P1

P2

Quick note on the party

Thank you again everyone for coming. I will start looking at my calendar again fairly soon to get another party scheduled.

Bawls

I am sorry that we did not have some Bawls at the party. Pure Beverage only now sells to businesses. The good news is I have a business and was able to become a distrbitor, YAY! So we should have some at the next party. Although it looks like people are not buying as many energy drinks as the used to. Are people getting health cauntous?

Special deal on bawls now - Right now Pure Beverage is having a buy 3 cases get 2 free deal. If you have a LAN party and would like me to get you some just let me know.

Comments

Go here and post comments: Link

I have to apologize to everyone for not being able to come to the party. The excellent news is that there is a awesome healthy baby at home now.

My wife gave birth at 7:25 this morning. My wife's blood pressure was high so we had to get the baby out. The original plan allowed me to do the pary, but since this happened I will stay home and take care of my family.

Please give Brizad, Rebo, Rogue42, Oni, Centurion, Davey, and anyone else that helps a hug for me. :) I will make it up to you guys somehow.

Pictures: There are some pictures here: Link

So you guys have a blast at the party. I am thinking that another party might just be due in a few months, so I hope that you guys will be up for more gaming.

ALP

ALP - Brizad is going to have this running. I have never used it before. There is another LAN that uses it and likes it.

Common Drive, Files

If you remember from the past, I always had a share called "common". This is so that you guys did not have to worry about spending an hour to deal with Windows file sharing to get a update or something transfered. I will continue that tradition and have the following shared:
\\eagle\common
\\eagle\files

\\eagle\files will contain the game updates, at least the ones that I have and that get contributed to it.

Logitech G35 7.1 USB Headphones. Logitech says that they are not in the US until April. I am trying to get PCMall to get them to me before the party.

Link:
http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/gaming/pc_gaming/headsets_microphones/devices/5095&cl=us,en

We are just over a week away from IndySmash so I thought I'd post a quick reminder:

Various Details
If you haven't read Nuno's post from the 4th, please read it here. It covers some important stuff like the use of CRT's, power, sleeping areas, and attendance:

http://www.indysmash.com/news.php?body=news&action=view_single&news_ID=269


Keep in mind...

There are fairly standard rules when it comes to LAN parties, however, somehow there's always someone new that has missed the memo. Here is a list of acceptable (and/or needed) things to bring with you:

Computer
Monitor (remember, if you use a CRT, YOU NEED TO LET US KNOW!!!)
Headphones
Mouse
Keyboard
Surge Protector
Ethernet Cable (6-20' in size)
Mouse pad (if your mouse is fickle)
Cables to hook up your gear (power, usb extensions, etc...)
Cell phone charger
External HD (only if necessary)
Servers (must get approval from IndySmash staff)



Things NOT to bring include:

UPS/Battery Backup
Speakers
Microwave
Coffee pot
Heating plates
Any electronics not mentioned above
Electric Boogaloo



Servers will be set up in a special server area. If you bring a server keep in mind that it will need to be remote accessible and can not have a keyboard/mouse/monitor connected to it. Please notify Nuno if you are interested in bringing a server with you.

If you have any questions regarding any of this, please feel free to ask them on the forums or email Nuno directly.

See you all there!!!

Ok, the seat is filled. See you there!

There is one open seat. The first person that pays and post to the listed thread below, will get the seat. Make your payment and post as close as possible as you can. This is to avoid payments being sent to me that shouldn't.

So check the thread first. I will post something as soon as I can to announce that the seat is not open anymore.

http://www.indysmash.com/i_forum/viewthread.php?tid=953&page=1#pid8651

Greetings! Revocane here. I was buzzing about some game videos and ran across this little number. It's a multi-platform game coming out, and although those normally turn me away, this one kept my attention.

First, thank you Revocane for contributin to some posting.

Seats

I have posted a thread here: http://www.indysmash.com/i_forum/viewthread.php?tid=953. This will hopefully aid in allowing a few to come if people don't show up to the party, or they leave early or something.

