Matt Refghi

I mentioned in a previous article that I used to play World of Warcraft, probably a total of seven months over six years. Though I rarely play anymore, I thought it would be a good idea to share some of my more interesting and/or amusing experiences within the game.

Before I begin, you should know that in most games, whenever I have the option to play a character that heals others, I take it. It is simply the function I enjoy the most. I like monitoring the health of others, healing them when they’re getting attacked, saving them where they would have normally died. Some games, including World of Warcraft, allow you to resurrect dead players, another mechanic I enjoy. Overall, it’s often a stressful job, because other players treat you as a goalkeeper of sorts. A healer’s entire job is to make sure no one dies, but sometimes there’s just too much damage being dealt, and someone does die. Often, the healer gets harassed for this, but it isn’t always his fault. Sometimes the player got himself killed by making a poor decision, or it was just bad luck. Regardless of the stress, the complexities, it is simply what I like to do, so in most games, that’s what I do.

World of Warcraft supports player versus player (PVP), meaning players can fight against each other pretty much anywhere, provided you’re playing on a server that allows that. Seeking more realism, I decided to join a PVP server as a member of the Horde, the more evil-looking faction. The good guys, known as the Alliance, were just too good for me. So, as I was working on leveling my character, I would occasionally cross paths with members of the Alliance. Upon seeing me, they would usually chase after me until they successfully killed my character. Death, in World of Warcraft, is not final. Instead, it is merely an inconvenience – you have to spend in-game money repairing your gear, and you have to walk back (as a spirit) to your corpse. Thing is, if the guy that killed you wants to, he can easily hang around your corpse, waiting for you to rise. As soon as you do, he can kill you all over again, while you’re weak, and keep doing that until he gets bored. As the guy getting killed, you can choose to resurrect somewhere else, stopping the repeated deaths, but the cost of this option is usually not desirable.

Because of the repeated deaths I endured, I came to dislike the PVP system. I liked the realism it offered, but I felt it opened the door to far too much griefing. I therefore decided, fairly early on, that I would not fight members of the Alliance. Yes, I resided on a PVP server, but it didn’t mean I had to indulge in a system that I felt was broken. So, whenever I spotted members of the Alliance – regardless of their experience level, I would either wave, or salute them. It is impossible to chat with members of the opposite faction, seeing as they speak different in-game languages. Put simply, this meant I was limited to physical actions, like waving and saluting.

The result of my unique approach? Half the time, the Alliance would disregard my friendly greeting, and proceed to attack me. Usually, when this happened, I would just let them continue, while I shook my head “no”. That, or I would burst into dance while being struck repeatedly. Sometimes, this strategy would make them stop. Other times, they didn’t care, and continued until I was dead. Thankfully, the other half of my encounters were really great – the Alliance would reciprocate the greeting, and we would either go our own way, or collaborate. Now, collaborating between factions is pretty tricky, but it is always cool when you manage to find a friendly enemy that will work with you. For example, I remember a time where I was waiting for an non-player enemy to spawn, and so was the Alliance member. Since only one enemy will appear (at a time), only one of us can get the credit for the kill. Since I was there first, when the enemy spawned, the Alliance guy waited for me to start the attack, which marked the target in my favor. If anything dropped from that enemy, I would get the reward, as well as credit for the kill. So, after I hit the enemy once, the Alliance guy stepped in, and helped me fight it. There was no way the game would reward him, as it was marked in my name, and he’s part of the opposite faction… but he did it anyway. When the creature died, I got credit, and technically could have left right there. The Alliance guy, however, would have to wait before the target reappeared. Rather than leave, I stuck around and helped him defeat it, as a gesture of thanks. This unique approach to PVP quickly became one of the most enjoyable elements of the game, for me. I really liked that I possessed the power to eliminate most enemies, but refused to indulge, choosing to be friendly instead.

