What is your set-up?

[Kartoffelsalat]

Don't forget the elmers glue and vaccuum cleaner filters to keep that pesky dust off of your components.

I've never heard of doing anything with those before, and now I'm all curious. How does it work?

[ithil]

Are you a Megatokyo citizen perhaps?

Indeed I am, although I haven't posted there for several months. (Heh, I hit my one year anniversary three hours ago.) I recognized you from MT when I started posting here a few weeks ago. (I originally joined the Lounge back in February 2001.)

Second, #$%& SCSI, go SATA...

Pass up the seek times of a 15k RPM drive? No thanks!

Don't forget the elmers glue and vaccuum cleaner filters to keep that pesky dust off of your components.

I've never heard of doing anything with those before, and now I'm all curious. How does it work?

You use the filters to completely seal all the fans on the case from dust without restricting (significantly) airflow.

(@ _ is shorthand for "I hate that blasted [QUOTE] parsing 'feature'".)

[Fragbait]

Um, yeah. If that was exactly your point, then we are sort of standing on the same rock.
It seems like I might have gotten it a bit wrong, perhaps this

Why spend $500 on a 2.0 GHz, when I can spend $800 on a 3.0 GHz with twice as much RAM, HD space, and video processing power? For just over half the cost, extra, I virtually double my gains, and inveritable triple or even quadruple the lasting power of my machine. And all it cost me was, what, an extra two days pay? A few hours of overtime here and there?

puzzled me a bit. Sorry 'bout that.
You may in fact be right with the future and the 3 GHz machines, and I find it kind of scary, too.
How long has it been ago when 'alpha processors' with 400 to 500 MHz were so 'clearly superior' to those intel pentium series (with unbelievable MMX technology)?
Not any more. Oh well... development won't simply stop.

As long as university or Diablo III don't require a newer PC, I'll probably stick to my P3 500. Sufficiant for Diablo, Diablo II, Starcraft and even Quake III Arena. What can I want more? :lol:

Greetings, Fragbait

[Walkiry]

Are you a Megatokyo citizen perhaps?

Indeed I am, although I haven't posted there for several months. (Heh, I hit my one year anniversary three hours ago.) I recognized you from MT when I started posting here a few weeks ago. (I originally joined the Lounge back in February 2001.)

Heh, nice to see you around, meaning you're the same ithil that (used to) post there?

You know, this is the last place I expected to find MTite, this being about a non-japanese-non-RPG (although non-Square too) game and all that ;)

To be honest, Northwood/Reason and all, the place was much more fun with stl around :lol:

[Fragbait]

...,so I won't bother to change it.

Hail Nicodemus,

I'm surprised to read a reply like yours in a place like this. This is a website dedicated to two virtual pc games: Diablo and Diablo II. It has some forums in it, and they are frequently visited by generally the same people over and over again. Sure enough, every few days a new member joins, but seeing that some more experienced lurkers claim to have been here in the beginning, and the respect in here can only be earned by quality over time (e.g. 'mileage'), as a respected and trusted member of this society, you have to be online quite a bit.
I know many people who would regard this 'online time at a game forum' equally abnormal as the time this guy spend to extend and embellish his beloved computer. While we don't think so (or we wouldn't be posting here), it's generally in the eye of the viewer.
I think I remember a flame of Pete some time ago, that went like this:

NewMember: I think you all ought to get out a little bit more. Just a piece of friendly advice.

Pete: So, you need to STFU and lurk till you have a clue. Just a piece of 'friendly advice'.

That describes it pretty well. I can imagine a bunch of computer junkies like this 'Reason' guy replying just like Pete did.
They may see no single reason to change anything in their life.
I wouldn't give up the lurkerlounge just because someone told me to get back to 'real life', too. :blink:


Just my two cents.


Greetings, Fragbait

Edit: the title is meant to be: "It is his life...". Oh well.

[ithil]

you're the same ithil that (used to) post there?

Yep.

You know, this is the last place I expected to find MTite, this being about a non-japanese-non-RPG (although non-Square too) game and all that ;)

Hee, that's very ironic. Would you believe I found MT because of Blizzard, and that I was introduced to anime less than a year ago by STL? Small world. :->

Time for some reminiscing. When I was 15, we moved to where I presently live and I made some new friends. They were into this game called Warcraft II, which was the first real PC game I ever played. A few months later, I convinced my dad to finally buy a family computer and wheedled net access out of him a year after that. Then Starcraft came out, and I bought it immediately (before I owned a computer that could run it!) and started following Blizzard religiously. I believe it was the fansite warcraftiii.net that linked to this Penny Arcade strip, and I got hooked on the comic.

