Ditch Tripod's blog?
Mood:  special
After posting the latest entry in this TCAL Blog, and the fact that I've been using Livejournal's service most of the time, I am thinking I should ditch Tripod's blog service entirely and go to Livejournal, so at least I would be using it a little more than I have and can build up a friends list with entries of similiar blogs so there is something to read there every so often. I'll probably copy every entry this blog has over to LJ.

Netscape 8.0 Released
Mood:  special
One of the better web browsers on the market today, Netscape has seen another release, though it's marked as a BETA version for now. Netscape has been the browser I've used the most, I rarely use Internet Explorer as most of the spyware lurking on the net are built to exploit its numerous security flaws. And gee, it is a royal pain to clean the spyware up, as no tool gets it all. Alas, my workplace wants to ditch Netscape entirely and use IE only, despite the chorus of IT experts recommending that IE NOT be used.

http://browser.netscape.com/nsb/

Reading By the Fire
Mood:  celebratory
Longtime mudder Serena Covington has published another book, this time it's a collection of poems in one small book. It is a variety of poems covering youth to love.

http://www.lulu.com/Avalon/

Updating the mudlist...
Mood:  caffeinated
Went through the remaining entries on the mudlist, and we're down to about 24 abermuds still in existance. Far cry from the mid-90s where there were a number of them around to play.

The Zonewriter Files have been moved here...
Mood:  celebratory
With the announcement yesterday that the Zone Writer Yahoo group will be discontinued, I have uploaded all the contents of that group onto TCAL and put it on its own page. You can get to it by going to the MUDStuff section and clicking on Zonewriter in the utility list.

The Zonewriter Yahoo Group about to go away, one month notice
http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/zonewriter

I'm going to delete this group in a month. If there is any interest in maintaining it, please feel free to contact me through the group.

What does this mean? The ZoneWriter software will be removed from yahoo as well, signalling my final involvment in this software.

If you still want a copy, please download it before Valentine's Day (February 14) otherwise, you'll have to search elsewhere or come up with a different solution.

Thanks to those of you who used the software and enjoyed what I'd written. MUDs have pretty much died for me so there's no use in continuing to hold on to the past. In some respects I wish I had come up with this long ago when I'd first started MUDding but times change, people change, and software comes and goes.

This is one of those pieces of software. It was fun while it lasted and thanks for everything, folks.

Excalibur

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

The Complete Abermud List will be uploading the files from the Yahoo Group to this server to keep the Abermud archive going.

Note that I myself have been heavy into the pro wrestling stuff lately, so I agree with the stance that mudding interest has been on the steep decline.

Back to crappy dial-ups
Mood:  irritated
First SBC Yahoo DSL says I won't have DSL service at my new address, then they say yes I will have DSL available at my new address, then today they say I have no DSL service available at my new address. Sigh. And Yahoo Dial-up gets me no more than 31.2K connect speeds, despite having a brand new 56K US Robotics V.92 modem installed. With cable being a bit pricey (that's if I could get THAT if I wanted to), I'm stuck with having to find a new dial-up ISP, and hopefully one that will give me the 48k-53k speed connections instead of 28-31K.

Netscape 7.2
http://channels.netscape.com/ns/browsers/default.jsp

One of the safest browsers on the net today just got an update, version 7.2 is out. I PREFER Netscape to IE cause it's much more secure and doesn't allow self-installing spyware like IE does. I only use IE when a website really needs it.

Whew, I've been in the process of moving to a regular house and getting out of an apartment. But remodeling is something I'm not into. Be glad when I'm finished.

New Areas on Northern Lights
Mood:  bright
<040731> * Added new lflags NoRandom, NoExits, NoSetStart. Also added new zone called "center", containing the center of the earth, explore it when all the quests have been completed in the same reset! Added new events that you can catch: on_enter_room, on_leave_room and mobile_killed. Another thing for zonewriters is the TO_ALL destination for messages to _everyone_, "mynum" included. Also a few small misc bugs fixed.

<040717> * The lair zone has now been turned into a fullfledged quest after some puzzle modification and minor rewrites. The quest is called "BillyGoats", read INFO BILLYGOATS to learn all about it! We hope you enjoy running the zone as much as we enjoyed writing it.

My OTHER hobby...
Mood:  irritated
New Midwest vs. the Sagnamon County Board

I have moved all the wrestling-related stuff to http://rap-sheet.tripod.com but I've not put up a seperate blog for that. Maybe someday I will put up a rap sheet blog, but hey, I haven't put up a lot in this blog so why bother? So I had to vent SOMEWHERE. It's not been a good couple weeks for the other hobby I have as detailed in that link.

I've never been in combat with the county board level of government, but who would had known the fear of being near a group of teenagers have driven certain people insane.

And I hate it when I have to pick up and move, especially if it ends up being for nothing.