Messages

76

Drama / Re: Facechild- Votekicking for no reason.

« on: December 03, 2012, 02:24:25 AM »

Anybody with votekick installed on their server is asking for stuff like this to happen. This is why you don't democratize server moderation. It works fine in a small team based game like for L4D but isn't really a great way to run a larger server, especially when it's not some team based thing. Sure, votekick lets you kick the guy spamming pong projectiles but also creates a lot more bullstuff than it alleviates. Not to mention that we got along just fine without votekick for years by just ignoring people. It's just a game server - nobody's ever going to create an emergency so dire than an administrator can't just log in the next morning and clean it all up. Lives aren't at stake here and kicking should just stay in the power of server staff.

Thread is now about the server host running stuffty mods.

77

Games / Re: Sim City 4

« on: November 29, 2012, 07:40:19 PM »

No, that will just create a giant grid of the large cities and possibly screw up your region display if your region isn't the right size to fit in all those cities.

78

Off Topic / Re: What the forget is wrong with R34

« on: November 27, 2012, 09:48:44 AM »

confused r34 with r134a and thought this thread was about refrigerant

thanks for the horrible thread instead

79

Off Topic / Re: Whoever the king of the page is decides what to discuss for that page

« on: November 26, 2012, 10:04:42 PM »

nothing

80

Off Topic / Re: I need a small $400 server guys, help me

« on: November 26, 2012, 08:57:36 PM »

If you're buying or building a server I'd definitely recommend rack mount stuff.

I'll probably be using a rack mount cases for all my computers from now on, regardless of whether they're actually servers or even going in a rack. They've got lots of room, easy to work in and swap out parts, giant fans, and a lot of times they've got handles on the front so you can easily haul them around. Not as pretty as high-end desktop cases, but for the cost the feature set is unbeatable, a $200 rackmount case will blow a $200 PC case out of the water every time. Also you can easily bolt, clamp, or mount them to furniture, vehicles, push carts, whatever.

The downside is that you may need to buy some extension cables for powering components, but considering that's like $5, I don't really think it's much of a downside. I guess they're not as pretty either, so if you're a lame person that likes stuffty cases with glass sides, ugly fans with LEDs, glow-in-the-dark RAM, and scratch-and-sniff power buttons or whatever then they're also not really good. Personally I prefer to have the computer hidden somewhere, under a desk, in a drawer, whatever, with just a keyboard, mouse, and monitor visible.

81

General Discussion / Re: Proof that Blockland has actually been more popular than ever.

« on: November 26, 2012, 06:56:12 PM »

Don't forget the current key sale had current and previous members buying tons of keys. SO we're not getting that much attention.

Someone posted a link to RTB suggesting that something like 422 keys or whatever were sold over the weekend. I'd guess that it's probably an underestimate since not everyone logged on the game yet or got picked up by RTB, some keys may have been deactivated when a credit card was declined or after a chargeback or whatever. I'd estimate that less than 600 were sold over this weekend though, so it doesn't actually subtract that much from the 10k.

As for people buying new keys for alts or after they were banned, I think the number is probably insignificant when you compare it to new purchases. I don't have any numbers to back it up but I'd guess people buying duplicate keys or whatever probably accounts for less than 100 sales a year. I can think of maybe 10 people that are serial idiots that go through keys quickly and I bet over their entire career of dumbassery they probably used less than 10 keys each that they purchased for themselves. I imagine the majority of them them were probably borrowed or stolen. I like this game but not enough to spend $200+ on it.

82

Off Topic / Re: My sister keeps using my razor

« on: November 23, 2012, 01:48:33 AM »

Buy a new razor and keep it in your room when you're not using it.

CrCIA averted.

83

Off Topic / Re: Same ad popping up in Internet Explorer lately, adware much?

« on: November 22, 2012, 04:48:22 PM »

That site doesn't show ads in either IE or Chrome on my computer, so you probably have some dumb toolbar or something installed.

84

Off Topic / Re: Same ad popping up in Internet Explorer lately, adware much?

« on: November 22, 2012, 03:24:58 PM »

The new versions of Internet Explorer are fine. Anybody who tells you otherwise is hopelessly stuck in the past. I like Chrome and its feature set but if you like IE there is no reason to switch.

Sames ads are popping up because of cookies, as someone's already pointed out. It's nothing to worry about and it happens to me in Chrome.

85

Off Topic / Re: Anyone with bad PCs?

« on: November 22, 2012, 12:16:04 AM »

That's a pretty awesome system. I assume it's got a 486SLC installed, because I don't think there were any proper 286-to-486 upgrades. It's in desperate need of a PGA graphics controller and an IBM music feature card, though.

Yeah, the chip is a surface mount soldered directly onto some kind of breakout board with a couple of other chips so it could fit into the PLCC socket the 286 used. The 486 has a built in math coprocessor, so I'm not actually sure what IC is populating the spot for it right now other than it's got a big AMD logo on it (my photos of the inside are pretty low resolution). The original chip is interesting because it would have been an AMD branded Intel N80L286-8. I have an an extra non-functional Compaq Portable II for spare parts that still has the 286 and 287 math coprocessor on it.

