Maybe my experiences are far different from yours, but I didn't think the term "Ricer" had anything to do with race anymore. Yes, "Rice Burner" was a racial slur coined long before my time and "Ricer" is a derivitive of it, but I don't think it inherited the racial aspect of its parent. Most people I know define "Rice" as being gaudy, nonfunctional, having bad taste, and/or lacking substance. In essence, being fake or putting on a display in an attempt to impress others. It never has anything to do with the race of the person being accused. "Poser" would be a good comparison or replacement: You're trying to be or look like something you aren't (a race/rally car). So "Ricer" can apply to anyone, regardless of colour. The racial connotations are an unfortunate side effect of the words origins, rather than being founded in the term itself. And nowadays rice comes in all sorts of flavours. From the stereotypical imports that the word was first bore upon, to domestics, to other classes of vehicles (eg: trucks). So IMO, "Rice" has nothing to do with race now. Its all about opinions and impressions.
But like I said, maybe my experiences have just been a lot different than yours.
Yeah, the War Measures Act basically placed Canada under a state of martial law. You could be detained indefinitly and without reason at any time. Basic rights and freedoms could be temporarilly ignored. The government pretty much had unlimited power.
The WMA was only ever invoked three times in Canadian history. World War 1, World War 2, and the FLQ Crisis (mentioned by parent). When it was used during the FLQ crisis it stirred up a lot of shit, because it was abused. People all across the country were arrested just because they were french or black or whatever. So in 85 the WMA was replaced with the Emergencies Act. Its a much tamer piece of legislation, and doesn't allow the government to superceed the entire Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It does give them additional powers, like the ability to kick you out of your house and lay claim to your property, but you can't be arrested for no good reason (though you CAN be arrested for not complying with the government's new powers). Fortunatly the Emergencies act doesn't apply to the whole country (like the WMA did), only to the area(s) actually experiencing the emergency.
So yes, the potential for abuse is still there, but compared to the draconian mindfuck that was the War Measures Act, the Emergencies act is a fluffy white bunny. Which brings up the odd realization: Other countries are moving AWAY from being able to strip people of their rights... the US is moving towards it. Scary? I think yes.
Whoa, check it out... Firefox is in the FAQ. In bold no less! Here's the quote:
Q. Will the validation process work with non-Microsoft Web browsers?
A. Yes, you can complete the validation process using a non-Microsoft Web browser. Mozilla Firefox users: although the instructions for the validation tool executable file say to open or run the file from its current location, Firefox will not present you with either of those options. Instead, save the file to your PC and then double-click on the file to run it.
Im not sure if its a good thing or a bad thing that Microsoft is starting to officially recognize and acknowledge its competition.
Interesting either way though.
Actually, I got a letter for downloading but not finishing a movie a while ago. I started to torrent a movie (Black Hawk Down, for the record), and about 10 seconds and 20kb in went "Nah, don't really want to see it and its going too slow to even waste my time on" and canceled it. Month later, my ISP emails me saying they recieved a complaint about me sharing this movie. I was like "WTF!? I barely even downloaded or uploaded a sliver of it!".
So no, they don't take the quantity of the infraction into consideration when mass mailing their letters. I suppose from their view, it makes no difference if you steal one car, fifty cars, or someones bumper: they still think you're guilty of GTA. Though your punishment if convicted would probably be different depending on the degree of your actions. Fortunatly for me, I live in Canada where the MPAA (or whatever the Canuck equivalent is) can bite my shiny metal ass.:)
We should choose our idols carefully...
on
Don't Read My Lips
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· Score: 2, Funny
Will this change the way companies write they reports and presidential candidates speak?
Oh great. So if Bush wins, my company will start providing me with "trainings for managements over the internets"? I think i'd 'quits my stupids jobs'.
RTFA much? Its nuclear fission, which is different from the sun (nuclear fusion). In galactic terms, fission is a relatively simple process. All you're doing is crushing a fuckton of matter into a very dense ball, adding energy (heat), and waiting for things to go boom.
Fission, on the other hand, is a much more delicate process. You need relatively precise concentrations of a rare fissionable material (U235), and an almost exact quantity of water (the moderator in this case). Too little of either, and you cant sustain a reaction. Too much, and it smothers itself. For mother nature to randomly nail down the requirments for a fission reaction like that is a pretty unique event. Certainly something worth noting in a community so interested in science.:)
Sure! Just think of what all we discovered back then: Sex. Fire. Wheels. Pointy things to catch food with. You can blather on all you want about the theory of relativity, but where would we be without those things our ancestors invented? We'd be screwwed! Or rather, we wouldn't be... screwwed... erm. Yeah, nevermind that last part.
Here's a little tip or two to get UT2004 to load faster, seeing as how it made your list.
First, download the latest patch. Hell, download just about ANY patch. Epic removed the useless CD check as soon as they could get the OK from their publisher.
Second, open up your UT2004.ini file (in the 'system' folder), and find the line that says "LocalMap=NvidiaLogo.ut2" and change it to read "LocalMap=NoIntro.ut2". This will skip the nVidia advertisment by pointing to a blank intro instead (which Epic has kindly included with the game).
Tada. Your game will now load straight to the menu.
The problem these days isn't so much with developers as it is publishers. Game developers, obviously, tend to be gamers themselves. They know that CD checks suck, keys are largely useless, ads are a waste of time, and whatnot. But if they want to get their product on a shelf, they have to play along with their publisher. And since publishers only care about these little guys: $$$, they mandate that every little thing they could possibly do to save or make a buck goes into their 'product'. Thus, we get CD checks and advertisments and other annoying 'features' because some asshole in a suit likes bigger numbers instead of happier customers.
