Monthly Archive for December, 2005

Page 2 of 3

Taito Memories Pocket – Retro is cool!

Published on December 15, 2005 in Fun and Games. 0 Comments

Rertrogaming is the new trend in [tag]PSP [/tag]games. After [tag]Capcom[/tag] and [tag]Midway[/tag], now comes [tag]Taito[/tag] with [tag]Taito Memories Pocket[/tag].

Taito announced the game list included in the Taito Memories Pocket compilation. You can count 16 classics and 4 remakes with better graphics and sound. Here’s the list:

[tag]Alphine Ski[/tag][tag]
Elevator Action[/tag]
[tag]Rainbow Island Extra[/tag]
[tag]Crazy Ballon[/tag]
[tag]Chack n’ Pop[/tag]
[tag]Lunar Rescue[/tag]
[tag]Balloon Bomber[/tag]
[tag]Legend of Kage[/tag]
[tag]The Fairyland Story[/tag]
[tag]Rastan Saga[/tag]
[tag]The New Zealand Story[/tag]
[tag]Raimais[/tag]
[tag]Cameltry[/tag]
[tag]Qix[/tag]
[tag]Kiki Kaikai[/tag]
[tag]Kuri Kinton[/tag]
[tag]Crazy Ballon 2005[/tag]
[tag]Balloon Bomber 2005[/tag]
[tag]Legend of Kage 2005[/tag]
[tag]Cameltry 2005[/tag]

Taito Memories Pocket is available in Japan since January 5th and there’s no date for Europe and America yet.

Comer com Arte – Palmela

Published on December 14, 2005 in AFK. 0 Comments

Welcome to the FON Revolution

Published on December 13, 2005 in Networking. 1 Comment

If you have a wireless router at home or at work, you might consider joining the [tag]FON[/tag] movement.

What is FON?
FON is a firmware update that allows you to create a WiFi hotspot at home or at your office (as long as you have a [tag]Linksys WRT54G[/tag] or WRT54GS), allowing others to safely share your connection. The bandwidth of your equipment will be controlled in such a way that you will always maintain a reasonable capacity for your own use in your local network. That limit is independent of the number of Foneros (aka FON users) that are connected to your joining point, but this is not yet implemented in this first release. But enough of tech stuff, the cool feature of FON is that you have three kinds of users, the Linus, the Bills and the Aliens.

The Linus – Inspired in Linus Torwalds and the OSS movement, this users allow full share of their connection to the other users, including the Bills and the Aliens.

The Bills – Guess who? The outline is easy: they’ll get 50% of the money generated by Aliens using Bills access points. In 2006 a billing system will be ready to begin earning money.

The Aliens – Aliens are users of the FON network that don’t have an access point and connect through Linus or Bills. Fees are 5€ for 24 hours of connection and 40€ for one month.

This project is brand new, with lots of work to accomplish, but the idea is there. This could help you pay your Internet bills or even provide you with a better and cheaper WiFi coverage than an ISP can. I hope they add new firmwares soon and include my SMC Barricade router.

Linus Torwalds Gnome Bashing

Published on December 13, 2005 in Code and Linux. 2 Comments

[Usability] Re: [Desktop_architects] Printing dialog and GNOME

——————————————————————————–

From: [tag]Linus Torvalds[/tag]
To: Till Kamppeter
Cc: usability gnome org, jody gnome org, mclasen redhat com, desktop_architects lists osdl org
Subject: [Usability] Re: [Desktop_architects] Printing dialog and [tag]GNOME[/tag]
Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2005 17:46:21 -0800 (PST)

——————————————————————————–

On Tue, 13 Dec 2005, Till Kamppeter wrote:
>
> Frederic told that the options from the PPD file are intentionally mot
> listed in the printing dialog, the usability team of GNOME was against
> listing these options. They clutter the dialog and can be more confusing
> than useful to the user.

I personally just encourage people to switch to [tag]KDE[/tag].

This “users are idiots, and are confused by functionality” mentality of
Gnome is a disease. If you think your users are idiots, only idiots will
use it. I don’t use Gnome, because in striving to be simple, it has long
since reached the point where it simply doesn’t do what I need it to do.

Please, just tell people to use KDE.

Linus

and

[Usability] Re: [Desktop_architects] Printing dialog and GNOME

——————————————————————————–

From: Linus Torvalds
To: Jeff Waugh
Cc: usability gnome org, desktop_architects lists osdl org
Subject: [Usability] Re: [Desktop_architects] Printing dialog and GNOME
Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2005 19:35:58 -0800 (PST)

——————————————————————————–

On Tue, 13 Dec 2005, Jeff Waugh wrote:
>
> That’s definitely not a point of view of the GNOME Project – we’re focused
> on making Free Software appropriate for users who are smart (we don’t talk
> about ‘dumb users’), but just don’t care about computing technology. We’re
> just like every other Free Software project – fixing stuff requires the work
> and attention of people who care about the problem at hand.

No. I’ve talked to people, and often your “fixes” are actually removing
capabilities that you had, because they were “too confusing to the user”.

That’s _not_ like any other open source project I know about. Gnome seems
to be developed by interface nazis, where consistently the excuse for not
doign something is not “it’s too complicated to do”, but “it would confuse
users”.

The current example of “intentionally not listed in the printing dialog,
the usability team of GNOME was against listing these options.” is clearly
not the exception, but the rule.

Jeff, if the explanation had been “exposing PPD features is too hard, we
need developer manpower”, I’d have understood. THAT is what open source
projects tend to say. Not “powerful interfaces might confuse users and not
look nice”.

If this was a one-off, I’d buy it. But I’ve heard it too damn many times.
And only ever from Gnome.

