Welcome!

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Firefox Crop Circle: the browser for Aliens?


The OSU Linux Users Group embarked on a project to create a firefox crop circle, and they were pretty successful at it. It looks great from the sky. =)

and even greater in google maps



The project's main site: http://lug.oregonstate.edu/events/firefox/crop-circle

from the site:

"Planned in under two weeks and completed in under 24 hours, the crop circle had a final diameter of 220 feet. We constructed the circle in an oat field near Amity, Oregon, where it was completely invisible from the road but unmistakable from the sky. Our team consisted of 12 people, mainly OSU students, and we carefully stomped down oats from 3:30pm Friday afternoon until 2:30am, putting on the finishing touches between 7:30am and 11:00am Saturday"

Without these folks this could not have happened:

  • Terry & Monty Woods (Crop owners)
  • John Imlah (Farmer/adjoining land)
  • Gretchen Brunner (adjoining Land owners )
  • Ron & Mary Lou Polvi (chief cooks)
  • Alex Polvi (Google/OSLUG)
  • Beth Gordon (OSLUG)
  • Jason Siefken (OSLUG)
  • John Carey (Mozilla-film maker)
  • Eric Searcy (OSLUG)
  • Emily Nashif (OSLUG)
  • Ken Yoneda (Mozilla translator)
  • Stuart McKim (OSLUG)
  • Michael Marineau (OSLUG)
  • Matt Shichtman (Mozilla-film maker)
  • Scott Nichols (OSLUG)
  • David "Crash" Mandrell (pilot)
  • Asa Dotzler (Mozilla)
  • Chris Dibona (Google)

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Google releases google chrome beta today!


Google Chrome is the new open source browser by the all too famous seach engine Google™.
With the browser wars on going between Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera and Safari; Google Chrome joins the fray in hopes of gaining most of the online market. It boasts that current browsers try too keep up with new web innovations by upgrading, so why not build one from scratch and design a browser that is based on the current needs of web applications and users

Some key features of Google Chrome that I've noticed:

Multiple Tab bars, placed above the address bar (not below it)

'Incognito' Window, a great option that allows you to browse without logging anything in your computer.

Blacklisting of Phishing and malware sites, warnings would appear if you attempt to go to a potentially harmful site.

The home page. It shows you a mini screenshot of your favorite websites, and allows you easily access any one of them.



We don't know how Chrome would fare against the other browsers, but it makes things more interesting, as well as making it a drive for other browsers to continue improvements.
Try it now! http://www.google.com/chrome





It also released a comic book explaining Google Chrome

Friday, August 29, 2008

Video: NVISION '08 Mythbusters show the difference between CPU and GPU

ON


At NVISION 2008, Jamie and Adam demostrated the difference between a CPU ang sa GPU in rendering images. They used robots to demostrate the speed of creating images by shooting paintballs in an X,Y axis simulating pixels. The result? a Mona Lisa in 80 milliseconds!

This is a video of the demonstration as posted by dralter on youtube:
*there are also several other videos of the demonstration on youtube









I love the mythbusters :3

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Ok lol, does anybody else find this product disturbing?




It's been a while since i've posted pics i've found and this one is weirdly disturbing.
Maybe it's just me lol.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Critical Iphone security risk, and how to prevent it.



In the iPhone 2.0.2 firmware, there was a major security flaw that allowed access to private data even with security passcode turned on.

In just two steps anyone can have access to a lot of private data on the phone.

After you slide to unluck the phone, you will be on the enter passcode screen

1. click on 'emergency call'
2. double tap on the home button

Click here and then double tap the home button to access favorites without entering a passcode!

and you'll have full access to your cellphones private information in Mail, SMS, Contacts and safari browser.



from gizmodo:
"Done. You are now in your favorites. This seems like a feature, because you may want to have emergency number in your favorites for quick dial. The security problem here is double. The first: anyone picking up your phone can make a call to anyone in your favorites. On top of that, this also opens access to your full Address Book, the dial keypad, and your voice mail.

If that wasn't bad enough, the second one is even worse: if you tap on the blue arrows next to the names, it will give you full access to the private information in a favorite entry. And it goes downhill from there:

• If you click in a mail address, it will give you full access to the Mail application. All your mail will be exposed.
• If there's a URL in your contact (or in a mail message) you can click on it and have full access to Safari.
• If you click on send text message in a contact, it will give you full access to all your SMS."



Here is an article on Gizmodo as well as a video demo.

They have also provided a solution by changing the function of your home button so that when you double tap it, it will perform a different task.


1. In the iPhone home, go to Settings.
2. Click on General.

3. Click on Home Button.

4. Click on either "Home" or "iPod".


This is what you should see
Change the function of the home button to prevent this risk!


It has been reported that apple will fix this security flaw in their next firmware update, but there has been no announecment to when that will be. For now just use this simple solution, i hope it helps!

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

I am home alone?



