User talk:Entropy/Archive 34

Awwight
Fust pwace! 23:30, 18 July 2009 (UTC)

Blocked
You have requested a one month block of me in private communication, to aid you in leaving GuildWiki. Your desire to do so has been [ documented] for quite some time, and your actions, meaning your reduced presence here, have attested to that. I render this service to you as a friend. The future will tell what good it did. -- ◄mendel► 01:13, 19 July 2009 (UTC)

Hello
Hello.  Misery Says Moo   12:57, 22 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Month's not over yet - if it ever will be. -- ◄mendel► 13:15, 22 July 2009 (UTC)
 * That was not the point, not even a little. [[Image:Misery_Cow.png|19x19px]] Misery Says Moo   15:11, 22 July 2009 (UTC)

Welcome
Back. Good to see you :) --- -- (contribs)  &emsp;(talk)  00:30, 20 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Welcome Back. (: &mdash; Balistic
 * Moo. [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 17:07, 20 August 2009 (UTC)
 * WB -- F1Sig.png  † F1 ©  Talk  17:15, 20 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Good to see you back. :) RoseOfKali [[Image:RoseOfKaliSIG.png]] 17:26, 20 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Welcome back, please wipe your feet, as I just cleaned the carpet. [[Image:RHSig.jpg]] rede | beiträge 18:10, 20 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Damn, another orgy missed. [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 22:43, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

Hey look, it's an Entropy. So how was life without GuildWiki and its attendant goddess worshipers? *Defiant Elements*  +talk  21:34, 20 August 2009 (UTC)
 * so ronery ;_;
 * On the other hand, I've improved my Brawl game considerably. [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 22:43, 20 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Oh, and why wouldn't you enable autoblock for a known sock? ;) [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 23:03, 20 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Hmmm... so I'm a low tier candidate, huh? You always make me feel so loved.
 * Brawl?!?! Heresy!
 * Mainly because it was either you or Belar, and considering the utter lack of efficacy of autoblock when it comes to you two... &mdash; Defiant Elements   +talk  23:19, 20 August 2009 (UTC)
 * I lost the URL of you beating a pro Marth with Pichu.
 * Melee's Adventure Mode was not very much fun (although the Underground Maze stage was pretty cool), and none of my friends play it anymore. I'd more or less gotten everything I could have ever wanted out of it, anyway. Brawl may be more imbalanced, but it has more middle- or low-tier characters that I enjoy learning to play and don't feel guilty of using. Such as Toon Link or Zero Suit Samus, for instance. I think I've racked up over 500 KOs in the last two days alone. In any case, I needed something to do while Guild Wars was downloading 100,000 files... [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 23:32, 20 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Autoblock actually works quite well with me, since I don't know how to proxy and can't change my IP. You can ask Auron. [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 23:32, 20 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Fair enough. I mean, if none of your friends're playing Melee anymore, then it'd be kinda silly to keep playing it yourself.  Still, depending on your approach to the Smash games, I think there's something to be said for the competitiveness of Melee and the lack thereof of Brawl in terms of how fun they are.
 * Heh. Well, a) I didn't know for sure it was you, and b) I didn't really think it was worth blocking "you" infinitely for a joke, especially one which was mildly amusing.  &mdash;  Defiant Elements   +talk  23:55, 20 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Well, you cannot compete (PvP) without having others to compete against, right?...
 * It's been done before, I wouldn't really mind since I already got my votes off... :p [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 00:22, 21 August 2009 (UTC)
 * True, but sometimes, you can get really damn good at beating the crap outta things if the AI you're playing against is a known cheater re Dead or Alive 4. [[Image:RHSig.jpg]] rede | beiträge 09:59, 21 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Owelcome back, I saw you return but forgot to leave a message. Anyway, hope you have fun here, milk's in the fridge and we're out of Peanut butter Random Time  17:19, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

I oppose
you getting bcrat/sysop back. . Also, I heard that you don't know how to proxy? Go google onion router <3. Welcome back &mdash; Warw/Wick 20:32, 22 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Doesn't work very well on GWW. You can browse fine, but trying to edit fucks things up. [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 07:14, 23 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Since you opposed an action of mine, you should've done it on my page. It's too late now. -- ◄mendel► 08:39, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

