Noelio

Tuesday last week an old friend hung himself. Some that knew him more intimately said they saw this coming a while. Others, like myself, who knew him from working with him years ago as well as the local motorsports circuit in the summer months would not believe he was capable or in that dark of a place. The last time I spoke with him was months ago. Everything seemed fine. He was his goofy and pleasant self, not a hint of the level of depression or self hate he was experiencing. Not a sign to be seen and no ill vibe to be felt. Fast forward to now and people are coming out of the woodwork, "owning" his demise. Saying how they knew it was coming a while or how close they were to him and how sure they were that he would one day succeed in his quest to end his life. Some of his ex girlfriends are busy typing how much they loved him (Really? Didn't you all dump him?) in the forums and how they knew his dark side more than anyone, even one CONGRATULATING him on "finally getting his wish". Pffftttt! What is really pissing me off is how none of these common friends said anything to me or anyone else that could have got down to the bare bones of the problem or helped them wrestle through one more non fatal day. Yes we all have busy lives and our own crushing blows to deal with from time to time. Our personal worst experience is the worst we know and can feel. To some, losing a girlfriend or a car to the repo man is as bad to them as losing a family member or seeing their city torn by war and having to search for the body parts of their family members in a crater. Personal hell is a personal thing and one's personal worst and as bad as it can possibly be for them. Some suffer in silence and some out loud. I would like to think that when we know someone is at their worst and feel they are a risk we would do everything in our power to stop them from killing themselves and hurting many other people. I know things are bad for many (and have been for a while for some) and that we all have at least thought, at some point in our lives, how nice it would be to sleep it off rather than face the day or even put ourselves out of our misery. This case is no different. I'm not trying to own my friends death, but it kills me to know I could have done something IF I KNEW. Maybe I couldn't have done anything, but at least I could have tried and shook this feeling I have of "what if I did this... Or this..." It's a human thing to think such things even when we know there was nothing we could have done because we didn't know! In these times where people are losing it all, we really have to keep our ears, eyes and intuition tuned to those in trouble and be ready to spring into action. I know for a fact that I could have at least had a long chat with my dead friend. We had enough rapport to discuss anything. It's just in the macho motorhead world heart to hearts are rare. I'm angry, sad and sorry at the same time but not in a position to lose a tear right now nor another layer of enamel from my molars. I just wish that if anyone knows someone on the verge of collapse, have the heart to drop what you are doing and let someone that *can help* know, if you can't help any other way. Not the loony bin or the law enforcement people, that will only compound the problem and add to the motivation, I mean common friends that have some ability to help or a different level of rapport with the torn soul. Someone who will let the person know how much they will hurt those they love by pulling the trigger, tying the knot, popping the jonnys, cutting down the tracks or jumping from the bridge. Not to lecture the dead, however I thought about what I'd do if I ever got to that point. Well I'd think about some of these things: -Join the army and volunteer for the front line or to deliver a package. -Peace Corp! -Missionary/Aid work. -Volunteer at a shelter for the homeless or for homeless animals. -Talk to a church leader, even if you have no faith. Heck even start by saying you have no faith and that your life is now disposable. -Take the craziest risk known to man. Strip naked, hire a helicopter and ski down Everest. Broadcast to the world how your hatred for yourself made you do it. -Smash a window to a police station and go to jail a while, stew on it with no outside interruption or pressure. -Visit those that you feel hurt you and let them know how you feel. Nicely, however, and disconnect the lines between you and them permanently. Do this within moral and legal bounds of course. -Write yourself a suicide note and try to tell yourself why you did it. Take those points and use them as a checklist of your things to fix. Looking back on some of the greatest stories in my circle of friends and family. There are some people that shine brightly as success stories that have done some of the things above. When you ask them how they motivated themselves, in many cases, they say that they had nothing else to live for or do, threw a dart on a map and went to where it landed. Anywhere but here with anyone but us. ANYTHING OTHER THAN DIE, killing a piece of everyone that cares. Believe me, even if you have not one friend, there's someone that you could have helped or been a positive part of their life, now leaving a void or a space to be possibly filled with a negative. "The Butterfly Effect" really captures this notion of personal influence on a social network. There's been a lot of unexpected hardship around here lately and a lot of people testing out the life insurance system. I've known 3 in the past year. I found myself, tonight, preventing such a case. Not by taking the gun away or by hiding the knives but by talking to a friend over coffee and discovering a major source of stress I never knew of before that is driving them over the edge. The reason I got them out for a while is because someone close to them had the balls to call me and let me know that they are extremely worried about him and fear the worst any time now. This friend is very much down and out to the point he's about to lose everything. He doesn't and never did ask for anything or talk about how bad things are even though we have a friendship that goes back to high school. Only for the call I wouldn't have known anything was wrong. Hats off to those folks! The conversation eventually lead where I wanted it to go, 2 coffees, a spin about town and a 45 minute flight simulator later. His problems were well within my means to instantly rectify, as small as most would say they were but the worst possible to him, from his personal experience. COMPLETELY FIXABLE in 60 seconds! I told him to not tell a soul, no one, DO NOT pay me back and do not fall down like that again. It's a delayed christmas gift from God and God only and it's a once off and to pay it forward. Who knows how my life will be next year? I know I can tell him anything and count on him to the best of his ability and my problems should they ever develop should be well within his means to fix as he's usually doing pretty good, I thought he was earlier today! He did indicate his possible intentions to people he thought would brush it off. Instead they had the foresight to prevent a very possible, immanent suicide. I only wish I had known about my other, more distant friend, the monday before last. PLEASE... If you are at the end of your rope, do anything other than what you are about to do. You are killing a little piece of what's left GOOD in the world and killing those you love in ways you cannot imagine. What bothers me now is that I see so many people losing it all well outside my circle, but I fail to see those inside my circle. A lot of us are going to be tested soon enough and we have to be on the watch as more things go down the shitter.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I guess a 1 player game quickly becomes a cooperative game. Which could work if one of the players are a lefty. LOL This has got to be the funniest thing I've ever read.

