Armstrong 1st MRB

Personally, I already have a ship and am a Black-Marketeer in TABOO, which intends to the biggest Black Market Group in the game, though with how lax rules are, I'd be more than happy to do some bounty hunting and freelancing from time to time. Though at the same time, you guys will likely be after me and my fellows.

Srry about the delay, University work has kept me. Situation has worsened quite severely again on my regular PC, the audio drop-outs are pretty insane, and its starting to cause some hiccups in mouse movements and typing. ndis.sys is still the issue (with an execution time of over 332 times higher than even the next closest one), and my other computer is running so slow that I cannot even load the page to run LatencyMon on the other to check to see if the same driver is acting up on the other computer, but the regular DPC checker is showing similar spikes on that computer. The LatencyMon help site sees to suggest that ndis issues are likely caused by wireless adapters, but its strange that my service provider noticed nothing wrong in speeds.

Update here, strangely the issue seems to have dissipated dramatically on its own, ironically around the same time our internet bill period changed over. The checkers are still reading points where ndis driver is still acting up, but its nowhere near as bad as it was.

I am available Saturday Afternoon or Sunday Afternoon around 3-5pm EST each day, then on in the evenings from 7 until at least midnight. I honestly I have no idea why I have so many sound drivers. My best guess is that the Nvidia came with my graphics card and I enabled the audio as well via an update, or from Witcher 3 but I had those on first for months and there were no problems, so I'm doubtful it came from them, maybe that high definition one got added at some point and caused the issues. Unless you guys know better, I think I'd prefer the Nvidia over the other sound drivers.

