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User: emarkp

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  1. Babylon 5 on The Heartbreak of Canceled Games · · Score: 3, Informative
    I'm surprised no one's mentioned the debacle of the Babylon 5 game. It was mostly done, all the cutscenes were shot (with the show's actors and sets). The 3D models were based on the models used to render the show.

    Then Sierra moved the team. Then they dropped the project.

    Then when the developers raised the money to buy the IP, Sierra refused to sell at any price.

    [sigh]

  2. Re:Too much second guessing? on Shuttle Delayed Due to Cloudy Skies · · Score: 1
    This mission is STS-114, there were 2 critical failures in 113 missions.

    And how many near misses?

  3. Confirm the purpose of the gap filler? on Discovery's Dangling Gapfiller Removed by Hand · · Score: 1
    Several posts have claimed that the purpose of the gap filler is to reduce chances of damage due to vibration during liftoff (and that would have been my guess as well). Yet I see nothing in any stories I can find to confirm that.

    Anyone have a source to verify it?

  4. De-leveling? on Bungie Wields the Banhammer · · Score: 1

    You don't need to invent a new term. There's already a word for this: sandbagging.

  5. I wonder if MS' monopoly status will affect this.. on Microsoft Sues Google For Hiring MS Exec · · Score: 1

    Now that they've been designated a monopoly, doesn't that mean they don't have any competitors? Or is it that MS is a competitor of everyone?

  6. Re:Bah to the SG-1 retooling on Battlestar Galactica Resurrection Effort Described · · Score: 1
    I'm an avid SG-1 fan and I think you're on crack. Season 8 was desperately trying to figure out what it was trying to do. I thought the Claudia Black ep in season 8 was the single worst hour of scifi I'd seen in a while (but then I gave up on Voyager and Enterprise fairly early).

    I tried to watch Farscape a few times but couldn't get interested. I only know Black's name because someone else mentioned it, and I find her character intensely irritating. The entire character seems to be pandering to the same crowd that 7-of-9 was in Voyager. If she becomes a regular, I'll probably lose interest in the show. Oh well, with SG Atlantis and Monk both on Friday nights, that's one less hour of Tivo for the weekend that's already got some good viewing.

  7. Re:Optimus Keyboard? on Optimus Keyboard With OLED Display Keys · · Score: 1
    Definitely more than meets the eyes.

    (Sigh. Now I've got the theme song going through my head. Isn't it amazing you can remember this garbage a decade or more later? The other day someone said something and my wife and I--nearly in unison--began singing the Transformers theme song. I am such a geek.)

  8. Centrifugal force on Conquering the LaGrange Points? · · Score: 1

    "Centrifugal force" is a convenient name for the apparent forces that appear when translating to a rotating reference frame. The classic method of determining where the Lagrange points are is literally to balance the gravitational and centrifugal forces. See here for a great example.

  9. Re:What about bias about religion? on Biases in Simulation Video Games · · Score: 1
    Well, I could cite my wife's Masters project, but it's not published.

    As for video games, my experience suggests it. The most benign presentation of a believer I've seen is Father Grigori in HL2, who was crazy at best.

  10. Re:What about bias about religion? on Biases in Simulation Video Games · · Score: 1
    Nice strawman. I didn't "demand public displays of religiousity".

    What I referred to was the portrayal of believers. In the US, a huge majority of the population say they believe in God. Some, but only a very few of them are committing crimes because of their beliefs (shooting abortion doctors, etc.). And yet the overwhelming portrayal of anyone who believes in God in fiction and in video games is that they're committing evil actions in the name of their religion.

  11. What about bias about religion? on Biases in Simulation Video Games · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Why is it that religion (when present at all) is always presented as evil? The most egregious example I've seen was Homeworld: Cataclysm. I avoided that game because when I was reading up on the story it seemed that the enemy was entirely motivated by religious zealotry. (Indeed, one of the enemies in Homeworld was attacking because of the "desecration" of the system by the ship's mere presence.)

    From what little I've seen of Halo 2 (not much), it also looks like religion plays a driving role for the enemy.

    Religion is a factor for good in many people's lives. Yet I can't think of any time it's presented that way in games. It's either absent or evil.

    Interestingly, part of my wife's Masters project at library school was to analyze the presentation of religion in fiction, and it's often the same: either religion isn't mentioned or it's bad. Granted, there seem to be improvements recently (last 10 years), so maybe there's hope for video games as well.

  12. Games rated by TTGM: Time Till God Mode on How id Lost Its Crown · · Score: 3, Interesting
    I've found that once I get bored with gameplay and only want to see the story, I'm effectively done with the game and turn on God mode.

