Please don't forget to read the bulletin board. Enter +read from anywhere.

Last weekend, visitors to Spindizzy were puzzled and shocked by the disappearance of the Rose Garden. In it's place was a Briar Patch, a place of devoid of flowers and full of thorns. Yet beneath those thorns thrived a colony of bunnies. Many varied kinds of bunnies, from clockwork rabbits and fae-lapines to 50 foot tall vixenish-looking rabbits.

What had happened to all the regular SpinDizzy folk? Was this another SED plot? Why was Morticon dressed in a bunny suit? Had rabbits truely overrun SpinDizzy? The answers eventually revealed themselves late Sunday night when local wizard, Skyler, returned (somewhat overdue) from his journeying."

The bunnies lay in wait, as the pair of bunny slippers came shuffling out of the darkness. Over a dozen pairs of eyes watched the cut slippers hop to the centre of the clearing. The slippers looked about oddly for a few moments. Then it happened. In one swift movement, all the hidden bunnies leapt from their hiding places, and said one word: "Surprise!".

Spindizzy held a surprise Birthday party for Skyler. Everyone there dressed up as bunnies in honour of him.. He was complety taken by the party not expecting it at all. A large cake was brought out and everyone sang happy birthday to Skyler. He received many gifts and a good dose of the Birthday Bumps. A good time was had by all.

A strange phenomenon has been happening the Rose Garden. Witnesses have seen Rick, local Centaur pulling apples out of the Ancient Oak tree in the Rose Garden. When Rick was asked how he can get a apple out of a Oak tree, Rick was quoted in saying "This is a Oak tree? I thought it was a apple tree! Why didn't someone tell me sooner?" end quote.

Researchers have been studying this strange occurrence, observing closely and making copious notes in their iMacs. As yet they have had difficulty in agreeing on a thesis. Whether or not they find how Rick is able to get apples out of an Oak tree remains to be seen.

First, welcome to all the new folks who have come to SpinDizzy in the last week or so. It's great to see new faces, and get new ideas and personalities here. Hopefully, everyone is finding this a great place, and is having no trouble settling in.

With all the new folks, and the surge in building, now might be a good time to remind folks that we have a building code. Now, don't get all excited, it's not a lot of nit-picking little micro management rules and such, just a few guidelines to help folks enjoy and find their way through public areas.

First, and most important, all exits must be obvious. That means that finding your way around should be easy. Grids squares should retain the (N)orth (S)outh (E)ast (W)est (U)P exits that connect to other grid squares. Second, anyone can claim one of the 'undeveloped' squares, just ask a Wiz to set you up.

Third, make sure finding your way back to the main grid is easy, there should always be easy way back out. More detailed information about the building code, and other building hints can be found in the Helpstaff Manual Building Code page.

At 12:27 EST on August 3,2002, SpinDizzy again set a record of total character connections at the same time. On line and assisting in this new record were, Casimir, Martin, Riley, Skolf, Reiter, Rick, Rown, Codicil, Midnight, Zillah, Kaerad, Kulan, Glass, Ping, Rankin, Amy, Morticon, WillieBit, Blither, Gallagong, Max, Darwin, Maki, Sally, Alicia, Argon, Boki, Carlos, Cassie, Ceralor, Cye, Flutterz, Gilead, Lupinetiger, Mouser, Natasha, PatchO'Black, Pidna, Suri, Twohart, and Viboracran, and one other who isn't accounted for.

WhenGraph by Riss. * = 1 connections. Low and High counts by hour. Time Low ---graph--- High
T00 0 ********** 10
T01 1 *** 3
T02 0 ** 2
T03 0 ** 2
T04 1 ** 2
T05 1 *** 3
T06 2 ******* 7
T07 6 ********* 9
T08 7 ********* 9
T09 7 ******** 8
T10 6 ********* 9
T11 9 *************** 15
T12 12 **************** 16
T13 11 *************** 15
T14 11 **************** 16
T15 10 ***************** 17
T16 10 **************** 16
T17 11 ******************* 19
T18 16 ********************** 22
T19 21 *************************** 27
T20 24 ******************************* 31
T21> 27 ****************************************** 42
T22 16 ************************* 25
T23 10 ***************** 17
High since last restart (09:32:08 07/21/02): 42 at 21:26:12 08/02/02.
All time high: 42 at 21:26:12 08/02/02. On now: 28. WG #help for help

This count stayed steady for almost 15 minutes before it dropped back to normal levels. Yay!

I hope you and the other people around SpinDizzy find this article very helpful.The secrets of Fox-Com Revealed!

