Jacob Lludkrab's Personal Weblog.

Open letter to Nexon

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 21:41:00 -0800

제발 한국을 읽고 아래로 스크롤합니다.

Hello, my name is Jacob Lludkrab, I am an advocate for Free Software.

I am writing in hopes that this letter might reach the Combat Arms developers, or those in charge of the licensing of Combat Arms. Will you please forward it to the appropriate recipients?

Nexon having developed in part “Counter-Strike: Online”, have knowledge of the GoldSrc engine, which is based on id Software’s Quake engine. With this recent history of gaming engines, the developers must be aware of the decision by id Software to license the Quake engine under the GNU GPL. I am proposing the developers and those in charge of licensing consider making the same decision. As Combat Arms licensed under the GNU GPL would benefit Nexon greatly in the long term.

The Combat Arms developers and the large number of those whom play the game are well aware of the problem facing Combat Arms right now, and that has faced Combat Arms through the course of its history; those referred to as “hackers”.

“Hackers” more often than not are people simply modifying the binaries for the game to exploit a simple design flaw in the program. And this is easily fixed. But as demonstrated after each fix, one design flaw fixed either opens another, or simply adds a road block to the exploit. And the exploit remains, and the “hackers” continue to disturb the games well perception.

Combat Arms licensed under the GPL, and with the source code visible, you would have people whom have knowledge of how the exploit works be able to fix it, and the other exploits down the road. You may be aware of the term used for this “more eyes means better security.”

And this is just one of the benefits.

Another being that with the source code available the game may be “forked” in order to make it cross-platform. Many people are calling for a Combat Arms version for GNU/Linux and Mac OS X, and what I’ve seen from how the game executes (via WINE, and partial reverse-engineering), this would be an easy task as well.

Cross-platform games are of a limited quantity. Taking advantage of this relatively unexplored area can only be good for Nexon. While Combat Arms is up against games like the greatly successful games from id Software such as Quake, Doom, Enemy Territory, and others, Combat Arms is only available for Microsoft Windows, while the games mentioned are also available for GNU/Linux, Mac OS X, and other Unix-like operating systems.

Combat Arms is also competing with other gratis (free as in price) games like the Battlefield Heroes, BlackShot, CrossFire, and others, which are only available for Microsoft Windows as well. Therefore if cross-platform can be achieved by releasing the source code under the GNU GPL, Nexon can successfully take advantage of gamers on other platforms that other game developers currently don’t.

With Nexon developing Combat Arms, and WarRock, Nexon is basically leading in the gratis FPS (first person shooter) gaming area on the Windows platform, but not on any other platform, but Nexon could easily come to lead on other platforms by simply liberating Combat Arms, WarRock, and HackShield by licensing them under the GNU GPL, and therefore becoming Free Software.

Please reconsider your licensing, even if only for Nexon’s benefit.

Regards,
Jacob

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안녕하세요, 제 이름은 야곱이 Lludkrab, 나는 자유 소프트웨어에 대한 옹호입니다.

난 희망이 편지 컴뱃 암즈 개발자, 또는 그 컴뱃 암즈의 라이선스 요금에 도달할 수 있기 때문에 쓰고 있어요. 앞으로 제발 그것을 적절한받는가?

넥슨의 일부는 “카운터 스트라이크 : 온라인”로, id Software의 퀘이크 엔진을 기반으로 GoldSrc 엔진의 지식을 가지고 개발하는 데. 게임 엔진이 최근의 역사를 가진 개발자가 id Software의에 의해 결정은 GNU GPL 아래 퀘이크 엔진의 라이센스를 알고 있어야합니다. 내가 개발자의 제안은 오전과 라이선싱 담당 동일한 의사 결정을 고려하십시오. 마찬가지로 컴뱃 암즈은 GNU GPL 아래 크게 장기적으로 이익이 될 넥슨 라이센스.

컴뱃 암즈 개발자들을 대상 경기 중 많은 수의 문제가 아니라 지금 컴뱃 암즈에 직면 알고있습니다, 그리고 그 역사의 과정을 통해 컴뱃 암즈에 직면하고있다, 이들에게 “해커라고도”.

