Jump to content

JavaJimFl

Members
  • Posts

    13
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Donations

    20.00 USD 

Everything posted by JavaJimFl

  1. [url="http://www.actualtools.com/windowmanager/"][color=#fff0f5]Actual Window Manager [/color][/url]allows full screen sessions using muliple monitors. Not free, but has a generous 60 day trial period.
  2. Last reply, I'm tired too. This project simply isn't open source. There are ten criteria an application must meet to be considered open source. This project falls short in at least one area and as many as three. Prove me wrong. It wasn't a threat. It's truly the only leverage I have. If you want to position yourselves as a quasi-private group of folks sharing a hobby and taking donations to keep the lights on, great. That's a valid approach and I could probably support you in that effort if you were upfront about it. However, one of the reasons I donated money was because I was under the impression the project was actually open, which I no longer believe it is. Tell you what; Find a person that truly understands how open source licensing works, perhaps someone who has worked with the big kids like Apache, Eclipse, or one of the Linux distros and describe the situation to them. It wouldn't hurt to clear the air.
  3. You're right, there are tools to create some content. I apologize for forgetting that. However, since the GM tool isn't available to the public, the server isn't complete and not in compliance with the CC license you're using. (Again, my personal opinion)
  4. Just because you bold a sentence doesn't make it true. From the defininition of "open source": If the code base is in a closed repository (and this emulator's is), it shuts people out of the process. There's nothing wrong with that unless you want to define your work open source.
  5. There are many open source projects that deploy with a minimally populated database. Examples that come to my mind are: SqueezeboxServer (streaming audio server) Hudson (continuous integration server) Media Monkey (digital jukebox) TikiWiki (CRM software) The one thing all these projects have in common is a UI that allows the addition of content. This emulator doesn't provide for that. I think it's a reasonable assumption the server isn't complete without the content the database contains. Therefore, I'm of the opinion the scope of the "work" with regard to the Creative Commons License encompasses both the source code and the database, and that means everything should be public. If you can show me another open source project with the same configuration, using the same CC license, with part of the IP closed source, let me know. I might change my mind. It's snarky comments like this that set people off. I think I'm trying to make an important point in a professional way. Please return the courtesy. With all that said, I'm beginning to resent the way the staff continues to position this project as a collaborative, open source effort when it's clearly not. Up to this point I've tried using a carrot, and since that doesn't seem to work, I'll break out the only stick I have. I've been a fairly regular financial contributor since I've been here, not giving as much as some, but more than most players. Part of my motivation for donating is I truly believe in open source development. Since I'm not satisfied this is an open source effort anymore, I've re-evaluated my role as a financial benefactor. I won't make another donation until there's a commitment to making everything open and extensible (again).
  6. I agree with you Kenu, but the player base is already contracting. That tells me something isn't going well in general. I can't speak for others, but once again, the whole reason I even ventured out here is that I can't find any information about how the L75 Progen HU is supposed to work. That's just sad. How can you test something (and try to break it) if you don't even know the 'happy path' behavior? I spent an hour flying around last night hoping I would magically trigger something so I could move forward. The New Player's channel was no real help because no one else really knew how the mission was supposed to work either. I even tried looking for the documentation for the mission (yes, RTFM), which doesn't seem to exist. Based on what I read in chat, my situation is not unusual. The staff isn't making it easy to for us to perform our role as testers while we play the game. It's terribly difficult to determine if a bug has been reported, much less to see how many are outstanding and how they may be linked together. I can see how casual players would lose interest if it's so hard to contribute. If the other emulator solves these kind of problems, they're naturally going to draw players to their version (all other things being basically equal). Maybe that's how it should be, I don't know. It's a shame how focused the two groups are on code and content. I wish they would compare development processes too.
