xawery

Guys, guys... There is an entire thread dedicated to this discussion. I'm surprised none of the moderators has pointed you there yet.

Here's a selfportrait, in watercolours. Visit www.subam.org for more stuff by me

I don't think that is true. The liberals in this country skew statistics to prove their point of view. Like counting criminals in the total gun deaths and counting some people as both an adult an a child. They also are pretty good at lieing and being stupid. Ill see if I can dig up some evidence to counter that. You don't think that's true? Who cares? If it doesn't coincide with your viewpoint you're obviously going to be inclined to disbelieve it, but why is that relevant? Come back when you have some empirical evidence. Pure opinions count for little. "lieing and being stupid"

There is also the saying "give a man a hammer, and everything he sees is a nail." So? Which little bit of conventional wisdom is correct? Neither and both, of course. It is rather pointless to resort to such arguments: sayings are quite often contradictory, and we use the ones that serve our purpose on a case-by-case basis. It's rather sad to see that this "tragedy"* has been hijacked for the purpose of having an old discussion all over again. Just search the USA politics thread and you will know what I mean. The arguments haven't changed, nor has the empirical evidence. Owning a firearm actually increases the risk of homicide (see the research by Kellerman and Killias for example). One conclusion is especially revealing: "There was no negative correlation between the rates of ownership and the rates of homicide and suicide committed by other means; this indicated that the other means were not used to "compensate" for the absence of guns in countries with a lower rate of gun ownership." (Killias, 1993). The authors explicitly state that a more comprehensive study is needed to control for such factors as societal tendencies towards "violent solutions". I have no data or research to fall back upon, but I would hazard the guess that such incidents have more to do with the US society than the availability of firearms. To quote Eddie Izzard: "Guns don't kill people, people kill people... but the guns sure do help!" Regards, Xawery *I used quotation marks because the term "tragedy" is used far too often and far too selectively. On the day of the Virginia Tech shooting 150 Iraqi civilians died in a terrorist attack. The War in Iraq thread remains empty.

Historical inaccuracy is the least of the film's problems... I would say that poor dialogue, poor acting, poor pacing and a poor plot are much more severe. And no, saying that "it's an action movie" is not an argument. Why should action flicks be devoid of good dialogue or acting?

I just finished reading the original "300" graphic novel... I now see that the film's high suckage factor can be attributed to the source material. Miller should really stick to illustrating stories rather than writing them. He's certainly a very accomplished artist, but writing good dialogue or an interesting plot isn't part of his skillset. The amount of anachronistic expressions ("Way to go!" etc.) is highly annoying. Oh, and if you thought that the film had a vague homo-erotic vibe to it, you should see the graphic novel... Apparantly Spartans marched to war with their genitals swinging in the summer breeze... Never seen so many penes in a comic book But the worst part is that narration in Miller's stories is explicitly demoted to the role of vehicle for his artwork, not the other way around. This is only exacerbated by the fact that Zack Snyder doesn't adapt a story to the silver screen: he essentially copies it. Snyder is a very competent director from the technical point of view, but he lacks any creativity. He slavishly copies every panel, down to the camera angle. The slowmotion used in the battle scenes is just an attempt at mimicking the inherent stillness of Miller's graphic novel. Verbatim copies of books or comics are as pointless as they are dull. There is barely any creativity involved, only technical expertise. Take "The Shining", "I, Claudius" or "Lord of the Rings": those were adaptations worth every penny! Cinema and (graphic) novels are fundamentally different: an adaptation requires a certain amount of modification to fit the new medium. If one just copies every single bit we end up with such lifeless facsimiles like "Sin City" or "300": pleasing to the eye, but low on substance. Now, all this would be mildly annoying at best (there are tons of other bad films, after all), had the financial success of "Sin City" and "300" not emboldened Zack Snyder. He is now convinced that he's capable of directing complex films, rather that shooting nice pictures of simplistic, visuals-oriented stories. Believe it or not, he intends to direct an adaptation of Alan Moore's Watchmen, arguably the best and most complex graphic novel to date. Better men than Snyder have tried (e.g. Terry Jones), only to come to the conclusion that a miniseries consisting of twelve episodes would be the only way to pull it off. Snyder wants to cram this epic, ambiguous and thought-provoking story into a 3 hour film. ZOMG. I'm sorry if this comes across as a rant, but many people have failed to understand my disdain for 300 and other Snyder productions. This post serves the purpose of crystallising my objections to this very popular film.

