A buddy of mine is 26 years old and had his first shot of tequila last night. It was Sauza. I had a shot, too, it was disgusting as far as tequila goes (I wasn't drinking to get drunk, so I could taste it. Had a gasoline aftertaste, I'm sticking with Don Julio). Anyway, we supplied him with four lime wedges. Poor bastard didn't know what hit him. It never gets old.
You forgot about the widescreen issues. The theaters will show it in 4:3 stretched to 16:9 (or whatever they use) until lots of complaining and you'll be given a free ticket to watch it again.:)
Razzing Bioshock aside, I loved the game. Still haven't played it in 'true' widescreen yet, as my cousin has had my copy since last November and it hasn't been worth the drive to go get it.
Yup, there's Panera Bread and a thousand independent coffee shops with free wifi in the Twin Cities and metro areas. Heck, there are even bars with free wifi. Buffalo Wild Wings has free wifi! I've used it with my iPod touch (usually checking team scores and stats), but I don't think I'd get a lot work done while eating 12 mango habaneros. And I imagine the keys would get coated in wing sauce.
I mostly hit Caribou and anywhere but Starbucks. It used to be because Starbucks had bad coffee, but now it's because of the bad coffee and having to pay for wifi.
Now you can get municipal wifi from Minneapolis for $20/month. Coverage holes are still filling in, but it's far superior to $4 for two hours.
Nope, I haven't. I may get around to it someday but it's relatively low on my list. My point perhaps wasn't made as clear as I had planned. I don't see why you would lose respect for MADD when they try to keep people aware of what should be considered a noble pursuit. Yes, they may be sadly mis-informed. Yeah, they have missed a lot of other opportunities to write these letters. But their letter wasn't disrespectful. It wasn't really a 'stunt' (a la ACLU or Jack Thompson). And why should it matter even if it was? I certainly hope there is no discernible selfish action in their request. They will generate publicity for their purpose, which is at least a good thing in this situation.
As a gaming community, we all know this letter will ultimately be fruitless. We will continue to get games unrestricted of content (for the most part) due to the 1st amendment. Perhaps a letter from MADD saying "thank you" for advising you not to drive drunk would have been better? Maybe.
I just see no reason to 'lose' respect for MADD for this action, I suppose. I respect both parties all the more. MADD for standing up for their convictions (misinformed or not) in a respectful manner. And certainly Rockstar for handling the situation so well. Neither deftly, nor skillfully, but respectfully.
Stunt? Okay, yeah like it would produce any results. But don't be pissed at an organization that DOES WHAT IT WAS FOUNDED TO DO. Namely, prevent drunk driving. While they may have done things differently, it would have been an equally silly request to write a letter saying, "Please pull this part out of the game."
No. It would have been irresponsible of MADD to not write some sort of reaction if they have convictions about this. By the way, I feel that Rockstar handled this very well with their reply.
You mean like the PSA movie shown in Johnny Dangerously? If you haven't seen it, you should. It really is a good mob spoof with clever humor. Johnny's brother is about to quit his job so he can get married (and subsequently consummate the marriage ASAP). His mom doesn't want him to and begs Johnny to talk some sense into him. Johnny takes his little brother to his brothel and shows him a movie about sex making your testicles explode (not in a good way). It's done in the very old cartoon PSA way, so everything is drawn and all the 'characters' dance when the walk. Watch the show. It really is worth your time.
My Epson RX580 carts come with a chip on board that "conveniently" tells the printer how much ink is still in the tanks. The best part is that it prevents you from refilling the carts because the refill places can't reset the counters (yet). Yes, you get a lot more use out of them.* Just the same it literally forces you to replace carts even if there is any ink left.
*I read about a comparison study showing that the Epson single color carts are among the top efficiency. Epsons supposedly quit around %20 left while others would have upwards of %60 of their ink left in the carts.
If you want modeled cities then definitely look into Driver. The streets are modeled after New York and such (I don't know exactly how accurate they are). But I too would like to see this.
