tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-92606672024-03-06T22:57:53.673-05:00Ad Astra Per AsperaPhotography, Technology, Free Software, and LegoPatrick McFarlandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01015764950008637195noreply@blogger.comBlogger196125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9260667.post-1146053355793048082006-04-26T08:06:00.000-04:002006-04-26T08:09:15.810-04:00Goodbye to BloggerThis is my final post on shadowconflict.blogspot.com. I shall now be posting on my new wordpress blog, <a href="http://www.adterrasperaspera.com/">Ad Terras Per Aspera</a>. I'll be setting this blog up as a redirect of some kind soon, so everyone, please change your URLs.Patrick McFarlandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01015764950008637195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9260667.post-1141520758771424842006-03-04T19:58:00.000-05:002006-03-04T20:13:23.050-05:00Evangelion's Positron Rifle, and Future Japan<strong>Caution: This math may be wrong.</strong><br /><br />In episode 6 of Neon Genesis Evangelion, NERV borrows a positron cannon from a government research lab to deal with the latest threat. This cannon takes all of Japan's power output, for 37 seconds, to charge the rifle for one shot. According to the <a href="http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ja.html">CIA World Factbook</a>, Japan produced 1.017 trillion kWh for the whole year in 2003.<br /><br /><code>1.017 trillion kWh per year/365 days/24 hours = 116 million kWh per hour</code><br /><br />So, Japan produces 116 million kWh per hour. However, Makoto Hyuga states that it will take atleast 180 million watts to pierce the AT field of the angel Ramiel. Seeing as it takes 37 seconds to charge the rifle*...<br /><br /><code>180 million kW per 37 seconds * (3600 seconds / 37 seconds) = 17460 million kWh per hour</code><br /><br />So, if my calculations are correct, the rifle would need 17460 million kWh to charge for an hour; unfortunately, this is quite a lot higher than the 116 million kWh per hour Japan produces, infact, it is 150 times more. So, if Evangelion's Japan in the year 2015 is to be able to power the rifle, it needs to produce 150 times more power than 2003 Japan does.<br /><br /><sub>* Counting from the ejection of the first shot's fuse, to the pulling of the trigger for the second shot.</sub>Patrick McFarlandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01015764950008637195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9260667.post-1137469103959628762006-01-16T21:42:00.000-05:002006-01-25T05:25:22.776-05:00Finished WorkstationWell, I'm finally done my workstation I think.<br /><br /><table><tr><td valign="top"><strong>Before:</strong><ul><li>Intel Pentium 3 550</li><li>Asus P3B-F Motherboard</li><li>256MB of PC100</li><li>30GB IBM Deskstar</li><li>Sapphire Radeon 8500 128MB</li><li>ES1371</li><li>Lite-on 48/40/12x CD Burner</li></ul></td><td valign="top"><strong>After:</strong><ul><li>AMD Sempron 2600+</li><li>MSI K8T800 Neo-V Motherboard</li><li>2GB of DDR400</li><li>250GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 SATA</li><li>Sapphire Radeon 9600 Pro 256MB</li><li>Audigy 2 ZS</li><li>Plextor PX-716A</li></ul></td></tr></table>In little under $1,000, I transformed my ancient decently performing computer, into a more modern decently performing computer. Actually, now I can play Homeworld 2 with the <a href="http://www.pds.hwaccess.net/">Point Defense System 7.0</a> mod and not run into slow downs with large battles, I can also compile larger programs with gcc in shorter time, and I can also render stuff in offline photorealistic 3D renderers faster.<br /><br />So yeah, this will be my new workstation for the next two or three years, I think.Patrick McFarlandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01015764950008637195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9260667.post-1136350489241882902006-01-03T09:50:00.000-05:002006-01-03T23:54:50.330-05:00The Downfall of Sega, Part 2And now part 2 of my lengthy rant. <a href="http://shadowconflict.blogspot.com/2006/01/downfall-of-sega-part-1.html">Read part 1 here</a>.<br /><br /><strong>Oh Cassini, help us!</strong><br />The mention of the Sega Saturn makes me cringe. I mean, Sega finally produced a new console, and everyone wanted to love it. Hell, I owned one, and I loved it; but Sega decided to kill it for me. In 1994, Sega released the Saturn, and in 1997 they quit production of it.<br /><br />Internally, the Saturn reminds me a lot of the 32x: Dual 28MHz Hitachi SH2 processors and a pair of video processing units modeled after the video processing unit in Sega's System 24 and System 32 arcade systems. The memory included 1MB fast and 1MB slow system memory, two sets of 256KB for the framebuffer, two sets of 512KB for use of each of the video processing units, 512KB for sound sample caching, and a larger CD cache than what was in the SegaCD.<br /><br />So, that doesn't sound like a bad system, right? Well, for one, the pair of SH2s is slower than what was in the 32x, though the faster memory and faster main bus more than makes up for it; the 32x was held back by the slow memory and main bus. Main system memory in the Saturn was eight times what it was in the 32x, and could be expanded using external expansion cards (which very few games used).<br /><br />Also, the sound hardware is setup using a Motorola 68k paired with a Yamaha FH1 DSP. Compared to the Genesis, the 68k and FH1 pairing is far more powerful than the Genesis' Z80 and Yamaha YM2612, plus it can do anything the 32x and SegaCD sound hardware can do, including PCM sample playback and many channels of complex music synth and sound effects.<br /><br />So, ultimately, the Saturn is sorta like if they took the 32x and SegaCD, the 3D hardware from their System32 arcade system, and a more powerful sound setup than anything seen before, and combined it all together to produce a new console.<br /><br />Hardware wise, it beat the pants of Sony's Playstation and Nintendo's N64, but looking back at history, we know hardware does not make a successful platform. Sega failed with the Saturn in five major ways:<ul><li>Sony gave the Software Development Kit (SDK) to all third party developers, but Sega only used it internally withholding it from all outsiders.