Of course since it went so bad both sides are happy to give the other the credit. It was so joint that the poles were part of the Arnhem bit and got blaimed for the failure despite fighting heroicly and only recently some apologies were made for calling them cowards.
Of course if it had been a success then it would have been different.
My point was that is was very much an american motivation to have it attempted all with the idea that the germans didn't amount to much and that the boys could be home before christmas.
More accurate would be that their was an initial plan devised by the english montogommery but that together with the americans this became market garden wich was far more ambitious then the original plan.
It would have been totally impossible to pull of without the american airborne troops who had nothig to do after normandy. (as seen in band of brothers they were in england) How exactly market garden became so overly ambitious and so reliant on the germans not resisting the ground advance is to complex for me. My world view blaims the americans. I never claimed to be un-biased. Although if you look at the bit in band of brothers what really was at fault was Political Correctness, the order to cause minimum damage caused their withdrawal. One of many delays that meant the final bridge was a bridge to far.
Well actually I can, if I walk around the "battlefield training" areas where americans test their weapons. You know, like the bombing range where they tested the norton bomb sights. A location chosen for its all year around clear weather.
What can a segway possibly be used for. Well it is slow as well but about as fast as a marching soldier so it can save them energy. Well true. If the battle field is nice and smooth with a hard surface. No rain, mud, loose sand, rivers, streams, shell holes, trenches, fences, barbed wire, loose stones etc etc etc. None of the stuff in fact that makes up a battlefield
Even an urban battlefield doesn't stay clean enough for long for this thing to be practical.
Behind the battlefield? Ehm yeah the thing is still damn slow and your still standing. So no replament for a truck.
Carrying supplies or wounded? Same problem, at the battlefield where trucks and such are to big it can't move and behind the lines it is to slow.
Even a soldier on patrol is useless, he needs his hands on his weapon not on the controls of this thing, at least with a truck you got 1 driver and 2-3 passengers.
No I can see this as another way to make war look nicer and cleaner. This will not be the revolution that the jeep was.
Old volunteers. Men who have had a live, have something to lose and something to die for.
If you read WW2 accounts you can see a real line of difference between the older men in the first wave and the young kids who came as the replacements. And it wasn't just that the veterans had aged, the new ones were several years younger then the men they replaced.
But the best soldiers of all were the special forces. Often adult men around 30 years old. These men don't need all that shouting drill sergeant crap. If you need a drill sergeant hollering in your ear to drive you then perhaps you are just not motivated enough. I never been in battle but from what I have heard, read and seen the number of drill sergeants running beside you under fire can be counted on the fingers of a very poor grenade thrower.
I was however drafted and noticed a real difference between the squad I was in and another squad. We had one of weirdo but luckily he was arrested for weed possesion by the MP's and the rest of us while not exactly happy to be there were smart enough to know that the faster you do something the quicker it will be over.
No need for shouted orders or insults if the soldiers are motivated either by a desire to get back inside or for a love for their country.
In fact I think that those soldiers who need a lot of shouting should be kicked out. They are the kind of soldiers that cause vietnam. Totally lacking in any self-discipline. Wich soldier would you rather have beside you. Someone with self-discipline or someone who needs shouting and punishment to do anything?
Oh and note that I am not against encouragement shouting like say during a long forced march. That is a totally different thing but I am sure you understand that as well.
Oh and you got the quot wrong but other have already correted that.
Was the cold war WW3? No many people didn't die but they did die on either side of two bitter enemies one of who was defeated and the other who has won.
The cold war as High-Tech so high-tech that the weapons didn't even have to kill people, instead they killed an economy. In WW2 raids were done on factories, storage areas and infrastructure to damage the enemies economy. The cold war saw increased use of weapons so the other side either had to overload their economy or loose the war.
If you count the cold war as a real war and I do then it was also WW3.
The what we got now is WW4. America came out on top in WW3 but finds itself now in a war that started with a couple of knifes. No enemy can defeat americans in scientific weapons but so far more americans been killed with a couple of stanley knifes then have been killed by weapons the previous 3 world wars.
Yeah yeah I know, the theory is full of holes but science has succeeded in making one side so strong that it has instead become extremely weak.
Of course part of the weakness on the american side is that they value human life. If bush was really the evil in human form that many claim he is he would simply carpet bomb iraqie cities.
War cannot be won. War can only be not lost. On either side in this conflict are some extremists but I ask you this. Under bush you can protest. Do you really think you can do the same under Al Quada? Many muslim nations wouldn't even allow a site like this.
Speed. Hmmm yeah speed. Wich speed? Speed only counts in traditional battle. When the crew knows there is a battle and it can then use speed as a way of avoiding enemy fire.
This however becomes totally useless if the vehicle is in an ambush. Wether it is on patrol or guarding a roadblock its speed has become totally useless to avoid enemy fire. If it is guarding its speed is zero and if its patrolling then either it is moving so fast it can't see anything or going to slow it is easy to hit.
This entire idea of speed is based on the movies idea of a rebel base. A base out in the open wich can be surrounded and then these fast attack vehicles driving around and shooting the camp up. Of course the enemy is totally incapable of hitting a moving target but all the rpg's round come really close to make some exciting pictures of the attack vehicle driving through an explosion.
As the forces in iraq are seeing this is not how it really is. All of a sudden there is a flash and a bang and an rpg is on its way to a target. Now I don't know the exact speed but I very doubt this attack vehicle can out manouver an rpg round.
