Saturn's Ramblings

[RANT]
For a while now I have shunned the game World of Warcraft with a vengeance, and have repeatedly mocked friends and acquaintances for getting "sucked in" to this thing.

Seems like anyone who starts playing it loses all track of life -- they suddenly become unavailable for anything social, and tend to even put their own hobbies and life on hold, preferring instead to play this stupid game!

And of course, there's the other matter of the COST of playing... Roughly $60 to buy the game itself, then (I haven't looked it up for myself, but the reports I hear are) $10-25 PER MONTH to actually play it!

The game is designed such that your character(s) and stats are all stored solely on the SERVER online, and so the part you install and run is simply the engine for displaying your world. The server controls every aspect of the actual game flow itself! Therefore, if you want to play this game AT ALL, you must be connected to a server. This means you have to have a working internet connection, as well as cross your fingers that the servers at Blizzard (the folks who host WoW officially) are actually online. Not to mention the cost.
[/RANT]

OK now for the nifty bit.. A friend of mine online (SB you know who you are) was talking about how he'd scored a copy of WoW and had been playing it for a while. For free. Intrigued, I asked him how, and that's when I discovered that there are thousands of "Private" WoW Servers out there! Free-to-play servers.

I did some sniffing around and found a great Torrent for the game itself (2.64 gigabytes total download, plus any needed patches). In the torrent are 4 .ISO CD images. You can either burn all 4 as CD's, or just use Daemon Tools to mount the images on a virtual CD drive.

Next I found (after much patient searching and further research) copies of and instructions for setting up an actual Private WoW server! It's running now, in fact.

Now the trick to these servers is that they all work for only specific versions of WoW. The geniuses at Blizzard have released something like 60 patches so far. The basic game is version 1.0.0 ... There are "major" patches for 1.1.0, 1.2.0, etc. There are also sub-patches for these majors, eg: 1.1.1, 1.1.2, etc.

My server (Titanium Realm) is for game version 1.5.0 .. After installing the game (and if you already installed the game and want to try this, you have to install the game again - you can just install a second copy in another directory and have both versions installed - and re-apply the specific patch. The current game version release is 1.10.0 or something...) You can get the 1.5.0 patch here (176 megs).

Once that's installed and patched you must perform the next step BEFORE LAUNCHING THE GAME. If you load the game first, it will attempt to connect to Blizzard servers and will almost immediately start trying to update your WoW to the very latest version!

In the game directory, where the wow.exe file lives, you will find a file called realmlist.wtf - simply open this file in notepad and edit that first line. The first and only line of realmlist.wtf should be: set realmlist saturn.bounceme.net
Lastly, you need to create an account on the private server. The above instructions will let you connect to MY private server. I don't guarantee 100% uptime, but and downtime should be very minimal and for only brief periods of time (minutes, not hours). Note also that when you go to a private server, and since all character info is stored BY the server, each new server means creating a new character.

Since the first 15 levels or so are pretty damn boring in this game, if you decide you want to play, please let me know and I'll gladly upgrade your character to and reasonable request. Money too.

So, back to creating an account... Simply visit the server status webpage, http://saturn.bounceme.net:8080 and register a username and password (with your VALID email address). Remember: the username is just your logon. You can then create any number of actual CHARACTERS under your login.

Anyhow, I figure the server can handle up to 20 players at a time, though I'd like to keep the typical peak down around 13 or less. The PC this is running on also serves as my Media PC, and will soon have more RAM added. The server auto-saves the World and Guild and Player info every 20 minutes, and I have noticed a brief lag during each save, as it's a HUGE dump to the hard drive each time (around 250-350 megs of data each time!)

Lemme know whatcha think!

With thanks to "Anonymous"................

"Been sitting here with my ass in a wad, wanting to speak out about the bullshit going on in New Orleans. For the people of New Orleans... First we would like to say, Sorry for your loss. With that said, Let's go through a few hurricane rules: (Unlike an earthquake, we know it's coming)

#1. A mandatory evacuation means just that...Get the hell out. Don't blame the Government after they tell you to go. If they hadn't said anything, I can see the argument. They said get out... if you didn't, it's your fault, not theirs. (We don't want to hear it, even if you don't have a car, you can get out.)

#2. If there is an emergency, stock up on water and non-perishables. If you didn't do this, it's not the Government's fault you're starving.

