Humodour

I'd would be surprised if 90% of conspiracy theorists weren't paranoid to some degree. However, closing perfectly good eyes and assuming that people in power always have your best interest at heart isn't necessary a good thing either. Which is why my "religion" is doubt and my "crusade" consists of constantly questioning my own lines of thought as well as my surroundings. Investigating why things are the way they are, is something I consider a virtue Both are obviously not good, being extremes. Though the problem of Iran's anti-Semitism has little to do with our faith in our governments, unless secretly Iranians like the Israelis and their hatred of Jews is all a myth perpetrated to by our governments to steal their oil. After all, Archie in no way implied we have or should have blind faith in our governments.

Hold me.

Nah, the sun will become a red giant in 5 to 6 billion years (c.f. Earth and Sol are 4.56 billion years old while life is about 4 billion years old). Meanwhile, by about 0.9 billion years time, the Sun's thermal expansion leading up to red giant phase will have incinerated most of Earth's atmosphere and annihilated all life on earth. After a red giant, Sol will become a nebula, and then a white dwarf and finally a black dwarf. Of course, no black dwarfs have been observed, because the universe is relatively young (13.7 billion years old) so none have formed yet. Even so, it is unknown exactly how long black dwarfs take to form... it depends on whether or not protons decay and what dark matter is (i.e. WIMPs).

Yeah, I saw this on Slashdot earlier. It's hard to tell exactly what the outcome is, but it's always good to at least see people having a go against bigger powers instead of cowering away in the face of a potential lawsuit.

Likewise. While people like Walsingham have tackled the main issues (compared with conspiracy theorists like brdavs) and I'm probably repeating them, I'll just quote the current Iranian president: "Israel needs to be wiped off the map.", meanwhile his official military parades are adorned with imagery of ballistic missiles overlayed with slogans about how Israel must be erased. In other words, totally peaceful.

Anyway, if it took pop 45 minutes and 40 clot charms to kill the PS:T end boss, he must have really sucked. I melee'd it with my mage ffs.

WoW is crap for that. It doesn't recapture the atmosphere of D2. I mean, it's not a bad game, but it's not Diablo.

Try and refrain from replying to this with some snappy comment - since you make a distinction between "art" and "mere entertainment", what criterions must be met for something to be in one field and not the other? Just wondering, since I would not have it easy categorising creative works like that. It's probably an classification of ease, with average, common games as entertainment and the more highly appreciated/innovative games (e.g. those with cult following) as art. A fairly decent distinction for utility purposes, but probably inaccurate when it comes to deciding whether or not a game is art.

Fragmentation is only necessary when there is lots of file movement, creation and/or deletion going on. I imagine for consoles the relatively small hard drive size coupled with the fairly static nature of installed operating systems and programs means defragmentation is rather unnecessary.

Let me preface this with: you are awesome. OK, so, my favourite designs, from memory are: Paladin Vengeance + Conviction - massive damage, no need to worry about dexterity (Conv lowers their defence by 90%), only one hit (but usually one hit kills) meaning more clicking than zeal Holy Shock + Zeal - massive damage, multiple targets, screwed for lightning immunes, possibly weak defence Holy Freeze + Zeal - massive damage, multiple targets, targets are slowed, effectivelly means high defence... this one is a personal favourite Smite + Fanaticism - used to be fairly decent... no leech, single target, knockback, screwed for physical immunes, massive defence Amazon Lightning Zon - powerful as a buggery. Main skill is charged strike (releases charged bolts), possibly using lightning fury as a crowd thinner. Needs to focus on defence, not damage (you can pick up a rusty javelin and kill hordes with this char), also needs a viable way to kill lightning immunes... possibly jab... or just work in a team Ice Zon - uses the level 30 frozen arrow. Freeze, area of effect, high damage, no 'cast' delay, meaning based on bow speed. Stacks with pierce for extra goodness. Might be worth 10 in the level 1 fire arrow skill for ice immunes... haven't played this one enough times to determine Barbarian Warcry barb - he runs around casting warcry like a sorc would cast nova. Sports two +skills swords or +fast cast wands. Extremely effective with the right gear, as it's better than nova without the cast delay and it stuns enemies making you untouchable. Extremely mana intensive. Frenzy barb - used to be a little used build in D2 Classic, but I always preferred it to WW. Seems now it is fairly mainstream, though. As with warcry barb, the war cries are very important, especially the one just before warcry which lowers enemy defence/damage/ar Necromancer Poison Necro - very tempted to play a necro based on poison nova and poison explosion + lower resist. Would team well with any elemental character. Druid Werebear - I want to try this. Single hit, but high damage, high life, high defence, and he has a stunning (literally) crowd control skill. And finally: pay attention to synergies. They make or break most builds. P.S. if you ever want an MP LAN game, I'm good for it... true for anybody in this thread. Beauty of LAN is you get to start from scratch with friends. Starting from scratch can be kind of lame on your own, but it becomes fairly fun with friends, and the game takes on a different dynamic, as even magic drops and random chests become important.

