Different type of game...I hold the Tactics line in very high esteem, and am shocked that it hasn't sunk down to the level of shiny over substance that the rest of the namesakes have. I, and I'm sure others are just as guilty, overlook these when talking about FF due the fact that, by the nature of the games, they really can't be held in the same regard...
I loaded up FFT just last weekend, and enjoyed a very nice romp through the game - since the weather wasn't really ammenable to my friends and I going out and getting some skating done.
Quite frankly, and I have had lively discussions about this, I loathed FFVII and loved FFVIII...it was almost like Square started to try again, only to get kicked in the shins by all of the fanboys/girls and scolded for daring to change something so 'beloved'...
Had Square continued the path set by VIII and given up on FF: The Spirits Within, they may not have ever needed to merge with Enix to save their pitiful - at that point - existence.
I, like many others, I'm sure, have enjoyed many hundreds (possibly thousands) of hours of Final Fantasy over the years...replaying them time and time again. However - and this is barely arguable - it's all been downhill ever since FFVI. I would like to see SqareEnix branch out and truly deliver on the innovation that should have been bourne out of their union...but, as with the Star Wars franchise, I'm sure they will continue to go back to the little black box that gives them two dollars for ever quarter they put in.
Goddamnit, you're absolutely right...it was Netcom that was Red Hat (and some NT). How could I have forgotten that stuff? Oh, it's been a few years, that's right;)
And as soon as I had hit submit, I vaguely remember there having already been some basic walkthroughs available in-house for the more saavy techs to guide users with...I don't personally recall having ever dealt with that kind of thing, especially since the folks I talked to needed FTP settings and telnet settings moreso than connection settings (still, mostly windows and mac)...
I worked for them from whenever they acquired Mindspring until some time in '02 (I'd actually been with Netcom, then Mindspring, then Earthlink), when I got fed up and left...but I was in the hosting group, and we really didn't bother with who was running what, given that we only cared about their sites working (and only tenuously so, at that)...
Why do I mention this? Well, not only did Earthlink not support Linux externally, they didn't support it internally, either...the hosting and dedicated groups both ran two systems, one Windows (for issue logging, supposedly..I used mine for fuckall) and one *nix (which was pretty much whatever flavor we wanted to use, given that we were the ones who had to fix it if it broke)...granted, if you managed to get over into those groups, you already had a clue as to what you were doing, and you could manage on your own, but every now and again, one of us would end up with some kind of problem and have to rely on others in the group or the systems engineers to help out...I miss that fun, little anarchistic group I worked with...
Now, I know next to nothing about what Earthlink does these days in terms of support for OSs (internally or externally), but the capability for them to support *nix exists, given that at one point their web servers ran Red Hat (mindspring platform) or Solaris (earthlink platform)...it can't be too terribly difficult to come up with an easily read, step-by-step configuration walk-through (which even in house our dialup and broadband groups relied upon, and I'm sure they carried on that tradition when they started moving things out of house and overseas)...but I'll be damned if I'm going to be the one to call them and find out.
Of course, they could just as easily support ONLY Xandros on the PCs they've put out, given that it would be standardized and they would know definitively what would need to be done to configure whatever dialer that they had put in place, and then tell people using other versions to go fly it up a flagpole...actually, having worked there, I'd feel pretty safe in assuming that this is exactly what they would do...Xandros=Support / Fedore!=Support.
Actually, I went home and tested this theory of mine...Slashdot itself puts their AdSense junk in an iFrame...I was able to block it most easily...I also went to a couple of other sites I knew to use the AdSense stuff, and found that a good many of them also use iFrames - though some do not...
I'm sorry if you had interpretted that as me trying to force my system on anyone else...I was trying to detail what worked for me.
Yeah, when you hit reset, your body goes into shock...but it's not like I went on some kind of crash diet, I've got a lot more sense than that. I've combined healthy, portioned eating with a workout regimin that has vastly improved my overall well-being...the key here is that I didn't JUST change what I ate, I changed the way I lived, and I'm better for it.
I'm going on 27, and from about 21 to 26, after years of sitting around and reading/writing reports, I was dismayed to find myself weighing in almost 40 pounds heavier than when I stopped playing sports full-time...so I made drastic adjustments, and have worked very hard to get to the point that I'm at now.
