The Linux Operating System has recently been gaining ground even for those who aren't exactly, how should we say it...tech saavy. One of the things that Linux lacks and can prevent people from moving over entirely, including myself are computer games. Yes the consoles have started to put PC gaming seemingly in the background, but there are still many who swear by gaming with the keyboard and mouse. Wine, the popular Linux software that allows you to run Windows apps under Linux, including games has improved tremendously lately, but it still doesn't do a good enough jobs for enough games to truly allow for it to be a 100% go-to option. It's compatibility list is growing but still not where it needs to be to make Linux a truly viable platform. There are some games that are built for Linux and allow a native install like Unreal Tournament 2004 and Quake 3, but the few games that can hardly be counted as the norm.

The Case For:

• Unreal Tournament 2004, Quake 3, and others have shown that popular 3D games can be built to natively run under the Linux OS.
• Linux has become more of a truly viable platform for the PC in both laptops and desktop computers.
• The OpenGL libraries are already in place in most Linux desktop environments so 3D games are entirely possible without having to build everything from scratch.
• There are plenty of proven cases where proprietary software can be natively installed on Linux without divulging the source code, so game makers don't have to worry about their source code being released.
  

The Case Against:

• Linux, while it has gained ground in marketshare, still only makes up a small percentage of the PC Operating System market making it less appealing for game developers to build on while selling enough to make up for the cost of development.
• There is no central graphics interface, like DirectX to allow for a uniform utilization of the graphical power of computers.
• Piracy has hurt the PC gaming industry and to put funds into developing for another platform that already doesn't match the marketshare of Windows may not seem cost-efficient for companies to put money into.
  

What Needs to Be Done:

• The development of a central platform like DirectX, only for Linux should be developed. Creating it will allow for a central library for developers to use to make the development of games easier for the game developers.
• Word needs to get out more on Linux, to show companies that Linux can indeed be a viable platform for game companies to develop software and games for.

Tags: linux, opensource, tech

I finally got around to watching Randy Pausch's 'Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams' and that is probably, without a doubt, the most powerful speech I have ever heard. If anyone has not watched it, I would strongly suggest you do. The way he presents himself is amazing and his legacy will live on I'm sure.  RIP Randy Pausch.

Randy Pausch's 'Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams'

Tags: lastlecture, speech, powerful

A couple of months ago, I finally gave Last.FM a try after hearing some good things about it and finally running out of excuses to try it. I was impressed by it. I found a bunch of new bands with a lot of good music. I liked the social aspect, although I never got around to using it. The idea behind it seemed pretty solid and had a pretty good variety of bands and music.

Fast forward to yesterday. Last.FM now has a big competitor in the form of Pandora. (yes Pandora has been out for much longer, but I just decided to try it out yesterday) Pandora is similar in many ways to Last.FM but in several key ways its different. You can create seperate radio stations adding different artists to "pool" from, in other words, Pandora with the help of the Music Genome Project finds artists similar to the ones you select. Also, if you want you can do a QuickMix which allows you to listen to music found from whatever stations you select as if they were all combined into one. I could go on and on about how good Pandora is, but suffice it to say I'm quite impressed. There is a lot of music in their library and it is a great way to hear and discover new bands.

On a side note, to any Pandora user who happens to own an iPhone. If you haven't already done so, download the Pandora App from the App Store. It's free and provides access to your stations while out and about. And if you have the first gen iPhone, don't worry, its been streaming for me just fine over EDGE.

Tags: music, pandora, internet, radio

Lately there's been a lot of Spam being submitted to Mixx, some even being made popular and onto the front page. I know many top Mixxers are pissed off at it and I'm one of them. Social Media/News sites are always prime targets so having some spam submitted has to be expected. But what's been going on at Mixx lately is well beyond that. Mixxers who have been around are even voting for some of this shit that gets submitted, some Supermixxers even. I don't know whether they're voting for it because they're part of some spam voting ring, whether they just are too lazy to pay attention to what they're voting on, or what, but that's fucking wrong.

Then there are the voting rings, people all linked together voting stuff up just to get their shit on the front page, submissions that probably wouldn't even get to 5 votes without the voting ring. I've seen evidence of it and voting rings HURT sites like Mixx. And the fucking spam voting rings are even worse. All of a sudden some porn video or some spam makes front page, you view it and 20 spammers all voted for it. Spam accounts solely there to just vote up spam (sock puppets if you will) to try to get it to the front page. I report it and there are 5 more votes for it also from spammers.

Then of course there are the revenge votes, I got many of my stories voted down yesterday by a few spammers and other jackasses in revenge for me voting down and reporting them for spam. And don't think revenge voting is limited to spammers. Normal users too are guilty of this. Assholes who get pissed off that someone downvoted ONE of their stories, take revenge by voting down EACH AND EVERY ONE of yours. Grow up people, one downvote isn't the end of the world. And of course you have those people who will downvote anything and everything that doesn't match up perfectly with their beliefs, the ones who feel that if you don't believe what they believe than you are wrong. I may not agree with everything everyone else believes in, hell I'm sure I don't, but you won't see me going around and just voting it down because of that reason alone.

Comments are another issue, leaving only comments like "great article", or "nice" do nothing but clog the comment stream. Once in a while is ok, but add some value to the conversation, don't just post comments. I'm not even going to get into the one Mixx user who happens to write 300 line comments that pretty much end up being off topic onto articles that don't conform to what he/she wants.

I know Bdog2g2, gbarberi, loup.dargent and others, including myself, yesterday were trying to go through Mixx and help get rid of the crap that's been building up and submitted to Mixx. I hate to say it but we showed very little mercy. We all like Mixx, and don't want to see it filled up with spam, so we decided to go on the offensive for a change. I can't speak for them personally, but I know I want Mixx back, the Mixx I saw when I first joined where there was a lot of conversation, and quality discussion over some of the crap that makes the front page.

So to any other Supermixxers out there, keep your eye out for the spam that gets posted...report it and note it to help keep shit off the front page, we don't need to see it.

I just want to end with one note.

Yesterday I downvoted some spam stories and reported a user for spamming. About 15 minutes later I get a MixxMail from him saying that he reported me and was gonna get me kicked off of Mixx, also saying that Mortalwind did so before and he got back anyway. He then also proceded to downvote every story I submitted over the last 2 months (I really don't feel like spending the time counting how many back were downvoted, suffice it to say, it was a LOT) Well when I got this, I just laughed and shrugged it off because I didn't do anything wrong, I'm simply going after the spammers who think Mixx is their stomping ground. It might be kind of jerkish to say, but I wish I could've seen the look on his face when he realized he just got the boot from Mixx (he was booted sometime in the evening yesterday).

Tags: mixx, spam, crap

Unbelieveable....that is all.

Tags: batman, movies, darkknight