Neocodex News

Welcome Content Writers (AvatarLog)

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 23:55:48 +0000

Hey everyone AvatarLog has got a slight update. We now have a "Report" button included on the "In-Depth" guides page. Click it to report anything and everything. If you have a new pet for us to add. If a pet is no longer the color needed for that avatar. Or if there is a mistake anywhere.

Our 3 content writers are weke, Twink, and Benign so a big welcome to them. They are off to a great start. They will be maintain the links, finding new pets, writing the in-depth guides, and adding compatible font colors.

If you have any other ideas on what they should add let us know.

Attached is an image of what the in-depth guide page looks like.

Kad Feeder + Neologs Re-released

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 10:30:34 +0000

Kad Feeder is finally fixed, and its mac compatible!

Thats right. Noit finally got around to repairing the link, so while he was at it, we moved it to being Mac Compatible, and added a new feature.

The first feature is that we are now tracking Kad Freshes and you can see the data. Which we will roll discuss later.

The second being that its Mac Compatible, so even more people can enjoy not having to manually feed 75 Kad.

And the third being that we are tracking what each KAD Wants at each point in time. This means that in the future we will be able to mark items in our database as being a KAD Item, and show how many times its been asked for. This way even if you dont want to use the program, you can still benefit.

Neologs is back!

For those that don't know what Lab Zaps is it is a system to keep track of your zaps and how it is affecting your pets over time. It can keep track of multiple pets. Here's an example:

The above is using dummy data so the stats are off. Not only can you keep track of your personal pets but we can see the general trends overall.

Some updates have been made to this release of Neologs. We now have a Tarla Drops page and a Kadoatery page.

The Tarla Drops page lists all the times drops came today and the prize of the day. You can help us complete the database by submitting the non-1st place drop. If you are late you get an item from a set of 4 items. The collection is automatic and this system was not possible without the help of Jcrboy.

An important note here is the prediction algorithm is horribly wrong. If you anyone can study the patterns in the past data and help us with this calculation that would be awesome! We do successfully predict if Tarla will come today or not though.

The next system is the Kadoatery system. This tracks all the times kads were found. This is kept up to date by iargues kad program. We plan to add a page to show the foods asked for and by what pet. A quick guide is found in the about section and was provided by Benign.

Simulators Released

Sat, 21 Aug 2010 13:01:30 +0000

At long last the simulators are back. At even longer last here's the update to the Pet Colour Simulator (PCSim).

The left one is the Battldeome Simulator and the right one is the PCSim.

The BDSim has gotten some awesome updates. You can filter through the massive list of weapons. You can now see the in-depth information on the weapon. And faerie abilities have been added to the fight.

Like usual you can load in your pet with your stats and see how you do against a 1P opponent.

Click on the link below the simulator to be taken to the BDSim Forum. Here you can comment about the system, ask for help, show off, and most importantly request new weapons that you want added. Adding takes no more then a minute and will be done by the respective Neoleader. Just post your requests there.
Currently reflection of icons is not enabled in the simulator.

Secondly, the massive update to the PCSim.

This is a recreation of your closet but with every item our there. So you can now see how your pet would look dressed up and in what painted color. You can add backgrounds.

The items are dynamically added. Click the link below the simulator to be taken to the PCSim Forum. Here you can request clothing/backgrounds to be added and the respective Neoleader will take care of it.

Enjoy!

AvatarLog Re-release and Update

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 23:46:00 +0000

AvatarLog is back. Your data is saved and has not been lost, no need for you to reimport your avatars.

Minor updates are some javascript and online view updates while the major one is the community system.

From the online list you can see what people are doing in AvatarLog. Ex: Viewing a an avatar guide, managing their collection, etc.

Spoiler

You can access the community system from the side bar as usual. From here you can view the avatar collections of other members in the community.

Select one user from the list and hit view to see their profile OR select multiple users then hit "View" to compare collections.

The profile toggle now works in IE and has been moved to the right on the community page. Setting it to:
"Public" allows anyone to view/compare your profile
"Private" disallows everyone except you
"Friends Only" allows only approved friends

The compare page gives you nice stats on on who has what and in what category.

Report back on how things run.