</li><li>The Saturn 's opening day price was over US$400, vs the Playstation's US$300.</li><li>The Saturn suffered from development problems the same way the 32x did, few developers knew how to efficiently use dual processors in a Slave/Master configuration (unlike modern PCs which use a symmetric multi-processing (SMP) setup).</li><li>Sega promised that they'd port many Japanese games to English, especially all the popular titles.</li><li>The substandard construction and poor support of the SegaCD and 32x bred distrust in the Sega fandom, and many people converted to Nintendo and Sony, never to look back.</li></ul>But that isn't what put the final nail in Saturn's coffin: The then CEO of Sega of America decided to not support the Saturn, and refuse to port games here. I mean, not just unpopular ones, but any. This violated Sega's promise to the few fans who were left that they'd bring many games here to America.<br /><br />This prompted Sega of Japan to evict the CEO of SoA and install a new one that would actually follow the wishes of SoJ; however, this came too late, and the Saturn was quite dead in the American market by then, even though the Saturn was selling well in the Japanese market. At this point, Sega started work on the Sega Dreamcast, the most powerful and final console of Sega's empire.<br /><br />As the American market fell apart, this caused the cancellation of the Saturn's installment of the <em>Sonic</em> series, <em>Sonic X-treme</em>, and they also decided not to bring <em>Panzer Dragoon Saga</em> to America, which is arguably one of the best games ever produced for the Saturn and one of the best games ever to hit a Sega console.<br /><br />The Saturn died, and in it's place, Sega offered the Dreamcast.<br /><br /><strong>ドリームキャスト: <em>It's thinking</em></strong><br />The American release of the Dreamcast was September 9th, 1999, or as the marketing put it, 9/9/99. Five years ago, in Janurary 2001, the Dreamcast marked the end of Sega as we knew it, Sega soon afterwards became just a software vendor and merged with Sammy, another well known vendor of games.<br /><br />Even though the Dreamcast was Sega's last console to be produced, it cannot be blamed for the downfall of Sega. The Dreamcast is considered Sega's best effort to remain in the market, and a threat to Nintendo and the newcomer Sony. What really killed Sega was the failure of the 32x and the SegaCD, which in some sort of chain reaction, took the Saturn out as well.<br /><br />That said, the Dreamcast did well in the market. On opening day in America, the Dreamcast sold over 225,000 machines, with 200,000 of them being pre-ordered, and over 500,000 of them being sold in the first week; Sega made $98.4 million in profit with the 9/9/99 launch. These records were held until Sony released the Playstation 2 in late 2000.<br /><br />The Dreamcast was well received, and clearly was defeating it's competition, Nintendo's N64 and Sony's Playstation, but Sony in turn defeated the Dreamcast with the Playstation 2. Once again, Sega produced a superior platform (the only thing missing on the Dreamcast that the Playstation 2 did have was a DVD drive).<br /><br />The Dreamcast was basically the Saturn done correctly. Powered by a 206Mhz Hitachi SH4 (which was far more powerful than the aggregate power of the Saturn's dual SH2) with a built-in special-use computational engine; a PowerVR2 CLX2 (ie, a real 3D engine) to handle all the 3D rendering work; and a 47MHz ARM7 with a customized Yamaha DSP to do sound, the Dreamcast was very powerful.<br /><br />It also had a fair bit of system memory at a total of 16MB, eight times what the Saturn had. The Dreamcast's 8MB of video memory (2.5x of the Saturn) and 2MB of sound memory (4x of the the Saturn) wasn't something to sneeze at either.<br /><br />Sega didn't repeat any mistakes on this one, it had a single processor that didn't require any special (read as: convoluted) programming, it could do modern 3D processing comparable to a PC (only the XBox, Gamecube, and Playstation 3 share that distinction with the Dreamcast), and it had <em>Sonic Adventure</em> ready for release day. Everything went perfectly.<br /><br />Yup, you heard me, I can't say Sega did anything wrong with the Dreamcast. It even came with a built in Internet gameplay device, something no other platform before ever did, compared to the Playstation 2 that didn't even have useful online gameplay until 2002.<br /><br />The Dreamcast isn't even really dead, even though Sega no longer produces or supports them; many third party publishers continue to produce and release games, some even sold in Japanese retail stores. Even now, <em>Radilgy</em> was just released for the Dreamcast (which Sega is now selling refurbished Dreamcasts for), and <em>Under Defeat</em> is being released real soon now.<br /><br />The Dreamcast may be the most perfect console ever produced.<br /><br /><strong>Conclusion</strong><br />Ultimately, Sega failed because they tripped up on two add-on devices for the Genesis. The Genesis was a great console, the Saturn wasn't a bad console, and the Dreamcast is one of the best consoles ever produced.<br /><br />This stands as a lesson to future game companies: if your target market doesn't trust you, or you've previously abused their trust, or simply if you confuse them by releasing multiple similar devices, they might find someone else to buy things from, and won't come back to you when you figure out you've done wrong.<br /><br />However, the Sega of the old days will always be remembered as they left their mark on video game history, and even now they still continue to produce games, and the <em>Sonic</em> series of games has found itself a new home on Nintendo's Gamecube (with <em>Sonic Riders</em> soon to be released), Gameboy Advance (featuring the <em>Sonic Advance</em> series of games), and DS (with <em>Sonic Rush</em>).Patrick McFarlandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01015764950008637195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9260667.post-1136297166910797902006-01-03T05:40:00.000-05:002006-01-05T02:13:05.756-05:00The Downfall of Sega, Part 1I played, and finished, <em>Sonic CD</em> for the first time today. It wasn't that bad of a game; it was no <em>Sonic 3 and Knuckles</em>, but it was about on par with <em>Sonic 2</em>. Unfortunately, even though the CD audio background music and the small number of full motion video was cool, it did little to enhance the gameplay. <br /><br />While playing it, I thought about how Sega failed not only itself, but all Sega fans everywhere. I've decided to compile my thoughts, so here's a warning, this entry is quite long, and may take awhile to read; it's also full of technical terms, and delves into the technical side of game platform development.