The Download Munkey : Tracking the Treasure Down …

Been encountering some intermittent lockups with my home computer for the past few months. Scanned for viruses and malware with zero infection results until I realized that the source of the problems might be from the hardware instead when the casing became unusually hot to the touch.

While I’m an absolute idiot when it comes to hardware stuff, I do know that the CPU is one of the main source of heat (the other being the graphics card) so I googled a bit for CPU cooling stuff and found Alfredo Milani’s SpeedFan.

© Alfredo Milani

I like SpeedFan because it’s easy to use with minimal configuration needed while providing detailed information for those who know their stuff. Look at the main screen for SpeedFan above, it’s not that intimidating isn’t it?

© Alfredo Milani

There’s also a nifty feature to read the S.M.A.R.T statistics from your hard disks although it’s all mumbo-jumbo to me. I think as long as you don’t see any red or yellow circles alongside your statistics it should be OK.

© Alfredo Milani

Clicking the Configure button allows you to define what is shown on the main screen – temperatures, fan speeds and voltages. The Options tab is where you want to be if you’re looking for a place to change the temperature from Celsius to Farenheit and vice versa if you so desire.

© Alfredo Milani

SpeedFan also installs itself in the system tray for convenient monitoring of your CPU temperature (or any other temperature sensors that you choose e.g your harddisk temperature). Hovering over the system tray icon shows all the temperatures that you select to display in SpeedFan though.

© Alfredo Milani

My CPU temperature was displayed in SpeedFan in the range of 80 – 85 degrees Celsius for the last few days. My solution – wipe the black soot-like substance away from CPU heatsink with a cotton bud and vacuum it out (BTW, the suction power of the bloody Fellowes mini-vac I bought from Challenger is real crap – be warned!) The temperature actually dropped 15 degrees to around 65 degrees after this cleaning procedure!

However, I seriously don’t recommend this solution for people with spanking new PCs since I heard of issues concerning static electricity affecting the motherboard, etc and an air blower might be a much safer alternative than using a cotton bud and vacuum cleaner. It’s your own computer though and I take no responsibilty for what happens if you follow what I wrote above

Download SpeedFan.

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Using Sandboxie for testing New Software
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A French artist specializing in military and police art (not unlike Dick Kramer), illustrating mainly the police and counter-terror units of his native country such as the famed Groupe d’Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale (GIGN) and Recherche Assistance Intervention Dissuasion (RAID) as well as the special forces of several other European countries (Greek EKAM, Spanish GEI, etc).

© David Andro

Found his website several months back while looking for information on the exotic Matra-Maurhin MR-73 revolver after seeing it being equipped on a Hot Toys 1/6th GIGN figure at a day in the life of a BE@RBRICK. From David Miller’s Illustrated Directory of Special Forces, it appears that only the French counter-terror units are frequently equipped with revolvers (amongst other weapons of course), other contemporary units favouring (usually silenced) semi-automatic pistols for close-range work.

© David Andro

Also apparently for most enthusiasts, the 1/6th figures are the closest you can get to a special forces trooper and his weapons, but David has access to the real thing which also explains the realism and authenticity of his work.

© David Andro

Here’s an recent photo of David with the Jaubert and Trepel teams of the GCTLO commandos and several other members of the GPD. Click on the photo for a better view

© David Andro

Visit David Andro‘s gallery.

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Dick Kramer’s Promotional Art for FN SCAR Rifles
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C-Dogs SDL is an open source port of a classic DOS game of the same name which I played quite regularly years ago. The original game was first released by Ronny Wester in 1997 but this port was made by Jeremy Chin and Lucas Martin-King with binary releases for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. The current version of C-Dogs SDL may only benumbered 0.4 but it’s perfectly playable.

Despite the primitive looking tilebased graphics, C-Dogs had probably the best explosion animation for any DOS game, rivalling even the massive detonations possible in Bullfrog’s Syndicate Wars. This game also sports some cool character customization options – I’ve named my operative Solid Snake and suited him up like his namesake in Metal Gear Solid 4.

