um. *ahem* sorry. just always wanted to say that No school today
But hey. I do use my thumbs on the keypad of phones. never noticed it.
This comment was edited on Mar 25, 09:00.

I thought that was Barry from Barrysworld.

If only you could see what I've seen with your eyes...

"I just make eyes. I... I made your eyes..."

...got the shaft from that fart joke of a movie Shrek. Oh well, I guess Pixar has nothing on poor old Randy Newman, at least they got the short animated film award.

Schnapple

http://members.tripod.com/schnapple99/

Lord of the Rings only got 4 awards out of 13 nominations? And it lot most of them to Russel Crowe? This is why I never watch the academy awards.

--------------
Tony Zahn
Sofware Engineer, Achievement Technologies Inc.
Go Blue!

s-s-s-s-s-soo... c-cold.

Am I the only one miffed when the news can't keep basic ideas straight? Kids with improved thumb dextairity gained through useage are not mutations. To be a mutation, it would have to be a genetic change which would then be passed to future generations. This is just like how gymnists have better balance, and surgeons better manual dextairty... training.

That Balls Up game took [relatively] forever to download, and once I finally got it going it froze at the Loading screen and then I got a BSOD in nv4_disp!!! "The display driver was unable to complete a drawing operation." Stupid little Flash games should not be able to cause BSODs.

And why can't NVIDIA do something about stability in their myriad driver releases instead of another 50 points in 3DMark 2001?

Argh!

"The use of gadgets such as mobile phones and GameBoys has caused a physical mutation in young people's hands, according to a British Sunday newspaper."

physical mutation != genetic mutation

I agree that it's misleading (and misused) language, though.

What card and OS are you running? I use a P4 1.3, 384 RAM, GeForce2 Ultra and WinXP Prof. and I've never had any issues with the drivers.

"The use of gadgets such as mobile phones and GameBoys has caused a physical mutation in young people's hands, according to a British Sunday newspaper."

physical mutation != genetic mutation

I agree that it's misleading (and misused) language, though.

Also according to Darwin (should you choose to believe him or not), mutations are caused randomly, not through extended use of something. So if our younger generation did indeed mutate this dextrous thumbs, then according to Darwin's theory it has nothing to do with the gameboy's and such and it simply occured by chance.

Todd, why don't you read up on Darwin before you start spouting this stuff, 'k? You seem to be lost on the subtleties (and no so subtleties) of natural selection.

His theory was of natural selection. When he wrote about evolution there was little known about genes then. HIs theory was all about survival of the fittest, such as Hairy Animals would survive better in the cold then non hairy ones, and therefor the non hairy animals would die off, while the hairy ones flurished. I do agree with you though, that in order for the thumbs to mutate the gameboy generation would have to pass on its mutation to its offspring, and I highly doubt that this thumb mutation is a mutation at all.

The game also locked up my system pretty hard when I tried to play it this morning.

Athlon XP 1800+, Asus A7M266, 512 megs RAM, GeForce3, WinXP would be the relevant bits of info.

well it didnt lock up mine, but i only got sound from it and no graphics..

*Ahem* from Genetics: Analysis of Genes and Genomes, Fifth Edition by Hartl and Jones:

Mutation - A heritable alteration in a gene or chromosome; also, the process by which such an alteration happens. Used incorrectly, but with increasing frequency, as a synonym for mutant, even in some excellent textbooks.

Mutant - Any heritable biological entity that differs from wild type, such as a mutant DNA molecule, mutant allele, mutant gene, mutant chromosome, mutant cell, mutant organism, or mutant heritable phenotype; also, a cell or organism in which a mutant allele is expressed.

From me:

Note that the word heritable is in there twice, even. Natural selection can't work its magic on a non-heritable trait. There's no "memory" in the sperm or egg for learned behavior - only for genetic alterations. Now, if these kids stand too close to the microwave, they might pick up a germ-line mutation for ambidextrous opposable thumbs or something, and that would be heritable, but I highly doubt that's happened.

Bottom line: the article screwed up, and genetics is cool.

Worked great for me! PIII 500, 128MB, Geforce 2 MX 64 MB(with the latest drivers installed).

I dig this game, a more active version than lunar lander, from -back in tha day-.

It's tastefully done, the physics are strong and it's easy to master.

Kudos to the design team

I didn't see "Beautiful Mind" or "Trianing Day", so I can't speak for the quality of the films, BUT... if a director wins as Best Director, and the movie itself wins as Best Movie, then shouldn't it follow that the main actor who is the focus of the whole movie would be Best Actor?? If not, what made the movie 'the best' over Training Day?
(I still think LOTR should've won. Literary masterpiece finally brought to life in a fantastic form)