Avast just quarantined cityofheroes.exe, and says its scan verifying it's safe will take 86 minutes.

Mainly because it's a rare file.

Okay this is a take on my INV/SS tank, going for Psi resist and recovery, incidentally capping everything else for resists. This uses Pine's version of the hero builder. Sadly the link tries to open Mids with a weird datablock...

The Block is a dirty liar, it's supposed to go in Pines' version.

• (A) Impervium Armor - Psionic Resistance
  
• (3) Impervium Armor - Resistance
  
• (7) Impervium Armor - Resistance/Endurance
  

• (A) Mako's Bite - Accuracy/Damage
  
• (3) Mako's Bite - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
  
• (9) Mako's Bite - Chance of Damage(Lethal)
  
• (33) Mako's Bite - Damage/Recharge
  
• (34) Perfect Zinger - Chance for Psi Damage
  

• (A) Perfect Zinger - Chance for Psi Damage
  
• (5) Hecatomb - Damage
  
• (15) Hecatomb - Damage/Recharge
  
• (34) Hecatomb - Accuracy/Recharge
  
• (37) Hecatomb - Chance of Damage(Negative)
  

• (A) Gladiator's Armor - Resistance
  
• (5) Gladiator's Armor - Resistance/Rech/End
  
• (13) Gladiator's Armor - Recharge/Resist
  
• (37) Gladiator's Armor - TP Protection +3% Def (All)
  

• (A) Numina's Convalesence - +Regeneration/+Recovery
  
• (7) Numina's Convalesence - Heal
  
• (25) Numina's Convalesence - Heal/Recharge
  
• (46) Numina's Convalesence - Endurance/Recharge
  

• (A) Touch of Death - Accuracy/Damage
  
• (9) Touch of Death - Damage/Endurance
  
• (17) Touch of Death - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
  
• (29) Touch of Death - Damage/Recharge
  
• (46) Touch of Death - Chance of Damage(Negative)
  

• (A) Aegis - Psionic/Status Resistance
  
• (11) Aegis - Resistance/Endurance
  
• (11) Aegis - Resistance
  
• (40) Aegis - Endurance/Recharge
  

• (A) Perfect Zinger - Chance for Psi Damage
  
• (13) Perfect Zinger - Taunt
  
• (31) Perfect Zinger - Taunt/Recharge
  

• (A) Aegis - Resistance
  
• (15) Aegis - Resistance/Endurance
  
• (31) Impervium Armor - Psionic Resistance
  

• (A) Impervium Armor - Psionic Resistance
  
• (17) Impervium Armor - Resistance
  
• (25) Impervium Armor - Resistance/Endurance
  

• (A) Absolute Amazement - Stun
  
• (19) Absolute Amazement - Accuracy/Stun/Recharge
  
• (19) Sudden Acceleration - Knockback to Knockdown
  
• (42) Perfect Zinger - Chance for Psi Damage
  

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
  
• (21) Luck of the Gambler - Defense
  
• (21) Luck of the Gambler - Endurance/Recharge
  
• (42) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance/Recharge
  

• (A) Overwhelming Force - Damage/Chance for Knockdown/Knockback to Knockdown
  
• (23) Overwhelming Force - Accuracy/Damage
  
• (23) Overwhelming Force - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
  
• (34) Overwhelming Force - Endurance/Recharge
  

• (A) Celerity - +Stealth
  

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
  
• (27) Luck of the Gambler - Defense
  
• (27) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance
  
• (40) Luck of the Gambler - Endurance/Recharge
  

• (A) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Chance for Build Up
  
• (29) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Recharge
  
• (43) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Recharge/Endurance
  

• (A) Recharge Reduction IO
  
• (31) Recharge Reduction IO
  

• (A) Unbreakable Guard - +Max HP
  
• (33) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance/RechargeTime
  
• (33) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance
  
• (43) Unbreakable Guard - RechargeTime/Resistance
  

• (A) Might of the Tanker - Recharge/Chance for +Res(All)
  
• (36) Might of the Tanker - Accuracy/Damage
  
• (36) Might of the Tanker - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
  
