I used to do that until I started dating my Wife. In college she worked for a firm that had to call insurance recipients on behalf of their insurance firm and ask them questions. It helped me realize that these are just people doing their jobs, and that by being rude/mean to them, you're preaching to the choir.

That having been said, if I tell them politely no thank you several times (and I am not above butting into their incessant initial chatter) and they insist, I hang up.

Them: "siri'mcallingonbehalfofverizonDSLandweareoffering...allineedistoverifyyourmailingaddress..."

Me: "No thanks, I'm not interested"

Them: "butsirareyousayingyouarenotinterestedinfastinternet..."

Me: "I've already got cable modem, thanks."

Them: "yesbut..."

Me: *click*

Oh, and has anyone seen those things on TV where it supposedly hooks up to your phone and "erases" your phone number from the central server by sending a signal to the telemarketers? Is this for real or (as I suspect) a crock of shit? I mean, one look at the befuddled telemarketer and you've probably got a product on the same level as those electroshock devices the FDA won't let them market anymore.


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I love how every Flash golf game has to have the equivalent of the Mega Man "one way" pad...

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I like porn just as much as the next guy. But I have no respect for the people in it, the people who make it, the people who publish it, or the people who post it. Hypocrite? You betcha. God bless America.

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Dear God, I started a war. Someone take down the date and time. Of course, the most direct effect seems to be making this story quite popular. I wonder if I've ruined Blue's News now.

Someone on that Shack thread bashed my comment on Blue's being "vastly superior", but a telltale sign is that there's actually an option on the Shack boards for "porn".

Still, when I want news, I go to Blue's. When I want a lengthy heated discussion on trite bullshit, I go to Slashdot. Nothing beats a good old MS vs. Linux argument where ten year olds and seasoned IT vets get into it.

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I don't know where the good place for this is, but oh well. I visit Shacknews (www.shacknews.com) from time to time and while it does have its own charm, I believe it's a vastly inferior site to Blue's News. Yet, most stories on there have tons of comments on them, long running discussions even. The Shacknews equivalents to "Out of the Blue" (today it's "werd") have thousands of comments. Does this mean that Shacknews is the more popular site? Does it just mean that they're more chatty over there (to the point of being near-Slashdot proportions)? Or is it something tied to the commenting system of Blue's?

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(nevermind)
This comment was edited on Apr 11, 09:44.

Yeah, cool to learn that Third Law is still alive. I figured they had died off since I hadn't heard of them since 2000. I picked up KISS: Psycho Circus at Babbage's for $4.99 - it's not bad (I recently became something of a KISS fan) and the value can't be beat.

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For that matter, it'screwing up the Blue's News logo.

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That's cool. I guess I'm just used to seeing freeware dealies on the "etc." post, so I just naturally assumed.

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It's not like these ads are paying much at this point anyway

Pardon my complete ignorance and feel free to ignore me if this is none of my business, but if the ads aren't paying much and yanking them does not spell death, then how is it exactly that this site makes enough money to survive? (other than T-Shirts, of course)

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I couldn't find the download for Space HoRSE on the site. If they've "completed" it, they sure are hiding it.

Unless of course this is supposed to be a boxed retail product, in which case the site gives us no indication.

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You're right, though DNA thought of it decades ago.

One of the major problems encountered in time travel is not that of becoming your own father or mother. There is no problem in becoming your own father or mother that a broad-minded and well-adjusted family can't cope with. There is no problem with changing the course of history - the course of history does not change because it all fits together like a jigsaw. All the important changes have happened before the things they were supposed to change and it all sorts itself out in the end.

-- Douglas Adams, Restaurant at the End of the Universe

This pretty much makes the Back to the Future and Terminator movies null and void, which is why in Austin Powers 2 they tell you to "not think about it too much".

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...I think it's time to move your hosting elsewhere. Whoever's doing it now sucks. Lucky this wasn't a Friday - you'd be down until Monday.

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Well you can always fire up the Original Series models for Elite Force (I forget where they are) to get your Kirk & Spock on (complete with bot support and sound files), but the last Original Series game I remember was Secret of Vulcan Fury, an adventure game with graphics/models so good they even included the residue on Nimoy's eyebrows from when he had to shave them for the Vulcan brows. It was killed when Interplay restructured (It even had ads in PC Gamer).

It would be a cool abuse of technology to use a cutting edge game engine to recreate sets from a cheap 60's TV show. Everything an odd shade of blue pastel. Every planet level looking roughly the same (that one "desert" soundstage they had). All the aliens in foil-threaded suits. Klingons looking like white guys. And think of the checkered beehive hairdos!

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Why? And why not Sin 2?

Elite Force sold well. SiN did not. Ritual isn't "owned" by Activision or anyone but they can only put out games that people will publish, and Activision isn't interested in publishing a sequel to a game that didn't sell. Considering the fact that Rituals last few games have been commercial duds, they don't have the "clout" that other developers (like Raven now) do, so they have to do what they think will work. Perhaps if Elite Force II sells a ton (which it probably will - look at how good James Bond games sell, despite the fact that Rareware doesn't make any of them anymore) then Ritual can swing their weight and make SiN II. id Software could make a basket weaving game and every publisher would knock over their own mother to publish it - Ritual's not so lucky (yet).

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From the press release:

Powered by id Software’s QUAKE III: Team Arena engine

The hope is that it uses the "expansive environment" functionality of TA to make more open levels and such.


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The first game was originally intended at the outset to be a TNG title, but Paramount then ordered a Voyager title. Now that TNG is in vogue again (ala TNN) and there's a tenth movie coming out, the sequel moves to the TNG universe.

My lone concern is that Ritual is handling this one. No offense guys, but [i]SiN[/i] was an excercise in pain (I bought it for $5 recently) and I loathed what I played of [ilair Witch 3[/i] and [i]Heavy Metal: FAKK2[/i]. Still, I loved [i]Scourge of Armagon[/i] from back in the day so I hope they pull this one off. It would be a shame for Raven to resurrect Star Trek as a viable gaming franchise just to have someone else blow it.

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Well the copy protection in Q3A, RtCW and Elite Force only came into play over the Internet. In the case of Q3A this made sense - it was an Internet game. But with the other two, where single player was the focus, it meant that only "half" the game was protected. Perhaps the focus for Lucasarts is squarely on the single player experience. Or perhaps any game with Star Wars on it sells so well that they don't feel it's neccessary to burden the consumer with copy protection anymore.

EDIT: As an addendum, it might be that Star Wars games sell so fantastically well that the odds of someone with a CD-ROM drive that hates SafeDisc is considerably greater (yes, even those with GeForce 4's) so the headache isn't worth it.

Besides, remember how id Software didn't bother with copy protection until they (or perhaps Activision) thought it was a problem? If you're selling truckloads of your AoE II mod (Galactic Battlegrounds) then what's the problem?


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This comment was edited on Apr 2, 14:52.

You tried the WickedGL drivers? I don't have a Voodoo5 but they did wonders for the Voodoo3 when I had one.

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It's more like a DirectX demo, it's difficult as hell to even play. Still, it's annoying fun and a good way to kill lunch at the office.

What's this? You want me to pay for it? Erm, if playing it wasn't so much an excercise in pain, maybe. But as it stands now (unpolished tech demo), no thanks.


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