Boeman

I would imagine then that Canada could be considered something of an anomaly. In Toronto, for an example, we have something to the tune of around 200 different cultures but yet the city is labeled by the world community as one of the best places to live. Personally, I have found exposure on such a scale accompanied by the intermingling of various ethnic groups has brought forth a strong stance by the community against intolerance. What's truly ironic however, is that we also have a legitimate separatist party consisting of Francophones who are striving for independence for the province of Quebec from the rest of Canada.

Sigh... Fox News has done it's job well, apparently.

I've been let down quite a few times to be certain, but my first major letdown that I remember quite well was a Commodore 64 game titled "Rush'n Attack" - a port from the original arcade classic. Being quite young at the time, I was obviously enamored with the multitude of screenshots on the back of the box depicting my favorite coin-up game - in fact, there WERE from the original game and did not at all reflect the actual graphical capabilities of the Commodore 64. As I popped in the 5 1/4 disk, believing that I'll never have to insert token after token into another cabinet again at Chucky Cheese, I was greeted with stick figures, low resolution graphics, cheesy sound effects and a knife larger than half the hero's body. Imagine my disappointment! What's worse, is that the practice of plastering packages of ported arcade games for home consoles with the original arcade screenshots continued throughout for years until the 16-bit consoles became commonplace.

The sentiments expressed by Colonel Reese have been brewing in the minds of US military personnel on the ground for years. As such, it really should come as no surprise that the imposition of an American administrative model in a region with a history spanning thousands of years of unresolved ethnic conflict could only result in the inevitable collapse of its government and military infrastructure. The invasion of Iraq was never about liberating it's population nor even locating weapons of mass destruction for that matter. That in itself is quite telling given the planning for the economic assimilation of the country by American firms were far more extensive than the preparations made to enable Iraqi citizens to govern itself post-war. Part of that could be attributed to the fantastic belief of guaranteed support from the Iraqi civilian population with the overthrow of the Saddam government; people they believed who were all too willing to follow in the footsteps of American democracy. Supposedly, this would allow planners sufficient latitude to conjure up policy as they see fit. However, the truth is that the Bush administration never truly cared as to whether or not Iraq succeeded as a state. As far as they were concerned, all their aims had already been achieved. These where: 1. Avenging the attempt on Bush Senior's life by Saddam Hussein. 2. Serving the economic interests of the major corporations who bankrolled the then republican ticket and voiced support in favor of the war through rebuilding contracts. 3. Establish a proxy buffer zone with the option of having a permanent American military presence. This could serve as a launchpad for future incursions into the middle east (most notably Iran). Under such pretenses, any pre-planning phases following the projected outcome of military operations in the Iraq War were sacrificed for the sake of expediency in seizing the "moment" before opposition from the world community stiffened enough to dissuade even America's closest allies from taking part. The rest, it was assumed, would fall nicely into place. Obviously, that didn't happen. Quite frankly, it may not even have been a real consideration beyond their original objectives. If it succeeded, great. Icing on the cake for them. If not, leave it to the next president, whomever that may be, to deal with it. If it turned out to be a president from an opposing political party who will suffer due its failure, all the better.

Nice toy, but maintenance and reliability will be problematic; especially given cases where sub-standard measures by green troops to keep their current weapons intact are not uncommon. Also, how catastrophic would the consequences be should the XM-25 misfire? What's the potential for collateral damage when used in an urban environment in the current theater of operations where civilians interlock with enemy combatants?

Wasn't there a push by Microsoft to institute a hardware DRM model a few years ago to finally "make the Chinese pay for their software" as they put it? Whatever happened to that program?

And One can only wonder; will the US place itself on its own blacklist? Or is this simply the opening phase in the fulfillment of Manifest Destiny with the invasion of Canada in search of gadgets of mass proliferation?

