adriantc

Well, it is pretty easy... Oil, and I'm sure you will agree with me, will not last forever. And once the oil is over many countries will have a problem with getting funds (for example: Iraq, Saudi Arabia and The United Arab Emirates). So you see, when the oil will run out they will have 2 options: find something new to do or starve, because in the desert there is not much you can do... And I told you that my examples Saudi Arabia and The United Arab Emirates have found something to do: turism. They took the american example and make money out of nothing (in our case from sand.... btw do you know they have a sand based theme park ). But you can't do much turism in a country where people would kill themselves in the name of religion. And the conclusion is that they will have to adapt. I haven't said I disliked muslims because they are muslims, I dislike the fact that religion blinds them. I even have a few muslim friends, but they are all not traditional muslims. They don't eat pig not because they religion doesn't permit them, but because they simply don't like it. And they also drink beer and wine. That is what I like... some free spirits who think for themselves what is good and what is wrong, not what someone tells them. I have seen last month the way 1000 people died at Mecca in the name of religion. That is what I dislike, faith without reason. Once again I do not dislike muslims for the fact that they are muslims I dislike the fact that they are not open to new, that they are fundamentalists.

The New SurfManiac.Trap17.com Well I have relaunched my website a week ago because I have setup a totaly new layout. I have managed to get the member base to over 60. I think the new layout looks much more professional. So what do you think? Please feel free to criticize my website as much as you want. Every "I don't like that..." or "It should be like that..." is very helpfull. 10x, PS: Feel free to signup if you want and check out the Member's Section...

What I was trying to point out is that there must be a balance in everything. Because even if you have a very very high spiritual life once the oil is over they will have a very very big problem with getting money (=food). So very rich countries have realized that and are now turning their eyes to turism (it's not much you can in a desert like landscape except turism). The best example are Saudi Arabia and The United Arab Emirates. For them oil is going to be over very soon and turism is the way of the future. But how would go in Iraq to get kidnapped or shot. Once the americans withdraw and once the oil will be over they will have a very big problem on their hands and if they want to survive they will have to open up to the West or starve. In nature a species that doesn't adapt to a change in its enviroment is going extinct... About these traditions I have a very good example from my country. Here in Romania we have a problem with the gipsy minority. Not only that they have a stupid habit of proclaming themselfs 'kings' over the rest of the minority (yeah... someone sais 'I should be king over the gipsys' and over the night he gets a 3kg gold crown and a 100 kg gold throne... and yeah it is in the habit to have the biggest cars - with no usefulness, biggest house - with the most ugly design, biggest jewls - all just because they want to show that they are better then the rest... in 3 words they would be the definiton of unefficiency). That wouldn't be such a big problem, but in their tradition when a girl gets merried she has to be sold (just like a piece of furniture).... give me 30.000$ and I'll give you my daughter. That is not too bad, but the big problem develops now. Since it has been bought by the bridegroom's parents, the bridegroom has to test his wife's skill in bed and since she is anywhere between 10-11 years old (and beeing mother at 12 years old is nothing spectacular for gipsys) and 18 years. Not only we have a moral problem with their tradition but we also have a legal one. So you see ... you can't cover everything in the name of religion and traditions. And that is exactly what the terrorists are doing!

That is exactly what I wanted to point out. You see, both civilizations are in the wrong place. One dowsn't have a spiritual life (I do not mean only God, I mean spiritual in a more general way), while the other has a too spiritual life and they loose contact with the real world... Isn't that the oposite... One has too little the other has too much??? Well I didn't say religion is the last on the list, but these days people have other problems then spending Sundays in church. There are people who still do that, but they are old folks, the young do that anymore. And I do not blame them, since I am myself a men of science rather then of faith... Returning to the subject... Could you give me examples of decisions based on religion? Because I have a lot of "decisions based off religion". Bush still declares war whenever he wants, he still sends others to die in this pointless was against terrorism... The famous "American Dream" includes money in a much bigger way then it includes God. I'm not saying that the american way is bad, it is (as I already said) the price of progress. PS: I have seen something really stupid on TV today. With the occasion of a special day for muslims (sorry, but I forgot the name) there were a huge number (1000's) of people hitting themselfs with a stick which has some metal pieces at the end. And they just kept hitting their own backs with it until they were covered in blood. It is a tradition... but that is what I meant when I said that this religion should be reformed. This kind of stuff is not normal since we are in the year 2006. Maybe around 1400s it was a normal thing, but now it seems very cruel. They are free to do whatever they like and we have to respect that, but they should know better then that... I hope that some day they will understand that

Has anyone heard about that theory that AIDS what made in a laboratory, because it is very resistent and can adapt to drugs very very fast. And if it were made in a laboratory don't you nthink they would have made a cure for it. Sure the theory sounds far fetched, but it may have a grain of truth in it.

