I’m out of obvious ways to troll you all, so I’ll just do a list of things you can use as conversation starters:
1.) Dragon Age is far superior to Dragon Age II as far as story and the depth of characters and the amount of playtime. If you have not played DA and are thinking about getting DAII, stop and get DA first.
2.) Stevia tastes like crap. Splenda is far superior.
3.) I ran out of loose tea and had to use a teabag, and so help me god, it tasted like someone had boiled a #2 lead pencil. Never moving back to bags, ever.
4.) My four month old computer, which I spent a good bit of money on so that I could play games and not deal with bullshit, spent two months in the shop and had the motherboard, memory, and one of the video cards replaced (trying to run crossfire mode). Two days after coming back, the second video card has died. Once I get these clowns to replace the card, I am unloading on their company big time. I’ve never, btw, had this problem with an Apple. Or, for that matter, any other PC as long as I have owned them.
5.) The big BM episode of Chuck was awesome.
mr. whipple
Cue obligatory blahblahblah Mac.
srv
I’m thinking every PC laptop purchase I’ve been asked to give advice on in the last several years has gone tits up. It’s all crap now.
Apple may not actually have better design and system packaging engineers, especially on the RF side, but at least they have them. Everyone else just has a team of monkeys slapping shit together.
russell
FWIW, my experience with personal computers is as follows:
Macs cost more money and they work great without a lot of f**king around.
PCs from name-brand builders do not.
PCs from a good local custom builder can be pretty cheap and are usually pretty good. I have a 10-year custom build desktop running Ubuntu that is a freaking mule.
All offered as an anecdotal data point, not as a religious point of view.
YMMV.
Johannes
Could your computer be a Dell? My most recent one had almost the exact same set of problems, requiring several visits from repair personnel–who will keep coming if I pay them half the cost of the computer for a two year period. I declined, and bought an Apple. The Dell, which is now in the care, custody and control of la Caterina, just aged out of the warranty period, and I expect it to make a TARDIS-like groaning noise, disappear, and be replaced by a Commodore 64.
russell
Also, loose tea rocks, but you have to buy into the PITA factor.
KG
Artificial sweeteners are all evil, suck it up and use the real thing, it’s probably safer for you anyway
Chris Wolf
Your lifetime supply of loose green tea lasted a week?
robertdsc-PowerBook
You mentioned 4chan earlier today. I would have great lulz at a mashup of Tunch and Boxxy.
How is our feline King today, anyway?
The Dangerman
I love Stevia.
Since this thread is already food/drink related, does anyone out there have experience with soaking their nuts…
…and seeds.
Jim C.
“1.) Dragon Age is far superior to Dragon Age II as far as story and the depth of characters and the amount of playtime. If you have not played DA and are thinking about getting DAII, stop and get DA first.”
Yes, yes, YES, yes and more YES.
I would add as well:
1. Far less repetition of environments
2. Better combat system
3. More customization options of your party members
4. Better branching storyline arcs in addition to better story overall.
5. More equipment choices and better equipment choices.
Original Dragon Age is one of the best games I’ve played in years. Sequel is still very good, but several gigantic steps backward.
justawriter
I get my tea from Upton Tea Imports – uptontea.com. Has nearly every variety of tea imaginable from pennies a cup to “how much do you got?” I prefer Darjeeling, extra bold leaf oolong, Young Hyson green tea and Keemun. A good tea snob can make a wine snob look like they guzzle Lysol. :)
West of the Cascades
3) didn’t you buy the world’s largest bag of tea just about three weeks ago?
mr. whipple
Didn’t you just get a garbage bag full of chamomile?
KG
They must’ve left the air brakes on when landing
KG
They must’ve left the air brakes on when landing
Oh, and new episodes start April 23
ant
we all run macbooks in my house.
we’ve had hardware failures, and I don’t care for apples warranty.
I buy my mac and warranty at best buy, and the geeks fix my screen every time i step on the thing.
no “incidental damage” crap that apple pulls… charging the cost of a new macbook just to fix a stupid case.
Alex
1.) Dragon Age is far superior to Dragon Age II as far as story and the depth of characters and the amount of playtime. If you have not played DA and are thinking about getting DAII, stop and get DA first.
———-
DA2’s characters and dialogue are superior to DA:O. The story is fun, but a bit railroaded in Act 3. It also has an ambiguous downer ending that ended on an obvious sequel hook. And no epilogue.
The dialogue is the truly unique thing about the game. Hawke’s personality and decisions will change based on what dialogue options are picked.
Plus the game has the best alignment option ever, Snarky Good.
trollhattan
Can somebody ‘splain to me how taxes are crushing corporate America?
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/business/economy/25tax.html?_r=1&hp
If only they paid less, there would be no unemployment.
BombIranForChrist
I am a Sony dude, so I played Dragon Age: Origins on the PS3, but I couldn’t finish it. The controls were just too awful. After talking with folks, it seems like this was a common criticism of the PS3 version but that the PC version was quite good. I don’t play a lot of PC games anymore, but I might give it a shot. That, and / or Total War: Shogun 2.
Otherwise, I’m still hacking away at Killzone 2, because my stack of Games I still need to play is touching the ceiling. I am way, way, way behind.
PurpleGirl
A friend who once worked for IBM in operating systems research and then in internet security, changed from a laptop for gaming back to a tower machine and seems quite happy with it. He probably had it custom built.
