Buds Biased Utils Report, 4

Bud's Biased Utils Report #4 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Merry XMAS! I hope Santa was good to ya =) Well here we are once again... This is quite possibly the SLOWEST week of the year. Students are home for the break, people are with their families, boxes go down till January arrives. So don't expect a whole lot... but expect me to report nonethless! To keep in season I'm going to finish off this edition with my thoughts on the year thats passed, and the one to come (I can here the groans already). Hrmmm anyways time to starting mixing the rum with the eggnog! 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: Week is based from 12/20/98 to 12/26/98. I'm in the EST time zone so dates/times run according to it. Groups: (In no particular order) ▄ ▀▀██▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ ▀█▄ ▀█▌▀█▄ ▐ ▄█▀ ▄▄██▌ A Group ▐█▌ ▐▌ ▐█ █▌▐█▌ ▄█▀ █ That Gives ▄██▌▄▀ ▄██▌▀██▌ ██ ▐▌ Slightly ▀███ ▀███ ▀█ ▐███▄▄ █ Less Than ▐█▌ ▐█▌ ▐▌ ▀██▀ ▀▄ A Fuck. ▀ ▀ ▀ ▀ -XeN PIRATES WITH ATTITUDE: Releases: Dancing.Baby.CD.Player-PWA [03 x 2.88MB] LOL! Man I wish this was a joke... I'm beginning to wonder if there's a member in PWA who's really into this junk... perhaps the same one who released the Beanie Babies Collector program??? In the spirit of Christmas I'm giving them a point, despite the fact that a) it's crap and b) to get the crap they ripped the ISO, removing all the animations. :P Anyways this is actually the SPECIAL EDITION Dancing Baby CD player... please don't ask me what the fuck is special about it. It made the trip to my recycle bin in about 0.5 seconds. Total: 1/10 ▄───── ▄▄▄ ────────── ▄▄█▓▄ ─── ▄ ─ ▄▓▄ ░ ▀ ▄█████▓ ▄▄███▄ ▄▀▀████▌ ▄█████▄ ▀ ▓███▀ ▀▄██████▄▀█▌ ▐████▐▓▀ ▀███▓ ▓███▌ ▐▓█▀ ▀██▌▐▓ ▀ ▀▓▀▓▌ ▐███▌ ▐█████▄▄▀ ▀█▄ ▄▓█▓ █▓▄ █▌▀▄▄████▓ ▀██▓▀▀ ▀ ▀▀▀▀ ▀ ■▄ ▐▓ ▀▀▓█▀ ■▄──────+ The Corporation +─ ▀▄ ─gas!─■ THE CORPORATION: Releases: WEBEARLY_98-CORP [01 x 1.44MB] McAfee.OilChange.v2.0.Serial.Fix-CORP [01 x 1.44MB] REFLECTION_X_V7_10-CORP [14 x 2.88MB] RapidSQL.v5.1-CORP [05 x 2.88MB] AUTODESK.AUTOCAD.LT.98.FULL.VERSION-CORP [29 x 2.88MB] Clear_Org_Charts-CORP [02 x 1.44MB] Quicken_Home_and_Business_99-CORP [17 x 1.44MB] Pantone_Personal_Color_Calibrator-CORP [07 x 1.44MB] SmithMicro.Hot.Page.v3.0-CORP [02 x 1.44MB] Game.Programming.Starter.Kit.v.2.0-CORP [18 x 1.44MB] Game.Programming.Starter.Kit.v2.0.DIZ.Fix-CORP [01 x 1.44MB] Paragon.FoneSync.v3.0.36-CORP [03 x 1.44MB] BIS.Process.Manager-CORP [05 x 1.44MB] Paragon.FoneSync.v3.0.36.SERIAL.FIX-CORP [01 x 1.44MB] Crosswind.Calender.Server.v2.07.And.Cyber.Schedule.v2.1-CORP [02 x 1.44MB] Research.Systems.ENVI.v3.1-CORP [11 x 2.88MB] A nice week of releasing marred only by the need for a lot of fixes. Three fixes by the time I wrote this actually. CORP took advantage of a slow week that saw most other players idle and got some fairly nice apps out - Quicken H/B, Hot Page, and Embacadero's (spelling?) RapidSQL will all be fairly popular. Total: 8/10 . )\_______)\__)\_______)\_______ . . __/ __ _/ _/ ____/ ___/ . . \__ / _\ \_____ \ ___/__ : . :/ \ \ / \ / \| : |\___/ /___/_____ /___ /| : | \_/_____/\____ /_____/___/_____/ | :...