Dispatcher

I have changed my mind on this. The graphics are of course much better on the PC. I have a relative who intends to build me a gaming rig, so I'm fine with that. I'll just furnish most of the parts. By the time that's all done, I suppose that NMS will have been patched again and the bugs mostly squashed.

Some things are just beyond words. I wish you well. I can't do much but I have contributed to a charity which has a proven track record of helping people during such emergencies. I recommend that if possible, people learn about well established charities and contribute; even if it is only a small amount. These small amounts can add up to making significant help to others in need.

Maybe!

I figure NMS will be ported to the Mac in time for our real sun Sol to reach its red giant phase in the aeons ahead. I agree about virtual machines. I don't want to build another windows machine (been there done that) and my iMac is 9 years old so it might not play well (if at all) even if I partitioned and put Windows on it. So if I am convinced to get NMS I'd then buy a PS4. I have watched a few streams of PS4 and now PC play just to see what I think and if that would change my plans regarding platform of choice.

Ma's secret to tender venison! Its a secret ... level. "A Long Awaited Drinking Party":

Check out this recent article at Rock, Paper, Shotgun: Infinity Its not too late to play!

Heheh! A lot of us had a crush on Penny. I forgot to list Firefly. I own the entire series on DVD. Too bad its such a small collection.

Any decent book store should have the books of H. G. Wells. Of course you can order online or go to the public library. Here is a trailer of sorts for an early movie based on the book (somewhat). If you know who Charles Laughton is, you will appreciate his acting. The trailers out there are not the best but the movie is actually pretty good. Island of Lost Souls:

TCM is the most watched channel in my household. We like the quality of most of the titles and love NO commercials (no DVR). I mean, the offerings span decades, genres and the "hosts" always set up the movies with something interesting about the production or the actors. A lot of the movies listed in the posts of this thread have been aired on TCM.

It would be neat if we could engineer microorganisms which would feast on the plastic trash and generate a biofuel byproduct and bind it so as to float in an easily collected mass. (And not eat the collection craft.)

Sounds kind of like those pesky tachyon missiles which reach targets before they were launched. (Example: Hero (the short story; The Forever War, the long story) by Joe Haldeman. These particles cannot be slowed down to or below the speed of light in a vacuum. I don't know much about Higgs singlets and CTCs (outside of Thrice Upon a Time). Hopefully someone else will chime in on this one.

I really think that with the age of the universe and vast stellar system count, it would be a challenge for our technologies to detect evidence of intelligent life in the known universe (and for that matter in just our galaxy) given that the Drake equation accounts for a civilization's detectable transmission (and also popular now; leakage) lifespan. We should not assume that we are able to observe all signals or observe all evidence of megastructures at a star. Even if we could, such evidences may have ceased reaching us (EM detection) just prior to our achieving such ability to observe, or such evidence might make its way to us anytime from next Thursday to the time Earth is a toasty ball skimming our red giant sun's surface in a half billion years.

You might want to reduce your dosage when you notice that your snout loves to root up truffles and that you tend to roll a lot in mud.

Yeah, I think NMS space combats will be more arcade style fighting than Elite and that kind of game; but that's just a guess on my part. I also like the more sandbox structure rather than a more story driven or mission driven, structured gameplay that some games require. Elite looks more structured than NMS. A dogfight sim game I enjoyed a lot years ago (and not at all realistic) was Crimson Skies, but it was fun. I spent half my time just designing and painting planes.

Yes. Looks and sounds really good. My brother isn't much into space combat (and I'm not too good at it [but I was a good pilot and driver in Halo multiplayer]). I'm interested more in exploring places where its likely that nobody else will go (much less find). We used to make 3rd party maps/ levels for a variety of games (Marathon Infinity, Unreal Tournament, Serious Sam, some open source games like Sauerbraten, etc.) and I've been known to play games in Wuss mode so I wouldn't be bothered by the bad critters; all so I could explore the levels and see how they were designed. Who knows; maybe NMS will spark an interest in other games, Elite being one of them.

After I commit to buy the game (and the platform), my brother and I and a few nephews plan on getting together weekly and play the game while on a voice chat app. Our intention is to play the game normally (?) and head for the galactic center; eventually to meet up on an agreed upon space station, followed by planetside fun.

Just search "No Man's Sky update" and you'll find plenty of You Tubors (spelling intentional) hyping it up. I went to the No Man's Sky website and read about the update there. It does contain spoilers, but I found much to enjoy there. I'm looking forward to it.

