Wow, 11 days and no news from Snake! Well, I’ve been busying myself with other tasks. The most notable here at S&L is the totally revamped Columns section, which was done by yours truly as always. It takes a helluva long time to load given that it’s very GUIish, but in the end, it’s very functional. No,that’s not Flash nor is it another Java Applet…that is straight up ingenuity coupled with HTML and a bit of JavaScript. The idea is also that any editor here can write up a new Column at any given time. This should help us produce more in the long run and maybe come up with some new features (such as the “MOD.html” section, the DEMOBOARD, and the POTM).

One of our future editors questioned me today about the next installment of Snake’s GhEttO Hardware Modifications. And, what I’m planning is a short pictorial about what I’ve done previously on the Serpent. Besides that, I can’t really outline the future of my new ghETtO Column. Whenever I feel the urge and the necessity to go gHETto, you’ll hear about it afterwards. Now, onto the NEWS!!!

Here’s a briefing on what’s been posted in the last week on other’s sites that I actively watch:

• There have been 2 news post at the Doom Legacy site. They are announcing the latest version since the funky X-mas Legacy, 1.32b. Check it out, you’ll be quite surprised.
• Acumen has a short preview of some new material on his site. You can read about it here, or simply download it here. Lemme tell you, it rocks!
• Infiltration news is always coveted with me, and they got the latest briefing on the next version, 2.85.5. It will include many fixes, Inf-Lite, and 2 new weapons!
• I have a cat on my ass.
• AEon has a roundup of what the hell he’s been up to for the last month; still no new version, though.
• Realbot is delayed further….poot! There’s quite a bit of information to soak up on the recording system, so I recommend you read up on that.

I read some funny shit the other day on Planet Half-Life. I didn’t even know that they had this section, but it’s called Top Ten Lists and some of it is outright hilarious. The best ones are Crowbar Replacements, Failed Picture of the Day Submissions, and Barney Phrases That Didn’t Make It.

Que and I have been ironing out some of the difficulties of running a Half-Life Server. It seems to not really matter ping-wise if it’s dedicated or not, but by how many players are on. Anything above 10 appears to be stretching his bandwidth to the extreme. If that weren’t enough, the server has to be restarted every 2 hours because of his ISP restrictions. TFC is looking good currently. I’ve made a set of scripts that change some common server settings and I’ve made my own version specialized for remote console control. CS is next to be tested, then FA.

Finally (and because I need to seriously wrap this up), I’m Hot!. Or at least that’s what the Rankpeople stats have been saying for the last two weeks. You may remember the “Dork Project” we were running, well…this is the outcome:

• Snake – You rank equal or higher than 98.2% of other active male members. You’re on Fire! Go get ’em!
• Loogie – You rank equal or higher than 64.2% of other active male members. Better than most.
• Quelog – You rank equal or higher than 69.7% of other active male members. Better than most.
• Gandalf – You rank equal or higher than 46% of other active male members.

There you have it, ladies. Come get me, I’m ready for lovin’! Also, I can’t help but add this little tidbit below. This is the reason Loog’s pic got deactivated. Serious LOLage!!!

Maximum phatness is the theme for today’s post. First, I’ll start off with something that anybody can do and looks really awesome afterwards. If you have an OEM computer, you’ve probably seen that company’s gay logo and name in your system properties (mainly in the system properties in the control panel, but some of it will appear in the System Information program under Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools).

Ok, begin by downloading this file if you don’t have a OEM system, or even if you do, you may want to start with blank templates. Make sure to extract to the Windows>System directory. The file “oemlogo.bmp” is the logo that will appear in your system properties. It should not change from the template size and color depth of 180x114x8. The template’s transparent color is red, but you can change it to whatever you want (just make sure any parts you don’t want seen are transparent). The file oeminfo.ini is pretty straight-forward, just don’t use any quotes around the information you entered. Here’s what my system properties box looks like:

Now for something whacky…I wrote up a Mini-Column with a few pics for a segment that you may have seen on other hardware sites; but I am going to call it Snake’s Ghetto Hardware Modifications. Unlike at Icrontic (formally Apu’s Hardware), though, my mods will hopefully actually work. So, check out my first installment here.

