fuchikoma

Or hypothetically disallow certain tools, like hacking utilities or keygens? Actually, doesn't Android have something similar too? Or does it just receive a blacklist from Google and remove apps based on that? Either way, they pretty much lost me at "log in with your online account," though I'd assume there's a way to bypass that... Frankly I've pretty much only heard bad things about Win8. It sounds disastrous, and based on my experience with the preview, it doesn't seem like an exaggeration.

You could edit the config file (after backing up of course) to directly set the resolution, and if that fails, set it to run in a window?

Could you make it read the other account as a POP3 email account or something, forgoing advanced Hotmail features?

WTF... I loved Psygnosis, and really thought SL was nailing it lately with the last couple Wipeouts. (It's up to you now, Santa Monica...) No, but the real answer is still really confusing if I remember it correctly. DivX is the codec. DIVX is the disc format, which is completely and utterly dead now. DivX was originally an "MPEG 4" codec, hacked from Microsoft's MPEG 4 codec for WMV movies (or ASF at the time I guess.) This one would work on AVI too. The guys who made the hack of MS' codec called it "DivX," I guess in mockery of DIVX, and it was technically illegal, but still easy to find. It's worth noting that it's not REAL "MPEG 4" that we use today (h.263, h.264). Later, a company made an official, legal, legit DivX codec, beginning at version 4. Because I know some people here are in their early to mid 20s, I'll add that this was kind of the emergence of common codec formats on PCs. In the late 90s, I still preferred Intel's Indeo 5 as it had low CPU usage, even on very high res movies, and very low artifacting. As late as the mid 90s, if you got a movie... it could be in any format. CinePak was popular with Quicktime users, before Sorenson blew it away. There were various MJPEG-based codecs, all unique and incompatible with one another. It wasn't even that uncommon to get a movie encoded in a video card vendor specific codec, because that's what the capture software happened to use. Sometimes you'd get a video and just have to throw it away because there was no telling what it was in. Sometimes, you'd even find something uncompressed, at like 160x120 at 10fps. It's so easy these days! (Except h.264 with 10-bit colour... *grumble*) And now for something completely different...

Aren't they Sony, "Studio Liverpool" now? I know CoLD SToRAGE is still kicking around doing his own thing... They sort of did... it was infamously terrible. Still, I sort of prefer the walled garden approach on consoles - you just have to hope that the monarchy is benevolent. It is really great how you can lock-in to a platform, make your investment up front, and from then on, almost anything with the console's name on it "just works," exactly as it did for the developers. People who want flexibility still have wide options on PC and Android, but personally even as someone who troubleshoots stuff like that for a living, I prefer the peace of mind of consoles (troubleshooting, upgrading, malicious DRM, etc) even at the cost of graphics flexibility.

Actually I think it's a good question... I've worked in the IT industry since the late 90s and I still don't know why you could commonly buy OEM versions, other than "there were plenty to go around" and "obviously the stores that sold them to me didn't care about the 'Only for distribution with a new PC' label on them." I guess there was never very strict enforcement of OEM copy sales. Of course it's obvious why someone would buy them, since if you don't need support, a box, or sometimes a manual, OEM copies of all sorts of PC parts are just as good as retail versions.

Often my opinion of a song will improve if it gets stuck in my head unexpectedly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PO4S-NU90Jc

Lumines is definitely the kind of game that you can get the hang of - skill in Tetris and other block games doesn't quite seem to translate, but you can definitely get good at it. ...though I'm not getting any newer ones because they have the same issue as the original as far as I've seen: You can't save partway through and resume from a given level. Every time, you play from the beginning, and I got super sick of the first 3-4 songs, while never even hearing part of the later ones. It really limits the replay value on an otherwise great game.

(From Vita thread) I kind of liked Hazama as fighter bosses go - he seems like a regular fighter, just buffed way up. No full-screen attacks, pretty blockable if you see his attacks coming. Hakumen was actually the boss in BBCT - they tend to make them not cheat as bad as an SNK or Capcom boss IMO. You're right though, I've found you pretty much just have to wail on him constantly until he stops moving, preemptively barrier blocking a few times when he's going to attack. I haven't had problems finishing with a drive, I just do it just before/as the opponent slips out of claw range - but keep in mind my strategies are pretty much all for the AI opponents since it's rare I get a quick enough connection to play online. In single player there are lots of ways out, like even 2D, A (stop), 236BBBBB. No guarantees, but it's one way to mix it up a bit. Not sure what you mean by the rush thing, but the delayable 6C attack is great at knocking them down if you can connect.

