mikeszekely
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Everything posted by mikeszekely
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Monkey-fighting snakes on a Monday-to-Friday plane? WTF?
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The computer and electronics super geek thread
mikeszekely replied to azrael's topic in Anime or Science Fiction
Depends on how committed you are to Best Buy. I use them a lot for bigger purchases because you can get that 18 months no interest deal, but you gotta spend more than $200 to get it. It' also depends on your budget, whether or not you want integrated speakers, and what kind of inputs you need. I mean, HDMI seems to be the thing, but for me it's gotta have DVI. I'd say if it's really between those two, go with the Asus. Not only is it cheaper and bigger, but you've got more inputs (the Sammy doesn't have a DVI input? Really?) and, if you're like me and tend to hook up multiple devices to a single monitor, it's got built-in speakers. Sure, on my main PC I have a nice set of Logitech 5.1 speakers, but it's handy to have the built-in speakers for the odd occasion when I hook my Mac or my Xbox up to it. "But Mike," I hear some of you saying, "that Asus is only LCD, and the Sammy is LED! Surely that's worth the extra money!" Nope. Sure, LED does better blacks (assuming it's backlit and not edgelit), but in practical use I haven't found the difference to be so great that I'd rather have a smaller LED than a bigger LCD for my money. Because that was my mistake... I'd bought a 22" Samsung SyncMaster T220 in the spring of 2009. And while it was a great monitor, I found myself wishing it were bigger almost immediately. So this summer, just a bit over two years later, I wound up buying a 27" Samsung SyncMaster P2770HD. So yeah, even if you think you don't want to spend the money now, I'd still suggest it's better to do it now to get what you really want than have to do it again later. If you're open to ordering online, I've actually bought my last two monitors off Newegg (I guess that also assumes you're in the US or Canada). I'd guess it might be more of a hassle if you need to return it, but I haven't had any issues with either of mine. You can get a 23" Samsung for $149.99 and free shipping (although that one doesn't have HDMI), or a slightly better 23" Samsung for $190 (use coupon code EMCKBJB46). -
That might work. I was going to dump some of my books at the Half-Price Books before I move (from Greensburg to North Huntingdon, if you're curious) anyway.
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Monroeville, you say? Then it's probably a safe bet that Greensburg has one too, since the Monroeville store is the second-closest to me. EDIT: After the 20% off coupon, naturally. Just as I predicted.
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Sure. If you're into metal. I've always though Iron Maiden, especially, to be very talented. Just not something I'd listen to on a regular basis. On another note, these guys have a new album coming out at the end of the month.
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The computer and electronics super geek thread
mikeszekely replied to azrael's topic in Anime or Science Fiction
I'm partial to Samsung. A lot of their stuff has become cheaply made and overpriced lately, but they still make solid displays. -
I used to hang with these guys when I was in high school (late '90s). They'd be another example of music I like.
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OK, we get that A7 likes old-school rock, and we've got some metal heads here. What do you like (besides kpop)? At the risk of totally not fitting in, I'll go out on a limb and admit that I think former Fall Out Boy frontman Patrick Stump's solo stuff is probably some of the best new music I've heard in awhile.
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What proper argument have you made? Your argument seems to boil down to "Voyager and Deluxe Starscream are good!" Which is fine if you like those toys, but NO ONE ELSE is talking abut them. The toys being "bashed," as you put it, are LEADER Starscream and LEADER Jetfire, and you've conceded that those toys have issues. We say Leader Starscream sucks, and you're argument is that Voyager and Deluxe Starscream don't. It's irrelevant. We're not talking about Voyager or Deluxe Starscream, we're not talking about Starscream's movie design, or characters named Starscream in general. Voyager and/or Deluxe Starscream could be the best Transformers ever made, but it doesn't ameliorate the issues we have with Leader Starscream.
