Wednesday, September 13, 2017
Sunday, September 10, 2017
Saturday, September 9, 2017
The Kiss of Love and Revenge Part 5
The Kiss of Love and Revenge Part 5
Jeff here! Got another chapter! WHOOP!
Batoto link
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Wednesday, September 6, 2017
Tuesday, September 5, 2017
The Firefox Add ons Almanac Part 1
The Firefox Add ons Almanac Part 1
To make up for yesterdays short post, todays will be a very long one. You probably wont want to read it all, so here are the contents if you want to scroll down to the important bits:
1. Downloads:
- Schedule
- YouTube
- Management
- Weather
- Language
As you might have guessed, this post is about Firefox Add-ons. There are loads of them available but which should you choose? To save time searching, here are the reviews:
Downloads:
Downloading is all about management. When do you download? Where did those files save to? How do I save a video?
Download Scheduler
If youve download a big file youll know how your connection lags out while its going on. How about scheduling them for another time? Download Scheduler does this for you. All you have to do is right click the download link and choose Schedule Link As... and choose where you want it saved. You can then set up the add-on preferences to choose when to start (and stop) the download.
Easy Youtube Video Downloader
Its common to find a great YouTube video and think "I wish I could download this", but theres no built-in support in Firefox. Easy Youtube Video Downloader shows a download button at the bottom of the video, inline with the other options. You can choose between MP4 and FLV, in a range of qualities. The beauty of this is that you can even use it with Download Scheduler to save at a certain time.
Easy Youtube Video Downloader fits in well with YouTubes interface
Download Statusbar
If you often have lots of downloads running at once its easy to lost track of whats going on. Download Statusbar fixes this by replacing the default Firefox downloader with a user-friendly toolbar showing exactly whats going on. Its very unobtrusive and even has a Mini Mode if you think the toolbar is too big. This add-on even works with the above 2, making these download add-ons a great combination.
Utilities:
Firefox is more than just a browser for looking at webpages. You can use it to be your weatherman or translator and more.
ForecastFox
Firefox has a whole range of weather add-ons and theyre all reliable the only difference is how they present the information. ForecastFox has a great toolbar to show the current weather in a very simple format, and uses AccuWeather to give a fill forecast for the day or week. Its easy to set up as when you first start this add-on youll be asked your location and preferences, so anyone can do it.
FoxLingo
This add-on has a whole set of language tools to your browser. You can translate, look up or convert to speech with just a few clicks. FoxLingo has some advertisements when setting up, and the layout isnt great, but its a very useful tool for foreign sites or just with words you dont understand.
Part 2 will come early next week.
If you often have lots of downloads running at once its easy to lost track of whats going on. Download Statusbar fixes this by replacing the default Firefox downloader with a user-friendly toolbar showing exactly whats going on. Its very unobtrusive and even has a Mini Mode if you think the toolbar is too big. This add-on even works with the above 2, making these download add-ons a great combination.
Utilities:
Firefox is more than just a browser for looking at webpages. You can use it to be your weatherman or translator and more.
ForecastFox
Firefox has a whole range of weather add-ons and theyre all reliable the only difference is how they present the information. ForecastFox has a great toolbar to show the current weather in a very simple format, and uses AccuWeather to give a fill forecast for the day or week. Its easy to set up as when you first start this add-on youll be asked your location and preferences, so anyone can do it.
FoxLingo
This add-on has a whole set of language tools to your browser. You can translate, look up or convert to speech with just a few clicks. FoxLingo has some advertisements when setting up, and the layout isnt great, but its a very useful tool for foreign sites or just with words you dont understand.
Part 2 will come early next week.
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Thursday, August 31, 2017
THE LIST PART THREE
THE LIST PART THREE
Its been a while since I released the 2nd part of The List and people are asking every day when the new, 3rd part, is coming out. Well, here you go.
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| SK.INSOMNIA |
SK.INSOMNIA is legendary Human player from Bulgaria. I decided to open this part with him because he is the first winner of World Cyber Games festival which is considered to be the strongest Warcraft 3 competition.
He won it in 2003 in unexpected Human mirror finals versus ChinaHuman. Apart from winning this amazing title, Zdravko won few others big tournaments and all of that under SK gaming clan tag.
He is considered to be the pioneer in fast expansion strategies which tormented other race players in his era who had no clue how to stop them. He also became popular of his standard way of playing and one of few players who always played with ground units such as Knights and Priests against Orc players who were owning any ground army with their bloodlusted Taurens.
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| GOSU.POWA |
Also known as EgZoN or xOni, this brilliant Undead player is originally from Albania. During the most popular and the strongest Reign of Chaos ladder era which happened from 1.15-1.18 he held rank 1 few times reaching 54 level as his maximum.
With brilliant stats and strong way of playing he was considered to be as one of the best players at that time. His playstyle was similar to eS.Rus. Making fiends in literally every game he plays and using his micro game and good timings he was very hard to beat on the old map pool. By old map pool I am referring to maps such as Plunder Isle and Scorched Basin which were a bit different than they are now and didnt go so much in favor of Night elf players which was the only race that could have an advantage with its ranged units.
