rayzoredge

What do you guys think of the new plugin by Microsoft that's supposed to bring productivity, interactivity, video, animation, and user interfaces to the Internet? I just did a test run on the work comp and so far, it looks like an attempt for eye candy. It LOOKS cool, but I don't see the potential for it making the Internet experience any better. The Silverlight "experience" that I've had so far has been bogged down performance-wise but rather impressive. Check it out for yourself by going to the Microsoft Silverlight site. I don't see anything else out there that really gives an idea of what it's like. What's good about it is the cross-platform compatibility. In an interview about the project, the Microsoft rep showed how the whole thing worked on a Macintosh running Firefox and Safari... quite an unexpected jump for this company, in my opinion. I see how this would be very useful in merging together the use of different operating systems, computers, and even browsers to achieve the accomplishments of projects. In the demonstration, they show the use of a video editing utility (Video Expressions?) also founded by Microsoft that is compatible with the functionality of Silverlight, and the beauty of it is that a Mac user and a PC user can utilize Video Expressions to edit, view, put up, and share the same project (as Video Expressions supports Quicktime and can encode and decode between formats). There's even Linux support! I'm really not sure what to make of the whole Silverlight project, but the cross-platform compatibility is probably a great step towards praise for Microsoft and a good argument against the past monopolization with the company's previous programs. Maybe Microsoft is turning a new leaf and might not be so bad in the future after all.

For pranks?This is one that I'm thinking about doing rather soon.

There are a number of basic strategies that will win you games. Of course, you will have to learn all of them and learn to recognize them so you can fend them off yourself. I will list a few that I can think off the top of my head... and I'm going to use C&C as my model. Tank Rush: Basically, start off gearing your base and production towards building a massive amount of vehicles. You can mix and match for variety (APCs for support infantry, machine-gun vehicles to go against infantry, rocket vehicles for air defense, armor for the punch, artillery for the distance) or you can go with straight tanks, as the name suggests. Build multiple factories to increase productivity and efficiency and build refineries and capture structures that acquire you more funds. The key is to keep a steady flow of money and vehicle production... then amass your forces and rush the enemy with all that you have, building vehicles back home to prepare for another tank rush once your current forces are exhausted. This is highly effective as it is easy to do and you usually catch most people off-guard, especially if you breach a weak spot in their defenses. To defend against a tank rush, you will have to use the terrain right off the back to help out with your defenses. Create choke points to prevent being rushed en masse. Spread defensive structures about your base as well as around it, and throw a focus on where you think the enemy will approach. Build lots of anti-tank infantry (rockets)... they are cheap and do well to bring tanks down, especially at choke points. Air support is a nice addition (unless there is a variety of vehicles with anti-air weaponry, which might make short work of your choppers and other aircraft). If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Don't expect to win if you place your base in a wide-open area; take the time to find a good spot for your home. Superweapons: Self-explanatory. Sit back and build up your defenses, collect extra cash, and develop your technologies up until superweapons become available. Then nuke the crap out of them. The only defenses against this include quick attacks to slow progress and destroying the superweapons and their supporting buildings. Resource Supremacy: Take control of the maps resources and don't let anyone take anything without your permission (or intervention). Send out recon and assault units to destroy harvesters, carriers, or whatever the game has for resource-collecting. Guard the resource areas and starve the other opponents. No one can fight a war without money. You can defend against this with escorts for your resource-gatherers or sending defending units to protect your main cash piles. Air/Sea Supremacy: Take over one of these and hold onto it. Use your planes to keep others out of the sky and hit key targets and stand-alone units as well as resource gatherers. Use your ships to keep others out of the water; let subs lurk and keep them from even setting a foot in the water; and use cruisers and land-hitting attack ships to punish bases near the water. Not a lot of people think about attaining air or sea supremacy, instead putting focus onto just land units. But remember: you will always need land units in the long run to either finish the job or support your air/sea campaign. Defenses are rather obvious. Utilize a mix of anti-air emplacements around your structures and have units that can counter-act air assaults. Keep a navy and an air force presence of your own. Don't let them take the skies or rule the seas. Blinding: Destroy key radar structures, especially if they provide global map imaging (enabling them to see the entire map, enemy units, and enemy activity). The enemy can't strike if they don't know what's going on. Prevent them from venturing away from home by killing their units as they leave out the door. Prevent as much reconnaissance on their end as you can afford to without sacrificing your focus on progress and productivity. You'll have to take extra care in placing your radar structures to prevent losing sight in a costly moment. Make sure they are further away from harm, and protect them with defenses just in case someone comes through the back door. Combos: Do certain units complement each other with their abilities? Mix and match units to provide a more effective striking force. Utilize artillery to strike long and far, and have tanks and vehicles good against infantry to protect your hard-hitting long-range units. APCs are great to get key infantry units onto the battlefield where they need to be. More high-tech units can be used in conjunction with each other to provide devastating results. Experiment with different units to see how and if they work together well. Destroy Factories: Completely remove any chance of rebuilding, restructuring, and even reorganizing to provide an attack. Take out barracks, war factories, and construction yards, and kill anything that is related to maintenance or structure-building. If they can't build anything, they can't win. Of course, defend these well if you anticipate a focus on just these key targets. Quick and Dirty: Harass the enemy right off the back with quick attacks that will slow down their progressing RIGHT from the get-go. If you can progress faster than they can and keep them from getting up to par, you will definitely win by sheer dominance. Of course, have units at the ready to prevent this. Attack Variety: Attack from multiple angles with different types of units. Most RTS players can't actually coordinate their units to defend against two or more attacking forces... understandably. Utilize team features and coordinate attacks on different sides of a base. Bomb them from the sky while you shell them with artillery or from your cruisers, then mop up with mutiple angles of attack with your land forces. Watch out for the friendly fire. You can also use a smaller force to distract an entire base full of units to go out and try to fend off that threat while you go in through another side with a larger one... a faux pas, if you will. Get use to the fact that people will throw everything at you from everywhere. Learn to master multi-tasking on the battlefield... and utilize teams of your own to defend different parts of your base. - That's what I've got for right now. Try implementing them into your games and see how they work out for you. Also, get to know your enemy... quickly. If you recognize a tactic, you can be sure to provide a countermeasure to prevent their strategy from ever employing well.