#2a. If you run out of food and water, find a store that has some.
(Remember, shoes, TV's, DVD's and CD's are not edible. Leave them alone.)

#2b. If the local store has been looted of food or water, leave your neighbor's TV and stereo alone. (See #2a) They worked hard to get their stuff. Just because they were smart enough to leave during a mandatory evacuation, doesn't give you the right to take their stuff...it's theirs, not yours.

#3. If someone comes in to help you, don't shoot at them and then complain no one is helping you. I'm not getting shot to help save some dumbass who didn't leave when told to do so.

#4. If you are in your house that is completely under water, your belongings are probably too far gone for anyone to want them. If someone does want them, let them have them and hopefully they'll die in the filth. Just leave!
(It's New Orleans, find a voodoo warrior and put a curse on them.)

#5. My tax money should not pay to rebuild a 2 million dollar house, a sports stadium or a floating casino. Also, my tax money shouldn't go to rebuild a city that is under sea level. You wouldn't build your house on quicksand would you? You want to live below sea-level, do your country some good and join the Navy.

#6. Regardless of what the Poverty Pimps Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton want you to believe, The US Government didn't create the Hurricane as a way to eradicate the black people of New Orleans; (Neither did Russia as a way to destroy America). The US Government didn't cause global warming that caused the hurricane (We've been coming out of an ice age for over a million years).

#7. The government isn't responsible for giving you anything. This is the land of the free and the home of the brave, but you gotta work for what you want. McDonalds and Wal-Mart are always hiring, get a damn job and stop spooning off the people who are actually working for a living. President Kennedy said it best..."Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."

Thank you for allowing me to rant.

---

No, I didn't write this; I don't know who did.. However, I gotta say I agree!

An open letter to all Titanium Radio listeners:

Due to low listener counts, I've decided to discontinue the Sunday evening house party show on Titanium Radio.

Most of the listeners are on the east coast, and thus Eastern time zone. There had been a lot of complaining about how they had to stay up so late on Sunday nigths to catch the show, and most would drop off before the last hour...

In an effort to accomodate those listeners (hey, it's only worth it to me to do the show if someone is there to enjoy it!), I started the shows earlier... And had even fewer listeners...

Thus, I am discontinuing the show... This will allow me to put some more of my time into my music, so there is a silver lining here.

I am still planning to do occasional shows, back under the Spaced Out with Saturn title. These shows will usually be announced well in advance (a week or more, when possible), and will probably be done once a month or less. It's my hope that by having infrequent "specials," then the show will be fresher and more interesting, plus people might feel more inclined to make an effort to catch it, since it's no longer a regular thing... (Thanks to Dark for pointing that aspect out)

So there you have it. Also from time to time, I will take over manual control of song selection while at work; however because I WILL be at work, I won't be able to actually speak on-air during those times. I will, however usually be taking requests via IRC during those times. Usually these sessions wil not be planned in advance, but rather, will happen when the opportunities present themselves for me at work. In other words, it'll all depend on who I'm working with that day, and how busy it is at work =)

So with all of that, I want to thank everyone who did tune in throughout the last few months for Saturn's House Party -- to the regulars who were there for just about every show without fail, to the regulars who were there as much as they could be, and also to all the not-so-regular listeners, who tuned in when they could. To all of you, thank you for your support!

I do want to point out that the decision to stop the regular shows is a personal one. Yes, it is influenced by low listener count, but I do realize I cannot (and do not wish to) force people to listen to the show. However, as I've said before, it is a lot of work putting on a show like that, however simplistic it may come off in the end. There's a time commitment, as well as work for promos and preparation. For the amount of effort involved, it's just not worth it to me with only 2 or 3 listeners throughout the show.

In addition, when you have the same DJ, and the SAME 2 or 3 listeners every week, making the SAME requests each week.. It gets repetitive and boring, not only for the listeners, but for myself as well! I'm hoping that a less frequent show will not only attract more listeners each time, but shoudl also keep the show "fresh" -- I'll have the chance to create and find new music and clips and promos, and perhaps have themes and so on. All in all, not the "same old" show!

OK I've rambled on long enough. Thank you again out there for all your support! I'll post an entry in here when the next special show date is decided.

- Saturn

Some days you just wanna...

Wow. I am astonished at the abject stupidity of 99.9% of the general population, with specific focus on those pathetic saps who visit (and in some cases, work in) my hospital.

