Leaderboard

I've been both busy as well as sick for the past few weeks, and I had unrelatedly been planning on cutting down on any kind of social communication with the outside world as we approached the election anyways. I really only popped on to post about a couple of the movies I'd seen recently. To be honest, I've also recently come to the realization that a number of the people I used to share interests with and enjoy conversing things about on here have unfortunately either departed or at very least seemingly become less active as I have, which has made me less eager to get back on here again even after the election is over. These forums are supposed to be an enjoyable meeting of minds, a diversion from real life, and I guess I just haven't been finding them to be a positive one for a while now. And so, an iconic quote from War Games comes to mind..: @Malcador It's not an actress, but rather a high school photo of Ruth Bader Ginsburg that I saw and started using from when she passed last month.

It's been near three weeks since I last left the house. Other than to get the mail but that really doesn't count. Today I'm not only goung out I'm going to interact with... (shuuder) people! Some of the local organizations are having a "halloween carinival" for kids in town. Going to help out today. I considered bringing Sunny but probably better not to.

Especially if you want tight timings. I speak from experience, as I recently spent WAY TOO MUCH on 32 GB (2×16) of 4000 MHz 16-19-19-39. Why? 3 reasons: 1) I'm an idiot b) I want nothing to do with the voodoo black magic that is memory overclocking III) I'm an idiot

I bought G Skill Ripjaws. The heatsink isn't completely ridiculous, only sorta ridiculous, but at least I'm not paying extra for some fugly RGB.

Left-right divide is what anybody doing the divide wants to it to be. Origins of the divide comes from French Revolution, wikipedia has pretty good article about origins of left-right political spectrum: "The terms "left" and "right" appeared during the French Revolution of 1789 when members of the National Assembly divided into supporters of the king to the president's right and supporters of the revolution to his left. ... The terms "left" and "right" were not used to refer to political ideology per se, but only to seating in the legislature. After 1848, the main opposing camps were the "democratic socialists" and the "reactionaries" who used red and white flags to identify their party affiliation. With the establishment of the Third Republic in 1871, the terms were adopted by political parties: the Republican Left, the Centre Right and the Centre Left (1871) and the Extreme Left (1876) and Radical Left (1881). The beliefs of the group called the Radical Left were actually closer to the Centre Left than the beliefs of those called the Extreme Left. Beginning in the early twentieth century, the terms "left" and "right" came to be associated with specific political ideologies and were used to describe citizens' political beliefs, gradually replacing the terms "reds" and "the reaction". Those on the Left often called themselves "republicans", while those on the Right often called themselves "conservatives". The words Left and Right were at first used by their opponents as slurs. By 1914, the Left half of the legislature in France was composed of Unified Socialists, Republican Socialists and Socialist Radicals, while the parties that were called "Left" now sat on the right side. The use of the words Left and Right spread from France to other countries and came to be applied to a large number of political parties worldwide, which often differed in their political beliefs. There was asymmetry in the use of the terms Left and Right by the opposing sides. The Right mostly denied that the left–right spectrum was meaningful because they saw it as artificial and damaging to unity. However, the Left, seeking to change society, promoted the distinction. As Alain observed in 1931: "When people ask me if the division between parties of the Right and parties of the Left, men of the Right and men of the Left, still makes sense, the first thing that comes to mind is that the person asking the question is certainly not a man of the Left." In British politics, the terms "right" and "left" came into common use for the first time in the late 1930s in debates over the Spanish Civil War. The Scottish sociologist Robert M. MacIver noted in The Web of Government (1947): The right is always the party sector associated with the interests of the upper or dominant classes, the left the sector expressive of the lower economic or social classes, and the centre that of the middle classes. Historically this criterion seems acceptable. The conservative right has defended entrenched prerogatives, privileges and powers; the left has attacked them. The right has been more favorable to the aristocratic position, to the hierarchy of birth or of wealth; the left has fought for the equalization of advantage or of opportunity, for the claims of the less advantaged. Defence and attack have met, under democratic conditions, not in the name of class but in the name of principle; but the opposing principles have broadly corresponded to the interests of the different classes." Ideological groupings Generally, the left-wing is characterized by an emphasis on "ideas such as freedom, equality, fraternity, rights, progress, reform and internationalism" while the right-wing is characterized by an emphasis on "notions such as authority, hierarchy, order, duty, tradition, reaction and nationalism". Political scientists and other analysts regard the left as including anarchists, communists, socialists, democratic socialists, social democrats, left-libertarians, progressives and social liberals. Movements for racial equality and trade unionism have also been associated with the left. Political scientists and other analysts regard the right as including conservatives, right-libertarians, neoconservatives, imperialists, monarchists, fascists, reactionaries and traditionalists. A number of significant political movements do not fit precisely into the left-right spectrum, including Christian democracy, feminism, and regionalism. Though nationalism is often regarded as a right-wing doctrine, many nationalists favor egalitarian distributions of resources. There are also "liberal nationalists". Populism is regarded as having both left-wing and right-wing manifestations in the form of left-wing populism and right-wing populism, respectively. Green politics is often regarded as a movement of the left, but in some ways the green movement is difficult to definitively categorize as left or right." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left–right_political_spectrum But now days left-right division is become easier. As you need only to pick either left or right and then everything that you like is either left or right depending on what you pick and then everything you don't like belong to other option.

