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6276

DC Gamer Club / Re: Alien Swarm - another free game from Valve

« Last post by Deozaan on July 19, 2010, 03:58 PM »

Game page gives me the option to install now, but I keep getting "Steam servers are too busy" error messages.

EDIT: I finally got it to prepare all the files, and it is downloading now.

6277

Living Room / Re: Looking for PC game service - does this exist?

« Last post by Deozaan on July 18, 2010, 11:59 PM »

GameTap! I was going to suggest that but for the life of my I couldn't remember the name of it! My Google searches trying to find GameTap came up with that gamehouse website.

I, too, tried GameTap, but only the free mode, several years ago. The free games were kind of limited, but they did have Psychonauts for free for a while (which unfortunately didn't work very well on my PC at the time).

So, yeah, I've used GameTap but I can't really recommend it one way or another since I never actually was a subscriber.

6278

DC Gamer Club / Re: Alien Swarm - another free game from Valve

« Last post by Deozaan on July 18, 2010, 11:54 PM »

btw, the release date was pushed back one day.. cue Valve time.

-lanux128 (July 18, 2010, 09:15 PM)

Still shows the same time (about 14 hours from now) on the app page for me...

6279

Living Room / Re: Looking for PC game service - does this exist?

« Last post by Deozaan on July 18, 2010, 06:12 PM »

Try http://www.gamehouse.com/

Specifically their FunPass membership thingy:

http://www.gamehouse.com/memberships
http://www.gamehouse...rships/funpass/trial

EDIT: I guess I should make it clear that I haven't used gamehouse myself. So this isn't a recommendation for them. It's just a "I found something that might fit your description." YMMV.

6280

Living Room / Re: Should Apple recall the iPhone4? Or should the user "Hold the phone the right"?

« Last post by Deozaan on July 18, 2010, 05:55 PM »

I find it amusing how many people are attacking sites like consumer reports for still not recommending the phone. To me, it makes sense to not recommend the product unless the issue that caused them to not recommend it has been fixed. This issue has not been fixed. A workaround has been given.

-Josh (July 18, 2010, 05:44 PM)

The "attacks" I've seen against Consumer Reports is that CR themselves have rated the iPhone 4 as the best smartphone out there, yet at the same time they also do not recommend getting it because of a major design flaw.

It seems wholly contradictory on Consumer Reports' part.

6281

General Software Discussion / Re: weather.com

« Last post by Deozaan on July 18, 2010, 04:35 PM »

I prefer geoipweather.com

Detects your location from IP and displays weather info retrieved from Weather.com

-InstantFundas (July 17, 2010, 02:34 AM)

Apparently my IP resolves to a different town that I'm in, so that's not much use to me.

6282

Living Room / Re: Should Apple recall the iPhone4? Or should the user "Hold the phone the right"?

« Last post by Deozaan on July 18, 2010, 03:36 PM »

Apple will also offer refunds to customers who have already bought the Bumper, Apple's only case for the iPhone 4. Those who have already bought third-party cases are not assured of a refund, though Jobs said those who did want their money back can write to Apple and "we'll consider the request."

-http://blogs.consumerreports.org/electronics/2010/07/apple-iphone-4-iphone4-free-bumpers-for-antenna-problem-signal-loss-issue-flaw-press-conference-news-consumer-reports-ratings.html

Emphasis added.

6283

Living Room / Re: Which came first? The Chicken or the Egg? Scientists say: The Chicken

« Last post by Deozaan on July 17, 2010, 02:06 PM »

That's like asking if Eve's first son came before her! Of course the 'mother' comes first  

-CleverCat (July 17, 2010, 05:29 AM)

Not exactly. It's more like the question of whether or not Adam & Eve had bellybuttons.

If you believe in creationism, then (I think) the general consensus is that God created the chicken first, which later laid eggs (just as in your example of Eve being created before she gave birth to any of her children).

But then again, you have to remember that in science it's extremely unpopular (and often career destroying) to believe in creationism.

So you have to look at the question of the chicken or the egg from the perspective of an evolutionist to appreciate the mystery behind it. And maybe we've been asking ourselves that same stupid question so long that we've forgotten why it was asked in the first place. Maybe that's the hundred bazillion dollar question, the answer to which determines which is more accurate: creationism or evolution. Because otherwise, who really cares?

