warreni

Reply to Creationism and Linguistics in Biology JoeUser Forums

[quote]In that case I really don't understand how you disagreed with my statement about parent generations and their child generations.[/quote] It may be that I wasn't clear in my statement or perhaps further discussion of the topic clarified my thinking in my own mind; in any case, yes, I would say that it is unusual, except in the case of things like dramatic genetic change (like polyploid hybrids), for i and i+1 to be incompatible.

Reply to Creationism and Linguistics in Biology JoeUser Forums

[quote]For a tree with a branch R which itself branches into two smaller branches S and T, the following is true: 1. S and T are not the same branch. 2. R and S are not different branches. 3. R and T are not different branches.[/quote] For what it's worth, I don't think we're using the tree metaphor in the same way. You seem to be using a diagram to make a point about entities, whereas I'm speaking of a phylogenetic tree, which posits re

Reply to Creationism and Linguistics in Biology JoeUser Forums

[quote who="Leauki" reply="8" id="1998539"] What I'm actually arguing is that the classic allopatric speciation model has a distinct temporal border I don't understand your argument. You say that there is a temporal border and then proceed to describe not a temporal but a location-based border. [/quote] It's a temporal border in the sense that there is a point in time when speciation is said

Reply to Creationism and Linguistics in Biology JoeUser Forums

Leauki, Note that I said "through succeeding generations"; unless we're discussing a very small population of extremely simple organisms, it's not really going to be possible to fix or extirpate an allele within the span of a single generation. I don't think we're disagreeing on that point. What I am saying is that it is possible over several generations for a population to evolve such that the population at time t+n is not reproductively compatible with the pop

Reply to Has Anyone played Mass Effect and What did you think? in PC Gaming JoeUser Forums

Hm. Well, it's a pretty solid game, although the OP's system doesn't seem powerful enough to run it properly. I had some trouble getting it to run properly under Vista 64-bit, but the problems Tamren's describing sound like they may be unique to the Steam version. Sorry, I'm no help on that. I have a Mass Effect PC review here (http://warreni.joeuser.com/article/333593/Mass_Effect_delivers_a_solid_if_decidedly_console-ized_RPG_experience) if anyone's interested. <p

Reply to Creationism and Linguistics in Biology JoeUser Forums

[quote]Such a point doesn't exist. You are confusing the parent generation of a generation of animals with another population of animals. While two distinct populations will indeed become incompatible with another population at some point, defining that point is really not necessary to understand how the animals evolve. If you have generations of an animal population, no generation i+1 will ever be incompatible with any generation i in the same population. But different

NWN2: Storm of Zehir Impressions in PC Gaming JoeUser Forums

My wife got me a copy of Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir for Christmas, so I've been playing for about a week now. Judging from the response on the official boards ( http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/ ), people either love or hate this expansion. I'll try to give some of my insights into why this is the case by examining some of the new features in turn. <spa

Reply to Creationism and Linguistics in Biology JoeUser Forums

[quote]I know of the different definitions of species, but it is really quite immaterial how you define "species". My point is not about the definition of species but about how one species can evolve into two without crossing a "species border". Any definition of "species" will work.[/quote] I don't know, Leauki: how can you characterize a transition without understanding what is making that transition? People seem to think this is much less important than it actually is. I

Reply to Creationism and Linguistics in Biology Stardock Forums

Leauki, I've been half-following some of your recent discussions on this topic and I read the first part of this post carefully. What I've seen from your recent comments is that you either intentionally or mistakenly conflate the epistemology and the ontology of species. Yes, species concepts are difficult for many, including many professional biologists, in part because it's hard to grasp what it is that makes a species. Let me elaborate: Many people who have had

Is "Barack the Magic Negro" responsible political rhetoric? in US Domestic JoeUser Forums

I have a feeling I know how most of the regulars feel about this, but as I haven't seen any other posts on the topic, I'd like to see what people do think. (I expect that, for the most part, it will go like this: Me and people like me are too politically-correct, which is why we can't appreciate most of Rush Limbaugh's humor. We need to grow a sense of humor and get over ourselves, et cetera.) Visit the link if

Reply to 64 Bit Systems in Stardock Support General WinCustomize Forums

Hey Joe, IconX isn't supported under Vista (I'm guessing that you're running 64-bit Vista). WindowFX isn't currently certified for Vista (I think a future update will address this). Not sure about your IconPackager problem; I think a new version was released as part of OD 2009, and it should be working right on all OS versions.

Reply to Another year & another Birthday in Community WinCustomize Forums

Hm. Great sentiment. I just finished watching 24: Redemption last night, which deals with, in part, the subject of child soldiers drafted into bloody civil wars in Africa (and elsewhere). These kids are forced to inflict and/or endure horrors that would shatter the minds of adults. It's appalling to think that this is a common practice in many parts of the world. On a lighter note, happy holidays and happy birthday to you, Philly!

