Darker Nemesis

Indiana Jones in WoW

Keith Wagner

It's well known in the gaming community, especially those into MMORPGs and World of Warcraft that Blizzard loves putting little easter eggs in WoW. Their reference to Bambi [wowwiki.com] is a perfect example of this. Well tonight I found an even greater one. You're in this what looks like an ancient temple, all of a sudden you see this guy locked in a cage...what's his name? Harrison Jones (for those of you who don't get it which I'm hoping is a small amount if any, Harrison Ford plays the character Indiana Jones in the popular movie series). You're tasked with escorting him out of the temple, although you don't really have to do much as he tends to fend for himself rather well. And of course he does a little bit of exploring and what does he run into, but a giant snake. And to top it all off, after the quest is done, he says "See ya around kid".

On the Hunt for a New Linux Distro

Keith Wagner

Many already know that I've been a Linux fan for some time now, primarily using the Ubuntu distribution on both my server and my desktop. Well I upgraded to Ubuntu 8.10 and I noticed a noticeable slow-down on performance. I've been noticing a bit of sluggishness from Ubuntu over the last several versions, but nothing really noticeable. Well that changed for me with the install of Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ipex. System performance was sluggish, and I realized that there was a little bit too much bloat than I cared for, not as bad as Vista, but still more than I feel a Linux desktop should have. I decided I'd move to a different distro.

My first choice was Debian 4.0. Ubuntu is Debian-based so I figured going back to Ubuntu's base might be a good place to start since I am most familiar with the Debian system. The install went smoothly and within an hour I had the Gnome desktop in front of me. The thing that impressed me most was its bootup speed, loading speed, and responsiveness. It put Ubuntu to shame in all of these cases as it was incredibly fast. The only thing that I didn't like was that it seemed to be behind on a lot of key software and updates. Iceweasel, its browser (a port of Firefox 2.0) was the browser installed and me of course wanted Firefox 3.0. I download it, try to run it and it says I need to have GTK+ v2.10 or higher. Apparently the Debian repositories are somewhat out of date with some key software versions as the latest version in Debian's repositories for GTK was 2.08 and when I tried to manually compile and install GTK+ 2.14, its dependencies were all libraries with versions greater than the Debian repository had. Now I realize that I could try harder to find some good 3rd party repos or work through the massive dependencies, but at the same time I'm looking for a distribution that does not require massive amounts of configuration. It might also be worthy to note that a lot of the key applications that I use on a regular day basis were not installed nor were they available for download from the repositories. I liked Debian, but it was missing too much to become a working Linux desktop distro for me. Now server wise, Debian would be great for its speed and stability, and maybe one day if I feel adventurous, I may very well switch over from Ubuntu 8.04 Server to Debian, but as it stands now, as good a distro as Debian is to many people, it just didn't match what I wanted in a desktop distribution.

My next choice was CentOS 5.2 which I'm currently installing. It'll be a change from Ubuntu since its most definitely Red Hat based and not Debian, but a co-worker sings its praises and since its an offshoot of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, I figure I'll give it a try and see how it goes. I'll let you all know later.

Well I've Entered Northrend

Keith Wagner

I picked up World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King today and spent the evening playing around in the new area. It's been a lot smoother than I anticipated. Despite the large influx of players into the new zone, there has been little lag and the contention for kills/quest goals is suprisingly low so definitely a better experience than I had anticipated. I actually figured I'd go into the new zone, see a lot of bugginess and then just go back to Outlands and just work from there.

Since my wrist has sidelined me from console gaming, I guess I'll probably be spending a fair amount of time on WoW in the coming days.

Kudos to Circuit City

Keith Wagner

I know Circuit City isn't exactly doing how shall we put it, well right now, but they impressed me last night when I went to pick up Gears of War 2.

Circuit city was running a deal where you got 1600 Microsoft Points with your purchase of Gears of War 2. This was a pretty good deal considering 1600 Microsoft points cost $20, so for the game which cost $60 you pretty much got $80 worth of stuff. Well needless to say, by the time I got there after work, they were out of the Microsoft Points cards. So rather than just saying sorry, they went the extra mile and gave me a $20 gift card to make up for it. To me thats kind of impressive considering they could have used the "while supplies last" excuse and remove the deal. Now while its only a gift card, they still equalled it out in the end as I can always go back and use the gift card to buy the points later when they have the cards in stock.

Anywho, I got the card, I got the game, and I'm quite happy :-)

Seriously

Keith Wagner

Seriously, there are too many games coming out in too short of a period. Fable 2, Fallout 3, Gears of War 2, WoW:Wrath of the Lich King, Endwar all come out within 1 month of each other leaving me not enough hours in the day to play them.

All summer we had crap for game releases for the most part, and now, all these good games in such short time. Oh well such is life and such is what seems like a neglected blog.

Why The Battle Between Desktop Environments?

Keith Wagner

Why are so many people constantly trying to claim Gnome is better than KDE or KDE is better than Gnome? If you ask me I'd say they're about equal and personal preference is where it all lies. Some people prefer Gnome and others KDE, I'm one who prefers Gnome but has no problem using KDE either if I need to.

For those who have no clue what I'm talking about, Linux has the ability to use multiple desktop environments which is pretty much the UI of your operating system where you can browse for files, run applications, etc. There are many different environments with the two big ones being Gnome and KDE. There is often the talk of which one is "better" but I almost seem to be the odd one out who really doesn't seem to see either as "better" than the other.

I mean if you look at it from a different view, both Gnome and KDE are both completely open, the source code is available and you can develop for either one relatively easily. Both can be installed on any distribution albeit some distros don't come with the choice to install one or both making it a bit more difficult to do especially for the novice user, but at the same time, it can be done.

