shaldengeki1405241473

My first reaction is that it's about time.After that, I get doubts. How are they going to control these hackers? The government's going to have to constantly keep them happy and satisfy them, otherwise they could do some serious damage. Not to mention that someone could infiltrate the unit and do plenty of damage before being found out. I mean, what are they going to be using hackers for? Investigations? That'd be a giant violation of privacy. Other countries? Again, that'd be overtly hostile, and we don't need that right now. I don't think it's going to be overly helpful, but we do need to prepare for the future, and that future includes hackers as one of the most damaging weapons in any country's arsenal. Because, you know, computers are going to take over a lot of the roles that humans play very soon.

My math teacher let us celebrate Pi day... we brought in tons of pies (pumpkin, apple, blueberry, etc), Pi stuff (such as books, t-shirts, mugs, everything!), and any random interesting math stuff, really. It was great- we essentially got the period off to talk to friends and screw around in the name of pi.

Well, some of the programs I use most are:MSWordFirefoxIE (though not nearly as much as FF)AIM (more than MSN or YIM)Limewire PROAshampoo WinOptimizer Suite 2 ---- Both of these areDachshund Integrator ---- Windows optimizers/cleanup utilities.Windows Media PlayerC&C Generals (Yes, it's fun. Strains my gfx card, though.)Favorites? Hard to say... probably:Dachshund Integrator (yes, it's extremely useful.)Ashampoo WinOptimizer Suite 2Starcraft Brood War (old, yes, but still fun)AIMAd-AwareFirefoxCouple of other games, too, but that'd be redundant.

Yeah, same here. I don't mind google ads as much as other ones, because Google actually tries to make them semi-relevant and relatively unobtrusive as opposed to those flashy "Shoot the Clown" or whatever ads you see a lot today. And I'm not opposed to ads, partially because I'm guessing I'll have to rely on them as a source of support for my site eventually.I'm running Mozilla Firefox, and I can see your adlinks just fine, though it took me awhile to find them, webguide. Maybe jipman just wasn't looking hard enough...

In response to Majestic, I think the scientific community basically accepts it as fact, but for religious reasons, within the United States we have to say it's a theory. ;; Christians would be kind of annoyed if we started saying that Creationism, one of their basic tenets, is false. I mean, wouldn't you be kind of worried if science threatened some of your Buddhist beliefs? Especially that whole cycle of samsara, with birth and rebirth.It might be annoying at times, but at least within the US, we have to put up with some extremist Christians... ;;

Yeah, I almost got hit with this virus. Some random person I've talked to in the past sent me a message saying "OMG this is cute! <insert link here>". Fortunately, saying OMG was completely out of character for them, so I asked them about it, and they explained. o_O;; That, and I clicked on it, and when it asked me to download it, I noticed it was an .exe file, so I cancelled immediately.Well, I'd say a nice combination of Firefox, ZoneAlarm, and either Norton or McAffe Antivirus will do the trick at stopping and containing infections. I've had all three on my computer for awhile, and nothing's gotten through. At least, nothing that I've noticed... >_>

Honestly, even if it were from the FBI, I wouldn't open it. I'd check up some of my sources in D.C. and run like crap towards the Canadian border. XDB'yeah, that is pretty sad. People are falling for this enough that it calls for a general warning? O_o Kinda like the Nigerian nobility bank scam, only it uses fear instead of greed.

well, the epsicopalian church differs greatly from most sects of christianity in how it responds to those in search of answers. most churches will say they have all the answers, which is impossible, after some time, unffulfillment hits them head on.

episcopalians answer the call to arms with an invitation to join the search, kind of like, "we don't know the answers either, but we'd love it if you'd come looking with us."

 

This allows a much more dynamic view on the way the world works, also, a very individualist church.

 

For instance, i percieve the bible and many of it's laws a stop gap set of rules to keep humanity from destroying it's self while it grew up enough to make decisions on it's own. for instance, god told us the story of genesis the way she did because we just wouldn't have been able to comprehend the big bang. he also told us a bunch of laws because she knew we wouldn't have been able to excercise the apropriate amounts of moderation necesary to avoid abuse.

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I just noticed something; you used both "he" and "she" to describe God. Intentional? O_o

 

Interesting interpretation of the bible... yes, many of the things in the bible are there to prevent us from destroying ourselves, and they might have rephrased the big bang to sound more mystical. It's certaintly more accurate, in my opinion, than believing that the Bible is to be taken completely literally. There are just some things in the Bible that you know have to be metaphorical...

Valentine Day is coming soon.

What do you have in mind to share?