I like be quiet!'s (geez that's a typing nightmare) coolers and PSUs, but find their cases a bit tacky. Not Thermaltake/Coolermaster/etc level tacky, but weirdly overdesigned. Went with a Noctua cooler this time entirely for price reasons, which is a criterion they normally lose to Scythe - a special meant I could get their 14cm version for what 12cm coolers normally sell for. They do sell black versions of their product these days, though you pay extra for the privilege. For me though, even if I had a case with a window, my home office layout means the window would sit uselessly against the inside of my desk, and I'd lose out on the sound dampening material on the regular side panel. Anyway, hopefully the next step isn't too hard, but I haven't started looking. Good RAM that doesn't have a uselessly tall heatsink.

*sigh* this is categorical false. the mueller report made clear it could not and would not find the President criminal liable because the doj would not prosecute. mueller observed that to find the President criminal liable would prejudice a potential future case and would be unfair to President as well. claim trump is criminal liable w/o a chance to defend self in court were deemed unfair to trump. nevertheless, the mueller report found considerable evidence o' obstruction o' justice and unlike the conspiracy charge, refused to reach a conclusion as to appropriateness o' charges. the only thing mueller could do was exonerate or remain silent and mueller refused exonerate. logically, what does that tell you? also, you misunderstand criminal liability as described by mueller. insofar as conspiracy, there were indeed evidence supporting such a finding, but mueller recognized there were insufficient evidence to make a criminal prosecution likely to succeed. did trump and his campaign collude? sure, but were not enough evidence to make a criminal prosecution for conspiracy practical. also, impeachment has nothing whatsoever to do with criminal. impeachment resolution, for example, does not result in double jeopardy if democrats decide in january to prosecute trump for actions related to ukraine. bruce misapprehension is unacceptable but understandable which is why multiple judges lambasted barr for his summary of the mueller report. barr and republicans managed to gaslight you and many others. STATEMENT BY FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTORS anytime we see folks claim trump were proven to be free o' criminal liability by mueller report and impeachment, it has us inaudible groan. such terrible and often willful misunderstanding. is not hairsplitting by lawyers neither. this were gaslighting, pure and simple and far too many people clear wanted an excuse to believe the bs. far too many. HA! Good Fun! ps keep in mind mueller report stressed that with the conspiracy charge the investigators were critical handicapped by 2 factors: 1) inability to direct question the President 2) the President's insufficient and mendacious responses to written interrogatories. as such, the lack o' findinding o' evidence sufficient for criminal liability on conspiracy charges were anything but a strong conclusion. mueller stressed how qualified and questionable were any such conclusion given the obstacles to necessary info.

Oh, I watched it, because even though I gripe a lot and probably will hate it I still am the type of person that makes a fandom so easily exploitable. Well on the other hand, I'd pay for Netflix anyway, so I might as well watch what they were up to. Oh boy. Discovery Season three is going to be Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, just without Hercules as High Guard captain. And with a lot less force lances. Oh, wait, is there anything to say about the episode? Well... no, not really. It was 50 minutes of super pointless action, two minutes of feel-good from Dr. Dolittle where he turns out to not at all be what we expected him to be (surprise!) which makes all his interaction with Michael prior to that moment really dumb* and half a minute dedicated of the most ridiculous reason for changes to the universe ever invented. Well that makes turning the Federation into Trump's America thanks to a Romulan plot involving an ancient secret order embedded in the Tal Shiar and a terror attack on Mars using Android slave labour that managed to ignite Mars' atmosphere positively brimming with creativity and sense. Oh, and lest I forget, the two of them spend an entire montage scene WALKING from the crash site to a trading outpost / warp courier station. Walking. Even though Courier Book actually has portable transporters that show up being used in an overlong action sequence five minutes later. Really? * I can't stress enough how dumb this is. This is so really, really, really, really, REALLY dumb that it hurts. Wow.

