Yeah, the blade is just too wide to easily get below the nose, and too large to easily get the area behind the jawbone (at least, without the high risk of slicing your own ear off, or other critial parts of your anatomy).
It's the closest and nicest shave in the world, but given how much time it takes to do it right, about the only time I have use for it is occasions where I really need to look good, and those aren't that often. Well, that and the occasional slow weekend, because good god does a proper shave feel good!
Stainless steel doesn't hold a very good edge at all - it tends to crumble. High carbon steel makes for a much better razor, though you have the problem that shaving usually involves water at some point, and high carbon steel tends to rust easily.
That said, you can make your own razor blades - well, to be more specific, you can forge your own straight razor. Of course, that would take quite a bit of blacksmithing skill (I used to hand-forge very sharp knives), so unless you have a forge nearby and someone to teach you, that is probably out.
Simplest thing to do would be just to buy a straight razor. You can re-sharpen them very well, and they stay extremely sharp for a good ten shaves or more, depending on how tough your facial hair is. They do take a little bit of care though, aren't cheap (start at $60), and take some small amount of manual dexterity to sharpen without messing up the edge. That said, it's easily the more viable of the two.
Yeah, if an electric razor is cutting you, you've probably got more delicate skin than your average joe. Also, safety razors (and straight razors especially) take a fair amount of manual skill to get to the point where you get a good shave without cutting yourself.
I have found the hard way that being rather bleary in the morning does not help this process...
I do, on occasion. I'm a rather large fan of it. Closest shave in the world. Tend to only use it for occasions where I need to really look good though, because you can't really do the whole 'quick shave right before heading out to work in the morning' thing.
My barber in my hometown in dayton, ohio still gives shaves with a straight razor. It is sort of an old-fashioned shop, but they really do a first-rate job. Possibly because they've been doing it for 40 straight years heh.
Shiloh Barbers on 5415 N Main St in Dayton Ohio, for any of you Daytonians who were wanting to know (slashdotters from dayton ohio that would want a shave with a straight razor has to be one of the most eclectic sets I can think of).
Yeah, I'd love to get one, but the things are so darn expensive. They start at $60 and go up from there.
It seems like they do a much better job, but I'm not sure if I want to invest the time I'd need to to care for it - mostly the sharpening.
That said, the closest shave I've ever had in my life has been with a straight razor, to the point of not having to shave the next day, or the one after that on occasion. Good god do those things cut close. It has a really nice 'old school' appeal also.
But yeah, the whole sharpening thing... Takes a fair amount of time and no small amount of manual skill. At this point, it's just the time thing...
X-COM UFO rocks - have you played Aftershock?
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Element 118 Created
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X-COM UFO rocks. Have you seen UFO: Aftershock? It's quite possibly as good as X-COM UFO itself.
Aside from the joke being completely wrong (pencils were used by both the US and Russia early on, stopped using them when a better alternative came along as pencils in a zero-G environment can actually cause a lot of problems), the Fisher Space Pen is pretty darn handy.
I like to sketch a lot, and on occasion, upside down and at other strange angles. While pencils handle this just fine, on occasion, you need ink. I prefer inks to pencils, actually. Before I found the space pen thing, I was frustrated quite often, because there weren't any ink pens that did anything close to a reasonably good job at writing upside down.
I think for most people, the pen would be a waste (other than the 'ooo nifty' factor), but for some people it is really handy (aside from people that go into outer space on a regular basis, that is).
I have no problem with them having a centralized server network; I just object to them requiring it. I should have the option of running my own server and letting people directly connect to it without getting Valve involved.
Er, you can do that...
Are you kidding? Half-Life 1 could do that with no problem! And so can (hyperbolically speaking) every other computer game in the history of computer games! It's. Not. That. Hard.
There's plenty of good reasons for it to check for patches, and after it authenticates for the first time, you can stop it from checking the Valve servers ever again. It's not like it's spying on you by any means. And realistically, that's what the only legitimate fear of 'phoning home' should be - conveying private data to someone else when it's none of their business. In this case, that's not happening, so there's no reason to get paranoid about it. And as I mentioned, you can always stop it from doing so after it authenticates for the first time.