The images of destroyed vehicles seem to support my view. Don't let the glossy brochure fool you. What matters is the performance on the ground and so far it is piss poor.
As for putting armour on a truck, is this really such a crazy idea? Always in every battle there has been a problem with the supply convoys being to vulnrable on the last mile. Why not just take an existing tank, gut out its insides and let it do the last mile run of supplies. Yes it is more expensive but you would instantly solve a centuries old problem. Perhaps it just ain't sexy enough.
Americans have always been trying to force their own style of warfare. They come up with a new strategy and test it and then think that it can be applied in real war.
The simple fact is that war doesn't change. Ever. At all. Don't believe me? WW2, D-day landings. You seen the movies and seen the historical footage. Now chance one little thing. The americans soldiers are not emerging from landing craft but instead emerging from holes in the ground, climbing out of trenches and foxholes and running accorss open ground towards an entrenched enemy with plenty of machine guns.
Can you say WW1 and its famous charges? But how was that any different from an agincourt(or however it is spelt) where troops charged into a field of longbow arrow fire?
There are 3 types of combat, the first is where the attacker attacks a prepared enemy firing back. Slaughter unless you got some wicked armour or the enemy is a lousy shot. The second is where the attacker has the suprise and the enemy is unprepared or not fighting back. Slaughter unless the attacker is a lousy shot. The last is where you got two prepared enemies shooting it out. Slaughter on both sides. 1 and 3 are best avoided, you want an enemy asleep, tied down, with no ammo and smaller then you. Outnumbering a 100 to 1 is always nice.
New tactics like blitz krieg really ain't all that new. They are just an attempt at getting to situation 2. Wether or not that is achieved depends on the enemy. Blitz krieg both worked and not worked for the germans. It all depended on how prepared the enemy was. It isn't superiour tactics and technology that decides a battle, it is how inferior the enemy is.
But nonetheless the americans keep trying to change the rules of war, day light raids over germany despite the fact that the RAF had found it to be suicide. Operation market garden launched because surely the germans that had walked all over europe couldn't resist the americans. The resources spend could have been used to strengthen the front. The battle of bulge might not have been so dramatic if troops had not been depleted.
In vietnam america again tried to change the rule of war, the rule that you must hold ground to control it. We all now how well that one went. America got its ass spanked by a tiny pisspoor country. And not just in the jungle. The air war and tank wars were not nearly as one sides as american propaganda would want you to believe.
And now this new mobile army. With the abrahams the americans finally have themselves a tank that can be counted (all their previous efforts were a joke compared to the enemies weapons german and later russian). It is big, it is hard and it works. But it ain't sexy. Like the A-10 wich was so succesfull in the first gulf war it lacks the support of the think tanks back in safe america were there are no enemies shooting at you and the need for thick armour isn't as apparent as when a tank shell is exploding less then a meter away.
As the commander of the peach operation said. If it had been a force of strikers at the bridge they would have takes serious casualties. Notice how all the burned out vehicles from RPG attacks are bradleys and humvees. Not main battle tanks. They can shrug off such an attack and keep the soldiers inside safe and capable of killing the attacker.
But it ain't sexy. The striker is. Just like dropping tiny squads from a helicopter surrounded by enemies with no line of supply is sexy. Just like dropping lots of troops straight into enemey terrain with reinforcements depending entirely on wether the enemey decides to fight back. Just like sending thousaands of soldiers running up a beach into machine gunfire without any of those silly inventions those brits have (hobats funnies) was sexy. Just like sending slow and level flying bombers in daylight over germany was sexy.
US soldiers. You are equipped with weapons made by the lowest bidder and commanded by people who want a sexy war, not a dirty victory. Either you are the most brave or your the most stupid. T
Same with the soundblaster wich is also more expensive then a soundcard needed to be but I knew that the Matrox G400 and the soundblaster would work. So my second desktop had the first hardware because after reading the horrors of nvidia and ati users I decided that was not for me.
But that card is not exactly easy to get anymore. Would I pay extra for a card that just fucking works thank you very much with the bloody latest freaking kernel and no damn binary crap? Hell yeah. My gaming machine is a windows machine and it has pretty much the latest Ati in it bought at the full price at launch.
As smarter people then me have pointed out on the forum were the question was asked it would at least have to be an excellent 2D card capable of handling video and blending and all the other nice things needed for a desktop with ease. No point in replacing my G400 with an older card.
Multihead support could be a nice bonus.
I would definitly pay for a card that works with source embedded in the kernel that I could just download the latest bleeding edge living dangerous "Backups? BACKUPS??? We don't need no stinking backups!" give me the alpha code kernel and it would work. Or blow up but at least no bloody binary crap.
Would it sell enough? Graphics cards for desktop are extremely cheap. I seen plenty of people buying S4(?) cards for a couple of bucks and consider that expensive. Then again both nvidia and ati and perhaps even matrox seem to make a living out of selling graphics cards wich cost more then the CPU. If the 2D performance is hot enough so that you can have a nice enlightenment/kde/gnome desktop with all the whistles playing multiple video streams scaled and corrected then that card would be extremely intresting.
But perhaps you need to talk not to us but to those who make desktops. After all it is the Dells and IBM's and HP's who field the support calls for mallfunctioning video drivers. Would they be willing to include a card in their office desktops, non-gaming home systems where they knew what was happening inside the video drivers?
Would the likes of Apple perhaps be intrested in a video card that they could write their own drivers for?
One deal like that would be worth far more then a million/. nerds saying they would buy it.
