Bumdark

Well, I guess you're then part of the dozens, or even hundreds of us, who have their game crashes all the time and not being able to explain or resolve it... There are some things you could try, though. 1 – Check your graphic settings, or if you have one, the settings for your Graphics / Video Card. 2 – SC4 sometimes also crashes due to sound issues and bugs. Check, as with the above, your sound options, and sound card (if you have one). 3 – Make sure all your drivers, software, etc. are correctly installed and / or up-to-date. 4 – If the above fails, go to a dark corner and cry while sucking your thumb. In the end, you could try to contact EA Customer Service, but don't expect any miracles, of course. It might help, though – after all, they did make the game, so who knows it better than them? Hope this gets resolved... Although, I've tried all the above, yet it doesn't stop my game from crashing at random intervals. My computer's all pockmarcked now... (guess why?).

He'd either be incredibly ashamed of it (I would be), or quite proud of the long ways de-segregation (did I say that right?) has come along since his time. Truly a hero that was taken so soon, as so many of them are. I heard one of his speeches once, really quite touching. Shame he couldn't have stayed just a bit longer to clean up society a bit more... eh.

You see what society is doing to our kids these days...? YOU SEE...!? [stop maniacal laughter here] Seems these kids need some help... I'd ban the little brats from school, that's for sure. Plotting to "hurt" their teacher – plenty of teachers pissed me off in third grade, I never even thought of pushing them, so bringing a knife... you can figure it out. Oh wait, I know, I know – wait 'till that old coot Jack Thompson reads this! He'll be searching for "Kife Your Teacher Acadamy 2" or something. Whatever.

Personally, I would elect to boycott the opening and closing ceremonies – as TRNSTN said, a helluva slap to the face. Maybe that would get them thinking... I'm not usually in agreeance with the French, but this time Sarkozy's speaking sense... so of course everyone else will oppose him... That's how this crap works. I wouldn't boycott the games themselves, though – it would just be cruel for those athletes to train passionately for 4 years for a single goal, then have it elongated by an additional 4 years. I'd go kaplutz. It's rather discraceful that China was elected as the new host – I suppose the commitee just wanted to give them a chance, but with all China's actions against even the basic human rights, and their incredible spying networks over the world (how many have been busted now?), I wouldn't even conisider them – probably the first country I'd cross off the list. Finally, I definately would like to know exactly what happened to Tibet? I know it was engulfed mercilessly by the Chinese for no good reason at all, but could anyone point out why exactly (if a reason exists other than the Chinese' taste for power)? Also, the Chinese openly and publically calling the Dalai Llama (dear God I hope I spelled that right...) a "serial liar", and naming him as the reason for the Tibetan uprising – that got me pretty riled up. You'd be hard pressed to find a man with more peace on his mind than him. He just wants his people to stop suffering, how cruel is that! Getting carried away again...

The building's strength is irrelevant – a portion of hill, tons of rock and mud, crashing into a structure will destroy anything in its path. The building, and residents, were just unlucky to find themselves in the way... though isn't it code to put retaining walls and barriers when hills and embankments are so steep, right next to buildings...? I hope the poor bastards inside will get out safely, though there's bound to be a death or two in any case...