PurpleGirl
@Chris Wolf: Yeah, the dude was complaining about the huge amount of loose tea he’d gotten. He’s telling us he used it all up… already?
srv
NATO is considering upgrading Libya’s freedom package (h/t Daily Show) to No-Fly Zone Plus.
Shit you not.
pjcamp
Coffee is the drink of Manly Men.
JPL
What does this mean? I have to say after bitching about trolls and then posting this…Libyan state television showed blackened and mangled bodies that it said were victims of airstrikes in Tripoli. pissed me off. Why not post Kristof’s Hug’s from Libyans. Maybe post both views on the same site.
I don’t think of myself as a whiner but gee, what’s up..
srv
@pjcamp: Espresso is the drink for Lovers.
WarMunchkin
Agreed on #1. I also feel the same way about Mass Effect 1 versus 2, ME1 being better.
Hal
I’ve had three computers, all Dell, and have had no issues at all. I think it really depends in part on luck. The transmission on my old Honda Accord crapped out on me right after the warranty, and after hearing how absolutely great Hondas were, I was more than a little surprised. Luck of the draw, I guess.
kindness
I love my Mac. Yea, I know, you can’t get most games in Mac versions. Except…you can load another operating system and then have the machine boot with that. I bought a new drive & Windows 7 to do that. I haven’t done it now for like 5 months because I don’t play games. I will do it though. There are programs I want to use that are only PC versions. Someday….
Chris
Jon, do you remember Baldur’s Gate 2? Or perhaps Planescape: Torment? While I liked Dragon Age: Origins, and it was a good game, it pales in comparison to those two. BG2 and Torment still run decently well on modern hardware with appropriate patches. In my mind, those two are the gold standard of RPGs.
The Political Nihilist Formerly Known As Kryptik
Well, it looks official: The abolition of public schooling will be a major issue of the GOP 2012 campaign.
It’s entirely fucking scary that this shit is not only going to end up with a national audience, but will probably still have a good outside chance of winning because the country is so fucking wingnuttic these days.
@trollhattan:
Dude, you have at least 5-10 users in the comments on that article alone advocating JUST THAT. No, seriously, you cannot parody these idiots anymore, they seriously thing that the solution for tax loopholes is to ELIMINATE THE WHOLE FUCKING TAX.
Jim C.
@Chris
Planescape: Torment in particular is the greatest RPG of all time, but if you haven’t given Star Control 2, Fallout 1 or Fallout 2 a try then you’re really missing out.
SteveinSC
On item (2) yes stevia tastes poor(ly).
On item (3), Try Bigelow Oolong tea (in bags); it is superb. It tastes (no sweetener or cream or lemon, naturally) like dark rich mushroom or beef boullion without salt or grease. Try it, you’ll like it, but only Bigelow is rich and strong in one tea bag.
KG
If you’re not drinking Cuban coffee or French Roast from Cafe du Monde, you might as well be drinking water
lamh32
For my fellow “Fringe” fans on BJ, FOX has picked up “Fringe” for another season. There will be a season 4. Despite FOX moving “Fringe” to the Friday death watch, the shows rating while lower have been pretty good for a Friday show, and it’s been getting critical acclaim since at least the mid-first season.
Anyway, this makes me happy. Here’s hoping they move it to after “House” on Mondays or back after “Bones” on Thursday.
So yeah!
http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/03/24/fringe-renewed-for-fourth-season/
srv
“Wave” of young, educated blacks moving to the south.
Will Haley Barbour welcome them at the border?
stormhit
@Chris:
It makes me a terrible gamer, but when I go back and try to play things like BG2 now, I just can’t. They’re way too clunky and I’ve been spoiled.
In that vein, the only thing accurate about #1 is the playtime observation. DA2 is indeed slightly shorter. Although playing DA:O first is a good call regardless.
Comrade Luke
It’s Michael Moore, but still:
The 400 richest Americans are now richer than the bottom 50 percent combined.
Gina
@lamh32: Hooray! I’m still trying to figure out when Bones is going away, it’s so blah.
Suffern ACE
@The Political Nihilist Formerly Known As Kryptik:
Longing for the days when they were at least for local control.
Spaghetti Lee
I just finished drawing this tonight. It’s an alternate U.S. map in which each state’s borders have been altered to be approximately equal in population.
http://jupiterwave.deviantart.com/#/d3cdw82
ppcli
@justawriter: Ditto on the uptontea.com. I just get their Darjeeling – occasionally an Assam for when I’m feeling extra sluggish late morning. Even the most expensive is pretty cheap on a per-cup basis if you buy a 500 gram pouch. And if you mix up your purchases every now and then you’ll get something that is just unbelievable. I still have memories of a first flush Darjeeling from someplace called the Bannockburn estate a couple of years ago that quite simply made me happy every time I drank a cup. Didn’t matter how crummy the day was, or how lousy I felt. Never had a tea do that before or since. I later learned that that year/that estate was regarded by tea people as a legendary harvest, the way wine people will have treasured vintages.
jinxtigr
Stevia tastes kinda like licorice or something. I use lots of it, both commercial and a white powder form from an organic health food co-op near me (better, though more of the licorice taste)
Splenda sucks because it’s actually a chlorocarbon and nothing like a sugar at all (‘sucralose’ is a cynical-ass trade name, not a chemical description) but I only hate it because if I get any of it, it’s like I got hit with a psychiatric anti-wellness drug. My emotional stability falls apart and I start wanting to die and don’t always remember what happened to knock my feelings around like that.
