I give you the CW-AEC02X Strike Cannon.  Look upon it and weep. 
(A translation is here.)
As far as I can tell by reading the forums, this is legit.  And awesome.
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Stand between the Silver Crystal and the Golden Sea.
"Youngsters these days just have no appreciation for the magnificence of the legendary cucumber."  --Krityan Elder, Tales of Vesperia.

I feel like there's sunshine
On my shoulder
I can feel its weight on me
It's not the sun
It's a ray gun
Shot from outer space
My eyes are plugged into the video
My ears are soaking up the audio
Your hands are all over my body oh no
And I get overstimulated
Plugged in ever since I was a kid you know
Interface by way of Nintendo
Brainwash propaganda on the radio
And I get overstimulated
My eyes are plugged into the video
And I get overstimulated
Your hands are all over my body oh no
And I get overstimulation
I feel like there's sunshine
On my shoulder
I can feel its weight on me
It's not the sun
It's a ray gun
Shot from outer space
Pong - Sunshine (can be heard on their myspace page)

The first and last stanzas are clearly about an orbital laser. An "interface with technology" thing seems to be appropriate for the middle bit.
So: Doug hooks up to the local satellite network (if there is one) and also gets his own personal space laser.

Peggy and I are in the beginning stages of setting up a multimedia library database under SQL Server to catalog our books, DVDs, CDs, etc.  We did this once for just our library about 15 years ago, when our collection was only about three or four thousand books, using DataEase.  Now we want to catalog everything -- and use it as a chance for me to get a good amount of SQL Server experience.
The question I have for the community at large is this:  Although I'm currently designing a db to handle all our different media, it would make things much faster if we were to use a pre-existing design.  Does anyone know of an open/free library database schema capable of handling multiple media types that we could make use of?
Thanks!
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

I'm about to get a new laptop.  Probably this one.
I've never even tried to use W7.
What have your experiences with it been?  Is it decent?  Would it make more sense to wipe the drive and install XP?
...Is there an XP-skin mode for 7? ^.^
--Sam
"I hate broccoli.  And yet... I am broccoli."

The Register: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03/29 ... ys_trojan/]Erotic trojan keelhauls Japanese pirates

Quote:Some Japanese aficionados of the "visual novel" who decided they'd really rather not pay to enjoy interactive erotic romp Cross Days ended up with their personal info splashed across the internet, TorrentFreak reports.

...

The creators of the trojan included a nice touch: the installer's conditions of service apparently warn victims they're about to be keelhauled, but since no one ever actually reads these, this detail failed to prevent the privacy bust.

List http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?i ... PAG844GQXJ]here.

Amazon.com only, apparently, which means Canadians are out of luck...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

I'm trying to remember an anime title. It's based on the same scope as Legend of Galactic Heroes but much more recent. The protagonist is a guy by the name of Van (Fan?) Hulick. A merchant marine captain set up to be a fall guy who turns out to be a military genius on the same scale of Captain Tylor. Do any of you folks remember the title?
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

This info's mainly from Newsarama live coverage of the Penny Arcade Expo. I've also included details I picked up on the official CoH forums.

The PAX panel has a lot of info about Going Rogue - stuff about the new zones and new enemy groups. But that's just building on what we already know, yeah? But THIS is the NEW stuff. TWO more powersets for Going Rogue, on top of Dual Pistols and Demon Summoning.

KINETIC MELEE: For all melee ATs (Stalkers, Brutes, Scrappers, Tanks). According to threads on the CoH forums, the video they showed at the panel is of a sorta superpowered over-the-top martial arts set - kind of a 'chi' feel to it. Lots of arm movements, summoning balls of force, energy attacks...think Ryu or Ken from Street Fighter.

ELECTRIC CONTROL: For Controllers and Dominators. Pretty much what it says on the tin. We'd already had rumours of this, because Castle confirmed a couple weeks back that one of their programmers created this as a training exercise, but it's been sitting in spreadsheets for a while. He was very noncommital when asked if it'd ever be finished...then. Castle, you tease.

I17 GOATEE CLONES: Issue 17 will introduce evil NPC duplicates of our characters, with missions hung around them. The speculation that Issue 17 would indeed be CoH's answer to the Champions Online Nemesis System are TRUE. Apparently we will get some control over the appearance of our evil (or good, I suppose) counterparts - palette swaps were mentioned.

ISSUE 19 ANNOUNCED - INCARNATES: Issue 18 will be the Going Rogue launch, but Issue 19 has been confirmed as 'Incarnates'. Incarnates will apparently NOT be a separate AT, but rather more power for our existing characters. The Incarnate System will consist of 10 'Incarnate Levels'; the first will be unlocked available in Going Rogue, though the other nine will wait until Issue 19. Characters will unlock special new 'Incarnate Abilities'. It's not clear at this time whether this means a rise in the 1-50 level cap, or whether an Incarnate will still count as 50 - just a 50 with extra stuff. My guess is the latter rather than the former; you're a 50 with extra oomph. That seems to be how it's characterised.
(Hey Terrence, you have more levelling to do!)
Issue 19 will also have New Rewards, New Zone Events, and the "End Game system" (Requires Going Rogue to play)
Sounds awesome to me. =D
  
-- Acyl

This is a result of my old Cyborg character rattling his cage and noticing that the Nanoha-verse lends itself very well to multi-crossoverness.
Jail Scaglietti had been working on cybernetics for quite a while.  So long that I wonder if he didn't create a prototype himself before Subaru and Ginga came along.
Non-administrated world #97 seems like a good place to lie low.  TSAB doesn't hang around there and there's plenty of subjects that won't be missed, as far as Scaglietti's concerned.
He makes two mistakes.  One: he gave this kid way too much dakka (special ability - Integration: capable of integrating any weapon system into his body).  Two: he's one stubborn, willfull, and willy little wildcat.  He did at least make sure that the subject never really saw him.  Given that the subject was rescued by Lindy Harlaown (at this time an XO, just back from maternity leave, and her ship's attention caught by the top-shelf mage- and mass-powered fireworks), that could have led to nasty things later on down the road.
Lindy considered herself lucky.  Her strong maternal instincts were the only thing that was able to get through to the very angry, slightly disturbed, heavily armed, and obsurdly powerful child-turned-combat-cyborg.  She then has to fight the Admiralty to keep the boy from being 'decommisioned' as they put it.  Instead, he is disarmed of his weapon systems, returned to his grateful family, and is visited by TSAB agents on a regular basis for counceling.  Also, they talk to his parents about bringing him to Midchilda for mage training... as well as the rest of his brothers since they all got great potential.
Eventually, he becomes an Enforcer that specializes in dealing with unusual situations and first-contacts.  And he loves his job.  (This is where the multi-crossoverness comes into play.)
"The scenery changes, I meet lots of interesting people, and I get to use exlposives.  How cool is that?"
Thoughts?

http://www.walyou.com/blog/2010/03/24/a ... ls-pranks/]Top 100 April Fools Pranks and Gadgets
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.