September 16 - 30, 2001

Saturday 29 September 2001

WooHoo!!! The Brisbane Lions won the Grand Final in the Australian Rules Football competition! Congratulations go to the coach, "Lethal" Leigh Matthews, and the players for such a wonderful spectacle today! Well done Guy's! Congratulations also go out to Jason Akermanis for winning the Brownlow Medal for best and fairest!

Now that the footy fever has subsided, it is time to get back to reality and on with the show!

It looks like the warmongers from the US are not going to get it all their own way and trample on the freedoms of the people! In this story from WiredNews, it seems that members of the Senate Judiciary Committee are split over the new security legislation. At last some sense in politics! We may just avert a world war yet!

It also seems that the patriotic fervor spearheaded by the mindless media, is effectively silencing many of those who do not necessarily agree with the mass hysteria sentiment! Check out the details of the "dissidents" here!

Here is another article on how the big bad video game business is not regulated enough in terms of game content! This continues the hype and bashing of the industry after every major incident where someone kills someone else. No longer it is "the devil made me do it!", but more likely the community will answer for the offenders when asked, "I did it because I play video games!" Despite the fact that there are something like 10 violent movies made and screened to every one that isn't, the video game industry continues to bear the brunt of criticism. Why? Simply because the industry is young compared to the century plus old movie industry. In fact, religion is probably the one thing that should be banned, world wide, due to the incredible levels of violence it incites, authorises, and actively participates in, now and throughout history. Some of the worst acts of man's inhumanity to man have occurred in the name of religion! Acts that leave the recent terrorist attacks in their wake! We are talking genocide here folks, and do you think that they will ever ban, or even criticize religion for it's part in these atrocities?? Well, you are all intelligent people here, so I won't state the obvious! But I think I have made my point. The other reason the game industry comes under fire is that the majority of people who play computer games are young! That means that most of them don't vote and therefore have no say in what happens to their world! It is sad but true and there is little we can do about it directly. But we must act somehow, or they will take away our beloved games forever!

KiM, our resident newshound, has found another gem over at Mystique Magazine. Here's a summary of the article:-
The 20-year-old Dutch creator of the "Anna Kournikova" virus, which infected computers worldwide last February, was sentenced Thursday to 150 hours of community service. The virus, disguised as a digital photo of the Russian tennis star, e-mailed itself to millions of computers, slowing systems and shutting down some servers. The man turned himself in to police shortly after creating the virus. In a letter he posted on the Web, he claimed inspiration in equal parts from devotion to the 20-year-old tennis player and from evidence that Internet users were not taking steps to protect themselves from viruses.

For those of you who are really hanging out to get Commandos 2: Men of Courage, you will be pleased to know that it has gone gold and is now available in Australia as well as the US. Good luck in finding a copy just yet! Somehow the shipments have been delayed but that should only be for a couple of days! So my guess is Monday sometime. So if you really need to get a pre-release fix, click on over to GameSpot's review of the game. Hey they even have some of the exploits and cheats already available for those of you who are game challenged! There you go Rob!

There is an interesting article over at CGOnline about all those massive multiplayer games and all the trouble they seem to have when they first start. Check it out as it is a very good read.

Thanks to RobtheLoon for finding this one. Do you remember the arcade classic Dragon's Lair? Well, it is set to make a comeback on the PC! About 20 years ago I got frustrated with that game and it cost me a lot of time and money to get through it to the end! Now for the measly price of about $80 (Australian) I can do it all again! Great! If you want to know more check out the story at PCGamer.

Well that just about does it from me for today. Enjoy the weekend and relax hard!

Wednesday 26 September 2001

This will probably be a short update today. Not much time to spare to do it. So here it is!

Big news for Operation Flashpoint fans! Codemasters have announced a new expansion pack called Operation Flashpoint: Red Hammer. This put you into the shoes of a Russian soldier who is left behind enemy lines during the original game. Using guerilla tactics you have to fight your way home! The planned release date is sometime in December and it will be available either in a boxed version or a downloadable version for US$9.99. Can't wait. Check out the info at GameSpot or Codemasters.

