Bartimaeus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSlpCBek1_M

Context?

I think that's essentially what I'm already doing - it's just not technically a NAS proper, but a Windows build whose storage is more or less an image of my own main system's storage but with additional files (videos, generally speaking, but also some other stuff including old files) that I don't carry on my own main system. I watch movies over the network from it, but I'm also able to watch movies directly on it via Windows as well (which you wouldn't be able to do if it was an actual NAS, which means I don't want it to be an actual NAS as it's also an HTPC for my TV...). (edit): Hmm, this all reminds me: I still haven't done anything with my 240GB SSD that's just sitting in one of my other PCs for like the past half year. Hmm. Oh well.

Yeah, that's a no go for me. I keep my own hard drive storage of my own BluRay encodings that I've spent a lot of time converting down from the 40+GB raw rips to my own liking that I'm not prepared to throw all away for the sake of convenience, . Plus old football game recordings, TV shows, et cetera, et cetera. I also keep a backup of my own main PC that I occasionally update to ensure I never lose any of my precious collections of music, videos, games, et cetera, et cetera. So it has to be a real HTPC. My current one is just so *slow*. I'm seriously surprised it's still kicking, given its age, and the fact that the vast majority of the motherboard's capacitors are all visibly burst. It's an old hunk of junk, but it's a tough old hunk of junk.

Trying to make a very cheap HTPC to replace my current junker HTPC that I made out of extremely old parts. The current HTPC runs 1080p movies perfectly, but basically can't do anything else, including even streaming 480p YouTube videos. That's what happens when you're using a decade and a half old single-core Athlon 64, I guess. I have an old i5-750, but no motherboard...why is it so hard to get a hold of a junky consumer-grade LGA 1156 board for a non-ridiculous price?

We'll all miss you dearly when you go.

I can't help but notice that all of the first ones you said are all sci-fi. Now, that's not necessarily bad, but... 1. StarCraft II is a complete no go, especially in light of the campaign being ...not very good, and the multiplayer custom game system being pretty terrible compared to Warcraft 3, and myself not particularly caring for the ultra-micro-management style of the standard Blizzard RTS gameplay style, 2. Act of Aggression doesn't look that good, 3. 4X is quite possibly my least favorite strategy sub-genre, 4. Grey Goo and Planetary Annihilation look like they could be alright, and 5. I have absolutely zero love for city builders or sims, so I have little interest in your final two suggestions. Overall, I don't have much interest in any these suggestions, probably being the most open to Planetary Annihilation and Grey Goo, but both still elect a sort of "meh" response. Yeah, I don't really enjoy Far Cry, the two newer Wolfensteins look mildly interesting at least gameplay wise (although I haven't actually played them), so I'll give you that...I did not like Dying Light (and the story was laughably bad to boot), and Alien: Isolation was...just O.K., really. It started out pretty good, but the game lasted way too stinking long for its own good, and definitely outstayed its welcome. I don't know about Dirty Bomb. Don't have a PS4, otherwise I'd probably at least try Bloodborne (although I despised Dark Souls 2, even though I quite enjoyed Dark Souls 1, so I'm not sure how that would actually turn out), the more I played and tried to enjoy PoE, the more I disliked it, I thought the first Witcher was terrible in gameplay, story, and characters and have never looked back since trying to play through it. I did not like either Fallout 3 or Fallout: New Vegas, and I did not enjoy the first two Dragon Ages, so I'm hardly likely to try new entries in either series. UnderRail, Age of Decadence, and Shadowrun all look like they might be O.K., though: unsure how much they might suffer the same issues I have with PoE. I just don't enjoy the products of the modern gaming industry very much these days. I've probably gotten too much into the mindset of if something doesn't just instantly jump out as seeming appealing to me, I'm probably not gonna like it (which probably becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy), and...hardly anything ever jumps out at me as something that I'd like. I guess my tastes are probably overdeveloped these days, which makes it hard to enjoy anything that doesn't perfectly fit one of my particular niches.

No strategy games I care about or like came out, no singleplayer first person shooters I care about or like came out, no RPGs I care about or like came out, and nothing else that I can think of that I care about or like came out. Overall, I'd rate it as a pretty horrible year for myself. In fact, with the recent Europa Universalis 4 expansions that have come out that have completely mucked up the game to the point where I don't even want to play it anymore, I would view this year as worse than merely lacking anything I like: it even took away a game I previously *did* like.

I mean...duping is a lot different problem from botting. On the macro-scale, I guess it's not so different, because if it everyone just bots for items, the value of everything goes down anyways - but that way, at least the wealth is spread around For duping, it's more on the micro-scale, as it allows one player or one group of players to create massive wealth by merely having one individual high worth item and creating many copies of it. What *I* don't understand is why they didn't just go the Diablo 2 route: you want to play singleplayer, fine, but your characters can't enter the official multiplayer mode as a result - nor vice versa. Of course, that didn't actually stop hackers from duping on a massive scale in the official Diablo 2 multiplayer...and from doing worse. Of course, it's been fifteen years since Diablo 2 released, too...

