I don't think getting rid of things like quests or levels are a goal in itself. Replacing levels with skill systems would be interesting in that it makes for more customization, but is difficult to balance. Magic the Gathering has a fairly well-balanced PvP system with endless customization, so difficult != impossible.
Quests are essentially scripted tutorials or interactive movies. They do have their place and are fairly easy to implement. Activities other than quests that people just do in current games regardless of systems include socializing, trading, roleplaying etc. Looking at some of the things people do with the tools available on Facebook or in Second Life could give ideas for what could be built into major timesinks. Customization and crafting are great for giving more life to a world and letting users generate content for each other without breaking game balance.
My reaction as well. My first thought was the neural network was used to learn/predict user actions based on what's on the screen and give sound cues tied to the predicted action. For example, when some critter spawns in front of you, the player usually casts Fireball -> network learns that and shouts "Fireball!" every time a monster spawns.
Assuming the site still exists, here's a site explaining what's wrong with the finnish version of this list. I can't check the link for reasons that should be obvious.
Short list of problems:
- 98+% false positives, including the top 7 or 8 google hits for "gay porn"
- Majority of sites are in the EU or US, yet the sites are still up
- The law only allows non-finnish sites to be on that list, yet a finnish site critical of the list is blocked.
The first I randomly clicked on that list (Orb) has apparently complied with the license. It just hasn't been verified that the source they provide compiles. Isn't it a bit over the top to include projects like that in a Hall of Shame?
Congratulations. You have succeeded in creating a system which rewards griefing.
Not quite. The skew between points risked and points gained (risk/reward) should be relative to the chance of the outcomes; e.g. A player with a 2000 rating fights a 1600-rated one. There's an 80% chance the first guy wins. If he wins, he gains 4 points and the other loses 4. If he loses, he loses 16 points and the other gains 16. You could conceivably make the system account for things other than rating, such as level, class, buffs etc.
Griefing is minimized if a player with close to 100% chance of win can lose a decent amount of points, but will gain nothing or next to nothing. Rounding could be a problem if the minimum points gain for a win is set to one.
Also, lol @ thinking the points system for chess ranking rewards griefing:D
One of the larger issues of Linux adoption is that Windows users have a mental model of computers which is Windows-specific:
1. Typing is for documents, not the command line.
2. Reading is for web pages, not system configuration.
3. Configuration is about making choices, not thinking, and certainly not about knowing what hardware is installed in the machine.
4. If it can't be installed with a few mouse clicks, it doesn't work. End of story.
Agree with the main point of your post, but I don't see why these things would be Windows-specific rather than basic rules of usability. Having icons that represent what things do rather than an empty command prompt that doesn't show you what the options are is just better for a user that just starts using something rather than look stuff up in a manual.
Assume you buy a new fancy TV. Would you still consider any of the above points to be a Windows vs. Linux issue rather than simply usability?
If you're downloading DVD rips you're going to have a hard time arguing your case for not buying DVDs.
I can browse a list of movies, pick one to download and start watching an hour later without leaving my house. Compared to buying a physical DVD, this is far better than the way they deliver movies.
There isn't piracy because there's DRM, there's DRM because there's piracy.
Hardly. There is no DRM on pirated media. There is DRM on legally bought media. DRM does not restrict distribution. DRM restricts use. DRM does not reduce the downloading of non-DRM'd media. DRM makes the official, legally bought media a worse product than the illegally downloaded non-DRM'd media.
So we're not talking just as in "looks like a human", but something that was definitely just as sentient and self-aware as a human. It could probably not just understand that you're experimenting on it, but understand the experiment if you bother explaining the science behind it.
What people seem to forget in discussions on cloning is that cloned animals/humans are born and grow up just like any child. A cloned neanderthal would have a mother and would grow up with modern humans in our current society. Without knowing in advance that the kid is a Neanderthal, the average guy on the street would just think he/she looks a bit odd but have no clue that the person in front of them "isn't human".
Are we really going to try and force Microsoft to stop including a monitor with the OS? If you have no monitor how are you supposed to go about getting one? Build one from scratch? Conveniently have an old one ready to go?
The answer to this is obviously less important to techies such as ourselves. I can, however, imagine the sad conversation I'd end up having with one of my less savvy peers.
