"A LAN party is a temporary, sometimes spontaneous, gathering of people together with their computers, which they network together primarily for the purpose of playing multiplayer computer games."
I even ran my own LAN Party from 2002-2003 called the Dead Gamers' Society. Now I don't have as much time to dedicate to them anymore. I still visit Caleb's LAN Parties and Quakecon in Dallas, Tx.
The problem: To fit 4 people and 8 computers
(including 3 laptops 
) into 2 cars and arrive at the Whempy's LAN Party
in Columbus, OH.
The solution: Establish a wireless ethernet connection
between the two cars and Microsoft NetMeeting for voice communication.
Situation: Two cars, My (Eclipse's) Car took the point because I had driven there before, although it was last year, so we weren't too sure where we were going.
Equipment List:
Eclipse's Car:
Passengers:
Eclipse, Codex
Computers:
Eclipse's Desktop, Eclipse's Laptop, Codex's Desktop, Codex's Laptop, Codex's
Server
Wireless
Solution: Codex's Laptop with external antenna placed on top of car for extended
range.
Swiftwulf's Car:
Passengers:
Swiftwulf, Krhainos
Computers:
Swiftwulf's Desktop, Krhaino's MiniDesktop, Krhaino's Laptop, AC Power inverter,
Access Point
Wireless
Solution: Krhaino's Laptop next to access point, powered by AC Power inverter.
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Figure
4: Execution Next time, some improvements can be made and we hope to have wireless gaming during the 2 hour trip back and forth from Whempy's |
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View the short movie! Click here! |
Ok, it seems my rant against the Matrix was a little harsh. All in all, I really like the Matrix Reloaded. It’s just that this trilogy has such high expectations that it unwillingly created for itself. The producers obviously saw how much potential the first movie created and they are cashing on on this big time. There’s no denying this. The animatrix, the video game Enter the Matrix, selling out to powerade in commercials, its capitalism at work, baby. They even opened the movie early on the 14th to make their opening weekend figures appear larger. If you pay attention to all these, you can even catch subtle things in the movie like what happened to the Osiris and why the kid is following Neo. Little things that you can probably guess what happened, but are there simply for the people who shell out the money to feel elite. I saw the movie for the second time today and I’d like to go over the things I liked and disliked about my favorite movie’s sequel. Spoiler alerts ahead, but if you haven’t seen it yet, you suck. I’ve seen it twice. I’ve given them my money, so I can feel elite.
What I disliked:
1. The first thing that I disliked was also the first thing in the movie. I hate it with a passion when movies or stories start with dream sequences. Maybe I just think its overdone or something, but I always hate dream sequences. This started the movie on a downward slope for me.
2. I know Link is supposed to be the comic relief to the movie, but it got damn annoying after a while. And the puss- joke was out of place. There wasn’t much comic relief in the first movie, and it should have stayed at the same level. At least he wasn’t as bad as Jar-Jar Binks.
3. The Adventures in Zion, as I like to call it, took a long time and had too many corny jokes. Once again, it should have been either more serious or less boring. And don’t say I’m too stupid to catch what they were saying. I understand it perfectly but its boring to listen too. This is why DVD technology is so great, you can skip past this stuff
4. I will never in my life retract what I said about the “Rave / Neo Ass” scene. This is trash that pushes the movie from a PG-13 rating to an R rating. Producers do this because of a preconception that people won’t go to anything rated beneath R rated movies because it’s childish. Lots of movies will add meaningless profanity or sex scenes to make the movie seem more adult. Personally, I think this usually detracts from the movie experience because it seems out of place most of the time. It is especially evident in this movie. I think the motive to this make this scene was that they assume you will watch all three movies back to back to back eventually, and you will need an intermission with some cool music. :D
5. Morpheus mentioned that they have freed more minds in the last 6 months than the last 6 years. This goes against what they said in the first movie about most minds not being ready to be freed. It’s about enlightening the chosen ones, not simply meeting quotas on freed people.
