General

The Great Helgiria Goat Bubble This came up in a Slashdot discussion about the economics of buying and selling virtual property in Project Entropia. Hilarious and insightful!

Waaay back in prehistory, while working on developing graphical video and printer drivers for DRI’s Flex/OS, I chanced upon a really cool UNIX package that would transfer almost any kind of graphic file to any other kind. These packages really helped get test images ready to view in my sample CGA and EGA drivers. I was looking for them awhile ago to help do certain kinds of things and conversions for the CE News. I bought a package to do these things under Windows, but that company did not have an equivalent package for Linux, when I changed OSs. ...

At times, we at Surya email our customers to alert them to upcoming warehouse sales. People ask to be added to the list at warehouse sales, so it isn’t spam. I guess a customer decided to repay us the favor, and passed along this chain letter. It must be true, because George W. Bush, the PRESIDENT of the USA, mentioned it in the SAME SPEECH he nominated SAMUEL ALITIO to the Supreme Court!

This is an interesting little web page (requires IE) that scans your hardware and tells you how well it could play any of a number of games. My work computer can play EQ, it says, but WoW is a no-no. Windows Game Advisor I just flashed back to Antonica near Thundering Steppes. Why does that place hold memories… why does any place in any virtual world bring me back. Running to Cotswold at bard speed in DAoC; exploring the mysteries of the Misty Thicket in EQ; relaxing among the autumn leaves in the forest outside San D’Oria in FFXI. ...

I need a way to organize my time while at work. I’m constantly thinking there is something I should be doing, and actually having ten things I must do, and only getting to a couple because I can’t prioritize. I used to use Outlook to do this, both here and before at Cypress Grove. I changed to Thunderbird both at work and at home for various reasons; I especially liked TBird’s spam filters. But I lost the TO DO list. ...

Here’s a nice definitions of the different Fantasy Sub-Genres. Lord of the Rings is an obvious influence on EverQuest. I would count The Worm Ouroborous by E. R. Eddison a perfect example of the influences that led to Warcraft. A very nice look into the people behind the avatars in Asian gaming.

You Passed 8th Grade Math Congratulations, you got 10/10 correct! Can You Pass 8th Grade Math? Well, I guess that’s something at least. Angry with myself for not getting things done today. However, I did write a ASP page for our Saturday Sale results. It came out pretty well, but I had a lot of trouble with the connection string. In the end, I just copied the table into a place IIS could find it. I’ll try to find a better solution when Felix comes back. ...

Well, fact is, sometimes I get really depressed. I can’t do a thing about it. I start hitting my head with stuff, jabbing screwdrivers into my legs and so on. It’s a huge pressure to keep it to myself at work, and when I get home, it explodes. End result is, I am complaining all the time in game, and making other people angry with me and I am getting angrier with myself all at the same time. So last night after we wiped in Council of Nine, I just refused the rez, logged off, and played WoW until bedtime. ...