taks

i think i've made several comments to that end (so have di and others). politicians are politicians. they're in it for their own gain. the power and money attracts that kind of personality/mentality. the populace falls for it. it has long been my belief that the term "democrat" and "republican" are nothing more than particular monikers that politicians use to gain what they want. i.e. different means to the same end. taks

which, as alanschu pointed out, isn't too far from real world situations often. hehe... taks

i'm thinking f/wm for my next build, though i may opt for a cleric as i do not play them often. so far, i haven't found a cleric NPC, either. taks

b for book yeah, i realize he was talking about the mouse. but if you got a hand near the keyboard, and you're good with it (i.e. you know how to type), it's much easier to hit all the keys in the dark. taks

i'm curious what you mean by this? my inventory screen comes up next to the character portraits. one click: i one click: c this is adjustable in the game options. taks

uh, hate to tell you but it's not "official." the AP is not the body that decides VA's outcome. it does seem likely, however. taks

i think the recent push to "christian conservative" morals hurt many that otherwise would have let the iraq mess slide, too. certainly iraq is the dominant player here, but had the GOP not been so pushy with religion on many issues (FL, gay rights "amendments", etc.) a lot of swing voters would not have swung the other way i'm guessing. bush will be lucky if he gets anyone pushed through now. that's probably why rummy resigned, because they knew it was all over. actually, i hadn't considered this till now... hmmm. taks

carnage. taks

obeying. same for me, btw. started CG and i just managed to choose all the "law" options. if any character in my game is a "do-gooder," it is me, not casavir. ugh. i sicken myself. taks

yeah, i noticed that. suddenly you have all these "cleave" hits running around the screen and your dwarf is standing there waiting for his next round animation. sorta funny. AI still has a long way to go with any game i've played. nothing unusual there... taks

i wouldn't really refer to casavir as a "do-gooder," at least not in the same sense as anomen was. anomen had serious, very serious, personal issues to deal with which resulted in overcompensation, and, whineyness of a sort. casavir is simply a lawful good paladin. at least, that's what i got from the short stint he had in my party. i've already trucked down the LG path far enough without his help. next run is neutral of sorts. maybe true neutral. taks

yeah, so rare these days. i understand it is difficult to predict every possible HW/SW combo, but sometimes, it's just ridiculous. Ultima 9 comes to mind. nobody on the planet could run that. you had to wonder if anyone actually installed it prior to going gold, let alone testing the master copy. sheesh. there was a system hog once it was running, too. i wonder how it would do now? taks

oh yeah... morrowind doesn't blow, it sucks. and oblivion. similar to the gothics, i never got drawn in. there are some mechanics issues with these, too, that i absolutely cannot stand. lots of rinse and repeat questing, which is what i didn't like about NWN OC. taks

you'll never hear that from me. i've pointed out several flaws (my opinion of course) in many threads. so far, however, this is certainly one of the most stable games i have bought in quite some time. most of my complaints are minor implementation issues. definitely one of the most fun games, too. of course, that could simply be due to my starvation for _anything_ worth playing lately. the gothics never really managed to capture me, and i've heard the latest is a bug-fest. NWN was meh, though i did enjoy HotU and several modules. toee was simply, well... you know. PoRII... don't even get me started. dragonshard, a bit of a departure, though still "related," is meh. there were a few others that i cannot even recall that i got some enjoyment out of, but the fact that i can't even remember their names says a lot about their overall worth. going back a little further was IWD2, but that was one of the most dramatic love/hate relationships i've ever had with a game. taks

the problem is that some folks come in and simply want someone to stroke their ego by saying "yeah, the game sucks, you're right." THAT is when it is whining. taks

it is too bad that the "separation of powers" only technically applies to one branch over another. i don't know of another way to deal with the inevitable outcome of a (primarily) two-party system, however. taks

yeah, i couldn't remember if those caves were blocked or not. some of it does open back up, however, after you get past the very first part of act 2. taks

i don't expect many differences except with iraq and that would be primarily because of gates vs. rummy. taks

we should always have a split power, IMO. that way government can't screw up the system any worse than it already is. taks

dunno. i'm not sure anyone has the authority to really "fire" a VP, though i'm sure pressure from the party could easily result in a forced resignation. back in the early days, the VP was actually elected separately, which caused many issues. realistically, it does not matter. the VP is a figurehead only. he has zero official power. taks

yes. i have no idea how winders handles it. i'm also coming from a pseudo-real-time version of linux viewpoint designed for embedded processing. in this particular case, you can force affinity to a certain processor, which can be important as all standard housekeeping processes are targeted to CPU0 by default. i'd imagine it works similar, though not exactly the same with winders. linux also allows users to have relatively low-level control if necessary, something probably absent with mr. proprietary winders. taks

in linux land, we actually refer to core switching as a context switch as well. it is a major problem because each core has its own cache/stack. you have to flush everything from one cache/stack, and reload it on the new core's. depending upon how the cache is set up, it can take a while. taks

thanks tigranes. i did not realize that was an option. so many things to learn, so few remaining brain cells. it would help if i actually READ the manual, probably. hehe, i treat it like a VCR or DVD player... taks

won't be decided till the 27th apparently. taks

you shall quickly lose what little life you reclaimed if you don't run into the issues some are having. the character selection thing is not embedded into my brain yet, either, so it causes grief on occasion. i select my dude, then go to cast and it's still on the other dude, who is now running to strike up a conversation with the one i wanted control over. it'll take a while. taks