AirSoft - How to go beyond your limits, having fun!

Cit.: "AirSoft is an fun-recreation activity for team, based on the simulation of military tactics."

Run the year 2010 when I came into the sport through friends, acquaintances, colleagues, but.. ehy, stop for a moment! In small words, I was the last arrived! This sport (officially recognized) for those who doesn't know yet is in predominant diffusion. I will try to analyze the secret of this surprising social response.

Introduction - Secureness:
The airsoft is played with the help of face protective masks (mandatory), and so on where you consider it necessary, to other parts of the body. No sport would rises without the necessary secureness. Protections make the gaming experience extremely enjoyable to anyone and are the starting point to play.

The game: 
When a group of people, military dressed with heavy boots, embrace Airsoft weapons with symbols of recognition spread all over the jacket, and found themselves together... Well, at that point after some greetings and a quick equip wearing (someone changes its "civil" clothes without too many problems in front of the car...)  it's time for a new adventure!  
Usually the forces are divided by two groups, and if the number is enough, in various sub-teams, called platoons.
Contrary to what someone could imagine, you don't just shoot during airsoft games. Much of the game is to keep your self-control, resist fatigue of long marches or wait without moving for times(!) or to coordinate the rise of an hill, everything of cours with the weight of your 4kg electric rifle, as well as all the equipment that follows, that increases the weight of 10kg more.

If you thought to live a "Call of Duty (tm)" way inside airsoft, you will get disappointed... your own physical limits, the movement of the team or even the conditions of poor visibility due to rain or vegetation, will force you to be extremely cautious, slow, quiet, and to prevent running longer than 30 meters (!); the risk is to run out of energies or to being hit by some enemy that notice you. All this is very different from the explosive cinematic vision of war showed by video games and movies, where a Rambo dodge any shots like Neo in Matrix(tm) and shoot with sniper precision enemies coming from all the bushes with a machinegun.

Honesty in the game, and in life:
During the game no one dies for real, and no one gets some bizarre colors upon the clothes (this is Paintball). What kick away an opponent is a plastic or ceramic small sphere with a diameter of 6mm and a weight of 0.20/0.24gr, fired with a power of less than 1 joule (all this by law rules).

When one of these dots strikes us, it is in our moral charge to raise the  hand and say "Hit" and then leave the battlefield. Usually the missions are divided into small stages of 20 minutes, so the waiting time for the next battle is easily bearable.

All this to say that the motto "referee Asshole!" is not present. There are no judges or controllers apart the companions on with you play and of course yourself. This is called "Fair Play".

How many sports you know that teaches honesty to other participants?
In Formula1 the winner is the first to come, maybe cutting the road at 300km/h to an opponent; this one is considered a champion, and after that let's go with testosterone, screams and fanaticism.. on the true roads!
In football the good one is who makes goal with force, even if the ball has been obtained by hurting, kicking legs and pulling T-shirts, and all this properly behind the eyes of the referee, but in front of the audience ... also in this content the "subject" is a champion...
In Airsoft, fortunately, we completely depart from this bad uses, and those who likes to be dishonest cannot last so far. Finally, a good sport, normal, clean in rules and spirit!
Often among the "new members", perhaps because of the individualistic society in which we find ourselves, there is always the fighter that "fire thousand shots but never receives one" (at least that's what he thinks). Here we have what we call an airsoft Highlander, the famous Last Immortal, as well as a poor man to be commiserated.

The point is that everything is based on the personal honesty of the individual, and only after repeated and boring reprimands, if the person doesn't accept the rules, he will be removed from the sports club.

But there is some more to say! The dishonest game gradually loses importance, the effort spent loses any purpose, his reputation in the group erases as well, and since the game is usually played in the early morning, the highlander will not feel good getting up at dawn to do "fake-play". 
This feedback mechanism, which I like to call: "the natural selection of airsoft", allows teams to be usually cleaned by dishonest players ... I assure you that it works. I can assure you also that, thrown a social contest of capitalism and hegemony (!) we all know, there aren't huge airsoft teams, but many small identities of 20/30 members: the honest and sports enthusiastic ones.

