Chez

Kind of a weird problem I had since two weeks ago. Ironically, for how much I thought i was addicited to the net, i can live without it, on and off, while using the university's pcs for my every-other-day emailing, etc. But it's annoying. I can't go online for CoD2 anymore. My life revolves around non-MP Oblivion, as fun as it is, I miss good ol' Mr. Net.It all started when I installed the lastest Firefox upgrade form their official website. Installed it, restarted, that error window pops up that says, basically, firefox cannot connect. be it me being not connected physically, a firewall, permissions, etc. Just unplug your ethernet and open firefox. same error. anyways, I'm using a belkin 125g wireless PCI card with some SLX-something router. Worked with the old version of firefox so I think the system just doesn't let firefox access the net. Trillian still connects, though only the AIM section. MSN on trillian no longer connects. I run ad-aware, zone-alarm and antivir so I'm pretty sure it's not a virus or malware. I only have XP SP1 and cannot upgrade to SP2 (for various reasons). Friends tell me to simply add firefox to the list of allowed programs, but I hate windows and can't find the damned option anywhere. Myabe SP1 doesn't have it. All i get in network connections is a little checkbox that says "firewall me" or some such thing.I guess mac users don't know about how extensive they are because they don't need to ask for help on things that SHOULD be as simple as internet connection. Windows, I feel, is an unintentional myspace. :angry:IDEAS? Screenshots helpful, but if you have the same OS setup as me, I can figure it out. cheers

Recently, a fossil was unearthered that bridged the gap between land animals and fish. It had devloped 'flippers' and opposable digits and was believed to be able to survive both in and out of the water. (I'd link ot the actual article but I'm lazy). Yet creationalists are still holding to "god created man" and to them (and I quote from a creationalist trying to explain this finding to me) "that means that god created man. not an ape to ;evolve' into man. that's just silly. these fossils are just first attempts by god to create the perfect creatures which we see today. Those old *person*-erectus fossils arejust pre-man attempts who went against god and died for their sins." My question is this: Will the creationalist camp ever just give up and admit to fact? First is started with the world being the center of the universe. proven wrong Then is was the world was flat. proven wrong Later it was against evolution. proven wrong It's still against evolution! Even being proven wrong time and time again, with more and more evidence supporting evolution, the big bang, et cetera, these creationalists are still holding to those few lines in that one book that basically sums to "god created everything." Deciding not to start a relgious debate on how asinine it is to belive the same thing for so long against so much fact based on one book written by people living hundreds of years after-the-fact, I refer back to my origional question. Why? Why can;t they just let it go? If someone proposes a theory and it holds for decades, even centuries, and then science comes along with better answers and proves it wrong... people accept it. They don't hold to nonsense about the earth being flat anymore. We have pictures! We have people in outter space right now looking at our spherical planet. Same with evolution; we have fossil records of metamorphic change in the structure and adaptations of our ancestors. My take on this whole fossil thing is that we are one step closer to mapping our evolution. Like the human genome project, all we need is time to find all these fossils. Eventually, we'll be able to complete a map of day 1 to present and at that time, we will look back at our accomplishment in awe.

From "A Light in the Attic" book. I'm pretty sure most of us at least heard of it back in primary. only one I can remember but it's still my favorite of all poems

Exactly. paying $700+ for a top of the line video card will certainly run games faster, but in less than a year that price will drop by at least half and will be considered mid-range. I bought my x800xl when the 800XT PE was the top fo the line and now you don't see either in benchmarks anymore. Disappointing, but at least didn't drop an extra $200 just for 15more FPS. I wonder if any manufacturer will actually have the balls to try a swappable core. Like CPUs on motherboards, you could simply buy a new CPU chip, take out the old, plug in the new, and you've got a brand new video card for only the price of the GPU. granted, eventually you'll need to upgrade the video card itself once technology takes another leap (like pci to pci-e) but heck, at least save some money along the way