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Prior to your first reply, who said that? All of the discussion had been complaining about Leader Starscream and Leader Jetfire. And the primary complaint wasn't that you had any constraints, it was that the electronics were an unnecessary constraint and that their alt modes would likely have been better with out them. I (and I think most of us) agree that Transformers to Valkyries are an apples to oranges comparison, which is why NO ONE was making it until you brought it up. The ONLY mention of Valkyries prior to your first reply was a suggestion that Starscream might have been improved if his Transformation was similar to a Yamato VF-22. Whether that's true or not, I can't really say, but I feel comfortable with the idea that it's not the same as saying that Starscream should have BEEN a VF-22, or that the VF-22 is a better design than movie Starscream, or that Yamato makes better toys than Hasbro/Takara.
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That's what I thought, but this is the internet. I think we're still determined to argue about the minor details.
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OK, back up the train a minute. I think, despite not specifically mentioning the class in the last quote, that we're complaining about how disappointing Leader Starscream and Leader Jetfire were. Limbo goes on to suggest that if not for the electronics, Starscream (again, assumed to be Leader since he's the only one with electronics) could have used a transformation similar to a Yamato VF-22, and that the toy would have been improved for it, sparking knoted's defense of Hasbro by pointing out that a plane designed to transform into a robot is different than taking a plane not designed to be a robot and making it a robot anyway. Which is where you guys lost me. For one, I think we all agree that Valkyries and the expensive toys made of them are indeed a different beast than the mass-market, under $50 Transformers. The point of contention seems to be this quote from knoted: Leave aside the issue of what is/is not kibble on a Valkyrie; this statement is already made moot by the one before it. Agreed! It is a big difference. Acknowledging the difference doesn't make Leader Starscream or Leader Jetfire any less disappointing, though. And knoted agrees that Leader Starscream, at least, is disappointing. That's the point of the earlier quotes too. Leader Jetfire and Leader Starscream were both thick, kibbly toys that could have been less so if not for the electronics. But then we go here: The fact that the Voyager and the new deluxe mold are better than the Leader-class mold emphasizes the problems with the Leader molds. knoted seems inclined to defend movie Starscream by pointing out that he has good toys, but I think the discussion to this point wasn't that movie Starscream sucked, it was that Leader Starscream sucked.
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See, even when I did listen to more kpop and jpop, I trended toward the stuff that sounded unique. I almost never listed to girl groups, because they always seemed to be the most generically manufactured. I mean, sure, the girls in Kara are gorgeous, and they do move their hips in a most inviting manner. I'll even grant you that Mister is a pretty catchy song. But songs, even acts like that, are a dime a dozen, and the main reason I got out of kpop. Put another way, watch the videos on Youtube with the volume turned down while listening to something else. Same gorgeous women, and none of the filler.
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Something I missed out on? I sure feel like I'm missing something here.
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Really? When I was in college, I liked it when I got bored with J-pop (a LONG time ago). It seemed like EVERY J-pop act was trying to be Ayumi Hamasaki for awhile, so I switched to K-pop. I really dug the S#arp, Lee Jung Hyun, H.O.T, Shinhwa etc because they sounded different. The BoA came along, and everybody wanted to be BoA. So I went back to listening to the same stuff I liked in high school... pop-punk. Which is accurate to this day, mostly. And, in a slightly ironic twist, what's popular with today's high school crowd, I guess. The very last non-English album I listened to was probably m-flo's Astromantic album. That album was epic.
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My wife wanted to go to Target to buy plastic totes... I didn't want to, because I was just there buying a movie for my dad for his birthday, but I'm glad she talked me into it. Major jackpot. I scored Wheeljack, Thundercracker, Kup, and Warpath. Since I'd already collected the four War for Cybertron guys, Jazz, Tracks, and Laser Prime, I think (but correct me if I'm wrong) I'm just missing Perceptor and Wreck-Gar. EDIT: I forgot about, but do have, Dirge, Thunderwing, Darkmount/Staxus, Blurr, Scourge, and Peg/Drift. I did not forget Red Alert, Skullgrin or the fifth War for Cybertron guy (that'd be Cliffjumper). I didn't like WfC Bumblebee's mold, I don't (despite having Sideswipe and Sunstreaker) Red Alert's mold, and Skullgrin never made enough of an impact on me to buy his mold agian.
