The Wacky World of Chris Knight

A while back Blizzard added a completely awesome feature to their website: Add your legitimate registration keys to your account, and you can download fresh installers for your games. In my case, my Diablo II discs have long since become too scratched to play, but by registering my keys I can finally play D2 again! Well, if there were not other issues… I registered by D2 keys, downloaded the new installer, and installed it on my MacBook Pro. When the game launches I get an icon in my Dock for about 10 seconds or so, and then it evaporates and I get the option to report the crash to Apple. Since I know that isn’t going to help me play D2 anytime soon, I file a ticket with Blizzard. You would think I would know better by now, in that I have tried to deal with Blizzard tech support many times over the years and it is usually a frustrating experience. This time is shaping up to be more of the same.

First, I report my problem. Please note that I included my OS, and since the Apple crash report wouldn’t fit into the 1000 characters the form let me have, I offered to email that to them:

System Information ————————
Cpu Model: MAC Intel Core2 Duo/Extreme
Cpu Speed: 2.0 GHz - 2.9 GHz
Operating System: Macintosh 10.5.x (Leopard)
Mac Model: MacBook Pro
Ram: 2048 MB or more
Sound Card: I don’t know…
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8000 Series

Request ————————————
Product: Diablo II
Category: Crashes, Error Messages, and Lock-ups

Description ——————————–

I just downloaded Diablo II from my blizzard store account. It installs, but crashes when I try to run it. I don’t have enough characters available in this form to paste in the crash data, but if you reply to me via email I can reply with the crash data.

Round one of the replies is a typical Blizzard form letter, chock full of tips on how to diagnose my Windows/DirectX install. Really useful. Just goes to prove that it doesn’t matter what you enter in for system specs, Monkey Number One will just about always send you the same form letter:

Hello Chris

Thank you for contacting Blizzard Entertainment’s Technical Support department. This is [SNIPPED to protect Monkey Number One] and I will be assisting you.

If you are experiencing the game freezing or locking up without an error message please try the steps below, one at a time. Each one has the potential of solving your issue, so please try the game again after each step.

Step 1:

Clean install:
Backup single-player character files:
Your single-player character files are stored in the Diablo II save folder (the default location is: C:\Program Files\Diablo II\save) on your hard drive. The character files have the same name as the character. If you want to backup the files or move the character to a different computer, save those files and then copy them into the new Diablo II save folder.

Uninstall:
Steps on how to Uninstall - http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/20790.

Delete the Diablo II installation folder:
Delete the folder where you installed Diablo II at (the default location is: C:\Program Files\Diablo II)

Reinstall:
Steps on how to Install - http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/20790.

Install the latest patch:
Download and install the current patch for your game from our website at: http://www.blizzard.com/patches/.

Step 2:

Closing background applications. You can find instructions for closing background applications on our website at http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/21052.

Step 3:

Install updated drivers and DirectX:
For more information please visit our Driver update information - http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/21137 page.

Step 4:

Run the Vidtest and chose 2D:

1. Click on Start
2. Highlight Programs
3. Highlight Diablo II
4. Click on Video Test
5. Run the test and select 2D as your option

Step 5:

Set the hardware acceleration for video to the 3rd or 4th notch up (1st and 2nd will return no video modes found):
In order to change the slider you must:

1. Right click on My Computer
2. Click Properties
3. Click the performance tab
4. Click Graphic Settings
5. Adjust the slider bar to the either the 3rd or 4th notch depending on the current setting.

Step 6:

Adjust the sound hardware acceleration:

1. Click Start
2. Click Run
3. Type dxdiag and press the enter key.
4. Click on the Sound tab.
5. Move the hardware sound acceleration level slider bar to the far right so it reads full acceleration.
6. Click exit and try the game again.
7. If this does not work, adjust the slider bar down one notch and try the game again.

If this solves the problem try setting the slider bar all the way to the right (full acceleration) and try the game again. We have gotten some reports saying all they had to do was adjust the slider down and back up and then everything worked normal. We are looking into this.

Step 7:

Disable Direct 3DAcceleration in Dxdiag:
In order to disable 3D Acceleration you will need to:

1. Click on Start.
2. Click on Run.
3. Type DXDIAG.
4. Click on the Display Tab.
5. Click on the Disable button beside Direct3D Acceleration.
6. Click Exit.

