We've had no end of trouble with this motherboard. I don't know who was doing the parts ordering here a couple years ago, but I'd sure like to smack them with a dead BF6 for it.
How bad is it? It's gotten to the point where if the box passes memory/hard drive tests, virus scans, and the rest of the diagnostics we put 'em through and still has weird problems, and if we find a BF6 when we crack the case, we automatically call it a dead motherboard and order them one that doesn't suck. And not once since we've started doing this have we found the mobo to NOT be the problem.
Long story short: Abit suxx0rz, don't buy their crap.:)
Couple of years ago, I'd just changed jobs and dough was scarce. This was also about the time Blair Witch was big. So, to decorate the balcony of my apartment, I made a trip to the vacant lot across the street, gathered up a bunch of sticks, and made little Blair Witch stick-men to hang off the balcony. I the proceeded to root through my remnant bag and rip off strips of fabric to tie on them, as if someone had tied a piece of some poor sap's clothing to them. Apparently, I started a fad, as they were all over the building the next day.
Cost: free.
But that wasn't quite enough.
We had a dead Tiki torch. I had a bunch of raggedy-ass old clothes. I had more plastic grocery bags than I knew what to do with.
Stuffed the pants with bags. Ran Tiki torch down one leg. Stuffed shirt with bags. Crammed shirt onto top half of Tiki torch. Dressed shirt-and-pants up in coat, scarf (to hide the fact that it had no face--it didn't particularly need one, as you'll see in a minute), and stocking cap. Stuffed "hands" in pants pockets, turned him to face the corner. Lashed bits of him to the railing with fishing line. Ta da! Mike standing in the corner!
Cost: free for me; might cost you $10.
Finally, I used the clothed-and-bags trick once more a year later. Stuffed pants and shirt, sat in chair. Got hold of styrofoam wig head. Ripped head off neck, stuffed neck in shirt, buttoned shirt. Liberally squirted fake blood over all. Dipped blade of cheap kiddie scissors in glue, jabbed into styrofoam. Made sign for poor guy to hold: "Mommy TOLD me not to run with scissors."
When I was in the Air Force, a common prank played on newbies fresh out of tech school involved sending them to the tool room for a bottle of K9P solution.
They aren't supposed to hold your being in the Reserves against you. And they're supposed to hold your job open for you while you're away doing Reserve things.
But they can always dig up some meaningless little tidbit to hold against you and use as an excuse for not hiring you/letting you go/etc. I would hope that most employers wouldn't do this, but I wouldn't be surprised if it did happen quite often.
I missed a lot of the "proper" Ultimas, as I didn't own a computer till well after the release of U8 (which was one of the first games I bought when I did get one). My introduction to the series was Exodus on NES. Let's put it this way: my parents finally realized that it would be cheaper to just buy me the damn game than rent it for me every week. That was thirteen years ago.
Skip ahead to about two months or so ago. I got the Ultima Collection off eBay and ended up not leaving the dude feedback for two days because I got sucked into U7. Not just with the actual quest either...no, it was all the side shit that got me, and all the neat stuff you could do in the world (anyone else take time out to clean Iolo's nasty-ass house? Or go to the nursery in Lord British's castle for the sole purpose of getting dirty diapers to gross people out with?). That weekend I stayed awake for 26 hours straight playing the damn thing.
And then after that, Serpent Isle. I cannot remember another game, except maybe Xenogears, that made me laugh (killing poor defenseless worms with a claw hammer for one, Frigidazzi's little dance--for a female Avatar no less--for another), cry (if you've played it, you know the scene...sniff), and mutter darkly about killing this motherfucker or that (name of savegame prior to entering Spinebreaker: "Death to the fat fuck"), to the extent that SI did.
But now that I've finished those two, I am finding a major timesuck in the old U4. That was another game I first played on the NES, and while the NES graphics were better, the game play doesn't hold a candle to the real thing. All I need now are the Underworlds. And U9, five years or so from now when I have a computer that will run it. Jeezis.
Binders rock house. I've got at least one whose recommended max load is 100 cd's wherein I have managed to cram twice that amount. They take up SO much less space that way, too.
Actually, what the hell am I saying--CD's usually end up in a stack on top of the tower/stereo... "Hey, baby? You seen my Pato Banton CD?"
"Uh. Try the stack on the left....no, your other left."
*clatter of 25 CD's falling down behind entertainment center* "Uh oh. Was that anything important?"
I'm quite fond of those El Cheapo "Sounds of Nature" CD's. When I worked at Circuit Shi^H^H^HCity they had a big bargain bin with those for $2-$5 a pop; I enjoyed marching up to the counter with $20 and coming away with a whole armload of nice non-distracting background noise. It may put you to sleep, though.
