With a truly random fruit-machine (with a preset payback-percentage), the chance of winning would be the same each time you pressed the spin-button. This is obviously not the case.
Instead the machine probably uses a kind of pre-programmed sequence of wins and losses. I think these sequences has been carefully programmed to make the player believe that he would win if he plays just a little bit more. With truly randomness there should be a possibilty of playing like 20 times without winning or winning 10 times in a row, but instead they make sure that the player always wins now and then. There could be a random-number determining that now there should be 2 to 5 losing games and then one or two winning games.
There was an example where when the player had the option to hold when two cherries appeared shows this. If the player chooses not to hold, a cherry will appear in the last reel, but if the player holds the two cherries, a red 7 appeared. This feature is obviously put in there to make the player play more.
It wouldn't surprise me if the makers of these games has studied which win/loose-patterns make the players play more. Unfortunately, I think most people playing these games will never understand this.
I think this quote from the article demonstrates that kind of behaviour:
This RAM file demonstrates the "hold dilemma". On the second spin, two cherries will appear on the second and third reels, with the option to hold. If you elect NOT to hold the cherries, a cherry will spin in on Reel 1 on the next turn, leading the player to believe holding the cherries would have yielded a win. However, if you DO hold the cherries, a red 7 will spin in on the first reel instead.
I was in Bucharest for only a few days (arrived tuesday, left thursday), so I didn't have much time. But unfortunately the short visit didn't make me want to go back, and I most likely it won't be any more business-trips to Romania (i was just demonstrating some stuff at a conference).
I was in Romania (Bucharest) for a few days in April, and unfortunately I can't agree with you on the "beautiful country" party. Ugly, empty buildings, stray dogs, pirate taxi drivers outside the airport trying to grab my luggage and so on. Bucharest may look better later in the spring/summer though. On the other hand, the restaurants were fine, the food was excellent and most of the people were nice. And yes, the women were good-looking too.
I checked out the Trilobite in the shop a few months ago, and the first thing that struck me was the noise. You don't want to stay in the same room while it is doing it's thing...
Some of the Rumanian lei-bills (at least the 10000 bill) are quite difficult
to counterfeit (with a standard pc). They have a hole covered with transparent plastic (which also has some kind of watermarking). I don't see why anyone would counterfeit lei though, since the 10000 bill was worth 50 cents or less when I visited Bucharest.
our current project with bulbs, can go for about 8000-10,000 hours before the bulbs needs replacement. so we got through about 2/3 bulb a years per projector.
Impressive, considering there is only 8760 (or 8784) hours in a year.:)
I bought a "copy-protected" CD recently, well aware of the fact that is had protection, not just because I wanted the music but because I had to check out how this stuff worked.
The CD had two sessions, the first contained audio tracks, the second data withcrappy 48kbit WMA-encoded tracks. It was easy to rip the tracks though.
Extract the audio-tracks from session 1 with CDmage
This method only works in Windows though. If there is a way to dump raw data from a CD in Linux, or even better, select which session you should see, there shouldn't be any problems extracting the tracks.
I'm missing something. As cool as it is, why do you need to liquid cool 1.1Ghz Athlons. Its nothing a fan can't handle adequitely and at a much more desireable cost. Are they just going for the wow factor, or is there an actually reason for the liquid cooling.
I'm no expert at this (and I didn't read the entire article), but it by using liquid cooling instead of fans you can stack a lot more CPUs into the same space. Getting rid of the heat would also be easier since you can put the radiator somewhere, like outside or in another room.
A TotalFarker can see all submitted stories on fark, but a Slashdot Subscriber only sees the accepted stories before they hit the main page. With this new feature I may become a Slashdot Subscriber in the near future. (Yes, I'm already a TotalFarker:)
The most time-consuming aspect, Larkin said, was just the electronics, as he's a software programmer by trade. The cartridge includes over 180 hand-soldered points, and 135 connections.
Larkin said he's also designed a basic vibrating "Rumble Pak" add-on for the Atari controller, and tested it, as well as a multi-tap device that allows 4 players to simultaneously play the 2600 console. Larkin has also asked Nintendo for formal permission to use a link cable to connect his Game Boy Advance to a Windows PC.
Why did he ask Nintendo for permission for connecting his GBA to a PC? There is no license agreement when you're buying a GBA. Is sending ones and zeroes to your own GBA is prohibited by the DMCA? If it is, doing so without Nintendos permission is called civil disobedience and should be encouraged.