“해커”보다 더 자주는 아니지만 사람들이 단순히 프로그램의 심플한 디자인의 결함을 악용하는 게임에 대한 바이너리를 수정합니다. 그리고이 쉽게 고정됩니다. 하지만 각 고친 후, 하나의 디자인 결함을 수정하거나 다른, 또는 단순히 악용하는 도로가 블록을 추가합니다 열립니다 시연했다. 그리고, 그리고 “해커”여전히 잘 인식 게임을 계속 방해을 악용.

컴뱃 암즈 GPL 하에서 허가된, 그리고 소스 코드를 볼 수와 함께, 당신은 누구의 작품이 어떻게 그것을 고칠 수있을 거에요, 그리고 길 아래에있는 다른 악성 코드 공격의 지식을 가진 사람도있다. 당신이 용어는이 “더 많은 눈을 사용하는 분도 계시 겠지만 더 나은 보안을 의미합니다.”

그리고 이것은 바로 하나의 장점 중 하나입니다.

소스 코드와 함께 게임을 제공하기 위해서는 그것을 크로스 플랫폼으로 만드는 또 하나는 “갈래”되고있을 수있습니다. 많은 사람은 GNU에 대한 컴뱃 암즈 버전에 대한 전화 / 리눅스와 맥 OS X, 그리고 무엇을 어떻게 게임을 와인 (및 일부 리버스 엔지니어링)를 통해 실행에서 본 적이있는이 쉬운 작업이 잘 될 것이다.

크로스 플랫폼 게임 한정 수량입니다. 이 상대적으로 미개척 지역의 이점을받는 유일한 넥슨 좋은 수있습니다. 반 면 게임을 언급 또한, GNU / 리눅스, 맥 OS를 사용할 수있습니다 반면 컴뱃 암즈 퀘이크, 둠, 에너미 테리토리, 다른 소프트웨어와 같은 id를, 컴뱃 암즈 Microsoft Windows 용에서만 사용할 수있습니다에서 크게 성공한 게임과 같은 게임에 대한 최대입니다 X 및 다른 유닉스 운영 체제와 같은.

컴뱃 암즈 또한 다른 무료로 (가격)을 전장 영웅, BlackShot, 크로스 파이어, 그리고 다른에만 Microsoft Windows 용뿐만 아니라 사용할 수있습니다와 같은 게임을 무료로 경쟁하고있다. 따라서 교차 플랫폼은 GNU GPL 아래 소스 코드를 공개함으로써 달성될 수있다, 넥슨 성공적으로 게이머의 다른 게임 개발자가 현재 존재하지 않는 다른 플랫폼에서 활용할 수있습니다.

넥 슨, 그리고 Warrock 컴뱃 암즈의 개발과 함께, 넥슨은 기본적으로 무료 FPS 게임 윈도우 플랫폼에서 (1 인칭 슈팅) 게임 분야가 아니라 다른 플랫폼에 최고이지만, 넥슨 쉽게 다른 플랫폼에 단순히 해방 전투에 의해 이끌어 올 수 팔, Warrock, 그리고 HackShield GNU GPL 하에서 그들이 라이센스에 의해, 따라서 자유 소프트웨어가되었다.

제발, 넥슨의 이익만을위한 경우에도 귀하의 라이센스를 재고해.

안부,
야곱

Rename GIMP

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:52:00 -0700

With the up coming release of GIMP 3.0, I think that GIMP should be renamed to simply “Wilber.” Though it would no longer be an acronym for “GNU Image Manipulation Program”, but it would totally eliminate any possibly offensive terminology in exchange for a name everyone can love, especially the young, and it would give GIMP a chance at the big times.

It only makes sense for GIMP 3.0 to be the version for a name change. With new exciting features, polished UI, and a name like Wilber. “GIMP” could go far.

Commercial industries would be willing to pick it up and use it without worrying about something as simple as the name offending people, or sounding unprofessional. CinePaint does okay in that area, granted it does have a few good features for professional image and video editing over GIMP, but the name didn’t hold it back, and that’s what GIMP needs right now.

To really develop faster, GIMP needs the big guys using it, and contributing to it, right now most of them won’t even touch it, let alone contribute to it.

Does anyone want to second a GIMP rename for 3.0?

