majestic

I kind of struggled through Season 1... and the only reason I kept watching was for Doctor Who Kilgrave. Then again, my favorite Marvel anything is Agents of SHIELD so I might not be the best point of reference.

*grabs a pitchfork, some tar and a torch* Kill the heretic! Fie!

Still Stellaris with some Half-Life to mix things up a little. I stopped my machine empire game for the time being until the domination issue is ironed out. Taking the last few enemy planets will just annoy everyone else, what with the whole xenophage issue and all (oh which is also happily bugged, or at least was while I still played the machine empire game).

I've played Syndicate extensively when it came out. The research system, the way you can buy more intel on a location before going in, the atmosphere and the fact that you have to mind rape people into following you while essentially playing an evil multinational corporation hell-bent on world domination and all that back in '93, seriously, what's not to love? The combat isn't really an issue, the gameplay is slow enough. It's nowhere near the level of current RTSs and MOBAs in terms of APM requirements. Planning the missions and figuring things out is great fun and you even have a certain degree of freedom in how you approach your objective (well not in the early missions like the first one). Steal cars, mind-rape civilians and put them in the crossfire, climb on a tower to snipe down or use your rocket launchers to incinerate a well fortified position while watching the people inside run around in panic and burn (yeah well you can see them moving on the scanner, just imagine the screams and all). Hell you can outfit your agents with a self destruct device and make them very effective suidice bombers (mind rape a few civilians to follow the bomber for extra fun). The original only had one really difficult mission where the real time nature of the game became a bit of an issue and that was Atlantis Station, and in normal playthroughs that's the very final one you'll be attempting. Also, like with many other games that age you can use a fan made improved engine in the form of FreeSynd.

I've been rewatching ENT for a while now. Started two months before Discovery first aired I had planned to at least see ENT and TOS before STD started but... that didn't work out due to me getting stuck in ENT's second season for a long time. Considering how STD turned out I'm glad I didn't bother brushing up on this era's Trek timeline (iI mean not because I don't like TOS but STD wouldn't have been worth the effort to push through ENT's dreadful start). Still, I now managed to pass season 2 and ended up binging the third season. It's a pity the show got the axe just when it became interesting to watch. I'm looking forward to season 4 (well except the opening two parter, dear god) but I dread the end. ENT had the worst ending of any Trek show and it ranks high up there with all the worst TV show endings ever.

To echo one of the comments on YouTube: There is one thing wrong with the song: It ends!

Both empires on my borders formed a very early defensive pact forcing me to deal with both or do nothing. I eventually defeated them both by salami slicing their empires and defeating their fleets by placing outpost and starbases with defense platforms near the borders and goading their fleets into attacking them. Progress is slow and constatnly fighting on two fronts racks up war exhaustion quickly. Took me several declarations of war with enforced peace treaties in between to finally punch them hard enough so they no longer matter. I just wish I could make them vassals or tributaries. For some reason while I can adpot the domination tradition it didn't unlock the options for me. Googled a bit but I still don't know if machine empires aren't supposed to be able to create vassals in 2.0 (and should have a different set of traditions in place of domination) or if it is just bugged.

Pretty sure I posted this before but here goes nothing:

Tried sneak attacking my annoyed neighbor, with the effect that I lost three systems to a major counterattack I wasn't exactly ready for. Started to rebuild my forces while expanding a bit. Guy next door kept claiming systems and declared war. I thought I was done for but luckily for me most of his fleet were still the missile bearing corvettes from before and my shiny new destroyers came with point defense installed. 'Twas fun seeing the two fleets evenly matched at first with the enemy fleet power dropping to half in a few seconds. A status quo peace offering left me with getting most of my old systems back. The new war system is pretty nice. It's too early to judge but so far warfare feels much more lively and less static than before.

I'm also on a new Stellaris game what with the major changes and the new DLC. My little machine empire is doing quite well, but I accidentially annoyed a neighbouring empire by... accidentially closing borders. I mean I meant to close my borders, just not with them. Ah well. I wonder if I'll ever see the synthetic or spiritualistic ascension paths. Playing a hive mind without having to worry about ethics drift and factions is just too tempting. Especially since I like larger galaxies.

The first five and a half minutes of Half-Life, the only thing you could do was walk around a bit in your train cabin. And it was the best thing ever. 1998 was an incredible year for gaming. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Metal Gear Solid, Half-Life, Fallout 2, Baldur's Gate, StarCraft, Pokemon, Grim Fandango, Thief: The Dark Project, Banjo-Kazooie, Unreal... Actually it might just have been the best year in gaming of all time.

