Saturday, June 17, 2000

MySQL and PHP -- 8:30 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

The O'Reilly Network has an article on the MySQL database and PHP scripting, showing how they are the perfect database and scripting combo for websites. Yes, we at The Haus are a little biased. MySQL and PHP power our news (and, soon, a whole lot more). Find out if these two are right for you. Thanks Linux Today.

History today -- 12:58 pm CST, Update by The Master

Little late today. PERC controller didn't like our new 9gb Ultra-SCSI drives. . .

• 1775: The Battle of Bunker Hill took place near Boston.
• 1856: The Republican Party opened its first convention in Philadelphia.
• 1885: The Statue of Liberty arrived in New York City aboard the French ship Isere.
• 1925: 29 countries signed the Geneva Protocol which prohibited the use of poisonous gases in war.
• 1928: Amelia Earhart embarked on a trans-Atlantic flight from Newfoundland to Wales - the first by a woman.
• 1940: France asked Germany for terms of surrender.
• 1945: American soldiers on Okinawa found the body of the Japanese commander, Lieutenant General Mitsuru Ushijima, who had committed suicide.
• 1946: The first mobile telephone commercial service was inaugurated in St. Louis, with the installation of telephones in two automobiles.
• 1971: The United States signed a treaty with Japan under which it would give up control of the island of Okinawa.
• 1972: Five burglars are arrested inside Democratic national headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C.
• 1986: President Reagan announced the retirement of Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Earl Burger.

Whither UT:RA? -- 11:32 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I was perusing Gamecenter's list of the top 10 Unreal Tournament mods and I got thinking. Where's Rocket Arena? It wasn't on Gamecenter's list. The UT:RA page hasn't been updated in many moons. Granted, GreenMarine is in the process of moving since he joined 3DRealms to work on Duke Forever. Was he the only one working on it? Did these bugs REALLY need two months to fix? I suppose it just shows you that mod making is fraught with danger, even if you have pros on your team.

I also had to comment on Gamecenter's rip on all the Unreal-related sites at the beginning of their article. Good thing Gamecenter was there to pick up the ball for all of us poor schleps who couldn't survive without them.

Friday, June 16, 2000

Bleh -- 11:27 pm CST, Update by The Master

Well, I'll be away from the machine tomorrow, since I get to spend the morning, and possibly the afternoon, upgrading our database server at work. We're adding a half-gig of memory and a bunch of 9gb SCSI RAID1'ed drives to spruce that bad-boy up, along with a UnixWare 7.1 upgrade.

You know, it's amazing. When I work on personal PCs I think of 128mb of memory and 16gb of HD as plenty. When I'm at work I wanna max that machine right to it's theoretical limit. Course, there I have to listen to people complain that the reports aren't running fast enough . . .

J.t.Qbe comments: Heh, you get those complaints too? Gotta love 'em. You thought they were late today, just wait'll tomorrow!

Microsoft Buying Spree? -- 11:21 pm CST, Update by The Master

According to Gamespy, Bungie is to be aquired by Microsoft, with most of Bungie's properties going to Take Two, and the upcoming Halo left to Bungie & MS. The other rumor is that Microsoft is looking to buy Midway to solidify their XBOX plans.

Must be nice to be Microsoft. Want to follow a new strategic direction? Buy an a$$104d of companies and force it to happen. Man.

Thanks Blue.

Exile III for Linux Demo! -- 10:33 pm CST, Update by J.t.Qbe

Since everyone's hawking demos, I'd better fall in line. Spiderweb Software has released the Linux demo of Exile III, the third (duh) in its amazingly popular Exile series of RPGs. Exile is the most popular RPG series for Macs. I played Exile II for Windows and it was a lot of fun. No, it doesn't have flashy 3D graphics or real-time strateqrap action. Instead it has an actual plot, open-ended action, a living and changing world, and lots of classic RPG action. And at a whopping 4.5 megs, you can actually download it within your lifetime. Get the demo here. For all you Windows weasels, get the Win95 demo here.

This is quality stuff. If you like plot and complexity blended with a lot of fun, Spiderweb makes the games for you.

StarLancer Demo Out! -- 10:16 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Daily Radar posted their exclusive demo of Digital Anvil's StarLancer, the space sim from the folks who brought you the Wing Commander series. It weighs in at 74M so you'll probably need a case or two of Twinkies to tide you over.

The Master comments: Nahhh, you only need one Twinkie. According to Eeyore they last all year...

J.t.Qbe comments: Naah, skip the Twinkies and go for a case of A.T.'s barleywine. You won't CARE how long the download's taking. . .

