There are some other good April Fools' jokes out there today, but I think this one wins...
It makes me forgive them for last night's (this morning's) Perfect Hair Forever bootleg subbed VHS marathon instead of the Saturday evening anime block, even!
What a horrible situation. They kidnap sailors who clearly were not in Iranian waters, act like the victim, and no one seems to care.
Britain is showing yellow already, which is very disheartening. They have no reason to apologize, nor should they resort to diplomacy or give Iran an inch. Britain did nothing wrong. Yet, it seems like a matter of time before they emasculate themselves just to save face. What a shame. What is it coming to when world powers allow themselves to be pushed around so savagely by these bullshit tinpot dictators?
Bush is at least giving hard words, but that's all he'll do, I'm certain. And we shouldn't have to talk hard for Britain. They should be able to speak for themselves.
Clearly, the Ahmadinehad regime is not one that should be suffered, and the Middle East in general gives very few good reasons why the civilized world should tolerate its existence.
Where are those biofuels and fuel cells so that region fades into the obscurity it deserves?
So on another message board I visit, a cake/pie debate has broken out in a divided fashion. I didn't realize that the question would take so much exploring when I originally saw it. I voted on Cake (no "icing on the cake" jokes, please), but I'm really not positive.
Pie:
-Gooey fructose goodness
-Tasty crust, which can also be chocolate or chocolate-chipped (peanut butter chipped crust with fudge and maybe some Boston cream *splooge*)
-Goes awesome with a scoop of ice cream or whipped cream
-Not overly sweet
-Meat pies and pot pies
Cake:
-Icing!
-Spongy goodness
-Variety: toppings, flavor, filling (Ice cream/boston cream/vanilla cream are all great)
-Keeps longer
-Pancakes and brownies
Choose! Unless you feel a little too :gay: fleshing this one out.
Quote:*Hitler[AoE] has joined the game.* *Eisenhower has joined the game.* *paTTon has joined the game.* *Churchill has joined the game.* *benny-tow has joined the game.* *T0J0 has joined the game.* *Roosevelt has joined the game.* *Stalin has joined the game.* *deGaulle has joined the game.* Roosevelt: hey sup T0J0: y0 Stalin: hi Churchill: hi Hitler[AoE]: cool, i start with panzer tanks! paTTon: lol more like panzy tanks T0J0: lol Roosevelt: o this fockin sucks i got a depression! benny-tow: haha america sux Stalin: hey hitler you dont fight me i dont fight u, cool? Hitler[AoE]: sure whatever Stalin: cool deGaulle: **** Hitler rushed some1 help Hitler[AoE]: lol byebye frenchy Roosevelt: i dont got crap to help, sry Churchill: wtf the luftwaffle is attacking me Roosevelt: get antiair guns Churchill: i cant afford them benny-tow: u n00bs know what team talk is? paTTon: stfu Roosevelt: o yah hit the navajo button guys deGaulle: Eisenhower ur worthless come help me quick Eisenhower: i cant do **** til rosevelt gives me an army paTTon: yah hurry the fock up Churchill: d00d im gettin pounded deGaulle: this is fockin weak u guys suck *deGaulle has left the game.* Roosevelt: im gonna attack the axis k? benny-tow: with what? ur wheelchair? benny-tow: lol did u mess up ur legs AND ur head? Hitler[AoE]: ROFLMAO T0J0: lol o no america im comin 4 u Roosevelt: wtf! thats bullsh1t u fags im gunna kick ur asses T0J0: not without ur harbors u wont! lol Roosevelt: u little biotch ill get u Hitler[AoE]: wtf Hitler[AoE]: america hax, u had depression and now u got a huge fockin army Hitler[AoE]: thats bullsh1t u hacker Churchill: lol no more france for u hitler Hitler[AoE]: tojo help me! T0J0: wtf u want me to do, im on the other side of the world retard Hitler[AoE]: fine ill clear you a path Stalin: WTF u arsshoel! WE HAD A FoCKIN TRUCE Hitler[AoE]: i changed my mind lol benny-tow: haha benny-tow: hey ur losing ur guys in africa im gonna need help in italy soon sum1 T0J0: o **** i cant help u i got my hands full Hitler[AoE]: im 2 busy 2 help Roosevelt: yah thats right biznitch im comin for ya Stalin: church help me Churchill: like u helped me before? sure ill just sit here Stalin: dont be an arss Churchill: dont be a commie. oops too late Eisenhower: LOL benny-tow: hahahh oh sh1t help Hitler[AoE]: o man ur focked paTTon: oh what now biotch Roosevelt: whos the cripple now lol *benny-tow has been eliminated.* benny-tow: lame Roosevelt: gj paTTon paTTon: thnx Hitler[AoE]: WTF Eisenhower hax hes killing all my sh1t Hitler[AoE]: quit u hacker so u dont ruin my record Eisenhower: Nuts! benny-tow: wtf that mean? Eisenhower: meant to say nutsack lol finger slipped paTTon: coming to get u hitler u paper hanging hun cocksocker Stalin: rofl T0J0: HAHAHHAA Hitler[AoE]: u guys are fockin gay Hitler[AoE]: ur never getting in my city *Hitler[AoE] has been eliminated.