Some of those background programs and services are there for convenience. If you actually know what you're turning off, then that would be a slight help to starting up Windows AND shutting it down (since there are less resident background programs to close). Otherwise, there are some things that you really shouldn't turn off just because it's a pain in the bum to work without them. Not to mention you more paranoid people: antivirus software is included in this startup list. If you REALLY want to be picky with it, you can turn off system services as well using services.msc. I don't recommend blindly turning them off... read the descriptions for them before choosing to disable them. There are a number of sites that explain more on what they do, but I'm sure you'll figure it out as well when you notice that certain things don't work the way they should. Agreed. However, no one learns until they start messing up their computers. Some painful experiences, some not so much, but in all honesty, that's how I learned what I know about computers... and all by tinkering. Just make sure you can afford to completely bunk Windows if you want to play with the registry... one wrong entry and Windows will not boot. (Back up EVERYTHING.)

AOL has already tried with its newest browser... I forgot what it's called.It implements four windows, which each hold features for instant messaging, browsing, e-mail, and something else... I can't remember.It's a nice jump, since we all hate having to switch between instant messaging clients, browser windows, and whatnot. We like things that work with each other under one program.Good idea... but on the scale that you imagine it to be, not possible. Everyone is trying to be the bigger and better dotcom, business, entity. Rarely if ever an idea hell-bent for the consumer experience will bring two giants together to merge into one service to better serve the people.The wonders of capitalism.

One of the hardest things you can do is to change someone's mind.But it is possible.The best thing that I can think of is to actually sit down with him and talk with him, mano-a-mano. Highlight what it really is, the pros and cons, the problem with how his way of thinking could eventually hurt someone and even himself (emotionally), etc. It's a whole new ballgame when you've actually accomplished having both of you down for a talk... but I'm sure the words will come to you once you both are ready to discuss it.I can give you a picture of what I believe love is... although at the same time, this definition may or may not set me up for failure through expectation :Love is a compromise. Love is an infatuation with someone, a want to care for a person, a want to BE with that person, a want to share life with that person. Love is happiness with another person. Love is trust.In a relationship, it's inevitable that arguments and conflicts happen. But love is supposed to maintain. The feeling of love should keep two people together, not the fact that they feel like they HAVE to be together.Sex is an intimate experience you share with a partner. It is NOT what society makes it out to be today... and I want to destroy any bit of misconception that exists, but sadly, most of the world believe everything on the idiot box. Thank you MTV, VH1, artists that have promiscuous themes for their songs, and all you retards that spread the word that getting laid is "the thing to do."Ultimately, if you love someone, you will want to be with that person and love them for who they are. I'm not saying that looks are out the window... we are born and raised in a society where appearance does matter a little bit (unless you are completely not shallow... which deserves major kudos), but that takes a backseat to personality. If you don't love someone for who they are, you shouldn't be with them at all, as friends, as lovers, or even as acquaintances.

You guys thought that was annoying?I'm sure some of you know what I'm talking about when I mention the site that shows a pic of the infamous "tub girl" and whatever goatse it has, brings down the browser window to a fixed size, and then infinitely moves the browser window around so you can't just X out. Not to mention that it constantly loops a new e-mail message which fires up Outlook and if you don't kill the script, eventually crashes your computer.Not fun. And I'm not posting it.

