Monday, May 8, 2000

Q1/QW .qc Source Release -- 8:33 pm CST, Update by The Master

John Carmack updated his .plan with word of the Quake 1/Quakeworld .qc (QuakeC) source code release under GPL. QC is the programming environment used to script Quake 1 and Quakeworld mods.

The .qc files for quake1/quakeworld are now available under the GPL in source/qw-qc.tar.gz on out ftp site. This was an oversight on my part in the original release.

Thanks to the QuakeForge team for doing the grunt work of the preparation.

John Cash Leaves id! -- 6:53 pm CST, Update by The Master

According to Graeme Devine's .plan update, John Cash has left id to work for Blizzard. Here's the scoop:

John Cash departed from id last Friday to a new position at Blizzard. I'll let him fill you in on what he's doing there, but we miss his CTF skills already! We wish John all the best, and id looks forward to the forthcoming Diablo II beta copies..

More Micro$oft Antics -- 11:32 am CST, Update by J.t.Qbe

From the you-gotta-see-it-to-believe-it department: AltaVista reports that Bill Gates has written an essay for this week's Time magazine stating that if Micro$oft is broken up as the DOJ has requested, new viruses like ILOVEYOU would be harder to protect against. Huh? Since when has M$ cared about viruses attacking users? M$ throws security out the window (no pun intended) and collects the money; if you get viruses because of its security holes, tough luck. This does shows Bill's true talent, though: using any possible means to further his own plans and purposes.

In other M$ news, M$ has offered more weak concessions in return for not being broken up. Reports are that M$ will supposedly "offer computer makers more flexibility to alter Windows software and make available versions of Windows that do not provide access to the browser." Can you say, "Too little, too late?" I thought you could.

Report on the New TFC Netcode -- 8:25 am CST, Update by The Master

There's a blurb up on HalfLifeCEntral indicating that the New TFC 1.5 Netcode kicks butt. For those hardcode HL people, this is very good news.

My ping dropped around 30 or 40 points. Though my ping was around 200, it felt as if it was a 90 ping. That was incredible. This will mean that even higher near 300 pings will feel extremely smooth. Now this isn't to say that every net connection will now feel like a LAN. But lag now manifests itself in different ways. The delay isn't on your mouse click > gun shot, instead there's a slight delay with your shot registering / hitting your opponent. This works out much better. With a towering ping, I was still successfully sniping (which would be unheard of with the current netcode).

LOVEBUG Writers Going Down -- 8:20 am CST, Update by The Master

According to Yahoo! News, the people connected with the release of the ILOVEYOU virus are soon to be in custody.

What's funny is M$ has made it SOOO easy to write viruses nowadays, people can write very simple code, attach it to an email, and guarentee that they'll be attacked with global multi-billion dollar lawsuits for loss of business and damage to private property. My advice to virus writers? Don't. It's not worth being caught over.

New mIRC Released -- 8:14 am CST, Update by The Master

For those who use the ever-popular mIRC, there is a new version over on the mIRC homepage that is supposed to fix AKB (All Known Bugs) and add several new features.

Wolfie Sequel Screenshots -- 8:13 am CST, Update by The Master

There are several screenshots over on The Adrenaline Vault of the sequel to Wolfenstein 3-D. The unnamed title is under development at Gray Matter Interactive using the Quake 3 engine.

A.T. Hun comments: I don't think it's unnamed. The title is "Return to Castle Wolfenstein," AFAIK.

History today -- 8:11 am CST, Update by The Master

• 1846: First major battle of the Mexican War fought in Texas. US Forces under General Zachary Taylor are victorious.
• 1886: Atlanta pharmacist John Pemberton invents the flavoring syrup that he calls Coca-Cola.
• 1942: The Battle of the Coral Sea ends when the US Pacific Fleet manages to turn back the Japanese invasion fleet from New Guinea.
• 1944: The first eye bank is established.
• 1945: President Harry Truman announces the victory in Europe over the Germans. V-E day.
• 1973: American Indians who had been holding the South Dakota hamlet of Wounded Knee surrender after 10 weeks.
• 1984: The Soviet Union announces that it will boycott the the Los Angeles Summer Olympic Games.
• 1996: Former Nazi SS Captain Erich Priebke went on trial for involvement in the killing of 335 men and boys in the worst WW II atrocity committed in Italy.

