SAS

Reflecting on recent virtual events

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Hmm, I am sorry to say it but in a lot of ways, I think the new Team Mercury / Hg4 is probably a good thing for [SAS].

With Rasa gone, it seems as if the last resistance to change is also gone. The [SAS] SOPs (from scratch) are now in the hands of a seasoned professional, and I am tasked with the technical aspects of getting them on the website. In Rasa’s new home, he doesn’t have to get things past 2 soldiers, an ex swat instructor, an 8 year veteran of [SAS] gaming, a former Sabre Squad 2IC, or the strict and realism first Spidey01. I miss my friend very much, but I think I’d rather see [SAS] move forward into the future.

It’s amazing how much work is actually getting done now! I wonder, just what mischief he might’ve been up to since I left the RSMs post…. Recent events have left our SWAT 4 wing with less man power in the lower ranks, but progress these past few days has been like watching a bull charge

They (Hg4) have already grown through a few of the people on our “list” of prospective candidates, all of which know the Hg4 founders from there time as [SAS] Members, and each Hg4 founder knows much about our server regulars and what we think of them. Filterhappy, new Trial Member of Hg4’s comment today; actually made me quite happy. Those who actually care about [SAS], are those who belong in the the selection course. I expect all of the people who are of interest to us, will be in Hg4 tags before long, as long as Hg4 does so with honor and those people find what they seek, I’m fine with this. I’d much rather see Hg4 grow, then see dead weight return to [SAS]. I want to see [SAS]’s kind of people make it into the selection course, first and foremost

Me, maybe I am a jerk, but I don’t like people who waste my time. Time is life, life is time, and you don’t get a refund if you fail to spend it wisely!

It is not our job to train the public in our ways of doing things, parts of Hg4 may have felt differently before leaving [SAS], but I don’t. One of the reasons why I take part of my time, to teach recruits things when I can. Is because I hope they will benefit from it, and learn to be a stronger member out of it, and to help the NCOs with their tasks. If Joe Blow wants to learn our ways of doing things, they need to survive the selection course just like the rest of us did. A lot of people think we’re too strict, me? I think it’s about as close to the real life 22nd Special Air Service as you are going to find, without joining an army. And I call that a _good_ thing. I guess there is a difference between those that just look for the best they can reach, and those who want to be the best that they can be themselves, and then there are those who also want to help others to grow.

I know the things that I look for in a prospective member, and I’ve come to believe that [SAS]_CO_Random is right, after so many years… He ought to be lol. Jonsi, Nick, Caern, I know that I see the potential in them, the right attitude to move on. That’s one of the reasons why I put extra effort into seeing that their training in the SC is/was successful. It’s also why Timbo was a great loss in my opinion, both in man power and time invested in, should we say, “Let him shine through” hehe. But I guess it wasn’t the path he was destined for. One needs great skill to pass one of our trooper tryouts, but there’s more to it then that,

I made it into the [SAS] Selection Course, and I didn’t even know how to use the Voice Commands system in RvS until about a week or two before becoming a Recruit! Back then, I guess it was a lot stricter. The tryout is hard by most peoples standards, but it really is easy in my opinion… If you’re serious.

One of the reasons I joined [SAS], was because I like to play tactically and realistically. I found the things I was looking for there, Skill, Teamwork, Dedication, Friendship, and FUN, FUN, FUN!!! Most people who are in the team, are there because they enjoy it this way. We like the structure, the teamwork, and we live to improve our abilities while having fun with a few good m8s.

Getting through the SC was quite an exercise, I had to grow quite a lot in my skill set just to make the cut. All of the way, I had teachers helping me to grow, helping me learn the little things that makes this elite team as skillful as it is at what we do. I never really noticed most of it, just how much attention to detail there was here, until I started paying attention during training. My time with [SAS]_Trp_Rand, [SAS]_Cpl_WIZ, and [SAS]_Cpl_Relish most important of my teachers.

I don’t totally agree with some of our SOPs, but they work and work well for the most part. If I wanted to play my way, I wouldn’t have joined the [SAS], I would have made it a goal to prepare myself for BUD/S and pursue the real thing. Because it doesn’t get much better then that outside of the [SAS],and groups like it. Hg4, is not a group like [SAS], and I say that because I know the founders of Hg4 ;-). I play the way I was trained, here are a few differences in how I would personally do things, but this is [SAS], not my back yard

Hmm, I still remember the time I got dumped into a team leaders boots else wheres, and I had to direct us against the other teams defenses. When issuing the insructions for our assault, someone in my attack group asked me if I was in the army :, my reply? No, I’m in the next best thing — the 22nd SAS Elite Virtual Regiment !

I don’t think they got the joke, but they still enjoyed the win lol.


