Humanoid

Ultima 4 - but then that was the whole point of the game.

To be fair I don't think tooth decay was a major issue until the advent of the modern diet.

The biggest problem tactically seems to be the overabundance of doors. Not doorways, despite most strategies revolving around them, but the closed doors with mini-armies stationed behind them which just kills the tactical setups in most encounters. I'm not asking for JA2 or anything of the sort but the design of almost every encounter generally discounts the tactical use of space at the moment, with the single point of approach elimination positioning as a consideration. It also marginalises the Survival skill because as useful as the information it gives could be, you're prevented from acting on it most of the time because of the door in the way. Doors could be justified in numerous situations, such as mansions and other such dwellings but I'm not really seeing the rationale of them in say, ancient dilapidated ruined temples where every architectural feature within has or is in the process of crumbling away. Except the doors, which are as sturdy and functional as ever. So yeah, curse you damned doors!

I could have sworn that one of the NPCs referred to the event of the game's first battle as being "a year ago."

Well it would be in Oblivion.

Buy, steal or otherwise gain the Darklands rights. No elves, no dwarves, no magic. Failing that at least copy the character creation as close as possible.

Bioware has already done that before with NWN Hordes of the Underdark.

Maybe the EU competition regulator will step in and force competition for the micropayments in game - so you'd have various blacksmiths stalls and the customer would be free to purchase from whichever company will sell you a Longsword +3 for the cheapest vendor. Or buy the iLongsword +1 from a certain vendor instead for double the price (it'll have a nice brushed aluminium hilt!).

Anyone with it installed on an SSD have a report on load times?

Google control all information in the known universe, so in a fight against the collective governments of the world, Google will emerge victorious. And I for one welcome our new Googly overlords.

I replaced the cooler on my 8800GT with an Accelero S1 (with undervolted turbo module) and I'm pleased with the results, and installation wasn't too bad. However with most (or even all) 3rd party coolers, there's a catch - it decouples the GPU cooling from the memory and the VRM cooling, which gets delegated to small or non-existent individual heatsinks. The danger therefore is that while the temperature monitor will report a nice drop in the GPU temperature, you won't be able to determine whether the other chips are necessarily getting sufficient cooling.

Well they have apparently stopped making them, or at least that's what retailers say.

Indeed it's been going on and on and on and on and on since the opening of the Interplay boards in 2003.

A bootable Linux CD (i.e. an OS that runs off a DVD) might be useful for rescuing stuff if the Windows installation is beyond help.

Best value SSDs these days would be the ones based on the Indilinx controlled, e.g. the G.Skill Falcon, the OCZ Vertex, the Corsair X series, the SuperTalent UltraDrive, the Patriot Torqx, the Crucial M225 ...and probably a few more - all these drives would be pretty much the same and lead the price:performance stakes. Intel X25-M is the market leader and is faster for most uses, and it's priced accordingly, especially given there is a worldwide shortage of them.

Thing is, a Raptor costs pretty much the same as a 64GB SSD these days, so for most applications they'd be rather obsolete. 64GB would easily cover the OS and the games du jour for most people.

What's suitable will depend if you want to replace or simply add to your current drive. For a second drive purely for storage I'd go with a 5400rpm drive like the WD Green series or Samsung F2. For a system drive, if you don't want to spring the cash for an SSD, a WD Black, Samsung F3 or Seagate 7200.12 would be more suitable. Just don't get a Seagate 7200.11 since they were prone to spontaneously bricking.

All I can remember of MoTB is creating a remarkably ineffective Rogue/Wizard and having to rest after every fight in the opening dungeon. Had to join my queue of Stuff to Replay Eventually.

I've had a Diamond S3 Virge DX and Diamond Riva128 (the first ever mainstream nVidia chip!) and two Diamond TNT2s before the company sort of went under. Leadtek GF3 Ti200, Sparkle GF4 Ti4200 also still alive, but since then I've had a pretty rotten run, Radeon 9800 Pro died, Gainward GeForce 7900GT died, HIS X1950XT fan crapped out, 8800GT ok now with a 3rd party cooler.

It's a limitation of 32-bit addressing, so nothing to do with what generation OS it is. Calculator shows 2^32 = 4,294,967,296 = ~4.3GiB. Subtract what's eaten up by your video card and you get that 3.25GB number Windows tells you. (I know it's not a very good explanation but I'm just a consumer, not a techie) WinXP 64, Vista64 and Win7-64 would all see your total RAM normally.

Did you install the 32-bit version? You'll need to go 64-bit to see more than that.

Another simple test would be to open up the side of your case and blow a desk fan into it and see if problems persist.

I guess rabbit chucking is out too then.

That's probably only true because there's less wear from twice as many things being used half as often. The best Blu-ray writers at the moment are also measurably the best DVD and CD writers in terms of burn quality and reliability.

Probably easier in lands where you have larger markets and where distributors and retailers gouge you less for exclusivity arrangements and such. Me, I use a CC a lot for ordering bike parts from the UK (which is often a 50% saving or more compared to buying locally), and sometimes PC parts from the US. All tax-free for values under $1000AUD to boot. I can import an Intel SSD for slightly over $300AUD - which includes an extortionate $50 or so delivery. Locally however, retailers are asking for $450-500AUD, so you can understand the extent of this price gouging. :| Likewise, I've just bought a pair of bike tyres from the UK for $45AUD each from the UK, with free delivery. The local retailer wants $120 each.