The only argument I can see for this argument is to set more of a standard for Linux desktop environments, but at the same time, the customization for me is one of Linux's greatest selling points, the ability to use whatever desktop environment and software you want. If you look at both OS X and Windows, while there are some alternatives to many applications, for some apps there are no alternatives and outside theming, you're stuck with one desktop. So while one desktop environment as "standard" for Linux would provide a base, you'd lose a fair amount in the process.

While personally I have nothing against any of the desktop environments, I think it all comes down to personal preference and the "desktop environment war" is kinda silly. In the end I think the "war" would be better fought bettering Linux and open source software. Just a thought.

Philadelphia Phillies 2008 National League Champions

Keith Wagner

Image Courtesy of http://www.mlb.com

They finally did it, the Philadelphia Phillies won the Pennant and are now the 2008 National League Champions beating the LA Dodgers 5-1 in Game 5 of the NLCS. Next up the World Series!

GO PHILLIES!

Mascot Fight

Keith Wagner

Hehe, gotta love this, the Oregon Duck and University of Houston Cougar duke it out...

And no, while it does look so, it was not staged.

I Sometimes Wonder How Far We Have Progressed as a Country

Keith Wagner

Image Courtesy of http://www.news-leader.com

I'm not one to really post political stuff on my blog, but I really feel as if I have to mention something about this. Earlier today I read this article about a billboard in Missouri portraying Obama in what I would call a racist stereotype. To me this is 100% WRONG. Instead of attacking Obama's policies, they are attacking him as a person based primarily on his race. And deeper down, they're attacking all Blacks, those of Middle Eastern descent, and Muslims in general. Racism is wrong. Period. There is no middle ground, it is wrong. I'm all for freedom of speech, it is one of the staples of America, but at some points, people take it too far.

It is beyond a standard smear tactic, it is something that just hits me hard. I was raised to be tolerant and accepting of people no matter what race or religion they happen to be and to see this just makes me see how ignorant people can be and makes me second guess how far we as a country have progressed.

I Want

Keith Wagner

I Want...that is all

Is Mixx Out of Beta?

Keith Wagner

Is Mixx out of Beta? Look at their logo today. Not only are they celebrating 1 year...but the beta text is removed from the logo.

Social Media: Traffic or Conversation?

Keith Wagner

A lot has been going on in the social media world recently. Digg has unleashed its banhammer again banning over 50 accounts, many of them in some of the top user spots. A good many of them have come over to Mixx and are enjoying their time there as they very well should be, Mixx is a great site with a great community and employees who legitimately care about the users and their experience.

But one of the complaints I've heard is that Mixx doesn't drive nearly as much traffic to sites as Digg does, and this by all means is true. Digg has been around for several years now, Mixx is barely a year old, an infant when compared to Digg. So it is only natural that it won't drive as much traffic to sites. This will grow in time though as the community grows and continues to share and submit great content, so continue getting involved and you'll see that change in the future.

But consider this: What matters more, traffic? or community and conversation?

Everyone wants to promote their own sites & blogs and generate traffic. I'm no exception, but at the same time, its not the primary reason I blog and interact on social media sites like Mixx. I interact with Mixx and I blog for the conversation and the community. I want to hear people's views on whatever may be the topic of conversation, be it a blog post of mine, one of someone else's, or just a recent news story. I want to discuss opinions and thoughts, and if traffic comes from that, its just an added bonus. Personally, I'd rather have 25 people view it and comment and give me their thoughts, than to have 1,000 people view it and not hear so much as a whisper.

And I think it is this that makes Mixx, and social media in general grow. The sharing of thoughts, views, and opinions.

Mixx has a very welcoming community with great people both behind the scenes and on the front lines. Continue submitting content and discussions and the traffic will come, but don't forget, traffic isn't everything, I as well as many others I'm sure agree that the community aspect is more important.

Halo Wars Trailer

Keith Wagner

I've said it before, I'm not quite sure how I feel about a real time strategy game being played on a console with a controller. I always feel RTS games require a mouse and keyboard. Halo Wars is doing just this. I'm hoping they might find some way to pull it off. Definitely worth a rental to try it out, but I don't know if I'll even buy it. It may be Halo, but its the wrong platform in my opinion since there's no PC version of it. Either way, this trailer was released. Enjoy!

Karma FAIL

Keith Wagner

Doing real good on Karma there aren't ya

Towing Company FAIL

Keith Wagner

I was just outside Philly visiting a friend of mine and I came across this sign...

For Any Mixxers

Keith Wagner

Greg Davies (aka cGt2099) posted this over at the Mixxing Bowl...check it out!

Mixx: The Ultimate Challenge

Self Submission and Social Media

Keith Wagner

Over time, the debate about promoting and submitting your own content has been tossed around the communities.

For those of you who are unsure what self-submission or self-promoting is, its simply submitting your own blog or your own site to social media sites like Digg, Mixx, Reddit, etc. Some people feel that this is bad etiquette and bad for the community. I take the opposite stance....to a point.

I mainly submit stories to Mixx as I've pretty much moved away from Digg and never really got into any of the other social media sites. I sometimes submit my own blog entries to Mixx, but only those I feel are of quality. If you look at all my submissions from my blog compared to all my entiries on my blog, you'll notice many were never submitted to Mixx or any other social site - with good reason. My blog is also by no means the only thing that I submit. If you look at my Mixx Profile, you can see my submissions are from a wide variety of sources and you'll only see the occasional post from DarkerNemesis.com in my submissions page. And I feel that this is what makes the difference. Submitting only your own stuff to any social media site is not really adding to the community, especially if the links aren't quality links. Also, scraping is by no means acceptable so make sure its ORIGINAL content.

