Douche Bag of the year awards 2007

I’ve about had it with all these up tight, thin skinned, immature, self important assholes who can’t seem to get over the fact that it’s just a fucking game here. I just need to get this off my ample chest, so I’m going to post this here. If you feel offended by this post; tough shit.

This might be an annual list I’ll create at the end of every year, since Douche Baggary seems to be a wide spread phenomenon. While everyone else is trying to have some fun, make a few Linden bucks; these assholes seem to have this near-paranoid predisposition that everyone is against them, stepping on their toes, and stealing their ideas.

They either can’t handle getting their “chops busted” so they can’t take a joke; yet they dish it themselves. Then there are the megalomaniacs who are so overly paranoid about others might be competing “against” them; as if we have a lot of choices as to what we can do in SL, things get easily redundant in SL anyway (any one bother counting how many dance club, malls, and escort services there are out here?) Plus we get people who think they are the RIAA’s answer to Second Life, with lawyers too!

There are a few of these douches that play SL who seem to have the biggest power trips in SL, but I won’t name any names. But anyone who’s has spent any significant time in SL (especially in the shemale scene) should probably know who these people might be. But if not you can probably relate this to the crowd you hangout with online, or maybe in real life.

The megalomaniac douche
One of these douche baggaries is one I’ve had nearly no interaction with personally, but this one user is so fucking immature and paranoid about some perceived competition by other users that anyone who opens up their own shemale-friendly hangout place is instantly targeted by this user and is sent harassing, IMs of complaints and empty threats. Then you’re given an instant ban to this persons establishment when you probably never set foot there. Even if the name of your place just sounds remotely similar to theirs you get this tirade of bullshit from this user, and subsequently banned. Plus this person is so controlling of their establishment, that if their employees are found to spend any time at these other establishments, they are also fired and baned. This person wants so much control of the so-called “shemale scene” on SL it’s ridiculous, and doesn’t seem to realize it’s not something to be owned, let alone controlled with a tyrant’s iron fist. On top of this, this idiot spams the hell out of everyone to advertising their establishment. Oh if you complain about the spam? Welcome too the ban list, which by-the-way the ban list is almost near the max of 300 user bans. Even if you’re nice and polite you could still get banned!

The thin skinned douche
Another one of these users I’ve dealt with directly on numerous occasions, and is someone who shares a lot of my own personalty quirks; which is why we seem to butt heads all too often but he seems to take things FAR too seriously. He seems to be easily offended by nearly any side comment that was said in jest, and in private, and can carry a grudge forever. That’s one trait I really don’t have, I can get really pissed and vengeful towards someone, but after a day I just let it go. I have more things to worry about that dwell on some online asshole for months at a time. Besides if you’re so thin skinned and can’t take a fucking joke, then go fuck your self. When you behave like a total flake about what you’re going to do with your establishment, and then yank the rug out from everyone, and complain about people showing up at your door step when you’re tucked away in a corner with your girlfriend having an intimate moment, YOU SHOULD EXPECT THE INTRUSIONS you ASSHOLE. The sad part is that that lovely lady he has as a GF apparently isn’t aloud to remain friends with me anymore. I wonder if he sees me as competition towards her, and might be a bit afraid of losing her? Still no excuse to be a total douche to ban me over personality issues, and I never broke any of his rules he had. But then threatens me with information of who I am in real life. As if it matters when 90% of the people who use second life don’t play as them selves in world ANYWAY. Otherwise what would be the FUCKING POINT of playing Second Life (or use any online service for that matter) if we just mimic our RL selves?

The selfish douche
This last douche bag had hired some toadie to do his bullying and down talking for him. He is a well known vendor of overpriced, and flaky and defective products (no it’s not Xcite, that stuff actually works too well) which many others have taken a cue from some of his good ideas and have improved upon them. I think he’s been around since the Beta days of SL. He’s overly protective of his so-called “intellectual properties” that he will try to sue you into oblivion if you use any thing he created, especially if you made it look or function better. Or copied anything that might resemble something he’s made.The thing is that most people learn how to do things by looking at how people make things. It’s called learning by example, when you take a product and change it, enhance it, tweak it.. and you end up learning how things work. The open source community is based on learning on other peoples work. Not to say that this person things are public domain, nor open source. But when they start complaining to you how you “didn’t even use your own scripts” or “don’t have a creative whim in you” when this person products also contains materials NOT made by him either, their argument falls short.

The Biggest douche of all
Me! Sure I admit it.. I admit I’m a total asshole sometimes. I’m sorry if I’ve ever pissed anyone off, stepped on your toes, stole your stuff, or made you feel like you’re less than human. At least I can admit it, can you? Two douches don’t make a right, and putting a douche with a noobtard will always cause problems. :Þ

Merry Xmas!