The equipment:

The minimum requirements to start playing are:

• First, mask or safety goggles, all for the protection of the face. They are mandatory. 
• Good hiking boots. Attention, they are very important! Water, mud and sometimes snow will come.
• A decent camouflage, with the possibility to add something for the winter. In addition a balaclava and light gloves help a lot the camouflage.
• An ASG also called electric airsoft rifle with battery, charger, about 5k/10k dots (5000 dots biodegradable usually cost 10 euro) per semester. We recommend "Full Metal rifles" for a better guarantee of the mechanical parts and for robustness.
• A bottle of water or a military water bottle if you prefer. Absolutely essential.
• Last but not Least: a lot of will to participate honestly to hard gaming sessions, to meet people, to make friends, to exchange ideas and of course ... to exchange many shots!
  

The total of this basic equipment costs around 200 euro (2012 AD), and 300 euro including camouflage and boots. Of course, buying "low cost" material of medium quality. Personally I've played more than a couple of years with this configuration.

Some useful accessories but not extremely necessary, are:

• "Midland" Radio transmitter to access radio channels that are free, otherwise you will find that cyclists of the Sunday are also hardcore radio amateurs! It is also very useful for a radio speaker and microphone, to obtain silent communications during the game.
• An upper level Mimicry like: cap, ghillie (clothes ultra-vegetated), camouflage for the weapon, etc. Radio + Mimicry give you the initiative for the attacks. Very useful for coordinates team ambushes!
• A "camelback" or backpack carrying water. Extremely useful for long sessions, and replace your water bottle. 
• An electric airsoft gun as second weapons. 
• A camouflage poncho because the club will take you from the deepest forest to the darkest storm (hehehe)!
• A tactical vest to store your magazines, and radio, etc..
• Any other accessory you want, but consider that you must reach at the end to move without dying of fatigue ...

The total equipment of those secondary accessories is around 200 euro. With this configuration you will not have so much more fun, but will play better.

But, where to buy?
Honestly, I would suggest you to take a ride inside an airsoft store around you, just to see directly the  guns and accessories, or some tactical vest. Then return to Online sites and compare prices and  analyze the costs. The savings will be amazing using Online (I suppose). But be careful with camouflage and boots because if you are not sure of the measures in Online shops, you must try and buy in a ordinary shop...

The playgrounds:An air soft Battle of is usually conducted in open spaces such as forests (not always surrounded by fences ..), or semi abandoned buildings as old industries etc., and any place your club will find around that allows a minimum of isolation from civilians and motorcyclists.
That's because the presence of an external factors in the game take the game to interruption and to a resume shortly after. Obviously the interruption results very boring and dangerous, because radio communications requires a minimum of time... Generally clubs look for isolated places then, free from bird watchers and improvised explorers of the local flora.

The battlefield is extremely important, makes you feel inside the action, let you create ambushes, test  camouflage and standing ability to remain posted even if surrounded by a advancing platoons.
In airsoft it is focused on self-control of the senses, hear, acute watch, move silently and resisting fatigue. Everything is done to organize the "great assault", or to resist the advancing enemy!
In those moments the air burns and makes tense while the target approaches, and the explosions of the first ASG rifles all around you trigger a secret survival mechanisms, rather primitive: we must resist all this.

To Conclude
You can say anything bad about a sport that "glorifies war", "inciting fanaticism" or bring young people to the "violence" but would just be careless remarks. Like all sports, fatigue and friendship always teach important values, and airsoft meet as many friends as.. a lot of fatigue! 
In a world where we are all connected but nobody really talks each other, you have to go there, in the cold mornings, where Eagles dare, to simply find yourself!

So what are you waiting for!? That I'll ask to you on my knees!? Hehehe ...
Just try this sport, and perhaps take a trip to the First Division Eagles (BG)! Even for just a friendly battle in our camp! I'll be there waiting for you, with my friends and with my M4A1 pointed at the leader of the platoon!! UA! ;)

Lord Hol Napult

(Copyright by Lord Hol Napult 2012)

Caos, Order and War

Have you ever wondered what triggers wars?
There are two aspects in humans, one that tends to be precise, formal, correct: the Order.
Another, drawing from the indiscriminate freedom to decide anything about his life, without any sort of limits, without any poles that limits his patience: this is Chaos.
Every civilization shows that both components should be considered, and promptly also shows that both components can not coexist mingling too.
Every form of civilization, whether it has succeeded or has failed, tried somehow to find a formula for coherence between chaos and order.

