Patch 1.82C is up now and contains the beginning of the juicy part of this patch which, as announced in a Producer's Letter yesterday, will focus on Assassins as well as Wardens, Friars, and Thanes. At least I think it's the juicy part - I neither read nor tested the notes before posting this news item.

The text of the poll is as follows:

With each of the six expansions Dark Age of Camelot has released, elements of game play have been enhanced or introduced. As we move forward with our next expansion, we would like to know if there is one from the past that you particularly liked and wished us to emulate. Do you want the next expansion more like:

• I don't wish to answer this poll.
• Shrouded Isles - New lands to explore with new quests, classes, and races.
• Foundations - Something new for my character's social development.
• Trials of Atlantis - High-end content that I can do with my guild.
• New Frontiers - A new reason for my whole realm to go to war.
• Catacombs - Lots of new dungeons and features that will help me achieve more levels faster.
• Darkness Rising - An increase in character power and high end content.
• None of the above.

Now, thankfully I'm not a real journalist, so I don't have to try to present the news to you objectively. When looking at this poll, it might be wise to think not just of whether you liked an expansion - but also whether you want another one like it. The game has different needs these days, and I (often) question whether another expansion is viable at all.

Normally I don't put warnings like this up on the news, since it's not really my job and I generally don't know much more than anyone else, but this one is very, very scary...

There's a flaw in Windows (yes, Mac/Linux users, go ahead and start being snide) that allows an image file, when cached and then interacted with in any way (displayed on a web page, indexed by a desktop search program, etc), to more or less take over your computer. Using Firefox makes you only marginally safer; ANY Windows user is vulnerable.

This has been showing up in forums all over the place - any site that allows users to display a signature with images could infect you. I'm working on changing the forums to make sure no one can do this via CoC (there's a good chance I'll disable use of images in signatures and possibly user avatars), but for now, there's a fix out. It's not official, but it's posted by a well-known security guru, so hopefully it's safe. Go to http://grc.com/sn/notes-020.htm to get that.

And of course this is just one more reason to have a good antivirus program and not to visit untrustworthy sites. Unfortunately now untrustworthy may also mean all forums...