I'm sure it isn't such a big breakthrough... First of all because the actual cure for AIDS would really burn the pockets of the big drugs companies. Just think how many dolars every sick person spends just to keep him alive for another year. Then just add five or six zeros and you will see how good is AIDS for the one who makes the drugs. They wouldn't make much money if you could take a pill and you wouldn't have to worry about AIDS for the rest of your life.It is much like oil. Everybody sais we depend to much on oil and everybody knows that in a few years there will be no oil but there isn't much will to find alternative source of power. Just because the world economy depends on oil in such a way that if you control the oil you basicly control the world. Not to mention the billions of dollars generated by the oil industry...Returning to the problem of AIDS I can't mention the fact that I have heard that myth that says that a lot of rich people that had AIDS got (somehow) cured over the night. So there is that conspiracy theory that sais that the guverment has the cure for AIDS but it doesn't want to release it... Stupid as it may seem it could be true... Do you think that if someone in a goverment research facility would find something to end world hunger, that thing would be really released to the public. Of course not! Same thing with the AIDS cure... do you really think we are so stupid that in yaers and years of research we couldn't find a cure. There is no interest in finding one!

It's pretty simple what I am saying. Western civilizations don't have God as their main way of life. We have money, we have economy. I said money is the exact oposite of faith. And money is the base of the capitalistic world we live in. And living only for the money, for what YOU can do with it is really bad. The fact that the Eastern world is so agains the cartoons only shows the gap between the civilizations. If a newspaper would have published some pictures with Moses (for example) nobody would have really cared (maybe a small amount of people...only the very religios ones). But in the east you can the scale of the problem... people die for a cartoon... that is not good at all. I'm not saying that the cartoons are nothing, but it sure (for any point of view) it's something worth do die for. And that it what passion in religion leads to... not only to terrorists...

Well first of all I haven't compared them to the cavemen. I only said that we should not expect the divine intervention sometime soon, because wars still happen, earthquakes still happen... people still die. Religion is hope and hope is good. It helps us in the worst days. But to make religion the base of your life it is just madness. We have to live in the real world and deal with the real world problems like pointless wars, hunger, etc.And yes there are aspects in these un-reformed religions that are good. Some should be learned... but once again, building your existance on one belive that may or may not be true is not good. Because this kind of passion for religion can build monsters... why would someone blow himself up in the name of religion... that,. in my opinion, is the power of faith without knowlege I do not agree with you on the fact that western civilizations have let go of that strong connection with God. Simply because I'm asking "What if there is no God?" it is proof that western civilizations have have let go of that strong connection with God. I haven't seen in my life a muslim wondering if his God really exists. Isn't that blind faith. Faith without any kind of proof??? Even the fact that the West is based on money supports that. Money means something you can see and touch, it is the opposite of religion. Money takes people in the opposite direction of where religion takes us. Money makes us selfish, makes us forget who we were and where we came from. And maybe that is why sometimes a little religion is better. But that is, in my opinion, the price of progress...

I do not like the muslim religion because, as someone said in a blog, it isn't reformed. There was a time when christians where burned just for having a different point of view. But that time has passed. The influence of the church (and religion) in a modern society is very low compared to that time when the church (and religion) ruled everything. Times have changed... western civilizations fought many wars, 2 of them world wars, built empires that, in time, collapsed. But after every such experience the western civilizations learned and prospered, building what we have today... freedom! We can talk about whatever we want without beeing afraid of getting punished... Muslim religion, in my opinion, hasn't changed much since the crusades. I won't put a gun in the hand of someone who is driven by blind faith in something. Faith blinds reason, the only thing that makes the difference between animals and humans...Religion is a very effective political weapon. It has been proven over and over again in history.... Religion is good, don't get me wrong...it gives people hope and a reason to live, but there is more to life then waiting for a presumed God. That is the main difference... Western civilizations have let go that strong connection with God, built empires based on material stuff, money and blood, while the Eastern civilizations refuse to let go, refuse to see the posibility that we may be alone, and that there is no one watching us, refuse to connect to the real world. We make our own destiny... As I see it, for something (a human, an animal or a human civilization) to survive it must adapt. Times have changed. We have conquered space, we are a lot smarter then the cave men waiting for God to give him food. We know better...And that is the reason the newspaper should have published that images... we claim to be better, to have more freedom. But if we have a better civilization shouldn't we have more respect for the ones that don't share our point of view. Isn't the right to belive into whatever you want written in the human rights. Just because they have a 14 century point of view doesn't mean they are they are any less human then us.So, in my opinion, even if I do not agree with the muslim blind faith in God, I strongly disagree with the cartoons. The newspaper should have stoped the photos from beeing printed. We must have respect for the people that are different. Isn't that like the most important thing in our beloved democracy - equality. So are we really that much better if we can't see the big picture?

