1

The Lounge / Bushfires!

« on: September 10, 2013, 02:06:02 AM »

My flood thread went down well so I thought I'd post about some more recent excitement in our area today. Bushfires came really close to pretty much everyone I know in the local area and some people had to evacuate. The RFS were good and managed to contain it. Some of the bigger fires are still burning now, and the smoke covered most of the Sydney metropolitan area from around 12pm. I just got power back so I'll be uploading stuff momentarily.



The view from a friend's backyard.



I took this while trying to find a way home past all of the cops who had 90% of roads blocked.



Map so you know roughly what I'm talking about. The red is obviously where the fires are/were, A is where I live (don't stalk me). There were more fires that are outside of the area I screenshotted, but I didn't want to zoom out too far.

Crappy videos I took today:

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2

Technology, Science & Alt Science / New Laptop

« on: June 03, 2013, 11:12:56 PM »

Need a laptop for school. Going to be word processing mostly, only games being played are things like CSS and Dota 2.

My preferred specs:

i5 3rd gen (looks like 4th gen will be too pricey).
Small SSD, not HDD.
Windows 7, Ubuntu or drivers only. No windows 8 or touch screen shenanigans.
Looks like I'll have to go with integrated Intel 4000 graphics if I want something under 15" that has good resolution and is reasonably priced.
13.3 inch screen.
Under or around $1000.

Anyone able to recommend anything? It's hard to find things at those specs.

3

Arts & Entertainment / Pacific Rim

« on: May 24, 2013, 06:43:36 AM »

If you have no idea what I'm talking about:

#ws" class="bbc_link" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Pacific Rim - Official Main Trailer [HD]

It's got Guillermo Del Toro at the helm (Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy series), with Charlie Hunnam (Sons of Anarchy) leading the cast. Most people I know seem to be pretty split about this movie, with some people saying it looks like another transformers/battleship/skyline, while others are really excited to see it.  I'm hoping Del Toro can pull off something that looks as silly as this.

What do you think, FES?

4

Arts & Entertainment / Archer

« on: March 19, 2013, 03:40:52 AM »

Does anyone here watch this show? Lots of people keep recommending it and I haven't had the time to watch it yet. Should I?

5

Technology, Science & Alt Science / CyanogenMod 10

« on: February 08, 2013, 01:33:02 PM »

Anyone here run this? I just installed it and gApps 4.2 after much hair pulling and stupidity on my behalf. I'm liking the customization options, although I don't know a whole lot about CM10 and what I can/should do with it.

6

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Japanese Whaling

« on: January 08, 2013, 02:34:59 AM »

Since one of our major politicians took up a spot at the helm of one of our anti-whaling ships the whaling debate has resurfaced among some Australians.

Most Australians are against it, citing the needless killing of endangered species. However, Japan claims that whaling is a cultural tradition and any criticism is born of anthropomorphism and racism. Japan also claims that modern whaling of certain species if largely sustainable. The UK and New Zealand also oppose commercial and research whaling, for similar reasons to Australia.

Should countries like Japan, Norway and Iceland be allowed to hunt whales? Why/why not?

7

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Piracy is legal in Australia?

« on: December 10, 2012, 05:06:39 PM »

http://www.geordieguy.com/illegal-movies-and-music-fact-sheet/

I guess this makes up for the lack of Netflix, release date lag, and overpriced goods.

8

Arts & Entertainment / DayZ Standalone

« on: December 08, 2012, 03:32:38 PM »

For anyone that plays/played the mod, the standalone should be coming out in under a month. Is anyone following this?

The mod: http://dayzmod.com
Standalone blog: http://dayzdev.tumblr.com

9

Technology, Science & Alt Science / Tesla Model S

« on: November 28, 2012, 02:20:36 PM »

Review and explanation of what I'm talking about:

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So I've seen lucky people in the states receiving their orders. $50,000 for the base model seems cheap as chips for a luxury car, but that's because we pay upwards of $100,000 for similar vehicles. I'd imagine most people would end up paying for the larger battery packs, but I honestly can't see why anyone would purchase a competing german luxury car anymore, simply because of the huge savings in fuel and maintenance/repair costs (of which the model s should have next to none).

So, does anyone here have the cash for one of these or plan on buying one?

