Could that be silwenae.net making a return? With the music server?
I have proof:
And it’s streaming music as we speak.
There’s some kinks to work out, so if you had access to the old music server, I have some things to fix first. But progress is being made!
I’ve upgraded 3 of my main machines to Ubuntu 5.04, aka the Hoary Hedgehog release. The laptop went flawlessly, as did my gaming machine, which is installed on a second hard drive. Most impressively, the ATI binary drivers, with the change to X.org, stayed and worked on my gaming box automagically. OpenGL is beautiful, the fonts are beautiful, and I’ve switched to the Clearlooks theme from Industrial.
My two major complaints are the Industrial theme disappearing and they’ve changed Nautilus’ spatial nature. Clearlooks is acceptable as a replacement, but I don’t understand why they’ve had to go and screw with Nautilus. Gnome’s default behavior for Nautilus is to open every window in a new window. I like it that way. Ubuntu, being a Gnome-centric distribution, and dedicated to releasing after every major Gnome release, should follow that direction. I can understand why some people don’t like it, but it strikes me as odd they’ve made this change.
Only the server is left to upgrade, and based on the 3 upgrades I’ve done from Warty to Hoary, should go flawless. Then it’s a matter of getting the server up on the network, which is a different story after my network rebuild last weekend.
Courtesy of Boing Boing.net, the LA Times has written a profile of Xeni Jardin. Xeni is famous as a co-author of the Boing Boing blog, tech writer for Playboy, Wired, and Popular Science, and radio correspondent for NPR’s Day to Day.
Xeni is pretty interesting. I’ve TiVo’d a few shows she’s been on as a guest, and listened to her on NPR, and her voice always strikes me as something I didn’t expect after seeing her picture. She’s one of the new breed of journalists who “gets it” – the convergence of media, pop culture and the internet are creating a new form of journalism.
Ubuntu Linux 5.04 (Hoary Hedgehog release) is out!
Go download it!
Ubuntu has, by far, become my favorite linux distribution. Releasing stable version of Debian every 6 months, with the latest version of the Gnome desktop, an awesome user community, and a great selection of software.
The Hoary Hedgehog release adds X.org for the xserver, faster boot process, much better laptop support, and what I think may be a first for a Linux distribution, automated package manager download and installer to upgrade the OS. Check it:
Ubuntu 5.04 includes two new packages to help you keep your computer up to date: update-manager and upgrade-notifier. The Synaptic package manager also now includes support to upgrade your Ubuntu Distribution.
update-manager is a package that allows you to quickly and efficiently upgrade your software in the background. The process is simple but without the fine-grained choices offered with the Synaptic package manager. The package is good for people who like the simplicity of a one-click upgrade, similar to that available in other operating systems.
I know what I’ll be doing this weekend: Upgrading 5 machines to Hoary, including my server. (My original plan was to get the server back up on the DMZ and get Jinzora working. Ack).
The WordPress Themes Competition winners have been announced. I’m torn to what theme I want to use.
I’m testing the equix theme, which I like as a light colored theme, though I’m still debating about going back to a dark theme. I don’t like the mouse cursor, and I don’t know why it doesn’t render correct in IE (damn work forcing my browser choice). It works fine in Firefox. I like it’s clean look though.
…Must learn more HTML, PHP and CSS.
Update 6:00 p.m.: Cursor fixed, thank god
Slyck.com Interviews Jon Lech Johansen, famous (or infamous if you work for Big Media) of DeCSS fame, and *Musique fame. Interesting follow-up to last week’s post about Digital Music on Linux.
Miguel de Icaza, of Gnome & Mono fame, recently reached out to Jon to create a pyMusique port to GTK# resulting in SharpeMusique.
It’s on my t0do list to download and try out. I’d give Apple’s iTMS a shot if it works. I’m hoping it shows up soon in the Ubuntu universe (I haven’t checked yet). I have Mono running, with a few apps (I love Muine) and I miss Tomboy (Tomboy isn’t working in Hoary for me, no idea why, it was fine in Warty).
MGM vs. Grokster hit the Supreme Court Tuesday, and the Justices’ we’re asking the right questions:
MGM and nearly a dozen other entertainment companies argued that peer-to-peer software manufacturers Grokster and StreamCast had built their businesses by distributing “infringing machines.” But counsel for the entertainment industry, Donald B. Verrilli Jr. of the law firm Jenner & Block, scarcely finished his opening statements before the Justices interrupted with pointed questions about how his arguments would impact technological innovation. Justice Antonin Scalia asked how the industry would protect nascent technologies from “out-of-the-box lawsuits,” and Justice Stephen Breyer pushed him to explain why MGM’s argument wouldn’t also apply to the iPod, Xerox machines, and even Gutenberg’s printing press.
