Messages

8926

Living Room / Re: Flash Game: Anti Tower Defense

« on: August 17, 2007, 01:38 AM »

You need an easier way to cycle between entrances and creeps.

And it needs to be fun.

Any tips for level 4? I can't get anything through.

8927

Living Room / Re: Free landline calls?

« on: August 12, 2007, 01:47 PM »

Only one minute?

I absolutely hate talking on the phone but back in 2001 when I used that program I mentioned earlier in this thread that limited it to 5 minutes, the call was over before I knew it. One minute is nothing.

8928

General Software Discussion / Re: microPledge: Funding Software by Pledging to Donate Money

« on: August 10, 2007, 05:03 PM »

Did Microsoft make us forget what "Micro" means? It means small. Tiny. Itty Bitty. MicroTransactions (Xbox 360) aren't that small, and these MicroPledge amounts don't seem very "Micro" to me, either.

 

8929

General Software Discussion / Re: Top 3 programs you use

« on: August 10, 2007, 04:58 PM »

Lately it's been:

1. Firefox
2. Windows Explorer (always have at least one open)
3. mIRC

8930

Living Room / Re: How to choose a credit card?

« on: August 07, 2007, 06:45 PM »

Let me share a personal story:

Once upon a time I was 18 years old and didn't have any credit history. I hated not being able to buy stuff or always requiring my parents to co-sign for me on stuff. I tried to get a simple card, like from a gas station but no one would give me a credit card because I had no credit history.

Finally I got an offer in the mail that gave me a card with a limit of $500 on it (with my parents as co-signers). Problem solved, I thought.

I was absolutely responsible with the card, always paying it off every month and never even approaching the limit. Then after about a year and a half I started wanting to make some bigger purchases, like a nice Tempurpedic bed for about $1,500. There was a nice deal on it where I didn't have to pay interest on it for several months and with my income I could easily pay it off in time. But for some reason I couldn't get approved for the loan. I still had to have my parents co-sign for me. :-( Thankfully (for them and me) I was responsible with my money so they were willing to do that.

Anyway, eventually I wanted to be free from the card my parents co-signed and so I got a new card with a lower limit ($300) and NO annual fee. I had that one for several years and every so often they raised my limit. Well, about two and a half years ago I got to a point where there was one month in which I could not pay off the entire balance. I had let my self-control on my spending slip a little. Long story somewhat shortened, I never have gotten that balance back down to zero in all these past two and a half years. In fact, my limit is up to somewhere around $12,500. I managed to get myself in about $8,000 debt in just two years, and those interest payments are a killer!

Over the past few months I've canceled the card, gotten new ones with balance transfer deals, and am working my debt back down to nothingness. My plan from here on out is to never ever use a credit card again. I'll stick with debit. Spend money the way it was meant to be spent: Pay with what you have, not what you might have eventually.

I personally think the best advice anyone can give you is to not get a credit card. It's best to just save up your money and have interest work for you instead of against you. There are only a couple things really worth going into debt for in my opinion, one is a (modest) house, the other is an education. And by education I mean paying for the classes and books and supplies. Not taking out a student loan to pay for your college lifestyle (car, clothes, technology, etc). Everything else should be paid with money you already have.

8931

Developer's Corner / Re: Does my web page suck?

« on: August 06, 2007, 12:35 AM »

Vista lets you adjust the volume on a per-application basis. I really liked that.

8932

Developer's Corner / Re: Does my web page suck?

« on: August 05, 2007, 08:32 PM »

Not only does his site suck, but so do his videos.

He doesn't even really seem to point out the things that are bad. He just says stuff like "Whoa! Caps here, now caps in red, caps in green, some italics!"

Basically he's trying to make fun of other sites (that do indeed suck) but he sucks at doing even that.

8933

Developer's Corner / Re: Docoto Defense - DonationCoder.com Game in Development

« on: August 05, 2007, 02:41 AM »

Another blog is up entitled Other Modes of Play!

This one talks about TGB's broken 3D Shape rotation, the transition from a 2D engine to a 3D engine, some more fabulous art by nudone, and more from the design document.

8934

Living Room / Re: Article: A Woman's Primer for Building Her Own Computer

« on: August 04, 2007, 04:22 AM »

Not sure why people think Dell is inexpensive. Every time I look at what I get for their prices I think so many times I can build my own better system for about the same amount of money or less.