Fullscreen flash video in GNU/Linux

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 02:20:12 -0700

First, if you are unfamiliar with the problem, go to YouTube, pick any video, and double-click on the video, or click on the little fullscreen icon, and you’ll see that the video begins to get really slow, and choppy, from dropping frames.

If you continue to move your mouse, so that the flash player doesn’t go idle, the video will continue to play, but really slow, and choppy. Stop moving your mouse, letting the flash player fade the controls, and start moving your mouse again, the video will almost completely stop, and Firefox will start using an ungodly amount of CPU.

So get out of the fullscreen view, by pressing “Esc” for a few seconds, and when ever the video shows another frame. Stop the video, but leave the page open, I’ll explain why a below.

Now, go to Vimeo (www.vimeo.com) pick any random video, and click on the little fullscreen icon. You should see the video play niiiiiiiicccce and smooth, provided you have hardware capable of playing fullscreen flash video under any operating system. So get out of the fullscreen view, by pressing “Esc”. Stop the video, but leave the page open, I’ll explain why a below.

Now go to your /tmp/ directory, right click on the file in that directory that starts with “Flash” and followed by random letters and numbers, it’d look something like this “FlashNMm6mO”, make sure it’s the one from YouTube, and then click on “Properties” or something to that effect depending on whether you’re using GNOME, KDE, or Xfce, on Ubuntu, Fedora, etc. In “Properties” click “Audio/Video” or something to that effect, like Metadata, or Info.

Here’s what I think is causing the problem. You will see that the Codec is always “H.264/AVC Video”, and that’s it, H.264 is probably not supported enough in GNU/Linux for efficient playback. Also a lot of chips have H.264 acceleration, which might also not be supported enough in GNU/Linux for efficient playback.

In the /tmp/ directory, right click on the file in that directory that starts with “Flash” and followed by random letters and numbers, it’d look something like this “FlashV09H2h”, make sure it’s the one from Vimeo, and then click on “Properties”, In “Properties” click “Audio/Video”, blah, blah, blah.

You will see that the Codec is, whatever, it can be “H.264/AVC Video” or “On2 VP6 Video”. And On2 is the same company that released what we now call Ogg into the Public Domain, videos in “On2 VP6 Video” play nice and smooth, like my video here, videos in “H.264/AVC Video” play but still a little choppy.

In conclusion, it is likely a H.264 problem, with the added effect of the badly scripted YouTube flash player. That being said, Google intends to buy On2 for 106.5 million dollars, so maybe YouTube will gain the same quality video playback that Vimeo currently has.

BROWN?! Brown? Really, Ubuntu's Brown?

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 06:17:00 -0700

UBUNTU’S ORANGE!!

Orange!!

I can not believe how many people think Ubuntu’s brown, Ubuntu is not brown! It’s ORANGE!

Go ahead, if you’re running Ubuntu right now, open Nautilus and compare the title-bar color to the different shades of orange to the left.

Different shades of orange do look brown, I’ll give you that, but, more lighter shades of orange are used in Ubuntu than the darker ones. Here are a few examples.

Nautilus at any given time will have more orange than any other color, excluding white and gray.

The Ubuntu logo. Here we have two shades of orange, and one dark shade of a reddish-orange. Some would say that there is a shade of yellow in there, well, it’s more of a very light orange, or yellowish-orange, but it’s still orange.

Normally used for updates, also orange. For critical updates it’s a red arrow pointing down, with an exclamation point on it.

A few Ubuntu icons. The folder there is orange, the SD card or floppy there is orange, same as the CD label.

And here are a few shades of brown…

So yeah, Ubuntu, definitely not brown.

I hope you all’ve learned a valuable lesson, which is: orange is different than brown, and Ubuntu is orange.

Some wallpapers included in Ubuntu are brown, but, the wallpapers don’t make the distribution.

Thank you.

GNU/Linux vs. Linux, when explaining it.

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 20:26:00 -0700

A lot of people say calling Debian, Fedora, or Slackware, GNU/Linux opposed to calling it Linux, makes it harder to explain to people.

An example, Bob could tell Sarah “You should use Fedora. It will work with your hardware, it’s fast, and it’s free” Sarah might ask “What’s Fedora?” Bob would tell her “It’s Linux.” and Sarah will just understand. Wrong.

