I'm not so very good at shooters myself...Counterstrike, I tend to spend 95% of the time floating around as a ghost. I just don't have good enough hand-eye coordination to do a good job.
But a shooter I tend to enjoy is Team Fortress Classic, another one of those team-based Halflife mods. There are so many different kinds of classes you can play, and a few of them (Engineer, Medic, Spy) have abilities that are not directly predicated on one's ability to shoot someone else...so you can be bad at it and still have a good time.
Alas, nobody plays my all-time favorite shooter mod, Opposing Force CTF, anymore...:(
In my early college years, shortly after I discovered the 'net, I got involved with a number of writing communities...writing Robotech fanfic, writing alt.pub.dragons-inn and alt.pub.havens-rest series, and eventually the Superguy listserv. And it certainly did improve my writing, over time.
The secret is practice and peer review. That's the best way to build writing skill, whether the Internet is involved or not. The Internet makes it easier, that's all.
When you're making a fully-functional cellphone with today's technology, it doesn't cost very much at all to add this extra functionality. I just upgraded to a digital phone from AT&T, went with their very cheapest model...and it still has all sorts of computer games and things on it.
I don't know if that's such a tragedy, really. The shuttle itself is a perfect example of the downside of compromising...it's ideal for neither manned missions nor cargo delivery. Expendables can put stuff in space far more economically than the shuttle...and manned missions would be better handled on craft that didn't have all that space devoted to cargo.
I have to say that I'm glad the nearby college campus is a Pepsi campus. Back when Pepsi was doing its PepsiStuff/DewStuff promotion, I regularly patrolled the buildings on campus, fishing Pepsi and Dew bottles out of the trash and taking the caps...as most people who drink the things will keep the cap with the bottle and then screw it back on to throw it away.
You may laugh at me for trash-can diving...but I ended up getting a nice backpack, a mini-Mag lite, a DVD of Jackie Chan's Gorgeous...and, for 255 bottlecaps, a 16 meg RIO mp3 player. That's a lot of stuff.
Another somewhat (in)famous parody, Mark Jonathan Davis's "Star Wars Cantina," can't be sold (though this hasn't stopped it from getting a lot of radio airplay) due to Barry Manilow's lawyers threatening to sue. Even though it's a parody and protected under law, it's the old problem of the expense of a lawsuit trumping the rightness of it. He's taking donations for a legal defense fund against the time he might be able to try it anyway.
...is that Sean Astin was passed over for Best Supporting Actor. After his turn in RotK--particularly the scenes on the slope of Mt. Doom--he really deserved at least the nomination. I can't believe they left him out.
I seem to recall hearing that the spoiler is actually an upside-down wing...it's shaped so that the bernoulli effect will push down instead of pull up, thus counter-balancing the airplane-wing-shaped car's tendency to become unstable.
Of course, my sources could be wrong. But I would think that the designers of high-price, high-performance sports cars would have some idea what they're doing.
I mean, all you need is a wardriving program and you can find free WiFi access wherever you go. That's the whole problem with trying to commercialize WiFi...there are too many "competitors," both business and non.
I do think that the modified WiFi systems he proposes, with bandwidth throttling, might be a good idea just in general, but I don't think you need to give them away for free.
Okay, I plugged an old PS/2 keyboard I had sitting around into the CueCat, and propped it against the wall behind the computer. And now the 'cat works! Thanks for the helpful advice.
Of course, I've already manually entered all my DVDs into DVD Profiler, so now I don't really have anything to use it for.:P
The funny thing is, there are all sorts of programs out there that are useful with the CueCat, if you can just get it to work. For instance, DVD Profiler, a Windows database program that lets you keep track of your DVDs will accept barcode-read input.
If I could just get my CueCat to work with Windows XP...I've tried Catnip and YourCueCat drivers with no success yet. (I wonder if it could have anything to do with how I use a USB keyboard, so just have the 'cat plugged into the PS/2 slot without any keyboard attached to its other end?)
I got an odd assortment of largely prosaic items--vacuum cleaner, knife sharpener, "Gator" universal socket wrench, Cuisinart home ice cream freezer--and pretty much none of the "fun stuff" like DVDs and CDs I'd put on my Amazon wish list. I got one DVD of a movie I didn't even ask for, let alone really want, and one CD from my wish list.
So...it's not really a Christmas where I have any new toys to play with. I'm kind of sad about that.
Of course, for those of us who watch DVDs on our computers, all we really need is a flashable DVD drive and Remote Selector. It's really trivial if you're going to watch DVDs on your computer anyway.
(Ironically, after specifically making sure I had region-hack capability on my machine, I only have one non-region 1-or-0 DVD so far: Das Leztze Einhorn, or The Last Unicorn, which has only been released in Germany in region 2 so far.)