As a general rule: if it's something I can sing along with, it stands a good chance of fux0ring me up if I'm doing something that involves words. I have a lot of Cocteau Twins and Dead Can Dance, various game soundtracks, and Celtic stuff I listen to at work.
Well, there's always the good old rubber band gun, either purchased or improvised (the latter with pencils, pens, or fingers).
One of our clients is a large novelty wholesale company, and our boss obtained a case of those white paper snapper thingies--y'know, the ones with gravel and about two grains of gunpowder within, that you throw on the ground. That Monday the entire office became a war zone. Boss and Alpha Tech were running around throwing them at each other. Receptionist sat at her desk wearing an expression that said I am so not amused. I snuck out and requisitioned a couple packages for the Web room. Imagine Boss and Alpha Tech's surprise when one of them would try to use the Web room as a bunker. *POW!* "AAAH!" "Hee."
DISCLAIMER: Careful with these. It's all fun and games till someone loses an eye, and then it's all fun because the game's over.
I can tell you right now what the weather will be like on the 16th and 17th without so much as looking out the window. It will be completely overcast. Every time we have a neat astronomical event (meteor shower, lunar eclipse, etc) around here, the Cloud Factory goes into overdrive. Bah, I say. Bah.
I'm sorry, but where does that article say Greens were responsible? It doesn't. Could have been Democrats for all you know. or Libertarians. Or the Slashdot Cruiser party.
Or, and I know this is a radical notion...it might have just been one dingbat sneaking in the back door to stir the shit.
Do you have another article to point us to, one that specifically states the Green party was responsible for this, as you claim?
Additionally, I have been guilty of drunk driving on several occasions, again too many times to count. I have heretofore concealed these facts from the American people. That information was "need to know" and the American people just didn't need to know...
The American people? Hell, he didn't even think his own family had the need to know about
one of his DUIs. (possible lame free reg blah blah blah)
And people actually think this man is trustworthy enough to run our country!?
When I noticed that use of a regular mouse was starting to be a bit uncomfortable, I switched to a trackball. Just an el-cheapo Belkin trackball. And it was okay.
Then I got my hands on an Aiptek HyperPen and folks, lemme tell you, this thing is sweet. I have no more wrist problems, and HyperPen+Painter=graphics made easy.:)
The only problem I tend to have with it: out of force of habit, I stick the pen behind my ear and tend to forget about it. I was halfway across the apartment complex on my way to the mailbox one afternoon when I realized I still had the damn thing behind my ear.
I like this one, but it's probably the creepiest of all if you think about it...that there is some mind out there sick and twisted enough to dream up the violence in the Middle East, the Unabomber, Hitler, and Britney Spears...
Obviously, there is no shortage, or I would have a full-time job and not be relying on piddlyass week-long contract jobs to pay my rent right now.
It all boils down to plain old greed on the part of the companies. The beancounters ask themselves, "Are we willing to sacrifice quality for the sake of our bank account?" By that, they usually mean "Do we want to hire this person who does really spiffy work and is asking for a fairly reasonable salary, or do we want to hire this college kid who equates "I can use FrontPage" with "I have MAD HTML SKILLZ" and is willing to work damn near for food?"
There is no IT worker shortage, unless by "IT worker" one means "IT worker who knows what the fuck he/she is doing and is willing to work for peanuts." and it pisses me right the fuck off every time I hear about it. Which explains why I have gone to the time and the trouble to post on this when my post will already be buried under ~300 other posts. Just needed to vent.
Slashdot Mirror
You do know that you have the option of not buying the expansion pack if you don't like what it's going to put in the game, right?
*SPLUTTER*
Or going downtown, standing in the middle of the commercial lot, and screaming "VAS KAL AN MANI IN CORP HUR TYM!"
Which would, of course bulldoze every residential, commercial, and vacation lot in the whole damn game.
--
Inert gas leakage! I'll have to remember that one. Ranks right up there with the Magic Smoke and Sand-Fleas-In-The-Network-Cable stories!
...you were just being facetious, weren't you?
We've had no end of trouble with this motherboard. I don't know who was doing the parts ordering here a couple years ago, but I'd sure like to smack them with a dead BF6 for it.
:)
How bad is it? It's gotten to the point where if the box passes memory/hard drive tests, virus scans, and the rest of the diagnostics we put 'em through and still has weird problems, and if we find a BF6 when we crack the case, we automatically call it a dead motherboard and order them one that doesn't suck. And not once since we've started doing this have we found the mobo to NOT be the problem.
