CobraA1

Reply to Gas Prices: $12-$15/gallon in Everything Else GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]already back under 4$[/quote] Temporarily, I'm sure. The trend has been largely upward.

Reply to Gas Prices: $12-$15/gallon in Everything Else GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]I'm 6'2" and 190Lbs, and I drive a Honda Civic which gives me 40mpg. That would be considered quite average in terms of size and economy. I am perfectly comfortable in it. Its not cramp in the slightest.[/quote] Tell that to the passengers in the back with their legs curled up . . . . . . and it kinda forces you to get that mileage by sticking you in the slow lane. I've been driving a Civic myself for the past few months, and there's no way you're passing anybody on a 2

Reply to WHATS BEST FOR GAMING in Personal Computing GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]DON'T BUY A PREBUILT DESKTOP[/quote] Custom built may be the best way to go, but I think it's a bit unreasonable to expect everybody to have such skills. Not everybody is skilled enough to build their own computer. [quote]you'd also be if you bought the 512MB 8800GT because the 1GB GT is a way to prey on consumers that don't know anything about VRAM and just think MORE MEGABYTEEEES = more power[/quote] In the case of games, the high resolution textures with the

Reply to Gas Prices: $12-$15/gallon in Everything Else GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]Except that's the crazy thing - an electric car is the most economically optimal thing.[/quote] Well, if the energy saved over the lifetime of the vehicle is greater than the increased cost of the new technology. Right now, there are tremendous R&D costs, as well as increased costs due to the fact that there's not much mass production going on yet. In addition, we have a problem with perceived price being totally different from actual price: A lot of people only look at

Reply to Gas Prices: $12-$15/gallon in Everything Else GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]Culturally there is an obsession with the car that I have always found freakish on my visits to your country.[/quote] We do like our cars :). Might have something to do with a guy named "Henry Ford" and the first mass produced automobile. I don't think we care if it's gasoline, hybrid, electric, or hydrogen - as long as we can drive it. I don't think we have to give up our "freakish" obsession with the automobile to become a clean nation. There's this idea going

Reply to Gas Prices: $12-$15/gallon in Everything Else GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]Do you want a privatized road system or more honest competition between contractors and public employees who build and maintain roads?[/quote] Now that I think about it, I don't think I'd like a privatized road system - after all, that would mean lots of toll booths and they could even set up their own restrictions. But I certainly would not be opposed to a system where the government/contractors were a bit more accountable for the quality of work they do. Health care is

Reply to Gas Prices: $12-$15/gallon in Everything Else GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]Gas taxes are an especially good example for this argument because the majority of them are directly connected to the creation and maintainence of the roadway infrastructure that makes cars a viable technology and still fuels most real estate development.[/quote] . . . and my city is filled with more potholes than ever. Frankly, I'm not certain the government spends the money more wisely than a business would. At least a business can have competition and have incentives to do the

Reply to Gas Prices: $12-$15/gallon in Everything Else GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]Re the possibility of harvesting lightning, I have one word: ceramics. [/quote] That will do a decent job of absorbing stray electricity and perhaps some of the branches of lightning, but the main stroke can be more than [link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning#Properties_of_lightning"]twice as hot as the surface of the Sun[/link]; even the best ceramic is going to be damaged by that.

Reply to Gas Prices: $12-$15/gallon in Everything Else GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]Having experienced both the US and UK I would say both are impossible without a car![/quote] Living in the USA, I can agree. Our public transportation is a joke around here. No buses to my work, I'm afraid, and no passenger trains at all. In addition, I can't walk and I can't bike to work: My last place of work was 30 minutes away, mostly highway. Thankfully, I'm currently driving a small high mileage car with a manual transmission. If I'm careful with my style of drivin

Reply to Poll, Dell or Apple; Custom Build or Factory Made; Windows XP or Windows Vista or Macintosh in Everything Else GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]with 64 bit you can run up to a max of 8 gigs of ram.[/quote] With 64 bits you can theoretically address up to 16 exabytes, actually. Eight gigaytes is simply a limitation of current motherboards. Motherboards with the P43 or P45 chipsets [link="http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=2370"]can support up to 16 gigabytes[/link], and I'm sure that will keep increasing with future motherboards. EDIT: And, as dystopic points out, you can get a whole lot more if you use

Reply to Poll, Dell or Apple; Custom Build or Factory Made; Windows XP or Windows Vista or Macintosh in Everything Else GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]Dell Apple[/quote] Dell if you want Windows and want to play games, Apple if you want Mac OS X. [quote]Custom Built Factory Made[/quote] Custom Built if you feel adventuresome and know ALL of the PC's components, including how to connect the motherboard to the power supply and case. Factory Made if you have any doubts. [quote]Windows XP Windows Vista Macintosh[/quote] Mac OS X if you go with the Apple. Ot

Reply to Gas Prices: $12-$15/gallon in Everything Else GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]As far as I'm concerned, if you meet one or more of the following criteria, you have no business complaining about gas prices : 1.You drive a gasoline powered vehicle. Next time, get a diesel engine which is 33% more efficient, lasts longer, can run on things other than fossil fuels and is more environmentally friendly.[/quote] If only such a vehicle existed in the USA. Unfortunately, Diesel vehicles in the USA are mostly large trucks and tractors. Cars with diesel engin

Reply to Unexpected behavior? in SkinStudio Stardock Forums

Not quite sure I get it - it looks like just repeating the same graphics in the same place.