I will be unavailable this weekend

In case you try to contact me for whatever reason, I will have no email or phone this weekend. Imagine that.

Hey, guys. I will be contributing to posting news for the website. Nuno and I had been talking, and with the size of the tables being 2ft instead of 3ft it would be much appreciated if you put your cases on the floor. It's always nice to be able to show it off, but with the limited space it would be nice to be sure that everyone has enough room. --Thanks! Rev

I themed the forum to match the main IndySmash site. I am still working on the smiley problem though. I also replaced the smilies too.

IndySmash room details part II, and a few other things

LCD's - The table setup assumes that pretty much everyone has LCD's now. If you have a CRT let me know and I will see where we can put you. Odds are you can still fit in a regular seat. Look at the previous post and you can see how the tables were changed. The tables are not as wide now.

Power - There are quite a few that are attending a LAN for the first time. If you are familiar with how power usually works at a LAN party you can skip ahead. One not before you skip is that the power is pretty much maxed out. We are running from a circuit that is outside and in hallways. So we are pulling from everywhere we can really. Even using the measly one circuit from the extra conference room.

There are only a few main points that need to be made with power. Some gather that today’s computers are using more power, but some argue that they are more efficient. Maybe they are the same because they are more efficient but have bigger power hungry video cards. Either way, I don't know really. I will just have to go by the same power consumption that I have always gone by.

• One plug per person - You get one plug to plug into. Do not plug into the wall. Plug your power strip into the one provided plug.
• No extra power hungry stuff - Do not bring power hungry stuff like refrigerators, air compressors, clothes dryers, or coffee makers. Well on the more serious note, bring do not bring anything you don't need.
• Circuit popping - If the circuit is overloaded it will pop, naturally. Turning off many gamers machines.

The extra conference room - We did end up renting the second conference room as well. Not to put gamers in but to put sleepers in. So now we have some sort of place that you can crash. There is also a shower and bathroom in there. This will hopefully allow for some comfort. So now you can come clean and leave clean, or somewhat clean I guess unless you take a shower before you leave.

Seating updates during the event - I will try and keep somewhat of a few updates during the event. Odds are a few people may not come even thought they paid. Very important = If you cannot come, let me know. I have a blackberry and will get an email from you right away. billy@planetgeek.biz is my email address. The sooner that you let me know, the sooner that I can post online that a seat is open.

Some seating possibilities:

• Someone just doesn't come
• Someone leaves mid-day Saturday
• Someone comes Saturday morning and has to leave at noon

If any of these kind of things happen I will try and post it on the site so that if you still want to come you can. If you come for half the party I will see about cutting the price in half or something.

I may consider you a no show if - If you have not shown up to the party by late Saturday, I will probably consider you a no-show and post your seat being open.

If you are going to be late - Email me and let me know so that I do not give away your seat.

Refunds - I just now thought of this, but it is not a good idea for me to offer refunds if you can't come for whatever reason. This is another thing that I have never had to address before. The main reason being that when you paid, a spot was reserved for you which kept another person from coming.

Other stuff

Ventrilo - I think that we will go ahead and setup a ventrilo server for voice communication. Get the client here.

Saving the login sessions - I was hoping for a real simple way of doing this. I use sessions right now, instead of cookies. To save sessions you have to save it to a database. This at first site looked out of my league for the time being. I might rather switch to using cookies. If I switched to cookies, that would be a lot of work too, because I have session code scattered through my coding. I will probably end up with some bugs.

So sorry guys, I still might do it soon but for now keep logging into the site bunches of times.

Summary

If you have any questions or think anything that we are doing is unfair please let me know and I can try to accommodate. See you at the party!

10 more: We checked the room out, changed a few things and got 10 more spots. So the totel is 58 people for the room now. That is the good news. The bad news for some of you is that those 10 spots were taken even before we had them. So sadly enough some of you still won't get to come but at least we can have more now.

