Cosmic Networks Updates

404 Errors on the blogs

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 01:35:00 GMT

We are experiencing 404 errors on some blog posts. If you get one, please email support@cosmicthings.com and tell us the blog you are experiencing it on. There was a problem with our server configuration resulting in a 404 being generated. This is a non-critical problem which effects only a few blogs on our network.

We will be preforming upgrades to our blog infrastructure next week on March 17. More information can be found in previous posts.

Academy Awards Roundup

Cullen — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:47:52 GMT

Oscar night this year was an uneventful one. Most people have already heard who won all the major awards and to me, it wasn’t that surprising. I know people thought it was a close call between The Hurt Locker and Avatar, but you have to think like a member of the Academy. After some thinking I knew that Avatar wasn’t going to win. Sure, they blew everyone out of the water in the visual department but when you really breakdown Avatar to the pure acting it wasn’t Best Picture worthy. It followed the textbook story arc like every other movie that was snubbed from the Awards this year, but painted it a pretty color, a very pretty color.

Jeff Bridges won Best Actor which I can agree with even though I didn’t see it. For Best Actress I was kind of disappointed that Bullock won. She may have caught a good role but that doesn’t make up for all the crap she’s made. Other than Best Picture, The Hurt Locker won a myriad of other awards including Best Director for Bigelow, and a bunch of sound awards.

Thank God Up won Best Animated Picture and Best Original Score because they absolutely deserved it. Best Supporting was no surprise in the men’s or woman’s category. They both did fantastic jobs.

They put on a good show, but I could have done without Neil Patrick Harris’ song and dance. My favorite moment was Ben Stiller dressed up as an Avatar much to the chagrin of James Cameron. I had hoped for some more upsets, but at the end of the night I think everyone got what they deserved. Maybe not in James Cameron’s opinion though.

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American cities fight for Google’s attention

Jamie Welch, Network Administrator — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:18:20 GMT

One month ago, Google put the word out that it was looking to build and test its own fiber-to-the-home networks in a couple of cities. The speeds would be up to 1 Gbps and the reach would initially be about 50,000 homes.

Immediately, hundreds of cities began making pitches to attract Google’s attention, some earnest, some crazy.

Topeka, Kansas unofficially renamed itself “Google” for the month; Sarasota, Florida re-named its City Island “Google Island”; Duluth, Minnesota's mayor Don Ness jumped into a 35 degree Lake Superior as a dual-purpose media event for Google Fiber and the Special Olympics; and 1,000 Morgantown, West Virginia residents last week held up signs saying “We Want a Gig” at the WVU-Georgetown basketball game.

The majority of the cities interested in getting Google Fiber haven't resorted to cheap publicity stunts though, and are hoping that their answers to Google’s Request for Information will be much more convincing.

“I think we’re going to draw the line at silly stunts,” Madison, Wisconsin alderman Mark Clear said today. City officials there are hosting a public meeting to gather ideas for their pitch and show the community’s interest in the project.

Juneau, Alaska has made the case that its isolated, mountainous location will serve as an ideal testing ground since it is both environmentally challenging and populous.

Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley reminded us of Baltimore’s historical significance as “that place from which our nation’s railroads emanated, and the place that was the source of the first telegraph message ever sent.”

Kalamazoo, Michigan is using health care as its wager. The Kalamazoo Gazette's Editorial board argues that its modern health care facilities and its major medical corporations Pfizer and Stryker could benefit greatly from the fiber network.

March 26 is the last day Google will accept submissions for its fiber optic trial, and will announce which it has chosen shortly after.

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EFF gets iPhone developer license agreement

Jamie Welch, Network Administrator — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:09:47 GMT

The Electronic Frontier Foundation obtained a copy of Apple’s iPhone developer license agreement and posted the 28 page document on its Web site on Tuesday.

The digital rights watchdog group used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain the document (PDF here: iPhone Developer Agreement) from NASA after it noticed the NASA App for the iPhone.

The EFF has also listed what it describes as “a few troubling highlights” from the agreement.

In order to be eligible to sell an application on Apple’s App Store, for example, developers must agree to the license agreement, part of which forbids public statements about the agreement. That explains why we haven't seen copies of the agreement or much discussion about it online.

The EFF also finds it problematic that the agreement forbids public statements about the terms of the agreement. Even though the terms are not confidential, developers are forbidden from talking about them.

Apple also retains the right to “revoke the digital certificate of any of Your Applications at any time.” In other words, Apple can kill any app at any time.

Any application built with Apple's software development kit can only be distributed through the App Store. That means that sites such as Cydia for so-called jailbroken iPhone apps are off limits.

“If Apple wants to be a real leader, it should be fostering innovation and competition, rather than acting as a jealous and arbitrary feudal lord,” EFF senior staff attorney Fred von Lohmann said on the group's site. “Developers should demand better terms and customers who love their iPhones should back them.”

Once again, the link to the PDF is here: iPhone Developer Agreement

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Battlefield: Bad Company 2 First PC Multiplayer Issues

James Hemmen, Professional Gamer — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:05:24 GMT

Battlefield Bad company 2 came out recently, as you know. Lane and I agree that this is one of the worst releases ever. The game itself good, but they should have waited and fixed some of their problems before releasing it. Here is a message that we posted on EA’s form describing the errors. Minutes after we posted it, there were already 2 posts ahead of us complaining about it too.

Message to EA:

In one of the two days out of 5 that Battlefield Bad Company 2 multi player was working, I blew myself up with C4. A screen appeared that said “EPIC FAIL”. Well, EA, I don’t think I’m the one that failed. First off, the server browsing and menus in the multi player take an extremely long time to load. That is, if i can even log in to my EA online account. My second day with bad company 2 was plagued with “Unable to Login”. Little did I know, there had been an EA server outage. After a while, I finally got it working. This morning, I woke up and happily joined a game only to be kicked 5 seconds later by punk buster. Yes, the dreaded ‘PB Init Failure’. Then guess what? Another server outage! One of the glorious days when i was able to play the game, my friend and I decided to get together and play as a squad over the game’s built in voice chat. We couldn’t join games as a squad so we had to find a server with at least 2 open spaces and join each other quickly before the server filled up. If we found a suitable game, and were on the same team in the same squad, we were extremely happy. With good quality voice chat we had good teamwork and communication. But it could not last… After a mere 10 minutes, the voice chat cut out. Sometimes, even text chat would not work. And this wasn’t a server side issue. we tried 3 servers. Anytime after my friend used the voice chat, afterwords, he couldn’t aim or jump. He had to open up the pause menu and close it to be able to. EA, you released this game on the second of March, but the multi player seems to still be in an unplayable, beta stage. It’s better to have satisfied customers than to say that you released a game on 3/2/10. And even now, EA, your bugs hurt me. Unable to log into my EA account on the EA website (I log in, but the log in button is still in the top right corner of the screen and i can’t post), I asked my friend (the same one i played with) if he would make a post for me. So now I am in team viewer, dictating this rant to him via Steam chat. EA, I do not fail. You fail. Fix it.

I’m sure that whenever that get all these issues worked out, which they seem to be trying to do, it will be a great game. But I recommend not buying it until then.

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BattleField Bad Company 2 First Impressions

James Hemmen, Professional Gamer — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:28:38 GMT

Well, it’s finally here. Bad Company 2 was released on 3/2/10. A countdown date, Just like Modern Warfare 2, with 11/10/9. However, that’s about where the similarities end.

Anyway, everything else about the game seems to be pretty great. The single player is much more diverse than CoD, especially the enviroments. In the first 5 levels of this game, you go from Japan in WWII, to Alaska in modern times, to the jungles of Bolivia, to the Andes mountains, and then to Chile. There is a fairly good story behind all this that has good characters, unlike the generic soldier characters in MW2. The story is told through pre-rendered cut scenes whereas the MW2 story is told through videos and loading screens that are hard to follow.

The coolest aspect I have seen in this game so far is the Frostbite engine, where almost anything is breakable. For example, in the 2nd level, I was in a building shooting troops through a window, when suddenly, I hear a grenade fly by. Before I knew it, the wall was gone, lying in pieces in the snow below me. It may make the game harder, but it’s much more realistic.

The sound to go along with these explosions is also very impressive. If you are near an explosion like this, all you can hear for a while is ringing. This especially sounds great if you have a good headset on. It sounds like your ears really are ringing from shell shock. This can also take place in multiplayer, so there is really no place to hide.

The vehicle system is also really cool. If you look around on YouTube, you can find some good montages of vehicular combat, doing such things as riding off a ramp in an ATV, hopping over a tank, jumping off and blowing it up with an RPG.

The class system is also pretty cool, if you know how to use it. The classes in this game are assault, a good soldier class that is effective in most situations, Recon is a long range class with a sniper rifle, motion sensor, and c4. The Medic can wield an LMG which is good for suppressing enemies. They can deploy med packs to heal, and revive dead comrades with a defib unit. The engineer’s primary weapon is a smg which is an okay weapon at close range, but the real purpose of the engineer is to destroy/repair vehicles. They can use a missile launcher, an RPG, or anti-vehicle mines to destroy enemy vehicles. They have a repair drill that they can use to repair friendly vehicles.

I haven’t seen enough of the game to give it a full review, but I will have one out sometime soon.

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YouTube turns on captions on millions of videos

Jamie Welch, Network Administrator — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 19:26:24 GMT

YouTube is adding captions to millions of Internet videos.

The feature unveiled Thursday expands upon speech-recognition technology that YouTube began using to make captions available on a limited number of videos late last year.

YouTube’s audience will be able to request captions at the press of a button. Video producers will also be able to download the automated captions and improve upon them.

For now, YouTube’s captioning tool will only work on videos with English audio, although there are plans to include more languages. The English audio, however, can be translated into 50 different languages. YouTube, owned by Google, is the Web’s most popular video site. Its users upload about 28,800 hours of video each day.

Of course, the speech recognition technology is not perfect, and will get better over time. This same technology is currently in use with Google Voice, a reincarnation of GrandCentral.

See a sample video below where the captions have been machine transcribed:

As you can see, I was speaking very clearly and slowly and the technology still was not that great. This has a long way to go, but it is definitely something to stay tuned to.

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Samsung Alias2 Unboxing

Jamie Welch, Network Administrator — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 19:20:10 GMT

Jamie Welch unboxes and gives his first impressions of the Samsung Alias2 from Verizon Wireless. For more information or to buy the Alias2, visit http://verizonwireless.com.

From the Verizon Wireless website:

The new Samsung Alias™ 2 gives you the convenience of a QWERTY keypad in a unique flip–style format. It has the same dual–hinge design that made original Alias a hit, but Alias 2 adds a touch of magic – a Magic Key keypad using e–ink technology. In phone mode, you see a standard phone keypad. In texting mode, however, the keys magically change into a full, four–row QWERTY keypad. But the magic doesn’t stop there. The Alias 2 also has a 2.6″ QVGA screen for crisper, clearer viewing, a 2.0 megapixel camera, and dedicated hot keys for one–touch access to some of your most used features like Bluetooth®, text messaging, voicemail, camera, voice commands, games and alarms.

This device requires data package $9.99 or higher\

A photo gallery can be found following the video.

