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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuKjBIBBAL8 (official) or http://www.metacafe.com/watch/331826/ant_fungus/

You mean like these videos?

Death grip on Droid X, EVO, Droid Incredible, Nexus One, Galaxy 1, G1, etc.

* Droid X: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/yt-kFc..._with_droid_x/

* Samsung I9000 Galaxy S: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LROTHrTR92k

* HTC Evo Signal Attenuation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pj2YBYTbag

* Samsung Galaxy 1:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

* Samsung Galaxy 2:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPCQdYtPihg

* Droid Incredible: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaDE941PzQk

* Droid Incredible (With Network Extender in Room): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpEQH...eature=related

* Nexus One: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEIA_lMwqJA

* Nexus One vs. iPhone (start at 1:29): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvMoV4_C4aA

* Nexus One: http://posterous.com/getfile/files.p...n_-_iPhone.m4v

* Nexus One (after Google's update to correct): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2g5J4qPp54

* Nexus One: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deCkjeHYT-g

* Android G1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CDaxhjUs9M

* "Major signal degradation when Nexus One is picked up" (N1 Thread on On this Problem): http://www.google.com/support/forum/...9184c33e&hl=en

If you enjoyed the dry ice overpressurizing a bottle until it pops, you'll LOVE this:

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/307550/how_to_make_a_works_bomb/

If the PLA bears any semblance to this, then add me to the non-impressed category.

you wouldn't kill a policeman... http://www.metacafe.com/watch/808656/it_crowd_anti_piracy/

Don't ask me what salat means, though. I have no idea.

It's an islamic prayer: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/2902594/learn_how_to_pray_salat/

I'd argue that one some.

if i had to fall 400 feet i would much rather take my chances with water than dirt

and while not 400 it this is 172

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1599995/172_foot_high_dive/

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1163919/monty_pythons_flying_circus_how_not_to_be_seen/

Tendency toward violence is not a left/right thing

Absolutely. Really, I should've said "In today's political climate, it's the right-wingers in general that...". I certainly didn't mean to cast aspersions upon *all* right-wingers. But they are *currently* housing (and, I would argue, encouraging) a kernel of extremism within their ranks.

And the highest-ranking members of the left are endorsing stuff like this. He was Obama's nominee for "Green Jobs Adviser".

As GP said, this isn't a left/right thing. No one party is housing or encouraging. There be asshats everywhere.

Actually, the Korean, Vietnam and all the cold war related skirmishes are related to defense. The soviets were actively engaged in subverting governments and taking them over and we were the great big prize target for them. When you picture the scenario i describe and think to yourself "there is no way the threat the soviets posed to us was that sinister and involved," know that in fact i was that sinister and convoluted and involved. The soviets were truly trying to take over the world in such a manner that if one understood it they would no longer believe in any way that the US had ever made any attempt to do the same.

The war in Iraq and Afghanistan are related to defense as well. Iraqi intelligence has been giving aid to Al Qaeda since the early 90's as they have waged a war against us. The Afghanistan Taliban gave them safe haven from which to plan and conduct this war. Is that enough reason to go to war? That's were the debate starts, but to say that there has been no provocation on any level since WWII is naive. Though i can see claiming that since a lot of it has not been direct provocation it doesn't count, but i would disagree on that point.

Since the end of World War II the US has faced some form of constant threat. Whether or not these threats have been severe enough to warrant the actions we have taken is a separate discussion, but the threats have been there. Those parties that have threatened us have always tried to conduct themselves in such a way that they could always claim any retaliation was unwarranted.

All in all, I think we should have given up Global Super Power status when the soviets fell. It's just not worth it anymore, but I think we were needed while they were standing.

We should stop bothering with foreign entanglements, but there are a lot of people who aren't going to like the fact that that would mean no help for Darfur, or Haiti, no more aid like we gave after the tsunami.

Iraq-Al Qaeda stuff: http://www.amazon.com/Connection-Collaboration-Hussein-Endangered-America/dp/0060746734

Soviet stuff: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/yt-RS8LA-5fmrs/g_edward_griffin_interview_of_yuri_bezmenov/
Yuri Bezmenov was one of the guys doing it until he defected. There is also a series of 7 videos where he gives a university lecture and goes into detail on this process. He is wearing a powder blue blazer in that series.

I know people want to believe the US is some big bad boogey man ruining the lives of innocent foreigners, and we have done some really nasty things. But if you look back at all of the nations that have been the big superpower through history, the US really does set the gold standard for benevolence in global politics.

Or they could just, you know, be like me and this guy (warning: language NSFW but can you blame him?) and downloading cracked versions of games we already bought because the shitty DRM doesn't work!

Didn't even read the post before responding, did you.

