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Energy Based Weapons

2009-07-27T04:41:29Z

Through my recent watching of 3 out of the 4 big star based fan franchises
(Wars, Trek, Gate & Galactica) I have notice that each series has 1 primary
energy based weapon that gives its user an unbelievable advantage.

First off is Star Wars. And we all know about one of the coolest weapons
ever conceived. I give you, the Lightsaber:

Used most of the time for close combat.
Can injure enemies from a distance by deflecting blaster fire back at them.
Most torso (head & abdomen) hits are considered fatal.
Extremity hits are generally non-fatal but in the event of a severed limb
said limb cannot be reattached.
Aftermath leaves no blood since wound is caused by energy based weapon.

Next we have Star Trek. "Phasers on stun" is a famous line from Captain
Kirk. I give you, the Phasor:

Used most of the time for distant combat.
Generally pretty useless for close combat situations. Almost always leads to
hand to hand.
Does not matter where on the body it hits.
Has a convenient "Stun" and "Kill" setting that does exactly what it says.
Aftermath leaves no blood since wound is caused by energy based weapon.
(Unless you are a Klingon from Star Trek VI, then there will be blood
everywhere)

Finally we have Stargate. The longest running American made Sci-Fi series
produced to date. I give you, the Staff Weapon:

Used all of the time for distant combat.
Generally pretty useless for close combat situations. However the staff
itself can be used as a blunt (melee) weapon.
Torso hits are generally always lethal.
Extremity hits leave the victim with sever and painful 3rd degree burns.
Just like the previous two weapons it leaves no blood.

In conclusion: Sci-Fi fans apparently don't like blood. The only major
comparison is that every weapon mentioned does not spill a single drop.

(Note: I have yet to think of a Battlestar Galactica energy based weapon.
Any help is greatly appreciated)

From:
Bryon J. Hammer

Aperture Science Uses Aliens As Test Subjects

2009-07-13T03:41:46Z

I just got done playing Portal for the millionth time and I noticed
something kind of strange on a clipboard in one of the back rooms near the
end of the game. Could this be the diagram of an alien that GLaDOS uses as
a test subject?

From:
Bryon J. Hammer

Hypothetical Question

2009-07-09T05:01:46Z

hypothetical: Lets say that there was a certain company that you did not
like. Lets just say flyingsquirrels.com for example. Now you absolutely
hate this company and you want to show the world how much you hate it. So
you go out and buy a .COM and lets just say that this particular .COM that
you buy is derogatory toward the subject of flyingsquirrels.com. Lets say
that you buy flyingsquirrelsareevil.com. This will seriously piss off the
owners of flyingsquirrels.com but you dont care because you hate them. Now
to top it off you redirect your new .COM to go to flyingsquirrels.com. So
now when people go to flyingsquirrelsareevil.com they immediatly get
redirected to the normal site of flyingsquirrels.com. Is this wrong? Is it
illegal? Comments please.

From:
Bryon J. Hammer

Lesson Learned

2009-07-02T04:40:31Z

One of my computers was not connecting with the LogMeIn.com servers.

My first thought was "A service is not running"
I checked the services and everything associated with running LogMeIn on my
computer was running properly.

"One of the services has frozen up"
I stopped and started all the services and that had no effect.

"When in doubt, re-boot"
rebooted, no change.

"The program is hosed"
One reinstall later and nothing changed.

"Damn"
"The firewall has got to be blocking something"
Firewall checked and everything was normal

"LogMeIn must have updated something and not a service is blocked by my
firewall that I don't know about"
Set firewall to wide friggin' open and still no results.

"Internet Explorer 8 is out and I still have not installed it, THAT MUST BE
IT"
1 hour later of installing IE8 and still no dice.

"Clearly the Operating System is hosed and I need to reinstall so I need to
download drivers, get the install disc, backup every..." Eyes momentarily
drift down to the clock "November 22, 2002?....... That don't make no sense
at all now does it."

Adjust clock to correct date and time = LogMeIn connects with the servers
immediately and everything is fine.

