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Yea, I too get a bunch of those on my Gmail account. I even get more of this spam on my Yahoo! mail spam box. Just make sure you don't fall for the Nigerian scam emails.

That's truly awesome. Now, just by looking at that cloud cover, I hope the weather does not become a problem on launch day.

Just in!.....The official date for turning the LHC on full power: December 21, 2012.

Um,....wait a second.

Oh shit!

There's nothing dangerous about the LHC.

I agree with you. But as true as that might be, I can't help but to wonder what would happen to me if I would be standing inside the main acceleration tube while the LHC is turned on full power. Would I be turned in to the Hulk?....or in to Dr. Manhattan with blue pennies and all?....or would I just simply be vaporized Star Trek style?

Oh yea, the possibilities are endless......

I rather not rely on Nostradamu's predictions or their interpretations there of.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has been on a slow repair status since last year after it apparently suffered an "accidental" breakdown. Well, it seems that something very strange is at foot concerning the real cause of last year's breakdown.

This whole thing with the LHC is turning in to a real "X-File" case, according to what some scientists are saying about the reasons it broke down in the first place. I am not going to get in to details here, it's just too fantastic on what they are trying to say.

Once you click on the link and start reading the report, please pay very close attention in particular to the 2nd. paragraph, it's key to the incredible explanation they are giving on what really happened to the LHC:

The Collider, the Particle and a Theory About Fate

Additional source: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,568528,00.html?test=latestnews

Whoa....that is one mighty space thread you got here, Mighty Atom! I see you did not spare no expense in the pictures department too, good job. I hope you don't mind by letting me to back you up with some extra stuff to your already excellent NASA thread:

Well, Mighty Atom...between your information and that of Nefariou's post, you guys pretty much covered a lot of ground here, more than what I could on my own, that's for sure. So, with that said, all I am going to do here, is to present a free download to anybody that wants to take it:

I'm sure a lot of you here have heard of the "Popular Science" magazine. Well, the November 2009 issue pretty much covers a lot of what is being discussed on this thread, and then some:

For any of you that are interested in doing so, you can download the PDF version of this magazine for free, right here, right now (37mb): Popular_Science_November_2009.pdf < < <

Since this magazine is a PDF file, make sure you have Adobe's Acrobat reader installed on your PC. Here are some of the NASA things that you can read and see about in this magazine.....

The next generation nuclear powered, VASIMR ion propulsion engine:And also these:

I know, this thread is old, and I'm sure some of you are wondering why I am bringing it up now, but the thing is, I came across this rather funny V for Vendetta related news story that I think will fit in very nicely with it.

News story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091016/ap_on_fe_st/us_odd_v_for_vendetta_terror

@ Guinea Pirate: You then must have a really fast connection for you to be able to stream 1080p, lucky you. I just have a low end DSL connection, not enough to stream HD, not even 480p. All I can do is wait for as long as it takes for the HD video to finish up loading on my copy of QuickTime Pro, then save it as a .mov file on my PC's hard drive. My PC can handle quite well the play back of 480p, and with some effort it can do 720p. But not 1080p, the video playback comes out very choppy.

Anyway, it does not matter anymore now concerning the Toy Story 3 trailer, since it has just been officially released in QuickTime format by Disney on Apple's trailer page. But the only difference now, you have the option to see the trailer on full HD glory on all three flavors: 480p, 720p and 1080p. It sure beats YouTube's grainy video.

I myself downloaded the 96 MB sized 720p version of the trailer, and I gotta say....it looks fantastic! Even if you have already seen it on YouTube, it's just not the same, you owe it to your self to see it in full screen HD! Here's the link to it: http://www.apple.com/trailers/disney/toystory3/

Yea, I was wondering about the right thread thing too....

Since the key word here is "investment", which implies the idea of making some money by recuperating your initial gaming investments along with some profit (hopefully), then my choice would the iPhone SDK. Let's face it, there is a whole lot of people out there making tons of money developing for the iPhone! There's also some 3rd party developer kits that offer easier and more powerful SDK's. http://developer.apple.com/iPhone/program/

Oh shit!

What a bunch of pussies over at Disney. So what if some people see the trailer a few days early, how's that going to hurt them?

I will try to see if I find another source link to the trailer, unless of course somebody else does it first, which I would not mind at all.

I was going to post this as a journal, but seeing how this is a very hot, anticipated movie a lot of you are waiting for, I will do it here. I know some of you might have already seen the leaked full trailer already for Toy Story 3, but for those of you that have not seen it yet, enjoy it then:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPRZeExciGo&feature=player_embedded

Anyone not using Firefox should know that both Chrome and IE are currently vulnerable to a rather serious SSL exploit due to a bug in one of Microsoft's security libraries.

Mozilla fixed the bug in days, Microsoft still haven't fixed it 9 weeks later.