So here's a quick run-down of what to remember if you're going to self-submit

1. Do it with restraint

2. Make sure if you do, the entries/links are of quality, no one wants to read utter crap or even worse, scraped content

3. Don't only submit your entries. The internet is filled with tons of funny, interesting, thought-provoking, and other great sites with great content, why not submit those as well? Also, submitting random stuff just to drown out your self-submissions with other material will be noticed, people want to see good content and not just filler.

The Good Outweighs the Bad

Keith Wagner

This is a follow-up to my last post "Come On Mixx"

That post gave a somewhat negative view on Mixx, which while that needed to come out, does not outweight the good that Mixx brings to the Social Media world. I'm not entirely sure when I joined Mixx, but I would say I joined late 2007. Since then I have been incredibly impressed with what Mixx has done, and have pretty much left Digg almost entirely to focus my attenion on and become part of the Mixx community. I have not given up on Mixx, and I have no intention of doing so, I still love Mixx and would reccommend it to anyone. So while "Come On Mixx" brought up the bad, I want to say why despite the bad, Mixx is still the place to be.

I think what makes Mixx what it is most, is the crew working behind the scenes: Kerry, Joe, Chris, Doug, Will, and everyone else. They legitimately care about what the users think of the site. Instead of just doing what they want and what they think looks or works best, they honestly want to know what WE, the users think and will work things out to make us happy. A perfect example is that right after they released the nested comments update, some users mentioned, and I agree with, that the nested comments stood out more over the parent comments. So what did Mixx do? They changed the look on them and they're now improved upon and not quite as more prevalent over the parent. The whole idea of truly listening to the users is probably what really makes Mixx stand out.

Mixx is also constantly pushing out new updates to the site. From the nested comments, to communities, groups, MixxMail, Kudos to comments, now being able to follow comment conversations, the list goes on. These new updates and abilities enhance the Mixx experience and the Social Media experience entirely. Let's go through a subset of all the things that Mixx has added to the system.

Communities

Mixx has added this community feature to pretty much be a "mini-mixx" where users can form communities and focus on a specific topic. These topics can pretty much be whatever the community admin desires, tech, news, environment, games, you name it. The community page can be customized and you can even set up for ads and be able to make some money off of it. This is what social media is about, sharing stories and discussing them, and communities make that even easier when you can use them to browse through stories of a more specific topic than standard tags and categories can allow. And the best part is of course that these communities use the same engine as Mixx does so they're just as powerful.

MixxMail

Not as new as other features but this feature gives users the ability to talk amongst themselves or in groups in what is pretty much a light e-mail system. If you want to share stories, submissions, thoughts, or just talk about this and that, the MixxMail system provides a great way for you to do so.

Comment Kudos

Now, similar to Digg, but different enough to be in my opinion better is the ability to give kudos to users' comments that are worthy of them. And each user can only give out 5 per day. This prevents for abuse of the system whereas Digg uses the up down votes on comments which are unmonitored and unlimited. This can lead to abuse of the system when something like this happens.

Breaking News

This one was added a while back. Pretty much if a story is what would be considered Breaking News, where its a big story like the Plane Crash in Spain yesterday, or someone famous unfortunately passing away, Supermixxers can mark is as breaking so that it appears on the front page sooner in its own side-section. To combat abuse, Mixx allowed for the need of 2 supermixxers to flag it as breaking before it will become breaking news. This is simply so that the big stories make their presence known sooner.

Your Mixx Page

While this may not seem like much, this is a great way for users to customize the Mixx home page so that they see what they want to see. Users can add tags, categories, subcategories, and users to their Your Mixx page to be given the stories and topics they want to see. The customization here is essential to Social Media...weed out the stuff you don't care too much about and focus on what you do.

There are countless other great things about Mixx but I think even with just this subset, you can see that the good strongly outweighs the bad. The crew behind Mixx are a great bunch and will continue to improve the site to make it better for all of us. I have faith that Mixx will get through this and become the site we all want it to be. I have no intention of leaving the site, because I still think its the best social media site out there. So Kerry, Joe, Doug, Will, Chris and everyone else, keep up the good work, and I apologize again if my last post seemed utterly harsh and/or hurt you, I respect you greatly and am always looking forward to what's new at Mixx.

Come On Mixx

Keith Wagner

Lately, I have to say I've been somewhat disappointed with Mixx. It's a great site with a great crew working behind the scenes, but with the spam issues, blind voting, and revenge voting, it seems that they may not be willing to push back hard enough against the growing problem.

For any who may not realize what blind voting is, its simply users voting on stories without actually paying attention to, or looking at what the story is. Its often done for reciprocal voting...an "I scratch your back you scratch mine" type of thing. People vote up other people's stories in hopes that the other user will then vote up theirs. Where Mixx is concerned, it could also be users trying to rack up Karma Points. This is especially bad when a lot of times these users are voting up complete and utter crap, spam, and hell knows what else. This is something that is not always apparent in every submission, but when you see users voting up "How to get cheap Viagara", its then apparent as to who they are. What Mixx needs to do is crack down on this more and dare I say it, go after the users who do blind vote. No one wants to see spam hitting the front page, and blind voters help this happen. I would actually go so far to say that maybe dock the user several hundred karma per blind vote or vote up on spam submissions, to maybe even temporarily to permenantly suspending user accounts if they are continuing to vote up spam. Now this could be problematic and potentially alienating users, but so long as the Mixx staff is open about it, letting the users know why their account is suspended, it may not be as bad as one might think. (On the dark side, Digg is INCREDIBLY tight-lipped when it comes with informing users why their account is suspended) Plus, the fewer blind votes, the less spam that gets promoted and the better the content that people will see. And face it, if new prospective users check out Mixx only to find spam on the front page, they're going to lose interest in checking more of Mixx out, which would mean losing a potential new user who would make the Mixx community proud. The Mixxing Bowl has a good thread naming names so check it out.