But not zero. In fact, on a long enough timescale, the odds approach 100%.
Besides, it's the principle of the thing: if I buy something (as Valve claims I'm doing when I obtain a game from Steam), I expect to have rights to it in perpetuity. That guarantee simply isn't there, so I can't in good concience use the service. Maybe if Valve would just admit the truth that they're not "selling" anything via Steam at all, I'd reconsider. But then again, maybe not.
Bad statistics aside, you *do* have the rights to it in perpetuity. How is the guarantee not there any more than it's not with any other software? You can back up your games to CD and DVD and if you're on another computer, download them onto that one simply by signing into your Steam account. How much better can it get? They *are* selling things via Steam - you're getting code you can back up to a physical medium - with most games you can't even do that! (without breaking the CD / DVD copy protection in an illegal fashion)
Because they claim to be selling stuff! You can't sell something and yet reserve the "right" to take it away again!
Er... They don't. They can ban an account for cheating, and all that does is stop non-LAN play. It's hardly 'taking it away'.
By the way, are you aware of their policies regarding accounts? Did you know that if they decide (unilaterally) that an account got "hacked" or was used for cheating, that they can disable it? And did you know that disabling an account removes all ability to use it, including single-player?
It doesn't disable single player, only non-LAN play (internet play is the only scenario where authentication with the Valve servers is required).
Let me tell you a story: I own a copy of Half-Life, and although I bought it pre-Steam, it's been registered on Steam so that I could continue to play TFC. Anyway, had I stopped playing for about a year, but then decided to start again. But when I tried to log in, I was informed that my account was disabled (even though I hadn't even touched it)! So, I had to e-mail Valve and beg for it to be reinstated (guilty until proven innocent, you know), and then wait for several days for them to get back to me. I did eventually get my access back, but it tought me an important lesson:
Nobody who OWNS a program should have to go through that BULLSHIT just to USE the PROPERTY they OWN!
Valve is run by a bunch of assholes who apparently want to destroy the property rights of everybody but themselves. They need to be stopped, and Steam needs to die.
And that's the bottom line.
You don't think that might be a mite bit of an over-reaction? That, perhaps, they were not 'out to get you' and your property rights? And that they aren't an American court of law (the 'guilty till proven innocent' thing)? In this case, all Valve did was its best to stop cheaters - someone steals your account and cheats rampantly - what should they do? They didn't 'try to deny you your property' - it
2. making it difficult to use the software without it trying to phone home
3. refusing to make available a version of the newer games that will certainly continue to work if something ever happened to Valve or their servers
4. refusing even to make a strong written commitment that they would create such a thing, etc.
1. They've got every reason to do so, and none not to. Cheating is endemic to CS and centralized control really helps prevent that.
2. I'll agree that that one could have been done better, but it was hardly 'megalomaniacal'.
3. And the odds of that are? So close to zero to not be worth the time spent complaining about it.
4. Why should they? What onus do they have to you that would necessitate such a thing?
When you get down to it, nothing they've done can even *remotely* be considered megalomaniacal, especially considering which measures were used to preventing the widespread pirating of their software and rampant cheating.
People really need to give Valve a break on this. Technical screw-ups? Sure, hold their feet to the fire on that end. But the rest of this birdbrain paranoia? Come on now.
I think it's a great change. Like previous people mentioned, you see servers where it's nothing but deagles, AK's and M4's. All of the other guns get forgotten about because the big three are so powerful and versatile. The other guns may not even exist for all the difference it's made in the past.
With the deagle soaring to $1,000, it might actually be worth it to get the the P228 pistol, one of the most overlooked pistols in the entire game. You really can't use it when some fool with a deagle kills you in a single shot from a.50 cal. hand cannon. If the deagle becomes impossible to get in the first round, buying a P228 would actually be worthwhile. This pricing change will actually make it more enjoyable to play for the majority of people. And I think that's the way it should be.
