Its not forfeiting parenting so much as it is forfeiting sense altogether. Credit cards are unreasonable debt for instant gratification. I still can't understand why everyone gets the things, other than their being normal and expected these days.
I really confused Gamestop the other day... I bought (at the same time) a PS1 memory card, a used copy of Gradius III/IV (PS2), and an Xbox controller. The clerk gave me a really bizarre incredulous look, so I just acted dumb and swiped my credit card backwards a few times before finally getting it right, and then wandered out.
Er, I got Quicktime disks (with a movie player) in the same packet with my system disks when I got System 7. They were an optional install, but they were certainly included with the OS. 7.5 was the first release where I recall Quicktime being on the CD with the OS (and that weird video called 'Theology'), but Quicktime with OS predates it. Speaking of 7.5, that was a totally bogus OS update... it was slower and everything it included had already existed as freeware extensions for System 7, that Apple stole and rebranded.
I've never had any formal electro-shock, but I was badly electrocuted while working on an elevator about 4 years ago. It knocked me out for around 3 hours, and when I woke up disoriented and got myself somewhere safe I slept for nearly two days. I had both memory loss and math/logic skill loss, which slowly abated over roughly a year.
The accident happened two weeks before the end of spring semester, I failed my exams badly (ended up with a low B average that semester since previous grades were very high), was sort of 'out of it' all summer, and did very badly the next fall semester (real low C average; I was in Computer Engineering and felt crippled)... I switched to Industrial and Systems Engineering in the spring, which is quite a bit easier (most of the math is probabilistics, which is more of a game than it is math), and by the end of the semester was almost normal. I went ahead and finished Industrial and Systems Engineering (turns out it was far more interesting and varied than Computer Engineering), and I've since gotten back into programming on my own.
Sounds bad, but in hindsight the electrocution was handy, it indirectly made me change majors to something I liked more, and it also drastically changed my mood. Before it, I was cynical, a bit antisocial, got headaches from high pitched noises (televisions come to mind, they always emit a loud peal), and always had heartburn (I don't know that I had an ulcer - I don't like doctors, but some days I had to eat Tums like candy). Since then, I haven't had heartburn once, I don't get headaches, and I seem to get along with people/reality a lot better. Yea, I realize that everyone claims now that ALL ulcers are bacterial, but whatever I had must not have been, unless the bacteria couldn't take a shock.
I still don't like doctors though (except surgeons, they're alright)... not anything personal against any of them or the profession, but I just think everyone and everything is over-medicated these days.
Nixon eats Chinese steel for its crunchy shell and chewy filling!
A bit more seriously though, I've never had a problem with Chinese tool parts. If anything, I've had worse luck with American ones. Granted, I only tend to overuse and break drill bits (and poor knives, never buy a CRKT knife), and I try to avoid metal-work, so there very well could be far worse quality outside of what I've seen.
And what sorts of steel products, not made in China, do you need? Nixon can supply some, at practically any price*.
*Any price a minimum of 100% above value. Nixon is not a crook.
Actually, they're putting neither into it. Since they do back HD-DVD, they've been talking releasing an Xbox360v2 with an HD-DVD drive, but I think they're really waiting to see which succeeds. Regardless, this does still hurt the 'home entertainment piece' potential of the first generation Xbox360, since it won't play any future format.
These next-generation consoles are boring anyway; I'm still trying to find an unscratched copy of R-Type Delta.
They make splendid steel products, as does Japan. Never get Pakistani steel though, ugh.
I always find that the most inferior foreign products aren't from any particular country, but are either A) sold in Radio Shack, or B) those things that say 'MADE IN USA' all over the packaging, because the packaging (or the sticker) is, but the product inside could be from anywhere.
Hmmm, you should have that computer analyze 'System of a Down' and see if it returns 'UNPLEASANT'... then maybe I could prove to everyone once and for all that hearing them is actually painful. Do you have an application or whatnot that can take an audio file as input and pass judgement?
And regardless of how the office suite apps originated, why haven't they got them standardized with each other yet? As of Office 2003, Word, Excel, and Powerpoint all still have different header/footer interfaces and different table formatting interfaces, and lots of other inconsistencies, but those are the 2 that bug me the most.
I don't think anyone dismisses the concept, since as you point out, its not even remotely new. Everyone just hates the absolutely asinine fake word that now accompanies it, and realize that most things which use said word to describe themselves are, in fact, junk. The good web sites don't need overhyped media buzzwords to succeed, and anyone who thinks they do needs their kneecaps removed with a screwdriver. That's all.
