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I've decided that I would like some feedback on some of the recent photography work I've been doing in class. I'm very proud of how these are turning out. I would like anyone's opinion on them. I don't really want crit, but I will take it either way.. Just don't expect me to reprint the picture or something... :-p

Anyways, you can look at all my photography here.

But the newer, dark-room printed stuff is in the last two pages:

http://lilgryph.sitesled.com/photography/index-6.htm

http://lilgryph.sitesled.com/photography/index-7.htm



Thanks in advance.

I remember when I felt like home here.

Seeing as we have a topic on it's extensions, I decided I would ask a burning question that's been bugging me for awhile.

Should I use FireFox or Mozilla?

I use Sunbird, FireFox, and Thunderbird all, and I was wondering if it would be worth it to just get the full package integrated into one browser?

What are the major differences? Should I switch?

I googled, and I couldn't find anything useful other than the obvious, and some "Opera R0x0rz! Noi!Mozilla d03s!" battles (which actually weren't useful)

http://www.garry.tv/garrysmod

If anyone here owns Half Life 2, and you're not aware of this mod, download it now and have hours of fun.

It allows you to pose figures with the awesome ragdoll physics, and you can even build stuff with a welding tool.. Or attach ropes to things or even make cars!! It's awesome.

Check out what I made last night:

Yes! That's right folks, it's LGM's 17th Birthday!

Give me love, or give me hell!

Okay, I'm going to be upgrading the main components of my PC this Christmas.

I was looking at an AMD AthlonXP Barton 3000+ off of NewEgg, but the retail seems to have dissapeared from the site.. So then, I got thinking.. The 3000+ 64 Bit Athlon is basically the same price, and they have the retail version.

Is it worth it to get the 64 bit CPU as opposed to the non? Is there any big blaring cons to buying one? If there isn't presently, will I regret it in the long run?

I would, of course, get a Gigabyte board with the nForce 3 chipset along with it, and PC3200 512MB RAM.

Should I suck it up and learn how to get my own Heatsink and fan with the OEM CPU, or bite the bullet and go 64. Lemme hear your thoughts!

I haven't been on Quakenet in a coons age, but now that I want to come back into #ags for some nice wholesome chit-chat.. I CAN'T!

Every time I try to log in, I get G-Lined and told that my ISP has been currently banned.

Have they been banning people lately? Or is this happening to other people?

I can't seem to contact anyone on their site, and their forums lead me to a Forbidden page.

ARGH!

Well, I just watched the French film that Lions Gate is releasing here in the states on Valentine's Day. I gotta say, it's one of the best slasher films I've seen in a long time... It even surpasses the original "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", which I thought was highly overrated.

Have any French AGSers seen this movie? Has anyone seen it at all?

I'd like to hear other people's opinions about it, so lemme know.

IMDB Page: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0338095/

US Trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/lions_gate/high_tension/index.html

Okay, well.. No other forum has responded to my plea.. SO I hope I can get some help here:

Okay.. I have been getting progressively ticked off as of late. I've upgraded my Graphics card yet again on my HP 8720 Pavillion. The only original piece of the system left is the motherboard. the wonderful A7V-VM.

I used to have a GeForce4 ti4600 128MB on the board, and it worked perfectly. But since the card's fan died, I had to switch to a BFG GeForce FX 5500OC. It works when it wants to, but in certain games, some funky crap starts to happen. In the new Leisure Suit Larry game, the game freezes after a certain amount of time and then starts to display overlapping objects and gives the "clipping" effect. If I alt-tab out, and go back in.. There are artifacts all over the models, and everything seems to be red.

Call of Duty likes to flash alot, and make objects dissapear.

And Half Life 2... Is really ticking me off... It's doing the same thing as LSL. It'll run fine for a bit, and then just act funky. 50% of the time, I get a BSOD that says
"page_fault_in_nonpaged_area" in the nv4_disp.dll

This is very frustrating. I have the latest Forceware drivers, and the latest BIOS Upgrade from the HP site...

4x AGP is set in the BIOS, and the arpeture is 128MB.

My system:

1 Ghz AMD Athlon
512 MB SDRAM 133mhz
GeForce FX 5500
A7V-VM HP tagged MoBo

Is there a BIOS upgrade out there from Asus that will work with my BIOS and fix this problem? Or am I screwed?

Thanks!

Well la dee da, ANOTHER PC related thread. But meh, I don't care...

