metadigital

My mistake, I thought you were suggesting an alternative definition for stained ...

Thunderbirds was -- literally -- the life of Gerry Anderson. He lost his credibility (he wanted to work in films, not "stupid puppets", but his work only cemented his reputation as the best at this sort of small-scale animatronics and explosions; did you see the explosions? He invented the slow-mo trick to make smaller scales look like their larger relatives, thirty-to-forty years before the Wachowski brothers ...); he lost his wife (the RL model for Lady Penelope: she left him because he spent all his time working punishing schedules to finish the series, on pain of ignominy and loss of income); he eventually lost his livelihood in supermarionation when the niche disapeared a few years later. It sucked the life outa him.

You really ought to stop contributing to threads with Kaftan ...

Actually, it is The Queen's English, and that is Queen Elizabeth II, not Elton John.

Um, it's her English, is what it is. We only speak it on loan, donchaknow. I refuse to list the uses of mathematics; an exhaustive list is truly infinite (ooo, mathematics) and pandering to such innumeracy only encourages further truculent idiocy.

You should stop listening, then.

Yeah, I just read the main K2 entry, and it seems to have been written by a member of the dev/publisher team (especially the bit quoted above about Traya). I have a few excerpts I'd like to rebut, however ( :D ): [quote name='wikip

What makes you think Jolee is better informed than Kreia? How do you know that there is no predestination? Every time I watch Episode 3, Anakin agonises over his decision -- he doesn't want to be evil -- and yet, every time there he is, an accomplis in the betrayal and murder of Windu, and a cold-blooded killer of innocent small people. Every time. Even though he weighs up the pros and contras, even though he "rejected it until the very end" (sic), he still does it. Like he is predestined to do. As to why an all-powerful, all-knowing essence creates something that might terminate its existence, well there are two answers: a. The wound in the Force / echo mechanism created an unforeseeable weakness in the Force, which can now be exploited, or b. The Force wants to terminate its existence in the universe (

[2]Because I suppose Kreia wanted the Exile to surpass her and to prove it to her by killing her in a final confrontation between master and apprentice, as well as for that very showdown to serve as the Exile's final test in itself. Beyond even their confrontation, even simply forcing the Exile to "confront" Malachor V itself seemed to be an important final step in the "training" Kreia had for him. Her lessons and trials certainly weren't limited to helping him to "build up his raw power" or something. A lot of it was more philosophical than just passing on techniques. She sought to pass on her teachings and philosophies altogether, and to help (force) him to confront his past, and to push him through certain preconceptions he may have held about the nature of the Force and whatnot. ... [3]I don't actually recall Atris saying that Kreia's threat to the Exile was connected to her "plan to kill the Force" or that Kreia would have only killed herself if the Exile was on Malachor V. I was under the impression that Kreia's threat -- that she would kill herself and, consequently, the Exile (through their bond) -- was to be in the case that the Exile refused to go to Malachor V to meet her. Y'know, like, "Come to meet me on Malachor V. If you don't come to meet me there, I will kill the both of us and all will have been in vain. So, if you don't want to die, you'd better come." <{POST_SNAPBACK}> 1. I did feel cheated. I spent a lot of time trying to extricate the philosophical underpinnings of the game (force of habit and occupational hazard), and I was sorely disapointed to find there were none; and with such a rich and pregnant plot I was doubly crestfallen. 2. You haven't explained why The Exile went to M5. Sure I would have expected it to be a choice, but "just to face down Kreia" isn't really selling it to me. Neither is "to complete the Exile's training". 3. Atris definitely does. If the Exile is LS, then why would death matter, so long as it meant the death of Kreia? No, it was an unavoidable compulsion, a clumsy narrative tool to impel the PC into the final few scenes of the plot. I've got my notes somewhere here, still (which I'd need to read because I've long since un-installed the game -- though I'll probably play the restored content mod when the team release it). That's good! That's what I'm talking about, there is so much material to make a philosophical essay out of, and yet -- for whatever reason, be it LA overruling novel-and-therefore-significant events in EU history, general interference in the plot, lack of organisation and planning in the writing sage or just poor time management -- these crucial philosophical questions weren't even raised for discussion (by the audience). I don't expect these philosophical points to be solved in the game (although they conceivably might), but I expect some sort of cogent representation, which was sadly lacking. This is never adequately addressed in the dialogues. It is just lumped together as a Bad Thing that the protagonist must prevent. Actually, the game never made that clear. It was implied, but not confirmed. Just one of a thousand other things left unexplained. Right on Metadigital's forehead! :D (JK) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Splitters! Blind fools! But do not torment your consciences with doubt; we, the Anti-Force force (together with our brethren, the anti-anti-anti-Force force) will prevent the tyranny of predestination for all the universe.

