Master_Xan

That's good. I never did get it working; just gave up and used a VM instead. If anyone else is trying to get the file and can't, comment on this thread- I've subscribed to it and should get the email.

I sent you a PM with a link, but I think the messaging system is down. So I sent an email. I'm fine with giving the link to a few people, but I'm not making it public, since it is on my drop box. I don't have any accounts with mediafire or similar services. If someone else can re-upload the file somewhere public, that would be best. Just to be clear, I am not taking any payment for this, nor any credit. The package was not put together by me, I did no work on it, and all credit goes to the original author(s). I can offer only limited support if you have issues with it.

I'm actually surprised the forums are still up. Props, Evaders and Stratus!

I thought the importer just copied the one .x file three times, giving you three files which were, in reality, all the same. But again, it has been years, so... yeah.

.x should work. It just is a different file format; if I recall, it only has one model for all three distances (close, medium, far), while the .rmd files have three different versions. But that is really digging into my memory, so don't quote me on it.

I have some cards stashed away, but never used many models. Some looked nice, but most had so many ghosting problems that it broke the immersion factor. Better to imagine a better ship from a pathetic one then ignore disappearing hull panels. I've mentioned broken links a few times, but they have never been fixed. Not sure if that's because the originals are lost, or perhaps some other reason.

Not a bad little trailer, there. Tells you absolutely nothing about the game, of course. Still, I'm excited. It would be nice, though unlikely, if someone gave the Jedi Knight series a little love as well. You know, injected some Vong in there, as a substitute to the overdone attempts at armies of dark force users. Or any game focusing on the Chiss. That would be sweet.

In its own way, anime is almost as diverse as American television. But if you don't like "classic anime" (as I don't), the facet of anime you do like may be hard to find. There is probably a mainstream show or two you would like, but for me at least, I find that many of the really big ones just aren't for me. Like Bleach; that is a snooze fest for me, but tons of folks love it. You can always try an episode from a wide variety until you find one you like. I liked TNG and DS9. I like Voyager too, possibly due to its uniqueness. I just haven't seen all the episodes for TNG or Voyager yet. In general, I can't just watch Star Trek whenever. There are so many inconsistencies and plot holes, I have to allow myself to be led around instead of thinking. When I do that, I like it, but otherwise I get pretty disgruntled about things. So its taking me longer to watch them all.

When I get a chance, I'll try those three. I've seen Black Lagoon; not my favorite, but it wasn't bad, either.

I have already watched (and liked) Ghost in the Shell, Full Metal Alchemist (both versions), and Darker Than Black. Never got into Death Note. I saw most of the first season of Code Geass, but it wasn't my favorite. I want to say I saw an episode of Blood+ and didn't like it, but I can't recall any details. I suppose before I asked for recommendations I should have mentioned stuff I like/don't like. The standard anime stuff isn't really my thing (fanservice, crazy women beating up men for little or no reason, obsessions with cats, etc). I like Trigun, which does have some 'classic anime' stuff (like cats), but I never felt like it was overdone and/or it actually fit into the story and characters. I like plot. Bleach and Dragon Ball Z fail the plot test, since whatever plot might be there is buried under endless, and endlessly boring, fight scenes. Little kid anime particularly bothers me- I don't want to watch twelve year olds trying to act like adults, nor adults falling in love with someone who looks to be twelve years old. I also struggle to enjoy stories about kids who suddenly become the savior of mankind because some robot falls on their heads. The more mature anime is usually what I want, though I'm not really into the fanservice and almost-hentai junk that tends to creep into anime designed for older audiences. Gratuitous blood is not really my thing either, but stuff like Kenshin (Samurai X) doesn't bother me. Probably because it has blood, but the gore isn't a major focus. With that in mind, which of these should I try: New World, Shiki, Steins Gate, Gosick, Tsubasa Chronicles, or Shakugan no Shana? Or something else?

I also miss the old days around here. I wonder if PMs would get their attention...

Is Alias any good? I thought about watching it, back in the day, but it seemed so... commercial. Just cast a pretty girl as the lead, put her in leather, and bam. Instant TV show. Is the show better than that, then? Also, do you have any anime recommendations? I find myself being very picky with anime. It is hard to find stuff I like.

