Strange, everyone I know has DIY computers, and none of them freeze. Dells don't freeze either. They just have periodic random hardware failures, forcing frequent use of their quality Indian support. I think Dell's big secret is in eliminating quality control from their manufacturing process myself, though I think Packard Bell pioneered the technique.
Also, look up a guy named Kenta Cho, he has some awesome free stuff he wrote on his site. His last game, GunRoar, is really great. There's another good free game called End Effector, though I can't recall its author.
And if you have a PS2 around: R-Types (PS1) R-Type Delta (PS1) R-Type Final (PS2) Gradius III & IV (PS2) Gradius V (PS2) Castle Shikigami 2 (PS2) Silpheed (PS2)
I highly recommend Jets n' Guns, Gradius V, and Castle Shikigami 2; the others are pretty good too.
Back when the Newton came out, I was in high school, and had a basic tech class taught by a man conveniently named Mr. Newton. He ordered a Newton, and was ecstatic about it when it arrived. Just about the first thing he did was write his name on it... 'Jim Newton'. The handwriting recognition software thought about it for a moment, then translated it to 'Jim Neutered'. He never really loved it after that.
Did you ever try typing really wild seeds into it? It rocked with a bit of experimentation, and was one of the reasons that game kept me hooked, and no game since has touched it.
Well, sluggish sales on some of those are not due as much to their being sequels as to their being bad games.
Baldur's Gate: DA was pretty good. Its still pretty good. The sequel is horrible (bad player classes, ugly texturing and modeling, very poor color palette, and very bad level design, etc).
X-Men Legends was also pretty good. Its sequel is also horrible (removed better characters than they added, levels with bad design and/or no sense of scale, combat balance tedious, etc).
Champions of Norrath I'll agree with you on. They're both pretty good, but 2 is more boards for 1, more or less. I rented 1 and bought 2 when it was $20, but I don't think I'd get another sequel unless it was moved to a next-gen console that I also happened to have bought (I'm still not sold on them). Overhead camera games are one area where I can actually see HD resolutions being very nice.
For another similar game, look at Hunter: The Reckoning. The first game was pretty good. The sequel totally blew it away, and was awesome. I would definitely pick up a sequel for that, and if it was on a next-gen console it might sway me a bit more towards its platform.
Any idea if the sales on the second Hunter were better/equal to the first?
Woah, I wasn't paying attention much. Now I really want one. I would more than likely run Windows 90% of the time, but boot back to OS X for DVD authoring and that really neat looking videoconferencing app (assuming it works well).
I always found that the best bow was a summoned (daedric) longbow, mainly since I never had to worry about repairing it (bow damage output seemed to drop rapidly with equipment damage). One of the first permanenent spells I enchant in that game is always a ring with bound longbow on it, so if the bow gets damaged, I just flick the ring on and off, and I've got a fresh one. That and some pants that give me a trickle of stamina recharge.
You know, if you ever accidentally do that to a fingernail, even if its totally off, tape it back on with duct tape and don't bother it for 2 weeks or so. I've had a fingernail and a toenail (the really painful big one) reattach well that way.
Deus Ex 2 wasn't that bad. Despite not being nearly as cool as the first one, it was better than 95% of the other crap that comes out. I bothered to finish it, which says a lot for any big commercial PC game from the last 3 years or so. And I didn't have to tape any parts back on when I was done.
Speaking of such things, will these Intel macs run Windows games? I would consider getting one if I was A) rich, and B) able to play Jets n' Guns, Alien Shooter, Worms, and a few other games on it. I'm fairly certain that Lux already runs on OS X.
Walk to the nearest service station or building with a landline and call a tow truck? Wave down another vehicle and get a ride to a service station to do the same?
If I'm somewhere desolate enough to have no habitation in walking distance and no other traffic, odds are there's no cellular service there anyway. Most of the rural areas where I've lived have had fairly poor cellular service (likely related to my past/present reluctance to carry a cellphone; they're not reliable at all in my experience). And I probably wouldn't be driving in an area like that alone or without spare parts. Again, planning. A bit of forethought can save you from many would-be emergencies.