The responsible thing to do would be for publishers not to try to have megalomaniacal control over the game after it's sold!
It's *hardly* megalomaniacal control. What sign have you *ever* seen from Valve that they are acting in a megalomaniacal fashion rather than trying to do what they think is for the best?
Wait, there's one person who isn't whining about some change to their precious game? All I see and hear is that 'change is bad' and yet, with every change that has stayed, it's been for the better. And the crowd of people who refused to play with the changed version has shrunk to a tiny and insignifigant pool.
I believe the majority, after the change has been around for a bit, tends to enjoy it and that there is just a very small and vocal minority that continues to whine about changes implemented years ago. Bunny hopping, for instance - it made the game nigh-unplayble to anyone who didn't know the technique because those that did could beat them easily. And when it was removed? HUGE OUTCRY!! But you know what happened? More people started enjoying the game.
I was hoping it would be based on real life arms selling prices - AK-47 surplus in Africa? CS AK-47 prices go down! M4 shortage in the US? M4 prices in CS go up!
The geek in me just loves the thought of working something like that out in code and actually having interns research gun pricing as a job.
CS has always been changing. For those who don't like change, they can always go back to 1.6 and enjoy something that stopped changing a while ago.
In a game like this, the publisher can make it better, and in the end, it has been for the best with every change they retained. The fan boys will whine as they always do until the majority of them actually get a chance to play it and stop complaining.
Steam is a wonderful system, especially for small game developers - the developers see a lot more money out of it than in the traditional 'stick a box on a shelf' model. The ability to push a patch is also an advantage that shouldn't be sneered at.
Well, with the whole 'twisted pair' (well, any twisted format which is most electrical cables), cables do tend to tangled. Did you think that it was voodoo?
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, the blade is just too wide to easily get below the nose, and too large to easily get the area behind the jawbone (at least, without the high risk of slicing your own ear off, or other critial parts of your anatomy).
It's the closest and nicest shave in the world, but given how much time it takes to do it right, about the only time I have use for it is occasions where I really need to look good, and those aren't that often. Well, that and the occasional slow weekend, because good god does a proper shave feel good!
Stainless steel doesn't hold a very good edge at all - it tends to crumble. High carbon steel makes for a much better razor, though you have the problem that shaving usually involves water at some point, and high carbon steel tends to rust easily.
That said, you can make your own razor blades - well, to be more specific, you can forge your own straight razor. Of course, that would take quite a bit of blacksmithing skill (I used to hand-forge very sharp knives), so unless you have a forge nearby and someone to teach you, that is probably out.
Simplest thing to do would be just to buy a straight razor. You can re-sharpen them very well, and they stay extremely sharp for a good ten shaves or more, depending on how tough your facial hair is. They do take a little bit of care though, aren't cheap (start at $60), and take some small amount of manual dexterity to sharpen without messing up the edge. That said, it's easily the more viable of the two.
Yeah, if an electric razor is cutting you, you've probably got more delicate skin than your average joe. Also, safety razors (and straight razors especially) take a fair amount of manual skill to get to the point where you get a good shave without cutting yourself.
I have found the hard way that being rather bleary in the morning does not help this process...
I do, on occasion. I'm a rather large fan of it. Closest shave in the world. Tend to only use it for occasions where I need to really look good though, because you can't really do the whole 'quick shave right before heading out to work in the morning' thing.
My barber in my hometown in dayton, ohio still gives shaves with a straight razor. It is sort of an old-fashioned shop, but they really do a first-rate job. Possibly because they've been doing it for 40 straight years heh.
Shiloh Barbers on 5415 N Main St in Dayton Ohio, for any of you Daytonians who were wanting to know (slashdotters from dayton ohio that would want a shave with a straight razor has to be one of the most eclectic sets I can think of).
Yeah, I'd love to get one, but the things are so darn expensive. They start at $60 and go up from there.
It seems like they do a much better job, but I'm not sure if I want to invest the time I'd need to to care for it - mostly the sharpening.
