How not to kill a computer...

I just read a great article over at pcstats.com with some great tips on how to prevent a disaster from happening, One tip I a really liked was this one-

It's unknown how many fatalities LAN parties contribute to the global toll of computers, but it's got to be a large number. Moving your computer too often is a recipe for disaster. ... If you've just transported your system any distance, take the cover off and check inside to verify that your expansion cards, memory, heatsink and video card are still seated correctly. Doing this before you power on your system can substantially increase its lifespan. Also, don't drop it.

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VALVe and nVIDIA Team Up

VALVe and nVIDIA are partnering up to offer an exclusive demo of Portal...

The most recent Steam Hardware Survey shows more Steam gamers play on NVIDIA GeForce hardware than any other graphics platform. In an effort to further support this popular PC gaming configuration - Steam games plus NVIDIA hardware - Valve and NVIDIA have entered into an agreement to collaborate on development, distribution, events, and more.

Effective immediately, all NVIDIA gamers may receive a free copy of PortalTM: First Slice, a special version of the award-winning new game from Valve, by visiting www.steamgames.com/nvidia1 and "Taking the Test." Steam will then auto-detect the presence of NVIDIA hardware and make Portal: First Slice available immediately, free of charge. To make it easy for all NVIDIA customers to redeem this offer, a link to the Steam offer will also be included in all NVIDIA drivers.

"More Steam gamers, including myself, play on NVIDIA hardware than any other GPU," said Doug Lombardi, vice president of marketing at Valve. "That's a testament to the company's long history of innovation and quality. By working together with NVIDIA to expand our development, distribution, and marketing efforts, we're increasing our ability to serve the millions of NVIDIA customers logging onto Steam and help us prepare for our next generation of content."

Throughout the coming year, the companies will also be working together to support competitive gaming events for Counter-Strike® and Team Fortress® 2 and will continue to work together to define and support the breakthrough features of tomorrow's games and graphics hardware.

"Valve's endorsement of our technology and tools is yet another example of how the world's leading gaming companies are working with NVIDIA," said Roy Taylor, vice president of content relations at NVIDIA. "Portal is the hottest new, award-winning title from Valve, and we're delighted that Valve will offer First Slice exclusively to GeForce customers."

Portal: First Slice is now available to all NVIDIA customers. For more information about the offer or to take the test, please click here.

VALVe also threw in some extras too, the exlusive deal also includes Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, Half-Life 2: Lost Coast, and the very addicting Peggle Extreme.

With the announcement of this deal, it must mean that VALVe's previous partnership with ATI has expired. ATI had been best buddies with valve since before the release of Half-Life 2.

For now it seems that VALVe's previous offer for ATI Users is still alive and kicking - which means at LAN Parties most poeple will be able to join in on playing Half-life 2 Deathmatch with out needing to buy the game.

Another year Done

My busiest semester yet is over and another crazy one is on it's way but before it comes I hope to get a bunch of stuff updated on this site, so look for new content soon and the announcement of LAN-O-THON v4.5.

RHA LAN-O-THON v4.0

Whew, after months of planning and two days of settinging up LAN-o-thon fianllay happened. Thanks to all those who came! We had some interesting challenges this time around like the visit from the campus the campus fire marshal and the head of resident building maintenance and the hl2dm tournament server crashing but we pushed forward and had a decent event. The tf2 action was awesome and every one had a great time playing it.

Our next event will be late febuary. I will post the date once it is finalized

RHA LAN-O-THON v4.0

RHA LAN-O-THON v4.0 will be October 26, 2007 at 7:00 pm at the University of South Florida (Tampa Campus). It's the 9th largest university in the US and you've probably never heard of it



It's going to be a 50 seat BYOC. USF Students Only and those who live on-campus have priority.

Games we will be hosting servers and tournaments for-
-> Counter-Strike: Source
-> Half-Life 2: Deathmatch
-> Day of Defeat Source
-> Team Fortress 2

We will be providing at least 25 temporary Steam accounts with the above games for the event.

This is a social event, so feel free to just to play WOW, surf the internet or just hang out but a computer is required to enter.

We are interested in having other games at this event but we are limited by man power. If you would like to manage a server for another game, please message me and we can work something out.

Registration has finally started!! So head over and Sign Up.

The process is a little different this year because with more people, comes a need for better planning. Our registration form this year is collecting more info so we can prepare better event. We are interested in finding out what games people want to play and such. This time around we are trying to take security seriously, so again this year, we will be signing computers in and out of the building but we will have a better system and as another defense, we are only allowing people who bring a computer to enter.

See you there!

LAN Party Friday!

Wow, the LAN Party is this week. I've been working hard getting everything ready to go. I got a bunch of temporary accounts from valve this week so any guests who don't own Team Fortress 2 or any of Valves other multiplayer games will be able to play them free and legally. This ought to be a great event! See you there!

ps. Early registration ends Wed!

Updates

Sorry for the lack of updates, my life has gotten really really busy. Architecture, as predicated, has consumed my life and now, I have almost zero free time. I'm still going to make LAN-O-THON v4.0 a great event, I'm devoting every spare moment this week getting ready for it.

This past week our box of goodies from Alienware arrived and earlier this week, more stuff should be arriving. I post pictures soon.

Please sign up early as it will make check-in for the event go a lot faster for everyone. We need help setting up on the 25th so if you're available stop by the RHA office around 1pm or Cypress E later in the night.

See you there!