10

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Pornography and Cartoons

« on: October 19, 2012, 02:05:22 AM »

http://ozarksfirst.com/fulltext?nxd_id=716162

I think it's retarded that people can be punished for looking at CP cartoons. I also think that it's counter productive as you can't 'cure' someone of having a particular sexual fetish, so CP cartoons are the only harmless outlet that paedophiles have.

Discuss.

11

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Australian Marriage Amendment Bill

« on: September 19, 2012, 01:47:01 AM »

So the federal parliament has voted overwhelmingly against the bill, with many major ALP members (including our atheist Prime Minister) counting themselves among those voting 'against'. My local labor member voted against, and while I didn't vote for him, I will be sending him a letter regardless.

I apologise for this only being relevant for our three or so Australian posters, but I felt it disgraceful that our government (which is largely secular) is still dicking around with such a simple issue.

Image of the result:

12

Technology, Science & Alt Science / Is my graphics card dead?

« on: September 07, 2012, 09:10:53 PM »

I've had blue screen issues for the last week (citing display driver problems), and just today the screen changed to blue vertical lines while I was playing a game. I rebooted, did some routine computer cleaning and made sure drivers were up to date. Unfortunately this made no difference as the computer hit me with the same screen as before, again while in game (blue vertical lines, no responsiveness at all).

I rebooted again but was met with more blue lines, this time vertical and horizontal, on the bios load screen. I booted into safe mode and played with drivers. Old drivers made no difference to the blue lines; they were still present in safe mode too. At this stage, I'm unable to boot into windows normally as the computer seemingly locks up on the black screen after the windows loading icon.

Finally, I tried system restore. Following this, the computer won't even allow me to boot into safe mode (the cursor comes up and can be moved, but nothing else). At this stage, I'm not sure what to do (and neither does Google). I guess I'm forced to try a fresh install, but I hate doing that.

The graphics card is an XFX Radeon HD 6850, bone stock. Its only a year old, so I'm not sure why its being problematic. The internal temperatures are fine, and the PSU is more than enough for a 6850. The set up is getting old, so I'm tossing up building a new rig or simply replacing the card.

13

The Lounge / Amateur astronomer buys telescope

« on: August 10, 2012, 04:01:20 PM »

10" Bintel Dobsonian. Should be able to clearly see the entire 32 miles of the moon with this.

Looking forward to spending lots of nights under the stars, getting familiar with the constellations and maybe even taking some nice images of the planets.

14

Arts & Entertainment / Guild Wars 2

« on: April 28, 2012, 02:37:02 PM »

Anyone remotely interested in this?

15

Arts & Entertainment / Tribes: Ascend

« on: April 14, 2012, 09:07:51 PM »

Thought this game deserved a thread, even though it's little known. It's basically a very high skill cap FPS that centers around movement and momentum. It's free to play, which means you have the choice of purchasing some gold for updates and unlocks or unlocking them through experience (and it doesn't require a huge amount for the classes and upgrades). " class="bbc_link" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">This video gives an idea of the skiing mechanic.

So if you enjoy any of the modern FPS games but have grown tired of the format, give it a roll. It's a lot more fun and takes a long time to master.

Here's a referral link if anyone is interested.

16

Arts & Entertainment / GoT S2

« on: April 09, 2012, 02:50:23 AM »

I've only watched the first episode (Piratebay, yarr!). I thought the LF scene was a bit out of character, and I expected them to open with the prologue (like last time). I otherwise enjoyed it.

Anyone seen episode 1 or 2 yet?

17

Technology, Science & Alt Science / Frustrating USB issues

« on: March 06, 2012, 01:22:51 PM »

I own a Dell Studio 17/1749. Ever since I purchased it (well over a year ago) it has had an issue with any USB device. Basically, when any device is inserted into any port, everything will run normally from anywhere between 15 seconds to 10 minutes before the computer locks up and requires a restart to recover.

I have tried absolutely everything I can think of, to no avail, including:

Upgrading every driver relating to the USB devices and the USB docks
Upgrading the BIOS and any other driver available from Dell
Uninstalling and reinstalling the USB dock and anything associated with it in the device manager (doing this works for 1 start up, then the problems return)
Changing Plug and Play settings to automatic from manual, and making sure it's running properly
Turning off the touch pad and uninstalling/reinstalling its drivers
Keeping windows up to date (lol)

And, finally, sending the laptop to Dell who claimed the hard drive was at fault (wat), who replaced it and sent the laptop back. The problem still persisted and warranty has since run out. I am going to try installing a pirated W7 setup, as I suspect Dell's shitty OEM software and drivers are at fault here. However, I cannot find anyone else with these problems on the internet.