• (36) Might of the Tanker - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
  
• (37) Might of the Tanker - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
  

• (A) Gauntleted Fist - RechargeTime/+Absorb
  
• (39) Gauntleted Fist - Accuracy/Damage
  
• (39) Gauntleted Fist - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime
  
• (39) Gauntleted Fist - Damage/RechargeTime
  
• (40) Gauntleted Fist - Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime
  

• (A) Recharge Reduction IO
  
• (42) Endurance Reduction IO
  

• (A) Performance Shifter - EndMod
  
• (45) Performance Shifter - EndMod/Recharge
  
• (45) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Recharge
  
• (45) Doctored Wounds - Heal
  

• (A) Shield Breaker - Chance for Lethal Damage
  
• (48) Shield Breaker - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge
  
• (48) Ruin - Accuracy/Damage
  
• (48) Ruin - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
  

• (A) Ragnarok - Damage
  
• (50) Ragnarok - Chance for Knockdown
  
• (50) Ragnarok - Damage/Recharge
  
• (50) Ragnarok - Accuracy/Recharge
  

• (A) Empty
  

• (A) Empty
  

• (A) Empty
  

• (A) Empty
  

• (A) Empty
  

• (A) Empty
  

• (A) Quickfoot - RunSpeed
  

• (A) Empty
  

• (A) Run Speed IO
  

• (A) Miracle - +Recovery
  
• (43) Miracle - Heal
  

• (A) Jumping IO
  

• (A) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End
  
• (46) Performance Shifter - EndMod
  

So, yesterday morning I was reading the board when a "new user registration" banner popped up.  I may have mentioned it before, but in case I haven't, most of the folks here won't be aware that when someone requests membership, I send out a little email from the admin address asking them where they heard about the board.  If I don't hear anything back in 48 hours, I assume they're a spammer -- and I tell them so in the email.  I also check their IP at stopforumspam.com.

So, this new member... the IP turns up one record at Stop Forum Spam, like he's a brand new spammer just starting out.  It's also for the same email address used to create their membership, so it's pretty obvious what's going on. But I have my procedure, so like ten minutes after this guy requested membership I sent out the email.

Three hours later, for the very first time, I get an email back from the spammer.

Who apparently is upset that I don't automatically allow him to blithely traipse through my board, sprinkling semi-literate scam pitches as he goes.  He responds with a short, pithy and obscene message apparently intended to insult me, but which reads more like a six-year-old with a dirty mouth wrote it.  Not sure what it was supposed to accomplish -- it certainly wasn't going to get his membership approved.  Sorry, guy...

Steve King defending not allowing exceptions for abortions in the case of rape and incest: What if we went back through all the family trees and just pulled those people out that were products of rape and incest? Would there be any population of the world left if we did that?

Ben Shapiro: Poverty is poor peoples fault for taking jobs that don't pay enough.

Everything they've said about the statue of liberty this week.

I mean, there's being horrible people with no sense of decency, compassion or basic morals, but when did it become a fucking competition?

...what the heck was he thinking in the incident with the Golden Calf?  Note that when I looked it up, I found mention of him encouraging lots of other immoral behavior as part of the "religious" festivities.

Yeah, I know; the account got distorted over the millennia. But needling you about it is fun. [Evil laugh which I can never actually do without coughing a lot]

So, a couple months ago, after making the counter-intuitive discovery that your traffic (and anticipated revenues) drop like a rock if you ban the content that draws most of your traffic and make your biggest communities unwelcome while crowing about how you're going to turn fandoms and social movements into corporate profit engines, Verizon started shopping around for someone to take the albatross that they turned Tumblr into off of their hands.

Today it was announced that they've sold Tumblr to Automattic Inc., the owners of Wordpress, for what amounts to a fraction of a penny on the dollar. (Tumblr was valued at one point at US$1.1 billion; while an exact amount hasn't been announced, it's been confirmed that Automattic paid something under three million.)

