Made a new record of over 2 million grains in 7 hours. Actually, it was about 2.8M in 7 hours. Which is roughly 10kg/hr, taking the weight of a grain of rice to be 0.025g. That is when I use 50 threads. And it didn't crash! That is the most important thing! At this moment it has generated over 2.9M grains, and is still going at 106.6 grains/s. Woot! All the theoretical counts I made in the past were nothing compared to what is displayed now.
Now I can't sleep. Managed to fall asleep at 8pm last night. Was quite happy, but woke up feeling energetic... at 11.30pm. So I slept a total of 3.5 hrs last night. Worse is the fact that I've been sleeping at about 10am the last 3 days and waking at various times between 1-5pm. Today I'm not going sleep in the morning and I'm going to do what I can to sleep at a healthy time at night, say, 7pm earliest. I drank 3 cups of instant tea just now, plus I made myself a breakfast that consisted of an omelette, 3 Chinese buns (the sort that looks like a purse), some beans and 2 beef patties. Lots of carbohydrates and fats.
If I don't sleep within 2 hrs due to the heavy breakfast, I should be able to stay awake until dusk. If I make it to 11.30pm, that would mean I went 24hrs without sleep. Of course I wouldn't do that, if I can help it. I read that it's very unhealthy to go without sleep for so long.
Forgot again that oil is different from water in that I don't need to see bubbles to know that it is hot enough. Well, almost forgot. And I forgot that the deep frozen patties need to be dried, or at least with the ice/snow scraped off before frying. LOL! It was damn loud just now when I put in the first patty into the oil. Lucky for me I put it in using the spatula. The oil splattered all over the stove.
Then I almost forgot that the oil is too hot to follow the instructions on the packet, which is to fry each side for 5 mins. I fried the first for 2 mins before remembering this and turned it just in time to see the ring of black forming on the underside. So I flipped the other one too, and saw a lesser ring on that patty.
Fried both for another min and put them on my plate. Didn't care about the black parts. They were too little to affect the taste. The center was barely cooked for the second piece, but at least it wasn't raw.
Not too bad for someone who had been up since 11.30pm. =P
Alright. The sleepiness is coming. The test begins. Will 3 cups of tea work? Or will it just help me get a stomachache? I always get a stomachache when I drink tea/coffee, probably because I rare drink them. I see these 2 drinks as delicious medicine, something that cures fatigue in the short term. I don't drink them unless I see a use for it. Like now, when I need to change my sleeping hours.
If this fails, I'm switching to coffee tomorrow. Two cups of it.
10 minutes after my last check on the bot, it has finally crashed. I estimate it to be at just over 2.9M grains. The instructions from the author is that I should press Ctrl + C to end it, but it doesn't work now. I take this as proof that it has crashed.
Restarted it with 30 threads, minimum rest time at 2 seconds, maximum rest time at 7 seconds. The error I saw was Operation Time Out for one of the threads when it was supposed to display something. It should be that the server's response to that thread was suddenly stopped. I believe it was due to the bandwidth being used by more people at this time, thus getting more unstable. So 30 threads for now.
Just in case this needs an explanation again, each thread is an invisible internet browser that the bot has opened. In this case, the browser is for www.freerice.com. And rest time refers to the time it pauses between each answer to simulate human response time so that it won't be obvious that it's a bot.
And it has now 8898 words in its internal dictionary! Talk about fast learners! Those guys at freerice.com must have been really busy finding all those words.
Hmm... 25 grains/s.. this is merely a quarter of what I was getting just now with 50 threads and rest time between 4-9 seconds...
And it crashed again!!
I guess the connection must be pretty bad now. Not that I'm surprise. It's 9.14am after all, when people are reaching their office or just waking up and checking their emails and stuff. I often get bad pings on NS around this time.
Restarting bot with 10 threads and rest time between 2-5 seconds.
So far so good. 99.19% accuracy, at 22.2 grains/s. 5k grains and no crash yet.
My medic in Urban Dead is a zombie again. Treweeke Mall fell and is now in ruins. The main zombie horde has left for greener pastures (pun intended), while I have no idea where to run to. This is hopeless, there is no green zone left that lasts for more than 2 days. The Big Bash has finally revealed the true weakness of the game: the search rate of Revivification Syringes at 12.5% max is really too low, and requiring 10AP to revive a zombie is too expensive. It is too easy to die and become a zombie, but too difficult to rise as a human again.
I'm just going stop playing this guy and concentrate on the other medic I have in the other map they created to celebrate the release of Diary of the Dead. Yeah, they created a map of Monroeville and tested some new game mechanics with it. Entry is now totally restricted though, so no new characters can be made. They also tested the idea of having no Revivification Syringes in this map, and zombies can be killed permanently with Headshot, a skill that only level ten guys can have. These two ideas conform to the modern lore on zombies, that they have to be shot in the head to really die, and zombies cannot become human again.
Friday, 4 April 2008
Tuesday, 1 April 2008
Rant 116 / Generating 100 Grains Of Rice Per Second
After reading the discussion between the few authors of freerice bots in the blog of the guy who wrote a 50-thread bot with Ruby, I found out that the first bot I used, the one written in Python, was actually able to multi-thread too. So I abandoned the newer bots and reinstalled Python.
Now, I have set the number of threads of the bot to 50, so it is now running 50 browers of www.freerice.com at the same time. And it seems that he has improved the bot, making it display the rate of donation per second and the total number of grains can now exceed 100k (it used to reset at 100k).
Also it displays the amount of time the browsers are resting between each question, so that it won't look exactly like a bot. Right now it is resting at the default option of random number of seconds between 3-6. So the result looks as if 50 very smart people are playing it.
As of this moment it is donating at a rate of 105 grains/s, though I've seen it hit 114 just half an hour ago. Probably because all 50 threads are at level 50 now and makes a few mistakes here and there. Those guys at freerice.com actually does input new words now and again. Accuracy of the bot, according to its calculator, is at 87.95%.
Another aspect I like about this bot is that it has a very large vocabulary of over 2.5k words even before I first started it. After starting it, the bot actually learns from its mistakes, but that's just like every other freerice bot I've come across. In addition, it checks with dict.org if its internal dictionary does not provide the right answer. So, at 87.95% accuracy, it means that 12.05% of all the words it has seen so far are not available at dict.org.