Unfortunately, not everyone shared the same views as I did. I know of one particular guy that is a perfect example of this: when he spotted an enemy, he’d chase after them as long as he needed to, just to kill them. Often, he’d stick around and kill them a few additional times, just for the sake of it. Let’s call this guy Alex. I rarely spoke to Alex, but when I did – it was usually when I renewed my World of Warcraft subscription. In the game, he was ridiculously rich and powerful, and would sometimes offer to help me progress. I appreciated this, and would accept his help. Aside from his World of Warcraft aggression, we got along pretty decently in real life. Still, I never truly realized how far he’d take this aggression, until one particular scenario came up.

We had begun an arena fight, one which featured multiple monsters. As we were fighting the first, we noticed a few Alliance members had arrived, and were watching us from the stands. They were a party of three, and were not making a move against us, even though we were in a vulnerable position. To me, this probably meant that they were waiting for their turn to fight in the arena. After a while, they ran in and started attacking the monsters with us, effectively speeding up the process. I thought this was pretty cool, and I liked that Alex was not attacking them, even though he was much more powerful. They helped us kill all monsters, and as I was casually going through the rewards I got for killing them, I heard Alex on voice chat say the following, in a slightly panicked voice: “Matt, run away, fast!”. I immediately hopped on my horse, and rode out of there, while Alex explained, with a laugh, that he had attacked the three Alliance members that helped us. He eventually killed them all, and stuck around to do it a few times more. From that point on, I understood that he really didn’t care, at all, he just enjoyed griefing, harassing people. The game, unfortunately, allowed people like that to thrive, despite efforts taken against it. Thankfully, nothing was stopping me from continuing my unique approach to PVP, so I kept my subscription active.

Finally, after years of on-and-off playing, I decided I would quit once and for all. Rather than just cancel my subscription, I decided I would give away all my in-game money and belongings. Now, the game has fairly large cities, which are commonly packed with players. I went to the largest Horde city, and proceeded to announce my giveaway. Players came running from all over the place, eagerly wanting to receive free stuff. After I ran out of money and belongings, I sold all the clothes off my back and gave away the money from that too. Then, I logged out, deleted my character, and cancelled my account. Giving stuff away was a lot of fun, and it remains one of my better memories of the game, interestingly.

For a long time, that was it… until I returned following the release of a new expansion pack. Seeing as I deleted my old character, I had to start a new one. After a while of playing with the new character, I decided to see if the company behind World of Warcraft, Blizzard, would be willing to restore my old character. I e-mailed them, explaining the situation, and they agreed to restore the old character, free of charge. When I logged in as him, I quickly realized life was not going to be easy, as that character. There he was, standing wearing only a pair of boxers, with zero cash and only two or so items in his bag. I realized, at that point, that he was pretty much a homeless person… in World of Warcraft.

It didn’t help that I was isolated from my friends, seeing as they mostly all migrated from that particular server. Had they been there, I would have had an easy solution – borrow money from a friend. Since I couldn’t, I decided to try and fight weak creatures in an attempt to get some more stuff to sell. Among my two belongings was a skinning knife, which could be used as weapon, though it was not meant to be. Though a terrible weapon, it at least allowed me to slowly kill weak creatures and get the loose change and cheap gear they were carrying. It didn’t take long for me to give up on this approach, as it was taking far too long. My next idea was something I was hoping to avoid… I decided I would try and ask other players for money. In other words, I would be a beggar… in World of Warcraft.

There I was, wearing a plain white shirt I got for mere cents, and a pair of boxers, begging random strangers for money. Most of whom, by the way, were heavily armored and well-off. Though I explained why I was completely out of cash and gear, most people ignored me. Some used the opportunity to be cruel: one guy walked up, showed me he had a lot of money, and then walked off without giving me any. Then, when I started to give up hope, another guy came up to me, told me to stay where I was, and then ran off. At first, I really didn’t know what he was up to, but after three minutes or so, he came back with some spare cash, but more importantly: clothes, which he had crafted himself, specifically for a healer. (Tailoring was available as a profession in game, allowing players to actually create clothing, provided they actually had the proper ingredients.) I expressed my thanks, and was able to return to playing the game normally. I can only imagine how long I would have had to wait, had it not been for that one guy.