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Review: Up In the Air

Cullen — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 22:21:25 GMT

Up In the Air is just one of George Clooney’s great movies this year along with The Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Men Who Stare At Goats. From the trailer, I assumed this was just a classy romantic comedy, but after I saw it I realized I was wrong. It’s about a man named Ryan Bingham (Clooney), who is sent from the corporate office to fire lower level employees so the branch mangers don’t have to. They try and use their people skills to make the firing process more easy. All the people they fire, with the exception of four, are real people who were fired, and some of them are really heartfelt. Everything is going fine until a college grad comes up with a new system to fire employees which uses computer chat rooms. Until the system is fully running, Ryan takes the grad(Anna Kendricks) along with him so she can experience what it’s like to actually fire a person face to face.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, but it’s not best picture worthy in my opinion. I think if you sorted through all the other movies that came out this year I’m sure there was a better movie than this. I do agree with all of the actors that were nominated. Anna Kendricks did a good job, and I’m sure that the nomination will help her find good roles but I think Mo’Nique is going to take the cake this year. I liked Vera Farmiga as the on-the-road lover to Clooney’s character too. To me, she just oozes promiscuity. George Clooney was also good but I can’t remember a time when he wasn’t, except Spy Kids. J.K. Simmons was awesome as one of the people getting fired. So was Zack Galifianakis, and Danny McBride as Ryan’s brother-in-law. Jason Bateman played a great boss. I really felt the “office ” style energy from him, but I think that’s his personality.

All in all, this is one of George Clooney’s best movies to date. I give this 4.0/5.0 because it’s a solid movie with allover good performances, but sometimes it kind of dragged and I lost momentary interest in what was happening.

4 out of 5 stars

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WinX HD Video Converter Deluxe free

Jamie Welch, Network Administrator — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 01:52:32 GMT

Every few months, Digiarty Software gives away one of its premium titles. From now until March 15, you can score WinX HD Video Converter Deluxe absolutely free. Regular price: 50 dollars.

This utility can convert just about any video format to just about any other video format, and it has built-in profiles for everything from BlackBerry to Zune.

To get it, click the big orange “Get It Now for Free” button on this page, write down the license code at the bottom of the following page, then go back to the previous page and click “Free Download.” Install the software and enter the code when you get to the registration screen. (Let’s see who’s first to come whining to the comments page that “this software isn’t free!” because they didn’t follow the directions.

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RealNetworks surrenders in RealDVD case

Jamie Welch, Network Administrator — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 23:55:48 GMT

U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel has issued a permanent injunction that bars RealNetworks from selling RealDVD, the DVD-copying software that Hollywood claimed in a lawsuit violated copyright law.

Real and the MPAA reached a settlement, according to statements issued by both companies, that called for Real to stop selling RealDVD or any similar products and to pay $4.5 million to reimburse the studios for legal fees.

“We are gratified by the successful conclusion of this important matter,” said Daniel Mandil, the MPAA’s general counsel. “Judge Patel's rulings and this settlement affirm what we have said from the very start of this litigation: it is illegal to bypass the copyright protections built into DVDs designed to protect movies against theft.”

It appears that Real, the maker of the RealPlayer and other media software, has suffered total defeat in the court battle with the MPAA, the trade group representing the six largest Hollywood film studios, which began in 2008.

The MPAA filed suit to stop the sale of RealDVD, a software that hands users the ability to copy and store films to a hard drive.

From the beginning of Real’s struggle, the company appeared to be on shaky ground. Real argued that consumers possessed the right to backup their DVDs, just as they have a right to make a copy of their songs for personal use. Real told the court the company was just trying to offer consumers the means to do that and that they had a fair use right to do that.

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Maintenance of WPS Blogs on March 17

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 23:43:17 GMT

Due to update for WordPress, our blogging software for WPS Blogs, we are entering maintenance mode to add the necessary patches. This outage will last from 1:00pm until 2:30pm on March 17. Unless the outage goes beyond this time, there will be no updates posted at http://status.cosmicthings.com. We are sorry for the inconvenience. Any questions can be directed to jamie@cosmicthings.com.

Review: District 9

Cullen — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 20:01:16 GMT

District 9 is a movie that focuses on Wikus Van De Merwe who works for MNU in South Africa, which is a company contracted to control an alien race that landed on Earth, and now they have to move them into a new “camp”. Wikus (Sharlto Copley) has been assigned to lead a team through the shanty town and serve the aliens eviction notices. When he comes across a shack that’s hiding a weapons lab he investigates it, and accidentally poisons himself when he messes around with a canister he found. He soon is losing teeth, and fingernails, and after a visit to the doctors office, and getting a cast removed he finds his arm has turned into an alien’s claw. He slowly turns into an alien and he finds out what MNU is really doing, and he joins the alien who’s poison he discovered, and fights back to stop them and get the aliens home.

Not only is this one of the best sci-fi movies I’ve seen, it’s also one of the only alien movies to come out lately that’s not a flaming piece of trash. It achieved a lot on its $30,000,000 budget. It got away with finding a great cast of unknown actors which didn’t hurt anyone’s pocket. It was overseen by Peter Jackson who’s notorious for The Lord of the Rings trilogy. This was director Neil Blomkamp’s first big project in his whole career. Before this he did visual effects on a bunch TV shows and Sci-Fi network movies. Sharlto Copley, who’s actually a South Africa native, only acted in one of Blomkamp’s older movies and was a directorial assistant. Unless your extremely familiar with German film you won’t recognize anyone else.

When you see how good the animation is, it’s hard to believe this was made on a 8 figure budget. It’s also pretty violent when it wants to be, especially the scene with the Nigerian gangsters. The aliens look really good and for a second time actor Sharlto Copley does a good job interacting with someone who isn’t even there.

I give this a 4.0/5.0 because I’m glad to see that the Academy recognized how good this was, and that not every alien movie has to have Lou Diamond Phillips in it.

4 out of 5 stars

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Review: Inglorious Basterds

Cullen — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 13:23:35 GMT

Inglorious Basterds, the newest Tarantino spawn, is about a team of American soldiers, all Jewish, who viciously persecute Nazis. I think he’s trying to do with this what he did with Pulp Fiction with the way he tells the story, but he just botched it. It has a side story where an escaped Jew who’s family was killed by Col. Hans Landa during a visit to a farmer. The escapee, Shoshanna Dreyfus (Melanie Laurent), runs a movie theater in France, and is approached by a Nazi who is famous for a battle where he killed dozens of U.S. soldiers. The Nazi is having a movie made of his efforts and after a failed attempt at asking out Shoshanna, tries to impress her by having his premier at her theater. This intertwines with Brad Pitt and his gang who are planning on blowing up her theater because all of the Nazi officials will be in it including Hitler.

This came as a surprise to me because this definitely isn’t his best movie by a long shot, and this is the one that gets nominated. This definitely felt like the Quentin we all know and love (watch for the scalping scene especially), but it seemed unnatural for him. It had his style of dark humor but I felt some other more generic vibes injected into it. Most people don’t know, but this is actually a remake of a much better movie which I very much enjoyed, and as a side note, this is by far, not historically correct, but I won’t spoil it by saying how it ends. Not to say I didn’t like this, but I’ll just say I’m glad I saw the original. I guess it’s kind of like reading a book before you see the movie.

I thought this was a comedy, but for all the wrong reasons. Brad Pitt’s performance is pretty funny when he tries to be serious. I guess I’m too familiar with his other characters to take him seriously. He can play the h-e-double hockey sticks out of a serious character (12 Monkeys, Seven), but this felt like a role he earned from his fame, not his skill. Every other performance is superb, specifically Christoph Waltz who played Col. Landa, and is nominated for best supporting actor. Pitt’s team of Nazi hunters fared a little better. A noteworthy one was B.J. Novak who stars in and produces NBC’s The Office, and has a few bit parts in some Apatow movies. Eli Roth, who plays the infamous Bear Jew, really pulls off the 40’s Brooklyn feel with his character who is notorious for using a Louisville Slugger to extinguish his enemies.

I give this a 3.5/5.0 for the great performances by Christoph Waltz, and Shoshanna Dreyfus. You won’t be sorry if you see it, but don’t expect to be blown away by it’s sheer awesomeness. Also, out of respect for Tarantino, you can’t call it a flop because it wasn’t and apparently one of the producers has a member of the academy in his pocket if you get my drift.

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Software Mimics Person’s Voice : NPR

Nancy Raskauskas, Administrator — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 00:15:20 GMT

via: Software Mimics Person’s Voice : NPR.

This has been one of the main tech topics of the week from the Oprah Show to NPR as software developers in Edinborough, Scotland from a company called CereProc have refined voice recognition software to emulate the voice of Roger Ebert. Roger Ebert lost his voice to the effects of cancer surgery and spoke through CereProc’s recreation of his voice on Oprah this week.

Listen to this NPR story which delves more into the process used by CereProc to create these more acurate voices and some examples of their results.

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I think that they have come closer to achieving the essence of some of the voices but I do not think they are there yet. Intonation is still not on the mark and the voices have that autotone quality. But to give a voice back to someone who has been robbed of specch is a wonderful thing. What do you think?

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Skype on TV: Will the videophone finally be reality?

Jamie Welch, Network Administrator — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 00:10:12 GMT

The common use of videophones could happen through three technologies that separately aren’t exactly considered bleeding edge today: high-speed Internet, a television, and Skype. Samsung says it will put the VoIP calling service Skype as an application on its televisions, allowing phone calls to be made on camera right from a couch, just like Jane Jetson talking into her TV set. The Samsung Skype-enabled TV follows similar announcements from Panasonic and LG at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.

The models will range from to $1,200 to $2,000 for Panasonic’s set. Samsung and LG have not yet announced how much they will charge.

The Skype on TV application should work similarly on all three models, which in turn should closely mimic the version of the application that many people use to make free PC to PC calls, or for a fee, PC to landline. Skype accounts are free to set up and can be activated using the TV’s remote control right on the screen. The video calls will also be free, as will voice calls between Skype users. Using Skype to call traditional landline and mobile phones is a few cents per minute. Calls can be answered while watching a program, but it’s not yet possible to both talk and continue to watch uninterrupted.

By the time these models actually hit stores in late spring there should be three TV makers offering Skype on their TVs. And not just any three TV makers, but the world’s largest overall (Samsung sells practically one of every five TVs sold), the leader in plasmas (Panasonic), and LG, which is close behind Samsung, selling 15 percent of all TVs.

While Robida wrote about the idea, AT&T did the most to advance the idea from the pages of Victorian sci-fi to actuality. Unfortunately its 1960s videophone system, known as the Picturephone, was a bust. Few ever signed up for the service because you had to reserve call times and pay a whopping $16 per minute.

The idea, however, was at least on the right track: making videophones accessible to normal folk. Today teleconferencing is a common tool for companies to put employees in different locations virtually, if not physically, in the same conference room. But the high cost of the fancy systems from companies like Cisco and Hewlett-Packard doesn’t make them consumer-friendly. Cisco also announced at CES it would be offering a home version of its telepresence software sometime this year, and did not yet mention a price.

Videophones for the home have never really caught on in the way they have at businesses. Even versions of the concept built into a corded telephone didn’t really generate much excitement. Usually this was a small screen attached to a phone base station and conversations had to take place wherever the phone was plugged in, which tended to be places like a dresser or a kitchen counter.

Video calls today can be made online. They’re easy and cheap, and of course don’t require the purchase of an pricey new TV. A computer with a built-in Webcam and a voice-over-IP service like Skype or a chat application like Yahoo Messenger usually suffice, but it is still an activity that’s attached to a computer, and therefore going to be intimidating to people who either don’t like or have trouble with technology.

TVs are far more accessible though. Now with major companies like Samsung, Panasonic, and LG pushing the idea of the TV as videophone, the concept does at least have the chance to catch on. Consumer surveys show that people are beginning to buy Internet-connected TVs, which allow not just Skype calls, but also other activities on the TV that are normally confined to the computer. That includes accessing Internet radio and video streaming from services like Pandora and Netflix, and social sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr.

A survey of 800 U.S. consumers who bought TVs in January found that 27.5 percent of them have connected their new sets to the Internet, either through the TV itself or via an external device such as a game console or digital video box, according to iSuppli. And of those, almost 42 percent recently purchased a Web-connected TV. And Skype likely won’t be a brand new concept to a lot of those new TV owners. Skype already has over 521 million registered accounts, so there’s a built-in audience who is already signed up and knows how to use it.

But the quality may not be what some people expect, says DisplaySearch analyst Paul Gagnon.

