MrRant

Oh god.... AS and I both Roman Catholic?

I'm not overly religious but it's almost getting to the point where I consider Atheists to be just as bad as the religious wing-nuts. They are both too extreme for my tastes.

I would agree with Kahran.

Well in a way it is. There lately has seemed to be a targetting of Christian holidays but others are ok since I guess they are trying to make up for all the lost time.

If you don't mind me asking, why don't you support homosexual civil unions? Because it doesn't go well with cheese.

Well I'm awaiting Ripper's response.

Supporton the Orton? I like "Support the Ort" better.

So would you take a WS this year in exchange for 5 years of Tigerdom?

Would you want a hummer from this?

I'll probably be banned when kkk is.

Steph was so much hotter with the whore gimmick.

Say it isn't so! The one segment of the electronics market that's supposed to do well each and every holiday season -- video games -- appears to be sagging this year. The Los Angeles Times shed some light on why that is in a trend piece yesterday: "Retailers and game publishers blame the lack of blockbuster titles to lure people into stores and Sony Corp (NYSE:SNE - news) (news - web sites).'s decision not to cut the price of its popular PlayStation 2 (news - web sites) console." Already, the experts are predicting a drop in game sales this year: "Close to half of the $12-billion game industry's annual sales occur in the last three months of the year. In 2002, retailers logged about $6 billion in game sales from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31. Analysts differ on what will happen this year. Some predict as much as 8% growth while others forecast a 5% decline. They agree that sales haven't exactly been swift," the L.A. Times added. Things could turn around in the last two weeks before Christmas, "ut the lackluster start caused investors to throttle back game company stocks in recent weeks. Shares of Redwood City, Calif.-based Electronic Arts Inc., the world's biggest independent game publisher, have fallen 15% since the beginning of November. They closed at $42.48 on Monday. Calabasas-based THQ Inc. has fallen 12% to $15.20 in the same time frame, while New York-based Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. dropped 23% to $29.65. All trade on Nasdaq." • The Los Angeles Times: Video Game Makers Miss Pull of Key Title (Registration required) The Boston Globe today tried to explain what's behind the video game bust. "Despite the long lines at the software store, this is a rather depressing Christmas for computer gamers, whose stockings will be a bit lighter than they'd expected. All year, we've been looking forward to three spectacular new games, sequels to some of the best and most popular games ever. Yet, incredibly, we're still waiting for all three," the newspaper said. "The first bit of bad news came back in March, when Microsoft Corp. announced that Halo 2, the sequel to its flagship Xbox (news - web sites) game, wouldn't be ready in time for the holidays." The second piece of bad news, the Globe said, is that Doom III, the follow-on to the popular Doom games, has been shelved until next year. And "the worst and oddest of all the disappointments arrived in September, when developers at Valve Software reported that they'd been robbed. The firm's computer network had been raided, and the nearly complete code for their newest game had been stolen and published on the Internet. The game, alas, was Half-Life 2," which the newspaper called "the most anticipated PC game of all. But with its secret code revealed to the world, Valve canceled plans for a Christmas release." • The Boston Globe: Want Sequels? Better Luck Next Year It's not just a lack of new titles, but no new hardware to cheer this Santa season, the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram pointed out. "This year, gamers, and those of you assigned to buy Christmas presents for us, won't have to do much battling at the local video-game store: There's no new super-cool system to buy. And there won't be until, at least, 2005. The Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft's Xbox 2 and Nintendo (news - web sites)'s latest and greatest, and still unnamed, system won't be on the shelves for another two years," the paper said. • Ft. Worth Star-Telegram: Joysticks To the World Despite this, USA Today yesterday still ran a list of its best picks of video games for 2003, though the piece noted that "Doom 3, Halo 2 and Half-Life 2, probably the three most anticipated games, have been delayed until March." • USA Today: Best In 2003 Gaming -- Picks To Push Your Buttons A Temporary Blip? A piece from CNET's News.com might offer some comfort to the video game industry. The news organization noted that "[o]ne of the most heavily touted concepts of the Internet boom was 'convergence' -- the notion that practically all consumer technologies, from television to instant messaging (news - web sites), would be housed in a single box. Digital soothsayers spent years debating whether this all-in-one device would look more like a TV or a PC, the two most obvious contenders. To date, neither side appears to have been right. Instead, to the likely surprise of most shoppers this holiday season, the box of the future may end up being the humble game console." The piece also gives the industry some credit for innovation: "Game companies are expanding their technologies, in part to avoid being eclipsed by digital video recorders and other living room boxes that have similar survival instincts. The experiment could have multibillion-dollar consequences for industries as diverse as computing, consumer electronics, entertainment and communications, while redefining household entertainment." • CNET's News.com: Game Industry Leads Race For Digital 'Uberdevice' The Seattle Times has been running a series of articles on video games, with a piece from Sunday focusing on companies' efforts to lure new gamers with add-ons to the traditional gaming joystick and mouse. "With competition being what it is and the stakes what they are, it's natural that some companies take a portion of their efforts to try something new and different," Vince Broady, founder of gaming site GameSpot, told the newspaper. "That's why you see EyeToy and 'Dance Dance Revolution.' They're sort of staking out new territory which takes traditional game play and stands it on its head, and gearing it toward a different kind of user." More from the article: "Entertainment Software Association President Doug Lowenstein has made a mantra out of his claim that innovation is the biggest challenge to the $8 billion industry he represents. The reason, Lowenstein says, is there's now 'a more focused effort" from game companies to expand their market from the current average player, who's a 29-year-old male. The process is slow, but for instance, the percentage of gamers older than 50 has risen 10 percent since 2000.'" • The Seattle Times: New Active Video Games Are Gunning For A Wider Audience Meanwhile, a separate article today from CNET looked at the battle between Microsoft and Sony over which company will dominate the video game industry's move into home entertainment. "If you look at the overall company strategy, Microsoft views the PC as the center of the home, and Sony views the TV as the center," IDC analyst Schelley Olhava told the news service. "The distinction has sharpened, as the two powerhouses compete head to head in the game market, where they are taking strides toward digital convergence -- the combination of diverse multimedia and communications technologies in one device. There are important consequences to the development of PlayStation and Xbox that transcend the game businesses of both companies, as they map out broader strategies at critical junctures in their corporate histories. And because Sony and Microsoft are leaders in their respective fields, analysts and competitors are monitoring the rivalry for clues to the future of consumer technology." The question is will their advances do enough for this holiday season? • CNET's News.com: Players -- Clash of the Titans One Game Goes PC (Sort of) The raunchy "Grand Theft Auto" series is among the most popular video games on sale, but Take-Two Interactive Software has been expending energy to fend off criticism of its "Vice City" game. The "New York-based video game company announced yesterday that it would make changes to [the game] that had provoked angry protests from Haitian immigrants and city officials. The best-selling game features dialogue at one point that exhorts players to 'kill all the Haitians,'" The New York Times reported today, noting that the company apologized and promised to strip the dialogue from new copies of the game. • The New York Times: Video Game Maker To Drop 'Kill Haitians' Line (Registration required)

