Well this all started when -z-'s cousin, Zachariah, contacted me a few months ago. He is a Brigadier General at the Toronto Naval Academy (he is the 4th guy from the right in the back). Turns out the Canadian Navy has been developing a new faster Internet Protocol to facilitate instant communication across great distances. Zach was in charge of technology development, and since the successful internal deployment and declassification of the project late last year, he has been looking for ways to test it out for civilian use.

Since he is intimately familiar with internet gaming from talking with -z-, he wanted a couple of us to come to Toronto for a preview. Since I visit Toronto regularly, I hooked up with Jangles on my last visit in April. We had to go through intense security screening and our laptop hard drives had to be completely wiped clean! These guys were serious!! The good thing was that we got advanced copies of Tiger for free. :)

We met with their Combat Simulations Division in a building that from all appearances looks more like a church. The guys there basically play what looks like video games all day long, but they are in full uniform!

Anyway, the technology is pretty simple but quite brilliant. All they do is give you a small Blue-Link® Module that plugs into your ethernet port. Then you plug a CAT-5 cable into that.

Normally when you play a game like TT, your computer sends out individual data packets that go out from your computer and follow a long and sometimes convoluted path to the server. If you encounter a bad router, it takes time for the data to take an alternate route. With the Multiplex Packet Burst, your computer (actually the Blue-Link Module) sends out over 1000 identical packets simultaneously , and sends them on divergent routes. It turns our that this is enough to always find a direct route and eliminate packet latency entirely. Bottom line: pings to anywhere in the world in <50 ms!! No changes have to be made on the server. The only requirement is to get this adapter and to be using a Mac with OS X Tiger.

Here is some more technical information:

http://www.navy.ca/Toronto/CSU/BlueLink/techinfo.html

And some of the Russian technology behind the scenes:
http://www.bluelink.net

Jangles and I played in front of a whole group of these guys, and I think we impressed them! They were screaming and hollering as we played some SERIOUS scrum!! Truly a sight to behold. They gave us free Blue-Link Modules, even though they won't be officially released to the public until November of this year. So watch out you all!!

Rx & J

Last edited: Sunday, May 22, 2005 at 9:18:05 AM

Did you really meet -z-'s cousin :P?
If this is true I want a PC version of it %)

*Pounds on desk* Linux! I WANT A LINUX VERSION!!!

Nice try.

The butt of the nerd on the right is cropped off, and both nerds don't have the same lighting as the other people in the scene do.

Last edited: Sunday, May 22, 2005 at 9:27:25 AM

^ Just noticed that. And the nerd on the right has some Black just above his hair.

Learn photoshop please RX. : )

It's a very good edit, though. Almost fooled me for a minute.

Far out man. Will you save some and bring it to the convention for me? %)

Hmmm. You know another use for a slinky... It improves WiFi reception if placed over the antenna of your base server. Rx, do you also sell a gas additive that gives you 100 miles a gallon?

Last edited: Sunday, May 22, 2005 at 10:18:51 AM

Sounds cool. But, I need a couple of things cleared up.

I can see why they'd want a few gamers to check it out, Jangles and X. I do however question a couple of other things. What did this new technology have to do with Grizzly Adams? Why was he also invited? And, how did Grizzly Adams' bear get through quarantine so quickly? Or, did he just leave his bear with a sitter?

Enquiring minds want to know.

Last edited: Sunday, May 22, 2005 at 10:26:04 AM

LMAO - Check the links! Theyre funny!

Actually Spunky, the nerd on the right doesn't have much of a butt and we weren't under Hollywood lighting. It was a very quick flash-in-your-face shot. Please don't doubt what you don't know. And that goes for you, too, Racer. You should at least be grateful that we're revealing this to our friends in the community.

Anyhow, after much deliberation, X and I decided to post the pic. Of course, since BLUE-LINK® isn't currently available to the civilian population, we needed clearance from the Royal Toronto Naval Academy to showcase it. We received that on Thursday and, let me tell you folks, it's the answer we all needed. X and I have been quite mum about it for the last month - barely able to contain our excitement - but we were chomping at the bit to show you guys. Unfortunately, it's only available for Macs operating under Tiger and won't be available until November. So, you'll have to excuse us if we never complain about lag for the next several months.