Pretty much all that annoys me, is simply injustice. Things happening when they needn't. People killed for stupid, pathetic reasons, such as monetary gain, or accrual of power, or whatever. As Dumbledore once said, 'humans have a knack for doing exactly what's wrong to themselves'. (Something like that.) Genocides that occur just because of some ill-founded prejudices and racism. (Rwanda, anyone?) People that are treated better than others just because they have more money and influence. All human lives are sacred and equal, IMO. No-one deserves better or worse than anyone else – we ALL deserve the best treatment imaginable... but I'm getting far too idealistic here. Definately, the church, Pope, all that (deleted word so I'm not stoned later on). Stupid cults, religions. No-one realizes this yet!?? Also, when THINGS DON'T WORK AS THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO!!!!! I am so sick and tired of booting my PC, expecting to surf the Web, write a bit of my novels, maybe advance my songs a bit... and end up hopelessly entwined in endless troubleshooting. Game doesn't work, so you head on the Net to ask for help, then 'cause you're in Saturday no-one's there on the official help lines, so you ask on the fansites (ex. ST), then have to wait an hour for someone to answer they don't know how to do it, and please explain better; you do so, they still don't understand; you try to fix it yourself, but then find a virus has crippled your system (disabled Task Manager, for example); then you see your Antivirus is outdated, and has been for months because the notification was disabled somehow, and you can only reactivate it by paying hundreds of bucks... And to boot, all the above really did happen one particularly disastrous night... Happens to me so often I've gotten some bald patches... at 16!!!!! DIE, BILL GATES!!! I H8 U!!!!! [Pants] Got that out of the system now. Also, stupid media sensationalisation of completely pointless events. Who gives a stinking crap what famous actresses got divorced, who's suing whom, etc.? Let them all be forgotten!!! Finally, it really bothers me more than anything else when you're complaining your games don't work, than some feeble old coots come and moan, 'in my day, they didn't have that stuff, and we were quite all right...' Is it normal for me to want to knock their canes out from under them? You don't have games in your day; NOW WE DO, so shut up. If your hoops broke or your rivers went dry, you'd whine too, so be quiet. Please forgive me if you understand little of the above.

I've got a few ideas as to why (or rather, how) someone could do this to another, innocent human being... There are multiple cases of when inbreeding can cause mental troubles and severe instabilities (though that's a long shot for this case, it's just a possibility) Also, something people fail to understand is that human beings, and the human mind in particular, are not inherently good or inherently evil – they are simply what their lives and experiences shape them to be. Take any newborn child. Raise him in love and care and compassion, and that'll be a great person in their older years. Take the same child and beat them, torture them, abuse, etc. them, and teach them that all there is is evilness and etc., and that child could very well be the next killer next door. You can mold a human to whatever the hell you want it to be. (This in particular would seemingly apply to the 12yo... all he knows is badness, if he's got a family like that, so what else could his mind resort to but badness?) Finally, a spin-off from the above... beliefs and judments. Now, I may have misread, but I think it said that the woman was mentally retarded or something, "a mind like a child's" (of course that could just mean pure good, but I'm not sure). Some people are just brought up to hate those kinds of different people, and lash out at them... Granted, this would have to be an extreme case. I don't think they should be executed. Throw them in jail for life sentences instead – much more torturous and lengthy for punishment. People like that shouldn't be on (or even off) the streets.

..... This is one of those cases where I truly don't know what to say. I honestly don't. This whole story... I can't express myself justice on this site, so I'd better shut up. They burned her, shot her with BBs, beat her routinely, all those things above... and she was pregnant... that couldn't have helped the situation in any way for her... I simply feel sick. Sick to my core.

Welcome to ST, Ricardo1983! First of all, the following is assuming you've got Rush Hour / Deluxe Edition (same thing really). If you have the Original SC4, dubbed Vanilla, these still apply but just not as accurately... About your "tiny old houses"... I'm not sure how long you've been playing at this, so I'll assume you're a recent inductee to the SimCity 4 world... When you start a new city in an empty (or next-to-empty) region, it's just stupid to expect anything more than those small, low-wealth houses developing. Gradually, as you get the hang of the game and learn new techniques and stuff, your cities will grow, and once you've got good population, good desirability (achieved with good educational, health and safety services, along with the random park here and there) and good demand, new wealth levels – medium and high, example – will come banging at your door. You'll also need water supplies if you ever want either high-wealth or higher density developments and residents to move in. (You're sure you've followed the in-game tutorials, such as "Big City Tutorial" and stuff? Only all the above is covered there...) About railroads and train stations, there are many variables and factors that can influence the usage and efficiency of your system and networks. The stations must be placed correctly (with the parking lots facing the roads, the building facing the rails), they must have access to your transportation network (why bother pointing that out, anyway...?), and they must definately be close enough for your Sims to be able to walk to and from them every day. You see, Sims are an amazingly lazy bunch, and for them, just walking a few city blocks is out of the question, no way, no how. Place stations where you're sure to have the maximum amount of people heading there every day. You must, of course, have two stations minimum – they only embark to head somewhere... Also, I'm pretty sure they need to be powered. Well, that should do it... if your Sims still aren't using the Trains, try activating the appropriate Ordinances to encourage them, or remove any other mode of transport heading to where they're going... Or just zap them with Lightening. Always works for me. :b As for the NAM pieces, either read the in-game tips and stuff, or the documentation (I've read about some somewhere... README.txt ought to do it.) Have fun, and enjoy your stay!

