That's true, but I think we can get around the Swing State Problem (and it IS a problem by God) without tossing the Electoral College out the window.
People talk about splitting electoral votes according to a state's popular vote. It seems like a good idea to me... does anyone else have any thoughts?
One of the grievances that we had with the British, back in the day, was that we weren't getting representation in the British government even though Americans were paying British taxes. An injustice! Even though Britain offered to give America representation, that representation would have only had a very tiny amount of power relative to the rest of Britain.
That's another reason that Alaska, Wyoming, Montana, Rhode Island, and many other states have more electoral and House representation than their population relative to the larger states would suggest. If those states were held completely hostage to the will of California and New York, they would leave the Union.
There is more to a state than just raw population numbers. States like Alaska have natural resources, very strategic location, and a lot of other cool things. Things that the United States need. If the people of those states do not have any hope of popular representation, what is keeping them in the Union?
If popular representation is the end-all be-all of democracy, why do you think that we have a Senate with two senators from each state?
And finally... who the fuck would trust City People to run this country? That's what would happen with straight representative votes. Presidential candidates wouldn't have to worry AT ALL about the issues of farmers, Alaskans, hunters, people who fish for a living, gun owners, miners, military communities, or anything else that takes place outside a major urban area.
City People don't know what it's like to live in the real world.
...while simultaneously having the disadvantages of the electoral college (unequal weighting of votes for people in different states).
That's one of the advantages of the electoral college, actually. The fact that people in Alaska (like me) or Wyoming have a voting power that is disproportionatly large compared to that of a Californian or a New Yorker means that presidential candidates can't get away with just pandering to a few urban centers on the East and West coasts, and ignore everything else.
Its amazing the difference between U.S. viewpoint and world viewpoint. It's only amazing if you haven't been paying any attention for the past 2.5 years or so.
However if you have, for example, watched some television news, you could probably predict the current state of their vote reasonably well.
Actually Star Wars was originally going to be set to a riff on Holst's 'The Planets', until John Williams convinced Lucas to let him do something cool.
Without a doubt one of the premiere open source games. If you've ever played Wing Commander, Privateer, Elite, Escape Velocity Nova, you will love this game!
It's a 3d space combat/flying game where you accept all sorts of different missions (piracy, search and destroy, rescue, cargo hauling, patrol, exploration, etc) for money. You can purchase different starships and upgrade them to top of the line milspec craft. You can take the missions, or just fly around making credits as a tramp freighter, taking profitable cargos from station to planet to base.
There's also a really sweet dynamic universe, with the different empires constructing fleets of ships which do battle (and you can see the battles happen if you are in the same system!), and you can read about the progress of the wars on the dynamic news system.
The artwork is sweet, with a lot of professional-quality stuff. The graphics engine is awesome, and the gameplay rocks too.
This is the game you're looking for. (Windows, OSX, Linux)
I have torn my hair out trying to get games to run in Wine or WineX, but with very little real success. It is just a nightmare!
However, I've recently acquired the Linux version of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri by Loki... and it is perfect. It installed like a dream, and there hasn't been a single problem. It could not have been easier. What Linux needs is more quality native ports like that, and if we can get BF1942, then Linux may start expanding as a native gaming platform.
Naval power has been absolutely vital in every conflict the United States has participated in. From the Revolution right up to Iraq. The invasion of Afghanistan would not have taken a year to prepare without the rapid power projection capabilities of the US carrier fleet. The US sub fleet's nuclear weapons have been a completely untouchable deterrent to the Soviet Union. The destroyers, frigates, and cruisers of the surface fleet serve to fly the flag and provide potent force projection around the entire world.
The Marine Corps is also part of our naval force, supported and transported by the Navy, and try telling THEM they haven't done anything important. I dare you. : )
I read an article in CGW or something, where they said that through the course of KOTOR2, the people you talk to will ask you a question in normal conversation about something pertaining to the events in KOTOR. Your answer will tell the game what choices were made in KOTOR, so that KOTOR2 can be tailored to match your experience in KOTOR (whichever one you choose, anyway).
This is a pretty subtle way of doing it. I probably would have gone ahead and started off with a little questionaire at the beginning, but that would probably be too blatant for most people.
Usually when a game is absolutely wonderful, it never sees a sequel because it is not popular.
With KOTOR, I am absolutely thrilled (but not in the least bit surprised) that there will be a sequel. The original game wasn't really groundbreaking, or even all that innovative. But it was an extremely polished game, with fantastic art and audio, a great storyline, and solid gameplay. It was also extremely long (took me almost 50 hours, and I didn't do nearly everything). All in all it made for some of the best gaming goodness I've had in years.
Probably the best thing about KOTOR is that it restored my faith in Star Wars. Episode I and II put a severe dent in my appreciation for Droids, Wookies, and blasters... but KOTOR made me feel GOOD about Star Wars again. It was (almost) like a religious experience.
