handyfloss

I just read, by chance, a very interesting essay a Wikipedia administrator wrote in his personal page. It deals with people spamming or vandalizing Wikipedia, for fun or for personal promotion/economical benefit.

I’ll quote the intro paragraph:

Let’s face facts: Wikipedia has become an important force on the Internet. If you’ve got a business to run or a belief to circulate there’s a big temptation to hit that edit button and do your thing. You’re on your honor here. Most people have honor, which is why Wikipedia is huge and (usually) pretty darn good, but then there’s that thought – what if you could harness this site and make it work for you?

You aren’t the first person to get that idea. And hello there, I’m a Wikipedia administrator.

Read more in the whole essay.

I recently wrote (actually, my last post, 12 days ago), a howto of sorts with my experience installing Compiz Fusion on my laptop. Yesterday I came back from my vacations, and repeated the feat with my destop computer at home.

The setup is quite different:

CPU: AMD Athlon 2800+
Graphics: nVidia FX 5700 (256MB)

And the effort is also quite different: it took me much less! Partially, this was because of my previous exprerience, but mainly the reason is that the graphics card here is nVidia. Yes, let the world know that ATI cards suck on Linux.

The problem is that ATI cards need XGL to have Compiz running, but nVidia cards make use of AIGLX natively, so the installation has only two steps: (1) installing the nVidia driver, and (2) installing the Compiz Fusion packages.

Installing the latest nVidia driver

As with the ATI card in my laptop, I decided to use the proprietary drivers from the nVidia site. The choice-making interface is so similar, actually, to that of ATI. I had to go Graphics Driver->GeForce FX series->Linux x86->Go!, and download this installer.

BIG WARNING: before actually installing anything, remove a previous installation of the nVidia drivers, if you installed them “the Debian way”. For that, do:

% aptitude purge nvidia-glx

I have a friend who did not do so and… Ok, ok, it happened to me. If you do not do the above, everything seems to work fine, but everytime you reboot the X server will crash, and you might get incredibly annoyed by that.

To perform the installation, simply run, as root:

% sh path-to-file/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-100.14.11-pkg1.run

Then, just modify your xorg.conf file to contain the following:

Section "ServerLayout"
  Identifier     "Default Layout"
  Screen       "Default Screen" 0 0
  InputDevice    "Generic Keyboard"
  InputDevice    "Configured Mouse"
  Option         "AIGLX" "true"
EndSection

...

Section "Extensions"
  Option         "RENDER" "true"
  Option         "Composite" "Enable"
  Option         "DAMAGE" "true"
EndSection

Installing Compiz Fusion packages

The procedure is exactly the same covered in my previous post. In short:

1) Add the Shame repository to your /etc/apt/sources.list:

deb http://download.tuxfamily.org/shames/debian-sid/desktopfx/unstable/ ./

2) Get the signature for the repo:

% gpg --keyserver pgpkeys.mit.edu --recv-key 11F6E468
% gpg -a --export 11F6E468

3) Update and install:

% aptitude update
% aptitude install compiz-fusion-all --a

Any time you want to run Compiz, just execute:

% compiz --replace -c emerald

Shorter than the ATI thing, uh?

I have a previous post with what I’ve done to my laptop, and in that post it’s not mentioned, but I managed (quite a while ago) to make Beryl work under Ubuntu Dapper Drake. Dapper is getting older, but I am not having good experiences installing Edgy and Feisty on the laptop. I have managed to install Debian Etch with no problem, but the wireless driver was not working properly (for me, a showstopper) until Lenny.

So now I have a Debian Lenny partition, plus three other: the original WinXP, the Ubuntu Dapper I am still using as “main” OS, and a Fedora 7 I installed just because it came in a DVD with a magazine I bought for a train trip I had not brought any reading material with me :^)

Since I am on vacation, and I have plenty of time (although I don’t want to spend all of it on my comp), I decided to give Compiz Fusion a try, mostly after seeing what it its capable of.

