256 Players in MAG FPS, How?

Sony just announced a new game for the Playstation 3 called MAG (Massive Action Game). it supports FPS action for up to 256 players per server. How can they fit 256 players in one (1) server? How can you avoid the lag and still provide a fast paced action first-person shooter? How is that even possible?

Easy.. most FPS games offer 32-player multilayer. So to increase that number to 256, you divide the players into 32 teams of 8 players. now each team (or squad) of players communicate directly with their leader who relays that communication to the main server. Same thing happens when the server talks to the player, through the squad leader. Therefore, the server will only communicate with 32 players but manages to run a smooth game for up to 256.

This is very smart coming from Sony, and I'd like to see how they'll implement it in the game.

Internet Speak, Shorthands, and Acronyms

These are some common shorthands and acronyms used in the web, email, and instant messengers like MSN. I quoted this list from Answers.com. This is most useful reference for when you receive such acronyms in an online conversation.

AFAIK As far as I know.
AFK Away from keyboard.
ATM At the moment.
AWGTHTGTTA Are we going to have to go through this again.
AYT Are you there.
BBL Be back later.
BFN Bye for now.
BRB Be right back.
BTDT Been there, done that.
BTW By the way.
CUL See you later.
DETI Don't even think it.
DQMOT Don't quote me on this.
EBCAK Error between chair and keyboard.
EBKAC Error between keyboard and chair.
F2F Face to face.
FOAF Friend of a friend.
FWIW For what it's worth.
FYI For your information.
GAL Get a life.
GD&R Grinning, ducking and running.
GMTA Great minds think alike.
HB Hurry back.
HHOK Ha, ha, only kidding.
IANAL I am not a laywer, but...
IAW In accordance with.
IMCO In my considered opinion.
IMHO In my humble opinion.
IMO In my opinion.
IOW In other words.
JK Just kidding.
JOOTT Just one of those things.
KK Okay, all right.
LMAO Laughing my a** off.
LOL Lots of luck.
LYLAS Love ya like a sister.
MWA A kiss (the sound of "mwa.")
MYOB Mind your own business.
N2M Not too much.
NIH Not invented/invited here.
OIC Oh, I see.
OTOH On the other hand.
OTP On the phone.
PAL Parents are listening.
PEBCAK Problem exists between chair and keyboard.
PEBKAC Problem exists between keyboard and chair.
PIR Parents in room.
PLBCAK Problem lies between chair and keyboard.
PLBKAC Problem lies between keyboard and chair.
PMJI Pardon my jumping in.
PTG&LI Playing the game and loving it.
RL Real life.
ROFL Rolling on the floor laughing.
STFU Shut the f*** up!
SUP What's up?
TANSTAAFL There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.
TIA Thanks in advance.
TTFN Ta, ta for now (goodbye).
TTT Thought that too.
TTYL Talk to you later.
TU Thank you.
TY Thank you.
WFM Works for me.
YT You there?

ASUS B51, Now That's One Tough Laptop

The rugged ASUS B51 notebook computer can survive being run over by a car! Now that is the way these things aught to be built. Other laptop makers, please observe and copy.

My Bookmarks Toolbar

I just wanted to share with you my bookmarks toolbar. It shows my bookmarks as icons without text. I find this as a good way to save space and show as many bookmarks as possible in a single row. Click on the picture below to enlarge it.

To hide the text you need to right-click on the bookmark and delete the name. This works great in Firefox.

Fireofx Mobile Beta 0.4 (Fennec) Released

Firefox is the web browser of choice for the PC. But for the mobile phone, you can use Fennec, Firefox's mobile cousin. The released version 0.4 is now available for the Nokia N810 and N800 only. But a debian package is going to be available next week.

Check out the proposed user interface for Fennec

Nokia Buys Symbian, Makes it Open Source

Now we have two open source mobile platforms under development, Android and Symbian. This is huge news for mobile phone owners because in few years, the majority of mobile phones will be based on open software, which are in most cases free or incredibily cheap.

More info at RRW

Warhammer Online Videos

Speaking of Warhammer Online, warhammeronline.tv is the best video site out there for all things W.A.R. Check it out.

Warhammer Online Coming Along Nicely

Its been a long wait since I stopped playing Dark Age of Camelot. Now, I'm waiting for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. It looks good, can't wait to play it.

Check out this video with some new game play footage.

Firefox 3 Zoom Tips

In celebration of Firefox 3 release yesterday, Here are a few tips to make the most out of the new zoom feature of your web browser:

• Hold down Ctrl and + to zoom in and - to zoom out. Hold down Ctrl and 0 (Zero) to reset the zoom back to the default setting.
• Use No Squint extension if you wish to zoom all websites to a specific zoom level. For example, if you wish to enlarge all sites 150% of their default text size.
• Make sure you know the difference between Full Page Zoom and Text-Only Zoom.

If you are not using Firefox 3 yet, what are you waiting for?

iPhone: Good News and Bad News

OK, so I'm finally sold on the iPhone 3G. Excellent mobile phone with all the features that I need; from "exchange push email" to 3G (3.5G actually) and wifi. And the upcoming Mobile Firefox, where I think Mozilla is heavely concentrating on the iPhone platform (most builds are shown on a large portrait touch screen, its obvious).

The bad news:

1. No MMS, copy paste, or video out of the box
2. $199 price is only for in-store activated phones. Which means you can't buy one and exit the store without commiting to a 2 year plan. No clue how much it will cost without activation, if they will sell it without activation.
   

To remedy the first problem you have to jailbreak (unlock) the iPhone, if you can get your hand on one, which is the second problem.

My New Project: Simple Site for Kuwait Stocks

If you ever get confused by the official site for the Kuwait Stock Exchange, you're in luck. My new project KSE Fast (ksefast.com) should provide you with a simple and fast interface to check your stocks. it works great in mobile phone browsers as well.

give it a try and tell me what you think.

Install remastersys in Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Haron

If you want to make an image of your current Linux machine, use remastersys as follows:

1. Add "deb http://www.remastersys.klikit-linux.com/repository remastersys/" (without the quotes) to /etc/apt/sources.list
2. sudo apt-get update
3. sudo apt-get install remastersys
4. sudo remastersys backup custom.iso
5. burn the iso image to a CD.
   

An Hour to Install Windows Vista SP1?

What kind of a patch takes over an hour to install? This is more like windows vista 2.0 upgrade if you ask me. I'll "upgrade" and see how vista service pack 1 fares.

(Click on the image to view)

Ubuntu Linux 8.04 Released

The new Ubuntu Hadry Haron was just released, on-time as usual. If you already have Ubuntu 7.10 or 7.04 you can update it via Update Manager or just download the iso image and burn your own disk.

For a full list of new features, check out the official Ubuntu website.

The Orange Box Soundtrack Free

I just downloaded Audiosurf demo through Steam. And it came with the full soundtrack of The Orange Box in MP3. The game is 300MB and 60% of that is the size of the soundtrack only!!

The game was bad so I deleted it. However, the MP3s went straight to my iPod. There are 94 songs arranged in folders spanning all music from the original Half-Life, Half-Life 2, episode 1, episode 2, Team Fortress 2, and Portal. It even includes Still Alive.

What are you waiting for? Download Audiosurf demo and copy the soundtrack.