Cool Color Tools

When I was working on the skin for this blog, I found some cool color tools...

• Colorjack Studio an interactive color picker
  
• this one generates a color scheme form a picture but i didn't like what it came up with 1 & 2
• this one finds related colors

btw. an even better skin is in the works.

Cat5e Wiring

For those who are like me and can't remember the order of wires in a standard ethernet cable, I made this simple diagram (according to the common T568B spec).

Steam Error

Having problems with a strange bug in one of valves games? try running the Steam diagnostics tool and see if it finds any problems

Update:

One of the most common it reports is that your version of Directx is out of date. This easily fixed by downloading and installing the latest version. Directx is often updated monthly and is not always part of Microsoft's auto updates.

The other common problem is outdated graphics drivers. For desktops, this is easy to fix but laptops take a little bit more work. For desktops just visit the website of the brand graphics card you have such as nVidia, ATI, or Intel. For laptops you must visit the website of the manufacturer of your laptop. The common ones are Dell, Hp & Compaq, Toshiba, Gateway, Sony, Acer, Alienware. Hopefully this list will save you some time searching.

Please report any bad links and I will update my list.

Steam Error "Invalid Steam User ID Ticket"

The solution to Steam error "Invalid Steam User ID Ticket" is to completely exit out of Steam and delete "steam.ui", "clientregistry.blob" and "steam.dll" files in Steam's directory, usually "C:\Program Files\steam\". Once you finish that, start Steam again.

Stuff I've learned from my past lans

1. Advertising is crucial. Get it out early.
2. College students love facebook. Post your event there or people will miss out.
3. College students don't bring their own powerstrips or lan cables.
   
4. You don't need as much power for a college lan as others because over 50% of the people bring laptops.
5. Have internet or your doomed.
   
6. With small lans no one seams to own the same games leading to a boring lan party. At my last event we bought some Temporary Tournament Steam Accounts to hand out to solve this. 75% of our guests used them.