This is why this stuff Valve is trying to pull is such a shocker. They're devs. They're supposed to be on OUR side, but what they're doing is decidedly publisher-like. I'm not sure whats happened to them, but lately they seem to be smelling more of Armani and less of coke and stale pizza. So that sound you're hearing is a million gamers chewwing their nails and raising their eyebrows in the fear that VALVe is gonna pull an Anakin Skywalker -> Darth Vader routine. I sure hope they don't, but since i'm not a Half-Life fan and have never completely trusted valve in the first place, I certainly won't be shedding any tears if they start reading their press releases with a *inhale* respirator *pssh*.
Here's hoping things get better before they get worse.
I really miss the days of Bullfrog, they made some great fucking games. Populous, Dungeon Keeper, Magic Carpet, Syndicate... games that really stood out from the norm, and did it damn well. Lion Head was supposed to be Bullfrogs successor - someone to continue carrying the torch of innovative and outstanding games - but so far (IMO) they just haven't done it. Mind you, Bullfrog left some MASSIVE shoes to fill, but LHS just doesn't seem to have the magic touch that Bullfrog did. Molyneux's head is still in the right place though, dreaming up fantastic ideas for new games, so I can't fault him there. They just haven't quite gelled for some reason. Maybe games are too different of a beast now to expect the 'good old days' to reappear. Maybe they just need more time. Whatever it is, I sure hope LHS figures it out soon.
(And would they hurry the fuck up and make a Dungeon Keeper 3 already!? I'd sell my soul for that game! ...of course, whoever I sold it to would be locked in my dungeon and tortured, electrocuted, beat up, and slapped daily for my amusement. But they don't need to know that beforehand. Oh how it'd be "good to be bad" again!)
Something tells me i'll have it tuned to Radio X for most of the game. Rage Against the Machine, plus a DJ with an attitude? ("I'm Sage - and yes that is my real name. And if you don't beleive me you can go fuck yourself"). Oh hell yeah.
Yeah, I didn't even know how lucky I was at the time.
Of course, it wasn't MY doing. I chalk it up to being a hyperactive young child with two parents working full time to support the familly. Every summer, mom would just throw me into like half a dozen different camps to act as a babysitter while school was out. Some of them sucked. Others were good. This one was probably the best.:)
Gosh, that was like seven years ago! I don't quite recall. I think the oldest guys we had around were only like 16 or 17. The youngest was 12 I think. Most kids were around my age at the time, eg 14-15. It was just some goofy "space camp" that the local observatory/science museum put on. I doubt they even run the program anymore. But it was definitly one of my favorite summer camps ever.:)
The only other one that comes close was a loooong time ago at some university. I don't even recall what the camp was about, I just remember it was the very first time i'd seen work from or heard of a little tiny company known as "Pixar". I think that was the moment, watching a little red lamp play with a beachball, that I knew I wanted to do digital art and animation.:)
Anyways, yeah sorry I can't really answer your question accurately. If you're really interested, maybe check out what your locale has to offer for your age group. Maybe you'll find something that you really like. Good luck!
Ah man, this story brings back good memories for me.
When I was about, oooh 14 years old or so, I went to a "Space and Science Camp" one summer. We did all sorts of crazy stuff related to space. My favorite was trying to design "crash modules" to protect an egg from a two story drop (that was hella fun).
Anyways, one of the special activities we did was a mock Moon base mission. Basically we spent one day cutting black garbage bags open and duct taping them together into a series of domes and tunnels for our "base". It had two openings: one was a sealable flap (our "airlock") and the other was an open hole that they put a big fan in to inflate the entire structure (worked really well too). Oh and some small ventillation holes in each room. Anyways, the next day we went on our "mission", which was basically a dozen or more of us stuck inside this inflated garbage bag, in the middle of a gymnasium with the lights turned off. We were divided up into teams and everyone given certain tasks. I was a communications officer, which basically ment I got to sit there and communicate with "earth" (our supervisors) on an old macintosh. We were also responsible for general coordination of the base. Another team was our Medical branch. They had some generic tests/experiments to try while we were 'on the moon', in addition to being responsible for the health of the entire staff. Theirs was actually the only 'serious' mission, because they had to test everyone regularly for signs of CO2 poisioning while we were effectively trapped inside a plastic bag for six hours straight. We also had an exploration team that got to do "moonwalks", which was basically tying a rope around one guy, blindfolding him, and shoving him out into the gymnasium to see what he could find. They came in very important (more later). The only other team I remember was our "Engineering" team, who was responsible for maintaining the base's structure, armed with nothing but some spare garbage bags, some knives, and enough duct tape to wrap an army. They even got around to making a couple of small additions to the base. Those guys had lots of fun.
