topbanner_forum
  *

avatar image

Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Did you miss your activation email?

Login with username, password and session length
  • Saturday September 19, 2026, 11:37 am
  • Proudly celebrating 15+ years online.
  • Donate now to become a lifetime supporting member of the site and get a non-expiring license key for all of our programs.
  • donate

Recent Posts

Pages: prev1 ... 350 351 352 353 354 [355] 356 357 358 359 360 ... 404next
8851
DC Gamer Club / Steam Thanksgiving Sales
« Last post by wraith808 on November 24, 2010, 04:04 PM »
It's that time of year again... I figured as (if) I get the chance, I'll post highlights from the bargains here.

2010-11-29
The last day of the Steam sales for the Thanksgiving Holidays, and it seems to be going out with a whimper rather than a bang.
Beat Hazard - $4.99
- As was said earlier about World of Goo, this also was a better deal in the bundle before.  Other than that, I'm not sure about the game, but I just thought I'd throw that in.

Metro 2033 - $10.00
- I got it from a previous sale for a little bit more ($13.33 if I remember correctly).  I haven't played it, but my reasoning is still sound- solid meta-critic reviews, and good gameplay videos.  If I hadn't bought it then, I would now.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic - $2.50
- At that price, I'm buying it again to consolidate my digital collection, even though I have it on Direct2Drive, *and* a physical version.  It's that good.  Of course, it helps that I only paid $2.50 for the other digital edition...

Aliens vs. Predator - $6.80
- If you're not an Aliens/Predator fan, it's a middling shooter, with competent implementation and mechanics.  If you are, it's the best version yet, in single-player, and MP is good too, other than some balance issues.  I bought it at full price, and don't feel cheated now that it's this cheap.

Indie Air Pack - $4.99
- There's some real goodness packed into this pack; I have most of them, and unlike my big budget game purchases have played them (strange how I play indie games before the big budget ones).  They're definitely worth admission at normal prices, and a steal at this price.

Note: There's also the classic Monkey Island, but I don't say too much about this because I've never played it.  Never got into the TPP adventure genre.

2010-11-28
World of Goo - $2.50
-A great indie game, especially at $2.50.  It's a physics puzzler where you build things with ... goo.  It's hard to explain, other than that it's fun.

Splinter Cell Conviction - $20.09 (Also see this thread if you want it even cheaper)
-Another great game- the best in the series to me.  It's even grittier than normal, and that's saying something for Splinter Cell.  I have it on the 360, even though I love this type of game on the PC; it has a form of DRM that's pretty hard to swallow, especially if you live in a rural area like me with an uncertain internet connection.  You drop, and it drops.  In a single player game.  I can recommend the game, but not the DRM.

Street Fighter IV - $10.20
-Another good game that I have on the 360, but this time, because I don't like to play fighters on the PC.  There's already a sequel out, so this is an older game, at least on the console (and that one is going for $19.99 on amazon this weekend).  But it's still good.

Mount and Blade Complete - $10.00
-I only have the original, not the expansion, but I can say that it's loads of fun.  It's a lot different than what I expected, but in a good way.  It's sort of a role playing sandbox RTS type of game; you play one character, but control a band, except for in combat, where you control your character.  It's a great game; I want the expansion, but the way I play games, I figure that I'll wait until it's available separately. :)

The Orange Box - $7.50
-I won't say anything other than if you don't have it, pick it up.  Especially at this price.

The Ball - $9.99
-I have it, but haven't played it.  :-[  It looks like a good game though; for a synopsis see this DC thread.

2010-11-27
Another day, and more bargains.  Off topic, but looking at the bargains, either I spend way too much money on steam for games that I don't play, or there's just not that much selection in these sales.  I hope it's the latter, but I fear it's the former.

Left 4 Dead 2 - $5.00
- At that price, it looks like a bargain.  I have it, but haven't played it yet; I bought Killing Floor a bit before that, and Nation Red a bit after, so between those two, I get my zombie fix.  I should play it at some point though.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - $14.99
- Excellent game, though even at $14.99 it's a bit overpriced since the second one is where all of the action is right now (and Black Ops).  Still, it's a decent buy (I bought it even though I have the physical copy).