His trademark is Dreadlord as first hero plus fiends strategy. This strategy became so popular that at one point of the time all Undead players were going for it. Specially on Legends.
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| ORC-OWNAGE |
This brilliant Orc player comes from Russia. He was the first player to hit level 50 after 1.14. He is the one who also found his way to substitute Caster strategies which were main part of Orcs strategies before the Big Patch. He perfected Tower Creeping on every ladder map. From Lost Temple to Scorched Basin, he was literally unstoppable. After that he would always switch to Wyverns which annoyed his opponents who called these strategies "cookies".
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| HATE-LOVE-ANGER |
HLA comes from Germany and his main race is Undead. He had short era with each race and different periods in his gaming career. He first became "famous" on his accounts aslog/glosa on which he used to maphack but after being caught several times and after getting desire for recognition from the community he stopped cheating and started to practice in order to become player he wanted to become.
After 1 year of hard practice he was able to beat any top player from that time. He changed his attitude on the most famous replays website - Replayers from very rude to very polite. People started to like him very much and soon he became on of the most loved players of this game. At one period me and HLA had our own Warcraft 3 Roc players school in which we learned young and not so experienced players to become good. His best teammate was young German player ReignOfDark.
After hitting the highest strives in ROC he switched to TFT. There he had shown that he has great mindset and strong character. He was constantly learning and improving his gameplay and finally joined great German organization called Raptor-Gaming.
He used to make short comebacks to ROC during 1.21-1.24 and on one account he was able to make 50/0 solo stats.
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| PUMPPAAJA-EKI |
Pumpa is Undead player from Finland. He started to play ladder actively somewhere in 1.16 and soon became one of the most popular Undead players of that time. His highest level was 54.
Winning numerous tournaments in the past and in the present, with calm approach to his opponents and mannered behavior, Pumpa is one of the most loved and respected players in our community. His biggest ally is his countryman Draakki and he won several Replayers Clan leagues with his clans.
In the past he used to switch to TFT and now he playing for clan called DkH.
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| BEN_MAGIC |
Ben is from France and he plays Night elf. Even tho he switched to Random often referring to Night elf players as noobs who can only go for META. Pretty funny because that is the strategy that made him popular.
Still, he is one of the best Night elf players of this game. After strong era ended in 1.18 Ben started to play ladder and on his account YourDeathThere he had level 52 with 250/27 solo stats. Pretty amazing.
Not stopping there he won several major tournaments in www.w3roc.com organization, beating legendary Night elf player from Australia Philbot. He was the player with the most titles in my W3CUP until RapiNG overttook that record recently.
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| AKM_MANERED_MAN |
Also known as ZiZo this Human player comes from Russia. It is certain that he became very good after he switched to TFT. Before that he was just an ordinary, middle skill human player without any achievements.
Still, massive gaming in TFT and practice made an amazing player out of him. It is obvious that talent was always there. On his TFT account LVL96PRIESTLEFDP he used to hit rank 1 few times.
However, his main ROC account is often related to his maphack buddy called Fynn who often played and faked his "friend" and by doing this ruined his good reputation.
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| MENTOR |
Mentor is a movie maker. With his Replayers Rockerz series he made great games last forever and the moves made in the eternal. With great dedication and a lot of time that he put in creating these masterpieces he contributed to the community in enormous way. You can check for the links of his videos in the tab "Neat media".
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The Notes UI and Sending a Link to a File Part 2
The Notes UI and Sending a Link to a File Part 2
Thanks to everyone who responded yesterday. Ive considered and tested the responses to find the method which will be simplest for our users.
What follows is a set of instructions....
We start our instructions by identifying the file we want to link to. Often for me, this will be a MPEG, AVI or giant PDF (because why else would you link rather than attach?) but in this example, Im just using a MS Word Document.
You can see my path here is:
M:DeptIT2010DevelopmentExtraNetConcepts
and my file name is
Proposed Extranet Login Systems.doc
Thus; my entire path and filename would be;
M:DeptIT2010DevelopmentExtraNetConceptsProposed Extranet Login Systems.doc
Already by working the actual filespec out were stepping slightly beyond the boundaries of the typical user.
Next, we type our email and highlight the words we want to link to a file;
Then we click the new "LINK" icon in Notes 8.5
This gives us a nice little box in which to type our URL. If this was a web link, it would be easy. Of course, being a file link, its a different story.You might think that at this point, you could simply paste a link to;
M:DeptIT2010DevelopmentExtraNetConceptsProposed Extranet Login Systems.doc
but youd be wrong. Notes will throw this out to the operating system as a URL. If your browser accepts all kinds of different URLs, (like Google Chrome does - and I presume future browsers will) then it wont know what protocol to use.
Just pasting the path in caused a lot of problems for me.
So... this is what you need to do to modify your URL.