I figured it out when I used to drink 4C sugarless green tea mix, real strong. It fucked with me bigtime, it was hell to cope with. Now I avoid it, which sometimes means buying seemingly innocuous stuff that even HAS sugar or corn syrup in it anyhow- generic flintstone kid’s vitamins (gee THAT’s awesome), cinnamon toaster pastries. I throw stuff out if I mistakenly trusted it and got stuck with splenda in it. The experiences I had were not fun.
It’s ridiculous how much stuff is jacked with that crap, but you can almost always look for the last ingredient on the list since it’s so concentrated…
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@KG:
This is what I was gonna say
Lol
Dragon Age bored me silly. Just a chore to get through and I gave up a little more than halfway through. Which is weird because I’ve loved nearly everything else Bioware has done. KotOR, Planescape Torment, Mass Effect 1&2, etc.
RossInDetroit
I’m untrollable today. Nothing I see in print could compare to the sinkhole of despond that my job has become.
A cup from loose tea is better, but I tend to use more of it than when I go bag so it’s hard to compare.
My 74 year old dad needs a new laptop to run the Great Lakes nav software on his boat. I think the last electrical technology he mastered was the car cigarette lighter, and not without causing substantial depreciation to the Plymouth’s interior. This will be fun.
kdaug
@Jim C.: Planescape: Torment…
The Political Nihilist Formerly Known As Kryptik
@The Political Nihilist Formerly Known As Kryptik:
I just nearly busted a vein in my eye in sheer rage, after going through the rest of the comments on that goddamn NYTImes article. It’s kind of hard to avoid near aneurysm when someone in all earnestness states that GE is to be lauded for its tax dodging, while the poor Americans who are simply too fucking poor to actually owe or pay taxes are the “real tax deadbeats”.
And again, it really honestly fucking feels like it’s only these fucking people, the people that make up the right wing troll patrol on places and newspapers like such, get the ear of politicians. It’s people like them that get actually represented while hippies like us get the big fucking boot even when we scream to be heard at the top of our fucking lungs.
Comrade Luke
March 7th:
Looks like just over two weeks worth!
Martin
@kindness: A Mac with VMWare Fusion and Windows 7 is a dream. It does everything and doesn’t break.
Low-end Macs aren’t overly expensive. They’re pretty much just what a non-shitty PC costs. I specced out a couple of new systems for the office – and Dells or HPs that don’t have whatever random components they just got a deal on cost about $50 more than the comparable Mac. I was shocked.
HE Pennypacker, Wealthy Industrialist
@Alex: I think DA2 is a big improvement. Please note: I’m playing on console, not PC, and the first DA was just an awful experience. Purists will say that DA2 was dumbed-down, but in my opinion it’s all for the better.
Martin
@Comrade Luke: Heh. I was just wondering how long ago he was ruminating about his shipping container full of tea.
nestor
Never got into Dragon Age. Still waiting impatiently for ME3 and TES V: Skyrim.
In the meantime, No One Lives Forever 2 is one of the best retro games I’ve ever played.
cathyx
The taste of stevia totally depends on the brand. Some are horrid and some are not bad at all. Also, the powdered ones are better than the liquid. I use SweetLeaf powdered.
And what is a BM episode? Bowel Movement?
And I agree that macs are the way to go with computers. I will never go back to a pc.
Comrade Luke
@Martin:
I know several people that own the new MacBook Airs but exclusively run Windows7. No problems at all. They work at Microsoft :)
I just bought a maxed-out Air a couple weeks ago, and it’s hands down the best laptop I’ve ever owned. Cost me around $2100, but I’ll get about half of that back when I sell my 15″ MacBook Pro.
I always max out my new computers and try to run them until they fall apart, but the latest MacBook Airs were too good to pass up.
PaulW
1. Build your own box.
2. If the video card keeps dying, you may be using too small a card based on what your demands on the system are. Have you checked your games’ graphic settings to make sure you aren’t running on too high a memory demand?
3. You should get a free re-install of a video card since the warranty on the second one shouldn’t even be cold yet.
4. It sounds like you are dealing with a brand name with a crappy customer service. If you feel uncomfortable naming which system it is (Dell? Gateway? HP?), can you at least mention the PC brands you feel did provide better product/service?
kdaug
@nestor: Old friends on the Skyrim team. My fraking wheelhouse. When I was at Ion on T3, I told the team I had to take “toMorrowind” off.
You done Red Dead?
Amanda in the South Bay
My first thought was “wow, Chuck did an episode about Burning Man! Pass me the acid!” Then I looked up a description of the episode.
vtr
Build your own. My 17 year old son did last summer. It’s less expensive, too. Or play it safe and get a good iMac.
Gus
The Mac/Windows one is good, but just as good a way to stir up shit is Baby Boomers are self absorbed, greedy sellouts vs. Gen Xers (or whatever the fuck generation you want to pick) are a bunch of soulless, bitter navel gazing cynics.
RossInDetroit
I’ve been coaching one of my techno-newbie bosses on Microsoft applications for 7 frustrating months. She’s remembering the difference between cut and paste about 70% of the time now so I’m declaring victory and retreating.
