...about the delay from US tv to the land of Oz/Nz.
American Idol takes a year to reach their airwaves/sat/cable, IIRC, and the theory might be that the stupidity is less contagious, perhaps.
Then something like this comes up, and well, proves that stupidity doesn't have a half-life and is extreemly infectious after even a year's delay and digital/analog transmission vectors are the main source of infection.
Curious.
Perhaps someone should do a documentary, or maybe a TV drama?
So we make fun of Homeland Security for their meaningless color-coded threat levels, but take the colored borders of confirmation dialogs on Vista as gospel?
I know, red isn't the color of danger, heck if they watched Dr Who they'd know that Mauve is the color of danger.
BSG's pilot, I watched a year or so after it aired after I downloaded it. Liked it and watched "33" on Sci-fi's website for about 10 minutes before saying "screw this".
Real media (blech, but whatever) 3 inch window (c'mon, 640x480 days are long gone) and of course frequent pauses for buffering.
Fired up BT client and all of the rips were from Aussie satellite and looked fantastic. Also, they were 1/2 to 3/4 through season 1, so "what the heck" snagged them all before they even showed on Sci-fi. Still watched them on Sci-fi (hey, Sci-fi/charter how about a hi-def channel, or ffs a bit more gamme on your output, please! This is BSG, not DooM3).
Still bought the DVDs.
Same thing with Dr Who, heck season 2 was worth it for the Daleks vs Cybermen exchange of "Daleks would not be at war with the cybers, it would be more like pest control" (pause) BWAAAHAHAHAHA. Heck, I forget where Sci-fi is with Dr Who, but doesn't matter much as the DVD's are released shortly after the British season ends, if I'm not mistaken. 80 bucks is rather steep, but as I said, for some eps well worth the price.
Torchwood, too. Show grew on me quite quickly. Depending on season2, might actually be worth it to get the DVDs.
Heck, the US/UK/Aus TV ppl would make a killing money/ratings-wise with an P2P/iTunes like distribution without the bullshit delays and some easy way to unlock it/burn it.
Heck, the shows are going to get to viewers eyeballs one way or the other, and you'd think something that benefits the studios bottom lines (rating/$) with them in the picture would be better than out.
Global market whether they want to admit it or not, and as one quip by a brit I recall: Yanks get Dr Who/Torchwood, and we get Sopranos and 24...fair trade.
Agreed, heck that 7month hiatus for BSG almost hurt, tho giving American Idol to the Aussies first and us waiting a year sounds splendid.
This is IBM we're talking about, and the acronym is just ripe for humor:
It's Better Manually. Ha! Works for 2007 as well as 1947!
I've Been Mislead/Microsoft'ed. Quid pro quo (sp?).
Internet Bans Masturbating. Keep both hands on the table, Skippy!
Itsa Big Misunderstanding. Really, it wasn't a porn channel, he was bragging about the "fat pipe" he had at work to the intraweb...that's all. See, big misunderstanding.
Don't forget about porn, which accounts for something like 60% of all P2P traffic. By far, porn is the most pirated form of IP, yet does not seem to be in any danger of disappearing.
Well, in order to have the law enforced, you have to be caught red handed...errr...there has to be a smoking gun...ummm *coff*...dang, too hard (shit, did it again) to phrase it just right.
19) Halo - w... t... f... - sure, the Xbox version was great, even if its own sequel does comprehensively out-shine it, but the PC version always felt like a nasty hack at best.
Agreed. Disaster on the pc until the hardware caught up, but still left a lot to be desierd.
17) Unreal Tournament 2004 - this made me go "hmm" at first, but on balance, I think I could live with this here. It was definitely the best iterration of the series. I'm not quite sure how TFA manages to claim the original is better.
Grfx and extra play styles made 03 "better" IMO, but some of the weapons (sniper rifle/jump boots) were lost (then re-added, IIRC).
14) Max Payne 2 - Can be completed in about 4-6 hours by an average player and has no replay value. No thanks.
Partially true, as the start is "easy" and you've gotta work up to harder difficulty and at highest the story changes. This makes some replay value, but the biggest thing that made the game a blast was the "Dead Man Walking" levels (as well as add-ons). Hours worth of fun, IME, especially if you enjoy a game like serious sam.
Doom3 and FEAR: Doom3 need such high brightness to even be halfway playable, and lots of tweaks to run decently (30 second pauses between doors because of the 32M of level cache on levels that boasted textures in the Gig range? Ouch). Once tweaked, good game, if aggrivating at times.
FEAR: WOW. Max Payne 2.9, with horror film elements and excellent story, twists and ending (IMO).
