Noughmad.org

Here are the six differences and similarities between Linux and sex, as discovered by linuxhelp.blogspot.com.

1. Sex is like candy. The more you have it, the more you like it. Linux is also like candy. The more you use it, the more you fall in love with it.
2. The first time you have sex, your spouse complains because you are persistent. Same way, when you start using Linux, your spouse again complains because now you are negligent (to her).
3. It is prudent to practice safe sex the same way as it is safer to use a robust firewall in Linux.
4. Sex is pervasively practiced the world over. Linux is slowly getting there bit by bit.
5. It is alright to have sex any number of times as long as it is with your life partner. Similarly, you can install Linux any number of times as long as it is on your machine and not your colleague’s.
6. Using sex and Linux together in a sentence is nice because they (kind of) rhyme.

UNIX Airways

Everyone brings one piece of the plane along when they come to the airport. They all go out on the runway and put the plane together piece by piece, arguing non-stop about what kind of plane they are supposed to be building.

Air DOS

Everybody pushes the airplane until it glides, then they jump on and let the plane coast until it hits the ground again. Then they push again, jump on again, and so on …

Mac Airlines

All the stewards, captains, baggage handlers, and ticket agents look and act exactly the same. Every time you ask questions about details, you are gently but firmly told that you don’t need to know, don’t want to know, and everything will be done for you without your ever having to know, so just shut up.

Windows Air

The terminal is pretty and colorful, with friendly stewards, easy baggage check and boarding, and a smooth take-off. After about 10 minutes in the air, the plane explodes with no warning whatsoever.

Windows NT Air

Just like Windows Air, but costs more, uses much bigger planes, and takes out all the other aircraft within a 40-mile radius when it explodes.

Linux Air

Disgruntled employees of all the other OS airlines decide to start their own airline. They build the planes, ticket counters, and pave the runways themselves. They charge a small fee to cover the cost of printing the ticket, but you can also download and print the ticket yourself. When you board the plane, you are given a seat, four bolts, a wrench and a copy of the Seat-HOWTO.html. Once settled, the fully adjustable seat is very comfortable, the plane leaves and arrives on time without a single problem, the in-flight meal is wonderful. You try to tell customers of the other airlines about the great trip, but all they can say is, “You had to do what with the seat?”

A couple of days ago, the KDE project released the first beta of KDE 4.1. This version is suppose to bring stability as well completeness to KDE 4.0. I downloaded it soon after Kubuntu had packages for it, and it leaves me with mixed (but mostly good) emotions.

Although this is a beta, the desktop itself is very stable. I had problems logging out before, and they’re gone now. I wish the same could be set for the new apps, which keep crashing on me on certain tasks.

One great feature KDE4.1 brings are the Personal Information Manager application, which have finally been ported to KDE4. Kontact, KMail and Akregator, along with all their plugins are functional. However, these programs don’t seem to be thoroughly tested, as they often crash when changing certain settings.

I just found a simple way to post to this blog without opening a browser. I’m using KBlogger, which supports several blog API’s, including Wordpress.
Now I only have to think of something to write about…

Shadowmoor is here, and it’s on GCCG too

I made a new page to prevent clogging the main site. For update instructions and other information, click the GCCG link near the top of the page, or click here.

As the Generic Collectible Card Game is pretty much the only way to play Magic: The Gathering on Linux, I use it as my primary client. However, the cards in the http://www.reneploetz.de/gccg/ repository are only updated up to Lorwyn, so I couldn’t play with Morningtide cards. Googling for them also found nothing.

But there are fortunately some scripts there, which download spoilers from Gatherer and convert it to GCCG-readable form. They needed some updating, and the gatherer output has changed recently, but I managed to get them to work. Then I compiled both the data files and card images into gccg_package compliant archives.

The packages can be found at http://noughmad.fileave.com/gccg/. To install the updates from within gccg, run from the directory where gccg is installed:

$ ./gccg_package source add http://noughmad.fileave.com/gccg/

$ ./gccg_package update

And to install the card pictures:

$ ./gccg_package install mtg-cards-061

This is what you do if you’re using Linux. On windows, I’m not completely sure what you have to do, but I think running:

@perl gccg_package source add http://noughmad.fileave.com/gccg/

Update Everything.bat

@perl gccg_package install mtg-cards-061

in the command line (Start=>Run=>cmd) will do the trick.

You can’t buy Morningtide boosters, because those are defined in the factory server configuration. So to play Morningtide limited, convince the guys at thinlizzy.myftp.org to update or start your own server.

You just can’t buy them using the graphical interface, type /buy MT booster to buy one.

Enjoy!

After months of development, Opeke is finally ready for public introduction. Go download the source!

I believe the application is stable (and simple) enough for release. From now on, my main focus will be adding various features. Anybody is welcome to suggest new features, as well as report hypothetical bugs. For requests and bug reports, please mail me at miha@noughmad.org

Thank you!

Continue reading ‘Opeke 0.1 Released’ »

I’m quite a fan of MTG and I used to play it regularly both in real life and on Magic Workstation. However, my time for RL Magic vanished when I got a girlfriend, and I nearly stop playing MWS after I switched to Linux. Also, I got tired of its bugs and crashes.

So I began my quest to find a nice, playable program to play MTG (for free, of course) on Linux. MWS on Wine is much worse that it is on Windows, and the other clients either aren’t as good or aren’t supported. I even made a plan to build one, as my next programming project, even though I suppose it’s much more complex that a simple brick simulation.

Recently, however, I’ve come across the Generic Collectible Card Game. It’s not new, but it’s (unfortunately) not well known either. It doesn’t support game rules, so it’s basically just like MWS. The interface is nice, and it enables you to import decks from a variety of formats. It also has support for sealed games.

GCCG also has a very nice feature, trading cards. Every new player begins with 50$. You can use it to buy products (boosters) or to play sealed games. You can also buy and sell them to other players. You earn money by playing games, and although you get more money when you win, you also receive some when you lose. So it’s not like real money. Also, constructed games (T2, extended, …) can be played with cards you do not own. They’ll just be marked as proxies, but you can play with them. Trading and owning cards is just a nice, optional, time consuming feature.

They also have a FAQ section. I believe there’s one thing that not covered there: if you hover your mouse over a card and hold Shift, it will display that card so you can read the whole card. Or you can press Ctrl-H to just read the text.

So, if you’re interested in playing a game of good ol’ Magic: The Gathering with me, install the thing

Who says Linux admins don’t care for hot babes?

Hot Babe

Here are two three examples of what can currently be done with Opeke. Not much, but it’s a start:

And the latest one, which required about five minutes to build:

Also, it now has some more features. Collision detection, selecting and deleting bricks now all work.  The next thing I’ll code is probably shading and lightning to make it prettier.