Messages

346

Off Topic / Re: 9/11 - Not a plane?

« on: June 04, 2012, 11:54:11 AM »

I love the fact that bringing democracy to someone is depicted as bombs rather than Twitter and aid packages.

347

Off Topic / Re: 9/11 - Not a plane?

« on: June 04, 2012, 11:37:21 AM »

money.

Why not just burn down the capitol and collect the insurance money then?

This just doesn't make sense that they would spend a bunch of money blowing up two buildings they don't own so they get no money, then give out millions in aid to emergency services and victims' families, new security equipment, and spend billions on funding two wars.

While I'm at it, I'd like to also challenge the belief that the wars were about oil. Because of this war, we've dumped millions into fuel for military vehicles that we are never going to see again, plus we crippled the oil industry of a Middle Eastern country. If the war was really about oil security, I think they made a big mistake in getting rid of Saddam. They should have propped him up instead and cut a deal on cheaper oil. Of course, that would have been wrong, but it would have been far more effective at securing oil supplies. No, the war is is because our government was dumb and read too much into bad intelligence and looked for imaginary nukes. Now we are stuck with the task of nation building, which I guess some government officials thought meant building a McDonald's in Baghdad, and we'd be done in like 2 years, but it turned out to be a lot harder.

Let's hope our future President remembers this lesson before they try any military action in Iran.

348

Suggestions & Requests / Re: V21 map idea--GIANT DTS!

« on: June 03, 2012, 02:10:19 PM »

There are no real reasons that this is a bad idea

There is one reason I can think of off the top of my head. DTS shapes can only have a maximum of 9 collision meshes until TGE 1.4, and coincidentally, Blockland uses TGE 1.3. Although the engine has been heavily modified, I'm sure it's still susceptible to the collision mesh limit. This means that you would have to model stuff as whole bunch of pieces if you want to stick them together and have an accurate collision mesh.

With terrain and interiors gone in the next version, there probably won't be a mission editor anymore, and there might even be a completely different map format that is much simpler since all you need to really save is sky textures, fog color, and the map name. You're probably going to have to write up your own map format and make a script that creates the shape where you want it.

You are going to need a brick somewhere, because you can't build on just a dts shape. You'll get a floating brick error.

If you'd like to know more about why we don't make maps out of DTS shapes right now, here is some light reading:

http://www.rustycode.com/tutorials/convex.html

349

Off Topic / Re: Job Application.

« on: June 02, 2012, 12:57:26 PM »

If you're just applying to work at a store you generally won't need a resume, they'll just have a standard job application for you to fill out. Writing a resume won't hurt, since you'll need to write them later anyway. Until you graduate college and have been working for a couple of years you should keep your resume at about one page. It couldn't hurt to have a cover letter but you should customize them for each place you're applying to. I have a cover letter I've written but out of all the jobs I've ever interviewed for or applied for by email, nobody has ever asked for a cover letter. Generally the kinds of questions you'd answer in a cover letter get answered in an interview.

If you want a template you can use mine: http://db.tt/9qFx76wz

Note that for education, if you haven't graduated college yet then you should list your high school, graduation date, GPA, etc for that. If you graduated from high school in say the past 2 or 3 years, you could list activities from high school as well. "Activity" at the end refers to any non-school related clubs you might be in - scouts/4h/boys or girls club/rod and gun/etc. Don't list your gym membership or that you like hiking, although something like "completed the Appalachian trail" would be worth listing since it's a significant accomplishment.

350

Off Topic / Re: My Computer's motherboard.

« on: June 02, 2012, 12:31:18 PM »

Yes, you can just swap out your motherboard. You could also purchase a PCI RAID controller card, like this. I'd recommend going with that instead of buying a new motherboard since it's a lot cheaper. You don't have to use a RAID configuration for the disks, it will also work as just a normal old SATA expansion card. Most new motherboards don't have IDE connections.

351

Off Topic / Re: I just learnt how to ride a bike.