Supreme Commander 2 - $3.75
- At that price it's a steal, even though I have it and haven't played it yet.

Galcon Fusion - $2.50
- I have it on my iPhone and it's definitely a cool idea, though it does lose it's appeal after a while.  There's only so much strategy you can fit in when the game is going this fast.  I have it on the PC too, but ... haven't played it.

Laura Croft and the Guardian of Light - $7.49
Laura Croft's return to gaming, and if not triumphant, it's at least not bad.  Again, I have it, but I've barely played it.  I see a pattern forming here...

Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City - $10.20
I don't have this one, but it's the DLC for GTA4, which I do have.  There were raves about GTA4... if you liked that, then I hear that these two DLC are worth the purchase, and are stand-alone if you don't have GTA4.

For the indie pack of the day, we have the Indie Pulse Pack for $4.99.  I have AudioSurf, and have actually played it a bit... it's repetitive after a while, but novel.  I haven't heard anything about the other games in the pack.

2010-11-26
Again, I have all of the good ones, and don't want the bad ones :)  I did figure out that the sales are cumulative, meaning that after the 24 hours, it seems that they are adding sales and the old ones don't disappear.

EDIT: It seems to work that way for *some* of the games.  Probably the ones that don't sell that well to begin with.

Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box - $14.99
- Excellent game, but more for consoles IMO.  I have it, but I play it on my 360 a lot more than on my PC.

Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War 2 - $13.60
- Again, and excellent game, and an excellent value.  I've gotten out of the RTS genre, but this one has something special.  But again, I already have it.

Empire: Total War - $14.99
- Excellent game, though getting a bit long in the tooth.  The only area that I continue in regularly in the RTS genre is the historical RTS, as I've always liked wargames, back to ASL and way too much money invested in games by The Gamers.  But again, I already have it.

Those three are the must buys if you don't have them, though the prices are a bit more than most things I buy during these sales, so I'm not sure if I'd go out of my way to buy them at these prices considering the age of the games, other than DOW2.  Torchlight and Machinarium are also supposed to be good; I have them, but haven't played either so I can't really give a recommendation, other than the fact that they're cheap. :)

2010-11-25
The thanksgiving day sales are a bit underwhelming.
EVE Online Tyrannis - $5.00
- I've always wanted to like this, but it seems a bit too much like work.  I want a Sci Fi MMORPG, but I want it to still be a game.

Defense Grid: The Awakening - $2.50
- I've heard good things about this, but I don't like tower defense games

Batman: Arkham Asylum Game of the Year Edition - $10.20
- So good, I've bought it on PC and Xbox 360

Indie Story Pack - $4.99
- Another pack of indie games, this time with an emphasis on story and worlds.  Nothing really catches my fancy though.

Kane and Lynch: Dog Days - $5.00
- I like the story, and the idea.  But from what I've heard about this and the first one, the execution falls flat.  But for $5.00 I might pull the trigger.  I would have definitely, if I hadn't already done the same for Alpha Protocol on the sales yesterday (which is still showing up at the sales price as of 13:20 EDT... strange)

2010-11-24
Sam and Max: The Devil's Playhouse - $10.50
- Episodic Sam & Max... what's not to like?

The Deus Ex Collection - $4.99
- A very gripping storyline in the first one, and a positively huge world!  The second one falls a little flat, but is still a good ride.

Indie Energy Pack - $4.99
- 5 indie action games at one low price.

Borderlands - $9.99
- Very much a group experience... a shooter with RPG elements.  Get it so I have more people to play with!

There's also a 6 pack for Borderlands, an 8 pack for Deus Ex, and a 6 pack for Half-Life 2
8852
Living Room / Re: Still holding out, won't join Facebook
« Last post by wraith808 on November 23, 2010, 10:42 AM »
You allow your phone to ring?  I keep my cell on vibrate, and my phone only rings for certain people.  Others I get back to when I have the time.  When my wife is at home, it's a different thing... but for my purposes, it might as well not be there.

It's a bit hard to get the phone to vibrate, it's attached to the wall.....I have to wait for an earthquake.

I have a mobile - it's on all the time, (although hardly ever carried), and that's just to receive calls from the property manager.  My wife has a mobile, it's turned on when she wants to make an outgoing emergency call, (car broke down, etc), at all other times it's off.

