Whining about Whiners

There's a problem in all MMO communities with whiners. But some games developers don't seem to realise that those who post on forums to complain about something are often a tiny minority. But because they are so loud and angry about X feature being wrong, sometimes the games devs listen to them and change the feature. And by that time it's too late for the anti-whiners to make their own view heard. Apathy? not really, they're usually too busy enjoying the game to bother reading the forums.

However, I have the perfect pre-Christmas anti-whiner stance, if you find someone whining in your community do as Bing Crosby would do and sing along (or rather post it in your anti-whine post)....

I'm dreaming of a whineless Christmas
Just like the ones I used to know
Without the forums full of flamers
And IRC without complainers
And gamers playing merrily in the snow

(ooooh in the snooooow)

I'm dreaming of a whineless Christmas
With every Christmas thread I write.
May your posts be merry and light.
And may your whineless Christmases be white.

Ebay First - Good Pictures Sell

Well, I've sold a few things on ebay before, but today was the first time anyone has ever contacted me to ask to use a photo I took for my wife's listing of a DVD boxset!

There are no problems for anyone using my Image, I had never intended using it again anyways. I should've turned the DVD round too so the text wasn't rotated, but hey ho - that day I took a lot of photo's and my wife still got more than any other 24 auction at that time.

Beware of Malware

I've posted a link to Asquared Malware Scanner it may not be the best, but it's free and it also comes with "HiJack This" which is really helpful tool to assist with de-lousing your PC if it ever needs it. If you haven't already got a Malware scanner, then download, create an account and install. Don't presume you are covered just because you have a virus scanner - you're not.

Surf Safe!

The Perfect Couple

I found this on a blawg (a blog about law) - even lawyers have fun - this link has nothing to do with law, so don't try to work out who's liable....
(work safe)
http://www.flashfunpages.com/couple.swf

The question is what is a Mahna Mahna?

"the question is... who cares?"

The Mahna Mahna song....

Mahna Mahna

You need Quicktime to view it. Of course you could always try the QuickTime alternative , which is a bit "cleaner" than Apple's own efforts....

Cheers to Neo for both links.

Out of wedlock monkey intercourse? It could only be..

...Evolution according to machinima

But this time it's a whole game developed to create your very own Machinima. Just like DuesExMachinima has done. Great job done there..

http://movies.lionhead.com/movie/1168 I recommend looking through the site for other great movies.

And look our for a Kroy Machinima production in a blog near you soon(TM) thanks to The Movies

Eve Online soaring high

Posted on the www.eve-online.com website:



"17k Peak Concurrent User barrier broken
At 19:45 on Sunday evening (2005.10.23) EVE players broke their own Peak Concurrent Player (PCU) record with 17.032 playing at the same time.

This is only days after a highly successful installation of TMS RAMSAN 400 Solid State Disk Array virtually eliminating all Database related LAG in EVE Online.

Congratulations to all involved in making history once again."

eve-online is probably the best MMORPG on the market atm. Although I can't be sure, 'cause I haven't played them all.

17k players is on a single shard universe, rather than the multiple shard system employed by most MMORPGs on the market atm. Anybody connecting to the server connects in to the same game world. But the Eve Universe is so huge that you probably only ever see the same 100 players or so on a regular basis, unless you're involved in some wars!

If you haven't tried it, then I recommend you do, and if you have tried it a long time ago, then I recommend you take another look. I'm sure there are plenty of free trials to be had if you ask around!

Funny: Council Complaints

This made me laugh. Cheers to Graham for sending it through.

Council Complaints

These are genuine clips from council complaint
letters:

1.My bush is really overgrown round the front and my back passage has
fungus growing in it

2.He's got this huge tool that vibrates the whole house and I just can't
take it anymore.

3.It's the dogs mess that I find hard to swallow.

4.I want some repairs done to my cooker as it has backfired and burnt my
knob off.

5.I wish to complain that my father hurt his ankle very badly when he put
his foot in the hole in his back passage.

