Curse

Lord Sojar · Jun 17, 2008, 03:34 AM // 03:34

Alright guys. Inde appointed me as moderator of this section to do a few things. Those things are as follows:

1). Keep order and civil behavior
We don't really have any issues with bad posters here, as all of you are great friends and some of the coolest people I know online, and I trust most of you with anything.

2). Keep spam posts out.
This includes but is not limited to pornographic material, product advertisement, old advertisements, and personal flame threads.

3). Reconstruct the area.
This involves updating guides from their current state to modern, cutting edge, and informative posts that newcomers and solution seekers can find and use to the fullest. This will be my main duty!

So, with that being said, here are some ground rules I am laying down, and some things I am going to ask of our tech savvy folks who commit themselves selflessly to helping others diagnose and fix problems.

Here are some guidelines I think we should all live under. They are pretty straightforward, and not unreasonable. Some of this stuff is under the Guild Wars Guru Forum Rules, and as a result are bannable offenses. Some of this is just Rahja mumbo jumbo that I feel we should all follow to help make the Technician's Corner a really cool place to come to.

You can find the official rules of Guild Wars Guru forums here and you must abide by these at all times:
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/content...nes-id2030.php

1). No personal flames.

Outlandish, uncalled for, or downright rude posts are not needed. Insulting someone in a witty, fun way is typically alright, especially if the two posters are great friends and they are just pulling each others' ears. (Example: Snograt is a sneaky devil who plans to takeover my life, and instill his view that the world should all have Armor+ cases) We know it is true Snoggy, stop hiding it.

2). No useless posts that don't involve technology or helping others.

The off topic forum welcomes those, and I am sure that your silliness will more than be welcomed there. However, under my new plans for this section, there will be a great way of posting technology news, so have no fear!

3). Please refrain from posting in spam/bot posts.

If you see a pornographic, sales, or other propoganda based post from a person that is clearly spamming, please do NOT post in it. Report it using the report function on the post (That is found in the lower left of the post, seen as a small red triangle. Give a simple reason for the post, and a mod will get around to it.) Alternatively, PM me if by some freak chance, I don't get the chance to grind the spamming scum into the ground with a boot. (This isn't a Guru based rule, and you won't be banned for posting it said thread, but more of a request I am asking of all of you. Besides, your post will be deleted along with the spammer's, so it will be a waste of your time to post. If you do post forgetting about this "rule", you won't be punished though, so no worries okies?

)

4). Always be respectful of others.

That means don't bash people for their lack of knowledge or make fun of others because they don't know this and that, no matter their level of technical knowledge. I know my technical knowledge surpasses 99% of the general population of the internet, but I do not flaunt it. I make it known if my opinion or solution is brought under a shadow of doubt, but I will not try and cut others down using it. I realize we have many, many very intelligent posters in this section (arguably the smartest on the entire Guru forums) You tech savvy people know you are smart, the others know you are smart, and we all have mutual respect for each other. Show that respect, and understand that most of the people that come into this section of the forum do not know much about computers, and look up to us as the saviors' of their systems. We are here to help them, not cut them down. I don't want to see any "holier than thou" posts if a poster knows very little about PCs. You may direct them to guides for additional information, request additional information, and request them to download safe tools to aid in diagnosing the issue. Always show respect and humility when doing so, and in return, you will have a person that looks up to you as a great friend who will happily help them (you may find a reward comes in another form down the road)

5). Post what you know, not what you don't.

If you don't know an answer to a question, that is ok! Don't post a solution that could actually do more damage to the posters computer/device if you are unsure of the solution. Part of knowing is learning! It is perfectly alright not to know the answer. There are many aspects of programming I am not familiar with, especially web programming and coding, website design, and operating system protocols. My expertise stretches into hardware, with the only programming knowledge being DIRECTLY related to said hardware. There are a few things I have learned about this and that, but I am not an expert. We have people with varied talents, and it is important that we respect them for their talents, and learn from them. I see many of you as mentors for my software knowhow, and I hope you see me as a mentor when it comes to graphics and processor hardware. Always remember, your answer can fix, but it can also damage. Know when to answer, and when to be humble, allowing others with more knowledge to solve the issue.

Now, for my grand plan! Many parts of the Technician's Corner have become a cesspool of old information, rotting away as technology quickly passes it by. Guides are outdated, stickies left to become dated, and posts being necromancered by confused posters looking for solutions because of these issues. While resurrecting certain posts may be appropriate, more often than not, it just plain isn't. The information within the post is probably very old, and will mislead uninformed members of our Guru Family to make poor choices in their technology world.

