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Reply to Is Beta II still open and how quickly will i get in it after pre-ordering. in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Unless I've misunderstood something, you can pre-order the game now and get Beta 3 in August. It's only Beta 2 that's closed to new people.

Reply to Saving more time and stuff in GalCiv Journals GalCiv2 Forums

If you really want to, you will be able to make an Avatar with a couple of trade modules slapped on it. Will it be like in GalCiv1, where the ship disappeared after establishing a trade route? Or will it do something else, like use up the Trade module so the ship can't establish another route unless you add a new one?

Reply to Females in Diplomacy GalCiv2 Forums

You mean like as a secretary or something? Kidding. Looking back on it, though, I only remember three humans being pictured in the original GalCiv. Four if you count the Altarian as a human. And two of them were the millitary guys from the victory movie. Not really an egregious omission, considering the small sample size.

Google to blame for various social/economic problems in Google JoeUser Forums

I saw the "Gmail is creepy" website over a year ago, before I even had gmail, but I just got a link to it again today and it has a new (to me) cartoon at the bottom that I just had to share: Effing hilarious.<!-- Ju-Anchor-Fo

Peter invents non-annoying open captions in Movies & TV & Books JoeUser Forums

The other day I was reading an article on How Stuff Works about 3D glasses. The clear ones that don't screw up the colors work by using polarized light. One lense lets up-and-down polarized light through, and the other lense lets side-to-side polarized

Reply to The SciFi implications of a medical breakthrough in Medical Technology JoeUser Forums

Well, I did say we had to completely divorce ourselves from reality first. So let's say that in our little scifi world we've figured out to transfer brains intact from one body to another (where "body" is defined loosely), as well as keep it alive and functional in an artificial environment. And while we're at it, we might as well say we've devised a better interface between neurons an

Reply to Combat vs. Exploration in Ideas GalCiv2 Forums

"After researching the wreckage of an ancient ship that had powerful weapons, you now have Laser II" I believe something like this was mentioned (by a developer) when we were discussing the possibility of wreckage left by ship battles.

The SciFi implications of a medical breakthrough in Medical Technology JoeUser Forums

Everyone's seen it in science fiction already, but now it's for real. There's a guy who has a prosthetic arm that he controls with his thoughts. It's

Reply to When the government decides who owns what in Politics JoeUser Forums

And no, three articles on this issue is definitely not enough.

Reply to Supreme Court abolishes private property in Current Events JoeUser Forums

Reading Justice Thomas' dissent I got the impression that reading the Constitution was a lot like reading scripture. Something about the way he backed up his interpretation of the word "use," citing a dictionary and other contemporary documents that used the word as evidence. Under this decision it's up to the legislature (or an agency acting on its behalf) to decide whether it would be more beneficial to the public good to let you keep your

Reply to Our liberal supreme court in action. in US Domestic JoeUser Forums

I have a link to the opinion itself . I haven't read it, but it's 58 pages and I don't expect it to be easy reading. I doubt you're going to find a source with more information that that, though. Icon, I saw your article. It's just that--strangely enough--you didn't happen to mention my personal opinion on the matter. <img src="../images/smiles/joke.gif" border=0 ALIGN="a

Reply to Supreme Court abolishes private property in Current Events JoeUser Forums

Technically, it was the local government that created the law that took away the private property. The Supreme Court could have struck the law down, but instead it let the local government's decision stand. stutefish, you're right that I probably should have read the court's decision in full before shooting my mouth off. Here's a link for anyone else who's interested. A

Reply to Supreme Court abolishes private property in Current Events JoeUser Forums

Some people might argue that there's no such thing as "just" compensation for forcing a family to move against their will. And is it really in the public interest to forcibly shut down family busniesses to make room for nation-wide businesses to expand? The US Constitution is supposed to protect against the wrongful seizure of property. The property owners asked the Supreme Court to step in to stop their property from being seized and given

Reply to Supreme Court abolishes private property in Current Events JoeUser Forums

I wouldn't call this legislating from the bench. The fifth amendment says, in part, that people can't "be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation." So the question is, does giving land to private corporations for them to develop count as "public use?" There's the argument that it creates jobs and suchlike, and therefore benefits the pub

Supreme Court abolishes private property in Current Events JoeUser Forums

Eye-catching title, isn't it? And the sad part is, it's not too far from what happened. I don't like to put political stuff on my blog, but I can't keep my mouth shut about this. Check out the whole story <a href="http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/local/state/hc-23115723.apds.m0620.bc-ct--s

Happy dance in Life Journals JoeUser Forums

This is me, right after I found out that I was being offered a co-op for the Fall. Yes, I've turned into a banana.

In the shell in Personal Relationships JoeUser Forums

I'm so sick of this. I've got to get out of the house. Talk to somebody. I feel like I've withdrawn into a little shell, like a turtle. I'm doing nothing that matters. Just waiting for my life to start up again, or something. Or waiting for it to be over. I've seen practically none of the people I went to high school for three years. I should have st

Reply to The Pizza Sickness in Misc JoeUser Forums

Everytime I eat a lot of pizza [...] After two (ok, three or four) slices... Four slices is a lot? No, no, no, my friend. It doesn't become "a lot" until you've eaten more than one whole pizza.

Reply to Beta 2 Dev Journal in GalCiv Journals GalCiv2 Forums

That's no problem, as long as 1600x900 isn't the minimum for the special rally point interface.

Reply to How a local tribe in my home county handled a child molester in Humor JoeUser Forums

That was nice of them. The knife, I mean. I'm sure that if I pushed against the stump hard enough with his legs he could have torn himself free without it.

Reply to Dems Deny Non-Black Americans Opportunity To Catch Up! in Politics JoeUser Forums

As a white man, I'd like to say that I'm deeply sorry for my actions durring the late 19th and early 20th century, as well as everything I did to oppress the blacks during their period of enslavement. While there's nothing wrong with the bill, if you didn't actually vote against an anti-lynching law, then your signature on it means very little. It means that you think lynching was a bad thing, but, frankly, that's something you should just assume about everybody unles

Reply to Writing in Misc JoeUser Forums

After three years at RIT, I've invested way too much time and money into my education to dismiss it out of hand. I wasn't really thinking of writing as an alternate career, but rather a hobby I might take up. Maybe an alternate path my life could have taken, if things had been different when I was younger. I really do like most of CS, it's just that there's this skill that apparently is very important that I have severely underdeveloped. An

Reply to Writing in Misc JoeUser Forums

Oh, I can't give you credit for bursting the bubble. After all, the entire computer industry can't be wrong, can it? In fact, practically everything is done collaboratively, I'll bet. I just wish I was more prepared for it. From grade school on up we were supposed to "do our own work," and sharing solutions to the problems was cheating. Working in groups was the exception, not the rule. I got really good at working on my own. I know i ca

Writing in Misc JoeUser Forums

Sometimes I feel an urge to write something here. Express what I'm feeling, or something like that. The problem is I don't have anything specific in mind that I want to say. Maybe I'm feeling something that I just can't identify and put into words, or maybe what I'm feeling is just the need to reach out, so there's no specific set of words that would be meaningful.

Reply to Beta 2 Dev Journal in GalCiv Journals GalCiv2 Forums

we may even add things that only show up in the interface if the resolution is high enough. Just promise me you'll make for people with lower resolutions to make those things appear, too. i used an application once that had certain very useful interface elements dissapear if you started it in 800x600. you could go i