Can anyone help with this?

18

The Lounge / Something interesting is happening here! (images)

« on: March 02, 2012, 02:37:40 PM »

The only bridges to the mountains in this area are about to go under water and cut off a couple hundred people, followed by flooding of low land areas.

Bridge 1:


Bridge 2:


(The water is normally 10 meters lower)

19

Arts & Entertainment / The Avengers

« on: March 01, 2012, 02:48:46 PM »

Anyone else looking forward to this?

20

The Lounge / It's now 2012

« on: December 31, 2011, 05:03:44 AM »

In the only place that matters.

Happy new year!

21

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Gay Marriage in Australia

« on: December 04, 2011, 01:28:14 AM »

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-12-03/labor-votes-for-conscience-vote-on-same-sex-marriage/3710828

Well, it's not exactly a huge step, but it's a start. Lots of people are getting excited, but I doubt the Liberals will let any changes make it through Parliament.

It'll be interesting to see if Australia ends up joining the growing list of countries that officially recognise gay marriage.

22

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Obama in Australia

« on: November 16, 2011, 01:13:33 PM »

So apparently he's only here to announce a larger US Marine presence in Northern Australia. What does America think of this visit? Someone did mention that he's mostly here for votes.

Either way, seeing him hugging kids on the news is more interesting than hearing about some celebrity couple in LA breaking up.

23

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Generic appalling news thread

« on: August 19, 2011, 07:00:26 PM »

Americans, here are your tax dollars at work:

http://www.kpho.com/story/15291366/casa-grande-woman-strives-to-be-worlds-fattest?hpt=us_bn7

http://susanneeman.com/

24

Technology, Science & Alt Science / A thread that isn't boring

« on: August 01, 2011, 09:04:55 PM »

So, recently, S&AS has been very dead. In the spirit of breaking this trend, I thought I'd post an interesting question that's only vaguely science related.

Say you have a time machine. This time machine allows you to travel to any point in time, but only for a day, after which you're instantly brought back. Also assume that you can change history if you like. Who would you meet? What would you do?

Now, a question not related to science at all; if you could have dinner with one person that's alive, who would it be?

Personally, I'd go back and meet Jesus to see if he's the real deal. I might also see how introducing the scientific method really early changes things. My dinner guest would be Steven Colbert, because I think he'd be an interesting person to hold a conversation with. Other people I'd like to have over for dinner would be Jonathan Coulton, and maybe Kris Kristofferson (who is that?).

25

Philosophy, Religion & Society / How to build a strawman

« on: July 25, 2011, 07:24:16 PM »

I stumbled upon this sometime today:

http://www.kotaku.com.au/2011/07/sunrise-seamus-and-jim-wallace-of-the-acl-discuss-oslo-and-modern-warfare-2/

tl;dw, The Australian Christian Lobby tries to push their agenda using what happened in Norway as an example of what happens when people play violent video games.

This discussion also seems to be very relevant elsewhere, but especially in Australia, where we have no R18+ rating for games (which basically means anything that would fit into this category is instantly banned or dubiously passed as MA15+).

26

Arts & Entertainment / Harry Potter 7

« on: July 20, 2011, 03:35:05 AM »

I know there's plenty of children around here.

Opinions?

27

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Burqa legislation

« on: July 05, 2011, 02:47:58 AM »

http://www.cnngo.com/sydney/life/law-speaks-take-burqa-333128

Being discussed a lot locally, people seem scared that it's offensive.

Opinions?

28

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Political Compass

« on: June 27, 2011, 01:19:58 AM »

I'm sure this has been posted here before, but Search refuses to cooperate. So, for lulz:

http://www.politicalcompass.org/test

Do it and post.

Mine:

29

Philosophy, Religion & Society / The Monarchy

« on: May 02, 2011, 04:36:10 PM »

Given the recent wedding of William and Kate, there's been renewed discussions regarding republicanism amid all the fuss and glamor.

Since there are a few Commonwealthers, and some brits; what are your opinions on the Monarchy?

30

Arts & Entertainment / Portal 2

« on: April 12, 2011, 02:35:12 PM »

Someone has to have this pre-ordered. Only a couple of days until it's released.

How do you think it'll turn out?