I said this on Mistress Lair, but I adored "The Doctor's Daughter" episode. I mean, the overall episode was fairly generic, but Jenny was awesome. Very much hope she's a regular or gets a spin-off targeted at the 15 to 25 demographic.

The new Doctor Who is fairly formulaic most of the time. Very glad Moffat is the new head writer.

Really loved this season. Glad they left behind the whole demon of the week thing (it's still there, but doesn't feel forced like in Smallville or Doctor Who). Last two episodes were sweet. Series has been renewed for 13 episodes which is awesome. Thoughts?

That's one way to look at it. A lot of people found Torment's subtle teaser romances far preferable to BG2's in-your-face mills & boon style soap romances, though.

Can you name a better romance in any game? You don't have to rush to the answer. Take your time. I'll be here. And when you finally realize you can't think of a better one because it doesn't exist, do not despair. Just because you're a failure doesn't mean we don't love you. Easy: Annah, FFG in Planescape: Torment. Dunno why you're personally attacking me, there, though. I wasn't being sarcastic. Moreover, remember that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence; even if BG2 romances were the best game romances, that would in no way imply they were good.

I lol'd at 21 drinking age.

actually, it doesn't sound like he actually replaced the battery. yes, if the CMOS battery is dead your pooter probably would not boot. try replacing that, first, then check back. taks I did try replacing the battery - which is what your were replying to. But I see a green LED on the mobo and my network card has it's orange LED on (but when I press on, the blue LED doesn't turn on). There is no sound from the computer - the fan isn't going. So it seems the failure it start isn't a power problem (PSU or battery). It's a relatively recent mobo - has an Athlon XP, guessing gigabyte. Will probably be getting a new mobo soon - oh well, thanks anyway guys.

Worked for Bioware.

Did you not play the Viconia one? That was incredible. Every single time it would activate it goes through a cycle of Viconia seeming like she's seeking sympathy with some tale of woe and end with her telling you to **** off regardless of the right or wrong response. It's the only time that game developers have ever been brave enough to implement a psycho-*****. It was hilarious. Haha, that's so true! And the even funnier thing? She was the best of the romances. Awesome.

It's funny those two things happened, really. I suspect in the end because both sides fubar'd, it will actually lead to an alliance, whereas if just one side ****ed up, it would be impossible.

c - 1 e - 2

He said he doesn't like "monster of the week" stuff, so I'm thinking Dr Who and Torchwood are out. At least shows like Reaper have a few over-arching plot threads and strong character design to tie it all together (not that I don't like Dr Who).

I have a few ideas of my own. I've written them down, so that one day in 10 years when I'm sick of teaching kids why 1+cot^2(x)=cosec^2(x), I'll read my notes, and think "hey, I'm going to start a game company" and it will be tyte.

Is it me or does n00b just love to argue for the sake of it?