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)
 * 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)

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)