…does this thing still work?

I’m not sure what counts as news anymore, it’s just sort of a blob that is Summer Vacation. I’ll try to sum it up for all the editors. I’m not too certain what Gr-Dragon is doing, though. He sorta drifts in and out of consciousness and rippage. 😉

I’ve been playing a fair amount of games lately: Starcraft, No One Lives Forever, Dungeon Siege, Serious Sam SE, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Unreal Tournament, Soldier of Fortune 2, Jazz Jackrabbit 2, Army Men: RTS, Empire Earth, Quake 3, and …that may or may not be all. It’s quite an impressive list, as well as either a huge waste of time or a honing of my 1337 gaming skillz (whichever you prefer :) ).
Besides gaming, I’ve been dabbling in some other points of interest. When I went on “vacation” to North Carolina, I looked into learning Delphi. Delphi is much more expansive than VB could ever be, but it has a lot of hitches that used to be common tasks in programming Basic, like File IO, declarations, and data types. Data types are really a constant asspain; you’re often times tied down to using a certain type for a function and it’s not in the form you want it, then have to find some way to convert (like the compiler couldn’t do it). Then you’ve got all this unneeded code for converting types to strings, usually. And when I started coding my normal method for File Input/Output, I hit a huge wall trying to use variants (because a simple string won’t be able to take data from objects in Delphi) and loops to get data in and out of the files. It’s just a huge mess. 😡 POS
As for getting LANtalk into Delphi, it seems like a large waste of time. I will try to figure out new ways to bypass VB limitations and get a really usable version of LANtalk. Until then, there’s a bit of screenage below.
I’ve been working on a few Starcraft scenarios, too. These are some real masterpieces compared to my previous ones. One scenario has you crashing in the middle of a zerg colony and escaping to a small terran base (it’s quite appropriately called Deserted II). It features vocal by our very own S&L editors. The other is still rough but has around 30 triggers already. You command Quelog and Snake, two very badass Ghosts that must take on the entire map of enemy terrans. Quite a few objectives have you placing charges on key targets and demoing them (ultra schweet). That scenario will probably take a long time to get balanced. Already, the ghosts have uber hit pointage and damage and cloaking uses but 1 energy point. When walking between four filled bunkers and a science vessel with 5 energy trying to set a charge, you’ll wish you had more. As I’m content with playing the scenarios, I’ll officially upload them.
I’ve also been messing around with Jazz Jackrabbit’s editing tools. They’re quite annoying and making even one map is a daunting task.


Loog’s got the DSL shit. From working at his underpaying burger-flip job all summer, he actually has some dinero. The thing is now he has to work for the rest of his life after this point or the 1536K goes back to 56K. Either way, I can just pimp the fruits of his mad phat pipe at Surges. 8) Using the “so illegal it’s legal” peer-to-peer Kazaa, Loog has appropriated quite a large list of goods. So much that he’s running out of space for it all fast.
Other than that, Loog hasn’t really done anything. We are planning a Surge tomorrow, but they are becoming increasingly lame as no one will come. Fucking llamas.

And Gandalf…well, let’s ask him what he’s been doing.

gand says:
nope…gotta work

Que has been back at school and attempting to mac with the chicks. That’s pretty much all that goes on with him day by day. Of course, he would want me to mention his journal, so I will. It’s occasionally amusing, but even more so if you like reading rants. So, if you’re extremely bored, check out Que’s journal here.

[ mood | 😛 tired as ass ]
[ music | NIN – Closer (Further Away) ]

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Lazy asses…

Well, its been way too long since anyone around here has made a news post! I would have been posting, but Snake neglected to give me a login…

Anyways, so yea. S&L. We’re the guys with the… um… badass site. So, news, news… ive heard that Loogie has a schweet new DSL installed. Snake’s been gaming, working on coding the S&L LANTALK program in delphi (it was in VB before.) Ive been busy being back at school so i havent had time to do much computer stuff. My classes this year include Networking, C++ Programming, and BASIC Programming, so it is a cool classload. I figure that if i make this post, the others will be forced to make followup posts or elaborations and explanations, so consider this a stimulator.. hehe.

Rock on, bitches!

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New Download System

Because the old DL system didn’t even link to any of the files on our server correctly or show all files automatically. I’ve modified the imagefolio script to show downloads (dlfolio), essentially, it just shows all the files in ftp in a pretty GUI. If you want, you can still ftp to the site at ftp.s–l.com. Since the nav still goes to the old DL system, you can find the new one here.

