1-30: David Hedbor released his version 2.8 of Stellar Crisis to the general public. The version includes the newest collection of SC icons. Some day someone will split the icons into, say, three groups, so a person could click on one group or another. This would cut the time for downloading icons, especially if a person just wanted to edit their empire and had chosen one of the last icons created. 1-29: LinkExchange, which displays the advertisement at the top of this page, reports a little over 8,000 visits to SC Room in the last 30 days. A banner for SC Room has appeared on other pages over 4,000 times. Since adding, in yellow, a "click here" on the banner, it's success rate has gone from one click per 76 displays to one person clicking on the banner per 45 displays. Thanks again to Aleks for creating the banner! 1-28: Eric Wang, playing at Vividnet, wrote me about a parallel universe problem at Vividnet, which may explain why it's not working. Wang says when you join a game, you're actually playing *two* games simultaneously, with different maps and opponents, but with the same name, and the pages that Vividnet sends you alternate between the two games at random. Wang notes that it's nearly impossible to defend yourself and some moves don't go as planned. Any one with help or comment can write Eric Wang 1-27: I e-mailed Peter Bortas (four different addresses) about Lysator apparently being down. I'm sure it will be working in the morning. (It was, but too late for me to get in my updates in the 12-hour games). 1-26: Stellar Crisis Room will celebrate it's first birthday Feb. 1. I ought to search my hard drive and find the script for the first page just to show how far the page has come. I'm not sure how I will celebrate the passing of one year. I'm open to suggestions. 1-25: Several people have asked about slow to non-existent access to Vividnet. Aliza R. Panitz wrote that "Vividnet's upstream net provider (the technical term is Network Access Provider, or NAP), agis.net, has been having serious problems with not having enough bandwidth in the Los Angeles area. "Basically, agis.net has sold more network in the LA area than they can provide, so all of their customers get screwed until they add more capacity. It doesn't matter how fast the connection from Vividnet to the outside world is... it goes through agis.net and gets shredded." So now you know 1-24: I just noticed this at the Lysator log-in. I don't know how long it's been posted, but not too long: "SC at Lysator has changed administrator from David Hedbor to Peter Bortas. "This is because David no longer plays the game regularly and often therefore has a hard time noticing if the server goes down." You can e-mail Peter if you have a problem with the server. 1-20: The Left Bank Operation, the company which houses the servers which comprise Sneaker.net and Blank.Org, will be moving to new quarters between Friday, 24 January 1997, and Saurday, 25 January. During this time, access to mailing lists, including the Stellar Crisis mailing list, and other services provided under the Blank.Org and Sneaker.Net names will be unavailable for at least 4-6 hours on Saturday morning, and possibly as late as Sunday afternoon. 1-12: Jurgen recently announced the winners in voting for the top 10 players. Best Overall Player: Amanda Dalrymple Honorable mention: Vegetti Best Warfare: Vegetti Honorable mention: W.A.R. Best Role-Playing: Dread Captain Roberts Honorable mention: BigB Best Humor: Dread Captain Roberts Empire of the Year: 1, Vegetti (10.1 percent of 129 votes). 2, Amanda (9.3 percent). 3, Dread Captain Roberts (7.8 percent). 4, W.A.R. (4.7 percent). 5, BugLady (4.7 percent). 6, BigB (4.6 percent). All information on the vote is available at Jurgen's page. 1-6: Link Exchange statistics for the first week since Aleks Stellar Crisis banner was posted on other sites shows: Stellar Crisis Room has been advertised 1,013 times (We've been visited 2,026 times), with 16 people having clicked on the banner. This is a 63.3 click through rate. Most banners have rates of .4 to 1.4 percent. Aleks banner is getting 1.5 percent, which is pretty darn good! BayBank made the first mention on the Internet of Stellar Crisis Sept. 12, 1995. The bank also had a promo photograph, which I've already mentioned. 1-2: Aleksandr Sidorenko would like a different earth icon for the game. Check out his proposed planets. If you like them, tell Aleks. David Hedbor, admin at Lysator, liked Aleksandr's planets. He immediately placed them in the game. 1-1: What better way to celebrate the New Year than joining a clan. Bird of Prey is a proud member of the Legion of Honor. chirp chirp.