Tuesday, March 22. 2011
State of the Company – Spring Time Happy Days
I've been slacking on state of the company updates because
I'm a slacker.
What We Have Been Up To:
Peter has been working really hard on the heat mapping software we are making
for NWB Sensors. The software can now record at 1 FPS (I'm told it will go up
to 7 FPS if Sandra Bullock and Keaneu Reeves are using it). The software also
keeps track of GPS coordinates which are some of the best coordinates to keep
track of. If you need a top-of-the-line heat imaging setup using Flir Tau or
Photon cameras and rad software from Digital Engine give Paul or any of the
other NWB Sensors guys a call at 406.579.0510.
I have been putting together a web site for NWB Sensors which will be up as soon as they decide on a sufficiently cool URL. I have also been “helping” out at the social media user's group (SMUG) classes that the TechRanch has been hosting. We just finished with the beginner sessions so going forward there will be a class about once a month on various social media topics. Laura Rhodes has been doing a wonderful job putting these on so if you're interested drop by, you can find a schedule on the TechRanch website. Finally I am finishing up an idea we were tossing around the office – a Facebook application to trade and price your friends on a stock market. Brain Trolley Trader is in beta right now so come and try it out!
Kevin has been working on additions to the OpenWrt router firmware to enable VPN with IPsec connections. The functionality is all there and working as of a couple of days ago, woohoo Kevin! Kevin is now working on making the setup process a little more user friendly. The patches have been submitted to the OpenWrt project so be on the lookout for the updates to be committed in the near future. We have also been tossing around the idea of offering pre-loaded and configured routers for sale. I will definitely make it known if or when that happens.
We have also held two LAN parties since my last update. We
have had around 30 people at each which has been amazing! Unfortunately we are
really pushing the limits of the library’s electrical system so if we get too
many more people we may have to start looking for a new venue. If anyone has any good and cheap suggestions please drop me an e-mail.
That is all for this month, happy Spring!
Sunday, March 20. 2011
Problems with UT2004 and Windows Firewall
At our recent LAN Party, I ran into a problem playing Unreal Tournament 2004 (old, I know...) on Windows 7. After clicking "Join Game" or "Host Game" I am presented with the following error message:
It has been determined that the Windows Firewall is enabled and that UT2004 is not yet authorized to connect to the internet. Authorization is required in order to use the online components of the game. Please refer to the README.TXT for more information.
There are a few different solutions that I came across. The first is to change permissions on a firewall policy list registry key, which doesn't appear to exist in Windows 7 (although it may solve the problem, if that is where UT2004 wants to write...). The other, which does work for me, is to edit the UT2004 configuration to ignore the Windows firewall. The complete solution was to edit ut2004.ini (stored in the System directory inside the UT2004 installation directory) and add the following lines:
IgnoreSP2=1
Note that in many configurations on Vista/7, ut2004.ini is saved/loaded from underneath %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore (usually C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\VirtualStore) due to UAC File Virtualization. Edit ut2004.ini in the VirtualStore as it is loaded preferentially.