Testfeed

WorksWithU Features 0 A.D. Pre-Alpha 3

Christopher Tozzi from WorksWithU, a website which describes itself as "the ultimate guide to Ubuntu Linux", has reviewed 0 A.D. Pre-Alpha 3:

<blockquote>All in all, the game is shaping up impressively. The art is great, the gameplay looks promising and the commitment to historical accuracy is always a big plus from my perspective. Im very excited to continue following development and looking forward to the first fully playable release.</blockquote>

(Reminder: Tozzi also interviewed 0 A.D. project lead, Erik, a while back).

Thanks, Chris!

Programming Applications & Chicken Brains

First, a small change of policy: Up until now we welcomed application forms for all sorts of volunteer roles in Wildfire Games, spanning everything from 3d animation to AI programming. The application system seems to be working well for graphics, sound etc., but not so much with programming, because we want to see programmers make good contributions to the 0 A.D. codebase before we can conduct any interviews with them. Candidates would apply, and then we would send them to the open tasks, and then the whole application would sort of lose momentum.

So from now on, if you're a programmer and you want to contribute to 0 A.D., just get your feet wet and get started. We don't want to hinder your progress with any applications. If you do a good job over time, you'll get inducted to the team anyway. All the relevant pages have been updated. Let's hope this improves things from now on!

Next, in other news, our gifted programmer Philip has implemented a chicken brain in 0 A.D. and chickens can now run away from their attackers. Some say they are now impossible to catch. Check out the Unit AI thread for more info.

The Joystiq Indie Pitch Features 0 A.D.

Justin McElroy, the Joystiq reviews editor, was kind enough to give us a feature on his indie game column, The Joytiq Indie Pitch.

<blockquote>Why did you want to make games?
[... P]eople are spending more money, time and attention on playing computer games than ever before, and games are constantly evolving into a more nuanced medium of expression and a greater part of our culture. We think this culture should allow gamers to learn how their games work, change them, share them and redistribute their works. This freedom to tinker is what Free, Open-Source Software (FOSS) is all about and so we hope a lot of people tinker with 0 A.D. [...]

What one thing would you tell someone to convince them to get your game?
0 A.D. is open-source, free software with cross-platform multiplayer capabilities. So you will always be able to download it from the internet for free, share it with your friends, and play with them online, even if they run Linux and you don't.
</blockquote>

Read the whole thing.

0 A.D. Pre Alpha 3 Released

Wildfire Games proudly announces the release of a third pre-alpha version of 0 A.D., a free, open-source game of ancient warfare. Like previous releases, it's not a playable release yet, but slowly yet surely we're getting there, so as one longtime developer remarked, "it's feeling more like a proper game than I can ever remember," if only because now you can play 0 A.D. over a network with your friends!

This release includes multiplayer support, improved GUI, improved pathfinding and more.

Easy Download and Install
Download and installation instructions are available for Windows, OS X and Linux.

Play With Your Friends
This is the first version of 0 A.D. in a long time that has multiplayer capabilities. We tested them this Saturday (July 10th, 2010) in an international multiplayer game with five participants from the US, the UK, Sweden and Israel, and it worked pretty much without a hitch.

You're invited to recreate the same experience with our special map designed for multiplayer, "techdemo-mp". All you need is an IP address and maybe to know your way around a router or a firewall. If you run into any crashes or major bugs, you're invited to report them in the multiplayer thread at the 0 A.D. development forum so we can fix the game in later versions.

New Features
To recap, some of the changes since the last pre-alpha include:

Added multiplayer support.
GUI: Redesigned session GUI; Redesigned game setup GUI; Changed GUI fonts; Improved text rendering performance; Added fullscreen toggle; Added resizable windows; Added session GUI when playtesting inside the scenario editor; Added on-screen warning/error display.
Pathfinding: Added terrain passability constraints; Added terrain movement costs; Added floating units.
Bug fixes: Fixed animation speeds; Fixed projectile synchronisation; Fixed rendering bugs; Fixed gameplay bugs; Fixed CPU detection; Fixed GUI text input bugs.
Added ambient sounds.
Added hotloading of actor XML files.
Improved shadow rendering.
Various other changes and bug fixes and optimizations - see the SVN log.

An overview of the gameplay feature status is on our wiki. There is still a lot of work to be done, though: Check out our planned feature list for the alpha version if you're interested. If you want to be part of this effort too, you're welcome to get involved!