Why can't I upload an Avatar?
^ (T/C) 09:03, 23 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Why can't you? I got one, but I pretty much never see it, as I use Monobook. It does show up in "blog" mode in Monobook.  RoseOfKali [[Image:RoseOfKaliSIG.png]] 16:51, 23 August 2009 (UTC)
 * I hit "Browse" and pick something, and then hit "Save", and nothing happens. [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 19:55, 23 August 2009 (UTC)
 * That's weird. Is it too big, maybe?  I don't know where the requirements are, but I just took the image I wanted, shrunk to a thumbnail size of 1:1 ratio, saved as gif, and uploaded that.  It shows up right in my preferences page.  RoseOfKali [[Image:RoseOfKaliSIG.png]] 04:22, 24 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Oh, .gif ... I was trying to use a bitmap. I can't tell what size the avatars are because I don't see them anyway, but I figured they would automatically scale... [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 04:37, 25 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Haha. You're right. "Call to undefined function imagecreatefrombmp" [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 04:39, 25 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Lol. :P GIFs are usually best for small avatars, they have great compression quality and smallest data size (only 256 colors), as well as accepted in just about any image uploader I've ever seen. JPG is better for larger high quality images, but still allows high compression.  BMPs are the polar opposite, huge data size relative to the image size/resolution (they have no compression), and many sites won't let you upload them for that reason, this wiki included.  BMP really only exists to give you a zero-compression "loss-less" format that you can then edit any way you want and keep as much quality as you want.
 * As far as I remember, the avatar here does scale, but it's still recommended to have them relatively small and in a 1:1 ratio, or it may "bug out" on you. The size of the avatar in "my preferences" appears to be around 100px square, but I think it's usually slightly smaller on other pages.  I think I had mine somewhere between 100px and 150px square to minimize room for error.  If your image isn't square (like mine), just save it with whitespace and make it a square before uploading.  I don't trust some of these scaling algorithms that sometimes like to take an X:Y image and force it into 1:1 by stretching the image rather than adding whitespace bars because somewhere some idiot doesn't know how to write a simple function.  RoseOfKali [[Image:RoseOfKaliSIG.png]] 05:06, 25 August 2009 (UTC)
 * It does compress, my image is square, but it's about 450x450.--Łô√ë [[Image:Gigathrash_sig_G.jpg|Roar.]]îğá†ħŕášħ 05:55, 25 August 2009 (UTC)
 * You mean "scale?" RoseOfKali [[Image:RoseOfKaliSIG.png]] 06:12, 25 August 2009 (UTC)
 * To scale down is the same as to compress.--Łô√ë [[Image:Gigathrash_sig_G.jpg|Roar.]]îğá†ħŕášħ 06:25, 25 August 2009 (UTC)
 * To scale down is to reduce the image dimensions in pixels. To compress is to digitally reduce the quality of the stored image in order to reduce its data size without necessarily changing the dimensions.  Compression is a side effect of storing a scaled down image, but can be achieved without scaling.  It is possible to store an un-compressed un-scaled original image and then dynamically scale it down just before displaying it.  These are related, but not "the same."  :P  RoseOfKali [[Image:RoseOfKaliSIG.png]] 05:18, 26 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Bitmaps are lossless, just like .png but without transparancy bugs, so I always save all my images (such as GW screenshots) as bitmap; I mean, you want to keep your source images of the highest quality, yeah? These days, where memory is dirt cheap, it really is the best way to go. GIFs are unsuitable for anything other than black and white and animated images, in my opinion, because anything else comes out looking like shit in 256 color. JPEGs are terrible terrible things that are all but obsolete these days. I'm serious. The only reason to use them is when you have very limited space requirements (avatars etc) but want to use a fancy/big image...
 * I uploaded my avatar but have no idea how it looks to other people. [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 06:24, 25 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Saving your images as .bmp has no advantage over saving it as .png, especially if it's screenshots, so use the advantage that a better compression ratio (1:3 is typical) may give you. What are the .png transparency bugs you speak of? -- ◄mendel► 19:59, 25 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Internet Explorer used to display .png transparency as a big block of pastel color, but that was like 5+ years ago. You can only set Guild Wars screenshots to save as two formats- jpeg (default) and bitmap. [[Image:Felix_Omni_Signature.png]] 20:11, 25 August 2009 (UTC)
 * ^ It happens in a few other applications, too, so I try to save as bitmap by default now. [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 21:11, 25 August 2009 (UTC)


 * [[File:Howitlooks.png]]
 * That's how. [[Image:Felix_Omni_Signature.png]] 16:49, 25 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Mendel made it better for me. I don't have Photoshop installed anymore because 20GB just for image editing capabilities is kind of dumb. [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 21:11, 25 August 2009 (UTC)
 * It's shrunken now, and the detail is kind of lost. Revert imo. [[Image:Felix_Omni_Signature.png]] 00:37, 26 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Lol, that's a very descriptive image name there, Felix. :P Anyway, I like how it looks right now (just hit the "Monaco View" in the left side toolbar, "support" box, for a one-time Monaco view of the page). RoseOfKali [[Image:RoseOfKaliSIG.png]] 05:25, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

halp
I have a problem. On *this* particular Internet connection - only on this one, it works if I'm connected anywhere else - I can not access any e-mail sites. No Yahoo!, no Gmail, no Hotmail (sucks btw), whatever. It doesn't matter what browser I use. I also cannot access IRC, no matter what client I use. Ventrilo and TeamSpeak won't work, either. Finally, I can't even connect to my favorite MUD (text-based game). None of the relevant sites/IPs are down; I can ping them just fine and if I use any other computer, I can get to those places. All of the programs are "trusted/allowed" through the firewall, they're not triggering antivirus or spyware alerts, etc. On the surface every indicator says they ought to be working fine.

As you can see from me posting this, other sites and services are working normally. I can use the wikis, I can get on Guild Wars, and so on. It is just any sort of communications-related service which seems to be impeded.

At first I thought this was a problem with ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite (sucks btw) and BitTorrent (sucks btw), because those programs are known to not get along and cause all sorts of weird problems. In fact, cases just like mine are extensively documented. The fix was to remove one or both of the programs. I did that; I'm using a different firewall etc. now, and don't have any torrenting software installed. The problem seemed to be fixed, but at the time I was at another location using another Internet connection.

