Balandar

Due to Borg being called into work (from open to close Sunday) and Lora being unable to participate due to medical reasons, the joust will be moved to the 23rd.

As far as I know, that is the only place.

Dat gud! Me hab luts ub truble triun tu gruk wud lat furst blah. Me happi tu lern dat lat kan blah beddur nuw!! Agh welkum tu clan! Synth in the clan yet?

The database had some troubles today, however, it seems to be working now. Since I was at work, I was unable to 'hack' some scripts together to get something temporary up. In the future, if the database goes down, the website will still display (If I am online to change a few settings..). I basically cloned the forums and profiles on my system at home, but limited the access to read-only. So you will not be able to post/etc (since you would actually be posting on my server at home and I do not want to mess around with synchronizing the databases). Thehonorempire.net will make remote requests to the off-site database and display the information... sooo… at least it won’t spit out errors all day… (even though the display will be slow since my server at home is below average).

Here are some suggestions to get WoW to run on linux. http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=0...&tid=209&tid=98 Posts from slashdot.org. ------------------------------------------------------- Re:Been playing it on linux for almost a month... (Score:3, Informative) by Aadain2001 (684036) on Monday January 10, @06:01PM (#11315462) (http://www.adambrowning.com/blogger.html | Last Journal: Monday June 23, @07:07PM) Basic stuff you have to do to run Windows games under FC3: turn off prelinking (easy), turn on legacy VA memory layout (easy) and disable exec-shield (easy). The other changes were like using version 6111 of the nvidia drivers instead of 6629 (performance issues), enabling SBA and Fast Writes, etc, all to improve card performance (which benifits all games!). Also had to use openGL instead of D3D rendering in the game (adding -opengl switch to launcher) to increase FPS again. There is only really one bug with WoW under Cedega and openGL: you can't have the minimap open when you go into a building or dungeon. The screen goes blank when you do and you have to kill the game at the command line. You can bypass this by running the game in D3D, but then it runs slower. I choose to just remember to close my minimap before going into buildings or dungeons. ------------------------------------------------------- First, prelinking must be completely turned off. It's really not that hard to do and RedHat even tells you how to do it. I don't really know what legacy VA memory layout is, but I know you have to have it enabled no matter what CPU you have (I have a P4, not an AMD chip). Do some google searching on it and exec-shield if you what to know what they are. I do know that exec-shield is a kernel level protection from having data memory bein executed as instruction memory (if I remember correctly). It gets in the way of the Windows binary memory layout, so that's why it has to be turned off. Cedega is NOT an emulator, that is why these neet new protection schemes interfere with the games. Cedega is a mapper, so it uses the Linux OS to actually run the game and only maps the Windows API calls to equivalent Linux API calls (and D3D to openGL). That's why prelinking and exec-shield interfere with the games and must be turned off. -------------------------------------------------------