First things first, the specs of my laptop are:

Fujitsu-Siemes Amilo PI1536
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 2×2.0GHz
RAM: 2x1Gb
HD: 120Gb SATA
Display: 15.4 WXGA
Graphics: ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 (128Mb dedicated/512Mb shared)

The only relevant parts above are that it has an ATI graphics card (which, under Linux, sucks), and that it has Core 2 CPUs, which are amd64-capable (which is both great, for performance, and sucks, for drivers and software compatibilities). So, my second step was:

Installation of ATI drivers

If you want to take the best out of your ATI card, you have to tell your X.org graphics server to use the fglrx driver, and not the default vesa one. You can install this driver from the official Debian repositories, but for me those packages (fglrx-driver and related ones) didn’t do it.

So, I googled a bit, and followed the most widespread recommendation: to install the latest non-free (sigh) driver from the ATI site. For that, I chose the options: Linux x86_64 -> Mobility Radeon -> Mobility Radeon X1400 -> Go, reaching this page, and downloading this 38MB binary (for the record, the 32bit version of the drivers is exactly the same .run file).

Next, I followed the remaining information in this excelent thread in linuxquestions.org. Namely, I downloaded the needed packages (the code is copy-paste-able):

% aptitude install module-assistant build-essential dh-make debhelper debconf libstdc++5 linux-headers-$(uname -r) ia32-libs

Beware that the ia32-libs packages is not mentioned in the linuxquestions.org thread (assuming that you already have it installed), but it is required.

Next, run the ATI binary inside a dedicated directory (I did it as root, but it is not compulsory):

% mkdir /root/fglrx
% cd /root/fglrx
% mv wherever-I-downloaded-it/ati-driver-installer-8.32.5-x86.x86_64.run .
% chmod +x ati-driver-installer-8.32.5-x86.x86_64.run
% ./ati-driver-installer-8.32.5-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg Debian/lenny
% rm or mv the .run file wherever you want

This generates a bunch of .debs in the /root/fglrx dir. Next, install them, and compile the driver (for this, you do need to be root):

% dpkg -i fglrx-*.deb
% cd /usr/src
% m-a prepare
% m-a a-i fglrx

The linuxquestion.org thread mentions modifying the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file in two ways. First, disable compositing, adding:

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Disable"
EndSection

to it, and then running:

% aticonfig --initial
% aticonfig --overlay-type=Xv

For me, both were superfluous, because I made a copy of my Ubuntu xorg.conf, and them made minimal changes (if at all). However, the first change (disabling compositing) was straightforward wrong. If I want to use Compiz Fusion, I need to have it. Relevant excerpts from my xorg.conf:

Section "Module"
  Load  "i2c"
  Load  "bitmap"
  Load  "ddc"
  Load  "dri"
  Load  "extmod"
  Load  "freetype"
  Load  "glx"
  Load  "int10"
  Load  "type1"
  Load  "vbe"
EndSection

...

Section "Device"
  Identifier  "aticonfig-Device[0]"
  Driver      "fglrx"
  Option      "VideoOverlay" "on"
  Option      "OpenGLOverlay" "off"
EndSection

...

Section "Screen"
  Identifier "aticonfig-Screen[0]"
  Device     "aticonfig-Device[0]"
  Monitor    "aticonfig-Monitor[0]"
  DefaultDepth     24
  SubSection "Display"
    Viewport   0 0
    Depth     24
    Modes    "1280x800" "800x600" "640x480"
  EndSubSection
EndSection

...

Section "DRI"
  Mode         0666
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
  Option "Composite" "1"
EndSection

After all this fuss, and to ensure you have it all running OK, try to insert the module as root:

% modprobe fglrx

Then, make sure it loads everytime you reboot (include it in /etc/modules if necessary, but it shouldn’t be).

Next, reload the X server, and check that now it is running the fglrx driver, by doing the following (as user is fine):

% fglrxinfo

It should display something like the following:

display: :0.0 screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: ATI Mobility Radeon X1400
OpenGL version string: 2.0.6650 (8.39.4)

If, instead, it says something about mesa3d, it didn’t work.

