The Unreal Tournament 3 (Black Edition) on Steam works just fine on Wine/Crossover/Cedega. I remember reading a while back that Ryan "Icculus" Gordon was working on the port, however the proprietary PhysX engine was really holding the whole process up. Ageia, at the time in 2007, did not want PhysX on Linux. I honestly don't know if that stance has changed since NVidia acquired the company. It wouldn't matter if that stance had changed, nobody in their right mind would seriously expect Epic to spend time and money on development, three years later, with little or no profit motivation.

Last year, I broke down and bought the UT3, Black Edition on sale through Steam. Played it a few times on Wine. There was a Linux-based dedicated server released, it barely works, that is if you can even get it to run without segfaulting. Six years ago, you could go pick up a copy of Unreal Tournament, GOTY Edition for $9.99 in the bargain bin. That $9.99 game ran on Linux and Windows, there were thousands of fan-created maps, and it was a lot of fun for very little up-front investment. Our local Linux User's Group members got their money worth when that game was chosen for the group's monthly LAN parties. Several group members played it off and on for at least another 2 years.

Is it necessary to have a source port, absolutely not? Is it disappointing, almost certainly. There are probably a few Linux users 'round here that have fond memories of playing the original Unreal single player game on a 3DFX Voodoo card with the Glide renderer on Linux 10-11 years ago. Especially, since Linux has been supported for both the client, and dedicated server throughout the history of the Unreal franchise. I'm a little disappointed with what seems to be a step back from Linux, from a company who has enthusiastically supported our community in the past.

I hope lessons have been learned on Epic's part and they are not doomed to repeat the same mistakes. Its unfortunate that a Linux port was promised by Epic, and they did not deliver. Has it kept anyone from playing the game, probably not.

Scott Lowe, the named person in the e-mail was never accused of being a BSD coder/developer, in the original e-mail. If you read carefully, he was accused of advocating (while allegedly on the payroll of the FBI) the use of OpenBSD as a VPN/firewall solution specifically in VMware environments. No surprise that he writes books or tutorials for VMware since he, in fact, works for EMC. The original paragraph from the e-mail accusing involvement of Scott Lowe. Facts disputed by Scott Lowe appear in italic, below. Important note: at no point in the original e-mail was Scott Lowe accused of being an OpenBSD coder/developer, or committing compromised code to the OpenBSD project.

Jason Wright, on the other hand was the accused coder. Jason Wright has not issued any public statement on the matter, and the linked article only makes a slight mention of him.

I'd have a problem with it if it were my state implementing this policy in every store where liquor was sold. It sounds to me like PA is another state that has ABC type stores regulating the sale of liquor, I don't know first hand. However, from reading the story it sounds like this is a loophole that Wal-Mart is utilizing to get around silly state laws. I think that's really the key, is its kiosks in Wal-Mart, and not every alcohol selling venue in the state. In other words, you could readily buy alcohol in any other ABC store by flashing your ID and ponying up with cash. Personally I don't shop at Wal-Mart. From a political point-of-view, I'm only concerned with the government wrongfully oppressing people, Wal-Mart can treat their customers however they want. There is a really simple solution if you have a problem with it, either don't use the kiosks at Wal-Mart in PA, or don't shop at Wal-Mart in PA period.

This is pointless moderator abuse. Simply pointing out other significant compromises related to Open Source does not make one a troll. Even if he did post the same link twice.

The Debian OpenSSL debacle was probably the most far-reaching compromise affecting developer signing keys, commercial certificate authorities, server certificates and keys, user ssh keys.

Smear campaigns and FUD can be effective weapons in any election, as we've seen during this particular midterm election. After seeing this article, I went and checked out youtube to see some of the campaign ads from Rick Boucher, his opponent, and also the Virginia GOP's advertisements since I knew nothing of this particular candidate first-hand.

After viewing a dozen or so campaign ads between those three youtube channels, the same strategic smear pattern emerges from the Republicans, I've seen in my own home district. Boucher's constituents have understandable concerns over his support of the Cap & Trade bill and its potential affect on thousands of jobs in his district. Other easy hot-issue targets include his support of Health Care reform, and corporate bailouts. Nevermind, that none of Boucher's campaign ads highlight his stance on Fair Use, or Net Neutrality. Nor do any of Boucher's ads target the 18-40 demographic who may be concerned about such issues.

