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User: Zyxwv88

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  1. Lots of them. on Two-Player Games for Mixed Skill Level Players? · · Score: 1

    I have some similar problems. My wife enjoys playing games, but she doesn't enjoy getting obliterated by me when we play. I've found a few solutions. MMORPGS work great and are some of the best for cooperative play. WoW is one of the best ones because of the simplicity to learn to play and it seems to appeal to women more than some of the others. I would say that others to consider (based on how much my wife has enjoyed them) would be in order - City of Heroes, D&D Online, and Guild Wars. RTS games work as well. Most any RTS game I've played lets you play cooperatively against the computer, plus it can work out nice when she starts to get obliterated by the computer and you can come down to her rescue. A little work and you can find the right mix of computer AI and number of opponants that suits you. We've played a few of these including Starcraft and the middle earth one. FPS are kind of iffy. My wife and I have enjoyed the Star Wars Battlefront games, but some like Battlefield 2 seem to have kind of stupid AIs. When you bump up the difficulty they are stupid but accurate, and I really don't like that. FPS games aren't my specialty though, so I'm not as good reccomending titles there, other than the Star Wars one. Many others had good suggestions on consoles if you have one. My wife and I have computers and no console, so all of our games are PC. Personally I've found that the online RPGs are some of the best ones.

  2. You guys are missing THE most important facts. on Felony Charges For H.S. Hacking · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm surprised that no one has noticed this. The school district REQUIRED students to use the school laptops, even if they had a laptop at home that they could have brought in and used. The school district also REQUIRES teachers to implement the laptops into the curriculum so they are used. The school district has monitoring software so that they can spy on the students. Basically they are providing themselves with tools that they can spy on students, requiring students to carry those tools, and if students disable the spy software, they get charged with felonies. Am I the only one that sees a problem with this? If my kid was in that school district, I'd be visiting with a lawyer and/or other organizations to get some changes made around there. This is a total invasion of privacy, but it's been glossed over as a "free" laptop, so people have looked at it as a good thing instead of the invasion of privacy that it also is.

  3. Would this make World of Warcraft illegal? on BitTorrent Inherently Illegal? · · Score: 1

    World of Warcraft uses Bittorrent to provide updates to the game. Seems to me that this could turn kind of interesting since apparently the school would ban you for running an update for the game. Without the update, you can't play the game, hence playing Warcraft would get you banned from the network.

  4. Very good experience on Experiences with Laser Eye Surgery? · · Score: 1

    I've been wearing glasses for most of my life. Started at third grade, and I've done it all. Glasses, contacts, gas permeable contacts, you name it. My vision was about 20/400, (-4.75) and I couldn't recognize anyone that was further than arms length from me. Friends that tried my glasses on were lucky if they could stay standing. Yes, some contacts are very comfortable and you even forget you are wearing them, but in the end, there is always the morning wake up where you need eyedrops, and when you wear them too long, the optomitrist chews you out.

    I finally decided a couple years ago that I was going to give it a go. I strongly reccomend that you check out all the info you can, including the worst case scenarios, because you might be one of them. I checked it out, and decided that I was going to take the risk.

    I paid $1200 to get both eyes done, with lifetime corrections if I needed it. I had no pain other than a slight pricking type pain in the second eye they did (which they warned me in advance usually happens). After the surgery I was at about 20/40 vision, although I think that was pushing it a bit. I felt that my vision was better, but it was a bizarre blurry that I didn't care for.

    I had some pretty severe problems with dry eyes. I did very good at keeping them moist in the daytime, but at night my eyes would be open a crack and would dry out so bad that eventually I had to start putting white petroleum jelly in them at night to keep them moist. I don't think it's possible to overemphasize the importance of KEEPING YOUR EYES WET. Those little sterile eyedrops may cost a bit, but it's nothing compared to what you paid for the surgery, and it's nothing compared to the problems you can have if you don't keep them wet.

    Anyways, I now have 20/20 vision and no real problems to speak of other than a slight halo around lights when I'm driving at night, but it's not really enough to even notice. It took about a year before my eyes were to the point where I was completely happy with it.

    I have to admit though, that it is some of the best spent money I have blown. I would do it over again at twice the price. I have completely and totally forgotten about eyesight now. I don't wake up not being able to see (other than the night goobers that clean up out of your eyes. heheh). I can swim and see perfectly. I don't have to buy saline solution, I don't have to worry about having glasses knocked off or broken, or about having contacts roll back in my eyes when I rub them wrong. Dang. I have really come to take for granted what it's like to have 20/20 vision.

    When you have bad eyesight, there are reminders every single day in some way or another. With this surgery, I don't have any of the little reminders and I LOVE IT!!!

