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Just be patient.  I think the pesticide doesn't work on the eggs.  You have to wait until they hatch and then die which may take a couple of weeks.

Be careful. You don't want your kitties to OD on pesticide; My sister-in-law accidently applied the wrong dosage of some kind of medication to her little dog's coat and he consequently died.  My vet has this flea stuff where you just put a drop on the back of their necks and it's supposed to last for a month, maybe you can ask the vet about that.   I don't think there is much point in taking them to the vet because of fleas but I would call them and ask their advice rather than what they said at the pet store.   

Ah, don't you know that animal fleas don't live on humans???

No but they will bite humans if they are hungry enough.  I went out of town for a couple of weeks with my cats once and when we came back home we were met with a mob of hungry fleas.   

Nikolas,

This is why I posted that link awhile back to give input to the US congress about preserving fair use rights under copyright law.  I saw
this article in Redhat Magazine today about some guy who was hassled by security guards for taking pictures of his kids. 

In addition to the Free Software Foundation the Electronic Frontier Foundation may also be of help.  Maybe you could get someone like google interested in taking this over.  They are already doing this with youtube and books so why not music?  Anyway here are links to FSF - Free Software Foundation and the EFF - Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Thanks for the recommendation.  Here is the link to Amazon.com for anyone who is interested in making a purchase.

Just for reference:

I think this recent thread illustrates another good reason to eliminate the IE.  Note that in order to adequately explain the problem, it was necessary for the poster to grab a screenie, annotate it, upload it, and then link to it, in the thread.   I may be wrong, but I think that most people who ask for help using IE  are not willing or able to go to all this trouble to post a question.   And I would be very surprised indeed if someone went through this process to post a reply.  So typically this is all done via verbal description which IMHO is less than optimal. 

Contrast this to the equivalent in script where one can just cut and paste a portion of one's script directly into a post asking for help and where people often respond by posting corrected or alternate snippets of script that can be used directly by the original poster. 

So the difficulty in asking and answering IE programming questions in the forum is another reason to justify the dumping IE.

Load it up first just to see how cool it is.  Show your sister the online catalog of software that is available for free.  If she likes it your parents should be cool with not having to spend any $$ on software for her.     It took me years to switch my wife over.  It wasn't until she got her beloved windows paralyzed by malware that I finally convinced her.  Good luck.

Take SSH's advice and do your sister a favor.  I can highly recommend Kubuntu Linux which you can freely download from kubuntu.org.  It should work with the computer you describe.  There is an nvidia driver that you will need to install but it's not a dig deal and there is plenty of advice on the Kubuntu/Ubuntu forums. 

With regard to schoolyard bullies, they have been around since before there were schools and in times past when everyone carried a gun everywhere they went.  What's different now is that in addition to things, of which I already spoke and that are now fashionable in public schools, is the silly notion that everything can be solved by just talking about it (i.e. diplomacy, negociation, conflict resolution theapy).   The problem is that this assumes that each party has something to gain through peaceful resolution, which is not always the case.   

Appeasement just  encourages a bully to make more demands because there is downside. This is especially true if the bully knows that the victim will avoid a physical confrontation at all costs.  The most effective way to deal with a bully is for the victim to not meet any demands and make it clear that a physical confrontation is preferable to giving in to coercion.   It doesn't hurt the situation if the bully believes his intended victim is a little bit crazy either. 

I have taken my share of bullying and it stopped whenever I found the courage to stand up for myself.   In my case the kid was 4 years older, which is a lot when you are only 10-11 years old) and a foot taller.   The last time he bothered me I chased him for a block with bood red anger in my heart.  I caught him and tore in to him like a lion.  I didn't win the fight by a long shot but he got the point that screwing with me was more trouble than it was worth.  They have a saying in my wife's family that "Sometimes you have to loose in order to win!". 

I don't mean to criticize anyone here, but in my opinion, it doesn't take any courage at all to pick up a gun and go after someone who is unarmed.   If you have the courage to stand your ground in the face of a physical confrontation which you probably can't win, will discourage your would be bully and earn respect from your peers.   

Sharksweatheart, I know there is a double standard for girls and that they are expected to use guile and finesse instead of brute force.  However, I think the same principles apply though the implementation details may differ.   