Also, I was looking at some int stuff about Microsoft’s Activation policies and all at this site. It’s an int read and as I’ve always known: “Product activation will have little or no impact on piracy. In fact, it may actually increase piracy.” You’re damn straight it increased piracy. I’d love to have a poll that asks which flavor of XP the visitor is using. The choices would be: Legit, Cracked, or OEM (all refering to Home, Pro, or Corp). My guess would be that legit users would be the smallest percentage, followed by crackers, and leading the pack would be llama OEM users that really don’t have a choice whether to get XP or not. 😀 Of course, we don’t get enough traffic or a broad enough audience to have that kind of poll.

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Pending Surge

Yesterday, I went to Best Buy and and bought (yes, actually bought! 😛 ) Soldier of Fortune 2, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and Serious Sam 2… both for my further entertainment of new DirectX8.1 games (w/ my DirectX8.1 video card 😀 ), and for more gaming boomage at the next Surge (not sure what exact #, but it’s 3.x) [2.6]. It’s scheduled for this Tuesday afternoon till Thursday afternoon. Depending on who comes, we have scheduled 3-5 people already, and would like more. I’m hosting it this time, so if u’re interested, ask me my address and such on AIM or MSN (I hate email :) )… my contacts are on my staff page on the nav to the left. My house’s power grid probably can’t handle more than a few PCs (one of those scheduled is a laptop, fortunately), but since 8 ppl probably won’t come anyway, whatever. We’ll be using the Netgear switch like before (I’m currently on the network right now), w/ straight-through CAT5/6 cable and NICs, and tons of games to either bring urself, or download from me in a matter of a few seconds.

Anyway, that’s all… b4ck-0n-th3-g4m|ng-sc3n3 L00g|3 is out.

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Site updates

I did some modifications to the Imagefolio script earlier. It’s now not so much of a security hazard 😕 (as in, it doesn’t show unnecesary directories) and only shows image files. It always confused me as to why IMAGEfolio showed more than just images, but now it doesn’t…so boom.

Also, I’ve been playing Deus Ex again (seems to have a bit more flavor with XP). Of course, that means also that I’m working on the unfinished but ongoing “How to Deus” Column. You can find it, with the new additions, here.

And if that wasn’t enough, I did two additions to my ghEtTO Hardware Modifications Column. That can be found here.

Loog just came by and delivered his old Seagate 20GB HDD. So, now that I’m off work 😉 , I’ll be swapping the 4GB Maxtor with the Seagate and researching some more Deus.

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Problem Solved!- SNL’s Nick, the Computer Guy

Yeh… I fixed my game problem 😀 !!! HL, Q3, DS, and Unreal engines, as well as other games, all run now w/ absolutely no locking or blipping. None. How is this possible? Fuckin AGP-4x and shit, yo 😮 .

I just changed my BIOS’ AGP Mode from 4x to 2x (or, disabled 4x)… cause Snake and I’s NorthBridge chipsets don’t support 4x well at all. I had actually thought bout this before, but since it never posed a problem on my GF2 GTS, and enabling it, VIA 4X, and FastWrites w/ NVMax never did either, I hadn’t thought of it. But I figured that it couldn’t be a problem w/ my only-19-month-old mobo, and I knew games worked w/ Snake’s ViperII… so the mobo wasn’t the problem. So yeh… I kinda wasted $324 on a GF4 Ti4600 and $40 on new RAM (though the best video card available in the entire world isn’t exactly a “waste” to have 😛 )… and I won’t even bother to tell u all the other things I tried to get my games to work unsuccessfully.

So anyway, I’m back on the gaming scene. No more lockups @ Surges, and I can play any game in existence. This couldn’t’ve happened at a better time, either, since I just got my new 80GB HDD for unlimited game space 8) .

To initiate my gaming, I finished (almost) up an HL MOD I got off of the latest PCG disc called Half-Quake. It takes you through an insane asylum, and has some really int elements I’ve never seen in HL before. The menu screen text is all changed, so u have to basically guess as to what does what. “Die on…” is load game, “downstairs” is resume game, “internal error” is ok, and I forget the rest. There’s things like having to crowbar through 20 pieces of glass, maps where gunshots and creature sounds echo (making it quite scary if you’ve ever played a marines game like Opposing Force), and jumping through portals leading you to your seemingly imminent death. But above all was a level that made you the camera, onlooking a Barney guard (you) at a distance (modified 3rd person). You can still turn, move and jump… but you’re far away… it’s really int.


Problem is, if u save during this level and reload, u’re back to 1st person view until u leave a room 😕 . Well, out…

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