« on: May 25, 2012, 11:32:40 AM »

yeah i mountain bike in my 4 woods every other day.

and i go on normall bike rides all the time, it's how i get around my city, basically my mountain bike is my car until i turn 16.

I have a car and I drive it probably once a week. I ride my bike everywhere. I don't have to deal with traffic, parking, or gas.

352

Forum Games / Re: Lets work together to make the worst minecraft texture pack ever.

« on: May 23, 2012, 11:50:10 AM »

If you color in the biome-generic grass/leaves/etc, doesn't get this really stuffty looking ugly tint to it?

Oh actually, someone could modify the the biome tint thing to look absolutely handicapped, like black and white or rainbow stripes.

353

General Discussion / Re: Will this laptop be able to run blockland at all?

« on: May 23, 2012, 11:43:06 AM »

Really, really bad idea.  If you get the polarity backwards or there's too much amperage coming from the adapter, it'll fry the motherboard and brick the laptop.

On-topic: I don't think it'll run it.  It shouldn't even be able to run Windows XP, since you're looking at a max of 160MB of RAM (XP's recommended specs were 256MB).  There's no way it'll have enough spare memory to compensate for the weak graphic chipset.

Getting the polarity right is pretty easy since it should be plainly marked, getting the amperage and right wattage out of the power supply is more difficult but if you can find a spec sheet for the laptop you could buy an equivalent adapter off ebay or amazon. If the polarity is backwards or the barrel plug doesn't fit you could solder the cable straight into the computer but it would be a much better idea to buy a spare barrel plug and cut and strip the cable on the power supply side, slip some heat shrink over the wires, solder them, then heat shrink and cover with electrical tape for good measure. It's not necessarily the safest or best method but it's not a horrible idea. We use it all the time in our lab since we've got a limited budget, a shortage of universal adapters, and a surplus of bench-top power supplies and assorted adapters. Of course, this requires you to have an adapter, spare barrel plug, soldering iron, solder, and heat shrink. A cheap soldering iron that would do the job, solder, and heat shrink would probably cost around $15 - $20. A barrel plug might be the most expensive thing on the list, surprisingly, since you need a larger one that is rated for the 3 or 4 amps the power supply puts out.

Of course, if you can buy the right adapter in the first place, it's much easier.

On topic though, this computer obviously won't run Blockland. Actually, this is a very interesting problem that you run into a lot with big institutions and companies. Back when they bought these computers, XP was brand new and they ran it fine. But as the service packs and fancy anti-virus programs came out, the minimum specs for Windows XP actually increased. With automatic updates and an anti-virus program mandated by the institution... You can see where this is going. Basically you end up with hundreds of useless computers that can't even run the OS they were designed for because they're outside the minimum specs of the OS!

But these computers aren't useless - especially if they have serial ports on them. It's hard, possibly impossible, to get a new laptop with with serial ports. This probably isn't super important for most consumers, but it actually is really useful for some unique cases, especially since there are some really crappy USB-Serial cables out there.

On the consumer side, it's not useless either. If you format the computer and put an OS with much lower system requirements, say lubuntu or puppy linux, you could use it as a dedicated computer to access the Internet. Put it in your kitchen and use it to look up recipies instead of keeping around a bunch of cookbooks, hook it up to some speakers and play music over spotify or pandora or something for a free dedicated Internet radio, hang it on your wall for a really cool clock/calendar/weather radar, whatever. The cool thing about computers like this is that they're great for single purpose computers for pretty much any project you can think of, and you can get them off ebay for $30-60.

354

Off Topic / Re: Westboro Church - Most hated family in America

« on: May 15, 2012, 10:59:45 PM »

Sure it wasn't the justified, but at least don't try to make it sound like God goes around slaughtering children for fun.

I believe that in order to be considered a Christian you would be required to believe it was justified. If God always does the right thing then clearly this can't be an exception. If God doesn't always do the right thing then you've got some really big holes in your religion.