P.S. In case anyone tries to take my advice, for God's sake if you get in a fight make sure there are no weapons, you know guns, knives, etc.   

What's pushing these kids to do these things?
Why are so many of them male?

School shootings are a recent phenomena that just happen to coincide with the emergence of the "self esteem" and the "competition is bad" movements in the educational and child rearing establishments, beginning perhaps about 25-30 years ago.   One has to wonder if there is a connection between the two.

Beginning with kindergarten, little boys are constantly pumped up on unearned/undeserved self-esteem, shielded from having to deal with any kind of failure experiences (loosing an athletic contest, failing a test, flunking a grade, etc), and forced to repress their natural proclivity to express themselves (i.e. release their feelings) through physically competitive activities) lest they be drugged up with  riddlin. 

I am not exaggerating! It's not unusual to read in the news where some school system no longer uses red ink to correct grade tests or homework papers because it would hurt the students feelings to learn that they did their assignments incorrectly.  Many schools systems have banned "tag" and other school games for the same reasons.  I've heard of kid soccer leagues where they don't keep score or require all the kids to get the same amount of game time regardless of their abilities or skills.  In some places they have or have tried to ban more traditional sports/activities such as football, dodgeball, etc because they are too rough!   

Sooner or later they grow up and meet up with the harsh realities of the real world.  They get scorned by the girl or girls they are attracted to or worse by all of the girls.   They realize they are not as good at everything as they thought or find that there are things they can't do or have in life.   They have no experience in dealing with failure or humiliation of any kind.  Add to this all of the emotional energy highs and lows from adolescent hormones and you have a recipe for disaster.     

In years past little boys were taught to deal with failure by "sucking it up", "not crying", and "taking it like a man".  It's not an easy thing to do; it's a skill acquired through pain and much practice.   Unfortunately, in today's world it is fashionable to deny kids the opportunity to learn how to deal with the unpleasentries of life.

... It is very much a culture thing, combined with the abundant availability of firearms.

This statement is probably correct but not for the reasons Michael Moore gives in his film.   Firearms were more plentiful and ubiquitous in the past than they are now but this problem is a recent development in American history/culture.    Culture being defined as "learned behavior" would also include behavior learned from a false sense of esteem and lack of failure experiences as well as behavior not learned and being inadequately prepared for life's realities, as dicussed above.    Culture would also include behaviorial influences from popular culture such gansta rap, video games, violent movies, etc that were not in existence or as prevalent in the past as they are today.

o, AGS does not support that. I'm not sure if its sound system would even be compatible with a VST plugin.

Is it possible/practical to write an AGS plugin that performed this or similar kind of function?   I think what Nikolas needs is a plugin that can open a sound file(s), read and apply reverb or other filtering, and then pass the result to the AGS sound system. 

It's useful for doing chapters as MillsJROSS says and also for doing side arcade type games.  Arcade type games many times end up with much of their code in the global script and make heavy use of repeatedly_execute() handler.  Moving those things to a separate EXE makes a lot of sense and keeps both EXEs much cleaner than if they were combined.  In addition the Arcade game can be made such that is directly playable without going through the main game. 

   

Basically, what I want to expose in my class is, why are we getting more violent the more we progress?

Sorry for being a contrarian  but I don't agree with the premise that more progress brings more violence.  If you look back through history there were some pretty nasty things going on.  Practices such as slavery, genocide, conquest (i.e. Spanish Conquistadors), colonization, honor killing, torture, cruel and unusal punishments, ect, that were common in centuries past are no longer acceptable in the modern world.   Many of these practices still prevail today in countries that have not progressed as much the rest of the world.   

• Now, for your class you should explain that there are other points of view and give an argument to support your premise.  For example "Some people would say that there is less violence because of this, this, and this.  I say that there is more because of that, that, and that.  For the purpose of our discussion we will assume the latter is true". 
  
  
• It would also be good to clearly state what is meant by "more violent".     For example do you mean ....
  
  
  - Individuals  are more likely to commit a violent act now than before
  - More individuals commit more violent acts than before
  - More violent acts are committed now than before
  - Violent acts are more heinous now than they were before
  - Violent acts are now committed with less provocation than before
  - Does "more" refer to "more per capita" or "more in absolute number"
  - More individuals are killed now than before
  - Individuals who are killed are killed more now than violently than before
  - War and/or Crime?  Is there a (or what is the) distinction, now and long long ago?
  - Is political oppression more prevalent now than before?
  
