i could care less about parsons, but i hate hate hate all the upselling. however, nobody else was selling .ME domains at the time. maybe i've just been spoiled by starting from the hosting side with other companies and not seeing so much sleezy feeling tactics.

i was highly against Origin (mainly for convenience reasons... all my games are on Steam), but my lust to see what the Frostbite 2's engine can do was greater than my hatred for the platform. i was also hoping to have horror stories to tell about it, but almost disappointingly, i haven't had any. i don't have any plans to get anything else on Origin unless something else pulls me equally hard to itself.

i have heard of punkbuster nightmares, but having gotten shot in the face all day long during the beta (this is my first PvP fps i've really gone after since casual UT/UT2k4 LAN play), my interest is kinda luke warm WRT MP.

i wish they'd discussed "smoothness" of the game ... it's a bit twitchy on Ultra (especially in the interrogation sections) on my GTX 560 (accidentally got this instead of a Ti when i thought my ATI card was dying) ... however, it's ever so slightly more smooth on my 5870 (both 1GB cards).
(GTX on X58; Radeon on P55)

i rather am ok with the sound of AAC-HE opposed to MP3 (and MP3Pro), WMA9Prowhatever, and older OGG. haven't heard OGG in a while, tho.

however, my first test with Opus/CELT blew me away...

http://www.multiupload.com/HTIGW82UD0


i suppose in hindsight i could provide the original lossless clip (cut after the fact) to play with... http://www.multiupload.com/XVRXX256WO

me too, but with case, psu, ram, hdd, i7-920 (and moreso 860) was a better deal for about a year and a half. there are SOME distributed computing (that's not ALL i do, fyi) people that run their farms on paper trays or other neat little vertical stacks, though.

interesting, one of my coworkers experiences the same migranes, too.

...since this IS Ask Slashdot ;)

speaking of searches, and i'm sure this will kill my karma, anyone had fun with google trends?

http://www.google.com/trends?q=bdsm&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0
http://www.google.com/trends?q=vodka&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0
http://www.google.com/trends?q=anal+sex&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0
http://www.google.com/trends?q=anal+sex%2C+brokeback+mountain%2C+anal+fisting%2C+gay+porn&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0
http://www.google.com/trends?q=beer%2C+vodka%2C+wine%2C+bourbon%2C+champagne&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0
http://www.google.com/trends?q=3d%2C+blu-ray&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0
http://www.google.com/trends?q=x264%2C+xvid&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0
http://www.google.com/trends?q=farmville%2C+%22left+4+dead%22%2C+mw2&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0
i'll let you glean what you want from http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/world/pakistan-no1-in-the-world-in-pornographic-internet-searches/story-e6freoqf-1225891491204
http://www.google.com/trends?q=1,+2,+3,+4,+5&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0
http://www.google.com/trends?q=google,+bing&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0

don't forget http://theoatmeal.com/comics/computers

Typing of the Dead, Power Stone, and Chu Chu Rocket. on physical media, please.

it's not cheap, nor is it THAT expensive, but they can just send it in to Sony for repair. Sony didn't flash my 60gb when i had repair work done on it...

also, ironically, most top tier BD50 movies that came out in the first year or two would have fit on a 30GB HD DVD disc (some may have required lossy compression like DTS 1.5) like Pirates, Crank, Ratatouille, Baraka, Corpse Bride, No Country For Old Men. you could probably even with a bit of hand tweaking (or easily with h.264) get Harry Potter into 30gb (most are under with 2 and 3 at ~35gb).

anyone leech the NSFW version?

source: Neuro's demo Masagin (apologies, it's not my best encode, but i had to work and wanted to get all the samples up ASAP)
(for more wheezy computers)
halfres 720p30: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ZZT4OGLD
halfres 720p60: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=WHWJIXHZ
(for manly computers that eat HD for breakfast (or just a $30 radeon 3000+ or geforce 8000+ and mpc hc))
720p30: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=LSM31W74
720p60: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=9XC9NN7A

parts that especially leap out at me as being noticeable (altho 90% is noticeably not 60fps smooth to me)
0:28-0:59
1:26-1:29
1:58-2:28

i've never had issues with stability (other than installer hosing vista once), but never had a BSOD. *performance*, on the other hand, of bleeding edge games i hear (from a trusted friend) is hit or miss. my dumb ass still bought one (to play *my* first ever bleeding edge game, NFS: Shift)