As many of you out there may already know, and for the benefit of those that do not, I work as an operator on the switchboard for the two major hospitals in this city. That is to say, we take internal and external incoming calls directed to and from BOTH hospitals. We also handle paging staff and doctors (oh do i have stories on THAT one for another day), as well as basically being the "quick-reference" service for all the hospital staff.. Yes, we often are asked what to do in all sorts of scenarios by nurses and doctors, as well as the public at large!

It has never ceased to amaze me just how much and how varied the information we at switchboard are not only required to know, but are expected to know! I've been asked, by a nurse on a unit, technical questions about samples for the Lab, about the logistics for transferring patients between units, and on and on -- please note, these are things that they should already KNOW the answers to, and barring that, should be asking (just an idea here) perhaps the LAB or BED CONTROL about... Why on earth they ask the SWITCHBOARD shit like that, I never have figured out... But they ask us in ways that suggest that not only do they not know their jobs, but they actually believe WE KNOW THIS STUFF! There's never any hint that they just want us to suggest who they COULD ask, either. They just assume we know it all. When we suggest they contact the appropriate department, they quite often get all huffy and indignant, like we're trying to be difficult or something! Yeeesh!!!

I know all that stems from the fact that (on the phone at least) we are constantly totally professional, usually courteous, and above all (and probably the saddest part) ... we usually DO know the answers...

Anyway, this week has been particularly filled with the stupid people... Drunks calling in the hospital looking for friends and family as patients - and not a little drunk either, but REALLY slobberingly drunk... at 2pm on a weekday, say Tuesday.. Yikes! And not just one or two but a whole mess of them, at least 20-30 a DAY.

Then you have the nuts. These are the crazy folks who are either IN the Psych ward, callign for someone they know in the Psych ward, or are looking for ways to be ADMITTED to the Psych ward. I kid you not! It's generally accepted now that 9 times out of 10, the "friends" of the people in the crazy house seem just as, if not MORE crazy, than those who are actually admitted... It was pointed out to me a few months back that the reason for this is partly because they all get to be great buddies while admitted to the nuthouse together and when one gets released, they all like to keep in touch and be crazy together, and THAT'S why so many crazies call through to speak to patients there. Makes sense. Too bad I have to deal with them tho... yeeeeesh

And on the crazy note, we have a new-ish department attached to Emerg* called PES (Psychiatric Emergency Services, pronounced "Pez" like the candy). Now, some brilliant dunderhead came up with a stellar plan when they designed that place. Someone thought it would be convenient for the patients to have a courtesy phone in there. A courtesy phone. In a Psych ward. Where MOST of the patients don't even know what day it is, or who they are, let alone have the mental capacity to figure out how to operate a simple phone. I say this from direct experience dealing with the crazies that wind up talking to the switchboard.

See, on this courtesy phone, you cannot dial long distance at all, and you must dial 9 to get out. Of course, they're nuts right? so all we get are the people who really don't know WHAT is goin' on...

Me: "Operator...?"
Little Old Lady, calling from the PES Courtesy phone: *sounds all business* "Hello, I'd like to speak to the Queen please."
Me: "...I'm sorry, who??"
Lady: *still dead serious* "The Queen please. The Queen of England?"
Me: *notes the location of the caller* "Uhh .. One moment please..."
Lady: "Oh, thank you" *you can just hear the pleased/relieved smile in her voice*
Me: *mutes her out and dials into the unit desk in PES*
PES Nurse (male): "PES, ____ speaking..."
Me: "Uh, yeah.. I have a lady on the line on your courtesy phone... wants to be connected to teh Queen of England... Do you wanna take this call or deal with it somehow..?"
PES guy: "Oh I know who that is .. yeah I'll just go over and turn off the phone, OK?"
Me: "Uhh OK then..." *disconnects him and the lady*

And that one's a pretty mild example of the sort of shit that goes on...

Now what prompted today's blog entry? Something simple enough, and yet......

I get a call from the Admitting desk, which happens to be actually just around the corner of the hall from where we hide. Seems they've been having people complaining off and on all day to them that the payphones (about 20 feet away from their desk) don't accept coins, only cards (because the card reader is so prominent on the phone I guess).

So, rather than just walk over and check it out to help these stupid people, she calls ME in the switchboard to ask me about it, asking me what she should do with these people... After a lot of back and forth (mostly me saying "I can't imagine why the phone company would put out payphones that don't accept coins!"), I just finally gave up and told her I'd take a look and get back to her in a minute.

