copper

My wife and I met in an MMO as well and shared the same sort of experience, and next month we celebrate our two year anniversary :)

I'm very happy to see another couple like us that met and fell in love. Congratulations and here's to many more successful raids and long life together! *raises a toast*

M-Audio speakers. I'm an audio-quality geek and I have a simple pair of two-way powered speakers from M-Audio hooked up to my computer. They are absolutely fantastic and will give you the best sound you can find for only about $150 (or even less if you do some looking for used ones).

Highly recommended.

Dear God...I need to go change my pants.

While I understand your desire to see the wildlife minimally disturbed, I'd also ask that you double check your information with the railway and the country it runs through first.

The railway line in questions, BNSF' Marias Pass indeed runs through the southern border of Glacier National Park. The difficulty that BNSF has is several stretches near the summit are subject to avalanches in the wintertime each year from heavy snowfalls. They have snow sheds in place -- basically covering the railway tracks in high-risk areas -- but with the varied nature of the topography and the widespread risk, it is economically, technically and physically unfeasable to cover the entire line in the sheds. The use of small charges and explosives to break up snow drifts directly above the tracks are relatively harmless and can prevent a much larger catastrophe.

Imagine if a larger avalanche hit a chemical train, derailing tank cars and spilling millions of gallons of toxic chemicals into the river? The impact of that would be far worse and much further reaching than what BNSF may be planning.

We both don't want to see damage occur, but a miniscule risk is far more palatable than the alternative...

Ok, my point originally was that yes it was crap and I told you *why* it was crap. Don't resort to any of the normal "this sucks" comments without knowing what really went on. If you're going to diss a game, know what to diss and who.

And Earl, get a clue. When would a company not charge for something it could charge for and make money on?

Hokay, this is from the mouth of a former SOE employee who worked on this game:

First, the game had 8-9 months dev time. That's *it*. *You* go ahead and make a PS3 game with that little time and less than half the budget.

Second, the game is totally unoptimized and the code is horrific. This is because there was no time to make the game properly. Refer to point #1 if you don't get it.

Third, everyone who worked on it was aware that it sucks royally. It exists only to pad the ps3 launch numbers out and was never intended to make a profit. The fact that it scored above a 60 is surprising, but rest assured that only 2 weeks before it went gold, it would have had a worse rating.

Finally, Shagi, the camera and loot issues were left in the game because there were *FAR* worse issues still left to fix! Please think of how hard the coding team worked on that game for 8 months to get it out the door before you rag on it.

And yet, it still sucks :-/

HAHAHAHAHAHAAHAAHAHAHAHAHA

*Snort*

Sorry, but "more powerful than a locomotive?!"

Hokay, nothing wrong with Autoblog's report, for sure. But today's locomotives average 4,500 to 6,000 hp each. Out of a single V16 with each cylinder displacing more than twice that of a normal car engine. No way in hell is a truck getting even close.

Oh, and don't forget the torque (tractive effort) of 200,000 pounds. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it :P

Now, as for the transmission, most Diesel-Electric locomotives do indeed have a variable output motor. Locomotive engines rarely spin at more than 800rpm, and that's wide open throttle. They do indeed idle and go up and down the rev range -- only some types of passenger locomotives operate at a constant throttle rating, which is wide open, and those are being retired quite quickly.

However, the idea of placing electric motors on each wheel has been researched for quite some time. Acura did so in the late 80's and early 90's, iirc. The problem is one of size, cooling and weight. Also, add to the fact that unless it is an AC motor, you can't try and use it to brake (other than regenerative braking, which is not a very powerful force, just constant). The motors also keep you from placing brake rotors in the same spot, unless you move it back to where the axle is.

Basically, to do it right, you'd need an AC transmission. You have a diesel engine, alternator, rectifier, inverters which convert to DC, more inverters back to AC and then the motors. You have to go AC-DC-AC because AC motors will tend to rotate at a speed in line with the hz/cycle of the current, iirc, and that means you can't control them well. You invert to DC and then back to control the motor speed. This is all a lot of equipment and weight, which can also fail, and needs to be cooled and maintained.

It's an interesting idea, but unless they've developed the technology to cram everything into a car frame it won't be effective for a long time to come.

We shall see, I guess. I look forward to finding out what happens.

All I know is that I've been wanting a music/movie player with a nice big screen, built in wifi and bluetooth and phone. If they release that I'll buy it and be a perfectly happy camper for the rest of my days.

Well, not really, but I'll be satisfied for another year at least.

Having dealt with these guys many times, I can assure every skeptic that they will indeed not succumb to sensationalism -- they are about the community, not about a force-fed marketing blitz.

Jack Thompson = Petulant Child

Seriously, let's explore this. He responds to practically every comment on him with rhetoric, slander, outright stupidity and an overwhelming prejudice against a rapidly growing segment of society. He claims God is helping him, claims divine purpose, etc, and basically makes himself an annoyance.

Looking at every response, comment or "open letter" (ie: publicity stunt) he comes up as a pompous windbag. There is no substance to anything he does, only bluster -- and he has gone so far as to alienate pretty much whatever support he's gotten so far.

Now, here's the response I'm going to get from him, if he even reads the whole thing:

1) "God is behind me, I'll destroy them" or somesuch.

2) "You're a gamer, you know nothing" as always.

3) Various and sundry vague legal threats.

Of course, there's always the possibility he could say something intelligent.

Oh, and Jack, here's food for thought: I'm a republican, open minded, firmly anti-terrorist and I take nothing for granted, even my own freedom as a citizen of the U.S. You can claim all you want about my intelligence or alignment or anything...but it doesn't change the fact that I appreciate everything I have and *earned*, and you take your ability to bluster and intimidate others for personal gain for granted.

Who's the real fool here?