Forum posts

Wow! Comparing a black person to a dog? That's controversial.

But racism is an old controversey. In fact, it's so old that it's not really all that controversial anymore.

What's newer and more cantankerous is gay rights. I believe it's the new frontier in human rights. People who are intolerant of homosexuals are no better than racist pigs. They are not above Nazi murderers.

People who do not accept the homosexuals are just being obtuse. They are typically narrow-minded, self-righteous religious fanatics. They deserve a special area in hell.

One cannot be either tall or short.

There is a lot of grey area in height.

Uhh.. I just avoid playing with others who turn their gamma way up, instead of going to their playing field.

I don't even care if I get killed a lot or how many kills I make. I just want to shoot some bullets and have fun after a stressful day at work. Nothing more.

[EDIT]: Oops! I didn't notice I just posted in the same thread. Sorry.

Ohh, I finally understand why HDR does! lol (not kidding)

Hehe...this is pasted from the CS Steam forum.

P.S. Yeah, I go to that forum too, even though the discussion can be quite immature sometimes.

No need to close the topic.

If the topic runs out of fuel and poeple run out of things to say, the thread will die quietly on its own.

Let's not murder it. We'll allow it to die from natural causes.

Yeah, that's my dream--to play with my friends over a LAN game.

Unfortunately, very few of my adult friends play any computer games at all. They just don't understand why a respectable professional like me still play video games.

When my peers were playing games, I was studying hard. I missed the boat. Now I am making up for it.

It would be nice if the movie opens with the screenshot movie of the HL1 tram ride, then gradually morphs into the real-world tram ride.

Been there, done that. It looks a little chessy. - Ant

And throughout the movie, some camera angle would reflect the exact screenies in the game.

But again, a movie like that might now sell. After all, I'm just a huge geek who is a HL fan.

After the latest Steam CS:S update (yesterday), I think the bots are smarter now. They coordinate attacks and ambushes.

...or at least that's how it seems.

I bought HL2 and CS:S at the same time, but I didn't play CS:S for more than a year because many people (especially HL/HL2 devotees) bad-mouth CS and CS players so much (for example, at TWHL and this thread).

However, I decided to give CS:S a try. After all, I've got nothing to lose. I bought it already. To my surprise, I love the game.

I don't play with other players anymore, because the vast majority of them are too immature and sore losers. But I still enjoy rounds with bots. They never cheat, and they're team players. They don't pull immature stunts or annoy other players.

To me, not playing CS at all because other players are immature doesn't make sense. I still enjoy the game, and I play for fun.

If you look around, you can find plenty of very well made CS:Source custom maps. These mappers spend six month to a year on a single map. So the result is usually quite impressive.

I don't bother with the typical fy_ or aim_ maps. Those are designed for idiots with short attention spans.

You are for all intent and purpose the leader of this whole grand and beloved place we call TWHL. Would you not agree a little impartiality might be appropriate?

That's why I value the discussion here so much, and that's why I love Seventh.

I know no one else can read Chinese, but at the Chinese Half-Life/Counter Strike community, I noticed a big difference. The moderators crack down on the topics of the thread with an iron fist. Conformity is expected, and no one is allowed to express his opinion without some censorship by the moderators.

And the most amazing thing is that this site is in Taiwan, the supposedly "free" part of China. I can't imagine what online communities in mainland China must be like. Communities probably don't even exist in that Communist country, where human rights is a joke.

That's a big cultural contrast to TWHL. America and most of the Western world still enjoy a great deal of freedom, but the degree of freedom we used to take for granted is rapidly dwindling, especially in the United States. In the name of fighting terrorism, we're relinquishing our rights day by day. Some of us don't even realize that this is happening.

That's the scary part.

Just wait when the planet runs out of oil.

All hell is going to break loose.

Most of us play computer games for fun. So we do care about graphics and how nice it looks. It's about the whole experience.