Tables changes: The standard for LAN tables have usually been using 6ft long tables that are 3ft wide. This hotel has 6ft long talbes that are 2ft wide. This allowed for adding 4 more tables. Then we arranged the snack bar some to add the other 2 gamers.

More to come: I will udpate the site some more later. Give me some more time and I will upate the numbers for the party and post a little more about this.

Well centurion I think you will be happy, RSS feed :)

There is now a RSS feed for the news. Let me know how it works.

Seating

Currently paid
If you have paid, you are ok. You have a seat.

Most likely plan
The most likely plan is that we are not going to get the second room. For two primary reasons, but not limited to. Communication for tourneys will be a problem and the feel of the party just would not be the same. There are quite a few first timers and giving them a first time feel of chaos would not be a good impression.

Tomorrow afternoon, a few of us are going to the hotel room and try a few different seating arrangements out to see if seating a few more would be possible.

If you have paid and are not marked paid
There were a few of you that paid after I closed registration. Possibly the communication didn't get out or something to you. I will refund your money if need be, so no worries there. I am going to wait to do anything until the plan for the seating is done. After that I will tackle this. I believe that I have communicated in some way with all of you in this situation.

My fault This first come first server thing, seating problem is my (Nuno) fault. Well it is sort of your fault because so many of you signed up :) j/k.

I have never had this problem before so please just bear with getting the site updated to handle it and to get plans in place for handling it. Thank you so much for your patience and understanding.

Plans to get bigger?

Nope, no plans to get bigger really. IndySmash is just known to be enough people to have a blast without having the structure of huge parties. Not that structure or bigger is bad, just different. IndySmash has tournaments but not huge competition. IndySmash has sponsors (well most or some of the time) but people are not coming for the prizes. If they came for the prizes they would be disappointed probably.

This time around I am just trying to accommodate the extra people that want to come.

A different location?

Trying to find a different location is really tough. Most locations will fail in one of the following tests: enough power, staying all night, letting us bring our food in, price. I did check the Holiday Inn that IndySmash was held at some time ago, http://www.indysmash.com/parties.php?body=parties&action=registered&party_ID=26. That room is $1000.00 for 24 hours. As expected it is just too much. I got a really good deal on it at the time because I worked there. Does anyone work at a hotel?

A few web site ideas

Get emailed when a comment is posted
What do you guys think about the ability to get email when any comment is posted? It would be pretty easy for me to set this up. It would be more complicated to set it up to subscribe to certain comments but I think that I can. Maybe I could just set it up for all comments to start with.

Get email when a news post is made
What do you think about the ability to get email when a news post is made? Or RSS? I think RSS would be more ideal but I have no idea how to do that yet. Maybe it would be easy I don't know.

A list of recent comments on the page
I might put a list of recent comments on the page, on either side. Thoughts?

Saving the login session
I have wanted to do this because I would like it done for myself. I have it on the to do list. Thoughts?

Your Feedback

I use your feedback to make decisions on the web site, party, etc. The more you feedback the more that I can be in tune to what you guys want. I am very open to xfire, MSN, email, and other communications. Just check my profile to add me to friends to communicate.

Tommorrow I will be able to resume the registration stuff. I am going to find out the cost of the holiday inn, where IndySmash was once with 90 people. I think it is out of budget though.

If anyone has any ideas for a location or something, let me know. This is where you guys can help :) Since the party is only a few weeks away a different location is remote thinking I know.

There are a few people that have paid and that I have not marked them as paid. I believe that I have talked to most of those. Don't worry, if I need to get your money back I will.

Hey guys,
I love that you guys are wanting to come still and sending me payments. Please postpone any payments until further notice. I love the problem of too many peeps, but there is not enough room for everyone.

A few have sent payments and there are some stakes at hand with coming. I need a little bit to try and find an answer, but that is like trying to fit a "liter of cola" into a 16oz bottle. So as must as I do not like turning people down, I will have to do so :(

IndySmash has never had the problem of having to turn people down, so it is a new one to me. Please go to the forum and give some feedback if you have any suggestions for this great problem.

