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miskie

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Posts posted by miskie

  1. Yeah- there are a few things that need to change with 1EMU, that are beyond GC's control - or mine for that matter..

     

    Most importantly, the software needs to be moved to https and use encrypted conections- the short version is starting January 1st, Apple is beginning to phase out apps and things that connect to the web using unencrypted connections. Google announced they will be following suit.. - Which means Microsoft won't be far behind.

     

    My understanding is the newest version of IPB supports this properly, so upgrading is a necessity. - the newest version also supports Php7, and MySQLi which is vastly superior to what is driving 1Emu now.

     

    As for the battle Mod, I would think that if the authors wish to continue getting paid, they will upgrade it to support IPB4x - as these changes are going to effectively EOL their product involuntarily.

  2. It always amazes me to consider how far we have come in such a short amount of time. My Amiga 2K had a badass full height 60MB SCSI hard disk. My 3K had an even bigger 300MB drive. Now the entire contents of both of those drives sit on a couple of PCs - taking up virtually no space whatsoever, alongside my TOSEC Amiga .adf files.

     

    I remember downloading Amiga disk images from local BBSes using a 2400 baud modem. It would take me several hours to get one disk back in the early '90s. - And here we are today..

     

    3564986000.png

     

    I still have the 2K, 3K, A c64, 128d, TI994a, And an Apple 2 sitting in the basement. Last I checked, they all still worked :)

     

    I also have an original IBM 5150 (The first 'PC') that no longer functions. I intend to casemod a new PC into it one day. Maybe when I get sick of looking at my slick. black Asus tower. Anyway, the 5150 retailed for something like $3000.00 back in 1981, and today, a free digital watch one might find in a box of cereal has about as much computing power as this tank did.

     

    Check out this graphic -

     

    2012-04-13-pc-v-iphone.jpg

    Yay technology !

    • Like 3
  3. 1 emulation dot com has been successfully moved to Octogon Group's largest, fastest server yet - a 64 bit Intel Core 2 Quad 9550 with 8 gigs of ram, a pair of 10,000 RPM SATA drives, and off-server backup and storage. There are also many back-end advancements which should result in 1Emu performing better than ever.

     

    Hugs & kisses.

     

    -Miskie.

  4. I see no reason to close shop -

     

    - However -

     

    Emulation has gone entirely niche market, and most people nowadays are only interested in a couple of classic games, that can be played on their phones. As for new developments, there are nearly none. Though trying downloads again is a possibility, they really aren't going to attract much - I suspect its because getting the emulator is easy - people who download want roms, and for that they go to torrent sites. Take a look at Arcade@home, the only thing that seems to keep them alive is the forum attack system.

     

    --Actually, Id suggest bringing that back before doing anything else.

     

    Nearly everyone has moved forum type discussions to Facebook. Because people are lazy, and like going to one place to read everything about all the stuff and people they like. Facebook has also ruined any need for the arcade section.

     

    A faster server isn't going to help. Again, look at A@H. At this time, the only really active sites on this box are 1emu and the miskie.net sites. Most of the smaller businesses I once hosted either went belly up in the fishbowl, or they moved to Facebook.

     

    -So, what to do ?

     

    A. Bring back the FAS. 1Emu needs a hook, and that served well.

    B. Try emulator downloads, though I don't expect it will do anything as getting an emu is easy, its the roms people want.

    C. Facebook integration. If ya can't beat em, join em. Allow people to log in and post from Facebook.

  5. Sadly, it has been my determination that the only real deterrent is manual account approval. Ive also noticed that once the spammers figure out that a human has the final say on signing up, they stop trying. Granted, the bots still try, but they are scripts running on a machine, and they know nothing.

     

    So, the questions stop the bots, the manual approval stops the humans. Done and done.

     

    My technique is simple - While the applicant is waiting for final approval, I enter the given username and IP address into Google. if on the first page I see a reference to a site dedicated to logging Spmmer's IP addresses, I immediately delete the account. If instead, I discover that the user has signed up for a dozen or so forums in the last few days, all of which are unrelated --especially if the user signed up to forums in several different languages, I delete the account immediately. If I find references to the user that show actual posts being made in other places, or no reference at all, I approve the registration. It takes about 5 minutes or so to make a determination on a registrant at most.

  6. Wait -

     

    an iPhone can't run an app that Apple doesn't approve of ?

     

    That pretty much sucks. On an Android based phone, installing an app from other than the Android Market involves adding a checkmark next to 'Allow installation of non-Market applications' in Settings/Applications, and that's it.

  7. Frankly, Id strip it down and ship the hardware to myself (pack the components in static bags, then box them with lots of bubblewrap). You will never sell it for what you want to get for it - as a rule - the only people who would buy your PC are enthusiasts, and they already know that they can save money by spending an afternoon building it themselves. Average consumers wont approach the PC because it doesn't have a brand name label stuck to it, making it impossible to get a review of it online, or comparison shop at Best Buy.

     

    Finally, Id ditch the case. One of the scrap metal people will pick that up off your sidewalk in a heartbeat.

