Sounds like an interesting fellow.

@RedRiderX i'm not sure how that could be a 'trend' as such

@JonathanHobbs It is (1) a thing people do, sometimes and (2) the news needs filler.

Instant trend!

Although, okay, #1 one isn't actually required, either. See "Satanic ritual abuse" or "the knock-out game." :/

I guess so xD

@AlexP What is the knock-out game? (Was it some story about kids playing a game to knock each other out?)

@JonathanHobbs The "knock-out game" is the new "flash mobs." So basically the news believes that black youths in the US have now made a game out of sucker-punching people in the back of the head and then running away. Like sprees of random muggings. Actual evidence of this happening, much less being a trend is, erm... not very convincing.

("Flash mobs" according to the news is when 100 people show up somewhere and all steal stuff so you can't catch them stealing because there are too many. As opposed to, you know, "flash mobs" in Internet culture, which mostly involve goofy performance-art with zombie make-up or whatever.)

This is... weird.

The media here is fully in line with the internet in their definition of flash mobs.

Then again, we don't have several dozen 24/7 news channels, which is a thing I am very happy for.

@JonathanHobbs They are useless. Except, actually, Al Jazeera.

Or, okay, BBC News is fine, too.

American 24-7 news isn't really news. It's a weird talk show thing with occasional news bits.

@AlexP That explains so much

The weirdest thing is that the best embedded coverage of the US military in Iraq/Afghanistan I've ever seen was... on Al Jazeera while I was getting kabobs.

Grumble-grumble about American news. :)

@AlexP In Australia we have a news channel (the ABC) which is completely independent but government-funded. (And every now and then a politician will get upset with them and say they're not playing fair, but then people and the media will drag that politician through the mud)

They produce really, really good quality news and I'm pretty happy they exist.

So, as an addendum to the recent D&D Next column, there's a Q&A. In which they rectify the fact that they only spoke about spellcasters changing with tiers of play, by saying that was what the column was about. And then they tell us how fighters will get awesome, too. They get the ability to "shrug off spells and other effects", and then "increase fighter survivability and the ability to cheat death".

Which are nice, tanky, passive things. The most important ability, the crowning jewel in the fighter arsenal, what makes them truly epic... Is bonus attacks.

Wizards will turn invisible, fly and create demiplanes, whereas fighters will hit faster. It's almost as if we've done this before.

@Magician Well... we have.

They don't want to fix that stuff, they want to create [A]D&D [3+2+1]e

because they want their old market back, and fixing stuff is what drove them away.

To which I can only respond with a resounding "meh".

@Magician well, yeah

@Magician Someone on RPGnet pointed to better examples of high-level stuff like that for non-casters. I think they mostly mentioned the Rogue stuff. Like how you can super-literally cheat death a lot. Or dark-wanderer-wander your way anywhere, including between planes.

(In 4e)

More attacks... isn't it.

"Epic destinies" &c. really is the solution to this, I think. It's "and at higher levels, everyone becomes more magic."

I have a post about it!

It's been a while since I've linked to my blog, I don't feel guilty anymore :P

Like, I like less-supernatural stuff. But the solution to doing it that way is to dump D&D-style spellcasting. And levels. And other things.

"The fighter is cartoonishly powerful but also utterly crappy" is like the worst of all possible worlds.

It's not "realistic," it's not very cool, it's not particularly true to any kind of fiction.

Heyo.

[shrug?]

Urgh. I am getting so sick of the "OS X doesn't need maintenance" crowd.

They generalize and patronize until their actual valid understanding of the issue is buried and they give BAD advice in the guise of helping.

ouch

I was not aware that was a part of Apple culture

Truth: OS X doesn't Ned regular defragging and other maintenance routines.

Fiction: OS X users never need to force maintenance tasks.

Good advice: normal users probably run greater risk from downloading third-party maintenance software than they will get benefit from its use.

Bad advice: third-party maintenance software is useless and bad.

The Apple Elitists tell every user that OS X takes care of all potential maintenance task automatically. In fact, fixing permissions must be run manually in most cases.

.... no system requires no manual maintenance

They also say that OS X defrags itself. In fact, it defrags only files up to a certain size. If you deal with large files, you WILL run into defrag issues

the only systems that require no maintenance are the ones that are fuelled by the entropy that comes without it, and computers aren't in that category

Your use habits--the size of the files you use, whether you put it to sleep or turn it off at night, ect--may create conditions wherein weekly minor maintenance is manually necessary.

And if you're the kind of person who ever tries to fix a computer problem yourself, you want a third-party program unless you're also the kind of person who knows his way around Terminal and isn't afraid of accidentally reformatting your hard drive

@BESW on Windows, idle time is used to do little bits of defrag so that most of the time, an actual manual defrag task will have nothing to do; I imagine if it works like that, people who give their Mac no idle time will run into problems

Because what OS X doesn't do is provide a visual user interface for most of its maintenance capabilities.

