Sunday, July 9, 2000

KISS: Psycho Circus gold -- 10:29 pm CST, Update by The Master

This totally surprises me-Third Law, the folks who escaped Ion and John Romero's Diakatana have released their first game, KISS: Psycho Circus. Amazing, a new startup, with a completely different game engine than they were used to, have cranked out a game from ground up in a fourth the time Romero has. I am stunned :-)

8M Palm Problem? Blame Micron. -- 7:16 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

According to this ZDNet-Asia article the company behind the bad 8M DRAM chips on PalmOS-based computers is *drum roll* Micron!

Palm informed users of the availability of the test and patch last week when component supplier Micron Technology Inc. reported faulty 8MB DRAM controllers on the Palm IIIc, IIIxe and Palm Vx models shipped between October 1999 and May 2000.

According to messages I've read on Usenet, the problem isn't with one lot of the chips, it's a fundamental design flaw. I've also read that people have successfully convinced Palm and Handspring to replace their devices. I'm going to wait and see the effects of the patch (apparently it just involves forcing the DRAM to use a different kind of refresh cycle when the device is off). If the patch adversely affects performance or battery life, Handspring's going to get a call from me.

NVIDIA .94 Linux Drivers -- 5:16 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

NVIDIA has released tarballs of their new .94 XFree86 4 Linux drivers through their support IRC channel. Expect RPMs to show up on their site tomorrow. Here's a list of the changes:

• Add support for XFree86 4.0.1
• Fix modesetting problem
• Add AGPGART support (nvagpgart v. 0.5-5)
• Add GeForce2 MX support
• fixed various hangs
• Added FSAA support
• fixed problem where an opengl app dying during a console switch would kill the X Server

You can get the GLX driver for XFree86 4.0.0 here, the GLX driver for XFree86 4.0.1 here, and the kernel module here. Personally, I'm going to wait for the RPMs. Thanks Linux Games.

Saturday, July 8, 2000

Bleh -- 10:54 pm CST, Update by The Master

Blew two hours today updating the drivers for my Creative Graphics Blaster RIVA TNT, and it SUCKED. Hardcore. I finally had to delete my monitor config before I could get the new detonators to come up in any resolution other than 640x480. Now, I'm running at a crappy 60 refresh. Need to find a video config for my Pack Bell monitor. Blech blech blech . . .

Update! I spent a chunk of time looking for a monitor .inf file for my Packard Bell PB8517MG monitor-turns out that PB is no longer operating (they're part of NEC now) and their FTP is dead. I found what I needed on the Canadian Pack Bell site. After two hours of searching. What a pain. . .

A.T. Hun comments: Which is why I always use HzTool to set the refresh rates. Win9x's monitor definition setup leaves a lot to be desired. With HzTool I can just set it, save it, and not worry about it.

PalmOS Emulator and SDK -- 10:42 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

After jumping through several dozen hoops, I managed to download and install the Handspring SDK and PalmOS emulator. Pretty cool stuff. The toughest part was downloading the ROM from my Visor, but I eventually figured it out. After getting the emulator running I fired up the To-Do list and made myself a note :)


Now to make some cool apps for this clever little device. Any app ideas? Email them to me!

The Master comments: You might be able to right now, but I wouldn't get too attached to that to-do :-)

Upgrading to XFree 4.0.1? -- 9:25 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I've seen that XFree86 4.0.1 binaries are starting to show up for various Linux distributions (I know Mandrake and Red Hat both have them available). If you are thinking about upgrading, you might want to check out this review of XFree86 4.0.1 on the Duke of URL. If you are using NVIDIA's new drivers, you'll have to wait until .94 is officially released before upgrading to 4.0.1. Apparently .93 and earlier won't work with it. Thanks Linux Today.

Elite Force Demo Review -- 11:43 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Thresh's Firing Squad has posted a review of the Star Trek: Elite Force demo from Raven for those of us who are still trying to download this monster or haven't been able to yet due to fear of excessive current. They include this warning about downloading from FilePlanet:

The exe we downloaded from them last night had CRC errors - this was a problem experienced by two other folks at Gamers/FiringSquad as well. The file we snagged off of Cdrom.com actually worked.

I don't know about you, but I'm really excited about these new Q3A-engine games that are coming out. We should be seeing some amazing stuff soon. Thanks Voodoo Extreme.

MOO3 Interview -- 11:39 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Gamecenter has slapped up an interview with Quicksilver's Alan Emrich, one of the folks working on Masters of Orion 3. The talk about gameplay, combat, and exactly what the heck MOO3 is anyway. Thanks Blue.

We're Still Here! -- 11:17 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

We had some terrible thunderstorms come through this area last night and they are supposed to keep coming through all day. Good too see there wasn't a lightning bolt with The Haus' name on it. If you don't hear much from The Master or me today, it's because we're trying to keep our computers from becoming lightning rods.

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