Okay, so I've got quite an obsolete computer (For video editing, anyways)

I am bottle-necking my graphics card, and I'm till using ancient SDRAM..

My PC Specs now:

1 GHz AMD Athlon
512 MB SDRAM
GeForce 4 ti4600
Windows XP Pro

I know it's not terrible, but if I want to play Doom III and HL when my brother eventually buys them, I need to be able to play on here without horrible lag. And I also would like to edit video at a decent speed, and export it without going through skip-ville.

Right now, I am planning on buying a new PC Barebones kit with only the things I need. I don't want to spend more than $350, so here is what I'm looking on getting?

AMD Athlon CP 2600+ 2.08 GHz 333Mhz CPU
AsusTek A7V8X-X Motherboard
512MB PC3200 DDR 400 64x64 400Mhz RAM
Linkworld 313G 400W Black Case
Black Mitsumi Floppy Drive

Anyways.. I can get all that for about $330, including shipping and pre-testing AND 1-Year warranty. I'm using this site. It's everything I need, as I have everything else (sans a bigger HD, but that can wait.)

What I'm curious about, is if this is worth it at all? Should I go out for a better MoBo or CPU for a little more money? Or am I paying too much. I haven't been able to find a cheap enough site with EVERYTHING I want. The one thing that's missing from this order is an SB Live! Value 5.1 sound card. The one I have no is starting to crackle my speakers and skip and be wonky. (Maybe it's just the speakers, but I doubt it.. The card is almost 5 years old.)

Anyways, Are there any better sites with more customability? And the same/cheaper price?

Thanks in advance.

Well.. Saying "I told you so" would be an understatement...

I, Robot was great! Just enough action, blended excellently with actual PLOT. Characters with real emotions and discussions actually fill the screen instead of CG Mayhem (well, there was plenty of that aswell. But it was nothing compared to Van Helsing.)

The story was excellent. It made enough sense, but it wasn't too confusing. The action was quite impressive, and not too overly grand.

Sure, it doesn't follow the actual book "I, Robot" itself at all.. But I don't really think that's the point. The book is set in an Asimov-like universe, and deals with Asimov elements. It's about a robot being created to have free will and "emotions". The title surely makes sense.

Everybody just assumed that because the name was "I, Robot" it was going to be a direct adaptation to the book. But since when do movie studios do that? Never... Well, harldy ever. The movie was just suggested by the writing of Asmiov.. No where did it ever say that the movie was based directly off the book.

It may suck that this happaned, yes.. But Asimov fans can stop worrying that Big Willie has ruined the name of the author.. Because the film is great, and I think brings a good message. In fact, I WANT to read Asimov's works now.

Meh.. Anyways.. I hope some of the whiners out there (not just here) got/get over themselves and just see the damn movie. It's a pleasent surprise.

[Monday, May 31st]

Well.. I'm finally in Germany! w00t. I can't believe I made it. This place is so beautiful.. I wish my digital camera worked so I could post some pictures.. But alas, cheap chinese manufactured electronics cannot be depended on.

Here I will type up entries from the travel journal I have been keeping. Enjoy.

Monday, May 31st

3:30 PM
We are on our way to Chicago. We haven't even crossed the river yet.

The Goodbye's were short and sweet. Mama didn't even cry. I'm so excited! I wish this bus could fly so we'd be there right now! Germany, here we come!

8:02 PM
We are now sitting at the O'Hare airport in Gate B16. Our flight begins to board at 9:15. 73 minutes to go!

We got here rather quickly, and there were no lines at the check-in. We got in and got out in no time. Before we knew it, we were through security. It was very very painless and quick. Though, Casey was a random spot-check and they had to search through everything. Ha Ha!

Now I'm sitting here with a belly full of McDonalds and a mind full of anticipation.

This airport is a zoo. Never have I seen such a multiude of people in one place. I can't even fathom what Frankfurt will be like.



Tuesday, June 1st

14:50
The plane ride was one of the most uncomfortable rides I've ever experienced. Plane seats were definitely not designed for fat people. The poor woman next to me was so kind. She didn't talk much, but I guess most older Germans don't.

Now we are sitting in the Frankfurt Fernbahnhöf. Our train is 30 minutes late, so we are going to miss our train to Homburg in Mannheim. Agh!

Everything was going so well... Nothing has gone wrong the whole trip but now! How annoying... I sure hope this floor is clean.