Seriously... ten years?!I remember when I was playing Street Fighter II... learning the Dragon Punch and Shoruken.

I believe that hard drives are going to be read by lasers in the future... which should alleviate the problem with hard drive access speed being the bottleneck for performance. Source That seems like a long way from actually being able to be implemented in the consumer mainstream... but I'm sure that these prospectives are worst-case scenario. Then again, Intel could be bluffing about its prospective progress in technology to snag the attention of CPU-scrutinizing audiences.

This game looks absolutely sick.Save paintball or actual army training, I love first-person shooters that have a realisitic feel to them with a great rendering engine that throws you INTO the battlefield. After watching the trailers for this bad boy, I'm convinced that this will be one of a handful of games coming out for DirectX10 and the next-gen consoles that I will snag... once they hit the bargain bin.Because I don't plan on getting a gaming rig for a while.

I love you Tiki. Yup yups... I was kind of moody at the time of posting. First was kind of... well, it was my first girlfriend, and I think I was just a bit surprised and almost excited enough to not notice that she was the band's "cheerleader." (I figured it out midway.) This one was kind of a mutual fault... we both kind of just drifted apart. Which, really, didn't bother me that much. Second is self-explanatory. Third, the other one didn't care for some reason. Guess she was so into herself that she didn't even notice? (She was actually the one who introduced me to her.) The third one I have to still say was her doing... she cheated on me. Twice. Not sure how it was my fault, really. Fifth was probably my fault... I'm not even sure. Apparently I made her feel stupid in my letter-writing and wasn't romantic enough and she was tired of it. (Sound stupid? It's true.) Didn't look too good that she later dates the "old friend" she mentioned before, though. Sixth was just stupid. It was almost a surprise for her, apparently, that I wasn't exactly what she made me out to be. So there really wasn't much going on there. My fault for going out of my way to meet her (although she was looking forward to it); her fault for getting drunk and sleeping with the other guy. Seventh: I actually don't find sex as gratifying as it should be. Strangely enough, I don't feel anything... the only thing I love about sex is the intimacy and the "closeness" that you have with your partner. (Yeah, I'm a cuddler... ) You mentioned emotional and psychological changes, yet I find it VERY disturbing that a few days after we had sex, she "breaks up" with me, and not even a couple of days after that, I hear from her best friend that she DID stuff with a couple of guys. (I have a strong feeling it's true considering that the seventh didn't deny it and she actually was the one who boasted to her friend, who then called me and told me.) I really don't see that as emotionally fragile... I consider that acting on hormones and not thinking clearly. Her fault on going out and doing things, my fault for what I did to her after knowing about it. Of course, you're right... it is from my perspective. Either I'm close, or I'll never know what really keeps me from holding a relationship intact. Yep. I'm too damn shy and I hate it. It's so bad because now I'm gradually becoming bitter and cynical as well. I think the first time I ever asked anyone out actually became a great "romantic comedy" moment... it was that perfect. Sarcastically speaking, of course. One of my friends called and convinced me to come out of the room to join him and his girlfriend at a quiet bar (with his incentive being that his girlfriend had a single friend), and of course I decided to go. When I got there, his girlfriend's friend was outstandingly cute. Thoughts were going in my head as I made my introduction, yada yada. I finally got up the nerve to ask her (which her friend had to translate, because she didn't speak English very well) if she wanted to go out for a drink, just her and me sometime. It was an innocent request. After her friend translated, this girl started off by saying "Nein, nein, nein!" ("No, no, no!" in German.). Yeah... I was turned down pretty quickly there. Of course, my buddy takes me to the side and tells me that she wasn't being mean... her ex-boyfriend who she JUST broke up with prior to me getting there was sitting at the other table. Just my luck. I was so flabbergasted by the situation that when the waitress came for the check, I threw down some money and left. (Not angrily... just excused myself to go back to base.) Later, I find out that she broke up with her German boyfriend to go out with another American soldier. Of course, my friend didn't exactly mention that detail. Anyway, that exactly wasn't that much of a moral booster being my first time asking anyone out after mustering the courage to do so and whatnot. It's been almost three years... you'd think that I would be up to try again. Still friggin' shy. Thanks for the response and the advice... still living and learning. I just want to get rid of this whole feeling: the shyness, not wanting to be hurt, but most of all, not wanting to hurt anyone. It seems like even my good intentions come out badly... but I don't know.