6. I still think the part with the Merovingian was a little uncalled for. We could tell what was happening to her without the need for matrix code. And the part where Persephone wants to kiss Neo is stupid. It would have worked if she just gave them the keymaker because she was mad at her husband.
7. The fight scenes, while still awesome, were different than before. The fights in the first movie used a lot of guns with was awesome. Also, the fighting revolved mostly around who was stronger in the second one, as opposed to the first. In the first, they were very creative about how they beat agents. I liked the old way much better.
8. I don’t like the fact that Neo can fly. It’s just weird.
I’m sure there’s more, but i forget at the moment.
What I liked:
1. I liked the main point about whether it is choice or causality that controls us. I liked how the Merovingian saw through them, showing that they were just doing what they are told to do by the Oracle. They are helping that which they are trying to destroy.
2. I liked the double matrix theory, but I hope it doesn’t go too far. For example, if it turns out that Neo or any of the others are programs, or if the entire Matrix is just a part of some other program, I will be mega pissed.
3. The fight scenes were awesome, of course. But there was still a lot of CGI used. In the first movie they didn’t get attacked freaking every single time they were in the Matrix. I know. someone will respond with “Upgrades”. To that, I say “Upyours”. Another thing I don’t get is why Neo even bothers beating the shit out of people. If he’s the one, shouldn’t he be able to rewrite the matrix?
I can’t wait to see the next one in November. I will have tickets to the first showing then too, so don’t label me a Matrix hater :D.
On to the next topic: the Whempy’s LAN in Columbus was on the 17th, and I went with Krhainos, Swiftwulf, and Codex. We set up this cool wireless network between our cars as we made the two hour drive. More about that on its own special page here. The LAN was exactly as I had remembered it from a year ago. Must be doing something right then, huh? No. I still hate every single thing they do there. Their tournaments are always FFA or TDM (including CTF and gameplays like this), never 1v1. They always have the worst rules that you have to follow, like a certain number of people have to be offense and defense. Offense players are not allowed to chase people entering their bases down. Also, they have this obsession with playing the oldest games around. HLDM is fun, but they couldn’t get it working due to some HL virus that I was accused of having. BS! They obviously don’t know who they are dealing with, right? I asked at the beginning of the LAN if the UT tourney was UT or UT2k3 and they said it was UT2k3. It ended up being original UT, so it was not fun. The tourneys ended up being HLDM, UT, Quake2, and Starcraft. I hate their tourney system soo much I don’t know why I keep doing them. It’s this reputation I gotta keep up, eh? Right. I had fun at the LAN though, simply because of the amount of people there. The unorganized gameplay there is way more fun than than anything else. I barely had any time when I was not playing anything. Got to play a little BF1942, though not as much as I wanted. Got to play a LOT of Q3, and a (almost) 1v1 against Ecrivian that lasted 92 minutes. Good God! :D Maybe we’ll go back again next month or the one after that. Gotta play some more with the mobile wireless!
Well, I guess I am done writing for now, Peace.
Special Link Update! (thanks Swiftwulf): http://www.macstation.com/whatsnew/monkeyboy/
QUAKECON 2003 TO ROCK GAMING
FROM NEW LOCATION
MESQUITE, Texas - April 08, 2003 - Mark your calendar and start practicing; the 7th annual QuakeCon? video game festival and tournament is scheduled for Aug. 14-17 at the Adam?s Mark Hotel in Dallas - just 30 minutes from id Software?s homeland of Mesquite, Texas. The yearly gaming pilgrimage includes four days of intense tournament competition, BYOC LAN action, game and hardware demonstrations, workshops and parties; presented completely free of charge to all attendees.
"Whoever said size doesn?t matter has never been to QuakeCon," said Todd Hollenshead, CEO, id Software. "We won?t turn away our fans. Last year we hit our capacity, but we?re increasing the BYOC nearly 50% to 2000 gamers, and we expect more than 4,000 attendees for the four day party."