• Weapons of war have certainly become more efficient in modern times.  Does that make today's wars more violent or not?  If the weapons are more efficient then it takes fewer people to fight a war.   Which is more violent to get shot with a bullet or hacked up with a bronze sword?  Does the tidy aspect of modern warfare make war more likely?   Future wars may be fought exclusively by remote control, where machines battle each other on an inhabited battlefield.  How does this affect the definition of violence if nobody gets killed or wounded; only the machines they control get destroyed?
  
  
• Romans - Someone said that the Romans made very little progress.  They invented concrete and used it to build innovative structures many of which survive to this day.  Many of their aquaducts can still transport water to this day.  They built roads to interconnect all of their cities and provided security necessary for commerce to thrive.  They may have had many faults but to say they have contributed nothing in the way of progress is not quite correct.
  
  
• When is violence justified? Probably in defence of one's self or in defence of someone else.  Would you be justified committing a violent act to defend someone from robbery? Murder?  Would you be justified committing a violent act to free someone from slavery?  How about in the case of a bully who is threatening violence?  About the only effective course of action is to meet violence with violence.  Any concessions just embolden the bully and encourage him/her to make even more demands. 
  
  
  ===================
  
  As I said before I am not convinced that there is more violence now than there has been in the distant past and I would be interested to know exactly you mean by "more violence" and what facts you have to support your case.
  
  If by "more violence" you are referring to the number of wars that occurred during the course of the 20th and 21th centuries then I can offer the following opinion.   First of all I don't know one way or the other if the frequency of war was more or less during this time or not.  However, for the purpose of discussion, lets assume that it was more frequent and discuss why this may be. 
  
  Progress is not homogeneous.   Progress does not occur simultaneously in every countries at once.  An invention or discovery occurs in one country and then spreads to other countries.  Some countries are quicker than other to assimilate or adopt the new knowledge than others.  So can end up with some countries living in the modern world and others living in the old world.
  
  The ideologies of some countries are compatible with ideologies of other countries.  For example in some countries the people believe that everyone should be free to say whatever they want or practice the religion of their choice (including none).  In other countries people believe that everyone should practice their religion and not make any negative comments about it and that God wants those who don't to be killed.   
  
  These two things have always been true of course but before the advent of the global telecommunications, and modern warfare in the early 20th century, countries far apart in geography, ideology, and/or  progressiveness  could ignore each other much more easily than they can today. 
  
  Now suppose some old world country decides to commit genocide in order to eliminate undesirables?  In the past nobody would know about it or at least not until it was all over with.   Well now, there are live pictures on CNN, the internet, etc and everyone knows about it.   People in progressive countries see it, believe it is wrong, and before long want to take action to stop it.  This is especially true if there is some kind of connection, cultural, historical, economic, etc  to the victims,  the oppressing or neighbouring countries.   So what can be done to stop the killing?   Diplomacy?  Is that working in Darfur?  Yugoslavia?   Seems like the only thing that ever works is military action of one kind or another.   It's hard to negociate with someone who just wants you dead.   
  
  This reminds me of something I haven't seen in this thread or thought of so far and that the political violence of the 20th century that was particularly brutal and widespread.  By political violence I mean that a country commits violent acts against it's own citizens.   I could easily be persuaded that this is in fact true, now that I think of it. 
  
  - Soviet Union, Stalin Kills 20-30 , enslaves 18â€"20 in forced labor camps
  - Germany, Hitler kills 11 million in concentration camps
  - Cambodia, Khmer Rouge Kills 3 million   (40% of population)
  - China, Deng Xiaoping Kills 600-3000 in Tiananmen Square
  - China, Mao Zedong Kills 50 million
  - Iraq, Sadam Hussein kills 500 thousand
  - North Korea, Ill & Son, 1.6 million
  - Turkey kills 3.5-4.3  million Armenians, Greeks, Nestorians, and other Christians
  - Japan kills 6 million Chinese, Indonesians, Koreans, Filipinos, and Indochinese
  - Pakastan kills 1.6 million East Pakastanies (now Bangledeshies)
  
  
  
  While researching the above numbers I came across this book,  "Statics of Demoside" which was on this website.  I think you will find the information there to be very helpful to you in preparing for your class.  Sorry for the long post but hopefully you will find something of use.
  
