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Donut.Hole

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Posts posted by Donut.Hole

  1. Thanks for all the responses Cap'n, Insane Alien, Pangloss, and Bascule. (sorry I didn't reply). And thanks to you too, antimatter, for explaining the problem. The problem hasn't persisted since the temperatures have gone below 80F. If I just use the laptop in lower temperatures, there's no problem.

     

    But there's one thing I've noticed. The problem happens when I run games from a disk. Anyone got any theories?

  2. My new notebook has been in use for a couple of days, and I'm already seeing a few heat problems. It's a Dell XPS m1530, so the slim chassis and the higher-end parts don't sit too well.

     

    My first question is if heat really is so bad. What effects does it have on parts, and will it decrease performance? (I hope I didn't ruin it already.)

     

    Secondly, when running anything intensive, the notebook occasionally shuts itself off for no apparent reason, even when charged. I'm thinking that this is to protect itself from heat, but surface temperatures are always relatively cool. So does anyone have any good reasons?

     

    Thanks.

  3. Well, it appears that by "immune system" you mean defenses against viruses, diseases, etc. Everything living has this type of defense built into their cells - the cell membrane is basic protection and filters out harmful products. But this isn't great protection, because viruses are almost always able to get through the tiny pores.

     

    So if you mean an advanced adaptive immune system, like the specialized white blood cells that lock down viruses with antigens, macrophages to dispose of them, and B-Cells to memorize the viruses in order to create new antigens, it'd really only be animals that would have this type of defense. Compared to other organisms, the complexity makes it necessary.

     

    However, all animals and plants also have an "innate immune system." I don't know too much about it, but this basically means that the organism responds to any disease in the same way (this occurs when an adaptive immune system meets something new. Then it adapts.) This response is primitive, but works well enough.

     

    So yes, everything that is alive has its own immune system. Now I'm surprised that you actually read all that.

  4. There's a bit of speculation that Homo Erectus discovered it around 800,000 years ago by roasting their food. No evidence of how they actually figured it out.

     

    Fire was being used around then. My guess is that because it played such a vital role as protection and heat, it was probably an accident from some clueless Erectus dropping food in fire and finding it better.

     

    Cooking was mostly for meat because it was tough to chew.

  5. IQ probably isn't going up, it's just that people's minds are better tuned for IQ-style thinking, if you please. The recent need for literacy has boosted education and has made this possible.

     

    I don't think so. The ratio of 'intelligent' people in my school to 'not-so-intelligent' people is around 1:8

    I'm basing this off of four classes.

    I know this isn't what you're calling 'the long haul', but I really do think that we're doing something wrong, and as much as I love computers and the outrageous amount of time I spend on them every day, I think they're part of the problem.

     

    I hope I'm not one of those dumb people at your school, antimatter.

  6. So a game that had extremely explicit sex (a sex game) but no violence, profanity, drugs, or gambling, would still score E10+ even with the sexual themes and general attitude at max? Yet it should score adult.

     

    My last post asks for suggestions. It'd be best if complaints could come with suggestions too.

    Perhaps for only the most intense experiences in each field, there should be an over-rate feature. Sex games shoud have an over-rate scale of 54 extra points. Coupled with a rater's 17 General Attitude, AO is achieved.

     

    Games like FEAR should have an over-rate for violence.

     

    Now, the only problem is, can anyone think of the conditions under which an over-rate is granted?

  7. Yes, but it's too general.

    General Attitude, about what?

    Overall? Overall rating? Overall fun? Overall ....?

     

    It's meant to be general. This is basically a place where you can boost a game's rating if you feel that the system doesn't work right. If the game is like FEAR in which there is a ton of violence but nearly nothing else, are you syaing that the game should be rated E just because it scored no points in anything else?

     

    Reasons for getting high points in this is if the score is over 20 or if the game deserves and M when the points indicate a T. Kind of like an overall.

     

    Raters should, for instance, ask "Would I let a 10 year old play this?"

     

    But remember, it has limited influence.

  8. I still don't understand why a general attitude should matter. Who really cares whether or not people like it. It doesn't really make sense...

     

    Halo CE- about 38.