So what you're looking for is a "What if Shaft and Jim Rockford shot up the town", right? I'd buy that. Although it's already been done with Driver. I loved this game. It really is a shame that the sequels have all utterly failed where the first succeeded. The first game was all about driving. The game had a 'law system' where you could free drive the whole city without being noticed as long as you obeyed traffic laws. Stop at a light, use your blinker (was automatic), don't drive too fast, and stay on your side of the road. This allowed you to quietly finish missions if there was no time limit and keep the car in perfect condition. That's why I liked it. Okay, I also loved watching everyone's rims fly off the cars just like in 70's chase movies. (I am more of a Gran Turismo than a GTA guy in the first place). The second one allowed you steal cars and walk around (there wasn't any gun play). The third was a poorly executed GTA3 knock off. The reason I say poor is because the driving physics (what should have been the core of the game) too a second place to the shooting. I haven't even touched the fourth. At any rate, there could be a LOT learned from this series for GTA. Namely the driving physics and the law system. I haven't touched GTA IV yet, so if they have done any of this, I have yet to see it. Should be fun.
Good call. But never underestimate the word sports if you're ever in a college dorm. Any time multiple parties directly compete with a common gaol that only one of them can achieve, you have a sport. If the game is full contact hall (or ISS) frisbee, then let the games begin. The only advantage you have in space is weightlessness. Probably a lot more penalties... Of course, the major advantage of being on Earth is there isn't that pesky life support system that you need to worry about damaging.
Seems like you could gain the same results by testing a person's vertical. All the force one can muster in any direction can be measured with ones weight, and the average height of the jump (IE, lifting your feet and bending your knees for extra height won't work).
On the other hand.. if you are talking about some sort of zero (or low) G race down a corridor without the use of your legs (pulling and pushing with hands, head, whatever isn't below the waist) it could be quite interesting. If you take into consideration it's just your hands friction on the walls propelling you after your initial push... In a long enough corridor this would make a big difference.
An other great video game related drinking game is the Ninja Gaiden drinking game. Every time Ryu's dad dies, everyone drinks. The controller is passed around and when you beat a level you drink. If you die, you pass the controller. Starts off slow, and sometimes people can be very good at the game. Eventually nobody can get to the first boss and everyone is drinking constantly due to the first cut scene.
It really depends on conditions. See, on a hot day, inside a closed area, yes, it would work quite well, I imagine. Do not try this, however, outside with a match because any breeze will counter the effect (no matter how hot and saturated the air is with gasoline). You will lose arm hair. Yes. I speak from experience.
So you're going to have this asteroid playing fetch? Not that great of a plan when it comes back with our satellite in tow, full of slobber mind you, waiting for us to launch another?!
Thanks for the warning. But I've already tried. And failed. Miserably. The IT department where I work refers to the case as the CPU because they're sick of people not understanding... Either that or they're just idiots.
I agree completely. Napster exploded right about the time when I hit college (and bandwidth greater than dial-up). I had been so frusterated with music as all I ever heard was top 40 stations. A friend was listening to something I liked and showed me how Napster worked. I started finding artists and, get this, saving up to buy their albums. That's when I started importing music and buying from independent labels.
Before that, all I had was the used book store that sold bargain CD's. $2-$6 per CD wasn't so bad a premium to pay for something I might enjoy. And they were more than happy to buy it back for $.25-$1.00. So more of a rental service.
I'm waiting for digital radio to really fly. Stations can now afford to start dedicating air time to music that the labels wouldn't allow on the air (due to promoting the current flavor of the week) and hopefully that means a lot of experimentation or even better, an acute departure from top 40 radio. On a side, I've been absolutely loving TPT'ssoundstage which doesn't always play something I like, but it's enough for me to start supporting public TV. (I currently contribute to a local Christian station and a local Jazz station)
I actually think that 50 hours wouldn't be enough. But in this country everyone needs a car. I don't think that a lot of drivers are near capable of driving even our current speed limits without being a danger to themselves and others. So the training time remains practical.
I was thinking more along the rural roads of which I'm am acquainted, not freeways and such. I've never had a problem hitting 90+mph on certain stretches of freeway because I can see everything. At the same time I feel that 35 mph in some residential areas is too fast. So good point about the engineers vs politicians.
As a side, wasn't the 55mph thing to keep people from wasting gas back in the gas shortages in the 70's? I wasn't around.
A lot of good points and I'd hope that state DMV's would have this information in mind.. and add an extra.5 seconds to the yellows. "techpawn" has some good guidelines, and I think they can be summed up by, "Don't be in the intersection when the light turns red". Or that's what they amount to.
