salamangkero
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Everything posted by salamangkero
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Should I Jump... pros and cons of t17.
salamangkero replied to keri-j's topic in Web Hosting Support
I'd say a good starting place to post is the "What Is..." forum. People there do have some interesting ideas and, let's face it, we all know something most other people don't. Unless we're under an oath of secrecy, I don't see why we can't share what we know.You can also post on the "Games" forum, if you play computer games just like almost every teenage boy out there.There really is no need to create new posts, you can always thrive on reacting to what other people say. As it is, it's much easier to join in a conversation than to start one, eh? Well, of course don't just react with what you feel but also with what you're thinking :)Best of luck with your forum postings/hosting credits -
Among the numerous constellations dotting the night sky, there are twelve, which, lying more or less about the equator, divide the celestial sphere into longitudinal sections of 30 degrees each. These constellations comprise what is known as the celestial zodiac. These, much like everything else in the celestial sphere, helped the early man determine the seasons. As much as the Constellation of Orion, for a person in the northern hemisphere, is a sure sign that winter approaches, the constellations Sagittarius and Capricorn mark the short nights brought about by the summer solstice. However, there do exist creative individuals in the human society that attribute mundane, day-to-day events to these pinpoints of light. Granted, the possibility is quite real, due to the butterfly effect, that small and seemingly trivial details like the positioning of all particles in the universe can determine the lifetime or the destiny of a person. In the subtle art, not science, of astrology, these individuals concern themselves with different celestial bodies such as the sun and moon, planets and stars, especially the celestial zodiac. The first evidences of human use of the zodiac belt were dated as far back as 114 B.C. The year now is 2006, meaning these star signs have been in use for at least 2120 years. Back then, these astrologers have observed and recorded that, in the annual cycle, the sun travels through all twelve 30-degree segments, also called houses. Each year, the same cycle repeats with astonishing precision. These star signs were assigned on people depending on the house the sun was in at the time of their birth. However, the universe was not as precise as everyone had thought. The celestial zodiac shifts westward at the rate of roughly one degree every 70 years. In the lifetime of a person, such abberations are hardly noticeable. However, in the course of over two millenia, most "expert" and "certified" astrologers still base their predictions on the old model. These people would probably be chagrined to know that the zodiac's houses, as of the present, have been shifted up by one house, or roughly 30 degrees, since its inception. In other words, the sun will not be in Aries until the time assigned for Taurus. Most astrologers, ignorant of their craft, would have you believe otherwise, sustaining a hoax for over two millenia. They probably never looked at the stars, despite the connotations of their title and even if they did, they never bothered to change their ancient, outdated models. If you cannot perceive the irony of astrologers not looking at stars, just imagine Bill Gates using Linux on his personal computer. If your brain still cannot comprehend the point I'm trying to make, then God help you (under the assumption that God does exist). There probably is not much grave danger in seeking advice from an astrologer. However, if you do, you now know very well how to spot one who is not well-versed in his/her craft: just ask about the star signs. In a few more millenia, should one be unfortunate enough to live that long, one can anticipate the winter sun in Gemini and Cancer. Until then, mind your star signs, take horoscope advice with a pinch of salt and may the Fates be kind to you all.
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Another one, seen not only in games but also in movies and TV series Stereotypes -- "Rawr. I am evil because I wear black!" Really, some games don't even bother with plots at all. Is every non-human being out there considered "monster" to be slayed for exp? Some of those "monsters" could be sentient life forms, you know? Is every person who wears black, wields the dark arts or loves the night to be considered evil? And if someone is cold, mysterious or aloof, does that reduce him or her into a boss character or savior of that pathetic world? Are witches always green-faced wrinkled creatures with crooked noses? Do fortunetellers always use crystal balls? (No pun intended) Are aliens always the evil, kidnapping creatures they are? Well, at least, with better plots nowadays, we know now that the answer is no.