I started it all as a simple healer, one who evolved into a promoter of peace. Then, eventually, I became homeless, had to beg, and was restored to humanity through the kindness of a stranger. Quite a story, and yet, it all happened in a virtual world. Seeing as it involved me being homeless and resorting to begging, I think I’m happy with it remaining virtual.

Here’s a tip for all Google Chrome users out there. By now, you’ve probably all seen how Chrome treats downloads differently than other browsers. As soon as you download a file, a bar will appear at the bottom of that particular tab, allowing easy access to the file. In doing so, it also saves space by only showing what is immediately relevant for each individual tab.

You can use controls in that bar to locate the file in Windows, or even view your full list of downloads. I’ve personally always used the “Show in folder” option, as this brings me exactly to the file, allowing me to move it elsewhere. Usually, I end up moving it to my desktop, as I like having the files right in front of me, allowing for easy disposal whenever necessary.

After using that approach for long time, I found an easier way. It seems that Chrome actually lets you drag any file from the bottom bar to your desktop, or anywhere else for that matter. It will automatically copy the file to where you drop it. I find this particularly useful when I just want to copy to the desktop, as it is usually always visible when I’m browsing.

Once I figured that out, I started to play around with drag-and-drop in general. In most cases, dragging something from a webpage to your desktop will simply create a shortcut, which isn’t particularly useful. Thankfully, I found one main exception to this: when you drag an image from a webpage into Windows, Chrome actually downloads the image, and places it wherever you dropped it. This is a feature I seem to recall Opera having many years ago, and I eventually forgot about it when I switched to another browser. I’m pleased to see it in Chrome, and will likely figure out more drag-and-drop exploits as I experiment.

When I originally found myself needing to reboot a machine via Remote Desktop, I realized that the shut down option was removed from the Start menu. Instead, I had the option to end my Remote Desktop session, nothing else. CTRL+ALT+DEL understandably didn’t work, as my local machine interpreted the key combination, not the remote machine. Without an obvious solution at the time, I remembered that there was a command line executable that could be used to shut down. The executable worked so well that I put batch file shortcuts on the desktop of the machine, allowing me to either restart or shut down the machine with a simple double-click. Seeing as this proved useful to me, I thought I would share how to do it.

To reboot the remote machine, simply use the following command in its Command Prompt.

shutdown /r /t:1 /y

There are three arguments being specified here: the first tells the shutdown executable that you want to reboot, not shut down. The second tells it to wait 1 second before shutting down, rather than the default 20 seconds. Finally, the third tells it to automatically answer “Yes” to any questions asked by the operating system when shutting down. The latter may speed up the operation, but you may lose any unsaved changes.

To shut down, simply use the following command:

shutdown /t:1 /y

That’s all there is to it. For more information about the shutdown comment, see this Microsoft Support article.

After using this approach for a month or so, I discovered that there was a way to use CTRL+ALT+DEL in Remote Desktop. Instead of CTRL+ALT+DEL, simply press CTRL+ALT+END, and the remote machine will behave as if it received a CTRL+ALT+DEL signal.

Before I started working for my current employer, I hadn’t yet discovered how useful differencing tools could be. As I began working regularly with Visual SourceSafe 6 at work, I grew to value the fact that I could check for differences before every file check in. It was a standard for my employer, but to me, it was a process I was getting used to. Eventually, I realized that I needed a stand-alone comparison tool, in case Visual SourceSafe wasn’t around. This eventually lead me to a WinMerge, an open source differencing and merging tool.

There are numerous reasons why I like WinMerge. Most of all, I really appreciate the contextual options. With files, I can select any difference within a file, and choose to copy it from one file to the other, without leaving the application. With folders, similar functionality is available… I can copy, delete, compress, or move any given file difference from one side to the other. There are plenty additional features beyond that, but for the sake of brevity, I’ll make this simple: WinMerge is a tool I highly recommend for developers everywhere.

If you’re not yet convinced, I should probably mention that it can be used with Subversion. This works in Windows specifically, provided the TortoiseSVN shell is installed. TortoiseSVN allows the user to use an external comparison tool, rather than the built-in application, TortoiseMerge.

