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The new Battle.net 2.0 cross-game, RealID chat system is being released, in full, today. This is going to be the first legitimate release of the software in a working client. Safe to say the protocol won't be changing entirely after this point.

An AIM-like client would be badass.

Woot, got tickets.

Friend and family invites been going out. Hooray for blizzard employee guildy hookups.

http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/8163/cataicon.jpg

Edit: If anyone else gets invited, I'll be on Gilneas PvP server, Horde side. Character's name is Treesus.

I've been writing various revisions of an application that I use at work on a regular basis. The application's purpose is to convert any file type to a tiff image. In other words, create a tiff image of that file.

Originally, I used the Windows Imaging Printer Driver, or whatever it is called. It's the built in Windows printer driver that converts what you print to an image output file. This does tiff, and it was fast. The problem with this was that it was finicky. The application has to run in the background and require no user intervention. The Windows Imaging printer would often error out and I don't think it was able to convert "anything" to an output image.

I looked for toolkit solutions that I could use with C# and that wouldn't require an external printer driver. I found one toolkit, but it didn't support a wide range of file types - lacked Visio, most notably. I believe the lack of file type support is because it doesn't require Office to print, so they're somehow imeplementing their own print rendering methods for each type, or however that works. I didn't find many others that looked professional enough to use.

I went back to the printer driver solution, but this time found a printer driver written for my exact purpose. It can take most any input that I've tried, so far, and converts it to an output image. It still relies on host applications to provide the print feature, but can supposedly be fed raw file data and determine how to render it on it's own. I've tried this and haven't been able to get it to print anything, yet. It just enters and leaves the print spool.

Anyways, I'm just wondering if anyone knows of a toolkit that can essentially do this. I know I could just as easily use Adobe to convert anything to a PDF, but TIFF is a standard we have to follow.

[irc.betawarz.com]

I know various users check these forums regularly, and might have been afk during today's events.

I was experiencing the world's weirdest internet issue. My verizon fios connection at home was unable to ping or tracert my server's IP address. My server was online and functioning just fine. It was a routing issue on Verizon's end. They were taking weeks to even understand the issue, so I just decided to inquire about getting a new IP for my server. I had asked about getting a new IP for free, and didn't expect them to just give me one. I figured there'd be some kind of final confirmation or something. Well, they didn't give me any notice and changed my server's IP. I was able to change all DNS entries that I have access to, to reflect this change. I do not have access to b3t4.org's, though. So, irc.b3t4.org may come back sometime in the future if it ever gets changed, but immediate action was required and so the beta irc server now has a new "permanent" hostname.

Please use irc.betawarz.com, or beta.tehnet.org to connect to my server. TehUser's server, irc.tehnet.org, also still works.

I'm writing a C# tiff viewer at work, and one requirement is that it re-uses the an application instance if one is already running, instead of opening up multiple instances. The application is a windows forms app, and it opens image files specified via command line params.

Restricting the application to a single instance was the easy part - I just used a named mutex. I'm just trying to find a way to make my main Form reload the newly specified file path, though. I know of 3 ways but none really satisfy me, unless they're the only way.

• The first one is to simply kill the running process and start a new one, but that looks really bad and it would be much nicer if the app just seamlessly loaded the new image file.
• The second is to use some visual basic form class, or something, that supposedly supports this, but I'd rather not start importing visual basic namespaces if I don't have to. I'd rather kill the previous instance instead of using the visual basic method.
• The third is to use RemotingServices and ChannelServices to kind of tunnel the params in, this just seems overkill and I don't know that this will be an options since hundreds of users could be using this app on the same windows 2008 server at a time.

Anyone know of a better way to do this?

Well, I remember on Vista that the Windows Classic theme just felt jerky, or sluggish. It had redraw issues while dragging windows. It seems that this still exists for me in Windows 7.

Does anyone know if there may be something I need to disable in order to make the Windows Classic theme feel less sluggish? Hopefully somebody knows what I mean. I'm in the mood for some Win Classic!

I've been looking at pictures of this game today and am kind of in the mood to buy an xbox 360 game. I hardly play my xbox anymore, and wouldn't mind a fun game to pick up and play for like 30 minutes each night before hopping in bed.

Is this game any good?

If anyone sees this, and knows where or how I can get a cracked version of Flash CS4, could you send me a private message about where or how. The torrent sites I use don't seem to have any torrents for a cracked version.

I have horrible luck with guild applications. I don't tend to make online friendships in WoW (I just play, and don't often talk on vent for fun), so I rarely join guilds based on reputation. I always seem to start over fresh with every application.

But, I think most hardcore guilds want to see a few things from applicants.

• Ofcourse effort into gear, gems, enchants. This should be obvious.
• Experience in whatever content the guild is attempting. Your achievments will be scrutinized.
• A raiding spec that'll result in maximum raid utility. Don't fuck up here, or you're in for some trolling.
• A functional UI.
• Are you a clicker? Clicking takes away the use of your mouse for mouse turning.

I mean, I don't know. It seems pretty standard and simple. I just applied to the number 1 guild on our server, and they're like top 10 in the US, also. They're making fun of my app, sort of, because they think I don't use the mouse to turn based on my action bars. I always use my mouse to turn. =\

Check it out: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/cataclysm/

This is funny: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeJL-hcIQTk

Similar in quality to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0Asjh-HjRE

I'll be going with a group of my friends. If anyone else is attending, let me know. I can pwn you at CS, or share my inifite knowledge of programming.