You said that estimating car stopping distance can be considered unreasonable for the average driver. I say that it should be 2nd nature to every driver. I live in America and I'd personally love to see it become much more work to get the privilege to drive. If you're behind the wheel and estimating the stopping distance of your vehicle takes more than an instant (being that you're constantly aware of your stopping distance), you don't belong behind the wheel. More training, I say. And yes, it sucks for those who cannot or do not have that capacity, but for the sake of lives, gas, insurance costs, funerals, and hospital bills, even polution, I think it's worth it. People still need to get around, so let's beef up public transport. I'd relinquish my license if I were unfit to drive.
Maybe you made the same mistake I made. But then I re-read his post. I thought the GP poster said "Set a minimum speed limit, and let drivers decide". Which is often 40MPH on a freeway. But what we already have is a maximum safe speed limit on our freeways. And I agree completely that for 99% of Americans driving is considered a right when it shouldn't be.
I'd be all for mandatory: 50+hours of training, periodic ability tests (every two years or so), yearly eye exams, and maybe more. Nothing that couldn't be done. It would increase jobs and hopefully decrease the idiots on the road who figure that all there is to driving is putting a key in the ignition, gas on the right, brake on the left.
I've known a few officers/sheriffs in my time. They're not so concerned about revenue as catching people that really matter. They're not grabbing the people doing 15 over the speeders. They're grabbing the people going 15 over everyone else. Ooor, they're lazy. Heck, a lot of the time they're just hoping to catch the one guy speeding nervously away from a deal with a kilo of whatever in his trunk.
True. And Congress hasn't declared an actual "War" since WWII. The rest of the time they just told whatever President to do what they want.
I remember hearing a lot about some law that said the President can declare war for 30 days before needing Congress's support, but I have no idea if that's written anywhere, and it make no sense anyway.
Slashdot Mirror
A buddy of mine is 26 years old and had his first shot of tequila last night. It was Sauza. I had a shot, too, it was disgusting as far as tequila goes (I wasn't drinking to get drunk, so I could taste it. Had a gasoline aftertaste, I'm sticking with Don Julio). Anyway, we supplied him with four lime wedges. Poor bastard didn't know what hit him. It never gets old.
Razzing Bioshock aside, I loved the game. Still haven't played it in 'true' widescreen yet, as my cousin has had my copy since last November and it hasn't been worth the drive to go get it.
I mostly hit Caribou and anywhere but Starbucks. It used to be because Starbucks had bad coffee, but now it's because of the bad coffee and having to pay for wifi.
Now you can get municipal wifi from Minneapolis for $20/month. Coverage holes are still filling in, but it's far superior to $4 for two hours.
As a gaming community, we all know this letter will ultimately be fruitless. We will continue to get games unrestricted of content (for the most part) due to the 1st amendment. Perhaps a letter from MADD saying "thank you" for advising you not to drive drunk would have been better? Maybe.
I just see no reason to 'lose' respect for MADD for this action, I suppose. I respect both parties all the more. MADD for standing up for their convictions (misinformed or not) in a respectful manner. And certainly Rockstar for handling the situation so well. Neither deftly, nor skillfully, but respectfully.
No. It would have been irresponsible of MADD to not write some sort of reaction if they have convictions about this. By the way, I feel that Rockstar handled this very well with their reply.
You mean like the PSA movie shown in Johnny Dangerously? If you haven't seen it, you should. It really is a good mob spoof with clever humor. Johnny's brother is about to quit his job so he can get married (and subsequently consummate the marriage ASAP). His mom doesn't want him to and begs Johnny to talk some sense into him. Johnny takes his little brother to his brothel and shows him a movie about sex making your testicles explode (not in a good way). It's done in the very old cartoon PSA way, so everything is drawn and all the 'characters' dance when the walk. Watch the show. It really is worth your time.
*I read about a comparison study showing that the Epson single color carts are among the top efficiency. Epsons supposedly quit around %20 left while others would have upwards of %60 of their ink left in the carts.
If you want modeled cities then definitely look into Driver. The streets are modeled after New York and such (I don't know exactly how accurate they are). But I too would like to see this.
So what you're looking for is a "What if Shaft and Jim Rockford shot up the town", right? I'd buy that. Although it's already been done with Driver. I loved this game. It really is a shame that the sequels have all utterly failed where the first succeeded. The first game was all about driving. The game had a 'law system' where you could free drive the whole city without being noticed as long as you obeyed traffic laws. Stop at a light, use your blinker (was automatic), don't drive too fast, and stay on your side of the road. This allowed you to quietly finish missions if there was no time limit and keep the car in perfect condition. That's why I liked it. Okay, I also loved watching everyone's rims fly off the cars just like in 70's chase movies. (I am more of a Gran Turismo than a GTA guy in the first place). The second one allowed you steal cars and walk around (there wasn't any gun play). The third was a poorly executed GTA3 knock off. The reason I say poor is because the driving physics (what should have been the core of the game) too a second place to the shooting. I haven't even touched the fourth.