Just last night someone mocked me for taking my laptop to a professional for hardware maintenance.

Given the shocking amount of misinformation circulating about something as simple as a defragging, I feel well within my rights to pay a professional to dig through the guts of my professional livelihood.

Mac is pretty good about only needing reactive maintenance under "average user" stress.

I'm curious if the behaviour for answerers differs significantly between the windows, linux and osx tags on Superuser, but I'm busy having a headache and don't know if I could write a query to examine the quantitative side

Aw. Drink tea!

If it's a sinus headache, the steam will help. If it's a migraine, the caffeine will help. If it's stress, making and drinking tea is a soothing ritual.

I'm not sure what it is, it is just an ache-in-the-head headache and it leaves my mind feeling a bit dull.

It might be dehydration

Tea would help with that, too.

I have a coffee at the moment. :D

Coffee's not as good at hydrating.

@BESW indeed; i had some glasses of water prior

Blurgh. Work on Saturday. Should be illegal.

My sympathies.

At least I got some good coffee.

Just watched the first three episodes of the Blade TV series with Trogdor.

Verdict: good.

Excellent!

So...

A needle pulling threaaaaaaaaaaaaad!

So far today I've uncovered a haunt of spies, joined the theatre, had some enforcers ask me about my Box (then proceed to ask me to tutor their nephew).

Oh, and I was also tipped of to a band of assassins out for my head.

I'm not sure what all this is related to, but I want the movie rights.

Fallen London.

It's rad

Oh and I've also started a few interesting investigations

But those are still ongoing.

And last night I was a a pretty fancy dinner party

But then everybody started taking off their shoes

@ProfessorCaptainLokiCaprion Sticky Fingaz is at least as good a Blade as Wesley Snipes--probably better, he's got more emotional range--the other actors are between good and competent, the plots are interesting and interconnected, the morality isn't purely black and white, and the fight scenes are well-choreographed and have fun.

@BESW Wow! That already exceeds what my expectations would have been!

I know, right?

@RedRiderX I have not heard of this, but I'm intrigued.

@ProfessorCaptainLokiCaprion fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/RedRiderX

My profile in the game.

Bwaaaah, workblocked!

Oh noes!

Can you see imgur stuff?

@ProfessorCaptainLokiCaprion The first fifteen minutes of the pilot are "Awesome, a sub-basement motorcycle chase followed up by a fight with a fire-axe-wielding vampire in a Russian uniform!" then almost immediately "Ooh, a sensitive portrayal of a returning vet with PTSD."

It's just mainly my journals and mantelpiece any way.

Nothing essential

@RedRiderX About half the time.

Oh.

@BESW Let's get back to this fire-axe...

@ProfessorCaptainLokiCaprion [grin]

Here's a screen cap

Oh, it's fuzzy

Oh well :P

The season plot is suitably labyrinthine, with multiple factions-in-factions of humans and vampires all backstabbing each other.

I can see it!

Is it a forum game?

@BESW Battlestar Vampirica!

@ProfessorCaptainLokiCaprion Almost

It's like a cross between a single player RPG book and a choose your own adventure book.

But online

And you can do stuff with your friends.

And free

But with Microtransactions

@ProfessorCaptainLokiCaprion I think it's more like the unholy union of a Flash MMO and a MUD.

@BESW It's very much text based

@ProfessorCaptainLokiCaprion Heheh that would be interesting

Wait, nvm

@ProfessorCaptainLokiCaprion But with less not-knowing-what-will-happen from the writers. Also less vomit-cam.

But almost as many Weird Spirit Visions.

(The TV series seems to be giving Blade-verse vamps more supernatural stuff to go with their science-y emphasis.)

@BESW Vomit cam?

Shaky cam, jitter cam, queasy cam, Blair Witching.

Ah okay.

It's one of the reasons I haven't watched BSG.

Unless it's done really well and for very good reason--Firefly and the Bourne franchise manage--it breaks me out of the narrative and makes me dizzy besides.

McGruff the Crime Dog Sentenced to 16 Years in Jail for Committing Crimes.

I thought this might be of interest here.

Hrm... this fallenlondon thing seems strange but tempting.

Indeed

Join us, delicious friend.

(and if you join be sure to add me as a friend)

[color='blue']BLUH[/color]

@RedRiderX If I can remember when I get home! XD

... but it wasn't a rock. It was a ROCK LOBSTER!

Ah, B-52s.

[yawn]

Don't you yawn at the B-52s!

@ProfessorCaptainLokiCaprion I played for a bit too, I should really start again

I'm about to leave work, so I'll check it out when I get home.

And closing up the office!