UPDATE: Registration page is complete! Click here!

Date: Sunday, June 5, 2005
Time: 10 am - 8 pm
City: Chicago, IL
Location: Holiday Inn 4th floor conference room.
Cost/person: $25 (includes cost of meeting room and lunch)
LAN capacity: 16
Maximum # of Attendees: 20
Registration Deadline: 4/30/05

Convention Pre-Party: Hosted by Norky!! More info here .

Yes you heard right! A ThinkTanks Convention will be held this summer in the Chicago area. Mark your calendars!

This is an opportunity to not only meet some fellow TTers, but an extremely rare opportunity to play ThinkTanks on a Local Area Network (translation: NO LAG) in the same room with some of the finest players in the world.

Can you imagine hearing your opponents tank exploding right next to you after you nail them with an area effect? Or better yet, can you imagine shouting "die you bastard!" directly to your opponent in person?

Our idea is this. We show up on Saturday evening or Sunday early morning. I have reserved a conference room with a central table and 17 chairs around it (boardroom style). The room has high-speed internet access. At 10 am on Sunday morning, we begin set-up. We will set up one or two LANs (depending on turnout), each with a dedicated computer to be used as a server. Ethernet hubs/routers will also be set up to accommodate 10 players per server.

Participants must bring their own laptop computer with a registered copy of TT. You will also need a 10' ethernet cable, and an external mouse (and keyboard probably too). You should also be sure to have the latest TT_Mod_Pack® installed and the MM_Observer script. Non-participants are welcome to come also.

Continental breakfast and a simple lunch buffet will be provided. I have also reserved a block of 10 rooms. For now they are King bed rooms for $89. To get this rate just tell them you are with the "ThinkTanks Convention" (yes - for real!). I will see if I can get a better rate on rooms with Queen beds.

Leopard and Chief have generously volunteered to provide servers and routers/hubs. Napalm will help coordinate software configurations. We will need a couple of more volunteers to coordinate some pleasing refreshments!

Wooooot! XD

EDIT: Hotel security is very tight and everyone who wants to just "show up" needs to actually register before the deadline (which will be around the end of April). The hotel contract is very specific and they take this very serioulsy. Registering adds your name to the attendee list which I need to submit well beforehand. Thx!
____________________________________
Registration Deadline: 4/30/05
Maximum # of Attendees: 20

Tentative participants (will be updated periodically)
See the TT Convention page for list of confirmed registrants.

Name..........I will bring my laptop?
Reagent X..........yes
Professor...........yes
Chief (UF)..........yes
Leopard.............yes (will provide a desktop system for a server)
LONEWOLF(UF)............no (will be using one of Rooster's)
Rabban.............no
Napalm.............yes
Bolo..................no (will borrow Chief's)
Nuts!.................Kinda (has a really old one)
Weentank..........no
Mystery Man.....yes
Blind Cide.........yes (will provide a desktop system for a server - Mac)
Rooster.............yes
KillinBrainCells..desktop system
MJ....................yes
MonkeeMan......no (will need to use an extra computer)
HugoBaaarain....no (will need to use an extra computer)
Ass Clone Army..yes
RustBucket.......desktop

Last edited: Tuesday, May 31, 2005 at 10:40:13 PM

Sorry to hear that ACA ! :(
Hope the Money Train comes in ! B)

Yes, me too! Hope to see you there ACA!

I will probably have to use my tower/server to play on. I upgraded my laptop with Tiger with hopes it would be a little quicker but it's actually worse. I joind a game in Dash's sever on Tuesday and it was silly. I felt like Cadc, And Dr. Sawbone were chasing me around. I will bring my laptop for those who want to do a conference or the streaming video if Chilled Lizard ever calls me. I was just hoping to have my tower dedicated to serving and being a utility boz. Anyway

Ichat video conference
Please let me know what you.mac accoun nmes arre if you want to join a conference.

Nap

^ I have had several successful video chats one on one with people. I also attempted to do a 3-way video chat with Jangles and MJ. BUT, there is a significant hurdle here:

In order to take part in a 3 or 4-way video chat (what Apple calls a video conference), each machine needs to be pretty much top of the line. We all had Tiger and videocams, but J and MJ's machines were not powerful enough. We could do 1 on 1's no problem. Open iChat and look at the top of your buddy list (with your iSight plugged in). You should see a green video camera icon next to your name, which comes in 2 flavors: a single camera icon and a multiple camera icon. If your machine is not good enough it will not show the multiple video camera icon.

From Apple's website:

I forgot what your machine is Nappy, or BC's. Maybe it meets these requirements.

Let's do a test some evening. I know Ho has an iSight and a G5 as do I, so all we need is one more person to give it a go.

