How to Play Minecraft Online

A short guide to playing Minecraft online, using Tunngle here would be good.


Minecraft deserves tons of support by simply buying the game. Not to mention many people have already bought it, and Notch is probably too rich to even bother about any of this nonsense. But if you have an overly screwed up Internet connection, or simply do not wish to have your own blocky Minecraft character, then follow these steps.








Steps to Follow
1. Get Minecraft
You can get Minecraft v1.7.4 here.


2. Check the Force Update checkbox.
You need to do this every time Minecraft updates. It should be under Preferences or something. Otherwise, you will be left with an outdated version of it.


3. Type in your name and Enter Game.
Type in any username you wish, and click Enter Game. If the username matches with the username of a particular Minecraft account, then you will have that person's skin.


4. Join Game
You can now click Multiplayer and type in the IP of the server you wish to join.











Hosting a Minecraft Server
1. To host a Minecraft server, simply go to the Minecraft's website and download the Minecraft_Server.exe found there.


2. Place it anywhere in your computer, and run it. The first time you run, it will generate some server files on the same directory. Close the server window.






3. Edit the newly created server.properties file using a text editor like Wordpad. Change online-mode from "true" to "false" if it is not already false.


4. Run the Minecraft_Server.exe again and keep it running, that is your server.



If you're playing it on Tunngle, just enter the Action -> Minecraft room and host it there. People can then join your server by entering your Tunngle IP.

Logic & Truth Tables

What is the whole idea about the Laws of Logic we study in Mathematics in our lives?


The laws of logic studied in Mathematics applies in real life, and is all about
developing a valid reasoning to determine what is true, false or indeterminable.



What is Logic?
Logic is our method of determining the validity of a statement. When we solve problems, we use logic and determine what are the possible ways to solve it. Using logic in our daily problems can automatically refute things that CANNOT be done, but not things that can be done.

For example, a question like this, "What is in this box I'm holding now?"

The possible answers are infinite, as long as you have a good imagination. However, we know what CANNOT be in the box, using logic alone to refute them. We know that The Grand Canyon is not in the box. We know that big things such as elephants, trees, cars, humans and so on cannot be in the box unless it's a miniature toy figure.

Logic requires:
- Linear reasoning, not circular.
- Valid.
- Based on facts, not opinions.
- Not subjective, not personal.
- True, false or indeterminate.
- A good mastery of language (English)





Truth Tables
In Mathematics, logic is proved or justified using truth tables. We only deal with propositions in Mathematics, where a statement can only be TRUE or FALSE, but not INDETERMINATE. Now, what exactly does the truth table show?

Let p = "I study hard."
and q = "I pass my exams."

Given the premise, IF p THEN q (p → q) the truth table is shown below.

p	q	p → q
T	T	T
T	F	F
F	T	T
F	F	T

How did we fill the truth table? Well, we put in all possible truth values for both statements p and q. Then we can determine whether the premise "if p then q" is true or false. So it has all combinations of true and false for p and q.

The If-Then statement specifies that IF the condition is true, THEN the following will be so and so. The IF clause is checked first, before we can proceed to the THEN clause. Now that we know what does IF-THEN mean through our basic English revision, we can now correctly fill in the truth table.


a) First Row
p = True, q = True
I study hard, I passed my exams. IF I study hard, I pass my exams (p → q).

Therefore, p → q is TRUE. Why? Because if we say, "IF I study hard THEN I pass" it means that you will pass your exams IF you study hard. You studied hard, and you passed, so the If-Then statement remains true.


b) Second Row
p = True, q = False
I study hard, I did not pass my exams. IF I study hard, I pass my exams.

Therefore p → q is FALSE. Why? Because "IF I study hard, I pass my exams" specifies exactly that if you did study hard, THEN you WILL pass your exams. If you studied hard, and still failed your exams, then p → q cannot be true and is a false statement, or a lie.


c) Third Row
p = False, q = True
I didn't study hard, I passed my exams. IF I study hard, I pass my exams.

Therefore p → q is still TRUE. Why? Because the If-Then statement only specifies that when you study hard, you will pass the exams. But did it say that if you don't study hard, you will fail? No. You may have passed the exams by cheating or some other method, who knows? The main thing is, the premise does not specify that you will fail, if you do not study. It only specifies that you will pass, if you study.

This fallacy is called Denying the Antecedent which goes like this:
If p then q.
Not p.
Therefore not q.

A better example:
If I am Eric Clapton then I own more than 5 guitars at home.
I am not Eric Clapton.
Therefore, I don't own more than 5 guitars at home.