16:17

We're sitting at the Mannheim station now. We missed our train by 20 minutes. This train station is so quiet. The only thing I hear are the passing trains and the woman on the speaker. I swear, the same woman announces at every train station here. Hah.

The pigeons here are cool. They just walk around minding their own business. They're not even afraid of us.

Frau lent me â,¬1.50 for an orange Fanta. It tastes so different! mmmmm

I love Germany! I can't wait to sleep in those nice German beds...

Oh, and.. Uh.. They have Aldi's in Germany.. hahahaha

[If it does the job it's supposed to, and does it well, post it here.It must be truly free.. No trials or naggy shareware. And of course, no adware/spyware of any kind!]

In the spirit of the Big List of Paint Programs topic in the Critic's Longue, I thought it was about time to make a Freeware Program list here in Gen-Gen.

This list is by no means complete. There are many more cool and free programs out there that I do not know about.

This is where you, the reader, come in handy.

We can make this a group effort and have anyone and everyone submit their free programs.Ã,  Anything goes... Just as long as it's not crap.

If it does the job it's supposed to, and does it well, post it here.
It must be truly free.. No trials or naggy shareware. And of course, no adware/spyware of any kind!

'Ere it goes:


GRAPHICS/VIDEO


The GIMP - Usually referred to as Photoshop's arch rival. It can do almost as much as Photoshop can. The interface is a bit daunting at first, but this program itself is very powerful.

Terragen - A neat landscape generator and renderer. Very realistic. It's even been used in movies!

Blender - A very powerful and very free 3D Modeling Program. Reccomended by our very own Shbaz.

IconArt - A neat little icon editor for all your icon editing needs.

Wings3D - A very easy and awesome 3D modeling-only program. Can easily be intertwined with Blender.

Capture Pad - A nifty screen capturing program.

VirtualDub - "VirtualDub is a video capture/processing utility for 32-bit Windows platforms (95/98/ME/NT4/2000/XP)"

ASFTools - "AsfTools is a free windows 98/ME/2000/XP program to process ASF,WMV and WMA files."

Paint.NET - A free program written with Microsoft's .NET SDK. It is constantly being worked on by a university class, and will most likely replace MS Paint in Longhorn.



MEDIA


Adobe Acrobat Reader - Enables you to view PDF files in your web browser, or on it's own.

CD Rider - A great CD Ripper with proper file-naming syntaxes, amongst other awesome features.

DivX Decoder - A crucial codec needed to watch any movie encoded in the DivX format.

Winamp - An awesome multimedia player with AWESOME features found nowhere else.

CDBurnerXP - A great XP-only CD Burning suite. A great alternative for Nero.. Almost.. This program is constantly being worked on, and new features are added with every release.

FreeRIP - Similar to CD Rider, but this has more features and is not in Beta form.

MediaMonkey - The perfect solution to all your MP3 sorting needs! It does everything you could ever need for your MP3 Library.

VLC Media Player - a very good media player, can play most of the video formats, and you dont need to download any separate codecs. Runs on the most operating systems.

K-Lite Codec Pack - Freeware media player with support for most audio and video formats. Uses a windows classic media player interface. Very simple and not bloated.

BurnAtOnce - Another awesome CD Burner program. This one is simplistic and is focused around burning bin/cue image files or ISOs. It can also burn data and audio discs. It's nice and easy and FREE! (It's based around all open-source utilities)

DeepBurner - Another freeware CD Burner suite. This one is the most professional, and there is a PRO copy that can be purchased, with many more features.



AUDIO PRODUCTION


Audacity - A powerful sound recording and editing program.

Anvil Studio - A "user-friendly" MIDI sequencer program thingy.

Skale Tracker - A sample-based music sequencer. Supports VST plugins, and the next version will support soundfonts (Many of which are also free).



DESKTOP PUBLISHING


CutePDF Writer - A PDF maker that "prints" out any document to the PDF file format from any program... anywhere.

Toniarts EasyCleaner - An essential program for keeping your computer clean and running smooth as a baby's buttocks.

ExtractNow - A program that extracts many different compressed file formats. I.E RAR, ACE, ZIP, TAR, BZ2

OpenOffice - The best (free) alternative to Microsoft office.

ClickTeam Install Creator - A neat program that lets you quickly and painlessly create an install program for software or compilations you've created.