AMD has announced that is is going to close two plants and lay off 2,300 of it's staff. This could mean that Intel have won the war. A sad thing indeed! So race out and buy that Athlon or Duron now and help save the company! You will also be taking advantage of some really cheap prices! Check out the full story here.

It seems that the US Congress is acting with a fairly level head after all. Despite several Bills on the table that basically enact full war status for the country, they will be in no rush to enact them! Thank God! Reports are that they will be trying to balance liberty with necessity. It seems that the proposed laws have raised more than a few alarms about infringements on the rights of it's citizens. For more information read this article from WiredNews.

Well I told you that it would be a short one. Enjoy!

Tuesday 25 September 2001

Well another day wasted, with time running out rapidly! I hope you all had better days than mine! I wont go into it because I am sure to offend! Needless to say it is School Holidays and I am certain people swap the school for stupid! It is no wonder that our children are not learning any compassion, consideration or courtesy, when their parents exhibit none of it during the holiday period! It is either that or they have voluntary lobotomies when the kids come home and have them reversed when they go back to school! Your children are the examples that YOU set them! Occasionally they manage to shrug off the family mantle and turn out to be good people, but that is not a certainty! Please keep your brain working during the school holidays, particularly when driving the car!

Enough of that! There is a beta test sign up and download for the latest in the Need For Speed stable, Motor City Online. The sign up procedure is quite involved and the download is some 438 Mb so if you don't have a broad band connection, you could just about forget it! I haven't looked at it yet, but it sounds quite interesting and it enables you to fully deck out your vehicle and go racing anywhere in the game for money, or your car! You can get the download from FilePlanet, BonusWeb, or even EA's very own FTP site.

In a very interesting article over at WiredNews, the author discusses why America is entering into a "not so free" period of it's history! It seems that in wartime, liberty suffers. There is beginning speculation as to what new laws the US Congress will enact in this dark time, and how those laws will restrict the lives of US citizens! Do you really want this to happen? Go check it out and see what is in store for you if the Government has its way!

Here is a fine article about the responsibilities of manufacturers and programers to ensure they make the best possible product before releasing it to the public. In this story Microsoft is being sued for making a really shitty product and releasing it! Yep, the big MS is being blamed for the spread and destruction of the Nimda worm because it was slack in it's security within the software! Read all about it at YahooNews. Makes for an interesting read. Now in my mind, it is only the lawyers who win in these battles!

Now here is another very interesting story in light of the recent issues in copyright! It seems that Australians would not purchase computers that had hardware copy protection mechanisms built into them by law! Now it goes on to claim that it is because we are all just pirates here in the big brown land of Oz, and totally neglects to mention that consumers have the right to deal with purchased products as they see fit, providing it does not breach any copyright laws. That means that we can tape a CD, legally purchased, so that we can listen to it in the car. It also means that we can rip a CD onto our computer so that we can listen to it while we work! It doesn't mean that we can sell copies of the songs and make money out of it! That is the province of the mega rich record companies, and we really should know our place! But if the intended US legislation comes in, we may very well face this issue head on. I think there are much deeper issues at stake here, and as usual, the reporters are only giving the "company" line on the issue! Read about it here! There was also something about a representative sample............

Thanks to KiM for sending these links in!

Check this story out! It seems that Bush himself may have been financing terrorist activities! And they say he didn't know about it?

Well that is all for tonight. Keep well and enjoy your freedoms, for the US may soon cause them to go away!

Monday 24 September 2001

Back again for another enthralling installment of Regurgitated News!!!!

It seems that eh net has been switched back on to full speed after over a week of snail paced surfing! Wow, I can actually get to almost every site in my bookmarks list! So, I guess I haven't got any excuses left for not updating a bit more regularly! Let's see how long I can keep this up for.

