Darkling

quote:Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr: ...I have a question. uhm, what exactly do you folks do with all this money? [*]Buy a crapload of OTS weapons to smash enemy bases. [*]Buy a ton of Iridium to be able to cloak at any time (especially when taking over stations) [*]Buy enough plutonium to be able to keep the shields at max at all times. [*]Buy enough Radine to be able to ride around the galaxy without running out of gas. [*]Upgrade the Shields, Reactor, Engine and Armor to the best possible [*]Have cash on standby to buy replacement equipment or assets in case they get damaged.

quote:Originally posted by Scrivener: Funny... but last I checked the 360 didn't even have an HDDVD drive let alone plans for BluRay support, so I don't know why Gates is so mad. He's the one that sided with the losing/inferior format (especially when running against an actual movie studio/home theatre manufacturer). Besides, technological obsolescence is just a reality of pushing your product out early. The reason he's so mad is the same reason that I'm mad. Blue Ray's Cryptography doesn't allow for Managed copying of infomration. It completly blocks any attempts at streaming, so if the Xbox 360 wanted to stream the movie from a PC it can't. Right now, I use a program on my computer to make backups of my DVD's. I have children in my house that tend to scratch them and sometimes they get ruined, so I make a backup, put the original in my office and if they destroy one of them, I could always make another backup. (this scenario has played out several times in the past couple of years). At any rate, one of the standards that was supposed to be included in the next gen of DVD's was the ability to make one or two backup copies, so that poeple wouldn't be left high and dry if their DVD's where ruined, and now they've backed away from that to using a peice of software that blocks this, backed up by hardware on all the playback devices. This is one war, that we should be on Gates side on.

quote:Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr: Well, the answer SHOULD be obvious. WIN98 uses far less resources than WinXP. So, that leaves more resources for the game. Yeah, went back to Win95 Compatibility mode, that seems to work best. At any rate, I told my cousin about it, but it didn't work so well with him, probably becuase he only has 256Megs RAM and I have a Gig. From what I understand about Compatibility mode, WindowsXP sets up a protected session that doesn't share memory with the other apps, so I guess for it to work as well as it does on my system you need a lot of memory. At any rate I was playing all day yesterday, took over 4 stations, only once had a ctd, when some intruders were on board, other than that, no slowdowns, even when going down to the planet surfaces.

quote:Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr: you are not supposed to be running ANY third party apps when running the game. Its bad enough that it is already a resource hog.I thought X-Fire was supported to run with the game? or is that only in MP? At any rate, I switched it to Win98 Compatibility mode and the game has never run better. I Transported down to an enemy base with a bunch of Marines and MAN was that fun!

I run WinXP and I've noticed that sometimes when I have Xfire running, I get a CTD in UCAWA, so I figured I would try running the game in Win95 Compatibility mode (to give it better memory protection). The first thing that I noticed is that when I go down to the planets, the response times are MUCH better and I don't get the usual lag that I've been getting when I go down to the surface. I was wondering if anyone else has tried this and what results you're getting. Not really a Tech support thread, so I'm not sure if this is the right spot for this.

quote:Originally posted by Eclipse: Hmmm... this has promise... Now if we can get SC to support this I can have all of my CC's systems up on separate monitors he won't even support a dual monitor, so you can forget that one.

I noticed that info about BCM was missing from the Wikipedia, so I decided to add it in there, hope you don't mind.

