I Need Volunteers
I have a project in the works which I intend to go live with, at least in part, very soon. However, I need a handful of volunteers to test it out for me.
So here’s the skinny: if you are a registered user here at Aiera, and if you feel like helping me out, drop a comment. The first ten people who meet both criteria will be my volunteers, and you’ll receive an email from me explaining what’s going on.
I’m not sure if this registration business really works, but here goes.
I’ll help, as long as it starts after Monday. I’m taking my CISSP exam on Sunday, and won’t likely be capable of forming cohesive thoughts outside of those 10 domains until sometime on Tuesday.
Oh, yeah…good luck. I’ve known a few folks who’ve taken that, and I gather it is rather all-consuming.
Yes, please!
Wow, you can actually register an account here? The magically invite codes must be expensive.
Yes you can. The codes are free…just hit up the contact form.
Or don’t; the codes will be going away soon.
I’ll count you in, reenak.
If it’s not the project I’m already involved with, I’m interested as well.
It is that project. 🙂
Secret projects are amongst my most favorite kind of project
The credits will be long, having a record of everyone’s contribution.
Count me in! I feel like I owe you. Plus, I love volunteering for things I know nothing about! ADVENTURE!!
I’m with Zephaniahgrey–I might be signing up for a male pattern baldness study, but count me in.
Okay, I’ll be sending out more details on…Sunday (dvicci: if you can’t jump in until Monday, that’s okay).
And then something cool will happen on Tuesday. Promise!
I guess I can be number 10…
Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!
Um… hi! =)
Okay, so by now, all of you should have received emails informing you of new user accounts at a new Ultima fan network I am on the cusp of launching, something which will soon be replacing Ultima Aiera.
I would be much obliged if you all, over the course of today and tomorrow, could log in to this new site and explore it, its features, and the various subdomains that have been set up. Test out the forum (post topics!), see if you can leave comments…and let me know if you encounter any issues.
It is a very cool and worthwhile project.
One that will turn WTF Dragon’s hair all gray or white, or cause him to pull it all out.
But still worth it!
My hair is already “salt & pepper”, and you can thank engineering courses for that. And genetics. And my kids. But mostly the first two.
It’s stressful getting things done on time for this, and part of me would love to heed Kevin’s advice and blow the secret right now. And I may just do that for Aiera regulars on Monday evening.
But for now, I just want a few people to test a few things out to make sure it all works like I hope it will.
Having to wait ’til Tuesday, assuming the super cool noun will occur then with public disclosure, is a long time waiting. Maybe you don’t want the volunteers to be swayed by the intermediate non-volunteers’ responses to the premature disclosure of mission details? Understandable if your goal is to get as much work done as possible in a limited amount of time. Interesting forum threads do tend to distract people from working.
Even so, spill the fucking beans, man. WTF, WtF? I’d have volunteered but honesty got the best of me and I didn’t want to sacrifice time on my current project. I hate making false promises, so I made none. Nevertheless I think as much information as possible on Ultima and Aiera-related projects should be made public if at least neutral to the creation effort.
Spill the beans. Everyone’s doing it. You’ll be cool if you spill them, just this once. Just say no to not spilling the beans. Focus the beans at a specific point in space (x, y and z with vectors, surface normals, etc.) and fire them at such a velocity that they’ll pierce even hardened targets like flechettes from a rail gun. Destroy all knowledge by releasing the beans.
Hey…wow.
Is this a secret or can I tell other people about it?
How about wait a day?
I know I’m a bit late, but if there is anything in which I can help, I’ll be much happy to cooperate.
Kobra: Check thy email!
I like! I clicked around some, and all the subdomains resolved for me. There were some PHP errors on some of the subdomain dashboards, but they seem to have mysteriously fixed themselves.
Once I’ve had a night to sleep it off, I’ll poke around some more.
dvicci (and everyone else): if you see PHP errors, please note a) what they were, b) what URL you were visiting when you encountered them, and c) what you were attempting to do (e.g. what link or button you had just clicked).
Thepal: I’ll look into that.
