buttonmashing

Mashing buttons since 1984

Archives for October 2005

go.to hell

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I currently use the WordPress plug-in WP-ShortStat (I’m thinking about trying out Mint. Is anyone using it out there?) that seems to do a better job of tracking visitors to buttonmashing.com than Statcounter, which I also use. Recently, I’ve noticed hundreds of hits from *.to addresses. They show up in the ShortStat logs but not the Statcounter logs. I figure these are hits from spammers. Weird thing is, Spam Karma isn’t reporting any comment/track back spam from these addresses. This is what a recent bit from the ShortStat report looks like:

buy-adipex.drop.to 10:14 pm
alprazolam.go.to 10:14 pm
alprazolam.go.to 10:14 pm
online-hydrocodone.drop.to 10:14 pm
buy-cialis.hey.to 10:14 pm
viagra-.get.to 10:14 pm
online-valium.get.to 10:14 pm
viagra-.get.to 10:14 pm
phentermine-.get.to 10:14 pm
hydrocodone.mysite.de 10:14 pm
online-fioricet.drop.to 10:14 pm
xanax.get.to 10:14 pm

Does anyone know what these hits would be accomplishing? If you go to one of the sites, you go to a spam search site hawking whatever the *.go.to or *.get.to is. If you go straight to go.to or get.to you get redirected to v3 Web Hosting. I imagine that’s a cheap place to get sub domains to redirect to your paid for search page. Anyway, it still doesn’t make sense to me.

Any other bloggers seeing these same kind of hits showing up? Is there any rhyme or reason to this? Or is it something I should just ignore? I’m not learned in the ways of the nefarious spammer. It’s just something that’s bothering me.

All the Zorg oldies-but-goldies.

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I haven’t really played anything new lately. I rented Burnout 4 (or Burnout Revenge, whatever it’s called. It’s Burnout 4) but I wasn’t that into it. It felt like Burnout 3, except the cars felt like dump trucks with cow-catchers attached to the front. Ramming traffic just didn’t feel right.

I have been playing some older games, though. I’ve played a bunch of Resident Evil 4 (mostly the Mercenaries mini-game), Metroid Fusion, and some Halo 2 with friends (the best way to enjoy it). I’ve also got my NES and SNES plugged in and I’ve been doing a little Metroid (the very first one) and Super Mario World. I’m getting down with the old (and not quite so old) classics. I can’t keep up with the onslaught of new games. And with the Xbox 360 on the horizon, it seems like it never ends.

So why do I bring this up? It reminded me of an article I read over at Gamers with Jobs about this same thing. From the article:

4rr0w_m4k3r owns two of the current-gen game consoles and for these consoles he owns five games that he has yet to play. Yet to even open. He owns more than twenty games that he hasn’t finished, and there are currently twice that number of games on his wish list. Games that he would pick up in an instant if he thought about it.

I’d imagine that describes a lot of us gamers. There’s just so much out there that it’s impossible to enjoy it all. But I find myself turned off even to the newest games. There’s just isn’t much out there catching my eye. A few DS games, but that’s about it.

In the end, I’ll probably end up with a couple of the next generation consoles under my TV. I’ll play a handful of the new games. But with backwards compatibility and a library of downloadable Nintendo games, what will I probably play? The oldies-but-goldies.

Buckeye Blogging, Week #6 (3-2)

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Not much to talk about this week. The Buckeye went into Beaver Stadium favored by 3 points and came out with a hard-to-accept loss. Both defenses played well but I thought OSU’s defense dominated this game. If Troy Smith doesn’t throw the interception that was returned to the 1-yard line, OSU has a pretty good chance to win this game. The loss to Texas was a heartbreaker. This loss was frustrating.

Frustrating because of all the talent on the OSU football team. We have, arguably, three of the fastest wide-outs in the country and we didn’t start throwing the ball down the field until the third quarter. Frustrating.

So once again our future is in doubt. There’s a chance we can still win the Big Ten, but that’s a long way off. We’ll just sit back and see what happens.