This is an invalid argument, a fallacy. This fallacy is quite often seen in many daily arguments, just that people tend not to realize it.


d) Fourth Row
p = False, q = False
I did not study hard. I did not pass my exams. IF I study hard, I pass my exams.

Therefore, p → q is TRUE. Why? Because it has no influence over the premise. The premise is only concerned that you DID study hard, THEN so and so will happen. If you did not, it doesn't specify what happens. So the statement p → q remains true.





The Truth Table & Reality
But wait, how come p → q is True even when it has a possibility of being False?

In the truth table, a true statement tells you that it is a VALID statement but not necessarily factual. A valid statement is a statement constructed with the correct form of logic. In short, whatever that is regarded as TRUE in the truth table basically means there is a possibility of it being true or false, but it is not DEMONSTRABLY false.

The false values in the truth tables are DEMONSTRABLY false, which means it is invalid, it has been PROVEN to be false, using logic alone. It CANNOT be true. Remember the box example earlier? We can name what's NOT in the box using logic alone. In other words, we can say what is FALSE using logic alone, with full basis and confidence.

In reality, you might face statements that you cannot determine whether it is true or false. Some of these are CLAIMS that are not mere opinions. What do we do with claims? Claims need to be proven, by the people who make that particular claim. This is called the burden of proof. The burden of proof rests on the person who makes the claim, not on others. If a claim does not have proof or evidence, the default position would be to not believe in it, as it is INDETERMINATE. We have no reason to believe in anything that we don't know whether it's true or false.

This is the logical position to be in for every claim without proof. If we choose to BELIEVE that a claim is true because we can, or just because we want to do so because it feels better, then a belief remains a belief. The claim is still INDETERMINATE, and our beliefs CANNOT influence reality, nor does it deserve any special respect, because there is no reason to believe, apart from our willingness to believe.




Real Life Logic
In Mathematics, we can assume that the premises are relevant to each other, and are correct. When we say, p → q and p is true, we don't have to review whether p is actually really true as we speak or not. Therefore, we can clearly come to the conclusion that q MUST be true.

But in real life, we need to look out and see whether there is relevance in the premises and conclusions or not. Otherwise, we will only have a bunch of logical fallacies. We also need to look out whether the arguments are following the correct logic or not, which is hard to detect in everyday speech. We'll need a good mastery of English to understand what exactly a statement means.

Here are 3 common fallacies in daily life:


a) Non-Sequitur
- A conclusion that does not follow its premise.
Example:
This apple is rotten.
Rotten apples can cause stomach pains.
Therefore, this apple is red in colour.

The conclusion is about the colour of the apple. It has no relation to whether it causes stomach pains or not. Even if the apple is red, there is no way to draw that conclusion from the premises. Any conclusion that does not follow the premise is invalid, unless there are other premises supporting that conclusion. The correct conclusion should be, "Therefore, this apple can cause stomach pains."



b) Circular Reasoning
- Reasoning that goes around in a circle, coming back to its original statement.
Example:
You can get what you want.
By having lots of will power.
By wanting to get what you want.
By having lots of will power.
... so on.

This goes in a circle, a loop that when you ask questions, it comes back to the same answer. In the end, it basically means, "This is so because this is so." Logic is linear, not circular. It either reaches an end answer, or it doesn't, in which the answer would be "I don't know" and not any other claims or opinions.



c) Appeal to Emotion
- The truth is influenced by emotions, in other words, biased reasoning.
Example:
I feel good about X.
I feel bad about Y.
Therefore, X is correct and Y is wrong.

Even if you say that X is PROBABLY correct, and Y is PROBABLY wrong, it is still a fallacy to determine the probability of it being correct or wrong based on your emotions. Your emotions do not change reality, and does not determine probability. Also, you need to know all the parameters, variables and data of an observable event before you can actually determine probability, unless you're generating the numbers out of nowhere.

This is one of the most common fallacies in almost anywhere. Such as saying that being gay is wrong, because of the feeling that it's not right/natural or because you find it disgusting. Being disgusted about something does not influence anything but yourself. Other emotions such as FEAR is also one of the most common for this fallacy.




Conclusion
We need to know how to use English well in order to describe or state something as it is - brevity. It helps if you apply the laws of logic in life to analyze different situations and refute what is not correct with logic alone.

