Recent Posts

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Living Room / Re: Forum registration explosion

« Last post by wraith808 on September 14, 2010, 02:07 PM »

Oooh... thanks!  I run SMF too (an older version)... I'll have to see if it support that.

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Living Room / Re: Forum registration explosion

« Last post by wraith808 on September 14, 2010, 01:30 PM »

http://www.stopforumspam.com

Run the IPs/e-mails through that.  I do that before I approve anyone.

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Living Room / Axis of Awesome

« Last post by wraith808 on September 13, 2010, 07:45 PM »

From a blog a frequent comes the discussion of plagiarism of music and how easy it is to subconsciously 'make up an old song' because of the fact that there are only 7 whole notes, forming 4-chord rock, which makes up a majority (if not all) of the popular rock songs of the past 50-60 years.

The Axis of Awesome finally refers to a comedy band that put that to the test on youtube.

Quite interesting... especially as I'm just getting back into music.  And also quite hilarious.  And ... awesome.

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Living Room / Re: Tipping - Why does this appear to be a "requirement"?

« Last post by wraith808 on September 13, 2010, 12:29 PM »

That's just it. You do not need to remove it, but you do need to remove the need for tips to be looked at as a primary portion of the income. Instead, raise pay to minimum wage rates, and then have tips serve as an EXTRA incentive for good service.

-Josh (September 13, 2010, 11:30 AM)

This will necessitate and increase in the prices for such goods that the services support (i.e. your $30 steak becomes a $45 steak... or even more).  Would the public go for such a drastic inflation?  And I think that I underestimate the price of the increase to cover such increases in salary...

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Living Room / Re: Tipping - Why does this appear to be a "requirement"?

« Last post by wraith808 on September 13, 2010, 11:24 AM »

I definitely think removing tipping as an incentive with all of the crap they have to put up with would make for worse service.  It does need to be there as an incentive to do better (and a reward for those that do)- humans don't perform their best without such incentives in customer service- it's a proven fact.  However, when you can give perfect service and get zero for tip, that does indicate the something is broken...

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Living Room / Re: Tipping - Why does this appear to be a "requirement"?

« Last post by wraith808 on September 13, 2010, 09:22 AM »

^ Wow... thanks for that info.  I never knew that, and am planning a cruise currently...  of course, whether or not I'll be able to take it in the next decade is still up in the air...

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DC Gamer Club / Re: Lord of the Rings Online going free..

« Last post by wraith808 on September 13, 2010, 09:19 AM »

Heh... I actually prefer LOTRO's system.  The main attack functions of DDO are RSI inducing at best...  and don't get me into the part about realizing how/if your feats have gone off...

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Living Room / Re: Tipping - Why does this appear to be a "requirement"?

« Last post by wraith808 on September 12, 2010, 07:06 PM »

Why do you pay more for the 30 dollar steak?  Because it is of better quality.  By the same token, the wait staff at a place that serves $30 steak will be expected to be of a higher quality than one at IHOP or Waffle House.

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Living Room / Re: Tipping - Why does this appear to be a "requirement"?

« Last post by wraith808 on September 12, 2010, 06:11 PM »

I am paying the restaurant for food, for their employees to cook that food, and for their employees to serve me said food. That is what I am paying for with the price of the meal I purchase.

-Josh (September 12, 2010, 05:53 PM)

That is what *you* think and have always thought that you were paying for.  This is *not* what it has ever been in a restaurant where you are waited on.  This is nothing new.  And that perception is *definitely* a problem for people that are in the position of having to depend on this for a living.

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DC Gamer Club / Re: Lord of the Rings Online going free..

« Last post by wraith808 on September 12, 2010, 06:00 PM »

Eh... what?  I was just showing the chart.  One level of that is free to play... and it does have limitations.  Rather than promoting the FUD, I was giving a concrete showing of the limitations...

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Living Room / Re: Tipping - Why does this appear to be a "requirement"?

