Just when you thought you had all the problems with Windows XP Service Pack 2 nailed, Microsoft are planning the release of Service Pack 1 for Windows 2003 Server. And by the looks of it, it will be another nightmare week for admins everywhere!

Actual quote from Microsoft: 'The company argues that the improvements are important enough that applications should be changed to accommodate them.' Hehe!

Now that Windows Media Player 10 is out you can use that as your player to listen to my radio stream. You just need to use a slightly different url. http://www.ryanstevens.co.uk:8000/ I'll try and update the main website link somehow to support all players tonight. Happy listening.

Play the stream with Windows Media Player 10 by using the File -> Open URL command. Then when the stream is playing, I go to my Library under Now Playing and right click on the words Now Playing to get the Add As New Playlist option. Clicking that will allow you to add it as a playlist under your My Playlists section of your Library.

The recent outage on my web sites was due to an extreme heavy session of Halo 2. Basically when I know I'm gonna be playing for a long time I turn off my web sites to eliminate any lag (mainly from goggle bots). So if you find that my web site disappears in the evening you know why! Also, I occasionally have such a manic session that I forget to turn the web sites back on!!!

Last night a group of yanks showed me how to 'sword jump' in Halo 2. Basically theres a 'bug' in the game that you can use to make your character able to jumb about 500ft into the air. You can reach almost any part of the maps. I spent the evening admiring the view on top of the wheel on the Zanzibar map. All you need is a sword and a warthog. I wont describe how to do the jump just yet - let me enjoy it a bit longer, but i'm happy to demo it to anyone who joins my games. My gamertag is solidstore. You should hear the reaction when other people see you leap 500ft during a slayer match!!! If you also hold a sniper rifle just imagine the possiblities. This technique will become public knowledge pretty soon and I imagine all manner of silly videos and tricks will be discovered. Happy jumping!

Revealed!

Nice review of Doom 3 vs. FarCry vs. Half-Life 2 vs. Halo 2

I'd have to agree with most of the comments - Halo 2 was just too damn easy - Far Cry much better FPS - Halo 2 has cracked the multiplayer genre on the XBox. Love the way Friends can easily find one another and chat. Game can suffer from lag but this will improve over time. Doom 3 visually stunning - sound amazing - multiplayer major disappointment. Half-Life 2 - dont own a copy yet - but what I've seen its great.

In reference to my previous blog about modding your xbox, you might want to reconsider if you enjoy XBox Live & Halo 2.

http://www.winnetmag.com/Windows/Article/ArticleID/44543/Windows_44543.html

Next time you boot your xbox you'll want to grab the update from bungie.

Also, they released a (sample) guide for multiplayer games - grab it here. H2_E_216-219_1117_CO.pdf (1.94 MB) More guides here as well. Or download the whole book.

The XNE Clan has not been deleted. Bungie had some problems with clans recently but things are being restored.

Join the XNE Clan here. We need atleast 3 members to stay active.

Now this is getting silly. Even the book is set to top the fastest seller list for the decade!

I wonder if we can get the soundtrack into the charts? Creditcards at the ready!

After a full day of online madness with Halo 2 I've come to the conclusion that I need far more practice - first person shooters are far more difficult on a console these days compared with a pc & mouse. Had a lot of fun, especially when Illusio (Ian) joined. Now the XNE clan has two members - one more and we can start to compete!

See how Ian 0wned me in a head to head battle!

The ASP.NET application run by bungie just rocks. Its sets the benchmark for everything to come after it. Makes database analysis even seem interesting! Even impressed Scott

Not content with just one xbox? Well, build yourself a cluster. Maybe we should build a compile farm in the office? Here's some simple steps to run Linux on your box.

As I embark on my marathon halo 2 campaign, I thought I'd offer everyone a special wallpaper for today only. Grab it here. There a load of other halo stuff on the mini site which will be extended over the coming months. There even a halo game written in flash that you can play at work.

My radio station will be off air today as will many of my other hosted services as I going be selfish as grab as much bandwidth as possible for my XBox Live connection. Normal service will resume once I collapse from exhaustion later tonight.

For those of all joining me in a day of halo madness, add my gamertag 'solidstore' to ya xbox.

OK, I've had enough of these guys. And from the look of it so have many other people - including silverstr.

I generally approve of all the work going on to rid the world of spam, but these guys are so arrogant. Statements like: nobody with a dynamic ip should be running servers or are incapable.

Dynamic IP are a fact of life! Many BUSINESS broadband accounts provide their customers with fixed ip using long term dynamic leases. Of course they will still end up listed! Network range blocking is not much short of technology discrimination.

Just because my servers run from a residential broadband account does not make them insecure. During the course of my career I've been involved in the networks of many organizations and I can sleep safely knowing that my own boxes are a tight as that of many them (which in a scary side note, is not as tight as you might think).

All I can do about the situation

• is ask for mail server admins not to use this service - you will lose real business otherwise!
• congratulate the masses with their continued DDoS on these guys

There are better blacklist to use, run by organizations with some idea of how the real world operates. I personally use SPF records to limit the addresses spammer can use (not mine basically).

My Individual Stats (solidstore) 

XNE Clan Stats

It's finally here. Halo 2. Well almost. Us European's must wait 2 days for the Thursday release here. The US are already off and running. So that you don't feel left out, here some stuff to look at till Thursday.

The User Manual

The Leaderboard - I bet the early release was too ensure that only Americans topped the charts!

Statistics

Let the killing spree commence!!!! See ya on the field. solidstore.