AITech Solutions Blog

ATDAlpha - Asteroid_Base map with Hangar

2010-08-27T17:09:00Z

Here is a quick but exciting update!

We now have on our initial Asteroid Base Map with (the beginnings of) a Hangar bay for spacecraft. We also include three craft of two designs. These ships will enable our space hero's to go out on their first campaign\quest. There is an optional tutorial and "play yard" (to be forthcoming in a later post) to get accustomed to the game mechanics and weapons, etc...

Main Map- Focused towards the Hangar Bay w/blue force field door

We also further developed the internal framework to include new modules (and hooks for plug-ins). The planetary _time/season module has been added to provide proper timekeeping so six seconds of (real, UTC based) time = 1 minute of game time. This is used as a time base for the "Universe" where the planets rotation is used to determine the hours per day when our travelers are on orbit or on planet. This is destined to tie into the (Still to come) lighting system to provide realistic day, night and transition periods. If the character is not on a Planetary Object like a planet, asteroid or a wormhole, .... Like flying in space, then they will use a "universal" space time standard which all planets can sync to for event and player coordination and collaboration.

Hope you are as thrilled as we regarding our relatively quick progress.

Thanks to the team, contributors and FIFE and it's team and project members.

All the best, Until next time,

Tim
support@aitechsolutions.net

ATDAlpha - A Star Wars Fan RPG Using the FIFE Engine

2010-08-22T18:05:29Z

Please welcome to our newest category - Gaming!

Our game development team is currently working on a Star Wars inspired but unique FAN RPG project that uses FIFE - Flexible Isometric Free Engine as the engine.
Currently we refer to the game as ATDAlpha, but that is just a placeholder for the games real name. We've been so busy coding and creating objects, well... we have not had the time to kick that one around much yet !

But, as with all projects the only thing that is permanent is change ;-)

At the least, we are in good company as we join others games that use FIFE such as:

Zero Projekt - A post-apocalyptic turn based RPG inspired by genre classics of the 90s and 80s, like Wasteland and Fallout.
Unknown Horizons is a 2D realtime strategy simulation with an emphasis on economy and city building.
Zero Sum Cascade - an Open Source 2.5D Isometric Cross Platform Psychological Horror game
PARPG- A post-apocalyptic isometric 2D role-playing game

and others.

Let me thank the FIFE team and the other game project members for all their help and inspiration. Especially chewie, vtchill and prock.

And without the flexible (and did I mention FREE!) FIFE engine, Our ATDAlpha Project might not ever came to be - Thanks FIFE !

Finally a HUGE Thank You to our team members because of whose awesome skill, dedication, feats of raw pwnage as well as and putting up with me (A non-trivial accomplishment !) has brought the game to this stage so quickly. You guy's Rock!

Ina Galaxy really really close ...

In a Galaxy really really close ...

We started in the beginning of June 2010 getting the team together, studying the engine, developing an initial story line and building the Python game code framework. Right now we have a roughed out initial map for the asteroid base, over a dozen weapons and 2 ships (The hanger is forthcoming !). The characters are the most difficult to create due to our demanding specification so we temporarily borrowed 2 characters from FIFE's demo just to test the code.

We have a functioning HUD including a small and large action log and Dual Pane Inventory Manager subsystem, A skills subsystem. XML based (currently) Object Attribute\Value Manager. Containers can be opened and objects transferred to and from the Player Character's inventory. Objects can also be examined or picked up and placed in inventory. Our very own custom walls and floor tiles with "real" textures. On demand sounds with cycling background music, Planetary_Object database with a game clock\calender that automatically adapts to the objects rotation period and orbital cycle (as well as syncing with a standard time base reference for galactic events and space travel) and more.

Additional features and capabilities are added virtually daily.

Here are some early testing screen-shots just to give you a idea what the game looks like.

Main Game Screen - With Targeting Cursor for security skill use to unlock the container

The Inventory Manager - With some weapons and a (Medical) Canister, Light-saber is equipped

Additional info:

If you wish to make a comment you may do so below, or alternately you can use the contact us form on our AITech Solutions Parent site.
TIP: The contact us method typically has a faster response time. Comments in the blog are moderated and have the capability to be included in the blog post.