- Prefix it with file://
- Change all backslashes to forward slashes (actually this should happen automatically).
Your new URL should look like this;
file://M:/Dept/IT/2010/Development/ExtraNet/Concepts/Proposed Extranet Login Systems.doc
Paste your new URL in and send your email. It should all work. Well, mostly work... If your users have firefox, you might discover that it actually blocks local links for security reasons unless you use these workarounds.
Im not sure whether to provide these instructions for my users or not. In my opinion, its still too difficult for them. I guess it wouldnt be too hard to create a button which did it - or even better, if IBM were to adjust the links button in future versions of Notes to allow browsing and selecting files on local resources.
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Wednesday, August 30, 2017
The Kiss of Love and Revenge Part 7
The Kiss of Love and Revenge Part 7
Jeff here! Got the last part of the sports max fight!
Batoto link
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Monday, August 28, 2017
Sunday, August 27, 2017
The Ugly Americans Guide To Britain Part 1
The Ugly Americans Guide To Britain Part 1
(When Im not writing games, I love to travel foreign lands and write snarky and occasionally helpful journals about what I saw. This is one of six articles about my recent two-week trip through Britain. Some of the content is a little more adult that what I put on this blog. If you are below sixteen or so, you should go here. Anything offensive should be blamed on jet lag hallucinations.)
In June, my wife and I went to the United Kingdom for a two week vacation. We did not take our two young daughters with us as we wanted to, you know, have fun.
Whenever we tell people we meet on the road that we left our two girls at home, we get a funny look, a mix of sympathy and harsh judgment. How, they wonder, could anyone leave adorable little moppets at home, when they could be here, costing lots of money and keeping us from ever focusing on anything for one minute without squealing, "Were bored!" in perfect unison. It is a mystery. But I digress.
Though we have visited many foreign lands, going to Britain is a unique pleasure for two reasons. First, my wife and I were exposed to Monty Python and Doctor Who at an impressionable age and are thus lifelong anglophiles. And, second, Britain has not, for the most part, subscribed to the irritating and pernicious affectation of speaking languages other than English.
We are writing these journals as a way of sharing our experiences, to teach the reader something about this mysterious and exotic land. And, of course, to make fun of it.
General Notes on Britain, Set the First
First off, were going to Britain. Or the U.K. It is not a vacation in England. That is because we are also going to Scotland, and the Scots can get rather tetchy when you refer to them as English. And then they will punch you, because they are drunk.
We are traveling using the Rick Steves philosophy, as described in his Europe Through the Backdoor series. According to him, we are supposed to strive to have a "backdoor experience" when we travel, where you meet with the locals and bond with them and understand their ways. I dont know why Im going along with this, as I do not, in fact, like people. I think its because, try as I might, I just cant stop giggling whenever he says, "backdoor experience."
Heh. Backdoor experience.
Anyway. Britain. They drive on the left side of the road there. This scares many tourists into not renting a car, even though the really scary part of this isnt the driving. It is the walking. Already, several times, I have, in my practiced city way, reached a street, looked to the left, saw no cars, stepped into the street, and thought, "Oh. I could have just been killed." Both driving and walking are insanely dangerous. Just hide in your B&B and try to digest your pork-laden British breakfast. Its for the best.
Stop 1 - Bath
Pronounced "Bahth."
Bath was, in Roman days, a religious and leisure center, and Romans came from miles around to bathe in natural springs there. They went to take baths. Thus, Bath. A literal-minded people, the British are.Then, in the 1700s, it became the fashionable place to be, and kings and lords, mistresses in tow, came to wear fashionable clothes and take the waters and prance and gad about. About this time, many gorgeous buildings, houses and shops and whatnot, were built. Time went on, but the buildings remain, because if you live in one of the pretty tourist-friendly buildings, you cant change anything inside or outside without official permission.
Its a gorgeous city, really lovely and fun to walk through. And Bath is determined to keep everything beautiful so that five hundred years from now, humans (or radioactive cockroaches) will be able to come here and feast their eyes (or chitonous sense-appendages) upon their beauty. Its a huge tourist destination, and, like Venice, its lousy with tourists all the time.
The people of Bath seemed to have a real pride in their city and a desire to show it off, which I found really charming. Apart from the ruins of the Roman baths, the main tourist attraction is the free two hour walking tour, where the city gets explained and shown off by an elite cadre of local volunteers. They walk you around, explain the architecture, and get hilariously angry over some plate glass windows that got installed in the 1860s, or a few oak trees that got planted well over two centuries ago.
Its really not like the US, where a 30 year roof is considered a serious investment. Everything there, even new stuff, is built out of huge blocks of stone in the 1700s style, and made to last, like, forever. When I asked the guide about it, he got a little defensive, as if he thought the Yank was going to pick an argument about it, but I totally wasnt. All of the buildings there are held in trust by the residents, and they want the citizens of Bath centuries from now to be able to have the same lovely town/tourist destination. You may buy a house, but youre only borrowing it from posterity. Itll be here long after youre gone. If you paint your 18th century townhouse purple, you arent just being an idiot now. Youre screwing the tourist trade for centuries to come.
