Draginol

Reply to Elections and Universal Suffrage in Politics JoeUser Forums

Russell, two things: First, the bill of rights still protects people. So they wouldn't have to wear funny hats. ;) Secondly, if I were emperor, I would create a system where every adult has to pay some minimum amount in taxes that would be based on the total federal outlays divided on a per capita basis. Example: If there are 200 million adults and the Federal budget is 2 trillion, then each person would have to pay some % of that. It would be set at a relatively low p

Arnold and California in Politics JoeUser Forums

Seems like everyone is writing about the recall in California. It makes for an exciting story but the aftermath won't likely be nearly as exciting. You already hear the Democrats complaining about lack of polling places (apparently it was too much to have to fill out a ballot and mail it in for these people). But here's some sobering realities: California is a mess. Why any business would locate itself in California is beyond me. If any state should have been chopped up into

A Pacificist Germany in History JoeUser Forums

Sgt. Striker makes a pretty good case showing just how much the Germans have changed since 1939. He also mentions that Poland, rather than Germany, is now the center of martial prowess in continental Europe these days. Here's Europe just before World War I (1914). The

Elections and Universal Suffrage in Politics JoeUser Forums

At the risk of being an anti-populist (and worse), I'll be up front: I don't agree with universal suffrage. There, I've said it. Go ahead, call me names. I'm a bad bad man. But there's a reason for my view on this. I don't believe that those who don't contribute to the treasury should be allowed to dictate what is done with that treasury to those who do. Calor writes in "Why the left hates Bush"</

Reply to Why the left hates Bush in Politics JoeUser Forums

Question: How is Bush running the country into the ground?

Reply to shhhh....Deep under cover... in Software Development JoeUser Forums

Very cool. Looking at the long view is definitely the way to go. It's always tempting to just do what's expedient and then pay for it forever. In Entrepreneur, because of a deadline, we implemented the unit moving in a very hackish way that turned out to be so limiting that if we do a Corporate Machine 2 (TCM was the sequel to Entrepreneur) we'll have to basically start from scratch -- i.e. there's virtually no game code that's salvageable.

Reply to Weekend at Porkies. in Home & Family JoeUser Forums

Mmmm. Trees. ;)

The Economics of Skin Sites in OS Customization JoeUser Forums

What is a skin site? A skin site is a kind of file download site. The world's most popular download site, Download.com, is ranked 47th in the world by Alexa. The kind of bandwidth it must take to run that site is astronomical. Last week, the most popular file on Download.com received over 2.3 million downloads (Kazaa). WinZip, the most popular ZIP manager, received 426,000 downloads. Skin sites don't get anywhere near that kind of traf

Adding visual styles to Windows XP in OS Customization JoeUser Forums

I regularly get asked "So what exactly is WindowBlinds?" or "Why would I use WindowBlinds?" So here's the marketing stuff all together. ;) Info & Requirements Developed by: Stardock Corp. (www.stardock.com) Price: Trial version is free for unlimited time. Enhanced version is $19.95. Can also be purchased as part of Object Desktop suite ($49.95). OS Requirements: Windows XP or Windows 2000. Windows 9

MSStyles & UXTheme & Stuff in OS Customization JoeUser Forums

The Rant: Skinning on Windows XP, the truth vs. marketing I'm in a ranting mood today. So here on my blog, I'm going to talk about the whole msstyles, uxtheme, thing on Windows XP. Windows XP allows you to change the look and feel of its GUI between "Blue", "Silver", and "Green". It does this by applying what is called a visual style. It comes in a format called .msstyles. But only Microsoft can make MS digitally signed msstyles and Mi

Royalties or lack there of in Philosophy JoeUser Forums

Our company deals a lot with consumers. Which means, inevitably, there is a certain percentage of people who think we're a bunch of crooks. I take that really personally. I know I shouldn't, it's the nature of doing business on the Internet. But people just have no idea how dirty the business world is. It's the start of a new quarter which means Stardock is paying out its royalties to those developers who are paid in that manner. We've never missed a payment. Ever.&n

Stardock? Where'd that name come from? in Blogging JoeUser Forums

A user asks: > > However one minor thing missing I think. How did you come up with the > > name Stardock exactly? That's actually a funny story... So it's 1991 which is when I founded Stardock Systems (DBA, Not incorporated at this point). I got ahold of a whole sale PC parts catalog which, back then, was a pretty big deal. I called up the place to start ordering parts for a PC and the guy on the phone says "What company is this for?" Being a stupid 20 year

10 years of Stardock in OS Customization JoeUser Forums

Introduction October 2003 marks the 10 year anniversary from when Stardock was first incorporated. It's really hard to believe that it's been that long. Age creeps silently upon us and as I've looked at recent photos, I can tell that I'm no longer the "kid" I was when this all began. I founded Stardock while I was attending Western Michigan University. It was supposed to be a temporary

Reply to Remember Nibbles and Tetris? in PC Gaming JoeUser Forums

I got to level 9. 15,770. blocks: 259.