Really? To help keep up with the latest security threats, I sometimes refer to www.securiteam.com, www.virusbtn.com and a few other sites. Well, after doing some searching, I can't seem to find something matching what you said. Penguinboy, can you please elaborate further or provide some source link? Now, I am not saying or implying you are lying, not at all, all I want to know is what is the exact security problem you are referring to.

I'm sure it won't be long before it's #1. Damn, now that I look at the top 10 list carefully, Nintendo has grabbed 5 out of the top 10 spots! Heck, even the $89 Wii Fit board is in there at #7.

Still laughing at Master Chief. What a jackass.

Um, don't look now, but guess what game is the #1 seller right now: http://www.vgchartz.com/weekly.php

I wonder if the technology from Nintendo's wiimote would translate well for PC use. But I guess for it to work, some technical adjustments will have to be done.

Your points are valid, World Crafter. After all, they are not being called experimental concepts for nothing, emphasis on "concepts"! Also remember, if Microsoft do indeed ever comes out with some type of an actual multitouch mouse for the retail market, it would most likely be designed exclusively to operate with Windows 7's multitouch interface, making it "practical" (supposedly, that is).

Me, Tito,....am not totally convinced. But I am opened to further testing, inventing and experimentations.....

Microsoft shows off five multitouch computer mouse concepts:

Microsoft is apparently looking into expanding its multitouch support, as it's doing with Windows 7, but of course....the user needs a way to take advantage of that technology, obviously. So to that end, Microsoft is exploring another avenue to help proliferate multitouch: new computer mice.

The five designs you see in the video below aren't final products. They're concepts and show the direction Microsoft is going with the idea. The mice use everything from IR-sensitive cameras to capacitive-sensing electrodes.

Now, the one particular mouse that I and I am sure some of you here will find of interest, is the one called "Orb Mouse". On the YouTube video link below, there's a demonstration use of the Orb Mouse on a FPS game you just got to see, it's the 3rd mouse on the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3PZkpQThek&feature=player_embedded

Valve has a lot more than 50 employees.

The employee question is a little complex, but here's the thing:

According to Valve's Wiki page, these are the numbers it gives:
Employees - 190
Revenue - $70 million (2007)
(By the way, it still falls far short to Nintendo's massive "Microsoft like" amount$)

Now, here's the twist: The author that wrote the Valve Wiki page is counting the combined employees of Valve and all it's other game studios it had bought throughout the years, studios like Turtle Rock and Team Fortress Software. Also, the Wiki info is from 2007, making it at least two years old. For the record, the Valve website states they have "just over 160" people. But the problem with that info also, it's been there for a very long time unchanged, and it does not reflect the heavy layoffs that went on in the video game industry for the past 15 months or so due to the recession.

Anyway, here's the exact Valve corporate data link from ZoomInfo: http://www.zoominfo.com/Search/CompanyDetail.aspx?CompanyID=40599726&cs=QGCa4CuRo&singleSearchBox=valve&searchSource=basic_left&companyDesc=&companyName=valve&location=
By the way, Zoominfo.com is the place where a lot of the news media outlets go to to get their up to date, inside information of companies.

Now, don't get me wrong, I think Valve is a bad-ass, cool as hell gaming company, with a lot of good people working for it. Other than that, Nintendo is just a bigger monster.

When you have a character like Mario who's been around since before a lot of you here were even born, and who is also the main mascot of the mighty Nintendo, who by the way is the oldest/active game console company in the world, not to mention it also has the top selling console of this generation, does it really surprise anyone that plumber boy Mario would be the top dog in the video game world? Here, let's do a quick compare between Valve and Nintendo:

Valve - Annual Revenues: $10.5 Million, Employees: 50
Nintendo - Annual Revenues: $7.5 Billion, Employees: 3,586

You see....no comparison. Source: http://www.zoominfo.com

Damn, Master Chief did not even make it out of the first round pick! And to make matters worst, he lost to "Bub & Bob"!

Man, it's amazing how Nintendo dominates the whole standings board with their characters! I think Freeman will beat Link, by a hair. But once Freeman goes up against Mario, Nintendo's plumber takes it. But we will see, you just never know what could happen........

He's been disbarred, but that wouldn't stop him from accusing games of things through the media.

In the U.S., when you hear about a lawyer getting disbarred, depending on the situation, it's not what it really sounds like. In the United States legal system, disbarment is specific to regions; one can be disbarred from some courts, while still being a member of the bar in another jurisdiction.

According to the U.S. Bar Association, disbarment is quite rare, instead lawyers are usually sanctioned by their own clients through civil malpractice proceedings and from other parties and methods. Because disbarment rules vary by area, different rules can apply depending on where a lawyer is disbarred. Notably, the majority of US states have no procedure for permanently disbarring a person. Depending on the jurisdiction, a lawyer may reapply to the bar immediately, after five to seven years.