As of right now, I despise the idea of a possible relationship with anyone but at the same time wish for it so much to happen.How did this happen? Let's go back...I didn't actually have my first girlfriend until I was at the end of my junior year heading into my senior year. We were in the music program together and I found out, after months of her gushing over this other guy and asking me for advice on how to approach him and everything, that she suddenly had a crush on me. Yay. I was so excited over the fact that someone actually had an interest in me that I didn't even bother thinking about how she had dated just about a ton of other guys in the high school band... the "stereotypical band *BLEEP*," if you will. It was a fling for her and a first for me... which ended up with me moving to a new high school for my senior year, distant calls, and eventually a gradual stop to calling each other at all. It was almost an understood and mutual breakup, even though neither of us said anything. I think she lost interest in me much earlier than I had.My second girlfriend was almost a pity girlfriend. She approached me and again, she had a crush on me and I couldn't say no (because I'm such a nice guy ). She was so sheltered and so into herself, however, that we never really did anything together, and she used me as a trophy to gain a little bit of status. Needless to say, I ended that relationship as soon as she had one of her hissy fits, and stayed away from her even though she apologized and wanted me to be with her again.That led me to my third girlfriend, who actually was a friend of the second (who introduced me to the third). We met each other and didn't really think much of it, and frankly I don't even know how anything clicked in this relationship. We ended up being together and that's when I found out that this girl was literally crazy in the head. As in the past lives, thinking she was a cat, and seeing things type of crazy. She was a self-mutilator and constantly ran from me in the middle of the night thinking that she was being called upon by some spirits in the woods. It was nuts. It didn't help that she was also very sexually active... which led to her cheating on me with one of my best friends at the time. I forgave her the first time ( ) but the second time it happened I just let her go. There was no room for *BLEEP* in my life, and this was when I started to get a sort of intolerance for the childish crap that comes with high school relationships...My fourth girlfriend was actually a friend of my third, and we actually became good friends. When she heard that I broke up with my third, she admitted that she had a crush on me. And of course, yet again, I agreed to going out with her. She was a cool girl... nice, but she was going through a copycat phase, which kind of meant that she was copying my third ex in terms of the crazy behavior with seeing things, having another personality, etc. It was very much ridiculous... so ridiculous that I was going to break up with her right off the back. But to make matters worse, seeing how I was unhappy, my friend introduced me to a friend of hers, who happened to have HER friend sleeping over that night when we talked online on AIM. She was the sister of one of my best friends (and of course, I was interested in seeing who she was, since I didn't know he had a sister), so we planned on meeting up to hang out for a bit.She turned out to be my fifth, but almost in a bad way. That day I planned on hanging out with her and her friend to get to know both of them, I ended up kissing her in the evening... while I was technically with my fourth. I told my fourth that I basically cheated on her and of course, the rest of that is history. My fifth and I were actually very much happy for the month that we were physically together, up until I left for basic training the following month. We kept in touch through letters, until finally she decided to break up with me right before Christmas. The worst part about that was the fact that she mentioned earlier that she found one of her old friends, and later I found out that she was dating him after she broke up with me. Whether she cheated on me while I was gone or whether she fell on his shoulder after she broke up with me by letter, I'm not sure.I was rather bitter with girls at this point. I felt like I couldn't trust anyone anymore, or even myself with girls. Three years later, I threw myself into the waters again and met a girl online on MySpace.She seemed great, and it didn't take us very long to get to know each other and even used webcams to keep in touch almost every day. I was overwhelmed, head in heels over what I thought could be a great relationship. I blew off college. I didn't sleep. I was being less careful with balancing my job with my time with this girl. After all this and six months of it, I flew over to see her, after all the talk we had over not being able to wait to meet each other in person, what we could do, etc. And when I landed, and took the bus over to Concord, and anticipated our first encounter, picturing