At any rate, there could be a LOT learned from this series for GTA. Namely the driving physics and the law system. I haven't touched GTA IV yet, so if they have done any of this, I have yet to see it. Should be fun.
Have fun, guys!
On the other hand.. if you are talking about some sort of zero (or low) G race down a corridor without the use of your legs (pulling and pushing with hands, head, whatever isn't below the waist) it could be quite interesting. If you take into consideration it's just your hands friction on the walls propelling you after your initial push... In a long enough corridor this would make a big difference.
An other great video game related drinking game is the Ninja Gaiden drinking game. Every time Ryu's dad dies, everyone drinks. The controller is passed around and when you beat a level you drink. If you die, you pass the controller. Starts off slow, and sometimes people can be very good at the game. Eventually nobody can get to the first boss and everyone is drinking constantly due to the first cut scene.
It really depends on conditions. See, on a hot day, inside a closed area, yes, it would work quite well, I imagine. Do not try this, however, outside with a match because any breeze will counter the effect (no matter how hot and saturated the air is with gasoline). You will lose arm hair. Yes. I speak from experience.
"What color are their hands now?"
Maybe a giant frickin' iron.
While I don't get the reference, that should be about all the sequels they'll need for anything to actually happen.
Drop it, Apophis.. Drooop! DROP IT!! Good job!
Thanks for the warning. But I've already tried. And failed. Miserably. The IT department where I work refers to the case as the CPU because they're sick of people not understanding... Either that or they're just idiots.
Actually, these types of games really did teach my how to quickly process simple math. The only reason I ever lost was those dang Troggles!!!
Before that, all I had was the used book store that sold bargain CD's. $2-$6 per CD wasn't so bad a premium to pay for something I might enjoy. And they were more than happy to buy it back for $.25-$1.00. So more of a rental service.
I'm waiting for digital radio to really fly. Stations can now afford to start dedicating air time to music that the labels wouldn't allow on the air (due to promoting the current flavor of the week) and hopefully that means a lot of experimentation or even better, an acute departure from top 40 radio. On a side, I've been absolutely loving TPT's soundstage which doesn't always play something I like, but it's enough for me to start supporting public TV. (I currently contribute to a local Christian station and a local Jazz station)
I was thinking more along the rural roads of which I'm am acquainted, not freeways and such. I've never had a problem hitting 90+mph on certain stretches of freeway because I can see everything. At the same time I feel that 35 mph in some residential areas is too fast. So good point about the engineers vs politicians.
As a side, wasn't the 55mph thing to keep people from wasting gas back in the gas shortages in the 70's? I wasn't around.
You said that estimating car stopping distance can be considered unreasonable for the average driver. I say that it should be 2nd nature to every driver. I live in America and I'd personally love to see it become much more work to get the privilege to drive. If you're behind the wheel and estimating the stopping distance of your vehicle takes more than an instant (being that you're constantly aware of your stopping distance), you don't belong behind the wheel. More training, I say. And yes, it sucks for those who cannot or do not have that capacity, but for the sake of lives, gas, insurance costs, funerals, and hospital bills, even polution, I think it's worth it. People still need to get around, so let's beef up public transport. I'd relinquish my license if I were unfit to drive.
I'd be all for mandatory: 50+hours of training, periodic ability tests (every two years or so), yearly eye exams, and maybe more. Nothing that couldn't be done. It would increase jobs and hopefully decrease the idiots on the road who figure that all there is to driving is putting a key in the ignition, gas on the right, brake on the left.
I've known a few officers/sheriffs in my time. They're not so concerned about revenue as catching people that really matter. They're not grabbing the people doing 15 over the speeders. They're grabbing the people going 15 over everyone else. Ooor, they're lazy. Heck, a lot of the time they're just hoping to catch the one guy speeding nervously away from a deal with a kilo of whatever in his trunk.
I remember hearing a lot about some law that said the President can declare war for 30 days before needing Congress's support, but I have no idea if that's written anywhere, and it make no sense anyway.