<br /><br />Also, I've decided to split this into two halves, part one is about the Genesis, SegaCD, 32x, and the Neptune; part two will be about the Saturn, and Dreamcast.<br /><br /><strong>In the beginning...</strong><br />In 1988, Sega released the famous sequel to their lackluster Sega Master System: the Sega Megadrive, or as we call it here in America, the Sega Genesis. This console was Sega's foray into the world of 16-bit game consoles, and they managed to make a successful platform out of it.<br /><br />Between the <em>Sonic the Hedgehog</em> series of games, and smart marketing, it put Sega on the map. Sega continued to be widely recognized as a console manufacturer until they quit the console business with the utter and complete failure with the Saturn, and then the Dreamcast.<br /><br />The hardware inside the console was very powerful; between the fast 8Mhz Motorola 68k, the giant helping of 64KB system and 64KB video memory, the well designed custom video processing unit, the Genesis was very powerful. (Remember, this was 1988, people were still using 386s and running DOS.)<br /><br />The best selling game, <em>Sonic 2</em>, sold millions of copies via one of the best marketing schemes, Sega's famous <em>'Sonic 2uesday'</em>. You can't hope for anything better than this. So, you, my faithful readers, are probably asking yourselves, "Wow, Sega rocks! What could possibly have gone wrong?" Everything.<br /><br />The Genesis kept selling well, and both <em>Sonic 3</em> and <em>Sonic and Knuckles</em> also sold well. Sega knew that Nintendo's Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) managed to make up the gap in popularity, and was beating the Genesis in sales and popularity, so Sega decided to make something new; actually, they ended up making two new things, the SegaCD and Sega 32x add-ons to the Genesis.<br /><br /><strong><em>"150KB/sec is enough for anyone!"</em></strong><br />Oh boy, what the hell was Sega thinking. Its like after the creation of the Genesis they decided to turn off their brains, and just produce crap for the next ten years. The SegaCD was simply an add-on 1x CD drive for the Genesis, and the Genesis plugged into it. It was released in 1991.<br /><br />Inside the SegaCD was a faster 12.5Mhz 68k, a second audio processor (with 64KB of RAM dedicated to it) to mix high quality stereo PCM and CD audio, which was combined with the Genesis's own audio processor to do traditional Genesis audio work as well as enhanced PCM sample playback, an additional 768KB of system memory, and another video processing unit that would add allow the Genesis to do effects similar to the SNES's Mode 7 (however, don't expect something like <em>Mario Kart</em>, it wasn't powerful enough) and to decode full motion video (which it wasn't very good at).<br /><br />But as I said earlier, the CD drive itself was a mere 1x, and many games suffered from severe lag from loading data from the CD; unlike cart-based games where nothing needed loaded, and could be directly accessed/executed. Particularly, <em>Mortal Kombat CD</em> would pause for several seconds when doing complex moves, because it needed to load data off the CD.<br /><br />Because the CD drive was so slow, most games decided just to have a few full motion video sequences, some CD audio background music, and fit everything else they needed in the 768KB of system RAM. In comparison, Genesis games couldn't do CD audio/PCM sample playback or full motion video, but they had up to 4096KB to store anything they needed in the cart itself, and in my opinion, the trade-off was worth it.<br /><br />Between that, and the release day selling price of ¥49,800 (vs the Genesis' own release day selling price of ¥21,000), the add-on was a failure; and the first true killer app for it, <em>Sonic CD</em> was released three years after the release of the SegaCD, in 1994, right about the same time the 32x was released.<br /><br /><strong>Now with thirty-two times the suck!</strong><br />Okay, so the SegaCD was a failure, that shouldn't mean anything, right? Wrong. It only started a long standing tradition of Sega consoles sucking. The Sega 32x, released in 1994 for about ¥18,000 (at least they got the damn price right), was an add-on that plugged in as a cart slot, and allowed you to plug both normal Genesis and 32x games into it.<br /><br />The 32x was almost like a completely different console. Where the Genesis was powered by a single 68k, the 32x was powered by twin 32Mhz Hitachi SH2 processors; Sega changed to a completely incompatible processing architecture, totally unlike the 68k, and developers had to learn the new processors from scratch; or rather, some did, a vast majority of others simply ignored the platform or incorrectly used it because of that..<br /><br />In addition to the twin processors, it had a new linear framebuffer design with a simple graphics co-processor, allowing it to composite alpha-blended graphics, and also composite 32x and Genesis graphics in the same scene.<br /><br />The 32x did all scaling, rotation, and 3D graphics in software instead of using some hardware accelerated method; this arguably made the 32x as powerful as a SNES doing Mode 7 with a SuperFX math co-processor. However, this did not bode well seeing as the SNES was released in 1991, and the first SuperFX game was released in 1993.<br /><br />Rounding the 32x off, was 256KB of main system RAM; a third of what was added by the Sega CD. Also lacking from the SegaCD was the ability to play back and mix PCM samples, the 32x simply added another synth (which like the SegaCD) was paired with the Genesis's main one.<br /><br />Unlike the the SegaCD, the 32x had no killer app. The <em>Sonic</em> title for the 32x didn't even have Sonic in it, just Team Chaotix in their self-titled game <em>Knuckles' Chaotix</em>, which had horrible and very annoying game play. I've played the game myself, and I can't stand it; I feel it was rushed, badly planned, and even though it was on the 32x, it was no more graphically intense than <em>Sonic 3</em> was.