This is the oldest story in the book. "Artwork depicting gratuitous violence and erotica are eroding the very fabric of society "Literature with gratuitous violence and erotica are eroding the very fabric of society" "Films with gratuitous violence and erotica are eroding the very fabric of society" "Video games with gratuitous violence and erotica are eroding the very fabric of society" The supposed corruption of the youth via external works has been a concern since Ancient Greece (if not earlier) and I have yet to see any evidence that it has harboured the end of any civilization. I am a second generation gamer (post-Pong) and have been exposed to electronic entertainment since I was six. I have played the aforementioned title discussed by Steve of Battlefront on the Commodore 64. It was a game consisting of a target reticle that you controlled with unlimited ammo. Your task was to shoot as many objects as you can in an attempt to prevent them from reaching the bottom of the screen (i.e. dynamite, bombs, etc.) Upon successfully completing this stage, you're rewarded with a line up of prisoners to execute. It was extremely graphic as the bodies literally exploded with very detailed animation (down the the individual chunks of flesh). Following this, you would be greeted with rather shocking lines such as "Funny, isn't it?". Being only five at the time, I had no comprehension of the subject matter depicted. I simply wanted to blow stuff up and at my cognitive level, I abstracted the game down to its core; a twitch exercise on a monitor screen with pixels varying in colour. As such, the impact it had on me outside of the home was minimal. Fast forward to Call of Duty 2. There is one particular mission with the British where you stumble on a few Germans behind a house who quickly surrender and point out that there are wounded American POWs in the back. The first time I played it through as it was scripted. When I replayed the mission, I thought to myself "I wonder what would happen if I just tossed a grenade in the center of that mass of critically injured men. Instead of seeing no effect (customary for COD), I was surprised to witness numerous limbs and bodies being tossed in the air as a result of the explosion. With that, I spent some time chucking as many grenades as I could to get the maximum number of bodies flying before the screen went black with "Friendly fire will not be tolerated". An hour later, I simply moved on with rest of the game to its inevitable conclusion. Never once did I conjure images of myself doing this in the real world nor would I have been interested in seeing it demonstrated elsewhere. I have been through hundreds of scenarios like this with the various games I've played and in the end, I perceived them all as little more than a humourous episode that deviated from the designer's linear path, nothing more and nothing less. If anything, the greatest threats to our youth today are overly permissive parenting and the lack of support structures upon which to build a healthy foundation. While I do not believe that it is entirely possible to safeguard children from exposure to negative influences in this information age, it is ultimately the parents' responsibility to ensure that time limits for recreational activity are set and enforced in addition to keeping the lines of communication open. For the record, I would not condone any game whose sole purpose is to promote racial bigotry or instill hatred towards others. With respect to Six Days in Fallujah, I cannot see maliciously portraying Muslims as the underlying intentions of the author. Rather, it is just another FPS formula applied to recent newsworthy material in an effort to make a buck. Often times I do wonder if the production of such games are accommodated by the military in an effort to step up recruitment at a time when joining the US armed forces is currently an unpopular endeavor. Wait. What I saying? Of course they are!

http://www.gamespot.com/shows/on-the-spot/?series=on-the-spot&event=on_the_spot20090324&tag=topslot;thumb;4 It's been discussed many times before via numerous heated debates; particularly on the DRM issues regarding Storm Eagle's Jutland. Now we have what could be an economically viable distribution system for game publishers that not only delivers content online but supposedly removes the need for the consumer to invest in high-end hardware at home. The general idea is that this on-demand gaming service will host games on their own servers while streaming just the display content in addition to user input over a broadband connection. The user will be required to purchase a inexpensive small "console" that will serve to authenticate users. It has ports for fiber, cable and dsl so obviously a broadband connection will be needed. As servers will be maintained and upgraded over time, there will be no need for the consumer to ever purchase additional equipment. Their old obsolete PC and Mac will, in theory, work just fine. The potential is staggering for other avenues of the market including 3D, video and high-resolution image manipulation - programs which have traditionally required a sizable investment by the end user for the hardware alone to operate effectively. Of course, the mandatory condition of having to be online just to play is a controversial issue in itself, but the ramifications this has to erase the retail console market entirely in addition to curbing piracy altogether is where the more interesting aspect of this service lies in my opinion. Although pricing and a full reliability assessment of the service have yet to be determined, if this endeavor succeeds, we could be looking at the distribution model of the future for all software. Personally, for me this is a double-edged sword. I love the idea of not having to buy the latest and greatest gaming rig just to get reasonable frame-rates, but the notion of yielding all personal discretion directly to publishers who, after receiving payment, can determine through a simple switch (metaphorically speaking) as to whether you are still eligible to continue enjoying their products with ill regard to individual circumstances is most disturbing.