`---\_____\/----/_flr_/---/_p^D_/--' RISE: Releases: N/A Idle for the week, but congrats for strong leadership - see my finishing comments. Rumor has it RISE will be putting out some titles soon but were just too busy over the holidays - sheesh who isn't. Total: N/A ▄██▀███▀▀ ▀ ▄█ ┌- ▓██ ▀▀ ▀▀▀ ────-──-─-─ ▀▀▀ -──-──-──┐ : ▀▀▀██▄▀███▀▀▀▀▀██▄ ▄██▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀██▄ ░│ ▀▀███▓ ███ ███ ▓██ ███ ███ ▓██ ▓██ ███ ░: : ███ ███ ███ ███▀▀▀ ▓██ ███ ███▀▀▀ . │░ ███ ██▓ ██▓ ███ ██▓ ███ ███ ███ ▓███▀▀ : ▓██▄██▀▄███▄▀██▄███ ▀██▄███ ███ ███ : ▄ ▄▄ ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄ roy███ ███ ███ ─┘ ▀▄ ███ ███ ██▓ ▀▄ ███ ▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀██▓ ▀█ SIEGE: Releases: INTEGRAPH.VIZFX.FOR.3DMAX-SiEGE [06 x 1.44MB] Phoenixtools.red.cd.for.Softimage3d.v3.8-siege [05 x 2.88MB] Audio_cafe_v2.01.05-siege [01 x 1.44MB] Siege was fairly idle, enjoying the break, and offering the complete archive of SGE releases from 1998 on IRC - great idea, kudos to them for it! Release wise, the hightlight was the VizFX plugin. Total: 7/10 ──────────────────────────────────[XX/XX]─ ▄██ ▄▄▄ ░ ▄▄▄▄▄▄ ▄▄▄▄ ▄▄▄▄▄▄ ▄▄▄▄ ▄▄▄▄ █▓█ █▓█ ▒ ██▀ █▓█ █ █▓█ ██ █▓█ █ ███ ██ █▓ █▒█ █▒█ █░█ ▀▀ ▄█ █▒█ ██ █▒█ █ ▄▄▄ ██▄▄ ▄██▀██▄ ▀ █▒█▀▀▀ ██ █░█ ██ ▄▄█ █▓█ ██ ▄▄ █▒█ █▓█ ▓ █▓█ ░ █▓█ █░█ ██ ░ █▓█ █▒█ ██ █▓ ███ █▒█ ▒ ███ ▬▀█████▀▄██ ▒ ▀█████▀ ▀████ ─── ██▀ ░ ──────────────── ▓ ───── sikos ─ X-FORCE: Releases: GNUPRO_TOOLKIT_V1.0_FOR_REDHAT_4.2-XFORCE [27 x 2.88MB] GNUPRO_TOOLKIT_V1.0_FOR_REDHAT_5.2-XFORCE [27 x 2.88MB] C-FORGE_V1.1-10_COMMERCIAL_FOR_LINUX-XFORCE [16 x 1.44MB] LOTUS_DOMINO_NORTH_AMERICAN_CLIENTS_V463-XFORCE [10 x 1.44MB] LOTUS_DOMINO_NORTH_AMERICAN_SERVER_V463-XFORCE [12 x 1.44MB] Someone mentioned to me that XF was working on an ISO division but that it never came through... somehow I'm not surprised in the least. As usual I won't be counting the linux/unix platform releases. So what does that leave X-Force with? Nothing but minor version lotus releases. Seems to be the story of XForce as of late. Total: 6/10 /\______/| ___/\_ _/ ______ :|; . __/\ ____/\ __| // %%%\____ \ |__:_\__ \/ ~~ :\_ | __/%%%% iii_/ :| \\_ \ ;| \_ |____/ \iiiii :::\__ ; _/ | \\_ : // | \\_ | \\_::: \____/---|____/____/_______/-|____/kaz SHOCK: Releases: Personal.Home.Inventory.v4.0-SHOCK [04 x 1.44MB] Asgard.Plugin.Wizard.v1.0-SHOCK [05 x 1.44MB] Extensis.PhotoTools.v3.02.FINAL-SHOCK [06 x 1.44MB] Only 3 releases here, but decent for another generally slow week across the scene. PhotoTools 3.02 Final was a bright spot. Expect things to pick up for SHK in January. Total: 7/10 _ ___________ _ ________ ___________ __ _ ____________ \_________ \_________ \____ _ _/_ / _ __/ / ____/ / _ __/ / ______//_ / /_ /_____/ _//_ _ \_ / /_ / \_______/ _ _//__/ _ _// _ _//mG(CiA) =[ENT]===/______/==/_______/_____/=====[ENT]= ENTITY: Releases: INTRANETWARE.NFS.SERVICES.v2.3.WINNT-ENTiTY [14 x 2.88MB] Entity were again nuked unfairly on this title, as it has something to do with Novell. Since I am totally against the Novell ban ENT will get full points for this release. Unfortunately that's all we saw from ENT this week - January will be proving time for them, the real make or break month. Total: 5/10 . ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ .