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Silvio Manuel

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Everything posted by Silvio Manuel

  1. I compete at the World Boardgaming Championships (wargames are my thing there as well), and most of the guys that are into wargames are a bit older than me (I'm 33, avg age seems to be 45-50). I imagine it's similar with computer gaming.
  2. I got into CM with CMBO and CMBB, and have been mostly way from it since around when CMAK came out. Do any of the CM's (incl. the new Battle for Normandy) run on Windows 7? I just upgraded from XP to 7, and unfortunately didn't consider that my old games wouldn't run on my new O/S. I looked at the various pages for the individual games but if the info is listed I wasn't able to find it. Thanks!
  3. One of things I really like about CR is the entire Casino "act" - from the train ride to Montenegro (and the sharp/combatitive convo introducing Vesper), and the game itself. The period in which the actual game occurs accomplishes lots of things: shows Bond's recklessness (the whole "bluff" charade), a good fight scene in the stairwell, Vesper dovetailing Bond's coldness with her own shock at the deaths, Bond's near-death from Le Chiffre's poisoning attempt and Bond's high-tech resuscitation, etc. Then, a minor scene but one I'm very fond of - I really like Aston Martin's and Bond races off in his to go after Vesper, and it looks like it will be a classic "new" Bond chase scene possibly with a few new gadgets, but no almost immediately Bond crashes and flips the car about 20 times - a very nice "twist"
  4. Wow I just realized that I had totally forgotten what the plot was in Quantum (other than revenge against the guy involved with blackmailing Vesper that is). All I really remember of Quantum was the absurd "attack" cuts in the action scenes, starting with the very beginning and continuing throughout. And the hot Russian chick. Not much else.
  5. I thought Bourne pretty much sucked even in the first movie. It seemed like an unimaginative spinoff of the Bond idea. I didn't know it was a book first, but still I don't much like it. I thought Casino Royale was outstanding, especially how there's kind of two 'fake endings' to keep things interesting. The fast cuts in Quantum of Solace really hurt that movie, plus right when I thought *that* movie would have a 'fake ending', it just ended, which in contrast to Casino Royale also hurt Quantum.
  6. A friend of mine is planning on re-installing her O/S. I don't have experience with this but I'm hoping that you might kindly be able to help us out: "Need to install a clean version of XP SP2 on my home machine. Which makes more sense to you – getting an external HD to back up the internal, or just getting a new internal HD and getting an external enclosure for the one I already have." Thanks! -SM
  7. To me it has always been glaring that (post- the German invasion of Russia), Hitler increasing micromanaged the war (down to the tactical level, even) and distrusted his Generals (esp. the non-SS ones). Stalin did the same early in the war, but increasingly listened to and deferred to his generals, and their warcraft improved while Germany's warcraft, manpower, and relative industrial production declined.
  8. That's funny... I usually also break out into a grin when I'm about to spear indigenous folk.
  9. The German army was duly wow'd by the T-36, er, I mean the T-34.
  10. This link is quite good http://www.kusi.com/weather/colemanscorner/38574742.html I had no idea that Gore first learned about the Global Warming theory at Harvard from the guy who created it, and the same fellow later testified before Congress saying that Govt should not act too quickly and more climate observations should be made over 10-20 years, to prevent unnecessary disruption of our culture and economy.
  11. I also don't like where the 'skeptical' POV's funding comes from. But if that is put aside, I don't see how the radical steps they are taking can be justified with the current 'evidence', or lack thereof. As far as sources of funding go, I would have to say I dislike the 'skeptical' side's sources more - Big Oil and the like. But I worry that some the global warming 'believer' side's sources aren't a whole lot better - only because they apparently either (a) don't look with a critical eye at the issue of proof, or even a solid theory and/or ( don't care what the consequences for the world's culture and economy will be, as long as pollution is reduced.
  12. You call that "trying"?! Yoda would not repeat NOT give you a hard time about this...
  13. Well, you have my apologies for coming off as sounding a bit too slanted, I certainly am not looking to pick a fight. From what I've read, it seems very likely that warming has been happening, probably at least up until the late 1990's, and *possibly* up until now. I definitely am far from being convinced that it's man-made. Given the radical steps that are now being seriously discussed as a solution to man-made global warming, I feel that the burden of proof is a very heavy one for the global warming crowd. It seems like the mainstream media practically always act as if it's a foregone conclusion that global warming is happening AND is man-made. Which is shocking to me because even light research on my part seems to show that it's a foregone conclusion that the global warming movement (a) doesn't have proof of causality and ( don't seem to CARE that they don't have proof and yet still want to revolutionize the world's economy for this anyway.