ClickTeam Patch Maker - A nice supplement to the Install Creator. Let's you dish out updates/patches for your created and distributed software.

Inno Setup - A freeware install creator. An nice (adless) alternative to ClickTeam's Install Creator.

IZArc - A great extractor that supports any file format you can think of. Appearance is very similar to Winzip.

RoughDraft - A freeware word processor. Although suitable for general use, it has features specifically designed for writers of novels, short stories, articles, poetry, plays and screenplays.



INTERNET


Azureus - A neat Java-powered BitTorrent client.

Xchat - A simplistic IRC Client.

Mozilla / Mozilla Firefox - A very good browser that is web-standards complient unlike that of Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Has inbuilt pop-up stoppers, download manager, IRC client, etc...

HTML Kit - A nice freeware HTML editor which is great for beginners and longtime web designers...

Zone Alarm - A simple but powerful firewall. Monitors all programs that access the internet.

WS_FTP LE - Free for non-commercial use, this is another nifty FTP Program.

FileZilla - Another FTP client including more advanced features, and an FTP server

The Google Toolbar - This toolbar does it all. Block pop-ups, fills out forms, searches google.. It's great!

Messenger Plus! - A great add on in the spirit of DeadAIM for AOL Instant Messenger. Messenger Plus works with MSN Messenger. It removes ads, and basically helps you customize every aspect of MSN Messenger. 100's of plugins are available for download.



WEB DESIGN


nvu - A nice windows (It says it's for Linux but there's a windows download in the download section) WYSIWYG html editor.

Trellian Webpage Editor -Ã,  It has some nice features, even built in FTP support for uploading your files.

Selida 2 - This is a very professional looking HTML editor.. All the usual features, and tons more. It even has a true WYSIWYG editor aswell. This is as close to Frontpage, features wise, you can get!



SYSTEM UTILITIES


Ad Aware - Removes alot of Adware from your computer.

AntiVir Personal Edtiton - A free and effective Anti-Virus program.

RegScrubXP - Great for XP users. Cleans out all errors and unnecessaries in the Windows Registry. It makes Windows performance noticably faster.

CodeStuff Starter - The perfect alternative to "msconfig". Takes care of all your startup processes, and even running processes.

TuneXP - Some great tweaks for Windows XP that make your system run faster than ever.

Trend Micros Housecall- Not really a program but a very helpful anti-virus system using the latest updates from the Trend Micro website. The utility is web-based, and is free to use... and is good if you dont wanna wait to download a program, and the latest updates... only downside is that it doesn't protect your computer at all times like regular virus scanning software.

Spybot: Search & Destroy - Used in conjunction with AdAware, these two programs are all you really need for spyware removal.

AVG Anti-Virus - Free, kept up-to-date, works great.

HDCleaner - HDCleaner uses a highly intelligent engine to scan your hard disk & improve PC performance!.You needn't know about the system and file types. Only click your mouse,it will clean all the junk files quickly and safely.

RegCleaner - Another registry cleaner. Catches stuff that RegScrubXP misses

RegSeeker - The best registry cleaner I've come across. If you only want one, get this'n.



MISCELLANEOUS


VDMSound - A great program that will help XP users run almost any older game. Even Grim Fandango!

Name Generator 2 - A useful program when you just can't think of a name for your character.. Or just for plain fun.



This list was last updated on July 16th, 2004 at 6:04 PM GMT-6

Well.. Now that I know my screenwriting skills need works, what do you make of my play writing skills?

http://www.fbc-bettendorf.com/lgm/docs/poker_night.pdf

This play was performed in front of a live audience.

It was also submitted into a 10-Minute Play Contest, but did not win..

What are your ideas?

And yes, it's a bloody PDF, so quit yer whining.

Okay.. I've been working on this script for about a year now, off and on. The people that have read it haven't really given me any REAL criticism. They usually never finish it, or tell me it's just "good".

But I want the opinions of you smart, witty, and colorful people. This is my first REAL attempt at a screenplay, and I really want some honest critiscism. I want to know your comments and ideas for new scenes, character development, etc.

If you notice any plot-holes or out-of-character actions, please let me know so I can fix it..

Please don't let this post fall into oblivion

Vincent's Night

I hope Trapezoid doesn't mind me posting this, but this is the best music video I have ever seen.

Not only has Trap made the song 10 times better, but his speed-induced movements are amazing.

