Slashdot Mirror

Apparently, the user has to manually select the addresses that will be spammed ("invited"), and click a button.

This is by far not as bad as what wayn.com does (or at least used to do). They were just sending out their spam through your account without your knowledge. See "WAYN - Where Are You Now? Warning" or Wayn.com : phishing alert, ne vous faites pas couillonner ! (the last one in French). (found these at the end of a French blog post about other deceptive practices of Wayn.com)

Man, I kept waiting for:

"And then Hacker Dude X hacked the Prize Machine hardcore, got all the prizes he could stand, then sold them on ebay for a fortune!

He's currently getting "Personal Attention" from Bubba J. Plow in the Oswald State Correctional Facility!"

But nooOOOooo, you had to be Informative, didn't you. ;)

Evan
My CCG Design blog

Here's the free blurb from the publisher:

--------------
Atlanta Nights
by
Travis Tea

Chapter 1

Pain.
Whispering voices.
Pain.
Pain. Pain. Pain.
Need pee--new pain--what are they sticking in me? . . .
Sleep.
Pain.
Whispering voices.
"As you know, Nurse Eastman, the government spooks controlling this hospital will not permit me to give this patient the care I think he needs."
"Yes, doctor." The voice was breathy, sweet, so sweet and sexy.
"We will therefore just monitor his sign's. Serious trauma like this patient suffered requires extra care, but the rich patsies controlling the hospital will make certain I cannot try any of my new treatments on him."
"Yes, doctor." That voice was soooo sexy!
Bruce didn't care about treatments. He cared about pain, and he cared about that voice, because when he heard the voice, the pain went away, just for a few seconds, like.

----------------------

Need pee. Sign's. Hahaha, unbelievable.

Evan
My CCG Design Blog

This is taken from my blog, but I felt it was thorough/pertinent enough to post here.

So I finished Half Life 2. Ironically, I never actually completed the original, but I've been excited just like any other gamer over these past few months about what the six-year-development cycle has done for the game in question.

How has this gestation period treated the game? Very well. It seems that two things are apparent to me as I made my way through the connected, fluid universe of Half Life 2:

One: Valve are masters of atmosphere. While Doom 3 had its moments, it was mainly atmosphere in the form of no atmosphere. The lack of a true outdoor environment (albeit a small one with high rock ledges around and a fast-moving sky) prevented it from truly sinking in the idea that this is a living breathing world and more of a series of spooky outposts.

Half Life 2, on the other hand, truly delivered in the atmosphere environment. Everything is as it shouldn't be, which is to say totalitarian and controlled, from the first moment of the game you are subjected to the mindless droning of the Omnipresent Master along with the suddle and barking tones of the Military Component. It's enough to make you creeped out. And in a good way. Not in a Monster Closet (my code name for Doom 3) way.

Two: The female character of Alex was masterfully done. Never have I truly cared for, nor even felt better just being in the presence of, such a character before. She brought a calming effect that is truly unmatched by any other thing in the game.

I believe I have noticed something of First Person Shooters here recently, something that I was speaking with my friend Jon about. I call it the Waking Nightmare syndrome. There is a level of stress that the latest FPS's put on you by taking as much control and normalcy away from you. Whether this be Monster Closets (regarding both the mechanic of "boo scares" with doors and the game Doom 3 itself), or spooky towns filled with baddies or buggy rides through the open (and dangerous) road, these games want you on edge.

And frankly, this type of gaming is scary and nerve-wracking. It makes me not want to play.

Yet, it does want me to play. But the difference is in the amount of which I can take at any given time. With Doom 3, I honestly just stopped playing it. There reached a point where I realized that the game had determented into Monster Closets, where you would either pass a locker and it would shoot out a monster, or one would simply crawl out after you passed to sneak up on you soon after. Either way, it got to be distracting, formulaic, and yes, even a bit scary. But not creepy scary, like those really good Japanese horror movies. In fact, it never reached horror. It reached scary, and that's nowhere near horror.

Now Half Life 2, on the other hand, reached something very close to horror, but never quite got there. It presented a world out of control, yet the way that world came to be was never explained, even in the very beautiful and psycho-centric last levels. Now that would be true horror, the ability to build this world then show the awful unmaking of the world you were used to.

I would also like to note that the finale was grand, but the ending was awful. Fine, Valve, you didn't want to "end" it by any Movie Sense. But we basically just played through one, albeit in a first person point of view, yet you gave us a Kubrick-like (or Twilight Zone) one and expected us to enjoy it. Amused, yes. Enjoyed, no.

Regardless, it is highly recommended. The game, when it works, even in Waking Nightmare style, is beautiful stuff. There are plenty of levels, locations, and characters that make the trip worth it. I believe the bonds between the characters of Barney, Alex, and the rest were established well, but I do hope that next time they spend more time working on those bonds (or perhaps putting the co-stars in real danger, you know the kind that kills people) and actually -gasp- mak

Here's a fast mirror, for those interested.

For those who don't get the "dancing monkeyboy" part (all 12 of you), here's a mirror of the video of him making an ass of himself via my site.