Current Team Members

ATDestroy - Level Design, Storyline, Map Building, Graphics (Blender and paint.net), Game Mechanics and Object Specifications, XML, ...

OuchCzar - Graphics (Blender and paint.net), Game Object (Ships, Characters and Weapons) Creation, XML, Research, HTML (Web Pages) ...

TAbracadabra (AKA Abracadabra) - Lead Programmer, Project Manager, Server Administration (Bugzilla TTS, Subversion Edge SCM, Apache HTTP Server
and ISC Bind DNS Servers) , Web site(s), ...

At the present, the Subversion (source code) and Bugzilla ticketing system are for in-house team use only but we will likely open them up to the public down the road a bit as time/priorities allow.

BTW - We would welcome any help or suggestions so if you are interested in joining the project or just want to pop off an email to us, please use the contact us form on our AITech Solutions Parent site. We will handle all email and addresses confidentially.

Well that about does it for this post. New posts will come with updates and more information so please visit us again!

Maybe see you on FIFE's IRC or Forum sometime.

Thanks and all the best!
Abracadabra

mup.sys boot hang on windows

2007-05-27T21:26:00Z

Hung at mup.sys is a fairly common error on a Windows 2000, XP, or Vista system. If you scan the net for solutions for a mup.sys boot hang on windows you will find that there a many different resolutions recommended to solve this apparently confusing boot issue.

The truth is, this hang is not normally caused by the mup.sys driver itself. In fact, you can use the windows xp recovery console to disable loading mup.sys at startup and you will see the hang will then occur at the driver that had loaded previously to mup.sys. The real cause of this boot hang actually occurs during the windows boot process that follows after loading mup.sys.

What is happening during this boot process? Well after mup.sys loads windows starts configuring itself to the hardware specific to your system. It refers to ESCD data, PNP information and its registry. If there are problems processing that data you will get the described lockup or in some cases go into a reboot loop. Alas, there are even some more causes that get the best troubleshooters scratching their heads! Find the resolution here.

We have an updated tips and troubleshooting guide that will help you get to the root of this nasty boot hang issue and resolve it fast. As an added bonus we provide a unique, easy to understand description as to what actually mup.sys does from windows programmer resources.
Jump to Resolve mup.sys boot hangs on windows to get the full story.

Any questions, kudos, opinions, success stories or whatever?, Please feel free to leave a comment or two.
I'd really appreciate that!

Good luck and best to you! Thanks for stopping by.

DNS Server and Home Page Updates

2007-04-29T09:46:00Z

Main site updates -

DNS Server tips and how-to's - Added additional notes in regard to query logging for blackholed and negated query IP's.

Redesigned home page Now includes quick and easy links to major subtopic's

Enjoy!

How to resolve RewriteLog issue - Not logging processed redirects

2007-04-25T09:52:00Z

RewriteLog issues? See Working with Apache Redirection - Help! RewriteLog not logging rewrite data.

We recently ran into this issue with a customer that had a WAMP server that was encountering mod_rewrite logging issues when using mod_rewrite directives in the directory definition context (non-.htaccess) for a virtual host. I Google'd and couldn't find any quick answers. Well, I worked it out and here is the fix.

Click on the link above to jump to the article and find out all the gory details needed to make it work!

In all honestly it wasn't that bad. Check and see!

Enjoy!

Updated mod rewrite on Apache Redirection Page

2007-04-23T18:38:00Z

We have just updated the Working with Apache Redirection page to include more working examples using mod rewrite. The "how it works" details have also been expanded so the viewer can better learn from the examples and be better prepared to modify the examples to suit their needs.

We also added an example showing how to get a server error 500 and details on why it happened, also in keeping the users interests in mind.

One common question I get is "How do I redirect from a non www URL to a www URL? When I searched the web I found numerous examples but with little explanation as to how they worked. When I tested the various versions I got... well, various results. Some of them unpleasant!