I hope that people realize I wasn't trying to push my regimin off on them, I was simply stating what worked for me.
awww, come on...I'd mod this up if I had points. the Jedi Council has a sweet, real-time, cross-galaxy conferencing solution that works in the middle of battle situations!
wait..it's made up? dammit...who did I submit my application to, then?
you can right-click and select 'block iframe'...of course, I might be wrong on that point, I'm not exactly in front of my home PC...and it's not like they allow us to use good software here at work...but I'm pretty sure that I've managed to block most iframes, including those with text ads rather than image ads...
Of *course* I light him on fire...how the hell else would I get the point across to him?! He has to learn to obliterate ads from my view, and conflagration is really the most effective tool at my disposal...if only I could have a piece of software that would do these things for me, I'd save a fuck ton on foxes...
That the Republic had been aware of...after the Sith Wars of 1000 years prior, all Sith had supposedly been eradicated, but they managed to survive autonomously maintaining the balance in the force and going with a one master, one apprentice arrangement...they had followers, too, trained in the dark arts, but not allowed to pursue mastery...
This is all off of the top of my head, though...there are histories and timelines out there (a pretty good one is available here (answers.com is faster than wikipedia, so I link there...). Best of luck to you, good sir.
Does that mean that Google is a low-quality website, or did someone fall asleep at the wheel and leave some holes in the new implementation? Oh well, I never see ads now, thanks to my Firefox...
I've never really been too big a fan of Wil Wrights games and concepts, but for some reason, Spore most certainly appeals to me...it seems to me the right balance of quirk, gameplay and simulation. But, of course, this is conjecture, as I won't know for sure if I like it or not until I've had my hands on it...but it intrigues me, to say the least. *fingers crossed for it to be worth playing and not just Sims of the Genetic Mess*
You know what I've found is a good alternative to apples and oranges, etc? Carrots, celery and bell peppers...buy a bunch when you do your Sunday shopping, wash and chop them as soon as you get home, and put them in take-along containers for the week...mind the peppers, though, they have a tendency to stain your fingertips when uncooked...but they're sweet and delicious, so it's totally worth having to wash your hands!
Also, no sodas or colas...bad for you, bad, bad, bad!
Take it with you to work! Seriously, I used to skip breakfast, grab some fast food at lunch, and go out to dinner almost every night, and I felt sluggish, worn down, and found that my grasp over my mental faculties was slipping...so, around a year ago, I hit reset on my life and diet, and I've felt better - in every way - ever since.
By preparing all of my daily meals on my own with fresh ingredients (including making my own snacks), I've lost weight and body fat (I'm at a very trim 173lbs with 10% body fat...almost as good a condition as I was in when I played baseball and soccer year-round back in high school), I've had far more energy, and I've been sharper and more on the ball in my day to day doings at work and at play (hobbies and such). I also started an exercise regime that has further improved my conditioning and stamina and energy level, and have been a happier person for it.
My meals are all balanced to come out as close to what we're supposed to be taking in on a daily basis according to doctors recommendations (caloric intake, vitamins, minerals, etc, etc, etc). I snack exclusively on fruits and vegetables. My breakfast includes a variety of fruits and homemade granola mixed in with a serving of plain yogurt, and I'm able to take that with me to work to eat while I go over my start of day emails and voicemails. My lunches are good sized, but never too large, and the same goes with my dinners. I've cut back on the amount of red meat and pork that I take in, and have increased the amount of fish and chicken....like I said, I hit reset entirely.
I don't mean to sound like I'm preaching or whatever, but I really do believe that there is a lot to be said for eating well and taking care of yourself...I still smoke and have the odd pint of beer here and there, but even those bad habits have decreased nearly to the point of being non-existant.
In short, eat breakfast...you can still eat well, have it taste good, and be good for you if you 'wake up late' and are 'running behind'...hell, you'll find you might even sleep more soundly and wake up more readily if you change your diet.
note: As an aside, and this may or may not be something you would be interested in...a side-effect of my healthier living has been an increase in both my libido and in my performance...couple that with a healthier living sig-o, and you've got a pretty nifty little sex life going. Fruits and vegetables help a lot, from what I understand...in more areas than just performance and stamina. I'm just sayin', is all...
I've never had any real security problems with my windows boxen - of course, I have had minor hardware/software conflicts, but you'll get those with most anything - but I've begun to seriously long for FreeBSD - or similar - again, as I haven't run it in couple or years. I've also gotten to the point where I'm so fed up with having to take time out of my life to update my protection programs and repair minor glitches here and there, that it's really just not worth it to run windows any more...*nix may be a viable option for me, given my familiarity with it, but for the other people whose computers I manage (read: roommate, family, a few select friends), *nix is so foriegn a beast that it would be a bigger headache to introduce them to it than it would to just leave their boxes opened up and have to repair them all the time...
