Saturday, December 22, 2001

FBI and Windows XP -- 11:26 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of Defense have issued a bulletin about the WindowsXP exploit that was recently discovered in their plug-and-play code. I'm not so sure how I feel about this. Government pressure on Microsoft wouldn't be bad since they appear to be their old, arrogant selves about this. They have refused to contact customers about this patch, even given the severity of it. On the other hand, I've always felt it necessary to keep the government out of people's lives as much as possible. Thanks Slashdot.

This is a classic case where security through obscurity doesn't work. M$ refused to issue any warning about this until a patch was available. As a result, anyone using WindowsXP and connecting to the Internet was wide open to a complete takeover of their box or to become a zombie for a DDoS attack. I find that to be utterly unacceptable. They're hoping that since this was not publicly announced, no one would know about it and exploit it. Are you willing to bet your box and your data on it?

NFL Week #15 -- 9:28 am CST, Update by The Master

Eeyore's picks for Week 15: Dolphins, 49ers, Raiders, Falcons, Ravens, Rams, Chargers, Giants, Saints, Bears, Vikings, Steelers, Cardinals, Packers, Jets.

A.T. Hun comments: I keep forgetting about all these early games! Here we go: Patriots, 49ers, Raiders, Falcons, Bears, Seahawks, Rams, Steelers, Ravens, Chiefs, Saints, Jaguars, Cowboys, Packers, Jets.

Mozilla 0.9.7 Released -- 12:14 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Version 0.9.7 of the Mozilla open-source web browser project has been released. Check out the release notes for the changes and other pertinent information. What are you waiting for?

UPDATE! Hooray! It appears that whatever bug was causing some fonts to be displayed too small has been fixed. Once I switched my display resolution in the Mozilla preferences to 96 dpi, everything is peachy again. Sweet! The only weird thing is that my X dpi is actually 81x81 according to xdpyinfo. Oh well, as long as it works. N.B. I only had this problem in Linux, not in Windows.

Friday, December 21, 2001

Quake II Goes GPL -- 7:19 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

id programming guru, John Carmack, updated his .plan with word that the code for Quake II has been released under the GPL. Cool stuff for you budding game programmers. Why not learn from the best? Here's the whole update:

The Quake 2 source code is now available for download, licensed under the GPL.

ftp://ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/source/quake2.zip

As with previous source code releases, the game data remains under the original copyright and license, and cannot be freely distributed. If you create a true total conversion, you can give (or sell) a complete package away, as long as you abide by the GPL source code license. If your projects use the original Quake 2 media, the media must come from a normal, purchased copy of the game.

I'm sure I will catch some flack about increased cheating after the source release, but there are plenty of Q2 cheats already out there, so you are already in the position of having to trust the other players to a degree. The problem is really only solvable by relying on the community to police itself, because it is a fundamentally unwinnable technical battle to make a completely cheat proof game of this type. Play with your friends.

Q3A/TA 1.31 Linux Patch -- 7:14 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

id has released the 1.31 patch for Quake III Arena/Team Arena for Linux. It is a 27.1M download that fixes a sound crash in addition to the non-Windows-specific issues mentioned yesterday. You can download it from id's FTP site, 3D Downloads, and Blue's News.

Duke of URL RIP -- 5:34 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I just saw on Linux Today that The Duke of URL is going to be no more. That's a pity since they had a number of very fine Linux reviews and articles. The Linux community is the poorer for it.

RtCW Multiplayer Demo Released -- 12:40 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

As promised, id, Nerve, and co. have released the multiplayer demo for Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Right now, only a Win32 version is available. Blue has a list of mirrors. It weighs in at 66.3M and includes the new "Trench Toast" level. That level is also available as a separate download for people who already own RtCW.

Close, But No Cigar -- 10:29 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

VisorCentral reviewed the Sprint PCS Wireless Web Digital Link module for Handspring PDAs. It is a cellphone module that also allows for web surfing, SMS, sending email, etc. I would REALLY like a module like this so I could carry one thing instead of the PDA and phone seperately. The main problem is that it only supports 1900Mhz CDMA digital. Although they promise a free firmware upgrade when 3G becomes available (allowing for up to 153K transfers), there is no analog mode for roaming away from major metropolitan areas. The other problem is the price: $250, the same price I paid for my Visor Deluxe a year and a half ago. They havea $60 rebate right now, but that's still pricy. At that price, I'd be better off waiting for a Handspring Treo, although it appears that the Treo will not have analog capabilities either.

RtCW Multiplayer Demo Today -- 9:42 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I don't know how I missed this one yesterday. GameSpot is reporting that id, et al, will be releasing a multiplayer demo of Return to Castle Wolfenstein today. Included will be a new level "Trench Toast," which will be available for download seperately for those who already own RtCW. We'll certainly bring you links to the mirrors as soon as the demo it released. Thanks Blue.

Past Two Days' News

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