Most just plain didn't work or work in all situations.
Others threw the server into a tizzy winding up with the dreaded error 500.
A few actually worked as advertised. I'll include a tweaked version here for the benefit of all:

<IfModule rewrite_module>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.example\.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*) http://www.example.com/$1 [R=302,L]
</IfModule>

This version goes in the server or virtual host context.
It will temporarily redirect any domain request that is not www.example.com to www.example.com.
If you want this redirection to be permanent, change the 302 to a 301.

If you want to use this in the .htaccess context just remove the <IfModule> and </IfModule> directives.

Also be sure FollowSymLinks is in effect in your context. I have tested and currently use this version on my server so I have undeniable proof it works!

Hope this makes it easier for someone else to find than it was for me.

If you want the details on how this works, please use the Working with Apache Redirection link topside to get to the article.

Any questions, complaints or whatever?, Please feel free to leave a comment or two.

Enjoy!

New Apache Servers section added to our www site

2007-04-14T10:11:00Z

We have just added a new section on Apache Servers to our www.aitechsolutions.net site. "Using Redirection on Apache servers" is the first installment in this section. Redirection on Apache servers discusses why you may need to use redirection and describes each type of redirection giving example situations and actual directive syntax.

mod_rewrite, ServerAlias, Meta Refresh and DNS configurations are also discussed.

There are links to RFC's, Apache's documentation, and an excellent, easy to understand IMO, intro tutorial on Using Apache's rewrite engine, mod_rewrite, at http://forum.modrewrite.com

We have also posted a new Site Map page, available on the home page, that shows at a glance the main topic pages and provides a way to quickly jump to your favorites.

Another new page is the How to link to Us! page that gives you the markup so you can easily copy and paste a link to us directly on your web page. Besides just the home page, there is also markup to link to the Networking, PC support, and web site and Servers sections so you can use a link that relates better to the particular needs of your target audience and site theme.

As usual, we have more pages in the works. Almost completed is the the 2nd installment to our Building a quality and SE friendly website series, which will cover topics such as: using link validators, page viewers, how to use nofollow for pages and links and more. Look for it soon!

Also, We are thinking about adding a wiki and have been doing some testing with pmwiki. If anyone has any suggestions on a free, open source, flexible wiki that will run on Apache using flat files or mysql, feel free to post your comments and recomendations.

Thanks!

'Till next time,

Enjoy!

Matt Cutts - Top Engineer at Google Gets his Blog Hacked..or did he?

2007-04-02T23:27:00Z

It was just after midnight, in the wee hours of april fools day. I was perusing the google webmaster forum to see who I could help and pick up some tips when I (Abracadabra) saw a post with a link I found interesting. It was
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/google-supports-meta-noodp-tag/

But to my surprise, instead of the words of wisdom I expected, I found a big black page reading "This
site has been hacked" "The Black SEO Team"
I the posted to the thread my findings. See this link:

http://groups.google.com/group/Google_Webmaster_Help-Indexing/browse_thread/thread/de2ec19cb52a1d4c/e4936ee377dad548#e4936ee377dad548

Then everthing went aflurry. Posts started appearing in forums, Blogs and even on DIGG.

What a headline.

No I can't take all the credit. I imagine many others noticed it too. When their rss feed died it was probably a good clue.

To my knoledge, I was the first in the Google webmasters forum to post it. That much I do know.
It was pure luck though.

It was fun to be there in the beginning of it all and following the wave.

BTW, on another note I added a couple of new pages on our main site:

http://www.aitechsolutions.net

Topics concern using HTML validators and the first page of a tutorialette for HTML on using the target= attribute of the anchor element. IMHO it makes the _parent option value more understandable than some explanations I've seen out there. Enjoy! FYI, I have 4 more pages in the works to be posted this week.

Oh, I almost forgot,

To find out what really happened to Matt Cutts Blog try this link:
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/april-fools-day-2007/

Thanks for visiting and have a great day!

We welcome comments!

Creating a quality and search engine friendly website - Part 1 Using HTML and CSS validation tools

2007-03-27T04:38:00Z

Our Technical staff have just published a new article:
Creating a quality and SE friendly website - Part 1 Using HTML and CSS validation tools

Not only does a validated web page help insure cross browser compatibility, but also helps searchbots in effectively spidering your pages without getting lost!

