Who died? A major character in the books. Hell, a WHOLE book was about him...and in my opinion the best book so far.
Also, he was nothing like the red shirts in Star Trek that you don't even know the name of or any character at all...just a guy to stand there and get zapped.
The game was unplayable. Not just bugs...you couldn't PLAY THE GODDAMN THING!
The issue was lag. Lag in what way I don't know. No one seems to know exactly what it was. It wasn't ping times...peoples ping times were like 15 and 25ish. (which lead some people to speculate that the numbers under the "ping" column are just random numbers that mean nothing). But you talk to 10 different players and you get 10 different answers. From "no lag here" to "it's the server, it can't handle 64 players" to "no, the server is fine, it's the netcode" to "no no, the netcode is fine, it's your graphics settings" to "graphics settings? wtf does that have to do with lag".
The game before the patch was unplayable on 9 out of 10 servers. You literally had to spend about 20 minutes loading those LOOOOOONG load times to connect to a server only to find out it's too laggy. The ping times of the server before you join gave you NO indication that you couldn't play.
By not being able to play I mean you'd see a guy standing there, then they'd be forward 10 feet, then jump back 10 feet. You'd see tanks floating through the air in a kind of free-fall until the lag caught back up to it. It was impossible to fly anything without crashing. All the while you're getting 30 or 40 FPS. Then, try another server and magically everything is fine...you can actually play.
After the patch it seems to have fixed many of the problems, until the bugs in the patch itself came known and now EA wants us to go BACK to that shit? NO way in hell.
Jesus saves...everyone else takes 2d20 crushing damage
But really, the best rules were the totally incoherent 2nd edition rules for AD&D. Yes, I loved that it was a pain in ass and led to so many arguments. That was part of the game! Now everything is too sterile.
But the 2nd edition rules also pushed me and my friends into different game systems. Anybody remember "Fantasy Hero"? or "Danger International"? Probably not. We were some of the few that actually played that system on a regular basis. It was fun.
But nothing topped "Call of Cthulhu". Going back to AD&D after that was painful...so we rarely did.
Haven't you also noticed that it's mainly Taco that does the dupes? Sure, there are others but Taco makes most of them.
It's like he wanders into the computer room in his bathrobe and slippers...shuffling in. Then when no one is looking he'll sit down and look at the story submissions...post the ones he likes...then shuffles out. Not knowing that the ones he's posting are all dupes.
Then Zonk or whoever walks in and slaps his hand and leads him back to his room and ups his medications.
Why is the FBI even asking for this? The terrorists aren't going to use something like this. Let's look at what happened on 9/11. A group of Saudis hijacked some planes with fricken box-cutters. They didn't use any high-tech emailing or chat system or anything else to coordinate the attacks. It was as basic a plan that they could come up with...and the rehearsed it over and over and over until everything was right and nothing was left to chance. No technology...other than the guys learning how to pilot the airliner.
<sarcasm>So what is the FBI asking for? A "just in case" type deal? Well, they should then ask for all forms of communications then, have free reign on the postal system too in case the terrorists resort to writing a letter or two. Have microphones set up everywhere in every home just in case terrorists may want to gather in a house and coordinate an attack! OH MY GOD!</sarcasm>
It's because this country is in a state of fear still. I honestly don't think the FBI is out to get us all and wants to take away everyones freedom nor control people. Heck, I even have a friend that's in the FBI...he's a nice guy. But I think that they are as scared as everyone else is and they don't want to get caught with their pants down again. I believe they honestly want to try to prevent and protect the citizens of the US...it's just they're methods may be a bit zealous at times.
Sorry, never heard of Marc Fleury nor JBoss. Is JBoss a clothing line or something?
Anyway, I suppose I could look him up, but if he's making these statements as if people should listen to him, shouldn't he kind of be a known person? I can make statements all day long too...but since I'm a nobody like this guy why should anyone listen to me? Why is anyone even reading this post?
But I have to ask, is there really any reason why to get an SGI today? I can see a company with an installed base of SGIs upgrading or what-not...but do they really offer anything new or different?
This is not a troll, it's an honest question. Back in the budding early days of the workstations sure, I could see getting these machines to work on 3D graphics etc etc. But now that 3D graphics cards are on regular PCs and Macs and both can run UNIX type operating systems, what does SGI or SUN for that matter have that you can't get elsewhere?