the perfect picture in my head, I finally saw her, and she finally saw me. And I did not get even a hug.It was understandable... how could you hug someone right off the back that you've only interacted with online? I gave it some time, and she had me shack up at her place. Her parents were gone for the month, and I was thinking that she and I could actually do stuff together. Of course, I thought wrong.To make this part of the story shorter: She hosted a party and invited a bunch of people, some she didn't even knew. After getting drunk, she slept with someone that she only knew for a few hours. And I know because I woke up to their having sex. It was emotionally disturbing. I left her house immediately, grabbing my things and starting my troubled march towards a friend's house at 4AM, helplessly fuming with each step I took. I flew back to my post, wondering if my luck would ever change.A year has passed and I am still the worse for wear. Just shy of two months ago, one of my best friend's sisters admitted to me that she really wanted to date me. There was a problem though: she JUST turned 17 and I was shy of 21 at the time. Plus, it didn't seem right that I would date my best friend's younger sister... whom I was older than by almost 5 years. We talked and I had denied the possibility of a relationship, but she insisted that she would date me when she got older and it would be less awkward (18 or so). So she brought up the friends-with-benefits idea, and after much hesitation, I agreed to it, but only because she seemed so persistent in dating me. After she lost her virginity to me, she decided that I was too old for her... an argument that I threw at her long ago about why we COULDN'T do anything... which made me believe she used me for sex.Now, most guys wouldn't have cared at all if they were used for sex. I'm one of the moronic few that actually holds a value in sex, that it should be shared between two people that love and care for each other, and the act itself was a level of intimacy that was reserved only for a couple dedicated to each other. That sort of thing.I was upset, but I blew it off, figuring that I'd live. A few days later, I hear from a friend that she had participated in other sexual activities with two other guys... at the same time. This was just a few days later after we had "broken up." I was furious not at the fact that it confirmed that she used me, but at the fact that she wasn't even thinking clearly and subjecting herself to her more hormonal desires. It wasn't right. Of course, what I did next wasn't right either. That night, I went to her dad and talked to him in private about what I heard about his daughter, the fact that we had sex, and my thoughts on the whole thing. He was upset, understandably, but my intent was for him to try to keep a closer eye on his own daughter to keep her from just following her sexual whim and end up hurting herself emotionally in the long run. I really was mad at her, but at the same time I cared enough to try to keep her from hurting herself. I didn't expect for her dad to talk to her mom, who talked to her about what I told her dad though.Of course, she was upset... I had no right to even tell her dad about her sexual life. I didn't expect her to see it from my perspective or even understand my motive for doing what I did... she was just going to see it as more restrictions and her parents giving her the third degree every time she wanted to go out. So after a short argument, I stopped caring. She wanted me to never talk to her again, so I blocked her. I stopped all contact with her. And even though even the thought of her pisses me off, I can't help but still care a little and wonder if she's doing all right.Now that you know my dating history, you can probably see how I've become rather bitter and almost cynical with girls in general. I really can't look at any girls without thinking that she'd either use me, play mind games, and if I can't think of the slightest evil that she could do to me, I wouldn't want to hurt her. As we've seen, even my best intentions go awry and never according to how I see it.I've treated every one of my ex-girlfriends the best I could possibly have (with the exception of "accidentally" cheating on my fourth). I spent as much time with them as I could, bought them gifts, never abused them in any way, have been as gentle, understanding, and sacrificial as possible, and somehow I end up with the short end of the stick. It makes me think immediately whenever I see a girl that I have even the slightest remote chance of being attracted to that 1.) I don't want to hurt her; and 2.) I don't want to be hurt by her. It's been happening and I hate feeling like this, and I'm sure you can understand why I feel like this.I don't want to feel like this about girls anymore, but sadly I think I'm now permanently bitter and apprehensive. I want a special someone very much to share life with but I just don't want to take that chance that I hurt her, and I care about that moreso than the possibility of her hurting me.I don't know what to do.