Especially us mappers. We really do care about how the map looks. We see things that the average gamers don't even notice (i.e. texture misalignment, overlapping textures, skybox lighting discrepancies).

Though I have to admit that my immigrant story is far from being the most compelling.

I know a fellow student in medical school who is blind in one eye. He made it here from Vietnam with his mother and three sisters when he was three years old. They sailed all the way across the Pacific Ocean to California. His older sister died during the trip. They had no money when they arrived in Southern California as refugees.

Now, his family boasts one doctor, one engineer, and a lawyer. We'll never know what the dead sister might have become.

I am already writing a book, but it's non-fiction. It's a book that dispells myths in pediatrics.

Perhaps if I become a successful author after my current book is published, I'll write another one on my immigrant experience.

Personally, I think the story behind the Half-Life series could be translated into the cinema. For one thing, it has the most intricately woven story and character development of any computer games.

Whether that would be a good idea is another matter.

I am not sure whether I would become a doctor if I had stayed in Taiwan. Sure, I wouldn't be any more stupid, but the path to higher learning is treacherous in Taiwan. I still remember that I was punished for getting the highest score in my math class in Taiwan. I was physically beaten because I missed a single question.

It gets worse. We used to fear arts and craft classes because there are all these materials we had to bring to class to make our crafts. And you know how eight year olds are. There are lots of things that make us forget to bring one item out of the twenty things we're suppose to garner. So if the art class is in the fifth period, all the people who forget at least one thing for their art class would be rummaging through the school trash collection to search for that missing piece.

And most of us would fail to come up with it by the class time. So for the rest of the day until art class, we would live in fear, unable to concentrate on our other (and perhaps more important) core classes. All of us who fail to gather all the raw materials would be physically beaten.

The teachers routinely get a brand new bamboo rod each month, because the old one would be totally ruined by the end of the month. That's how hard and how much the weapon of mass destruction was being used.

One of my cousin committed suicide because he couldn't take the academic pressure and the unreasonable parental expectation. When my parents heard of his suicide, they were so glad that they made the move to immigrate to the States.

That's the kind of environment I was brought up in. No wonder I thought the U.S. school system was heaven when I first got here. For the first time, I enjoyed learning. I no longer live in fear when I go to school, and I loved my art history class!

By the time I got to the university, most the dim-wits were weeded out of the system (or they went to community college). I went to UCLA, a respectable school. It was such a pleasure to be in the company of intelligent and interesting individuals.

And this thread alone proves that there are plenty of insightful and strongly-opinionated young people in this world still. Right or wrong, we can carry on a discussion. Even though the discussion itself is degenerating into a series of ad hominem and political extremism, it still has many sensible arguments and intelligent thinking.

There is hope in humanity after all. For an illiterate immigrant who came to this country and became a doctor, I am indebted to the opportunity it provided. Why the sudden change of tone? Because the discussion has strayed from my original intention.

I wanted a wake-up call, not a massive defamation. Our country has a lot of problems to fix, and I am hoping it's not too late to address these issues. But for anyone who is willing to work hard, this is still the land of opportunity. People can achieve great things in this country that wouldn't be possible anywhere else in the world.

This is another nice-looking CS:Source map with great gameplay. And fortunately, it's not a 100 MB download this time.

Just want to share.

All of us could still live even if we never touch a computer again. I mean, no one would spontaneously self-combust if we don't.

But that doesn't mean we would want to do that.

I did have a long long ranting post typed out, but when I pressed post it said "you need to be logged in to do that" which was annoying but still.

That's why I copy and paste what I typed before hitting "Post". In case TWHL conks out on me, I'll have the post stored in the clipboard.

the US government aren't far from being terrorists themselves. Fucking hypocrites

Exactly. It's "shock and awe" for the good guys, and "mass destruction" for the bad guys.

It all depends on who you ask.

besides, we are training their police forces as we speek, and yes, they are developing their own free government.