“Teleconferencing is inherently kind of a low-quality experience, especially in a consumer home. On a computer it works OK, but blown up to the size of the TV, I wasn’t terribly impressed with some of the demos at CES,” he said.

And quality aside, even in terms of logistics, there’s a lot to consider. Even with an Internet-connected TV, you still need a decent Internet connection, and for a two-way video call, you have to have people on the other end with the same set up. In other words, “it’s really early,” Gagnon said.

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Counter Strike: Source Review

James Hemmen, Professional Gamer — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 23:47:09 GMT

For anyone into Multiplayer First Person Shooters for the PC on a low budget, Counter Strike: Source is the game for you. For a measly $19.99, you get the whole game through a Steam Download. Although, Steam has had sales offering the game for only $5. If you see it then, you definitely want to buy it. With an 8.9 Critic score on Gamespot, this is probably one if the best highly rated games under $20. The game is available here.

The actual game play isn’t like many other games I’ve played. Instead of having separate buttons for knives or grenades, you have to choose them as a primary weapon, then hit the fire key to stab or throw.
The game also uses a money system, where you start with only a pistol and a knife, so you have to buy primary weapons separately. Depending on what server you are on, you start with anywhere between $800 and $16,000. If you manage to survive a round without dying, you will keep your weapons and remaining money, and receive another share of money.
Another aspect different from most games is that if you die, you won’t re spawn until the next round. Luckily, rounds tend to only be 2 to 3 minutes.

One really great thing about the people that play this game is that they are actually smart and work as teams, where as in CoD, everyone will desert you and leave you to fend for yourself.
The game comes with a decent amount of maps, (about 20) but other people will make their own for you to download and play on. If you are skilled enough, you can download some Source SDKs (Software Development Kits) and make your own levels and player models. However, you can only use them on a server that you make.
For $20, the game has really good graphics. It’s no Modern Warfare 2, but comparable to Half Life 2.

Something also not seen too often in $20 games, or even some $50 games, is a good text/voice chat system. The text is very similar to any other online game, but the voice chat system is pretty good. Still the same simple hold a key and talk, but it’s not as confusing as other games where you don’t know who’s talking, or have a huge picture of a speaker come up to block your view. It also has a system where you can pull up a menu and hit a key to have a voice yell something (like THROWING FRAG!) It will also put it in the chat, along with where you are on the map. The only con about this is that since it’s easier to use, a lot more people use it. With that many people talking, it can get loud, or start lots of arguments. So don’t be surprised if your parents walk in the room right as two people get into a screaming cursing match. I recommend using a headset.
Another great aspect for anyone who owns a Logitech G19, this game will sync with the keyboard, showing your minimap, scores, or anything else about the game you want, other than the actual game.

The actual weapon selection in this game is pretty broad, having different weapons for the terrorists and Counter terrorists.

The complete list of weapons is as follows:

Pistols
- USP (Universal Self-Loading Pistol) .45ACP Tactical
- Glock 18C Select Fire
- Desert Eagle .50 AE
- P228
- Dual 96G Elite Berettas (Terrorist Only)
- Fiveseven (Counter-Terrorist Only)
Shotguns
- M3 Super 90 Entry
- XM1014 (M4 Super 90)
Sub-Machine Guns
- MP5-Navy
- Steyr Tactical Machine Pistol (TMP) (Counter-Terrorists Only)
- P90 Personal Defense Weapon
- MAC-10 (Terrorists only)
- Universal Machinenpistole (UMP)
Rifles
- IMI Galil (Terrorist Only)
- FAMAS (Counter-Terrorist Only)
- Avtomat Kalashnikov Model 47 (AK-47)
- SG-552 Commando (Terrorists Only)
- M4A1 Carbine with Silencer (Counter-Terrorists Only)
- Steyr AUG A1 (Counter-Terrorists Only)
- Scout
- Arctic Warfare Magnum (AWP or AWM)
- G3/SG-1 Precision Sniper Rifle (Terrorist Only)
- SG-550 Sniper Rifle (Counter-Terrorist Only)
Machine Guns
- M249 PARA Light Machine Gun

And now I will very briefly overview 2 of the most popular maps to play on in the game DE Dust 2 and CS Office

CS Office: A large office in a snowy area with tons of places to hide and sneak up on people. With lots of random passages to go through, you can easily sneak around an enemy and shoot them in the face. There are also lots of file cabinets you can shoot over for cover and blocking off passages. If you aren’t into running around and killing enemies, you can sneak into their base and escort the hostages to a certain place. The bad thing about this is that everyone can see where the hostages are, so you are very susceptible to being shot. Below is a picture of the mini map for the level. DE Dust 2: A huge, expansive desert level which also have some random passages to go through, as well as open spaces for random shooting matches to occur. It also has great places for snipers, as well as people obsessed with grenades. This map also has a side element to the game. In Office, you can escort hostages to safety, where in this map you can plant a bomb in a specified place. The other team has to find it and defuse it. If they fail to do so, the team that planted it will win the round. Below is a picture of the mini map for this level.

Overall, the game is a Great game for any gamer on any kind of budget. If you are only thinking about the graphics and not the game, don’t buy this. They are pretty good, but again, no MW2. If you’re one of the people who hate games with boring maps, this is probably a good game for you. Every time you play, you might find a new passage to sneak through. If you have parents who are very conscious about language or blood, then don’t play it. After all, the game IS rated M, but it doesn’t say that anywhere in the game. Nothing in the game is really M material, it’s really just what people say if you anger them. And finally, the specs are as follows:

Minimum:

Recommended: 2.4 GHz Processor, 512MB RAM, DirectX 9 level graphics card, Windows 2000/XP, Mouse, Keyboard, Internet Connection

Game Details

Title: Counter-Strike: Source
Genre: Action
Developer: Valve
Publisher: Valve
Release Date: Nov 1, 2004
Languages: English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Thai

Multi-player

HDR available

Valve Anti-Cheat enabled

Includes Source SDK

The game is available here

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RePosted from Wall Street Journal: Apple Sues HTC

Nancy Raskauskas, Administrator — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:28:32 GMT

Apple who is involved in a patent dispute with cellphone company Nokia Corp. is now suing another manufacturer over patent infringements.

By ROGER CHENG And NICK WINGFIELD

Apple Inc. launched a legal broadside against a key Google Inc. partner in the cellphone market, the latest sign of the escalating tensions between the two Silicon Valley companies.

Apple alleged numerous patent violations in lawsuits against HTC Corp., a Taiwan-based manufacturer of smart phones. HTC makes several phones that run Google’s Android operating system, including the Nexus One phone that Google is selling directly to consumers.

Apple’s two complaints—filed Tuesday in federal court in Delaware and the U.S. International Trade Commission—allege HTC devices, including the Nexus One, infringe a total of 20 Apple patents. The complaints claim the patents cover an array of cellphone technologies, everything from power-management functions to a method of unlocking a handset with a finger swipe on a touch screen.

“We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it,” Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs said in a prepared statement. “We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.”

An HTC spokesman said the company is still reviewing the complaints. “HTC values patent rights and their enforcement but is also committed to defending its own technology innovations,” said spokesman Keith Novak.

A Google spokeswoman said that, while the company was not a party in the lawsuit, the company “stands behind our Android operating system and the partners who have helped us to develop it.” Apple declined to comment on whether the suit was aimed at Google.

Apple’s share of global smart-phone shipments surged to 14.4% last year from nothing when it entered the market almost three years ago, according to research firm IDC. HTC, which makes smart phones that run both Android and software from Microsoft Corp., accounted for 4.6% of the market in 2009, IDC said.

The Android technology is open source, meaning other companies are free to use and modify it, but Google works closely with handset makers like HTC to help them customize it for their devices and was closely involved in the development of the Nexus One.

While Google and other Android manufacturers weren’t named as a defendants in Apple’s suits, the legal challenges could be a way for Apple to rattle handset makers that are considering using the software, lawyers said.

HTC Chief Financial Officer Hui-Ming Cheng said Wednesday it is too early to say whether the Apple allegations will have a material impact on the company’s operations. “Our legal counsel is still studying the matter, and we’re still trying to understand the details of the case,” Mr. Cheng said. He confirmed that Apple has accused HTC of violating 20 patents in total, but declined to say which of its handset models use these patents.

While HTC also makes phones based on an operating system from Microsoft, several models of which are named in Apple’s ITC complaint, the lawsuits emphasize alleged violations by HTC’s Android phones. Those include high-profile models like Droid Eris, sold through Verizon Wireless.

The complaint with the ITC, a trade body, seeks to block imports of HTC devices made with the contested technology. Such disputes are increasingly common among technology companies and can take more than a year to resolve.

Apple Sues HTC, the Maker of Google’s Nexus One Phone – WSJ.com.

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TAT Home for Android Phones

Nancy Raskauskas, Administrator — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 20:57:27 GMT

The Android interface has been quit impressive with its offerings of mutli-home screen interfaces and unique apps. Although they have a lot to do to ever catch up to the prolific iPhone app makers, Android is a standout. Many developers seeming to come out of nowhere have been producing beautifully designed interactive 3-D home screen interfaces. One of the most interesting developers is TAT.

TAT is a Swedish software technology and design company that differentiate and enhance the user experience of portable devices. TAT is headquartered in Malmö, Sweden, and has local offices in Korea and USA.

Soon TAT will introduce a gesture powered 3-D home screen for Android phones that combines UI technology with remarkable design elements. Here is the preview.

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Review: Up

Cullen — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:01:09 GMT

Up is “Up” against Avatar as the only other animated movie nominated for best picture. I’m 99% sure this isn’t going to win best picture, but at least it’s nominated. It’s one of Pixar’s best films yet. There’s nothing really unusual as far as Pixar movies go, and the visuals are outstanding as they are in all Pixar movies. They really didn’t look far for voice actors. Ed Asner voiced Carl Fredericksen who is a widower living alone in a house he built with his wife. The whole intro develops the story of his wife and you find out that she had a bit of a adventurous spirit and her dream was to move to South America and live on top of Paradise Falls. They both were fans of theexplorer Charles Muntz and wanted to go all the places he did. When Carl is an an incident with a construction worker, he is told that he has to move into a retirement home. In one of the most beautiful displays of colors I’ve ever seen, he releases the balloons. The colors will amaze you, and seeing them reflect on windows is fascinating. If you don’t want to see this for the story then see it for the visuals.

It was really well written and the voice acting is wonderful. Christopher Plummer voices the adventurer Charles Muntz, along with Asner as Carl. Other than that, they really didn’t look far for voice actors. Bob Peterson, who is in most Pixar movies like The Incredibles and Finding Nemo voices Dug and Alpha, and Bob Ratzenberger who you know as Cliff on Cheers voices the construction foreman Tom. Again, see it for the visuals because it’s one of Pixar’s best visual jobs yet.

I give this movie 4.0/5.0. for the visuals alone because I can’t stress enough how good they were. Apart from the visuals it was a decent movie as far as animated movies go. Just because it’s Disney doesn’t mean it’s just for kids. Once again, Disney’s pet Pixar has produced another memorable movie. Disney has a monopoly on animated movies so there really aren’t any that come out not made by Disney but at least there doing a good job at it.

4 out of 5 stars

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The Creator of “Call on Jesus” joins hosts Jamie Welch and Nancy Raskauskas on “Tech Talk Live” March 10, 2010, at 8 p.m. Eastern

admin — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:20:08 GMT

Berlin, Maryland — March 1, 2010 — Tom Ellsworth, the CEO of GoTV Networks, will appear on “Tech Talk Live” (http://blogtalkradio.com/tech-talk-live) with hosts Jamie Welch and Nancy Raskauskas on Wednesday, March 10, 2010, at 8 p.m. Eastern. The exclusive interview will highlight what it’s like to develop an iPhone application and why they created the “Call On Jesus” app.