Mixx chooses to show the users who both voted up, and those who voted down submissions (Digg just shows diggs, not buries) and this I think helps make things more open in terms of identifying "bury brigades" as they're popularly called on Digg. This can lead to revenge voting where one user votes down all of someone else's submissions simply because that one person happened to vote down one of the other user's stories. I don't know what Mixx does for this if anything but again its something that Mixx should not tolerate and take head on with maybe the same reprocussions as I mentioned in the Blind Voter penalties. I know i've been hit several times by blind voters, mostly the spammers who I have been going after lately.

Then there's the spam problem. Social Media sites are going to get hit with Spam, thats a give-in, and Mixx has been pretty good with removing spam quickly once reported, but the obvious cheap pills-type spam is not the only type. I'm not going to name names, but one user who is great with this...you know what, the hell with it, I will name the user...CyberPhoenix. CyberPhoenix is a huge Linux fan which I can accept since I am a fan of Linux and open source as well. But this dude takes it to extremes. He/She makes fanboys look tame. Now this in itself isn't that big of an issue, only that he constantly submits anti-windows/microsoft articles filled with childish name-calling. But to make matters EVEN worse, if anyone posts a story that goes against Linux or Pro-Microsoft, he leaves like 300 line comments that are pretty much completely off-topic and spam themselves. To see what I mean, go to http://www.mixx.com/users/cyberphoenix/comments and you can see the crap he leaves as comments. i'm sorry, this is SPAM and should be treated as such. You want to leave a 300 line comment? Fine, keep it on topic and make it meaningful. Why Mixx really isn't doing anything about this is beyond me, apparently he/she was suspended briefly a while ago, but apparently has not learned his/her lesson. StandardsDT said it perfectly

Stop spamming other articles. Keep irrelevant content out of others stories. Some people are ASP.NET programmers and this might help them. We get it you hate Microsoft, this does not mean you have to ruin a submission for others. Spamming is not permitted on mixx. Your comment has been reported.

This kind of stuff also needs to be looked at by the Mixx crew and acted upon when necessary.

Voting rings, while harder to determine, are also on Mixx and I can name 2 users who are most definitely part of a rather large one: Sunita and Windows. While real evidence is needed to do something, these 2 are either paid submitters or part of a ring...or both. This should also be looked into and acted up if such is indeed the case.

I realize that some of the actions against certain problem users may sound steep, harsh, and could possibly cause some alienation, but I know I am not alone in these thoughts, and that some of the biggest and best users on Mixx agree with some or all of my thoughts on what needs to be done. In the end I think we would end up with a good Social Media site with MUCH better content. And let's face it, for social sites, content is king. Get better content, and you'll draw in more users and generate traffic.

I want to apologize if anyone thinks I'm being a little too harsh towards the crew at Mixx. They are a great team and I'm always excited to see the new stuff they add to the site. I'm simply suggesting that maybe more drastic actions are needed to combat these issues. And anyone in the Mixx crew is free to contact me if you want to talk to about this.

***UPDATE***

Make sure to read my latest entry "The Good Outweighs the Bad" because as bad as this may sound, the good that Mixx is trumps and overcomes what is mentioned here.

They Act As They Plan to Accomplish Something

Keith Wagner

This is sort of a followup to my post "Spammers Beware".

I recently found 4 or 5 users all called freevicodenonline or free{insert drug name here}online spamming on Mixx. This got me thinking. Spammers have been pushing drugs and perscription drugs and "cheap drugs" online through countless sources most notably the CH34P V14G4R4 emails I'm sure all of you have seen either in your inbox or your junk folder. These spammers have been doing this for so long it makes me wonder why they even bother anymore.

Seriously, who has not seen one of these emails offering cheap drugs, fake rolexes, or hell knows what else? This shit has been so rampant for so long, you wonder how many people actually pay attention to or fall for them. They've been around for so long people should know by now that these emails are complete and utter crap and anyone with 1/10th of a brain can see right through it.

Yet they continue to push their shit everywhere. E-Mails I can pretty much just ignore now as they find their way straight to the spam folder so I never really see them, but now these assholes seem to think that this time putting their shit on Mixx and social media sites will actually produce different results. I got news for them, no different results, no accomplishments, just wasting our time.

Good Riddance

Thinking

Keith Wagner

So I'm thinking about starting a tech-related podcast, would anyone be interested in co-hosting?

Twitter has a New FAIL WHALE

Keith Wagner

Star Trek Online is Announced

Keith Wagner

Now I'm excited...

Star Trek Online

Thoughts on Open Source VS Proprietary

Keith Wagner

I may get some flak for this from the open source community, but I'm just curious about other's thoughts on this as well as to be able to share my own.

Anyway, I know there are many open source and free software advocates who are completely, 100% against proprietary software and refuse to use it or install it. So I ask this question. Suppose that there is a great new application, a great new piece of software that came out that was amazing. It did everything and more that you want this app to do (It can be any app, with any functionality). The downside? It's proprietary, BUT they released a native Linux / BSD version of the software so you can easily install it on Linux without the use of Crossover, Wine, or anything else. Now also suppose that there is no true open source alternative to this application. No open source app comes close to what this app can do.

Before I ask the big question, let me just go over my thoughts on the matter.

