ianc

That reminds me of an interesting story regarding the term 'Tommy' that I read recently. My aged fragile mind has blurred the details slightly, but apparently it was something like this: The British army (sometime shortly after Waterloo) was writing some sort of documentation and needed a name for the average British private soldier as an example name to fill in blanks. This came to the Duke of Wellington's attention and he thought back to his very first command, which contained a huge private by the name of Tommy Atkins. Apparently Tommy was mortally wounded in front of the Duke and died more or less in his arms, saying it was 'all in a day's work Milor' or some such. Wellington wanted to honor him, and thus the name 'Tommy' for the British private soldier was born. Any others? I love etymology... ianc

I don't have an official response for you, but I'd like to compliment you on your English, for it is certainly mighty fine. Good luck and take care, ianc

Dear users, All right, maybe I should let sleeping dogs lie, but I've had a couple of beers and am feeling a bit ornery. Every reference to Windows I've read thus far has always referenced 'The Evil Bill Gates' in some way or other. That would be fine if we were carrying on a discussion of Microsoft's business practices, etc. Some of these are abominable I'll grant, but believe it or not, ol' Bill has done some good things. I want to say that he's probably done more to bring this country into the computing age than any man alive. Did you also read the last issue of Newsweek where he's set up a foundation to give 24 billion dollars away for the benefit of health services and children in third world countries? That factoid is ultimately as irrelevant as any other about Bill in this argument. The subject under debate is operating systems. Bill's business practices have absolutely no bearing here whatsoever, any more than whether Ferry Porsche's sexual inclinations might sway me from buying that new 911. UNIX, Linux, Mac, Windows: all are good OS's, and have their advantages and disadvantages. For myself, I prefer Windows, but I don't bear any ill will towards people that prefer others, nor would I think of deriding them for their choices. What I don't like is to hear Windows OS's and the people that use them denigrated because of the political leanings of the users of other OS's. I don't like the elitist attitudes displayed here. Can't you be content to use what you like and leave others to do the same? If the only reason you can think of to bash Windows or not use it is because of MS's marketing practices, then you're deluding yourself and not really contributing anything useful. The debate started here was whether a Linux port would be economically feasible. Who knows? Only Charles probably, since only he knows what's necessary in porting the app over. At present he doesn't seem to think it's worthwhile, but in time that may change. In the meantime, how about a little tolerance, eh? Thanks, ianc

Hi Mom!

OK. It was well spoken, but we'll just agree to disagree on this one. Take care, ianc

Brian, Sorry to disagree with you, but it just ain't so I'm afraid. Until they were ultimately replaced by PIX boxes when my company was acquired by Autodesk, I ran four Checkpoint FW1 boxes on NT4 and Compaq servers in four branch offices for a period of two years. Each box was simultaneously handling in the range of 20-100 VPN tunnels and carrying all employee web sessions for a total of about 400 employees. In the two years that I ran these boxes (8 machine years total), I had exactly 3 unplanned reboots, and these were because of an instability in a service pack released by Checkpoint rather than any inherent problem with NT's IP stack. I've racked up similar reliability records running Exchange 5.5 servers on NT4 as well. NT/2000 is an extremely reliable server platform provided the apps it is running are well-behaved. To suggest that it can't cut the mustard in the back office is just not the case. I don't always agree with Microsoft's marketing tactics etc., but you need to separate that lot of hyenas from the coders who are doing their best to bring you a solid OS. Windows does a damn good job relatively inexpensively with whatever task you throw at it. ianc

Brian, I've had over 8 years as a sysadmin/network eng myself. At my last job, NT/2000 handled mail, DNS, Firewall/encryption and frontend web/ftp services very capably and reliably. Backend was Sun running Oracle, and it was also very reliable. Both staffs were the same size. The Sun machines were less numerous, but more expensive to purchase, maintain and configure in terms of support, man hours and initial purchase price. Regardless of this, both implementations were the right solution for the job. I'm betting you fall into my category #2 of Linux enthusiasts, who just dislike Bill and M$ for whatever reason. You give yourself away a little when you refer to Bill Gates as 'The Demon'. It seems to me therefore that you won't like Windows no matter how good it is, so it's probably a fruitless discussion. To dwell on these things removes us from the context of the original argument and more into a partisan discussion however. Don't elevate this into a jihad when the issue is solely one of economics. 99% of home game-playing machines today are Win machines of some type, but you needn't lament this fact due to your dislike of Bill et al... In fact, a lot of them are very stable, speedy and enjoyable to use, as I personally can attest. While not denigrating Linux as a viable OS in the least, it just strikes me as highly unlikely that the time and effort required to port CMBB to Linux would prove financially remunerative. I guess only Charles' hairdresser knows for sure... ianc

