Gerard

It's also illegal for you to look for it, attempt to obtain it, purposely download it, purchase it etc. Back on topic please. Sexuality not porn.

Where did I find my information? That's the law... always has been. Think of ratings on movies, DVDs, video games etc - minors have to be protected from this stuff. Same with any porn site you go on, it says don't enter unless you're over 18 or 21 (depending where you're from). I think, strictly speaking, it is illegal to sell or give pornography to someone under 18, rather than it being illegal to view if you are under that age. For example, they can't lock up a 10 year old for accidentally seeing something on the internet, but they can lock up someone who sells a porn mag to someone underage, or who gives them some pornography. In the USA, the law states that pornographic materials may not be made available to persons under 18 years of age. Some people have tried to force all websites to have age verification before allowing access, but this proved impossible and the courts didn't allow it.

This is getting offtopic. Asexual technically means an organism which has no gender - where it is not males and females which reproduce together. However, in humans, you can say asexuality means having no sexual preference, no sexual inclinations, where that person doesn't experience any sexual attraction. That's not true. You have to be over 18 in the UK to watch any type of pornography. The participants in the porn also all have to be over 18, and consenting with each other (not rape). You only need to be 16 to actually consent to sex (so long as the other person is also over 16, and they consent). So long as it fits this, it's legal.

I can identify with quite a bit of stuff from this topic. I was bullied to shit when I was about 9, so I had to change school. The new school was miles away, and nobody lived anywhere near me, which meant that I couldnt just go round and see friends and stuff. I kept seeing all the bullies for years, and so never did anything locally (no clubs or anything), and so never socialised with anyone close by. I guess you could say I was socially inexperienced, so I never really made any good friends at that school. I got involved with the wrong crowds, the anarchist type, and got into trouble for shit. Eventually I changed school because of that, found people who shared interests with me, who lived a bit closer, and made some real friends for the firs time. I also found things I loved to do, and really developed myself for these years. Then we all turned 17 and started to drive, so we could go everywhere and do stuff all the time. Now at uni, I have a few friends, a couple of good friends, and I know loads of other people. I'm keeping busy (Executive Officer of the Students' Union) and doing loads of stuff, and it's great. I now put not having friends down to being inexperienced. Sometimes you just need someone in the same situation as you to be friends with - someone who doesn't judge you on first appearances - to gain the experience you need to be able to socialise properly. If everyone else is good at it, they'll tend to reject people who aren't, which doesn't help. It also helps to be good at whatever you do, so you feel alright about getting involved. For example, if your friends all go bowling a lot, you'll find it easier to say "yes" if you're good at it. Same if they play sport or computer games or go to the pub or whatever. Do whatever you can to boost your confidence, and people will begin to accept you eventually.

I resent that. I got an email from Microsoft showing all their statistics for the GTA IV launch week. Thats awesome, and it's all because of GTA, so I posted it. You got a problem with that? I also got an email from Sony Computer Entertainment about Gran Turismo selling 50 million units ever, but GTA sold over 70 million units before GTA IV came out, which means they're almost at 80 million now. I did hunt for the PS3 statistics for GTA, but apart from total sales figures (which have already been discussed) there was nothing available.

Microsoft have released some crazy statistics regaring GTA IV's effect on Xbox 360 sales and Xbox Live: Last week, Xbox 360 console sales went up by 54% compared to the week before. According to retailers more than 60% of all GTA games sold in the first week were the Xbox 360 version Roughly 40% of consoles are now bought with a copy of Grand Theft Auto IV Regarding Xbox LIVE: In the first week, more than 2.3 million gamers played Grand Theft Auto IV on Xbox LIVE GTA IV is now the number one played game on Xbox LIVE Over the weekend, the Xbox LIVE service reached 1 million users playing at the same time Gamers have unlocked more than 12 million achievements worth over 100 million gamerscore points in GTA IV On average, every gamer spent 4 hours playing GTA IV on Xbox LIVE last week What do you think the reason is for GTA IV's immense success? Let us know in the forums.