Which has led me to my current campaign to get as many of my loved ones switched over to Apple as possible...it started with iShuffles and iPods...now I've taken people around to the Apple store in the West Village here in Dallas...and soon, I'll be getting my 15" powerbook and parading that - and its ease of use - around in front of all those that I care for, and have to tend the computers of.
In my opinion, we're about to see a lot more of these switches taking place, and not just in the work environment, but also in the home and school environments...
Lost in Translation was almost as painful to watch as was Enternal Sunshine.... I understood the premise and the subtext of what was going on, but there was just something about LiT that felt so plastic to me that it bordered on being unwatchable...individually, the performances were spot-on for what they needed to accomplish, but the interplay between the characters felt overly stiff (with the exception of the scenes between Giovanni Ribisi and Scarlett Johannsen (sp? on both counts) which came off as natural and real).
Oddly, while I could barely tolerate LiT, Punch Drunk Love appealed to me on many levels, and felt far more believable than many other 'true to life' love stories, even when taken with all of the strange intangibles that were meant to catch the audience off guard.
Back on topic, though...George Lucas had always kept the backgrounds of Yoda and Palpatine and others off-limits from the writers in the expanded universe, I guess this is just the natural progression for the stories that he has wanted to tell...but I would've thought going back to the Sith Wars of 1000 years before the battle of Yavin would have been a much better jumping off point for a new Star Wars story arc...that can lead into all sorts of fun things, and maybe even give us some insight as to what Yoda really is.
If there isn't one already, one not start one? Bargaining power and all that...but maybe pick something other than Voice Actors Guild...because who wants to be in VAG all the time?
Slashdot Mirror
Different type of game...I hold the Tactics line in very high esteem, and am shocked that it hasn't sunk down to the level of shiny over substance that the rest of the namesakes have. I, and I'm sure others are just as guilty, overlook these when talking about FF due the fact that, by the nature of the games, they really can't be held in the same regard...
I loaded up FFT just last weekend, and enjoyed a very nice romp through the game - since the weather wasn't really ammenable to my friends and I going out and getting some skating done.
Quite frankly, and I have had lively discussions about this, I loathed FFVII and loved FFVIII...it was almost like Square started to try again, only to get kicked in the shins by all of the fanboys/girls and scolded for daring to change something so 'beloved'...
Had Square continued the path set by VIII and given up on FF: The Spirits Within, they may not have ever needed to merge with Enix to save their pitiful - at that point - existence.
But thats another tale for another time...
I, like many others, I'm sure, have enjoyed many hundreds (possibly thousands) of hours of Final Fantasy over the years...replaying them time and time again. However - and this is barely arguable - it's all been downhill ever since FFVI. I would like to see SqareEnix branch out and truly deliver on the innovation that should have been bourne out of their union...but, as with the Star Wars franchise, I'm sure they will continue to go back to the little black box that gives them two dollars for ever quarter they put in.
No, not at all. I thought the American version of The Office was funnier...and that made me want to stab my eyes and ears into utter uselessness.
Goddamnit, you're absolutely right...it was Netcom that was Red Hat (and some NT). How could I have forgotten that stuff? Oh, it's been a few years, that's right ;)
And as soon as I had hit submit, I vaguely remember there having already been some basic walkthroughs available in-house for the more saavy techs to guide users with...I don't personally recall having ever dealt with that kind of thing, especially since the folks I talked to needed FTP settings and telnet settings moreso than connection settings (still, mostly windows and mac)...
ahhhh, memories.
I worked for them from whenever they acquired Mindspring until some time in '02 (I'd actually been with Netcom, then Mindspring, then Earthlink), when I got fed up and left...but I was in the hosting group, and we really didn't bother with who was running what, given that we only cared about their sites working (and only tenuously so, at that)...
Why do I mention this? Well, not only did Earthlink not support Linux externally, they didn't support it internally, either...the hosting and dedicated groups both ran two systems, one Windows (for issue logging, supposedly..I used mine for fuckall) and one *nix (which was pretty much whatever flavor we wanted to use, given that we were the ones who had to fix it if it broke)...granted, if you managed to get over into those groups, you already had a clue as to what you were doing, and you could manage on your own, but every now and again, one of us would end up with some kind of problem and have to rely on others in the group or the systems engineers to help out...I miss that fun, little anarchistic group I worked with...