Seeing some politicians, I notice how the order is a prerogative: to pay taxes, to encode roads, homes, times, city to organize, resources to rationalize.
Then there are also the "chaotic" activities in the ordered city: gambling, formula 1, hunting in the woods, and all those kinds of activities aimed to vent the "I" after the observation of infinite rules of order.
Some politicians, fanciful, may also decide to enforce the order for the "others", but failing to not recognize their duties. Then they search for deterrence, sweet pills, just to sweeten the great truth: that the human being is something far from a balanced creature. We thus see that writing a "ad personam" law becomes a way to place in order my the chaos, indeed, its own chaos.

But when the white and black blend to some degree, don't remain distinct as the Yin and the Yang, the universal symbol of balance, but give birth to a gray, dusty and poisonous, typical of cities like Hong Kong or Milan ... Cities have the color of the compromise from which they are governed.
I Believe that demand order where chaos has slowly but surely gained the upper hand means ... War.

Quite simply, war is an attempt by those who defend the order to prevail over the chaos, while those who defend the chaos will try the same thing in equal and opposite sense.
Moreover it is also true that there cannot be light without darkness, or simplifying, a perfect balance without the alternation of the one and the other.

So what is the best formula for coexistence of Order and Chaos?
If the order has prevailed for the most up to date, to keep in equilibrium is now the chaos time, and so on down the eons of the universe in perfect viable alternative. Just like two children, holding hands each other, play running in circle. If at least one of them leave, they both disastrously fall.
This is the surprise that the generals and the big heads of state do not recognize: that is if the enemy fail, they fail too. Just try to think: wars end with "truce", without winners or losers. This is the sign that the tour returned balanced, as it's in a temporary stasis, but just until the next round!

But what a sad thing that "the whirlwind unclean" is so costly in terms of human lives, suffering, and pain. We are part of a dynamic system although we lover the peace, the "stagnation", the quiet living.

If anything our civilization would recognize to be wrong by it's foundations, I hope it dumbs without creating any damage.
After all, tto rebuild everything there always is this incurable, unbalanced and crazy human being.

Poetry: Fluenze Dorate

Giace silenziosa la sussultante distesa

aspettando fluente il giungere
d'un caldo Sol levante
che la possa sublimare
in un riflesso di acque dorate,
assorbenti dall'aria
la pungente lucidità
d'un fresco mattino.

E qui, l'intero universo s'affida
a Colui la qual Solea visione
diffonde le trascinanti sensazioni
tese a far sorgere li onesti valori
fin dall'origine all'oggi
d'Umanitas Eterni.

Lento trascinarsi d'acque
e calmo passeggiar di pensieri
ove s'irraggia l'aureo riflesso
e dove si schiude la mente
di luce e pace sì conseguir

E affioran grandi stì onesti Valori
riportando la compiuta pienezza
di un evanescente immensità
che infonde a ogni attimo fuggente
il sapore di una vita
dov'è il vero amore a comandar.

-Lord Hol Napult- Feb. 1996

Blu Ray will never came forth!

There was a time, not so far but still went in, where the media were built with a certain criteria. It was the end of 80 years, early 90's, and data were stored upon two kinds of supports: Music Tapes and Floppy Disks.

Neglect the tapes, really too old...

A Floppy Disk was convenient to carry around, it contained enough data for that years (1.44 Mb with games of 600KB average), was protected from the "room weather" and the tab just opened itself when inserted into the drive during a reading/writing process.
It had even a small lever to enable or disable the writing or read-only access type.

A Floppy was also containing two sheets of paper that better protect the data: the magnetic part in dark brown.

A floppy again, occupy a very little space and could be left unattended on the desk without doubt that your data were protected.

Among the defects, it's included the fact that it was all magnetically recorded , so a magnet could remove your data. This means that, unless you are masochists or nuclear scientist with big magnets in your pocket, there was no problem.

