How to Get Steam Working?

19 February 2011

Steam problems, can't update, whatever the case, you can try these steps out.



If you can't update or login to Steam, try these. These are the main solutions that has managed to get Steam working for different people.



Solution #1
This is the most famous one, which is to delete ClientRegistry.blob in your Steam folder and run Steam for it to update. You should always try this first.



Solution #2
Download an updated version of Steam here, then extract it to your Steam folder. Try and update after that. This helps if your Steam update doesn't complete because it is too slow, or something of the sort.



Solution #3
If you have connectivity issues, try disabling your firewall. There are some programs that conflict with Steam, making it unable to connect or update. For example, if you have DAEMON Tools or Advanced System Care, you can try exiting it.

You can see the list of conflicting programs here.



Solution #4
The number one solution for Malaysians because of their ISP. You can try this too if all else fails. Download Hotspot Shield, install it and connect to the Hotspot Shield server. Try running Steam and see if it works. You can disconnect and exit Hotspot Shield after you've connected to Steam, because Hotspot Shield sucks in a way.




If all of the solutions here didn't work, you can pretty much say Steam sucks.



Love,
Nicholas.

SMS Legal "Scam" Awareness

14 February 2011

There is a SMS scam that appears to be legal and it basically charges you continuously when you send only ONE SMS to them as a "subscrpition."



Hello and let me talk about the SMS LEGAL "SCAMS" (they can be called fraud as well) which are practiced here openly in Malaysia. Of course, legally they're selling something to you (which mostly are files which you can download through your phone) but you will most probably never manage to get the file, or it's big enough to give you a headache when your phone bill arrives.

Do people subscribe? Yes, people do. Sometimes it's because it's a harmless survey, like say... "Answer this survey and get to know your IQ!" or a harmless lucky draw like, "Stand a chance to win an iPhone 4!" which appears to be a one-time thing, but it is actually a SUBSCRIPTION which they will send you more SMS over time. The thing is, it's everywhere, even on Facebook AND EVEN ON TELEVISION!.




Epic face when realizing phone bill iz gay.






How the "Scam" Goes
1.
SMS ON (something) to (some number)

2. Notice you have to pay, maybe RM4 for that SMS?

3. Think you're done with it and everything's okay.

4. They further send SMS to you, and charge you for each of those SMS.

5. You get infuriated and say, "THIS IS NOT IN THE TERMS & CONDITIONS!"

6. You managed to unsubscribe, but have to pay for all that loss.




Some will say, FREE RINGTONES! Yes, the ringtones are free, but the subscription is not. And most probably they won't tell you the terms & conditions. You have to personally go look in the website for the terms & conditions.






The "Scam" Part
The scam part is, yes, it is not in the terms & conditions. When you view the terms & conditions, they give you the company's general terms & conditions which apply to all of the subscriptions IN GENERAL. They do not state that they will charge you for each SMS there (either that, or they try to hide it as much as possible). But, they will state it during the subscription only, and it will be as unnoticeable as it can be. Some of them don't even state it actually, but manage to come up with certain sentences that have the same meaning, which will be very misleading.

Furthermore, you do not have to really AGREE with the terms & conditions. All you have to do is to send the SMS to subscribe, and you will automatically be seen as agreeing to the terms & conditions.

Every week, your subscription will be renewed, and they will charge you again for it. If I'm not mistaken, they also charge you every week.

The thing is, they charge you for every single damn thing, and the only thing that allowed them to do so is by you agreeing to the terms & conditions, which is by sending that single SMS.




Notice it doesn't say anything about ACCEPTING terms & conditions for this scam. It also doesn't say anything about SUBSCRIBING. But it is a subscription. Before this page, there's only one sentence which reads, "Sign up today and have your horoscope delivered to your mobile phone!"





How to Unsubscribe
You have to remember what is the number you've subscribed to. To unsubscribe, simply type in

STOP ALL

and send it to the number. Different companies may have different methods of unsubscribing, but this is the most common one I guess. You will get charged for this SMS as well, and then you will receive an SMS saying that you've unsubscribed.