« Last post by wraith808 on September 12, 2010, 05:43 PM »

You're looking at it from only the consumer side.  As a practical matter, tipping is not a way that people that serve supplement their income- it *is* part of their income.  If you are expected to receive tips as a part of your wages, in general, they can pay you a lesser amount (less than minimum wage when it is official) because of the fact that you *may* receive tips. 

So imagine that you do a perfectly satisfactory job and someone decides *not* to tip you "because they don't see why they should pay above the price of the service."  I think you'd be a bit perturbed too at the basic reduction in your wages because of that fallacious assumption.  And if it was a conversation overheard, rather than a comment directed at you, then I don't see why it should be so upsetting, IMO.  And the mentality of "I shouldn't have to tip" is the reason that on larger parties they automatically add tips- because serving a large party is very detrimental to the server's salary if no tips (or a subpar tip) is given.  In the course of the day, a server might serve X amount of people.. and perhaps Y as a percentage tip.  If they don't charge a set tip amount, then X becomes drastically lower (as larger parties tend to take longer than smaller ones... and more attention), and some not tipping (or not tipping enough) could be catastrophic to the server.

As to the why's and why not raise the prices... how would the customers react if the price was raised?  Not very favorably, I'm sure.  So it's just a case that this is the way that service jobs operate, and to penalize the server because of the system seems wrong-headed at best, to me.

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DC Gamer Club / Re: Lord of the Rings Online going free..

« Last post by wraith808 on September 12, 2010, 10:28 AM »

Wraith808. I am currently downloading this behemoth (My god, 7gb). What would your username ,or however you identify other people, be so I can find you?

-p3lb0x (September 12, 2010, 02:26 AM)

My mains are: Galthaladan, Daevereth, and Aglaring.  I have others, but I'm liable to be on one of those at some point...

Just a note for those expecting f2p for a long time, you'll be disappointend.
You will only be able to level to somewhere early twenties before running out of quests and will have to buy new quests pack.
You can grind mobs though if that is what you want.
Basically you will have to spend money if you intend to enjoy and play the game for more than a week or two.

-mrHappy (September 12, 2010, 03:42 AM)

http://www.lotro.com...signup/vipchart.html

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DC Gamer Club / Re: Lord of the Rings Online going free..

« Last post by wraith808 on September 11, 2010, 11:32 AM »

I'm playing... on Silverlode if anyone wants to try.  I've been playing since the beginning... it's a really good game!

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Living Room / Re: Should I buy a tablet pc, ipad, netbook, or other?

« Last post by wraith808 on September 10, 2010, 08:34 AM »

Did wraith get an ipad?!  Holy smokes.  Good stuff.

-superboyac (September 08, 2010, 08:29 AM)

Yup.  I find myself using it for casual type stuff like you were talking about doing with whatever device you purchased.  Whenever I need to do more meaty stuff (writing, designing, illustrating), I revert to the tablet.  But knowing that the device will be charged when I pick it up is a *big* advantage.  If I leave the tc1100 off the base, it won't, unless I'm going right back to it.  Other than casual charging (I'm transferring stuff so it's connected to my computer), I haven't charged it since I purchased it last Saturday.  And I still haven't gone below 60% battery.

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DC Gamer Club / Re: Anyone want Bioshock - $4.49?

« Last post by wraith808 on September 09, 2010, 07:40 PM »

Sorry... I would have let you do it if you'd replied here... I'll probably never play it anyway

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DC Gamer Club / Re: Anyone want Bioshock - $4.49?

« Last post by wraith808 on September 09, 2010, 02:15 PM »

Excellent, and done!

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DC Gamer Club / Re: Anyone want Bioshock - $4.49?

« Last post by wraith808 on September 09, 2010, 01:31 PM »

What username did you send it to?

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DC Gamer Club / Re: Anyone want Bioshock - $4.49?

« Last post by wraith808 on September 09, 2010, 07:04 AM »

I'll do it... what's your steam id?