GoTV Networks, Inc. was founded in 1997 and is based in Sherman Oaks, California. GoTV Networks, Inc. operates as a mobile television network and studio group. It offers on-demand television programming for music, news, sports, entertainment, and comedy. The company was formerly known as V-Star, Inc. and changed its name to GoTV Networks, Inc. in 2005.

Callers are welcome to join the conversation during the show by calling (347) 996-3134. The live, Internet talk-radio show will stream from the host page at http://blogtalkradio.com/tech-talk-live.

“This exclusive interview with Tom Ellsworth is a must-listen for any technology fan,” said Jamie, host of the program. “Tom is the CEO of GoTV Networks, a company responsible for tons iPhone Apps on the market today.”

An archive will be available at the same link immediately following the show or listeners can subscribe to the archives via the RSS feed located on the host page.

About “Tech Talk Live”

“Tech Talk Live” is an interactive, live Internet talk-radio show that focuses on technology news and software. Hosts Jamie Welch and Nancy Raskauskas explore the world of Technology every week. Callers are encouraged to call (347) 996-3134 to listen or ask questions of Tom. The stream and archives are available at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/tech-talk-live. The show is live every Wednesday night at 8 p.m. Eastern/ 5 p.m. PT. The show is hosted on BlogTalkRadio.

###

Press Contact

Jamie Welch

(317) 426-7642

info@cosmicthings.com

Review: Cop Out

Bobby — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 23:19:52 GMT

Cop Out is a comedy staring Bruce Willis as Jimmy, a New York cop whose rare baseball card is stolen, and how he and his partner Paul (Tracy Morgan) try to get it back. Directed by Kevin Smith who you may know as Silent Bob, this movie seemed to be Bruce Willis trying to make a quick buck and it was a complete failure. They get into trouble and get suspended from the force for 30 days. Jimmy then needs $48,000 to pay for his daughter’s wedding and to show his ex-wife’s boyfriend that he isn’t a loser. It was painfully slow moving and was a bad attempt at a comedy. The entire plot was essentially every cop movie ever made put into one really bad movie.

During this movie I laughed about 3 times thanks to Seann William Scott. He provided the very few funny parts, and they weren’t even that great. Tracy Morgan is not the greatest actor, although he does play a good role in NBC’s 30 Rock. To me, Tracy Morgan is a good representative of stand-up comedy, not the movie industry. If Kevin Smith had written this movie rather than directed it, it might have been a little better, but not a lot could save a film like this.

I give this movie 1.0/5.0 because this was an all around bad movie. The only thing keeping it from a 0 was seeing Tracy Morgan step out of 30 Rock and do something new.

1 out of 5 stars

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Editorial: Bad Company 2 vs. Modern Warfare 2

Lane Spangler — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 14:51:14 GMT

Lately we have been covering a lot of Battlefield: Bad Company 2. After looking through a lot of media, revisiting older games, and playing some Modern Warfare 2, I have come to one conclusion. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 will be better than Modern Warfare 2. I have based this conclusion off of Beta gameplay and previous Battlefield games. This is why Battlefield will be better:

Teamwork and Strategy (Battlefield) vs. Run and Gun (CoD)

In Battlefield games, teams operate in smaller squads. The game’s built in voice chat is the key to the communication. Only people in the same squad can hear each other speak. When you die, you spawn on your squad. From what I know so far, there are no squad leaders, and squads must communicate with other squads through team chat. You’ll find, though, that communication between your squad is the most important. All the classes (or kits) complement each other nicely, and can be customized to fit your play style. Things like air support can be called in by the recon class.

In Call of Duty you will usually find idiots spamming the global voice chat and there is no teamwork outside of clans. There are smaller matches and smaller maps. There are no vehicles and no support classes like a medic or an engineer. The game rewards lone wolfs, that sometimes even sacrifice team members so that they can get kills.

Fully Destructible Environments vs. Insignificant Bullet Penetration

In Battlefield: Bad Company 2, every building, wall, fence, and crate can be destroyed. The battlefield can quickly change, making new routes and destroying old chokepoints.

In Call of Duty, some surfaces can be shot through. However, once the bullet hits the surface, it will not go much further or do very much damage. This game mechanic is a nice touch but does not effect the overall gameplay experience.

PC: Console Port vs. PC version

I do most of my gaming on the PC. So you can imagine my dissatisfaction with Modern Warfare 2’s “PC version”. There was no dedicated server support and not even the slightest graphical boost that PC gamers have come to expect.

In Bad Company 2, there is full dedicated server support and a wealth of extra graphics options for PC gamers that have the rig to handle them.

Console Style Matchmaking vs. Dedicated Servers

Modern Warfare 2 featured console style matchmaking on all systems. In my experience, this took a lot of my time and ended up putting me in servers with people that have an extremely high ping, causing me a lot of lag. This is because those people are playing the game on the other side of the world. This does not make for a good connection. The Modern Warefare 2 matchmaking chooses a host for each game, then finds clients through the matchmaking. However, the host the game chooses will sometimes have a horrible connection speed, and ruin the game for everyone else.

In Bad Company 2 there is dedicated server support on PC in addition to console style matchmaking on all systems.

9.0 vs. 8.6

This is just my impression. But now that it has released, the critics and users seem to agree with me. Metacritic.com is a website that averages together all reviews from trusted sources. The PC version of Bad Company 2 has received a 90/100 and a user score of 9.8 while Modern Warefare 2 has received an 86/100 and a user score of 33/100.

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Review: Precious

Cullen — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 19:44:05 GMT

Precious is the story of an inner-city girl named Clarise Jones a.k.a. Precious. Originally based on a book by Sapphire, it basically follows her while experiencing her toughest trials and tribulations. I should warn you upfront, this is one of the most depressing movies of the year. That seems to be the theme this year as most of the nominees for Best Picture are extremely depressing. Clarise is offered an opportunity for higher education. Her mother, played by the excellent Mo’Nique, is weary because she only lives off two things, welfare and her daughter. She erupts and begins to torment her daughter with abuse, verbally and physically.

Ever since I first heard of this movie, I only heard good things about it. Most of the good things I heard about it were about the acting, and I definitely agree. Gabourey Sidibe plays the lead as Precious and she does a grade A job. Mo’Nique finally found a character she plays well and it even earned her an Oscar nomination. You may also recognize some other familiar faces too. Lenny Kravitz, the musician, plays a male nurse and does a pretty good job for his first time acting. Mariah Carey also has a part in the movie as a social worker. Her singing career may be slacking but she does a good job at playing social workers. There aren’t any other really familiar faces but overall, the acting is very well done.

I first heard about this movie in a summary of the Sundance Festival where they listed all the top movies. The director, Lee Daniels, is a bit of a newcomer. The last movie he directed was Shadowboxer in 2005. Chances are you’ve never heard of it, but it had some big actors in it and ironically had Mo’Nique playing a girl named Precious. As far as hits and misses go it was a miss. Not all directors hit a home run fresh out of the dugout though so hopefully his next movie Selma will be better.

I give this movie a 4.0/5.0 because of the great performances and a great screenplay. The only thing I didn’t care for was how dark they made it feel. I realize not every story has a happy ending, and this one especially doesn’t but a little cheer would have made a difference. With any luck, this movie will take the Slumdog Millionaire route and go from a slumdog indie to a best picture winner.

4 out of 5 stars

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Review: The Hurt Locker

Cullen — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 19:41:42 GMT

The Hurt Locker is about a bomb disarming squad in the Middle-East and how their bomb technician (Guy Pearce) is killed during a bomb removal. The new guy in the rotation, SSG William James (Jeremy Renner) is what some might call a rogue, he successfully ticks off the rest of his squad with his life threatening antics. For the most part, it keeps you on the edge of your seat for the whole movie because what’s more exciting than disarming a bomb? I was surprised at how much this is like Jarhead but at the same time good.

All of the elements were put together beautifully by director Kathryn Bigelow. The last time you saw something of hers, you probably know about, was Point Break. To this day it is the only Keanu Reeves movie I like. Don’t be fooled when you see David Morse, Guy Pearce, and Ralph Fiennes in the top billing because they have they only have short cameos. I was also surprised to see Evangeline Lily as Will’s wife. Most may know her as Kate on Lost. I think the reason they put them in the movie is so people thought they were going to see a war movie with people they recognized but when they found out they had small parts they still stayed because of Jeremy Renner’s, and Anthony Mackie’s excellent acting jobs. It was probably to keep the public from judging it at face value. I also like how it was shot, and I guess the Academy did too because it was also nominated for best cinematography which I think this will probably win.

I give this a 4.5 out of 5 because it’s an all around excellent movie, let alone war movie which none have done before except Ridley Scott. I can’t really think of anything bad to say about it but it just didn’t have that 5 star feel.

4.5 out of 5 stars

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Best Picture Reviews

Cullen — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 19:36:54 GMT

In anticipation of the Academy Awards, we here at Cosmic Movie Reviews have reviewed all the nominees for Best Picture. There are some great movies up for Best Picture, and some that maybe don’t belong up there. Until you see them, read our reviews, and maybe save yourself some time.

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Review: A Serious Man

Cullen — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 19:35:21 GMT

A Serious Man is about a college professor named Larry Gupnik, and the whole movie is about how his life explodes in front of him. It’s a dark comedy set in the Midwest suburbs and there is not a single thing in this movie that anyone would consider “happy” with the exception of a few dream sequences. Everything seems like normal suburban life until out of nowhere his wife wants a divorce. Meanwhile, he has to deal with his two kids, one is about to have a Bar Mitzvah, and the other is just a whining teenage girl. On top of that, his brother is sleeping in his house until he finds a place to stay. If any religious people out there want to see it they should know it’s loosely based on the story of Job from the Bible.

Out of all the nominees this year for best picture, this one came as a surprise. I can understand most of the others but for such an unknown movie with a cast composed of actors nobody’s heard of, it seems like they threw this one in the pot to either diversify the nominees or to throw a bone to 2008’s best directors. Just because it’s unknown doesn’t mean its not good though. I’m actually hoping this one wins. I know it won’t, but its nice to think the Academy cares about movies like this. If this does win best picture I hope they don’t make the same mistake as they did with Burn After Reading, and get hotheaded all of a sudden. The only reason that got made is because the Coen Brothers had fame burning a hole in their pockets, got Hollywood’s finest and Francis McDormand (no offense), to make a bad movie.

The actors were strange choices but good ones. I’m guessing the only one anyone recognizes is Richard Kind, and chances are you didn’t even know his name. Michael Stuhlbarg played the leading role, and I thought his portrayal of suburban failure was spot-on. He did an excellent job playing the lead, and truthfully he should be up there rather than Colin Firth. Richard Kind also did a great job as the brother and he should be up there instead of Matt Damon. I have boatloads of respect for Clint Eastwood as an actor and a director, but Invictus just didn’t cut it for me. The kid that played Gupnik’s son Aaron Wolff did a great job for his first time, and his character really worked out for him. Hopefully he can turn into the new Michael Cera, except funnier.

I give this movie 4.0/5.0 because the acting was good all around and they pulled off the dark comedy aspect very well. Sometimes it got boring and after a while of being bored something exciting would happen and it would throw you off.

4 out of 5 stars

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No more Xbox Live!

Mark Gee — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 16:04:47 GMT

To all of you original Xbox users, Xbox live is being canceled. The news was released by Major Nelson on his Twitter account. The cutoff date is April 15th, so play as hard as possible. The good news is that now Microsoft will release updates for only Xbox 360, so they can upgrade services quicker and more efficiently.

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Create Your Own Photoshop Brushes

Nancy Raskauskas, Administrator — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 23:22:27 GMT

Well, you can make your own brushes and it is very easy.

All Systems Go!

