First, it was a reincarnation of Wazzup?, and now this:

When will it end? At the beginning, probably.

/me waits for the next ARPAnet mashup/remix.

I play WoW in linux using Crossover Games. When I finally got Wrath, it wouldn’t install. The disk had hidden files that weren’t being seen by the OS. Once I finally figured out how to fix that, I was unable to accept the EULA (the ‘accept’ button would not become enabled). Eventually, I fixed that too.

From what I’ve seen, these seem to be pretty common problems, both for users running cxgames, and ones running older versions of wine. I’m posting the steps I took, from beginning to end, for a successful install, in the hopes that the hours I spent doing this can be saved by others, and that less technical users can maybe get a shot at it, too:

1. To mount the DVD in a usable way:
   $ sudo mount /cdrom -o ro,unhide,uid=<your user id>
2. To accept the EULA, I needed to install the newest development version of wine (at the time of this writing, that’s wine 1.1.8).
   1. Since I run Debian unstable, I did that this way:
      $ sudo aptitude install libasound-dev xorg-dev libcups2-dev bison flex wine git git-core checkinstall
$ git clone git://source.winehq.org/git/wine.git wine
$ cd wine
$ ./configure
$ make depend && make
$ sudo checkinstall
   2. If you run some other distro, you’ll probably need to do it some other way. It very well may be easier.
3. Then I had to prepare my wine install:
   $ winecfg Make sure the OS version is set to Windows XP.
4. (cxgames only) And then I had to make sure wine could find my existing WoW install:
   $ cd ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/
$ ln -s ~/.cxgames/wow/drive_c/Program\ Files/World\ of\ Warcraft/ . Obviously, if you are running directly in wine you should already have your WoW folder there, and should skip this step
5. Then, the actual install:
   $ wine /cdrom/Installer.exe
6. Play, and enjoy!
   $ wine ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/World\ of\ Warcraft/Wow.exe or
   $ /opt/cxgames/bin/wine ~/.cxgames/wow/drive_c/Program\ Files/World\ of\ Warcraft/Wow.exe

As always, YMMV. I hope this helps you, at least.

A parable for our times:

Via Neatorama

…or “Pity me, for I am a geek and have this cool form of autism that explains why I’m so very very unpopular!”. Anyway…

Saw this article on Boing Boing today…

How do we think about the intentional nature of actions? And how do people with an impaired mindreading capacity think about it?

Consider the following probes:

The Free-Cup Case
Joe was feeling quite dehydrated, so he stopped by the local smoothie shop to buy the largest sized drink available. Before ordering, the cashier told him that if he bought a Mega-Sized Smoothie he would get it in a special commemorative cup. Joe replied, ‘I don’t care about a commemorative cup, I just want the biggest smoothie you have.’ Sure enough, Joe received the Mega-Sized Smoothie in a commemorative cup. Did Joe intentionally obtain the commemorative cup?

The Extra-Dollar Case
Joe was feeling quite dehydrated, so he stopped by the local smoothie shop to buy the largest sized drink available. Before ordering, the cashier told him that the Mega-Sized Smoothies were now one dollar more than they used to be. Joe replied, ‘I don’t care if I have to pay one dollar more, I just want the biggest smoothie you have.’ Sure enough, Joe received the Mega-Sized Smoothie and paid one dollar more for it. Did Joe intentionally pay one dollar more?

You surely think that paying an extra dollar was intentional, while getting the commemorative cup was not. So do most people (Machery, 2008).

But Tiziana Zalla and I have found that if you had Asperger Syndrome, a mild form of autism, your judgments would be very different: You would judge that paying an extra-dollar was not intentional, just like getting the commemorative cup (Zalla and Machery ms).

Why is that? Why do people with Asperger Syndrome understand intentional actions differently from people without this syndrome?

Skipping past the “impaired mindreading capacity” at the top (I wasn’t aware I had ANY mindreading capacity) my judgments of those situations imply that I have Asperger’s.

Let the record show that I do not believe that I have Asperger Syndrome. I have thought about it in the past, but as others have said, it seems that most geeks use it as a convenient excuse for their social awkwardness, when really, they are just socially awkward. Unless a medical professional diagnoses me with something, I am not going to claim I have it.

I just think I’m rather socially awkward because sometimes I’d rather play WoW than go to a party, and that I’m pretty frivolous with money. And I’d prefer to think of it as a personal choice rather than some sort of condition. Personal accountability, and all, y’know.

Of course, y’know that test I blogged years ago? I took it again:

Your Aspie score: 124 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 88 of 200
You are very likely an Aspie

So, who knows? Maybe I do have Asperger’s! But even if I do, so what?

