Whiterabbit I am so sorry that you've had to go through all of this. Of course if you hadn't, we might not have had your wonderful presence on this forum.

Thanks for the update WR. I also have been looking at old threads. It's like a time capsule of sorts. Seeing all the old posts from many no longer with us. Surprised these forums have lasted this long and hopefully will continue.

In a more altruistic vein, there’s Hope that someday what happened to you won't happen to so many other people…

What happened to you was in great part a result of incompetence, worsened by institutional favoritism towards wealthy corporations, investors, and individuals. Worldwide, populations are starting to vent their frustrations. NOT taking Anything away from the Black Lives Matter & related protests, the underlying issues are anything but new. Very many feel that it’s finally taken hold because of all these other frustrations that have been building, that people have finally taken a good look and the majority [~60% according to polls] said, ya know, they’re right.

People have been increasingly dissatisfied with healthcare industries that are less culpable for misdeeds than the average auto repair shop. In many countries, bumbling missteps during this pandemic have only amplified our concerns, bringing them front and center. In the US there’s been a litany of mistakes, but just one, the prominent campaign to Not Wear masks, born out of fear that hospitals wouldn’t have enough – and not publicly countered anywhere by any medical authorities or experts – is particularly tragic. Published studies say wearing a mask reduces spread by up to 85%, and while non-medical face coverings are not as effective, if you estimate a 50% reduction, that would have meant saving over 60,000 lives just in the US! [I’m staying away from the political aspects -- people in the middle, not the extremes, are upset and worried about this stuff regardless their political leanings.]

Our legal systems are in as bad if not worse shape. It was decades ago that TV shows became popular, teaching us that it was the quality, the ability of the lawyer that determined the outcome in any court case. And that of course means lots of money to hire these legal masterminds. In the US at least, stories about bad &/or biased judges have been popular for well over a century, e.g. hanging judges in the wild west. In the US it’s gotten to the point that the political parties advertise that if they’re in office, they’ll appoint judges biased to their perspectives. Which is all to say that the vast majority of people truly believe that money talks when it comes to justice, as seen by the insurance company tying your case up for years – as seen by the lack of justice when it comes to the poorest communities and people of color in the US. There’s really no excuse for either.

Life has changed for all of us – the pandemic made sure of that. And the popular sentiment revealed by the protests makes clear that we won’t blindly accept a return to the exact same pre-pandemic normal. That doesn’t mean drastic changes overnight, no matter how much some people say that’s the only way forward. But it does mean change – how much change is yet to be determined, in part by if a vaccine to the virus works, which is uncertain… there’s zero scientific evidence that we can become immune, & if so, for how long.

I was looking through some of my old private messages to see if there were any I could delete because my inbox was full. This prompted me to look through some old threads I'd started and consequently I came across this old thread that was last added to a decade ago. After a little thought I decided to add an update as a lot happened after posting my medical woes.

Following the confirmation that my back had been broken in that accident, now almost 15 years ago, I decided to take legal action against the woman who had caused the accident. I was quite shocked when her insurance company contacted me to inform me that if there was any settlement i would only get 50% of the compensation becasue according to their records, I was partly to blame for the accident. I contacted them to ask why they thought this becasue I was hit from behind while cycling to work. I'd been in the correct lane and had been doing everything a cyclist should do when on a dangerous interchange. I was informed that the lady who had hit me had reported to her insurance that I'd moved across from an inside lane to the central lane and she had been unable to avoid me. I replied informing them of and sending a copy of the police report that indicated that the defendant i.e. the woman who had hit me, had reported not seeing me at the time of the accident, so i pointed out to the insurance that how could she report that I crossed over lanes when she'd said at the time that she hadn't seen me.

