Published at LXer: VirtualBox 7.1.2 is the first such point release since the VirtualBox 7.1 series debuted earlier this month. Naturally, it builds on that major release with a flurry of big...

Published at LXer: Have an NVIDIA GPU? Use GE-Proton? You should probably make sure you're on GE-Proton 9-15 which was just released. This is a "hotfix" build to clear up some problems from the...

Published at LXer: GParted Live's latest release removes cpufrequtils, adds pm-utils, and updates the Linux kernel to v6.10.11. Read More... (https://linuxiac.com/gparted-live-1-6-0-10-released/)

Published at LXer: A major new release of Mission Center, a modern system monitor app for Linux desktops, has been released. Read More......

Published at LXer: qBittorrent 5.0 has been released today as a major update to this popular open-source, free, and cross-platform BitTorrent client written in Qt that introduces numerous new...

Published at LXer: The HardenedBSD Foundation has partnered with Protectli, a manufacturer of open-source firewall appliances, to develop a censorship- and surveillance-resistant mesh network. ...

Published at LXer: As expected the Linux 6.12-rc1 kernel is out today in marking the end of the very exciting two-week Linux 6.12 merge window that saw many high profile features land. Read...

Published at LXer: The hardware monitoring "HWMON" subsystem updates for Linux 6.12 added some new drivers as well as adding new device support to some of the existing drivers. Read More......

Published at LXer: After a five-year hiatus, the RTorrent command-line BitTorrent client is back with v0.10, bringing performance upgrades and bug fixes. Read More......

Published at LXer: Linus Torvalds announced the release of Linux Kernel 6.12 RC1. Kernel 6.12 RC1 brings important new features like PREEMPT_RT and sched_ext. Read More......

Published at LXer: Released remotely from Vienna, Linux kernel 6.11 is here, with improved monochrome TV support. Yes, in 2024. Emperor penguin Linus Torvalds was attending the Open Source Summit...

Published at LXer: During the month of September on Phoronix there were 265 original news articles and 16 Linux hardware reviews / featured benchmark articles. Here's a look back at the most...

Published at LXer: Rspamd 3.10 spam filtering system brings enhanced MIME UTF8 support and negative score limits for improved email scanning. Read More......

Published at LXer: PyBonsai is a Python script that generates procedural ASCII art trees in the comfort of your terminal. This is free and open source software. Read More......

Published at LXer: There are plenty of people who do not actually understand AI and open-source (or its licensing). But, they choose to jump on using those terms to market their products somehow...

Published at LXer: With the Firefox 131 release rolling out today to all supported platforms, Mozilla promoted the next major version, Firefox 132, to the beta channel for public testing. Read...

Published at LXer: Audacious 4.4.1 builds on the changes introduced in Audacious 4.4 (a release that brought GTK3 and Qt6 UI choices, the return of a dedicated lyrics plugin, and better...

Quand j’ai vu la promo dans le rayon j’ai sauté dessus comme un malpropre, pensant déjà engloutir des tonnes d’amandes salées devant un bon DVD. Misère… j’aurai eu mieux fait de lire ce qui est écrit sur l’emballage, c’était pourtant écrit assez gros...

Beziehungen, Affären und die Liebe des Lebens. Das alles sind Dinge, die Jugendliche täglich beschäftigen. Selten wird beim Flirt in der Bar jedoch daran gedacht, dass es sich hierbei auch nur um die Beherrschung der Regeln der Kommunikation handelt und diese erlernbar sind. Entweder durch Übung im echten Leben, im Internet oder in einem Flirtkurs.

Zuerst hatte der Norddeutsche Rundfunk am Freitag, den 20. November bekanntgegeben, dass Xavier Naidoo Deutschland beim Eurovision Song Contest 2016 vertreten solle, doch einen Tag später war alles anders. Der Fernsehsender war für die Nominierung kritisiert worden. ARD-Unterhaltungskoordinator Thomas Schreiber sagte, man habe die Situation falsch eingeschätzt und nicht mit ...

