Yet Another Steam Blog Post

After reading the comments of the people on the forum, I feel I must respond: Steam is probably one of the “better” DRM schemes out there, but as with pretty much everyone else, I would prefer no DRM at all. Compared to StarForce (the DRM technology that destroyed an optical drive of mine), it’s wonderful. The “Steam Community” is an excellent feature. My primary complaint is the lack of resale/giving games you don’t use anymore to a friend. Let’s say I bought a game on Steam, and I thought it flat out sucked. I should be able to “de-activate” it from my account and authorize access to another Steam user. I belive very much in the first-sale doctrine (a US law, for those Australian readers, as I’m based in the US). Hell, don’t even allow resale, just let me give a game I don’t like to another Steam user.

Overall I don’t really hate Steam. Some of the bugs annoy me, yes. And I will admit that I really dislike the UI in the Steam app, but looking beneath the bugs, it’s not all that bad.

Please Stop Copying my Posts. Thank you very much!

Today I check my blog dashboard and I see several references from an Australian computer forum. So, I decide to click on it and I find that someone copy/pasted my blog post. I’m all for open source/creative commons, but I must say that I much like having my own opinions copyrighted and protected by me. You may use portions of my posts in any article/post of your own, but I request that you reference the original source (that is, myself).
Thank you.

2010: The Year of Linux on MY Desktop

After continually trying Windows 7 (with decent hardware. A 3GHz Phenom II X4, 5.5GB of RAM and an HD 3870), and disliking it, I’ve decided that in 2010 I will switch to Linux. Yes, for real this time. After using Windows XP (currently using XP x64), and having experienced the differences between the XP and Vista/7 interface, I’ve decided that Linux is my best bet. However, my only problem is the fact that ATI’s Linux drivers are noticeably inferior to NVIDIA’s drivers. I’ve decided that I will switch to Linux before December 31, 2010. I think a year is more than enough time to migrate over to Linux. Don’t you think so?

I’m hopeful that it will work this time. Wish me luck.

EOTDW: Has it been that long already?

As we’re coming close to the final week of 2009, and the final week of this decade I’ve decided to write up a few posts on it. From the beginning (January 1st, 2000) all the way to the end (December 31, 2009), I’ll discuss the changes in technology. From the dawn of the 1GHz x86 processor, all the way to the latest multi-core monster of a processor. I’ll discuss what has changed with the technology we use, and what has not. Stay tuned.

It’s Like Everyone’s Blog is Dying.

The last post I made on my blog was on November 15. The last time I posted multiple entries in one week was months ago. And then there’s the fact that Andrew Turnbull has stopped blogging, and that Don’s blog is down. It makes me think, do most blogs die within a year? Hell, do most blogs die within 1 or 2 postings? (My original blogs did just that). Do we stop because everything we wanted to blog about was already blogged about? Or do we stop because we get tired of posting a lot, and finally just forget about?

It’s a question I’ve been meaning to ask, and I’ve always wanted to hear the answer. And then there’s the question of “Should I stop with this blog? With just 5,037 views since I started it just over a year ago.

Use the Classic Firefox Icon How-To Guide

Do you dislike the new (Firefox 3.5 and newer) icon that Firefox uses? Do you wish to use the old one instead? In this quick hack, I’ll show you how to do so. First, you’ll need to download the Firefox 1.0 ZIP release . You will also need a Firefox mini icon

Now that you have them, extract the Firefox ZIP to someplace (eg: your desktop). Right click on your Firefox (version 3.5) icon on your desktop, click properties, and then in the dialog that shows up, click “Change Icon…” When you are in the “Change Icon” dialog, browse to where you placed the Firefox 1.0 exe. Select that. Now select the Firefox icon. Now click Apply and switch to your desktop. Press F5. The Firefox icon will switch to the classic one.

That will only change the icon on your Firefox shortcut, not the icon on the Firefox windows. This is why you have also downloaded the Firefox mini icon. Place the minu icon file into “C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\chrome\icons\default” or wherever you have Firefox installed (note that if the folders do not exist, you should create them). Now close Firefox (if you have it open) and restart it. Firefox should now display the icons you specified.

The “mini-window icon hack” was based on Andrew Turnbull’s Mozilla Network mini-window hack for Windows 95/98/ME systems. Thankfully it still worked for Firefox 3.5 (and perhaps even 3.6, though 3.6 was not tested).

Come on, you can do better…

After seeing that Team Fortress 2 had an update I was excited. What could they have possibly added? Engineer update? Demoman update? My heart was pounding as I right clicked on “Team Fortress 2″ in Steam, and hit “View Update News”. What was it? Something remotely exciting? No, not exactly. More like anger inducing.

“Added Bill’s Hat for players who pre-purchase Left 4 Dead 2“. I have not pre-purchased Left 4 Dead 2. I haven’t even played the original Left 4 Dead (which entails an entirely other story). Yet, those of us who purchase Team Fortress 2 are left out. I had very hope that they release Bill’s Hat for all players after Left 4 Dead 2 is release, or… well, we won’t get into that now.

SeaMonkey 2 final release: A Change (Mostly) for the Worst.

Almost a year back, I reviewed a pre-release version of SeaMonkey 2. In it, I described all the new features of SM2, which basically make it more “Firefox-ish”, including the newer rendering engine included with Firefox 3, and a newer add-on engine, just like Firefox 3. While I thought it was a decent browser overall, I found fault with it:

• Older versions of Windows are no longer supported.
• I hate the new default theme. I liked the older classic Netscape 4 theme better, but that can be rectified by simply installing a new theme.

Since Opera 10 no longer supports Windows 95, what modern, up to date web browsers are there for Windows 95? A web browser shouldn’t need all these fancy API’s, because after all, a web browser at its simplest form downloads and displays web pages.

Why all the Love for Steam?

It’s pretty well known that I have a dislike for Steam. I dislike it for many reasons, but I mostly dislike it because of the DRM, the technical problems (of which I discussed in the linked blog post), and… the users. The people who’ll defend Steam to their death. Why, I have to ask. Why defend a for-profit company that wants to take away the rights to use the product you bought? It boggles the mind.

Whenever I tell people my opinion on Steam, they’re always like “Steam works great, and if it doesn’t work it’s because it’s your fault. You can play your games offline using offline mode. Why do you need or want phyisical copies of your games? You think you’re going to resell them after your done with them!? That’s illegal! That’s hurting the game compaines!” Of course I went a tad over the top with it, but that’s basically what they say.

1. Steam can be, and IS, buggy at times. Don’t deny it. A lot of problems can be rectified with that “ClientRegistry.blob” file, but some of them can’t.

2. Yeah, sometimes I can play them. Sometimes I can’t. And can I play them without an Internet connection for weeks at a time? Or even a few days? Thought, not. So it’s not a true “Offline mode”.

3. I like having physical copies. It shows that I actually own the game. It shows that I actually have a thing that I can touch, and a manual that I can read.

4. I’m sorry, but I believe that I have the right to transfer ownership of a game that I do not wish to play anymore. That’s a big reason why I hate Steam. Lack of the ability to change ownership of a game.

I hate it when people happily give away their rights to major corporations, but I hate it even more when other people expect ME to give away those rights too.

Windows 8: Coming to you with 128-bits, or not.

After not only reading this (among other news sources) but also reading the comments of such article, I was amazed that people actually believed it. On a more serious note, why would people need 128-bit? Are there systems out there that need more than 1 TB of RAM? But, eh, I will never need more than 640-bits. It should be enough for anyone. And the amount of addressable RAm should be more than enough for anyone.