(I’m finding myself agreeing with Justice Scalia?? First time for everything).
Lots of folk’s turned out to wait in line to get tickets in to the Supreme Court Monday night. Luis Villa’s blog (a Gnome Developer) has some great pictures up, including demonstrators and waiting in line.
So Apple has been in the news all week, as their DRM has been stripped – but what hasn’t necessarily been said is that is hasn’t been stripped, as as much as the Apple iTunes solution implemented on Linux doesn’t apply the DRM. Technically, it’s almost impossible to apply the DRM at the server level, and when pyMusique downloads a song on a Linux box, the DRM isn’t applied as it’s not a native iTMS client like on Windows or Mac.
I whole heartedly agree with this interview with Cody Brocious, one of the 3 developers of pyMusique (along with DVD Jon) on Linux. It’s not the DRM issue – it’s the fact, as a Linux user, I don’t have any options today to buy digital music on the platform I choose to use.
I’d accept their DRM if they supported Linux. No question.
I’ve used Napster and MusicNow – I’ve bought over 20 albums in the last 6 months online. We need a commerical Linux solution for digital music.
My favorite photo-sharing site, Flickr was acquired by Yahoo this week.
The link to the Flickr Blog has some interesting Q&As about what it means.
While I’m nervous about it, I’m not worried. I hope what they’re saying is true that Flickr will influence Yahoo more than Yahoo influencing Flickr.
Flickr is great for a few reasons:
It’s completely built on Open Source software.
Flickr’s use of Creative Commons
Flickr’s use of social networking to tag photos. (Search for “Packers” some time – you see some great shot of Lambeau during a game).
Flickr’s tools for integrating photos into blogs.
I’m very happy for Ludicorp. Good for them for building a site that works, people like, and being able to make some money for it.
CNet’s News.com did a great story on Flickr, tagging, and it’s acquisition.
Icculus updated his .plan file over the weekend, ranting about game development, distribution and copyright in response to a blog entry covering the Game Developer’s Conference.
The blog entry on Wonderland is a transcript of a panel with Warren Spector (creator of Thief, System Shock, and Deus Ex), Brenda Laurel, Jason Della Rocca, and Chris Hecker. The panel was IGDA Session: Burning Down The House – Game Developers Rant. (Game Developers get to rant? Uh oh).
Warren Spector put it best (excerpt):
Warren Spector:
First of all I don’t hate you, Will Wright. I just had one of those “I’m not worthy” moments in the elevator. YOU ARE the 800lb gorilla.
[argh what did Will SAY already? alice]
OK. I don’t feel very ranty actually. I tried to bail on this panel. But I have to say something so I want to say how this business is hopelessly broken. Haha. We’re doing pretty much everything wrong. This is at the root of much of what you’re gonna hear today. Games cost too much. They take too long to make. The whole concept of word of mouth, remember that? Holy cow it was nice.
Wal-Mart drives development decisions now. When publishers minimise risk by kow-towing to the retailers, you have a serious problem. When every game has to either be a blockbuster or a student film, we got a real problem. For my end of the game business all of our efforts are going into reaching a mainstream audience who may well even not be interested in what we do! My first game cost me 273,000 dollars. My next one is BLAH millions. How many of you work on games that make money? 4 out of 5 games lose money, according to one pundit who may be lying, admittedly. Can we do any worse if we just trusted the creative folks entirely instead of the publishers?
My point is coming. We’re the only medium that lacks an alternate distribution system. All we have is boxed games sold at retail. This is changing a little. But think about our competition for your entertainment dollar. First run, broadcast, reruns, DVDs.. you name it. hardback, paperback, e-book. Theatre release, pay-per-view, video, DVD. We put our thing on the shelf at Wal-Mart, it sells or it doesn’t, and OMG you just blew 10m dollars. The publishers not respecting developers, this is not the problem. We have a flawed distribution model. There are very few ways of getting a game done these days. Developers.. why should we get a huge return? We’re taking some of the risk, but the $10m, the marketing space, the retail space all belong to someone else. We have winner-take-all business that carries a lot of risk. So .. we have to find alternative sources of funding. Chris Crawford used to rant about how we need patrons.. I don’t care if it’s wealthy patrons, I don’t care what it IS, but it’s critical that we divorce funding from distribution.