Well no shit. Last time i check the population is growing, not at a standstill or decline. So us older folks who grew up in a non DRM gaming environment to what we have now are the ones that avoid that shit with a plague unlike our younger counter parts who most of which probably have no clue what DRM is. If they do, they don't give a shit, they're having fun playing their game one way or another. It wasn't their money if they bought it and they become a "rebel" once they hack it and have bragging rights to their friends to sound uber cool!

However, this doesn't justify DRM's methods of preventing piracy. I think this guy has it right: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/yt-mt4BpnfAN-o/how_anti_piracy_screws_over_people_who_buy_pc_games/
Enjoy! :D

Or they could just, you know, be like me and this guy (warning: language NSFW but can you blame him?) and downloading cracked versions of games we already bought because the shitty DRM doesn't work!

Being in PC repair I can attest that the latest DRM can be worse than most viruses. If you get Starforce or SecuROM mixed together, or either of those with any other like SafeDisc, well lets just say I hope you look back on the days of unstable Win9x fondly, because you will be getting a taste of those times. I can't even count the number of DVD drives of customers I had to throw away because Starforce or SecuROM decided they were "dirty evil filthy pirates" for actually having a burner and threw it into PIO mode and burned their drive smooth up.

And be sure to place close attention to the background in that video. Notice the huge mounds of game boxes? Here he is a major customer and what does he get for doing the right thing and buying? Well he gets spit upon, that's what? Does the DRM do jack shit to stop piracy? Hell no! In fact the nastier DRM like Spore gets cracked even quicker than the others! It has gotten so bad with shitty DRM that I refuse to buy at release day anymore, simply because I don't have the cracked version yet. Once I have a working crack then and ONLY then will I buy, because I am frankly tired of shelling out $50+ for a paperweight I can even return when it is defective by design!

Meanwhile the pirates are laughing their asses off, because their version just works straight out of the box, no hassles and no bullshit, meanwhile the ones that DO work expect me to hop up and change discs every. single. time. I want to play a game. WTF? Why did I spend all this money on fat hard drives when you ass clowns are gonna treat me like I'm using an x360?

You want to cut down on piracy, game publishers? Instead of ass raping us with ever higher prices, "multiplatform" games that are nothing but really shitty x360 games, less and less game thanks to the lack of dedicated servers and the scourge that is DLC, how about giving us real value for our money, hmmm? How about that? EA got me to shell out for MOH:10th anniversary even though I heard Airborne wasn't great by offering me MORE value for my money! For $25 I got Airborne, Allied Assault with the two expansions, Pacific Assault the Director's Cut, and a making of, a WW2 Pacific War interactive timeline, and a music of MOH CD. All of the big game houses have older games, why not throw us a couple of older titles in? Why not a music CD or making of?

But there isn't any surprise as to why there is so much piracy now. I have been gaming since the days of Win3.x, and never before have we gamers been treated so badly, charged so much for substandard fare, and generally spit upon for daring to pay good money. Is it any wonder so many say fuck it and get the actually working pirate version? And sorry about the length, but I am so damned sick of how shitty we gamers are being treated by these gaming corps. If we buy they spit in our faces and screw us over every chance they get, if we boycott they just scream "piracy!" and bribe our politicians to get nastier laws and put even worse DRM in. either way we are royally screwed.

Careful application and release of this type of brake is how one executes the Hillbilly U-Turn .

Toyota has probably connected the lever to both rear brakes ... via copper wire to the Cabin Center Console Ethernet Switch, then fiber to each of the Current Candidates For Braking Interface Modules.

.. top that, Apple!
Lenovo already has.

Yeah, it is sooo fun to pay $50+ for something that doesn't actually work (warning: language NSFW, but can you blame him?). And be sure to pay close attention to the shelves behind him. Notice what is on those shelves? See the thousands of dollars worth of games the guy has bought, only to have the vast majority not actually work?

I won't even buy at release anymore, because running a 64bit OS I have gotten that stupid "Insert disc in drive E:" bullshit (It IS in Drive E: you stupid &%^$^$&^$! And why did I buy big honking hard drives so your stupid company can make me change discs like a PlayStation anyway?) one time too many and now refuse to touch any game that I don't already have the cracks sitting on my hard drive ready to go. Is it any wonder why people pirate? Your DRM don't work morons!

And the worst part? The part that feels like a big kick in the nuts? It does NOTHING to stop piracy, it simply screws up your machine! Working PC repair I have thrown away more customers drives because the stupid DRM decided they must be a "filthy pirate" for daring to have a DVD burner (who doesn't nowadays? Hell even the shitty Dells come with DVD ROM/CDRWs now) or two drives and thrown one or more into PIO mode and burned them smooth up, meanwhile the pirates are laughing their asses off because unlike my retail discs which want me to keep switching discs and jumping through flaming hoops only not to work a good 60%+ of the time, their pirate versions actually work. No need for discs, or jumping through hoops, or DRM that can make your PC more unstable than Win98 with a bad VXD driver, nope, theirs just works. And they wonder why there are so many pirates? Try not kicking your customers in the balls, how about that?

