Yeah, everyone loved the "Arm". The rebels. The anti-establishment. The friggin humanitarians.
They were scum in my opinion. Too feeble minded to grasp the concept of universal immortality. Too attatched to their feeble bodies to witness the ascention of humanity. Fools, every last one of them.
AFAIK Battle Tactics never expanded on the storyline, it was just a big mess of multiplayer maps and some units.
It would be cool to see how a sequel would fit into the story though. Did the core contingency work? Or did the Arm stop the Core commander in time? Personally I think it'd be the case where the Core win... you never actually see what happens after the artifact is set off. IIRC you just see a blinding flash of light and thats it. Something tells me the machine didn't actually work as planned (eg: collapsing the entire universe into a single event, and then reexpanding in another big-bang). It was an "ancient alien artifact" after all - and lord knows those things NEVER work like they're supposed to;)
The other case, where the Arm win, just doesn't leave enough loose strings to form a conflict laden future. Unless of course, they do the old prequel thing. Which would be kinda cool in and of itself - remember that TA actually took place AFTER galactic armageddon. They were pathetic, shattered remenants of a once mighty empire. The thousand unit slaughterfests in TA would be micro-skirmishes compared to the utter mayhem of the 'real' war.
Then again, I did kind of enjoy the blind rage of the post-armageddon TA atmosphere. You fought not for land or power or even your own survival. You fought for the sole purpose of destroying each and every single one of your enemies, and neither side would stop or surrender until every last trace of the enemy was eliminated. Like the announcer said: the only acceptable outcome was Total Annihilation.
Cavedog's dead, GT Interactive owned the rights to TA. Infogrames bought out GT, and after purchasing Atari, rebranded themselves as such. So now Atari (formerly Infogrames) owns the rights to TA.
But since this Phantagram deal fell through... well, if GPG can get onboard with Atari, i'm sure both parties would be more than happy to strike a deal.
Goddamn there are a lot of BS'ers on/.
You wanna know how they pick the specs for UT2003/4? They get a whole buttload of systems, and they run benchmarks on them (probably several times). The systems that average 20fps are deemed "minimum spec", and the ones that hit 40 are "reccomended". Its that simple. They don't pick them out of a hat, nVidia doesn't hand them to Epic, and marketing doesn't have any fucking input.
As for what you'll want for a system, the video card is definitly the most important piece of hardware for a modern game. Performance is almost directly related to your video card. I've got a Radeon 9700 Pro (128mb), and UT2003 runs about 30-60fps on high detail. Personally, the lowest i'd go is a high end GeForce 3, but for what its worth the game did work on a 16mb ATI Rage card for me (albet at 1-5 fps). Don't worry about the processor too much, just as long as its not holding your video card back a whole lot. The only thing you really gain in UT03 by having a fast processor is A) Fancy physics (ragdolls), and B) Snappy load times. As for how much memory, well, 256 is the lowest i'd want. Any less and you'll get into some nasty swapping issues, which is a killer for performance. Contrary to a previous post, most of your memory isn't used for the OS. IIRC, Windows XP will shrink down to as little as 50-70mb, maybe even less (depending on background programs). UT2003 on the other hand, well, at max detail it can load in more than 600mb worth of data (mostly textures) to your RAM. Fortunatly, RAM is relatively cheap, and the more you have the better. The only other thing you'll want is a broadband net connection. Dialup is playable, but Cable/DSL makes a world of difference. (Plus there are tons of cool mods you'll probably want to download)
Oh, and one other thing... I think one of the reasons the minimum specs got bumped up was due to the addition of the Onslaught gametype. Its like a mini version of BF1942. Big battlefields, vehicles, 32 players... its gonna take more iron to run a full scale war than a 6 on 6 bombing run match. But knowing Epic they've jazzed up all their maps and models as well.
