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joltan

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Posts posted by joltan


  1. He, it's much better walking up there anyways - as long as you don't arrive just at closing time (as it happened to us). Had to walk up again the next morning... At least we got some exercise!

    tounge_o.gif

    I can really recommend Rhodes - as long as you're not there during high season and as long as you avoid all towns inbetween Rhodes City and Lindos like the plague (go to Mallorca or the Costa del Sol if you like THAT kind of vacacions). There's some very nice monasteries in the interior of the island - and the west coast is quite nice (and less crowded), too. The best way to enjoy the island: spend 1-2 night in a nice pension in the old town, then rent a car and tour around the island, spending the nights in whatever village you end up at the end of the day.

    Oh, and while it's not really famous for it's diving grounds there's some good diving schools in Rhodes City where you can get your scuba fix when needed.


  2. Ah, I understood SP2 to be a critical security update (no, not the fancy firewall stuff - but most of the small patches also included). This isn't primarly a patch for more features, it's a security update that was long overdue - not installing it is plain stupid (as long as your most important software is still working).


  3. The point is that I just can't see how they could avoid it. Of course it would be great if they could capture Sadr alive and if they wouldn't need to storm the mosque but were able to get them to surrender or leave. But that's unrealistic - and if they want to bring peace to the country they have to crush the militants - especially those that operate as open and prudent as al-Sadr.

    How it works out when you leave militas armed that oppose the central government can be seen in Afghanistan where the Warlords fight amongst each other and against the central government. That's no way to bring a country to peace. The only way a modern nation can work peacfully is when the central government is the only power authorized to use force. And the militants pose a danger to that.


  4. I think neither the US nor the Iraqui government can tolerate these militants, so sooner or later they HAVE to storm the mosque (as long as Al-Sadr and his followers don't leave it before - which I doubt very much). This will cause strong emotions among muslims and will be used as a propaganda tool by Qaida and other radical islamists. So far the situation is inevitable and it might be better to get over it quickly.

    What's still open is how the US and the Iraqui government follow up to the situation? They could put a lot of effort in blunting the propaganda value by making it as clear as possible that the shrine itself was never the target, and that they'll do ANYTHING to repair the dammages as quickly as possible. Possible including big donations to the shrine & money for high quality restauration works. Oh, and to let locals do the work (and earn the money) - and not Haliburton...


  5. 1. The Lucas Arts adventures (I.e. Monkey Island series & DoT)

    2. Operation Flashpoint

    3. Baldurs Gate (1 & 2)

    4. The Settlers (all parts)

    5. Command & Conquer: Red Alert

    6. Ultima VI

    7. Doom

    8. IL2 FB

    9. Dune 2 (later rereleased as Dune 2000)

    10. Infocom's 'Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy'

    Right, some VERY old ones on this list - but I've yet to encounter other games I have such fond memories of as the ones listed above.

    smile_o.gif


  6. I think Fallout (1 & 2) were great, but Baldurs Gate beats them with ease. Might be a matter of taste - while I liked the post-apocalyptic setting of Fallout the BG setting felt a bit more complete. Not sure why that is. Anyways, what BG had was a big story that spanned well across both parts & the expansions. With Fallout the stories were much less connected.


  7. So... I think this SP2 just does not like CPUIdle Pro in system startup but shut down when SP2 is being installed... I guess I will have to try uninstalling CPU Idle, then installing SP2, then reinstalling CPU Idle, we'll see, I'll wait until I have time to deal with the headaches. biggrin_o.gif

    Some programms won't work with SP2 anymore - mostly because of stricter security settings. I'd check wether there's a new version of CPU Idle available.


  8. I had the release candidates running before on my german WinXP Pro and just installed the final release over the RC2 - haven't encountered one problem yet. OFP client works fine (played a few hours mp this afternoon). No idea about servers, tho.


  9. Here's the feature list - mainly improved security (bugfixes and new features) inkl. a better build-in firewall.

    Edit: found another description - its also from M$ (so take it with a pack of salt) - but if someone has a link to an english language article by a third party that'd be nice!

    Quote[/b] ]Introducing Windows XP Service Pack 2 with Advanced Security Technologies.

    Service Packs offer convenient, all-in-one access to the most up-to-date drivers, tools, security enhancements, and other critical updates.

    The latest service pack for Windows XP—Service Pack 2—is all about security improvements, and it's one of the most important service packs ever released.

    Top of pageTop of page

    What makes Service Pack 2 so important?

    Providing a comprehensive collection of updates, innovations, and advanced security technologies, Service Pack 2 offers:

    •

    Improved Internet Web browsing and communication with new technologies designed to reduce unwanted content and downloads.

    •

    New security tools engineered expressly for Windows XP, so the process of managing security settings and staying up to date is less confusing and time-consuming.

    •

    Support for the latest computing experiences—whether you're a gamer, mobile user, or digital media enthusiast.

    Top of pageTop of page

    Specifically, how does Service Pack 2 help secure my PC?

    When you install Service Pack 2 on your Windows XP-based PC, you can feel confident that you're running the most secure Windows operating system available. You'll be supported by innovative features and default safeguards that will increase your overall security levels significantly. For example:

    Take control with Windows Security Center. When it comes to managing your Windows XP security settings, the new Windows Security Center is your command central. At a glance, you can monitor your current level of PC protection, including: firewall status, automatic update settings, and virus protection.

    Help protect your PC with Windows Firewall. Turned on by default, the new, built-in Windows Firewall helps defend your PC against viruses and intruders who try to access your computer over the Internet.