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 23:37:00 GMT

Everything is online and running smoothly. To see the new website design visit our homepage at http://cosmicthings.com

Robotic Butlers

Halie Murray-Davis, Administrator — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 14:56:07 GMT

One of the cool ideas that was raised in comments about, “What Do You Think” was to have robotic butlers. There could be a sensor implanted in the brain. When the sensor detected that you wanted something, it would send a signal to the robot that would get you what you wanted.

So suppose you are sitting in your living room reading a book and all of the sudden you get hungry and start thinking about how nice milk and cookies would be. A few minutes later your robot appears carrying a tray of cookies and a glass of milk.

What do you think about this idea? Do you have a moral problem with implanting a sensor into the brain that detects thoughts? Do you think that this technology would have any unintended consequences? What improvements could be made on this idea? What problems do you have with it?

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Cosmic Things homepage down for a redesign

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 21:37:00 GMT

The Cosmic Things homepage will be down until Sunday for a redesign and tune up. We hope that you will like it! All other parts of Cosmic Things will remain open. You can visit Tech Talk to burn the time if you wish, or the WPS Blogs homepage. You decide! Please email us at admin (at) cosmicthings (dot) com if you have any questions. We’ll keep you updated on any delays or early reopenings right here.

Update (Sat, 6:30p): Due to problems caused by the snow, the Cosmic Things homepage will remain down until Monday night. Thanks for your understanding and keep tuned for more updates.

Update (Mon, 6:00p): We are not going to be able to update our site to the new version until Tuesday. We want to make sure that it is perfect before we release it! Stay tuned for more updates.

Update (Tue, 4:45p): We will be releasing the new design of our homepage within the hour. Stay tuned to this page to see the new design real soon!

All Systems Go!

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 21:19:01 GMT

We’re chugging along here at Cosmic Things, no problems to report!

That Mona Lisa Smile…Or Is It Leonardo Da Vinci’s?

Nancy Raskauskas, Administrator — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 00:55:35 GMT

Scientists want to reconstruct Leonardo's face and compare it to the Mona Lisa

New! Desktop Background/Wallpaper

Nancy Raskauskas, Administrator — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 18:40:39 GMT

Here is the latest cosmic Desktop Background created by Nancy Raskauskas, Graphic Designer and Cosmic Networks Administrator. The DesktopJPEG Image is 1028 X 763 and only 647KB to download. The iPhone wallpaperimage is 320 X480 and only 151 KB: Enjoy! Wintergreen-iPhone by Nancy Raskauskas is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Report This Post

WPS Blogs Maintence

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 22:28:23 GMT

Due to update for WordPress, our blogging software for WPS Blogs, we are entering maintenance mode to add the necessary patches. This outage will last from 6:00 until 7:30. Unless the outage goes beyond this time, there will be no updates posted at http://status.cosmicthings.com. We are sorry for the inconvenience, and we hope that you enjoy your day. Any questions can be directed to jamie@cosmicthings.com.

Neil Young’s Cover of Pants on the Ground

Nancy Raskauskas, Administrator — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 02:21:45 GMT

Even Neil Young has a rendition out.Take a look.

Crysis Review

James Hemmen, Professional Gamer — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 16:03:55 GMT

I know everyone has been waiting for a Crysis review, so here it is. For $40, you can get all 3 Crysis games: Crysis, Crysis Warhead, and Crysis Wars. These games are all known for the stunning graphics; they have some of the best graphics on the gaming market. On very high, you will need a pretty powerful computer with a Direct X 10 or 11 Graphics card and drivers, but it is not much different than playing on high. I have a ATI Radeon 1900 graphics card which is a few years old, and my computer can still run the game on high.

In Crysis, you play as a part of a special team of soldiers with special suits called “nanosuits”. With a nanosuit, you can choose between 4 powers. These powers are speed, strength, armor, and cloak. However, you can only use one power at a time. Also, each power uses up suit energy, which recharges so long as you aren’t using any of your powers. With armor when you get hit, instead your health decreasing, your suit energy decreases. If you are not getting hit, then your energy recharges. With strength you have enhanced, punching, throwing, bashing, shooting, and jumping. When doing any of these, your suit energy decreases, otherwise it recharges. With speed you can sprint very fast. When sprinting with speed, your suit energy decreases. With cloak, you are invisible. When cloaked, your suit energy decreases. If you move while cloaked your energy decreases even faster.

When a team of archeologists on an island send out a distress signal, you are sent to investigate. When you land on the island, you find out that it is occupied by Koreans. I don’t want to give away the whole story, but when aliens get involved, things get pretty crazy. Personally, I enjoyed the story, but the ending was a big cliffhanger.

Crysis is a Sandbox FPS. This means that you can approach each level in any way that you want. You can use silenced weapons along with cloak to keep a low profile, eliminating only the enemies that you need to, sneaking past the rest. Crysis has an “awareness” system. There is a meter on your HUD that shows how aware of you your enemies are. So if you keep a low profile, the soldiers are less likely to call in reinforcements. You could also walk in to the level with lots of big guns and explosives, killing everything in your path. The freedom of choice that Crysis gives you makes it a very fun game. Rather than just running and gunning, you could plan a stealth approach, or go somewhere in between.

Another interesting gameplay element in Crysis is that buildings can be destroyed or broken. If you have strength activated, you can punch in the walls and roofs of most shacks. Explosives can also damage buildings. Collapsing roofs and walls can kill enemies. This makes for some very cool moments. Imagine there are a few Koreans in a shack full of guns and ammo that you want. Instead of using the door that they are watching, you can punch out the wall behind them and shoot them all in the back. Or maybe you don’t care about the guns and you just want to get rid of them. You could punch in the roof and cause the building to come down on top of them.

In addition to destroying buildings, you can also pick up and throw objects in Crysis. You can throw things further with strength activated. You can even break off a piece of let’s say, a fence, and pick it up. You can then proceed to bash your foe’s head in with it. Or maybe you use strength to hurl an explosive barrel into an enemy camp and then shoot it while it is in the air, making it explode.

There is a variety of weapons in Crysis. From rocket launchers to mini-guns, Crysis has got it all. Also, for most weapons you can find attachments. Press C, and your character, Nomad, will hold up his gun and you can equip some attachments. Here’s a quick overview of some of the key weapons and the attachments available for them.

The rocket launcher, which shoots a laser guided missile, is a very fun weapon to use. It can destroy vehicles, troops, and special objectives.There are no attachments for this weapon.

The Scar is the best all around assault rifle in the game. It is also the gun that you start with. It can do single shot or fully automatic. Silenced, it is a great stealth weapon.

Attachments: Silencer, Red Dot Sight, Sniper Scope, Assault Scope, Incendiary Ammunition, Sleeper Dart, Flashlight, and Laser Pointer

The FY-71 is the Korean equivalent of the Scar. It can use the same attachments.

The Pistol is a great backup weapon. With a silencer, it can be used effectively for stealth. Just make sure to aim for the head, or else you won’t be getting a one-shot-kill.

Attachments: Flashlight, Laser Pointer

The Shotgun is a killer weapon at close range. However, it cannot be silenced so if you’re trying to be sneaky, the shotgun is not for you.

Attachments: Red Dot Sight, Assault Scope, Sniper Scope, Flashlight

The Precision Rifle is best used for sniping. It has high power, high accuracy, and cannot be silenced. Why bother sneaking around when you can pick all your enemies off from afar with this weapon?

Attachments: Red Dot Sight, Assault Scope, Sniper Scope, Flashlight, Laser Pointer

The Gauss Rifle is a very high power rifle with rare ammunition. It can kill with a body shot, and can incapacitate multiple enemies. This is a gun that sends your foes flying.

Attachments: Red Dot Sight, Assault Scope, Sniper Scope, Flashlight, Laser Pointer

The SMG is a good mid-close range weapon with a high rate of fire. It can be very effective as a stealth weapon.

Attachments: Red Dot Sight, Flashlight, Laser Pointer, Silencer

The Mini-Gun, also known as a chain gun, is a gun with a huge clip and a very fast rate of fire. Although it takes a second to warm up, it is a very effective weapon against more powerful enemies like helicopters, aliens, and Koreans with nano suits. There are no attachments available for this gun.

Finally, we get to our last weapon, my personal favorite, C4. Remember when I told you about destroying buildings? Yes, the best way to do that is with C4. You can sneak into an enemy base, plant C4 on key parts of buildings, and then run to a safe distance with a sniper rifle. When you are ready, detonate the C4, and pick off the stragglers with your sniper rifle. The best example I remember was a Korean base that had a truck parked in a garage, a small building, and a gas tank next to an outhouse. I silently crept into the garage and planted C4 on the bottom of the truck. Next, I used a sleeper dart to temporarily incapacitate a Korean who was using the outhouse. I then planted C4 on the gas tank. Finally, I put some C4 in the small building. I went and found an abandoned jeep about a hundred yards away from the base. I stuck some C4 to the hood. I hopped in the jeep. I started towards the base but before reaching it, I jumped out of the jeep and it continued to roll towards the Koreans. I detonated the C4. The roof of the garage blew sky high, the small building was decimated, and the outhouse was nowhere to be found.

In addition to all the weapons available to you in Crysis, there is also a selection of vehicles. There are air, land, and sea vehicles, including tanks, helicopters, and even hovercraft. Here is an overview of some of the vehicles that you will find in Crysis.

The civilian truck is good for car bombing and getting around the world of Crysis. However, it doesn’t have any armament but it is fast with decent handling.

The military jeep has a mounted machine gun so it is great for taking out infantry. It is also fast, but can sometimes be hard to steer.

The civilian boat is good for traveling quickly across the water. However, the Korean boats will tear you to pieces with their mounted machine guns.

The military boat has a mounted machine gun. You can also stand on the deck and snipe. This is a very useful for assaulting coastal bases.

The hovercraft has a machine gun and can go on land or water. It is a very useful all around vehicle.

The tank is a very powerful and slow land vehicle with a cannon and a powerful machine gun.

The Korean helicopter has missiles and machine gun. It is an extremely fast way to get around and it has lots of firepower.

So Crysis is a great game full of action, weapons, vehicles, explosions, and cinematic moments. The ability to choose how you tackle each situation makes the game very fun. I will give Crysis a 9.0/10.o for fantastic graphics, great gameplay, and an exceptional story. Although the AI can be a little strange sometimes, Crysis is a good game overall.

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Call of Duty: Modern Warefare 2: First Multiplayer Impressions

Lane Spangler — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 15:26:07 GMT

For the past week I have been wasting my life playing Call of Duty: Modern Warefare 2 Multiplayer. Here are my first impressions (keep in mind this is my personal opinion):

First of all, the maps have a greater variation in altitude than in any other Call of Duty game. I think this is a good thing. The flattest map is “Wasteland”. Which is probably the most hated map.

New in Modern Warefare 2 are Pro perks. If you use a perk enough you upgrade to the pro version of that perk. For example, with the Bling perk, you can get 2 attachments on your primary weapon. Get a certain number of kills with this perk equipped, and you unlock Bling Pro. With Bling Pro you can also get 2 attachments on your secondary weapon. Pro perks give you even more to work for in multiplayer.

There are many good “secret” spots on the maps. They are hard to get to, but rewarding when you finally reach your destination. For example, in the map “Highrise”, you can climb your way onto the roof of one of the bases that you spawn in. The route is out in the open, and you are likely to get killed while making the journey. However, if you manage to get on to the roof, you can see the entire map.

You now have the ability to customize your kill streak rewards. You can choose 3 rewards for your kill streaks. For example, maybe you want a Predator Missile, AC-130, and a Tactical Nuke. You can do that. Each reward has a fixed amount of kills that you have to get to use it. You get a Predator Missile at 5 kills, AC-130 at 11, and a Tactical Nuke at 25.