Are These Legal?
Yes, they are legal, but in a very exploited and overpriced way. They set high prices for letting you download files which you can get easily on the Internet. They also make it seem as if it's a one-time subscription, but if you do not read carefully, it is actually renewed every week and you get charged for each SMS they send to you.

This may appear illegal for simply charging you stuff, but the terms & conditions allowed so. As long as you send ONE SMS to them, you AGREE to the terms & conditions, which is shit and shouldn't be allowed because there is too little information, and nobody confirms you about anything when subscribing.





Precautions
- Do not give your phone number to companies or websites you don't know.
- Do not send SMS to register for anything.
- Do not bother to participate in surveys or harmless things that require SMS.


This may seem like general information that everyone knows, but it is presented in many different ways, especially in magazines (Astro magazines used to have them, or do they still have it now?) or basically anywhere, even in Facebook. They present it to look extremely harmless and make it seem as if you only pay once, but you actually pay a lot more. This makes people think that it's okay to pay for a cheap ringtone, but actually they're paying for the whole subscription. It is basically a scam, or more precisely, a fraud.




Love,
Nicholas.

Is Abortion Wrong?

12 February 2011

Why is abortion wrong? Is it okay for an abortion?


First off, please think yourself as a girl when it comes to this topic. Women go through lots of shit during pregnancy, so we'll take a look at whether abortion is really wrong or not. This article will tell you why it isn't wrong.

Also, to know whether abortion is right or wrong, we have to be secular. We cannot say that it is wrong because god says so. This is not a valid reason. We cannot put in religious beliefs here.

So let's take a look at why people think it is wrong.




You must place yourself as a woman, to at least get a gist of the sufferings experienced by women.





Why Do People Think It is Wrong?
1.
Life is sacred/god's gift/baby has a soul/along these lines.
This is an example of a religious arguement, and we shall omit this. Beliefs remain as beliefs. Please do not make it real or a make it a fact, and please do not use it in a logical arguement.

You need to consider the evident cause and effect, which we will go through here, and arrive a conclusion based on logical means, for the benefit of everyone.



2. It's cruel to inflict pain on the foetus.
The foetus can only feel pain at roughly 20 weeks after pregnancy. If the foetus is not developed enough, it will not feel pain. Also, the method of killing the baby is quick, so that it doesn't feel too much of a pain. Even though it looks gory, but yes, the baby dies quick.

Cruel or not? If you do abortions for fun, then it is. But do people do abortions for fun? No. We'll see other points as well, so you know why there is a necessity for abortions.

*You might see ugly, gory, bloody pictures of babies being aborted. Yes, it's gory, I know, and being ugly/gory or not does not make it any more right or wrong. Most people tend to say that it's wrong just because they saw the pictures.









3. Abortion is murder.
Nobody aborts for fun or for worse. People abort because it is a necessary/selectable choice. If the baby has AIDS or is severely handicapped, why is aborting the baby wrong? Here are the unnecessary troubles that you can avoid:

- Financial burden for medical fees of the baby, you can go bankrupt and in the end the baby still dies.
- Psychological burden for both parent and the child, you'll go crazy.
- Emotional stress for both parent and the child, you'll cry a lot.
- Extreme depression, you might even think of suiciding.
- Blah blah blah...

It is extremely cruel and selfish, to allow your child to be born just to experience psychological burden for about a decade and dies because of AIDS. You might think that the baby still DESERVES to live for the amount of time, but you would be disregarding all the suffering, pain and psychological effects the family (especially the child) has to go through, which can lead to even more problems, not just this.




Much happier with abortion. We can't hate them for wanting to be happy.






4. It goes against morals.
If you cannot support this baby, and in the end you have to give it up and leave it at some orphanage, it is even more immoral and cruel for the child. Then you ask, why have the baby if you cannot support it in the first place? The answer is, there is a reason why it's called a "mistake" and things happen during the course of pregnancy. The father may run away and escape all responsibility, leaving the mother to support the baby on its own. The mother is now poor, lonely, depressed, and probably at her worst now. It is not according to plan, and the mother can NO LONGER support the baby without the father anymore. Not in her psychological or financial state.