EDIT: The intial post was pretty much the first draft for a report for my BL1900 Molecular Seminar course. This is the final hand in, minus a few corrections I made that I didn't save. Enjoy. ------------------------------------------- Pleomorphic Bacteria & Cancer "Chez" BL1900, R01 Dr. ******** Cancer affects millions of Americans each year and countless studies have been done to understand this disease. One such study has been on the possibility that bacteria are the cause, and not the result, of cancerous cells. In this report, I plan to explain the discovery of and research done on these pleomorphic bacteria and the association they have with cancer and cancer-like malignancies. Discovery Unicellular bodies were once thought to be simple in nature. Prokaryotes such as bacteria were, and for the most part still are, expected to be simple. They have simple bodies, simple functions and simple devices for survival and reproduction. Because they are relatively large (in a microscopic sense), we were able to observe them in their natural living state through even rudimentary light microscopes. When the discovery of DNA prompted the development of electron microscopes to view smaller and smaller things, we began subjective observations into the sub-microscopic world. By subjective, I mean that any observation of living specimens under the electron microscope would only be like a snapshot in time. The electron bombardment would kill any living cell under observation, so unlike the light microscope which allows us to observe the living state of a microorganism, the electron microscope allows only a brief, but much more detailed glimpse. Why is this subjective? Because by only viewing a fraction of what is happing at any one time, one can only describe what is there in the present; not what was or will be. It would be like surmising a movie when you only see a single frame. As early as the 1920s, Dr. Royal Raymond Rife designed and built five of the most powerful compound optical microscopes of the day . These powerful machines were able to observe magnifications up to 20,000x and a resolution of 31,000 diameters, up from 2000-2500 for laboratory microscopes at the time . This allowed him to view organisms smaller than prokaryotes in their natural living state. Rife and a team of researchers including John Crane were able to isolate and culture what he termed Bacillus X, because it much smaller than normal bacilli. Rife also found it to be filterable in the W Berkfeld filter, a filter designed to filter cellular matter from non-cellular objects (or bacteria and viruses, respectively) . This important discovery showed that what he observed was not quite a virus, but certainly smaller than bacteria. Through a series of inoculations in which lab rats were injected with the BX virus, Rife observed tumor growth and was able to extract BX microbes from the lesions. Culturing the extracted microbes, he observed the same properties as the original injected ones had. In his research, Rife observed a filterable form (BX), a nonfilterable form termed BY, a larger monococcoid form he said was found in over 90% of cancer patients blood, and finally a fungal form. He also proposed each form could revert back to the original within 36 hours with adequate medium . The idea of pleomorphism developed in the 1920s which stated bacteria were form-changing. They could, under the right conditions, metamorphize into forms small enough to pass through filters just like viruses. At the same time, the original school of thought, the monomorphics, did not believe an organism can change shape and held to the belief that bacteria cannot be filtered. These two views became known as the filtrationists and the non-filtrationists, respectively. Studies supporting the filtrationist idea include the works of Swedish physician Ernst Almquist (1922) who made hundreds of observations of pleomorphic bacteria, and German bacteriologist Robert Koch (1883) who proved tuberculosis was apparently caused by the tubercule bacillus . Koch was not only instrumental in the early days of the filtrationist movement but also advocated that simply finding the organism in a tumor does not necessarily imply they are the cause. He stated four important postulates : 1. The organism must be found in all animals suffering from the disease but not in healthy animals. 2. The organism must be isolated from a diseased animal and grown in pure culture. 3. The cultured organism should cause disease when introduced into a healthy animal. 4. The organism must be reisolated from the experimentally infected animal. Initially, the so-called pleomorphic microbacteria that happen to be found in cancerous lesions were disregarded as contaminants. However in over 100 laboratory trials, observing Koch's guidelines, Rife observed lesions develop. From each excised lesion, the BX form was recovered in all cases . Also in the 1920s, Dr. John Nuzum of the University of Illinois College of Medicine was able to culture an unusual bacteria from breast cancer samples. He first observed small coccal forms, but showed it could enlarge into rod-shaped bacteria that could connect to form chains depending on the medium. Further change in the medium could produce microbes as large as yeast and fungal-like spores. Nuzum noted these microbes could pass through a bacterial filter proving some forms of the microbe were a size similar to viruses . Dr. James Young of Edinburgh, Scotland too viewed bacteria in 16 cases of breast cancer where he identified spore forms in his samples . Dr. Michael Scott, in a separate study, described the life cycle of this strange bacillus in rods, spore/coccus-like forms, and large spore-sacs resembling a fungus . In the 1940s, Dr. Virginia Livingston-Wheeler and Dr. Eleanor Alexander-Jackson used an acid-fast stain test that allowed them to view the microbe