Reporting in

quote:Originally posted by nomad: Raw salary isn't sufficient to characterize the living standard of a population. To take the same example you used, Spain & the USA, you forgot to take in consideration that these low spanish wages compared to yours have already income taxes (yes, it's already taxed at the source), social security, unemployment and pension deducted. To make a reliable comparison, you should take an average US salary, and deduct the same positions mentioned for spanish salaries. You can't compare apples and oranges. Just how much costs a good health insurance for 1 person in your country ? Let's not even speak about a whole family... So what you're saying is that in Spain if I earn 25K a year, I don't have to pay any income tax? No Social Security Tax? I get to keep the whole thing? As for here in the US, the poor pay Zero income tax, and only have to pay Social Security (7.5%) and Medicare Tax (1.5%). The only other taxes they have to pay is State sales taxes on Non-Food Goods. Basically, in the US, the top 5% of income earners pay almost 50% of all personal income taxes collected and the Middle class pay the other half (Aprox 80%), the rest are considered too poor to pay anything, and if they have kids, usually they get an Earned Income Credit, equivalent to what they AND their employer paid in Social Security and Medicare Taxes (The Employer matches SS & Medicare contributions), so that works out to aprox 18% Tax refund to the working Poor. And as for health insurance, We have the BEST medical facilities ANYWHERE in the world, with the latest technology and World Class doctors. If you look at films like John Q, you would think that Hospitols regularly let people die due to illness, but the truth is that the vast majority of Hospitols in the US are Non-Profit. If I have to go to the hospitol, and they give me some Asparin, they're going to charge me around $50.00 for that asparin (that's each 1, not each bottle) The reason they do this, is so they can pay for the people who can't pay for themselves. Here in the US, you CANNOT refuse care to a patient because of ability to pay. So people like me who CAN pay, have to pay 20 to 30X the normal price of products and services a the Hospitol, so they have the cash to take care of those who can't pay for themselves. It's not a perfect system, but unlike what they show in movies like John Q, you don't see kids dying for lack of medical treatment.

quote:Originally posted by nomad: Well, the day you come with nationwide statistic data from either academic or government institutions, you will gain some credibility. But I know perfectly why you can't support your opinions with epidemiologic and drug studies... Let me give you a perfect example. Poverty Most world organizations classify poverty the following way: Those family's that earn less than half the median income are considered to be living below the poverty line. They don't take things into consideration like affordability, the ability to provide yourself with food, housing, and so on. Take Spain for instance. Real Estate in Spain and the US cost about the same. Quite possibly Rent rates are also about the same. Food costs about the same, fuel is probably higher, if Spain follows the EU Model of taxing fuel to death to pay for social programs. Yet, even though the Cost of Living in Spain is comparable to the US, the average wage is about half the average wage in the US, so in other words, people who are considered Poor, by World Health Organization statistics, are actually Middle Class in Spain. What's worse is that Spain's Government taxes the population at such high rates, that they are left with EVEN LESS. It's for reasons like this, that I don't trust Statistics so much, because they can be manipulated to mean whatever you want them to.

quote:Originally posted by nomad: Allow me to take some distance with your biaised views. I take great care to come with data compiled either by official US organizations like the CDC, or neutral like the ILO. Yet it seems that the opinion of the few doctors you presumably know counts more than entire national statistics. For the record, I also have doctors in my family, yet don't consider their partial view limitied in field and location to bear any national relevance. Well, it's a point of view, but don't pretend to be objective unless you want to fool yourself. Anyhow, rationality doesen't seem to be worth much as soon this implies the slighest clash with any aspect of your convictions. Funny how economic credos are sometimes viewed like a religion... Concerning China and India, I'am afraid you don't see further than the tip of the iceberg. In the mean time, let's quietly wait and watch because at least for the moment, not only don't I see anything falling apart here, but it also seems that people is as reluctant to embrace your professed way of life that they were with the USSR. Something you fail to realize is that money can't buy everything, contrary to what you think. Maybe we should just look at mood tranquilizers, Prozac and sleeping drugs comparative consume. And that's the paradise you're advocating for ? Not only are several Family members and friends Doctors, but also my wife's a pharmacist, so she sees the prescriptions that go out the door all the time. While yes, things like Prozac are huge sellers, the Mood altering drugs are not the majority of what people are buying. So it only stands to reason that if those categories of drugs are a small percentage of what's being sold, then how can that statistic of 85% be true? One thing that I DO know about statistics, is that things are not always what they seem, and usually, you can shape statistics and polls into what you want them to be. Our President is a perfect example, according to all the Polls, he was supposed to lose. Yet, he was re-elected by a nice margin. What happened to those polls and statistics showing that he was going to lose? And by the way, YOUR views are JUST as biased as mine, if not more so. I at least learn from History so I don't repeat the same mistakes again.