Good points gentlemen, I hadn't thought of that. Indeed, these mem sticks are incompatible with that mobo... How about Kingston 1024MB PC2-4200 DDRII CL4? DDR2, 240 pins, speed is 533 Mhz...

I've only seen the trailers so far and they've done a great job at turning me off. Sparta? Freedom? WTF, someone has confused Greek cities. And all that yelling... dear lord. And all that slowmotion, come on! That was interesting in the 70s when Peckinpah did it, but right now it's just annoying. Sin City was a very poor film, despite its stunning visuals. 300 promises to follow in its footsteps. I'd much rather spend my money on The Inland Empire, thank you. Oh, I believe this picture sums up the film pretty well:

Thanks for all the advice ch_123. I would like to call your and others' wisdom in another matter. I've decided to buy a new computer en demote the one I have now to household status (once it's fixed, of course). I aim to buy a computer which will last me for a while, while retaining the ability to run the latest games. The one I have has served me well for four years. Let's see if I can match that score with this new setup. Seeing as I already possess a lot of required peripherals (monitor, DVD rewriter, mouse + keyboard) I'm only going to have to purchase certain elements. As said before, it will be assembled by certified professionals. Here's what I had in mind. 1. Case: Coolermaster Centurion 5. It has received many favourable reviews and it's not too expensive. Nice layout, good airflow, sleek design. Comes with house brand fans (one at the front, one at the back). These too have received good reviews. 49,95 EUR. 2. PSU: Coolermaster Real Power. 550 W. Powerful, but a bit noisy. Good test results. 99,95 EUR. Mobo: Asus P5B. Has less features than the deluxe edition but still quite powerful. Has an Intel P965 Express chipset. Supposedly supports 1066 Mhz busspeed. Comes with an onboard sound card. Usually not a big fan of those, but I've never had trouble with Asus on board SCs. 129,95 EUR. Video card: EVGA GeForce 8800GTS 320 MB. Very good reviews, appears to be quite powerful. Supposedly needs a PSU of 400+ W. Comes with a lifetime warranty. 299,95 EUR. CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600, 2.4 Ghz, 4 MB cache. I reason that there is little sense in getting something slower - CPU's aren't exactly easy to upgrade (usually requires a new mobo) so I might as well get the best now. 299,00 EUR. Internal memory: 1024 MB APACER DDR333 PC2700 SoDimm, 2 sticks. 200 EUR. That comes down to 1078,80 EUR. Have I omitted anything? Can I get better value for this kind of money? All advice is welcome. Regards, Xawery

Hmm, this scenario sound very plausible... But the possibility that it's something else persists. I'd rather not spend 70 EUR on something only to find out that wasn't it Hmm... is there any way to determine whether a PSU is functional? The fan works, voltage output is nominal and stable when I check in BIOS... If all else fails I'll just bring it to the shop, but I'd rather be able to do it myself of course... Being the cheapskate that I am :P Incidentally, which PSU would you recommend? I'm considering the 650 W Sweex and the 450 W Coolermaster, found on this page.

Ah, forgot to add that. It's a relatively new PSU, as I had to replace the original. 300 W... That's all I have, can't find the name of the manufacturer anywhere.