  14. Can anyone point me in the direction of a site on the Net that has to do with PROOF of Global Warming or "Climate Change" or whatever they're trying to turn it into now? As far as I know it's a fairly tenuous theory, very much unproven, except for some computer modeling. Modeling that is shaky at best, and at worst has been repeatedly exposed to be unreliable or flat-out useless... in the sense that it doesn't work when matched against past climate, and has not reliable predicted future climate (now that years have passed since prior predictions). I'm aware that the infamous 'hockey stick' graph bandied about the U.N. is basically ****e and that NASA has been seen to make some very dubious "errors" in their conclusions, some due to climate model errors like the unbelievable Y2K error they had in one of their programs. From the modest amount of research on the net that I've done it seems that a few factors could explain away or mitigate what many of the climate scare folks are claiming: -Previous ice ages and warm ages 1000's of years ago certainly had nothing to do with anthropogenic carbon emissions -Solar emissions account for far, far more energy in the overall climate cycle than any human influence -Carbon emissions (i.e. from the oceans) may well be a product of warming, not a cause -Worldwide economic damage from attempts to prevent carbon emissions may very well be worse (stunting economic and technological growth) over a given time period that it would be if we did not attempt to reduce carbon emissions -Cap and trade systems likely will eat up large amounts of the world's wealth without there necessarily being any direct benefit -The Climate Change movement may very well be backed by hardcore environementalists who might to some degree be OK with the reduction of pollution that may come with anti-carbon measures, even if the Earth is going into a cooling rather than a warming phase at present. -As a general point, it's pretty scary that Carol Browner has such a key environmental job in the Obama administration, being as though she's a proponent of a world gov't that would fight global warming. ** The really preposterous thing would be if we are in fact going into a Global Cooling Phase (re: reduced sun activity), yet rearrage the world economy to prevent warming, thus launching ourselves into an even more rapid and damaging ice age! heh!! For the record, I'm a Green Party member, or at least used to be until very recently, and consider myself to be solidly to the left of center on most issues. Thanks for your feedback... -SM
  15. Were those all with shells from the main gun? The .50cal can KO Hetzers from the rear I believe, maybe the side also...
  16. http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1231950855726&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull What type of weapon is seen exploding in the pic at the above URL? It seems to be in nearly every picture they show of the battle in Gaza... the downward streaking trails look very unusual to me...
  17. Respectfully I disagree, as the website I was reading truly did not list XP as a valid platform for SC. I saw that the BFC link for SC lists XP, but wanted to make sure that the site I was looking at wasn't some other version of the game. Thanks for your help.
  18. I lowered my expectations a bit before seeing Valkyrie, figuring it would be a bit watered down for the mainstream. After all, a mere bomb plot and no actual coup, couldn't be a 'good enough' story line could it? It was actually a very solid movie. They nicely showed the resistance's efforts to recruit supporters, and referenced other assassination attempts. They showed and the many men who wanted either to change history (Cruise's character, mainly) and others who felt they couldn't KO the Nazi regime but could at least do some damage and be viewed as honorable patriots for their efforts.
  19. Does SC1 work on Windows XP? I read something that seemed to suggest it only works on 98 and Win ME.
  20. No, but when he moved to West Hollywood he had to go door-to-door to tell his neighbors that he's a pederast. 8-year olds, Dude.
  21. I currently have a modestly-spec'd out PC (Athlon 3500+, 2GB RAM, 256MB Nvidia 6800 video card), but with a Soundblaster Audigy SE sound card. I bought a pretty professional-level sound card awhile back for music production (M-audio Audiophile 192), which does not directly support 5.1 surround sound. It does however, have this feature "digital I/O supports surround-encoded AC-3 and DTS pass-through " I will soon be installing this sound card, but as I've gotten back into gaming recently, I would like to also enjoy 5.1 sound (or even 7.1 if it's not cost-prohibitive). What would be the best way of doing this? Other than actually buying the speakers I need for a 5.1 set-up for my PC, should I... - Buy a USB2.0 external sound card that supports 5.1? So in effect I would use my internal M-audio card for music, and the external USB2.0 5.1 card for games... if that's even possible? - Instead of buying an external sound card, buy a (fairly cheap) 5.1 surround sound system that comes with a receiver, and run the "digital I/O DTS pass-through" from my M-Audio sound card into the 5.1 receiver for IT to decode the 5.1 signal to the speakers? - Any other options? Thanks! -SM
  22. This calls to mind something... I'm a big fan of the author Neal Stephenson, his book "Cryptonomicon" is one of my fav's of all-time. Anyhow, I believe it's in Cryptonomicon where he wrote something about the main character finds his friend not just merely drunk, but "at the level of drunkenness a Civil war solider might reach prior to having an infected limb sawed off with no anaesthetic"
  23. Having most if not all troops in a CMBO battle be "Green" in experience at best tends to help a bit...
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