We need alternative forms of distribution too. I’m not saying publishers suck, although I do believe that in many cases. [laughter] If the plane went down who would care about the marketing guys? We need another way of getting games out there and in players’ hands. If any of you bought half life 2 at Wal-Mart, please just leave the room. Has everyone bought Bioware’s online modules? JUST BUY THEM, OK, even if you don’t have the original games! We HAVE to get games into gamers’ hands. So I’m not saying publishers are evil.. if we do all this and go direct to our consumers with games funded some OTHER way than EA or whoever.. we’ll keep more of the money.. we have to find someone to pay for it and find a buyer after. We need Sundances. Independent Film Channel. Equivalents of those. Just try to find some way of funding your stuff that doesn’t come from a publisher.
The movies have this now: the studios don’t fund everything that happens out there. I’m not holding the movie business up as a model of great business practice, but you can get $ from a wide variety of sources. You know what, when the studio system was in place, that didn’t exist. Every creative person was owned by a studio. Cinemas were owned by studios. Content was limited. As soon as the supreme court stepped in and said no you can’t have development, distribution and retailing, everything changed. Now we have Bruckheimer, and Sideways. Sundance. Indies. At the very worst we need publishers to ask more than that one question: is this going to generate max profit. For most games this is NOT THE RIGHT QUESTION. Volkswagen owns rolls Royce, they understand the need for – oh the music’s running, I’m outta here. Thank you.
Brenda Laurel, on the panel (excerpt):
We model male ethos in the games we design: soldier, super athlete, criminal. Anyone who was born with internet and computers are prosocial. Skaters are mainstream. We have two models of alpha maleness: skaters and ballers [I have no idea what this is referring to – A]. … we need heroes, but what kind of heroes are we making? Where’s Malcolm X, or Chavez? There hasn’t been a game about geopolitics that was worth a shit since Hidden Agenda! We should be giving people rehearsals for citizenship and change. I have to tell you, Microsoft is the walking dead. DRM is a wet dream. It’s not gonna work! Cat’s out the bag! When this happens, you have to let the cards fly in the air and fall where they may. GIVE IT UP ABOUT DRM. GIVE IT UP ABOUT OWNERSHIP. Cleave to open source! A NEW ECONOMY IS COMING. As we become further connected we will find new economies emerging. We are the wellspring of popular culture. We have a responsibility.
Icculus links to this, and takes it a step farther in his current .plan (archived here locally without permission)(excerpt):
Spector is probably closest, though: the distribution model benefits the
upper one percent at the cost of innovation, piracy, and well, the artists.
If we can look at this from the music slant, Apple’s iTunes Music Store is a
good start, but a shitty end. Eventually we’re probably going to need, uh,
for lack of a better term, a distributed Steam…online, universal,
incremental transfer of product without a centralized publisher. The problem
with Steam as it currently stands, among other complaints, is that Valve
escapes their oppressive publisher in order to become an oppressive publisher
themselves. Apple’s a little different in that they haven’t escaped the whims
of the publishers at all (which is why every few months you see a Chicken
Little article on Slashdot about iTMS raising their prices by a whole 20
cents…the poor consumers! Poor Apple! Why doesn’t anyone ever say “poor
musicians”?)
When we can all sell online without a central authority, stream the bits right
to the user any time of the day, and be the backup when their hard drive
fails (which would be a nice feature in iTMS that Steam figured out, in case
you’re listening, Apple), then we could ship when we’re ready, do things that
are awesome without 150-man teams and millions of dollars, make more money
within a meritocracy, and not whore ourselves out to Big Publishing. Not to
excuse them, but the fact that the EA Spouse blog exists says more about the
industry as a whole than it says about Electronic Arts. I mean, it’s a safe
bet to say that everyone outside of EA has an chilly familiarity with
those stories anyhow…put another way, when you see one cockroach, it’s a
safe bet there’re hundreds more behind the walls.
There are no benign dictators in publishing. The only sane thing to do is
flush them altogether.
A new era is coming, but the question is when. DRM isn’t the answer – show me one that worked yet. Open Source hasn’t worked in gaming (yet). Steam isn’t working (talk to someone who plays HL2 or CS:Source). Gaming is at a tipping point – the rise of independent creation and independent publishing combined with ubiquitous broadband and peer to peer technologies will create a new industry. Mods to current games, and publishers like Garage Games and things like Steam and Bittorrent are only the beginning as programmers throw off the shackles of Big Media.
I encourage you to read all of the articles in full.