BF1942, especially Desert Combat: Played the hell out of it a year after release, set up my own server and enjoyed it thouroughly for over two years after that. Still miss it sometimes, sadly upload b/w on cable sucks ass, so I slowly gave it up.
Oblivion: Not my style, usually, but 7 months of hours of play per day. Addictive as hell. However, you've got the "killer bugs" backwards. The PC version was fixed first by the mod community rather quickly. "Stutter bug", "Guild game/story killers" and even down to minor glitches the 360 experienced as well, but had to wait for months vs weeks/days. Heck check out the oblivion mod forums, the program updates were the base (memory, speed, compat) but the actual game play fixes = mod community (PC).
Half-life2: Agreed that it had been over-hyped, but it was a good game, story and play but you are right some of the missed bits and bobs made for raised eyebrows and some aggrivation (shooting from gameplay cell, to a "display/movie" cell...the attacking walkers while you are on top of a building).
Farcry: Demo vs Game difference, the style/difficulty changed and the granularity of the demo's difficulty was lost in the real game. Either too easy, or too frustrating, IMO. Didn't play it near as long as I did the demo. You are right, should have been on the list.
IME with os9 and osx the speech could be disabled easily in 9 and fairly easily in X, and was usually one of the first things I'd disable.
I don't want my computer talking to me, nor do I want to talk to it (at it, maybe, but not to).
Same functionality is built into XP, and I was only aware of it because of Xplite.
Just curious as to ways to kill this off w/o special tools you have to pay for.
In a former job, killing off speech, outlook, and some of the flotsam and jetsam of a fresh install helped 2k/Xp run for months w/o reboots in a production environment.
I guesss that's why the big "meh" over Vista...more "stuff" we don't need/want/might not use piled even higher than before and no way to remove/disable it (that I'm aware of).
The microwave steralizes the wet sponge because it makes the water hot enough to kill anything living. The same effect can be had by dunking the sponge in a pot of boiling water.
True, but if your example was the article in question, you forgot to mention:
The stove's burner will be on, and hot, and not touched and should be turned off when done.
The water, and the pot, will be hot and to use a utensile, not use your hand to submerge the sponge.
You also forgot the standard boiler-plate "do not try at home" (work is better, early day off and such) and "not responsible for x, y, z and unforseen events" which usually means "Do it, but don't blame us if/when something goes 'boom'...c'mon, we dare you!".
When dealing with the dead, it's really more of a service.
True, but with Dead Restriction Management in place, it hopefully stays one way.
(from behind the poster: BRRRAAAAAAAAaaaiiiinsss)
Whooops, missed one.
Today's fortune is appropriate
on
Who won?
·
· Score: 0, Offtopic
If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, then you clearly don't understand the situation.
Never has/will be more true from 2000 to 2008.
And I could not help but laugh at/with the intro I think they call them "exit polls" because people bolt for the exits when you mention them".
{jaded} True in the sense that the guilty will try to flee the scene of the crime when called out.{/jaded}
But, IMO, the '04 election wasn't about picking "The lesser of two evils" but about picking the "less evil of two lessers".
What makes me even more bitter and amused: I was talking with the manager of a local tobacco shop, just the usual bs'ing and a guy goes off about Bush and the whole fales premise of the war, loss of freedom and stolen elections and so forth. The manager askes "Who'd you vote for" and the guy says "Bush, both times, but that's not the point...". I missed most of the debate from laughing so hard.
My reasons for voting against BJr was the cluelessness and privelage of a spoiled brat who joined the Coke^H^Hast Guard
and didn't get busted down and kicked the hell out for being a dirtbag, when your average military person would have reamed a new one for less severe infractions.
IMO (based on what I'm aware of), BSr and Kerry both served in times of war and even if they were desk jockys at least had some clue as to the danger your average military person faces, especially during war.
BJr doesn't know or doesn't care via the equipment abscense/shortage that's getting way too many vets killed, and insult to injury is the extensions of service beyond survivability in a warzone.
But the unmitigated gall to speak out against what he's doing, and vote for him TWICE?
To be stupid once w/o info/exp is normal, but to be stupid again with info/exp should be fatal/punishable.
BJr said it best and it applies to his supporters: "There's an old saying in Tennessee -- I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee -- that says, fool me once, shame on -- shame on you. Fool me -- you can't get fooled again."
Technically, it did have 1 and a half sequels: American Revolt and Wars.
Revolt was an add-on and "new release" on a CD (wow, who'd have thunk it?) instead/in place of floppies.
Wars, IIRC, was overtaxing for most machines because of its use of a little thing called DirectX (3 or 4) and lacked the steady balance of the original/S:AR. That killed it for a lot of ppl (and machines).
