Sometimes we cheat, and take a picture of the whiteboard with the digital camera before erasing. Just in case there were good ideas on there that we might want later.
I am not familiar with the gambling business, but I know it wouldn't be that hard to alter the slot machine payout ratio from a programming perspective. ~1 line of code, in fact.
Switch: PayoutRatio = 97 to PayoutRatio = 95
And, watch your stock go up a point. Does anyone know if it would be legal to lower the amount of winnings paid out, if your casino is having a bad month?
user-created levels
on
NYT on Game Mods
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
are a great addition to commercial games...
so long as there is a moderating system to sort the wheat from the chaff (to use a biblical metaphor)
But I thought geostationary satellites are at an elevation of about 22,239 miles. It is important to get this right, otherwise your geostationary satellite isn't stationary.
And not too hard to implement. You would need a substance that changes color in the presence of ethylene (the plant hormone that encourages ripening).
I am guessing that they are putting some chlorophyll (a simple sugar produced by most plants/green algae) onto a sticker. Ethylene causes the sugar to break down, changing chlorophyll (the reason plants are green) to some other simpler sugar (which would show a different color).
I have a friend who likes to play football games on the easiest mode, and run up 100 points to 0 on the opposing team. He can sit there and do this for hours.
My other friend likes GTA, because he can try out different cars and roam around looking for stuff to do.
I like games that involve character development, and acquiring big, bad swords and spells. Games like Halo give me motion sickness.
In summary: There are different archetypes of gamers, who each enjoy different things. They expect to get some sort of reward, gratification, or experience, according to their personality type. To make a hit game, you just have to appeal to one or more of these broad sets of challenge/reward/satisfaction.
All gamer feedback could potentially be categorized into one of a dozen or so themes, and used to make something cool.
Outsourcing to India in Business Week and at MIT...
Not all of our students will see this cover story in Business Week on the migration of high-paying jobs to India. But most attended a lecture in 6.171 by the folks who run MIT's latest big IT effort: OpenCourseware (http://ocw.mit.edu), which distributes syllabi, problem sets, and other materials from MIT classes (at least one semester after the class is actually given). During the lecture the students learned that, although ocw.mit.edu is a purely static.html site, it is produced with a database-backed content management system. In fact, of the $11 million donated by foundations to support the service, about $2 million was spent on technology and the salaries of folks at MIT who oversee the technology.
The more sophisticated portion of ocw.mit.edu is a 100 percent Microsoft show. A student asks the speakers why they chose Microsoft Content Management Server, expecting to hear a story about careful in-house technical evaluation done by people sort of like them. The answer: "We read a Gartner Group report that said the Microsoft system was the simplest to use among the commercial vendors and that open-source toolkits weren't worth considering."
Students began to wake up.
A PowerPoint slide contained the magic word "Delhi". It turns out that most of the content editing and all of the programming work for OpenCourseware was done in India, either by Sapient, MIT's main contractor for the project, or by a handful of Microsoft India employees who helped set up the Content Management Server.
Thus did students who are within months of graduating with their $160,000 computer science degrees learn how modern information systems are actually built, even by institutions that earn much of their revenue from educating American software developers.
This is a great game - you can choose any one of a number of European and Muslim countries, and guide it through the middle ages. When the Muslims send Imams to scout out your country and convert the populace, you can assassinate them. You can also declare crusades, marry off your daughters for political gain, conquer others, and get trade monopolies. A good time.
Also, the original MechCommander is fun. You defeat enemy mechs in combat, and sometimes you can salvage their carcases and rebuild them (get the MadCat!). You can completely customize the weapons on each mech, and can make up your own strike force configurations with no limitations (except weight).
Thought I would reply to this one, too. Gold is referring to an 80 barrel find, which is not a statistically significant amount from a commercial perspective.
80 barrels is a rounding error for most companies, and could potentially be explained through some other means. A real reserve is in the millions or billions of barrels.
FYI: 1 barrel (bbl) = 42 gallons
Many 8" pipelines have a flowrate of > 2000 barrels per hour (bph), 24 hours a day
Slashdot Mirror
The goal of this phase is to adopt a "Declaration of Principles" and "Plan of Action".
Person 1: Sounds like it was created by an MBA.
Person 2: Actually, it was a committee.
Person 1: OK, a committee of MBA's.
Person 2: A committee of MBA's who work for the government!
Both: (run away and hide under cubicles)
I somtimes mark up a whiteboard, and take a digital picture before erasing it.
Never know when you are whacking a good idea...
should fit on one whiteboard.
Sometimes we cheat, and take a picture of the whiteboard with the digital camera before erasing. Just in case there were good ideas on there that we might want later.
Check out the book "How to Lie with Maps", by Mark Monmonier.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/022
Why yes, I am a geographer...
Engineers answer only to Money.
what a picture of an invisible elephant looks like.
Thanks google image search!
Um, the odds are definitely cheated for the house.
I am not familiar with the gambling business, but I know it wouldn't be that hard to alter the slot machine payout ratio from a programming perspective. ~1 line of code, in fact.