...or plunging deep into a civil war?

The terrorists have been hugely successful. Not only do they instill fear in our hearts, but they also made some of us willingly give up our rights to earn the supposed extra protection we get from Big Brother.

"V for Vandetta", anyone?

Even though our politics do not direct affect our lives (or at least that's what it seems), it does.

It was our foreign policy that triggered Bin Laden and Al Quaeda to target the U.S. Without our meddling with the Middle East conflict, 9/11 would not have happened. Talk to those New Yorkers who lost friends and relatives. Tell them that their lives weren't affect by our politics.

Those soldiers who died in foreign countries will not be eating breakfast anymore. Their sons and daughters will not have a father anymore.

Who will walk them down the aisle on their wedding day?

My parents gave up their privileged lifestyle in Taiwan to give us more opportunity. They bought a sandwich shop, which both of them worked their butts off for. They hated the job, but it paid the bills and the mortgage.

My brother and I focused on education in the mean time. They never had to tell us to work hard. We just do, knowing how much they've sacrificed.

Twenty years later, I am a doctor and my brother is the city attorney for Los Angeles. I'd say their sacrifiice was not wasted.

Satchmo you were raised in taiwan? I've talked to people there, but I never really got to know what it was like. Was there any particular reason to immigrated?

I was born in Taiwan, and I stayed there until I was thirteen.

I immigrated because the educational system was too rigid and it doesn't allow independent thinking. Isn't that ironic? I came to the States for the better educational opportunity.

But the truth is that if someone is driven and intelligent in America, there are plenty of opportunity for higher education and research. That's why my family immigrated.

Before you make the move to Taiwan, I want to tell you that it's a crowded and highly polluted country. The weather sucks (wet and cold in the winder, and sweltering hot and humid in the summer). Whenever I went back to visit, I couldn't wait to return to Southern California because of the weather.

Many people think bunny hopping is impossible in CS:Source, but this video is convincing.

Does that count as old Quake bunny hopping?

I have no illusion that America has talented and intelligent people. After all, the country is still running. In fact, most of my friends are well-read and smart (otherwise, we wouldn't be able to have any meaningful discussion).

Just look at the members at TWHL. Some of us are Americans, and we have occasional witty things to say.

Being an immigrant, I was under the impression that majority of the people in the United States must be very well-educated and intelligent. How else did such a great nation arise from virtually nothing? I was quite disappointed when I was proven wrong.

To be fair, there are plenty of dumb people in Taiwan as well, but perhaps not as many of them as I see here.

Even in the world of sports, when Americans used to dominate the Olympics, the current competition is revealing signs of weakness in the U.S.

With its relative affluence and superior training facilities, American atheletes used to have an edge over atheletes in other parts of the world.

But in the last decade, the rest of the world has caught up. When Americans fail to win the Gold medal, its citizens seem outraged. They almost argue that somehow their atheletes have been deprived of the honor that's rightfully theirs.

Not only are Americans arrogant winners, they're even sorer losers.

if you showed the slightest bit of interest at most schools you're considered gay/uncool/teachers pet/wierdo.

I guess that's how I succeeded in school. I don't know why, but I am somehow immune to peer-pressure. In fact, I thrive on being different. And I wasn't just different by becoming a member of an alternative goth subculture or anything. I pride myself in being different from everyone.

I am proud to be geeky and a huge nerd. I was voted "Most Likely to Succeed" by my high school graduating class, which is a title that's euphemism for "Hugest Geek".

I was so nerdy and so confidently being so that I was actually popular because of that. That was a strange phenomenon in high school. By going entirely against what everyone thought was cool, I became a trend in itself. A popular cheerleader even asked me out to a dance. I just snorted at her because I've never talked to her before, and I thought it's just silly for her to go out with me because I was popular in a strange way.

Being confident goes a long way, and it may be the seed for success. If you believe in yourself, and I mean truly believe in your ability and potential, you're a lot more likely to reach your goals.