We must learn the different types of logical fallacies so that we do not become victims of it ourselves. Such as, getting 3 heads in a row by flipping a coin does not make it more probable to get a tails in the next flip (Gambler's Fallacy). How many of us disregard logic and use faith as reasoning instead? Stop being biased and illogical. The only method of determining what is true and false is LOGIC, and that is the strong point of human beings, otherwise we'll be useless pieces of shit but still arrogant enough to claim that we're superior to other animals.



Love,
Nicholas.

[Notice] - New Template 2011

Sorry for the sudden change in blog template.


For now, the old blog template has been taken down. It will be replaced with a new one...a better one which has less layout problems. This is just the temporary default template provided by Blogger.

When I'm done finding or fiddling with the new template, then it shall be updated.

Love,

Nicholas.

How to Get Instant Profit?

This method will apply to any end-of-the-world believers.

April Fool's, but this may not be a joke, it might as well be a legit method of getting some serious profit! It's simple really. There's a Christian belief that the rapture is on 21st May 2011. There's also 2012, if you haven't forgotten about that. So, let's see how it works!

Sample agreement.

The Method
1. Since the world is going to end, get the believer to sign a legit agreement that allows them to offer you their belongings after the end-of-the-world date.

2. If they refuse, offer them USD$10,000 to buy all their belongings (make sure you only do this offer to people who have at least a house or an apartment).

3. They sign the contract.

4. Wait till the date comes.

5. ???

6. PROFIT!

What is Information Technology?

The word, information technology, is mostly misunderstood by many people.

I guess it all started out with the dot-com thing, huh? Everyone was rushing to study about IT. IT graduates at that time don't know much. Back in those days everyone was using DOS and issuing DOS commands, the only reason IT graduates were hired is to issue DOS commands and that's it.

Now let's look at what IT really is, this is what is provided in Wikipedia.









What is IT?
Information technology (IT) is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications.

In short, it means input data, process it and output valuable information through electronics. So...did you notice that it's basically talking about almost every single damn thing we use or work with today? You can basically say IT is life in the current age we live in. To understand more, ask yourself these questions:

Why does my car make noise/unlock the door/start with only a push of a button?
Why am I reading this article?
What is the thing that I always bring with me in case anyone needs to contact me?
What is the yellow thing on my NRIC?
What is the thing cashiers use?
Why are all my floor tiles perfectly square?
Why doesn't the damn elevator respond to me when I push GO DOWN when it's going up?
How do doctors capture X-rays and produce valuable information?
How does a RC Car work?
What is the thing I always use to do mathematics?
Why does my TV have so many channels which I can choose from?
Why is my music available to me through a push of a button?
What is the program I'm using to do whatever I'm doing?
What is biometrics?
How does GPS work?
How does the radar work?
and so on...

Even on roads...

The Misconception about IT
When you mention IT, what is the first thing that comes into your mind? Computers, yes. What are computers? The thing you're using right now, yes. Is that it?

Almost every hardware, requires a software. Hardware is the tool. Software, is the method of using the tool. With a giant machine it can be a very useful tool, but without programs, you have to manually use it, by hand, or by whatever manual means. Even your router contains software to do its routing.

IT is linked to engineering, as they are with science and technology. In the current era, who wouldn't want to cut cost, be efficient and reduce wastage/redundancy? Competition is great, you need something reliable, something efficient. The tool alone will not help your business. What if it's automated? What if...it can listen to you, just like an employee?


This, is Information Technology. Information is the key word here. Now, what do you understand about the word, "information"? Pretty damn important, eh?







Life Towards IT
Did you know that most information about you is computerized? If you watched the movie, The Net 2.0, vapourizing your existence is as easy as that...if a person has access to your stuff.

Have you seen news where hackers steal money by hacking a bank? Even money is dealt through digital means.

Are you still not aware that every single damn thing we use is in relation to IT? I also have a little problem with people differentiating animation/video editing as NOT part of IT. What is the program used? Why is recording the video even possible in the first place? What is ActionScript which is used in Flash? What is AutoCAD and 3DS Max, used by most architects? Read the definition of IT again, and see why.

Even in hospitals...

Closure
People who take study about computers are venturing into a very crazily large field that they have to somehow specialize in one area no matter what. It's not just Facebook and games when it comes to computers. It's everything we work with now. What you learn about computers, is applicable to almost anything that uses it. Hardware and software included. How much crazier can it be?

It all comes down to whether you want to stick with your damn buggy Windows computer, or you want to go for something else, with embedded software, going down into the designs of electronics, the communication systems we use, and so on so forth.




Love,
Nicholas.

5 Common Myths Debunked

Here are 5 common myths which I come across quite often.


Some people believe in these myths seriously, but I think it is best that these silly beliefs be cleared up because it may just cause inconveniences to yourself or the people around you.