(Maybe we should continue at the fighting thread if this keeps going...) I've actually only beaten him with Tao since she's my main. I never noticed the drain effect in his forcefield. I spent a lot of time in the air, trying to keep out of reach of his diagonal chain attack. 2B is a great quick low poke that connects a lot. 6A will bop him into the air slightly, opening him up to Cat Spirit 1, which you can usually finish with an extra shot from your drive button. You can also charge a Trick Edge while you're still mashing on A to slash in Cat Spirit 1, though if the spacing is a little off, you'll just streak away and dash back in front of him without hitting (you could also cancel it in midair if you see it about to fail though.) 6C is a powerful attack that can blow him back into the wall. I've finished him before by doing 6C, dash, 6C, dash, 6C, though that's probably pushing it a bit. I also got into the habit of using Cat Spirit 2 on the way down from any near jumps - it keeps the pressure on, and a good chain can knock back your opponent. But definitely use that heat bonus - taunt once when you can, and I recommend "I'mma Beat the Crap Outta You!" because it has great range and a very high chance of connecting (strategically, it counts as a throw, so your opponent can knock you out of midair or throw counter, but cannot block it.) Ultimately though, he's a fighter boss so he's a bastard... beating him the first time is probably a bit much since he's tougher than a bank vault.

I always found SNK bosses straight up impossible, but I beat Hazama after 2-3 tries... Even Seth gave me more trouble than that. I just had to defend well and wail on him... and taunting gives you a heat bonus against the CPU.

That one is actually the hardest, I think (they made you do another combo earlier, right?) The rest of the tutorials are much easier, until you get into challenge mode - which starts easy then flies into what you'd swear was meant as a parody or something.

If you're new to BB - I play as just about every character in every game, but not BB. It's a whole other game for different chars. Still, while I'm frustrated by the seeming requirement online for insane combos and the way that once you learn them, they change them, it is still a fantastic fighter series. Totally pointless buying upgrades for offline players, but I love the quick, definite action and the shifting strategies for each character. Catch me on PSN if you want an opponent who's... pretty experienced by now, but still not into deep combos, hitboxes, frame advantage and all that tourney-level stuff.

Dash cancel combo tutorial? I eventually did it, but never "got" it. It only took a few days... This probably isn't what most serious players would say, but I'd suggest just forgetting about it and playing the arcade mode. It's much easier to beat the boss than it is to clear the tutorial - and besides, lots of combos get broken when they release a new version (which was just announced, so the clock's ticking) anyway.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T43CUWK4g7I

I'm most excited to hear that you can use buttons to control the home screen and basic functions. That felt really stilted to me when I got my Vita, especially after coming from the slick XMB on PSP and PS3.

Or I guess you could get a stereo audio jack splitter, and a headphone-to-RCA cable if you just straight up want the signal to hit the speakers and the TV at the same time without any volume tweaks. Sadly... I don't know a software means of doing this though - you choose one output source, per program at best, but not multicasting to multiple devices.

I use a Berhinger UFO-202 - it's kind of an odd choice; it's made for ripping records, so it has a phono mode and a grounding screw. But it's cheap, and acts as a simple low-noise USB in/out sound device. It outputs to the headphone jack at the same time as the RCA output, and gives you an RCA line in jack to boot. It's possible you'll find something cheaper with similar abilities without the record stuff, but... it is pretty cheap. The only problem with my config is that I pass my game consoles through it, and if it's not powered by the PC, the sound quality suffers a fair bit. So I guess what I'm saying is it doesn't work too well when it's off.

It is possible to restrict the modem to the PC, but that'd typically be by MAC address, so you're good there... If your router's IP were static, it might keep you offline, but I would think if you reset everything, it'd be using DHCP to get an IP from your ISP like you would with just about every provider.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyS7_w7eP48 Finally cracking into Forza 4 (well, more like binging...) Halcali seems to make pretty good weekend driving music.