Now, I know next to nothing about what Earthlink does these days in terms of support for OSs (internally or externally), but the capability for them to support *nix exists, given that at one point their web servers ran Red Hat (mindspring platform) or Solaris (earthlink platform)...it can't be too terribly difficult to come up with an easily read, step-by-step configuration walk-through (which even in house our dialup and broadband groups relied upon, and I'm sure they carried on that tradition when they started moving things out of house and overseas)...but I'll be damned if I'm going to be the one to call them and find out.
Of course, they could just as easily support ONLY Xandros on the PCs they've put out, given that it would be standardized and they would know definitively what would need to be done to configure whatever dialer that they had put in place, and then tell people using other versions to go fly it up a flagpole...actually, having worked there, I'd feel pretty safe in assuming that this is exactly what they would do...Xandros=Support / Fedore!=Support.
Actually, I went home and tested this theory of mine...Slashdot itself puts their AdSense junk in an iFrame...I was able to block it most easily...I also went to a couple of other sites I knew to use the AdSense stuff, and found that a good many of them also use iFrames - though some do not...
So there you go.
I'm sorry if you had interpretted that as me trying to force my system on anyone else...I was trying to detail what worked for me.
Yeah, when you hit reset, your body goes into shock...but it's not like I went on some kind of crash diet, I've got a lot more sense than that. I've combined healthy, portioned eating with a workout regimin that has vastly improved my overall well-being...the key here is that I didn't JUST change what I ate, I changed the way I lived, and I'm better for it.
I'm going on 27, and from about 21 to 26, after years of sitting around and reading/writing reports, I was dismayed to find myself weighing in almost 40 pounds heavier than when I stopped playing sports full-time...so I made drastic adjustments, and have worked very hard to get to the point that I'm at now.
I hope that people realize I wasn't trying to push my regimin off on them, I was simply stating what worked for me.
awww, come on...I'd mod this up if I had points. the Jedi Council has a sweet, real-time, cross-galaxy conferencing solution that works in the middle of battle situations!
wait..it's made up? dammit...who did I submit my application to, then?
Yeah, well, our IT department is run by a bunch of monkeys who couldn't get their thumbs out of their bu^F^F^F^F^F^F^F^F^F^F.....
signal lost, employee ID no longer valid.
Point. I'd offer up some explanation about how I'm busy today or this, that and the other...but I really don't know how the hell I overlooked that...
I am shamed, now and forever more.
you can right-click and select 'block iframe'...of course, I might be wrong on that point, I'm not exactly in front of my home PC...and it's not like they allow us to use good software here at work...but I'm pretty sure that I've managed to block most iframes, including those with text ads rather than image ads...
Of *course* I light him on fire...how the hell else would I get the point across to him?! He has to learn to obliterate ads from my view, and conflagration is really the most effective tool at my disposal...if only I could have a piece of software that would do these things for me, I'd save a fuck ton on foxes...
That the Republic had been aware of...after the Sith Wars of 1000 years prior, all Sith had supposedly been eradicated, but they managed to survive autonomously maintaining the balance in the force and going with a one master, one apprentice arrangement...they had followers, too, trained in the dark arts, but not allowed to pursue mastery...
This is all off of the top of my head, though...there are histories and timelines out there (a pretty good one is available here (answers.com is faster than wikipedia, so I link there...). Best of luck to you, good sir.
Does that mean that Google is a low-quality website, or did someone fall asleep at the wheel and leave some holes in the new implementation? Oh well, I never see ads now, thanks to my Firefox...
I've never really been too big a fan of Wil Wrights games and concepts, but for some reason, Spore most certainly appeals to me...it seems to me the right balance of quirk, gameplay and simulation. But, of course, this is conjecture, as I won't know for sure if I like it or not until I've had my hands on it...but it intrigues me, to say the least. *fingers crossed for it to be worth playing and not just Sims of the Genetic Mess*
You know what I've found is a good alternative to apples and oranges, etc? Carrots, celery and bell peppers...buy a bunch when you do your Sunday shopping, wash and chop them as soon as you get home, and put them in take-along containers for the week...mind the peppers, though, they have a tendency to stain your fingertips when uncooked...but they're sweet and delicious, so it's totally worth having to wash your hands!
Also, no sodas or colas...bad for you, bad, bad, bad!