within a cancer tumor. They too found it to be filterable and used an electron microscope to show these bacteria were similar in size to that of a virus. They called the microbe Progenitor Cryptocide, meaning hidden killer in Greek. Livingston believed cell wall deficient bacteria could become carcinogenic and immunity to these bacteria would produce immunity to corresponding forms of cancer . Later, in the 1950s, Dr. Irene Diller of the Institute for Cancer Research found fungal-like microbes in cancer cells. By injecting healthy mice with the isolated microbe, she observed tumors develop and was able to culture the microbe out of the tumors. In later studies, she showed she could grow the microbe from the blood of cancer patients . In the 1960s, Dr. Florence Seibert, most notably known for perfecting the Tuberculosis skin test, was also able to isolate bacteria from samples of tumor. Seibert observed the virus-like forms of the microbe within the nucleus of cancer cells and theorized this infection could disrupt and transform nuclear material that could lead to malignant change. In 1968 she wrote, One of the most interesting properties of these bacteria is their great pleomorphism. For example, they readily change their shape from round cocci to elongated rods and even to thread-like filaments depending on what medium they grow on and how long they grow. And even more interesting that this is the fact that these bacteria have a filterable form in their life cycle Seibert was able to culture pleomorphic organisms from the blood of leukemia patients, supporting the Diller experiments . Seibert showed throughout her experiments that the microbes observed in tumors were not laboratory contaminants as previously believed because her research team was able to isolate the microbes from every tumor sample studied . In the 1970s, the US National Institute of Health launched a full-scale investigation into the cause of cancer, concluding that the so-called cancer virus was the result of a change in body chemistry preceding cancer . Though it simply reiterated what was being said for the past hundred years, it gave additional weight for filtrationists. The studies of cell wall-deficient bacteria and mycoplasma-like bacteria (bacteria which are both bacterial and viral-like) have begun to blur the dogma surrounding the absolute non-correlation between viruses and bacteria. The long standing argument against pleomorphism is how bacteria change into smaller forms if they could not break out of their cell wall . However, recent developments have shown various bacterial forms having abnormalities in their cellular walls. Dr. Linda Mattman explains how bacteria could change into virus-like forms simply by having cell wall deficiencies and also says, most malignancies are accompanied by an immuno-deficiency Therefore, we could be dealing with microbe that finds such a host merely a suitable environment suitable for habitation. This statement supports Rifes in that the medium is the catalyst for change and leads to pathogenic bacterial forms . Being able to express its DNA differently depending on environmental factors in both cellular form and cellular wall structure brings new light to the complexity of even the simplest organisms genomic sequence. Change-Inducing Catalysts As described by Rife, the expression of pleomorphic capabilities is not sporadic but the result of a change in the medium, or milieu. Many studies have narrowed down the exact changes that must occur to induce change. In 1916, Dr. Günther Enderlein noted the presence of protein-based microorganisms in the blood and plasma of animals. Enderlein explained how these micro-organisms could change in form through cyclic variations and how they could move and unite with other microorganisms and suddenly disappear. Perhaps what he was seeing was the infection of a cell by the virus-like form of a bacterium. He also noted that a pH change in either direction of normal blood pH levels would cause these harmless microbes to become pathogenic . During the 1920s, Rife discovered that the nutrient content of the medium affected the pleomorphic properties of his cultures. By changing the nutrient content of the medium by only a few parts per million, he could induce a filterable form of his BX samples . In 1933, Dr. Wilhem von Brehmer took research one step further and identified the blood parasite as Sipohonospora Polymorpha, a bacterial form of the fungi Mucor racemosusas, as a carcinogenic agent. He too found lower alkali levels in the blood repressed the growth of the pathogenic rod form . Dr. John Nuzum, Micheal Scott and James Young, working independently of one another, all observed the ability of bacteria cultured from tumor samples to change form depending on how it was cultured as well as the oxygen content supplied for growth and age of the culture. In this find, the oxygen content of the bloodstream could promote or inhibit growth of the cancerous form of the microbe . Where Do These Microorganisms Come From? We'd like to think various diseases come from the environment --- something external so that we may simply put up a barrier to protect ourselves. Asthma sufferers do not go outside, hemophiliacs avoid knives, and people with immune deficiencies do not seek public places during the flu season. But when the enemy is within, how do we protect ourselves? How do we protect ourselves when we don't even know what causes our sickness? The answer could be in the age-old ritual of staying healthy. Sir Albert Howard describes his observations on a particular group of well-fed livestock and their reactions to epidemic diseases such as foot-and-mouth disease. He noted that while none were inoculated nor segregated from infected animals, none became infected. He explains this 'immunity' to well-nourished protoplasm . Andre Voisin, in an unrelated