Myth #1
If your laptop's battery is full, and you want to use it with a power source, you must take off the battery. Otherwise, it will shorten the battery's life.

This is a funny myth that I come across very often in my country among my friends. This is not true, that's just not how Li-Ion battery works. When it is full, the battery stops charging automatically because there is nothing more to charge, and new technology allows better power management. You cannot "overcharge" your Li-Ion battery, and it will not overheat by charging.

On the other hand, taking your battery out is worse and may shorten your battery life instead. The battery ages even if not used. If you really need to take out your battery or have a spare battery to store, most people store batteries at around 40% charge in a cool, dry place for best results.

This is designed in a way that it should remain in your laptop forever...

Myth #2
You MUST take antibiotics to treat your flu/fever/sorethroat.

For sore throats, there are two kinds of infection.
- Bacterial Infection (most commonly strep bacteria)
- Viral Infection (happens about 90% of the damn time)

A viral infection is common and you get it mostly together with the flu. These sore throats are also highly contagious, and is basically how most people have it. Antibiotics work only on bacteria, because it kills bacteria. For viruses, no, it doesn't work at all, and it may even make it worse (your body should be able to tolerate a bit, as long as you don't overdose). For sore throat, antibiotics only work for bacterial infections, which is not too common.

Flu is a virus. Antibiotics don't do anything to flu.

Fever may be caused by bacteria, but most fever is also due to virus. Again, if it is due to virus, antibiotics don't do anything.

Why do doctors keep prescribing antibiotics then? The doctor may think you have a bacterial infection, or the doctor may just prescribe you antibiotics to be on the safe side. I've had a bacterial infection sore throat before, but only once.

Strepsils is named after the strep bacteria which is common in causing sore throats.

Myth #3
Eating lots of fried food or "heaty" food makes you sick.

In Malaysia or asian countries, we adapt the concept of Yin and Yang especially in food where dry, hot, spicy food are called "heaty" food and wet, cool, juicy food are called "cooling" food.

Of course, in Western medicine, it makes no sense at all. The Yin and Yang may serve as an easier explanation for many things, (imagine Newton's 3rd Law being simplified just like that) but it is not necessarily true.

For those who are not familiar, it basically means if you eat too much "heaty" food, you need to balance it up with "cooling" food or you'll get sick, since your body cannot handle the energy (associated with 'chi') ...

To make long story short, basically you need a balanced diet. Some people also have food intolerance, such as not being able eat too much spicy food or they'll have a reaction, such as acne or getting sick. Besides, people in the Western countries eat these grilled, fried, cooked to perfection "heaty" food almost every day.

You can eat rice when you're having a fever. You can eat watermelons if you have cough. I did it, it has made no difference. Just because I didn't recover doesn't mean my sick has gone worse due to the food. At one time, I also drank big bowls of Tom Yam soup for 3 days in a row, every day, and eat burgers, fastfood, the "heaty" stuff, and I was alright.

Mmm...moar! Moar!

Myth #4
You must drink 8-10 glasses of water a day.

Depends on your body. One thing to note though, that 8 glasses of water per day includes the water you get from food, not just plain water. Coffee and tea is also water, they just go through the coffee beans or tea leaves, that's all. All these things that we drink are also water, and you'd be surprised that we actually get a lot of water from what we eat.

And that is why, some people drink like 1-2 cups of liquids, not necessarily water but maybe coffee, beer, or anything else but they're hydrated and healthy as ever, no different from you who drinks a lot. It is not a necessity to drink 8 glasses of water a day to be healthy. In some situations like in Malaysia, the weather is extremely hot almost all the time, so it may be good to drink more water though.

The more important rule is, if you feel thristy, drink.











Myth #5
The human penis has a bone.

It's just tissue and blood, no bones, no muscles. It is found in other mammals though, and other primates such as chimpanzees, but not humans. It's called a baculum.








Love,
Nicholas.

How to Get Steam Working?

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

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?

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?

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]

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

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.

Apple Products & Vouchers Contest! (Campaign)

It's been quite a while since I've posted any campaigns, so here's one.

Applied Region: Malaysia Only
Campaign Type: Contest









Description:
Maybank is having a contest that lets you win Apple products! Stand a chance to win vouchers for all Apple products, iPads, iPods and more. All you need to do is to recruit as many friends in Facebook. This earns you points, and the highest score wins.


They give out prizes on a weekly and monthly basis. Weekly winners stand a chance to win iPod Shuffles while monthly winners stand a chance to win iPads. Winning weekly and monthly prizes are quite good too, so give it a try!