Take it with you to work! Seriously, I used to skip breakfast, grab some fast food at lunch, and go out to dinner almost every night, and I felt sluggish, worn down, and found that my grasp over my mental faculties was slipping...so, around a year ago, I hit reset on my life and diet, and I've felt better - in every way - ever since.
By preparing all of my daily meals on my own with fresh ingredients (including making my own snacks), I've lost weight and body fat (I'm at a very trim 173lbs with 10% body fat...almost as good a condition as I was in when I played baseball and soccer year-round back in high school), I've had far more energy, and I've been sharper and more on the ball in my day to day doings at work and at play (hobbies and such). I also started an exercise regime that has further improved my conditioning and stamina and energy level, and have been a happier person for it.
My meals are all balanced to come out as close to what we're supposed to be taking in on a daily basis according to doctors recommendations (caloric intake, vitamins, minerals, etc, etc, etc). I snack exclusively on fruits and vegetables. My breakfast includes a variety of fruits and homemade granola mixed in with a serving of plain yogurt, and I'm able to take that with me to work to eat while I go over my start of day emails and voicemails. My lunches are good sized, but never too large, and the same goes with my dinners. I've cut back on the amount of red meat and pork that I take in, and have increased the amount of fish and chicken....like I said, I hit reset entirely.
I don't mean to sound like I'm preaching or whatever, but I really do believe that there is a lot to be said for eating well and taking care of yourself...I still smoke and have the odd pint of beer here and there, but even those bad habits have decreased nearly to the point of being non-existant.
In short, eat breakfast...you can still eat well, have it taste good, and be good for you if you 'wake up late' and are 'running behind'...hell, you'll find you might even sleep more soundly and wake up more readily if you change your diet.
note: As an aside, and this may or may not be something you would be interested in...a side-effect of my healthier living has been an increase in both my libido and in my performance...couple that with a healthier living sig-o, and you've got a pretty nifty little sex life going. Fruits and vegetables help a lot, from what I understand...in more areas than just performance and stamina. I'm just sayin', is all...
I've never had any real security problems with my windows boxen - of course, I have had minor hardware/software conflicts, but you'll get those with most anything - but I've begun to seriously long for FreeBSD - or similar - again, as I haven't run it in couple or years. I've also gotten to the point where I'm so fed up with having to take time out of my life to update my protection programs and repair minor glitches here and there, that it's really just not worth it to run windows any more...*nix may be a viable option for me, given my familiarity with it, but for the other people whose computers I manage (read: roommate, family, a few select friends), *nix is so foriegn a beast that it would be a bigger headache to introduce them to it than it would to just leave their boxes opened up and have to repair them all the time...
Which has led me to my current campaign to get as many of my loved ones switched over to Apple as possible...it started with iShuffles and iPods...now I've taken people around to the Apple store in the West Village here in Dallas...and soon, I'll be getting my 15" powerbook and parading that - and its ease of use - around in front of all those that I care for, and have to tend the computers of.
In my opinion, we're about to see a lot more of these switches taking place, and not just in the work environment, but also in the home and school environments...
Lost in Translation was almost as painful to watch as was Enternal Sunshine.... I understood the premise and the subtext of what was going on, but there was just something about LiT that felt so plastic to me that it bordered on being unwatchable...individually, the performances were spot-on for what they needed to accomplish, but the interplay between the characters felt overly stiff (with the exception of the scenes between Giovanni Ribisi and Scarlett Johannsen (sp? on both counts) which came off as natural and real).
Oddly, while I could barely tolerate LiT, Punch Drunk Love appealed to me on many levels, and felt far more believable than many other 'true to life' love stories, even when taken with all of the strange intangibles that were meant to catch the audience off guard.
Back on topic, though...George Lucas had always kept the backgrounds of Yoda and Palpatine and others off-limits from the writers in the expanded universe, I guess this is just the natural progression for the stories that he has wanted to tell...but I would've thought going back to the Sith Wars of 1000 years before the battle of Yavin would have been a much better jumping off point for a new Star Wars story arc...that can lead into all sorts of fun things, and maybe even give us some insight as to what Yoda really is.
If there isn't one already, one not start one? Bargaining power and all that...but maybe pick something other than Voice Actors Guild...because who wants to be in VAG all the time?
(sorry, I had to make the obligatory sex joke...)
God knows that he and Morgan Webb were the only things worth watching on that sinking ship of a channel...
It was most likely Windows 33 BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin)...