I know what you mean about games but if I rarely press a button I forget what it does, so all those extra buttons bound to obscure actions would never get used!

Quote from Becky Rose :

whilst the concept of what you say is completely right, the practice isn't. Players do need rewarding for their achievements, but I think that is a critical choice of word, "achievements" not "effort". Success, and not time invested. Would you agree with that?

Not really, no. Play should be its own reward, because once the player is shooting for 'achievements' it becomes a treadmill. Once one achievement is attained the player refocuses on the next one, any feeling of achievement is momentary.

And what rewards are appropriate? Rewards that make the player more powerful? By all means give them pink pvc trousers if they absolutely crave status symbols but not pink pvc trousers of invincibility. That's the equivalent of penalising everybody else for not 'achieving' the same thing.

Quote from Intrepid :

If a player is not rewarded for the extra time and effort they put into something, then there really isn't any point in them spending more than a few hours on it. It would render the point of gaming useless.

Call me old fashioned but I remember when people played games for fun. Remember fun? Fun was great. Now we've got progress bars and gamers are more concerned with using their time efficiently than having fun. Ridiculous.

What makes multiplayer suck is people. It's a shame because it should be fun, but it isn't, because of all the ****ing people being their petty little pathetic selves all the time.

Also 'experience' has ruined multiplayer games by punishing anybody who doesn't want to live and breathe a computer game. Where's the logic in a game designed to pit player against player when they give one of the players an advantage? If anything they should be crippling the people who play all the time to offset their vast experience and keep the competition closer. Of course that mechanic exists to make money from subscription-based games and it clearly works very well for the studios, but it's shit for gamers.

My 2p.

I could never get used to a mouse with that many buttons. My current one has two thumb buttons but I only ever use one of them.

I liked Balotelli until that stamp on Parker's face. That could've been horrific, he deserved a longer ban IMO.

Suarez is such an arsehole. Good job he can play.

Drink at least a pint of water before bed (two is better), drink orange juice in the morning. Stay in bed until it goes away.

So what is that, a 2-generations-old card that they charged you $600 for?

Quote from Rappa Z :

:l

Gollum nicked your ring again?

Quote from BlueFlame :

I'd tell you to GTFO but I'd like to point out you said you don't care nor like cars, so you bought a Ford. Good enough example of why Ford's are soul-less POS.

I bought a cheap car that was for sale nearby. I didn't think of it being a Ford other than 'There are probably lots of parts in scrapyards for when everything else falls off it'.

Quote from JO53PHS :

Judging by the information you've provided it would appear that your current mixture of washer fluid is worth more than the car

I filled up the petrol tank this morning too, doubling the value.

Quote from robt :

What model of fiesta is it? (Mk1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 etc)

Definitely one of those. Unless you made some of them up to catch me out?

I've no idea. I don't really like or care about cars I just didn't want to pay the rail fares to work any more.

I think it might have frozen. It was either empty yesterday or nearly empty and I filled it up with stuff from Halfords and it then worked - I would assume that stuff is alright - but this morning it wouldn't work (although last night it did, in freezing temperatures) and this afternoon it did.

I'm hoping it's just freezing rather than a knackered pump because there's so many little electrical things that need fixing. I'm taking it in tomorrow for some other jobs doing so I'll get them to look at that too.

I bought an absolute shed of a Fiesta on Sunday, sorry I don't have photos. Today the washer pump stopped working on the way to work, when I stopped to check if the reservoir was empty a passer-by stopped to tell me I had a brake light out. Reservoir was full so I gave up and decided to wipe the glass with a cloth, lifted the rear wiper and it fell off.



This car is awesome.

Adopted a 2yr old boxer from the RSPCA yesterday. He's called Boo, not the smartest dog in the world but really gentle and fairly mental.