So now when I'm back home, it's still broken, and I have no clue why or what to try next. Microsoft Support has been less than helpful. I mean, even ANet is better.

I'm pretty stumped, and so is my dad, who is an IT professional. We're going to attack the router itself next, but that seems rather drastic, and we know it's a shot in the dark without any idea of what else to do.

Any ideas, anyone? >:(

(T/C) 00:17, 31 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Use uTorrent. [[Image:Felix_Omni_Signature.png]] 01:13, 31 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Somehow I don't think installing uTorrent is going to affect Vent etc. [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 02:30, 31 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Fucking do it. [[Image:Felix_Omni_Signature.png]] 03:33, 31 August 2009 (UTC)
 * I love urTorrent. [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 04:46, 31 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Fun fact: My internet is doing the exact same thing as yours.--Łô√ë [[Image:Gigathrash_sig_G.jpg|Roar.]]îğá†ħŕášħ  02:35, 1 September 2009 (UTC)
 * Did you try installing uTorrent? :o I found some other things which may or may not help, if that doesn't work. [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 02:48, 1 September 2009 (UTC)
 * Installing uTorrent did not work. Discuss.--Łô√ë [[Image:Gigathrash_sig_G.jpg|Roar.]]îğá†ħŕášħ  04:00, 1 September 2009 (UTC)
 * I don't know anything about your computer, but somewhere there ought to be a program that controls connections to the Internet, like Access Connections or Network and Sharing or whatever. What fixed the problem for me (other than uTorrent) was disabling that program's network security: "Disable file and printer sharing", "Disable internet connection sharing", and "Enable Windows Firewall". (Turn them off, in other words.) Also, if you're connecting to the internet via ethernet cable, TURN OFF your computer's wireless radio, or unplug the cable for vice versa. After that, reboot.
 * You can also open a DOS box and try "ipconfig /flushdns" followed by "ipconfig /registerdns", which may or may not help. [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 01:24, September 2, 2009 (UTC)
 * Irony, that worked. And now my printer refuses to exist.--Łô√ë [[Image:Gigathrash_sig_G.jpg|Roar.]]îğá†ħŕášħ  02:15, September 2, 2009 (UTC)
 * You are probably aware that internet connections use adresses and ports; http uses port 80, https uses port 443, so these ports seem to work, and others don't, since email (if it's not webmail), mud, ventrilo etc. all use other ports. Some system in between you and your destination seems to block traffic on those ports. The first system is, of course, the router, but there are ISPs who do block ports (this might even be done automatically if malware activity is detected coming from your computer, to protect both you and the Internet), so googling for your Internet service provider with the aim of finding reports of port blocking might also be useful. -- ◄mendel► 04:40, 1 September 2009 (UTC)
 * Brave ISP wants to protect the internet. [[Image:Felix_Omni_Signature.png]] 20:17, September 1, 2009 (UTC)
 * From the internet. [[Image:RHSig.jpg]] rede | beiträge 03:31, September 2, 2009 (UTC)

Eurgh
Less pink, more... chink porcelain sink? 03:33, 31 August 2009 (UTC)
 * I'm going to ignore that comment and assume you're having an Asperger's moment right now. [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 03:35, 31 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Ups, accidental racism ftl [[Image:Felix_Omni_Signature.png]] 03:36, 31 August 2009 (UTC)
 * I'll take the sink if you haven't bled on it already. [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 03:55, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

We interrupt your normally scheduled spam period for an advertisement.
GO SIGN UP FOR MY CONTEST. It's on my main page. That is all.--Łô√ë îğá†ħŕášħ is hosting a Card Creation Contest! 04:01, September 5, 2009 (UTC)

--Łô√ë <font color="Black">îğá†ħŕášħ is hosting a Card Creation Contest! 03:13, September 7, 2009 (UTC)
 * oorsum :) [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 03:22, September 9, 2009 (UTC)

Guild Wars Rap
Clicky <3 (T/C) 05:54, September 14, 2009 (UTC)

This is a random thingy to do stuff with because I can
You can really just ignore this, but in better news, and then I was all like you and me are through and then you just danced all night long because the roc was flying away but it was actually a dwarf roc, but that makes no sense because even a dwarf roc is about the size of a house, well a reasonably sized house, more of a cabin really. An the judas came along and was totally like "WTF dudettes, stop that, I'm trying to betray christ over here", and we had cake and it was good, but then god appeared before us, except it wasn't god, it was a giant fox with nine tails that was red, and was trapped inside the body of a small boy, so it wasn't really god at all, but then I fell through a quays dimensional loop through existence into magical candy land where the bunnies where sodomizing the eggs, or the other way around, I wasn't really paying attention because Skuld had appeared and was chasing you in a van labeled free giraffes, but then you woke up and disappeared, but then a giant worm, like the ones in dune, which is an ok book at best, I don't see why so many people like it, I mean my friend likes it a lot, but I read it and it was mediocre at best, not like Terry Pratchett or Douglas Adams, I guess you just have to like that kind of thing before you do it, like three ways. That reminds me of another amusing anecdote where I had to force feed a small boy nothing buy sauerkraut until they were twenty six and a half years old, but that is not connected in any way to the current story, where Skuld crashed the van into an elephant because he had been huffing tribbles, and spock was tied up in t\he back seat with a note on him saying "Why so serious?" And then I died.--Łô√ë <font color="Black">îğá†ħŕášħ is hosting a Card Creation Contest! 18:21, September 20, 2009 (UTC) --Łô√ë <font color="Black">îğá†ħŕášħ is hosting a Card Creation Contest! 18:36, September 20, 2009 (UTC)
 * Frank Herbert is win. (I must admit I never read any of the sequels.) I like his short stories featuring the agent from the Bureau of Sabotage even better, though. Oh, and Gigathrash is win, too. -- ◄mendel► 19:36, September 20, 2009 (UTC)
 * This is the best thing I've read all morning! :D Jink  14:39, September 21, 2009 (UTC)

