THURSDAY, JULY 29, 1999
* Starcraft is broke... (11:20 AM, EST)
Well I did a reinstall of 98 yesterday and now Starcraft is broke, even if I fire up the frontend (ON THE CD) and click 'Play Starcraft' it says the CD is not in the drive.... Sigh... After reading every FAQ, and checking my whole system I am clueless....  *SIGH*

* Carmack Fixes
* log all client transitions, item pickups, and kills
* changed joystick axis to act just like arrow keys so they can be bound in the controls menu for strafing.
Yes, this does remove slow walking from joystick movement, but it makes everything a lot cleaner.
* fix up PantherXL trackball support
* removed bad clear command from dedicated console clear button
* tournement queuing of spectators to enter the game
* track wins and losses as long as you stay on a tourney server
* spectators are now in fly mode instead of noclip, and use teleporters
* pass serverTime instead of msec for command timing, prevents timescale cheating
* track dual eventParms on player state
* draw crosshair and name in spectator mode
* fixed rcon
* r_colorMipLevels texture visualization tool
* don't allow weapon select and cycle when in follow mode
* archive cl_yawspeed and cl_pitchspeed
* don't draw place line on scoreboard when spectating
* fixed console chatting during intermission
* better recursive error handling
* fixed curve surface flags (no impact when landing on a curve bug)

* Kingpin Betas
No more links from here folks, the word from Ridah:

"Please do not link, mirror or post new release announcements for the files on this page. Updates are likely to occur on a regular (daily) basis, announcing new releases will no doubt prove to be overkill. Thank you for your co-operation."

So bookmark this url for future releases:  http://impact.frag.com/ridah/kptest/

* Tribes 1.7 (Final?)
Tim Gift's .plan:
Put a few fixes into the current patch (should end up version 1.7); the elevator bugs (displacing deployables through floors, and player warping). No more flying through ceilings with vehicles, a few other misc. things. JohnA fixed a number of bug's in the scripts, and the palette problem should addressed (DaveM). The release notes will have the full list.

We'll hand a version to QA this afternoon so they can start testing. I hope this wraps up my TRIBES 1 work for a while. With the vacation, catching up on all the emails and the patch fixes, I haven't been doing much on TRIBES 2 work for over a month.

* LCDAT - Linux Compressed Digital Audio Transport
Frickin cool.... I got spare parts..

The LCDAT is a project I began in February 1998 that aims to be a complete digital audio solution for a home audio system. Currently the player supports MP3 and CD-Audio. Note this is not a commercial project, but if you want to build one yourself you can use the information and software on these pages. The entire project is under the GNU GPL license, from the Perl source to the design of the case. (external programs withstanding)

The player utilizes Linux 2.0.36 for its operating system kernel. The player software is written in modular Perl 5. This modularity makes it trivial to add support for new hardware or software. Support for new audio formats or hardware can be added by simply creating a new Perl module.

Go have a look:  http://www.public.iastate.edu/~jmesterh/lcdat/

* More K7 (Athlon) Raves
James Monroe of Raven updated his .plan with another rave review:

I am testing it out on a wonderful new K7-600 AMD was kind enough to send us. Man this thing rocks! I'll get some meaningful timings if anyone cares. But i assure you it flies!

q3test 1.07, on the k7-600, voodoo3 3K agp graphics mode normal: (640 x 480)
q3testdemo1
1653 frames, 33.5 seconds: 49.3 fps

q3testdemo2
1528 frames, 23.9 seconds: 63.9 fps

graphics mode fast:
q3testdemo1
1653 frames, 26.8 seconds: 61.8 fps

q3testdemo2
1528 frames, 21.0 seconds: 72.7 fps

* ReGet 1.5 Beta Build 416
More releases of d/l manager numero uno.   http://www.reget.com/beta/

* NextSTART 2.0 Beta 6
And another release of the START button improver:  http://members.xoom.com/WinSTEP2000/

* Homebot: What I'll Be Saving Money Up For
Fadz had this first, but I found it in my daily browsing all by meself and was sooo interested... Rine and I are slobs...

A domestic robot, or "homebot," to deal with those tiresome tasks such as vacuuming and clearing dishes is on sale by mail order for just under $800 in the United States, New Scientist magazine said Wednesday.

Heehhehe, I want one... http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2304051,00.html

* Netcaptor. One Badass Browser...
A few features.. Browses multiple pages at once using tabs for each, popup killer, multiple search engine searches and well... it's cool ;) It's like neoplanet in that is is sort of a IE shell, but that's ok, a Netscape version is on the way... :)

Many of you have asked whether we have a version of NetCaptor that works with Netscape.
The answer is a resounding... SOON!

http://www.netcaptor.com

* #144 Old dog. Still ugly.
Remeber that girl who was ugly in highschool? Well she is probably still ugly... :)

* Link Of The Day
Starcraft.org Where I've been spending MUCH time.
 
