Live

Armed with a bevy of Christmas gift cards and old games to trade in, I finally broke down and purchased Xbox Live.

Currently, we're equipped with the following Live-enabled multiplayer titles:

•Ghost Recon: Island Thunder
•MechAssault
•Project Gotham Racing 2
•Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield

Add us to your friends list if you're up for some games!

Gamertag: Extrasonic

Gaming gifts

It is the gift-giving season, so here are some gaming freebies to enjoy:

If you're like me, then you couldn't wait for the North American release of Silent Storm and had to order the UK import version from GoGamer.com as a pre-Christmas gift to youself. You know who you are. Make sure to grab the version 1.2 patch.

If you can't get enough of squad-based strategy, then don't forget to patch up your UFO: Aftermath to version 1.3.

If larger-scale strategy is in the cards for your playtime, then I suggest checking out the Massive Assault demo. This is sci-fi, turn-based planetary-scale warfare. It mixes deceptively simple board game-style mechanics with some serious thinking about combined-arms tactics and overall logistics strategies. Entertaining.

But, come on, let's face it. You want to get behind the controls of a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier as much as the next person. Get the Nimitz and a whole host of new stuff (including the absolutely wild DC Urban Siege map) when you download the v0.6F version of the Desert Combat mod for Battlefield: 1942.

If you'd rather give than receive, then check out our firewall configuration for game servers page. (Provide any suggestions by commenting on this post.) Happy gaming!

Holidays

Desiree and I are back from our assorted travels and are ready to enjoy some rest and relaxation here at home.

We hope everyone's enjoying their holidays!

Appleton's Houdini

Magicians creep me out. Still, I thought I would report on this story about Houdini (there's a rift between the Oatagamie "Houdini" Museum and the Houdini Club of Wisconsin) because he's from the same small town that houses my alma mater (Lawrence University).

The "Houdini Museum" was literally right across the street from the University but not only did I never visit it, but I never saw anyone else ever set a foot inside.

Grumpy

I'm grumpy today. Really, really grumpy. It should be a great and relaxing day: holiday luncheon followed by an early dismissal followed by a two week vacation. But, it's not.

Last night Dan and I went to see LoTR: Return of the King. I had sorta put my foot down by saying I didn't want to deal with people on opening night this time, but after hearing my brother and his girlfriend (who went opening night) gush about it I suggested we go last night.

What a mistake.

First of all, it was sold out and while standing in line we had to listen to this moron behind us reenacting the Last Samurai with a fully detailed ending (no, we haven't seen it).
We ended up being irritated but able to deal with it and eventually we sat down to watch the movie. In the row behind us sat a group of friends...taking up the entire row. One chick out of the lot. And next to me sat a family, their about-12-year-old daughter sitting to my right.

I'll start with the 12 year old. I think she had the plague. She was so terribly sick it was all I could do to not throttle the parents as we were leaving the theater. When she wasn't sniffing (which was approximately every 3 seconds), she was sneezing or coughing. I even offered her tissues (which she didn't take). And as much as I tried to drown that out and concentrate on the movie, I couldn't.

So if that wasn't bad enough, we had the assholes behind us. Not only did they talk THE ENTIRE TIME, despite the scathing looks I threw their way, but they had to overreact about everything. Over-laughing, over-commenting, etc. And the one chick in the lot had to have EVERYTHING explained to her. What I wouldn't have gived for a hand grenade.

Needless to say, I thought the movie was good, but I could barely concentrate on it. We left the theatre with me so angry I couldn't even talk about the movie.

After we got home and went to bed, I proceeded to be woken up periodically by the kittens reenacting the battle at Minas Tirith on our legs. The last hour before I had to get up for work was spent listening to Oberon talk at length about whatever cats yodel about at 5am.

So here I am at work...already irritated and getting grumpier by the minute.

And.... I'm done

As of about an hour ago, I'm on vacation until January 5th. Another very demanding (but interesting) work year left on the junk-heap of history.

I'm not sure if being on vacation will mean more blogging or less, but there will be at least one lull as we will be gone for several days around Christmas to visit various family members.

Happy holidays!

Celebrate, Celebrate, Dance to the Music!

As some of you might recall from old posts of mine, I am NOT a fan of our former Governor George Ryan. Well, today he was "indicted on federal charges of taking payoffs, gifts and vacations in return for government contracts and leases...."

And for some reason, that just makes me want to do a little celebratory jig!

*jig* *jig* *jig*

E-mail spam deconstructed

A combination of boring year-end meetings, the need to exercise my script-fu, and a rediculous amount of spam led me to the following idea and analysis - what are "people" (I use the term very loosely when referring to unsolicited bulk e-mailers) really spamming me about?

I use a spam filter that I wrote for myself and Desiree. Normally, I'm not a big fan of security through obscurity, but I'd rather not expose my methods here. However, like many spam filters, once mine has flagged a message as potential spam, it is sorted into its own "quarantine" area for later examination. When I took a look at this "spam trap" yesterday and extracted the false positives (there were 3), a little over 1500 spam messages remained, which seemed like a perfect sample size for some analysis.

Surprisingly, my spam broke down into a relatively small number of categories. Read more to see the results!

In the time it took to get my analysis method defined and executed, I received around 50 more spam e-mails, so the final sample size ended up being exactly 1550. This was the amount of actual spam (i.e. potential spam minus false positives) that I received from ~9:00pm Central time on Monday, 08 Dec 03 and ~3:30pm Central time on Tuesday, 16 Dec 03.

