Ben Zwycky

My prayers are with you at this difficult time.

so, is the 7th acceptable?

That old problem of human evil. There have always been people who regarded themselves as gods, and those who behave as if they did, believing they can get away with (almost) anything to achieve their goals, though apparently this belief has become more widespread lately, especially in Western countries. This is a philosophical issue rather than a technological one. As far as I can see the current decline in morality has several roots (this is not intended as a complete list): 1. The loss of accountability. With the loss of belief in an afterlife, individualism replacing community spirit and the weakening of family ties, there is a feeling that we will not be ultimately held accountable for our actions and don't have to explain our motives to anyone, so whatever we can get away with is OK. 2. The loss of responsibility. With determinism coming to the fore, you have no free will of your own, you're not to blame for the decisions you make, they're all a result of your situation, conditions are the fault of society, society is the fault of conditions and round and round the circle of blame we go. A great example of this is the following extract from one of my favourite websites: quote: Consider the old cartoon of the 5th grader, who has just presented a school report card of all F's to his dad, who is sitting in the favorite easy chair. The father has looked sternly at the kid, and the kid has asked the important causal question: "Well, Dad, what do you think? Was it ENVIRONMENT, or HEREDITY?" The kid has won the day...if the dad says "ENVIRONMENT", then the parents are to blame...if the dad says "HEREDITY", then the parents are to blame likewise...UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES is the kid a 'fault-center'. taken from here In this system, you can always find an excuse after the fact and elude justice even when you do get caught, so anything goes, as long as you can find a good lawyer if the worst happens. 3. The loss of human dignity. People are no longer noble and valuable creations, they are just another animal that happened to win the evolutionary lottery, and have no inherent special value. When the vast majority of our relationships are purely economical, we start to only value people for what they can do for us, we don't take their point of view into consideration and have very little idea (or care) how our decisions impact others. I'm sure that none of us has any idea how much good or harm we have done in our lives through unintentional (and intentional) words or acts, especially when everything is so multiplied in our technological age. 4. The lack of an absolute moral reference point and bad examples all around us. 'Everybody does it, why should I be any different?' is a very difficult argument to counter if you have nothing higher to aim for. All of the above roots have the same philosophical source, that I don't think I need to spell out. These are not the source of evil, they are factors that counteract it and their absence leads to the general decline in standards and expectation of behaviour that we see today, though this process is reversible both individually and at the community level. This the kind of discussion you were after?

awesome performance on that one.

Merry Christmas to you all!

AVG antivirus Free edition is also very good and free.

From my point of view, there seems to be an assumption within the question that may not be justified, that technological progress is inherently a problem, or that it changes the fundamental moral issues that we face, it doesn't. Let me give a few examples: 1. A guy finds a sturdy long stick in the woods. There are several things he can do with it, for example: He can use it as a tent pole to provide shelter for himself and his family He can chop it up for firewood and cook a meal He can whack his unsuspecting neighbour over the head with it to steal his coat and wallet. 2. Someone buys a new laptop. They can use it to keep track of and manage their household finances, to help them design a new labour-saving device, or co-ordinate relief work during a catastrophe. Alternatively, they can use it to hack into banks or for identity theft, to create new computer viruses or spambots or co-ordinate a series of terrorist attacks. 3. Someone attends a chat forum They can take part in good-natured and informative discussions or hurl insults at random people They can incite other people to hatred or inspire them to improve themselves. IMO, no amount of technological progress will make us 'God', we'll still be people involved in making the same sort of decisions we make now, only in different settings. Technology is an effort multiplier, it enables you to do more, faster, and more effectively, for good or bad- it doesn't make the moral choices for you. In some instances, technology can make some particular moral choices more or less relevant than others, for example "Who gets to eat first?" is mostly not a life-or-death issue in modern America, where there is almost always more than enough food to go round and no-one is in danger of going without, but the basic issues we have to decide remain the same: What am I going to do with my abilities and opportunities? Am I going to be responsible or irresponsible? Am I going to be constructive or destructive?

you have an extra http// in the link there. It should read http://www.3000ad.com/register/profile.php?id=10050 Welcome to the forums!