I was totally watching it on AMC too. What a great movie.
Bigass space battles are good and all... but a good one-on-one confrontation can be way more exciting. Kirk and the Enterprise (good old 1701) vs. Khan and the Reliant is one of the best space battles ever. Because of the captains, because of the action, because of the effects, because of the strategy...
it was like Enemy Down Below, but in space! (US destroyer captain vs. German u-boat captain... awesome movie)
I consider myself a pretty good shot (in CS, Day of Defeat, Quake, etc). However, about a while ago I had the opportunity to fire several clips (or magazines? I forget) with a 9mm pistol in a large group of other first time shooters.
When we got the targets back, and the scores were compared, I was significantly below average. I am quite certain that I was well above the average of that groups FPS skills as well.
On the other hand, my good friend, who was a computer gamer but NOT a very good FPS player, joined the military and quickly earned expert marksman qualifications on both rifles and pistols.
Yay for Vega Strike. The Wing Commander Universe mod will let players fly across the entire Wing Commander universe map (if you've ever seen it... it's very big and very detailed), flying pretty much any ship from the WC games, as any faction.
The first releases are going to be Privateer remakes only... but then it will grow. I know some of the guys working on it, and may even contribute some 3d model work of my own.
Slashdot Mirror
The penny arcade newspost is very cryptic. Could the poster perhaps provide some background reading material on this case?
fp.
That's true, but I think we can get around the Swing State Problem (and it IS a problem by God) without tossing the Electoral College out the window.
People talk about splitting electoral votes according to a state's popular vote. It seems like a good idea to me... does anyone else have any thoughts?
One of the grievances that we had with the British, back in the day, was that we weren't getting representation in the British government even though Americans were paying British taxes. An injustice! Even though Britain offered to give America representation, that representation would have only had a very tiny amount of power relative to the rest of Britain.
That's another reason that Alaska, Wyoming, Montana, Rhode Island, and many other states have more electoral and House representation than their population relative to the larger states would suggest. If those states were held completely hostage to the will of California and New York, they would leave the Union.
There is more to a state than just raw population numbers. States like Alaska have natural resources, very strategic location, and a lot of other cool things. Things that the United States need. If the people of those states do not have any hope of popular representation, what is keeping them in the Union?
If popular representation is the end-all be-all of democracy, why do you think that we have a Senate with two senators from each state?
And finally... who the fuck would trust City People to run this country? That's what would happen with straight representative votes. Presidential candidates wouldn't have to worry AT ALL about the issues of farmers, Alaskans, hunters, people who fish for a living, gun owners, miners, military communities, or anything else that takes place outside a major urban area.
City People don't know what it's like to live in the real world.
...while simultaneously having the disadvantages of the electoral college (unequal weighting of votes for people in different states).
That's one of the advantages of the electoral college, actually. The fact that people in Alaska (like me) or Wyoming have a voting power that is disproportionatly large compared to that of a Californian or a New Yorker means that presidential candidates can't get away with just pandering to a few urban centers on the East and West coasts, and ignore everything else.
Its amazing the difference between U.S. viewpoint and world viewpoint.
It's only amazing if you haven't been paying any attention for the past 2.5 years or so.
However if you have, for example, watched some television news, you could probably predict the current state of their vote reasonably well.
http://gmail.google.com/gmail/a-1abd9ea223-e4fb999 fe0-a00d264841
Actually Star Wars was originally going to be set to a riff on Holst's 'The Planets', until John Williams convinced Lucas to let him do something cool.
Great game! Better than Civ3 in a few ways. Light hardware requirements, still looks good, incredibly good game.
Plus there's a Linux version floating around.
Yay! I've always been a fan of AMD's architecture. I definitely to see AMD take more of the laptop market.
That's probably a good thing! AMD architecture NEEDS big fans for how hot they run.
The right thing to do would have been to make it clear you are involved with the project.
What I guess I'm saying is this; if you could figure it out, then I'm sure normal people would have no trouble at all.
This is the truth.
You are not gaming to your full potential if you have not played Star Control 2 (now the Ur-Quan Masters)
Well, I figured my sig would take care of that.
But jesus, it's not like I was selling something. Just trying to highlight one of the top open source games.
Vega Strike
Without a doubt one of the premiere open source games. If you've ever played Wing Commander, Privateer, Elite, Escape Velocity Nova, you will love this game!
It's a 3d space combat/flying game where you accept all sorts of different missions (piracy, search and destroy, rescue, cargo hauling, patrol, exploration, etc) for money. You can purchase different starships and upgrade them to top of the line milspec craft. You can take the missions, or just fly around making credits as a tramp freighter, taking profitable cargos from station to planet to base.