Personally, I would have no problem using this software even though its proprietary under Linux. I believe that even by using and installing proprietary software, you're not really harming the open souce and free software movement, especially when there's no real alternative to the proprietary piece of software. The open source and free software community provides a great alternative to many many proprietary apps and even operating systems. This said, proprietary software is in itself, not inherently "evil" by any means. Some may say that a certain Redmond, Washington-based company is "evil" but can you really speak for all proprietary software companies as a whole because of one bad apple (can you really label any group evil because of ONE person?). In the end I see nothing wrong with proprietary software being installed on a Linux PC, deep down the OS is still open source, and still free. What's wrong with using all the tools available to you to get the best experience and the best productivity out of your computer? I mean in the end of the day, I'll always try to stick with open source software, but if there's a notably better way to do something that requires something proprietary, so be it. My use of the proprietary nvidia video drivers on my desktop is a perfect example. The nv driver isn't bad by any means, but I just have not seen it being able to match the abilities of the official drivers.

So what are your thoughts? Would you be completely against using proprietary software on your Linux desktop, or would you be willing to use proprietary apps as needed? Would you still consider using the proprietary application if it cost money?

Heavy as Hell ReLaunched

Keith Wagner

The project I've been working on, a social media/news Content Management System (CMS) or platform has just been launched on the site I'm involved with, http://www.heavyashell.com The final release version will probably be released to the public over the next 2 weeks once I finish the documentation.

In the meantime, check out Heavy As Hell and submit some stories on rock, metal, punk, and the like.

Battle of the Internet Radios

Keith Wagner

I talked about Pandora Radio a couple of days ago and what it brought to the scene, so I thought today I'd compare Pandora to the better known Last.FM service.

Last.FM is a social internet radio station where you can interact your friends and share what you've listened on Last.FM. The choices in your station are often generated by what others deem similar to the band you inputted to start the station. Users can tag the songs noting styles and similar bands to help generate the station you want to listen to. The one thing that Last.FM has over Pandora is the desktop client and the ability to tie in programs like iTunes into your recently listened to list. Last.FM is also better for learning about and hearing new unsigned bands. Last.FM allows for bands to upgrade to an artist account to post their songs on the service for others to listen to. Because of this its a great service for new bands to get their music out there for the masses to hear.

Pandora, while having some social aspects to it, doesn't yet match the full social experience that Last.FM gives, but thats fine, it brings a lot to the table on other fronts. First, Pandora bases your station on similar sounding artists from your choices rather than what other user's are suggesting. This provides a more accurate playlist when compared to user tagging which could be completely off from what you want on your station. Pandora also allows you to put multiple artists into your stations for the algorithm to create your playlist, and it even allows you to do mixes from multiple stations if you want a little more variety. This differs from Last.FM where as far as I know you can really only choose only one band to base the playback on.

Both stations are great services and provide a good selection of songs and artists. I don't think either station is dramatically better than the other. Both have their strenghts and weaknesses, and both have their advantages over the other. So right now I would have to call the battle a draw with both being the winner. Both have iPhone apps for users to stream the music from the cell data network. Both have a pretty extensive library, and both generate pretty good stations.

So, which is your preferred internet radio station? Is it Pandora? Is it Last.FM, or is it one not mentioned here?

The Case For Linux Gaming

Keith Wagner

The Linux Operating System has recently been gaining ground even for those who aren't exactly, how should we say it...tech saavy. One of the things that Linux lacks and can prevent people from moving over entirely, including myself are computer games. Yes the consoles have started to put PC gaming seemingly in the background, but there are still many who swear by gaming with the keyboard and mouse. Wine, the popular Linux software that allows you to run Windows apps under Linux, including games has improved tremendously lately, but it still doesn't do a good enough jobs for enough games to truly allow for it to be a 100% go-to option. It's compatibility list is growing but still not where it needs to be to make Linux a truly viable platform. There are some games that are built for Linux and allow a native install like Unreal Tournament 2004 and Quake 3, but the few games that can hardly be counted as the norm.

The Case For:

Unreal Tournament 2004, Quake 3, and others have shown that popular 3D games can be built to natively run under the Linux OS.
Linux has become more of a truly viable platform for the PC in both laptops and desktop computers.
The OpenGL libraries are already in place in most Linux desktop environments so 3D games are entirely possible without having to build everything from scratch.
There are plenty of proven cases where proprietary software can be natively installed on Linux without divulging the source code, so game makers don't have to worry about their source code being released.

The Case Against:

Linux, while it has gained ground in marketshare, still only makes up a small percentage of the PC Operating System market making it less appealing for game developers to build on while selling enough to make up for the cost of development.
There is no central graphics interface, like DirectX to allow for a uniform utilization of the graphical power of computers.
Piracy has hurt the PC gaming industry and to put funds into developing for another platform that already doesn't match the marketshare of Windows may not seem cost-efficient for companies to put money into.

What Needs to Be Done:

The development of a central platform like DirectX, only for Linux should be developed. Creating it will allow for a central library for developers to use to make the development of games easier for the game developers.
Word needs to get out more on Linux, to show companies that Linux can indeed be a viable platform for game companies to develop software and games for.

To say that we will start seeing games being developed for Linux tomorrow is of course wishful thinking, but the possibility and plausibility of introducing a new platform to the mix should not be taken lightly. If Linux continues to gain marketshare and catches the attention of say companies like EA or Activision, then maybe other companies will start to really consider developing even just part of their library for Linux. Maybe even Indie game companies looking into Linux development might have an effect too. I may be overly hopeful and overly naive in hoping for this, but as someone who wants to ditch Windows entirely, but still wants to play the occasional PC game, bringing more games to the Linux platform will help me wipe Windows for the last time.

