"The top 10% of earners pay 70% of the taxes. If that isn't "sharing the wealth," then socialism is much nastier than I thought."
REALLY? Because the 2006 tax rates would disagree with you..
http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/article/0,,id=150856, 00.html
You pay 35% max over 350,000, for those 10% who make 1,000,000 or more a year this is 7% more than what i make at 70k.
Not to mention all of the tax shelters that they have available to them that are completely out of my league as a wage earner.
Thanks, was actually curious because one of my systems has a 754 nforce3 chipset, not that I'll be installing vista anytime soon but if i get a "free" trial sometime then this system would be the prime candidate for the test box.
"I just hope they gave the poor sucker a few minutes of head start!"
With the turn around of the last crack, it seems this is exactly how much head start they gave....
(yes i meant coders, stupid early morning wit! Teh coffee does nothing!)
No, i agree completely, windows 2000 came with basically no driver support out of the box, XP has the best driver compatibility built in to the OS at it's time of release. The only reason I would prefer 2000 over XP is if I wanted to use the box as a server on VERY commodity hardware and no dedicated graphics card.
XP gave all the functionality that 98SE promised but failed, all of the server type tools that 2000 provided, and community driver support that was overwhelming.
OF course it was 2 SP before I installed, but i was using and fixing problems that arose on it before that and certainly made my life easier compared to 98 (working in IT).
I have always wanted the reverse of a Microwave, something that can rapidly cool food/drink, I wonder if it is possible with this technology?
Seems limited to things that are made up primarily of the same types of atoms?
I wonder if you could do this with sound waves, (or with this tech) kind of like how noise cancelling tech works, but tuned to the water in food/drink, if you specifically shot the slight or sound waves at the frequency of water (OR H or O atoms instead) molecules to steady them it would theoretically cool any organic substance...right?
It seems like EVERYTHING i complained (to my wife, who ignored me) about when using the beta has been fixed or changed.. this is great! Now I can watch online vids of Robot Chicken without being frustrated by the crude control scheme.
"One of the guys, who was easily in the top 3 of us skill-wise and had uncanny aim, used a joystick to play."
I have seen _one_ other PC player who used a joystick and trackball combo when playing CS, it is a strange sight (to be sure) but i didn't see any benefit as he wasn't any better than anyone else who used the standard. of course in games with flight (battlefield) he had a distinct advantage because of his familiarity.
How did he use the joystick? For movement or aiming? I didn't think you could control aiming with joysticks.. (in my example he used the joy for movement and the trackball for aiming).
"Also I think you'll be surprised by just how good some console players are"
They are good because they have mastered hand eye coordination WITH THE TOOLS AT HAND. The big difference here is that you have 2 completely different control schemes, one that allows for 1000 points of granularity (kb+m) and one that is a very limited range of direct movement (up/down/left/right/diagonal).
This isn't about a level playing field, the control mechanisms will completely skew this in favor of KB+M.
Then factor in the preset speed of movement with a console and it's all over...
If anyone wants a little first hand proof I submit the following.. go get a MS sidewinder game pad, hook it up to your PC and jump in a game of regular quake, CS, TFC, COD.
Let me know how good you do. (compared to normally using a KB+M) (alternatively you could just count the number of PC gamers who use gamepads, one hand should do).
"This whole debate has always struck me as largely a form of elitism on the part of PC gamers who are starting to get really marginalized by the newer consoles."
I take it you haven't done a lot of gaming on BOTH console and PC FPS?
I have played both the Halo PC port and the console, I could hold my own on the PC port (and own somewhat, not really my game of choice) but just got trounced on the console... the major factor is mouse speed, in the pc version, with a quick flick of the wrist, you can spin around and shoot the guy behind you WHILE keeping the aim level, with the console you are limited by the default turning speed of the game and the quad x axis (8 axis?), +/Dpad only has 8 direct directions you can move, up, down, left, right, and 4 points of diagonal.
