Growler67

Never argue with an idiot. They'll drag you down to their level and beat you with experience. Just sayin'.

The pictures on the right column are actual. The ones on the left are questionable. Here is the truth:

Thus a requirement to post on the packaging that it is present would be in order regardless of which definition it falls in. I bet THAT alone would show developers/publishers where their marketing priorities should be alligned. I didn't know much about it nor that it was on LOMAC, so yes in that regard I "invited" it in. I did know it was on FC and so I never ventured. Finding out which products use it is part of my buying ritual these days as I've never really been one to have anything the minute it's been released. I can cruise forums and such to find uot whether it is or isn't present before voting with my wallet. I have never had a problem with keeping the disc in the drive to play anything but apparently it IS an issue with some. Putting an encrypted file on the disc with a portion of the .exe to verify that file algorythmically or whatever seems just fine to me. Installing hidden directories and files without it being mentioned in the EULA is definitely a deceptive practice. As much of a problem as I have with HAVING to run a 3rd party program (Steam) in the background to play a game, I find that option infinitely more acceptable than having ANY form of StarForce on any of my puters ever again.

StarForce is a virus, NO doubt about it. I will NOT purchase nor install ANYTHING that has it in ANY of it's versions/configurations. Developers can and will do whatever they feel gives them a warm fuzzy or whatever. I choose what I spend my money on. I think packaging should not only reflect "Minimum Specs" but ALSO what form of Copy-Protection it comes with. It should be a REQUIREMENT, or the opportunity for full refund of opened media be made available to the consumer. If THEY decide to incorporate a virus in their product, the consumers should have fair notice before purchase of the fact.

They are most effective when they detonate upon impact. Many do not, but that doesn't really minimize or mitigate the threat when they are being shot at your vessel. Crew, passengers and cargo can/will be injued or damaged not to mention the potential risk of a fire being started if the deonation occurs in a "lucky" spot. Keep in mind that the crews are in most cases unarmed and few are armed only with fire control aparatus such as water hoses. Hardly equal to small arms and explosives.

A means of scaling the distance is usually accomplished by grapling hook (or similar 'homemade' equivalent) attached to a rope (or two). Knotted or not, climbing up to and over the rail isn't too difficult at that point. Keep in mind that the attack doesn't usually begin with the boarding. It is generally initiated with a couple/few RPG's followed by small arms fire until the Captain slows or stops the vessel in fear of more "attacks".

Sorry not right off hand as I'm in the States. I would suggest you grab a rag or two on PC Games or Computer Shopping as there are usually ads inside advertising sites that do just such things. Being local (UK) you would be more likely to find what you are looking or at least get some more info on available options.

Not too sure about the Dell site, but have you considered one of those sites that'll allow "custimization" of your rig? I know it's more expensive (generally) but if building it yourself isn't an option you are kinda stuck paying what they ask. AlienWare and other siilar sites allow you to pick from a selections (based on use and general performance stats) and then "customize it" where you can make specific choices to adjust the performance/cost ratios to better suit your payment tolerance while not sacrificing too much on the performance end. Might want to look into the possibility if it's available in the UK. Just a suggestion.

I wonder if there is a "pool fund" to buy the hats in bulk so that they can be sent over there and dropped from above over the coastal areas for "equal" distribution. I don't have much, but I can share what little I have

There are far too many willing to capitulate and pay a ransom rather than take a "non-negotiate" position. Those willing to actually defend against such "activities" will have their own assets safer (not immune by any means) but that just means there will be many more "easy fish" for the taking. Unless a stance is unilateral the problem will not be rectified. That said.................... The caliber used in the recent SEAL operation hasn't been disclosed and I make NO claims that a .50 cal was used for a shot taken at 75 meters. I didn't make these "posters", just thought they were pertinent to the thread as it relates to my position regarding such. That said............ I'm just sayin' ETA: noticed I forgot the "coup de gras" US NAVY pic, sorry.