I’ll be leaving today on a trip to see family, so  I’ll be gone for the next six days, assuming the weather doesn’t delay anything (I’m flying weee!).  So merry Xmas and all that stuff since I won’t be online during this holiday.

I also got my Xbox 360 back yesterday (Friday), so to my surprise they installed the BenQ DVD drive into my 360, which according to this site, claims to be the quietest, and the fastest of the bunch.  After using it for less than 24 hours, it still sound noisy, and it seems to load kina slow in Rock Band.  >shrug<

Microsoft Shipped it via FedEx because I told them I’d be leaving on the 22nd, but it still took ALL FUCKING WEEK for me to get my Xbox back so what was the reason for using FedEx over UPS?  It would have taken just as long and been just as slow.  I thought they would use FedEx overnight or something but noooo.

See you all next week.

Xbox compensation…

…is a joke.

When I finnally spoke to them about getting some goodies for having four Xbox units take a shit on me, all I could manage was an Xbox vision camrea. Big whoop. They had a small selection of games that were either old and I didn’t want it, or I already had it. They couldn’t offer me Microsoft Points either. How disappointing…

Also they repaired my Xbox, so I’m getting the same one back on Thursday via FedEx, not UPS, since I need it back before I leave town for the hollidays this weekend. All they had to do was replace the dead DVD-Drive, hell I could have done that my self, but I wouldn’t be able to keep my warranty. Let’s hope they installed a newer model (BenQ) drive into it. But you’d think after having four failed units, I’d be entitled to a NEW fucking Xbox, otherwise this unit will probably end up with the 3 red lights in about a month or two anyway. I’ve yet to have an Xbox last more than 4 months.

LL’s needs are Evolving

It was just announced that CTO Cory Ondrejka (Cory Linden) is leaving Linden Labs due to “Strategic Differences.”  It’s funny how they spin this with so many difrent excuses as to why Cory has left.  Be it Cory’s needs have “evolved” or Linden Lab’s has changed, or if Cory really did find a better job.  I’m sure the roumor mill will churn out claming that Cory can’t fix the lag, and database issues, and he got frustrated and quit. People always want to asume the worst when someone who helped build Second Life from the ground up, has quit.

But to his credit, no MMO has had flawless networking and database issues.  Every MMO has problems with lag and performance.  After all this is a new market that didn’t exist 10 years ago, and so there is no history to fall back on to learn about past mistakes and challenges.

Boxed up and shipped

Got the return mailer box for my 360, and it’s shipping back to TX now, though I’m not sure it’s actually on a UPS truck just yet. The Xbox “Elite” support team hasn’t called me yet, perhaps they are waiting till they see tracking information from UPS, or when it’s delivered.

Meanwhile, SL is offline for some hardware upgrades. And sadly the Shemale Sanctuary annouced on Monday they will be closing shop at the end of the month.

Hopefully soon I’ll be getting some land, and start building my own little shindig. Stay tuned!

Mpeg4 and Xbox 360

After trying out different formats from various podcasts (most podcasts offer different formats flavors, h.264, divx, .mov, .m4v, .wmv, etc.), it turns out that the new mpeg4 codecs for the recent Xbox 360 dashboard update does indeed work with quicktime/h.264 formated videos, for which the majority of podcast videos are formated in. Also it plays them very smooth letting you FF and RW just as easily as if they were wmv files.

But there’s a catch; it will not see files with .mov and .m4v extensions. Actually the Xbox ignores all extensions except .avi and .wmv. So all you have to do is add the .avi extension to the quicktime (.mov/.m4v) file you want to watch, and it should appear on your Xbox for your viewing pleasure.

h.264, divx/xvid are all mpeg4 codecs with slightly different headers. Most of them are really just properly “formatted” for use with video iPods but it’s all the same thing.

I don’t know of any RSS apps that allow you to rename the file after it’s downloaded. Otherwise you’ll have to do all of this manually, which is what I already do. Most RSS readers that I’ve used don’t let you put the podcasts you download into a specific folder, let alone let you rename it so you can play it on the device you want to use it on. Maybe if Microsoft ever adds RSS/podcast support into the Xbox 360 (why not?) this might change, and it would forever change the way I use my Xbox 360 if they added RSS/podcast support (audio and video). As long as i can enter in actual URLs of RSS feeds (though that could prove cumbersome), rather than being limited to whatever podcasts they have featured in marketplace.