The cool thing about our "mission" was, in addition to trying to complete the tasks given to us by Earth base, our supervisors fucked with us at every possible opportunity. They did shit like "solar activity disrupting communications" (disconnected our Mac from the LAN) so we were on our own for an hour. They walked around with knives and poked holes in the bags to keep the engineering team busy... VERY busy. When we were done, our base looked like someone had taken a piece of swiss cheese and put tape over all the holes. They were cruel. About 20 minutes after our engineering team completed a tunnel connecting medical to communications, I hear this slicing sound and feel air rushing past my face. I turn around, and the bastards had cut a three foot gap in the new tunnel! Engineering runs over and starts trying to tape it up, but its not gonna be airtight... so the creative bastards rip off their paper medical jumpsuits (we even had mission stickers, names, rank, etc on them) and use them to seal off the tunnel. Heh that was cool. Even cooler though, was when the "alien" got into our base through the same gap. One of the engineering guys opened up the tunnel to see about further repairs, and he finds the supervisors have slashed it (AGAIN!) and dumped a plastic turtle in the gap as an "alien". The whole base erupts in panic. Engineering shows up in force as they're the only ones with knives. Medical runs in and tries to start bossing people around because "this is a biological matter". It was hillarious. We eventually figured out (with Earth's help) that the alien was dead, and medical got the goahead to start an autopsy on it. Very cool.
By far the most exciting event in the mission was our "catastrophic power failure". Everyone's working allong happilly... computers chirping, people talking, fans humming... and then no humming. People kind of looked around at eachother real slowly like "Uhh, wa
-Technology lacking, not enough bandwith to handle the control needed.
Debatable. Current - hell, even 1999 Half-Life - technology has proven that a single server can handle 20 or more players at a low enough latency to make realtime/fps/action gameplay possible. BF1942 servers regularly deal with playercounts two or three times that too. On the MMO side of things, Planetside seems to be able to handle large numbers of players in realtime fairly well.
-Boring, who wants to play right field?
True. No one likes to be a benchwarmer. Maybe 'traditional' sports games aren't the best foot to start out on though. Find something high action and fast paced to suck people in, then convince them to stand around for 20 minutes in the outfield doing nothing. Its the perfect MMO timesink.
Always a huge problem. Fortunatly there are always methods available to dealing with lamers. For example, maybe an auto-coach that would sideline a player for commiting repeated fouls. Make a note of it on their RPG-style record, and pretty soon no one wants to play with Mr.Llama.
-Coordination, Can't run any plays without lots of practice.
Enter the clan scene. Join up with a group of dedicated friends, design plays, practice them, and use them in competition (ladders, etc).
As proof of concept, has anyone ever heard of Deathball? Its a UT mod in the theme of a sport. Its like a 6 on 6 version of gridiron football (hitting), euro football (passing/volleying/curling), and handball or hockey (small teams, use a ball launcher/gun/tool thingie to charge and shoot the ball).
Its lots of fun, even if it has a bit of a steep learning curve. But I could see someone taking a similar idea and turning it into a MMO. You could keep stats, form leagues for clan play, and do all that good MMOx stuff (like charging people money for it).
Heck, why not just take it a step further and roll the whole genre into one. Call it "Ultimate Sports Online" or something and then just throw games at it and see what sticks (hellooo expansion packs!). People could be 'universal athletes' and compete in a variety of sports from traditional (football/hockey/basketball/etc) to exceptional (paintball/rollerball/ultimate) to fantasy (deathball/gravityball/whatever). They'd bounce all over the place, being a competative player in one league (say, hockey), casual in others (paintball and rollerball), and just every once in a while indulge in a quick one on one in tennis or foosball or something.
Why wouldn't it fly? Even if its not the greatest game in the world, surely it'd be capable of at least floating above the sea of MMO-garbage on its uniqueness alone. Maybe publishers are just scared to try it. It'll probably happen one day though... and just watch half the industry try and follow suit if it turns out to be a success (especially with Joe sixpack).
IMO it could happen. Just because it hasn't yet doesn't mean it never will. But maybe i'm just being uncharacteristically optimistic today. (Now wheres my +1 spelt-a-big-word-correctly?:P)
The lighter blob in Western Canada is almost certainly coal fired power plants in Alberta. they get half their electricity from coal and were trying to build more last I heard.
Yup. About 50% of our electricity is coal fired, another 40+% is gas, something like 5% hydro and the rest is change (wind/biomass/whatever). All told it adds up to somewhere around 12,000mW total capacity. And from what I can find, in the next few years this is what we're planning:
So while we should be increasing our Wind and Hydro output (especially wind), the lions share of the pie will still be going to coal and gas.
Some of the highlights include: Genesee 3, which is supposed to come online within a year or two and be our largest coal fired plant yet (something stupid like a 500mW peak output). Then theres a 1.9 billion dollar proposed expansion to the plant at Keephills that would ADD 900mW (!). Enermax wants to add another 400mW worth of capacity somewhere in the south too. On the gas side of things, two 300+mW plants (Meadow Creek and Crossfield) are supposed to be running sometime around 2006.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot one... Since us Albertans, like our Texan relatives to the south, like everything big and expensive, theres a proposal kicking around somewhere for a 1000mW coal fired plant at Brooks by 1010 or later. Yikes.
Honestly though, its not really suprising. Alberta produces (and consumes) about half of Canada's coal. And last I heard, at our current pace our estimated reserves would last us a good 800 years or so. We keep growing at an accellerated rate, and people demand cheap, reliable energy... so coal is the obvious answer, despite all the environmental problems.
So yeah. A heavy dependance on our abundant sources of coal, coupled with some heavy industry, and an ever booming oil/tarsands rush in the north to dig up the 1.7 trillion barrels of oil stuck there - and Alberta gets a pretty yellow spot on the map. (Go us. Woo.)