In a startling discovery this week, Skolf found out just how easy Fox-com is to actually use. Not wanting to have anyone else go through the pain and agony he did in trying to setup a com system, he has beneficially provided simple instructions here. It's this simple:

• 1 @open com;switch;squelch;pub=#3687
  
• 2 com #setup
  
• 3 switch #name (Radio Name)
  
• 4 switch #on
  
• 5 switch Public

These instructions are for making it on a room. You can also set it D, so that it doesn't show. Also, if you've an area and you'd like com in every room, you can put the main com in an environment room of your making then you just have to follow steps 2-5 for all the rooms.

If you want to make a portable com, you'll want to follow these instructions.

• 1 @create object name (Fox-Com Radio)
  
• 2 @act com;switch;squelch;pub=#dbref of object
  
• 3 @link com;switch;squelch;pub=#3687

After that, you just follow the normal instuctions of @desc'ing the object and @lock'ing it to yourself so no one tries to run off with it. Now for more about using Fox-Com.

A sample message from a Com is like this:
Com [Phoenix Eclipse] [Public] Skolf says: (Sweet.)

The (Radio Name) is what you'll see instead of 'Phoenix Eclipse' Anyone with a Com can listen in on the different stations. You change stations with 'switch station' and anyone on that station can listen in. In the short future there will be a short list of public stations as more people use this. If you mess around and accidently find someone else's station, please be resectful and change your station.

Something else I recently learned. You can @set (room or object com is attached to)=com/listen:(station) (station) (station)... Thus enabling you to listen in on different stations.

To send a message you have three options. The easiest is 'com (message)' which will be sent to the station you are currently tuned too. There's also 'com #(chan) (message)' where you can broadcast on (chan) instead of the one you have tuned, helpful if you are listening to more then one station and don't want to switch all the time. The last option is 'pub (message)' and that'll broadcast only to the Public station, so you never really have to remained switched to that one, just put it under your listen list.

That's all I've found out for now. If you've any problems, contact me and I'll help you through them. Hopefully we'll make some kinda of radio list in the near future. So till then, have fun with your new knowledge of Fox-Com and please try not to spam SpinDizzy's airwave

After months of annoying reqests, Austin, local Coati has activated the long awaited Reverse Watch For. By entering rwf, you can see who on line has you on their Watch For list.

This is expected to cause dancing in the streets and enthusiastic cries of, "Yay," from those who aren't idle.

This week, Argon asked folks, "I'm doing a survey to be published in @Action News. The question is, 'Who do you think is Austin's alt?'"

• Austin says, "Skanee, Max, and Dolly. Skyler too."
• Mavra says, "Austin's? Ah... Mini-Me?"
• Alicia says, "Austin has an alt?!"
• Suri says, "I think he uses my character when I'm not around."
• PatchO'Black mews, "Austin is his own alt!"
• Rown grumbles "Control alt del".
• Gilead'll guess Tanooki, because a 'coon is almost a coati, so the disguise would be easier to pull off.
• Sunni says, "Tobias "
• Cye says, "Trick Question, Austin has no alt n.n"
• Drake @Zen's to Argon's question. "I am Austin's alt. You are Austin's alt. We are all Austin's alt. :)"
• Olivia says, "I didn't know he had an alt."
• Morticon says, "Steve!"
• Arkitah doesn't know Austin enough to even guess at this one.
• Gina_Doberman says, "Didn't know he had one!"
• Mouser hisses, "I am, Argon..."
• Casimir blurts out, "It's MORTICON!!! Yep, yep. :)"

The online world has an incredible range of biodiversity unlike that of any planet that I have ever visited. But Massive Multiplayer On-line Role Playing Games also have a dark side.

Unscrupulous players storm on through and kill everything in sight just so they can gain a level, buy better gear, find more powerful monsters, kill everything in sight again, and repeat this procedure. Soon, these players will have eradicated the wildlife completely without the least bit of concern for how their actions impact our environment. Does anybody ever think of how the monsters feel? Our researchers are only beginning to discover how this antisocial behavior is impacting the food chain. The results, so far, do not look good. Will nobody leap defend the virtual world’s wildlife?

A Concerned Ecologist

Submitting a story or artwork for @Action News is easy! Just send it to argon@spindizzy.org or qmail or page Argon about it.

Most any type of story or article will be accepted. Generally, we'd prefer things that aren't out and out lies or flames about other folks, and have a basis in the reality of SpinDizzy. Things that occur in public areas are fair game. The things reported don't have to have actually happened, (any more than anything that happens here does) but make sure you don't overstep the social boundaries and rules of interaction that we have. These are pretty broad guidelines, but we expect good sense to apply.Ê

Thanks!