  Let us know how it turns out.  Best of luck!

That's a rather cynical and arrogant statement. 

My statement in neither cynical or arrogant, it's just a simple fact of life.   If you offer to sell your car for $50 you can bet the farm that nobody will come along and give you $5000 for it; just ain't going to happen.   I've been in my own consulting business for nearly 20 years and I have yet to have a client who offered to pay me more than what I asked for.   Don't get me wrong, it would be great if I got paid what I think I'm worth but it just ain't going to happen.   

You can not measure how much people are worth simply by how prone they are to go on strike. 

You pretty much put a value on your own work when you were studying to be a teacher and knew what salary would be offered and were willing to continue studying and eventually accept a position at that salary.  Obviously if you didn't find that salary acceptable  you would not have accepted it.   Clearly at some point you must have believed that was a fair price for the work you would be doing.
I just can't help but be curious about what has changed for you between now and then?   

There can be various reasons for why you'd want to give people the money they deserve.

This discussion isn't about the poor, sick, infirm, injured, or other unfortunate individuals in need who deserve our our compassion and/or help by virtue of our shared humanity.  I can't think of any other reasons why I would or should give money away to anyone other than my family.   

Raising standards in schools should be a priority to everyone, and one way is to stop cutting their budgets. People are less inclined to do a good job if they feel they're overlooked or too badly paid.

Are you saying that if everyone gets paid more money whether they do a better job or not, that some how the quality of their work will improve?  Come on, you can't really believe that?  In the real world people are held accountable for the quality of their work.  If Andail consistently does a better job than Rick the he gets better raise in pay than Rick.  The boss doesn't come around and say to Rick, "You know you have been performing rather poorly for quite some time now.  If you don't get your ass in gear pretty soon and do a better job I'm gonna... I'm gonna have to... to raise your salary, you lazy fool.".     Were I a betting man, I'd wager that your union and your school district are not in favor of policies such as merit pay, school choice, private school vouchers, standardized testing, or any other mechanism that would hold the schools and teachers accountable for the quality of their work. 


Andail my friend, I wish you well and hope you find your path to the happiness, fulfilment, satisfaction with with work, life, etc that everyone deserves to have.  I've found that everytime things get going really well for me and I get a little over confident and a little too pleased with myself,  life has a way of coming around and slaping me down and putting me back in my proper place.  When you get to that happy place just remember to maintain a smidgin of humility so as to not run afoul of cosmic justice.   

What I would find interesting is to take games made by people who were not aware of the monomyth and see to what extend their story follows the steps that Campbell described.

... or to look at games made by people who were aware of it to see how they integrated the various elements into the game.  It would be particularly interesting if, at the points where the main character must make a decision, that decision was left to the player which in turn would influence the ultimate outcome of the game and result in the PC taking different paths to the game's ending(s).   

I actually haven't figured out exactly how to do this with scripting alone. I suppose I could activate the on_mouse_click and then check what the cursor is and if the mouse is over that object.

It sounds like you haven't tried the new AGS 3.0 beta version yet.  The scripting is pretty much the same as it was before.  There are interaction functions just like before but they are named after the the item and functionality they are associated with.   You select the item (i.e. object, hotspot, etc and then select which interacton you want from a drop down events menu located at the right hand side of the screen.  This inserts the interaction function into the script just like the IE "Run Script"  command did before.   
It works much like the GUI system does in AGS 2.72.

Someone correct me if the above description is less than accurate.  I haven't used the new stuff much, just took it for a couple of quick test drives.   

I'm also dubious now that AGS qua AGS is going to by itself really do what I want it to

I'm puzzled by this statement as AGS is a pretty versatile programming platform and you have previously stated that the gui you have in mind is not technically ambitious and that you want to reproduce a retro graphics look.   I am curious about your concerns. 

To answer you initial question I would suggest that you first create an experimental game where you can try out different things, create modules, etc.  This would just be a work area and not a published game. 