Waaaaaait a nidget here!
You play DDO, too?! (SQUEEEEEEE!)  rede | beiträge 00:32, September 23, 2009 (UTC)
 * Practically all of us are. [[Image:Felix_Omni_Signature.png]] 00:52, September 23, 2009 (UTC)
 * I'm Mega Man, punk, don't you know me? Believe it!
 * Are you playing on Ghallada? Char names?! :O [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 15:38, September 23, 2009 (UTC)
 * Nah, my bro plays G, my main haunts are Khyber and Cannith.
 * Khyber:
 * Jaank
 * Atiya
 * Avila
 * Lilyan
 * Cannith:
 * Karsten
 * [[Image:RHSig.jpg]] rede | beiträge 07:08, September 24, 2009 (UTC)
 * That is a disappointment, since everyone else (and I do mean everyone) is on Ghallada. :\ I had created characters on the other servers because I heard you could earn 25 Turbine Points for every time you complete "The Collaborator", per server, but it didn't seem to work. So I don't really have any reason to play on the others. Unless I really wanted to fool around with the other classes...but I've tried them all now and know what I like. (Still might try to get a Sorcerer trained up for huge asplosions, though, magic seems to be wtf overpowered in DDO) [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 08:15, September 25, 2009 (UTC)


 * Hehe, With all this talking I decided to try out DDo too yesterday. And since everyone is playing on Galthingy I went there too. Can't remember my char's name though :P --[[Image:El Nazgir sig.png|Talkpage]]<font color="Green">El_Nazgir 15:05, September 25, 2009 (UTC)


 * Well, you don't get the points for the Collaborator, you get it for having 25 Total Favor. It goes (to the best of my knowledge) 25/50/100/250 and so on, with appropriate rewards.  Also, I had (and technically still do) some characters on G, but that was back when I was a subscriber...buuuuuuut, bro lost his job, and we couldn't afford to keep it goin.  But now that its F2P, I'm seriously happy, even if I don't get Monks or Shan-To-Kor.  [[Image:RHSig.jpg]] rede | beiträge 16:07, September 25, 2009 (UTC)
 * That is true, but there is no documentation anywhere of how it works, so I was just going by what I'd heard in general chat. (which I'm quickly learning to take with a grain of salt) It made sense to me because after you finish The Collaborator and talk to Dax Boon, you get a notification "You have earned a Favor reward and Turbine points!". And, here's the strange thing - I checked my points total today (few days after I'd tried this), and now I mysteriously have 150 points. Last time I checked I had 100.... I haven't gotten any farther with my current characters than I had previously, so I shouldn't have earned another 25 Favor, and therefore shouldn't have earned more Turbine Points. So perhaps it really does work, but the update system is a bit delayed. Meh, I'll fool around with it later. [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 07:10, September 26, 2009 (UTC)


 * I'm kinda getting bored of it already... Reminds me of WoW too much, and the leveling system's pretty weird imo. Still gonna give it some more tries (as I did with WoW too) though.--[[Image:El Nazgir sig.png|Talkpage]]<font color="Green">El_Nazgir 05:41, September 26, 2009 (UTC)
 * I would highly recommend playing a character until at least level ~4-5 before giving up, because that is around the point where you really start to become powerful and realize your class' potential. (And of course, try a different class - I got pretty fed up with Rogue and was going to quit, but I'm quite happy with Ranger now.)
 * Also, if you remember your character name, please tell, I could always use more people to group with (or send useful gifts to!) :p [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 07:10, September 26, 2009 (UTC)


 * Well, I just hit lvl 2 and I'm about halfway to the first "skill point" or whatever it is. I'm a wizard (necromancer). The only thing I really liked so far was having a horde of zombies attacking me, and then I nuked their arse with a short range flame burst ^.^ Town regen seems pretty slow, and I just noticed that the rest shrines can only be used once per visit to the area.
 * And the char name: Dalnaria Blackrose (btw, so far I haven't been able to find a PM'ing system...)--[[Image:El Nazgir sig.png|Talkpage]]<font color="Green">El_Nazgir 10:56, September 26, 2009 (UTC)
 * You regen bit faster in a tavern. On the other hand, after you finish a quest, you're automatically healed to full, so I've never found it to be a particular problem. (Spell regen only takes four "tics" anyay, I think.) Also, you can use rest shrines every five minutes in Solo mode and every 15 minutes in Normal mode (or in wilderness areas).
 * I'll add you... the PM system is slightly more complicated in DDO, you have to use "/t " to start a PM. "/r " will reply to the last tell you received. However, because you can party with ~any character even if they are halfway across the world in a different dungeon, party chat works well too. You can even use the built-in team chat fairly easy, although it sucks compared to a real vent server. [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 15:50, September 26, 2009 (UTC)