Anyway, I can set the number of threads to any number I want. I tried 20 at first and there as no problem. So I tested 50 and went to do something else. I returned after 15mins and checked with my brother to see if I'm using too much bandwidth. I didn't, so I'm going to try to find out my limits gradually. I'll increase the number by 10 every time I turn it on, until it affects my games. If 50 threads can go up to a rate of 114grains/s, imagine how much 100 can do!
Even at 105grains/s, it will generate 378000 grains/hr, and taking a grain of rice to weigh 0.025g each, that is a whopping 9.45kg/hr. If I leave it on for as long as I'm awake, which is at least 14 hours a day, and assuming that it doesn't crash, that is a minimum of 132.3 kg/day!!! I can freaking feed a village or even a town at this rate all by myself!
Of course, nothing is perfect. It turns out that this bot does crash. After generating 110k grains of rice, it finally stopped for reasons I don't understand. By reading where it ended, I guess that it was probably because the website did not reply to one of the answers submitted quick enough, and the bot didn't know what to do, thus it crashed.
To solve this, I'm now trying to increase the minimum amount of time it can rest, from 3-6s to 4-6s. Hope that works. Or else, I can run 100 threads that rest 5-10s. Logically, this would put the same amount of workload, but I'm not exactly a pro in this matter.
Yesterday my bro found a game that combines Heroes of Might and Magic V with MMORPG elements. He tried it for 2 hours, and what he found was that quests take the form of small HOMMV maps with only 1 way to move. Hero has a city that can almost identical to those in HOMMV, but with different graphics. You have one hero, who buys armies in your city that other people cannot access (kinda lame here, coz what's the point of having a fantastic city in a multiplayer game if not to show it off?), and goes for quests. He did not try anymore after finding out this much.
I believe there has to be PVP elements in there, probably a duel between armies or etc. But it really is interesting if there are co-op quests in the game, and how they can be implemented.
The graphics of the armies are almost identical to the originals for some (eg zombies look just the same, except with a really long knife), but quite different for others (skeletons wield only huge swords here). There are also new units, like the lizard archers. Lastly the numbers are quite different in this game, like the fact that skeletons have 20 HP and ballistas have 2500 HP.
Unfortunately, this game is produced by a Chinese company and in beta phase, which means there are no English versions yet. So if I play this game, I will be a really slow player because I take some time to read Chinese words.
The game looks interesting, especially since I have played HOMMV before. Mixing it with a MMO is something I didn't expect. No matter, since my bro has deleted the game and forgot the link to the website. Perhaps someday if it gets popular, I may try it.
Now, I have set the number of threads of the bot to 50, so it is now running 50 browers of www.freerice.com at the same time. And it seems that he has improved the bot, making it display the rate of donation per second and the total number of grains can now exceed 100k (it used to reset at 100k).
Also it displays the amount of time the browsers are resting between each question, so that it won't look exactly like a bot. Right now it is resting at the default option of random number of seconds between 3-6. So the result looks as if 50 very smart people are playing it.
As of this moment it is donating at a rate of 105 grains/s, though I've seen it hit 114 just half an hour ago. Probably because all 50 threads are at level 50 now and makes a few mistakes here and there. Those guys at freerice.com actually does input new words now and again. Accuracy of the bot, according to its calculator, is at 87.95%.
Another aspect I like about this bot is that it has a very large vocabulary of over 2.5k words even before I first started it. After starting it, the bot actually learns from its mistakes, but that's just like every other freerice bot I've come across. In addition, it checks with dict.org if its internal dictionary does not provide the right answer. So, at 87.95% accuracy, it means that 12.05% of all the words it has seen so far are not available at dict.org.
Anyway, I can set the number of threads to any number I want. I tried 20 at first and there as no problem. So I tested 50 and went to do something else. I returned after 15mins and checked with my brother to see if I'm using too much bandwidth. I didn't, so I'm going to try to find out my limits gradually. I'll increase the number by 10 every time I turn it on, until it affects my games. If 50 threads can go up to a rate of 114grains/s, imagine how much 100 can do!
Even at 105grains/s, it will generate 378000 grains/hr, and taking a grain of rice to weigh 0.025g each, that is a whopping 9.45kg/hr. If I leave it on for as long as I'm awake, which is at least 14 hours a day, and assuming that it doesn't crash, that is a minimum of 132.3 kg/day!!! I can freaking feed a village or even a town at this rate all by myself!
Of course, nothing is perfect. It turns out that this bot does crash. After generating 110k grains of rice, it finally stopped for reasons I don't understand. By reading where it ended, I guess that it was probably because the website did not reply to one of the answers submitted quick enough, and the bot didn't know what to do, thus it crashed.
To solve this, I'm now trying to increase the minimum amount of time it can rest, from 3-6s to 4-6s. Hope that works. Or else, I can run 100 threads that rest 5-10s. Logically, this would put the same amount of workload, but I'm not exactly a pro in this matter.
Yesterday my bro found a game that combines Heroes of Might and Magic V with MMORPG elements. He tried it for 2 hours, and what he found was that quests take the form of small HOMMV maps with only 1 way to move. Hero has a city that can almost identical to those in HOMMV, but with different graphics. You have one hero, who buys armies in your city that other people cannot access (kinda lame here, coz what's the point of having a fantastic city in a multiplayer game if not to show it off?), and goes for quests. He did not try anymore after finding out this much.
I believe there has to be PVP elements in there, probably a duel between armies or etc. But it really is interesting if there are co-op quests in the game, and how they can be implemented.
The graphics of the armies are almost identical to the originals for some (eg zombies look just the same, except with a really long knife), but quite different for others (skeletons wield only huge swords here). There are also new units, like the lizard archers. Lastly the numbers are quite different in this game, like the fact that skeletons have 20 HP and ballistas have 2500 HP.
Unfortunately, this game is produced by a Chinese company and in beta phase, which means there are no English versions yet. So if I play this game, I will be a really slow player because I take some time to read Chinese words.