I added some random pictures on the right hand side, well you probably noticed before reading this. Leave a comment about them.

Man, you guys are awesome. Pre-paying and everything. I need to gather my my thoughts and finsih updating a some more that have pre-paid. After that there might be 48 that have pre-paid.

The only way that I can currently close registration, is mark the sight so that when you try to register, it says registration does not open until Jan 20. So I did that for now.

I have added some stuff to the top of the page to help layout the number of people that have paid. I also added a help page. The only thing that I really needed to put in there right now was maybe a quick run down on what FCFS means, etc.

Click on the help link to get a quick run down on those links. I added "what is a LAN party" in the help links just because I guess. I wanted to format the help page in such a way that I might add stuff later to it.

Here is a poem that I got from The Art of Manliness

Life is a game with a glorious prize,
If we can only play it right.
It is give and take, build and break,
And often it ends in a fight;
But he surely wins who honestly tries
(Regardless of wealth or fame),
He can never despair who plays it fair
How are you playing the game?


Do you wilt and whine, if you fail to win
In the manner you think your due?
Do you sneer at the man in case that he can
And does, do better than you?
Do you take your rebuffs with a knowing grin?
Do you laugh tho’ you pull up lame?
Does your faith hold true when the whole world’s blue?
How are you playing the game?


Get into the thick of it - wade in, boys!
Whatever your cherished goal;
Brace up your will till your pulses thrill,
And you dare to your very soul!
Do something more than make a noise;
Let your purpose leap into flame
As you plunge with a cry, “I shall do or die,”
Then you will be playing the game.

I believe that I have everyone up to date now, for marking people as paid if they paid. If I missed your payment please juse let me know.

Another post about registration.

Waiting list, etc

I do not have a waiting list setup, as you can see, to help with when the number of people registered go over the number of allowed people. Secretly I could probably squeeze a few more in somewhere I would imagine.

I do not think that it will take much work on my part to add a little something. Something that adds the number of people paid and what not. Until then....

We will just have to go off of what we can. I believe the number right now is 26 that have paid. Here is another summary of how this will probably play out.

• The people that pay, get a seat for sure.
• The people that do not pay, first come first serve.
• There is usually a no show rate which means that even if there are more people registered than seats, if you come you will probalby have a seat still. If you are coming from afar, you probably should pay so make sure that your seat is golden.
• If 48 people pay, then the party is full.

So pretty simple but I think it is important to post it.

My deepest apologies for not having the age limit posted before hand. I really have not had to have it before and quite frankly did not even think about it.

I have always thought of 12 being the age limit for the party. I did do some asking around to what people thought about a age limit at the LAN party. I have a few kids myself that would really like to come, but I don’t let them yet.

I will post the age limit on the site in the registration section.

Thank you everyone for supporting the LAN party and I am anxious to meet some new people, and catch up on ones that I know too of course.

Wow guys. Registration is overboard! Which is good, yay!

The important thing is that you need to pre-pay to make sure that your seat is in stone. After that it is first come first serve. Odds are I might be able to seat a few extra but who knows.

I added the PayPal link back to the site. Right to the right, under the navigation menu.

Tournaments

I added COD4 and Left 4 Dead to the tournament list. I have not added the rules yet though. Click on the tourneys link in the navigation menu.

If you have ideas for how the tourneys should be run, comment on this post.

Registration

Registration is filling up. No worries if you get pre-paid. So if you are worried you will get kicked because of space, make sure that you pre-pay.

Equipment

We are good on equipment. Thank you to everyone that is helping out and letting us use your stuff.

Questions

If you have any questions on the party, just email me. billy@planetgeek.biz. I know there there are some people that are coming for the first time and that is fantasic! So you regulars make sure that they feel welcomed. I have a good feeling that we won't have to worry about that though, you are good people.

Communication Server

If you would to have a ventrilo server going or something, let us know how interested that you are. We have had these sort of servers set up in the past and they are hardly used at the LAN. Or if you have one and would like to bring it just let me know and I will annoucne that we will have one.