  7. Unless you or the group that locked down the database created all that content, it's not "yours" to do with as you wish. Period. Just because someone contributes to an open source project doesn't mean they automatically release their work into the public domain. Furthermore, this project simply doesn't meet the definition of open source. I've gotta tell you, had I worked on the stuff you've locked away and built on, I'd be pretty ticked off about now. When I first came to this site I found a mission statement. I don't remember exactly what it said, but I know I liked it because it reflected the best qualities of the folks I played alongside of in Live. I can't find that mission statement now. Can you point me to it? Actually, can you just clearly state here and now what flavor of license you're working under? Because between the two groups, I'll personally go with the one that's the most transparent. For the record, I don't have a dog in this hunt. I'm just tired of hearing the words "them" and "us". SourceForge is full of dead projects that began their demise this way and I don't want to see that happen here.
  8. I was looking for any documentation I could find on the L75 Progen HU mission when I found the locked post about the other group trying to build their own version of the emulator based on an older snapshot of the code this server runs. I read the entire thread with an open mind, but what really got my attention was the way it was abruptly locked. For such a collaborative group effort, I was surprised at how heavy-handed the this emulator's leadership was in it's response. When I went back and reread the thread, I saw things that really disturbed me. Being a developer myself, I've used a fair number of open source tools and APIs to get the job done. While I don't know for sure if this effort is technically open source anymore, it definitely violates the spirit that started the movement. It was sad to see one senior team member claim the code was still open source while another used the phrase "took our privately-held data" (ironic choice of words; I wonder what EA thinks?). You can't have it both ways. I liken this whole situation to a group of people finding an abandoned car on the side of the road. They know it belonged to someone else at one time, but it looks like the owner doesn't want it anymore. So what do they do? They pitch in and get it running. They travel for bit, then can't agree on where to go next. Part of the group becomes weary of that so they swipe the tires and head off to build their own car. Another part of the group then decides what's left belongs to them and locks the doors. The rest of the group? They're stuck in the backseat. Back to the other thread. Other than the occasional troll, I thought the discourse was generally civil. However, between the two camps, the folks on this side of the fence came off looking much worse in my view. The icing on the cake was when the other side started to make headway in their argument (respectfully IMO), all opinion was effectively censored by locking the thread. Not the way folks who aren't afraid of a little competition would normally act. Actually, it reminds me of the bickering between the Spring and Hibernate projects a few years ago, with this project playing the Hibernate role. All that said, I'd like to see the two groups come together again. What's been accomplished so far is really amazing, the product of everyone involved. Perhaps they could get together and see if they can apply the same processes that make other open source projects so successful to this one and take some of the egos (on both sides) out of the equation. The project should come first.
  9. I still disagree. Giving away Hellbores like candy might uncover functional code defects, there's a slim chance it'll impact the performance of the server. Putting two dozen players in one area, each generating movement, combat, buff, spawn and chat traffic is a much more realistic load/stress test. All this temporary mission would do is add unnecessary complexity to the game by adding yet another talk tree that will have to be developed, tested, and ideally added to a regression test suite. That's a lot of effort for the testing of a single item.
  10. I disagree. The Hellbore appears to be the most powerful weapon a terran can have. That alone tells me there should be a limited number of them in the game or else every terran will have one. Once that happens, the pining for more high level content will start, and then the perceived need for an even more powerful weapon. Lather, rinse, repeat. Want a Hellbore? Find 20-30 of your closest friends, form a raid, and try to make it through the toughest encounter the devs can come up with. Maybe you'll get lucky, maybe you won't. That's one of the things that made Live so enjoyable. Nillus "If everyone is uber, no one is uber."
  11. While you're waiting, feel free to donate to the project....
  12. Hi, I installed the EnB client and the emulator addons on a fresh XP SP3 image yesterday and the launcher wouldn't work. The answers were easy to find here in the forums: Install .net framework (3.0 and SP1) Install C++ runtime (2008 redistributable) Once I did that, smooth sailing. I was wondering if the launcher could be enhanced to 'sniff' these dependencies and provide clearer warnings/errors? I don't think this is a bug, as the application appears to be working as designed (Gotta stick up for my fellow devs!). If it is, let me know and I'll cut a bug report. Thanks, Nillus
×
×
  • Create New...