Tuesday, May 9, 2000

New Fear and Loathing -- 7:29 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Our own Wraith has sent in his latest Fear and Loathing on the Internet column which you can find here. A word of caution, Wraith deals with some controversial topics here, which are bound to stir up some strong emotions whether you agree or disagree with him. Just a reminder, flames are always cheerfully accepted at /dev/null.

Inoxx UT Map Pack Released -- 7:13 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Epic's Cedric "Inoxx" Fiorentino has released his much-anticipated Inoxx Map Pack for Unreal Tournament. You can get it from GameCenter or the mirrors that are FilePlanet. Thanks Voodoo Extreme.

Obi-Wan Screenies -- 5:06 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

GamersZone has scored even more screenshots from LucasArts' upcoming first/third-person shooter, Episode I: Obi-Wan. The only problem I noticed with these shots is that some of the destroyer droid models seem to be missing parts. Not sure if that's a problem with the screenshots, resizing the screenshots, or the game itself. Thanks Blue.

id .plan Updates -- 1:52 pm CST, Update by The Master

John Carmack updated his .plan with word of the Quake 1/Quakeworld Tools sourcecode release under GPL:

And the Q1 utilities are now also available under the GPL in source/q1tools_gpl.tgz.

.In addition, Graeme Devine updated his .plan with word of a final patch to correct problems with mod compilation on Macintoshes:

Just finished a final MacQuake3 fix for Q3F and other mods. It should be up and around soon (it needs the latest point release to run). If any other mods had compile issues on the Mac, then this patch should fix it as well.

Bill Gates whines some more -- 12:04 pm CST, Update by The Master

Okay, first-be sure your sitting down, and have a strong stomach. Then go read this article by Bill Gates whining about how it's bad to break up Microsoft.

I have never read such a pile of qwrap in my life. He's so obviously grasping at straws my 1-year-old could see it. Get a spine Bill. It is not the end of the world if M$ is broken up. Your "Applications M$" will still own 90+% of the office suite seats. The Operating System M$ will still dominate the Intel OS landscape. They will still both produce products that people will buy. And if the breakup forces you to compete, all the better. Maybe Exchange will lose a couple MB of memory requirements and Windows will be more stable. And maybe every time I edit news in IE I can depend on it NOT Blue Screening on me.

Or maybe you'll crawl back in your crib and cry like the baby you're emulating. Gimme a break. . .

J.t.Qbe comments: Don't you like how whiny Bill equates Microsoft with innovation and goodness? I don't think so. He really pulled out all the stops with this one, didn't he? So sorry, Bill: public opinion isn't going to decide the case. It'll be a judge who doesn't believe your lies.

Speaking of which, Bill claimed that M$ invented the toolbar. No way. If M$ HAD invented the toolbar, it'd be patented by now and no one else could use it without paying a heap o' cash. Check out The Microsoft Hall of Innovation for earlier (much earlier) examples of toolbars. Bill is full of qrap. Here's a guide to translating Bill Gates: "innovation" = "stealing"; "good of the consumer" = "I want more money"; "competition" = "we want to crush everyone else".

RDRAM vs. SDRAM -- 11:51 am CST, Update by The Master

For the mega-techy in the crowd, check out this article over on HardwareCentral on RDRAM versus SDRAM. Good read if you can handle the drops into techno-speak.

New MW4 Screenshots -- 11:44 am CST, Update by The Master

There are some new screenshots of MechWarrior 4 over on GameSpy. That Atlas looking over a burning city makes me wanna buy this sucker RIGHT NOW.

History today -- 8:47 am CST, Update by The Master

• 1502: Christopher Columbus leaves Spain on his fourth and final trip to the Western Hemisphere.
• 1754: The famous "Join or Die" cartoon depicting the 13 American colonies as a snake is run in Benjamin Franklin's "Pennsylvania Gazette".
• 1915: The Battle of Artois during World War I begins. When it ends on May 27, 216,000 men are killed or wounded.
• 1926: Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett are the first men to fly over the North Pole.
• 1936: Italy annexes Abyssinia (now Ethiopia).
• 1945: Germany's Field Marshal Keitel signed final surrender documents at the end of World War II; the German garrison in the Channel Islands surrenders.
• 1974: House Judiciary Committee opens hearings on whether to recommend President Nixon for impeachment.
• 1994: South Africa's parliment selects Nelson Mandela to be the first black President of South Africa.