But I cant work my head around your town being this eternal thing. When you move in, youre just the next tenant in a long line, and youll be there in that stone shell until you die and they scrape you out and someone else gets slotted in, and so on forever. Having grown up in a disposable world, its a really fascinating thing to see, but a place where every single window and fence is older than my entire country is very unnerving.
Stonehenge
Several companies offer day or half-day bus trips from Bath to nearby sights. We took one to Stonehenge, because you have to. We dutifully got the audio tour and walked around the big mossy rocks and got sunburnt and there were sheep everywhere and it was very nice.
Nobody knows why Stonehenge was built, but the audio tour helpfully gave a full selection of theories. One of them was, I swear to god, that Satan built it because Merlin asked him to. I feel that even bringing up this nonsense was a violation of the sacred trust between an audio guide and my ear. Look, I dont want to come across as Mr. 21st Century Super-Rational Know-It-All, but, while I dont know who built Stonehenge, I am reasonably confident that it wasnt Satan.
Also, the bus tour showed us many houses that still have actual thatched roofs. This is taking the history preservation thing way too far. Once the roofing material of choice for the seriously poor, thatched roofs are now insanely expensive to maintain. And yet, they do. So pillory me for having a closed mind, but I going to draw the line here at living under a shelter of black, rotting, delightfully flammable straw.
Our bus tour also went to a small village called Lacock, which is being preserved in as close to its original, charming, medieval appearance as possible. They cant have satellite dishes, but the houses all have cable, so they dont have to live like animals. Its very scenic, and lots of TV and movies get filmed there. Theres a million old buildings on the isle of Britain, but very few of them ever got to be Harry Potters house.I should have appreciated the village more, but I was too busy giggling, in my unendingly juvenile way, over the pronunciation of the towns name. Its Lay-Cock. Heh. Anyway, the town is very pretty, and you should drive there. Its on the A350, between Ballmouth and Oralshire.
Fun Britain Fact #1
The British are completely addicted to tea, but they dont call it tea. They call it "skag." Just say, "I am really desperate for some skag," and everyone will nod knowingly.
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Thursday, August 24, 2017
The Trolls of Borderlands 1 Part 1
The Trolls of Borderlands 1 Part 1
So my friends and I decided to record some Borderlands gameplay clips. The result is an amalgam of hilarious tomfoolery that borders on the creepy. Heres Part 1:
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Thursday, August 17, 2017
The Ugly Americans Guide To Britain Part 3
The Ugly Americans Guide To Britain Part 3
(One more vacation journal, and then Ill go back to writing about games for a while. When Im not making games, I love to travel foreign lands and write snarky and occasionally helpful journals about what I saw. This is the third article about my recent two-week trip through Britain. Some of the content is a little more adult that what I put on this blog. If you are below sixteen or so, you should go here. Anything offensive or misguided should be blamed on the dysfunctional American educational system.)
General Notes on Britain, Set the Third
Despite the islands reputation, we have eaten a lot of really delicious food here. Thats not to say there isnt a lot of terrible food here. Im sure there is, but thats true everywhere. Ive eaten a lot of totally crap food in France and Italy.
But if you keep your eyes open and choose carefully, there is a lot of deliciousness, even in pubs. And it makes sense. Britain has excellent meat (most of it grass-fed), great fruits and vegetables, fantastic cheese, and really tasty candy bars. My advice if looking for good food? Look for a place that brags that its ingredients are "locally sourced." That means that at least its heart is in the right place.
Also, we have started each days with the legendary, much feared
English Breakfasts. Its pretty much the default tourist chow at any B&B you care to name. Its an egg, a sausage link, a piece of bacon, a roasted tomato, tinned beans, toast, OJ, and the caffeine of your choice. And black pudding, if the place is awesome.It sounds scary, but its really not. Laid out on the plate, it is, by American standards, a pretty modest meal. Hell, Ive picked less food than that out of my teeth and belly folds before I go to bed. But its a jolt of protein and energy thats perfect for powering you through 12 hours of high-octane touristing. The one day I went without it, I was headachy and miserable by the end of the afternoon. So I am addicted.
Also, speaking of giant jolts of fat. I am very pleased to say that, after vacations being intimidated by the delicate and gazelle-like French, I have to say that the English are of a body build I am ... lets say, more familiar with. As a picked-last-for-sports tubbenheimer from back in the day, I feel very at home here.
Stop 3 - York
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York is, even by British standards, old. It was a major Roman fort and local capitol. They built big walls around it. Then the Normans took it over and made the walls bigger. Then the English came along and made the walls bigger. Most of those walls are still there, albeit with big holes in them. But I met a Scot who knows a guy who knows a guy who can fix those holes for thirty quid.When youre in York, everywhere you go, you can turn and see ancient walls and parapets and arrowslits and murder holes. So, for a Dungeons & Dragons goober like me from back in the day, being there was like a 36 hour orgasm.
