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Verbatim and my USB media. Don't have an external drive (lacking data to copy to). Getting one might be good as backup, although smaller important stuff is backupped bia e-mail as well - but currently not even remotely neccessary.
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Originally posted by Metal_Man88
[...]
With it gone, I've had a grand total of one freeze, and that was caused by the combination of an Avast Program Update and Windows Update and not having restarted yet...
Still something what should be looked into. What does the Event Viewer (if it was even logged) says at that time when that particular freeze came up?
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As we always compare the present with past events, it's no wonder many older people just don't like 'newer' things a lot. Besides lacking the knowledge, it is quite hard time to adapt to those changes later, when your life went like on rails and you refused to accept some changes in world.
For instance soundtracks from movies like Star Wars, Matrix or Resident Evil are memorable for me; but as I watched the movies (got the first Matrix' OST right after seeing the trailer - even before watching the movie the first time, after I heard two awesome songs from that) and connected those with certain events, fell in love with music like that.
When I'm in Croatia at my grandmother's house, that smell from haymaking and other 'natural' things often remind you about your holidays as a child there, too. And as most holidays were relaxing and fitting, this is a 'good' feeling (aside from that, smells like fresh, wet grass is welcomed by many people, though). Although this also might the fact, that many of use live in big cities which lack nature. Computers, many electronic devices - nice, but to see cows? Walking the grass barefoot (don't step on bees that way, it hurts  )? Invaluable personally and a nice temporary change from a big city.
Or think games. A nice song, although not too memorable soon becomes your favourite in the game, associating the event there. Think Dullahan's boss battle music from Vagrant Story, sounds like from a 70s horror movie, but it is incredibly catchy. Or a piano- and percussion-heavy track when fighting the first golem in the game. Pure awesomeness - but would it be that good personally, if you didn't play the game beforehand, too?
We still should not look back to the past only, as I think we should accept, or at least try to learn new things. Some are nice, others will not be liked, but still. It's always nice to find something new what kicks ass, what you didn't know before 
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Went back to Adobe Reader temporarily, as the newest release of Foxit Reader takes unusually long to open even small PDFs on my machine, be it with or no heavy graphics, extras. I didn't like Adobe's original reader too much (until 6.0 it was really nice, small - opening fast and no hole bunch of unneccessary modules loaded, which end users rarely will ever need).
I still don't see the point why a PDF has to have JavaScript, other stuff, being proprietary features from Adobe or not.
One theory might be that Adobe wants to ensure many people use Acrobat Reader more often than third-party PDFs viewers instead. Another idea I think is just the need to put in some more features in web 2.0 days. Think forms, print prevention or DRM. I mean, formats may have to grow.
But isn't the whole point of PDF being the portability, as it is even mentioned in its file type description? It might work nice under Windows, but *nix or any other operating system might have trouble with those extra things embedded into newer PDFs.
I would rather invent a new format, be it PDFX or something similar.
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I do not like too many anime, in fact I can use one hand to count all anime I watched completely, i. e. every episode. And I'm majoring Japanese Studies, so I may have some higher affinity to Japan in general, although I was not there, yet (would really like to, but there are things which make this like impossible).
Still, those few I enjoyed a lot, the last one being Death Note. Although the story seemed a bit too easy, while it had great moments (no spoilers here), image quality, Japanese voices seemed alright. Stereotypes may be present in a lot of anime if you count how satiated the market might be. Still, some sell like hot butter today, too. Think movies; did you ever see a movie which ended like after five minutes because the main hero died? Of course, paying in full might be weird and this would the most "insane" thing ever, but just as an extreme example.
Again, I am out of the intended audience anyway.
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| Posted on 07-09-10 06:30:02 PM, in USB ports (last edited by Surlent at 07-09-10 03:31 PM) |
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Eight. Six on the rear and two in the front. At least the ports are aligned horizontally there, mic and phone jacks in between. So two thick devices can stay without hindering each other. I didn't pay attention to that when I bought the case, as my last computer (got it complete) had them directly vertically next to each other - for bigger things you had to use the back ones. So it is pure luck both USB ports can be used in any way on my current machine.
Current devices plugged in into those:
- Mouse
- Keyboard
- DVB-T receiver
- Bluetooth stick*
- Printer
- MP3 player*
- USB thumb drive*
*These are not plugged in always.
Interesting how fast you can use up your USB ports, if you have plenty of them. The mainboard provides three USB 2.0 connectors, and I have no need at all to switch to 3.0 yet. If I ever buy an external drive, USB 2.0 probably will enough, as long as it is not more than, say 1 TB of data (where you might have to wait quite some time, if you copy a of data, but you won't do this every day, though).
I set my machine to power saving mode anyway (as especially the DVB-T receiver can drain a lot of power), only if higher-demanding applications/game require more, I go to higher settings.
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Actually even with those improvements you always have something to do. You also have to consider, while this game is indeed aimed for turney and competetitive clan play, it also aims a lot for (I "love" that word, so I use it purposely) casual gamers.