This Hacked Coffee Maker Demands Ransom and Demonstrates a Terrifying Implication About the IoT

Yeah it's funny. I wonder why no disengagement attack is triggered then. Clearly the dying dude is disengaging and needs a last slap.

Trying to get my hands on Shadow of Rome for the PS2, didn't knew its sequel was eventually scrapped in favor of Dead Rising.

Why would anyone do such things to oneself...

Fan of Sci-Fi? Psychologists Have You in Their Sights LOL I'd say that sounds more like gamers! Yeah you nerds. Why don't you self medicate with alcohol and drugs like everyone else? LOL!

https://www.universal-sci.com/headlines/2018/9/with-usb-c-even-plugging-in-can-set-you-up-to-be-hacked

I love it when docs do this, as if they've never thought to themselves "it'll get better on its own". Just a rash, just a back/belly ache, bug bite, cold, bad clams, screwdriver slipped, etc. We're so used to our bodies doing such a good job most of the time of recovering if we give it just a little bit more time, one more day etc Glad you called/got treatment in time and it seems to be getting better.

We are having our own little election here and it's been an utter massacre. Jacinda Ardern is currently toasting the party with a cup fashioned from the hollowed out skull of her opponent and filled with the tears of the National Party faithful. No news on the two referenda (euthanasia and cannabis legalisation) for two weeks sadly. 2 million early votes, and we'll know the result in we already know the result, for all practical purposes. Would be relevant- if I was saying that the initial Soviet war strategy was competent. Think I'll just leave it at that this time.

About Star Trek Discovery season 3: I don't disagree with anything majestic wrote. I think the main problem is the writers. They don't do either proper build-up for the scene or proper consequences for the scene, or both. Like in the very beginning Burnham crash lands on a planet and gets a serious injury. She has to Will herself to stand up through the pain. She has to Will herself to walk through the pain. And that's it. That injury plays no part in the rest of episode and definitely not in the very next fight scene. Everything is like that, even the "dilithium just exploded" stuff. Sure Federation is no more, but why is dilithium still used? Do they think it wont explode twice? Or why hasn't races who didn't use dilithium risen to power? Shouldn't Romulans be top dogs now with their artificial quantum singularity engines? If you think about almost any scene in that show for even a moment, it starts to break down.

Uh...since when ?

Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning. I defeated Templar Octienne and got out of the desert. Most of the local quests are resolved and dungeons cleared, though I think all rats will drop "Raw Meat" until the end of the game, as one of the side quests requires it and does not have an ending condition (e.g. "Collect 100 pieces of raw rat meat"). While the plains are technically similar (I guess, all areas are), the region looks more welcoming.

He posted recently, he made a post with an actress avatar and I thought it was Amentep.

I think the beige was their brand badge, it took them a while to realize how many customers they lost because of that. I mean considering their lack of interest in RGB shows they only care about the performance part of their brand. I don't know, I think the price premium is worth the peace of mind for a pretty vital part of your build, which you are going to use in your next builds probably. Then again I own a Seasonic psu, so maybe I'm biased.

Well, it only took 9 years of occasionally firing up the game, but I've unlocked the last achievement I had left in TES V: Skyrim. Namely, killing a legendary dragon, which, as a prerequisite for them to spawn, means your character need to be at least lvl78. I could, of course, just have cheated and gotten this aeons ago, but I just had to do it the hard way, because that's how I roll. (oh, and I ended up being lvl79 when I got it. Ironically it attacked me just when I left the Dark Brotherhood sanctuary upon finishing that entire questchain)

A couple of days late for the reminder... (It was the 13th Oct)

One of my kittens (Lola) must have tried to eat a wasp and got stung in her upper lip. I noticed that she was acting weird (and her sister Evie was doting over her) so I went to take a look and her top left lip was hilariously swollen. I held her for a little while and pet her until she calmed down. Around 90 minutes later the swelling was gone like it never happened.