I have no idea how to check Sound Card, but here are all the devices: Name NVIDIA Virtual Audio Device (Wave Extensible) (WDM) Manufacturer NVIDIA Status OK PNP Device ID ROOT\UNNAMED_DEVICE\0000 Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\nvvad64v.sys (1.2.31.0, 49.29 KB (50,472 bytes), 01/09/2015 8:24 AM) Name NVIDIA High Definition Audio Manufacturer NVIDIA Status OK PNP Device ID HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10DE&DEV_0072&SUBSYS_38422966&REV_1001\5&2F540492&0&0001 Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\nvhda64v.sys (1.3.34.3, 199.85 KB (204,648 bytes), 13/08/2015 6:35 PM) Name Realtek High Definition Audio Manufacturer Realtek Status OK PNP Device ID HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10EC&DEV_0900&SUBSYS_1458A182&REV_1000\4&42F4E46&0&0201 Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\rtkvhd64.sys (6.0.1.7256, 3.79 MB (3,977,944 bytes), 09/07/2015 8:11 AM) Name Intel® Display Audio Manufacturer Intel® Corporation Status Error PNP Device ID HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_8086&DEV_2807&SUBSYS_80860101&REV_1000\4&1793E418&0&0001 Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\intcdaud.sys (6.16.0.3137, 439.96 KB (450,520 bytes), 09/07/2015 8:06 AM) (The last one is likely saying Error because the speakers are no plugged in. I do not use the stationary speakers.) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- There is my USB Info: Intel® USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_8CB1&SUBSYS_50071458&REV_00\3&11583659&0&A0 Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_8CA6&SUBSYS_50061458&REV_00\3&11583659&0&E8 Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_8CAD&SUBSYS_50061458&REV_00\3&11583659&0&D0 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- There is all of my adapter Info: Name [00000000] WAN Miniport (SSTP) Adapter Type Not Available Product Type WAN Miniport (SSTP) Installed Yes PNP Device ID ROOT\MS_SSTPMINIPORT\0000 Last Reset 22/10/2015 5:24 AM Index 0 Service Name RasSstp IP Address Not Available IP Subnet Not Available Default IP Gateway Not Available DHCP Enabled No DHCP Server Not Available DHCP Lease Expires Not Available DHCP Lease Obtained Not Available MAC Address Not Available Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\rassstp.sys (6.1.7600.16385, 82.00 KB (83,968 bytes), 13/07/2009 8:10 PM) Name [00000001] WAN Miniport (IKEv2) Adapter Type Not Available Product Type WAN Miniport (IKEv2) Installed Yes PNP Device ID ROOT\MS_AGILEVPNMINIPORT\0000 Last Reset 22/10/2015 5:24 AM Index 1 Service Name RasAgileVpn IP Address Not Available IP Subnet Not Available Default IP Gateway Not Available DHCP Enabled No DHCP Server Not Available DHCP Lease Expires Not Available DHCP Lease Obtained Not Available MAC Address Not Available Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\agilevpn.sys (6.1.7600.16385, 59.00 KB (60,416 bytes), 13/07/2009 8:10 PM) Name [00000002] WAN Miniport (L2TP) Adapter Type Not Available Product Type WAN Miniport (L2TP) Installed Yes PNP Device ID ROOT\MS_L2TPMINIPORT\0000 Last Reset 22/10/2015 5:24 AM Index 2 Service Name Rasl2tp IP Address Not Available IP Subnet Not Available Default IP Gateway Not Available DHCP Enabled No DHCP Server Not Available DHCP Lease Expires Not Available DHCP Lease Obtained Not Available MAC Address Not Available Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\rasl2tp.sys (6.1.7601.17514, 126.50 KB (129,536 bytes), 20/11/2010 10:24 PM) Name [00000003] WAN Miniport (PPTP) Adapter Type Not Available Product Type WAN Miniport (PPTP) Installed Yes PNP Device ID ROOT\MS_PPTPMINIPORT\0000 Last Reset 22/10/2015 5:24 AM Index 3 Service Name PptpMiniport IP Address Not Available IP Subnet Not Available Default IP Gateway Not Available DHCP Enabled No DHCP Server Not Available DHCP Lease Expires Not Available DHCP Lease Obtained Not Available MAC Address Not Available Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\raspptp.sys (6.1.7601.17514, 108.50 KB (111,104 bytes), 20/11/2010 10:24 PM) Name [00000004] WAN Miniport (PPPOE) Adapter Type Not Available Product Type WAN Miniport (PPPOE) Installed Yes PNP Device ID ROOT\MS_PPPOEMINIPORT\0000 Last Reset 22/10/2015 5:24 AM Index 4 Service Name RasPppoe IP Address Not Available IP Subnet Not Available Default IP Gateway Not Available DHCP Enabled No DHCP Server Not Available DHCP Lease Expires Not Available DHCP Lease Obtained Not Available MAC Address Not Available Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\raspppoe.sys (6.1.7600.16385, 90.50 KB (92,672 bytes), 13/07/2009 8:10 PM) Name [00000005] WAN Miniport (IPv6) Adapter Type Not Available Product Type WAN Miniport (IPv6) Installed Yes PNP Device ID ROOT\MS_NDISWANIPV6\0000 Last Reset 22/10/2015 5:24 AM Index 5 Service Name NdisWan IP Address Not Available IP Subnet Not Available Default IP Gateway Not Available DHCP Enabled No DHCP Server Not Available DHCP Lease Expires Not Available DHCP Lease Obtained Not Available MAC Address Not Available Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\ndiswan.sys (6.1.7601.17514, 160.50 KB (164,352 bytes), 20/11/2010 10:24 PM) Name [00000006] WAN Miniport (Network Monitor) Adapter Type Not Available Product Type WAN Miniport (Network Monitor) Installed Yes PNP Device ID ROOT\MS_NDISWANBH\0000 Last Reset 22/10/2015 5:24 AM Index 6 Service Name NdisWan IP Address Not Available IP Subnet Not Available Default IP Gateway Not Available DHCP Enabled No DHCP Server Not Available DHCP Lease Expires Not Available DHCP Lease Obtained Not Available MAC Address Not Available Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\ndiswan.sys (6.1.7601.17514, 160.50 KB (164,352 bytes), 20/11/2010 10:24 PM) Name [00000007] Intel® Ethernet Connection