Brian's Blog

This is so true it almost hurts…

Taken from: http://xkcd.com/627/

There’ll always be people in online games who will attempt all kinds of tricks to get easy money. The safest way is often to prey on those that aren’t looking close enough on the prices, because as the Game Masters say “All trades are final“. Here’s a good, albeit not very likely to get them anything, example:

I don’t even pity the people who fall for tricks like this, they should just wake up and look/read before pressing trade/buy etc. although I do think that the people trying to scam still should be punished somehow by the Game Masters, because World of Warcraft is really too poor a community that blacklisting a person would ever work.

Some really stupid (and at the time very amusing to me) conversations

[13:49:52] [General] <Makaria>: any1 wanna help me kill a nub hunter?
[13:50:20] <70:Makaria>: Level 70 Undead Warlock <Makaria owns> – Shadowmoon Valley
[13:50:26] [General] <70:Kagmoo>: If the hunter is so “nub” then why do you need help killing him?
[13:50:34] [General] <70:Makaria>: cuz he killed me while i was afk
[13:50:46] [General] <70:Makaria>: and now i cant ress cuz of him
[13:50:49] [General] <Redmeat>: Lol kill him back then.. hehe
[13:50:55] [General] <70:Kagmoo>: Still.. Why do you need help killing him if he’s nub?
[13:50:59] [General] <70:Makaria>: i cant with half hp and mana
[13:51:12] [General] <70:Kagmoo>: rez, fly, eat/drink, fly back
[13:51:14] [General] <70:Makaria>: cuz i cantwithout pet and half hp and mana -.-
[13:51:25] [General] <70:Makaria>: i cant he is camping me -.-
[13:51:28] [General] <70:Kagmoo>: Sure
[13:51:41] [General] <70:Makaria>: tard
[13:51:43] [General] <70:Kagmoo>: Takes more time for him to find and target you due to lag etc. than it takes to mount up
[13:51:55] [General] <70:Makaria>: no it doesnt -.-
[13:51:56] [General] <70:Kagmoo>: So I guess you’re the “nub” and the “tard”
[13:52:16] [General] <70:Makaria>: i dont argue with tards so sry Kagmoo
[13:52:56] [General] <70:Kagmoo>: I love arguing with tards, hence I argue with you. Because you show how mentally incapacitated you really are
[13:53:21] [General] <70:Makaria>: yeah if its easier for u to believe in that.. if it makes u feel better
[13:54:08] [General] <70:Kagmoo>: I feel rather good, thank you for asking
[13:55:05] [General] <70:Makaria>: i bet u are a 14 year old kid that hates the whole world because he has no life
[13:56:07] [W To] <70:Makaria>: Heh, and the guild name really shows how much of a noob tard you really are, not to mention that you’re a warlock who are so noob he can’t even win against a hunter
[13:56:19] [W From] <70:Makaria>: grow up tard
[13:56:27] [W From] <70:Makaria>: this is my alt anyways
[13:56:52] [W From] <70:Makaria>: and locks is strongest and best thought class in wow so
[13:57:13] [W To] <70:Makaria>: You just keep showing just how noob you are
[13:57:30] [W From] <70:Makaria>: i played wow while u didnt even know what it is tard
[13:57:40] [W To] <70:Makaria>: You claim your class is the strongest and best, yet you can’t figure out how to mount up?
[13:57:48] [W From] <70:Makaria>: ARE U RETARDED?
[13:57:58] [W To] <70:Makaria>: Aha, that’s good for you. Means you’ve played since early beta
[13:57:59] [W From] <70:Makaria>: I CANT MOUNT UP WHEN HE HAS HIS PET ON 1 SIDE
[13:58:05] [W From] <70:Makaria>: tard
[13:58:55] [W To] <70:Makaria>: Lol, damn you are ridicilously retarded at this game then, if yoiu can’t figure out how to avoid his pet and him while mounting
[13:59:06] [W From] <70:Makaria>: get a life loser
[13:59:24] [W To] <70:Makaria>: Indeed you should, because you obviously can’t figure out how to play the game
[13:59:45] [W From] <70:Makaria>: haha i have a life ask my bf Alucardd who will probably start pwning u now
[14:00:02] [W To] <70:Makaria>: Damn I pity her
[14:00:09] [W From] <70:Makaria>: -.-
[14:00:28] [W From] <70:Makaria>: get a life moron
[14:00:32] [W To] <70:Makaria>: If someone is with a noobtard like you, I really do feel sorry for them
[14:00:44] [W From] <70:Makaria>: duel my main and then say so tard
[14:01:20] [W To] <70:Makaria>: I wouldn’t wanna embarras you in front of your “girl friend” whatever his name is
[14:01:30] [W From] <70:Makaria>: -.- tard
[14:01:39] [W From] <70:Makaria>: grow up and get a life
[14:01:42] [W To] <70:Makaria>: You sure do like that word, don’t you?
[14:01:55] [W From] <70:Makaria>: well yeah it is perfect word for u
[14:02:20] [W To] <70:Makaria>: You must hear it a lot every day in kindergarden, I guess that’s why you’re so fond of the word
[14:02:20] Makaria is ignoring you.