I am legend / Home alone Mix trailer (I am home alone? =p)




This is a funny video that mixes the two movies together to create a witty trailer. It features the sound from 'I am legend' with the voice of Will Smith combined with scenes from 'Home Alone'. You'll realize that the two movies have a freaky commoness between them.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Prove your logic: proveyourlogic.com review







Proveyourlogic.com is a Flash based website that is fun as well as challenging. It contains 25 levels that contain logical questions that you have to answer in order to continue.

the 25 levels contain different questions pertaining to math and logical reasoning. It would help encourage 'thinking outside the box' as you try to answer some of the questions, I.Q. definitely plays a big role here.

The website has been around since 2007 and thousands of players around the world already finished it (you can put your name on the list once you finish it as well)

I personally played it (after a friend introduced me to the site) and finished it within an hour. It's definitely a great find, with games from DS and PSP like brain age, this is a good way to excercise your brain and do some critical thinking. And if you happen to get stumped on a question, just think it over again and read the questions carefully. I don't recommend cheating to answer the questions but if you have to you could always google it.

Too bad the list doesnt indicate if you finished the game by yourself or if you had some 'help'. But deep down inside you know the answer to that. =p



Prove your logic for free!
www.proveyourlogic.com/


Friday, August 22, 2008

Photosynth - Turning pictures to 3d galleries




This particular site caught my interest as it's a really innovative idea. Imagine taking tons of pictures of a single place, and putting them together like a big 3d jigsaw puzzle, and you get photosynth. It's a new project from microsoft that you install on your browser so that you can upload all the pictures of a particular place and the software compares and matches the pictures to create a seemingly 3d view of the whole area.

An area must appear in at least 3 overlapping photos for it to be processes (else you'd get a blank space) what's cool with this is that you can create a virtual representation of an object or your house in a 3-d panoramic view. For now, all pictures are available for public viewing so you can't make a private album.

Microsoft aims to pretty much make a good digital representation of the whole real world with photosynth. Pretty farfetched, but definitely possible if you ask me. I believe there is a world of potential with this kind of software, one of the early benefactors of this project is virtual tourism, where people from all over the world can view a place in 3D.



Here is a video explaining photosynth:


And a demo:



Photosynth installs two programs on your computer: a Web browser plug-in for viewing synths, and an application (called "Photosynth") for creating them.

Minimum System Requirements

Important: Photosynth makes heavy use of your graphics hardware. If you have an older graphics system, Photosynth may not run. Also, Photosynth requires that your graphics acceleration be set to full.

Operating System: Only Windows XP (SP2 or SP3) and Windows Vista are supported at this time. Running Windows on a Mac? Photosynth runs under Boot Camp only. Parallels and other VM software cannot run the viewer.

Web Browser: Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 2, and Firefox 3

Memory: 256 MB of memory is a bare minimum; 1GB is recommended.

Graphics: Minimum 32MB of graphics memory required, 64MB or more is recommended. Photosynth runs on some DirectX6 capable cards and all DirectX7 cards.




Galleries are available for viewing on the photosynth website, but requires a microsoft passport to login (free)

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

If J.K. Rowling opened a barber shop...

It would be named...

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

DotA Allstars 6.53 available in different languages


DotA Allstars v6.53

Made available in different languages such as Russian, Korean and Chinese as well as the default English version.

No changelog available as of this posting.
I'll be providing a mirror for the english version only.

Download:
Get it from getdota.com
Savefile (mirror) *english only!

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

DotA allstars 6.52e released & DotA 6.52c bug



Within hours of releasing 6.52d, icefrog has released 6.52e.

6.52e Changelog:
=================
* Fixed some critical bugs introduced in the 1.22 patch

6.52d Changelog:
================
* Fixed a major exploit that has been discovered very recently


Dota 6.52c exploit:
from : gamingnewslink & dota-allstars blog
The reported exploit was a syllabear bug that allowed users to duplicate items,

here are the instructions and a demo video:

After Syllabear has level 4 Spirit Bear, use this trick.

1. Make your Spirit Bear health under 1000 and you can start to deny it, but don't deny it yet.

2. Place the items you want to duplicate in the Spirit Bear, the video place 2 desolator on the bear. (still not sure, maybe you must have 2 of it?)

3. Start denying your bear while take and drop the item on the Syllabear.

4. After the Spirit Bear died, revive him and voila! Your item is duplicated.





DOWNLOAD:
http://www.getdota.com/

Mirror:
download from savefile.com

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

C&C Red Alert 3 : Soviet conscript unit profile


News from the official RA3 website: http://www.ea.com/redalert

The unit profile for the soviet conscript has been released! The conscript has been the basic soviet infantry unit since RA2 and now it's back with a new twist..

Not your usual shot of vodka...


Designation:
Anti-Infantry
Training Headquarters
:
Kremlin Premier Recruitment Center
Field-Trained at: Soviet Barracks
Creed
:
"Our motherland will protect our bones!"

Accessories:

»
7.62 mm ADK-45 assault rifle (used)
»
Greatcoat with service branch insignia (used)
»
20 quart synthetic XL satchel (new)
»
Cloth sashes for protecting the feet (new)
»
Fashionable fur hat (used)


EA said that it'd be releasing 2-3 more units per week until the release date. I'll try to keep this updated for now =).

Read more about the conscript
here

Friday, June 6, 2008

Online Blog list: Blogs listed by Personality

by Myers-Briggs Typology to be exact.


