Halflife 2

Is halflife 2 good?

well put it this way

id just read that it had been released on steam at about 12:30am

i started playing it
and its now almost 3am
and i have work tomorrow


you do the math

Finished my degree!!!

Hooray!!

Laurie has now finished his first degree

I had my last test today and it was pretty piss easy, and it was my last subject for my Backelor of IT so NO MORE UNI YAYAYAY!!!!!!!!!!

My old blog design sucked

My old blog layout sucked and burnt my eyes

well that was ok for me cos I wasnt the one reading it

but for you suckers it was shite so I changed it to a nye lookalike blog

History does indeed repeat itself

Microsoft is about to begin asserting IP (Intellectual Property, not to be confused with Internet Protocol whos acronym is also IP) rights on their so called "Royalty Free Protocol List". Basically from what I gather from the articles, they are starting to flex their muscles and say "We are the rightful owners of these protocols".

Now that would be all well and good, except that the majority of these protocols they did not develop. Microsoft is claiming to possess the rights to many of the core protocols that the internet uses to function. Protocols such as TCP/IP and DNS are critical to the operation of the internet as we know it today.

What does this mean for the average internet user?
Lets consider a possible scenario. In this scenario Microsoft has decided to start charging royalties for "their" protocols. As a result of this, your Internet Service Provider (ISP) may be billed for using TCP/IP on their network, not to mention running DNS, DHCP, FTP, HTTP, LDAP, PPP, PPPoE, POP3, and SSL servers amongst other things, who would then pass these costs onto you. Your university may also incur these charges, along with the Government, your workplace, and even yourself.

This type of thing has happened quite recently. Back in January 2003, SCO Group, who own the operating system UNIX, claimed that much of the code in the Linux kernel had been copied from the UNIX kernel, violating their copyright, and as a result started issuing invoices requesting payment of large amounts of money to large well known corporations.

Some of these companies paid SCO, others didn't. To this date SCO has not succeeded in claiming the copyright infringement of the UNIX kernel.

Lets take a look at some of the protocols that Microsoft claims they hold the IP rights to.

TCP/IP for example, is listed on Microsoft's RFPL, and Microsoft even has a link to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Request For Comment (RFC) document dated September 1981, and written by "Information Sciences Institute, University of Southern California" (http://ietf.org/rfc/rfc0791.txt).

AppleTalk is also listed as a Microsoft Royalty Free Protocol, and links to Apple's Developer website.

Larry J. Blunk writes "The fact that a significant number of protocols date from the early 1980's, a time during which Microsoft had little patent activity, suggests that there is no reason to suspect that Microsoft has any patent rights to these early protocols (such as the TCP/IP v4 core protocols)"¹.

So essentially Microsoft's claim on protocols such as TCP/IP, DNS, and HTTP have no clear ground. Protocols such as MS-CHAP (Microsoft Challenge Handshake Protocol), CIFS (Common Internet File System) and others may be legal Microsoft property, however these protocols are not necessary for the operation of the Internet and World Wide Web, and we could easily deal without them.

How long will it be before Microsoft begin to issue invoices to non Windows users?


References:
1. Blunk, L. 2004. Concerns regarding Microsoft's Royalty Free Protocol License Agreement. [Online]. Available: http://www1.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/ipr-wg/current/msg02436.html [8 November 2004]

2. michael. 2004. Microsoft Offers to License the Internet. [Online]. Available: http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/04/11/07/0519237.shtml?tid=109&tid=155&tid=123&tid=98 [8 November 2004]

3. Vaughan-Nichols, Steven J. 2004. Is Microsoft Ready to Assert IP Rights over the Internet? [Online]. Available: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1714680,00.asp [8 November 2004]

4. Microsoft Corporation. ROYALTY FREE PROTOCOL LICENSE AGREEMENT. [Online]. Available: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/randz/protocol/royalty_free_protocol_license_agreement.asp [8 November 2004]

5. O'Gara, M. SCO Threatens to Press IP Claims on Linux. [Online]. Available: http://www.sys-con.com/linux/article.cfm?id=381 [8 November 2004]

An Open Letter to the Citizens of the US

This is gold! Taken from http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blrevocation1.htm


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

To the citizens of the United States of America :-

In the light of your failure to elect a proper President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective today. Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths and other territories. Except Utah, which she does not fancy. Your new prime minister (The Right Honourable Tony Blair, MP for the 97.85% of you who have until now been unaware that there is a world outside your borders) will appoint a minister for America without the need for further elections. Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire will be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed. To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

1. You should look up "revocation" in the Oxford English Dictionary. Then look up "aluminium". Check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it. The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'favour' and 'neighbour', skipping the letter 'U' is nothing more than laziness on your part. Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters. You will end your love affair with the letter 'Z' (pronounced 'zed' not 'zee') and the suffix "ize" will be replaced by the suffix "ise". You will learn that the suffix 'burgh is pronounced 'burra' e.g. Edinburgh. You are welcome to respell Pittsburgh as 'Pittsberg' if you can't cope with correct pronunciation. Generally, you should raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. Look up "vocabulary". Using the same twenty seven words interspersed with filler noises such as "like" and "you know" is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. Look up "interspersed". There will be no more 'bleeps' in the Jerry Springer show. If you're not old enough to cope with bad language then you shouldn't have chat shows. When you learn to develop your vocabulary then you won't have to use bad language as often.