I’m glad that most of my friends weren’t McCain supporters (with the exception of one, who only preferred him because of the gun thing). One, it would be hard to remain friends with someone like that (”The last eight years have been GREAT! Let’s keep it up!! No muslins!!1! Women deserve it!!!11!1 Up with whitey!!!1!1!11!!!”); and two, it would be really feckin’ hard not to gloat right now.

I hope this feeling lasts.

USA been moving backwards. USA things don’t look so good. USA looks on her ass. Would we change it, if we could? I wish there was some place to go, to change around the way things go. Get up, stand up.

Eight years ago, things were better. Why continue moving in the same direction?

Remember, voting is the only legal way to cancel out your neighbors.

(Via Videosift [with nods to Daft Hands, Daft Bodies, and a kick-ass Daft Punk song], Boing Boing, and Paul)

I’ve been an atheist since I reached the age of reason and I realized that my grandmother’s claims that “there were no dinosaurs” were filthy Christian lies, but recently I’ve decided to become a lot less tolerant of theists. After all, tolerance is counterproductive when the thing you are tolerating has caused more wars and killed more people than anything else throughout history, and when it threatens to weaken society by teaching children myths as facts and restricting personal freedoms.

Much of my inspiration for this choice came from (of course) Richard Dawkins and his An Atheist’s Call to Arms lecture from a while back:

The real impetus for this post, however, came from an atheist blog I’ve been following lately, Pharyngula, and a video by a busty young lady explaining why atheists do, and should, care about the stupid blathering theists do:

I haven’t seen Religulous yet, but I plan on seeing it sometime this weekend.

Know this, if you are a theist, I do not and can not respect you, no more than you would respect an adult who believes in the Tooth Fairy. To me, you are no different than any other insane cultist- something to be shunned and mocked, and maybe to feel a bit sorry for. I will probably leave you alone, as I know there is little sense in arguing against insanity, and I would hope you would extend me the same courtesy, but I imagine you don’t feel the same way.

No, the only threat to you I pose lies in my existence, and that I am not alone.

edit, 2008.10.23:
People seem to be slightly misinterpreting me, here.

Let me clarify by reposting part of my reply from there:

As I’ve said before, people can believe in any nonsense, invisible pink unicorns, flying spaghetti monsters, teapots orbiting Mars, that they want. As long as this belief stays a private thing, it doesn’t affect anyone else, I’ve no problem with it. But as soon as it enters public policy, affecting laws, the way children are taught, or personal freedoms; or as soon as someone decides to go to war over it; it becomes a blight upon society that needs to be removed.

Which is the whole point of militant atheism, really- not to actually forbid people’s private beliefs (who cares?) but to ensure a secular society, one that has more of a basis in science, rationality, and fact than superstition and myth.

Why do believers automatically assume that others always want to convert them, seriously? Not everyone is a missionary. Chances are, if I don’t know you personally and you have no say in my life I really couldn’t care less what nonsense you believe. That latter bit is the important bit: religion should have no say in my life. It can have all the say in your life you want it to, as long as that say is from internal sources, not external (i.e., governmental) ones.

I found this bug over at Neatorama, and it warrants spreading.

Curiously, as far as I can tell this company isn’t really selling much of anything. Not much of anything I can see on their website, anyway, and certainly nothing that appears to be worth buying. It seems to have something to do with buying “premium booklets” at a head shop. Certainly not the stuff of infinite nightmares that their advertisement would imply, anyway. Unless of course lung cancer is the stuff that fuels your nightmares.

Why haven’t I seen this movie yet? It doesn’t appear to be on Netflix, that’s probably a good reason. Must still be a VHS-only movie :(

It seems right up my alley, what with all the sillyness, and the zombies, and the stupid religious zealots getting (I imagine) eaten. Plus, the ridiculous comedy / horror / song mashup seem to be along the same lines as the wonderful Cannibal! The Musical, which, as you may know, I loved.

Here’s one of the musical numbers, which I found today on ectomo, and which prompted this post:

Edit: Found it on DVD!

I went to a Roller Derby match for the first time ever today, to support Beth, who is co-captain (Cruisin’ B. Anthony). I went alone, because most of my friends who I asked to go suck. I did end up seeing Will there though, who doesn’t suck.

But no matter! It was still fun! And we won, 115-96. Here is a crummy quality cell phone video I took of part of the first period:

Look! Circles! Listen! Cheering! No one flipped out and killed anyone or broke anything in this segment, but things like that are hard to plan.

Anyway, I was told by two separate people that I should try out for the team (none of who were on the team, of course). There may be something to that, as this is probably one of the few sports where lack of depth perception really doesn’t matter. Now if only I were better coordinated…