Great series, IMO, The original's reactor and escort (fricking lasers *everywhere*) missions were fantastic, yet frustrating. American Revolt's missions were all long'ish and required skill, tactics and some luck (Colorado territories started with incoming air strike--and music-- and enemy agents while the screen fades in from black. The Monty Python strategy of "RUN AWAY" worked best).
My submissions:
Max Payne 2.5: The rise and fall of max payne. More of a remake, really, of the first one done with MP2's engine. If there was a MP3 (heh) the vilianess from MP1 could be resurrected via cloning, on highest difficulty in MP2, Mona lives and the "Dead Man Walking" concept could be used as a device for final level(s). The "V" drug could be used as "reverse" bullet time or a drain.
Descent: D3 was a love-hate. Looked good, played great, sounded fantastic and plays smoothly on today's hardware. Sadly, its OpenGL and Direct3D/DX were never quite right. You'd get HOM (hall of mirrors) or stuck inside walls on occasion (or both). Official and unofficial updates helped, but not much. And the "rubber ceiling" was an interesting trade-off for outdoor scenes.
Heretic 1 or 2: yeah it had a sequel, and by some extents Heretic3 would be Oblivion-esque, but the lightning and phoenix bows + hellstaff + power up enhancement in combination with melee attacks (and masochistic chicken practice) just yields a vicious "this is gonna be fun" grin, everytime. Sadly, the game has a 25% or less success rate under XP, but works flawlessly under 2K. Smarter ppl than I can't seem to find how/why this is. So it is "Try your luck" or install 2K. (SIGH!)
One that *REALLY* needs a sequel is Hi-Octane. Other than NFS2 and FlatOut1, no other driving game has held my attention so well. It, sadly, never got video acceleration of any kind (that I know of) and would have been PERFECT for it. If it had even 1/3 of the eye candy of Pod Racer, it would put PR to shame because of the fun factor.
BattleZone: Besides asteroids, tron (tank + cycles ='s bliss), and the atari 2600's tank game, BZ had been fed so many quarters it was frightening. I was a non-believer when this came to the PC in a different incarnation. Using two flight-sticks couldn't be done easily, and one stick was always the 'should turn or slide be the hat/left or right/twist/key'. 10% of the time I'd forget during critical moments.
Otherwise, the game was smooth, slick, innovative and genre crossing. That crossing was something that even an over-caffinated multi-tasker would have a hard time keeping up with. Bean counting/collecting and fire fights don't mix easily, and between RPG-ness and FPS-ness, one was the awful bitter to the otherwise sweet game.
I recall a BZ2, but for the life of me they both blend into each other, but I recall both needing a "can't deal with this now" feature/time shifting or slowing to pause between RM/FPS'ing.
Amazing how much money is being ungained by companies unwilling to remake our favorites (sam and max is back, IIRC, and only took about a decade'ish?).
HL1 under 2's engine would have brought tears of joy to gamer's eyes. (buuuut nooooo! {sulk} ).
Proving, a lot of "us" would be willing to "Play it again, Sam" (my arstechnica thread ref).
However, hearing that Sony itself has been pressuring the porn industry away from the Blu-Ray format, it seems they've shot themselves in the foot and mooted their brand from competition.
Precisely.
Similar to what I said in a Sony discussion: they'll find a way to fsck up, on way or another.
Take Hp, which IMO, has excellent hardware, but their software (first few revs) sucks (printer and scanners, etc).
Sony is the same way, harware and ideas are good, but their execution or habit of "gotcha, sucker" type features.
But no pr0n?
Heh, I say with tounge firmly in cheek "they just screwed themselves" big time.
On the other hand (snort) I suppose it is a *good* thing, because they'd likely have dildoes with pre-installed STD's (aka 'rootkits') and flaming batteries (ouchie).
Too bad the VHS vs Beta wars are long gone, for Sony could have a spin off company that produces "master-beta-max" for porn production, as for now, I suppose Sony's got a case of Blue-Ray-balls.
Considering it takes so long for anything to exit SONY and not be DOA, well I wonder if it means:
Selling Only Not Yet. Sucks, Only Now Yours. Stops On New Years(or 's) Slow Ornery Nitwit, Yup.
True a lot of things took off (minidisk) in some markets, but were so constrained to geographic regions it was almost a Pyrric (SP?) victory.
There's never really been a "Walkman" since the walkman that (coff) walked away from the competition.
Rootkits and exploding batteries aside, friends with Sony stuff are finding hidden gotchas with alarming frequency. Home movies and burned disks that won't play and ask me if I know why.
.. They contributed "WIRETAP.DLL" and "TERRORSCAN.EXE" which are required components to pass the new-and-improved Windows Genuine Advantage test, right?!?
