveals New Radeons -- 6:50 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

AnandTech has a preview of ATI's new chips, the Radeon 7500 and 8500. The new Radeon 8500 has features galore, but the big question is whether or not ATI will get decent drivers out for it. It's nice to see ATI giving NVIDIA some serious competition so NVIDIA doesn't get fat and sassy.

The Master comments: You mean, like 3dfx??

Investors Suing RAMBUS -- 1:40 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

According to The Register, a class-action lawsuit is being brought on behalf of investors against RAMBUS. Here's the main bits:

New York-based law firm Beatie and Osborn filed a class-action suit against the memory developer late last week on behalf of shareholders. The suit alleges that Rambus violated US securities regulations, specifically that the company persuaded would-be investors to buy RMBS stock by claiming it would be able to deliver revenues from royalties on patents that it didn't actually own.

I probably shouldn't have enjoyed that article as much as I did :)

QuakeCon Overview -- 12:23 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Shacknews posted their overview of the games presented at QuakeCon, covering Soldier of Fortune II, DOOM for the GBA, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and Jedi Knight II. I would like one of each, thank you.

Monday, August 13, 2001

Loki Bankrupt -- 11:19 pm CST, Update by The Master

Loki, the company that did just about every Linux port for games released in the last two years, has filed for bankruptcy protection accourding to LinuxReports. Ouch. Thanks Blue.

A.T. Hun comments: Thus the Linux gaming community goes straight to hell. The more I study it, the more I realize that trying to port games to Linux is not economically viable. Too many Linux users think that all software should be free (by every definition, especially as in "free beer"). As long as that opinion has sway, there will not be money to be made in Linux gaming.

Having said that, this is chapter 11 bankruptcy not chapter 7 so the company should be able to continue to exist while still taking care of its creditors. Of course, if chapter 11 is necessary, you have to wonder about the company's overall health. Investors aren't exactly going to be lining up to throw wads of cash at them.

Dynamix Closed -- 8:57 pm CST, Update by The Master

It's official: Dynamix has been officially closed [comments link from TribalWar].

Dynamix was an impressive company that put out a good-looking series of games. Hopefully everyone will be able to move into new jobs soon.

A.T. Hun comments: Lessee, everything King Midas touched turned to gold. What does everything that Sierra touches turn into?

Carmack Interview -- 8:54 pm CST, Update by The Master

There's a 4 part video interview with John Carmack online over on Gamespot. It's pretty technical, but that's normal with anything Carmack does :-)

I'm not sure if it's GS or RoadRunner (probably RR) but my playback was nearly useless. Don't use the WMA stuff either-Real played MUCH smoother. Don't know if that's an encoding issue or what.

Writing Unmaintainable Code -- 1:38 pm CST, Update by The Master

J.T. Qbe pointed me to this lovely writeup on How To Write Unmaintainable Code. Good laugh there. However, while reading, I would have swore that this came from some internal Microsoft programming standard (anyone remember bunny.351?)

MOO3 Interview -- 12:22 pm CST, Update by The Master

There's a new New Interview with Alan Emrich, Master of Orion 3 designer, up over on Player.at.1 Thankfully, it's in English. Not a lot of new stuff in there, but it sounds like things are moving along at a good pace. Release is guestimated at March of 2002. Not much longer now :-)

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