The City of Heroes launch is going like flaming gangbusters on parade, though I can't give you any numbers...

Conspiracy Theory Rock

Tonight at 9pm PDT, City of Heroes officially goes live.

We've been in "head start" since Sunday (people who pre-ordered can play). It's been going great. We had a hiccup at the very beginning when the login server (not Cryptic code) got tangled up and ran slowly. After a restart, it's been smooth sailing. For those who don't know, such a smooth start is remarkable in this industry.

The King Fuels Lady is to be no more. From Glenn Wells of the roadsidefans of list (via rv):

An Albany area roadside oddity soon will be no more. The King Fuels oil tank in South Troy, which has been "winking" across the river to motorists on Interstate 787 for years, is being demolished.

There is a picture of the tank on the main Times Union page at http://www.timesunion.com but it will likely be there today only (4/14/2004). (poz: I stole it) The complete story can be found at http://www.timesunion.com/aspstories/story.asp?storyID=238351 (but without the picture.)

The King Fuels winking oil tank has an interesting story, not all of which made it into the Times Union article. The original was rendered by a somewhat talented (as well as acrobatic) graffiti artist who painted an unusually seductive wink. A few years later, King Fuels renovated the tank, adding the company logo but removing the graffiti artist's work. The outcry from people who missed the wink was so great that King Fuels painted it back, this time adding a pair of red lips.

King Fuels, a marketer of home heating oil, used a photo of this tank in its advertising with the slogan, "Put a smile in YOUR tank!"

City of Heroes got a full-page blurb in Wired this month. (The online version puts them all on one page.) We didn't pay for this; someone at Wired thinks the game is cool, I guess.

A video preview of City of Heroes from TechTV