HD monitor? Unless you will be piping in your tele signal for watching on your rig, and unnecessary expense. You could get a bigger LCD for the same price or less if you avoid those two letters. 512MB is the way to go on a vid/graphics card as the trend upwards will make the 256 cards obsolete shortly. Looks like your biggest expense (aside from the monitor) is going to be your RAM. DDR3 is certainly much better but you do end up paying for it. I wouldn't change the choice, I'm just commenting on it's relative cost at this time. It'll be a while before I can/will build my next rig. Got some things going on that are just making it a non-essential project. It'll eventually be DDR3 and water cooled, but that's for another thread. Don't want to jack yours. Looks like you have a decent plan. Good Luck, and post picks when it's done

Though Tabasco still has it's uses, I've gotten away from Vinegary based stuff like it and Cholula and such. I've stepped up to "Ass Kickin' Habanero" hot sauce for my culinary heat preferences. Good heat AND flavor without the vinegar taste. Little dab will do ya, a little more if you're feelin' froggy enough to jump. My heat index tolerance has increased over the years as well and so Tabasco just doesn't have enough kick for me.

Seriously, the First Aid Dressing on the troop and the lifting/towing shackles? Necessary? Do they flop around when the vehicles start and stop? Merely eye dressing and certainly NOT necessary, IMO. I suppose as long as it doesn't take away CPU/GPU cycles or adversly affecr frame rates or stability then.......whatever. However, as long as it has StarForce it won't ever see any of my money.

The "eye candy" factor has never been debated. Impressive by any measure, truly. However, the "eye candy" factor aside, if the same resources that were spent on fine details of ground vehicles was spent on things like: stability in MP mode, de-confusing the left handed nature of the Mission Editor, finding ANY other less invasive Copy Protection other than the StarForce (virus) I just may consider the possibility of purchasing another ED product. Some of their decision making processes have been and continue to be questionable in nature, IMO.

Unless that is what they are promoting by allowing/encouraging it. I know nothing about them and so they are a benign entity as far as I'm concerned. Like StarForce, I have nothing of theirs on my computer anyway.

The US Forrestry Service has used a few of the decommisioned OV-10's in this capacity already. Part of the problem is that that agency isn't funded very heavily and the priority for them is replacing the aging fleet assets that are currently in it's inventory. Watch some of the file footage from KommieFornia over the last couple of years and you'll see them from time to time.

ST Legacy had no tie ins, directly, with a movie with the exception of the title. It sucked SOOOO bad because it was a port of a console game to the PC format. The crossover interface was bad, the 3D space flight was NOT 3D (couldn't do a complete loop for instance) among other things. Like a couple of semi-recent flight sim titles, it was heavy on the "eye candy" but very weak on substance and interface. Bathesda screwed the pooch hard on this release and I for one am glad they lost or didn't have their rights license renewed for future franchise related projects. Some say "without the mods it wouldn't be enjoyable". When a product HAS to have mods from the community to be enjoyed, it only reveals the weakness of the development/release of the product. Something that is pervasive in the industry these days. Releasing a product that is sub-standard or otherwise incomplete to make a release date imposed by some entity, usually the Publisher. If they could make a decent, complete product that has enough "eye candy" to add to the substance of the product the immersion of the game play will not only draw fans, it'll keep them. Releasing a product that was incomplete with the first patch in the wings the day after or within a week of release is just proof in the pudding that the industry doesn't seem to care about the franchises they drag down and eventually ruin.

Ender's Game - interesting Orwellian tie in there Star Blazers - would be AWESOME to see something done, similar style of ships already done/introduced in "Wing Commander" RoboTech, Macross and such - would all be much like the Transformers unless they dedicated the time into character development, so I don't see this as too viable Anything from the 40K Universe - LOTS of material to draw from, much can be done like the X-Men Origins series Of course the caveats would be to make sure it is done with the right people that have the right passions for the projects. Leave out as much "Artistic/Directors 'vision/interpretation'" as possible to avoid ruining or otherwise dooming franchises. Tim Burton and the Batman series for instance. Interesting to be sure, but Batman Begins and Dark Knight ARE what is core and canon with the original - the way it always seemed it should've been, IMO. Of course when doing such projects, cast or character continuity is very important. Dark Knight lost something switching from Katie Holmes to Maggie Gyllenhal. If multiple movies within a given franchise is endeavored, it would serve the projects best to keep certain things intact for the whole run.