I can't but others claim they can, don't really care all that much just don't like if other people who also can't hear the difference claim that therefore everyone else can't hear it either.
I know I got poor hearing because I was cleaning up my mp3 collection and choosing wich version of a song I would wipe and wich I would keep. Basically it came down to size as listening to two different encodings at the same time had me not detecting any differences.
Of course I do hear the difference between a really bad one and a good one but between two good encodings the one at 128 and the other at 192? No difference I can hear.
But unlike the poster I responded to I don't claim that others can't hear it. I like people who still have a huge vinyl collection and are fighting a lost battle against the CD. I like eccentric people. People who have a collection of thees wich they blend themselves for the best taste for the time of year. People who roast their own coffee. People who have tube radios.
So go ahead and use flac or even digitize your LP's. It makes little difference to me, hell I listen to music on the computer, any audiophile would be horrified by that already. Soundblaster Hi-Fi by even the loosest of standards.
And perhaps I didn't make myself clear but I don't really hear a difference between any of the media including bad mp3's that everyone claims are bad and I just don't notice it.
And pointing out the sales number you also think the McDonalds has the best food in the world because they sell the most? That ford has to best cars because they sell the most?
A truck (real truck not those american asshole cars) driving down a hill lost braking power. The truck driver was even apparently a hero as he could have veered of into a field but there were kids playing there and crashed into a building at the bottom of the hill.
Sadly it caught fire and 2 people inside and the driver were killed. And this was with truck airbrakes wich unless I remember badly from school are supposed to brake when braking power is lossed. Air pressure is used to release the brakes so then if a hose should burts the brakes will engage. And still the brakes failed even despite this fail safe. (not sure if brakes do still work this way ABS would be impossible this way)
So no mechanics are not safer, even this very simple system does fail.
Can fly by wire systems be made safe enough? I do know for a fact that the dutch F16 fighters wich are well maintained crash an awfull lot. These are fighters wich are checked after every flight.
My point being that we are already seeing problems with tech. Until we can finally get a non-crashing windows I don't want windows touching anything more important then my game savefiles.
As to owners manuals. Try checking your windows box and a suse box. See wich manual is clearer. Or try wich one has the clearer install. The nice graphical linux gui or the Windows dos text with F3 and other weird keys for choices.
Real audiophiles (no that does not mean they have sex with their hi-fi) use analog because they claim that CD's loose to much of the music. Just because we don't "hear" it doesn't mean we don't "hear" it. Apparently.
Those people claim that the sounds CD's and mp3's cut are still part of the overall experience and their absence can be heard.
Are they right? Wtf do I know, I can't tastes brands of coffee but don't doubt coffee tasters. After a few glasses I can't even tell if I am drinking whiskey let alone wich blend but I don't doubt the experts. I can't tell colors apart but am smarter then to argue with a girl about it.
The simple fact is that humans have different ears. Just as some people can see the flicker of those tube lights and others of crt monitors some people have a lot better hearing. I just find flac amusing since it is used to rip cd's. Whats the fucking point? CD's are already leaving sound out. If you want to rip the real sound you gotta at least start at LP's.
So yes flac is kinda pointless, real audiophiles don't want it because it is still only cd's and people with mp3 players don't have the space or hardware.
But don't discount the difference in sound just because you don't hear it. Others may have better hearing.
I worked in a server room for a while and I was very upset when the replaced my old CRT with a black 21 inch LCD. Sure it has a nice image but what about warming my hands up?
Perhaps I am just a sissy but the room is just cold enough to make my fingers go stiff. The rest of the body I can dress up but you can't type with gloves on.
Luckily it was only for 2 months and the other work conditions made more then made up for it.
Advantage to working in a secure hosting location? The suits don't have a pass and security has a dog Oh and no mobile phones, Sorry:P Two months of undisturbed coding. Bliss. Cold but Bliss.
Simply put, the pets I have and have had were all capable of feeling the mood I and my family were having. Granted we are talking cats and dogs here but these animals understood that others had different feelings then their own.
Some of the worst cases I have been around of autistic childeren lacked this capabilty. Perhaps lately better threathment has come around, it been 20 years so I certainly would hope so but not at the time.
There reason I used pet was because it was given to me as an example of how different their behaviour is. It is not like dealing with a small child or a pet who are stupid but capable of dealing with other emotions, a baby or a cat can easily read your mood. Autistic childeren are not stupid, some are even very intelligent but they have no capability to read your emotions.
So don't talk babytalk I was told but keep it emotionally simple. Don't expect them to read between the lines. Tell them clearly what you want or not want. Wether this is still accurate today I don't know but it was how I was instructed. I wasn't supposed to work with them directly, just work around them.
Anyway the robot I seen wasn't about teaching. It was to get them out of their isolation, give them something to interact with that doesn't have all these complex social things that playing with humans has (and without the strain and cost on human care takers) to these childeren. It seemed to work very well as a kid who had been sitting in a huddle was actively playing and having fun.
Perhaps that is just what it was. A toy for fun, you complain about the use of pets as a comparision but seem to think they have only need of toys to train them to be like us. I hope you don't mean it that way but I seen an awfull lot of programms aimed at helping people who are different have no other goal then to make them like the rest.
The PC version will have the quest bugs fixed and extra content?
Lets not forget that a console is also 1 piece of hardware exactly the same for everyone. The PC will at least have to work with both Nvidia and Ati cards. Coding for one causes the other to throw a hissy fit.