From: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news-print.cfm?release=2005-009 News: NASA Details Earthquake Effects on the Earth 1/10/05 NASA scientists using data from the Indonesian earthquake calculated it affected Earth's rotation, decreased the length of day, slightly changed the planet's shape, and shifted the North Pole by centimeters. The earthquake that created the huge tsunami also changed the Earth's rotation. Dr. Richard Gross of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and Dr. Benjamin Fong Chao, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., said all earthquakes have some affect on Earth's rotation. It's just they are usually barely noticeable. "Any worldly event that involves the movement of mass affects the Earth's rotation, from seasonal weather down to driving a car," Chao said. Gross and Chao have been routinely calculating earthquakes' effects in changing the Earth's rotation in both length-of- day as well as changes in Earth's gravitational field. They also study changes in polar motion that is shifting the North Pole. The "mean North pole" was shifted by about 2.5 centimeters (1 inch) in the direction of 145 degrees East Longitude. This shift east is continuing a long-term seismic trend identified in previous studies. They also found the earthquake decreased the length of day by 2.68 microseconds. Physically this is like a spinning skater drawing arms closer to the body resulting in a faster spin. The quake also affected the Earth's shape. They found Earth's oblateness (flattening on the top and bulging at the equator) decreased by a small amount. It decreased about one part in 10 billion, continuing the trend of earthquakes making Earth less oblate. To make a comparison about the mass that was shifted as a result of the earthquake, and how it affected the Earth, Chao compares it to the great Three-Gorge reservoir of China. If filled, the gorge would hold 40 cubic kilometers (10 trillion gallons) of water. That shift of mass would increase the length of day by only 0.06 microseconds and make the Earth only very slightly more round in the middle and flat on the top. It would shift the pole position by about two centimeters (0.8 inch). The researchers concluded the Sumatra earthquake caused a length of day change too small to detect, but it can be calculated. It also caused an oblateness change barely detectable, and a pole shift large enough to be possibly identified. They hope to detect the length of day signal and pole shift when Earth rotation data from ground based and space-borne position sensors are reviewed. The researchers used data from the Harvard University Centroid Moment Tensor database that catalogs large earthquakes. The data is calculated in a set of formulas, and the results are reported and updated on a NASA Web site. The massive earthquake off the west coast of Indonesia on December 26, 2004, registered a magnitude of nine on the new "moment" scale (modified Richter scale) that indicates the size of earthquakes. It was the fourth largest earthquake in one hundred years and largest since the 1964 Prince William Sound, Alaska earthquake. The devastating mega thrust earthquake occurred as a result of the India and Burma plates coming together. It was caused by the release of stresses that developed as the India plate slid beneath the overriding Burma plate. The fault dislocation, or earthquake, consisted of a downward sliding of one plate relative to the overlying plate. The net effect was a slightly more compact Earth. The India plate began its descent into the mantle at the Sunda trench that lies west of the earthquake's epicenter. For information and images on the Web, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/lookingat...esia_quake.html . For details on the Sumatra, Indonesia Earthquake, visit the USGS Internet site: http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/bulletin/neic_slav_ts.html . For information about NASA and agency programs Web, visit: http://www.nasa.gov . JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

When you start using "Dabu!" in emails to co-workers, you really do get some strange looks.

Story location: http://www.wired.com/news/games/0,2101,66225,00.html 02:00 AM Jan. 11, 2005 PT After a recent three-day binge of playing the Japanese cult hit video game Katamari Damacy, Los Angeles artist Kozy Kitchens discovered that walking away from the game was not as easy as putting down her joystick. In the game, players push around what amounts to a giant tape ball, attempting to make the ball bigger by picking up any and all objects in its path. Kitchens found that her urge to keep picking things up was not so easy to shake. "I was driving down Venice Boulevard," recalled her husband, Dan Kitchens, "and Kozy reached over and grabbed the steering wheel and for a moment was trying to yank it to the right.... (Then) she let go, but kept staring out her window, and then looked back at me kind of stunned and said, 'Sorry. I thought we could pick up that mailbox we just passed.'" While motorists and pedestrians shouldn't worry too much about rogue Katamari Damacy players, Kozy Kitchens' experience with having a difficult time separating her real-life consciousness from that of her game playing is all too common among hard-core gamers. It's so common, in fact, that game publishers might want to consider warning their customers that they may soon be unable to tell the difference between the game and reality. "The weird thing was that last night in my half-sleep, half-awake haze, I thought I was playing Katamari Damacy, too, and I kept trying to roll Kozy up in my ball," said Dan Kitchens. "I think I got this just from watching Kozy play the game for hours." Frequent gamer Alfred Weisberg-Roberts said he often feels lingering effects after playing games like Animal Crossing, in which the point is to collect as many animals and bugs as possible from a wide variety of locations. "Once, my girlfriend happened upon a tree ... kind of like the round, thin trees in the game, and began to shake it -- one in-game way of receiving money, goods and bees," Weisberg-Roberts said. "When nothing fell from its branches, I think she quickly realized how this must have looked to the other hundred or so people in the park." Chris Taylor, a staff writer at Time magazine and a regular game reviewer, said he thinks driving games and first-person shooters are particularly likely to make players lose track of reality. "I just knew the first time I played Burnout 2, the crash part, that I probably shouldn't get behind the wheel of a car for an hour or so afterwards," Taylor said, "because you're expending so much effort on deliberately trying to make your car crash." Taylor also said that after reviewing Quake III he had trouble getting his mind out of the game. "I'd play it, then walk out into the office corridor and realize I was looking at my co-workers as potential targets," said Taylor. "I was so used to killing anything that moved." Any addictive game can have a similar effect: The more someone plays, the more likely they are to stay mentally inside even afterward. And immersive games like Electronic Arts' The Sims are frequently to blame, given the countless hours players put into them. "When I played (it) a lot," said Laura Martin, a devotee of the game, "I remember thinking, 'What percent of my bladder is full?' to decide if it was time to head to the bathroom." To Robin Hunicke, a Ph.D. student at Northwestern University who studies video games, it's no surprise that people can have trouble distancing themselves from the games they play. "Games are about verbs -- the things you do," Hunicke said. "The verbs are the things that you tend to focus on in a gameplay session. Good games focus that attention in a way that feels really satisfying.... So there you are, in your game world, doing your verbs, learning them, practicing and combining them in new ways. And if you do that long enough, there is a residue. Some stuff kind of sticks.... So later, after you put down that controller, you're walking around your apartment, or going to the store in your car ... and suddenly you do something similar, something that trips an 'opportunism' wire in your brain." And Hunicke said that at that point, people conjure up the enjoyable experiences they've had. "Maybe I should access that experience," she said. "Maybe there's some way to connect them and repeat -- or avoid -- the experience I had before." The phenomenon of having difficulty defining reality after hours in front of the screen isn't at all limited to games. Martin reported similar experiences after four days on an intensive Photoshop project. "By the time I turned the project in, I was so sleep-deprived and delusional," she said, "that everywhere I looked I had the impulse to correct things, to move the world around in layers." And Lisa Hoffman, a graphic designer who spends endless hours using various software packages, lamented finding it hard to determine where her computer ends and real life begins. "I've been using the computer for so long, and command-Z works for undo in all the software programs," Hoffman said. "So whenever I find something in my life that I want to undo, I reach for the command-Z keys and I find it weird that it doesn't work."