<br /><br /><strong>The Neptune</strong><br />At that time, I remember thinking, why don't they just release a Genesis that has the 32x and SegaCD built in for little more than what it costs to buy a plain Genesis. About two years ago, I learned about Project Neptune, Sega's half-hearted answer to that way of thinking.<br /><br />Originally, the 32x was supposed to be a self-standing platform, a sequal to the Genesis instead of an add-on, as requested by Hayao Nakayama, CEO of Sega of Japan. This original concept project was called Project Jupiter. A few engineers from SoJ and a Sega of America decided to split and create Project Mars, which became the 32x; other engineers joined Project Saturn, which ended up producing the Sega Saturn. Communication between the two projects was very poor, and the 32x and Saturn ultimately became competing products.<br /><br />Joe Miller (head of Project Mars, from SoA) decided that no one would actually want a simply upgraded Genesis, and ordered that the 32x be built as an add-on instead. By the time Miller realized he was wrong, and build a few prototypes of Project Neptune, a combo Genesis and 32x, the Saturn was already shipping. Project Mars and Project Neptune were complete and utter failures: Project Saturn crushed them.<br /><br />And this ends part 1. <a href="http://shadowconflict.blogspot.com/2006/01/downfall-of-sega-part-2.html">Read part 2 here.</a>Patrick McFarlandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01015764950008637195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9260667.post-1133494591878207072005-12-01T22:18:00.000-05:002005-12-01T22:36:32.896-05:00Bootchart on Ubuntu LiveCDs?I was having a discussion in <a href="irc://irc.freenode.net/ubuntu-devel">#ubuntu-devel</a> about bootchart and in how well in detail it measures the boot up process, so I suggested that it should be added to LiveCDs as to measure a 'stock' setup more easier. The IO records wouldn't be valid against anything but other LiveCDs, but doing this could make testing random machine's performance a lot easier.<br /><br />Jeff Schroeder wants this to be an option on the boot menu, and thinks that it should "have a little wizard to email the bootchart back to ubuntu.org" and Brandon Hale wants Oliver Grawert to add the ability to use bootcharts to <a href="http://hwdb.ubuntu.com/">hwdb</a>.Patrick McFarlandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01015764950008637195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9260667.post-1133496003599518142005-12-01T19:37:00.000-05:002005-12-02T19:06:11.860-05:00Ubuntu Dapper Boots in 45 Seconds<a href="http://shadowconflict.com/blog/dapper-20051201-2.png"><img src="http://shadowconflict.com/blog/dapper-20051201-2-t.jpg" alt="bootchart for infinity" /></a>... well, on my machine at least. And the funny part is, thats slow; must be the apache2, mysql, openssh, and distcc adding ten seconds (from Dapper's default 35) to it.<br /><br />I could switch from openssh to dropbear, but dropbear doesn't support fuse's sshfs correctly (to my much dismay, seeing as I can't openssh to my openwrt and use a real vi locally on my workstation because of that...), and seeing as I run a local copy of gallery2, I can't drop apache2 or mysql. Oh well.Patrick McFarlandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01015764950008637195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9260667.post-1133395107799700782005-11-30T18:52:00.000-05:002005-11-30T20:37:07.766-05:00Playing Metallica Backwards?<a href="http://tonalsoft.com/enc/j/marc-jones-defs.aspx">Tuning Terms by Marc Jones</a>.<blockquote><strong>Satanic comma:</strong> The difference between 665 fifths and 359 octaves, less than 1/10 of a cent, around 1/15878 of an octave. Marc sees this as a possible musical insight into the cryptic quote from the Book of Revelation, citing “the beast” as a man-made number which only someone with understanding could calculate: “It stands to reason that if the 665th turn of the cycle of fifths, modulo octave, is so close to unison as to be imperceptible, and deceive you as unity, then similarly the 666th turn would be able to deceive you as being a true fifth. (coined 1990, as a parody on the name of the syntonic comma.)</blockquote>Patrick McFarlandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01015764950008637195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9260667.post-1133229506931486312005-11-28T20:53:00.000-05:002005-11-28T20:59:17.263-05:00Blogger has missing API functionality?I just figured out why the counter for Backlinks don't work... there is no <code><$BlogItemBacklinkCount$></code>, even though there is a <code><$BlogItemCommentCount$></code>. Could someone over there at <a href="http://www.blogger.com/" rel="tag">Blogger</a> add this?Patrick McFarlandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01015764950008637195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9260667.post-1133229057580131892005-11-28T20:47:00.000-05:002005-11-28T20:50:57.616-05:00Mega Man Rock OperaYou'd think "Mega Man" and "Rock Opera" would be completely and totally seperate concepts... <a href="http://radiofreeinternet.imjasonh.com/index.php/archives/2005/11/08/89/">The Protomen</a>. Really great music, and really great lyrics, and I can't wait until they release their album.Patrick McFarlandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01015764950008637195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9260667.post-1132554919539049642005-11-21T05:24:00.000-05:002005-11-21T01:35:19.586-05:001 YearWow, time flies... I've been running this blog for one whole year now.Patrick McFarlandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01015764950008637195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9260667.post-1132496722826050632005-11-20T09:24:00.000-05:002005-11-20T23:27:38.006-05:00Updated TemplateWell, I've fixed all the long standing bugs with the template and the various themes, I think. I fixed that really nasty KHTML rendering bug, too. However, I seem to have broken comments in the process... I'll have to go fix that.