Anyways, my advice to May Kasahara is this: Wait for the demo. The UT community is buzzing with activity right now, as last week Epic announced that the demo would be out within two weeks. The deadline is exactly one week from today (Friday the 13th - heh). When that hits - and you'll know it because when the UT2003 demo was released internet performance dropped all around the world - give it a shot. You'll know then weather or not you need to upgrade, or if you can live with reduced quality and questionable performance.
As far as I understood it, an analouge signal on an LCD would still cause the screen to redraw (or change) itself top to bottom, left to right, similar to a CRT. I thought only digital signals would change pixels independant of one another. Im not an LCD expert though:p.
Yes yes, sorry I should have mentioned that. You still need contrasting elements to be displayed on your screen. But with low framerates, you already have part of the equasion needed for a seizure. All thats really required is motion between two contrasting items. Then you get a contrasting pattern at low frequency, and bingo - potential seizure.
Mind you, these types of events aren't very common - just possible (especially if you sit 6" from the screen, as kids love to do:P).
Oh, and you can read up a bit on photosensitive epilepsy here. Its not very detailed (nor technical), but its a good little overview.
I don't know about "virtually removing", but an LCD fed with a digital signal would certainly be much safer. It has to be digital though, because analouge will (apparently) produce a similar refreshing effect. So not only do you have to scrape up the cash for an LCD display, you'll need to find a video card with digital output on it too. I think its safe to say most people would be wriggling on the floor after pricing out that kind of gear, epileptic or not.;)
From what I know of photosensitive epilepsy, the trigger is caused by patterns of light, like strobes and bars, etc. That means that any CRT display can cause a seizure by displaying a pattern at a certain frequency. Like a cartoon explosion or something (remember that pokemon event in Japan a few years back? Yeah, like that).
Now the problem specific to video games is refresh rates. I'm sure I don't have to explain refresh rates to a crowd of geeks, but technically it is a repeating pattern, and therefore capable of causing seizures. Luckilly, most modern CRTs refresh fast enough (60-100hz+) to avoid this problem. But a video game that pushes your hardware might not be able to render frames that fast. If your game slows down to about 25hz or so, you can cause a seizure. Especially if vsync is on, since vsync limits the frequency to the refresh rate of the monitor (to avoid rendering parts of two seperate frames in a single pass - aka "tearing"). If the refresh rate isn't met, then typically a multiple is used, at least temporarily. This can lock your refresh rate below the usual frequency for extended periods of time, which is a recipie for disaster as far as photosensitivity is concerned.
So while, yes, you probably could 'test' videogames for the likelyhood of causing seizures, the reality is that any CRT can be a hazard, regardless of media content. It just means that photosensitive epileptics have to be very careful about what they watch. And how they watch too - taking precautions like staying back from a screen (so it doesn't dominate your field of view), taking frequent breaks, etc. Basically looking out for themselves.
Not that any of this matters in a court of law, mind you.
As far as I know, seizure warnings aren't mandatory on video games anywhere in the world - though many publishers include them just to cover their own asses in situations like these.
It represents a new degree of viciousness in internet warfare: a wickedly ingenious programme persuades thousands of computers to bombard a single website on a particular date.
Say what? Hasn't/. been doing this for years already?
Nah, Timmies isn't just an eastern thing. I'm from the west too (Edmonton), and Tims is still fairly popular round here. Yeah, we have our Starbucks and indie shops and stuff too, but they haven't taken over yet. I didn't know that Starbucks was that popular in Vancouver though.:o
Real Time Strategy? Nope, not MULE. Those kinds of games (MOO, STARS!, etc) are commonly called "4X" games (expand explore exploit exterminate). They can share some common elements with their RTS bretheren, but typically they're considered to be a seperate genre. They're definitly tons of fun though!
Every Canadian out there already knows what the best kind of Coffee is: Tim Hortons.;)
(PS: Timmies uses Arabica beans, which are more expensive and flavourful than the Robusta beans usually found in instant-coffee. They don't have as much caffine though, but that just means you get to drink more! Yum!)