EDIT: Just read through some of the comments at the bottom of the follow-up article and see that (naturally) I'm not the first to come up with the possibility that the question is "Creationism vs. Evolution" in nature.

6284

Living Room / Re: Should Apple recall the iPhone4? Or should the user "Hold the phone the right"?

« Last post by Deozaan on July 17, 2010, 01:55 PM »

Take a look at this and decide for yourself whether that $100 million was wasted:

Apple has invested more than $100 million building its advanced antenna design and test labs. Our engineers have logged thousands of hours designing and testing iPhone 4 in these state-of-the-art facilities.

-http://www.apple.com/antenna/testing-lab.html

6285

Living Room / Re: Should Apple recall the iPhone4? Or should the user "Hold the phone the right"?

« Last post by Deozaan on July 17, 2010, 01:36 PM »

Also... http://www.apple.com/antenna/

Interesting approach.

-wraith808 (July 17, 2010, 09:26 AM)

Ha! I love how the index finger is stretched way to the top of the HTC Droid Eris. Holding it with your index finger across the top like that has got to be very uncomfortable. No one would hold it like that while actually trying to use it, since you can't actually use the phone in that position (can't text or use the touch screen (look how high up the thumb is) or anything). Also, look at the red mark on the person's thumb. It looks like whoever is holding the phone is putting a lot of pressure on it to make the blood rush to the surface of his thumb.

6286

Living Room / Re: Some initial reflections on using an ebook reader

« Last post by Deozaan on July 17, 2010, 03:41 AM »

I wouldn't go so far as to call it a clear winner

-allen (July 16, 2010, 09:05 PM)

Yeah, as soon as I posted that I started rethinking my position.

there's a one hour per visit limit on reading a nook book in B&N.

-allen (July 16, 2010, 09:05 PM)

Only one hour? That's. . . dumb.

I knew you could loan books for only 14 days, but I didn't know it was just once per book. They really need a way to transfer ownership to someone else, just as you can do with the analog books.

6287

Living Room / Re: Which came first? The Chicken or the Egg? Scientists say: The Chicken

« Last post by Deozaan on July 17, 2010, 03:19 AM »

Apparently the scientists were reading Explosm.net:

6288

Living Room / Re: Send me on a click adventure

« Last post by Deozaan on July 17, 2010, 02:19 AM »

I don't think any of these guys have blogs.  

-app103 (July 16, 2010, 07:36 PM)

Sorry. My response wasn't meant to be helpful. It was just me being confused by MilesAhead's recommendation of Kierkegard as someone off the beaten path who people don't know about.

Okay, so here's one:

http://c418.org/

Some guy makes music for fun and games, and posts a lot of it for download on his blog. (I recently recommended his "Circle" album to you on Twitter.)

6289

DC Gamer Club / Re: Alien Swarm - another free game from Valve

« Last post by Deozaan on July 17, 2010, 01:29 AM »

Cool. I played this as an Unreal Tournament 2004 mod back in the day and have been anxiously awaiting when the Source mod would be released. The project looked dead for a long time (last update was 2007) but I just checked on it in the past week or two and as of May 2010 it said something cool would happen soon. I didn't know it would be released, and free!

6290

Living Room / Re: Some initial reflections on using an ebook reader

« Last post by Deozaan on July 16, 2010, 07:14 PM »

And if you go into a B&N you can read ANY book on your Nook

!!!! that sounds amazing.

-mouser (July 16, 2010, 06:31 PM)

Of course, that's assuming it's even available on the Nook in the first place. As I understand it, the Kindle still has the upper hand when it comes to selection.

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Living Room / Re: Some initial reflections on using an ebook reader

« Last post by Deozaan on July 16, 2010, 06:03 PM »

In fact i'll go further: if you have a child you want to expose to fine literature, a wonderful gift might be to get one of these now cheap kindles, and fill it with public domain literature classics.  And it's one of the few technological devices that can't be used to waste time and rot their brains.

-mouser (July 15, 2010, 07:09 PM)

The Nook already can play games.

And you can loan eBooks to friends. And if you go into a B&N you can read ANY book on your Nook (when you leave the store the book(s) will disappear).

Sounds like the Nook is a clear winner. Except for those pesky games.

6292

Living Room / Re: Charlie Brooker's take on the new Jabscreen, er, i mean iphone 4.

« Last post by Deozaan on July 16, 2010, 05:26 PM »

Haha, this guy is great!