I had a Ubuntu 18.10 install setup perfectly on a disk shared with a Windows 10 install. I originally setup Windows 10 and then reduced the size of the Windows 10 partition to make room for a Ubuntu 18.10 install. After the install of Windows 10 and the Ubuntu 18.10 install I had these partitions: […]

A couple of lovely people I know have suggested that some of the Olympic disciplines are not “proper sports”. This sentiment is one frequently echoed by compatriots of losers, stand-up comedians and miserable bastards the World over.

It has now seeped into the social consciousness and zeitgeist to the extent that many people mistakenly think “sports” are one thing - typified by physical endurance, stamina, or skill - and “games” are things anybody can do really, probably whilst having a pint at the same time.

Let’s put to one side that “the Olympics” are actually called “the Olympic Games” (or in French, “Jeux olympiques”), and just assume the “point” of the Olympics is to promote “sporting disciplines”.

Why do I feel certain that every single one of the Olympic disciplines is worthy of the name “sport”?

Even archery, which I reckon I could have a good bash at it with the right kit despite being a perfect example of how bad Guinness can be for your waistline, or boxing which is standing around and punching people when they didn’t even borrow that DVD off you in the first place.

Yes, I’d even include dressage where the horse is the one actually doing the moving about, whilst the “competitor” sits atop in a fine hat looking more English than a teapot in a red phone box (even when the competitor is French, which must be embarrassing for them).

All of these can be - and in the context of the Olympics, most definitely are - sports.

To explain, let’s just focus on what makes something nothing more than “a game”.

Any activity can be made into a game. All you need is a way to keep score and some rules to make sure the scores actually mean something. Staring at a wall: how long for without looking away? Making a cup of tea: judges could taste-test quality, or there could be speed trials. Having a nice sit down and a biscuit: how few crumbs can be counted on your lap afterwards?

Most games are obviously a bit more involved and preferably prefer people either getting naked or putting things onto a spring-loaded donkey (or both!), but the point is I could make a game out of writing this very post if I wanted. Or even this sentence. (4 words, 0.6 seconds, 100 words/minute, if you’re interested).

“Gamification” is a major social force in the web application industry right now, to the point where sitting in your office and pressing a button in an app on your phone can make you “Mayor”, which is why I don’t use FourSquare: I might become an annoying prat who asks for a third of a Londoner’s council tax to spend on bicycles and zip lines or whatever.

Games are obviously more fun when there is a degree of competition, and therefore the scores must be fairly comparable. You and I might decide to play pooh-sticks for example, and we will have a grand old time as I crush you and claim glorious victory and then we’ll go and get an ice cream or something. The fun is in me beating you without “cheating”. Or you usurping me and claiming a surprise victory, perhaps (like that’s ever going to happen, you fool), all whilst not kicking me in the head as I sing “We are the Champions”, etc.

This is a game: any activity at which there are some established rules allowing the participants to keep score, and where the point of the rules is to make different participants scores comparable with each other.

Cheating isn’t just “naughty” - it stops it becoming a game, because the scores are no longer comparable. If I turned up to pooh-sticks with laser-guided remote-controlled precision sticks with outboard motors on them, I can’t claim a fair victory when you’ve just picked up that stick with a leaf on it next to that weird moss on that rock, no not that one, that one over there, no, there you moron… yes, the bent one! 

Providing the game is fair then, I would argue that any game can become a sport. How? Other people caring about the outcome.

If whilst I am thrashing you at pooh-sticks, a small crowd appears and starts cheering one or the other of us on (hint: I’m very charismatic, they’ll be cheering for me mostly), then we have a sport. The number of people who care about the outcome or who want to have a go themselves determines how “sporting” it is. Once we start keeping World Records, or we meet regularly to do contest on a schedule we share with non-participants, and arrange ourselves into leagues, and perhaps start making money from the gullible fools who fawn in my pooh-stick abilities, then we have a moderately successful sport.

