Humodour

I think you need to do some research on current computer technology, bro, and stop relying on what existed when you first started selling computers.

**** you Microsoft. I look forward to your demise even more each day.

The best solution I've found for this problem is to uninstall Vista.

Basically any time taks gets into an argument (which is fairly often, since he doesn't believe he's ever wrong), 2 things happen: 1) He blindly calls your argument a straw man 2) He calls you an idiot for disagreeing with him

Yeah! There's a difference between having open, flexible file formats and standards and releasing actual modding tools! At the very least Obsid can do the first. Please?

[sarcasam] All you nee to do now, is realise why Python isn't really worthwhile for games . [/sarcasam] I don't know why you posted that but I'll bite: Python's great for games - from Bloodlines, Freedom Force, ToEE, etc using it for scripting and modding to FIFE's flexible C++/Python synergy and the superb rapid development capabilities of PyGame and Python-Ogre or Panda3D. It's gravy that you can bring Python performance as arbitrarily close to C performance as you require (assuming it isn't already). And it's spelt 'sarcasm'.

Then go back and read the thread. There are real, tangible reasons why what's good for the PC can be what's bad for consoles (though obviously right now that's not true). Though I agree, it's not simply a zero sum game.

then why did you bring it up when i never said anything about ex-post facto laws nor does it have anything to do with this situation? either you don't understand the terms as well as you think, or you don't understand what i said. and no, it's not "part of a larger" anything. ex-post facto is an entirely different argument, completely unrelated to blago's complaint. taks

You guys got pwned. We've been experiencing a consistently 'pleasant' 35 Celsius each day here, although it'll supposedly be in the 40's on the weekend. At least it gets to the low twenties at night and I can finally open my window.

Because we will code with our keyboards of magic instead!

Worst pun ever. I actually thought it was quite punny.

It's far harder to regulate a brothel when it's in python, which is the sovereignty of the more decent boy bands.

You're not really making sense, Mamoulian War.

Np. It's a relatively minor point in both articles, though. Because those articles only talk about Valve and Blizzard, you conclude Valve and Blizzard are the only two companies making money off PC gaming? Come on...

I think the key here is actually something different. Technology improvements haven't really slowed down at all, and materials science promises some sweet new things for the future (photonic circuits, graphene transistors, memristors, etc). What HAS slowed down is the human capacity to fully utilise technological improvements. Technology sort of improves exponentially, while the human capacity to utilise it improves logistically, as it were. We've seen it before: a new technology is created and all sorts of mad geniuses utilise it to make cool things, but then the number of innovations starts to slow down significantly and there's a shift to collaborative research drawn out over many years. The same is true for PC gaming, or specifically physics engines, graphics engines, audio/voice engines, etc. In light of this, I predict (and hope for) a shift back to focusing on game content instead of graphics, since they are basically now static. To those mentioning multiple cores and processors: parallelisation is definitely an important technological step, but it does not give linear speed boosts and recent studies suggest it actually tapers off at n cores (with n being below 100, possibly significantly below) with potential performance decreases for large numbers of cores. It's not something you can rely on to continue the exponential growth trend.

Not really. Did you happen to read that article by Valve's main guy where he explains that it's a myth? Gabe Newell explains why PC gaming is the future: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/valve-wh...-future-article Doug Lombardi further discredits "the PC is dead" claims: http://www.shacknews.com/featuredarticle.x?id=873

Pro-tip: everybody already has a PC these days, so the cost of a PC, however high you may think it is ($3000 would get you a PC far superior to any current console) is not terribly relevant. I know a lot of people who like PC gaming just fine. If you can't get GTA IV working properly on your computer, that's unfortunate. I'm pretty sure this isn't a referendum on digital downloads, since physical stores will exists regardless of whether or not consoles do. Again, what's the got to do with it? Consoles use the Internet these days, too. The Internet will exist, and people will use it, with or without consoles. Actually, governments typically spend money on infrastructure (which includes communications) during big recessions because it creates job and loosens credit.