<br /><br /><strong>Update:</strong> I've added a favicon.ico as well, a minaturized version of the Jupiter photo I use for the (blue) Skyfather theme's background. Its not that great of an icon, but it seems to do the job, and its better than that generic orange B logo that Blogger uses.<br /><br /><strong>Another Update:</strong> I've fixed comments, and now they look better than they did before. Now, lets see if I can switch from Haloscan trackback to Blogger's new backlink method.<br /><br /><strong>Update-o-rama:</strong> I've switched to backlink, and re-enabled comment posting. Everything should be working better now.Patrick McFarlandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01015764950008637195noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9260667.post-1132444093712540642005-11-19T15:18:00.000-05:002005-11-20T08:40:33.596-05:00Itano Circus Modeled<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.outthere.info/SG_BAKAC_05/SG_BAKAC05_31.htm"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3975/667/200/SG_BAKAC05_31.jpg" alt="Itano Circus" border="0" /></a>I've been looking at plastic models for a long time, and I don't think I've ever seen anyone model an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itano_Circus" rel="tag">Itano Circus</a>. <br /><br />It looks like he took cotton balls and glued them on posable wire, but I'm not sure. Anyone out there have ideas?Patrick McFarlandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01015764950008637195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9260667.post-1130924991864309782005-11-02T04:29:00.000-05:002005-11-20T04:54:06.176-05:00Microsoft Insider Steals Gorm 1.0<a href="http://insidethedotnet.blogspot.com/">Mick Sorenson</a>, from his blog <em>Inside The dotNET</em>, has admitted that <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/" rel="tag">Microsoft</a> has been stealing <a href="http://www.fsf.org/" rel="tag">Open Source Software</a>.<blockquote>Our lawyers have pretty much assured us that the GNU Public License (and other related viral licenses) are invalid due to them giving too many rights to the users; and by giving the code away, they are making the code public domain and giving up their copyright... or something like that. IANAL, but thats pretty much the gist of it.</blockquote>(...)<blockquote>Project Sierra Tango Foxtrot Uniform Apple (or, simply, STFU Apple) is the official name of the GNUstep intergration project. Right now, we're using Gorm 1.0 (which came out a few days ago) , an application like Apple's Interface Builder, but vastly improved and easier to use.</blockquote>I'm not sure if this is real or not, but the screenshot looks pretty good (although easy to fix), and what he's saying rings true. Microsoft knows they have fallen behind <a href="http://www.apple.com/" rel="tag">Apple</a>, and it's because Apple integrated NextSTEP into OSX when they bought them out. Though, stealing <a href="http://www.gnustep.org/" rel="tag">GNUstep</a> isn't quite the answer... infact, its an illegal answer, the kind that allows the FSF to sue Microsoft into the ground, and then sue them some more. I'm willing to say that the FSF will sue Microsoft so hard, Bill Gates' great grandchildren will have an irrational fear of lawyers.Patrick McFarlandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01015764950008637195noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9260667.post-1129437521526093342005-10-16T00:35:00.000-04:002005-10-16T00:38:41.533-04:00Anime and DSL and No CodingWell, now that I've gotten DSL, I code even less now, downloading the latest fansubs. Remember kids, don't DSL and Anime.<br /><br />The More You Know ミ☆!Patrick McFarlandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01015764950008637195noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9260667.post-1129226127894879122005-10-13T13:14:00.000-04:002005-10-13T13:55:27.936-04:00Ubuntu 5.10 Breezy is OutIf you haven't noticed, <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/newsitems/release510">Breezy has finally been released</a>. In the first 8 hours, the mirror at mnet.net.uk uploaded almost 3500 CD ISOs, and the mirror at acc.umu.se uploaded almost 2225 ISOs. I wonder if this means 5725 potential new users...Patrick McFarlandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01015764950008637195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9260667.post-1129162158173660702005-10-12T19:41:00.000-04:002005-10-12T20:09:18.193-04:00Geek PornYou know, the Internet is a great place. Its a place where anyone interested in something can find other someones interested in anything. In this case, many geeks out there have remarked on how much porn sucks (no pun intended). Its all about ignorant morons wearing wife-beaters banging brainless, but living, sex dolls; and I find porn like that to be quite boring, and sometimes offensive, and very far from the erotic display it is supposed to be.<br /><br />And I'm not the only one out there who thinks that, not by far. There are literally tens of thousands of my fellow geek brethren who think most, if not all, porn is complete shit. And just the subject matter isn't bad, there are students in film classes all over the world that don't make the mistakes that porn directors do: bad lighting, bad camera angles, static camera placement; and then the actors and actresses are horrid: their rendition of their lines (if any) are flat and lack emotion, they act like they don't want to be there, and they simply go through the motions.<br /><br />What we need, folks, is porn for geeks. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.ernestcline.com/spokenword/Nerd_Porn_Auteur-Ernie_Cline.mp3">Ernest Cline - Nerd Porn Auteur</a>, <a href="http://www.ernestcline.com/spokenword/npa.htm">(transcription)</a>.Patrick McFarlandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01015764950008637195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9260667.post-1129127971854443652005-10-12T10:24:00.000-04:002005-10-12T10:47:47.976-04:00Microsoft + E-Machines = Massive StupidityEd Foster tells a <a href="http://www.gripe2ed.com/scoop/story/2005/10/11/030/82390">story about a tech and his adventures with E-Machines machines and Windows XP,</a><blockquote>Because of the new motherboard, of course, Windows XP activation was triggered. "During the requisite call to Microsoft for an activation number, we were told that Microsoft could NOT give us the activation for this particular copy of XP since it was sold through a 'special licensing agreement' with E-Machines. Even though we had the 25-digit license number, Microsoft insisted we would have to contact the manufacturer for the activation number. Two separate calls to E-Machines elicited the same response. NO activation number would be given since we did not install an 'official' and expensive E-Machines motherboard. So the customer is forced into purchasing another copy of Windows XP even though they already paid for the original license when they first bought the computer and have all the required proof."