study, noted the increased susceptibility to foot-and-mouth disease in cattle grazing in areas of high lime soil content verses sandy or granite areas . He explains the copper deficiency in the areas with lime prevented the animals from producing enough catalase, the predominant protective enzyme in the immune system. Voisin also noted in regard to tuberculosis: "The lungs of each one of us are inhabited by millions of tuberculosis bacilli, which we manage to accommodate quite well. They live there very peacefully without delivering frenzied attacks against our cells. Why then, do they suddenly thrust themselves upon one of our organs (most often the lungs) and make us tuberculosis sufferers?" Voisin demonstrated that defective nutrition is the cause of many diseases, simply because the changed internal milieu forces a change in the symbiotic microbes within our bodies. The 1920s experiment of Nuzum described earlier yielded still valuable information on the spread of cancer as well as its cause. Nuzum injected the groin of a 70 year old man with bacteria he cultured from breast cancer tissue. During an 18-week period, he observed the formation of skin cancer . This gave significant proof that microbes responsible for producing one type of cancer could produce a different kind depending on their location in the body. Normally, when the body is healthy and the immune system is balanced, these microbes are harmless. But when tissues are damaged or diseased and other conditions are right, they can become pathogenic. The studies of Rife, Livingston, Diller, et cetera has proved malignancies can occur from a changed form of normally symbiotic bacteria found within us. It has been observed that viruses are responsible for certain cancers, but the question of where they come from remains. If an environmental change could cause the expression of pleomorphic genes in a common bacillus, producing these viruses, would we be able to find a cure for cancer by fighting the source? Knowing that one kind of cancer can cause another kind, could immunity to a bacterium prevent cancers associated with that bacterium? What about changing our bodys milieu back to normal through alternative medicine? Studies already support viruses causing cancer. The Human Papilloma Virus types 6 and 11 have been linked to cervical cancer and a vaccine has already been created (though under much controversy). The Epstin-Barr virus, commonly referred to as the 'kissing disease,' was first observed in Africa during certain climate changes. Under observation through an electron microscope, Epstein and Barr identified a virus as the culprit. Where it came from, they could not determine, but the evidence of its propagation under a certain climate suggests a corresponding microbial activity. Hepatitis B and C also cause cancer through a viral infection. Most diseases associated with viruses can be extinguished through antiviral inoculations, such as the ones we already take during our childhood. But there are cases where alternative treatment has proven just as effective. A rare from of lung cancer, Spindle Cell Carcinoma (SCC) represents 0.2-0.3% of all pulmonary malignancies. With a death rate of up to 90%, the chance of survival is very low, even with chemotherapy and surgery. Dr. Mainwaring, Poor, Zander and Harman note the story of a 47-year old woman who was diagnosed with SCC . SCC is like carninosarcoma in that it contains malignant epithelial and sarcomatous elements. Because it spreads into vital organs, the only possible hope of recovery is to excise the complete mass. However, for the patient at hand, radiation treatment showed no signs of progress, and the patient opted for alternative treatment in the form of daily Germanium supplements acquired from a health food store. >4 years after initial diagnosis, the patient continues to show no evidence of recurrent disease and has also continued to take low-dose germanium sesquioxide. The patient denies any significant side effects from her treatment. Perhaps the Germanium helped rebalance the bodys milieu causing the cancerous cells to recess. In this observation of alternative medicine, the balance of ones internal milieu could reset a cancer as life-threatening as SCC back to its docile form. Current Research There are three important statements to the theory of pleomorphic bacteria causing cancer: 1. Certain bacteria are pleomorphic. 2. These bacteria are found naturally within the body. 3. These bacteria cause cancerous growths or other malignancies related to tumor growth and can be isolated. Dr. M. E. Onwuamaegbu remarked on the absoluteness that cell wall-deficient bacteria (CWDB) are pleomorphic bacterial forms in The Journal of International Medical Research and how it has been known throughout the century . Dr. P.B. Macomber of the University of South Florida School of Medicine states that bacteria responsible for cancerous tumors to have characteristics synonymous with CWDB and notes they can be observed using darkfield microscopy . Adding the observations of Rife, Livingston and the rest give significant proof of the existence of pleomorphic bacteria through the abnormalities in their cell walls. Concluding the existence of pleomorphic bacteria through cell wall-deficient bacteria, we must now find proof these microorganisms are found within the body of a healthy individual as well as the cancerous tissue of a tumor. Dr. Richard McLaughlin observed using dark-field microscopy the presence of pleomorphic microorganisms in the blood of healthy individuals. He further identified these organisms by analysis of their 16S rRNA and gyrB genes . The studies of Dr. Douglas Robinson, Milton Wainwright and J. Charles, in separate studies, conclude a highly pleomorphic bacterium is present in mammalian tumors and can be isolated in all cases. Robinson explains how these pleomorphic