Another good Hong Kong importer is Poker Industries. Since they're an importer-reseller, they have to avoid selling titles to which Miramax or other importers like Tai Seng have laid claim...but OTOH, the ship time is much faster than Hong Kong exporters like HiViZone which will ship you anything but will often take a couple of months to do it.
You can often find discount coupon codes for Poker on DVDPriceSearch.net.
I'd just like to take a moment to plug De Profundis, a truly interesting recently-published pen-and-paper game based on the Cthulhu mythos. Unlike other games that have that adjective attached to them, with De Profundis it's literal...you use pen and paper to play the game, because it's a guideline for playing by mail. Rather than spend paragraphs duplicating explanation I've already made, here's a link to my in-depth review of it. I don't think I've ever seen another RPG quite like it.
It's out of print now, but you should be able to find it in the usual places if you look.
...a lot of stores seem to run zero-discount "sales". I know that Kmart does it a lot, from when I used to work for them...and when I was just in there today, I noticed big "sale" signs, with "sale ending" dates and everything, hung over the TracFone card price tags...that when I lifted them up, revealed the TracFone cards were exactly the same price. Why do they do it? To call attention to the items, I guess, and hope that people will buy them and think they're getting a bargain (and not bother to lift the tag up to see how much they're "saving").
No, I don't think you read my original post carefully, or perhaps I didn't write it carefully.
As part of my job at Big Bankrupt Phone Company, I wear a headset connected to their phone system, so I can answer questions when people call in. It is entirely unconnected to my cellphone.
When I use my cellphone to send or receive messages, I hear interference over the entirely unconnected but nearby Big Bankrupt Phone Company phone headset. And perhaps the people near me do, as well, but if so they haven't said anything about it.
Uh...if it's interfering with the ability to be understood over the line while it's going on, that's sort of the definition of "interference". Just because something conveys information if you could understand it doesn't mean it can't interfere with other information being conveyed.
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I'm not so very good at shooters myself...Counterstrike, I tend to spend 95% of the time floating around as a ghost. I just don't have good enough hand-eye coordination to do a good job.
:(
But a shooter I tend to enjoy is Team Fortress Classic, another one of those team-based Halflife mods. There are so many different kinds of classes you can play, and a few of them (Engineer, Medic, Spy) have abilities that are not directly predicated on one's ability to shoot someone else...so you can be bad at it and still have a good time.
Alas, nobody plays my all-time favorite shooter mod, Opposing Force CTF, anymore...
In my early college years, shortly after I discovered the 'net, I got involved with a number of writing communities...writing Robotech fanfic, writing alt.pub.dragons-inn and alt.pub.havens-rest series, and eventually the Superguy listserv. And it certainly did improve my writing, over time.
The secret is practice and peer review. That's the best way to build writing skill, whether the Internet is involved or not. The Internet makes it easier, that's all.
When you're making a fully-functional cellphone with today's technology, it doesn't cost very much at all to add this extra functionality. I just upgraded to a digital phone from AT&T, went with their very cheapest model...and it still has all sorts of computer games and things on it.
I don't know if that's such a tragedy, really. The shuttle itself is a perfect example of the downside of compromising...it's ideal for neither manned missions nor cargo delivery. Expendables can put stuff in space far more economically than the shuttle...and manned missions would be better handled on craft that didn't have all that space devoted to cargo.
I have to say that I'm glad the nearby college campus is a Pepsi campus. Back when Pepsi was doing its PepsiStuff/DewStuff promotion, I regularly patrolled the buildings on campus, fishing Pepsi and Dew bottles out of the trash and taking the caps...as most people who drink the things will keep the cap with the bottle and then screw it back on to throw it away.
You may laugh at me for trash-can diving...but I ended up getting a nice backpack, a mini-Mag lite, a DVD of Jackie Chan's Gorgeous...and, for 255 bottlecaps, a 16 meg RIO mp3 player. That's a lot of stuff.
Too bad they didn't give away a Harrier jumpjet.
Another somewhat (in)famous parody, Mark Jonathan Davis's "Star Wars Cantina," can't be sold (though this hasn't stopped it from getting a lot of radio airplay) due to Barry Manilow's lawyers threatening to sue. Even though it's a parody and protected under law, it's the old problem of the expense of a lawsuit trumping the rightness of it. He's taking donations for a legal defense fund against the time he might be able to try it anyway.
...is that Sean Astin was passed over for Best Supporting Actor. After his turn in RotK--particularly the scenes on the slope of Mt. Doom--he really deserved at least the nomination. I can't believe they left him out.
"Gosh, Brain, what are we going to do tonight?"
"Same thing we do every night, Pinky...try to take over the world!"
I suspect that most of the bashing comes from people who want to hide their desperate "I wish I had that" envy...so they bash instead.
