Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

Nothing worth doing is easy.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Let there be snark.

Take your GOP plan out of the witness protection program.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

We still have time to mess this up!

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

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58Comments

  4. 4.

    bey

    Mine does too. Plus my measly 2.0G processor doesn’t meet minimum specs. So instead of spending $60 on a game, I’m spending $1160 on a PC + a game.

    I feel somewhat ashamed, since it’s just a game. But with D3, Cataclysm, and CIV5 coming out that works out to a mere $275 per game in hardware costs.

    Sheesh. Now I feel worse.

    But check out http://www.cyberpowerpc.com for good prices and really nice configuration options.

  5. 5.

    mclaren

    Reminiscent of the B52s song “Is that you, Mo Dean?” Classic send up of UFO cultism.

  6. 6.

    13th Generation

    Starcraft. Meh. Try some good FPS like RTCW or Half Life. Even old school games adventure games like Monkey Island are a better use of your time. Just my opinion.

  7. 7.

    J.W. Hamner

    Not playing Starcraft because my video card sucks. Guess I need to get a gaming machine.

    Bummer. I like NewEgg over TigerDirect for DIY computer building. If this blog makes enough money for Alienware to be an option, I’d advise you to go Falcon Northwest instead. I still have my circa 2002 Mach 5 case in my closet that I occasionally pet in remembrance for all the fond memories.

  9. 9.

    bey

    Well somehow I screwed up the link, but that’s the url

    GS: very nice photo indeed. My 81 y.o. Dad is going to his annual Hummingbird Banding this weekend. He always gets in line with the little kids for a chance to hold one and feel its heartbeat. He loves it.

  10. 10.

    Ailuridae

    @bey:

    If you have a legal windows copy from your previous machine paying anything over 600 for a new gaming machine is lunacy.

    http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_tlc.asp?CatId=31&name=Barebone-Kits

    I’m building a box as I write this that has the new 1055t chip from Athlon and a pretty high end video card. Its going to come in under 700 with no real re-use (sans DVD-R drive and sound card) and that’s with huge processor overkill on my part (that are few applications that I or anyone else currently uses the hexa-core processor.

  12. 12.

    bey

    @Ailuridae: Yeah, I was looking at those but they’re coming in consistently under the Intel chips for game performance. I also got a pretty beefy GPU since I hate to upgrade PCs. I like em to last a good 4 years. My build is actually coming in at about $950 but I need the OS plus some miscellaneous interior cable management, etc. to keep things cool in my enclosed desk in my un-air conditioned house.

    $600 seems awfully lean to me for a gaming rig.

  16. 16.

    Hal

    Aaron Schock (R-Himbo) was on Top Chef tonight during the mini-challenge. He gave a little ditty about ethics in Congress and had a little taste test.

    Easily the most high profile thing he’s done since he got into Congress.

    BTW, he sure is a purty little thing. I’ve only seen pics of him, so seeing him actually walking and talking was interesting. I just kept wanting to ask him for ID.

  17. 17.

    General Stuck

    @bey: I always wanted to see them do the banding. Have seen some videos, but to hold one of these fabulous creatures in my hand be would some experience to remember. I have had them briefly land on my hand holding a feeder in my lap but only for a sec. been tempted to use my butterfly net to catch one, but it is illegal to handle them without a permit, and I would be afraid of injuring it. So it’s just photos, and that’s enough. and thanx!

  18. 18.

    daveNYC

    That song doesn’t hold a candle to the Futurama theme.

    Also too, you sure you need a whole new machine and not just a upgraded video card?

  20. 20.

    Kennedy

    I just came to the harsh realization that my 13″ MBP might not be the best gaming machine for Starcraft as well. I has a sad.

  22. 22.

    J.W. Hamner

    @Ailuridae:

    Possibly, but getting the cheapest last gen processor that still packs some horses means you have no future upgrade options. I always advocate going for the major architecture change, where you know the chip will still be mainstream in a few years, since you know your MoBo will still work with later generations. I spent a painful sum on an i7 when I built my gaming/multimedia pc last summmer… and it’s still a beast. And if I was crazy enough to want to upgrade my chip, I’d be able to do it for the least possible cost.

  23. 23.

    askew

    I love the Psych theme song and I love when they change it up to match episode themes. The best one was the Spanish theme in season 3.

  25. 25.

    Ailuridae

    @J.W. Hamner:

    So its an Intel issue with you?

    The 1055t and 1090t are the only hexa-core processors on the market besides the $1K i7 and the come in at $199 and $299. AMD has committed backwards and forwards to two generations of motherboard per processor family minimum so the box I am building at ~$700 (or ~$800 if I went with the higher end 1090t) will have a motherboard that not only supports higher speed processors in this generations but two generations forward. So, at a minimum, in 36 months I’ll still be able to swap a video card and a processor for the latest and greatest or at any point in between and have a really, really fast machine.

