OvS

Chuck Norris is so tough... He made Steven Segal give up Aikido, Hollywood acting, get fat and convince the world that he's really a tough guy Sheriff on a lame reality TV show based in some no-name town, with a bunch of old, smelly, has-been ex-cops working for him... or worse... a top notch blue guitarist... Segal kickin' a$$ in "Above the Law"... before a round-house from Chuck Segal in... well.. who knows.. his best Santana impression... after a round-house from Chuck. OvS

Christ... these chics are so freakin' big the one on the far right actually looks thin!!! Please don't kill the look of the bikini like this... I know, fat chics need love to, but WTF...

Where's Marylin when you need her... Happy Birthday Dave.. Neil... Bob... whatever... All the best.. OvS PS... pass any 'speed limits' on this one? i just broke 40 in December.

Man, you better hope your wife doesn't see this or your lymie ass is going to be in whole heap of trouble brother. OvS

Oh man.... that's CLASSIC!!!!

Yes, they were, right about the time Billy Bishop, McCudden, and the lot (like the RFC 56's planes) were getting all personal, the upper echelon of Britsh brass pulled the plug. They claimed all the 'silly' looking planes were unlike a Britsh Officer in uniform, or something like that. I guess it really dates back to times before WWI that saw a more militant British mentality, whereas the Germans simply let things be. Whatever kept their pilots happy, and scoring kills... OvS Well... I think you can pretty much guess at who the 'others' are... but they definately ain't ghosts...

I can't wait to see that Recognizer in action in the new movie... and the Tanks. It makes sense to have Bruce Boxleitner in the movie, he was Flynn's buddy... and of course, TRON, like you said. The game was great as well. It was really what you would have expected, and did not fall short. OvS

Lou, Best investment, since you'll have to do it anyway if you intend on keeping this PC, is to buy another HD.... make the crashed HD a slave and try to recover the data. It's scary though that the BIOS is not recognizing the drive. Do you have a friend's PC you can do the same with, hook it up as a slave? It won't hurt anything, it'll just not work. OvS

Actually... Shred is being nice about it... we have 'others' watching us... and copying us... so we now speak cryptic and offer little information other than speculation, spin and rhetoric.

T, Have you tried the SH3 mod 'Grey Wolves'? I've seen it in person, and it really adds a lot to SH3... much like we did with OFF. Check it out here... http://www.thegreywolves.com/ J PS... love that story about the fish... that has to be really cool. Nature is amazing, isn't it? Did Ted tell you about the Whale story when he was on the big island? That was out of this world!

Cool, good show!

Why are you buying SH5??? All you need are some torpedoes and you've got the real thing... Hmmm... we COULD mod the Pisces V with a few PT boat style tubes on the sides.. .and then... oh well.... OvS PS signed and sealed...

I'm watching it... so far.. it's OK, but truthfully, the RoF threads really need to diminish in frequency. It is an OFF forum, but as you know... Shred and I are pretty lax on things... just keep it civil. 'nuff said....

This turned into a disaster on the Pub.... not sure it really belongs here... nothing personal Widow... you know that... just business.

Hey... I'm from New York...

Yeah, this looks really good... and Bridges is in it as well, which should tie it all together real nicely!

Wow Stump... thanks for letting us know. Please keep us posted and let us know what is going on in your life. I wish you the best, and hope/pray they find what is causing the problem. All the best to you, James OvS PS... look on the bright side.... you'll look stunning at the beach in a Speedo this summer.

No... I think the booze will help on this one.... Maybe after that, I'll do an 'ode to Jimi Hendrix' D.VII. OvS

WOW!!! Mechwarrior!!! Man, I used to love that game! Trudging across the land in a Mad Dog with Clan Wolf... great game! Maybe I'll find the time some day (yeah right) and load this myself. OvS

Yes, I do. To explain our relationship... imagine a cat and a dog living together. Sums it up nicely. So... paint choice #2 going on today...

OK... color #1 rejected... moving on to color #2.... Will have to reprime the walls as color #1 was too dark... so that's already 4 times I painted... whoops... no..... six... times... prime... paint... prime... paint... etc. If from whereever you are living on this planet, and happen to outside on a quiet day, and hear the distant sound of a man screaming in ultimate rage... pay no attention... it's only me. OvS

Your point is spot on Widow, and backs what I am saying... but it's not all about greed, as much as it's now becoming a war that the designers can't win, and shouldn't even try to fight. If a game gets 'posted' (those who know, KNOW what I mean)... chances are, it's already been through the mill, and may not even work. But how many users actually get this version... not many. The 1% of people out there that even know how to do this is so small, that it's not worth the trouble of protecting the software to that extent. There are only a handful of well known pirates that produce stuff that is good quality. If these companies really want to make a statement... they could. If I know where they are, com'on... they do to. With all this high-level DRM stuff.... like you said, you wind up killing your reputation as a customer friendly company, like Ubisoft used to be, and are now considerd a burden to the newbie. It's all about bringing in new players. It's not about closing them out with insanely hard, or technical securities, that bog down their connections with constant secutiry checks. I do agree with keeping the servers secure though, and protecting the users that are logged on to it. But to have to be connected to a server just to play single player versions is really pathetic. Let the pirates have at the software... it's like when you were 18 (or 21 depending on your age)... the thrill of tricking that store owner to letting you buy beer underage dropped off the day you turned of age. It's no longer fun at that point. Hence why no one hacks FireFox... AVG.. etc. Why bother... it's free. What the hell's the point. What they should do... offer the main version at a lower price, then you pay as you play, or monthly fees to be logged on to to the MP side of the game. Like the new Star Trek... at $15 a month, that's a lot of profit rolling in with the number of active MP users well into the 1,000's. I'd be hard-pressed to stiff the few SP players if the game is really based on an MP format. Then boost the securites of the MP side, and make it robust so the odd SP player that is weary of trying MP, at least feels confident he won't get hacked when he finally makes the move to MP. The Hackers would be bored with this. Where is the pleasure in hacking a cheap SP game that needs to be logged on and paid for to play MP? The updates and security checks would come the moment you logged on to the MP side, and paid for your subscription. Seems like a logical business model to me. OvS

Actaully... that one is on my half of the list... God help me..

Software protection being what it is, you have to weigh the gains versus losses. If you sell 50K units of sales and 500 of thoses units are cracked, then you have a 1% loss. It's not worth going after the hi-tech lock-down servers and DRM's over 1%. But... if your at 10 or 20% loss due to piracy, that's another story. DRM's also alienate a certain percentage of users, as well as all the server protections bogging down the legal users. It's really a tough call in today's day and age. But like CoD5 shows... simply make a product that sells so much that you eat the percentage of losses... then ban the pirates on the servers by constantly updating the product with little tweaks offered to licensed/registered copies only. Most pirates crack the release product... although some will follow with the updates, but many loose the 'thrill' of cracking the updates, after the main program is complete. OvS

And more to come.... ;) Wait till they get a load of all the "holes" we filled.