We play 5-6 player Catan all the time and don't find the extra build phase slows anything down at all.

When the dice are passed to the next player, anybody who wants to build something just says "Buying X at the end of your turn" and that's that. In the extremely rare case of a conflict, you just resolve the builds clockwise from the current player. There's no need to stop and ask each player in turn "are you building anything?", which is the only way I can imagine it "bogging things down".

If anything, it speeds things up considerably (you can get new towns/cities out that much faster which immediately improves your income position, and it really cuts down on people needing to discard half their hand on a 7).

We have a house rule where anybody that starts bitching about something ("you blocked my road!", "my numbers never come up!", etc) has to immediately take a shot.

It's a GREAT rule.

Ha, it goes even deeper... I seem to recall the original version of my post read more as an explanation of why you were wrong, and was tending towards a snarky ending... before I realized what I too was doing. Hence the concise, neutral presentation of facts I posted instead. ;)

Because the sad truth is that while poorly phrased (intelligence itself as you correctly noted is not the liability, but "flaunting" it can be), the OP has a valid point too... schoolyard social stigma against "brainy" kids can cause them to hide their intelligence or not use it. It doesn't have to be about know-it-alls putting other people down... it can be about the shy kid afraid to raise his hand in class.

It is, actually. You don't often see such an efficiently self-demonstrating explanation. ;)

Trying to tell other people they are wrong all the time is a liability. Telling people, "I am smarter than you, so you are wrong" is a liability [...] If you're so smart, you should have figured this out by now.

You literally just did this with your own post. You told the parent he was wrong, and then implied it was because he wasn't smart enough.

OK, I'll bite. :)

In a Perfect World, tabs would indeed be superior to spaces. No question.

But in the Real World, tabs and spaces inevitably get mixed together as multiple people touch a project, and then indentation gets messed up.

Standardizing on spaces helps mitigate this, as everyone sees the exact same thing regardless of editor (whereas tab spacing typically depends on local editor settings). And any editor should be able to "use spaces for tabs" so there is no actual impact on developer effort.

Thank you, that was very motivational.

A forum with real-names policy is basically worthless

It wouldn't be worthless, it would have pros and cons like everything else.

Cons: Easier to identify and take action against dissenters (as you stated above).

Pros: Easier to identify astroturfers/shills.

It cuts both ways.

I really worry, long-term, about the "paid/fake poster" problem. Especially as bots/AI will continue to advance, it will only get worse. How long until genuine human commentary on the internet is drowned-out/polluted by "sponsored viewpoints"?

You have it completely backwards. Microsoft's bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows is what CAUSED the anti-trust lawsuits.

The issue central to the case was whether Microsoft was allowed to bundle its flagship Internet Explorer (IE) web browser software with its Microsoft Windows operating system. --United States v. Microsoft Corp.

And don't forget Metro. What a win that was. Now everybody calls it "that stupid Windows 8 touch UI that used to be called Metro".

I seem to be immune. I happily played Half-Life Source for over an hour and just wanted more.

I think the Rift will be best suited to games where you sit in a cockpit. So like racing, space/flight sim, mechwarrior...

Exactly.

How do people sign up for Facebook and Twitter, or practically anything online? By providing your email address as a unique identifier and verifiable communications channel.

It's pretty much the bedrock of online identity.

My friend and I were playing around with his DK2 last night. We fired up Half-Life 2 (and later Half-Life 1 Source).

That big room with all the crates hanging from the ceiling that you have to jump your way across? That was just about the most intense gaming experience I've ever had. The vertigo feels completely real and you feel actual panic if you fall.

My friend fell down that elevator shaft in "Unforseen Consequences" and his brain just about melted. An hour later, his real-world balance was still fucked up and he had to go to bed.

They need higher-res, but other than that the illusion is pretty damn convincing. You completely forget that the screen is redrawing itself based on your head movements... it just feels like you're looking around inside a virtual space. (To the point that when the head-tracking effect pauses, like on loading screens, it feels BIZARRE)

You know I'm not a fan of abandoning anonymity, but I think there is a place online for "verified identify" for certain venues.

Wouldn't it be nice if say, when visiting say an online newspaper's comments section, you had a choice between "Verified posters discussion" and "Anonymous free-for-all"?

I think anonymous speech should always be a protected form of expression, but it cuts both ways. It's becoming (or became a long time ago) a real issue with paid astroturfers/shills polluting online discourse, but right now there is simply no way to to be sure.

It's an abbreviation, for fuck's sake.

And the full domain [wikipedia.org] is clearly displayed next to the actual link, so... seriously? Do you think anybody was actually confused about what I was linking to?