<--- Nominates self for Most Valuable Poster.

Depends on the issue.

Maybe. I would try Spybot before HijackThis since that is mostly for browser hijackings.

Ummm.. no. 1. You aren't cool enough. 2. You aren't elusive. 3. You definetly aren't sinister. You're a hippie.... or at at the very least a yippie.

CTRL-ALT-DELETE

I like gravy on my French Fries as well. Good stuff.

Umm... Go here - http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcen...moval.tool.html Follow instructions. Get antivirus/firewall from Things You need thread.

OMG FAUX NEWS 2003 LOL~! Dedicated to KKK.

By JILL BARTON, Associated Press Writer WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Appellate judges ordered a new trial Wednesday for a teenager serving a life sentence for killing a 6-year-old playmate, raising questions about whether child murderers are competent to be tried as adults and locked away with no hope of parole. The judges at the 4th District Court of Appeal ruled Wednesday that Lionel Tate's first-degree murder conviction and life sentence should be reversed because Tate's competency should have been evaluated before the trial. The boy's lawyers had claimed he was imitating pro wrestlers when he killed Tiffany Eunick in July 1999. Tate's family turned down a plea bargain before the trial that would have given him a three-year sentence. "A competency hearing should have been held particularly given the complexity of the legal proceedings" and Tate's age and known learning disabilities, the judges wrote in a nine-page ruling. At a minimum, the court said, the judge had an obligation to ensure that Tate understood the plea offer and the possibility that he could get a life sentence if he rejected it. However, the court did not challenge the Florida law allowing children to be tried as adults. "Florida courts have long recognized that there is no absolute right requiring children to be treated in a special system for juvenile offenders," the opinion said. Tate's attorney had argued before a state appellate court that the boy, who was 12 when he killed Tiffany, was too immature to understand what was at stake when he was on trial in 1999. Tate was convicted of first-degree murder as an adult and sentenced to life without parole, as state law requires. He now lives in a maximum-security juvenile prison. A clemency request had been pending with the state's clemency board. Defense attorney Richard Rosenbaum said Wednesday that Tate's refusal of the plea offer shows how "clueless" the boy was about court proceedings. "We're ecstatic ... I thought from the very beginning that this was an accident," Rosenbaum told CNN. It was not immediately clear whether Tate will be released from prison or retried. The Florida attorney general's office and the Broward County state attorney's office did not immediately return calls Wednesday seeking comment. When the three-judge panel heard the appeal in September, Judge Martha C. Warner asked prosecutors what safeguards protect a young child from Florida's broad law that allows any person, regardless of age, to be prosecuted as an adult. "There's no discretion exercised at all in this — no societal judgment," she said then. "Age is not a consideration. That is what was argued through the whole trial." Judge Fred A. Hazouri asked then what is to stop prosecutors from charging a 6-year-old with murder if the child gets angry at a Little League game, picks up a bat and kills a teammate. "At what point do we say as a society that that is just too young?" Hazouri said. Assistant Attorney General Debra Rescigno would not answer then what age would provide a reasonable cutoff for a murder conviction. She said Tate's life sentence was deserved because he horrifically beat the girl for more than five minutes. No one disputed that the 170-pound Lionel beat Tiffany to death in the Pembroke Park home he shared with his mother, who was baby-sitting for the 48-pound girl. Kathleen Grossett-Tate, a Florida Highway Patrol trooper, was asleep at the time. An autopsy showed Tiffany suffered a fractured skull, lacerated liver, broken rib, internal hemorrhaging and cuts and bruises. Tate's trial attorneys argued he accidentally killed her while imitating the moves of professional wrestlers he saw on television. Lionel told police that he picked Tiffany up and accidentally hit her head against a table. He later made a videotape with a court-appointed psychologist where he claimed to have accidentally thrown Tiffany into a stair handrail and a wall while trying to throw her onto a sofa. But the defense's own experts conceded that Lionel's story would not have accounted for all of Tiffany's injuries, which one prosecution expert said were comparable to falling from a three-story building. Family members had refused the plea bargain because they insisted he was innocent.

There is no apology good enough to make up for a forgotten reach around.

^ Supposedly has a story.

The Apple ][ Wolfenstein 3D bitches. Ahhh.... DOOM....

Is it in the Startup Folder for some reason?