The 3d engine I use to program was just released in a new version.

Irrlicht has been a very interesting way for me to learn programming. Having used it for 4 years already I still find new things I can do with it each time I use it. With this Blogpost I wan to thank Niko, Bitplane , hybrid and all the other geniouses behind it!

You can download it here.

There will also be updated packages on my PPA soon. At the moment the package still uses a SVN-copy.

Lately I am extremely busy supporting the Pirate Party so I didn't have much time blogging. To give you something to read on I will once again recommend a nice CC-Band.

Nayaree is a french metal band that really fits my personal taste. It doesn't seem like they're active anymore but you can still listen to their songs.

The blogsoftware I use finally was released stable and this blog was updated. The last bugs should have disapeared now.

Today I want to recommend another nice framework: cAudio.

For some time I've been searching for a nice and open-source sound engine. Sadly there aren't many especially when it comes to 3d sound.

Raynaldo Rivera, a nice guy from the irrlicht forums, has created a wrapper around OpenAL that supports everythign a programmer could ask from a sound framework. It is not only object-oriented and straightfoward but also plugin-based so you can easily add own codecs.

But the best thing I didn't mention yet. cAudio is contained in my PPA as Debian package so YOU can easily install it. Just look for libcaudio.

As an early easter present I want to give insight to the final version of OpenNetwork.

The aim is to have a full featureset useable for Project Freedom and finally an interface freeze. The final needed features are:

* Hashes: For the UDP Class and also the Patcher to vertify messages/files

* Encryption: Even a basic one would be fine so that it isn't that easy to sniff packages

* HttpClient: We need this to download files via the patcher because we decided to use a stable protocol for this and also to have a web based patch API.

* Debian Packageing/Makefile: This is already done. This is needed so you can install the patcher easily via apt-get.

I hope that I can finish OpenNetwork pretty soon and then get it into the Ubuntu and Debian repositories. Whatever, happy easter everyone!

Today I finally uploaded the first packages to my PPA. There you can download now the 1.5 release of irrlicht as a debian package. I will explain how.

First you have to add my repostiory to your /etc/apt/sources.lst . Of course you can replase "jaunty" with whatever version you use.

         deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/kai-mast/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main
         deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/kai-mast/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main

You need to get my OpenPGP key

        sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 52D7BB39C8996CBE9F340BD6956C72FCC552A2DC

Then you just do the usual stuff

        sudo apt-get update
        sudo apt-get upgrade

Finally its possible to install irrlicht

        sudo apt-get install libirrlicht1.5

And also other additional packages if you want to

        sudo apt-get install libirrlicht1.5-dev libirrlicht1.5-dbg libirrlicht1.5-doc

I just released a new version of my opensource network-framework for C++.

It does not include encryption because I will do that as a school project and try to implent it on a really good and clean way.

I also tested it on 64bit linux and was suprised that it ran just fine. Support for win32 did also improve a lot. I hope it works now but seriously I have no way of testing it except for WINE.

The POSIX standart is awesome. Why isn't MS fully compatible with it?

Guess I have to spend days of my spare time coding alternative implementations for my code. How am I supposed to keep up with the schedule?

You may have the impression as if nobody would use a Machine running Linux in reality. Of course this is completely wrong. I will mention some examples:

• A lot of Schools in Russia are running Linux because Windows is too expensive
• In Holland it is set by law that every institution has to use OpenSource-Software
• The American state Indiana has tousands of schools running Linux
• In Richmond, Indiana Linux-usage seems to be high too

If you have no clue how to start with Linux or want to spread the word click here.

UPDATE: Valve's Steam seems to be avaible for Linux soon too (source)

A lot of people tend to use software that comes from an illegal source.

Starting with simple apps like an Office Suite or Games to whole pirated Operating Systems. Some sources I read say that 35% of all apps used are illegal copies.

So what to do?

A lot of people, like me, just can't afford expensive software and games. So you have two choices either you promote the right of a private software copy or use open-source software.

Why do you take the risk of getting into trouble with the law because you use and illegal copy of Microsoft Office if you can just use OpenOffice.org?

Why do you play a pirated copy of Counter Strike if there are games like Nexuiz or UrbanTerror?

I just think that people often forget that there are alternatives. Even alternative OSes like Ubuntu. You don't have to pirate software, nor do you have to use it in general. There is always an alternative. I just named some but there are tousands. The open-source world will give so much to you if you just recognize that it exists!