The first HL had the same plot as Doom, except less cool. Man makes laboratory. Laboratory experiments with teleportation. Monsters from another dimension come through teleporters. Hero fights monsters throughout the laboratory, then in the other dimension. To me, Doom wins simply because at the end of Act 2, the marine rappels from the teleported hunk of Deimos to the surface of Hell (that would have been an awesome cutscene in Doom 3, but unfortunately they didn't go anywhere near that stuff). Half-Life had numerous gameplay advancements, but the same plot.
If you want a more interesting plot in a game from the same era as Half-Life, go play the far superior Sin.
The player models (especially the aliens/covenant elites?) looked absolutely terrible in the old Expo videos. And how was the original 3rd person version supposed to be non-linear and not require any loading? I don't remember any of those claims.
Incidentally, the first game I remember where you could jump in a car and drive it in big indoor/outdoor levels was Terminator: Future Shock, an old DOS game from Bethesda. The sequel/expansion, Skynet, also had flyable hunter killers, even in multiplayer.
Halo, to me, is the mutant offspring of Marathon and Future Shock.
I would like that a lot, since I seem to carry a hefty static charge regardless of what I'm wearing. Every conductive thing I touch shocks me (frequently audibly), to the point where I subconsciously flinch when I reach for light switches, doorknobs, or laptops (laptops hate me). Other things get me too, but those are the worst frequent offenders. For some reason, the shocks have never damaged or killed any electronics except for digital watches (life expectancy of about 2 days before they go nuts, with blinky screens or intermittent strange sounding noises). If I could put that annoying charge to use and power something, I would be most amused. All I can do now is poke the cat whenever I walk by it and watch it jump (granted that is pretty amusing anyway, just not very useful).
What's the problem with the 9800 Pro drivers? I replaced my aging (and ailing) Ti4600 with a 9800 Pro about 4 months ago, mainly to get DX9 support, and haven't had a single problem. Strangely, the Radeon provides a much cleaner (less noise) hardware overlay with my TV input card than the Ti4600 did.
I was skeptical of ATI, since I dealt with them a bit at work up to about the GeForce 2 era, and they were horrible... but I decided that after a 4 year hiatus (and not having been too impressed with the Ti4600) I would give them another try, and this time I'm impressed. Granted I didn't get the 9800 when it was a new product, but its a wonderfully performing card for $130. I can even run FPSs with VSync on, so I don't get sick.
I like the Jumpdrive Secure since its the only USB key I've ever seen that has a metal post connecting to its (metal) lanyard/keychain ring. I don't trust any of the plastic->metal or plastic->plastic ones. Are there any thinner models on the market that also have metal attachment bits?
I coated the innards of my old Rio 500 in Shoe Goo (actual product name, it repairs soles) to waterproof it, and it worked fine. Still works now, 5 years later, actually.
MS's largest office customer, the US Government, and most large corporations concerned about security probably won't want anything to do with an online office-suite for paranoia reasons. I'm almost certain the Army wouldn't touch it at all. If anything, if their office suite becomes an accepted format, its going to lose them some academic and (perhaps) small business licenses, and maybe some of the crap they bundle with Dells (crap+crap=crap, who'd imagine?). So why this might irk MS a bit, I don't think its going to affect sales to their core customers. I even doubt that public schools would adopt it over MS Office, since they're so hellbent on teaching it in all their "business" classes.
I would enjoy some sort of kickass web-based spreadsheet that saved to GMail though, as long as it had robust functions and the ability to write my own functions. That would be really handy.
GTA 2 was terrible, it had no style. GTA 1 and the London pack were awesome though, for their time, or now. It was a cool kind of arcade-ish game originally, before it turned into the bloated POS that it is now.
I still wish that Capcom would re-release some of their DC library on PS2, Xbox, or some other system that might last into the future (PC perhaps, though their games are ill-suited to it). I would love a DVD of all their 2D shooters (Mars Matrix, Gigawing 1 & 2, Gunbird 2, etc) and Cannon Spike. They already moved their Resident Evil stuff (albeit re-done) to the Gamecube, and their fighters to PS2/Xbox, but the excellent shooters are stranded on a disc format that I need a Dreamcast to ever play. I wouldn't care so much, except that nobody seems to make games like those anymore, and my Dreamcast will surely die some day.
Hmmm, they could use 343 Guilty Spark for a ball... don't know that it would actually make the game good, but being able to punch around that smug electric POS might be amusing.
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Its not forfeiting parenting so much as it is forfeiting sense altogether. Credit cards are unreasonable debt for instant gratification. I still can't understand why everyone gets the things, other than their being normal and expected these days.
