LadyCrimson

Zombieland. It was cute. The beginning was awesome/promising. But I guess I was expecting a little more. ...netflix is so great for catching up on a movie or series here or there in the middle of the night.

That's kinda my stance on it. To me it doesn't seem any worse than alcohol so I have no problem with it being legal, since alcohol is legal. But I wouldn't say using weed on a regular basis is completely harmless or without possible consequence, either.

I'm not an big audiophile or 'surround' sound fanatic but I can be really picky about my sound in certain instances. ...It's not hot today or anything, but I'm terribly tempted to shave my head, or at least the next closest thing. Sometimes hair is just too much hassle. The only thing that stops me is that unlike, say, some female singers, I doubt the look would be sexy on me. Still...I'm tempted.

Oh, yeah, silly me. Where you live would influence it a lot, if you have a very short growing season/too cold or something. Artificial lights are more of a pain in the arse to get right. Around here you can just germinate seedlings then toss them out in the backyard. I think (it feels like) half the illegal CA crops that cops like to raid, when they discover them, are people just growing them in obscure woodland park clearings.

Isn't that strange? I don't understand that either. Even if you're anonymously venting one shouldn't put in too much specific info that someone might recognize. And yet...I can kinda see the disconnect, because of the screen vs. face. I think sometimes people just forget.

Yeah, you're probably right...at least, in that most people wouldn't want the hassle of growing it. I mean, I don't even care about growing tomatoes or salad stuff in my backyard (hubby does, and keeps trying, heh). In terms of difficulty growing quality weed yourself, unless you're into all the cross pollination stuff, that's largely dependent on whether you can get the seeds from quality plants in the first place. (edit) Have you ever tried to grow it? Really...not that hard to grow "good" stuff. Mags try to make it sound complicated but it isn't. Anyway, for some users it might be an easy way to have a steady supply & then that corner store stuff would be an occasional treat, or something. Like hamburger at home and a steak on Sat. Re: the fact some people are more affected by/affected differently by weed than others... Well, that's just body/brain chemistry or something. It's no different, probably, then people who have 1 or 2 drinks & they're blotto and those who seem to be able to drink a bottle of hard liquor in a short time & still seem fairly unaffected. Every body is different...how weed affects one isn't going to be the same for everyone across the board. I knew several, in my growing up years, who could smoke weed literally all day long and still ride a bike everywhere, hold coherent convos, and do manual labor jobs with no issue. But I've also known those who could barely get off the floor/would fall asleep in an hour after a couple puffs and would complain they felt tired/foggy for three days after. heh P.S. This probably all makes me sound like a heavy user or something, lol. I tried it/short phase in my youth but haven't since then. It just makes me sleepy & stupid. But a lot of the young adult crowd I hung around were really into the stuff (instead of beer-parties they had pot parties), so I observed a lot. ;p

Huh? What does this have to do with the topic? Those examples aren't new, and stalkers aren't either. I fail to see how posting on a message board under your real name (btw, this isn't new, I've seen it in other boards where it's customary, not enforced) is a sudden qualitative jump wrt privacy risk, unless your privacy is already exposed to some degree. Chances are that the guy that's going to rape or kill you is somebody you know, not some teen asshat from the other side of the world. You guys must all be really interesting/important people. I wish I also had masses of would-be stalkers biting their nails at the chance to get my real name. You seem to have missed where I wrote: I like to think most here aren't actually all that concerned with being murdered - that would be extremely rare indeed - but I certainly don't want a plethora of angry or practical joker gamers trying to call my phone 24 hours a days, or whatnot. Do I think some irate gamer is going to hunt me down and shoot me? Well, while it's remotely possible, the odds sure are against it so I'm not worried about that really. But harassment takes many forms, not just physical harm ones. This isn't a matter of a small circle of workmates or friends or University employees/colleagues or the occasional curious person, it's random thousands, hundreds of thousands, on an open entertainment fora often filled with immature folk who might think finding your info than mailing/calling is fun revenge because they don't like your posts...or whatever. Is such life threatening? Nah. But it sure would be bloody annoying, eh?

I'm so glad I don't have a Facebook. Well, actually I do, when I created one so I could look at a Twitter friend's Facebook photo she posted, but I used a fake name and haven't logged in since.

Exactly. It's up to each person to protect their own privacy. This much should be obvious, no? So online we can't even share our age on a public fora because in combo w/real names that exposes us to too much potential stranger-harassment risk? Ridiculous. I'd rather be able to share more info/converse more freely and skip the name than the other way around. Let me decide if I trust someone enough to then give them my name/info/meet. Also, you're still missing the point that sometimes it has nothing to do with what YOU put on the web yourself. I have another friend who in 2003 had family obituary printed in a local newspaper. They put it online, and it's still there. Some careers/schools may require certain info to be public domain because of needing updated licenses etc. Should we all now never put obituaries or wedding announcements in the paper because it's too much risk w/all the 'net info/don't know when they might decide to start putting it online to 'modernize' their archives?