So there are many great new additions to the Call of Duty multiplayer. Here are some things that annoy me:

A new “attachment” to many small weapons is akimbo. Akimbo just means that you duel wield the weapon. This makes sense for weapons like a glock 18 or a .44 magnum. However, you also have the ability to duel wield double-barrel shotguns called Rangers, and Model 1887s. If someone has ever heard of someone running around with 2 double-barrel shotguns then correct me, however, I think this is extremely cheap. Shoot anywhere near the person you want to kill with the Rangers akimbo, and he is dead. The thing is… I haven’t unlocked the Ranger yet. I have used them when I picked them up from a dead enemy. They are very powerful and fun to use. I’m sure I will be singing a different tune once I have unlocked them.

Another attachment which bothers me. The grenade launcher, also known the “noob tube”. Point, click, and explode everyone. That’s how the noob tube works. Although it bothers me, it is just a part of a very fun game.

So there are many great new things about the new multiplayer. There are also some minor annoyances.

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All Systems Go!

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 03:00:06 GMT

We’re back online, and guess what? Tech Talk is fixed too!

Unscheduled Maintenance of WPS Blogs

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 02:32:23 GMT

Due to a problem recently found in WordPress, our blogging software for WPS Blogs, we are entering maintenance mode to add the necessary patches. This outage will last from 9:36 until 10:00. Unless the outage goes beyond this time, there will be no updates posted at http://status.cosmicthings.com. We are sorry for the inconvenience, and we hope that you enjoy your day. Any questions can be directed to jamie@cosmicthings.com.

Assassin’s Creed 2 Overview

Mark Gee — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:48:11 GMT

Assassin’s Creed 2 is a new game released by Ubisoft, a game publishing company. In this overview, I will highlight the key game points, as well as give some hints and tricks to get you achievements.

Key Game Points:

1. Assassin’s creed 2 is a third person over the shoulder 3d platformer, which means that you can see other things beside things in the direct line of sight.

2. This game is set in the 1400’s, and its fighting mechanics are based off of sword, dagger, and fist movements.

3. Your character is an assassin, which means that you mostly rely on stealth and blending into the crowd instead of killing every enemy you see.

4. This game uses a notoriety system, which means that if you kill people, then your wanted level will go up. To take your wanted level down, you remove wanted posters of yourself, or bribe heralds to stop spreading bad news about you.

Achievement tips and tricks.

1. In Memory of Petruccio. To get this achievement, you have to collect all of the feathers in this game. this might seem impossible, but on Achievement Hunter .com, they have a map for the entire game. This map works for all of the collection achievements. here is a link.

http://www.achievementhunter.com/games/guides/ac2/index.php

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Nancy Raskauskas, Administrator — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 00:46:33 GMT

Today, Sony Music and the Hendrix estate announced that there will be a new album released on March 9.

Tech Talk issues

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 21:46:02 GMT

The theme running Tech talk crashed. We were unable to resolve the issue and are switching themes. Please stay tuned for more information.

NY Times Tribute to Musicians who Passed in 2009

Nancy Raskauskas, Administrator — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 17:34:11 GMT

A Sound Collage Featuring A Sampling of The Musicians Who Died This Year

10 of the Best Places to Find Photoshop Brushes and Other Resources

Nancy Raskauskas, Administrator — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 22:06:49 GMT

Here is a list of 10 of the most fine and easiest to navigate sources for Photoshop CS4 Brushes.

All Systems Go!

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 05:24:45 GMT

We are running at full speed at this time. Stay tuned for any changes.

Remote Controled Cars

Halie Murray-Davis, Administrator — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:11:35 GMT

The Freie University of Berlin recently developed iDriver–application for iPhones that allows the user to control a specially adapted car. The commands are transmitted by Wi-Fi. Tilting the phone controls steering. There is also a camera that displays what the driver sees on the iPhone. What do you think will come of this technology in the future? Do you think it is safe for the world? What regulations, if any, need to be placed on technology like this.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Making A Dedicated Server for Garrysmod

Lane Spangler — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:27:25 GMT

The famous Dr. Hax. A resident of garrysmod.

In this tutorial I will tell you how to make a dedicated server for Garrysmod. Specifically a DarkRP server. DarkRP is a gamemode for gmod. I will include in the tutorial how to add classes, custom gun shipments, custom entities, and custom weapons in your server. Garrysmod is a mod for the Source engine which can be bought on Steam for $10. I highly recommend it. Please note that you must own any game that uses source engine in order to play it. The best thing to do is to buy Counter-Strike: Source from Steam because most servers use CS:S content and you will see quite a few errors without it. Here is what you need to run a gmod dedicated server:

An internet connection… It can’t be too horrible.

At least 2GB RAM and 1.0GHz Intel 2 Processor or equivalent.

Garrysmod

Windows XP or Vista- I have no idea weather this will work on 7 or how you would do it.

Ok. Now it’s time to do all of the preperations.

Download HLUpdatetool:

http://www.steampowered.com/download/hldsupdatetool.exe

Now Let’s do some preperation. First set up a static internal ip address.

1. Open the command prompt. To do this use the run accessory. On XP it is usually in the start menu but on vista you’ll need to go to Start-> Accessories-> Run

2. Type “cmd” (no quotation marks) and then hit enter.

3. Now in the command prompt, type “ipconfig/all”

4. Now you will need to write down some information. Find the connection

that you use. For me it is the Compact Wireless- G USB Network Adapter… (fail).

5. Write down the following numbers: IPv4 Address, Subnet Mask, Default Gateway, and DNS Servers. If both DNS servers are the same then you will only enter one.

6. Now go to Control Panel-> Network and Sharing Center-> Manage Network Connections

7. Now right click the connection that you use. Click Properties and then double-click Internet Protocol Version 4

8. Under the ip address type in the address you found for ipv4 address.

9. Now type in the Subent Mask and Default Gateway.

10. If both of your DNS servers appeared to be the same then only fill out the preferred DNS box.

Now you have a static ip address. Next we need to port forward. Go to port forward.com and find your router. For the application click “Steam Server”. The page will show you how to forward ports on your router. It will tell you to forward ports 27015 TCP and UDP. This is not completely correct. You will need to forward all of these ports:

UDP 1200 (Steam Friends Network)
UDP 27000 to 27015 (Gameport)
UDP 27020
TCP 27000 to 27050
TCP 27015 (SRCDS Rcon port)

Yes, there are a lot of ports. Just be patient and forward each one individually. Note: 27000 to 27050 means that you need to forward ports 27001, 27002, 27003, …, etc. Same for 27000 to 27015.

Once you have done all of this, you are done with the preperations!

Now we will download the content for your server.

1. Run HLDSupdatetool.exe

2. Click through the menu until you get to the install location. Install it somewhere on your C:// drive. Name it something along the lines of “My Dedicated Server”.

3. Go to the folder you installed to. Run the update tool. Be patient and wait for it to update to the latest version.

4. Now we need to download the files for our server. We will make some .bat files to do this. First create a new folder in your server folder called “Gameserver”. It is important that you stick with this name.

5. Now create a new notepad thing. Paste this code there:

hldsupdatetool -command update -game garrysmod -dir ./Gameserver -verify_all

6. Save it as “DownloadGmod.bat”. Note: make sure you replace the .txt file with .bat

7. Do the same thing with this code to download CS:S content. (Save it as DownloadCSS.bat)

@echo off
Echo Starting Counter-Strike Source Server download…
hldsupdatetool -command update -game “Counter-Strike Source” -dir ./Gameserver -verify_all

8. Run the Downloadgmod.bat to download garrysmod (HL2) content for your server.

9. Run the CSS batch file to download CS:S content.

10. The downloads take a whil, you should do something else while you wait.

11. One more thing before we get to server configuration: We need to move the CS:S files. Moving files manually is no fun, so lets make this .bat file. Save it as Movefiles.bat and then run the file.

Here’s the code:

@echo off
pause
echo Moving Counter-Strike Source
move .\Gameserver\cstrike .\Gameserver\orangebox
echo Done..

Great! Now we have all the content downloaded to your gameserver folder. Now lets make a bat to start your gameserver. You will need to modify the code to suit your needs. Name the file “start garrysmod.bat”

@echo off
cls
echo Protecting srcds from crashes…
echo If you want to close srcds and this script, close the srcds window and type Y depending on your language followed by Enter.
title srcds.com Watchdog
:srcds
echo (%time%) srcds started.
start /wait orangebox\srcds.exe -console -nocrashdialog -nohltv -game garrysmod -port 27015 +clientport 27005 +hostport 27015 +tv_port 27020 +ip “Your Static Internal IP Here” -maxplayers 10 +map gm_construct
echo (%time%) WARNING: srcds closed or crashed, restarting.
goto srcds

1. Where it says “your staic internal ip” enter the ip that you set up. If you forgot you can do ipconfig/all again. Example:+ip “192.168.1.52″. Replace gm_construct with the name of the map that you want. You can download maps from garrysmod.org and put them in your server map folder. Example: +map gm_construct

2. For max players, you will need to first find your upload speed. Go here to run a test:

http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/

3. Now go to your orangebox folder (in gameserver folder) then go to garrysmod-> garrysmod->cfg-> server.cfg

4. Open your server.cfg file. If it does not exist, create it.

Copy and paste this into your server.cfg file:

// Server.cfg Executes on maploads
// For Convars like sv_cheats 1 = on 0 = off

hostport 27015 //Port used for the Server

Hostname “YOUR SERVER NAME HERE” // host name
rcon_password “REMOTE CONSOLE PASSWORD HERE” // rcon password

sv_password “” //Server Password. Leave like this for no password.

//Voice Chat
sv_voiceenable 1 // Enable Voice
sv_alltalk 1 // Allow all the teams to talk to each other

// Lan
sv_lan 0 // Lol Lan

//Rates… Change the maxrate according to the tutorial. (Replace the xxx //with a number… lol
sv_maxcmdrate 33
sv_maxupdaterate 100
sv_maxrate xxx
sv_minrate 0
sv_minupdaterate 20

//Fall Damage, 1 for realistic, 0 for 10 hp
mp_falldamage 1

//How fast a Spray can be Sprayed, In seconds
decalfrequency 3

// LOGGING
sv_logbans 1
sv_stats 1
log 1 //Turn this off if you don’t like the logging in the console (L then some other stuff), logs are in garrysmod/logs

//Leave off unless you want them on. (Most things that crash servers are cheats.)
sv_cheats 0

//Downloading
sv_allowdownload 1
sv_allowupload 1
net_maxfilesize 64

sv_region 0
sv_timeout 65

//Make sure the Bans are loaded
exec banned_user.cfg

//Sandbox Command Config. Sets the limit of various things. You can //change it to fit your server.
sbox_maxprops 256
sbox_maxragdolls 0
sbox_maxvehicles 0
sbox_maxeffects 0
sbox_maxballoons 0
sbox_maxnpcs 0
sbox_maxdynamite 0
sbox_maxlamps 0
sbox_maxlights 10
sbox_maxwheels 4
sbox_maxthrusters 0
sbox_maxhoverballs 4
sbox_maxbuttons 50
sbox_maxemitters 0
sbox_maxspawners 0
sbox_maxturrets 0
sbox_godmode 1
sbox_plpldamage 1

//End

5. Ok. Now take your upload speed in kbs*128/ Maxplayers = sv_maxrate

Replace the xxx in the sv_maxrate command with the number you find. If your maxrate comes out below 5000 then you need to lower your maxplayers.

6. Name your server and configure the settings to your liking. Save the server.cfg

7. Back in the startgarrysmod.bat you will need to specify your max players. Make sure it works with the formula we used above. Go to your autoexec.cfg file. Paste thise code there:

// Autoexec.cfg Executes on server start (RUNS ONLY ONCE)
// If your not running garrysmod with this file put // in front of the rest of these.

sv_defaultgamemode DarkRP // Change the gamemode here
sv_gamemodeoverride DarkRP // And here

map gm_construct // Change starting map here

Change it to what you want

8. One last thing before starting your server: If you want to run it on the computer that you play on, you need to edit your local gmod files. Go to C:/ -> Program Files-> Steam-> steamapps-> yourusername-> garrysmod-> garrysmod-> cfg-> config.cfg

9. Open config.cfg

10. Add these lines:

hostport 27016

clientport 27006

tv_port 27021

11. Save it and open it back up to make sure the lines stayed there… I’ve had problems with those lines magically vanishing. You should check it before you start gmod every time.