We need new guides. We need new ideas, concepts, and knowledge. We need the Technician's Corner to be the place for people to go to be in the know about technology and technology help.

As of this moment, the change will begin. As a moderator, I now have the power to remove misleading material, update material that simply has been outdated because of the ever accelerating pace of technological advancement, and clean up unorganized material that would prove an invaluable resource if it were simply more organized and easy to navigate.

The change cannot happen just because I am a moderator. The change cannot happen without the fine men and women that devote themselves to helping those less informed in the wide world of technology. I need the tech savvy people to join together, as a family, and make the Technician's Corner the most powerful resource Guild Wars Guru has to offer its patrons.

I am hereby forming an elite team, devoted to the above. The team will have to work hard (but within the scope of juggling real life matters, and with time to relax and play games as well) to make this section the star attraction of Guru. My team will be hand picked from volunteers that sign up in this thread. I am not demanding you to participate, simply asking for those willing to give the time they already give to make this forum easier to use and the most powerful tech tool you have ever seen. We will be the new Guru Geniuses, seen as the authority on technology and electronics. We will be The Technicians!

So, I would like anyone willing to devote their time and expertise into The Technicians squad, in order to make the technical forum rival all the other forums. We will be the best organized, most fluid, and most friendly forum on Guild Wars Guru. We will be the pride of Inde's site, showing her that her site is the number one place for not only Guild Wars information, but technical help to those that want to continue playing their beloved game. Inde, as promised, I will make you proud; rather, WE will make you proud. We're here to make you the queen of Guild Wars, and it all starts with installing and making the Guild Wars game run smoothly for the best playing experience possible. Prepare yourself Guru, for The Technicians are on our way to make your playing experience phenomenal!

Anyone who wants to be eligible for a spot on the elite Technican team, please sign below and list your greatest strengths and weaknesses. List applicable experience, big or small, and list why you want to be a part of this new change in the way we do things.

I will go first:

Name: Connor (Rahja)

Occupation: nVidia Sr. Physical Design and Fabrication Process Engineer

Education: Purdue University Physics Alumni, Purdue University/Cornell University joint collaboration Doctrine of Nano Electrical Physics and Microprocessor Fabrication Design and Implementation (unpublished private thesis by self mandate), Purdue University continued Post Doctoral studies in Nano Manipulation Processes and Implementation/Nanoengineering. {that makes me sound so fancy}

Areas of Expertise: Graphics and Computer Microprocessor Fabrication and Hardware Design, ASM, come C++ and C#, nano technology, physics, physics based mathematics.

Areas of Weakness: Advanced programming languages excluding ASM, compliers, Operating System protocols, driver manipulation outside recent nVidia architecture and implementation, web design/creation/implementation/coding, HTML, Java, Unix, Linux, source code manipulation.

Accomplishments: Assisted in designing Core architecture during internship with Intel, extensive work on the G80 processor architype with nVidia, engineering and fabrication development for 65/55nm technology on nVidia subsystems and cache architecture, extensive engineering work on nVidia G92 series, primary fabrication engineering/design/implementation team selected for G200 and G300 (GTX 260 and GTX 280) pre, post, and launch designs, selected as primary team for Nehalem chipset fabrication design and implementation for pre, post, and launch designs.

Alright guys, let's get busy! The change ball is rolling, let's get it to accelerate to terminal velocity.

Kattar · Jun 17, 2008, 04:04 AM // 04:04

Well, after reading your application, I feel a little under-qualified. But I'm still a kid, mostly, so...

Name: Matt (Katsumi)

Occupation: Kinda fluid right now. I'm the "IT guy" for a department in a large University. Some server management, desktop support, database management, inventory control, and anything else they throw at me.

Education: AAS in Networking and Communications Systems. Working on other things as well...

Areas of Expertise: All things network and server related. Other more general computer knowledge as well. Some security expertise as well.

Areas of Weakness: All programming languages basically.

Accomplishments: Implemented a database and inventory control system that had stymied two other IT professionals for 16 months who both have about 80 years of experience between them. I'm still fairly young in the field.

If that's not good enough for the technicians group, know that I'll be more than happy to help out in any way I can, as I have in the past. Look forward to the changes. Hopefully we can all help out and work together.