Now, the second step is…

Installing Xgl

With the standard X.org server we have a problem. We can load the fglrx driver, but we can not activate compositing (see last three lines of my xorg.conf file above). If we activate compositing in the xorg.conf file, the ATI driver will not be loaded (don’t ask me why, it just seems to happen). If we deactivate compositing, the ATI driver gets loaded, but without compositing, we can not use Compiz.

The solution is to install Xgl which is an X server (or, I think, a kind of layer that runs on top of the X.org server) that allows for the above trick. There seem to be two “ways” of getting proper compositing: Xgl and AIGLX. The general agreement on the net seems to be that the latter is “better”, but only the former seems to work with ATI cards (read the “AIGLX with AMD (ex-ATI) Proprietary Drivers” section in the AIGLX Wikipedia article, because it hits the problem dead-on). With Xgl I can make use of the fglrx driver and have compositing at the same time.

We are lucky here, because there are Debian repositories for Xgl. I found out about them in this howto in tuxmachines.org. Most of the info there is mostly… ehem… useless (for me), but reading it I found a repo for Xgl. I just have to add the following line to my /etc/apt/sources.list (beware that the original mention in the tuxmachines.org page says “binary-i386”, and I had to change it to “binary-amd64”):

deb http://www5.autistici.org/debian-xgl/debian/ binary-amd64/

I then had to do aptitude update, and I (of course) got an error telling me that some signatures couldn’t be verified (read my own article about secure APT and/or the wonderful Debian wiki to know more). I think the key is 11F6E468, and it corresponds to Francesco Cecconi (mantainer of the repo). It is downloadable from pgpkeys.mit.edu (follow instructions on my previous post, or the ones in the Debian wiki). If you want, do not skip reading the parent page of the repository.

After the keys are OK, it’s just a matter of doing (as root):

% aptitude update
% aptitude install xgl

Now you are done installing, but will have to actually use Xgl. This gave me some headaches, not because I didn’t know where to put things, but because I didn’t know exactly what to put. I read, and followed, the instructions in freedesktop.org, and (after all, the blog seems to be useful for someone: myself) a previous post of my own.

I am using GDM, so my final setup was the following: first generate a suitable entry in the GDM menu, by creating a file named /usr/share/xsessions/xfce4-xgl.desktop (or whatever, but in the same dir, and ending in “.desktop”), and putting the following inside:

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Xfce-Xgl
Exec=/usr/local/bin/startxgl_xfce
Icon=Type=Application

The string after “Name=” is the one that will appear in the GDM menu, and the one after “Exec=” what will be executed when selecting that entry.

Next, we have to create the string we promise above (/usr/local/bin/startxgl_xfce), and put the following inside:

# Start the Xgl server:
Xgl -fullscreen :0 -ac -accel glx:pbuffer -accel xv:pbuffer -fp /usr/share/X11/fonts/misc & sleep 5 && DISPLAY=:0
# Start Xfce:
exec xfce4-session

As you can see, I am telling Xgl to load a font (with -fp) that was giving me headaches, because the server would die saying that the font was missing when I didn’t include that option. Your mileage may vary.

Now, everytime we select the entry labeled “Xfce-Xgl” in the GDM menu, we will have the Xgl server running.

Installing Compiz Fusion packages

I think the aforementioned autistici.org repo has compiz packages, as well as the default Debian Lenny repos. But net consensus seems to be that they are not the way to go. Everyone praises two repositories: Treviño’s and Shame’s. I chose the latter, adding the following line to my /etc/apt/sources.list:

deb http://download.tuxfamily.org/shames/debian-sid/desktopfx/unstable/ ./

I think I went through the same chores as above for key verification, Shame’s key being A42A6CF5.