York is very generously laid out for the sore-footed tourist, as just about everything an outsider would want to see is inside the city walls, in one small, easily traversed clump. There is the expected street after street of gorgeous old architecture. Wood buildings that somehow survived from the middle ages. Rows of Victorian townhouses. A working portcullis by the east gate. (Squeee!)
Visiting towns like this, its easy to imagine that all of the British live like this, in gorgeous, architecturally interesting five story houses. They dont. Actually, a huge chunk of them live in cruddy flats, like we do, sitting on the couch, watching boobies on the lookybox (again, the British word for a "telly") and eating pie.
But then again, looking out the window of the train, I have seen countless developments of row after row of brick houses with heavy tile roofs, each of them built like a brick shithouse, if that brick shithouse was then expanded into a full house. Even their suburbs have great age-envy. Their 20th century houses havent been around for 500 years, but they look pretty good for lasting the next 500.
Anyway. York. Like Bath, much of the fun was just walking around and gawking. Seeing a six hundred year old building slumping lazily toward the street is always amusing. But the two name-attractions for us were York Minster and the Castle Museum.
York Minster is a gothic cathedral, the largest of its kind in northern Europe. Apparently, there are people out there who get super-excited about cathedrals, but Im not an aficionado.
York Minster was started in the 13th century and only finished 250 years later (isnt that just like contractors?), full of cool art and medieval stained glass. Its also full of history. For example, its where Edward the First ("Longshanks" to you, because nicknames were awesome back then) convened parliament to figure out how to kill Mel Gibson before he could impregnate his daughter, or something. I dont know. All the kings and wars and sieges are starting to get a little bit tangled for me. At this point, whenever a tour guide shows me a wall or alley or something, I just say, "Did dudes get killed here?" and hes, like, "Totally!", and I nod and take a picture and we move on. Theres a gorgeous shard of ruined abbey wall sticking out of the ground, from when Henry the 18th destroyed it to save Catholocism from the Huns, or something. Im sure thats what my guide said, but I think the English breakfasts are giving me ham-hallucinations.
If youre going to England, you should know that at no point in the last thousand years has a week gone by without a civil war or beheaded queen or pope-stabbing or Celtic insurrection. Do not, under any circumstances, try to keep any of it straight. If you try to figure out the difference between Henry the Third and Richard the Twelfth and Edward the Umpty-Tumpth, you will go mad, and anyway all that intrigue was made up to sound good for the tourists. Mary, Queen of Scots actually has as much historical reality as the Loch Ness Monster. In reality, from 1000 AD to 1900 AD, Britain was ruled in constant peace and tranquility by a secret circle of elves. So, now that you know that, you can let all the stabbings and dethronings wash over you without letting them worry you too much.
Anyway. York Minster. Almost every day, they have a free Evensong service (a lot of cathedrals do this, by the way), where you can sit in the grandeur and listen to a gorgeous sung service. Now, its officially church, so you have to be respectful and stand and sit when they tell you to and pretend to pray, but its very cool and itll make you feel in touch with the centuries of violent crazy people that came before you, and I highly recommend it.
Oh, and its free. They dont charge admission for church, which kind of makes sense.
The other stop we truly enjoyed was the Castle Museum. Its in a castle, not about castles. It is a museum dedicated to displaying every detail of life in Victorian and 20th century times. There are displays about housework, and mourning, and the home front in WW2, and the sixties, and so on, complete with antiques and highly detailed recreations of rooms from the times. This sort of thing can be horrible, but the place was completely fascinating.
I also found it very helpful. Most of my fun comes from sitting around and listening to adorable accents. After listening to adults for a while, I felt that listening to small children talking in their cheery little pip pip tally-ho voices would be the living end. So I considered hanging out outside a school when it lets out, but then it occured to me that any plan that begins with "Hang out near the school when it lets out" might be ill-considered.
But the Castle Museum was full of flocks of British schoolchildren, walking in lines in their uniforms and being educated and bored. It was adorable. So that was covered.
One of the big reliefs on the trip has been that, even in very touristy cities, unless you are actually in a museum or other attraction, the vast majority of the people on the street are locals. People live here! I went to a great deal of effort and expense to go somewhere and be a foreigner. I see Americans fat, slack-jawed faces all the time, thank you very much. When I travel, I want to see the dull, pallid faces of unappealing strangers from all around the globe.
Fun British Fact #3
The U.K. currently has a huge problem with alcoholism. This is an actual true fact. However, this does have the happy side-effect that the drunken idiots who paraded shouting past your hotel room at 3 in the morning were probably locals, not ugly Americans. So dont be ashamed!
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Thursday, August 10, 2017
THE LIST PART FOUR
THE LIST PART FOUR
In the last few days I realized how much action I missed while I was on my holiday. I am going to wait until I find out more about these popular troll dischackers so I can make a good and valid post in my fashion.