A good analogy would be trying to paint a picture with an etch-a-sketch compared to pen and paper, there is just finer controls possible with a mouse (plus faster turn speeds).
There a sound of a metal door creaking and then closing that is also universal, from games to movies I always hear it.. Any movie where a metal door opens or closes will use this sound.
i wonder where it originated...
There was also a movie that used the background music from Warcraft3, but i forget the name of the movie offhand...
I have 3 kids, aged 15/12/10. The oldest isn't really into Video games, but the 2 youngest are, I let them play every game that I play (CS, Diablo2, GTA3, Quake3/4, warcraft, etc) and i always have.
Some things I have noticed:
They know the difference between games and real life, the routinely gib people in Quake, headshot people in CS, wipe out creeps in WC3 (when we all play together), but in school they get good grades and their teachers love them (no behavior problems), I know this because my wife works in the same school they attend and is privy to all of the lunch room commentary by their teachers.
When they play these games their mindsets and preferences are mirrored in the game, not the other way around. This is the biggest point I can make.. games are a way for them to express themselves, I don't see any "conditioning" that should be prevalent if you are to believe video game alarmists (E.G. Jack Thompson)
E.G. My second youngest (girl) likes to drive around GTA3 in a firetruck or ambulence doing the side missions helping people.. she doesn't gun people down/kill hookers/ etc.. in fact she berates me for not obeying the speed limit when I play.
When playing CS she likes the surf maps (where you glide around a map in a race type setting) and barely (if at all) tries to shoot anyone or fight in general. Same for Warcraft, she likes the maps where you build towns or can generate unlimited creeps and walk them around the map (no objective). In real life she loves animals, being social, and helping people...
With my son he likes to play games (CS/quake) with other people and make friendships in game, leaves if the competition is too tough and avoids conflict, and tries to help people who don't know how to do X in a game. He is the same way when playing with kids on the play ground at school.
I have never seen an increase in violent tendencies in their interactions with each other or other kids (like the neighbors, at school etc...) as a result of playing these games.
So there ya go.. btw, I have been playing video games since Doom first came out, so they have been around these games for ALL of their lives, if there was some kind of influence you would expect it to be manifested in some visable way?
I might be biased so I offer this as well, my wife doesn't play any games at all but shes their behavior constantly every day, she doesn't have any problems with them playing these games nor has she seen any changes in their behavior due to their playing them more often.
It's called build up and then dissipation. It's cumulative, and then is slowly fixed, 2003 was obviously the tipping point when the Ozone layer started to repair itself.
See this is the big worry with Global warming, if we are causing it, just stopping our contribution is still a LONG way off (read:cumulative) , it might already be too late.
But keep sticking your head in the sand or saying NAY NAY whenever the discussion arises, very productive.
"The quikest[sic] way is to put a dollar a gallon tax on all gas."
How about we tax the oil companies 1 dollar (or better yet, 20%) for every gallon of gas they sell, since they are making billions of dollars PER QUARTER in profit off of sales of the fuel that are causing these emissions?
OR tax the coal miners a percentage for every pound of coal they produce.
"We ought to be a little more informed on the theory before we consign billions to death by starvation, you think?"
So you're saying doing nothing about global warming (or even trying to curb carbon emissions) will stop people from starving to death? I don't think you have thought that line of reasoning through very well... Something about droughts and dustbowls come to mind.
"If that's consistent with a warming effect, then I'm at a loss."
Probably because your not a climatologist so you have no idea how a GLOBAL climate change will affect different regions (hint* it will be different depending on where you live).
If you were able to watch UK Channel 4's "The Great Global Warming Swindle" [channel4.com], it's been pulled from YouTube for copyright issues. Pity. It was spot on.
It was later discredited [independent.co.uk] as being full of misrepresentations, made-up statistics, bad science, anecdotes, and quotes attributed to 'scientists' who turned out to not really be experts in their field and had ties to the oil industry. That 'documentary' contradicted the vast majority of the scientific consensus. No disrespect to your 30 years of meteorology experience, but you're out of step with the national science academies of all G8 nations plus China and India, as well as the US National Research Council, the American Meteorological Society, the US Federal Climate Change Science Program, the American Geophysical Union, and just about every other scientific organisation except for the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.