    I don’t play FPS (I am one of those 1 in 100 cases that get the vertigo type symptoms) but the exact same box I am building is being used for the recent generation of those and I played SC2 on it today. Screamingly fast on both counts. Again, for less than $700 and that’s with the overkill of the hexacore processor.

  29. 29.

    John W.

    Spoiler alert, I guess, but how great is it that Psych was about a CEO doing wholly irresponsible things to drill for oil?

    Timely indeed.

  31. 31.

    J.W. Hamner

    @Ailuridae:

    Last time I checked… a full year ago… it didn’t seem that anyone was competing with Intel effectively. AMD does nothing for me from a processor standpoint… though I love ATI. I admit that I probably trust Intel more than I probably should. I’m not pricing gaming rigs right now, unlike yourself, but I’m a fair bit surprised about the assertion that i7’s cost 1K… a quick look suggests that many versions are $300 or less.

  34. 34.

    Sapheriel

    for picking out components, i recommend tom’s hardware, especially the following monthly updated lists.

    http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-radeon-hd-geforce-gtx,2676.html

    http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-gaming-cpu-core-i5-athlon-ii,2675.html

    they also have component lists for $600 gaming pcs somewhere.

    note: the graphics card list for this month doesn’t list the new nvidia gtx 460 yet, which according to the following article beats the price/performance ratio of a lot of cards on that list.

    http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-radeon-hd-geforce-gtx,2676.html

  35. 35.

    Mnemosyne

    A hummingbird story:

    My parents used to have a hummingbird feeder at their house in Arizona, but the woodpeckers kept chasing the hummingbird away from it. So the hummingbird figured out that it could hover in front of the sliding door to get my parents’ attention and one of them would go outside and chase the ‘peckers away so it could get a drink.

    It was darn cute. I think I did the woodpecker chase at least once myself while I was staying with my parents.

  36. 36.

    Yutsano

    @General Stuck: Are you TRYING to curse us here? Sheesh it’s been such a pleasant day. I may ahve Charlie give you mean glares for that.

    Off work in two minutes and my workplace is mourning me. The tears, they be delish.

  37. 37.

    Gozer

    Using parts sourced from various places (mostly Newegg and Ebay) I managed to build a core i7 920 system with 6 gigs of ram for around a grand last September. The only things I reused were the harddrives.

    DIY offers much better prices than a ready-built system and you know exactly what is on your machine.

    I’d recommend going on Techreport and checking out some of their buyer’s guides (here’s the latest: http://techreport.com/articles.x/19159). They source builds for a number of price ranges.

  39. 39.

    Ailuridae

    @J.W. Hamner:

    Ah, I’m talking the hexacore processors. The i7 hexacore is retailing at 1K. The chips I mentioned from AMD are either less than 1/5 or less than 1/3 of the price while giving between 80 and 90% of the performance.

    My rig duplicates as a work rig and I need to run postgres-SQL and a custom piece of software on top of it every day so its not gaming specific but when you start doing DB benchmarks its through the roof. And again, the same machine I will be running I also completed this morning for my tech impaired friend who does the same thing for a living. We played SC2 and he played FPS on it – it was insanely fast. All under 700 with forward compatibility for three years easily.

    Oops! forgot:

    Ailuridae +4 (Stone Levitation)

  40. 40.

    vaux-rien

    I really liked the first Starcraft but it bugs me that you should need a gaming PC to play a RTS game. I just built a new PC recently, pretty fast AMD 64 bit deal, but I focused on quiet and energy-efficient and no way I’m putting a noisy video card that sucks crazy power 24 hours a day just to play SC2. Bummer really since it’s the only game on the PC platform that I’m really interested in.

  41. 41.

    Ailuridae

    @vaux-rien:

    Wait, your new PC won’t play the just released SC2? Or are you going just from JC’s post?

    Can someone post the on-the-box specs for this? I’ve never heard of recently purchased PCs not being able to run a mass produced video game.

  42. 42.

    NobodySpecial

    Intel is good if you have the money for it. I don’t, therefore I AMD and still get pretty good performance.

    Thanks for the tip on the 1055/1090, Aluridae.

  45. 45.

    Arclite

    @bey: You should be able to put together a machine that will play SC II (and most other games) for $500. Let me know if you need a parts list.

  46. 46.

    MoeLarryAndJesus

    Psych is basically unwatchable. The main star has a punchability factor right up there with Glenn Beck.

    WAY too much stupid mugging. Like Robin Williams at his very worst.

    No thanks x 100.

  47. 47.

    fbihop

    I love Psych. I actually like all of the USA dramas that are going on right now (though I’m just barely over the fence on Covert Affairs, but I usually give shows 4-5 episodes before making definitive opinion).

    They’re not exactly great drama, but they are always entertaining.

  48. 48.

    vaux-rien

    [email protected]Ailuridae: Yeah, I was just assuming based on John’s comment but I guess his PC might be really old. I will probably give it a try, I assume I could get a demo?, but I’m running on-board video so I don’t have high hopes.

    If there were a few more games out there that I were interested in I might look into a quiet/efficient video card but honestly it’s just Starcraft and maybe the next Total War if it gets better reviews than the last two.