Wow

Keith Wagner

I finally got around to watching Randy Pausch's 'Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams' and that is probably, without a doubt, the most powerful speech I have ever heard. If anyone has not watched it, I would strongly suggest you do. The way he presents himself is amazing and his legacy will live on I'm sure. RIP Randy Pausch.

Randy Pausch's 'Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams'

Enter Pandora Radio

Keith Wagner

A couple of months ago, I finally gave Last.FM a try after hearing some good things about it and finally running out of excuses to try it. I was impressed by it. I found a bunch of new bands with a lot of good music. I liked the social aspect, although I never got around to using it. The idea behind it seemed pretty solid and had a pretty good variety of bands and music.

Fast forward to yesterday. Last.FM now has a big competitor in the form of Pandora. (yes Pandora has been out for much longer, but I just decided to try it out yesterday) Pandora is similar in many ways to Last.FM but in several key ways its different. You can create seperate radio stations adding different artists to "pool" from, in other words, Pandora with the help of the Music Genome Project finds artists similar to the ones you select. Also, if you want you can do a QuickMix which allows you to listen to music found from whatever stations you select as if they were all combined into one. I could go on and on about how good Pandora is, but suffice it to say I'm quite impressed. There is a lot of music in their library and it is a great way to hear and discover new bands.

On a side note, to any Pandora user who happens to own an iPhone. If you haven't already done so, download the Pandora App from the App Store. It's free and provides access to your stations while out and about. And if you have the first gen iPhone, don't worry, its been streaming for me just fine over EDGE.

Spammers Beware

Keith Wagner

Lately there's been a lot of Spam being submitted to Mixx, some even being made popular and onto the front page. I know many top Mixxers are pissed off at it and I'm one of them. Social Media/News sites are always prime targets so having some spam submitted has to be expected. But what's been going on at Mixx lately is well beyond that. Mixxers who have been around are even voting for some of this shit that gets submitted, some Supermixxers even. I don't know whether they're voting for it because they're part of some spam voting ring, whether they just are too lazy to pay attention to what they're voting on, or what, but that's fucking wrong.

Then there are the voting rings, people all linked together voting stuff up just to get their shit on the front page, submissions that probably wouldn't even get to 5 votes without the voting ring. I've seen evidence of it and voting rings HURT sites like Mixx. And the fucking spam voting rings are even worse. All of a sudden some porn video or some spam makes front page, you view it and 20 spammers all voted for it. Spam accounts solely there to just vote up spam (sock puppets if you will) to try to get it to the front page. I report it and there are 5 more votes for it also from spammers.

Then of course there are the revenge votes, I got many of my stories voted down yesterday by a few spammers and other jackasses in revenge for me voting down and reporting them for spam. And don't think revenge voting is limited to spammers. Normal users too are guilty of this. Assholes who get pissed off that someone downvoted ONE of their stories, take revenge by voting down EACH AND EVERY ONE of yours. Grow up people, one downvote isn't the end of the world. And of course you have those people who will downvote anything and everything that doesn't match up perfectly with their beliefs, the ones who feel that if you don't believe what they believe than you are wrong. I may not agree with everything everyone else believes in, hell I'm sure I don't, but you won't see me going around and just voting it down because of that reason alone.

Comments are another issue, leaving only comments like "great article", or "nice" do nothing but clog the comment stream. Once in a while is ok, but add some value to the conversation, don't just post comments. I'm not even going to get into the one Mixx user who happens to write 300 line comments that pretty much end up being off topic onto articles that don't conform to what he/she wants.

I know Bdog2g2, gbarberi, loup.dargent and others, including myself, yesterday were trying to go through Mixx and help get rid of the crap that's been building up and submitted to Mixx. I hate to say it but we showed very little mercy. We all like Mixx, and don't want to see it filled up with spam, so we decided to go on the offensive for a change. I can't speak for them personally, but I know I want Mixx back, the Mixx I saw when I first joined where there was a lot of conversation, and quality discussion over some of the crap that makes the front page.

So to any other Supermixxers out there, keep your eye out for the spam that gets posted...report it and note it to help keep shit off the front page, we don't need to see it.

I just want to end with one note.

Yesterday I downvoted some spam stories and reported a user for spamming. About 15 minutes later I get a MixxMail from him saying that he reported me and was gonna get me kicked off of Mixx, also saying that Mortalwind did so before and he got back anyway. He then also proceded to downvote every story I submitted over the last 2 months (I really don't feel like spending the time counting how many back were downvoted, suffice it to say, it was a LOT) Well when I got this, I just laughed and shrugged it off because I didn't do anything wrong, I'm simply going after the spammers who think Mixx is their stomping ground. It might be kind of jerkish to say, but I wish I could've seen the look on his face when he realized he just got the boot from Mixx (he was booted sometime in the evening yesterday).

Just Saw The Dark Knight

Keith Wagner

Unbelieveable....that is all.

Mashed Buttons Gamecast

Keith Wagner

I will be on the Mashed Buttons Gamecast (Podcast) tonight at 7PM EST, 4PM PST. It's a podcast dedicated to video games and the gaming community. Check it out:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/mashedbuttons-gamecast

iPhone 2.0 Installed

Keith Wagner

Earlier today I went and got the link for the manual download of the iPhone 2.0 firmware and so far it's pretty nice, got a few apps installed and they're working pretty well. AIM is nice, and even though its from AOL, there are no ads like in the Windows versions, although I hope someone creates a 3rd party app that also incorporates Google Talk into it.

My main complaint with it is the lack of background processes. I enjoy talking to people through AIM and it'd be nice if I stayed online when I closed the app and even when i turn off the screen, so if someone IMs me, it notifies me as say an SMS message or an e-mail would, but alas it doesn't. Oh well, it is definitely a step in the right direction for Apple.

