Thursday, July 24, 2008

Update

Unless another old hard drive turns up somewhere, I have completed the scanning and recovering phase. Now I just have to finish identification and renaming phase - the much, MUCH, longer and tedious phase.

All in total, I have scanned 520 GB of hard drive and found and recovered about 500,000 files totaling almost 300 GB. Much is just program files or temporary internet files and can be deleted right away. But it takes a lot of time to go through and determine what is worthless and what needs to be saved.

MP3's which have full tagging can be automated to rename them, but at least half of them are not or have incomplete tagging. The only way to go through all that is to listen to them. And if it's something I am not familiar with, I will be unable to do anything with them. This amounts to some 5000+ untagged MP3's that I have to go through. Needless to say this will be a never-ending project.

Text files present a different challenge. I can parse through text files for a specific search string, like "domsquad", very easily. The trouble is that certain strings turn up thousands of false positives. So the challenge is to find the right strings to search for. Failing that, I have to manually read the matched files and determine which are legit and which are garbage. I should note that when I mean false positive, I mean that the match is positive, but it's not relevant to what I am looking for. For example, searching for "vj" will likely turn up a ton of matches, but 99% of them are not what I want - namely anything dealing with the DOM member named vj.

There are a lot of duplicates, so the total of unique files may be far smaller. It takes a while to figure out what are repeats and eliminate them. So, for example, the last 120 GB hard drive that I scanned, and have yet to parse, may have almost nothing on there that I already haven't recovered elsewhere. But I have to look anyway because there may be a few gems hidden somewhere in there.

So that was just a recap of what I went through and the totals I ended up with so I can remember later on. I've learned a lot during the process too. If I were to do it over again, I'd be more organized and efficient from the start. At the end of the day, though (or summer or year in this case), it will be worth it when everything is all recovered, renamed, and it its rightful spot.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Oldest Surviving Match Screenshot

This is a preview of what is to come. I have around 170 screenshots of DP matches, plus some ones from TFC. I have identified 99% of these screenshots and found the results of the matches they belonged to. I do not have dates for most of them, but I do know the order in which they were played. Anyway, I am working on releasing a seperate webpage with the entire DOM match history, along with screenshots, as detailed and accurate as I can manage. That way you can browse at your own leisure and look at and compare matches more easily than if I just posted them individually here. Expect that in another week maybe.

In the meanwhile, here is the oldest screenshot that I have found, dating back to June 28, 1999 against the Paint Assassins in an original DPL (Digital Paintball League) match. DOM won rather convincingly, as this screenshot proves. Also of interest - notice which clan Fury is playing for at that time.

Random Moments in #domsquad (volume 4)

Xconvict was my friend Brandon, btw. He never really played DP but for a few times. I think he was semi-serious about TFC, which is the time frame of this conversation, but I don't recall him being active. He did help us create the DOM rap, which I would absolutely LOVE to find, but I haven't yet and I doubt it will ever turn up. Also, Adren seemed to have a drug problem or something back then...

