GameSmith going away :(

GameSmith is the online gaming adjunct to Freeverse. Without it, the value of many of the older Freeverse games, mostly card games such as 3D Spades and 3D Hearts, is mostly lost. It has a fairly simple and straightforward interface, but has a few bugs and doesn't do uPNP or NAT-PMP so it is hard for a novice to host a game without configuring their home router manually.

I started using it many years ago because the site I was using, zone.com, didn't (and doesn't) support anything but Windows and there are many rude folks on it.  ("rude" --- quits when losing a game)

*With heavy hearts, GameSmith will be sent riding into the sunset this coming summer. We thank everyone for their years of support, and we hope GameSmith will return someday in a new modern form.

I hope a modern form doesn't include a lot of flashy graphics and sound.  Focus on the game.  ;)  3D Bridge Deluxe, soon to be not so Deluxe?

Update:  Roote has been so kind set up a chat site to aid in setting up "local" games--games without the aid of Gamesmith.  Yeah!  http://www.chatzy.com/fvgames

Surly Furious

Went to Sunsets restaurant in Woodbury (their website) and sampled some Surly Brewing Company's Furious IPA on tap.  Yumm.  It's up there now with my other favorites, the Hodgson's IPA from Leavenworth (which I think is defunct) and Dogfish Head's 90 Minute IPA (their website) which I can't seem to find for sale around here--anybody know where I can find this in the twin cities area?  Anyway, check out the Furious, it's got the whole grapefruity, hoppy thing going on that I really enjoy.

On another note, when I was trying to locate the Hodgson's, even the brewery could not tell me where it might be for sale--some sort of Washington state regulation or something.  However, Minnesota must be a lot more lenient because this brewery even has their own iPhone app to show you the closest place you can be served or purchase their products.  Get Surly  OTOH, in Washington state, you can buy real beer in the grocery store, in Minnesota 3.2 or less beer only, as I understand it, so you have to go to a liquor store (and be tempted by real liquor?).

Brewpubs

Found this site that is nice for locating Brewpubs in Washington State.
NW Brewpage (Washington) 

Really, I'm not an alcoholic, but I do like the occasional beer.  When I like something I look for the best of what I like.  I ain't drinking Pabst, you know?

Hodgson’s India Pale Ale

Any one out there know where I can find some "Hodgson’s India Pale Ale"? I had some at a cafe in Long Beach, Washington, and I've been looking for it for sale or on tap somewhere in the Seattle area. It was soooo good. Their web site. I suppose I could email them.

Cannon Beach

I'll be in Cannon Beach this weekend.

Check out Haystack Rock

3D Games-I can only host, I can't join

A lot of folks report that they can no longer join 3D games on GameSmith/Freeverse, but they can still host games. This happened to me after upgrading my Mac to OS X Leopard (10.5). I'm pretty sure it was because at one time I had downloaded & installed the GameSmith 4.0 Public Test and this test version doesn't work right with Leopard. So this is what I did...

1. Re-download the 3D Games I needed from Freeverse.
Start at http://www.freeverse.com/games/
Select the games you need and download the full demo.
For example 3D Hearts at
ftp://download4.freeverse.com/Mac/Cards/3DHeartsDeluxe.dmg
2. Erase/Trash everything in the directory
"~/Library/Application Support/Freeverse/GameSmith Cache".
The "~" in the directory name refers to your home directory, so it could be "/Users/Sardonimous/Library/Application Support/Freeverse/GameSmith Cache". You can use the Finder's Go to Folder and drag the stuff to your trash or use rm in a terminal window.
3. Reinstall the programs.

Come play 3D Spades or Pitch or Hearts

We really need more polite folks at the site. There are often not enough people around to get a game going. Download a free trial at Freeverse and get online. See the Gamesmith site for more info, too.

Gamesmith is better now

** Welcome to Gamesmith **
Real-time ranking has been restored, and server performance should be much greater now. Everything is back to normal! Sweet!

Is Gamesmith dead?

Availability has not been great lately. And, even when the heartbeat is current, I still mostly can't get on. :(

--UPDATE--

*** The Gamesmith database has been partially reactivated: You can see your current stats, but games played won't be recorded. We're very close to restoring full functionality, please bear with us.

Life is random

When I said Life is random..., I didn't realize that phrase was going to be some new Apple tagline. Maybe. Love those rumours.

NIST

Very interesting dicussion on gettng the correct time from GPS.

Feed your head

just an idea.
You really should.

But, what did the dormouse really say?

‘But what did the Dormouse say?’ one of the jury asked.
‘That I can’t remember,’ said the Hatter.
‘You MUST remember,’ remarked the King, ‘or I’ll have you executed.’

alas.

I haven't googled myself in a while

But now I see I am a bot.   Good to know.   heh.

And, I have an intriguing handle.  Too bad I missed the seminar.   Hmm.   Guess I should google "Darryl Nester".

Reading entire books online on amazon.com?

Well, this loophole can't last for long. Seems like not all books have this though. I tried The Plot Against America : A Novel and and got a page prompting the publisher to Join Our Search Inside the Book Program. But a lot of books do seem to have the little Search Inside!" logo and dynamic (or javascript?) html flyover popup. Like the O'Reilly books. Ok!. Information overload.

RSS feed

You probably already know this, but since I've been away from blogspot for a while, it is news to me. You can get an RSS fed of any Blogspot blog by adding atom.xml after the url. For example,
http://maximusmmiv.blogspot.com/atom.xml for The Unconventional Flow.

Oh, and my favorite newsreader? NewsFire. Sorry, Mac OS X only.

Random photos thanks to google

Digital cameras tend to use fairly uniform file names for the photos when you upload them to your computer and many folks don't bother changing the names. So.... search for filenames like
DSCF0001.JPG or DSC_0001.JPG or whatever on google.

pike place public market

pike place public market

a typoGenerator example

typoGenerator

Yeah, yeah. It's been a while. I feel like I was one of the first on blogspot. Sure has changed.

Here's a neat thing: make a neat graphic from some text. Got this from some MSDN nerd. He has some samples there. (Don't get me wrong, I like nerds :) ).

Cryptonomicon

Do you ever go to the library to get a book that sounded really interesting--you read about it in the paper or a magazine or somewhere? Then when you bring it home and sit down to read it you find that, yeah, you've already read it and it WAS a good book. Cryptonomicon. Good book. Find it at your local library.

have a laugh