For those who don't get the "dancing monkeyboy" part (all 12 of you), here's a mirror of the video of him making an ass of himself via my site.

I too started a blog, and its prior incarnation. The reason I have a "prior incarnation" is becuase 1) I changed formats, and 2) I really, really pissed someone off.

Here's what happened:

My best friend was getting married, and I was invited to be one of the groomsmen. I'm cool with that, very excited to be a part of it, etc etc.

Well, during, before, and after the ceremony the bride's mother just got on my nerves. [politically correctness]She generally acted in a very non-friendly way[/politically correctness].

And a day later, after coming down with a cold, and pumped full of cold/flu meds, I re-iterated this truth in my blog, albeit a bit too unfriendly.

You see when I started a blog I wanted to be truthful. I didn't want to worry about holding back, about letting off the pressure a bit so I wouldn't offend people. I wanted to let my thoughts be known, no matter what.

Well, this will backfire for anyone. I promise. That is why this idea is f*cking brilliant.

You can't be brutally honest (such as, say, calling your best friend's new mother in law a bitch) without suffering repurcussions. Such as hateful, bodily-harm threatening email from the bride (and family).

So from then on I had to censor my posts, put my attitude and ideas in check and make sure they're in accordance with the Friendly Blog Act. This means you can't say anything too hurtful or truthful for fear of it affecting other areas of your life.

Was my friendship affected by the post? Sure. But it affected him far more than it affected me. That was the real hurt. Knowing that my words caused him grief, caused him to deal with the bride's family backlash, to try and make up for my stupid ass mistake.

With a service such as this I can tell the truth, change a few names, and no one ever know the wiser. Of course, if I get too specific I can get busted, but considering the amount of blogs this could generate, I'm not that worried about it. I can't wait to sign up and try it out, completely anonymous and completely guilt-free of any posts I might have to put up there.

Blog's can harm kids, remember. If its not your friends it may be the job interview, your future supervisor googling up your name and holding you responsible for some post you made while drunk out of your mind.

Not that I would know...or anything.

"So, you said last March you...'Love the pot.' Can you elaborate on that?"

I too started a blog, and its prior incarnation. The reason I have a "prior incarnation" is becuase 1) I changed formats, and 2) I really, really pissed someone off.

Here's what happened:

My best friend was getting married, and I was invited to be one of the groomsmen. I'm cool with that, very excited to be a part of it, etc etc.

Well, during, before, and after the ceremony the bride's mother just got on my nerves. [politically correctness]She generally acted in a very non-friendly way[/politically correctness].

And a day later, after coming down with a cold, and pumped full of cold/flu meds, I re-iterated this truth in my blog, albeit a bit too unfriendly.

You see when I started a blog I wanted to be truthful. I didn't want to worry about holding back, about letting off the pressure a bit so I wouldn't offend people. I wanted to let my thoughts be known, no matter what.

Well, this will backfire for anyone. I promise. That is why this idea is f*cking brilliant.

You can't be brutally honest (such as, say, calling your best friend's new mother in law a bitch) without suffering repurcussions. Such as hateful, bodily-harm threatening email from the bride (and family).

So from then on I had to censor my posts, put my attitude and ideas in check and make sure they're in accordance with the Friendly Blog Act. This means you can't say anything too hurtful or truthful for fear of it affecting other areas of your life.

Was my friendship affected by the post? Sure. But it affected him far more than it affected me. That was the real hurt. Knowing that my words caused him grief, caused him to deal with the bride's family backlash, to try and make up for my stupid ass mistake.

With a service such as this I can tell the truth, change a few names, and no one ever know the wiser. Of course, if I get too specific I can get busted, but considering the amount of blogs this could generate, I'm not that worried about it. I can't wait to sign up and try it out, completely anonymous and completely guilt-free of any posts I might have to put up there.

Blog's can harm kids, remember. If its not your friends it may be the job interview, your future supervisor googling up your name and holding you responsible for some post you made while drunk out of your mind.

Not that I would know...or anything.

"So, you said last March you...'Love the pot.' Can you elaborate on that?"

I run a personal web site that I don't do much more than blog and rant on, but it's still ran using my own MySQL database that modwest provides, and the ability to telnet into my account is definitely icing on the cake. Plus the fact I'm only paying $11.95 a month sealed it for me. In the sixth months or so I've been using the service, I've only had two incidents, both of which not lasting more than an hour, where my website was down. And one of those was due to a DNS problem on my end.

I'm not sure about any other providers (other than yahoo, which you should stay far, far away from), but modwest is a damn fine choice.

And it wouldn't have taken up that much space on the current disc, so I'm surprised it's in an R2 edit but not R1

A few things:

First, the Canadian release is nowhere near the picture and sound quality of the US release.

Second, watching Memento in chronological order is an unbelievably boring and predictable experience. It's brilliant backwards, but it's also a very simple story: it had to be, or no one could follow it.

Lastly, a 2-disc special edition, with director's commentary and other goodies, is on it's way May 21st. Check out the cover art here, and go to the digital bits for more info. I don't think it has the chronological order option, but it might be on there as an easter egg (for those desperate and/or bored enough to watch it that way).