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Cryonics And the History of the Human Race
salamangkero replied to AeonLan's topic in General Discussion
Well, probably one of the issues concerning such a use of cryonic technology is not purely scientific, but also philosophical in nature. It's about the topic whether man has a "soul" or not. See, this is what happens: 1. Grandpa, hereafter known as Gramps, dies today. However, he's got cryonic insurance, just in case they have the cure for cancer several years fro now. 2. Gramps' head is chopped off and hied off to a cryonic storage facility, "to preserve his memory" 3. 30 years from now, scientists synthesize a healthy body for Gramps and, what, transplants his brain or configures the host's memory to match that of Gramps. Such a scenario is open to a multitude of outcomes: 1. The new Gramps will be alive, retaining his memories up until his death. This is probably the ideal outcome; the goal scientists were aiming for. 2. The new Gramps will be alive but dead to the world, no different from a patient in coma. That's because Gramps' "soul" was released the moment his old body expired. 3. The new Gramps will have an unpredictable mental condition. Apparently, the memory transferrence process was transferring the wrong memory. In other words, in the case of a brain transplant, the mere molecular configuration of grey matter is not enough to define a person's memory. Well, whether or not future revived cryonic patients remembers who they originally were is just one of the issues to be resolved. Even if experiments with animals have been successful, it is not enough. For one, frog and cow brains are quite different from humans. Still, it is a lucrative business. Imagine, "We ressurect your beloved pets." Pah! Capitalism! -
EXP system -- Ookay, so maybe killing enemies or seeing them die at the hands of your allies does add to a person's combat knowledge. Still, no matter how many different enemies there are, no matter how varied their drops can be and no matter how many different ways you kill them, it will get boring after some time. Limited NPC responses -- You walk up to a girl, "Welcome to Kakariko Village." Again, "Welcome to Kakariko Village." One more time, "Welcome to Kakariko Village." Seriously, some NPC's are better off represented as CD or cassette players if they couldn't even be as "random" as humans. TMI in NPC responses -- Depending on the game, mood and situation, this may be a needed feature. However, do you really need 5 people around you "muttering" about their recent divorce, newest baby, upcoming wedding, secret crushes and, ahem, heaven forbid, sexual fantasies? Not all of them lead to side-quests, either! Over-complicated sidequests -- It usually is insane to hunt for a cedar plank needed by the high priest for a bottle of holy water you'd douse over the volcanic flames that you can gather magma for the blacksmith who'd reward you with a hammer for the sculptor who, in turn, will surrender his mithril claws to you, enabling you to cut the adamantine vines you need so that the craftsman can make you the adamantine lasso you'd need to catch the zookeeper's kraken: a feat which, in the end, will yield you, what, a handful of coins, exp or stats?
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Good lord. That was... very... systematized. I didn't know there was a whole lot to poop. :)And, frankly, though, I'd probably have been better off not knowing
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Whoa, man! That totally blowed my mind! I do understand enough of it, though, in parts, fragments and pieces The site totally killed my dialup but in the end, I 'm glad it was all worth it.I'll look into it and see how it'd fit in the mysteries of thw world. (Although the word "teleportation" seems a lot clearer to me now.So... basically, if someone is "magically" transported into... I dunno, a world of cheese, jelly, faeries and elves, he, or she, did not actually breach the 5th dimension but actually the 6th, 7th or one of the higher dimensions? Kewl, so amazing!
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Ufo Propulsion. What do you think?
salamangkero replied to AeonLan's topic in Science and Technology
An episode from Futurama once had a scientist speaking: Now that was just so altruistic now, wasn't it? Allow me to offer my two cents on this, no matter how whimsical or impossible it may seem. Scientists believe that all matter in the universe is subject to just four basic forces. All matter is held together, or pushed apart, by these fundamental forces: Gravity, Electromagnetic force, Strong nuclear force and Weak nuclear force. The understanding of these four forces has been heavily influenced by quantum electrodynamics, the theory that views all electromagnetic radiation not as a continuous beam of energy but a stream of energy in discrete packets called quanta. These "packets", are known as photons in electromagnetic radiation. These photons can be thought of as both particle and wave; in wave from, it can travel even in vacuum as a self-sustaining syncronization of both electric and magnetic waves. Hence the term "messenger particles". Photons are not exactly actual particles, contrary to the second word of the aforementioned term. Simply put, these mesenger particles are just the means by which the universe transmits packets of energy. Photons (or virtual photons, for some) are the messenger particles for the EM force. For the Strong nuclear force, we have the (virtual) pion, the stuff that, simply put, glues all the photons and neutrons together in the nucleus so that the particles don't go flying off in all directions by repelling other particles of the same charge. The Weak nuclear force has W and Z particles. From a book: "When a neutron decays into a proton and an electron, W particles pass energy between the particles." I have just as much idea as you do on this. Now, the force of interest, to me, is gravity, supposedly trasmitted by messenger particles called gravitons, as yet undetected. They are supposed to be of infinitesimal size, enabling them to travel an infinite distance. When I encountered this knowledge, I have imagined the particles in the universe to be constantly "bursting" with gravitons continually. It is, graphically, a bit like radiation, where