JoeUser.com is going to get a major makeover next year.  Right now, WinCustomize.com is getting the treatment (WC 2K7 won't show up until end of this year).  But we have some thoughts on the direction JoeUser.com should take:   Automated side-bars. You can make a given blogger your friend and quickly see what sorts of things they've been up to on the site. Photo albums. Mini photo-albums (up to 6 pictures). Automated home page. Based on the insightful/interesting points,...

I haven't had problems editing posts from the forum but I am testing again to be sure.   Editing from forum. 

This is going to be part one of a two part article that talks about what the War on Terror is about and how it got started. Every so often I'll see a book or read an article that either asks "Why do they hate us?" or asserts how "we" squandered the "good will" that the United States had right after 9/11. When I get into debates with people on these subjects the main problem I run into is that many people - on both sides of the debate - are appalling unfamiliar with history -- even recent h...

A thread over at the Democratic Underground asks what makes you proud to be an American.  The answers provide an answer as to why so many people have doubts about the patriotism of the left.

With the 2008 election starting to loom (unfortunately) the Republican line up for President is not looking very promising. It looks a lot like 1996. Let's look at the likely leading candidates: Rudy Giuliani. Unelectedable. A social liberal Republican cannot get the electoral votes to win. John McCain. Probably not electable. Right wing turn out won't be sufficient if there's a strong Democratic candidate. Newt Gingrich. Low charisma. He would probably be an excellent President but bein...

The downside of putting out updates that add tons of features is that inevitably some of those new features or changes to game play create unexpected side-effects.  We call those things Kilgore of the deep but most people refer to them as "bugs".  So 1.31 is a good old fashioned bug fix. + fixed bug with planet quality bonus not being applied for home planet; I believe that we have now nailed all the bugs that caused a difference between the planet class and the number of useable t...

The year is 2225. The galaxy is on the verge of civil war. The Drengin Empire and Yor are becoming increasingly menacing in the galaxy. The Terran Alliance and their friends, the Altarian Republic struggle to build friendships with other civilizations to keep the mighty Drengin at bay. But only time will tell how events ultimately shape up. The Terran Alliance homeworld, Earth sits in the center. The mighty Drengin Empire and the Altarian Republic are our immediate neighbors with neutr...

First, what is a mega event? A mega event is a randomly generated event that dramatically alters the game play. What are some examples of mega-events? Allied War. Three of the 9 players who are already friendly decide to ally together and declare war on everyone else. Plague. A space plague that will gradually wipe everyone out unless a particular research item is found. Culture Shock. A particular alien civilization gets their influence boosted by 10X and players have to decide how to...

Part 1 of 6 , Part 2 of 6 , Part 3 of 6 , Part 4 of 6 , Part 5 of 6 , Part 6 of 6 See them all..

I made a news item on WinCustomize.com tonight about the 5th anniversary of 9/11.  It's always a touchy thing putting up a political hot potato on WinCustomize.com.  One thing I have learned over the years is that many non-Americans who visit WinCustomize.com have an extremely poor opinion of the US, its policies.  I don't think that's representative of foreign readers of WC, just those who happen to post. But 9/11 was a big deal. And at the end of the day, we're an Americ...

There's a lot of super powers to choose from.  Flight, super strength, invulnerability, super speed, invisibility. But if you had to choose one? Which would it be? Being invulernable would be kind of nice but on the other hand, you could get stuck in a bad situation.  That's where super strength would be nice.  But super strength would be problematic because you could really hurt yourself. The more I think about it, the more I conclude that most powers need to come in pai...

They've built a plant that uses plasma arcs to take sewage and garbage and convert it into energy with the resulting steam being used by another plant and the remaining hardened sludge used for roads. Gotta love that. Read the whole thing.

I don't know how many of you listen to our podcast, PowerUser.TV.  But Episode 53 came out recently and it was our first video show. So if you've ever wanted to see me rant as opposed to just read my rants, here's your chance.

ABC's upcoming TV movie, "Path to 9/11" has some portions that are quite critical of the Clinton administration. One part in particular has Clinton and Democrats up in arms.  The part in question has to do with a missed opportunity to take out Bin Laden in the late 90s. In the unedited version of the movie, CIA agents request permission to capture Bin Laden.  The agents are refused citing fear of accidentally killing him and the US being condemned internationally for "assasina...