(tinfoil hat mode = on)
No need, the backdoors are already in place, they just needed to strenghten the password to:
I recall some fellow techs were working with building planning (.edu) to try and get a conference room wired for power/networks.
Well, the specs were there, but ignored and the floor was poured and set, only no power, no network.
We were livid (ok, I was amused...this is still a.edu, after all).
One of the higher ups grilled the front man about the situation and wireless networks were just getting usable, and it was decided that was the best option.
Then he had to ask "What about wireless power?"
Ever the diplomat, the front man gave a good answer of "no can do" and maintained composure.
Only after he left, I piped up "Sure you can have wirelss power....It's called LIGHTNING!"
The whole room went silent for a few seconds and then erupted in laughter.
Became a running gag for a few months, too, if we got annoyed at each other we'd do a "spell casting" motion and shout "wireless power" a few times.
HDTV owners aren't buying the new formats because they don't want to pick the losing side.
Exactly. So who's the losing side?
IMO: SONY.
Their current track record just speaks volumes, IME, and they will do something that will either fsck the consumer, themselves or both.
the catch phrase "It's a Sony" used to mean something, but now should be prepended with "Don't bother," as Sony will BSOD (Blu-Sony-Ray of Death) itself.
Given the number of non-Windows servers out there why aren't we seeing the equivalent number of breeches. Where are all the Mac viruses. Where are all the cross platform viruses.
Don't get your knickers in a twist, but most other platforms haven't been caught with their pants down so readily.
Most notable is SlackSware Linux.;)
Sorry, I'll keep it shorts: I could not resist after seeing FTFA:...resulting in automated control programs loosing control.
The brain was primed after that.
I know Brits spell things funny and with extra vowels and stuff, but smack whomever wrote that, please.
I'm surprised the Honda Kick and Go didn't make the list. I remember that I got one of those as a kid just before they were pulled off the market because they were dangerous (I'm not sure exactly why they were dangerous.)
Dangerous only during periods of insanity/lapsed judgement common in pre-teens.
Case in point: me.
Unlike the blade-scooters of today, these things had the gearing and metal-tube construction of a single speed bike. Unlike the blades, they had wheels that were worth a damn at about a 5" diameter.
You could get that thing moving at a decent clip, I know.
Picture getting one of these things at top speed, 4X's what a kid could run.
No picture a 50 to 60 yards stretch of road that goes down at a 15degree angle and then makes a 90degree turn right, then to my house.
I built up speed, went down the decline, took the turn as close to the inside as possible (which worked as the inside was well rounded toward the drain) as sharp as possible. I cleared the turn, only to have the "mound" the road formed meet the metal tubing.
What happend then, well, I wish there was a 3rd person view available of this:
In two blinks of an eye, the metal met the road, slid on the tube for 3ft (judging by the scrapes and red paint left behind), I corrected, the tires met, grabbed the road and sent the entire frame (and me) to the opposite direction. I did a flip/roll in mid air, the scooter slammed to the ground, and I landed on my side, still rolling, two feet away from the grass on my front lawn.
Bruised and bleeding a little, and peppered with stones, what did I do?
Laughed my ass off. How funny that must have looked. How funny I felt doing it.
I did it again, to see if I could repeat it. Only to do a full split that brought tears to my eyes. Then I hobbled home with the Kick 'n Go in tow.
Mom asked what happened and I just said I wiped out, no big deal.
Yeah, the only thing dangerous about the KnG was the driver/operator. (IMO, naturally)
Slashdot Mirror
for no other reason than the new stock ticker could read:
IMBAIT
Which could read one of two ways: I'm Bait or I M-bate.
Either way, I'm amused.
...about the delay from US tv to the land of Oz/Nz.
American Idol takes a year to reach their airwaves/sat/cable, IIRC, and the theory might
be that the stupidity is less contagious, perhaps.
Then something like this comes up, and well, proves that stupidity doesn't have a half-life
and is extreemly infectious after even a year's delay and digital/analog transmission
vectors are the main source of infection.
Curious.
Perhaps someone should do a documentary, or maybe a TV drama?
oh, wait...
"As the article shows, their main connection is a unidirectional 300 baud ship-to-shore link."
And there it is, the hidden reason:
They've got to support win-modems!
Wonder how long the phone cord holds up in salt water?
So we make fun of Homeland Security for their meaningless color-coded threat levels, but take the colored borders of confirmation dialogs on Vista as gospel?
I know, red isn't the color of danger, heck if they watched Dr Who they'd know that
Mauve is the color of danger.
Sheesh, how unprofessional can you get?
BSG's pilot, I watched a year or so after it aired after I downloaded it. Liked it and
watched "33" on Sci-fi's website for about 10 minutes before saying "screw this".
