Messages

451

General Discussion / Re: Super Duper Stock Market Thread (Part Tres)

« on: November 27, 2008, 01:59:29 AM »

well, the S&P 500 is up a robust 17.97% since i posted that.  i'm some sort of prophet.

452

General Discussion / Re: Super Duper Stock Market Thread (Part Tres)

« on: November 20, 2008, 09:20:30 PM »

Now's the time to be buying stocks (and/or index funds, if you want to be more cautious or lack the time to try and research individual companies).  as the great investor Warren Buffett has said: "Be greedy when others are fearful, and fearful when others are greedy."  so 2007 would have been a greedy and stupid time to buy stocks (like yours truly did).  now is a much better time.  it may seem counterintuitive, with the economic chaos and frightening market performance.  but it should prove a good decision in the long run.  the distilled advice for stocks is "Buy low, sell high".  and if you buy here, you're buying pretty damned low, at least relatively speaking.

that's no declaration of a market bottom.  anybody who tries to do so is a compulsive gambler and a clown.  calling the exact bottom is a silly and pointless endeavour.  don't try to time this exactly, or you'll miss out.  it could go lower; so what; be patient.  if you have at least a few years to sit on it, buy some index funds.  for instance, SPY is the S&P 500 index fund.  the S&P just closed at an 11-1/2 year low today.  ouch.      it's down 52.3% from its all-time high on October 11, 2007.  the Dow and Nasdaq are at 5-1/2 year lows, and if they fall much more, they'll be setting decade-plus records like the S&P did.  a greater than 50% fall is more than what happens in the typical recession, from what i've heard, so it's possible we won't fall much further (though this recession is shaping up to be pretty bad).

i'm mainly buying index funds as opposed to stocks now, because i make a shitty stock picker, and index funds are safer, as you don't need to worry about a collection of dozens or hundreds of companies ALL going out of business.  i'm going with the Vanguard ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) as opposed to their underlying actual Index Mutual Funds, because ETFs allow you to buy in smaller increments (the funds make you spend $3000 for the initial purchase, which is too much for me).

i can list the index fund ETFs i've bought, if anybody wants.  (i can also list the individual stocks i own, but take those with a grain of salt, as i've proven to be a weak stock picker.)

453

General Discussion / Re: Gamefaqs + eternal stupidity

« on: September 19, 2008, 03:48:46 PM »

speaking of revive potions, someone should've posted this over here.  this guy is just so fucking dense and stupid it's actually kind of impressive:

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/genmessage.php?board=554041&topic=45404001

Lenophis did on September 12.

454

Pandora's Box / Re: Screenshots!

« on: September 06, 2008, 05:56:25 AM »

Is the 2x Jump damage property hardcoded or what? I remember reading that the new FF6A Lances don't have that property (not sure if it was fixed/changed in the Euro version).

I don't remember if it was attached to the icon or the range of weapons. assassin would know, though.

the SNES Bank C2 function to give 2x Jump damage for spears just did a hardcoded check of the item #s.  since the check apparently wasn't expanded for GBA's new lances, those weapons don't get the 2x damage (that's per GameFAQs users; i haven't tried out any new weapons on GBA).  dunno about the Euro version either, but i'll guess Square didn't catch or fix it.

455

Pandora's Box / Re: Suggestions

« on: September 06, 2008, 05:49:33 AM »

i can understand why, since once you've heard it, your life has reached its peak!

456

General Discussion / Re: Google Chrome

« on: September 04, 2008, 01:06:03 AM »

so that the browser doesn't crap on itself and you can close those windows that consume the most resources (fuck Flash).

i hear you on Flash.  i despise that blight on the Internet.  it's overused by websites, and too many of these bozos can't code for it properly, so there's memory leaks galore.  i'd disable it due to all the memory (and occasional CPU) disasters it causes, but CNBC and a couple other websites use Flash videos, so i don't bother.

as for Chrome, haven't used it, and in no rush to do so.  i'm currently using IE6, even though i know Firefox to be superior.  i got back in the habit of using IE in late 2006, after having used FireFox for a good year, and inexplicably haven't switched back.

has anybody here used newer versions of Opera?  i've used it up thru Version 7.  while the interface is fast and lightweight, i find the program is slow at actually downloading data from the Internet.  it's like whoever coded it doesn't understand connectivity ... unless it just hates my computer setup for some reason.  if newer versions improve this behavior, i might install them.

457

General Discussion / Re: RIP Don LaFontaine

« on: September 02, 2008, 04:04:04 PM »

"In a world ... without Don LaFontaine ... can one man rise to the challenge, and give justice a new name?"

sorry, had to.  it's a shame to hear he's gone.  very distinctive guy, and he seemed cool in some web interview i watched a few months back.  condolences to the family.