For someone who doesn't know how to troubleshoot a computer, I say get a Dell with a good warranty. But if you know anything about computer hardware, build your own.

8935

Developer's Corner / Re: Docoto Defense - DonationCoder.com Game in Development

« on: July 30, 2007, 11:06 PM »

Thanks mouser!

Weekly blog entitled Artificial Intelligence and monthly GarageGames blogs are up!

I was out of town all last week so no progress was made, but this week's blog talks about the AI that will be used for the game and how it differs from all other TD games we've seen thus far.

8936

Developer's Corner / Re: Docoto Defense - DonationCoder.com Game in Development

« on: July 30, 2007, 06:47 PM »

I need a really really really big favor!

I just got back in town this morning at about 1:30am and was planning on writing my monthly GarageGames blog entry today but an emergency has come up and I need to go back out of town.

I need someone to summarize July's weekly blog entries on progress on the game and a quick summary of the different sections from the Design Doc that have been posted into a nice coherent thing I can just copy and paste for the GG blog.

8937

Living Room / Re: Recreate yourself: simpson style!

« on: July 24, 2007, 11:59 PM »

I don't think this really is that close, but I suppose it's the best it can do. I guess I don't have a lot of distinguishable features.

8938

Official Announcements / Re: How to punish DonationCoder if you are angry at being nagged to donate

« on: July 24, 2007, 11:45 PM »

Man, I thought when I joined donating $5 was kinda...cheap...(it was all I had, though ) but 1 cent???

-wreckedcarzz (July 24, 2007, 09:51 PM)

When I joined the site money was tight (when isn't it?) and I was debating on donating about $15. Then the guidelines for how much to donate made me feel justified in being a cheapskate and I ended up donating something small, like $5. But a problem with my bank (overdraft I think, I told you money was tight!) caused the transaction to be refunded a few days later. I informed Mouser and he said not to worry about it. So my immediate lifetime membership was actually free! That says so much about Mouser and his intent about doing this for the money. In other words, he isn't doing this for the money!

I have donated successfully since that first time, and to be honest I haven't taken advantage of most of the member benefits like discounted software or the membership kit, but being a part of this community has repaid my relatively small donations more than ten-fold, both literally and figuratively!

I have never donated to any other site or independent software developer because frankly I haven't found that it was worth my money. But there's something different about this site and I feel that every penny I've spent here has been worth more to me than to anyone else I may have sent it out to via DonationCredits.

8939

Living Room / Re: Tech Support vs. Phone Sex

« on: July 24, 2007, 11:29 PM »

Heh. That's funny.

I used to work for Dell Gold Tech Support.

And no, I was not a phone sex operator previously.

8940

Living Room / Re: Internet Crashed!

« on: July 24, 2007, 06:36 PM »

I didn't hear any audio. 

8941

Developer's Corner / Re: Docoto Defense - DonationCoder.com Game in Development

« on: July 20, 2007, 12:12 PM »

Another weekly blog, titled Level Design.

Didn't make much progress this week but information on level design and user created content is listed this week.

http://docoto.dcisv.com/

8942

DcUpdater / Re: LATEST VERSION INFO THREAD - DcUpdater - 1.15.01 - July 11, 2007

« on: July 18, 2007, 06:42 PM »

DC Appdater - the application updater 

-tinjaw (July 12, 2007, 10:52 AM)

I second the vote for program to be renamed the Appdater! the Uppdater looks retarded and it broke it's own start menu shortcuts when it changed to that name. Ha!

8943

Developer's Corner / Re: Docoto Defense - DonationCoder.com Game in Development

« on: July 16, 2007, 08:34 PM »

The first quarter's points of the contest have been tallied. The highest scoring game was scored at 6200 and the lowest at 1500. Docoto Defense is right in the middle at 3800. Read more about it on the MyDreamRPG forum.

Some quick suggestions for getting the points up (from Dave of MyDreamRPG) is to get up a website, show some more concept art, and improvements to the design document.

Also be sure to read up on the latest blog entry with design document details (focusing on multiplayer this time) at http://docoto.dcisv.com/.

8944

General Software Discussion / Re: Text Maker Software

« on: July 15, 2007, 01:06 PM »

I'm in the USA, but to my knowledge a lot of software and even electronics have the same numerical price in many European countries as they do in USA.

So you'll often see something for $60 and 60 Euros and 60 Pounds. It's not the same monetary value, but for some reason people seem to think the numbers look good and should all be the same.