To register WinMerge instead of TortoiseMerge, follow the steps below:

1. Right click anywhere in Windows Explorer, and select TortoiseSVN -> Settings.
2. Expand the External Programs section.
3. Select the Diff Viewer option.
4. Select the External radio button in the Configure the program used for comparing different revisions of files section.
5. Press the […] button to browse to point to your WinMerge executable. In my case, this was the path: C:Program FilesWinMergeWinMergeU.exe

Today, I discovered a feature in Google Chrome that had somehow eluded me to this date. If you right-click any tab, several contextual options will be listed. Most of these are fairly standard; however, one stands out from the rest. The “pin tab” option, once selected, will transform the current tab so that only the favicon is visible, not the text. This reduces the size of the tab, but also results in it being moved to the left-most side of the bar, as seen below:

When you close Chrome, and re-open it, tabs who have been pinned will load automatically. While you could achieve a similar result by adding numerous websites to your home page list, the tab pinning approach seems better, to me.  I feel it truly reflects the minimalistic nature of Google Chrome, a trait that has been a big influence in its adoption. By simply showing a favicon, they are helping support the idea that an icon should be enough to represent an application a person uses often. Windows 7, for example, took a huge step in that direction with the task bar re-design. I’m happy to see that Google is doing similar, as it optimizes how the space is used within a window, and helps organize information.

If you find that your pinned tabs are becoming too numerous, consider moving some of them to the bookmark bar. It is possible to have the bookmarks appear with only a favicons as well. To do this, simply edit an existing bookmark, and delete the name. Chrome will still allow you to use the bookmark without a name, as it still has an icon to represent it.

Update Nov 22, 2016: I added a video tutorial for this! The written blog post remains available below.

Notepad++ is my primary text editor, as it offers a huge amount of features, and yet remains fairly simple to use.  After months of using it heavily both at home and at work, I began to wonder if I could launch multiple instances of it at one time. Given that I have two monitors in either case, I thought it would be interesting to have one Notepad++ window per monitor.

The best approach I found makes a new copy of Notepad++ launch every time you use a shortcut. To make this work on your machine, simply do the following:

1. Right-click any Notepad++ shortcut.
2. Select Properties.
3. Move to the Shortcut tab.
4. In the end of the Target field, add ” -multiInst”.
5. Click OK.

Example:

• Target: “C:Program FilesNotepad++notepad++.exe” -multiInst

You might be wondering at this point, what if I’m already using Notepad++, do I still have to use the shortcut to launch another? Thankfully, no. To launch another instance when already using the editor, you can simply press ALT + F6, or Click Run -> Open in another instance in the menu bar.

In the past, I often found myself wondering how some of my websites would perform when accessed from a low bandwidth connection. Unfortunately, I had no convenient way to test such a scenario, so I usually just forgot about the idea. I recently found myself in a similar scenario at work, and my searches returned a useful tool, Speed Simulator, by Vikas Patial:

Speed simulator is a simple throttling proxy which allows you to see how your site behaves under different connection speeds. It was written by me to test AJAX/Flash loaders and see how much my time took to load. You can simulate various speeds like that of a modem or a ADSL. A pre delay function is also there to help simulate delays due to DNS, connection establishment etc.

Here’s what it looks like:

It simply acts as a proxy, so all you need to do is point your browsers to access the web through Speed Simulator. You’ll then be transported back to the good ol’ days where most people had to wait for websites to load.

To do this:

1. Click Start, and search for “Internet Options”. Launch it.
2. Click on the “Connections” tab.
3. Click the “LAN Settings” button, found within the “Local Area Network (LAN) Settings” section.
4. Once the “Local Area Network (LAN) Settings” dialog appears, locate the “Proxy Server” section.
5. Enable the “Use a proxy server for your LAN” checkbox, and enter the following:

• Address: localhost
• Port: 8080 (reflect the port listed in Speed Simulator)

Press OK to save your changes, and then simply click “Start” in the Speed Simulator window.

