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Zoraptor

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Everything posted by Zoraptor

  1. Journalists act outside their expertise all the time, especially with interns and lower staffing levels in the internet age. With fake news and SJWs and the rest the immediate response when called on it is to go hyper defensive. That's not really elitism, more just circling the wagons around a non expert 'expert' as they know they may be next. And for this specific case PCMR types tend to hate pseudo expert Casual Tech types way more than outright consolers. Of course, the reason that video got so much traction was that it makers almost every single potential build mistake possible to still end up with a working product like a parody, but was actually dead serious about being an 'expert' guide, and The Verge went defensive and eventually pulled the video just as the 1st wave of laughter and memes was dying down. That's a great 2-in-1 combo of Poe's Law and Streisand Effect. (My favourite part is his anti static device being a completely useless plain plastic wristband, though the thermal paste application is more memeable)
  2. To be fair, you'd still have to be pretty unlucky to get bogus parts at least when they're from core Amazon and they are still pretty cheap, I'd just hesitate to regard them as 'trustworthy' at the moment and that was a stipulation. And they are certainly trustworthy in terms of fixing any substitutions that have been made. Situation has probably improved a bit at least for graphics cards with crypto dying down so prices aren't so inflated.
  3. The German sub site may be better than others for all I know but unfortunately parts often aren't just parts when ordered from most Amazons at the moment, probably 90% of complaints about bogus parts are from 2nd hand buys but 90% of the rest seem to be from Amazon reselling returns without checking that someone hasn't swapped out the graphics card for a GT710 plus some bolts or the processor for a Pentium III or a brick and not properly labeling marketplace sales as coming from 3rd party vendors who are directly scamming. The return policy makes up for it a bit, but it's Russian Roulette as to whether you'd be waiting for genuine or fake parts to turn up far more so than most places and more so than is really justified. Mindfactory would certainly be the best known specific German site, and so far as I've seen has a good reputation.
  4. That's pretty much what happened at Cannae, and that was numerically the worst defeat the Romans ever suffered (not as bad as others like Adrianople or the Allia in terms of actual consequences though). Might even still be the largest death toll in any single day European battle up to and including WW1&2. Oh sure, there's a level of "rule of cool", break from reality, it's just a movie thing going., suspension of disbelief.... But you'd like just a little effort and thought put in when it's a subject you know about and/or are interested in. The problem I have with it is that it always seems that the writers decide to write stupidly and expect you to be OK with them writing stupidly so long as it there are Bayesque explosions or worse, stultifying speeches involved. The Avengers example is far from the worst though, to be fair to it. The end criminal v cops battle in Dark Knight Rises where the criminals decide to charge the cops for hand to hand combat instead of just shooting them with said guns ends up not being 'cool' but just being stupid as a consequence of the writers writing themselves into a corner where any realistic ending involves the good guys getting shot up badly or worse, winning but in a non spectacular way. Or the Walking Dead where Negan and his crew come out into the open to chat with Rick and pals and Rick and pals eventually open up with their assault rifles into the windows above their heads instead of just shooting the entire leadership and winning right there. All because of the meta justification that the writers wanted an excuse to have Rick and Negan chat to each other face to face and couldn't think of a believable way to do it, didn't care to find one and didn't care that even the most cursory examination of that scene would have it not making a lick of sense. That's especially a problem for TWD as a regular TV series rather than a 2-3 hour movie.
  5. Yeah, for absolute performance money no object it would be 2080Ti, but with at least some consideration given to top end value it would be the 1080Ti. For top end power performance balance a 2nd hand 1080Ti from someone upgrading to rtx would be even better. 2080 non Ti on the other hand... would not touch even if I wouldn't rather dissolve myself slowly in aqua regia to a Celine Dion greatest hits soundtrack than contribute to Jensen's leather jacket fund. 0% conventional performance increase for 25% extra cost plus possible dead end tech that will be superceded by a 7nm model next year is plain poor value. If Bruce does want a 1080Ti though he'd better get in quick, nVidia has stopped shipments to peripheral countries to drive 2080 sales.