an unstable isotope gradually "sheds" itself in the form of alpha or beta particles. However, unlike radiation, these graviton-bursts do not cause the object to lose mass. Clear so far? Now, I also imagined gravitons to 1) mysteriously pass "through" matter (after all, imagine how absurd it would be to be pushed away by a stream of gravitons from the earth? And considering how "massive" blackholes are, just imagine the graviton "firing" rate of such a blackhole. It would be stupid if particles supposedly drawn to it were pushed off) 2) "pull" any particle it passes through in the direction from whence it had come (In other words, a graviton ejected from the center of the earth would pull any matter it comes across towards the center of the earth) Oookay, so far so good. now, imagine an alien technology that is capable of, not only detecting, but also manipulating gravitons. Already, we have encountered self-sustaining graviton-emitting engines in nature: blackholes. Now, what if this alien technology did just the opposite. Instead of emitting gravitons from itself, effectively attracting other objects to it, imagine the engine to be drawing gravitons to itself, attracting it to other objects. This graviton "magnet" I have just described was pointless, really, 'coz it will just attract the object itself to all the other objects in the universe, effectively making it cavort around in a seemingly random fashion as the celestial bodies move about. However, if this "magnet" were to be "targettable", or controlled, we can, for all we know, make a craft go left, right, up, down, forward or back, as a matter of fact, go any direction we wish it to simply by targetting the "magnet" in the direction we wish the craft to go and turning the engine on. It can bank sharp curves or zoom at deadly speeds (although I have no wish to imagine how ill its occupants might be from all the hyper-roller-coaster ride). I'm not sure it's credible, although I am definite it is possible. As the book I hold sayeth: "Gravity is the least understood of the four basic forces." Oh, yeah. Simply put, an anti-gravity engine. It's not that, of course, but the notion is pretty much the same -
Your Dream Food! Your dream food, we all have one.
salamangkero replied to wacky_stu's topic in General Discussion
Hmmn... I would like to have heaps of boneless, meatless skin-ful KFC chicken, I just love their "secret" breading and thei "secret" gravy, which, to date, I still have no success in replicating.I'd also love de-fizzed Coke or Pepsi, that is carbonated cola whose fizz either dried up or was forcibly shaken off, which is quite different from un-fizzed cola in that unfizzed cola never experienced any fizz at all. Why? Too much bubbles make me hiccup. No bubbles at all and it will taste nothing more than sugared water.Lessee... what else... Ah! A salad with everything on it! When I make a salad, I often end up raiding the kitchen cupboard and the fridge. Of course there'd be lettuce and dressing, of course. I also try, if possible, to include the following in my salad (in alphabetical order): bacon, carrot, cheese, chicken strips (breaded and fried), corn, croutons, cucumber, egg slices (hard-boiled), ham, oranges, pineapple chunks, prawns or shrimp, raisins, tomato and other stuff I, overwhelmed by such a fantasy, cannot imagine or put into words right now. Oh, that will be the day!So far, I and my voracious metabolising rate have managed to down about sever or eight such salad ingredients in one serving. Yes, I can eat more and yes, it's just salad, not the main course :PWhen lettuce leaves are not present, I tend to direct my energies to fried rice... with everything on it! Now, lessee: bacon, beef, carrot, cheese, chicken, chinese sausages, corn, egg, garlic, ham, lemon juice, margarine, milk, onion, peas, prawns or shrimp, soy sauce, tuna flakes, turnip and, again, a lot of other ingredients lost in my memory's obscurity.What can I say? I have a vast digestive tract and a dangerous penchant for creative experimentation :)Oh yes, and sloppy fries, too, with shredded beef.(Augh! This topic is sooo close to my heart, it hurts!) -
Is It Possible To Create Free Energy?
salamangkero replied to ishwar's topic in Science and Technology
That should be interesting... imagine having earth's own private mini-sun, powering the cities around the globe. However, something as powerful as nuclear fusion still has its limits. Even stars can fuse elements only up to those as "heavy" as iron. Beyond that, the star begins to die (with blasts of great energy at moments but still dying) This means that even for a controlled nuclear fusion, we still have to refuel every few thousand years or so. Nonetheless, if such a feat were to be achieved, refueling will just be a minor expense compared to the energy output. I also remember another alternative source of great energy: the fusion of matter and anti-matter. For example, when an electron collides with a proton, both are obliterated and transformed into a packet of energy, the arcane photon. I remember a physics professor of mine saying that finding anti-matter is not that hard; it is containing them that's tricky for they'd immediately begin disintegrating the container Scientists have, however, managed to contain anti-particles in magnetic fields although the generation of such fields obviously cost a lot of energy. As it is, if we probably generated a field large enough to keep a substantial amount of anti-matter in control, we could possibly generate energy that may surpass that created from nuclear fusion. Oh, by the way, I think this is what powered the warp engines in the numerous Star Trek series Again, it's not perpetual; I do tend to scoff with mild disbelief at any notion of "eternal" energy. -
I would have to agree here. While some children have no problems grasping the fact that there is nothing wrong with homosexuality, others have difficulty knowing that there is nothing special in it either. I, for one, being an attention-hungry moron, have made the mistake of claiming to be gay when I was in the first grade. I have forgotten all about it until an old classmate reminded me of it much later on in my life. While I did end up gay, I'm at the very least thankful that it was because of my own nature and not because I claimed to be a homosexual so long ago.
