Sunday, July 28, 2002

New Licq 1.2.0a -- 9:44 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Version 1.2.0a of my favorite ICQ clone for Linux, Licq, has been released. There are scads of bug fixes, preliminary support for the latest ICQ protocol (aka Oscar), and KDE3 support. Cool stuff. Check it out.

We're Not in Kansas Anymore . . . -- 8:06 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I just got a phone call from J.t.Qbe. He's going to be offline for a while. His house was damaged by a nearby tornado, relocating his roof to the front yard. Literally one minute before the twister hit, they went downstairs with their boys. Otherwise they all would have been upstairs at the time. Naturally, there was some wind and water damage to their possessions, but everyone is fine. As he put it, "Thank heavens for renter's insurance." Some guardian angels are turning in their resignations today methinks.

The Master comments: Thank heavens they're still alive. I'd say maybe the guardian angels did just fine, but I bet they need major relief now.

Saturday, July 27, 2002

Fun with Klez -- 11:14 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I've had the "pleasure" of dealing with some friends who have gotten Klez-infected emails with my personal address spoofed in the "From:" field. For some reason, all the emails seem to be originating from Mexico someplace as far as I can tell. Thankfully, my use of Linux makes me immune to Klez. Unfortunately, it can't make me immune to dealing with it.

A Month of Mozilla -- 9:04 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

eWeek columnist Timothy Dyck took Mozilla for a spin for 32 days and liked it enough that he won't switch back to Internet Explorer. The two features he mentioned in particular are the ones most people (including yours truly) fall in love with: tabbed browsing and pop-up/under blocking. Thanks MozillaZine.

A new Mozilla 1.1 beta feature that I really like is the ability to block the downloading of images for mail and newsgroups. The only thing worse than getting spam is waiting for spam images to download. *wretch*

The Master comments: I just want my mail browser to have a checkbox labeled "send spammer H-bomb via priority mail". Now THAT'S a feature >:)

Pondering the Imponderable -- 10:47 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I spent a good chunk of last night finishing off the first chapter of Neverwinter Nights. I must have played myself out because I don't have an overwhelming urge to play today. My Druid had some problems with the chapter's "boss" character and his minions, especially since I couldn't hit one of them with my "lowly" +1 scimitar. I lost about 1/2 of my gold and way too much experience just respawning. I don't think there's anything I could have done to make it easier, unfortunately. I'm also going to have to mess around with the "wild shape" skill to see which form would be most effective.

UPDATE! OK, here's a table I came up with. These are the wild shape stat changes for my level 6 druid with the NWN 1.21 patch:

Stat	Badger	Boar	Wolf & Panther	Bear	Normal
HP	88/78	88/78	70/60	70/60	48/48
AC	18	17	20	17	18
Str	16	20	16	22	14
Dex	16	16	22	16	13
Con	22	22	16	16	13
Attack Bonus	+7	+9	+7	+10	+7
Damage	1-2 +3	1-3 +5	1-3 +3	1-3 +6	1-6 +2

There are no changes to intelligence, wisdom, or charisma so I didn't include those stats. I combined the wolf and panther forms because they are exactly the same. The hit point numbers show the 10 extra hit points you get to start (left number) and the normal maximum hit points (right number). The fortitude is higher for the badger and boar (with their higher constitution), and the reflexes are better for the wolf and panther (with their higher dexterity).

It looks like if you are looking for sheer power, go with the boar. If you are looking for mobility and armor class, go with the wolf or panther. I thought for sure that the bear would have more hit points. Even though it does the most damage, it only does one point more than the boar and has 18 fewer hit points. I realize this may be of interest to relatively few people, but hey, it's a Saturday and it's my website :)

Past Two Days' News

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