SCHEDULED MAINTENANCE - August 15, 2010

Sat, 14 Aug 2010 20:24:50 +0000

SCHEDULED MAINTENANCE - Sunday, August 15, 2010

All Neocodex services except for the forum will be offline starting at 1:00am PST, August 15th and will persist until 10:00am PST on August 16th (so that is a 33 hour downtime).

The following will NOT work:
Programs login (CodexChex)
Downloads System
Items Database Frontend on the forum
NeoLogs, NeoAlerts, Neo-anything
Any other custom stuff

What WILL work:
Programs if you log into them beforehand (even Abrosia, the ItemDB API will still be online)
The barebones Forum

The reason that we are doing this is that we need to determine what is using so much CPU on the server, and we want to rule out our custom modifications and any of our custom services. We have narrowed it down to something in the forum, that much is certain. Unfortunately, server CPU usage reports are done on a 24 hour period marked at 7 am, and none of us are free to do maintenance at that time, so we're starting early tomorrow morning (1 am), and then bringing things back online when we're around the following day (10 am).

If you want to run programs in this time, PLEASE PRE-AUTHENTICATE THEM by loading the program, signing into the codexchex, and then leaving the copy open on your computer until you want to use it.
Do this for all the ones you want to run in that time, because if the program closes you won't be able to re-authenticate until the site is fully up again.

Again, we will compensate those who purchased an Advanced Membership fairly for this inconvenience.

Once we figure out what is using the CPU, perhaps the 500 internal server error bugs will also stop.

~ Neocodex Administration

Neoalerts back with updates

Sat, 14 Aug 2010 10:28:50 +0000

Neoalerts is back. Sorry about the delay everyone.

Everyones data is safe. You won't have to redo your settings etc.

Updates have been made. Mostly internal so things should run smoother.

The updates you will be noticing are is the notification at top right. Like PM's are in green, Neoalerts are in red. You can click it to pop up the panel like normal. This is also visible to the silent option users, and is helpful in seeings that they have alerts.

The other update is old but i dont think got much attention. You can now press "Ctrl+Alt+H" to hide the silent pop up or press the "Insert" key.

The silent popup is this:

The other update which you might find useful is positioning this silent pop up. Before it was always center. You can now control it from your settings page.

The other update you will see is that you can now see people in the "Online List" as:
Neoalerts: Viewing Systems
Neoalerts: Managing Settings
Neoalerts: Viewing Logs

JCG and I tried to make the silent pop prettier but kinda gave up in the middle. We'll see if we can at least knock out that ugly planet.

If you need to remind yourself of Neoalerts check out the old news post: http://www.neocodex.us/forum/topic/97013-neoalerts-30-released/

Next to be re-released: Lasers AvatarLog

500 Internal Server Errors

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 07:14:33 +0000

I'm still trying to fix it. Something on our site is using an immense amount of CPU and it's been localized to the forum.

We might switch codex over to a fresh IPB install for a 24 hour period, but I'll let you guys know in advance since programs and the ItemDB will not work.

Trading Feedback System + Users Local Time + Content Toggle + Safe URL/Img

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 00:20:47 +0000

There a two methods of view: Active and New. You can now toggle this by mousing over the "View New Content"/"View Active Content" and mouse click and hold. It toggles. Looks like this:

A requested feature by traders was viewing a users local time. IPB 2.0 allowed this but IPB 3.0 didn't have it by default. This has been added to the user card and user profile.

Ignore the red circles thats for later. Noticed the "Local Time" field.

Big thanks to Laser, Dro, and SL for seriously kicking my ass into doing this.
Next big thanks to Goergina and JCGirl. G made the design and JCG supplied all the images and man was I demanding on that, she put up with all that crap.
Lots of love to all these children!

Georgina will tell you more about the Trading Feedback system. She'll be the lead in the trading area. But I'll give you a quick summary. It is accessible via the user card or by clicking on the "Trader Score" you see in sides panes in topics or PM's. The profile access has not been added yet but will be when Neopost comes out. The profile feedback system will be accessible via a tab:

So that's the future image for profile. Right now we are accessible only via card and side panes. So the current access points:

Click any

See below:

What it looks like on the inside:

Now what you can do on the inside G will tell you more about that with a pinned topic in the trader section.