One day, Penny Arcade linked to MegaTokyo. They'd done it before, but this time I actually followed the link and read the entire archive (rants and all) on a 28k line, then posted about it. (Yes, I made an intro post. *wince*) I stopped posting almost immediately and stopped reading most of the comics I was following a couple months later. It was very painful to keep up with a sheaf of online comics over dialup.

A few months later, we got broadband (Qwest finally installed a DSLAM for our neighborhood), and a few months after that I started reading MegaTokyo again and decided to create a forum account. That probably would have gone the way of the first one, but as fate would have it, I noticed this thread (which you argued about fuzzyballs in), and found STL to be a very interesting character until he got banned, at which point we started talking over email a lot (around 500 KB worth in three months).

You might remember this as the Time of Great Lag, just prior to Piro's purchase of Matoko. However, I had gotten hooked on FFX and my brother was playing through Lunar 2 or something during the day, so I couldn't get my hands on the PS2 until 11 PM. I ended up skewing my schedule to the point that I was going to sleep after 6 AM, and the wee hours of the morning happened to be when the server was actually usable, so I became the top poster on the boards by a 50% margin (you might remember me running posting statistics in Tech Talk). After two weeks of spending almost every waking hour posting to MT, I pulled myself off the boards cold turkey... and was stupid enough to talk about it in #mtfn, which was one of two MT IRC channels I was idling in. I got hooked on IRC. (See what summer vacation does to you, kids? I suppose it was better than two summers before that when I sunk several hundred hours into becoming a minor Counter-Strike god.)

And so I come to the end of my tale. STL joined #mtfn late one night and we spent three hours chatting, thus rehooking him on IRC and leading to the eventual creation of #stl (he put up the server, so he picked the name) several months later (which I happen to be idling in right now).

To be honest, Northwood/Reason and all, the place was much more fun with stl around :lol:

Stop by sometime. It's a blast. (I can PM you the address if you like.)

I can imagine a bunch of computer junkies like this 'Reason' guy replying just like Pete did.

If you think STL would reply just like Pete did, then you really know him very well. :lol:

[Nicodemus Phaulkon]

I'm surprised to read a reply like yours in a place like this. This is a website dedicated to two virtual pc games: Diablo and Diablo II. It has some forums in it, and they are frequently visited by generally the same people over and over again.

You noticed the blatantly obvious. Well done.

Sure enough, every few days a new member joins, but seeing that some more experienced lurkers claim to have been here in the beginning, and the respect in here can only be earned by quality over time (e.g. 'mileage'), as a respected and trusted member of this society, you have to be online quite a bit.

I'm a member, period. Online? I'd guesstimate about 3 hours per day, maximum, spread over a 16 hour period per day. Most of that time is spent actually working an online Database; some small part involves visits to the Lurker Lounge and other chosen forums.

Of course, this has to revolve around an actual job, preparing and consuming meals, several hours outside playing and caring for my daughter and doing maintenance on the yard and house (that time of year, y'know), running errands for myself, my wife and my ailing mother, paying bills, attending meetings and making sure that there are sufficient supplies of food and cookies (highly important) in the home.

THAT... I classify as a Life.

I know many people who would regard this 'online time at a game forum' equally abnormal as the time this guy spend to extend and embellish his beloved computer. While we don't think so (or we wouldn't be posting here), it's generally in the eye of the viewer.

Perhaps. At least a discussion forum lends itself to SOME shadow of human interaction and communication. Nicknaming your "box" and publishing its pet peeves, measurements and turn-ons would constitute a profoundly distressing lack of mentality, by comparison. I freely admit to giving my wife's computer a nickname however, as I've loudly called it a P.O.S. on numerous occasions.

I think I remember a flame of Pete some time ago, that went like this:
NewMember: I think you all ought to get out a little bit more. Just a piece of friendly advice.

Pete: So, you need to STFU and lurk till you have a clue. Just a piece of 'friendly advice'.

I recall that very post. Pete was addressing someone's arrogance at strolling into THEIR room and passing judgment on them with his inaugural post. This has very little to do with my own assessment of Reason's social defectiveness, which was done in MY room.

That describes it pretty well. I can imagine a bunch of computer junkies like this 'Reason' guy replying just like Pete did.

98.99 percent of the denizens out there in NeverNeverLand couldn't hold a candle to Pete. They haven't the education, the eruditeness, or the "mileage". Pete's earned his right to say "STFU" in more places than the Lurker Lounge. Can these soother-suckers claim the same?

