Kevin Trotter

Just finished House Corrino, the last of the Dune prequels. Did a good job setting the table for the Dune series. (I just passed them on to the Grayfox, who I might add is visting my fair city. He waxed my ass twice in Battletech at Dave and Busters.) Currently reading Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. It talks about how the fast food industry has attacked and weakened american culture. Good but scary book. Have also started the Sin Killer by Larry McMurtry who wrote the Lonesome Dove series. Great book. Haven't even started my summer reading list yet!

Ditto Jag, spent day at the amusment park (Kennywood Park) hanging out with my family. Leave it to Jag to point out what is really important.Good to hear from you again big guy!

Well this could be the most short lived craze since the Will Mega era on CBS'S Big Brother. Lil'Mark as he is now known, reportedly cracked under pressure and bricked his first four shots on the Leno show according to PTI's Tony Kornhieser. "the kid choked" stated Kornhieser on last nights PTI broadcast. No news on whether his contract will be revoked (chuckle)

Me too, cept this was for real newbie!

Nuff said! And SC...LAY OFF!!! yer scarin me man, I don't thing we really disagree on this thing I guess seeing what MAY be exploitation is a hotbutton for me and maybe i's over reacting...but be gentle for cryin out loud! I'm 250lbs of sensitivity. Really I am.

Boy you are a tough old bird, yes SC I agree the kid may have wanted to play ball, but I doubt he asked to get signed to a conrtact to do it. Perhaps this kids parents are wise enough not to let thier kid be exploited but money corrupts and a million dollars corrupts absolutely. And while my kid OFTEN wants to do things (dive of the back of the sofa, dry her dolls hair in the microwave,etc..) it's my job to prevent her from doing things they she may not know are harmful. Again it is up to the parent to make decisions in the kids best interest, not thier own.

Well SC to your question, the difference is when the parents decisions are guided by their own self interest and not the interest of the child. If my three year old wants to model or play the flute or whatever, I support that. I get a little leery when the motivation comes from the parent and they gain financially from it. My daughter is very cute and both my wife and I hav been approached about modeling by photographers and such (professionals who were doing our family portrait) and we both agreed that was out of the question. We didnt feel she would benefit and that was the motivation. I guess each parent has to make the decision they best can live with. It is the reason why if I am someday blessed witha son, I will be vigalant in not pushing him to fulfill my expectations via sports unless he is interested. A fine line I know but one I am willing to walk.

Yes Fox you are quite mad, but that's beside the point. I am fed up with the pimping of american children in any way shape or fashion. That includes these ghastly reality shows that feature children and thier maniacal parents egging them on to be "a star" In my line of work I see what happens when children are not allowed to actually "be" children and it ain't pretty. The football player Todd Marinovich comes to mind. He was a quarterback who was raised by his father to be an elite football star from the earliest age. Before middle school he was on special diets, lifted weights, watched film and was force fed a steady diet of football. He was a successful high school and college player but burnt out completely as the QB of the LA Raiders. Last I heard he was getting therapy and living on a beach in Malibu. He doesnt speak to his father anymore . His mother divorced his father after he planned a repeat performance on a younger sibling. All this points to a larger problem, the loss of culture , character and the worship of consumerism. We have become so shaped by what we see on the idiot box it's ridiculous. this incident is just more evidence of the coming fall of the American Empire.

I havent seen this film yet but I read about it in Cinescape magazine when it was in production. I think I will heretofore refer to Dimension as the studio where films go to die. I posted on the Dimension film "Below" as being one the best suspense horror films of last year and it too died at the box office. They make these high quality films and then let them spoil on the vine and we get innundated with marketing for stinkers like "Ghost Ship" and the like. Go figure.

Sci-fi.com is reporting a go on this project.Please refer to the opening thread on this topic for a mind blowing clip that should have all you fanboys salivating! The Budget is 50 million with Star Wars effects wizzard Doug Chiang directing.

Applied patch as directed and guess what? it stopped crashing to the desk top! Now I get the BSOD or a freeze neccessitating a hard reset.I know when I'm beaten. Who wants to spend hours trying to get a game so its playable when you could be playing another more stable game instead? Not me..wait I'm sensing something.."buy splinter cell...now" I must be psychic.

It's no fluke, though 100 posts about a title that most have sold thousands is probably not a big deal for Rockstar. Alas, I bought my copy from Kmart who has a no return policy for games and software so I'm stuck like chuck. Maybe I can sell it on Ebay.

