Given the vocal stance Microsoft has taken about the end of Windows XP’s life cycle, one might be surprised to hear that you can get one of Asus’ EeePCs with the venerable OS pre-installed.
However, that would be naive.
In the interest of being able to eat in the future, I find myself trying to carefully track the trends in computing. Who will I sell my services to in the future? Am I going to have to bite off the cost of development tools on Microsoft’s Vista platform? How do Those Who Decide feel about this new operating system?
It’s hard to discern who to watch when trying to predict the momentum of the entire industry. However, from my perspective, it would appear that everyone is feeling a bit sluggish due to the slowing economy and lack of innovation into any new directions. (more…)
One of the hardest parts of game design would appear to be the interface between characters’ skills and the capabilities of vehicles and other interesting hardware. Whether you’re a mecha pilot, a net-running decker, or a rigger piloting drones into a fight, the question remains “How does my character’s Pilot skill affect its performance?”
Here’s my take on the problem that I’m writing up for Stacks. (more…)
I got a new monitor; one capable of 1680×1050 resolution. (I earned it - trust me!) Plugged it in, hit the “input selection button” and it discovered I was using the DVI plug for my X session. I logged off my desktop session and logged back in. My screen was only at 1240×1024 or some such… Where the heck were the rest of my pixels?!?
It would seem that I’ve installed a slightly older revision of the Xubuntu distribution. One in which the xorg.conf file is ignorant of resolutions as amazing as mine. Now, I’ve booted Linux since before it was cool. Slackware ‘95, lads and lassies - back before the numbering system kicked in and the Linux kernel had matured to a heady 1.0 revision…
So, not wanting to download a new OS and install it for lack of a single line in a text file, I fired up a terminal and fixed my resolution. (more…)
Long ago, in the barbaric year 1994, the primitive game company MicroProse produced a little gem called Master of Magic. In this game, there were 5 “colors” of magic, White, Black, Green, Red, and Blue. You create settlements and grow population bases. You field troops from humble, conscripted Spearmen up to things like Fire Giants and Sky Drakes.
Sounds like Magic the Gathering, doesn’t it? (more…)