I217-V Adapter Type Ethernet 802.3 Product Type Intel® Ethernet Connection I217-V Installed Yes PNP Device ID PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_153B&SUBSYS_E0001458&REV_00\3&11583659&0&C8 Last Reset 22/10/2015 5:24 AM Index 7 Service Name e1dexpress IP Address Not Available IP Subnet Not Available Default IP Gateway Not Available DHCP Enabled Yes DHCP Server Not Available DHCP Lease Expires Not Available DHCP Lease Obtained Not Available MAC Address FC:AA:14:9B:22:6C Memory Address 0xF7900000-0xF791FFFF Memory Address 0xF793C000-0xF793CFFF IRQ Channel IRQ 4294967290 Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\e1d62x64.sys (12.11.96.1, 476.27 KB (487,704 bytes), 10/04/2014 3:19 PM) Name [00000008] WAN Miniport (IP) Adapter Type Not Available Product Type WAN Miniport (IP) Installed Yes PNP Device ID ROOT\MS_NDISWANIP\0000 Last Reset 22/10/2015 5:24 AM Index 8 Service Name NdisWan IP Address Not Available IP Subnet Not Available Default IP Gateway Not Available DHCP Enabled No DHCP Server Not Available DHCP Lease Expires Not Available DHCP Lease Obtained Not Available MAC Address Not Available Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\ndiswan.sys (6.1.7601.17514, 160.50 KB (164,352 bytes), 20/11/2010 10:24 PM) Name [00000010] RAS Async Adapter Adapter Type Wide Area Network (WAN) Product Type RAS Async Adapter Installed Yes PNP Device ID SW\{EEAB7790-C514-11D1-B42B-00805FC1270E}\ASYNCMAC Last Reset 22/10/2015 5:24 AM Index 10 Service Name AsyncMac IP Address Not Available IP Subnet Not Available Default IP Gateway Not Available DHCP Enabled No DHCP Server Not Available DHCP Lease Expires Not Available DHCP Lease Obtained Not Available MAC Address 20:41:53:59:4E:FF Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\asyncmac.sys (6.1.7600.16385, 22.50 KB (23,040 bytes), 13/07/2009 8:10 PM) Name [00000011] 802.11n Wireless LAN Card Adapter Type Ethernet 802.3 Product Type 802.11n Wireless LAN Card Installed Yes PNP Device ID PCI\VEN_1814&DEV_3090&SUBSYS_760111AD&REV_00\4&2EE48003&0&00E6 Last Reset 22/10/2015 5:24 AM Index 11 Service Name netr28x IP Address 192.168.1.11, fe80::21d8:4b3a:e2db:6932 IP Subnet 255.255.255.0, 64 Default IP Gateway 192.168.1.1 DHCP Enabled Yes DHCP Server 192.168.1.1 DHCP Lease Expires 23/10/2015 1:36 PM DHCP Lease Obtained 22/10/2015 1:36 PM MAC Address 1C:65:9D:7E:13:FD Memory Address 0xF7800000-0xF780FFFF IRQ Channel IRQ 4294967289 Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\netr28x.sys (3.0.0.41, 606.00 KB (620,544 bytes), 10/06/2009 4:35 PM) Name [00000014] Hamachi Network Interface Adapter Type Ethernet 802.3 Product Type Hamachi Network Interface Installed Yes PNP Device ID ROOT\NET\0000 Last Reset 22/10/2015 5:24 AM Index 14 Service Name hamachi IP Address Not Available IP Subnet Not Available Default IP Gateway Not Available DHCP Enabled Yes DHCP Server Not Available DHCP Lease Expires Not Available DHCP Lease Obtained Not Available MAC Address 7A:79:00:00:00:00 Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\hamachi.sys (7.0.1.1, 33.06 KB (33,856 bytes), 06/08/2015 2:45 PM) -------------------------------------------------------------- BTW here's something else I found, no idea if it will be of any use or not, but its a tab under system info that said "Conflicts/Sharing" This was all it showed: I/O Port 0x00000000-0x0000001F Direct memory access controller I/O Port 0x00000000-0x0000001F PCI bus Memory Address 0xF7800000-0xF780FFFF 802.11n Wireless LAN Card Memory Address 0xF7800000-0xF780FFFF PCI standard PCI-to-PCI bridge I/O Port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF Intel® Xeon® processor E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core processor PCI Express x16 Controller - 0C01 I/O Port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 I/O Port 0x000004D0-0x000004D1 Motherboard resources I/O Port 0x000004D0-0x000004D1 Programmable interrupt controller I/O Port 0x0000E000-0x0000EFFF Intel® Xeon® processor E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core processor PCI Express x16 Controller - 0C01 I/O Port 0x0000E000-0x0000EFFF NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 Memory Address 0xF6000000-0xF70FFFFF Intel® Xeon® processor E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core processor PCI Express x16 Controller - 0C01 Memory Address 0xF6000000-0xF70FFFFF NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 Memory Address 0xFF000000-0xFFFFFFFF Motherboard resources Memory Address 0xFF000000-0xFFFFFFFF Intel® 82802 Firmware Hub Device IRQ 16 Intel® 9 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 1 - 8C90 IRQ 16 Intel® Xeon® processor E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core processor PCI Express x16 Controller - 0C01 IRQ 16 High Definition Audio Controller IRQ 16 Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller IRQ 16 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 Memory Address 0xE0000000-0xF1FFFFFF Intel® Xeon® processor E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core processor PCI Express x16 Controller - 0C01 Memory Address 0xE0000000-0xF1FFFFFF NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF PCI bus Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF Intel® Xeon® processor E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core processor PCI Express x16 Controller - 0C01 Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 IRQ 19 Intel® 9 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 4 - 8C96 IRQ 19 Intel® 82801 PCI Bridge - 244E I/O Port 0x000003B0-0x000003BB Intel® Xeon® processor E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core processor PCI Express x16 Controller - 0C01 I/O Port 0x000003B0-0x000003BB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960