bacteria self-organize in vitro mammalian tissue-like morphogenetic patterns consisting of multicellular tissue-like sheets and capillary-like networks. He proposes these bacteria actually express mammalian tissue morphogenesis-related genes through prokaryote-eukaryote DNA transfer . Therefore, the interaction of CWDB and eukaryotic tissue cells may be an infectious relationship. Wainwright notes the similarities of an observed pleomorphic bacteria isolated from a canine mammary tumor and the Glover organism, considered a cancer-germ. He continues to propose the Glover organism and other cancer-related bacteria are a strain of the observed pleomorphic bacteria, Bacillus Licheniformis . Stressing the importance of multiple results from the same source, a single bacterium could be the result of many diseases and carcinogenic bacteria. Charles concludes from his study on Canine Granuloma Syndrome suggesting a saprophytic mycobacterium involvement. He also notes the presence of pleomorphic bacteria ranging from long, slender filaments to short, beaded bacilli and even coccoid forms . Macomber explains how cancer can be induced by injecting CWDB into the blood of experimental animals and how some forms of cancer can be prevented by a revaccination of the bacteria. The bacteria also are observed regularly producing a protein resembling Chorionic Gonadotropin Hormone which apparently protects trophoblastic and cancer cells from being recognized by the immune system. Macomber also points out some evidence showing that a plasmid may be responsible for this protein and these bacteria may even be associated intimately with retroviruses ! The observations of Charles in the CLG syndrome experiment conclude with the proposed involvement of mycobacterium, and the experiments of Rife and the earlier researchers show how the injection of pleomorphic bacteria cause the development of tumors. Experiments have shown that pleomorphic bacteria exist and are accepted to exist by most scientists, and that these bacteria can be isolated from healthy individuals blood. The clinical significance of these bacteria causing cancer or cancer-like malignancies is still under debate and hotly contested. Even Onwuamaegbu concludes from review of past research on the disease-causing capabilities of CWDB that the evidence supporting such views is not compelling and Macomber stresses further studies must be done to clarify the role bacteria play in cancer. However Cantwell , Wainwright , Robinson , and Charles believe bacterial involvement with cancer-like diseases and show these conclusions in their individual studies. The Cancer Dogma The current dogma associated with the cause of cancer is mixed. The common response is radiation, carcinogens and family history. Others include diet, certain hormones and even alcohol. A growing number of cancerous microbes have been discovered and even listed on the National Cancer Institutes's list of causes. Identified include HPV, HTLV-1, AIDS, Hepatitis A and B . However, a greater stress is placed on carcinogenic materials such as tobacco smoke or on radiation such as sunlight or overexposure to X-Rays. There is evidence of chemical carcinogens causing Angiogenic Squamous Dysplasia (ASD) lesions within the lungs and has been associated with elevated levels of vascular endothelial growth factor. Studies show this is caused through carcinogenic material inhaled from the environment, most notably cigarette smoke, and not through pleomorphic carcinogenic bacteria. Dr. Wilbert A. Franklin said in his Premalignant Evolution of Lung Cancer study: Although morphologic changes are the current standard for the diagnosis and documentation of premalignant changes in the lower airways, an increasing body of evidence indicates that molecular abnormalities could be used to identify and treat individuals who are at high risk for invasive lung cancer. Like other tumors, lung cancer is now thought to be the result of a stepwise accumulation of molecular abnormalities in benign precursor cells. These abnormalities occur as a direct result of DNA damage caused by the carcinogens in cigarette smoke. And while much is associated with external conditions, family history remains a reliable prognosis to fall back on when radiation and carcinogens have been ruled out. This class of diagnosis is linked with the cumulative genetic mutations that cause cancerous growths. My mother, who was diagnosed with cancer a while back, was told her condition was a result of family predisposition to cancer, namely her mother. Conclusion We know bacteria can cause many diseases and we know there are viruses that cause cancer, but the relationship between viruses and bacteria is still unclear. Most of our knowledge comes from research done by the fathers of microbiology. Even so, there are dozens of researchers who come to the same conclusion on pleomorphism and even observe the same forms in the bacterial life cycle as described by Scott. Through countless studies and observations, the link between pleomorphic bacteria and cancer has stood the test of time. Recent studies have noted pleomorphic bacteria associated with cancer and researchers even today have continued to propose more studies undertaken to understand the association. It is my understanding that an association between cancer and bacteria has been shown in numerous reports over the last century. I recommend more studies be undertaken to reveal this association and am quite sure there is more to meets the eye of our current understanding. Bibliography Notice from BuffaloHELP: Sightings and lists of sources should be quoted. Caution! When posting your works that are academic related, it should contain expressed permission from your institution to make public. This protects Xisto and you from breaching copyright and not viewed as gaining hosting credits in any other way.