That Derek, what a sneak! Letting us find out about it like this! I take umbrage! Oh yeah I almost forgot, thanks!

I have waited so patiently for this game, took off for my local retailer at luchtime to get my grubby little hands on it. Installing the game and watching the intro I see just how deep this thing is. The voice talent reads like an "A-" list theatrical feature. (Ray Liotta, Tom Sizemore, Gary Busey, Jenna Jameson {Yowza!}). My hands sweat in anticipation, I start my game and....It locks, it freezes, the sound advances but the video is frozen, it crashes to the desk top a total of 32 times until at 3:30 this morning after updating sound and video drivers and adding DX 9.0aI give up so I can get my three hours of sleep before work. My PC gaffes are legend around here so I log on to GTA.com forums only to read about 90 posts with almost identical problems. This occurred with a myriad of rig setups. nVidia and ATI cards, P4 and AMD processors and sound cards to numerous to name. It is clear that if it ever gets running this game will rock so hard, but according to some of the post I read on their forum some of these same issues occurred with GTA3. I can only guess how difficult developing games can be, but it is frustrating to spend 50 bucks on a game that requires a programming degree to play properly. I had the same problem with BC300ad but lacked the knowledge I have now and my friends on the forum handheld me till I got it right. Well I'm wiser now but still not enough to get this disaster running for more than ten minutes. A moment of silence please...to the fifty bones that just flew out my window. i knew I should have gotten that copy of "Splinter Cell"on sale for 39.99 instead.

I am so stoked! I have been practicing on weekends as this game has a pretty steep learning curve for profeciency. I am not at all unhappy about having spent the money on this game!

I'm certainly no expert but the rationale is that if the software is free, the only way developers make money is to charge for tech support of those products. That is what the developers of GNU and those geniuses at Red Hat were trying to explain in the film.I f your only source of income is tech support my guess is they would have to provide it in a manner that induced people to spend money on it. SC, do you know anything about this?

Roger that.

I saw an interesting film on IFC (That's the Independent Film Channel for the dish impaired) Called Revolutionary OS, it was about the battle between Proprietary software designers and the free software designers. Very good film with interveiws and the history of the development of Linux, Gnu etc.. As a computer semi literate I learned a lot about how these OS's work as well as why Microsofts tech support sucks so badly. (IMO)It doesn't exactly demonize Bill Gates but it didi an adequate job explaining his " contribution" to the free software movement. I recommend this film to anyone interested in how this industry evolved

quote:Dear Lord make it stop.. Posted by SC Oh quit it SC you know you will end up getting your grubby little hands on one of them. Just let us poor folks running low end cards (GeForce 3Ti 128) know what we are missing

I really hope they don't screw this up. I'm hopeful my few gaming buddies with PS2's and Gamecubes will go out and buy the PC version and quit hoggin my couch to play my X-Box. I have never played Quake or Doom so I can't say Halo is the best FPS ever, but it's certainly the best I've ever played.Me myself I'll just wait for Halo2 (release date Sept 17th 2003) and skip the PC version.

Ask and you shall receive. A Fantastic Four movie is in the works as we speak. Studio exec's didn't like the first draft of the script and sent it back. I read in JoBlow.com that the director went out of his way to say that despite rumors, George Clooney and Renee Zellwegger have not been cast as Reed and Sue Richards. (SC forgive me I tried $ilk's instructiuons and still couldn't create a proper link.)

Lighten up people! Nova's right and I should know, I've been a console guy since the Odyssey. Even Babe Ruth didn't hit a homer every time at bat. EA can't be expected to pour the same resources and creative teams into every game. Besides BF1942 and MOH:Allied Assault are both great games. If memory serves correctly MOH started off as a console game. Lets give EA a chance. Forever Light, I'm sorry your particular favorite game wasn't handled well, but it's just one title. Lets see if they have groovy new stuff after E3.

Isn't that the third sign of the coming apocolypse? That is the most dreadful idea since the drive in funeral home.

Mindfever,IMO this would be a good place for you to stop. Enjoy the game and perhaps wait awhile before drawing any conclusions regarding Derek's character. I'm not suggesting you have to think like everyone else does, but I can say that these forums are not fertile ground for changing my opnions on Derek Smart. I have read enough of his posts to form an opinion on whether or not I would like him if we ever met( I would and do) and frankly he is last person to curry favor. Translation: take him as he is cause he can live without you. Enjoy the game and welcome to the forums, I hope to see more of you.

It's nice to know I can always count on Jag to put me in my place