Lord Sojar · Jun 17, 2008, 04:12 AM // 04:12

Katsumi, credentials are not nearly as important as willingness to write guides, and be a leader of the Guru community. Besides that, you look like you are excellent at networking and communication systems. You would really fit nicely into the position of the Guild Wars connection issues area. I am not deciding the team for a while, and am definitely going to give as many people as I can a chance to join the team. It isn't just the resume, it is desire and drive to be a team player and to be selfless when it comes to technical problems and technology. Some of us are very gifted in technology, and I believe it is our duty to pass as much knowledge as we can onto the layman population in terms they can understand and solutions they can easily accomplish.

Brianna · Jun 17, 2008, 04:13 AM // 04:13

Well, I don't really think I have enough experience for the ''movement'', I can't even really think of any highlights of my knowledge, most of it is stuff that all of you already know, or know more about.

Name is Shelley (Known as Bri on here, in game nick, yadda ya.)

If I can help, I will, but right now I can't really see me doing very much.. so maybe if you could point me in the right direction.

Areas of Expertise: Hardware, it is what I know most about, and I am constantly pushing to learn more about it, and the science of it, why it works, how it works, etc.

Areas of weakness: any coding, any programming, anything advanced in OS's of any sort and all of that jazz, again the things I know most about is Hardware.

Accomplishments; None in the computer field, I haven't been to college for anything computer related, it is more of a hobby rather than any sort of career, but everyone keeps telling me to get into it.

Whatever I can do in my power to help, I will try. Seeing as I'm here all the time, I guess it wouldn't hurt. I am not that skilled at writing guides though and it is something I need to work on.. I'd have to spend many many hours setting it up, heh.

Lord Sojar · Jun 17, 2008, 04:23 AM // 04:23

It's all cool Bri, I am not a demanding guy. I just want some really dedicated people who have a good idea of what is going on, that post/troll the tech forums very frequently, and that are willing to write and or update guides for our patrons. You are definitely on my short list not necessarily because of your experience, but because of your devotion and commitment to the section.

I am not going to judge people solely on their knowledge, nor solely on their public image. Character, creativity, dedication, knowledge, personality, and cordiality are the major factors in deciding the team that is going to reshape this section of the forum. Everyone and anyone is welcome to volunteer, provided they have some decent knowledge and passion for technology, and the desire to help others over themselves. We are going to make the Technician's Corner second to none.

Lord Mythirion · Jun 17, 2008, 05:10 AM // 05:10

I'm still a kid as well, dunno if you'll accept me. I know more about computers than the average computer user. Since I'm on frequently, as might as well do something like this...

Name: Daniel (Lord Mythirion)

Occupation: student

Education: up to my 3rd year in High School (lol)

Areas of Expertise: Hardware mostly.

Areas of Weakness: Software. I know a bit, but not enough.

Accomplishments: Nothing as of now. I'll be taking the test for CompTIA A+ Certification in 1-2 months though.

Writing guides isn't really something I've done before. I'd try though. Since I'm on here fairly a lot, I figured it wouldn't hurt. I'm not 100% sure of being able to do this though, so if it's allright I'll post later to see how my summer goes in terms of homework/SAT preparation.

Lurid · Jun 17, 2008, 07:14 AM // 07:14

Name: Eric

Occupation: College Student

Education: College Freshman

Areas of Expertise: Hardware. Cooling specifically, worked on a few Phase Setups built god knows how many water loops / computers / tech work in general.

Areas of Weakness: Programming. Nothing really useable for this purpose for the most part. Considering its almost all client side problems with hardware / the sort.

Accomplishments: A+ Cert, M$ Cert, HVAC Cert, etc...

I've written two or three guides for Guru if i'm not mistaken. A power supply guide thats now dated, and a general hardware. I've written a few so its kind of hard to be sure where they're linked. I've been active on the EOCF boards for about three years, and if you want you can check my posts on there.

I'm not overly fussed about the job, but I browse the tech forums here frequently and I see a good bit of misinformation, and the lack of any guide support. Being able to section the topics up a bit would be nice, like with sub forum headings.

zamial · Jun 17, 2008, 01:24 PM // 13:24

Name: Sam

Occupation: IT Professional

Education: Certs and real life.
-comptia: A+, N+, S+
-M$: MOUS, MCP, MCDST, MCSA

Areas of Expertise: Networking, servers, hardware, periferals, software manipulation (I can normally get it to work), benchmarking.

