Gorth

Thanks Samm, I'll give gh.de a try. Yes, I do speak German, or rather, I speak it well enough to land a good job halfway across the world and move here

I know I posted these a long time ago, but for me this will always be the craziest flyby by some Argentinian madman. http://youtu.be/UntN_cZUQg8 Exact same flyby (slightly longer video) from the planes view: http://youtu.be/z1G-RrZbTL4

Back in Australia, I sort of knew what the good online places were to buy hardware, through years of trial and error. Being "new" in Europe, I wonder if anyone has any special recommendations, particularly good/reliable online hardware pushers? Im mostly just looking for motherboard/cpu/ram that isnt too expensive (and can carry me over so to speak) until new generations of motherboards (seriously, sata2 and usb2 is about as contemporary as IDE drives) become available and off the initial high prices. My old PC has started to show stability issues, so my hands are a bit forced, about 12 months sooner than I had hoped for.

It's a bit like the old idea of letter of the law and spirit of the law (or business statistics, which may an even better allegory). You can have facts represented "creatively" to further an agenda. It's entirely possible that a piece of fact gets out from some area and all news agencies jump at it, reporting it in each their own way, confirming their own bias. Hypothetical example, Ukraine: Ukrainian leaders claim Russian troops are operating in the east. Russians deny russian troops are operating in those areas. Most likely scenario, Russian troops have been encouraged to "volunteer", leaving their official trappings behind and support the rebels where they. Both sides are right, none of the are lying. The full truth just being something that neither side has told, because both sides have an interest in also pursuing the media/PR war. Most news media, I would expect to act in the same way. They may have access to facts, but sometimes how those facts gets delivered and in what context can make it a completely different story. Honestly? None. I read BBC for general coverage, Al Jazeera to get a second opinion, CNN for the "Poular Science Magazine" approach to the news and on rare occasion Fox News if I'm bored and need a good laugh. The trick in my opinion is to know what the presenters bias is, then see if you can filter out the noise. Even better when getting alternate versions of a story and see where they overlap/differ.

Trust mainstream media at your own peril. They are as self regulated as a board of directors or the groups of lobbyists infecting the parliamentary system. The only "regulation" they seem to do is balancing their special interest groups agenda with the bottomline of their balance sheets. Sometimes the one get prioritized higher, sometimes the other.

Hey, recycling is all the rage these days. Very eco friendly But agreed, at least the Nihilus / Emperor comparison was very hard not to make. Not that i would mind if they also re-introduced Visas Marr (no, I don't think she's hiding under Darth Marrs mask)

Decided to give the "new" HM Flashpoints a go, just to see what they are about. Hadn't really bothered with them until now, as I found their tactical (yeah, what a misnomer, zerg rushing counting as tactics???) counterparts mindnumbingly boring and had only completed the Forged Alliance series like thrice before 3.0 (that is, 3 times out of 20 characters, simply couldnt be bothered with the 17 otheres). I thought Ilum and Makeb was boring after 1 playthrough, but those 4 fps take the prize. HM Korriban Incursion was easy enough, went through it with 1 team member dying once in the first droid fight. Also took out the "bonus" boss (some unnamed elite officer). HM Rakata Was even easier (including bonus boss) except... badly designed mechanics meant that both the tank and the other dps got killed by the wookie dragging blue circles everywhere which sucks when we were an all melee team. My scoundrel ended up facing the second guy and tanking (yeah, medium armour is awesome!) him from 70% health and ended up winning. Kudos to the healer, that was an outstanding job healing me through that. HM Manaan... Jeebus, tediousness took on a new dimension. We only made it past the first boss, Sarissi or some such, before the healer decided real life was more fun and tank didn't want to hang around waiting for a new healer (left 10 minutes after healer). No idea if the remaining boss fights are similar tests of stamina and patience more than anything. HM Tython... Didn't make it past first boss. Two of the guys in the pug just couldn't get their heads around the mechanics. Mind you, I caused the first wipe by misunderstanding the instructions, drag circle to shield droid and make it stay there. Oh, I made it stay there alright, the orbital bombardment killing both me and the shield The 6 following wipes were caused by the other dps and healer not going anywhere near shield droids with the circles, nor did their subsequent replacements and people left, arrived, left, arrived etc. not getting the mechanic. In the end, tank and i both left. Enough misery for one day. From the adventures of Gorth the Scoundrel.

No idea, I preordered it, so had it since release

For those flashpoints where solo mode exists, you can now pick it when talking to the "quest giver". Like in the past where you picked Normal or Hard mode at the entrance, some of them now has a third option, solo mode. You get a buff that makes you and your companion stronger and you get a GSI Combat Droid as extra team member. The droid is a DPS/Tank/Healer that makes Treek look weak by comparison. Heck, even my well geared tank got a guard slapped on him by the droid while it proceeded to wreck the place and me trying to keep up

Solo vs. group... While there are many things wrong with 3.0, they did actually make it easier for solo players. Previous tactical flashpoints (minus the CZ ones) are now available in solo mode, so you can play them as part of the new planetary story. The only thing you cant solo is the operations and traditional flashpoints, and you you really only want that if grinding or testing your skills constantly (or your patience in the case of pugs) is your thing. Bugs notwithstanding (and they are legion now), its perfectly possible to play through the class stories, Ilum, Makeb (which now has a bolster funktion too, so you can play from level 47 there), over the preludes to the Shadow of Revan expansion, ending at level 60 without doing group content, just saying

Agent was my favourite story lines, but as a matter of taste etc. I quite liked the trooper story. Completely unrealistic of course, but it's a bit like the game version of The Dirty Dozen (or half dozen in this case). Plot spoiler warning: Chapter 1. Chapter 2 & 3 No idea if you care about in-game romances, but the most interesting one was the one you couldn't get (as a male trooper). You'll know when you get there.

