Wednesday, June 19, 2002

FTC Sues RAMBUS -- 9:50 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

The Federal Trade Commission has brought suit against RAMBUS for abusing its position on the JEDEC (a memory standards group) to file patents. The company had been attempting to use these patents to force memory makers to pay them royalties for SDR RAM and DDR RAM. I saw this on CNBC this afternoon (No, really! I find myself watching way too much CNBC sometimes). The above link is from the Motley Fool, my favorite investing website. Here's a quote:

The "law firm parading as a technology company" model is being subjected to some significant stress-testing, and the FTC has just ensured that the battle for Rambus is nowhere near settlement.

Justice might take a while, but when it gets there . . . WHAM! RAMBUS stock dropped 35% of its already meager value on the news.

The Master comments: BwaAHAHAHAHAhahahAHAAHahaha >:-)

Very Cool JKII Maps -- 11:56 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I've downloaded a number of custom maps for Jedi Knight II. Many are uninspiring. Several that I like don't include bot routes. However, today I downloaded three maps that are very cool, figuratively and literally. They are KEKTIK's maps, two free-for-all and one duel. All of them have an ice/cold theme and are very well designed. The author really knows his way around the editor. Do yourself a favor and check out those maps!

Create Yourself in Lego -- 10:23 am CST, Update by J.t.Qbe

This is pretty cool. Maybe we need a Haus gallery?

A.T. Hun comments: OK, I'll start. That's a 25K PNG. And here is J.t.'s. His is a 10K JPG. Let his picture serve as a reminder of the importance of taking your prescription medication.

Slackware 8.1 Released -- 9:45 am CST, Update by J.t.Qbe

Complete with KDE 3 and Mozilla 1.0, it's Slackware 8.1! Get it while it's hot!

You never forget your first Linux. For me it was Slackware 3.0 on a 486SX/25 back in 1996.

Neverwinter Nights Hits Stores -- 9:35 am CST, Update by J.t.Qbe

There have been some sightings (and purchases) of Bioware's newest AD&D game Neverwinter Nights at EB and Babbages stores around the continent, especially in Canada. I haven't been following this one very closely; it seems to follow in the Baldur's Gate tradition but with a heavy emphasis on multiplayer capability and user-created adventures. One feature which hasn't gotten much press is the Linux server and client. That really might tip the scale for me.

Tuesday, June 18, 2002

Serious Sam Port Update -- 10:48 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

icculus updated his .plan with more information on his port of the Serious Sam game(s) to Linux. Here's a snippet for your viewing pleasure:

It seems all the rendering bugs have been shaken out with the ASM fixes. Every couple hours of gameplay you fall through the floor (!), which will be a nasty bughunt, but I'm getting to be pleased with the current state of the port.

Networking stuff. The good news: it works between Linux boxes. The dedicated server and the client are both fully functional. However, it doesn't work at all against win32 boxes, and vice-versa.
. . .
Next up for me is a minor bug when pulling down the console in-game, and patching up to the latest Croteam sources. I'm thinking beta after that.

Beta! I am sooooo there.

Linux Users: Calm Down -- 9:05 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

That's the basic summary of this ExtremeTech editorial. The author is a relatively new Linux user. He made the plunge when Microsoft added the product activation "feature" to Windows XP. I agree with his points. Far too many Linux users are way too quick with the flamethrower when it comes to helping newbies or dealing with Windows users. It's a very easy temptation to give in to. Unfortunately, all it does is further the stereotype that all Linux users are mannerless geeks and the Linux OS itself is only for those with the requisite "1337ness."

Thankfully, I know guys who have been very helpful as I took my first teetering steps into Linux (J.t.Qbe and Crawl come to mind in particular). When I was trying to get the wireless drivers to work, the driver's author was unbelievably helpful and patient. Fortunately I've learned to ignore the ulcerous few who only bash and offer nothing constructive.

J.t.Qbe comments: After a while you get pretty tired of the zealots, though, who have more time and volume than brains. The BSD community has a lot less noise.

Disabling Popups in Netscape 7.x -- 7:27 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I'm hearing some reports that Netscape 7.x doesn't have the checkbox to disable pop-up/under ads. Thankfully, you can get it to work anyway. Without Netscape running, edit your prefs.js file and add this line:

user_pref("dom.disable_open_during_load", true);

That will do the trick. It will be interesting to see if that preference makes it into the final Netscape 7.x build.

Software == Bad -- 10:04 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

MSNBC reprinted this Technology Review article on what software, in general, is so bad. Naturally, Microsoft (who is most often in the crosshairs on this issue) blames the user.

"Users are tremendously non-self-aware," Myhrvold adds. At Microsoft, he says, corporate customers often demanded that the company simultaneously add new features and stop adding new features. "Literally, I've heard it in a single breath, a single sentence. 'We're not sure why we should upgrade to this new release â€" it has all this stuff we don't want â€" and when are you going to put in these three things?' And you say, 'Whaaat?'" Myhrvold's sardonic summary: "Software sucks because users demand it to."

Um, sure. So, by that logic, if customers demanded dashboard-mounted hibachis and seatbealts made of piano wire, then the Big Three automakers better design cars with them. If these people are blithering idiots, then why listen to them? (OK, I already know why. They may be idiots, but they have lots of cash.)

Maybe the author's conclusion is correct. There needs to be a round of massive lawsuits. Maybe once enough companies fail or hemorrhage enough cash software will change. Until then . . . Thanks Slashdot.

Stanley Cup Fever -- 9:12 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Apparently I'm not the only one who has caught it. According to this Detroit Free Press article, at one point this past weekend, Meijer (a Michigan-based chain of stores) reported selling 6,000 Red Wings t-shirt sales per minute. I've asked my parents to pick up some championship stuff for me. Unfortunately, it's hard to find a northern Wisconsin sporting goods retailer who even knows what a "Red Wing" is.

The Master comments: Try being Eeyore. She's a Cincinnati Reds fan; first they don't sell a lot of merchandise anyway, and second, they sell NOTHING in NE Wisconsin. I love being dragged into sporting goods stores knowing full well they're not gonna have squat to sell her :-)

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