That's why I use google voice.  When I am the only person at home, that's the only way to get the phone to ring if you're not on my ring list.
8853
Living Room / Re: Still holding out, won't join Facebook
« Last post by wraith808 on November 22, 2010, 11:27 PM »
Probably a generational thing too. My great-grandfather disliked telephones because he felt they were intrusive. He likened them persons who banged on his front door anytime they wanted to ask him something rather than do the polite thing and wait till they saw him in public; or better yet, sent him a letter he could reflect on and respond to at his own convenience.

Good on him!

Phones are intrusive - that's why they make noises demanding attention.

AFAIAC, the only people who don't find them intrusive are either business people who depend on them or people suffering from ADS, (the constant need to SMS included).

The only time our phone rings is when someone wants something, until then everyone's happy to wait until we get together or email.  This means there is more to talk about face-to-face instead of everyone sitting around wondering what to do since they all discussed what bowel movements they had the previous morning via "social media".

I have the same outlook towards "social media" as your ancestor and with any luck I'll never get over it.

You allow your phone to ring?  I keep my cell on vibrate, and my phone only rings for certain people.  Others I get back to when I have the time.  When my wife is at home, it's a different thing... but for my purposes, it might as well not be there.
8854
Developer's Corner / Re: .NET/VS 2008 Debugger question
« Last post by wraith808 on November 20, 2010, 09:04 AM »
So would that give any less veracity to the answer?  Or is that just something that should be noted on the answer?
8855
Developer's Corner / Re: .NET/VS 2008 Debugger question
« Last post by wraith808 on November 19, 2010, 10:17 PM »
No, it was a debug build, with optimization turned off.  It makes sense that to do some of the things that the debugger does, it violates the rules of the compiler, though I never really thought about it in that manner.
8856
Developer's Corner / Re: .NET/VS 2008 Debugger question
« Last post by wraith808 on November 19, 2010, 06:36 PM »
I already did. :) http://stackoverflow...out-of-scope-objects

Someone answered it, and the answer does seem feasible, even though it's mind-boggling.

The really squirrelly thing that's bothering me is the fact that in the code (break and edit) the object shows as null, and you can't access any of the properties via intellisense.  But in the watch window and in the immediate window, you can access all of the properties, and it's of the object that's gone out of scope.  It didn't cause any problems because I was declaring/instantiating it later in the scope, but that shows me that there's *something* weird about it because if it was actually declared the compiler would have complained about the re-declaration.
8857
General Software Discussion / Re: Why the aversion to .NET Frameworks?
« Last post by wraith808 on November 19, 2010, 01:14 PM »
For the cases where MI would be sane in C++, you use interfaces (and possibly composition) in modern languages.

Well, then I must be insane  :Thmbsup:, I am using it a lot and it has saved me a hundreds of lines of code. The multiple-inheritance workarounds cause code duplication or bloat.

Not if utilized correctly.  That's the difference, I think.  It is a different mindset to a certain extent, because you have to think differently to get your work done.  Your design has to be different.  But, after doing it that way, it makes much more sense IMO.  And is definitely a lot more readable and maintainable.  And in the end, especially if you're working on something that someone else created, that's what makes the difference.
8858
Developer's Corner / .NET/VS 2008 Debugger question
« Last post by wraith808 on November 19, 2010, 12:33 PM »
An interesting question about the veracity of information seen in the debugger.

Given this snippet of code

Code: C# [Select]
  1. // Get first key //
  2.             int? keyEDISecurity = this.WorkQueue.GetNextWorkItem();
  3.  
  4.             // Done? //
  5.             while (keyEDISecurity != null)
  6.             {
  7.                 try
  8.                 {
  9.  
  10.                     ...
  11.  
  12.                     // Write changes //
  13. -->                List<ISNLEditableObject> changedRows = this.WorkQueue.GetChangedRows((int)keyEDISecurity);
  14.                     this.Writer.Write(changedRows, WriteFlags.Transactional);
  15.  
  16.                     ...
  17.                 }
  18.                 catch (Exception ex)
  19.                 {
  20.                     string errorMessage = "There was an exception processing KeyEDISecurity " + keyEDISecurity.ToString() +
  21.                         " - " + ex.Message;
  22.  
  23.                     // output error info //
  24.                     Console.WriteLine(errorMessage);
  25.                     EDI.WriteLog(errorMessage);
  26.                 }
  27.                 finally
  28.                 {
  29.                     // Remove all data for the KeyEDISecurity from work queue cache //
  30.                     this.WorkQueue.RemoveData((int)keyEDISecurity);
  31.                 }
  32.  
  33.                 // Get next work item //
  34.                 keyEDISecurity = this.WorkQueue.GetNextWorkItem();
  35.             }

