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What are your thoughts on dating the ex girl/boyfriend of a good friend? (Questions)

2009-06-29 16:18:54

curiosity

The ps3 Sucks (Technology)

2009-06-29 13:38:08

So lets go back in time just before the ps3 released. Now I know that some of you fan boys won't aggree with me but at least you have to admit that there would no argument against the ps3's greatness if what I'm going to tell you were true. Now as you may realize I like to play old games and some of the old ps2 games are among the best games ever made (even better than current ps3 games).

Ok here goes. I don't want any silly arguments about how Sony is genius, this is all part of a "master plan" and its the best system EVER! The system was clearly developed in some sort of secret bobble.

What the ps3 should have been at launch;

Sony should have released the ps3 with Good (maybe not perfect) Backward Compatibility and a 20 gig harddrive for $400 dollars. Not carefully planning BC is the reason why there are still good reasons to buy a ps2 over buying a new ps3.

released a 160gig ELITE version for $600 dollars with 2 controllers, and the ability to copy/run ps1 games from the hard rive. As result having only 2 versions on the market.

2 controller ports on the front (for ps1/ps2 dual shock controllers) and 2 ps2 memory card slots. The ps2 controller is probably 99% the same as the ps3 controller (and in some cases arguably 100% better)

A more programmer friendly architecture or have it run parallel to the cells.

At least 10 old ps2 greatest hits games re-released with high definition graphics at launch ( don't act like that wouldn't be sweet ). Ico, God of War, GT3 & 4 etc same game just prettier. I would pay 30$ for GT3 HD running at 60fps. Nintendo does this ALL THE TIME!

Copied the achievement thing from the Xbox.

There you have it the things that would have made the PS3 rule the world at launch. Killing the ps2 and hurting the xbox360. Nintendo just got lucky with the wii. But instead, the Ps3 has become the Sega Staturn of this generation.

by owen comment

unwelcome phone calls, sex, lies and video tape? (Questions)

2009-06-29 12:30:31

Some romantic relationships experience a point where unwelcome phone calls disturb the peace, or the war, whatever. . .what should one do about them?

A good friend received a phone call from a female, explaining some things that the boyfriend later denied. Good friend is pretty far along, pregnant for boyfriend.

How should she handle it? What would you do?

by Gods Child Answer this question

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Review (Movies)

2009-06-25 20:34:04

Hmmmm....what can I say about this movie? It is full of action and if you are a fan of the first movie then you will most likely love Revenge of the Fallen. Apart from that basically the movie is simply a series of pointless action scenes that carry you from one place to the other.

The most fun I had in the entire movie is from watching Megan Fox's breasts bounce in slow motion a she runs through the hot desert sand. The movie simply has no soul.

There are a few jokes here and there. Scenes ripped from much better movies such as Titanic, Armageddon, Perl Harbor, Hackers, The Matrix, Top Gun and ...whatever else. Its like a Clip Art movie, stock footage is everywhere. But as a whole, the movie has no sense of time, space, speed or distance. Things just happen, sometimes in human time, other times in robot time. Things happen, People talk, things happen. You are never really sure how far anybody is from everybody else. Its a disjointed, holy mess of a story.

In Conclusion; it a 2 hour odd thrill ride that is full of random action scenes. Only for people who love fighting robots, slow-mo shots and comedy. My rating; 6 out of 10. Average. Rent or Cable.

by owen make a comment

What are your views on Global Warming? (Questions)

2009-06-24 09:09:42

...

by owen Answer this question

Born Slow (Logbook)

2009-06-20 17:33:05

i've been watching a large amount of the Animal Planet again. Not because none of my other movie channels are working and I haven't called the cable operator because I hate interacting with people that would allow me to live in pain and despair. Twits I'm looking at you. But mostly because I love the wonderful vistas and far-away-ed-ness of it all. I love whales and monkeys. Despite all my rage I'm still just a rat in a cage.

I keep seeing this cellphone network advertisement where the man and the woman are talking about 10 sprinkles on a cup of ice-cream. When suddenly, with the biggest, most ignorant smile on his face the husband take the jar of sprinkles and DUMPS IT ALL OVER THE COUNTER. I have never been so annoyed at anything not directly related to me as that scene. Its not as if I had to go and clean it up but its like when you watch a movie and a man gets kicked in the nuts and you feel it - even if you ovaries you should be able to relate.

