The guys at work have just finished launching the new Red Cross campaign here in Australia.

Show your support by being part of the bigger picture (literally). It's a cool little app the guys have made.
Add your face to the mosaic for free and optionally make a donation or pledge to give blood.

Visit: http://ww2.redcross.org.au/power-of-humanity

You can also view the campaign ad here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNnVY_5agE0

... but with a whimper.

The time now is: 04/05/2009 23:32

There are 97 online users: 8 registered, 89 guest(s)  
Most users ever online was 17,098 on 9/24/07 11:30 PM
Connected users: ArchDuke  JEasy  Neoteny  Therinwhitten  phi

I'm subscribed for a few more months (my sub. expires June 11th), but I've decided to call it quits.

It wasn't an easy decision, after all MxO has been in my life much longer than many things, and you all feel like family.

I always thought I'd be here 'till MxO went offline, but extensive boredom has set in. I didn't even log in for the winter event? (is it still going? I have no idea).

Thanks to the devs and staff for their hard work.

Thanks to the players that gave the extra effort that really made MxO worth playing.

There is no more "epic" story. Frankly the story was the reason I started playing and the reason I stayed so long.

But when there are 3 players online whenever I play (I long ago lost count of the number of /who commands that returned only me) and it has been well over a year since I saw an official character.

I established my RSI's look years ago and have no desire for pvp as there is very little skill to it... more of a who has the best stuff wins situation. So I've invested in a number of FPS type games for my 360 (and PC) and all of a sudden gaming is fun rather than a chore again.

My 360 gamertag is "phi AU" if you want to catch up with me...

I had a good run and got to try my hand at pretty much everything: co-founded a faction, run a faction site, worked my way up to ship captain, spoke to most major characters, saw beta, was a mod (I never said I was a good one ), submitted fan art, DJed for a station, saw pretty close to 100% of static game content, wrote some fanfic, earnt free play time by pwning tech help, caused and participated in my fair share of recursion drama, etc... I don't feel hard done by, it's just time for a change.

Most of all I'll miss the day-to-day on these forums.

I may come back in the future if something worthwhile happens... but I doubt it. (MxO is pretty much in "just keep it running" mode now... and has been for a while).

Thanks for everything guys and gals. It's been a heck of a ride.

Special thanks to The Kings of Never, Fallen Horizon, Nicks, Network Imperium, Phluff, MCDOE, Furious Angels, Jurymen and Rarebit.

No Roukan, you can't have my stuff.

Well after the recent hallabaloo about MSIE having a remote code execution flaw in its XML parser I just recieved notice from McAffe that a similar flaw exists in Mozilla/FireFox.

And they patched it as fast as Microsoft did. Check you are up to date.

Mozilla Firefox Layout Engine Remote Code Execution Vulnerabilities [MTIS08-213-A]

Threat Identifier(s) CVE-2008-5500; CVE-2008-5501 Threat Type Vulnerability Risk Assessment Medium Main Threat Vectors Web; E-Mail User Interaction Required Yes Description Memory corruption vulnerabilities in Mozilla Firefox, Thunderbird, and SeaMonkey may lead to remote code execution. The flaws are specific to crashes in the layout engine within Firefox and other Mozilla products that share the same browser engine. Under certain circumstances, memory can become corrupted, leaving the application in an exploitable state. Importance Low. On December 16 Mozilla released a patch to address this issue.

Not sure if you can read this with your PC troubles but if you can...

Well it's meant to be cloudy tonight but I'll see if I can get any good pics.

Venus, jupiter and the moon's 1st quarter are supposed to do this tonight ->  :)

Well Australia gets a smiley :) , the USA gets a frowny ): as the moon moves... and Africa and Europe get a picassoesque .).

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,2359...092-421,00.html

Fancy yourself a programmer?

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/459508

program the Light Bot to turn on all the blue squares (do it in as few moves as possible for bragging rights)

12 levels - level 11 was the hardest as only the optimal method works (limited command buffer with option of two functions)

yes functions can be recursive (F1 can call F1 or F2 and vice versa)

I finished in 183 moves

Hugh Jackman voted sexiest man alive: http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/st...5012974,00.html

Australia... we deliver!

All the brand touting aside... I REALLY like the new XBox system.

Other than the interface now being much more Wii like (and based around it being a family entertainment system, not just a gaming console) the best change so far is that small videos are now properly full-screen... which stops my wife messing up the aspect zoom on the TV

The new avatars are fun and you can save multiple outfits (and for the ladies there is a top and pants or dress option with diamond rings and jewlery... only cork heels and flats though... no real formalwear options) and alter your avatar at any time, and take a picture as your gamer pic.