2. There is no such thing as "US English". We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take account of the reinstated letter 'u' and the elimination of "-ize".

3. You should learn to distinguish the English and Australian accents. It really isn't that hard. English accents are not limited to Cockney, upper-class twit or Mancunian (Daphne in Frasier). You will also have to learn how to understand regional accents – Scottish dramas such as "Taggart" will no longer be broadcast with subtitles. While we're talking about regions, you must learn that there is no such place as Devonshire in England. The name of the county is "Devon". If you persist in calling it Devonshire, all American States will become "shires" e.g. Texasshire, Floridashire, Louisianashire.

4. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as the good guys. Hollywood will be required to cast English actors to play English characters. British sit-coms such as "Men Behaving Badly" or "Red Dwarf" will not be re-cast and watered down for a wishy-washy American audience who can't cope with the humour of occasional political incorrectness.

5. You should relearn your original national anthem, "God Save The Queen", but only after fully carrying out task 1. We would not want you to get confused and give up half way through.

6. You should stop playing American "football". There is only one kind of football. What you refer to as American "football" is not a very good game. The 2.15% of you who are aware that there is a world outside your borders may have noticed that no one else plays "American" football. You will no longer be allowed to play it, and should instead play proper football. Initially, it would be best if you played with the girls. It is a difficult game. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which is similar to American "football", but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full Kevlar body armour like nancies). We are hoping to get together at least a US rugby sevens side by 2005. You should stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the 'World Series' for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.15% of you are aware that there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. Instead of baseball, you will be allowed to play a girls' game called "rounders" which is baseball without fancy team strip, oversized gloves, collector cards or hotdogs.

7. You will no longer be allowed to own or carry guns. You will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous in public than a vegetable peeler. Because we don't believe you are sensible enough to handle potentially dangerous items, you will require a permit if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

8. July 4th is no longer a public holiday. November 2nd will be a new national holiday, but only in England. It will be called "Indecisive Day".

9. All American cars are hereby banned. They are cr*p and it is for your own good. When we show you German cars, you will understand what we mean. All road intersections will be replaced with roundabouts. You will start driving on the left with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.

10. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips. Fries aren't even French; they are Belgian though 97.85% of you (including the guy who discovered fries while in Europe) are not aware of a country called Belgium. Those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called "crisps". Real chips are thick cut and fried in animal fat. The traditional accompaniment to chips is beer which should be served warm and flat. Waitresses will be trained to be more aggressive with customers.

11. As a sign of penance 5 grams of sea salt per cup will be added to all tea made within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, this quantity to be doubled for tea made within the city of Boston itself.

12. The cold tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all, it is lager. From November 1st only proper British Bitter will be referred to as "beer", and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as "Lager".

The substances formerly known as "American Beer" will henceforth be referred to as "Near-Frozen Knat's Urine", with the exception of the product of the American Budweiser company whose product will be referred to as "Weak Near-Frozen Knat's Urine". This will allow true Budweiser (as manufactured for the last 1000 years in Pilsen, Czech Republic) to be sold without risk of confusion.

13. From December 1st the UK will harmonise petrol (or "Gasoline" as you will be permitted to keep calling it until April 1st 2005) prices with the former USA. The UK will harmonise its prices to those of the former USA and the Former USA will, in return, adopt UK petrol prices (roughly $6/US gallon - get used to it).

14. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not adult enough to be independent. Guns should only be handled by adults. If you're not adult enough to sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist then you're not grown up enough to handle a gun.

15. Please tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us crazy.

Tax collectors from Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all revenues due (backdated to 1776).

My experience of D-Day & the rest of my weekend

Friday Night -
Friday night I rocked up to Nyes house ready to head out with him, Brucey & Shorty. When I got there the boys were already drunk, and I was after some spumante so I took Shorty & Brucey down to the bottle-o. Now Shorty was already quite drunk at this stage after consuming 3/4 of a bottle of wine that Nye had opened, leaving poor Nye with only 1/4 of his bottle. Shorty proceeded to buy a bottle of vodka.

After arriving back at Nye's house Shorty poured himself a drink. Fair enough. But after he was half finished this drink he topped it up with vodka. I laughed. Then being half finished that he topped it up with more vodka. Ok it was time for intervention. I yelled an flailed my arms at the drunk man to slow his drinking down, otherwise hes gonna either be too drunk to get in anywhere once we finally leave, or hes gonna yack everywhere once we finally do go somewhere. My my how I was wrong.

We left after about an hour after I got there, after Nye and I consumed 2 bottle of Spumante, we made Brucey call a cab and lo and behold it was there in 2 minutes.

Jumping in the cab we headed off to France, because we were heading to Normandy. Or so Shorty thought. Anyway we headed to the Normanby, which Nye was telling me is like a trendy place that has good music and is suave and stuff, and that I'd really like it. How wrong he was.