You have to know where you are to know who you are. And you have to know where you are going to know who you will be when you get there.
The cellphone may be convenient, but left unchecked it can be a weakness. It can change you so that you always react to events, instead of anticipating them. Constantly reacting can wear you down, make you feel like prey, make you worry and fear. The cellphone's promise of independence from landlines and freedom to contact anyone from any location can actually make you more dependent, instead of more independent.
Not saying that you in particular suffer that, but its what I see in far too many people who cling to the things.
Myself, I suffer from seeing too many things as symbols. The cellphone has come to symbolize to me all that I have just mentioned. I don't think I could bring myself to carry one, despite its potential use, unless experience radically changed my mind, changed the cellphone's symbol within.
Anyway, that's enough ranting for a week, so I've had it.
Yea, he just more or less defined the Japanese 'RPG'...
Re:they have no idea!
on
Insider Threat
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· Score: 2, Interesting
When in an environment that demands those crazy passwords, the trick is not to use phrases/etc, but to use physical patterns on the keyboard. On, say, a 10 character crazy password, I'll have 5 keys pressed without shift pressed, in a pattern, being sure that at least one bit of the pattern crosses the number keys. Then I press shift and do another pattern, again hitting the number (now symbol) keys, to get my capitals and symbols.
All I have to remember is where to start and the pattern (which is easy). I don't have the actual password string in memory.
You could also completely drown it, then air it out, and it would work fine. After that incident, I filled mine with shoe repair gel, which made it practically waterproof too. The amount of music was indeed asstacular (~14 typical tracks at 128 k/s), but it was simple enough to change (and semi-frequent change happened to be feasible with how I used the thing at the time).
I don't think he's bitter, I think he's just curious. Curious as to why nobody has any faith in anybody or anything these days. Why everybody is worried about where every one else is and what they are doing. Why nobody feels secure unless they can wirelessly harrass people at other places.
I wonder the same things.
I trust my friends to take care of themselves, and to be where they say they will be, and to come and find me (or someone else) if they need help with something. Its why they're my friends. Nobody needs a cellphone because everybody is competent at living and nobody requires a constant electric lifeline to another person. Communication and planning is done when we are together, and the long gaps when we aren't together, those give us something to talk about the next time we are. There's a lot to be said for asynchronous communication as well, leaving objects or messages at the places where friends will be (this board is a good, though essentially useless, example).
And as for emergencies, a knife will serve you far better than a cellphone.
The TouchTable is being built for Northrop Grumman, who is attempting to market it to the Army for mapping applications. Its neat, but only as neat as its software, which has to be more or less custom developed.
You should try TS:Future Perfect, the premade maps are much better (in general), and the mapmaker can make some strange things that are very reminiscent of Rise of the Triad.
The Rio 500 wasn't a piece of crap; it was indestructible, had good battery life, and was easy to operate even inside of a pocket (very tactile controls, and buttons were different shapes)... all features which are notably lacking in Apple's MP3 players. It also had the ability to bookmark files (though only 1 bookmark) which was occasionally handy. About its only downside was that it was initally limited to loading via musicmatch jukebox (which is awful), but there were some open source apps developed fairly quickly to cover that.
Try 1 AA every six months for their two newer models. And they have snap-in recievers to turn them off when they're stowed. They're comfortable mice too, I prefer them to full size ones.
Are you certain that 'lean' belongs with those? I read/use all of the others fairly frequently, but I've never read or used 'leant'... I figure it couldn't be 'lent' since that's the past tense of lend.
There's a small keyboard with a thumb waldo in the top right corner that's being sold with some HP Media Center PCs, but I can't seem to find one aside from buying it bundled (which is out of the question). Its a very robust little keyboard though.
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Strange, everyone I know has DIY computers, and none of them freeze. Dells don't freeze either. They just have periodic random hardware failures, forcing frequent use of their quality Indian support. I think Dell's big secret is in eliminating quality control from their manufacturing process myself, though I think Packard Bell pioneered the technique.