One nice little feature is the ability to easily create screenshots...

Update: From what I've been seeing, I'm glad I did this all last night, people seem to be having problems upgrading or for the new 3G customers, even ACTIVATING their new iPhones.

Why I Will be Sticking with my First Gen iPhone

Keith Wagner

While I initially debated upgrading my iPhone to the 3G model, I have since decided that it's just not worth it, for several reasons.

First, the new iPhone plans from AT&T now suck in comparison to the first gen iPhone plans. The voice plans remain the same from what I can see, but the data plan is now $10 more and does not include the 200 text messages like the old one did, so in order to get the "same plan" for the 3G iPhone, you'll be paying $15 extra a month. It may not seem like that much, but over the course of your 2 year contract, it adds up and even cancels out the cheaper price for the phone itself.

A second reason is that despite what others want to say, the battery life on the 3G model is noticeably worse than that with the original. The 3G drains the battery faster than does the EDGE network. Walt Mossberg has already reviewed it and said he barely got 4.5 hours out of it.

A third one is features. The 3G really only adds 2 new features. The first of course is the 3G network, and the 2nd is GPS. Yes the 3G network is faster than the EDGE network, but speed isn't everything. And GPS, on a phone, I could take it or leave it, especially since I would really only see it as useful for maybe driving, but i already have a car GPS system. Keep in mind that all the other features like the app store, etc are part of the 2.0 firmware which still will work just fine on the original models.

So while the 3G iPhone doesn't suck by any means, in fact it looks great, especially for someone who doesn't have an iPhone to begin with, for someone like me however; the new iPhone 3G doesn't pack enough of a punch to make me toss my current iPhone for the new model. Maybe in the future with newer iPhone models, but for now, I will be sticking with my current iPhone.

People are Assholes

Keith Wagner

So I just realized that some jerk-off stole 2 of my girlfriend's plants that were sitting on my porch for sunlight. OK...what asshole steals plants? What the fuck are you going to do with them? sell them? It's just sweet basil and parsley! News flash...They ain't worth much, so its not like you can freakin' resell them for much...if anything.

My girlfriend was proud of them, which is what causes me to be pissed off the most...that whatever douchebag decided it'd be fun to steal plants has in turn made my girlfriend upset, which means that I'm upset.

So to you Mr or Mrs Plant Thief...FUCK YOU!

Screw You Viacom

Keith Wagner

Many people already know my opinion on the current state of copyright laws here in America...they suck, they're outdated, and they cater too much to the copyright holders many times shafting the consumer like you would not believe. The latest item to piss me off was the recent decision by some technologically-impaired judge to order Google to release all logs from YouTube to Viacom. This is complete and utter bullshit. Viacom is currently suing Google over copyright violations on YouTube and initially wanted the source code of YouTube...are you freakin' kidding me? Source code, with the exception of open source, is the bread and butter of any software company...its often what gets the company their money. Fortunately the judge was no so tech-retarded to actually allow the source code to be given to Viacom, but in the meantime, something almost just as bad, if not maybe even worse came of it. All the logs from YouTube including what IP addresses/users watched, uploaded, etc. has been ordered to be given to Viacom from Google. The consumers...us...our activities will now be given to Viacom for them to look over. This could have some pretty big implications. Now I realize that while we all like to believe that on the internet we are anonymous, this is definitely by far, not the case, but for some half-witted judge to say that ALL users, EVERYONE, innocent or not to be given over for what may very well become a witch-hunt is in my opinion crossing way over the line. And this is what bugs me as it happens time and time again, judges, who are clueless about computers and technology, who probably know about as much about computers as my great-grandmother are benched for cases that are so technologically involved, you really do need someone who is familiar enough with technology to be able to properly preside over these cases...it's like me trying to run for President of the United States...I'm simply not qualified. And because of their ineptitude, which to be fair is not really their fault, bad decisions are made and poor precedents are set.

Now I do see where Viacom is coming from, they want to protect their copyrights which is understandable, but the methods they are using to do so, take it too far.

The RIAA and MPAA have long said that piracy has impacted their profits, but they convieniently leave out some details. Lets look at a music CD. Someone goes out and pirates it. The RIAA would say it lost a sale, and lost money because of that one person pirating it. But who's to say that that same person would've actually gone out and bought the CD had downloading it not been an option? With the prices of music CD's nowadays, it wouldn't be suprising to see people become very picky about what CD's would be good enough to buy if piracy were not an option. And if they wouldn't have bought the CD under normal circumstances, did the RIAA really lose a sale?

This brings me to my final point, piracy of anything, while I don't condone, can also help all industries I think, and here's how. Say that same person just pirated that CD and ended up having a little party. During that party, he/she plays that CD. Other people then start liking the CD as well and want to know what band it is...what just happened? I don't know about you, but I call that advertising. Other party guests who may never have heard of the band, the CD, or the song, have now heard it and may very well start to like it, enough to go out and buy the CD. So while the RIAA "lost" 1 sale, it may have gained several more. Now yes, these guests could just ask for a burned copy of it, but it still gets the band's name out there which I'm sure is what the RIAA wants, even though they will probably never admit to it.

And YouTube fits this perfectly, especially for someone like me who rarely even watches TV. Clips from TV shows, music videos, movie trailers, even if not uploaded officially, still get the content out there for people to see and essentially advertising for the copyright holder. Obviously if a full TV show episode or movie is uploaded, that would cross the line, but a 30 second clip, or a trailer for a movie? give me a break. It may be your [Viacom's] copyright, but it still gives you publicity. Oh yeah...and this whole suing Google/YouTube...Well Viacom, its also gives you a lot of publicity...only its not the good kind of publicity, its the bad kind, the kind that will make me and I'm sure many others despise you and avoid you when possible, and maybe even when not possible.

