Posts by Izuno

  • So who else is waiting for DoD:S

    Quote from InsaneSingingBlender

    wait, you went from a better card, to a worse card, and it runs better? im confused

    my 6800u caused that audio locking issue that surfaced when hl2 shipped. i was never able to fix it...so i said to hell with it and switched out with an x800. ati seems much more stable on my rig in source engine than the other card. go figure.

  • Boost yourself

    well as i get older (about to have my 74th birthday...well no...not really) i find that it takes more work to stay in shape. Luckily I have an older sister now in her 30's who, along with her husband, have inspired me to start taking action now about health issues i wouldn't have thought to do. here are there suggestions i've followed that have had the best improvement:

    1) "cut out dairy. Dairy is full of hormones and chemicals. Switch to organic milk (more expensive) or rice milk." Ok I don't know if i believe all that hype about the chemicals in cow milk you buy at the supermarket, but I switched to organic rice milk (Rice Dream, original flavor) and HOLY SHITBALLS i love it. I cut out 95% of the dairy in my diet and my skin has cleared up and i love the taste of rice milk...don't feel ill in the morning after breakfast anymore.

    2) "cut down on meat as much as possible. Go vegan" Ok to me this is just plane stupid. i love beef, chicken, fish...mmm....meat is good. But the problem is that most beef in the US, like dairy, is full of hormones and chemicals...and chicken. And farm raised fish (like salmon) is full of PCBs and other stutf. Well is that true? That's what I hear. Is it hype? Maybe. But i trust my sister, so for the last month I've cut out 90% of the meat in my diet except for non-farm fish (more expensive but soooo much tastier) and non-hormonal beef. (UBER expensive but available). OH MY GOD does non-hormone beef and fish etc taste better. You can taste it. Trust me. Anyway...I can't explain it but I just feel better...and I've lost some excess weigth that has been building up in my gut.

    3) "eat more green vegetables...have lots of salads with whatever dressing (within reason)" Ok personally I am not a salad fan. As Homer and Bart once said in the vegetarian episode "You don't win friends with salad! You don't win friends with salad! You don't win friends with salad..."

    Anyway...I've started doing that and at first it sucked. But you know, i thin it has helped (less meat, more salad) and have been putting lots of nuts and tofu (yes i said tofu) for protein in them and i just feel better.

    4) if you're going to eat meat...stay away from fast food meat. that is the worst kind!

    I've been doing this, despite my LOVE of fast food and crap, and I gotta say i'm starting to think differently about eating and my diet.

    Right now my sister and her husband are doing this hard core raw vegan cleansing diet for a month: no meat, no dairy, no eggs, only fruit and veges and nuts...all raw (nothing cooked). You drink all these fruit smoothies and wheatgrass shakes (bleck) and do other stuff to cleanse you out. My brother in law who has put on a lot of weight in his thirties has lost a lot of weight and my sister says they are getting used to it but LOVING how they feel. I think in another year I may try this hard core vegan cleanse diet too...as I have this suspicision it may help ward off health problems in the long run.

    So as I ramble on, I just know I have been eating like shit the last few years (er...10 years?) and I have to start cleaning up my act. I don't want to be 35 one day and become a big lardass...then one day be 45 and get a heart attack. So I dunno...i guess i'm saying i may try one of these hard core 30 day cleanse diets and see how i feel. Maybe i'll become vegan or at least a vegetarian? crazier things have happened.

    right now i feel like having a triple bacon cheeseburger...man i know one day i'm going to miss those...

  • So who else is waiting for DoD:S

    overall I am impressed, but I can see why a lot of the comments were made about the feel and ironsights etc.

    I think it will improve over time and I'm happy it is at least playable on it's first day. In the past, DoD on HL1 often had bad lag issues on the first couple of days after release, so I can deal with performance issues right now.

    I also just went from 6800u to X800pro and it runs SOOO much better with no audio locks on my AMD core. So i'm lovin it.

    Hopefully more official maps will roll out...but it will take time. At the DoD forums i have asked the other mapping forum moderators to help get some DoD:S specific mapping guides out with real info...hopefully the DoD:S SDK will come out soon with an example .RMF from one of the first 4 official maps. That way the custom map community might get a kickstart.

    We'll see how it goes. I urge everyone with HL2 to give it a shot.

    Cheers

  • Lord of War

    I saw it last night. Pretty good.

    It felt like a black comedy...but it also was a sick commentary...but it was also a "Good Fellas" of gun running (sort of). While I personally enjoyed the movie very much, it is a bit hard to classify. That may take some people by surprise because it operates on a few different levels and that may not be what people expect out of it.