Spider, he didnt understand. Dont' just link him back to the post, explain it. The error message says "2841_screen01.jpg' is not a valid JPEG file" and "File type .bmp is not allowed" This implies that you tried to upload a file called something.jpg that isn't a real jpg. Chris checked the file, and its actually a PNG image. This implies that you tried to change it from a PNG to a JPG just by changing the ".png" on the end to a ".jpg". Whether you physically did that or not, we don't know. Save the screenshot as a normal PNG file (with .png on the end) and try and upload it. Then it should work.

It's about time there was a simple chart to see how today's graphics cards stack up against each other: For idiots: higher is better, left is cheaper (lower is worse, right is more expensive)

No, this is not a normal console or PC or anything. This is an adapted custom-made system, running over an optical backbone. These guys have built the system to work from the console to the screens, and it aint no normal system. The game appears to be running on the back of a PS3 (you can see him holding the black SIXAXIS controller), but all the graphics are done by their own separate systems.

Some amazing gaming is being done down at UC San Diego, with the guys there re-engineering their massive HIPerSpace monitor array to play GTA IV. This system has 220 million pixels and is attached to a "graphics super cluster" that relies on eighty NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600 GPUs. 220 million pixels is roughly equivalent to a 20480×10800 display, a hundred times bigger than the highest-resolution screens we have these days, and 200 times bigger than hi-definition 1080p. It doesn't look like they're utilising anything more than 1080p whilst playing GTA IV, and the black gaps between monitors is annoying, but it still looks awesome. Anybody think they can match that? More pics @ engadget

The IP just records the city its in, and the exact location of the city on that map could be anywhere in the city, probably in the exact zero of the coordinate it's in. or if you prefer... Servers are kept in secret underground nuclear bunkers, in the heart of the internets.

Owned. My server is also in Texas, but mine's got a swimming pool....

You could have something like a puzzle, which only intelligent people (people worth keeping) can solve and gain access to the antidote in the middle. That'd be a cool TV show. Anyone who tried and failed could be castrated too, just for added drama.

Strap ruins it. You can barely see the guitar. Looks more like a big black cock. Doubt its yours.

Downloading any GTA game after GTA 2 without paying is illegal. Either buy it from a legitimate site, or buy it in a shop.

He was being sarcastic. No need to start insulting and swearing. I'm sure Killajo can take a joke. Welcome to the forum.

There's no real reason why you should be changing your display name more often than every 3 months. If you've made a mistake or typo or there's a real problem, ask an admin to change it for you. But don't go round changing your identity every half hour. Take it up with Chris if you disagree, was his decision.

The limit is now 3 months. Chris changed it because of the amount of members that are changing their display name EVERY month, and not being easily traceable through the forums. Pick your name, and stick with it.

Then they might be members who don't have avatars? Name one of the members.

Just keep it to yourself. This restriction includes sending PMs to members with links in.

TGTAP was the first forum I got really involved with (being a moderator etc). I've been involved in (and often responsible for) most of the changes that have happened here over the past few years, so I feel quite attached to something I've put a lot into. I'm sure a lot of you feel the same about putting a lot into this, not just staff. Question - for those that have been here a long time, do you think the forums have improved since what they were like back in 2004/2005?

Yeah, we can add some lines and alternating row shading. Chris will sort this out soon.

Wearing a coat in the house to play guitar? Cold guitar?

There are a few glitches that appear every time we upgrade (usually links, images, colours etc), so if you point them out then we can fix them. Simple as that. And Thomas is not a staff member, just a normal helpful member.

Unfortunately, due to only 1 member of staff being able to approve downloads, and the massive quantity of downloads we receive (hundreds a week) it can take a long time for mods to be approved. We are hoping to get this improved in the near future, but that still maintains a backlog of months.