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Gear News Archive: September 2004
September 28th Please Close the Valve on STEAM STEAM, Valve's download program for preloading Half Life 2 on your computer prior to its official release, is an abject failure. In fact, I can honestly say that STEAM sucks. What's wrong with STEAM? 1) It has caused a massive legal battle between Valve and Vivendi over distribution rights for the game, possibly delaying release until next year (if Vivendi makes good on it's threat). 2) STEAM always seems to hang my machine for 30 seconds or so at bootup as it "phones home". (I finally turned off the 'load with Windows' option, so now I just check manually for updates). 3) You have to do the downloading on the computer you want to play the game on. I doubt they will let you install the game on multiple computers on a network, so if you have a LAN, you will probably have to buy a retail copy in addition to the copy you get through STEAM. 4) STEAM doesn't work right. After downloading 84% of the game, which amounts to approximately 2.5GB of painful download time, it got stuck. Let me elaborate. When I started STEAM today, just to see if there were more downloads, it tried to begin downloading another large file. But it wasn't making a connection with the server, so I made the big mistake of pressing the "pause" button. After that, all attempts to "continue" the download failed. A box pops up temporarily, saying "validating file 0 of 1", but that fails, and STEAM does not "continue" the download. Apparently, this is a giant bug in STEAM that Valve seems too busy to fix. I quote from STEAM's help page: "If you are having problems with the HL2 preload getting stuck and nothing seems to make it start again, then you will need to exit Steam and delete the GCF files and start the download again. All you need to do is to select "Cancel Pre-load" which will automatically delete the old cache files, then you can start the preload again." So there you have it. Valve says their download client sucks so bad that you will have to delete 2.5GB's of perfectly good downloaded data, and start all over again, because they can't be bothered to fix the massive bug. This whole deal between ATI and Valve has become one of the biggest disasters in computer gaming in my memory. At every turn, Valve has messed up ATI and the gamers who just want to play a computer game. Half Life 2 was supposed to be out a year ago. The hype is absurd, and the crap associated with the ATI vouchers and the STEAM download all stink. I'll be damned if I'm going to start a 2.5GB download over because of Valve's incompetence and arrogance. Update: the file that became available for download today is a locked copy of Counter Strike. STEAM doesn't give you the option to say; "Skip: I don't want counterstrike". So if you want to get HL2 via STEAM, you'll have to download Counter Strike as well. September 25th Vivendi May Delay HL2 Until Next Year The publisher of Half Life2, Vivendi Universal Games, is threatening to postpone the release of the game until next year, as part of its legal wrangling with Valve Software, maker of the game. Vivendi supposedly has exclusive rights to distribute the game, and is not ready to do so. Valve wants to use it's STEAM download system to distribute the game this month. But as long as the lawsuit is ongoing, that probably can't happen. Maybe it's time to write the executives at Vivendi, and tell them what you think of their plan. Don't Hold Breath for PCI-Express (you'll die waiting) As was the case when graphics card makers forced us to make the change from PCI to AGP video cards, we again see turmoil and turbulence at ATI and NVidia as they try to work the bugs out of the switch from AGP back to PCI -(express). It's all in the chipsets, they say, and that suggests that this could be a protracted development cycle before the products (both motherboards and video cards) are ready for prime time. Of course there will be a period when those brave souls who venture forth first with wallet in hand will wish they have left their wallets at home. But that will pass, within a few months (or years), and just when all gets right with the world of PCIe graphics cards, they'll tell us that AGP-express is the way to go. My head hurts. September 24th Bill Demands All Upgrade to XP, as he is declared richest man again Bill Gates says that the security enhancements to Internet Explorer in Windows XP Service Pack 2 will NOT be made available for other versions of Windows. After Bill was declared the richest man in the world again this year, Microsoft issued the statement: "We do not have plans to deliver Windows XP SP2 enhancements for Windows 2000 or other older versions of Windows. The most secure version of Windows today is Windows XP with SP2. We recommend that customers upgrade to XP and SP2 as quickly as possible." Quickly! Get out your wallet and cough up some more dough for Bill, because, like a drug dealer, he gave you IE for free in order to hook you. Now, if you want your browser to be secure, he's demanding you toss out a perfectly good OS, and buy a new one so that it will be secure. Sounds like a customer-friendly policy, doesn't it? Of course, you have another option (which will piss Bill off big time) which is to use a free browser like Firefox, or pay $30 for a commercial one