On the main pages (eg, the Aiera one) it’d be good if it mentioned how many comments had been left (or when the last one was). That is how I know which topics here to recheck.
Yeah, that’s what I was doing when I noticed that they’d resolved themselves (the PHP errors). They all occurred when going into the dashboard (“My Sites” -> [Sub Domain] -> “Dashboard”), and appeared to have to do with include statements. Sorry I can’t be more help, but they’re not happening anymore, so… I guess that’s a good thing. 🙂
WtF,
The forum is closed. I can’t post anything.
And I endorse Thepal’s suggestion.
Okay, I’ll check the forum out. Is that true even of the subforums, or just the main one?
Kobra, I think I know what the problem is – I looked and the top level is closed and I believe all of the sub-forums inherit it. I sent a note to WTF.
I went ahead and fixed it. Post in there now.
I haven’t received the privileged email, but according to the posts here you’re migrating Aiera to a new domain and host. I doubt the Aiera database will be ported, though I’m sure parallel sites will be maintained for a limited time and perhaps Aiera will even be archived in some form. No doubt eventually a redirect will guide newbies to the new site.
In any case, I wonder if you’ve been selected by EA/BioWare to be the official “fan representative” (I’m sure they have a more apt and professional name such as Director of Fan Relations) of all things Ultima under their umbrella. Is this the case? I smelled it a long time ago, so it would be interesting to see if it indeed had occurred.
I’m no expert, but it would seem a wise and logical move in these days of social and two-way-street relationships which have emerged between developers and fans.
Also, it’s Tuesday so spill the motha-fucking beans, man. Cut the bag and let them fall into black, rich soil with glinting dewey crests under radiant beams of warm sunlight and chill but promising breeze. They ache to burst from their shroud and rise to heights never before seen.
Really? Check your spam folders, maybe…I did add you to the list of initial users, so you should have seen something.
Domain, yes. Host? No.
Aiera will be kept around for posterity, though some of the content will be migrated to new homes at the new domain. 301 redirects will be set up at Aiera as needed.
Well, they’re not paying me yet, if that’s what you mean. I do enjoy some ability to contact people connected to Ultima within the company, and they do slip me little details on occasion. And I have a bit better idea that most what they might be talking about in otherwise cryptic tweets.
They certainly use me as a portal to fans of the series, though I can’t claim exclusivity in that regard. And I’ve certainly offered my services in regard to helping with and supporting “official” Ultima web presences.
But again, the relationship (such as it is) isn’t anything I could put on a business card.
Sanctimonia, go to the front page of Ultima Aiera.
Or visit the link from there to underworld.ultimacodex.com
I like it. It has a clean look, loads quickly, and gives you everything you’d want to see in an organized format. Have to agree with Thepal though. Knowing where comments are being posted is a huge plus as it lets you know where discussions are happening, and what to check back on. Unless of course you want that handled at the individual sites.
There are “recent comments” widgets I can add to most of the sites. Would that do? I can also add comment counts to individual articles.
Loving the new layout. Very clean, although the text on the front page in the rotating gallery is hard to read.
On the UW page, the “Come on down” article is password protected, but probably shouldn’t be. Also, there is a curious lack of linkage to GOG on that page…
In the Gallery, the Origin Software Technology Entertainment Report is misspelled “Technogoly”.
I’ll bang at it again over lunch. =)
“Too small/thin” hard to read, “not contrasty enough” hard to read, or “rotation rate of images set too high” hard to read?
It shouldn’t be…I unlocked it last night. And I see now that it is set to public visibility.
Could be a caching thing…I’ll investigate.
Update: Damn caching! It should be good now.
GOG links appear on individual articles for now. Might change that (or not) in the future.
Good catch. I’ll fix that shortly.
The all-cap text is either too thin and needs bolding, or needs another font. It seems pixelated and does not contrast enough with the white behind it. (Conversely, it looks ok when you mouseover and the colors swap…)
The article works if I access it from a comment link, but not from the UW main page. I.e.,
http://underworld.ultimacodex.com/come-on-down-britannia-is-hosed-an-interview-with-dan-schmidt/comment-page-1/#comment-3 works, but
http://underworld.ultimacodex.com/come-on-down-britannia-is-hosed-an-interview-with-dan-schmidt/ does not…
I can definitely see the GOG ads on the individual articles, but I thought there would be a link to the UW one directly on that tribute page. Maybe a sentence at the end of the Legacy section, saying “Underworld is available online from Good Old Games.” with the link.