I play Terran only, but it is something like calling MULEs every so often, be ready to use scan every time, so leave 50 or close to 50 energy in one of your CCs/build a detector to confront Dark Templars in your base. Then, like with the oither two races, build your supply buildings/units wisely to be not cut to your max supply while there are lots of units in training. Then there's spells and other abilities.
Myself I'm not good at all in SCII, being in the Bronze Leage, but things like using several building facilities in a group on one hotkey or designating SCVs to begin mining automatically makes macro indeed easier. On the other hand no automatism will help Protoss to use Chrono Boost, sieging and unsieging my tanks or a Z to use their Overseers' and Corruptors' abilities
StarCraft 1/BroodWar may seem a bit faster from speed, but I'm sure SCII won't be less time-consuming when you play a game where you constantly send armies and need to expand quickly, unlike WC3 where one lost battle already may be defeat. Even with powerful units like two or three early Marauders against a Protoss (I have to admit these are quite powerful if sent early, but a skilled player can kill them fast, with their first Zealot and some probes quickly as well).
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To be honest, our generation, including the younger and probably also middle-aged people (whatever age-span you want to see here) use the internet quite a lot. It is a vital part of our lives, seriously. So we access the www, learning new things, and browsers like Firefox, Opera or Chrome help doing run-of-the-mill internet tasks (imo) a lot more conveniently. There's auto-updating, add-ons which save a lot of time, and things you may not ever want to miss again.
A person who accesses the internet maybe two or three times a week, opening up the Internet Explorer ("Why should I use another browser? Windows has one right there - conveniently - and this one displays my pages I want perfectly!!!!!oneon), probably won't "miss" anything important. A friend of me used IE until late 2007. He is not dumb, just a bit lazy, but use(d) the computer mainly for playing games, and had similar attitudes towards other browsers. While I never said that IE is bad, but may have some serious security holes which may or may not be patched in time and IE's lack of good extensions, it's the extensions in Firefox which he now likes to use. Of course, I cannot recommend Firefox (3) to anyone who runs a really old computer - as this browser still is a f*in' RAM whore. I may not experience problems with 4 GB or RAM, but on my old computer which only had 512 megabytes I had to watch what and how many tabs to keep open.
In family I'm the system admin if I'm going home visiting my mother and sister (thank god there was not anything too bad yet). While they don't use their machine that much, I still tell them to never put in their personal data on most sites - for eBay, amazon and other pages I usually advise them to either use a search engine, carefull checking the URL and never to click on anything inside a mail - until not really requested by a friend (and even then, scanning the attachments beforehand; you never know if another computer might be infected).
Their machine runs Windows 7 Home Premium under a restricted account. Luckily they don't play games, so there is actually no need to install software, update drivers and other things too often. And I won't remove or mask IE8 by force, like you could just make a shortcut to Firefox, change its icon to the blue 'e', effectively foisting FF on them. You have to learn it your own way. At least my sister uses Firefox more often than IE8
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My video card asploded, uh ... sorry.
The only annoying thing is the contrast between orange and blue. Again it shows my old 19" CRT still seems quite good in terms of colour and brightness.
As long as it's no forced Ninja AE scheme, nothing might destroy you here.
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Imho it is better to announce higher minimum requirements, which are realistic and let you experience the game fluently instead of just barely enough not to stutter. I remember running Diablo II on a Pentium I with 200 MHz, 32 MB of RAM, processor being even below the minimum requirements. The game had some loading time when the character screen proceeded to the game, but the game itself was indeed playable mostly.
Got the game yesterday and could play the first 6-7 missions from the campaign. That one is not too bad, as there is a lot of stuff to see and use, apart from just doing the missiones themselves, including a little vertical shooter.
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What are your opinions about the campaign so far?
If possible please use either no or then use spoiler tags for certain missions.
I finished 9 missions so far, and while the campaign may not be uber-good (never expected that), I really like most missions - as you not only have to destroy or escort things. A welcome change, as the usual selection of goals in RTSes are limited normally. Escort, kill things, survive a certain amount of time and that. The point&click thingy may seem a bit gimmicky, but things like research and stuff are not too bad. I play on "Hard" so far, got kicked in two or three missions, until discovering that it is rather simple, but effective, tactics changing which can make some mission really easy, at least until "Hard" (maybe Brutal will make those tactics harder/impossible, dunno). You have to get the idea first, though
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This sucks indeed. You could try the autosave feature for past missions, though, if you knew where you would have gotten an achievement. As there are three of them each, and at least one has to do with fulfilling side missions on Normal or higher, it might be a way back to get them normally (when the connection stands).
Does the game alert you in Single Player, if the connection to Battle.net is lost?
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Thors vs Lings? Ouch.
These are really great for annihilating groups of Mutalisks, though - and with multiple SCVs as a repair escort Thors should also be pretty decent against Void Rays - even considering the range and increasing damage VRs do.