Until then I decided to do the fourth part of my big list which is getting closer and closer to the end which makes me super happy mostly because some folks who are asking me everyday when I am going to post the next part will get the objects of their desire. Enjoy!
Until then I decided to do the fourth part of my big list which is getting closer and closer to the end which makes me super happy mostly because some folks who are asking me everyday when I am going to post the next part will get the objects of their desire. Enjoy!
Before I start with these legendary names I want to share something with you. I had this problem when I was deciding which name will open this part. As you know, each part was opened with some heavy weight champion who was the best in his own time. After thinking I decided to give the hammer to the player who is being the best for the past 5 years.
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| S_A_I_B_O_T |
Tobi is an Undead player from Sweden. He is been dear friend of mine for the past 7 years. In his, now long and rich, ROC career he accomplished everything that one player is able to accomplish. Being rank 1 on numerous accounts, setting modern META games for each race on each map, beating great players with funny strategies and winning all possible tournaments and leagues in team with the best players who all have great respect toward him or individually. Since the end of 2005 he has been the leading role of our community, playing one of the two least popular races and bringing the Madfrog spirit back in the business. This continuation through years, a character that always reminded me of HATE-LOVE-ANGER and the emotion that community has toward him made me open this fourth part of my list with him. Players like him are the reason that we still can play and enjoy this beautiful game. He is also creator of the now very popular tournament map Rift Valley and teammate of Miss57, RapiNGs little sister.
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| EYEOFTHEDRUID |
Vincent is an Orc player from Holland. He was one of the best Orcs during the golden era who had really an unique style of playing. Tower creeping, then upgrading base to Tier 3 only to get Tier 1 unit - Headhunter, backed up with load of mastered Casters. All of that combined with 3 well crept heroes represented army that was able to beat anything. With these strategies he climbed to rank 1 several times being of the the players who were holding level 54. After hitting these sick levels he focused on gathering the best players of that time under one roof creating legendary clans. The most remembered one was clan LiQd where he was the chieftain and shamans were names like HLA, Ojune, Ruslan, Yogg and me. Creation of these clans during 2005 will give other figures chance to connect the best players and involve more players in community discussions on Replayers and other websites.
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| REIGNOFDARK |
During that 2005, or was it 2004, cant really remember, there was a guy Pr0)gamer or something very similar who was very dear friend of all high level ladder players including myself. We used to hang out in channels and play AT when we werent playing Solo. After few months he told us that his little brother, who was barely 13 at that time, is playing ROC as well. Group of us were laughing at the age of this little gamer but when he started to play solo and make level 45 with 200/40 Solo stats we were astonished. This amazing kid was ReignOfDark, legendary Night elf player from Germany who changed the META game of NE, adding Dryad to his unit combo. Yea, you cant feel good about him now but you have to give him credit because that was the era of the talons and archers. Later, Reign will become the best mate with HLA and will join TFT organization - Raptor gaming where he will have some success.
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| RAPING |
I call him Tito and I also call him - Boy from the bracket. . He is from France, his main race is Night elf even tho he is actively playing Random for the past year or so. If you asked me if RapiNG will be in this list year ago I would probably tell you that chances for that to happen are very low. However, Tito became a tournament beast and that is why I decided to give him such nickname. For the past year he won more than 50 tournament titles in tournaments and he is by far the most successful player of this format. He holds the title record in W3CUP, nS tournaments and trollarena tournaments. Winning the first season of Lone Wolf just proves that he painted last year with his colors.
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| YOGG |
Roger is an Orc player from Holland. During the 1.14 era he connected with some decent players and build up his account by playing AT games with them in the way that wannabes were playing it in the old AMM system. Since there was not abusing like now so you are able to meet newbies and other abusers and by that to build up your account there was a way to play 1 or maximum 2 games with different allies and by doing this to always meet the lowest players which meant 0 risk of losing. That is how he built an amazing account which was very important at that time to show off in KeKo. However, he was never amazing player. After clan LiQd got disbanned because each strong figure wanted to have his own clan, Yogg created clan GGx and became an admin on Replayers. The bright side of his admin career were several showmatches, KOTH (King of the hill) competitions, first ROC clan league and active battle.net channel. The dark side were ignorant behavior toward the community, lack of site activity, controversy between admins and other websites at that time www.w3roc.com which all led to Replayers getting closed for several months. This almost killed the community which was already chopped and have put Yogg and his fellow admin mates Jammeh and other in oblivion and eternal inactivity. Still, this great ex-friend of mine did have one of the big roles in creating the ROC moral and the standards of behaving and functioning in the community.