<br /><br />In other words, the reader's customer -- who has done nothing wrong other than have a motherboard fail on him -- has the choice of paying ransom to E-Machines or to Microsoft to have a functioning OS again. Which led the reader to wonder just what would constitute piracy in such a situation. "We all know there are plenty of copies of XP that work fine without the product activation scheme," the reader wrote. "Usually these are copies of corporate or academic versions of XP originally sold by Microsoft with broad licenses covering many computers. Is this customer justified in installing such a 'pirated' copy of XP on this system? Or should the customer have to buy yet another copy of XP, and presumably throw his old copy in the trash, just because his motherboard failed?"</blockquote>There is only one proper way to respond to this: <strong>Fuck you, Microsoft</strong>. Why do you think people are pirating Windows; or worse, switching to alternative operating systems (such as the <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/">Ubuntu Linux</a> distro?) Because they are tired of the shit you pull.<br /><br />For those out there that want to startup a new commerical software buisness, here are three rules you should follow:<ol><li>Do not treat your customer as your enemy, remember that they are ultimately your boss and decide if you get to eat this month.</li><li>Do not make it difficult to use your product, if they find it difficult to use they will just use something else.</li><li>Do not abuse the trust of your customers, remember the consumer industry runs on karma and everything you do will come back to you ten fold.</li></ol>Microsoft has managed to break all three of those rules in just this one instance, and I seriously don't see Microsoft even lasting long enough to get Vista out the door (which is at least another 4 or 5 years away).<br /><br />Sorry, Bill, but it seems to be time to look for another job.Patrick McFarlandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01015764950008637195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9260667.post-1128737952857363872005-10-07T20:12:00.000-04:002005-10-07T22:21:45.846-04:00OpenSolaris Gives FOSS Community IndigestionAs seen on <a href="irc://irc.freenode.net:6667/gnustep">#gnustep</a>:<blockquote><bheron> aurynn: OpenSolaris is a joke.<br /><bheron> No one is really going to use OpenSolaris for serious work.<br /><aurynn> Not until it gets some momentum<br /><aurynn> which it is doing<br /><Diablo-D3> bheron: thats what I've been saying<br /><Diablo-D3> it cant get any momentum<br /><Diablo-D3> all the clueful developers are too busy working on linux or fbsd<br /><bheron> I can't really back up that feeling with hard data, but it's just a feeling I have.<br /><bheron> It feels like too little too late.<br /><Diablo-D3> bheron: its called a gut feeling.<br /><Diablo-D3> and my gut is saying "too much fucking junkfood, ugh."<br /><bheron> Diablo-D3: Yes, that would be indigestion. ;)<br /><Diablo-D3> I cant help think its partially induced by Sun.</blockquote>Humans are not good at three things: the first, and most obvious, is that we rarely agree on things and often decide to do things completely differently than someone else; the second, and just as obvious, is that our stomachs aren't good at dealing with junk food, and we often get indigestion; the third, and slightly less obvious, is we are over optimistic about certain things in our lives due to our ignorance of some things we should know better about.<br /><br />We can extrapolate the second item into the fact a community digests ideas, thoughts, and techniques the same way our stomachs digest food. Communities, like our stomachs, have a bitter enemy: something that doesn't quite agree with them, but we keep trying to digest anyhow.<br /><br />My stomach sometimes doesn't agree with those little microwavable Totinos Pizza Rolls, yet I eat them anyhow; I know better, I really do, but when has knowing better ever stopped someone? I down a few Tums, and I'm fine. However, the FOSS community has a similar need for Tums (due to knowing better and ignoring that, and we're probably suffering from a case of acid reflux as well): bad licenses.<br /><br />We, the FOSS community, have been eating high-calorie meals made of Common Development and Distribution License burgers, IBM Public License fries, Apache Software License shakes, and those tasty little hot Apple Public Source License pies; and we've been getting indigestion from trying to integrate code from those licenses into our healthy GNU GPL fish diet.<br /><br />Sure, we can always pick up eating strict vegetarian meals, but I neither run BSD, nor do I play monks in Nethack. However, OpenSolaris is a weird pairing of diets: you have the high-protein/high-cholesterol fad diet of Atkins, that is, CDDL code and you have the high-fiber diet of BSD code. In other words, you're going to die of cholesterol-induced massive heart failure while enjoying smooth bowel movements, that is, while producing a load of shit.<br /><br />So, instead, I run Linux. I get the occasional BSD salad mixed in with my GPL fish diet, and the very rare high-calorie meal of non-GPL compatible licenses; due to this unique way out eating, I stay healthy and fit, and don't get indigestion.Patrick McFarlandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01015764950008637195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9260667.post-1127151928910245992005-09-19T13:42:00.000-04:002005-09-19T13:45:28.916-04:00John Hall Died<a href="http://overcode.yak.net/1">John Reeves Hall died September 17th at 9:40 PM.