Best Buy and Future Shop have good return policies. They do seem to have some problems with putting returned items back on the shelf as unopened, though... For example, just recently I discovered my Xbox360 I had bought as brand new from FS several years ago is missing it's (behind-the-faceplate) warranty sticker - the most likely explanation being that someone carefully removed it then returned the unit.
Well, considering the tone in this discussion, I'm sure I'll get flamed, but...
My dad recently bought some cryogenically treated cable and good connectors to make up a power cable for his CD player (a mid-range audiophile model, with integrated DAC). Didn't cost him $700, but it was in the $200-$300 range as I recall. When he told me, I thought he was nuts... I have an EE degree, and thought similarly to you about the results, but I was shocked that it made a large, obvious difference to the clarity of the audio. Everyone in our family can hear the difference, from me, the skeptical EE, my mom the musician, my sister who could care less about stereo stuff in general, to of course my dad with his probably dubious objectivity about the whole exercise.
Alright, I run a MYSQL database at home for my little crappy web server which no one visits because pictures of me visiting Mexico isn't exactly worth typing a number into your browser.
You are underestimating the slashdot crowd. Try posting a link to your website here.
I doubt this has anything to do with 'small background tasks'. I suspect it has something to do with the fact that Windows likes to pick a random core to run the task on for each timeslice. I see this behaviour when running a single-threaded game for instance. Instead of one core being pegged at 100% cpu, the task manager shows each core running at 50%. I think this must have some bad cache effects...
Something to understand if you move to Shaw - they throttle P2P traffic nearly to oblivion (500 bytes/s is typical for me). A real pain when it comes to World of Warcraft patches (using bittorrent), I tell ya...
I agree - to me the third movie felt like a series of vignettes from the book. Taken as such, I did enjoy it, but I had read the book twice before seeing the movie...
I really fear what they are going to do to the fourth movie. I wish they'd break it into two full-length parts, but I doubt it will happen.
I think much of the material mentioned, particularly Erikson's work is fantastic... and I still love the HP series and am eagerly awaiting the next book.
Just because HP isn't quite on the same literary level, doesn't mean it isn't a very good story.
You don't mention Anarchy Online... It's quite a good game, you might want to give it a try. In my opinion better than all the others you mention, except for UO (which is outdated now), and City of Heroes (which I love, but is better suited for casual players like me than it is for powergamers). I think it fell off the map due to one of the worst launches in MMORPG history, but it has since been fixed up into a solid game. There is a 7-day trial available, and check my journal for a couple of 30-day trial keys.
I totally agree. I am playing COH right now too, and it's a huge amount of fun. It is easier to make progress in COH than most other MMORPGs I have played, which helps. Character/costume customization is great as well (though even more is better - I hope they will continue adding options). Somehow the comics theme and flexible costume creation seems to encourage more role-playing than most MMORPGs I have played before.
One game that doesn't seem to be getting much attention here is Anarchy Online, to my great disappointment. The subscriber numbers in those charts make me fear for it's long-term survival... It is a great game. Right now I'm hooked on COH, but long term I think I will be back to spending most of my time in AO (if it survives). Hopefully the upcoming expansion pack for it will renew some interest in it... I guess AO was hurt very very badly by one of the worst MMORPG launches ever... But since then it has been fixed up into a very good game. The only big flaws in AO for me are the long level grind (which a lot of games have, and isn't really a flaw if you are more than just a casual player like me), and my disappointment that they started with a semi-skill-based character development system, but back-tracked over time to a much more rigid class-based system. Anarchy Online has a 7 day trial available. It might require a credit-card, I am not certain. See http://www.anarchy-online.com/. I have a couple of 30-day trial keys I was sent - I will post those in my journal for anyone that wants them.
Slashdot Mirror
Best Buy and Future Shop have good return policies. They do seem to have some problems with putting returned items back on the shelf as unopened, though... For example, just recently I discovered my Xbox360 I had bought as brand new from FS several years ago is missing it's (behind-the-faceplate) warranty sticker - the most likely explanation being that someone carefully removed it then returned the unit.
Well, considering the tone in this discussion, I'm sure I'll get flamed, but... My dad recently bought some cryogenically treated cable and good connectors to make up a power cable for his CD player (a mid-range audiophile model, with integrated DAC). Didn't cost him $700, but it was in the $200-$300 range as I recall. When he told me, I thought he was nuts... I have an EE degree, and thought similarly to you about the results, but I was shocked that it made a large, obvious difference to the clarity of the audio. Everyone in our family can hear the difference, from me, the skeptical EE, my mom the musician, my sister who could care less about stereo stuff in general, to of course my dad with his probably dubious objectivity about the whole exercise.
I doubt this has anything to do with 'small background tasks'. I suspect it has something to do with the fact that Windows likes to pick a random core to run the task on for each timeslice. I see this behaviour when running a single-threaded game for instance. Instead of one core being pegged at 100% cpu, the task manager shows each core running at 50%. I think this must have some bad cache effects...
No need to send mail to check if a name is taken - just do a /friend to test if it is taken.
Something to understand if you move to Shaw - they throttle P2P traffic nearly to oblivion (500 bytes/s is typical for me). A real pain when it comes to World of Warcraft patches (using bittorrent), I tell ya...
Oh, they are working on changing the laws here. Just give them time...
I agree - to me the third movie felt like a series of vignettes from the book. Taken as such, I did enjoy it, but I had read the book twice before seeing the movie... I really fear what they are going to do to the fourth movie. I wish they'd break it into two full-length parts, but I doubt it will happen.
I think much of the material mentioned, particularly Erikson's work is fantastic... and I still love the HP series and am eagerly awaiting the next book. Just because HP isn't quite on the same literary level, doesn't mean it isn't a very good story.
You don't mention Anarchy Online...
It's quite a good game, you might want to give it a try. In my opinion better than all the others you mention, except for UO (which is outdated now), and City of Heroes (which I love, but is better suited for casual players like me than it is for powergamers). I think it fell off the map due to one of the worst launches in MMORPG history, but it has since been fixed up into a solid game. There is a 7-day trial available, and check my journal for a couple of 30-day trial keys.
http://www.anarchy-online.com/
I totally agree. I am playing COH right now too, and it's a huge amount of fun. It is easier to make progress in COH than most other MMORPGs I have played, which helps. Character/costume customization is great as well (though even more is better - I hope they will continue adding options). Somehow the comics theme and flexible costume creation seems to encourage more role-playing than most MMORPGs I have played before.
One game that doesn't seem to be getting much attention here is Anarchy Online, to my great disappointment. The subscriber numbers in those charts make me fear for it's long-term survival... It is a great game. Right now I'm hooked on COH, but long term I think I will be back to spending most of my time in AO (if it survives). Hopefully the upcoming expansion pack for it will renew some interest in it... I guess AO was hurt very very badly by one of the worst MMORPG launches ever... But since then it has been fixed up into a very good game. The only big flaws in AO for me are the long level grind (which a lot of games have, and isn't really a flaw if you are more than just a casual player like me), and my disappointment that they started with a semi-skill-based character development system, but back-tracked over time to a much more rigid class-based system.
Anarchy Online has a 7 day trial available. It might require a credit-card, I am not certain. See http://www.anarchy-online.com/.
I have a couple of 30-day trial keys I was sent - I will post those in my journal for anyone that wants them.