Sourabh’s blog

Thanks to everyone for pointing out that the server had exceeded its bandwidth in the end of last month. I was really busy in some stupid things and didn’t care much about my blog. From what I can see, the traffic has really spiked up in recent times. I’ve no idea why anyone else except me would be checking this space. Since I exceeded the monthly 2GB bandwidth this month, I’m considering to move to a different webhost. This kind of rejuvenation helps the blog and the blogger behind it for personal reasons. Plus, the database is so freakin’ small, moving to a new server is a matter of minutes if not seconds. And having no extra baggage in the form of wordpress plugins, themes, etc. makes it easier.

I completely forgot what a stress reliever blogging can be. Just typing the simple things and backspacing them is so much fun!

Completely random, but what the hell. I could go on record and admit that I would even kill someone if that helps me hide behind a better, faster, reliable, low-latency and torrent-loving internet connection in my part of the world. Of course, unlimited one at that, with absolutely no connectivity to local cablenet hubs. Someone come to my rescue and surprise me, I’ve lost all hope.

It’s funny actually. While Intel is busy presenting _new_ stuff at IDF, AMD is mocking them on YouTube.

Watch these videos for the real thing:

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This is the worst thing that could happen. µTorrent was one of the very few applications that I actually liked and found it to be perfect for its intended purpose. No non-sense, just worked with minimum system resources. I found it to be the best torrent client out of the contemporaries on the Windows Platform.

Now I don’t really have any hope with the further development of utorrent to become any better. I won’t go ranting about how BT inc will screw utorrent up. A week back, BT inc. signed a deal with Paramount, Lionsgate, Twentieth Century Fox, MTV networks and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment to launch a paid torrent video store for people to pay and download these stuff. So this deal really means utorrent will go in a step forward to create built-in protection measures against illegal sharing of files. DRM! I don’t think there is anything worth on torrents exclusively except pirated movies, music, softwares, etc…

So, when things go awry with utorrent - BitComet would be the only option. I just can’t take this, because I loved utorrent. What next - Adobe buying FoxIt?

Ever seen so many graphic cards together? Not me for sure! These pics of 38 graphic cards are from an eBay Australia auction. So if someone is interested you can strike a deal here. Hurry up if you are serious, not much time remaining. Got this link while checking out the Techenclave forums.

Couldnt think of a more appropriate word than Insane for the title. Insane for the simple fact of taking a pic of so many cards together where most people crave for one.

It was time someone had to come up with the SLI technology on the notebook arena and there is nothing to get disappointed about. If the Go6800’s , Go7800GTX , the higher Mobility Radeon series were a ‘big’ thing to come to notebooks, SLI is ‘huge’. Having two of these similar gpus from nvidia would suffice all gaming needs for some time to come. So gaming laptops in real sense of the term are about to make an entry which would even give their desktop counterparts a run for their money. (more…)

There’s a Resident Evil 4 PC Listing on Play.com (UK) that would seem to indicate a PC edition of the upcoming horror sequel is in the works. The retailer listings can be unreliable, a follow-up by Andy from YiYas with Capcom Germany got an unofficial confirmation that this release is indeed planned. The release date listed is 31/3/2006.

Well, just a speculation but I guess Capcom have finally decided to put some show up for the PC after a long time. PC gamers had been long awaiting for the next installment of the RE and hopefully this would quench some thirst for them. I spent long hours playing Resident Evil 3 - Nemesis way back when it was released. Its serious fun killing the dead! Especially when they are in such huge numbers and associated with some small puzzles.

Eagerly waiting for some more info about this title. Looking forward to the official announcement and some previews hopefully sometime soon.

Yeah! Our very own beloved Mario turned 20 yesterday. All of us have fond memories of the gaming character, and more importantly many like me have grown up playing Mario on our much beloved Video games. The Mario series of games have been the best selling franchise in gaming history with over 180,000,000 units of games sold featuring mario and some 100 instalments, be they platform adventures, puzzle games, or sport spin-offs. Eventhough, Mario made his debut in Donkey Kong ( 1981) Nintendo, had pronounced yesterday that 13th September as the Official Mario’s Birthday.

Happy Birthday once again and yeah! Did I forget to pull Mario’s leg - You are no longer a teen :))

Theres no doubt in anyone’s mind that games are addictive. Easy availability of games, access to online resources, gadgets, cheaper games- be it legitimate or pirated copies only make the gamoshpere bigger. The problem arises when gaming becomes an obsession. Gaming sessions turn out to be so addictive that people forget their daily life and get immersed in gaming as if its THE thing in life. Such things have been rampant offlate in major parts of Asia and more importantly China, Taiwan and South Korea in particular. That only makes me think about the possble situation in India after we get through this phase of transition in both Internet Connection Speeds and more bigger gaming crowd in the future. As a result, incidents such as these should be well taken note of, to avoid such issues in India.