That said, the closest shave I've ever had in my life has been with a straight razor, to the point of not having to shave the next day, or the one after that on occasion. Good god do those things cut close. It has a really nice 'old school' appeal also.
But yeah, the whole sharpening thing... Takes a fair amount of time and no small amount of manual skill. At this point, it's just the time thing...
X-COM UFO rocks. Have you seen UFO: Aftershock? It's quite possibly as good as X-COM UFO itself.
Aside from the joke being completely wrong (pencils were used by both the US and Russia early on, stopped using them when a better alternative came along as pencils in a zero-G environment can actually cause a lot of problems), the Fisher Space Pen is pretty darn handy.
I like to sketch a lot, and on occasion, upside down and at other strange angles. While pencils handle this just fine, on occasion, you need ink. I prefer inks to pencils, actually. Before I found the space pen thing, I was frustrated quite often, because there weren't any ink pens that did anything close to a reasonably good job at writing upside down.
I think for most people, the pen would be a waste (other than the 'ooo nifty' factor), but for some people it is really handy (aside from people that go into outer space on a regular basis, that is).
I have no problem with them having a centralized server network; I just object to them requiring it. I should have the option of running my own server and letting people directly connect to it without getting Valve involved.
Er, you can do that...
Are you kidding? Half-Life 1 could do that with no problem! And so can (hyperbolically speaking) every other computer game in the history of computer games! It's. Not. That. Hard.
There's plenty of good reasons for it to check for patches, and after it authenticates for the first time, you can stop it from checking the Valve servers ever again. It's not like it's spying on you by any means. And realistically, that's what the only legitimate fear of 'phoning home' should be - conveying private data to someone else when it's none of their business. In this case, that's not happening, so there's no reason to get paranoid about it. And as I mentioned, you can always stop it from doing so after it authenticates for the first time.
But not zero. In fact, on a long enough timescale, the odds approach 100%.
Besides, it's the principle of the thing: if I buy something (as Valve claims I'm doing when I obtain a game from Steam), I expect to have rights to it in perpetuity. That guarantee simply isn't there, so I can't in good concience use the service. Maybe if Valve would just admit the truth that they're not "selling" anything via Steam at all, I'd reconsider. But then again, maybe not.
Bad statistics aside, you *do* have the rights to it in perpetuity. How is the guarantee not there any more than it's not with any other software? You can back up your games to CD and DVD and if you're on another computer, download them onto that one simply by signing into your Steam account. How much better can it get? They *are* selling things via Steam - you're getting code you can back up to a physical medium - with most games you can't even do that! (without breaking the CD / DVD copy protection in an illegal fashion)
Because they claim to be selling stuff! You can't sell something and yet reserve the "right" to take it away again!
Er... They don't. They can ban an account for cheating, and all that does is stop non-LAN play. It's hardly 'taking it away'.
By the way, are you aware of their policies regarding accounts? Did you know that if they decide (unilaterally) that an account got "hacked" or was used for cheating, that they can disable it? And did you know that disabling an account removes all ability to use it, including single-player?
It doesn't disable single player, only non-LAN play (internet play is the only scenario where authentication with the Valve servers is required).
Let me tell you a story: I own a copy of Half-Life, and although I bought it pre-Steam, it's been registered on Steam so that I could continue to play TFC. Anyway, had I stopped playing for about a year, but then decided to start again. But when I tried to log in, I was informed that my account was disabled (even though I hadn't even touched it)! So, I had to e-mail Valve and beg for it to be reinstated (guilty until proven innocent, you know), and then wait for several days for them to get back to me. I did eventually get my access back, but it tought me an important lesson: Nobody who OWNS a program should have to go through that BULLSHIT just to USE the PROPERTY they OWN! Valve is run by a bunch of assholes who apparently want to destroy the property rights of everybody but themselves. They need to be stopped, and Steam needs to die. And that's the bottom line.