I'd be interested in knowing what others think about this or why they would keep going to SGI.
Exactly. I'm wondering how much of their income actually comes from their games as oppose to licensing the game engines? I have a feeling Id makes most of thier cash from the engines.
Actually, back in the 60s when he was with John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers on the Beano album he played Les Pauls. The term "Clapton is God" which went up around London and other parts of England were from this era.
Many feel also that his sound after switching to the Strat has become thin and weak because he helped define the Les Paul/Marshall sound that was carried on to new heights by Jimmy Page where as the single coil pick-ups on the Strat just don't have the balls that a Les Paul does. Me personally, I like both eras of his music as he tries to branch off into new directions. But I think it would have been cool for him, at the Cream Reunion that was earlier this year, to strap on a Les Paul to jam. But that was then, this is now.
Not a hobby, a service. Again, read up on it before responding. You'll see this isn't just a bunch of guys sitting around talking about the weather with 1000's of dollars worth of equipment.
The Ham service isn't there to give neighbors news, they're there to help coordinate disaster relief, provide 2-way communications for rescue workers...the list goes on and on. You're examples of you getting info via a radio with a battery is all fine and good. But again, look beyond your little world and what it can do for you and see the bigger picture of what the Amatuer Service is all about. It's there to help people, not to hinder. BB over powerlines is NOT the solution to the economy of our nation...give me a break.
Of course, I could turn it around easily...and actually back it up with facts with "Ham radio is crucial to the security, health and welfare of our nation. Broadband is not". You can still access the internet over phone lines no matter where you are...downloading porn at fast speeds is not crucial to our economy.
And you're right, a hobby does not outweigh a national interest. Good thing we're not talking about hobbies here then...other than surfing the web at high speeds can certainly be called "a hobby".
Please, read up more about Amateur Radio before going off like this.
What's the argument that you need broadband to feed your family? BB over powerlines is not progress. If it fucks up other things...including I might add WiFI and ordinary radio (you know, that thing you listen to in your car...or are you one of those myopic induviduals that think "hey, I listen to CD's so I don't want or need radio in my car")
And of course, I could point out that Ham has served in times of crisis as we always have, with little to no thanks from anyone...which isn't what we do it for anyway. Just a way to give back something.
And your analogy is pretty bad. We're not the wagon-axle maker crying for government assistance. We have the spectrum already. It's also a VERY small part of the radio spectrum. A little nitch. And of course, a horse and buggy enthusiast can certainly travel down the highway whenever they want...I see it all the time. They can't travel on the interstates, but the interstates were MADE for cars...it's not like they were taken away from the horse and buggy people to travel on. So go ahead, mount up on your horse and buggy if you want! It's still there, go ahead. Nothing down the drain at all for that hobby.
Also, just because I call Ham a hobby doesn't make it one. The government and the FCC consider it a service. Go look it up. But nah, this is Slashdot...easier to just run off about something you have no clue about!
Thanks for not letting down my expectations that I made.
So kill off Ham...the only communication medium that was going after the Blackout last year...not to mention 9/11 after the cell phone network got jammed and of course the recent Tsunami.
Good deal! Maybe you should also suggest that we just keep our equipment handy...though not being able to actually test it...in case an emergency takes place so we can help out. Until then we should just fuck off, right?
Also, in case you want to take your foot out of your mouth about this "primitive" communication system, I suggest you actually read up on the hobby first.
Sorry, wasn't ment to be a troll, but from my experience here over the years "most" of the people fall on the side of BB over powerlines than do the Hams. Was going on past experience.
You forget that HAMs are basically the original geeks. Slashdotters support their fellow geeks, including hams, very much.
I agree. I started out on Ham before computers...and this was like 1978.
Right. 'Cause you know how gung-ho we are about taking away people's rights, especially minorities. We hate liberty and love the FCC and large corporations..
Calm down there Tex...I was just commenting on what the justification was for some people outside the hobby, didn't say I agreed with it.
Seriously. Come up with a better troll. I can't believe you were modded +5.
The thing is, this isn't ancient technology. It's still alive today and many people are still doing it.