Martin
@Comrade Luke: I participated in an extended conversation with a bunch of Windows folks looking for an Air comparable PC – there were none cheaper than the Air. It’s a fantastic machine.
I’ve been working off of 15″ MBPs for several years and my next laptop is most likely to be the Air that you just bought. My current problem is that I’m bumping up against my 4GB limit. With my IDE plus VMWare running Win 7 so I can test in multiple browsers, plus all of the side work in Office or Adobe Studio, I chew up 4GB in nothing flat. I really need a 6GB or 8GB model. I can live with the small HD – but the RAM is critical.
But I’m quite envious of your 13″ all the same.
PurpleGirl
@The Political Nihilist Formerly Known As Kryptik: I just read that article (; earlier in the day I was preoccupied with the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire stuff). Agree that it is enraging. I pay income taxes on my bloody UI benefits!
cathyx
I wish people would quit saying build your own computer. Not everyone has the capability to do that. And that doesn’t mean someone is stupid or lazy. Everyone has their fortes and not everyone knows the ins and outs of computers to be able to build one.
Felanius Kootea (formerly Salt and freshly ground black people)
The Chronicle of higher ed has this interactive map of US adults with college degrees by county. The wealthiest counties have a greater proportion of college grads and are along the coasts with a smattering inland. States that do not have any of the wealthiest US counties: Idaho, Montana, Arizona, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, Maine, W Virginia.
Corner Stone
@Martin:
…no..no..ack..
J. Michael Neal
Eddie is doing much better today. He’s eating and running around like normal. The only thing that concerns me (well, other than having both lymphoma and hepatitis at all) is that his skin is still kind of yellow. Hopefully, if I keep pumping ursodial into him, that will get better, too.
And I may have a job interview soon.
WereBear
Macs rule.
Splenda is the only one that tastes right; as long as I only use small amounts. For instance, I use 1/3 of a cup in my Awesome Fruit Almond Flour muffins, which makes a batch of 12. (The fruit varies; that’s the awesome part, too.)
Prepare to awwwwwwww:
Behold, the Boys of Tabby
Tristan, the orphaned kitten, in the middle, getting freakishly big.
Martin
@Corner Stone: Yes, you have no idea how grueling it is to haul this 15-incher around. I hang it on the left and get tired after a few minutes and have to shift it over to the right. I’d love to have one I can hold onto with one hand, but it’s just so thick and heavy that it really requires two, which just gets annoying after a while. And to be honest, my wife thinks it’s a bit much – it just gets too hot and heavy for her. I imagine 13 inches would be a bit more comfortable for her.
trollhattan
@The Political Nihilist Formerly Known As Kryptik:
Sigh. I know, I know. Please keep the eyeballs intact, if only to be able to check over your shoulder while we’re all running from our Galty overlords.
nestor
@kdaug:
Still holding out for the PC version.
Time is on my side.
General Stuck
Must say, I do like the new FF 4.0. Faster and more compact leaving more screen space, even with Google toolbar. Don’t like the new bookmarks, but haven’t taken time to figure the new possibilities with it. And my Scribefire is kind of screwy, but again, I think it’s just set up different and will have to explore it some. All and all, good work by the Firefox folks, as usual.
Cliff in NH
Get a good powersupply and a good UPS
http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Enthusiast-Certified-compatible-platforms/dp/B004MYFODS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1301022056&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/Cyberpower-CP1500AVRLCD-UPS-Display-8-Outlet/dp/B000FBK3QK/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1301021906&sr=8-4
Amanda in the South Bay
@General Stuck:
Meh, I want to install addons without having to restart the browser that has my bazillion tabs open.
Corner Stone
@Amanda in the South Bay: My tabs re-open.
suzanne
I have a five-year-old MacBook and I want to replace it pretty soon. Haven’t decided whether or not to get a desktop or a laptoaster. I was leaning away from the MacBookAir, but all these glowing comments are making me rethink that. Hmmm.
Now that I have a job, I have to get up at five in order to feed the baby before work. Good Lord. That is early.
Left Coast Tom
What’s Stevia, and what’s Splenda? Petroleum products?
Corner Stone
@suzanne: “There’s a 5am?? What ELSE haven’t you told me?!”
/Family Guy
Allen
Splenda is great. It’s the artificial sweetener that I find to have the least aftertaste, although Consumer Reports testing seems to disagree with me. And Splenda is the only artificial sweetener that the Center for Science in the Public Interest deems safe. (CSPI once famously called Fettuccine Alfredo a heart attack on a plate.)
I just bought a new Origin computer (Origin is the new company started by the people who formerly owned Alienware before they sold it to Dell), and I bought it with two of the top-of-the-line AMD cards running in Crossfire. The machine arrived blue-screening while starting Windows. The telephone tech had me re-seat the memory cards; no luck. The next step would have been to re-seat the video cards, but I bought it water-cooled, so they had me send it back, and as it turned out the video cards WERE the problem. They were out-of-stock on the AMD cards, so said I could wait, or switch to the top-of-the-line NVIDIA cards running in SLI. The tech mentioned that the NVIDIA cards had been more reliable for them, and after doing some research I found that the performance tests on the two cards were basically running neck-and-neck, including in their respective dual-card modes, so I went ahead and agreed to the switch. At any rate, the system has been running for a couple of weeks now with no issues. Still trying to get it set up, and transfer everything over from the old system (a pre-Dell Alienware), so I haven’t had the chance to run an actual game on it. I did play around with overclocking the cards, and with the water-cooling was able to get some nice, stable speed boosts (but I’ll leave them set back to factory settings except when playing graphics-intensive games).