355

Off Topic / Re: Remove a letter from a game/movie title and write a synopsis about it.

« on: May 15, 2012, 09:29:36 PM »

American Pi

A quest by four high school boys to find the last digit of pi before they graduate.

356

Off Topic / Re: Number Stations Thread

« on: May 15, 2012, 09:07:32 PM »

Data transmissions can also sound really weird depending on the modulation method - it doesn't all sound like dialup sounds.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:AFSK_1200_baud.ogg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PSK31_sample.ogg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MT63_sample.ogg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:AMTOR_sample.ogg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:OLIVIA_1000_32_sample.ogg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:RTTY.ogg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hellschreiber.ogg

what about an american numbers station?

Numbers stations were most likely used to give spies instructions in foreign countries using consumer radios that wouldn't be suspicious if you had lying around your house. America probably does have numbers stations somewhere but they're probably not in use in America since our own military, intelligence, and law enforcement agents could just use radios or cellphones without suspicion.

357

Off Topic / Google's Story of Send - A look inside a data center

« on: May 15, 2012, 10:59:40 AM »

Google has produced this pretty cool interactive site that documents the travel of your email through a Google data center. They do focus pretty heavily on their own data centers. In fact, if you're actually wondering how emails are actually routed through the global network then you'll probably be disappointed. It's a good overview of the technology and work that goes into building and operating a high-end data center.

One innovation that I found particularly interesting was putting the UPS on the server board. I've seen large back-up power supplies for buildings before - one at a college and another at in Brooklyn - usually it's a huge room, sometimes more than one room, full of the enormous batteries. Sometimes they've got back-up diesel generators too, which are also huge. Seeing all of that compressed to provide power for a data center is pretty cool. I imagine they must still have back-up batteries on site for the security systems though.

358

Off Topic / Re: Beers

« on: May 11, 2012, 02:32:51 PM »

I'm not a huge fan of most mass market beers although I do drink Yuenling and Sam Adams. Right now I'm drinking some caramel colored lager made from a brewery in Florida that I've never heard of, but it's pretty good. I like to buy Shiner Bock when I can find it. Oatmeal stout is also really good. I drink when I'm on vacation, during school semesters or when I'm at home I generally don't drink at all.

when you live in belgium you LEARN to drink beer.
because well.. belgium is a pretty beer filled country but i generaly enjoy a good beer like Duvel 9,5% Cristal and many others.
THE ONLY THING I HATE IS MASS PRODUCED BEERS LIKE HEINEKEN stuffBEER

I went to a bar in New York City once and they had an imported Belgian white beer. It was like 11% ABV or something, which is the most alcoholic beer I have ever seen.

Damn I just remembered my best drunk story and would love to make a topic for drunken tales but barely anyone does/everhas/hasany drunken things.

I don't have any drunk stories because I've never been drunk. I've got stories about other people though. My brother's roommate came back once, threw up everywhere, then broke a supposedly unbreakable measuring cup that was up on a shelf. I knew someone else who crushed a light bulb doing something with a lamp in a hotel, I'm not sure what. Maybe they were trying to unscrew the light bulb to play with it. Somebody curled up and went to sleep against my dorm room door one night around 3am and started banging against the door with their fist in their sleep.

I love champagne and wine, especially when it's fancy.
Beer is good only when it's high quality. Wine/champagne can be a little stuffty and still be good.

stuffty wine is fantastic in spaghetti sauce.

359

Off Topic / Re: My school + memes

« on: May 03, 2012, 08:36:33 PM »

It doesn't go away when you go to college.

360

Mapping Help / Re: What coloring code does ME use?

« on: April 06, 2012, 03:02:37 AM »

You can also pull RGB codes off a color wheel or a website like this:
http://www.colorpicker.com/

Just divide the numbers by 255 and you'll get the decimal number you need. For example, orange (RGB 255 128 0) is 1.000 0.502 0.000, more or less.