It's also needs no infrastruture. Nothing can "go down" to where you can't get out to someone else. The net can go down. Cell phones can go buh bye when you go out of signal area (which happens to me even now just driving from Michigan to Illinois...where you would think it would have constant signal).
But this has been going on and on. You personally don't care and why should you, you're not in the hobby so you just see it as ancient technology that should go the way of the horse&buggy.
I see, so how is one going to practice this? Guess keep the equipment and the antennas up and invest 1000s of dollars into a hobby on the off chance that maybe you'll be able to help one day...but until that day it just sits there unused.
Don't go there...if you look at the history of Slashdot they're anti-Ham radio for the most part. Their reasoning is why stop progress for something that only 600,000 people in the country do. You know, the needs of the many outway the needs of the few.
Ham is very useful, but try telling that here. Expect to be flooded with people with these sentiments, and I hope I'm wrong about that.
There is so many other ways to get broadband to even the most remote people that over the powerlines doesn't even need to be. Got a phone line? You should be able to get broadband. If not, do you REALLY think that BB over powerlines will be in your area instead?
Oh well, it will be a major nail in the coffin that was the great and wonderful world of Ham radio. 100 years down the drain.
Really...and I can't understand how people "sell" their accounts either and get away with it.
I mean, if they sell an account they give the account to someone else with the password for that account...then the new person has to set up payment for that account using a credit card with a new address etc etc. A simple trace of that would show a different person/credit card/name using that account which should send up a red flag.
On the other hand, the company that says they don't condone selling of accounts are still getting one monthly fee for one account. So perhaps they may publicly say they will kick/ban people for doing this, but in reality they turn a blind eye to it.
Slashdot Mirror
This isn't true. It was 90% of every server I went to. And I wasn't the only one on the server having problems. EVERYONE on the servers were.
It was a small minority of people that WEREN'T having problems.
That's great to hear. I haven't gamed in a LONG time, but it's good to see that system didn't become extinct.
Who died? A major character in the books. Hell, a WHOLE book was about him...and in my opinion the best book so far.
Also, he was nothing like the red shirts in Star Trek that you don't even know the name of or any character at all...just a guy to stand there and get zapped.
he was modded "Interesting" not for what he had to say, but for how he spelled what he had to say.
8 sites...that's got to be like every single warez site in the country!
Wonder how many millions were spent on this "massive" take down.
Guess you never played BF2 then.
The game was unplayable. Not just bugs...you couldn't PLAY THE GODDAMN THING!
The issue was lag. Lag in what way I don't know. No one seems to know exactly what it was. It wasn't ping times...peoples ping times were like 15 and 25ish. (which lead some people to speculate that the numbers under the "ping" column are just random numbers that mean nothing). But you talk to 10 different players and you get 10 different answers. From "no lag here" to "it's the server, it can't handle 64 players" to "no, the server is fine, it's the netcode" to "no no, the netcode is fine, it's your graphics settings" to "graphics settings? wtf does that have to do with lag".
The game before the patch was unplayable on 9 out of 10 servers. You literally had to spend about 20 minutes loading those LOOOOOONG load times to connect to a server only to find out it's too laggy. The ping times of the server before you join gave you NO indication that you couldn't play.
By not being able to play I mean you'd see a guy standing there, then they'd be forward 10 feet, then jump back 10 feet. You'd see tanks floating through the air in a kind of free-fall until the lag caught back up to it. It was impossible to fly anything without crashing. All the while you're getting 30 or 40 FPS. Then, try another server and magically everything is fine...you can actually play.
After the patch it seems to have fixed many of the problems, until the bugs in the patch itself came known and now EA wants us to go BACK to that shit? NO way in hell.
Jesus saves...everyone else takes 2d20 crushing damage
But really, the best rules were the totally incoherent 2nd edition rules for AD&D. Yes, I loved that it was a pain in ass and led to so many arguments. That was part of the game! Now everything is too sterile.
But the 2nd edition rules also pushed me and my friends into different game systems. Anybody remember "Fantasy Hero"? or "Danger International"? Probably not. We were some of the few that actually played that system on a regular basis. It was fun.
But nothing topped "Call of Cthulhu". Going back to AD&D after that was painful...so we rarely did.