Reply to Mass Effect delivers a solid, if decidedly console-ized RPG experience in PC Gaming Stardock Forums

[quote who="Luckmann" comment="8"] [...]I just wanted to comment on this. There's a reason that characters, overall, no matter the species, tend to look humanesque. It's to make us, humans, relate to them. Second, our form is incredibly efficient for what we do. And third, when it comes to symmetry, the universe and life seem to favour it. Greatly. Youre hard pressed to find any differing species on earth that's not symmetrical. Much of the human perception on beauty is

Reply to Mass Effect delivers a solid, if decidedly console-ized RPG experience in PC Gaming Stardock Forums

[quote]I have a 2.6 Ghz Core 2 duo, 2GB ram, and a GF 9600GT 512MB, and the game ran without a hitch with everything maxed @ 1366x768 resolution (runnng Vista, even).[/quote] My old rig was an AMD 64 2.2 GHz single-core processor with 2Gb of system memory and an nVidia 7300GS. I think the processor and the card make the big difference here. Dual-cores were just coming onto the market when I got that machine and I couldn't afford one.

Reply to Mass Effect delivers a solid, if decidedly console-ized RPG experience in PC Gaming Stardock Forums

I didn't have any issues with the DRM. I did have to fight to get it to work on 64-bit Vista, but I've found that most of those kinds of problems can be solved by running in XP-compat mode as administrator. I still find it a weird quirk of Vista that you actually have to tell it to run specific programs as an admin even when you're logged in as one. [quote]Also non plot related planets, and sidequest dungeons could use more variety. The Bring Down the Sky DLC was a nice addition to the

Mass Effect delivers a solid, if decidedly console-ized RPG experience in PC Gaming JoeUser Forums

I finished Mass Effect last night. Rather than posting a conventional review, I decided to list my likes and dislikes. First, though, a bit of background is in order for the uninitiated (i.e., people who've never heard of ME ). Mass Effect is the latest role-playing game (released for the XBOX360 and later the PC) from Bioware, creators of the Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale series, among others, although it has much more in common, from a ga

Reply to Graphics cards and compatibility in Personal Computing Stardock Forums

[quote who="tetleytea" reply="9" id="1979486"]I upgraded my PSU to 550W and the Gateway works fine. $10 for SupCom, $170 for the video card, $70 for the power. Lovely. The best part is, now I think SupCom sucks. It plays fine, I just don't like the game. LOL![/quote] Well, at least you can play F.E.A.R. on max settings now! [e digicons]:)[/e]

Reply to Graphics cards and compatibility in Personal Computing WinCustomize Forums

9800GT is not quite the top of the line from nVidia at the moment, and I doubt you need something quite that powerful to play Supreme Commander; in fact, I strongly suspect an 8500 or 8600 series would play it just fine. Kaltes said: But why use a nvidia card? Some people are comfortable with nVidia, some with ATI. Personally, I've used a ton of nVidia cards through the years, and I've been satisfied with the performance of

Reply to Hello, names Mike in New Users WinCustomize Forums

Welcome to the site! [e digicons]|-)[/e]

Reply to Graphics cards and compatibility in Personal Computing Stardock Forums

[quote who="tetleytea" reply="13" id="1977891"] I just got burned installing a GeForce 9800. The computer didn't even recognize it was there. I installed a much lower-end card and it worked fine. I think it's cause the card is rated at 400W, and my power supply is only 300W. Good gollee, computers are starting to push on a kilowatt these days. That's nuts.[/quote] Yep, that's the problem; that 9800 isn't going to work in your system unless you

Reply to Going Vista for Christmas... in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

[quote]I had to wrestle alligators for a day or two. mine were more like lizards[/quote] Fortunately, I know an old Seminole who taught me a few tricks. [e digicons]|-)[/e]

Reply to WindowFX for vista in WindowFX WinCustomize Forums

For what it's worth, this is from Frogboy 9/19/08 (see here: https://forums.wincustomize.com/325084) Things that are going to get a lot of attention but may not be available on the release of Object Desktop 2009 but should be released within a year depending on Windows 7's release date. + DesktopX 4.0 (Vista/XP/Windows 7) + WindowFX 4.0 (Vista/XP/Windows 7) + WindowBlinds (Vista/XP/Windows 7) + SkinStudio (Vista/XP/Window

Reply to Going Vista for Christmas... in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

Wow, sounds like simpler transition than mine! Congrats! [e digicons]|-)[/e] I had to wrestle alligators for a day or two.

Reply to Bilbo has a Birthday !!! in Community WinCustomize Forums

Happy belated birthday, sir! [e digicons]:thumbsup:[/e]

Reply to Graphics cards and compatibility in Personal Computing WinCustomize Forums

I disagree with Rich; you could certainly go to an 8000 series card under XP as long as your hardware (primarily the power supply) can handle the load. The other big thing that will help is getting more system memory if you have less than 2Gb. Anything over 3 won't be addressable unless you have a 64-bit OS (and you probably don't), but going from 1Gb to 2Gb makes a big difference. EDIT : Sorry, got my numbers wrong; anything over 4 gb won't be