All in all, it was an unique, albeit extremely serious experience. Personally, I was just expecting some friendly gaming and, although I didn't mind the hard drive wipe and retinal scans too much, I did find the cavity search a little disconcerting. It was also great to meet -z-'s cousin and to hear about what exactly happened to him.

J

^HFS!! What Happened to -z- !!!

And woot! Go Mac users! ME!

"We had to go through intense security screening and our laptop hard drives had to be completely wiped clean! These guys were serious!! "

"I did find the cavity search a little disconcerting"

How many times did you get back in line? :P

Edit
Can't wait to play lag free on RX's server, woot!!!

Last edited: Sunday, May 22, 2005 at 12:23:06 PM

Do you have any other pictures to prove yourselves? I'm still not willing to believe it.

I'll buy it. I'm sure these two are savvy enough to know we would notice an imposed image. I am guessing they took the pic to show the cables actually hooked into their macs. Being a PC user, I guess I will be getting my ass handed to me by mac users for a while.

I still dont know, but if its true, what happened to -z-?

I'm with the Spunkster.

I really wish that I hadn't seen what you guys look like.

Something cool coming out of Canada?????????????

Unbelievable.

Hmmm. I'm sorry guys, but I'm a bit skeptical. Why do both of your hairlines and parts of your bodies have a hard obvious halo around it? Like it was silo'd out? Either the camera this was taken with creates some strange artifacts, or you guys were photoshopped into that pic. Any more pics you can post or is that conveniently all you have?

^ They ARE photoshopped. They have been photoshopped in from a pic in the old "First International TT Convention!" thread. I'll find it eventually.

Unfortunately, that's all we were given. Both our cameras were seized upon entry and we only received this pic on Thursday - along with the waivers. So, unless they photoshopped it at the base or X applied some red-eye filter, that's pretty much an unadulterated shot.

I do remember the camera being an older, bigger one though. Maybe that would explain some of the pixelation.

@NUTS!

ROFL! XD

OK, I will e-mail Zach and see if he can do us a favor and give us another shot or two.

The only thing I see that looks a little strange, is that Reagent and Jangles are a bit yellow/orange. Did they put a little Agent Orange in the Ovaltine?

Last edited: Sunday, May 22, 2005 at 7:06:33 PM

I don't know if this is true or not, but why doesen't Microsoft make these cool inventions? XO

Well did you ask where -z- was!?

@RX, Zach sent the photo to me by mistake.
You're right about the security screening. It was intense.

Don't forget the condoms when you visit Chicago in June.

I'm getting in line for the strip search again.

ROFLMAO

LOL

HAHAHA! I think I must have forgot about that part! XD

Oh - just got an e-mail from Zach. Hang on...

Yikes! This is unbelievable, but explains alot! OMG!!!!! 8o

-z- is Chong's father?

Yeah, this is all fake.

LOL! OK, now I know this is a hoax. This is sounding like a Star Wars episode.

Chong to -z-: I know what happened to my father. You killed him!

-z- to Chong: No Chong, I am your father!

LMAO!

Last edited: Monday, May 23, 2005 at 3:04:47 PM

X,
Ya did go a little far there w/ the Chong thing. Also, The Mail app in OS X displays back and forth emails a little differently then what you have.

Yep… another non believer.

Melnyk? LOL

I doff my cap at you guys. Proves a sucker is born every minute, too.

Ya,
you cant be serious?

Notice there are no email addresses on that fake email.

BUSTED.

Mine seems to be working well.

Yeah I know this is crazy! But, anyone got any ideas on what to do?

By the way I use Entourage, not OS X Mail, and I removed the e-mail addresses and Zach's last name for privacy.

Reag, stop it! We all know you're faking - why are you beating a dead horse?

Chong hacking X and jangles?

Ya chong may be hacking

@ -{SA}-Racer445

Entourage does not put smtp addreses in the headers.

Straight from one of my Entourage messages.

NOT BUSTED! LOL

Last edited: Monday, May 23, 2005 at 5:48:50 PM

^ Neither does OS X Mail

BTW… here's the real Blue Link .

Did Tanky photoshop that?

YES BUSTED.

^^^ Wow nice snappy eye-catching logo dontcha think?