That's when I wandered into the hall to look at the phones. Wish I had a photo to show you all, but anyhow.. Suffice to say the coin slot was blatantly obvious, with pictures of coins beside it to indicate where to put them, AS WELL AS written instructions on the phone face as to how to desposit coins and use the phone.... I mean, holy shit! How stupid/ignorant/out of touch do you need to be to miss all that??? Even more to the point, how much effort would it have been, really, for that admitting clerk to just walk over to the phone and look for herself?? Instead, she was just sitting there arguing with the patients who were already too ignorant to work it out for themselves.... Wouldn't you think it'd take WAY less time out of her busy day to just check it out so she woudl know to just say to the morons "well Gee, sir, the coin slot is on the front of the phone right near the top, there, in the middle. In that bright yellow band there? Almost like neon? With th epictures of coins beside it? No, sir, not the bottom, the top. You know, where it usually is on most payphones? Yes, congratulations, sir, you found the slot! Hope your sex life goes better.... "

All I can say to all this is ... Oh my fucking GAWD!

ARGH!

I recently was reading a friend's Blog and she was disturbed by a pest attack on her computer... I've given out this advice on many occasions, but fingured maybe I'd just share it with the world... (Or the dozen or so people reading this anyhow).

If you want to keep your Windows free of pests like viruses, adware, and spyware (not to mention the newer classes: MalWare and ExtortionWare), try out the following list. I run ALL of these together, and together they form a nice protective shield to prevent pests from being installed, as well as a formidable scanning chorus for detection and removal of those VERY few that might manage to slip through...

And wow, I'm so nice, I have provided links to download all these programs (well, except Norton's, because it's too big... but it MIGHT be available upon request) ...

The 4 big items I use to keep things tidy... I run all of these scanners every few days...

Norton Anti-Virus -- The 2005 version does pick up quite a few spyware and adware pests (along with the obvious viruses), but sucks at removing them -- however it does point out the exact locations for manual removals....

Pest Patrol Professional -- By far not the best pest remover, but it picks up stuff the others miss... It's memory-resident modules Cookie Patrol and MemCheck are quite powerful at stopping baddies..

AdAware SE Professional -- Unlike the free Personal edition, this one's USEFULL!! And the Pro version comes with Ad-Watch which is VERY effective for BLOCKING spyware and adware installs. Ad-Aware catches a ton of stuff that others miss, and it's pretty fast too.

Microsoft AntiSpyware Tool -- I have been running the beta of this for at least 6 months now, and its scanning and removal capabilities are excellent. Additionally, the memory-resident blockers in this program are very thorough. Since it's a Microsoft program (only works on Windows XP with SP2), it manages to hook into Windows more thoroughly than other pest software... (Read: much more effective blocking)

With all 4 of these installed, you have awesome virus protection, and overlapping pest protection, making for a very decent estimated 99% (or better, in my experience) protection from new pests, and pretty much total detection and removal abilities.

I've used this combination for many months now and have only had maybe a dozen pests slip through in all that time -- and I'm on risky websites and getting risky downloads CONSTANTLY..

** Be sure to run the updaters in each program regularly (minimum weekly) to ensure you have the LATEST version of the programs, as well as the latest pest definitions! With AdAware Pro, you can install the version linked here, and then when you run the updater, it'll tell you a newer version is available for download. Download and install it. It'll still work, as long as you installed this one first =)

- Because I'm a man, when I lock my keys in the car I will fiddle with a wire long after hypothermia has set in. The CAA is not an option. I will win

- Because I'm a man, when the car isn't running very well, I will pop the hood and stare at the engine as if I know what I'm looking at. If another man shows up, one of us will say to the other, "I used to be able to fix these things, but now with all these computers and everything, I wouldn't, know where to start." We will then drink beer and break wind as a form of holy communion.

- Because I'm a man, when I catch a cold, I need someone to bring me soup and take care of me while I lie in bed and moan. You're a woman. You never get as sick as I do, so for you this isn't a problem.

- Because I'm a man, when one of our appliances stops working, I will insist on taking it apart, despite evidence that this will just cost me twice as much, once the repair person gets here and has to put it back together.

- Because I'm a man, I must hold the television remote control in my hand while I watch TV. If the thing has been misplaced, I may miss a whole show looking for it (though one time I was able to survive by holding a calculator).....applies to engineers mainly.