Reagent, My server/desktop is a dual 1.4 ghz G4. I do not want to do video on this machine as I will be playing and hosting on this machine. My laptop is a 773 G4, I was thinking of hosting the video chat on that machine. We can certainly do a test with the laptop from here. I suppose we can take turns hosting and playing. When someone else hosts I can server up some video for Chilled Lizard. I would also like to test out the laptop just to see wheather or not it can handle it.

I'll be on tonight

Nap

Cool I will registrate

Wooot! We had a successful 4-way video conference last night!! We had Reagent X, Tally Ho, Napalm and Jangles all on the same video chat! It works!

The thing is it is quite a bit more blurry than Steve Jobs' demo at MacWorld. I guess for us regular Joe's we can't expect top of the line video quality. It is still really amazing and fun. When you are doing one on one chatting, the image is fairly crisp. As you add more people, the images get smaller and more blurry. I guess it makes sense since you are sharing the same amount of bandwidth to display more images.

Chilled Lizard only has audio capability at the moment. They have a thing called 'One-way video chat' that allows him to be audio only while I am audio and video. We got that to work fine, but it does not have a multiple chat option.

@ All
Time is near !
Please get Hunny Dew List done this weekend so you can make the party ! :P

Mine requested a special sausage delivery. I feel I must comply.

(HUGE GRIN)

Last edited: Thursday, June 02, 2005 at 7:07:43 AM

Regent and Napalm, you guys are awesome.. I will be in chicago at that time on buissness maybe I'll stop by to say hello. Maybe not if security won't let me in. But I'll see.. By the next confrence you have I'll be good enough to join you. I can only hope.. Good luck to all of you and be safe while there. Can't wait to hear how it goes...

^ Samantha and anyone else. You are more than welcome to drop by. Please send me an e-mail in advance and I will get you in - no problem.

Absoloutly. It's not a matter of being good enough. Good enough equates to putting the effort to come by and see your freinds.

This is just going to be a great deal of fun and we would like to see as many TT enthusiests as possible.

Thanks Samantha, Hope to see you there. Email me I'll give you my cell number to ensure you don't get hassled by security.

Nappy

OK Folks!

The time for battle is rapidly approaching!! Time for a final weapons check! :)

Make sure the computer you are bringing has got a REGISTERED copy of TT installed, and that you actually connect to the internet from home to make sure you can join an online game! Make sure your external mouse and/or keyboard actually works and that you have the needed drivers. Make sure the TT_Mod_Pack® is installed, and while you're at it Napalm's Expansion pack. If tyou have one, please bring a long (6ft. Or greater) etehrnet cable, and a power strip or two with a long chord.

WOOOOOOOOOOT!!!

-Rx

Oh and the video conferencing is working well! Here is a screenie of a HIGH-LEVEL TT session last night! XD

Dirty rat fink.

I guess you have to watch, who you let in your home, or webcam. Lol

Last edited: Saturday, May 28, 2005 at 5:36:51 PM

Woot ! Wife just asked if we could arrive on Friday night instead of Sat and the hotel said yes they have the room. So Mr Mrs LONEWOLF will be in town on Fri night now ! :P

I recognize X...who are the other fools? XD

Isn't that Napalm on the left and wiz on the rt?
Hi fellas!!
I am soooo PSYCHED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Heh! Heheh! Heh! Heeeeeenh!!!!
Roo

Hey, you guys are making me so jealous... Well, I'll be joining you tonight, so watch out! XD

I would really like to thank the guys over at the Ecamm Network for their FANTASTIC Mac iChat software, including iChatUSBCam and Conference Recorder !

Here's my webcam:

Logitech QuickCam® 4000!

I will most likely be purchasing it tonight. By the way guys, for the best quality, convenience, and bandwidth/money saving, I think we should pre-record the conference with Conference Recorder (see above). The folks would just have to wait about half an hour before they get to see it. Then I can edit it too! :)

Last edited: Monday, May 30, 2005 at 2:52:27 PM

That would be Napalm on the left, Jangles in the middle (top), Tally Ho on the right, and Reagent X in the middle (lower.)

Don't worry B we'll get you on with all the digital media we'll hgave at the convention. :}

You know, I quickly whipped up a few little name widgets for iChat conferences. I'll release 'em as soon as I get a screenshot of 'em on iChat (tonight). They are my little, tranparent, draggable friends that help everyone know who everyone is on the video conference!

Pic of them floating around Dr. Evil (my desktop):

Chilled, I would make sure you give that conference recorder a good testing. I would be concerned that it may really slow down your frame rate and video quality, since it has to compress and write to disk in real time. Just guessing though. Let us know how it works.

Looked to me like the facial hair convention.....and jangles had some laughing gas in him :)

B

Never seen so many hairy nerds in my life XD
SCARY!