So, all this talk about Jack Thompson being disbarred, don't really mean anything in the grand scheme of things. He can still be practicing law without any problems in another place. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't like the guy at all, all I'm saying it's not that easy to get rid of the license of a lawyer without going through a very big, very expensive legal fight that could last for years.

There's no game that takes advantage of DirectX 11 now anyway.

True, if you are referring to a full game. Now, there is one or two special game demos out there specifically designed to show off the latest eye candy from DirectX 11. This brings me to the next point: Didn't somebody from Microsoft once mention that the next Xbox's GPU will support DirectX 11? I could swear I heard something like that. If this turns out to be true, I bet the games will look freak'n awesome!

"Genuine Advantage"...Ha,ha,ha...oh man!

I wonder in who's "advantage" it would be for....?

Well, even if Microsoft Security Essentials turns out to be pretty good, I think I will still keep using what I use now, which is Avast, free edition. It has not fail me yet, the key word here being "yet".

Oh, and as for the salesman comment, no offence taken or perceived for that matter. Actually, I did held a sales job once selling Kirby vacuums, but that was years ago, and I only had it for about 5 months. The only selling I do these days, is on eBay and on my cafe/bar kiosk back home.

Yes, Windows Defender is kind of weak, I agree with that. Now, saying that the new Microsoft Security Essentials is also going to be bad just because Windows Defender is not good either, is in my view a bit premature and unfair to say the least.

You see, unlike this new Security Essentials which was created completely in house and from the ground up by Microsoft programmers, Windows Defender was not really developed by Microsoft from the get-go, so it was never a true Microsoft product like the way the Windows OS's or Office products are.

To make a long story short, Windows Defender is really a non-Microsoft program called "GIANT AntiSpyware", which was originally developed by a Company called "Giant Company software". This company was later bought out by Microsoft, then soon afterwards Microsoft renamed GIANT AntiSpyware in to "Microsoft AntiSpyware". A little later after that, the Microsoft AntiSpyware program was once again renamed in to Windows Defender, which is what it is now. Windows Defender still remains pretty much the same from the original GIANT AntiSpyware program, very little has changed.

So, if there is a lesson here to be learned, don't put your name on a crappy product made by somebody else, or your reputation will suffer for it. So, with all this said, it will be better to just wait and see how this new, 100% Microsoft made from scratch anti-spyware program compares to not just Windows Defender, but also the rest of the anti-spyware crowd out there. After all, the popular word on the web is, the new Windows 7 is actually a pretty good improvement over Vista, and XP too, so it seems that there might actually be some hope here for the new Microsoft Security Essentials.

Okay, no problem. I am not judging you, far from it. In fact, I too hate people who cannot admit to their own mistakes.

Whoa there...satchmo!

That was a cold hearted comment, never seen that side of you before.

Interesting. But you know what, after reading the official line from Microsoft on this security suite of theirs, I think I will hold off for now on installing it. I need time to first do a comprehensive "checking up-on" from other independent media sources like PC Magazine, Computer Shopper magazine or any of the ZDNet sites. I just want to see what the word "on the street" is, you know...."the pros and the cons" before I commit to anything. Thanks for your posting on this, satchmo. I always welcome security related info like this, it's always practical.

the sickiest link you'll ever click

Sickest link?
It's more like the whole freak'n site is sick as shit! Look man, I feel sorry for you for seeing that garbage, no body in their right minds need to see that. Also, Saribous and World Crafter were right about questioning you for posting that link in the first place, you should have never done it. At the very least, you should ask one of the admins to remove that link or the whole thread for that matter, so no one else clicks on it and ends up mentally hurt. Well, at least you seem to be feeling remorse for seeing that video, and that's a good thing, since it means you have a conscience that's being bothered by the violence in the video. Just do us and yourself a favor when next time you come across something like that, just steer clear away from it without a 2nd thought, okay?

Hey TawnosPrime, please recommend this book to your friend: http://www.amazon.com/Windows-Dummies-Computer-Tech/dp/0470497432/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1253589667&sr=8-1

I feel like I'm in the twilight zone reading this thread.

And yes, we need an R rating for games, but it's being blocked almost solely by this cock.

Is it me, or does that guy looks a bit like George Bush?

I tell you what, if it makes everybody happy, I will send an email to President Obama asking him to invade Australia and impose the U.S. constitution there. Yea, I got connections.

Interesting question. I will have to look in to that....

Oh yes, Ghost is definitely a chick flick, but it is also a funny one too. Whoopi Goldberg had some really funny moments as a psychic being bugged by Patrick Swayze's ghost, that was classic. How ironic it is now....

Yea, I remember that from Donnie Darko. I might be wrong, but I think that was his only role as a "bad guy" he ever did. He always did the role of the hero in all the movies he performed in.