Anyway, even though my Xbox 360 has a bad DVD-Drive, I can still use it to watch videos and movies, or play DLed games on my hard drive. The mailer box for my 360 should arrive this Monday (10th), but I’m still waiting for the “Elite Xbox team” to contact me about compensation (if any) about my constant failures with my Xbox 360. And they might not ever call me about it if they deem I don’t deserve any compensation. Right… after three “Three Red Lights o’ Death” and now a failed DVD-Drive, none of which is MY FAULT, and I paid for an extended service contract; how could they possibly conclude I don’t deserve something? Some MS Points? A free game though their selection are probably games I already own. My Gamerscore would be over 10,000 if I didn’t have these failures every three months.

Microsoft Compensation!

I called up Xbox support, and after listening to the Halo theme music for the umpteenth time while on hold, I was able to speak to a supervisor. Because I’ve dealt with FOUR units that need to be repaired, I will be given special priorty to a “Elete support team” (as said by the supervisor) who are set up for dealing with special cases like myself who have had too many system failures.

Xbox support was apparetly so swamped with support calls that this “elete” team wasn’t able to get to me before the end of their work day, so they are going to call me back tommarow afternoon and speak with me. I’m a little confused as to why they need to call me. I just want to get the box asap so I can send off my broken unit and get it back before I leave town.

The supervisor eluded to compensation from having to deal with four 360s dying on me. That made me raise an eyebrow. Compensation… like what? Last time they gave me 13 extra months to my membership, I don’t really need 2 years. I’d rather have a buttload of MS points. But what I’d REALLY want is to get a NEW (not a referb) Xbox 360, and the newer versions with a HDMI port.

So perhaps this team is “elite” since they have the power to grant people anything. Free MS points, games, shwag… who knows? Otherwise why would they need to speak to me in the first place when I just want to get my Xbox replaced asap? Hopefully I can also have them “overnight” the shipping both ways so maybe I’ll have my FIFTH Xbox back before the end of this week? That would rock!

Five is my favorite number (and multiples of 5), so I hope it’s also the charm for me! I sure am going to get my fair share of the 3 billion dollars that Microsoft reported to be loosing to the failure rate of the Xbox 360.

Lets recap:
July 2006 – Bought my first Xbox 360, Premium version. Bought a service contract for $50.  The best $50 I ever spent!

September 2006 – Days before the inital 90 day warranty was over, I got the Three Red Lights of Death (TRLoD). This was just around the time they announced an extended warranry to the very first units of the Xbox 360, but mine was too new to be included. But I already had a service contract so it was a free replacement, and I got a premium version. Service contract extended a few months.

March 2007 – I just got a new HDTV to play games on my 360. The moment I hook up my 360 to my new TV, and set it to 1080p; it choaks and I get TRLoD! With my service contract it gets replaced, but I end up with a CORE version? Minor cosmetic thing anyway, since I kept the HDD unit I had since I had my first 360 back in July ‘06.

October 2007 – Just weeks before anticipating Guitar Hero III release. I get the three red rings of DEATH again. After two weeks later I get a replacement before GH3 hits the shelves. This unit was also a CORE version but with the loudest optical drive I’ve ever heard! And 13 months added to my XBL gold membership for free!

December 2007 – The day of the new dashboard update (Dec 4th). That noisy optical disc drive proved to be a ticking time bomb. I had some minor problems with the optical disc drive other than it being really noisy, like when I eject the disc, it would still be spinning. When playing CoD4, I heard this horrible loud noise akin to a coffee grinder. I thought it was going to scratch up the game disc, but it’s fine. But now the disc tray will constantly eject when closing (with a disc in it or not).

So now this time it’s not the TRLoD, so I’m stuck with a half-assed Xbox 360 that still works, but the optical drive is shot. I can still play downloaded games, and watch movies, since they added Mpeg4 support.

My 360 is fucked up AGAIN!

I must be the most unluckiest person on the face of the earth. For the FOUTH time my Xbox 360 is fucked up, but this time it’s not the 3 red lights of DEATH, but a hosed up optical drive.

I was playing Call of Duty 4, the Ghilles mission where you’re up on the Hotel building about to snipe someones head off from a mile away. When I heard this gawd awful noise coming from somewhere. I thought it was from the game, but the CoD4 doesn’t make coffee grinding noises. Even my cat was like WTF is that noise? She ignores all the explosions and screams of violence coming from the game it self, so her getting upset over a weird noise must mean trouble.