General Stuck
@Amanda in the South Bay:
FF devotee here.
It’s always been that way, but the new format for installing add ons is quicker seems to me. I been with FF since the beginning, when there were so many bugs, you didn’t know what would happen next. Had early versions with a Windows ME OS, talk about computing hell.
Sly
The problem with DA2 is that it’s static. Bioware justified having everything take place in a smaller gameworld by saying that the story unfolds over a ten year period. But very little in the gameworld actually changes; each chapter serves as a crisis point with presumably nothing going on in the intervening years. I could stomach walking through Hightown for the 1,978th time if it actually changed over the course of ten fucking years.
Characters in DA2 I think are better, however, because only one of them is insufferable and they all have their own agendas and conflicts with one another. Only some characters in DA1 were interesting, like Sten and Morrigan. Wynn and Leliana were monstrously boring.
Building your own rig isn’t actually that hard, is cheaper, and you don’t get bogged down with a lot of shit that manufacturers like to put their systems to distinguish them from virtually every other PC on the market. It doesn’t take all that much technical expertise to do it (unless you’re going with high-end cooling systems), and the only real research you have to do is for the purpose of component compatibility. Making sure the RAM you buy works with the motherboard, making sure you have a good enough PSU to handle the workload, etc.
Upside is that you get the extra satisfaction of being personally invested in it, kind of like cooking your own meal. Downside is that if it blows up you have no one to blame but yourself, also like cooking your own meal.
Amanda in the South Bay
@General Stuck:
I switched over to Chrome/Chromium when I decided that I needed a better IRC client than Chatzilla, and…I guess I’m sorta a convert to Chrome now.
Safety Third
Get a MacBook. Whether Pro or Air (and the Air is quite amazing), if it stops working for some reason, just bring it to the mall, drop it off, and pick it up a couple of days later.
BethanyAnne
I did a little research on Stevia a while back. I don’t remember where I saw it, but I remember something like there are 2 actual variants – A & B. B is the one with the bitter aftertaste. Most producers seem to either not know or aren’t able to separate the two. Truvia is I think A bound to a sugar alcohol. I dunno, but it seemed on the whole much safer to me than the other sweeteners. Mostly I just drink plain tea, but sometimes I add truvia.
As far as DA:O vs. DA2, I like the first one *so* much better. The second one is growing on me some, but I can’t help the feeling that it’s Dragon Age: The Phantom Menace. Prettier, but who the fuck is the bad guy? Is there one? What the hell are we doing here? And you can tell EA pushed Bioware to release the thing unfinished. Why is Merrill’s quest so broken? Why does Isabela win a ship, then spend half the next act bitching she doesn’t have one? I can take either of the combat systems, but DA:O is a classic. I’m just playing DA2 to listen to the NPC’s talk to each other.
RossInDetroit
I was a FF fan for a few years. vastly superior to IE, it practically goes without saying. Chrome has been faster & easier to use on all of my machines so I haven’t gone back to FF. Though I do appreciate their showing the way to better browsers for PCs for the masses.
Comrade Luke
@Martin:
Yea, anything Adobe gulps up the RAM real good. They’re much worse than anything Microsoft in that regard.
The only thing that gets the Air’s fans going is running Flash.
Cat
re PC issues.
Sounds like the powersupply is underpowered for your dual GPU setup. I hope its at least a 650, maybe more, and its not some crappy PSU thats not Energy Star compliant. If its not then its energy output is severely degraded when it starts running hot, which it will do running dual GPUS.
Second thing it could be is poor cooling due to all the heat your setup is running. I hope you are using a tower, you probably need an exhaust fan. Good cases will have areas for a intake and exhaust fans.
Other issue could be you have poor power. Are you using a UPS? It will act as a surge protector and an line conditioner.
J.W. Hamner
Any New Englanders in the house that can settle for me the point that the “Screaming Eagle” depicted in this (excellent) Sam Sifton column… is, in fact, a variant on the “Steak Bomb” which can be found in sub shops all over the area?
As a BU grad I just can’t stand BC getting undeserved credit.
BethanyAnne
And I’m a Mac geek, so that’s my bias up front. Still, when I hear folk talking about the price difference, I think they forget resale value. Macs cost more initially, but they keep a bunch of their value.
And I game on an xbox now. After years of keeping a gaming PC, I decided that I just wasn’t a hardware person, and I was tired of troubleshooting the damn thing.
Mark S.
Geez, Arizona is kicking the living crap out of Duke. Well, at least for the last five minutes.
Corner Stone
@Allen:
Daaammnn. Their Big O model PC/XBOX is nasty. Of course, they want $7500 for it, so it’s more than one kind of nasty.
Martin
@Allen: It’s taking you a couple of weeks to get it set up? Holy hell, man. What’s the point of all of that graphics throughput if you can’t get your software in place?
Amanda in the South Bay
@RossInDetroit:
to be fair, IE 9 has been getting good reviews.
Corner Stone
@Amanda in the South Bay:
I read through the legal terms disclosure for IE9 and couldn’t figure out what privacy I was giving up by upgrading. So I didn’t.