In fact, I get “What’s Linux?” right after I say Linux most of the time.

And, in fact, it is worse when saying GNU/Linux. You get this…

Bob: “You should use Fedora. It will work with your hardware, it’s fast, and it’s free”

Sarah: “What’s Fedora?”

Bob: “It’s GNU slash Linux”

Sarah: “What’s GNU?”

Bob: “Well, it’s a whole lot of applications, like a C programming language compiler, C and C++ library, and a whole bunch of other free software.”

Sarah: “What’s Linux?”

Bob: “Well, Linux is an open source kernel.”

Sarah: “What’s C and C++? What’s open source? What’s a kernel?”

Sarah: “This seems really complicated.”

So here is what I like to say, it’s better, it’s faster, it gives credit to GNU, and Linux. And you don’t have to say “GNU slash Linux.”

When Sarah asks “What’s Fedora?” I would respond with “It’s an OS based on GNU and Linux.” If Sarah happens to ask “What’s GNU and Linux?” I would just reply with “GNU and Linux are free software, that together make an OS, an OS like Windows or Mac.” To go farther “And you can do anything with Fedora, you can use it, change it, and even give it away.”

In short, using “GNU and Linux” makes for a lot of possibilities, and it shows that they are two things put together. And if the person has heard of Linux but not GNU, that person would hear “Linux” and only be curious about the GNU part. And that person would likely treat the GNU part as just a bunch of applications.

Also this way advocates the operating system as Fedora, Debian, Slackware, or whatever distro, more than anything else. So if that person has a problem, she might just do a Google search for something like “Fedora resolution problems.” This would eliminate the difficulties of getting solutions that are for “Linux” like for Debian instead of Fedora, without her knowing it, and them not work.

Also she might search for “Software for Fedora” and find RPMs, and not DEBs.

Hope some of you might find GNU and Linux a much better explanation of the operating system, if you want to give credit to both the Free Software Foundation and Linus Torvalds.

ACTL Rationale

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 00:47:00 -0700

http://www.inatux.com/actl/rationale.txt

Author’s Choice of Terminology License. Rationale, hardly, but a few points I’d like to write about.

First

“Because the Debian developers prefer the name GNU/Linux opposed to just “Linux” they will call Debian a “GNU/Linux Distribution” and because Canonical prefers the name Linux as opposed to “GNU/Linux” they will call Ubuntu a “Linux Distribution.” This is generally because they want to make everyone happy, by referring to the Distros by terms those whom advocate for them prefer.”

“This behavior is more appropriate than referring to all Distros as “Linux” despite what the authors prefer their work be called.”

“The Author’s Choice of Terminology License, with much more needed development, would ensure this behavior, by restricting the distributor of the author’s software to the terminology chosen for it, either GNU/Linux, Linux, or even Lignux, Free Software or Open Source.”

This puts the ACTL in a totally different perspective for me. I originally thought it was all about restricting the user to call the operating system GNU/Linux, which I liked, but it was not a very good reason by itself for a license.

Second

“Note: All development has stopped on the ACT license. It is incompatible with the GNU GPL version 2. To sub-license the GNU GPL version 2 with the ACT license will automatically terminate your rights as a result of section 1 and section 4 under the GNU GPL version 2.”

This is true, and I can see why it was discontinued.

Third

“Unless compatibility with the GNU GPL changes, the ACT license is discontinued.”

Which I found interesting. Because section 4 of the GNU GPL version 3 doesn’t restrict sub-licensing with the GPL, and I don’t believe version 3 does at all. In fact it allows for “Additional Terms” including non-permissive additions.

So would the ACT license be incompatible with GPL version 3? I’ll have to research this a little. Please comment if you’d like, any information would be appreciated.

Firefox from IE, Chrome from Firefox

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 20:50:00 -0700

I just noticed that an Internet Explorer user agent looks something similar to this “Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1)” that is what I see a lot in my logs, with minor dissimilarities.

And that a Firefox user agent looks something similar to this “Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.1) Gecko/20090624 Firefox/3.5” again this is what I see a lot in my logs, with minor dissimilarities.