You don't necessarily need a to shoot down the drone. Improvising other methods may work too.

Rumor is that CCD sensors in cameras are susceptible to burn-in. A laser pointer or an improvised lasing device (made with some components from an old or broken CD or DVD burner and an old flashlight), and a bit of luck (at least for moving or obscured cameras), you might make it an expensive game for those watching you. Of course this approach doesn't come without obvious risks to yourself as well.

Because the church of scientology is enormously wealthy, and has a lot of rich and powerful members, they successfully censor and defame Scientology critics over and over. The Church of Scientology has been subject of credible accusation of human trafficking, and has harassed critics of the church (see "Operation Freakout"). It has infiltrated government agencies (see operation snow white) for which several scientologists, including hubbards wife were conficted. Scientologists consider enemies of the church to be "fair game", by which they mean that attacks on opponents of the church fall outside Scientology ethics. For example, in "Penalties for Lower Conditions", Hubbard states that opponents who are "fair game" may be "deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist. May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed.". Some months later Hubbard recinded this policy saying: "The practice of declaring people FAIR GAME will cease. FAIR GAME may not appear on any Ethics Order. It causes bad public relations. This [policy letter] does not cancel any policy on the treatment or handling of an SP.". Read the language carefully...

The church actively, aggressively, and very successfully courts celebrities, which gives the church a veneer of legitimacy, and successfully spreads their word. A non-violent, extra-legal attack like that by Anonymous can be seen as an act of civil disobedience, in which a large group of relatively poor and powerless (compared to the COS) individuals break laws in order to strike back at a more powerful institution which is enormously harmful. Presumably the main purpose of the attack is generating interest in the evils of Scientology, i.e. using extralegal means to combat their giant, well funded propaganda machine. Considering the well-document, harmful nature of the COS, I would assume that this is the reasoning of Dr. Evil.

Yep, soon we will ALL be pirates, simply because the pirated version will be the only one where you don't have to jump through flaming hoops while tapdancing and juggling bowling balls just to play the *&^&%&^% game!

To see how this kind of BS DRM hurts customers just watch this (warning: Language NSFW but who can blame him) and pay close attention to the huge piles of game boxes behind him. Here is a guy who has spent thousands on games, simply to get shafted. But of course if he would have pirated he would not have had all the BS, because the pirate version "just works" unlike the defective by design retail version. How about giving us a good deal for our money, instead of taking our $60 and then bitch-slapping us for daring to pay you? How about that game companies?

Here's a video of a morse coder kicking the ass of top texter at the time:

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/89338/morse_code_leno/

Look at the criticisms google staffers noted: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/yt-mZo69JQoLb8/google_ipv6_conference_2008_what_will_the_ipv6_internet_look_like/

I don't expect to ever use v6. There's just no need and won't work for a very very very long time if at all.

Hey, did anyone here ever see the ign.com April Fools joke trailer for 2008? Watch it here. Compare this with the YouTube trailer for The Hero of Time movie (alternate version). You will immediately notice a difference in quality (in IGN's favor). Nintendo probably didn't pursue IGN for their joke trailer, but that may be due to the fact that IGN wasn't actually making a movie, just an April Fools trailer. But, if I were Nintendo, and I were inclined to grant trademark lenience, having seen both of these samples, I would choose the IGN version, because the Hero of Time movie looks puerile by comparison (and, yes, I do mean that it looks like a child filmed and post-produced it).

http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/design.html#unibody

Of course, building only one part creates its own set of challenges. When you have multiple parts that are fastened together, tolerances don’t need to be perfect. You have wiggle room, both literally and figuratively. But when one part is responsible for many functions, it’s critical to manufacture that part with absolute precision, down to the micron. Every time. Millions of times over. There was only one way to achieve this level of precision: mill the unibody from a solid block of aluminum using computer numerical control, or CNC, machines — the kind used by the aerospace industry to build mission-critical spacecraft components.

When you pick up a new MacBook Pro, you immediately notice the difference. The entire enclosure is thin and light. It looks polished and refined. And it feels strong and durable — perfect for life inside (and outside) your briefcase or backpack.

