this thread has reinforced something important: none of you bozos know what 'literally' means.

when you are describing a situation where it is contextually assumed that you are being figurative, feel free to say 'literally'.
for example:
"I was so distraught by ruwin's comments that I literally cried myself to sleep!"

in any other scenario
don't
example:
"Ruwin is literally a douchebag for what he did to that poor girl!"

I am pretty sure he is not literally a douchebag.

instances of 'literally' in this thread prior to this post: 11
instances where 'literally was used improperly or meaninglessly: also 11

thank you kindly

I think you're overreacting to someone kindly asking for help (as in, not demanding or otherwise forcing compliance).
#1 - There are probably training seminars you could pay to attend that would tech you whatever you're trying to learn. Instead of paying, you're browsing the internet. I'm pretty sure someone had to compile the data, and someone developed whatever site you're viewing. Yet, you're not paying either of them. Exploitation!
#2 - Au contraire! I'm pretty sure there is an industry dedicated to getting you from one place to another, whether it be by taxi, bus, or by giving directions (I think there is an industry that makes maps and GPS devices).
#3 - I am also fairly certain that there are professional tutors and tutoring seminars that, you guessed it, cost money. I would venture to call teaching an industry.
#4 - Meh, I doubt there are people paying for mentoring sessions in TF2, so you're right, it's not really an industry.

I suppose you'd be upset if someone wanted to put a new roof on their home, but couldn't afford to pay someone to do it, so they ask their friends [some of whom may have knowledge on roofing] for help?

What if you decided you wanted to move, but instead of hiring a professional moving company, you asked your friends and acquaintances to come over for a few hours and help?

The point isn't the examples themselves--the point is you're becoming offended over something silly. The fact that "someone has that job" is not and should not be synonymous with the idea that you shouldn't be able to get similar results without a monetary cost.

I'm sorry that you think I'm trying to be smug. I just think you're being silly.

This idea is quite ignorant. I suppose, in your mind, the following scenarios are true. If not, you are wildly inconsistent with your beliefs.

1. Using google to find/learn things that will eventually make you money must be exploitation.
2. Asking someone for directions so you can get to a work seminar in a town with which you are not familiar must be exploitation since you're getting paid to attend.
3. Asking a fellow student for assistance on schoolwork must be exploitation since your degree will contribute to landing a profitable job.
4. Asking a TF2 player for advice must be exploitation since it will help you get better at the game and eventually you might win money in your division. If you don't make it, I guess it wasn't exploitation!

etc.

For the love of God, people need to stop saying 'yolo' and 'literally'. "You only live once" in conjunction with doing something stupid that will get you killed is likely the most retarded shit I've ever seen and 'literally' is misused at least 99% of the time.

As a matter of fact, enigma should make the forum automatically filter out both of those.

best player: seagull
best human being: lange

Yeah, there's essentially no way that a microphone without a built-in volume control could be at fault here. It's got to be a software issue, whether it's some weird effect as a result of sound attenuation settings or mumble settings.

If you haven't already done so, one of the core volume issues with Windows 7 is the default VOIP settings. You can check it with the following...

1. Right-click the volume (speaker icon) in the system tray.
2. Choose 'Recording Devices'.
3. Go to the 'Communications' tab.
4. Change the radio button setting to "Do nothing".

There are several weird little settings in mumble that could be causing oddities as well, but I don't have mumble in front of me right now...

It really irks me to see the constant barrage of DPI nonsense that manufacturers put out. I hope this can be useful information to help understand why mice with ultra-high DPI are hokum.

1. DPI is sensitivity and nothing more. DPI in plain english means, "how many pixels the cursor moves on screen when moving the mouse one inch." Mouse manufacturers like to tout high DPI, but it's a marketing ploy that has very little actual value. If your monitor has a resolution of 1920x1080, a 1600 DPI mouse would require you to move the mouse 1.2 inches to span the entire width of the display. A 4000 DPI mouse would require only 0.48 inches of movement to do the same. Any sensitivity lower than the highest possible lowers the DPI that is being used. It's incredibly unlikely that anyone playing an FPS is utilizing 4000+ DPI.

It's a little tougher to calculate effective DPI in a game like TF2--you'll see different values depending upon your resolution because you're projecting a 3D game onto a 2D monitor and pixels closer to the crosshair will have sharper angles than pixels further from the crosshair.

