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Father Xmas

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  1. Father Xmas

    Driving.....

    POST-ACTION

    My usual complaint is with drivers who can't pass a semi. They will close on them once just aligned behind them (but in the adjacent lane) they won't pass. Even if the truck is decelerating because it's going up a hill. So now two lanes are blocked.
  2. Father Xmas
    Don't forget that this is a flowchart for one or two dimensional female characters. Don't expect any well developed characters.
  3. Father Xmas

    UI settings?

    POST-ACTION

    Yes you can.

    wdw_save_file
    wdw_load_file

    Set it up for each resolution, wide vs narrow screen and then save the layout to a file. If you start up and the layout isn't right then load up the local layout.
  4. Father Xmas
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Mothers_Love View Post
    Really?, ... Marvels been accused of being short on lots of things - patience, fairness, foresight, but moneys certainly not one of them.
    Besides, all that CGI work, all those models and animation code still exists for them to make use of in a TV series.

    Mark Ruffalo?
    Yes but TV is still a very cost sensitive business, even with major networks. It doesn't take much in terms of ratings to cancel a show with a large budget.

    The thing is when you think about the Hulk there are two trains of thought. One is a revamp version of the 70s TV Hulk. He gets mad, bust through walls, stops cars, toss a few thugs of the week, save the girl/farm/child of the week. Then there's the comic book Hulk. The one that can fall from orbit and simply dust himself off. The one that can rip apart tanks. The one that can jump miles.

    The comic one has the same problem as Superman does for TV. Simply too powerful to provide a creditable challenge on a weekly basis. They get away with it in Smallville because Clark is A) still learning his powers and B) has more self doubt and angst than all of LiveJournal and C) 99% of the villains are just as much a shadow of their comic book self as Clark. Then on top of it they pulled the "meteor freak" card every week for years.

    So basically comic version is too powerful to go after thugs of the week and a weekly list of gamma superbaddies would seem as lame as meteor freaks. Depower him so he can go against more average bad guys and we end up with a wrestler painted green and not anything that resembles the Hulk from the comics.
  5. Father Xmas
    No, the XBox 360 was limited to 720P the last time I looked. Ah, I'm remembering the 720P as the target resolution for games not general video output. My bad.

    In that case I can see the 360 hang on for a while longer. The various hardware upgrades over the years have "fixed" most of its shortcomings and I can't see a reason offhand to improve CPU/GPU performance unless 3D takes off, which I doubt.
  6. Father Xmas
    Let me put some things into perspective about PhysX.

    First, je_saist really needs a tin foil hat when it comes to anything nVidia.

    Second, nVidia didn't do anything to make the software emulation any slower than it initially was. Ageia gave away their software development kit so their only source of income was selling the PhysX chip to hardware manufactures. If you are trying to sell hardware, you don't spend too much time optimizing your software emulator. On top of that multiple core CPUs were just starting to become mainstream so doing a multithreaded emulator wouldn't have been a good use of their time.

    However I do agree that sometime in the future, someone will offer a physics engine that is based in OpenCL or DirectCompute or Microsoft simply rolls one themselves and includes it into DirectX so all GPUs can take advantage of hardware accelerated physics. But physics still a novelty that few games take advantage of. Until it becomes something more than a way to track debris from things that go boom or realistic waving flags or knocking over piles of boxes, its development will sit on someone's back burner and its widespread adoption will be something way in the future.
  7. Father Xmas
    Hulk is too big for live action TV if they want to do it right. However if you want to do a "The Fugitive" style show where he hulks out once every few weeks then maybe, otherwise you have to go the "large man in green makeup" route because the effects would cost too much for a live action TV series.
  8. Father Xmas
    I agree with others here. Just about everyone who wants one, has one.

    Wii has been out for almost 4 years.
    XBox 360 for almost 5 years.
    PS3 for almost 4 years.

    Time between the Gamecube and Wii, 5 years.
    XBox and XBox 360, 4 years.
    PS2 and PS3, 6 years.

    I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft is looking into a next gen system, one that can handle 1080P output. I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo is looking to make a next gen system that handles some type of HD output. I can understand Sony simply buying time.

    Most people I know have a Wii plus one of the other two systems. Wii for party games, one of the others for Netflix onto their main HDTV plus retro games (the majority of my friends are over 45).
  9. Father Xmas
    No idea, I use Firefox and I don't have problems with the rude tells thread. Do you have the setting for number of posts per page set to 500? I know that can cause problems.
  10. Father Xmas

    Ultra Mode Help?

