steam and the twenty six percent bug.

somehow win7 kernel keeps steam.exe open and the update will die hard at 26% or 27% or something because it can not remove steam.exe.

the boot in safe mode with network wont work for me because there is no router (apart from wlan) in our network...

Maiku-Mori pointed out in a question on stackoverflow that it might have something to do with Application Experience Service.

was turned off in my case. turning it on fixed it. huzzzah.

Just found on a site that told me to upgrade to IE7 or higher.

ROFL.

kudos to team-noir.net for making me laugh

<snip>
[...]
* 1.3 Google Chrome & new Safari detect added by www.team-noir.net
*/

[...]

// Check for Chrome < Version 2.0
var chrome = userAgent.indexOf('chrome');
if (chrome > -1) {
var snip1 = chrome+7;
var version = userAgent.substring(snip1, (snip1+1));
if (version < 2) {
return true;
}
}

return false;
[...]
<snap>

If you dont find it funny here is a hint

var version = userAgent.substring(snip1, (snip1+1));

get one char from the browser string. chrome was going version+1 every ~half year and now every 2-3 months or so, so it was clear that you hit the two character version number earlier than other browsers (if you assumed 1/2y v+1 => 2012). we are as of this writing at version 14 (stable).

since you know code you build most likely does not receive cleanup or maintenance that is very good coding practice, NOT.

version 10 came out in march.

so for half a year they run this obsolete and poorly thought through script on their own site as well as their customers and/or who ever installed it themselves.

another indexOf('.'); and then just use those two indexes ... naah lets just use one char and screw everybody when they go two digits .... the guys Y2k had constraints but I'm damn sure a javascript var can hold 2 chars ... ok enough ranting ...

if you are using it replace the chrome check with this:

// Check for Chrome < Version 2.0
var chrome = userAgent.indexOf('chrome');
if (chrome > -1) {
var snip1 = chrome+7;

var sub = userAgent.substring(snip1);
var version = sub.substring(0, sub.indexOf('.'));

if (version < 2) {
return true;
}
}

but be aware that there are more then just those five browser out there and so you still show this message to browser that are perfectly fine or people masking there user agent for various reasons.

just in case I'll search this again:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Apple\Mobile Device Support\Drivers is where the apple ipod usb driver is at

"I place my observers in the corner of the map and next to the enemy spawn pylon so that my mass stalker got pwned by Dark Templars that I can't see while badly managed Phoenixes try to take down my Colossi meanwhile my workers die from just four Zealots and later four little Dark Templars join the party and all got warped in from the pylon I knew all along and did nothing against it. I then call the other player a f-cking noob so I make him upload the replay to his website."

Was still a fun game. I would have given him a GG but mocking me just made me laugh, because if there is one race I tend to play the worst it's Protos. Imho I do ok with Terrans but the Swarm is where my hearth's at. So if you loose against me while I do Terran or TOS that means you could have done better.

- koyama

download replay

Visited a friend today and had the chance to play LA Noire. Really nice game. Wanted to try out Red Dead Redemption but there was only so much time. Anyhow I still can try this out next time. Also I suck with PS3 controllers since I am unable to use the sticks and the L1&L2 keys properly.... one more reason I prefer PC versions.... I'm more comfortable with keyboard and mouse and rebinding some keys.

My driving style was kinda like that of Tobustine, I also hit the same wall as Tobustine. iJustine @ minute 6:45 can't find it on tobuscus' playlist for la noire that quick ... so sorry. if you watch it and see it you can tell me where and when and I link it. ^^

Civ V released two new DLCs. Korea and Wonders of the Ancient World.

quote: "The Wonders of the Ancient World Scenario Pack adds three new wonders to Sid Meier’s Civilization V: The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, the Statue of Zeus, and the Temple of Artemis."

Korea was in Civ IV so was Statue of Zeus and the Temple of Artemis. I can't tell if they had proper replacement with other wonders to omit these, since I didn't liked the demo.

But for me this just sounds like Sims3 style printing of money. Recreating what gamers already had. Ok I omit the existence of the campaigns but replay value for campaigns is minimal and the only campaign I enjoyed in Civ IV was Rhye's and Fall.

Civ V currently runs for 30-50 EUR but has already DLC that sums up to 38 EUR.

There was a TES pack on Valves Quakecon Steam Sales. The package includes Oblivion + all official DLC and TES III Morrowind + both DLC or in other words Oblivion GOTY deluxe + Morrowind GOTY. Two awesome games at 15 EUR.

I had only finished knight of the nines and was half through shivering islands way back when (because I wanted the golden saint armour maxed). Did not played any DLC for Morrowind. So since I find coaster version more and more annoying because I don't like cds/dvds. They brake and make ugly sounds when spinning up. boxes are sometimes nice but mostly they just clutter your place. Books look better in a shelf.

