We met the likes of Skalman, Neomaven, Jenna Star Mercury, Buzz Erik Lightyear, Neverdie, Robroy, Myhn Ah Byrd, Casay, Linden the Chosen Avery, Zephram ZC Chochrane and more. 

Throughout the convention I took a lot of pictures.  Check them out:

Some of the pictures in the album were from NEVERDIE’s party at the Crib Suite at the palms.  (Warning: Some of the pics are r-rated)

All and all it was a good time and a lot of work.  We met some new friends and are excited again to move forward for plans within Entropia.

If you are a interested in playing or checking it out, go to www.Entropia-Universe.com and if you are looking for a good society to join and have some help learning the mechanics of the virtual world, check out our society at www.ZOKU.eu and say hey to me Zentro “Zen” Zatsu.

Press Blurb:

Entropia Universe is the only virtual world with a real cash economy.  With over 670,000 registered accounts from more than 200 countries, its business model is entirely unique with free client software and no monthly subscription fee.  Entropia allows players to explore animal-filled wildernesses and large expanding cities that offer a variety of entertainment and social interaction for its participants while earning cash without having to deposit money.  Entropia will be the first virtual world to go public on a major international stock exchange.  The IPO will be filed by Credit Suisse by the thrid quarter of 2008.

I thought I’d add that up there since I had to say something similar to that about a thousand times….  LOL

We had a good time and would gladly do it again.  See you in Entropia!

We had a good Christmas.  Draylan got lots of presents.  I am telling you we spoil the hell out of my son.  If we don’t do it, he has plenty of aunts and uncles that do it for us.  lol

I am still playing Entropia Universe.  I have been meaning to get more time in world but I have been busy with the move and all.

I have found another time sink however.  It comes in the form of a PS3 game called Eye of Judgement.  It’s a hybrid console and collectable card game similar to Magic: The Gathering and Yu Gi Oh.  It’s played using the Playstation Eye and a game board where you lay cards down and they battle.  I’ve never been into card games before, but this one has me hooked.  We’ve started a local Saturday night “Eye of Judgment” night where some of our friends get together and we play.  If you are in the Las Vegas/Henderson area and play Eye of Judgment, give a comment or send me a note and we’ll send you an invite.

Anyways, I want to wish you all a Happy New Year!  2008 wil Rock!

Recently, they opened their stream for rental.  This interested me, so I am going to rent the stream during an event I will be hosting on Club Neverdie.  I found out they use SAM Broadcaster and Windows Media Services for their stream.  I’ve been a user SAM Broadcaster for a bit, but it was always one of those things that got pushed aside for other projects. I decided to take another look and set up some stuff with my servers.

First off, I set up one of my servers in my Data-center as a streaming audio server.  For this, I used the Icecast2 server for Linux.  Fairly straight forward set-up.  I installed Centos 5, then did an install of Icecast and edited the config files to the settings I liked.

I then installed SAM Broadcaster on one of my laptops and plugged in one of my portable HD’s with a copy of my MP3 collection and had SAM catalog it.  This too was fairly straightforward.  After the install and cataloging of my mp3′s, I set up a stream to my Icecast2 server and I was broadcasting on the Internet.  Good stuff.

This config is all fine and dandy for most people that just want to broadcast occaisionally.  For people that require constant or continuous 24/7 streams, I saw a slight flaw, your internet connection would be constantly used in sending the broadcast out to the server.  So, I came up with a plan.  Read on…

One of my servers in my Data-center is a Windows Server 2003 machine.  I saw on the SAM Site that it will run on this platform.  I decided to install SAM on my server and see if I can just run the broadcast in AutoDJ mode there.  One of the other things I wanted to try was the auto-request from a website functions.  I figured that this would run better off a dedicated server as well.

So, I started by converting my MP3′s down so it would not take up so much space.  (I stream out at 64 Kbit so I figured MP3′s at 64Kb CBR would be a good setting)  All went smooth, I sent these up to my server. (BTW, All of my MP3′s I own the CD’s to and have ripped them all myself)  I did the SAM install and the configs.  I then set up my stream and all is well. (yes, I purchased a seperate licsence for the SAM Broadcaster on the server)

The next part was getting the PHP auto-request working.  This was fairly straightforward, SAM includes a template site for PHP auto-requests, I modified it for my needs and uploaded it.  This also went very smooth.  Just the code modifications were a slight pain.  You can see the results at http://radio.zatsu.com/.

Thinking ahead, there were a few other things that I wanted to do.  One of the downsides of the broadcaster being in a remote location is that you do not have direct access to broadcast voice from a microphone onto the stream.  The second issue I had, was if I had a DJ that wanted to broadcast a show, that I’d have to turn the stream off then let the broadcaster send their stream.