Over the past week since the terrible attacks in the US, I have received numerous e-mails form people all over the world. While all of them expressed sympathy for the victims and outrage over the acts themselves, the thing that really intrigued me was the differing perceptions of the US. Now most of them were from predominantly English speaking backgrounds, but not every one was actually on the side of the US Government and it's policies. In fact, many of them had actually witnessed first hand, the unfairness of the said governmental policies! The point that I'm trying to make here is that no matter how we perceive our actions as being right, we will be judged by those our actions affect, or by those who look on. In the end, it doesn't really matter if we are right or wrong, but what matters is how we go about interacting with those around us! Perhaps the Politicians will pull their heads from their nether regions and look out at the world long enough to realize this simple "truth"! Maybe, this will avert a world war and save millions of innocent lives from the pain and suffering caused by the inability to behave in a reasonable manner (and I do mean on both sides!). I certainly hope so, particularly as the build up on the Afghani Border continues!

For those gamers who are presently sitting on the edge of indecision about the next generation of Windows platforms, take heart! The guy's over at GameSpy have created an article about Windows XP and the gamer. Go check it out and decide for yourself if the gains outweigh the costs!

GameSpy also have an item on the impact (please excuse the pun) of the recent terrorist attacks on the gaming industry. With release dates put back and titles postponed, it is almost like a normal day in the gaming industry. The only thing that is different is the reason! All of them blame it on September 11 2001! Check it out.

Tim "porkchop" Sullivan has sent to me a treasure trove of a site. This site is contains a collection of audio grabs from a radio station that airs in the US. It is called the Art Bell Show and it focuses on the weird and supernatural. People phone in on their hotlines and divulge all their quiet insanity to the listening public. Now while I haven't listened to the whole site, I have heard some really good examples of why Incest is a crime! This poor bloke and his show are moron magnets! Check out the site here! You will laugh a lot at this one!

Well that does it for today. Don't worry I will check to see if it actually uploads this time! Enjoy, and keep an eye out for those idiots! They are out there everywhere!

Good morning! Just a couple of interesting snippets from that great site News of the Weird! I have taken directly from their newsletter so I must thank them for the information!

An 18-year-old man, rowdily hanging out of the passenger-side car window, fatally struck his head when the driver came too close to a trash can (Lebanon, Ore., August). A 38-year-old man fell 15 floors to his death after he accepted a dare from a buddy and attempted unsuccessfully to hang from an apartment balcony (Vancouver, British Columbia, July). A 39-year-old man was killed when his speeding car struck a parked semitrailer truck at about 9 a.m., with another motorist telling police the man appeared to be reading a newspaper moments before the crash (Pleasant Prairie, Wis., June). [Albany Democrat-Herald, 8-13-01, 8-15-01] [Vancouver Sun, 7-2-01] [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 6-7-01]

A 31-year-old man barely survived a deadly bacterial infection of the heart valve, facilitated by his numerous body piercings that he acquired in order to look like his idol, basketball player Dennis Rodman (Chicago). Responding to several noise complaints, a city's environmental officer publicly urged citizens to be quieter at night while making love (Stockport, England). In its latest advertising campaign, the University of Bonn (Germany) profiled famous alumnus Joseph Goebbels ("philosophy student," "propaganda minister") but without mentioning his role as an architect of the Holocaust. A 39-year-old woman, who had just killed one son, was thwarted in killing another because the bullet lodged in the Holy Bible he was carrying (North Fort Myers, Fla.). [Chicago Sun-Times, 8-31-01] [Glasgow Herald, 8-31-01] [Sydney Morning Herald-Daily Telegraph, 9-6-01] [Tampa Tribune-AP, 9-2-01] Well, there you have it! Just a little bit of fun for the morning! Should be updating later on today as well! Enjoy!