Well I live in the country so there's not as much choice as some place like Sydney, but download capping is so common I bet the unlimited services would cost twice as much. At the Australian National University when I lived on campus we each had 100 Mbps connections to our rooms. But we were charged at 7 cents per meg. Just as I left they upgraded it to 10 Gbps and lowered the cost to 2 cents per meg. So that was amazingly refreshing compared to a normal ISP, but at $70 (and then $20) per gigabyte it was still fairly restrictive. Data on the uni network (which included the research schools and residential halls) was unmetered thank god. Edit: P.S. 10 Gbps ethernet will blow your mind. It's literally 10,000 times faster than a 1Mbps connection.

Pretty much, and it doesn't really surprise me, either. I expected it ever since the Xbox came out. Although I highly doubt consoles will disappear completely. You've got things like the PSP and Gameboy which filled a niche that PCs simply can't fill (or can they...? maybe we'll see fancy shaped netbooks) Consoles thrived because they were cheap, PC's were expensive, they were common, PC's were rare, they were stable and constant, PC hardware was always improving exponentially. None of those are true anymore. The only thing consoles still have going for them really is the social factor. But that alone won't really keep them alive since it's easy enough to port to PCs. It'll be interesting to see if we experience a resurgence of gamepads and such for PCs. The Wii is an interesting one. Something like that could well stick around despite the PC simply because of the unique input device which the devs can guarantee every Wii user has - that's hard on a PC.

In case anybody is wondering, I stumbled upon some awesome open source programmes and plugins for creating at least two important art assets: Trees/grass/shrubs: http://arbaro.sourceforge.net/ then exporting the model to a 3d software (Blender) and rendering it or http://dryad.stanford.edu/index.php (Windows only) And seamlessly tileable floor tiles (e.g. desert dirt, room walls, carpet): http://gimp-texturize.sourceforge.net/ or http://www.logarithmic.net/pfh/resynthesizer

Australia's broadband and mobile penetration rates are perfectly fine. Above the OECD average. And we also have the technology to support blistering speeds (e.g. NextG is the fastest commercial mobile network in the world at 42Mbps in 2009). The problem is what the average customer actually gets. I suspect speed caps stifle innovation (read: speed increases) because it's basically a form of price fixing. Speeds do go up over time, though, so as long as that happens, whatever. Our ISPs certainly aren't about to change their business model. What irks me far more about Australian broadband is the download caps. They're usually something pathetic like 1gb or 10gb, and change the cost of the plan by horrendous amounts. E.g. mobile broadband on Telstra's NextG network costs $130 AUD per month for 10 gigs and $60 for 1 gigs (at about 0.5 to 6 Mbps on average because of the scarcity of NextG infrastructure). That's 65 and 30 Euros respectively. I already pay $40 (20 euro) a month to get 10 gigs at 512kbps, so no way am I gonna pay $130 just because it's wireless.

How's that supposed to work? Files are scattered throughout the harddisk, so an Ubuntu installed like this will be terribly fragmented, wouldn't it? I was confusing Wubi and the partition resize option. Basically Wubi is where you run Ubuntu on NTFS as stated above, whilst resizing the partition involves keeping your Windows boot but squeezing it down to free space for an Ubuntu partition. To use this option you need to defragment in Windows (for obvious reasons) and then when installing Ubuntu, select how much space you want to assign Windows vs Ubuntu (making sure you give both enough space to run, including the swap file - usually not a problem on large harddrives). Apart from that though, it is as I said: you create a Windows/Ubuntu dual boot by turning one partition into two, without any need to format. So if you want to dual-boot into Windows and Ubuntu but only have one partition (which is typical), you've got three options: Wubi, partition (and format) your HD then install Windows on partition 1 and then install Ubuntu on partition 2, or partition your HD without formatting by defragmenting in Windows and then selecting the resize option when installing Ubuntu. So method 1 requires little fiddling but cops a performance decrease, method 2 is clean but requires a format which wipes your data, and method 3 is the best of both worlds.

Starbuck was good this episode. She went around killing people. I never liked Gaeta. He's always been the worst character of the show, IMHO. Hope he dies soon.

The guy in Gorgon's avatar doesn't have an anachronism attacking his head.

Cantousent? Does he still post?