Hello Fraggers,

As you may have noticed or heard in the games, I have stopped playing and hung up my guns. Frankly the game was frustrating me and taking up way too much of my energies. It is amazing what you can get done when not playing so much. I also shut down the server. In retrospect, that was hasty of me and I apologize. I am going on a road trip again and will be away for several weeks, and the game would not have been running anyway. It is my intent, upon my return from this trip, to again put up the server. I will put the server in "full version mode". But again that is several weeks away. Look for it in about 3-4 weeks.

This road trip is for a family reunion on my wife's side. We will motor up the US 15 to the US 70, then through Colorado via Denver, where we will veer North through Nebraska and Iowa. Then to Wisconsin for reunion on July 28th. We will be in Dorchester, WI for about 5 days, then go where the wind blows. We are inclined to stay North to try to reduce the heat exposure, for this time of year. We were thinking Canada, but are considering PA to see a cousin and maybe go as far as NYC or Washington DC. If you are along our route, let me know at deadzzone@gmail.com if you would like to meat up for a short visit. We could break bread as the say and or just chat it up for a while.

On the home front here I have been dedicating a good deal of time to my garden, it is the best I have ever had. Lots of verity this year. Although the away time is a challenge, I have automated the water system this year and invited a neighbor to raid the garden regularly. And of course there will be someone watching over the house.

As many know I am big into Solar Energy and all things conservation. This month my solar panels completed their 3rd year total accumulation. This year I achieved a total return in the form of a profit of $106 credit to my electric usage. The first year cost me $128 and the second year cost me $73. Amazing what unplugging a few unnecessary appliances can do. This system has also produced a accumulated total of 21 megawatts during that 3 year period. To see what the initial costs of setup were, read previous posts about it.

Wish us a safe and fun trip,
See you all in a few weeks.

DAVE..........AKA, Dead Again

Hello Deadz-Zone gamers. 

I have bad, bad and good news. The first bad is, I will be shutting the Zone down for two to three weeks. The second bad is that my Wife's brother is in the hospital, they removed about a foot of his colon and a mass they found when they opened him up.

The good has to do with why the Zone will be down. We are leaving, to go take care of him, for his recovery. We anticipate only two weeks, but shit happens, so maybe three. I will also not be playing at all during our leave. He does not have internet at his condo. We will both have our cell phones and a wireless hot-spot for our computers. I will miss you all in the games. Wish us luck in the coming weeks for his speedy recovery.

Dead Again

Hello, out there in frag land.

I guess it pays to be patient. I have been scanning the web for the different game monitoring sites and it appeared to me that the only way I was going to get my little side bar app to function was to pony up some cash. But, I was having a bit of trouble justifying that.

As you can see to the right here, the side bar app is functioning again. It appears that I just had to wait long enough for the Game-Monitor site to build new data on my game server, so it could show up. At least for now, it shows that the game is live and the correct IP address. The little green dot says that the server is active. There is a yellow dot when things are amiss, and a red dot showing that the server is not found, for what ever the reason may be. I have yet to see if the names of current players refresh at all.

Next week, Apr 25th., the Deadz-Zone server will be down again. It will be off for one week while I go on a vacation again. The Misses and I will be enjoying the wondrous sites and sounds of Disney World, in Florida. I regret that on this trip, I will not be able to see a fellow gamer, 3DFX. He will be a little over 200 miles away, and I did not book any extra time to travel throughout the state on this trip. We will reserve that for the next trip to Florida, next year. We will let you know how things went, when we return in May. Hopefully the Game-Monitor will not drop me again.

Happy gaming,

DA.

Hello Fraggers

Most folks would think that progress or improvements, in how computers work in our daily lives, would be a good thing. Well, in my case, this has turned out to be a untruth. Very recently I was able to aquire a brand spanking new and free of charge, latest and greatest modem/router from a dedicated Verizon Tech. I try to keep the Deadz-Zone up to date as much as is cost effective to me and my fellow gamers.

In the process of installing this new modem myself, one of the important practices involves releasing the DHCP lease for the IP address, of the old modem. If you do not do this the new modem will not connect and receive DHCP lease of the new IP address. Hence you will notice that the Deadz-Zone has a new IP address. If for some reason the Game World server is down and you want to connect, you will need to write down this new IP address. ie, 108.13.167.120

The good part of all this is that the Zone modem now has a built in Gigabit router, instead of the old 10/100 router. It also has bigger built in memory for handling the NAT and ARP tables. Ok, so it's not a majore thing, but it is supppose to help with handling the extra traffic of the game.

