Eclipse IDE not updating to the latest version?

I just discovered that my Eclipse programming environment has not been updating itself to the latest version. I have been stuck at Eclipse version 3.1.0 for the past year. This is apparently due to a URL bug in the 3.1.0 release of Eclipse. See Ed Burnette's site for details.

Ed Burnette's view from the asylum: Eclipse updates still lag behind

(In short, add the site http://update.eclipse.org/updates/3.1 to your list of update sites under Help->Software Updates->Manage Configuration->Scan for Updates->Search for new features to install->New Remote Site...)

I discovered this problem when trying to create two editor windows for one source file. In Eclipse 3.1.0 editing two parts of the same file at the same time is not possible. In 3.1.2, select "New Editor" from the Window menu to create a second Editor pane with the same file you are currently editing. I am amazed that Eclipse lasted this long without such a feature designed into the original implementation.

Unconventional telemarketing tactics : latest telephone harrassment

Last night I got a strange phone call. At about 7:45 pm PST Tuesday Feb 28, 2006 I was having supper with my wife when the phone rang. I suspect the caller was a telemarketer. You be the judge:



Me: *picks up phone* Hello? *start counting seconds until response*

Troubled gentleman: *five second pause* *click* Hello?

Me: Why did you take so long to answer?

Troubled gentleman: Why did it take YOU so long to answer? It must have taken five or six rings for you to pick up the phone! Like I have time for this shit!

Me: Who is this?

Troubled gentleman: You are being childish, sir. *click*



It is difficult to figure out what his goal was from this short conversation. It is especially interesting that his final word was "sir". I guess some of his training must have sunk in...

It is hard for me not to feel agitated after an attack like this. Even though its importance is so small. I understand that there is no point in seething after such a random encounter, but I cannot help but obsess a little over it. But don't worry about me. I have moved on now.

SBC still owes me ten dollars

But that is not the worst of it. Not by a long shot. Agents of SBC are continuing their mission to make my life miserable.

Today, February 24, 2006, at 8:55 am, a well labeled SBC truck with license number California 5Y78601 illegally went straight from the right turn lane at Arastradero and Miranda streets in Los Altos, California, to get onto Foothill expressway. To his left was a bicyclist in the bike lane who also wanted to get onto Foothill. The retarded SBC guy made this very dangerous for the bicyclist. And also for those of us trying to legally enter Foothill from the correct lane.

I wouldn't bring this up were it not just one more episode of what must be a systematic effort by SBC to drive me insane with their obnoxious behavior. Remind me to post my essay on the horrible ordeal of trying to get DSL installed from SBC.

Getting a good "Leaf" staff in Diablo II

In the computer game Diablo II, a sorceress who specializes in the skill "enchant" is a useful support character. One of the best items for an enchant sorceress is a staff with the runeword "Leaf". You can get one by shopping at the Act II normal vendor Drognan. "Leaf" uses the runes "Tir Ral", so you need a 2 socket staff. And you want bonuses to the skill Enchant to be present on the staff.

What follows are the details of how I shop for such a staff.

You will not have to read (much) during your repeated trips to the shop. Most of the visual scanning required consists of "is it a staff?", "is it red?", and "does it have 2 circles on it?". This relieves some of the tedium of repeated shopping.

1. Create or join a normal difficulty game, using a character that has reached Act 2, but which is no higher than level 17.
   
2. Make sure that no other players are in the Act 2 town area. Otherwise you will be unable to reset the shop contents.
3. Make sure that Drognan's shop is next to a gate to the rocky waste. This will make shopping much faster.
4. Having faster run/walk is helpful here. Make sure you are always running (use the "R" key to toggle).
5. Open Drognan's shop window.
   
6. In each of the two "weapons" tabs, mouse over each staff that has a red background. Because Enchant is a level 18 skill, and your shopper is level 17 or lower, every staff that has the Enchant skill must be red, indicating that it is above your current level.
7. As you mouse over each red staff, look for ones that have exactly two sockets. A staff must have exactly two sockets to hold the Leaf rune word.
8. If no staves are both red and have two sockets, skip ahead to the "close shop window" step. None of the staves in the shop are the one you are looking for.
9. Ignore staves with a blue name (magic). The name must be grey for the staff to hold a rune word.
10. If the staff has "+3 Enchant" (and grey name and two sockets), this is exactly the staff you are looking for! Buy it and rejoice. Your shopping task is done.
    