Before the line with the -->, the changedRows is null, as it should be.  It then goes out of scope, as you get the next work item.  You then come back in, and before the line with the --> if you access changedRows, it should be again null, as it hasn't be declared.

If you break and edit, then, as you expect, you can't access changedRows, because it's gone out of scope, and not been declared yet.  If you evaluate it (either by mouseover or using the immediate window), you have access to the changedRows from the previous iteration of the loop.  WTH?

Anyone seen this?  It doesn't affect the program as it seems to act correctly in code, but the debugger issue caused a waste of time since it wasn't behaving as expected.

Thoughts?
8859
General Software Discussion / Re: Why the aversion to .NET Frameworks?
« Last post by wraith808 on November 18, 2010, 09:17 PM »
The hostility towards VB is... probably because the entry barrier is so low. Too many people who shouldn't be programming

There's more to it than that. If that were it, there would be just as much or even more disgust for PHP. It's part of it, but there's more to it than just that. The barrier for PHP is even lower.

The hostility towards VB.NET is the legacy of VB.  I'm having to do some work in VB6 right now.  And it's positively painful.  Especially when you start adding in COM and such.
8860
Unfinished Requests / Re: One word, three dictionaries
« Last post by wraith808 on November 18, 2010, 09:14 PM »
If you wanted to search specific dictionaries then you may be able to cobble something together with a macro to open new tab, then use site:merriam-webster.com word or site:thefreedictionary.com sesquipedalian

The dictionaries I am talking about are software ones, not on-line.

Oh... I misunderstood too.  I was allowing to use the websites; I didn't realize they were software based.
8861
General Software Discussion / Re: Why the aversion to .NET Frameworks?
« Last post by wraith808 on November 18, 2010, 10:54 AM »
Using .net properly is harder than using C++.
I suppose you need to define properly.


* It misuses the C name. How does Ms sell the new VB? It renames it.
Oh, that's flamebait if I ever saw it. Using C in the name is, imho, entirely appropriate - it's a C-based language after all, calling it a VB is really lame.
Agreed 100%.  Comparing C# to VB is like...  I can't even find a good approximation, because they're just not the same at all.  Syntactically it's quite close to C++, and structurally, you couldn't really objectively compare it to VB.

Flamebait +1.
8862
Unfinished Requests / Re: One word, three dictionaries
« Last post by wraith808 on November 18, 2010, 10:49 AM »
How about the same word defined from the different sources appearing in one interface instead?

would that be possible wraith, were you thinking of have a go? or making a suggestion
or is there software out there that already does this well?

I have something, but I haven't had a chance to put the finishing touches on it.  My original was to use multiple browsers, but the only thing I could use for that was IE; the firefox embeddable was not quite ready for primetime.  My second approach was to automate the browser, but I just didn't like that.  So what I settled on was using regex to specify where the search term appeared in the page, and looking for that in the returned html.  It's not exact yet; I need to refine the Regex, but I'm also putting that into a config file so that you can tweak them (and create new ones).  I'll try to get to that this weekend; I wish you had posted this last week, b/c I had forgotten about it and had a lot of time on my hands with the family out of town.  But I'll at least try to get the preliminary posted this weekend if nothing else.
8863
Living Room / Re: Is "Quick Format" safe?
« Last post by wraith808 on November 15, 2010, 04:05 PM »
I use quick format anytime that I'm formatting a drive for myself that I have been using previously and having no problems with.  And I've never had a problem with it, personally.  /me shrugs
8864
Living Room / Re: coolest ipad app
« Last post by wraith808 on November 14, 2010, 10:38 AM »
Man... Fruity Loops... ROCKS~! LOVE that stuff!