I resolved the first issue with the microphone fairly easily and in the process, I made it so we can host talk show style or multiple commentators over the stream with no issues.  I did this with TeamSpeak.  For years now, I have run a TeamSpeak server.  I set up a moderated channel in my TeamSpeak server  for Z Radio and then installed the TeamSpeak client on the Windows 2003 Server machine that was running SAM broadcaster.   I then purchased and installed a neat little program called Virtual Audio Cable (it simulates sound cards or an audio patch panel) I set up the patches so I can feed the output from the TeamSpeak client to the SAM broadcaster’s mic in.  This took about 5 minutes.  After a little configuration, it worked beatifully.  I still need to tweak the sound levels, but it works, no feedback, and I can have multiple voices over the stream.

The second issue was also pretty simple.  The Icecast2 server allows for stream fallback and resume.   What this allows you to do is to set a stream that the server will fall-back to when the main stream is not available.  It will then automatically pop the listener back to the main stream when that stream becomes available again.  So, I set up the continuous broadcast from the Windows Server on the fall-back stream and it plays all the time.  If I need to do a live remote show or one of my DJ’s needs the stream, they just push to the main stream and the Icecast2 server will move the listeners to the main stream.  When the DJ is done and they disconnet, the Icecast2 server will drop them back to the continuous fall-back stream.  Good stuff eh?

Welp, this post is getting pretty long, I just wanted to touch on what I have been working on of late.  If you are interested in this stuff  click on the following links:

Z Radio (My private radio station): http://radio.zatsu.com/
Direct Stream Link: http://radio.zatsu.net:8000/live

SAM Broadcaster: http://www.spacialaudio.com/products/sambroadcaster/?ref=A1935&redirect=SAM_Broadcaster
Virtual Audio Cable: http://nrcde.ru/music/software/eng/vac.html

Icecast2: http://www.icecast.org/

If you are interested in me setting something like this up for you, please create a comment and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

Thanks

I found Entropia Asia, and met several good players and new friends during my stay in that society.  For several reasons, it was not a solid “fit” and I decided to break off.  After a few days of thought, I decided what the hell and I formed my own society ZOKU ( www.zoku.eu ).  Some of the members of Entropia Asia have come over to help me get it going.

I’ve been working hard on our website and setting some of the policies I feel are needed to run a society well within Entropia Universe.  Things are going smooth and we’re getting things going.

So, if you want to find us, we’re in Entropia Universe when the real world does not get in the way.  At least Angel and I are.  Dana has an avatar, but she’s been going well in Everquest II and she’s happy in there for now.  My character name is Zentro Zen Zatsu and Angel is Angel AngelGirl Zatsu.

We can be contacted through the www.zoku.eu site. 

This past week, we have been prepping for Draylan’s first ever day in school.  He starts Kindergarten in about 4.5 hours.  WOW, time flies.  I remember when he was born.  Seems like yesterday.  He’s got his haircut (Mohawk of course), he chose some new shoes and an outfit.  He’s raring to go!  (I’ll try and post some pictures when I can)

On the Linux side of things, I am designing a new server for home.  I’ll post the specs when I get it all figured out.  I am getting ready to play with MediaTomb and see how that does as a DLNA server.  We’ve decided to move again soon, so we’re gonna postpone the LinuxMCE configs till we get in the new place.

Well, I’ve been preparing for two larger projects, one of which will be my first non-adult endeavor on the web.  This should be interesting, yet again, I will post more on this when we get a solid framework up.

The last several months, I have been so busy with getting things going, that I have not had time to do any gaming or anything along those lines.  As you know, I went back to Entropia Universe almost 2 weeks ago and I am playing when I can.  I have joined a great society, Entropia Asia, and I am working on getting a website set up for them.  When it is completed it will be at http://www.entropia-asia.com I hope to get it done in the next couple of weeks and I am gonna have Andrew (www.hoodyhoo.com) work on a couple logo designs and see how they like it.

Anyways, that’s it for now.  

For a while now, I have been waiting for the “next big game” and all of the MMO’s out there are basically the same. The only real difference to me is the depth (or lack of) that they provide. So far, I have been unimpressed by what I have seen.

I have decided to give Entropia Universe another go. It has a very unique system. It allows for exchange of in-game money to real money and vice versa. So you are not paying for a subscription to play. You are actually depositing into the game economy like a tourist when you play. Although, unlike most tourist, you can earn money while visiting. Think of it as visiting a country on both a work and pleasure visa. You can spend money (and you can spend a LOT) while visiting thereby enhancing the local economy, or you can enjoy the world and work in the world and make something out of it.

I think this time around, I am gonna stick to it a bit longer. The last time I played, I was in hardcore gaming mode. I put a couple grand into the game and got bored of it because I thought of it as just a game. This time around, when I play, I am not looking at it as just a game, I am looking at it as everything I do, every item I spend or allow to decay, that that’s my money going away, and I want it back!

Some of you know that I have been running a gaming guild called the Order of Z for quite some years. I had a bunch of my guild join me in Project Entropia but they soon got tired of it. This time logging in, I removed myself from the Order of Z society and I am looking to join Entropia Asia… Although, in my travels so far, I met a good group of guys at www.honest-entropians.com …. If it doesn’t work out with Entropia Asia, I may give Honest Entropians a go.

Cheers