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Shinsengumi

WFG Retired
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Posts posted by Shinsengumi

  1. Well, game design encompasses just about everything from dreaming up the concept to seeing it realized. For example, some of the things that have been discussed recently include anything from the nuances of the languages used by factions in various time periods to the political breakdown of Middle-earth during the First Age.

    And yes, having Microsoft Excel is a must; just this past week I had to submit a report on the geopolitics of West Beleriand. A spreadsheet program like Microsoft Excel makes arranging and read the data that much easier for everyone.

  2. Isn't removing windows messenger just a service disable? Or is this actually removing the program from your system?

    I have no clue what the others are saying. Messenger is a service and it has nothing at all to do with MSN. It's used for the netsend command, which is supposed to be used by net administrators to send messages to individual client computers. The problem is that it has vulnerabilities that can be exploited such that people outside of a network (for example, spammers) can utilize it to send messages to hosts.

    To disable the messenger service, go to Start: Run and enter in services.msc. Find the messenger entry, stop it if it's running, and disable it from startup. That's all it takes to turn it off. I would be wary of using any standalone program for disabling it, because the procedure is simple enough as is, so I would be suspicious of what else the executable would do.

    It can be annoying and conflict with MSN messenger at startup.

    No, like I said earlier, it actually doesn't have anything to do with MSN messenger at all.

    Yup, and it runs in the background without you knowing it is even on.  It also sometimes enjoys logging into your passport when you are already using MSN and therefore it signs you out which is extremely irritating IMO, especially when you are talking to someone.

    It most certainly can't do anything like log on or off Passport. If you're experiencing those issues, it's not a problem with the messenger service, but with something else. Messenger simply doesn't have the capabilities to do what you claim that it's doing.

  3. The Windows XP installation disk has a feature called the Recovery Console that can allow you to repair individual system files that may have become corrupt. If however your friend is as computer-illiterate as you say, the best thing to do would probably be to unplug the system drop cable, format, reinstall Windows, install SP2 and as many recent patches as you can, install a virus removal program, update the virus removal program, install spyware removal programs, put up a firewall (even the SP2 one is ok), and only after that is all done, then plug the ethernet cable back in (or whatever else you would do to connect back to the network).

    You can burn SP2 and patches onto CD from the Microsoft website. Most security companies, like Symantec, provide virus definition file updates as standalone executables that you can also toss onto that CD.

  4. Why do I get the feeling we'll get really long startup times for Flash in the future....

    :(

    Exactly. Now whenever watching Flash content on the web, expect a splash banner and the loading of fifteen hundred APIs that nobody ever uses.

  5. They need to be in Tolkien's languages.

    All of Tolkien's elven names have a meaning.

    I know this is ages too late, but I just stumbled upon the above post while browsing through the forums. As making sure players in the Galadhrim culture had thematic names was a large part of my duties assisting new players as an administrator, elven names are something I have some degree of knowledge upon. The statement that "all of Tolkien's elven names have a meaning" is utterly incorrect. Tolkien clearly states that elven names DO NOT have to have meaning. I shall quote from HoME Volume X:

    It must be realized that the names of the Eldar were not necessarily 'meaningful', though composed to fit the style and structure of their spoken languages; and that even when made or partly made of stems with a meaning tese were not necessarily combined according to the normal modes of composition observed in ordinary words.

    As long as a name for a particular unit sounds as other words the language that would be used for that unit do (and do not violate the inherent structure of the language), they should be fair game for use.

  6. That was Sauron, not Morgoth. I'm sure of it.

    You would be correct; it is Sauron. Morgoth took the form of a Dark Lord when he sought out Ungoliant, and the Silmarillion notes that he never changed forms again after that. I don't think that Morgoth lost the foot entirely, because in describing Morgoth's wounds, Tolkien says that he was lame ("halt") in one foot, not that he was missing a foot entirely.

  7. I used to play UT2K4 a lot at LAN parties some friends and I would organize every month to relieve our accumulated academic stress, but I haven't had time to organize a party and play in months now. Whenever I get some time time, now I usually just play Rome: Total War, either doing a quick skirmish or going through a year or two in my latest campaign.

    I used to play a lot of ElendorMUSH, my uptime regularly being on the list of the monthly top twenty, but after I retired from being a culture admin, I've spent less and less time there.

  8. Here's another definition of Arda to throw into the fray: the land of the kingdom of Manwe. As a whole though, I think you're right. At the very least, the entry should be modified as not to read "the whole of creation".