Fanboys – what makes them tick

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Rick at Netjak has a good piece about Fanboys and what makes them tick. He says

… what makes the fanboy tick? It’s quite simple, really. Fanboys are the result of people who felt like outsiders for so long finally getting a modicum of acceptance.

I’d have to partially disagree with Rick on this point. Perhaps some of the younger “fanboys” fall into this grouping, but I’d say us older “fanboys” (and Rick says he’s a Nintendo fanboy at heart, as am I) are fanboys for sentimental reasons.

He correctly points out that the fanboy phenomenon isn’t confined to video game enthusiasts. He points out that sports fans and car snobs also exhibit the same type of irrational behavior. I would agree but, again, I’d say there are deeper, sentimental reasons. I’m a huge sports fan. I love most Ohio sports teams (Indians, Browns, Cavs) but I don’t have any emotional attachment to any of these teams. I don’t fly into a crazy rage when someone says the Cleveland Browns stink. But disparage my Ohio State Buckeyes and I’m liable to come out swinging. Okay, it’s not that bad, but I do have an emotional attachment to my Buckeyes. Why? First, I grew up watching OSU football with my dad. He’s a die-hard fan and he instilled a little of that Buckeye love in me. When it came to picking a college, OSU was an easy choice. I spent 5+ years at OSU and, in the process, became emotionally attached. It’s not just The Ohio State University it’s My Ohio State University. I have love for my school. It was (and still is) a big part of my life. It’s a connection that I’m sure others can attest to.

I am an OSU fanboy.

And it’s not just me. My wife, also an OSU alumna, gets teary-eyed when the OSU band comes out on the field. When we sing OSU’s alma mater Carmen Ohio, I get the chills and have to fight back the tears. People look at me funny when I tell them this, but it’s a spiritual experience. It might sound odd, but I have that kind of connection with Ohio State. Like I said, I’m a fanboy. I have an irrational love for OSU.

That’s why I partially disagree with Rick’s assessment of what makes a fanboy tick. I am also an admitted Nintendo fanboy. What does my love of all things Nintendo stem from? A sentimental attachment built on fond memories of my gaming childhood. The first game I remember beating was Kid Icarus. I loved that game. I still remember the satisfaction and pride I felt when I finished it. Another great memory I have is opening the box of my Super Nintendo. I saved up enough money to be able to afford it on the day it was released and I still remember grinning ear to ear when I popped Super Mario World in for the first time. Those are fanboy “character building experiences.”

Unfortunately, I also think Rick is partially right about the inner workings of the fanboy pysche. He speaks of gamers feeling alienated from other people because of their love of games (or perhaps because of their nerdiness). Finding a group of like minded people with similar devotions is reassuring. But, as Rick says, because there’s always the, “fear that said alienation will again begin one day, fanboys are almost violent in their devotion to a company.” So true.

So in the end, there are two classes of fanboys (and girls). Those that cherish their memories and may take it a little personal when someone attacks their company of devotion but they can shrug it off. Unfortunately there is another type of fanboy who takes it as a personal affront to his manhood when their system/company/game of choice is vilified.

The real trick is to be able to tell the difference. I contend it’s not hard at all.

Carnival of Gamers #7

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Is up!

More…

I thought Jason did a good job with the Carnival. What I liked about this one was that there were a handful of entries that this was their first Carnival. I laughed my butt off with Doner Kebab and his experience with playing SOCOM II online. This statement is probably true for a lot of people:

My experience with this game pretty much explains why online gaming is dead for the “casual gamer”.

Of course, I can’t pass up quoting something like this:

8:41pm I swear off SOCOM II forever. I want my Doom back.
8:45pm I swear off the gaming press forever. No more Xbox 360 ambitions. The next $300 of my gaming budget are going to a Gamecube and something fun to play. See you online at the card table, I’m taking my toys and going home.

Awesome.

So yeah, I enjoyed another Carnival. I’m impressed that this is still going strong. We’ve got Aeropause hosting next month’s Carnival and The Game Chair volunteered to host the Carnival in December. May the Carnivaling keep on trucking!