6. And their 18 year old son is continually banging his balls against my
fence.

7 I wish to report that tiles are missing from the outside toilet roof. I
think it was bad wind the other
night that blew them off.

8.My lavatory seat is cracked, where do I stand?

9.I am writing on behalf of my sink, which is coming away from the wall.
10.Will you please send someone to mend the garden path.
My wife tripped and fell on it yesterday and now she is pregnant.

11.I request permission to remove my drawers in the kitchen

12.50% of the walls are damp, 50% have crumbling plaster and 50% are plain
filthy.

13.I am still having problems with smoke in my new drawers.

14.The toilet is blocked and we cannot bath the children until it is
cleared.

15.Will you please send a man to look at my water, it is a funny colour and
not fit to drink.

16.Our lavatory seat is broken in half and is now in three pieces.

17.I want to complain about the farmer across the road; every morning at
6am his cock wakes me up and its now
getting too much for me.

18.The man next door has a large erection in the back garden, which is
unsightly and dangerous.

19.Our kitchen floor is damp. We have twochildren and would like a third so
please send someone round to do
something about it.

20.I am a single woman living in a downstairs flat and would you please do
something about the noise made by the
man on top of me every night.

21.Please send a man with the right tool to finish the job and satisfy my
wife.

22.I have had the clerk of works down on the floor six times but I still
have no satisfaction.

23.This is to let you know that our lavatory seat is broke and we can't get
BBC2.

Make Firefox Superspeedy

To squeeze the most outta your firefox browser, try making the following alterations - all are dead easy to make, and can be switched back to default really easily. Thanks to RICHIE:) for the hint:

To boost Firefox, simply do the following after launching your browser.

1. Type "about:config" into the address bar (no spaces) and hit Return. Scroll down and look for the following entries:
-network.http.pipelining
-network.http.proxy.pipelining
-network.http.pipelining.maxrequests

Normally the browser will make one request at a time to a Web page. When you enable pipelining, the browser will make several at once, which really speeds up page loading.

2. Alter the entries as follows:
Set "network.http.pipelining" to "true"
Set "network.http.proxy.pipelining" to "true"
Set "network.http.pipelining.maxrequests" to some number like 30. (This tells the browser to make 30 requests at once.) depending on your connection speed you may set need to set this a little lower or a little higher to hit the optimum level.

3. Lastly, right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer. Name it "nglayout.initialpaint.delay" and set its value to "0". This value is the amount of time the browser waits before acting on received information.

That's it! you should be quicker now! much quicker in fact

Christmas trees for shelter

If you are buying a christmas tree this year - you might as well make it count toward the spirit of giving! I received this via email and I think it's a great idea. So for all those in and around Edinburgh, give it a thought this year! And for those elsewhere, perhaps there's something similar in your area? If I hear of anything else more local, I'll post it up so contact me if you find anything...


>>>>>
The problem - Bethany runs a Winter Care Shelter for rough sleepers in Edinburgh. We don't receive any kind of funding for this except from kind individuals and last year we ran at a loss of £28,000. We can't afford to do this again but we know that people die if they sleep rough over winter in Scotland.

The solution - this year we're going to sell Christmas Trees to raise money to fund the shelter. The approx cost of a tree is the cost of giving somebody a bed for the night, a hot meal and some help getting off the streets. The trees are the same price as you would pay elsewhere (£5 per foot) and good quality (non needle drop, environmentally sourced Nordman Firs).

The deal - We need people to order their trees in advance (before end of Nov). You just place your order; pick your size, the date you want to pick it up and the place you want to collect it from. Then on the day, turn up, take your pick and take it home (Fri 9th Dec 4pm-8pm, Sat 10th Dec 10am-2pm or 2pm-6pm, Fri 16th Dec 4pm-8pm, Sat 17th Dec 10am-2pm or 2pm-6pm. Location choice: Liberton, Leith, Comely Bank, Corn Exchange, Gyle).

The website - www.caringchristmastrees.com


Catherine Rawlinson - Watkins
Fundraising Manager
Bethany Christian Trust
(0131) 467 3030