That’s it – all you need to do next is launch a browser, the bandwidth should be throttled. I’ve seen it work with Google Chrome and Internet Explorer. Configuring a proxy in Firefox requires different steps, but should work just as well, once configured.

I can see myself using this tool in the future, and not only for simple performance tests. For example, I can use it to test for possible timing-related flaws in JavaScript code. Definitely a welcome addition to my web development tool set.

When I write for this blog, I don’t always write a post from start to finish, and publish it immediately. Usually, I have to review it multiple times myself, and in certain cases, I decide I want someone else to take a look at it too. In these cases, I typically send the post to one of my friends first, and I await their feedback. At the end of the day, their input allows me to ensure that my content meets a certain standard of quality. Given the significance of their aid, I felt I needed a way to publically thank them, per post. Faced with that idea, I did what any WordPress user would do – I looked for a suitable plugin within WordPress’s fantastic plugin directory. Normally I find what I need there, but in this particular instance, I couldn’t. So, being a developer, I decided to go ahead and create a plugin to suit my needs.

Meet All Due Credit, the result of this effort. Released with a GPL2 license, All Due Credit allows bloggers to include a list of names along with any post. Each name is accompanied by a text label that reveals what the person’s role was. Additionally, a Gravatar (globally recognized avatar) can be associated along with every name.

Here’s an example that includes all labels:

In my case, I only really needed “Reviewed by” and “Thanks to”, but I figured I’d take it a little further while I was at it.  Since releasing it, I’ve been actively using it on my blog, so you may notice it appear under certain posts. It is still pretty early in its implementation, but since I was already pleased that it met my requirements, I thought I’d give others the chance to use it as well. To reflect the work ahead, I originally released it as version 0.3, whereas I’m now up to 0.3.6. Once I consider it feature complete and stable, I’ll mark it as 1.0.0… but until then, I’ll be working on adding features and improving whatever it already does.

If you want more information about the plugin, make sure to check the project page on my website. To download it, or see how my work on it has been progressing, see the All Due Credit page in the plugin directory.

In my youth, I took to video games like most adolescent males did – the habit continued into my adult life. As I aged, the time investment gradually decreased, but never disappeared. I played all sorts of games, but seemed to prefer first person shooters and strategy games, above all. Despite my gaming experience, there is one first person shooter that I prefer over all the others. As it turns out, I’m not referring to a video game, but instead… the sport known as Paintball:

Paintball is a sport first played in 1981 in the U.S. state of New Hampshire, in which players compete, in teams or individually, to eliminate opponents by hitting them with capsules containing paint (referred to as paintballs) propelled from a device called a paintball marker. While oil-based paint was originally used, paintballs are actually made of a special non-toxic, biodegradable, water soluble mineral-oil. The game is regularly played at a sporting level with organized competition involving worldwide leagues, tournaments, professional teams, and players. Paintball technology is also used by armies to supplement military training, riot response, and non lethal suppression of dangerous suspects.

Games are played on indoor or outdoor fields of varying sizes. A game field is scattered with natural or artificial terrain, which players use for strategic play. Rules for playing paintball vary, but can include capture the flag, elimination, defending or attacking a particular point or area, or capturing objects of interest hidden in the playing area. Depending on the variant played, games can last from seconds to hours, or even days in scenario play.

I’ve played Paintball a few times in my life, and each time has resulted in valuable memories. You see, there’s nothing quite like experiencing the action in person. Our bodies are fantastic instruments, and this was certainly apparent to me when playing Paintball. Once the round starts, all my senses fired up, my adrenaline began pumping, and everything suddenly slid into focus. The dangers of the battlefield are made pretty obvious, pretty fast, as it does hurt to get shot. Paintball markers fire paintballs at a speed of approximately 200 miles per hour, so you generally do everything you can to avoid being shot. Not only will a popped Paintball eliminate you from the match, but it will hurt too. Not agonizing pain by any means, but bruising is fairly common.