 
WEDNEDAY, JULY 28, 1999
* Starcraft Luck (11:55 PM, EST)
Well I finally got online and played some Starcraft, and I played 2 games. My record is 2-0 :)

Game 1, the creator lagged out and the other enemy quit, so I joined the other guys team and won. Game 2 my partner owned them and I picked up the scraps... Sigh, well at least my Battle.net record looks good... :

After reading an article for ex-Warcraft 2 players (dat's me) it told of the common mistakes WC2 players make in Starcraft... Heeheee, they all described me ;)

* Q3A On Dreamcast???
Gamers' Republic: Are you aware of the network capabilities that the Sega Dreamcast has to offer? Any chance of ever seeing a Dreamcast version of Q3A?

John Carmack: Our situation with Sega has been really weird. Way back when the DC was still code-named Katana, they came down and they talked with us when it was originally all 3dfx based and it sounded pretty cool, and we were talking about it in early development because of the networking aspect, which I am a big proponent of. But then they switched over to the PowerV  technology and there was a little bit of a heated debate over a few things and Sega just kind of disappeared.

I've played (well tried to) Quake1/2 on console games and it's so hard to control your player with a controller... No mouse = dead. You can't freelook, Rocket Jumping is soooo hard and you can't bind keys. The thought of helpless Dreamcasters online getting slaughtered by folks with PCs gives me wood :)

Read the whole thing:  http://www.seganet.com/news/072799d.html

* Kingpin Patches
The current versions are:

Win9x: v1.14 btea
Linux: v1.14 build 052 beta

Get some here:  http://impact.frag.com/ridah/kptest/

* MP3 Summit Online
I like the idea of being able to see what I missed without leaving my comfy chair... ahhh laziness.. :)

MP3.com's 1999 MP3 Summit lives on in cyberspace. Those who missed the opportunity to attend the conference this summer can now access an 11-part archived version of the Summit's complete webcast through ClickHear at http://www.clickhear.com/mp3s ummit.html

To read what you'll be seeing there:   http://www.mp3.com/news/302.html

And in related news:

* Ubermachine Tunes...
Doof Mars Needs Women 6025K [trance]
Doof Star above Parvatti 6324K [trance]
Hallucinogen Spiritual Anticeptic 8248K [psy]
Man with No Name Vavoom! 6746K [trance]
Miranda Gnocchi 8720K [trance]
Northcore French SF Flares 7943K [trance]
Pleaidians Electra 7988K [trance]
Technossomy Electron Bender (Samsari Live mix) 8948K [trance]
Technossomy Porcupine 7635K [trance]
Third Eye Dance of Creation 8905K [trance]
Get yo fix:  Ubermachine

* Microsoft is right, for once
Funny how M$ is now siding with the open-source movement when it benefits them.....

AOL has declared that it has people monitoring Microsoft and will continue to take active measures to block Microsoft out of Instant Messenger's patch of cyberspace.

Microft has fired back by declaring itself for open messaging standards, and attempting to organize an industry consortium to pressure AOL into conforming
to the published IM protocols.

Read the hypocracy:  http://linuxtoday.com/stories/8134.html

* Return Of Bobby D Humor

"If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not
bite you. This is the principle difference between a dog and a man."

KIDS ADVICE TO KIDS
********************
"Never trust a dog to watch your food." Patrick, age 10

"When your dad is mad and asks you, 'Do I look stupid?' don't
answer."  Hannah, 9

"Never tell your mom her diet's not working. " Michael, 14

"Stay away from prunes. " Randy, 9

"Never pee on an electric fence. " Robert, 13

"Don't squat with your spurs on. " Noronha, 13

"Don't pull dad's finger when he tells you to. " Emily, 10

"When your mom is mad at your dad, don't let her brush your hair. " Taylia,11
 

Eight year old Johnny came into the house for dinner after playing outside
all afternoon. His parents asked him what he did all day. He said that he played baseball, and then he proposed to Becky (age 7) then next door  neighbor. They are going to get married.

His parents thought this was cute, and they didn't want to make fun of Johnny, so they asked him, "How are you and Becky going to pay for the expenses of being married?" He replied, "Well, with the one dollar I get each week from you and the  dollar she gets from her Mom and Dad, we should do O.K."

His father smiled, "That's fine, but how will you pay the extra expenses if you and Becky have a baby?" Johnny looked at him and said, "Well, so far, we've been lucky..."

* #143 Just cause you can drive a car, that dosen't mean you can fly a plane
If only I could control my Starcraft troops first person like in Quake... I'd be great... :/

* Link Of The Day
CGI-Resources.com A good place to make your site look like you know CGI. Not that I'd know about that...