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The fact that my usually hyper-active imagination cannot conjure any sane idea of what you're trying to achieve in your novel makes me all the more interested in what actually might be in it, but I digress. You could, for one, like all the other creative works, begin your story with an introduction. It is a familiar, popular and recommended approach when considering subjects relatively alien to the audience. For example, Mattel's CG film Barbie in Fairytopia, a narration at the very start says: Don't mind the movie, it's cheesy as hell but the point is that the audience was introduced to the "existence" of this "Fairy" world. Another example, one of the first few words in The Legend of Zelda, a Link to the Past: You could very well begin with a paragraph about numbers, the number systems of some civilizations (The Aztecs, for one, used a system based on 13 and 20) and the number system of your universe. Come to think of it, was it absolutely necessary to create a new universe? It could just very well be another race, planet or galaxy. C'mon, like anyone would think our universe "is base 10" simply because the denizen of the third pebble from the Sun used that system. Ahh, forgive me. 'twas an unsolicited criticism, I understand. Best of luck with your novel. P.S. Most novels I have encountered, that did have appendices, were either non-fictional, chronicles of wars, scientific or a combination of all three. Just in case you still intend to push through with an appendix
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What's Your Favorite Way To Start Your Day? ...
salamangkero replied to Milovoriel's topic in General Discussion
I start the day by "playing with myself" too Although it is, by no means, the only thing that starts my day. Nonetheless, when I get up, I say to myself, "This is the first day of the rest of my life." -
I always wanted to be a scientist and discover/invent "the next BIG thing" Somehow, not too surprisingly, I always imagined scientists the way the mass media has portrayed them: eccentric Einstein-like hairdo, white lab coats, flasks and tubes of bubbling potions and concoctions, explosive chemicals and whirly spinning mechanisms. Then, when I was still young and gullible, I wanted to be a doctor, mainly because my parents also wanted me to be one, mostly because it pays well at the time. I had no idea that being a doctor included blood, along with other body fluids from other people but when I did find out, I have totally forsaken the field of medicine. A lingering fantasy was to be a king of some remote island nation. I find islands easier to manage than mainland nations. Of course, I enjoyed dreaming of riches, having to do nothing back-breaking and having servants/slaves at my bidding any time of the day. When I found out that most countries had presidents and prime ministers instead of kings, I hoped that there might be some previously unexplored island out there where some birthmark or body feature would make me their king, or even better, their god. When I stepped into college and came to terms with my homosexuality, I dreamt of becoming a princess but that's probably another story
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Faster Than Light Travel? Thinking caps please
salamangkero replied to Mithshark's topic in Science and Technology
I believe that time does exist and its effects are readily observable. The very concept of movement is an effect of the transition of time. However, I digress. Someone once hypothesized the existence of particles called tachyons. These things were believed to travel faster than light. Not only that, they were also believed to operate in "reverse time". Consider an effects of Einstein's relativity equation: Time Dilation. What this means is that moving clocks tick slower than those that stay still and that apple halves propelled near the speed of light brown slower than those lying still. Note how time approaches zero as the speed of an object approaches the speed of light. Now, what happens when the speed of an object, heaven help us, exceeds the speed of light? It is quite intuitive to assume that time, too, will slow down beyond zero, in effect, turn negative, thus the concept of "reverse time". The eccentric author of paranormal books, Erik von Daniken, has provided us a seemingly mundane hypothetical situation that simulates how these tachyons work. This does present a lot of opportunites: 1. If we propel anyone faster than the speed of light, we would effectively break the effects of aging. 2. If we set up an interstellar delivery network that operates at speeds faster than light, we can send buckets of fish fresh, not frozen. We might as well expect them to arrive at their destination still hanging onto life by a thread. The aforementioned effects also present a lot of problems: 1. Anyone planning to travel faster than the speed of light should invest a lot in protective gear and hull integrity. It is the universe, after all; do you expect to zoom through it without running into any particles? And at such speeds... 2. Anyone creating blueprints of an engine designed to propel itself faster than light, or even at the speed of light, would do well to remember that time slows down for it, effectively limiting the speeds it can attain to velocities well below that of light. Analogously speaking, if your engine powered a rowboat, the faster it goes, the slower it will row. 3. As an effect, objects travelling at the speed of light either have to be "born" that way or propelled by a powerful outside force. Photons were lucky enough to be born that way. For everything else, you don't need an engine. What you need is a catapult. 4. Then again, if there were an engine like that in Futurama, which doesn't propel the ship forward but impels the universe about it, then I'd say it is magic, completely beyond the realm of physics and hardly worth my precious neural cycles. 5. Anyone who happens to find himself caught in a speed faster than light and unfortunate enough to operate in reverse time will do well to remember that if you drink water, you will become thirsty, the effect will inevitable come before the cause and that your conversations will start with "Good-bye" and end with "Hi" or "Hello" -
Is There A God ? If So Who Found Him First ?