The sad part is that just next door (Saskatchewan) we're sitting on the worlds largest known deposits of uranium. Couple that with our relatively safe CANDU reactors, and Canada should have more energy than we could ever dream of consuming (lots of which i'm sure our American friends would be happy to purchase from us). We've even got a great place to bury the waste (a big chunk of granite that runs underneith like half the freakin country - aka the Canadian Shield). You couldn't ASK for a better setup.
And what happens? Mr. nuclear-boogieman strikes again. *Sigh*
Now if you'll excuse me, I think i'm going to go take up smoking. Might as well die from my own stupidity instead of somebody elses.
There are not "many" color or sound trademarks. ...but there are very few color only trademarks. The only one I know of is Orange, which gets the color orange for cell phones.
I know of a colour trademark that EVERYONE will recognize: UPS brown. Yup, it's a trademark. The colour is actually called "Pullman Brown", named after the classy Pullman railroad cars way back in the day. It's been a trademark of UPS for such a long time, most people don't even conciously realize the association between the colour and the company. But its there, and thats why it's a trademark.
As for WHY they picked the colour... two reasons. One, they thought it looked "professional" and classy (like the railcars) while still being unique. This was in contrast to the very first UPS vehicles which were all painted different and often bright colours (red, yellow, etc).
Two, brown hides dirt very well, giving the impression of always being clean. Infact, the company itself borders on the obsessive with presenting a 'clean image'. UPS trucks are washed daily (!) so they always look nice. Any time a truck is damaged, the very first thing they do with it is hide the truck. Seriously, its company policy that obviously damaged/scratched vehicles are not allowed to sit in sight of the public. The company also has VERY strict rules on the apperance of its employees too (the ones the public sees anyways).
Anyways... yeah, just wanted to share that little nugget of information. People don't realize just how much time, money, and effort some companies (like UPS) put into image. The objective being, of course, that people DON'T realize the amount of work it takes... and instead simply create a network of positive associations - like colours and apperances - with the company entity.
It really is amazing what you don't know you know.:)
Hey wait a sec... i've tried all three of those before!
The drugs didn't work. All I got was a raised eyebrow because i've never even smoked a cig, much less a joint (and she knows it). Asking for booze... worked! She owes me a beer for when I replaced a CD of hers that was scratched to shit. As for the sexual favors, i've hinted down that road several times with no success. I keep lowering my rate too... last time I asked for "just a quick handjob", but she said the only handjob i'd be getting was the back of hers across my face. I think she'll crack one day though, oh yes. Nothing quite like a geek furiously typing away at a keyboard to get a woman hot, for sure.
Seriously though, most of the time my 'payment' from friends is in the form of food. They buy me fast food, random drinks, snacks, and even bring leftovers for me to finish (i'm a bit of a human garborator). I fix their computer(s), hook them up with 'discount media', and make crude sexual jokes about them. Its quite a beautiful symbiosis between human and geek, really.
True all that. I'm a gamer and i've got my share of mental problems too (social anxiety). When I was kicked out of my circle of friends in high school, I turned to gaming and the internet (which I was already big into before) because it was the only safe place I had left. The world had suddenly become a very scary place for me, and I needed a sanctuary. I know during that period of three or so years, I WAS addicted to the computer/internet/games. I'd go into withdrawl without it. I'd get cranky if I couldn't have it. When my parents removed the computer's power cables because my grades were sliding, I actually went out and bought my own set of cables. I was into it waaay badly. But I seriously think the computer kept me alive during that time. When I was away from my computer, I would slide into depression very quickly. My whole world had collapsed, and the only thing I could think about besides the computer was suicide. But put me online and I could dissapear into whatever fantasy I wanted; a complete little world of its own, seperate from my 'real' life. So in that respect I think its a very, very good thing. I can honestly say that if I didn't have those fantasy worlds to clothe myself in, there's a very good chance i'd be dead right now.
Of course, the bad news is crawling back out of your hole. It's been like five years now and i'm still not anywhere near 'normal'. I still game, just not obsessively like I did before. I love computers and gaming, and i'd like to try and make a career out of it. I've got a few, very precious real world friends, but i'm still a very guarded person (which is a stark contrast to anyone who knew me before). I'm actually making progress (or at least trying to) on dealing with my anxiety issues now. I don't NEED the computer like I used to, though I still enjoy it very, very much. I can go outside again if things need doing. Being out in public doesn't bother me nearly as much, and i'm a lot better in social situations too. My life is slowly moving forward again, though admittedly I have a few years of catching up to do. I've got my ups and downs of course, but with the help of friends, familly, and what little motivation I can muster, i'm getting a life back.
So in that light, are games a tool? A drug? I'd consider them my shield, but whatever they are i'd just like to echo the sentiments of the parent post: Address the problem, not the result.
Why do I poke at France? Because they're there!:D
And for the record, i'm not American, i'm Canadian. So I don't disagree with the French on the whole "War on Terror" crap. Infact i'd rather side with the French than the US on that one - my apologies it seemed like I was bashing them for their stance on that.
Anyways, as a Canuck you see, my right to make fun of the french goes waaaay back. Plains of Abraham, years of Quebecois seperatist tensions, and whatnot. So its all good.;)
(And just incase anyone still thinks i'm an asshole: I actually live in a french-settled community with a good chunk of french canadian residents still living in it. One of my best friends is actually a francophone, so I get to make fun of her accent and learn useful new phrases like "ma maudite merde". Oh, and I dated a half-french girl once, if that counts for anything. Excuse me while I go take a shower. Uh - no relation to the mention of dating a french girl, of course...:P)
AOL is now being formally recognized by world governments as a modern military superpower. Claiming to have a lineup of over 10,000 highly trained "leet hackers", AOL claims it has enough digital firepower to "out-haxx0r" any country on the planet. Tensions are sure to rise among world leaders as they take action in this suprising turn of events.
