Software Wars: Free software, software sharing and software freedom

The current state of the free software movement by comparing it with Hackers' Ethic

1. Always yield the Hands-On Imperative! Access to computers - and anything else which might teach you about the way the world works - should be unlimited and total.
2. All information should be free.
3. Mistrust Authority - Promote Decentralization.
4. Hackers should be judged by their hacking, not bogus criteria such as degrees, age, race, or position.
5. You can create art and beauty on a computer.
6. Computers can change your life for the better.
(Levy, 1984)

The Free Software Foundation was founded by Richard Stallman of the MIT AI labs. He was also responsible for the GNU project. The GNU tools liberate people from dependence on proprietary software/development tools.

The picture above, shows the original vision before software went proprietary, a world where Software is by the people, Of the People and For the People. (click for a larger copy of the picture)

Microsoft Firefox 2007 Professional

Article reproduced with permission from AskStudent. Check out the original article here

Here comes the hottest new product …. Microsoft Firefox 2007 Professional, the new award winning browser from Microsoft which is now a lot faster, secure and quicker than anything else on the market.


Some of the advantages

Enjoy a better Web Experience
MS Firefox 2007 delivers a dramatic boost in the download speeds of online pornography. By utilising a proprietary dynamic algorithm - anything that remotely resembles a tit or a boob will download up to 10 times faster. Fun at the speed of light!

Stay Secure on the Web
Firefox 2007’s new TakeOver(TM) technology protects the Windows Kernel by automatically recognizing all McAfee and Symantec programs as viruses. Downloading has never been safer.

Interactive Multimedia
Microsoft’s AKobe Phlash(TM) Plugin delivers awesome online interactive content; anything from music, videos to games. (Lawsuit from Adobe pending)

Personalize Your Browser
Choose from three excellent browsing styles! Minimized, Maximized and Fullscreen!

The best part, check out the System Requirements

System Requirements: Credit card, Microsoft OS, Microsoft mouse and Keyboard(hyperlinks will NOT work without these), Quad core processor(for loading Hotmail.com), 1024 MB of RAM(compensation for frequent memory leaks) among others.

Warning: Also, if you visit the following websites, MS Firefox 2007 will shut down your computer unexpectedly. The sites include google.com, gmail.com, apple.com, itunes.com and yahoo.com and any sites with the phrase microsoft/windows/explorer/vista/bill sucks.

Also, you can download the various versions of the browser for different windows OS. The file is a 14 Megs something file. I did not get a chance to check it out on my Virtual PC yet. If anyone has a chance, post it in the comments and if possible a link to some screenshots.

Warning: This is obviously a major spoof mocking Microsoft and its latest browser IE7. Check out the the full link including downloading MS Firefox 2007 for different versions of Windows at msfirefox.com. AskStudent is not affiliated with MS firefox 2007 or Microsoft or Firefox/Mozilla foundation

The latest scoop on Halo3 : New pictures, map information, levels, weapons

This article is being posted from AskStudent. Check out the original article here

Bungie announced the release of Halo3, the third and final game in the Halo Trilogy that it will be released for Microsoft's XBOX 360 sometime in 2007. The game was revealed to the world at the Microsoft press conference at Grauman's Chinese Theater, in Hollywood,CA on May 9th 2006. Since then, besides the trailer, Bungie has not been forthcoming with a whole lot of information about the most anticipated game ever. Gears of War and Halo Wars trailer are doing their best to prepare us for next year's release for Halo3. Read on for all you have been waiting for since summer, information about new levels, maps, weapons, vehicles... and more

Fortunately for the rest of us who can't wait to lap up more information about Halo 3, a Swedish games magazine released some pictures and more details. Watch the slideshow at the end of this article.

New Levels
There are three different multi player levels and none of them will be limited by walls. If the player goes too far from the center of the map he will be attacked by some kind of automatic defense. The text doesn't specify what the real point of this freedom is supposed to be.

- One of the levels is "snowbound". It's a battlefield in a winterlandscape with large covenantbases. On the map there are bunkers protected by energy shields. They can't be penetrated by bullets or grenades, but players will be able to go through them.
- Another one is called "highground", which is made for teamwork and reminds of Halo 2:s "zanzibar". One team defends a base on the top of a slope. The other team begins on a beach below the base and their objective is to attack the base. Inside the base you can open a big door that will allow a warthog from the beach to drive inside the base.
-The third is called "valhalla" and has a forest and mountains on the horizon. It's a large map made for vehicles, and has two bases.

New Vehicles
- One new vehicle will be the "moongoose". It's smaller than a warthog and only has place for two persons. It's used mostly for transport. Also, it does not have any weapons but players can fire while in it.
- The other vehicle is "man cannon" which as the name explains is a human cannon launching you in the air. Remember jump pads from Quake. It also means you are a potential weapon if you collide with someone physically.

New weapons
When it comes to weapons there has happened quite a lot. Bungie has listened on the critique from Halo 2, that mostly concerned that it was so important to use two weapons at the same time, aka dual wield. Now they have made the standard assault rifle a bit more powerful, but it is still inferior to a lot of the other weapons in the game.All the weapong the players carry aroung will be vizualised in game. Ie you will see if an enemy carries around a shotgun on his back.
- One new weapon will be the “Spartan Laser”. It's made for destroying vehicles, and even if it takes a long time to use and isn't hard to evade it deals out massive damage. You don't want to let your vehicle be hit by it's glowing red beam.
- Another new weapon is brutes “spiker”. It's a one hand shotgun that shoots sharp nails.
- Bungie has also thrown in a new "nail grenade". It detonates it's payload of nails in one direction and can be placed on walls or the ground

New control
The controls are somewhat new: RB and LB will be used to reload weapons. RT and LT fires them. So if our have two weapons you will reload them using the corresponding buttons.The x-button will be used to do something that will supposedly “change the entire game” but Bungie isn't ready to say more about that at this time.

Legendary edition
Bungie will release Halo 3 in a “ Legendary edition” that looks like the Master chiefs head. It will contain four dvds. One with the game, one with a documentary and a comments-track, one contains spin-off materials like “Red vs Blue” and “Spark of Life”, and the last one with movie sequences from the game series in a chronological order.

Credits
1. Thanks to Bungie and Microsoft for Halo3. You guys rock!! All images and videos shown in this article are copyright Bungie and Electronic Gaming Monthly. For EGM, head over here to check out their magazine to subscribe and view the original content
2. Translated from http://www.level7.nu/texter/read.php?id=115814
3. Thanks to AskStudent

AskStudent wants me as a guest editor... hell ya

Hey all, in my last post, I kinda reviewed AskStudent. Looks like they are definitely kicking some ass in the blogging community, churning out good articles one after the other. I emailed their mail editor Xer0 if I could contribute in any way. Guess what, he wants me in... yup that's right. I will be contributing as a guest author/editor for AskStudent starting today. What do I get in return....?

Well, its like that open FTP box full of music and movies on campus... only in this case, I can repost/republish their most popular articles here at Student-rant, no questions asked.

By the way, if you still did not check out AskStudent, check them out here

New player on the block : Ask Student

Welcome Student Rant readers. There is a new player on the block ... Ask Student. I believe these guys launched sometime over the summer and have worked up a pretty impressive list of articles.

As the name of their site says, this site is mainly catered towards students in general with an impressive array of topics. They have topics on Computer security, Hacking including video and picture tutorials, Coding, General topics ( there is a howto get out of a speeding ticket in there .. i needed those tips ) , relationships, money, career , jobs ( interview tips article was good) among others. The site is laid out pretty good and all in all ... good job to you guys over at AskS.

Check them out : AskStudent