Fortune’s knowledge base #1

program, n.:
A magic spell cast over a computer allowing it to turn one’s input
into error messages. tr.v. To engage in a pastime similar to banging
one’s head against a wall, but with fewer opportunities for reward.

A quotation from Richard Stallman

“The straightforward and easy path was to join the proprietary software world, signing nondisclosure agreements and promising not to help my fellow hacker….I could have made money this way, and perhaps had fun programming (if I closed my eyes to how I was treating other people).  But I knew that when my career was over, I would look back on years of building walls to divide people, and feel I had made the world ugly.”
 
  — Richard Stallman (Open Sources, 1999 O’Reilly and Associates)

Rotina do piloto comercial

Numa de minhas Grandes Navegações pela Internet, encontrei este maravilhoso vídeo. Ele mostra uma viagem de Boston (Estados Unidos da América) a Paris (França) e a volta, num Boeing 767 da American Airlines. O vídeo é muito bem feito, é bonito, interessante, engraçado e emocionante. Espero que gostem.
A música é Vertigo do U2.
A última cena sempre me arranca um sorriso ^_^

A site about the Windows history

If you would like to know more about the history of the operating system used in the majority of desktops over the world, I have a site for you:

WinHistory: a site about the Windows history

The site is written primarily in German, but some pages also have an English version.
It has information about every version of the operating system, from Windows 1 to Windows 8, yet to be released.
To access the site, just click on the image above.
Have fun.

The magic within IGS/INC/IRS revealed

A clear and concise text about what you always wanted to know about IGS.

Layman‛s Guide to the IGS

The aircraft knows where it is at all times. It knows this because it knows where it isn’t. By subtracting where it is from where it isn’t, or where it isn’t from where it is (whichever is the greater), it obtains a difference, or deviation.
The Inertial Guidance System uses deviations to generate error signal commands which instruct the aircraft to move from a position where it is to a position where it isn’t, arriving at a position where it wasn’t, or now is. Consequently, the position where it is, is now the position where it wasn’t; thus, it follows logically that the position where it was is the position where it isn’t.

In the event that the position where the aircraft now is, is not the position where it wasn’t, the Inertial Guidance System has acquired a variation. Variations are caused by external factors, the discussions of which are beyond the scope of this report.

A variation is the difference between where the aircraft is and where the aircraft wasn’t. If the variation is considered to be a factor of significant magnitude, a correction may be applied by the use of the autopilot system. However, use of this correction requires that the aircraft now knows where it was because the variation has modified some of the information which the aircraft has, so it is sure where it isn’t.
Nevertheless, the aircraft is sure where it isn’t (within reason) and it knows where it was. It now subtracts where it should be from where it isn’t, where it ought to be from where it wasn’t (or vice versa) and integrates the difference with the product of where it shouldn’t be and where it was; thus obtaining the difference between its deviation and its variation, which is variable constant called “error”.

(source: Level-D Simulations 767-300ER Manual)

rFactor 2 – First public trailer

If you are an avid racing simmer waiting for years (literally) the release of rFactor 2, you’ll probably love this video. If you’re not, I hope you like it as well. Below, I include the text posted in the game’s website (http://rfactor.net):

If you enjoyed the old MGM movie, Grand Prix, we’re sure you’ll enjoy this “movie style” promo video featuring rFactor 2 in work-in-progress beta testing stage.

Grand Prix racing in the 1960′s was a mixture of bravery that bordered on recklessness and, contrary to what many may say, innovative design and technology, far from primitive, which led Formula One to where it is today.

It was an era when the human eye, instead of a computer and a wind tunnel, designed a beautiful car. It was an era where spectators and drivers were only protected by bales of hay, which were often more likely to attribute to a fire than to save you in an impact.

Risks were taken and lives were lost, but the romance of the era still remains been the target of software developers, TV documentaries, and Hollywood movies. Many, including those of us at ISI, consider this space in time to be a golden age in the history of motorsport.

The first in-game/sim screenshot of rFactor 2 released to the public was of a road lined with trees, a house on the right and a truck parked in its driveway. This, barely recognizable to us as the same track now, was the first indication that ISI were trying to do something different.

We have licensed content from the modern era of motorsport for multiple types of racing, but also have licensing deals for real content from the first four decades of Formula One (some in the initial release, some to come later). We’ve done this because this is what we love and this is what we want to bring to the racing game/sim community. We want you to be challenged by our software, to be challenged rain or shine, day or night, old or new, and what better track to challenge you than the streets of Monte-Carlo?

Grand Prix 4: one lap at Suzuka

A video that I made showing a flying lap at Suzuka in the game Grand Prix 4 (the last installment of this great racing sim series).

Driver’s helmet view: 00:28
TV camera: 02:19
Onboard camera: 04:07

Lap time: 1:33:797
Input method: Playstation 1 analog controller
Difficult level: pro
Driving aids: none

Team: Orange Arrows Asiatech
Driver: Enrique Bernoldi

Happy birthday, dear Wikipedia!

Today, 15 January 2011, Wikipedia has completed exact 10 years of existence. This free online encyclopaedia is a great revolution on the Internet and it is one of the most viewed websites in the world.

Wikipedia: 10 years of sharing the sum of all knowledge

Wikipedia lets the reader be more than a reader, becoming a writer and contributing to one of the best knowledge database ever! One feature that no printed encyclopaedia can offer. Besides, where else one could find an article about, e.g., Geoff Crammond? Or Chocobo? Or Crashgate? Or Serial ATA? Well, you got the point.
Beside this success, there are thousands and thousands of people, just like you, contributing to build an outstanding and reliable database about much more things than one can ever know in his lifetime. According to Wikipedia, “there are more than 91 000 active contributors working on more than 17 000 000 articles in more than 270 languages”. Impressive, huh?

Today, you are invited to celebrate with Wikipedia. There are 430 events you can attend. Learn more here: http://ten.wikipedia.org

Happy birthday, Wikipedia! I wish you live many years, spreading the knowledge worldwide.

gxine

最近 gxine を使ってみました。分からない場合、gxine は xine と言う音楽や動画
プレイヤーの GTK+フロントエンドです。
そして設定の画面を開けた時に次のユーザレベルが利用可能でした：

1. 初心者
2. 上級
3. エキスパート
4. 宇宙の支配者 XD（「XD」は含んでいませんね ^_^）

すごく笑いましたよ!

でもこのプレイヤーはとても良くて便利です。

Há um tempo, estava mexendo no gxine. Caso ainda não conheça, gxine é um front-end GTK+ para o tocador de multimídia xine.
Voltando ao “causo”, quando abri a tela de configurações, eis que me deparo com os seguintes níveis:

1. Iniciante
2. Avançado
3. Expert
4. Mestre do universo XD (sem o “XD”, que é meu ^_^)

Ri muito quando vi isso!

Mas este tocador é muito bom e prático também. Fica a dica.

Tomitinha e Vermelhinho

Vermelhinho: Xupa Haiku!
Tomitinha: Xupa Slackware!!
Vermelhinho: Xupa Inkscape!!!
Tomitinha: Xupa Visual Novel!!!!

Vermelhinho faz cara de desapontado…