The game looks interesting, especially since I have played HOMMV before. Mixing it with a MMO is something I didn't expect. No matter, since my bro has deleted the game and forgot the link to the website. Perhaps someday if it gets popular, I may try it.
Saturday, 29 March 2008
Rant 115 / Death Is Necessary For Life
All those classic books that we sometimes come across as textbooks for English or Literature-type courses were once just popular or critically acclaimed books of some long gone era. If so, will people in the year 2100 study X-Men comics as serious literature?
Damn the Starhub guys for making us users share IPs! I couldn't log into my Urban Dead account today! Because they limit non-paying players to 160 moves per IP, I can't get in to do anything. But I checked the wiki's FAQ and found that they reset the counter at 9am. That's another 5 hours from now.
Anyway according to the wiki's 29th March update for Dulston, the suburb I'm in, the mall is still holding. Apparently the zombies are now concentrating their efforts on just one corner. At the last count there were 167 zombies standing on that tile (or square). I hope the survivors won't just concentrate their efforts on only that corner.
No news about the building next to it that provides Revivification Syringes. It'd better be up and barricaded still, because the syringes are the only way to get rid of zombies and save out fallen comrades. You see, dead zombies don't die; they merely spend 10APs to stand up again. But revived zombies that do not want to be revived (this practice is known as combat revive) needs to be killed before becoming a zombie again. This takes more time than making them waste 10APs. However one can argue that they can easily get themselves killed, especially in sieges, where there are many zombies around.
Played Kane's Wrath since yesterday and finished the campaign just now. Now they have 3 different styles per race, almost like Generals. But this time the names are not as direct (like Tank General, etc), and sounds better (like ZOCOM).
The campaign on Normal mode is easy, especially for my style of anti-AI turtler. This will never work on a human, but against AI, I spend ALL my resources on static defenses in the early part of the game. NOD defense may be weaker than GDI's, but the turrets can spawn faster than a couple of well-fed rabbits. I just spam mainly laser turrets around my base, pack them so close they form a solid wall, and tech up. As soon as I get a solid wall, I spam Beam Tanks, using them on the Obelisks I place behind the wall of turrets. I was quite amazed by the Obelisks' power and range when there are 7 Beam Tanks focusing on each of them.
After a while, their tanks won't even touch me because the range of the Obelisks are about twice that of the turrets. So there won't be a need for repair. Once I've done that, I should have a Nuke ready by around that time. Meanwhile, I spam walkers with every factory I've got.
That is a definite win once I have that solid wall and Obelisks. Of course, I keep my base as small as possible to reduce the amount of space my wall has to cover. This strategy is brainless, and totally relies on the opponent not using Nukes/Ion Cannons/Rift/mass armies.
The units are nice too, just what you expect from C&C these days. The superheavy walker that is limited to 1 per player is very strong but not unvulnerable. My solid wall can kill a solo GDI one with severe damage, or only some losses if I hit it with 4 of my bombers first.
I find that the GDI's superheavy walker is the most useful of the 3. It can garrison four(I think) infantries, and its special ability is that it turns the Tiberium it walks on into instant cash. You can just make it walk around the Tib fields when it's in base.
Of course, the Scrin's version is cool too. It can turn tank wreckages into instant cash. But the best thing about it is that if the player includes the Mastermind (Scrin Commando Mind Controller) as one of the 3 garrisoned infantries, it gains the ability to Blink. A Blinking Superheavy walker! Holy Shit!
Last but not least, the Nod's Redeemer is the one I've been using all the while in the Campaign. It can hold 2 infantries, and its special ability is to make enemy troops attack each other. That may sound fantastic, until you realize that the area this affects isn't large enough.
Best of all for these walkers, Engineers can be garrisoned within, to give the ability to restore health gradually. Better than walking all the way back to the nearest factory after a battle. However I imagine this may be completely useless in a 1v1 match against a human. In fact, it is most unlikely to appear in a 1v1 match.
The campaign was not as well-designed as it could have been. On several maps, the player uses a different general of NOD, not the original, while not informing him/her of that. This got a little confusing for me when I realized that I couldn't use bombers in one of them. Later I read that the Black Hand has no air units.
And the final cliffhanger is quite interesting. Makes me wonder if they will make another expansion for each of the other 2 races. Kane's Wrath has only a NOD campaign. The next is probably for the Scrin, if it is even going to be made.
The Global Conquest adds a new twist to the old way of RTS gaming. It starts out with a Risk-like map, but when an unit fights an enemy, you can either auto-resolve or play a 1v1 match with the enemy.
Your units have to be bought, and come in "packages" consisting of several units. You can use the pre-made packages or make your own. And it seems that the Construction Yard is not necessary in them. You can make one that has only combat units and rush the shit out of the opponent. Of course, the bigger the units, the more expensive the package becomes.
You start with a sum of money and you earn more during the conquest. Therefore it is not useful to make a package of only Tripods and Carriers. This will really roll over most armies, but you won't have enough to protect all fronts.
My new curtains are so heavy they block the wind too. So its either a gradually warming but dark room, or I will have a comfortably cool but bright one. I take the former, but leave my door open when I take my meals. Aircon is not an option everyday. In order to shift to this room, I had to prove false the reason that I will use too much electricity by switching on the aircon all the time, which I did every night before the shift. These days, I make do with my fan at max power blowing right at me.
2-5am is the best time of the day to do everything that should be done in a quiet environment, eg reading, watching movies and falling asleep. Of course, if it wasn't illegal, I'd also include karaoke singing at home, especially for the more sadistic people. Imagine the din you'll make with your appalling singing-with-speaking-voice in the perfect tranquility of the deep night. You'll probably find your car smashed and door splashed with red paint the next time you go out.
By 6am, the birds will wake and the noise will begin. That will be the best time to be already asleep.
It is so sad to hear that another real Western cuisine stall is closing in the neighbourhood. This time, they stayed for only 1 month again. Good thing I ate their stuff many times during the month. Their prices are really decent for the food that they serve, but at 9-12 bucks per set meal, it is definitely too expensive for this place. But if I compare their beef steak meal with one of the old style Western stall, the new stall definitely is better.