Sport is, I think, simply any game, where non-participants care about or are interested in the scores and who wins.

If the dressage, archery or boxing events at the Olympics, it’s pretty clear there were non-participants who cared about the outcome. In some cases, they really cared to the point where they flocked to Twitter, barely able to type through their blubbering tears about how wonderful and marvellous it is that somebody they’ve never met who happens to be considered by International Law to be a citizen of the same part of the World as them despite living 3,000 miles away, beat somebody who lives 300 miles away who they do not share such a close bond with due to them suffering the genetic disadvantage of being French.

So, here’s my cut-out-and-keep guide:

1. In both games and sports, people keep score somehow
2. In both games and sports, rules ensure the scores of different participants are fairly comparable
3. In games only the participants care about the comparison, in sports there are non-participants who also care

If this still doesn’t make sense to you, think about what sports would become if nobody cared? Or even if the outcome wasn’t scored or measured? What exactly would those footballers be doing if nobody nobody cared about the score? What would the by doing if they didn’t bother keeping score? Just what is it that Usain Bolt would be proving by running really quickly if nobody was watching? Or some people were watching, but were not measuring how fast he was running?

So the next time you hear somebody say “that’s not a real sport”, despite there being a clear loyal following of non-participants, maybe point out that it might be an activity whose outcome they don’t care about, so that can mean it’s not a sport to them.

But to the participants and to their followers, and to the people around them, it is very much a sport. And what they’re saying is a smidge hurtful to all of them, even if it’s just pooh-sticks. So, you know, try not to say that. It makes you sound a little bit mean.

THE cheapest two-year fixed-rate mortgages in more than a year were launched last week, heading straight to the top of the 'best-buy' tables. But borrowers should not be dazzled by the headline rates and assess all-round value when picking a...

Leeds Building Society is launching a new fixed rate mortgage in light of new research which has revealed that fixed rate mortgages accounted for over half of all loans in August this year. Leeds two-year fixed rate mortgage offers a...

Leeds Building Society has launched a new Base Rate Tracker (BRT) mortgage at only 0.14 per cent above Bank of England base rate. The product, which is currently 4.64 per cent, also allows 10 per cent capital repayments each year...

For borrowers with mortgages between £300,000 and £2 million, John Charcol has launched a market-leading remortgage deal. The 2 year tracker has a free valuation and free legals and is available up to 90% loan-to-value. Ray Boulger, senior technical manager...

Abbey is offering reduced rates on their two year fixed rate mortgage allowing the public to remortgage. Lal Tawney, Abbey's head of mortgage marketing, said: "For people that want to remortgage to Abbey, our two-year fixed rate has been slashed...

Two-year fixed rate of 4.79% until 31 March 2008 thereafter reverting to Barclays Bank Base Rate, which is variable, currently 4.50% + 0.95% = 5.45%. The overall cost for comparison is 5.5% APR. Offers a non-disclosed valuation and either no...

Cheltenham & Gloucester is launching a new mortgage range offering highly competitive fixed rate deals, fee-free remortgages The new range, available through intermediaries and branches of C&G and Lloyds TSB, includes a two-year loan fixed at 4.45 per cent and...

Spanish bank fees vary but are typically around 1% of the mortgage amount. They also charge around €500 for the mortgage valuation; stamp duty of 1.8% of the mortgage amount; and notary and registration fees of around 0.5% of the...

Abbey has just released a two-year tracker mortgage offering a rate of 4.38 per cent it will cost you £699 you can remortgage up to £500,000, this remortgage is available up to 90 per cent loan-to-value. Barry Naisbitt, of Abbey,...

Direct Line has launched a remortgage package a two year fixed rate tracker mortgage will offer a rate of 4.79 per cent. Direct Line believes that people looking for a remortgage face in a dilemma about whether to take on...

