Public submissions on R18+ for games discussion!

http://www.ag.gov.au/gamesclassification

Download the forms, print out the template and submit your comments. And PLEASE keep it civil!

The Experiment (part 2)

Yes, my experiment into using various distributions of Linux is still going. My laptop now solely uses Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) as its OS, and I must say I was pleasantly surprised by how simple it was to pick up. I'm still very much a novice at using it as I still rely nearly entirely on the GUI to do things for me. The only terminal command I really know and feel comfortable using is

sudo apt-get install (package name)

to install packages. OK, I can also delete my / directory, but that doesn't count. I can do pretty much everything that I want to do with it though. If I want to really learn to use the CLI I'll use a different distro.

There's a story behind how my laptop came to solely run Ubuntu; one in which it went through 4 operating systems in one weekend. It began when I decided that I was sick of Windows XP and installed Windows 7 on it instead. However, it wanted the CPU to run at its maximum clock speed all the time which killed the battery life faster than an injection of cyanide, and I had to do a lot of faffing about with Windows XP drivers just to get the wireless adapter to work. For those who don't know computer-speak, here's the English translation: Windows 7 = battery went flat fast.

The next day I tried Ubuntu 9.04 on it, which was an unmitigated disaster. It did not like the integrated "graphics" at all (graphics in quotations because the day Intel make a good IGP [integrated graphics processor] is the day I burn all my AMD systems). So much so in fact that it wouldn't even load the GUI at some points.

I got rid of that very quickly and put Ubuntu 9.10RC on it instead, which I was extremely impressed with. The wireless adapter worked perfectly out of the box, as did the IGP, the function keys on the keyboard and the best part was that the CPU wasn't begging for mercy under the weight of Windows.

I apologise for all the computer-speak but that's inevitable when I start talking about computers. I guess these things happen when you crap on about the things you love.

Thanks TPG!

Last night I decided that I'd be good and go to bed early, given that I have an exam in three hours, but I decided to treat myself by buying Borderlands and leaving it to download overnight so it'd be ready to play by the time I got back from the exam. So I leave my computer on and go to sleep. It's downloading slowly because our internet here always slows to a crawl from about the time that TPG's engineers clock out until morning, but I know it should pick up at some point during the night.

However, I woke up at 4:30am this morning and decided to check on how it was going (this isn't why I woke up though!) and I was extremely disappointed to find out that it had downloaded just 14% of the game and the connection seemed to have timed out. After playing around with Steam and the router for half an hour I managed to get it to start downloading again, but it was still downloading slower than a legless dog.

Half an hour later I got up again because by this stage the sun was starting to rise again and I can't go to sleep when the sun is up and check again. It's still crawling along so I changed the preferred download server again and browsed Whirlpool for a while. Suddenly 6am rolls around and BAM! It's like someone kicked the internet connection in the rear because suddenly the download speed jumps from ~100KB/s to 1.4MB/s like it should be. So thanks for turning the magic speed button on again TPG, I really do enjoy playing around for an hour in the early morning only to have the internet speeds that we're supposed to get kick in at 6am on the dot. In the twenty minutes I've been typing this twice as much of the game has downloaded than was downloaded between 11pm and 6am. So now it's 6:20am, I have an exam in 2 1/2 hours and I'm incapable of getting more sleep. Thanks, TPG.

P.S. I am quite aware that my sleep issues are not the fault of TPG as it was my decision to play around with stuff, but I'm still frustrated. They're going to be getting some phone calls from me in the near future.

The history of the name "Troy's Fortress"

What's that? You're wondering why my blog is called what it's called? Well then, take a seat by the fire (yes, there's a fire for the purposes of this post) and allow me to explain.

It goes back to a city I created in SimCity 4 about 3 years ago which I named Troy's Fortress. I ripped the name off from a friend's SimCity 4 city which he called a fortress named after himself, which in turn was ripped off from a song from the soundtrack from The OC that was popular with some of my group of friends at the time called Fortress (I couldn't stand that show, but they loved it).

Feeling ripped off? I would too. Here's a picture of the original Troy's Fortress though:

What do weak governments do when they disagree with a discussion?

They try to silence it. For example, the Federal Government has developed a habit of wanting to "move on" from debates about contentious issues like euthanaesia, carbon trading schemes, economic stimulus spending and internet filtering. Allow me to furnish you with an example: Labor's way of silencing debt dissent - The Australian

But they're not content to leave it at dismissive language. My fear is that some future Government may try to use the proposed mandatory ISP-level filter to quash debate about uncomfortable topics. And why not? They're not going to be accountable for what goes on the list anyway, and there's almost no recourse for webmasters to get their site off the list once it goes on. All Australians who disagree with the Government being in possession of a (completely ineffective!) means of deciding what they can and can not see online should speak up now before this debate is silenced as well. Send a letter to your local member (snail mail, not just email) telling them you disagree with the Government's plan.

I'll finish with a couple of poignant quotes, the first of which I found posted on Whirlpool.

"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind. Were an opinion a personal possession of no value except to the owner; if to be obstructed in the enjoyment of it were simply a private injury, it would make some difference whether the injury was inflicted only on a few persons or on many. But the peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error." — John Stuart Mill

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin

I love the soundtrack from Battlestar Galactica

Seriously, words cannot describe how awesome it is. I must have the season 4 soundtrack now.

The Experiment (Part 1)

I'm going to install Ubuntu 9.04 some time soon and record my experiences here. As someone who has nearly no experience with any kind of OS built on the Linux kernel I have to admit I'm a little intimidated by the kind of command line stuff that other Linux users talk about when explaining how to do things, such as mounting ISOs (not to be confused with burning an ISO to a disc); something I'm sure I could do fairly easily if I tried under Windows 7 but I would be leery of attempting under Ubuntu. I guess I'll see how it goes.