Saturday, July 22, 2000

RA3 Screenshots -- 12:19 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

If you just can't wait for the mod to be released tomorrow, there are a bunch of new screenshots of the Rocket Arena 3 mod for Quake III Arena posted at the official RA3 site. I know that I can't wait for it to be released. Thanks, um, everybody.

Bleh -- 12:04 pm CST, Update by The Master

Wow-I managed to get back online again. It's been a long week folks-if you are REALLY wondering why you haven't see me online or updating here much lately, I've been tied up in two huge projects at work that have been eating major time, plus my current Deus Ex addition is also a mitigating factor :-)

One tip for all you sysadmins in the crowd: setting up Microsoft VPN is NOT as simple as it seems. Especially if your network isn't dynamically allocated via DHCP. Ye Gods but I put in a lot of time arguing with Windows to get Exchange and terminal emulation working over VPN. Bleech. Next time I'm not volunteering for the nightime death march-I'd rather light myself on fire than argue with Microsoft VPN ever again.

Friday, July 21, 2000

Deus Ex Demo Add-On Released -- 8:34 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Oops! Someone at Eidos accidentally put the Deus Ex demo add-on on their FTP server before Daily Radar posted it. It has since been pulled from Eidos' server, but not it time to keep mirror sites from springing up. You can get the add-on (32.7M) from 3D Gamers, 3D Downloads, and Gameaholic. Expect Daily Radar to have a hissy fit :) Remember, you need the full 140M demo to play this add-on. Thanks Frans.

Deus Ex Demo Add-On -- 2:40 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

In the "OK, now this makes sense category", yesterday Daily Radar announced that they would be releasing a new 32M Deus Ex demo today. Blue's News received clarification from ION Storm that this will not be a new demo but an add-on to the old one.

Several of you have seen and posted about the 32mb Deus Ex demo that Daily Radar will be releasing today. The information that Daily Radar posted on their site was incorrect. What they will be posting today is in fact a 32mb demo add-on, not a complete demo. The new add-on will add a second mission to the demo allowing gamers to play both Missions 1 & 2 of the game, and WILL require the previous 140mb demo. If you could inform your readers of this, we would greatly appreciate it.

Of course, this brings the total demo weight up to 162M *) In case you are wondering why you never see The Master at night any more, it's because he bought Deus Ex. We may never hear from him again.

The Master comments: Hehehe-and a dang fun game it is too :-) I'm STILL getting my butt kicked by mission 2, so that's a real nice release by Eidos. BTW: My wife adds that she misses me too.

A.T. Hun comments: OK, so I'm not a math major. The grand total for the demo plus add-on is 172M, not 162. Sigh.

Visor Patch Released -- 1:37 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Well, so much for Handspring not being able to update the Visor's OS :) Today, Handspring released Handspring Updater V1.0.0 for Visor, Visor Solo, and Visor Deluxe. Here's a list of the changes:

1. Calculator Launch Fix - This fix prevents unexpected launches of the Calculator when touching the Visor screen close to the Calculator launcher icon.
2. Serial Modem Fix- This fix corrects an issue where a Visor may have difficulty performing a HotSync operation using a serial cradle when a modem Springboard module is installed.
3. 8MB DRAM Memory Fix (if necessary)- This fix corrects an issue where a limited number of Visor Deluxe handhelds manufactured between January and May, 2000 can experience a "fatal error" as a result of a faulty DRAM memory chip. This fix is only installed on affected Visor Deluxe handhelds; the version info window will now display "Palm OS Software v3.1H3M". Depending on individual usage patterns there may be an impact on battery life.

I'm going to try to get a clarification on that last sentence in #3. I want to know what "patterns" will affect battery life. Thanks Visor Central.

UPDATE! Someone on Visor Central's discussion boards pointed me to this thread on Deja.com which attempts to calculate the additional battery drain. Unfortunately there are two different ways that Palm/Handspring/TRG/etc. could have gotten around this problem and none of them are talking.

More on Web Standards -- 1:26 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Ars Technica linked to this editorial asking the musical question, "Why can't we have a platform-independent web?" Here's part of his conclusion:

The point of this essay is not to discourage the use of IE, though that would be a nice turn of events. Rather, its point is to encourage those who develop Web sites to ensure that their sites work on multiple browsers and multiple operating systems before announcing them to the world. I go to great lengths to ensure that my sites work on browsers that I would never in a trillion years use myself. Can't you, dear reader, do the same?

One thing that I've made a big deal of on The Haus is platform and browser independence. This site looks pretty much the same under Win32 and Linux using IE, Netscape 4.x, or Mozilla. One of these days, I intend on downloading Opera to make sure we look OK in that too. I would like to be able to check it more often on a Mac, but I only have occasional access to one.

What REALLY ticks me off is M$ FrontPage. It creates messy, superfluous, and downright broken code. Nine times out of ten when someone's page will not display properly in Netscape is because they failed to close a TD, TR, or TABLE tag. I even saw some code that added those closing tags with the comment that they were there so the page would display in Netscape. Hello? Granted, Netscape 4.x should deal with that error better, but closing those tags IS part of the HTML standard. It's not that tough, folks.

Be a Game Developer -- 12:58 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Brian Hook posted his thoughts on what it takes to be a successful game developer on Voodoo Extreme. And no, the phrase "I can't leave without my buddy Superfly" is not used in the article.

WaSP Blasts Netscape -- 12:55 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Slashdot brings word that the Web Standards Project (WaSP) posted an open letter to Netscape, blasting them for taking so long to release a standards-compliant browser. Here's a snip:

How can standards advocates continue to point to your example while criticizing other browser makers? How can we demand that Microsoft "do what Netscape is doing," when, from a business perspective, "what Netscape is doing" is bleeding market share while failing to ship product? We appreciate the sacrifice you've made, but the loss of time and market share are not likely to inspire your competitors to emulate your actions.

A valid point. M$ doesn't like playing by the rules anyway. Why should they if no one is forcing them to? I'm as big a Netscape supporter as there is, but if it weren't for the fact that IE causes my computer to lock up when I have the unmitigated gall to, say, view a webpage, I would have dumped Navigator 4.x some time ago. C'mon Mozilla . . .

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