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1999 February 6

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Bud's Biased Utils Report #9 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The warped minds here at the Biased Utils Report (that means me!) opted for a change of pace this week. Instead of my usual *somewhat* truthful reviews, I've instead thrown professionalism and quality journalism out the window and gone for showmanship! So in place of the normal report, I bring you a selection of SUPER-BIASED reviews done by various members of the utils scene. Some info about the format... there was none. I gave all guest authors free reign over their chosen topic. Some decided to take a look at a given groups performance over a single week, others looked at the group as a whole. Finally, this was originally scheduled for last week, so if any dates are off, blame me. Here's the "Bud saves his ass" disclaimer.... these aren't my opions... keep that in mind (although I may choose to agree with some). And it's all for fun... don't take it TOO seriously. Disclaimer: It's BIASED moron. My opinion. So don't send me a bunch of mail & messages bitching about this or that. If you don't like it... SCREW YOU =] Rankings: Groups get a score out of 10. Points are given for amount of releases, but QUALITY titles will give a group a much higher score. Nukes for duping, broken releases and just plain CRAP will lower a groups score. However on the occasion that a title is nuked which I don't feel should have been, MY OWN JUDGEMENT TAKES PRECEDENCE. Cuz I'm writing this. Groups can also get points for any other reason I see fit. Week: Time Periods don't really apply this week, although it would have been 01/31/99 to 02/06/99. Groups: (In the order they were submitted in (I think)) THE CORPORATION: Reviewed by: Bones Hey, Bones from ENTiTY here, giving you my biased view on CORP this week. I'll start with this week. Nothing too fabulous this week, a blatantly obvious dupe of XFORCE on their best title, Opticad.. 3 apps were also put out for all you biochemists in the scene. 2 Points off for the Dupe and The Biochemical apps (I'm sure they are nice apps, but think honestly about how many people will use them). The MetaIP stuff is pretty nice so a point they lost is regained. All in all this week was nothing special at all. This week I give them a 6/10. 200- 990124 InstallWiz.Professional.Edition.V1.08-CORP 9647KB 200- 990124 Softree.PowerGraphs.Toolkit.Corporate-CORP 554KB 200- 990124 [NUKED].OptiCAD.v.5.0-CORP 2204KB 200- 990125 Omiga.V1.1-CORP 16382KB 200- 990125 Rasmol.v2.6.With.Plugins-CORP 2350KB 200- 990125 Sigma.Gel-CORP 4740KB 200- 990128 Dynamic.Authentication.Filter.v3.5j.for.NTIIS-CORP 1663KB 200- 990130 CheckPoint.MetaIP.v4.1.Enterprise-CORP 23030KB Now for a more overall look at this group. They came back to life, pretty much out of nowhere around September of 98, bringing some controversy with them. At the beginning they had a bunch of problems, probably just (re)growing pains. A whole bunch of early releases were packed with 0 compression (one actually grew in size, go figure) Here and there an app which went out as FINAL was actually a beta. Problems with other groups were around, think back the the corp.txt released a while ago. NFO wars with SIEGE cost a certain council his spot in CLASS. There were a few broken releases and a few dupes, but this happens to everyone and is not the norm for CORP. Aside from all that, Corp has been relatively steady in their releasing, with good quality titles. They seem to have GREAT support from their leaders in terms of supplying, and they have good support from their members (hi machv!). Anyways to sum it up, hopefully they can probably keep up the momentum they have started with. Overall I'd give them a 7/10, the score being lowered for all their early problems. Perhaps in a bit more time they can show that those problems are completely gone, as they have done, and this score can go up (and i think they have certainly tried, mosty successfully). X-FORCE: Reviewed by: Bud No one signed up for XF, so I did a quickie job on em. :) XForce was at one time supposedly the top group in the scene. Of course that #1 is debatable... but they were up there if you ever gave a shit what mags like RCN had to say. Either way they were once a decent releasing team. Oh my how the mighty have fallen. They've passed the torch on to Siege as far as quality graphics utils go, and they can't even seem to get the clipart out anymore. So what are we left with? Betas, builds, and maybe the odd quality title... but for the most part, XF is gathering dust. In my heart they'll always be ClipForce, movers of 1000$ artpacks. Where would my life be without BODACIOUS_TEXTURES_RUST-XFORCE!! And of course who could survive lacking the twice monthly appearence of Ultimate Toolkit for MFC. Let us not forget that this is a group that felt a need to give some sites MEGA-HQ status. Well, the Mega HQ and all the others are still around, but the titles have dried up. When all is said and done, kudos for the past work, and get yer ass in gear if ya wanna reach the millenium! LEGENDS NEVER DIE: Reviewed by: