Enoch

Beatles-- Why Don't We Do It in the Road?

Addendum: Bad: I just discovered that one of the components for my new PC is on backorder. Good: It's the keyboard. The only reason I was buying a new one was because it was sickeningly cheap and my old one was dirty. Oh, and the grocery shopping and resultant dinner turned out quite well.

Good: I'm over the cold. Weather is nice. I've gotten a good amount of work done so far. Bad: I'm at work. Have to go grocery shopping afterwards (which I normally don't mind, but I'll probably have to drive there through rush-hour traffic). I also need to do some ironing so I have something to wear to work tomorrow. Overall: TBD.

Thanks for the update. I haven't played Oblivion in a few months, but I plan on loading it up when I get my new system assembled to see how it looks above 640X400. And OOO is an excellent mod.

I just ordered one of those. I'm going to try to assemble my system next weekend, so if you're still uncertain, I'll post my impressions then.

Good: Ordered the components for my new desktop. Went shopping at Costco, which is always fun. While there, I was able to get one of the last cases of Smithwick's they had (They don't usually carry it, but apparently they ordered a shipment for St. Patrick's day). Bad: Dreary weather. I seem to have a developing head cold. All my shopping has cost me nearly 2 grand. On balance, I'd say it's a good day.

There are many other computer users on this board that could use a new computer more than you could. ' All I have is a poor and tired Sempron. A socket 754 CPU. It is so taxed but it tries. One day its Cache is going to give out and that will be it. Oh, poor Sempron CPU, poor Socket 754 Sempron! :sad: Just off the top of my head, Astrocreep and I are both running >2GHz P4's, with >1GB of RAM and a Radeon 9600 series video card. I think you meant to use the "<" symbol, not the ">".

Okay, I'll play: Musical performer: Sonny Rollins Film: Lawrence of Arabia Television: Honestly, there's nothing out there I'm really into right now. There's stuff I like, but nothing that I mind too much if I miss. Cartoon: '40s-era Looney Tunes. Book: Catch-22 PC Game: PS:T; Civilization series Console Game: Super Mario World Gaming Console: ?? I guess I play my GBA a lot, but mostly that's because it's something fun to do on the can. Tasty Beverage: I've been on a Smithwick's kick lately

Paul Anka-- Wonderwall (from this album)

The relatively new 320 MB 8800GTS can be found in the area of $300 US, which is about the same as a top-end 7000 series. From what I've read, the performance only lags the 640MB GTS on particularly high resolutions. (This is my main candidate right now.) For a CPU, I'm looking at one of the conroes in the $200 range. I understand that one of their selling points is that they can be significantly overclocked, but, as I mentioned above, that's probably beyond my expertise.

According to the Statistical Abstract of the United States, in 2001, more than 29 million Americans (over 7% of the adult population) identified themselves as having no religion (scroll down; 3rd link from bottom).

Surprised that you missed this story, which broke about a week ago. The first admitted non-theist in Congress! @ Gromnir: Good fun, indeed.

Sand, I'm about as adamant a defender of the separation of church and state you'll find, but even I think it is utterly ridiculous to suggest that elected officials can't take their religious sensibilities into account when making decisions related to their job. The Establishment Clause governs actions by the government, not intentions by its officers. And GD, your point on using the military as a "petri dish for social experimentation" is exactly the point that was being made in certain circles 60 years ago, with the word "integration" inserted in the place of "homosexuality." History proved those people wrong, and I'd be willing to bet it'll prove you wrong, too.

If you read the writings of James Madison, the primary author and proponent of the 1st Amendment, you get a very different impression. He was adamant that not even "thruppence" be spent from the public fisc on the promotion of religion of any kind.

Taks is correct in that there is nothing official about the Pledge of Allegiance. It cannot be compelled, and all oaths of office officially have no reference to religion (many people customarily add "so help me God" to the end, but that's not required). The "In God we Trust" on currency is more problematic. Personally, I think it does violate the Establishment Clause. But the SCOTUS isn't going to take that issue on in any direct fashion. The Court (or at least the 'swing' Justices who decide these close cases) is very congnizant of the fact that it actually has no real enforcement power. If it issues a ruling that it knows will be derided and ignored by a large portion of the populace, it's legitimacy is threatened. Decades ago, it was willing to do this for the really important cases. Even then, though, Brown v. Board of Ed. outlawed segretated public schools in 1955, but very few schools actually integrated until Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. And what people say when they salute the flag or what appears in tiny print on a dollar bill isn't quite as important in the daily lives of Americans. One illustration of this that shocked me happenned in my Constitutional Law class: Teacher-led prayer in public schools was decided to be a violation of the Establishment Clause in 1963. My Con Law professor asked all the students who had gone to public schools to raise their hands. Then he asked all of those students who had never experienced teacher-led prayer in a public school to lower their hands. Only about half of the hands went down. I was shocked, but it drove home the point that, if the Court wants people to listen to it and respect it (it should and does), it has to hand down decisions that the bulk of America can live with.

I'm probably not going for the absolute top-of-the-line, but I have enough disposable income to splurge where I want to. I probably won't on the soundcard, though, simply because I don't have the space to set up more than 2 speakers (and maybe a woofer). So stability and compatability are more important than top-end features there. The mobo, though, seems to be a pain to replace and can govern how upgradeable this rig will be in the future, so I'm looking to get a good one. Otherwise, thanks for the encouragement, everyone. And the link that theslug posted looks useful, so thanks for that.

