Elliott C. Back: In Aere Aedificare

I’ve been getting this error trying to send a message to friends on Facebook:

HTTP Error

Transport error (#302) while retrieving data from endpoint `/inbox/ajax/ajax.php’: Unknown HTTP error #302

Weird, I wonder what’s the problem.

This lovely error screen, a window randomly drawn multiple times across the screen, cloned to hell, is a reason why I dislike the Microsoft Windows XP operating system:

As abstract art, though, I think it might get decent reviews!

I got the following advertisement in my inbox just now for an Apple mac. It’s part of their student campaign, so I receive the emails to my old Cornell address. At first glance, it seems innocuous, but think carefully about the contradiction inherent in the panels:

A free iPod touch. Another reason to get a Mac for school.

Reminder: A free iPod isn’t the only reason a Mac makes sense.

1. Runs Office, Vista, and XP.
2. Has built-in WiFi.
3. Doesn’t get those PC viruses.
4. Comes ready to video chat.
5. Does so much more with photos and movies.
6. Delivers course materials and more via iTunes U.

Let’s put this together. According to Apple, the number one selling point for marketing their Macbook computers to students is that existing Microsoft software–Office, Windows Visa, and Windows XP can all be run on the Macbook. Don’t tell me that somehow magically, when Windows is running on Apple’s hardware, that all the malware, viruses, worms, and spyware written for Windows will suddenly stop working or infecting your PC. Yet their #3 point is that the Macbook “won’t get those PC viruses.”

Sorry Apple, the Macbook will definitely get PC viruses if it’s running Windows–which you suggest it should be.

Their article on city corruption, Audit Reveals City Employees Stole $21 Million Worth Of Office Supplies, came through my feed reader, but since leaving a comment requires registration, I’ll just do it here instead:

Let’s say it’s 100 cell phones, with each cell phone costing $199. That comes out to $19,900. Now let’s say 100 employees did the same thing. That comes to $190,000. Wow!

By my math, 10^4 * $199 is $1.99M. Sorry, Don Montrey and the Phillyist, this kind of mathematical typo is simply unforgivable. It’s why “journalist” is a term that applies to someone working with editorial oversight to catch and prevent these sorts of stupid errors, and why bloggers simply aren’t there yet.

Update: I should have toned down the weekend snark, as you can see from the comments, I neglected a power of ten (wrote 10^3) in my correction, although the sum did come out ok. I guess we all need editors.

I was getting a lot of errors like the following:

CAsyncWavDataCache: 297 .wavs total 0 bytes, 0.00 % of capacity
Your map [maps/gg_aerelon_kalel_2.bsp] differs from the server’s.
Host_Error: Disconnected

Or the infamous missing map error:

Missing map maps/gg_aim_ag_texture_jungle-l.bsp, disconnecting

The trick is type sv_downloadurl=”" into the console:

] sv_downloadurl
“sv_downloadurl” = “http://khuda.net/csfastdl2/” ( def. “” )
replicated
- Location from which clients can download missing files
] sv_downloadurl = “”
Connecting to 75.125.186.220:27015…
Connected to 75.125.186.220:27015

See, my HL2 or CSS / CS:S client remembered the wrong server url to download maps from. Once you clear that out, it can go ahead and do its thing, meaning no more missing maps or map download errors!