There's also a really sweet dynamic universe, with the different empires constructing fleets of ships which do battle (and you can see the battles happen if you are in the same system!), and you can read about the progress of the wars on the dynamic news system.
The artwork is sweet, with a lot of professional-quality stuff. The graphics engine is awesome, and the gameplay rocks too.
This is the game you're looking for.
(Windows, OSX, Linux)
I have torn my hair out trying to get games to run in Wine or WineX, but with very little real success. It is just a nightmare!
However, I've recently acquired the Linux version of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri by Loki... and it is perfect. It installed like a dream, and there hasn't been a single problem. It could not have been easier. What Linux needs is more quality native ports like that, and if we can get BF1942, then Linux may start expanding as a native gaming platform.
Naval power has been absolutely vital in every conflict the United States has participated in. From the Revolution right up to Iraq. The invasion of Afghanistan would not have taken a year to prepare without the rapid power projection capabilities of the US carrier fleet. The US sub fleet's nuclear weapons have been a completely untouchable deterrent to the Soviet Union. The destroyers, frigates, and cruisers of the surface fleet serve to fly the flag and provide potent force projection around the entire world.
The Marine Corps is also part of our naval force, supported and transported by the Navy, and try telling THEM they haven't done anything important. I dare you. : )
Amen to that. Religious crazies like that give normal religious people a bad rep.
Found scans of the CGW article on KOTOR 2 on one of the KOTOR message boards. Awesome!
h ttp://chouzan.net/crap/neowin/kotor2_002.jpgp ://chouzan.net/crap/neowin/kotor2_003.jpg/ chouzan.net/crap/neowin/kotor2_004.jpgo uzan.net/crap/neowin/kotor2_005.jpga n.net/crap/neowin/kotor2_006.jpgn et/crap/neowin/kotor2_007.jpg
http://chouzan.net/crap/neowin/kotor2_001.jpg
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http://chouz
http://chouzan.
I read an article in CGW or something, where they said that through the course of KOTOR2, the people you talk to will ask you a question in normal conversation about something pertaining to the events in KOTOR. Your answer will tell the game what choices were made in KOTOR, so that KOTOR2 can be tailored to match your experience in KOTOR (whichever one you choose, anyway).
This is a pretty subtle way of doing it. I probably would have gone ahead and started off with a little questionaire at the beginning, but that would probably be too blatant for most people.
That's how I understood it, anyways.
Usually when a game is absolutely wonderful, it never sees a sequel because it is not popular.
With KOTOR, I am absolutely thrilled (but not in the least bit surprised) that there will be a sequel. The original game wasn't really groundbreaking, or even all that innovative. But it was an extremely polished game, with fantastic art and audio, a great storyline, and solid gameplay. It was also extremely long (took me almost 50 hours, and I didn't do nearly everything). All in all it made for some of the best gaming goodness I've had in years.
Probably the best thing about KOTOR is that it restored my faith in Star Wars. Episode I and II put a severe dent in my appreciation for Droids, Wookies, and blasters... but KOTOR made me feel GOOD about Star Wars again. It was (almost) like a religious experience.
*sniff*
You say Nemesis was a waste of film, but then you go on to propose two of the worst sounding concepts for a Star Trek movie ever?
Hippocrite!
I was totally watching it on AMC too. What a great movie.
Bigass space battles are good and all... but a good one-on-one confrontation can be way more exciting. Kirk and the Enterprise (good old 1701) vs. Khan and the Reliant is one of the best space battles ever. Because of the captains, because of the action, because of the effects, because of the strategy...
it was like Enemy Down Below, but in space! (US destroyer captain vs. German u-boat captain... awesome movie)
Picard wasn't in command when the Enterprise slugged it out with the Duras Sisters, Riker was. Picard was on the surface of the planet.
I consider myself a pretty good shot (in CS, Day of Defeat, Quake, etc). However, about a while ago I had the opportunity to fire several clips (or magazines? I forget) with a 9mm pistol in a large group of other first time shooters.
When we got the targets back, and the scores were compared, I was significantly below average. I am quite certain that I was well above the average of that groups FPS skills as well.
On the other hand, my good friend, who was a computer gamer but NOT a very good FPS player, joined the military and quickly earned expert marksman qualifications on both rifles and pistols.
There is absolutely no correlation.
Yay for Vega Strike. The Wing Commander Universe mod will let players fly across the entire Wing Commander universe map (if you've ever seen it... it's very big and very detailed), flying pretty much any ship from the WC games, as any faction.
The first releases are going to be Privateer remakes only... but then it will grow. I know some of the guys working on it, and may even contribute some 3d model work of my own.
Laptop cases are thief magnets.
Regular backpacks, with a little padding if you are paranoid, are much better for conveying your multi-kilobuck investments.