Haven't you also noticed that it's mainly Taco that does the dupes? Sure, there are others but Taco makes most of them.
It's like he wanders into the computer room in his bathrobe and slippers...shuffling in. Then when no one is looking he'll sit down and look at the story submissions...post the ones he likes...then shuffles out. Not knowing that the ones he's posting are all dupes.
Then Zonk or whoever walks in and slaps his hand and leads him back to his room and ups his medications.
Why is the FBI even asking for this? The terrorists aren't going to use something like this. Let's look at what happened on 9/11. A group of Saudis hijacked some planes with fricken box-cutters. They didn't use any high-tech emailing or chat system or anything else to coordinate the attacks. It was as basic a plan that they could come up with...and the rehearsed it over and over and over until everything was right and nothing was left to chance. No technology...other than the guys learning how to pilot the airliner.
<sarcasm>So what is the FBI asking for? A "just in case" type deal? Well, they should then ask for all forms of communications then, have free reign on the postal system too in case the terrorists resort to writing a letter or two. Have microphones set up everywhere in every home just in case terrorists may want to gather in a house and coordinate an attack! OH MY GOD!</sarcasm>
It's because this country is in a state of fear still. I honestly don't think the FBI is out to get us all and wants to take away everyones freedom nor control people. Heck, I even have a friend that's in the FBI...he's a nice guy. But I think that they are as scared as everyone else is and they don't want to get caught with their pants down again. I believe they honestly want to try to prevent and protect the citizens of the US...it's just they're methods may be a bit zealous at times.
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Sorry, never heard of Marc Fleury nor JBoss. Is JBoss a clothing line or something?
Anyway, I suppose I could look him up, but if he's making these statements as if people should listen to him, shouldn't he kind of be a known person? I can make statements all day long too...but since I'm a nobody like this guy why should anyone listen to me? Why is anyone even reading this post?
Don't mod me as anything.
What ideas are these? The elegant design and UI of Irix (lol)? Or do you mean the goofy shaped cases? THAT I can see.
But I have to ask, is there really any reason why to get an SGI today? I can see a company with an installed base of SGIs upgrading or what-not...but do they really offer anything new or different?
This is not a troll, it's an honest question. Back in the budding early days of the workstations sure, I could see getting these machines to work on 3D graphics etc etc. But now that 3D graphics cards are on regular PCs and Macs and both can run UNIX type operating systems, what does SGI or SUN for that matter have that you can't get elsewhere?
I'd be interested in knowing what others think about this or why they would keep going to SGI.
Exactly. I'm wondering how much of their income actually comes from their games as oppose to licensing the game engines? I have a feeling Id makes most of thier cash from the engines.
Actually, back in the 60s when he was with John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers on the Beano album he played Les Pauls. The term "Clapton is God" which went up around London and other parts of England were from this era.
Many feel also that his sound after switching to the Strat has become thin and weak because he helped define the Les Paul/Marshall sound that was carried on to new heights by Jimmy Page where as the single coil pick-ups on the Strat just don't have the balls that a Les Paul does. Me personally, I like both eras of his music as he tries to branch off into new directions. But I think it would have been cool for him, at the Cream Reunion that was earlier this year, to strap on a Les Paul to jam. But that was then, this is now.
Read my post again...I'm on your side and I am a Ham.
73
Not a hobby, a service. Again, read up on it before responding. You'll see this isn't just a bunch of guys sitting around talking about the weather with 1000's of dollars worth of equipment.
The Ham service isn't there to give neighbors news, they're there to help coordinate disaster relief, provide 2-way communications for rescue workers...the list goes on and on. You're examples of you getting info via a radio with a battery is all fine and good. But again, look beyond your little world and what it can do for you and see the bigger picture of what the Amatuer Service is all about. It's there to help people, not to hinder. BB over powerlines is NOT the solution to the economy of our nation...give me a break.
Of course, I could turn it around easily...and actually back it up with facts with "Ham radio is crucial to the security, health and welfare of our nation. Broadband is not". You can still access the internet over phone lines no matter where you are...downloading porn at fast speeds is not crucial to our economy.
And you're right, a hobby does not outweigh a national interest. Good thing we're not talking about hobbies here then...other than surfing the web at high speeds can certainly be called "a hobby".