Iran's desire for nuclear energy for peaceful purposes may simply be just that, as shocking a revelation as it may be. Producing nuclear weapons would actually run contrary to their interests as it would alarm not just the west, but most especially their neighbours. The result of would be a precipitous drop in Iranian influence within the Middle Eastern region while, at the same time, providing the perfect vehicle for America to further cement and expand whatever sway they currently hold with Iraq and Afghanistan. So why not just use their vast oil reserves for energy rather than pursue nuclear technology? Because it's far more profitable to export the oil; especially when the price will only rise in the future. The U.S. isn't fearful of a nuclear Iran - nor do they care whether it is a fundamentalist or democratic nation. Their area of concern is the possible scenario of a pan Arab-Persian-Asian alliance and the constriction of the flow of oil to within that sphere. I would imagine that Israel would probably not be too thrilled about that prospect either.

It is fair to say that the pre-war Stalin and the Stalin of 1942 onwards were completely different personalities insofar as their handling of military affairs were concerned. As individuals, they shared the same suspicious, vindictive and cruel countenances; common traits among most dictators. Stalin's rule was based entirely on fear and premised on the condition where the apparatus of the state encroached upon every facet of Russian life. Not unlike Hitler, Stalin affected his authority over the civilian population through the secret police and commissariat. To ensure the supremacy of his rein, Stalin replaced many government and military high command positions with his own cronies, however incompetent. The result was a series of mass executions that left the Red Army sorely lacking in experienced and proficient NCOs. The initial purges conducted by Stalin had an absolutely devastating effect on the Red Army. This was underscored by the humiliating defeats suffered in the center of Finland prior to its capitulation in 1939. The Germans were, of course, only emboldened by this and a similarly inept Russian defense was carried out by the time they attacked the Soviet Union in 1941. Stalin's micromanagement early in the war and his ardent refusal to allow strategic withdraws culminated in a series of disasters that gave him enough pause to even consider conceding the entire Ukraine in exchange for peace. Only through the relatively inexhaustible manpower and the assistance of the coldest winter on record was Moscow spared and the Red Army given precious respite - long enough for Stalin to recognize his limitations as a military leader. Though Stalin retained his single-minded ruthlessness, indifference to casualties and a healthy amount of paranoia, he allowed his generals to perform their duties without external interference - except where he deemed it absolutely necessary. He had also compromised by fundamentally altering both the government and military wings by infusing them with more qualified personnel as in the case of selecting Zhokov in favor of Marshal Temeshenko as his top General. As it turns out, Stalin had a highly retentive and flexible mind, well suited to military affairs. He was a master of manipulation, being able to squeeze out maximum performance from his subordinates. Although Stalin encouraged his generals to cooperate with one another, he also spurred them on by seeding deep and bitter rivalries (Konev vs Khukov). More often then naught, generals would find themselves racing against each other to their objectives. The fact that this resulted in a reckless of expenditure of lives was, to Stalin, no matter of supreme difference. Stalin was as equally paranoid with his allies as he was with his enemies. Time and again, he would mislead Churchill and Roosevelt on operational timetables and rarely if ever revealed the true objectives of Russian military actions. He even went so far on one occasion as to suggest that Dresden, rather than Berlin, was the final destination for the Red Army. It is probably ironic that Russia, and perhaps, the rest of the free world, owes their victory over Nazi Germany to one of the most unscrupulous dictators in modern history.

