N E T S C A
P E --C O M M U N
I C A T O R --4 . 5 Netscape unleashes their newest version of Communicator, now up to 4.5. That's a fairly major upgrade, so I suggest you grab it. It's been in beta for a while now, so if you've seen it around, it's the beta version. This one here is the full version, free of most bugs and cripples. Don't miss out on the best browser on the 'net. Click! L I T T L E --B I G --M A N Watch out NFL, Doug Flutie is back. The 5 foot 10 inches quarterback who played many years in the CFL was deemed too diminuative for the NFL. Flutie won the Heisman Trophy for best NCAA football player when he was at Boston College, but after went on to the CFL to win more trophies as the best player in that league. Signed by Buffalo at the beginning of this season originally as a backup for Rob Johnson, Flutie has proven to the world that he is still as good of a quarterback as any. In for the injured Rob Johnson, Flutie has directed Buffalo to a crushing virtory at Indianapolis last week, and this week upset the Jacksonville Jaguars, handing them their first lost of this season. Trailing 16-10 with 15 seconds remaining, Flutie rushed for a 1 yard touchdown on 4th down. This is the second time that the Bills have upset undefeated opponents, first the 49ers two weeks ago, now the Jaguars just half-an-hour ago. Buffalo may be old, but don't count them out yet! I N T E L , --A M D , --& --C Y R I X .
. . If you don't know what those companies are, you soon will. Intel is the flagship company of computer chips, developing the all-time popular Pentium and Pentium II series. AMD is a fast growing competitor, and Cyrix has always been known as dark horse. Well... there was a microprocessor forum up at the San Jose, Silicon Valley area, where those three companies showed off their newest inventions and toys known respectively as the IA-64 Merced, McKinley, Madison, Deerfield, K6-3 Sharptooth, K7, Cayenne, and the most innovative name... Jalapeno! Intel sports the IA-64 architecture, with the Merced, McKinley, Madison, and Deerfield. AMD upgrades its chips with the K6-3 Sharptooth and the Slot A K7. Cyrix begins work on the Cayenne and of course, the Jalapeno. Love that name. =) I'm not going to bore you with all the tekkie info, such as the .18 or .13 microns, blah blah etc.... Just keep this one thing in mind. These chips are... very fast. Don't be surprised to see 800+ MHz by the year 2000 or 2001. Holy toledo, talk about Mach II speeds huh? S P O R T S --W O R L D --O ' --L O V E The sports world has its ups (McGwire & Sosa's homers) and its downs (NBA Season lockout), but it's the ups that I live for as a fan. Lots have been happening lately, so much, as a matter of fact, that it outweighs most of the other news around the world. Sure, middle east terrorism is rampaging across deserts as usual, but it's so common to hear about it now your automatic reaction is to donate your regular supermarket change into their "Fight the Hunger" coin slots. Sure, Bill Clinton might be impeached any day now, but for Light's sake this has dragged on too long. C'mon! Kick the fellow out already! But sports, now that's something you can enjoy and not worry too much about, sort of like computer games or a stress-relieving solution. Padres defeat the almighty Braves, going on to face the record-setting Yankees in the World Series. Football, Green Bay upset twice by Minnesota, and now today by Barry Sanders' Lions & Company. Individual athletic performances are awesome to watch. Sterling Hitchcock's pitching shut-out gem to clinch the National League championship for San Diego, or Barry Sanders' 50+ yard runs to smoke the Packers' defensive line. Some funny stuff happen also, such as Ben Johnson, the former sprinting champion banned for life for using anabolic steroids, who raced in a charity event against two horses and a car... Lost to the horses, but beat the car! =) Ahh yes, watching sports is as good of a hobby as one can have. Many athletes have the determination and will to win, stuff that legends are made of. I agree that they get paid way to much, but heck, they provide the best entertainment in the world! A R O U N D --T H E --R I C E UPDATE: 10-14-98 / 15:52:09 News is picking up lately, but so has my work in "real life". Expect updates every two or three days now, instead of daily. Posting in the message board has really gone stale, and I would like to encourage some more participation. =) In other news, our beloved staff writer Gerry Wang has caught some deadly virus that is, currently, causing tremendous pain in god knows where. Let's all send a sympathy letter to him, and wish him better health in the future! Better health equals more articles to enjoy. =) N B A --S E A S O N
--N U K E D ! I'm packing up some C4's and heading over to New York to bomb the hell out of those NBA team owners right now. Who cares to join me? Today, after 3½ hours of talks between the owners and the players, they all decided that they were immature and acted like little kids, so to carry out that decision, they halted the NBA season for two weeks, which will NOT be made up. This is the first work stoppage in the NBA history, allll the way back since James Naismith invented the game. That's about 35,000 games! Why?!? Why are the owners doing this to us? We're the fan base, you greedy pigs, and you've turned our hearts against you. We're the one supplying you with the money, with our merchandise purchases, with our tickets, with our undying love for the game. If any of you are reading this, I beg of you, reach an agreement, and reach it soon. Our society has been marred by avarice for too long, and your action does not help our cause either. I realize the NBA is a corporation in itself, but here's a preliminary warning to all owners out there. Fans are very adoring, but they are very unforgiving. See: 1994 Baseball season. The NBA exists for us! You are merely entertainment in our world of work! We sweat and bleed for our meager salary compared to yours. All you do is manage basketball from your private booth and leech our hard earned money. If you ever want another cent of my dollar, reach an agreement... NOW! P R E Y --D E V E L O
P E R S --D I T C H ! In a spectacular string of events, long time developers of Prey from 3D Realms Paul Schuytema and William Scarbaro decided to hang up their cloaks and leave the Prey development team. Prey is another 3D first person shooter, using the brand new, unrevealed Portal technology that has yet to be revealed. Schuytema has been the head programmer of Prey ever since it started going into full gear last year, while Scarbaro has also been a major player in developing Prey. The president of 3D Realms George Broussard claimed the departure was an amiable one, and that Prey is still on track for publishing. Personally, I think Prey is going to have a lot of trouble finishing up their project. It's been under development for... a long time... since Duke Nukem 3D was released. They hyped up the great "Portal" technology for some time now, and losing their lead programmer doesn't help much. This looks like Unreal development part 2. I'm not sure why people do this quitting act right in the middle of a project, nay, right near the end of the project! It's one of the things that set my teeth to the edge. Americans are being bred to be quitters. What ever happened to hard work, ethics, and of course, sticking until the end? It may or may not be something you enjoy working on, but hey, at least finish it before you turncoat! This is not the first time it has happened to 3D Realms. Remember Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition? When they were creating the Plutonium Pak, lead level designer Richard "levelord" Gray and some of his minions packed up and ditched in the middle of the night! Argh! I just can't stand this kind of worthless dedication people have been displaying lately! Perhaps the seers were correct. America is really heading towards the dumpster in terms of manners and work ethics. Me, I've been anticipating the completion of Prey for a long time now. I was always a 3D Realms fan, dating all the way back to Apogee, when they released games such as Wacky Wheels etc.... Oh well, gaming industry in the early 90s are just not the same as it is now. |