Also, I just got the catch page on Aiera when I came to post this followup, which shows the new site. However, I can’t get it again for some reason, it goes straight to the standard blog roll (which does not have a UW entry). I did notice that that page had a GOG link. =)
Edit: Maybe it only shows for registered users. I changed from Private Browsing (which I use at work) to standard Firefox, and it shows the welcome splash when I’m logged in, but not if I log out and try to load Aiera…
I can switch fonts and override CSS settings within the theme’s options pane; I’ll mess with that this evening.
Yeah, I’ll mess with the CSS.
That would be a smart idea. I’ll do that when I get a moment.
I’m not exactly following you here. You’re talking about the new front page I put up on Aiera? It doesn’t show on repeated viewings?
Could be tied to a cookie, maybe. A “feature” of WordPress? I’ll have to investigate.
The UO Portal is not available to non-registered users. And the Lycaeum points to a temp page (not sure if the links should go here until it gets ported?).
The Dungeon Keeper image is really blurry (http://underworld.ultimacodex.com/the-great-stygian-abyss-1st-floor-for-dungeon-keeper/). Assuming this is because it is resized from an ever lower resolution.
There should be a “Show Older” link at the bottom of any page with more articles than fit on the front page, like the Aiera subdomain. You can click the calendar, but browsing is easier.
Deckard is keeping the UO site under wraps until he’s ready to go live with it. That’s also why it’s generating an HTTP error on the main Ultima Codex site (in the RSS widget).
And I just haven’t had time to port the Lycaeum over as yet, though I’ll have it done by the end of the week.
Correct. 180×135 doesn’t upscale to 640xWhatever all that nicely. And I don’t have a higher-resolution image, sadly.
This on which site? The Underworld site is set to show all articles on its main page. The other sites don’t yet have enough content to trigger pagination.
That said, I don’t have a pagination plugin installed, which is an issue I should rectify.
I’m not as fast as WTF Dragon is, plus he runs on a 32-hour day apparently, to be able to get so much done in such a short amount of time.
The UO side has contributors, but some of the projects are not simply a matter of copying from one site to another, but are original/new.
The serious stuff on UOJournal.com is going to be moved over to Ultima Codex. The soapbox/humor stuff will remain.
Life is good here on planet Umbrathos!
There’s abundant cheap beachfront property to be had, although it’s rather under-appreciated by most of the (rather warlike) indigenous population. But then, they’re just going through their Iron Age at the moment, so what can you expect?
The planetary gravity is a tad higher than that of Earth, but you get used to it. Harder to get used to is the much stronger planetary magnetic field, which plays hell with your electronics at times. Off-planet data backups are recommended.
Still, the weather is nice, and we few technologically advanced citizens of the planet live by ourselves on a large island in a calm region of the massive planetary sea. We’ve got decent connectivity to the HyperNet, and lots of arable land; you should see my tomato crops! The 32-hour days take some getting used to, initially, but you’ll find that you adjust rather quickly. Or go mad, but that only happens to a statistically…er…moderately small number of people.
:@ >:( :O 😐 WTF!!!??? WTF DRAGON!!!???
How dare do you talk about Umbrathos!?
How the f**k do you know about that place!? Who are you to have anything in common with Umbrathos!?
You don’t know with what great future and race you are messing with…
PLEASE ANSWER!!!
Calm down, Space Cowboy. No need to get all huffy over some fictional place like it’s the number 42 or anything.
As it happens, I was Googling around for planets (real or fictional) with a rotational period (“day”, in the common parlance) of 36 hours. I found this silly little website and its fanciful tales of a medieval world with a day just as long as I was looking for.
I was responding to a comment another person made…riffing off it, in fact, in a hyperbolic manner inspired by the effusions of sci-fi author John C. Wright.