Though their price may me a dollar or two higher, they include 4 large egg,ham,bacon and veggie sandwiches together with mash potato and etc. The old stalls only has a slightly fried bun, fries, coleslaw and beans. Bleh. And the new stalls actually use wine and herbs in their cooking!
In fact, I think it is quite cheap for the effort they put into the food. The old stalls serve shitty Western food, but the locals are used to the style of food.
I guess this must be the same with Chinese food in Europe or the Americas. Wonder if Chinese food is popular in Africa.
Another giant piece of ice has broken off the Antarctica. Whoever still thinks global warming is a myth should shoot themselves in the head.
Damn the Starhub guys for making us users share IPs! I couldn't log into my Urban Dead account today! Because they limit non-paying players to 160 moves per IP, I can't get in to do anything. But I checked the wiki's FAQ and found that they reset the counter at 9am. That's another 5 hours from now.
Anyway according to the wiki's 29th March update for Dulston, the suburb I'm in, the mall is still holding. Apparently the zombies are now concentrating their efforts on just one corner. At the last count there were 167 zombies standing on that tile (or square). I hope the survivors won't just concentrate their efforts on only that corner.
No news about the building next to it that provides Revivification Syringes. It'd better be up and barricaded still, because the syringes are the only way to get rid of zombies and save out fallen comrades. You see, dead zombies don't die; they merely spend 10APs to stand up again. But revived zombies that do not want to be revived (this practice is known as combat revive) needs to be killed before becoming a zombie again. This takes more time than making them waste 10APs. However one can argue that they can easily get themselves killed, especially in sieges, where there are many zombies around.
Played Kane's Wrath since yesterday and finished the campaign just now. Now they have 3 different styles per race, almost like Generals. But this time the names are not as direct (like Tank General, etc), and sounds better (like ZOCOM).
The campaign on Normal mode is easy, especially for my style of anti-AI turtler. This will never work on a human, but against AI, I spend ALL my resources on static defenses in the early part of the game. NOD defense may be weaker than GDI's, but the turrets can spawn faster than a couple of well-fed rabbits. I just spam mainly laser turrets around my base, pack them so close they form a solid wall, and tech up. As soon as I get a solid wall, I spam Beam Tanks, using them on the Obelisks I place behind the wall of turrets. I was quite amazed by the Obelisks' power and range when there are 7 Beam Tanks focusing on each of them.
After a while, their tanks won't even touch me because the range of the Obelisks are about twice that of the turrets. So there won't be a need for repair. Once I've done that, I should have a Nuke ready by around that time. Meanwhile, I spam walkers with every factory I've got.
That is a definite win once I have that solid wall and Obelisks. Of course, I keep my base as small as possible to reduce the amount of space my wall has to cover. This strategy is brainless, and totally relies on the opponent not using Nukes/Ion Cannons/Rift/mass armies.
The units are nice too, just what you expect from C&C these days. The superheavy walker that is limited to 1 per player is very strong but not unvulnerable. My solid wall can kill a solo GDI one with severe damage, or only some losses if I hit it with 4 of my bombers first.
I find that the GDI's superheavy walker is the most useful of the 3. It can garrison four(I think) infantries, and its special ability is that it turns the Tiberium it walks on into instant cash. You can just make it walk around the Tib fields when it's in base.
Of course, the Scrin's version is cool too. It can turn tank wreckages into instant cash. But the best thing about it is that if the player includes the Mastermind (Scrin Commando Mind Controller) as one of the 3 garrisoned infantries, it gains the ability to Blink. A Blinking Superheavy walker! Holy Shit!
Last but not least, the Nod's Redeemer is the one I've been using all the while in the Campaign. It can hold 2 infantries, and its special ability is to make enemy troops attack each other. That may sound fantastic, until you realize that the area this affects isn't large enough.
Best of all for these walkers, Engineers can be garrisoned within, to give the ability to restore health gradually. Better than walking all the way back to the nearest factory after a battle. However I imagine this may be completely useless in a 1v1 match against a human. In fact, it is most unlikely to appear in a 1v1 match.
The campaign was not as well-designed as it could have been. On several maps, the player uses a different general of NOD, not the original, while not informing him/her of that. This got a little confusing for me when I realized that I couldn't use bombers in one of them. Later I read that the Black Hand has no air units.
And the final cliffhanger is quite interesting. Makes me wonder if they will make another expansion for each of the other 2 races. Kane's Wrath has only a NOD campaign. The next is probably for the Scrin, if it is even going to be made.
The Global Conquest adds a new twist to the old way of RTS gaming. It starts out with a Risk-like map, but when an unit fights an enemy, you can either auto-resolve or play a 1v1 match with the enemy.
Your units have to be bought, and come in "packages" consisting of several units. You can use the pre-made packages or make your own. And it seems that the Construction Yard is not necessary in them. You can make one that has only combat units and rush the shit out of the opponent. Of course, the bigger the units, the more expensive the package becomes.
You start with a sum of money and you earn more during the conquest. Therefore it is not useful to make a package of only Tripods and Carriers. This will really roll over most armies, but you won't have enough to protect all fronts.
My new curtains are so heavy they block the wind too. So its either a gradually warming but dark room, or I will have a comfortably cool but bright one. I take the former, but leave my door open when I take my meals. Aircon is not an option everyday. In order to shift to this room, I had to prove false the reason that I will use too much electricity by switching on the aircon all the time, which I did every night before the shift. These days, I make do with my fan at max power blowing right at me.
2-5am is the best time of the day to do everything that should be done in a quiet environment, eg reading, watching movies and falling asleep. Of course, if it wasn't illegal, I'd also include karaoke singing at home, especially for the more sadistic people. Imagine the din you'll make with your appalling singing-with-speaking-voice in the perfect tranquility of the deep night. You'll probably find your car smashed and door splashed with red paint the next time you go out.
By 6am, the birds will wake and the noise will begin. That will be the best time to be already asleep.
It is so sad to hear that another real Western cuisine stall is closing in the neighbourhood. This time, they stayed for only 1 month again. Good thing I ate their stuff many times during the month. Their prices are really decent for the food that they serve, but at 9-12 bucks per set meal, it is definitely too expensive for this place. But if I compare their beef steak meal with one of the old style Western stall, the new stall definitely is better.
