# Avaneya Announcements Newsletter
Issue 1, November 17th 2010
Welcome to the Avaneya Announcements Newsletter, a digest of Avaneya
related announcement worthy news.
Please encourage those interested among your friends to subscribe and
help us build a community by adding our subscription page to your
site.
* Subscribe: <https://www.avaneya.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1>
Miss an issue? All issues archived here.
<https://www.avaneya.com/news/announcements>
## TABLE OF CONTENTS
* A brief foreword
* What is Avaneya?
* Introducing the crew
* Introducing you
* Engineering blueprints available for peer review
* What's next?
* Mailing lists and chat rooms
* Haptic support
* Source control management
* Launchpad project
* The musicians and their music
* MIPS port
* Reducing garbage
* Spread the word
* Closing vitally irrelevant anecdotes
### A brief foreword
It's been quiet, no doubt. But in reality, behind the scenes, it's
been as quiet as the Western Front. Deep down in their workshops, the
Hobbits have been busy. A lot has happened since the project first
established an online presence. Let's look at some of these things.
### What is Avaneya?
It started, as many things have, out of a sense of frustration at the
lack of quality entertainment for free platforms, such as GNU. Many of
us have been there at some point in time in our lives where we have
gone into a local computer shop or elsewhere, only to feel a little
like second class citizens because we valued our freedom. There is no
reason why users of proprietary software should be entitled to special
treatment in a society that values equality and freedom.
But the free software community is more than just a cosmetic variant
or different shade of software, with respect to the alternatives. The
computing machine itself makes no distinction between the social
values its operators apply to the behavioural patterns we give it
(software). There is a distinction and it is in the people that use
the software because they value freedom, whereas users of proprietary
software do not.
The world has changed significantly in the last several decades. The
ability to communicate one-to-many is far more accessible now than it
once was. But we mustn't become too lost in the world of technology
and, every now and then, we need to pull ourselves out of the system
and perform a reality check. We need to realize that, despite all of
these sights and sounds, most of the world has still not even used a
telephone.
The free software community, in my experience, tend to be
characterized by a social conscience. They tend to be more aware of
the larger picture. For example, we value powerful and reliable
software, but we know that if it is at the cost of our freedom, then
we would not permit superficial values to get the better of our
reason. In other words, if we were to remove computing from the
picture, the free software community would still be different from
proprietary users.
We value our freedom. We would like to improve the condition of our
world. We would like to learn. We also would also like to be
entertained, and it may be possible to do all of these things
together.
It was for this reason that a game that resonates with the values of
the free software community would inevitably transcend more than
simply the legal terms under which it was licensed, but also be
qualitatively different from mainstream proprietary gaming in theme.
And so a seed was born - Avaneya, a cerebral science fiction game for
the free software community. Synopsis:
Earth is a write off. The year is 2082 AD and the struggle for
social justice and human rights has inevitably followed early
settlers into their first Martian city-state republics.
Broken neoclassical economics, corporate controlled media,
fractional reserve central banks, false flags, over
industrialization, and a delicate supply of natural capital will
challenge you as governor in a new world which is hostile and
intolerant of mistakes.
### Introducing the crew
The people behind Avaneya come from different backgrounds and each
brings something unique to the table. At present, there's over a dozen
volunteers from various corners of the planet. They all have at least
one thing in common, they know its harder to create than it is to
simply graze and consume like cattle. Still, they chose the harder
way. Let's look at some of them.
* Andy Watson: Modeller
Andy is an experienced professional modeller who came to the
project with past commercial game studio experience. He is also
a member of Ubuntu Canada and eager to show us what he is
capable of.
* bruno9779: Translations (Italian, Spanish)
Bruno came to Avaneya convinced that the "project is simply
amazing" and had to be a part of it. He will be working on
Italian and Spanish translations.