I think that could be the root of those who are stuck in lower socio-economic levels. They have no confidence, and they have low expectation of themselves and their offpsrings. So each generation basically prepares itself for failure right from the start. It's a cycle of misery that's extremely difficult to break.

"All men are created equal"

However much I would like to agree with that statement, because it is politically correct to do so, I have to disagree.

Unfortunately, there are some people who are born with lower intelligence than others. And I am not just talking about those children who are mentally retarded.

Of all the species on Earth, Homo sapiens has the widest range of intelligence of all of them. There are individuals like Eistein, Newton, and da Vinci, whose intellect far surpasses that of an average human being.

And I have some acquaintances who are just missing a few bricks in their heads. Not to belittle them, but I know that wasn't the result of poor rearing or education. They just never had it in them to accomplish great things.

Diligence goes a long way, but it can only carry someone to his maximum potential. This inherent limitation dictates how much a person can achieve.

Being born geeks, as all of us are, give us an unfair advantage over the general population.

Have you seen de_spirits already? It's a well-made map based on a real church in Britain.

But even though these architectures look impressive, the gameplay is not really that great. With any church, the floor plan is predictable with choke points for campers/snipers.

Saying "hard work" is the only thing that seperates you from any other "idiot" is total bullshit...

I know that, and I admit to it. That's why I opened my post by saying "I'm smarter than the average American." But being average shouldn't excuse people from working hard. If anything, the average people need to work even harder to get ahead. But the sad truth is that most don't. Most would rather languidly wallow in their own laziness and stay ignorant.

Rather, I would really like to know why you feel you need to.

Why do I feel compelled to start this discussion? I intentionally tried to sound controversial. I wanted to incite strong emotions and anger. Why?

Because I am sick and tired of hearing fellow Americans arrogantly proclaim their inherent superority over other countries. Our country has become too proud for our own good, when the fact of the matter is that we are actually a country in decline. I want this to be a wake-up call. Jay Leno aired the show for laughs, but I see something more insidious.

Instead of recognizing our wide-spread ignorance, the general public just laughs at everything. I know the show wasn't intended to be a serious political satire, but the message came across as alarming to me. It's like a deathly ill patient who cracks jokes at his condition instead of seeking potential life-saving treatment.

I have a pretty grim view of the future. I believe it's already too late to save this once great nation. The glories days are a thing of the past. So why the wake-up call now? I want to make fellow Americans realize why they're dying, just before they crumble into a pile of dust.

At least we'll know how and why we died.

Oh and BTW, satchmo, is Calculus hard? Im taking it next semester in college. I love math, so I think I will like it.

Calculus isn't any intrinsically harder than algebra or geometry. It does require a different type of thinking, nevertheless. It's more abstract than algebra or geometry, because it's less tangible.

However, it's essential in understanding physics. So in my opinion, it's one of the most important fields in mathematics.

we do right now have the strongest military, and strongest economy in the world...

Those facts are debatable. As previous stated, the U.S. economy is heavily reliant on foreign economy, especially that of the Chinese. Americans can no longer claim independence from world influences when it comes to financial stability.

As for the military prowess, China currently has the largest army on the planet. Has anyone noticed that regardless of what China does to human rights issues, American leaders have never vociferously protested? The U.S. military might would be obliterated if it goes head-on with the Chinese. It doesn't stand a chance. The Chinese has enough nuclear arsenal to wipe out any nation, including the U.S.

Start learning Chinese now. It's going to become the official language of international trade.

You're correct, rowleybob. I am an elitist who likes to look-down and judge people. I am also smarter than the average American, and I work harder than most.

To get to where I am, I sacrificed so much. I finished half of my college credits while I was in high school, and I only got one "B" out of all the classes I took in university (the rest are all perfect grades). In fact, I was the top of my class in more than half of the college courses I took. I graduated top of my class again in medical school.