Having a copy of a record for private use is specifically stated not to be a case of copyright infringement in the US and most of the EU (the UK being a major exception here). One might find it morally objectionable but it's not illegal in the same way some nations handle drug possession where having a small amount of recreational drugs for private use isn't illegal but the act of selling and producing them is. Of course that means one can't legally acquire a blunt or two but you can smoke them without fear of legal action. So, not sure why discussing Pink Floyd is still a thing.

Yeah, the usual argumentation goes that of course people of different nationalities (and color) visited medieval Europe. They sure did, that's out of the question. Trade was (and still is, imagine) a thing after all. But actually living in Bumf*ck, Bohemia? Not very likely. Fun fact, three centuries after the time the game is set in there was a Kanuri who was captured and sold into slavery that eventually ended up living in Vienna and befriending Austrian royalty. A highly regarded, educated and well liked person he still ended up as a curiosity exhibit in a museum for people to gawk at.

My first cRPG was Eye of the Beholder II: The Legend of Darkmoon, and at the time I had but a few weeks of learning English at school (I was eight at the time). I spent days with a dictionary my parents got me just for the game, deciphering the user interface and figuring out what the hell all these abbreviations were supposed to be. I got pretty far but eventually got stuck on a teleporter riddle. Had a similar experience with LucasArt's Loom (edit: I know it's not an RPG), but that game I managed to finish. Without ever figuring out what the hell was going on. The last leaf of autumn... Good old times indeed. Got both games on GOG. I guess I know what I'll be doing now.

I'm sure Amentep is old enough to get it (I mean I am and he's like way older).

It can't be any worse than the movie was...

"How does it feel to live long enough to see all your favorite franchises go down in flames?" -- Rich Evans

What's got four legs and an arm? Yeah I know, old jokes and all...

Besides, Microsoft licenses are a... difficult example. MS rakes in license money from the OEM and Enterprise markets. Everyone whose Windows license didn't come with the computer is probably using an illegal copy installed by a tech savvy friend anyway, and the worst Microsoft ever did was put annoying popups on your screen saying that you might have bought a fake license from a shady dealer.

You can just click on "OK" for any of the survey parts. It won't complain if you don't enter any data. Just hit the buttons until the testing starts.

You don't have to, you can't be sued over your private copy... even if you infringed on a copyright to create it. E.g. a friend gives you a mix tape he made from several tapes he bought. Technically the mix tape can be considered a copyright infringement, but your friend already paid the tax on the blank tape, therefore it's not legally pursueable.

Sure, up until the point where the revenue service shows up and screws you hard up the rear for tax dodging. Depends on the country and the medium or device in question. Smart phones in e.g. Germany are taxed by 36€ if they are at or above 8 GB storage capacity (16€ if less). Blank 25GB Blu Ray disks were 3.473 € a piece (this has now been overturned and is subject to renegotiation). Blank DVDs are in the range of 0.2€ per piece. Video tapes and audio cassettes are taxed by per hour of recording capacity, assuming they're still sold, of course.

What in the blazing hell are you on about? The current legislation across a lot of EU states (and some others) is that I'm free to create a personal copy of a recording I own without it being considered copyright infringement. In turn we we pay a so called private copying levy on literally everything (even FAX machines) that could be used to infringe on copyrights. Said levy is then used to compensate content creators for any (supposed) loss from private, non-commercial copying. The US has the Audio Home Recording Act's § 1008 that allows home recordings. House Report No. 102-780(I), August 4, 1992: "In short, the reported legislation [section 1008] would clearly establish that consumers cannot be sued for making analog or digital audio copies for private noncommercial use". You don't even need to own the original copy. Your friend could have made a copy and then given it back, the royalties owed coming out of your tax dollars anyway. There's a discussion whether or not a computer is a recording device as covered by Section 1008 but I don't really know that much about US copyright law. *shrug* Edit: Of course the US bit only applies to audio recordings, but that was your example.

You have a right to a private (backup) copy of any record you acquire (with some exceptions that certainly don't apply to a 40 year old album). So, essentially, yes. There's no real difference between a downloaded or self-ripped set of MP3s you can legally have. Some governments (including yours from what a quick googling revealed) place a surcharge on recordable media ("blank media tax") to compansate copyright holders for loss of sales from these copies.

Little to no automatic preference between the United Kingdom and the United States. Gee, really. One's the appendix of the other anyway, so why would there be. Oh, wait. Uhm... Moderate automatic preference for Thin People compared to Fat People. In this test I was first given the categories Fat and Good as a combination, so they seem to mix it up. And the moderate automatic preference had nothing to do with my personal bias and everything to do with the fact that during the "thin good, fat bad" portion of the test I got like 90% short positive words and thin faces. Kept hitting the same button and had to correct mistakes on the fat side. What a load of crap.