* Eman Laerton: Voice overs
If you're not familiar with Eman's work, you should consider
doing so at some point. Eman is a man of letters, social
commentator, performer, writer of satire, and, as of late, a
documentary film maker for The Ski Channel.
Eman got my attention several years ago when I came across his
You Have Bad Taste in Music project. I still have the t-shirts
he gave me. Church Across America is especially intelligent, and
Pastor Eman Laerton will do well for Avaneya voice overs.
* You Have Bad Taste in Music: <www.yhbtm.com>
* Church Across America: <www.churchacrossamerica.com> * Emilien Richard: Font artist
After dialogue with GPI Atlantic, an independent, non-profit
research and education organization committed to the development
of the Genuine Progress Index (GPI), their enthusiasm for
Avaneya yielded Emilien, a colleague of theirs.
Enthusiastic as can be. He is experienced in creating game
assets for user interfaces. He's done skins for Vendetta-Online
and will be working on the artistic challenge of creating fonts.
He may also end up dabbling in Lua, if he ends up feeling
adventurous.
* George Dhoore: Forum, launchpad, and chatroom administrator
Like many others, George came across the project through
developer interviews where it caught his eye. He felt the
project will have a positive impact on the free software
community. He comes with a wealth of cogent ideas, a love for
science fiction, and probably best described as a renaissance
man.
He has been working on and off with helping the developers of
the Warlock game frontend. It is a free frontend for
Simutronic's commercial MUDs, specifically Dragonrealms.
He will be valuable as a support and bug tracker administrator
and moderator - of which he has ample experience already.
* Izmar Verhage: Musician
I came across my friend from the Netherlands and his music
several years ago while still a student. It had been there
through the good and bad times in life. Eventually I figured I'd
get in contact with him to find he was quite enthusiastic about
the project, and our shared passion for kombucha
.
When he isn't listening to me rant about artists releasing tunes
in proprietary formats (mp3), he is a gifted composer, producer,
audio engineer, and more. He's been known to play the drums,
guitar, bass and sitar. He also writes on ethnomedicine
research.
He describes his own music as "a pinch of Vangelis, Morricone,
Air, Cinematic Orchestra, indeed some o'that Mr. Scruff, DJ
Shadow, Thievery Corporation, Nitin Sawhney, Ishq, Ananda
Shankar, Prodigy, Five Deez, Bonobo, Royksopp, LTJ Bukem, and
Kruder & Dorfmeister and mix it with something new and
different". His remix of Radio Head's Nude and his Bank VI are
among my favourites.
* Home: <http://www.izmarmusic.com>
* MySpace: <http://www.myspace.com/izmarmusic>
* Jacob Vejvoda: Modeller, audio engineer
Jacob comes from the Glest community, a free realtime strategy
game. He will be modelling and working on audio effects.
* Jiarui Zhang: Engineer
Jiarui came across Avaneya via the Debian game developer's
mailing list and was eager to get started. In fact, eager is an
understatement and Jiarui deserves an award for being as patient
as he has in waiting for the architectural blueprints to be
released so he can finally get his hands dirty.
He is a software engineer with proficiency in the use of C and
C++ programming languages. Familiar with GNU, Linux, sockets,
multi-threading, multi-processor programming, object-oriented
programming, software engineering practices, and a good
knowledge of quality awareness, he is valuable.
Jiarui, besides for the aforementioned reasons, is also valuable
for his knowledge of the GNU Autotools. The Autotools you can
think of being akin to the scaffolding that surrounds a building
under construction. Usage of the Autotools are ubiquitous,
necessary, but sadly understood by very few in the software
field.
* Joseph Liau: Conceptual artist
Introduced to Avaneya via the Ubuntu Vancouver LoCo and the
early presentations I put on, Joseph loves science fiction and
is a talented artist. He had been tracking the project for a
while and, not wanting to be on the side lines, asked to get
involved.
Besides having already produced some excellent internal
conceptual artwork, he extends his utility in coaching others on
technique. He has done other conceptual artwork for Ubuntu
Vancouver's Gaming Group.