Slashdot Mirror
If someone put a Celine Dion song on my computer, I would pay to get someone blow it up.
Sorry. You better not look at my other post then... :)
With a truly random fruit-machine (with a preset payback-percentage), the chance of winning would be the same each time you pressed the spin-button. This is obviously not the case.
Instead the machine probably uses a kind of pre-programmed sequence of wins and losses. I think these sequences has been carefully programmed to make the player believe that he would win if he plays just a little bit more. With truly randomness there should be a possibilty of playing like 20 times without winning or winning 10 times in a row, but instead they make sure that the player always wins now and then. There could be a random-number determining that now there should be 2 to 5 losing games and then one or two winning games.
There was an example where when the player had the option to hold when two cherries appeared shows this. If the player chooses not to hold, a cherry will appear in the last reel, but if the player holds the two cherries, a red 7 appeared. This feature is obviously put in there to make the player play more.
It wouldn't surprise me if the makers of these games has studied which win/loose-patterns make the players play more. Unfortunately, I think most people playing these games will never understand this.
Just my two cents...
I think this quote from the article demonstrates that kind of behaviour:
The pseudo-code would probably look like this:
(How do I create indents? :)
...is located in Sweden.
I was in Bucharest for only a few days (arrived tuesday, left thursday), so I didn't have much time. But unfortunately the short visit didn't make me want to go back, and I most likely it won't be any more business-trips to Romania (i was just demonstrating some stuff at a conference).
I was in Romania (Bucharest) for a few days in April, and unfortunately I can't agree with you on the "beautiful country" party. Ugly, empty buildings, stray dogs, pirate taxi drivers outside the airport trying to grab my luggage and so on. Bucharest may look better later in the spring/summer though. On the other hand, the restaurants were fine, the food was excellent and most of the people were nice. And yes, the women were good-looking too.
What you need is a decent source control/backup system, not a decompiler.
I've got one spare Indigo2 HDD bracket :)
I checked out the Trilobite in the shop a few months ago, and the first thing that struck me was the noise. You don't want to stay in the same room while it is doing it's thing...
The screen on the GBA is 240x160.
Yes, Romania of course...
...which can be mounted on the top of a shark!
(Taken from evilfinder.)
Some of the Rumanian lei-bills (at least the 10000 bill) are quite difficult to counterfeit (with a standard pc). They have a hole covered with transparent plastic (which also has some kind of watermarking). I don't see why anyone would counterfeit lei though, since the 10000 bill was worth 50 cents or less when I visited Bucharest.
Ah, stupid me.
Impressive, considering there is only 8760 (or 8784) hours in a year. :)
I bought a "copy-protected" CD recently, well aware of the fact that is had protection, not just because I wanted the music but because I had to check out how this stuff worked.
The CD had two sessions, the first contained audio tracks, the second data withcrappy 48kbit WMA-encoded tracks. It was easy to rip the tracks though.
This method only works in Windows though. If there is a way to dump raw data from a CD in Linux, or even better, select which session you should see, there shouldn't be any problems extracting the tracks.
Porn?
I'm no expert at this (and I didn't read the entire article), but it by using liquid cooling instead of fans you can stack a lot more CPUs into the same space. Getting rid of the heat would also be easier since you can put the radiator somewhere, like outside or in another room.
NTFS is a journaling file system. :)
A TotalFarker can see all submitted stories on fark, but a Slashdot Subscriber only sees the accepted stories before they hit the main page. With this new feature I may become a Slashdot Subscriber in the near future. (Yes, I'm already a TotalFarker :)
Just block the goatse-server in your ad-block/firewall/whatever.
Aha! Now we now the requirements for running Doom3!
The most time-consuming aspect, Larkin said, was just the electronics, as he's a software programmer by trade. The cartridge includes over 180 hand-soldered points, and 135 connections. Larkin said he's also designed a basic vibrating "Rumble Pak" add-on for the Atari controller, and tested it, as well as a multi-tap device that allows 4 players to simultaneously play the 2600 console. Larkin has also asked Nintendo for formal permission to use a link cable to connect his Game Boy Advance to a Windows PC.
Why did he ask Nintendo for permission for connecting his GBA to a PC? There is no license agreement when you're buying a GBA. Is sending ones and zeroes to your own GBA is prohibited by the DMCA? If it is, doing so without Nintendos permission is called civil disobedience and should be encouraged.