A list of fixes is here – Firefox 1.5.0.7 Release Notes
Category Archives: Software / Applications
MetaMachine Closes It's Doors
MetaMachine, the company behind the popular file sharing software eDonkey 2000, has agreed to pay the Recording Industry Association of America $30 million to settle claims it facilitated mass copyright infringement. To bad the open source eMule is the most dominant client in the network and appears to be totally unaffected at this point.
BF2 1.4 Finally Realesed
Finally after a long and painful wait Battlefield 2 Patch 1.4 has been released.
1.4 Patch – New content
* New level: Road to Jalalabad (Conquest 16-32-64, Singleplayer, Co-op)
* New Server Option: No Vehicles mode
1.4 Patch – Fix List
Front End:
* Front end – Fix server browser issues with updating info
* Front End – Multiplayer & Co-op – Players on server list can include Bots instead of human players
* Multiplayer Internet Server maps size filter not working
* Fixed an issue in the front end where pressing tab twice in the IP window would cause the cursor to skip to wrong box
Game Server:
* Increased server stability
* All levels – Co-op – Crash after reviving player without a kit- 1st attempt Server – Linux 32 Dedicated – Server crashes when trying to rotate maps in Special Forces Co-op Mode (fixed on SUSE only. Still present in Red Hat and Fedora)
* Adjust the minimum number of players to start the round.The new values for 16, 32 and 64 players are 6, 6 and 8 respectively.
* Re-enable unlocks on unranked servers
* Ranked server forces unlocks i.e. have to have unlocks selected.
* Coop – Local Server – If Server Host is kicked and banned although they do not actually get kicked, no other players may join the server after that point.
* Fixed a dedicated server crash which was occurring when the user held “CTRL” and “SHIFT” while selecting a map
* Fixed a crash which would occur when c4 was placed on a flag pole and the server rotated maps
* Vehicle drop crash related bug (missing icon)
* Co-Op bot console commands do not function on local servers.
Client / Gameplay:
* Red/Blue nametag bug –Fix to the issue where players would show up with the wrong color name tag
* Introduced a delay from proning to standing to help reduce exploiting
* Adjusted C4 to make throwing more difficult
* Fixed the issue where a red distance marker appears on the ground
* Fixed the issue that caused players arms to become invisible after switching weapons when using throwable items
* Made adjustments to reduce the damage taken by vehicles when driving
* Adjusted the tire material on the muscle car to reduce the issue with this vehicle taking too much damage.
* Commander options no longer available whilst dead.
* Fixed the issue with a spawn point showing up as selected when a player has spawned in during preview round
* Fixed the issue that would cause infantry players to be revived with no kit.
* Fixed several rare graphics crashes.
* Fixed issue with players crashing while clicking “Join Game” in the front end
* Car-Drop: Made adjustments to the car drop feature to prevent players from exploiting into buildings.
* Discovered and repaired an issue tied to projectiles which would sometimes allow tanks to fire two shells, support to fire multiple rounds, and other issues (all maps).
* Fixed bug where after 2 rounds on the same map, the top player stars are awarded to the wrong people in the menu
* Transport Helicopters – Increased the armor of all transport helicopters
Battlefield 2 1.4 Patch Delayed
We all had our hopes and dreams of being able to play Battlefield 2 properly again dashed this morning.
Greetings Everyone, As many of you are now aware we have made the choice to take some extra time with the 1.4 patch before release.
During our standard final processing of the 1.4 client update we came across an issue that, although it does not compromise stability, we felt needed to be addressed in order to meet our goal of improving the overall player experience with Battlefield 2
Here are the details about the patch and the changes
We just got an update from DICE and the 1.4 patch that was scheduled for today has been delayed as the team makes final reviews on the patch. The release date for this patch currently is TBD, but we will update this announcement when we get new information on the patch. Apologies for the lateness of this update. Below is a list of the new content and fixes that will be included in the 1.4 patch.