Lester As former leader of this once great group, I feel uncomfortable about writing this, and yet I feel it is neccesary for me to do so, as I was once apart of the true Legends Never Die. The true 'Legends' of this group have long since passed on into their real lives, leaving this group with a immature and immoral leader. Nightsky, who I have a great deal of respect for, is left to run this group with Grad, and does not seem to be able to control his antics, or maybe is turning a blind eye to it, as even I did for some time. LND has released some very reputable titles recently, but all titles are released to the largest size possible, and with other peoples cracks on a large number of them. Grad has numerous times stated that LND is simply for the prewhores and will use any means neccesary to release. This is a blasphemy of what the old LND stood for and was. Such grand names as Orion, TMOD, Snake, and Hannibal, are left as distant memories in the now heavily mocked LND. One can only hope that they may return and bring LND back to it's glory, or that the other leaders of LND will realize the harm that Grad is doing to this group. PINNACLE: Reviewed by: Vantmas This is my biased report on the group PINNACLE. I would like to startout by saying I was a little iffy on reviewing them because I am not a big fan of groups who name themselves after a baseball glove/ball manufacturer ( a poor one at that, my pinnacle glove is a piece of shit). I have talked to Kirk_Hammat, a senior/supplier, good job pnc of making him a senior, so he would stay and supply :) he wouldnt send me an nfo when i asked for one, so its a bad start for the pnc boys. I decided to checkout there 6 latest releases, and was suprised to find out that 4 out of 6 could be downloaded as shareware off the web, and looks like thats where they got it. I was going to say they were exactly like CORP but with respect, but thats because I was under the impression they were non-shareware, MY BAD. Looks like they might be the present day PRM, with a sprinkle of commercial releases. They have HOE as there whq, but last time I checked cardiel was still coming on irc, so it might not be up for long. Also, there nfo is very boring, take pride in your releases, maybe change it atleast ONCE A YEAR. I would rather read the dictionary. I dont know how long PNC can keep there current members, looking at there nfo i notice a LOT of dual grouping. I also notice that mr_zima and Kirk_hamma have ops in SCUM and few of there members are members of scum, so I dont know if there is a potential merge there. i have two final sentences for PNC: 1) Looks like PNC is the idle PNC of old but with 1-2 gifted carders and/or web suppliers and a supplier in kirk. 2) PNC will not be a group that lasts, guranteed and they will not release there 1 a day release for long, mark my words! This is VantMaS of ACE, saying I WANT MY ADSL, IDIOT PACBELL PEEPS. Watch for ACE in 99. SCUM: Reviewed by: Kirk Hammet Well, here we are...I'm hungry and tired so your not gonna read anything good about Scum (you werent gonna read anything good anyway). Lets start with the releases. They got six releases since they restarted. There first release "Livelink Ontime Enterprise v4.64 For WinNT" they raced PFT and lost on most sites...good job. There second release came the next day. "Sniff Plus Java v3.0.2", It's is a minor update from Corp's release of v3.0.1 and it didnt even work but at least the fix was out the same day! Excellents Work Guys!. "MGI Videowave v2.0" is actually a good title, gotta give them that one. Except for the fact that it didnt really work. Some options werent working, and it would crash more times than fusions mom on herion. Another outstanding job by our Scum friends. The Next item on the acuation block is "Vision Jade v4.0a FULL SUITE", seems to me like a dupe of TRPS's version. They say its different and the difference is that its a fuller version, so basicly its the same shit just more .doc's and crap files for me to download well woopdy fucking doo I'm happy bout that one. I dont think it can get any better then that release...do you? The nfo reads ..."As pointed out before in this nfo, SCuM is an old group refounded. We dont want to be another group at the front we just want to release what we like most ourselves, quality utils and applications." I guess they are still trying to achive that!! And what the fuck is "Another group at the front"?!? Note to scum boys...dont smoke crack and write nfo's, it's not a good thing! "Have Fun, Dont Die! - Poison/SCuM" Yeah...Ill try not to thanx...I wouldnt of figured that one out with out you guys thanks. Without that comment i would have had a boring life and died early but now that I have read that I'll have fun, and I'll NEVER EVER die!!! So in closing i leave you with another quote from SCUM nfo "WE ARE ALL HUMAN, BUT ONLY THE GREAT ONES CAN BE SCUM!" So why are there so many ppl in your group? I know your all not great! Time to kick some people out, actually kick all the people out. Go do something productive like Bingo or GinRummy. SIEGE Reviewed by: Grad Siege has been around quite a while and is best known as a group that caters to