Make sure the dickiculty is on A all the time. Things are harder, faster that way. Fun for the whole family! That is, if you have no children! LOL!

"Atari Fleshback: Joydick edition. A new way to beat your high scores.®" Just imagine PLAYING DECATHLON like that! My god, I'd never finish the hurdles or the shot put! Well, maybe the shot put. I'd say the high score club would take on a new life.

Could plug them in joystick port b and hook up a standard joystick to port a to initiate the ball in a 4 player game and test the paddles that way. Not 100% sure that will work but its probably worth a shot.

I used a very cheap "insignia" brand 27 inch crt tv for mine, nothing fancy just an svideo in, non flat screen and standard ole 4:3. Haven't tried any light gun games. That might be the only problem that I could be faced with. Other games I play on it out side of MAME (& look good enough) are Postal 2 and Tomb Raider Legend. Both look excellent and clear using only svideo! No issues at all otherwise and it is definitely good enough for the job. The one thing you are going to have to be a little choosy on is the video card's tv out. Many out there cause part of the picture to be chopped off or scanned wrong. Seems the ATI tv out is the most functional out of the box. Not sure what card I got but it is an ATI radeon based card. The ones I used that caused the picture to be chopped off using the TV are Intel, Nvidia, Matrox based. Your mileage may vary.

The XEGS doesn't have a monitor port either. Granted, it still has composite output (through RCA jacks), but it doesn't have the 5-pin DIN port that the other XEs have. Yes, but as most XLs and XEs only have composite on the DIN monitor port, changing the port was in fact an favour to most customers, for even though there currently are a large number of NOS DIN-to-cinch cables on eBay Germany (seller: "moppi"), they are otherwise quite hard to get., and finding DIN plugs for producing these cables sometimes also is an issue (OK, the DIN5 is one of the more common plugs even outside of Germany for MIDI cables and old PC AT keyboards have the same connector, but finding a DIN7 (XL/XE PSU) or DIN13 (ATari ST monitor) plug can become a real PITA). Thorsten Roland guitar synth (gk series) pickups use the din 13 cable, in case you need one in a hurry a music store should carry them.

I love the old XT power supply in the homebrew HDD box. Damn I love mysteries like this. Whoever gets it let us know the HDD details and if there's anything else interesting in the case. SC1435? Jeez I didn't even know this monitor existed!

Will the general look of this place change or is it a seamless transition? I can't imagine this place getting any better than it already is!!!

Guitari Hero!

Indeed get well Curt!!! You'll need a strong heart for all the success '09 / '10 will bring!