[SAS]_Spidey01
Warrant Officer Class One
22nd Special Air Service,
The Elite Virtual Regiment

Plan of Attack — tongiht through the weekend+monday

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In no specific order:

0/ Train Ez, Spawn, possibly Ghost/Medic as well — operation marshal

1/ Write new interface for the ‘custom’ library on sas <---- implemented, remaining code is 'features', need to test it and place under revision control, along with other changes to the lib. 2/ Build mock-ups for GCHQ of the new docs

3/ Implement the install code for ‘that project’ I’m doing with a few guys from forums.pcbsd.org

4/ Test pythonic bindings to libxml2 (I may need this __soon__) <---- lxml interface to libxml2 accepted 5/ Evaluate gtkmm and py-gtk (I don’t think I like the wxWidgets api after spending so much time with Qt3/Qt4) — run tests under Winsucks, because linking against gtkmm and friends will be the big pain.

6/ look up the api docs for interfacing C/C++ code with Python 🙂

7/ eventually get around to placing my .vimrc, .exrc, .Terry_shrc, and various .site_shrc files under CVS (or other scm) on Vectra. <---- vimrc and Terry_shrc imported, other files being less portable, some name convention needs to be worked out. 9/ try to complete social studies homework before [SAS] SOP Prototype Due Date.

10/ eventually catch up with posting more on my LJ then todo snippets

11/ download Wiz’s latest mix and let’er blast <--- it rocks 12/ Implement my admin scripts 13/ Update cougars settings

14/ Implement my ‘lister’ PHP script <--- done, just need to write the password locker. You know, life would really be sweet…. If I could get paid to use my brain, instead of saving it all for my off-work hours lol. No if I new any companies in this burg that hire and train self-educating-geeks :

GIGO, How to debug and fix code the hard way

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THAT SON OF A BISCUIT BAKING PIECE OF HOG CRAP OF A MODULE !!!!!

I’ve finally found the problem that, i spent 3 hours trying to prove was broken. Only to find out, the ‘contract’ behavior it expected from it’s environment at fault. And the rest of the module, is such a hopeless pile of shit, that I didn’t realize it, until I found the simple fact.

Garbage In, Garbage Out, but no Error message.

I never checked the data stream output, because the interface test failed. But it actually did do exactly what it was supposed to do, just with garbage values, which through off the rest of the code… That ignores errors rather then handling them.

If I h ave got to kick the bitch in the teeth twice a day to do it, this website will furfil the [SAS]’s needs.Or it will get ripped apart bit by bit and rebuilt as something that will serve them well!

Omni-tasker bound by honesty

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Oh why, did I have to promise one of my friends I’d put myself on equal priority?

I could just go straight thought and finish (most of) this tonight, skip sleeping for then a half hour, and go to work without trouble. Haha, just kidding, I’m not that crazy ^_^. I’ll need sleep to get up on time, but thankfully tomorrows just more time consuming then stressful. So my plan is to:

Make like a Spider now, get done what I can, then hack like a son of a bitch at it tomorrow… Until the project falls, and with luck! A project over 3 and a half years in the making, will be complete soon !!!!!!

Busy of late and more to come!

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oy, what a time the past week has been!

I’ve managed to fix several issues on the website, create a few more,a nd fix them lol. One was a typo, the other was a logic error that slipped by me. In the latter case, it wouldn’t have happened if I wasn’t more worried about *breaking* old code that predates my membership then beign wide awake >_>. I also had to fix a really, really, really old line of code today. That seems to have been broken by one of the site upgrades yesterday.

I’ve been screwing with Services For UNIX, The Korn Shell (various implementations, ranging from SFU to the official ksh93). Shoe horning Windows into a usable system, and trying to keep a steady presence on the RvS servers… but I’m still longing for SWAT !!! It’s been so long since I’ve had a solid game with my teammates (other then in RvS). I’ve also had to update my vimrc file while I was at it, I’ve vastly improve it but still thinkit it could be better. I also tested a few plugins and colo’s as well, the only headache is making sure it works on all of my systems lol. SFU, however seems to be the cause of most problems!

Tomorrow will probably be another monster of a work day, I’m not looking forward to it… There will however be a *lot* of stuff to deal with when I get home, I’m sure of it. At least though, we seem to be moving into a very positive direction for the future (long term). I can’t say that I am happy with some of the things I suspect may have to be done, but I pray it goes well… For the sake of all. I can’t say the same for everyone else in the world, but for me, I only know one thing about myself:


LOYAL TO THE END

A busy day

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I was busy trying to catch up a bit with GTK+, I set out to begin making tests of the various language bindings, starting with C++ and Windows; since I know they all work fine under FreeBSD and GNU/Linux. The first thing I did, was download the GTK Development Environment, which proved to be a disaster.

