ISA Server is annoying

It's often great, but trying to get certain things running through it is a nightmare. Especially games. Especially hosting games. So, after 4 hours futily trying to get a Civ IV server working from my connection, I thought I'd share some useful Access rules for City of Heroes in case anyone has just spent 4 hours trying and failing to get it working over ISA:

City of Heroes (TCP): TCP, Outbound, 2104-2106 & TCP, Outbound, 6994
City of Heroes (UDP In): UDP, Receive, 7000-7100 & UDP, Receive Send, 7000-7100
City of Heroes (UDP Out): UDP, Send, 7000-7100 & UDP, Send Receive, 7000-7100

If anyone knows how to get a Civ IV server working from behind an ISA firewall, please let me know.

A Hero's Lament

I remember a time not so long ago, before heroism was something that everyone tried their hand at, when heroes were respected, renowned, some even worshipped. Back then, being a hero was a difficult life - one was usually forced into it in some way or another - and while ordinary people didn't always appreciate the fact, it had a certain dignity to it. When you were saved by a hero, you knew who they were and you damn well remembered them for the rest of your life. There were never any question of being in it for personal gain, it was a duty that you were happy to fulfil.

These days...every Tom, Dick or Harry with a novel party trick thinks they're a hero. You can't move around Atlas Park square for the number of new 'heroes' queuing up to register themselves - most of them don't even last a week before they vanish, never to be seen again. Most just underestimate how hard the work is; they only see the fame and glamour and not the grind and the sacrifice. Now that being saved by a hero is so commonplace, people have become complacent - after all, what's the point in going to the effort of looking after yourself when someone else can do it for you? They never remember who saved them from one day to the next; it's just expected now that someone will do it. Even the papers have stopped reporting all but the most significant of hero activities on the front pages - you know something is wrong when the Sundays come with a Hero supplement summarising what's been going on in the world of super powers that week.

Maybe I'm just old. A tired hero who long ago reached the supposed pinnacle of Security Level 50 and realised that it really didn't mean that much in the grand scheme of things. Regardless, nobody sees heroes as anything special any more - most won't even bother to thank me if I save them from certain death, let alone something 'minor' like a mugging. Whatever happened to a bit of gratitude?

nPower are c**ts

Well after 7 weeks of pratting about with Telewest, the landlord and just about everyone else inbetween, we have t'internet back - which is nice.

Photos of t'house are available t'here: http://spad.no-ip.com/website/spad/photos.php

Once we'd moved in, we discovered threatening red letters from British Gas, the TV Licensing people and the Council. Apparently, despite having been vacant for the last 8 months, "The Occupier" (as all the bills were addressed to) had managed to run up £70 worth of gas, £1700 of council tax and was in trouble for not having a TV license (or TV, apparently). We finally got all that sorted and thought we were ok, until that is, we got a letter from nPower telling us that they were sorry we were leaving them and could they please have the £100 we owed them. Noticing that their meter reading was well out, I rang them up, as instructed, to give them the correct reading. "No Problem", they said, we'll send you out a new bill.

What should arrive on my doorstep today, but a threatening letter from nPower demanding 'their' £100 or they'll send the bailiffs around. So I called them again, sitting on hold for 10 minutes listening to The Turtles - So Happy Together on a loop until I got through to what I assume was a human. Apparently - and this is just hillarious - when I called up the last time, they 'forgot' to inform their collections department that I'd called and that they were issuing a new bill. I've been assured that this unfortunate oversight could never happen again and that the collections dept. has now been informed. I'm expecting the bailiffs around on Friday.

Oh well, back to reality.