Sunday, May 7, 2000

Linux Installation How-To -- 1:47 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

PlanetQuake has a four page article in their Tech Tips column on installing and setting up Linux, primarily to run Quake 2. He gives a run down on a number of Linux distributions, one of which I take exception to:

1) RedHat - Used to be great, now it's slow, bloated, and breaks way too easily. Using this one is a Bad Idea.

Of course, he doesn't back up that statement with anything. What makes it intrinsically "slow" or "break too easily" is beyond me.

While the article is moderately helpful and would give a beginning introduction into Linux, it will not replace a good beginner's book by any means (I like Learning Red Hat Linux myself). I also would suggest that you not follow his limited instructions for partitioning your drive. He doesn't explain very well why he does what he does. Even though I do use Linux, I'm not sure I understand what he's doing.

Of course, if you have an NVIDIA card and you want to use the new XFree 4.0 drivers, you might want to check out my little article on my adventures installing them.

J.t.Qbe offers words of wisdom (or whatever): I'm not sure that the article is even moderately helpful as far as installing Linux goes. Yikes! If you're new to Linux, you have to go out and buy a book. You just have to. "Running Linux" is the classic, though light on installation instructions. Most distributions have decent install manuals in their boxed sets. Some distributions really are easier to install than Window$, but in general you really need some guidance if you're new.

Speaking of distributions, the choice is something of a religious issue. A.T., you started with Red Hat and you're a fan. I started with Slackware and still like it best (I use Slack7 on my workstation at work). I've used many of the popular distributions, so FWIW here's what I think:

I don't know that Red Hat can really be considered "bloated", but it does seem to break easily lately. My RH6 install broke last fall and it was just easier to get rid of it. I do like Mandrake better than Red Hat--it does seem more current and more stable. If you're going to use the term "bloated", try a full install of SuSE--7.5 GB is the minimum required for SuSE 6.3! It has a LOT of software, though. Caldera and Storm are nice systems, though the "free" version of Storm is more a limited capability demo. And I think Slackware is the best: a lean, mean Linux machine!

The hard drive technique he describes is used for drives over 8GB and with an older version of LILO. All but the most current LILO can't boot partitions over 1024 cylinders, which works out to 8GB on many large drives today. If your Linux partition is past that 8GB limit, you have to have a small boot partition under that limit which LILO can use to boot your system. It's kind of a pain, and the latest LILO does fix that problem.

I hope that this guy's gaming info is more useful than his installation info. It's serviceable, but just barely.

Q3A V1.17 Source Released -- 1:39 pm CST, Update by The Master

Robert Duffy updated his .plan with word that the Q3A version 1.17 source code has been released. There aren't many changes, but it is recommended you go get it

Update! There's a source diff posted online over on PlanetQuake3.Net.

Microsoft Concessions -- 1:16 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Microsoft is writing a reply to the U.S. Department of Justice's plan to break up the company. Among the more interesting offerings from M$ is this:

Under the proposal, Microsoft would be required to provide open, timely and complete access to the parts of the Windows operating system code used by independent software companies to design their software applications to run on Windows.

Note that "open," "timely," and "complete" are not defined in the article. It seems clear that M$ is not about to make Windows open-source. This quote made me laugh:

"The DOJ plan bans the addition of any significant new end user features to Windows for up to 10 years," one of the Microsoft lobbying documents states. "The DOJ plan would effectively reduce Windows to a small core of low-level functionality that performs only the most basic operations."

Read: the DoJ won't let us bloat up Windows any more! Is there anyone who actually thinks that Windows couldn't use a little deflating? The core of M$'s argument is that the DoJ plan would stifle innovation. I guess they would know. Thanks Slashdot.

History Today -- 1:21 am CST, Update by The Master

• 1847: AMA (American Medical Association) is founded.
• 1915: The British passenger liner Lusitania is torpedoed off the Irish coast. Nearly 1,200 people lost their lives.
• 1939: The Rome-Berlin Axis is formed as an alliance between Italy and Germany.
• 1945: Germany signs an unconditional surrender to Allied forces. In addition, the 100-ton TNT test detonation for the Trinity nuclear test was done on this date.
• 1963: The U.S. launches the Telstar II communications sattelite.

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