At least it is better then Lucasarts. A PC company that has totally neglected the PC recently despite the fact that it was on the PC they grew big.
I rather wait a bit for the PC version of a game then have to get a console (other then my gba) in my house. Perhaps the version will be better. In any case, at least we can have our bugs patched. Feel better now?
What is being stolen is the nearly finished game. This isn't the very rare Half-Life 2 leak, this is simple a pressed cd or the master for it being lifted by someone inside the factory.
Thieving from work is pretty normal but has a new twist with cd's. If I steal a car then all I have is 1 car. If I steal a cd I can run off an infinite amount of copies. Noone would risk their job by stealing 1 monopoly game. But 1 game cd is a different story.
Sure they could increase security at the pressing plant but that would involve spending money. Hiring motivated employees for who this job is a keeper and not just another minimum wager.
Easier to cry foul and put up rewards then to make sure your employees are satisfied enough with their jobs not to steal.
Everyone seems to have played it. It certainly is mentioned enough whenever RPG's are discussed and is regarded by many as one of finest PC RPG's ever.
The sales however for it were piss poor. So poor that a sequel is not planned to one of the best RPG's ever according to many fansites.
So if noone bought it how can everyone have played it? Piracy.
I myself used to buy far more games. I still play them but most are downloaded not bought. (I do own all my Black Isle games legally) I justify it to myselve by only downloading games from companies that I have grown fedup with them screwing me.
There was a recent article about someone from lucasarts talking about the cost of 2D adventures. He talked about the cost of the box etc and how the cost would go up if they included some gifts like they used to in the olden days. Yeah, no fucking kidding mate. I remember Battle of Britain and Secret weapons of Luftwaffe coming with thick binder manuals complete with a history of the war. Compare this with x-wing and later black and white sheet. Geez, value for money.
Things like online manuals, gigantic bugs, incredibly short gameplay, european releases months later, no patches for the dutch-release despite the fact I don't want or need a dutch translated version, total lack of progress in AI, every other game being a boring FPS have made me loose hope. It must be said that I still buy games but the game market has fewer games I like.
But that doesn't make it any different that by downloading the game I am not putting money into the pocket of the developers to pay them for their time and effort.
Games cost a lot of money to put on the market and by piracy their is less chance of recovering the costs through sales.
Personally I think it is at least partly the fault of the games industry. Lets face it. GTA is not exactly aimed at the adult player with money to spend. It is aimed at kids with very limited income and lots of things to spend on (more so then in the past, mobile phones are huge extra cost as are games wich previous generations did not have).
Make the box you buy something to have. If the entire game can be played without a manual then yeah you have made a very accisable game. You just also increased the ease of piracy a thousand fold.
One of the worst examples must be Microsofts Flight Simulator. If ever there was a game crying out for a good paper manual to have besides you on the desk it is this one. But no, MS in its infinite wisdom put all the documentation on the CD (in a horrible unreadble manner) and upped the retail price. Smart move MS. Might as well put a sticker on the box saying "SUCKER".
Your right about copy protection. It doesn't work. Never has never will. It only affects the legitamete buyers.
Game industry keep it up. Remove any "extra" bonus from owning the legal version, make the legal version harder and harder to use, reduce the game time, up the price and make your website register only. We will all reward you with lots and lots of our cash. Oh and please, remember to include lots and lots of bugs. We need them, nothing like paying to beta test your games. Especially when we know everyone else is doing it for free.
Steam and MMO games seem to be imune to piracy, Steam is about to face its trial but MMO games seem to be near death. Yes World of Warcraft is coming out but is it just small vocal minority that is exited? Like Planescape Torment, it doesn't matter how many people like a game, what matters is how many buy it. The game industry is reducing the incentive to buy and piracy is making it easy not to buy. Something has to change.
The pirates got version A and now that it is out they can rip version B.
Worse true fans now need to get the pirate version because they want to know the alternative ending. Similar to how movie fans want the directors cut and removed scenes.
If it is the kind of chain I think it is then it is like those security barries of rope. The chain accross the driveway as a very cheap fence.
If it is done properly you can't stumble accross it unless your trying to climb over it. If you didn't see it you would simply be stopped by it around your waste.
So if he claimed he hadn't seen it he would simply have walked into it the same as any rope barrier. If he had seen it and was climbing over it then he is trespassing on purpose and this is like a burglar cutting himself on barbed wire fence.
No not even in the US would this work. Mind you if the chain is at ankle height and in the dark accross the path to the door it is another story.
Saw a bit on tv about robots designed to deal with autistic childeren. These kids find human interaction far to complex to the point where they just give up and stay in their own world.
What they need is something to play with them but in an extremely simple ruleset. They don't understand lies and half-lies let alone jokes. Human caretakers can't descend that low (we are talking well below the social skills of even a pet) but robots can. They can be programmed with a very simple ruleset of play and repeat this over and over again.
So for these kids at least the future of robotic playmates is now. They don't need massive advances in AI, the exact opposite infact. The total predictabilty of current AI is exactly what they need.
Like a vacuum bot that spots dirty areas and cleans bad spots more and clean spots not at all.
Unlike a dish washer wich is totally incapable of spotting a sticky bit of dirt or doing anything about it. Put a clean load in or a totally caked up load and it will do the same routine.
The robots are supposed to be able to spot what needs to be done and do it.
But yeah, the line can be blured. Is a videorecorder that cuts out commerercials a robot? A microwave that detects how much energy is needed?