If this is the case, and you still say, "NO! YOU MUST CARRY ON!" then you are being cruel and have no sympathy to the mother.

Likewise, if someone gets pregnant because she was raped, please be considerate of her psychological wellness. The mother did not want the pregnancy. If you still say it's wrong to abort the baby, then you must be raped and we'll see how well you would do. Killing the baby here is not because of vengeance, it's because of your HUMAN RIGHTS which was deprived because of some idiot who raped you, and now you have to carry the responsibility of the rapist?

It would be even more immoral to allow this suffering to go on.




5. It affects other people.
So...you don't care about the mother? It affects the mother THE MOST.




The life of the unborn baby is FULLY dependent on the mother until it is born.






What May Happen if Abortion is Abolished?
1.
Women who want an abortion will have a higher chance of DYING because they had to cause a "miscarriage"
If you think abolishing abortion will stop the act or necessity/want of an abortion, you're wrong. If someone wants an abortion, that person will do it, with various methods from traditional methods to purposely hurting themselves to cause a "miscarriage" ...and this is a HUGE negative effect. Women might DIE in this attempt.


2. Babies are born but unwanted.
No abortion? Then the babies will be unwanted instead. If someone REALLY doesn't want the baby, or really cannot support the baby, the baby has to go somewhere. And since we can't kill it, it shall be dumped. An unwanted baby goes through much more suffering, it is much more immoral. If more people were to adopt children, then it would be easier. Apparently, this is not the case. And you'd think the child will live a happy life if it is up for adoption? Not necessarily.


3. Suicide.
When the mother hits the limit, and can no longer carry this burden of the family, then the mother will be mentally unstable. And when this happens, probably, somehow or rather, the mother may suicide. Either with the kids, or without the kids.

Ironically, we blame them for suiciding and call them stupid, when all of this can be prevented by just a single abortion which we did not allow.



4. The baby gets to live.
Yes, this is the only positive effect. Whether the family will live a happy life or not, we don't know. However, a mother who wants to abort a child but couldn't, will not be happy about this. Then the child will receive the burden from an emotionally unstable mother. The child will probably go through a very sad life. This is the irony. And if at any time, the child finally decides to die or suicide, we blame the parents or the child for being stupid or not wise enough. Very ironic.




Gore or uglyness of abortion does not contribute to whether it is right or wrong. All deaths are ugly.






Closure
No matter how wrong can abortion be, when you look at the effects of it being abolished, you will see more negative effects.

You can put in all the religious arguements you like, such as heaven and hell, souls, god, sacred life and all that. But it does not help anyone, nor does it make anyone happier if there is no abortion. It does not alleviate the negative effects one bit.

Please be considerate of the 9 months a mother has to go through. It is not easy, it is nothing petty and it is not something you can disregard. After the 9 months, taking care of the baby is also a difficult task. Unless you are prepared for all these, it would be extremely difficult for you.




Love,
Nicholas.

What Are Unique Referral Clicks?

11 February 2011

What are unique clicks in those pay-per-click ads you see in the net?


Okay, unique referral clicks are basically clicks that are not from the same users. If a user clicks it twice or 50 times, it is counted as one. How do they track it? By IP or by cookies, both can be possible too.



By IP
Basically, your IP is stored in the database, and whenever there is a new click, it compares that person's IP with the stored IP. If the IP is not there, it will be counted as a unique click.


By Cookie
Whenever you visit a website, you get a file called a cookie which the website uses to track your computer. For example, if you log in to a website, then you go somewhere else...when you return, you will still be logged in, because you have the cookie that the website can check. Basically it is the same here.




Wouldn't it be in Risk of Fradulent Acts?
Yes. People who pay people per unique click are at quite the risk, because people can just change IPs, go behind different proxies, and all the sort to make themselves seem like another computer.

Unless you can trace and successfully trace the IP to its original (it would be very difficult if it has gone through many network hops) ...then it is a difficult task to track fradulent activities.