11. In the meantime, you may want to buy 2-socket staves with only +1 or +2 to enchant, in case you get too bored with the repeated shopping.
12. Close the shop window.
13. Run a short distance into the Rocky Waste, and then run back to Drognan. The shop contents will have magically reset.
    
14. Go back to step 5 (open shop window), and repeat the process until you have a 2-socketed +3 enchant grey-named staff.

I have gotten about 5 leaf staves this way. You can usually get one in less than an hour if you don't waste time.

You won't be able to use the enchant skill on the staff until your character is level 18. You won't be able to use the Leaf rune word until you are level 19. So wait until you are level 19 before adding the runes. This way you will be able to use the +3 to the enchant skill while your character is level 18.

It is not possible to get a white or grey-named staff with both Enchant and Fire Mastery skills on it from a town vendor. Such a staff can only be found in normal gameplay and is extremely valuable. Keep your eyes open for a staff with these characteristics:

1. Enchant plus Fire Mastery bonuses combined are +4 or more. (e.g. +2 Enchant, +2 Fire Mastery)
   
2. Staff has exactly zero, two, or four sockets. (for Leaf or Memory rune words)
3. Staff name is white or grey (i.e. non-magical)
   

Gmail is a terrible pop server

I have put my trust in Google and forwarded most of my mail accounts to my gmail account. As part of this I wanted to use gmail as my focus of mail reading.

But I want to be able to read and compose email offline on my laptop, so I want to use a rich email client. And I want to use multiple clients on multiple computers. Gmail's feeble support for the POP protocol makes this difficult.

Here are the problems:

Gmail wants you to never delete your old mail. This is part of their "new way" of handling e-mail, and I can understand the justification. Unfortunately many POP email clients are usually configured to delete old messages from the POP server after they are downloaded. Perhaps reasonably, Gmail has decided to ignore this aspect of the POP protocol, so your messages on the Gmail server are not deleted by your POP email client. So far this is all justifiable. Somehow this has led Gmail to ignore other POP functionality in annoyingly useless ways.

I like to read my email from multiple computers, each with a current and complete archive of my mails. Using decent and reasonable POP servers such as that provided by Comcast or other large ISPs, each client is able to sychronize with the POP server, downloading only those emails which that particular client has not yet seen before. This makes me happy.

When I tried to get this same behavior from Gmail's POP server I could not. My choices seem to be as follows:

1) Each client can download every mail I have ever received at gmail at one time, including duplicates of any messages I got on that client before. This results in multiple copies of every email. This is so far beyond unacceptable that I will not discuss this further.

2) Each client can download only those messages newer than those last downloaded by ANY email client of mine. This process puts distinct subsets of my email on each client, depending upon when I connect with each one. This too sucks very very very badly.

Solution:



Use a real POP server. I created another special purpose email account at Comcast. The purpose of this account is to provide a decent POP interface to Gmail. I never use this special account to send, nor to directly receive any mails. A copy of every mail that comes to my gmail account is forwarded to this special comcast mail account. My email clients now sync with the special comcast email account and all is joy and happiness.

Rune rushing in Diablo II Lord of Destruction

Using Classic mode to accelerate Hellforge rune farming

What follows is a set of instructions for accumulating runes in the online game Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. Certain runes are the rarest and most valuable items in the game. This guide gives step by step instructions for gathering runes by repeatedly creating characters and performing the hellforge quest in each of three difficulties for each character.

Definitions:

• "Rusher" - a character powerful enough to quickly clear areas and kill bosses
• "Rushee" - a character created for the sole purpose of snagging their hellforge treasure
• "New Rushee" - a rushee that has not completed the Andariel quest
• "Andariel Rushee" - a rushee that has completed the Andariel quest, but no Act 2 quests
• "Amulet Rushee" - a rushee that has completed the Viper Amulet quest, but has not completed the Summoner quest
• "Summoner Rushee" - a rushee that has completed the Summoner Quest, but has not completed the Duriel quest
• "Duriel Mule" - a character that has touched the Summoner's book, and inserted the staff into the orifice, but done no other Act 2 quest activities.
• "N" - the number of computers available for the rushing operation