Their are countless studies showing the deathtoll because of medical screwups. Depending on who you believe the number is insanely high. Those stories about people having the wrong bit amputated are not jokes or urban legends. They are common place.
Sure a badly programmed bot can do the same with one tiny little difference. Once a bug has been fixed it will be fixed in all the bots forever. Doctors make the same mistake over and over again no matter how many times they are told not to.
I can't wait. Anything we can do to make it happen quicker?
Lets not forget that this thrusted net thing has already been tried. Think AOL.
Offering people a subset of the net to play in is fine. The problem happens when they get out and START TALKING IN CAPS BECAUSE THEY THINK THAT IS EASIER.
Lock them back up where they belong. Anyone ever infected by a virus or piece of spyware does not belong on the net or on the streets.
If they withdraw from the net it will not be a loss.
The real net is far to usefull to die anytime soon. It is like saying roads will die because people get killed on them and sooner or later people will get tired off the huge deathtoll and demand a better solution.
I don't know wich species your talking about but the human race does not work that way.
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Of course if it had been a success then it would have been different.
My point was that is was very much an american motivation to have it attempted all with the idea that the germans didn't amount to much and that the boys could be home before christmas.
More accurate would be that their was an initial plan devised by the english montogommery but that together with the americans this became market garden wich was far more ambitious then the original plan.
It would have been totally impossible to pull of without the american airborne troops who had nothig to do after normandy. (as seen in band of brothers they were in england) How exactly market garden became so overly ambitious and so reliant on the germans not resisting the ground advance is to complex for me. My world view blaims the americans. I never claimed to be un-biased. Although if you look at the bit in band of brothers what really was at fault was Political Correctness, the order to cause minimum damage caused their withdrawal. One of many delays that meant the final bridge was a bridge to far.
I totally can't see the use for this.
Well actually I can, if I walk around the "battlefield training" areas where americans test their weapons. You know, like the bombing range where they tested the norton bomb sights. A location chosen for its all year around clear weather.
What can a segway possibly be used for. Well it is slow as well but about as fast as a marching soldier so it can save them energy. Well true. If the battle field is nice and smooth with a hard surface. No rain, mud, loose sand, rivers, streams, shell holes, trenches, fences, barbed wire, loose stones etc etc etc. None of the stuff in fact that makes up a battlefield
Even an urban battlefield doesn't stay clean enough for long for this thing to be practical.
Behind the battlefield? Ehm yeah the thing is still damn slow and your still standing. So no replament for a truck.
Carrying supplies or wounded? Same problem, at the battlefield where trucks and such are to big it can't move and behind the lines it is to slow.
Even a soldier on patrol is useless, he needs his hands on his weapon not on the controls of this thing, at least with a truck you got 1 driver and 2-3 passengers.
No I can see this as another way to make war look nicer and cleaner. This will not be the revolution that the jeep was.
If you read WW2 accounts you can see a real line of difference between the older men in the first wave and the young kids who came as the replacements. And it wasn't just that the veterans had aged, the new ones were several years younger then the men they replaced.
But the best soldiers of all were the special forces. Often adult men around 30 years old. These men don't need all that shouting drill sergeant crap. If you need a drill sergeant hollering in your ear to drive you then perhaps you are just not motivated enough. I never been in battle but from what I have heard, read and seen the number of drill sergeants running beside you under fire can be counted on the fingers of a very poor grenade thrower.
I was however drafted and noticed a real difference between the squad I was in and another squad. We had one of weirdo but luckily he was arrested for weed possesion by the MP's and the rest of us while not exactly happy to be there were smart enough to know that the faster you do something the quicker it will be over.
No need for shouted orders or insults if the soldiers are motivated either by a desire to get back inside or for a love for their country.
In fact I think that those soldiers who need a lot of shouting should be kicked out. They are the kind of soldiers that cause vietnam. Totally lacking in any self-discipline. Wich soldier would you rather have beside you. Someone with self-discipline or someone who needs shouting and punishment to do anything?
Oh and note that I am not against encouragement shouting like say during a long forced march. That is a totally different thing but I am sure you understand that as well.
Oh and you got the quot wrong but other have already correted that.
Was the cold war WW3? No many people didn't die but they did die on either side of two bitter enemies one of who was defeated and the other who has won.
The cold war as High-Tech so high-tech that the weapons didn't even have to kill people, instead they killed an economy. In WW2 raids were done on factories, storage areas and infrastructure to damage the enemies economy. The cold war saw increased use of weapons so the other side either had to overload their economy or loose the war.
If you count the cold war as a real war and I do then it was also WW3.
The what we got now is WW4. America came out on top in WW3 but finds itself now in a war that started with a couple of knifes. No enemy can defeat americans in scientific weapons but so far more americans been killed with a couple of stanley knifes then have been killed by weapons the previous 3 world wars.
Yeah yeah I know, the theory is full of holes but science has succeeded in making one side so strong that it has instead become extremely weak.
Of course part of the weakness on the american side is that they value human life. If bush was really the evil in human form that many claim he is he would simply carpet bomb iraqie cities.
War cannot be won. War can only be not lost. On either side in this conflict are some extremists but I ask you this. Under bush you can protest. Do you really think you can do the same under Al Quada? Many muslim nations wouldn't even allow a site like this.
This however becomes totally useless if the vehicle is in an ambush. Wether it is on patrol or guarding a roadblock its speed has become totally useless to avoid enemy fire. If it is guarding its speed is zero and if its patrolling then either it is moving so fast it can't see anything or going to slow it is easy to hit.
