Final Post

I know a lot of you have been waiting for this. And now it’s here: the final post!

The TMU Blog was active for two years, and believe me, it was both fun and demanding at the same time. 529 posts (including this one), 3 213 comments, 220 653 hits and countless hours of writing, editing, and, from your perspective, reading.

It’s sad to say goodbye, but as most of you know, it doesn’t really end here. As a result of the TMU Blog, there’s now the TMX Blog – same thing, different (and bigger) package. And, the TMU Blog is still here. With 529 posts there’s a lot to check out, and as those of you who have been around for a longer time know, there are some great articles to read. Take for example our Media Tracker Camera Clips Tutorial, written by Alactor – it’s the single most visited article in the entire blog, with 4 197 page views.

Last but not least, I’d like to thank all of those who contributed with materials over the two years, and all of you who read and commented on the articles. Without you, the blog wouldn’t exist. And thanks to MrA who made it big by “advertising” it on TMX back when the blog started, and who let me continue without asking me to help out on TMX instead.

See you around!

Jozii

An Exciting Future

Hi everyone! Jozii here

A few days ago Alcator informed me that he won’t be able to handle the blog the way he’d like to. A shame really, and I just have to thank Alcator for the time he did spend on the blog the past few months If it wasn’t for him the blog would probably have been closed by now.

So I spent some time trying to figure out what to do. Should I look for someone else willing to take it over? Should I go back to blogging myself? The first would probably only work out for a short period, and the latter is out of the question. But then I had an idea!

I’m not going to reveal what it is just yet (as nothing is certain just yet) :P However, I wanted to give you a heads up that the blog will – if everything goes as planned - go through a major makeover in the coming time. I don’t know how long it will take – days, weeks or maybe just a few hours – but gradually I’ll be doing some changes and soon enough you will understand what it’s all about Just keep visiting and you’ll be the first to know!

Also, all this means that I’m back in charge, even if I don’t plan to do much blogging myself. I believe strongly in this secret idea and think the blog will see a healthy growth in the near future.

I’ll keep you posted In the mean time, feel free to guess what exactly it is I’m planning to do

Press Forward in 2009!

Let’s not keep you from feasting for too long;

Just remember where engines are loud and strong…

I wish you a Great Year 2009!

Wut Ya Got?

Ok, some of you already did have the Christmas Eve supper, some might have already looked under the Christmas tree, and if not, you will do so in the hours to come. So, feel free to brag, share or complain about the presents (or “absents”) that you got. Let’s see who got the most original present

TMX Monthly Track Contest revived!

Just a quick promo message:

Jozii has revived the popular Monthly Track Contest over at the TMX. If you like trackbuilding, be sure to check out the official rules and try building something that fits. I know I will.

Vacation announcement

Hello, folks!

From Saturday (November 15th) till next Wednesday (November 19th), I’ll be on a vacation, which may mean I won’t be able to cover the final round of StarContest as much as I would like (although I will try).

On another note, my son is now 13 months old and growing nicely

Plans for the blog – trackmaking competitions

Today, I would like to get some feedback on some of my plans for the blog. This time, I will focus on my plans about trackmaking (trackbuilding) competitions. Read the descriptions carefully and let me know which of them do appeal to you the most, which of them don’t appeal to you at all and which of them leave somewhat mediocre feelings. Your feedback is needed!

1. Five-into-one Round 2: About a year ago, TMU blog held “Five-into-one” competition, in which several builders were consecutively building a stage of a track in a given area; after they were done, the best five of the submitted stages were combined into one larger track in an interesting fashion, resulting in a pretty challenging track. I would like to repeat this competition but perhaps with more participants, what do you think?

2. Blog-A-Stage-Contest (BLASTCON): Similar to Build A Stage Competition known from TMX, but voting on the winning submission would be realised by commenting a post with the list of submissions (with the possibility to try them all).

3. Interconnect Challenge: A track is provided with one or more “dull” (marked) sections; participants remove the dull section(s) and try to connect the remaining areas of the track with the most innovative or just plain COOL sections; however, after they do so, they must make an author time that fits a given criteria, which limits how much stuff they can add (such as, originally the track was 40 seconds long, with 1 dull straight road that is 15 tiles long and takes 4 seconds to pass; the time limit is 55 seconds, which means they can replace the 4-seconds-long road with up to 19-seconds section). I believe this challenge would be even more interesting if there were 2 “dull sections” that would intersect, so that the two replacement sections built by participants would intersect as well.