Sadly, Automattic says it has no plans to undo Verizon's censorship regime (not that they really risk losing money by not doing so), so you'll still have to cope with Tumblr's censorbots catching you perverts when you try to post pictures of bread, bare feet, pre-Cambrian lifeforms, semi-precious stones and other pornographic material.

I left the gold mine at 6:30 in the afternoon on Friday, and didn't make it home until 2 in the morning saturday.  On the way home, I had plenty of time to stare blankly and ponder the imponderable - like what it would take to get a tanker truly shnockered.

So I scribbled down this bit of drabble.


Now, gather round all you young lairds and lasses, and hear my sad tale of heroes tipping glasses.  The tale begins in that den of sin, the upper deck lounge in the pocket D.

'Twas myself and Pounce and Mrs. Pounce, and a /wallleaned Tish you see.  She was there so it wouldn't be weird, as it often is with three.

A long day of farming had done us its worst, face punching the Council had fired our thirst.

I was drinking Dublins, a pale blondish ale, while Pounce and the missus shared a strawberry daiquiri and the warmth of her tail.

Tish nursed a shandy as we sat waiting, for Charlie to bring us the finest libation.

Earlier that day, while resetting the mission, Pounce turned to me and said "Mags, I'm a wishin', for some Rogue Island Red, it's the best you see, there's no finer liquor for you or for me."

Well I trusted Pounce, so I made some calls, 'tween punching vampire face and kicking werewolf balls. 

Turns out Rogue Island Red is hard to get hold of. Us heroic types get laughed at and told off.

But Charlie knew a guy, that money spoke to, and this Major Minor lad would sneak us this brew.

So we sat and we idled, and fiddled at cards.  The normal actions, you take in bars.

But Charlie arrived, trusty and true, with six shiny bottles - the tanker gets two!

The bottles were mismatched, the labels hand painted.  The caps all came off, and Pounce almost fainted.

I surged ahead, ignoring the gravity, and put down a slug that tasted of depravity.

And coconuts, and paint thinner, and hamidon goo. Possibly some almonds, and a ghost or two.

The room got all fuzzy, and I said with a grin - "The first round's on me, has anyone seen my chin?"

The rest of the evening, I could not confess, but I woke up on Tuesday, wearing a dress. 

An Arbiter's helmet, a Fortunata's butt cape.  A shiny garter belt cinched my sartorial fate.

I counted my hands, and came up with three. Star Ranger was there, handcuffed to me.

As we dangled from Atlas' mighty hand, my head was filled with a mariachi band.

Pounce was on top of his colossal globe, and the stripes of her fur made up her wardrobe.

Tish had gone home, taking Charlie with her, and Mrs. Pounce - Paige was locked in the stir.

With a rap sheet that went from my neck to my wrist, and a stack of fines that told me, PPD was pissed.

It took three days to fully recover, and the repair and cleanup bills I've yet to discover.

So it's back to farming Council, to pay my debts you see, and maybe when we're done, we'll go to Pocket D.

But listen to my tale my friends, and stick with Dublin's brew, 'cause Rogue Island Red just ain't no good for you!

If I hadn't made them myself I'd stash these in General/Genral's "WTF Images" thread thanks to the last one, but they belong just as much here. In case you're not fmailiar with it, Hybrid Hive: Eat Shard? is a Worm/Nanoha crossover on Sufficient Velocity, by the same author as Mauling Snarks, in which Taylor ends up with a Device instead of (well, sort of as well as, as the title suggests it absorbs her canon powers so she still has bug control as an option) an actual parahuman as such. The description of it sounded nifty, so (after a significant false start on my first ideas) I made a 3d model of Hive's storage/stealth form on a jewelry display bust, followed by a mini-comic using it because it was funny and lols appear to be the currency of my dedication.

Wide angle:


Tight angle:


Tall tale:

That noise you're hearing is a lot of very rich people from all political factions sighing in relief.

... Dammit.

The Register: They say piracy killed the Amiga. Know what else it's killing? Malware sales. Awww, diddums

tl;dr: People sell software designed to make breaking the law easier, and they're surprised when their clients break the law.

Well, duh. The malware writers knew their clients break the law. What did they expect - honor among thieves?