Tuesday, November 28, 2000

LucasArts Interview -- 8:44 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Gamecenter posted part one of their interview with Simon Jeffery, the president of LucasArts. It covers where the company is, where it is going, and what the heck happened with Obi-Wan. Part two will be posted tomorrow. This is one of the best articles I've ever seen on Gamecenter. There's a lot there on only two pages (That's right! No two paragraph-per-page to really push the ads hits here!) Thanks Blue.

Q3:TA Server Browser Problem -- 4:57 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I tried to play the Quake III: Team Arena demo online today, but the in-game server browser kept saying that it found -1 servers. id's Christian Antkow replied to my post on the Quake 3 World forums about it, saying that it is a known issue and they are looking into it. I hope it starts working again, I'd really like to bash some :)

UPDATE! I just tried it again and everything is working fine. Go figure.

UPDATE #2! id CEO Todd Hollenshead added his two cents to the thread:

We believe that this specific "-1 Servers" thing is indeed a master server issue and have confirmed it as a known problem. It's an intermittent thing, however, and just appears to randomly come and go. There one minute and fine 5 minutes later. If you get this problem, you can still connect to any server in your "saved" list, you just will get "-1" servers if you try and get a new list. You can still just connect through entering the IP directly, of course. And you can always just try again in a few moments.

Not bad, three id employees responded to this thread!

UPDATE #3! Apparently Graeme Devine broke it.

Hun-Speak: Election Catharsis -- 1:55 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I promised I wouldn't say anything else about the election here in the U.S., but I just can't take it anymore. To releasee the pressure before I blow up, I decided to write a Hun-Speak column entitled Election Catharsis. As the end of my article indicates, I do indeed feel better now.

M$: Naked PCs = Illegal? -- 11:05 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

The Register managed to save some pages on the Microsoft website before they were (coincidentally, no doubt) removed as their court case is heating up again. Basically it was a thinly veiled threat against PC manufacturers selling "naked" (with no operating system) PCs to customers. This passage troubles me no end, but sadly doesn't surprise me:

Warn customers that acquiring the PC "naked" and subsequently pirating the software is never a good option. Explain the risks: technical troubles, upgrade problems, viruses and the law. Politely decline to expose your buyers or their businesses to such troubles.

Point out the benefits of a legally licensed, preinstalled operating system. Customers have the original CD so they can reload the software. They also have a manual for everyday troubleshooting, and a Certificate of Authenticity that proves the software is legal. In short, protect your customer and your good name. Sell your PCs fully equipped with legally licensed operating systems preinstalled. Otherwise, who knows what you're leaving your customers - and yourself - open to?

So basically, if your customer wants to buy a computer without an OS, they are automatically going to pirate M$'s OS. They wouldn't run Linux or anything, would they? The last paragraph includes a blatant lie because most OEMs don't give out CDs due to M$'s "restructuring" of the way their OEM OSs are distributed (once again, because you are all a bunch of pirates). The threat at the end is particularly disturbing. Aren't they basically hinting that selling PCs naked could result in M$ suing them? Thanks Linux Today.

Monday, November 27, 2000

NFL Week #13 Final -- 11:26 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Eeyore had another superb week with a 10-5 record. Sadly for her, she will not be victorious over me two weeks in a row because I did one better at 11-4. That brings my year-to-date record to 121-67 (.643) while Eeyore is 98-75 (.566). Next week's games look to be some doozies. We'll have to have our picks done early again since my Lions will be traveling to the land of 10,000 lakes to play the Vikings on Thursday.

Q3:TA Second Look -- 11:25 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I played the Quake III: Team Arena demo online last night using my new graphics settings mentioned in my Q3:TA Tweaks article. We were just playing standard CTF, but it seemed fast-paced and fun. The server slowed down a bit when a bunch of people jumped on, but basically it worked pretty well. I still get some slowdowns in the central area of the map, but it is tolerable.

FPS Issues in Q3:TA Fixed? -- 9:46 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

id's Robert Duffy made a post on the Quake 3 World forums stating that the framerate slowdowns in Quake III: Team Arena have been fixed. Here's the word:

At this point I think we have the FPS issue resolved, a couple of things were going on. With everything turned on, TA may run a few FPS slower but it should not be significant. In many cases it is now running as fast or faster with Q3A maps.

We are going to do some more testing and tweaking this evening and tomorrow but the final point release and retail TA should not see these issues.

Unfortunately, he doesn't specify what was causing the slowdowns. I guess when they release a new patch or whatever I'll be able to see for myself. Thanks Shugashack.

Past Two Days' News

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