The LatencyMon tool they mention is definitely useful, probably the simplest tool for trying to figure out what is wrong I've seen ATM. Here's the latest screen from running that: And hitting the Drivers Tab, ndis.sys is still the problem driver at DPC Count of over 175,000 if not higher compared to the second highest Driver in terms of execution. The Second highest driver is the Intel USB Port, but its highest execution at the time of recording was 1.253195 . . . compare that to ndis.sys 's highest execution at the time of recording was 138.300382, over 138 times higher! Looks like the issue still remains with that Windows Update driver, whatever it is.

Here's a screenshot of ten minutes running PingPlotter Trace and DPC Latency Check at once. DPC caught nothing of those massive packet losses.

Played Witcher 3 for a few hours and watched/listened to youtube footage for a couple more hours, last time I tried playing them I'd run into serious drop-outs. Currently they are still there, but there are extremely infrequent. Like for example, over an hour of listening to music videos, I only noticed 1 drop-out across several videos. For Witcher 3 I noticed about 3 minor drop-outs over the course of the same time. Its still nothing compared to how it was, wherein I could have up to maybe 10 drop outs in less than 10 minutes, but they are still there. I still have a couple of the recent updates still loaded on (Internet explorer 10, and a couple updates around spelling and english hyphenation stuff), so it could be because of those, but IDK.

Alright, I removed all of the most recent updates of Windows (Mostly security or general updates) from the past couple days, restarted the computer, and running a DPC Latency check seemed to come up clean for several minutes and remained solidly in the green, and its definitely much more stable than it was, but there are still random spikes at times where it jumps upwards of 6000 Us. I may have to do another Windows Analyzer check to see what has changed more specifically and if the same driver is affecting this, but I don't have much reason to suspect a different drive from the last scan since none were acting up like the one here. In terms of actual affects, currently I cannot notice any audio drop-outs when watching youtube videos like I could yesterday in spite of these random spikes (which are even more infrequent than before uninstalling the updates). I still have to try gaming, but I don't expect much difference. So, in principle, it looks like my issue has been resolved to my current satisfaction, even if it has not been totally resolved and I'm not entirely sure what was causing it other than windows updates.

I'm back in with wireless, had AVG scan the file with a Shell Extension scan, had AVG do a PC Tuneup, and both AVG and Malwarebytes have scanned the computer and found nothing in terms of viruses or malware. I'll try and uninstall the most recent windows updates, see if they make any changes.