Actually... excuse the expression, but if the stars are aligned correctly, we can get a ship to mars in 6 or 7 months. Apparently, a pretty similar time to crossing the ocean way back when. Today, we can (or could..) cross the ocean in 3-4 hours in a Concorde. Assuming technology can eventually accomplish the same feat with space travel, we'd need a spacecraft capable of averaging roughly 15 to 16 million kph ('bout 10 million mph). Thats like... 1.5% the speed of light. Ish.
Is it possible? Maybe, maybe not. It might require some form of transportation we have yet to invent (like the jump from sailboats to aircraft), or some exotic form of propusion. Who knows. I wouldn't be suprised if it's proven possible though. The part that blows my mind is, even if we can hit 1% the speed of light and learn to zip around the solar system... what in gods name would it take for intergalactic travel? Is the speed of light absolute? Can it be circumvented? I mean, I know that's getting ahead of ourselves, but Alpha Centauri is 4.3 light years away... to reach it in 3.5 hours, you'd need to travel 10,000 times the speed of light. For the geek-record, thats more than warp 9.99. Thats pretty friggin fast, even in our fantasies. It could make hitting galactic signs with empty beer bottles a little challanging.
Yeah, everything is backed up. If a troll goes in and screws up a page, all it takes is one person to click "revert", and its fixed again. The effort it takes to ruin a page is actually greater than that it takes to restore it. Not to mention that trolls are outnumbered like a million to one. Its really just not worth someones time to bother mucking with Wikipedia. One person, or even a group of people, simply can't weild the same power as the collective whole does. So its not very appealing to trolls. Their "work" will be erased within minutes and viewed by almost no one. No point for them, especially when there are much easier places to peddle their smut.
Oh sweet! Now i'll be able to practice being gunned down by a psychoticrobotic tank before it happens in real life!
So what do you guys think? Should I try the classic "shake violently while being riddled with bullets, before slumping down a nearby wall", or should I try something different? Perhaps I can run away screaming like a little girl until i'm hit in the head? Or maybe I should go with something classier... yeah... I could take a bullet in the gut, and then lie in a pool of my own blood on the floor while reciting some inspiring and/or cheesy last words.
Hm, y'know what? I think this calls for an "Ask Slashdot". I'm gonna get right on it.
Actually, one handy side effect of Linux taking over the server market is that game developers are more likely to create and distribute Linux-server versions. And once you've got a game working on a Linux server, porting the rest of the game is relatively simple. If the gaming community can build momentum from the server market, then Linux as a gaming platform isn't much of a stretch. Personally i'd like to see it happen, because as a gamer i'm practically chained to WinXP. I'd like to try Linux, but right now it just doesn't seem like a sweet enough deal. I'd be giving up a lot of past, present, and future games. Oh, and I don't really feel like having to re-learn how to use a computer either, or go back to mucking with command lines and such... but thats just me being lazy.
I dunno why so many people have troubles with Quicktime. I have two Windows boxes (one 98, one XP), and Quicktime has never given me ANY troubles. Actually, for me its been more stable than WMP. I wonder why?:\
Boy am I happy to be a Canadian today. Where I live, in western Canada, our government doesn't give a flying fsck about us! They just think we grow pot, dig up oil, farm stuff, and get really really cold in the winter. They don't have a single good reason to make a database out of us. And hell, even if they did, it would run %7000 overbudget and not really work anyways! Oh wait... maybe they already did that last part...