What is your feeling toward Valentine Day?

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Valentine's Day? For me, it symbolizes a day in which I can make ...comments... to my female friends and get away with it. No, not those comments, perfectly innocent ones. >_> And I wouldn't normally have the courage to make those comments, so I guess it provides some form of encouragement for me. Plus, I can make someone I like feel special on that day by asking to do something with them that day. ;;>_> So yeah, it's a nice opportunity for me.

Yes, Katamari Damacy is crazy fun. Gets old after awhile, though.Anyone played Kuon? O_o It's in the horror genre, so I wouldn't expect anyone to really have played it...Oh, and you forgot DDR-*is shot* XP

;;>_> Almost all of my geek friends play WoW, and I feel left out, 'cause my laptop and my desktop both lack the 512 MB RAM required to play it. ;_; I would buy it, but I can't play it...But yeah, Runescape gets old. Fast. Unless you're a member, in which case you have endless fun in the form of logging on to a non-members world and pointing and laughing at non-members.

As stated before by so many, the permanent damage concept would be interesting. However, you should be able to also repair damage done by others, depending on what kind of damage they've done. ;;>_> And, well, not having safe zones would be interesting to watch and play in, but it might frustrate players trying to maintain law and order. Just something for you to ponder.Yes, I'd love to beta this game. So what're you planning to program this in? And will this be a SWG-type thing? O_o

One of the shining points in DarkBattle, in my opinion, is the specialized ship and defense classes- each ship can only target up to two different classes of ships and/or defenses, and each defensive structure can only target up to two different classes of ships.I think this makes for a much more strategic game, and encourages more balanced building, as opposed to massing one type of ship and rushing someone else with it. If you don't pay attention to ship classes, you might just end up destroying your fleet needlessly!Oh, and the concept of EMP (which disables ships), ship agility, weapon tracking, and EMP resistance are also intriguing factors in the game which add to its playability. I mean, what's the use of massing capital ships when their guns are too slow to hit a tiny little fighter, eh? ;;

Hey Shaldengeki,

Although your interpretation of the Parable is valid, I stil see the incredible similarity between online communities/cyber relationships and shadows on the cave wall. Interesting, in cyberspace we can become like the phoenix and be reborn if we become unhappy with our online life. For example, if I decide that being helpful and nice was too boring or I am just not in the mood to be 'nice', I could create another online persona for this community ... call him binslashbash. When I disagreed with someone radically, I could login as bin and post a flammer preserving the reputation of hashbang but venting feelings none the less.

 

Perhaps this multipersona ability of cyberspace provides a form of therapy???

 

cheers

hashbang

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Ah, I think I see what you're trying to get at. People can pretend to be something they're not in a cybercommunity, and decieve others; therefore, the chance that you're being fed a shadow of the real person increases, eh? That does make sense, but I believe that people tend to at least give hints of their actual personalities when interacting with someone they believe is a human being. It's not as if you can radically change what your subconscious is composed of just because you're talking to someone you will have no physical interaction with. If you take long enough to try to get to know who someone is over the net, you will eventually uncover their true personality. As for the people who don't want to take that long, well, that's just a part of their personality that they're revealing to the person on the other end of the line.

 

Yes, I can see how it'd provide a form of therapy. I have, on more than one occasion, considered doing just what you proposed- creating an alter ego and venting a little anger on someone who is being particularly frustrating. However, I don't believe I've ever done this, and I suppose that's another clue as to my personality.

 

I agree somewhat with your argument that cybercommunities provide for a much higher risk of Plato's shadows becoming real, but I also believe that, given sufficient time and effort, any illusion on the other person's part will be dispelled. I mean, it's not as if people are that clever. They always make mistakes, and you just have to look for these mistakes in searching for the shadows on the wall.

Thanks for the link to Gmail drive; I had no idea something like this existed, though I've manually emailed myself files before for storage. ;;>_> So yeah, thanks. I've got about 300 Gmail accounts, so... yeah... ;;>_>

Darkbattle and Ogame are very similar MMORPGs... basically, the theme of both is that you're the emperor of your planet(s), and you control its development. Both games are highly militaristic, but if you don't like attacking others, "turtling" is perfectly acceptable as well. Basically, you build buildings, research different technologies, build ships and defenses on your planet, and try to grow as quickly as you can in general.

Here's the link to Darkbattle:

Darkbattle

And the one to Ogame:

Ogame

The main difference between darkbattle and Ogame is the speed at which both games are played. Whereas darkbattle relies on a "tick" system where everything is updated every 30 minutes (which is one tick), and production is all based on ticks, Ogame is fully real-time (meaning that everything is based on timers). I'd say that competition and raids are much higher in darkbattle, which makes it all the more fun.

