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As a fair few people will know, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 2 came out in Australia on Tuesday morning. I was one of those who went to the Midnight launch and picked up my copy to bring it home and play for a few hours. Before the launch, the game was riddled with many different things posted online and leaked by those who managed to get copies of the game early. To see some of the things which were leaked, and caused so many issues, you can have a look in the Games on Net News Section

To begin with, the game was looking great, it was working well, and I was having no issues finding other Aussies to play against.

Within 24 hours that has all changed, and an Influx of Americans to play once the game was released over there, ended up meaning that any of those outside of the US who were wanting to play were forced to be in games with Americans and high latency. I mean, who would like to be taking a shot at a guy, empty half a clip into him, to be killed by a single bullet... Then of course, you can watch the killcam, and see that according to the other persons view, you hadn't even fired off a shot?

Infinity Wards Robert Bowling(@fourzerotwo) was quick off the bat to reply and state that even though they're not putting in a "local only" option to the game, that it would mean that it was just already applied, however with the way it has been faring over the past 24 hours, it would seem that he hasn't got a clue what he was on about. However, whether this stems from either a lack of testing, or just from ignorance for those outside their largest market region, is unsure.

Unfortunately, until these issues are resolved, I would be urging anyone to not waste your hard-earned money on this game(unless you're from an American Continent), as you'll no doubt be hit by what is plaguing myself, and thousands of other aussies who were looking forward to this game.

The big question is: Will Infinity Ward do anything about it?

Well, I finally have my New PC up and running, along with a new 1TB HDD, and a brand new Windows 7 Ultimate Install.

However the road to get there, was paved with issues.

I built the system myself, and funnily enough, there wasn't a single issue on that front. Readout from DXDiag:

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System Information
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Time of this report: 11/6/2009, 13:18:53
Machine name: ANTHONY-PC
Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit (6.1, Build 7600) (7600.win7_rtm.090713-1255)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
System Model: P55-UD4P
BIOS: Award Modular BIOS v6.00PG
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU         860  @ 2.80GHz (8 CPUs), ~2.9GHz
Memory: 4096MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 4092MB RAM
Page File: 1146MB used, 7034MB available

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Display Devices
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Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT (Microsoft Corporation - WDDM v1.1)
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce 9600 GT
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0622&SUBSYS_34991458&REV_A1
Display Memory: 2797 MB
Dedicated Memory: 1007 MB
Shared Memory: 1789 MB
Current Mode: 1920 x 1200 (32 bit) (59Hz)
Monitor Name: Generic PnP Monitor
Monitor Model: ASUS VW266H
Monitor Id: ACI26A4
Native Mode: 1920 x 1200(p) (59.950Hz)
Output Type: DVI

Onto my issues. It appears that when I was swapping out drives into the new PC, my old OS managed to corrupt the MBR and stopped working on me, and I couldn't repair it using the Windows Repair tools (bootrec), so as I had no tools to repair it on hand, I resigned to pulling off my documents and putting them onto one of my spare drives (using DOS CLI - xcopy), and figured it'd be easier just to completely install windows.

When I got to my Windows 7 Install CD, I realised that it was scratched and wouldn't work, so I had to go for a drive to a mates house to get them to copy me theirs. Got back, put the CD in the drive, and what do I get after running windows "Your Optical drive is missing correct drivers", and I was unable to get past this error, nor are there any drivers out there for the optical drive which wouldn't be with Windows. So I'm guessing that's a bug in the installation program.

After trying numerous things, including a USB Install(couldn't find the drive for some reason), I gave up for the night, and went off to bed, got up the next morning, tried it again, and it failed. Tried again an hour later, and what do ya know. It worked.

I swear, after going through around 5 hours worth of work getting the OS working, I remembered exactly why I liked Linux...

I have noticed a fair bit recently that those who are using free services such as hotmail, yahoo and other free email providers have been experiencing those gaining unauthorised access to their accounts.

I have decided to write up a small guide on how to secure your accounts and also make sure that no unauthorised parties gain access to your account. This is meant as an explanation on how to secure your account. Not an explanation on how to crack others.

Security Questions: One way to ensure that those you wouldn't want accessing your accounts without authorisation is to instead of setting your answer to a security question, not the actual answer, but a simple password that you would easily remember and no one else would know. Unfortunately, I have seen many people have their Hotmail accounts compromised by those who could easily guess their security questions and then gain control.

Alternate Emails: The other part to those who have had their accounts compromised on Hotmail is that they haven't set an Alternate Email. Unfortunately Hotmail have a setup, so that if you can guess the security questions of the persons email accounts, they can instantly reset their password and gain access.

Passwords: Make sure that you have setup your passwords with ample complexity. Dictionary words, are those which are easily cracked, and I have seen many people using simple passwords which are quite similar to their own usename/personal name. For Example, a person called "Ireland" using the word "Irish"(Those who went to school with me will understand that one :)).

Those 3 things will help secure your accounts from potential intruders. These methods are fairly well known to normal people, and it is quite a common occurance happening in schools, especially with the easily availability of personal information being passed around due to Community Sites such as Rooster Teeth, Myspace and Facebook.

If anyone else has any inputs or comments. Feel free to email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . This is my first attempt at writing up anything similar to this :)