▀████▀▀▀██▄ ████▀▀██▌▐██▀▀▀▀ --- .------. : ████ ███ ▐███ ███ . | ████ ▐███ ███▀ ███ : | ████ ███ ▐███ ▄███ ███▄ . : | ████▀▀▀▀▀ ██▓█ ▀███▄▄██▓▀ . .▄▓███▄ ▀███▌ ▀▀ PRESENTS : | : : [xx/xx]. '---.-------PENTIUM FORCE TEAM-- ---- - -' PENTIUM FORCE TEAM: Releases: Sierra.Drivers.Education.99-PFT [14 x 2.88MB] Power.Translator.Pro.v6.41.FIXED-PFT [48 x 1.44MB] MGI.PhotoSuite.v1.06.SE-PFT [27 x 2.88MB] PFT is getting a hit of -1 for their Translator app being broken last week. They re-released the entire thing this week... which really sucks for anyone who had to download all that (at least one poor shmuck I saw did). And then we have Drivers Education 99... hmmm well I can already drive, and it sounds kinda really fuckin shitty. But who knows... maybe the future will go that way - then again a future full of drivers trained off warez releases REALLY scares me. Total: 6/10 ________ ________ | |_________________________|__ | | | _ \ ___/ | | | / \ \ | |________|_______/ [xx/xx]/\________________| ----------------/________/>bds!------------ LEGENDS NEVER DIE: Releases: MENTOR_GRAPHICS_RENOIR_98.4-LND [05 x 2.88MB] LOTUS.DOMINO.INSTANT.HOST.SDK.1.1a.WIN9XNT-LND [08 x 1.44MB] LOTUS.DOMINO.4.6.3.WIN9XNT-LND [18 x 2.88MB] LOTUS.NOTES.4.6.3.WIN9XNT-LND [15 x 2.88MB] LOTUS.DOMINO.4.6.3.NETWARE-LND [17 x 2.88MB] Well by the time I mentioned a rumor about PRM & MDK last week, it had gone to LND. So that beefs up their impressive site repitoire. Of course siteops love LND for the megs - as for the releases.. not bad. Minor updates of Lotus aren't exactly hard to come by though, and along with XF, LND split the 4.6.3 series this week. Total: 7/10 .__________. [xx/xx/98] \_ ___ ) Da ToP oF Da LiNe! .___. ===/ _/ /=======================/ /===== .:/ _____/__./(___.____/\.______./ /_____. :/ /__/ . ) . )____ ) _ ) / __ ) /__/ / / / / // __ / /__/ / /___/: .:/ /__/__/__/__/(______\____ /__/_____ /MO =/__/========================\/========\/=== = THE PINNACLES OF RELEASING (C) PNC 95-98 = PINNACLE: Releases: CGI.Expert.Professional.v4.5.2-PNC [01 x 1.44MB] NetIntellect.Express.v3.02-PNC [03 x 1.44MB] NetIntellect.v3.02-PNC [06 x 1.44MB] WebHunter.v1.3-PNC [07 x 1.44MB] Live.Picture.Reality.Studio.v1.3-PNC [16 x 1.44MB] Fax.Rush.v4.1-PNC [04 x 1.44MB] VAKCER.Project.Tracker.v1.10.58-PNC [01 x 1.44MB] Once again this week saw PNC releasing, but nothing great - CGI Expert is a nice little app though. I get the feeling these guys have been reading my report, they seem to want to prove they're alive this week. Perhaps PNC isn't as dead as I thought.... naw! =) Still it's the most action from this camp in a long time. On a final note, WebHunter.v1.3.DIZ.FIX-PNC was actually released by Kruzin (a note about DIZ fixes: As long as the NFO is right, who cares??). Overall a nice change of pace. Total: 7/10 ─ ▄▄ ── ▄▄▄ ─────────░──────────── ─── ── ─ ░▀ ▀█▄ ▀▀ ▀▌ ▀ ■ ▐▄ ■ ▄ ▀ ■ ▀ ▀ ▄▄▄ ▀ █ ▐█▌█ ▀ █▄▀▄ █▀█▄▀██ █ █▄▀▄ ▀▀ ▄▌ █▄▀▄ ▐█▌▄█▀▐█▌ ▐█▌▄ ▐█▌▐█▌▐█▌▐█▌▐█▌▄ █ ▐▀▀▐█▌▄ ▀▓▓ ▀▓▓ ▀▓▓ ▄▀▓▓ ▀ ▓▀ ▀▓▄▀▓█ ▄▐▓▌ ▀▓▓ ▄ ── ▀ ─── ▀ ─ ▀▀ ── ▀ ▀ ──── ▀ ▀▀ ▄▀▀ ─░─ ▀▀ PREMiERE 1998 RELEASES WITH STYLE [xx/xx/98] ──────────────────────────────────────────── Premiere: Releases: N/A The PRM comeback has stalled. You can