News, rants, verbal assaults from the past...
	07-05

The search for the Abattoir's new DSL Carrier started today…  My very first call was promising and we're hoping to have some great news soon, stay tuned!
 

Seems it's Hollywood Friday at work, a Movie Truck just rolled in for a genset tune-up because now is the only chance he's got before his truck's needed back on the shoot location, but first Shannia Twain's Tour Bus is here to greet me when I got to work, it needs it's generator worked over for a sudden issue…  In the words of the Coach owner, "It still smells like Shannia", who apparently smells like "lemons" in the morning, Hmmm?  Here's a nifty shot of the inside of the bus if you're wondering where Shannia spent the last three weeks.  There's bedding for almost 24 people for crying out loud, it sports a nifty cocktail lounge/master headroom in the rear and a nice satellite tracking systems so you can watch your zillion channels on the road.  Either way, it was a lot cleaner than Metallica's Bus when it was here!  (…I ripped off an ashtray, I'm selling it on Ebay for $4,000.00 to help cover my Ontario Hydro Bill this month, forgive me, Shannia!..)
 

As I said yesterday, I've been attempting to download the wacky physics video "Owned" from FilePlanet...  After five failed attempts to get this file (...which at this point, had now become more of an obsession...) I caved.  Each download from the Public Servers had a wait time no less than 70 minutes, and after the fifth timeout I lost it...  The link "You don't have to wait in line!" stared at me, burning into the back of my retina, I couldn't fight it anymore...  "After all, GameSpy's been good to the Abattoir in the past, the least I can do is try a subscription..." I rationed.  So off to the page I went, filled in all my info and punched the process button.  Just like that, GameSpy Industries sucked $xx of my favourite monies from my account and my status at GameSpy was raised to God level.  So what does this all do for me?  Well, firstly and foremost is the fact that I no longer wait for any download as I'm shuttled off, first class to a Personal Server which sits on a higher bandwidth pipe than the Public Servers.  This one factor is reason alone to get a subscription, but there's also the other perks...  Priority Tech Support (...which I've just tested with a quick question, so we'll let you know how well that works shortly...) as well as first, exclusive shot at playing some beta's.  There's also the nice bonus of being able to click one button, and almost all of the advertising on GameSpy networks goes bye-bye, this helps make your surfing a good deal faster.  So now the question on everyone's mind...  "How much faster is it?"  In my case, it was instantly 70 minutes faster (...since the line issue is no longer an issue...)  Last night I pulled down my file at over 120k/sec, and the file finished with the bit rate still climbing!  Is it worth the cash?  That's up to you, for the time being, I'll just stand at the front of the line and enjoy my view from here.  I wonder if Fargo at GameSpy would be interested in giving us a couple subscriptions for a BTM giveaway?
 

Regarding the SuperFTP...  Yes it's up, no we don't hate you now that you've discovered you can't log on, however, read an update now and again...  You have to reapply!  We're getting a lot of hate mail at the Abattoir from people who think they've been cut off (...why am I typing this, they don't read it?!..)  On the same train of thought, we'll mention that due to bandwidth 'concerns', the SuperFTP is limited to 12 connections at a time.  There, I answered your question!  We've had complaints that people are getting a "Too many Users" message, what this message really means is that, at the precise time YOU were trying to connect to the SuperFTP, there were ALREADY many people just like YOU, who where there already...  This means, although they're just like you, they're a little faster than you.  We're sorry, there's nothing we can do about that right now.

Speaking of "Sick of Waiting" syndrome, guess who, after attempting to download a stupid short movie called "Owned" (Battlefield 1942) for the FIFTH time from FilePlanet, finally caved and purchased a year's subscription...  You already know the answer, me.  Okay, so now I have my "own personal server" on the great Planet...  Now for my sixth attempt to download.  You want my true evaluation of FilePlanet's rather pricey "Subscription" Fee?  Tomorrow...
 

Who doesn't know this smiling face!?  Yes, it's our own "Sgt.Slaughter" as seen here in a very rare photo showing a bottle of alcoholic beverage nearby.  Since Sgt.Slaughter works right around the corner from my place of employment, he never missed a chance to come over and throw a rocket around after hours.  It's difficult to date this picture, especially because Sgt.Slaughter hasn't aged at all over the years, but our best carbon-dating tells us this image was captured somewhere around the Summer of 1997.  Sgt.Slaughter was always fun to play against, each time you killed him, he'd either giggle or yell "Crappers!".  You could rest assured even if he had 8 health he'd be the first to jump into a battle when he heard nearby fire (…and as such, you'd hear a lot of "Crappers!"…)  Sgt.Slaughter is now President of MTC Computers and although he's not been to an actual BTM in quite some time, I know we can convince him to show if I threaten him with the other Polaroids we've found.  Who's up for tomorrow?  Find out…
 

Hope everyone had a safe and scary Halloween…  Traffic in our area picked-up and we actually were able to give out most of our candy (…that, and I didn't buy 10 crates of super-sized Mr. Big bars this year…)  There were a lot of great costumes, but I think I recognized this guy…  Cyclone came to BTM35 in full gear and I think he would be upset if I didn't at least throw a mention in.

The weekend's here and we just got nailed with our first snowfall / blizzard…  Gone as quick as it came, but caused over 100 traffic accidents in the short two hours the fluffy stuff blew through...  Man, Ontario drivers really do suck.  I also understand there's going to be something rather special on the Abattoir SuperFTP by later tonight…  If you don't have an account yet, you might want to send that request in now. *hint*  Have a great weekend, and remember, don't use any hydro.