* Juergen Klein: Engineer
Juergen was in the audience for my Avaneya presentation at an
Ubuntu Vancouver LoCo "Main Event". If you've never been to one,
you should!
He is a brilliant engineer with a strong background in
simulation systems, software engineering, large scale
applications, mathematics, and physics. He also has studied
economics. He acquired his Masters in Mathematics and Computer
Science from the Universität Ulm, Germany.
Juergen wants to expand his knowledge of computer graphics and
apply what he knows to something novel. His background will be
very useful in attempting to replicate the lighting and
materials of the Martian surface.
When I interviewed him, I was impressed with the fact that he
understood and was vexed by notions of infinite growth models as
a subset of finite systems - a central and broken tenet of
neoclassical economics.
* Kip Warner: Engineer, project lead
I am a Vancouver, Canada based software engineer. I came up with
the concept of Avaneya for the reasons I mentioned earlier,
largely that of frustration. Avaneya is my son and, as such, I
surrender happily nearly every waking moment of my time to it.
I've always had a strong interest in science fiction since I was
very young. As I age though, I learn more about the world and my
disappointment with it tends to correlate accordingly. I believe
I've found something constructive and useful to channel that
energy.
I worked as a software engineer both before, sometimes during,
and after school where I studied Artificial Intelligence at UBC.
I was quickly disillusioned with the field when I realized it
was yet to answer any of the hardball questions of the nature of
mind and had only managed to progress to the level it had,
largely through evasion of said.
Carrying the torch of disappointment forward, industry was
largely a waste of time and a discussion of that would be
redundant with what many a musician have already said of the
software industry's cousin, the recording industry.
Ultimately I wanted freedom to work on what made me happy, did
not harm others, and apply a large amount of what I know to
something that will, with earnest effort, be useful.
* Personal Website: <http://www.thevertigo.com>
* Brief Bio: <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KipWarner>
* Research Website: <http://slither.thevertigo.com>
* Ralph Pichie: Writer, researcher
Ralph is by far one of the most creative and imaginative people
I've ever met. In following with Asimov's tradition, he has
tempered and tamed his imagination with in-depth, comprehensive,
factual knowledge of the far off worlds he entertains.
Ralph is a technical writer with a formal background in English
Literature, a minor in Psychology, a heavy geek streak, a strong
familiarity with military history, and a strong interest in
science fiction. He's also done plenty of coding on serious web
applications and worn many a hat, from technical writing to
interface designer and troubleshooting geek. He has enough of a
science education that he can make detailed, realistic planets
and project consequences for settlement and story lines.
He has written extensively on other Martian fictional scenarios
and his occasional work on his own science fiction includes
manuscripts, a 3D board game, and other related materials. These
thought experiments have yielded multi-generation / hibernation
ships, interesting worlds to settle, subspecies of humankind,
extinct extraterrestrial species, limited memory uploading and
transfer, and other areas he has explored.
As a hobbyist, he found what he was looking for, new kindling.
* Seth Kelley: Modeller, writer, package maintainer
Seth, like Jacob, is another member of the Glest community. He
has been involved in creating a Roman faction for Glest, as well
as helping people with 3D art, and thus has established himself
as a useful contributor to the world of free software.
* Ubuntu Vancouver LoCo
In the words of Randall Ross (our benevolent dictator, Buzz
Generator, Community Manager), "Ubuntu Vancouver LoCo is a
community of Ubuntu contributors, enthusiasts, and advocates
based in Vancouver BC. We believe the best and most effective
groups are ones that meet face-to-face so our focus is on making
IRL (In-Real-Life) events a priority. Sure, our computers are
important, but of secondary concern. What matters to us most is
that everyone in the community feels that they have access to
information resources. We reach out to those who need help
getting that access, beginning by creating an awareness of
choice and extending to full community-based support of Ubuntu.
