Ruined My Life

I’ve always had a bit of an issue with the guns in Call of Duty 4.  I love the game, love the gameplay however when playing on a hardcore server, I feel the guns could be more “realistic”.  What I mean is, in Hardcore Mode Pistols drop people in one shot, and are able to shoot 100 meters + with precision accuracy, while sniper rifles shoot across the map and hit instantly.  I’ve looked for mods that tweak the weapons, however they are poorly documented or just have little information on what is done.

With that being said, I’m planning on starting a little Call of Duty 4 Modification that will at first tweak the weapons so they have a more “realistic” feel.  Some of the features planned will be:

• Bullet Travel Time on Sniper Rifles
• Bullet Drop on all weapons past a determined range
• Weapon Damage tweaked for Hardcore Mode

Once these three basic features are implemented, I’ll step back, and take a look at the mod to determine where I’ll go from there.

Update: Well, I was looking forward to taking this project on, however as of now, the Call of Duty 4 Mod Tools are not compatible with Windows Vista…. so it looks like this will be put on the backburner untill a compatible version of the tools is released.

Update 2: I’ve gotten the mod tools working with Vista, so stay tuned!

The past few days have been abuzz with hype regarding Internet Explorer 8, however is it justified?  Microsoft has released their new web browser as a beta for “web developers and designers”.  Upon trying to download it to check it out for myself first hand I keep receiving URL errors through Microsoft’s website, so as of this point all commentary will be done from a non-hands on point of view.

Perhaps the most talked about new feature of IE8 is the private browsing feature dubbed “InPrivate“, aka Porn Mode.  Basically what InPrivate allows you to do is browser the web without any of your actions being traceable on your computer.  This is done by temporarily disabling the browser’s caching feature as well as denying cookies as they are sent to your browser.  However, using this feature does not truly make your web activties “Private”.  This isn’t an issue, however one needs to remember that your IP will still be logged on the website you visit as well as on your ISP’s end.  Apple’s Safari has a “Private Browsing” feature that functions basically the same way.

Microsoft has also planned some new features to provide user’s with rich web content outside of normal websites.  User’s can view selectable content from a website via a “WebSlice“.  Basically, a WebSlice is a kind of a “rich, designable” .rss feed that will be proprietary to IE8.  Instead of providing users with a .RSS feed that they can decide how they would like it to be displayed and/or utilized, WebSlices are little web apps that user’s can choose to view as designed by the web developer, thus taking out all of the work of using an RSS feed.  This could be an interesting concept, however will we EVER see it be cross browser compatible?  I doubt it, thus leading me to believe it will never really catch on.

Finally, Microsoft is touting full CSS 2.1 compatibility with IE 8.  With IE7 web designers still had to use several CSS Hacks to get around the atrocious CSS rendering.  Hopefully IE8 will actually adhere to W3C specifications.   As soon as I get it downloaded and give it a good looking over, I will follow up this post with a Hands On review.

The released tracks from the latest Metallica album have been making their way across the internet for all to listen.  Why Metallica, after Load do you continue to write and record these albums that tear away any legitamacy that you once had?  Most will argue it’s their right to record whatever they want, which it is, but perhaps staying legit in a fickle genre like metal is a beast unto it’s self.  There may be no other genre of music in which fans are so quick to completely abandon the ship of their favorite band, that has made “artistic choice” to stray from their labeled genre.

I’m all for music evolving, but there is such a thing as going too far.  With Metallica they’ve crossed the point of no return.  Why has Metallica changed so much over the past 15 years?  One can only guess, could it be,  sobriety, maturity, selling out, getting old;  who knows.  They’re in their mid fortys, rich, have families, and frankly are probably having a blast.  Life is a lot different when you have more money than most can visualize, especially when coming from such humble beginnings.

Armani is METAL!

However having a comfortable, wealthy life doesn’t seem to be too kind to the metal attitude.  If the newish Metallica is your thing, more power to you, however growing up on Kill ‘em All, Ride The Lightning, Master of Puppets and Justice for All, the Black Album, Load, Re-Load and Download(errrr  Death Magnetic, wtf?) just don’t even come close to the early stuff.

Just to see how awesome their failed attempt at returning to their “Thrash” roots is, you can check out their newest single “My Apocalypse” by clicking “More” below.

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Since the NDA has been lifted on Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, I figured I’d share with you some images as well as plenty of upcoming commentary focusing around the game.  However first, I’ll start with some in game images of the keeps.  In DAOC level 10 keep sieges could be epic, and WAR has raised the bar once again with these epic keeps.

Keeps are once again made up of two main sections, the outer wall and the aptly named central keep.  The outer walls hold a gate to be knocked down by attacks or a quicker ram.  Hopefully we’ll see climb spots or even siege ladders added in at a later time so tanks or the Witch Elf or Witch Hunter can access the battlements.

The central keep has yet another set of gates, however inside this one there are all kinds of big NPC Guards as well as the super beefy Keep Lord.  On top of keeps you can find Renown Gear Merchants as well as a Renown Trainer.  In Tier 2 and on, all Renown Gear is purchased from keeps your side holds.

You can see from the screenshots above the keeps are massive, with plenty of places to mount defense from.

So, I’m using a new URL to make my rare blog posts at for one main reason.  1and1 Hosting sucks and can DIAF.  To make a long story short, my credit card expired and 1and1 was unable to bill me for my web hosting.  What makes this so crappy is the simple fact that 1and1 never once, attempted to contact me via e-mail, phone, or postal mail that my credit card had expired.  To further worsen this predicament, I have absolutely NO ACCESS to any of the domains I have PAID for and registered in the past.  This includes my baby: ruinedmylife.com as well as a hand full of other domains that I use and have no interest in getting rid of.

So, why is this conundrum not resolved?  Upon 1and1 failing to notify me that my credit card had expired, they turned my account into collections.  My balance with 1and1 was a meager: $49.95, however they decided to turn me over to collections, which added an awesome $18.00 fee, NOT TO MENTION, I’ve been reported to collections.  The bill I’ll pay, no big deal, but I’m not paying collections when I was never notified!   So now, I’m in the interesting position of having my domains hijacked by my prior hosting provider, as well as having a debt in collections.

I contact 1and1’s billing department and am promptly shot down, (e-mail transcript on full view)  so it’s now to continue or not.

I’ve tried to pay 1and1 directly, however they will have none of it and insist on me paying collections first.

So should I continue fighting it or just suck it up and pay?

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