Step 8:

Check your system for Viruses:
When the game files have been infected by a virus such as the Win.CIH virus or another similar worm program this error may appear.

If you have an anti-virus program installed, verify you have the latest updates from the program creators, installed.

If you do not have an anti-virus program installed or would like more information please visit our Computer Security - http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/21118 page.

Step 9:

Run game in a window:
In order to run the game in a window you must:

1. Click START.
2. Click Programs.
3. Click Diablo II.
4. Right click on the Diablo II icon and select Properties.
5. In the Target field, add a -w outside of the quotes.

* example “D:\Diablo II\Diablo II.exe” -w

Step 10:

Check system requirements (video mem, system mem, process speed, free disk space, …):
Make sure your system meets the minimum system requirements listed for the game at http://www.blizzard.com/Diablo2/.

Step 11:

Run scandisk/Defrag:
If you have been having any Windows and/or hard drive problems you may want to run a thorough ScanDisk and Disk Defragmenter. It’s a good practice to run ScanDisk and Disk Defragmenter regularly to keep your system file management at peak performance. The following webpage has instructions on how to complete this.
http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/21144.

Step 12:

Adjust desktop area and color depth (640×480x256 800×600x256):
In order to do this you need to:

1. Right click on your desktop and select properties.
2. Click on the Settings Tab.
3. Choose your color dept from the pull down list and your resolution from the slider bar

Step 13:

Copy game files to HD:
(ForDiablo2 Classic Only)
Copy the files D2Char.MPQ and D2Music.MPQ from the Diablo II play disk to the Diablo II folder on your hard drive by dragging and dropping the files from the CD.

Step 14:

Check for over clocking and overheating:
If your system is overclocked it may be producing too much heat which will adversely affect program performance. If the system is producing high amounts of heat but is not overclocked, we would suggest you add a fan to your system to help distribute heat in the case.

To help monitor heat, you can go to http://www.hmonitor.com/ and download the following file:
Hmonitor V 4.0.4.2 (May 01, 2002) 682K.

Step 15:

IRQ conflicts:
In order to do this you will need to:

1. Right click on My Computer and select Properties.
2. (Windows 95/98/ME only) Select the Device Manager tab.
3. (Windows 2000/NT/XP only) Select the Hardware tab and click the Device Manager button.
4. Expand the Display Adapters branch.
5. Click on the Hardware tab, then the Device Manager button.
6. Look for devices which have yellow exclamation marks beside them denoting problem or conflicts

Step 16:
Check for Windows updates at http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/.

If you have any further questions regarding this issue or any other issue you can contact me directly at [SNIPPED to protect Monkey Number One].support@blizzard.com. Always feel free to contact our Phone Support line at 949-955-1382.

With understanding,

[SNIPPED to protect Monkey Number One]
Blizzard Technical Support
[SNIPPED to protect Monkey Number One].support@blizzard.com
www.blizzard.com/support
If you reply please include all previous e-mails on this issue

“With understanding”? Recognizing what OS I filled into the support form would go a long way towards showing ‘understanding’. Sending me a long form letter with Windows diagnostic information, with links to Windows tools, only demonstrates obliviousness. Hence my snarky reply:

Howdy [SNIPPED to protect Monkey Number One],

Please _read_ my original bug report. You apparently missed a few things when you chose to send me a form response.

a) It was a clean install from a fresh download from my blizzard account. New install, latest version, no need to patch.
b) I’m on a mac, as indicated by “Operating System: Macintosh 10.5.x (Leopard)” below, so all the DirectX and windows debug steps are pretty useless.

With that in mind, do you want to actually focus on my particular problem, or do you want to send me another form letter?

