Humodour

You don't really need any anti-virus software or firewalls. Anti-virus software is usually only about 25% successful most of the time anyway, and Linux is firewalled by default (though you can improve this). You've also got security by obscurity (i.e. Linux viruses are amazingly rare). Also you don't have root (admin) rights by default, adding yet another protection layer. Your mileage may vary. Regarding web browsing: uh, clunky? Firefox on Linux is exactly the same as Firefox on Windows. I don't understand your point. If you haven't got Firefox, go to the package manager and type it in the search field. Perhaps you actually mean incorrect fonts? You can download proprietary fonts in the package manager (Arial, Times New Roman, etc), but it's illegal for them to ship directly for free. You'll also want to download music codecs from the package manager so you can play songs (again, illegal to ship directly with Ubuntu). Yeah, KDE 3.5 is pretty damn good. I much prefer it to Gnome. Once KDE 4.3 comes out I'll switch to that, though (as the bugs will be gone - KDE 4.0 was horrible). That's odd. It'll probably be fixed by 9.04 (really worth getting, comes out April 20th-ish). Actually I recall having a similar problem. Ask about it on the Ubuntu forums and they'll tell you how to fix it (they're really friendly). You can also use Wubi (load Ubuntu from within Windows), or you can run Ubuntu as a Windows application: http://lifehacker.com/5195999/portable-ubu...-inside-windows But yeah if there's one thing you should do, it's check out the package manager. So much amazing **** there. Oh, and remember to get the Flash plugin for Firefox, and then get Flashblock to round things off.

That looks pretty cool. I hope it's not just a GTA clone, though. I'm not really a fan of mindless violence and evil and such.

PS3: Alpha Protocol Assassin's Creed AvP3 Aliens: Colonial Marines UT3 etc, etc Wii: Mario Kart Super Smash Bros Brawl Possibly Mario Party (apparently it's good with mates when you're drunk) PS2: ??? Profit! Even given the PS3 game line-up above I'm tempted to choose the Wii because the PS3's games all come out on PC, while the Wii is social. Then again if I get a Wii, it'll postpone getting a new PC which means I'm sort of back to square one.

That's a cop-out. Avoiding the problem won't help. No, but alcohol will! Aside: I just got my $1,000 stimulus payment from Centrelink. Woohoo! Time to buy a new computer and a Wii,

Well, IBM in my home town (which is also where I'm at uni right now) is struggling to fill IT vacancies, and I just got a $14,000 internship with them for this year during my studies, so I'm going to offer a "no".

As tempting as the offer is, our dollar won't hit parity with the USD again until the start of 2010, so it's actually not as big a rip off as it seems. Even so I'm not sure will see any further drop below $200 since PS2's sell too well here. Australians pay about $140 USD, the Brits pay about $150 USD, the Eurozone pays about $135 USD for a PS2, and if you're correct, you Canadians pay $80 USD. Bah!

What good party/multiplayer games are there for the PS2? What good action/shooter/RPG games are there for the Wii? Also the PS2, since I never paid attention? Wii is $400 + 3*$70 for a total of 4 controllers, then about $100 for Super Smash Bros Brawl, $100 for Mario Kart + Wheel, 3*$20 for a total of 4 wheels. That's um 400+210+200+60=870. Man. There goes my government stimulus package. Though I suppose it'd be pretty fun. And a PS3 would cost as much for the console plus just 2 games. On the other hand, the PS3 games are more like real games (e.g. Alpha Protocol, AvP3, UT3, etc) and it'd mean I wouldn't have to upgrade my comp. Sigh. For reference the PS2 is $200, that's why I'm contemplating it.

Wow. I wasn't expecting that from Iowa. Cool.

From my local perspective, I think Kevin Rudd's cash stimulus measures are excessive. There's no need to hand out money to people. It gives you a short-lived boost in GDP growth numbers for the quarter and not much else. What a waste of debt. Now I fully support the infrastructure stimulus portion of the rescue package because it both creates jobs and leaves us with something tangible to show for it when the crisis is over. Far better to let Australia ride out the storm and let the social safety nets of Medicare and Centrelink do their job to absorb unemployment and such till it's over than to saddle us with debt we could have avoided. I guess this puts loosely me in agreement with France and Germany on the this matter.

