Friday, August 11, 2000

Heavy Metal: FAKK2 Demo -- 11:12 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Ritual's Mark Dochtermann updated his .plan with news of the impending release of the demo for Heavy Metal: FAKK2. Here's a snip:

The demo has been uploaded to Gigex and should be on their site by Midnight CST. We will be releasing a patch for the entire game early next week. The demo consists of:

4 different levels
3 different Julie Skins
8 different weapons
5 different monsters

Grab the demo, you won't be sorry.

I'm pretty interested in checking it out. I'll have to see if I can get through tonight.

The Carmack, Part II -- 10:28 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Gamecenter has posted the second part of their interview with id's John Carmack. This half deals with online gaming with consoles and the "death" of PC gaming.

Random News -- 10:18 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Our very own J sent in some news blurbs he read in the August 1 issue of Games Business magazine:

• 3dfx Interactive has reported a lower-than-expected revenue for the Q2 2001 fiscal year. They blaim these financial woes on a component supplier who failed to deliver a large amount of promised goods.
• Intel has officially named the successor to their PIII processor. The chip code-named as Willamette will now be called the Pentium 4 when released in the second half of the year. The chip, based on Intel's first new CPU architecture in five years, will feature a 400MHz front-side bus. The P4 will initially be released at 1.4GHz or higher, and will most likely be stepped up in 100MHz increments due to the 400MHz front-side bus.
• Guillemot's Hercules line is expanding with the introdcution of two new cards based on NVIDIA's GeForce2 MX processor. The 3D ProphetII MX will sell for $149 and the 3D ProphetII MX Dual-Display will debut at $199 when both cards are introduced this month.

I'm surprised I haven't seen MX-based cards out already. Hopefully that will be remedied soon.

Intel Dumping RAMBUS? -- 10:15 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

In the hot-and-juicy,-but-I'm-not-so-sure-it's-true department, Cahners Electronics Group is reporting that they have received documents indicating that Intel will dump RAMBUS for the mainstream PC market. Here's a quote:

Intel's Desktop 2001 Roadmap Update indicates direct Rambus DRAM (RDRAM) will only be used in the high-end desk-top market. Until last month, Intel had promised that RDRAM would be the exclusive memory for the Pentium 4 (P4). Now an undefined SDRAM memory (probably PC133 or DDR) will be used in its place.

While this isn't surprising given the problems plaguing RAMBUS, it is surprising in that it is a major turnaround in Intel's strategy. If it is true, it is welcome news. Thanks Slashdot.

Tell ASUS Where to Go -- 9:54 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

ASUS put up a discussion forum for their new see-through drivers for their GeForce-based cards. I strongly urge everyone to go their site and tell them how you feel. Be civil, but make your point. Thanks Blue.

UPDATE! ASUS's Taiwan server, which is normally abysmally slow, is even worse now. The .asp script they are using for the poll is crashing, presumably from too many votes.

Thursday, August 10, 2000

Will The Real Qbe Please Stand Up? -- 10:24 pm CST, Update by J.t.Qbe

A friend sent me an email today and asked if I'd copywrited the name "Qbe." Of course not. Too bad--it seems that the venerable name has been taken for the name of a new computer-like device called "The Qbe". You can take a look at http://www.qbenet.com. Hmmm, maybe they'll send me one for free as compensation for seeing my name commercialized.

The Master comments: Please stand up, please stand up, please stand up *shrick*

Spinal Tap Rerelease! -- 9:32 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I saw this on T.V. the other day, but someone at Slashdot got a link to the official announcement that Spinal Tap is going to be rereleased on VHS and DVD. All kinds of extra goodies will be added. Spinal Tap is one of my all-time favorite movies. My favorite part is the two-word review of their album Shark Sandwich. Time to sharpen my credit card!

J.t.Qbe comments: "Stonehenge: where the demons dwell, where the banshees live and they do live well. . ." I think my favorite Spinal Tap album is "Intravenous de Milo". "But this one goes to 11." (J.t. has random Spinal Tap flashbacks)

Deus Ex special report -- 9:16 pm CST, Update by The Master

IGN's RPG Vault has an article entitled "Deus Ex Special Report," which is a "behind the scenes making of" interview with several team members from Ion Storm Austin, including Warren Spector.

As soon as I can actaully get ahead a bit, I intend to do a review of DX for The Haus. Unfortunately, I'm currently stuck in the fourth mission and need to work my way though it. Up side is I'm getting a lot of enjoyment out of the plot twists in the game. If you don't have it, get it. Five stars so far :-)

Daikatana map pack released -- 9:05 pm CST, Update by The Master

The promised Diakatana map pack has been released, containing 11 new multiplayer maps. It weighs in at a wopping 17.8 MB, so for those who actually like DK, go nuts.

A.T. Hun comments: YES! Even more frogs and mosquitos!

IIS security? Sure. When pigs fly. -- 8:54 am CST, Update by The Master

Okay, I know there are people out there foolish enough to be using IIS on Windows NT for their web server. Here's a tip. REMOVE any ISAPI filters for the .htr, .htw, and .idc extensions from your servers. NOW. Why? Hackers like being able to download anything from your server anytime they like. And guess what? These three extension processors let them do just that. And it ignores your security settings too! Gotta love IIS.

Get your geekcode -- 8:52 am CST, Update by The Master

For those who are geeky, check out the geek code, an online method of categorizing your geekiness. I had done this for myself a while ago, and it's worth a chuckle. Pretty sure I still have mine up on my homepage. Thanks UF for the reminder.

Past Two Days' News

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