Long Time, No Siege
Wildfire Games will continue releasing new versions of 0 A.D. periodically. Watch our news feed to keep updated, or follow us by e-mail, RSS, Facebook or Twitter. And you're always welcome to join the 0 A.D. community on our forums.

New Strategy Game from Ex-Age Of Empires Devs

Gaming website Kotaku has revealed that an Ensemble Studios incarnate named Robot Entertainment is working on a strategy game codenamed Spartan, that is similar to Age of Empires.

Kotaku says that the game may share a lot with the AoE core gameplay, with maybe some RPG elements and a visual change in direction.

Personally I gather these changes to gameplay and graphics are meant to make RTS more accessible to casual gamers. It would agree with the reason Ensemble Studios was dissolved in the first place and with recent trends in the game industry. Do you agree? What do you predict Spartan will be like?

OS game competition and how a Roman shipwreck helps neutrino research

Two small news items from today:

First, 0 A.D. has been nominated in an OS indie game contest called "The Digital Man" organized by WorldKi, a software company that provides a cross-platform marketplace for indie games. We're not sure 0 A.D. actually qualifies (criteria include "must be complete and playable", which 0 A.D. is not) but we appreciate the nomination and the attention anyway. Thanks!

Next, lead ingots carried by a Roman ship sunk in 50 BC will be used to study the decay of neutrinos. They are special because they have nearly no radioactive lead anymore, and that is important to build shieldings meant to prevent contamination of neutrino experiments. So the ingots "will now be stripped of their historically interesting manufacturers' names, cleaned of any incrustations and then melted to provide a shield" for a neutrino test, (though I'll bet the ingots were well documented before melting). (via kottke.org)

Comic for July 31, 2010

Comic for July 30, 2010

Comic for July 29, 2010

Comic for July 28, 2010

Comic for July 27, 2010

Comic for July 26, 2010

Comic for July 25, 2010

lemonpos 0.9.1-0ubuntu1.1

lemonpos (0.9.1-0ubuntu1.1)

Don't install {squeeze,lemon}ui.rc twice (LP: #554556).
Add proper Replaces field.

grub2 1.98-1ubuntu7

grub2 (1.98-1ubuntu7)

Update harmfully incorrect German translation of menu legend, which omitted mention of pressing Ctrl-x to boot (LP: #580178).
Rearrange postinst install_devices logic so that preparatory code is run only once and the while loop only encloses actual asking of questions, and so that the question being asked is always marked for redisplay when going round the while loop again (LP: #580408).
Only offer partitions containing /, /boot, or /boot/grub for grub-install; installing to other partitions may have harmful effects such as making Windows unbootable, and installing GRUB to every single partition is likely to result in confusion anyway (LP: #576724).

update-manager 1:0.134.10

update-manager (1:0.134.10)

DistUpgrade/DistUpgradeMain.py:
- add filter for "apt API not stable yet" warning (for hardy->lucid upgrades) (LP: #534200)
UpdateManager/Core/utils.py:
- fix url_downloadable and add tests, based on the patch from Paulo Albuquerque, many thanks (LP: #396187)
DistUpgrade/DistUpgradeViewNonInteractive.py:
- make the dpkg-status file parser more robust against unexpected data (LP: #574837)

linux 2.6.32-24.38

linux (2.6.32-24.38)