As an Ontario resident, the alarms bells went off in a rising crescendo after reading the above article. Law enforcement officials have long since had the tools and ability to procure information from Internet service providers. However, doing so without any preconditions from the courts conjures some frightful scenarios that I, as a citizen, am none too happy to see come to fruition. Given that IP addresses are identifiers associated with the history of one’s online activity, would it be fair to say that then, that allowing state authorities (or those who claim to be such) to request your ISP’s logs without due process is tantamount to physically searching your home to uncover what you’ve watched, written and read without a warrant? I have no problems whatsoever in the prosecution of traffickers that distribute child pornography. But at what point should the line be drawn when freedoms and rights to online privacy are encroached upon in the crusade to suppress cyber criminals? Will demands be made for similar provisions from say, the recording and software industries to initiate their own autonomous probes to see who has received files with names that may resemble one of their products? Who oversees and holds accountable the police when they undertake an investigation to audit one’s browsing history? Is there anything to stop rogue officials from abusing such mechanisms within the judicial framework for their own benefit? I have no doubt it will happen, particularly by those who mask themselves as law enforcement personnel. What precautions, if any, will law enforcement take to ensure criminals are correctly identified beyond just reviewing server logs? Will old granny be busted with child porn because her wireless router was hacked by her neighbour who downloaded said content? Digital files are notoriously persistent as ISPs can retain logs for several years. Should conduct which was previously legal and then rendered criminal leave you subject to prosecution due to suspicious activity found in a 10-year old log? A very dangerous precedent has been set here, I think.

Bush wasn't so much a cowboy as he was a puppet for the war profiteers, Cheney, and the religious right. The sheer incompetence of his administration on various levels illustrates this. Yes, he did aggressively push for the invasion of Iraq; with avenging the attempt on his father's life by Saddam Hussein as his primary motive. Preventing an Israeli airstrike on Iran's nuclear facilities was a prudent course of action. However, given that the conflict of interest between the aims of the Israelis and George Bush's own constituents were unambiguously transparent at the time, it wasn't by any means a tough decision. In any event, as was mentioned earlier, it certainly doesn't atone for the last eight years of horrendous leadership.

According to Greenpeace

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090123/ap_on_re_as/eu_russia_us_afghanistan What the article conspicuously leaves out, of course, is what price Russia exacted for its "cooperation". Any guesses?

I've been out of the hardware loop for awhile but I recall hearing that the utmost consideration when buying a new system is ensuring that you get a motherboard that can handle the most bandwidth and a CPU with the highest amount of on-board cache. The idea being that all else can be upgraded later at a more practical cost. Does this still hold true today?

Every subset of underground culture seems to have found some allure in Nazi Germany in one form or another. For reasons I'll never know, I've personally seen numerous goth girls take to wearing the Knight's Cross as if it were a fashion trend.

Further proof of the old adage: "The more things change, the more they stay the same."

From http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081120.wcrtc1120/BNStory/Technology/home : The ramifications of this is quite staggering. Eastern Canada is completely dependent upon Bell Canada for DSL as all third party ISPs must lease their lines from Bell Canada, a common carrier. Bell now has cart blanche to effect whatever restrictions they feel are needed provided they give 30 days notice. The monopolistic practices of Bell have been said to range from lowering the profiles of third party customers to outright refusal to provide essential services to said third parties when problems arise; all in an effort to drive customers away from independent ISPs. Ultimately, the decision by the CRTC (one of many in the last thirty years) throws Canada further behind the rest of the world in the telecommunications sector where it once ranked number one. Lets hope when the CRTC holds public hearings on July 6th of next year on the issue of traffic shaping (throttling), a more reasoned decision can be made to curtail the efforts by Bell and Rogers to curb the services of their own user base and that of independent ISPs. Personally, I won't be holding my breath. Indeed, this truly a sad day for Canadian broadband customers. The CRTC press release can be found via the following link: http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/NEWS/RELEASES/2008/r081120.htm

Should the big three sink, there isn't likely to be anyone who will take their places and assume a similar scale; it just requires too much capital. Not unlike the banking and telecom/IT industries, it will be the ones on the lower rungs of the ladder who will see a drastic reduction in their livelihood. The CEOs will either retire early and still live like kings or become part of the Obama administration in some form. Less likely is a possible merger of the three. I hope you like European, Japanese and Chinese cars. Those will be all you have left to choose from.