Unfortunatly the problem with most games and voice chat programs (like listed in parent) is their quality - they're generally designed to have a minimal impact on your network... but that means audio quality suffers. Assuming you aren't playing something network or lag sensitive (like a shooter), one program you might want to check out is the old Battlecom system. Its defunct now, unfortunatly (Micro$oft bought out ShadowFactor and turned Battlecom into GameVoice or whatever their crap is called), but you can still get the latest version for free from the above link. The great thing about BattleCom though, is that it supports multiple compression algorithms, some of which are VERY good quality. Almost like using the phone. Of course, they're harder on your connection (broadband is probably a good idea), but they're a lot better quality than your typical CS-mumble. Which, by the way, BattleCom supports too (Alpha compression is horrible, but its kind of funny to talk like robots with it). Just as a little disclaimer, i'd like to note that some people have had issues with BattleCom in the past. Personally, it's always worked flawlessly for me, but just so you know, YMMV. Oh, and no Linux support that I know of either. But if you're into gaming, chances are you have a Win32 partition somewhere anyways.
Anywho, it might be worth checking out for a voice chat system. Your girlfriend probably wants to hear your voice - not some poorly compressed imitation. Just a potential solution to keep her happy.:)
Excuse me, but while YOU may be a sophisticated microchip or a highly advanced nanobot, I am a simple toaster. And I prefer the term "Electromechanical-American", thank-you-very-much.
You fancy machines are all alike... only thinking of yourselves, always boasting about your accomplishments. You think you're so good with your top secret laboratories and trillion dollar development budgets, don't you? Hmph! I doubt any of you can make a nice crisp golden slice of toast the way I can!
...i'd charge a $15 introductory fee, a $10 access fee, a $10 public deposit on vulnerable camera-bots (funny how those things get blown up almost every episode...), then $49.99 for the home team feed, and, as a limited time offer, $29.99 gets you *cough* exclusive *cough* footage from the other side of the battlefield! WHAT A DEAL!!!
Oh, of course this special offer is actually part of a $229.99 month bundle, which includes other exciting channels like, "The Watching Paint Dry Network", "The Foot Channel", the "Reality Shows Rejected By Every Other Network Channel", "The Knitting Knetwork", and CNN.
Did I mention the bit about your first born? Oh never mind that, just sign the contract and we'll hook you up!
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, everyone loved the "Arm". The rebels. The anti-establishment. The friggin humanitarians.
They were scum in my opinion. Too feeble minded to grasp the concept of universal immortality. Too attatched to their feeble bodies to witness the ascention of humanity. Fools, every last one of them.
Core forever!
You'll be happy to know that TA works on XP just fine for me. :)
AFAIK Battle Tactics never expanded on the storyline, it was just a big mess of multiplayer maps and some units.
;)
It would be cool to see how a sequel would fit into the story though. Did the core contingency work? Or did the Arm stop the Core commander in time? Personally I think it'd be the case where the Core win... you never actually see what happens after the artifact is set off. IIRC you just see a blinding flash of light and thats it. Something tells me the machine didn't actually work as planned (eg: collapsing the entire universe into a single event, and then reexpanding in another big-bang). It was an "ancient alien artifact" after all - and lord knows those things NEVER work like they're supposed to
The other case, where the Arm win, just doesn't leave enough loose strings to form a conflict laden future. Unless of course, they do the old prequel thing. Which would be kinda cool in and of itself - remember that TA actually took place AFTER galactic armageddon. They were pathetic, shattered remenants of a once mighty empire. The thousand unit slaughterfests in TA would be micro-skirmishes compared to the utter mayhem of the 'real' war.
Then again, I did kind of enjoy the blind rage of the post-armageddon TA atmosphere. You fought not for land or power or even your own survival. You fought for the sole purpose of destroying each and every single one of your enemies, and neither side would stop or surrender until every last trace of the enemy was eliminated. Like the announcer said: the only acceptable outcome was Total Annihilation.
Cavedog's dead, GT Interactive owned the rights to TA. Infogrames bought out GT, and after purchasing Atari, rebranded themselves as such. So now Atari (formerly Infogrames) owns the rights to TA.
But since this Phantagram deal fell through... well, if GPG can get onboard with Atari, i'm sure both parties would be more than happy to strike a deal.