quote:Originally posted by nomad: your absolute free market perspective doesen't take into account how far will G8 nations be affected by competition they can't absolutely cope with in terms of labor costs compared to China or India. Labor cost isn't everything. I used to work for Home Depot as an Assistant Store Manager. The guy that basically guided Home Depot from it's inception, Bernie Marcus, decided to step down and let his long time partner (and bean counter), Arthur Blank, run the operation. Arthur felt that us Home Depot Employees were getting paid too much and our raises were just too darned high, it didn't seem to matter that Home Depot was seeing double digit growth for 25 straight quarters, so he implemented his plan. From that point forward, they would pretty much frown upon ANY employee getting more than 25 cents a year. This was almost 10 yrs ago. Within 2 yrs, I had enough and I quit the company, and basically, his plan worked, Home Depot made so much money that over the next couple of years, the stock tripled in price. But then something happened. People started to realize that this wasn't the Home Depot they had come to know and love, what happed to all the knowledgable salespeople (they mostly quit) Why was it so difficult to find someone to help (no one in thier right mind would work for those wages) and so began a steady decline that led the stock price back down in 2003 to where it was in 1998, no more double digit increases. How did this happen? They cut payroll didn't they. Paying someone next to nothing gives you employees that don't care about your company and where it is going. THIS is why the US competes with China Head on, and guess what, we STILL have super low levels of unemployment, much lower than the EU, along with better standards of living. quote:Originally posted by nomad: MEDICAL: On another very overlooked angle, if you compare systems who put great pressure on workers with other ones who are less purely performance-based (we may take again EU and US as example because they are so different), most statistics don't take into account the financial loss caused by stress. Here a few numbers: - Work related stress is at the base of a $300 billion annual loss in the American Economy through sick leave, decrease of productivity, replacement of employees, work accidents, direct medical expenses, assurance expenses and compensations for the employees. These losses surpass by far the sum of the net profit of the first 500 corporations in US. In the EU, the annual loss corresponds to 20 billion €. - Over 95% of the calls that the family doctors receive in US are caused by stress provoked illness and 80% of the illnesses that lead to a stay in a hospital had at their origin stress. In the EU, you may cut this numbers by half. http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/stresswk.html http://www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/i...ne/37/costs.htm http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_socia...jul/141_en.html Surprise Surprise, you quote agency's who's job it is to make sure everyone is "Aware" of stress. Several of my family members are doctors, and they don't see anywhere near the numbers you're talking about. As for the European Rags you quoted, that's all different types of stresses, with Europe's High unemployment rates. quote:Originally posted by nomad: EMPLOYMENT: Effectively, setting an absolute maximum working hours/week spreads jobs among a greater number of employees.Show me ONE country where this actually works! This is one of the reasons that it's so difficult to argue with you Socialists, because even when the evidence is STARING at you right in the face, you won't accept the facts. The US and Japan have some of the LONGEST work hours in the industrialized world and guess what, we also have the LOWEST unemployment rates, that have NOTHING to do with Government Jobs. quote:Originally posted by nomad: ....(that's why you don't really have very poor people in the EU like in other places, and this is were one of your assumptions is incorrect) If you're trying to imply that the US has a lot of poor people, keep in mind that the MAJORITY of the "poor" in the US have an income that is equivalent to Middle Class status in most countries, including many countries that make up the EU. Here in Florida alone, 75% of those classified as "poor", own their own vehicles. In most countries you're not considered Poor if you own a car. The Poor people in the US arn't exacly starving or walking around in Rags. quote:Originally posted by nomad: ... Finally, in many EU member nations, labor laws penalize corporations who lay off employees if the corporation doesen't face financial problems or if the employee did not commit any fault.And this is PRECICELY the reason why you end up with so much unemployment. Companies have to consider LONG and HARD, before Hiring another employee, that they might be "STUCK" with. I've hired literally HUNDREDS of people over the past 15 years, and I can tell you that if I KNEW that It would be nearly impossible to get rid of some of these guys, if things didn't work out, I would not have hired the Majority of them. I gave a LOT of these people a CHANCE, to prove themselves. And sometimes, it worked out, and others I had to let them go because they didn't deliver. This is something countries in the EU pretty much CAN'T do, becasue they're afraid of getting stuck with an unproductive employee.. [/QB]

quote:Originally posted by UnderLord: Firestorm. Why? I guess its just what you like. I like its ability to beat the crap-o out of just about any ship. But i also like the battlecruiser MKIII. The firestorm has 10 (or more?) PTA turrents so beating up FC's is easy. Really its just what ship you like more. i'v tryed diffrent ships but i like the firestorm. Guess because it holds 8 fighters and 4 SC's and a nice load of land vehicles ect. Its just a all around good ship. I love the Firestorm myself, it's what I usually fly, though to be honest, there are several times when I jump in a fighter, just to be in a little more nimble ship.

