Emasher

The only problem I've had with DRM has really been when I've wanted to hook my computer up to a TV or something like that where I don't have access to an Ethernet cable. And that was with Steam's DRM, which is generally fine. As much as I don't like being punished for actually being one of the people who pays for games, I'm not sure there really is a solution.

The rivers look amazing, regardless of whether or not they have current. I tried it, but I really didn't like it much. It just felt a little too crowded. Ended up getting rid of it. Hopefully the villages in 1.8 will be a little bit more spread out and be balanced better.

Its not a relationship like that, said person expressed interest in me in that way, but its unlikely to work out that way due to the distance. Its made me change the way I think though, I'm more confident that I will find someone now.

I've realized that I'm not as "foreveralone" as I once thought. Unfortunately the person who helped me to realize this lives in a different country.

I didn't realize that.

I'm sure it will go on sale on steam within a few months. I'll probably pick it up at that point provided the reviews are decent.

I've been considering writing up a tutorial to teach people here very basic game programming (probably with XNA and C#). I'm just a first year CS student (not that I haven't been doing quite a bit of stuff on my own) though, so I'm not really sure I could put together something good enough. The idea of putting together a game as sort of a forum project is certainly an interesting idea though.

I finally got my timetable for the upcoming year finalized to day (I hope). I ended up taking some second year computer science courses rather than taking physics as an elective, as well as dropped history in favor of psychology (which might come in handy down the road, history would have purely been for personal interest). I think I've made the right decision, but time will tell.

I'm somewhat more familiar with desktop hardware than laptop hardware, but if the laptop versions of the i5s are that similar in terms of power, I imagine I'll probably be fine with the i5 (although I can't remember if how many cores the particular CPUs in the x220 have) (I have a 760 in my desktop and it works fine for everything I do). I'm probably going to go for 4GB of RAM, I can't see myself doing anything that will use more than that on this machine.

I'm starting university full time (I took a single course over the summer) in a few weeks, and I'm getting to the point now where I need to think about purchasing a laptop. I'm living at home so I still have access to my desktop, therefore I don't need something incredibly powerful. In addition I plan on majoring in Computer Science if that means anything to anyone. Mainly I need something that's extremely portable, durable and has a good battery life, but also has decent enough specs that it will last me a few years. At the moment I've mainly been considering the Lenovo Thinkpad x220 (the higher end one). Mainly I'm just wondering if anyone has experience with the x220 or can offer other advice related to this. I'm open to other brands, but I'm not going to buy complete garbage like Acer. A MacBook Air is also out of the question due to the difficulty of installing an OS on it that isn't OS X or Windows (The CS department at my university is apparently very pro GNU/Linux). I'm also trying to figure out if I should pay a little bit more for a better CPU, I don't think I need to go up to the i7, but I haven't ruled out a slightly higher end i5.

On Thursday I had my wisdom teeth removed. The various drugs I've been on since, as well as the fact that its difficult to eat right now are really starting to screw me up. At first I was on Tylenol 3, which actually felt not bad, but as it contains caffeine, I ended up having to switch to extra strength Advil to actually get to sleep. The Advil is basically making it so I can't concentrate on anything. If i start trying to play a game for instance, I just end up getting bored and quitting a few minutes latter. It also seems to be messing with my short term memory, and making me drowsy. I can't wait to get off of this stuff, but that could take quite some time. Perhaps on the bright side, I've managed to concentrate on the various coding projects I've been working on to work out a few bugs in them. On a somewhat related note I might actually start releasing that basic game programming tutorial on here that I was talking about a few months back, as now that the summer course I was taking is over, I've got a bit more time on my hands. TL;DR: Extra strength Advil is terrible.

All I can really remember was dwarf's comment, but he was called out on it and apologized latter on if I recall correctly.

I completely agree. Going to university is not for everyone. A lot of people go there for the wrong reasons and end up studying subjects that aren't going to help them at all. It was really just an example. It also depends highly on the country. For instance in Canada right now, high tech jobs are in demand, as well as the trades. Computer Science and Engineering graduates are in high demand right now, these particular fields really require you to go to university. Trade jobs are also in high demand. What I was more getting at was that people should try and develop skills that are in demand in their particular country rather than just remaining unskilled and having the expectation that someone should hire them. Fair enough. The other scholarships were for people who's parents belonged to specific fraternal organizations who generally are already rich in the first place. There are relatively few opportunities for a genuinely disadvantaged white male compared to people of other "races" as far as scholarships go. The problem that I have isn't that there are more scholarships for minorities. I really don't care about that (as I think I mentioned), I firmly believe that people should be able to spend their money where they see fit. I was more trying to highlight the fact that white people are scrutinized much more for anything they do that has anything to do with "race". For instance, an organization that celebrates "White" culture (note, I'm talking specifically about organizations that do NOT partake in racism, before someone accuses me of supporting the KKK or something like that) would likely be labeled as racist regardless of the activities the group participates in. A similar group made up of for instance "black" people that celebrates "black" culture would likely be praised for doing pretty much the same thing.

