No LAN for Starcraft 2

Blizzard decided that Starcraft 2 will not have LAN support.

This decision is quite strange to me. Starcraft as a sport was raised on local network and low latency (just try to do Mutalisk micro on battle.net). I do not know what they did so great to their service too speed it up, but I am quite sure that it cannot be as fast as two computers next to each other. And that is even without thinking how speedy Internet play will be when Starcraft II comes out and all trillions of people try to play it at same time.

I do remember quite a few Starcraft games in hotels where ad-hoc wireless was all it was needed. Those days are gone now…

QText 2.10

Here is final version of QText.

Only real change that was made is install procedure. While this does mean that some code was changed (and some bugs were fixed), there was no change in user interface.

This version requires installation to first remove any old versions. This procedure is automated and I have tested it with versions 1.31, 1.40 and 2.00. If you have any other version installed I would advise to uninstall it first since installation may not uninstall it automatically.

In case something goes wrong with uninstalling, you will end up with two versions of QText in Uninstall dialog and once that happens, old version will not be uninstallable. Except for that annoyance, everything else should work properly even if that happens.

No damage to your data should happen during uninstall. However if you wish to backup it first, just go Options -> Files -> Open folder. This will open Explorer window. From there you can copy your files anywhere you wish. Once new version is installed, just copy files back. This step is optional since uninstall will not delete any files or settings and install will take them over. All your files should be safe.

You can download new version here.

Professional Booting

During Windows 7 beta I fell in love with booting from virtual disk (VHD). Now, with Windows 7 release candidate out, I decided it is time for new set of virtual machines.

In order to speed up process, I was using WIM2WHD script to make disk image. After images were done, small play with bcdedit solved booting issues.

For my first virtual disk I selected Professional edition of Windows 7. Booting went without hitch, setup sorted out it’s drivers and asked some questions. After final reboot I was greeted with “Licence error”.

That’s right. Nothing bellow Ultimate will give you option to boot from VHD file. While there is no good technology reason for disabling it, it seems that someone at Microsoft looked at whole picture and noticed that no matter how many Windows 7 installations you have, you are still on same hardware and thus one key will allow for multiple installations. Since preventing that would probably take too much effort, they decided to make it more expensive in the first place.

Windows 7 Pricing

Today Microsoft announced pricing for Windows 7. Since prices in Croatia (where I live) usually are not same prices like those in USA (our prices are somehow higher), that information is relevant only when compared with Windows Vista price. And price went down. Yes, Windows 7 will be slightly cheaper then same Windows Vista edition. I find this a good news.

Also for those who are willing to pre-order, there is limited offer which will get you Windows 7 in half the price. First wave of this offer is limited to USA and Canada. European pre-orders will start after July, 15th. Since Croatia is part of European market when it comes to cripled Windows 7 E, I do hope that we will be part of this offer also.

[2009-07-26: Because of compliance, it seems that upgrade will not be available in “E” version. However, upgrade pricing will still be available.]

Microsoft Security Essentials

Beta of Microsoft’s own anti-virus is out and account at Connect along with short survey is required before download may begin. While it was said that beta will be limited to USA, Israel, China and Brazil, I was able to download it anyhow (from Croatia).

Until now I was using freeware version of AVG anti-virus. Although I am it’s user for few years now, I was looking for replacement because of later version’s desire to attach it self in virtually every part of system. Most annoying ones were it’s attaching to e-mails and web pages. User interface was also quite annoying and you could never be clear at what exactly you have just done.

My two installations of Microsoft Security Essentials were on Windows 7 and Windows XP (Media Center Edition) and everything went without a hitch. Since download is fairly small (in range of 5 MB) and installation is really fast one, you are done with protecting yourself within minute.

User interface is clean and clear. While some would mind lack of advanced options, I find it quite refreshing. Bear in mind that in no way I can test how well it works in regards to actual task of catching viruses, so this alley will go unexplored.

What I can say is that I didn’t found anything wrong with it. If it is as good at catching actual viruses as other freeware solutions out there, I cannot find any reason why not to install it.

It is free after all.

[2009-06-30: Beta is closed. It seems that limit was set at 70,000 beta users. If you didn’t manage to download it now, you will need to wait until release.]

[2009-09-30: Final version is out there.]