From the artice in the Independent:
A Channel 4 documentary that claimed global warming is a swindle was itself flawed with major errors which seriously undermine the programme's credibility, according to an investigation by The Independent.
The Great Global Warming Swindle, was based on graphs that were distorted, mislabelled or just plain wrong. The graphs were nevertheless used to attack the credibility and honesty of climate scientists.
A graph central to the programme's thesis, purporting to show variations in global temperatures over the past century, claimed to show that global warming was not linked with industrial emissions of carbon dioxide. Yet the graph was not what it seemed.
Other graphs used out-of-date information or data that was shown some years ago to be wrong. Yet the programme makers claimed the graphs demonstrated that orthodox climate science was a conspiratorial "lie" foisted on the public.
Channel 4 yesterday distanced itself from the programme, referring this newspaper's inquiries to a public relations consultant working on behalf of Wag TV, the production company behind the documentary.
Slashdot Mirror
"Average mortgage rates during the Carter administration were over 15%! I don't even pay credit cards 15%!!!"
Really, hmm after bush signed the bill that the credit card companies wrote, my rates rose to 30%. (oh excuse me, 29.95%)
REALLY? Because the 2006 tax rates would disagree with you.. http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/article/0,,id=150856
You pay 35% max over 350,000, for those 10% who make 1,000,000 or more a year this is 7% more than what i make at 70k.
Not to mention all of the tax shelters that they have available to them that are completely out of my league as a wage earner.
Don't forget the war on Drugs!!
"men are often charged more for essential services than women."
It cuts both ways my friend, Women pay more for dry cleaning and clothing, and a lot more for "maintenance" items like makeup, haircuts, etc...
Thanks, was actually curious because one of my systems has a 754 nforce3 chipset, not that I'll be installing vista anytime soon but if i get a "free" trial sometime then this system would be the prime candidate for the test box.
With the turn around of the last crack, it seems this is exactly how much head start they gave....
(yes i meant coders, stupid early morning wit! Teh coffee does nothing!)
"run the gamut from 2.0 GHz Athlon 64 and Turion 64 systems up to the latest Core 2 Duo systems,"
Are you talking about 754 based chipsets for the athlons? In the beginning Nvidia said they wouldn't even support Nforce 3 (754 chipset) in Vista.
If not then that is a pretty small "Gamut"...
"Am I the only one who welcomed XP over 2000?"
No, i agree completely, windows 2000 came with basically no driver support out of the box, XP has the best driver compatibility built in to the OS at it's time of release. The only reason I would prefer 2000 over XP is if I wanted to use the box as a server on VERY commodity hardware and no dedicated graphics card.
XP gave all the functionality that 98SE promised but failed, all of the server type tools that 2000 provided, and community driver support that was overwhelming.
OF course it was 2 SP before I installed, but i was using and fixing problems that arose on it before that and certainly made my life easier compared to 98 (working in IT).
I have always wanted the reverse of a Microwave, something that can rapidly cool food/drink, I wonder if it is possible with this technology?
Seems limited to things that are made up primarily of the same types of atoms?
I wonder if you could do this with sound waves, (or with this tech) kind of like how noise cancelling tech works, but tuned to the water in food/drink, if you specifically shot the slight or sound waves at the frequency of water (OR H or O atoms instead) molecules to steady them it would theoretically cool any organic substance...right?
It seems like EVERYTHING i complained (to my wife, who ignored me) about when using the beta has been fixed or changed.. this is great! Now I can watch online vids of Robot Chicken without being frustrated by the crude control scheme.
GJ nintendo.
The race is on, let me tell you from the perspective of online gaming and the cheat vs cheat detection wars:
;)
The hackers have the edge.
But if you develop the AACS standard at least you have job security
"One of the guys, who was easily in the top 3 of us skill-wise and had uncanny aim, used a joystick to play."