They may see no single reason to change anything in their life.

Only because they either haven't been pushed, prodded, found truth or simply realize the waste their time has been.

Admittedly, this is MY own opinion. It was offered as such in the previous post. I've know FAR too many young men (and some women) that fall in the category that "Reason" inhabits... and I find it very sad. Life was NOT meant to be lived in a box, with a box, or from a box.

[Roland]

I was speaking about the future in that regard. My bad. I thought the price points (which are insanely low for this day and age) would tip that off, but I can see now I wasn't clear enough. :) Yes, that WOULD confuse someone. Thanks for the heads up.

My point with that little tidbit you quoted was in reference to the future. As more time goes on, the gap between rigs increases exponentially, and the cost to bridge that gap decreases exponentially. Hence why such a large gap in power results in such a little gap in price in my above example (in the future, that is).

Sorry for the confusion. :) My bad. :D

[ithil]

At least a discussion forum lends itself to SOME shadow of human interaction and communication.

Which a solitary hobby does not preclude.

Nicknaming your "box" and publishing its pet peeves, measurements and turn-ons would constitute a profoundly distressing lack of mentality

Why (modulo the irrelevant jabs)? He's a computer hardware hobbyist who painstakingly built and tuned a piece of equipment. If he enjoyed it, I see no problem with what he spends some of his spare time on. Some gamers name their characters and construct elaborate backstories. Do they have a 'profoundly distressing lack of mentality'?

This has very little to do with my own assessment of Reason's social defectiveness, which was done in MY room.

That tells us that you can. Ask yourself whether you should. Power and justification do not go hand in hand.

98.99 percent of the denizens out there in NeverNeverLand couldn't hold a candle to Pete. They haven't the education, the eruditeness, or the "mileage". Pete's earned his right to say "STFU" in more places than the Lurker Lounge.

Without already knowing Pete, his arguments can only be weighed on their merits, not his authority. Authority is a sometimes useful heuristic for estimating merit and should be neither ignored nor blindly followed. Those who listen to Pete realize his arguments have both authority and merit, but he earns his right to say "STFU" because he is justified in doing so.

Only because they either haven't been pushed, prodded, found truth or simply realize the waste their time has been.

When I was younger, I spent many hours playing computer games. I don't begrudge the time I could have spent more wisely. I had fun, and I learned from it. Growing up is a part of life, and it doesn't stop at age eighteen. If you're lucky, it never does.

Life was NOT meant to be lived in a box, with a box, or from a box.

Life is a funny thing. Its possibilities are what you make of it. I won't pass judgement on what STL will make of his life.

Maybe I see possibilities.

[Nicodemus Phaulkon]

Why (modulo the irrelevant jabs)? He's a computer hardware hobbyist who painstakingly built and tuned a piece of equipment. If he enjoyed it, I see no problem with what he spends some of his spare time on. Some gamers name their characters and construct elaborate backstories. Do they have a 'profoundly distressing lack of mentality'?

Yes, when the "hobby" turns into "obsession". Distraction (and that's what any of the above examples are) is the same as anything in life: best with moderation and balance. When one exceeds the balance, you're no longer practicing a "hobby". I would say Reason's (or STL's) publication and level of detail and time that he's invested into presenting his creation, much less creating it, falls into that category.

That goes for any activity: Overindulgence leads to imbalance. I would claim the same no matter what the activity: computer hardware, gaming, sports, model trains, writing, reading, playing, eating, drinking... ANYTHING.

When I was younger, I spent many hours playing computer games. I don't begrudge the time I could have spent more wisely. I had fun, and I learned from it. Growing up is a part of life, and it doesn't stop at age eighteen. If you're lucky, it never does.

Agreed. But unfortunately there is a large demographic that isn't "growing up" at all, in my opinion. Computer savvy, perhaps... but socially and environmentally retarded. Their "growing up" seems to start at high school graduation; leaving the cozy nest of home and finding the world a very odd place that doesn't quite fit in with their usual "interaction" practices.

I give my own sister-in-law as an example: Valedictorian, "book-smart", couldn't spell her way out of a paper bag, and upon trying to find an apartment when going to college in the fall was staggered to realize that houses have numbers on them as some form of "address".

Life is a funny thing. Its possibilities are what you make of it. I won't pass judgment on what STL will make of his life.

Maybe I see possibilities.

Accepted. Perhaps I don't have the right to pass judgment on STL's position in life or what I think he'll attain. Perhaps I have sufficient experience and examples of people just like him that I can pass accurate judgment. Moot point. There are equal possibilities that all his "possibilities" will overwhelm him into mediocrity and loneliness. I hope that I'm wrong in that... but I doubt it.