Also Safe URL/Img is is back. Test: http://www.neopets.com/

Update - August 7th

Sat, 07 Aug 2010 20:49:22 +0000

Update - August 7th

Here's what the administration has going on right now.

Feedback System for Trading
- Soon, you guys will be able to leave detailed positive/negative/neutral feedback in a forum-wide system rather than resorting to putting the positive/negative ratings in that one topic.
NeoAlerts/NeoLogs/PetSim
- From our Phase 2 upgrade, these services still are not up. We're still working on packaging them up nicely so that we can reinstall them on the board without any issues or excessive fixing.
Client-Side Program Updates
- We're still in the process of fixing up our codebase for global Mac compatibility, and fixing minor bugs. The programmers also have a couple new projects on the go that we may be able to see soon.
Front Page
- We haven't forgotten about this. Our site is going to eventually have an awesome front page, we just need to find the right people and the right design.
Server Maintenance
- Yes, we still realize that there are 500 Internal Server errors up the arse on the site. We think we know what the cause of it is, so it's still being worked on.
- We'll also be evaluating the performance of our PHP scripts on the server, after we noticed that the forum software is using a LOT of CPU when it shouldn't be.
Trading Post Restrictions:
- Soon we'll be discussing what provisions need to be in place to better protect traders using the Trading Post. It may come down to restricting access by not allowing extremely new members in there. More updates to come.

That's the scoop so far.

Mac OS X Programs Now Available

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 06:23:46 +0000

Mac OS X Programs Now Available

Neocodex is proud to announce that we are now a cross-platorm friendly site! The time of having Neopets cheating programs available for Mac OS X is finally here.

Currently the only available program for the Mac OS X is Abrosia MSAB, but in the coming weeks, we will be actively fixing up our programs and compiling them for use on the Mac (which is now easy for us to do!). Furthermore, every windows program we release will have a Mac counterpart. We really care that all of our users can run our programs without any problems, and OS should no longer be an excuse. Sorry Linux users, we'll get to you a little later.

Some statistics to think about: 12.5% of the users who download our programs own a Mac, and can't run the programs at all or have to use Parallels or Boot Camp to run it in a Windows environment. Not anymore. Simply:

1) Download the Mac Python Required Files *.dmg from here: http://www.neocodex.us/forum/files/file/27-neocodex-python-runtime-files-mac-os-x/
2) Open the file, and follow the instructions (drag "Neocodex" to the "Library" folder).
3) Find your favorite Mac OS X program from the downloads section, and download it. Make sure the file extension is a .dmg; the .zip files are Windows only! Clicking the "Download File" link will give you the choice of a zip or dmg if a Mac version is available.
4) Open the file, and follow the instructions (drag the application to the "Applications" folder).

You're done!

Avoid Trading Post - Possible CGs

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 01:35:58 +0000

We just had some user PM others a link to their trade. I don't know if it is possible to put a CG in your trade ad but it looks real fishy. You guys judge, this was the PM he sent:

Quote

I've got some random UB's that I've gotten from the abandon attic through ab'ing
I would say they are pretty damn legit as I've been sitting on them for over two months - I am just too lazy to try to sell them
anyways - if you want them they are here
REMOVED

if not, post a link to a random trade and I can donate some np to you from my legit account

He's been banned but is it possible to CG via the trading post? I don't know but from the PM I just want to let you guys know it might be smart to avoid the TP right now too.

Reporting posts

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 12:06:58 +0000

Hi there guys,

Just wanted to make a small announcement regarding the reporting of posts.

First off, on the behalf of the neocodex administration, thank you for your reports. Many of you have been using the report system to its full potential and have been reporting posts that break the neocodex rules - which is great.

However, there is a small issue we need to address here:

Please do not abuse the report system.

The report system and functionality is there for you to bring something to the administration's attention.

I've compiled a small matrix for Do's and Don'ts for the report system.

Do report posts

that are blatently breaking the rules
that are inflammatory or potentially upsetting
could potentially cause offense
that are spam
etc etc

Do not report posts

you simply disagree with because of their opinion
because you think someone should 'be killed' - yes, we've had this
out of spite because you don't like the user
etc etc

All in all, the recent use of the reporting system has been great - but please appreciate dealing with reports simply saying "this person should be killed, delete this" is simply wasting our time.