- Because I'm a man, there is no need to ask me what I'm thinking about. The answer is always either sex, cars, or hockey. I have to make up something else when you ask, so don't ask.

- Because I'm a man, I do not want to visit your mother, or have your mother come visit us, or talk to her when she calls, or think about her any more than I have to. Whatever you got her for Mother's Day is okay ; I don't need to see it. And don't forget to pick up something for my mother, too.

- Because I'm a man, you don't have to ask me if I liked the movie. Chances are, if you're crying at the end of it, I didn't....and if you are feeling amorous afterwards...then I will certainly at least remember the name and recommend it to others.

- Because I'm a man, I think what you're wearing is fine. I thought what you were wearing five minutes ago was fine, too. Either pair of shoes is fine. With the belt or without it, looks fine. Your hair is fine. You look fine. Can we just go now?

- Because I'm a man, and this is, after all, the year 2005, I will share equally in the housework. You just do the laundry, the cooking, the cleaning the vacuuming, and the dishes, and I'll do the rest...... like wandering around in the garden with a beer wondering what to do.

_______
This has been a public service message for women to better understand men.

OK then!

ook longer than anticipated to get aroudn to posting this update in the Incredible Saga that is my PC.

I couldn't sleep right away Saturday night, so I finally got back out of bed and started tinkering with the PC.

I installed a brand new Network Interface Card (NIC) in there (I had 3 unopened ones laying around for jsut such an occasion -- and because my linux machine enjoys snacking on them. That's not just poetic license. The bugger eats them every few months. Just fries em out. anyhoo...)

After gettign that all configured, I went into the BIOS and disabled the onboard LAN (disabled the network interface that's built into the motherboard). While I was at it, I stuffed the other RAM card that had been laying naked on the desk for the last week, under suspicion of badness.... considering each RAM card had been out for days and durin that time, the system froze repeatedly, I was less and less convinced they were to blame...

Anyhoo, I put em in, diabled the onboard LAN, and fired it up. That was at 02:20am Sunday morning. It is right now, according to the system clock on my PC, 18:46 - 6:46pm for you 12-hour droolers - Monday evening. It hasn't been restarted since Sunday morning, and still seems fine. Gonna leave it runnign another day at least and then maybe put Java back on and see what it does.

Yay me! (watch it crash the moment I post this......)

EDIT at 19:00 - no freezing so far!! yay

Well, I removed that Java stuff... And Lo! and behold! It made it all the way throught he night and into the next day, and no crashy!! Ran 20 hours before I chickened out today and rebooted it just before leaving for work (hey, I would rather prolong the testing phase rather than have it freeze on me while at work, with no way to reset it. I need SOMETHING to do at work!!)

Anyhow, it appears (so far) that it's stable once again! I rebooted at about 12:45pm today and will do my best not to reboot it until at least that time tomorrow. If it lasts, YAY! If not.... Grrrrr

Stay tuned for Part VI tomorrow....

*** ammendment.... 30 seconds after posting this entry ... it froze up. BASTARD MACHINE!!

...and the bloody saga continues!! I have now tried each stick of ram by itself in there and it still freezes up (admittedly, it's takign much longer to do it tho...)

This morning, I ran 5 passes for each stick, of a DEEP ram test. Not one single error reported!!

What the hell?!

So while I still SUSPECT the RAM, I am now wondering if there's something in one of my installed programs that's doign it. It ran flawlessly when I first reinstalled windows.. it wasn't till after I started loading a bunch of software on there that it started freezing up again.

My main suspicion is Java. I have to have Java on there to run LimeWire and Azureus (a Torrent client). These are some of the best file sharing programs out there, but ... well I've always been suspicious of Java. And they need Java. So now, I've uninstalled both programs, and removed Java from my system. I've rebooted and now I'll wait and see. if it stays stable for 24 hours or more, we'll blame Java for now. if not, I'll start removing one program at a time until it DOES stay stable.

The only other thing is, could it be other hardware?? Video? Unlikely, based on how it's crashing... Network? VERY unlikely, but i suppose possible... Sound? Again unlikely, but possible, altho it uses onboard sound on the motherboard, so if the sound is the problem, then maybe the mobo is gonna fail soon.... It's not the RAM slots either. I've tried the ram in each of the 3 slots and have similar results... unless they're ALL fucked...

Any ideas out there??????