Conclusion: I wasted about 3 hours trying to fix a problem when it all
boiled down to the dang clock being off by over 7 years. 10 points to the
computer problem, and -100 points to me for not thinking about this first.
:(

Quick & Dirty iPhone/iTouch App Organization

2009-06-30T07:59:08Z

Here is a quick way to organize your iPhone/iTouch Apps. Organize them by
pages and do this:

1. Reserve the first page for native apps and apps that you use everyday
(this is useful since clicking the home button will automatically return you
to this page regardless of which page you are currently on)

2. Reserve this page for useful apps that you use as tools everyday (I have
so many that I nearly use two pages)

3. Reserve this page for "toys". Apps that are just fun little toys that
you can play for a minute or two. (Example: Lightsaber, Ocarina, etc)

4. Finally reserve this page for games. You are not going to be in a rush
to get to these apps so stick Monkeyball, Topple, & Solitaire in here

5. I have yet to find a place for the lowly Settings App. I just stick it
here and forget about it.

I hope that helps other people like me who have pages and pages of apps that
take up tons of space. Also don't forget that a little spring cleaning
never hurts. ;)

2008-2009 Final Standing

2009-01-09T17:28:36Z

For the second year in a row...

1st Sharon 19-15 1L
2nd Harding 19-15 2L
3rd Hammer 18-16 1L
4th See 18-16 1W
5th Courtney 17-17 2W
6th Orloff 17-17 2L
7th Lyne 16-18 1L
8th Jeff 16-18 1L
9th Harper 16-18 2L
10th JT 15-19 2L
11th Hladik 11-23 10L
12th Mathia 10-24 2L

It was a fun year. I wish the ending had been different but I guess
you can't win them all. I hope everyone had as much fun as me. See you
next year ;)

From:
Bryon J. Hammer

1st Place Tie Breaker

2009-01-09T17:08:55Z

1st Harding 19-15 2L
1st Sharon 19-15 1L

And the winner is...

Sharon at 45 points

2nd Harding

From:
Bryon J. Hammer

3rd Place Tie Breaker

2009-01-09T17:02:11Z

3rd Hammer 18-16 1L
3rd See 18-16 1W

And the winner is...

Me at 75 points

4th See

From:
Bryon J. Hammer

5th Place Tie Breaker

2009-01-09T16:57:24Z

5th Courtney 17-17 2W
5th Orloff 17-17 2L

And the winner is...

Courtney with 58 points

6th Orloff

From:
Bryon J. Hammer

7th Place Tie Breaker

2009-01-09T16:53:04Z

7th Harper 16-18 2L
7th Jeff 16-18 1L
7th Lyne 16-18 1L

And the winner is...

7th Place goes to Lyne with 63 points

8th Jeff
9th Harper

From:
Bryon J. Hammer

Semi Final Standings

2009-01-09T15:27:39Z

Standings without the tie breakers in place.

1st Harding 19-15 2L
1st Sharon 19-15 1L
3rd Hammer 18-16 1L
3rd See 18-16 1W
5th Courtney 17-17 2W
5th Orloff 17-17 2L
7th Harper 16-18 2L
7th Jeff 16-18 1L
7th Lyne 16-18 1L
10th JT 15-19 2L
11th Hladik 11-23 10L
12th Mathia 10-24 2L

There are ties all over the place. I have some serious tie breakers to
do. Stay tuned. I will post the 7th place tie breaker first in a few
minutes.

From:
Bryon J. Hammer

Final Update Coming Soon

2009-01-09T05:50:25Z

I am stuck in game traffic for a very long time. I will update as soon
as I can but it will probably be tomorrow before that happens.

From:
Bryon J. Hammer

Day 15 Results

2009-01-07T14:58:05Z

1st Harding 19-14 1L
1st Sharon 19-14 1W
3rd Hammer 18-15 3W
4th Orloff 17-16 1L
4th See 17-16 1L
6th Courtney 16-17 1W
6th Harper 16-17 1L
6th Jeff 16-17 3W
6th Lyne 16-17 2W
10th JT 15-18 1L
11th Hladik 11-22 9L
12th Mathia 10-23 1L

66 Teams, 33 Games, 8 BCS Teams, 4 BCS Game Winners. Now there is one
game to go. Oklahoma(10 picks) Vs Florida(2 picks). Florida's
impenitrable Defense Vs Oklahoma's unstoppable Offense. It dosent get
much bigger than this.