Is it because I am so much smarter than everyone else? No. I know I am not the smartest, so I earned my grades by sheer tenacity. I gave up on leisure times, I gave up on social occasions. I woke up at 4 in the morning every day for three years while in medical school so I can read the textbook seven times before taking the exams.

When I immigrated to the United States, I didn't even know all the alphabets. Yet within three years, I was able to compete with native speakers in English literary analysis. I couldn't understand the teacher's instruction or the textbook in algebra, so I figured out algebraic rules by myself.

I didn't accomplish these because I am so much more intelligent than everyone else. I did it because no one else was able to work as hard as I did.

If people just paid attention in school, they would know things. I should re-classify those people in the beginning of the thread as "ignorant" and not "stupid". And that's even worse than being stupid. Because it implies lack of motivation and laziness.

Why do I believe I can judge these people? Because I earned the rights, with my own blood and sweat.

11 FPS! What's your framerate on the official maps then? cs_militia? de_nuke? The performance on my machine is very reasonable.

Time for a new computer?

Episode One has its own website now.

That's not my server. That's JCap334's server.

I have a friend who's tuning the .NAV file for this map currently. Since this map won't be played on too many pub servers, we'll have to resort in playing with bots.

However, this guy will be putting this map into his server rotation in a bit...

---

JCap334

I will have this map on my server by tonight.

NOOBS Paradise
72.36.151.84:27015

Just ask our own G. W. Bush whether he controls all of humanity. I don't doubt his delusion.

Even Dr. Breen is more sane than Bush.

I saw this clip on late-night TV, where the host goes on the street and asks pedestrians simple questions on (presumed) common knowledge.

• What is the term describing the process when a catepillar becomes a butterfly?

...no one knew the answer.

• With which country did the Americans fight the Revolutionary War?

...no one knew the answer.

• Which country was Christopher Columbus born?

Some gal said "Columbia"?

• Who was Christopher Columbus?

"...a lumberjack?"

• What is the central black part of the eye called?

...no answer.

---

A typical American is an idiot. It makes me wonder what makes this country strong and powerful. In fact, our leader is an idiot too.

Maybe we just control the world by bombing everyone else.

looks extremly good, but 150 mb..... no thanks.

Even for the best CS:S custom map ever? Your loss.

My friend is considering of buying a Mac too, but I can't figure out why.

You can build your own PC system for 1/3 the price, with pretty much the same specs.

Macs look nice, that's for sure, but I don't know about you. I keep my PC tucked away under my desk all the time. When was the last time you sat and stared at your machine for half an hour. I don't mean the screen, I mean the chassis itself.

Computers are for using. If you want to have something nice to look at, buy an expensive piece of painting or sculpture. It's more likely going to look even better than the Mac.

...but it doesn't look very good or realistic that way.

Fallingwater has a filesize 10 times smaller

Have you finished transforming Fallingwater to a cs_ map?

I just played a few rounds with bots, and the gameplay is just superb. All the models show up without any problem.

However, there are still a few glitches. It's quite unfortunate, because the map is otherwise flawless.

• I don't know why Hessi used the default "wasteland" sky, because you can clearly see the "seams" in the sky from most places in the map. This is the most blatant mistake.

• The texture on the displacement surface in the 3D skybox is stretched out too much. This is most obvious when you climb onto the sniper's tower at bombsite B.

• The background noise gets annoying after a while. Even though I only heard these cats meowing and dogs barking when I was walking alone in the map, they really became a nuisance after the first few seconds. The cat noises are especially bad, because it sounds like the cat is being neutered.

The framerates are very good in most places. There are a few spots where FPS drops down to the high 40's on my machine (with no bots), but it's still acceptable.

The .NAV mesh was tuned quite well, and the bots don't generally preoccupy themselves with too many stupid things.

It's not meant to be played on pub servers. Just download it and marvel at the mapping!