As a helpless voter, I can't help but feel disappointed with our incumbent representatives from both the Democratic and Republican parties, in general. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for Fair Use and fair access to information through Net Neutrality. Has anybody else been paying attention, or is Fair Use and Net Neutrality really the most critically important issue on the table? More importantly, are Cap & Trade regulations and big bank bailouts possibly a bigger concern for the thousands of his constituents in Southwest Virginia who work in coal mines, than say Fair Use and Net Neutrality?

I read both the articles, and this is what I gathered...

The guy who preaches the Taco Bell model, in his own words, he is using a few simple components strung together to make complex applications. The utilities he refers to are probably not news for anyone who ever read Slashdot. He comes off very much like the guy who would re-invent a square wheel, rather than learn and use newer tools that might just be even better suited for the job. The irony is, he isn't really thinking outside the box. Nor does he have the experience to even comment on software development or systems management, as he points out "this is a path that I am just beginning."

I've got nothing against the thousand of simple Unix tools which can be chained together. But I also know there are limits to what you can do with those tools. The DevOps guy calling for a shift of thinking in I.T., in my opinion is hitting close to home. Read both articles, and seriously tell me who you would rather have on your team? On the one hand, you've got Taco Bell dude who just wrote his first Shell script. On the other hand, you've got the more experienced guy who you may not agree with, but just maybe he's on to something.

This story doesn't seem to add up. Why wouldn't a competent SysAdmin just contact Registrar B either by an Abuse, or a Support resolution process? Worst case scenario, a competent registrar will want a letter on the victim company's official letterhead, or some notarized document, to prove identity. Best case scenario, you could take over the domain (registered in YOUR name), and shut the site down by lunch-time on Tuesday.

If it were me and I WANTED to keep my job, then I'd lawyer up, if that didn't work.

I always thought the Yahoo, or Yay-hoo, name came from Gulliver's travels. As far as a website name goes, it beats the hell out of Houyhnhnm.com.

Ah, I see, even more complicated than I thought. I suppose it really depends on your viewpoint of what constitutes an american company, or more specifically an american owned company. I would have like to been in the board room when they decided whose name, Molson or Coors, came first in the merged entity.

I get why Molson and Coors merged to better compete with big ol' Anheuser-Busch. Obviously, the mergers of brands associated with a particular national identity have done little to erode the definition of what constitutes a canadian, or american beer, in most consumer's eyes. However, I do believe that associating those multi-national conglomerates' commodity products as "american beer" is inaccurate. When these adjunct lagers are, in fact, mass-produced commodities. They happen to be profitable commodities in non-american markets.

As the grandparent poster pointed out, there are a variety of other choices available produced in the US by US companies. As I tried to point out, many of the traditionally recognized American brands, just aren't strictly "american" owned. Rather those companies are now the result of corporations merging into multi-national conglomerates.

I have no problem with anyone wanting to drink commodity beer. I personally couldn't tell the difference between a Fosters, Molson, Budweiser, Pabst, or Miller in a blind taste test. You can taste the cheap ingredients in all of them with that distinct aftertaste. I really wasn't trying to make a argument stemming from a nationalistic belief that the Canadians are taking over Miller or Coors.

You're certainly right that it isn't clear from biased media coverage what, exactly, the merger involved. It seems I was sorely mistaken in the belief that Molson had a controlling interest in Coors. The Molson Coors agreement with SABMiller seems to be a joint distribution venture for the combination of each entities respective brands.

Perhaps you hadn't heard. Anheuser-Busch is now owned by belgian InBev. Both Coors, and Miller, are now owned by canadian Molson.

The argument that americans produce the world's pissiest-tasting beer in the world doesn't hold much weight anymore. Especially, when the largest american owned brewery is the Boston Brewing Company which brews the Sam Adams line of beers. Sam Adams might not be the greatest beer ever brewed, in the average beer drinker's, or beer snob's, opinion. However, its hardly the stereotypical American Adjunct Lager our country has developed a reputation for.

Now you can blame multi-national conglomerates, not just american companies, for producing pissy-tasting beer. Those same mega-corporations fill up 50% of the beer cooler with adjunct lager, and another 40% with re-branded craft beer/micro-brew knock-offs just so they can take up enough shelf-space to keep mom-and-pops and true micro-brewers from getting any real market penetration.

