taks

we just get tired of the "OMZG!!@!! TIM CAIN IS TEH MASTER!" comments when his seemingly greatest accomplishment in life is a post-apoc crpg that he _partially_ designed, followed up by a disastrous company that failed for obvious reasons. yeah, lots o reasons to get excited about him being back i the game. taks

not impossible... you simply have to keep track of the areas you go to, and their subtle differences. w/o wilderness lore, it is difficult, but not impossible. taks

i'm curious why you insist on SLI? one 8800 GTS, 640 MB, is probably about as good as two 8600s in SLI mode from what i gather... taks

Big Bottom said: as i recall, he has described himself as a short, stocky, american indian, if that adds to your visualization. taks

he's a lawyer, making this hardly a surprise. taks

state secession from the US is unconstitutional. taks

i just noticed that the lesser boots of tumbling, which apply a +4 to tumble, do not work. i sold 'em right out as a result. i'm not sure if this is 1.10 related or has always been borked. taks

probably something like "Prisoner #72711" since sonny has been dead for quite some time now. taks

i read through the comment list and the top two complaints: it is only 128 bit, and it ain't an 8800 GTS. i have the latter which absolutely rocks. one 8800 is probably cheaper than two of these, too. taks

i personally don't think this polarization is as bad as the media and/or politicians (left or right) would have you believe. those that spend a lot of time posting on blogs, writing letters to the editor or simply speaking out, indeed the activist sorts, probably are, but that really only constitutes a small minority of the population. most people, politically speaking, are very centric overall, with only minor differences separating them. the biggest change between now and say, 50 years ago, is that the activist minority has a sort of bully pulpit in the internet and there are literally hundreds of TV channels to watch, with every extreme view point broadcast at some time or another throughout the day. even the geographical "split" in US ideologies is a bit of a myth. most of the so-called "blue states" were only 52-48 in terms of voting, and those that vote only constitute a minority to begin with. same for the "red states". there are a few exceptions, primarily in the smaller states, but overall, we're not nearly as divided as the media and politicians would have you believe. most people don't hold very solid ideologies, and ultimately only think about what will impact their wallets. hence, government health care is doomed for the foreseeable future, tax cuts are almost always welcome, etc. btw, key west seceded in 1982 to form the conch republic. their motto is "we seceded where others failed!" all publicity of course, but still funny. taks edit: 1982, not 1985...

this is beginning to look like razor technology. i recall when dual-blade razors came out. there was an SNL skit that ran right around the time they were doing this, maybe when the tri-blade "technology" reared its silly head, but they joked about something like 10 blades on a razor. sure enough, we're starting to see 5 blades now, 10 ain't far behind. taks

yes and no. that's sort of what they were hinting at with the "lensing" effect that impacts the differing particle energies in a slightly different manner. not really path length difference, but more of a "harder road to travel" due to space-time differences at different energies, kind of idea. at least, that was my take on it. taks

uh, something everyone should remember is that CA and TX would also fold without the federal government. neither has, nor can afford, their own military, or any of the other federal services which they benefit from more than the rest of the states due to their respective sizes. taks

sure, they could try to use that, but it still doesn't help the case of creationism itself. if anything, it bolsters the idea that the universe is 13 billion years old, but behaving in a slightly different manner than mainstream thought otherwise believes. taks

no they won't. such a discovery lends no credence to their beliefs, though it does potentially offer alternatives to the expanding universe theory. taks

i think they're getting at a difference in energy, not power. two equal frequency waves have the same energy per particle (it is a function of wavelength, energy is inversely proportional to lambda), and the difference in power in your example GD is, essentially, increased particle density, but each particle would have the same frequency/wavelength. either way, from what these guys are saying, the difference over non-relativistic distances, such as terrestrial experiments as your example, would be undetectable by standard means... i'm not sure what to take of this. does this mean the red-shift as originally proposed by hubble is correct (hubble actually believed in a sort of "tired light" theory, not the standard galaxies in recession theory)? it'll be interesting to see how this works out, if at all. i am skeptical as well. taks

i had the same problem with the 1.07 patch, and an 8800 GTS 320MB. one at a time does not make a bit of difference, sometimes the settings stick, other times they don't. it is primarily a problem with shadows, though i haven't checked any of the other options. i was specifically tinkering with shadows to see if there was any difference in performance (which is already pretty solid with my rig). taks

many (if not most) places, yup, but it gets fuzzy with the online thing since the laws of the state in which the venue resides don't apply to you if you're selling from another state. there probably needs to be some inter-state commerce regulation on that. what gifted1 said regarding catching the buggers, but that really only works outside of the venue itself. taks

yeah, they may be committing illegal scalping, a mere misdemeanor, but those issuing fake bids with fake credentials are committing wire fraud (or better, internet fraud), which is a serious felony, and potentially other crimes related to the fake credentials. taks

well, i had sort of a similar problem with the 1.07 beta. really, the critters didn't teleport or "jump," but they smoothly moved from one place to the next without any movement animations, at least not their legs. sorta looked like they were on conveyor belts. i've found several problems with the 1.07 patch. the menu options refuse to stick sometimes, e.g. i'll select "medium shadows" and once i click on "apply," it will jump to something else (typically lower). given that i've got an 8800GTS and a 6600 core2duo, performance should not be an issue whatsoever, so there's no reason some automatic feature should change things on me. either way, there were some decent performance improvements even with the 1.07 beta. with most settings on high, i was getting 50+ fps indoors and out, sometimes averaging 70+ depending upon the number of items on the screen and general graphical displays (spells, etc.). either way, when i was running the game will everything happening and mostly maxed out graphics, it never dropped below 25-30 fps. taks

i've been involved with waaaaay too much "learning" lately so i cannot help, though i find the concepts about as interesting as i did when i took chem 5 in college (chemistry for engineers). moderately so. "my name is earl" has certainly perked things up a bit. taks

interesting. one thing i did not like in the OC was that there were often extremely bifurcated options, and picking the one that your character _should_ pick (based on your personal role choice) created losses in influence that should have been qualified with a sort of "but, here's why i think this and why i think <NPC> should agree..." and subsequently, no influence penalty. taks

uh, the comment i quoted from you was in reference to the way the father would treat the offense, not the way the child would react due to mores. which is what i disagreed with. no self-respecting parent would condone a 15-year old child having relations with a teacher, male or female. most psychologists and psychiatrists would disagree with this as well, at least the "healthy" part of it, particularly in reference to someone engaging in relations with a person in a position of authority. even adults have problems when put in such situations. taks

i disagree with this. i think any reasonable father would have an issue with his child, son or daughter, engaging in sexual activity with a teacher, particularly the child's own teacher. teachers are in a position of authority and no matter how much a child may "enjoy" such acts, they are being used. a reasonable father would know this and, rather than condone, scorn such acts. also, some states allow parental consent down to 15, no consent down to 16. taks

some particularly heinous crimes have no statute of limitations. i'm guessing sexual abuse of a minor qualifies, as does (for sure) murder/manslaughter and probably rape, too. taks