The bad part of this is, you will notice the, Game Status, table to the right has lost connection with the Game-Monitor.com website. I used a small table that the Game-Monitor site provided for free. These little Website Modules allowed me to show some basic stats about the game, directly on my blog site. I have scowered the Game-Monitor site and can not find any links to these free conncetions, any more. Appearantly my old links worked, as long as I did not change my IP address, sort of a grand-fathered in thing. I have also noticed that the Game-Monitor site does not list my game any more. Maybe that will change with time as they scan the net for viable games. Only time will tell.

My searches of the Game-Monitor.com site reveal that I can only get these Website Module links if I pay them real money. At this time, I do not find this to be a economical thing to do. I have not monitized this venture in any way and all of the expenses of the game come out of my pocket. This is a perfectly ok thing. I love the game and providing it. I built a computer that is dedicated only to running the Quake 4 Demo. I established a good solid internet connection with ample bandwidth to the game and not interfere with anything I do personally. The electricity to run this computer 24/7 costs about $15 per month here in California. That is a computer consuming 3.8 kilowatt hours each day. As many of you are aware, the Deadz-Zone home is Solar Powered. If the solar unit was not on the house, then it would cost much much more, as the rates for the higher tiers in California are shitty.

If anyone has a better idea for the links and the game staus link, feel free to let me know. You can always reach me at deadzzone@gmail .com. For those of you on FaceBook, you of course have contact through my private E-mail with Yahoo mail.

Thanks again

DA.

Game Outage

Hello Fraggers

As many of you had noticed, the Deadz-Zone, Demo server, was down for a extended period of time, 18 days actually. I apologize for this outage, but it could not be helped.

On June 10th, I received a call that my Sister was in the hospital. She was being placed on life support because she collapsed, due to complications of a prolonged bout of Pneumonia. Her breathing was labored and heart pumping at only 15% capacity. WOW. Needless to say I packed a bag and drove to her side 200 miles away. While on this drive, I received several calls from doctors and nurses requesting my permission( I am her POA) to perform tests to determine what was going on. One of these tests was life threatening, as she had a known allergy to the contrast fluids used. But, there is a way around that in an emergency such as this. We proceeded and determined there was a (PE) Pulmonary Embolism in the right lung. Her heart was shutting down because it was under attack from a unknown virus.

Her stay in the hospital was 8 days. In that time she was on a respirator and had a heart assist pump inserted directly into the heart. This little miracle of science blows up a balloon inside the heart to help it pump. It did the trick. But, it does not work unless the heart is already or continues to pump some on it's own. After that I stayed in her home to care for her recovery and make repairs and install safety equipment. Sis has had a few setbacks, but nothing that can't be handled.

I returned home on June 28 th. While I was away, I stayed in touch with many of the family and gamers through normal channels and Facebook. Thank you all for your support and well wishes.

Regards

Dead Again

Hello Fraggers,

I regret to inform you that the Deadz-Zone, Quake 4 Demo server, will experience a prolonged outage. I will be traveling and have not been able to get someone to run the server in my absence. So, on Friday Feb 11th, I will shut down for a 12 day period, to take care of family business. I trust some of the regular players will step up and provide a server occasionally.

I will have computer services available to me on this trip, and can be reached through all the normal channels that many of you use. I will keep in touch with this blog and my Face Book page.

There appears to be a break in the bad weather that has been plaguing our proposed route, so I do not anticipate any problems with the 1500 mile trip to Austin, Texas.

I will miss all of you.
Wish us luck in the weeks ahead.

DEAD AGAIN

Hello Fellow Fraggers

One of the best parts of running and playing in the Deadz-Zone, is meeting such a diverse crowd of players, both in game skills and geographic backgrounds. It has been a pleasure to provide the game for everyone to enjoy. In my efforts over the years, I have "endeavored" to build and maintain a "repore" with many of you, some on a personal level. Sometimes that ethic is challenged by the method and tone of communication used in the game-chat. We have shared through the game chat mode, E-mails, phone calls, Facebook, this Blog, and even face-to-face visits. I would use this time to remind all of us that sometimes there are things in our lives that somehow take control of our better judgment and fog the realities of our little game world. So, I would say, sometimes it is better to not respond to these outbursts and consider that "discretion is the better part of valor". That said, with a player's permission, I make the following announcement.

Today, I am saddened to announce that, one of our regular players has been dealt a tragic blow.H5N1 (aka, bird flu), has long been a formidable force in our games. He confided in us last night that his Father became suddenly ill and died, a short time ago. He is a bit grief stricken over it and finding it difficult to deal with. His father was not ill previous to this event and was of the age of many of us older players. H5N1 wishes to apologize for his behavior of late and begs your understanding.

Many of us "older" players have our years of experience to teach us, the realities of life, hard as they may be. Also, many of us have suffered the loss of someone close to us. Some of us may be dealing with a loved one who is sick or caring for the sick. So, I know for a certainty that I can say, for all of us, we offer our deepest condolence and sympathy to him and his family in this difficult time.

DEAD AGAIN