Anyhow said coaster version was also only in German. So I grabbed my 2nd copy, now in English and with all DLC, plus I did not had Morrwind since I got that borrowed by Merzmensch, send him his commission money for this sale and the original full price purchase of Oblivion.

Skyrim most likely will not run on that poor 3yo laptops gfx card... at least not that well that I see the need to pay $$$ to play it with sliders all to the left... sorry Bethesda. I still like you very much. Maybe a demo will change my mind and ruin my bank account >_<.

So yes I started playing Oblivion again. Because of Skyrim, wanting to finish shivering islands and because of deadendthrills. I follow the approach of not picking the skills you use most as mayor to control leveling (i.e. always get +5, max endurance first, don't do quest with leveld items I like). The game is vanilla though apart from the unofficial patches, for now.

So this is my character:

Sorane Nin, young, female, Breton, custom Mage
download (before exiting sewers)

.att..skill............. L2 L1 L0
[END] armorer........... -- -- 25
[STR] blunt............. -- -- 25
[STR] hand to hand...... -- -- 25
[END] heavy armor....... -- -- 25
[SPE] light armor....... -- -- 25
[AGI] marksman.......... -- -- 25
[AGI] sneak............. -- -- 25
---------------------------------
[SPE] athletics......... -- -- 05
[STR] blade............. -- -- 05
[END] block............. -- -- 05
[INT] alchemy........... -- -- 15
[WIL] alteration........ -- -- 15
[INT] conjuration....... -- -- 20
[WIL] destruction....... -- -- 10
[PER] illusion.......... -- -- 15
[INT] mysticism......... -- -- 20
[WIL] restoration....... -- -- 20
[SPE] acrobatics........ -- -- 05
[PER] mercantile........ -- -- 05
[AGI] security.......... -- -- 05
[PER] speechcraft....... -- -- 05

Oh and since I now have an extra copy of Oblivion + Shivering Island (beware securom).... who else wants to get hooked up with the series?

"2. Consent to Collection and Use of Data.

You agree that EA may collect, use, store and transmit technical and related information that identifies your computer (including the Internet Protocol Address), operating system, Application usage (including but not limited to successful installation and/or removal), software, software usage and peripheral hardware, that may be gathered periodically to facilitate the provision of software updates, dynamically served content, product support and other services to you, including online services. EA may also use this information combined with personal information for marketing purposes and to improve our products and services. We may also share that data with our third party service providers in a form that does not personally identify you. IF YOU DO NOT WANT EA TO COLLECT, USE, STORE, TRANSMIT OR DISPLAY THE DATA DESCRIBED IN THIS SECTION, PLEASE DO NOT INSTALL OR USE THE APPLICATION."
from origin license agreement

oh well...

so i install this on a macbook pro (2008), win7 and os x lion (which origin will not know of), quickcam for better voip, software that origin will install: sims3. software i r
un regular: nwn (sundays), nwn2 (tuesdays), teamspeak3 (sun+tues), chrome+flashblock, vim+tclsh, steam....

other 'software' (=games) i run and usage statistic are hopefully limited to my steam friends.

OK you could call me Google centric or whatever but I strongly oppose sites like Forestle or Ecosia that use regular search engines but display the result on their sites get the advert money and buy co2 certificates.

I'd rather have a company that has an agenda for reducing footprint per standard PC by raising energy efficiency as Google did then supporting search engines like bing or yahoo via one of these outfits. At the end of the day these actions are more worth it IMHO. And apart from this advocacy they don't buy stupid certificates and only talk but also apply it to their own company.

http://www.google.com/corporate/green/

So apart from me not liking supporting MS or Yahoo this also has a greener aspect with sticking to Google.

Ok now to the financial bit.

They only donate advertisement money (80% for Ecosia). I dunno how often you usually click on adverts. I don't or at least it's rare.

So how do revenues work? we have the equation

YOUR-CONTRIBUTION = \SUM_views ( COST_{view} - INCOME_{view} )

or in other words if you don't click many adverts you burn their money/your rain forest or you abuse/steal from advertisers and click more adverts then you regularly would.

Especially stupid would be to have it as your starting page as Ecosia advertises. Every new tab or window burns money.

OK but this is just a stupid rant by you, you could say.

So here are some numbers and why I write this stupid rant:

Forestle claims to have saved 10,093,517.3 sq m.

sq m to acre times 50 per Costa Rican rain forest acre:
(10 100 000 / 4 046.85642) * 50 = 124 788.218 $

Ecosia states 134,633.48 Euro that is currently 176 544.882 so for an upper bound we round to 180000 $.