The new look

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After poring through hundreds of themes, I ended up going with K2. It’s just got too many features to pass up. Right now I haven’t done much in the way of customizing it, but it seems pretty easy to do, so I will hopefully have some time in the near future to work on that. Also, having the “asides” feature is worth the price of admission alone (even though I can’t get them working currently). So K2 it is for the foreseeable future.

Also, I changed the feeds to contain the full text of the posts. I know a handful of people access buttonMashing with varioud feed readers, so I thought that would make it a little easier to read. I know I love feeds with full text.

Anyway, it’s late so that’s the extent of this update. More later.

Update: Got the asides working with some help from Foton. Thanks, man!

Ring a bell and I’ll salivate

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I admit that I fall prey to good marketing once and a while (damn you, Apple and your shiny iPod!) , but the marketers over at McDonald’s own my consumer soul.

Mention Monopoly and McDonald’s in the same breath and I begin to drool. It’s not even the prizes that get me (although the iPod + 1000 songs or the PSP/PS2 package would do nicely) — it’s collecting those little stickers. Thing is, I really don’t care for McDonald’s food. With the exception of the mana-from-heaven McGriddles, I don’t do the McDonald’s thing very often. But they throw the Monopoly Game out every year, and in Pavlovian fashion I beat a path to their door.

Alas, the contest ends at the end of the month. I guess the buttonFamily will be eating at Mickey Dee’s a disproportionate amount of time this month. Spurlock doesn’t have anything on me!

America’s Pastime my foot!

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First I have to watch the Cleveland Indians collapse and lose their chances at Baseball’s post-season. Now, because of the playoffs on Fox, I have to wait three weeks for the next episode of Prison Break. Holy cow, who did I piss off to deserve this? I guess I’ll survive, but it will be tough. Man, Prison Break is good stuff. I don’t care if it’s testorone-heavy action with badly cliched stereotypes, targeted at the male demographic. This is good stuff. All I have to say is someone needs to open a can of “Prison-Shiv” on T-Bag. That guy didn’t have to off the rookie guard. I have a feeling someone is gonna put him down. So many questions left unanswered until later this month. I’ve still go Lost, but these next three weeks will drag on without my Prison Break fix.

On the buttonmashing.com front, I’ve been a little slow with posts lately. I’ve just been busy with RL things. I mentioned earlier that I was doing some housekeeping around the site, and I’m still working on that, it’s just slow going. I’m looking at some new themes, some new plugins and a basic dust up around here. I’ve been happy with the current look but it’s not exactly what I wanted. I’m thinking of going with the K2 theme, but we’ll see. In the meantime, I’m planning on some other changes but, like I said, it’s going a little slower than I’d like.

Also, there’s only a few days left to get your submission in to the Carnival of Gamers #6. Don’t delay, send your submission in today!

Buckeye Blogging, (bye) Week #5 (3-1)

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Since this is OSU’s bye week, I decided to wait for the latest Buckeye Blogging until after this week’s rankings came out. As I figured, LSU’s loss (and Florida’s) has caused OSU’s ratings to rise. Ah, the joys of losing early. OSU is the highest ranked team with a loss. They’re currently #6 in both polls.

I did get a chance to watch some of our future foes, namely Penn State and Michigan State. Penn State is suddenly everyone’s darling but I’m not buying it. They’ve beat a bunch of push-overs to get to 5-0. OSU should be able to roll into Happy Valley and roll over the Lions. OSU’s defense is too good to expect anything less.

Michigan State comes to Columbus a week later (a game I’ll be at) and I wasn’t impressed with MSU in their loss to Michigan. The Wolverines just seem to have MSU’s number. MSU’s offense can put up big numbers but I think they’re in for a rude awakening when they meet Hawk & Co. I’m hoping OSU’s offense has a field day against the Spartan’s defense. Things are looking up for the Buckeyes.

Other intriguing match-ups the next couple weeks include Texas and Oklahoma this week and Notre Dame and USC next week. Does OU still own Texas? Will Mack Brown ever beat Stoops? Will USC recover from their defensive injuries? Stay tuned! Same Buckeye time, same Buckeye channel!