Though their price may me a dollar or two higher, they include 4 large egg,ham,bacon and veggie sandwiches together with mash potato and etc. The old stalls only has a slightly fried bun, fries, coleslaw and beans. Bleh. And the new stalls actually use wine and herbs in their cooking!
In fact, I think it is quite cheap for the effort they put into the food. The old stalls serve shitty Western food, but the locals are used to the style of food.
I guess this must be the same with Chinese food in Europe or the Americas. Wonder if Chinese food is popular in Africa.
Another giant piece of ice has broken off the Antarctica. Whoever still thinks global warming is a myth should shoot themselves in the head.
Friday, 28 March 2008
Rant 114 / Kane's Wrath Is Out!
And the zombie story continues from previous posts....
I'm still in Dulston, which may be the last major gathering of survivors in any malls. Malls are the largest and most valuable buildings in the game of Urban Dead because they allow players to find the greatest variety of items. The situation has been worsening in what is now identified as the Second Big Bash by all players.
In the past few day, I've been healing and reviving players while using all my spare Action Points (APs) on searching for First Aid Kits (FAKs). During this period, green(safe) suburbs have been decreasing, and while red(extremely dangerous) suburbs have not increased, they have mixed with both light and dark orange ( dangerous and very dangerous respectively) to form a giant patch of red with orange here and there. Grey(abandoned by both sides) zones are also sprouting in some areas but are also retaken by zombies gradually.
Yesterday, the siege of Treweeke Mall, where I am living in, began. It started with the destruction of surrounding buildings, and the broadcasts of terrifying news of numerous valuable buildings falling into ruins by zombie attacks everywhere in the suburb of Dulston. I stopped healing and walked around the building to check the situation. It was bad, with at least 20 zombies attacking every building around the Mall, and over 70 zombies attacking the south-east corner.
Ok, I think I need to explain again something here. The Mall I am in is a building that occupies 4 squares on the map, and we refer to these 4 squares as NE, NW, SE, SW corners. Zombies have been arriving from the south and the buildings there were the first to fall.
Back to my patrol, I found the building directly south of the SE corner of the mall in ruins with no zombies within (which probably means the zombies were satisfied with the ruination of its interior and were turning their attention to the mall itself), so I repaired the building and lightly barricaded before using 1 last AP to run back into the mall.
I logged back after 4 hours, and found that someone had barricaded that building to Extremely Heavily Barricaded( EHB) status, the highest level of barricade. So I went south to the next building and found it empty, doors opened but not ruined. So I closed the doors, lightly barricaded it, made my way back to the Mall and told everyone about it, in hopes that someone would go barricade it further.
Meanwhile, attacks on the Mall was infrequent despite the huge numbers. I believe it was because they had spent all their APs moving to the Mall. Nonetheless, there were some attacks on the barricades and some of the other guys had to reinforce the barricades in all 4 corners once in a while.
Today when I logged back in, the event log showed that zombies had broken into my SE corner 5 times, but they were repelled by the other 165 survivors in the same corner. So I stopped healing and spent all my APs checking the 2 southern corners' barricades. Twice I had to barricade my SE corner from Quite Strongly Barricaded back to EHB. I never ran out again so as to conserve APs to reinforce the barricades. Today, I've been logging in every hour to check on the barricades and it's a good thing that I did for the last few hours because the zombies are now constantly attacking the barricades.
I have run out of most of my APs long ago, and every time I log in I have only 2-4 APs to spare. This only allows me to reinforce a little, but constantly. As for now, 30 fellow survivors have died and their corpses dragged out of the mall( all dead survivors become zombies). I don't believe I will survive the night this time, but I will stay up as long as I can to hold the walls up.
Oh yes, as for the outside, according to the map and comments by other players, the other mall in Dulston has already fallen. Also, there are no green suburbs in the city at the moment. All of Malton is dangerous, so I am no longer running this time. Malton is doomed, but the survivors shall do all they can to save those who can be saved.
With this horrendous tide of events, even PKer groups, who are survivors who kill other survivors, have made a truce with other survivor groups. The Second Big Bash is changing the game from a stalemate all across the city to a imminent victory for the zombie hordes, and I believe this will make the game designers consider major changes to the game mechanics in the near future.
Re-reading Olympos again. Man, this may be one of the best books I have every read. I've only finished it just half a year ago and I'm finding it interesting again.
Found this blog of some guy who went to Japan and explored their adult merchandise. Absolutely hilarious, what he found there, like the butt funnel. Yes, I typed "butt funnel" correctly. It's a long and somewhat narrow, clear plastic funnel that comes with a small flashlight. The instructions are given in the form of a picture of a girl bending over, the funnel behind her and an arrow pointing at her ass from the funnel.
This is some sick scat fetish. No normal guy would want to see what's in her rectum. And check out what that blogger said about how he imagine a person would propose using it on his partner. Very funny stuff.
I'm still in Dulston, which may be the last major gathering of survivors in any malls. Malls are the largest and most valuable buildings in the game of Urban Dead because they allow players to find the greatest variety of items. The situation has been worsening in what is now identified as the Second Big Bash by all players.
In the past few day, I've been healing and reviving players while using all my spare Action Points (APs) on searching for First Aid Kits (FAKs). During this period, green(safe) suburbs have been decreasing, and while red(extremely dangerous) suburbs have not increased, they have mixed with both light and dark orange ( dangerous and very dangerous respectively) to form a giant patch of red with orange here and there. Grey(abandoned by both sides) zones are also sprouting in some areas but are also retaken by zombies gradually.
Yesterday, the siege of Treweeke Mall, where I am living in, began. It started with the destruction of surrounding buildings, and the broadcasts of terrifying news of numerous valuable buildings falling into ruins by zombie attacks everywhere in the suburb of Dulston. I stopped healing and walked around the building to check the situation. It was bad, with at least 20 zombies attacking every building around the Mall, and over 70 zombies attacking the south-east corner.