In the meantime, these two videos go back a little ways, back during the writer's strike, but they're a good way to leave off...

How Many People Will Actually Read This?

Keith Wagner

I've gotten very involved with the Mixx site of late, I find it to be a fun site with an amazing community. One thing that I have started to notice is that the occasional spam story gets on, which I actually think is partially good...but not in the way you're thinking. I'm thinking that maybe it shows that Mixx is starting to really make it into the spotlight which is something I would love to see happen.

the point I'm really trying to make is that I've been seeing a few of these stories make it to popular status. I'm sure some of the people who voted for them were spambots themselves, but I have seen some votes in the up direction from seemingly legitimate Mixxers (and Mixxers I have seen around for some time, but I won't name names, you know who you are). This by far should not be the case! I'm sure many others have touched on this, and I know they have, but blind voting does NOTHING to help the Mixx Community. Not to say you should abandon your friends or not vote up their submissions, but read, look at, or watch their submission, don't just vote it up, and especially don't blind vote other stories either. If the title says "how to get free poker chips in online poker", it's probably spam and should be voted down and reported. We all want better quality submissions, so don't just blind vote.

I mean I write this blog to get feedback, to share ideas, to hear other people's opinions, to learn new things, pretty much to make conversation. As much as I would love the votes, I would like feedback more.

I hate going on these rants, so I'm gonna stop now

Of Course

Keith Wagner

Of course...3 days away from vacation and I get sick...I sure as hell hope it goes away soon, preferably BEFORE Friday.

Why are There So Few Games for Linux

Keith Wagner

If I had to give one reason why I don't completely wipe out Windows on my desktop, I would have to say that reason is games. I am a gamer and there are still several PC games I enjoy playing.

These games are made for Windows and can't natively be run under Linux. WINE, which just released version 1.0 of its software to run Windows applications under Linux does a pretty good job at running many PC games, sadly though, it is not a full substitute for running the game on the Windows operating system. I know me personally have had mixed success with running games with WINE. Sometimes I get it working perfectly, other times it takes a little bit of work to configure to get it to even work, and there are other times where I can't get a game to work at all.

The real reason for this is that developers won't make games for Linux. It's not just a matter of making a different installer, its about programming for a different set of graphics libraries, and programming the game to run natively under a completely different system. And despite my wishes that more developers would choose to release Linux versions of their games, I can't say I don't understand their reasoning. Game companies are in the market to make money, like any business. To make more money, it only makes sense for them to make their games for the greater user base, which in this case, is Windows. Like it or not, Windows is still the operating system with the most market share, and it only makes sense for developers to target Windows for their games. Windows may be slowly declining in market share percentage, but its still at the top, and the logical platform for PC games.

Mac OS X has recently grown noticeably in computers sold and some game companies, like EA have taken notice and are starting to develop more for the OS X platform. This goes to show that if a platform becomes more noticeable in the spotlight, it could very well start being developed for.

The argument could always be placed "well game companies should make a version of the game for Linux, so us users aren't left out in the cold". And I think of that argument too, and wish that some developers would take the plunge and start developing for Linux. Some companies have. Unreal Tournament 2003 came with a Linux installer and ran natively, Penny Arcade's game also came with a Linux version. I would love to see big-name games come to Linux, I think that Linux is a great platform and would definitely pay for a game that would run natively on Linux. But again, until more market jumps on the Linux bandwagon, its not realistically profitable for game companies to use Linux as a platform.

There are a lot of pretty good games that do run natively on Linux, but not many of them are the big name titles that you see everyone talking about. To make an example, I've been playing Crysis, the first person shooter from EA and Crytek. This game is a good game with amazing graphics and some pretty good gameplay. It currently can only run on Windows XP and Windows Vista. Its support under WINE is shoddy, and even if you could get it working under WINE, the graphical aspects of it that make it what it is would be lost because WINE can't run it natively.

I'm honestly not trying to bash Wine, I love it and it does a great job with the majority of applications and games, but for those games it doesn't run or just half-runs, there really is no alternative to Windows at the moment. We can only hope Wine improves and/or developers take more notice to Linux. If I can get most of my games to run under Linux, I would be love to be able to wipe Windows off my desktop and just go with a pure Linux system.

What do you think?

Well then

Keith Wagner

Well I finally just beat GTA IV...what's next? Metal Gear Solid 4 or Mass Effect?

Sorry

Keith Wagner

Sorry I haven't been updating as much as I normally do, I've been preoccupied both with work and with a new project I've been working on. I'm not going to say too much on it, but it is a new website geared for social media. I'm not quite sure where I'm going with it, but so far its been a lot of fun and its starting to turn out really well and I'm excited with where its going. I'll keep you posted with any details I feel like releasing.

I've been toying with the idea of starting a small podcast, maybe updated every week or every other week that may turn out to be more of a video blog, so once I see what's involved with that, I'll take the next steps in seeing how I can make that idea a reality.

For any social media people out there who like Twitter, Plurk has just jumped on the scene and so far it's looking pretty nice, time will tell how well it does, and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing its API come out. If I can make myself some time, I'll definitely see about taking a stab at it and possibly creating my own app, not sure what platform I'd use though.

As many of you are aware, Apple's WWDC keynote was Monday and I have some thoughts on that I'll probably post either tonight or later this week.

There are totally not enough hours in a day.

Also, if any registerred user tried to comment on something, I apologize. There was a bug in the system, but its fixed now.

Computer User FAIL

Keith Wagner

Look closely at the product this review is for: Ubuntu 7.04