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Cubemen 2 on the Way to Wii U

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An outstanding indie-game, Cubemen 2, is going to be making it’s way to the Wii U. The game is already available for PC, Linux, Mac and iOS and has be very successful. You can battle against up to six (6) others, regardless of platform, or against the AI in a RTS style action game that includes many modes like capture the flag and skirmish.

The game boasts over 4000 user created levels that you can download and play or even create your own. In Cubemen 2 you can also personalize your units the way you want for a truly customized experience. This will be a great addition to the Wii U which is a solid piece of hardware in need of great software titles like this.

“I’m really proud to be able to announce this,” said Nic Watt, Creative Director at Nnooo. “We’ve spent the last few months working with both Nintendo and 3 Sprockets, the game’s developer, to make this a reality. Cubemen 2 is an amazing game and a great fit for Nintendo players. We can’t wait to see how creative they are, whether in tactical multiplayer online or in the new levels they build.”

Cubemen 2 is expected to be released late 2013 / early 2014 as a downloadable title on the Wii U in the US, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Price to be announced.

Cubemen2SS

How To Update Mac OS 9 to 9.2.2

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Okay, this may sound simple enough but if you don’t have the updates on disc somewhere then it can be next to impossible to find the update files for Mac OS 9. Part of the reason it’s so hard to find updates to OS 9 is the fact that Apple has basically dropped all support for the OS. However, the aging OS is still used by many enthusiasts and vintage computer users around the world and if you need to do a clean install you’re going to want the updates. Everything is still out there, you just need to know where to look.FinderLogo

First, let me get you up-to-speed on some of the work you will need to do once you obtain the update files. These steps will help if you have a newer Mac or a Mac with OSX installed and will make the process much easier. Please stick around for the final steps or you might not get things to work.

  •  Step one, get the files!  You can obtain most of the older updates through this link.
  • The updates you will need are 9.1, 9.2.1 and 9.2.2. The first two are prerequisites and will need to be downloaded and installed before continuing.

Once you have downloaded each update folder, you need to prep them before you can use them on your older Mac. This guide assumes you are doing the prep work on a newer version of OS X. Here is what you need to do:

  • For Update 9.1, open the folder, you should see 15 (.bin) files, select them all. Next, Control click or right-click on a (.bin) file in the selection and choose “open”. This will open all of the (.bin) files. Now sort the files in the folder by “kind” and you should see all of the extracted files separated from the original (.bin) files. Now, take all of the extracted (.part) files and the single (.smi) file and burn them to a disc (CD-R*). You will now be able to load this disc into your older mac and proceed with the update by opening the (.smi) file and then launching the installer.
  • For Update 9.2.1, extract the file from the (.bin). Next, the process is a little different from the 9.1 update. You can try to load the single (.smi) by burning it to a disc and then mounting it on the older Mac, but I found that this doesn’t always work. I find it’s better to convert the (.smi) to a (.dmg), mount it, then burn the files contained within the image to a disc.
  • To convert the (.smi) to a (.dmg) on your OSX machine, Open, Disk Utility, then click in the white space in the box to the left so you are not selecting any mounted disks. Next, click Convert. Find the 9.2.1 (.smi) file and click Convert. Choose read-only with no encryption and then choose a save location. Click Save. You will be prompted to use (.dmg) instead of (.smi), click “Use (.dmg)”.
  • Now you can open the new (.dmg) file and burn all of the files to a CD-R. For Update 9.2.2 use the same process as 9.2.1.

** Please note that attempting to use a USB stick to update instead of a CD-R will likely result in failure. Mac OS 9 doesn’t seem to recognize the files correctly when loaded on to a flash drive. Your best bet is to burn the files to a CD-R.  Also, remember that many older Macs that run OS 9 do not have DVD drives, so don’t forget to use a CD-R for those machines.  A CD-RW may also be suitable.

Apple Developer Center Slowly Back Online

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Apple Dev Progress

It’s been over a week now since Apple’s Developer Center has gone offline. This is all thanks to an intruder that hacked his way into the developer center last Thursday. Apple has since promised to completely rebuild everything and to slowly bring things back online. They have created an status page that shows the progress of their developer system and as of today, about half of it has come back online.

Here’s the actual statement that was sent out to developers via email.

Last Thursday, an intruder attempted to secure personal information of our registered developers from our developer website. Sensitive personal information was encrypted and cannot be accessed, however, we have not been able to rule out the possibility that some developers’ names, mailing addresses, and/or email addresses may have been accessed. In the spirit of transparency, we want to inform you of the issue. We took the site down immediately on Thursday and have been working around the clock since then.

In order to prevent a security threat like this from happening again, we’re completely overhauling our developer systems, updating our server software, and rebuilding our entire database. We apologize for the significant inconvenience that our downtime has caused you and we expect to have the developer website up again soon.

 

 

Flush DNS Cache on Mac OS X

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When you enter a web address into your webrowser like “geekwithenvy.com”, the DNS (Domain Name System) changes that user-friendly name into an IP address that computers can more easily understand. Your computer doesn’t need to do this every single time you visit a website because it stores the IP addresses for many sites on your computer for a short period of time. This information is stored in what’s called the DNS cache.representations of servers to show Clear DNS Cache

Unfortunately, this stored information may become corrupt or just end up being incorrect due to changes that occur on the site’s server. If your DNS cache has incorrect IP information then you won’t be able to access the site your trying to get to because it’s looking for the website in the wrong place.

There is a quick solution to correcting your DNS cache issues and that is to force it to ask the DNS what the new IP information is. You can do this by clearing the DNS cache or “Flushing” your DNS cache.

Launch Terminal and enter the commands below to flush your DNS Cache:

Mac OS X Lion and Mountain Lion (10.7 /10.8)

  • sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

Mac OS X (10.5 and 10.6)

  • dscacheutil -flushcache

If you happen to be running OS X Mavericks (10.9) you will want to do this two step command:

  • dscacheutil -flushcache;sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

Mac OS X Yosemite (10.10) 

 (Please note: The the following command will clear your DNS Cache but there is no official confirmation from the terminal when entered.

  • sudo discoveryutil mdnsflushcache
  • sudo discoveryutil udnsflushcaches

Mac OS X Yosemite (10.10.4 and Up) use this instead:

  • dscacheutil -flushcache;sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

That should cover it for DNS cache issues. If you are still having problems you can always reboot your machine, this should resolve any DNS inaccuracies on your computer.

Fix in the Works for 2013 MacBook Air Wi-Fi Problem

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EarlyMacAirWifiFix

The new MacBook Air from Apple boasts all day battery life, a 4th generation Intel CPU, a super-fast SSD, a bump in graphics performance and support for the latest 802.11ac Wi-Fi technology. Unfortunately, there have been a few issues with the latter.

New MacBook Air owners are experiencing Wi-Fi connection drops on a regular basis and the only fix seems to require you to reboot your laptop. This obviously sucks and it’s one of the reasons I prefer to wait a while before buying the latest and greatest.

Fortunately, there is good news out there as AppleInsider has reported that Apple is indeed sending out invitations for MacBook Air users to join the AppleSeed program which will allow them to download a early version of  the “MacBook Air WiFi Update 1.0”. This update is most likely aimed at correcting the connection issues that early adopters have been dealing with over the last few weeks.

The 2013 MacBook Air in both sizes is currently the only laptop in Apple’s lineup that features the new 802.11ac standard.