meaning of life is to die.ying yang, y'know. :)if something is living, it is meant to die. whatever it does while it awaits the enevitable is up to personal choice. Trying to extend one's life, having a family, passing along genes, contemplating meaning of anything and everything, etc. it all leads to one thing. thus the meaning of life is to end life.

1) he's in love with her, you only like her. -1 for you2) he's actually making the effort of being with her and making his presence known. -3 for you3) he's right to call you a backstabber if you try to break them apart. -4 for youso let's see... that give you a -8 score. give it up.and just a personal note: it's very, very bad form to break two people up just because you have some crush. childish, really

Oh, i forgot an important thing in my list: time.I can't tell you how pissed i get when i buy a $50 RPG and i beat it in one night. Fable that was suposed to be "the best RPG game of 05!" was, in a word, horrible! The graphics were awesome, i enjoyed the various skills and powers, but the lack of gameplay was horrendous! I beat it in 8 hours, including all side missions and buying my own house and getting a woman. I've played longer games in Act I of diablo on easy! That and the limited weapons made Fable a sub-mediocre game at best

1) cast iron skillet2) fillet of ahi tuna3) Zanatara Blackening Powder4) extra virgin olive oilFor those worried about the MSG in the zanatara spices, swap with some other blackening spice. Just make sure most of the zanatara spices are in the swap.As with all cooking, the more expensive the ingrediants, the better result (more flavor, better texutre, etc.) and of course the freshness is essential in the tuna.Heat iron skillet to near bright red. Even if it's red, that's OK, just be prepared for a cool red center in your ahi. The idea is to sear the outside of the tuna and leave the inside red, but semi-warm. Some people who are associated with sushi may not mind a cool red center, but most people see the coolness as a sign of uncooked fish and won't like eating it. Either way, less time on hot skillet = more cooled center.In a plate or shallow bowl, add a few tablespoons of oil. 'Wipe' fillets thru oil on both sides. Splash an 1/8" of the blackening spices on one side and put that side face down on skillet. Wait about 10 seconds for a red-hot skillet or about 20-25 seconds for a 'damn-hot' skillet. You'll know the difference, trust me. Add another 1/8" blackening sauce to face-up side. At end of time count, flip fillet and wait the same amount of time. Warning, this creates a TON of smoke. Best to do outside or in a VERY WELL ventilated kitchen. And no, a box fan in the window and a tablefan on top of the stove doesn't work (it was winter, no grill, and i had a craving... give me a break). Take fillet off skillet and enjoy with soy-mustard sauce or under kalamata olive salsa. mmmmm, yummy

Wow, cool, thanks for the links! Even though my most detailed and complicated site clocks in at a mere 4.79 seconds, I'm still going to smack it around til I get 2.00

It's all relative. I took Java first and C is basically the same so i picked it up quicker than most. But then there's the payoff that Java was a b1tch to learn. So if you know something about some programmign language, C won't be as difficult as not knowing anything about coding. I must say, tho, scanf is so much easier than havign to worry about that stupid Java tokenizer.