 * I rolled a Paladin and breezed through newb island... Much more fun than wizard. His name is Grazin Flamebearer.--[[Image:El Nazgir sig.png|Talkpage]]<font color="Green">El_Nazgir 13:09, September 27, 2009 (UTC)
 * Yeah, I'm starting to think that Paladins are overpowered for PvE, at least in the soloing sense...the only thing they lack is massive crowd control. (Although they do get an AoE holy damage skill to wtfpwn undead later on.) The only big downside I'm seeing is that I don't hit things as often compared to a Ranger or Rogue, even if I hit harder - so on higher difficulties it can be hard to damage some foes, and it really sucks when my Smite Evil misses >_< Also, while most hits don't hurt much, I can't dodge them either like I do on Ranger - so I have to rely a lot more on blocking with Shift now than I used to. Which is fine, but it slows me dowm. :\
 * I also got tired of not being able to hit things at range, so I spent a small fortune on a Returning throwing axe. You can't Smite with it, but I think it was worth the money. :p [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 17:10, September 27, 2009 (UTC)


 * I always liked to get up close and bash stuff. Well, whenever necromancy wasn't too fun to play with (loved necro in diablo 2, still liked it in gw but not as much, and in DDo, I simply got bored before I got any real necrotic stuff). Anyway, I'm not quite sure what smite evil does... I've tried it sometimes, and some of the skill descriptions of other skills say stuff about it, but I don't understand what exactly it does.
 * Also, I find it amusing that by now (I'm lvl 2 and halfway to lvl 3) that the flaming sword from the first quest on newb island is still the best weapon I've got my hands on so far... I've done almost all quests that aren't marked "elite" or something in the harbour now...
 * Something I found very annoying is that you log out after being inactive for 5~10 minutes (no idea how long exactly.--[[Image:El Nazgir sig.png|Talkpage]]<font color="Green">El_Nazgir 18:01, September 27, 2009 (UTC)
 * The flaming sword you get is good until you start getting +1 items. Those also add to attack roll, I believe, so they help you hit better (and do more damage on a crit). I have a Paly that's lvl 5, and I'm finding that while I'm good in a party, at higher levels of play (elite dungeons) i'm not hitting stuff enough. However, since I have a party for those, I can tank pretty well (except for stupid casters). And for normal/solo stuff, with an attack roll boost I can hit stuff enough. For info on Smite Evil, you can go to ddowiki or just figure it adds your charisma modifier * 2 to your attack roll. --JonTheMon 21:12, September 27, 2009 (UTC)
 * Also, for CC, you can sorta use cleave for it. Stay in blocking, then just use Cleave on recharge. I don't prefer it, but it can help you deal with larger mobs (w/o casters). --JonTheMon 21:15, September 27, 2009 (UTC)
 * I would take Cleave if Power Attack were not a prerequisite. There are simply so many other feats that will help me out more, like save boosts or stronger Dragonmark later on.
 * Smite Evil only works against "evil" creatures; you don't get any bonus against neutral creatures like, say, a Brown Rat or a Dog. Also, Smite Evil isn't guaranteed to deal huge damage, because it is like any other melee attack... you might roll a very low dice and end up only doing something in the 10-20 range, or you might score a critical hit and deal like 70 damage. Later on, taking Exalted Smite is nice to make this bit more bearable... it doubles the attack roll bonus and causes the cooldown to drop to ~5 seconds. [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 07:27, September 28, 2009 (UTC)
 * Lay on Hands can deal some damn good damage in a pinch, and its pretty much a guaranteed hit...if your target's Evil, that is. [[Image:RHSig.jpg]] rede | beiträge 07:34, September 28, 2009 (UTC)

(ri) Well, for me, dealing 10-20 damage is still high :P I think the best crit I've had so far with a non-skill attack was 18 (+3 fire damage) or something with the flaming sword, and 28 with a 2hander I used for one dungeon to test it. I usually use lay on hands for healing myself when there aren't any rest shrines nearby, or while I'm in combat and getting low on health.