Pointing out Microsoft as primary or expected culprits for this behavior is (in my opinion) a little silly, since it is much, much, much, much, much more widespread than them.

8945

General Software Discussion / Re: Changing Location of My Documents/Music/etc. in Windows XP

« on: July 15, 2007, 12:59 PM »

Type "control userpasswords2" on the run dialog, and there's an option "Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer". I think that'd solve your problem.

-jgpaiva (July 15, 2007, 12:49 PM)

Yeah this solved the problem, but I've never had to do this before... Thanks!

Installing .NET Framework (version 1.1, with 2.0 and 3.0 it's irrelevant) also creates a new account called "ASP.NET something" that forces the showing of the login screen. You disable it in "System Administration" (or whatever is called that applet in English XP), and you're set. This is on XP Professional, BTW. Not sure about Home Edition. Apart from that, I've never experienced something like the thing you mention.

-Lashiec (July 15, 2007, 12:43 PM)

You're right, too. There is a ASP.NET Machine account, but it doesn't even show it on the Welcome Screen. Plus, I have all the same .NET and everything installed on my other machine and it logs in automatically just fine without me having to change any of this stuff.

Anyway, problem solved. At least until the next reformat/reinstall when I forget how to do this Thanks for the help, folks!

8946

General Software Discussion / Re: Changing Location of My Documents/Music/etc. in Windows XP

« on: July 15, 2007, 12:42 PM »

Deozaan: Some times I get this too! Some times I've found when having only one user account on XP it logs in automatically (you don't have to click your username to login) and other times you have to click the username to login, even without a password.. It must be some config'able setting some where to turn the welcome screen off.

-mitzevo (July 15, 2007, 12:31 PM)

The only option I see is to not show the welcome screen, which means it shows the classic login screen (like how you log in to computers at a workplace).

8947

Official Announcements / Re: DC-IRLDD #2: DonationCoder Real Life Dinner+Drinks, Sat 7/14, Champaign Illi

« on: July 15, 2007, 12:40 PM »

Josh: You're scary in IRC, but I think you'd be even more scary IRL! 

8948

General Software Discussion / Re: Changing Location of My Documents/Music/etc. in Windows XP

« on: July 15, 2007, 12:29 PM »

This is perhaps only slightly related to topic now that Curt's asked about changing his account name.

I recently formatted and reinstalled XP. Now I only have one account on this machine, no guest account, and Administrator never shows up unless I boot into safe mode (as per usual), but for some reason it always makes me click my account to login instead of just logging me in to the only account on the system automatically.

Oh, and the account is NOT password protected.

I can never understand how it works. Usually my XP computers with just one account automatically load up to the desktop. Sometimes I'll change a setting in User Accounts and it will show the login screen when I boot up, but it seems to go away and just login automatically again after some time or some thing.

Has anyone noticed a pattern to this or does anyone know how to manually tell it to just automatically log in to the account?

8949

Living Room / Re: World of Borecraft: The Trouble with Video Games

« on: July 15, 2007, 12:14 PM »

I am a native English speaker, and I've learned tons of words and history and lore (from all sorts of historic civilizations) from games. But these were all games that were made to be fun games, not games that were made to teach.

Games made with the intent to teach something are usually very boring, like the article says. But games made to be fun can have massive amounts of educational information. Just play a Final Fantasy game to learn about all kinds of creatures and gods from many different kinds of mythologies.

I was in a Spelling Bee in elementary school where you had two teammates and each time was given about a minute to discuss the word given and agree on a spelling and write it down. There was one word given that my teammates didn't know how to spell that I learned from the game JAWS on the original NES. The word was "conch" because the conch shells were used as money to buy upgrades for your ship in the game to kill the famous shark.

That's just one very small example of where playing a video game totally unrelated to learning has given me a real-world application of knowledge I picked up from the game.

For me it was really interesting to see as I grew up playing games, then learned about things in school, that the people who make games often know their history very well.

But the point of the article (which I think was well made) is that games meant to be "educational" are usually boring. And games that are made to be fun games can often (but not always) be very educational.

8950

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Please List Any BitsDuJour.com Clones To This Thread. (Software Only Please)

« on: July 07, 2007, 07:45 PM »

Not exactly clones, since they're free, but there are:

Giveaway of the Day
and
Game Giveaway of the Day