It looked pretty ambiguous.
nestor
@BethanyAnne:
Troubleshooting is half the fun.
Shygetz
I just started playing DA:Awakenings. God, I missed this game. I also missed Diablo, but that doesn’t mean that I wanted them to mix Diablo with Dragon Age and call it DA2. Blech.
Bethanyanne
@nestor: Heh. You can have my half :)
Steeplejack
@cathyx:
Point taken. I can build a computer, and am working on a Frankenstein beast right now, but I always remind myself that I never got the “working on cars” gene. I think for the majority of people computer are like that: you just want to drive one that works, you don’t want to get under the hood.
Evil Parallel Universe
Toshiba? You can join me on my anti-Toshiba quest if it is.
On my now 5 month old Toshiba, the latest glitch is that it freezes, and on restart tells me that the HDD has failed and won’t boot. Of course, it really hasn’t. So, after saving the BIOS settings and restarting a few times, it boots up. The HDD diagnostic test of course says “pass.” So Toshiba says it is the operating system. I told Toshiba is was their operating system (and I am NOT blaming Microsoft since I know tons of people who use Windows 7 with no issues).
Yesterday, I told the 2nd level of customer service that I would NEVER recommend a Toshiba to anyone, very unhappy customer, etc., and today on an email survey they sent me regarding the customer support I got, told them the same thing (though praised the nice 1st level tech support rep who helped me – no issue with those people, it’s not their fault Toshiba sold me a wonky computer).
The moral of this story is that I am going to email the smartest computer person I know, my friend D, who is CTO for a multi-billion dollar company, and ask him what laptop to buy, since I am sure my Toshiba has more hidden sadz in store for me.
WaterGirl
@RossInDetroit: What happened with your job? Did they change your responsibilities overnight? Do you have a new boss?
Steeplejack
@suzanne:
Interesting. There was a story in the Times today about which gadgets to keep, which ones to get rid of, and “desktop computer” was one to get rid of.
I was taken aback. I hadn’t considered the possibility of life without a desktop, but I could sort of halfway see it in the distant future. Just need to get my mind around the idea. I know you can hook up a big monitor (and an external keyboard and mouse, if desired) to a laptop, but I still feel the old-school tug toward the traditional desktop setup.
Question: when does “old school” become “fossilized geezer”?
mclaren
If you really want to troll the B-J commentariat, point out that 2 + 2 = 4 and water is wet and the sun shines during the day. They’ll erupt with hysterical rage, explaining that you’re an idiot and a fool and you have no idea what you’re talking about, and everyone knows that what you’re saying is total nonsense.
justawriter
Re: fixing loose tea is difficult
A thousand or so years ago (late first term Reagan, ever since history has been a drunk redneck, “You thought that was bad? Hold my beer and WATCH THIS!!!”) I found my first excellent Japanese restaurant. One oddity of this place, other than its convenient location next to the “buck a throw picture show” theater where I finally saw the first two Star Wars films, was that it made its tea in drip coffeemakers. I now make almost all my tea in a one-cup drip coffeemaker and it turns out excellent.
I sweeten with Splenda, BTW, although I am just barely old enough to remember that cyclamates tasted better. I think individual responses to non-nutritive sweeteners is genetically determined. I know people who swear only by the ancient saccharine, while I get a distinct petroleum aftertaste.
WaterGirl
@WereBear: Great photo of the three boys! I still think your Tristan and my Willow are twins separated at birth.
Uncle Clarence Thomas
.
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Splenda is artificial and is therefore bad for you, and tastes unnatural. Stevia is natural, is good for you, and tastes good.
.
.
tcolberg
I prefer Equal. I tried both Stevia and Truvia. Stevia has an incredibly bitter aftertaste that lasts for hours. Truvia was a little bit better, but I still would have to brush my teeth afterward to get the taste out. Blegh.
Console
I like Dragon Age 2 better for the simple fact that a lot of the quests go in radically different directions based on the choices you make. That makes the replay value insanely high. The original Dragon Age ranked a bit lower on my list of Bioware IP’s because it was a bit more boring. Morrigan and Flemeth were great characters, but that was about it. I would have preferred a Jade Empire sequel over a Dragon Age one. That’s not to say I disliked Dragon Age. Just that I thought it was a bit boring compared to Knights of the Old Republic or Mass Effect.
Incoherent Dennis SGMM
Built a new box a few months ago. Sixteen hundred dollars worth of parts from Newegg. I hadn’t built a PC in years so I was a bit apprehensive. No worries; when you buy good stuff you get good manuals and the SATA drives make connecting everything together a walk in the park. Took me an hour and a half to assemble, fired up the first time without a hitch and it’s been running perfectly ever since.
The main purpose was to run Blender, a 3D modelling program, so 8GB RAM, and a six core CPU were musts.
No, rolling your own isn’t for everyone. There are plenty of sites online that will walk you through the process and Newegg, for one, has enough information so that you can choose components that will work together.
whenpiggsfly
Google “Splenda side effects” (or “Equal side effects”). After that, Stevia should taste better and better.