Woot! Welcome RustBucket! Thank you for registering!

Woot, only a few days to go!

I should be pulling into Chi-town early afternoon on Saturday. Anybody else gonna be around then? If ya are, look for me in the hotel lounge.

Monk

I hope to be at the hotel around 3 or 4 on Saturday. If anyone needs a ride from the hotel to Norky's party, I'll be happy to drive. I'm not big on the drinking so I'm usually a good choice for designated driver.

Looking forward to the festivities!!

Arriving Friday night :P

The bolo WILL be there but late...gig sat night til 1am....sleep then 3 hr drive.....im thinking noonish?

Save me a seat!

B

No problem B. Mystery Man said he was going have you heard from him latley?

Reagent, Do we have a total for the number of people registered?

What's the plan for games, map rotations, mixing Lan and Wan?

Last edited: Thursday, June 02, 2005 at 7:11:15 AM

Just got a confirmation from the hotel. GAME ON!!

I think we have 17 paid registrants, but a couple of those can't make it.

I put a tentative schedule on the convention webpage, but I am open to suggestions on how to format the day. I scheduled time for doing the videochatting right after lunch at 1:30 pm.

As far as Lan vs. Wan, I am thinking we should do our Lan gaming first to take advantage of lag-free gaming, and then open the game up to the internet toward the end of the day. I was thinking we could have some kind of mini tournaments in the afternoon as well. I am open to how we do things, so please come with suggestions.

Once the network is functioning and everything is working, I will be happy. Hopefully we will get that done before lunchtime. WOOOOT!

-Rx

Found this buried under a heap of noob, tool posts. Two days....woot!

Hey, will we be able to do a nice test run on Saturday morn' if possible?

Chilled let's do it tonight. I will be on the road Saturday. You get your webcam working?

I wanna play against you guys in Chicago over the net'.

I'll be looking forward to seeing you in the server list, too bad my folks would kill me if I asked.

Will be arriving Sat morning - staying at the Hilton @ O'Hare. Probably will not be going to Norky's as I will have just driven 400+ miles and flown another 400.

See y'all Sunday at 10a.

Strangly enough I think Im in Chicago the 4th 5th 6th throught the 8th. But Im going to be extremly busy and I will bring my labtop. Im staying at a friends house so I will be on tt. I cant stop buy because Im going to be gone at 8am and getting back at 8pm. Might play at night but otherwise Im very busy. I would be nice though.

Just checked with the hotel and there is a continental breakfast. I however will need a breakfast with a little more depth. Anyone who wants to show up a little bit early, say around 8:30? I will be in the restaurant gorging myself for the long treacherous day of TT'ing.

mmmm....
See you all there! :}

Last edited: Saturday, June 04, 2005 at 10:38:59 AM

You need to make a big server with all of you at the hotel on a team and everyone thats not there on the other team. :P

Well guys. Hope you have a fabulous time out there! Remember to bring an extra pair of clean underwear, and brush your teeth before meeting up. You only have one chance to make a good impression. Don't talk with your mouth full. And

sorry. I think I was just channeling my mother for a moment. Anyway, have a great time folks!! Take lots of pictures!

Is there an extra outlet that I can plug this set-up into?

Remember to pack some extra batteries if you use a cordless mouse. You can leave the condoms at home, however.

:)

Have fun. Wish I could be there.

@Pyro, that would be great! We could have a MAJOR war, and test that hotel's networking speed... I'll take videos as required, I have Fraps.

Okay, so I tried out some tests, and with one person (see video below), the frame rate is excellent. In the conference with me & nappy, the framerate drops significantly. Will this really matter?

Me Recording (3.8MB)
Napalm & I (3.9MB)

Bless you.

Here ya go, guys! I *would appreciate* if I could get names of players I will be interviewing. :) Reagent, once you arrive, give me a video ring! :)

Web template *borrowed* from apple.com :)

Last edited: Saturday, June 04, 2005 at 3:05:48 PM

Wooooooot! Yeeehaw! Party at Norky's was a blast! Very high-level intellectual discussions were had by all. ;) I am pumped for tomorrow!

Back row (L to R): Norky, MonkeeMan, MJ
Front row (L to R): Rooster, The Professor, Lonewolf, Reagent X

@KBC: I love that rig! I hope that won't blow any circuit breakers!

@Chilled: Chicago is on central time, so 1:30 pm central is 11:30 am pacific time (not 4 pm). We can iChat around Noon central time to see what needs to be set up. It's possible our fallback may have to be an audio-chat which can have up to 8 or 9 participants.

Hah, wicked!

I may be a few minutes late. :S

Wow, I'm a real idiot... ;) I'll change that when I have time. XD