You can calculate effective DPI in a 3D game pretty closely with the following:

r = resolution
s = sensitivity in inches per 360
f = field of view (usually 90)

(pi * r) / (s * tan(f / 2))

Given the 10 inch example, the rounded effective DPI is 603 if your resolution is 1920x1080. If your resolution is 1024x768, the rounded effective DPI is 322.

There can obviously be other factors in mouse feel, such as positive or negative acceleration, jitter, hand comfort, etc. but in the above examples, any mouse with 603 DPI or higher would be just as "accurate" as the next.

2. Raw input does not disable mouse acceleration. It simply bypasses the windows mouse driver. If your mouse sensor has either positive or negative acceleration, that won't change with raw input.

3. Too many different factors at play to really answer this one. Scout and Sniper have very different aiming mechanics--zoom vs. no zoom, headshots vs general aim, movement mechanics, tracking vs flicking, etc.

nick

i am not a chargers fan but i don't understand the correlation without further elaboration

No, I don't have total colorblindness. I have trouble in the blue/green spectrum primarily, but reds are also affected to some degree. The closest representation is protanopia (here).

I do agree, kuza. I think the idea that glasses will correct for missing rods and cones is silly, but it most certainly wouldn't be able to do much for someone suffering from monochromatism.

thank you goat, i'm glad you approve of my boredom browsing

eee, the science behind it seems like hokum to me, but who knows, maybe they actually do work to some degree. I'll never know because I won't pay $500 for them when they only claim they work at all in bright sunlight.

new theory:
long-haired people are more careless and don't take care of their things [as evidenced by yaug's punching of monitors, etc.]

what do i win

a key way to get your target audience to ignore your product is to have an ad that includes "before" and "after" photos that are either identical or fail to take into account the target audience altogether.

what exactly is the ad aiming for here? am I supposed to see the "after" photo and think, "oh wow!!! the glasses really do help! I've got to get a pair"?

idiots

http://i.imgur.com/tP8oLhH.jpg

p.s. I looked at the product despite the horrible ad and it claims it only works outside in bright sunlight. screw that.

my G400 works great and looks like it's brand new... it doesn't even get smudges when holding it.

While I'm sure you're accurately describing the numbers you're seeing, what's most likely occurring is that your GPU meter is not updating while you're in full-screen mode. It's very likely that you're seeing 30-40% utilization, launching TF2 which boosts your card into the 80-90-100% range, then when you tab out, it's throttling itself, but the GPU meter is updating so you see it spike to 90 as it begins falling down...

I'm not certain that your card and GPU meter behave that way, but it's likely. Does it stay around 90% when tabbed out for 3-4 minutes or does it drop back down?

I think the whole, "it slows the game down so it's terrible" argument is flawed and is just plain silly. There are core mechanics in this game that slow it down; uber, stickies, etc. You can slow the game down with four rockets when your team loses a fight by bombing with ideal timing and killing or forcing the medic. You can slow the game down by running a heavy. You can slow the game down a hundred different ways. What about the other side of the coin?

You say a soldier running the black box slows the game down because it caters to sitting back and spamming. In most situations when you find a black box soldier holding back and spamming, it's incredibly likely that he would be doing that with the stock RL as well. You say it slows down the game because it lets you win 1v1s you otherwise would not win. I say that speeds up the game because now your team has a pick with which you're able to apply more pressure.

You might say it discourages taking a fight because you have fewer rockets loaded. I'll say it encourages you to take that fight because with 2-3 rockets, you are going to gain 30-45hp during the fight, which means a scout can no longer kill you in two shots--the same for a soldier. You might say you will be less likely to bomb the medic because you'll only have two rockets loaded. I say you'll be just as likely to go for that play since the probability is high that you'll hit multiple targets with each rocket, giving you an extra 45-135hp, and making the 'bomb in, fire one rocket, jump away, reload, repeat' plays more successful, often enabling your team to push sooner.

Getting behind the enemy with black box can be devastating since you have a better chance fending off a buffed scout (who you can kill with 2-3 rockets, yet it will take him 3 perfect shots or 6 decent shots to kill you). This will encourage the enemy to send two players to deal with you instead of one, which, once again, enhances your team's ability to push, thus making the game faster.

So yes, the black box can certainly slow down the game, but it can also speed the game up. It just depends on your perspective.

Having said all that, it's a silly weapon with a silly model, a silly sound effect, and it makes soldiers live way too long, so I think it should be banned.