Now let's travel to the evolution where the Majors are throwing us: The CD-ROM.
How many music CDs, videos, data and pictures you have?
And about these, how many perfectly contain the data you have preciously stored upon ?

Here it is a CD-ROM:

The CD-ROM, as they were designed, contains data using optical recording.

Their strengths are:
1) Great capacity

Their defects are:
1) Great capacity, but questionable, since over the time the large capacity becomes half, then small, then very small...
2) No fixed protection: The support, which must always accompany a CD but if not it's better (so you buy twice and someone makes the money) and it's 100% removables.
3) The magnetic recording is susceptible to magnets, the optical recording to bright light. Have You more magnets or windows in your house?
4) More space wasted: a floppy was the perfect size, not because there wasn't bigger, in fact they had been invented BEFORE the Floppy, but because it was more practical a small support. Try to keep your CDs in the car, maybe your Dimmu Borgir Special Edition!
5) Fragile and sensitive: useless to say that if you fold it you lose it, and also a minimum scratch corrupt the data irrevocably.
6) EPROM writing method - you can only write after collecting your data as better as you can,
burning them all on your CD with the same frequency as your relatives come to your home. In short, it doesn't support an flexible overwriting method, but just a big total burn (B.T.B. [tm]).

And now let's run into the years with big steps, just to see how well the Majors love us all:
ready, ladies and gentlemen, DVDs!
(picture: the same as before) - Improvements: More capacity!
Defects: the same as CD-ROM.

Okay, no problem, just an error; let's advance further galloping over the years to see the innovation...Ladies and Gentlemen, this time we got it: The Blu Ray!
(picture is the same as before but I had the decency to change it..)

Here they are! By popular demand!
But that innovation, design, that enormous amounts of data...

Let's analyze them into detail!
Advantages: Even more data than before!

Disadvantages: Those about CD-ROMs. What, the CD-what? That thing about late 90's?
Yeah, sure, why?




The story, in short, "repeat and auto-justify itself"... but we haven't considered a competitive and intelligent(what a bad word!) asset as the computer scientists. This herd of tireless irreducibles, a little mistreated at the time of the Floppy, always wondered how anyone could change a bank of RAM in a portable buffer store, possibly user-friendly, with limitless possibilities of writing, large capacity, small footprint, high practicality and...oh sorry, I stop myself, otherwise the Majors lose their train of thought with this series of utopias never reached.

Ladies and gentleman this had to happen a long time ago, but I'm glad it happened anyway: USB Pens and portable Hard Disks!
NO MORE TO SAY.
Throw away all yours CDs, DVDs, BluRays and anything else open-sky-circular you have, this time we change the music.
Go to a mall and you will notice some strange black towers to put on the left of your TV, and more the years will pass, more of these black towers will grow in capacity, wi-fi functions and Intranet/Internet connections... They are multi-media hard disks, with high quality cables and the opportunity to run one of the DivX/XviD movies stored... between hundreds!

But what about your precious old DVDs? What to do, maybe discard them? Yes, but just after you have ripped them all into your "towers anti-Major."
About car radio now use MP3 upon Secure Digital cards, and so for everything else in the future.

PS: Finally, I suggest you to use the USB from the metal side, because we leave the rounded side to the Majors to put it wherever they like.

Enjoy 2009!
Hello to everyone.

Lord Hol Napult

Tempere upon Canvas: Nemesis of the Viking King

I have spent the last three months trying to create what my mind suggested to me from a long time ....
an echo from far away, an image evoked by the wind, a memory perhaps ...

Here is the story of my second painting.

Storm clouds leads across the canvas crawling like snakes in heavy black and deep blue ...


The sky becomes dark and leave very little hope for salvation...


The God of the North show himself into the violence of his infinite wrath... is Njörðr, Viking god of the seas and winds ....


The oceand is raging by His command, the abyss will unleash and the fish are overwhelmed by superior forces ...



The fury continues its path regardless of the sacrifices that causes ...


The Drakkar, Viking sailing ship, fall between the immense waves like a sprig into a big river, while the Viking King reaches its fate ... this is his Way to the afterlife.