Just wish I had time for it... Sigh...

Oh yeah... Fruity Loops *does* rock... I *love* that app!
8865
Living Room / Re: coolest ipad app
« Last post by wraith808 on November 14, 2010, 10:36 AM »
found it -
I'm not a musician but if I were I think I'd be wanting this one

(see attachment in previous post)
http://www.rebirthapp.com/

I don't have an iPad yet, but man... Gotta give this a +10!

Propellerhead is simply amazing. Reason is mind-blowingly amazing.

I used to use a Reason demo tune as my wakeup music in MusicMatch Jukebox. It was just wicked cool.

I think anyone will have a hard time finding some cooler software than ReBirth for the iPad.

Yeah... I'd never heard of Rebirth.  I looked at it after I posted my links, and I must say, they pale in comparison.   :greenclp:  And for $14.99... purchased!
8866
Living Room / Re: coolest ipad app
« Last post by wraith808 on November 12, 2010, 12:54 PM »
If you like that one...

ipad-mixr-turntables.png
ipad-mixr-fx.png

http://ipadmixr.com/
8867
Living Room / Re: Holiday Chains and Debt Chains... not what you might think?
« Last post by wraith808 on November 12, 2010, 11:47 AM »
That's pretty cool!  Thanks for the idea!
8868
Living Room / Re: coolest ipad app
« Last post by wraith808 on November 12, 2010, 11:42 AM »
All of the apps I have and use regularly

Accessories
- Awaken
- 1Password
- Desktop
- Dictionary
- Wikipanion

Productivity
- QuickOffice
- GoodReader
- Notarize
- Penultimate
- Evernote
- Index Card
- My Writing Nook
- Dropbox
- Jungle Disk
- Wordpress
- YNAB (It's an iPhone app, but it's great so I put up with it...)
- iMockups

Internet/News
- XMarks
- Read It Later
- TweetDeck
- Reeder
- iCabMobile
- NPR News
- BBC News

Media
- Netflix
- OnSong
- Adobe Ideas
- Pandora
- VLC

Shopping
- AppShopper
- eBay
- Amazon Windowshop

eBooks
- Comics
- Stanza
- eReader
- BibleReader
- nook

Games
- NS Hex
- Samurai
- Carcassone
- Kingdoms
- Money
- High Society
- BoardBox
- Build-A-Lot 2

Gaming Tools
- Armory (iPhone App)
- WOWTalent
- DMToolkit

Of these, I use DMToolKit, DropBox, GoodReader, nook, Comics, iCabMobile, Reeder, Read It Later, Evernote, Windowshop, eBay, Index Card, OnSong, Netflix, eReader, Stanza, and NPR the most.  I rarely play games on it- playing mostly on my iPhone it seems, though the board games play really well on the iPad when you're playing against someone.  By using DMToolKit, DropBox, GoodReader, Evernote, Index Card, iCabMobile, and Desktop, I rarely use my books at my D&D games.  I use the iPad and my tablet in conjunction to take the place of a back breaking number of books and binders and notebooks.  And it all fits behind the screen.
8869
Living Room / Re: Violence in Video Games & the Law
« Last post by wraith808 on November 10, 2010, 11:45 AM »
Instead, foment cooperation instead of competition. All games and school are about competition instead of cooperation. Heck the whole system is about competition.

I, for one, am very intrigued by how you would suggest you/we/they "foment cooperation?" 

You can reward success without the intense competition that it creates if you stop punishing those who perform, but just aren't in first.