Support This Campaign!
http://says.my/lemoney92/maybankard-fb

Darkness and Light SEA - Update Bypass & Watch Replays

Darkness and Light SEA update bypass which allows you to watch your replays.



Yes, this is for Darkness and Light SEA only, not other versions. This is actually not a bypass, it does not bypass XTrap or anything, it just lets you start the DAL Client so that you can watch your replays. I would like to call it a DAL CLIENT STARTER, but I guess many people would search for a "bypass" instead. The XTrap functions are not removed in any way, so the game does a periodic check about every 30 mins with XTrap, and since we don't have it, the game will close/crash. So you have about 30 mins to view your replays.


If you know how to get around XTrap, you can try to reverse engineer it. You can also try to get pass the login screen, both which I am trying to work around now.



All my updates about DAL will also be on ShadowTeamX3's blog. We are also working on a Warcraft III map for DAL, if you're interested, please visit his blog for updates.
http://evostoning.blogspot.com/





How to Bypass DAL Update
Okay, I modified the DALPatch.run and DAL.run files, so all you need to do is to overwrite them in your DAL folder. Be sure to backup the old files, these are just to get the game started, nothing more.




Step 1
If DAL Client is not installed in your computer, please visit ShadowTeamX3's blog to see the article which has the download links there. You can download the DAL SEA client there.
http://evostoning.blogspot.com/2011/01/darkness-and-light-sea-dal-update.html



Step 2
Download DAL Client Bypass Patch from ShadowTeamX3's blog post.
http://evostoning.blogspot.com/2011/01/darkness-and-light-sea-dal-update.html



Step 3
Unzip DALSEA Patch.rar and extract DAL.run and DALPatch.run in DAL SEA folder. Click 'yes' to replace the files. Be sure to backup the old files too!








Step 4
Launch DAL.exe, the updater should 'bypass' the update. For Windows Vista/7 users, run DAL.exe as administrator.
DAL will think it has already been patched, so it will say Patch Completed. Click 'Start' to launch the game.






Step 5
XTrap Error should pop up. Click 'Start' again. (Do not click 'OK' as it will terminate the program.)

NOTE: If you're using Windows Vista/7, especially 64-bit users, you might get an error saying that DAL.run is not associated with a program, or something. If so, please run it in compability mode for Windows XP, then run as Administrator.








Step 6
DAL should launch now. Congratulations, you've successfully entered the login page. Click 'Replay' to watch your saved replays. Make sure your replay file is placed in DAL\REPLAY folder in My Documents.







Step 7
Enjoy your replay!






Yes, I have obtained permission from ShadowTeamX3 A.K.A NuevoEvo to put the images here. He also has my permission to put my work on his blog. We work together. Most DAL updates will be on his blog. My work will be showed here, and then linked to his blog. Enjoy!




Love,
Nicholas.

How to Identify Songs Easily?

A song identifier that lets you identify songs through a recording device, or in your computer itself. You can easily identify songs online with this.



Sometimes, you just hear a really good song, but you don't know what it's called. You search high and low and you can't find its name. So, let me introduce a program called Tunatic, which lets you identify the songs.









How to Identify Songs Using Tunatic?
1. Download Tunatic
Tunatic is a free software. It identifies the song that is captured in your recording device such as Microphone or Stereo Mix (for within the computer itself) by comparing it with its database of songs. Get it here:

http://www.wildbits.com/tunatic/



2. Install and run Tunatic.
Install it and run it, it doesn't matter if you have the song playing or not.



3. Configure Tunatic settings.
Right-click on the Tunatic window, and click Settings. Here, you can choose your input device. Your input devices available here are the same as what is available in your Control Panel > Sound > Recording Devices window. If you disable certain devices in the Recording Devices window, you will not see it in Tunatic.






If you want to record the sound in your computer, choose Stereo Mix. Be sure to enable Stereo Mix in Recording Devices.



4. Play a song, click on the icon and wait for Tunatic to identify the song!

If you're using older versions of Windows, it is under Sounds, under the Audio tab, under Recording Devices, click Volume and check Stereo Mix to enable it.

Can't Identify Song!
If Tunatic doesn't identify the song, it is either:
a) The song quality is low or there's too much noise/disruptions.
b) The song is not in Tunatic's database.




Can't Find Stereo Mix!
If you can't find Stereo Mix under Recording Devices, it is most probably your sound card does not support it. You cannot do anything about it if your sound card doesn't support it.





Love,
Nicholas.