The serious watch of Njörðr looks in silence...


The Storm overcomes with rain and lightnings...


The last challenge before he is worthy to enter the Valley of Kings ..

*** Nemesis of the Viking King ***

"The Njörðr's Storm

open the Path for Valhalla,

to where the Viking King is going,

embraced by the Ocean".

...From IMOS Wastelands.

References discovered along the realization of the Painting (AFTER definition of subjects):
- Amon Amarth - Embrace the Endless oceans
- Njorth - Viking gods of the Seas
- Drakkar - Viking Ship

23/6/2009 - Painting nr.2
by Lord Hol Napult

Advanced MultiBoot - Driver units with Icons

There are things that requires a minimum of effort but becames very user-friendly once completed. It's included the trick that I will explain to you now, that gives the possibility to associates an Icon to every driver units of your computer.

As a special feature that I discovered by chance, I assume that there may also be other ways to do that, but this is anyway a SIMPLE, MANUAL method that requires only a few good icons.

Let's start from the beginning... as minimum requirements you need a disk with some units above (look at the photo).
Anonymous and chaotic real?

Now it's necessary to obtain some icons. Files are called : ".ICO".
I suggest to you this useful freeware program that analyzes your folders finding all the icons you have, without forcing you to search over internet:

Icon Extractor
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/iconsext.html


When you are choosing an Icon, try to have an high quality icon if possible (not all the icon have the same size) because over the years the icons will grow in quality upon the various O.S. , but your mnemonic association between , for exaple, the Backup disk and an icon of a locker, would be useful to be saved.


Ok!
When you have obtained all the icons you will associate to your driver units and partitions, we can proceed to phase tw2: Associate the Icons to the Partitions! :)

All you have to do is to create with a simple notepad.exe the following file, naming it:

Autorun.inf

[autorun]
Icon=IconName.ico

This file has been probably already noticed by you. It can be found inside every videogame CD from many year now. It enable the system to run a predefined program when you insert a CD inside your driver. However, one of his parameters receives the icon name that the CD must assume when you put it inside. About us, we are not interested to automatically launch a program, but we are interested about the associated icon to the driver unit. I've undestood this trick from here.

All you have to do now i to insert inside te Root of every units (the root is the first folder, or better, is the first thing that appears when you double click upon a unit) the created file and the choosen icon. Obviously the IconName.ico must be substitued with the name of the icon you have choosen.

Do the same process for every selected units, and the Reboot your system and that's all folks!



That's all ?
Yea. Just a note.

Under Windows Vista the protection has became a priority, to prevent the users to overwrite important files. Also the Root of your Windows Vista is a protected zone. So, create for first your Autorun.inf file upon a USB disk a near the ICON, then proceed to copy them both inside the Root of the Windows Vista, uning Administrator Privileges.

Moreover you will also undestand that this trick is very important for USB drives because they can be easyly identified one another. It's more important if you have many USB drives with the same phisical colour and dimensions! :)

Good! I hope to has been helpful to you... after all the Donate button is just over there :) ahahaha!!

Hail to the King, baby!!

Lord Hol Napult

Asus P5Q vs RAM KingMax

I state, I am not an hardware expert, but I work with my pc from a long time.
When I buy a computer, I'm the first that want to do the "Silly User", ie the average user who buys something and uses it happily, hoping that everything properly works, without speaking about BIOS, frequency, slots, overclocking, and so on .

Unfortunately, with all the efforts that Microsoft and hardware manufacturers do (not the ones into the bathroom, but those to establish common standards), 2009 to date we have not yet provided the convenience and the ease of access to the world of computers we are trying to achieve.
This is an extremely important task, because it allows you to permanently replace the concept of TV, and push the world towards electronics that counts more, the programmable one. I see a great future where programmable TV are always connected to the internet, as well as various PC from home ....

My happening should be one the most common: PC bought over the internet to obtain a decent price, email assistance, relationship with the seller, by definition, narrow and limited to the purchase.

PC obtained and what to do now? I Use it ... and here the problems begin.
After some weeks of use the PC resets by itself.
No specific information from within Windows Vista Ultimate 64 (just too many words, eh ...), only a think that in internet it's called "Hardware instability ".