To quote Kris Kristofferson: "We take our own chances and pay our own dues".

Were STL my own child, or you for that matter... you would have found your "Xbox time" severely limited. That's MY call, as a parent.

*edit: Spelling... gah*

[Bun-Bun]

The tower system is:

G4/500 Graphite
1.5 GB RAM
200GB drive space internal, 120GB on FireWire for backups
2x DVD-RAM
250MB Zip ( == total waste)
48x/16x CD-ROM burner (gathering dust since I went for an iPod)
Dazzle Hollywood DV Bridge
Radeon 8500 driving a 19" Samsung flat-screen and a 19" Radius monitor
OS 9.2.2

Connected to a cable modem through a Linksys Router and WAP, which links to the laptop:

G4/667 15" TiBook
512 MB RAM
30 GB drive space internal, 150 GB in FireWire drives
OS 9.2.2 and OS X 10.1.2 (IIRC)
Formac DeVideon DVD burner

The laptop serves as an iTunes repository, a DVD burner, and (its most important function) a D2 mule box.

[Elric of Grans]

Hail Nico,

I've had to sit and think about this one for a bit, but I think one thing you need to consider is different people have different ideas on what a life is. I shall start by your three points, more for humour than to actually address them in any way :D

1) I am almost transparent to look at: people not used to my appearance often think I am sick. It's not that I never go outside - I enjoy long walks (less than 5kms (3 miles for the Americans) and I've not even begun to warm up) - but I look like that anyways.

2) Anime girls are almost always: (a) underage, (B) wierd and/or violent, © have wierd-looking hair - the latter point is a common point for the style though, and not just the female protagonists. At any rate, I don't see why people get off on that: when I watch an anime, I watch it for the story, and sometimes the animation; it's hardly a turn-on! "Cor, check out the frames of animation in that one!" ;)

3) I am almost broke :( Darn it, why do I have to wait until NEXT week to get payed! Oh, and on the food one, Arabic food is excellent - especially the deserts :9

Anywho, to eventually get to my point, for different people, an life can mean different things. I believe I'd already told you that my opinion is that you are only truly living if you are enjoying life: how one enjoys it varies, so there is no rule beyond that. For some, the only way they can enjoy life is to effectively drop out of society, or form a sub-society through other medium (eg the Internet); others find it through contributing to the society they are already in.

If I prefer to use a trout while you prefer a salmon, does that make either of us better than the other? OK, I'll grant that was a poor joke, but it does follow my point: I think that things like fishing and golf are probably the most utterly boring past times people can have, while there are plenty out there who would disagree and say that my reading, composing, and other activities are the boring ones. In the same way, who are we to say that - for example - those kids playing FPS games every day after school are any worse than the kids who run off to kick the footie: if we break it down, both are playing with their mates.

Besides, if we were to be honest, we are all pathetic in our own ways: it is simply that few are prepared to acknowledge this before others - if they would admit it to themselves even!

[Nicodemus Phaulkon]

no text

[CowInvader]

Heh, it is surprising where how you see seniority come out of the woodwork here, as it is the nature of the lounge. I have been around since a couple of months before the D2X beta... I thought that the subsequent flood was what the lounge was all about at first but soon learned my folly. Then Bolty closed down the site, I kept checking back on the front page every so often but no news... one day I ventured into the forums and alas they were back up... I went in and saw a post saying they were closing yet again... but here we are.

Anyways, on the actual subject, I admit that the seek times on a SCSI drive are unparalled right now, but I'm liking the promise of the SATA drives. Besides the faster speeds and everything else, the one point that made me ultimately buy it is that SATA drives consume 10% of the cpu power to access them as IDE drives... and they are getting fast enough to rival SCSI (the motherboard support to put them on seperate "pipelines" so that they aren't restricted to a speed lower than their actual capability will need to come first however).

The vaccuum cleaner filters, yea, thats basically it, I put the filters on one side of the fan (it doesn't really matter which way, other than for cleaning purposes, so pick the way that looks best) with some elmer's glue around the sides and it catches most of the dust that comes in.

[pakman]

XP Pro: $5
XP Office Pro: $5
AMD 1.3 GHz Thunderbird: $80
tower: $40
GeForce 2 MX: Free (soon to be upgraded to GeForce 4)
CD-RW 40x12x40: $80
Compaq 15 in. flatscreen, 4 in. deep: $280
Microsoft Intellimouse: $20
Keyboard: free

Having the best computer in the whole house: priceless

Inernet: 36.6 modem at home ------ kick ass T1 at Purdue during school year

I don't use this to play Diablo at all, I use it to play NWN, Counter-Strike, and Morrowind.

