Journal Entries
The amazing uselessness of free MMOs
Posted Dec 9, 2007
In the Free Software world, we have at our disposal a whole host of very useful tools; everything from operating systems to web servers to music applications.
Something that is troubling to me is the way in which Free Software gaming is conducted. In some instances you have games which claim to be open source but really aren't (Eternal Lands), some nice but broken Propritory games (A tale in the desert III) and some rather worrying licensed games where the code is open but the content or server isn't (Planeshift).
Now I don't think any of these game projects really understand the whole point of Free Software or Open Source. I don't think they understand the clarity of standard licenses, the value of sharing and the difficulty that their odd licenses and even odder notions play out when it comes to free software development.
If we for a moment forget the code, we have lots of coders and lots of programmers that grok free software. Let me concentrate on content.
When it comes to models, graphics, textures, sounds and other interesting content which can be reused in very different ways; I see absolutly no reason for all of this content not to be Creative Commons or GPL Content licensed. At the moment we have so many artists working to build the same tree model, the same rock model, the same grass texture and the same arrow swift sound. What is the point? are we honestly, hand on heart saying that we hate the human race that much we would rather see each other suffer than take a benefit from our hard works?
A lot of this is to do with the transition from the old ways to the new ways, there just isn't the education in place to help some of these projects mend their ways.
For instance planeshift has a particularly dangerous and selfish content license where everything a VOLUNTEER does is given whole sale for free to the planeshift 'non for profit' org. To me as an artist I would never do that, in fact I consider is rude, deceitful and incredibly ignorant to even suggest such a radical move for content.
What i would like to see is some of these linux game sites actually provide places where artists and content creators can create a library of content under free licenses so we can spur on greater game development for operating systems such as Linux.
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Latest reply: Dec 9, 2007
New work and visitation
Posted Nov 12, 2007
So last week I had my 23rd Birthday *yay* all good fun; the next day I was to start my new job, I'm a programmer as always.
Well apparently they'd asked me to send in information before but the message just didn't come through to me (see this is what you get when you leave a message on the phone instead of sending me an email) So we spent the 4 days setting things up, and by the time everything was set up we hardly had time to get down to business and set up development area, although I can see it's going to be interesting since the lead developer on the product isn't used to training new hires up and was the only person working on the product for quite some time.
So other good news is that on Friday my mum arrived and will be staying with us for 2 weeks; it's a really lovely visit as I've been missing the UK, my family and friends there so it's nice to be visited. Teru has taken the weeks off from work but I have just started so I couldn't.
I finally got my new laptop from System76, although what a trial; the sent me the wrong laptop, had to send me a new one; not only that but they sent my battery as an extra package which no one could sign for because I started my new work so it just bounced 3 times. I don't even drive so it's going to be interesting trying to get it back from UPS.
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Latest reply: Nov 12, 2007
Dev Summit Rush
Posted Oct 27, 2007
So here I am trying to rush to get the next version od Dohickey out the door before the dev summit on Monday (or is it Sunday) it's quite amazing what a kick up the bum can do to your motivation on a project. Especially when it looks like you'll be embarrassed by your own lack of work and amount of procrastination.
I'm adding sorting, filtering and list by features to the new command line tool which should be fun.
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Latest reply: Oct 27, 2007
Working Introspect
Posted Oct 24, 2007
So I quit my last job because of the problems with the holiday time they were offering and a bunch of other things (such as the way they thought sleezing celebrities was a good idea)
So I hope to start a new job on Nov 6th, my birthday is on 5th nov (again!) my mum is coming to visit a week later, the developer suimit is in boston a week before and the ubuntu-mass meeting is tomorrow.
I did make myself happy by ordering a really nice laptop though.
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Latest reply: Oct 24, 2007
Ubuntu Case Badges
Posted Sep 26, 2007
OK so this week has been super busy, both with getting use to going to work and sorting out the arrival of the ubuntu case badges. If you don't know what I'm talking about then you need to check it out here:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MassachusettsTeam/Projects/AluminiumCaseBadges
If your not sure what ubuntu is then you may have been missing out of the latest and greatest operating system to come out of the software developing houses of Ursa Major Delta.
Now I've been at work this evening sorting them all out, packing them all up and getting them all ready to send out. as we got a whopping 92 pre-orders where people gave us up to $300 in advanced mind you to get them thousands of these great looking case badges.
Not coincidentally we've made a big impression on the firm we were working with to make them, LustreCal in California. And you know it means a lot to be able to work with the business world as a community leader.
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Latest reply: Sep 26, 2007
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