:)
As for me...damn, I wish I had that.
I seem to recall hearing that the spoiler is actually an upside-down wing...it's shaped so that the bernoulli effect will push down instead of pull up, thus counter-balancing the airplane-wing-shaped car's tendency to become unstable.
Of course, my sources could be wrong. But I would think that the designers of high-price, high-performance sports cars would have some idea what they're doing.
I mean, all you need is a wardriving program and you can find free WiFi access wherever you go. That's the whole problem with trying to commercialize WiFi...there are too many "competitors," both business and non.
I do think that the modified WiFi systems he proposes, with bandwidth throttling, might be a good idea just in general, but I don't think you need to give them away for free.
That's actually by They Might Be Giants, and it's a cover of some group from decades ago IIRC.
"...and still the universe extends to a place that never ends
Which is maybe just inside a little jar!"
--Yakko Warner, "Yakko's Universe," Animaniacs
Okay, I plugged an old PS/2 keyboard I had sitting around into the CueCat, and propped it against the wall behind the computer. And now the 'cat works! Thanks for the helpful advice.
:P
Of course, I've already manually entered all my DVDs into DVD Profiler, so now I don't really have anything to use it for.
The funny thing is, there are all sorts of programs out there that are useful with the CueCat, if you can just get it to work. For instance, DVD Profiler, a Windows database program that lets you keep track of your DVDs will accept barcode-read input.
If I could just get my CueCat to work with Windows XP...I've tried Catnip and YourCueCat drivers with no success yet. (I wonder if it could have anything to do with how I use a USB keyboard, so just have the 'cat plugged into the PS/2 slot without any keyboard attached to its other end?)
...oh wait, wrong holiday.
I got an odd assortment of largely prosaic items--vacuum cleaner, knife sharpener, "Gator" universal socket wrench, Cuisinart home ice cream freezer--and pretty much none of the "fun stuff" like DVDs and CDs I'd put on my Amazon wish list. I got one DVD of a movie I didn't even ask for, let alone really want, and one CD from my wish list.
So...it's not really a Christmas where I have any new toys to play with. I'm kind of sad about that.
I have trouble believing Blake Stowell's clams...
Then don't listen to the man's clams. What do mollusks know about jurisprudence anyway?
Uh...and you can play this on Linux? How? Did they finally come out with a Half-Life for Linux?
Of course, for those of us who watch DVDs on our computers, all we really need is a flashable DVD drive and Remote Selector. It's really trivial if you're going to watch DVDs on your computer anyway.
(Ironically, after specifically making sure I had region-hack capability on my machine, I only have one non-region 1-or-0 DVD so far: Das Leztze Einhorn, or The Last Unicorn, which has only been released in Germany in region 2 so far.)
...what about the Baen books' CDROMs, which have a similar license to copy and share noncommercially?
Another good Hong Kong importer is Poker Industries. Since they're an importer-reseller, they have to avoid selling titles to which Miramax or other importers like Tai Seng have laid claim...but OTOH, the ship time is much faster than Hong Kong exporters like HiViZone which will ship you anything but will often take a couple of months to do it.
You can often find discount coupon codes for Poker on DVDPriceSearch.net.
I'd just like to take a moment to plug De Profundis, a truly interesting recently-published pen-and-paper game based on the Cthulhu mythos. Unlike other games that have that adjective attached to them, with De Profundis it's literal...you use pen and paper to play the game, because it's a guideline for playing by mail. Rather than spend paragraphs duplicating explanation I've already made, here's a link to my in-depth review of it. I don't think I've ever seen another RPG quite like it.
It's out of print now, but you should be able to find it in the usual places if you look.
...a lot of stores seem to run zero-discount "sales". I know that Kmart does it a lot, from when I used to work for them...and when I was just in there today, I noticed big "sale" signs, with "sale ending" dates and everything, hung over the TracFone card price tags...that when I lifted them up, revealed the TracFone cards were exactly the same price. Why do they do it? To call attention to the items, I guess, and hope that people will buy them and think they're getting a bargain (and not bother to lift the tag up to see how much they're "saving").
No, I don't think you read my original post carefully, or perhaps I didn't write it carefully.
As part of my job at Big Bankrupt Phone Company, I wear a headset connected to their phone system, so I can answer questions when people call in. It is entirely unconnected to my cellphone.
When I use my cellphone to send or receive messages, I hear interference over the entirely unconnected but nearby Big Bankrupt Phone Company phone headset. And perhaps the people near me do, as well, but if so they haven't said anything about it.
Uh...if it's interfering with the ability to be understood over the line while it's going on, that's sort of the definition of "interference". Just because something conveys information if you could understand it doesn't mean it can't interfere with other information being conveyed.