If you're in Vancouver, please look us up:
<http://meetup.com/ubuntuvancouver>"
The Vancouver LoCo, though no a member of the team per se, has
been invaluable in providing a venue for showcasing the project
as it has developed, as well as a source for local talent.
* William Wilson Hetherington: Forum, launchpad, and chatroom
administrator
Will hails from Edinburgh originally and now living in Victoria,
Canada, for the last 3 and a half years where he is a system
administrator. He is an enthusiastic member of Ubuntu Canada
where he first came to learn of the Avaneya project.
With the growing community surrounding the game, Will fills a
vital role as a community administrator for the areas of
interaction between crew and community.
### Introducing you
I would be lying if I said that when I first conceived of the project,
I thought it would not eventually be popular. But the truth is, I
didn't expect it to receive the level of interest that it has in so
short a period of time.
For the month of last October, we had roughly 40,000 hits, without
really any "advertising" anywhere, at least not in the conventional
sense. Granted, that doesn't equate nearly to actual visitors, given
webcrawlers, returning visitors, and so on. Nevertheless, it's still
far more than anticipated and it only continues to climb on a monthly
basis. I expect the rate will escalate as the community can see more
of what we have been working on internally, with special attention to
artwork. After all, engineering schematics can be rather dry and few
find them interesting. A schematic doesn't do anything on its own, but
the same cannot always be said of artwork.
The vast majority of you appear to be what I call "conscientious
netizens". By that, I mean roughly 78% of you are running some flavour
of the GNU operating system and 64% some flavour of Firefox, both
usually free software. I've received many emails from people
expressing their joy that something like this is finally being
undertaken.
Most of you are coming from either North America or Europe at 46% and
42% respectively. The rest are distributed in Asia, Oceania, South and
Central America, and other places in that order.
### Engineering blueprints available for peer review
For those who find that these kinds of things put you to sleep, feel
free to keep scrolling.
Hackers don't spend much time planning and designing software. Most of
the time they just ad lib their way through it. Don't ask why, it's
just a tradition. But like cats, they have only so many lives. Or
rather, project complexity scales larger and larger, until eventually
they hit their upper limit where diving in without foresight can prove
reckless.
I am very happy to release the first set of technical blueprints for
public consumption. These pertain to Ares, the reusable engine
responsible for delivering Avaneya. In the spirit of good science and
cooperation, the community is invited to engage in the peer review and
contribution process.
Some of the engine's subsystems have already undergone review and
significant refactoring, such as the audio subsystem responsible for
bringing you realistic 3D-positional sound. The people on the OpenAL
mailing list, especially Eric Wing, have been very helpful.
The Avaneya mailing list (explained below) is an excellent place to
share your thoughts and discuss the project.
* Blueprints <https://blueprints.launchpad.net/avaneya>
### What's next?
We're going to look through the technical blueprints, discuss, revise,
and continue to have the engineers implement them. The artists will
carry on with their work as well. The hardest part was the engine
design. The better one plans, the easier and less time it takes to
follow through with the implementation.
### Mailing lists and chat rooms
We have two public mailing lists, this and one other. This one is
unidirectional and just for news worthy announcements. The latter is
open to everyone and available for public Avaneya related discussion,
such as the blueprints.
We also have a new IRC chat room, #avaneya, on the Freenode network
(irc.freenode.net). Everyone is welcome and you are encouraged to come
and join us in the discussion.
Please remember that the Ubuntu Code of Conduct applies.
* IRC
* Server: irc.freenode.net
* Channel: #avaneya
* Mailing List:
* Home: <http://lists.avaneya.com/listinfo.cgi/avaneya-avaneya.com>
* Contact: <avaneya<@>lists.avaneya.com>
### Haptic support
After a lot of thinking, I decided to factor in haptic support into
Ares - the game engine. According to Wikipedia, haptics refers to the
sense of touch (from Greek ἅπτω = "I fasten onto, I touch"). In this
context, it means that if you have a supported input device that is
capable of vibration or force feedback (e.g. some gamepads), the
engine can take advantage of that. In Avaneya, that means the
subtleties of a weak Martian wind to an underground mineshaft
explosion can be felt in the palm of your hands.