weather where its like, brandon get everyone out and we will play basketball till dark
[XCoNvicT] I wanna dominate in sports when I get there
[RoyaLBlooD] in the old hood
[XCoNvicT] awesome
[XCoNvicT] well tell em to keep it up
[XCoNvicT] fuckin Chicago weather
[XCoNvicT] I dominated when I was there last time and didn't even play well
[RoyaLBlooD] hey, hows the very last Smashing Pumpkins concert sound..
[XCoNvicT] sounds good
[RoyaLBlooD] ive never seen em before
[XCoNvicT] huh?
[XCoNvicT] last
[RoyaLBlooD] yah
[XCoNvicT] me neithr
[XCoNvicT] neither
[RoyaLBlooD] they are breaking up end of this year
[XCoNvicT] why?
[RoyaLBlooD] just like retiring.. i dunno
[XCoNvicT] heh
[XCoNvicT] well...
[XCoNvicT] anyways
[XCoNvicT] cools, I'lll go
[RoyaLBlooD] anyway, since they are from chicago, their last concerts are here of course
[RoyaLBlooD] they are gunna play the Metro for their very last show, as a homage to what got them started
[XCoNvicT] have you seen FIFA for PS2
[RoyaLBlooD] no
[RoyaLBlooD] Dec 2nd
[XCoNvicT] it is awesome
[XCoNvicT] ok
[XCoNvicT] I'll go
[RoyaLBlooD] if i cant get tickets for that, they are playing the UC Nov 29th
[XCoNvicT] ok
[RoyaLBlooD] id rather see them at the Metro.. smaller, more fun, very last show
[XCoNvicT] you make things so compliacted'
[XCoNvicT] complicated
[RoyaLBlooD] well Metro is usually for unsigned bands
[XCoNvicT] oh
[RoyaLBlooD] only holds 1,100, so tickets will go very fast
[RoyaLBlooD] so theres a good chance i might not get them
[XCoNvicT] damn thas like a highschool gym
[XCoNvicT] gay you hear me....
[XCoNvicT] gay
[RoyaLBlooD] not exactly slipknot, but itll do
[XCoNvicT] ok well....I wanna play baseball, football, basketball, and ....
[XCoNvicT] soccer
[XCoNvicT] dominate em all
[RoyaLBlooD] today would own for soccer
[XCoNvicT] people say the XBox is more powerful than PS2
[RoyaLBlooD] probably is
[XCoNvicT] when it truth, PS2 is morw powerful
[XCoNvicT] look....
[XCoNvicT] XBOX is made up of PC coponents
[XCoNvicT] about what a highens PC is today
[XCoNvicT] PS2 could go beyoind that
[RoyaLBlooD] that would be a hell of a lot more powerfull than PS2 then
[XCoNvicT] no
[XCoNvicT] PS2 is made to throw a shit load of polygons with all kinds of effects
[RoyaLBlooD] so would Xbox
[XCoNvicT] you cant just look at the mhz numbers
[RoyaLBlooD] cuz its a game system, not a PC
[XCoNvicT] yah but it has a OS
[XCoNvicT] cut down, but it has one
[RoyaLBlooD] every console has an OS
[XCoNvicT] which is more complicated than the PS2
[XCoNvicT] OS
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[RoyaLBlooD] oh here is whats up with PS2's anti-aliasing
[XCoNvicT] ok....
[RoyaLBlooD] its there, just when its used it slows down the framerate terribly so most developers dont use it
[XCoNvicT] it's harder to tap into
[XCoNvicT] no...
[XCoNvicT] thas just the conventional way
[XCoNvicT] its many types of anti-aliasing
[RoyaLBlooD] yah
[RoyaLBlooD] most developers dont use them though cuz they slow down the game
[XCoNvicT] its different ways to do it so that it doesn't take a major performance hit
[RoyaLBlooD] they have been doing other nonconventional methods
[XCoNvicT] right
[RoyaLBlooD] but ultimately not as effective
[XCoNvicT] thas what you have to do
[RoyaLBlooD] software wise, not hardware wise
[XCoNvicT] look at madden
[XCoNvicT] full screen anti-aliasing
[XCoNvicT] with little to no performance hit
[XCoNvicT] ]and its beautiful
[XCoNvicT] fifa
[XCoNvicT] NHL
[XCoNvicT] SSX
[RoyaLBlooD] EA is one of the top developers of all time
[XCoNvicT] all run 60 fps
[XCoNvicT] and run fast
[XCoNvicT] I know they are
[RoyaLBlooD] but in general, the anti-aliasing is lacking
[XCoNvicT] that shows that its fully capable
[XCoNvicT] not lacking
[RoyaLBlooD] graphics look better than N64, sure... they should be
[XCoNvicT] just have to take the extra time
[RoyaLBlooD] but what im saying is, its lacking
[XCoNvicT] the development cycle will be longer
[RoyaLBlooD] so when gamecube and xbox come out, you will notice it
[XCoNvicT] ]oh I bet