When talking about this with Desiree, she pointed out that my spam may differ from other people's spam in some important ways:

• I have used my current e-mail address to register multiple domains
  
• I have used my current e-mail address in posts to Usenet
  
• I have used my current e-mail address to participate in multiple mailing lists which have since been archived on the web
  

With that disclaimer, on to the analysis:

•Advertisements for porn-related services (13.5%)

•"Dating" services promising sex (2.3%)
•Paris Hilton-related porn (3.1%)
•Miscellaneous porn sites (8.1%)

•Stock "tips" and other investment advice (2.3%)
•Debt reduction schemes (4.1%)
•Loans - mortgages, auto, home equity, refinancing (8.1%)
•"Make money fast" - MLMs, grants, eBay, gambling, and one Nigerian scam (9.2%)

Most frequently mentioned: software (including spamming tools and spam blockers), novelty gifts, discount items, insurance/warrantees, cable descramblers, college degrees, sex toys

•Weight loss (4.3%)
•Viagra, penis enlargement, other sexual enhancements (15.2%)
•Miscellaneous prescription medicine - Ambien, Celebrex, HGH, Phentermine, Valium, Vicodin, Xanax, etc. (16.7%)

Messages which could not be classified based on their headers and content (including link structure, although no links were followed). This includes "misfires" by spammers - spam sent out in error with missing or malformed content.

Now THAT's a big DVD

This week's theatrical release of Return of the King clocks in at a healthy 3 hours 20 minutes, but Sci Fi Wire reveals that one of the first cuts was over four and a half hours!

No telling how much of that will make it into the inevitable Extended Edition DVD when it's released in a year or so, but I for one wouldn't complain about the extra substance.

More ForceWare

NVidia has new drivers - go get 53.03 at the NVidia site.

UPDATE: The release notes for 53.03 lists the following in its "Issues Resolved" section:

Windows XP: Rendering corruption in Battlefield 1942 Desert Combat.

Hopefully this means that the problems that I experienced earlier will be fixed!

Separated at Birth?

This probably drives Dan crazy, but I can't help but yell out "Abe Vigoda!" every time we see this orc in Two Towers. Tell me I'm wrong.... :)

Abe

Orc

Digitally listless

I am not sure what the problem is. I am struggling to stay interested in any games at the moment, and that's pretty unusual. I am home by myself today - I took a vacation day a) because I have to "use or lose" my days off before the end of the year and b) for mental health/de-stressing purposes. Normally, this would mean a lot of aggression and tension relief via excessive videogame playing, but I just can't settle on one.

The Desert Combat 0.5L mod for Battlefield: 1942 is buggy enough for me to put me off, I've recently finished UFO: Aftermath and Wizardry 8, Call of Duty is entertaining (but only in small doses), and I don't really enjoy the handful of MMORPGs that I play unless I'm playing with my wife. As Reid mentioned, the Deus Ex demo was irritatingly bad, quite possibly more of "t3h suck" than the Halo demo.

On the Xbox side of the house, Gladius really seemed like a good purchase at the time, until I learned that the tactical portion involves using the same gladiators over and over again in exceptionally similar wide-open pits (i.e. not that tactical) and that the RPG portion involves a stupid story and requires about 349574987^1000 of the aforementioned numbingly repetitive battles to level up any of the characters (i.e. not that strong on character development). Never has a game claimed to have so many elements that I typically crave, been so (relatively) well-reviewed, and yet utterly failed to entertain.

Maybe I'm in a "gaming enthusiasm slump", but if so, then I'm not sure what will get me excited to play again.

Photoshop created for Star Wars/Oh how I hate you Steve Jobs

Hate is a strong word, yes. But, just one look at him in his little black turtle neck makes me want to go postal. Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly an Apple fan, and use several Apple products a day. But it aches me to the bone to know that my using them puts money into that whiny bastards' pocket.

But that wasn't my original reason for posting. Dan sent me a link on how Photoshop was created for and because of Star Wars.

It's a nice little story but while reading it my wandering eyes noticed a headline to the right. The headline read: Jobs to be Future Disney Chief?
Eisner sucks, but Jobs...well, there aren't enough sufficient negative terms to describe him. Poor Walt's probably spinning in his grave.

Dr. Who #4

Go watch it!

Scientology Got the Boot

As some of you may know, I'm constantly on the lookout for Scientology stories. Imagine my delight in seeing one coming out of my home town.

Gov. Blagojevich recently expelled a Scientology exhibit from a Chicago government building. The group is actually the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (they mostly exist to warn the unwashed pre-clears about the evils of psychiatry, probably because psychiatry exposes the evils of Scientology...but I digress), a group that doesn't bother hiding their Scientology affiliation, but still managed to get past organizers at the Thompson Center.

Anyway, I'm pretty proud of the governor. For those of you who are screaming about the First Amendment, keep in mind that it's Scientology who pushed to be considered a religion. Therefore, seperation of church and state applies.

There is a sad ending to this story. It looks like we've lost Jason Lee to the dark side. :(

A Lime Twist

So I got this email today:

What to do if you have.....

Too much time,
A sharp knife,
A lime,
A patient cat,
And a camera.

The answer.

I'm still laughing.

Dr. Who #3

Oops...looks like Dan forgot to post about the third installment of Scream of the Shalka.

If you haven't already given it a look, you should, it's very very good and Richard E Grant really makes a good online Doctor. :)

Haunted Roller Rink?

A roller rink that my siblings and I frequented often in the 70's (celebrate good times, come on!) was recently slated for demolition. In the process, workers have come across two groupings of human bones. Disturbing! It must have been the ghosts haunting the place that prevented me from learning how to skate backwards...right? :)

Greg Rucka

The Oregonian has a good interview with Greg Rucka. He talks (among other things) about how he broke in to the comic book business, his approach, and the pressure of being the first author to write Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman simultaneously.