This page is so much better when read in a Patrick Bateman voice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WdEL8DzvaM

This is the sort of marketing spiel that Bateman presumably rote learned from GQ. He obsessed over invisible details in every day items too

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/2557915/american_psycho_business_cards/

Well I can say that their anti piracy crap has already made it so I won't buy ANY game on release date anymore. Why? Because I end up needing to crack it more than half the time because I get that "disc not in drive" error. WTF? It IS in the damned drive, you %^$&^%$& DRM POS! And why the hell do we got big honking hard drives if we have to feed the damned thing discs like it is a PS2?

But this guy (warning-language NSFW) sums up my feelings on these large corps and their anti piracy crap better than I ever could. I have to agree that this has nothing to do with piracy though, it is just the greedy swine at EA trying to kill first sale again. And considering how well EA treats customers of launch releases I wouldn't blame anyone if they pirated it first just to see if the POS will even run on their machine before deciding whether to purchase. These companies should be fricking ashamed of the alpha quality code that is pushed through the doors these days.

Exactly! I don't even even know the number of games I have had to crack, not because I'm some pirate, but because while the game works fine in X64 their &^%$&^%$ DRM doesn't. Not to mention having nearly a Tb of HDD space and being expected to build a mound of discs to feed the damned PC like it was a PS2.

But this guy (warning language NSFW) sums up my feelings on the anti-piracy bullshit better than I ever could, and is a good example of the kind of crap we'll all be dealing with if this crap is allowed to pass. Watch and see first hand how the consumer (notice the fricking huge library of games the guy has behind him) gets screwed by the DRM.

Obama is nothing like Bush. This is a transparent government that doesn't hide anything or plan on passing any bills that would take away rights and freedoms like Net Neutrality or a Secret Copyright Treaty that would screw over consumers and competitors.

We would hope for change that BushObama, er ah George W. Obama, er ah Barrack W. Bush, er ah President Obama is not becoming a Black Bush and finish off George W. Bush's third term as a Closet Republican Neocon in a Liberal Democrat suit. :)

Health Care will be universal, and we can ignore that 30% hidden tax in the bill to pay for it, as your employer would get a 30% tax on your salary as well, as that would never happen in the USA as it did in Sweden. Oh now Obama is going to do it with Congress for free, with more TARP and stimulus money for banks, GM, and other organizations that lobbied money to Congress and his administration, but ignore that, as it is the cost of Free Health Care, just Free as in Speech not as in Beer. :)

Remember how everyone was panicking about the 151 deaths from swine flu when it first started? Everyone trumpeted that number. You don't hear them being equally loud about admitting that the number was totally bogus, that the actual death toll was 7! Gee, I wonder why? Oh, maybe because it would make them look stupid and ruin their credibility the next time they tried to pull some more numbers out their rectums?

A member of the World Health Organisation (WHO) has dismissed claims that more than 150 people have died from swine flu, saying it has officially recorded only seven deaths around the world.

Vivienne Allan, from WHO's patient safety program, said the body had confirmed that worldwide there had been just seven deaths - all in Mexico - and 79 confirmed cases of the disease.

"Unfortunately that [150-plus deaths] is incorrect information and it does happen, but that's not information that's come from the World Health Organisation," Ms Allan told ABC Radio today.

All the numbers since then have been equally unreliable. For example, its been admitted that in many subsequent "H1N1" cases, no test was done to verify if the patient actually had swine flu, because of the cost and time involved. This isn't just in the developing world, either - the US has stopped counting.

Also, there's no indication that H1N1 is any more fatal than any other flu - indeed, the worst estimate puts it the same as any other flu, and that may be over-hyped because many people may get a mild case of H1N1 and recover on their own, further lowering the death rate. It's extremely unlikely (to the point of flat-out impossible) that every person who got it went to a hospital and was tested. Tose most at risk - the fat slobs, the morbidly obese who are already most at risk, and will probably die of something else if H1N1 doesn't finish them off, but the true cause of their demise isn't H1N1 - it's that extra 13 meals a day.

Of course, it's been all hype right from the beginning, as others have pointed out, to deaf ears: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: Stirring up "swine flu" hysteria http://www.thebulletin.org/web-edition/columnists/laura-h-kahn/stirring-swine-flu-hysteria

People simply don't want to know the truth, because it doesn't give them that frison of fear - this "epidemic" isn't any worse than a regular flu outbreak, and it's certainly not either swine or avian flu, based on its' genetic code, so really, let's all take a chill pill, follow the money to see who's benefiting from the hype, and kick them in the nuts.

And you just hit the nail right on the head with that simple statement, bravo. All this bullshit does is make the pirated version in EVERY WAY better than the "legitimate" version. Take my case for example, I have to fricking crack every. damned. single. game. I own. Why? Because XP X64 (my OS of choice) plays all the games, even the older ones beautifully while giving me access to my 8Gb of RAM but the ^&%$&^&$^&%$ DRM don't work, that's why!!! You get that stupid "insert disc in drive E:" bullshit. It IS in drive E:, you stupid piece of crap!