Name: Ben Armstrong Rank: TSgt. Type of issue: DPC Latency spikes due to Driver issues Brief Description of Issue: Probably gonna sound like a broken record showing up here with another problem after fixing the last, but this one should ideally be much simpler. I've been experiencing brief and sporadic audio glitches in youtube videos, playing games, and listening to people in online chats but don't seem to experiencing any profound lag. I run through a bunch of forums and decide to do an DPC Latency test, find that something is causing it to spike at points up to 6000 or more, causing the audio glitches. I use windows analyzer tools and command prompts to analyze my drivers, and I find the one that is undoubtedly showing to spike to insane amounts compared to the others. Its a driver called ndis.sys. After consulting a Driver Reference Table, I found that its the NDIS 6.20 Driver, which is from a Windows Update, which would explain why it just started happening after I loaded updates again. Its a driver that seems to govern networking and connectivity, and seems to have come out in a crappy shape. So my question is this now that I think I've identified the problem driver: do I change out this driver for an older version or newer version, and how would I go about doing that? Or how else do I go about fixing this issue? I have a windows 7 x64 bit btw. ***Medical Supply Staff ONLY Below this line*** Current Status: Resolved Researching Pending Reply Resolved Unresolved Main Technician: GySgt. J. Hill Supporting Technician:

Another update from our vent conversation, looks like you were right, Hill. Its was Kaspersky causing the internet connectivity issues, uninstalling it opened the web pages right back up. Installed Malwarebytes as a replacement and it wiped out the maleware on my PC perfectly. IE and Chrome work fine, the Steam Store page opens up, Razer Comms work, and GoG is able to connect. Just have to update IE back to its original status and we're back to normal. Thanks for the help and time, looks like this one is taken care of.

Well, it took about an hour to be exact. Windows Internet Explorer 8 is now the default. Still not working, it'll say: "website found, waiting for reply" on the loading bar, but then it'll cut out with some kind of error for a split second as it advances to show: "Internet explorer cannot display the webpage". Troubleshooting still cannot identify the problem. Firewall settings don't appear to be making an applicable difference, but I'm still not sure if i'm doing them right.

Roger. BTW how long should "Preparing to configure windows" take after uninstalling IE and restarting the computer take? I started it about 10 minutes ago and its still going.

That may be it, I'm gonna try uninstalling and reinstalling IE to see what happens, neither it or Chrome showed up in Windows firewalls unless they are under different names. Also gonna try and get the firewalls in Kaspersky to allow for the other programs, if they are there.

Fix connections didn't work, it couldn't identify the problem. Looking in windows firewall allowed programs, only four programs are allowed to communicate through windows firewall: Core Networking (Both Home and Public) Network Discovery (Home) Remote Assistance (Home) Skype (Home) Steam, IE, and chrome don't show up in there.

Brief update, after looking up on Malpedia, turns out those affected "drivers" were malware masquerading as drivers. I've since removed them and stopped them from doing whatever they were trying to do. Now the issue is that the internet connectivity issues are still there for IE, Chrome, and Steam etc. Search results still come up as "Page cannot be displayed" on any page I try after thinking on it for a really long while with the standard 3 suggestions for fixing it and fix connection problems button. Steam still works outside of the store page which is still showing error 103, Skype works fine, and Razer comms is still down.

Windows 7 Home Premium, to be exact. The only time shown was one from today, which was long after the file infected the computer and my anti-virus responded. I know exactly when the file hit (thanks to Kaspersky's event logs, but I cannot select a restore point before that time as there is only the one showing) I've been discussing with a couple other computer engineer friends of mine, they seem to think something happened with the firewall of my anti-virus on port 80 that's causing those particular issues with the internet connections for particular things, but I cannot find the reason why yet. I've deleted the potentially affected drivers and intend to have windows reinstall them to see what happens, as that's what one of them suggested.