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This. The '86 movie was a vehicle for marketing toys to kids who were already watching the show (which was a vehicle for marketing toys to kids). It's not fair to compare it to a big-budget summer blockbuster. That's like comparing Bad Kitty Gets a Bath to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Yes, there's some overlap in the audience, but it's probably best to judge them on their own merits. Not really. My biggest faults with the Bayformer movies were the emphasis on human characters, (what I consider to be) poor designs of the Transformers, a total lack of personality for most of the Transformers characters, and the fact that RotF doesn't entirely make sense (if the shard of the Allspark could bring Megatron back to life, why didn't Sam use his shard to bring Optimus back to life instead of bringing Jetfire back to life so he could help them find a different MacGuffin to bring Optimus back to life?). By contrast, I like the designs of the Transformers in the '86 movie (again, my personal preference, you are of course free to disagree). Aside from Spike (who's promptly eaten by Unicron) and Daniel (who, though annoying, even to my six-year-old self, is really more along for the ride than a focus of the movie), there's not a human in sight. And, though admittedly meandering, the plot makes sense. (Unless you count the fact that Decepticons, who'd failed to kill anyone for two seasons, suddenly were able to slaughter most of the Autobots you knew and loved in the span of a few minutes... but I think that's less a fault of the movie and more of the show. I mean Megatron's got a gun big enough to stick the average-size Autobot's head into... how had he not managed to kill anyone until that point?) In any case, I'm not saying that you can't find flaws with both. I'm not claiming that one is superior to the other. What I am saying is that taken on its own the '86 movie holds up pretty well (better than the cartoon that spawned it, in fact) and is still quite enjoyable as an adult 25 years later.
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I must humbly disagree with eugimon and say absolutely yes. I grew up on and love the old G1 cartoon, but I can admit that it was pretty stupid at times (like the time the Autobots had to wrestle a robot alligator made out of some of Optimus Prime's parts... or when Powerglide fell in love with a human girl... or when the Decepticons were hiring street kids to steal cars... etc). The movie, despite being a blatant attempt at killing all your favorite characters so Hasbro could sell you new toys, was solidly written, well-animated, capably acted, and quite enjoyable. The new characters were pretty cool, Unicron was awesome, the story was a bit more mature, and there are a lot of memorable moments in the movie. I watched it enough as a kid on VHS that I could probably recite the entire movie, and I've watched the 20th Anniversary DVD three or four times.
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The computer and electronics super geek thread
mikeszekely replied to azrael's topic in Anime or Science Fiction
To clarify, do you mean list like columns and columns of files and folders (my preferred view, and one I wish Mac OS has), or do you mean the view that has all the files and folders in one column, with details in subsequent columns? I have to chime in, I use list view sorted alphabetically for all of my folders, and even a huge one like my downloads folder doesn't do what you describe. -
Thanks for the info. I don't do the Facebook thing, but I got my wife to get the coupon. Unfortunately, my TRU doesn't have any Rodimuses (Rodimusi?) yet, and with my luck won't before the coupon expires.
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There's a coupon? How can I get it? And how much was TRU charging for Rodimus?
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My laptop wallpaper from the first page is still my laptop wallpaper, and the desktop wallpaper I posted is still the wallpaper on that desktop... it's just not my main computer anymore. I built a new one, and I'll post my wallpaper from it when I get around to turning it on. See, the thing is, I mostly use my Windows desktop for gaming. I bought a Mac mini for screwing around on the internet. So here's my Mac's desktop.
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You speak truth.
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The computer and electronics super geek thread
mikeszekely replied to azrael's topic in Anime or Science Fiction
If you want the i7 and the dual hard drives, plus Lion Server out of the box, that's probably the way to go. OK, this technically isn't one screenshot, it's a composite of four. -
Bane was an interesting character in his early appearances. He was highly intelligent, smart enough to deduce Batman's secret identity, and skilled enough to earn the respect of Ra's Al Ghul. Bane's biggest problem is that, outside of the comics, he's always portrayed as a mindless brute.