This game is definitely the best of the best of the best. If there's no super game of the century award for it I will be surprised. Before it I used to be stuck to GTA & Saint's Row. But this thing is massive, immersive and a heck of a lot of fun.

Food, these days, is lacking in just about everything beneficial. I guess if it wasn't for genetically modified food, we probably would have starved to death 2 billion people ago hehehe. Anyways I found out about this grape seed stuff while reading an article on leukemia a few months back. It basically functions similar to red wine but many times more effective. They use the french as an example of a society that should have a lot more cancer and heart ailments than they do, based on their diets. Grape seed extract makes sense as it is grapes that make the finest red wines. Blueberries do too. Reservatrol is turning out to be the wonder drug!!!

I think vinetra is the same thing. I found jamieson brand grape seed at wal mart for $15 today. It is 5000mg but there's 50mg vinetra in it. Good deal as the herbal magic place was selling 25mg for $32. Is that grape seed extract a lot different than Vinetra? I take Vinetra when I can afford it. Speaking of that kind of stuff, I wonder if this article that mentions chlorella has any truth to it: http://www.naturalnews.com/001302.html

Yep there's some very good treatment out there these days. On top of all the mainstream medical stuff, you should look into the grape seed extract and WHITE tea as well as a good macrobiotic diet. Grape seed extract kills 76% of cancer cells within 24 hours: (This was in mainstream publications too) http://www.healthnewstrack.com/health-news-900.html The main mechanism of action is the bioflavinoids / antioxidants in the form of reservatrol, which is the active component in red wine. Also good for the heart. White tea, grape seed and a general macrobiotic diet are super rich in those things. Never before has cancer patients had so many options. You are in my thoughts and prayers as well Anthony. I'm positive you'll be fine over the long haul.

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...cymbal+software If you would like to toy with the Atari 8 bit version.

Interested! Can paypal you right away. I'm in Newfoundland, Canada. I said PM, but whatever, you've got a PM. LOL! Sent! Got a little excited I guess. And hey... Have a coffee on me.

Interested! Can paypal you right away. I'm in Newfoundland, Canada.

My first real run in with 3d was tomb raider & quake on my old beloved 486 dx4-120 with an ati mach 64. Duke & Doom deserve a mention too. I think the N64 w/ super mario 64 & goldeneye kick started the real need for 3d. The dreamcast spoiled everyone as well. To this date, there's still something to be said for the fluid graphics & motion on the 3dfx voodoo cards. No choppiness or lagged drawing. Just amazing performance. I don't think there's been a card since with perfectly smooth 3d animation like that. Though the cards have much higher polygon counts, effects and general resolution. It really turned the pc into a console. Maybe I haven't bought a serious "enough card" since the voodoo. It's been all mid level ati and nvidia since.

That is very cool. I got a set of those sticks too. I haven't looked at the innards yet to size it all up. Surprised it fit ok though!!! For the jacks, I wouldn't bother unless you are real good with soldering. Though it would be nice and tidy. A wired/wireless switch might be tricky since the switch would be pretty large I imagine. Another thing you could do is just leave the jacks intact and jumper wire the contacts to the wireless. Then a simple power switch for the wireless could be employed instead. The power switch would be a LOT smaller than a 9 or 18 lead switch. The jacks would just be a pass through when the wireless is off. Still a pain soldering but hey! Great work!

Megamania Good ole space invaders Montezuma's Revenge Pitfall 1 & 2 Terrence & Phillip!!! May I suggest putting on billboard's top hits of 1978 right through to 1986 and putting it all on randomize as well as repeat. I did this recently during a couple "nerd out nights" I took as a "mancave vacation". It just about saved my sanity after one insanely busy year. Add beer, junkfood, good ventillation and turn off your phone's ringers! Tell people you will be unavailable for the duration. Even forward calls to a family member/friend if no contact freaks you out.

Thanks for bringing my attention to this subject, RT!!! You rock!

I would try running it through an old VCR or through a DVR. If it's the video the vcr or dvr component might act as a preamp for the signal. Otherwise I'd bet on the power adaptor, possibly. Does the whole machine reset as if the power was turned off? Or is it strictly as if the video cable was disconnected?

I can't imagine why they would take the PS2 aspect out of the PS3. I have the original 80gig machine with ps2 functionality. One of the reasons I got it was the huge library of ps2 titles playable on it. Why do companies do such stupid things?