     

    Like I explained, a game that scored full points in sex and violence and has tons of it everywhere you look could still be rated T without the General Attitude. But I'd still look at that game and see M. General Attitude allows a place for raters to decide whether a game may deserve a higher rating because it places emphasis on a few areas instead of spreading the points out. It's just a little thing to balance power. But it's still fair - remember, it's not a vote but a group choice, so no one can sabotage this area alone.

     

    And 38 points of Halo: CE? Did you take into account General Attitude? Because it can't be

    E10, at least T

  9. Using my previous rating criteria, scores should be out of 88 points.

     

    Violence/Blood- I suppose no explanation is needed. 25pts

     

    Drug Reference — Reference to and/or images of illegal drugs. 10pts

     

    Language — Profanity. 8pts

     

    Gambling — Player can gamble. 8pts

     

    Sexual Themes — Sexual references and/or depictions. 20pts

     

    General Attitude Toward the Game (Must be decided as a single score for the rating group, not a vote/average) - 17 pts

     

    This is my rating scale. A rating means the maximum number of points or under. For instance, Rated E would be between 37 and 25

     

    3 points: Very young children

     

    25 points: E

     

    38points: E10+

     

    44points: T

     

    57 points: M

     

    70+points: Adult Only

     

    Before, I didn't have a section for general attitude towards the game. This would mean that a teen game could have full points in violence, sex and drugs but only rated teen. Therefore, the "General Attitude" fixes this; it's enough to get a game from T to M if it has such content. And to prevent individual raters from sabotaging the rating, the General Attitude must be discussed and decided on as a group; there is no voting. This is my rating for Half-Life 2:

     

    Violence/Blood: 25 points

     

    Drug Reference: 0 points

     

    Language: 3 points

     

    Gambling: 0 points

     

    Sexual Themes: 0 points

     

    General Attitude Towards the Game: 20 points

     

    48 points...Mid-Range M. But it isn't a very heavy M game, except for maybe Ravenholm. Most of the violence isn't stylized. There should also be a meter on games that reads 48 points between 44 and 56 points in the M range.

     

    I haven't actually played Halo: CE. Anyone want to rate that?

  10. The world is a very ironic place...

    I really don't think that parents should have an input on how a game is rated, they don't play them, they don't know for sure the psychological effects it has on a child.

    I'm not saying that they should be rated by kids, because we all know how that would end (mahunt-E, half-life 2-E, GTA-E), but real gamers (mature ones) should use the point system that we've developed to accurately rate games.

     

    Yeah, raters should be between 18 and 25. They have to have played a wide variety of games spanning many ratings. And there should be specialized raters, like those for fps and others for rts and such.

  11. So?

    Who cares what the parents think?

     

    I'd like to think that way too antimatter, but ESRB would be facing pressure from the authorities if it wasn't parent apperoved. Kinda funny that parents and adults rate videogames when they haven't played them and aren't the ones that are going to.

  12. Really, I think drugs and violence are the only things that ratings should be based on.

    Kids are exposed to enough of everything else already for it to not make any difference at all.

     

    Yeah, I agree, but the ESRB has to make all the adults happy, Without all the other categories, parents would swamp the ESRB with criticism.

  13. Okay, looks like you want an all-around PC then.

     

    OS: Windows XP - Best all-around OS

     

    CPU:Looks like you'd be happy with an Intel Core 2 Duo clocked at 1.2GHz. Best bang for the buck. Some people say AMD is better...well Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Extreme have trounced anything AMD has cooked up.

     

    RAM: 1.5GB is reasonable, but you can get by with 1 GB.

     

    Graphics Card: If you have a PCI slot, get this cheap, powerful card for $20: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102737. Just make sure to get the 1.5 RAM if yyou buy this one, cuz it sucks up RAM.

     

    If you're not custom building, 256MB with a fan is good enough, maybe 512MB if you play games at full settings.

     

    HD: Slack off on this if you've been doing heavy spending. 40GB should be enough, you don't need a fast storage one either.

     

    Monitor: These things are expensive, so get an LCD equal or less than 17." The smaller the size, the better the performance (and the price!). If you do visual things like gaming and graphics-intensive programs, go for a sharper screen, but a basic LCD should be cheap and adequate.