So IE is Mozilla/4.0, and then Mozilla becomes a company and makes Mozilla Firefox, I don’t know if IE used the user agent “Mozilla/4.0” before Mozilla made Firefox, or even before Netscape.

And then I noticed that Firefox uses “chrome://” for things like chrome://browser/content/browser.xul, chrome://browser/content/openLocation.xul, chrome://browser/content/bookmarks/bookmarksPanel.xul, etc.

You see what’s going on here? Now we have Google Chrome.

See, the name Mozilla Firefox comes from Internet Explorer and the name Google Chrome comes from Mozilla Firefox. What will we see next. Looking at Google Chrome, we might see a name surface from it, and that will become the next competing web browser.

Just found it interesting.

A Kernel of all things!

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 04:40:00 -0700

Just finished watching “Revolution OS” again, after a year or more.

I still can’t believe that with all the work the GNU Project put into the GNU operating system, that Linus Torvalds could come along, with a Kernel of all things, and take the credit away from the Free Software Foundation, and thus, also taking away the credit from the X.Org, Apache, etc. developers.

A Kernel of all things! A Kernel! The one thing in an operating system that can’t actually be call an operating system by itself, is used as the name of the GNU operating system!

A Kernel! You can replace the Linux Kernel with the BSD Kernel, and have a fully functional system. But without the GNU software, the Linux Kernel couldn’t even be compiled, because it uses GCC, and actually would have to be modified in order to use something like uClibc, so would the binary blobs, and changing the binary blobs isn’t as easy as the rest because they are proprietary, no one can change them, or fix them. The Linux Kernel can’t use EgLibc as a replacement, because it is just gLibc, it’s “Embedded gLibc.”

Red Hat got publicity in the market share place. Being called “Linux” on Television, they watched as the term “Linux” as an operating system was spread on Television. And they continue to do so.

That should of been GNU/Linux, that should have been Stallman watching with the Red Hat developers.

I just found out about a license called the “ACT License” the “Author’s Choice of Terminology License” developed by InaTux, via: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1174592

Such a license would have stopped all of this, although it was just developed, and then discontinued, but still! A little bit of work, and a little bit of tinkering with the license in order for it to work along side the GPL, and we’d be in business.

Festival + Zenity = Easy GUI interface

Sat, 30 May 2009 01:11:00 -0700

Code (Shell Script):

zenity --text-info --editable --title "Text-to-Speech" --window-icon /usr/share/app-install/icons/kmouth.png --width 500 --height 300 > /tmp/tts-tmp.txt 
festival --tts /tmp/tts-tmp.txt & zenity --question && killall -v audsp

Simple, nice, quick, hardly any dependencies. Change “festival” to “espeak” if you prefer. The only thing it really needs is Zenity. If you want Text-to-Speech, you’ll need something like “festival” or “espeak” so they aren’t quite “dependencies.”

They’re more like “necessities.”

Linux Hater, Bryan Lunduke, and Freedom

Wed, 20 May 2009 01:10:00 -0700

Now, some of you — free/open-source software enthusiasts — may have seen such posts back and forth between Bryan Lunduke — from “The Linux Action Show” — and the “Linux Hater” — from his lame blog (in his own words) — let me analyze this for a second.

The “Linux” “Hater” as I see from his blog, he likes to bash everything and anything Linux. Okay, good. He likes to bash “Linux” and not GNU/Linux. I have a few things I’d like to say about the Linux kernel myself. But I won’t.

The “Linux” “Hater” seems to favor proprietary software, and some how takes pride in his restriction. And some how takes pride in the restriction of others. No matter what way you look at GNU/Linux, you can’t say it’s wrong, you can’t say no one should use it. At least someone who is sane shouldn’t ever think such things.

The only thing that is a logical complaint is GNU/Linux not meeting your own personal needs. I see a lot of these, most of which are more related to the use of GNU/Linux software not being seen as suitable by schools and careers, but, that is not a GNU/Linux complaint, that is a business complaint.

As for Bryan Lunduke. This is someone who believes in what Linus believes in. Use what works. Such views are why we have binary blobs in our current Linux kernel. Freedom and Politics are left out of discussion when talking about GNU/Linux. This is why he uses the term “Linux” for the GNU operating system, instead of the politically correct term “GNU/Linux.” And “open-source” instead of Free Software.