Best of all for Jabscreen 3 owners, however, is the news that the Jabscreen 4 also has a minor flaw. According to some reports, it can appear to lose reception under exceptional circumstances, such as a nuclear winter, or someone holding it. Apple zealots were quick to point out that you can get around the problem entirely by placing the device on a velvet cushion and gazing at it and breathing through your nose and masturbating instead of making any calls.

6293

Living Room / Re: Send me on a click adventure

« Last post by Deozaan on July 16, 2010, 04:56 PM »

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kierkegard

-MilesAhead (July 16, 2010, 03:11 PM)

Kierkegard qualifies as off the beaten path, that not many people know about? How about Plato^w? Nietsche^w? Marx^w?

They're all in the "Western Philosophy" category.

6294

Living Room / Re: Should Apple recall the iPhone4? Or should the user "Hold the phone the right"?

« Last post by Deozaan on July 16, 2010, 02:03 PM »

Looks like Apple is offering free bumpers:

Apple CEO Steve Jobs responded to weeks of criticism over a faulty antenna in Apple's iPhone 4, saying that the phone's flaws are no worse than other smartphones. Still, he said Apple would give a free case to all iPhone 4 owners to fix reported signal problems.

Still not happy, iPhone users? Jobs had another solution: Return the phone.

"This is life in the smartphone world," Jobs said. "Phones aren't perfect.

[...]

Then Jobs said the reception problem with the new iPhone exists with several other phones including the HTC Erid Droid Android and the Samsung Omnia II. The demonstrative CEO was also in a joking mood.

"X Marks the spot," Jobs said, mocking the irony of a small mark existing right where the problem seems to occur on the iPhone 4.

-http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local-beat/Apple-Ready-to-Give-Us-the-411-98555839.html?8889900

6295

General Software Discussion / Re: Synergy Plus

« Last post by Deozaan on July 16, 2010, 01:56 PM »

If you install Synergy2/Synergy+ in admin mode, it will only accept input when you are working on admin-mode programs. Whichever window has focus determines which "mode" you are in.

-CmputrAce (July 16, 2010, 09:30 AM)

That may be what broke it for me. To get it to run as a service when my computer turned on I had to run it as administrator.

I couldn't even get the mouse to go over to the other PC after that.

6296

Living Room / Re: Can Anonymous voting redefine social media?

« Last post by Deozaan on July 16, 2010, 01:45 PM »

Mattters offers easy, single-click access to high quality, real-time, news and stories about the thousands of topics that the major news organizations ignore, but which really, really matter to the rest of us.

(Emphasis added)

If the stuff on the front page of that site is what really matters in life, I must be really screwed up because nearly everything I saw there looked like a complete waste of time to me.

EDIT: Added the quote above to specify what my reply was directed to.

6297

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Mini-Review: Atrise Golden Section

« Last post by Deozaan on July 15, 2010, 02:26 PM »

The problem with reading a review by you, Chris, is that one can never be sure it isn't just one giant pun.

Thanks for the review.

6298

Living Room / Re: Which came first? The Chicken or the Egg? Scientists say: The Chicken

« Last post by Deozaan on July 14, 2010, 09:50 PM »

i have to disagree with their findings, perhaps there once existed an animal that we would not call a chicken, that could also produce this protien, which laid an egg which hatched into an offspring which had certain mutations that would qualify it as a chicken? thats just my opinion.

-Krishean (July 14, 2010, 09:40 PM)

I suppose that could be. Unless this amazing scientific breakthrough () disproves the theory of evolution as well.

6299

DonationCoder.com Newsletters / Re: --> Newsletter for July 14th, 2010 - "Friends of a Feather"

« Last post by Deozaan on July 14, 2010, 09:39 PM »

Thanks for the newsletter! This time I was actually had enough free time that I was able to read it on the first day it came to my inbox, rather than a month or two later.

EDIT: It's also nice to see that the newsletter e-mail process has been sped up. So now it doesn't take two days after the newsletter is posted before it makes it to my inbox!

6300

General Software Discussion / Re: Synergy Plus

« Last post by Deozaan on July 14, 2010, 09:35 PM »

I gave Synergy+ a try and it was working for a while but broke when I selected the option to run when my account logged in.

It must have been starting a (hidden) service, but it would never connect, and when I tried to manually start the program on both PCs, they wouldn't ever connect.

So. . .

Synergy--;  // (Uninstalled)