When reached for comment, George W. Bush was quoted as saying "Well gee them AOL folks rilly seemed nice, what with sendin out em free CDs 'n such, but I guesses, I mean I supposes if they was rilly just a new kinda technuh... technuh... nucular, uh, nucular-logical warfare device - yi'see like a weppin o' mass destrucshun 'n such - then I spozes we're gonna hav'ta bomb the livin daylights outta em varmints."
Elsewhere in the world, France has surrendered and is to be re-named "LOLOLOLOLOLOMG111`". When asked how the newly conquored country would be managed, AOL spokespersons simply pointed out that a small council would be appointed, comprised of the following individuals::D,;), ^_^,:P,:X, and o_O.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, the car could probably still go somewhere - it just wouldn't make it back. ;)
Maybe my experiences are far different from yours, but I didn't think the term "Ricer" had anything to do with race anymore. Yes, "Rice Burner" was a racial slur coined long before my time and "Ricer" is a derivitive of it, but I don't think it inherited the racial aspect of its parent. Most people I know define "Rice" as being gaudy, nonfunctional, having bad taste, and/or lacking substance. In essence, being fake or putting on a display in an attempt to impress others. It never has anything to do with the race of the person being accused. "Poser" would be a good comparison or replacement: You're trying to be or look like something you aren't (a race/rally car). So "Ricer" can apply to anyone, regardless of colour. The racial connotations are an unfortunate side effect of the words origins, rather than being founded in the term itself. And nowadays rice comes in all sorts of flavours. From the stereotypical imports that the word was first bore upon, to domestics, to other classes of vehicles (eg: trucks). So IMO, "Rice" has nothing to do with race now. Its all about opinions and impressions.
But like I said, maybe my experiences have just been a lot different than yours.
Yeah, the War Measures Act basically placed Canada under a state of martial law. You could be detained indefinitly and without reason at any time. Basic rights and freedoms could be temporarilly ignored. The government pretty much had unlimited power.
The WMA was only ever invoked three times in Canadian history. World War 1, World War 2, and the FLQ Crisis (mentioned by parent). When it was used during the FLQ crisis it stirred up a lot of shit, because it was abused. People all across the country were arrested just because they were french or black or whatever. So in 85 the WMA was replaced with the Emergencies Act. Its a much tamer piece of legislation, and doesn't allow the government to superceed the entire Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It does give them additional powers, like the ability to kick you out of your house and lay claim to your property, but you can't be arrested for no good reason (though you CAN be arrested for not complying with the government's new powers). Fortunatly the Emergencies act doesn't apply to the whole country (like the WMA did), only to the area(s) actually experiencing the emergency.
So yes, the potential for abuse is still there, but compared to the draconian mindfuck that was the War Measures Act, the Emergencies act is a fluffy white bunny. Which brings up the odd realization: Other countries are moving AWAY from being able to strip people of their rights... the US is moving towards it. Scary? I think yes.
Interesting either way though.
Actually, I got a letter for downloading but not finishing a movie a while ago. I started to torrent a movie (Black Hawk Down, for the record), and about 10 seconds and 20kb in went "Nah, don't really want to see it and its going too slow to even waste my time on" and canceled it. Month later, my ISP emails me saying they recieved a complaint about me sharing this movie. I was like "WTF!? I barely even downloaded or uploaded a sliver of it!".
:)
So no, they don't take the quantity of the infraction into consideration when mass mailing their letters. I suppose from their view, it makes no difference if you steal one car, fifty cars, or someones bumper: they still think you're guilty of GTA. Though your punishment if convicted would probably be different depending on the degree of your actions. Fortunatly for me, I live in Canada where the MPAA (or whatever the Canuck equivalent is) can bite my shiny metal ass.
Ah fuck. Forgot to preview:
"In galactic terms, fission is a relatively simple process"
I meant fusion. Fusion I tells you! My kingdom for an edit button...
RTFA much? Its nuclear fission, which is different from the sun (nuclear fusion). In galactic terms, fission is a relatively simple process. All you're doing is crushing a fuckton of matter into a very dense ball, adding energy (heat), and waiting for things to go boom. :)
Fission, on the other hand, is a much more delicate process. You need relatively precise concentrations of a rare fissionable material (U235), and an almost exact quantity of water (the moderator in this case). Too little of either, and you cant sustain a reaction. Too much, and it smothers itself. For mother nature to randomly nail down the requirments for a fission reaction like that is a pretty unique event. Certainly something worth noting in a community so interested in science.
Sure! Just think of what all we discovered back then: Sex. Fire. Wheels. Pointy things to catch food with. You can blather on all you want about the theory of relativity, but where would we be without those things our ancestors invented? We'd be screwwed! Or rather, we wouldn't be... screwwed... erm. Yeah, nevermind that last part.
Though its more famously attributed to in words, it works in math too:
Intelligence * WorldPopulation = Constant
Here's a little tip or two to get UT2004 to load faster, seeing as how it made your list.
First, download the latest patch. Hell, download just about ANY patch. Epic removed the useless CD check as soon as they could get the OK from their publisher.