Bryan Lunduke also gave the “Why Desktop Linux Sucks, and What We Can Do About It” presentation at LinuxFest ‘09. Once again, no such thing as a “Linux Desktop” but I’ll move on.

At this presentation Lunduke suggested things like a unified package manager, and that distributions should use only such a unified package manager. As well as using gStreamer in all distributions, let’s not say anything about how Xine is better at playing proprietary video and audio codecs than gStreamer is, and DEB packages work better with Debian based distributions than RPMs do, RPMs which he suggested be the unified package manager.

Let me point out what GNU/Linux is all about “… people should be free to use software in all the ways that are socially useful. Software differs from material objects—such as chairs, sandwiches, and gasoline—in that it can be copied and changed much more easily. These possibilities make software as useful as it is; we believe software users should be able to make use of them.” GNU Philosophy The basis principles of all free/open-source software development.

Distributions use gStreamer and/or PulseAudio, etc.. DEB or RPM, etc.. GNOME, Xfce and/or KDE. Because the developers see such software as being superior. Freedom is allowing people to use which ever they choose.

To suggest such unified development for the sake of being like the rest, is to restrict people’s personal tastes and freedoms.

Thank you.

Sauerbraten(Cube 2) and Nexuiz

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 04:07:00 -0700

Sauerbraten — also known as Cube 2, because it uses the Cube game engine and it’s the newest version, or version 2 — is a game that has a gaming feel similar to Duke Nukem — which I like, but don’t love.

Sauerbraten’s engine is so well made that a flat wall can look bent, dented, sticking out or poking in, just using one texture — like Quake 4. And can render high quality textures and large maps in a matter of seconds.

Now, Nexuiz is a little better at lighting. And its engine is based on the Quake engine — Quake 4 hasn’t been “open-sourced” so — it is based on Quake 3 or “id Tech 3.” And it has graphics on par with id Tech 4, mainly because they more than likely rewrote what id Software did and made a engine very similar to id Tech 4 if not superior.

The problem I have with both of these games is this: The gameplay/gameplay-style. I mean I like Quake and Duke Nukem, but I prefer more tactical games, like war games, like UrbanTerror and True Combat. And I play these games despite their lower graphics. Although, I believe that keeping the game engine lower-end is a great idea — as it allows people with all types of computer hardware to join in and play the game, and playing the game for the concept of the game is the idea isn’t it? — and Sauerbraten is very good at this.

I feel that such great game engines are wasted on these types of games. Or to put it more appropriately; such great game engines are not used to the fullest potential and used sadly mainly by the developers for the developer’s games. The only other game using the Cube engine that I’ve seen is Blood Frontier.

That’s all I gotta say about that.

The new Ubuntu 9.04 changing wallpapers. Notice how it is now...

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 03:08:00 -0700

The new Ubuntu 9.04 changing wallpapers. Notice how it is now nicely animated. This is how Ubuntu 9.04 changes wallpapers, it’s built-in.

HD version here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=efgjTpLYqys&fmt=22

GNU/Linux mainstream: The Simpsons Test

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 04:24:00 -0700

Now, we’ve all probably read this before: http://magazine.redhat.com/2008/05/29/interview-joel-cohen-writer-and-associate-producer-of-the-simpsons/#more-907

Microsoft’s Windows and Apple’s Macintosh operating systems have software built-in necessary for tracking and reporting usage statistics. This lets them easily see how much market share they have. And what people are doing on their computers, what software they’re using, what music they’re playing, what files they’re downloading, copying, moving, sharing, editing, etc., that’s why it’s evil, and a bad thing to include in software all together. But it helps them count their market share.

Thankfully GNU/Linux doesn’t include such software. But, we also can’t see what kind of market share GNU/Linux holds. To the statistics, it’s like GNU/Linux doesn’t even exist. We have to find/guess what the market share is.

So, I want to share with everyone, a way to tell when GNU/Linux has entered the mainstream. It’s called “The Simpsons Test.”