---

General Rules

1. The rush steps repeat for each difficulty (Normal, Nightmare, Hell) (except that the Classic Hell rush phase ends at the beginning of Hell Act 3)
2. A rushee who completes one difficulty becomes a "New" rushee for the next difficulty
3. A rush through one difficulty requires one (1) Summoner Rushee, one (1) Duriel Mule, and (N-2) Andariel Rushees. (if these rushees already exist, proceed directly to DURIEL TO END instructions. Otherwise, create the necessary rushees using the recipes below
   
4. Maggot lair only needs to be completed once per difficulty
5. Viper amulet quest only needs to be completed once per difficulty for every N³ - 2N² + N rushees (80 rushees for N=5)
6. Summoner quest only needs to be completed once per difficulty for every N² - 2N + 1 rushees (16 rushees for N=5)
7. Most other required quests are run once per difficulty for every N-1 rushees
8. Instructions for a second simultaneous rusher (Rusher B) are given in parentheses
9. If a rushee dies in a quest area, remain dead (i.e. don't hit escape) until the quest is completed. You will get credit for the quest.

---

CREATING NEW RUSHEES

• For Normal difficulty, select "create new character" from the character screen.
  
  • create 1 at a time
  • UNCHECK expansion (required)
  • UNCHECK hardcore (if option is present) (optional, be consistent)
  • CHECK ladder (optional, be consistent)
  
  
• For Nightmare and Hell difficulties, complete the previous difficulties
  
  • (create (N - 1) rushees at at time)

---

CREATING ANDARIEL RUSHEES

• requires N-1 New rushees
• creates N-1 Andariel rushees at a time

Rush steps:

Act 1:

1. Primary rushee (New) creates new game
2. Rusher enters game
3. Rusher fills up on town portals
4. Rusher saves screen shots of maps of paths from Cat2 to Cat3, and from Cat3 to Cat4
5. Rusher finds Catacombs level 4, and clears first two rooms
6. Rusher creates town portal to first room of Catacombs 4
7. Primary rushee waits in upper left corner of first room of Catacombs 4
8. N-2 additional New rushees enter game and join party
9. Make sure all rushees are in the game and in the party
10. Rusher kills Andariel
11. Primary rushee makes sure he got the quest before returning to town
12. Rushees each talk to Warriv and go to Act 2
13. All N-1 rushees in the game have now been converted from "New" to "Andariel"

---

CREATING AMULET RUSHEES

• requires N Andariel Rushees
• creates N Amulet Rushees at a time

Act 2:

1. Game created by Duriel Mule, or by New or Andariel rushee
2. One primary Andariel rushee enters the game
3. Ensure that rusher and rushee both have full town portal tomes
4. Rusher creates town portal to Lost City [not needed?]
5. Primary rushee goes to lost city, causing darkness [not needed?]
6. Rusher saves screen shot of path from Lost City WP to Valley of the snakes
7. Rusher finds the Claw Viper Temple level 2, and kills all of the monsters there
8. (Rusher B finds summoner)
9. Rusher makes a portal to the Claw Viper Temple level 2
10. Primary rushee enters portal and makes a portal to Claw Viper Temple level 2
11. All rushers leaves game
12. N-1 additional Andariel rushees join game and join party
13. Primary rushee gets viper amulet. Do not leave the Altar Room until the Altar animation finishes. Otherwise the quest might be botched.
    
14. If a Duriel Mule needs to be created for this difficulty, save the amulet.
15. All rushees talk to Drognan
16. Verify that all rushees have the amulet quest
17. All N rushees have now become Amulet rushees

---

CREATING SUMMONER RUSHEES

• Requires 1 Amulet rushee, and N-2 Andariel rushees
• Creates N-1 Summoner rushees

1. Game created by Duriel Mule, or by New, Andariel, or Amulet rushee
2. Primary Amulet rushee enters game
3. Rusher enters game
4. Rusher finds summoner platform in Arcane Sanctuary (but does not kill Summoner yet)
5. (Rusher B finds Mephisto)
6. Rusher creates town portal to area near summoner (about 1.5 screens away)
7. Rushee enters portal, and remains just out of range of the summoner
8. (Rusher B leaves game)
9. N-2 additional Andariel rushees enter game and join party
10. Rusher kills summoner
11. Rusher creates town portal to Canyon of the Magi
12. Rusher saves screen shot of Arcane Sanctuary waypoint, with map positioned to show summoner location.
13. All rushees talk to Cain
14. All rushees verify that they can take the portal to the Canyon of the Magi waypoint.
15. All N-1 rushees have now become Summoner rushees