Ok, I think I need to explain again something here. The Mall I am in is a building that occupies 4 squares on the map, and we refer to these 4 squares as NE, NW, SE, SW corners. Zombies have been arriving from the south and the buildings there were the first to fall.
Back to my patrol, I found the building directly south of the SE corner of the mall in ruins with no zombies within (which probably means the zombies were satisfied with the ruination of its interior and were turning their attention to the mall itself), so I repaired the building and lightly barricaded before using 1 last AP to run back into the mall.
I logged back after 4 hours, and found that someone had barricaded that building to Extremely Heavily Barricaded( EHB) status, the highest level of barricade. So I went south to the next building and found it empty, doors opened but not ruined. So I closed the doors, lightly barricaded it, made my way back to the Mall and told everyone about it, in hopes that someone would go barricade it further.
Meanwhile, attacks on the Mall was infrequent despite the huge numbers. I believe it was because they had spent all their APs moving to the Mall. Nonetheless, there were some attacks on the barricades and some of the other guys had to reinforce the barricades in all 4 corners once in a while.
Today when I logged back in, the event log showed that zombies had broken into my SE corner 5 times, but they were repelled by the other 165 survivors in the same corner. So I stopped healing and spent all my APs checking the 2 southern corners' barricades. Twice I had to barricade my SE corner from Quite Strongly Barricaded back to EHB. I never ran out again so as to conserve APs to reinforce the barricades. Today, I've been logging in every hour to check on the barricades and it's a good thing that I did for the last few hours because the zombies are now constantly attacking the barricades.
I have run out of most of my APs long ago, and every time I log in I have only 2-4 APs to spare. This only allows me to reinforce a little, but constantly. As for now, 30 fellow survivors have died and their corpses dragged out of the mall( all dead survivors become zombies). I don't believe I will survive the night this time, but I will stay up as long as I can to hold the walls up.
Oh yes, as for the outside, according to the map and comments by other players, the other mall in Dulston has already fallen. Also, there are no green suburbs in the city at the moment. All of Malton is dangerous, so I am no longer running this time. Malton is doomed, but the survivors shall do all they can to save those who can be saved.
With this horrendous tide of events, even PKer groups, who are survivors who kill other survivors, have made a truce with other survivor groups. The Second Big Bash is changing the game from a stalemate all across the city to a imminent victory for the zombie hordes, and I believe this will make the game designers consider major changes to the game mechanics in the near future.
Re-reading Olympos again. Man, this may be one of the best books I have every read. I've only finished it just half a year ago and I'm finding it interesting again.
Found this blog of some guy who went to Japan and explored their adult merchandise. Absolutely hilarious, what he found there, like the butt funnel. Yes, I typed "butt funnel" correctly. It's a long and somewhat narrow, clear plastic funnel that comes with a small flashlight. The instructions are given in the form of a picture of a girl bending over, the funnel behind her and an arrow pointing at her ass from the funnel.
This is some sick scat fetish. No normal guy would want to see what's in her rectum. And check out what that blogger said about how he imagine a person would propose using it on his partner. Very funny stuff.
Rant 113 / Time Waits For No Man
Inspired by a true story
We were discussing about which part of a lady's body we usually look at first.
T: You know where I look at? I look at the top of their feet. The bottom of the feet is the sole, and I look at the top, you know, the part the connects to the shin.
Me: For what? You checking whether that part is hairy?? Coz if it's hairy......... Oh, I get what you mean... You're into hairy women! The thing is, I've heard of women with facial hair and even chest hair, but that is... overkill, man!
T: No! I look at it to see whether there is a lot of veins! No matter how a girl dresses up, no matter how much makeup she puts on, that is the one part she cannot hide unless she wears shoes.
Something strange is going on with my internet connection. Two nights ago when I left my laptop on with 20 freerice bots running, 19 of them crashed by the time I checked when I woke up, and the last one was not running properly. The next afternoon, before I took a short nap, I left it with 25 bots and half of them crashed while the other half were having errors. I think I shall have to limit myself to 15 bots.
Recently I found this blog of one guy who had written another freerice bot with Ruby, which I assume to be a programming language. This bot totally owns all other bots, because it runs 50 browsers of freerice.com simultaneously. On one update, it was donating at a rate of 600k grains/hour. That is a staggering 15kg/hr! Pwns the Java bot I'm using and the Python one I was using before.
Unfortunately, I will need to go find out what exactly is this Ruby and this "gem install mechanize --include-dependencies" and download them.
Furthermore, he also discussed the similarities between this and a DDOS attack, the hacker's equivalent of knocking out someone. What I mean is that if many people were to run this bot, say a thousand, this will be the same as 50k people playing the game at a speed of a question every 2 seconds simultaneously. If even more, like tens or hundreds of thousands of people run this, it may crash the server and render it temporarily disabled, which is basically a DDOS attack.
What he uses to defend the use of this bot is that there can't be many people running the bot at the same time. And if the server cannot handle that kind of internet traffic, then how can they expect to reach the popularity they are hoping for?
As for the part in the freerice.com FAQ discouraging people from using bots, he argues that they probably won't mind because it inflates the numbers they can use for publicity.
So I will probably find out more about this Ruby and get the bot soon.
We were discussing about which part of a lady's body we usually look at first.
T: You know where I look at? I look at the top of their feet. The bottom of the feet is the sole, and I look at the top, you know, the part the connects to the shin.
Me: For what? You checking whether that part is hairy?? Coz if it's hairy......... Oh, I get what you mean... You're into hairy women! The thing is, I've heard of women with facial hair and even chest hair, but that is... overkill, man!
T: No! I look at it to see whether there is a lot of veins! No matter how a girl dresses up, no matter how much makeup she puts on, that is the one part she cannot hide unless she wears shoes.
Something strange is going on with my internet connection. Two nights ago when I left my laptop on with 20 freerice bots running, 19 of them crashed by the time I checked when I woke up, and the last one was not running properly. The next afternoon, before I took a short nap, I left it with 25 bots and half of them crashed while the other half were having errors. I think I shall have to limit myself to 15 bots.