I have seen _one_ other PC player who used a joystick and trackball combo when playing CS, it is a strange sight (to be sure) but i didn't see any benefit as he wasn't any better than anyone else who used the standard. of course in games with flight (battlefield) he had a distinct advantage because of his familiarity.
How did he use the joystick? For movement or aiming? I didn't think you could control aiming with joysticks.. (in my example he used the joy for movement and the trackball for aiming).
"Also I think you'll be surprised by just how good some console players are"
They are good because they have mastered hand eye coordination WITH THE TOOLS AT HAND. The big difference here is that you have 2 completely different control schemes, one that allows for 1000 points of granularity (kb+m) and one that is a very limited range of direct movement (up/down/left/right/diagonal).
This isn't about a level playing field, the control mechanisms will completely skew this in favor of KB+M.
Then factor in the preset speed of movement with a console and it's all over...
If anyone wants a little first hand proof I submit the following.. go get a MS sidewinder game pad, hook it up to your PC and jump in a game of regular quake, CS, TFC, COD.
Let me know how good you do. (compared to normally using a KB+M)
(alternatively you could just count the number of PC gamers who use gamepads, one hand should do).
"This whole debate has always struck me as largely a form of elitism on the part of PC gamers who are starting to get really marginalized by the newer consoles."
I take it you haven't done a lot of gaming on BOTH console and PC FPS?
I have played both the Halo PC port and the console, I could hold my own on the PC port (and own somewhat, not really my game of choice) but just got trounced on the console... the major factor is mouse speed, in the pc version, with a quick flick of the wrist, you can spin around and shoot the guy behind you WHILE keeping the aim level, with the console you are limited by the default turning speed of the game and the quad x axis (8 axis?), +/Dpad only has 8 direct directions you can move, up, down, left, right, and 4 points of diagonal.
A good analogy would be trying to paint a picture with an etch-a-sketch compared to pen and paper, there is just finer controls possible with a mouse (plus faster turn speeds).
I have only seen it in CS 1.6 myself, not in source so far (although some maps do have user created ads, like the one for the money voting mod).
You can see it when you bring up the scores/player list.
Somebody should submit this to http://www.worsethanfailure.com/
There a sound of a metal door creaking and then closing that is also universal, from games to movies I always hear it.. Any movie where a metal door opens or closes will use this sound.
i wonder where it originated...
There was also a movie that used the background music from Warcraft3, but i forget the name of the movie offhand...
I have 3 kids, aged 15/12/10. The oldest isn't really into Video games, but the 2 youngest are, I let them play every game that I play (CS, Diablo2, GTA3, Quake3/4, warcraft, etc) and i always have.
Some things I have noticed:
They know the difference between games and real life, the routinely gib people in Quake, headshot people in CS, wipe out creeps in WC3 (when we all play together), but in school they get good grades and their teachers love them (no behavior problems), I know this because my wife works in the same school they attend and is privy to all of the lunch room commentary by their teachers.
When they play these games their mindsets and preferences are mirrored in the game, not the other way around. This is the biggest point I can make.. games are a way for them to express themselves, I don't see any "conditioning" that should be prevalent if you are to believe video game alarmists (E.G. Jack Thompson)
E.G. My second youngest (girl) likes to drive around GTA3 in a firetruck or ambulence doing the side missions helping people.. she doesn't gun people down/kill hookers/ etc.. in fact she berates me for not obeying the speed limit when I play.
When playing CS she likes the surf maps (where you glide around a map in a race type setting) and barely (if at all) tries to shoot anyone or fight in general. Same for Warcraft, she likes the maps where you build towns or can generate unlimited creeps and walk them around the map (no objective). In real life she loves animals, being social, and helping people...
With my son he likes to play games (CS/quake) with other people and make friendships in game, leaves if the competition is too tough and avoids conflict, and tries to help people who don't know how to do X in a game. He is the same way when playing with kids on the play ground at school.