Check it out: http://www.luckystarscattery.com/fing.wmv

And if you want to download the song by itself, I've discovered just how Trap did it: http://www.fbc-bettendorf.com/lgm/music/thing_called_love_on_speed.mp3

Enjoy!

[to avoid confusion]

Okay, so here it is again. The Monthly Writing Project (Anyone who wants to think up a cool acronym will be my hero)

Basically, this is sorta like the MAGS comptetition. Except, instead of making a game in AGS, you'll be writing a short story. Now, to avoid confusion, you will not be writing a game. You will be writing a short story just like you would find in a collection or in a magazine. There also won't be any voting or any winners. The project will start the first of every month. You will have exactly 25 days (till the 25th) to write and complete a short story based off the topic or theme that will be given each month.

DEADLINES WILL ALWAYS BE THE 25th OF THE MONTH!

Once the deadline is reached, the submissions will be emailed to me. DO NOT UPLOAD THEM. Please email them to this address: writing_project@fbc-bettendorf.com

PDF or RTF formats are perferred. TXT is acceptable only if you don't have any specific formatting.

If all goes well, the stories will be uploaded to my server. I will eventually create a site to list all the stories written through the course of the project once I become less lazy.

Stories should be from 2-10 pages in length. Paragraph, sentence, or one word submissions will be deleted. One-page submissions are *acceptable*, but I don't reccomended them as it is most likely they will not have enough depth to be entertaining. But, if you're very talented and can write an awesome story within one page, be my guest. Please use a standard font (Times New Roman, Arial, Georgia, etc.) and single spaced.

Also, please be sure to include your full name and forum alias in the document aswell.


Okay.. So, let's get this party started. The topic for the month of April is:

Setting: A suburb of a major American city. (Chicago, New York, Los Angeles)
Theme: Life is...
Elements: A man will either commit suicide, rob a house/bank/business, or save a group of kids/people from an accident. A suitcase must be an important part of the plot. The main character must be a woman. A character's first name must be Alex(ander) or Alexandria.                                    

Alright.. I know it's not very good topic.. But let's see what we can come up with.

Good Luck! Have lots and lots of fun, and as always.. ROCK ON

I have.. Just got back, in fact. It was very very very weird, but had a aura about it that just draws you in and makes you like it..

The characters are interesting, but at some points not totally drawn out.. Elijah Wood's character, to be exact, is too vague and cold for my liking..

As far as plot goes, if you're a fan of Memento, you'll like this movie. It's very jumpy and head-gamey..ish

I liked it.. But I'll need to see it again and again to fully understand it.

Go see it now! I'm sure Eric or Evenwolf have already or will very soon.

Enjoy

Is it just me, or is #ags wiped off the face of the earth? Or did we just move to a different server..

I'm the only one in #ags.. No Roger, no L, no Bluecup, no BOYD.. Where is everyone!?!?

[You will not writing a game.]

Okay, so here it is. The Monthly Writing Project (Anyone who wants to think up a cool acronym will be my hero)

Basically, it will be much like the MAGS comptetition. Except, instead of making a game in AGS, you'll be writing a short story. Now, to avoid confusion.. You will not writing a game. You will be writing a short story just like you would find in a collection or in a magazine. There also won't be any voting or any winners. The project will start the first of every month. You will have exactly 25 days (till the 25th) to write and complete a short story based off the topic or theme that will be given each month.

DEADLINES WILL ALWAYS BE THE 25th OF THE MONTH!

Once the deadline is reached, the submissions will be emailed to me. DO NOT UPLOAD THEM. Please send them to this email address: writing_project@fbc-bettendorf.com

If all goes well, the stories will be uploaded to my server. If there is good response to the first competition, I will create a site to list all the stories written through the course of the project.

Stories should be from 2-10 pages in length. Paragraph, sentence, or one word submissions will be deleted. 1 page is acceptable, but not reccomended. Please use a standard font (Times New Roman, Arial, Georgia, etc.) and single spaced.

Understandable?

Okay.. So, let's get this party started. The topic (randomly generated) for the month of March:

Setting: Alternate Reality
Theme: Reality-is-a-dream/Drama story
Elements: During the story, there is a dramatic revelation. A character will send a package. There has to be a female with a physical disability. One character must be named Ben Kroden. Any type of office supply (Paperclip, pen, pencil, post-it, etc.) must be a crucial part of the story.

Alright.. I know it's not very good topic.. But let's see what we can come up with.

Good Luck!