  5. Re:Lotsa Trade on Best Results From Bartering Computer Services? · · Score: 0

    Almost forgot. I'm also getting a few hundred dollars worth of motorcycle repair done as well. I know I've got to have a few thousand dollars worth of trade when it's all added up. Oh, and at least a dozen or so good meals too. Gotta love computers. :)

  6. Lotsa Trade on Best Results From Bartering Computer Services? · · Score: 0

    I do a lot of trade for computer services. In fact, I do it about any time I get a chance to. I've done trade for probably $600 worth of dinner/shows at a local theater, a washer and dryer from the appliance store, chiropractic visits, specialty popcorn, rekeying the locks at my home , a $700 custom built computer desk built to my specifications (has room for my bestly HP Laserjet III in a cabinet with a slide out drawer, holes and compartments for running cables out of sight, and etc), a rebuilt of the transmission on my van, and more. I would dare say that computer skills are probably one of the best skills to have if you are a person that deals with trade.

  7. My night vision is still great on Laser Vision Surgery for Developers? · · Score: 0

    I have always had very good night vision. After my lasik surgery I had no loss of night vision whatsoever. I think though that you are mostly mixing up lasik and radial keretotomy. RK was well known for people losing night vision. Lasik you have potential for having halos around lights (similar to what you get when you look at lights when wearing glasses when it's raining and they are wet). I experienced the halos for the first month or two, but I don't have them any more, and my night vision is still significantly better than my wifes is. She has better distance vision in the daytime, but I can still see better than her at night, and she hasn't needed glasses or lasik.

  8. Did it, Loved it, Would do it again. on Laser Vision Surgery for Developers? · · Score: 1

    I had lasik surgery done about a year ago, and I loved it. There are a lot of websites around that have more info than I can give, but I'll relate my personal experience.

    I paid about $1200 to get both eyes done with lifetime corrections. My vision was about -4.75 in both eyes with astigmatism, but I can't remember what it was exactly.

    The worst part is having to be super, super careful with your eyes for the first month, but it's tolerable. I had about 20/40 vision right after the surgery, and it took about a month to get up to 20/25 or so, and now, a year later, it changes between 20/25 and 20/20 depending on the day.

    I have noticed that days that I spend too much time on the computer that my eyes are about 20/25 and things are just a little fuzzy. I mentioned it to my eye doctor the other day, and he suggested that a pair of reading glasses while using the computer would help reduce the strain on the eyes. He said to just get the weakest pair of reading glasses you can find at wal-mart or somewhere and leave them by the computer and pop them on when you are on it.

    Yes, I did lose a small amount of vision, and on some of my worse days, it is only about 20/25 and some things are noticably blurry, but if I had known before I got the surgery how my vision would be when it was done, I would have still done it in a heartbeat. The small amount of vision that I lost really isn't that much that I even notice that much, and it's well worth not having to deal with glasses or contacts any more.

    Personally, I say go for it. If you have doubts about it, you can always get one eye done at a time. Just be sure to get your eyes checked on schedule right afterwards. Keep your eyes moistenened even though the stupid drops aren't that cheap. When you consider that you will pay over a thousand dollars for the surgery, it's worth investing an extra $20-30 for extra eye drops to keep your eyes moist so they heal better.

    Anyways, I hope that helps.

  9. Interesting, but it's no google on Kartoo Search Engine Presents Results as a Map · · Score: 1

    Well, I found it very limited in many ways, especially to pull up larger numbers of results. When I tried to do a search for my own domain, it didn't even find it, but it did find domains owned by other people with the same name. Yeah, it's cool, but it's not gonna replace google for me. :)

  10. From experience, I'd say school. on System Administrators - College or Career? · · Score: 1

    I'm a 30 year old computer geek that has gone through the exact same questions and wrestlings, and this is what I have learned the hard way. I am just entering my final year of college right now. I have worked about 5+ years in the field, and even now that I am done with college, I haven't really learned much more for the areas that I want to get into than I knew before going to school. In fact, one of my teachers even admitted to the entire class in our database class that I probably knew more than he did. Knowledge is great, but it isn't going to get you very far and isn't going to get you the juicy jobs that you want. I haven't had a really hard time getting a job because I am so good at what I do. On the other hand, some of the best jobs that I was really drooling over and very capable of doing a good job of, wouldn't even give me an interview because a bachelors in CS was an absolute requirement. Yes, I know more than most people that have their degrees, and I often have people calling me for help that graduated years ago, but that little piece of paper opens up a lot of doors that you aren't going to get into otherwise. You can also count on making at least $10-30,000 less per year than you would make with the degree. I used to think that I could get by without a degree because I am so much better than the average computer person, and even better than most computer geeks. I have had so many doors shut on me despite it, that I am back in school taking classes that aren't teaching me very much at all, and racking up student loans while trying to support my wife and four kids because the degree is so important for the good jobs. I would very, very strongly encourage a degree. You will make so much more money in the end and have so much better of a selection of jobs that it isn't even worth wasting your time doing anything else. I really wish that I wouldn't have procrastinated it so long myself.