A normal person would desperatly call a PC expert... I called myself, and then lonely and desperate, I started sending emails to all my "technicians" friends , including the PC seller, trying to understand the problem.
Well, if a PC and is unstable whe it's just purchased, the way is pretty simple: blame the motherboard.


There are several components in a PC, but the main ones are:

• The CPU (or processor)
• The RAM (o memory)
• The Hard Disks (or mass storage)
• The Video Card
  
• The Motherboard
  

Who does all the components talk to each other? Obviously, the motherboard.
Now think that the CPUs manufacturers are in 2: Intel and AMD, video cards are in the 2: RADEON and GeForce, Hard Disk are build by many, but they have a fairly simple standard. Missing someone? Yes, the RAM. Here, the RAM is build by 50, and every company with its versions, and every version with its technical specifications and restrictions.

If something doesn't go, assured that in 70% of cases its a problem between the motherboard and the RAM. The rest of cases I leave to the Video Cards.
Today, the frequencies of the electronic components are carried to the limit. Frequencies, latencies, Watt and overheating are factors to manage properly. Here the PC show their technological Achilles Heel ... if everything is not perfectly calibrated, there is a risk ... the "Hardware instability".

In my case, I managed through diagnosis of the machine (CPU-Z especially) to understand that if the motherboard does not know the components that are mounted above, can not even feed them properly (.. excuse me, but I would like to be a "silly user" for a while!).
In fact, motherboards are responsible for Volts, frequency and other parameters that the components require to work.
It's also logical to think that given that the processors are not so many, and given that the standard of hard disk are easy, or it's the video card or the RAM, when something doesn't work. Mixing all this concepts with tight physical limits to which it's submitted the electronic today, it's necessary that a motherboard perfectly supports (I prefer to say "knows") every particular component.

The only advice before returning back a new PC (which in the case of Internet shopping is even demoralizing) is trying to update the BIOS taking it from the homepage of the of the motherboard constructor. The BIOS is the brain of the motherboard, and contains tables that provide definitions of voltage, freqences and parameters of all the most used electrical components (the list is usually declared).
If the BIOS does not recognize your last bought supersonic RAM, you should update it or hope that the defaults values works properly.
Note: Updating the bios is a expert task, and the failure of this operation could in 70% of cases make unusable your motherboard! Be careful!! Prepare psychologically yourself little desperate one of the world :) !

In my case I managed to trace the differences between my PC with an old BIOS and a new one , upon my ASUS P5Q motherboard, and taking the automatic settings:
(Use eg Windows Windiff.exe comparing 2 LOG TXT format extractable from CPU-Z)
Old BIOS (1104 - 31/7/2008)

• Memory Frequency 438.1 MHz (3:4)
• Voltage sensor 0 0.92 Volts [0x73] (CPU VCORE)
• Voltage sensor 6 1.35 Volts [0xA9] (DRAM)
• DMI Memory Device / type DDR
  

New BIOS (2002 - 4/3/2009)

• Memory Frequency 400.7 MHz (5:6)
• Voltage sensor 0 1.08 Volts [0x87] (CPU VCORE)
• Voltage sensor 6 1.46 Volts [0xB6] (DRAM)
• DMI Memory Device / type unknown

Knowing that now I have a stable PC (crossing fingers ... : O), one can see from this analysis, two things:

1. my system was unstable for both the voltage and the frequency and taking all the rest in AUTO mode (auto means with standard settings) and verifying that the differences were simply these.
2. The new BIOS still does not know well my RAMs ( unknown), but knows better than the previous Bios.

In my case the standard settings gave to me stability; there are 4 banks of 2Gb Kingmax DDR2 to 1066 MHz of RAM.
What do uou say about ? Should I hope that the next BIOS version knows my RAM or sould I live with low default values?