  8. Puzzles.

     

    I'm addicted to problem solving. Seriously. I love to do it. I have a beaten up Rubik's Cube on my desk that I scramble and solve constantly while working on other puzzles and problems. I don't excessively drink - I don't smoke, use any narcotics, have porn issues, chase women around or anything else.

     

    I just solve puzzles.

  9. Well, I wasn't testing AJAX actions, only a fresh page load, something you can do with wget or curl.

     

    the SMF running on the Final Burn group(which I've been told is running on the same server) is very responsive, so IPB would be where the problem lies.

     

    Does IPB not have any built-in optimizations/clean ups routines?

     

    I don't mean like with SQLite Vacuum(), but the kind that gets rid of the overhead that the forum put in there for temporary reasons.

    Secondly, is it the exact same binary of the database from all these ages, or a restored dump?

     

    Yeah - that SMF is on the same box as is mine, and they both fly by comparison. And although I have yet to finish skinning The Society, I have modded the bejeesus out of it, and it still performs excellently. Personally, SMF is kind if a homecoming for me - I starter with YaBB, then YaBBSE - then YaBBSE was discontinued, and I switched to Invision, when it was free - and I did intend to buy a license for it - but everytime I had the money together to do so, either the price changed, or the terms and conditions did. So, I ran with the last free Invision for years, and converted it to SMF when I could no longer deal with the security issues the old Invision presented - And SMF is based off of YaBBSE.

     

    So I'm back where I started :-)

     

    Database -- yeah I am pretty sure that this database has bits and pieces dating back to 2002 in it. I suspect finding a way to build a fresh database and dumping the current data into it would go a long way in aiding this site performance-wise. Repairing and upgrading tables only goes so far... I am certain that the current database is full of cells, columns and rows that are either entirely unused now, or contain data that is irrelevant to Ip.Board 3X. I am also certain that the methodologies used to store useful data has changed, and now MySQL needs to do lots of extra grinding to fetch/write data because of it.

     

    Database clean/rebuild utilities - none that I am aware of, unfortunately. At times I wonder if using a forum converter to move 1emu to another platform, followed by a conversion back to IP.Board will help - but then I figure the result may be like using Google's translator to translate something out of English, then back into English. The result is interesting, but not the same as what you started with.

  10. Ive already been down this road - its specifically IP.Board 3x - Its full of AJAX. , and IPS are entirely unapologetic for it. While we were upgrading, I shut down this domain, and server load fell to an average of .13 - and during quiet moments, it fell to .00 - And 1emu is far from being the only active hosted site on this box.

     

    The second problem is the database itself. The 1Emu you see now, is the same 1Emu from the very beginning, which means the database has been changed and upgraded dozens of times, to accommodate all of the changes made to IP.Board - so the database is quite a bit less structured than an fresh install of IP.Board would be, and it queries more slowly as a consequence. But thats the price to be paid to keep all the history. Oh, and IPS provides no utility to migrate the data from one database to another.

     

    If you bang ' Ip.Board 3x slow' into google, you'll find dozens of complaints about the performance of this software. IPS' answer is 'get a bigger server' :/ - So, Ive done what I could to optimize the server, and have the load hovering at about .8 so, things are running well on the server itself, but because of the AJAX and other CPU costly technologies, your browser will still struggle somewhat.

  11. The arcade is one of the most awesome things on a gaming/emulation forum. :D

     

    Did 1emulation have the IbProArcade modification installed? I remember hearing of problems with that particular version, reading that it contained an SQL injection vulnerability/exploit which is why I started using the IpbCoding arcade system on my community.

     

    I hope the arcade system will make a comeback in the future, as I would love to challenge some of the folks here. :lol:

     

    It was IbProArcade but even the newest versions are not right. The more we dug, the less right we learned it was. Don't count on it coming back anytime soon.

  12. To echo GC's post, there were just too many things wrong with the unofficial add-ons to make it worthwhile to keep them, especially the arcade. So many bugs including one I found that IPB regarded as a sign of unprofessionalism by those who coded it. And its something that could have been addressed in about 5 minutes with one line of code.

     

    That was the main source of the lengthy upgrade - beta-testing someone else's garbage. The arcade is a poorly written hack at best - and a massive breach of security at the worst. I'm glad its gone.

     

    The FAS has one bug that I feel is fairly minor, as I figured out how to resolve it. However, GC decided to wait on the coder's for an official fix - since there may be more beneath the surface that I didn't see. A wise decision. I'm sure it will be addressed soon.

  13. Ill be blunt.

    It'll never work. Sorry.

     

    Why ?

     

    USB and other 'chainable' interfaces rely on polling to get the job done - one can connect 127 devices to a single USB port, but one also needs polling circuitry to call each device in series to keep the port from getting confused.

     

    Consider it like an intersection with a stop light. The light goes red, the other traffic moves. then it switches. What you are doing is setting up an intersection with no light, which, as you could imagine, results in data smashing together and going nowhere.

     

    to complicate matters further, USB port powered devices try to claim the port as their own, and will deny any intrusion from anything else, So, if you plug a passive device into a USB port, and a cellphone that can be charged via USB into your split-cable, the cellphone will win every time.

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