I've been consistently bored lately, I'm not sure why. Maybe my head is about to explode or hurricane season taking too long to arrive. I don't believe in anything except bandwidth, All i see is HD movie trailers, I may need to go to rehab. I wanna be rich and I want lots of money. I don't care about clever, I don't care about funny. Cricket seems to be quite unpredictable today - who woulda thunket.

by owen make a comment

How much bandwidth/calories do you eat? (Questions)

2009-06-19 07:33:32

on an average day

by owen Answer this question

Warlord - A 10 year old boy declares war on the world. (Video Blog)

2009-06-11 14:41:58

Warning: this video may not be appropriate for all audiences. Contains the Kurr, stone throwing, putrid things, gravy, oil pies and witchs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGxBizeiL3s

by owen make a comment

Mario Kart Wii Sucks (Technology)

2009-06-11 14:31:47

Here I will list reasons in my opinion why the Wii release of the popular series is probably the worst version ever;

Bikes. Why would someone add a second type of vehicle into a game that is called Mario "Kart"? Not only that but make it so that they are faster and better handling than regular karts.

Having 12 racers breaks the balance of the item distribution. You either have to be at the very last position or at first to be certain of what you are going to get in your item box. And even then you might get something that is of little help.

The item distribution itself is broken. Try playing a 2 player vs match without the computer AI. What you will end up with are 2 racers trying to kill each other with bananas. If a gap is created between the players it is impossible to catch the other player because all you will get are bananas.

Losing your hard earned item when you drop of a ledge, or get hit by lightning makes it impossible to maintain any kind of strategy when holding items or retaliating after being hit. You either got to use it as soon as you get it or pray that somebody in last place doesn't use a lightning. Item hording is a choice, removing it only make the game shallow.

Stupid, superficial items. Why would you have a item in a game that when used has not effect on computer controlled players?

Lack of realistic hit physics. Now I know, "realistic" may not be the appropriate word in this scenario but I remember when I hit a player with a red shell while he/she was in a power slide he would go flying off a edge into a hole. Yeah I know it is evil to do but it was fun and required exact timing. Now, nothing happens the person get hit, flies straight up in the air on the spot. Pure BS.

Team Battles should be optional. In fact the whole battle mode is a mere shadow of what it once was.

Blue shells that explode. I've read about this numerous times. The last thing I've noticed is that if the first place racer has already crossed the finish line then the blue shell comes after whomever is next in rank. Meaning a world of pain for those who just want to be left alone with their third place position.

Having more over powered items in the game without removing the old items throws off the random item selection mechanic. I can't remember the last time I got a fake question mark box. While at he same time you get bananas, 3 bananas, 3 boost, single boost, gold boost, green shell, and tons of other stuff that becomes unnecessary now, because the only real item that can make you win is the Bullet Bill or Star. Every other item becomes a useless waste of space. Bomb, Green shells? useless.

Something is off with the controls I can't really tell exactly but the rainbow track is awful to drive on.

Poor hit detection on shells. Total travesty!

The menus look very primitive.

Power sliding seems to be made useless, not sure if its because of the track design or the handling of the vehicles but something is not right with it. People who can do manual power slides seems to have no advantage over the regular automatic mode.

Tracks; I am not sure about these new tracks. They seem to interfere with the player more than necessary and have no good short cuts or places to jump across. The tracks in Mario Kart Wii seem more like site seeing trips rather than race courses. Odd bumps and distractions are all around. The Mario Track from the N64 version is probably the best track on the thing.

Basically the more you suck at Mario Kart Wii - the more you enjoy it.

by owen comment

Up close and personal (The random photo journal)

2009-06-08 18:31:02

I have a fascination with things in nature. This is a photo of the top of a guide rail along the edge of a pathway. It was made of rough cut pieces of timber.

by Jamila add comment

Jerk It (Logbook)

2009-06-05 16:18:22

There are certain people that I avoid. And certain people which are simple unavoidable. After many years of research I've discovered something that I've always known - that lawyers, women that work in banks and nurses are not particularly good for my health or carefree lifestyle. I've said it before, many times, I live in my own world so stop pyschoanalyzing me! I have Sigmund Freud blocked on both facebook and hi5. This world is only gonna break your heart.

I'm eating bread pudding for lunch because the lunch people are being evil, while I watch a TED talk by Felix Denis and sip on the Citrus punch I brought from home this morning. Made with natural spring water (as if it matters). Nothing good can come of this, time rules all. Youth can never come again, we have drunk the summer wine. So much to do so little time. Count thy blessings, not thy years.

