(Taken from my post to Blizzard)

Coming Winter '97

Going through my old Orcs and Humans box and wishing the CDs didn't disappear.

By the way, looking at the concept art for that game... probably a good idea it never got produced.

"Raised by humans and forced into a life of brutish slavery, one Orc stands as the last symbol of honor for the Horde. As Thrall, you must unite the clans and lead your people onto the field of battle. In this pivotal next chapter of the epic struggle between Orcs and Humans, an all new dimension of the world of WarCraft is revealed"
Seems you saved this story for WarCraft III. (This was to release after Beyond the Dark Portall right?)

"Immersive Gameplay: Dark intrigue and biting humor intertwine as you come face-to-face with over 70 WarCraft character."
"Rich Fantasy Artwork: 60 detailed locations set within the Kingdom of Azeroth"
"Powerhouse Voices: An all-star cast featuring the classic voices of Clancy Brown, Peter Cullen, and Tony Jay"
"Intricate, Hand-Crafted Animation: Over 40,000 frames of feature-film animation from over 100 master animators"

So to pass the time lately I've been playing Roller Coaster Tycoon 3. I didn't play 2, and I had the very original when it came out. Regardless I do say its an addicting game.

Since I'm a realism freak, I first started comparing coasters to real life coasters. Surprisingly, the game can mimic a lot of real life coasters. I created a freefall coaster like Superman Escape at six flags magic mountain. I set the distance, height, and take off speed to the real coaster (http://www.sixflags.com/magicMountain/rides/SupermanTheEscape.aspx) and it surprising mimic'd the coaster. I then created a reverse chain lift coaster that mimic'd Boomerang at Knotts Berry farm. Though the limitations of the game wouldn't let me do it exact, it came out pretty close. (http://www.coastergrotto.com/coaster.jsp?argId=103).

The difference. The difference is the rider's reaction. The game rates your coasters, among other things,on a 0-10 scale of excitement, intensity, and nuasea. Creating real life coasters will get up to 8 excitement rating. To get above that you must go beyond the reality of what is possible in real life. Some of my coasters I have to tune down to keep them realistic. This means removing 80 mph loops, 150 mph turns, and prolonged high G forces. Adding in breaks and block breaks where appropriate makes the ride funner, more realistic, but worse in game stats.

One of the problems I encountered building in-game coasters is realistic speeds seem slow and G forces are hard to keep realistic. The traditional standards for G forces is that you can not exceed 6g for more than 1 second. So I am able to keep true to these rules, but it is more challengling then just completing the game scenerios.

In conclusion the challenge for me in the game is not getting an excitement rating in the 9s, but creating realistic rides that would be fun and safe to ride in real life.

I have started to fraps some of my coasters and uploaded my first youtube video here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3zXTDaCbHE&feature=PlayList&p=C07FE3750C...

Let me know if link doesn't work.

So a 6 year old girl wins a fishing tournament by (with the help of her dad) reeling in a 138.8 lb halibut. Though she is glad she one, she is still sad. Apparantly she was after a mermaid and not a halibut. Better luck next time Tegan, get those damn mermaids out of the water.

Original article: http://www.adn.com/outdoors/fishing/story/832191.html

Valve is having the first Left 4 Dead free weekend. You can upload the game now and be ready to play when it begins. If you haven't tried this game it is scary, fun, and addicting. If you have the free time check it out, I'm currently uploading right now.

I know some of you already own the game, hit me up so we can play together.

EDIT: It is only friday, midnight to midnight.

NOTE: Not every game is for everyone.

So I was checking my e-mail today and I got an account notification from paypal. The e-mail (posted below) says a third party program has tried to steal my paypal account and that I should click this paypal.com/somethingoranother link, login, and see what to do to protect my account.

Of course I quickly noticed it was a scam email. So my task for you is to look at this email and see what is wrong. If you have trouble noticing the problem you are at risk of other scams, some of which can keylog your world of warcraft account. If you quickly notice the problem you are probably fine. The answer will be hidden below the break.

 (Click to enlarge)

The problem is that the hypertext for the link and the actual website it goes to are not the same. If you typed the website it gives in the email into your toolbar (or copy paste) you will go to the legitimate paypal website like the link says. However, if you hover or the hypertext you will notice in the bottom left that the link does not match, and it goes to a different website to log in. Fortunately, there are also other people out there to protect you, and if you did click the link on firefox you will get a warning like this:

(Click to enlarge)

So this is the best news article I've read in a very long time.

Source

Pictures

COLLINSVILLE, Ill. – Pranksters in at least three states are messing with electronic road signs meant to warn motorists of possible traffic problems by putting drivers on notice about Nazi zombies and raptors. And highway safety officials aren't amused.

The latest breach came Tuesday during the morning rush hour near Collinsville, Ill., where hackers changed a sign along southbound Interstate 255 to read, "DAILY LANE CLOSURES DUE TO ZOMBIES."

A day earlier in Indiana's Hamilton County, the electronic message on a board in Carmel's construction zone warned drivers of "RAPTORS AHEAD — CAUTION."

And signs in Austin, Texas, recently flashed: "NAZI ZOMBIES! RUN!!!" and "ZOMBIES IN AREA! RUN."

Officials in Illinois are concerned the rewritten signs distract motorists from heeding legitimate hazards down the road. The hacked sign on Tuesday originally warned drivers of crews replacing guardrails.

"We understood it was a hoax, but at the same time those boards are there for a reason," said Joe Gasaway, an Illinois Department of Transportation supervisory field engineer. "We don't want (drivers) being distracted by a funny sign."

Authorities haven't figured out how pranksters access the signs. Gasaway believes the Illinois sign was changed remotely, and Austin Public Works spokeswoman Sara Hartley suspected the hackers there cut a padlock to get into the signs' computers.

Some Web sites, such as Jalopnik.com, have published tutorials titled "How to Hack an Electronic Road Sign" as a way to alert security holes to traffic-safety officials. Jalopnik urges its readership of 2.6 million a month not to put its lesson to practice.

"Hacking generally is about showing where there are holes in security systems, and I think this is a great example of that," the site's editor-in-chief, Ray Wert, told The Associated Press by telephone Wednesday. "I'm sure there are all sorts of ways to use that information in a way that's inappropriate, but we're trying to make clear this is an issue that needs to be confronted by traffic safety and transportation officials."

Wert said he had no immediate plans to take down Jalopnik's how-to guide.

In Illinois, tampering with an official traffic control device is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a $250 fine — half what a culprit might have to pay in Texas if caught. If convicted in Indiana, a culprit faces up to a year in jail and $5,000 in fines.