Yours,

The Neocodex Administration

Site maintenance and mac programs

Sat, 24 Jul 2010 18:04:01 +0000

So site maintenance is still going on. All applications like: Neologs, Lab Zaps, Neoalerts, Avatarlog, BDSim, and PCSim (Pet Colour Sim), should be slowly coming back up in their updated versions.

Secondly: (This isn't my department but I'll post about it)
There was a set back in making the programs mac compatible so the 2 week thing is not happening anymore. Bends posted an awesome guide to get you running these things on mac real easily so here's highlighting that for you: Guide] Getting Programs to work on you Mac

Again I support you going legit but if you want, there's how to use the programs on Macs.

ItemDB Server Maintenance (Phase 2) Complete, Abrosia MSAB 1.2.0

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 04:46:54 +0000

ItemDB Server Maintenance (Phase 2) Complete

Over the last year, our items database has grown phenomenally in size. We have collected over 40,000,000 prices so far to help create what we consider to be the most accurate Neopets Items Database on the internet. During our peak times, we had more than 100 people submitting data to our database within a one hour period, and this is a lot for our server to handle. However, with the Phase 2 upgrade now completed, we can control precisely how much data is processed and when through the use of a caching system.

Basically, when the programs submit new item information to Neocodex, this information will be temporarily stored on our server in a cache file, where it later processed in a controlled manner. Likewise, all database lists downloaded by the programs will be pre-generated (every 6 hours), which will improve server performance and reduce download times.

With that said, the Items Database is fully operational, finally! We will occasionally be running tasks that will update the description and rarities of our items, so don't worry if some of that is missing.

Benchmarking:

Through the use of RRDTool, we will also be able to view live statistics of how the system is coping with the influx of data and adjust our scripts to better cope with the amount of data. We were going to have sample graphs to show you guys, but we're not quite done this part of things yet.

500 Internal Server Errors:

Our host, being the awesome host they are, has a huge wiki on how to change various settings on the server. I read up and others were having this issue, so I switched the php processor from FastCGI to CGI, and modified the memory limits a bit. Hopefully we don't see any more of those errors.

Abrosia MSAB:

The newest version of Abrosia (version 1.2.0) is now released. You can download it here:
http://www.neocodex.us/forum/files/file/15-abrosia-main-shop-autobuyer-igloo-autobuyer/

The following list shows what has been added to this version:

Bugs Fixed:
- Space Discount Card support
- Tray icon now disappears upon exit
- Faster loading of the program on startup
- Solved the "program encountered an error and must close" / mysterious crashing bug

New Features:
- Set how often to do Item Management (every x minutes)
- Separate wait time for pricer part of program
- New scheduler that can set absolute times
- Test Audible Alert
- Logs the estimated profit from DB beside the purchased item for quick reference.
- Uses the newest version of the ItemDB server that supports caching
- Usershop Harvesting (yes Laser, what you've always wanted...)
- A CLEAR way of letting people know that they need Advanced Member to change some settings.
- Alerts you of Neomails/Trades/Auctions while ABing
- Auto-Save Log
- "Force Item Management" button (Advanced Only)
- Sped up RS Ban detection from 5 mins to 1 min (from time of empty shop)
- Buy Times included in Log

Site Moved to New Server (Phase 1)

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 08:11:56 +0000

Site Moved to New Server (Phase 1)

Sorry for the downtime everyone. Neocodex has now moved to a new server, which will be hopefully a lot faster (and have more features) than the one we were on. The old server we found was slow at times and didn't allow us to add extra software to the server which would have benefited the community. We're impressed with the new server though -- it has a lot of features that we didn't even know it had!

Programs should be running fine again, and the Items Database is accessible but still is displaying old data (until we can get to Phase 2). NeoAlerts, NeoLogs, Pet Sim, and AvatarLog are down temporarily but will come up in the next day or so as we fix up the way we handle installing new services here.

Features we like: Better e-mail handling, Git repositories, the ability to install packages like Sphinx search (which will speed up our forum searching so very much), Django (a Python web development framework), and RRDTool for data collection.

