From: T L Burton
Subject: Shame on you

I know you see the link with the hackers and idgames.com as newsworthy but to post the link is to glorify and reward the hackers. You are giving them the recognition that they desperately seek.

Torqued.

You've got a valid point, no question about it, and while I don't approve of website defacing, I stand by my choice for LOTD. If we can't laugh at stupid criminals (which comprise a great deal of the links of the day) who can we laugh at?

From: Micah Leiff Nutt
Subject: Sluggish response

I've been a long time Blue's News reader but the pages load so painfully
slow, if at all in completion, now days that I'm afraid I don't have the time or patience to wait the several minutes required to load a page. I've got DSL but I might as well be 300 baud or a teletype for bluesnews.com.

Dudeman

I wish I could help you, but all I can say is that we're trying our best to address the issue. Hang in there.

From: Brian D. Boyers
Subject: Mozilla

Hey, are you aware that Mozilla doesn't display your site correctly. All that is shows is the banner ad at the top of the page. Your site is currently the only site that doesn't work for me in Mozilla, and keeping me from using Mozilla on a full time basis.

Thanks,
Brian Boyers

Huh. Which version of Mozilla are you using? Since I haven't seen a compiled version of the released source code, I can only imagine that it's isolated to that particular version. The site runs perfectly in literally every other browser, from Internet Explorer and Netscape all the way to Mosaic, Lynx, and Opera.

From: Keith Jones
Subject: what kind of server

what kind of server is bluesnews running on, linux/apache etc?

We are indeed running on a Linux based system, I believe it's Red Hat 6. If we weren't I doubt we'd be as (relatively) stable as we are. :)

From: Brendan
Subject: The Tech Zone...?

Does anyone know what happened to a site called the "Tech Zone" which was run by a guy named Kraemer (i think) and on the site it had a jpg that said Tech Zone in big green neon letters?

Brendan

Got me...anyone know?

From: James Boswell
Subject: re: Mailbag...

/*
>From: theAntiELVIS
>Subject: The little number at the bottom is obviously....
<snip>

>Size of Hilary Clinton's cervix when fully dilated. In feet.
/*
Am I the only person that finds that sentence to be highly disturbing?

- James Boswell

I think it's a safe assumption that you're not exactly alone there. :)

From: Alexander, James
Subject: Response to Huh? or We don't take no shit from a machine!

I have found that the Bots with a preference for the Rail absolutely do not miss on the Hardcore difficulty. I spent about 4 hours getting my ass
handed to me by Anaki on this difficulty. However, you can think of this as a "rule" of the game at this level and factor it into your strategy. The Rail makes noise, shoot at it or hide. In Xaero's case, hide until you hear it then shoot at it. Most importantly, NEVER GIVE UP! Remember, "...we don't take no shit from a machine!"

-Number 6

Preach on, brother.

From: Rob Medlock
Subject: Smiley Flak Shells

If you're desperate to see the smiley, get someone in a network game, set 'slomo 0.2' and get them to fire a shell at you. Smiley :)

Cheers
Rob Medlock

From: <name removed>
Subject: FYI

I just thought someone might be interested with my experience with the new nVidia detonator drivers (posted 1/13). I am running on a 550 MHz PIII w/ an nVidia TNT2 Ultra AGP and recently ran tests on Q3ADemo001 and here are my comparisons:

old drivers: fastest-22.4 sec/60.1 fps; fast-25.0 sec/53.9 fps; normal-25.4 sec/53.0 fps; highest 29.1 sec/46.2 fps

new drivers: fastest-22.3 sec/60.2 fps; fast-24.9 sec/54.0 fps; normal 25.4 sec/53.0 fps; highest-29.8 sec/45.1 fps

All tests were done multiple times to insure the results were the same. I found this surprising because of the somewhat large decrease in performance at the highest setting.

Sorry if this was a waste of your time,
<name removed>

From: Fredrickson, Kit
Subject: (,) |_|/\|<3 15 |\|0+ y0|_|r fr13|\|d

That's really all we got. :)

From: Sam Rhodus
Subject: A trivial 'glitch'? on the site

Blue,

While droning for a compile to finish I was...tinkering...on your site. If you right mouse click on one of the links on the left side of the page then select properties you get a pop up dialog for the link. Select OK (or cancel for that matter). Now you have the menu item you selected in red. You can move the mouse over other menu items and the previous menu item stays ref. Hmm... you may be saying. If you click around on the main body of text, it stays red. If you click in the general area of the links on the left, it goes back to its original yellow. Also, of course, following a link restores its state. I'm in IE 5.whatever. I know this is trivial and moot. Even frivolous, but hey, I'm here still at work (since 7am CST) and I'm going insane. Share in it.

Lupus

From: Omnibus
Subject: QuakeWorld Revitalization Project...

I'd just like to bring up a small issue with this project. Has anyone noticed that their project is a violation of the GPL that Quake was released under? The issue is the fact that their proxy is closed source, and linked in to the Quake source. The GPL prohibits this. They *can* work around it by creating a completely separate proxy system, similar to Qizmo.

I hate to sound like a flamer or anything of the sort, but this kind of violation of the GPL is not a good thing, and people *should* know of it. I have corresponded with RMS (Richard M Stallman) of the Free Software Foundation, and he agrees that the project as it stands is a clear violation of the GPL.

I feel that this needs to be brought up, there has been corespondence
that I know of with the QuakeLives project members, and their general
reply is that they won't release the source to anyone but id software.

This message is just a heads up, please don't post my name or address in relation to this.

<name removed>

Here is the relevant email from RMS:

Subject: Re: GPL
Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2000 00:31:32 -0700 (MST)
From: Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>
To: xxxx@xxxxxxxxxx.net
CC: gnu@gnu.org
References: 1

Can this source be linked with closed source libraries, specifically, dynamically linked?