like Opera. Both options are more secure than IE with SP2, and are much cheaper than the $200 price tag on XP home, or the $300 cost of XP Pro. Plus, you won't be hooked on Bill's expensive, insecure bloatware. September 21st Half Life 2 Killed By Lawsuits? Oh brother. Half Life2 is not an upcoming PC game release, it's a fricking soap opera. For all of you ATI Radeon owners and HL2 wanaplays, you probably know what STEAM is. It's the funky program that probably spies on everything you do, and lets you download Valve games without having to buy the game at a store. But now, the company that is going to distribute HL2, Vivendi, is suing the company that made HL2, Valve. Vivendi is suing Valve over their use of... you guessed it... STEAM. Vivendi says that STEAM violates their distribution rights for the game. This all started when Valve sued Vivendi in 2002, for distributing Valve games in cybercafe's without Valve's permission. These things usually end with both sides mutually dropping the law suits, but it looks like Valve is going to have to give up something, or pay royalties to Vivendi for each STEAM download due to their bypassing the distributor. I hate STEAM, and I don't like the way that Valve has been handling the entire HL2 release. They've pretty much botched the whole thing, and if the legal action by Vivendi delays the game even further, Valve will be on my black list. Oh, and by the way, the court date for these cases is set for March 21st, 2005. Is the release date going to be after that? September 19th MS Begins Pilot Program to Check for Pirated Windows Microsoft has begun a pilot program to let users who log onto the Microsoft web site to check their systems to determine if their copy of Windows is legitimate, or pirated. While many folks will want to flee in horror at the thought, a smaller number may actually want to know if the computer they bought at the local computer store is legit. Microsoft will not be trying to screw with customers over this, they will instead ask you to go back to the store to complain if your Windows version turns out to be Chinese pirateware. Of course if we were to delve into this subject in any more detail, we would be forced to mention the fact that the only part of a new computer that has not dropped dramatically in price in the last 8 years is Windows. This is of course because they have a 90+% monopoly on PC operating systems, so they can charge whatever they want. If Bill was REAL serious about reducing Windows pirating, he would drop the price of the home version to $79, and the pro version to $149. Then, in conjunction with a "get legal" program that let people check their version, and maybe get a $20 off coupon to buy a legit copy of Windows, Microsoft would rake in millions of dollars in additional, new revenues. But that would require Bill to turn off his internal greed generator, and act like a smart businessman. So forget it. September 18th It's Bill's House of Cards, But We Have to Live in It Another security hole has been found in Windows, which theoretically will be plugged if you install XP Service Pack 2. This vulnerability allows hackers to get into your system if you open an HTML email with an embedded JPG file that is infected. So all you would need to do is read the email, and if your system is set to allow viewing of pictures automatically, you'd be infected. If you are using Outlook, you can disable the automatic downloading of pictures, which would also prevent the accidental viewing of the file. Considering how much time and effort Microsoft has put into security in the last 2 years, I am astounded at the complete lack of security remaining in fully-patched Windows systems. The analogy that comes to mind is trying to make a mile-long fish net water-tight by using a well-chewed piece of chewing gum. At this point, I am using a hardware firewall in combination with a fully patched Windows system, up-to-date, antivirus and antispyware programs, and have as many things disabled as I can stand (picture viewing in email, Active X, un-needed ports). I also use a different browser than Internet Explorer, and yet, I still don't feel confident that my network is safe. It's a house of cards that Bill made, but us poor slobs are the ones who have to live in it. Official, HL2 Gone Gold Wednesday According to the folks at Valve, the Half Life 2 release candidate was delivered to the publisher, Vivendi, on Wednesday. Vivendi will now perform quality checks on the release candidate, and if it passes (which could take a couple weeks), then the game will go to manufacture. At that time, STEAM users will be able to download the remaining code (and any built-in patches), and should be able to unlock the game. ETA? Probably the end of September. September 17th No Explosion at Huge Blast Site in North Korea A South Korean official said today that: "There is no information to support an explosion in the area where there were indications of an explosion." Well I'm glad they cleared that up. According to Reuters, here is the chronology of events: "Sept. 12 - South Korean Yonhap
news agency reports huge blast rocking remote Kimhyungjik county in North
Korea's Ryanggang province on Sept. 9. Agency says explosion appeared to be
much worse than train blast in April that killed at least 170 people, and
that it generated mushroom cloud up to 4 km (2.5 miles) in diameter. South