    As I understood it, Arda is in general, as you noted, the World, and therefore not the whole of Illuvatar's creation, which is Ea, the "material universe", as noted in the index of the Silmarillion. I would say that any reference to "world" in the Silmarillion refer specifically to Arda, and therefore "out of the circles of the world" would indeed be "out of Arda".

  9. Well, as for Quenya, it sure was a language used among the Númenorians. There are still some debates about the language spoken in Gondolin, it may have been Noldorin Quenya. Perhaps the reason why Earendil's name is Quenya, not Sindarin as are most Elves of Beleriand...

    In the Akallabeth, Tolkien wrote that while the Numenorians spoke Adunaic, their lords spoke also the Elven tongue (lit. Edhellen, Sindarin), but their loremasters also learned the High Eldarin tongue (Quenya) so that they could read story and song written since the beginning of the world. Thus Quenya was not a language of converstaion, but a language of lore (think classical Latin and Greek in the Renaissance, with the Numenorian loremasters as humanists such as Erasmus). Aside for the comprehension of lore, Akallabeth shows that the only other use of Quenya was in the names of the lords of the Numenorians (until the use of all elven tongues was banned) and in place names.

  10. If winlogon.exe has been corrupted, and if you're experiencing a spyware/malware infestation, I would really suggest that you format and reinstall. I've seen a lot of such cases; I'm student supervisor at my university's IT HelpDesk and I consult and assist the university IT Security Office as well, and therefore I have to deal with virus issues and spyware issues on a daily basis, and when it gets to such a point where system executables have become corrupt or are throwing errors left and right, and where malware processes are starting other malware processes and making it nigh impossible to stop or delete them all, the most effective (and most efficient) solution is to unplug the drop cable, format, reinstall your operating system, install the latest service pack, set up the firewall, install Antivirus software, install the updated virus definition files, reboot, and then plug the drop cable back in (or do whatever you normally do to get back to the internet).

    Of course, you'll probably need to burn the virus def files and service pack/patches onto a CD or toss them onto a USB thumbdrive first.

  11. Here's my current desktop. . . I actually currently have a dual-monitor setup, with each monitor at 1280x1024 with a different background on each, but the above is the one on my primary monitor.

    desktop.jpg

    For those who are curious, the two girls are from the anime Last Exile, a really amazing anime set in a world at war, where battleships float in clouds. Tatiana and Alistia are best friends, a fighter pilot and navigator team in the crew of the battleship Silvana.

  12. Unless I'm losing my mind, it did not "honour" Sindarin, but Quenya rather.  Can someone tell me if I AM losing my mind?  It's possible :)

    If "honor" here has the connotation of being greatly influenced by, then it is indeed Sindarin and not Quenya, because Quenya was not a language of conversation in Numenor just as it was not in Middle-earth, save among the princes of the Noldor. The Silmarillion makes it fairly clear that Adunaic is directly descended from Sindarin, because the Edain adopted Sindarin after their contact with the Eldar.

    "The most part of them (the Edain) soon learned the Grey-elve tongue, both as a common speech among themselves and because many were eager to learn the lore of the Elves."

    "In his (Hador's) house only the Elven-tongue was spoekn; but their own speech was not forgotten, and from it came the common tongue of Numenor."

    The above are taken directly from "Of the Coming of Men into the West" from the Silmarillion.

    Edit: Edited the phonology section of the Adûnaic entry to reflect the above.

  13. As for Tolkien's books, the one that is the least able to capture my interest is the Hobbit, and thus I have only read it once when I was in middle school and have only opened it since then for reference. As for the the Lord of the Rings, I've read it in its entirety maybe three times, but I've read Fellowship and Return of the King individually at least half a dozen times each.

    I'm on my third readthrough of the Silmarillion, and I've only read Unfinished Tales once from start to finish. Note that I have read parts of both so many times that I've basically memorized them, but I just haven't had that much time to read the entire book from cover to cover.

    In regards to History of Middle Earth, I've only ever read Lays of Beleriand, War of the Jewels, Morgoth's Ring, and Peoples of Middle Earth in their entirety; I have read bits of pieces of the Book of Lost Tales (both parts), the Etymologies in Lost Road, and bits of pieces of Shaping of Middle-earth. Again, I've read parts, such as Laws and Customs in Morgoth's Ring countless times, as I usually turn to the books as reference.

    I started Letters, but haven't had a chance to get very far. I'll probably bring it along to read on the plane when I go to Japan for Spring Break.