Well, my desktop has picked up some kind of virus that has screwed up my bios settings and gives me a BSOD on boot. I have an antivirus scan running in safe mode right now (taking a loooooong time), but even if I can fix this pretty easily, I'm taking it as a sign that I've put off replacing this machine for a bit too long. I would like to make this my first build. My experience trying to upgrade my current Dell machine (it involved a hacksaw) has inspired me to take a more active role in deciding what exactly is in my box. But I'm a little scared that I'm going to end up in over my head. The most complicated hardware installation I've done before is a PSU replacement (which, despite the need for the hacksaw, went quite smoothly). So, I've never installed a motherboard, a CPU, a hard drive, or any fan of any type. Can hardware manuals/teh inertnets teach me? Also, I know very little about cooling (apart from the obvious that cooler is better, dust and rats' nests of cables are bad, and fans are nice but can be noisy). My inclination is to buy a decent case (newegg user comments are seem particularly helpful on this point) and hope that takes care of it. As you may guess from my borderline cluelessness, I wouldn't have the foggiest idea of how to overclock anything. As for the shopping, I'm pretty confident in my knowledge base in shopping for a CPU, PSU, hard drive, RAM, Video card, etc. I've done some basic research, but I could certainly use some advice in what to look for in shopping for sound cards and mobos. (I'm starting with the basic assumption that "more expensive is better.") As a footnote, I suppose I'm going to bite the bullet and jump into Vista. (I know, I know...) I'm going to have to upgrade at some point, and I'm willing to endure some resource hogging and driver problems to avoid buying another copy of XP and going through another OS install a year from now.

The Temptations-- Ball of Confusion. Maybe it's the beer talking, but that's a damn fine song.

That ... makes ... sense.... Now, I'm not the most attentive guy around here with regard to all the personalities on these boards, but that's a piece of information that I feel like I should've known. Ah well. As for myself, I first encountered these boards when I played Torment for the first time (early 2000?? Has it been that long?), which means I caught the tail end of the old threaded boards. But I never really posted a whole lot (and I was certainly too timid to post a picture), so I have no idea the degree to which anyone remembers my contributions. Some of those names certainly ring a bell, though.

Springsteen-- Adam Raised a Cain

Ronnie and the Daytonas-- Little GTO One of the best '60s surfer-rock tunes. Everytime someone at work mentiones either the GPO (Gov't Printing Office) or the PTO (Patent & Trademark Office), I get this song stuck in my head.

I found this amusing: Somehow, I've ended up on a John McCain mailing list. I guess they found out that I'm a white male who lives in VA and makes a decent salary and concluded that I must be a Republican (and either did not know or ignored that I live in Northern VA, with a woman who does not share my last name). The letter they sent me was bizarre-- it's 4 pages long, but no paragraph was more than 2 lines, each one setting out Sen. McCain's viewpoint on a particular issue in the most general terms possible. They couldn't have made it less readable if they tried.

One other quick note: Having pointed the mistake that others have made in spelling "Giuliani," I feel I must point out the mistake I made in my earlier post: Bill Richardson is the governor of New Mexico, not Arizona. (I knew it was one of them big, empty desert states, dammit!)

And, by the way, nobody in this thread so far has spelled Rudy's name correctly. It's Giuliani.

Disclaimer: It is ridiculously early in the campaign, and all of these views might well change during the coming months. Disclaimer 2: I'm not a registered member of either party, but I tend to agree with the Dems more that the GOP, particularly on social issues. I also think the current Prez has done a particularly awful job, so I'm almost a lock to vote for whoever wins the Democratic nomination. The hate for Hilary is mostly leftover hate for her husband, and it's mostly concentrated in people who would never vote for the Democratic candidate anyway. But she's not a particularly effective campaigner, and I worry that having her on the ticket will kill down-ticket Dems in the other races. She'll bring a lot of wackos out who wouldn't normally vote at all but who want to vote against her. I'm not as impressed as most with her experience, either. Vicarious experience through her husband doesn't go very far with me. Obama & Edwards have great charisma, but both have pretty serious "Where's the beef" problems-- very little experience with national issues and almost none with international ones. Edwards seems a little close to the big unions for my taste, and I think Obama's politics are a bit more to the left than the general public realizes right now. The guy I like is Bill Richardson. Governor of Arizona, former U.N. Ambassador. A moderate Democrat with strong campaigning skills, substantial foreign policy experience, and executive experience governing a state. Unfortunately, there are rumors that he has some Clintonish problems with the ladies. Wouldn't affect my support, but it may hinder his ability to keep up with the better-known candidates in the fundraising department. The one candidate that really scares me-- and I mean scares as in his presidency could be a disaster for the nation-- is Rudy. Yes, he was effective in fighting crime in NYC, and he was a compelling figure in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks. But by all reports, he is extraodinarily self-centered, petty, and vindictive. He spent half of his time as mayor settling scores and trying to claim credit for the sun rising every morning. Completely the opposite temperament that I want in the man conducting my country's international diplomacy.