Linux gamers: Violent and fixated on penguins
This Web site lists the Top 21 Linux games of 2007. My first reaction was, they make games for Linux? My second was, no seriously, how can anyone make a buck making games for Linux? Then, after I pulled myself together, the list started to make more sense. Freebie download Tux Racer is definitely made for a Linux sensibility. It features everyone’s favourite penguin slaloming down a ski hill on his tummy (presumably avoiding snipers in the employ of Bill Gates). It’s not particularly inventive (or new for that matter – it was last updated in 2001), but there’s something slightly poetic about Linux barrelling down a hill towards its destiny, whether that’s to come in first or cross the line in a bloody crumpled heap.
The rest of the list is equally diverting. America’s Army, a recruitment shooter owned by the U.S. government (I could write a whole blog post about that alone) comes in a Linux flavour so as not to discourage skinny coders from getting on a military transport to Iraq.
Actually, it turns out Linux users are more violent than I might have originally given them credit for. On the list is a shooter called Tremulous and a Quake mod called Urban Terror. No wonder Uncle Sam is after those twitchy little Linux gamers.
Nerds for sale
Where was this when I was in university? Washington State University is hosting a “nerd auction”. They’re selling off computer geeks to hottie co-eds in the hopes of attracting more women into technology. For a bid of a few bucks (I can’t imagine they’d get much more), a lucky sorority gal can buy her own nerd who will help her troubleshoot her computer – or more likely make her MySpace page more bitchin’ – and in exchange the nerd will receive a makeover and have the privilege of sitting next to a girl. If you’d like to bid on Insider, e-mail cash to the Comment tag below.
Windows? Non!
A Frenchman has won a lawsuit against Acer for filling a computer with crap he didn’t want. Apparently, that includes Windows XP, so imagine how pissed he would have been if it had been Vista.