The reason I don’t use Gnome: every single other window manager I know of
is very powerfully extensible, where you can switch actions to different
mouse buttons. Guess which one is not, because it might confuse the poor
users? Here’s a hint: it’s not the small and fast one.

And when I tell people that, they tend to nod, and have some story of
their own why they had a feature they used to use, but it was removed
because it might have been confusing.

Same with the file dialog. Apparently it’s too “confusing” to let users
just type the filename. So gnome forces you to do the icon selection
thing, never mind that it’s a million times slower.

Linus

You can find the entries here and here.

Dictionary of Algorithms and Data Structures

Published on December 12, 2005 in Code. 0 Comments

This might get handy:

This is a [tag]dictionary[/tag] of [tag]algorithms[/tag], [tag]algorithmic techniques[/tag], [tag]data structures[/tag], [tag]archetypical problems[/tag], and [tag]related definitions[/tag]. Algorithms include common functions, such as [tag]Ackermann[/tag]‘s function. Problems include traveling salesman and Byzantine generals. Some entries have links to implementations and more information. Index pages list entries by area and by type. The two-level index has a total download 1/20 as big as this page.

LOLOLOL

Published on December 12, 2005 in Fun and Games. 0 Comments

Google [tag]Video[/tag] – [tag]Bill Gates[/tag]-[tag]Windows Media Center CRASHED[/tag] live in [tag]Conan O’Brian[/tag]!!!

Free B-Movies for IPod (and PSP)

Published on December 10, 2005 in Fun and Games. 0 Comments

[tag]Public Domain Torrents[/tag] has more than 500 [tag]movie[/tag] [tag]torrents[/tag] (public domain) available for download via [tag]BitTorrent[/tag]. Compatible with [tag]iPod[/tag], [tag]PSP[/tag] and [tag]PDA[/tag].

PSP RSS Feed Player

Published on December 9, 2005 in Fun and Games and Networking. 0 Comments

Via Rui, the [tag]PSP[/tag] [tag]RSS Feed Player[/tag] “client fingerprint”:

Hypertext Transfer Protocol
GET /psp_rss/index.php?feed=1&folder=./Rammstein/Rosenrot HTTP/1.1\r\n
Request Method: GET
Request URI: /psp_rss/index.php?feed=1&folder=./Rammstein/Rosenrot
Request Version: HTTP/1.1
User-Agent: PSPRssChannel-agent/1.0.0 libhttp/1.0.0\r\n
Accept: */*;q=0.01\r\n
Accept-Encoding: \r\n
Accept-Charset: iso-8859-1;q=0.01\r\n
Host: 192.168.2.118\r\n
Range: bytes=0-\r\n
Connection: Keep-Alive\r\n

Give your DS an orgasm

Published on December 8, 2005 in Fun and Games. 0 Comments

[tag]Heather Kelley[/tag], A Ubisoft designer, has just released a new demo of a [tag]DS[/tag] game she has designed in which the user must manipulate a cartoon [tag]bunny[/tag] to the point of ‘[tag]orgasm[/tag]’. Lapis, is a “stealthy primer on female sexual pleasure” in which Heather invites female gamers to take a “magical pet adventure” to their “happy place.”

By touching and stroking the bunny using the touch screen capabilities of the [tag]Nintendo DS[/tag], talking, singing and blowing on the bunny’s fur using the built-in microphone, and using their sexual sense, gamers will watch as lapis becomes more and more excited on the screen until he eventually flies about in the air like a rabbit in heat. Very much like one in fact.

Heather has worked at Ubisoft on a number of titles and also heads up the women in game development committee of the IDGA. She says the game is inspired by the public’s reaction to the recent GTA: Hot Coffee scandal, “It’s not like (sex is) going away” Said Heather “Either in the virtual or the real world.”

This fall, the IDGA created a committee to discuss sex in gaming, which has warned that in the future, the public should expect to see games that depict a full range of sexual emotions and activities, from raunchiness to romance.

“To date, we’ve explored more the violence, fear, conflict aspects, and we’ve not really engaged on stuff like social relationships, sex or love (in video games),” said Jason Della Rocca, Exectuve Director of the IDGA “What we’re seeing now is a maturing of the industry.”

[tag]Lapis[/tag] is available now as a downloadable demo for PC, and so is the presentation of the game which could one day appear on a DS… maybe.

Gimme a break… what’s next? Mario All Star GangBang? :D

Midway Arcade Treasures: Extended Play for the PSP

Published on December 7, 2005 in Fun and Games. 1 Comment

Following [tag]Capcom[/tag] and [tag]Namco[/tag] retro releases, [tag]Midway[/tag] announced [tag]Midway Arcade Treasures: Extended Play[/tag] brings a hand full of great games for the [tag]PSP[/tag].

Single Player: [tag]Spy Hunter[/tag], [tag]Sinistar[/tag], [tag]Defender[/tag], [tag]Paperboy[/tag] and [tag]720[/tag].

Multiplayer Wireless: [tag]Klax[/tag],[tag] Joust[/tag], [tag]Marble Madness[/tag], [tag]Toobin’[/tag], [tag]Rampage[/tag] – 3 players, [tag]Gauntlet[/tag] – 4 players, [tag]Wizard of Wor[/tag], [tag]Xybots[/tag], [tag]Championship Sprint[/tag], [tag]Arch Rivals[/tag], [tag]Cyberball 2072[/tag], [tag]Xenophobe[/tag] – 3 players, [tag]Mortal Kombat[/tag], [tag]Mortal Kombat 2[/tag] and [tag]Mortal Kombat 3[/tag].

Well, I’m adding this one to my wish list. Playing MK brings up lot of great memories.