Phase 2 will take place tomorrow hopefully, where we incorporate caching into our update and request scripts for the Items Database so that you guys aren't bombarding the database with traffic all the time. The frontend will also be updated at the same time, so you'll see all of the new data that we've been collecting over the last month, and everything will be caught up and back to normal. In the meantime, try not to boot up the programs too much.

Server going down for maintenance

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 02:35:50 +0000

Hi guys,

Hostgator isn't fulfilling our needs at the moment, so we're going to be moving to dreamhost. We're going to be taking the server down during the move so programs won't be working during that time. However, we don't expect the server to be down for very long. Probably a few hours at max. We will refund the paying members a few days once we complete the move. I apologize for the late notice .

Hydrogen

Site Upgraded

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 08:09:38 +0000

Read This:

EDIT July 12th: Yes, thanks. We know that parts of the site don't work. That is because the upgrade failed. Reminding us about it every minute of the day won't make it fixed any faster since we're working on it right now. Bear with the crappiness for a while.

Scamming Prevention

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 01:36:19 +0000

Scamming Prevention

Over the last month or so, the administration has been discussing some ideas that we've had for lowering the amount of scamming happening on the site via. the Trading Post.

A big problem we've identified is that many of the scammers that make their way here have offended in the past on other communities, and so one of our goals is to work with other communities in establishing a more streamlined way of sharing information about scammers so that we can prevent scammers from "site hopping". Asking about individual members on a regular basis is time-consuming, so we're working to open up a database that contains information (IP addresses, e-mail address, etc..) about scammers from here. Various communities would be able to look up and contribute their own information to this database (either manually or automatically if they so choose). We don't have many details yet, but we will soon (so don't ask ).

We also want to install a system that better tracks the reputation of current traders so that new and experienced users alike can easily identify someone's track record of trading. If anyone has ideas for this or can identify some good systems available for the IPB platform (free or not), please send me a PM.

As always: If you are unsure that the person you are dealing with is a scammer, but you want us to check and see if they're a previously banned member or banned somewhere else for scamming, file a report stating this.

With that said, the report button is probably the most useful tool that is available to you in case you know that you're dealing (or dealt with) a scammer. Please include proof in your report, because we cannot take disciplinary action unless there is direct proof that they have scammed, or will scam.

Also remember, try to find a trusted middleman. See this topic: http://www.neocodex.us/forum/topic/95881-guide-how-to-trade-using-a-middleman/ (thanks iargue)

How to report a user:

First, go to their profile. Then click the "Report Member" button.

Put a useful description in the box, and then click "Submit Report".
That's it!

Also a word of warning, we do examine personal messages being sent from time to time involving people that are trading with a potential scammer. Sometimes this is to gather evidence, and sometimes it is to warn the other participant of the PM. So don't be spooked if we pop-up randomly in a PM you've been having with someone else involving a trade.

- Neocodex Administration

Cookie Grabbers.. Again >_<

Sun, 04 Jul 2010 22:46:28 +0000

Alright so there is word floating around that cookie grabbers (CGs) are back. For those of you that don't know what CG's are they allow other people to steal your sessions. So they can get in your account and steal stuff, most likely they will not be able to lock you out of your account (by changing your password/email) but there is like a 5% chance they can.

First thing you should do is change your sessions cookie. Logging out then logging back in should be enough to change your session cookie but you can just change your password. It's good practice to change your password though so I would recommend that.

To further avoid this try not to buy often from usershops. If you have to, then disable your javascript first. This is most likely a way to prevent it.

To enable/disable JavaScript in Firefox 2.xx or 3.xx series
1. Open Firefox.
2. On the Tools menu, click Options.
3. Click on the Content icon. (Fig. 1)
4. Check the box next to Enable JavaScript. Uncheck it to disable. (See image below)
5. Click OK.

Edit by iargue: You can use the programs on here that use the usershops, that is safe.

New BD Challenger: Cybunny Scout

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 05:33:00 +0000

Defenders of Neopia: Series 2 - There appears to be some sort of disturbance happening in Tyrannia and the Defenders need your help! Do you have what it takes?

Go kick the Cybunny Scouts as!
http://www.neopets.com/games/don2.phtml

It's an easy clickable.
To get the guy go here: http://www.neopets.com/tcg/displayCard.phtml?edid=3&id=45

This is such an awesome addition by TNT I think that this release is going in the announcements area!