Jasper
“Sun Crystals” packets mix sugar and stevia and it tastes great to me – 5 calories. Another great product line are the packets of True Lemon and True Lime. I can’t stand bottled lemon or lime but this stuff tastes just like fresh squeezed. Perfect for tea. Or mix a pack of lemon, lime and sun crystals in a bottle of water and it’s great lemonade for 5 calories and no mood wrecking artificial sweetener.
sukabi
how the hell do you use a pound of tea in 2 weeks? have you been smoking it too?
dr. luba
It’s not the bags, it’s the tea in the bags. Granted, most loose tea is of better quality than most bagged tea, but you can get very good tea in “sachets” (as the British refer to them).
I drink bagged tea all the time, more for convenience than anything else. But I don’t drink the commercial blends sold in the US. I usually pick up a few boxes of tea when I travel to tea-drinking countries; loose in India/China/Japan, and bagged in the Commonwealth.
American bagged teas generally suck because a) they use crappy tea and b) they put in very little tea. An ordinary Aussie tea bag will give me a huge mug of good strong tea, while an American tea bag will get me only a very small cup of insipid, tasteless brew. (I’m only talking about ordinary teas here, not the good stuff you buy in small boxes like Bigelow, etc.)
Ecks
My sweetner compromise was half sugar, half artificial crap (just not Stevia, which I tried one incarnation of and hated). That way it’s less actual calories than ALL sugar, but the artificial aftertaste basically disappears because there’s less sweetner and more sugar to mask it.
Works like a charm.
losingtehplot
John, do you ever leave Tunch anywhere near your computer without adult supervision? Just thinkin’ sabotage here … with cats, it’s all me, me, me(ow)
Best chai tea evah: Celestial Seasonings Bengal Tea w/ picture of Bengal tiger on the box!
RossInDetroit
@Amanda in the South Bay:
.
It’s Microsoft, remember? Fairness is optional.
OneMadClown
Google “Splenda side effects” (or “Equal side effects”). After that, Stevia should taste better and better.
And while you’re at it, Google “vaccines cause autism”, “Obama is a secret Muslim”, and “Elvis lives”. Just like Jenny McCarthy, I source out all my research to the University of Google, cause if it’s on the internet it must be true!
Lit3Bolt
I haven’t played DA II yet. I’m afraid any disappointment might make my fragile love for the series vanish. That said, I would love a Dragon Age strategy game with more political elements. Seems that has a lot of potential. Btw, since when did American role playing games become on rails shooters with just one type of character? If I want to play Final Fantasy with branching paths, I’ll play Final Fantasy. That’s what I loved about Baldur’s Gate…you could use the premade characters, or make your own party of unstoppable dual-classed killing machines. What would be great is if you could select “personalities” for your own characters, then add them on like hair color.
Sounds like John got a Dell then expected them to do something semi-complicated such as Crossfire. Dells are notorious for shitty motherboards as well. I had a Dell until the thing started spontaneously dying up to 2008. Never again.
russell
Two words: Cafe Bustelo.
Kirk Spencer
Stevia? Splenda? Sorry, I stick to sugar and honey – the latter for tea because I can choose the dominant flower as there are several beekeepers around.
Computers: I have a range. The laptop is a Sony Vaio and runs Win7. My wife’s is a ‘rescued’ Dell on which I did a little work, and it runs Vista. I built my box and it runs XP. I’ve got two more /very/ old rescues (an old Acer and a not as old Compaq) that run Gentoo and Ubuntu, respectively. (One is my firewall/router, the other is mainly a network storage and backup device.) I used to have a MacBook. I loved it when it worked. It went to Apple four times to fix a problem that never got fixed, so I’m just a tiny bit skeptical of the glowing Apple Repair reviews. Especially given, as should be obvious, I kinda know what I’m doing with computers.
Build YOUR own? Maybe. The upside is you pick the components and make it work. The downside is you pick your components and make it work – even when something goes wrong.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@russell: “PCs from a good local custom builder can be pretty cheap and are usually pretty good. I have a 10-year custom build desktop running Ubuntu that is a freaking mule.”
I’ve been building custom systems since ’92 and my clientele has changed over the years. In the early days, everyone wanted a computer and name brand didn’t matter. As the years have passed, many people are happy with OEM builds and I am happy to recommend them because they fit the needs of the customer, they are cheap (compared to what I build) and when they break I still get to fix them and charge them for the repairs. The only people I build custom computers for now are gamers, HTPC users and small area businesses because they require a better than average computer for specific tasks and good local support.
While the OEM’s are great for the general public who only casually game, and they do build some great gaming specific systems, when it comes to building a real gaming machine then you need a good custom system builder who knows their hardware and software. OEM’s are looking at profit while a custom builder has a name to protect and strives to do so by building a system that fits the needs of the customer, no compromises. My measure of success is how long it takes for a system to return for warranty work.
It rarely ever happens because I use quality parts and spec the systems so they are overbuilt for the job. The systems aren’t delivered until they’re ready and I beat the hell out of them until they ship. Every custom system is ready to use on delivery, nothing needs installed (I even install/configure the owner’s own software) and everything is up to date. Just plug it in and go.
Every custom system ships with an appropriate sized APC UPS too. When I point out to the customer that all it takes is one nasty incident and all that money goes up in smoke (and that I don’t cover toasted systems), I have no problem convincing them to fork out some extra $$ for a quality power conditioner and backup.
Tom Betz
John, lemme guess — the PC is an HP/Compaq.