Real media (blech, but whatever) 3 inch window (c'mon, 640x480 days are long gone)
and of course frequent pauses for buffering.
Fired up BT client and all of the rips were from Aussie satellite and looked fantastic.
Also, they were 1/2 to 3/4 through season 1, so "what the heck" snagged them all before
they even showed on Sci-fi. Still watched them on Sci-fi (hey, Sci-fi/charter how about
a hi-def channel, or ffs a bit more gamme on your output, please! This is BSG, not
DooM3).
Still bought the DVDs.
Same thing with Dr Who, heck season 2 was worth it for the Daleks vs Cybermen exchange of
"Daleks would not be at war with the cybers, it would be more like pest control" (pause)
BWAAAHAHAHAHA.
Heck, I forget where Sci-fi is with Dr Who, but doesn't matter much as the DVD's are
released shortly after the British season ends, if I'm not mistaken. 80 bucks is
rather steep, but as I said, for some eps well worth the price.
Torchwood, too. Show grew on me quite quickly. Depending on season2, might actually
be worth it to get the DVDs.
Heck, the US/UK/Aus TV ppl would make a killing money/ratings-wise with an P2P/iTunes like
distribution without the bullshit delays and some easy way to unlock it/burn it.
Heck, the shows are going to get to viewers eyeballs one way or the other, and you'd think
something that benefits the studios bottom lines (rating/$) with them in the picture would
be better than out.
Global market whether they want to admit it or not, and as one quip by a brit I recall:
Yanks get Dr Who/Torchwood, and we get Sopranos and 24...fair trade.
Agreed, heck that 7month hiatus for BSG almost hurt, tho giving American Idol to the Aussies
first and us waiting a year sounds splendid.
This is IBM we're talking about, and the acronym is just ripe for humor:
It's Better Manually. Ha! Works for 2007 as well as 1947!
I've Been Mislead/Microsoft'ed. Quid pro quo (sp?).
Internet Bans Masturbating. Keep both hands on the table, Skippy!
Itsa Big Misunderstanding. Really, it wasn't a porn channel, he was bragging about the "fat pipe"
he had at work to the intraweb...that's all. See, big misunderstanding.
I'd Better Move/Migrate outta this thread.
Don't forget about porn, which accounts for something like 60% of all P2P traffic.
By far, porn is the most pirated form of IP, yet does not seem to be in any danger of disappearing.
Well, in order to have the law enforced, you have to be caught red handed...errr...there has to be
a smoking gun...ummm *coff*...dang, too hard (shit, did it again) to phrase it just right.
(/quietly exits thread)
shares of AMD rose 3.17 percent, or 46 cents, to $3.17
:P
Maybe he should check his math processor
Haven't math co-processors been on the die since the 486 and original pentium (with the fdiv bu...)
Oh, wait. d'oh.
"Most important discoveries are not accompanied with a 'Eureka!', rather with a 'Hmmm, that's odd....'"
My thoughts exactly.
Only now, I think we can also add "Aw, DAMMIT!" to the lexicon.
19) Halo - w... t... f... - sure, the Xbox version was great, even if its own sequel does comprehensively out-shine it, but the PC version always felt like a nasty hack at best.
Agreed. Disaster on the pc until the hardware caught up, but still left a lot to be desierd.
17) Unreal Tournament 2004 - this made me go "hmm" at first, but on balance, I think I could live with this here. It was definitely the best iterration of the series. I'm not quite sure how TFA manages to claim the original is better.
Grfx and extra play styles made 03 "better" IMO, but some of the weapons (sniper rifle/jump boots)
were lost (then re-added, IIRC).
14) Max Payne 2 - Can be completed in about 4-6 hours by an average player and has no replay value. No thanks.
Partially true, as the start is "easy" and you've gotta work up to harder difficulty and at highest
the story changes. This makes some replay value, but the biggest thing that made the game a blast
was the "Dead Man Walking" levels (as well as add-ons).
Hours worth of fun, IME, especially if you enjoy a game like serious sam.
Doom3 and FEAR: Doom3 need such high brightness to even be halfway playable, and lots of tweaks
to run decently (30 second pauses between doors because of the 32M of level cache on levels
that boasted textures in the Gig range? Ouch). Once tweaked, good game, if aggrivating at times.
FEAR: WOW. Max Payne 2.9, with horror film elements and excellent story, twists and ending (IMO).
BF1942, especially Desert Combat: Played the hell out of it a year after release, set up my own
server and enjoyed it thouroughly for over two years after that. Still miss it sometimes, sadly
upload b/w on cable sucks ass, so I slowly gave it up.