It's big. It's brawny. It's darker, it's scarier, it's downright vicious compared to the kicked dog that is now the original "Blade."

Sure the names are simple and the action is over-energetic. This is a living comic book folks, and anybody who's ever read a comic book will easily see the connection. We have the "cool" shots of him putting on his sunglasses, the "slow-mo-coming-out-of-the-water-with-big-guns" shot, etc. The framing is specific and easy to follow. The story for "Blade 2," like any well-plotted comic book, is driven by action. Unlike other superhero films (*cough*TombRaider*cough*) that rely on "stopping points" to explain plot, "Blade 2" just throws it all at you and expects you to keep up. The new Reapers are easily the most frightening thing I've seen on the big screen in the past few years, I don't know about you.

The plot of course is that Blade helps the vampires destroy the vampire-eaters. But, and this is going to sound a bit strange, it still manages to convey the importance of loyalty, tells a love story, and captures betrayal in a non-cringing and original way. This is especially important for a film such as this, where such melodrama is encouraged, but normally goes too far to remain serious. And now that we've moved past the "origin story" film, scribe David Goyas finally breathes life into a character who desperately needs it.

And you have to give a hand to director Guillermo Del Toro. Look at a few of his past few films: The first brilliant 1/2 hour of "Mimic" and the exceptional ghost story "The Devil's Backbone". Del Toro takes a gritty sense of realism and blends it with a stylish take that the original "Blade" was painfully missing. The editing is the true defintion of "The Fast and the Furious," with jump-jump cuts and brutal slow-down that was tried in "Moulin Rouge" but is brought to perfection here.

Let's face it folks, it's a popcorn film. It's meant to be seen with friends so they, just like yourself, can spout Blade's one-liners for the next few weeks and groan in unison at the most gruesome spots.

Del Toro's amazing direction and Goyer's much-better-than-the-first-Blade script make this a solid hit. See it loud and proud on the big screen in a dark room with strangers. This one's a true crowd pleaser.

Evan (blog); I write for here and here.

Here ya go.

If you don't have the DiVX 5 codec, Get that here.

Have fun.

First of all, if your credit report looks like someone wiped their ass with it, ie, someone with five pages of past dues, overdraws, and collections, nine times outta ten you ain't gettin the loan. It's simple economics. You can stand on a soap box and say that it's private information, but when your talking money, it turns into another issue. Especially when it's not your money to start with.

I know we'd all like to forget those times when we forgot a credit card payment or we let a bill or two go astray. But that's not the banks fault. They're simply covering their ass, so to speak. You can't expect a lending institution anywhere to simply try to forget that you let your payments go to collections and your loans foreclose then say, "Well, we knew you had to buy groceries, so it's okay."

If you can't afford a loan, don't get one. It's as simple as that. If you can't afford a credit card, don't get one. Rinse, Wash, Repeat. It's not anyone's responsibility but yourself to keep track of your bills, and you can't just be forgiven for them overnight.

But there is a flipside. If you've shown improvement over the last long while--and I'm talking years here--then even five pages of bad credit could still get you a loan. But you have to be willing to pay off what you owe, or be making headway doing so.

Credit Bureaus weren't made so banks could nose in on your business. They were made because banks were tired of getting ripped off.

Of course, I don't have to add (but I will) that politics are everything and if you know the loan officer at your local bank then you're probably more likely to get the loan. I hate to put it that way, but it's true. Just ask the girls with the big breasts and how much trouble they have getting their car fixed.

Evan
misterorange.com

You'll ask them, "Why?"

They'll answer: "Because we say so."

*sigh*

Evan
misterorange.com

They want to save our children. That's the big issue. The 'values' of America. And we have to uphold them! Of course we do!

What white elderly millionare is going to save us for the next four years?

Gore and Lieberman don't know anything but censorship.

Bush is an idiot.

Do I care? Why should I? The electorial votes are already halfway given out. That means that if everyone in this country voted for Ralph Nader, he still wouldn't get the office. There aren't enough electorial votes left to let him come close.

I don't vote because I don't have a choice. I'm either fucked or really fucked, depending on your standpoint.

Obi
misterorange.com

They simply can't.

As harsh as this realism is, it is reality. Either Bush or Gore is going to win, and we're going to be stuck with em.

If I vote for the Green party, and the Green party loses (which it will), what difference have I made? I just threw away my vote, becuase Joe Sixpack has never heard anything about or from Ralph Nader, only what ABC News or whoever have fed them.

What elderly white millionare is going to save us for the next four years?

Evan
misterorange.com

A friend of mine happens to own a video store and he says he's losing a lot of revenue (aka money) because of the law. Thanks Mr. Sunquist (our govenor)

We in the bible belt will suffer, but everyone else is okay. We still can't buy beer on Sundays or have court without prayer first. Some things just take a long time to get rid of. The south, if anything, wants its roots, and keeps them.

Obiwan
misterorange.com - It's like a wonderful movie...poster.