Next create your actual game area.  Add rooms as the background art is completed.  Setup the walkable areas, regions, etc  so that the PC can walk from room to room.   Add the interactive parts of the game world so that the PC can explore. Add the game logic, plot, puzzles, dialog, NPCs, etc last.

I must be doing something wrong.

Hehe, Yeah, like using Vista!  Lol 

I'm not dumb, I knew exactly what I was getting myself into, and could have chosen a much different route if I wanted to simply become loaded. I had the grades to enter lawschool or become a dentist, and I believe I have the brains necessary for economics.
Trust me, I'm not that kind of person who whines about his poor lot and yearns for riches. With this thread I just wanted to address an issue; why a certain profession (highly academic and with a key function in society) is considered so little worth. I don't know what good the argument "it has always been like this" does, or what your boss's comment was meant to achieve.

As some of the others explained, my boss's comment was meant to illustrate that teacher salaries are obviously not too low because there has never been a lack of people willing to do the work for the amount of money offered (except in rare cases such as the one CJ mentioned).   Perhaps a better question is to ask why you are willing to work for so little.  Why would you expect someone would want to (or be compelled to) pay more than the asking price? 

People would still be doctors even if they're wages were cut in half. People would still practice law and economy even if lawyers and economists were paid the same as teachers.

Yes but I would wager not as many people would still want to become doctors or lawyers as did before the wages were decreased. 

I did a quick google to compare starting engineering salries with starting salaries.  I found a recent Wall Street Journal article discussing engineering salaries and I found the published starting salaries for the Chicago Public School System.   The Wall Street Jourrnal article is about a year or so older than the CPS salary schedule survey but I don't think things could have changed drastically in  that short of time frame.

http://www.collegejournal.com/salarydata/engineering/engineering.html

Another survey, this one from 2005 by Engineering Workforce Commission (EWC) of the American Engineering Association of Engineering Societies Inc. in Washington, D.C., reports that engineers with bachelor's degrees and less than a year of experience earn a median annual salary of $49,957. Electrical and civil engineers with bachelor's degrees and less than a year of experience earn a median annual salary, respectively, of $50,000 and $39,500. Mechanical engineers with bachelor's degrees and less than a year of experience earn $42,131 in median annual salary, EWC reports.

http://www.cps-humanresources.org/Careers/salary.htm

Starting Salary (Bachelor's Degree)     
School Year -- 40 Weeks/193 days    
$43,233    

Starting Salary (Master's Degree)
School Year -- 40 Weeks/193 days
$46,228

According to this quick and dirty reasearch there doesn't seem to be that much of a difference.   If it's the difference in the amount of time worked is taken into account (typically beginning engineers in the US work 50 weeks rather than 40)  then the starting teacher salary of $43000 is equivalent to about (50/40 * $43000) or $54000.   And phleasee don't start talking about grading papers etc, etc. after hours.   I can count the number of 8 hr days I've worked (in my 20- years as an engineer) on my finger and toes.     Admittedly this is an oversimplified analysis based on a couple random google results but I don't believe it's that far off the mark.   I don't have anything against teachers but I don't think their lot is as bad off as they often claim.

It never ocured to me that anyone would take either list literally and use them for story templates.  :   I suppose there are some who would have made such a futile attempt and are now, presumably, grateful for your warning.     Perhaps you could illuminate everyone futrher about the monomyth.   

I frankly find the second list more interesting as it deals primarily with the main character's development and suggests to me a novel way of structuring an adventure game.  I think progressing  through an adventure game by developing or tranforming the player character in some profound way would be more interesting than the common "aquire all the inventory objects, use them in obscure and non-obvious ways, and click through all the dialog" type of game play.   Instead of the game's ultimate goal being a material object such as a treasure or princess perhaps it could be something intangible like the PC growing as a person, discovering his/her own worth/place/purpose in the universe, discovering things grater than self, and/or discovering the meaning of life... etc, etc.   In the previous I give some examples of how I might approach this hoping to inspire some other ideas or at least some discussion on the topic.  So please feel free to share your thoughts.   

Whilst searching for images I found this link.  Of potential interest to us here are two lists of elements/progressions in an action/adventure story.  The first lists supposedly represents a linear progression of the story from beginning to end.  The second approach supposedly represents a circular progression with a parallel and transformative character development.   