We’ve all probably seen the episode of The Simpsons “The Burns and the Bees” by now — where Montgomery Burns (Mr. Burns) attends the Billionaire’s Retreat with Ted Turner, Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, Mark Cuban, etc., where he tells a story about when he won a professional basketball team in a poker game, and the new arena he plans to have Springfield build for the team threatens to interfere with Lisa’s new bee sanctuary. And due to the Bees, his arena is ruined; making him 400 million dollars short of one billion dollars, so Ted Turner, Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, Mark Cuban, etc., kick him out of the Billionaire’s Retreat and into the Millionaires Cabin.

Here’s how it works: The Simpsons used Ted Turner, Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, Mark Cuban, etc., and Bill Gates (a few times) as examples of billionaires.

So… Right when The Simpsons use Mark Shuttleworth — who was the second self-funded space tourist. Shuttleworth founded Canonical Ltd. and as of 2009, provides leadership for the Ubuntu operating system — as an example of a billionaire — although I don’t know if he’s a billionaire anymore, just a billionaire in South Africa, or even close to worth a billion dollars in net worth — or an example of, say “Really rich guys who for some reason travel to space” or something like that.

Or a general mention to GNU/Linux as a “fanboy”, “nerd”, “hard to use” or other kind of operating system. THAT’S, when we’ll know GNU/Linux has made it to the mainstream.

After all, Apple was truely “mainstream” when The Simpsons made fun of them in the episode “Mypods and Boomsticks” though Apple already had a very reasonable market share before the episode thinks to their iPods, iPhones, iMacs, Final Cut Pro, the Macintosh operating system (to a lesser extent,) and other products. But, like I wrote “Microsoft’s Windows and Apple’s Macintosh operating systems have software built-in necessary for tracking and reporting usage statistics.” and “GNU/Linux doesn’t include such software.”

Mozilla Firefox blocked for AdBlock Plus

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 04:54:23 -0700

I just read a few good articles about Mozilla Firefox being blocked on certain website because some users of Firefox choose to install the add-on AdBlock Plus, — an advertisement extension or “add-on,” — here is why that’s wrong…

One: The user is allowed to see and not see any part of a website that is made publicly available. It shouldn’t be up to the Webmaster to decide. People also use Greasemonkey, which can achieve the same effect as AdBlock Plus, it’s just not automatic. And neither is just “AdBlock” you have to have “AdBlock Plus” but that is what most people have.

Two: People also use AdBlock Plus with Internet Explorer, too. I would have to guess, around the same number of people use it with IE, if not more.

Three: Think about it like this: When websites have advertisements, flashing, blinking, moving around, resizing, over lapping the page, etc., etc., etc., and I find them EXTREMELY ANNOYING! And it’s a product I’m not going to ever buy, or already have, like an iPod. I’m not going to click on those advertisements.

So why does it matter if I see them or not? When I don’t have to see them, I value the web site, talk about the web site, spread the word about the web site. To people who may not have AdBlock Plus, people who might be using Internet Explorer, people, who might buy those products, people who might click those advertisements. Instead you lock me out.

Blocking Firefox is wrong!

Conficker: GNU/Linux's way to mainstream

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 23:32:00 -0700

I personally hope that the Conficker/Downup/Downadup/Kido computer worm — that surfaced in October 2008 and targets the Microsoft Windows operating system, that activates on April 1st — shows Windows users just how insecure the Windows operating system is, and how slow Microsoft is to react to it, and “patch” it.

The Windows operating system has always been insecure — and I don’t mean as in self-esteem, although :b

When hundreds of businesses stop production because of this worm; people should think about an alternative OS. And, the GNU Operating System is the best choice.

If this worm proves to be very troublesome, what’ll happen?

Websites like MySpace.com, WhiteHouse.gov, Homestarrunner.com — if these servers are infected — will go down. Or, they will become spam websites, displaying advertisements and sending out thousands of spam and denial of service emails.

Thank Stallman Google, YouTube, Facebook, and Wikipedia are running GNU/Linux! These are among the most popular web sites as well, coincidence?

And here is the problem: Websites like WhiteHouse.gov are running the Microsoft IIS web server. And if the WhiteHouse.gov web servers are infected with Conficker, there’s no telling what’ll happen. WhiteHouse.gov is, obviously, a governmental website, and if it becomes a spam website, displaying advertisements and sending out thousands of spam and denial of service emails to other countries, that’s a national threat(kinda).