After that, I installed the following package (it installs all of the needed packages):

% aptitude install compiz-fusion-all

After that, and inside my “Xfce-Xgl” session, I just did the following, as some googling revealed:

% compiz --replace

But… it didn’t work :^( It complained in the following manner:

Fatal: Failed test: texture_from_pixmap support
Checks indicate that it's impossible to start compiz on your system.

I found a lot of pages, threads and howtos in the net stumbling upon this same problem (for example, this one at ubuntuforums.org), but none with the answer. Really. None. The most enlightening tips where the use of the -v, -h and --help switches for compiz. The first one requests verbose output, the second one help about “short” options, and the third one help about the “long” options. With the latter I discovered the --force-fglrx switch, which saved the day! Yes, I now use the following command to start Compiz:

% compiz --replace -c emerald --force-fglrx

I have two things to say at that point. First: this Compiz Fusion is visually astonishing! It is full of great ideas, and has a lot of settings to play with. The second thing is not so nice: some glitches are present. For example, my Konsole windows get transparent background for no reason, and the refresh is horrible (when text reaches the bottom on the terminal, it starts to overwrite itself. One must hide and un-hide the window for proper refreshing, which is unacceptable). The latter also affects other windows, which, all in all, makes it unsuitable for much comfort.

However, Compiz Fusion is new, hot and experimental. I love playing with it, but right now it can not be relied upon. On the bright side, in the three days from my installation, the packages have been updated three times! I suppose some aptitude upgrade cycles will fix the issues eventually.

And that’s it, dear reader.

I use the PowerDot class to make presentations (such as the one in a previous post), and I have come across a nasty problem in the current testing branch of Debian (Lenny). Obviously it is bound to affect any other distro relying on Debian, such as Ubuntu.

The problem is discussed in this thread in freelists.org, and a solution is given by Hendri Adriaens in the tug.org bug page.

In short, when selecting paper=screen paper size in a PowerDot .tex file, the current dvips (version 5.96.1, provided by the package texlive-bin version 2007-12) generates a PostScript file with a wrong paper size. To fix it, you can get the following file:

% wget http://tug.org/svn/texlive/trunk/Master/texmf/dvips/config/config.ps

and put it where the following command tells you:

% kpsewhich --format='dvips config' config.ps

after backing up the old (buggy) one, just in case. For example:

% mv /etc/texmf/dvips/config/config.ps /etc/texmf/dvips/config/config.ps.backup
% mv config.ps /etc/texmf/dvips/config/

This fixes the problem for me.

Cierto es que no gané mucho dinero, pero ayer compré un libro y volví a casa con más dinero del que llevaba… ¿cómo?

Fui con mi hermana a comprar un libro de Harry Potter (la excusa es decir que le gustan a ella), y como era sábado y un poco tarde, nos fuimos a Eroski (un supermercado). Allí encontramos un ejemplar que nos faltaba, por 19.00 euros (¡ménudo robo!), y lo cogimos. En la caja nos cobraron 19.48 euros, aunque le avisé a la cajera de que ese no era el precio que ponía en el propio libro. Ella me dijo que fuera a Información a reclamar. Así lo hice, con mis 52 céntimos de vueltas de un billete de 20 euros, más el libro y el ticket.

Pues bien, en Información nos devolvieron el dinero, que es la política que tiene Eroski cuando cobra algo de manera incorrecta. Hasta ahí todo bien: el libro me salía gratis, por 48 céntimos de error en la cuenta. Pero lo bueno vino cuando le di los 52 céntimos, para que la empleada me diera un billete de 20 euros. Resulta que se hizo la picha un lío y me devolvió 20 euros y cinco céntimos. Yo la habría sacado de su error, pero no me apetecía perder cinco minutos aclarando semejante minucia, y opté por ignorarlo.

Así que acabé llevándome un libro, no solo sin pagarlo, sino cobrándolo.

I just found this little app browsing for PDF software in my Debian aptitude repository contents.

In short, PDF Cube displays PDFs in full screen, adding Compiz-like cube transitions from slide to slide if we want. The following YouTube video shows how it works:

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=AscU72HOwgM]

You can notice the mixed regular/cube transitions, as well as the five zooming options used in slide 4.