Manticorefan will be burnt to a crisp by a Manticore that`s jealous of his name. It will then eat him, and his guts will feed little Manticore (pups? foals? cubs?).

Discovery Channel.

I see conspiracy theories have claimed another member... yet I'm not criticising you – I've believed that stuff since day one. It's always about oil... Anyway, how 'bout we forget diplomatie (damn, how do you spell that!?) and just send every friggin' army we've got? We're dealing with only a bunch of terrorrists in a confined area, aren't we, in Iraq and that region? Sure, we're scared we'll attract problems by mingling in this damn affair – but, hello... they won't counterattack if they're all extinct. Am I the only one who sees this!? Can't we just end this stupid, vile, completely nonesensical problem forever!? Sorry to get carried away, I'm just SICK AND TIRED of these brainwashed SOBs that come and blow themselves up for no other reason then stupid faith and Jihad and whatever... I'm sick of their killings... Isn't Islam supposed to be, in its core, a peaceful religion? Why these nutjobs?... Sorry again... goodnight...

So now it's actually illegal to die in certain places...? ... Well that made my morning for sure. Is it me getting smarter and smarter, or this world getting dumber and dumber...? Just asking.

Um... when they were passing out brains, I guess this one was at the end of the line... or maybe they skipped him simply... Suing animals now, for behaving normally...? This is about as stupid as stupid gets in my book. How 'bout suing Martians for secrecy while we're at it? This is just weird.

A: It's how a mis-spelling teenager would spell "warty" to describe himself. Q: What's in the core of Uranus? (hope that's not too risky for all y'all Mods out there...)

This is one of those stories that make you wonder where all these people come from... though since she tried to kill her two kids by throwing them off a bridge into traffic, "people' isn't the best term I'd employ here... she clearly has a mental problem -- no sane person could do that, anytime. They'd better keep her away from her kids until a phychologist can figure out what's wrong with her.

This is definately a case where truth is stranger than fiction... ... a lot stranger. I read she was scared from her childhood beatings, and while trauma-induced agoraphobia (I think that's the right condition) is not uncommon, to be confined to the toilet seat for two freaking years without ever getting out... ... you know what to think... Get this woman on some meds, hurry!

I sure don't see anything remotely wrong with leaving a two-year-old sleeping, buckled up, in a car, with flashers and alarm set, with the mother just a few feet away, with the car always in line of sight... If that stupid officer had started yelling at me I'd have stuffed her mouth with something... probably a fist. Sorry, I hate power-hungry cops with nothing better to do. And taking this to court!? Jeez...

Thanks for visiting this thread, whoever you may be... I just need help with one thing. How, say, would you take pics and shots of whatever's on your TV -- just still frames, not necessarily videos -- and be able to import them to your PC, to edit and place in your files, as JPEGs and stuff? So many people know how I feel dumb and left-out here... I know this sounds silly, but I'm building a website -- a gamesite, to be precise, featuring SC4 and other stuff -- and I can use 'PrintScreen' to take pics of the screen, but for TVs that doesn't probably work... I heard you need to use something called a 'Capture Card'. What the heck is that thing, and would it be appropriate? I used to use a standard photo camera to take shots, but anyone knows that so many variables always screw up the shots... I want them taken directly from the screen. How, is my question. Thank you for your time!