Yeah, life is played in "Iron Man" mode

Because the best way to deal with a security risk is to add another security risk into the equation. Once upon a time, I had some petty fun by replying to email scammers, forging my own address to be that of other email scammers, telling them that "i" (the other scammer) was interested in getting scammed. I sometimes wonder if it ever resulted in scammers trying to scam each other. The only online store at the moment that has my billing information is Amazon. You could argue it is one too many, but nobody's perfect. As for other online stores, I do regularly change passwords because i keep forgetting them (not using the same password everywhere has that effect) and ask for a reset password email when forgotten.

We might just have to disagree on that one. Governments don't provide "legitimacy". Or would you classify Pieter Bothas apartheid regime as "legitimate", or the Chinese governments crackdown on Tiananmen Square? The Iraqi governments use of poison gas against Kurd villages? "Legitimacy" is just a buzz word, used by the spin doctors to justify actions. Same thing with "Democracy". Want to start a new crusade for land, resources or market shares, sell the idea that you are bombing the enemy into proper compliance with "Democratic" ideals. For better or for worse, the western world is a collection of plutocracies and the world is governed by "Realpolitik".

I can land a Boeing 737 in my old hometown in Microsoft Flight Simulator X. I wouldn't try that in real life

The one I remember best from my younger years, often being headline news: Baader-Meinhof Gang (aka Rote Arme Faktion) "The Red Army Faction existed from 1970 to 1998, committing numerous operations, especially in late 1977, which led to a national crisis that became known as "German Autumn". It was held responsible for thirty-four deaths, including many secondary targets, such as chauffeurs and bodyguards, and many injuries in its almost thirty years of activity. Although better-known, the RAF conducted fewer attacks than the Revolutionary Cells (German: Revolutionäre Zellen, RZ), which is held responsible for 296 bomb attacks, arson and other attacks between 1973 and 1995"

Spent the weekend building my new Ikea kitchen. Well, started on it. I don't have all the parts yet (I'm militantly opposed to financing), but got most of what I got put together. Still a lot of work to do and I noticed that I forgot to buy silicon for the making the area around the kitchen sink water tight. I'm also going to get a professional to hook up the stove to the wires in the wall. I can handle normal 220v stuff, but this was just too many cables that needed connecting, 5 or 6 or so for the 2x16/32 ampere stuff.

I don't usually consider myself "elitist" (old, cynic, jaded, conceited and spoiled perhaps), but I'm tired of games going out their way to cater to political correctness. Not talking about trying to appeal niche groups, just trying to bring out outrageous ideas that doesn't care about censorship or offending sensibilities. No, I haven't really tried the postal games, the "humour" isn't really my kind of humour. I think I'll go watch the old Arnold Schwartzenegger (sp?) Conan movies again. Misogynistic check, chainmail bikinies check, good guy team member gets killed check, gratuitous violence check, gratuious sex check. Oh, and Basil Poledouris soundtrack check. No, not really looking for a Conan crpg, just felt like trying to elaborate a point.

Nice gif, love the cat Is this where you need a neutral third party to point out that it looks like his discussion is going in circles now and not really progressing this thread anymore?

Meh, worst of the worst. Junk food glorious junk food. The downside to being abroad working on a project and no decent places to eat anywhere near the hotel or the office (and not enough time to scour the surrounding neighbourhood for decent places). Sort of strange considering being "abroad" when working on a project in Denmark (a multinational company with branches in a lot of European countries).

Good thing nobody can see my workplace. My Windows Desktop is a mess

It's not just the usb2 and sata2 ports that bothers me (I've added SATA3 and USB3 cards), but the memory limitation of 12Gb on my current motherboard that bothers me the most. Some day...

Still waiting... and waiting... to see if Intels skylake chipset is any good (and if it will hit the market this year). PC needs an upgrade, but I'm not going to bother with the 97 chipset. Edit: Just some tidbits for good measure about the chipset itself Link "we'll see a new '100-series' chipset, codenamed Sunrise Point. The Z170 will be the replacement for Z97, which itself was not a massive upgrade from Z87. It will feature more PCIe lanes (up to 20), SuperSpeed USB and motherboards will likely have 10 USB ports as standard. There will also be up to three SATA Express ports. " "The H170 chipset will - unsurprisingly - replace the H97 for mainstream PCs, while the H110 will be the 'value' offering, replacing the H81 and various other chipsets."

@Bruce: One mans inclusiveness is another mans catering for lowest common denominator. As somebody who enjoyed the "middle half" of ME3 and didn't even bother looking at reviews of DA:I, I probably fall in the latter category. It's like they got the point where you *feel* that their games are developed from analyzing their datamining, working of checklists with flavour of the year gimmicks and general mandatory subjects that has to be covered in order to cover the largest multifaceted demographic as possble (translation: maximizing revenue). It feels less inspired and more like games developed by committee. Nice visuals, but short on visions. [/grumpy old man]

I think the last Battlefield game I liked and played was Battlefield Vietnam Which reminds me, I need to reinstall Battlefield 1942 (and the Road to Rome expansion again). I suddenly feel like playing it