You definitely can't find tons of personal/abusive info on "everyone in a few minutes"....or even hundreds of minutes. But as I tried to point out before, you don't have to have a Facebook account etc. to be able to find out something, if there is anything to be found. First+last name + the usual "I'm 24/from Boston, where are you from?" + "I just got a scholarship to Yale!" or even "here's my (owned domainname) website URL" type of posts are great places to start potential stalking/harassment. I like to think most here aren't actually all that concerned with being murdered - that would be extremely rare indeed - but I certainly don't want a plethora of angry or practical joker gamers trying to call my phone 24 hours a days, or whatnot.

Room acoustics are definitely a big factor. Settings too, of course. But I'm also talking about the sound systems in theaters. Which again, isn't to say it always sounds bad...it's just completely different. The bass is loud, but it does not 'thump' deeply in the same way. Also, my ears are very sensitive to treble/high pitch and since somewhere in the early-mid-90's many theaters now seem to have it set to a point where it feels like I have broken glass bouncing on my eardrums. ...today I'm doing almost nothing. Which is kind of nice.

I have no way of knowing the entirety of Blizzard's methods for banning forum users, but I can say that no method is foolproof, if someone is determined and has either tech knowledge and/or funds. For one thing, with the way it is now, the simplest thing to do is buy another copy of the game (for a CD key), create a new account and start posting again. What I'm seeing on the fora is a lot of people canceling their accounts/subscriptions, either claiming it's for good, or in order to start over with a new account/disk/etc to try and circumvent the real-name issue. Yeah...it'll really stop the trolls, all right.

Multiple monitor kitty.

I just looked at our dryer circuit, and it's rated at 30amps. So again, it depends on your circuit capacities. It's possible that more modern buildings would have 'general purpose' circuits that are more than 15amp these days. EDIT: lol, ditto. I think my basic concept is correct, but there may be more info/details to consider that I know nothing about that could mean better or worse in terms of the question. heh

My understanding is it's less to do with the how many plugs/outlets, and more to do with how your house is wired and what its amp/watt capacity limits are before the circuits become overloaded. ie, there's no single answer. You know how in many modern homes wiring systems divide the circuit breakers (one for living room, one for kitchen, one for washer/dryer etc)? That's so you can still run your washer/dryer without having to turn everything else off first. Only adding more outlets to a room, that are still attached to the same circuit as the others doesn't help at all. Again, same thing, running an extension from another room would only alleviate some of the load if that other room is on a different circuit than the original room. In the US 120 volt outlets can handle only so many amps of maximum current. 120 volts multiplied by amps (typically 15amp in US for general purpose) = maximum watts. So the total power of all "things" per circuit must be equal to or less than that max. watts number. I don't know how they do things in the UK, but in the US, unless you have very very old, non-updated wiring in the house or faulty circuit breakers, there's not typically a high degree of danger. Most things don't use that many watts. My husband probably has a gajillion things plugged into one circuit - multiple monitors, several pc's, printers, modems, firewalls, and on and on) and has never run into a problem (he's fairly schooled in electronics/the hows & whys & doesn't worry overmuch) so I doubt you're in any real danger. Granted, he rarely has all of those things on at once, but if you then add on my two PC's and peripherals + lights + fans in summer, well....no problems yet. It is a good question tho, since it probably won't be long before all the things we want to plug in at one time will end up being more than what average houses have, without extensive re-wiring. And yes, the fire danger comes from the circuit breaker (or other wiring) being faulty/not up to code or not working properly. Otherwise, the circuit breaker should trip and everything just turns off, like the power going out.

That update makes their stance a lot clearer....they could have posted that in the first place. I still have my personal reservations, but I will grant that if anyone can make a popular entertainment activity where real names are required (vs. work or government etc) a more commonplace, non-feared trend, than it would probably be Blizzard. I also went and looked, and they do have an ignore user feature now, so that's good. From what I understand, RealID in the game itself can be 'turned off' by turning on the parental controls, as well as the fact that you don't have to accept any 'friends' in the first place, so it affecting privacy while actually playing isn't an issue. However that will automatically shut you out from the fora as well (it won't circumvent that aspect). And it's not just WoW, it's SC2 & eventually all their games. Some have been speculating that this could be the start of some future revenue generating model (w/a desired side-effect feature)...Activision/Facebook/Blizzard, social networking etc...I'm not convinced of that, but it is curious.