From:
Bryon J. Hammer

Day 14 Conference Standings

2009-01-06T05:35:08Z

PAC-10 5-0 100%
SEC 5-2 71%
Big East 4-2 67%
Big XII 4-2 67%
C-USA 3-2 60%
Mountain West 3-2 60%
Independent 1-1 50%
Sun Belt 1-1 50%
ACC 4-6 40%
WAC 1-4 20%
Big Ten 1-6 14%
Mid-American 0-4 0%

Favored Teams Winning = 4
Upset Teams Winning = 9

BCS Favored Wins = 2 (USC & Texas)
BCS Upset Wins = 2 (Virginia Tech & Utah)

From:
Bryon J. Hammer

Day 14 Results

2009-01-06T05:10:03Z

1st Harding 19-13 2W
2nd Sharon 18-14 2L
3rd Hammer 17-15 2W
3rd Orloff 17-15 2W
3rd See 17-15 1W
6th Harper 16-16 2W
7th Courtney 15-17 2L
7th Jeff 15-17 2W
7th JT 15-17 1W
7th Lyne 15-17 1W
11th Hladik 11-21 8L
12th Mathia 10-22 2W

Go Big XII.

USC Rose Bowl Champs
Virginia Tech Orange Bowl Champs
Utah Sugar Bowl Champs
Texas Fiesta Bowl Champs

And that puts us at 4 teams in the title of the best teams of 2008 out
of 5.

2 games left.

Tulsa(5 picks) Vs Ball State(7 picks)

If Tulsa wins there will be a tie for 1st place and the tie breaker
will deffinantly have to be used to decide the winner in the final.
This will be the first time in history that this will ever be used.

From:
Bryon J. Hammer

Day 13 Conference Standings

2009-01-03T21:57:03Z

PAC-10 5-0 100%
SEC 5-2 71%
Big East 4-2 67%
Big XII 3-2 60%
C-USA 3-2 60%
Mountain West 3-2 60%
Independent 1-1 50%
Sun Belt 1-1 50%
ACC 4-6 40%
WAC 1-4 20%
Big Ten 1-5 17%
Mid-American 0-4 0%

Favored Teams Winning = 3
Upset Teams Winning = 9

Favored Teams Winning in BCS games = 1 (USC)

Upset Teams Winning in BCS games = 2 (Virginia Tech & Utah)

From:
Bryon J. Hammer

Day 13 Results

2009-01-03T21:38:14Z

1st Harding 18-13 1W
1st Sharon 18-13 1L
3rd Hammer 16-15 1W
3rd Orloff 16-15 1W
3rd See 16-15 2L
---Below .500 Line---
6th Courtney 15-16 1L
6th Harper 15-16 1W
8th Jeff 14-17 1W
8th JT 14-17 5L
8th Lyne 14-17 4L
11th Hladik 11-20 7L
12th Mathia 9-22 1W

It has been an exciting couple of days of college football. We have a
day off tomorrow and then we have Ohio State(3 picks) Vs Texas(8
picks) in the Fiesta Bowl.

USC Rose Bowl Champs
Virginia Tech Orange Bowl Champs
Utah Sugar Bowl Champs

There is only two spots left for the 5 best of 2008. See you on the 5th.

From:
Bryon J. Hammer

Day 12 Results

2009-01-03T07:06:52Z

A new leader...

1st Sharon 18-12 2W
2nd Harding 17-13 3L
3rd See 16-14 1L
4th Courtney 15-15 4W
4th Hammer 15-15 4L
4th Orloff 15-15 3L
---Below .500 Line---
7th Harper 14-16 3L
7th JT 14-16 4L
7th Lyne 14-16 3L
10th Jeff 13-17 5L
11th Hladik 11-19 6L
12th Mathia 8-22 3L

With only 6 days and 4 games to go (and the same as last year) a woman
pulls out in front.

Another little piece of facts for you. If Buffalo wins tomorrow then
Sharon will move up to 19-12 and Harding will drop to 17-14. After
that I honestly don't know if anyone can possibly catch her. This year
will deffinantly come down to the last game. And there is a
possibility that the tie breaker will have to be used to determine the
1st place posistion for the first time since I have been doing this.

Some serious upsets will have to happen between now and then but
Sharon is deffinantly in the right place for right now. Good luck
Sharon.

From:
Bryon J. Hammer

Late Update Tonight

2009-01-03T04:49:12Z

I am going to have a late update tonight I am still driving back from
Oklahoma City.

From:
Bryon J. Hammer

Day 11 Conference Standings

2009-01-02T05:45:20Z

PAC-10 5-0 100%
Big XII 3-1 75%
C-USA 3-1 75%
SEC 3-1 75%
Big East 3-2 60%
Mountain West 2-2 50%
Independent 1-1 50%
Sun Belt 1-1 50%
ACC 4-6 40%
WAC 1-4 20%
Big Ten 1-5 17%
Mid-American 0-3 0%

Favored Teams Winning = 3
Upset Teams Winning = 7

From:
Bryon J. Hammer