Goddamn there are a lot of BS'ers on /.
You wanna know how they pick the specs for UT2003/4? They get a whole buttload of systems, and they run benchmarks on them (probably several times). The systems that average 20fps are deemed "minimum spec", and the ones that hit 40 are "reccomended". Its that simple. They don't pick them out of a hat, nVidia doesn't hand them to Epic, and marketing doesn't have any fucking input.
As for what you'll want for a system, the video card is definitly the most important piece of hardware for a modern game. Performance is almost directly related to your video card. I've got a Radeon 9700 Pro (128mb), and UT2003 runs about 30-60fps on high detail. Personally, the lowest i'd go is a high end GeForce 3, but for what its worth the game did work on a 16mb ATI Rage card for me (albet at 1-5 fps). Don't worry about the processor too much, just as long as its not holding your video card back a whole lot. The only thing you really gain in UT03 by having a fast processor is A) Fancy physics (ragdolls), and B) Snappy load times. As for how much memory, well, 256 is the lowest i'd want. Any less and you'll get into some nasty swapping issues, which is a killer for performance. Contrary to a previous post, most of your memory isn't used for the OS. IIRC, Windows XP will shrink down to as little as 50-70mb, maybe even less (depending on background programs). UT2003 on the other hand, well, at max detail it can load in more than 600mb worth of data (mostly textures) to your RAM. Fortunatly, RAM is relatively cheap, and the more you have the better. The only other thing you'll want is a broadband net connection. Dialup is playable, but Cable/DSL makes a world of difference. (Plus there are tons of cool mods you'll probably want to download)
Oh, and one other thing... I think one of the reasons the minimum specs got bumped up was due to the addition of the Onslaught gametype. Its like a mini version of BF1942. Big battlefields, vehicles, 32 players... its gonna take more iron to run a full scale war than a 6 on 6 bombing run match. But knowing Epic they've jazzed up all their maps and models as well.
Anyways, my advice to May Kasahara is this: Wait for the demo. The UT community is buzzing with activity right now, as last week Epic announced that the demo would be out within two weeks. The deadline is exactly one week from today (Friday the 13th - heh). When that hits - and you'll know it because when the UT2003 demo was released internet performance dropped all around the world - give it a shot. You'll know then weather or not you need to upgrade, or if you can live with reduced quality and questionable performance.
Happy gaming everyone.
As far as I understood it, an analouge signal on an LCD would still cause the screen to redraw (or change) itself top to bottom, left to right, similar to a CRT. I thought only digital signals would change pixels independant of one another. Im not an LCD expert though :p.
Yes yes, sorry I should have mentioned that. You still need contrasting elements to be displayed on your screen. But with low framerates, you already have part of the equasion needed for a seizure. All thats really required is motion between two contrasting items. Then you get a contrasting pattern at low frequency, and bingo - potential seizure. :P).
Mind you, these types of events aren't very common - just possible (especially if you sit 6" from the screen, as kids love to do
Oh, and you can read up a bit on photosensitive epilepsy here. Its not very detailed (nor technical), but its a good little overview.
I don't know about "virtually removing", but an LCD fed with a digital signal would certainly be much safer. It has to be digital though, because analouge will (apparently) produce a similar refreshing effect. So not only do you have to scrape up the cash for an LCD display, you'll need to find a video card with digital output on it too. I think its safe to say most people would be wriggling on the floor after pricing out that kind of gear, epileptic or not. ;)
From what I know of photosensitive epilepsy, the trigger is caused by patterns of light, like strobes and bars, etc. That means that any CRT display can cause a seizure by displaying a pattern at a certain frequency. Like a cartoon explosion or something (remember that pokemon event in Japan a few years back? Yeah, like that).