Dagoth Ur, MorrowindHe's a pushover.... literally... right off the cliff

With Oblivion coming out and bumbing the bar so high, not many new RPGs will even be able to compare. Wither and die, more like it. So here's a list of what I feel is in a great RPG as of March 2006:1) Radiant AI------a must now that we see what it's capable of)2) Graphics ------gone are the days of 640x400 Diablo II, we need to feel like we're in a reality in itself)3) Storyline ------it's got to be good. This means it could be something old like Oblivion where the king dies, you become the successor, etc. or something new like Hellgate: London4) Independant Sidequests------what fun is an RPG that you can only succeed if you finish the main quest? Sidequests that have nothing to do with the main quest, but are nearly as important in their individuality as the main storyline itself creates perfect balance.5) Powerful enemies------Something I loved about DiabloII was that if you were doing the Hell difficulty by yourself, you could be as powerful as you wanted and you'd still get our @ss handed to you every once in a while. Whether it be from cold-immune Dark Lancers vs your cold-based Sorc or Iron Maiden-casting Hell Mages on your whirlwinding Barbarian. Morrowind lacked this. Do enough side quests and you'd find enough weaponry, armor and jewelry to render yourself immune from the final boss himself. No matter your lvl, there should be enemies more powerful than you, making sure you are always tested skillwise and toughness-wise.6) Powerful Allies------Something lacking in Neverwinter Nights. Mercanaries you hire are so weak you pretty much use them only as decoys.7) Epic Final Battle------The final battle in most RPGs and even FPS games (like doomIII) were dissapointing to say the least. Morrowind's battle against Dagoth Ur just plain sucked. Walk into him and push him off the cliff only 10 feet behind him and you were scott-clear to beat the heart to death. Too easy, no matter how weak you were, as long as you could survive two or three hits, you still won. The final battle in Doom III was almost as bad. Once you knew what to do, it was a simple repeatition defeat. Kill imp,s load the cube, hit the cyberdemon 5 times, you win. No! This is not how the final battle ina Role Playing Game should be won! You should be using all the skills you acquired to defeat the ultimate boss! The scriping in the game should alter the final boss based on your adventures and skills so that when you fight him/it/her you should be stressed ot within an inch of your life (and that would only be when you didn't die more than half the time). make it epic. something to remember.

Welcome back! "always keep at least 20 credits in case something comes up" proven. lolhopefully you kept all your files from the previous account.With that said, Lacrosse rulez

Does anyone know if the people who created the editing tools made a CoD2 version?I was looking into google result and CoD forums but noone has anything other than a public statement regarding "putting final touches" on the new editing toolkit. Supposedly you can use Radiant from CoD1 and UO for CoD2, but I don't have the origional game anymore and Radiant runs off the origional CoD using it's directory etc. So I have in install .exe but no way to install it. Also, is there another editing toolkit for CoD2? I liked the Radiant setup and GUI but making the map itself was a bit glitchy, often times ruining PK3s in the same directory. Guess that's what I get for modding the scripting :(Regardless, it would be nice to create some custom maps in CoD2. Saw a neat art piece at a friends house with a ruined church surreounded by a graveyard in a snowy glade and I thought that would be a perfect scene for my first custom map of CoD2.So anyone have any ideas, link, etc? Much appreciated if you do. If not, just as well, thanks for the post

OK! WOOT! Bethsda finally released an official release date. MArch20th beeyatch! 3 months later than I wanted, but at least it's within arms grasp! http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

Dell XPS only gets my vote because they have 7800gtx mobile in their 'laptops'I say 'laptops' because these things are the weight fo two full gallon jugs, are about the size of a home theater system DVD carosell+amp and het up like one too. Not good for portability or any (ANY) battery life.The desktop XPS does not get any respect from me. For what they expect priceise, you could build your own system mirroring their's minus the flat panel bonus.I say only go Dell if you want the LCDs. 1905 and 2004 are kick **bottom** for their performance vs. price.