Use these tools and tips to to help insure the HTML markup and CSS in your web page design is published correctly the first time!

Enjoy!

We hope you find this free resource useful.

Please use the "add comment" option below to post any comments or suggestions regarding the article so we can improve the usefulness of the content.

We're here to help and appreciate your feedback!

New article posted regarding PC Hardware - ATX Power Supply Fault Isolation

2007-03-08T12:10:00Z

Our Technical Support staff have put together a new, unique, in depth article for our website.

This article pertains to PC Hardware, Specifically, ATX Power Supply Fault Isolation.

We hope you find this free resource useful.

Please use the "add comment" option below to post any comments or suggestions regarding the article so we can improve the usefulness of the content.

We're here to help and appreciate your feedback!

Check it out at ATX Power Supply Fault Isolation

New PC and DNS Server related articles

2007-03-05T15:53:00Z

In the past 3 weeks, our Technical Support staff have put together two new excellent, in depth articles for our website. One, Addressing XP boot and registry issues relates to PC's running Windows 2K or XP and recovering from a situation where the PC will not boot the OS and locks up.

The second pertains to the configuration of BIND DNS Servers and gives some tried and true advice regarding security and performance enhancement.

We hope you find our free resources useful.

Please use the "add comment" option below to post any comments or suggestions regarding the articles so we can improve the usefulness of the content.

We're here to help and appreciate your feedback!

Check them out at www.AITechSolutions.net

Request for free e-mail support

2007-02-14T03:25:00Z

To initiate a request for free e-mail support, please add a comment to this entry. Include in your comment a detailed description of your issue.

Your comment and any related information such as your e-mail address will not be posted or revealed in any way and will be treated as confidential.

Its use will be exclusively limited to providing you with support.

Names can be nicknames, aliases or your real name if you wish.

You can specify the particular site or page you need assistance with by using the website field.

In the near future we will be moving to forum based support. We will provide notification here and on the www.aitechsolutions.net site.

Thank You. We look forward to assisting you!

abramsticker.com has signed up for our Web Site Hosting Services!

2007-02-12T14:06:00Z

AITechSolutions News - The abramsticker.com domain has signed up for our Web Site Hosting Services!
Their www site is family oriented with a focus on PC Gaming, Movie Reviews and Trivia, Home Making related material including recipes, and Restaurant reviews and information. They have also shown interest in our assistance in setting up a Blog! Welcome Aboard abramsticker.com!

Please feel free to check them out. www.abramsticker.com

sales@aitechsolutions.net

www.aitechsolutions.net is up on version 0.9 on our production server!

2007-01-14T11:50:00Z

www.aitechsolutions.net is now up on version v0.9 !

We welcome any Comments, Concerns, Ideas, or Kudos. Just comment directly to this entry.

Email can be sent directly to domainmaster3@aitechsolutions.net regarding site specific topics.

We will review the comments and If you wish we can approve them to be seen by all.

If you do not indicate that you approve of us showing your comment,
we will handle it as if you do not want it posted, Just to be safe.

All comments, Email addresses and related material are kept confidential and will not be shared with any third party.

In the meantime we will get back to work, We still have much to do!

Thanks! We hope you enjoy browsing our new site!

Have a great Day!!

1/10/07 Update

2007-01-10T17:51:00Z

Hey, it’s still me.My ID hasn't changed yet.

I Knew it.As soon as we changed the logo, that opened up the gates to all for more changes since this required reQA for V1.9.

I guess that is to be expected in any evolving entity, especially a businessJust don't expect to hear from me for a few days.The deadline still looms!

There are text changes to the home page that promises to ‘Provide a more focused Presentation of the “Advanced IT Solutions” Product to our targeted customer base’ or something like that.

All that means to me is that I have to make some changes, work with QA, follow up, and then reap the glory of my creation…..Right?

Oh, by the way (Don't I always do this!)The "Powers that be" have approved a suggestion from Marketing that dictates our early release version will be called v0.9 instead of v1.9.nbsp; They explain it this way (my best summary):

The initial web sites main purpose was to promote our Onsite Consultant support services.Since that service itself was independent of the Web Site, it doesn't count.The version of the web site should refer to the point where we provide online services beyond our onsite support.