* benny-tow: OMG u noob you killed yourself Eisenhower: ROFLOLOLOL Stalin: OMG LMAO! Hitler[AoE]: WTF i didnt click there omg this game blows *Hitler[AoE] has left the game* paTTon: hahahhah T0J0: WTF my teammates are n00bs benny-tow: shut up noob Roosevelt: haha wut a moron paTTon: wtf am i gunna do now? Eisenhower: yah me too T0J0: why dont u attack me o thats right u dont got no ships lololol Eisenhower: fock u paTTon: lemme go thru ur base commie Stalin: go to hell lol paTTon: fock this sh1t im goin afk Eisenhower: yah this is gay *Roosevelt has left the game.* Hitler[AoE]: wtf? Eisenhower: sh1t now we need some1 to join *tru_m4n has joined the game.* tru_m4n: hi all T0J0: hey Stalin: sup Churchill: hi tru_m4n: OMG OMG OMG i got all his stuff! tru_m4n: NUKES! HOLY **** I GOT NUKES Stalin: d00d gimmie some plz tru_m4n: no way i only got like a couple Stalin: omg dont be gay gimmie nuculer secrets T0J0: wtf is nukes? T0J0: holy sh*tholysh*thoylshti!!!111 *T0J0 has been eliminated.*
*The Allied team has won the game!* Eisenhower: awesome! Churchill: gg noobs no re T0J0: thats bullsh*t u fockin suck *T0J0 has left the game.* *Eisenhower has left the game.* Stalin: next game im not going to be on ur team, u guys didnt help me for **** Churchill: wutever, we didnt need ur help neway dumbarss tru_m4n: l8r all benny-tow: bye Churchill: l8r Stalin: fock u all tru_m4n: shut up commie lol *tru_m4n has left the game.* benny-tow: lololol u commie Churchill: ROFL Churchill: bye commie *Churchill has left the game.* *benny-tow has left the game.* Stalin: i hate u all fags *Stalin has left the game.* paTTon: lol no1 is left paTTon: weeeee i got a jeep *paTTon has been eliminated.* paTTon: o sh1t! *paTTon has left the game.*
Last night my Cisco router met an untimely death at the hands of a firmware update. This router has served TovenSolutions well and will be sorely missed.
Brief history of router...
Lived in five different server rooms at five different locations.
Been updated with new version of OS 4 times. Including 2 major updates that added new features.
Used on three different TovenSolutions owned networks.
Processed over 20 million packets of data over 10 different websites.
Events that happened during it's owner ship.
Moved three times
Got car stolen at gun point
Survived 3 different jobs
And finally killed by my own hand at the behest of a minor security update.
The new router is up and running however, and is new with all the latest bells and whistles, bringing faster and more accurate Qos (Quality of Service) packets to TovenNet as well as Voip to me and my customers.
BTW I wish to thank Ryan for his financial support.
I know that trying to get any of you interested in this game is like talking to a brick wall, but I can't help but keep trying can I (I'm over 900 hours in the last two and three-quarters years since the first beta... and that's nowhere near as much as I could have played it...)...
Eye of the North: expansion, requires Prophecies, Factions, or Nightfall (might require Prophecies, I'm not sure). Late 2007 release date. Lots of awesome stuff.
Guild Wars 2: Betas to start in mid to late 2008 - a while off. New game. Set several hundred years later. Connections to GW achievements through an added feature of EotN, but you can't carry over characters. Persistent world, not all instanced (though there will be instanced missions of some kind). Still no monthly fee. High level cap? Some nice-sounding stuff about quests in the overworld and stuff is available in some of the previews.
Eyes of the North looks fantastic. Just what I wanted: a resolution to the Ascalon plotline, the Charr, a true expansion with all level-20 content, etc, etc... :) :)
As for GW2, though, I'm a bit less certain about this one. Oh, I'm sure I'll buy it, definitely, but... high level cap? That doesn't sound good... one of the best things about GW is that the low level cap forces you to think about your strategy and skillset, not your character level. What next, being able to take as many skills with you as you want and not just eight? That would be horrible, just as bad as a high level cap would be... :( I strongly disagree with anything that gives GW a level cap that takes longer to max out. Having a design which DOES NOT require ridiculous amounts of grind to reach the top level of is extremely, extremely important part of the game, and I really hope that they misspoke somehow in that statement.
