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Hey don't blame Staines, we get a bad enough rap as it is!!

Oh come on, it deserves it!

Edit:  Gah, this was Becky again.  I must stop using Adam's computer to post.

Most parents? I don't think so. I sure as hell know mine wouldn't have done that. Yes, it isn't their fault their child was kidnapped, but by doing something as highly negligent as they did they certainly gave whoever took Madeline a grand window of oppertunity.

But that observation is obviously not the be-all-and-end-all of this and it's certainly not some "ooh cosmic justice for the silly parents to learn their lesson" point, but no one really seems to be mentioning this so I thought I would.

What kind of parents leave a 3-year-old and two 2-year-olds alone in a foreign country while they go out to eat?

You've been ramming your head against this particular brick wall for the last few days though, and while I admire that you've not yet concussed yourself I think it's clear that you're not going to break through it before all our skulls cave in.

Please, please, please stop.

BLASPHEMY! 

Which brings us nicely to this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyLHQfOx4hc

Edit: Argh, this is Becky logged in as Adamski.  Oops.

somehow I was brought up that all people have equal rights. Which seems strange to me because the US citizens have a right to carry a gun, while I don't and never even considered it! I'm not trying to be smart, I just don't understand it. It seems strange!

The rights of citizens are granted by their respective government.  In this case, the citizens of the US have the right to bear arms, drawn from the US Constitution.  What is a right for a citizen in one country may not be so in another country.

However there is the theory of fundamental human rights, something slightly different, in that basically all humans are entitled to the same "human rights".  It's not a universally held theory, and no real way of implementing this has been put forward (though the European Convention of Human Rights places the protection of these human rights in EU law, but it has to be incorporated in member-state law to be properly upheld).

That was more of a response to this

Frankly I find many of the comments relating to gun control and the US lame and insulting.

rather than a mad diatribe aimed at Darth, Nacho

Here we go again :/ Let's just jump on the "america sucks" bandwagon.

It's an easy bandwagon to jump on, because America presents itself as such a terrifying place. Over 30 people can be mowed down by a mentally unstable indivudual who had a lawful right to own a 'tool' that is designed only to put an end to someone's life, and people here are trying to defend his right to own that weapon. If he had not had easy access to a gun, which is an extremely effective device for killing lots of people with minimum effort, the body count would not have been so high. If he had a baseball bat or a knife or a frigging ballpoint pen, he might have assaulted two/three people and either been too worn out to continue or had been overpowered.

If you find it insulting that the rest of the world is criticising America's gun culture after a massacre of this proportion, quite frankly you deserve to been insulted. Speculating about burglars and self defense is side-stepping the issue, which is that this person...

Let's not overlook that the VT killer was clearly insane (imaginary girlfriend named "Jelly" who called him "Spanky", his refusal to talk to anyone or make eye contact, deranged writing, past therapy, etc). A bunch of students stopped going to class because of him. The co-director of the creative writing department, who tutored him one-on-one had a code word with her assistant to call the police. From his behavior alone, there were warning signs.

...was allowed by law to have a weapon, and could quite easily get hold of one without anyone stopping him. And it's not like he used it to protect his family from burglars, he used it to remorselessly kill 30 innocent people who just happened to be in his proximity. There is a very big problem here, and instead of getting defensive about history and rising up against the British and all that blah blah claptrap, people should be looking at this and saying "Fuck! This person shouldn't have legally been allowed to buy the gun that carried out this act! We've got to do something about this so it doesn't happen again!"

But it'd be much easier to blame it on Doom or Maralyn Manson or Grand Theft Auto or just say "a few bad apples can't spoil it for the rest of us!", wouldn't it?

and the moral of the story is, of course, that if you work in an industry where there are more people wanting jobs than there are jobs available, the people in charge will take advantage of it to get away with things that they wouldn't normally be able to.