Keng-Yu Lin
SAUCE: dell-laptop: fire SMI when toggling hardware killswitch (revised)
- LP: #590607
Upstream Kernel Changes
sfc: Wait at most 10ms for the MC to finish reading out MAC statistics
- LP: #590783
sfc: Always close net device at the end of a disabling reset
- LP: #590783
sfc: Change falcon_probe_board() to fail for unsupported boards
- LP: #590783
ext4: Fix potential quota deadlock
- LP: #588069
jbd: jbd-debug and jbd2-debug should be writable
- LP: #588069
ext4: replace BUG() with return -EIO in ext4_ext_get_blocks
- LP: #588069
ext4, jbd2: Add barriers for file systems with exernal journals
- LP: #588069
ext4: Eliminate potential double free on error path
- LP: #588069
ext4: return correct wbc.nr_to_write in ext4_da_writepages
- LP: #588069
ext4: Ensure zeroout blocks have no dirty metadata
- LP: #588069
ext4: Patch up how we claim metadata blocks for quota purposes
- LP: #588069
ext4: Fix accounting of reserved metadata blocks
- LP: #588069
ext4: Calculate metadata requirements more accurately
- LP: #588069
ext4: Handle -EDQUOT error on write
- LP: #588069
ext4: Fix quota accounting error with fallocate
- LP: #588069
ext4: Drop EXT4_GET_BLOCKS_UPDATE_RESERVE_SPACE flag
- LP: #588069
ext4: Use bitops to read/modify EXT4_I(inode)->i_state
- LP: #588069
ext4: Fix BUG_ON at fs/buffer.c:652 in no journal mode
- LP: #588069
ext4: Add flag to files with blocks intentionally past EOF
- LP: #588069
ext4: Fix fencepost error in chosing choosing group vs file preallocation.
- LP: #588069
ext4: fix error handling in migrate
- LP: #588069
ext4: explicitly remove inode from orphan list after failed direct io
- LP: #588069
ext4: Handle non empty on-disk orphan link
- LP: #588069
ext4: make "offset" consistent in ext4_check_dir_entry()
- LP: #588069
ext4: Fix insertion point of extent in mext_insert_across_blocks()
- LP: #588069
ext4: Fix the NULL reference in double_down_write_data_sem()
- LP: #588069
ext4: Code cleanup for EXT4_IOC_MOVE_EXT ioctl
- LP: #588069
ext4: Fix estimate of # of blocks needed to write indirect-mapped files
- LP: #588069
ext4: Fixed inode allocator to correctly track a flex_bg's used_dirs
- LP: #588069
ext4: Fix possible lost inode write in no journal mode
- LP: #588069
ext4: Fix buffer head leaks after calls to ext4_get_inode_loc()
- LP: #588069
ext4: Issue the discard operation *before* releasing the blocks to be reused
- LP: #588069
ext4: check missed return value in ext4_sync_file()
- LP: #588069
ext4: fix memory leaks in error path handling of ext4_ext_zeroout()
- LP: #588069
ext4: Remove unnecessary call to ext4_get_group_desc() in mballoc
- LP: #588069
ext4: rename ext4_mb_release_desc() to ext4_mb_unload_buddy()
- LP: #588069
ext4: allow defrag (EXT4_IOC_MOVE_EXT) in 32bit compat mode
- LP: #588069
ext4: fix quota accounting in case of fallocate
- LP: #588069
ext4: check s_log_groups_per_flex in online resize code
- LP: #588069
ext4: don't return to userspace after freezing the fs with a mutex held
- LP: #588069
ext4: stop issuing discards if not supported by device
- LP: #588069
ext4: don't scan/accumulate more pages than mballoc will allocate
- LP: #588069
ext4: Do not zero out uninitialized extents beyond i_size
- LP: #588069
ext4: clean up inode bitmaps manipulation in ext4_free_inode
- LP: #588069
ext4: init statistics after journal recovery
- LP: #588069
ext4: Remove extraneous newlines in ext4_msg() calls
- LP: #588069
ext4: Prevent creation of files larger than RLIMIT_FSIZE using fallocate
- LP: #588069
ext4: check for a good block group before loading buddy pages
- LP: #588069
ext4: Show journal_checksum option
- LP: #588069
ext4: Use bitops to read/modify i_flags in struct ext4_inode_info
- LP: #588069
ext4: Avoid crashing on NULL ptr dereference on a filesystem error
- LP: #588069
ext4: Clear the EXT4_EOFBLOCKS_FL flag only when warranted
- LP: #588069
ext4: restart ext4_ext_remove_space() after transaction restart
- LP: #588069
ext4: Conditionally define compat ioctl numbers
- LP: #588069
ext4: Fix compat EXT4_IOC_ADD_GROUP
- LP: #588069
ext4: Make fsync sync new parent directories in no-journal mode
- LP: #588069
(pre-stable) ahci,ata_generic: let ata_generic handle new MBP w/ MCP89
- LP: #576601
(pre-stable) ata_generic: implement ATA_GEN_* flags and force enable DMA on MBP 7,1
- LP: #576601

linux-backports-modules-2.6.32 2.6.32-24.17

linux-backports-modules-2.6.32 (2.6.32-24.17)

Stefan Bader
SAUCE: Add thinkpad-acpi to modules in the ALSA subpackage
- LP: #599527

linux-meta 2.6.32.24.25

linux-meta (2.6.32.24.25)