Thanks for the info, ch_123. I wouldn't want to waste time and effort putting a new pc together, just to miss some imminent, crucial development. I'm not actually putting it together myself; should I decide to buy a new system, it will be assembled by professionals. Speaking of professionals, perhaps one of you wise chaps can help me out with the problem I'm having with my current rig. It may be old, but it's still perfectly capable of performing regular pc duties: word processing, image editing etc. etc. It would be a shame to throw it away if it can be fixed. The problem I'm having is as follows. The pc starts up normally, but after some time (seconds, minutes, sometimes hours) it freezes completely. The monitor still gets a signal, but everything stops: the cursor, the clock, animations... When I restart it, it won't boot at all. Sometimes the friendly lady who seems to be trapped in my mobo shouts "system failed CPU test!!". I performed the standard routine: opened it up, cleaned out the insides (I can't believe how quickly dust accumulates!. I cleaned the cpu fan thoroughly, took it off and cleaned the heatsink (which was filthy as hell). This seemed to help for 24 h or so, but after that the problem reoccured. I did some searching on the internet and it appears that the "system failed CPU test" message is quite ambiguous. Apparantly, it can mean that the CPU is busted, or that the mobo is damaged, or something may be wrong with the psu. I really have no idea, so any suggestions would be appreciated. I could send it to the shop for a diagnosis, but I'd rather try finding out myself and saving myself the money. Here are the specs (don't laugh, I said it was old!: AMD Athlon XP 2200+ Asus A7V333 mobo 768 MB DDR Ram GeForce Ti 4400 Thanks in advance for any advice.

Hello gents, I'm struggling with a dilemma and would like to hear your opinion. My (outdated) gaming rig recently gave up the ghost. Apparantly replacing the CPU would fix the problem, but finding a socket A processor is quite hard nowadays. I could upgrade the Mobo to accomodate a newer processor, but then I might just as well purchase a brand new system. I am thus faced with the question: should I build a new system or wait just a little longer? I should add that my late computer was for gaming purposes only. I have a laptop for work-related activities, so I'm not computer-less right now. In other words, buying a new rig is not a necessity. I do, however, enjoy gaming. My old pc couldn't run ArmA, so if I went ahead and bought a new one I would certainly want to be able to play Armed Assault at high levels of quality. This is what worries me though. The game appears to be quite unstable and very capricious when it comes to certain bits of hardware. I really wouldn't know which GC to buy etc. Then there is the rumour that ArmA was actually developped for 'future hardware', in an effort to prolong its shelf-life. I don't know how much of this is true, but it does contribute to my waivering. I was (and am) a die-hard OFP fan, but I'm not one of those people who want to play ArmA RIGHT NOW, at all costs. If waiting a little longer is the sensible thing to do, then I will do just that. If ArmA seems to be stable as it is, I might as well set up a new rig right now. Please let me know what you think! Regards, Xawery

Well, that's Og for you... how he manages to keep a zero Warning Level with that humongous signature of his, we'll never know... Hmm... What's this? "report this post to moderator"..? Retaliation time

Alas, no. At least not by the same team. Read more here: http://ofpc.de/wargames/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?1526

What are you talking about? The last four posts before yours were just classic. "Is it Finnish?" "yes" "Does it need to be put down?" "yes" By four different people I laughed out loud (aka lol'd).

Very good, wrong calibre though! Less than half an hour! Go ahead.

That would be too obvious, wouldn't it? You are, however, close.

Excellent! Here's a piece of military hardware:

No excuse. Pfft... Next thing you know, you'll be expecting people to sleep ca. 8 h per night.

C'mon Batdog, we're all pining for some google action!

I think we should exclude Ironsight from this game

Well done Pathy, it took you little more than an hour! I should add that "Kubus" was her codename, not her real name: "Kubus" is the diminutive of "Jakub", the Polish form of Jacob. It would be strange to see a woman go by that name Where did you find the answer by the way?

Well, Ironsight was first but I'm going to cheat a bit and post a pic anyway Behold: Whoever gets this is my personal hero, especially if you know what its codename means.

Isn't this the M1989 (yes, I know there is practically no way of telling )?