In case you guys didn't know, the mud is currently running on Windows XP. It couldn't be helped - my spare computers just didnt offer enough parts for me to get a working linux machine, so we're stuck running the mud on Windows. As you can probably imagine, this is a terrible environment to run the mud, and as you've noticed it crashes a lot. Worse, Windows is bad at debugging, so finding the problem is 5000x more difficult than on a linux machine.

Some players have expressed a desire to help out, and since I'm a poor college student, I figured, why not. I won't be able to get my hands on a linux box any time soon, and Bane's in China. Here's what we want, in order of importance:

• Complete control of the machine, which is why we aren't interested in a hosting service.
• RAM. Good for mud.
• Processor power. Good for mud.
• Linux. Also good for mud. But we'll be putting this on the machine, so it doesn't have to come with it.

If you want to help out, you can do so in a couple ways.

One, send me a computer. If you've got a spare one lying around, I'll take it - my spare computers have problems preventing them from booting (dead motherboard, stuff like that), but there's a chance I can port some working pieces over.

Two, send me money. I'll move to Mexico after the check clears Alternatively, since some of you know each other IRL, it'd probably be best for all of you to chip in for option one. Otherwise, I am going to use the $$ you send me and go get a machine.

If you plan on going out, buying a new machine, and sending it to me... post about it on the forum. I don't need 15 new computers on my doorstep The one RoH is currently running on is 2.4 GHz with 1.5g ram.


Once we get a linux machine up and running, it'll be easier for both me and Bane to code and debug the mud.

So for the interested parties, my contact info:
Randi Mitchell
321 W. Wilson St. #1
Madison, WI 53076

I don't use Paypal very much, but by the looks of it, it accepts donations pretty easily. The email I use there is "vym@kriona.net" should you need to know!

Disaron donated $50 to the mud today! That puts total donations at... $50. But Baz has said he has some RAM, so if he's willing to part with that, I can just worry about getting a computer with decent processor speed.

What type of parts you need? I got a buncha old server stuff laying around that works great still.

The two servers Balth sent me in the mail were barebones - no HD and no ram. This weekend I got my hands on a couple spare CD drives, some HDs and a few pieces of ram. Hopefully I'll be able to build a Frankenstein server out of the pieces and get it up and running.

I got the following avail if you're interested:

3x IBM 18G 10kRPM SCSI 160 drives (68 pin)
1x Adaptec SCSI 160 controller (forget the model)
2x 256 meg sticks of ECC DDR ram
2x 256 meg sticks of SDram

a bunch of 15-30Gig IDE drives
a bunch of 10-18 gig 10kRPM SCSI drives (SDA)
3x SDA backplanes

1x Onstar sc-30 tape backup drive (50 pin scsi)
10x sc-30 tapes (30 gigs).

I'll hopefully get around to examining the server by the end of the week and let you know what pieces we can use.

If you didn't mind the idea of hosting it elsewhere, I'd recommend a virtualized server solution like this:

http://www.vpsland.com/xenplans.html

All you would need for the mud is the basic plan. Its cheap ... probably cheaper than the electric bill that a server would run.

So I have my hands on a Linux box, finally. I've been crazy-sick the last couple of days, so I haven't had much time to work on it. Here's where we are so far:

I downloaded 2 copies of the Linux distro Bane requested, used 2 different computers to burn the CD, but each time the new server thinks the CD is corrupted (tried 2 different CD drives, too). I'm either going to grab a different distro or request a CD by mail, since it's possible it's getting messed up because Windows is doing the CD burning. Hopefully I won't spend all of tomorrow in bed so I'll be able to work on the server.

Take care of yourself...no one needs a sick DM wandering around with *stardust* on his fingers