Arriving at the Normanby we walked up to the bouncer, each presenting our respective IDs. After repeated attempts to slip Brucey up (who wasnt all that drunk), the bouncer let all of us in (including shorty the drunk bastard), and we headed to the bar. Nye was completely wrong. The Normanby is just like any other city club/pub with the top 40 blaring and the drunk teeny boppers dancing etc etc.

Anyway drinking was had and eventually shorty headed off to the toilet, but not before dropping a glass of water I gave to him on the floor. This was the last we saw of shorty that night. After him being gone about 10 minutes I headed into the toilet to see if he was ok. He was nowhere to be seen. Calling his mobile I asked him where he was.
"I'm at the Normandy!" shorty slurred.
"Come back to the place we were before" I answered
"I'm at the Normandy!" shorty slurred once more.
at about that point in time I cut our losses and hung up on him. He was too wasted to take to the valley anyway and would have been more of a liability than anything else.

So finally we leave the hellhole known as the Normanby (hell I may as well rename it to the Normandy cos its as hellish as june 6 1944) me nye and brucey headed out to the cab rank to catch a cab to the valley. We successfully hailed one and were about to get in when we get these guys asking us where we're going. Apparantly they were heading to the valley too and wanted to pool up.
"How much money have you got?" Nye asked the guys.
(drunk guys pause for a few seconds)
"Fucken nerd!" exclaimed one of them
"Four eyes!" came a remark from his dirty skank
So we left those rude fucks behind waiting for a cab which they couldnt pay for. suckers...

Anyway we headed to the valley. Going to the beer garden first, we spotted the girls that Nye was chatting up at the Normanby. They continued on to the Empire and Nye said we'd meet them there.

At the empire we headed for the balcony and Nye went in search of his women. After Nye returned without them, a bartender came round selling these shots that were frangelico & lychee liquer. They were delicious.

Nye finally found his girls and set to work on one of them once more. They went for a dance and nye and i continued to drink (im starting to get bored of writing this as you can probably tell). Then we went for a crazy dance and went home.


Saturday Night -
Meakin sends me a message asking me what I'm up to
I call meakin
Meakin arrives at 8:30
we ponder what to do
we finally decide to go to Figjams place
We call figjam on the way - no answer
we call figjam again - no answer
we call their home number - no answer
At the top of their street I call chirpys mobile - he answers HOORAY
he tells us he JUST got home from work. I tell him thats lucky cos we're at the top of his street.
he suggests we go to the RE for a game of pool.
Chirpy goes to get ready.
Meakin bums a cigarette off Michele.
I tell meakin that hes meant to be quitting.
Meakin rambles something about addiction.
We go to the RE.
Meakin uses his hick saying "thanks geezer" to the bouncer who thinks he says "thanks loser" and I tell meakin to stop saying geezer cos its a shit saying and only people in rockhampton say it.
We order a jug of bundy
we admire the view
we go see if we can play pool
we cant play pool cos theres a function on
we go get another jug
we head back to chirpys and take some smirnoff ice blacks for the road
chirpy makes us pizza and we watch alien vs predator
we cream our pants over the fight scenes
we drink
we eat pizza
we go home
THE END

sorry that night couldnt have been as detailed as friday night but i mean fuck whos gonna read all of this anyway?

This just in....

Glen can't spell.

I don't know what it is, whether his right hand is faster to the keys than his left or whether hes just plain stupid, but it appears he thinks my name is Lauire.

Now if that were my name then my name wouldn't be pronounced "lor-ee" it would be "lai-ree" or something.

He can never spell my name right, no matter how many times I say "Glen thats now how my name is spelt, its spelt L A U R I E, the I and the R are around the wrong way", it still seems to persist.

So I hereby declare the "Spell Laurie's name right" campaign open.

The offending post: Lauire's Quote of the week

Once again... Glen youre a fucktard

Heres another post I'm sure figjam will love...

So Glen goes to me yesterday afternoon over MSN:

"Laurie I've finished this Castra drawing apart from the essay of notes that Don has written up, do u mind doing them tomorrow?"

I say "sure why not" and that was that.

I come in this morning to start work on this drawing and the fucken drawing isnt even completed.

I mean fuck.

He just wanted me to do the notes yesterday, and I come in and the fucken thing isnt finished! Its not like theres a general grouped area of stuff that hasnt been put on the drawing, its fucken shit randomly everywhere!!!! A smoke detector here, an alarm bell there, a fucken leader that hasnt been put on.

So in conclusion, I say: Fuck glen you incompetent git, HAVE SOME CONSISTENCY!

These people are for our cause

http://www.anti-rice.com/

some good quotes from the FAQ

Q: Where can I find some ricers?
This is an easy one, since ricers tend to be the cheapest of the bastards around you can easily find them at:

-McDonalds
-Wal-Mart
-Tire Stores
-Pepboys or Checker
-The Casino (because many of them claim to be hardcore gangsta's and think they have mad gambling abilities)


Q: YOU FUKIN RACIST! YOU ARE GAY! CUT YOUR MULLET!!!
Ok, also not a question. But here goes, No, no, and although I do not have a mullet, I would not be inclined to cut it per your request if I had one.