Also, I seem to have an immensely short breath, are there any ways of increasing the amount of breath you have (exept for that ring I got with a daily charge)?--<font color="Green">El_Nazgir 15:18, September 28, 2009 (UTC)
 * Increase your Strength, and/or take off your heavy armor and weapon before swimming. [[Image:Felix_Omni_Signature.png]] 19:45, September 28, 2009 (UTC)
 * At level up, you can increase your Swim check, which will in turn improve your lung capacity. Of course, one of the most valuable items you can get at the auction house is a constant water-breathing ring or necklace.  Its one of the first things I get when I get to Stormreach, if I can afford it; which, given my propensity to sell anything I don't really need, isn't all that difficult.  OH!  A tip for good cash on non-caster characters: if you happen upon a potion of Mnemonic Enhancement, you can auction it off for a pretty penny.  Hell, I sold a really weak one a few days ago for about 250 plat before auctioning fees.  [[Image:RHSig.jpg]] rede | beiträge 13:50, September 29, 2009 (UTC)
 * Aw, goddamn. I've gotten at least three of those so far and just sold them (they fetch a pretty price even at merchants). :\
 * I don't really see the point of ever raising Swim...all characters start with a 1:30 - duration water breathing ring that affects the entire party, and even without that most areas are designed so you won't die swimming through, especially if you're smart and remove armor etc. Even for a class like Wizard or Fighter that doesn't rely much on skills, if I had leftover points I'd invest in like Haggle or Jump or something. Meh. (Also, the spell Merfolk Blessing gives like +10 swim for 9 minutes or something, if you really really needed it badly...) [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 01:43, September 30, 2009 (UTC)
 * Just wait until Festivult comes around. I got a rare, rare, rare, rare, rare (did I mention it was rare?) weapon from one of the guys there, and sold it for like...50,000 plat.  My brother was understandably envious.  [[Image:RHSig.jpg]] rede | beiträge 19:49, September 30, 2009 (UTC)

Making friends and influencing ppls
Although it's not the primary reason I support your RFA on GWW, I appreciate your unerring eye to keep doing the right thing, when wearing the Helm of Wiki Protection...even if such power is misunderstood (and therefore afeared) by others. Please keep at it. &mdash; Tennessee Ernie Ford ( TEF ) 06:28, September 26, 2009 (UTC)
 * Thank you, I mostly did it because of Tanetris though :) I find it bit odd that you'd tell me on this talkpage instead of my GWW one, however. [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 07:10, September 26, 2009 (UTC)
 * On GWW, I'd have to be much more careful about how I phrased the above. I wasn't quite up for that for a quick attaboy/attagirl. (That said, if you think it might do some good, I'd be happy to add to my existing endorsement by responding on the RFA talk page.  &mdash; Tennessee Ernie Ford ( TEF ) 07:41, September 26, 2009 (UTC)
 * Ah, I understand completely. Don't worry about it ;) [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 10:34, September 26, 2009 (UTC)

My first DDO spam mail
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All the list of items:

All of +2 Tomes/Manual                   $11.78-19.99

+1 Wounding Rapier of Puncturing         $58.99-$69.99 Bloodstone                               $14.99 Large Sulfurous Stone                    $8.88 Large Devil Scales                       $11.76 Firestorm Greaves                        $17.76 Bloodstone                               $17.60 Boots of the Innocent                    $19.99 Royal Guard Mask                         $15.29 100 Elixirs of Major                     $23.58 Cloak of Ice                             $11.76 Spectral Gloves                          $9.99 and a lot of items on our website. just come take a look. Welcome to www.mmobay.com

Just when I thought things couldn't get any MORE realistic in a game... >_< (T/C) 23:37, September 26, 2009 (UTC)
 * Meh, it happens - on EQ2 I got one on the second day, and then another on the same day through an in-game tell. <font color="Orange">Random <font color="Black">Time  10:32, September 27, 2009 (UTC)
 * Huh...never got any spam. Unless you count the shit I auction off.  [[Image:RHSig.jpg]] rede | beiträge 22:59, September 27, 2009 (UTC)

Shameless advertisement and Giga ripoff
Come and take a look at my elite skill contest!--<font color="Green">El_Nazgir 16:28, September 29, 2009 (UTC)
 * I haven't made a skill in a long long time, but I still have a few old ideas I never finished. [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 01:43, September 30, 2009 (UTC)

Entropy needs a new antivirus/firewall/malware
I've been through about five different programs now, all of which have either underperformed or caused serious problems.


 * 1) ZoneAlarm, in addition to sucking all around, is deadly allergic to torrents. It is also a real bitch to fully uninstall - you usually have to edit registry files. >_<
 * 2) Default Windows Defender is better than nothing (I think?), but is terrible of course. Sadly it can never be fully turned off and continues to randomly block things sometimes.
 * 3) Anything from McAffee these days is subpar.
 * 4) Symantec...see McAfee.
 * 5) I had high hopes for COMODO Internet Security, which was not only well-rated but also specifically recommended by people who torrent a lot. But it just blew up my laptop by unexplainably using 99% of the CPU usage on every boot-up, so we will just have to part ways.

I am too cheap to actually pay for a program. So I'm curious if anyone has any recommendations. (Always ask a gamer, not a tech support guy, which programs to use...) (T/C) 22:49, October 8, 2009 (UTC)