Areas of Weakness: Mac, programming, software design, driver manipulation, web design/creation, source code manipulation, anything illegal except counter measures.

Accomplishments: I was on a network admin team in a fortune 500 company, untill I relocated. I am currently doing top tier desktop support. Along with all my certs. I have a B.F.H.(fixes every computer!)

Serafita Kayin · Jun 17, 2008, 01:44 PM // 13:44

Name: Edward

Occupation: Retail PC Sales/PC Cooling Designer

Education: University of South AL English Alumni, MCSE, 10 years of hands-on, currently distance learning with MIT

Areas of expertise: Hardware, with an emphasis on cooling, industry news (have been industry writer since 2003) troubleshooting on too little info

Areas of weakness: I'm long winded and I work a lot.

Accomplishments: Have written for a former major PC modding site, currently own my own PC water cooling design and fab shop/company, former Circuit City tech manager, and I have a really big fish tank. Also an AMD "Spider" platform tester.

moriz · Jun 17, 2008, 01:57 PM // 13:57

Name: Steve

Occupation: Student, computer gamer, amateur computer builder/tech/programmer

Education: University of Ottawa, Computer Science (preparing for 3rd year), currently working on my java certificate

Areas of expertise: none. my knowledge base is too broad and not deep enough

Areas of weakness: everything. my knowledge base is too broad and not deep enough

Accomplishments: managed to pass my classes despite playing too much GW.

Snograt · Jun 17, 2008, 07:12 PM // 19:12

Name: Tony

Occupation: Station Supervisor on the London Underground

Education: Never made it to college - call it high school diploma

Area of expertise: Guild Wars problem diagnoses and gwx2

Area of weakness: Hardware: differences, quality, installation of, overclocking of

Accomplishments: Posting in this forum for so long without actually being called a noob.

Also: 45 years old and renewing an interest in PCs, overclocking and modding. Many years of experience with the good old Commodore Amiga series, held on far too long so didn't succumb to the wonders of PC-dom until the PII450. Limited expertise, as you can see - just glad to be a member of the wisest and friendliest tech forum on the net

Lord Sojar · Jun 17, 2008, 11:10 PM // 23:10

Alrighty! I pretty much had my team in mind, but I wanted each of you to post so I could learn a bit more about you, and so you could learn a bit about each other. I also wanted to make sure you wanted to be a part of this team, and make sure you were willing to invest the time and energy into it. I have confirmation of that, so let's begin the reconstruction.

Here are a few things my team is going to need:

Ventrilo 3.x.x
Microphone/Headset (working!)
Ability to take orders and be a leader at the same time.
Listening skills and speaking skills.
Respect for each other and everyone you meet/help.

I know that the people I am about to list have the bottom 3 of those. I don't know about #1 and #2 though. I certainly hope you all do. At this point, I want to assemble all of you and discuss what we are going to do to the tech forum. Everything will be vote based, so no one person is going to be head vote. If there is a tie, my vote will decide it (I really hope we don't have that much disagreement ever, lol)

Inde and I have briefly discussed a few things that I will bring you all up to speed on. I am an idiot, and my "party" isn't until the evening of the 24th. My brain is like a week behind... anywho, without further delay, The Technicians! (not in any particular order)

Snograt

Brianna

Moriz

Katsumi

Serafita Kayin

zamial

To Lurid and Lord Mythirion, I didn't forget you. For now, I am going to keep the team 6 total members + myself as the deciding vote. You are on my shortlist for addition, but this is what I consider a beta of the new plan. For the time being, I don't want to have too much input and people flying around. It is also more work for Inde the more I bring into the fold. Trust me when I say, you will eventually be on the team. Your interest and desire to be on the team are evident of your attitude. This is by no means a rejection, so please don't take it that way. I still heavily encourage you to help out and give us your input. You are welcome to sit on some of the open sessions I will hold with the team via forum threads. I like both of you, and you both have your strengths you bring to the table. I hope you are not upset, because that was never my intent. I do not want you to feel rejected (because you certainly were not) My team needs to be small and efficient during the foundation laying of this new project. The team above is disgustingly active in the tech forums, and I have gotten to know them pretty well. I have seen the both of you post, as well as Quaker, Evil Genius, DarkNecrid, and many others. So, in a while, we shall see about expansion. Keep up the great work in the meantime helping others!