I ejected the game disc and the awful noise stopped. Putting the disc back in was immediately ejected several times. Then I laid the 360 flat (usually have it vertical) and it still ejected many times. When it finnally stayed in that grinding noise would start again and I’d get “unplayable disc” on the dashboard. I seems like the motor that spins the discs has burned out… son of a BITCH! This is the #2 defect the Xbox 360s have, and I’ve only had mine back for a couple months since the LAST time it died on me in October! Goddamnit!

Wow my $50 investment for the Service Contract sure is paying it self back in SPADES! Plus, a bad optical drive is NOT covered on that extended 3 year warranty that Microsoft recently gave to everyone. That only covers the three red lights of death problem, not anything else.

But this is getting out of hand. Just as I was getting used to the new dashboard update with Xvid/Divx support, so I can watch my aXXo movies and shemale pr0n, I get this!

What’s really bad is that I’m leaving town in about 20 days for Xmas, and I may not be home when the UPS guy comes to deliver my Xbox back to me. If I call Microsoft now, I’ll get the box perhaps Friday at the latest, then mail my broken 360 the next day. And if they keep with the the 2 week turn around I’ve been getting, I may get it back the day before I leave.

This sucks! I might as well call up Microsoft and get this started.  I should put the number on my speed dial for fucks sake!

Quicktime stole my Linden$!

Okay I was browsing Slashdot when I read this article. Apparently this exploit IS a security issue. It claims that when the exploit is used, you’re taken to a web page where it makes you give your Linden Dollars away. Now I know you can embed URLs in a quicktime movie format video, just as you can with WMV files. So the idea of launching your web browser is plausible. However the same can be done within second life scripts and objects them selves to open web pages. So what then?

Still, this makes no sense at all to me as to how a web page can be scripted to take your money. Of course the article won’t get into details as to how this can work, or risking the exploit to propagate. But still this sounds absurd to me.

There isn’t away that I’m aware of of being able to transfer L$ to another avatar account, via the Second Life website. That can only be done in game. At most you can use LindenX to buy and sell Linden dollars, but that transaction dosen’t work between avatar accounts. So I really can’t see how some malicious website would do this on it’s ow, especially when it’s not apart of SL’s servers.

Unless it’s praying on users ignorance (read noobs) with written threats to “pay now or else” type psychological bullshit that’s persuading users pay up. But noobs often have no money anyway, so what’s the point then? If some webpage pops up demanding me to pay them L$, I’d just close it. Duh.

Quicktime Exploit, Secuiry, bug flaw? Which is it?

For years I’ve always had video playback disabled since they would always momentarly freeze my PC when videos start to play; quite annoying. It wouldn’t crash, just make my system hang for a good 10 seconds, and then everything was fine.

Today they are alerting of everyone of a problem; but I think they are getting thier termonlogies mixed up, and making everyone upset for no reason. A lot like when the media hypes up another “virus scare” that might take the entire internet down, but nothing serious ever happens.

From what I’ve read so far it’s just makes clients crash. Big fucking deal, what else is new? SL clients crash more often than Delta Airlines did in the 80’s. It’s probably just hiccuping on a video file that’s not properly formatted right, which I guess can be easily set like this to make Quicktime crash.

But if it’s just making the game crash, then it is NOT a secuity issue. If it was a security issue, it would imply that access to important information might be accessible to others. Like logins and passwords, or somehting like that.

If anything it’s just a bug in Quicktime. OMGZ!!! Apple makes buggy software that others can use as an exploit to crash computers? Say it ain’t so! Apparently this problem is with all versions of quicktime, be it on a Windows or a Mac; but not sure about Linux. Last time I checked the Linux version doesn’t even support audio, so I kina doubt it.

Of course all of the forum-tard idiots are up in arms about this for what is basically a bug that’s been around for some time. Like I said I always disable video playback because of the freezing issue which often occurred at random times since videos can be started at random times, or when another users starts it. I never saw the appeal of watching videos inside SL anyway. This doesn’t seem to apply to the music stream, which is also handled via quicktime app on your viewer.

What’s really fucked up about it, and is adding to the paranoid hype, is they reset the TOS so that you have to agree to it when you login to Second Life. The problem is that it NEVER LOADS UP, so you’re not able to agree to it because the (agree) button remains grayed out. So you can’t login. Wonderful eh? Another side effect from Apple’s buggy coding.

They didn’t change the Terms of Service, they are just using it to alert users of this “security” issue when it’s NOT a security issue. It’s a stability issue which the Lindens don’t’ have a good track record on anyway, plus they have no control over this becuase it’s a THIRD PARTY APPLICATION, that USERS have to install separately on their own. Thank gawd they don’t do this for every problem their OWN fucking software has, or we’d never be able to login.