And God help you if you don't notice the sometimes invisible warning and get "starforced" as guess what? Their damned uninstaller don't work on x64 buddy! That's right, enjoy a day spent dual boot and hacking the reg to get rid of that festering turd, but as you pointed out TPB version works just fine on XP X64. But I think this guy (warning-language which you can't blame him for if you watch the video) says it better than I ever could.

Just give me one more Starfoce infection game makers, just one more, and yes it IS an infection, as a PC repairman I can tell you that a Starforce+Safedisc+SecuROM infection is nastier than most malware out today, and you can kiss my money goodbye. If my choices are paying for the "privilege" of getting kicked in the nuts or NOT paying and not getting kicked in the crotch or spending more time "enjoying the fun" of removing your broken DRM than playing your latest crappy $59 "extravaganza"? Well it'll be TPB for the win, and you'll have NO ONE to blame but yourself. Because I don't know about everyone else, but I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!

In the end it wasn't guns or bombs that killed the aliens, but the humblest of all god's creatures.....

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/3069419/the_scary_door_4/

Scientist: "I have combined the DNA of the world's most evil animals to make the most evil creature of them all."

Evil Creature: "It turns out it's man!"

(The Scary Door)

Because it is unheard of that some people smash things just for fun.

I'm still not entirely convinced by his arguments about how high a temp you need to burn cardboard. Seriously - 258C??
It's probablly not that far off but while it sounds high I would draw your attention to

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/26293/cpu_cooler_removed/

>AMD athlon 1400
>Temperature 370C/698F
>Application crashes
>CPU and board up in smoke

Ok modern CPUs have more protection but the fact remains is there is enough power there to make small areas hot enough to burn cardboard under fault conditions. The case must be able to contain that.

This is a cool project but the three issues of fire safety, lack of screening and lack of robustness make it impractical as a product IMO.

I know you were joking, but I doubt your processor (or any component in your computer case for that matter) would run hot enough to ignite paper/cardboard.
In normal operation no, under fault conditions some chips could probablly reach those kind of temperatures.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/26293/cpu_cooler_removed/

>AMD athlon 1400
>Temperature 370C/698F
>Application crashes
>CPU and board up in smoke

If a CPU lacking the thermal protection built into modern CPUs can do it with mere heatsink removal then I'm pretty certain the power stuff on the board could more than do it under the right fault conditions.

May I add feeling like a damned idiot for paying, only to get kicked in the nuts? I have 9Gb of RAM, 8 on the CPU and 1Gb on the GPU, so naturally I use a 64bit OS, in this case XP X64. Does the DRM allow me to....oh I don't know....actually USE what I PAID for? Fuck no!

So I have to waste MY time cracking shit I PAID for just to use it, because while even older games run perfectly fine on XP X64, the fucking DRM don't work at all. You get the "insert disc in drive E:" bullshit, just like this guy (warning-language) which is why I use his video on the subject, since he puts my frustration into words better than I can. And does anybody notice the huge fucking pile of game boxes, literally stacked sky high in his gaming room? That is just like me, and just like him game after game AFTER game doesn't actually work. Can I get my money back for being sold a broken product? Nope, because once the box is open tough shit. Oh, and God help you if you install a game without finding the (sometimes non existent) Starforce label, because guess what? The fucking uninstaller for Starforce doesn't actually work in x64, so you get to spend the afternoon dual booting and hacking the reg to get that buggy shit off. Fun, huh?

Does this hurt the pirates? not a God damned bit. They get the game on release day, or sometimes even earlier, and low and behold, it works just fine on x64! Amazing huh? Meanwhile I've had to quit buying at release because I have to wait for all the patches to be cracked just so I can actually pay for a working product. And more and more often I feel like a damned fool for going through all this bullshit just for the "privilege" of giving some gaming corp my hard earned money so they can spit in my face. Now tell me something DRM lovers-why should I give a flying shit about you or your company if you are gonna treat me like dog shit for paying you? Because I didn't spend $700 on this new gaming rig just to run a 32bit OS because you can't be bothered to actually pay for functional DRM, which frankly I have yet to see in 32 OR 64 bit. And I can tell your from experience that DRM "infections" can be nastier than any malware you can pick up. Ever see what Safedisc PLUS SecurROM PLUS Starforce does? I have, and it ain't pretty. All kinds of mysterious crashes, and more burned out drives than I can count, thanks to them being thrown into PIO mode.