Not sure if I should quote myself, but this would be an excerpt of a paper that I recently did that I figured I would share with you guys. It's LONG, but I think it's very applicable to today's ongoing online relationships, and since a majority of us have utilized the Internet as another medium of interactivity with each other, I think this would be a good read. Oh yes. Self-promotion. - Technical advances and the world of today have changed the face of what we view as "love." The question of Night At The Roxbury's theme song has become more and more of valid with the passing times: "What is love?" And the answer itself is becoming less and less clear. It may seem funny to think of it in these terms, but from a more emotional and reflective standpoint, a person search for the answer can lead to rather disastrous results, especially for those that are more traditional in the nature of proper courtship, etiquette, bona fide feelings, and the culture of seeking love in the world. Do certain methods of communication completely destroy the intimacy, the legitimacy, the very concept of what we did see as love in the past? Do they destroy any need for rational thought when it comes to creating a relationship between two individuals based on what they believe as love? Have we created an entirely new definition of the word in this day and age of the cell phone, the computer, and the Internet? In the past, love used to be an actual ordeal that yielded favorable results if everything fell into place. There was courtship. There was romance. Poetry, roses, and even a simple walk in the park to spend time with a significant other would mean something. There was that concept that traditionalists can relate to as "love." There was thoughtfulness behind every action, and the entire ordeal was real, authentic. Today, with the advent of communication technology, "love" has become a quick hash of logging online to chat with a newfound interest who we will only know as HotStud17 or xXSweetCandyXx. It has become a simple texting session, back and forth between two people that barely know each other but share a disclosure of information and intimacy that surpasses the usual advancement of trust that was established back in the day. Even the automobile has led to less emotional and more physical relationships with sexual experimentation, being only a phone call, a night at the local bar or club, and a less-than-passionate moment back at "his/her place." Even the undesired results of pregnancy and commitment are mostly cast away with the introduction of contraceptives, promoting and making common such behavior. Viewed by a traditionalist, this would be absolutely absurd. The world of love as we know it is becoming the exactness of the words of Germaine Greer in her rant The Female Eunuch: "Love, love, love?all the wretched cant of it, masking egotism, lust, masochism, fantasy under a mythology of sentimental postures, a welter of self-induced miseries and joys, blinding and masking the essential personalities in the frozen gestures of courtship, in the kissing and the dating and the desire, the compliments and the quarrels which vivify its barrenness." The words of a feminist that spoke out against the authenticity of love back in the older days would echo today, and it's almost certain that if Germaine Greer were to acknowledge how matters are today, she would turn over in her grave. Humanity is and isn't totally at fault at these changes for what seems to be the worse in terms of love. The common person is now plagued with proper schooling, the need to work, and ultimately are burdened with lives that do not allow much time for proper courtship, time alone, or anything for that matter. Contemporary society has become something very different from the days when the males were responsible for financial support; when the females were expected to provide a proper upbringing of children and housekeeping; when there were more opportunities to dilly-dally around. Now, teenagers and adults alike are expected to go to college, attain degrees and certificates that require painstaking commitments, work to support themselves, and put leisure time aside until responsibilities have been appeased. The world, consequently, is more at work or school and less in love, promoting promiscuous behavior void of emotional commitment. Unfortunately, no one is presenting a fool-proof solution to appeal to today's commitments and the quest for true love. The technology of today brings up a multitude of tools and technologies that become detrimental to one of the most important things that establish a relationship: trust. Social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook are great networking tools to help people meet new people, make friends, and eventually even establish relationships. What's so bad about being able to meet new people in a completely new and convenient way? Thanks to the Internet and instant messaging, as well as social networks, people have become more expressive of themselves with blogs, talking behind screen names, and even e-mails. People are willing to fully disclose personal information as well as thoughts unspoken in person-to-person interaction. With that comes a new way of behaving in cyberspace. Interests are expected to be witty, entertaining, and captivating? all without seeming desperate for attention by trying too hard. "Taboo" subjects not normally found in normal conversation are discussed freely online. An entire realm of information sharing opens up with online interactivity? which also creates the problem of trust, as mentioned earlier. Google has become one of the largest and most utilized search engines in the world to find any information on any thing, place, or person. People nowadays are utilizing it to find information on possible "romantic" interests, which would yield anything published about that person on the Internet accessible to them. Blogs, personal profiles, and even pages dedicated to defiling a person's reputation are open for the world to see, and for that targeted person, it can create a lack of digital confidentiality. But who is to blame? Past ex-partners can be possible culprits, but the worst enemy would be the target him/herself. People are not reluctant to share their lives online through blogs and posted publications (profiles) about themselves, and what could seem like a gateway to share interests and meet other people online can be used against them to reveal embarrassing and/or personal information that they themselves would otherwise withhold from the public in a real-life setting. With all this information at anyone's fingertips, the only obstacle to overcome is how this information is perceived. A constant chat in a forum between a man and a woman can be seen as a conversation between best friends or potential lovers. Jokes of sexual innuendoes and/or advances can be either taken seriously or with a grain of salt and a sense of humor. A wife would automatically suspect infidelity if she stumbled upon her husband's social networking profile and saw that there were many women leaving seemingly-promiscuous comments on his page, would she not? Or if a husband were to happen upon his wife's page with a list of attractive male friends, would he feel insecure about himself and about his wife's faithfulness? Society's growing cynical nature and its way of perceiving this newfound information is a self-destructive behavior that further complicates the concept of "love" in the age of information technology. It's strange to think that this is what the