I have some cool new projects in the back of my head but there is never the right time or mood to get them out. what you are seeing now are ideas that have been festering in the back of my head for years. I don't know. Take it easy on the baby food. I bought a bag of apples and I'm going to go home and eat them. Today is the best day ever. Tommorow, Saturday, I will remember to get up early,it going to be a long day. Have a good weekend and just dance, its going to be ok.

by owen make a comment

Programming: The downsides of Modularity (Articles)

2009-06-04 21:15:37

There is a common misconception that modularity is inherently a good thing. In fact modular systems are not optimized for performance and are often harder to maintain depending on the extent of the modularization. It is similar problem as OOP which as a drastic effect on the program as a whole. Once a modularization technique is chosen it usually affects the entire program permanently crippling it is not properly implemented. Modularity similar to OOP is a useful tool in the appropriate context. One should not start writing a modular program. However one should anticipate the areas of the program which will benefit from being modular.

Lets us look at a simple example 1;

start program

print("-- Add 2 numbers --");

print("Enter first Number:");

firstnumber = readkeyboard();

print("Enter second Number:");

secondnumber = readkeyboard();

result = firstnumber + secondnumber;

print("Result:" + result);

end program

As you can see the Example 1 is pretty simple and efficient. What I'm going to do now is redesign the above program in deferent stages of modularity. What you will notice is that as the program becomes more modular it becomes more complicated and at the same time less efficient.

Lets us look at example 2;

function acceptnumber( screenmessage )

print( screenmessage );

return readkeyboard();

end function

start program

print("-- Add 2 numbers --");

firstnumber = acceptnumber("Enter first Number:");

secondnumber = acceptnumber("Enter second Number:");

result = firstnumber + secondnumber;

print("Result:" + result);

end program

In example 2 we have introduced a function called acceptnumber() which allows us to reduce the amount of lines in the main program by moving the repeat tasks of printing a message on the screen and reading the keyboard from the user.

Lets us look at example 3;

function acceptnumber( screenmessage )

print( screenmessage );

return readkeyboard();

end function

function do_addition( num1, num2 )

return num1 + num2;

end function

start program

print("-- Add 2 numbers --");

firstnumber = acceptnumber("Enter first Number:");

secondnumber = acceptnumber("Enter second Number:");

print("Result:" + do_addition( firstnumber, secondnumber ) );

end program

In example 3 I've moved the code that does the add calculation into its own function called do_addition. do_addition accepts the 2 numbers that need to be added and returns the result. I've also go ahead and gotten rid of the result variable since its not really used for anything important.

Lets us look at example 4;

constants = array ("-- Add 2 numbers --", "Enter first Number:", "Enter second Number:", "Result:", "addition" );

function acceptnumber( screenmessage )

print( screenmessage );

return readkeyboard();

end function

function do_addition( num1, num2 )

return num1 + num2;

end function

function get_data_input(settings)

print(settings);

input1 = acceptnumber(settings);

input2 = acceptnumber(settings);

return array( input1, input2 );

end function

function get_calculation_output(settings, data_array)

if( settings == "addition" ) {

return settings + do_addition( data_array, data_array );

}

return "no work or invalid settings";

end function

start program

data_array = get_data_input(settings);

output_text = get_calculation_output(settings, data_array);

print(output_text);

end program

In the 4th and final example I when all the way and separated the input of data from the output and calculation. You maybe able to see various advantages and disadvantages of this method but it was done to demonstrate my final conclusion.

Conclusion

As you can hopefully see, all four examples do exactly the same thing, except each one becoming increasingly modular, less efficient and more complicated. I could have done a 5th step and implemented it in OOP but by now you should be able to see my point. A program can be simple without being modular and on the other be modular but VERY complicated. A program being modular does not mean that it is simple. And a modular program is not necessarily more readable that a simple program.

by owen Post your comments on this article

This week's special (The random photo journal)

2009-06-04 12:33:45

Taken 1/22/2009 in Cross Roads, not sure if its still valid

by owen add comment

What do you think of this Twitter thing? (Questions)

2009-06-01 16:16:56

Is it it any good? Is it the new way to stalk?

by owen Answer this question

Shopping Carts Suck (Technology)

2009-05-30 23:06:03

I go to the supermarket alot, mostly because I only buy just the amount of things that I can survive on for like two weeks or so. I am not one of those people who keeps a long line of people waiting because they have bought so much stuff they could feed a small army or a very fat man. When these shopping cart people aren;t holding up the line, they are blocking up the isles and doubling parking their shopping karts. And if that isn't bad enough after you finally get what you want, you reach the cashier and guess who pops in front of you? Yup a shopping cart full of cheese tricks and a million other items. omfg. And to top it all off the first 2 credit cards that are used by the shopping cart fool are expired. How many credit cards can one person have?

Not only do they look silly but they are ignorant to the fact that pushing a shopping cart is not a form of exercise. Only reason I see you should be using a shopping cart is if you are; buying bags of feed or bulk sugar, carrying a small child that has the tendency to throw stuff, buying a cake or food for a party.

by owen comment