    I've started to get a second copy of key books so that I can use one set for display (generally first edition hardcovers, whenever I can find them at the local used book stores or through eBay) and the other (usually a paperback copy) for reference and notes. On my shelf, for example, I have a first edition Silmarillion in pristine condition sitting on my shelf, while on my desk I have a second-edition paperpack bristling with blue tape flags and filled with underlining and notes in the margins.

  14. Well, in regards to the question about the types of armor that the elves wore, I don't see any place where it says that the elves could not have wore plate. Elves did not have access to chainmail for much of their history, for the Sindar only knew of its existance it after they met the Naugrim of Belegost during the second age of the Chaining of Melkor, and probably did not themselves use it until the third age of the Captivity, when Thingol "took thought for arms, which before his people had not needed" and had the dwarves craft arms and armor for him. Indeed it wasn't until then that elves first learned to make chainmail, for it was then that the Sindar first learned smithcraft under the tutelage of the dwarves.

    As for the Noldor, naturally they did not make, let alone know of, chainmail until after their arrival in Middle-earth. And yet before then they had forged arms and armor around the time when Melkor walked among them to sew the seeds of dissent, such that Feanor is described at one point as being "fully armed". Thus the Noldor did forge some type of armor before they knew of chainmail, and while Tolkien does not say what kind it was, be it plate or otherwise, it leaves it open to possibility, though it's fairly clear that after chain was available to both Noldorin and Telerin elves, it became the preferred for both.

    As for the Tawarwaith at Dagorlad. . . historically they were "light-armed", probably in the manner of the non-Doriathrim Teleri, who are described at Alqualonde as having only slender bows. While none of the Laiquendi participated at Dagorlad (as after the death of Denethor they never marched openly to war), it's more than likely that the Tawarwaith that did not pass across the Hithaeglir and who followed Amdir and Oropher came from the same martial tradition (or more specifically, the lack thereof), and thus they were "ill equipped with armour and weapons in comparison with the Eldar of the West" (UT) when they marched off to Dagorlad. Thus most likely they were for the most part armed with bows, and probably wore nothing heavier than leather armor.

  15. I see the Great Eagles as Pre-First Age Orcs ... that is to say, Eearthbound Maiar who lost their ability to return to a spirit shape ... and able to mate and procreate. Similar to Melian, the Balrogs, etc ...

    The Third Age Eagles are probably descendants of Maiar in the First Age or Pre-First Age. But, what is their status? I know not.

    The eagles of the third-age are descendants of the great eagles sent by Manwe from Aman. Gwaihir the Windlord, for example, can trace his ancestry directly back to Thorondor as noted in Return of the King: "There came Gwaihir the Windlord, and Landroval his brother, greatest of all the Eagles of the North, mightiest of the descendants of old Thorondor, who built his eyries in the inaccessible peaks of the Encircling Mountains when Middle-earth was young." Though they cannot change their form anymore, they are clearly still Maia. Besides, other Maiar, such as the Istari, could not change their forms either after being dispatched to Middle-earth.

  16. Hmmm, I don't think it would be correct to call the great Eagles Maiar. Aren't they more, like the Ents, caretakers and inhabitants of their natural place, in this case the Mountains? And they are also messengers for Manwë. It wouldn't make sense, in my view, if there were Maiar that (in Eagle-form) were just making nests on the mountain peaks and occaisionally sending a message.

    In the Valaquenta, Tolkien wrote that Illuvatar created the Ainur, spirits from whose music did the world come into being. These spirits fell into two orders, the Valar and the Maiar, with the Valar as "the great among these spirits" and the Maiar being "the people of the Valar, and their servants and helpers." Because Tolkien states that the Eagles are "sprits in the shape of hawks and eagles" and "servants of Manwe", it seems pretty clear that they are indeed Maiar (as they fit both criteria, being non-Vala spirits and being the servants of a Vala).

    It's again important to note that the Eagles aren't simply making nests on the mountain peaks and occasionally sending a message; rather, they were the vigilant watchers who always seemed to arrive when most-needed and least-expected. More than one person has described them in terms of deus ex machina, and indeed they are a vehicle for divine intervention in Middle-earth, as clearly shown throughout the Silmarillion, the Hobbit, and the Lord of the Rings.

    In regards to the Ents, in chapter 2 of the Quenta Silmarillion, Manwe says "then the thought of Yavanna will awake also, and it will summon spirits from afar. . . In the mountains the Eagles shall house, and hear the voices of those who call upon us. But in the forests shall walk the Shepherds of the Trees." This suggests that the Ents are spirits of the same order as the Eagles, and thus Maiar themselves.

    Hopes that makes sense!

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