With the release of the 1.4 patch we have made significant improvements to player and server stability as well as introduced more ranked content for players to enjoy. Along with the many bug fixes we have included the new map ? Road to Jalalabad? which is sponsored by Comcast making this patch is an excellent step forward for the Battlefield Franchise. We would like to thank everyone who helped support the Beta effort. Please take a moment to review the fix list for this patch:
1.4 Patch ? New content
? New level: Road to Jalalabaad (Conquest 16-32-64, Singleplayer, Co-op)
? New Server Option: No Vehicles mode
1.4 Patch ? Fix List
Front End:
? Front end – Fixed server browser issues with updating info
? Front End – Multiplayer & Co-op – Players on server list can include Bots instead of human players
? Multiplayer Server filter ?maps size? will now work
? Fixed an issue in the front end where pressing tab twice in the IP window would cause the cursor to skip to wrong box
Game Server
? Increased server stability
? All levels – Co-op ? Fixed a crash after reviving player without a kit- 1st attempt
? Server – Linux 32 Dedicated ? Fixed the server crash when trying to rotate maps in Special Forces Co- op Mode (fixed on SUSE only. Still present in Red Hat and Fedora)
? Adjusted the minimum number of players to start the round. The new values for 16, 32 and 64 players are 6, 6 and 8 respectively.
? Unlocks are once available on unranked servers.
? Ranked server have to have unlocks activated.
? Fixed Issue with the local coop server – If Server Host is kicked and banned although they do not actually get kicked, no other players may join the server after that point.
? Fixed a dedicated server crash which was occurring when the user held “CTRL” and “SHIFT” while selecting a map.
? Fixed a crash which would occur when c4 was placed on a flag pole and the server rotated maps.
? Fixed a Vehicle drop crash related bug (missing icon).
? Co-Op bot console commands do not function on local servers.
Client / Gameplay:
? Increased client stability
? Red/Blue nametag bug ? Fix to the issue where players would show up with the wrong color name tag
? Introduced a delay from proning to standing to help reduce exploiting
? Adjusted C4 to make throwing more difficult
? Fixed the issue where a red distance marker appears on the ground
? Fixed the issue that caused players arms to become invisible after switching weapons when using throwable items
? Made adjustments to reduce the damage taken by vehicles when driving
? Commander options will no longer available whilst dead.
? Fixed the issue with a spawn point showing up as selected when a player has spawned in during preview round
? Fixed the issue that would cause infantry players to be revived with no kit.
? Fixed several rare graphics crashes.
? Fixed issue with players crashing while clicking “Join Game” in the front end
? Car-Drop: Made adjustments to the car drop feature to help prevent players from exploiting into buildings.
? Fixed an issue tied to projectiles which would sometimes allow tanks to fire two shells, support to fire multiple rounds, and other issues (all maps).
? Fixed bug where after 2 rounds on the same map, the top player stars are awarded to the wrong people in the menu
? Transport Helicopters ? Increased the armor of all transport helicopters
– The DICE Battlefield Team
You don't really need to have *any* antivirus software or firewall
Id just like to point all to this post that was on Whirlpool
<sarcasm>
1. The Internet is totally 100% safe, everyone is nice, there’s no such thing as identity fraud or hacking, that’s just Hollywood nonsense. Anyway your ISP is protecting your system because they have regulated firewalls and antivirus behind the scenes. Why would your ISP leave you totally exposed to the Internet anyway?
2. Viruses only come in the form of EXE files. You never get viruses from Word, Excel or Powerpoint files. So all those documents you receive from friends and workmates are TOTALLY safe because they didn’t report any problems – so why should there be viruses?
3. Virus and trojan writers are really stupid. All viruses and trojans have really obvious names like SPYIT.EXE or BACKDOOR.EXE so you can spot it a mile away. They’re never gonna call it SPOOLER.EXE or SVCHOST.EXE – that’s simply impossible because Windows XP’s top notch security prevents that. Forget about all that antivirus heuristic scanning crap – you know exactly what is a virus and what is not, you don’t need some annoying software telling you the obvious.
4. WindowsUpdate patching keeps your PC 100% safe. Hackers are stupid and can’t keep their mouths shut. They always tell the whole world of loopholes in operating systems because of their ego. They can’t take advantage of the loopholes before Microsoft finds out about it. Microsoft is ALWAYS one step ahead of the hackers you see and so you are in safe hands.
5. Your $80 broadband modem is the best thing since slice bread. The built-in NAT and firewall is better than the expensive $8,000 firewalls from Cisco. Your broadband modem can fend off IP SPOOFING attacks because hackers are too dumb to attack the default IP addresses of the modems like 192.168.1.1, 192.168.0.1, etc
6. Attacks only happens via the front door. Hackers are really stupid you know. They can only attack a firewall in one direction (inbound). There’s no way in the world they can trick your system to send data outbound or rely on buffer overflows in software programs. All your software programs are perfectly written and tested before it was released onto the market.