My screename in both games is shaldengeki... if you can find me that way, don't hesitate to drop me a line and ask me a question or two if you have them.

Hope to see ya around!

Memory size: 256MB

Oooh, you'll want more than just 256 MB. ;;>_> I remember being extremely frustrated when I realized I needed more RAM for World of Warcraft...

Yeah... although sometimes finding large, slightly obscure files can be slightly frustrating with bittorrent, since occassionally you'll run into a lack of seeders, it's extremely useful for downloading things that came out recently. Personally, I use Limewire and Shareaza for bittorrent, but Shareaza more than Limewire.

Here's an easy reference link ...

defense of Socrates

 

enjoy,

hashbang

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I don't think Plato's Allegory of the Cave is really relevant to cyberculture. What I believe the message in the Allegory is that power should be given to those who do not want it, and only those who have "seen the light" can comprehend true enlightenment. Those that have not yet been outside the cave cannot know the truth of the outside world, and thus will naturally laugh and make fun of the enlightened ones due to their ignorance.

 

I don't see how this would apply to cyberculture... really, the internet was developed as a means to spread information more rapidly, so I'd think that cyberculture is another method of bringing people into the light. I guess you could be partially right, though, since some people have begun to treat their online lives as if they were more important than reality. So I guess in some ways it's become an illusion in itself, but as a whole, it's still more effective at distributing information than it is at deluding people.

Exactly, it is one thing to own an reproduction piece of art, but it is something special to own an origional piece of history.

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Whereas I do agree that vinyl records have some intrinsic value, I wouldn't go so far as to say that you're destroying music by listening to an mp3. Some people enjoy knowing that they're listening to a piece of history, and some people really couldn't care less. And yeah, speakers are a huge problem when it comes to sound quality.

 

I'd love to own a few vinyl records of my own, but apparently my parents are more practical than that, and I don't happen to have a phonograph. ;;>_> So that's why I don't have any. I do know a lot of people that do own records, though, and apparently they enjoy them immensely.

I would get one, if not for two reasons:1) I've been thinking about converting my laptop to Linux, so... yeah. Learning to use that will take up most of my time and resources. Plus, I don't really need another computer, though it would be nice.2) Yeah, the upgradability problem is haunting me even now. ;;>_> I really need more RAM, and a better gfx card, and... tons of stuff, but my current laptop doesn't allow for that. I'm not sure I'd want to go through all that again.

At this point, Gmail is largely overused. Though they say it's just the beta, and you have to get invited, it's really not a selective system at all. I mean, the demand for invites is really low at this point, since the invite system has been out for awhile, and you can invite yourself over and over to gain more invites to give out.;;>_> That still really doesn't change the fact that Gmail pwns, though. If only it had a rich-text editor... Oh, and not to hijack this topic, but has anyone seen that 1-terabyte email provider? O_o I think its name was hriders or something... does anyone know whether that's reliable or not?

While I do agree that Firefox is extremely helpful with its tabbed browsing and increased security, not to mention its customizability that comes with the extensions, I have to say that it still could use a bit of work. Quite a few of my favorite sites are incompatible with Firefox, so I have to switch to IE to view them... and if I choose to view those pages first, I generally end up not using Firefox at all. So yeah, a few incompatibility issues, but overall very, very nice. The whole tabbed browsing thing has caused me to open up too many tabs on several occassions and almost freeze my computer. ;;>_>Text-to-Image rules, though. Nothing beats that. Unless, of course, you'd rather not see the image... ;;>_>

Starcraft is the game to which all other RTS games are compared with.

Since it's debut in 1998, Starcraft has never declined in popularity since.

It is honestly the first and probably only RTS game in which i have sat and played for hours on end.

Forget your fancy, awesome graphics games, Starcraft is where all the fun is!

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I've gotta agree. Though it's been a long time since it came out, Starcraft really hasn't declined too much in popularity or playability. The map editor and triggers within it make this game almost infinitely versatile and variable.

 

Though I have to admit, some of the maps are getting repetitive, the enjoyment I get out of nuking a bunch of carriers when my opponent least expects it hasn't decreased since I started playing.

I listen to J-Pop every once in awhile... and I can't say I don't enjoy it. Even though I don't understand some of it, the tone of the music is what draws me to this genre. I guess a couple of my favorite artists are Utada Hikaru... Hamasaki Ayumi... Kuraki Mai... >_>