Finally made some time to get started after buying it on GOG via VPN for the equivalent of about $50AUD (~$37USD). Bit naughty I know but I've never paid the full $90AUD RRP for the regular edition of a game and I'm not about to start now. Besides, it'd be silly if I paid full price now and then also bought the CE on actual launch, which I'd be inclined to do if the game turns out good. Strong "if" though. I probably don't have anything particularly new to say that hasn't already been said in this thread. Performance on my 290X is spotty (and using Vulkan absolutely tanks the framerate), especially outdoors. Playing co-op only and there's a really annoying bug where the game constantly thinks the other player is engaged in dialogue, which is resolved by actually starting and ending another dialogue. All this is perfectly forgivable for an Early Access game of course, but are the biggest obstacles to enjoying the game as-is. I came into the game not knowing anything about 5E (or indeed 4E) but it doesn't seem all that complicated, but then as a rogue there's probably not much complexity to be had. Took a moment to figure out the spell memorisation later when I got control of the spellcasting NPCs. I'm also failing checks harder than XCOM, and I think in the final game I might look for a mod to just make all the checks static ones as per the Obsidian philosophy. Another thing carried from D:OS, particularly the first one, is that it's not particularly clear at all in which sequence you should tackle the content. It's very easy to just get funneled into the dungeon full of level 2 enemies while there's still a lot of level 1 content outside. Indeed it's fully possible to stumble into it without a full party if playing single-player, because while all the companions in this version are technically accessible almost immediately, you need a bit of luck or foreknowledge to get the right ones for your party balance before blundering into a challenging encounter. If you know where they are, only one is non-trivial (by being behind a big fight). In the end, my biggest concern for the game remains unchanged from what it was before I played this version. That the DnD licence would be a straitjacket on gameplay. The D:OS games may be somewhat divisive for pure roleplayers, but as co-op games they were unmatched, and I think the restrictions of DnD mechanics makes the emergent gameplay lose some of that magic. P.S. Get rid of the stupid lootable vases already, ugh.

Yes, new accounts need a number of approved posts before they can post without approval. In case anybody wonders why, you should see the number of unapproved spam posts by bots that gets removed before people see them

As the opening hours of Barbarossa can attest to the acreage of the Eastern half of Poland was absolutely no obstacle for the Luftwaffe in annihilating the Soviet Air Force. Not to mention in totally abandoning the Stalin Line in order to fortify the Molotov Line, with forces there under orders to not make any defensive preparations to boot, Stalin had effectively offered large formations to the Germans on a silver-platter and if anything gave them a clearer shot at Kiev and Minsk. Had the Soviet positions in Poland been recognised to be at best a tripwire against a German invasion and that there remained a need to have a defense in depth, and once the Molotov Line collapsed had the forces the Soviets hastily mustered not been ordered to conduct piecemeal and poorly organised counter-attacks with under-equipped units into the waiting jaws of ambushes the Soviets would likely have enjoyed far better exchange ratios with the Germans and the tragedy on the Eastern Front may not have been so terrible as it is in our timeline. But of course Stalin had to believe that Hitler was someone he could work with, providing him with all the materiel he needed to prop up the German economy up until the last minute and prioritising making the Red Army look good on paper while filling its officer corps with incompetent yes-men like Budyonny and Kulik. And by the same token you could ponder how those who are still with us would have fared were it not for food shipments to the Soviet Union considering the necessary mass mobilisation for both fighting and war production meant less hands working the fields, not to mention the fact that the most productive agricultural centers were no longer in Soviet hands come Case Blue, especially when undernourishment and starvation remained a perennial problem even in Soviet-controller territory.

Pretty much, yes. I also know it only works because society as a whole agrees it's worth keeping. It also helps a LOT that few governments are more under scrutiny and gets called out by free, independent press than the Scandinavian governments. They **** up, they're out. Of course the opposition parties usually wins the next election anyway, regardless of left/right affiliation. 4 years and enough dirt will have accumulated that people want "the other option". Some call it the Scandinavian Model. I think of it as a hybrid model. The socialism part is financed through high taxes and no, corporate taxes are low enough to make Danish companies very competitive internationally, ask Maersk

I think it's very likely- close to certain- that they can detect stealth planes more or less fine. It's being able to do enough fast enough with that detection which I think is the more pertinent question. Even 20 years later you could still shoot a stealth plane down with a S-125 so long as you know when and where to fire the missile; it's the when and where which is the difficult part and that gets a lot more difficult as the range of the missiles increases to the distance a S400 is capable of. The interest in the salvage was probably for the electronics/ avionics more than the stealth tech per se. The geometry of RCS reduction is not all that advanced and even a layman can infer the basic principle of it via observation. The stealth tech they might well have been interested in was the radar absorbing materials, but even then finding something that absorbs radar wavelengths isn't that difficult. IIRC the US was also still having difficulties with that paint perishing rapidly from sunlight and water at the time that F117 was brought down.