  6. He was a refugee in/ immigrant to Egypt along with his parents. He was an emmigrant/ refugee from Palestine, who later returned.
  7. It's for sale for the low low cost of a lifetime of haircair products for the Caen brothers? They've systematically sold off anything with any residual worth so it can hardly cost much. They can't really claim the name even has any Goodwill left to it and the revenue stream must be near literally half a dozen people buying Citizen Kabuto every other GOG/ Steam sale...
  8. Dunno how much of it is 'deliberate' as a policy so much as a documentary on Patton single handed reconquering Europe selling better in the US. People love to be told they're uniquely heroic and special, nuanced takes about how the godless commies did the bulk of the heavy listing isn't such an inspiring tale. Most serious docos handle the eastern front fine, but the dissonance between something like 'Soviet Storm' or 'World at War' and some of the puff piece History Channel type WW2 documentaries could scarcely be greater.
  9. I can probably tweak the fan curve, sound isn't a massive issue with headphones. 90% of the time it's completely silent and cools passively, if it's above 50 degrees it's pretty much on full revs but as a result it barely scrapes above 60 degrees even when it's being thrashed. I'd assume the Vega version would be similar. It's still quieter than the Intel stock cooler I had up until a year ago though, it's just super jarring when the computer is usually completely silent. I like the monitor and doubt I could go back now. I thought it was gimmicky too initially but things like straight lines work fine when you're used to it- I'd suspect a non curved ultrawide would have problems there anyway since there's a decent difference in distance to the eye from centre to edge. It did have some teething problems but it's working fine now. That's what freesync is for, essentially. Even a 1080Ti will struggle getting 4k/60 on many games, but if you've got adaptive sync the reduced frame rates have a lot less effect. Vega64 is roughly 1080 level performance so a decent amount faster than a 980Ti- if a 980Ti gives 60fps a Vega ought to give around 80. I also hate some of the more demanding gimmick sfx and would turn them off anyway. I wouldn't try running TW3 on the 580 at that res though except on medium settings. It copes with Kingdom Come Deliverance, just, and actually does pretty well on Mass Effect Andromeda but TWitcher3 has too many gimpworks features baked in to do well on AMD.
  10. Yep. Samsung C34F791 3440x1440 100hz.
  11. Richard must be the most inexplicably well regarded king in English history. A compulsive warmonger who nearly bankrupted the country having fought multiple rebellions against his father previous and who got himself pointlessly and stupidly killed.
  12. Sup all Vega 64 ROG Strix for 900NZD (600USD*/ 500 Euro) yes or no? Yeah, it has crap memory cooling which is about the most cardinal of cardinal sins for Vega and my Strix 580 sounds like a hairdryer under load even in a sound dampening case, but that price is effectively 50 ameribux equivalent less than it is on Amazon/ Newegg and comes with three** free games. I did plan to buy Vega if it got to roughly MSRP which that is, but that was a year ago. OTOH, a 580 struggles with 34" widescreen on anything demanding and Navi is still a decent time away... *500USD, -GST, so basically ref Vega MSRP **Though I suspect two will be steam keys so irrelevant to me.
  13. Bob Page: Your appointment to hurricane relief should be finalized within the week. I've already discussed the matter with Puerto Rico. Walton Simons: I take it they were agreeable? Page: They didn't really have a choice. Simons: Have they got water? Page: Oh yes, most certainly. When I mentioned we might actually get around to distributing it some time they were so willing it was almost pathetic. Simons: This hurricane — the death toll is increasing to the point where we may not be able to contain it. Page: Why contain it? Let it spill over into articles and social media. Let the bodies pile up in the streets. In the end, they'll beg us to save them. Simons: I've received reports of bad PR in editorials. There's not enough Fox & Friends style positivity and obfuscation to go around, and the libtards are starting to get grumpy. Page: Of course they're grumpy. They can smell the deaths- something to do with us not getting around to collecting the corpses yet maybe, can't have an official death count if you never do anything official as the great philosopher Roll Safe might say- and the sound they'll make rattling their cages will serve as a warning to the rest. Simons: Hmm. I hope you're not underestimating the problem. The others may not go as quietly as you think. Intelligence indicates they're behind the problems in Congress...