In allowing the installer to “Register Environment Variables”, the installed nuked my systems %PATH%. So I’ve had to reset it, one bit at time. To ‘shield’ it from any future assaults, I’ve split it up into other system environment variables that get sucked in. That should at least eep me from having to backup the registry… Once if ever, I actually manage to get the XP machine up to snuff again, I’ll need to take a proper backup of the system.

Spent a lot of my time today in training with Jonsi and Caern. First doing training with Jonsi, then dealing with Caern after tending to family business.

I’m omni tasking to the point, that I don’t even get to finish LJ Posts loool

Training Afterdark

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A tad annoyed, been doing some of my private training in RvS. My times are almost a minute longer then my best, while that’s still quite quick (I set the time marker for 5min; and completed it in less then 3:45) it’s still very slow… I’ve always chose that map because of the extreme CQB. Did a couple good runs and even got time to bring out a variety of weapons: MP5/10A2, MP5A4, TMP, P90, Mac 9/11, and the MTAR-21. But I’m still very far from satisfied with my performance. I fear, that I am starting to get old :

Two things that really pissed me off, the P90 and my faithful P228 pistol. It’s like, you fire off a burst into an area the size of a mouth, the target is chest sized, so close that if it was real life, you could almost extend your arms and bayonet the S.O.B. But in RvS, it’s still possible to fire in bursts, watching the count of rounds fired increase: 2..4..7.. and guess what? Magically all of the bullets strike the wall behind the X-Ray, but none actually hit them… Leaving you with 44 rounds in a P90 and a dead body, that is not the enemy!!!

It’s total bullshit. Although, I must admit in RvS, the game has always given me a feeling that the rear sights are on target, while the front sights are aimed at your toes instead… Tonight was an unbelievably bad display on RvS’s part, I’ve never considered the games P90 to be deead on balls accurate but this was just a joke. I’ve picked off head-shots at range with the games Mac 9/11, and the P90 is dozens of times more accurate in that game.

The second thing to piss me off, is I shot an X-Ray square in the chest with a P228, 9x19mm Jacket Hollow Point round… Round penetrated and exploded the barrel behind him. While the JHP are still capable of penetrating tangos. I can’t help but wonder, why a 9x19mm JHP round from a P228 will do the trick, when a FMJ 9x19mm round from my MP5A4 wouldn’t.

What irks me even more so, for “training games” we used to round people up, go find explosive barrels, and take turns shooting them. Walk up to the barrel, fire a round (or two), and run off before the next Rct tries it. Often we use the 5.7mm AP Army (FN Five-Seven) because RvS gives it less stopping power then some SPITBALL from Romania! We’ve also tested with 5.56x45mm weapons and various 9x19mm pistols using full metal jacket rounds.

The concept that a P228 firing 9x19mm JHP can be more dentimental to a (thick skinned!) explosive barrels contents then the G36K’s 5.56x45mm round, just begs for a physicist to explain these ballistics >_>

Geeze, why can’t they ever make a *decent* tactical game that is realistic?

Days log

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I think I ended up walking around the grocery store more then coding… As soon as I was found wide awake. That generally proved to be a wash out, at lest I got some of the menial work done on the current module. Why on earth I’m working through things in the same order as the flow chart, I dunno… Maybe because it saves the easy work for the end lol.

Managed to *eventually* make it into Training Grounds #1 to work with Jonsi. Pardoning 3 r 4 people and a website to deal with, training chatter with the NCOs, making like an omni-present on 3 forums, and the like. Once we finally got ready op for the training, we got delayed by more people joining, and NCOs out to do some synchronization, to the point that Jonsi was only there for about 10 minute lol. Several hours later of drillin’ with NCO/Rct/CO I’m like, “I stopped N hours ago but no one noticed” haha. We did have some good training though.

I also managed to feed my interest in computers, inhaling some information about the old ENIAC or Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer, the German Z3, and the British code breaking Colossus computers. As well as wishing that I could visit the Deutsches Museum, because a replica of the Z3 is supposed to be there in München :-).

What can I say, I love computers lol.

Finally a good swat game

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After a stream of very crappy games, fillding with more then a few players that could pass themselves off as tactically incompetent… We finally had one really solid round on PG#3. I took EL on the half way house map, in a formation of Chris, [SAS]_Big12, [SAS]_Spidey01, and Snorr. We moved us swiftly into the buildings front entry point, Snorr watching the side door, Chris and Big forking off to secure the halves. A little application of cover later, we’ve secured the area. Left Snorr behind to cover the twin double doors into the chapel, while the rest of us headed for the pool room. A quick bang & clear, wedge the doors and secure the contacts while having guns on every point of threat! –> The proper way. We moved back, setup Red Fire Team and Blue Fire Team each on one double door with bangs, blow and go –> chapel secured, door to hallway wedged, all angels covered… We headed upstairs and settled in for entry to the big room up top.