... I just can't get over how much it looks like the vista application switcher (with the flippy pages) with Wii avatars (they seem to have that Duplo plastic look).

I've yet to really look at the new Marketplace, Live and gaming stuff (I got booted out of the living room so that the media centre can be "tested" with Gosip Girl...)

As it took me less time to find stuff than it initially did on the old interface, and the videos resize to full screen (a basic but crucial fix) I say its an improvement.

Am I missing something obvious... how do I get the decel bit required to trade with the 11.2 completion token to get the 11.3 token?

1. Ensure your PC meets the minimum specifications for the game
2. Update your video card drivers to the latest version
   
   If the problem persists
   
3. Run the game in windowed mode by adding the following line to the end of your "options.cfg" file in your Matrix Online install folder:
   
   windowed = 1

• Mario & Luigi
• A family of peripherals (steering wheel, joystick and two little mouses)
• Tetris Pieces
• pong (two people in black with white ping pong paddles, a ping pong ball and a friend in white as the net)
• Ken or Ryu from Street Fighter
• pac man and pac girl
• Sims (complete with selection crystal marker over their head)
• A family of lemmings

• Submit a customer care job petition
  

• How to recover your Station name or Password
• ** CHARACTER LOGIN ISSUES - ACCOUNT IN USE ** (now handled by in-game support)
  

• ** CHARACTER LOGIN ISSUES - ACCOUNT IN USE ** (now handled by in-game support)

• placeholder
  

Here you will find links to standard solutions for common issues. A sort of summary FAQ if you will.
I will keep this list updated, but if you think there is something that should be added please send me a PM.

First steps to a solution:

• What information should I include when posting my problem?

Video:

General

• Guide to a better driver for your video card
• Upgrading a video card in a laptop
• Upgrading display drivers
• HELP! My Mouse Cursor doesn't move when I'm in-game.

Windows XP

The following two links relate to problems with heavy lag in buildings.

• Nvidia Geforce 8xxx series card issues on WinXP (Indoor performace issue) (Issue resolved by latest video driver release from nVidia - 06/28/2008)
• nVidia 8xxx/9xxx series Performance issue workaround instructions (Issue resolved by latest video driver release from nVidia - 06/28/2008)

Windows Vista

• placeholder

Sound:

• In-game music isn't working

Program Compatibility and Stability:

General

• What to try when all else fails (general computer stability troubleshooting - for Advanced users - Following these guides incorrectly can damage your hardware)
• How to improve computer performance and latency(lag) problems
• Ic3b3rg's Tips, Tweaks, and Suggestions (Antispyware included)

Windows XP

• placeholder

Windows Vista

• placeholder

• What information should I include when posting my problem?
• 
  

• Where can I download the game (installer & supporting files)?
  

• How to run a Full System Check
• The Standard MxO Fix (For Login Issues)

• Firewall settings for The Matrix Online
• T-Online StartCenter (Germany) is preventing my Launcher for running
  

Caller = winRAR
Psychic = fail

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1ozJ9BfLCs

Count the memes!

Happy Birthday to two of Recursion's finest!

Misfit and Nyobie2 both turn 21! (not necessarily for the first time ) 

Have a great day ladies.

Mittens turns 23!

only 27 levels to go

Aparently he jumped infront of the Oracle and took the kill-code bullet designed for her.

Last I heard he's going to be OK.

Possible side-effects of a human being hit with a program kill-code? It really knocked Agent Pace around. Is it likely that there will be cheat-code side-effects on him or possibly it could be dangerous for him to come into contact with the Oracle...

Discuss.

The following is in no way being declared as new... just new to me.  

I stumbled across this old (pre MxO release) interview with Paul Chadwick. INTERVIEW

In it there are 3 pictures of characters listed as being MxO characters.

The 1st we know, the other 2 we don't (yet).

The Assassin (http://www.silverbulletcomicbooks.c...ineassassin.jpg)

The Egyptian (http://www.silverbulletcomicbooks.c...theegyptian.jpg)

The Crow Lady (http://www.silverbulletcomicbooks.c...inecrowlady.jpg)

What are your thoughts?

I have a question and I'm sorry if it's come up already.

What is the significance of the bespeckled and freckled child on the cover of the new Sentinel?