I really confused Gamestop the other day... I bought (at the same time) a PS1 memory card, a used copy of Gradius III/IV (PS2), and an Xbox controller. The clerk gave me a really bizarre incredulous look, so I just acted dumb and swiped my credit card backwards a few times before finally getting it right, and then wandered out.
Er, I got Quicktime disks (with a movie player) in the same packet with my system disks when I got System 7. They were an optional install, but they were certainly included with the OS. 7.5 was the first release where I recall Quicktime being on the CD with the OS (and that weird video called 'Theology'), but Quicktime with OS predates it. Speaking of 7.5, that was a totally bogus OS update... it was slower and everything it included had already existed as freeware extensions for System 7, that Apple stole and rebranded.
I've never had any formal electro-shock, but I was badly electrocuted while working on an elevator about 4 years ago. It knocked me out for around 3 hours, and when I woke up disoriented and got myself somewhere safe I slept for nearly two days. I had both memory loss and math/logic skill loss, which slowly abated over roughly a year.
The accident happened two weeks before the end of spring semester, I failed my exams badly (ended up with a low B average that semester since previous grades were very high), was sort of 'out of it' all summer, and did very badly the next fall semester (real low C average; I was in Computer Engineering and felt crippled)... I switched to Industrial and Systems Engineering in the spring, which is quite a bit easier (most of the math is probabilistics, which is more of a game than it is math), and by the end of the semester was almost normal. I went ahead and finished Industrial and Systems Engineering (turns out it was far more interesting and varied than Computer Engineering), and I've since gotten back into programming on my own.
Sounds bad, but in hindsight the electrocution was handy, it indirectly made me change majors to something I liked more, and it also drastically changed my mood. Before it, I was cynical, a bit antisocial, got headaches from high pitched noises (televisions come to mind, they always emit a loud peal), and always had heartburn (I don't know that I had an ulcer - I don't like doctors, but some days I had to eat Tums like candy). Since then, I haven't had heartburn once, I don't get headaches, and I seem to get along with people/reality a lot better. Yea, I realize that everyone claims now that ALL ulcers are bacterial, but whatever I had must not have been, unless the bacteria couldn't take a shock.
I still don't like doctors though (except surgeons, they're alright)... not anything personal against any of them or the profession, but I just think everyone and everything is over-medicated these days.
Nixon eats Chinese steel for its crunchy shell and chewy filling!
A bit more seriously though, I've never had a problem with Chinese tool parts. If anything, I've had worse luck with American ones. Granted, I only tend to overuse and break drill bits (and poor knives, never buy a CRKT knife), and I try to avoid metal-work, so there very well could be far worse quality outside of what I've seen.
And what sorts of steel products, not made in China, do you need? Nixon can supply some, at practically any price*.
*Any price a minimum of 100% above value. Nixon is not a crook.
Nixon curses the Red Sox to an eternity of inferior baseball!
Nixon decrees that Saddam will be convicted, for all infidels who do not believe in Nixon are crooks!
Nixon will play Duke Nukem on his shiny new Playstation 3!
Nixon will return!
+1 Correct!
Actually, they're putting neither into it. Since they do back HD-DVD, they've been talking releasing an Xbox360v2 with an HD-DVD drive, but I think they're really waiting to see which succeeds. Regardless, this does still hurt the 'home entertainment piece' potential of the first generation Xbox360, since it won't play any future format.
These next-generation consoles are boring anyway; I'm still trying to find an unscratched copy of R-Type Delta.
They make splendid steel products, as does Japan. Never get Pakistani steel though, ugh.
I always find that the most inferior foreign products aren't from any particular country, but are either A) sold in Radio Shack, or B) those things that say 'MADE IN USA' all over the packaging, because the packaging (or the sticker) is, but the product inside could be from anywhere.
Hmmm, you should have that computer analyze 'System of a Down' and see if it returns 'UNPLEASANT'... then maybe I could prove to everyone once and for all that hearing them is actually painful. Do you have an application or whatnot that can take an audio file as input and pass judgement?
So, he breaks into a manor occupied by bikers who are also judges, and is surprised that he is prosecuted onsite?
I thought they actually made Excel?
And regardless of how the office suite apps originated, why haven't they got them standardized with each other yet? As of Office 2003, Word, Excel, and Powerpoint all still have different header/footer interfaces and different table formatting interfaces, and lots of other inconsistencies, but those are the 2 that bug me the most.
HE WILL RETURN!
That's the best thing I ever read!