Once upon a time, Lord British (Richard Garriot), the famed creator of the Ultima line of games, was a godsend to the RPG community. A few of us who came into contact with the series remember fondly the many hours that were consumed on a nightly basis in front of a PC. Then the tides shifted with the parent company's (Electronic Arts) tightening of the purse strings and demands for strict adherence to production schedules. Without the time or budget that the game's developers were so accustomed to having, many features of the upcoming Ultima 8 were axed and the result resembled something in what became known as Mario the Avatar. Needless to say, Ultima 8 was a tremendous flop. Ultima 9 was a mess. With EA shifting nearly all resources to the development of Ultima Online, the U9 team was understaffed and underfunded. Worse yet, it's lead developer, whose visions of the gameplay were of stark contrast to the tradition of earlier Ultima games, was fired and a new team scraped up in the middle of the development cycle. Though the game fared somewhat better than Ultima 8, it was a PR nightmare to the extent that the official forums were closed thanks to numerous game breaking bugs. Origin's greatest financial achievement came with the introduction of what is arguably the world's first graphical MMO, Ultima Online ( though some claim Meridian 59 holds that title). In the end, however, its very success not only set a precedent for a new breed of online games to come, it also proved to be the undoing of Origin's (and Lord British's) legacy. EA announced the cancellation of all future projects under development by Origin and relegated the company to being little more than a hosting farm for Ultima Online. The new model was now service and support. This effectively devoured whatever ambitions Origin's game developers had, including those of Richard Garriot's. As the bitter disagreement between Richard Garriot and EA reached it's zenith, Garriot was eventually sacked. Garriot found new employment with NCsoft, where he assisted the company's transition to the North American market with Lineage and Lineage II. Unfortunately, Richard Garriot was never really able to repeat the tremendous success he had with Ultimas 1-7 and Ultima Online. His latest attempt with Tabula Rasa was nothing short of disastrous. It would appear now, that Lord British's efforts at immortality will no longer be directed in the game industry entertainment, but through (if you'll permit the metaphor) pooling his immense fortune to otherworldly endeavors. His deep sea exploration of the Titanic was the first step; and now, his voyage to the International Space Station being his second. Oddly enough though, what the article link doesn't say is that he brought with him a hard drive containing his DNA and that of a few other celebrities, including that of Stephen Colbert (huh?) for storage on the International Space Station. Supposedly, these samples will be used to repopulate the planet in the event that humanity is wiped out on Earth through whatever cataclysm. I, for one, would love to know how exactly they plan to do just that. Just a little FYI.

Thank you for the responses. RSColonel_131st, I work mostly with motion graphics/3D animation as a side job and as a hobby. I shoot both uncompressed DV and still camera images as part of my pipeline. Lately, as I've had more time during the fall, I have amassed close to 15 gigs per week of footage and imagery; some of them requiring hours of travel. I tend not to use the captured data as is, but rather take various segments that are edited as part of a larger composition. Often times I will save the edits for later use (thus requiring more space). I'll usually compress files that won't see immediate usage when archived. The original unedited footage is always saved since certain projects require different segments or manipulations of video/stills. Without them, I would have to re-visit the site and conduct another re-shoot. Essentially, they are not unlike stock assets available to me on demand should I need them. I suppose I would not classify them as super critical mission data - that would be the project files themselves. The stock files take up the lion's share of space, though. From what I've gathered thus far, tape is not the best solution for me given the above scenario?