This entire idea of speed is based on the movies idea of a rebel base. A base out in the open wich can be surrounded and then these fast attack vehicles driving around and shooting the camp up. Of course the enemy is totally incapable of hitting a moving target but all the rpg's round come really close to make some exciting pictures of the attack vehicle driving through an explosion.
As the forces in iraq are seeing this is not how it really is. All of a sudden there is a flash and a bang and an rpg is on its way to a target. Now I don't know the exact speed but I very doubt this attack vehicle can out manouver an rpg round.
The images of destroyed vehicles seem to support my view. Don't let the glossy brochure fool you. What matters is the performance on the ground and so far it is piss poor.
As for putting armour on a truck, is this really such a crazy idea? Always in every battle there has been a problem with the supply convoys being to vulnrable on the last mile. Why not just take an existing tank, gut out its insides and let it do the last mile run of supplies. Yes it is more expensive but you would instantly solve a centuries old problem. Perhaps it just ain't sexy enough.
Americans have always been trying to force their own style of warfare. They come up with a new strategy and test it and then think that it can be applied in real war.
The simple fact is that war doesn't change. Ever. At all. Don't believe me? WW2, D-day landings. You seen the movies and seen the historical footage. Now chance one little thing. The americans soldiers are not emerging from landing craft but instead emerging from holes in the ground, climbing out of trenches and foxholes and running accorss open ground towards an entrenched enemy with plenty of machine guns.
Can you say WW1 and its famous charges? But how was that any different from an agincourt(or however it is spelt) where troops charged into a field of longbow arrow fire?
There are 3 types of combat, the first is where the attacker attacks a prepared enemy firing back. Slaughter unless you got some wicked armour or the enemy is a lousy shot. The second is where the attacker has the suprise and the enemy is unprepared or not fighting back. Slaughter unless the attacker is a lousy shot. The last is where you got two prepared enemies shooting it out. Slaughter on both sides. 1 and 3 are best avoided, you want an enemy asleep, tied down, with no ammo and smaller then you. Outnumbering a 100 to 1 is always nice.
New tactics like blitz krieg really ain't all that new. They are just an attempt at getting to situation 2. Wether or not that is achieved depends on the enemy. Blitz krieg both worked and not worked for the germans. It all depended on how prepared the enemy was. It isn't superiour tactics and technology that decides a battle, it is how inferior the enemy is.
But nonetheless the americans keep trying to change the rules of war, day light raids over germany despite the fact that the RAF had found it to be suicide. Operation market garden launched because surely the germans that had walked all over europe couldn't resist the americans. The resources spend could have been used to strengthen the front. The battle of bulge might not have been so dramatic if troops had not been depleted.
In vietnam america again tried to change the rule of war, the rule that you must hold ground to control it. We all now how well that one went. America got its ass spanked by a tiny pisspoor country. And not just in the jungle. The air war and tank wars were not nearly as one sides as american propaganda would want you to believe.
And now this new mobile army. With the abrahams the americans finally have themselves a tank that can be counted (all their previous efforts were a joke compared to the enemies weapons german and later russian). It is big, it is hard and it works. But it ain't sexy. Like the A-10 wich was so succesfull in the first gulf war it lacks the support of the think tanks back in safe america were there are no enemies shooting at you and the need for thick armour isn't as apparent as when a tank shell is exploding less then a meter away.
As the commander of the peach operation said. If it had been a force of strikers at the bridge they would have takes serious casualties. Notice how all the burned out vehicles from RPG attacks are bradleys and humvees. Not main battle tanks. They can shrug off such an attack and keep the soldiers inside safe and capable of killing the attacker.
But it ain't sexy. The striker is. Just like dropping tiny squads from a helicopter surrounded by enemies with no line of supply is sexy. Just like dropping lots of troops straight into enemey terrain with reinforcements depending entirely on wether the enemey decides to fight back. Just like sending thousaands of soldiers running up a beach into machine gunfire without any of those silly inventions those brits have (hobats funnies) was sexy. Just like sending slow and level flying bombers in daylight over germany was sexy.
US soldiers. You are equipped with weapons made by the lowest bidder and commanded by people who want a sexy war, not a dirty victory. Either you are the most brave or your the most stupid. T
But that card is not exactly easy to get anymore. Would I pay extra for a card that just fucking works thank you very much with the bloody latest freaking kernel and no damn binary crap? Hell yeah. My gaming machine is a windows machine and it has pretty much the latest Ati in it bought at the full price at launch.
As smarter people then me have pointed out on the forum were the question was asked it would at least have to be an excellent 2D card capable of handling video and blending and all the other nice things needed for a desktop with ease. No point in replacing my G400 with an older card.
Multihead support could be a nice bonus.
I would definitly pay for a card that works with source embedded in the kernel that I could just download the latest bleeding edge living dangerous "Backups? BACKUPS??? We don't need no stinking backups!" give me the alpha code kernel and it would work. Or blow up but at least no bloody binary crap.
Would it sell enough? Graphics cards for desktop are extremely cheap. I seen plenty of people buying S4(?) cards for a couple of bucks and consider that expensive. Then again both nvidia and ati and perhaps even matrox seem to make a living out of selling graphics cards wich cost more then the CPU. If the 2D performance is hot enough so that you can have a nice enlightenment/kde/gnome desktop with all the whistles playing multiple video streams scaled and corrected then that card would be extremely intresting.