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| BIGS |
Also known by his first name - Han or his most notable account of the past years - Jawohl-, biGs is Swiss player with Asian origins. His main race was Orc with which he climbed to the top 20 of TFT once but ROC community remembers him as a Human player even tho he didnt have more than 500 human games in his gaming career. Such opinion that community created of him was idealized and inspired by his best mate behavior on the website he used to lead as an administrator - Yogg. Every time Han would participate an event that he created Yogg would announce him as a 5 hand and 6 eyed beast who play Warcraft 3, Football and Paintball at the same time. Future generations of players will, because of this, talk about Han as a myth without being in the center of the action to witness his real capabilities and skill level. On his account Lt]biGs that he played ROC Solo ladder in 2005 he had stats 70/5 and lost 3 games versus me, flamed in the way that nobody believed that he has such temper. Ever since we havent met in ladder nor played in any league, showmatch or competition. Even tho he wasnt very lucky versus me he used to beat all great players and had success in TFT as well. Even I dont consider him to be what the biggest part of community believes - a great Human player, mostly because he played Rifle-Caster in a boring and standard way with 0 improvisation, I cant deny the fact that he was one of the most sharp Orc players. Now he is successfully playing SC2.
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Sunday, August 6, 2017
The Ugly Americans Guide To Britain Part 2
The Ugly Americans Guide To Britain Part 2
(When Im not writing games, I love to travel foreign lands and write snarky and occasionally helpful journals about what I saw. This is the second of five articles about my recent two-week trip through Britain. Some of the content is a little more adult that what I put on this blog. If you are below sixteen or so, you should go here. Anything offensive should be blamed on a hormonal imbalance caused by too much haggis.)
General Notes on Britain, Set the Second
People in Britain have an accent. And, by that, I mean that they have about 400 accents. While watching the telly (or, as they call it, the "Looky Box"), I saw a comedian do a bit about how everything sounds more reassuring in a Manchester accent. So there is a Manchester accent, and that means something. Societies that develop on islands can get a little bit odd.
Still, just listening to people talk is one of the funnest things about coming here. I simply cant get tired of it. My main attraction is going to a pub (which is not difficult, as every building is a pub) and listening. I also try to talk to people, but I have to be careful and not say any of my opinions about the ridiculousness of soccer or how cute it is that they have, get this, a queen. Otherwise I might say the wrong thing, and someone might hear me and be feeling all drinky-punchy, and Ill hear someone behind me shout, "Oi!" Which is British for, "Pardon me, but I am about to give your ass a truly extensive kicking."
The language on this island is an intriguing dialect of English. They have lots of funny words for things. For example, the primary currency is the "pound", but they will often refer to it as a "squid." A sample conversation might go: "Can you give me change for this squid?" "Sure, luv. Here are one guinea, three farthings, two bob, a crown, six hapennies, a half crown, a mega-crown, a mecha crown, and a pennywhistle." "Thats not enough! There should be another farthing. You have cheated me, mlord." "Oi!" "(Sound of face being punched.)"
Also, the British, like most of the rest of the world, love a sport called soccer. I got to watch them watch a World Cup match where their team fought Algeria to a scorching, hard-fought 0-0 tie.I know. I know. While Im there, Im supposed to call it "Football." But, if you live in the U.S. and are in the U.S., calling soccer "football" is truly affected.
Also, football sounds like it should be the name of a cool, kick-ass, exciting sport. Any sport where a 0-0 outcome is not only plausible but, in fact, common isnt sweet enough to have an awesome name like Football. Soccer isnt even cool enough to be called Soccer. I think it should have a more appropriate name, like "Fancy-pants grass-prancing."
I also got to be there when Germany beat England 4-1 in what was, based on the media reaction, the worst thing to ever happen to anyone anywhere. Apparently, England scored an unquestionable goal that would have tied up the game, but it was disallowed because the referee wasnt close enough to get a good look at it and there is no goal referee and no instant replay review. Hey, just because its the most popular sport in the world doesnt mean they should drop a few extra bucks to actually get the thing officiated properly. After a couple weeks of exposure both to the alleged entertainment of World Cup soccer and to the people who love it, Ive come to the conclusion that I could like soccer, except that I dont hate myself enough.
Stop 2 - Edinburgh
Before I star
t, I have to send a quick message out to the Scottish people.I cant understand a goddamn word any of you are saying.
This is not to be taken as a criticism. I love ya, baby. Dont ever change. I am instead saying it as a way of fostering greater understanding between our peoples. I would only point out that the Scottish crime thriller Sweet Sixteen, which came out in 2002, had to have subtitles, and it was entirely in English.
I may be exaggerating here slightly. Most of the time, I could kind of understand what Scottish people were saying. But there is something about that accent that just lends itself to being dialed up to 11.
But I still completely love listening to it. I could listen to Scottish people talk all day, and since all of them that I met seemed inclined to talk all day, we were a good fit. For example, when my wife and I were sitting in the park, a crazy old woman just in from her tiny village in western Scotland, sat down next to us and started telling us all of her racist terrorism conspiracy theories, I just sat, back, relaxed, and let her brogue wash over me. Sure, her thick accent made it impossible for me to tell exactly what she was saying about the Jews. (My guess? Not a fan.) But it was still lovely until she started explaining how Barack Obama was a secret Muslim terrorist. Then we lied about our urgent dinner reservations and ran off. Sorry, crazy Scottish lady. We get enough of that particular shit at home.