Meh... we won't get past December 21, 2012. I mean, look at all the facts... EVERY SINGLE prophet in ancient times -- in Babylone, in Rome, in Ancient Greece (Athens and such), and even Merlin (the real one, the fortune-teller, not that wizard crap made up over the years) all predicted that horrible stuff, even World End, will occur in a specific time frame -- between 2011 and 2013. Some were pretty damn precise too, pointing at the Winter Solistice of 2012 (December 21, what a coincidence). I'm not talking about stupid Doomsayers, that run around the streets, yelling 'we`re gonna die!' while shaking collection plates around for cash, these were the real deal... And then there are all (rather, most) of the ancient civilizations' calendars that pointed to that precise timeframe... Example, the now famous Mayan calendar is so precise scientists today still base our technological calendars on it (it't proven, not a myth here). Yet, it mysteriously ends on exactly December 21, 2012 (or a day or two more or less, I heard). And even then, if you still don't believe it all, there's the INCONTROVERTIBLE scientific facts that all add up. For one thing, I'm not sure where I read this (maybe on Discovery Channel), but Scientists recently did some calculations (way too advanced for my futile brain), and concluded, with little margin for error, that all the disasters we've been having in recent years -- abnormally high numbers of Hurricanes, and stronger hurricanes, each year for example -- will keep growing, almost exponentially, until their climax in 2011 -- 2013 timeframe. Notice what date's smack in the middle? And in the end, there is the very-real reality that, on that precise date (or a few days more or less, I forget), the magnetic poles of the Earth will suddenly, inexplicably, invert. (Thing is, for the last few centures, or millenia -- who knows -- they've been inverted, as any Scientist will tell you the Magnetic North is actually near the South Pole, and vice-versa. Well, in 2012, this will revert back to normal.) I don't know about you, but anyone who knows a little about how Nature and the weather works will know this is absolutely devastating. Much of the global climates and weather patterns are influenced by the Magnetic poles (don't ask me how, no idea, some teacher told me and he's credible) and when that groundwork suddenly shifts, the weather will need to adapt for it -- and we can kiss our asses goodbye. Hurricanes, Volcanic Eruptions and Earthquakes (as they are controlled by Magmatic convections, themselves controlled by the magnetic poles...), etc... I know this doesn't seem credible, but there's an astonishing amount of scientific fact and basics that all prove this right... I sure as hell believe it. To answer your questionm THAT'S why people are talking about 21/12/2012. So many things point to it, both uncertnain and very certain... you can't help but think about it... Freaky stuff, for sure. In the end, I guess we'll have to see on December 21, 2012... 16 now, I'll be almost 20... REPENT! REPENT! REPENT! (God I've always wanted to say that!!!) (Even if I have no idea what it means!!!)

sakarr, I'm not sure what level of sanity you're in to be laughing at "Bomb explodes in Times Square"... For a moment I got scared those fecking terrorists blew up my favorite city again... then I heard it wasn't them... Wondered why I hadn't heard of this yet. Those anti-war radicals ought to hide a bit, unless they're found and hanged... I'd do it happily. Freaks!

Wow Blokey, I'd only read a bit more than a paragraph and already I'd had enough of that crap. What a load of manipulative waffle... complete crap... How d'you manage to read the entire damn thing when only the start was enough to push me away?

Excuse me, maybe I missed something... the very first post that started the thread, by GingerBlokey, mentioned an article in The Sun. What article is this, where can I view it? I once read a tabloid that, on the front page, had some image of a large cloud of smoke from oil fires in Arabia, and in the cloud was a sort of huge demon face; the headline read something like "The Devil is taking over our country! Hell will rise soon!" (I was in the US that week.) You gotta love tabloids -- they put cynism into life, and without cynism (I've no idea how to spell that) life would be too damn politely boring... Once again, I'm requesting to know what article GingerBlokey was so riled up at, please.

The grammer and spelling in that thing was so atrocious I nearly fell of my chair laughing. Someone so well-connected wanted me dead would at least clean up their writing, I think... Looks like a moron wrote that... (Wait, they did!)/ I do hope none of the more easily-scared people out there believed this and had cold sweat... people who do this sort of thing are such losers, they all ought to get hit by a truck and die in my opinion... Seeing as death threats are definately illegal in just about every normal country in the world, I hope the police are doing something against this (or these) creeps...

I'm usually good at these sorts of complexe stuff, but could someone will superior language skills please explain what that load of waffle about means? I don't understand any of it. Was Pakistan rerouting everyone who tried to access a certain video, or something...? I can't understand any of it.