Oblivion: Not my style, usually, but 7 months of hours of play per day. Addictive as hell.
However, you've got the "killer bugs" backwards. The PC version was fixed first by the mod community
rather quickly. "Stutter bug", "Guild game/story killers" and even down to minor glitches the
360 experienced as well, but had to wait for months vs weeks/days.
Heck check out the oblivion mod forums, the program updates were the base (memory, speed, compat)
but the actual game play fixes = mod community (PC).
Half-life2: Agreed that it had been over-hyped, but it was a good game, story and play but you are
right some of the missed bits and bobs made for raised eyebrows and some aggrivation (shooting
from gameplay cell, to a "display/movie" cell...the attacking walkers while you are on top of a
building).
Farcry: Demo vs Game difference, the style/difficulty changed and the granularity of the demo's
difficulty was lost in the real game. Either too easy, or too frustrating, IMO.
Didn't play it near as long as I did the demo. You are right, should have been on the list.
IME with os9 and osx the speech could be disabled easily in 9 and fairly easily in X,
and was usually one of the first things I'd disable.
I don't want my computer talking to me, nor do I want to talk to it (at it, maybe, but not to).
Same functionality is built into XP, and I was only aware of it because of Xplite.
Just curious as to ways to kill this off w/o special tools you have to pay for.
In a former job, killing off speech, outlook, and some of the flotsam and jetsam of a fresh install
helped 2k/Xp run for months w/o reboots in a production environment.
I guesss that's why the big "meh" over Vista...more "stuff" we don't need/want/might not use
piled even higher than before and no way to remove/disable it (that I'm aware of).
The microwave steralizes the wet sponge because it makes the water hot enough to kill anything living. The same effect can be had by dunking the sponge in a pot of boiling water.
True, but if your example was the article in question, you forgot to mention:
The stove's burner will be on, and hot, and not touched and should be turned off when done.
The water, and the pot, will be hot and to use a utensile, not use your hand to submerge the sponge.
You also forgot the standard boiler-plate "do not try at home" (work is better, early day off and such) and
"not responsible for x, y, z and unforseen events" which usually means "Do it, but don't blame us if/when
something goes 'boom'...c'mon, we dare you!".
Microsoft swore up and down that they would have a new service pack for Windows XP after Vista.
Same with NT4 SP7.
Same with Win2k SP5.
XP SP3? heh, believe it when it comes out, but as history has shown: SP_promise (old_os) + New OS = FAT_FSCKING_CHANCE_SUCKER
When dealing with the dead, it's really more of a service.
True, but with Dead Restriction Management in place, it hopefully stays one way.
(from behind the poster: BRRRAAAAAAAAaaaiiiinsss)
Whooops, missed one.
If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, then you clearly don't understand the situation.
Never has/will be more true from 2000 to 2008.
And I could not help but laugh at/with the intro I think they call them "exit polls" because people bolt for the exits when you mention them".
{jaded} True in the sense that the guilty will try to flee the scene of the crime when called out.{/jaded}
But, IMO, the '04 election wasn't about picking "The lesser of two evils" but about picking the "less evil
of two lessers".
What makes me even more bitter and amused: I was talking with the manager of a local tobacco shop, just the
usual bs'ing and a guy goes off about Bush and the whole fales premise of the war, loss of freedom and
stolen elections and so forth. The manager askes "Who'd you vote for" and the guy says "Bush, both times,
but that's not the point...". I missed most of the debate from laughing so hard.
My reasons for voting against BJr was the cluelessness and privelage of a spoiled brat who joined the Coke^H^Hast Guard
and didn't get busted down and kicked the hell out for being a dirtbag, when your average military person
would have reamed a new one for less severe infractions.
IMO (based on what I'm aware of), BSr and Kerry both served in times of war and even if they were desk jockys at least had some clue as to the danger your average military person faces, especially during war.
BJr doesn't know or doesn't care via the equipment abscense/shortage that's getting way too many vets killed,
and insult to injury is the extensions of service beyond survivability in a warzone.
But the unmitigated gall to speak out against what he's doing, and vote for him TWICE?
To be stupid once w/o info/exp is normal, but to be stupid again with info/exp should be fatal/punishable.
BJr said it best and it applies to his supporters: "There's an old saying in Tennessee -- I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee -- that says, fool me once, shame on -- shame on you. Fool me -- you can't get fooled again."
Apparently they can...I think.
How about Syndicate
Technically, it did have 1 and a half sequels: American Revolt and Wars.
Revolt was an add-on and "new release" on a CD (wow, who'd have thunk it?) instead/in place of floppies.