I currently use brand name DVDRs to backup my data but have found that while the cost is low, the reliability is simply unacceptable. A few scratches is seemingly all it takes to render a DVD (and its accompanying data) null. I've had to replace my DVDr drive once already after burning 100 DVDs (at which point all I was getting were coasters). Of course, there's the inconvenience of managing large numbers of DVDs as a whole that I could certainly live without. So far I'm totaling 130 or so DVDs. I am now considering a tape drive for archival purposes. Despite being vintage 70's technology, I have never utilized tape drives before so please consider me uninitiated. My needs are as follows: * I use OSX 10.4 (Panther). * I'm primarily looking for a storage solution for high resolution photographs and captured digital video files (files pertaining to graphic design and video editing). * I won't be doing any rotational backups or storing files temporarily on a regular basis, rather I'll be adding data as I go along. * I would like to be able to see and modify the file structure on the tape just as I would a regular hard disk as seen in the Finder. I may need to relocate items into a different folder, replace files with updated versions or delete files and folders altogether. I won't be erasing tapes very often. * Speed is not a serious issue. I'm more interested in capacity (50GB+) and reliability (tapes that won't corrupt or damage data that is written on to it as frequently as DVDrs). * I would like an interface other than SCSI (I have no SCSI adapter). * My budget is around $400 CND. From the limited information I've been able to gather via Google, it appears that apart from being prohibitively expensive, tape drives are an all or nothing proposition; when you store information, even a small amount, you replace all the data on the tape. Is this true? Any advice from fellow forum members would be most appreciated.

I have some good memories of the old Colonization. One exploit I would use was to select the Dutch, which provided me with the most powerful national ability, a stable market with better revenues in Amsterdam. During the start of the game, I would purchase as many military units as I could and then locate Inca/Aztec native tribes. Once settled, I would allocate production to liberty bells to provide me with the founding father that would remove the 50% penalty revenue cut for sending treasure back to the motherland (shipping it was also done free of charge). Once the military forces I needed were in place, I would then assault and ravage every Inca and Aztec city I could find thus, amassing an incredible amount of wealth. This garnered a huge advantage over my rivals. as I could now buy skilled tradesmen, frigates, privateers, and weaponry. More importantly, this allowed me to operate with near 100% revenue while trading with Amsterdam by refusing taxes (dumping goods into the water) and then simply paying back taxes; a far cheaper option in the long run. The old Colonization, like other Sid Meier games, made coin the central most important resource in the game. For everything else, you simply bought. Will the aforementioned exploit work with the new Colonization? Shame on them if it does

X-COM represented something of a revolution in PC gaming back when it was released in the early 90s. The plot revolves around alien incursions into Terra Firma space. These foreign intruders conduct everything from abuductions/cattle mutilations (as referenced in pop culture) to wide scale terrorism and destruction of human population centers. In response to these perceived threats, world governments form an international organization labeled as X-COM. X-COM is essentially a special forces military body whose objective is to stop the alien menace by intercepting UFOs, shooting them down and then investigating the crash site with X-COM operatives. There are various missions X-COM units can undertake. Successfully completing them yields alien technology that can be brought back to X-COM bases for further study. Eventually, the player will be able to reverse engineer and then subsequently manufacture UFOs, weapons and other foreign devices; essentially allowing you to utilize the aliens’ own technology against them. The game’s difficulty gradually scales as you progress. New aliens with their own unique properties emerge which in turn, requires different tactics on the ground to defeat. The computer AI is quite good and individual aliens themselves will make use of cover, throw grenades and form overlapping fields of fire. Later in the game, the aliens will begin drawing their attention to X-COM bases and subsequently send powerful forces against them. Failure to construct adequate defensive structures or host X-COM squads at these targeted bases will result in their destruction. Every month, X-COM is given a fiscal report that shows funds contributed by various nations. Successfully defended nations where UFOs are brought down and secured will result in increased funding. Regions in which UFO activity is inadequately dealt with will reduce their funding. Should the player continue to neglect these areas, governments will form secrets pacts with the aliens and allow them to construct bases of operations from where they can launch additional incursions. Geopolitical events, such as wars and recessions can also cause a reduction in funding. The game’s scope was such that it combined multiple aspects; base construction, air combat, ground turn-based combat, production, asset management and research all into a single game play experience. Needless to say, Area 51 conspiracy theories provided the bulk of inspiration for the game’s developers. The game received PC Gamer’s highest ever score of 96% with similar ratings from other reviews. The highly successful X-COM: UFO Defense (Enemy Unkown for the UK release) spawned 2 sequels. Today, X-COM is regarded by many as the best game of all time and while there have been various remakes over the years from other companies, none have successfully captured the glory of the original X-COM series. Now you know.