-Chris

Update:

Round two was spot-on, and exactly addressed my issue and even included a work-around. If only support had read my original report and sent this the first time around:

Hello Chris

Sorry for the error Chris. With a recent video update Apple removed support for 256 colors this means that Diablo II and StarCraft will not function on certain Macintosh systems. While we work on a solution with Apple a private user has come up with his own work around. This is not sanctioned or endorsed by Blizzard Entertainment and is use at your own risk.
http://70.181.80.166:82/blog/archives/2008/07/mac-os-10531054-nvidia-256-colors.html

With understanding,

[SNIPPED to protect Monkey Number One]
Blizzard Technical Support
[SNIPPED to protect Monkey Number One].support@blizzard.com
www.blizzard.com/support
If you reply please include all previous e-mails on this issue

-Chris

In “A World Out of Time“, Larry Niven wrapped quite a few unresolved scientific theories into an interesting bundle of a story. Not all of it has turned out to be true, such as RNA memory transfer. Also, it will be a while before we can actually prove whether circling a starship around a black hole will slow down its local time relative to the rest of the Universe and effectively travel forward in time. (Yes, I know, current research backs this theory; but it is something else to orbit a black hole and return in actuality.) Then there were the two different approaches to longevity that are proposed in “A World Out of Time“. One involved freezing a person’s endocrine system in their pre-pubescent years, which sounds pretty damn boring to me… spending eternity locked in a child’s body. Blech! The other theory, the one that looked like it was going to prove false with all the research regarding the role of telomeres in aging, seems like it just might be panning out: Cellular aging is (at least partially) a result of ‘garbage’ proteins building up in cells and can be reduced, if not eliminated, by cleaning these proteins out of the cell. Of course, this current research project used something a little more mundane that transmat (matter transfer) booths specifically tuned for these proteins; but the result is no less cool!

Follow the link for the article in all its coolness:

Scientists stop the ageing process ABC News in Science
[snip]

"Many of these diseases are due to 'misbehaving' or damaged proteins that accumulate in neurons. By preventing this decline in protein clearance, we may be able to keep these people free of symptoms for a longer time."

If the body's ability to dispose of cell debris within the cell were enhanced across a wider range of tissues, she says, it could extend life as well.

In healthy organisms, a surveillance system inside cells called chaperone-mediated autophagy CMA locates, digests and destroys damaged proteins.

Specialised molecules, the "chaperones", ferry the harmful material to membrane-bound sacs of enzymes within the cells known as lysosomes.

Once the cargo has been "docked", a receptor molecule transfers the protein into the sac, where it is rapidly digested.

With age, these receptors stop working as well, resulting in a dangerous build-up of faulty proteins that has been linked, in the liver, to insulin resistance as well as the inability to metabolise sugar, fats or alcohol.

The same breakdown of the cell's cleaning machinery can also impair the liver's ability to remove the toxic build-up of drugs at a stage in life when medication is often part of daily diet.

In genetically modified mice, Cuervo compensated for the loss of the receptors in the animals by adding extra copies.

"That was enough to maintain a clean liver and to prove that if you keep your cells clean they work better," she says.

[snip]

Sure, it took genetic engineering to make these mice livers stay young; and that isn’t practical for us pre-built human beings. The neat thing is, having isolated that this particular chemical process, perhaps a ‘rejuvenation’ technique can be developed for the receptors. Even if this therapy doesn’t work on all cells and organs, I sure wouldn’t mind a once a week pill I could take that would help me maintain the liver of a twenty year old! he he ha ha ho ho

-Chris

Google says “complete privacy does not exist” - Internet - iTnews Australia

By Iain Thomson

31 July 2008 07:57AM

In a submission to court Google is arguing that in the modern world there can be no expectation of privacy.

Google is being sued by a Pennsylvania couple after their home appeared on Google’s Street View pages. The couple’s house is on a private road clearly marked as private property.

“Today’s satellite image technology means that even in today’s desert, complete privacy does not exist,” says Google’s submission.

“In any event, the Plaintiffs live far away from the desert and are far from hermits.”

The couple are suing Google for US$25,000 in damages, saying that the value of their property has been damaged and say they have suffered “mental stress”.

This is not the first time Google’s Street View has got the company in to trouble. The EU is arguing that people’s faces should be blurred out of images displayed.

The Street View program aims to photograph every street in the world and place the photographs online. A team of specially converted cars with cameras mounted on the roof are in constant action around the world.

Google is taking a page out of George W Bush’s playbook by claiming that people shouldn’t expect privacy on their own property, and that we should just ‘trust’ Google to ‘do no evil’.

I say we run with their idea that privacy does not exist! Let’s throw a party on the front lawn of the Google founders! I am sure that they will agree that anything good for Google is good for us! This week Sergey’s place, next week at Larry’s. Who is game? Can someone create a meet-up, or a tribe, and post the info here as a comment?

View Larger Map

-Chris