Korean and U.S. officials say it unlikely to have been nuclear explosion as
analysts and some media speculated. I suppose the part that gets me is that the US has assets that could easily tell what type of explosion occurred, including the ability to monitor radioactivity in the mushroom cloud, and the fallout downwind. That means they know what happened, and just aren't commenting. Looks to me like we attacked the wrong evil-empire, axis of evil, WMD-mongering evildoers. Did I mention they were evil, and that they were coming to get us? A Bush Administration official who declined to be named insisted that I end this article with the words... Be Afraid... and vote Republican, or die. Thanks for that Dick. September 13th Just Blasting Mountains The huge explosion in North Korea last week, visible by satellite as a 2 mile-wide mushroom cloud, was just normal demolition activity. North Korea says it is just blowing up mountains for a new power project, so don't worry. Colin Powell agrees, so we know we don't have to worry. September 12th North Korea Tests Nuke? The New York Times reports that North Korea has been involved in activities that seem to indicate they were preparing to test a nuclear device on the anniversary of the Pyongyang government. Coincidentally, on that day observers reported a large mushroom shaped cloud with a diameter of approximately 2.5 miles was seen near the North Korea/China border. Satellite images later showed a large crater at the center of the blast zone. It is possible that N. Korea set off a huge fuel-air explosion to try to fool the West into thinking that they have nuclear weapons, but it is also possible they refined enough plutonium from spent fuel rods to make a small device. Considering the prevailing winds, I'm sure the Japanese have detected radioactivity already if the device were nuclear. I will be very interested to hear which way it turns out, and I hope our government doesn't try to hide the fact that they attacked the wrong country when going after weapons of mass destruction. September 10th Why Testosterone Will Destroy the Internet I've been wondering why viruses and Trojans seem to be doing so well nowadays, with all the "education" that Internet users have had on the do's and don'ts of surfing. But alas, people still click on popups that tell them their computer is "slow, and infected with viruses". That, however, doesn't explain the rampant spread of malicious computer code. Based on my recent experiences with infected computers, my best estimation of the problem is that testosterone may be a big part of the problem. What do hormones have to do with computer viruses? Well, a lot. A good number of the infected computers I've fixed recently were infected with Trojans and viruses due to porn site surfing. Rampant, indiscriminant porn site surfing. After trashing his third computer in a row, my brother exclaimed "why didn't anyone warn me about free porn sites?" Oh brother. Look folks, you get what you pay for, and if you're not paying for something up front, ask yourself why anyone would do all that work and expect nothing in return? Think of most internet porn sites as "man-traps". They sure aren't fishing for woman porn surfers. The purpose of setting such sites up is to attract boys and men, like moths to a flame, to click on a "link" that they would never normally click on. And believe me, it works. Typically the Trojans do several things. First they tend to block ports so that they have your system all to themselves. Next, they provide back-door access to your system. In my brothers case, they took away his administrative privileges so he couldn't even install software anymore. In some cases these people are looking for your credit card numbers, or to steal your identity. But in other cases they are simply turning your machine into an email zombie, to send out mass amounts of porn site email from your computer. Finally, they usually inundate you with more pop up ads than you've ever seen before. So please guys, keep your pants on, and surf with your brain. September 8th Viruses and Trojans for the Masses The phone rang yesterday evening, another friend was on the other end of the line explaining that Internet Explorer had gone insane, and was redirecting him to web sites he didn't want to go to. It's a tale of woe I've heard dozens of times in the last several months. Virtually every family member and acquaintance has had some type of computer "infection" over the last several months. Some of my friends have refused to reconnect their machines to the Internet after I exorcize the viruses and Trojans that they have contracted. They don't trust the Internet anymore. But that is not the way to avoid viruses and Trojans. Let's take my friend's case this time around. His system is on a router (at my insistence), so he has a fairly good firewall in place. My first question was, "are your anti-virus definitions up-to-date?" He replied, "no, I let the subscription lapse a couple months ago". My next question was, "have you been applying any of Microsoft's critical security updates?" "No", he replied. Sigh. Finally I asked if he was using any anti-spyware software. "No". OK, I guess it's time once again to list the things you must do in order to prevent viruses and Trojans from getting to your system. 