[RoyaLBlooD] unless then remake the PS2, it will always be lacking
[RoyaLBlooD] cuz its the hardware thats messed up
[RoyaLBlooD] not the software
[XCoNvicT] but they won't be as patient as with Sony because
[XCoNvicT] sony will sell a hell of alot morw systems
[RoyaLBlooD] anyway i was looking at Xbox specs and it does look pretty powerfull
[XCoNvicT] it is
[XCoNvicT] but you have to look at the gigaflops caculatiions
[RoyaLBlooD] but it doesnt matter if the system sells a lot of games only sell moderately
[RoyaLBlooD] developers dont make money off systems sold
[RoyaLBlooD] so far in japan its that way
[RoyaLBlooD] game sales are low
[XCoNvicT] but they have a more consumer base
[RoyaLBlooD] not really
[XCoNvicT] which wou;d sale more games
[RoyaLBlooD] its an illusional base
[XCoNvicT] ?
[RoyaLBlooD] cuz half the base is for DVD movies, not games
[XCoNvicT] no....why would you spend 300 bucks just for DVD
[XCoNvicT] remember
[RoyaLBlooD] its dvd and a game system
[RoyaLBlooD] thats a good deal
[XCoNvicT] for you to be interested, you have thinks games first
[RoyaLBlooD] someone who very rarely plays games but does every once in a while and needs a Dvd will get it
[XCoNvicT] cuz its not that widely advertised as DVD player first
[XCoNvicT] for you to find out about PS2 you have to like games
[RoyaLBlooD] not at all
[RoyaLBlooD] everyone who is alove knows about the PS2, heh
[RoyaLBlooD] err, alive
[XCoNvicT] then its a bonus for you to have a DVD
[RoyaLBlooD] its not a game system its a multimedia system
[XCoNvicT] yah
[XCoNvicT] ok
[RoyaLBlooD] sony is hopeing its the next tv, every house will have one
[XCoNvicT] I know
[RoyaLBlooD] but games... so far arent selling near what they expected
[XCoNvicT] in japan
[XCoNvicT] thas always the case
[RoyaLBlooD] no...
[XCoNvicT] yep
[RoyaLBlooD] usually japan has higher sales
[XCoNvicT] look at all the other system in recent history
[XCoNvicT] Dreamcast
[XCoNvicT] playstation
[RoyaLBlooD] vid games are more common and have been for a long time in japan
[XCoNvicT] N64
[XCoNvicT] yah
[XCoNvicT] but the games don't really jump off until it hits stateside
[XCoNvicT] japan is real skeptical
[RoyaLBlooD] uh, no
[XCoNvicT] so when the system warms up and makes better games, then they buy
[XCoNvicT] yep
[RoyaLBlooD] sega and nintendo have always sold better in japan than in US
[XCoNvicT] not at first Im sayin
[RoyaLBlooD] yah at firts
[RoyaLBlooD] first
[XCoNvicT] no
[XCoNvicT] go back and look
[RoyaLBlooD] yah i know this stuff more than i would know the current stuff dude
[XCoNvicT] they all had terrible launches in Japan
[RoyaLBlooD] lol...
[XCoNvicT] ...right away
[XCoNvicT] look....look at N64's launch, and Dreamcast
[XCoNvicT] look
[XCoNvicT] along with PS2
[RoyaLBlooD] they didnt have a terrible launch
[RoyaLBlooD] and PS2 sold well again... just the games didnt
[XCoNvicT] thas what Im sayin
[XCoNvicT] the games
[RoyaLBlooD] N64 launch was very good btw
[XCoNvicT] ok I'll be back in 10 mins.
[RoyaLBlooD] mario was sold almost 1:1 with the system
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[ADrenaline] mlkjhkhgfhgfjh
=== (part\#domsquad) XtremeBain[XtremeBain@d202-ch101h1-chtw-pdi.attcanada.net] @[07:19:20pm]
[DIE] yo
[DIE] at least you know what youre doing adren, give me a guitar and ill just smash it over erics head
[ADrenaline] lol
[FuRRy] hey man
[DIE] ey yo
[DIE] hey
[DIE] SHUT UP WHEN IM TALKING TO YOU
[DIE] see, what the hell was that fury?
[DIE] you say hey man and then you're gone
=== (signoff\#domsquad) FuRRy[pimp@nic-c29-097.mw.mediaone.net] @[07:26:52pm] [Connection reset by peer]
[DIE] DIE DIE DIE
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[ADrenaline] ddfdggghghghsgf
[ADrenaline] sup eric
[ADrenaline] heroin is good for the bloodstream
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Drenaline] hmm
[ADrenaline] crack worked for me
=== (signoff\#domsquad) ADrenaline[Bobb@ppp83-pax.sonnet.com] @[10:37:18pm] [Quit: So ashes to ashes, dust to dust, I'm going to burn this whole place down... (

Monday, July 21, 2008