Duff-e

It's not so great mapping out caves, only surface stuff. You can use it to view minerals but like I said the maps are so big it's basically useless for that. I had a similar moment of awe finding a huge pit in the middle of an otherwise regular cave. I always carry at least one full stack of wood whenever I do anything now. Having to dig yourself to the surface from half way under the map with no tools because you got lost in a cave is very very frustrating. I would have gladly thrown myself in lava if I could have found some easily. On another forum someone randomly spawned this world and shared the save file if you're interested (I have bad luck with spawning on flat land and beaches): http://www.2shared.com/file/Bqr84Opo/World1.html

Jetsetlemming, I haven't downloaded anything besides the alpha available to everyone and I have found dungeons with monster spawns and loot chests though I can't say I noticed any particular theme. They look like this: Are you talking about something different? Also if you guys didn't already know there is a program called cartographer that makes cool overhead maps of your territory. You can also use it to find deposits of stuff but it's not as useful as it sounds because the maps are so damn huge.

You're lucky, I've started 6 worlds now and I still can't find enough iron to justify the cost of making rail road tracks/carts. Gunpowder has been an even bigger problem though.

You sir are correct. I really wanted to like dwarf fortress but the complexity + the visual style were too much.

I'm definitely in the minority but I'll never understand the appeal of Halo. To me it's just generic space shooter #438 with a story that makes Steven King look like James Joyce.

Word is one of the next big updates will feature biomes (desert, tropical, etc) throughout the world. I've been keeping busy with this thread for inspiration: http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic ... 35&t=14998 Right now though minecraft and I aren't on speaking terms after I fell into lava and lost 5 diamonds.

http://www.google.com/trends?q=minecraf ... ytd&sort=0

I'm seeing people I know in real life who never play video games (even shit like the sims/warcraft) become addicted to minecraft. I'm even surprised at myself because I normally don't go for rpg/crafting type games.

Someone posted that texture pack on reddit/r/minecraft but I don't think it's out yet. Here are two places to check out if you're looking for minecraft related info: http://minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Crafting http://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/ I don't know if you guys saw this already but for the impatient go to 4:00

Nice. That series is the same reason I bought it. Even if you never play minecraft his series is very entertaining. $13 is worth the possibility of trying any of the planned expansions in multiplayer:

A lot of stuff has changed with minecraft, specifically the single player and the valve/steam rumors. Before I bought the alpha (which is $13 if you buy before the beta is released) I watched this series of youtube videos. He just concluded the last episode but it's him playing the single player in 30 15 minute episodes live with just a few tutorials experience before playing. All in HD. There has also been talk about texture packs, a minecraft/dwarf fortress crossover and there are a few TF2 themed minecraft maps out right now. I really love the idea of this game. I can see it getting old after a while but the core gameplay has serious potential. There's something about having to make shelter whenever the sun goes down and lighting up torches that satisfies the caveman part of my brain.

Sounds like date rape.

Carl Sagan wrote a bunch of non-technical books about space. http://www.amazon.com/Cosmos-Carl-Sagan ... pd_sim_b_3 I never read Cosmos but I did watch the 7 dvd series. It was a little too hokey for me but it's loved by thousands of people and gets generally good reviews. I read Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything a few years ago and thought it was good. Bryson takes a bunch of technical information and presents it in a narrative non-technical style.

Shenmue. Besides being an amazing game it lead to a lot of interesting conversations with people who I would normally have nothing in common with. I'm not really into fantasy and I get bored very easily with single player games so it's a rare thing form me to finish a game like shenmue. Beating a game like CODMW2 is like opening a huge chain of wikipedia tabs because you're bored. You keep your eyes open for something interesting but you're not really thinking while you're doing it.

I also use dropbox as my primary backup. I only keep the irreplaceable stuff there. For music/movies/games I have a script that exports a list of them and I back that up. I do keep a duplicate HD of my photos at my moms house though. I physically back it up every 2 months and encrypt it. My ex girlfriends wouldn't be to happy about that :x

Interesting perspective Hendrik. Just out of curiosity how old are you?

Playing a console first person shooter is like bowling with bumper lanes. You still have fun because you're not guaranteed to knock down all the pins but there's definitely less skill involved.

I think RAID is overkill for most people. If you mirror your primary drive you're wasting so much space on system and program files. If your goal is uptime then it makes sense but if we're talking personal data you're better off backing up online, using software or both.

related religion/media discussion If you ever want to find a reason to hate humanity watch a film like the award winning, highest grossing independent Christian film : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fireproof_%28film%29 Don't drink and watch this film, you will get upset. The Christian media industry is huge, I wouldn't be surprised if this was a success.

http://www.igniq.com/2010/08/23/intel-i ... rice-cuts/

+1! aye...I must agree. I don't even know why I'm still here but I can't not check mapcore every few days (or sometimes embarrassingly every day :x).

So I take it that young people acknowledge that this social atmosphere exists whereas older people see it as more of a fact of life? I guess what I'm asking is are the younger people actively trying to modify this aspect of Scandinavian culture or are they comfortable with the kind of community it creates? The only thing I can compare it to in the US is conservativism, the way my father or grandfather might go off on a "back in my day" rant. What country do you live in sentura? Why were you raised differently? Why weren't your parents ostracized for teaching different values? Do many of your peers feel the same way? Does "getting somewhere where people can't get to you" mean anything besides a disparity in wealth?

I don't remember the specifics of the hardware but over 2 years ago I spent $1000 on a PC that still runs every game I've thrown at it with max settings. Just Cause 2, Crysis, Mass Effect 1&2. I used it as a digital audio workstation for almost a year as a hackintosh running Reason/Logic studio pro. Not to mention I'm running all this on a 30" display in 2560x1600 resolution and a 22" 1680x1050. Hardware as I remember is: Intel Q6600 quad core processor Geforce 8800GTS 8GB ram (don't remember specifics) 2TB (1 TB x 2) I'm sure you could buy all the parts in my PC for less than $500 today. If I ever do need to upgrade in the future I probably will buy from a company like Dell. Even mid level hardware can max out most software these days. Why spend an extra $500 for bragging rights when I can have a 3 year warranty instead.

Only the end of repo man is really sci fi like but it's definitely low budget. One of the most hilarious movies I've seen in a long time. I find it hard to believe this scene didn't influence pulp fiction, especially knowing Quentin Tarantino is a cult film guru:

I'm Italian and I live in an area with lots of Italian Americans. If anyone perpetuates the stereotype they do.