Making it truly open-world is also an interesting decision that I'm not sure I agree with. While open-world MMOs can be quite good, GW has a unique style that emphasizes your importance. If all you have to do to get from point to point is wait for someone to clear the group in front of you instead of clearing them yourself you'd get so much less out of actually playing the game... while it does make it feel like a single-player game a lot, I definitely really like the instanced design, and don't want GW2 to become a normal MMO on this matter. Keeping it all or mostly instanced would be best, but if it must go open... we'll see. Hopefully they can make it work, but it just seems like it won't quite be GW with those two huge changes, and that would be bad... Guild Wars is a truly amazing game.
I thought about making the thread title "Microsoft tries to lose the console war", but didn't... still though, what in the world are they thinking? RAISING the price of their system, now?
I know this has been rumored for some time now, but still...
Quote:Following months of speculation, Microsoft has officially unveiled a new version of the Xbox 360. Called the Xbox 360 Elite (pictured), the console will go on sale in North America April 29, with European and Japanese launches later in the year. In the US, the console will retail for $479.
As previously hinted at on many forums and blogs, the new console will feature a variety of different features than the traditional Xbox 360. It will indeed feature a 120GB hard drive to better accommodate game downloads from Xbox Live Arcade and video content from Xbox Live Marketplace. The news coincides with the announcement of a new batch of television and movie partners who will offer content on the service.
The Xbox 360 Elite has a "premium black finish" which matches the wireless controller it comes with. (Controllers and rechargeable battery kits with the same hue will be sold separately.) The console will also sport a matching black wired headset and, as widely rumored, an HDMI output port. The console will come bundled with an HDMI cable as well as a component video cable.
One thing the console will not come with is a data transfer cable, as had been rumored. However, a standalone, $179 120GB drive for the console will be released alongside the Xbox 360 Elite bundled with a data-transfer cable. The cable will allow for the transfer of all Marketplace downloads and game saves from an existing 360 hard drive to the new hard drive.
According to Albert Penello, Microsoft's director of global platform marketing, the old hard drive will be blanked following the data transfer and can then be attached to any other 360. "The standalone drive is the main solution we're suggesting to existing Xbox 360 owners," he told GameSpot.
So what about HDMI-craving HDTV owners who want to get an Xbox 360 Elite and transfer their current XBLM content to it? In one word: wait. Penello said that Microsoft is "working on a solution" for transferring data from current 360s to Elites, but would not elaborate.
Hardware-wise, Penello said the Xbox 360 Elite has the same disc drive and processors as "current models." He also confirmed it would not have an internal HD-DVD drive, as some had suspected. "We don't want to segment the user base," he told GameSpot. He also confirmed that the external Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive would not be available in the Elite's black finish for the foreseeable future.
Another thing the new console won't have is Internet Protocol TV functionality, which Microsoft announced it was bringing to the 360 platform at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. "[IPTV] Trials will start this summer," said Penello, who didn't have a start date for the service.
As for the fate of the current hard drive-less $299 Core Xbox 360 and 360-equipped Pro Xbox 360 models, Pennello said they would continue to be offered. He also confirmed the new model will be a permanent addition to the 360 product line, and not a limited edition.
The fact the Elite is only $20 less than the 20GB PlayStation 3 and does not have next-generation video format playback did not go unnoticed by Sony. “We think every PlayStation 3 owner should have an 'elite' experience, which is why we include an internal hard drive and HDMI output in every PS3 we sell, along with the 50 GB of storage capacity on a high definition Blu-ray disc," said Peter Dille, Sony Computer Entertainment's senior vice president of marketing. Sony also issued a series of talking points asserting that the release of the 360 Elite " further validates the PS3 business model, which [Microsoft] criticized at launch."
For more details on the Xbox 360 Elite, check out GameSpot Hardware's complete examination of the console.
Sony PR's reply...
Quote:We think every PlayStation 3 owner should have an “elite” experience, which is why we include an internal hard drive and HDMI output in every PS3 we sell, along with the 50 GB of storage capacity on a high definition Blu-ray disc. Sony has been the strongest advocate of high definition as the future of next-generation gaming. This requires high-definition components, including HDMI output, and large storage devices to deliver and store all that rich and vivid HD content. Microsoft’s announcement today not only legitimizes Sony’s PS3 strategy, it moves us closer to adopting universal standards in the area of high definition gaming that will benefit game developers and ultimately the end user.
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