Cool_Freaker

Oh, I remember that. I couldn't really cut out that render, so it made it a little hard to do anything overly fancy with it

AMD at the current time would have to be better for most purposes, simply because of the price/performance ratio, as well as temperatures and power consumption. Dual-core Intels lose out to AMD X2's in just about everything (ie similar price point CPU match ups), except Photoshop, and I think there are similar results with the single cores, with Intel only having an advantage in some multimedia applications, whilst gaming and general usage tends to go to AMD.In the next generation of chips this may change though, the Conroe chip coming out from Intel looks very promising (when initially compared to the s939 AMD chips out now), and the next generation of AMD CPU's - the AM2's are said to only utilise DDR2 RAM, whilst "so far" only offering little in performance gain (though this is somewhat speculation).

Ok, I'll be first to admit Age3 wasn't that great, but I do believe it's still a solid game, albiet missing a bit on the "new/innovation" department, as well as a slightly unengaging single player campaign. Worst strategy game for me? Um, I didn't really like Star Trek: Birth of the Federation all that much, confusing at times... oh and Theme Park (including the sequels) never rocked my boat... Roller Coaster Tycoon all the way

You just invoked Godwins Law... By technology I refer to Sociophysics and Psycology rather than machines.

Yeah I'm using a 17" BenQ LCD 4ms screen. Boy, everything is much crisper than on my old 17" CRT - not to mention brighter. The viewing angles can be a bit of a pain sometimes though, as well as some things being too dark/too bright. I guess the best thing going for LCD's is the fact that you can look at them for so much longer, as Dragonfly said.

Ah, memories of the good times.

If I'm not mistaken, that is not a mermaid, but rather Aribeth from Neverwinter Nights.

Now, I have this interesting idea, that might lead to world peace, however, some people may consider such strategies as immoral. Read now the argument I typed up real fast: (Yes, I did do some research on the subject)----The mind was once thought of as merely the way the brain processes information and as one might say, the operating system of the body. However, with advancements in psychology, one can now bring the mind forth into a new form of both science and warfare, one that bends the minds of people to conform to your views. With proper stimuli a nation can engineer it?s people to agree with its views like a form of advance propaganda. The nation would then believe in its heart that their purpose is the only right one and all others should conform to their ideals. The nation can then use these people as more powerful soldiers in an army, driven not only by the commands of ranking officials, but also fervor in wanting to spread their ideal to foreign ?unenlightened? countries. A new science should be created to study methods to harvest the minds power for the greater good. A country with a common sense of duty would not only aid military efforts but also for the economy. United with a national aim, people would be engineered to not work for personal gain, but also work for the betterment of the nation and society around them. This would help lower the rate of unemployment by not outsourcing jobs and allowing a nation to rise as a whole. The main argument against such a strategy would be questioning the morality of a scheme such as this. However, the only people that would give rise to such arguments will also be hardwired to think like the masses. Hence they would not question the motives of the government. If any dissidents arise in the government, it may be time to consider a new form of government where the psychiatrists that perform the guidance of the people are also under government control. With this method, people throughout the nation would seem to be human robots without them knowing it, and hence they cannot do anything to stop that which has happened to them. Plato said in The Allegory of the Cave, ?You must contrive for your future rulers another and better life than that of a ruler?? If this is a necessary component of a civilization, all costs and methods must be put into place for this to happen. Without the publics support for any plans the nation has, the country would not satisfy this requirement, and would not progress in a efficient fashion. With the control of the minds of people, they would have little choice but to follow the decrees of the government, and if the government choices were indeed beneficial to the country, the future ruler would have a better life than the current one. If the decree proves to be detrimental to the government, there would not likely be another ruler and therefore not matter anyway in the long run. A similar approach to governing is shown in the work Brave New World, where children were taught to fear and love certain aspects in society so that they would not harm the governing people in any way. The society they lived in was indeed peaceful with only outsiders without treatment and a few mentally disturbed people in the land. When outside influences tried to enter the world, the happiness of everyone in the nation started deteriorating. This shows that with people all under control they are happy. Unhappiness comes from a change in society. With a large stimulus such as a heretic in the case of Brave New World coming in to disturb the peace of society, the land would then lose its state of contentment. In regards to slaves, Mr. Auld said in From the Narrative of a Slave, ?He would be unmanageable, and of no use to his master.? The concept of engineering people to be loyal to ones country is similar to this. Once the plan is in effect and people are hardwired to be loyal to their country, there will be no going back to the previous state. This would mean the end of the governing party after people find out this is how they have been treated. Hence, the government should keep this procedure a secret for only the most trusted officials to know. If anyone else finds out about this and is likely to spread the word, public dissent would rise uncontrollably and people would be of no use to the government. Unlike slavery, the people would not be sent unwillingly to do tasks set by the government. People would still have the freewill to act as they would and have whatever career they wish. The only difference is that with every action the populace makes, it is in favor of the government. Seditious acts would then be completely eliminated unless it was to happen unconsciously. If a seditious act does take place, it would very likely be accidental and easy to reverse. The only sure way for this plan to work with the minimal amount of flaws is under the condition that the world is unified. If each individual country has its people believing in their own different views, endless wars would ensue bringing destruction to all. The process of which are engineered to be loyal to one country cannot be in place in more than one country at first. The first country would then use the power gained from such an experiment to take control of other nations. With other nations that are under the originators control also loyal, global domination would become easier as time goes on. This may in the end save many more lives and allow people to live in peace without the fear of international warfare. Civil wars would also not occur, as the loyalties are focused onto one figure in the nation rather than a group of leaders. From what may seem as a cruel and terrible plan, peace throughout the world is possible. From what may seem as a cruel and terrible plan, peace throughout the world is possible.A leader should not fear that his attempt at modifying the minds of his subjects would arouse dissenters. They must simply tell the people that they are undergoing an experiment that would greatly improve the lives of its inhabitants. As Machiavelli says, ?Everyone sees what you seem to be, few perceive what you are?. Like this, everyone would then think you are indeed helping the nation grow, and very few would have reason to believe the true purpose of taking over the minds of people. Those people would later be dismissed as heretics that are in everyday society anyway. The mind is still sufficiently complex that most people would not see what is coming to them until it is too late. In the current age the mind is no longer a mysterious object incomprehensible to the people of the world. Science and psychology has been advanced enough to uncover more about the mind and its power. Now the people must go back the original purpose as to why the first people began to study the mind. The hope that with knowledge the world can be a better place and harmony would at last shine through the quagmire. ----We are now living in an age where something like this is possible. For those of you who have read the novel, "Brave New World" you have an understanding of what I'm trying to convey. However, I do not go as far as to say that people themselves should be engineered into classes like it was brought up in the novel.Are you willing to give up a few rights to have freedom?Or is the current situation better? A few lives lost each day for what people hope would be temporary peace?