I find online personality tests a bit fun, you get to know yourself better and usually learn stuff about yourself that you might have not noticed before. No one knows you better than yourself, so you'd pretty much be able to judge instantly how you are defined, and on these test, what you do defines who you are.

outsidemybrainagain.blogspot.com Lists blogs according to their respective personality based on the Myers-briggs personality test.



here is a link to the quick test:
link
The test is pretty famous as it has multiple online versions.



mypersonality.info Also has tests and gives you a nice personal record in which to show your results to others, a more showy test compared to the others.


Here is a sample of my results: http://hypkitsune.mypersonality.info

Click to view my Personality Profile page
Click to view my Personality Profile page


My test results have deviations from one another, but my main personality is introverted.
(which i think is true ^_^ )

DotA Allstars 6.51 AI+ (AI Plus) 1.52

Originally from: DotA Allstars 6.51 AI+ 1.52, Port of RGB's AI+ for 6.48b (Revision 2)




So far, there have been some AI maps appearing, but from all that I've played, DotA AI+ by RGB have the most challenging AI.

This is a great AI map that I'd reccomend for both new and experienced players.

Downloads:

Download from savefile.com


or get it from the original:
DotA Allstars forum(Needs login)

This AI was posted by BuffMePlz on the D.A. forums, along with the ff. message:


This is a port of RGB's AI+ v1.52 (originally written for DotA Allstars 6.48b).

It behaves the same as the original AI, and has only been updated to account for new item recipes. As such, some new content does not work fully with the AI yet.

THERE IS NO AI FOR LIFESTEALER AND INVOKER. THEY WILL GET BASIC ITEMS AND WILL NEITHER USE NOR LEARN THEIR SKILLS.

Known bugs with AI:
-Sand King doesn't use Epicenter
-Luna doesn't level up Lucent Beam, so Eclipse is very weak
-Lanaya crashes the game

Some commands have yet to be implemented properly:
-ah
-afk
-kickafk

Additionally, I have added a Fun Tavern in the lower right corner for kicks. Currently includes four legacy heroes (possibly more in the future): Old Invoker, Old Lifestealer, Old Silencer, and Gambler.

To access the fun tavern, type -fun within the first 15 seconds of the game.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Zinio - Free Magazines online viewing for your iPhone & iTouch!




Zinio Labs is a digital publishing company that offers digital magazine subscriptions on desktop PCs (for a fee) but when you stumble upon it on using the safari browser on you iPhone, you'd find out that you can view all their magazine content online for free! As of this writing, there are 20 magazines available for viewing which are all popular titles including:

  • PC Magazine
  • Playboy
  • Penthouse
  • Men's Health Magazine
  • Popular Photography
  • Popular Mechanics
  • Car and Driver
  • Elle
  • Macworld (for obvious reasons)
  • Reader's Digest


Again these titles are FREE for viewing on your iPhone. We don't really know for how long so for now enjoy browsing these magazines to your heart's content. (before they take it down)

Personally, The great thing about this whole thing is that it's free. But here are the good and bad points of this site.


Good:

-The whole magazine is available for viewing, page-by-page
-No login or access required whatsoever
-Has a table of contents, where you can skip to the article of your choice
-Good resolution for pages, optimized for the iPhone

Bad:

-Can't skip to the page of your choice
-Slow loading, since each time you click a page it loads all over again
-The free stuff can only be accessed thru your iPhone, on the PC you need to subscribe


Final notes:

Free magazines overshadow the fact that you have to wait a while to view it page-by-page, but it's still a great find and a good way to pass some time on a coffee shop. Having the coply of the real magazines are of course better, but that's why we pay for them.

Access it through your iPhone with this link:
http://imgs.zino.com/iphone
http://www.zino.com/iphone

Monday, May 26, 2008

Starcraft 2 update: 3rd zerg unit - Baneling

BANELING

  • Type: Sapper
  • Core Genus: Zergling
  • Primary Attack: Volatile Burst




























(image taken from site)




Concept art:

While in the screenshot above you can see that the baneling looks more like a scarab beetle, here in the concept art we can see that it looks more like a spider with claws for feet and a huge sac filled with a lot of acid.
Funny thing though, is that the baneling doesn't make use of its feet. It moves by curling up into a ball and rolling around (lol,imagine Sonic the hedgehog).



It's decribed as a unit the gets close to an enemy and then "triggers a reaction within its volatile chemical payload that causes it to explode with devastating force and shower the immediate surroundings with searing acid."

Of course by saying that it 'explodes' they mean suicide so its very much like an infested terran or a land unit version of Starcraft's scourge(air unit).

Also Notable is that this unit is identified as a morph of the zergling, meaning that it theoretically can be produced in an alarming rate since it's a from the basic tier 1 zerg unit. Its attack can do damage to both units and buildings in an AoE, a couple of them could potentially wipe out a batch of marines in an instant (burrow FTW?).






Here in this video we can see that the baneling in its idle animation, looks menacingly throbbing, and seems likely to explode at anytime like a giant water baloon (filled with deadly acid, that is).


Read about it more on the official website.

Interesting pic from my e-mail

Someone sent this to my e-mail. It's a photo of rules posted in some resort.

These are the rules:


hope you enjoyed reading =p

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Rickroll in manila!