Several years later I was in conversation via Team Speak with a good online friend who I'd met via this site. Sadly he passed away back in 2013 following chemotherapy for a slow growing cancer (that the doctor had said would take upwards of 30 years to kill him, but had still advised he undergo chemo'); the chemicals they used damaged his heart and he died following a heart attack a few months after stopping the chemo'. He was a pharmacist and after a particular discussion we had talked about regarding our medical issues (we invariably talked about them in the early days), he said I think from what you have said that you are not producing some important hormones (that turned out to be Cortisol, Growth Hormone and Testosterone) and he suggested that I should get my bloods tested, which I did. By this time I'd been seen by several different specialists because that accident had left me with lot of medical issues; some of which to this day have still not been resolved. Anyway, it transpired that I wasn't producing three particular hormones which incidentally are produced in the Pituitary located in the brain. Oddly I wasn't informed of the results and nothing was done about this following the tests, so things continued onward. I was seeing a pain management specialist who had been employed by my solicitor as part of our defense against the defendants (by this time I'd been told that I must involve the NHS in the legal case as it was they who had sent me home with no treatment and therefor were complicit in many of the issues I was now suffering). While being examined by the pain specialist, she noticed the results of my blood tests and was shocked that nothing had been actioned. As I was seeing her privately she immediately booked an appointment with a colleague of hers, who was an endocrinologist. The following week I went to see her and she immediately took more bloods and got the results in less than half an hour. From those results she said I wasn't producing three important hormones. She then sent me for an MRI and before I left the private hospital four hours later I'd been informed that I had received some brain damage at the time of the accident (something I'd always believed myself, but no doctor had listened). Part of the damage was located around the pituitary gland, which explained the almost total absence of those hormones (Growth hormone is important for the repair of damaged cells as well as healthy muscle, how our bodies collect fat, the ratio of high density to low density lipoproteins in our cholesterol levels and bone density. In addition, growth hormone is needed for normal brain function. Testosterone, which apart from its obvious effect on libido is also important for the regulation of bone mass, fat distribution, muscle mass and strength, and the production of red blood cells. also cortisol, which is an important hormone that regulates a wide range of vital processes throughout the body, including metabolism and the immune response. It also has a very important role in helping the body respond to stress. I now have to take various drugs and inject myself with growth hormone every day for the rest of my life.

We were almost at the end of my legal case when I'd received this new information. I discussed this with my solicitor and was told that if they entered the new information into the legal case it would almost certainly extend the case for a minimum of another 3 to 4 years. We'd been fighting already for several years and were dog tired of all the consultations I'd had to attend on behalf of the defendants who were trying their best to mitigate the compensation. They even searched right back to my teenage years (1970's)to see if I'd had any back injuries that they could then say were the actual injuries I was claiming for; so I decided not to include the brain damage in the claim despite it being a significant injury and would potentially double the compensation I would eventually receive. Two years ater we were finally approaching the time when a court date would be announced. At the same time a beautiful bungalow in a perfect spot came on the market. We had been looking at bungalows for a couple of years, but they tended to be a lot more than a traditional two-story detached home and also way out of our budget at the time. (The cheapest we had seen was approaching (£600 000/$900 000 - exchange rates at the time were hovering around $1.5 to the pound), so I decided to accept the last offer they had made a few months previously. The Queens Council that was representing me advised me to carry on as he reckoned even without the head injury being counted he would get another 50% on top of the offer they had made. However, the bungalow was selling for significantly less than all the others we had seen (£425000), so I decided to accept and immediately put an offer on the bungalow. We moved into that bungalow several months later.

Recently I was seeing another sleep specialist as the sleep apnoea had become worse. My previous interactions with the sleep service had been of little use. They had confirmed that I was suffering from sleep apnoea, but they had determined from some sleep studies where I'd had to stay at the hospital wired up to loads of monitors that it was only mild, so I was discharged with no treatment. On my latest visits they have now changed their diagnosis and I've been prescribed CPAP, which I'm hoping will help. I've yet to receive the equipment. One surprising outcome from this latest consultation was that I was told that it was almost certain the injury to my brain that was causing this central sleep apnoea.

Apart from the above everything is hunky dory. :)

would really like this software to be once available as free giveaway:
Replay Media Catcher it's just the best , there isn't any other software that can do what this can

Freenew.net (Beta): Access links to mainstream freeware from a single webpage.

Freenew.net has a listing of freeware applications, which are clearly organized in table-form.
The selection is heavily focused on established offerings, favored by many computer users.

A legend is included, alerting the user to the particularities of certain programs:
* means a Toolbar is installed.
# means that "Silent Installations" are Forbidden.
+ means that the Software will be downloaded from tested & trusted sources.

