Humodour

IIRC Venezuela is allied with other left governments like Bolivia, Paraguay, Ecuador, Nicaragua & Honduras. They're not powerful, but I suppose they're numerous. Where? I'd be happy for you to point it out, especially since communism is a subset of socialism, but I doubt I even made the 'mistake' of refering to the superset where I meant the subset. I think it's more probable that your understanding of socialism is confused. Most forms of socialism are vile and dangerous (whether communism or some random form of perpetual revolution). The only mildly acceptable form to my mind is socialist democracy (Venezuela, but its swiftly drifting off the tracks to pure socialism).

Cheers, I'll try that. Edit: couldn't find 'dynamic contrast'. I set Overdrive to 0 from 60.

hf gl dd

Yeah. I actually got work done.

It's funny because a) he craves Obama's recognition and praise and b) he won't get anywhere without regional allies, and Brazil and co are quite fond of America these days. Queue another Belarus?

More postal workers?

Social democracy. Venezuela is a socialist democracy. Wikipedia has definitions for each. The fact that Venezuela is still marginally a democracy is the reason it would be inappropriate to do as Monte Carlo suggests. Agreed. But I don't think you even need to be anywhere near socialism to benefit from social democracy (see Australia, Britain, New Zealand, Canada, Western Europe).

I'm not sure I like it either. Although I did my first online purchase recently and it went off without a hitch - bought an Apple PC from their store online with my debit MasterCard (I hate credit cards). I wouldn't mind doing it again, although I'm loathe to pay for postage and handling (it was free with my Mac). But I'm smart enough to know that I can't do anything to stop that digitalisation trend, and I'm not sure it'll be such a bad thing in the end anyway (less wasteful packaging for example).

Chavez tries to silence the sole remaining truly independent news service. http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas...la.globovision/ Damn socialist morons. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...&refer=news And Chavez decided to randomly take over some private mining companies, causing the Venezuelan stock market to plummet. Again, socialist morons.

Look, if there was reason to be concerned, I would be, but I hardly think we can cry "monopoly!" on this. TuneCore has plenty of competition from other similar services, as the article states. Google has competition from Yahoo (enough to keep it on it's toes - Yahoo has roughly 20% of the search market). Amazon has competition from traditional publishers and if they don't like that Amazon's digital model is so successful, why they can just create their own to copy it, can't they? The only real potential source of problems is Google's book licensing deals, but I've been following that on and off and it's as though Google bends over backwards to please libraries and authors. I certainly think the goal of archiving books that would otherwise be lost to the sands of time is worth some discomfort to libraries, anyway.

What's this got to do with Fallout? I will strike you down.

Yeah but Fallout 2's got an increasingly bad reputation so I need to jump in whenever someone is talking ill about it on the internet Fallout 2 has a bad reputation? First I've heard of it.

I think you need a better word filter.

It's just you. Next.

There, there. I'm here now.

Gothic 3. ...from which I got bored after 5 hours. Next. So what you're saying is that a game is only as long as you think it's fun to play..? Real clever. Your ADD doesn't exactly have any relevance in this matter. Gothic 3 is still hundreds of hours long. Fun fact: I know many people with ADHD, I have ADHD myself, and computer games are one of the things we can immerse ourselves in near indefinitely without getting bored (the Internet is another). It's called hyperfocusing, and it occurs when the subject at hand is emotionally investing (consider that most games are an exciting adventure where you constantly explore new areas/concepts).

Yes, but Print on Demand publishers have always existed for books. The same is sort of true for CDs. But what Amazon does is provide a large enough global community to allow for such services to be cheap and highly penetrative (i.e. selling 1000 CDs/books on Amazon is far easier than trying to sell 1000 CDs locally to interested listeners). Similar for books. I think it's great that Amazon is disrupting the old business models like this.

I coded a C++ assignment today and restarted work on my 2D sidescroller after a few months hiatus. Edit: I need to find another job. It's been a year and accommodation funds are starting to run low.

$15 a month is too expensive (and that's American!). $10 is perfectly reasonable.

I switched to a 22" Widescreen LCD with 20000:1 contrast ratio and 2ms response time for $350 AUD. I miss my CRT. The quality just isn't the same.

Actually, I don't care. DX is DX and AP is AP. Even if AP won't be perfection made manifest, I know what to expect from an Obs game, and really really really doubt that I'll be disappointed. Especially if Sega lets them finish the f-ing game. Indeed. Though I also wouldn't shed any tears if AP were a DX clone. In fact, I'd be deliriously happy. But I know Obsidian is dying to make their own mark and would like to avoid their flagship game being called a clone if at all possible.

lol wut. To summarize: The trial judge is being accused of bias because he is a member of several copyright lobby groups. The judge assigned to review those allegations is also a member of the same groups. What's worse is that it seems the original judge may have directed the case specifically to this new judge. http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/05/j...moved-for-bias/

Hmm. The preliminary results are not what I was expecting. MMOs don't seem to have sticking power.

Fall guys never exist in a totalitarian state? Anyway, you seem to be implying here that acts of genocide are somehow better if they're performed "democratically." How does that make the least bit of sense? As the old quote goes, "Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch." Trickle-down economics is a disgusting and terrible theory that has hurt the lower class in America. It is a vicious attack on their sovereignty, and on their ability to survive and protect their children, with the sole purpose of lining the rich's pockets. Americans in the bottom 7/10th in 1992 were making less money than they were in 1979. How does that work? Trickle-down economics is how. PS: Clinton? Come the **** on. A completely politicized attack is equivalent actual risk of justice? Name a president who was ever actually arrested for actual ****ing crimes. (Hint: You can't.) The crimes of US presidents are excused and pushed under the rug. How is historical revisionism better than considering an act a "necessary evil"? Both attempt to excuse terror and violence, just in different ways. Soviet Russia was pretty ****. Just sayin'.

Indeed, on both counts.