But perhaps you need to talk not to us but to those who make desktops. After all it is the Dells and IBM's and HP's who field the support calls for mallfunctioning video drivers. Would they be willing to include a card in their office desktops, non-gaming home systems where they knew what was happening inside the video drivers?
Would the likes of Apple perhaps be intrested in a video card that they could write their own drivers for?
One deal like that would be worth far more then a million /. nerds saying they would buy it.
I can't but others claim they can, don't really care all that much just don't like if other people who also can't hear the difference claim that therefore everyone else can't hear it either.
I know I got poor hearing because I was cleaning up my mp3 collection and choosing wich version of a song I would wipe and wich I would keep. Basically it came down to size as listening to two different encodings at the same time had me not detecting any differences.
Of course I do hear the difference between a really bad one and a good one but between two good encodings the one at 128 and the other at 192? No difference I can hear.
But unlike the poster I responded to I don't claim that others can't hear it. I like people who still have a huge vinyl collection and are fighting a lost battle against the CD. I like eccentric people. People who have a collection of thees wich they blend themselves for the best taste for the time of year. People who roast their own coffee. People who have tube radios.
So go ahead and use flac or even digitize your LP's. It makes little difference to me, hell I listen to music on the computer, any audiophile would be horrified by that already. Soundblaster Hi-Fi by even the loosest of standards.
And pointing out the sales number you also think the McDonalds has the best food in the world because they sell the most? That ford has to best cars because they sell the most?
Quantiy does not equal quality.
The problems start when they add everything and the kitchen sink into this kernel and you try to run it on your pc configuration.
Note that x-box can not browse the web. No IE. That is at least half the bugs and security holes removed.
Sadly it caught fire and 2 people inside and the driver were killed. And this was with truck airbrakes wich unless I remember badly from school are supposed to brake when braking power is lossed. Air pressure is used to release the brakes so then if a hose should burts the brakes will engage. And still the brakes failed even despite this fail safe. (not sure if brakes do still work this way ABS would be impossible this way)
So no mechanics are not safer, even this very simple system does fail.
Can fly by wire systems be made safe enough? I do know for a fact that the dutch F16 fighters wich are well maintained crash an awfull lot. These are fighters wich are checked after every flight.
My point being that we are already seeing problems with tech. Until we can finally get a non-crashing windows I don't want windows touching anything more important then my game savefiles.
As to owners manuals. Try checking your windows box and a suse box. See wich manual is clearer. Or try wich one has the clearer install. The nice graphical linux gui or the Windows dos text with F3 and other weird keys for choices.
Those people claim that the sounds CD's and mp3's cut are still part of the overall experience and their absence can be heard.
Are they right? Wtf do I know, I can't tastes brands of coffee but don't doubt coffee tasters. After a few glasses I can't even tell if I am drinking whiskey let alone wich blend but I don't doubt the experts. I can't tell colors apart but am smarter then to argue with a girl about it.
The simple fact is that humans have different ears. Just as some people can see the flicker of those tube lights and others of crt monitors some people have a lot better hearing. I just find flac amusing since it is used to rip cd's. Whats the fucking point? CD's are already leaving sound out. If you want to rip the real sound you gotta at least start at LP's.
So yes flac is kinda pointless, real audiophiles don't want it because it is still only cd's and people with mp3 players don't have the space or hardware.
But don't discount the difference in sound just because you don't hear it. Others may have better hearing.
Joke is up there, if you don't get it your not old enough.
Perhaps I am just a sissy but the room is just cold enough to make my fingers go stiff. The rest of the body I can dress up but you can't type with gloves on.
Luckily it was only for 2 months and the other work conditions made more then made up for it.
Advantage to working in a secure hosting location? The suits don't have a pass and security has a dog Oh and no mobile phones, Sorry :P Two months of undisturbed coding. Bliss. Cold but Bliss.
Some of the worst cases I have been around of autistic childeren lacked this capabilty. Perhaps lately better threathment has come around, it been 20 years so I certainly would hope so but not at the time.
There reason I used pet was because it was given to me as an example of how different their behaviour is. It is not like dealing with a small child or a pet who are stupid but capable of dealing with other emotions, a baby or a cat can easily read your mood. Autistic childeren are not stupid, some are even very intelligent but they have no capability to read your emotions.
So don't talk babytalk I was told but keep it emotionally simple. Don't expect them to read between the lines. Tell them clearly what you want or not want. Wether this is still accurate today I don't know but it was how I was instructed. I wasn't supposed to work with them directly, just work around them.
Anyway the robot I seen wasn't about teaching. It was to get them out of their isolation, give them something to interact with that doesn't have all these complex social things that playing with humans has (and without the strain and cost on human care takers) to these childeren. It seemed to work very well as a kid who had been sitting in a huddle was actively playing and having fun.
Perhaps that is just what it was. A toy for fun, you complain about the use of pets as a comparision but seem to think they have only need of toys to train them to be like us. I hope you don't mean it that way but I seen an awfull lot of programms aimed at helping people who are different have no other goal then to make them like the rest.
Lets not forget that a console is also 1 piece of hardware exactly the same for everyone. The PC will at least have to work with both Nvidia and Ati cards. Coding for one causes the other to throw a hissy fit.
At least it is better then Lucasarts. A PC company that has totally neglected the PC recently despite the fact that it was on the PC they grew big.
I rather wait a bit for the PC version of a game then have to get a console (other then my gba) in my house. Perhaps the version will be better. In any case, at least we can have our bugs patched. Feel better now?