If you are a curious developer, or just a curious anybody, you can
review my design for this on p14 of the Ares architectural design PDF.
* Ares architecture:
<https://blueprints.launchpad.net/avaneya/+spec/ares-architectural-design>
* Haptic technology:
<https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Haptic>
### Source control management
Again, for those disinterested, feel free to skip over this.
I've been approached, and dare I say nagged, as to why I had not
initially chosen a distributed revision control system (DRCS), one
class of source control management systems (SCM). SCMs are used to
allow multiple people to collaborate over a shared set of files, track
revisions and logs, and a number of other things. There are many free
programs that allow this, but they can generally be grouped into two
categories or paradigms.
DRCS are akin to peer-to-peer software where they can be used in the
absence of a central canonical server. Proponents argue users are
better able to work productively when not connected to a network, most
operations are much faster since no network is involved, and more.
Probably the strongest point raised is it allows participation in
projects without requiring permissions from project authorities, and
thus arguably better fosters culture of meritocracy instead of
requiring "committer" status, (Wikipedia). Software that implements
these include Mercurial, Git, Bazaar, Monotone, Darcs, and others.
This approach has been popularized by the open source movement in
recent years, as it captures the "bazaar" approach to software
development (think of the Persian marketplace).
CRCS, centralized revision control systems, are akin to peer-to-server
model. They have a single canonical repository on a single server.
Proponents argue it is more straightforward to contribute to, work is
better coordinated, has a more approachable learning curve, backups
are more straightforward, and has been around longer. CVS, Subversion,
and many others implement this approach. This approach has been
popularized by the free software movement, as it captures the
"cathedral" approach to software development (think of a central
coordinator).
Many people had suggested I use Bazaar because it has a feature that
Subversion, what I am use to, does not, DRCS. I don't argue that it is
capable of the distributed approach, but I do disagree that that is a
feature any more than the colour of a car is a feature. It is not a
feature, but a preference. Nevertheless, I ended up settling with
Bazaar because it can function in my preferred DRCS approach, is the
only SCM supported by Launchpad, integrates well with my desktop
environment, and improves on the features Subversion supports.
Besides, learning something new is never a bad idea.
* The Cathedral and the Bazaar
<https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/The_Cathedral_and_the_Bazaar>
* Why Open Source misses the point of Free Software
<http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html>
### Launchpad project
Launchpad is an online service that allows for coordinated software
project collaboration. It provides services for source control
management, blueprints, support, bug tracking, and more. The Avaneya
project, the people behind it, and the source code as it develops can
be found there.
* Project: <https://launchpad.net/avaneya>
* Crew: <https://launchpad.net/~avaneya>
### The musicians and their music
Some of the musical talent we've managed to attract include Izmar
Verhage, Djplaeskool, Rafiralfiro, Rone, Shawan Rising, and Von Magnet
to name a few. Some of them are comfortable with our using already
released tunes, while others are making new ones for the game.
The game's music can be divided into two categories, ambient and
soundtrack. Ambient music is what you would hear during gameplay.
Soundtrack music is what you would hear during cinematics, and
possibly other places. This latter category we are going to try and
release on redbook (CD audio) and other formats. The profits from that
will go entirely to the musicians, as it rightly should.
There will be a lot more to share with you on music in the future, as
I am still figuring out what's best musically for the project since it
can be a challenge when you have a rich storyline.
### MIPS port
We've all seen in recent years the popularity of netbooks, miniature
laptops that, while equipped with reduced capabilities, tend to be
rather affordable. When we consider that the people of developing and
undeveloped nations can hardly afford to pay what people in developed
nations pay for hardware and the proprietary software they typically
come with, it was important since conception that netbooks remain a
viable option for Avaneya.