If it's legal to grow at home in 25 sq. feet (with no permits required?) CA wouldn't see nearly as much revenue as some expect since it's very easy to grow (good stuff) in a couple containers in a closet, just for personal consumption, cutting out/limiting any need for a middleman grower. There'd be little need for taxed pot farms (like there is with fruit/vegie farms & distribution) except for hemp products like rope or whatnot. Although, there could be revenue from permits from public places that might want to allow consumption on their grounds (weed bars!) and I suppose that could lead to having to buy/consume offered product instead of your own (like booze) and eventually it might become a normal enough thing to produce a lot of income. Yes, it may be irrelevant in terms of whether it should be legal/not legal, but it is interesting to mull over the possible (social/political) results of legality. Such as, if it's legal to grow that much at home, will consumption initially rise dramatically enough to cause any problems for a while? I mean, if you can suddenly grow it (without any legal fear or neighbors paranoia) instead of having to scrounge up cash to buy it, over-indulgence could rise. Would this mean anything? imo, probably nothing more than a few more skipped classes/work days...but it'll be interesting to watch. California, the land of sun, raisins, happy cows, and a pot plant growing on every balcony.

So true. Not only that, but the ambitious mods that sounded promising but the ppl never finished them, or I remember for DS1, someone would make yet another bigger backpack "mod." Yea, I'd think the multi-platform would be a big issue. It is too bad tho, since (imo) modding tools for single-player are sometimes the most fun things ever, since you don't have to worry about whether it affects other players & can just have fun with it. Multiplayer ones...eh...don't really care personally, but I imagine it would be cool for LAN type friend gaming.

--@Thorton_AP - I agree about the lvl1 alt situation. It certainly would help, I'd think, if they only allowed one username/chr. If you don't want your high lvl main to be harassed in-game & choose a low level alt, you're stuck with that one forever. --@Gorgon - If Blizz thinks this works well on WoW forums, it wouldn't surprise me if they decided to implement it on all their forums. Could be a 'test run' on one of their current biggest fora to see how it's received/works etc. --I'd also be fine if it was first names only. You'd have to have a first name like "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince" to make that very risky. --Thinking a bit, you'd be surprised how many people seem unaware how easy it is to get info via searching, even minus Facebook. Utterly clueless. Also, it's not just the info YOU put out about yourself on the web, it's also the info business, local news, work, schools, angry friends (haha) and so on might put up there, that you (may) have no control over. I have a friend who barely uses the 'net at all (no social networking) & I could still find all kinds of info on her when I tried. Whether this bothers someone or not is up to them but you see the point. Some (especially us geeky folk) may be pretty savvy about such risks, but as the internet has exploded, many many more are not. It's one thing to agree to/not mind to real names when you're aware of what it could mean...what about those who aren't? The more I think about it, the more I hope all the protesting will make Blizzard soon change their minds. Surely they could've come up with something else/better to try.

On the one hand, it makes me glad to see that I'm not the only one who doesn't like moderately high temps. On the other hand, I suspect that most of you would laugh when I think it gets a bit too chilly, since I live in the San Fran area. ...at least I'm as cold-wimpy as some around here. It has to be at least 55F/12C before I reach for even a light jacket. Although if I'm at the computer desk for long periods, my bare feet start to feel frozen a lot sooner. And it's in the low 70's today, which is a nice relief from the mid-80's of the past several days.

lol, exactly. And this is one of the better forums I've ever been a member of. My main issue is I don't like having everything I type trickling into search engines. In real life we can pick & choose who to tell what to, based on trust and friendships etc...with impartial search engines, you never know who is going to read it. Thus you might end up with a lot less interesting 'net conversations if ppl feel they can't talk about stuff w/out being paranoid of who may one day read it three years from now. But yes, bottom line it's Blizzard's forum and they can do what they want. It will be interesting to see how it works for them.

Point taken, but I'm still not convinced that using real names is going to discourage the career trolls that much, if they aren't also convinced that Blizzard will somehow use that to better police/punish trollish behavior. Do the Blizzard forums have the 'ignore user' feature yet? That feature is one of the better ones for the posters themselves to at least not have to 'see' troll posts, if one is that consistently upset by certain users...and if you don't avail yourself of that ability, that's your choice. It may also encourage 'career trolls' to increase their activity in some kind of rebellious defiance. I dunno...I do understand wanting to foster a more friendly community, I'm just not convinced this is the way to do it. As always, time will decide.

User friendly toolsets that allow people to mod do tend to extend longevity (in terms of playability) to the game, for some people. Whether that constitutes 'flash in the pan' is debatable, imo, since I'd guess most consumers aren't into the actual mod-making themselves, anyway. I'm not sure it increases actual sales much, either, for the same reason, hence not often worthwhile (from a business perspective) for them to put in the time to include toolsets. But that's just a guess, I don't really know for sure.

Like I said, haven't been to their forums in ages...so maybe it's different now. But in the past the serious troll problems seemed to have more to do with lack of 'policing' the forums than anything else. A lot of stuff was just allowed to go on and on w/no one stepping in to curtail it. Has that improved? If not, how are real names going to help with that if the modding of the forums isn't more stringent?

When they made item/skill hack editors, of course. But seriously, there are quite a few popular single-player D2 mods that I'm aware of, that not only change items but skins and rules/skills etc (examples), and of course the ones that didn't alter the main game but did insert things like that super-diablo event (I can't remember what he was called now) into the SP game. I never tried any of the altering mods but I did use the one that put MP-only features into SP.