Many of you have already seen and played the beta version of this masterpiece. It's a CS:Source map, but not just any CS map. It may be the most ambitious and well-crafted CS map ever made to date.

However, the BSP is more than 100 MB. So it's not for the casual downloaders.

Download de_corse by Hessi.

Could this possibly be true in a few years? It's likely...

---

Apple Does Windows in Growth Quest
New software adapts the company's Intel-based computers to the leading operating system.
By Terril Yue Jones
Times Staff Writer

April 6, 2006

For Apple devotees, hell has once again frozen over.

Apple Computer Inc. said Wednesday that it was offering software that will allow dreaded rival Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system to run on Mac computers made by Apple that use processors from Intel Corp.

Apple hopes it can entice hordes of Windows users to switch loyalties and raise it beyond its status as a niche player in the U.S. personal computer business, where its market share barely surpasses 4%.

The initiative, which enables an Intel-based Mac to become a full-fledged Windows PC, was welcomed by investors. They sent shares in the Cupertino, Calif., company soaring $6.04, or nearly 10%, in regular trading to $67.21. After hours, the shares edged up an additional 19 cents.

Apple used the slogan "Hell Froze Over" in October 2003, when it introduced versions of its iTunes Music Store and media player software that were compatible with computers running Windows.

Apple has long positioned itself as the populist alternative to Microsoft and Windows-based PCs, which account for more than 80% of the market. The firm put Intel microprocessors into some Macs in January. By the end of this year, all new Apple computers are likely to be powered by Intel chips, which run most Windows PCs.

Apple fans praise the look and feel of its computers and the stability of its OS X operating system. But many applications from independent software firms, such as certain photo management programs and game software, are available only in Windows versions.

Running Windows "potentially could be a significant game changer" for Apple in its competition with Dell Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. and other makers of Windows-based PCs, said Shaw Wu, who follows Apple for American Technology Research.

But Van Baker, a consumer technology analyst with market researcher Gartner Inc., doubts that the capability will have a dramatic effect. It might, however, encourage Windows users who are on the fence to make the move, he said.

"What it does for Apple is it will remove another barrier to people attracted to the Mac ? to the iLife software suite and to its industrial design ? but who just can't give up one Windows app," Baker said. "It gets them over the hump."

Apple users had mixed reactions to the Windows news.

"Fascinating stuff, it means I'll now never have to buy a PC," said a forum participant at http://www.appleinsider.com .

"Word to the wise: Windows running on a Mac is like Windows running on a PC. That means it'll be subject to the same attacks that plague the Windows world," said another posting, referring to periodic security breaches that bedevil Windows.

Users who install Apple's software, called Boot Camp, won't be able to jump between Windows and OS X at the flip of a switch.

"It's not the most elegant solution because you have to choose which operating system to boot up and can't switch the OS without rebooting the machine," Baker said. "If they had done two virtual machines where you just toggle between Windows and OS X, it would be more appealing."

The move could be slightly positive for Apple's business and a small setback for Microsoft, Goldman Sachs analyst Rick Sherlund said in a note to investors.

"This is another step in Apple's efforts to expand its total addressable market to include a more mainstream audience," Sherlund wrote.

The software to run Windows on Mac computers will be included in the next version of OS X. It can be downloaded now in a beta-testing mode from Apple's main website. Users must burn a disc with the software and install it using a "full-inflation" copy of the Windows operating system, said Brian Croll, director of product marketing for OS X. Such a program costs about $200.

Apple emphasizes that it won't be selling Windows directly or providing customer service for it. Microsoft was not involved in the initiative.

Croll would not say how much the next version of OS X would cost. Apple charged $129 for the last OS X system upgrade, from Panther to the current Tiger.

It's such a pain in the ass to re-install all the programs once you reformat the HDD. I wouldn't recommend that as the first option.

Plus, I customized all the configurations for all the programs on my computer. It takes days to reconfigure them (not to mention all the game settings).