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Comment: Re:hmm (Score 1) 462

by BikeHelmet (#32933874) Attached to: DRM vs. Unfinished Games

You buy a code, and that code unlocks your game, forever and ever, the transaction is finished. It's true you couldn't use the full game before the code, but you hadn't paid for it yet.

Until you reinstall/upgrade your OS! Then you need to contact them to get a reactivation code. Better pray they haven't gone under.

Got a laptop, and want to play on it as well? See above.

Comment: Re:Am I a cheap bastard? (Score 1) 208

by BikeHelmet (#32933354) Attached to: Fastest Graphics Ever, Asus ARES Rips Benchmarks

Which is exactly my point. Steam has huge sales, often with 75-90% discounts. A lot of these games show up for $2 to $10 on Steam. Mass Effect has been $5 no less than a couple times.

For games with online communities, as soon as they hit rock-bottom prices, hundreds of thousands of people buy them. That leads to quite a lot of active players.

In the past year I've spent perhaps $400 on games, and amassed over a hundred of them. Far more than I'll be able to play over the next couple years.

With a console, you spend half as much as you would on a computer, but you're constantly spending $25 here or $60 there to keep entertained. At the end of a 3 year run, you've probably spent 3x as much, even if you factor in computer upgrades to keep current.

Comment: Re:Why don't they find the serial killer gene inst (Score 1) 258

by BikeHelmet (#32894844) Attached to: Familial DNA Testing Nabs Alleged Serial Killer

If you can't fix the environment for everyone, you can't fix every fetus's genes either.

What are you going to do if someone finds out later that they have serial killer genes? Kill them? Put them on watch lists and discriminate?

Just work on fixing the environment. It's safer and easier than altering our own blueprints.

Comment: Re:I like holding the mouse over fake holding one! (Score 1) 292

by BikeHelmet (#32894616) Attached to: The Mouse Vanishes

Would this work for exhibits? (often protected behind glass?)

Touchscreens are expensive, and open up the annoying possibility of something getting damaged. A $20 smart camera system detecting motion on the glass would probably be safer and cheaper.

This project doesn't interest me because I'm a gamer. I suspect this lacks the DPI necessary for precise movements. Also, I Claw.

Comment: Re:Remember the LOLAMO (Score 1) 197

by BikeHelmet (#32894544) Attached to: Nvidia's $200 GTX 460 Ups Bargain Performance

I always jump generations late, when you can get the best deals on new cards. My card choice is primarily based on what I can get for the money I have available.

I got an eVGA 7900GS when they came out at about $150. I lucked out - mine overclocked 70%, making it quite a bit faster than 7900GTX's - roughly the same speed as an 8800GS. (minus some shader power)

But, when I had a chance to get an 8800GS for $35, I jumped on that too. Turned out the memory wasn't stable at stock speeds, so I had to underclock it, making it slightly slower than my old card. Bummer. But at least it solved the crash issues L4D/L4D2 have with GeForce 7's.

When I finally got a chance to flip to a GTS 250 for $99, and sell my old card, I did that. It too was unstable at stock speeds, but some copper RAM sinks fixed that, and it now runs happily with a 20% memory overclock. It currently plays everything I throw at it at 2048x1152 - but newer games do require AA to be turned off.

My next GPU upgrade won't be for a while. I already have too many games to find time to finish. But I'll probably pick up a new CPU to speed up video encoding, shortly.

Comment: Re:$200 is "mid" range? (Score 1) 197

by BikeHelmet (#32894472) Attached to: Nvidia's $200 GTX 460 Ups Bargain Performance

Right now you can get a GeForce 240 512MB card for $98.00 with a 3DMark Vantage score of 6130 or a Radeon 5670 that scores 6223 for $99.99. This GTX 460 gets a 3DMark Vantage score of 14700. So on a price per performance measure, yes, it is a bargain.

Are you kidding me? I got a brand new GTS 250 512MB for $99 CAD six months ago. (worked out to about $85 USD shipped)

A friend of mine picked up a brand new Radeon 4870 1GB (slightly faster than a 5770 in DX10) for $104 USD shipped in late June.

These cards are approximately 3-6x as fast as the ones you listed, for the same price. More importantly, GTX 460 is only ~25% faster for +100% price. If DX11 matters that much to you, go ahead. To me it's hardly a bargain.

P.S. 4870 1GB's score closer to 10k in 3Dmark Vantage, so for benchmarking the performance difference may be 50%

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