URL:
http://www.freenew.net/

Freeware Categories on the site:
— Browsers.
— Communications.
— Anti-Virus & Firewall.
— Anti-Spyware.
— System Utilites.
— Office Software.
— Audio & Video.
— Imaging.
— CD & DVD Tools.
— Desktop Enhancement.
— File Sharing & Transfer.
— Compression & Backup.
— Runtimes & Drivers.
— Benchmarking.
— Others.

Wow! Reading about what has happened to everyone else makes me feel kind of lucky. My problems are almost over and should be solved for quite a few years. I guess you could say I had a typical childhood. I broke my wrist twice, leg once, collapsed a knuckle once and burned my face playing with black powder. (Sound familiar WR?) As far as I know, none of that led to my problem though.

About a year and a half ago I was seeing a Chiropractor for some back problems. I have had hem off & on for years, but never as severe as others like EZRider. After a few manipulations I started having severe pain in my hip. So severe that I was walking with a pronounced limp. I complained about it to the Chiropractor & he referred me to an orthopedic Dr about an hour & a half away from me. I went to see him & he put me through the paces. I had several months of Physical Therapy & a couple of rounds of steroid therapy. Nothing really helped. I still hurt when I walked (or stood up, or sat for too long, etc...) and the joint would also pop a lot. The most uncomfortable feeling though was when I would take a step & it would feel like it was dislocating. The Dr was finally able to justify sending me in for an MRI. I had it done the Monday before Thanksgiving last year. That Wednesday I apparently received a call from the Dr office telling me to get off my feet. One of the Nurses even kept calling over the holiday trying to get ahold of me. When she finally reached me I was told to stay off of my feet & only walk to the bathroom or my bed using crutches.

The diagnosis was Avascular Necrosis. To put it simply, the blood flow to the head of my Femur was damaged & the bone was slowly dying. This Dr blamed it on my drinking a couple of beers every day then refused to have anything more to do with me. He referred me to another Dr in the area. I am really happy about that because he was a rude b******! I am also happy about that because the Dr he referred me to is phenomenal! He even holds part of the patent on the hardware he put into me. None of the other Doctors I have spoken with agree with the first Doctors diagnosis of the cause, but I have cut my drinking back to a couple of times a month. Better safe than sorry. In fact, I have even been told that this problem could have been caused by the steroid treatment I was given for this or another one given for some back troubles. Either way it goes, I have it & I accept it. Just need to get through it & be done.

On February 13 of this year (a friday) I had the first of two hip replacements. I was back to work as a welder 3 months later. I went through pain management to try and give the first side as long as possible to heal and strengthen. When I could no longer stand it, I went back to the Surgeon and we checked the degradation of the remaining hip. It was bad enough to warrant another surgery, so on November 18 I had the other side replaced. They tell me that the problem is now completely gone and once I am healed I will live a full & productive life again. I just need to find another job that is less physical. That way I make the new hips last as long as possible. Since I am only 36, this makes a bit of sense to me. I was told that I did this at the proper time. Both sides were examined after surgery and they had both partially collapsed and had fractured. Not a severe fracture, just a hairline one, but they were not healing. Right now it is just getting through the physical therapy that bothers me. I know it is a necessary evil though. She should be here to torture me in about an hour, so wish me luck! And I also want to wish everyone well with their own trials. You have all shown me that you do not need to let it get you down. You can find joy even when it looks like there is none to be found.

Yeah, Nice one EZ, I truly hope it works for you as I know what constant pain is like (though thankfully I've only been a sufferer for the past 4 years. I'm still contemplating surgery. I've been advised by 2 surgeons that I'd be making a mistake going for surgery because of the risks. The damaged vertebra are all in the thoracic region and from how they have described what they would have to do, its put me off big time. Two other surgeons have said that it may be worth doing; so I'm at a loss as to who to listen to.

By the way I sometimes wish our family could reunite, but I fear that it's gone past any hope. I've not seen any of my cousins all of whome I was close to when I was a child since my mothers funeral in 1996, and one cousin, whome I'v never seen (who was born in Australia) has recently come over to England and has stayed at my sisters for a few days. I got to speak to him several weeks ago over the phone with a promised visit, but it sadly never materialized.