 * Turn off all internet services that your machine is runing that you don't need, and that includes windows network file sharing and printer sharing (I use Personal ftp to set up a ftp server if I need to share anything), then do a port scan (there a few tools you can download and use, and I used to have a good online port scanner bookmarked that I can't find again, alas). That pretty much takes care of inbound threats. Last Antivirus I used was Avast! . I take care to not acquire malware by a) using an account with no admin rights for most of what I do, b) using Pegasus instead of Outlook for email, c) not using IE to access the Internet if I can help it. -- ◄mendel► 23:04, October 8, 2009 (UTC)
 * There's some strange bug with my Internet that causes me to be unable to access e-mail services when I have network file sharing and printer sharing disabled, and we are not sure why. Avast! gets OK ratings for everything except competency - even though it claims to update itself almost every day, its threat database has huge holes that let tons of crap slip through (which other AVs catch).
 * I've thought about the "no rights account" idea, as well as using FireFox. The problem inherent to both of those, of course, is the "can't be arsed" factor. Setting up duplicate copies of every game / messing around with user rights and other stuff would be a headache for me, and I honestly don't want to spend the time to tweak every aspect of FireFox so it looks and behaves exactly like IE (minus bugs or w/e). I'm aware that by doing this I place myself at risk, but it's a question of effort vs. gain, and I am still not convinced. (IE8 is honestly not bad browser, either, compared to IE7 and previous, at least in terms of huge gaping security holes.)
 * As for e-mail, I'm not dumb enough to use a mail manager like Outlook or anything else, since those are historically huge targets for all sorts of problems. And unlike you I don't get 1000 messages a day. :\ [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 23:33, October 8, 2009 (UTC)


 * Try AVG Free for anti-virus. Try GMER for rooting out rootkits that AVG can't handle. I like zone alarm, so you'll have to give me more details about how it conflicts with torrents; I have never had any trouble uninstalling it either (it does have to be turned off and it helps to force quit from task manager). You can also try using AdAware.


 * BTW: you want both firewall and anti-virus protection; no program out there catches everything.


 * Look at Black Viper's website for recommendations on what services to turn off; a sizable number of risks can be defeated simply by shutting down standard windows features.


 * I don't understand why Firefox isn't an acceptable replacement for IE; see my page for links to No Script, Ad Block, plus there's some redirectors of re-directs that are useful. My firefox also has flash disabled; if I really need it, I switch to IE for just that. Or, put another way: I use Firefox except when I can't; so far, I seem to be doing fairly well. (I don't have any specific objections to IE8 at the moment, except that it doesn't have any of the plug-ins upon which I depend to keep my signal:noise high and my risks low).  &mdash; Tennessee Ernie Ford ( TEF ) 23:58, October 8, 2009 (UTC)


 * With certain versions of ZoneAlarm (the one I know for certain is ZoneAlarm Security Suite), for some unknown reason it freaks out if it detects torrenting software being used and tries to block all outbound connections (or something like that, it's too technical for me to really explain). The only known remedy is to uninstall ZoneAlarm. For some examples of ZoneAlarm uninstall problems, you can use google search...the tl;dr version is that while it's easy enough to remove ZoneAlarm on the surface, it almost always leaves behind artifacts such as registry data or other things. Sometimes these cause problems, other times they are benign; but the point is that they are there, and they shouldn't be. Even ZoneLabs itself acknowledges that they have a messy uninstall. :\
 * The problem with FireFox is that the default skin is UGLY . So I would need to spend time tracking down a "looks just like IE8" skin, then tweak it so it was just right, and so on and so forth... and of course they are different browsers, so pages would be rendered differently. (I don't care if you say "correctly", they are still different.) Personally, I find the wikis to be pretty ugly when viewing them with FireFox, although a large part of that is that all my .css and .js is designed for IE. (I don't want to redo that, either. I spent a lot of time and effort perfecting my personal code.) But even other random pages on the net don't look the same, and those I can't really do anything about. I guess you could say I am so used to seeing pages rendered incorrectly that I am upset when they look otherwise. So in short, while FireFox might be "the truth" and also "safer", it would also make my Internet experience less pleasant. And I'm online most times for recreation, anyway. [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 00:25, October 9, 2009 (UTC)


 * Ok, I haven't suffered the torrent issues. Then again, I doubt I stream as much as you. I do spend time keeping my registry, menus, etc clear of detritus and ZA hasn't left anything all the times I've installed/uninstalled. I've been using AVG Free to good effect; it's better at catching stuff after it's on your system, but it seems to catch everything. It also doesn't seem to nerf performance badly.


 * re: skins. Well, I'm the wrong person to ask usually, as I generally prefer performance over looks (and skins tend to consume performance). There's a plug-in skin for Firefox called, "Any Color." The cool things about it apply directly to you: it covers all sorts of tweaks, making it easy to get FF to look like Safari and IE, but lots of other (imo) better looking options. Better: it offers users the options to upload their skins and let others use 'em. So, the chances are that there's a skin for you. You can check out previews. Or, IEFox has good reviews and purports to make FF seem exactly like IE. Since I am a horrible judge of such things, I would be interested in your reaction (should you end up spending the time to check it out).