Harrington is one of my favorites, though the latter books in the series have really slowed down- focusing too much on political stuff. Honor herself is a very loveable character, if perhaps too perfect, and the plot is good. If you haven't been told/looked it up, Ender's Game is the story from Ender's perspective, while Ender's Shadow is (mostly) the same events from Bean's perspective. I liked Ender's Game, but Shadow was even better. Possibly because I never liked Ender's siblings; they are too smart. In the Hobbit movie, you may remember the meeting with Gandolf and others, discussing the growing darkness? If memory serves, they mention a lich, and have the sword. I've been told that is part of the Silmarillion. Having never read it, I can just relate what I've been told, though it makes sense: the Hobbit is not long enough to make three movies out of. Unless you went with Tolkien's speed. You are not alone in getting bored with the books- I had to skim whole chapters when I read Lord of the Rings. Dwarves singing, and singing, and singing? Page after page describing Rivendale? No thank you. In movie format, all that material is fabulous. We can have interesting things going on on the screen while listening to the dwarves, and a few moments of imagery does more to show Rivendale than a chapter describing it. I haven't read or watched either Game of Thrones or Battlestar Galactica. Galactica I have almost picked up a few times now, but something always gets in the way. Game of Thrones has only been tempting me for a year or so- too short a time to reach the top of my own list. I keep meaning to finish Stargate, or watch the Clone Wars show, or finish Star Trek Voyager, or read the 30-odd books I own but haven't read, or finish my own novel... And that's leaving out video games. Why do you mention those two?

I don't know about China, but Japan has. I think the difficulty inherent in mining the coins is supposed to increase as more coins are mined. Therefore, it is not a constant rate of computing power, but rather exponential costs until it reaches the cap they designed into the system. I do not know how flexible this cap is, nor the algorithm itself. Obviously, as you say, the value is really what people will trade for it. That fluctuates as any currency does.

Too true. Too true. There is still a difference between normal money and bitcoins, however. They are both based on perception (unless there is a currency left on the gold standard, or silver, or something else). But when perception of a dollar changes, the US government manipulates financial policy to change perception. More or less money is printed, taxes are placed or lifted on imports or exports, etc. What are the bitcoin guys going to do, make it easier to mine bitcoins? That breaks the system. Tax bitcoins? Also breaks the system. There is no way to adjust the perception, except for the media. Makes it hard to compensate for goofy perception.

I agree, the movies did good things for Lord of the Rings. I'm still undecided on the Hobbit; we will see as the other movies come out (though it may not be a fair comparison, as the movies include material from the Silmarillion). Plot driven novels are not juvenile, they are standard fiction. Heavy characterization and/or stressing themes over plot is called literary fiction. I typically find literary fiction to be worthless. It is often an author's means of getting his opinion to the masses, rather than a viable story. I would rather read an opinion article than a short story or entire novel that tries to hint or suggest his opinion. I'm too blunt of a person to waste that kind of time. Some say it is more powerful, because the reader connects to the characters and "gets it" more than from an opinion article; that could be true of some such stories, but too often the author just manipulates the reader's feelings to underscore an opinion. As I said, literary fiction can also focus on the characters, usually using fairly average-seeming people and expounding on them in some fashion. This can be fun in a short story, but to me, it isn't novel material. You spend a few hundred pages learning a character's personality and almost nothing more. That is just not interesting to me, though I know many people who are interested in it, so I try and keep my grumbling to a minimum. To each his own. The arguments between standard and literary fiction is what drives the arguments between sci-fi/fantasy and contemporary genres. Proponents of contemporary fiction, what I am calling literary fiction, think sci-fi and fantasy novels are brainless "go save the world from the bad guy" stories, lacking any insight into the human condition. Often, they are right. Doesn't mean sci-fi and fantasy novels are not fun to read. Sci-fi/fantasy folks content that contemporary (literary) works have little or no plot, and are just an author vomiting his opinions on the page with fancy language, lacking any semblance of story at all. Often, they are right, but that doesn't mean those who enjoy studying human nature or understanding people from other cultures/time periods don't enjoy it. They do. Why the two camps can't just agree to disagree, I don't know. Whenever someone bashes a novel with these sorts of arguments, I usually ignore that person's opinions, as they are usually just biased. Now when you mix literary fiction with standard fiction, you can get something magical. A plot driven story that actually makes sense and is interesting, mixed with unique characters that are well fleshed out. The "theme" and author opinions are often still included, but when there is a plot to back it up, I can get into the plot and ignore the author's ideas if I want to. These books are, to me, some of the best books ever written. They are hard to find, as few authors can successfully characterize AND come up with a really good plot to engage those characters. Ender's Game is one of those rare gems. Ender's Shadow is, too. The sequels to Ender's Game are much more literary, while the sequels to Ender's Shadow are much more standard. But Ender's Game and Shadow are two fantastic novels. I have read hundreds of novels in a dozen genres, and Bean (the main character in Ender's Shadow) is easily in my top five favorite characters. To me, he is cooler than Yoda, more real than Captain Ahab, more flawed than Honor Harrington, more dangerous than Thrawn. If you can make the time, you really should read Ender's Game. Even if you can't, I think Ender's Shadow will have enough unique content to be worth your while, even after seeing the movie. Sorry for the long post.