We don't use the terms "closed source" or "open source"--those are the terms used by the Open Source Movement. We have no connection with that, we're in the Free Software movement. See http://www.gnu.org/server/fsf-html-style-sheet.html for an explanation of the difference and why it is important.

But if you mean non-free libraries, then in general the answer is that the GPL does not permit this. The copyright holders of Quake can give permission for it as a special exception, if they want to.

The delimma is with the Quake Lives project, which proposes creating closed sourced proxies for the Quake server/client, which would be linked in with the Quake source.

By making these proxies non-free, you would be taking advantage of the free software community, without contributing it. That is not good conduct. I would have to urge ask the Quake developers not to give
permission for this.

From: redteires
Subject: Netscape and downloading .pk3's

Hi

I have come across a problem which may or may not have been addressed. I have tried to download .pk3's for the new mods for Q3. I am using the browser Netscape. When the url is http://www.example.com/example.pk3 Netscape displays the code but does not download the file. Now most would simply press shift when they clicked on link but I have found this does not work. Although it allows the user to download the file, when downloaded it is in a corrupted form. Most importantly the .bmp is missing which we can all agree on is a crucial peice of code.

IE does not have this problem but for many die hard Netscape users, using IE is less acceptable as selling there kids into slavery (or something to that nature :) ). I have found that putting the .pk3 in a zip file remedies this problem. Now it is up to the mod makers to post it in zip file. In ending, this could just be my computer, or you may have addressed this issue already. If you include this in the mailbag you do not have to respond to me with an answer but if you could tell me when the letter would be publish (if it is) would be helpful. If you could reply to this letter that would be helpful as well.

Thank you.
ReD - Teiresias

From: Richard Powell
Subject: Defunct Shogo Transformers mod

I caught the little mailbag snippet about that Transformers Shogo mod. Well, it WAS a fact, as this site can attest:

http://members.xoom.com/tfwar/

But, as the main news blurb on the site says, it was apparently shut down many months ago. Ah well, it would have been cool.

-Richard Powell

From: theAntiELVIS
Subject: Time Warner

And, lest we forget, TW is also the company that destroyed Atari....

-theAntiELVIS-

Not to mention they almost killed DC Comics. (and lord knows they destroyed the Batman franchise).

From: Michael Conger
Subject: the counter

You seen to still be looking for reasons behind the counter on the main page, so here goes:

I'm not real sure if it's correct, I haven't been into New York City in a while to see what the original Billboard is up to, but could it possibly be the US National Debt?????

Dragonne

From: Felix Dominguez
Subject: Numbers Numbers Numbers

...sleepy and dillusional...

Assumptions:
1. Clocks are both insync (no not that fairy band)
2. its actually counting seconds

Conclusion.. on 11-28-97 @ 6:30pm the server started having problems.

(according to the etc. that day)

----cut/paste-------

etc.There have been problems with the server here all morning, sorry about that... Similarly, sCary is still having problems with his server, and the
Shuga' Shack should be back to normal this evening some time (too bad he's not an Internet Sysop anymore.) ... Final Arena, the final edition of Rocket Arena for Quake (with, of course, Quake II versions on the horizon) will include 20-30 maps, and they will be taking map submissions until December 5. Details on creating and submitting Rocket Arena maps can be found here. Further questions can go to NiOXiN ... I mistakenly said there was a new Dear Mynx earlier, and that's a mistake, according to PlanetQuake she's on a brief vacation advice about love and grand issues. (Thanks Dave Lister.LagLL for straightening me out) ... After a few technical difficulties after changing servers, Lt.Dan's Single Player Quake is up to speed again, with all past and current level ratings functioning properly... You can use the Quake Console as your Windows desktop, there is a version at about any resolution you want (except the oddball 1152x864 I use) on this page, created by HappyEvil's House Of Fun ... There's a funny, if stereotypical image up on the Quake Easel, a tribute to Canadian Quake players ...

----------------------

also in sports that day courtesy of espn
Indiana 94, Chicago 83 (jordon was 4 for 8 at the line)
Dallas 93, Toronto 91
Houston 98, Portland 89
Utah 111, Golden State 82

Thats about it.......................
goodnite err good afternood

Felix The CaT

From: Chris Bennett
Subject: number

number of megabytes the bluesnews server has sent

From: Phil Inglis
Subject: What is the timer?

Number of bytes uploaded by bluesnews

Aries

From: P L
Subject: The Counter

I have a few ideas as to what the counter at the bottom of the page might be...

Number of sec. since Blue got hitched.

The age of Blue Jr. in sec.

Now if you do some fancy math you can get 200 days, or about the time since the birds hatched or left Blue's window.

Number of games of Quake(1, 2, and 3) the people at the Blue Tower have played.

The estimated amount of times Win95, 98, or NT has crashed per user.

The number of porn sites on the net. YEA BABY.

Flesh

From: Samuel Shults
Subject: Large Number Answer

I've probably sent this to the wrong spot, but I'm thinking it's the count-up for the 2 year anniversary of the release of the Quake II demo.

Sam

From: Deron deFreese
Subject: Counter on the page

Ok I know what the counter is. Its the time it takes for the brain fart of the server's stecnh to dissapate and actually display the entire page to us readers. I think the counter is hooked up to some nuclear power clock somewhere so it does keep accurate stench dissapation time.

Deron "Freezer" deFreese

Welll, ewwww.

From: Scott Ames
Subject: That number at the bottom of the page.

Okay! I've got a guess!

It must be the number of people that submitted wrong answers to this enigmatic question of the ages!

Add 1 to that number.. ;)

That's not it, but at this point, it's pretty damn close. :)