world has become. Back in the day, information had to be gleaned from neighbors, friends, gossip, even from the way a person was dressed. Now, society can "learn" mostly anything about anybody with a few clicks of a mouse. The media and digital matchmaking is no help in the matter. Music is full of broken hearts, newfound romance, and drama. The media makes the illusion of love happening in a matter of half an hour within a reality-TV show. A lot of this is enough to persuade society that love is what will make anyone happy and "complete," and then comes the online dating to fulfill the cycle that nets the industry millions, paid by people who are under the premise that love is what they need and that it's only a few clicks away. People love convenience. Wouldn't it be easy to just go to a matchmaking site and post a profile, peruse through hundreds to thousands more to find a possible life partner, and skip the longer tried-and-true method of actually meeting people in person and having to learn about them without digital means? It doesn't help that matchmaking sites throw out the hype that science, and not instinct, are more accurate in choosing a life-term partner. Surveys are full of "scientific fact" about how your results would be fitting with a certain profile. Reports are available for a nominal fee. Science trumps intuition. Dating has become more of a selection process based on similar survey results, algorithms, and other mathematical processes. Relationship scientists, "love doctors," and mathematicians are sure to be overjoyed and live long, prosperous, and happy lives. Science, with its successful hype, has taken over the job of what people felt inside. "By this way of thinking? the story of Romeo and Juliet is no longer the tragic tale of a young man and woman falling in love, but becomes instead a chronicle of how, 'their libidinal impulses being reciprocal, they activated their individual erotic drives and integrated them within the same frame of reference.'" With science taking the reigns of what most people have forgotten to be true love, society has been brainwashed. Scientists have already measured and analyzed the chemical and physiological compositions of "love." Sexual activity has been beaten to death with more analysis and scientific conclusion. With all this, the concept of love is becoming moreso a flurry of "facts" and explanations, disconnected from the natural intuition and feeling of human instinct. To further throw salt into the wound, developments like pheromone products that are "scientifically proven" to increase attractiveness are being put out as viable solutions to finding a partner, whether for the sole purpose of attracting possible life partners or for the sheer expectation of a simple, raw, and unemotionally-attached one night stand. The complications of love are being presented as solvable by the scientific method through drugs, research, and suggestive behavioral studies that leave readers to start seeing their relationships in a more methodical point of view. With that, the opinions of romance being dead and chivalry being non-existent, to name a couple, are slowly becoming unfortunate truths. Science, in this way, has changed the way we view potential partners as products: we can almost have a preview of what a person is like, go by the "reviews" (comments) that other people provide, and learn more about what a person's features are before even making a real attempt at trying the "product." The values that define the concept of love has diminished to simple analysis. With online communication, an emote has replaced a real-life smile and/or wink. Body language is replaced by actions described within asterisks. Flirtatious encounters have become available to even the shyest of people. There are no facial gestures, no subtle hints, or even tone of voice. Everything has to be perceived, which yields unique results. Technology in terms of communications advancement has stripped the emotion from interactivity between individuals and leaves the people of today a rather difficult situation with love in life. This only applies to most people that are indifferent or ignorant to the unmentioned dangers of utilizing any form of communications other than the traditional person-to-person conversation. Romance still does exist and so can be preserved as long as people realize that communication by technological means serves as an extra medium instead of a way of life. Unfortunately enough, not many people see it in this fashion. They may think that they know, but in reality they may have fallen victim to the trends and fads of the present to assist with living life today. Not everyone is immune to any influence, but it is crucial to be educated about the matters that could afflict a person's lifestyle and be aware of the possible downfalls of the use of any advancement. If everyone were to be educated and aware of how online dating, social networking, and even instant messaging can affect their lives in terms of love in life, there may be possible mishaps that could be completely avoided, such as the meeting of two individuals who tried online dating prior to their meeting. If hopes and expectations are made before the initial meeting, they could possibly be crushed if the person doesn't portray himself/herself as truthfully or as completely as possible online, compared to their in-person behavior, mannerisms, tone, and even physical attractiveness. Online dating isn't an evil, but it should be forewarned that it's not a cure-all to incorporate love and romance into the world where time is limited, precious, and saturated mostly by work, school, or other commitments. Electronic means of communication should not be a basis for unneeded drama, as no one can read the tone of a particular message or statement. (Sarcasm often falls victim to the variable results of perception.) In all, keeping an open mind and falling back to tradition will help preserve and protect people from being emotionally-traumatized, disappointed, or even removing the very definition of love and replacing love with a purely-sexual concept void of actual emotion, mutual amiability, care, and the desire to coexist happily in the ties of matrimony.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with being a virgin.For some reason society is hell-bent on try to see who can get laid first and how often. Sex is now a status symbol; if you can't get any, you're probably worse off. If you don't try to be sexually appealing by wearing short skirts, thongs, hanging jeans, and cutaways, you will feel undesired. For anyone to get any attention, especially during the school years, you have to dress like a wigger or a skank. Because that's who gets laid. Whores and pimps.I think that it's great to be a virgin. Maybe it's because you're saving it for that special someone, or you don't feel like sleeping with every guy/girl under the sun, or maybe you actually see sex as an act that should be shared with someone who you know you will be happy with for the rest of your life (sex after marriage). Major kudos to all that are holding out for these reasons (and whatever else I haven't covered).I, unfortunately, am not a virgin. I was stupid and "gave" it to a girl that I thought would be special. (Needless to say, we're not together anymore.)Virginity, really, is just a concept. But with this concept lies the idea of sharing your first intimate experience with someone. Will it be someone you care about and see a future with? Or is it just a momentary fling overcome by hormonal desire?

