http://www.champions-online.com/exclusive_specials

$200 is alot to place down on a game little have seen anything of other than screenshots

A "monolith" strangely similar to the one from 2001 has been spotted in a photo from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Discuss.
Of course, the story is in The Sun, which is reputedly somewhere below The New York Post when it comes to journalistic standards...
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Not kidding. Someone managed to DoS Twitter.

http://status.twitter.com...denial-of-service-attack

Bets on how long it's going to be until there's an all-out hacker war?

Tell me if you can see at least two things with this article that should be screaming "RED ALERT".

---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."

So, I've been a bit scarce the last week or so. Here's the story.

On Friday evening, I was all set for Double XP weekend.

Then at around 8:30 Pm central, the thunderstorm rolled through. A very fast moving, unexpected thunderstorm with lots and LOTS of lightning. I had actually
checked the weather not an hour before and thought it would be clear, but this thing boiled up out of nowhere.

The first hint I had that something was amiss was when I heard a crack of thunder that made my windows rattle. No sound of rain (that came AFTER the
lightning), just the thunder. I tried to do a normal shutdown of my PC, but before I could really get started on it, another lightning bolt hit. This time even
closer to the house.

The lights flickered and I heard a very distinct *POP* at the back of my computer.

Aw crap...

I got it shut down and unplugged while the storm passed. (Which only took 10-15 minutes.) When I booted back up, my onboard network card wouldn't work.
Nothing I did could get me back online.

Next day on Saturday, I borrowed a friend's PCI network card that he wasn't using. Installed that. Computer recognized it no problem. But I still
couldn't get online. *SIGH* So something on the motherboard OTHER than just the network card was fried apparently. But it works fine in every regard
except getting online. I'd detail everything I tried to fix it, but frankly there's no need to regale you with every frustrating failure.

I called dad up and told him the bad news. Explained all the steps I'd taken. And asked if we could go shopping for a new motherboard for my PC. In
response, Dad instead said words to the effect of "Hell son, it's been 4 going on 5 years. Lets just get you a new computer outright. Call it early
Christmas."

In my defense, I did mention that we didn't HAVE to do it like that. That I could probably make a new motherboard work. But he insisted. I didn't
complain THAT much.

And it's not as if he doesn't get something out of it. His PC has been giving him problems for awhile. He wants my old computer in trade. And he uses a
USB WiFi to get online on the rare occasions that he feels the need. (And we confirmed that that option still works on my old computer). And I know this system
inside out practically. If anything DOES go wrong. I'm that much better able to help him cope.

SO! Now I have a new PC. An Acer with a Quad Core, 3/4 Terabyte drive and 8 Gigs of RAM. Been spending yesterday and today getting things transferred over with
the help of a friend's 1 Terabyte external drive. And installing various other things, like City of Heroes.

Holy Crap... If I thought CoH looked good on my old machine once I added the new video card, now.... JOYGASM...

The acid test today: Rikti Mothership raid with all graphics sliders at Maximum. Framerate never went to slide show. It dipped into the 18-22 FPS range from a
high of 60 FPS. So it REMAINS at just about movie quality even under that kind of load.

So yeah. I missed Double XP weekend. But Karma has been kind to me in return. ^_^

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32320427/ns ... nt-movies/]John Hughes, RIP at age 59

Too many good quotes from too many good movies to pick just one... but "I don't think I want to know a six-year-old who isn't a dreamer, or a sillyheart" is a good one for this forum.
--
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

Quote from Wiki
Another nickname that Nanoha is called by fans is actually a pun on the title "Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha" (???????????, Maho Shojo Ririkaru Nanoha?). While "Maho Shojo" (????) means "Magical Girl", "Ma Ho Shojo" (????) can be interpreted as "Demonic Cannon Girl".
Wouldn't that describe Hotaru from Sailor Moon also?
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

Hey everyone.

This is a general query if anyone else is going to Gencon Indy.

If they are (and are interested in meeting up at some point in time during the con) let me know.
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy

(Posted this over in "The Game..." as well, but ISTR that Bob doesn't always read that group.)

Considering that every version of Hazy Shade of Winter gives Doug a power, http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.php? ... stcount=47]this one is virtually guaranteed to summon up a being I hope he'd rather not be summoned. Even if he does have Belldandy watching his back at the time.

Yes, it's filk... but that doesn't mean nobody's ever recorded it somewhere in the multiverse.
--
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

Considering that every version of Hazy Shade of Winter gives Doug a power, http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.php? ... stcount=47]this one is virtually guaranteed to summon up a being I hope he'd rather not be summoned...
--
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