I do email one of my cousins occasionally, but others I've hardly spoken to since leaving home back in the 70's. My father has only ever once visited me and that was shortly after I settled into my first home after leaving the army in 1978 while I still lived in my home town. The only reason he actually visited was because he'd wanted to visit a local pub that he'd not been to since he was a young man. I don't know what effect this disintigration is going to have on our families in the furure. I feel for my youngest children who barely know any of their cousins.

Good to hear things are going in the right direction for you EZ,you'll be ripping up the roads on the bike sooner than you think.

Ya know what Buckleysmom, I think you just described my family to a tee. I'm not that close to my older brother or my sister, but I do text and email my younger brother on a daily basis. I'm afraid that when my mother does pass, we won't see much of each other. I live in Indiana, and they all live in Ohio. That makes it tough. I hope we'll make more of an effort to stay in touch.

On another note, my neck has healed very well and I am completely pain free in my neck and arms. Plus, I have some great news! The same surgeon operated on my lower back on Nov.11th. He removed the last 3 discs and replaced them with pieces of my bone, and then put in 2 steel rods and a bunch of screws to attach the bottom three vertebrae to my tailbone. He also had to remove a bunch of scar tissue from my previous surgeries. I'm wearing this huge, plastic, ungodly brace for at least 6 to 8 weeks, but he thinks I should come out of this pain free at last. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. There is a good chance that I may wake up one day and be totally pain free for the first time in over 30 years! I would jump for joy, but I'm afraid if I did, I would screw up all of the doctor's great work. Besides, us fat guys weren't made to leave the ground for long, we're built low to the ground for speed! LOL I just wanted to share the good news with you all, and I'll keep you all in my prayers so that maybe someday, somehow, you can be as fortunate as I have been lately to find such a great surgeon.

DL, strange, but glad it is working OK for you now.

Actually, Campy, I got it to work finally but I have NO idea how it worked! I had tried to shift the display to the right before loading the game but the game reset it back! Then I tried loading the game and while at the main menu (with the "ion spheres" bouncing around the "R"), I shifted it to the right. It stayed that way. Because of the difficulty seeing things and aggravation of having to manually shift, I hadn't played any more last night. Today, it's working fine! I can see the left edge of the play field and the entire "bar" that builds the layout (that's rather neat to watch).

I have let Reflexive know what I did and what happened but I can't guarantee it will stay fixed. Somehow, it has registered (and saved somewhere), the display settings to reset the game to at the end and what is needed within the game and resets properly.

I can't see what has been changed. It's copyright 2001 and I can't believe they have it working ONLY for that one setting. I have 1280 X 768 on my 22" monitor. Anything higher makes things too small for my eyes.

BTW - you can't run it other than fullscreen. There IS no windowed mode!

The one funny part was they wanted me to make sure my graphics driver was updated. For an 8 year old game, why is that needed! It should work with what was available 8 years ago so anything near current should work!

Dragonlair, no problem here with widescreen. I played it on my netbook at 1024 x 600 and on one of my monitors at 1650 x 1024. I am running Vista on that machine (an ASUS N10J), although I have Win7 to install when I get around to it. I did not change the default CFG file and am playing fullscreen. No problem with seeing the entire play field. Could it be an issue with the setup of your monitor?

Ricochet XTreme has a problem with widescreen monitors. It's configuration file has it set to 640X480 resolution (and it says it's supported under Vista?????). If you try to change that, one thing or another fails and the game just goes belly up. If you leave that and have a widescreen monitor, it shifts to the left and at least 75% of the left most bricks are off the screen. It's playable because you can barely see the bricks but not easily.

I've been working with their customer support and they have "escalated" the problem to the next level. The only solution offered so far is to make the monitor "window" such games with black-bars on the sides. My monitor has no such option and anything I try prior to the game loading is over-ridden by the game.

We've got some bright people here. Sometimes brighter than many customer service techs I've worked with. Does anybody have any bright ideas of how to get this to work right?????

Thanks Face; next time theres another deal I may try that. :)

W.R.

Hi WR - thanks for the info - and I'm glad people are enjoying the game.

As for the debit card, I'm not sure they work the same way over there as they do in the US, but they took mine - just don't identify it as a debit and don't use the code. I have had mine accepted as a regular card all over the place. Good luck - hope it works
for you.