What are the Workarounds?
There is no workaround for this concept of unique clicks, because the Internet is anonymous. However, sites like Nuffnang seem to use the concept where they will put up the ads on your site, and it doesn't matter who clicks it, you will still be paid. The ad will be there for an amount of time, and once it is over, you will be paid. You will obviously get very little money, but Nuffnang gets the most out of it, especially when there are many clicks.




Based on this very short article, if you get paid per click for advertising stuff, please be honest about it and not just asking for clicks. They run quite a risky business, and any person who knows something about computers can basically spend the whole day generating unique clicks. And yes, it is considered a fraud if you do this, it's called Click Fraud.



Love,
Nicholas.

How to Play Magicka Online [UPDATED + Vietnam]

06 February 2011

This is a short guide for people who cannot seem to play Magicka online. Basically, we're going to use Steam and Tunngle to play it online. Works for everyone I guess.


UPDATED #2: The newest file here contains all DLCs and works with the crack, without the need to install Steam. I suggest you just get that instead. If there's any connection/authentication problems, refer to port forwarding steps below.

UPDATED: This blogpost is updated for Magicka Update 21 with the Vietnam DLC. You might have to re-install Magicka to get this working, but if you didn't crack your Magicka and installed it inside your Steam folder, then you don't need to.


DO NOT CRACK YOUR MAGICKA GAME


Otherwise, we shall uninstall Magicka! And follow the steps below in order, a fresh install may guarantee it to work.








How To Play Magicka Online
1. Install Steam.
You need Steam in order to play Magicka, which you can get HERE.
After installing Steam, create an account at the website, if you haven't already. You can also create an account at the login when running Steam on your PC.

Can't get Steam to work? Check my "How to Get Steam Working?" blogpost and try those solutions. If you're living in Malaysia and Steam just doesn't update, try Solution #4 in that blogpost.








2. Get SmartSteam & Magicka Steam Files.
SmartSteam allows you to put in some hacked Magicka files in order to let Steam recognize that you have the game. Download THIS file.

Then, extract it to your Steam folder. You will now probably see a Magicka folder in your Steam\steamapps\common folder.

We'll be using SmartSteam.exe located in your Steam folder instead of the original Steam.exe to start Magicka.





3. Install Magicka in your Steam folder.
Install Magicka in the steamapps\common\Magicka folder. The directory should look like this in your installation:

C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\Magicka





4. Update from 19-20 to 21 (1.3.6.1)
Now, you need to download the upgrade patch to 1.3.6.1 which you can get HERE.

Then, extract it to your Steam\steamapps folder. It should overwrite some files, click Yes.





5. Run SmartSteam.exe and run Magicka.
SmartSteam.exe is located in your Steam folder. You'll need to keep this running in the background in order to play Magicka.

You can then run Magicka, either from your Desktop or from SmartSteam, it doesn't matter. The first time you play, there will be a Product Key thing, just ignore it and click PLAY.






Next, Get Tunngle!As you've read earlier, my country has almost nobody using Steam, and it will always get laggy if you play with someone else at some other parts of the world due to distance lag. So, get Tunngle!








Tunngle is also a VPN software, lets you connect to a private network and eventually you're all connected as if you're connected through LAN, through tunneling. Basically it should guarantee some good speeds like Hamachi, only that Tunngle supports all games and is quite epic, more epic than Garena.


Steps:1. Download and Install Tunngle here.

2. Run Tunngle and there's a link to create a Tunngle account if you haven't already got one.

3. Login.

4. Click Action -> Magicka to connect to the Magicka network.

5. Start Magicka through SmartSteam and play! You can also just start the game as long as SmartSteam is running, it should be able to link together. You will know if it's linked when you see the Steam popup in the game.





Problems & FAQs1. Magicka doesn't start, Steam just brings me to the menu and there's Buy Magicka and all that shit!Make sure your game is not cracked in any way, and just follow the steps above to run it through SmartSteam and get it online through Tunngle. If you cracked it, and couldn't reverse it, just reinstall the game.