The movies were all 640x400

The Caliph is glad that you picked up his deliberate mistake; it is good to know the GM is on the ball. "

Five ... ... Four ... ... Three ... ... Two ... ... ONE! Thunderbirds ARE GO! And don't forget London Secret Agent Lady Penelope, in her turbo pink Rolls Royce, the FAB1:

Like cricket.

The tunic is supplyed with: - SS-Collar tabs in silver. - SS sleeve eagle in GOLD. - Cuff-title with "Adolf Hitler" in GOLD.

It's an example of "The Church" "reaching out" and "getting down" with their modern audience, in an effort to be "more relevant". It is also a neat way of piggy backing on the GL marketing juggernaut ... I can't wait for religious Operating Systems: Micro$oft's Stained Windows ...

So under your moral system, the Cosa Nostra (aka the Mafia misnomer) would be lawful evil? They certainly have rigid laws, such as not attacking women and children, truces etc, and yet they are quite content to use any means necessary to get their desired outcome, such as selling illicit goods and services regardless of the detriment of others (drugs and prostitution) and using extortion ...

[out of character] Hi, can an army move and support in the one turn? e.g. is this a legal move: F Lon-Nor A Bel-Hol F Nor S Bel-Hol ?

I wanna change mine to: Deus Ex, Ultima ][ and Sammy Lightfoot. Sammy had to run around a volcano jumping fast little boulders, medium-speed, medium-sized boulders and large, slow boulders. Oh, okay, Civ 2, I spent more of my life playing ... days without sleep ...

Heh, if you actually were planning on playing either game (time to dig out the floppy drive, and the old cloth map), you'd be happy to know that I have spoiled so unbelievably little of it..... Besides, it's the fantastic dialogue and problem solving that made the game so great. I honestly could have known the entire plot and still would not have had an ounce of trouble playing it :D <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I still might pick them up and play them, for nostalgia's sake. *reminisces about the ankh and cloth map * Now there's an anti-pirating methodology that really works: a cloth map! Just to awkward to photocopy, and buying the game gives you the original cloth map! and ankh! to keep!

I haven't played Ultima V onwards ... I might go back ... maybe ...

Normally? Turn them into NPCs for other PCs to interact with ...

Interestingly enough, 1+1 isn't necessarily 2. It's only 2 because that's how we have established numeric algebra, perhaps from an intuitive notion. But in boolean algebra, for example, 1+1=11. I lack the specific knowledge in set theory but I suspect it goes much deeper. And there are parts in the universe in which the addition of two amounts makes no sense, and to explain those we had to develop new mathematical operators, new abstractions in order to make a mental diagram of reality. While it's true that 1+1=2, this is nothing more than a human abstract fabrication. ...what was I talking about, again? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> How about this bombshell: I heard that π is actually a rational number in base hexadecimal ... (I haven't confirmed this yet, though it was a reputable source) ...

"Runk kari" is Finnish for "fuselage shoal, reef" ...

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I just completed Beneath a Steel Sky and -- although we are talking about graphics here -- I noticed how much better the voice acting was in this game produced over eleven years ago, let alone the comedy (I see they actually employed a comic -- are they allowed to do that? ). It's really important to get the non-graphical parts of the game right, first. I had no issue with playing this old game (apart from finding that putty!), and it seems that developers made more effort to provide the supporting multi-media when they didn't have flashy graphics engines to distract and wow the audience ...