Here I give to you 4 more advises that I also consider basic rules:

1. Do not update your BIOS if everything run correctly. The ones that periodically bios update is a sado-masochistic sicked one.
2. Do not "overclock" anything never (ie, lead to physical limit the component). It's more useful a PC that lasts 20 years at 100 Km/h (use your fantasy...) than a PC that lasts 5 years at 130 km/h. The overclock beyond the limits of the components, after all,is a symptom of deeper ills within, considering that every PC, after a month, is already outdated. Do not care about this!!
3. It's more important to have a stable PC that you can also use in summertime with 40° without having any fear, than a PC with open case, 30 fans that consume and create noise and the big fear that everything could burn, sending to smoke also important documents or breaking the deserved videogame enterntainment.
   
4. It's very important a multimedia PC, interactive and enjoyable even if this costs a longer start-up time. Heavly uses these machines, and the world finally will understand what a PC is used for, and maybe, in a day far far away... I also understand this.
   

Hoping to have been more than helpful, I greet you all

PS: And update this f**ed bios if you are under warranty and you have the seller at a few steps from home... you will learn something more for your future! Will you not use that slow catorce for a lifetime : D !?!

Lord Hol Napult

Lord's Theory: Pigeon are Superior Creatures.

Pigeon is a superior creature.

Our day starts in the cold, when about all the working population goes inside a plate car and the micro-dust. A non return travel to the working place.

Between columns and car accidents, we reach the destination point, and the pigeon is already there. It looks to us with his friends, from the top of a street lamp. Everyone in line to observe the monotony of the workers path.

When they notice us, they carry out their primary biological function.

The man in column is a man later. The impetuosity, the tension, he must run, run!
The pigeon look us and starts as follow: "thruuu thruuu, thruuu thruuu”.

At working lunch time we can see them again. They are there, eating from at least one hour before us. They love to eat one another. They must not reserve a place or come to blows, the birdseed stand below a pine or between the grass.

They also haven't true predators. Maybe some little cats, but hardly they escape away.

We could think that they didn't eat a good lunch, but I personally haven't seen yet slim pigeons .
Also here it's a superior one.

During the day the tiredness starts to hit us. Looking outside a window pigeons are disappeared. Where could they be gone ? Obvious, the more lucky are coddling the female, while the others, those UNLUCKY ones, are having a middle-day nap.

Some sleepless pigeons fly in front of us, sometimes, and they remember us that they haven't any kind of commit we have.

The evening arrives... we escape in full hurry. The traffic is waiting for us but if we run a bit we escape from our psichological half-hour column. The pigeon already stands into the grass, better in small groups, looking for food but without any hurry. Then, he starts a tired fly and finishes upon a top place.

It could pass also a pontiff below, but if the need calls.... PLAF!

Let's run to the dry cleaner, but all together we must admit that the pigeon is perfectly integrated into the society and it's also environment respectful.

Ah, maybe someone understood this before you...

...the Pigeon is a Superior Creature!

Lord Hol Napult

Silly AntiPiracy Systems: Mass Effect - Intelligent Systems: (look down)

Recently I've bought inside a shop a last generation videogame: Mass Effect.
The game sector is enthusiastic about this game and positive comments raise the quality of the product.
But, there is a small difference between the ones that develop a game and the ones that protect it, in fact , thanks to my small experience, the protection systems are implemented at the end, and often they are bought from Third parts.

In that case the EA protection politics can be resumed as follow: Complicate the life of the honest buyers and lose your money for piracy as before.

I've bought the original game both for good reviews , both for the cheap costs: about 20 euro.
The price is the first way to fight piracy.
Think that look for a pirated version, download it, mount the iso, install the product and then again , crak the program and test it... with just about 20 euro I save my mind from everything and I can get all the optional!

Anyway, someone has decided instead that probably 20 euro wasn't sufficient to let me play in peace, probably they need more to ask:
In fact EA writes in small small char:"The game require the internet connection to be activated". First this kind of writings must be well noticed, but this cut off in Italy at least the 40% of the population because we live into a telematic degrade at wich we are condemned.

Me, living in Italy, I've not upon my play computer the internet connection! It's so, ok?

Connection require a contract , a telephone, a good line, and all this connected to the Pc where the game is installed... why?!?!? You could at least let me provide the key on a second pc, porting that key on the play pc with an usb pen!