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If your opponent has a lot of Void Rays, Carriers or something similar early you didn't make enough pressure. I know it, thinking I got most of an enemy's army, but not searching the map good enough. Then I see like 6 Carriers coming out of nowhere, killing my expos and then my main base. Personally I just suck in multiplayer, but if I really see TEN Void Rays, the fault must be on my side - not making enough pressure.
Although I have to admit stimmed Marines seem to work quite awell against toss in SC2, also sending an early Marauder with some support is nice, too.
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I didn't play online yet, lacking time and want to finish the campaign first, but I would never put all my front troops into one large group. Think that, while you can use Psi storm in a group of 200 units, as the icon/hotkey appears nicely like in WC3, you first cannot control where your Templar is at that time. Second, naturally features like Cloak from Ghosts and Stim could overlap.
And it is pretty inefficent to send groups with air and ground straight to a target far away. The air units will probably be faster than the rest and/ot splitting up due to no obstacles in air, ending shot down by Thors and stationary Anti-Air stuff like Turrets. And your ground forces will form a nice queue, basically murdering the first few units in front, as they arrive one by one - before the big messy 'ball' of other troops will attack, too
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This was just the same as the Ghost missions in BroodWar. The difference was just that you have no permanent cloaking feature like the Dark Templars (which could not be built in StarCraft yet, just in the Protoss campaign as special units) - or the second BW mission in the Terran campaign, where you had to steal those Battlecruisers. A limited number of nukes, vessels and other stuff to do, as simply killing doesn't help if there's detectors above tanks.
I wished the SC2 narration would have been as snappy as in SC1 (think just Kerrigan in one of the first missions - where she reads Raynor's mind, telling "You pig!" in the german version) - just listening to Mengsk's orders for his fleet was so bad-ass. Otherwise I am not too disappointed from the SC2 campaign.
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Stimmed Marines and Medivacs take out charged Void Rays with ease. Of course you will need to have some of 'em, but two Barracks, one with a Reactor and the other one with a Techlab, can be already enough to get those Rines in no time. And those buildings plus addons are very cheap, too. Get the Combat Shield upgrade, and as Void Rays are quite espensive and have not the fastest tech tree, those can go down quickly.
I also lose to numbers of Void Rays, but as I'm in Bronze only and it usually happens when I do _not_ scout them in time, like having Marauders, 1-2 Ghosts, Banshees and other stuff but no Marines.
If you have 4 or more gas, just build them anyway, but with Zealots or Dark Templars these CAN be deadly; just Void Rays is will not be enough in upper leagues, unless you have like 20 of them and probably charged up in no time maybe. This is the reason why I like SC. Massing one unit type usually only works against inexperienced players, but mixing them is great. A Mothership also dies pretty fast if alone, although I have to admit the counter units are quite strict and effective in SC2, even more than in SC1.
Interesting is also how many Bronze players don't seem to protect their main building with an anti-air structure. Many are new, of course, but if you are Terran, two or three Medivacs with Tanks and Marauders can slow down the enemy a lot, while you expand or send a bigger troop to the ramp for distraction. But if you fail sometimes like me, it's time to quote a Marine which gets attacked: "We're screwed."
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The video is not too shabby about your tactics, though. But although I am only in a Bronze league (won 10 out 20 games here) it's interesting how neither you nor your opponents sends a scout Probe to check out what the enemy's doing.
Your enemy also could have just went to your base with his 4,5 Zealots - it would be at least very close in completion of your first cannon. And photons also are not that cheap, as already in SC/BW.
I am Terran and got killed by some Void Rays once or twice, but as said - because Marines work really well against Zealots and even not too many Stalkers in SC2 plus Void Rays (!), I would just go crazy with them (stimmed of course, and the shield upgrade as well, soon) if I see an early Stargate and more or less expect Void Rays. Mixing them with Viking works well, alone those just suck against VRs. So it is just a question of skill here. Your opponent just a-clicked your base, not even caring what you have.
I don't want to question your tactics at all, but if your opponent had crushed your wall, you would have been pretty much done
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I also tend to build the Orbital Command quite late, but I got it down to like 15 or 16 supply mostly. One MULE call already nets you a little less than 150 minerals (use them on golden minerals and you get income blazingly fast), that just pays off the upgrade costs. As for the duration while the Command Center is upgrading and you cannot build any SCVs while that, one or two additional MULEs and you got more in than you invested. If you are in desparation and just hang behind your supply limits while your first two factories have units queued up, the quick instant-like +8 supply is also very nice.
Although I still more just use scan and still blow too often money on SCVs even later, while a MULE call is free/50 energy and returns a lot more than one worker.
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Usually by post layout as well. As most active people use them, it's not too hard to "recognize" users like Orlandu, Acmlm and others. For people with no layouts simply by user name, as avatars may change often. There are people who use the same user pictures over time, like myself (although being not too active), but as you only see the user names on /newreply.php, I go with names anyway.
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