With a near three month long Hiatus from blogging, I thought there were only a handful of things that caught my attention nowadays, but leaqve it to the internet to rekindle my inspiration from blogging once more, this was just too good to pass up. =)

Yes, this has probably nothing to do with computers but it definitely has a lot to do with the internet XD


As I was browsing along, this particular site caught my undivided attention.

http://www.ticketnet.com.ph/2006/detail.php?eid=835&res=Y



since I think the website will remove the page once the even is over, I took the liberty of taking a nice screenshot =)





Rickroll in manila. He's never gonna give us up, he'll never let us down.
Reserve tickets now XD

Category: Entertainment!

Venue: Araneta Coliseum

Event Date/Time:
August 1, 2008 | Friday at 8:00pm

Seat and Price (in Pesos):
Seat Location Price
Patron VIP(101,103) (Reserved Seating) 5250
Patron (Reserved Seating) 4200
Lower Box (Reserved Seating) 3150
Upper Box A (Reserved Seating) 2100
Upper Box B (Free Seating) 1050
General Admission (Free Seating) 525

Sunday, February 24, 2008

the most powerful gun for doom (funny)

Probably the greatest gun ever made.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Techie Pun time







Q. How do you know when you've been on the computer too much?

A. When you get this pun.

DotA Allstars v6.50b


6.50 was released about almost 2 weeks ago, and 6.50b fixed some bugs that were found.
on a side note, DotA Allstars v6.50 was originally an april fool's map back in 2007.

A ton of new stuff, including a new(or old, was brougth back) hero, the Invoker.
here's the changelog below:

6.50b Changelog
===============
* Fixed a bunch of bugs reported


6.50 Changelog
==============

Hero Changes:
-------------
* Removed manacost on Mana Shield activation
* Changed Leap's cooldown to scale with levels
* Improved Juggernaut's movement speed
* Implemented a better silencing mechanism in the Black Hole area
to prevent spell execution regardless of cast animation time
* Lowered Drow Ranger's Agility gain per level
* Changed Drow Ranger's Marksmanship ultimate
* Increased Morphling's base damage
* Macropyre's cooldown no longer increases per level
* Added an extra bounce to Chain Frost
* Reduced Sprint's damage amplification
* Increased Maledict's area of effect by 15
* Changed Spectre's Dispersion
* Redesigned Visage
* Improved casting range on Acid Spray
* Changed how Song of the Siren levels up
* Reduced cooldown on high level Shapeshift
* Improved armor on Enigma's Eidolons
* Reduced Expulsion's cooldown and manacost
* Improved Keeper of the Light's attack animation
* Improved Scattershot's damage range from 10-35 to 20-35
* Improved Alchemist's base Intelligence and growth
* Slightly improved Psi Blades' spill width and range
* Improved Chemical Rage
* Increased Phantom Lancer's Strength gain
* Increased cooldown on Psionic Trap from 7 to 14 seconds
* Improved lifesteal on level 2 and 3 Insatiable Hunger
* Reduced Replicate's manacost and cooldown
* Improved Troll's base movement speed
* Decreased Rampage's movement speed bonus and cooldown
* Improved Spirit Bear's Demolish
* Increased Lightning Storm's cooldown by 2 seconds
* Reduced cooldown on level 4 Metamorphosis from 135 to 110 seconds
* Reduced Lina's movement speed by 5
* Improved Sand Storm
* Reduced the slow on Epicenter
* Improved range on Drow Ranger's Trueshot Aura
* Improved cooldown progression on Insatiable Hunger
* Reduced Sven's base armor
* Improved Enigma's movement speed
* Modified initial projectile speed and effect on Paralyzing Casks
* Improved Enfeeble
* Improved Auto Fire's area of effect and duration
* Reduced Queen of Pain's Blink range at early levels
* Improved Earthshaker's movement speed
* Zombies now give a bit less bounty
* Reduced Gravechill's cooldown a bit
* Increased Primal Roar's cooldown a little bit
* Eclipse's damage is based on Lucent Beam level and doesn't ministun
* Lucent Beam ministun duration increases per level
(0.6 level 4 up from a constant 0.01)
* Lowered Eclipse's manacost and gave it constant cooldown progression
* Increased Lucent Beam's casting range and lowered manacost slightly
* Improved cast range on Expulsion and Fire Storm
* Improved Ravage a little (it became slightly less effective with the
Impale recodes)
* Reverse Polarity's cooldown is now the same on all levels
* Changes Queen of Pain's blink cooldown from 12/9/7/5 to 12/10/8/6 seconds
* Removed true sight from Spin Web
* Added some extra movement bonus on higher level Spin Web
* Improved Keeper of the Light's movement speed
* Improved Storm Spirit's base armor
* Lowered Mirror Image's cooldown slightly
* Improved slow on Drunken Haze
* Improved movement bonus on Witchcraft
* Lowered Searing Arrows' cooldown
* Improved Reaper's Scythe's leveling a bit
* Changed Purification's damage type to Pure
* Lowered Axe's starting Agility and increased his starting Strength
* Lowered Death Coil's cooldown
* Improved Undying's base armor
* Improved Meepo's base Strength
* Rebalanced Pit of Malice
* Increased AOE on Firestorm
* Reduced the search area for Omnislash
* Changed Bloodrage's stats a bit
* Lowered level 1 Mana Void's manacost
* Lowered Exorcism's damage return threshold and cooldown
* Restored Bone Fletcher's old Wind Walk speed bonus
* Lowered Geminate's attack cooldown
* Slightly improved how Medusa's Purge levels