    POST-ACTION

    Full Ultra Mode for only $1500 in a laptop? Maybe.

    Please remember that the hardware recommendations are for desktop not laptop hardware. Laptop video cards with the same designation as a desktop one is actually considerably weaker.

    Example: Laptop Mobility HD 5870 is actually a bit weaker than the desktop HD 5770.

    In your case the Mobility HD 5730 is a bit weaker than the desktop HD 5570.

    The relatively low resolution of the screen helps you but I have a hard time seeing this running UM beyond it's minimum settings and that is still likely pushing it beyond the point of maintaining a comfortable frame rate.

    I believe this is a better choice for a 15.6" Asus than your selection. Both the video and CPU are more powerful than your choice (video by 25-30%, CPU by 50 - 200%). Of course there is a trade off between power and battery life, but if you are looking for something to use in your hotel room Vs an airplane then that isn't an issue.

    You will still need to run at a lower resolution than the default 1920x1080 to get acceptable frame rates but you are more likely to be able to run with UM on performance than your choice.

    If you don't mind hauling around something big and cut it close to your $1500 limit then there is this Asus. Same CPU but video is 50% faster than the one I linked to previously and twice as fast as your choice. It also has twice the system memory. This has a much better chance of getting Ultra Mode off of it's minimum settings.

    Here is yours plus my two picks side by side by side.
  11. Father Xmas
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Bill Z Bubba View Post
    Man, that looks really farkin bad. Why, Felicia, why?
    Because a couple of guest spots per season, a video game voice or two and The Guild doesn't pay the bills.
  12. Father Xmas
    All I can think of is Short Circuit after Johnny 5 turns the other bots into the 3 Stooges.
  13. Father Xmas
    Well Jackass 3D is R so that limits the market a bit for it while Red is PG-13.

    Also I hardly call Jackass 3D mainstream unless mouth-breathing idiots are now considered mainstream.

    Due to it's PG-13 rating, cast and gratuitous gun play mixed with comedy, I consider Red to be more mainstream, regardless of it's comic origins.
  14. Father Xmas
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Wavicle View Post
    I looked up my motherboard and found some info about the RAM it can take that included the following:

    DDR PC2700

    DDR PC3200


    and in another place:


    DDR400/333/266/200 DDR SDRAM




    Can someone help me understand what the difference between these varieties is and why I might want one over another?


    Also any suggestions about where to buy it would be helpful. Is Newegg the best? It seemed there like most chips are about $40 each, is there any way to get them cheaper than that?
    Difference between DDRxxx and DDR PCyyyy is a factor of 8, sometimes rounded up to the nearest 100. Why 8? Memory sticks are 64 bits wide or 8 bytes.

    DDR 400 = PC3200
    DDR 333 = PC2700

    400 is the speed in MHz, 3200 is the bandwidth of the stick in megabytes per second.

    Use a utility like CPU-Z to see what you currently have installed.
  15. Father Xmas
    He needs to sit down with his wife and her sidekick to have a nice talk about Newton's laws.

    Oh wait, the wife and sidekick are biologists, the one science that math is a requirement.
  16. Father Xmas
  17. Father Xmas
    Saw this a few days ago at io9. Liked that Michelle Rodriguez has her own spot for "die before the final act".
  18. Father Xmas
    Brad - Finn
    Janet - Rachel
    Frank - Mercedes
    Rocky - Sam (new blond guy)
    Magenta - Quinn and Santana?
    Eddie - First Puck, who drops out and then Dr Carl
    Riff - Kurt

    Some Pictures
    CNN story
  19. Father Xmas
    Don't know if I want to call them Gollum aliens or cleaned up Prawns in jumpsuits.
  20. Father Xmas
  21. Father Xmas
    Search can be surprisingly useful.
  22. Father Xmas
    At least pretty ladies.
  23. Father Xmas
    Easy, add a meta game that advances your "avatar" along a track mirroring the movie adventure. Advancement happens when you win, the degree of advancement based on the type of win. I seem to remember a Star Wars based penny slot like that.
  24. Father Xmas

    Mobs too Scattered

    POST-ACTION

    I hunt snipers in FF for fun.

    Beware it's raining snipers.
  25. Father Xmas

    Chuck 10/11

    POST-ACTION

    Well it seems to be a viable plan for NBC spy dramas. You should check of the skivvies on Mrs. Bloom in Undercovers, on Wednesday at 8pm EDT.

    They know what boys like, they know what guys want.