Goodwin 1st MRB

Well, I finally got a new job - and it's a pretty sweet gig. Troubleshoot PC things, play with the latest & greatest server side technologies, play darts whenever I want, listen to music with other tech-audio-philes who have similarly good taste in music and get to leave the office occasionally to troubleshoot our clients that need on-site help. However, I'm only in week 2 of my 90 day trial period. Some have not made it past here, some have made it only marginally further. This guy told me when I got hired "I have no problem firing people within days of hiring them - I'm the owner. I'm not PC, and I'm not a fucking social butterfly. I pay you to do work, so that's what I expect, I'm not your friend - I'm your boss. I find it takes me firing about 10-11 guys before I find 1 good one, and I've already fired 2." We'll see. If I make it, I get 100% covered health insurance, 100% dental and a company phone (whatever the new droids are). We shall see, it's tough though - because we're working with brand new technologies from Microsoft and such... so even if I google I find very little helpful information and mostly have to figure it out (which is made even tougher because the boss won't let me play with the control panels to some of this technology so I'm essentially flying blind and making educated guesses as to the fixes).

I think the main problem is that you're using cellphone type download speeds. Your speed is going to be affected by how many users are on the network at that moment, who's downloading what and how much you've downloaded (with some companies). Very often they limit the bandwidth on cell phone downloads a TON - so you probably won't see the same speed as if you were using a dedicated DSL/CABLE line from a local internet provider.

Right... for the 'world class gamers', there are how many of those worldwide? For the rest of the real population? They'll never actually do enough to warrant the cost of some of those mice IMO (but I'm cheap, so...) I know there are drastic differences in DPI, I knew that in my original post - but realistically - the AVERAGE player isn't going to become better because he has to move his mouse less. Hand-eye coordination is hand-eye coordination. I personally HATE when my mouse is super sensitive and my screen moves a ton when I just barely tap the mouse - I can't stand it at all. I'd also be willing to bet dollars to bananas that there are some 'world class gamers' who use a more 'realistic' DPI because that's just how they play. It's all about playstyle - the quality of all the mice is pretty much identical. You're paying more for: A) The name brand The idea more DPI may (or may not) help your hand-eye coordination become better than someone elses. Maybe a few little features here or there, but mice are by in large... just mice.

I'd rather take a minute to think about this - 10 years later? What is the media and American doing? Exploiting a terrible tragedy of America for more profit and that feeling 'patriotism'. "Let's remember, buy these shirts, show your support! This company supports 9/11, buy our product! This newscast brought to you by "product x", never forget." It's just sad - because everyone buys into it. What's more sad is to think of the THOUSANDS and thousands of our servicemen/women who've given their lives and been maimed or ruined by this 'war on terror', which was really a front for some profit driven government called "America". A tragedy turned to profit - never forget. It angers me how misguided the 'never forget' has become... I'd understand if they lost their lives and that was that - but we've lost well beyond double that in a war we shouldn't even be in. THAT is what we should never forget. It was a tragedy - but now it's all profit.

I use some mouse I've had for a long time - I think it came with a PC I had way back. A mouse is a mouse is a mouse. Some have maybe a a better 'accuracy', but it's really so infinitesimally small I personally believe it doesn't matter (although others could probably provide evidence otherwise).

I like Pidgin - open source, routinely updated, lightweight footprint, no bloat. Perhaps it's changed but Trillian always struck me as bloated. I also used to have issues with file transfers and such with Trillian (back in the day). Pidgin has a really active development team so far as I can tell and they update pretty frequently so it's nice. But Trillian always seemed a bit 'bloated' for my taste and pidgin seems much more responsive for me. Also works on cross platform (IIRC). Meebo? Do they have a desktop application for handling that stuff? Last I checked it was simply a browser based solution? I used it - on rare occasions - at one job where I wanted to message people but do so discretely so my boss wouldn't notice. I just go with Pidgin - simple to install, upgrades are simple (and decent support), low bloat and works effectively.

Don't drink the water! Wait... wrong country. Take pictures!! Bring back amazing beer for me! Have fun! Go to a nude beach!

Oh man, Diablo 3... So long waiting for that freaking game. It'll be the next Duke Nukem Forever.... I have a feeling that by the time it finally comes out it will be good, but won't be on par with the host of other games on the market. I played the hell out of D1 and D2 - so good. I did the Eve Online thing for a while, but it was just TOO big. Too much. Here, there, spent most of my time just flying around and it got old fast. I guess a sandbox can be TOO big!

GIMP is free, and has about 90% of the functionality of Photoshop and in many ways, for what most people use it for, is every bit as good. I used GIMP for a while and got to a point where I enjoyed it more than Photoshop because of how intuitively the interface was laid out in some respects. That said - I use Photoshop 99% of the time anymore because it's just... well, the industry standard. Yes, pirated copy. I'm not shelling out $2500 for software. I'd recommend just torrenting down a copy from the interweb, or using GIMP. But yea, anything that is MS paint is ... bad.