To reserve a room, call the Adam?s Mark Hotel at (800) 444-2326. To receive our specially negotiated room rates, QuakeCon attendees should inform the reservation desk that they?ll be at the hotel for QuakeCon. [Ed: You may have to mention "id Software" to get the special rate] Additional information about the Adam?s Mark Hotel is available at www.adamsmark.com/Dallas.
For more information regarding event registration, tournament information, sponsors and the event schedule, please continue to check the official QuakeCon website at www.quakecon.org.
About QuakeCon:
QuakeCon began in 1996 as a LAN party dedicated to fans of id Software?s games and has grown to include QUAKE®, QUAKE II™, QUAKE III Arena, QUAKE III: Team Arena™ and Return to Castle Wolfenstein. It was created by gamers to join with online friends in real life, meet the makers of the games they crave, talk shop with industry veterans and compete with some of the best players in the world. The event enjoys continued success, growing from a small gathering of 150 players in 1996 to more than 3,000 in 2002. QuakeCon is the definitive fan-based video game tournament, convention and party
About id Software:
id - Freud's primal part of the human psyche and one of the hottest game shops on Earth - has been rocking the gaming world from Mesquite, Texas since 1991. As a renowned leader in the industry, id Software forged such frenetic titles as Wolfenstein 3D®, DOOM®, DOOM II™, QUAKE® and QUAKE II™. With intense graphics and mind-blowing action, id?s games have helped redefine the modern video game, continually setting industry standards for technology and gameplay. And, in keeping with tradition, id Software has amplified the world of adrenaline pumping 3-D gaming with the release of their latest action titles, QUAKE III Arena™, QUAKE III: Team Arena™ and Return to Castle Wolfenstein™. id?s advanced DOOM III engine is leading the next revolution in 3-D interactive games with both single and multiplayer technology. Check out more about id Software at www.idsoftware.com.
# # #
© 2003 Id Software, Inc. All rights reserved. QuakeCon, QUAKE, QUAKE II, QUAKE III Arena, QUAKE III: Team Arena, Wolfenstein 3D, DOOM, DOOM II, DOOM III, Return to Castle Wolfenstein and the id Software name are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Id Software, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.
Hey, I think this picture is cool, so it's going to be on the left side
of the webpage until I think of something else to put here. I had to
write something or all my loyal fans would think that I have died or
something. I can't really think of anything, so I'll just write about
what's up. Last weekend I did nothing. It was great. I
didn't have to go to a LAN Party or do massive essays or clean a lot of crap
up. I could sleep in. I could play
Quake 3 Arena all day if I wanted
too. I was free. Friday night was the anime club I always go
to, because I have nothing better to do on Friday nights...nice to know a
lot of other people don't as well. Dan and Mike didn't show up, but it
was still fun. Went to dinner at subway with most of the club, and
then Mark's dorm room afterwards. Joe Yash and him played yugioh while
I looked through his anime music videos. We decided to make our
own...yeah, I'll let you know how that turns out. We were out really
late, like 2am. I went to breakfast with my dad at the Stow Cafe
Saturday morning. So much for sleeping in. They make the best
breakfast sandwich there. It's scrambled eggs, cheese, and bacon all
in a croissant bun that is awesome, and I hadn't had it in forever. I
really enjoyed it. After breakfast, I played some games and played
online, waiting for people to wake up. Doing nothing sucks! I
was awake for like 6 hours before anyone else. Finally, Jo came online
and a little later we went to best buy. Best Buy sucks. We
always go for some reason, but you always get there and it's the same old
stuff at the same high prices. The good thing was that we ran into Dan
and Tim there and ended up at a makeshift LAN Party at my house. When we walked into the house, though, my mom said "hey!
you guys can move my couches into the basement." Oh great, sorry guys.
We moved the couches out the front door and all around the ice patches to
the back door, it sucked. My mom's getting new couches on Tuesday...ok
so that's yesterday, and the big couch went into my room. Looked kinda
crappy at the LAN, but I fixed it up after everyone left and it looks cool
now. I'll get pictures up at the end of the week. I didn't have
my camera there. Codex and Trewr seemed kinda mad they weren't
invited...but this wasn't your normal LAN Party. It kinda ended as
soon as it began, but we all had fun, I think. Woke up Sunday morning
to go to the computer show in Akron.