The article at this URL http://www.nyu.edu/classes/keefer/TimeSpace/myth.html contains these two lists:  [edit format]

Joseph Campbell's Monomyth for action-adventure films: The Call to Adventure(II) The Refusal of the Call Supernatural Aid Crossing the First Threshold (pp1) Belly of the Whale The Road of Trials Meeting of the Goddess Atonement with the Father The Ultimate Boon Refusal of the Return The Magic Flight Rescue from Without Crossing of the Return Threshold Master of Two Worlds (resolution) Instead of Field's linear line, Christopher Vogler likes to see the journey as circular with the transformative character arc running pace with the hero's journey: limited awareness of problem ORDINARY WORLD increased awareness CALL TO ADVENTURE (II) reluctance to change REFUSAL overcoming reluctance MEETING WITH THE MENTOR committing to change CROSSING THE THRESHOLD (PP1) experimenting with first change TESTS, ALLIES, ENEMIES preparing for big change APPROACH TO INMOST CAVE attempting big change ORDEAL (Midpoint) consequences of the attempt REWARD (Seizing the Sword) (improvements and setbacks) rededication to change THE ROAD BACK (PP2) final attempt at big change RESURRECTION (Crisis/Climax) final mastery of the problem RETURN WITH THE ELIXIR (Resolution)

.
To be honest I didn't understand much of the article as it seemed to ramble on about irrelevant things such as vomit.  The lists are also not very self explanatory either, presumably it would make more sense to someone who had taken the class.  There was one  sentence that caught my eye however and I thought it would make for an interesting discussion. 


"Instead of Field's linear line, Christopher Vogler likes to see the journey as circular with the transformative character arc running pace with the hero's journey..."


I thought it would be interesting to talk about how this might be done or has been done in adventure games.  Is  an adventure game, whose player character goes through profound changes as the game progress, enhanced or does it just confuse and frustrate the player.   

I was also thinking about how "reluctance to change" might be incorporated into the game.  I thought it would be interesting if things were arranged so that it was actually the player's reluctance that came into play rather than that of the player character.    The most obvious approach (at least to me) is to score different aspects of the player's/player character's personality based upon actions taken.      During the "limited awareness" phase of the game the player is encouraged to behave in a way appropriate to the player character's description.  If the PC is a pirate then the player must do piratie things to progress through the game.  The player would continue to be so rewarded during the "increased awaremess" phase as well.  The player would however find him/herself stuck in the "reluctance to change" phase until the player is able to change the personality scoring to fit the desired transformation.  In the PC Pirate example, the player would need to forgo the immediate rewards achievable through stealing, talking mean, and other piratie stuff, in favor of future rewards achievable through new and un-piratie behaviors.    The trick of course is to make this challenging without frustrating the player.  An intuitive gui, helpful dialogs, and frustration sensing logic would, in my opinion, be a necessary ingredient.

It also occured to me that during the "reluctance to change" phase it would be possible to allow the player to make choices that determine how "the" story ends or for that matter "which" story actually will plays out.  Continue to behave like a pirate and you will end up in a pirate adventure.

Well  what do you all think? 

This is great news.  They will probably make more from this than they would have if they had gone the conventional route.  I hope their success encourages others to do the same.   I disagree with the notion that newcomers can't play at this.   I think a number of (perhaps many) bands, without recording contracts, make their money by playing live gigs and provide free downloads of their music and sell merchandise from their website.   It's perhaps a cheap way of becoming famous and really that's pretty much all a recording contract could do for someone anyway. 

Traditionally recording companies have provided all the "expensive" stuff such as the expensive recording equipment, manufacturing facilities, retail distribution channels, and the all important marketing functions and have taken the lions share of the resulting revenue in return.  Now we live in a world where recording equipment can cost less than a car and manufacturing and retail distribution are made obsolete by the internet.  It isn't hard to imagine a time in the not too distant future where talented musician's learn to team up with talented marketeers and bypass the traditional recording companies altogether. 

I think this is why the recording industry is going bananas filing lawsuits against everyone they can think of.  They are afraid that their talent will one day wakeup to reality as Radiohead seems to have and walk.  By the way the first RIAA lawsuit to make it to trial started today.  Of all the lawsuits brought all have either been settled or dropped by the RIAA before going to trial.  They were not able to get out of this one.  You can read about it here or here.