Are you trying to correct my grammar or ask me a question? It means it makes no sense to say Britain had a smartly regulated financial and banking sector when it is proving right now that it clearly did not. I'm not talking about more or less regulation, but appropriate regulation. Perhaps Britain certainly did have more regulation of its banking sector than most other countries, and I'm sure that gave the business folk and investors a false sense of security, but it doesn't mean it was effective regulation, and it certainly doesn't mean that you can't find a better regulatory framework!

Eh. If you want to see an example of a good financial regulations system, look at Australia's banking system or, so I hear, Canada's. Most of the financial regulations agreed to by Britain and America and cohorts at the recent G20 summit were implemented by both my left and right governments years ago (started late 1980's by Hawke/Keating and then continued by Howard). Enough tooting my own horn because I know that gets old, but certainly it's a bit of a stretch to say that one of the world's economies most down the drain right now had a sound banking system.

We were recently at a gathering of old-hand game developers (Feargus was on the panel) that was giving advice to upcoming college grads. One of the speakers (Steve Perry, if I recall correctly) said that when he is listening to a game pitch, he tells the person giving the pitch to not mention the game's story at all. All he wants to hear about are the unique mechanics and gameplay that the game will have. He says that many of the people who pitch games to him are so enamored of their storyline that they basically collapse at this point and can't explain why the game would be compelling at all outside of the plot. That's a poor summary, but it was an interesting point to make. More for retail games than mods, though, I suppose. Spot on.

You don't need to talk in the present tense; Bush isn't president of America anymore.

Thanks. It was nothing major. They just wanted to let me know that the shipment of tinfoil hats I ordered for you guys has finally arrived.

Oh no, socialism is coming! To arms, to arms!

Pidesco Yes .. But bioware is a forum i registered with years back and dont know my pw/user. Have sent letters and they dont reply. I CANT seem to get them to just clear the files out. All i want to do is talk to module builders. I have played RPG for 30 years. Have played every game you ever heard of. And i can get past the 'i dont give a **** for the customer' firewall they put up even though i have PAID foe BG BG2 TotsC Tob NwN NwN2 NwNMotB, NwNSoz. hmmmm? Joachim PS.. And where was i told that by joining obsidian.. i was to be 'handed off' to bioware? Why not just say.. 'go to bioware' ? Jesus.. All i wanted was a glass of water and i have to build the hoover dam to get it. cya ltr PPS.. If i said i had a HUGE custom module based on Fiests' 'Magician/Silverthorn'.. for Motb that compares with the OC.. watch how quick i would be IN Might I suggest you simply register a new account at the Bioware forums instead of ranting about it here?

Good choice.

Are you enjoying socialism yet? When do you think you'll take up arms in response to Obama's obvious communist tendencies?

Dude, vote conservative. I'm not a fan of the right-wing nutjobs by any means but when your government is that incompetent and have been in power long enough for it to start doing damage, vote 'em out! Seriously, the news stories coming out of Britain these days are starting to scare me. Then vote them back in next election when they've had a chance to clear their heads and purge the ****-ups. You don't want conservatives in power for any longer than absolutely necessary. Actually, this assumes your Labour party is mildly competent and can get it's act together after 3 years. I suspect that's too generous an assumption. You're boned. Enjoy 1984.

Nothing will happen. Conficker has had multiple activation dates before (since February) and they've all involved simply updating the worm to better evade anti-virus companies. Even though it was activated again today, many of the computers in its net won't actually receive the update until it propagates to them days or weeks later. Think of it as more of a bot net than a virus.

Vendor lock-in, dude. The difference between Microsoft and your MP3 maker is that Microsoft's vendor lock-in is at the very least midlly user friendly. (Or more app[propriately Apple/iTunes in this case.) Personally I only buy MP3 players these days that play song straight from folders/HD's, without any sort of playlist/control system. They're rare, though iTunes is also pretty decent if you have an iiPod.

I think without addressing Bulock's very specific points about challenges unique to this particular activity ('real' CQC), you are jumping to much more generalised statements - in which case, the vectors of thought simply aren't meeting. For me his descriptions about those specific challenges are pretty convincing, unless you were simply expressing your wish for some new game that really tackles that issue in the face with a crowbar - in which case, fair enough. I think it's all mocap. This post was too diplomatic. In future, please express your reall thoughts. Sincerely, my facer..

lol. And I lol because I was like 11 when I first posted on BIS, not just because I find your post amusing.

I could probably write a Python script that does this for you. I've already built one that reads the metadata of all mp3s in a folder, so modifying it shouldn't be too difficult.