Normally I would plan such a thing out before hand, but with the noob patrol on the other team I didn’t bother. We did a smooth assault synced to my GO GO GO command: Bang going in, Chris entering and blitzing RIGHT and clearing to the bathroom, Big storming forward and then moving RIGHT to cover the exit door. Me blasting through and heading RIGHT, joining Chris at the bathroom door with a flash bang ready, and Snorr heading forward, striaght to the wall and securing a point to cover contacts in the room. Chris and I kicked into the bathroom with a flashbang as Snorr and Big setup cover. On my “CLEAR” we started zip-cuffing contacts, under protective cover all the way, then set it up for an entry on the next room.

“ROOM CLEAR, that’s the way it’s done baby”

Kicked into the next room with a flashbang, forking the element off again on the fly, Big taking the far door, Me taking point for the next room, Chris flipping in a bang as I popped the door, while Snorr covering Bigs back, we secured the next room, while trying to minize risk of getting flanked. Secure contacts, mopped up, moved out to the hallway… And BINGO, a plan hits me.

I ordered Chris and Big to move down the stairs to the corner and stand by for an entry on the cafeteria. While Me and Snorr circled around back to the other side to the rear of the kitchen. A quick “GO GO GO” and both teams rolled in their flash bangs, quickly storming through to each teams sector for a mop up.

And then a friendly game afterwards >_>

[click to enlarge]
Operators playing cards around the table

Da noobs go in, them noobs hit the hard deck, pros go in, dead noobs disconnect while the pros go on the complete the mission, smooth as a babies behind hehe.

Rockin’ and Rollin’

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Spent most of my day working on a couple of flow charts for tomorrows project meeting. I really wish I had the time to setup a proper presentation but the most important stuff is ready. If all the concerned parties are on time, we should even get done fairly quickly I think. I’ve had concept work and test cases stuffed in my brain for the past 2 or 3 days but no real time to sit down and work it out. I think, if I see another flow chart, I am gonna kick something. I’ve found Dia quite nice for doing simple diagrams and charts, it’s enough like GIMP that the learning curve is almost null. It could do with a little more refinement in spots but hey, if it lets me get stuff done in a fraction of the time… I can put up with the stuff I don’t like (mainly to do with text operations).

I’m working on it in my spare time, after work, after [SAS] operations, and along side my own projects, so effective use of my time is a plus hehe.

Some good news in [SAS] finally hit, I’ve been waiting for awhile now… But it was well worth it, seems several great NCOs are leading the charge in the indicated direction. I’ve left the details to others, since the emphasis was on getting it “done” rather then doing it well, and I’m just the schmuck who will probably have to deal with any later maintenance lol. But at least it’s done….

Managed to get a little bit of RvS time in, I think my recent expedition into the SWAT4 server has thrown my movements off. In RvS, things tend to act very fast and chunky but in SWAT4 they tend to feel much smoother, if slow by comparison. I was rather surprised to have around accuracy rankings in the 60s of hit percentages. While I rarely miss in SWAT4, RvS requires more, should I say. “Shoot the fucker, shoot him again, and shoot’em some more” in order to combat latency and super tangos. RvS is nice in that 2 rounds will drop almost any enemy, if you can get the blasted hits to register cleanly over the network.

In the course of my days web surfing I found an interesting language, called erlang. It looks like it would be worth poking around, I just wish I had the time :-(. But I’m just to busy with other stuff and can’t offerd to “cram one more” language between my ears… Rubber banding between C, C++, PHP, Perl, and Bourne for a couple days is, uhh.. a bit odd :

I really do like to learn different languages, the only problem is time spent inhaling documentation and memorizing syntax / interfaces. Much of my thinking i fairly language independent, so I really don’t have trouble picking up other languages. Python for example took a couple of hours at the most and ~2 days of “play testing” it on light problems before I was comfortable using it on a more serious project. Although I do admit, when it comes to expressing ideas I do really draw upon what I know.

For expedience of expression and to actually be able to read it at a glance. I’ll often mangle English and common constructs together, forming a document local style of writing whatever pops up often. Basically writing it in a way that just lets me say what I need to remind myself of later, and read it quickly when I do have to look stuff up. I can usually read things at a fairly quick rate, my eyes scan it and break things down, parsing it into the elements I comprehend and working on the rest as I go along. So the strange code-lish style writing usually speeds things up, since my eyes can parse the flow of it more readily then a few extra paragraphs of contemporaneity English, which means I can also “home in” on the parts of interest and quickly discern what I need to read and what I can ignore when grepping my text.

Sometimes, I wonder if I’m just mad as a hatter lol.