Sunday 23 September 2001

Well, I'm back and I had a great and relaxing time away! I hope that I can update everything today, but I may have some trouble getting to sites because the net is still sooooo slooooow today! I wish they would hurry up and fix it all up so I can do things at the speed I need to do them! Anyway, here is my attempt at a catch up for the week in review. Enjoy.

For those of you who keep track of the side panels, you would have noticed that I recently passed the 2,500 Work Unit milestone in the SETI@home project. I process the units for the fun of it and while I believe that there must be intelligent life somewhere out there I am not in it for the credit of discovering the first alien signal (though it would be nice!). As such, I was pleasantly surprised when I received an email from the SETI@home team thanking me for my support and congratulating me on my achievement. I have no illusions that it was a personal posting from the group, rather I know that it wasn't, but someone had to set the system up to perform the task. That is one of the reasons I run the program, the community cares for one another and recognizes achievement. Thank you SETI@home. If any one of my readers wants to know more about the program, follow the link on the left hand side. Please consider donating some of your spare CPU cycles to this worthy cause. And, if you wish to, you may join our SETI Group and crunch with us!

I know I have said it before, but..... Strange things are afoot for the Computer Gaming industry in the wake of the recent terrorist attacks. The industry has decided to reduce the level of violence depicted in games out of sympathy to the victims of the attacks. Now I do not understand how this will, in any shape or form, alleviate the pain and suffering. I can't see anyway that it will stop any future terrorist activities. Nor can I see how it will affect anything else, either! So why are they doing it? I honestly don't know! But I think that it is really dumb! You can find the article here, and you can make up your own mind about it.

I see that Nintendo's Game Cube was released this week to hoards of loyal fans in Japan. I wonder what will happen in the console wars that are set to be fought this Christmas? Check out this story on the release.

In an interesting article appearing on the Eurogamer site, the author revisits the rationale of the game distributors. He asks the question I have often asked here, "Why do games get released in the US/Japanese markets before the rest of the world?" Check out the article and see what you think.

It looks like the next installment of Serious Sam will be delivered to your gaming doorstep by Christmas! Yeah! I hear you say? Well the first one was a change but oh so tedious at the end. I wonder wether they will adjust the gameplay to more reasonable levels? Probably not, but considering that it is a mindless shooter, that's ok! Go check out the Croteam website for the details.

Here's one for RobtheLoon..... Commando's 2 is coming at the end of this month! So sayeth the Rep! Cool! I'll have to look at getting this one, even though I haven't been able to finish the last 2!

Finally there is a voice of reason and sanity in the US Congress. A multi partisan group is urging the US Congress to think before they pass sweeping legislation that will restrict the existing freedoms of the US people. Will the very pillars of the US be destroyed and restricted? Will freedom die? Check out the full story here.

As most of you would have already heard, there is another internet worm out there and on the loose. To avoid all the hype read the story here and then check out the information at Vmyths.com for the real details less the hysterical hype of the tabloids! Do it, it is worth your while!

I bought a game called Independence War 2: The edge of chaos about a week ago and have been playing it in my fairly rare spare time. I think it is a very good game. Difficult but good. It takes some time to get used to the different control physics and the tactics of the enemy, but it is addictive and fun! Check out the review of the game over at GameSpy.

The fat cats get fatter.............. As of the 1st of October, that poor struggling company called Microsoft is changing the way it licenses it's products to large organisations. And guess what? Yep, the companies are not at all happy about it. Why would a successful company like Microsoft become so full of itself that it will try these things? Greed, pure greed! It's not like they need the extra money to stay afloat! So what is the cost of little or no real competition? It seems that it is between 30% and 107% depending on who you are! Check out the disgraceful story here (I don't mean the article but what the story is about when I say disgraceful).