Lucid ABI 24

liferea 1.6.2-1ubuntu6.1

liferea (1.6.2-1ubuntu6.1)

debian/patches/google-reader-pass.patch: fix never ending password prompt for Google Reader
debian/patches/google-reader-auth.patch: fix Google reader authentication (LP: #597532)

docky 2.0.5-0ubuntu1

docky (2.0.5-0ubuntu1)

New upstream release 2.0.5 "Be proud of your dock", changes include:
- remove --debug flag from launcher for lower memory usage
- update the about dialog credits to list documenters and make translation tab easier to read
- change url in about dialog to the launchpad project page
- Window-Matching
  - fix for applications commandline
  - properly match qt creator (LP: #594814)
  - prefer local over global launchers (LP: #588073) (LP: #592841)
  - match prefix for gksudo (LP: #516433)
  - fix nautilus items showing active indicator when desktop is focused (LP: #487113)
  - fix matching wine apps that use a prefixed launcher (LP: #596092)
- Memory Leaks
  - dispose of calendar painter when the clock item is disposed
  - fix leak in AutoHideManager
  - several fixes using Cairo.Context.Target and Pango.Layout
  - fix leak in PagingPainters
  - fix leak in recursive file-deletion
  - fix leaking SeparatorItems, WnckDockItems
  - fix leaks with FileEmblems
  - fix Pixbuf related leaks
  - fix some leaks regarding FileMonitors
  - fix leaks regarding Tiles and AbtractTileObjects
  - fix leaking Glib.FileAdapter caused by unreferenced Action in FileDockItem
- Handle invalid desktopfile entry and UriFormatException in FileApplicationProvider (LP: #595921)
- fix potential crash for invalid HelperMetadata
- handle drops correctly
- fix handling of Helpers in HelperService
- make the sliders in preferences behave better
- fix drawing of rotated items
- fix HoveredItem click-position
- avoids fatal errors on console when loading embedded icons when no height or width is specified and when dock items have a null Icon
- fix icon theme change not refreshing the dock icons (LP: #590205)
- fix SVG rendering bug
- fix iconsize temporarily getting large when adding to full dock (LP: #579576)
- fix the 'crash in PinToDock' (LP: #588073)
- make 3d background height more consistent and a tad larger (LP: #503038)
- fix dragging multiple files to a folder on the dock, which caused a crash and data corruption (LP: #579049)
- don't request animations if urgent state is removed from a window and fix glow location (LP: #596422)
- fix window previews being offset (LP: #495065)
- fix broken zoom after shrinking icon size (LP: #598924)
- fix problem with hovers still visible when painters show
- fix displaying default icon in place of missing file emblem (LP: #534651)
- fix crash when gconf key for menus_have_icons is not set (LP: #573751)
- make sure painters fit on screen (LP: #589978)
- fix icon minimize animations not working immediately for some newly opened windows
- don't dispose our static DockyItem
- fix CurrentDesktopOnly not working when dragging a window across desktops (LP: #600290)
- GMail:
  - fix thread-guards and remove deprecated code
  - fix problem with feeds that don't have an author entry (LP: #595530)
- NPR: fix bug where removing your last NPR station unloaded the docklet and fix station icon
- NetworkManager: fix crash caused when NM goes away and fix icons and add another fallback icon (LP: #588581)
- Mounter:
  - fixed some leaks
  - only remove mounted items if they were successfully unmounted (LP: #597637)
  - fix duplicate icons showing in mounter (LP: #525306)
- Weather: fix feels like temp showing incorrect for metric (LP: #597670)
- RecentDocuments:
  - fixed some leaks
  - fix sensitivity of recent docs clear menu item - even if docky shows the list as empty does not mean it cant be cleared

lhs2tex 1.14-1ubuntu0.1

lhs2tex (1.14-1ubuntu0.1)

debian/patches/20_fix_6_12_compilation: Annotate some catch calls with type signatures to fix FTBFS with GHC 6.12 (LP: #601855)
debian/rules: Actually apply patches

libvirt 0.7.5-5ubuntu27.2

libvirt (0.7.5-5ubuntu27.2)

Nigel Jones
debian/patches/9024-free-memory-for-invalid-devices.patch: clean up a memory leak affecting multipath+libvirt, LP: #571093

visit feedkiller and make your own rss merged feed.

feedkiller.com is a free tool that allows you to merge rss feeds into your own rss mix made up of your favorite feeds.