Second, open up your UT2004.ini file (in the 'system' folder), and find the line that says "LocalMap=NvidiaLogo.ut2" and change it to read "LocalMap=NoIntro.ut2". This will skip the nVidia advertisment by pointing to a blank intro instead (which Epic has kindly included with the game).
Tada. Your game will now load straight to the menu.
The problem these days isn't so much with developers as it is publishers. Game developers, obviously, tend to be gamers themselves. They know that CD checks suck, keys are largely useless, ads are a waste of time, and whatnot. But if they want to get their product on a shelf, they have to play along with their publisher. And since publishers only care about these little guys: $$$, they mandate that every little thing they could possibly do to save or make a buck goes into their 'product'. Thus, we get CD checks and advertisments and other annoying 'features' because some asshole in a suit likes bigger numbers instead of happier customers.
This is why this stuff Valve is trying to pull is such a shocker. They're devs. They're supposed to be on OUR side, but what they're doing is decidedly publisher-like. I'm not sure whats happened to them, but lately they seem to be smelling more of Armani and less of coke and stale pizza. So that sound you're hearing is a million gamers chewwing their nails and raising their eyebrows in the fear that VALVe is gonna pull an Anakin Skywalker -> Darth Vader routine. I sure hope they don't, but since i'm not a Half-Life fan and have never completely trusted valve in the first place, I certainly won't be shedding any tears if they start reading their press releases with a *inhale* respirator *pssh*.
Here's hoping things get better before they get worse.
Populous 3 was made by Bullfrog.
...of course, whoever I sold it to would be locked in my dungeon and tortured, electrocuted, beat up, and slapped daily for my amusement. But they don't need to know that beforehand. Oh how it'd be "good to be bad" again!)
I really miss the days of Bullfrog, they made some great fucking games. Populous, Dungeon Keeper, Magic Carpet, Syndicate... games that really stood out from the norm, and did it damn well. Lion Head was supposed to be Bullfrogs successor - someone to continue carrying the torch of innovative and outstanding games - but so far (IMO) they just haven't done it. Mind you, Bullfrog left some MASSIVE shoes to fill, but LHS just doesn't seem to have the magic touch that Bullfrog did. Molyneux's head is still in the right place though, dreaming up fantastic ideas for new games, so I can't fault him there. They just haven't quite gelled for some reason. Maybe games are too different of a beast now to expect the 'good old days' to reappear. Maybe they just need more time. Whatever it is, I sure hope LHS figures it out soon.
(And would they hurry the fuck up and make a Dungeon Keeper 3 already!? I'd sell my soul for that game!
Something tells me i'll have it tuned to Radio X for most of the game. Rage Against the Machine, plus a DJ with an attitude? ("I'm Sage - and yes that is my real name. And if you don't beleive me you can go fuck yourself"). Oh hell yeah.
Yeah, I didn't even know how lucky I was at the time.
:)
Of course, it wasn't MY doing. I chalk it up to being a hyperactive young child with two parents working full time to support the familly. Every summer, mom would just throw me into like half a dozen different camps to act as a babysitter while school was out. Some of them sucked. Others were good. This one was probably the best.
Gosh, that was like seven years ago! I don't quite recall. I think the oldest guys we had around were only like 16 or 17. The youngest was 12 I think. Most kids were around my age at the time, eg 14-15. It was just some goofy "space camp" that the local observatory/science museum put on. I doubt they even run the program anymore. But it was definitly one of my favorite summer camps ever. :)
:)
The only other one that comes close was a loooong time ago at some university. I don't even recall what the camp was about, I just remember it was the very first time i'd seen work from or heard of a little tiny company known as "Pixar". I think that was the moment, watching a little red lamp play with a beachball, that I knew I wanted to do digital art and animation.
Anyways, yeah sorry I can't really answer your question accurately. If you're really interested, maybe check out what your locale has to offer for your age group. Maybe you'll find something that you really like. Good luck!
Ah man, this story brings back good memories for me.
When I was about, oooh 14 years old or so, I went to a "Space and Science Camp" one summer. We did all sorts of crazy stuff related to space. My favorite was trying to design "crash modules" to protect an egg from a two story drop (that was hella fun).
Anyways, one of the special activities we did was a mock Moon base mission. Basically we spent one day cutting black garbage bags open and duct taping them together into a series of domes and tunnels for our "base". It had two openings: one was a sealable flap (our "airlock") and the other was an open hole that they put a big fan in to inflate the entire structure (worked really well too). Oh and some small ventillation holes in each room. Anyways, the next day we went on our "mission", which was basically a dozen or more of us stuck inside this inflated garbage bag, in the middle of a gymnasium with the lights turned off. We were divided up into teams and everyone given certain tasks. I was a communications officer, which basically ment I got to sit there and communicate with "earth" (our supervisors) on an old macintosh. We were also responsible for general coordination of the base. Another team was our Medical branch. They had some generic tests/experiments to try while we were 'on the moon', in addition to being responsible for the health of the entire staff. Theirs was actually the only 'serious' mission, because they had to test everyone regularly for signs of CO2 poisioning while we were effectively trapped inside a plastic bag for six hours straight. We also had an exploration team that got to do "moonwalks", which was basically tying a rope around one guy, blindfolding him, and shoving him out into the gymnasium to see what he could find. They came in very important (more later). The only other team I remember was our "Engineering" team, who was responsible for maintaining the base's structure, armed with nothing but some spare garbage bags, some knives, and enough duct tape to wrap an army. They even got around to making a couple of small additions to the base. Those guys had lots of fun.