Also, I have pretty much fallen in love with Scottish women. Bear in mind I am only writing based on my own personal observations, but they are all completely punk and scary and thoroughly tattoed and hot and ready to cut you at a moments notice. Im not saying I want to be 20 and single again but, if in some horrible Twilight Zone future I was, I would save up my pennies and hop a flight to Edinburgh. Then, in a bar somewhere, Id catch the eye of some pierced lass and wed talk and Id swoon and the next three days would be a blur and Id wake up in a bathtub full of ice with a broken heart and no kidneys.
Yes, the northern half of this island is pretty scrappy. Their women all look ready to get to it and breed the next generation of Scottish warriors. And yet, Scotlands birth rate is very low. Perhaps, inspired by the arachnid, they eat the livers of those they love in moments of unguarded coital enthusiasm. The theory sounds crazy until you see these women. Theyre pretty awesome.
And believe me, the Scottish dont mess about. Edinburgh Castle isnt just some frou frou toy castle where nobles ponce about at each other. Thats one of those ancient occasionally-razed-to-the-ground spires where the shit gets real for real. And the National Museum of Scotland is a glorious and unapologetic monument to all things Scottish. Not just Roman artifacts but plants and stuffed animals and the curling stone they used to win a gold medal but also plenty of swords and thumbscrews and The Maiden, a big alarming pre-guillotine contraption used to behead people for several productive centuries. See, if youre going to build a big shiny expensive history museum, by God its going to be full of the remains of Pictish human sacrifice and machinery used to kill hundreds of dudes. Scotland is a serious place.
Fortunately, I passed three days without referring to anyone as English. The Scots and the English have a ... complicated relationship. Ill put it this way. One display in the National Musuem mentions that Scotlands largest immigrant group is the English. Think about that one. Look at it this way. When someone moves from California to Seattle, theyre not considered an
immigrant.
(I might want to call them that, but that doesnt make it true.)
The guy who ran our B&B was a loud, boisterous, opinionated Scotsman straight out of central casting. We were the only people staying there, so, based on the odor in the hallway, our innkeeper divided his time evenly between looking after us and smoking joints the size of my forearm.
Scotlands primary scary local delicacy is, of course, haggis. Based on what I could tell from those I talk to, it does get eaten. Not a lot, and often with other things (chicken stuffed with haggis is a common dish). I mean, theyre not dumb, and they know Pizza Hut exists, so they arent eating it every day. But it does get eaten, and the canned haggis I saw in the supermarket proudly proclaims that it is 45% lung.We ate at one truly superb modern fine British cuisine type restaurant, where I had Scottish venison with venison haggis. I asked our loyely young waitress what parts they use in the haggis. She looked at me like Id just asked her what the color blue smells like. "So what is in the haggis?" "Its ... haggis." "I mean, what organs go into the haggis?" "It contains haggis." She then braced herself for me to ask what the ingredients of the salt were. I guess, when you mince all of an animals internal organs and boil them in spices for long enough, they are transmuted into a new, indivisible base element.
(And, in case you were wondering, haggis tastes like boiled, heavily spiced meat with that unmistakable tinge of organ meat flavor. Whether you would like it depends entirely on your opinion of organ meat. But, considering that they have no shortage of McDonalds, their willingness to tolerate lung meat in any form should be taken as an inspiration to us all.)
Also, you can walk into any pub and get a shot of 16 year aged single cask whiskey that will blow your face off with its awesome for four bucks. That alone would be enough to make me completely fall in love with this city.
Its gorgeous and the food is good and the people-watching is great and the accents are gorgeous. Pretty much took dynamite to blow me out of that place. But I had to go back to England, the only place on this island where you can say anything nice about England without getting beaten up.
Fun British Fact #2
The British words for crisis and opportunity are the same. And that word is "cripeitunity."
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Tuesday, August 1, 2017
The Firefox Add ons Almanac Part 2
The Firefox Add ons Almanac Part 2
To conclude the almanac:
Productivity:
- Adblock plus
- Tab scope
Nearly every site you go on has adverts, even this one (though I try to use few). Adblock Plus completely changes this; you will never see an advert again. Even YouTube video ads are removed, which I really hated.
Tab Scope
If you use lots of tabs its easy to lose track of what you have open, especially if they have misleading titles. Of course, you could change browser.tabs.tabMinWidth in about:config and restart Firefox, but theres nothing fun about that! Tab Scope adds a real-time image under the tab when you mouse over it, so you can easily see whats in it.
And just for fun: Destroy the web
Take your anger out on a website with Destroy the Web. Earn points by clicking elements in the page and try to beat the high scores! (Scores for this blog are at http://www.destroytheweb.net/page.php?gid=058bbbb87-a659-2b6c-716e-bc3b709cccb).
Recognize this page?
Even though this add-on wont get your work done any faster, its definitely fun to have when theres nothing to do on the internet (is that even possible?)
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