quote:Originally posted by nomad: The question is why the main root servers shall remain under unique US juridiction when the whole world is nowadays dependent of the net. Most of the world depends on the US for their economy too, does this mean that the US should give control of Visa, Mastercard and American Express, since so much of the world's economy depends on them? As you are so fond of pointing out, we do consume more resources than anyone else, should all of our Manufacturing facilities be turned over to the EU as well, so they can figure out a more "Fair & and Equitable" distribution of resources?

quote:Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr: I'm looking forward to it. Hopefully they've addressed the issues (combat and AI) in X2. If not, I guess I'll be shelving this one too. Big time, that's why mine is gathering dust now.

One of my companies does tech support, and I don't think I've ever had someone call about copy protection ruining their rig.

quote:Originally posted by Grizzle: Hmmm...me thinks a good business to get into right now is that of Digital Distributor. Buy or rent a server farm, sit back and watch the money roll in! Why is it that people always think you can do something and "Sit back and watch the money roll in". I have a friend that maintains online prescription websites and makes 40K a month doing it. Most people think that he "Sits back and watches the money roll in" but in reality what he does is work 12-14 hrs. a day creating reference sites, cloaked sites, articles, anything and everything to keep HIS sites top ranked by the search engines. There is absolutely NOTHING that ANYONE can do, where they can just "sit back and watch the money roll in" because you can be sure that if you've found some "money making secret", within a VERY short period of time, there WILL be swarms of others trying to eat your lunch!

The Republicans attack Gay Marriage about as often as the Democrats attack Christian Beliefs, so I guess that makes us even.

quote:Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr: Actually those numbers are incorrect and I've asked that the article be corrected. Yeah, it was wicked on the big screen. So is it more?!?, let's see, 30 bucks a game, X15K Copies, that's over a Million Bucks!, Not including the Manuals!

Well if you notice, 3000AD doesn't have any banners for a link exchange, but I would be willing to do an Affiliate Banner. I'm looking for Critique though, anything you think can be improved upon, any college students here that can give me some feedback?

BIG departure from the original!

I'm putting together a new website for my Life at Campus Guide, and was wondering if I can get some feedback on the website. I'm thinking of changing the layout to a 1024x768 resolution site, but I'm not sure how many people run at that resolution, I'm told a lot still run at 800x600, however, considering my target audience, I don't think this will be a problem. Right now I have my Graphics guy working on Templates to match School colors, so when people enter the NYU section, it changes to Purple, Tan & Brown, and Blue & White for UNF, ect, ect. But I havn't decided on the Company Colors yet. At any rate, Here's the site, www.lacmag.com

quote:Originally posted by Teknocack Prime: It didn't in the original either. Yeah, this is going to be fantastic. BTW, it's Michelle Forbes, formerly Michelle Roche who is Admiral Cain (simply Commander Cain in the original series), not Nana Visitor. Always did have a thing for both of them. Also, in the original, "Commander" Cain was a guy. Last show was ABSOLUTELY Awesome though, loved the way they did the double decoy, that was just brilliant strategy.

quote:Originally posted by Cmdr Chavik: Plus the philosophical question: If the Cylons want to kill the humans why do they want to be so much like them to the point of getting an ummm "organic" sample of DNA? Keep in mind that Cylons are not Robots, they're Cybernetic Organisms. In other words, they are only part machine.

I grew up in Rhode Island about 10 Blocks from a "Ghetto" Housing project. I remember when we first moved there, I was about 10 years old and one of them (about 17 or so) picked me up and slammed me on the floor for ABSOLUTELY no reason. I guess that was my Welcome Wagon. At any rate, after they burned the place down twice in 5 years and the government replaced everything twice, the government finally wised up the 3rd time it happened and just razed the entire complex. The area is now a nice quite middle class neighborhood. As for all the people that lived there, they were given vouchers to live pretty much anywhere, and when they stopped living together, all of a sudden crimed dropped, unemployment dropped and droves of them came off assistance. Point is, it's NOT a good idea to put a lot of negative, down on thier luck people, and cram them together in one area. It's better to integrate them with the rest of society, so they see how the rest of society lives, and can hopefully learn something from it.