An example.  I work for a company that pays a base salary, and a bonus depending on performance every six months.  You work on a team, and the final goal is to get the tasks through the system, and make quality software... but the scale that they judge you on is a bell curve.  It's a scale from 1-4, and among all of your peers (meaning everyone with the same title as you), there has to be a certain number of 1s, 2s, 3s, and 4s.  It's based on your performance but relative to the others.  And you can't always make a relative choice.  So in a collaborative environment, you compete against others, while trying to help each other reach the goal.  That's pretty counter-intuitive.  If the scale was based purely on your performance, that would be something different, but the fact that for me to succeed, someone else has to fail makes it more competitive than cooperative.
8870
Living Room / Bad News for Heroscape Fans
« Last post by wraith808 on November 08, 2010, 10:11 AM »
http://boardgamenews...le-cry-wizards-coast

Wizards of the Coast, which took responsibility for the Heroscape game line from Hasbro subsidiary Milton Bradley a couple of years ago, has now announced that it's shutting down the line. Here's the text of the official WotC announcement:

After a thorough evaluation, we have made the decision to discontinue our Heroscape line in order to focus our efforts on our core brands. While this decision means that we will no longer be developing new content for the game, existing Heroscape products will still remain available from Wizards of the Coast and sold in the hobby game channel while supplies last.

The next and final Heroscape expansion, Moltenclaw’s Invasion, will be released on November 16, 2010. This final assortment, which is playable with the Heroscape D&D Master Set, will include the best and most iconic creatures from the worlds of Dungeons & Dragons. Orcs, bugbears, dragons and frost giants will all come together to join the greatest battle of all time.

The WotC website has a FAQ related to the announcement, but you won't learn much more by visiting the page.

On the positive side, WotC subsidiary Avalon Hill now has a game page for Richard Borg's Battle Cry, with a release date of November 23, 2010.

On another note, I didn't know that Avalon Hill was a subsidiary of WotC... I knew Hasbro had bought them, but I didn't know that they had put them under Wizards management...
8871
Living Room / Re: I'm thinking about learning how to program.
« Last post by wraith808 on November 04, 2010, 07:25 PM »
^ We can agree on that!  ;)
8872
Living Room / Re: I'm thinking about learning how to program.
« Last post by wraith808 on November 04, 2010, 01:19 PM »
I guess my point is that you *can* do it that way.  Then when you're ready to move up, you stay in the same language/environment.  My first C# program:

Code: C# [Select]
  1. [assembly: System.Reflection.AssemblyVersion("1.0")]
  2. namespace HelloWorldNamespace
  3. {
  4.   public class HelloWorldForm: System.Windows.Forms.Form
  5.   {
  6.     public HelloWorldForm()
  7.     {
  8.       this.Text = "Hello World!";
  9.     }
  10.     [System.STAThread]
  11.     public static void Main()
  12.     {
  13.       System.Windows.Forms.Application.EnableVisualStyles();
  14.       System.Windows.Forms.Application.Run(new HelloWorldForm());
  15.     }
  16.   }
  17. }

Compiled from the VS2005 command line with
csc HelloWorld.cs /reference:System.dll /reference:System.Windows.Forms.dll

A little more work than other options, but the long term payoff is worth it, at least IMO.  And you could do the same using console options, and not have to worry about any of the things that you talk about.

But in the end, it really depends on what you want to do with the skills that you learn, IMO.  That should dictate where you start.
8873
General Software Discussion / Re: EditPad Pro 7-BETA
« Last post by wraith808 on November 04, 2010, 12:44 PM »
There's always the trial.  What makes it a no-brainer for you or not is for you to decide.
8874
Living Room / Re: I'm thinking about learning how to program.
« Last post by wraith808 on November 04, 2010, 12:40 PM »
Anders Hejlsberg was senior architect on Delphi (language) and was the same on C#(language).  It wasn't really the RAD/drag and drop stuff... it was more the language constructs and the low level .NET architecture.  Drag and Drop isn't really anything to learn, IMO.  You just do it.  There might be intricacies in UI design, but other than that, there shouldn't be a significant learning curve.  The language idiosyncrasies are the issue (not even the language itself if you already know how to program at all, truthfully).
8875
General Software Discussion / Re: EditPad Pro 7-BETA
« Last post by wraith808 on November 04, 2010, 12:26 PM »
I saw it and actually thought about if I should buy it.
But e looks not mighty enough to be worth the price...

Out of the box, I'd agree.  Where it comes into its own is its extensibility, and the ability to use textmate bundles.  You can pretty much make it into whatever you want.  Add to that the command line capabilities of the new version, and it was pretty much a no-brainer for me (of course, I got upgrade pricing, so that helped).
Pages: prev1 ... 350 351 352 353 354 [355] 356 357 358 359 360 ... 404next