</a> I'll miss him.Patrick McFarlandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01015764950008637195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9260667.post-1126502953556098382005-09-12T01:23:00.000-04:002005-09-12T01:29:13.560-04:00FEMA SucksI just found this <a href="http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/fema.html">post</a> by a AboveTopSecret Forum administrator detailing how FEMA detention camps are no different than what the Nazi's used in World War 2.<blockquote>I'm extremely depressed to report that things seem to only be getting sadder concerning the people so devastatingly affected by Katrina last week. Two car loads of us headed over to Falls Creek, a youth camp for Southern Baptist churches in Oklahoma that agreed to have its facilities used to house Louisiana refugees. I'm afraid the camp is not going to be used as the kind people of the churches who own the cabins believe it was going to be used.<br /><br />Jesse Jackson was right when he said "refugees" was not the appropriate word for the poor souls dislocated due to Katrina. But he was wrong about why it is not appropriate. It's not appropriate because they are detainees, not refugees.</blockquote>This is bullshit, and it needs to stop. These are people, not prisoners.Patrick McFarlandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01015764950008637195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9260667.post-1125710616197452372005-09-02T21:05:00.000-04:002005-11-15T13:39:45.210-05:00What's wrong with SF.Net, Itemized<a href="http://blog.dev.sf.net/index.php?/archives/22-guid.html#extended">Kris Chapman over at the SF.Net Engineering Blog</a> is asking what the community thinks works and doesn't work. This is what I think.<br /><br />What doesn't work:<ul><li>The lack of a clean CSS layout means it is hard for users to use the website in diverse environments. Many users who have special needs (such as using audio readers who depend on clean website layout), or simply users who want to access the website from a low resolution device (640x480 screens, cell phones, PSP, etc) cannot deal with the lack of a clean layout.</li><li>The lack of good XHTML. The current SF.Net tag soup is the equivalent of a 14 year old script kiddy hopping on an AOL chatroom, and saying, "Y0 m4ng!1, w4ts upz0r!!!lolone!!eleven!" Welcome to the year 2005, where people use validating XHTML, and quit making poor Firefox use <a href="http://www.mozilla.org/docs/web-developer/quirks/">quirks mode.</a></li><li>God forsaken <iframe> ads. I don't really minds ads, people have to pay for their website somehow, but please! Drop those iframes! If you really need to support HTML layouts for ads, do something cool like dynamically insert the HTML using AJAX.</li><li>The really backwards setup of SF.Net tracker. As much as people hate Bugzilla, and bitch about it's usability bugs, its still lightyears ahead of the tracker. The tracker needs to match Bugzilla feature for feature, and I wouldn't be against the cloning of the Bugzilla interface.</li><li>Doodad Box bloat in the layout. I agree that Most Active and Top Downloads are useful, but they do not belong on most pages. IMHO, they belong two places, the front page, and My SF; nowhere else, its a waste of space.</li><li>Lack of bandwidth/server power. Its not related to the design itself (actually, it is, if the layout would use half the images, I'd use half the bandwidth, because no client is properly caching the images anyhow), but the site is also slow because too many users are hitting the servers.</li><li>Lack of forum/mailing list/whatever else integration. Too many projects have a huge disconnect between the 'web user' and the 'clueful user' groups. Web users typically use forums, the actual users we care about use mailing lists and/or news groups. For projects that have both enabled (which most do), the two groups have a hard time communicating with each other. What we really need is to get rid of forums, mailing lists, and the previously existing news groups, and fold them all into a single system. Someone can post from an email client, a news client, or a web client, and it all goes to the same place and talks to the same users.</li><li>Get rid of comments on news items for both SF.Net news items and project news items. This is another case of communication method overload. Whatever users want to say using the comment system, it needs to be said somewhere else, commenting on the news entries is not the way. No one is using them anyhow.</li><li>Get rid of project news items altogether. You know what? Quite a few projects aren't even using them, or are using them improperly, or just aren't keeping them up to date. The only place a project has to report news is their website space given to them by SF.Net.</li><li>Project's DB sucks. Yes, another thing not related to the SF.Net website itself, but it still reflects on the user experience. I don't personally use the server myself, but I've been told its often slow, crash happy, unresponsive, and way overloaded. This should be the next thing to get loving from Santa. (CVS has been a naughty child, and it got two or three new overpowered boxen, how sad.)</li><li>The download system.</li></ul>What does work:<ul><li>Anything I haven't bitched about. If I don't bitch about it, I probably haven't even noticed it. The more transparent a service is, the better designed it is. The perfect sf.net setup would involve a system that could accommodate any user's work flow. And I really mean any, not most, and not half. Any.</li><li>The new stats system. It works quite well, its a little glitchy, but its a clear step up from what we had before.</li><li>The donation system. This is another useful service. Its always been hard to properly recognize our generous friends in the audience, mainly because we could not automate the system, but now we can. However, a lot of projects are not using the system, and giving users their Paypal address directly to avoid paying the "SF.Net tax". Now, I agree with SF.Net's assessment of the situation ("If you make money, so should we, especially since we are effectively hosting your stuff for free, and this costs a lot of money"), but for projects to do this, they are not helping their users, their generous donators, themselves, SF.Net, or the whole FOSS community. So, please, keep the Eeny-Weeny Wrenches and Gears.