Make sure your steam_appid.txt is not altered to 73050, otherwise it wouldn't work. Also make sure that skidrow.ini and all that cracked shit is not in your game directory.



2. I can't see any online games!Try messing around with the Filter options. Set it to ONLINE to find games. If ONLINE doesn't work for you, you can set it to LAN. Make sure you started the game through Steam. You would probably know that your game is linked with Steam when there is a Steam Community tab popping up on the bottom right corner of the screen. If you can't see a game, you can always try joining by IP. In Tunngle, the IP starts with 7, which you can see at the bottom left corner of your Tunngle window. Use that virtual IP if you're using Tunngle.

Also, make sure that your SmartSteam is running.








3. I still can't get Steam to work!I'm sorry, but if you've tried everything and couldn't get Steam to update or work, you can try Hotspot Shield. If THAT still doesn't work, then Steam basically sucks. Lots of people face problems like these in the Steam forums, so...yeah.





Hosting Server Tips1. Make sure you portforward Tunngle (11155 under UDP) and Magicka's port (27016) to make sure people could see and join your game.

2. Make sure your firewall allows Tunngle and Magicka, and not block it.

3. Sometimes when you exit Magicka, there will still be the Magicka.exe process. You have to terminate this before running Magicka again, otherwise it will create another Magicka.exe process. This may stop people from joining your game.

4. Spread your IP (in Tunngle, it's a virtual IP located at the bottom left corner of Tunngle) in chat so that people could locate your server, even if they couldn't see it on the list.

5. STOP PUTTING THE DAMN PASSWORDS BECAUSE THERE'S LIKE SO MANY PEOPLE HAVING PASSWORDS AND ITS SO HARD TO FIND A GAME IF YOU CAN'T HOST FOR SOME REASON!

6. Lastly, when hosting a game, do not Start yet. Players can only join if the game has not started.






Love,
Nicholas.

Magicka - An Exciting RPG Game

02 February 2011

Introducing another new game for Diablo or RPG lovers!


Alright, what is Magicka? Magicka is a newly developed game by an indie studio of 8 people, which is out now on Steam and has sold over 30,000 copies on the first day. It is sort of diablo-like, with isometric view. It is 3D and has pretty good graphics I must say, while still maintaining the cartoony look.

I'll just give a brief explanation on the story and the gameplay before I give my own opinions on the game.








Storyline
The storyline is a pretty usual storyline. It is about a bunch of wizards saving the world from an evil dark wizard that plans to kill everybody. Although it is pretty common, the adventure you go through is quite a unique experience, travelling from airships to caves to vampire castles to the underworld and so on so forth. It is a story of Dungeons and Dragons, of Orcs and Goblins, of Ghouls and Ghosts, of Kings and Quests, but most importantly of Wizards and Vamp-- er, well...a story of Wizards.









Gameplay
The gameplay focuses on combat and the adventure you go through. Basically, the most unique thing about this game is the combination of spells you can make. You combine elements and conjure them to create a spell. Combining different elements makes different spells for different situations, making it quite cool and realistic.

It does not rely on loot and leveling. There's no inventory system or whatsoever. You carry along whatever you have and that's it, which is kind of realistic when you come to think of it. What sort of wizard has a huge-ass inventory that can store 5 swords or something? There's no leveling as well, the damage you do depends on the elements you combine and cast. Despite being able to deal tons of damage even from the start, there are some enemies (such as spellcasters) that you may need to rethink a bit when casting spells.








Then you might be thinking, what's good of an RPG if there's no leveling and inventory? Wait, there's no choosing a class and no keeping track of mana as well! So why is it so good? Is it even a RPG? Well, you can say it's not your average RPG or hack-and-slash game. It's so good because of the unique gameplay, that requires you to think twice when casting spells. Spells don't work with all enemies, and it's so dynamic that you have to think about it for different enemies and different situations. Spells are also used to solve puzzles, which makes the story play more interesting.