graphic and design aficionados. They have, by far, some of the best resources of any group (China Blue) and can buy/bribe just about anyone into doing what they want. **************The Key Member************** China Blue - this self-proclaimed robin hood of warez has tremendous wealth and influence. She was great working with but annoying as an opposition. She's a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde type person that you don't want to catch in a bad mood. She is the top supplier of both hardware and software. *************The Followers************* Siege is rather large group with ~40 members (not including siteops). This is substantially larger than most other groups but is fine if they can manage and satisfy the constituents. ************The Software************ As I stated earlier, Siege is a predominantly graphics based group. Every group should have a mission statement and it seems that Siege's screams "GRAPHICS, GRAPHICS, GRAPHICS." Occasionally they'll get a few gems outside the graphics genre (about 15-20%). *********The Sites********* Siege has 12 sites listed in their nfo with the most notable being ET. Personally I question the siteops who consider siege as an affiliation. Why would anyone in their right mind pick Siege (other than for the name) when traders (who are the people that actually support sites) can get Siege releases from 12 other sites? Also, what about those 40+ users? Who wants to give them all leech? From Siege's point of view this was probably done out of necessity (and with bribes) due to their large membership base. ************The Crackers************ My favorite, the crackers. Siege has plethora of crackers. Flat Chicken, Kashmir/Only/Bspline (same person), Fuhrley, StPark, KrK, Wayward, OrionYoun, CrackZ, and probably a few others I forgot. Siege seems to think that they own these guys--just try to persuade one to leave and watch the reprimands fly from both s^j and china blue. thought people were raised to make their own decisions but such is not the case when you join Siege. My guess is that half these crackers were bought out by 'gifts' of hardware because as one cracker told me, "I have a debt to cb wherever she goes as long as she is in the scene." Take that for what it's worth. ***********************The Lame-Assed Couriers*********************** Recently Siege took a lame-assed courier into their ranks (Garoto). Depending on how you look at it: A) package deal with a site or site(s) B) desperation for site support (someone has to pre these 12 sites) C) both of the above My Take: A Stupid, myopic move. Traders should be no part of any group unless they can rip, package, and spread effectively. Brains helps too so that just rules out Mr. Seiko. Mr. Seiko probably thought that joining Siege he'd close in on my alltime record on ET. SORRY CHARLIE! TAKE A LOOK THE GAP IS GETTING WIDER. | 01 grad AOD COMPLETE AND UTTER DOMINATIO 9146 18GB 99K/s | 02 Garoto DEVOTiON DEVOTiON CLASS SiEGE 9502 13GB 182K/s **********Conclusion********** A big group with tons of cracking talent (regardless of how they were acquired), plenty of sites, and good suppliers. As long as China Blue remains a part of this group it remain among the top 3 or 4 groups. PENTIUM FORCE TEAM Reviewed by: Napalm Cognos.Impromptu.Web.Reports.v5.0.WinNT-PFT Reflection.for.ReGIS.Graphics.version.7.00.Win9xNT-PFT (10 file(s), 25mb) Attachmate.Management.Console.v4.1.and.Expert.Assistant.v1.0-PFT (28(38mb)) Cactus.Workbench.v3.72-PFT (22 file(s), 30.2234 mb) Java.Add-in.for.WinRunner.5.01-PFT (9 file(s), 12.4592 mb) Lost.and.Found.v1.00-PFT (1 file(s), 1.4873 mb) Novera.jBusiness.v4.0.for.WinNT-PFT (18 file(s), 23.7787 mb) Folio.Live.Publish.v5.for.WinNT-PFT (16 file(s), 43.5436 mb) Turbo.Tax98.for.Business-PFT (6 file(s), 16.0606 mb) Well, PFT had a pretty good week, with a lot of QUALITY over quantity which is nice to see for a change in the scene.Turbo Tax is an okay release, not really something people but more or less need to keep their finances in order. Folio Live Publish 5 was the highlight for me, it is a really nice nice app, one which I was a bit disappointed about being beaten on, but hey shit happens :/. Novera jBusiness 4 is also a nice title, and for me has to tie with Live Publish for their #1 release of the week, although maybe a bit specialized. Lost and Found, although not big in meggage is a really useful little util for recovering data, although the installation is a bit weird, since you must install from disks :/.The Java-addin for Winrunner just seems to enable a lot more functions most of us would never use anyway. Cactus WorkBench is a nice title, but a very minor update. Attachmate Management Console is another quality release, something I have come to expect from PFT. The Reflection app I am not too sure about, as a slightly diff ver was released as 7.01. Also good work on web reports, another nice app. Overall, a good week for PFT , 7.5/10. I think PFT are probably one of the better utils releasing groups on the scene today. Unlike some others (not mentioning any names) they seem to have a standard set for their releases, which is something good to see in the scene today, with