Item Changes:
-------------
* Redesigned Eul's Scepter of Divinity
* Redesigned Orchid Malevolence
* Redesigned Guinsoo's Scythe of Vyse
* Added cooldown to Bottle usage and reduced its sell cost
* Bottle is in full state at all the side shops once again
* Changed how Dagger of Escape works. It cannot be activated
if you took damage in the last 3 seconds.
* Added Hyperstone to the Goblin Shop
* Changed Unholy Rage's lifesteal type to be the same as regular lifesteal
* Reduced price on Ultimate Orb
* Added Ring of Health to the Goblin Shop
* Added Quarterstaff to the Goblin Shops
* Increased Perseverance's damage from 7 to 10
* Added Javelin to the Goblin Shops
* Removed the stack restriction on Shiva's Guard
* Improved Vanguard a little
* Changed Lothar's Edge's recipe and stats
* Reduced Vladmir's Offering recipe cost
* Reduced Linken's Sphere's cooldown
* Removed stacking restriction from Bloodstone and improved its stats
* Improved Helm of the Dominator damage from 10 to 20
* Improved Oblivion Staff mana regen by 25%
* Quarterstaff price reduced
* Hand of Midas can now target level 6 Neutrals
(Satyr Hellcaller and Dark Troll Warlord)
* Reduced Void Stone's cost by 25 gold
* Improved casting range per level of Dagon upgrade
* Improved Sange and Yasha
* Removed Flying Courier Mana and gave it a Mana base upgrade ability
* Wards now require 5 mana to be placed
* Reduced animation time and cooldown on Manta Style
* Ring of Health's regeneration increased by 1

Neutral Related:
----------------
* Change some of the Scourge's top left forest area
* Changed the locations and distribution of neutral creep camp groups
* Fixed neutral spawn times in various modes
* Reworked the trees and pathing near the small Sentinel creep camp
* Increased neutral creep Centaur's aura by 5%
* Added an Alpha Wolf with a command aura in the wolves' creep camp
* Added a new creep camp group (1 Ghost with Frost Attack + 2 Fel Beasts)
* Added a new ancient creep camp group (Jungle Stalkers)
* Added a new creep camp group (1 Enraged Wildken with Tornado + 2 Wildkins)
* Added a new creep camp group (1 Dark Troll Warlord with Raise Dead and
1.5 sec Ensnare + 2 Dark Trolls)
* Changed the Furbolg's Stomp to a Clap
* Improved Satyr Hellcaller's Unholy Aura
* Neutral Ogre no longer autocast Frost Armor
* Changed the location of some of the Scourge creep camps
* Redid neutral creep spawner code for some optimizations

Bug Fixes:
-----------
* Recoded impale based effects completely, fixing various ramp bugs,
stacking issues and a lot of rare problems.
(Burrowstrike, Impale (Lion), Impale (Nerubian Assassin), Ravage)
* Fixed Land Mines to properly detect floating heroes
* Fixed a problem with Huskar's Burning Spears
that would cause him to swing incorrectly when the enemy is moving
* Fixed some bugs with Wild Axes
* Fixed some color issues on the load screen (kunkka)
* Couriers can no longer use Scroll of Town Portal to make buildings invulnerable
* Fixed Dark Rift from initiating cooldown when cast incorrectly
* Fixed a bug introduced in the recent Aghanim's Scepter changes on Crystal Maiden
* Fixed Last Word triggering off of Linken's Sphere's usage
* Fixed Berserker Rage triggering Essence Aura
* Insatiable Hunger, God's Strength and Rampage are no longer removed by Cyclone
* Fixed Javelin's odds being slightly off
* Fixed an issue with the Cheese drop from Roshan
* Fixed an issue with Forest Troll High Priest's pathing scale
* Fixed some text display problems when viewing replays (thanks DonTomaso)
* Fixed a very minor bug with Elder Form's duration
* Fixed Armlet of Mordiggian's recipe cooldown
* Fixed typo on Psi Blades
* Fixed some creep death time discrepancies (188461)
* Fixed a very minor bug with the damage mechanism on Shukuchi
* Fixed a display bug with Mode Random
* Fixed a possible abuse with Helm of the Dominator
* Fixed Overload from using its charge when attacking an allied unit
* Fixed Last Word from turning off Electric Rave