Wars, IIRC, was overtaxing for most machines because of its use of a little thing called DirectX (3 or 4)
and lacked the steady balance of the original/S:AR. That killed it for a lot of ppl (and machines).
Great series, IMO, The original's reactor and escort (fricking lasers *everywhere*) missions were
fantastic, yet frustrating. American Revolt's missions were all long'ish and required skill, tactics
and some luck (Colorado territories started with incoming air strike--and music-- and enemy agents while the screen fades in from black. The Monty Python strategy of "RUN AWAY" worked best).
My submissions:
Max Payne 2.5: The rise and fall of max payne.
More of a remake, really, of the first one done with MP2's engine.
If there was a MP3 (heh) the vilianess from MP1 could be resurrected via cloning, on highest difficulty
in MP2, Mona lives and the "Dead Man Walking" concept could be used as a device for final level(s).
The "V" drug could be used as "reverse" bullet time or a drain.
Descent: D3 was a love-hate. Looked good, played great, sounded fantastic and plays smoothly on today's
hardware. Sadly, its OpenGL and Direct3D/DX were never quite right. You'd get HOM (hall of mirrors) or
stuck inside walls on occasion (or both). Official and unofficial updates helped, but not much.
And the "rubber ceiling" was an interesting trade-off for outdoor scenes.
Heretic 1 or 2: yeah it had a sequel, and by some extents Heretic3 would be Oblivion-esque, but the lightning
and phoenix bows + hellstaff + power up enhancement in combination with melee attacks (and masochistic chicken
practice) just yields a vicious "this is gonna be fun" grin, everytime.
Sadly, the game has a 25% or less success rate under XP, but works flawlessly under 2K.
Smarter ppl than I can't seem to find how/why this is. So it is "Try your luck" or install 2K.
(SIGH!)
One that *REALLY* needs a sequel is Hi-Octane. Other than NFS2 and FlatOut1, no other driving game has
held my attention so well. It, sadly, never got video acceleration of any kind (that I know of) and
would have been PERFECT for it. If it had even 1/3 of the eye candy of Pod Racer, it would put PR
to shame because of the fun factor.
BattleZone: Besides asteroids, tron (tank + cycles ='s bliss), and the atari 2600's tank game, BZ had
been fed so many quarters it was frightening. I was a non-believer when this came to the PC in a
different incarnation. Using two flight-sticks couldn't be done easily, and one stick was always
the 'should turn or slide be the hat/left or right/twist/key'. 10% of the time I'd forget during
critical moments.
Otherwise, the game was smooth, slick, innovative and genre crossing.
That crossing was something that even an over-caffinated multi-tasker would have a hard time
keeping up with. Bean counting/collecting and fire fights don't mix easily, and between RPG-ness and
FPS-ness, one was the awful bitter to the otherwise sweet game.
I recall a BZ2, but for the life of me they both blend into each other, but I recall both needing
a "can't deal with this now" feature/time shifting or slowing to pause between RM/FPS'ing.
Amazing how much money is being ungained by companies unwilling to remake our favorites (sam and max is back, IIRC, and only took about a decade'ish?).
HL1 under 2's engine would have brought tears of joy to gamer's eyes. (buuuut nooooo! {sulk} ).
Proving, a lot of "us" would be willing to "Play it again, Sam" (my arstechnica thread ref).
This is insane. The edge of the plate travels 3km a minute:
Is that with or without a spoiler and type R stickers?
(Smarmy American to British translation mode enabled)
All this talk about more lay(er)s is just PR(0n) wanking.
So, a little dick(ie) b(logger)ird told someone Blue movies would not be on Blu-Ray.
Toss(ers)ing slightly higher specs then Sony's BR, we're supposed to be impressed
at getting more lay(s)ers.
I suppose next will be Sony and Vivid release pr0n in the ultimate bo(llo)xed sets.
Either format is not really a choice until either camp can prove its format
will be supported when the (fish and) chips(crisps) are down.
Until then we can't be b(ugger)othered.
(hope I used all of those correctly, the few others I had go, uhhh, lost in the translation)
However, hearing that Sony itself has been pressuring the porn industry away from the Blu-Ray format, it seems they've shot themselves in the foot and mooted their brand from competition.
Precisely.
Similar to what I said in a Sony discussion: they'll find a way to fsck up, on way or another.
Take Hp, which IMO, has excellent hardware, but their software (first few revs) sucks (printer and
scanners, etc).
Sony is the same way, harware and ideas are good, but their execution or habit of "gotcha, sucker"
type features.
But no pr0n?
Heh, I say with tounge firmly in cheek "they just screwed themselves" big time.
On the other hand (snort) I suppose it is a *good* thing, because they'd likely have dildoes
with pre-installed STD's (aka 'rootkits') and flaming batteries (ouchie).