it being the way it is. A lot of groups could learn something from PFT. ACE Reviewed by: Powertool Well, it looks as if these guys finally bit the bullet. Culture as well as Vantmas left this week and there is no real hope for them now. I know that a lot of sceners are not familiar with ACE, so I have decided to give you a little history about ACE. ACE started out as a curry group. Oh yeah, we had the elite sites like the DoggPound (Jman useta' beat my ass on it:P.) Later on, we decided we were gonna release utilities and get away from that lame thing called currying. We began to accumulate crackers and supplies daily. Many of the top sceners were in ACE upon my arrival. Some of these were woodson, techfuzz, gza, brainski, OlieW, keewee, marbitoz, avoozl and many others. We kept on releasing and releasing until culture left for a while. Culture's roomate Vasa took ACE by the helm and well, sunk ACE to the bottom of the sea. By this time, I was in F4CG (hiho mates) and was just an onlooker of a group of people who I spent a lot of fun nights with. ACE eventually split up. A few weeks/months later, REUNiTED was formed. REUNiTED did very poorly, so they decided to switch names back to ACE for a boost. With culture back and many new suppliers, ACE looked to have a bright future. They were releasing daily once again and had some very nice releases. Then, Vantmas leaves for RiSE. Culture stays around just for a about a week longer, then decides he is quitting the scene. So ACE now has no leader or well, in a nutshell, no chance. It's a shame to see this one go because I loved them all so much. Releases this week: N/A (Group has Died) Score: 10/10 for Effort! Best of luck to you all in your future endevors, wherever they may lead you to. PS: This was actually damn hard for me to write. I enjoyed my time with you all and we had some very memorable moments. You were my first real group and i will never forget you guys for it. Much love for everything... now time to put this biatch on ice. SODOM Reviewed by: Poison The comeback of Sodom some weeks ago completely surprised me, in a positive way. I have always liked this group and the members which it contained. They had some nice releases first 2 weeks of their new existence but after that it became a little quiet with them. I dont doubt that they will have many more releases though, because i know how much work it is to reform a group :). For now i wish them all the luck with the things they have to sort out (its a lot of work guys, but worth it) and i hope when thats done that we will see a lot more from a fine oldskool group, i am sure u guys will be a nice competition to other util groups. New this week: N/A Idle this week: N/A Quote(s) of the Week: <MrBones> this is taking FOREVER ^^^^^ Bones learns my pain :)) <superjess> make sure u put in ur util report jess rox, k? <Bud-> hahaa sure :) <Bud-> consider it done All the reviews are untouched and unedited, exactly as I recieved them. So if they suck, at least I can't be blamed. It was interesting anyways... judge for yourself which were a success. There may even be a few people up there who could steal my job <G>. It's all in jest and I hope you all took it that way. To be honest, I expected them to be a lot more biased, so some people got off pretty easy. There were a few other people who were going to be involved in this, but I either didn't get a chance to see tem in time or they didn't have time to finish, but thanks to everyone! Next week I'll be back with my normal report, but I suppose I should give my REAL thoughts as to the actual week of utils, briefly. When the dust settled after the past 7 days, DOD had suprised a LOT of people.. they appear to be back for another round, and if they can keep it up, they could really shake the utils scene (they have before). A lot of nice titles out of that camp this week. Also, congrats of sorts to PFT for getting PowerQuest's Lost & Found (recovery software) out... this thing had some nasty protection on it, which PFT cheated by WinImaging.. but it works (as long as you have a disk drive =]). This week also saw the resurgance of XFORCE.. at least to some extent, but several of the releases were a bit iffy. SGE and RISE were mostly idle, SGE doing the most recent build of Speed Razor on top of a few plugins, and Rise doing just one title after some internal reorganizing. For the rest of the pack, we saw some ups and downs... TRPS had a fair amount of releases, and SHOCK released a massive amount of apps, but neither had any real top quality titles. Entity was idle, and Manifest Destiny was suprisingly quiet compared to previous weeks. Corp had a decent run, with some Webtrends products including the new Security Analyzer 2 as well as some other decent apps, although a Canadian tax proggie really wasn't necessary. PRM also made their presence felt. Finally, LND, despite public opinion and contreversy, had a good week overall, with Visio 5 Enterprise and Autocad's Quickcad 6 Millenium. Anyways that about wraps things up for this edition... see ya next week! (With our strict deadline week = within the month of feb. <g>) - Bud
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