Reply to Bias in the media? Note what is reported on in Politics JoeUser Forums

Indeed. While everyone is guilty ofmessing with stats on occasion, the left does it in the most cynical way. Across the board tax cuts do indeed benefit "the rich" than everyone else in terms of who gets raw dollars because they pay the most taxes. Half the adult population pays essentially no taxes. So a tax cut for them means nothing because they aren't paying to begin with. The top 10%, however, pay over 90% of the bill. So a flat 10% tax cut for everyone means tha

Reply to StarCraft: Back in the day... in PC Gaming JoeUser Forums

Too bad you weren't at Stardock during the day... Because you would have gotten your wish. Stardock did the official Starcraft add-on called "Retribution". Imagine spending 8 hours a day, 5 days a week for 6 months playing Starcraft all day. You migth find, at the end of those 6 months that you didn't like Starcraft anymore. ;)

Reply to Lit like Britney Spears in Software Development JoeUser Forums

Drool!

Reply to Is Health Insurance a Basic Human Right? in Politics JoeUser Forums

That's kind of the downside of a democracy. People who don't contribute to the treasury are still allowed a say in how that treasury is spent. It's like having a neighborhood association of 100 homes where 51 homes don't pay in but still get to insist that there be a public pool built, paid for by raising the dues on the 49 people who actually pay but are against the pool idea.

The war against piracy can't be solved by a mechanism in PC Gaming JoeUser Forums

I recently wrote about this topic here . But I wanted to write a more succinct version of it since some people thought I was advocating something akin to Internet Product Activation to thwart piracy. Let me first Bottom line this: CD based copy protection does more harm than good. Let me then add: There is no magic bullet that will stop piracy. Game developers need to quit trying to solve piracy via some

Reply to Bias in the media? Note what is reported on in Politics JoeUser Forums

With regard to Wilsongate, I think the main reason it didn't get reported is that the story is "complicated" relatively speaking and not terribly interesting. Some minor operative that was the spouse of an ambassador was leaked to the press. This wans't some "spy". That was someone who already had diplomatic immunity anyway. It's something that needs to be looked at but doesn't really rise to the level of being front page news in my book.

Imagine if D-day were covered by CNN in History JoeUser Forums

Imagine if World War II were covered like Iraq is being covered. Most people today seem to think that after D-Day the Americans just stormed into Germany and the war was over. Far from it. Instead, for the first couple of months the Americans and British got stuck in "Hedgerow" country in northern France. A stalemate was largely the result as it took considerable time for the Americans to break out. But imagine if CNN were covering that. You'd have in

Bias in the media? Note what is reported on in Politics JoeUser Forums

Those who say there isn't a liberal bias in the media should take a closer look at what the media chooses to report on. It doesn't even take long to discover that the issues that get reported tend to be ones dear to liberal causes. Let me give you a good example: Today the news covered how any millions of people are not covered by medical insurance. It was reported repeatedly on NPR, CNN, ABC News, and CBS evening news (didn't see NBC but I bet it was reported

Is Health Insurance a Basic Human Right? in Politics JoeUser Forums

There was a report, repeated often on the news today, that there are now 44 million Americans without health insurance. So what? No, seriously. What exactly does that mean? Does it mean you can't get medical care? No. What it means is that if you need medical care that you are responsible for paying for it yourself. In other words, there are 44 million Americans whose health care isn't pay for by someone else (i.e. such as their employer as part of their compen

DesktopX 2 Gamma Info in OS Customization JoeUser Forums

A new version of DesktopX is out. We've been working like crazy to get out the little buglets and make it more useful in a very apparent way. The big thing in the gamma can be summed up in stability, performance meter support, system info support, and multi-monitor support. 1.99 GAMMA Worked on multimonitor support. Now IX works with multiworkarea so it can place icons on all monitors and behave correctly even when changing monitors dispositions,

Reply to Moore Me Me Me Me! in Politics JoeUser Forums

BTW, beware of taking general statements and turning them into absolutes, "Mr. Frog". I believe in a basic safety net. The biggest takers from the troft today are actually the elderly. 65 years was "really old" in 1933 when the average life expectancy was 51. But now, a person who lives to 50 can expect to live to 80. As a result, we have people living for many years on social security and medicaid that is vastly beyond what they paid in.