    With Doom3, it took about an hour or two before God mode got selected. With Far Cry, it was at the point where you're breaking out into an open area with lots of monsters. I happily made it through HL2 with no cheats.

    Also in Doom3 I debated even finishing it, I was losing interest so fast.

  13. It's a legitimate tactic! on Build Your Own Solar Powered Hotspot · · Score: 1
    Quoted from Red vs. Blue Episode 39.

    BTW, you forgot the obligatory cs_office screenshot. (With the rest of the motivational poster parodies here

  14. Re:One size doesn't fit everything on How to Do Everything with PHP and MySQL · · Score: 1
    And as soon as I have a list of those libraries, I can consider using it. Last I asked about this, the comment was "it'd be better to list which libraries don't have a problem."

    Can I have a list of libs that are or are not threadsafe and can use Apache2 in threaded mode?

  15. What should a business do? on BnetD v. Blizzard Suit Moves Forward · · Score: 1

    How about not treating their paying customers as theives?

  16. Re:Minor nit on Homebrew Air Conditioning for Under $25 · · Score: 1
    If the fridge is in anther room, he's just moving heat from his room to where the fridge is.

    The cycle is:
    heat from water ==> room with fridge
    heat from his room ==> ice water
    warmed water ==> outside

    He might as well just blow air from the room with the fridge. Buying a floor unit with a hose to put out the window would do the job much better.

  17. Re:Minor nit on Homebrew Air Conditioning for Under $25 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Um, that's the point. His setup is thermodynamically equivalent to opening up the fridge. Thus, he's not actually reducing the heat in the room, he's just moving it around.

  18. Which libraries have threading problems? on A Decade of PHP · · Score: 1
    But from what I've seen most webhosts use 1.3 with php because of some threading issues with some php libraries and the apache 2 series of server.
    Which libraries are these? I keep hearing the "some libraries" line, but have yet to see an enumerated list. I'd like to avoid those libraries.
  19. OpenGL != DirectX on Mac Game Devs Speak on Intel Move · · Score: 1

    I wish I had mod points so I could mod you down. OpenGL is a graphics API. It replaces Direct3D (a subset of DirectX). Keyboard input, sound, etc. aren't handled in OpenGL.

  20. Silently installing DRM enforcing programs? on Washington State Outlaws Spyware · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Hmm.. Recently I played Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, which installed StarForce without my knowledge or consent--and which doesn't uninstall ever unless I download the uninstall tool.

    Would this violate this law? I think it should. I wish I'd known about the StarForce installation--I wouldn't have bought the game.

  21. Re:OpenOffice just works on OpenOffice 2.0 Criticized on Use of Java · · Score: 1

    In particular, styles are a breeze in OO.o. And the equation editor is a dream compared to the clunky mess MS has. (Granted, OO Math not as powerful or quite as predictable as LaTeX, but it beats the crap out of MS equation editor.)

  22. Re:OpenOffice just works on OpenOffice 2.0 Criticized on Use of Java · · Score: 1

    No actually, MS Office doesn't "just work". After using OOo1 & 2beta for a while now, I can create better documents than in MSOffice and do it in less time as well.

  23. Re:Variation on Lessig: Property Taxes on What Would You Ask For in Copyright Law? · · Score: 1
    That's a horrible idea. Real property is scarce. Physical and Intellectual property are entirely different. See what Jefferson had to say about it:
    He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.
    If IP creators don't want something to be copied, they can keep it to themselves. Copyright law gives temporary exclusivity to the owner as an incentive to the owner to share his idea with the rest of us. That is a good thing, but it is a fallacy to equate physical property to intellectual property.
  24. Read Lessig's book on What Would You Ask For in Copyright Law? · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Everytime I talk about this kind of thing, I say "what Lessig said." Read Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig.

    One great idea he suggests is to have an online registration that costs (say) $1 per year to register, with a maximum life of (IIRC) 50 years. If the copyright owner doesn't register it every year, it's in the public domain. If it's not worth $1 to register, then it shouldn't be copyrighted anyway.

  25. Do NOT buy from Alienware on Alienware's Star Wars PCs · · Score: 1
    I have a nice laptop from them, but their support absolutely sucks. They require a password-protected login to download drivers, and you aren't "allowed" to sell or give the laptop to someone else, because your support is tied to you the person, not

    I haven't seen a video driver update in months (even though ATI is releasing a new Catalyst every month). Lucky for me there's Omega drivers (now I can use OpenGL 2.0--thanks for nothing Alienware!).

    And who makes a "gaming" laptop with a widescreen display that can't scale resolution to fit the display while maintaining aspect ratio? Any game that requires 4:3 ratio on my 16:10 display gets stretched or uses a tiny portion of the screen.