Sniff

[Nachimir]

Today, my comp started to drastically chug, lock up, blue screen etc. It might just need a new install of windows, or it might need a new hard disk. Tomorrow the situation may well be:

No hard disk + no proper job = BOOHOO! :(

I may be away for a short while...

[navboy]

that hurts ...

i can relate:

i've been working less, just hoping nothing major happens to car or computer, not a good way to live tho. i need to go find some more web design jobs than i've got and get some cash rolling in, unless you know of a rich person that just wants to pay people like us money to make maps all day. Then i'd forsake the web design for that any day of the week ;)

i hear now they've discovered that ibm 75gxp drives are prone to dying after a year, there's even a class action suit or something ... Of course that's what i'm using in my machine (which is just now a year old, ack), and to make things worse, i've got them in a raid striping array, so if one goes, they both go, as far as all my data goes.

And of course it's what i also put in my wife's machine (which i use also as backkup) because i liked that hard drive so much. damn.

[Nachimir]

Ouch, I thought IBM drives were so good too... I got rid of my car in June 2000. That's not really practical in America though, is it? :)

Well, the last day went much better than I expected, all my data is backed up to CDR, windows reinstalled, and everything is now certifiably super-dandy.

[navboy]

then the winds of destiny blow favorably in your direction, excellent ... ;)

Well i walked/rode a bike for a long time in this town and it worked okay for those times. It's a college town (that's seen a growth explosion over the last 10 years), and i lived near campus or in downtown or near downtown and since i steadfastly avoided places like Walmart just on principle then everything i really needed was never far away.

But now i live further away from downtown, i occasionally go to Walmart (aaaaaahhhhhhhgggg!), and my time is so limited that often i'll only have an hour to run all my errands so using a vehicle is the only way to do it. The grocery store is a mile away and i often have several bags. When i was single i ate out all the time or ordered pizza and only rarely made it to the grocery store to buy a handful of things (that inevitably went bad in the fridge), so it wasn't much of an issue. However, i really miss the days of walking and biking everywhere. It kept me in better shape, i interracted with more strangers, and it's generally good for sanity i think.

[Silus_of_Earth]

Riding a bike is great. I have a beige fold-up bike. You know the ones, funny looking seventies things with small wheels and long seat bits. They fold in half so you can, I don't know, carry them on your back or something? Anyway, it beats the **** out of any of your poncy BMXs and stuff (Yeah I can get air on it)

I had a green fold up bike for years, but it broke in the end (too many jumps, not enough suspension). For christmas my girlfriend got me the beige one. I think she killed an old person to get it.

But still, bet I can jump it higher than they could have...

[Nachimir]

I used to love bikes, but gave them up because I was breaking too many sets of wheels.

The good news: All my data backed up to CDR.

The bad news: I just benchmarked my drive with SiSoft Sandra, and it is going to crash very soon. I put a beta of grotto up tonight, and I'll email the link to you all.

Dunno how long I'll be around or when I'll be properly back.

[MrSpoon52]

I use a Sinclair C5 as my mode of transport

man dont say that about IBM DeskStar Ive got one to

[navboy]

hmm, that reminds me, hey Nach if you get this and your HDD is also a Deskstar ya might post here and let us know ....

[Nachimir]

Nope, it's a lowly 8 gig fujitsu, and it's still wheezing and coughing along.

Things are looking up: On the day I benchmarked my drive, my brother offered me a brand new 20 gig drive for £50. Yesterday, someone offered me £50 for a basic HTML site.

Hooray for the winds of destiny. :)

[ULTBase]

Im fine, ive just started working shofts again, so time is all mixed up right now:)

[Silus_of_Earth]

Is 'working shofts' some kind of time-cop type lingo then? I hope you can fix it, for all our sakes. Somebody altered the past, I bet. That's why I can't find my Jurassic Park pen....


Hey Nachimir, played the grotto beta, wow! Great stuff. Better than Potamic me thinks.

Anyway, two things you probably already know:

Where the cool double-streams are (that flow over bumps) the top part of one of them was giving me bad HOM.

The body of water at the bottom of the outside section (with health in it, by the secret door thing) wasn't actually water, ie I could run along the bottom like normal.

Part from that it's ace!

[MrSpoon52]

yeah I got the u shaped water problem too part from that its sweet

[navboy]

nod, same.

I think it's really sharp... once again great looking terrain and architecture with no obvious problems ... I this this one has great flow, and like Potamic i really like the mix of primitive/rural with modern/scifi ....

One thing i didn't understand was the little laser grid on one of the tunnels up high, or what the little red button nearby did, though i guess i didn't look in the editor.

The logic of the materializing/dematerializing doorway in the bottom part pretty much escapes me but it freakin' cool!

And of course from the moment i shot a sawblade down that caged-off tunnel and heard the monster sound i was just obsessed with it, firing several down there, getting the rocket launcher and trying to break down the bars, and finally going into Ghost mode and heading down the tunnel ... Pretty damn funny trap when it gets you i must say. Is that solely for the benefit of people like me that just can't resist ghosting down there or is there some other way to get down there?