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WEB FED NEWS YEARBOOKS Earthdate June 1999 |
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WEB FED NEWS YEARBOOKS Earthdate June 1999 |
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OFFICIAL
NEWS |
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Slarti went on holiday, or his droids went on strike, or something: but for a few days nobody could get into the workbench to modify planets. Acrimony between various super-duchies increased and certain younger, more excitable members took to using the bar boards to throw insults around. The Underground, Fed's alternative newspaper, ceased publication after 85 issues. It lasted for over two years which was an incredible achievement by the editor, Kaipanther, and his staff. People often asked me why I said nice things about The Underground, when they seemed so hostile to IB. The reason is that I am happy to see people writing about Federation, even if I don't agree with the result. It shows that people love the game, and care passionately about what happens to it. If they didn't, they wouldn't get so angry when things go wrong. The alternative would be for people not to care, and that would be very sad. Hoping to replace The Underground is a new Fed newsletter, The Broadsider... but this one goes much, much further than the UG in that it insults everyone - IB, Fed staff, Fed players, and all. Whether it will fill the vacuum left by the demise of the UG remains to be seen. The Broadsider is at http://broadsider.pair.com. Some new articles were published on Hazed's personal web site, f-space, about the diet required by a diabetic, and more on designing a home page. Read them at www.ibgames.net/fi/.
I'm sure you all remember the Melissa virus, which took the computerized world by storm a few months ago, spreading itself like wildfire via people's email address book. Then there was Happy99 which worked in a similar way. These days, you have to be very careful and take precautions to stop your computer getting infected. This means using some kind of virus checking software. You can get programs which you install on your computer, or if you prefer you can use a web-based service. Web-based services have advantages and disadvantages over installing the software on your machine. The advantage is that they are always up to date, and can detect the latest viruses. The disadvantage is that you have to remember to go and use the service! If you're having any computer problems that you suspect might be due to a virus, then go and get your computer checked out by using one of the web-based virus checking services. There's a good one at http://housecall.antivirus.com/explorer.html. I just tried this and it took about 15 minutes to check all the drives on my computer. Get into the habit of doing this regularly, and you might save yourself a lot of grief.
Last week I reminded people how important it is to take precautions against viruses; this week, the Internet is buzzing with yet another nasty virus being emailed around. Like the recent Melissa virus, this one is an attached file that shows up in an innocuous-looking email. Unlike Melissa, the new virus is very destructive, destroying files on your computer. In order to protect yourself from new viruses like this, you must always be very careful when people email you attached files. In this case, the file is a program file - the filename finishes with .EXE. If you double-click on the file you will run the program and it will start doing its unpleasant business. So if a program file shows up in your mailbox, even if it's from someone you normally trust, beware... don't run it unless it is something you were expecting, and you know what it is. If you're not sure, use an up-to-date virus checker on the program. Take precautions and keep your computer safe - a bit of vigilance now can save you endless problems in the future.
A message to all of you out there in AOL-land. Please make sure that your account can receive incoming Internet mail. If it is set to block mail from the Internet, we will not be able to contact you if there are any problems with your account, we won't be able to reply to any letters you send to Feedback, you won't be able to get a new password if you forget your current one, and if you subscribe to the Fed News, it won't get delivered! To check how your mail account is set up, go to keyword MAIL CONTROLS. There are a number of options which control what kind of mail you block and what you allow. You need to make sure you do not have it set to block all Internet mail. Don't panic, this doesn't mean you have to allow all kinds of junk mail and unsolicited spam. Choose the option to block all Internet mail except from specified addresses. Then type in the following addresses that you want to receive mail from: Fi@ibgames.com This way, you are still protected from the kind of rubbish that can soon fill up your mailbox, but you won't miss out on any important communications about Fed.
INTERNET PROBLEMS AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT THEM If you have problems connecting to Fed, it's always worth doing a few checks, to try to find out what the cause is. Fire up your browser and try to get to our web site. If that doesn't work, try accessing the site of our ISP, http://www.abovenet.net. Next, try a couple of other large sites, such as http://www.microsoft.com and http://www.netscape.com. Finally, try the web page of your own ISP. Depending on which of those sites you can access, it might indicate whether the problem is something wrong at our end, or at your ISP's end, or somewhere in between.
I received several complaints that members of one of the super-duchies are in the habit of trying to dictate what can and cannot be talked about on Channel 9. Since the complaints were not accompanied by any captures, I don't know whether they are valid or not. But it seems a good excuse for me to remind you what the rules are on deciding on a topic of conversation on the channels. There are some subjects that are not allowed in public discussion, and these are listed in the House Rules. They include things like graphic sexual descriptions, encouraging drug use, hacking or other illegal activities. Other than that, it's up to the people tuned to a channel to talk about what they want. Nobody can dictate that certain subjects can't be talked about. If the majority of the channel want to talk about something - whether it's Fed-related, last night's TV, sports - that's fine. If you don't like the topic of conversation on a channel, then tune to a different channel - there's plenty to choose from! The only people who actually have the authority to stop certain subjects being discussed, are the game management staff - Navigators, Hosts, Barb and myself. No player has the right to dictate the direction a conversation goes. Anyone who tries to impose their own standards on the comms is simply throwing their weight about to no real effect.
On a similar subject, one of the complaints I received included the following text:
The only people who have the powers to lock a player out of the game are game management staff. Anyone who isn't a Navigator, Host or higher can't do it. The best they can do is to put in a complaint about behavior they think breaks the rules, either by asking a staff member to take action at the time, or by mailing Feedback so action can be taken later. Anyone who claims to have some inside influence is lying - conspiracy theories to the contrary, we don't work that way. If you are breaking the rules then it's likely that you will get reported, and something will be done. But lockouts are a last resort, used on people who are doing something dreadful and who won't stop when asked. Anyone who threatens to get someone locked out is simply making desperate threats. It's tantamount to "I'm telling my dad, and he'll come and beat you up!". Empty bravado, used as a last resort where someone feels they can't win any other way. And as such, best ignored.
FROM THE POSTBAG: WHO CREATED SOL? Dear Hazed, Since probably 95%+ of the planets in Fed were put together in Slarti's Workshop, where was the Solar System created? Were the sun and its planets also created by Slarti's in some other location, then moved to the current position? Or was Sol already there when Slarti's was founded, leaving the mystery of Sol's formation to be debated by the philosophers of the universe?
Questions about the origins of the universe have been puzzling scientists, not to mention causing religious arguments, for many, many years. And you want me to find out the truth in just a few minutes and condense it down to a couple of paragraphs? I wish I could. It would be lovely if I could use my time travelling capabilities to timewarp back to the earliest days of the universe and see how it began - was it created or did it just happen? But, frustratingly, the current state of timewarping technology means we can only visit a certain small piece of time, in one localized area. Great for killing Martians, not so good for solving conundrums about the beginning of everything. I also wish I could send a newsdroid to break into Slarti's premises on Mercury and search for records of the formation of the planet-building company. But Slarti's security is like you would not believe - it's better than the Imperial Tax Office, better than Ming's personal treasury, better even than Diesel's upstairs room. Believe me, the remains of many newsdroids prove it. So unless someone could actually get to talk to the reclusive Slarti, and persuade him to reminisce about his early years, I don't think we'll ever know.
FROM THE POSTBAG: THE BIGGEST LIAR IN THE GALAXY
I am in awe at the magnitude of these claims. Really. Never was a player more aptly named.
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