Ricochet Extreme was released before Ricochet Infinity. With thousands of custom made levels available, many of which are graded A and A+, there's little to distinguish between the games apart from Infinity having a direct link to all the custom made maps, wheras with the Extreme version you have to go to the website and manually download them then install them. It's so much easier with Infinity. Also with Infinity you get a whole new bunch of brick types, and some interesting modes. I'm not sure whether the custom made levels made with the Infinity levels editor will work with Ricochet Extreme. I stopped playing all the earlier versions when I bought Ricochet Infinity.

Because it's free it's probably worth the effort to download (if you are able to - I couldn't anyway because I no longer use credit cards since retiring; unfortunately they don't accept debit cards which I think is appalling, but hey, that's just me)

Great game so if you don't have any of the Ricochet series grab it now.

I did say I'd give away my earlier copies of ricochet. I have every version and I really see no reason to keep the earlier ones. If you did contact me previously via PM and I've either never replied, or said I'd sort it, please PM me. All my PM's were deleted when they changed the format, plus I've forgotten who I promised one of the games to. (I apologise for the oversight)

Whiterabbit

Spud, I do a fair amount of ordering through the year for books and DVDs from Amazon so the credit info didn't bother me. They didn't use it anyway. I have noticed one slight problem and it may be my wide-screen. The game is shifted to the left too far and the left-most "bricks" only show 20%-25%. I've tried shifting my monitor defintion and it's ignored!

Also, from the Reflexive site, there are 3 "bonuses" - more puzzles, high def backgrounds and music for registered users of the game. However, they won't work. They say I must have the game installed and I can get it from -and give the reflexive site-. They don't say I HAVE to get it there or that getting it from their site is required to use the bonuses but they refuse to install!

I have reported both problems and I'm waiting for responses.

free games from amazon are for the states only worst luck and they want your credit card details

Thanks for the tip Face. Played this one years ago and it's still good now.

@Face: Thanks for the heads up! I definitely grabbed this one. I bought Ricochet Infinity and LOVE it..so I imagine this one should be just as good if not better!

Sigh!! I really wish Amazon would starting spreading some of the love around.

Thanks. I recently got Ricochet Infinity from them with a free game code I got from them for buying another one of their games (that I got at a big discount). Before choosing Infinity for my free pass I tried out demos of several others that I could have gotten and I enjoyed Infinity the most. I am looking forward to seeing how earlier version of the game differs.

The link worked fine. I got it. Since I lost several Alawar breakout games due to that username change last month, this was a nice replacement. It works great. It's a little more informative as to what the "power-ups" mean as they flow down than some.

You can't argue the price (if from the US) and it really is a rather nice (but noisy) breakout game. :]

Downloads rather quickly as the download is hosted on download.com And to answer Face's question you definitely could have downloaded the trial ahead of time if you were worried about that. My download was done in just a minute or two. E-mail arrived immediately.

Thanx nbl - I thought that was how much time was left.

The download window will open in about 3 hours time - so some more patience is needed :)

Another free game from Amazon - I haven't tried it yet, but it sounds good:

Product Description:
Ricochet is an award winning breakout style game featuring state of the art graphics, sound, and lots of new twists on the old classic. It's a winning combination that your WHOLE family will enjoy. As one person wrote us: "My family is thrilled with Ricochet, we have all played it enthusiastically for months!"

I'm having trouble getting a direct link to download it, because it only shows that I have already bought it - but try this:

http://www.amazon.com/Ricochet-Xtreme-Game-Download-Pc/dp/B001K7HUR8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1257908559&sr=1-1

If it doesn't work, just go to http://www.amazon.com and put the name in to search. Sorry, but it says it is only available to the United States.

Have fun!

Has anyone successfully installed this today for free? If so, could you please supply the location for the download?

Thanks

I left this message on Gizmo's message board, but wondered what you guys might think:

I have frequently found that when high-quality software such as this is offered on a free-for-one-day-only basis there is such a huge response that it is impossible (or nearly so) to connect with the necessary sources required to complete installation and registration procedures. Not wanting to miss out on this opportunity, I wonder if there are steps which can be taken beforehand to simplify the process on the day of the giveaway. For example, would it help to download the trial version now and is there a way to complete part of the registration process, so that they have you on file and you need only request the required serial numbers (or whatever) to complete the process?

I would appreciate any thoughts anyone might have - Thanks!