Star Wars: Battlefront Review [ArsTechnica]

Excellent review on ArsTechnica. I am really addicted to the multiplayer aspect of this game.

To start this review, I’m going to go into full disclosure mode and tell you that I’m a big Star Wars fan. I had the VHS originals, the rereleases, and I just bought the DVD box set. I’ve built Star Wars legos, and I actually enjoyed the New Jedi Order series of novels.

He make a really good point about the lack of headset/voice support in PC games. I don't have an XBox, but this feature makes me really thinking about getting one... It's diferent in a LAN Party, where you can converse with everyone in the room (well, a small party anyways) but it would be nice to easily access this feature with PC games. I have a headset with a mic on it, but I haven't the faintest idea how to work it.

read this real fast

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdgnieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer inwaht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas thought slpeling was ipmorantt!

High-availability middleware on Linux, Part 1: Heartbeat and Apache Web server

Set up a heartbeat failover cluster that lets a good server pick up where a bad one leaves off, ensuring that your site is never down for long. Maintaining maximum system uptime is increasingly critical to the success of on demand computing. Unfortunately, many off-the-shelf solutions for high availability (HA) are expensive and require expertise.

Rage Against the Machine : Why Voting Doesn't Work and What You Can Do About It.

From kuro5hin.org:

"I was sitting in a bar listening to the presidential 'debate', thinking the same thought I always do when listening to politicians. Why must I choose between two people that I don't like? Since I live in New York, where Democrats usually win the electorate, should I even bother voting? Are my votes even counted?
It's always easy to blame the current President for the nation's current problems, and I'll admit that I'm often tempted to blame Bush. But the reality is that he is not to blame. The blame can be placed squarely on us, the citizens, and on our unwillingness to reform an outdated voting system."

Very interesting editorial piece, worth a read. Especially for the list of links at the end, I'll list them here:

• Citizens for Approval Voting:
  http://www.approvalvoting.org/
• The Center for Voting and Democracy :
  http://www.fairvote.org/
• A technical analysis of various election systems:
  http://www.electionmethods.org/
• Open voting software, used in real elections:
  http://www.open-vote.org/,
  http://www.openvotingconsortium.org/
• Latest news on the Constitutional Right to Vote Amendment:
  http://www.fairvote.org/righttovote/

Cheney Vows To Attack U.S. If Kerry Elected

Ya just gotta love The Onion. I don't read it nearly often enough, and with the sort of headlines gracing the front of news sites today, I should.

GREENSBORO, NC—In an announcement that has alarmed voters across the nation, Vice President Dick Cheney said Monday that he will personally attack the U.S. if Sen. John Kerry wins the next election.
"If the wrong man is elected in November, the nation will come under a devastating armed attack of an unimaginable magnitude, one planned and executed by none other than myself," Cheney said, speaking at a rally in Greensboro, NC. "When they go to the polls, Americans must weigh this fact and decide if our nation can ignore such a grave threat."

Don't fool with Swedish Girls of Gaming

CNN.com - Don't fool with Swedish Girls of Gaming - Oct 18, 2004:

"At first glance, Les Seules might look like an all-girl rock band -- complete with sassy attitudes and fawning male groupies -- but the Swedish septuplet doesn't play instruments. They play competitive video games.
'We want to show the rest of the world that guys and girls can play on the same level,' team member Louise Thomsen (code name: AurorA) told The Associated Press amid the geeky flurry on the floor of DigitalLife, a four-day technology and entertainment convention."

Doom 3 Tweak Guide

Tweaking goodness: Doom 3 Tweak Guide

It’s back, it’s beautiful and it’s a system killer . . . that’s where we come in.

You know, sad to say, I still have not played it yet. Too many other fun games to mess with, including Star Wars: Battlefront.

Cable Rounding

Good article on cutting down on airflow restrictions within your case.

Cable Rounding: "Why are IDE and SCSI cables still flat? They're awkward and difficult to work with, look exceedingly ugly tangled up inside your systems, hamper cooling by obstructing airflow through the case, and make accessing other devices a nuisance."

Protecting the Perimeter With OpenBSD

I haven't had the chance to play with OpenBSD yet, just its cousin FreeBSD. I like the BSD line of Unixes, they're just a different mindset from Linux and Solaris. It's been so long since I've touched FreeBSD I don't know if I could easily pick it up again. I need to get a test box set up at home so I can play with them.

In the Unix family, OpenBSD is akin to the crazy, paranoid uncle. Not necessarily in a bad way. OpenBSD is very particular about what it wants to accomplish, and it does this very well. That means security. OpenBSD is designed to be secure from the bottom up and from the top down. From the beginning, every line of code has been continually audited for flaws and vulnerabilities (this is an ongoing process since hackers are always developing new techniques). The initial install does not enable any system services that are not absolutely necessary for basic operation. Consequently, administrators must consciously enable features. And, without a warm and fuzzy GUI with which to do so, the idea is that admins better know what they are doing.