    Here are the requirements from Blizzard’s site:

    PC Requirements

    PC Minimum System Requirements*:

    * Windows® XP/Windows Vista®/Windows® 7 (Updated with the latest Service Packs) with DirectX® 9.0c
    * 2.6 GHz Pentium® IV or equivalent AMD Athlon® processor
    * 128 MB PCIe NVIDIA® GeForce® 6600 GT or ATI Radeon® 9800 PRO video card or better
    * 12 GB available HD space
    * 1 GB RAM (1.5 GB required for Windows Vista®/Windows® 7 users)
    * DVD-ROM drive
    * Broadband Internet connection
    * 1024X720 minimum display resolution

    PC Recommended Specifications:

    * Windows Vista®/Windows® 7
    * Dual Core 2.4Ghz Processor
    * 2 GB RAM
    * 512 MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8800 GTX or ATI Radeon® HD 3870 or better

    I have no idea how to evaluate the video card thing though.

  49. 49.

    Arclite

    @J.W. Hamner:

    To build a gaming PC without an i7 seems like a waste of money to me.

    You only need a Core i7 if you’re building a extremely high end machine, like a twin graphic card SLI or Crossfire setup. Most midrange modern CPUs have enough power to supply the graphics card fully, and the graphics card becomes the limiting factor. Tom’s Hardware recently tested all the top Intel and AMD CPUs with a Radeon 5850, and the results were always the same regardless of CPU, including a $200 AMD Phenom II X4. CPU makes very little difference for games these days, as long as you choose something reasonable.

    See for yourself:
    Crysis
    Left 4 Dead 2
    Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

    Now if John is going to be doing a lot of video editing or photoshopping, then he might want a core i7…

  50. 50.

    scarshapedstar

    I feel for ya, john. I would be playing SC2 right now except my awesome Geforce blew up and now I’m stuck with a mothballed Radeon X1950 with a broken fan. I can’t do anything more graphically intensive than Youtube or it starts overheating and I get blinkenlights all over the screen.

  51. 51.

    PurpleGirl

    Initially I wasn’t going to read this thread, but now after seeing all the geek comments about building one’s own pc I’m glad I did. I’m going to be saving this thread for future reading and research. I’ve either built a machine myself or gotten help with the physical work after I’ve spec’d what I wanted. I’ve been thinking that after I get a new job it may be time for some upgrades, as I’m currently running XP with a mobo designed for XP but which is at least 10 years old (AMD processor). The ATI video card is even older, from a former incarnation of the computer. (I kept in the “A” drive — the only component left from my original 1993 machine.) Thanks, geeks.

    PurpleGirl, the pseudo-technogeek

  52. 52.

    Bobby Thomson

    It’s a good theme song in terms of establishing the mood for the show, lyrically and musically.

    Best ever? No.

    True Blood has the best title sequence in the history of TV, despite (or perhaps because of) not including any material from the actual show.

  56. 56.

    JohnR

    Guess I need to get a gaming machine.

    And the software/hardware arms race claims another victim! I’ve given my relatively new Win7 machine several months now, but I’m getting fed up. The hardware is plenty muscular, latest audio and video drivers installed, no on-board crap, both cards slotted in, but it still won’t run many of my favorite games (including Fallout3, for God’s sake, and I do mean God!). Well, I just found the MS doc on how to download and configure what amounts to a “virtual XP machine” on Win7 boxes, so hopefully that will take care of things. As for the older (but better, dagnabit!) DOS games, GOG is retooling a bunch so that DOSBox is part of the setup; saves a lot of time and trouble, and for a few bucks I can relive my younger days flying Red Baron again. Not to mention play the remastered Monkey Island with the same voice actors who did the Best Voice-acted Adventure Game Of All Time (other than Wally, of course, but you can’t have everything and anyway he wasn’t in the first one. Neither was Gary Coleman’s masterful performance as a budding young entrepeneur. Or the Greatest Pirate Song Ever Sung By 3/4 Of A Pirate Barbershop Quartet. Maybe I should just go play #3 again on my old Win98 box….). You should go there. You should go there now.

  57. 57.

    Arclite

    @PurpleGirl:

    How much money do you want to spend?

    What do you want to use the computer for?

    Answer those two questions and I can let you know what parts you need and how much they will cost. I saw an article last week about a tech site that built a $200 (two hundred) computer that did everything except play games and DVDs. For $500 you can build one to play games and run Win7. And it goes up from there (these costs assume you have monitor and kbd already).

  58. 58.

    Arclite

    @JohnR:

    Hmm, I installed Win 7 on my old box (Intel Core Duo, Nvidia 8800 GTX, 2 GB ram) and had no trouble with any of the games I have played. I don’t have Fallout 3, but similar games have run fine.

    One thing I did have to do was manually install my sound driver for my Creative X-Fi card. Win 7 is good at auto configuring stuff (much better than XP), but don’t rely on it. Double check everything.

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