Jason's Development Blog

This could be amazing. That article there. Know what it talks about?

Linux on Steam!….wait, I think I got that wrong.

Steam on Linux!

So why is this something which could be amazing? Well, I don’t know about you but for me at least I don’t use any software on Windows that doesn’t have a Linux version, and even switch across to Linux for some programs! Except, of course, Video Games.

Oh I do love me some video games. For a long time, only Windows was a viable choice for gaming. Wine and alternatives for Linux weren’t, and still aren’t, capable enough to play the majority of games available. Not even OSX was a valid option.

Then Steam released their OSX version. For you dirty dirty mac users (shame on you!) this brought a renaissance of sorts. Ports for Mac games…appeared! Became easily and readily available. And for those vile mac users, it was good. Still not all games are available for OSX, but more incentives and reasons exist to port and ports have and are happening.

But then people like me were left stuck dual booting Linux and Windows, just so we could enjoy us some video games. Here’s hoping this horrible era is drawing to a close!

Especially since Windows 8 is…Windows 8 and that isn’t a good thing. It is painfully apparent in how Desktop PCs and Gaming are getting shafted here. Shafted I say! I don’t get tablets or their use case or what purpose they serve at all, I have to do a ramble on this at some point.

Okay I don’t mind it so much (the era, Windows 8 and Tablets…I do mind), but having to switch over to Linux and not being able to do squat fun but browse the interwebs and wet ones whistle whilst waiting for a video to render sucks monkeys.

However, a wonderful little truth we all have to keep in our tiny mammalian brains here is that technically that entire article is hearsay, information being repeated. It could all be a lie, and wouldn’t pass in court. Except in the courts of my dreams…

…is what usual apple’s patents can be summed up with. I’m not a fan of apple’s patenting. They seem to deliberately patent such abstract concepts that I’m constantly expecting to see them try to patent love or happiness. Or maybe they’ve tried already?

Let’s face it, most (if not all) of their patents are so obscure, abstract or generic ideas they could try and sue everybody with a non-apple computer… “Object-Oriented Graphic System” for example, or in layman’s terms: Icons. You know, those things most Linux and Windows users have on their desktops? -,,,-

The only chance we have is to just hope that some sanity still exists in the world, and these patents stand no chance of holding up in court….yeah, we’re all doomed.

I know I’m not new in these misgivings, just another voice-drop in the ocean really. A somewhat hypocritical voice-drop since I kinda want a new iPod after my old one’s hard-drive decided it hated me and died. If you have more than 32GB of music you have limited choices when it comes to almost-affordable Portable Media Players.

Rants aside, let’s see what they’ve patented now:

Source

…okay, so it looks more complicated than Icons, but still on a technical level it is quite vague. It appears to be a system for holographic displays without the need for those hilariously hideous 3D glasses, but it’s basically nothing more than a flowchart. Okay, so the rambling isn’t quite over.

Still, from a tech-junkies point of view, it’s an interest concept (to say the least), and a part of me is looking forward to seeing what, if anything, comes of this.

That is, unless Apple patent a system for sending images composed of photons of light bouncing off objects in the world straight to the human brain first, and then sue everybody using this system without their consent…Perhaps they’ll call it the iSight?

Quote of the Day
“The goodness of the true pun is in the direct ratio of its intolerability.”
Edgar Allan Poe