The cool thing about our "mission" was, in addition to trying to complete the tasks given to us by Earth base, our supervisors fucked with us at every possible opportunity. They did shit like "solar activity disrupting communications" (disconnected our Mac from the LAN) so we were on our own for an hour. They walked around with knives and poked holes in the bags to keep the engineering team busy... VERY busy. When we were done, our base looked like someone had taken a piece of swiss cheese and put tape over all the holes. They were cruel. About 20 minutes after our engineering team completed a tunnel connecting medical to communications, I hear this slicing sound and feel air rushing past my face. I turn around, and the bastards had cut a three foot gap in the new tunnel! Engineering runs over and starts trying to tape it up, but its not gonna be airtight... so the creative bastards rip off their paper medical jumpsuits (we even had mission stickers, names, rank, etc on them) and use them to seal off the tunnel. Heh that was cool. Even cooler though, was when the "alien" got into our base through the same gap. One of the engineering guys opened up the tunnel to see about further repairs, and he finds the supervisors have slashed it (AGAIN!) and dumped a plastic turtle in the gap as an "alien". The whole base erupts in panic. Engineering shows up in force as they're the only ones with knives. Medical runs in and tries to start bossing people around because "this is a biological matter". It was hillarious. We eventually figured out (with Earth's help) that the alien was dead, and medical got the goahead to start an autopsy on it. Very cool.
By far the most exciting event in the mission was our "catastrophic power failure". Everyone's working allong happilly... computers chirping, people talking, fans humming... and then no humming. People kind of looked around at eachother real slowly like "Uhh, wa
...I hate everybody equally!"
As proof of concept, has anyone ever heard of Deathball? Its a UT mod in the theme of a sport. Its like a 6 on 6 version of gridiron football (hitting), euro football (passing/volleying/curling), and handball or hockey (small teams, use a ball launcher/gun/tool thingie to charge and shoot the ball).
Its lots of fun, even if it has a bit of a steep learning curve. But I could see someone taking a similar idea and turning it into a MMO. You could keep stats, form leagues for clan play, and do all that good MMOx stuff (like charging people money for it).
Heck, why not just take it a step further and roll the whole genre into one. Call it "Ultimate Sports Online" or something and then just throw games at it and see what sticks (hellooo expansion packs!). People could be 'universal athletes' and compete in a variety of sports from traditional (football/hockey/basketball/etc) to exceptional (paintball/rollerball/ultimate) to fantasy (deathball/gravityball/whatever). They'd bounce all over the place, being a competative player in one league (say, hockey), casual in others (paintball and rollerball), and just every once in a while indulge in a quick one on one in tennis or foosball or something.
Why wouldn't it fly? Even if its not the greatest game in the world, surely it'd be capable of at least floating above the sea of MMO-garbage on its uniqueness alone. Maybe publishers are just scared to try it. It'll probably happen one day though... and just watch half the industry try and follow suit if it turns out to be a success (especially with Joe sixpack).
IMO it could happen. Just because it hasn't yet doesn't mean it never will. But maybe i'm just being uncharacteristically optimistic today. (Now wheres my +1 spelt-a-big-word-correctly?
Wind: 800mW
Bio: 40mW
Hydro: 110mW
Coal: 2700mW
Gas: 1000mW
So while we should be increasing our Wind and Hydro output (especially wind), the lions share of the pie will still be going to coal and gas.
Some of the highlights include: Genesee 3, which is supposed to come online within a year or two and be our largest coal fired plant yet (something stupid like a 500mW peak output). Then theres a 1.9 billion dollar proposed expansion to the plant at Keephills that would ADD 900mW (!). Enermax wants to add another 400mW worth of capacity somewhere in the south too. On the gas side of things, two 300+mW plants (Meadow Creek and Crossfield) are supposed to be running sometime around 2006.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot one... Since us Albertans, like our Texan relatives to the south, like everything big and expensive, theres a proposal kicking around somewhere for a 1000mW coal fired plant at Brooks by 1010 or later. Yikes.
Honestly though, its not really suprising. Alberta produces (and consumes) about half of Canada's coal. And last I heard, at our current pace our estimated reserves would last us a good 800 years or so. We keep growing at an accellerated rate, and people demand cheap, reliable energy... so coal is the obvious answer, despite all the environmental problems.
So yeah. A heavy dependance on our abundant sources of coal, coupled with some heavy industry, and an ever booming oil/tarsands rush in the north to dig up the 1.7 trillion barrels of oil stuck there - and Alberta gets a pretty yellow spot on the map. (Go us. Woo.)
The sad part is that just next door (Saskatchewan) we're sitting on the worlds largest known deposits of uranium. Couple that with our relatively safe CANDU reactors, and Canada should have more energy than we could ever dream of consuming (lots of which i'm sure our American friends would be happy to purchase from us). We've even got a great place to bury the waste (a big chunk of granite that runs underneith like half the freakin country - aka the Canadian Shield). You couldn't ASK for a better setup.
And what happens? Mr. nuclear-boogieman strikes again. *Sigh*
Now if you'll excuse me, I think i'm going to go take up smoking.
Might as well die from my own stupidity instead of somebody elses.
MPAA: OMG! You're downloading movies you evil pirate! Why?! STOP IMMEDIATELY!!
Me: Human error. Watch. *Click* - OOPS! Finger slipped!