 * Don't forget to visit Black Viper &mdash; that site alone has helped improve performance and reduce risk more than anything else I've spent time with.  &mdash; Tennessee Ernie Ford ( TEF ) 01:12, October 9, 2009 (UTC)
 * AVG and Spybot cuts it for me, but I take a lot of preventative measures against malware such as using common sense. [[Image:Felix_Omni_Signature.png]] 01:34, October 9, 2009 (UTC)


 * I run Avast! on my machine, and I've not had any issues yet with it up (combined with the default Windows XP firewall). So long as you play it smart (don't go downloading keygen .exes and whatnot), you probably won't have any problems with it either.
 * I also used to run advanced WindowsCare alongside Avast! as a bit of backup, but I've since removed that one; it just got to the point where it didn't ever have anything to remove when it scanned.
 * And of course, I do run Firefox on my machine as well, with AdblockPlus active; I've also got Firefox set to ask me for permission whenever a website attempts to redirect me or automatically refresh (so I can see it when a sneaky website tries to throw me for a loop). I highly recommend having that option on if you've got access to it. --<font color="#237d00"> Jïörüjï Ðērākō.> <font color="#237d00">.cнаt^  15:58, October 9, 2009 (UTC)
 * Microsoft offers a free antivirus called security essentials - which, from all reports, is very good.
 * My set up is: NAT router for a firewall, ClamWin for AV (once per month) and Spybot for Anti-malware (once per month). I also run the firefox extention NoScript to protect me from bad scripts. Remember that, once your AV has detected something, then it's too late. Also remember that the only secure browser on windows at the moment is FireFox (Steve Gibson on this week's Security Now says "


 * ''What's interesting is that Firefox, both version chains of Firefox, the 3.0 and the 3.5, fixed it [the exploit] within a couple days. And there was also the problem, even in the Mac OS X originally, but Apple fixed it a couple weeks later. So this has long been fixed for Firefox under Windows and Safari under OS X. But even now, more than two months later, has not been fixed for IE, Apple Safari under Windows, and Chrome. And now we have this fake PayPal certificate that is being circulated on the Internet that essentially, if it's used, you can actually establish an SSL connection to what looks like PayPal. We talked about this a couple months ago, to remind our listeners.


 * The idea is that the way strings are stored in pretty much all modern operating systems is it's just a sequence of bytes that ends with a null byte, that is, a zero byte. They're so-called null terminated strings. Strings historically have been stored in various different formats. Pascal was famous for storing the length of the string as the first byte, which was convenient for all kinds of reasons. The problem was that a byte can only be 0 to 255. So Pascal strings could never be longer than 255 characters. So that was sort of fixed by saying, wait a minute, we'll just allow a string to be any length, but terminate it with a null. Well, of course that has had disastrous security consequences. That whole null terminated string issue, while it's very convenient for programmers to sort of scan until you hit a null, that's largely responsible for all the buffer overrun problems we have today.'' ")
 * <font color="Orange">Random <font color="Black">Time  20:02, October 9, 2009 (UTC)


 * Steve Gibson's Shields Up! makes for great reading. His articles have changed my understanding of threats and security measures, so I can take appropriate actions. The site also has some good tools to help you see how horribly exposed we are 90% of the time. Gibson is also a bit of a loon, as evidenced by his implied idea that strings should be limited to 255 bytes so it will only take a single byte to validate their intended length. (Baby-with-the-bath-water; there are ways to allow internal checksums in strings without limiting their length. There are also ways to resist buffer overruns.) On the other hand, there's some evidence to suggest he's had a profound influence on the evolution of AVs, Microsoft's threat response process, and perhaps even the evolution of FF's security measures. Short story: read him for his threat analysis, but verify his advice elsewhere before following.
 * Shields Up! is exactly the tool I wanted to link. -- ◄mendel► 19:13, October 10, 2009 (UTC)


 * The point remains that there is a large hole in SSL, which only FF has fixed on the windows side, which is why I bought up the quote <font color="Orange">Random <font color="Black">Time  10:47, October 11, 2009 (UTC)

This just in: apparently, about half of AV programs still consider TexMod as a threat (not just a potential threat); texmod also leaves detritus in %temp% (among other places) that makes it look like some mods are also trojans (e.g. Cartography made easy leaves some diff files). The official site's texmod article now contains MD5 checksums for the two most likely zip files and the texmode exe itself. I am trying to find an independent checksum for CME. (Near as I can tell, no one has actually suffered any harm from running TexMod with GW regardless of mods used. Better to be overly cautiously safe than hacked.)  &mdash; Tennessee Ernie Ford ( TEF ) 18:42, October 10, 2009 (UTC)
 * I thought that was mostly because TexMod runs games within its own scope. Naturally, it has to do this to have access to the texture memory, but that is considered malware-like behavior in the generic sense.  (Makes things a pain, though.  I hate recovering TexMod weekly.)  Nwash 11:13, October 11, 2009 (UTC)
 * Yes, I think you are correct. However, lots of programs do this; the AV systems could identify texmod via checksum and ignore it (as they do for other programs). BTW: the most recent version of AVG (as well as most AV programs) has a mechanism for putting TexMod (or other programs) on an ignore list, eliminating the need for weekly adjustments.  &mdash; Tennessee Ernie Ford ( TEF ) 21:20, October 11, 2009 (UTC)
 * But some don't. Interestingly, however, TexMod is now longer getting removed on a weekly basis, though I still have to temporarily disable real-time scanning to run Guild Wars under TexMod.  So... progress of a sort, I guess.  Maybe they did finally put in an exception... <font color="#660099">Nwash  [[Image:User-Nwash-Eyes.png|link=User talk:Nwash]] 06:34, October 12, 2009 (UTC)

Admin role
I wrote some dogma on what I want admins to do and be on Rose's RfA, and I've been expecting you to have a different opinion than I do. If that's the case, please share. :) -- ◄mendel► 23:04, October 8, 2009 (UTC)