We’ve been virtualizing our 5-plus-year-old Compaq servers to $46k worth of two new HP servers, and have so far 1) had the order delayed (and added $2300 to the cost) because HP had two different parts with the same part number depending on which configuration you ordered, and in the less expensive configuration, the part didn’t fit, 2) replaced one system board, 3) replaced the other system board, 4) replaced a processor, 5) replaced the same processor again because the first replacement was faulty. We’re now testing the latest processor before we go forward any further in the project.
These days, when you buy from HP, you can just expect that you are buying a kit, and will have to replace a lot of it before you have a working machine — if you are lucky.
Paul in KY
@SteveinSC: I always thought ‘Bigelow’ would be a good hip hop name.
Could be their spokesman in TV commercials. ‘I’m Bigelow & I’m here to say, drink mah tea or you’ll be sor-ray’ (rapping is not something I do well).
Paul in KY
@WereBear: Great picture! Tristan looks to be in kitty heaven.
Paul in KY
@sukabi: Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it ;-)
greylocks
Ditto build your own box, or have a local custom shop build one for you. It’s not that hard. Even a proven klutz like you can do it. There are all sorts of books and videos to help you get started. If you’re seriously into PC gaming, you probably know someone who has built their own – ask for their help.
Building you own does NOT save money up front – there’s no way you can buy components or license software for the same price that Dell or HP does. And if you’re a home-builder, sooner or later you’re going to fry an expensive part (mobo, CPU, video card) no matter how careful you are. So claims of up-front cost savings are at best misleading.
The benefits accrue over the long run. You save a pile of money on upgrades and repairs, and you have a better-built, more reliable box. If something breaks, you can replace it yourself – no labor costs.
There are other less tangible benefits – for example, noise. The fans that come on factory-made boxes are almost always noisy. You can do way better with a home-built. I just replaced my front case fan with this one. Can hardly hear it and it pushes a ton of air through.
shano
Please, just say NO to Splenda and all other artificial sweeteners. Splenda refuses to break down in water treatment plants, so you are exposing everyone else to this toxin in city water systems.
Artificial sweeteners are all neuro toxins. Just stop. Your body will thank you.
twiffer
on DA vs. DA2: DA established the world, and by necessity has more depth. DA2 is expanding on it, as well as introducing the fact there will be considerable crossover between titles in the DA series. that it is planned to be an extensive series is pretty clear.
moreover, and most interesting, everything you do in each game will impact subsequent games. my secret hope is they will cumlminate in DA: Super Fucking Awesome; where your party will be composed of all your heroes from past games.
Johannes
@KG: Can hardly wait!
Joel
How, exactly, did you run out of loose tea? You posted a pic of your bag-o-loose not too long ago, and I swear, if you’ve consumed all of that tea already, I don’t see how you’ve been able to get any sleep.
Because that was a lot of tea.
MosesZD
Since DA2 is complete crap, it’s not hard for DA to be better…
My recommendation is that you should wait three years until DA2 hits the bargain bin to buy it. That way you’ll only be wasting $10 instead of $50.
Darkrose
@Chris: I played BG2 and loved it. I honestly felt that calling DAO the “spiritual successor to Baldur’s Gate” was accurate. DA2…not so much.
BTW, if you’re playing DAO on the PC, there’s a community mod to redo BG2 with Origins graphics. So far all they have is Irenicus’ dungeon, but I’ve played it and it looks pretty good. Hamsters and rangers everywhere, rejoice!
Darkrose
@Sly:
THIS SO MUCH. I finally got to Act 3, and I’m pretty sure some of the ambient NPC’s in various places are the same ones I saw in the same places in Act 1.
I think the DA2 characters suffer with the 10-year-timespan thing. It’s supposed to be a big deal that they have their own lives, but we never see or hear about what they’re doing when they’re not hanging out with Hawke.
The other problem I have is that you learn more about the various characters–including your own–from reading the codex entries than from in-game conversations. That’s lazy writing, the kind that happens when you’re pushed to get the game out before it’s ready.
stormhit
@MosesZD:
Read that on the internet, did you?
Because your take is total rubbish.
stormhit
@Darkrose:
I felt like I heard a lot of what the characters were supposed to be doing with themselves through the ambient walking around conversations. That’s basically the only thing they ever talk about in those.
And I think additional information is the entire point of the codex entries. It’s not stuff that is particularly nececessary to the plot- but if you’re the kind of person who wants to know more detail, it’s in there. The first game wasn’t any different in this respect. The first game wasn’t actually any different in a lot of respects that people are complaining about.
Also, I don’t think the game was pushed out before it was ready. It’s fairly polished as far as games go these days. What I don’t doubt is that the 18 month development schedule limited the scope of what they were shooting for. If anything, I think they probably decided they could manage to expand the length of the game from what they were originally planning on.
Dick Hertz
1. Apple gave up on the Power PC architecture and became a Unix flavor on straight Intel architecture program, what the Apple-ites used to call “Wintel.” If it makes you happy, buy it, but there is no magic unicorn that makes it different from a Toshiba or HP or Asus/Acer/Dell is the case.
2. Build your own machine. I like Maximum PC for this process and I have never purchased a prefab desktop. http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/buildapc
3. Bigelow British Blend comes in larger, round bags. Still not as good as any number of full leaf teas. I enjoyed the organic teas from Cost Plus Imports recently, very nice. Plenty of places on line to get good tea including decaf- I lived the Seattle lifestyle to the hilt with quad lattes and mud cups and suffered health consequences.
4. Splenda is the next best thing.