salamangkero replied to red_dragon_here's topic in General Discussion
Might I add my two cents to the million-dollar jumble:Someone once quoted, "Where God does not exist, Man will create him" and another one said, "Today's myths are yesterday's religions."Nobody actually finds God. People just believe they found him/her/it. It's called religion/faith. Besides, there's nothing that says today's religions will last forever. Just as people today scoff, "Apollo worship? How primitive! Those poor guys never found what they're looking for," people twenty thousand years from now might just as well say "God. Ha! What a bunch of weaklings, who believed in something that wasn't even there." -
"If you blow my mind, I'll blow yours too" "Coffee? Milk? Me?" "Top or bottom?" "I need to call the cops, 'coz you stole my heart away."And the perpetual, "Can I have a map? 'coz I get lost in your eyes."
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I do, although not too often nowadays. I'm also not that good but I do generally enjoy a game, win or lose I usually prefer hack-'n-slash types of heroes like Naix or Bradwarden and spell spammers like Krobelus or Aggron Stonebreaker. How 'bout you? Which heroes do you usually use?
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Issues With Getting It Up Warning: Contains talk about sex
salamangkero replied to BooZker's topic in The Vent
I'm a guy so I most probablu know much of what I'm saying. It's not really a chronic problem, especially if you have a lot of things on your mind, unless you worry, fret and think as a hobby. If the girl isn't too squeamish, have her blow you. It worked for me :DAlso, if you do it in a cool/cold/frigid environment, the problem will be reduced or even eliminated. You know what happens when a guy is in a cold environment, right? :DGood gawd, I hope this doesn't get me a warning or a ban. I'm just trying to help >.< -
I once was employed part-time as an all-around student assistant, where the tasks exected of me were quite surprisingly different from the initial job description.After suffering the ripples of its consequences through time, I am once again back in the field. I am still a student, yeah, but I do take short-term freelance Java programming jobs/projects ever and anon. I am better able to manage my time now that I have only three subjects in school :DSalary? I've never had an hour-based wage before. My projects were usually paid an initially price each month. Oh, and I live in the Philippines so please don't bother how much I earn in dollars.
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I generally enjoy surfing the net. I have a lot of accounts online I don't think I could bear 36 hours continuously offline I also write prose fiction, some fanfiction, few poetry and, on rare instances, blog posts.I don't get to daydream now as I used to back then. My waking hours are now jam-packed with a lot of things. I do sleep, however, a lot of times. I don't usually remember my dreams but they tend to be horrifying most especially after reading a good book, no matter what it is about.I love to doodle, sketch, draw and scribble. Unfortunately, my art is of the kind understood only by me. My favorite drawings were those arrays of made-up demonic seals and sigils. They are not necessarily demonic in nature, though, and, rest assured, I do not fall into trances while I'm drawing.Like I once said, I cannot paint a picture so I write a thousand words instead
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Well, it is the wilderness. People kill or get killed. It is generally an unspoken rule that you don't bring to the wild anything you are not willing to part with
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So... how exactly did you lose 4000k? Scammed? Stolen?
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How To Make Cool Rain Effect (photoshop tut)
salamangkero replied to midnitesun's topic in General Discussion
Wow. That is so amazing. I, myself, have a personal disdain for a lot of Photoshop tutorials but yours was so simple, yet produced such a cool effect. Needless to say, I do like it -
How To Create Java Button Or Frame to be customized
salamangkero replied to negativezero's topic in Programming
Ahh, subclassing, one of my favorite custom component strategy. To use background images, you probably have to mess with the void paint(Graphics g) method. Just draw the image before drawing everything else.