Even without the hardware or electricity issue, you are essentially offering your computer's computing power for bitcoins. But I'm with you; because nothing productive is actually happening, it is all based on perception.

Or read the book first! You have a few months to finish it before the movie even comes out.

I actually prefer desktops for most things; easier to repair and upgrade, cheaper, more powerful... the only good thing about laptops is mobility. Bitcoins are an attempt to create a digital economy without government oversight. Merchants around the world already accept them in exchange for real goods. It is nontaxable, untraceable, uncontrollable. Independent of national currencies or inflation rates. Really good idea, but only in concept. To get them, you set your computer to "mining" them. The computer runs an algorithm, basically just number crunching. When it finds the answer, it communicates with a bitcoin server, which validates the result and appends it to previous results. To their credit, I went over the technical details and it seems very difficult to hack or cheat the system. Unfortunately, nothing productive is accomplished. The algorithm isn't looking for a cure for cancer, alien life, or prime numbers. Just garbage. Of course, you have to pay for electricity, and the program runs your computer at max speed (to mine coins faster). That means your hardware burns itself out very fast; think cutting the life of your CPU by two-thirds. The untraceable nature makes it difficult to handle refunds, but worse, attracts criminals like a blue-light special on AK-47s. Because nothing useful is accomplished and it isn't backed by any real material, the bitcoin economy is susceptible to large shifts in value (inflation and deflation). My thought is bitcoins will die off in time. There is a cap on how many are allowed to exist; once that cap is reached, bitcoin value will hyperinflate and stay overvalued. Without a flow of bitcoins in the world economy, merchants will stop accepting them. That would induce hyper-deflation. Not a safe place to put real money, and probably not worth destroying your hardware to mine them. And if bitcoins ever became a significant percentage of an economy, you can bet governments would "nationalize" the system or pass laws to control it somehow, irregardless of legality or morality. To make it even more sketchy, bitcoins by nature are not regulated by any country or government. So the guys running them are just that- guys. I have no idea what their real motives are. Supposedly, they just want digital money independent of government controls and regulations- think capitalism at its most fundamental level- but they have control over the whole system. So you are really just trading government control for private control, which isn't really any better. At least I understand governmental bias and can anticipate their bad decisions.

You haven't heard of the book? It's great. My avatar comes from the front cover of the companion novel, Ender's Shadow.

Yeah! That's what I'm talking about! Oh, and the link in your siggy, to Evaders squad coding, is broken. Or rather, the site is missing. Just sayin'.

It's good to see a few more updates from folks. Gives me hope for when I (finally) finish college... some day... I've actually earned my BS in information tech, now working on an MBA. Married, one kid on the way. So busy I actually went a whole month without playing a single video game. Crazy, eh? Still working with the Autistic kids? My sister also works with special needs children. She loves it.

Anybody else excited for the movie?

Naw, most people do turn off computers all the time. Back when I had a desktop, I turned it off whenever I wasn't using it. But laptops... well, I close the lid, which "hibernates" the computer instead of shutting it off. It therefore only reboots when I manually tell it to do so. But lots of people leave their computers on all the time. I'm not sure if they don't want to wait for it to boot up again, or if they just get into the habit of not turning it off, but I know plenty of people who leave it on 24/7. I think its a waste of electricity, myself, but to each their own. I even know some folks who leave it on to do research with (you know, like SETI@home). Or guys who mine bitcoins.

Yeah, they haven't done any of the FPS games. And nobody has made a good Star Wars strategy game since Rebellion.