Long story short: Abit suxx0rz, don't buy their crap.
Couple of years ago, I'd just changed jobs and dough was scarce. This was also about the time Blair Witch was big. So, to decorate the balcony of my apartment, I made a trip to the vacant lot across the street, gathered up a bunch of sticks, and made little Blair Witch stick-men to hang off the balcony. I the proceeded to root through my remnant bag and rip off strips of fabric to tie on them, as if someone had tied a piece of some poor sap's clothing to them. Apparently, I started a fad, as they were all over the building the next day.
Cost: free.
But that wasn't quite enough.
We had a dead Tiki torch. I had a bunch of raggedy-ass old clothes. I had more plastic grocery bags than I knew what to do with.
Stuffed the pants with bags. Ran Tiki torch down one leg. Stuffed shirt with bags. Crammed shirt onto top half of Tiki torch. Dressed shirt-and-pants up in coat, scarf (to hide the fact that it had no face--it didn't particularly need one, as you'll see in a minute), and stocking cap. Stuffed "hands" in pants pockets, turned him to face the corner. Lashed bits of him to the railing with fishing line. Ta da! Mike standing in the corner!
Cost: free for me; might cost you $10.
Finally, I used the clothed-and-bags trick once more a year later. Stuffed pants and shirt, sat in chair. Got hold of styrofoam wig head. Ripped head off neck, stuffed neck in shirt, buttoned shirt. Liberally squirted fake blood over all. Dipped blade of cheap kiddie scissors in glue, jabbed into styrofoam. Made sign for poor guy to hold: "Mommy TOLD me not to run with scissors."
What a choice--have crow's feet, or Botox.
Sorry, folks, I'm scared shitless of needles and I'm, understandably, a little leery of having a deadly toxin shot into my face.
I think I'll just stick with Oil of Olay, thanks.
"Whoa. Deja vu."
"...what?"
"...no, nothing...well, a few days ago I saw an article on Slashdot...and just now, I saw another one just like it."
"How much like it? Was it the same article?"
"Well, it might have been..."
Check your windows, folks!
When I was in the Air Force, a common prank played on newbies fresh out of tech school involved sending them to the tool room for a bottle of K9P solution.
Whoever first discovered that the durian was edible had to have been really, really hungry to try it.
"I'm starving!"
"Me too. No animals, no bananas, no nothing."
"Might as well try the spikystinkyfruit."
Now someone's going to summon up a crawling plague of network-cable infesting sand fleas, I bet.
Why don't you just let the kids pick out and play games they enjoy?
They're games. Not real life.
Not wanting your kids influenced by Quake? I can sort of dig that. Not wanting your kids influenced by chess or Monopoly? Please.
They aren't supposed to hold your being in the Reserves against you. And they're supposed to hold your job open for you while you're away doing Reserve things.
But they can always dig up some meaningless little tidbit to hold against you and use as an excuse for not hiring you/letting you go/etc. I would hope that most employers wouldn't do this, but I wouldn't be surprised if it did happen quite often.
Scorched Earth. HELL YES.
...customize the "talk" files. I thought they were a little too tame. ^_^
The first thing I'd always do was
I missed a lot of the "proper" Ultimas, as I didn't own a computer till well after the release of U8 (which was one of the first games I bought when I did get one). My introduction to the series was Exodus on NES. Let's put it this way: my parents finally realized that it would be cheaper to just buy me the damn game than rent it for me every week. That was thirteen years ago.
Skip ahead to about two months or so ago. I got the Ultima Collection off eBay and ended up not leaving the dude feedback for two days because I got sucked into U7. Not just with the actual quest either...no, it was all the side shit that got me, and all the neat stuff you could do in the world (anyone else take time out to clean Iolo's nasty-ass house? Or go to the nursery in Lord British's castle for the sole purpose of getting dirty diapers to gross people out with?). That weekend I stayed awake for 26 hours straight playing the damn thing.
And then after that, Serpent Isle. I cannot remember another game, except maybe Xenogears, that made me laugh (killing poor defenseless worms with a claw hammer for one, Frigidazzi's little dance--for a female Avatar no less--for another), cry (if you've played it, you know the scene...sniff), and mutter darkly about killing this motherfucker or that (name of savegame prior to entering Spinebreaker: "Death to the fat fuck"), to the extent that SI did.
But now that I've finished those two, I am finding a major timesuck in the old U4. That was another game I first played on the NES, and while the NES graphics were better, the game play doesn't hold a candle to the real thing. All I need now are the Underworlds. And U9, five years or so from now when I have a computer that will run it. Jeezis.