Is he the moon to Sati's sun? Or could it be that the General has not stolen Sati as an end in itself? Could he be taking other children? If so, why?

Or is the child someone else?

What is the official status on Crypto ability and tools and future usage?

Also if the plan is to remove it can we get the item vendor at Mara C's Hypercube monument to stop selling crypto tools. I've had a number of new players ask me what the crypto tool does after they have wasted their $i buying one, or their bits compiling one.

... That I'm back from holidays?

No?

Well I am.

Photoshop Tutorial: phi's BulletTime(tm) ripple effect

The version of photoshop used for this tutorial is CS (Windows XP). These features work pretty much the same in 5.5, CS2 and CS3.
Mac users will have to tranlate the commands to mac-ish ... Not hard but I don't have a Mac so I don't know the option-apple-clover malarky.

This tutorial will attempt to teach you how to turn this:

01.jpg

into this:

25.jpg

First, open your image that you wish to add the effect to and make a new layer called Bullet Trail 01 (if you are making bullet trails it gets messy and naming is important)

Select the Line tool and chose a colour that will stand out (for this image I have chosen red, I recommend a different colour for each trail in your image)
Then set the Line tool to 1 pixel wide, with an arrow head at the end. It is important to check that the Line tool isn't using a preset style as this will override your settings.

Select the Bullet Trail 01 layer we made earlier and draw the path of the bullet with the line tool as shown (I've started my bullet trail where the muzzle flash is and angled it based on the way the gun has kicked back)

You should end up with something like this:

Make a new layer BEHIND the Bullet Trail 01 layer and call it Shockwaves 01

Set your foreground colour to RGB:50,50,50 (grey). Select the Elipse tool and set it to From Center (holding the alt key when drawing also does this if your version doesn't have this feature). Setting the Elipse Tool to proportional makes things faster and your work more consistent. Ther ratio to use depends on the angle the bullet path makes to the viewer. If the bullet is travelling directly towards you or away from you the circles would look almost round so the ratio should be close to W:1 H:1. If the bullet travelled across the screen in front of you the circles would appear quite squished and the height should be more than the width. In this case I have set the height to 2.5 times the width. Use your judgement and with practice you will be able to get this right easily.

At the start of the bullet path but on the Shockwave 01 layer draw your 50-gray elipse with the centre on the bullet trail.

Next edit the layer properties and turn on Inner Glow, set it to white with the settings shown (make sure you chose the hump contour, as shown, to make a ring):

10.jpg

Right-click the Shockwave 01 layer and copy the layer style for later use.

Make a new layer IN FRONT of the Shockwave 01 layer but BEHIND the Bullet Trail 01 layer and paste the layer style you just copied on it.

Now draw a new elipse a bit further along the bullet trail on the new layer and you should have something like this:

Repeat the above process, varying the elipse sizes as you go (I've made them a little big for this tutorial so you can see the details. Look at the movies and the bullet trails are thinner). Every now and then when you are getting too many layers, select the Shockwave 01 layer (the selected layer gives it's name to the new merged layer) and then link the other elipse layers to it. Then merge the linked layers. This prevents the layer style going ugly.

As you get nearer the bullet make the elipses smaller as these shockwaves were made more recently and haven't had time to spread much yet.
You should end up with something that looks like this:

Now, right-click the merged final Shockwave 01 layer and duplicate it to a new image and call the new image BT Ripple 01.

In the new image add a layer of black BEHIND the shockwave layer. DO NOT resize this image, it MUST be the same size as the image you are working on.

016.jpg
Flatten this image and save it as BT Ripple 01.psd then close it.

Back in your original image, duplicate the background as a new layer (or whatever layer your original image is on) so we don't damage the working image.

Select the new layer and open the Distort > Glass filter

Load the image BT Ripple 01.psd as the texture and set the filter setting as shown: (scale MUST be 100% or the ripple will be in the wrong spot and the wrong size)

It will produce a result like this:

Almost there... but we can't quite see the ripples.
Select the Shockwave 01 layer and load it's inverted selection (ctrl-click the layer then press ctrl-shift-I or use the menus as shown)

21.jpg

Now select the layer with the glass distortion and press the Delete (Del) key on your keyboard. That will remove everything in the selected area (everything except the ripples)

Adjust the layer's brightness and contrast slightly to make it a little more visible.

Don't forget to draw your bullet where the arrowhead on the bullet trail line is

All done! (Except I didn't bother with a bullet this time)

25.jpg

Here's one I made earlier:

Hey ZippyDaSquirrel!

