gdp's Comments

JournalXtra : Why, Oh Why, Are So Many Linux Users Twats to Newcomers?

Wed, 4 Nov 2009 21:22:08 +0000

Hello all who are reading this, thank you for taking the time to visit.

I see that an excerpt from this article has been reblogged at Tuxmachines (here) where a few comments have been posted. For the sake of those who have read or posted comments there, I thought I\\\'d reproduce my response to them here just in case you missed it.

\\\"Firstly, I want to thank Srlinuxx for rebloging my article: thank you.

Secondly, I\\\'d like clear up a few things:

Of the people who\\\'ve commented here so far, I suspect not all have read the full article. I\\\'d like those who haven\\\'t to know that I almost exclusively use Linux; specifically, Karmic Koala 64bit. I like Linux. It has many advantages over Windows but most people will never see them because they\\\'re not required for most users\\\' purposes. And therein lay two words that have also been misunderstood by at least one commenter and perhaps, therefore, several readers: \\\"most\\\" and \\\"many\\\". At no point in the article have I stated that most Linux users are rude to newbies; I did, however, say many Linux users are rude to newbies.

I understand that that rudeness generally (not always) stems from frustration at the repetitive nature of support work. Remember though, this is the Internet; it has a special feature: URL (URI to the purists). Every page has a URL, if someone can\\\'t be bothered to fully and politely answer a support question then he or she could easily post a link to a one-I-made-earlier answer.

I worked in IT support for many years dealing predominantly with Windows machines so I\\\'m fully aware of the rudeness that occurs within the Windows community between those who know, pretend to know and plain don\\\'t know how to fix Windows\\\' problems. But Windows isn\\\'t trying to get its foot in the door of most people\\\'s homes: it\\\'s already there; it\\\'s provided as a standard product of most OEMs. Most people treat Linux as they do Jehovah\\\'s Witnesses: they don\\\'t open the door when they see it coming and when they do do they try to close it again, as quickly as possible.

If Linux is to open the door into ordinary people\\\'s homes then it must put on a friendlier face - a bigger smile. It must also start speaking the language of the person who opens the door - it\\\'s useless to tell someone how to install software unless they understand what is being said; and the Terminal method is next to useless for those who are used to graphical user interfaces (GUIs) and File Managers. Linux has a fantastic GUI. What\\\'s the point of all the GUIs aesthetics and evolved usability when it\\\'s not being shown off and used by those who offer support to non-speakers of Linux. It\\\'s perfectly fine to say open up Terminal, type in these commands, close Terminal. But it\\\'s absolutely useless for teaching newbies to solve future problems by themselves. There\\\'s too much showing off of the Terminal and not enough of the GUI. It invites the question of how many of those who offer support actually understand the support they provide.

I understand that Linux distros use various, different directory structures. I try to explain the GUI method wherever possible when I offer support to others (not always successfully). I know how difficult the various directory structures, and Linux\\\'s security features, make it to provide GUI only support; but, as a minimum, we should - as a community - offer explanations for the Terminal commands wherever they are used even when all we offer is a link to the explanation.\\\"

JournalXtra : The Ultimate 140 Mafia Guide

Wed, 4 Nov 2009 05:19:40 +0000

Done.

JournalXtra : The Ultimate 140 Mafia Guide

Wed, 4 Nov 2009 03:07:59 +0000

Got it. I\\\'ll give it a go later on.

JournalXtra : The Ultimate 140 Mafia Guide

Wed, 4 Nov 2009 02:19:23 +0000

Thank you Candy, for confirming this and providing the links.

I like to pay attribution to those who help out, would you like a link posting in your attribution?

JournalXtra : The Ultimate 140 Mafia Guide

Wed, 4 Nov 2009 02:08:25 +0000

Thanks ECS Dave, I was wondering what the \\\"special buttons\\\" were for Google Chrome. I have installed it in Linux but holding Shift+Ctrl didn\\\'t work for me so I didn\\\'t post it in guide but then I\\\'m using a beta version of Chrome. Now you\\\'ve confirmed the keys I will add them into the guide.

Would you like a link putting into the attribution I will give you?

JournalXtra : The Ultimate 140 Mafia Guide

Wed, 4 Nov 2009 01:29:59 +0000

Hi ECS Dave, I've edited for you. Than you for keeping us informed.

JournalXtra : The Ultimate 140 Mafia Guide

Sun, 1 Nov 2009 10:14:02 +0000

Yeah, he/she\\\'s now added Army and Ninja into the toolbar. I\\\'ll update the guide accordingly. Thank you for this update, Candy.

JournalXtra : The Ultimate 140 Mafia Guide

Sun, 1 Nov 2009 10:09:35 +0000

I\\\'d forgotten to write about them! I totally agree with your sentiment. I\\\'ll add your tip into the guide when I next update it (sometime this week). Thanks Candy.

JournalXtra : The Ultimate 140 Mafia Guide

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 01:05:31 +0000

I\\\'ve had a look at your forum and would have posted to it sooner had I not been busy updating and reformatting this guide. I should be done soon and once I am I will put together an excerpt, join and post. The new guide will get some pictures and a new section to list 140 game forums. I\\\'ll link to your forum and others as soon as I can (about 3 hours). Thank you for your encouragement and I\\\'m very pleased to know my guide helped inspire you to create your forum.