     

    Software: All you really need to start of with are Firefox, Microsoft Office 2004, and Norton Anti-Virus. No biggie.

     

    Hope this helps, and it helps more if you're custom building. This should make a good PC at a reasonable price, especially if you buy from Newegg.com.

  14. Tactical is one of the three typically along with strategical and operational so don’t use it to much out of context, also a lot of what could define that is situation dependent. The rodent example was to use a chip to aid in decision making based on stimulus though I don’t know how far its gotten.

     

    A rodent may be smarter with a chip, but raw brain power is important. The chip adapted to a more advanced brain could lead to better results. It's better to have a subject that could analyze the hundreds, maybe thousands of variables for themselves.

     

    And a cat's brain can function better independently should the chip have any problems.

  15. These are the current categories for ESRB ratings (I've whittled it down to what I think is best and have combined a few):

     

    Violence/Blood- I suppose no explanation is needed. 15pts

     

    Drug Reference — Reference to and/or images of illegal drugs. 10pts

     

    Language — Profanity. 8pts

     

    Mature Humor — Depictions or dialogue involving "adult" humor, including sexual references. 8pts

     

    Gambling — Player can gamble. 8pts

     

    Sexual Themes — Sexual references and/or depictions. 15pts

     

    General Attitude Toward the Game - 12 pts

     

    As you can see, sex and violence are the biggest point values. General attitude toward the game is asically what your gut tells you.

    See, what the raters should do is actually spend a good hour or two playing the games. then they assign each game a point value. Depending on the total, you get your rating out of 68 points.

     

    Now whose going decide how many points it takes for each rating?

  16. I think that for organic subjects, cats would be best. They're very fast, know how to look out for themselves, and are much more intellligent than rodents when it comes to tactical thinking.

     

    But if they were inorganic subjects, the US Military is developing robotic insects and lobsters. Their multi-legged build allows for getting into tight spots, and insects are very hardy.

  17. PG-13 movies are allowed the F word twice.

    All other swears acceptable, so T is essentially PG-13.

     

    And Donut.Hole, no need to be patronizing, we were talking about Halo: CE for quite a while, and trying to make yourself be right by changing the topic is a very n00b thing to do.

    By the way, you would know this if you bothered to read the thread.

     

    Yeah, I do know the topic of the thread, I mentioned Halo:CE! But perhaps you didn't need to make her feel like a toal n00b?

     

    Oh, and Half-Life 2 deserves the M Rating. Some parts may be a bit intense, like this part about a mutated zombie in Ravenholm:

    half-life-2-20041001075457037.jpg

     

    This is what FEAR has, not too different

    fear.jpg

     

    They really do deserve the M Rating.

  18. I think adults (30+) are more interested in analog (Mr. W exception) because it looks nicer and more professional.

    At least, that's my opinion. Any adults want to confirm this hypothesis?

     

    Yeah, because the styling of digital watches looks less serious? Again, any adults want to testify?

  19. I will always use a digital watch. For convenience, I'll list out my reasons:

     

    -Digital watches are cheap

     

    -They have "extras" like stopwatch, alarm, and light, although some advanced analogs also have them

     

    -They're very durable if you spend more than $10 on one

     

    -They can be read with a glance, taking into account seconds (well, I can read them faster, depends on opinion). No estimating with a digital watch when you really need to know the time

     

    -If you have to do something at an exact moment or if you're waiting for something that should appear at some exact moment, a digital watch is more precise. Handy for science experiments in school

     

    -Analogs (depending on the quality of course) can go out of time as their springs wear down. Based on my digital watch, digitals run longer (it's gone for three times than my analog on its current battery and is still going).

     

    -Based on my watch, digitals don't slow down even when the battery gets low. Analogs will get out of time as the battery gets low.

     

    -Wind-up analogs have the previous problem magnified and need winding the pendulum up

     

    -I find them more stylish. Unless you fit with the "bling" look with a silver watch (I don't) digitals are more natural and they don't feel old. (Don't flame me for this).

     

    And there you have it.

     

    So, can anyone doubt this? Can anyone come up with a list like this for analog?

     

    Also wondering, does age matter when it comes to watch preference?

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