Certain messages sent from WhiteHouse.gov can cause serious problems, like say “Declaration of War” — although almost all countries will ignore such a message — ordering certain “goods” from countries.

Also, who knows what kinda of other servers WhiteHouse.gov could be connected to. Missile systems, Air Force navigation systems. For things like this, I don’t want Microsoft involved at all.

WhiteHouse.gov is likely running the Microsoft IIS web server because the person they have in control of the servers, the “web master”, only knows how to use Microsoft Windows. That’s a problem.

So I hope; that Conficker takes down these websites, and does the things I mentioned. And people start to realize that they should have been using GNU/Linux like the people who were left alone, safe and sound, after the worm came and gone, did its thing(s), websites like Google, YouTube, Facebook, Wikipedia, Digg, Vimeo, CollegeHumor, etc.; and people like myself and hundreds of thousands more.

If this happens, GNU/Linux might actually become mainstream, maybe even over night.

Cinelerra-CV - Motion Tracking Tutorial

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 04:14:00 -0700

For those of you whom use GNU/Linux, you might know of a little program called Cinelerra. Cinelerra is free software, licensed on the GNU General Public License. Some of you may have seen this video on YouTube…

If not, you should watch it, and then continue reading on.

Here is the video I’ll be working with…

Now, I’ve contacted the YouTube user that uploaded this video. I wanted to know how — in detail — how he made the effect he did. No response.

With the knowledge to make the same effect, one could master it, and use it for other — more powerful — visual effects. Some of which are effects like a Lightsaber, gun shots, bullet holes, fire balls, lasers, etc..

At this point we don’t know how to accomplish such an effect. So I played around with Cinelerra-CV* for a long time, and finally found out how.

*CV stands for Community Version.

So here is my tutorial on how to get the same effect, in a similar way. Note, in order to achieve an effect like a Lightsaber, you’ll need a computer better than something intended as a personal computer.

The processor would likely have to be a 64 bit Quad-Core 3.0GHz. The computer would also likely have to have 2 gigabytes of memory, a 256MB-512MB GNU/Linux supported video card, like newer ATI/nVidia, of course a sound card built-on or other. But for this test a common netbook could even achieve this effect.

Let’s start…

First you’ll open Cinelerra, or Cinelerra-CV, of course.

Secondly you’ll open your video, of course, make sure it’s a supported format; Cinelerra-CV likes MOVs, some MPEGs, some FLVs, and others. Open your video as “Replace current project.”

Thirdly you’ll apply the “Motion” video effect, and the settings shown in the image below. Change them for your own video, of course.

The “Save coords to /tmp” is very important. Try to match these settings as close as possible.

You should see something like this…

Let the video run once with the effect, than disable it.

Fourthly you’re going to open another file, an image for this tutorial’s sake, make sure you open the file as to “Append in new tracks.”

And you’re going to apply the “Motion” video effect, and the settings shown in the image below. Tweaks might be necessary.

The “Load coords from /tmp” is very important. Try to match these settings as close as possible.

You should see something like this…

Move the appended file to wherever you want on the video, lining it up for the effect you’re trying to achieve.

And you’re good to go son.

Though here is another video with the same effect:

The candle was unlit.

[EDIT] I see that all but one of the videos above got removed from YouTube, luckly I hosted all the files I needed to reproduce and reupload.

The Files I Used:

The Original MOV file: GEDC1272.MOV

The circle gradient used for light: gunshotgradient.png

And the finished video’s un-rendered project file: lamplight.xml

Download my original MOV file, gunshotgradient.png and my XML project file, into your filesystem which is the highest level you can go and called “/”, you’ll need root privileges. The files need to be in the filesystem because the location is the same on ever default GNU/Linux distribution, if you place them in your home folder the XML won’t work correctly.

Open the XML project file in Cinelerra and my tracks will be there, with the effects I applied to achieve the desired effect.

Where you can download Cinelerra and Cinelerra-CV:

Official: http://www.heroinewarrior.com/cinelerra.php
(bugier than the Community Version)

Community Version: http://cvs.cinelerra.org/
(used in this tutorial)