1) A hardware firewall is essential (router or up-front Linux box). If you are on a dial-up connection, you might consider using a software firewall like Norton personal firewall. All broadband users must hook their systems to their cable or DSL modem through a router. 2) Anti-virus software should be running in the background, and it should be updated every time you boot your computer. 3) An anti-spyware program should always be running on your system (Spybot Search and Destroy or Pest Patrol are good choices). These should also be updated daily when you boot your computer. 4) Windows update. You should either leave "automatic updates" enabled in Windows 2000 or XP, or you should check every day for critical updates, and install them as soon as they become available. 5) Don't open email attachments from people you don't know. Don't ever click on Internet Explorer popups that warn you that your computer is "infected" and needs immediate fixing. Only your anti-virus and anti-spyware programs can tell you that there is an infection. 6) Don't surf to questionable web sites. Clicking on the "wrong" link at a Bulgarian porno site is the quickest way to infect your computer. 7) Use any other browser besides Internet Explorer. There are many great options, and they are all more secure than IE. Choices include Mozzila, Firefox, Netscape, Opera, and others. Safe surfing is now much tougher than safe sex, but probably almost as important. First Doom3 Patch The first Doom3 patch is out in beta form. If you want to be a guinea pig for id, head over to Gamershell and pick the file up (17MB). September 5th Windows Games on Linux, Where Are We? Some game makers are doing the right thing, and releasing native versions of games for Linux in the same box as the Windows version (UT 2004, for example). But most Windows games still won't run on Linux without a "translator", such as "Cedega". The company that makes Cedega (originally called WineX), Transgaming Technologies, says that their program lets you "run Windows games right out of the box, seamlessly". Others disagree, and point out that only 10 games run perfectly using Cedega. After looking at the two sides of the argument, I can say without hesitation that Cedega definitely needs more work. The good news is that at least someone is trying! September 4th Windows XP Service Pack2 a Failure I've been reading lots of horror stories about people installing SP2, and having any number of problems from slower performance, to systems not even booting anymore. But the worst stories coming out are the ones that say SP2 leaves many ports open for attack, has security bugs of its own, and does not fully protect systems from attack despite years of coding effort and testing. Even Microsoft says that if you install SP2 on a system that is infected with spyware, the system could be trashed. What this has me wondering is if it's possible to plug all the holes in Windows as it now stands? Remember, even Longhorn is going to be based on Windows 2003 Server code, which is based on XP code. And instead of streamlining the operating system, they are still expanding it to proportions that will be even harder to secure. At this point it is becoming fairly obvious that MS should have really started from scratch on Longhorn, and built it around a much smaller, more secure kernel. Because they didn't, expect more delays, more feature removals, and eventually, expect a lack-luster product that still isn't secure or fully reliable. I still say it would have been cheaper and easier to start with a good Linux distro, and make it the friendliest, best supported, easiest to use version on the market. Bill could have saved many billions of dollars too. But pride is a powerful force for stubbornness, and Bill sure has his pride. September 3rd STEAM Stuffs More Stuff on My Hard Drive If you double click on the Half Life 2 listing in your STEAM client, it will "begin resuming" your Half Life 2 download to the tune of nearly another gigabyte. After doing so, the Valve\Steam\SteamApps\ directory will contain 3 files: "base source shared materials.gcf", "base source shared sounds.gcf", and "platform.gcf". So now we probably have the maps, textures, and sounds, but what about other stuff like AI, scripted clips, and the game engine? I wonder what the "platform" file is (it's about 11MB). I wonder how many additional downloads we will have to persevere before we have the game? Over 2 gigabytes of compressed data is already a huge hunk of stuff (3 CDs), and one hellova download. September 2nd Catalyst Driver Update Today ATI has taken some flack for the confusing control panel in the ATI Catalyst 4.8 drivers, so they are releasing a modified version where the control panel for Radeon graphics cards looks more like NVidia's. That has to be a slight embarrassment at least. They should be available later today, and you can expect the improved OpenGL 4.9 drivers later this month. I have switched back to NVidia after almost 1 1/2 years of sticking with ATI Radeon products. It's nice to be back with NVidia, even if their card is the size of Mount Everest. I do like their drivers better, and I like having the chipset and graphics chip in my system from the same company, because it makes driver updates very quick and easy. I'll switch back again if ATI can make a card that soundly beats NVidia's best. Copyright 2004, KickAss Gear |