As such, the pre release should be v0.9 and after we get some feedback from the internet community, determine what v1.0 should be and go from there.

I say whatever. Just thought you might find that interesting!

BTW - They say fiber is important to your diet! Just a community service health tip.

Anyway, Looks like we have more work to do.

Thanks for the Ear and Best Wishes.

Todays News

2007-01-09T15:54:00Z

Hey, I'm back!

This is two days in a row! That is mainly because V1.9 has been in hands of QA and well, The site on DEV (actually just the Stage folder) has to remain static for now.

Here is the latest:

The GOOD news - V1.9 has passed QA on IE6 and IE7! I believe next they test on Opera and Firefox.

The Bad news - The powers that be have decided to change the company's tag line for the web site.

Normally this would not be a big deal but of course, there are other related changes that will require the site reQA'd. Fortunately, it is a minor change and I do not expect to introduce anything that will cause a problem but ...

For now, the decision is to use a graphic that has no tag line but uses a larger font for the text and a larger width in pixels for the image. We finished that tonight and forwarded the changes on for review.

Oh, we also corrected some minor text punctuation issues that QA brought to our attention. Fat fingers I guess or maybe I need to clip my nails shorter. Hmmm ... Maybe a keyboard upgrade would be in order. There are a few lighted ones out there that might be nice! Anyone have a favorite they want to recommend?

BTW, Some Misc stuff - I may be getting a new ID for this Blog - I'll let you know. I think they want to encourage other folks here to contribute input to the site Blog.

Before I forget, Marketing has suggested we consider temporarily using another Blog as a Simple, Single Threaded Forum for visitor input and maybe support ticket resolution info as a stop gap before we get the forums and their database finished.

They are "hot to trot" and want to advertise this feature A.S.A.P.

Please let me know what you think! It would give me something else to say at the next meeting besides "Where's the Donuts!"

Thanks in advance.

Gotta Go for now,

Type to you later and have a Great Day!

AITech Solutions Update

2007-01-08T16:24:00Z

Finally, I am getting a chance to update the Blog,

We are very busy working on Version 2 of our Web Site. It looks like we will be releasing a Version 1.9 in the interim to get most of the features online and available to the public a.s.a.p. as well as trying to get feedback from users to help make sure Version 2.0 best fits our users needs. V1.9 is currently running on our development server and is under review by QA. Our goal is to have V1.9 online by 1/12/2007.

The Primary goals of version 2 include:

(Excerpt from Site News published by our most beloved leader)

The goal of this major revision of our web site is to achieve three important goals.

1. Define and Implement a policy for Search engines bot access.

2. Create and Implement a central site "Theme" that Significantly enhances Flexibility and Scalability.

3. Leverage our presence to drive traffic to our sponsor sites.

FYI: The entire AITech Solutions site and its contents, with the exception of the Blog, are being created from scratch using a simple text editor (Kudos due to text editor creator, Dev and QA Pls address)

No FrontPage or Dreamweaver here! We are utilizing HTML Tables and forms, CSS, SSI, CGI, Perl, and JavaScript

Ah yes, The word from our glorious leader, Build it from scratch! @#@&*%$@#

Supposedly this allows us to get a deeper understanding of the underlying code, which we will pass on to the Internet Community as directed by the "Wizard" , But it SU ... takes time.

Well OK, I do love the challange. After all, It's just MacroCode. Thankfully its not Assembly, Hex, Binary or Embedded Microcode. Besides, Anything I learn will enhance my skills (Read +Resume).

Is my Optimist showing? Maybe , but did I mention the inevitable deadlines? Ah, I work best under pressure! (cough, choke, gasp)

In all, We hope to provide a useful, If not invaluable, Site that will benefit Everyone!!

Please Email any comments, Criticisms, Kudos or Suggestions to Domainmaster3@aitechsolutions.net.

Thanks!

PS: I am not complaining. Yes, this is a great job! I hope our efforts help solve your issues and make your life easier!

Back to the salt mines... Speak to you later.

Welcome

2007-01-06T03:42:00Z

Welcome to the AITech Solutions Blog!