Recently I found this blog of one guy who had written another freerice bot with Ruby, which I assume to be a programming language. This bot totally owns all other bots, because it runs 50 browsers of freerice.com simultaneously. On one update, it was donating at a rate of 600k grains/hour. That is a staggering 15kg/hr! Pwns the Java bot I'm using and the Python one I was using before.
Unfortunately, I will need to go find out what exactly is this Ruby and this "gem install mechanize --include-dependencies" and download them.
Furthermore, he also discussed the similarities between this and a DDOS attack, the hacker's equivalent of knocking out someone. What I mean is that if many people were to run this bot, say a thousand, this will be the same as 50k people playing the game at a speed of a question every 2 seconds simultaneously. If even more, like tens or hundreds of thousands of people run this, it may crash the server and render it temporarily disabled, which is basically a DDOS attack.
What he uses to defend the use of this bot is that there can't be many people running the bot at the same time. And if the server cannot handle that kind of internet traffic, then how can they expect to reach the popularity they are hoping for?
As for the part in the freerice.com FAQ discouraging people from using bots, he argues that they probably won't mind because it inflates the numbers they can use for publicity.
So I will probably find out more about this Ruby and get the bot soon.
Tuesday, 25 March 2008
Rant 112 / Veering Off Course
I was browsing through an internet forum on a certain website when I found this emo guy asking what they think about it being illegal to abuse animals while it is estimated by some scientists that humans directly cause up to 80 species of flora and fauna to become extinct everyday. He saw it as hypocrisy and he's probably ashamed to be human.
I see it as a matter to necessity. While it is completely unnecessary to abuse our pets, it is necessary that we expand. It is our nature to expand when we prosper, which humans have been throughout history. When we expand, it is inevitable that we come into contact with plants and animals that are specialized in the environment they live in and we are invading. At this point, the rule: survival of the fittest, comes into play. ( Wonder if I had used the punctuations properly in the last sentence)
If we were to stop negatively affecting any animal or plant, then we cannot expand, not even into the deserts where life does flourish in the shade under the rocks. If so, then we will still be living lives that mainly involve clubbing, painting and dying in cool, dry areas to leave perfectly preserved bodies.
If he really feels the way he does about the hypocrisy, then by using the computer and the electricity to troll in that forum, he is just one more hypocrite in the shithole called the Intarweb. He needs to stay under the bridge.
From dictionary.com
To utter a posting on Usenet designed to attract predictable responses or flames; or, the post itself. Derives from the phrase "trolling for newbies" which in turn comes from mainstream "trolling", a style of fishing in which one trails bait through a likely spot hoping for a bite. The well-constructed troll is a post that induces lots of newbies and flamers to make themselves look even more clueless than they already do, while subtly conveying to the more savvy and experienced that it is in fact a deliberate troll. If you don't fall for the joke, you get to be in on it. See also YHBT. 2. An individual who chronically trolls in sense 1; regularly posts specious arguments, flames or personal attacks to a newsgroup, discussion list, or in email for no other purpose than to annoy someone or disrupt a discussion. Trolls are recognizable by the fact that the have no real interest in learning about the topic at hand - they simply want to utter flame bait. Like the ugly creatures they are named after, they exhibit no redeeming characteristics, and as such, they are recognized as a lower form of life on the net, as in, "Oh, ignore him, he's just a troll."
For the first part, trolls don't necessarily exist exclusively on Usenet, and anyone who does such things in any forum is a fucking troll.
First time I see a guy dating a girl he know through a game. In the past few days while they were chatting in NS while killing each other, one of the female players (definitely female coz she uses a mic) mentioned that she was going to Chicago for something that has to do with her job. The just 2 days ago, both of them were joking about what they will do on their date when she arrives in Chicago, where he apparently is. My first time witnessing something like that. Hope it turns out well for them.
Now that I play NS on G4B2S server all the time, I'm getting to know the players better. Not all of them are schoolkids. Many of them have jobs or are in college (like me). Totally unlike what I expected. But then, having a job can mean many things, including grocery store cashier.
And people in that server says my nick is cool. Not that this is the first time I get this but I don't usually hear that sort of compliment about anyone anywhere. How many year have I been using this nick? Hmm.. probably ever since I started playing NS... many years I guess.
Need good movies. Reviews on IMDB says Superhero Movie sucks really bad. Sad.
My body clock is being altered as usual. No longer do I feel hungry at certain specific times. My sleeping hours are getting later and later. Now I feel really sleepy only at 4am. Last night I slept at 5am. I hope this will continue to change till it goes all the way back to 10pm as the time when I feel sleepy. LOL!
If not, I am already considering drastic measures, including my technique that involved sleeping very little for a week. Tough choice.
I see it as a matter to necessity. While it is completely unnecessary to abuse our pets, it is necessary that we expand. It is our nature to expand when we prosper, which humans have been throughout history. When we expand, it is inevitable that we come into contact with plants and animals that are specialized in the environment they live in and we are invading. At this point, the rule: survival of the fittest, comes into play. ( Wonder if I had used the punctuations properly in the last sentence)
If we were to stop negatively affecting any animal or plant, then we cannot expand, not even into the deserts where life does flourish in the shade under the rocks. If so, then we will still be living lives that mainly involve clubbing, painting and dying in cool, dry areas to leave perfectly preserved bodies.
If he really feels the way he does about the hypocrisy, then by using the computer and the electricity to troll in that forum, he is just one more hypocrite in the shithole called the Intarweb. He needs to stay under the bridge.
From dictionary.com
To utter a posting on Usenet designed to attract predictable responses or flames; or, the post itself. Derives from the phrase "trolling for newbies" which in turn comes from mainstream "trolling", a style of fishing in which one trails bait through a likely spot hoping for a bite. The well-constructed troll is a post that induces lots of newbies and flamers to make themselves look even more clueless than they already do, while subtly conveying to the more savvy and experienced that it is in fact a deliberate troll. If you don't fall for the joke, you get to be in on it. See also YHBT. 2. An individual who chronically trolls in sense 1; regularly posts specious arguments, flames or personal attacks to a newsgroup, discussion list, or in email for no other purpose than to annoy someone or disrupt a discussion. Trolls are recognizable by the fact that the have no real interest in learning about the topic at hand - they simply want to utter flame bait. Like the ugly creatures they are named after, they exhibit no redeeming characteristics, and as such, they are recognized as a lower form of life on the net, as in, "Oh, ignore him, he's just a troll."