Now the problem specific to video games is refresh rates. I'm sure I don't have to explain refresh rates to a crowd of geeks, but technically it is a repeating pattern, and therefore capable of causing seizures. Luckilly, most modern CRTs refresh fast enough (60-100hz+) to avoid this problem. But a video game that pushes your hardware might not be able to render frames that fast. If your game slows down to about 25hz or so, you can cause a seizure. Especially if vsync is on, since vsync limits the frequency to the refresh rate of the monitor (to avoid rendering parts of two seperate frames in a single pass - aka "tearing"). If the refresh rate isn't met, then typically a multiple is used, at least temporarily. This can lock your refresh rate below the usual frequency for extended periods of time, which is a recipie for disaster as far as photosensitivity is concerned.
So while, yes, you probably could 'test' videogames for the likelyhood of causing seizures, the reality is that any CRT can be a hazard, regardless of media content. It just means that photosensitive epileptics have to be very careful about what they watch. And how they watch too - taking precautions like staying back from a screen (so it doesn't dominate your field of view), taking frequent breaks, etc. Basically looking out for themselves.
Not that any of this matters in a court of law, mind you.
As far as I know, seizure warnings aren't mandatory on video games anywhere in the world - though many publishers include them just to cover their own asses in situations like these.
Nah, Timmies isn't just an eastern thing. I'm from the west too (Edmonton), and Tims is still fairly popular round here. Yeah, we have our Starbucks and indie shops and stuff too, but they haven't taken over yet. I didn't know that Starbucks was that popular in Vancouver though. :o
Real Time Strategy? Nope, not MULE. Those kinds of games (MOO, STARS!, etc) are commonly called "4X" games (expand explore exploit exterminate). They can share some common elements with their RTS bretheren, but typically they're considered to be a seperate genre. They're definitly tons of fun though!
Every Canadian out there already knows what the best kind of Coffee is: Tim Hortons. ;)
(PS: Timmies uses Arabica beans, which are more expensive and flavourful than the Robusta beans usually found in instant-coffee. They don't have as much caffine though, but that just means you get to drink more! Yum!)
Actually... excuse the expression, but if the stars are aligned correctly, we can get a ship to mars in 6 or 7 months. Apparently, a pretty similar time to crossing the ocean way back when. Today, we can (or could..) cross the ocean in 3-4 hours in a Concorde. Assuming technology can eventually accomplish the same feat with space travel, we'd need a spacecraft capable of averaging roughly 15 to 16 million kph ('bout 10 million mph). Thats like... 1.5% the speed of light. Ish.
Is it possible? Maybe, maybe not. It might require some form of transportation we have yet to invent (like the jump from sailboats to aircraft), or some exotic form of propusion. Who knows. I wouldn't be suprised if it's proven possible though. The part that blows my mind is, even if we can hit 1% the speed of light and learn to zip around the solar system... what in gods name would it take for intergalactic travel? Is the speed of light absolute? Can it be circumvented? I mean, I know that's getting ahead of ourselves, but Alpha Centauri is 4.3 light years away... to reach it in 3.5 hours, you'd need to travel 10,000 times the speed of light. For the geek-record, thats more than warp 9.99. Thats pretty friggin fast, even in our fantasies. It could make hitting galactic signs with empty beer bottles a little challanging.
Yeah, everything is backed up. If a troll goes in and screws up a page, all it takes is one person to click "revert", and its fixed again. The effort it takes to ruin a page is actually greater than that it takes to restore it. Not to mention that trolls are outnumbered like a million to one. Its really just not worth someones time to bother mucking with Wikipedia. One person, or even a group of people, simply can't weild the same power as the collective whole does. So its not very appealing to trolls. Their "work" will be erased within minutes and viewed by almost no one. No point for them, especially when there are much easier places to peddle their smut.
And when OGL is already supported by the game?
Oh sweet! Now i'll be able to practice being gunned down by a psychotic robotic tank before it happens in real life!