I honestly think RPGs are geared towards the kid market. RPGs are slow-paced and open, meaning less death and more fun. It suits the newbs as well. And yes, there is a difference between newbs and kids. Have you seen those 5y/o japanese kids playing online? holy crap they're impressive. But the true skill of an RPG comes when mature members play. The kids can take an RPG only so far, but when it comes down to pure strategy and skill, the older players reign. This is how it should be. That's one reason I didn't like Diablo II very much. Anyone could make a lvl 99 sorc and own everyone else using simple, stand-alone spells and wepaonry. defeated the purpose of ROLE PLAYING. kids play their roles, and we play ours. Just an exmaple to prove maturity gives advantage: Morrowind. I know tons of kids, teens, and even adults who play the game. Kids play the quests, have fun, try to get alot of gold. teens play it for the challenge, often testing one's skills by going headlong against bosses with a forced-weak character just for fun (like a theif). Then there are people like me who use the skills I already knwo to exploit the game as well as make it more interesting with differing scenarios. I'm sure I'm one of only a handful of people who know the exploit on enchanting items with various traits making a god weapon capable of killing everything in a mile radius with one hit *gleam*so yea, RPGs are made for kids. But it's so much more interesting and skillful once the mature players join.

BUt does anyone know the difference between the pentium 3 chips besides ofr "big die" "small die" ?So far, it's the only thing holding me back from getting the parts and starting my build (yes, pics will definately follow )I already found a glasscutting place that'll do my bottle, a friend's donating a smaller 12gig 2.5" HDD and the jack daniel's bottle is cleaned, sterilized (don't ask, i just like a clean computer) and prepped to go! Only need to pick out a decent PIII

bienvenue au forum, j'esp?re que vous avez plaisir la signalisation. Je le prends que vous connaissez tous les grands dispositifs il a, ainsi tout je peux contribuer plus loin est "a l'amusement!" Notice from jlhaslip: Just a reminder that the Forums should be posted to in English, thanks.Rough Translation : Welcome to the Trap! (something about lots of topics, good contributors) and have fun.Well, I got the 'rough' part right ...

a pentium 4, running at 43C is not high at all. I'm an AMD guy, but knowing the heat output of Intel chips, that is actually pretty cool. If you're worried, replace the thermal pad/grease.

if you really want to spend $550 for a single video card, go ahead. If I were you, I'd just wait 6 months and it'll be down to $250 or $300 easily. Though the games are being developed faster than the hardware that supports it, the only people who can really benefit from the most recent gamesa re those that can afford monthly upgrades. But if you are some rich man's kid, shoot for it.

that's well and good but, even without reading the article, I can tell you there is a dark cloud associated with every silver lining. The product of human meddling with prevention of disease has caused most of the powerful "bugs" today. AIDS, though started in monkies, could become a super bug much like the simple staph bacterium is becoming. It's all thanks to "cures, " which do little more than natural selection. A simple punnet square will show you, you'll kill off the majority, but there WILL be a remaining population that is now completely immune to the "cure" and then we will have a supervirus AIDS epidemic. Instead of catalyzing natural selection in our most dangerous microbial enemies, we should simply isolate the current version and remove it from humans themselves (much like smallpox, but without mass-vaccines).I'm still loath to even enter a hostipal or clinic today due to the superbugs (and yes, there are superbugs already. They were warning of them only a few years ago and now we have them). So yea, would we rather have a cure for AIDS or simply stop the spread of AIDS itself? I'ts not airborne yet, se let's keep it in it's transfluid state. The onyl way to get it is to exchange fluids with an infected person. Sex, needles, blood, etc. But the only chance of this happening is from people unknowingly infected passing it on to others, or homosexuals and drug users. A mass AIDS indentification list should be compiled. Everyone should submit a sample of blood, and if you are infected, you should be put on some kind of national list. It will prevent people from unknowling becomeing infected through acts of intercourse. It may be harsh to say, and even more so to hear, but if we let those infected die off, and noone fvcks the monkies, the human race will be clean once more.sorry, but it's the harsh reality of this disease. It's been discussed, even. So it's not from my mouth.

I prefer antivir. it's free and uses very little system resources. Pairing this with Zone Alarm and Ad-Aware makes your system nearly impenatrable (save for flaws in the OS itself).

that's the part I was wondering about... why my employer was sooo worried about it... wth was he doing? lol but yea, it's supposed to active every friday or something like that. And anyone who is opening porno emails should just expect malware to be in it.