I think a better moral is that if you work in an industry where there are more people wanting jobs than there are jobs available, go to University and get a degree! Having a higher level of qualifications really does improve your chances of not ending up in a bad job having to 'pay your dues' before ending up in the area you want to be.

It doesn't remove the perseverence and luck factors, unfortunatly.

The combined mindpower of Becky and I left us with 16 left at the end.  Two heads are only slightly better than one!  Except Andail's.

Not sure what you mean exactly with the 'bubbling'... do you mean the arpeggiated line in the second half that isn't the drums (TR-909) or the generic organ bass sound? It's just an unfiltered sine wave or a triangle wave with a very short decay and no sustain, you could recreate it with any softsynth. It's not exactly the most characteristic or complex sound ever

There have been two high profile Monkey Island fan games, one of which had excellent hand-drawn animation and colourful background art with one of the best soundtracks ever produced. The other was a bit of a boring mess of rendered art and uninspired writing.

Any links? Or were they slappped with a "Cease and Desist"?

http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/curse-of-monkey-island
http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/escape-from-monkey-island

Ho ho ho.

There have been two high profile Monkey Island fan games, one of which had excellent hand-drawn animation and colourful background art with one of the best soundtracks ever produced. The other was a bit of a boring mess of rendered art and uninspired writing.

[Song:]

Song: Brian Ellis - XYL (myspace)
Comment: One very talented man, several instruments, painstaking overdubbing, great music! Sort of folk electronica rock.
How I discovered it: As a fan of Benbecula Records and a labelmate of Brian elsewhere.
Fun Fact: If you unscrew your belly button, your bottom falls off!


Good choice by the way Nikolas! I'm not sure I can see the Messiaen influences in Just - I thought those influences really came in after OK Computer - but Quatuor pour la fin du temps is pretty harrowing piece of music, especially considering the circumstances of it's composition. It's probably not easy to listen to for most people, but highly rewarding... people should check that out if they're familiar with Radiohead already

I like adventure games and all, but certainly not to the tune of $349... we're the nicheiest of the niche, and I don't think the vast majority of adventure gamers really care enough to be shelling out for this either. The 'offical website' reeks of those eScam pages you see when you click the wrong link in your junk mail folder too (Adventurer's Workshop - The Insider's Secrets to Winning Adventure Games! Increase the size of your Adventure Game by 3 inches! Sexy Adventure Game singles waiting for your call!).

I'm afraid I have visions of you and the 3 other panelists sitting alone in a very echoy hall, Dave.

Top stuff Dave! While it's a shame you didn't walk away with the award, the nomination and recognition you're recieving is fantastic. Having legends like Tim and Noah giving you commendation for your games means you must be doing something right!

One of the many who provided the soundtrack to the portion of my childhood spent glued to an Amiga, and sadly the first to check out. Rest in peace, Richard.

Just a warning, don't order from turnkey if you can avoid it... I'm currently having a massive headache because of them upholding their reputation for despatching stuff to the wrong address (as well as their tendancy to put stuff on your order you didn't ask for)! http://www.thomann.de have better prices, might be good to start there.

If you want a good recording then you're going to have to unfortunatly bite the bullet and grab a mic and soundcard that has XLR inputs... fortunatly you can get some really great budget stuff these days but Niks estimation is about right, you'll be looking at 300 euros to get an external audio box and a mic that sounds halfway decent.

How old is that now? I still lament that I've never actually finished Byzantine in any capacity whatsoever, I just got too busy with real life... and perhaps it was too difficult to create what I wanted with limited resources. I still plan to finish the game, but as an IF.

Oh, and if anyone remembers TJH Part 1, well... I was planning to do the second part and spent a long time writing it. It just became so huge that I realised that I could never, ever finish it, so I eventually gave up. Here's some unfinished art by Scotch though, which you'll all agree would have made the game very pleasing on the eyes!




(open them in a new window to see them in their unresized glory)

But not to worry, the majority of the stuff I wrote has been syphoned off into another project that's a lot smaller and easier to manage, which is steadily lurching towards being finished.