For the first part, trolls don't necessarily exist exclusively on Usenet, and anyone who does such things in any forum is a fucking troll.
First time I see a guy dating a girl he know through a game. In the past few days while they were chatting in NS while killing each other, one of the female players (definitely female coz she uses a mic) mentioned that she was going to Chicago for something that has to do with her job. The just 2 days ago, both of them were joking about what they will do on their date when she arrives in Chicago, where he apparently is. My first time witnessing something like that. Hope it turns out well for them.
Now that I play NS on G4B2S server all the time, I'm getting to know the players better. Not all of them are schoolkids. Many of them have jobs or are in college (like me). Totally unlike what I expected. But then, having a job can mean many things, including grocery store cashier.
And people in that server says my nick is cool. Not that this is the first time I get this but I don't usually hear that sort of compliment about anyone anywhere. How many year have I been using this nick? Hmm.. probably ever since I started playing NS... many years I guess.
Need good movies. Reviews on IMDB says Superhero Movie sucks really bad. Sad.
My body clock is being altered as usual. No longer do I feel hungry at certain specific times. My sleeping hours are getting later and later. Now I feel really sleepy only at 4am. Last night I slept at 5am. I hope this will continue to change till it goes all the way back to 10pm as the time when I feel sleepy. LOL!
If not, I am already considering drastic measures, including my technique that involved sleeping very little for a week. Tough choice.
Saturday, 22 March 2008
Rant 111 / Cry Moar, Bitch!
Again, the Olympic Games is dragged into politics. China is now mentioning the once sacred name in the dirty business of the recent Tibetan revolt. The Olympics isn't what it was supposed to be, the friendly competitions that all countries participate in no matter the situation. It is now a capitalistic remake of the holy event for the US and its allies. It is nothing like what it used to be, not just because it is affected by politics, but also because the participants are not truly amateurs. They are called amateurs only because they have not played in any professional games, but what about all that specialized training for their respective sports before they compete?
If you have trained specially in a certain game for months or even years, in ways that are just like those of a professional, are you really an amateur? They have made a mockery of the definition, of the rules, and of all who believe that the Olympics promotes world peace.
Getting really tired of Naruto's style of dragging all possible scenes. Like that part in special episode 51-52 where they found Sai's assassination (wonder why assassin has double double "s") list. Why did he just stare in shock when he saw Sasuke in the list, while others ask him why he was shocked? That was a really unnecessary one. There was no surprise, and there was no need to drag so many consecutive scenes! The plot is the only thing that makes me want to watch Naruto, and the desire is waning. I don't even feel like watching it if all I have is just one new episode. There is no excitement in watching just one lousy episode of Naruto these days. Bleach now totally owns it. Suck it, Naruto. You make my life miserable, like cocaine addiction but without ever experiencing the highs.
Just to correct what I typed in the past, I don't turn on the freerice bots every single night. My laptop needs rest, and I don't have that many reasons to leave it on all night. If I had typed that, I blame it on McDonalds. Don't ask why. I leave my com on only when I have good reasons to leave it on, and I turn on the bots at night only when I plan to have the com turned on through the night.
Apparently, more and more ladies are playing NS on G4B2S NS server. It first started with only one, but after half a year, there are now 3 that I know of. Or maybe there are more but they don't use mic. But at least one of them is a fat chick. If only she never told us her weight, things would have been much more beautiful. LOL! So bad of me, of all people, to say such bullshit.
I am ruined! The only way to go to a Canadian Uni is through the INSTEP exchange program, and according to one friend, the chances of someone over there willing to exchange with me is not high. But I will still try. RAWR!
From MSN's news page:
US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi demanded that China come clean on repression in Tibet.
"The situation in Tibet is a challenge to the conscience of the world," said Pelosi...
"What is happening, the world needs to know," she said.
This is bull. The world doesn't need to know. We have enough problems as it is. Let China do all it wants to the Tibetans. I want my chicken rice NOW, and I mean it!
I hope the sarcasm is noticeable.
If you have trained specially in a certain game for months or even years, in ways that are just like those of a professional, are you really an amateur? They have made a mockery of the definition, of the rules, and of all who believe that the Olympics promotes world peace.
Getting really tired of Naruto's style of dragging all possible scenes. Like that part in special episode 51-52 where they found Sai's assassination (wonder why assassin has double double "s") list. Why did he just stare in shock when he saw Sasuke in the list, while others ask him why he was shocked? That was a really unnecessary one. There was no surprise, and there was no need to drag so many consecutive scenes! The plot is the only thing that makes me want to watch Naruto, and the desire is waning. I don't even feel like watching it if all I have is just one new episode. There is no excitement in watching just one lousy episode of Naruto these days. Bleach now totally owns it. Suck it, Naruto. You make my life miserable, like cocaine addiction but without ever experiencing the highs.
Just to correct what I typed in the past, I don't turn on the freerice bots every single night. My laptop needs rest, and I don't have that many reasons to leave it on all night. If I had typed that, I blame it on McDonalds. Don't ask why. I leave my com on only when I have good reasons to leave it on, and I turn on the bots at night only when I plan to have the com turned on through the night.
Apparently, more and more ladies are playing NS on G4B2S NS server. It first started with only one, but after half a year, there are now 3 that I know of. Or maybe there are more but they don't use mic. But at least one of them is a fat chick. If only she never told us her weight, things would have been much more beautiful. LOL! So bad of me, of all people, to say such bullshit.
I am ruined! The only way to go to a Canadian Uni is through the INSTEP exchange program, and according to one friend, the chances of someone over there willing to exchange with me is not high. But I will still try. RAWR!
From MSN's news page:
US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi demanded that China come clean on repression in Tibet.
"The situation in Tibet is a challenge to the conscience of the world," said Pelosi...
"What is happening, the world needs to know," she said.
This is bull. The world doesn't need to know. We have enough problems as it is. Let China do all it wants to the Tibetans. I want my chicken rice NOW, and I mean it!
I hope the sarcasm is noticeable.
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