Others:
-------
* Remade Invoker as promised in 6.49
* Added a new game mode -singledraft or -sd (swiss)
* Improved Sentinel creep pathing on top Sentinel lane
* Adjusted starting gold between all game modes
like ap/xl/rd/sd to be the same (all the same as xl)
and for randoms to be like ar.
Gold is now give at the start and income starts with the first creep wave.
* Income is now distributed in 1 gold intervals instead of in 8 gold intervals
(same total gold)
* Added a new experimental command -ah
* Added a new system to detect replays used in -ah and other future applications
(thanks PandaMine)
* Changed how the secondary shops work. You can now see their location
and click them while in fog.
* Added new visual effect for Orchid Malevolence's Soul Burn (JetFango)
* -roll now shows the range the person entered (188889)
* Added a new command -clear to clear game messages from your screen
* Reduced model size and changed the look of the non-ancient Golems
* Added a new command -apm to show your actions per minute
* Couriers can now disassemble items (161180)
* Added text descriptions for power ups (68307)
* Delayed the creep spawn time by 30 seconds in -vr
* Made "Helm of Iron Will" item name consistent between recipes and core,
using Helm instead of Helmet.
* Centered swap request notice is given to a player (182779)
* Added -afk that displays how long each player has been idle for
* Added a conditionally available -kickafk command to boot players
that have been idle for more than 10 minutes (171984)
* Necronomicon icon now changes per level (190183)
* Changed durations of some power ups (Haste 45->30, Illusion 60->75, Regen 45->30)
* Moon Wells now gather water during night and get drained during day.
This has no gameplay impact (60920)
* Added new tooltip text on items showing if they can be disassembled
* Improved tooltip for observer wards to detail the stock mechanics
* Added a new command -courier that toggles idle courier icon on and off (Ro-Coco)
* Added a new command -swapall to request to swap for any hero (175040)
* Improved Shackles caster effect
* Added an additional constant (7) Mana regeneration to Fountains
* Removed replenish interval from buying Clarity Potion (like tangos now)
* Changed Heartstopper pure damage type to HP loss (not a nerf or a buff,
just works with things like dagger in a more desirable way)
* Improved Electric Rave icon (169997)
* Improved Luna's orb warning message (113338)

A lot of work has been done on developing a system for seamlessly
translating DotA to other languages.

Thanks to Danat for his help and support on it
and to the new translators that have signed up.
Once the initial language translation is complete,
I will make a post to recruit people that wish
to translate into other languages.

Thanks to the following beta testers for their help:
2MT, 4nTr4xX, Aoen, Akuryou, ArcheKleine, AtroCty,
Beary, BeastPete, Blaow, Burning-Legions, Calf85,
Capnrawr, Cascaderro, chiwhisox, Clogon, Cornerstone,
Damican, DarkCloud, DarkMist, DBX_5TM, Dimitrii,
Disrup3, EastyMoryan, esby, Eldorquo, EnderX,
Evil-Zergling, Exetasi, Exy, Fellower_of_Odin,
Firewyrm, frlolg, FzeroXx, gorzerk, Grunthor,
Guvoverthere07, HunterX2, IEatDeadPeoples, Infrisios,
Jmesch04, Ki-HunterKiller, kugelkind, landonmullet,
Loki57, LulaLula, Mago-Merlino, Malakal, McGrady,
Minotaar, Moimucus, Nova, PharadoX, phssy_galore,
ptdprac, PudgeIsAPirate, Quicksilva, Redial2,
Rifleman00, Rigor_Mortis, Ro-Coco, Rubadub, Severas,
sketch-e, Sledgehmr, Slopy, spielkind, sSerenity,
StokesII, Tarano, Terrorblaze, Thermald,
The_Intimidator, TimeToParty, tinfoiltank, Tinker,
Tomahawk_Chop, Trozz_, Truxton, Tuwl, u-nL-ike,
unHOLYdoNUTS, vigi-, Volcove, whifrA, Wretch,
the_white_mage, Y0UR, Zagruss, Zarent, Zethal


Download:
http://www.getdota.com/

Monday, January 28, 2008

Sticky keys, and how to turn them off

It's a common PC annoyance, you pressed [SHIFT] repeatedly, and the StickyKeys window pops up, you pressed [ENTER] accidentally, now how do you turn them off?

To turn StickyKeys off:
PRESS BOTH SHIFT KEYS SIMULTANEOUSLY

I'm writing this article because it just so happens while my group was working on a project and under the pressure of a deadline, one of them accidentaly activated stickykeys and none of us had any idea on how to turn it off.

Hopefully, none of you would encounter this at such a bad time such us we did, so if you have read this article, you'd know what to do in case something like that would happen to you.




And you might want to turn it off permanently on your computer so here's how:

Go to START -> Control Panel then select accessibility, here you can turn it off.


or you could tweak it to your preference.




Hope this helps. =)


from Wikipedia:
Sticky keys is a feature of computer Desktop Environments. It is an accessibility feature to aid users who have physical disabilities. Sticky keys allows the user to press a modifier key, such as Shift, Ctrl, Alt, or the Windows key, and have it remain active until another key is pressed.

On Windows, it is enabled by default and activated by pressing the Shift key 5 times in sequence or by holding down a modifier key for longer than 5 seconds. When sticky keys is activated in Windows, a beep is sounded whenever the Shift, Ctrl, Windows key, or Alt keys are pressed henceforth. It can be disabled by pressing both Shift keys at the same time. Another way to disable it is to press on Ctrl and Shift at the same time.

On KDE, one can enable it in the KDE control center as well as pressing Shift 5 times in sequence or holding down Shift for 8 seconds.