Un abuso de frecuencia en la palabra a menudo es interpretado como spam y es penalizado. Debemos mantener siempre el contenido de las Webs legible para las personas, pues además del tema de las penalizaciones de contenidos hechos solo para buscadores debemos tener en cuenta que el objetivo final de nuestras Webs e llegar a los usuarios y ofrecerles contenidos de calidad que ...

La accesibilidad ayuda al buen posicionamiento Web. Persigue, entre otros, el objetivo de que ningún usuario este discriminado ante el acceso y asimilación de los contenidos, ya sea por problemas físicos (visión ejemplo), a causa de usar navegadores con pocas capacidades, poseer conexiones muy lentas, personas sin ratón, con pantallas pequeñas o de baja resolución, pantallas en blanco y negro, etc. ... ¿Como lograr esto? ...

Desde el punto de vista del posicionamiento Web los canales RSS nos ofrecen varias ventajas. Una es que cuando es incluida la información del canal RSS en una Web remota esto proporciona un enlace a la Web original con la correspondiente ganancia de...

Como usar las estadísticas para el posicionamiento Web? La evaluación de los resultados del posicionamiento Web es un paso requerido en dicho trabajo. A través de la evaluación se detectan que estrategias están dando resultados, cuales no, y se redirige el trabajo de posicionamiento según las necesidades. El estudio de las palabras claves y frases de entradas, y llegar a conocer con cuales hemos aparecido en las primeras posiciones de los buscadores, así como ...

When developing software for Node.js, I use the n package manager to manage and switch between Node versions. Recently, I needed to update my installed Node version (9.2.1) to something more recent. I ran $ sudo n latest to install 13.1.0. But after the upgrade, npm installations stopped working. Any use of npm i would […]

Virtual Bush, much like the real G.W. only with you at the controls instead of Dick Cheney.

गाउले कम्प्युटर टिप्स : कम्प्युटर का software चाडो खोल्न को लागि shortcut key हरु

गाउले कम्प्युटर टिप्स : कम्प्युटर का software चाडो खोल्न को लागि shortcut key हरु

About a year ago, Sept 2014, during a violent Austin thunder storm, a rental property I personally own in SW Austin was struck by lightening and caught fire in the attic. As the thunderous flash of light, noise and immediate smoke jolted the tenant out of bed at 2:30AM, he quickly realized that he was standing in water. The home was flooding, and also on fire, simultaneously. Wow! Wake up!! His elderly mother was visiting and he was able to get her and his son out quickly as the house filled with smoke. Then he called 911. Then me. I showed up around 3:15AM, sloshed through about 18 inches of water at my driveway, as about 6 firetrucks were on the scene. It was an apocalyptic scene, like out of a movie. But everyone was ok, and the fire was contained to mostly the attic and three bedrooms. But the ... Read more

In an increasingly “unaffordable” Austin, it occurs to me that many of us could live way cheaper if we could just get along and live in extended family groups or roommate groups. I’ll use my own family as an example to explore this CRAZY idea for curing Austin’s affordability problem. Sylvia and I live in a home in SW Austin with a $3,000/mo mortgage. Our utilities average $250/mo for everything, plus yard care of $80 per month, and of course repairs and maintenance as needed. We intentionally downsized to this home from Westlake, because we want to live more “affordably” and we no longer needed to live in Westlake Eanes ISD after our girls graduated high school. My mom, in her 70’s, lives three blocks away in a home I purchased as investment (but for her to live in). I charge her $1,200/mo rent (market rent would be $2,000, my payment/cost ... Read more

As the owner of a business where 100% live answer is not possible or cost effective, I do receive my fair share of angry voicemails from people wanting to talk to a human right now. It’s kind of interesting actually. I received this one just recently. Many would just delete it, as I usually do with rude voicemail tirades. We receive all manner of unbelievably incoherent, garbled and plain crazy voice messages from people. But as a blunt-spoken no-BS type of person myself, I appreciated this voicemail. I played it proudly for my wife. And I played it for my assistant, “listen, … this is great!” And now I’m blogging about it. The caller scolds me with the blunt, to the point assertion, “if no one is available you get no sales“. Listen to it again yourself. It’s perfect! It’s the kind of communication I respect. Clear, concise, to the ... Read more