Thieving from work is pretty normal but has a new twist with cd's. If I steal a car then all I have is 1 car. If I steal a cd I can run off an infinite amount of copies. Noone would risk their job by stealing 1 monopoly game. But 1 game cd is a different story.
Sure they could increase security at the pressing plant but that would involve spending money. Hiring motivated employees for who this job is a keeper and not just another minimum wager.
Easier to cry foul and put up rewards then to make sure your employees are satisfied enough with their jobs not to steal.
Everyone seems to have played it. It certainly is mentioned enough whenever RPG's are discussed and is regarded by many as one of finest PC RPG's ever.
The sales however for it were piss poor. So poor that a sequel is not planned to one of the best RPG's ever according to many fansites.
So if noone bought it how can everyone have played it? Piracy.
I myself used to buy far more games. I still play them but most are downloaded not bought. (I do own all my Black Isle games legally) I justify it to myselve by only downloading games from companies that I have grown fedup with them screwing me.
There was a recent article about someone from lucasarts talking about the cost of 2D adventures. He talked about the cost of the box etc and how the cost would go up if they included some gifts like they used to in the olden days. Yeah, no fucking kidding mate. I remember Battle of Britain and Secret weapons of Luftwaffe coming with thick binder manuals complete with a history of the war. Compare this with x-wing and later black and white sheet. Geez, value for money.
Things like online manuals, gigantic bugs, incredibly short gameplay, european releases months later, no patches for the dutch-release despite the fact I don't want or need a dutch translated version, total lack of progress in AI, every other game being a boring FPS have made me loose hope. It must be said that I still buy games but the game market has fewer games I like.
But that doesn't make it any different that by downloading the game I am not putting money into the pocket of the developers to pay them for their time and effort.
Games cost a lot of money to put on the market and by piracy their is less chance of recovering the costs through sales.
Personally I think it is at least partly the fault of the games industry. Lets face it. GTA is not exactly aimed at the adult player with money to spend. It is aimed at kids with very limited income and lots of things to spend on (more so then in the past, mobile phones are huge extra cost as are games wich previous generations did not have).
Make the box you buy something to have. If the entire game can be played without a manual then yeah you have made a very accisable game. You just also increased the ease of piracy a thousand fold.
One of the worst examples must be Microsofts Flight Simulator. If ever there was a game crying out for a good paper manual to have besides you on the desk it is this one. But no, MS in its infinite wisdom put all the documentation on the CD (in a horrible unreadble manner) and upped the retail price. Smart move MS. Might as well put a sticker on the box saying "SUCKER".
Your right about copy protection. It doesn't work. Never has never will. It only affects the legitamete buyers.
Game industry keep it up. Remove any "extra" bonus from owning the legal version, make the legal version harder and harder to use, reduce the game time, up the price and make your website register only. We will all reward you with lots and lots of our cash. Oh and please, remember to include lots and lots of bugs. We need them, nothing like paying to beta test your games. Especially when we know everyone else is doing it for free.
Steam and MMO games seem to be imune to piracy, Steam is about to face its trial but MMO games seem to be near death. Yes World of Warcraft is coming out but is it just small vocal minority that is exited? Like Planescape Torment, it doesn't matter how many people like a game, what matters is how many buy it. The game industry is reducing the incentive to buy and piracy is making it easy not to buy. Something has to change.
Worse true fans now need to get the pirate version because they want to know the alternative ending. Similar to how movie fans want the directors cut and removed scenes.
If it is done properly you can't stumble accross it unless your trying to climb over it. If you didn't see it you would simply be stopped by it around your waste.
So if he claimed he hadn't seen it he would simply have walked into it the same as any rope barrier. If he had seen it and was climbing over it then he is trespassing on purpose and this is like a burglar cutting himself on barbed wire fence.
No not even in the US would this work. Mind you if the chain is at ankle height and in the dark accross the path to the door it is another story.
What they need is something to play with them but in an extremely simple ruleset. They don't understand lies and half-lies let alone jokes. Human caretakers can't descend that low (we are talking well below the social skills of even a pet) but robots can. They can be programmed with a very simple ruleset of play and repeat this over and over again.
So for these kids at least the future of robotic playmates is now. They don't need massive advances in AI, the exact opposite infact. The total predictabilty of current AI is exactly what they need.
Unlike a dish washer wich is totally incapable of spotting a sticky bit of dirt or doing anything about it. Put a clean load in or a totally caked up load and it will do the same routine.
The robots are supposed to be able to spot what needs to be done and do it.
But yeah, the line can be blured. Is a videorecorder that cuts out commerercials a robot? A microwave that detects how much energy is needed?
Sure a badly programmed bot can do the same with one tiny little difference. Once a bug has been fixed it will be fixed in all the bots forever. Doctors make the same mistake over and over again no matter how many times they are told not to.
Lets not forget that this thrusted net thing has already been tried. Think AOL.
Offering people a subset of the net to play in is fine. The problem happens when they get out and START TALKING IN CAPS BECAUSE THEY THINK THAT IS EASIER.
Lock them back up where they belong. Anyone ever infected by a virus or piece of spyware does not belong on the net or on the streets.
If they withdraw from the net it will not be a loss.
The real net is far to usefull to die anytime soon. It is like saying roads will die because people get killed on them and sooner or later people will get tired off the huge deathtoll and demand a better solution.
I don't know wich species your talking about but the human race does not work that way.