He sure knows how to take a fall, and seems to be immune to broken glass, but his lack of foresight and planning appear to more than compensate, yes.

Excellent decision on joining Wraith, Devin! I'm sure you'll make a worthy addition to galcom's ranks. I look forward to fighting alongside you

Ah, well, new year it is then. I was hoping the 17th would still be normal enough for people to make. Sunday 7th at 7pm GMT?

so, is the option of this weekend acceptable, or not?

Very nice, makes me want a screen that big

there are a number of fleets eager for new members wanting to get involved in online activities, and have access to servers not visible to the public. Choose carefully and [RP] don't believe a word those Insurgent recruiters tell you [/rp]

That was pretty clear, yes.

Mission outcome: unsuccessful. This time Spectre did not put enough troops in harm's way and were unable to overcome the heavily entrenched Galcom position, and took heavy losses, resulting in an attrition penalty in addition to the damage caused by the match loss. Spectre still move into the Varan region, since the space region was undefended, but the planet remains under Galcom control. It is Wraith Fleet's turn next. Fleet: Wraith Fleet Order: System Supremacy Target Region: Nevuela Proposed times: Sunday 17th December, 7pm GMT or Sunday 31st December 7pm GMT.

In entering the last match, I failed to notice that ISS Fleet should have been subject to an attrition penalty, since each member of their team was killed at least 4 times. The ISS Fleet team rating has been reduced by another 5 points accordingly, there are no other related changes. My apologies for only noticing this now. Looking forward to the next match tomorrow

I had it in my head that I was younger than you, seeing as you've been part of this place so long, but I was wrong, by over 2 years. Such is the problem with assumptions. Have a good one Tac!

that's the starcruiser. Been there since UC, yep quote: assigned to IIS starstation in orbit Titan, I'm honoured that you are basing this game on my home station, but could you correct that little typo, just for me

the Product Info (PC CD-ROM) and Product Info (XB360) links are broken on that page.

quote: Originally posted by Eclipse: whee... downloading now I go run off and don't check the forum for a few days and look what happens Well thats intriguing... looks like the asteroid fields are back in those screenshots.... does this mean debris fields might be coming too? Methinks you haven't been exploring the galaxy enough... Looking nice, SC, can't wait to see them in action.

It varies- Wraith, ISS and the Insurgents are the most active atm (though Wraith is still short of manpower), and are taking part in a test season of a new format of fleet play that may in the future be expanded to include UC players, if there is sufficient interest. here are some after action reports from that. The first post in this thread provides links to the scenarios used in that season As for rank, it works differently in different fleets, since they are structured differently, and is generally not the same as single player, thought Prime fleet comes closest in that respect. ISS and Wraith are respectively espionage and specops entities, though they get involved in a lot of combat as well, so security clearance rather than rank is the main ladder to climb. The Insurgents have a completely different ranking system, I'd best leave it to them to explain how that works. Basically, each fleet has a set of activities it takes part in or recognises as contributing to the fleet as a whole. Taking part in those gains you experience points. The more EP you have, the higher up in rank you go, the bigger responsibilities you have. With Security clearance schemes, in addition to the possibility of extra responsibilities, you are given access to more advanced levels of tactical info and training (think brown belt, black belt, black belt 1st dan etc.) Lessons learned from MP are part of that and we don't want our opponents to know about them, so I can't tell you about those unless you join a galcom fleet and earn the appropriate security clearance.

This match will be another straight ground campaign, this time against Wraith Fleet. It has already been entered into the campaign module. To arms!

OK, after checking with the troops, this coming Sunday is no good, but the following Sunday is fine at that time, i.e. 8pm GMT on Sunday 10th December. Is that acceptable?

We tend to just use IM for chat, or sometimes the lobby. For a quick list, you can look here, though the Earthcom fleet listed there is currently inactive.