It takes 3 seconds to summon a mount and at level 70 everyone should have a flying mount. Due to lag (the server and client needs to synchronize) it will take about 1 second (maybe less, maybe more depending on how much lag) from you resurrect until you’ll actually be visible to the people around you. That leaves only approximately 2 seconds for the opponent to spot you, target you and get you in combat so you can’t mount up. If you’re smart you find a spot where the opponent can’t see you, or just as far from the opponent as it’s possible, then resurrect while spamming the mount button and you’re 9 out of 10 mounted and flying before the opponent can get you in combat.

I guess what I found most amusing is the fact the guy acknowledged that Warlocks are probably the strongest class in World of Warcraft, especially in PvP, yet still seeking assistance to kill the Hunter. Sure a Beastmaster Hunter could win if the cooldown is off The Beast Within (which is 2 minutes), but in many cases would still be hard pressed against a decent geared Demonoligy Warlock.

It’s so bothersome all the comment spam that occurs on blogs all around, a common denominator is that they (almost) always contain links. For this very reason I’m now blocking/blacklisting ALL comments that contain a web address.

Why is it that you can’t play a MMOG, and this goes especially for World of Warcraft, without getting ninja invites to either groups, or guilds? Some people apparently think that someone surely needs a guild, if they’re level 70 and not in one already.

Normally I just click “Decline” and ignore it, sometimes I send a “polite” whisper to the offender. With group invites these usually goes ignored (and I usually don’t send anywhispers to those) because they’re often from random_spambot_11237. Anyways, this time the offender responded, and follows here (I’ve cut and pasted it, so that irrelevant background chatter isn’t there):

So I’m doing a bit of Warsong Gulch and I’m happily running towards the Alliance side, to find the enemy flag carrier in the attempt to get our own flag returned, and apparently the enemy flag carrier was running behind me, and I was obviously looking ahead, towards the enemy (alliance) ahead of me. Then some elitists moron starts spewing all over..

So I was reading an article on ComputerWorld with the author listing what he apparently deems to be “must-have” extensions for Firefox. What I found curious, like many other readers, was why the most popular Firefox extension of them all wasn’t even mentioned with a single word in the article. The extension is of course none other than Adblock Plus. Most of the extensions mentioned actually had nothing that I would call “must-have”, I actually only counted 1, maybe 2 if I’m being nice, that I’d call “must-have” extensions.

In response to that article I’ll write my own Top 20 list. I’ll also tag each extension as either “must-have” (MH) or “nice-to-have” (NtH). MH extensions are extensions that will/should benefit everyone and NtH extensions are those that really depend on each persons individual needs. Read more…

Today APG got their injunction against Tele2 for blocking the Russian MP3 store AllOfMP3.com

Computerworld has an article which goes more in-depth of this case.
Addition: BetaNews.com article.

It’s the Internet Service Provider, who has the responsibility for what the users are doing on the net – that’s the courts decision in the case about the users access to the website Allofmp3.com, where the service provider Tele2 was up against the musicindustry IFPI.

I’m more and more glad that I live in Sweden now instead of Denmark. Apparently control of the internet should be privaticed, for that is what APG is, a private organisation. No one should control the internet in such a way, that tells people what they’re should or should not browse.

I wonder what the hell the US government is on now. Reading a few newsarticles (WLTX, openDemocracy) I found out that USA wants to control Outer Space? If they’re serious about this then I think it’s about time for the rest of the world to put their collective foot down and say stop.

I’ve just finished reading an article from APG (AntiPiratGruppen aka. The Anti Piracy Group) where they write (roughly translated):

The Danish Anti Piracy Group, who handles the music- and filmindustry interests in matters regarding illegal copying of copyrighted material, have today applied for an injunction against the ISP Tele2. This is done as part of APG’s endeavour stop the illegal, russian website AllofMP3’s activities in Denmark.

They’re surely growing balls, or are they?

Looking at the statistics for 2005 it shows that there are 31 ISP’s offering xDSL services in Denmark. The statistics also show that the biggest by far is TDC with a whooping 72% of all xDSL subscribers in Denmark, 2nd. comes Cybercity with 13%, 3rd. is Tele2 with 10% and then the last 5% is spread over the remaining 28 ISP’s offering xDSL services.

I would think that if APG really wanted AllofMP3 blocked and was so sure that it would happen as they seem to think, they would have gone after TDC right away, this would certainly block the biggest amound of connections. But I guess APG is just grasping for straws as always.

Addition:

Tele2 have made a response to APG’s injunction:

It’s impossible to close the access to the russian site AllofMP3.com, states Tele2, after The Anti Piracy Group applied for an injuction against the site. “The only way to do this is to close all access to the Internet”, states Tele2.

From my basic knowledge on how the TCP/IP protocol works, the following methods would be how to block a specifik site, and the drawbacks of those methods.

• Using packet inspection/transparent proxy.
  This method is a simple way to check all trafic from the users, checking if it’s directed toward AllofMP3.com.
  The drawbacks to this are
  • Ressources.
    Running a transparent proxy takes a great deal of CPU and Memory, which in turn drains more power, which in turn cost more money. I somehow doubt APG are willing to pay for the extra expenses they’re forcing on the ISP’s.
  • Encryption.
    It’s really easy to set up an encrypted tunnel, where the packet contents can’t be read. That way anyone can get around this method, and the only way to avoid it is, as Tele2 stated, to close all access to the Internet.
• Blocking IP/IP-ranges.
  Changing the A record on the DNS for AllofMP3 is easy and takes a very short amount of time. Once again the only certain way is to block, if not all the Internet, then all IP’s assigned to Russia.

I wonder when APG stops this nonsense.