---

CREATING DURIEL MULE

• Requires 1 Amulet rushee WITH AMULET, and one Andariel rushee
• Creates one Duriel Mule (from Andariel rushee)
• One Duriel Mule can be used ever after, for one difficulty level
• (Amulet rushee is only needed as a source of the amulet, the staff, and the tomb location)

1. Amulet rushee creates game
2. Rusher enters game
3. Make sure both have full town portals
4. Andariel rushee DOES NOT ENTER GAME YET!
5. Rusher clears chest area of Maggot Lair level 3 (this is the only time that Maggot Lair must be completed).
6. Rusher creates town portal to Maggot 3
7. Amulet rushee gets staff from Maggot 3
8. Rusher clears walking path from palace in Lut Golein to the summoner
9. Rusher kills the summoner, but does not touch the book
10. Andariel rushee enters game (but does not party with the others)
11. Everyone avoids talking to townspeople and any other quest triggers while this character is in game.
12. Andariel rushee walks to the summoner area, and touches the book
13. Andariel rushee enters canyon of the magi and gets waypoint
14. Note symbol of true tomb
15. Andariel rushee leaves the game
16. Rusher clears walking path from canyon to orifice in the true tomb
17. Andariel rushee enters the game (but does not party with the others)
18. Everyone avoids talking to townspeople and any other quest triggers while this character is in game.
19. Andariel rushee walks from the Canyon of the Magi to the orifice
20. Amulet rushee gives cube, amulet, and staff to Andariel rushee
21. Andariel rushee transmutes staff
22. Andariel rushee places staff into orifice
23. Andariel rushee returns cube to rightful owner
24. Andariel rushee leaves game
25. Andariel rushee has become a duriel mule for this difficulty. Only one is needed per difficulty
26. Duriel Mule must never get more quests in Act2, just create games and leave as soon as possible

---

DURIEL TO DIABLO INSTRUCTIONS

• Requires 1 duriel mule, 1 Summoner rushee, and N-2 or N-1 Andariel rushees
• N-1 rushees complete this difficulty.

Act 2:

• N rushees can complete Act 2 in one pass, compared to N-1 rushees for most other acts.

1. "Duriel Mule" creates new game
2. Rusher enters game
3. Duriel Mule leaves game
4. Summoner rushee enters game, and identifies true tomb symbol. If symbol does not show in the quest log, talk to Cain and visit the Canyon of the Magi waypoint.
5. If Jerhyn cannot be seen in town, send everyone back to Act 1 temporarily to reset the Act 2 town. Jerhyn must be available in town.



6. Rusher finds Tal Rasha's chamber (bear left in the chamber)
7. Rusher saves screen shot of path from stairs to orifice
8. (Rusher B clears area near Travincal temple, but does not kill all council members)
   



9. (Rusher B clears beginning and right side of Durance of Hate level 3)
(bear left in Durance level 2)

10. (Rusher B creates town portal near stairs in Durance level 3)
11. (Rusher B clears seals in Chaos Sanctuary)
12. Summoner rushee waits in orifice room
13. Rusher kills Duriel
14. Rusher(s) leave game.
15. N-1 Andariel rushees enter game and join party.
16. (Even though the quest log says that you cannot complete the quest, you actually can.)
17. Summoner rushee walks through chamber and talks to Tyrael.
18. Each rushee talks to Jerhyn, then Meshif, and goes to Act 3
19. N Rushees have now completed Act 2
20. If this is HELL difficulty, STOP here, and go to EXPANSION instructions

Act 3:

1. Rusher clears area near Blackened temple, but does not kill Council members
2. Primary rushee stands near Blackened temple
3. Make sure N-1 rushees are in the game and in the party
4. Rusher kills high council
5. All Rushees pick up their Horadric Cubes near the dead council, if they need one.
6. All Rushees talk to Cain
7. Rusher saves screen shot of path from Durance 2 WP to Durance 3
8. Primary rushee waits by stairs in Durance 3
9. Make sure N-1 rushees are in the game and in the party
10. Rusher A kills Mephisto
11. Rusher A creates town portal near red portal
12. Each rushee goes to Act 4 through red portal

Act 4:

1. Rushers clear all seals in Chaos Sanctuary (except one cold one)



2. Primary rushee enters the safe nook


3. Make sure N-1 rushees are in the game and in the party
4. Rusher A pops the final seal and quickly returns to the Diablo area
5. Rusher A kills Diablo, avoiding wandering too far from spawning spot.
6. All rushees move to next difficulty, where they are now "NEW"

---

EXPANSION INSTRUCTIONS

• After completing Hell Act 2 and entering Hell Act 3 in Classic mode, convert rushees to Expansion
• Bring the Expansion rushees from Act 3 Hell to the begining of Act 4 Hell, using same rushing methods described for Classic

EXPANSION HELLFORGE

• Requires one expansion rushee in Act 4 Hell difficulty
• Make one game per rushee

1. Rushee creates game
2. Rusher kills monsters in region of hellforge
3. Rusher creates portal to hellforge
4. Make sure rushee is not partied with anyone who needs the hellforge quest.
5. Rushee collects hammer and smashes soulstone
6. Store runes and gems in a safe place
7. Complete hellforge quest in both Hell and Nightmare difficulty
8. Complete Shenk/socket quest in both normal and Nightmare difficulty
9. Save socket quests for a special occasion

Possible hellforge runes by difficulty. There is an equal chance (1/11) of each listed rune dropping at each hellforge quest.

• Normal: El, Eld, Tir, Nef, Eth, Ith, Tal, Ral, Ort, Thul, Amn
  
• Nightmare: Sol, Shael, Dol, Hel, Io, Lum, Ko, Fal, Lem, Pul, Um
  
• Hell: Hel, Io, Lum, Ko, Fal, Lem, Pul, Um, Mal, Ist, Gul

Runes that cannot be obtained from hellforge rune drop: Vex, Ohm, Lo, Sur, Ber, Jah, Cham, Zod. It would take 256 Gul runes (and some gems) to cube up one Zod rune.

Raxco t-shirt charlatanism

This rant is reawakened from the early 1990s. Back in about 1991 one of my responsibilities was the maintanance of some Digital Equipment Corporation VAX workstations, running the operating system VMS. One fringe benefit of this activity was a free subscription to a publication called DEC Professional. One frequent advertiser in DEC Professional was a company called Raxco. Raxco placed one ad that they later regretted. The ad copy proclaimed that simply by filling out and returning a card requesting more information about some of their products, you could get a free t-shirt. This t-shirt featured a cartoon by Don Martin, best know for his work at Mad Magazine.

The cartoon is captioned "Fragmentation happens", and features a Don Martin version of a computer engineer with computer parts flying about with sound effects like "Kloon", "Ping", "PA-Tween" and "Sproing".

I filled out the card and waited for my t-shirt. This was now about fourteen years ago. One of Raxco's representatives informed me that the response to the ad had been larger than anticipated, so I might need to wait longer before getting my shirt. I have now waited fourteen years.

Later I got another business reply card with which I could request product information from Raxco. This time, no shirt was offered. But there was some additional white-space below the check box options on the card. Being careful not to mark any of the preprinted check boxes, I wrote in a new one of my own. It simply said "Where is my t-shirt, you deceitful charlatans?" I placed a large check mark in the box I had created next to this question and dropped the card in the mail. All I received in response to this was some product information that I had not asked for.

Why am I bringing this up now? My loving wife found an image of the aforementioned t-shirt and made me a t-shirt using special iron-on paper for inkjet printers. Is this copyright infringement? Perhaps. I would so love to have someone from Raxco try to take the moral high ground on this one. They still owe me a t-shirt. After fourteen years, the interest should run to at least two t-shirts by now.

Where is my shirt Raxco? I am still waiting. Jerks.

And thank you honey for the beautiful t-shirt. I have wanted something like this for so long.

Slip up at Mountain View Optometry

Back in mid November I got a prescription for new glasses at Mountain View Optometry. That was five weeks ago and I was promised that they would call when the glasses were ready. I finally got too impatient and called them today. Apparently their computer indicates that some useless and apparently anonymous retard contacted me by phone two weeks ago. Their computer is a liar. Useless retard. There I said it again.

To be fair, my optometrist, Dr. Bell, is excellent. The problem is that they take your payment before they have delivered their product. Many organizations that do this have neither concern nor accountability for the customer experience after the cash register has rung its chime. I am left with a very nasty feeling. The feeling is compounded by an unrelated blunder at Fenders Collision Center that I had this morning.

Rant rant rant rant rant rant. There, that does feel better.