There's been predominantly one hardware vendor whose hardware design
has provided the vast majority of resellers to sell netbooks. Intel's
architectures (i386, amd64, and lpia) are essentially just a
miniaturization of their desktops and laptops. They are still power
hungry, heavily patent encumbered, and as a consequence of their
heritage, inherit the design of legacy systems of an era long past.
Two other families of hardware architectures offer alternatives. One
is ARM, the other is MIPS. Both have proven track records and can be
more power efficient in small embedded systems where they typically
outperform other architectures. The Chinese effectively grew tired of
paying royalties to the Americans for using Intel hardware. I can't
speak of their relation to ARM, a British company, but I imagine it
may be similar. As a consequence, the government of China has been
enabling companies like Lemote through sponsoring the development of
the MIPS hardware platform via The Chinese Academy of Science.
Daniel Clark, a software activist and President of Freedom Included,
Inc., the official US distributor of Lemote's hardware, was generous
enough to donate development hardware needed to ensure the game can
work on it. Freedom Included, Inc. specializes in free software
respecting hardware. That is, hardware that does not require
proprietary software and a compromise in your rights as a user to
operate.
* Freedom Included: <http://freedomincluded.com>
### Reducing garbage
Something seldom discussed is the massive impact free software has on
reducing garbage. A friend of mine has had the same desktop for nearly
a decade. At first, I just thought he was being cheap. But then I came
to realize his understanding of free software was much deeper than
monetaryism.
The first thing he did when he bought it years ago was to wipe off the
non-free software and replace it with a free operating system. Since
free software is available for public audit and your right to inspect
and improve its inner workings is guaranteed, hardware running free
software has a far greater lifespan than that which runs proprietary
software since planned obsolescence is not an issue. Remember that
even though most users are not engineers, it only takes one who is to
fix it for everyone.
But besides the obvious of not having to throw out perfectly good
hardware, it doesn't end there. Free operating systems typically
employ a software distribution system called a "package manager". They
go by different names and their differences largely cosmetic on
different free operating systems, but they all do the same thing. They
replace the antiquated idea of trying to reify immaterial entities
(software) by arranging them in boxes on store shelves as though they
were material. Instead, they allow people to browse, download, and
install a large amount of the available software electronically for
their operating system and keep it automatically updated.
Just think about all the garbage and junk wrapping everything comes in
these days. Even if the garbage weren't a problem and everything was
100% recyclable, you're still stuck with a static storage medium in
the box that doesn't self update when a new version of the software is
available.
Distribution of Avaneya using the package manager helps solve all of
these problems. But since game data is large and in many parts of the
world broadband is still not always viable, people should have the
option to order branded Avaneya pre-loaded USB sticks. This Avaneya
bling, unlike archaic stamped compact discs, can be re-used for
whatever the user would like. In fact, preloading them with a free
operating system is also an option.
* High Tech Trash, National Geographic <http://goo.gl/YCUav>
### Spread the word
Help us spread the word on Avaneya. We will have media kits released
eventually of artwork, icons, buttons, and so on for your blogs and
websites.
We've all been told at some point by the uninformed that free
software, while idealistic, just doesn't work in practise. We know
that's simply not true and its success largely depends on everyone
supporting projects like this.
### Closing vitally irrelevant anecdotes
Our good friend and eminent philosopher, Richard Stallman, I had the
pleasure of giving a copy of "The China Study" to. The GNU operating
system has been around for a long time, but now Richard will be able
to offer the GNU project and the free software movement what no other
leader has ever been able to do - immortality. May his cup of kombucha
runneth over.
###
The Avaneya Announcements Newsletter is edited by Kip Warner.
Copyright (C) 2010 Kshatra Corp.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-No
Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License. To view a copy of this license,
visit <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.5/ca/> or send a
letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San
Francisco, California, 94105, USA.