We're not talking simply about extending our lives 20 years though. We're talking about life support systems that will possibly allow us to live hundreds of years longer. I suggest looking into the writings of Ray Kurzweil, I understand what he says isn't absolute proof, but its still worth considering what he has to say given that he probably understands better than anyone where we're headed.

Perhaps you should look at why the majority of people are offended by such jokes. Do you honestly believe people can legitimately get offended by the sort of lighthearted humor that's been expressed her? Aside from perhaps one comment in this entire thread (which the author has already apologized for), there hasn't been any real racism here. Nobody has suggested that we should harm or put at a disadvantage anyone of any particular ethnic group. People get offended by statements like the jokes in this thread because they were raised being told they should be offended every time someone so much as mentions race, and lack the critical thinking skills to analyze the situation and figure out what's really going on. In addition, there's no such thing as "reverse racism". The word "Racism" is not tied to any one particular ethnic group. Its a neutral word, and someone of any ethnicity who tries to cause harm to anyone of any other ethnicity simply because of their ethnicity is conducting in racism. There also is (although not a severe) systemic oppression against white people developing in the western world. You just have to look as far as affirmative action programs (which hurt east Asians as well as whites), and the general attitude that people in the west have towards being politically correct and against white people having any sort of celebrations of their culture to see where we're headed. Consider this, if you look through the list of scholarships available in any high school in my country (Canada), you'll notice that 90% of them require the recipient to either be a visible minority (which in Canada generally either means black or aboriginal) or a woman. Now I'm not complaining about this, people with money should be able to choose where they spend that money and if they want to set up specific requirements for who can receive it, its their decision. However, imagine for a moment that I decided I wanted to offer a scholarship that could only be given to white males. I would likely be sued for doing the exact same thing as everyone else. I should apologies if my posts aren't really making that much sense at the moment, I had my wisdom teeth out a few days ago and the medication I'm taking is making writing this all out more difficult than usual.

Notch has announced via Google+ that he's re-working the biome code to allow for rivers. Its not clear whether or not they will be included in the adventure update or not, but it sounds like they will be.

From Dust is apparently out in a few days. Is anyone else interested in this?

To make a worthwhile prediction, you can't discount any variables. We obviously don't know the specifics, but making a claim like "will not happen in our lifetimes" generally is meaningless in this day and age. We're probably one of the first generations that really has no idea how long our lifespans will be.

This is discounting the potential advancements in medical, neural, and computer science, as well as computer engineering that could potentially lead to our lifespan increasing, well, quite possibly indefinitely.

I've said it before an I'll say it again. Having a job is not a right. Employment is based around an individual having certain skills, and another individual or organization having a need for these skills. If you do not have any skills whatsoever, you are worthless in the world of employment, and you have to take what you can get. You can do all sorts of things to gain skills that make you more employable though. The most obvious being formal post secondary education, but naturally not everyone can afford this (I'm aware that not everyone can gain the necessary prerequisites to attend a university either, but that's ALMOST always down to the fault of the individual and the poor decisions that they've made). There are tons of other ways to gain skills to make you employable though, volunteer work, seminars, certifications, etc. Then there's of course the path of starting your own business. Its not that there aren't people who have been given the rotten end of the stick and will find improving their situation harder, but the fact is, they CAN improve their situation. It appears, however, they'd rather be out stealing TVs and mobiles than actually trying to do anything about that.

I don't think you're helping the situation.

Suggesting, not proving. There's a possibility it was another person, however there's also the possibility that Oswald just made an incredibly difficult shot. Even if there was another person involved, chances are it would have just been one of Oswald's socialist buddies, not necessarily KGB agents. I was more, however, referring to the conspiracy theories that involve the so called Illuminati killing him because they thought he was going to reveal details about their secret club.

And we're not talking about you personally. We're talking about a group that just happens to have a lot of black people in it. If you're insulted simply by statistics you really need to, as others have said "Chill out".

Consider what else you could buy with the money. For $500 you could put together a fairly decent computer, get a new monitor or two, or all sorts of other stuff that might actually help you be productive. For the most part an iPad is just an entertainment item, you probably already even have multiple devices that can do the same thing (smartphone, iPod, laptop etc.).

My opinion on this and conspiracy theories in general is that if people spent the time they do coming up with this fiction, actually becoming educated and doing research, we'd be a much more advanced civilization today. It might be fun to speculate about, but that's never going to get us anywhere. When there's no evidence whatsoever, theories become little more than entertainment. I especially dislike people who try and push their theories as fact (9/11, JFK Assassination, Moon Landing, etc.).