</li></ul>Now, I understand you wanted us (the community) to nitpick things, but we can't even nitpick things until the biggest issues are fixed yet. Sure, dark green is easier to read than light green, but whats the point if the whole system is designed wrong? Kris, come by <a href="irc://irc.slashnet.org/sourceforge">#sourceforge on irc.slashnet.org</a> sometime, and talk to the people there. You'll find out what you need to know.Patrick McFarlandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01015764950008637195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9260667.post-1125281093419201782005-08-28T18:30:00.000-04:002005-11-20T04:55:04.550-05:00Trackback is Not DeadJeremy Zawodny decided today to <a href="http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/005049.html" rel="tag">declare trackbacks dead</a>. Excuse me while I stifle a giggle. With all the services that support trackback now (including Yahoo! News), and third party services to add trackback easily (such as <a href="http://www.haloscan.com/" rel="tag">Haloscan</a>, like I use), trackback is far from dead.<br /><br />Though, theres a few people who agree with Jeremy: "<em>Trackbacks are a good distributed system similar to fallout shelters of the 50's. At the time, we really needed them, but now with the rise of Technorati, Feedster and PubSub, we have something much better than trackback.</em>" <a href="http://houseofwarwick.com/2005/08/24.html#a1584" rel="link">says Steve Kirks</a>.<br /><br />For those that aren't versed in the ways of Blog-fu, a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trackback" rel="tag">trackback</a> is, according to Wikipedia, "a mechanism used in a blog that shows a list of entries in other blogs that refer to a post on the first blog." In other words, its a method to reply to blogs by using your own blog.<br /><br />Trackbacks are not without problem, of course. There is the vicious scourge of trackback spam, where spammers send a trackback back to your blog, and try to convince your readers to buy their product. See <a href="http://abates.tetrap.com/archives/2005/08/24/mo_blog_spamming.html">this entry</a> Alden Bates' Weblog for an example of what people have to do to stop spamming, its quite simple.<br /><br />If trackback dead, why would Haloscan have more than 100,000 users*? Or why would Yahoo!, C|Net, and other big name sites support trackback? And I certainly wouldn't have added trackback to my own blog if I didn't think it was useful.<br /><br />Supporters of alternate systems often say <a href="http://www.technorati.com" rel="tag">Technorati</a>, <a href="http://www.pubsub.com/" rel="tag">PubSub</a>, or other systems are the answer. They are simply <em>part</em> of the answer. Technorati simply tracks links mentioned from blogs, as to be able to see who is linking to who/what; problem is, you can't display how many links are linked to your blog entry itself, unlike comments or trackbacks.<br /><br />PubSub, on the other hand, is sorta like a Google for information sources, and you get all your results in an RSS feed. Amazingly useful, yes, but its only part of the answer. Neither PubSub nor Technorati allow your readers to be informed of further information contained on other blogs; said further information is written by your readers. In other words, your readers communicate with each other and form a community.<br /><br />"Why is a community important?", you ask. Communities are what power blogs, or really, all websites. Comments, trackbacks, forums, and message boards all allow users to communicate with each other. Then you also have websites and blogs about communication forms themselves, such as IRC channels and Usenet groups, or mailing lists, or just stuff for people who know each other in real life.<br /><br />Just to prove trackback isn't dead, I'm going to trackback to Jeremy's article.<br /><br /><sub>* 100,000 is quite a lot when you realise Movable Type and WordPress both natively support trackback, and a vast majority of active blogs use MT or WP.</sub><br /><br /><strong>Update</strong>: The Net Is Dead has <a href="http://www.i-marco.nl/weblog/archive/2005/08/27/trackback_is_not_dead">a few good comments</a> on why trackback isn't dead, and Temple of the Screaming Penguin <a href="http://www.screaming-penguin.com/main.php?storyid=5225">explains why Pingback, an alternative to Trackback, doesn't work either</a>.Patrick McFarlandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01015764950008637195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9260667.post-1125220356636815642005-08-28T05:04:00.000-04:002005-08-29T01:32:55.563-04:00Idiot Steals PhoneEvery day, cell phones get stolen. Well, apparently this one moron <a href="http://www.longislandpress.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=2037&">didn't get away with it</a>, and was stupid enough to take pictures of himself using the cell phone, and the owner setup the phone to log all pictures taken. Said owner emails crook:<blockquote>Like to steal cell phones and use them to take pics of yourself and make videos.... HA! guess what pal... i have every pic you took and the videos.... I will be plastering the town with pics of your face, that %!$#*& face and the childs face.... wow thieves really are dumb.... good day pal<br /><br />oh yeah by the way.... the phone is now just a paperweight and can never be used again...</blockquote>Fucktard replies:<blockquote>yOoOo pimp tell sabrina i said hi ima b bangin her like i did my gurl n save on ur phone n dont b madd my dick betta den urz</blockquote>Good bye, fucktard. Have a nice time in federal bang-you-in-the-ass prison.Patrick McFarlandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01015764950008637195noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9260667.post-1124859883641822622005-08-24T00:02:00.000-04:002005-08-28T04:11:34.643-04:00Play Hunt the Wumpus on Google TalkAdd wumpus.game@gmail.com to your <a href="http://talk.google.com/" rel="tag">Google Talk</a> account, and message play to him. It plays a game of Hunt The Wumpus, the classic UNIX game, with you.Patrick McFarlandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01015764950008637195noreply@blogger.com3