Having said that, not everyone wants to drink "good" beer. The Adjunct beers sell well because of great marketing, and a cheap cost to the consumer. If you don't want to drink pissy-tasting stereotypical american adjunct beer, just don't buy it. Vote with your dollar and support the smaller breweries like Saranac, Lenie's, Sam Adams, or even a conglomerate re-branded craft beer like Blue Moon.

The typical american consumer's tastes/preferences are shifting when it comes to beer. For the most part, you can thank a few small micro-brewers that decided to challenge the american beer stereotype. The result is multi-national brewers having to make craft beer knock-offs to remain competitive in the domestic market. While the consumer gets the benefit of having a greater variety of available choices.

This would be a non-story if it was a private school with a high priced tuition appropriate to the extravagance of the facilities. If the citizens of Los Angeles county actually voted for this extravagance, it doesn't say much about the average voter or taxpayer. If the board of education decided to fund this monstrosity instead of applying it to: infrastructure problems; faculty salary and benefit under-funding; computer/scientific lab equipment; not feeding the kids re-heated processed garbage, then the Board of Education's competence, or complacence in their duties, should be called into question.

I have no problem voting for Levies or Bonds to fix general infrastructure problems, or to build a safer or more effective learning environment so the children in my county all have the opportunity to get a decent education. I applaud you for trying to talk sense into your county school board's administration. I do hope you are able to garner support from either the school board, or other concerned citizens in your area.

My whole point in the original reply was to re-iterate what a waste it is to spend such a large chunk on so very few who will actually benefit from it. The largest waste in the Lost Angeles case is the high cost of this expenditure has no directly-proportional benefit in educational value, not even to the students enrolled at this school.

....That amounts to $137,619.05 per student.

But the taxpayer shoulders this burden. According to the 2006 Census data, there are approximately 9,848,001 residents in Los Angeles county, with 2.98 members per household. According to the Los Angeles United School Districts website there are 8 districts (I'm assuming county). Assuming the school districts are evenly divided into 8 equal parts, that leaves 1,231,001 residents per district with at least 1/2.98 heads of household. Knowing that, you could estimate approximately 413,087 taxpayers per district. $578 million split 413,087 ways comes out to $1,400. Now I don't know what kind of municipality taxes they have in Los Angeles, but the census data says the median income in 2008 was around $55,452. So $1,400 is about 2.5% of the median income. Once you tack on teacher/administrator salaries, plus thousands of other schools in the 8 districts 2.5% of the average taxpayers money on one school is quite an egregious waste.

1) Can someone research for me how much a Masters from Harvard typically costs, in comparison?

According to their current rates. The base tuition is $33,000, plus another $15,000 in various fees, plus room and board. Assuming you already have your undergraduate degree, not necessarily from Harvard. The graduate degree will set you back at least $173,000 with a 6% interest rate, if it takes you three years.

2) Would anyone be willing to wager me that, after all this money is thrown at the problem, Johnny *still* won't be able to read?

I don't know, but I bet Johnny will still be paying for that High School, that is if he moves back to Los Angeles after getting his piece of paper from Harvard.

You assume correctly. You have to exec custom configuration scripts in autoexec.cfg for source games to recognize any aliases, bindings, etc.

No, Open Source actually means something more than source code that you can download and look through. I did look through the SDK source for a license, and the only thing I found was "Copyright (year) Valve Corporation, LLC, All Rights Reserved". I cannot find the terms and conditions of the source code for Alien Swarm anywhere in the SDK distribution.

Bruce Perens once related a story about Steve Ballmer announcing Microsoft's "Shared Source" program. During the Q&A portion of Ballmer's presentation, an audience member asked if Microsoft was going "Open Source". Ballmer's reply was something along the lines of, "Open Source means more than just releasing the source code". In other words, Ballmer had read Peren's Open Source Definition and understood that Open Source was more than just a couple of buzz words to be thrown around for marketing purposes.

There is a very specific definition for Open Source software. The term applies to many licenses. However, that term just does not extend to every bit of source code given away by a person or a company.

Why not script it? I guess you just have to do everything yourself.

// povtoggle.cfg
alias "povtoggle" "normalcam"
alias "normalcam" "asw_hide_marine 0; asw_controls 1; thirdperson; alias povtoggle fpscam"
alias "fpscam" "asw_hide_marine 1; firstperson; asw_controls 0; alias povtoggle normalcam"
bind "p" "povtoggle"
normalcam
 
// autoexec.cfg
exec fovtoggle.cfg

Just bind p for a handy point-of-view toggle.