12. Start Garrysmod.

13. Run your startgarrysmod.bat file.

14. Connect to your server in the LAN tab.

Yaaaaaay. If it worked and other people can connect, then you won! Read on for information for making a DarkRP server.

First navigate to your server garrysmod->garrysmod->addons folder. Create these folders:

PHX

WiremodCO

ULX

Ulib

Create a folder in garrysmod->garrysmod->gamemodes called DarkRP

Now download tortoise svn:

http://tortoisesvn.net/downloads

Restart your computer as the setup suggests.

Go back to your addons folder. Right click the PHX folder and click svn checkout. Copy and paste this link into the box.

https://phoenix-storms.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/phoenix-storms

Download the files. To update them, right click the folder and click svn update

Do the same thing for ULX and Ulib. Here are the svn links:

Ulib: http://ulyssesmod.net/ulib/trunk

ULX: http://ulyssesmod.net/ulx/trunk

Wiremod is different. Follow the instructions here to install it:

http://www.wiremod.com/forum/wiremod-general-chat/4-wiremod-svn-guide.html

Now go the DarkRP folder you made in gamemodes.

Do svn checkout with this link:

http://darkrp.googlecode.com/svn/trunk

Adding Classes in DarkRP

In the DarkRp gamemode folder open the shared.lua

For each new class use this code. Just fill in the values you want for your new class:

TEAM_YOURTEAMNAME = AddExtraTeam( “Your Team Name”, Color( 100, 50, 40, 255 ), ‘models/player/modelnamehere.mdl’, [[Your Description Here]], {“onestartingweaponhere”, “anotherweapon here”, “etc.”}, ‘textcommandtobecomethisclass’, Max players that can be this class. (replace all of this with a number), Salary, 0, Do you have to vote to become it? (1=yes 0=no),Has gun license(replace with true or false) )

Add as many classes as you want and save the shared.lua

You can add custom shipments and entities the same way. If you have managed to add your own classes succesfully, this will be very straightforward. Instructions are actually included in the .lua file.

Now you’re done. Add any addons you want to the folder that we put PHX, ULX, etc.

To make yourself superadmin on your own server, join the server. Go to the server console and type ulx adduser partofyournamehere superadmin

You can use the same method to make other people admin. Just do admin rather than superadmin.

Visit my garrysmod server at 72.84.151.59 or builddarkrp.game-server.cc

(Type “connect 72.84.151.59″ in your garrysmod console. no quotes. If you are new to gmod you will need to go to your advanced settings and enable developer console. You can then open it by pressing tilde)

My server is called [CA]BuildDarkRP by XxLanexX

I hope you have an easier time then I did setting up your server…

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Legos

Halie Murray-Davis, Administrator — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:49:09 GMT

A new age in Microsoft Surface had dawned with the introduction of Lumino. These are 3-D blocks that interact with touch screens. They have glass fiber bundles inside that allow the screen to recognize when they are stacked atop each other and differentiate between different blocks. The computer recognizes that they are 3-D and inputs that formatting into the computer. They can be also be used as physical dials for the screens. Watch the video to find out more.

What do you think the design implications for this technology are. Will it be helpful in future engineering and architecture? How will this be used and in what applications years from now?

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Welcome

Halie Murray-Davis, Administrator — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 17:41:26 GMT

As blogging begins in Integrated Tech. class, there will hopefully be many new users that aren’t familiar with Cosmic Realities. So first of all, welcome to the site. Cosmic Realities is dedicated to exploring the future of science and technology through the eyes of young people. We pose a scenario or new technology and want to know what you think of it. You can respond by posting a comment. How do you think it will affect the future? Will it have positive or negative implications for society? How will it improve, if it will, the lives of people. We want you to share any new ideas that you have about the technology. If you come up with a way that the technology can be improved or carried further, please share it. Also, we encourage you to feed off of other people’s ideas. Please don’t get into long protracted arguments with other users, as everyone has had different experiences and thus different beliefs. If you have any thing you want posted, please e-mail halie@cosmicthings.com. Have a good time on the sight, and feel free to post any ideas you have in a comment.

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amaccari on "record streaming audio"

amaccari — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 11:28:57 GMT

jamie your always so resourceful

Olympus Ad

Nancy Raskauskas, Administrator — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:40:47 GMT

Olympus Ad

Don’t Forget Creative Commons

Nancy Raskauskas, Administrator — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:36:09 GMT

For those of us not talented enough to make our own music for use in our presentations, videos and papers, don’t forget Creative Commons media which by it’s own definition: Creative Commons is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to making it easier for people to share and build upon the work of others, consistent with the rules [...]

Taylor Swift’s MTV Music Award Acceptance Interrupted by…

Nancy Raskauskas, Administrator — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 13:28:11 GMT

Who would ever interrupt Taylor Swift who is accepting an award for best video to tell everyone that Beyonce had a better video?

Blue Aura Wallpaper download (designed by: Kevin Clayland)

Kevin Clayland — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 18:31:34 GMT

Blue Aura Wallpaper I designed. Inspired by the hype of Snow Leopard. DOWNLOAD Enjoy! Report This Post

New Help Center Allows for Cosmic Things users to find help faster

admin — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 20:40:18 GMT

BERLIN, Maryland- Cosmic Networks, a network of social media applications designed for schools, has improved its help and support center to allow for quicker and more efficient support. Cosmic Networks has a new support ticket system at http://cosmicthings.com/helpdesk/, as well as an all new Knowledgebase at http://kb.cosmicthings.com. The Knowledgebase contains answers to common questions and step by step video tutorials to help users navigate the features of Cosmic Things products. If a user does not see a question on our site that they want answered in our database, they can ask the question and Cosmic Networks staff will answer it and add it to the site. The new redesigned system is already getting more traffic than the previous one. In addition to these features, Cosmic Things also now offers Live Help so that users can interact with Cosmic Networks staff instantly to solve their problems without the usual wait.

“Making things easy to use is what Cosmic Things is all about,” Jamie Welch, Head Network Administrator said. “Our goal is to provide a simple way for teachers and students to interact inside and outside the classroom. Our hope is that this new support system will help make Cosmic Things even better for teachers and students alike.”

# # #

More information on Cosmic Things is available at http://cosmicthings.com and their press site, http://press.cosmicthings.com. You can also contact info@cosmicthings.com for more information on this topic.

Tech Talk will be live on Wednesday, 8PM EST

admin — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 20:00:32 GMT

BERLIN, Maryland- On Wednesday, August 26 at 08:00pm EST we will host our first 15 minute long Tech Talk show. It will be broadcast live on this BlogTalkRadio page. Our main show page is where you can find all of our future and old episode archives is at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Cosmic-Things-Tech-Talk. Tune in live Wednesday night and listen to Nancy Raskauskas and Jamie Welch talk tech. If you have any comments or questions that you want on the air, call (317)-4-COSMIC and leave us a voicemail. We may put your call on the air. In the future, this show may feature live tech help via a call in system, or anything! For now, visit http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Cosmic-Things-Tech-Talk and check it out on Wednesday. We hope to see you there!

# # #

Contact info@cosmicthings.com for more information on this topic.

Bob Dylan- “Like A Complete Unknown”

Nancy Raskauskas, Administrator — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 19:11:45 GMT

I heard this great story on NPR and I just had to post it. Give a listen to this… Report This Post

Yarn-Country Rock For Everyone!

Nancy Raskauskas, Administrator — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 18:19:24 GMT

In my ever continuing quest for Country-Rock the way it’s “s’posed” to be, quite by accident I found Yarn, a Brooklyn (Yes, Brooklyn, New York)- based Alternative Country band . Last night, at the 8X10 Club in Baltimore, where we were to see headliner band New Riders of the Purple Sage, [...]

Welcome!

Nancy Raskauskas, Administrator — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 17:16:10 GMT

Cosmic Creations Design Inspiration Blog is a compendium of all things Graphically Inspiring from around the web-great things from some of the most awesome designer, tutorial and tip sites. Please feel free to send me links to your design accomplishments, tutorials or whatever you think will spark my reader’s interest in the world of design [...]

Akiane

Nancy Raskauskas, Administrator — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 20:16:46 GMT

I walked into a docot’s office the other day and there, right in front of me in the entrance taking up more than half of the wall space in this very small waiting room, was a huge portrait of Jesus. At first I thought to myself, what a strange place for an over sized [...]

Spinal Tap Is Back!

Nancy Raskauskas, Administrator — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 23:13:17 GMT

I know I am a few days late on this. I was listening to NPR and heard the blurb about the return of not just one of the “best bands of all time”, but a product of some of the comedic minds in the world. I have been lax this summer on posting due to [...]

RICE PADDY ART

Nancy Raskauskas, Administrator — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 16:41:05 GMT

Photo credit:http://karaponeyami.blog.so-net.ne.jp/2009-07-05 Pink Tentacle shows us some amazing rice paddy art in Japan, made by “strategically arranging and growing different colors of rice plants.” Pictured above is the depiction of a Sengoku-period warrior in the village of Inakadate. Report This Post

Local Venue-Bottle And Cork Upcoming Events

Nancy Raskauskas, Administrator — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 13:30:11 GMT

The Bottle and Cork in Dewey Beach has been in existence for over 70 years. It offers no-frills (no chairs, open air, tiki bar atmosphere, etc..) access to some of the most varied and popular bands and performers both local and world renowned. Here is the list of events for the remaining weeks in July to [...]

Robotic Weapons

ares — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 00:37:57 GMT

“With tensions high on the border, a new commander in Afghanistan, and complaints of civilian deaths from robotic US strikes in Pakistan raising anti-American sentiment, the Air Force is sketching out concepts for new robotic hitmen, reports Esquire.com. Among the new drones (which are all very small) are the Suburb Warrior (loaded with four or five mini missiles for semi-urban environments), the Sniper targeting system (“that can lock on to multiple targets, allowing a single drone pilot to coordinate the attacks of a squadron of robots”), and a backup fleet of flying buggies that act as suicide-bomber snipers. From the article: ‘Picking through the dozens of systems in this briefing, many of which will be flight-tested within five years, there’s a clear set of goals: build smaller, even microscopic drones with smaller weapons that can hunt in swarms and engage targets in the close quarters of urban battlefields. And hunt as soon as possible.’”

This post was taken from <http://slashdot.org/> and posted on the site by mattnyc99.
The photos were taken from <http://www.esquire.com/the-side/feature/new-air-force-drones-in-pakistan-061709>

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Food Pills

Halie Murray-Davis, Administrator — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 17:44:21 GMT

Rsanwal came up with a cool idea for a blended reality. She thinks that pills could be developedthat contain all the same nutrients and such needed for life that are normally obtained from food. These would be easily mass produced and used in under served areas where actual food is too costly.

How do you think it could be made better? What other applications for this technology can you imagine? How could it benefit human kind? To what extent do you think it can safely be used? How will this idea be carried out?

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PhonePoint App Will Let You Write in Thin Air

Nancy Raskauskas, Administrator — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 20:39:02 GMT

Writing in air not pie in the sky
June 10th, 2009

It’s a familiar scene in airports and train stations. Hands full with luggage, briefcase, laptop or coat and there’s something you need to remember, like the level and row numbers where you parked your car in the deck. What do you do?

Instead of relying on your memory, or finding a place to put all your stuff down to find a pen and paper, wouldn’t it be so convenient to simply write “level 4, row H” in the air and be able to retrieve it later?

Engineering students at Duke University have taken advantage of the accelerometers in emerging cell phones to create an application that permits users to write short notes in the air with their phone, and have that message automatically sent to an e-mail address.