Please, read up more about Amateur Radio before going off like this.
What's the argument that you need broadband to feed your family? BB over powerlines is not progress. If it fucks up other things...including I might add WiFI and ordinary radio (you know, that thing you listen to in your car...or are you one of those myopic induviduals that think "hey, I listen to CD's so I don't want or need radio in my car")
And of course, I could point out that Ham has served in times of crisis as we always have, with little to no thanks from anyone...which isn't what we do it for anyway. Just a way to give back something.
And your analogy is pretty bad. We're not the wagon-axle maker crying for government assistance. We have the spectrum already. It's also a VERY small part of the radio spectrum. A little nitch. And of course, a horse and buggy enthusiast can certainly travel down the highway whenever they want...I see it all the time. They can't travel on the interstates, but the interstates were MADE for cars...it's not like they were taken away from the horse and buggy people to travel on. So go ahead, mount up on your horse and buggy if you want! It's still there, go ahead. Nothing down the drain at all for that hobby.
Also, just because I call Ham a hobby doesn't make it one. The government and the FCC consider it a service. Go look it up. But nah, this is Slashdot...easier to just run off about something you have no clue about!
Thanks for not letting down my expectations that I made.
So kill off Ham...the only communication medium that was going after the Blackout last year...not to mention 9/11 after the cell phone network got jammed and of course the recent Tsunami.
Good deal! Maybe you should also suggest that we just keep our equipment handy...though not being able to actually test it...in case an emergency takes place so we can help out. Until then we should just fuck off, right?
Also, in case you want to take your foot out of your mouth about this "primitive" communication system, I suggest you actually read up on the hobby first.
Sorry, wasn't ment to be a troll, but from my experience here over the years "most" of the people fall on the side of BB over powerlines than do the Hams. Was going on past experience.
You forget that HAMs are basically the original geeks. Slashdotters support their fellow geeks, including hams, very much.
I agree. I started out on Ham before computers...and this was like 1978.
Right. 'Cause you know how gung-ho we are about taking away people's rights, especially minorities. We hate liberty and love the FCC and large corporations..
Calm down there Tex...I was just commenting on what the justification was for some people outside the hobby, didn't say I agreed with it.
Seriously. Come up with a better troll. I can't believe you were modded +5.
Again, wasn't trying to troll.
The thing is, this isn't ancient technology. It's still alive today and many people are still doing it.
It's also needs no infrastruture. Nothing can "go down" to where you can't get out to someone else. The net can go down. Cell phones can go buh bye when you go out of signal area (which happens to me even now just driving from Michigan to Illinois...where you would think it would have constant signal).
But this has been going on and on. You personally don't care and why should you, you're not in the hobby so you just see it as ancient technology that should go the way of the horse&buggy.
I see, so how is one going to practice this? Guess keep the equipment and the antennas up and invest 1000s of dollars into a hobby on the off chance that maybe you'll be able to help one day...but until that day it just sits there unused.
Cool...guess you solved it!
Don't go there...if you look at the history of Slashdot they're anti-Ham radio for the most part. Their reasoning is why stop progress for something that only 600,000 people in the country do. You know, the needs of the many outway the needs of the few.
Ham is very useful, but try telling that here. Expect to be flooded with people with these sentiments, and I hope I'm wrong about that.
There is so many other ways to get broadband to even the most remote people that over the powerlines doesn't even need to be. Got a phone line? You should be able to get broadband. If not, do you REALLY think that BB over powerlines will be in your area instead?
Oh well, it will be a major nail in the coffin that was the great and wonderful world of Ham radio. 100 years down the drain.
Really...and I can't understand how people "sell" their accounts either and get away with it.
I mean, if they sell an account they give the account to someone else with the password for that account...then the new person has to set up payment for that account using a credit card with a new address etc etc. A simple trace of that would show a different person/credit card/name using that account which should send up a red flag.
On the other hand, the company that says they don't condone selling of accounts are still getting one monthly fee for one account. So perhaps they may publicly say they will kick/ban people for doing this, but in reality they turn a blind eye to it.
She was DIRECTED as a prop...but she herself certainly isn't one as she's a fine actress and was even nominated for an Academy Award for Closer.
But when directed as nothing more than an object that spews out bad dialog, she'll come across as that.