Deus Ex Demo! -- 8:52 pm CST, Update by The Master

The highly anticipated Deus Ex Demo has been released over on Gamecenter. According to GC, the demo weighs in at an astronomical 139mb, so pack a lunch, dinner, several snacks, and a half-barrel, it's gonna be a LONG download folks.

Mirrors: 3D Action Gamers | Telefragged | FileLeech | Stomped | OneBigVillage

System Recommendation:
Minimum: 300-MHz Pentium II, 64MB of RAM, and a DirectX 7.0a-compliant 3D card.
Recommended: Athlon or Pentium III-based system with 128MB RAM.

Levelord Denies FAKK2 II -- 1:12 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Ritual's Levelord updated his .plan to deny the recent rumor that they are already designing a follow-up to Heavy Metal: FAKK2. Here's the whole thing:

...not sure if this is due to internet grapevine gossip, a true misunderstanding, or just a reporter trying to "make" news, ...but we are NOT "already designing the sequel" to FAKK! Stop sending emails! I think we'll see if the first FAKK is worthy of a sequel first, yes? ... ;)

Interview with Rantz Hoseley -- 12:59 pm CST, Update by The Master

Updated: There's a "preview" of Master of Orion 3 over on SciFi Gaming. There isn't a WHOLE lot of new info, but what the heck :-)

In addition, there's an interview with Rantz Hoseley, Art Directory of Quicksilver Software.

Quicksilver is the production house working on Master of Orion 3. If you are interested in MOO3, be sure to check it these articles out.

Pondering the Imponderable -- 11:23 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Congratulations go out to my favorite current Red Wings player, Stevie Yzerman, who won the Selke trophy last night for being the NHL's best defensive forward. It's nice to see Stevie, a great center who has always lived in the shadow of two of the league's all-time greatest players (a couple fellows named Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky), finally getting his due as one of the premier players in NHL history.

Congratulations also go to Detroit's Brendan Shanahan and Nick Lindstrom who joined Yzerman on the NHL's first-team post-season All Star team. Sadly Nick was robbed again of both the Norris (best defensemen) and Lady Byng (gentlemanly play) trophies. Next year . . .

Q3:TA First Look -- 10:23 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

The folks at id went to see the folks at Gamespy. The result is this first look at Quake 3: Team Arena. There's nothing really in this article that we haven't heard before, but it does give a nice summary of everything to expect. You'd also think that the editor at Gamespy would know that "I and Hellchick" is a no-no but, hey. Thanks Blue.

New Q3A Requiem Beta pb2 Released -- 9:16 am CST, Update by The Master

There's a new Public Beta #2 of Q3A Requiem over on the Requiem page. Most of the changes are bug fixes, which is a nice indication of an upcoming final release:

• Requiem would sometimes think you'd shot the max # of freezebombs when you hadn't.
• Weapon pickup sound and autoswitch in weaponstay mode weren't reliably working
• You used to be able to spawn a hologram of yourself while spectating others
• The forced-spectator mode and associated joining/spectating others wasn't reliably working.
• Tournament mode wasn't working at all.
• 0.7 didn't work AT ALL on a Macintosh (qvm compilation errors). I have a workaround for this in the code, but am working with ID on a real solution.
• After max freezebombs have been fired, you'll autoswitch weapons as if you were out of ammo.

History today -- 12:15 am CST, Update by The Master

• 1567: Mary, Queen of Scots, was imprisoned in Lochleven Castle in Scotland.
• 1858: In a speech in Springfield, Ill., Senate candidate Abraham Lincoln said the slavery issue had to be resolved, declaring, "A house divided against itself cannot stand."
• 1897, The U.S. signed a treaty of annexation with Hawaii.
• 1903: Ford Motor Company was incorporated.
• 1933: The National Industrial Recovery Act became law. (It was later struck down by the Supreme Court.)
• 1955: Pope Pius XII excommunicated Argentine President Juan Domingo Peron - a ban that was lifted eight years later.
• 1958: Imre Nagy, a former Hungarian premier and symbol of the nation’s 1956 uprising against Soviet rule, was hanged for treason by his country’s Communist authorities.
• 1960: Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" opened in New York.
• 1961: Soviet ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev defected to the West while his troupe was in Paris.
• 1963: The world's first female space traveler, Valentina Tereshkova, was launched into orbit by the Soviet Union aboard Vostok 6.
• 1977: Leonid Ilich Brezhnev, first secretary of the Soviet Communist Party since 1964, was elected president of the Supreme Soviet, thereby becoming both head of state and head of government
• 1978: President Carter and Panamanian leader Omar Torrijos exchanged the instruments of ratification for the Panama Canal treaties.

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