Please provide feedback about these competitions, or suggest some new original ideas for trackbuilding competitions, in the comments!

Three Years of TrackMania

Today I did something I haven’t done in a very long time: I sat down, fired up TrackMania (United Forever), picked a server and spent some time just playing.

I can still remember the day when a classmate of mine said “hey, check out this new free game called ‘TrackMania Nations’”. I did, and I was immediately hooked. That was almost three years ago, which might not be too long, but in the world of videogames, it is.

Since then, TrackMania has been with me almost every day. Yet, I’ve never been much of a player. I’ve organized contests, events, written articles, helped newbies, built tracks, spent endless of hours here on TMX, and so on. But I seldom actually sit down and just play. If I play a track, it’s because someone has asked me to, or because it’s part of some event or contest I’m working on.

Just playing a few tracks at random online obviously isn’t a new deal for me, though. Of course I’ve spent my fair share of time in-game racing random tracks, and of course I’ve loved it. After all, isn’t the online part one of TM’s strongest assets?

Today was different, though. It’s been a while since last time, and with an extraordinary eventful summer, it feels like it’s been even longer. I’ve moved to a different country, I’ve been doing a lot of travelling, and I’ve been generally away from TM during the past few months. That made today’s launch of TM extra special. It didn’t feel like coming home, it felt like opening the door to an entirely new home for the first time. Weird but exciting. And I immediately knew I would like the place.

With a new school year starting, a lot of changes made during the summer, and generally more new hobbies, I will, however, slow down the TM activities quite a bit. No more late night blogging, no major events (maybe the occasional minor one, when I can’t help myself).

But still, I’m not leaving TM entirely! Just slowing things down. And who knows, perhaps not being too dependent on TM as a whole will make it easier and far more enjoyable to play that out-of-the-blue online race I did today. It would certainly feel more relaxed, thus making the experience more of a pleasure.

The Outdoors

Just got home from school or work? Or perhaps you’re at school or work right now? Or, maybe you’re up late surfing the net? Or something completely different… Whatever the case, you are in fact in front of the screen. That’s right, I can see you!

Odds are you’ve spent quite a lot of time in front of a computer today. And if you haven’t yet, it’s likely that you will during the day. Correct? Perhaps you’ve been playing TrackMania (or other game of choice) or surfing the net, and perhaps you plan to continue to do so for a while longer. Here’s a hint: don’t!

You’re a moderately health man/woman. You might be a bit overweight. You might be slim but, when it comes to it, not very physically balanced. Ask yourself how much time you’ve spent exercising during the past month or so. Have you been to the gym? Gone for regular walks? Or at least been outside for a few minutes every day? I’d assume most people can answer “yes” to the last one. But is that enough?

You know you should get out more. You are aware of it, but do you actually do something about it? No, you think to yourself “just one more task to complete” or “just one more website to visit”. “Let me just play one more track…”

Once you’ve read this, I want you to close the screen, save and quit all the tasks you’re working on, and just get out. Go for a walk. Do some gardening. Or even just sit on your balcony reading a good book. It’s at least better than staying here, in the chair you’re currently in. If you’re at work or school, don’t sit down in front of the computer once you get home. Get outside instead. Feel the fresh air.

In a few hours, or even just minutes if you prefer, when you’ve been outside for a while, you can come back here and leave a comment. But until then, GET OUT! You know it’s the right thing to do, for your own sake.

Tmx downtime, again sadly…

As you may have noticed, TMX is down for about 3 days now. Again because of hosting problems. As MrA states on the official TM forums:

Yep, the host wants TMX to pay for a dedicated bandwidth due to what they are calling a high level of ‘acculated traffic’ … In other words we are busy…
However, we are not anywhere near our month limit (or close to it) from our own measurements and so at the moment we dispute this…
I’m quite annoyed that they choose to suspend the site, I don’t think its correct behaviour from them, but we will not be bullied by that…

As MrA states in an additional post, they hope to get access today. When they do get it, the site needs to be taken offline.

We wish the TMX-staff good luck in getting tmx back online.

Read more here