Alright so I opened system restore: Currently its only showing under "Restore your computer to the state it was in before the selected event" one restore point: 17/10/2015 12:19:53 AM Automatic Restore Point Type System This is today, there is no earlier one, even if I click the check for show more restore points. Is that normal and should I proceed?

Name: Ben Armstrong Rank: TSgt. Type of issue: Not Sure (May be software) Brief Description of Issue: Yesterday after trying to download a link a friend sent me, my Kapsersky Labs anti-virus notified me that the link contained a Trojan, I blocked and quarantined the thing before deleting it...and it promptly took out part of my internet with it. Let me specify: Skype still works perfectly, (I chatted to a friend in Finland about it the whole time) My wireless internet connection still appears to be perfect, Steam still runs without saying it is in offline mode or no connection (though the store page says error 102- unable to connect), GoG can still come on but it won't connect either, Teamspeak still works I assume Vent still works but I haven't tried yet What doesn't work: Razer Comms Internet Explorer (not even basic pages like Google or Yahoo will load, they all say cannot connect to page) Google Chrome (same deal) I rooted around through Kapsersky's system reports and it showed odd behaviour going on with one of my drivers after removing the Trojan (asking for file requests multiple times every second every couple seconds, more info below), I have since sent both potentially affected drivers to the recycle bin but haven't deleted them yet. I've reset IE on default settings to no effect, and I've tried to see if my connectivity was an issue by restarting both my wireless and landline modems to no affect. I doubt there is an issue with my internet connectivity, I personally think there is some sort of corruption or issue with certain elements related to the connection on my PC end of things. I have since disconnected my PC from the internet and kept the potentially bad drivers in recycling until I can have people (you guys included give me some help). The affected drivers I removed are these: swsedrvr_vt_1_10_0_25.sys (From C:\windows\system32\drivers) Kapsersky says in Event: Detected: not-a-virus:NetTool.Win64.NetFilter.l Reason: Information It also says "Request for file, which contains a legal software that can be used by criminals for damaging your computer or personal data" swsedrvr_vw_1_10_0_25.sys (This one wasn't showing up in Kapsersky as anything wrong, but I wasn't taking any chances) As for what Kapsersky claims to have caught, it caught 3 Trojans and 1 Adware, even though only one Trojan was caught and rendered inactive in my detailed reports (HEUR:Trojan-Downloader.Win32.Generic) I can post up the link of the actual Trojan object if you wish to dissect it, but IDK if that's necessary. It has really stressed me out that I haven't been able to find much that could fix this issue so far. ***Medical Supply Staff ONLY Below this line*** Current Status: Resolved Researching Pending Reply Resolved Unresolved Main Technician: TSgt. J. Hill Supporting Technician:

I think GG has been very severely mistreated as a movement, and that only now is it starting to be taken seriously in terms of its concerns on gaming journalism ethics. I also believe that situation was very much intentional on the part of their opponents, many of the most easily accessible sources on GG are absolute trash, but the average person does not know that, and if the opponents are able to make the situation appear to be so toxic that its untouchable, then nobody is going to want to look into it. And bravo to them, I didn't want to touch the subject for the first 6-7 months it started going because of how crazy it looked. But morbid curiosity drew me into doing some research, and now I am a GG supporter. My views on the situation are fairly simple: many games journalists have been having proven unethical relationships with devs or companies that have not been disclosed to their audiences or have otherwise engaged in unethical behaviour, and they have endeavoured to do their best to keep people's minds off of the issue of their unethical behaviours and onto what are essentially manufactured issues. The idea that women in games, or female gamers are somehow discriminated by male gamers as a whole is complete BS, and I think we as a unit can probably testify to that based on our experiences on DoD:S or our female members can support that. Are all games going to appeal to women? No. Is everyone on a multiplayer game going to be angel? No. But to claim that female gamers have any particular difficulty in the industry or communities compared to male gamers (who have abuse thrown at them as well, statistically more than female gamers if some stats are to believed). GG was never about harassment against women or female gamers, and the issue was never about that, but journalists tried to turn the discussion into that so as to avoid having to be accountable for their poor behaviour. Now, in regards to the accusations of harassment from GG which some people have reported faced, I find most of the accusations I have seen to be shoddy at best. Since GG is a twitter hashtag movement, and there is no real way of defining who is a GG "member" without them using the hashtag, and there are no restrictions on using that hashtag. Anyone and their brother can use the hashtag for anything, and nobody can stop them. GG tried to create its own inner police force to scan the twitter feeds keeping an eye on any misuses or abuses and encouraging other GG supporters to do mass reports to Twitter to have those accounts banned. Many of them stopped after they realised that their efforts were not being recognized by their opponents, and when they realised that it shouldn't be their job in the first place, it should be Twitter's responsibility to come up with a method for a group to control the use of a hashtag. Furthermore, even when GG supporters GAVE Anti-GGs like Anita Sarkeesian enough evidence and information to put some of the more prominent abusers or trolls on trial via the FBI, she did nothing! She didn't even recognize the fact that they gave her the information to help her. They don't care about the "abuse" being thrown at them other than that it gives them ammunition to try and shoot holes into legitimate GG supporters, they don't really take it seriously. Its especially sickening when I've seen many opponents of GG commit much of the same online abuse they accuse GG of, and they claim to run online abuse charities...its disgusting. That's what really set me off onto GG's side. The fact that their opponents are enormous juvenile hypocrites on the whole, and the fact that most of GG arguments that I've seen have been able to backed up with more verifiable proof than those of the Antis which rely more on belief or pseudo-academics. In other news though, in regards to Zoe Quinn, it may interest some of you to hear that her boyfriend Gonji is appealing his case which she won over him, on the grounds that the Judge violated the First Amendment, and seems to have a pretty good shot of ending up in the Massachusetts Supreme Court, or at the very least being reviewed by a higher court.

Its the Cold War, I don't think the Americans, and their old partners in it(Like some of our politicians here in Canada), ever fully grew out of it despite the fall of the Soviet Union. They either don't trust Russia (Putin being ex-KGB under Soviet Russia and his territorial gains to restore Russia to its former status don't assuage their fears), or they see greater value in maintaining that atmosphere of fear which the Cold War generated. Think about it, several years ago CNN and the major news agencies bounced back and forth between North Korea and Iran playing up fears that the latter was developing nukes, and that the former was testing them in preparation for a war. It wasn't like they kept track of both at the same time either, it was like as soon as one situation appeared defused, the other would flare up again. Nothing came of either situation in regards to ACTUAL conflict, but the fear was attempted to be generated nonetheless. I wouldn't put it past the US to be partially orchestrating some of this hysteria for their own purposes themselves, they did it internally with COINTELPRO in the 60s, the whole Gulf of Tonkin fiasco, and with the CIA supplying South American revolutionaries behind the backs of most of Congress with the whole Contra Scandal. Does that mean Russia is blameless? No, Putin is feeding off of that suspicion, whether its real or not. Just listen to his rhetoric about "The West" when he speaks, he's playing the Russian public just as the Americans play their own public. The politicians have their own views of what is best for their nations and their people, views which don't exactly align with all of the public's, and many may feel compelled to reach those goals by whatever means necessary, even if it means spreading misinformation and playing off the ignorant fears, opinions, and prejudices of the masses. Nothing formally malicious about it, that's simply realpolitik, blame Bismarck.

Putin's no fool, there is no profit in a world war, even if he does want to restore Russian to its Soviet Union status in terms of territory. He's got several terrorist groups already within Russian to deal with, a populace which isn't even completely united with him, and no real allies to help him. He's just acting the inscrutable leader, keep everyone on their toes, but don't actually do anything, except him actually has the power to do it well, not like Kim Jung Un in NK.

Its even worse here in Canada. If there is asbestos found anywhere here it is required by law to be removed immediately, but we're selling to countries like India which are using it as insulation and are just tossing the stuff around like its feather bedding or cotton and are barely wearing any respiratory protection. We don't even call it asbestos when we sell it either, its called "Crystallite", and our government knows full well what it is but is still willing to sell it to these countries who have no idea, or don't care to know how to protect themselves properly. Its disgusting business practices.

True enough.