Jets n' Guns
Tyrian (requires DosBox)
Star Monkey
Also, look up a guy named Kenta Cho, he has some awesome free stuff he wrote on his site. His last game, GunRoar, is really great. There's another good free game called End Effector, though I can't recall its author.
And if you have a PS2 around:
R-Types (PS1)
R-Type Delta (PS1)
R-Type Final (PS2)
Gradius III & IV (PS2)
Gradius V (PS2)
Castle Shikigami 2 (PS2)
Silpheed (PS2)
I highly recommend Jets n' Guns, Gradius V, and Castle Shikigami 2; the others are pretty good too.
Back when the Newton came out, I was in high school, and had a basic tech class taught by a man conveniently named Mr. Newton. He ordered a Newton, and was ecstatic about it when it arrived. Just about the first thing he did was write his name on it... 'Jim Newton'. The handwriting recognition software thought about it for a moment, then translated it to 'Jim Neutered'. He never really loved it after that.
I liked Septerra Core, it was a pretty good RPG that Monolith made back in 1999 (?) or so.
Did you ever try typing really wild seeds into it? It rocked with a bit of experimentation, and was one of the reasons that game kept me hooked, and no game since has touched it.
Well, sluggish sales on some of those are not due as much to their being sequels as to their being bad games.
Baldur's Gate: DA was pretty good. Its still pretty good. The sequel is horrible (bad player classes, ugly texturing and modeling, very poor color palette, and very bad level design, etc).
X-Men Legends was also pretty good. Its sequel is also horrible (removed better characters than they added, levels with bad design and/or no sense of scale, combat balance tedious, etc).
Champions of Norrath I'll agree with you on. They're both pretty good, but 2 is more boards for 1, more or less. I rented 1 and bought 2 when it was $20, but I don't think I'd get another sequel unless it was moved to a next-gen console that I also happened to have bought (I'm still not sold on them). Overhead camera games are one area where I can actually see HD resolutions being very nice.
For another similar game, look at Hunter: The Reckoning. The first game was pretty good. The sequel totally blew it away, and was awesome. I would definitely pick up a sequel for that, and if it was on a next-gen console it might sway me a bit more towards its platform.
Any idea if the sales on the second Hunter were better/equal to the first?
Woah, I wasn't paying attention much. Now I really want one. I would more than likely run Windows 90% of the time, but boot back to OS X for DVD authoring and that really neat looking videoconferencing app (assuming it works well).
I always found that the best bow was a summoned (daedric) longbow, mainly since I never had to worry about repairing it (bow damage output seemed to drop rapidly with equipment damage). One of the first permanenent spells I enchant in that game is always a ring with bound longbow on it, so if the bow gets damaged, I just flick the ring on and off, and I've got a fresh one. That and some pants that give me a trickle of stamina recharge.
No reason at all.
Its just that people are silly and like to argue.
You know, if you ever accidentally do that to a fingernail, even if its totally off, tape it back on with duct tape and don't bother it for 2 weeks or so. I've had a fingernail and a toenail (the really painful big one) reattach well that way.
Deus Ex 2 wasn't that bad. Despite not being nearly as cool as the first one, it was better than 95% of the other crap that comes out. I bothered to finish it, which says a lot for any big commercial PC game from the last 3 years or so. And I didn't have to tape any parts back on when I was done.
Speaking of such things, will these Intel macs run Windows games? I would consider getting one if I was A) rich, and B) able to play Jets n' Guns, Alien Shooter, Worms, and a few other games on it. I'm fairly certain that Lux already runs on OS X.
Bad or not, I think I would actually go see a cowboys vs. vampires movie!
Red Star got cancelled? Damn, I thought I had just forgotten about it, it had sounded awesome from some of the early preview info.
Walk to the nearest service station or building with a landline and call a tow truck?
Wave down another vehicle and get a ride to a service station to do the same?