Reply to Start menu "glow" simply isn't working in SkinStudio Stardock Forums

I'll keep that in mind for future reference, although that is now an old screen shot and has since been fixed.

Reply to Unexpected behavior? in SkinStudio Stardock Forums

I suppose it's a wiki, so it's supposed to have user created content, so I guess I might just start editing. Strange, though, that most stuff doesn't have anything filled in, although the software links to it.

Unexpected behavior? in SkinStudio Stardock Forums

Is is just me - or is the behavior of per-pixel frames using some sort of non-standard behavior for handling the sub-images? Interestingly enough, the program assumes the top and bottom borders are stacked vertically, even though the checkbox for stacking the frames vertically is not checked. Interestingly enough, checking the checkbox leads to some weird results. I think this could confuse first time users, and the behavior should be noted somewhere. . . . like the wiki the "Help"

Reply to Galactic Civilizations III in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

A 3D map works fine for a real time game with no grid like Homeworld, but not for a turn based game using a grid like Galactic Civilizations. [quote] But this is a game, not a formal research model, so I'm more concerned about how these notions might affect the play flow and the UI.[/quote] Totally agreed - we should focus on fun, not accuracy. Playing in a realistic representation of our universe would be boring.

Reply to Why PC Gaming is Dying in PC Gaming GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]Half-Life 2 (PC): 4M Halo 3 (360): 8M Grand Theft Auto San Andreas (PS2/Xbox): 20M Call Of Duty 4 (PS3/360): 10M Super Mario Bros (NES): 40M Gran Turismo 3 (PS2): 15M[/quote] World of Warcraft (PC): 10M subscribers The Sims (PC): 100M copies sold by April 2008 Solitare, Minesweeper, or FreeCell: I don't know, but it's gotta be huge . . . [quote]What I meant is when they are sufficiently different in design as to not be viable on a console.[/qu

Reply to Stardock being purchased? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]Ahem atleast SimCity 4 wasn't totally ruined...[/quote] Not until they handed the SimCity name to the Tilted Mill team. Ceasar IV and Children of the Nile are great games, but such concepts are not good for SimCity. I consider SimCity Societies to be a ruined game. I seriously with EA would [b]stop[/b] moving respected names to different teams.

Reply to Game Cheats Are Illegal? in Personal Computing GalCiv2 Forums

[quote](a) Making of Additional Copy or Adaptation by [b]Owner[/b] of Copy.— Notwithstanding the provisions of section 106, it is not an infringement for the [b]owner[/b] of a copy of a computer program to make or authorize the making of another copy or adaptation of that computer program provided:[/quote] Special emphasis on the important words. The court ruled in this case that we are not owners. We are licensees.

Reply to Pirates are eating themselves! in PC Gaming GalCiv2 Forums

I dunno if EULAs are considered legally binding, but I know that copyright law is. If you threw out the EULA, you'd end up with a product that's even less useful.

Reply to Game Cheats Are Illegal? in Personal Computing GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]Cobra, you're a tard. Maybe if you read entire posts and kept them in context, you'd be able to respond to ideas instead of breaking them into individual sentences and commenting separately. Engineering something to argue against by dissecting posts indicates that you've lost, know you've lost, and can't accept it.[/quote] LOL! That's the worst personal attack I've seen yet. Maybe I should frame it and put it on a wall :). The fact that you're resorting to perso

Reply to Game Cheats Are Illegal? in Personal Computing GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]You do fight fire with gasoline, perhaps you've never heard of back burning?[/quote] The purpose of back burning is to burn up the fuel before the big fire arrives. He's not doing anything equivalent, so your extension of the metaphor does not apply. Unless you can demonstrate that some equivalent of back burning is being done, my first metaphor still stands. [quote]The other statement is patently absurd, sheer naivety to apply it to the situation.[/quote] Talki

Reply to Game Cheats Are Illegal? in Personal Computing GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]But enforcing an EULA that restricts my installing a program *on* *my* *computer*, that works in *my* Ram, utilizes instructions that run through *my* CPU, and is stored on *my* hard drive, is granting a little more power to Blizzard than I think is safe.[/quote] If you steal laptops and bring them to *your* house, plug them into *your* electrical outlets, and connect them to *your* router, they are still stolen laptops, and you are still a thief. Bringing something into

Reply to Pirates are eating themselves! in PC Gaming GalCiv2 Forums

From the article Anniko linked to: [quote]One week later, Valve, via the Steam program, inactivated all Orange Box games (after they had already been active for some time), stating that they are in the "incorrect territory."[/quote] Ugh. I hate country restrictions. Talk about making your own arbitrary laws. For the moment however, I'm skeptical, as this is just some forum posts making the claim. [quote]You don't own any of the games on Steam since they can be dea