probably blame that on the holidays... but the group does not seem to be at full strength. Total: N/A _______________ ____________ ____________ \_ ___ \_ ___ \ ___ \_ _/ l/ / l/ / l/ / \______ / / / /____ / /| ======\________/\__________/[om]\________/== d(*)d D r i n k O r D i e 1 9 9 8 d(*)d ===================== [ DOD * xx-xxx-98 ] == DRINK OR DIE: Releases: N/A Total: N/A ___ _ __________ ____________ ____ _____ ___ \__\\_\_______ \__ _ ______/___ \_ __//__/ ;;;;;;; / \/ \\ ____/ / \\ mg/SAC -)--- _/ / \_ \_/ -/ \_ --(- ;;;;; \____/_ _ _//_ /______ _ _// ;;;; [xx/xx/98]/________/==\/====/________//[MfD] =[X]==][= MANiFEST DESTiNY RELEASE =][==[X]= MANIFEST DESTINY: Releases: DemoShield.v5.42.WORKING-MANiFEST [32 x 1.44MB] MFD mostly stuck to the crack/reg side of things this week and enjoyed the Xmas break. Total: 6/10 .· [xX/Xx]·. : [xx/xx/98] : : .__ .____ : |__l \._____.___\__/___ /^\__ /\___ .____ | l | \ _ l \__/ l__ \ \l _ \| l : | __/.:__| \ __/ | \ -- | __/l l _. | \ | | | \/\ _ | . | \ l__: |____/__\|___|_ /_:__|--: |\____/ ||||___/:::::::········\_/···:/_____/|[war]| |:·|-| HERiTAGE 1998 PROUDLY PRESENTS |-|·:| |||||||::::::::··············::::::::||||||| [HTG] Looking for a WHQ [HTG] HERITAGE: Releases: Crystal.On.Call-Heritage [01 x 1.44MB] Solus.Pro.v1.1-Heritage [02 x 1.44MB] Scotty.FTP.v1.14-Heritage [01 x 1.44MB] Checkinque.v4.1-Heritage [02 x 1.44MB] SignCrypt.v2.0-Heritage [01 x 1.44MB] Keyshack.v1.4-Heritage [01 x 1.44MB] Smartftp.v2.0-heritage [01 x 1.44MB] Vdomail.v1.2.full-heritage [03 x 1.44MB] Well no one can say HTG isn't a fighter. A bunch of releases on Christmas Eve hopefully got them into the spirit of the season. Problem here is a lack of quality titles. 1999 will be a tough time for this crew. Total: 5/10 _______________________________[xx/xx] \_ _ \_ ____/_ _ \_ ____/ |_\ ___/ / _/ ___)/ _/ ___) | \___ \ / | \_ | \ | \ | \ : \ : \ \___| /___ \____ \___ \___ \___ \ ====|__/===\__/===\__/==\__/==\__/==\__/ REBELS: WE MAKE ALL DAYS PARTY DAYS >> RELEASING WITHOUT PERMISSION << REBELS: Releases: PGL.Bone.Deformation.Plugins.for.Lightwave-RBS [01 x 1.44MB] Vertex.Paint.Plugin.for.Lightwave-RBS [01 x 1.44MB] C-MOLD.3D.QUICKFILL.V99.1.100.percent.fix-RBS [01 x 1.44MB] Nothing much here, nice LightWave plugins... enjoy the Holidays guys! Total: 6/10 █▄▓▄■▀░▄ Teknorage and Pirasoft Present: ▄░▀■▄░▄█ █ ▐▄ ▌ █ █▓▀cH/SAC ▄▄▄▄ ▄▄█▄▄ [xx\xx] ▀▓█ ▀ ▄▄█▄▄▄▄ ▄ ▄██▌▐████▓ ▄▄█▓█████▓▀ ▄█▄▄████▄ ▀ ▄▄████▓ ▄▄▄ ▀████▌█████▌▐████▐████▌▐████▐█████▌ ▐██████▌▐█████▄ ▓███▀█████ ████ ▀████ ███▌▐██████ ██████ ███████▌▐███ ▐████▌▐███▌▄████▌ ▀█▄ ▀▀▀▀▀ ▐████▌▐███████ ████▄████▀ ▄████████▀ ▄▄ ▐█████▄ ▄▓███▓▄▓██████▌▐████▌▀▓█▄ ▀███▓▀▀ ▄████▌▓██████▌ ▀▀██████▀ ▀████▀ ▀▀▄ ▀█▀ ▀██▀▀██████▀ █▄▄▄▓▄▄▄ ▀▀▀ ▀ ▀ ▀▀▀ ▄█ ▀▀▀ ░▒▓█▄ xx/xx/98 ······ Ratzhole WHQ ▀ ▀▓▀▀▀ TRPS: Releases: Attachmate.Rally.v6.5b.Win9xNT-TRPS [11 x 1.44MB] MediaWare.MyFlix.v1.5.1-TRPS [01 x 2.88MB] MediaWare.WebFlix.Pro.v1.5.1.Win9xNT-TRPS [01 x 2.88MB] Faxcom.for.GroupWise.v6.0.Win98NT.MERRY.XMAS-TRPS [06 x 1.44MB] FaxCom.v2.7.for.WinNT-TRPS [05 x 1.44MB] Netmosphere.ActionPlan.v3.1.Win9x-TRPS [25 x 1.44MB] Netmosphere.ActionPlan.v3.1.WinNT-TRPS [29 x 1.44MB] Netmosphere.ActionPlan.Desktop.Client.v3.1.WIN9XNT-TRPS [06 x 