You don't think that might be a mite bit of an over-reaction? That, perhaps, they were not 'out to get you' and your property rights? And that they aren't an American court of law (the 'guilty till proven innocent' thing)? In this case, all Valve did was its best to stop cheaters - someone steals your account and cheats rampantly - what should they do? They didn't 'try to deny you your property' - it
1. Retaining centralized control over multiplayer
2. making it difficult to use the software without it trying to phone home
3. refusing to make available a version of the newer games that will certainly continue to work if something ever happened to Valve or their servers
4. refusing even to make a strong written commitment that they would create such a thing, etc.
1. They've got every reason to do so, and none not to. Cheating is endemic to CS and centralized control really helps prevent that.
2. I'll agree that that one could have been done better, but it was hardly 'megalomaniacal'.
3. And the odds of that are? So close to zero to not be worth the time spent complaining about it.
4. Why should they? What onus do they have to you that would necessitate such a thing?
When you get down to it, nothing they've done can even *remotely* be considered megalomaniacal, especially considering which measures were used to preventing the widespread pirating of their software and rampant cheating.
People really need to give Valve a break on this. Technical screw-ups? Sure, hold their feet to the fire on that end. But the rest of this birdbrain paranoia? Come on now.
I think it's a great change. Like previous people mentioned, you see servers where it's nothing but deagles, AK's and M4's. All of the other guns get forgotten about because the big three are so powerful and versatile. The other guns may not even exist for all the difference it's made in the past.
.50 cal. hand cannon. If the deagle becomes impossible to get in the first round, buying a P228 would actually be worthwhile. This pricing change will actually make it more enjoyable to play for the majority of people. And I think that's the way it should be.
With the deagle soaring to $1,000, it might actually be worth it to get the the P228 pistol, one of the most overlooked pistols in the entire game. You really can't use it when some fool with a deagle kills you in a single shot from a
Who does Valve make the majority of their money from when it comes to sales of Counter-Strike?
There's always this one.
The responsible thing to do would be for publishers not to try to have megalomaniacal control over the game after it's sold!
It's *hardly* megalomaniacal control. What sign have you *ever* seen from Valve that they are acting in a megalomaniacal fashion rather than trying to do what they think is for the best?
You really need to get off your paranoia horse.
Wait, there's one person who isn't whining about some change to their precious game? All I see and hear is that 'change is bad' and yet, with every change that has stayed, it's been for the better. And the crowd of people who refused to play with the changed version has shrunk to a tiny and insignifigant pool.
I believe the majority, after the change has been around for a bit, tends to enjoy it and that there is just a very small and vocal minority that continues to whine about changes implemented years ago. Bunny hopping, for instance - it made the game nigh-unplayble to anyone who didn't know the technique because those that did could beat them easily. And when it was removed? HUGE OUTCRY!! But you know what happened? More people started enjoying the game.
I was hoping it would be based on real life arms selling prices - AK-47 surplus in Africa? CS AK-47 prices go down! M4 shortage in the US? M4 prices in CS go up!
The geek in me just loves the thought of working something like that out in code and actually having interns research gun pricing as a job.
CS has always been changing. For those who don't like change, they can always go back to 1.6 and enjoy something that stopped changing a while ago.
In a game like this, the publisher can make it better, and in the end, it has been for the best with every change they retained. The fan boys will whine as they always do until the majority of them actually get a chance to play it and stop complaining.
Steam is a wonderful system, especially for small game developers - the developers see a lot more money out of it than in the traditional 'stick a box on a shelf' model. The ability to push a patch is also an advantage that shouldn't be sneered at.
You darn kids need to get off my lawn!
Wow. That's incredible. Especially this picture! (currently using it for my desktop background)
This might help (grabbed from article before it got slashdotted):
Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3
And the really scary one mentioned earlier.
Well, with the whole 'twisted pair' (well, any twisted format which is most electrical cables), cables do tend to tangled. Did you think that it was voodoo?
A 10,000 year old caveman playing Halo? Come now! Next you'll want me to believe that people still play Counter-Strike!
May I introduce you to a groundbreaking new technology called "angled mirrors"?
Walk into a wall. This converts 90% of 'subjective reality' believers.
You have the 'lulz' my friend.