7. You’re so poor, who’s going to steal your money or identity?. As if there are thieves out there interested in emptying out your savings account, steal your eBay password and impersonate you, take out loans, open bank and store accounts etc. Thieves only go after the big fish.
8. Firefox browser is 100% safe. Everyone knows Firefox is the best and totally foolproof browser. Don’t believe www.secunia.com propaganda about the Firefox vulnerabilities. Didn’t you know Firefox has hidden firewall, antivirus, and antispyware capabilities? It’s the jack-of-all-trades.
9. You can rely on backed up data. Even if you are infected with viruses, you can always retrieve your data because you’ve backed up your entire 300Gb of data full of MP3s, movies, documents etc. And the backups are totally virus free because you just know it – call it intuition. You can always install antivirus software after the attacks because they are so advanced they can totally disinfect the files 100%, restore deleted and corrupted files, and amazingly decrypt ransomware files.
10. It doesn’t take long to recover from attacks. You have all the time in the world to reinstall a clean system. Reconfiguring software settings to your liking, Windows XP reactivation, etc should only take about 30 minutes tops right? You can always use Ghost or Acronis to image your drives just as long as your hardware hasn’t changed right?
So you see, all these are very good reasons why you DON”T need antivirus or proper software firewalls.
</sarcasm>
[ http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=566659#r17 ]
EA / Dice you Have some Splaining to do
Two things are shitting me right now in EA / Dice‘s Battlefield 2, and personally I very much doubt I will be buying Battlefield 2142.
- Crash to Desktop (CTD) on clicking “Join Game” button
- Vehicle Drop spamming of servers using the commander hack (essentially a DoSS attack as it crashes the server)
Essentially it’s not possible to get a good game in at present cause either some tool will crash the server with the vehicle drop spam exploit, or when a new round or map starts and I click join the game crashes.
Heap of fucking shit
Internet Explorer 7 to be Deployed via Automatic Updates
Microsoft has indicated in it’s Internet Explorer development blog that it will be pushing Internet Explorer 7 as a new update via Automatic Update. This is both good and bad, I’ll leave that up to you. Personally I feel that this will be for the best as the majority of users will be ignorant of the fact that a new version is coming and is on the way. But this does pose some big questions, how will those people adapt with the plethora of now features.
Quicktime Alternative & Real Alternative
I wonder how many people are aware that there alternatives to Apple‘s QuickTime software and RealNetworks RealPlayer. Seriously if you don?t want to pollute your computer with their bloatware is there an alternative?
The answer is yes. QuickTime Alternative and Real Alternative are the answer.
QuickTime Alternative will allow you to play QuickTime files without having to install the official QuickTime Player.
All QuickTime formats (.mov .qt .3gp etc.) are supported, including streaming content and QuickTime content that is embedded in webpages.
Some advantages compared to QuickTime player:
- Quick and easy install
- It’s easy to make an unattended installation
- No background processes
- Use a player of your own choice
- Low on resources
- Smaller size
Real Alternative will allow you to play RealMedia files without having to install RealPlayer.
All RealMedia formats (.ra .rm .rmvb .ram .rpm .rv .rp .rt .rnx .smi .smil etc.) are supported, including streaming content and RealMedia content that is embedded in webpages.
Some advantages compared to RealPlayer:
- Quick and easy install
- It’s easy to make an unattended installation
- Proper uninstallation
- No background processes
- Use a player of your own choice
- Low on resources
- No advertising, no registration forms, nothing annoying
Limitations:
- .smi and .smil files only play the first part of a clip. This is only a problem when the clip consists of multiple parts. These files are not very common. These files do play correctly when embedded in a browser.
- The RealMedia DirectShow splitter does not work with streaming content. You must use the included Media Player Classic to play streaming content.
Microsoft buys Winternals
Winternals a company that makes some of my favourite administrative tools for Windows, has been snapped up by Microsoft. Winternals makes such programs as RegMon, and FileMon. (Click Here for more information)
The big question I ask is will this change the availability of these cool little tools, only time will tell.
Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 Service Pack 1 FREE
It interesting the Microsoft would release this software free, but then it’s there choice. Click Here to get your copy now.