I'm trying to compile a list of short phrases or terms that apply to gaming, in general. Terms that probably any gamer of any genre would perhaps know. Terms like.. 1up, fragged, ding, instagib, etc.

If you can think of any, I'd appreciate it.

So, I've been playing WoW with 2 accounts over the past year or so. I wasn't double boxing, but for a period of about 2 months I paid for an extra account so me and a friend could do RAF. The account ended up with a level 80 Paladin, and a 74 Hunter on it.

So, on Sunday I sold the account to somebody that I just randomly contacted through craigstlist. I made sure he gave me the money first, and I immedietly withdrew it from paypal. Today, I found out that he opened a dispute claiming the transaction was not authorized and that he was unaware of the transaction. The money is already in my bank account. Paypal stuck me with a -390$ balance. They're investigating the dispute and have asked me to deposit the money or refund it to him while they investigate.

I looked on wowarmory and it looks as if the account got into the hands of gold farmers, because the paladin is completely stripped except for his teir gear that cant be vendored. The hunter seems to have been deleted.

Think I should just keep the money? I don't quite know what to expect paypal to do. I have a feeling they'll side with the gold farmers because I doubt this is their first time stealing accounts and I think they probably know what to expect from PayPal as far as disputes go. I don't want the account back, either - that's why I sold it to begin with.

The guys paypal was not a confirmed address. It apparantly belongs to some mexican living in the Houston area, using a PO box. I wonder what I should do. The fact that it appears to be some type of gold farmer, though, makes me think that if I just refuse to refund him via paypal then I don't think he'd take it to civil court.

i've always wanted to maintain some type of video game media site. that goal was kind of what got me into programming in the first place.

with that in mind, what sucks about most of the current big video game media sites? what's good, or do you think is useful? does anyone frequently look for video games news, or anything, and find themselves saying "i wish i could just do this," or "i wish this site had that." it doesn't have to be anything new, or revolutionary - but maybe a compilation of all the good things of various sites into one site.

personally, i've always just wanted some very simple, easy to read and browse site that had general information about a video game but aggregated feed articles of the most recent news about those games. i think a site like this would come in handy during a time like right now with E3 going on.

any ideas?

(update 1's shot)

I'm not quite announcing any finished products or anything, but this editor is going to be for a game I've been working on for the past several months. It's just a fairly simple 3D, isometric-style shooter, reminiscent of Sony's old "Infantry Online" game. What I've been needing to write, though, is an editor that'll just do some basic terrain creating. Initially I plan on being able to create and save heightmaps, or load existing heightmaps and render them to my viewport. I'll have this functionality implemented by the end of tomorrow, at least. I've already got code for this in my game, so that'll be relatively plug-n-go. After that, I'm not quite sure where the next logical step is but I think I'll add in some terrain picking, and work on manipulating the heightmap polygons on-screen - elevate, lower, smooth, whatever. If I get this far I'll add more goals, but I'm going to keep my sights relatively simple for now.

I'll keep updates coming as I work on this. Tomorrow should be a fun update.

Update 1: It took me a lot longer to get working how I wanted it, but I re-wrote the entire thing using a different method of getting XNA to work as a MDI child window. I'm using the Game class now which handles all the game looping, components and services for me. (I also get to use the content pipeline, now). I also threw in my free-moving camera, so now I can fully navigate around the 3D design space. The marker you see in the screenshot is just a simple origin marker placed at (0, 0, 0).

Update 2: http://forum.x86labs.org/index.php/topic,14336.msg177060.html#msg177060

what does gravy go with... toast? ive got some toast andf some nutrigrain bars. and im going to make some gravy

I never really understood what WPF was, or what it did. I came across a program, though, that was written using the WPF and when I installed and ran it I was blown away. The program I downloaded was the Blu Twitter client, by Thirteen23 or something.

Seeing all the eye candy possibilities has me running through like 5 different programs, in my head, that I'd like to make. I may just have to put my XNA game development on hold for this.

Has anyone messed with WPF or written any neat looking apps?

So, yea, I was just sitting down tonight listening to some songs when I realized how well I was actually able to critique them. I was like, I could have written this song. So then I was like, I wonder if I can actually play guitar... this was just a natural step I took from critiquing songs that I had never heard before. So, I very quietly snuck into the other room, grabbed my guitar, and took it into my room. Before playing the guitar, though, I had to figure out what tattoo I'd get if I ever really did become a rockstar. After some discussion with my peers I came to a conclusion. I'd be getting a tattoo on my forearm. It'll include a pheonix.. a phenoix blowing up a planet. The phenoix will be landing on bob dylans shoulder, or maybe ole willie nelson or mcjagger, i havent decided yet. Maybe I can do something like mount rushmore where the pheonix is landing on all three of their shoulders at once. Whichever one I choose, he'll be whailing a sweet guitar solo, while floating on a cloud. Behind him will be a choir of angels singing some awesome backup music, and maybe Jesus will be rockin lead vocals. This will all be on my forearm. So, I grabbed my guitar and realized I could actually play the damned thing. I'm thinking I may go into country music. Maybe I'll try to find a way to incorporate programming into my music.

Anyone else realize they were also rockstars in their past lives, too?