Again, since all I have is this crappy picture to go I can't read everything on the chip but it looks like it does in fact have a TX486SLC/E processor in it, clocked at 18MHz. The diagnostic floppy detects it as a 386 but Norton's sysinfo program properly labels it a 486 for some reason. I'm in the processing of diagnosing a system clock issue (I put a new battery in a while ago so that's not it), so when I open it up I'll photograph everything again with a nice camera in good light and write down all the ICs so I can buy replacements in the future.

I love the greenscreen, after all these years it's still super bright and has no burn in. A better card sure would be nice since I can't afford a CGA monitor right now. However, I suspect that I won't be able to use the 9" built in monitor with a different video card, not without modifying it anyway to have an extra header and some fancy circuitry anyway. I definitely want to put a soundcard in. The PC speaker plays music fine but it's monophonic. You can sort of simulate polyphonic music by switching tones really fast but it doesn't sound especially good. What I'd like to do is see if I can get a combination soundcard and serial expansion card. I'd like to put an internal 8 ohm speaker mounted on the card, then use the extra serial port to connect to an raspberry pi mounted internally powered off the 5V rail, then connect to it through a terminal program and run elinks so I can browse the Internet using modern wifi networks. I've got one serial port already but I use it with a mouse occasionally.

86

Off Topic / Re: Anyone with bad PCs?

« on: November 20, 2012, 02:15:36 AM »

i have a 2009 compaq:

Hey cool, another compaq owner!

I have a 1987 compaq.

Processor: Texas Instruments 486
RAM: 3.7MB DRAM in dozens of DIPs (640k onboard, rest extended memory)
Graphics: 80x25 character onboard 9" greenscreen, graphics card with CGA and composite output
Hard Drive: 515MB hard drive
External Storage: 1 3.5" floppy drive, 1 5.25" floppy drive
Sound: PC Speaker
Operating System: MS-DOS 6.22

Suffice to say it is not my primary desktop. I spent a lot of time restoring it and basically it's awesome. I've got a plan to get it to connect to modern wifi networks.

I have a computer from 1984 and a computer originally sold with MS-DOS 2.1. Do I win?

I didn't think anyone would beat mine but you did. :(

Mine originally came with with DOS 3.1, was upgraded with 3MB of RAM and a new processor (original was a 286, which I still have) sometime in 1995. Does yours still work?

87

Off Topic / Re: Is there a way to monitor packets on a LAN network?

« on: November 16, 2012, 09:54:44 PM »

Forget modifying your router and use a passive network tap. Either buy one or build one. You install it in between your modem and switch/router.

Putting custom firmware on your router is fine and all, but unless you really lucked out you'll spend a lot of time digging through compatibility databases. If you plan on putting custom firmware on your router it's easier to just figure out what firmware you want, then buy that exact compatible model and version of router off ebay.

88

Off Topic / Re: Arduino Development Board

« on: November 16, 2012, 08:42:48 PM »

I got my TI Launchpad today. Here it is running the basic arduino blink program:

89

Off Topic / Re: Arduino Development Board

« on: November 15, 2012, 12:03:45 AM »

I love arduino.

That being said I misplaced mine somewhere in a physics lab and haven't quite had time to look around for it. I went ahead and ordered a TI Launchpad to experiment with instead. They could become my new favorite development platform since they're less than $5 each.

Adafruit is awesome and I buy stuff from them all the time. SparkFun is also great, and sells some arduino experimenting kits:

Starter Kit - $60
Inventor's Kit - $95

If you do any work at all with arduinos you will become very familiar with both SparkFun and Adafruit.

Arduino also has their own official kits:

Workshop Kit - €50
Starter Kit - €80

Kits are a great place to start but they can be pretty expensive. It's a lot cheaper if you buy the parts yourself but picking out the right parts, etc, requires some knowledge that you probably won't have unless you play around with one of the kits for a bit and start making stuff.

Dealextreme sells some Arduino compatible clones for about half price. I haven't purchased any from them so I don't know how good they are. I assume they're probably fine, they just say "designed in Italy" instead of "made in Italy."

A motion censor would work if it were aimed at the door, but it would also pick up stuff like a paper falling off a desk or an insect. If you can set the sensor to pick up larger vibrations, you might be able to set it up so that it only picks up the ≥walking vibrations.

A piezoelectric sensor is one way of doing this, and probably one of the cheaper ways. Here is one for $1.50. A lot of the arduino kits come with them but they're buzzer style ones - it turns out if you pulse this with certain frequencies they play tones so a lot of basic projects involve playing "music" with your arduino. I've got a recording of mine playing ode to joy somewhere. In any case, they're not convenient for sticking on the floor as a sensor.

That flat one can also play music as well if you get bored of using as a vibration sensor, and if you build a cone for it out of paper it can be really loud, much louder than the buzzers.

90

Off Topic / Re: Installing Windows 8

« on: October 19, 2012, 06:31:10 PM »

So its basically windows 8 without the actual desktop and ability to run exe files?
I'm thinking they are going to have a heck of a hard time selling that over android.
I would really like to get a windows 8 computer/tablet, but if RT has fewer features, then I can wait.

Then get an x86 tablet running Windows 8 instead of an ARM tablet running Windows 8 RT. I don't know if any have been announced yet but I'm sure they're coming.