Sorry for the length, but this really isn't rocket science-give your customers fair value for their dollar, which does NOT mean charging the absolute maximum you can possibly charge without calling it the "assraping edition" because you think your shit don't stink. Give us a fair value, make us feel like we are getting MORE and not LESS for our money, and enjoy your profits. News Flash-good games make butt loads o' cash, bad games don't. It has always been that way. Screwing your customers in the mistaken belief that handing over 100k to SecuROM will make pirates by your shitty shooter o' the week only hurts guys like me, that are frankly getting sick of getting kicked in the nuts by you when the pirates laugh their asses off. But keep this shit up, and I have no doubt you'll run me straight into the arms of the pirates. Not because I don't want to pay, but because I am sick and tired of spending more time cracking the damned game and removing faulty DRM infections on my machine than actually playing the fucking game. I swear to God one more unannounced Starforce install, just one more, and you can kiss my cash goodbye.

Heh... Yeah, it's negative. But it's merely an annoyance to the pirates; and a disaster (Warning: Volumes of Coarse Language...) for the end-users and a financial drag on the company that deploys it.

As negative impacts go, EA's starting to figure out that draconian measures don't quite sit well with people and had to relent on the DRM at least a bit.

Why is it so damned hard to understand? You want folks to buy, yes? Then give them a good value for their dollar! Examples-I bought the entire Joss Whedon collection, I have the nice box sets sitting here in front of me on a shelf. Could I have pirated it? Sure, but then all I would have gotten is the episodes themselves, and not the actor and director commentaries, the "making of" featurettes, the makeup and stunts behind the scenes, etc. In short they gave me MORE for my dollar, so I bought.

For an example of gaming, EA got me to shell out for MOH:Airborne, even though I had already heard that it wasn't that hot. How did they do that? By packing all of the older MOH games PLUS an interactive timeline PLUS a "music of" with remixes and original recordings. in other words they gave me MORE for my dollar, so I bought.

The problem is the large game companies have been infected with the "too big to fail" mentality, where they pump out one really shitty POS after another, or worse call something "multiplatform" when it is just a really shitty X360 or PS3 port, and then get pissy when folks won't shell out $59+ for it. Well what do you expect? Are you giving them a good value for their money? or are you just putting alpha quality POS code in a box and acting like your shit don't stink? Give folks an honest value for their dollar, and back up the money truck. It was true 100 years ago, and it is just as true today. Try to assrape them with crazy prices, shitty alpha quality code that needs a half dozen patches just to at more than 20FPS, lousy games that are just a ripoff of a ripoff, filled with *&^^%*&^% DRM and watch them try to screw you back. It really ain't rocket science folks.

Not to mention do you have any idea how many PCs I have to format in a year because some dumbass in the family did something stupid and got pwned? Say goodbye to your stuff! Because if it is easy for me to "backup" the key, it will be JUST as easy for the guy at Worst Buy with the porta drive and the script that copies everyones media files to help himself, and again bye bye media.

The media companies time and time again fall for the SAME stupid shit that the game companies do. I have to crack all my fricking games even though I paid good money for them. Why you ask? Because I have 9Gb of RAM (8 on the board and 1Gb on the GPU) and therefor use XP X64, which works beautifully on the games but the #$%#%$# DRM don't work, that's why! And God help you if you get a Starforce infection on XP X64, as their damned uninstaller doesn't do jack shit on X64, so enjoy spending the day dual booting and hacking the reg to kill that shit!

when are these PHBs ever gonna learn? EA got me to shell out to buy MOH:Airborne even though I had already read reviews that said it wasn't that good. How you ask? By packing the older MOH games together with it, along with a nice interactive timeline of WW2 and a "music of" disc, and all for a reasonable $30. By giving me MORE value for my money I was happy to shell out for the set, and it would be trivial for other companies to do the same. Instead they go out of their way to screw us on price and cripple their products with DRM, once again making the pirated versions BETTER in every way! How damned stupid can they be? They should be throwing extra discs containing the artist's older stuff and charging us a fair $20 for the set, not this assraping $1 a song BS.

Offer people a good value for a fair price, and watch the money roll in. It was true 100 years ago and is just as true today, but sadly these corporations have taken on the "too big to fail" mentality that they are entitled to ever climbing profits while screwing everyone else every damned chance they get. Sadly the "too big to fail" mentality, as well as massive bribery of our elected officials, is what has gotten us into the mess we are in now. our infrastructure falling apart, prices going ever higher while quality goes ever lower. And they have the brass balls to wonder why piracy is rampant? How about not buttraping your customers and given them broken DRM infected shit, how about that? How about instead of wasting all this money on pointless DRM shit, which is cracked by the pirates usually before release, you instead offer a good value for the consumer's dollar so he doesn't feel screwed when he buys you product, ever think of that? But sadly I doubt there will ever do anything that logical. They will instead pay for ever more draconian laws paid for with treasonous bribes, and shovel ever shittier DRM down our throats and be amazed that their profits take a nosedive. Just stupid.