And again, Microsoft are offering huge discounts on multiple licenses for the home user for their latest Operating system offering! With a product that costs some $300 - $400 US (that will be about $600-$700 Australian) MS are offering a lousy $30 off if you purchase more than 1 copy of the OS for home use! Gee, that's big of them isn't it! With the new Product Activation system firmly in place, it will force users to go one of two ways. They will either fork out the extra cash, or more likely, will install a pirated copy of the OS! The only other option is to remain using their current OS. While this may sound good, MS has a habit of not supporting it's products after a while, thus forcing users to upgrade to the newer. more expensive versions. In Australia it is impossible to get an original (ie. non-OEM) version of Windows 98SE. MS just don't supply them anymore! With restrictive and bullying practices like these being performed on their own people, it is no wonder that the third world countries would want to blow up the financial heart of the US! It may be their only way of striking back at such oppressive business tactics! I won't be buying a copy of Windows XP unless I get it free with a full system. I can't afford to spend that much money 3 or 4 times for each of my computers! If I knew more about LINUX then I would be there in a flash! I think that MS may have annoyed too many of their customers with the latest round of capitalist greed inspired practices! Check out the base story here.

Well that is it for today, I should be back again tomorrow for an update, and hopefully the net will be back to normal! Read, enjoy and stay well!

Friday 21 September 2001

Well once again I have been a very bad boy this week! Unfortunately I cannot take all the blame for it. I must share the blame with Telstra and their service, along with the damage done to the Hong Kong to US fibre optic cable, that still doesn't seem to be fixed yet! So Every time I have gone to update my site or to chase the news down, the link has been off! The result? Yep, you guessed it, no updates! Sorry! Anyway the past week has been very eventful, both in the game scene and personally.

On a personal note, Mrs Odd and I have just passed the 3 year mark of our marriage and 8 years together! Wow! I don't know how she has put up with me for this long but I am glad she has! This weekend we are going away for a little holiday away from everyone! Should be a good week end! So there won't be an update until Sunday afternoon. But enough about me, let's get on with the news!

This week saw the release of the compatibility test version of the much anticipated Return to Castle Wolfinstein! I have heard some mixed reports about it, but have not yet played it. The most trusted report I have claims that eh graphics are cool but there still needs an awful lot of work to be done on the gameplay aspects! You can pick up a copy of the test from FilePlanet or from any of the many mirror sites around. Go check it out and see if you think it is as good as everyone seems to think it is.

Also on the patch/updates side of things, is the Half Life 1.1.0.8 patch and the Counter-Strike 1.3 patch. Both can be obtained from FilePlanet (if you haven't already got them!) or any of the numerous mirror sites that are available. Australians should try AusGamers or WirePlay.

The rest of the news will have to wait for Sunday now, as my connection is running like treacle on a winter's day and I have to go away as discussed above! So check back for more updates on Sunday. Cheers!

Sunday 16 September 2001

Well, what a week it has been! In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in the US, there are finally some voices of reason being heard. Please listen to them! They make sense, and if we follow them then we may avert a war and more senseless death. I won't be saying too much more about this incident, but I urge everyone to act in a manner that is appropriate to what we uphold as being good and right.

I have been a bit slack over the past weeks so I will attempt to catch up on a lot of the news today. I will even try to go back to where I left off, not that there is that much of importance anyway. So here goes, on with the show!

From a week ago, it was announced that the PC version of Red Faction has gone gold and should ship in the US late this month. No word (as usual) about a release date here in the land of Oz.

The Dungeons & Dragons sequel, Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor, has also gone gold, though there is no word on an official release date yet. It will probably ship this month or early in October.

I posted an article on the auctioning of a "Time Machine" a while back. Here is a bit of a follow up. The item for sale was a slightly used time machine. Apparently it was withdrawn from the auction after someone had offered $5000 for it. They probably couldn't supply a working item (gosh, I wonder why) so they would have withdrawn it rather than face the legal consequences! Damn, and I was hoping to get it! Now if you are interested in more disturbing action items form the annals of e-bay, then check this site out. It is called Disturbing Auctions, and it is just what it says it is. A site listing the disturbing things people have offered up for auction on e-bay.

