Wednesday, February 16, 2000

More Sweeney -- 9:28 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Epic's Tim Sweeney has updated the Unreal Technology page with more info on their Playstation 2 development, restating their dedication to PC development, and cool Unreal Tournament-based stuff coming down the pipe soon.

Q&A on DoS Attacks -- 9:23 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Slashdot has submitted a list of questions to security expert Dave Dittrich regarding the recent Denial of Service attacks against several websites and what can be done to battle them. Here are his answers. An excellent primer in DoS attacks, as opposed to the crap that CNN, Fox, and other "news" organizations have been spreading.

Q3Radiant manual release -- 5:42 pm CST, Update by The Master

Paul Jaquays updated his .plan with news on the release of the Q3Radiant manual. Q3Radiant is the map editor for Q3A. The manual is targeted for version 192 of the editor, which should be released soon. Some links for the manual:

Q3Radiant Manual (HTML version) on id ftp site
Q3Radiant Manual (MSWord version) on id ftp site

Mirrors:

Q3Radiant Manual (HTML version) on quake3arena.com
Q3Radiant Manual (MsWord version) on quake3arena.com

Update 8:05 pm CST by A.T. Hun: Jaquays updated his .plan again with the following information on the MS Word version of the manual:

Several astute mappers have let me know about a formatting error in the MSWord version of the editor manual. The graphic for the shader manual on page 56 overlays the text. If you've downloaded this already and you know your way around Word, it's an easy fix. Select the graphic and edit the word wrap to wrap above and below the picture. The file has been corrected and is now live on the id ftp site. It will be live on the Quake3arena site by tomorrow morning.

Webmasters: if you've mirrored these downloads on your own site, you may want to grab the revised zip or edit the word file yourself.

Linux 2.4 Kernel Goodies -- 12:15 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

The folks over at LinuxNewbie.org have posted a summary of the changes in the forthcoming Linux 2.4 kernel which will be of major interest to the average desktop user. Here's a snip:

"I've been using ISA PnP for ages though..." you may say. Well yes, you may have, but in 2.4 ISA PnP will be integrated into the kernel itself, which will prevent the need for external configurations, and modules, and will pave the way for automagic detection and configuration of your cards. No more need for pnpdump, or cat /proc/interrupts. Sound good?

This alone gets a great big "hallelujah!" from me!

Modem Troubles -- 11:05 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I have a Zoom 2919 internal modem (56K, v90, non-WinModem) that has been a source of, ahem, difficulty since I got it. With the latest firmware, I have had no problems connecting to my ISP. Now, every so often, it will just freeze up. It won't drop the connection. It won't retrain. But it also won't respond to a ping. All my Internet apps act as if the connection is still there. If I hang up and try to reconnect, it will reconnect, but it won't receive or transfer anything. Generally I have to power down my computer for a bit to get it to respond again.

If anyone has any ideas, please let me know. Don't bother to tell me "get broadband!" There is no cable modem access, DSL, or even ISDN available where I live--and there won't be for the forseeable future.

The Master comments: In Wisconsin, there's a "broadband dead zone" that pretty much centers on Green Bay and radiates outward to Marinette to the north and Appleton to the south. This is the land of the 56k internet connect. It doesn't look like it'll be improving soon, either . . .

Update! Are all modem tech support guys trained to say one thing, "It is not a modem problem. It is a problem with your ISP."? I think you could tell them that the modem spontaneously burst into flames, immolating your entire family, and they will tell you that your ISP is misconfigured.

J.t.Qbe comments: When I worked PC tech support (get 'em off me...get 'em OFF me...AAARGH!) we learned that AOL "tech support" people were given 8 minutes to get callers off the phone. If they didn't resolve problems within that time, they declared the modem to be faulty and told callers to request a new one. Honestly.

New Hun-Speak: A.T.'s Top Five -- 10:07 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Now that I've been running Linux for the past couple of weeks, I thought I'd put down some of my first impressions. I have two "Top Five" lists: Top Five Reasons I like Linux Better than Windows 98, and Top Five Reasons I like Windows 98 Better than Linux. I think it's a good read for anyone contemplating the jump to Linux. Check it out right here!

Please send me any comments. Flames may be directed, as always, to /dev/null.

Tuesday, February 15, 2000

More Monolith -- 7:19 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Jason Hall updated his .plan (hey, Jase, it would have been nice for you to update it a time or two when we were having troubles with Shogo!) with word of another transmutation of LithTech 2 for massively multiplayer stuff which is so popular with people with too much time on their hands. Here's a snip:

Anyhow, I don't think I need to point out how significant this is this time.

But nevertheless, he spends the next six paragraphs pointing out how significant this is. I guess I now know where all the money they didn't spend on Shogo/Blood 2 went. Expect Tim Sweeney to make a firecracker of an update to the Unreal Technology page soon.

Point-Counter Point -- 1:38 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I forgot to post this yesterday. Doh! Epic's Tim Sweeney and Monolith's Jason Hall seem to be getting into a "Jane, you ignorant slut"-type discussion over whose engine is generally studlier on the PlayStation 2. Check out Sweeney's massive update on the Unreal Technology page and Hall's press release / .plan update.

The Master comments: Wow. Sweeney TOTALLY laid out Monolith in his post. And ya know what? Monolith deserves it :-) Marketing doesn't impress me. Make a game, and SUPPORT it dang it. Epic has done this. So has id. Monolith? Monolith?

And for anyone who hasn't noticed: this may be the first time somebody explicitly wrote out everything behind their licensing model. Pretty neat to see somebody present their terms for a game engine source drop. Quarter of a mil. Wow.

A.T. Hun comments: Yep, Monolith has always talked the talk. But the walking the walk part, well, that's not been so great. Check out my Requiem for Shogo for my take on that particular experience.

NHL 2000 Roster Update -- 1:28 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

EA Sports has released another roster update for NHL 2000. You can download it from EA's FTP server (299K). Thanks Voodoo Extreme for the link.

Half-Life Patch Released -- 1:09 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Valve has released the 1.0.1.6 patch for their mega-super-ultra-smash hit Half-Life. Check out the patch downloads page at HalfLife.net for the list of patches for the various versions in the various languages.

Interviews -- 9:51 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Mean Arena has posted an interview with id's Christian "Disruptor" Antkow about the trials and travails of being a map designer. Loonygames has an interview up with Epic's Brandon "GreenMarine" Reinhart about his work on Unreal Tournament and especially on the forthcoming Playstation 2 version of the same.

Past Two Days' News

The Haus is powered by:

All original information on this website is copyright © TheHaus.Net, 1999-2005. The use of original images, text, and/or code from this website without expressed written consent is prohibited. The authors of this site cannot be held responsible for any damage, real or imagined, which comes from the use of information presented on this site. All trademarks used are the properties of their respective owners. This site is not to be used as a floatation device (but if you try, I want a video tape of it).