I don't disagree, the PSU is one of the most criminally overlooked parts of a build and it's very important. I too own a Seasonic PSU, it's in my 6 year old rig that's about to be retired and replaced. I have nothing but respect for Seasonic. But when I saw the Seasonic prices and then I saw a Be Quiet! Dark Power (their premium line) PSU for over $100 less... It's not like Be Quiet! is some cut-rate, fly by night company, they make very good products.

Again you're weaseling to try and claim it's different when someone you don't like does it, trying to shift by talking about "socialists" (which now presumably includes corporations) thought policing instead of the government's actual policing, and then going on to some conspiracy theory from a guy larping as Brad Pitt's edgelord character from a 90's movie. My dude, stop the cope and just admit you don't care about freedom. This has been a long day, so I'm going to get drunk and eat buffalo wings instead of posting on this forum. Surprisingly, buffalo wings aren't actually wings from a buffalo. Who could have seen that coming? If only. What happened to Bartimaeus? Seems like he hasn't been around lately either.

Well, now you've done it. I hope you're happy. North Korea is called the Democratic People's Republic of North Korea. And with that, I'll see myself out of this one. It gets old after 20 years, it's not just a cyclical discussion on this board. It was the same on Interplay's YYOP and before that on Black Isle's YOP. edit: Can we have Yrkoon and Crucis back? These threads used to be a lot more entertaining in the past. Does anyone know where they went? Le sigh.

You think it will not be the second Hilary's emails? You might need just several thousands in some key swing states to decide the election. Trump might be a con man, but the stuff he can be accused of is more abstract to a regular john and jane doe. Biden's case might be easier to spin, especially the corrupt establishment part, and corrupt media and tech industry part.

Would be relevant- if I was saying that the initial Soviet war strategy was competent. But I was only saying that their political strategy was, and that it mirrored that of the allies with the exception of being successful. Sure, Soviet deployment was idiotic, Stalin actively ignoring that an attack was coming was worse than idiotic and the initial strategic response was about the worst imaginable combination of ossified theory and a top down central command devoid of connection with reality but that doesn't mean anything for the political set up, just that Stalin squandered said set up. Which was completely in character. Having said that if there was one thing that Hitler, Churchill and Stalin all had in common it was that disaster near inevitably followed when they interfered in military matters. Sheesh, Churchill would have had Britain at war with the USSR and Germany- and Norway (!)- simultaneously if he had his way but fortunately Chamberlain was still PM in early 1940. And given all the squandering that went on it is still militarily significant that the M-R pact occurred. The Germans got within eyesight of the Kremlin from a starting point halfway through Poland, if they'd been able to launch from within spitting distance of Minsk they'd almost certainly have got to Moscow proper. Whether they'd have taken it or whether taking it would have 'won them the war' are both of course open questions. I'm sure the 25 million Soviet war dead appreciate all the British efforts to help. Shame that they didn't make a bit more of an effort to contain Hitler a few years earlier, if they had those 25 million would likely still be alive not have died.

Watching nature shows on TV can cure boredom, sadness I agree 100%. I have Curiosity Stream and also on NetFlix there are many.

Sailor Jupiter was the best one, so obviously that's why they used the hair.

Or if you want a live creature:

Oh, and for what it is worth, George_Truman, I do find your arguments pretty persuasive that the Blessing bonuses all add up to something significant, though "significant' is a pretty vague term, and I don't have a very good sense for how significant those bonuses are. One way to see that they are significant is to just look at the lump sum of the bonuses: +12 overall. +12 in one stat, or +6 in two stats, are pretty obviously significant, so that is a point in favor of your view on this. One limitation is that you won't be able to engineer the +6 in the stats that are most important to your build, since those will already be maxed or close, so the bonuses will come in the next tier of stats. That seems more significant for some builds than for others.

This is wonderful. I never fail to be astonished when, on these forums (and other video game forums I frequent), people get into spats, and then de-escalate, apologize, and reconcile. Before I started being active on video game forums, I would have thought this impossible online. These communities really are pretty wonderful, and I salute you, sir, for this display of character.

You are right sorry I was rude.