Snippet: "Eurogamer: Conversely, you've also worked hard to accommodate and appease players who take to the game in the way it was intended, even going so far as to extend the trial period for people who were unable to connect when you endured early technical issues. What sort of events and incentives will you be introducing to keep the hardcore of players happy as they play it more and more? Shane Dabiri: Our plans for continued content release will give casual and hardcore gamers alike more and exciting adventures to go on. For example, the coming introduction of the PvP honour system and Battlegrounds will open up many possibilities for players to experience another part of World of Warcraft. Next year, we will also be working on the Hero system, which will give hardcore high-level players additional class advancement options beyond their base class. These are just two examples of full game systems that are being implemented. Aside from the new features, we will also be adding new content such as zones, dungeons, quests, monsters, and many more items for players to discover." Read more at http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=57531

Mine should be up and running currently (haven't turned that linux box off in about 6 months). I think you have the login information. Perhaps a "members only" forum (password protected) is in order to post the details. MOTD in game can have the forum password.

I'll have to try the armor on/off trick tonight and see how my level 50 warrior reacts to that, probably with mobs my level. As to the loot, when I killed felwood wolves last night, none of them dropped anything other than what I would expect a wolf to drop. I did not get swords/etc. However, if one did drop a large plate chest piece (blue would be nice)... I would wonder how the wolf could have swallowed it whole from the previous owner..

I still have mine setup on my linux server at home wolf. What is your connection speed, that is the only thing that you need to worry about... that and opening the correct ports/etc.

Yup, great piece of software. I have been using it since the first or second week when I ran out of icon spots for my skills. The side bars are a great help.

The MPAA was going after bittorrent sites... anyway, with the other sites going down, they would have to support a ton of new members.

rofl. Orc in teamspeak? That would not be an easy feat since almost all orcish sounds like plain english with horrible spelling involved. "Me lyk dat" sounds very close to "Me like that". You could say Dabu if you wanted....

Welkum tu clan!

Hardly ever use it anymore, except for guild leader chat. I will most likely start using the hordecraft council one. I don't know if there are any teamspeak servers for the general masses.

http://www.mutablerealms.com/

Not sure, the same thing happens to me with the hordecraft channel.

Screenshots added to the albums: General, People, and Hrode vs. Alliance.