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General Software Discussion / Re: Portable apps suites - is there a good one?

« Last post by wraith808 on September 06, 2010, 09:07 PM »

Portable Apps should have a pretty straightforward installer...

http://downloads.sou...up_1.6.1_English.exe

Run this installer and point it at your USB drive and you should be ready to go.  They have a couple of other installer packages, but this one includes a whole host of applications (it's 400MB installed).

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Living Room / Re: tc1100 tablet pc dies before i've even set it up

« Last post by wraith808 on September 06, 2010, 10:50 AM »

Hey... I just got an iPad!  My gadget budget is blown for a while...

As for Gixen, thanks for putting me on the track of this.  It looks like a pretty cool site!

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Living Room / Re: tc1100 tablet pc dies before i've even set it up

« Last post by wraith808 on September 05, 2010, 11:20 PM »

I used to use auction sentry, but I jumped ship a little before he did.  The major advantage of AuctionSniper over AuctionSentry is that you don't have to depend on your own hardware/connection.  It also has several tools to allow you to do nifty things like place snipes on a group of auctions and stop after you've won a certain amount, so if you want an item you can find all of the auctions and group them and stop after you've won one or something like that.  Also, it's easier to add auctions in my opinion.  Of course, the downside is that you pay when you win using AuctionSniper, but I've even done such things as bid normally on an item, then snipe it... if I win with my bid, I don't get charged.  I really like it.

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Living Room / Re: tc1100 tablet pc dies before i've even set it up

« Last post by wraith808 on September 05, 2010, 10:46 PM »

http://www.auctionsniper.com

It's worked miracles for my percentage of bids won, and also, though I pay for the bid, I end up getting it for a lot less than I would have if I'd ended up in a bidding war.  And you only pay if you win... and it's a small amount.  I sound like a paid endorsement, but I'm not LOL

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Living Room / Re: tc1100 tablet pc dies before i've even set it up

« Last post by wraith808 on September 05, 2010, 03:59 PM »

But does a normal XP license (which seems to be what is included) work for tablet edition?  From other tablet sites I've frequented, I seem to remember that it doesn't... and if you install standard XP, you don't get tablet functionality.

-wraith808 (September 04, 2010, 09:52 AM)

According to the User Manual it came standard with XP Tablet PC Edition - so that is what the COA sticker should be for.

-4wd (September 04, 2010, 01:51 PM)

According to the *listing* it comes with a COA for XP Professional.  Again, with those warehouse specials, in a lot of cases they don't have the original license... so they also get a stack of XP COAs to include...  that might not be the case with this one, but...  (given, it does say that it still has it's COA sticker attached, but I wouldn't assume...)

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Living Room / Re: Should I buy a tablet pc, ipad, netbook, or other?

« Last post by wraith808 on September 05, 2010, 03:54 PM »

Many times apparently...  this is going to seem rather strange considering I've been touting the advantages of the tc1100...

... I am now the owner of an iPad. 

Don't get me wrong, I still love my tc1100, and will not use it any less, but when doing reading and such, the battery life bit has been a problem.  I love having access to everything i normally do, but the battery life is really making it so that I can't just pick up the device and go when I am at home and just want to grab something.  I was going to get a nook, and had it in my hands at Best Buy, but then we passed by the Apple department in Best Buy and my wife told me I should go ahead and get it.  Then proceeded to take the nook to put it back on the shelf.  So here I am.   

Comparing the two side by side, the iPad is a more casual device.  Media consumption is awesome... and not being locked to an ebook platform or even just ebooks is even more awesome.  But when I need to get something done, or want to do serious writing, I still go to the tc1100.

And having both will be really good for DM'ing, as I can have the reference books on my iPad, and run the actual game off of the tc1100.  At least that's my plan...

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Living Room / Re: GDT on Bits du Jour for 50% off

« Last post by wraith808 on September 04, 2010, 01:44 PM »

I didn't even know about the contest... where did you announce it?