So what do you guys think? Should I try the classic "shake violently while being riddled with bullets, before slumping down a nearby wall", or should I try something different? Perhaps I can run away screaming like a little girl until i'm hit in the head? Or maybe I should go with something classier... yeah... I could take a bullet in the gut, and then lie in a pool of my own blood on the floor while reciting some inspiring and/or cheesy last words.
Hm, y'know what? I think this calls for an "Ask Slashdot". I'm gonna get right on it.
Actually, one handy side effect of Linux taking over the server market is that game developers are more likely to create and distribute Linux-server versions. And once you've got a game working on a Linux server, porting the rest of the game is relatively simple. If the gaming community can build momentum from the server market, then Linux as a gaming platform isn't much of a stretch. Personally i'd like to see it happen, because as a gamer i'm practically chained to WinXP. I'd like to try Linux, but right now it just doesn't seem like a sweet enough deal. I'd be giving up a lot of past, present, and future games. Oh, and I don't really feel like having to re-learn how to use a computer either, or go back to mucking with command lines and such... but thats just me being lazy.
I dunno why so many people have troubles with Quicktime. I have two Windows boxes (one 98, one XP), and Quicktime has never given me ANY troubles. Actually, for me its been more stable than WMP. I wonder why? :\
Boy am I happy to be a Canadian today. Where I live, in western Canada, our government doesn't give a flying fsck about us! They just think we grow pot, dig up oil, farm stuff, and get really really cold in the winter. They don't have a single good reason to make a database out of us. And hell, even if they did, it would run %7000 overbudget and not really work anyways! Oh wait... maybe they already did that last part...
Unfortunatly the problem with most games and voice chat programs (like listed in parent) is their quality - they're generally designed to have a minimal impact on your network... but that means audio quality suffers. Assuming you aren't playing something network or lag sensitive (like a shooter), one program you might want to check out is the old Battlecom system. Its defunct now, unfortunatly (Micro$oft bought out ShadowFactor and turned Battlecom into GameVoice or whatever their crap is called), but you can still get the latest version for free from the above link. The great thing about BattleCom though, is that it supports multiple compression algorithms, some of which are VERY good quality. Almost like using the phone. Of course, they're harder on your connection (broadband is probably a good idea), but they're a lot better quality than your typical CS-mumble. Which, by the way, BattleCom supports too (Alpha compression is horrible, but its kind of funny to talk like robots with it). Just as a little disclaimer, i'd like to note that some people have had issues with BattleCom in the past. Personally, it's always worked flawlessly for me, but just so you know, YMMV. Oh, and no Linux support that I know of either. But if you're into gaming, chances are you have a Win32 partition somewhere anyways.
:)
Anywho, it might be worth checking out for a voice chat system. Your girlfriend probably wants to hear your voice - not some poorly compressed imitation. Just a potential solution to keep her happy.
Excuse me, but while YOU may be a sophisticated microchip or a highly advanced nanobot, I am a simple toaster. And I prefer the term "Electromechanical-American", thank-you-very-much.
You fancy machines are all alike... only thinking of yourselves, always boasting about your accomplishments. You think you're so good with your top secret laboratories and trillion dollar development budgets, don't you? Hmph! I doubt any of you can make a nice crisp golden slice of toast the way I can!
49.99 for both? Are you MAD!?
...i'd charge a $15 introductory fee, a $10 access fee, a $10 public deposit on vulnerable camera-bots (funny how those things get blown up almost every episode...), then $49.99 for the home team feed, and, as a limited time offer, $29.99 gets you *cough* exclusive *cough* footage from the other side of the battlefield! WHAT A DEAL!!!
Oh, of course this special offer is actually part of a $229.99 month bundle, which includes other exciting channels like, "The Watching Paint Dry Network", "The Foot Channel", the "Reality Shows Rejected By Every Other Network Channel", "The Knitting Knetwork", and CNN.
Did I mention the bit about your first born? Oh never mind that, just sign the contract and we'll hook you up!