The Supreme Court’s recent decision to strike down the “Chevron decision” heralds what could be the end of the absurd Emotional Support Animal (ESA) scams that have plagued landlords and property managers since HUD administratively stretched Fair Housing laws to include anyone claiming “anxiety” or “whatever”. This administrative rule—not a law—created a loophole that tenants have widely exploited. By purchasing a bogus $50 “doctor’s note” online, tenants can present themselves as “disabled” applicants and scare landlords and Property Managers into granting their “request for reasonable accommodation” for their 100-pound pit bull, under threat of a HUD lawsuit for “discrimination.” We are not talking about legitimate Service Animals, such as seeing-eye dogs for the blind or extensively trained PTSD alert dogs for combat veterans. Those are 100% legitimate disabilities and those specially trained animals should never be declined by any landlord, under actual law. Instead, we’re addressing self-proclaimed “disabled” tenants who ... Read more

Uzun süredir ilk defa teknik bir konu paylaşıyorum. Yakın zamanda Opencart ile ilgilenmeye başladım. Sıfır kurulum Opencart’ta Türkiye ile uzaktan yakından alakası olmayan bir sürü modül ve eklenti geliyor. Eğer […]

The post Opencart – Gereksiz Kargo ve Ödeme Metodlarının Silinmesi first appeared on Amerikada Birgün.

2015 yılına gireli 3 ay oldu. Bilhassa Suriye’deki iç savaşın başladığı 2011 yılından beri aklımda devamlı bir fikir dolaşıyor. Dünyada yanan ateş neden hep müslüman topraklarında? Filistin, Mısır, Suriye, Irak, […]

The post IŞİD – Ortadoğu ve Fitne Üzerine first appeared on Amerikada Birgün.

“Kira öder gibi ödüyorsunuz ama kendi evinizin sahibi oluyorsunuz” yalanıyla mortgage kredi sistemini pazarlayan bankacıların, pazarlamacıların ve televizyoncuların kabirde kemikleri sızlayacak. Bu öyle büyük bir yalan ve öyle bir büyük […]

The post Mortgage Kredisi – ALLAH RIZASI için, Çocuklarınız için ALMAYIN first appeared on Amerikada Birgün.

In a surprising turn of events, the Brazilian government has found a new ally in its fight against inflation and energy challenges: online casinos and crash games, like Aviator operators. By introducing additional taxes on these rapidly growing sectors, the government aims to channel the revenue into critical areas of the economy, including the burgeoning green energy sector. This strategy not only addresses economic stability but also aligns with Brazil's long-term commitment to sustainable development.

According to the latest GlobalData report, the oil and gas industry is experiencing a slowdown in its energy transition efforts. The report highlights that despite the growing global emphasis on sustainability and reducing carbon emissions, the pace at which the oil and gas sector is adopting renewable energy and other green technologies has decelerated. This slowdown is attributed to several factors, including economic uncertainties and fluctuating oil prices. Investment Shifts and Challenges The report points out that while there has been a significant investment in renewable energy projects, the overall commitment from major oil and gas companies has not met the expected levels. Companies are facing challenges in balancing their traditional fossil fuel operations with the need to invest in cleaner energy sources. The economic pressures and the need to maintain profitability in a volatile market have led to a cautious approach towards large-scale investments in renewable energy. Ravindra Puranik, Oil and Gas Analyst at GlobalData, commented on the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war on energy security. He noted that the resultant supply chain disruptions have driven countries towards readily available fossil fuels, thereby boosting oil and gas demand. Puranik also highlighted that the push for energy self-reliance and high...