By myself. It was ok, a lot easier to get around by yourself, so it
didn't take me long. RAM is really cheap right now. Unlike gas.
Damn war. This had better not affect Quakecon, is all I have to say. Wait, wasn't I supposed to sleep
in this weekend. Oh well, I haven't slept in late for like a month, so
I don't miss it anymore. I upped my RAM to 512MB as well, a necessity
these days. Or I couldn't let Yash have more RAM than me. haha.
Spent the rest of the day getting a bigass cake from Yash and working.
Then it's back to school. So hard doing nothing these days. Oh,
and I guess if you guys want, we could watch some anime movies at my house
on Friday, since anime club is cancelled. Tell me if you're
interested.
OMG I am so mad right now. You see, I had this rant all written out and 3/4 of the way finished. BAM! Blue Screen. Thanks a lot Windows. Windows XP Pro has been really bitchy to me lately. You don't often see a computer like mine blue-screening while typing. Maybe if it was Morteus's Computer.. It all started at JelOH while I was playing Doom on my SNES Emulator. Holy Crap is that game fun using a gamepad, its a whole new Doom. But on E1M3, it blue screened and wouldn't boot for like 10 minutes. Once I got it to boot, it insisted on running scandisk as slow as it possibly could. It took 2.5 HOURS to scan my 100gb hard drive. Luckily, they were still playing CS or Natural Selection or something, so I didn't care. Jo and Tim took the opportunity to play a game of Q3 without me though. Bastards. I helped Tim out a little because Jo is getting much better and was owning. Did I just say Jo was owning? Congrats, Jo! Anyways, my computer is a bitch and I might do the classic sell-everything-buy-better thing that everyone these days is doing. Microsoft Longhorn is the devil (See why here).
The new shoutbox technically works, but it throws out a lot of errors. I made it all black so you can't see it unless you highlight it. Hopefully that will work by next weekend. You have to scroll all the way to the bottom, and then click the expand button to post. Knock yourselves out. The only rule I have is no posting under other peoples names.
JelOH was ok, other than my computer having the problems I
mentioned above. It started with me driving past Fred Fuller park at
50mph in a 25mph zone. It's awesome how Fred Fuller Park never has any
cops around. Shit, there's a cop. You expect me to stop?
Hell No. The light ahead is green, so the light in my head is green
too. I shoot around the corner and fly to Kent State University before
I even see him pull out. (I knew he had seen me) Hiding in the
Tri-Towers parking lot, I bought some food for the LAN and proceeded to go
there. Haha Cop, I win. The LAN started slowly with a lot of CS,
which I didnt really care for. I talked to Big Ed while he was there,
a whole 20min. He got a new pickup truck. Its not the same Ed
without the blue neon-ness! Then my computer died.. 3 hours
later it was back to
normal.
Played some Natural Selection. I was on the alien team the whole night
and the first round, I rushed them as a weakling, before they could get
their gun sentries up. I took out the entire team and won the game 1
minute into it. Normally the game takes hours to finish, but I am so
l33t that I single-handedly won. Ever see Monty Python's Holy Grail?
Imagine me as the killer rabbit, thats what it looked like. No one
could hit me. It ruled. Later, in the new game I used the weak
alien again and managed to dodge every single sentry and slide my way past
all their team to their command center and I destroyed it myself. It
didn't win the game, but boy were they f'ing surprised. I am so good
at the little alien its not even funny. Jo helped me
stealth my
drives, which looks hella awesome.
The KSU Anime club is meeting 6-10 Friday nights and they are showing Azumanga Daioh, which is an awesome comedy about some "average" schoolgirls. You should come check it out. They are showing it because I brought it in one night when we couldn't watch Jungle Wa Itsumo Hale Nochi Guu. I have the whole series if people are interested. Actually, BobOmega has it too, so ask him :D
BobOmega click HERE
