Saturday, May 6, 2000

Half-Life Announcements -- 2:05 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

As you may have noticed on other gaming sites, Valve has issued a number of press releases recently about forthcoming updates and additions to Half-Life. That's all fine and good, but they seem to be donning their prophets hats. All of these announcements are saying that this is going to be released sometime in the future. I can see why a company would want to do this with a new product, but I don't understand the onslaught of press releases for patches to an existing product.

Don't get me wrong, it all seems very cool. But tell me when it actually is out, not weeks and weeks in advance. OK, I feel better now.

Gonna Meet My Hero -- 12:32 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Today, I'm finally going to get a chance to meet my hero, Number 9, Mr. Hockey himself, THE Red Wing, Gordie Howe. He's going to be at the U.S. National Junior 'A' hockey championship tonight and I've got tickets. I'm going to have him sign my copy of his autobiography, And Howe!, and hopefully my #9 Red Wings jersey too. As if that weren't enough, the Green Bay Gamblers are going to be playing for the national title!

Game Servers Down -- 11:28 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Due to circumstances beyond my control, the EZ-Net game servers are all down and will be for the foreseeable future. That is why I have removed the Game Servers link on the nav bar. Sorry for any inconvenience. If the situation changes at all, you'll hear about it here first.

History Today -- 12:41 am CST, Update by The Master

• 1861: Arkansas seceeds from the Union.
• 1889: Paris Exposition opens with it's Eiffel Tower-the tallest man-made structure at the time.
• 1935: The Works Progress Administration (WPA) begins operations-this is one of the programs enplaced by FDR to generate jobs during the Great Depression.
• 1937: The German zepplin Hindenburg catches fire and explodes over Lakehurst, NJ, killing 35 of it's 97 passengers and a Navy crewman on the ground.
• 1942: American surrender of Corregidor. 15,000 American and Filipino soldiers are captured.
• 1954: Roger Bannister conquers the 4-minute mile with a time of 3:594.

Graeme Devine .plan Update -- 12:26 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

id's Graeme Devine updated his .plan with some news of OS support in the forthcoming Quake III: Team Arena.

The mission pack CD will actually have builds for Mac, Linux and Win32. We'll see if we can stick some OS/X action in there as well.

Friday, May 5, 2000

Solar Systems are Cool -- 10:19 pm CST, Update by The Master

Hey, today is a big day! All seven classical solar system bodies span their smallest geocentric arc in ecliptic longitude -- 25° 53' -- at 8:08 UT on May 5. Cool. Wanna learn more? Check out this article on the Griffith Observatory website.

New I LOVE YOU Variants -- 12:48 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Since the I LOVE YOU virus/worm was written in VB script, some people are modifying it to create their own versions of the virus, which will likely spread as fast as the original. A ZDNet columnist is calling for everyone to stop using Microsoft Outlook since its lack of security is what leads to things like this and Melissa. Here's a snip from the ZDNet article:

I'm on record as saying that Outlook is a security hole that also happens to be an e-mail client. If this mess doesn't convince of you of that, I don't know what I can do. Just like Melissa, ILOVEYOU only transmits itself to others if you're running Outlook. If it weren't for the fundamental flaws of Outlook having minimal security and its too-close integration with Windows, we wouldn't have a Melissa or an ILOVEYOU at all.

Now, a Microsoft security spokesperson is saying that while Microsoft is working closely with antivirus companies, it doesn't have any plans to issue a patch or security warning. Thanks guys, good of you to pick up the ball like that.

I have to laugh at some of the comments underneath this article. Some have the audacity to say that it is because stupid users read email attachments that the problem occurs. Umm, hello? Why should a mail reader give ANY incoming script immediate and total control of the whole system? That's a security hole big enough to drive Bill Gates' wallet through! In the name of making things slightly easier for users, they have made all their systems far more vulnerable. I'm getting really irritated about this whole thing. Maybe all the lawyers that will be unleashed on M$ after the antitrust trial will get them to wake up . . . but I doubt it. Thanks Stomped.

Starlancer Review -- 11:23 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

The Firing Squad has a review of Starlancer the latest space sim from the Digital Anvil and the Roberts brothers--the founders of the Wing Commander series of games. It sounds like if you liked the first two Wing Commanders, you'll like Starlancer. I can't wait to check out the demo.

RA3 Screenshots -- 9:39 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

The official Rocket Arena 3 (for Quake III Arena) website is now operational. No word on when the mod will be ready to download, but there are some pretty sweet screenshots of the new levels.

Speaking of RA, I wonder when RA:UT is going to be released again?

History today -- 8:43 am CST, Update by The Master

• 1821: Napoleon Bonaparte died in exile on the island of St. Helena.
• 1891: Carnegie Music Hall opening night.
• 1925: John T. Scopes was arrested in Tennessee for teaching the theory of Evolution.
• 1942: Japanese forces land on the island of Corregidor in the Philippines.
• 1955: West Germany becomes a soverign state.
• 1961: Astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. become's America's first man in space, with a 15 minute suborbital flight abord NASA Mercury program capsule Freedom 7.
• 1980: Seige of the Iranian Embassy in London is ended by British SAS commandos and police.
• 1982: id Software releases Wolfenstein 3D, the game that created the First-Person shooter genre.

Q3A v1.17 Mac Released -- 8:07 am CST, Update by The Master

Robert Duffy updated his .plan with info on the Q3A version 1.17 update for Macintoshes:

I've updated the Macintosh 1.17 point release. Two things happened with it.

1. The installer seemed to expire between when I started it ( about a week ago, been running since ) and when I built the Mac install. Some people had issues running it getting an unregistered installation. I'm not sure why everyone did not see the problem ( it worked fine on several Mac's here ;-) In any event, we re-registered it and anyone who had those problems should not see them anymore.

2. There was a frame rate drop on Macintoshes, again only on a percentage of them which has been addressed.

In other news, new game source for 1.17 should be out sometime this weekend, and I am hoping to get the tool source out at the same time.

Q3: Team Arena Announced -- 12:20 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

id has officially announced the mission pack for Quake III Arena to be called Quake III: Team Arena. I'm sure that there will be information and screenshots galore about this at next week's E3. You can read the full press release at the Shugashack.

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).