I don't think anyone dismisses the concept, since as you point out, its not even remotely new. Everyone just hates the absolutely asinine fake word that now accompanies it, and realize that most things which use said word to describe themselves are, in fact, junk. The good web sites don't need overhyped media buzzwords to succeed, and anyone who thinks they do needs their kneecaps removed with a screwdriver. That's all.
The first HL had the same plot as Doom, except less cool. Man makes laboratory. Laboratory experiments with teleportation. Monsters from another dimension come through teleporters. Hero fights monsters throughout the laboratory, then in the other dimension. To me, Doom wins simply because at the end of Act 2, the marine rappels from the teleported hunk of Deimos to the surface of Hell (that would have been an awesome cutscene in Doom 3, but unfortunately they didn't go anywhere near that stuff). Half-Life had numerous gameplay advancements, but the same plot.
If you want a more interesting plot in a game from the same era as Half-Life, go play the far superior Sin.
The player models (especially the aliens/covenant elites?) looked absolutely terrible in the old Expo videos. And how was the original 3rd person version supposed to be non-linear and not require any loading? I don't remember any of those claims. Incidentally, the first game I remember where you could jump in a car and drive it in big indoor/outdoor levels was Terminator: Future Shock, an old DOS game from Bethesda. The sequel/expansion, Skynet, also had flyable hunter killers, even in multiplayer. Halo, to me, is the mutant offspring of Marathon and Future Shock.
I would like that a lot, since I seem to carry a hefty static charge regardless of what I'm wearing. Every conductive thing I touch shocks me (frequently audibly), to the point where I subconsciously flinch when I reach for light switches, doorknobs, or laptops (laptops hate me). Other things get me too, but those are the worst frequent offenders. For some reason, the shocks have never damaged or killed any electronics except for digital watches (life expectancy of about 2 days before they go nuts, with blinky screens or intermittent strange sounding noises). If I could put that annoying charge to use and power something, I would be most amused. All I can do now is poke the cat whenever I walk by it and watch it jump (granted that is pretty amusing anyway, just not very useful).
What's the problem with the 9800 Pro drivers? I replaced my aging (and ailing) Ti4600 with a 9800 Pro about 4 months ago, mainly to get DX9 support, and haven't had a single problem. Strangely, the Radeon provides a much cleaner (less noise) hardware overlay with my TV input card than the Ti4600 did.
I was skeptical of ATI, since I dealt with them a bit at work up to about the GeForce 2 era, and they were horrible... but I decided that after a 4 year hiatus (and not having been too impressed with the Ti4600) I would give them another try, and this time I'm impressed. Granted I didn't get the 9800 when it was a new product, but its a wonderfully performing card for $130. I can even run FPSs with VSync on, so I don't get sick.
I like the Jumpdrive Secure since its the only USB key I've ever seen that has a metal post connecting to its (metal) lanyard/keychain ring. I don't trust any of the plastic->metal or plastic->plastic ones. Are there any thinner models on the market that also have metal attachment bits?
I coated the innards of my old Rio 500 in Shoe Goo (actual product name, it repairs soles) to waterproof it, and it worked fine. Still works now, 5 years later, actually.
MS's largest office customer, the US Government, and most large corporations concerned about security probably won't want anything to do with an online office-suite for paranoia reasons. I'm almost certain the Army wouldn't touch it at all. If anything, if their office suite becomes an accepted format, its going to lose them some academic and (perhaps) small business licenses, and maybe some of the crap they bundle with Dells (crap+crap=crap, who'd imagine?). So why this might irk MS a bit, I don't think its going to affect sales to their core customers. I even doubt that public schools would adopt it over MS Office, since they're so hellbent on teaching it in all their "business" classes.
I would enjoy some sort of kickass web-based spreadsheet that saved to GMail though, as long as it had robust functions and the ability to write my own functions. That would be really handy.
GTA 2 was terrible, it had no style. GTA 1 and the London pack were awesome though, for their time, or now. It was a cool kind of arcade-ish game originally, before it turned into the bloated POS that it is now.
I still wish that Capcom would re-release some of their DC library on PS2, Xbox, or some other system that might last into the future (PC perhaps, though their games are ill-suited to it). I would love a DVD of all their 2D shooters (Mars Matrix, Gigawing 1 & 2, Gunbird 2, etc) and Cannon Spike. They already moved their Resident Evil stuff (albeit re-done) to the Gamecube, and their fighters to PS2/Xbox, but the excellent shooters are stranded on a disc format that I need a Dreamcast to ever play. I wouldn't care so much, except that nobody seems to make games like those anymore, and my Dreamcast will surely die some day.
Hmmm, they could use 343 Guilty Spark for a ball... don't know that it would actually make the game good, but being able to punch around that smug electric POS might be amusing.