Switch:
PayoutRatio = 97
to
PayoutRatio = 95
And, watch your stock go up a point. Does anyone know if it would be legal to lower the amount of winnings paid out, if your casino is having a bad month?
are a great addition to commercial games...
so long as there is a moderating system to sort the wheat from the chaff (to use a biblical metaphor)
MechAssault is kinda violent - you crush infantry by stepping on them and kicking their trucks across the landscape.
Just being a troll, though - that would only increase the violence percentile to 16%.
games like Neverwinter Nights?
There is a sliding scale for "violence" in the options menu, and you can password protect it.
Problem solved - no censorship, all it takes is active parenting.
I don't mind games with violence, but I wish they would ban games that suck.
But I thought geostationary satellites are at an elevation of about 22,239 miles. It is important to get this right, otherwise your geostationary satellite isn't stationary.
Both figures in the book are wrong.
And not too hard to implement. You would need a substance that changes color in the presence of ethylene (the plant hormone that encourages ripening).
I am guessing that they are putting some chlorophyll (a simple sugar produced by most plants/green algae) onto a sticker. Ethylene causes the sugar to break down, changing chlorophyll (the reason plants are green) to some other simpler sugar (which would show a different color).
I have a friend who likes to play football games on the easiest mode, and run up 100 points to 0 on the opposing team. He can sit there and do this for hours.
My other friend likes GTA, because he can try out different cars and roam around looking for stuff to do.
I like games that involve character development, and acquiring big, bad swords and spells. Games like Halo give me motion sickness.
In summary:
There are different archetypes of gamers, who each enjoy different things. They expect to get some sort of reward, gratification, or experience, according to their personality type. To make a hit game, you just have to appeal to one or more of these broad sets of challenge/reward/satisfaction.
All gamer feedback could potentially be categorized into one of a dozen or so themes, and used to make something cool.
I always wanted to build "back to the future" skateboard parks using similar principles as a child.
*moment of nostalgia*
I made seamless aerial photos for the whole state of OK.
The secret:
Assign latitude/longitude coordinates to a corner of the image, and then edge-match them with the geographic location of each image.
As an additional bonus, you can overlay GPS points and other spatial data directly on top of the imagery.
Outsourcing to India in Business Week and at MIT...
.html site, it is produced with a database-backed content management system. In fact, of the $11 million donated by foundations to support the service, about $2 million was spent on technology and the salaries of folks at MIT who oversee the technology.
Not all of our students will see this cover story in Business Week on the migration of high-paying jobs to India. But most attended a lecture in 6.171 by the folks who run MIT's latest big IT effort: OpenCourseware (http://ocw.mit.edu), which distributes syllabi, problem sets, and other materials from MIT classes (at least one semester after the class is actually given). During the lecture the students learned that, although ocw.mit.edu is a purely static
The more sophisticated portion of ocw.mit.edu is a 100 percent Microsoft show. A student asks the speakers why they chose Microsoft Content Management Server, expecting to hear a story about careful in-house technical evaluation done by people sort of like them. The answer: "We read a Gartner Group report that said the Microsoft system was the simplest to use among the commercial vendors and that open-source toolkits weren't worth considering."
Students began to wake up.
A PowerPoint slide contained the magic word "Delhi". It turns out that most of the content editing and all of the programming work for OpenCourseware was done in India, either by Sapient, MIT's main contractor for the project, or by a handful of Microsoft India employees who helped set up the Content Management Server.
Thus did students who are within months of graduating with their $160,000 computer science degrees learn how modern information systems are actually built, even by institutions that earn much of their revenue from educating American software developers.
Juliard students get a lesson in music.
for something that looks like this.
Cubans have the tropical thing going for them, though.
My buddy (in the US military) was stationed up near the DMZ in S. Korea, and he says it is bitterly cold. Not that cold would bother a Canuck!
You must be a member of the Korean Friendship Association
Check out Medieval Total War.
This is a great game - you can choose any one of a number of European and Muslim countries, and guide it through the middle ages. When the Muslims send Imams to scout out your country and convert the populace, you can assassinate them. You can also declare crusades, marry off your daughters for political gain, conquer others, and get trade monopolies. A good time.
Also, the original MechCommander is fun. You defeat enemy mechs in combat, and sometimes you can salvage their carcases and rebuild them (get the MadCat!). You can completely customize the weapons on each mech, and can make up your own strike force configurations with no limitations (except weight).
FYI, there are TWO gateway pages - you have to click on the word "Welcome" between the two Great Leaders' Portraits to actually access the content.
Took me a few minutes to figure it out...
Great Leader Kim Yong Il is computer-savvy. Check out the Frontpage-For-Dummies official site of the DPRK.
I would be embarrassed to put pictures of my CAT on a website that lame.
Thought I would reply to this one, too. Gold is referring to an 80 barrel find, which is not a statistically significant amount from a commercial perspective.
80 barrels is a rounding error for most companies, and could potentially be explained through some other means. A real reserve is in the millions or billions of barrels.
FYI:
1 barrel (bbl) = 42 gallons
Many 8" pipelines have a flowrate of > 2000 barrels per hour (bph), 24 hours a day