Well as far as I know nvidia's SLI is better then ATI's solution ... Crossfire. At least on the leatest motherboards for one reason... Crossfire spits the 16x PCI-e into 2 8x PCI-e, while the second generation of SLI makes both video cards work at 16x improving the speed with ~2% (which is very liitle in my opinion). It is also known that AMD is much beter for gaming, while Intel is better for office software. Not to mention then fact that AMD is cheaper...

You are very true! History is made by the victors. In every american movie they show nazy soldiers as evil in person. Of course Hitler and his war dogs were above madmen, they were simply evil. But I am sure that the common soldier had a family waiting at home and they were not the evil figures shown in every movie. Niccolo Machiavelli once wrote "The end justifies the means". Of course that is very true and valid if we look from the american perspective over the atomic bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But it seems the americans haven't learned a thing from that experience. The capitalism made them extremly selfish... they only think about themself. War in Iraq still makes a lot of civilian victims... it is even worse when we think that the war in Iraq is a war fought not for some principal, but for the black gold, the oil. The war on terror is just a smokescreen for the real war. The power in the world is extremly unbalanced... The UE or any other country cannot match military or economicaly the USA. In other words the USA do whatever they want in the world without anyone beeing able to complain. The perfect example is the war in Iraq... some oposed but no one could have done a thing. This "I rule the world" perspective makes way for small countries like Iran to fight back in their own stupid way. Balance is everything and there is none in the world now. A very few americans will be really against the atomic bombings. As I see it the First and The Second World made America what it is today, the biggest power in the world... The bankrupcy of Europe was a blessing for the American economy... many countries ready to buy a lot of stuff for the right amount of money. So the atomic bombings were like cheating in a video game. You will end the game but you will never fell victorious. Once again "The end justifies the means" if you are on the right side of the war...

I have the same problem with this kind of stupid kids. I have just bought a pair of ice skates as my christmas present and despite the fact that I'm not a very outdoor person I've decided to try them out.I'm not very good skater, but since I also have a pair of normal skates I can (pretty much) stand on my own two feet. But it seems there is a general rule for kids. The younger they are the more "balls" they have... ... when the little thing hits you with twice your speed your pretty much doomed to hit the ice. Just like that I had an impact with a kid... what really annoyed me was that the kid didn't fell, but I did and even managed to hit another skater on my way down. I simply hate those kids... Not to mention the fact that you have to be very focused not to hit them... if that happens no matter what it is your fault. And if it happens to be with his parents it is going to get ugly... Stupid kids... I sure didn't have such big "balls" when I was their age

Well I don't belive the bible and I have serious doubts that there is someone watching us. Nevertheless I strongly disagree to gay marriage and gay relationships for that matter. Why? Because in my opinion homosexuals are not normal; in the animal world this kind of individuals are eliminated by natural selection, a species cannot evolve if there are homosexual individuals ... if everyone is going to be gay what will menkind do if there is no one to reproduce in the "old fashion". I have seen a gay parade once and it was really horrible. I mean we all had problems with girls sometimes, but I can't really imagine myself .... god ... gay

morosophos I totaly agree with your thinking. I also think Marx is right... as I see it socialism is good, even communism is good (without the secret service, rationalization of food and with a free press... and more important without the cult of personality of the leaders). In other words I like 2 things from the communists:1. people where afraid of the long hand of the law; nowadays in my country you have to watch your back everytime you get outdoor2. the fact that there where no private property; I can't remember now, but there was a philosopher in the antiquity that said that private property is the root of all evilStill I cannot understand why there is nobody interested in the good of the people and not at the good of their own. Or maybe such people never get to power...

Well I have a ASUS A8N-E motherboard and it works great. I have it since september and I had no problem with it. I don't know why you are saying that ASUS have a reliability issue, but I must say I am very happy with my computer. You should probably check out the ASUS forum support since they do a very nice job of helping users almoust in real time.

I was and I still am against the war in Iraq and against this so called War Agains Terrorism. But if the United States attack Iran under the supervision of the UN (supervision should be read as .... at the UN decision... not like they did in Iraq: the world said no and Bush couldn't care less) I don't think it would be a problem. I don't have anything with muslims (i know quite a few personaly and they are great people ... still can't understand why they don't eat pig meat which is really great) but many of them have this blind faith in religion. Us, christians also had this blind faith in religion, but that part of the history was called Dark Ages and pretty much has ended. A nuclear bomb in the hands of a group of people that still have a 14 century perception over the world is a VERY BAD thing.On the other hand if the USA go ahead and attack Iran without a UN resolution on this matter... nothing good can come out of it. In my opinion a lot of tension has grown into the world. This small wars, like the war in Iraq are just the small clouds of a storm. In my opinion we will have another world war this century. Yes... (as I said in another thread) history has a nasty habbit of repeating itself and men's stupidity also has a bad habbit of repeating itself (see chapter: americans electing Bush for the second time) . I'm not saying that the doomsday is near, only that all the tension in the world will be released some way or another. Violence, in my opinion, is written in the genetic fingerprint of menkind...