    Block distracting pop-ups in Microsoft Internet Explorer. Now you can stop most browser windows that Web sites pop up without your permission, giving you more control and less interruption when you're browsing the Web.

    Avoid harmful communications with improvements to Outlook Express. E-mail is a great way to share photos, links to interesting articles, and other attachments. But some attachments contain viruses that wreak havoc on your system. Outlook Express now supports a new Attachment Manager which isolates attachments as you open them. This prevents the opening of unsafe attachments which can infect your system with a virus or worm.

    Go wireless more securely. If you have a wireless network, or if you connect to the Internet at coffee shops or airports, the improved wireless support offered in Service Pack 2 simplifies the process of discovering and connecting to wireless networks.

    In addition to significant security-related enhancements, Service Pack 2 also offers Microsoft's latest hardware and software innovations. These new drivers and updates will help you use Windows Media Player, Microsoft DirectX, and emerging standards such as Bluetooth technologies more safely and effectively.

    Top of pageTop of page

    The sooner you install it, the safer you'll be.

    Now is the time to strengthen your Windows XP operating system by installing Service Pack 2 for free. Just visit www.microsoft.com/protect to download Service Pack 2 to your PC. It's a smart way to make sure you're doing everything in your power to help protect your PC and the valuable personal information you have stored on it.

    System Requirements: To install Service Pack 2, you need a PC running Microsoft Windows XP which has at minimum a CD-ROM drive, a 233-Mhz processor, 64MB RAM, and 900MB of available disk space during installation.


  10. Joltan what your talking about is at least as dangerous as no orders coming from the commander in chief and in any case is a result of the power vacuum from the George Bush Jnr. suffering 'combat freeze'.

    You don't need the president for law-enforcement agencies to take action against criminals, and: the president has a vice-president, who can legally give orders in his name if the president is unable to do so himself.

    There's nothing about treason or 'ursurping the chain of command'. It's all about fail-safes to keep the government working whatever happens. Wether bush froze for 11 minutes (or longer) doesn't matter, whatever you try to make of it. He was never in danger, he would not have been able to change a thing (due to other problems in the chain of command that made Cheney's 'shoot down' order take too long to reach the pilots).

    You make Bush the main problem, only he isn't. It's his whole administration (of course including himself).


  11. Definitely 'All quiet on the Western Front'. Old b/w classic from 1930 but unsurpassed (the original book by Erich Maria Remarque is also very good), and followed closely by 'Das Boot' (by Wolfgang Petersen) and 'Path of Glory' (by Stanley Kubrick).

    All three focus more on the people than the war action - without all the patriotic bullshit most modern war movies (incl. 'Saving Private Ryan', etc.) suffer from. Which is exactly what makes them so good.


  12. I think what people always forget (and parties 'forget' to emphasize on) is that this isn't about the election of one person, but about the election of a whole new administration, where it actually doesn't matter wether the president himself is good at his job - as long as the rest of the administration is. Unfortunately with the Bush administration BOTH the president AND the rest of the administration failed. The latter failiure being the worse.

    It doesn't matter wether Bush is prone to 'combat freeze' or not. He doesn't have to make split-second descisions. Keeping on nagging about that blinds people to the real shortcomings of this administration.


  13. Walker, while I don't nescessarily disagree with Kerry being the better choice you're blind devotion is rather contraproductive. This kind of propaganda is not even believable for perople who do support him... Tone down a bit, please, before it gets boring & annoying.


  14. It should be mentioned that it isn't forbidden to sell these games in Germany - just that if they are 'banned' the shops have to sell them (legally) under the counter without advertising them. Also you must be over 18 years to buy them. The BPJS also rates the games - and there's also a cathegory of '18+ years' that may still be advertised but not sold to minors. I think it's an ok system - not perfect, but better than having advertisement for the newest splatter game on all magazine titles.

    Gaming companies produce special 'German versions' so they still can advertise them and thus sell more copies.


  15. Would this also bring up an error if other files in the the pbo were changed but the checked file still resembled the original?

    Edit: I think this is a great idea, and even if it might not be possible to check the integrity of the whole pbo - at least the actual config used could be verified in a reliable way!


  16. I think you misunderstood the problem:

    You will not ban anyone effectively by blocking a simple xxx.xxx.xxx.255 subnet as in many countries the ips are neither static nor limited to the same subnet. Actually - as others already explained - with big providers who take their ips from several completely different ip ranges and distribute them at random among all customers you'd have to ban several (!!!) xxx.255.255.255 nets to effectively keep offenders out of your server.

    Doing the latter would keep an extremely high number of potential and perfectly fine players off your server. One example for this kind of IP distribution is German Telekom who provides ~90% of the DSL accounts in Germany - and thus represents the second biggest gaming community world wide... That's an awfull lot of active players considering how small the OFP online community is.

    For you that may be fine, but for servers in Europe or those interested in having European players on their server it's simply not practical. And I guess there's providers in other parts of the world, too, who use the same scheme to assign ips to their customers.

    In short: banning IPs may work for a few players who have static ips or get them assigned from a single subnet. For most players it won't work without severely limiting your own servers availability to the majority of good players.

    Just an example for 3 ips I got assigned today (simply disconnecting and reconnecting):

    217.82.243.37

    84.128.174.249

    217.226.158.221

    Disconnecting and reconnecting took 2 seconds - and I had a new IP within a completely different IP range. While the third IP is again in the same xxx.255.255.255 range as the first you can see that they are in completely different branches of this net.

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