Too bad the VHS vs Beta wars are long gone, for Sony could have a spin off company that produces
"master-beta-max" for porn production, as for now, I suppose Sony's got a case of Blue-Ray-balls.
Considering it takes so long for anything to exit SONY and not be DOA, well I wonder if it means:
Selling Only Not Yet.
Sucks, Only Now Yours.
Stops On New Years(or 's)
Slow Ornery Nitwit, Yup.
True a lot of things took off (minidisk) in some markets, but were so constrained to geographic
regions it was almost a Pyrric (SP?) victory.
There's never really been a "Walkman" since the walkman that (coff) walked away from the competition.
Rootkits and exploding batteries aside, friends with Sony stuff are finding hidden gotchas with alarming
frequency. Home movies and burned disks that won't play and ask me if I know why.
My response so far is "It's a Sony, sorry".
.. They contributed "WIRETAP.DLL" and "TERRORSCAN.EXE" which are required components to pass the new-and-improved Windows Genuine Advantage test, right?!?
(tinfoil hat mode = on)
No need, the backdoors are already in place, they just needed to strenghten the password to:
M0z1LLA3nG1n33r$aR3w33N13$
According to their own standards.
HTH
(/TFH off)
I recall some fellow techs were working with building planning (.edu) to try
.edu, after all).
and get a conference room wired for power/networks.
Well, the specs were there, but ignored and the floor was poured and set, only
no power, no network.
We were livid (ok, I was amused...this is still a
One of the higher ups grilled the front man about the situation and wireless networks
were just getting usable, and it was decided that was the best option.
Then he had to ask "What about wireless power?"
Ever the diplomat, the front man gave a good answer of "no can do" and maintained composure.
Only after he left, I piped up "Sure you can have wirelss power....It's called LIGHTNING!"
The whole room went silent for a few seconds and then erupted in laughter.
Became a running gag for a few months, too, if we got annoyed at each other we'd do a "spell casting"
motion and shout "wireless power" a few times.
Heh.
HDTV owners aren't buying the new formats because they don't want to pick the losing side.
Exactly. So who's the losing side?
IMO: SONY.
Their current track record just speaks volumes, IME, and they will do something that will either
fsck the consumer, themselves or both.
the catch phrase "It's a Sony" used to mean something, but now should be prepended with "Don't bother,"
as Sony will BSOD (Blu-Sony-Ray of Death) itself.
Given the number of non-Windows servers out there why aren't we seeing the equivalent number of breeches. Where are all the Mac viruses. Where are all the cross platform viruses.
;)
...resulting in automated control programs loosing control.
Don't get your knickers in a twist, but most other platforms haven't been caught with their pants down so readily.
Most notable is SlackSware Linux.
Sorry, I'll keep it shorts: I could not resist after seeing FTFA:
The brain was primed after that.
I know Brits spell things funny and with extra vowels and stuff, but smack whomever wrote that, please.
I'm surprised the Honda Kick and Go didn't make the list. I remember that I got one of those as a kid just before they were pulled off the market because they were dangerous (I'm not sure exactly why they were dangerous.)
Dangerous only during periods of insanity/lapsed judgement common in pre-teens.
Case in point: me.
Unlike the blade-scooters of today, these things had the gearing and metal-tube construction of a single speed bike. Unlike the blades, they had wheels that were worth a damn at about a 5" diameter.
You could get that thing moving at a decent clip, I know.
Picture getting one of these things at top speed, 4X's what a kid could run.
No picture a 50 to 60 yards stretch of road that goes down at a 15degree angle and then makes a 90degree turn right, then to my house.
I built up speed, went down the decline, took the turn as close to the inside as possible (which worked as the inside was well rounded toward the drain) as sharp as possible.
I cleared the turn, only to have the "mound" the road formed meet the metal tubing.
What happend then, well, I wish there was a 3rd person view available of this:
In two blinks of an eye, the metal met the road, slid on the tube for 3ft (judging by the scrapes and red paint left behind), I corrected, the tires met, grabbed the road and sent the entire frame (and me) to the opposite direction. I did a flip/roll in mid air, the scooter slammed to the ground, and I landed on my side, still rolling, two feet away from the grass on my front lawn.
Bruised and bleeding a little, and peppered with stones, what did I do?
Laughed my ass off. How funny that must have looked. How funny I felt doing it.
I did it again, to see if I could repeat it. Only to do a full split that brought tears to my eyes. Then I hobbled home with the Kick 'n Go in tow.
Mom asked what happened and I just said I wiped out, no big deal.
Yeah, the only thing dangerous about the KnG was the driver/operator. (IMO, naturally)