For today, I’ve got some news, a couple good articles to check out, and some rockage.
I noticed in the last few days that every god damn news site has a post about the new WinAmp release. I don’t know what version it is and frankly I couldn’t give less of a shit, but I just wanted to remind you that WinAmp sucks large cock and should not be used. The Module decoder-for one-works like a fat, milky turd and the mp3 decoder has always been bullshit. For Modules, nothing is better than ModPlug Player 1.44, and Sonique 1.9 handles layer3 MPEGs with style and an intense sound.
S&L’s Standing on WinAmp: Sounds like shit.

HAHA, Intel! Looks as if the next core from the losers at Intel will be delayed a few months because of troubles obtaining the 0.13-Micron process. When will they learn that it doesn’t matter how much you crank the clock if your core has the makings of a coffee can? (Remember, though: I got my Pentium3 back when Intel was still tied with AMD in the benchmarks.) Here’s a bit that I found interesting:

“AMD is planning to ramp up its own 0.13-micron processing in Fab 30 in Dresden, Germany, by the end of the year. Analyst Ross said even if Intel is able to launch its 0.13-micron chip production at about the same time as AMD, the rival’s next generation processor chip at 80-mm square would still be 40% smaller than Intel’s 0.13-micron Northwood Pentium 4 at 140-mm square.”

Finally, I saw some of the best hardware advertising on [H]ardOCP, today. In fact, it gives me some “hardware” of my own. See for yourself, they’re just amazing. Kyro II Ad

Tweak3D has been delivering more than enough crappy articles recently (i.e. a Ford Taurus Tweak Guide…wtf?). There was one that some people might need to read for an easy to understand
overview of heatsinks. Half of it is bullshit about how good the Alpha heatsink is, though.

This isn’t an article, but I recommend you download the last Infiltration radio show. That shit is quite humorous but still grants all the latest on what’s to come with INF. There has also been another news post yesterday, check it.

Ok, this is the absolute last thing for today…Loogie and I rocked on our favorite CS server yesterday (more I then Loog, but he was still kicking ass). I’m gonna start making our previous rank pages on GameDomain’s stat system available on our server just for a moral boost. Here are two screenshots from last night:

Just some stuff you might enjoy for my post today:
1: I just read an article at [H]ardOCP about the next Windows…Windows XP. It’s about the piracy protection they will add to it. I’m not saying that I’m gonna be impressed by XP or at most wanna use it, but it’s good to keep an eye on Microsoft always. The most important thing to notice is

“We’ve determined that a crack will be out for this method of activation within one week after RTM, but this is not to stop those guys. This is to stop the casual piracy of Windows, and I think it will be a viable solution. Bottom line is you should pay for the software you use.”

The article/letter can be found here.

2: I collected up all the phat Infiltration wallpapers for viewers to download from our site instead of searching for them on the INF Team News. The models and texture work is awesome on all these guns. It makes a pleasant start to your fragging day to see 2 FN FiveSevens laying on your screen, makes you feel like playing some Counter-Strike. (These are at 800×600; so if you want larger versions, have fun hunting on the Infiltration Site.) Enjoy, and make sure to save them as Bitmaps (Windows supports JPEG wallpapers, but I’ve found them to be bothersome):

3: The new DEMOBOARD format is complete…Loog just has to plug it all in (be about a month). All the graphic work was done by yours truly, so expect some good shit. Also, I’ve been getting a lot of comments on my new official (yes, it’s official) S&L photo. Lemme see…it’s been called “imposing”, “great”, “excellent”, and “sexy…”. You can see it on my staff page as well as the Photo Album. Have a good day and…

Frag on!!!

As Snake says, “Deaglized!” And that’s right, I just tore it up with my deagle in Cobble (map in Counter-Strike). It was just me and 4 enemies left. First, I M4ed this L337 in the T tower, losing like 50 health in the process. One he was down, I crossed over the bridge and heard the remaining enemies in the middle area, behind the huge opened doors. I shot at one with my M4, but I finished up a clip. When I was reloading, 2 of them charged out the door at me, and I poppsed off the remaining 9 or so rounds in my gun right into one of them. So then it was pistol time- and I had a Desert Eagle. I shot 3 rounds into another L337, but by now all 3 enemies were surrounding me out in the open. 2 more rounds to kill the L337, and then I started strafing like mad- but for no reason! Literally, all 3 were shooting but none of them hit me. Anyway, then I used just 5 more rounds (with one reload) to kill the last 2 llamas.

Here’s the console text when it was all over, and the ending screen (I’ve had better overall, I got 21/14 on Inferno yesterday and 18/5 on Aztec a few weeks ago):