Maybe you should point him towards TPB or any other "pirate friendly" site and show him that his business is getting a big fat ZERO ROI for investing in DRM. Plus I would show him this and point out that he is driving the legitimate customers right into the hands of the pirates by making defective products that can often ONLY work by using DRM breaking hacks released by the pirates.

Finally i would give him a demo on XP X64 and show him DRM failing in action, and point out that 64bit is the way of the future and how the DRM pretty much means your software is worthless without piracy because the DRM simply doesn't function on 64bit XP/Vista. Maybe a little lesson on how the DRM is having the opposite effect to what he and the other PHBs desire might get some sense beaten into him. Oh and if he is forcing you to put Starforce on games I hope he burns in hell, as Starforce can NOT be removed with the Starforce uninstaller on XP X64! Fun huh? yeah it involves an afternoon of hacking the reg and dual booting just to toss that buggy shit! That is why myself and many of the other x64 users won't touch starfucked crap with a 100 foot pole.

I don't even buy games on release date anymore because the &^%$&^&%! DRM don't work on my 64bit XP (it IS in the drive, you stupid fucking thing!)

You have a curious self-censorship policy.

Everyone who has bandwidth caps should figure up how much bandwidth their crap is sucking and hand these assclowns a nice bill at the end of the month. If enough folks had a living shitfit and handed them bills for the bandwidth they are wasting I'm sure the bad publicity alone would be enough to get them to STFU and quit this crap. We should also have a website set up listing the ads shown on these things so we can boycott the products. As we have seen with the Obama "racist" remark by Beck advertisers don't want their ads dropped into the middle of a shitstorm, which is EXACTLY what we should give them!

I don't know about the rest of you guys, but I am really tired of this bullshit. I don't even buy games on release date anymore because the &^%$&^&%! DRM don't work on my 64bit XP (it IS in the drive, you stupid fucking thing!) so I have to wait until all the patches, caused by companies putting out code so shitty it smells worse than a porta-potty at a chili cookoff, have been cracked so I can actually use what I fucking PAID FOR, but now, after assraping us on the price AND bending us over with DRM infections (and as a PC repairman who has had to clean up the mess that SecuROM+Starforce+Safedisc caused I can assure you it IS nastier than any trojan out there) now they want to bend us over AGAIN with ads? Fuck you and the horse you rode in on, you greedy little bastards.

Why in the hell should I NOT pirate your shit, if you are gonna treat me like dirt, spit in my face, and kick me one in the balls for good measure after I give you my hard earned cash? I predict the piracy rates will go through the roof as the pirates figure out how to kill this shit, making the pirate version yet again leagues better than the actual retail version. And I apologize to any who I may have offended with my language, but I am so tired of these game companies acting like their shit don't stink and finding ever newer and nastier ways to treat us like dirt. Especially when in my favorite genre (FPS) they seem to be able to do nothing be rehash the same tired old shit year after year, just tacking on more bling to it.

Yes, let's go back to WW2 AGAIN, it isn't like we have all seen that shit like a 1000 times over before! Oh yes, give us more "rubberband" AI, where you either get guys that are so stupid they can't figure out something is wrong when you pop a cap in their buddy from 20 yards away, or they have grunts that can instantly find you from any cover, hit you with a crappy pistol for 100+ yards and take more damage than fricking Michael Myers and keep on coming. Yeah that's so much fun. Talentless hacks.

Here is one of the videos from the lab experiment.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/401413/ball_lightning_created_in_a_laboratory_very_cool_stuff

Bouncing bits of burning metal. Some people theorize that this is behind many ball-lightning reports. Notice that it follows a ballistic trajectory -- no gliding, no hovering. It's kind of cool, but anybody who ever welds sees this all the time.

This one seems to be inside a domestic oven. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgMnsdqHwew&feature=related

And again, if you're inside an environment that's thick with high-intensity standing waves, it's easy to generate cool plasmas. But the volume around a thunderstorm is not like the volume inside a microwave oven -- there's no easily-coupled, sustained source of hundreds of watts of high-frequency energy.

Both of these could be fake of course.

No, I think they're both perfectly legit, and the first one may well be the same mechanism as a lot of reported "ball lightning". But I'm still looking for an explanation for the floating, drifting, long-lifetime balls.

Here is one of the videos from the lab experiment.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/401413/ball_lightning_created_in_a_laboratory_very_cool_stuff

This one seems to be inside a domestic oven.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgMnsdqHwew&feature=related

Both of these could be fake of course.