The only reason why it's funny is because of the overused Carmina Burana 'O Fortuna composition.Other than that, I'm sure whoever created it was slightly amused and occupied for a good 15 minutes.

I'm stealing this comment because it sounded cool. Basically, to utilize the power of each core, a computer design would have to include RAM dedicated to each core to minize bottle-necking. If you had a quad core processor and one of those cores was utilizing all of the memory banks on the motherboard, the three other cores would have to wait until that one core finishes its task. This would explain why there really isn't a 100% increase in performance per core, as the processor writes data to the registries of RAM, which essentially are slots for data. If one processor fills those registers up before the second core can utilize them, that second core is essentially useless. This is why we focus on recommending more RAM for slower systems instead of just beefing up the processor.

Don't even bother upgrading to quad core if in 5 years an 80-core processor is pledged. I'm sort of confused in a slight bit as to why there's a 5-core processor. Usually hardware counts are in powers of 2... which would give me the idea that we would start with 1 core, then 2, then 4, then 8, then 16...Then again, if they can squeeze it in, that's great.I did see an octocore processor by Intel on NewEgg one day. I think it was selling for $400 or $800... can't remember. It was insanely expensive though.

*puts on a suit and tie*I agree with sharing your thoughts on the matter. *takes it off*I think that you guys should not-so-much go out on dates AS dates, but hang out more and instead of being awkward, be more comfortable.Is he nice? A good guy? You guys are friends... and he is kind of cute, so win-win?I always figured that some of the best relationships come out from friends dating each other simply because they already know each other rather well and if you can live with each other's crap, why not get together? I guess I can see how it can be awkward at first, but only time will tell whether you guys can actually go out or if it would be too weird. But you'll actually have to try it out.I know it's so much easier said than done, and a lot of us have been in those very same shoes you wear now. I say that you give it an honest shot and try it out. Spend more time with him, offer to hang out more, and maybe something will click. If it does, awesome. If not, at least you tried the opportunity instead of sitting around wondering.

I came in here hoping for S&M...... but just got SM. Happy birthday dude.

I understand how you would want to shave off seconds for quicker restarts when running multiple operating systems, but I personally just walk away to do something while I wait. For programs that hang... sometimes you might be trying to shut down and forgot to finish a task in a program, which would make it "unresponsive," hence the hang during the shutdown sequence. It also helps to manually close programs before shutting down Windows.Is it just me, or does Linux take quite a while to boot? (I run Kubuntu 7.04 on a 1.4GHz Pentium M with 1GB of RAM in an HP tc1100 tablet PC.)

Tell her.Please tell her, for your sake.I don't know how many times I gave away that opportunity because I never spoke a word that I should have and always said what I should have kept to myself. And I wonder why I've remained single.If you feel that strongly about her, now is the time to see if she likes you back. Anthony might have asked her out first, but you need to sit down and talk to her, face to face, and tell her how you feel. Pick a moment and talk to her.It will be ultimately better than letting someone else have his shot uncontended, especially if it's someone that may be - and I use the term loosely - lesser than you are, in any way, shape, or form.Two things may happen:1.) She likes you back. She might want to try to see what happens with Anthony, but she knows that there's someone else. Or, she might just ditch Anthony after their first "date." Who knows.2.) She doesn't like you back. But would it be better to know for sure or just wonder for the rest of the time that you are infatuated with her?

It depends.Using USB would be outstanding compared to Bluetooth because you wouldn't have to worry about pairing, the slow speed of Bluetooth 1.1, and hey, you're already at your computer. C'mon!On the other hand, Bluetooth is great with wireless capability and not having to hunt for a USB cable. Bluetooth 2.0 is supposedly a good multiple times faster than the 1.1 standard, but there's not a lot of phones that use 2.0...

Wow. Just wow. If you guys are too lazy to watch the video or don't want to waste 8 minutes like I did, they ran a Honda Civic engine (1.5L... not sure how many cylinders) without any oil in it, then put WATER into the oil tank (which is supposed to seize and render an engine USELESS), then ran that thing for quite a while before it finally sputtered. I can't read French so I don't know what anything says on the video... but it still amazes me what kind of torture that engine went through.

I definitely am, unfortunately.When I get bored, I don't play video games or read or go outside. I go online and go to MySpace, Facebook, and Xisto to talk to my friends, and talk to my friends on AIM, MSN, and Yahoo... and sometimes IRC.I find myself doing this after work, after school, and in between for hours on end, refreshing my social networks to see if I got any new posts or new messages or anything else I could interact with.Now that I said all this... it's rather pathetic.

I am the proud owner of a Motorola i580. From what I hear, Motorola phones are very durable and they actually work well, with the exception of the Razr line. Personally, it's pretty important to be able to not have to worry about getting your phone wet, or dropping it, or smashing it, or whatever else you subject your cell phone to. The i580 model has been tested against two-story drops, driven rain, and even a crush test with a truck... and survived. Most friends that I know who have a Motorola have dropped their phones numerous times, which apparently happens a lot. (I have yet to accidentally drop my phone.)My vote goes to Motorola.