HA|aD Monkey has created a Windows XP/2000 app that allows you to connect to Halo servers using a halo://server.name address. You can find it at the Junkyard. Thanks Louis.

Enemy Down and Europe: ClanBase are adding Halo ladders for players in Europe. Thanks Louis.

John Petrick at AEG, a company that seems to be doing PR for Microsoft's game studios, sent us an email that mentioned SketchFactor's post at Bungie.net that the new Halo client patch v.102 needed to connect to the Dedicated Server v. 1.02 released yesterday is now available; there's also a Performance FAQ (downloadable RTF) for those inclined to read such things. The FAQ, along with another note, was put together by Michael Bastien of Gearbox.

UPDATE: An HTML version of the PC Performance FAQ is now up at Bungie.net. There's also a new PC Halo Forum, called The Maw. (Of course, there are already other sites called that.. but hey.)

HBO also notes (thanks again Louis Wu) that if you don't like the GameSpy matchmaking interface, there is an alternative that some like better, although it isn't free. It's called The All Seeing Eye, and it supports CounterStrike, Quake 3 Arena, BF1942, and now Halo. There's a 21-day trial and the price is $10 per year or $30 for a lifetime (assuming the business lasts as long as you do; the service has been around now for over 2 years).

Reppyboyo mentioned that Halo support had been added in the Gearbox forum; there's no official note on the All Seeing Eye's site; in addition, you have to set your default scanner in All Seeing Eye to the Finland 2.0 beta test scanner to see Halo servers.

Louis Wu at HBO points out that version 1.02 of the Halo Dedicated Server is available; but server administrators are warned not to install it yet, as the Halo client also needs a patch to work with this server version, and that patch isn't out yet.

The new server version features remote control and multiple instances on a single machine. The patch doesn't include map files, and is only 7 Mb in size.

Grenadiac over at HaloMods located a list of Halo's dedicated server commands over in the Gearbox forums. Killing went digging into the dedicated server package itself to find them and guess about their functions; there are slightly over twenty of them documented there.

The Total Assault Gaming League has launched a ladder that supports Halo; they say they're the first such system, and who are we to argue? Their Halo ladder page also has some useful PC Halo info, such as how go gain access to the console and how to enable in-game screenshots. Thanks Louis Wu at HBO.

Blue's News has linkage to Wired and BBC stories expanding on the story of the source code stolen from Valve by crackers, as well as word from Valve's own Gabe Newell, via Shacknews, on how the attackers gained entry. Apparently they used a remote administration tool as well as a few other things to gain access to their internal network over the Internet. They are still finding machines that have been compromised, and are also unsure about how the crackers gained access initially.

Shishka at Subnova has posted a Halo PC Gametype FAQ, following up on the last (he promises) version of his PC Halo FAQ, version 3.1.

We've added mirrors of the full PC Halo Dedicated Server (106 Mb) as well as the PC Halo Dedicated Server without maps (1.7 Mb) created by BOLL. HBO, as usual, has a list of all the mirrors and a mirror of the mirror list. Just a note; this is a pre-release version, so Louis Wu at HBO has warned to read the destructions carefully; thanks, Louis.

Users who download these files might want to drop in on Gearbox's forum for server administrators, also.

Both these files are also available via Hotline at RHL.

Microsoft has changed the pricing structure for Xbox Live Now; prices now range from $5.99 per month for subscriptions, $49.99 per year for subscriptions, $29.99 for the Voice Communicator, $69.99 for the Starter Kit, which includes the voice communicator and MechAssault. Thanks GamesDomain.

Dolbex at Been Mawed gets props for noticing this New York Daily News article on professional game players, but doubts the article's assertion that Major League Gaming is a larger group than the CPL. We don't know, we're not auditors. Halo50k also was mentioned and linked to in the article, although the site won't load for us here at Rampancy.

Zandervix over at MBO has posted a note on the availability of Myth Browser v1.81; it runs on Windows and Mac OS X (requires X11) and allows you to browse Myth games running on PlayMyth and Marius.net.

[image:4307 left hspace=5 vspace=5 border=0]Word has it that Xbox Live subscribers are starting to see the updated dashboard as of today, with all new features including access to the Friends list and to voice chat in the dash itself, without loading a game.
UPDATE: I've managed to get and try out the update myself; it seems to me that the voice quality is better. The in-dash voice chat does indeed, work. There's a new feature to play the voice output through the speakers instead of just through the headset, which, given the subscription fee and internet costs, makes Xbox Live a passable and inexpensive speakerphone.

Zandervix over at MBO has posted that danny over at darooster.net is starting a project called Myth Alice to create a chatbot that can have conversations about Myth. Makes me wonder if the Cortanabot is still kicking around my HD someplace... and also why it isn't called Myth Eliza, but that's beside the point, I guess.

Right now the site has forums up to discuss the project, and Anna, which looks like a web-based Myth chatbot written in PHP.