By the way, I have started the Wikipedia article for PDF Cube. I think this little program deserves to be in the Wikipedia.

Incidentally, the above is the first video I upload to YouTube! :^)

I have no words. It is trully amazing what the guys behind Compiz/Beryl/Compiz Fusion can do, and how the contributions of free software enthusiasts can quickly surpass any lame Windows (and MacOS) “innovation”. From YouTube:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ImW0-MgR8I]

Transcribo el texto de un comentario que he mandado al blog de Enrique Dans, y que por algún motivo no ha salido correctamente (lo voy a enlazar desde allí, para ver si sale así):

¡Cuánta ignorancia junta, Dios mío!

Dice #15:

“Para alabar a Beryl tiene uno que probarlo, no poner un video del youtube… Beryl esta verde, verde, verdisimo… “

Mentira. Yo llevo tiempo usando Beryl, y ha madurado mucho en muy poco tiempo. En mis ordenadores “de trabajo” no lo uso, porque soy más bien de los que tienen escritorios espartanos: Xfce con un solo panel abajo y un fondo de escritorio sin iconos. Y sin efectos 3D ni transparencias.

Ahora bien, cuando puse Beryl por primera vez, me funcionó de maravilla, y podía hacer un montón de cosas que no sé si Aero puede hacer (igual sí). Por ejemplo: Alt+Rueda del ratón sobre una ventana y cambio su transparencia de 0% hasta casi 100% (y puedo ver lo de debajo). Puedo ver dos o tres vídeos diferentes a la vez, con diferente nivel de transparencia, y ver los de abajo a través de los de arriba. Y eso mientras pongo un efecto de lluvia sobre todo el escritorio. Y eso mientras roto el cubo, o pongo las ventanas con los vídeos en una arista del cubo…

Y todo esto antes de que Vista saliera al mercado, y con ordenadores en los que Vista no funcionaría, porque “su alta tecnología requiere mejor hardware”.

¿Para qué sirve esto? Para nada. Igual que Aero. Simplemente mola, y si lo quiero usar, puedo hacerlo. Yo, la verdad, no lo uso, pero para gustos los colores.

Pero el escritorio Linux no se acaba en Beryl. Hace años que en funcionalidad el escritorio Linux (GNOME, KDE, Xfce… incluso Fluxbox y similares) ha sobrepasado ampliamente a cualquier Windows, incluido el Vista. Desde escritorios múltiples, hasta shortcuts de teclado ultrapersonalizables, colocación de ventanas automática más inteligente (al abrirse una aplicación), lista de tareas más eficiente, paneles configurables, “gadgets” (como los han rebautizado los sinvergüenzas de Redmond) como relojes y monitores gráficos de uso de CPU, red o I/O de disco etc. sobre el escritorio.

Por no mencionar la brutal capacidad de personalización de la interfaz, cambiando la decoración de las ventanas, el estilo de los botones, menús, listas, etc, la fuente de letra para los títulos de las ventanas, los menús, los iconos…

Leo en #37:

“Luego tengo que hacerles una aplicación cliente, sin que tenga que tirar más lineas de código que un tonto, y los dos únicos lenguages que tengo disponibles (no hay Visual Basic) son C y Java.”

Pero bueno, chaval, ¿estás diciendo que no usas Linux porque no hay lenguajes de programación? Si quieres aplicaciones para cálculo masivo tienes Fortran y C. Si quieres scripts rápidos, eficientes, y fáciles de coj*nes de hacer, tienes shell, Perl, Python, Ruby y otros. Si quieres aplicaciones gráficas fáciles hace tiempo que tienes Tcl/Tk, y más moderno GTK+ y Qt. Tanto Tk como GTK (Qt no sé) tienen una integración con Perl , Python y C que asombra por su simplicidad.