I'm not real sure I would describe standing in the field of a Tesla coil as channeling voltages right across the heart. Right across the heart would require using your body to participate in a circuit that had sufficient power to overwhelm the skin as a conductor.

Please I BEG YOU watch this jackass then reply back and try and tell me with a straight face that what you said is still true.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1028769/tesla_coil_magic/

It is. But Pixar answer probably isnt very scientific

Lots of people use the "personal responsiblity" defence for these kinds of pranks. Unfortunately, your brain is hard wired practically from birth to listen to authority.

Want to know the best way to mug someone? Just ask for their wallet. Con artists have relied on the fact that all it takes to rip off most people is the confidence to pull off the scams.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1015145/ape_picking_nose/

oh nom nom

Paul Reubens serves as a reservoir for SBDs:

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/584770/mystery_men_the_spleen/

Ugh, a console gamer. You know, not everyone like holding those POS game controllers and there are quite a few games, such as FPS and RTS where consoles really just suck. And you do realize that your console is NOTHING but "DRM....in a box" yes?

And how can you have the brass balls to sit there and talk about MSFT shitting on folks while actually using Sony for gaming, who makes MSFT look like rank amateurs when it comes to screwing over customers. Mini Disc, ATRAC, memory stick, hell the reason you PS3 players got screwed on the price of PS3s was Sony trying to force Blu Ray down everyone's throats. Thanks to that little stunt they had to yank PS2 compatibility and they are STILL dead last with no signs of ever even getting second place. At least with MSFT I can still play my Win9X era games like Deus Ex without needing to keep a 90s era PC hooked up. Hell with DOSBox installed you can play games going back to the dawn of PC gaming!

But don't let that stop you from being smug at overpaying, please enjoy your PS3. At least I can still run any game thanks to the wonderful contributions of the cracking community (power to the people dude). How well is those PS2 games playing on your PS3? Kinda sad how the only real selling point the have with PS3 is BD, which you can get players for $149 at Wally World and nobody actually wants, huh? According to a bud that works electronics at Wally World even at $149 they don't sell enough of them to matter, because DVD is all the people want. So you have a last place machine that uses an overly expensive video player that looks like it could very well end up the next laserdic. Man that has GOT to suck!

Didn't treat us PC gamers like Dog Shit we would be buying more games. I can say that while I once looked forward to buying the "big gun" games (Far Cry, Bioshock FEAR,etc) at release I know refuse to buy any game that isn't in the bargain bin.

Why? Well besides the fact that they started charging $60+ a pop which is just insane in a dead economy, the biggest reason is this: I am using a 64bit OS, namely XP X64. Despite all the horror stories about incompatibility I have found even my old Win9X era software runs quite well in 64bit. Of course with 4Gb of DDR2 going for around $40 and graphics cards with 1Gb of RAM going for $50 32bit simply didn't cut it for me anymore. So what is the problem you say? Well, while the games all run beautifully, with nary a glitch or hiccup, the &^%$^&%$&^%$ DRM doesn't work in 64bit!!!! See how in the video above how the poor guy sticks the retail disc in the drive only to get "Please insert disc in drive"? That is pretty much every stinking game for me. Meanwhile the pirates get the games prerelease with no DRM and no bullshit. And they wonder why sales are down? Maybe if you would quit kicking me in the balls I might buy more of your damned product!!!!

So now thanks to their wonderful DRM I simply don't buy release games any longer. I have found so many companies are putting out alpha quality code that even if you can find a crack at release often there will be a patch released quickly that you simply have to have to actually use the game, and who knows how long it will be until the patch is cracked? So instead I wait until the game hits the $30 and below shelves, with $20 and below being the magic number for impulse buys. I have found by that time they have released pretty much all the patches they are gonna so I can just Alcohol the game onto DVD along with the patches and crack required to actually play the product I PAID FOR so that when I feel like going back and playing again I have all the required files in one place.

Maybe we will get lucky and this recession will teach game companies to stop acting like giant douches with crap like Spore style limited installs, DRM that is nastier than any trojan (and if you have ever had to clean a PC that is infected with Starforce+Safedisc+SecuROM you know how nasty they can be) and in general treating their paying customers like dog shit who should be grateful for any alpha quality code they deem worthy of dumping on us. Sadly instead they will just scream "Piracy!" and treat us paying customers even more like shit, probably screw the console gamers with nasty DRM tricks that kill Gamestop, and generally spit in the faces of those that actually try to support them by buying their products. Meanwhile the pirates will laugh their ass off with their release day PC games and modded consoles and think those of us that pay are total idiots. And with the way game companies treat us they kinda have a point.

I think these would be fun, techie, and an art installation at your school. http://www.metacafe.com/watch/502285/how_to_magnetic_led_sticky_lights/