1.44MB] RLN.Client.v5.1.1.Win9xNT-TRPS [02 x 1.44MB] RLN.Call.Accounting.System.v5.1.1.Win9xNT-TRPS [07 x 1.44MB] Chart.Viewer.Pro.v2.0.Financial.Analysis.WIN9XNT-TRPS [04 x 1.44MB] Some good releases for TRPS this week, they almost equaled the (suprise) output of Corp. Unfortunately, several of the releases from the end of last week were nuked, costing them a point. TRPS surprised me and got Netmosphere ActionPlan (I should have been on that one, but xmas meals looked more appealing). I am a tad leary about the client release though, in v3.0 the client was included with the full program - but do to a hectic schedule all I personally checked out this week were some of the smaller releases (and the dancing baby shit). Total: 7/10 New this week: None Idle this week: DOD, RISE, PRM. Quote of the Week: *** Tokhra ([email protected]) has joined #x-force <Tokhra> is anyone willing to help one of the people who is happy with all of your releases apart from 1???? Well here's my final thought(s) for the week (with apologies to Jerry Springer). CORP took top slot with 8 points. This week was basically even slower than last due to the holidays, and there was a lack of group conflicts (holiday spirit??). A few exceptions... Cosmic (TRPS member) joined RISE while still in TRPS.. and stole some TRPS releases, giving them to RISE. He was kicked out of both groups once RISE discovered what had happened. RISE deleted the stolen releases, Cosmic is booted out of both - congrats to RISE and it's leadership for being a true class act and handling it so well. Nice to see some groups still care about fair competition. Looking back over the past year, in 1998, Siege was definately the dominant force. The return of Corp in the fall offered a new challenge, but it will take them some time to grow. PWA, DOD, & LND all lost their dominance, and LND took an especially hard blow to their reputation. HTG has struggled to make any kind of a comeback, and PNC has idled for the most part. RISE as always remains a sleeping giant - they release when they want to, which is never often enough for my liking. =) So what can we expect for next year? Expect Scum to make an impact soon, they MAY bring the competition which the utils scene dearly needs these days. I say "may" guardedly, as comebacks can go either way, and are often inclined to fizzle out before they get off the ground. There seems to be a dire lack of interest in quality & competition, with the focus instead placed on pure megs, brought about by mass releasing by groups like the earlier incarnation of PRM, and more recently TRPS and MFD. Sometimes mass releasing works, sometimes it doesn't, its up the the individual group. Either way, with some luck 1999 will bring a renewed interest on quality releases. Some final predictions: At least two groups will go out in 99 (my bets are HTG & PNC despite a recent resurgance in releases). DOD/LND will need some massive internal work to get back into things... and XF.. hmmm fallen dynasty sums that one up. Ok. Thats it. A bit thin this week but there's no avoiding that. I'm more inclinded to drink than I am to write, so blame any mistakes or missed releases on the fact that while I'm home for the Holidays the booze is FREE. - Bud