    Otherwise, I found the movie interesting simply because it attempts to explain, in a historical context, how gun running works. I love movies where the main character has voice over telling his story in the overall world he is in. (Like Casino, Good Fellas, Rounders or even Fight Club). Sure, this movie has a different vibe than all of them, but again I liked it just from the way he talked you through gun running.

    Still thinking about it and I would probably like to see it again.

  • iPod nano

    Quote from Zacker

    Uhm my creative muvo is still smaller and it can also fit directly in the USB drive...I don't really get what this "impossible small" bs is about when there are 100 smaller players out there.

    it's a marketing thing. The "impossibly small" isn't meant to be taken exactly literally. It is very thin, smaller and lighter compared to the iPod or the iPod mini yet still has a good amount of space...AND it has the cool iPod display in color and clickwheel. So conceptually to many styleminded gadget/mp3 geeks it is this great melding of function, design, asthetics. "Impossibly small" is more of a brand slogan for the nano.

    We'll see how they sell. 4 gig blacks nanos seem to be the hottest ones.

  • Your Top5 game developers

    Valve: HL1, HL2 and for letting me work on Day of Defeat

    Blizzard: Warcraft 3 pwned me

    id: yeah we all know what these guys did.

    Pandemic Studios: Mercenaries rules plus their offices rock and the guys are cool...and I liked FSW even though it was sort of a niche game. They have an usual take on the same-old same-old, so I give them credit for their passion.

    Gearbox: because Opposing Force was the best expansion pack evar...but mainly because they've got Mojo who is Mojotastic.

    Relic: Again, more super cool guys with a lot of passion. Dawn of War rocked and Company of Heroes will, too!

  • Original Akira

    Quote from mike-0

    the new english dubs have children voices for the numbers, the orignal used old peoples voices. the most common DVD has only the newer dubs. my friend has the old dvd. my only guess would be for you to go to an akira fan site like bbakira.co.uk (idk if its still up) and try to order it or youll have to torrent it.

    yes...good way to distinguish the versions by the voices of the test subjects (aka numbers as you put it). I didn't know there was an old DVD. I hope you don't need a PAL DVD player to play it. I'd prefer the NTSC-US version if I can find it.

  • Looking for Looters ?

    Quote from Kosmo

    Tell me Izuno, did you study? How much did it cost? What have had happened if you didn't have money to go to shcool? The uncertainty is what I hate, and capitalistic world is full of it.

    Yes I studied....both college and grad school. I don't think they made me smart...just gave me language and contexts on how to view the world, plus filled my brain with many ideas and stuff that I didn't think up on my own.

    Quote from von*ferret

    If signs are what it takes to discourage people from taking advantage of a disaster than I fully support "you loot, we shoot." I dont see how you guys can justify stealing. Stealing is stealing whether they're in a disaster zone or not. I would not want people making excuses for me if I was the one choosing to steal.

    yes. stealing is stealing. there is no question about that. i'm not going to debate that particular issue but instead ask a question that may get us thinking differently.

    - what if people who were looting/stealing found a way to put up signs for the TV cameras and onlookers to read that read the following whilte they were looting/stealing:

    Hello. We lost everything in the hurricane. We have no food, no drinking water, no stable shelter,no sanitation facilities, nothing but the clothes on our backs. We do not want to break into dormant stores and steal food, but we have yet to receive any aid from anyone. If we don't get food, we will starve and possibly die. We don't want to starve. So we are choosing to break into these stores and take food. Please send help. We are very sorry but we don't know what else to do? Do you have any suggestions? Should we just roll over and die? Again, please help us. We would really appreciate it.

    a few points about that:

    1) I don't think anyone had signs like that...at least I never saw any on the news.

    2) I did recall seeing "HELP" written on rooftops etc, but that was it.

    3) I agree that stealing car stereos and boomboxes is bullshit. But what about clothing? Diapers? Clearly some gray area exists if you believe stealing/looting for survival is justified in dire circumstances. What justifies "dire"?

    Food for thought.

  • Looking for Looters ?

    Quote from Kosmo

    minos is the truth, more so than godI don't think that necessary those people who are looting, actually realize that what they are doing is wrong, just like when you are downloading a game or a movie from internet, do you get sleepless nights over it? I doubt it, but do you want to get shot because of it? There are some studio excecs really pissed because they lost potential viewers and millions of dollars because of a guy in the theater with a videocamera, and my guess is that they propably want to shoot the guy.

    I know stealing is stealing no matter what you think justifies it, but then again, murder is murder, even if your country told you to do so in some foreign war OR if you think you are doing the right thing shooting some looters.

