51569139
submission
Dega704 writes:
There is some interesting news over at Phoronix regarding the state of Linux support among game developers.
"Phoronix reader Casper Gielen wrote in with some interesting information that may have been overlooked by other Phoronix readers. Casper wrote, "While browsing the 100 newest releases on Steam I noticed that 20 supported Linux. That's quite a lot. Of the 18 games under "coming soon" 6 support Linux. That's even better, which suggests that it's not just a lucky day but a real trend. Only 13 of the best selling games support Linux, but even that is a rather nice number."
So right now 20% of the new releases support Linux, 33% of the current "coming soon" titles support Linux, and 13% of the "best selling" games advertise Linux support. Those wanting to check out the games for yourself can visit store.steampowered.com and click on the various tabs.
These numbers are only likely to rise given Valve continuing to push more game developers to support Linux, SteamOS and Steam Machines will drive game developers and gamers to the Linux-based operating system, and Valve continues to work on new initiatives to help developers in moving their games to Linux — e.g. continued Source Engine optimizations, LLDB improvements, joint work on a new Linux debugger for game developers, etc.
40832139
submission
Dega704 writes:
The Republican Study Committee, a caucus of Republicans in the House of Representatives, has told staffer Derek Khanna that he will be out of a job when Congress re-convenes in January. The incoming chairman of the RSC, Steve Scalise (R-LA) was approached by several Republican members of Congress who were upset about a memo Khanna wrote advocating reform of copyright law. They asked that Khanna not be retained, and Scalise agreed to their request.
33409151
submission
Dega704 writes:
Before Steve Jobs came up with the iPhone or even the Apple II, he designed paddles for ball-flipping games at Atari where the scruffy 19-year-old was employed to improve game design. Sotheby's New York will auction off a document dating from Jobs's time there: a 1974 report that Jobs wrote for his boss suggesting ways to improve arcade game World Cup. According to Jobs' biography, his Atari days are most notable for his clashes with colleagues, who he considered to be "dumb shits". He was made to work night shifts there partly because he was in a phase of refusing to wash and so he apparently smelt bad, causing complaints from his co-workers. But Jobs obviously did some work at Atari too, with the document laying out his ideas for improving player experience. The typed four-page document includes three circuit designs in pencil and additional designs for the paddles and alignment ofplayers defending a soccer goal.
27622254
submission
Dega704 writes:
TorrentFreak used Hurricane Electric's handy list of assigned IP blocks to track down which IP addresses belong to the offices of members of Congress. And lo and behold, when those addresses were compared to results on YouHaveDownloaded, a torrent tracking site, they yielded over 800 hits.
Now to put this in context. YouHaveDownloaded tracks only a tiny portion of torrent traffic, so it appears that Congress — even as they look to punish lesser mortals for file sharing — are themselves gleefully committing a "smash and grab" as Vice President Joe Biden (D) once put it.
14241172
submission
Dega704 writes:
"Microsoft originally said that new owners of Windows 7 who wanted to downgrade to XP would only have until 2011 to do so, but now the company has changed its mind and extended support for the old operating system until 2020. That's right. Windows XP, an operating system that is already almost 10 years old, will apparently still be relevant for another 10 years. "We have decided to extend downgrade rights to Windows XP Professional beyond the previously planned end date at Windows 7 SP1," wrote Microsoft in an official blog post. "Going forward, businesses can continue to purchase new PCs and utilize end user downgrade rights to Windows XP or Windows Vista until they are ready to use Windows 7."
I hope this is a hoax because I for one am not looking forward to another full decade of servicing XP machines.
6309277
submission
Dega704 writes:
At launch Labs' most exciting (and surprising) new feature was Hulu Desktop — a downloadable native client available for both Mac and Windows that sports a new interface that allows users to sit back from their screens and navigate the site using either their Mac or Windows Media remotes. And today, it's launching support for Linux. To be perfectly honest I did a double take when I heard the news — plenty of software never makes it to Linux at all, much less a few months after making its PC/Mac debut. But Hulu says that a Linux version was among users' top requests, so they built it.
4736323
submission
Dega704 writes:
Computex Taipei, the second largest computer exhibition in the world, starts today and Canonical is enjoying a lot of attention for the third year in a row. On this occasion, the company made several exciting announcements regarding its popular Ubuntu Linux distribution.
First of all, it appears that the Ubuntu family will receive, in the very-near future, yet another member. Ubuntu Moblin Remix, currently in Beta, is based on the Moblin v2 for Intel Atom processor platform and seems to be a very promising project. The only screenshot made available by Canonical shows a professional theme and an efficiently designed layout for the small netbook screens.
3975697
submission
Dega writes:
On more than one occasion I have encountered what I have come to refer to as an alpha-geek(feel free to bash my term or suggest a better one); a condescending member of the IT staff seemingly bent on establishing geek dominance by bullying coworkers and constantly asserting their intellectual superiority. They come in all ages and skill levels from the pc novice gamer to the experienced and intelligent but arrogant. The former isn't too difficult to deal with(and rather hilarious to watch) but the latter can be a real pain and potential inhibition to those new to the IT field. Complaining to a manager or HR usually doesn't accomplish much and instead changes them from an alpha-geek to an alpha-geek with a festering grudge. I know I'm not the only one who has met or worked with individuals like this so what are your suggestions on how to handle them?