Beyond the bruising, Paintball is a pretty safe sport… and that is key. When I play, it is usually with a group of friends… and while I do enjoy eliminating enemy players from the game, I wouldn’t want them to get seriously hurt from it.  The safety precautions are pretty well designed. To give you an idea: foreign markers are all examined to ensure they meet safety requirements, foreign paintballs are usually rejected in favor of the field’s, and protective gear is worn at all times.

The people working these Paintball fields are very insistent that the safety rules are followed. Sometimes, they even come up with creative punishments for players that disrespect the rules. For example, one place I went to was very strict about players keeping their masks on at all times. There were designated places, called graveyards (where you go when you’re eliminated), where masks could be removed. Graveyards had protective netting all around to ensure no stray paintballs could be fired in. To help govern this rule, they said the third person to take off their mask in an unauthorized location would be “executed”. By that, they meant the entire paintball group would line up, and each would fire one paintball upon the offending individual, at one time. Since paintballs hurt, no one wants to be shot so many times. It was an amusing rule, and I know this for a fact – because I was the third person to violate it.

You see, certain paintball masks have serious issues with fogging. That is, your visibility drops significantly because of breathing, and your overall body heat. This was always an issue for me in the past, so I was usually eager to take off my mask. It would allow the fog to clear, and give me greater visibility for a few minutes. Unfortunately for me, at one point, as we were all gathered with the referee, I really wanted to take off my mask. I looked ahead of me, and saw that another player already took off his mask. Because of this, and my overall lack of visibility at that moment, I thought we must have been at a Graveyard. I took off my mask… and because the referee was looking in my general direction, he noticed me, and announced I was the third. I only knew about one prior violation, so the fact that I was third was a surprise. I laughed at my luck, and quickly gave up my efforts to describe why I took off my mask. I was told to stand at a distance, and every other player lined up and took aim at me. The referee made it clear that only one shot must be taken by all players. Should a player violate this rule, they would executed in turn. Now, given that paintballs bruise, the last place you want to be shot is in the groin. So, naturally, I had the habit of wearing a jockstrap when playing Paintball… and on this day, I was very, very glad. When asked if I was ready, I slid my ammo cannisters to the front of my belt, further protecting my family jewels, and gave my executors a thumbs up. Three seconds later, I was hit with approximately 20 paintballs at one time.  To my surprise, it really wasn’t very painful… it just stung for a moment, and then it passed. I had a friend among the executors, and he assured me afterwards that he did not fire along with the others. I appreciated the gesture, but as I had just discovered, it really wasn’t that bad. Still, definitely an interesting life experience.

Though the the mask penalty was unique, additional rules exist that are far less controversial.  A good example of this would be the “Freeze” rule. It goes like this: if you’re very close to an enemy player, you have the option of telling him to “Freeze”, instead of shooting him point-blank. Given the speed at which paintballs are fired, point blank range would likely hurt more than from a distance (lack of deceleration time). In my case, however, I don’t mind being shot up close – I seem to have a pretty good tolerance to bruising. Still, I respect the Freeze rule when it is active – it offers some strategic benefits as well. Consider the following scenario: if you run out of ammo on the battlefield, you’re normally pretty much finished. You have to leave the field, and wait for the next round. Yet, with the Freeze rule active, you can simply keep playing, and essentially bluff. With or without paintballs, a marker, when fired, will make the usual CO2 firing sound, and smoke will leave the barrel as it normally does. In the chaos of battle, this trick can be helpful in keeping enemy players hidden behind cover. While they’re too afraid to emerge from cover, all you have to do is run up to them, and scream “FREEZE!”. They’ll likely surrender, and thus, you will have managed to eliminate other players without ammunition. I’ve seen this strategy used by many players, though I’m not sure it is legal in professional leagues. I personally really enjoy it, as it represents a realistic challenge, rather than an instant forfeit on your part. It makes me feel like I’m unarmed, and with proper strategy, I can still contribute to the team beyond the usual limits.