What, nobody wants to watch the Jets @ Cowboys game tonight?

I have difficulty of thinking of a single game that really perfectly encompasses all aspects of the genre. My personal favorite would be Shadows of Amn, but while the Baldur's Gate series pretty well exemplifies its particular style of RPG gameplay mechanics (...particularly with the help of mods, where it becomes, full stop, the best in its class, IMO), all three games (1, SoA, ToB) are pretty stinking weak in the writing and choice and consequences department. Even though the main plot *is* pretty interesting and more or less written, there's basically only one meaningful choice throughout the entire game (namely, choosing between the Shadow Thieves and Bodhi). Even choosing between Saemon Havarian and the Underdark Portal still leads you to literally the same exact place - although if you choose the latter, the game screws you by making you miss out on a small chunk of content and good items (including the Cloak of Mirroring in the vanilla game) even though there's no way you could've foreseen such. Not to mention often times just really quite poorly written side-quests. Torment is pretty much the complete opposite: gameplay mechanics are weak, and very little heed is paid to any sort of balance, even down to the lopsidedness of a few particular stats allowing you to basically just talk your way through the entire game (while giving basically nothing to the other stats by comparison)...but the writing is absolutely fantastic and original and there are some pretty good choices and consequences (likely one of the best in any RPG, although even it could conceivably use some improvement, although we're unlikely to ever get anything better given the logistics)... They're great games that I love that both have their strengths, but they also have some pretty glaring weaknesses (Torment more so, in my opinion, than Shadows of Amn, as Shadows of Amn's writing is at least generally passable, while Torment's general gameplay is...generally not)...but if either of them are the "greatest RPG of all time", then I would say that the genre itself has some serious problems in developers being able to develop great AND well-rounded entries that actually wholly exemplify the genre.

Then perhaps you should begin treating all of us like adults. Unfortunately, I've done this little song and dance with you just a few too many times now, and I've just sort of lost my stomach for it at this point.

No, that's me distancing myself from really trying to respond to you, and instead pointing out - as usual - your apparently seemingly low perception of the general intelligence of people on these forums. Your baby talk-esque reply isn't helping much with that, either.

No, but thanks for the condescension in assuming that we cannot possibly think/act in good faith towards a candidate just because she's a woman. Now, in regards to acting in good faith towards a guy around here going by the name of BruceVC who never acts in good faith towards any of us...I'll admit that that one's a little more tricky.

As I recall, the House of Representatives directly chooses who will become president in the event where no individual candidate gathers whatever number of electoral votes are required these days for a majority. I think it's only happened once in American history, but I could be mistaken.

Yeah, they're absolutely atrocious. I don't look forward to the NFL forcing all teams to wear them next year.

I mean, I would think it's copyright infringement...

Literally anything else?

It basically looks like the entire thing was shrunk. If you look at the thumbnail of the video, I think, "Hm...that doesn't look too shabby: you're far above some vast mountains, might be somewhat off for Earth standards, but not HORRIBLY," ...but then the video actually plays, and it turns out those "vast" mountains that you're "far above" are like, right there under you, they're tiny, and so yeah, the planet looks SUPER small.

Uh, where's the gravity at? I thought the hyperspace jump looked really cool, but the stuff on the actual planet looks friggan weird because it's like there's no increasing of gravity whatsoever even as you get close to touching planet, and it looks like your ship is just effortlessly floating above the planet just as it might float in empty space...

Apparently, a refutation: http://thehigherlearning.com/2015/12/14/fact-check-small-town-rejects-solar-farm-because-it-would-suck-up-all-the-suns-energy/

yoda kills dumbledore

I wouldn't say leading by only a mere possession with only 2:30 or so left in the 4th quarter in most of their games would necessarily make them "one of the best teams in the league", particularly seeing as how they keep failing to hold onto that lead, but that's just me.

Oh come on, they'll need another year or two at least to build the new stadium in LA. Also, Volourn is correct: since both the Redskins and the Eagles won their games this week, and because the Eagles and the Redskins face each other in week 16, one of them literally *has* to go at least 7-9. With the Eagles' final game being the Giants, and the Redskins' other two being the Bills and Cowboys, it's quite possible one even goes 8-8. (e): Oh, also, while I'd love for the Eagles to beat the Cardinals to increase the chances of the Packers getting the #2 seed...I'm not exactly counting on it, even though the Eagles have looked marginally better these last two weeks. Gotta remember they were blown out by both the Lions and Bucs in the two weeks previous.