I have never seen an increase in violent tendencies in their interactions with each other or other kids (like the neighbors, at school etc...) as a result of playing these games.
So there ya go.. btw, I have been playing video games since Doom first came out, so they have been around these games for ALL of their lives, if there was some kind of influence you would expect it to be manifested in some visable way?
I might be biased so I offer this as well, my wife doesn't play any games at all but shes their behavior constantly every day, she doesn't have any problems with them playing these games nor has she seen any changes in their behavior due to their playing them more often.
It's called build up and then dissipation. It's cumulative, and then is slowly fixed, 2003 was obviously the tipping point when the Ozone layer started to repair itself.
:cumulative) , it might already be too late.
See this is the big worry with Global warming, if we are causing it, just stopping our contribution is still a LONG way off (read
But keep sticking your head in the sand or saying NAY NAY whenever the discussion arises, very productive.
"The quikest[sic] way is to put a dollar a gallon tax on all gas."
How about we tax the oil companies 1 dollar (or better yet, 20%) for every gallon of gas they sell, since they are making billions of dollars PER QUARTER in profit off of sales of the fuel that are causing these emissions?
OR tax the coal miners a percentage for every pound of coal they produce.
"We ought to be a little more informed on the theory before we consign billions to death by starvation, you think?"
So you're saying doing nothing about global warming (or even trying to curb carbon emissions) will stop people from starving to death? I don't think you have thought that line of reasoning through very well... Something about droughts and dustbowls come to mind.
"Umm... It was 27 degrees and snowing today."
It's supposed to be cold in Alaska.
"If that's consistent with a warming effect, then I'm at a loss."
Probably because your not a climatologist so you have no idea how a GLOBAL climate change will affect different regions (hint* it will be different depending on where you live).
"Remember how bad Freon and CFCs were? They were going to destroy the ozone layer."
d /27493/newsDate/4-Oct-2004/story.htm
Remember how we had that big hole in the Ozone that kept growing when we were using Freon and CFCs? And then we stopped using them and the ozone hole got smaller?
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsi
Yah...
fiannaFailMan (702447) Posted a thorough debunking of this "Documentary" (pulled from post a few discussions above):
3 &cid=18638829
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=22978
If you were able to watch UK Channel 4's "The Great Global Warming Swindle" [channel4.com], it's been pulled from YouTube for copyright issues. Pity. It was spot on.
It was later discredited [independent.co.uk] as being full of misrepresentations, made-up statistics, bad science, anecdotes, and quotes attributed to 'scientists' who turned out to not really be experts in their field and had ties to the oil industry. That 'documentary' contradicted the vast majority of the scientific consensus. No disrespect to your 30 years of meteorology experience, but you're out of step with the national science academies of all G8 nations plus China and India, as well as the US National Research Council, the American Meteorological Society, the US Federal Climate Change Science Program, the American Geophysical Union, and just about every other scientific organisation except for the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.
From the artice in the Independent:
A Channel 4 documentary that claimed global warming is a swindle was itself flawed with major errors which seriously undermine the programme's credibility, according to an investigation by The Independent.
The Great Global Warming Swindle, was based on graphs that were distorted, mislabelled or just plain wrong. The graphs were nevertheless used to attack the credibility and honesty of climate scientists.
A graph central to the programme's thesis, purporting to show variations in global temperatures over the past century, claimed to show that global warming was not linked with industrial emissions of carbon dioxide. Yet the graph was not what it seemed.
Other graphs used out-of-date information or data that was shown some years ago to be wrong. Yet the programme makers claimed the graphs demonstrated that orthodox climate science was a conspiratorial "lie" foisted on the public.
Channel 4 yesterday distanced itself from the programme, referring this newspaper's inquiries to a public relations consultant working on behalf of Wag TV, the production company behind the documentary.
Read on... [independent.co.uk]
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/02/26/gore-responds- to-drudge/
Don't let facts get in the way of Gore bashing, even if it turns out that the amount of energy consumed comes from solar panneling.