[Roland]

Gotten Bloodmoon yet? I have. For once, they're putting in new armor / weapon styles. It's too bad the ONLY place you find most of them are in a "test" container! :( I wish I knew how to mod. Morrowind could beat NWN hands down at EVERYTHING if the modding community was larger, and more organized. Alas, it is not so. :(

[Drasca]

Have you *been* to the official Elderscrolls.com Modding forum yet?!?! Modding itself isn't *that* hard. Make your own scripts, use skins, it becomes fairly intuitive after a while (had an easier time than NWN mod-editor). Making items isn't even hard compared to making skinning work with animations. Open other simple mods up and see how they work. Play with the editor!!!

Only, there were some people deliberately sites like http://www.sheikizza.com/ someone(s) with power or influence had a serious grudge against Morrowind modding and shut them down :unsure:

[Roland]

...Morrowind requires scripting knowledge to truly shine. Aside from that, I have had SERIOUS difficulties with the terrain editor(s). It's something I'll need to truly sit down and try, for hours on end, and tutorials are few and far between.

As I said, Morrowind modding suffers from a SEVERE lack of support, organization, and information. Without these three elements, it will NEVER be the Golden Egg that it can be. Hence why NWN will forever trump it - aside from MP capabilities, their Toolset is ALL they have, and there is FAR more support for it than Morrowind has (and probably ever will have).

Making items IS easy, as are a lot of things in it. Scripting is NOT, at least for those of us who completely SUCK at it. I lack a fundamental ability to program - it's as if I am mentally retarded when it comes to programming. And I am being dead serious. Learning to program, for me, is like learning a foreign language - and I suck at that, too. It's just massively difficult for me, moreso than the average Joe. It will take too much dedication and effort for me to do to get even the simplest of results, and without proper documentation (like a tutorial BOOK on scripting that teaches exactly how to do everything - a programming book, if you will), it will be forever impossible for me. I just can't learn. It's a big reason why I gave up on NWN - I just can't do it.

Then there's the whole side of skinning and animations, another thing I have no experience with. I am NOT an artist. I have no tools, no talent, and no understanding. So that, too, inhibits just what I can do. And, as I said, with SO LITTLE support from both Bethesda and the community at large (or small, as is the case), Morrowind modding, no matter how easy, will never take off. Sad, because there is SO MUCH room to grow.

[Kevin]

I can't speak on NWN as I don't have it, but there is a lot more support for Morrowind modding then you seem to be making out.

If you want a scripting guide, just head here: http://thelys.free.fr/ghanburighan.htm and scroll down to GhanBuriGhan's scripting guide. Couple hundred pages of goodness. But like you said if you can't program you may have problems (though actually in my experience with Morrowind, people who have never programmed before sometimes have it easier with Morrowind scripting because it does some things oddly).

The sticked topics in the morrowind.com construction set forums have plenty of links for guides on how to use the construction set.

Now, yes, the skinning and meshes require learning 3DS Max or Maya, or whatever. Of course you don't have to do any of that, there is a ton of stuff you can just pull in (OK, any thing in the game now can be used that is what the 2nd CD is, just the models and skins) and use wherever.

There are complete middle earth total conversions, dragonlance total conversions, mods and plugins that can do tons of things out there (Morrowind Summit and others have very large mod databases). Just because there isn't a phrozenkeep like site doesn't mean it isn't organized or that it hasn't taken off. Since there is sooo much stuff that can be done (mods with horses and carts, flying ships, mermaids, giants, dragons) there are a ton of different groups, but they do share with each other. Actually it reminds me a lot of the FreeSpace modding community.

Maybe I just don't follow you, but from where I am sitting the Morrowind modding community is doing just fine, and there is a lot of support. Sure it didn't have the huge premade market from all the pen and paper D&D players like NWN, but Bethseda does support it, and so does the community. If you have a smaller player pool, you have a smaller modding community. Heck, I know people who don't play NWN but they mod it because they been involved with D&D for years, and are just placing ideas they had years ago into the game. Of course Morrowind can't do that.

[edit] And as was mentioned several major major mod sites were taken down by some twit with a beef on Morrowind who used various types of attacks to make the sites inaccessible or to have the ISP's that hosted them say, sorry, that's it they have to go. This did cut a fair bit of info out of the community. [/edit]