Me gustaría ver que programa “simple” de VB u otra basura similar es capaz de hacer lo que dos líneas de Perl o shell, con sed y awk. Para que te hagas una idea, Google usa Perl para pattern matching cuando te da los resultados de una búsqueda. Sobre máquinas Linux, claro.

Date una vuelta por la Wikipedia, y su lista de lenguajes de programación por categorías, y verás la de lenguajes diferentes que hay, y haz la cuenta de cuantos se pueden usar en Windows y cuantos en Linux.

Luego dice #44:

“Eso de que quien usa Windows es porque quiere no es verdad. Yo llevo años intentando emplear Linux y no hay manera. Hace siete años lo probé por primera vez con una distro de Mandrake y me volví tonto.”

Quizá no sea justo culpar a Mandrake de esto último…

Es laudable tu intención de usar Linux, y lamentable que no lo hayas conseguido, pero creo que tu negativa experiencia no es necesariamente generalizable.

Yo llevo 9 años usando Linux. Empecé con Slackware, donde uno se hacía todo “a mano”. ¡Qué tiempos! Era complicado a veces, pero aprendí muchísimo. Luego, cuando probé Mandrake, me gusto mucho, porque era tan fácil que hasta daba un poco de vergüenza.

Con el tiempo, volví a distros más “técnicas”, y ahora uso Debian (que es como el “Ubuntu para frikis”), porque me permite más flexibilidad que las distros “para tontos” (con todos los respetos), y me es mucho más fácil controlar lo que hace el ordenador, que con distros que se creen más listas que yo, y me “facilitan” el hacer las cosas como creen que quiero hacerlas, y no como quiero hacerlas.

“Desde entonces lo he vuelto a intentar varias veces y siempre me he topado con un muro de piedra: la conexión a internet.

JAMÁS he logrado conseguir conectarme a internet con una distribución de Linux. Ni cuando usaba un módem RTB, ni usando un módem ADSL, ni ahora con un router wifi.

Pues debes de ser el único, macho. Yo tuve problemas con el v.90/92, cuando intente conectarme con un winmódem interno. Pensé que Linux era una castaña, hasta que me compré un módem externo, y vi que era IGUAL de fácil de configurar que en Windows (y más fiable).

Cuando me pasé al ADSL (en realidad tengo cable, con Euskaltel), no tuve NINGÚN problema con Linux. Lo configuré en un tris. Y cuando me puse WiFi, me compré yo mismo el router (con lo cual me ahorré unos eurillos, respecto a pedirlo a Euskaltel), y me lo instalé sin problema en el de sobremesa (con cable). El portátil que conecto por WiFi no me ha dado ningún problema para conectar en modo abierto, y tampoco con encriptación WEP. Cierto es que para WPA tuve que hacer alguna cosilla, y que en Windows es más sencillo, pero solo marginalmente más sencillo.

Como comentario final, añadir que Vista no hace más que reinventar la rueda, reimplementando mil cosas que ya existían en Mac y en Linux (y generalmente, mucho mejor hechas), y cambiándoles el nombre, para que parezca que las han inventado ellos (como muestra un botón: los infames “gadgets”, que son el último S.O. del mercado, libre o no, que los implementa, y lo venden como que fueran los inventores).

I have encountered the problem more than once, and it is a bit annoying to say the least. Basically, when you build a path/arrow in Inkscape, it starts as a black curve by default. You can edit it to put a marker in either or both ends (Click on the curve, then Object->Fill and Stroke->Stroke Style), to make an arrow, for example.

Now, the problem is that if you change the color of the body of the arrow, the head will remain black, as documented, for example, in A Guide to Inkscape, by Tavmjong Bah. Not nice, uh? The solution is given in the same site, and consists on using a plugin. To do so, select: Effects->Modify Path->Color Markers to Match Stroke.