    I agree totally with Minos that the country and culture has made people obsessed with material goods, you didn't see this kind of behavior when the freak tsunami destroyed prettymuch everything, sure there were some looters, but either it was not as much reported in news, or it was not nearly as widespread as it is in New Orleans, and believe me, those people are literally poor, not that BS poor "I can't afford two luxyry class cars and a plasma tv" those people are poor like "I don't have ANY money, I can't get even the basic education if I don't collect recyclable plastic about 5kg so I can scrounge few pennies to go to school tomorrow, and then I don't have anything to eat else than carbage."

    Every capitalistic imperium through the history has been viewed as the oracle of wealth but only to be eaten from inside by it's own greedy people, countries that actually take care of it's citizens like Canada, or any country in scandinavia or prettymuch every european country don't have this kind of problem. There have been pretty big disasters here too, and we don't have that kind of problem, and why do you think that is?

    excellent points. to answer that, here are some observations about American capitalism...

    1) ... yes I agree it is wealth obsessed, at least in the media at is and for most americans we probably encounter it all the time, especially if you watch a lot of TV, use the internet a fair amount, go to school, live in a big city etc. So that covers many, many americans. This wealth obsession (or at least wealth orientation) might set up this mindset of "I gotta have it all". So why is that?

    2) ...there is a strong general perception of the American Dream. You gotta have a big house, nice car, nice stuff, hot wife....it's all about what you have, not so much about who you are and what you stand for. Our culture tends to measure material posessions as an indicator of success and value, rather than content of character and contribution to society. How did that happen? Why is that? You tell me man, I only work here. (I freely admit I am guilty of it, too.)

    3) ...There are two competing forces in any capitalist, communist, socialist or fascist societies: (1) doing what is good for you (2) doing what is good for society. Sure, all 4 systems operate in very different ways and have different definitions of good and bad and different ideologies, mechanisms, etc. But all share the same burden of determining who gets what and how. Capitalists rely on a free market that is somewhat regulated and heavily abused. Socialists simply regulate it a hellofa lot more. Communists (actually communist) usually rely on military totalitarianism to make their system work (as disfunctional as it may be on basic levels like food distribution). Fascists simply tell you how to operater or immediately shoot you in the head, throw you in a bottomless pit or otherwise etc but regardless, they very strictly declare who gets what and enslave or murder the rest. ........So in capitalism, we try to be "lazze faire" and let the free market "work everything out for us". Good times...because as a result we get things like the Savings and Loan crisis of the 80s. Or the Anderson Consluting/Accenture accounting fiasco of the 1990s (and other big accounting firms). Or Enron. Worldcom. Adelphia. Oh yeah, on the other end we get looting in natural disasters. We get horrible drug problems in inner cities...and rich suburbs....

    Anyway...my point is this: It seems like anywhere we have relatively unregulated free markets, people abuse them. They abused them many many years ago with widespread slavery and direct Imperialism. Africa and North American come to mind. Or Chief Financial Officers of modern corperations take advantage of loopholes and gaps in regulations to make their companies look better to investors and less profitable to the IRS, meanwhile they find ways to embessle funds or abuse corporate assets like jets and spending accounts for personal use. Or car salesmen give different prices to women and minorities then they would to white men. Or cable companies keep raising rates due to geographic monopolies. These things just seem to be the price of capitalism...

    Ok, I have more to say about this (a lot more) but perhaps this is a whole other discussion thread and I'm taking things off topic too far. (plus i gotta go to work so I can't really finish this now) Don't get me wrong, I love this country (USA) and I do like capitalism, I'm just wondering if there is any way to have less abuses, a little more fairness, all the while not ruining the free market. Again, maybe I'm a dreamer but to me it is a worthy discussion....

  • Looking for Looters ?

    Quote from Kosmo

    Taken up a speed trial, I guess you could get a deathsentence for stealing :roll:

    like a drumhead.

    Yeah i've been reading more of the stories online and talking with a lot of other friends...they have noticed the same "black=looting" and "white=scrounging or finding or recovering" stories.

    Regardless of all that, I would love to see some indepentent reporting on the reporting...if possible. I'm curious how and where the media's biases are affecting our interpretation of events.

    I am in Chicago right now on vacation. My sister and I are organizing a neighborhood food/supplies collection to be shipped down to New Orleans area on Friday. It's not much, but I think it will help my sister cope after seeing these devestating images on TV and felling like she couldn't do anything about it.

  • Looking for Looters ?

    um....yeah I am a little confused. Sometimes sarcasm doesn't always translate well, though I'm not sure if I'm detecting sarcasm or not.

    You really want to shoot them first, ask questions later? No you're just messing around...right? Whatever.

    Kosmo: Is that really real? That makes it look pretty damn biased on AP's part.

    In general there is so much hate on internet I can't tell what's real anymore.