Ok… so… you bought Diablo 3, you are running Gentoo, the files aren’t updating… The installer isn’t working… The launcher isn’t working either… Sure you can copy the files from your Windows computer, if you have one, but every time there is a patch you’d need to do this.

This was the problem I was facing. Fortunately there are some really cool people on the internet who have written patches for Wine to over come these issues and Wine almost fully supports Diablo 3 right out of the box. Now it’s just our job to apply these patches. The problem is the pesky ebuild files. We want to apply 4 patch files to make this work. If we just compile from source, then portage is going to think we didn’t install here.

Here is what I did to accomplish getting Diablo 3 installed and running on Gentoo. All of my steps are adapted from the WineHQ entry for Diablo 3. The patches are provided by third parties whom I don’t know and not affiliated.

Step one) Diablo 3 required some Microsoft C++ package. There is a really awesome program called winetricks that will install a plethora of Wine related items. You have to unmask the package in portage and emerge winetricks first.

• winetricks vcrun2008

Step two) I didn’t want to mess with creating an ebuild or installing Wine from source. To do this, I added the keepwork feature in /etc/make.conf. Afterward I started the Wine emerge and control-C’ed the install just after it started to configure the source. With keepwork there, all I had to do was go to the work directory of Wine to proceed to the next step. The work directory will be in the output of the emerge.

Step three) The patches are listed at the end of the this thread. They are the works of other people and they are third party patches to Wine. Wine has not yet accepted or declined them in to the source tree. They are obviously at your own risk. The first three patch files are part of a greater patch. I also synlinked the wine-1.5.4 directory to b so I could copy and paste the file paths. There is likely a better way to do this, but I was just wanting the job done. After the first three files are patched, you just run the make_requests script in the tools folder to update the server source. The first patch (three patch files) addresses the inability to install or update Diablo. The second patch addresses the game crashing when altering the video settings.

• patch < 86263.txt
• patch < 86264.txt
• patch < 86265.txt
• ./tools/make_requests
• patch < reset.patch

Step four) Emerge Wine as you normally would. The keepwork feature will not overwrite your work directory and install Wine the usual Gentoo way. Obviously you want to disable this feature as it’s horrible and should never be used. I don’t really condone using this feature, but until a permanent solution is found, this should do the trick.

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Got a Galaxy Nexus phone? Want to tether but want to use less power? Or do you want to tether in a more secure way? Bluetooth tethering is supported on the Galaxy Nexus. Simply go to Settings -> More -> Tethering & portable hotspot. Activate Bluetooth tethering. Simply turn turn on Bluetooth on both devices and pair them. On the device you want to connect your phone you will need to make sure it’s using the Internet sharing profile for the Nexus. Depending on the device, you may need to connect. You should be online via Bluetooth tethering. Remember that this may or may not be in violation of your terms of service with your carrier.

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I’ve been meaning to comment about a post that  I saw on Pulse. The post entitled “It’s Time to Give GoDaddy a Break”. The author makes the point that we live in the US, that we all have the freedom of speech, including GoDaddy. They go on to say that GoDaddy had an opinion against popular opinion and their client base punished them for their views and once they reversed their opinion people are still jumping ship.

At first I felt that the author actually has a logical view point. In the US we all have the right to freedom of speech and to our opinions. What the author fails to realize is that the right to free speech does not include immunity to the reaction that speech has. I should be allowed to express my opinion, but I must then face the consequences of my actions. I have the right to tell my neighbour that their music is a sin unto god. I would expect that their reaction wouldn’t be to give me a break. It is a very common misconception that freedom of speech implies freedom from consequences. It doesn’t.

The cosmic irony about the post is that the poster is defending GoDaddy’s first amendment right while GoDaddy’s opinion limits the first amendment. The outcome is pretty simple. Your richly diverse customers buy your products, you merely advocate controversial opinion, you expect loss in sales and profits. Take for example Proposition 8 in California. A religious group based in another state sends millions of dollars from their non profit organization to promote the opinion of yes on the controversial proposition where two halves of the populace feel very strongly. When the ‘no’ half of the populace lash out they are taken by surprise.

This begs some questions that I find truly interesting… why would a company have rights? Why does a company get to have freedom of speech? Why can it make political contributions? Are these not called lobbyists? Recently a law was overturned that was setup to restrict how much money a company could contribute to political campaigns. The consensus was that a company was a legal entity in the US and that granted the company the same basic rights as citizens. When I read that I sort of laughed thinking how funny it would be if WalMart and other companies got to vote on current issues.

The point I want to make here is that everyone is entitled to their opinions. Like my father told me, ‘… everyone’s got one.’ My opinion is that SOPA and Protect IP Act infringe on freedom of speech, they infringes on fair use, they make it easier to control information. They’re setup wrong and pose problems. They don’t need amendments to fix them. They need to go back to the drawing board. I understand that my opinion might anger some people. If I find that an entity, be it person, business, or corporation that I do business with disagrees with my opinion, you bet I will seek to do business else where. Not only can I vote as a citizen, I can also vote with my money and I definitely voted against GoDaddy on this one.

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