If you're going out in the snow, you need to rug up more.

[link removed by phi because aparently Zippy has lost his funny bone]

As one of the players who helps out in the tech forums I get lots of general questions and with the new players coming in everytime there is a trial-key give away, I thought I might share my accumulated knowledge of The Matrix Online with those that are new to the experience.

Here is a response I wrote to a PM sent to me by a particular player. It had some answers to some fairly basic questions and I thought it may be of assistance to some other players. Hence I have posted it here.

If anyone notices any errors or omissions feel free to correct me I'm not the only player that's been around since launch and I'm certainly no PvP champion (I have a total of 40 CQ points... I think) all I can do is my best.

So feel free to ask any and all questions you have about MxO or the Matrix franchise in general and I'll see what I can do to help. Remember: There are no stupid questions... Just stupid people j/k

And now, on with the show!

Hey **********************.

I'll try to help you as best I can.

yo i cant post in forums,
Posting is restricted based on your level and total number of posts/amount of time since registration.
There were some people signing up free accounts and spamming the crap out of the boards so it was locked down.
There is a bug, however, that causes some accounts to get stuck on a lesser ranking. PM Walrus or Raijin about it and they can fix that for you.

wassup with them nerfing hacker
In CR1 Hacker was waaay overpowered. As a level 38 I could beat 2 level 50s. Now it's actually very well balanced. If you want to succeed in your battles though you will need to make your viral accuracy as high as possible with your stats and clothing. Then work on your Ballistic defence. If you get interlocked by an MA, roll out and run as they WILL cream you. Hacker is very much a ranged class.

and making hyper deflect on contantly while other hypers dont?
The "Hyper" abilities are paired HyperDodge & HyperBlock, HyperDeflect & Hyper Sense. That way you can have boosted defence against one physical and one code (knives are considered hack attacks because they don't damage on their own, only with special attacks) attack at any time.
Keep in mind that, the temporary effect bonuses linked to the "Hyper" buffs don't require the other buffs to turn off. So you can have HyperSense on to generally block knife attacks, and then use "Clear Mind" to give you a temporary boost to your viral defence if a hacker starts attacking you. Nothing saves your backside from an ambush like a quick finger on the balistic defence bonuses.
As a hacker you will do well against knife throwers and gunmen, although it is more of a support class (like doctor). A good team strategy is to send gunmen and Martial Artists to the front of the pack and hang back with the Knife Throwers and Hackers as the combination of the 2 groups allows you to break any defensive load strategy.

phi an intresting name why did you choose it?
Well I've answered this before so I'll keep it short.
The first 3 letters of my Surname are "phi" so that's why I first chose them.
Some of the reasons I stuck with it are:

• The greek letter "phi" is an O with an I through it, and seeing as the Matrix is a computer simulated world written in 0 and 1 it worked well. phi is both 0 and 1 and yet it is neither, it is it's own entity.
• I'm also a programmer and systems admin in the real, so a combination of hardware and software is what I specialise in. Hardware and software making up a harmonius whole "system" worth more than the sum of it's parts.
• There are countless other examples of this opposite-complimentary duality in my life as well as the matrix. It even fits well with the asian culture of International and the concept of Yin-Yang. Balance, Karma, Chaos, programming, and more. All these concepts rely on the aparently universal truth of "when you look at the details it is infinately complex, but when you look at reality as a whole there is light and dark, the yin and yang, good an bad. Everything is clearly defined, yet nothing is pure, working independantly in opposite directions... but always in harmony and balance. (I could write a book on the topic I reckon.)
• In mathematics the Greek letter Phi (the capital version) has the value 1.61803399 associated with it, lesser known and used is phi (the lower case version) that has the value 0.6180399. that's why I spell it "phi" not "Phi" as phi is a value between 1 and 0 and represents the natural or "golden" ratio. There is 1 and 0 in the machine world and somewhere in between is phi... nature's favorite number.

If you're looking for me on Recursion, It's phiAU (the AU is for AUstralia) as phi was not available (don't know who took it but it's been reserved since Beta and I've NEVER seen anyone jack-in with that handle). I'd gladly pay for my RSI's name to be changed to just phi but... well that service doesn't exist.

Hey that's my laptop ... Givitback!

Mine:
http://thekingsofnever.com/forum/al....php?pic_id=106

In-Game:
http://thekingsofnever.com/forum/al....php?pic_id=211