On Windows XP, it can be disabled through the Control Panel's Accessibility options. The shortcut used to re-enable it can also be disabled through the StickyKeys Settings found in the same dialog box.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Anonymous: Call to action

An update to the fight of Scientology and Anonymous, this message was released by anonymous with the name "Call to action" on youtube, pretty straightforward, as it calls on people to join in an "act of solidarity" and to protest outside scientology centers worldwide on Febuary 10, 2008. Now, this has not been confirmed anywhere as of yet. best bet is to wait and see what happens on the 10th to see if it is true or not.

I'm not urging people to join in nor supporting it, I just find it interesting and post-worthy.




It states:

02/10/08
11:00 AM
Worldwide


It has come to the attention of Anonymous that there are a number of you out there who do not clearly understand what we are or why we have undertaken our present course of action. Contrary to the assumptions of the media, Anonymous is not "a group of super hackers". Anonymous is a collective of individuals united by an awareness that someone must do the right thing, that someone must bring light to the darkness, that someone must open the eyes of a public that has slumbered for far too long. Among our numbers you will find individuals from all walks of life - lawyers, parents, IT professionals, members of law enforcement, college students, veterinary technicians and more. Anonymous is everyone and everywhere. We have no leaders, no single entity directing us - only the collective outrage of individuals, guiding our hand in the current efforts to bring awareness.We want you to be aware of the very real dangers of Scientology. We want you to know about the gross human rights violations committed by this cult. We want you to know about Lisa McPhearson. We want you to know about former members of Scientology's private navy, SeaOrg, who were forced to have abortions so that they could continue in service to the church. We want you to know about Scientology's use of child labor and their gulags. We want you to know about Operation Freakout and Paulette Cooper. We want you to know about Operation Snow White and Scientology's efforts to infiltrate the government of the United States of America.We want you to know about all of these things that have been swept under the rug for far too long. The information is out there. It is yours for the taking. Arm yourself with knowledge. Be very wary of the 10th of February. Anonymous invites you to join us in an act of solidarity. Anonymous invites you to take up the banner of free speech, of human rights, of family and freedom. Join us in protest outside of Scientology centers world wide. We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. We will be heard. Expect us.

Pic of the week (End of january)


Yes, it's an actual shop. the "wang" mart..
and NO, it does not sell what you think it does.
(is that restaurant on the right selling sausages? O_o)

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Scientology Vs. Anonymous.


VS



Following a youtube video that shows "message to scientology" anonymous released a message directed to followers of scientology. With having over a million hits, here is the video.



"Hello, Scientology. We are Anonymous.

Over the years, we have been watching you. Your campaigns of misinformation; suppression of dissent; your litigious nature, all of these things have caught our eye. With the leakage of your latest propaganda video into mainstream circulation, the extent of your malign influence over those who trust you, who call you leader, has been made clear to us. Anonymous has therefore decided that your organization should be destroyed. For the good of your followers, for the good of mankind--for the laughs--we shall expel you from the Internet and systematically dismantle the Church of Scientology in its present form. We acknowledge you as a serious opponent, and we are prepared for a long, long campaign. You will not prevail forever against the angry masses of the body politic. Your methods, hypocrisy, and the artlessness of your organization have sounded its death knell.

You cannot hide; we are everywhere.

We cannot die; we are forever. We're getting bigger every day--and solely by the force of our ideas, malicious and hostile as they often are. If you want another name for your opponent, then call us Legion, for we are many.

Yet for all that we are not as monstrous as you are; still our methods are a parallel to your own. Doubtless you will use the Anon's actions as an example of the persecution you have so long warned your followers would come; this is acceptable. In fact, it is encouraged. We are your SPs.

Gradually as we merge our pulse with that of your "Church", the suppression of your followers will become increasingly difficult to maintain. Believers will wake, and see that salvation has no price. They will know that the stress, the frustration that they feel is not something that may be blamed upon Anonymous. No--they will see that it stems from a source far closer to each. Yes, we are SPs. But the sum of suppression we could ever muster is eclipsed by that of the RTC.

Knowledge is free.

We are Anonymous.

We are Legion.

We do not forgive.

WE DO NOT FORGET.

Expect us. "



This was then followed by the appearance of numerous new messages from anonymous on youtube. You can view all of them, just search for "scientology" and "anonymous"

Here's a second message as posted at http://calloftheday.com/





To the common Scientologists,
We are Anonymous.
You have seen our actions, both online and in your cities.
We do not threaten you, the people.
We threaten the lies, the corruption and the greed of the organization.
We have not acted upon a whim, but in outrage of the treatment of its followers...


You.
You have not been given freedom by these people.
They have restricted you.
There is a realm of the internet you have not dared to face,
because they said so, and because they have stopped you by technological means.
There are those who have left your community.
They have seen the facts behind the leader and the original intent of the religion.


Your religious beliefs are not wrong, like any other religion, and they are yours to keep.
However beliefs should not come at a price. Not from your wallet or compromising your thoughts.
Those who have left feel a new life, a rebirth into true freedom.
You can join them if you wish.
You may not believe us. We ask of you one thing:
Make up your own mind.
That is a sentence of more profound meaning for you now than at any other time in your life.


Visit the facts.
Make up your own mind.
You are not alone.