My experiences were similar to some others posted above; spanning decades. My list is large since I never left my first childhood. Everyone should grab some popcorn and soft drinks, gather around the TV, darken the room and watch Things to Come (before my time) ... ... then followup on similar occasions with: Black Friday (also before my time), Day the Earth Stood Still (original), Forbidden Planet, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Them!, This Island Earth, It! The Terror From Beyond Space, The Thing (the original was scary and the remake is best watched on an empty stomach), 20 Million Miles to Earth, The Fly (the original was scary enough), Journey to the Center of the Earth (no conspiracies please), Dr. Strangelove ... , The Time Machine (a few good ones but I like the one with Rod Taylor), 2001: A Space Odyssey (in the theater was best), The Killer Shrews (gotta get in some silliness sometimes), Journey to the Far Side of the Sun, The Illustrated Man, Seconds, Fantastic Voyage, Planet of the Apes (original and remake) (the "sequels" were a bit of a let down), Andromeda Strain, Soylent Green, Westworld, Star Wars (IV), Alien (and sequels; this is where leaving it up to the imagination went out the window), Jurassic Park, The Fifth Element, Red Planet, Event Horizon, Pitch Black, Supernova, A Sound of Thunder, Avatar, The Book of Eli, Interstellar and many others that are less influential but still fun or interesting. The biggie: in bold above. That was to be the future. Leave it to the politicians (gotta blame someone) to mess that up. And yes, I've read the novels upon which several of these movies were based; recommended. Television? The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits (TOS and the new series), Fireball XL5, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (quasi science fiction), Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (love the completely illogical engineering nightmare of the Flying Sub), Star Trek and all its spin offs (but not the "milk the franchise" work by Abrams; but see later), Lost in Space (the first handful of episodes, before Irwin Allen and the one time diabolical Jonathan Harris changed it to compete against the campy Batman), Time Tunnel, The Invaders, U.F.O., some minor stuff that escapes me for the 80s and 90s), Dune (not Sting and the heart plugs; but the miniseries and sequels on the original SciFi channel back when it was mostly good stuff, before the name change to Sy Fy and its loads of Sharknado dreck), Lost, Jericho, some others along similar themes. Plenty of stuff out there and too much to mention. I know I've left out some good ones and I know some of them are mentioned by others.

Myth II has Olympic events; such as archery, swordsmanship and molotov cocktail throwing. It's "Down a Broken Path":

Just had a slow powerful storm pass through. Turned the sky black (sun still up). Plastered one side of my house with leaves and left piles of hail by the house. So much rain that a nearby ditch was filled and water covered most of the road next to it. It was very loud and had a lot of lightning. Most impressive what nature can do ... and the electric service was not interrupted. Too bad you guys with fires didn't get some of this stuff. I didn't take photos because it was just a black sky.

So my question is, "if the Earth is flat, why are there mountains and valleys and ocean trenches?" OK, OK, for real this time ... "If the Earth is flat, what shape is it? Bonus question (for either question): Why?

I have no words; that is bad and I'm sorry that it is happening there in the Canary Islands and near you. Such things occur in my state in the American Southwest and are often due to the idiocy of one thoughtless (or criminal) individual. I wish you well, Green Baron.

I've lived in the "deep South" and I know 3 things. In the summer, one can shower and dry off indoors, go outside and get the mail or just go outside. By the time you get back inside, you'll want to take another shower. In the summer, there is no way to dress to keep cool. In the winter, the cold goes right to the bone and dressing for it makes little difference.

Of course of equal importance with temperatures is humidity. High levels of both will make you suffer and die, if you get enough of them.

You've shared some interesting things, Green Baron. I'll touch on some of them. Your point is well taken in that regardless of profession (be that employment or belief), everyone is human and so "honesty" is a variable differing from person to person, be they scientists, clergy or game developers. I believe that most scientists are honest (at least if they want to succeed following peer review ); in general I think most people are honest most of the time. Science certainly explains many things and I expect that as time goes by, science will continue to deliver. By virtue of the scientific method, some things are, I agree, not in the domain of science, such as the supernatural. I also agree that education can and should be robust. I don't have a problem keeping "religion" in the form of religious courses off the campus. Churches and other institutions can teach what they will to those who want to attend. I've never thought there should somehow be some kind of "equal time" where Darwinism and "creationism" share time in a school classroom. At least I grew up without that. In fact, a creationism course would be impractical due to the fact that religions themselves have so many different ideas about creation. By the way, I have never known anyone that has claimed that the earth is only 6,000 years old; as an example. I think its rather presumptuous of any group to consider itself above other groups or people. Many religions seek to help the individual to realize that everyone has worth and potential. They also do a lot of charitable good in communities (food, shelter, clothing, etc.), thus reducing the burdens placed on local and national governments. Of course individuals can do so without needing to belong to some kind of organization, but an organization, as the word implies, can multiply the effort. As for "correctness and incorrectness", we can expect great scientists and great theologians, "mad scientists" and swindler preachers; a large range in between as well. That's the human condition. Well, in a sense, we seem to be in an "alpha version" since we do not perceive all of known existence as "perfect", whatever that is. Again, I think everything is a part of something ongoing and not the finished products; despite what is expected of [edit: maximum /edit] entropy in future aeons. The alpha idea has merit because a tenant of many religions is that the existence in which we find ourselves is a time of testing and refining; and the tests include opposition in the forms of agony, joy, accomplishment, failure, fear, confidence, etc. Maybe religion is at its best when it doesn't try to explain everything, but insists that we keep trying to better ourselves and lend help to others around us when they are at the limits of stresses that life may throw their way. I will check out that real time terrain generation/ rendering link. That's all exciting stuff to me. My computer is over 9 years old and will not be able to accept the next version of OS X. So I'm going to have to start thinking of getting a rig capable of handling some of the latest and future games. As for No Man's Sky, that's a good reason to own the right console anyway. As much as appreciate Apple, I know that I might as well wait for ultimate [edit: state of (don't type when tired) /edit] entropy as to wait for No Man's Sky to be ported to the Mac.