JournalXtra : The Ultimate 140 Mafia Guide

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:02:02 +0000

I can safely say femme_deville is not related to me. I've never had a problem with her but as she's always in the hospital I can only assume she's upset a few other players.

Looking at her Mafia profile it appears she is running a bot (probably iMacros under Firefox or IE). She should be careful because she will be banned by LOL if they can prove it.

JournalXtra : The Ultimate 140 Mafia Guide

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:57:46 +0000

140 Booster has kindly given me permission to reproduce his response here:

Let me start off by saying that no personal information is collected by this toolbar. Please read our Privacy Policy.

The following is a reply to a discussion at The Ultimate 140 Mafia Guide. Anyone can sign up there and post some nonsense and claim it's me. That's why I decided to post my reply here [at 140 Booster].

Let me ask you this, have you ever been to tweettrains.com and clicked through many pages of recruiter links or copied and pasted the links posted in other player’s profiles? My Mob Boosting Machine does exactly that but all you have to do is click 1 button and wait for the Mob Boosting Machine to finish clicking the links for you. It's as simple as that.

How the Mob Boosting Machine works.

The Mob Boosting Machine is a harmless JavaScript and HTML code that clicks all available invite links I collected for you. Each page is loaded in a hidden inline frame or iframe. My demo video illustrates how it’s done with the iframe visible. The window that opens after you click on one of the groups in the toolbar is nothing more than a webpage written in JavaScript and Html code. It’s just like loading a web page in your browser. "Then why don’t you just add the pages to your website" you ask? It’s to protect my hard work from thieves. Anyone can view the source code of a web page, modify it a little and claim it’s their own work. It took me many days to collect all available invite links and I’m not going to make it easy for thieves to steal them from me. I hope this clears things up.

Regards,

140Booster

I wonder, who this secretive, anonymous "140Booster" is? Whoever you are, wherever you are, thank you for responding to our concerns and thank you for producing such an excellent toolbar.

140 Booster is currently working on a toolbar for 140 Army and plans to create another for Ninja Clash when he's finished that.

JournalXtra : The Ultimate 140 Mafia Guide

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 04:50:20 +0000

Candy, thank you, you\\\'ve been a great help. Were it not for you posting the link here I would not have known about the \\\"140 Booster\\\'s\\\" response. I\\\'ve asked him/her for permission to reproduce it here; hopefully I\\\'ll get an answer.

JournalXtra : The Ultimate 140 Mafia Guide

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:35:22 +0000

I\\\'ve contacted the toolbar\\\'s creators to ask them to come here and tell us more about it, themselves and (hopefully) answer our concerns about using it, namely, is it a bot and could it cause an account to be banned.

Candy, thank you for keeping us up to date.

JournalXtra : The Ultimate 140 Mafia Guide

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 02:59:46 +0000

You\\\'re welcome and no worries about the link, I\\\'ll edit it for you.

JournalXtra : The Ultimate 140 Mafia Guide

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 02:23:23 +0000

Candy, that's great information, thank you. I'll pass it on to Schleprockk.

How long have you been using it?

Another player said (today) she didn't get too many recruits from it. She had a large number of recruits to start with so I'm wondering how large its database is and whether it works better for players with a small mob than those with a large mob (common sense says it will, so it's a bit of a daft comment for me to make but I thought I'd say it anyway). On the other hand, as more people use it, its database will grow and so too will the number of recruits it should bring.

I'll remain wary of it, though. When I try it I'll use a Live Disc, install it, let it do its thing then reset my PC when it's finished. That way I'll not be so worried about permanent browser changes, viruses and key-logging (provided I change my Twitter password).

JournalXtra : The Ultimate 140 Mafia Guide

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 23:01:19 +0000

Hello Schleprockk, thank you for your praise, it's much appreciated. The link you've provided to the "mob boosting machine" doesn't work but I think I know the one you mean. If it's the browser toolbar plug-in then I don't think it's a bot. I haven't tried it because I'm weary of adding anything that could pose a security risk to any browser. As you say, it could be a key-logger or similar. Were I to try it then I'd add it to a browser within a Linux Live Disc so that no permanent changes would be made to my hard drive (I'm very security conscious) and not use that browser session to do anything other than play 140 Games. Whether it would get your account band, I can only speculate that it would were it a bot which is pretty much the same as you already know. I'll look into it for you and post another reply when I discover something.

JournalXtra : The Ultimate 140 Mafia Guide

Tue, 1 Sep 2009 02:17:15 +0000

Hey SpyMistr3ss, thanks for visiting. I really do hope this article has given you some helpful ideas for the game. Looking forward to catching up with you in the casa, on the field and in the dojo.

JournalXtra : The Ultimate 140 Mafia Guide

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 00:44:04 +0000

You're welcome, I couldn't let all those hours of game play go to waste (and I needed an excuse for playing). I have some game tools in pre-beta development. I'll be sure to update you with a link to them when they're ready for use.

JournalXtra : Welcome to the New Look JournalXtra

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:04:00 +0000

There's a progress update available at http://journalxtra.com/2009/08/site-migration-upd...