AlanBarber.Org
Thursday, July 31, 2003
How I have missed thee!
Like magic the phone lines have started working again. After weeks of unknown issues causing dialup problems today the modem has been connecting at a solid 50.6 all day! Excuse me while I go knock on wood.
But I digress. The real reason for this post is to announce that I've started creating yet another website. Anyone see a trend here?
I'm working on creating yet another useless and unneeded blog directory. However I'm hoping to make it more than just a website list and including user reviews of blog software, reviews of blog hosts, message boards, and anything else I can think of.
It'll probably be a while before it's online seeing how I'm a major procrastinator and slow at doing any development. Hopefully there will still be a need for blog directories by then if google doesn't take over...
on 07/31/2003 at 09:00 PM
Wednesday, July 30, 2003
A Different Point of View
There's a really great article on Iraq at Frontpage Magazine. With 90% of what I hear on TV reports being negative it's nice to read about the positive things that get passed by.Maybe it's just the media in general but all they report on is negative. More death, riots, shootings, blah, blah, blah... It's so depressing and it's driving me nuts. This kind of reporting never makes it to the big outlets but luckily we have places like frontpage mag willing to report.
Frontpage mag is run by David Horowitz who is just an amazing individual. He was a major player in the anti-war peace movement in California during the 70. He's done a lot of good for civil rights and anti-censorship throughout his life. But what’s more amazing is that he realized as he was getting older that his views on politics and life were more inline with conservatives than liberals. He's switched sides and now is a strong conservative speaker. As a part of the local Republican club on campus we brought Mr. Horowitz to speak at our campus and I was amazed by his speaking.
I highly suggest people go out and read some of his books. You'll learn a whole lot!
Tuesday, July 29, 2003
Nintendo - The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Found a rather funny website today. It's called I-Mockery.com and it's a humor site making fun of Nintendo products. Not to say it's mocking Nintendo or Nintendo fans just some of the goofy products that have been released.
Pretty funny stuff and a great trip back in time for me. I remember many of the products and even have some! Nes Advantage, Power Glove, etc. How I loved those things...
I was always a little Nintendo fanboy. I would defend my little old NES against those SEGA lovers till they would admit defeat. I would tell them how SEGA hardware was junk and someday they would die. I remember telling people that someday Sonic the Hedgehog would be on the Nintendo. That was blasphemy back then but I guess I was right! Of course I never saw Sony or Microsoft so I always assumed Nintendo would rule. Too bad they're not doing as well as they could be.
Nothing against Sony or Microsoft but Nintendo games are just way more fun and entertaining for all ages. Although I'll probably end up getting the next gen XBox console just because I've heard it's going to be designed as a complete home communication hub. I really like the idea of a single set top box that handles all my game, movie, music, communication needs.
Monday, July 28, 2003
FreeBSD Ports Collection Hits 9000
Saw the original post over at BSDForums.Org. It appears that the french/med port gets the honor of being the 9000th port in FreeBSD.
The Ports Collection for those not aware is a system included in FreeBSD that allows the automated process of downloading, unpacking, patching, compiling and installing software.
For example if you wanted to install the apache web server all you have to do is type the following at a command prompt:
# cd /usr/ports/www/apache13 && make install && make clean
The ports system would download all needed files, compile them and then install the executable program. All without you the user doing anything. Pretty neat isn't it!
Continue reading "FreeBSD Ports Collection Hits 9000"
Saturday, July 26, 2003
My Diablo II: LOD 1.10 Necromancer Guide
I thought I’d share my guide to building a Necromancer for the upcoming 1.10 patch for Diablo II: LOD. Obviously this isn’t a perfect guide but just what I’m doing and I think it should work pretty good.
There are several different options for building Necromancers. You can be a golem master where you spend all your energy on building the strongest golem possible. A skeleton / reviver master where you work to master raising strong skeletons and eventually slain monsters. There’s the curse master that learns powerful curses to defeat monster by weakening them then using a melee attack. Then there’s the choice I go with, a bone / poison master. The ultimate goal of this master is to create the most powerful bone and poison skills to defeat monsters.
And I�m happy to announce that the boys at blizzard realized how bad the necro sucked and have made the bone and poison skills much stronger. In 1.09 a maxed out bone spear does around 200 points of magic damage. From what I’ve read in 1.10 it looks like it will do around 1000+ points of magic damage. Of course monsters in hell will also be 4 times stronger so it’s not like you will be stronger but it’s nice to see the major fighting weapon of a character finally do real damage.
Continue reading "My Diablo II: LOD 1.10 Necromancer Guide"
Monday, July 21, 2003
Verizon Phone Problems - Part 2
Well the phone guy came... around 8pm! So Verizon got lucky and didn't have to give me a credit. I wish they would though since he didn't fix anything.
The guy did the usual checks at the NID (Network Interface Device), and the boxes on both sides of the street. In the end he couldn't find anything. He did say the second line that is used for dialup was a bit worse quality, but nothing out of the ordinary.
Oh and get this... according the phone guy, who was nice and friendly and tried to be helpful, Verizon only guarantees a modem connection up to 14.4kilobits! Never mind that in this day and age 14.4 is completely useless they won't lift a finger to make the network run any faster!
So in the end I'm still at square one. I can't get a stable Internet connection and the phone company won't do anything. So I'm forced to play the redial game ever 5-10 minutes for the foreseeable future. Perhaps it's time to for a move?
Sunday, July 20, 2003
Verizon Phone Problems - Part 1
Our phone lines have been junk the last week. Static, electrical hum in the background, crosstalk, etc. Short of no dialtone this is as bad as it gets.
Trying to keep a internet connection going is impossible. We used to get a solid 50.6k connection all the time. Now it bounces around from 28.8 to 50.6. Plus the connection drops every 10-15 minutes on average.
I’ve tested it using different phones and modems on the two lines that run into the house. Both produce the same results so it has to be with Verizon’s network.
So I got fed up and filed a repair request a bit ago. They did a line test and I talked to a nice lady. The test didn't show anything but she promised to have a guy out by tomorrow night to fix it.
This is the pre-report. Stay tuned to see how it turns out