Tuesday, March 26, 2002

JKII on Sale Next Week -- 4:54 pm CST, Update by J.t.Qbe

A little bird told me that Jedi Knight II will be on sale at Best Buy next week for $39.99. If you're planning on grabbing it (ahem, A.T.), you can probably save some cashola if you wait till Sunday. Unfortunately, Might & Magic IX won't be on sale. Guess I'll have to wait another week.

Threewave 1.5 Info -- 11:42 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

155&Rising has a new editorial on the CBDTPA, Doom 3, SoF II, and most importantly the Threewave 1.5 mod for Quake III Arena. I really like Threewave and the new additions only make it better. It will include a bunch of cool new graphics affects, some brilliant team communication features, and a deathmatch mode that uses CCTF runes and the grapple. Playing CCTF gives me flashbacks of playing Q1 CTF with Skip, Crawl, The Master, and Eeyore for ridiculously long periods of time. Ahhh, memories.

Big Week -- 9:55 am CST, Update by J.t.Qbe

Lots of new games are being released this week; I'm looking forward to Might & Magic IX on Friday. Well, I'll wait for reviews and for Best Buy to put it on sale first.

While gamers are waiting for their new toys, lots of people where I work are waiting for the swinging axe of layoffs. A few weeks ago they called for volunteers, and the rest will be volunteered. I hear that announcements will be on Thursday, and Last Day will be Friday. They will pay 30 days in lieu of advance notice, and then "hope" that employees will come back to help with the transition. As Bugs Bunny would say, Har har, har dee HAR har! Give me a day's notice and I'll give you a day for transition. Well, my boss says that I'm safe, but whose job is really safe in this economy? I mean, besides A.T.'s?

A.T. Hun comments: Heh, there are some advantages to my line of work :) Of course the economy really isn't that bad. I think companies are taking advantage of it to bury some bodies, as it were.

BTW, I believe the exact quote is, "Har har, HAR dee, har HAR!"

J.t.Qbe comments: No, you're thinking of a different quote. "Har har, har dee HAR har" has been part of my life for the last 30 years, and I know how it goes. Pathetic.

You're right: the IT job market is actually improving, at least in some areas. Western/central Michigan has more jobs posted on the job boards than I've seen in a while. Our company is an old-time mainframe maker and we still have some very old-time mainframers among us. The volunteer call is a chance for them to retire. We also have a little bit of deadwood, and that won't be too big a loss. But the cuts are going to be bigger--some guess 15%. If I have to find another job, I can do it--maybe not easily, maybe not in Michigan, but somewhere. If all else fails, I could come back to my fallback career (oops, Mrs. Qbe told me not to mention that to you, lest you get overexcited).

The Master comments: Here, boys, let me help you out with that Bugs quote (help came from here).

J.t.Qbe comments: Cool site, but that isn't the particular quote I had in mind. . .

J.t.Qbe comments: *UPDATE* I just heard from my boss that my job is safe from this round of cuts. That's a big relief--and good motivation to get ready for the next round. . .

Monday, March 25, 2002

New USB Hub -- 10:09 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I ended up going down to EZ-Net today and flinging some cash at them for a USB hub. Now I can keep all my devices (mouse, Visor, joystick) attached at all times. I have to laugh how Windows 98 likes to throw up everytime I install something with USB. As if Win98 throwing up about anything is a big surprise.

One of these days I'm going to get a USB scanner that will actually work in Linux so I can dump my parallel port one. It works OK in Windows, but my printer doesn't like playing with it.

JKII:JO Linux Server -- 9:46 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Raven has released a Linux dedicated server binary for Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast which should be hitting stores at the end of this week. You can snag it from Blue's News.

Sadly, a quick email to Raven's Kenn Hoekstra reveals that Raven currently has no plans for a Linux client. Drat.

UPDATE! Sigh. I just read the comments on Blue's page regarding the Linux server. The very first poster basically demanded a Linux client and told them to shove the server. That's the sort of crap that gives Linux users a bad name. It makes me mad when Kenn was very quick in responding to my email, only to have someone else dump on them from a great height. Grow up, folks. And if you can't grow up, at least shut up.

Past Two Days' News

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