Rant #008 Sunday, December 14, 2003

It's been a busy week.

First, my main workstation (where 2214 is created) went through a complete hardware / software overhaul. Strangely enough, the total upgrade wasn't the original intention. At first, I simply wanted to upgrade the RAM, so Photoshop would run better. I had 256, and tried to upgrade to 768.

Bad idea! The DIMMS matched the motherboard specs exactly, but the board would not recognise them.... so.....

Refusing to give up on the RAM upgrade, I decided to go ahead and change motherboards.... which also meant I needed to get a new CPU, too. So I upgraded the machine from an Athlon 1.1Ghz with 256MB RAM to an Athlon 2500+ (1.85 Ghz) with 1GB RAM. Monster. Grrr.

Well, Grrr not so much from power.... which it had and ran fine under Windows 98..... UNTIL the machine was turned off and restarted later.

Bad VMM32.vxd? Argh!!!!! Windows 98 errors with this much RAM! What to do....?

After trying to tinker with 98 to get it to work, and a couple of really nasty hard reboots (in the middle of a grinding hard drive using virtual memory IT DID NOT NEED :P), my C: drive CRASHED. What the hell?!!! *sigh*

Back to the computer store again.... new 40GB Hard Drive, and a shiney new copy of Windows XP.... which I had been incredibly reluctant to upgrade to (very intrusive with Microsoft scanning your machine all the time and the bloatedness that comes with every new version of Windows).

That wasn't so bad after all! Windows XP IS bloated and intrusive, but after some research I learned to disable these features and get everything set up.... and this setup work nearly delayed page 52 of 2214 for another week.

Of course, 2214 somehow magically got updated on time anyway (but what's this about Omnitemporalis? On Hiatus? Christmas shopping is to blame. That and the full time job. Things will get better.) No whining.

So that's a tale of my great adventures in updating the 1337 B4WX. By the way, it FLIES. PH34R 17. Photoshop has never run more smoothly.

But that's bad luck to say that. I'll post again once I recover from the next imminent disaster that follows praising my computer. *cringes and waits for a crash*

Rant #007 Friday, December 5, 2003

Some new features have been added to the site.

First, you can see who and how many people are in the forums from the main site, without entering the forums. I hope to get something similar for BV soon.

Second, when selecting a skin, your skin selection will remain between sessions, so you don't have to choose the site skin each visit. Additionally, when a skin is selected from the menu, you will remain on the current page rather than being automatically taken to the home page (I know that must have been annoying).

New 2214 character bios are in the works. Karen's bio is back up. More bios are to come, specifically for Gesh, Azurat, Bachan Fumacine, and Dr. Maxwell.

2214's next update should be right on schedule, and perhaps Omnitemporalis will be updated, too. There is some new art under the Sketches and CG Art galleries, too. It's Ravenna in the winter, with her new outfit (read: added scarf).

I learned to use the pencil tool instead of the brush tool in Photoshop: the pencil isn't anti-aliased, which means it's bad for low-res artwork, but I do everything at 2000x2000 originally anyway, so the pencil tool provides sharper lines that don't mess up fills, and looks much better once the finished art is reduced to publishing size. I knew there was something that looked off about the line sharpness.
That's all for now.

Rant #006 Sunday, November 30, 2003

Updating two webcomics at once?

Omnitemporalis will not have an update this week. I know it's bad to miss an update on a weekly web comic, but I'm finding it to be very difficult to update two comics at the same time. The weekends are really the only time I have to work on them, and to do two pages is a bit excessive, considering the format.

To be honest, 2214 is my main project, and takes priority over other projects on this site. Therefore, Omnitemporalis updates will be sporadic, although I will make the best efforts possible to notify you of when I plan on updating it.

This weekend was a really severe case of writers' and artists' block. That, and this might sound strange - this new web site takes a while to get the hang of. Saturday, I got nothing done. Sunday wasn't much better - it just didn't flow - but eventually page 50 was finished.

Doing 2214 in colour doesn't take any more work than the previous greyscale-shaded format, but the whole look and feel seems rather awkward after doing it so long in monochrome. With time, I suppose, that will seem better.

Thanks for your patience; just don't think I'm being lazy or anything...

Rant #005 Sunday, November 23, 2003

2214 has changed over to a full-colour format.

Updating both Omnitemporalis and 2214 every weekend has proven, so far, to be a rather large task. The update schedules may need to be adjusted later.

Some new skins have been added to the site, and the skin system has been made available through the "More Features" pulldown menu at the top.

If you have not done so, check out (and perhaps join!) the forums . They are brand new and need more members.

Enjoy both mangas, now in full colour.

Rant #004 Thursday, November 20, 2003

More Updates:

1) The mp3 section had incorrect links to the songs. The titles and files were mismatched. This problem has been fixed.

2) A ton of new skins have been added; to choose a skin, use the pulldown menu at the top.

3) Binary Vibrance, a powerful real-time chat tool and community site, has been activated. Check it out in the top menu or Here.

4) The message board is up. LynxofCP will be handling everything there.

5) Again, both 2214 and Omnitemporalis will be updated weekly, over the weekend, usually Sunday night.

Rant #003 Tuesday, November 18, 2003

The site content has now been brought up to date. 3D, MIDI, MP3, and Video sections were added.

2214 is updated weekly (this week's update was missed because of the transition). Omnitemporalis will be updated weekly, as well. The update schedule may change, depending on the workload, but efforts will be made to let you know in advance.

Another feature of the site that is in BETA stages right now:

Nitrocosm.com has multiple 'skins': There are currently two more in addition to the default scheme:

2214 Theme
and
Desert Sunset .

Rant #002 Tuesday, November 18, 2003

Notice something different? Virulyde.com went away, and only returned a "server not found" error. Virulyde.com is indeed no more.

For those of you who are 2214 readers, this web comic is hosted, and will continue here, on Nitrocosm.com. Additionally, a similar web comic is featured here. It's "Omnitemporalis"... and the story may ring quite familiar to you.

There is content that still needs to be moved over to this site.... so if some of the sections seem a bit empty, check back later tonight. A lot of Virulyde.com's material is going to be moved over to this site.

Your patience through these rough transisitions is much appreciated. The purpose of this site is to bring you the some of the best online manga possible. Enjoy!

Rant #001 Monday, November 17, 2003

Welcome to Nitrocosm.com. Although the site is brand new, it will fill up quickly with content. The main feature of the site is "Omnitemporalis", a story about humankind's exploration of hyperspace and time. Sound confusing? It's not as odd as it sounds.
Nitrocosm.com is built using a specialized PHP-based site kernel, optimized from web comic sites. It also makes updating content a breeze. Especially now.
You may notice that some of the sections are blank. This is a very temporary situation as content is being developed for those sections rapidly.
In closing, it should also be noted that additional web comics may be featured on this site in the future.