Just a quick Uplink update

Just plowed through the Arumor side of the main storyline. Also did a second bank hack at 700k credits. Dunno what to do with the money, I have the best gateway, all the most power full cpu's and all the highest versions of the software that is useful, now what? Start a new account and run the ARC portion?

As for the gamebible.zip being password encrypted, don't you think there is "too many secrets?" in this world already?

An old favourite of mine revisited

For those of you who hasn't seen this game before, I can only say, check it out NOW. This is by far the most innovative and amusing game to play for all of us computer geeks.

The game starts with you signing up at Uplink to become a professional cracker (note the avoidance of the term hacker, hacker is imho something entirely different from a cracker) who makes his/her living out of compromising the security of everything from corporate mainframes to academic records to bank accounts to fulfill the tasks you are given.
Introversion's Uplink is one of the most captivating and innovative games I've played in a long time.

The best thing about this game is that the storyline is very loosely held, you play it when you feel ready for it. There are tons of other missions to complete to gain money to buy better programs, better hardware, and even upgrading your gateway (the computer frame you connect through when you crack computers).

And if you should stumble upon a bank account with a sizable content, then the only thing that is stopping you from moving those funds into your account is if you have the skill, knowhow, proper equipment/programs and backbone to do so. (my personal record is moving 900,000 credits into my own account).

It also features a fully functional stock market that you can both play and influence, have a job from a company that wants you to ruin their competitors? Buy the hiring company's stocks before the job. Do what you are asked to do, then fast forward 24 hours and watch your stocks increase in value.

A few tips along the way:

• Whenever you crack, always connect through either the Uplink test server or the interNIC server first. InterNIC preferably since there is no trace what so ever from this server.
• Always bounce through several other servers, the more servers the better. This will give you more time to perform your task.
• Always delete the reroute logs fro the interNIC log so you cannot be passively traced.
• Know when to bail when you have an Active Trace on your trail, if they get too close disconnect and try again.
• If you have time, delete the logs from the target computer as well, this will cause even further confusion.
• Connecting through a couple of goverment owned computers makes it harder for a passive trace to gain result.
• Connecting though a server where you have a useraccount makes take longer for an active trace, connecting through a computer where you have a working admin account makes gives you even more time.
• Buy the best software you can afford, there is no point in getting the v1 stuff unless you can't afford better.

Play it cool, don't download this game, buy it, Introversion is a small company with a lot of innovative ideas that pushes the limit of what we perceive as games. They deserve the income (at least imo).

Southpark? season 12, WTF!?

Ok, just watched the two first episodes of South Park season 12. Boy was I disappointed. I mean, what the fuck?

The first one about HIV, the only thing funny in it was Kyle's joy over Cartman being infected. But seriously the story was piss poor, the humor steeped to a level of idiocy it was painful to watch.

Second episode, Britney Spears. Seriously?? A whole episode about Britney Spears? I mean come on, couldn't you think about anything better to make a whole South Park Episode about?

Both episodes so far have had piss poor manuscripts, lame and pointless humor. Butters dressed as a squirrel, so much more fun could have been had from that idea yet they completely blew it. Whoever writes the manuscripts need to get a serious whack in the head for writing this crap, come on, season 11 was way better than this.

Cygwin My new Love

Cygwin

Alright, I admit it, I love the Linux terminal. But I've never known enough about linux to make the big step of migrating from windows. That's why I was completely blown away by this program.

Cygwin basically adds a lot of the functionality of the Linux bash shell to your windows installation. What this means is that the command prompt in windows has finally gotten a big fat injection of Linux steroids.

I must say I love using cygwin, it allows for advanced manipulations at the command prompt that is previously unheard of in a windows system, and it also allows you to get to know the Linux terminal before going for the full migration.

Part of the problem with linux is that installing it means you have to know a whole lot about it beforehand, if you don't, you won't be able to make very much use of it.
Cygwin helps out here, allowing you to get to know some of the power that lies in the linux system before having to deal with a full installation.

I know, there a re live CD's, but they still don't fully cut it IMHO, they have their uses but they still require some indepth knowledge about linux to be useful.

So why is Cygwin so useful? One of the base strengths of Linux is it's text manipulation functions. Something that only a handful very expensive programs can do in windows. Well, up until I found Cygwin that was true anyway.

If you wish to get to know the power of the Linux systems before you take the plunge into a full migration I strongly recommend installing cygwin.