Gundam - one of my favourite anime series

I used to use WS-FTP when they had a free home version. That was pretty good - now days you can only get 30day trials I believe. SmartFTP is probably the best alternative.

Yeah, been swimming for ages, parents always thought it was one of those life and death things (and apparantly I'm not good enough still for their standards) for when a plane crashes in the ocean or a boat sinks. I guess being comfortable around water is a good thing - just as long as you don't get over confident at the beach and get caught up in some rip...

I would say try and get your sigs a bit better too. Text can do with some work, as well as render blending overall. TF - apart from sigs I don't think he has to do much, though obviously banners, larger pieces or templates would be nice.

Well, say you're the best, most talented firefighter (I guess it's possible..) - your pay still isn't going to match up with footballers. Sure, you could get promoted to HQ and get some sort of bureaucratic desk job, but I mean it's still only going to end up as a marginal difference as opposed to the footballers annual wage.Many Hollywood actors or pop musicians earn more than their worth also. Once again, sure they may be talented (though these days not always the best of their field, rather just the best looking), and their weekly salary can end up immensely more than most people's annual salary.

I've been playing Dofus lately also (http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/) - it has a substantial free area (though it tends to be full of immature brats), and is quite suitable for people up to around level 30/40. Only about a 50mb download that runs a flash client.

I actually liked the Robot. Especially when he blew up . I remember in grade 8 ICT when we were learning touch typing and the teacher would stand up the front going "a,a,a,a,d,d,d,d..." whilst walking around the room, half of us would be so bored we'd continually right click the office assistant and animate it.I have to admit - the smirk was rather annoying, and when he says "Oh I think you're trying to do *letter*". Clippit was the worse of them all.

I try to read all posts if the topic is within two pages. If any more usually I read the first few posts and then the latest few (and usually I can gather where the topic is headed) - sometimes when it seems really out of whack I go back and read the whole thing.What peeves me is when people take little notice of previous posts and go totally off topic >.<

Avalon, coz it's ice cool - I rather like the render and icy effect.

Ok, I'll take your word for it TF. SM, we'll have to get in touch and work out something

Geez Avalon, took a while was wondering why you hadn't applied a LOOONG time ago. I'm pretty sure most of the guys would agree that you deserve to be in the crew

Impossible. It has only just been announced, so I believe it's still in early/mid development stages. Anyway, I agree with catfish... looks like EA is just milking the cashcow as much as possible, BF2 was apparantly extremely buggy.

Yep, Wikipedia is great. It provides information on so many topics, many even which are not covered in conventional encyclopaedias. Of course there may be some inaccuracies, though even with a growing user base, theoretically, more people should be able to spot the increasing number of edit errors. I use it, but usually double check information on it from another source. I find most of the articles give a good general overview of a topic and allow you to research further into it with some main ideas.

Why is it whenever I attempt to play there's a hoarde of 11/12 yr/olds who talk in "txt" and tend to be really annoying? I know ALL my of my 12 year old cousins play it (and were trying to persuade me to as well). I dunno, the community tends to be very hostile and the game in itself isn't that great (in my opinion 1/3 of the fun of an MMORPG is the people you play with).

Yeah, as others have said the 64bit Processors are fine, even if you have the slowest one . The Socket 939's are about to be superseeded by AM2 within a few months anyway. This new socket will be able to use DDR2 (which is faster and slightly cheaper than DDR) RAM, and while initially won't provide much benefit, will probably in the long run develop into faster memory speeds.Wait until AM2 comes out, and if you still want a socket 939 X2 CPU then go for it, as it should be cheaper by then :)Oh, and yes I do believe I've read that say a single core chip of the same clock speed as a dual core, run faster (the single that is). So, unless it's necessary you have a better video editing processor immediately I would definitely say wait.

*Praise to Johnny* I agree 100%! It's so freaking true I could almost kiss you! (ok ok maybe not that far). I especially think the ones many people forget (5 and 7) are a rather important step from being a noob to being somewhat decent.I've tried to tell so many people - you have to learn to have an eye for it - you explained it well Johnny. Experimentation also.. yes!! I'm not an exceptionally good designer but I know that for me to be satisfied with a sig it usually has a LOT of trial and error in terms of brushing, then undo, brush again, etc etc. Friends have asked how I make sigs - and there's not much I can tell them because there's no real set rules, rather a lot of just trying things out.

Yeah, it looks like they're going to use the new DirectX 10 for it. I believe GameSpot has an article outlining the details of DX10 - it looks promising for sure. I can't wait to see the release of Vista with the dedicated DX10 games, and the nVidia 8 series