I was, in short, making a joke. So do please calm down.
uuuhhhh… sorry… I just though that someone else was the first man on another planet.
You are talking about this site right?
http://www.drpetrov.com/1889/planets/planets8.htm
You can read about Umbrathos there, but what really attracted me there was Nemesis, then I stumbled on Umbrathos…
Ah, Nemesis is old news. That’s one I’ve heard about plenty of times…even read a couple “Choose Your Own Adventure” books involving the idea back when I was a kid.
Umbrathos was, as I noted, convenient for the length of day it purportedly has. Add a dash of whimsy, and voila.
hhmmm… so Umbrathos is fictional, but I know Nemesis exists and I bet there are habitable planets there.
The only other earth like planet is Gliese 581g.
From Wikipedia:
Gliese is “earth like” only in the sense that it’s currently the best candidate for a genuine “Goldilocks planet” we know of, although all of our hypothesis concerning it are based on conjecture, rather than on much direct evidence. It’s an exciting possibility, but it is also only a possibility…and then one that humanity is likely centuries (if not millennia) from exploring more directly.
Similarly, Nemesis is an interesting conjecture, but there’s really nothing in the way of strong evidence for it. And as parallax measurements confirm, time and again, that various low-temperature infrared objects we have catalogued over the years are, in fact, red giants many thousands or millions of light years away, it would seem that there is less and less evidence for the elusive little brown dwarf.
Which makes me curious as to how you know it exists. 😉
Well, I am 80% shure Nemesis is there, if you recall that reaserchers and scientists made a big mistake with WISE, searching in the wrong direction and now they are starting clean again.
I think they are STILL searching. Nemesis is very hard to find becose of it’s position hiding behind the asteroides ( ort cloud ) and it’s elliptical orbit, WISE can’t search everywhere the universe is 3D after all and maybe Nemesis is hiding behind the Sun or another object at this time.
What if Nemesis is ALWAYS behind the Sun, let’s say earth along with WISE moves right and Nemesis on the other side moves to left, so this way we will never find out about it… but what if Nemesis mooved slightly faster than earth, then after some years depending on the speed and orbit we are going to be able to see it. The Sun is enormous after all, but this is just my theory though…
ups… sorry for the double comment!
No problem…I cleaned it up.
To be clear, I’m not 100% opposed to the idea that Nemesis is there. But if the best argument for its presence is that to date we’ve just been looking in the wrong direction and so of course have not seen it…then colour me highly skeptical.
Were it there, though, it would have to be a relatively trivial star, or perhaps even a brown dwarf. Anything bigger than that, and there’s no way we could have missed its obvious thermal signature, regardless of its position.
And a brown dwarf can’t support life-bearing planets…not life as we know it, anyway.
Never mind Nemesis… time eventually will show us!
Have you heard about the game A.I.M. 2 Clan Wars?
It’s a great sci-fi game with an epic story maybe not the graphics so much, but EVERY player of this game loves it! It’s a russian game, but we play it in english version.
The developer is called “SKYRIVER studios” and he made 3 A.I.M. ( Artificial Intelligence Machine ) games: A.I.M. 1, A.I.M. 2 Clan Wars and A.I.M. Racing.
The game has very poor local rating and I ask myself why don’t people know and play this wonderful game, it never had a forum except the official SKYRIVER forum, ( filled with russian people )
so I decided to create an english forum about the game and gather people to make it famous and make the next A.I.M 3, but for now things look black, so please if you want try the game out and I am shure ( if you love RPG games ) it will become one of your favorite… if you wan’t to join our forum and find more info about the game come to: http://aim2thefirstforum.warsboard.com/ 🙂 .
I advice you to start from the first A.I.M. so you can lern game’s epic story from the beginning, but I think that the gameplay of A.I.M. 1 will disappoint you a bit. A.I.M. 2 has WAAAY better gameplay and very fun, but from my experience both of them are great! 😀
Can’t say as I’d heard of it before you commented, though I did check it out via the URL you supplied for yourself. It seems interesting, though it’s a bit outside my areas of interest as gaming goes.