Date: 20 February 2010 - 10:47Hi guys,
Yep, it's been a rough few days. The good news is that we're back and in record time I would say. I'll leave the story till later time since there are still a few more things that need sorting out.
On the plus side, our performance problems should now be fixed once and for all.
Date: 17 February 2010 - 04:31
Dear all,
This is to sincerely apologize for the recent spam attacks that have been affecting our board as well as the IPB boards of many other websites too. The attacker was able to mass PM all members with spam and, naturally, caused quite a few people to get upset.
What we have done now to temporarily combat this issue is:
- Permanently disable all new registrations. This will be an inconvenience both for new users as well as for admins, but for the time being new registrations will be frozen until we can get past this issue. Thereafter, we will look into setting up a process for selectively approving and validating new registrations. We hate to do this, since new users are without a doubt an important part of this community, but unfortunately, for the time being we feel forced to have to take this step.
- Members will not be able to use the PM system unless they get promoted to the +Members group, which happens after the member makes a certain number of posts. Members in other groups will not be affected.
- Offending user accounts have been deleted
We will lay out a long-term, permanent plan soon and keep you all posted once that's available.
I would like to personally thank and credit the following members for their vigilance, for sending in their suggestions and for always reporting offending users and posts; this website would truly not be the same without you guys:
amir, bobhome, j-rah.
Special thanks goes to
Thorchevron7 for taking a personal interest in fixing the issue despite not being a poster here. He could have simply ignored the issue, but instead decided to drop me a line with some tips on permanently fixing the issue.
Once again, please accept my sincere apologies. We've taken steps that we believe will mitigate the issue, but in case it persists, kindly let me or one of the mods know right away and we'll work promptly on getting to the bottom of this headache once and for all.
Regards,
Ali
Date: 16 February 2010 - 01:52
Hi Mods, had another dodgy PM today from 'Cliffinzz'
Thought you should know.
Date: 13 February 2010 - 04:21
Received this:
A virus alert was noticed on your computer.
We highly recommend you to check your computer and perform online virus check at our site immediately:
http://security-tool2010.org/NanoRulerIf you do not pass this test we will have to delete your account and forward a complaint to your ISP.
My simple response is this: Farque You!!!
Do NOT try and send me stupid little threats as I assure you I don't take kindly to it!
Now either
a) Boot the bastard that sent that message,
or
b) Beg for forgiveness
Date: 14 December 2009 - 10:39
Hello everyone,
I know MSG is a common topic but it is a topic that we shouldn't take for granted. Others try to tell people that it is safe for pregnancy and others said it's dangerous. MSG is a slow poison in our body and everyone knows it, it is really poisoning us slowly but what confuses me is that, why are other people try to defend msg? they kept on saying that it's all natural and it can't harm us.
For those who knows more about this topic, can you please explain or enlighten us about the truth of msg? Just to have a closure.
Thanks,
Date: 16 October 2009 - 04:05
Hi everyone,
You might have noticed that the outages have become more frequent recently. Unfortunately, I've not been able to pinpoint the culprit by looking through the server logs so what our web-host will do after midnight tonight is take the server down for approximately four hours to run a full hardware diagnostics test in order to see if the issue is related to hardware. Whatever the reason turns out to be, even if it turns out that we have to upgrade our hardware, I'll be sure to request that they do that right away.
Regarding the general activity, I admit that I've not been really active lately, and certainly appreciate all you guys who have been checking in from time to time. Unfortunately, a few things happened in my life recently that have made it difficult to be as active here as before. Things are slowly settling down now, so I should have more free time soon (not the first time that's been said
) to be an active part of this great community once again.
Thanks again, guys. I'll be sure to keep you posted.
Date: 01 July 2009 - 07:48
The Pirate Bay has been purchased and is perhaps looking to go legit. Software company Global Gaming Factory X AB has shelled out approximately US$7.8 million for the site.
The acquisition appears to be the first step into turning The Pirate Bay into a legal site. The Stockholm-based piracy site is a peer-to-peer server which made video games, movies and music available for "sharing" among users. Swedish police previously raided the The Pirate Bay and those connected to the site, and the ensuing trial against the BitTorrent site's founder resulted in a guilty verdict.
According to Hans Pandeya, CEO of Sweden's Global Gaming Factory, "We would like to introduce models which entail that content providers and copyright owners get paid for content that is downloaded via the site."
Pandeya adds that while The Pirate Bay is one of the top 100 most visited sites on the entire internet, it needs to change. "In order to live on, The Pirate Bay requires a new business model, which satisfies the requirements and needs of all parties, content providers, broadband operators, end users, and the judiciary," says the GGF exec. "Content creators and providers need to control their content and get paid for it." What's more, Pandeya adds, file sharers need "faster downloads and better quality".
According to a statement from The Pirate Bay, "If the new owners will screw around with the site, nobody will keep using it. That's the biggest insurance one can have that the site will be run in the way that we all want to."
Global Gaming Factory X AB will acquire The Pirate Bay this August.
Date: 30 June 2009 - 03:20
Dustin Browder, lead designer on StarCraft II at Blizzard, says that the team is planning to have a publicly playable beta for the game that runs about "four to six months." When that would go live, Blizzard still isn't saying.
But considering that we're already six months into 2009, a four to six month beta period is kind of cutting it close, if the game has any intentions of shipping this calendar year. Granted, Blizzard hasn't officially committed to that, but StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is the company's best bet for a "front line release" this year. So... will it ship this year?
"It's getting there," Browder said, adding "We can still make four!"
While what we played at Blizzard's recent hands-on felt beta ready to us, we're obviously not calling the shots. Browder says that StarCraft II needs to be in the best possible shape before it gets its beta coming out party.
"Beta is extremely distracting for us," he said. "We're playing. We want to see what other people are doing. We need to fix bugs right now. The minute beta goes out, we lose a lot of efficiency."
"So, we don't want to be in beta for nine months."
Date: 30 June 2009 - 02:01
The newest version of Sony's PlayStation Portable isn't even on sale yet, but the company is already looking ahead to what's next, according to Reuters.
The electronics giant is looking into making a combination gadget that would meld its PSP gaming system with the cell phones made by Sony Ericsson, its joint venture Swedish electronics maker Ericsson, according to Reuters, which cited the Nikkei business daily.
Sony reportedly plans to put together a team as early as July to begin development of the new gadget. Sony no doubt has its eye on Apple's iPhone, which is already popular with consumers and is now getting more serious attention from game developers as a platform for their games.
This isn't the first time rumors of this nature have circulated. In 2007, Sony raised eyebrows with a patent filing that appeared to show a PSP-like device with phone capabilities, and British Telecom said it was working with the company to bring voice and video chat to the PSP.
In the meantime, Sony continues to work on its portable gaming device. The PSP Go, which was unveiled at the E3 gaming conference, is smaller than its predecessors and has a slide-up screen. It will go on sale in North America on October 1 for $249.
Date: 09 January 2009 - 11:40