In a bit of a turn around, the US Supreme Court orders Microsoft to stay together. Check out the full story here if you missed the news like I did.

I really want a job as a British Researcher....... The latest research study from the land of the Queen, is on, of all things, jokes! Yep, you had better believe it. Check out this site for the details.

Now just how much warning did the FBI and the CIA have of the terrorists attacks last week?? This article over at Yahoo News may indicate that there was some advance warning of the attack. But then again, it may be unrelated, but in hind sight it does seem a bit fishy!

A while ago Tim from Tim's News came across this link. Now this is a site that I can only aspire to! Working in the video games sales area at present, (you have to earn money while at Uni!) I can appreciate his acerbic wit and customer relations abilities. I only wish I could say 1/10th of what he does. Some people never learn anything! Go there, read, laugh and hopefully you won't find yourself on his pages!

Now here is a story that I find quite interesting. A woman is suing a record company for failing to provide adequate disclaimers on a CD that has protection which blocks owners from listening to the songs on a computer! Go Girl Go! You can check out the full story here. This sort of thing should happen more often, but unfortunately most people don't have the money to pay for the legal fees.

Here is another strange occurrence as a result of the Sklyarov case. Several security consultants have removed their work from the web for fear of prosecution under the DMCA. This could result in more holes for hackers to walk through! Check the full story out here.

For those of you who missed it, nVidia have released version 4.0 of their Detonator Drivers for all platforms. The drivers have been dubbed Detonator XP and go by the internal version number of 12.81. You can get the drivers directly from the nVidia web site. The drivers are claimed to increase video performance by 10 - 50%.

I love a situation where everyone wins. A professor at Stanford University has bought a club full of nude dancers in Northern Las Vegas and plans to use the money to fund his research into cardiovascular medicine. Click here for the full story. Thanks for this one KiM.

There is growing industry support for a bid to force all PC's and electronic equipment to have in built copy protection! Many are outraged at the idea and in the long run it will affect us all, even if the law is only relevant to the US! Check out the sad full story here.

Much has been said about the recent terrorist attacks and many things have happened that are disturbing. To date I have read that 2 record covers have been removed from sale or changed prior to release because they showed fictional (at the time they were taken) images of the Twin Towers of the WTC burning. Also, Red Alert, which has been around for over a year now, has been removed from the shelves in the US for the same reason. I also read this afternoon that Microsoft have withdrawn their premiere flight simulator product MS Flight Simulator 2000. This could be due to the allegations that the terrorists used this program to learn to fly and to target the Towers, or it could be due to the fact that the New York scenery has changed and Microsoft want's to retain it's title as the most realistic Flight Simulator on the market! But seriously, This is once again an over reaction to the incident, as it would not be out of any sense of compassion or decency that the products were withdrawn, but simply because they may get people complaining about it! I sometimes believe that the US, generally, have a great deal of trouble separating fantasy from reality. This brings up the old worn arguments about gun control and the encroachment of personal freedoms and the like, but it doesn't solve any problems. In fact many people are quite concerned that these events will result in the trampling of individual rights and the constitution! Be careful what you wish for America, for you may not like it when you get it!

Another Internet Icon has disappeared forever. The great 3DFiles has closed it's doors, never to reopen. Farewell guy's, we will miss you! We wish you all the best for the future and know that you will find jobs easily!

Sadly, I have to report another closure in the web site stakes! The venerable TweakFiles site has also closed over the past week. This site was the source for all those little files that were oh so useful. Sorry to see you go guys, you will be missed!

Well, that's it for today. I should have covered everything I wanted to that I missed. I leave you with a final link, in these troubled times, it pays to retain your perspective on life. This page at the SETI@Home website contains a quote from the late Carl Sagan. It is called - "the Pale Blue Dot". Read it please, and remember it's meaning in the coming weeks. It may just be the thing that saves us from any more needless bloodshed! Goodnight!