Favorite Song (Anything): Beach Boys - God Only Knows, bloody clever.
Favorite Piano song: The Beatles - For No One, again - bloody clever.
Favorite Electronic song: Herbie Hancock - Rockit
Favorite Opera song: ???
Favorite Blues song: G. Love & Special Sauce - Things That I Used To Do
Favorite Country song: Ween - Piss Up A Rope
Favorite Hip Hop & Rap song: Currently The Goats - Cumin In Ya Ear
Favorite Jazz song: John Coltrane - Giant Steps (bloody, bloody, bloody clever!)
Favorite Rock song:

Most motivating song: Asian Dub Foundation - New Way, New Life
Most depressing song: The Smiths - Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me
Song that makes you happy and smile:
Song that makes you think and wonder: Copasetics - 15th Generation Copies - I can't link to this because it's one of the last tunes I recorded with my last band and it's not published online anywhere. It's bloody brilliant though (I didn't write it so I can say that!).
Chillout song: Los Fabulosos Cadillacs - Calaveras y Diablitos
Childhood memory song: The Specials - Why
Most annoying song you know: I don't even want to think about it. Someone once told me I love music so much I hate it.

Quote from bmwe30m3 :

This picture was hard to do since I didn't find any good pics from google, and had to kill some people myself.......

Classic post.

Dog bed, dog toys, dog bowls, dog food, dog collar and tag, dog leads.

Still no ****ing dog. :/

Quote from Shotglass :

yes because outside of a controlled environment all youre going to "measure" by listening to gear is your own observation bias

Sure true objectivity is harder when you know what you're comparing, but then you could argue that there's no point comparing anything without laboratory conditions. Why try a new kind of coffee from the supermarket unless you can set up a double-blind test, etc.

I think you've gone a bit walnuts and sledgehammers with this, to be honest.

Quote from Shotglass :

why would he even test these he should know that its a complete waste of time
not that testing audio equipment by listening to it outside of a very well controlled environment is the least bit meaningful but thats an entirely different can of worms

Unless you're looking at it completely scientifically (and given that audio quality is mostly a human experience) I think listening in an environment you're familiar with isn't meaningless. On the contrary, what's the point in having reproduction equipment that sounds good in an anechoic chamber or whatever? Now that would be a pointless experiment.

I know people who try this sort of thing out with various categories of gear (I know one guy who has tested just about every studio compressor ever built) and typically they do it in their own studio, where it's convenient. Are you saying that this kind of testing is useless?

Wow.

Quote from Shotglass :

you really just have to look at the kind of stuff thats marketed to audiophiles to see how much science their reasoning for improving their setup is based on

I don't think Jibber is the sort of mug who swallows what hi-fi shops try to sell their customers, he just loves classic hardware and enjoys using it. Nothing wrong with that, and he has some really gorgeous gear judging by the stuff he posts here.

By the way, the hi-fi snake oil salesmen are targeting musicians now: I saw a power cable being marketed the other day that apparently made guitar amps sound better. I suppose the metres of non-audio-quality power cable inside your walls don't matter, nor the miles of power cable running between your house and the generators, it's just the last couple of feet that determine how good your amp will sound.

It's like the old argument that valve amps sound more 'natural' or 'warm' or whatever. It's because they're compressing the sound and distorting it - not what I'd call 'natural'.

People like vinyl because of its sonic character. You'd be a fool to argue it's a more accurate reproduction of the recording, but if people like how it sounds then fair enough.

Quote from jibber :

That's a good idea about the DJ, i'll do that!

I've found the most amazing drummer. Acoustic and electronic drumsets, also plays bodhran, tabla, marimba, fricking vibraphone!, everything. And tasteful too, leaves plenty of space, actually LISTENS! I think with a good, intelligent guitarist (somewhere between Graham Coxon and Tom Morello) and a turntablist we would have a band that would just kill.

Turntable is going to be important though - as well as being a rhythmic and solo instrument it could add the things we're lacking, like brass, keys etc. If we can just find that one person it will be awesome.