AMD/ATI Insults Linux Users by suggesting they use Windows

I’m not the only Linux enthusiast out there who is just about to give up on ATI. They have the worst track record for cards that don’t work on Linux. Even just the two operating systems they support–Red Hat and Suse–have all sorts of problems after installing the ATI Catalyst Linux Edition drivers.

Recently, ATI released a driver update for RADEON LINUX (ATI Proprietary Linux x86 Display Driver 8.32.5) They have a feed for driver updates to give you any idea of how many people have been hitting the F5 key because the last driver didn’t work for them. I’ve been one of these people and I’ve sent a few emails in begging for better support.

I thought it a slight that on the new release notes, which have been up for about a week, AMD/ATI has a hyperlink on their page labeled installation instructions and it links to their Windows installation instructions. There must be thousands of emails ATI gets a week asking for support installing Linux Radeon drivers and ATI updates their driver install notes by linking them to a Windows install job aid. Jeez, I haven’t tried the new drivers yet but I am really hoping these ones work.

Check it out yourself, click on the install link you get to when you get to this page.

Google Sketchup = AdSense for Games and 3d Worlds. (plus more)

My thoughts: You heard it here first. That’s right, video games are the fastest growing segment of entertainment and advertising is a much larger market than software sales. So Google has released SketchUp–just so those advertisers who are thinking about creating advertisements but might have to switch to the Microsoft platform to do so–will now be able to get started becoming familiar with advertisements latest big angle on getting in front of viewers eyes. SketchUp = Googles 3D adsense program, you heard it here first. Let’s get down to what we know beyond my speculation. SketchUp is about 19.1 Mbs to download, and as of this post, is only available for Microsoft Windows. ketchUp is a simple but powerful tool for quickly and easily creating, viewing and modifying your 3d ideas. Google’s blog has a write up on it here. It comes in two flavors. The first is free, Google SketchUp, and then there is Google SketchUp Pro 5 which has advanced features like real time shading, and free models like trees and such, and can be had for a not so scary 495.00 USD. (If you think that is a lot, check out 3dsmax or Maya’s latest offering’s price tag.) According to Google’s blog:

SketchUp Pro 5 is a powerful 3D modeling tool whose robust feature set empowers designers and planners to explore and communicate complex 3D concepts. It casts real-time shadows, allows customization of keyboard shortcuts, and comes with a large library of pre-made components like trees, cars, and people. Specialized suites of tools enable you to model organic shapes and simulate movie camera placements. You can import models from other applications and export SketchUp Pro models to 2D, 3D, and movie applications as well as to Google Earth. SketchUp Pro supports interactive presentations and large-format, high-resolution printing, as well as the creation of add-on programs using the ruby-script programming language.

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Google SketchUp (free) is an easy-to-learn 3D modeling program that enables you to explore the world in 3D. With just a few simple tools, you can create 3D models of houses, sheds, decks, home additions, woodworking projects – even space ships. And once you’ve built your models, you can place them in Google Earth, post them to the 3D Warehouse, or print hard copies.

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3D Warehouse is an online location where you can find and share 3d models. I’m not sure which portion of Google earth will be the virtual word Google is talking about but it would be sweet if some of their cool new navigation shards of Google earth were mash-up-able from users like you and me. The barriers to that happening involve getting broadband in the car, but that’s it.

Up until now, you haven’t been able to add much to Google earth, lines, points, some 3d shapes, but nothing fancy. I hope this turns into a better world than second life, I’ll put down more thoughts after I’ve used the program, I’ve used many 3d programs in the past.