If you are a Debian user, you might encounter a problem: a window pops up saying The inkex.py module requires PyXML. This has been reported as a bug, and also happens for Ubuntu. The solution is to install the python-xml package, which is not always installed by default when you install Inkscape, it is just “suggested”. This means that when you install Inkscape (aptitude install inkscape), aptitude will tell you something like “The package python-xml is recommended, but it is not going to be installed”, and will go on happily. If (like me) you ignore the suggestion, you will not have the python-xml package installed, and some extensions, like the above, will not work (however this allows the users that do not want to use the plugins to have a lighter instalation, if they so wish).

There are two concepts that I find very interesting, and that apply to many situations, from everyday life to international politics. One concept applies to prisoners, and the other to Royalty, but their long arms reach much farther.

The “royal” concept is that of the Red Queen’s race, taken from Lewis Carrol’s Through the Looking-Glass (aka “Alice in Wonderland II”). This race is one in which runners must run the fastest they can to stay in place. To move, they’d have to run twice that fast.

The other concept is that of the prisoner’s dilemma. The dilemma is a game with the following rules (taken from Wikipedia):

Two suspects, A and B, are arrested by the police. The police have insufficient evidence for a conviction, and, having separated both prisoners, visit each of them to offer the same deal: if one testifies for the prosecution against the other and the other remains silent, the betrayer goes free and the silent accomplice receives the full 10-year sentence. If both stay silent, both prisoners are sentenced to only six months in jail for a minor charge. If each betrays the other, each receives a five-year sentence. Each prisoner must make the choice of whether to betray the other or to remain silent. However, neither prisoner knows for sure what choice the other prisoner will make. So this dilemma poses the question: How should the prisoners act?

The “ideal” solution would seem both to stay silent, but if you look closely, whatever the other player chooses, any single player is better off by betraying. So, any rational player should choose to betray, even though this leads to both betraying, and gives an overall lower payoff (higher punishment for both).

Now, for the third part of the title of this post… why should we care? Well, it seems to me that we can find all around us cases of Red Queen races caused by sub-optimal solutions to prisoner’s dilemmas. For example, it is quite apparent the rise in SUVs and all-terrain vehicle sales. People here in Europe seem to start following the silly North-American custom of buying the biggest vehicle available, regardless of usability and needs fulfilled. One of the pseudo-reasons given by sellers is that SUVs are safer. Why would that be? Well, because if a small car and a SUV crash head-on, the passengers of the latter are much more likely to be less hurt than the ones in the former. This sounds rational… but is utter crap. I don’t claim that people buy these vehicles for that reason, but it helps.

Now, let’s analize the scenario: it is true that in a SUV/small car crash, the SUV is better off. However, SUV/SUV crashes are worse for all passengers than small car/small car hits are. From that information, it is apparent that we are facing a prissoner’s dilemma (not counting the fact that SUV/wall hits are also worse). Buying a SUV would be betraying, and buying a small car cooperating. The buyer of a SUV hopes that all other players/buyers get small cars, so that her option gives her an edge over the others. However, if we all think the same, we’ll all buy SUVs, and then we will reach a betray/betray equilibrium, when a coop/coop equilibrium would be better for all. We’d be running a Red Queen race, only to end up in the same place: all with SUVs, instead of all with small cars… but all with equivalent vehicles (and actually worse, overall).

Another similar situation would be that of the arms race. We all know the story: two or more countries/factions increase their weaponry, not to be overwhelmed by the other country/faction, in a potential war. Now, no matter what country A does, country B will be better off stocking more weapons: if A stays unarmed, B can beat it. If A arms itself, B has to arm itself not to be beat. However, Both countries being armed (betray/betray) is immensely worse than both countries being unarmed (coop/coop). In both cases the war is deterred by the offensive/defensive equilibrium, but in the former the risk for a catastrophe is much higher.

We are fooled by governments and army leaders, assuring us that other countries will play the “betray” card (and arm themselves), so we should play it too. However, think of the fact that in their countries, the other citizens are told exactly the same about us by their government. An no-one seems to explain that the betray/betray solution is sub-optimal, and that coop/coop solutions could exist.

I have no solution for these issues… but, dear reader, maybe you could find it if you thought about it. Please, do.