alanschu

Yes. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> They were just "fully reworking it" to take advantage of the keyboard and mouse.

Let's not be too melodramatic now.

The Demo for King Kong has Starforce on it. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I just find that baffling. If anything, I would think it would compromise the protection as people can "practice" on the SF that the demo has.

My lecturer did comment that C++ I/O has made a ton of improvements in its performance that C's advantage is pretty much gone. I was under the impression that C still had a slight advantage, though that was 2 years ago now.

I was under the impression that the analog stick in the dual-shock and subsequent controllers were truly analog.

Actually, the US "attacked" Japan first. Pearl Harbour was attacked in retaliation for a "show of power" off the coast of Japan(it was apparently a "test" for a new weapon...), presumably as a warning to stop hostilities towards the US military in a particular theater of the war(Philipines I think). <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I had never heard that. I agree with julian's assessment, as it's what I've read up on as well. The Oil Embargo pretty much set the two on a collision course for war IMO.

The raid did not get any of the brand spanking new North Carolina class battleships that were built earlier in the year. The unsalvagable battleships were the old school (1915) Arizona, Oklahoma (1916), and the Utah (which at the time was nothing more than a target ship, commission way back in 1911). Damage was sustained to other battleships, but they were salvaged and repaired. The military significance of the attack is overstated IMO. Most ships still in port were older ships, and no aircraft carriers were around. Enterprise was en route to Pearl Harbour, after removing planes from the airbase to reinforce Wake. Saratoga was picking up a load of planes in San Diego to bring to Wake Islane (which ended up being used to reinforce Pearl Harbour after the attack), and Lexington had just left with a shipment of planes from Pearl Harbour to Midway Island. Other, more modern carriers like the Wasp and Hornet were just finishing up training, as were the brand new North Carolina class Battleships. The new South Dakotas were finishing up construction as well. I hardly believe that Pearl Harbour almost had the US losing the war in the Pacific. The US began mobilizing for war, and redirected carriers from Norfolk and the Carribean to the Pacific Theater. The fact that no aircraft carriers were lost helped ensure that the War in the Pacific was anything but an easy one for the Japanese. Japan probably would have been better off destroying the infrastructure at Pearl Harbour than any of the battleships, as even in the aftermath carriers began docking and refueling. I think the effect was believed to be devastating at the time, as the true effectiveness of an aircraft carrier at sea had not really been battle tested. The completion of the South Dakota class battleships were a nice boost as well, as they had fantastic firing control systems, as well as extensive AA guns. Having said that, I doubt the conspiracy is really true. But IMO it is one of the more believable ones.

Interesting perspective.

If true (I am skeptical), what do you think about FDR's decision?

There's the popular conspiracy theory that Roosevelt, sympathetic to the plight in Europe (and probably Asia to an extent as well), had information about the planned attack, and subsequently made sure that the flagships of the navy (i.e. the Carriers) were out of port.

I'm well aware of the nuances of assembler. Though I only have experience with MIPS assembler, not x86 (or any other architecture). While nothing will really compare to assembler (except maybe machine code....but assembler is basically the quasi-engrish version of it to make it minimally understandable), C/C++ are still relatively fast in my experience. Especially compared to Java. Heck, C itself is quite a bit faster than C++, especially when dealing with I/O (though C++ has gotten better).

Invent the analog stick??? Let's not get carried away now. Analog joysticks have been around for years. All Nintendo did was adapt the idea for a console (which was a good idea, I'll give them that). As an aside, I remember hearing that the N64 "analog stick" isn't technically an analog stick. It uses a series of very fine digital sensors to determine how far the stick has moved, rather than potentiometers. Don't know if it's true or not, and it did function as an analog stick. Random unsupportable factoid of the day.

Why do people think Max Payne 2 should be ranked worse than M? It's not like Oblivion, with the nake people, is now ranked AO. It's an M rated game, with a naked person in it. So it should probably be rated, if Oblivion is any indication, as an M rated game.

I figured she was more talking about this thread.

Because yet again you have just decided to apply whatever definition you like to a word.

I've heard that Twin Snakes is quite a joke compared to the original. They turned Snake into Neo from the Matrix. He was jumping off of missiles during the fight against the Hind D.

I did think the first (third) one was better.

Based on the precident and statements by the ESRB, yes. For what it's worth I don't agree with it. By that logic, Baldur's Gate 2 should have probably had an Adults Only rating for the hardcore porn video encrypted in the CREAnim1.bif file on CD3 with the Vernam Cipher. With the right Vernam Cipher key, you can "decrypt" any file into any other file (which is the reason that the cipher can't be broken by "brute force" techniques; any attempt to do so just creates every possible file of the same size as the encrypted file with no way to tell which, if any, is the "right" one). I could choose any file of 63,927,017 bytes or less and calculate a key that would "decrypt" CREAnim1.bif into my chosen file. If I create a decryption key that unlocks a hardcore porn video from CREAnim1.bif, and make that key available on the internet, should the ESRB change the rating of BG2 to Adults Only? If you rule that even content encrypted with the Vernam Cipher counts toward your rating, you're effectively ruling that any content that could possibly fit on the disc counts toward the rating. This is obviously an absurd ruling because every game would have to be rated Adults Only and the ratings would be completely meaningless. As I said in my previous post, a line has to be drawn somewhere between what is considered the developer/publisher's responsibility and what is considered user created content out of the publisher's control. The "If it's on the disc it's the publisher's responsibility, even if it's encrypted" standard of judgement clearly can't work, as I just showed. The "you can turn the gore/violence/language/nudity slider down in the options menu if you don't like that stuff" standard of judgement would make the ratings meaningless in the other direction because publishers could get a "Teen" or "Everyone" rating by just having options to disable all the objectionable material. The line needs to be somewhere between these extremes, and it needs to be clearly defined. -Kasoroth <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I was not familiar with the Vernam Cipher until you brought it up. Considering the exceptional situations at which the Vernam Cipher is used (given it's a one-time pad), I don't think it would be very hard to prove that the "hardcore porn" was not put on the BG2 disc 3 intentionally. But, since you mentioned: I'm not sure what you are saying. Why would a game developer encrypt its content with the Vernam Cipher? Especially seeing as that kind of goes against the purpose of the Vernam Cipher.

Convenient. Agreed.

Winnar!

Not a fan of the panoramic view?

Whaaaat? I'd be very surprised if ethanol wasn't discovered before the Europeans even crossed the Atlantic. The Atanasoff-Berry Computer was an Iowa project I believe.....but meh..ENIAC was better "

So you're saying that even if the content is encrypted with the Vernam Cipher so that no one could access it without the key, they are responsible for disclosing its presence to the ESRB? -Kasoroth <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Based on the precident and statements by the ESRB, yes. For what it's worth I don't agree with it. If it marginalizes it at all. Free publicity is good publicity and all that jazz.

I like our chances against the Sharks. I think the winner of our series will be the western conference champs.

Dallas and Detroit of all teams screw everything up. Picks for Round 2: Ottawa/Buffalo .... Two close to call...I'm thinking upset...Buffalo NJ over Carolina Oilers over Sharks Colorado over Ducks