Accelerometers are the devices in phones that not only keep track of the phone’s movements, but make it possible for the display screens to rotate from landscape to portrait modes depending on how the phone is rotated. These devices are always “on,” so there is no additional burden on the phone to use this new application.

“We developed an application that uses the built-in accelerometers in cell phones to recognize human writing,” said Sandip Agrawal, electrical and computer engineering senior at Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering, who with Duke graduate student Ionut Constandache developed the PhonePoint Pen. “By holding the phone like a pen, you can write short messages or draw simple diagrams in the air.

“The accelerometer converts the gestures to images, which can be sent to any e-mail address for future reference,” Constandache said. “Also, say you’re in a class and there is an interesting slide on the screen. We foresee being able to take a photo of the slide and write a quick note on it for future reference. The potential uses are practically limitless. That this prototype works validates the feasibility of such a pen.”

Agrawal, a Pratt Engineering Undergraduate Fellow, received the inaugural Hoffman + Krippner Award for Excellence in Student Engineering for the development of the PhonePoint Pen application. The award, created by the German technology firm Hoffman + Krippner, was presented Tuesday, June 9 during the 2009 Sensors Expo and Conference in Chicago.

While this first generation application permits the writing of short messages or simple drawings, it is only a matter of time before this prototype system will be able to handle larger and more complex air-writing capabilities, according to Agrawal’s mentor, Romit Roy Choudhury, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering.

This comes from physorg.com and FastCompany.com

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Get Your Custom Avatar

Jamie Welch, Network Administrator — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 23:00:23 GMT

If you’ve ever posted a comment you’ve probably noticed that your avatars look something like this:

These are automatically generated depending on your email address. Maybe you want something a bit more personal, like this:

Well, it’s really easy to do, and I’ll show you how in the video tutorial below. If you have any questions, you may contact support here.

You can also view this in a new window.

Purple Aura Wallpaper – Download (designed by: Kevin Clayland)

Kevin Clayland — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 13:11:25 GMT

Aura Wallpaper I designed. Inspired by the hype of Snow Leopard by Apple yesterday. DOWNLOAD Hope you like! Report This Post

YouTube – Rock Band: The Beatles Official Game Trailer

Nancy Raskauskas, Administrator — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 12:29:50 GMT

In Los Angeles at the E3 Expo video game conference, Ringo Star, Paul McCartney and John Lennon’s and George Harrison’s widows announced details of their coming video game, The Beatles: Rock Band. It was also announced that The Beatles: Rock Band, which will be released on Sept. 9 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii [...]

spray paint art.wmv

Nancy Raskauskas, Administrator — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 13:39:09 GMT

Watch this awesome spray paint artist that seems to be producing chaos but turns out an awesome sci-fi painting. more about "spray paint art.wmv", posted with vodpod Report This Post

Loz Verney Video-6 weeks of work in 6 minutes

Nancy Raskauskas, Administrator — Tue, 26 May 2009 01:35:12 GMT

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Ocean Blur – Wallpapers download (made by Kevin Clayland)

cespieker — Wed, 20 May 2009 21:09:31 GMT

I have recently created a Wallpaper set that I would like to share. created by using the motion blur options in Photoshop. Preview: To download: 1.) Click this Link 2.) Click on the Download button on the left side next to the picture 3.) Wait for download to finish, Unzip the file and there you go! I hope you enjoy! Report This [...]

What do you think?

Halie Murray-Davis, Administrator — Mon, 18 May 2009 14:46:43 GMT

We’re asking you-what do you you think the future holds for blended realities. What technologies and devices will result from blended realities? What kind of blended realities will you be using in twenty years. What do you see for the future?

Please watch the videos before you post. Also, no forecast wars. And keep all comments appropriate. I want no flaming, fanboys, or trolls, or else the ban hammer’s gonna fall.

Happy posting!

What will the future hold?

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Example Video

ares — Tue, 12 May 2009 21:14:51 GMT

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Welcome to Cosmic Realities

ares — Tue, 12 May 2009 21:10:31 GMT

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Jamie Welch, Network Administrator on "record streaming audio"

Jamie Welch, Network Administrator — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 20:09:18 GMT

I use DVDVideoSoft You tube to mp3 converter on Windows. Find it at here and the main download page here.

zharman4 on "record streaming audio"

zharman4 — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 18:54:27 GMT

how do i get the music from this video on my computer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPKzoJ6nOFE

cdorey on "Hi"

cdorey — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 19:30:42 GMT

hi, Thank you Claire for helping me change my picture! U R a lifesaver! I love giraffes! -Carolyn

cdorey on "Hi"

cdorey — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 19:27:46 GMT

test

cdorey on "Hi"

cdorey — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 18:58:47 GMT

Does anyone know how to get rid of my stupid alien picture? -Carolyn

cdorey on "Hi"

cdorey — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 18:56:58 GMT

Thank you Carolyn for the wonderful blog. It is amazing! -Carolyn

cdorey on "Hi"

cdorey — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 18:53:27 GMT

Hello to the world. I am trying this out and looking for any of my friends. -Carolyn

New File Space Announcement

Jamie Welch, Network Administrator — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 00:13:38 GMT

Before, you could only upload 2MB of data at a time. Now, we are happy to annnouce that you can upload 1 gigabyte of data at one time and you have 5 GB of standard file storage space. If your blog ends up needing more, Jamie Welch or Ms R. Would be great to talk to. If you have any problems, just click Support along the top of the page. Soon we will have live support chat where Ms R. and the other team members can solve your problems live! Thanks for your continued support of WPS Blogs!

Sincerely,

Jamie Welch

Network Administrator

WPS Blogs to Allow More Storage Space

admin — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 19:51:14 GMT

BERLIN, Maryland – Before, you could only upload 2MB of data at a time. Now, we are happy to annnouce that you can upload 1 gigabyte of data at one time and you have 5 GB of standard file storage space. If your blog ends up needing more, Jamie Welch or Ms R. Would be great to talk to. If you have any problems, just click Support along the top of the page. Soon we will have live support chat where Ms R. and the other team members can solve your problems live! Thanks for your continued support of WPS Blogs!

# # #

Contact info@cosmicthings.com for more information on this topic.

Jamie Welch, Network Administrator on "Can't post here?"

Jamie Welch, Network Administrator — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 16:44:18 GMT

You need an account from http://cosmicthings.com/wpsblogs/wp-signup.php to access these forums.

Ten ways to use your WPS Blog for teaching

Jamie Welch, Network Administrator — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 23:22:55 GMT

There are many ways you can use a blog in your teaching, here are ten to get you started:

1. Post materials and resources

The web is a fantastic tool when it comes to distributing resources – all you have to do on your blog is upload, or copy and paste, your materials to your blog and they’ll be instantly accessible by your student from school and from home. What’s more, you can easily manage who gets to access them through password and plugin safety measures.

2. Host online discussions

If you’ve ever struggled to create an online discussion space – you’re going to love what WPS blogs will do for you. Students can simply respond to blog posts and discuss topics you’ve set them through comments of through our simple forum functionality – commentators can also sign up to receive emails when their comments are replied to and you can easily manage and edit all responses through your blog’s administrative panel.

3. Create a class publication

Do you remember the good old days of class newspapers? Well, they just got a lot easier with your blog – you can add students as contributors, authors and even editors in order to produce a custom designed, finely tuned and engaging collaborative online publication by your class.

4. Replace your newsletter

Always enjoyed photocopying and stapling pages and pages of newsletters on a Friday afternoon? Thought not! It’s ridiculously simple to post class information, news, events and more on your blog

5. Get your students blogging

It’s all very good sending your students off to blog sites, or even creating them for them, but you need to operate as a hub for their work and a place where they can easily visit each others blogs from. Your blog can be used to glue together your students blogs, and besides which, if you’re asking your students to blog… you should certainly be doing it yourself.

6. Share your lesson plans

We all love planning and admin, right? Well, using a blog can turn planning and reflection on classes into a genuinely productive – and even collaborative – experience. Sharing your plans, your reflections, your ideas and your fears with other educators both at your school and around the world using an edublog is a great way to develop as a teacher, and a brilliant use of a blog.

7. Integrate multimedia of all descriptions

With a couple of clicks you can embed online video, multimedia presentations, slideshows and more into your blog and mix it up with your text and static resources. No cds required, no coding necessary – just select the video, podcasts or slidecast you’d like to use and whack it in your blog to illustrate, engage and improve your teaching toolbox.

8. Organise, organise, organise

You don’t only have to use your blog as a pedagogue… you can equally easily use the tools to organise everything from sports teams in your school, to rehearsals for the upcoming production. You can set up as many blogs as you like, (approval required) so don’t be afraid to use a dedicated one for a dedicated event – your can even use it as a record to look back on down the line.

9. Get feedback

There’s nothing that says you can’t allow anonymous commenting on a blog (although you’re also entirely within your rights to put all comments through moderation!) but why not think about using a blog as a place for students – and even parents, to air issues, leave feedback or generally tell you how great you are.

10. Create a fully functional website

One of the great things about blogs are that they are much, much more than just blogging tools. In fact, you can use your blog to create a multi-layered, in-depth, multimedia rich website – that hardly looks like a blog at all. So, if you’d rather create a set of static content, archive of important information or even index for your library – you can bend an Edublog to suit your needs.

Jamie Welch, Network Administrator on "Rules For The Network"

Jamie Welch, Network Administrator — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 19:54:41 GMT

For more information, see this page for our full Terms of service: http://cosmicthings.com/wpsblogs/terms-of-service/

New video tutorials and Knowledgebase

Jamie Welch, Network Administrator — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 21:18:01 GMT

We have a new section of our support center called the Knowledgebase (KB). There we have answers to common questions, video tutorials, etc. Now you can get answers to common questions faster than you would submitting a ticket. You could either go to the main support site and go to the knowledgebase section towards the bottom of the page and clicking View entire Knowledgebase or go there directly by clicking here: View entire Knowledgebase. There is new tutorials button along the top of the page to go directly to the WordPress tutorials, which are availible in HD.

Thanks for choosing Worcester Preparatory School Blogs- Blogging to Empower the Future of Students.

Have a great day!

Sincerely,

Jamie Welch

Blog Network Administrator

Support Tickets

Jamie Welch, Network Administrator — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 20:41:13 GMT

You can now create support tickets and either Ms. R or me will work to resolve the problem that you might have. Just click Support along the top of the main blog. When it takes you to the page click Submit a support ticket. Fill out the information on the form and click Submit Ticket. you will receive email notification of ticket creation and ticket responses. When you submit a ticket please state the problem fully so we can better assist you with your problem.

Thanks for using Worcester Preparatory School Blogs- Blogging to Empower the Future of Students.

Sincerely,

Jamie Welch

Blog Network Administrator

Forum Created

Jamie Welch, Network Administrator — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 01:41:04 GMT

If you have been looking at the blog lately, you see that we now have a new link at the top- Site Forum. If you click that link, you can access our forums. There is a section just to post some random chat, there is a section for Support, and there are more sections such as a Feature Request section and others.

When you sign up for an account on our blog, you are automatically signed up on our forums. If you are logged into Wordpress, you can post on the forum. Any logged in user can post in any forum except the Rules and the News sections. In the news section you can only reply to posts the Administrators make. In Rules you cannot post at all. Thanks for keeping tuned on our growing development of this website.

Thanks,

Jamie Welch

Network Administrator

Welcome to Our Network!

Jamie Welch, Network Administrator — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 18:54:01 GMT

The creation of this site is complete and registration is now open. Please stay tuned for more updates on expected downtime, upgrades, etc. If you should encounter any problems with the site please email admin@cosmicthings.com ASAP.

Thanks for creating with Worcester Preparatory School Blogs- Blogging to Empower the Future of Students.

Jamie Welch

Blog Network Administrator