  14. Ah, an oldie and a goodie. I still get a good chuckle out of 'NATO' forgetting that Kaliningrad is part of Russia while making their sick burn geography correction. Geography can be tough indeed. You'd hope their military side is better informed than their propaganda side. (Plus Canada didn't exist in 1812 and the US invaded not vice versa, though they aren't as funny as a defence organisation forgetting where their enemy is. Kind of sums up the state of media that The Grauniad didn't point out the geogrpahical mistake and added a new one though)
  15. As I recall, Gina Torres character, Jasmine, used Cordelia as a vessel to incarnate herself, so wasn't literally the child of Cordelia and Conner (but I could be mis-remembering, I haven't watched an episode of Angel since it aired). IIRC Gina Torres was used primarily because Firefly had just been cancelled- same for Fillion on BtVS. The whole situation was also rather weird and atypical though as apparently the writing/ production staff didn't know that Carpenter was pregnant until quite a way into the season. Mostly though, yeah, she was an Old One or whatever. Being black was trumped somewhat by also being born as a 30 year old women of any colour.
  16. She got pinged initially for her coach illegally coaching her from the stand via hand gestures which he admitted to doing post match but she probably did not see, and which she insisted at the time on court was not happening. She then broke her racket which was the second violation, and ranted at the umpire which was the third and which cost her a game. I don't think she has a leg to stand on in the 'hard done by' stakes- the penalties were all deserved- though obviously that was a tournament she would have wanted to win far more than most which would have contributed to her emotional response. She also has a history with that umpire, he's penalised her before. But all the ranting and sexism stuff was just incoherent emotional rambling immediately compromised by her coach admitting he had been coaching her from the stand, the accusation of which is what prompted her meltdown.
  17. Don't think Sapkowski is associated with the show any more. You could make the Nilfgardians more sympathetic easily enough- rather than being aggressive invaders show them as a force for order in the chaos, ignorance and infighting that is the norm.
  18. Mikkelsen might be a bit too old for the role, while Geralt looks old due to the white hair and scarring he isn't old for a witcher. Nicholas Cage would be the best option, obviously. "I'm still shocked that they would sign an icky white man to play such an important role. For shame." Give them a chance, they've only got one person cast so far. (Ciri's leaked casting call is for a BAME teenager...)
  19. Ah, another piece placed in the Q Anon puzzle. (Melania wrote it)
  20. His acting was fine in The Tudors as well, though the character he played was usually written as Captain Cardboard and thus made a great prolonged audition for Supes. On the rare occasion he was given something to work with he worked well with it though, there was just a lot less of it for him than for Dormer/ Frain/ Neill.
  21. Yes. It's extremely shlocky and low budget, obviously, but well worth watching. Bonus if you've ever seen Hercules/ Xena as they reuse a bunch of actors from them near 20 years on.
  22. That's pretty well appreciated, for 'elective' wars which even with Mexican Telegrams and unrestricted submarine warfare WW1 was for the US. WW2 though wasn't, doesn't matter how isolationist your population is if you're actively attacked by Japan and have Germany declare war on you; that's the one thing that will usually get all isolationists on board for a war since isolationist doesn't mean pacifist. Might be interesting to consider whether Japan would have fought on if the Vietnam War had been before WW2 so there was a record of forcing the US out of a conflict via morale/ will failure already, but that's a hypothetical much like how many casualties the US actually would have suffered in a land invasion of Japan.