So both combined adds up to 305k US $

now go read what Google did with their small change in four days to promote chrome; add my rant from above and go figure.

http://chrome.blogspot.com/2010/12/60-million-tabs-towards-good-causes.html

this article http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/12/android-browser-user-agent-issues.html is horseshit.

because there are websites that query mobile and provide tiny versions instead of using the resolution of the device, the author asserts that mobile = tiny and therefor for large screens "Mobile" should be dropped.

if websites want to provide proper functioning sites for android they now need to fix this using the android bit of the string. therefor they have to touch their code anyway to provide proper functionality and not a mess that can't be used with a touch based interface.

so these sites need to fix their behaviour except if they don't provide different versions but then dropping mobile gains nothing.

so he advocates that the agent should be changed so sites brake and the site owner has two choices: fix behaviour or screw their customers.

wonder how his stance on the broken itunes/chrome bug would be (bug is that itunes would not open using chromes agent, instead download page is shown. chrome devs say WONTFIX, go complain to apple).

Been with Marta to Easy A last week ... or rather we went to a turkish movie but that was the only one of the whole turk movie festival that you could not purchase tickets for at the pictures. So we settled for the sneak preview.

The movie is really well made and only receives a B, because I'm not the target audience and certain parts of the movie are predictable, while others where not ... at least for me but Marta said she saw it early so probably I'm just kinda blind.

Spoiler/Plot: The movie is about Daria. Add some double standard Christian fundamentalists and a happy end with her childhood sweetheart.. Phoebe from friends was awesome. Emma Stone was also good but I didn't believed her being introduced as the nerd outcast (sorry exaggerating here), the only thing that separates her from the stereotype hollywoodian miss popular is that she is smart and has wits.

Rating: B+

downgraded to xp for several reasons

- fix refreshrate in dxdiag (I still run a crt)
- no annoying delays when starting things
- the security popup that warns me that something wants to do changes to my computer sometimes takes like forever
- the new taskbar is a #fail compared to the mac dock
- ...

now I'm going back thanks to starcraft.

ok could try to find what does the hick hack, but I expect that on a clean install and everything updated that things should run like a charm if they did on win7. The sad part, they don't.

I got realy annoying lags in starcraft II during multiplayer, lasting 3-4 secs and usually one right at the start followed by two more latter during the game. Also I got droped once.

so either my network driver for xp sucks or win 7, once a thing runs, does better to keep it that way.

alright!

ubisoft drm server down for at least 10 hours, according to http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/98927-Ubisoft-DRM-Authentication-Servers-Go-Down.

mhh does that help them to convince me that they are totally trustworthy? errr... no, it does not.

oh and while readinga around this topic of always-online-drm someone wrote that steam has an offline mode. sweat. obviously i didn't knew that. really cool for the non 3g data plan laptop crew (or those that rather use their cap for something useful).

so another time to anno 1404 bashing or rather anno 1404 publisher bashing.

so since they patched out the DRM everything should be fine, right? they put it right back in with the add on.

sorry i'm all like eric cartman in the pirate episode from season 14: "teh fcuk?"

oh and ubisoft/tages are of the helpful kind if i'm trusting the problems some users report on steam forums:
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1147232

oh, steam. you know the-you-need-to-be-online-to-play-thing did not received the DRM patch. teh fcuk?

oh and on some flame sites they claim that all games after vencie will be online-to-play-games.

seriously? ubisoft go bankrupt already.

lucky for me i cut back on my game spendings only going for weekend madnesses of games that where on my radar like 'torchlight' and 'mount and blade', which i bought recently, since i am doing savings for new hardware. honestly i would be sooo pissed if i bought anno at premium and my hardware not being able to run the huge cities and ubisoft throwing yet another teh fcuk at me.

sounds like i have to wait until they bundle it drm free with some game magazine, by then i should also have decent enough hardware to push every slider to the right.

oh and to end with something positive. really love the screenies of venice and the retro gaming feeling from the demo. guess blue byte did a decent job. to bad they are owned by ubisoft.

So if I blog, google buzz buzzzzs this?

Oh and while I'm at it, been to avatar 3d sometime ago.

Really liked it. I hope ppl see the ugly face of the Sky People that destroy the rainforest of planet earth just to eat ridiculous huge amount of unhealthy non-human animal flesh.

Finished reading The World According To Garp and The Attack Of The Unsinkable Rubber Duck this August.

Garp:
Got this book borrowed by Julia. Good book but it's to dark imho. Also some stuff is made a big deal about, but was missing in the earlier chapters. Like the under toad bit.

Rubber Duck:
If you got problems with *%§$°-language, this book is not for you. I liked it very much. Guess I'll pick some of his other works as well. Get yourself a copy.

http://www.brookmyre.co.uk/