I always like tough challenges, both physically, and mentally, and that’s another reason why I’m fond of Paintball. Unlike most first person shooters, Paintball can keep me fit physically, as well as mentally. It represents, to me, the ideal gaming experience… not to mention the best graphics I have ever seen. In the spirit of challenge, I once decided to use a handgun marker for one round. Handgun markers generally have limited ammo, and they use tiny, swappable CO2 tanks. The marker I used supported only 8 paintballs at a time, and the CO2 tank could only power roughly 20 shots. This meant that reloading had to be performed on the field, whenever necessary. Rather than worry about this, I saw my challenge – how far could I get with only 8 paintballs?

My handgun round turned out to be the last of the day, where my team was attacking a building that was fortified by enemy players. Since it was the last round, upon being eliminated, players from both teams could exit the battlefield, and immediately re-enter. The building was therefore a very significant threat; even if you eliminated the occupants, they’d be back in a couple minutes. Armed with a single handgun, I spent most of my time slowly approaching the building, without ever firing a shot. This required a significant amount of  time and strategy, and due to running in between cover, it was very tiring. However, I eventually reached the outer wall of the building. I placed my back to it, and slowly approached the door. I could hear the players inside communicating with each other, aware that an enemy was close. After trying to get a few shots at the occupants, I decided to do something unexpected. I slowly backed away from the building, and bolted through the front door as fast as I could. Immediately in front of me was an enemy player, who screamed at me, “FREEZE!”. Unfortunately for him, my adrenaline-enhanced reaction involved shooting him in the chest immediately, before my brain registered the “Freeze” completely. The enemy player, who was a friend of mine, was rightfully angry that he had been shot. A Freeze is a courtesy, and it essentially equates to a valid shot. Alas, he had been bluffing, and confided in me afterwards that he would have shot me point blank in revenge, but had no ammo left. I assured him that my elimination soon followed, and boy, did it ever. After my initial entrance and subsequent “kill”, I entered another room in the building, where two shocked enemy players blasted me with an excess of paintballs. Despite the fact that I ultimately was destroyed, I had more fun than I’ve had in a while. The fact that I was there in person, experiencing the situation with all my senses, made a world of difference. No longer could a video game satisfy the sensory overload that was Paintball.

Experiencing the game first-hand brings about new possibilities as well. While you could be limited by game world architecture, in Paintball, the boundaries are much more broad. This is perfectly natural, given that games aim to re-created real-world mechanics, whereas Earth already has some clearly-defined.  In both video games and the actual sport, I like that creativity goes unhindered. Here’s an example: at one point, while defending a castle-type structure, I had a significant amount of difficulty seeing through my mask, so much that I stopped caring about the round. If I couldn’t see, what was the point? So, instead of firing at the attackers, I would get them to shoot at me while running back and forth on the castle walls. I would occasionally stop to do a little dance, at which point I noticed more paintballs were being fired. I didn’t do this solely for amusement, though. I had warned nearby teammates to exploit the opportunity to take out the enemies, knowing very well that their attention would be on me.

All that said, I personally feel that Paintball is the best first person shooter… the only problem I see is the price. I usually pay around 125$ every time I go, so it’s not something I’m willing to do on a monthly basis, at least not yet. Buying my own gear could alleviate the costs by removing the rental fees, which are significant. Cost aside, in my mind, the sport simply cannot be defeated by video games. Until, of course, virtual reality is released, with neural connection a la Avatar.

In a post titled New Folder Shortcut in Windows, I explained how accelerator keys could speed up the process of creating new folders. The key combination that needs to be pressed depends on which letters are underlined in the Windows menu; however, starting with Vista, Microsoft decided to hide these hints, by default. You can still use the key combinations if you know them, but if you don’t, here’s how to make to the underlined letters always visible in Windows 7:

1. Click Start, and launch the Control Panel.
2. Click Ease of Access.
3. Click Change how your keyboard works.
4. Locate the Make it easier to use keyboard shortcuts section.
5. Enable the Underline keyboard shortcuts and access keys checkbox.
6. Click OK.

That’s it. After that change, menus will reveal which characters are accelerator keys by underlining them, just like in older versions of Windows.