Concerned-ish

As some of you might know, I’m making a fair bit of cash from Internet ventures right now, a side effect of which means I have to start paying taxes, and, more dauntingly, rent to my parents. Since this is the case, there’s no harm in trying to get a little more money, is there?

Which bought me to the subject of VPSes. I have an install disk for Windows Server 2008 RC2 (Enterprise x64 for techies reading), so I figured I’d give it a shot and see what I can do. Other than webhosting, it turns out the OS has a nifty little thing called HyperV. Quick look reveals I can do pretty cool stuff, like virtualisation. So I set to work, and made me a cool little interface that, when a PHP form places a request, and an API call to a (currently sandboxed) PayPal account, it automatically sets up virtual server and allocates a (currently non-existent) external IP to it. It then grabs a VHD file to act as the harddisk, based on a users preference. It even automatically allocates RAM and bandwidth allowances. So yeah, I’m getting into the VPS market it seems. There’s only two things holding me back right now:

1) Connection: I don’t have extra IPs right now so I can host a max of one server

2) I need a second PC to run the management console, it uses far too many resources.

So, before I go out on a limb and invest in a fancy-smancy connection and another box, let me ask – who would be interested in one of these? Does $15 a month for 512MB memory and 500GB bandwidth and 40GB HDD space sound fair? Let me know in the comments.

On a non-work related note. Holy balls this OS is good for gaming.

Since this is basically a personal blog again now with occasional game dev snippets, I suppose I should do a followup of a post from a year ago about college. I dropped out in May and a couple of weeks ago started at a new college, doing a Diploma in Computing. And so far, I actually like it. It’s a long time since I posted here too, so heres a quick rundown of shit that’s been going on:

-Started college

-Started vidya gaems development

-Started a webcomic hosting service

-Looking into buying own servers to rent out

Basically it. Another post coming later tonight, but for now, have fun.

It’s not very often I call people out on something, let alone companies, but this is something I feel warrants attention.

A good friend of mine signed up to go to Multiplay’s i43 in a couple of weeks, and the people arranging transport for him backed out of agreements. Naturally, this means he cant get there, or get back if he did find a way to get there. The logical course of action is to call up and say he cant go, can he get his money back, right? Surely 11 days is an acceptable distance away for a refund?

Apparantly not.

They replied to his e-mail, stating that “the latest you can ask for a refund is 30 days before the event, as stated quite clearly in our terms and conditions”. Needless to say, he was pissed. Funny thing is, neither of us remember that being there when I had a look over, and when he read them to confirm booking. So we checked again. As of 5 minutes ago, there is NOTHING in the T&Cs about 30 days. Anywhere.

Bullshit, Multiplay. Bullshit.

This friend has now lost £80, which is a lot of money for an unemployed student.

I’m not boycotting or anything. But I want people to be aware – this company consists of money grabbing scumbags who WILL cheat you if circumstances change. Not to mention their gameservers are terrible.

Be warned.

As requested, a quick write-up of features. So far, we all know the following:

Spy: 10% faster cloak recharge and a 10% move speed increase.
Sniper: charges his rifle 25% faster, and can shoot 25% faster with the Huntsman and Jarate rercharges 50% faster.
Medic: Medic regens 5 hp a second instead of three, 50% faster syringe gun
Pyro: 100% extra flamethrower ammo
Demoman: 10 stickies, 100% faster shield recharge
Soldier: 10% move speed increase
Heavy: 100% faster sandvich recharge, 10% speed increase
Scout gets 50% faster recharge on Sandman and drinks/Mad Milk
Engineer: 25% build rate and 110% repair rate, 50% cheaper buildings with Gunslinger, donators of $15 or more get Golden Wrench effect

Level 1 is 20% of the bonus, Level 2 is 40%, etc etc.

Level 1: $5
Level 2: $10
Level 3: $15
Level 4: $25
Level 5: $50

Easy enough. However, a quick word:

Not ALL weapons are implemented yet, for the simple reason there’s 300 of them. Most bonuses only need to be applied once anyway so that’s a good chunk gone. However, I’ve been out of the loop with TF2 so I have NO IDEA about the new items. That’s where you come in. If there’s an item NOT listed below that you want donator effects added to, leave a comment so we can improve the system. Likewise, any bugs with existing weapons, let me know there too.

Soldier Weapons: Rocket Launcher, Direct Hit
Spy: Cloak and Dagger, Invis Watch, Dead Ringer
Sniper: Huntsman, Sniper Rifle, Jarate
Medic: Syringe Gun, Blutsauger
Demoman: Stickybomb Launcher, Chargin Targe
Pyro: Flamethrower, Backburner, Degreaser
Heavy: Sandvich, Minigun, Natascha, Dalakoh’s Bar
Scout: Sandman, Mad Milk, Bonk, Crit a Cola
Engineer: Wrench, Jag, Southern Hospitality, Gunslinger

And lastly of course, how to donate:

FIRST THINGS FIRST, GET YOUR STEAMID OR PROFILE PAGE LINK. Steam ID’s are NOT usernamehere or something, they look like STEAM_0:1:27818822. THIS is what we need. Use http://steamidfinder.com to get it.

SECONDLY, money. PayPal is the preferred option, so send it to bcb@concerned-ish.com and in the comments field, put your STEAMID or profile page link. Once I have those, you’ll be added within 24 hours.

Donations are ONE OFF – the fee isn’t monthly, though extra donations are always welcome to help with the costs. There’s also the chance new levels might come in future doing more, we’ll see. Any other TF2 servers we set up; these will carry over as well.

Again, any sexy donator features you want, let me know!

This is a test post