458

Gaming Discussion / Re: FF3/6 - Mirage Vest

« on: August 29, 2008, 11:41:34 AM »

it's good for the Retainer and Outsider Colosseum battles, where you need to dodge physical Death attacks (which aren't preventable by Memento Ring / Safety Bit), and you don't have the ability or control to cast Vanish yourself or use Fenrir.

459

Pandora's Box / Re: Suggestions

« on: August 29, 2008, 11:37:40 AM »

eh.. from a player's perspective, having two relics that let you hit twice seems a bit redundant.  one way to bring some relative heft to the Gauntlet is to apply my Genji Glove damage bugfix.

460

Pandora's Box / Re: Suggestions

« on: August 27, 2008, 11:39:35 PM »

i like that..  there's no reason the party shouldn't know the quantity of something it's holding.

and i dunno how one reminded me of the other, but i think the Scan spell should tell you what statuses a target currently has.  characters can only have their sprites modified to show so many statuses at a time, and enemies outright won't show most statuses (barring things like the healing/damage numerals for Regen/Seizure), so a more complete way of ascertaining would be helpful.   i remember talking to Imzogelmo about this idea awhile back.

461

Gaming Discussion / Re: FF3/6 - SrBehemoth

« on: August 24, 2008, 11:28:58 AM »

Yes. It seems we have this thing figured out, although it's odd that the animation worked fine for the Trappers before you changed their slots.

well, it worked fine for the Chaser.  the Trappers were dormant, so they rightfully didn't show up in the animation.

and it seems you've narrowed it down beyond what i had..  i thought maybe having a dormant enemy before a present enemy in a formation was throwing the animation, but from what you say, this animation is simply very limited.

This is still a possibility, I'll test it later.

i think what you said was right.  using the original Chaser+Trapper formation ordering, making the Trappers present rather than dormant, and using the aforementioned modified Chaser script (i.e. with the SrBehemoth fade animation on enemies #1-6), when i killed Chaser, it did the fade, and the Trappers disappeared suddenly.  so i modified the Chaser script command to use an FEh (fade enemies #2-6) as opposed to an FFh; this time, the first Trapper did the fade, while the Chaser disappeared suddenly along with the other 2 Trappers.  so my test was in keeping with your conclusion that "Now we know the real cause, stupid death animation must only work correctly with the first enemy its supposed to apply to. "

462

Gaming Discussion / Re: FF3/6 - SrBehemoth

« on: August 24, 2008, 10:20:21 AM »

*sees Db's edit*

i like how we crack these things in parallel. :)

and it seems you've narrowed it down beyond what i had..  i thought maybe having a dormant enemy before a present enemy in a formation was throwing the animation, but from what you say, this animation is simply very limited.

463

Gaming Discussion / Re: FF3/6 - SrBehemoth

« on: August 24, 2008, 10:15:23 AM »

re your previous post: gar, irritating inconsistency.

i found another formation with dormant enemies: Chaser + Trapper x3.  i hacked Chaser's counterattack script so all it had was "If monster is in formation #122 / If monster is dead/ Monsters #1-6 are killed, diagonally [i.e. the undead SrBehemoth fade]".  surprisingly, the animation appeared perfectly fine.

then i noticed that unlike dead SrBehemoth, Chaser is in the very first slot of its formation, and all 3 Trappers in later slots.  so i tweaked the formation to move a Trapper from Slot #3 to Slot #1, and Chaser from #1 to #2.

sure enough, its fade animation was replaced with the pause followed by the quick disappear  (i assume that's what you saw with SrBehemoths?).

i was gonna say you could switch living and undead SrBehemoths between slots #1 and #2 in both formations #424 and #452, and avoid having to edit the undead's script.  but living SrBehemoth has a position-dependent command in its script, so no go, as you'd have to edit that one instead.  motherfucker.

besides, i'd be uncomfortable relying on monster formation positioning to avoid the animation bug.  seems too damned arbitrary.  gives me nightmares about the Cranes.

464

Gaming Discussion / Re: FF3/6 - SrBehemoth

« on: August 24, 2008, 08:46:10 AM »

ok, that sorta makes sense..

It's reading treasure drop data from slot 1 in the second formation regardless of whether there's an enemy in it or not.

but isn't it reading the drop data from slot 1 _because_ it's determined the enemy in that slot to be dead?  and if it has, then why would a dead enemy be included in the animation (rather than ignored by it)?  or when you speak of "alive", do you mean there's some graphical flag?

EDIT: or did the graphical problem only occur in Veldt SrBehemoth battles, and not the original?

465

Gaming Discussion / Re: FF3/6 - SrBehemoth

« on: August 23, 2008, 08:36:49 PM »

The undead behemoth's death animation is incorrect because the non-present living one is technically still "alive" at the end of the battle.

if it's considered alive, then how's it coughing up any prize?