Monday, May 8, 2000

Q1/QW .qc Source Release -- 8:33 pm CST, Update by The Master

John Carmack updated his .plan with word of the Quake 1/Quakeworld .qc (QuakeC) source code release under GPL. QC is the programming environment used to script Quake 1 and Quakeworld mods.

The .qc files for quake1/quakeworld are now available under the GPL in source/qw-qc.tar.gz on out ftp site. This was an oversight on my part in the original release.

Thanks to the QuakeForge team for doing the grunt work of the preparation.

John Cash Leaves id! -- 6:53 pm CST, Update by The Master

According to Graeme Devine's .plan update, John Cash has left id to work for Blizzard. Here's the scoop:

John Cash departed from id last Friday to a new position at Blizzard. I'll let him fill you in on what he's doing there, but we miss his CTF skills already! We wish John all the best, and id looks forward to the forthcoming Diablo II beta copies..

More Micro$oft Antics -- 11:32 am CST, Update by J.t.Qbe

From the you-gotta-see-it-to-believe-it department: AltaVista reports that Bill Gates has written an essay for this week's Time magazine stating that if Micro$oft is broken up as the DOJ has requested, new viruses like ILOVEYOU would be harder to protect against. Huh? Since when has M$ cared about viruses attacking users? M$ throws security out the window (no pun intended) and collects the money; if you get viruses because of its security holes, tough luck. This does shows Bill's true talent, though: using any possible means to further his own plans and purposes.

In other M$ news, M$ has offered more weak concessions in return for not being broken up. Reports are that M$ will supposedly "offer computer makers more flexibility to alter Windows software and make available versions of Windows that do not provide access to the browser." Can you say, "Too little, too late?" I thought you could.

Report on the New TFC Netcode -- 8:25 am CST, Update by The Master

There's a blurb up on HalfLifeCEntral indicating that the New TFC 1.5 Netcode kicks butt. For those hardcode HL people, this is very good news.

My ping dropped around 30 or 40 points. Though my ping was around 200, it felt as if it was a 90 ping. That was incredible. This will mean that even higher near 300 pings will feel extremely smooth. Now this isn't to say that every net connection will now feel like a LAN. But lag now manifests itself in different ways. The delay isn't on your mouse click > gun shot, instead there's a slight delay with your shot registering / hitting your opponent. This works out much better. With a towering ping, I was still successfully sniping (which would be unheard of with the current netcode).

LOVEBUG Writers Going Down -- 8:20 am CST, Update by The Master

According to Yahoo! News, the people connected with the release of the ILOVEYOU virus are soon to be in custody.

What's funny is M$ has made it SOOO easy to write viruses nowadays, people can write very simple code, attach it to an email, and guarentee that they'll be attacked with global multi-billion dollar lawsuits for loss of business and damage to private property. My advice to virus writers? Don't. It's not worth being caught over.

New mIRC Released -- 8:14 am CST, Update by The Master

For those who use the ever-popular mIRC, there is a new version over on the mIRC homepage that is supposed to fix AKB (All Known Bugs) and add several new features.

Wolfie Sequel Screenshots -- 8:13 am CST, Update by The Master

There are several screenshots over on The Adrenaline Vault of the sequel to Wolfenstein 3-D. The unnamed title is under development at Gray Matter Interactive using the Quake 3 engine.

A.T. Hun comments: I don't think it's unnamed. The title is "Return to Castle Wolfenstein," AFAIK.

History today -- 8:11 am CST, Update by The Master

• 1846: First major battle of the Mexican War fought in Texas. US Forces under General Zachary Taylor are victorious.
• 1886: Atlanta pharmacist John Pemberton invents the flavoring syrup that he calls Coca-Cola.
• 1942: The Battle of the Coral Sea ends when the US Pacific Fleet manages to turn back the Japanese invasion fleet from New Guinea.
• 1944: The first eye bank is established.
• 1945: President Harry Truman announces the victory in Europe over the Germans. V-E day.
• 1973: American Indians who had been holding the South Dakota hamlet of Wounded Knee surrender after 10 weeks.
• 1984: The Soviet Union announces that it will boycott the the Los Angeles Summer Olympic Games.
• 1996: Former Nazi SS Captain Erich Priebke went on trial for involvement in the killing of 335 men and boys in the worst WW II atrocity committed in Italy.

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