Man, 1.5 sure is awesome isn't it? Doesn't it suck that we're without commands though? There's several ways we have to handle updates, and now that bukkit has taken OVER a week to make a recommended build for 1.5, a conversation needs to be had.

First, a brief explanation. Bukkit edits and overwrites Minecraft's code, so a Minecraft update often means bukkit needs to be greatly re-written. They have 3 statuses for builds of bukkit: Failed, Stable, and Recommended. Here's the difference:

• Failed: They made code changes, the program basically doesn't load
• Stable: It works, and most plugins work, but it's not fully tested or there's a few bugs
• Recommended: The build is thoroughly tested and has no bugs

For the most part, a stable build works well and doesn't have many errors, you just typically download the .jar file and put it in your minecraft directory, and it works. The problem is, our host uses a service called "MCMyAdmin" which ONLY allows automated install of recommended builds. This is usually a good solution for a host; it's easy to use and you're not putting potentially broken code running on your server (imagine if some untested code goes into an infinite loop and uses a ton of resources...badness). This is why we've been running without commands or anything since 1.5_02.

In theory, we can submit a ticket to the people at our server host and ask them to install a stable build. They should be willing to do that, however the issues are that the stable build can get updated every few hours when they're working on it, and the turnaround for getting it installed may be half a day or more. It begs the question how often do we want to have to update bukkit AND all our plugins. Also...these are essentially testing versions, they could cause errors to make the game unplayable OR potentially even corrupt the world.

The other option is to not upgrade to new versions of minecraft AT ALL until a new recommended bukkit is out. We keep the server at the current version, keep the current bukkit...and users would NOT be able to update their clients or they wouldn't be able to connect. There's tutorials out there how to keep 2 versions of the minecraft client on your computer, but it's a bit of a pain...at least we'd have the tools to stop griefers and such.

With that explanation in mind...what would you prefer?

We all love to play our minecraft when we should be doing other stuff...I dunno if I've ever heard of anything as serious as this one. Member BustaCapps was playing some minecraft...and shot this picture out the window...that's an effing tornado:

Evacuate? Hide? Meh, I have wolves to collect!

Now I know this isn't Minecraft related but I think most of you will enjoy the two pictures I put together. You see, different parts of the Internet work better for different browsers, I use three.

And here is how I renamed them based on what I use them for

If you understand the message behind this joke, please write it in the comments

so, I know I have missed posting a few videos but I just started this new series to replace Show Your Shit and Man vs. Minigame while I sort out how to make sure those shows can keep running without stopping again due to lack of content. A lot of people have wanted me to start from scratch on my house and so I thought I would create a series around me and a few friends building a little town. Add survival and maybe a few goals and this show is a keeper! This first season is a just a "test" season, as I like to call it, where there is no specific objective in place and I'm just seeing what stuff I might add to the next season. This season could have been better had I been more prepared but, that's ok, it's just YouTube. So, here's episodes 1 and 2:

101- Speed Demon

102- Back on Track

Hey everyone, looks like the hosting provider is having some issues. We can log into the admin panel, but the server version is back to 1.4, we can't update it to 1.5_02, and we can't get it to start. The error we're getting is that their host is under heavy load, meaning it's nothing wrong on our end.

We'll keep checking in every so often to see if we can't get it started, and you should do the same. Rest assured, I downloaded the latest backup, so EVERYTHING will still be there for you, your precious cubes are safe. For the time being, you'll just have to suffer through playing some Portal 2 :D

-Surf