The funny is that pirates quickly identify the transferred files that enable the game, while the common users suffer the connection with EA, the registration with sensitive data, a praying moment to hope that everything should work, and then a Download of the activation and, as incoming last news said, a periodic reactivation every 15 days... to instil more confidence, in short.

But, who provide support in long time ? I often play old games many years later they come out. There will still be EA after many years ? Will also support this game ?

In true words, we bought the 90% of the game, the remaining 10% can only be downloaded from them, and only if they want. This mania to gain total control, to know everything, to manipulate marketing informations and to suppress their customers, I cannot approve, but wost, I cannot undestand!
Time ago I renounced to Half Life 2 for all this motivations, and Mass Effect escaped my attention. If I should have known that, I should haven't bought it.
But all of this is unuseful at last, because....
...What an honest player does, after this huge requests, to play a videgame?

Simple, he cracks it! And so I had , against one's will, to look for a "No-CD" executable, overwrite the original and play.... oooooh finally I've playied! I buy a game and , incredibly, when I return home I want to play it! I'm abnorm ?

Mass Effect is very beauty, I've finished it in a couple of days (secondary mission included), and I reproach EA for the small longevity of a game where they should put a mai plot of at least 10 missions, instead of the 5 they did. After all it also has been called RPG!
Anyway is a good game, damaged by protection systems, damaged by sensitive data registration and from the distribution online politics of the additional contents.

But , what about add-on ? Yes, yes:
I've downloaded the free add-on for PC of Mass Effect: Bring Down the Sky, but I haven't reached to play it because the installation requires a serial code. I gave my original code written on the back of the M.E. manual but without success. Now we got also the "genious" installer anti-piracy, so genious that they trust anyone

At the end I uninstalled everything and renounced to the expansion.
In short, EA, a true DISASTER! Fix your Head Quickly!!!
Probably "Oblivion (tm)" haven't teached anything! That game said: "Do a good game and you will sell, do it scarce and you will loose; damage your honest customer and this will remember about you for a good period (and you will loose also in this case)".

I would like to give some general advice to fight videogames piracy , and to set all this major whith drunk step about this discussion :

1. Do a good game, for collection, to keep on the desk and good to show to the friends.

2. Keep Installation easy and complete, even if wast gigabytes, and possibly quick!

3. Insert a Coloured Manual (always in gray it is!), readable, enjoyable, that identifies the game as a unique piece, and make it good to read before someone is going to bed.

4. Do not force users to do things that they cannot do or they don't want to do. Starting from registrations, passing through activations and unuseful forced advertising.

5. Keep the costs down, now more than before cause we suffer the financial crisis.
6. Level the price with the publish time, keeping the product on the marketing for at least 2/3 years (es: start with 60 euro, then fall to 40 euro after 3 months, then fall to 20 euro after 6 months, then give the game to the 7/8 euro magazines).
   

Moreover, do you want to undestand the "pirates" that make you lose the Budget, and broke your Businness ?
Pirates at the end are people that use the game for an half, they didn't play it truly, they didn't pay big attention to it and they will never buy it. Pirates are half-hearted inside their extreme mode to try games, while they never finish anything at all.
As they pirate your game today, they will do with the next 10 days after...

The Spontaneous question is: "Do you think that you can get some money from this persons? "
The Second question is: "Do You really think that penalizing honest customers will return to you the money of the pirates? "

The conclusion is that software, all the software, can be DUPLICATED with very cheap costs, and that characteristic is unique, absent in all the others economic sectors, but, conversely, it always have some piracy that follows. Is unuseful to obtain the advantages and regret the disadvantages. It's like to consider incoming and forget the outgoings! What a logic is this?

Ciao Ciao ! And... Good Year 2009!

Lord Hol Napult

Primo Colore (First Colour)

Primo Colore
Inserito originariamente da Lord Hol Napult

"First Colour" is my first paint using tempera upon canvas.

This is really my first experience in this sector. The Brush that exit from the canvas is not a photomontage, but it's a real brush that comes out from the canvas, and release its colours.... I remind to you the comprehension of the rest.

Just a last think to remember.... keep some water in you mouth!!! ; )

Best Regards.

Lord Hol Napult