Hmmm... I'm afraid that is a facetious and unsubstantiated statement my friend. I'm definitely with you if you want to compare Linux to Win9x. Remember though; security, while important, is more the concern of someone running a production server rather than a home gaming machine. XP and 2000 are fast and rock-solid. Linux is great, but you may be sure most people use it for two reasons: 1) It's dirt cheap or free. 2) They hate Bill Gates and M$ for their own reasons. Linux is still a tinkerer or hobbyist's OS, and therein lies part of its charm. Windows can be just installed and run. Period. Personally, I don't dislike Linux at all and think competition is healthy, but I also have nothing against Bill myself. Therefore, I run 2000 at home for games, and it is hideously stable right out of the box. It just doesn't seem to make economic sense to invest in a port to Linux considering the percentage of people running it...

Sounds great and more power to you!

Diceman, Your models look fantastic, and I'd like to see more if you have them. One suggestion: use some sort of decal setting solution. I can see the decal section standing out quite clearly. Do you use a matte finish? That would help too. I'd love it if they used your models in CMBB, ianc

Seriously, that is a GORGEOUS panther. Could I actually give up my Fernando mod for that? ianc

Hello folks, I regret to say that I haven't posted here in quite some time (not that my input was all that entertaining anyway), but I do still find myself coming back here about once a month or so, primarily to find information about CMBB's progression, updated release info, screenshots, etc. My search for this info is usually rather fruitless (the 'News' item on the left hasn't been updated since June...) and after a time I go away unfulfilled. Could there be created some CMBB FAQ somewhere in a central place that's updated on a semi-regular basis so that infrequent visitors like myself who are still very interested in CMBB could find out any fresh developments in a straightforward manner? It may be that there is such a resource already and I'm just too ignorant to find it. If that's the case, any pointers to where it's located would be highly appreciated. If not, I would very much appreciate it if such a suggestion could be taken under advisement. Thanks for your consideration, ianc

I think it's great that they're going to save themselves alot of cash. Think of all the man hours spent in purchasing non-contributing hardware. The world is becoming an increasingly tough place, and it would be nice to think of the fruits of our labours going to something constructive for everyone. A pipe dream perhaps, but don't you wish the US could do it? ianc

Pud, Looks excellent, but it's been my experience that mud is usually considerably darker shade. I'd go with a much darker brown and make the ruts almost black. Just my .02, and thanks for showing it off. Take care, ianc

Be careful, I know. But they work... ianc

Hello Gentlemen, Like Maugan, I couldn't locate the 6.31 drivers to downgrade to, so i went to http://www.videocarddrivers.com and found a newer 7.52 driver that cured the problem. Thanks everyone, ianc

Hi all, I also will try this as well and report back shortly. Sorry for appearing to be a troll by starting the topic and not replying, but I've been a little short on time lately. Thanks for all your kind assistance, ianc

Hey folks, My machine is a dual-boot with W98 and W2K server. I'm trying to migrate everything over to the W2K side so I can ditch 98 and free up a little HD space. CM runs great under W2K, (have a TNT2 w/ 32 MB and am running the Detonator drivers) with the exception of when I try to load a PBEM game. I can load one of the scenarios, play etc., but when I select multiplayer and attempt to load a PBEM game, my machine reboots itself without fail. Anybody seen this before? Thanks, ianc

Looks VERY cool, but a Russian engine? Nyet! ianc

HOLY GREAT GADS! Errr... Maybe I won't sell it after all... ianc

I have a copy I could sell you. Drop me a line if you're interested. I'm in CA. ianc

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>You mean a mod where the eyes are too far apart, the skin is orange, and has bleached white hair? =)<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Meeoow! ianc

Maus. ianc

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>The Pershing and the Jackson have diffrent blasts sranths<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I tend to agree Rob. I'm sure you have some interesting and helpful stuff to say, but this may be a good time to bring up a favorite quote of my dear old Dad's: "If a job is worth doing, it's worth doing right". If what you have to say is important enough to post, it's important enough to take the extra minute to proofread it to make sure people actually know what you're talking about! Take care, ianc

Ha ha! Great! All you're missing is the soccer ball! ianc