The Good Readme

2008/09/20 in x86

AGP and PCI-E Programs May Hang With AMD K7 and K8
Processors
• Issue
Microsoft® Windows® 2000 and Windows XP systems using AMD K7 and K8 
processors can hang when an AGP or PCI‐E program is used. 
•Root Cause 
There is a known problem with Microsoft® Windows® 2000 and Windows XP 
systems using AMD K7 and K8 CPUs that results in the Microsoft operating system 
allocating overlapping 4M cached pages with 4k write‐combined pages. This 
condition results in undefined behavior and data corruption, and is explicitly 
disallowed by the AMD CPU manual. 
This problem can affect any device driver in the system that allocates write‐
combined system memory, but is usually most easily reproduced with graphics 
drivers since graphics drivers generally make heavy use of write‐combined system 
memory for performance reasons. 
• Resolution 
Microsoft has a knowledge base article on the issue, the text of which is 
unfortunately quite outdated. While the article only mentions Windows 2000, AGP, 
and K7, both the root cause and resolution also apply to Windows 2000 or Windows 
XP, AGP or PCI‐E, and AMD K7 or K8. The article can be found at http://
support.microsoft.com/?id=270715. 
The issue is resolved by applying an operating system registry key as described in 
the referenced article that instructs the Microsoft operating system to not use the 
4M pages, thus avoiding the conflict. 
The registry key is automatically applied by installation of the latest NVIDIA 
nForce platform driver package (including 4.57 SMBUS or later). It is imperative for 
the package to be installed or for the registry key to be applied before the NVIDIA 
graphics driver or any other device drivers are installed. The registry key takes 
effect only after an operating system reboot.

And I only wanted to kill time while waiting for the download to finish. :)

AMD Dual-Core Optimizer Version 1.1.4

2008/09/17 in x86

Download.

Infinity Madness

2008/09/17 in gaming

In this row there came the moment I had to reach Icewind Dale. I red before, that there was far less going on modding wise than for the other Infinity games, but now I can’t really share this opinion, it might not be the same amount in total, but anything interesting is there. Other than for BG, the ID tweaks don’t just contain the “nice to have” features, but also the bug fixes. Two packages in one. I also picked up the improved BAMs and Unfinished Business for ID. Now off to finish ID, Heart of Winter and Trial of the Luremaster with the UB mod. After Ps:T it’s really tough to start again with a Level 1 party.

Icewind Dale II will get its own entry.

2008/09/13 in videos

The Browser THEY Called Chrome

2008/09/03 in stories, x86

The first thing I noticed in most of the articles, was that no one seemed to care or even… uhm – notice that Chrome added the Google Updater service/process + planed jobs again (the web installer fetches Gears). If you are looking for one thing where Firefox is much better, go and check out their discrete, subtle and incremental update mechanism which was already built in several years ago. I will never like software that runs even if I don’t use it and is therefore just wasting resources (at least as long as the parent process isn’t started). If I want my computer to do stupid/senseless jobs, I want to be the one to initiate them.
I also seem to be alone, by not liking one bar for URLs and searches. 2 bars are much more flexible. In Firefox everything is accessible via shortcuts anyway, what does it matter where the cursor jumps automatically? Searches can be typed and executed later (or again), except when using a browser with only one bar for everything… I really hope developers don’t copy this and thus remove functionality (that just makes sense) from their products.
about:memory I liked, but then again, it’s more or less a toy. The one process for every tab is something more desirable (especially when it doesn’t have any severe bugs), but since even the current IE Beta has it, Mozilla will surely steal this option rather sooner than later.
A good start for a beta version, no doubt there. But it’s nothing too exciting over the browsers who are already well known. The true new nuances, like a more decent browser for Webkit, are nice, but no reason for praise like I’ve red “everywhere”.
What would excite me, is a browser giving all power to the user by default. No modifications necessary, to switch of or alter user-agents, to shutdown referrer, short: to tamper with everything as one sees fit. Since this will probably never come true, a Firefox with extensions will remain the best.
Chrome on the other hand is so “easy” that not even an installation folder can be selected and the web installer will place the chrome.exe wherever the hell it wants. A kind of easy I can live without.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines Unofficial Patch 5.6

2008/09/03 in gaming

1.2 => 5.6 (140 MB) / 5.5 => 5.6 (45 MB) / Changes

(+) annotes changes for Plus Pack only.

v5.6 03.09.2008
—-

• +Made Jack remove .38 to fix exploit and repaired broken Isaac logs.
• +Decreased crossbows criminal level and fixed Sin Bin state reload.
• +Fixed broken Empire hotel card printer usage and made it plus only.
• +Restored first dot Domination options for Tremere during dialogue.
• +Added overlooked humanity losses and restored sheet music of basic.
• +Disabled true sight for Vick, Killer, Cathayan and Blood Guardian.
• +Made Romero train up to Firearms 4 and Beckett up to scholarship 3.
• +Increased xp gain on freeing Ash and delivering Imalia’s magazine.
• Added a few Shin Guntos to sewer hunters and improved end fade out.
• Adjusted double Ithaca reload sound and added several drop sounds.
• Repaired Barabus quest re-update and a wrong Zhao died quest state.
• Corrected faulty Isaac lip-synchro and several minor text details.
• Added sound to Kiki cutscene and fixed Hollywood bus stop map typo.
• Removed a talk icon in diner and corrected lg firearms book value.
• Made player get a look at Gimble’s hand and fixed some map details.
• BSPEdit updated to edit several prop stats, thanks to RobinHood70.
• Fixed dialogue issues for Ming, VV, Trip, Boris, Vandal and Damsel.
• Made unfinished Regent’s plague quest fail in case you betray him.
• Fixed ghouling quest not updating and improved Bertram’s quest log.
• Added Vandal gesture for females and fade out at the tutorial end.
• Resolved bug when entering the Fu Syndicate while being obfuscated.
• Prevented continuing E’s quest after you failed it by killing him.
• Fixed dialogue bugs of Skelter, Arthur, blueblood, clerk and Venus.
• Added a missing light switch and missing door sound to King’s Way.
• Removed reference to Ricky at Glaze and made upstairs guards fight.
• Repaired several cut off dialogue lines and a few lip-synch issue.
• Moved Jack down to Skelter and improved Tin Can Bill’s expressions.
• Included 64bit install and memory tools, thanks to Iain Patterson.
• Removed buggy SM haven board and Mercurio’s note after you met him.
• Moved Ash song from Empire hotel to the unfinished museum diorama.
• Added default 1.2 map and python files to tools, thanks to Offkorn.
• Restored katanas to Tongs and removed the one at Fu Syndicate.
• Turned hospital into Elysium area during your encounter with Pisha.
• Fixed dialogues for Jack, Mercurio, Regent, Razor and taxi driver.
• Changed three history humanity penalties to avoid humanity of zero.
• Lowered surf computer difficulty and added a Gargoyle quest state.
• Made Tawni laptop reflect mission and fixed Zygaena and Yukie bugs.
• Stopped Maria and Victor from dropping invitations they don’t own.
• Added inspection nodes to some trapdoors in the Giovanni crypt map.