As for WHY they picked the colour... two reasons. One, they thought it looked "professional" and classy (like the railcars) while still being unique. This was in contrast to the very first UPS vehicles which were all painted different and often bright colours (red, yellow, etc).
Two, brown hides dirt very well, giving the impression of always being clean. Infact, the company itself borders on the obsessive with presenting a 'clean image'. UPS trucks are washed daily (!) so they always look nice. Any time a truck is damaged, the very first thing they do with it is hide the truck. Seriously, its company policy that obviously damaged/scratched vehicles are not allowed to sit in sight of the public. The company also has VERY strict rules on the apperance of its employees too (the ones the public sees anyways).
Anyways... yeah, just wanted to share that little nugget of information. People don't realize just how much time, money, and effort some companies (like UPS) put into image. The objective being, of course, that people DON'T realize the amount of work it takes... and instead simply create a network of positive associations - like colours and apperances - with the company entity.
It really is amazing what you don't know you know.
Hey wait a sec... i've tried all three of those before!
The drugs didn't work. All I got was a raised eyebrow because i've never even smoked a cig, much less a joint (and she knows it). Asking for booze... worked! She owes me a beer for when I replaced a CD of hers that was scratched to shit. As for the sexual favors, i've hinted down that road several times with no success. I keep lowering my rate too... last time I asked for "just a quick handjob", but she said the only handjob i'd be getting was the back of hers across my face. I think she'll crack one day though, oh yes. Nothing quite like a geek furiously typing away at a keyboard to get a woman hot, for sure.
Seriously though, most of the time my 'payment' from friends is in the form of food. They buy me fast food, random drinks, snacks, and even bring leftovers for me to finish (i'm a bit of a human garborator). I fix their computer(s), hook them up with 'discount media', and make crude sexual jokes about them. Its quite a beautiful symbiosis between human and geek, really.
True all that. I'm a gamer and i've got my share of mental problems too (social anxiety). When I was kicked out of my circle of friends in high school, I turned to gaming and the internet (which I was already big into before) because it was the only safe place I had left. The world had suddenly become a very scary place for me, and I needed a sanctuary. I know during that period of three or so years, I WAS addicted to the computer/internet/games. I'd go into withdrawl without it. I'd get cranky if I couldn't have it. When my parents removed the computer's power cables because my grades were sliding, I actually went out and bought my own set of cables. I was into it waaay badly. But I seriously think the computer kept me alive during that time. When I was away from my computer, I would slide into depression very quickly. My whole world had collapsed, and the only thing I could think about besides the computer was suicide. But put me online and I could dissapear into whatever fantasy I wanted; a complete little world of its own, seperate from my 'real' life. So in that respect I think its a very, very good thing. I can honestly say that if I didn't have those fantasy worlds to clothe myself in, there's a very good chance i'd be dead right now.
Of course, the bad news is crawling back out of your hole. It's been like five years now and i'm still not anywhere near 'normal'. I still game, just not obsessively like I did before. I love computers and gaming, and i'd like to try and make a career out of it. I've got a few, very precious real world friends, but i'm still a very guarded person (which is a stark contrast to anyone who knew me before). I'm actually making progress (or at least trying to) on dealing with my anxiety issues now. I don't NEED the computer like I used to, though I still enjoy it very, very much. I can go outside again if things need doing. Being out in public doesn't bother me nearly as much, and i'm a lot better in social situations too. My life is slowly moving forward again, though admittedly I have a few years of catching up to do. I've got my ups and downs of course, but with the help of friends, familly, and what little motivation I can muster, i'm getting a life back.
So in that light, are games a tool? A drug? I'd consider them my shield, but whatever they are i'd just like to echo the sentiments of the parent post: Address the problem, not the result.
Why do I poke at France? Because they're there! :D ;)
:P)
And for the record, i'm not American, i'm Canadian. So I don't disagree with the French on the whole "War on Terror" crap. Infact i'd rather side with the French than the US on that one - my apologies it seemed like I was bashing them for their stance on that.
Anyways, as a Canuck you see, my right to make fun of the french goes waaaay back. Plains of Abraham, years of Quebecois seperatist tensions, and whatnot. So its all good.
(And just incase anyone still thinks i'm an asshole: I actually live in a french-settled community with a good chunk of french canadian residents still living in it. One of my best friends is actually a francophone, so I get to make fun of her accent and learn useful new phrases like "ma maudite merde". Oh, and I dated a half-french girl once, if that counts for anything. Excuse me while I go take a shower. Uh - no relation to the mention of dating a french girl, of course...
AOL is now being formally recognized by world governments as a modern military superpower. Claiming to have a lineup of over 10,000 highly trained "leet hackers", AOL claims it has enough digital firepower to "out-haxx0r" any country on the planet. Tensions are sure to rise among world leaders as they take action in this suprising turn of events.
:D, ;), ^_^, :P, :X, and o_O.
When reached for comment, George W. Bush was quoted as saying "Well gee them AOL folks rilly seemed nice, what with sendin out em free CDs 'n such, but I guesses, I mean I supposes if they was rilly just a new kinda technuh... technuh... nucular, uh, nucular-logical warfare device - yi'see like a weppin o' mass destrucshun 'n such - then I spozes we're gonna hav'ta bomb the livin daylights outta em varmints."
Elsewhere in the world, France has surrendered and is to be re-named "LOLOLOLOLOLOMG111`". When asked how the newly conquored country would be managed, AOL spokespersons simply pointed out that a small council would be appointed, comprised of the following individuals:
More news as it unfolds.