If I'm somewhere desolate enough to have no habitation in walking distance and no other traffic, odds are there's no cellular service there anyway. Most of the rural areas where I've lived have had fairly poor cellular service (likely related to my past/present reluctance to carry a cellphone; they're not reliable at all in my experience). And I probably wouldn't be driving in an area like that alone or without spare parts. Again, planning. A bit of forethought can save you from many would-be emergencies.
You have to know where you are to know who you are. And you have to know where you are going to know who you will be when you get there.
The cellphone may be convenient, but left unchecked it can be a weakness. It can change you so that you always react to events, instead of anticipating them. Constantly reacting can wear you down, make you feel like prey, make you worry and fear. The cellphone's promise of independence from landlines and freedom to contact anyone from any location can actually make you more dependent, instead of more independent.
Not saying that you in particular suffer that, but its what I see in far too many people who cling to the things.
Myself, I suffer from seeing too many things as symbols. The cellphone has come to symbolize to me all that I have just mentioned. I don't think I could bring myself to carry one, despite its potential use, unless experience radically changed my mind, changed the cellphone's symbol within.
Anyway, that's enough ranting for a week, so I've had it.
Yea, he just more or less defined the Japanese 'RPG'...
When in an environment that demands those crazy passwords, the trick is not to use phrases/etc, but to use physical patterns on the keyboard. On, say, a 10 character crazy password, I'll have 5 keys pressed without shift pressed, in a pattern, being sure that at least one bit of the pattern crosses the number keys. Then I press shift and do another pattern, again hitting the number (now symbol) keys, to get my capitals and symbols.
All I have to remember is where to start and the pattern (which is easy). I don't have the actual password string in memory.
You could also completely drown it, then air it out, and it would work fine. After that incident, I filled mine with shoe repair gel, which made it practically waterproof too. The amount of music was indeed asstacular (~14 typical tracks at 128 k/s), but it was simple enough to change (and semi-frequent change happened to be feasible with how I used the thing at the time).
I don't think he's bitter, I think he's just curious. Curious as to why nobody has any faith in anybody or anything these days. Why everybody is worried about where every one else is and what they are doing. Why nobody feels secure unless they can wirelessly harrass people at other places.
I wonder the same things.
I trust my friends to take care of themselves, and to be where they say they will be, and to come and find me (or someone else) if they need help with something. Its why they're my friends. Nobody needs a cellphone because everybody is competent at living and nobody requires a constant electric lifeline to another person. Communication and planning is done when we are together, and the long gaps when we aren't together, those give us something to talk about the next time we are. There's a lot to be said for asynchronous communication as well, leaving objects or messages at the places where friends will be (this board is a good, though essentially useless, example).
And as for emergencies, a knife will serve you far better than a cellphone.
The TouchTable is being built for Northrop Grumman, who is attempting to market it to the Army for mapping applications. Its neat, but only as neat as its software, which has to be more or less custom developed.
You should try TS:Future Perfect, the premade maps are much better (in general), and the mapmaker can make some strange things that are very reminiscent of Rise of the Triad.
The Rio 500 wasn't a piece of crap; it was indestructible, had good battery life, and was easy to operate even inside of a pocket (very tactile controls, and buttons were different shapes)... all features which are notably lacking in Apple's MP3 players. It also had the ability to bookmark files (though only 1 bookmark) which was occasionally handy. About its only downside was that it was initally limited to loading via musicmatch jukebox (which is awful), but there were some open source apps developed fairly quickly to cover that.
Try 1 AA every six months for their two newer models. And they have snap-in recievers to turn them off when they're stowed. They're comfortable mice too, I prefer them to full size ones.
Are you certain that 'lean' belongs with those? I read/use all of the others fairly frequently, but I've never read or used 'leant'... I figure it couldn't be 'lent' since that's the past tense of lend.
I dunno, I like digging holes though. There's just something hypnotic about simultaneously making a new hole and a new hill.
I still carry a 128 MB flash drive on my keyring, and it suits me fine.
There's a small keyboard with a thumb waldo in the top right corner that's being sold with some HP Media Center PCs, but I can't seem to find one aside from buying it bundled (which is out of the question). Its a very robust little keyboard though.