Also, conjuring elements is not an easy thing to do, and that's the fun of it! You can't combine earth and lightning because they're opposites of each other. When you try to conjure lightning when you're wet, you shock yourself. The elements play a very important role in the general gameplay of the game, which by itself, makes the game pretty awesome and unique. You can also conjure spells in different ways, such as making it into a beam, a ball, a mine or even use it with your weapon. The combinations you come up with on the fly, are the weapons of choice. It lets you experiment a lot!







In the multiplayer of up to 4 people, there are two modes, Adventure and Challenge. Adventure is where you play the story with other people, and Challenge is like survival. You can combine spells with other players, such as merging two Arcane beams to create a more powerful beam. Beware though, merging beams of the opposite element can create an explosion that may kill you, but if used properly, can be a deadly weapon.








What I Liked About This Game
1.
Epic friendly-fire fun.
There's no discrimination when it comes to hitting your friends or enemies here. If you deal 1500 damage with a single arcane fireball to an enemy, you will deal the same to your friend, which will be instant death. When you have 4 people playing in multiplayer, basically you're gonna kill each other more often than being killed by the enemy. But fear not, there's always the Revive spell which you're going to use extremely often!


2. Hundreds or thousands of element combinations.
Simply take a look at the combinations you can do with fire alone... I made the names up myself by the way, since there's no name for spells you conjure. I just give it a name that looks like what it is.
Fire + Water = Steam (new element)
Fire + Earth = Fireball / Line of Fire / Fiery Earthquake
Fire + Arcane = Firebeam / Explosion / Fire Sith Epic Darth Vader Lightsaber
Fire + Lightning = Fiery Lightning
Fire + Shield = Firewall

The combinations are endless and these are only 2 element combinations. You can combine up to 5 elements at one go. You can also conjure it in different ways!








3. Lots of comedy and funny references.
Playing this game reminds you of many other games or movies, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, 300 (SPARTA!) and so on. The game has quite some humour which is nice, and makes you want to play the story over and over again.



4. Smart use of elements.
When you're wet, you can't cast lightning or you might die. So, you gotta dry yourself with fire. If you use too much fire, you'll light yourself and fire, which you can extinguish with water or cold. The thing is, in this game, most of the time you'll be watching out for these. Enemy spellcasters are smart and they can use spells like Rain. When I played it the first time, I totally forgot that the Rain made me wet and I ended up killing myself by repeatedly casting lightning.

It also applies to enemies, such as when you use water on your enemies to make them wet, lightning deals double damage. If you use a fire spell, most likely your enemies are going to get dry and not take too much damage from the fire. If you use cold, you will freeze your enemies into an ice block, so that they can't move at all, but they will not take damage from melee attacks (does not apply to an epic earth spell though)...if your enemies are not wet and you use cold, they'll simply slow down instead of freezing into ice. This is a very smart and unique way of implementing elements, which the game is famous for.

Another example is about trolls. Trolls have high regeneration rates. However, you can use fire to burn them, cancelling out their regeneration. This is a smart idea! Also, yetis can grab you and kill you instantly. You can actually set yourself on fire to prevent them from grabbing you! There is so much to see and experiment with the elements that it fills you with excitement.




What I Disliked About This Game
1.
Bugs and Crashes
The game is constantly being updated so far, and it's good to see it happening. The earlier versions have bugs such as cutscene lockups and sudden deaths. Sometimes the game also crashes from time to time at certain levels. However, the new update seems to have fixed this problem, and true enough, I don't experience the crashes anymore. Bugs may still appear here and there, but they'll be fixed soon. Despite the bugs, many people support this game because it is just pure fun.

2. Steam
To play online, you need Steam. And Steam sucks, in my opinion...some people may disagree, but there are some who agree as well. In Malaysia, we have problems because of our ISP, which somehow doesn't let us connect to Steam. I will post up a guide for connecting to Steam in future.

I posted a guide on how to play Magicka online. It includes the Steam problem. It shows you how to play it online through Tunngle. You can view it here.




What Convinced Me of This Game
I knew about Magicka when I came across this video, "WTF is Magicka?" by TotalBiscuit. I immediately knew that I would need this game after I watched the video on YouTube. I'll embed it here for you to see how amazing it is.










Love,
Nicholas.