C-Dogs was an impressively tactical game for its time. It features true line of sight together with projectiles that knock you back so you can never charge an enemy machinegunner from the front without taking substantial damage. Likewise, a steady stream of machinegun fire helps keep those pesky red knife and flamer ogres away from you.

The scoring system rewards accurate players so players relying mainly on slow-firing but powerful weapons like sniper rifles tend to achieve higher scores than machinegunners since missed shots actually deduct points from your score. You are allowed to choose any three weapons from the armoury at the start of the mission but since there’s no way of picking up alternative weapons or restoring your health during the actual missions, choosing wisely to ensure that your selection takes care of most situations is a definite must.

The default keys are Right Shift to shoot and Enter to switch weapons or slide in any direction with one of the cursor keys held down (very useful for closing in behind a enemy with a blazing flamer or a vicious knife but equally helpful in getting yourself impaled on an enemy knife ) You’ll probably want to change the keys to something more intuitive before delving into the campaigns.

Missions generally revolve around raiding-style assaults to retrieve valuable items, destroy equipment or simply exterminate enemies in the map. After successfully completing the mission objectives, proceed to the exit zone marked by yellow and black stripes (check the map by pressing Tab – the exit zone is indicated by a white-bordered rectangle) for extraction.

Download C-Dogs SDL.

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Wallpapers for a Nintendo DS game Ninja Town featuring a bunch of cute harmless-looking ninjas. Character designs are done by Shawnimals who dabble in all sorts of cutesy stuff – plushes, buttons, tees, etc.

© Shawnimals

Found out about this game via a trailer released at Gametrailers for Games Convention 2007 . While there’s the standard introduction of the key characters in Ninja Town, there’s no hint whatsoever of the type of gameplay to expect from this title.

Some captures from the trailer below.

Ninja Town under attack!

Ninja consultant. WTH! Does he throw pie charts instead of shurikens.

The requisite wise old ninja master.

The ninja clan

Download the wallpapers (more at Shawnimals) or check out the GameTrailers video for Ninja Town.

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A couple of recently de-classified Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) handbooks on the miltary forces of China and the elusive North Korea regime. The People’s Liberation Army handbook dates back to 1984 whereas the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) book is a more recent 1997 edition. Being published over 10 years ago (nearly 25 for the PLA book), both books definitely do not reflect the current status of the armed forces of the respective nations although they still retain some value for military history enthusiasts, wargamers and the like.

In 1984, the PLA was primarily a infantry based force utilizing relatively conventional tactics and doctrine with a special emphasis on infilitration tactics based on their guerrilla roots during the Chinese Civil War. The doctrine sections of the handbook therefore reads a little like an US Army field manual. Almost every tiny bit of information on the PLA that you probably need, from tactics and strategy, weapons and equipment to unit organization and even the typical diet of the Chinese soldier is in there.

The DPRK handbook is a much more interesting read since the DPRK relies heavily on its substantial special forces of over 60,000 personnel to conduct operations behind enemy lines or even create a second front via clandestine insertions by air, sea or underground tunnels under the DMZ. Sections on doctrine are of course included, together with weapon & equipment photos, unit organization as well as a brief look at the geography of the Korean peninsula.

It’s interesting to note that the DPRK Army still counts WWII armoured vehicles like the T34/85 and SU-100 in its inventory along with a massive 170mm self-propelled gun, the M-1978 (below). While it has an impressive range of 40 km, it looks extremely vulnerable to aerial attack due to its bulk and low speed. The DPRK does have some impressive numbers of AAA guns (over 8,800) and SAMs to protect assets like this though. For more info, you might want to check out this link to an analysis of the DPRK’s anti-air defenses @ The Firearms Blog.

Both handbooks can be downloaded in PDF format at Defense Intelligence Agency (PLA – 142 pages (14.9 MB), DPRK – 429 pages (5.4 MB))

More information and PDFs on the DPRK’s military forces can also be found at nautilus.org.

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