As a former WoW addict, I played Guild Wars for a bit. I found it to be 'meh' in terms of things to do. Maybe I missed out - I only gave it a couple months worth of play. Age of Conan, I recently re-installed this game now that it's free to play at the request of Collazo and Wingate - both of who never ask me to play it. My characters are still there (levels 34 & 24), but are on a pvp server which no one wants to play on with me. I'd be down to play more AoC if people got involved!

While not the point of the thread, I guess it goes to show you modern music requires no real actual talent. All those singers you hear and you're like "wow", don't be surprised - they can't sing outside of a recording studio. Music is just going downhill anymore! But Phan.... he shows some promise.

I finished a site I was working on (for my own brewing). I wanted something to be really social and fun for everyone - I put forums, commenting, the ability for users to submit their own reviews (including uploading of photos and recipes!). If you're a beer fan? Check it out! I'd love feedback. If you're curious about learning more about beer? Finding good suggestions? Well, it's just started but my goal is to have it become a virtual beer directory where you can find flavors you like and see what people say about 'em. Yes, this message is a bit spammy :-P www.bytebrewery.com - check it!

That's an interesting question to be posed. I do wonder what other sports do, I know football players tend to go into depression upon retiring - especially when their body begins to quit (hard to walk, using canes, etc). But, I'm not sure why Hockey is prone to such things. It just seems an odd pairing... NHL & Depression... what possible factors could contribute? It's got me thinking...

Goody used to be a frequent one... that's been about it. Although... Hanny - is actually my preferred nickname. My real first name is Chris, but since my college days I've enjoyed the nickname Hanny so I prefer to stick with that as my regular name.

True! Also, doesn't the touchpad being on the right seem odd? I guess since it's a mouse replacement I can understand... I just feel left out being lefthanded I guess. I use my lefthand on touchpads... so it would be awkward and weird and make me want to throw it out the window if I ever didn't have a mouse handy.

I'm really boring apparently - I don't have a bucket list really... I have some stuff I'll never be able to do but at one point thought I could, they are (well, maybe they're still possible, but highly unlikely): A) Play in a well known/famous rock/blues band (either lead guitar or bass) Make it to nationals for diving (I could go for this in Masters Diving, but it would require a huge amount of dedication I can't give right now) C) Qualify and race in a national MX.

Oh, I figured there would just be a big list of every song she's ever written.

Another point, Olivia Munn? I can only think of 2 or 3 men in the entire world that have a more manly jaw then she does. That's a man, baby!

I was similar to Ford except I didn't play in beta. I started playing around 2004 after watching a good friend of mine go 72-3 (I thought "Hey, I could do that!") Since then I've played off and on (mostly 'on'). I introduced Dobbles BAR to DoD and we used to play 12+ hour sessions sitting at his house - we were hooked. When Source came out - both Dobbles and I (like Ford) hated it and quit playing. It wasn't until much later we came back to it (with better PC's) and started to enjoy it - although I still think we'd both offer good arguments as to why the original was so much better. What I enjoyed so much about 1.3/1.6 was that you had to use teammwork in order to accomplish wins - and often (even in pubs) you found people willing to do that. In source it seems far less like that and more about 'look how big my e-peen is'. But yea, I had some downtime while I got into WoW & Everquest 2, but eventually came back to DoD:S, and when I did - the 1st happened to be the first server I played in. I liked the organization and decided it would be something cool to try. After seeing the way you were forced to use communication & teammwork to win a realism, it was over and I was hooked.

I used Vista for years (literally) - it had some bugs and lacked features that 7 had. It also wasn't backwards compatible with legacy equipment at all really... such a HUGE problem. Vista forced people to upgrade / buy new PC's to handle that beast. I have an old machine with Windows 7 on it that ran beautifully, but wouldn't handle Vistas shit at all. I'd recommend just upgrade to 7. It's really solid and is nicely backwards compatible with tons of things and actually works to make older machines perform better. If you want to try something really different, try Linux. Go with Ubuntu - very familiar if you're used to Windows environments, and it will teach you about computers/drivers a bit more too. And... best of all? No virus'! But do NOT put it on a gaming machine. Pain in the butt working with WINE (well, is okay) but video drivers can be problematic.

True! I stayed with '95 for a LONG time before I finally moved to '98 (reluctantly). I even remember 3.1!

#1 - if it's that far off? Upgrade. #2 - if their current schedule of release is any indication - you'll want to hold off until Windows 9 anyway. 98 (ok), me (garbage), xp (ok), Vista (garbage), 7 (ok), 8.... well, you get my point. Winblows has ALWAYS had that pattern. I don't see it stopping now. Their garbage releases are really just like live world beta versions to get bugs out.

Yup. Everyone with their phones are pretty close to it currently... I have a phone that makes calls - that's it. I don't need much more, and I barely take it with me as is. Want to get ahold of me? Go to my work, or my house - there I am. The amount of control 'big brother' has over people already is disgusting (and sad).

That's really cool Dillon!

I can't quote enough. I'm rofling all over at work. Thanks for getting me fired.