I have to agree with Rimrook's take on 9, I think it's Tim Burton's finest work yet. Now, since we're on the subject of animation, I have to ask this: As anybody here has seen a recently released Japanese animated movie called "Ponyo"? I am just curious to know if it's good or not.

Never heard of him? Well, if you are willing to take the time, I strongly recommend you see Road House and Ghost when you get the chance, his two greatest movies, at least in my opinion. Now that his dead, I am sure people are going to start to saturate the torrent trackers with all his movies as a tribute. Pretty much the same thing happened when Michael Jackson died which led to the entire torrent circuit to be flooded by his music.

Just hitting the news wires now as I type this, long time actor Patrick Swayze has just passed away at the age of 57. For those of you here that remember, he stared in a bunch of movies, among them were: Red Dawn, Youngblood, Dirty Dancing, Ghost, Road House and others more. RIP.Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_obit_swayze

Oh come on, I need to see a photo of it, please take a picture of it and post it here!

On a related note on all things creepy, about the middle of last March, while playing with my dog and walking bare footed on my back yard, I accidentally stepped on one of these little, nasty bastards and got bitten pretty good:Puerto Rico being the place where I currently live, is home to the world's largest spices of centipede. The infamous Puerto Rican Giant Centipede (Scolopendra sp.) can grow from 9 to 12 inches or more! Trust me, if you get bitten by this guy, you will be in a world of pain!

More info on the Puerto Rican Giant Centipede: http://www.petbugs.com/caresheets/Scolopendra-sp2.html

Worst movie of 2009: Dragonball Evolution

Luckily for me I did not throw away my money by going to see this putrid crap at the cinema. Once the DVD rip hit the torrent circuit, I downloaded it and saw just how bad this shit really was.

Of course Rorschach was killed, it was supposed to be that way. In the origional DC Comics graphic novel, Rorschach was killed near at the end of the story. So, to keep the movie's plot in line with that of it's comic book source, good'old Rorschach had to go.

I know the talk is about past and current movies, but if I may, I would like to mention a certain upcoming movie that's been creating a strong buzz in the entertainment media. The name of the movie is "Avatar", from Hollywood director James Cameron. To put it simply, this Avatar movie is said to seriously raise the level of live action and CGI integration like never before, also pushing CGI realism to new heights never before seen in movies, or games for that matter. Normally I would not completely believe these kind of lofty claims, but since it is coming from the great James Cameron, who tends to raise the bar on movie magic with each new movie he makes, I would have to give the benefit of the doubt here.So, if you got the QuickTime player installed on your PC, check out the trailer: http://gamescom.gamespot.com/video/6215800/

On a related note, unsurprisingly enough a video game adaptation is being made of this movie, and it seems to be just as visually spectacular as the movie itself. Gamespot.com posted a trailer of the Avatar game showing "In game footage", so with that said, you be the judge: http://gamescom.gamespot.com/video/6215800/

I ran HL on a 10 year old laptop with no hardware acceleration. 226MHz Pentium MMX, 2MB video memory, 32MB RAM. Yay software mode!

That's really old. Did that come with Windows 3.1 or at least Windows 95?

OpenGL you say? Try to run it on DirectX next time to see what happens....

@ satchmo: That Samsung netbook you got at $444.99 is fairly expensive as far as netbooks are concerned. You can get a low end, regular laptop with cd-rom, bigger screen, windows vista and more for about the same price, if you know where to look. Now, I am not saying netbooks are bad, in fact I got one myself not too long ago with about the same specs of yours from Tigerdirect for about $100 less: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4545380&CatId=2509

Of course, if anybody here (at least in the U.S.) really wants to save and get a netbook with the same specs as mentioned above and free shipping to boot, cheap-ass Wal-Mart has this one: http://www.walmart.com/MSI-Wind-10-Mini-Laptop/ip/10965536

I have to admit though I am not familiar with this "MSI" brand, so there is a chance there might be a quality risk with this one, especially at this price.

And here I thought Kingdom Hearts was ambitious for its time. That Epic Mickey thing is taking it to a radically different level.

And let's not forget since this will be a Wii game, those sensor motion Wii-motes will also come in to play making the game potentially even more off-beat. No doubt Nintendo and Disney will want to release this game as a show stopping killer-app on the next E3.

Oh man, I just found out a juicy little detail about this "Epic Mickey"!

Okay, here's the facts:

The main guy behind this game is one "Warren Spector", who designed the game "Deus Ex". He now heads a game studio he helped form and then later taken over by Disney, called "Junction Point", which apparently it's first in house game will be this steam punk Epic Mickey game for the Wii. Now, here's that little juicy detail I mentioned:

Guess what well known game engine they are using to make this game that most of us seem to be hating already? Well, I won't say, read it for yourself on Junction Point's Wiki page and be shocked.......... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junction_Point_Studios