I have a feeling (to be read: I sure that) this first security patch is going to be only the beginning of a very very very long patches... We all know how Microsoft works... For you to understand what I mean remember the moments after you install a fresh copy of Windows XP and you start downloading 50mb of security patches. If this is the case (and I'm pretty sure it is) Vista is going to be another typical software (OS) from Microsoft.The future doesn't look too pink....

Well I wasn't using PowerDVD... I was using Media Player. So I took your advice downloaded and installed PowerDVD 6 and it works great now... 6 beautiful channels. Of course it only works as it should in PowerDVD.Thanx for your help. I greatly apreciate it!

Nope still doesn't work. I mean it works only when testing it with nvidia mixer, I hear every channel laud and clear including the subwoofer. If I start a movie (dvd 5.1 channels) the subwoofer goes quite. I have Windows XP SP2 and the latest drivers from nvidia (actually tried 2 versions of nvidia drivers).So since I can hear the subwoofer in nvidia driver tests I think the problem is hardware related.

I have a 5.1 Sound System. It works great in 2 channels but when I switch to 5.1 the subwoofer ain't working. My motherboard has a nvidia 4 ultra chipset so it supports 5.1 configuration. Also in nvidia mixer when I use sound test everything is great and I can hear the subwooofer working as is should. But when I want to watch a movie or listen to music the subwoofer is as good as dead. Can somebody help me?

After a log search on the internet and a lot more annoyment I finaly realised what the problem was: nVIDIA Active Armour. The "great" hardware firewall makes his job even better then expected and not only stops hackers, spyware and unwanted stuff but it even stops a lot of packages. This really becomes a problem when you download stuff since it makes any file downloaded corrupted. Thanks nVIDIA for you great marketing solution!

I have a friend that just told me he didn't power off his PC for over 2 months. He hasn't even restarted it for over a week. I'm sure it kills you electricity bill (and electricy is not cheap at all), but I also heard that powering up and down isn't good at all since the hardware must get thru the shock of powering up. They say that since most of the hardware is based on silicon it's beeing destroyed every time electricity passes thru it... in other words every time when, lets say' the CPU, starts from 0v (when shut down) to 1.4v or more.On the other hand fans do have a very short life span, not to mention the hard-drive and other components...By the way... I'm using torrents a lot and I want to leave my computer on every night. What would be the best power managment option for me (my computer doesn't kill my electtricity bill... the electricity bill kills me and my computer )

Well I have many embarrasing moments in my life. It's pretty hard to choose the only one... :DI will tell you one funny (and kind of scary story) of my godfathers kid. When I was little I was so scared that I would fall into the toilet. So scared that everytime I stood on the toilet I used to hang on to something. Yeah...you would think that's stupid until I heard this story... My godfathers kid is 7 years old and belive it or not he managed to fall into the toilet. But not your ordonary toilet! You know the toilets from the countryside where they don't have sewerage and they make a huge hole under the toilet where they deposit "the things" (of course if you live in the west you probably haven't seen toilets like this). So the hole was like 3 m deep (9 feet) and the boy was like 1,2 m. He could have drown into you know what. Well he managed to hang on to something until someone found him. They washed him 3 days until they could remove the smell. That is really embarrasing , but scary because he could have died. This proves one thing... never trust your toilet

That is great! I wonder what are they going to do eith the probe after it completes its mission. I've seen a few days ago on Discovery Channel a documentary about a mission to the comet Eros and after the mission was succesful they managed to land the probe even if it wasn't designed to land. They didn't land it actualy... it was more of a crash landing . But it was first time something landed on a comet.By the way, does anyone have any ideea what happened with those probes NASA sent ot Mars... Pathfinder and Spirit. Did they return (where they suppose to return?!?). Did they discover any evidence of water (life) on Mars?

It's the third day of Christmas and I just came back from the country-side. I'm going there every x-mas and I have a lot of fun. I have a pretty large family specially from my dad's side and it's great when some part of it comes together for xmas.After a few drinks (don't tell me you never drank wine or anything traditional!) they start remembering all kinds of super funny moments from their past. I've heard some of them over and over...at least 10 times... but every year they come up with at least 5 new ones. Yesterday, when I was coming home I started thinking what I am going to tell my kids... I don't have at least 10 stories as fun as theirs... Well the world has changed, they didn't have computers or much TV, they lived under the communists ... but they had a lot of fun when they where my age. My best friend is my computer, what should I tell my kinds... that I had some memorable moments using DOS? ... Should this be the sacrifice of progress? What do you think?