Cases:

A couple of weeks back, the incident which caused this whole issue of online gaming in limelight was when a 28-year-old South Korean, who apparently quit his job just to play more games ( ? ), began a life threatening and rather shocking gaming sessions which almost lasted 50 hrs which later on became a cause for losing his life. So immersed was he that heonly left his online simulation gaming to go to the bathroom and to take short naps on a makeshift bed. And now if u think that was a one of a kind incident or the man was a freak, theres another incident which happened some time ago in Korea where in it was not one, but both the parents having gross negligence on their daughter. The mother and father of the victim had gone to a nearby Internet cafe, deeply immersed in playing Blizzard’s massively multiplayer World of Warcraft online, returned home only to find their infant 4 month old daughter dead from suffocation.

Measures Taken:

Owing to such cases, just like our Indian Government would be forced to in the Parliamentary sessions, The Chinese Govt. have already decided to implement a system where in the no. of hours of gaming of a particular gamer are recorded. “The system reduces the ability level of a player’s online game character if the game is played beyond the three-hour limit. Basically, play more than three hours and the system cuts a game character’s ability by half. Play more than five hours and the system reduces a game character’s ability to the lowest level possible.” A three hour online game play is what has been implemented to curb the no. of incidents arising out of the same.

Lookover:

As always, legal legistation against a particular thing doesnt necessarily help in curbing the wrong. Moreover, it serves as a notice to people who havent already indulged in the same and gives them a free license to try these things. Same thing is what I feel would happen with such legislations. Are such restrictions going to have any regulation over the no. of hours gamers play online? Certainly not. Such is the nature of the Internet, there are loopholes in everything in this virtual world. Mutliple game accounts and connection to servers via proxy to cheat their original identity to name a few.

Personally, I dont think any amount of legistation on these thing would affect anyone. Its not what the world does about the issues prevalent in the society but its the rational behaviour of each individual which would help address this issue. Hope there are no such issues to be seen in India any time soon, I can only imagine the whole ga-ga in the media, the newspapers and the parliament which would go on..hehe..Fingers crossed so that these are not a sign of the things to come in the future.

This is not the first time that we have been hearing about the existence of ads in games. Although I have seen a game like NFS Underground 2 carrying the ads pretty well in a game, but imagine ads tracking you during online gaming? This post has been in reference to what i read in here where the latest 1.1 patch in SWAT 4 has a ‘ Massive Streaming Ad Support’. Certainly its not what you would like in a game which you pay so much for.

What exactly is seen in the game after the latest patch is that there are real well monitored ad posters shown within the game. These are quite apparent from the thumbnail pics seen below. During online play, the game sets up an connection with the ‘madserver.net’ and directs images/posters to the game client(Checks?). What is even more shocking to see is that its just not mere showing of ads at programmed locations within the game.

What information do the advertisers get?

Till the game is closed, game client sends a message to signify that the game has ended. The game-client contacts madserver to tell the advertisers how long the gamer was with each advert in their view. This is mapped to the gamer id, so they know which player in the game saw the advert, and when, for how long, and from how far away (by virtue of the size attribute). Even the average viewing angle is passed back.

Lookover

No one would mind ads in free game. This gives them the necessary bread and butter to earn some money. I wont mind ads in games if the games are free or if they sell for very cheap rates. We see ads on Television, because TV channels are near free and we dont have to pay too big sum to subscribe to these channels. Not only the gamers get reemed for the cost of games, but now developers are seeking out more under the table ways to fill their pockets. Putting ads in games is essentially making us pay for spyware. This whole deal may just be a tip of the iceberg and bigger scams may already be going on. If a game which retails at 50$ resorts to such a thing, what can be expected from smaller game developers. Gamers who buy this have every right to be annoyed, they didn’t pay good money to see advertisements in SWAT4 , they paid money to play a good tactical shooter not an advertising tactial shooter. For me this is as simple as moving to a paid host to get rid of the ads. If you still get the ads, whats the use of paying money? If strict guidelines and specifications are not laid, this may be a sign of bigger things to come. Buyers of the same too should be informed about such types of ads which can collect user information.

Introduction

Grand Theft Auto doesn’t need an introduction to most. If you are anything close to be called a ‘gamer’ and have not hear about the Grand Theft Auto, you should hang your head in utter shame. The original Grand Theft Auto series had originated way back in October 1997, it was the third installment of this very game which had put GTA and Rockstar on the well-known Gaming map. However, Grand theft Auto 3 was not born on PC but the Play station 2. GTA 3 was the game which made the name for the console Playstation 2, it was that Fantasy VII was on the original Sony PlayStation and the HALO on the XBox later. Such command this series of games have on gamers all over the world that no matter what people have to say about it or cribble about, they would get a copy of the game anyways. Every next series of the game has been highly awaited. Back in October 2004, Sony PlayStation 2 gamers were blessed with another installment in the already highly successful and sometimes controversial Grand Theft Auto series called Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. It was a Playstation 2 Exclusive back then and PC gamers had to wait for almost 7 months to get their hands on the same. While most die-hard GTA fans may already have a copy in their PS2s, some may have opted to wait for the “higher resolution” version of the game to arrive on the PC and X-Box platforms. (more…)