Binders rock house. I've got at least one whose recommended max load is 100 cd's wherein I have managed to cram twice that amount. They take up SO much less space that way, too.
...no, your other left."
Actually, what the hell am I saying--CD's usually end up in a stack on top of the tower/stereo...
"Hey, baby? You seen my Pato Banton CD?"
"Uh. Try the stack on the left.
*clatter of 25 CD's falling down behind entertainment center* "Uh oh. Was that anything important?"
"Naw. Mostly yours, I think."
I'm quite fond of those El Cheapo "Sounds of Nature" CD's. When I worked at Circuit Shi^H^H^HCity they had a big bargain bin with those for $2-$5 a pop; I enjoyed marching up to the counter with $20 and coming away with a whole armload of nice non-distracting background noise. It may put you to sleep, though.
As a general rule: if it's something I can sing along with, it stands a good chance of fux0ring me up if I'm doing something that involves words. I have a lot of Cocteau Twins and Dead Can Dance, various game soundtracks, and Celtic stuff I listen to at work.
Well, there's always the good old rubber band gun, either purchased or improvised (the latter with pencils, pens, or fingers).
One of our clients is a large novelty wholesale company, and our boss obtained a case of those white paper snapper thingies--y'know, the ones with gravel and about two grains of gunpowder within, that you throw on the ground. That Monday the entire office became a war zone. Boss and Alpha Tech were running around throwing them at each other. Receptionist sat at her desk wearing an expression that said I am so not amused. I snuck out and requisitioned a couple packages for the Web room. Imagine Boss and Alpha Tech's surprise when one of them would try to use the Web room as a bunker. *POW!* "AAAH!" "Hee."
DISCLAIMER: Careful with these. It's all fun and games till someone loses an eye, and then it's all fun because the game's over.
I can tell you right now what the weather will be like on the 16th and 17th without so much as looking out the window. It will be completely overcast. Every time we have a neat astronomical event (meteor shower, lunar eclipse, etc) around here, the Cloud Factory goes into overdrive. Bah, I say. Bah.
Cell phones aren't the cause of brain damage, they're the result.
I'm sorry, but where does that article say Greens were responsible? It doesn't. Could have been Democrats for all you know. or Libertarians. Or the Slashdot Cruiser party.
Or, and I know this is a radical notion...it might have just been one dingbat sneaking in the back door to stir the shit.
Do you have another article to point us to, one that specifically states the Green party was responsible for this, as you claim?
Darn right, Bush and Gore both are the same liars.
:)
No shit. It's no longer a matter of choosing the lesser of two evils; it's choosing which head of the two-headed monster has fewer sharp nasty teeth.
VOTE NADAR [sic]
Erm... Close enough for gov't work.
Additionally, I have been guilty of drunk driving on several occasions, again too many times to count. I have heretofore concealed these facts from the American people. That information was "need to know" and the American people just didn't need to know...
The American people? Hell, he didn't even think his own family had the need to know about one of his DUIs. (possible lame free reg blah blah blah)
And people actually think this man is trustworthy enough to run our country!?
When I noticed that use of a regular mouse was starting to be a bit uncomfortable, I switched to a trackball. Just an el-cheapo Belkin trackball. And it was okay.
:)
Then I got my hands on an Aiptek HyperPen and folks, lemme tell you, this thing is sweet. I have no more wrist problems, and HyperPen+Painter=graphics made easy.
The only problem I tend to have with it: out of force of habit, I stick the pen behind my ear and tend to forget about it. I was halfway across the apartment complex on my way to the mailbox one afternoon when I realized I still had the damn thing behind my ear.
I like this one, but it's probably the creepiest of all if you think about it...that there is some mind out there sick and twisted enough to dream up the violence in the Middle East, the Unabomber, Hitler, and Britney Spears...
Obviously, there is no shortage, or I would have a full-time job and not be relying on piddlyass week-long contract jobs to pay my rent right now.
It all boils down to plain old greed on the part of the companies. The beancounters ask themselves, "Are we willing to sacrifice quality for the sake of our bank account?" By that, they usually mean "Do we want to hire this person who does really spiffy work and is asking for a fairly reasonable salary, or do we want to hire this college kid who equates "I can use FrontPage" with "I have MAD HTML SKILLZ" and is willing to work damn near for food?"
There is no IT worker shortage, unless by "IT worker" one means "IT worker who knows what the fuck he/she is doing and is willing to work for peanuts." and it pisses me right the fuck off every time I hear about it. Which explains why I have gone to the time and the trouble to post on this when my post will already be buried under ~300 other posts. Just needed to vent.