Generic brand that isn't in the "plug and play" list from MS? Check the MS website for their generic driver, maybe?

Shift work really messes with what most people consider regular meals. I make no distinction, generally, as to particular things being designated for certain meals. It's all food to me and Breakfast is just the first meal of the day. If I could choose a preference, I would go with a RomSchnitzel with the usual sides and a Lager, but that rarely ever happens.

Title said "GP" and I thought it was going to be motorcycles as in MotoGP and NOT F1

Space Wolves and Chaos Space Marines (Tzeentch based on the 1K Sons). I have a Dark Eldar Army collecting dust. I'm actually shift to Inquisitor as driving an hour to spend 4-6 hours playing a game of 40K is taking too much out of me. Needless to say I don't play much. The creative aspects of gaming have always had the larger appeal to me anyway. Considering 2 warbands for starters: SW Scout with a wolf or two and possibly a Servo Skull or two, and an Eldar one with a Harlequin Solitaire and a Ranger.

The first hurdle would be to redesign the hardpoint extension and ordinance rack to make this mating plausible. Until that happens (existing hardware will not allow this to happen by any stretch), it's all theoretical.......at best. After the munitions are expended, the rack gets ejected. Then pulling up behind the supplier, the docking mechanism could slide a new loaded rack onto the sponson/hardpoint and it'll lock when it has slid into the full rear "lock" position. Repeat for the opposite side and peel off to the FEBA/Killbox. Would only be conceivable for wing stores as fuselage/centerline would be very problematic and risky for exterior damage or something getting injested by the engine intake. Of course ALL of this goes away for ANY aircraft with internal munition bays.

First ever played was F18 on an AMIGA (in the Gulf - it was a cracked copy acquired @ Saudi Sams). First played on a PC that I owned was Falcon, EGA graphics. First Helicopter Sim was LHX.

I know some on many forums gripe about having the disc in the drive. I've never had a problem with doing this, personally. Doing so but instead of using a standard 4.7GB DVD, a 5.2GB DVD with the game and the Checkdisc files would seem a way to protect their IP and not be overly punitive towards paying customers. It's just like music CD's that have 80 minutes of content rather than 70. I'm just sayin'. As for the variance in the versions released, ED caught plenty of flak over LOMAC: FC originally beng intended for the Russian market only. Westerner pouted and whined interminably and ED hurriedly changed their position and relesed it. It was NOT compatable with the Western release of the core software and then the whiners lost their freakin' minds. They asked for it and they got it and still weren't happy. Now I am NOT an ED fanboi by any stretch. I'm just reminding some of past incarnation of similar behavior. I think LOMAC was much more eye candy than substance. The left handed interface in the Mission Editor (apparently it hasn't changed with BS) just for starters. As CPU/GPU cycle intensive as thier .lau code is, the alternative of going with something like STEAM isn't really an option to combat their concerns over piracy. I do not know what the real difference would be with different regional variations. If it would be something like Linux/Windows/MacOS or is it more like regional DVD/NTSC/PAL? In any case, making a single product (core code) and then distribution (regional coding) would seem to be two different animals, wouldn't it? What's the problem? Then when ED has some patch fixes for a product, but makes you pay for an add-on product to get it seems back handed to many. Why couldn't patches and other fixes for a product be available for registered products? It was purchased and registered properly, why MUST someone BUY an add-on (even if they have NO interest in it or it's content) just to get the original product fiexed? ED has made some seemingly not so great decisions in the past. It would appear that their business model has evolved, but not really changed much. They like many others in many other facets of any industry end up treating the symptoms rather than seeking a cure for the disease. Punish the legitimate customer base to spite a few pirates.