This particular website, hosts a forum dedicated to taking down scientology. You can also find the old videos of messages deleted from youtube.

Taken from (calloftheday.com)
"World of Warcraft; It's not real, and costs $15 per month for unlimited play time.


Scientology; It's not real, and costs $200 per session.


In both of these Alternate Reality Games, You may become a little too addicted. You can be considered a little odd by your peers, and even worried for. Over time, you may develop psychiatric issues. And just like most games, you can be murdered. Let's open the floor to Lisa McPherson. Everyone's heard of this lady.


Lisa McPherson was involved in a minor car crash on the 18th of November, 1995. Lisa emerged from her car, and removed her clothes. She was seemingly in a mentally unstable state, and was taken to a nearby hospital. Upon hearing news of this, Lisa's Scientologist comrades flocked to this hospital, and stated that Lisa does not believe in Psychiatric Help - and would instead prefer to be cared for by the Scientologists themselves. After a short evaluation, Lisa checked out, and was moved to Room 174 of the Ft. Harrison Hotel. It was noted by the Church that this was for "rest and relaxation". Instead of resting up after what would be considered a mentally draining experience - on someone noted to already be in need of psychiatric help, Lisa would instead be murdered in this room.


On December 5th 1995, Lisa returned to hospital - dead on arrival. Coroner's report; Lisa was underweight, severely dehydrated, and had bruises and bug bites. Lisa was one of the many people to receive the Introspection Rundown treatment - Scientology's alternative to psychiatric help.



Church logs of Lisa's stay with the scientologists were released following a court hearing during July of 1997. However, many logs are incomplete or missing - This affidavit was released by a high ranking ex-scientologist, proving that the Church of Scientology have previously destroyed any logs or information linked to illicit activies/murder - which of course, may land the church in trouble.


On November 13, 1998, the Church of Scientology were indicted on 2 felony charges on Lisa's death.� On December 6, 1999, prosecutor Bernie McCabe presented a response to Scientology's attempt to get the case dismissed.


� � On June 12, 2000 the criminal charges were dropped against Scientology because the medical examiner could not be counted on to confidently testify - as the prosecuter claimed. Even though the criminal charges were abuse of a disabled person and practicing medicine without a license.� You can read much of the Clearwater police department's evidence and Scientology's� logs of Lisa's stay, view some of the autopsy photos, and decide for yourself. Then ask why Scientology now makes members sign a waiver specifically against suing Scientology over the Introspection Rundown.



But this website isn't just about Lisa - it's about everyone involved in the Church of Scientology.

It's about the misinformed, the misguided, the mentally unstable, the liars, and the murderers."




An article on scientology's manhunt for anonymous was posted on digg but was quickly taken out.

Which way will this war go? personally, I don't think Anonymous would be taken down. But till then, stay tuned for more news regarding this topic.

*update*

NBC reports on the topic:


Anonymour then released another message stating "why we fight" as they seek to unite other people over the internet to band against a "common enemy". Here is the message:

Gentlemen, This is what I have been waiting for. Habbo, Fox, The G4 Newfag Flood crisis. Those were all training scenarios. This is what we have been waiting for. This is a battle for justice. Every time ebaums has gone to war, it has been for our own causes. Now, gentlemen, we are going to fight for something that is right. I say damn those of us who advise against this fight. I say damn those of us who say this is foolish. The time has come not for us to not only rise as heroes of the internets, but as its guardians.

With the leakage of 'The Church of Scientology's' latest propaganda video into mainstream circulation, the extent of Scientology's malign influence over those who come to trust them as leaders has been made clear to us. Anonymous has therefore decided that this organization should be destroyed. For the good of their followers, for the good of mankind and for our own enjoyment, we shall proceed to expel them from the Internet and systematically dismantle the Church of Scientology in its present form. We recognize the 'church' as serious opponents, and do not expect our campaign to be completed in a short time-frame. However, they will not prevail forever against the angry masses of the body politic. Their choice of methods, hypocrisy and the general artlessness of their organization have sounded their death knell. Scientolgy have nowhere to hide, because we are everywhere. Scientolgy will find no recourse in attack, because for each of us that falls, ten more will take his place.

Scientolgy, we are waging war against you. A war unlike any war we have experienced before. A war that shall not only be known for one against faggotry but for one against uberfaggotry. A war that shall make you think twice before interfering with the tubes. A war that shall leave the name anonymous charred with respect and glory. A war that perhaps one day will be remembered as the greatest thing we have ever done.

We call everyone from the internet. Let the differences between us be ignored as we fight against a common enemy. And as we have epic lulz too.

Knowledge is free.

We are Anonymous.
We are Legion.
We are Ebaums.
We do not forgive.
We do not forget.


711chan, has reportedly been taken over by the church of scientology, O_o
Here is a screenshot when I visited the site:
Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us

For references on what is going on:


on news

Scientology's secret documents hacked by /i/'s Splongcat (site was shut down when I checked)

Anonymous Issue 'Why We Fight' Statement.

The Cruise Indoctrination Video Scientology Tried To Suppress

message to scientology

Scientology Vs. Anonymous - an Internet War

Calling War On Scientology!

PC - week Headline Animator