  23. I seldom read your articles because they are almost without fail from people who start from their conclusion and work back from there, an approach I find at best eye rollingly annoying and which frequently leads to obvious stupidities- to whit, your 'Russia is going bankrupt in 6 months!!!' deluge of 2014- guess since I was right and they wrong I'm the expert now. I obviously read the FP article, for my sins, and it certainly didn't encourage me to waste an hour watching a video having already wasted ten minutes reading that. Taking quotes with obvious mistakes in them such as massively understating Japanese troop numbers in Hokkaido and ignoring that the Hokkaido invasion plan was from after Japan's surrender and claiming that Japan never discussed surrender hardly encourages me to bother further either, since the bedrock of paying attention to expert opinion is their expertise, not an ability to prompt correction by getting basics wrong. The opinions stated are scarcely better, Japan was so worried about the godless commies forcing the emperor out that they... surrendered unconditionally at the threat of invasion by said godless commies, which could easily (and arguably should) have also resulted in the emperor being forced out anyway. I also quite obviously did check the primary sources since that's how I know the invasion plan was from after Japan's surrender. Maybe it's the couple of history electives I did sticking with me, but always checking the primary sources is a fantastic rule to follow, along with always checking methodology and any appendices since dissenting stats are almost always buried there in the hope no one reads them. The reasons for Japan's surrender are complicated and the Manchurian invasion and atomic bombs clearly the major deciding factors with importance of each debatable but is a fringe position, because it's so far behind other factors involved in the decision to surrender as to be irrelevant compared to them.
  24. The soviets simply lacked the capability to invade Hokkaido opposed, indeed if the US with their capabilities were worried about opposition it just strengthens the case for the soviets not being able to manage it any time soon. Your source has got Japanese troop numbers hideously wrong, which might be the root of their mistake. The Japanese were considering surrender prior to either the soviet invasion or the bombs, there's irrefutable primary sources for it that trump your secondary 'expert' analysis. The reason for their eventual surrender was a combination of many factors, proximal being the bombs and Manchurian invasion not some sub Hearts of Iron level fantasy of the soviets imminently invading Hokkaido by driving their tanks and swimming their troops across the Okhotsk Sea or something. Moving troops to Kyushu before the invasion/ bombs means nothing except at that time Japan were little p planning for the continuation of the war, which is as no kidding a situation as the US also little p planning for the continuation of the war and moving their troops around right up until the point of actual surrender. While an eventual invasion of Hokkaido would have been a concern for the Japanese they were mostly worried about the inevitable and imminent collapse of the millions of men in China and SE Asia, nukes and the imminent and inevitable US invasion; none of which they could fight off. They were not overly concerned with a hypothetical event they had a decent chance of actually repelling if attempted in the near future. Even the planned unopposed landing involved only a single division at a time- and not even that initially- as that was all the transport the soviets could scrape together and maintain logistically. While the Japanese air force was a shambles by 1945 a single fighter could have sunk most of the soviet 'armada' with its 20mm cannons if it were lucky, and without resorting to kamikaze. And that's not even considering all the nice soft tankers and freighters that would have to bring in supplies and reinforcements every day. The soviets suffered 15% casualties in the Kurils- 7x the rate of the Manchurian campaign- even after the vast majority of the Japanese forces there had outright surrendered. Yes, yes, throw about 'revisionist' to try and discredit people then accuse them of being dogmatic. Classic Gromnir.
  25. Sigh. The Kurils alone had 3 divisions of troops plus an independent regiment. That's why the soviet 'plan' called for an unopposed 'invasion' after Japan had already surrendered, not a combat assault similar to the US invasion plan. They'd have to bring in every single soldier and every bit of supply via boat, and they simply didn't have enough of them. Longer term, sure, but the proximal reasons were the atomic bombs and Manchurian invasion leaving the bulk of their army hopelessly exposed, not something that might eventually happen. They definitely had. And since their diplomatic codes were broken everyone knew they were considering it. The only practical change was to unconditional surrender from sole conditional (preservation of the emperor) surrender.
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