Alrighty team. Time to get the ball rolling. I am going to shoot each of you a PM with my Ventrilo IP. Please download the ventrilo client, if you don't already have it. You can get it here:

www.ventrilo.com

If you do not have a microphone, you need to pick one up. eTailer sites have very low priced Logitech sets that have excellent quality as far as input goes. I use a creative Fatality headset myself, which I snagged off Newegg for cheap, and it works beautifully. It even has great audio output.

For you american players:

Cheap solution:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16826106931

Better solution:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16826158051

For euro players, I am not great at searching through all of your sites. Look for the products above, or something very similar with user reviews that lean toward the high side.

If you already have a mic, you are ahead of the game! I will setup our first meeting in the VERY near future. This should give any of you without a headset a chance to get one. If you cannot get one by the time the meeting is set, we will have to use the ventrilo chat feature, and your fingers may fall off (I am not responsible for medical bills associated with sewing them back on)

EDIT: Didn't type in Zamial's name first time around. I can do mathz!~ Ah yes, and stickied this for obvious reasons. Don't turn the channel kiddies, the big boom is a comin!

Chthon · Jun 18, 2008, 12:19 AM // 00:19

I don't think I've got the sort of time to invest in joining the support team, but I'll be happy to toss out a comment every now and then.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rahja the Thief

3). If you see a pornographic, sales, or other propoganda based post from a person that is clearly spamming, please do NOT post in it. Report it using the report function on the post (That is found in the lower left of the post, seen as a small red triangle. Give a simple reason for the post, and a mod will get around to it.) Alternatively, PM me if by some freak chance, I don't get the chance to grind the spamming scum into the ground with a boot.

Mightn't it make more sense for the FIRST person to happen upon a spambot post to report it and make a reply post stating that it's been reported? That way other people don't have to waste their time reporting it, and you don't have to waste your time reading multiple reports about the same post. Just a thought.

Lord Sojar · Jun 18, 2008, 12:24 AM // 00:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chthon

I don't think I've got the sort of time to invest in joining the support team, but I'll be happy to toss out a comment every now and then.

Mightn't it make more sense for the FIRST person to happen upon a spambot post to report it and make a reply post stating that it's been reported? That way other people don't have to waste their time reporting it, and you don't have to waste your time reading multiple reports about the same post. Just a thought.

Sort of. It sends a report out for the post, and as far as I can tell, doesn't send it again. Posting in a spam post isn't against the rules, but since we delete the posts, you are not gaining anything out of it except bringing it to the top of the thread list, thus giving the spammer more views (which is what they want) So I would just advise leaving the post be and using the report function. You are not going to be banned or anything for posting in said threads though, I am not Hilter. lol.

Snograt · Jun 18, 2008, 12:50 AM // 00:50

I see there's a client for x64 users - http://www.ventrilo.com/dlprod.php?id=4

Still in alpha, but will give it a shot. Still got 32bit version 3.0.1 to fall back on

[edit] lol - falls over as soon as I run it ^^

Lord Sojar · Jun 18, 2008, 12:51 AM // 00:51

The 32 bit version works beautifully. Haven't tried the 64bit, could be worth a go.

Snograt · Jun 18, 2008, 12:56 AM // 00:56

Heh, just edited my post. It's one of those cases where I think "is there any point in making a 64bit version of this app?"

moriz · Jun 18, 2008, 01:18 AM // 01:18

64bit version works... well, it appears to work at least.

Lord Sojar · Jun 18, 2008, 01:45 AM // 01:45

Yeh, Moriz is on right now using the 64bit version. He and I are chatting about random ideas.

Admael · Jun 18, 2008, 02:32 AM // 02:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rahja the Thief

5). Post what you know, not what you don't.

If you don't know an answer to a question, that is ok! Don't post a solution that could actually do more damage to the posters computer/device if you are unsure of the solution. Part of knowing is learning! It is perfectly alright not to know the answer. There are many aspects of programming I am not familiar with, especially web programming and coding, website design, and operating system protocols. My expertise stretches into hardware, with the only programming knowledge being DIRECTLY related to said hardware. There are a few things I have learned about this and that, but I am not an expert. We have people with varied talents, and it is important that we respect them for their talents, and learn from them. I see many of you as mentors for my software knowhow, and I hope you see me as a mentor when it comes to graphics and processor hardware. Always remember, your answer can fix, but it can also damage. Know when to answer, and when to be humble, allowing others with more knowledge to solve the issue.

Oh so true.
It may seem like common sense, but I always wanted to bring this up, never found a right time to do it.