There go my mod points, but you raise an interesting point. The Glider case decided that
a) launching the software in an unapproved manner makes the copying from HD to memory an unauthorized copy in violation of the EULA and
b) selling a product that requires the end user to break the EULA of another product to work is tortious interference
Apple may actually have a case here, simply because of some WoW bot writer's inept legal defense...
I'd argue that wind power per inhabitant is also wrong, since it doesn't take into account that the average American uses 1,460W while the average German uses only 753W. As a fraction of consumption, Germany has about eight times more wind power. Link
66GW / 500M inhabitants gives about 130W/capita. US has 25GW / 300M inhabitants, which is about 80W/capita. According to this list the US consumes 1460W/capita and the EU 700.
EU 18,5%, the US 5,4%.
Which is completely wrong because "The wind power capacity installed by end 2008 will, in a normal wind year, produce 142 TWh of electricity, equal to about 4.2% of the EU's electricity demand". Sigh. What did I get wrong here?
Unless people sign terms of agreement anywhere, AND intend to mis-represent themselves AND harass and victimise minors to the point of physical/mental harm or death, they have NOTHING to fear.
No. If people sign terms of service anywhere AND break them in any way causing a minimum of $500 damages they have to fear criminal charges for unauthorized access.
intend to mis-represent themselves -> Not limited to that. More generally, break a ToS.
victimise minors to the point of physical/mental harm or death -> Not limited to that. More generally, cause a minimum of $500 damages.
Something like blogger.com has 23 million. 14k a month is really not a large user base. This is something one single guy does as a hobby, not a large organization of volunteers. Starting over would probably make the user base stabilize at less than half the previous number, even that only with months of hard work.
Now, with that said, the kids don't need to be watching tentacle porn instead of doing their homework, on a laptop provided by taxpayers. They can get an old machine for ten bucks at a thrift store for that, assuming that they don't already have one.
Blocking pornography specifically is simply a moral judgment. "Instead of doing their homework" is a flawed argument.
There are loads of things that waste time and are not related to homework. Why single out pornography? Filters meant for pornography routinely block all kinds of non-pornographic content either deemed objectionable by the people maintaining the blacklist or simply containing words often seen on pornographic web sites.
Not all time is used on homework. Why prevent people from using the computer for unrelated things in their free time? What's the point in having to buy another computer for these unrelated things? Why get them these computers in the first place if restrictions make it necessary to get another without restrictions?
What's the point of the filter in the first place if the kids are supposed to have another computer without content filtering?
* it's overlapping polygons for maximal reuse of corners
* it uses straight edged polygons as opposed to bezier edges, lines are computationally simpler to rasterize
* it's yielding some mad compression
To get a natural looking picture with as little data as possible, shouldn't it skip the straight edged polygons though? I can see how rendering is simpler this way, making for some interesting possibilities with moving / shape changing polygons for ultra-compressed video. However, further evolving it to bezier patches or a gradient mesh would make for some really realistic images, right?
Does anyone know of other projects doing vectorization with genetic algorithms?
As a result, many benchmarking attempts are very misleading, because they are often done by a filesystem developer who consciously or unconsciously, wants their filesystem to come out on top, and there are many ways of manipulating the choice of benchmark or benchmark configuration in order to make sure this happens.
Wouldn't it be logical to assume a filesystem developer has an idea on what the workload and hardware will be like _before_ writing his filesystem, then picking a benchmark that suits his ideas on what a filesystem is supposed to do? No manipulation necessary, intentional or otherwise.
An exemption should be made for copying within a single device (HD to RAM, for example) or between devices owned by the same person. If I can wish for anything here, make an exemption for any copying without distribution.
I have a hard time considering it stealing if it's going in the trash. I assume it's still legally someone's property until the trash has been physically taken away, but morally it can't be considered theft.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't think getting rid of things like quests or levels are a goal in itself. Replacing levels with skill systems would be interesting in that it makes for more customization, but is difficult to balance. Magic the Gathering has a fairly well-balanced PvP system with endless customization, so difficult != impossible.
Quests are essentially scripted tutorials or interactive movies. They do have their place and are fairly easy to implement. Activities other than quests that people just do in current games regardless of systems include socializing, trading, roleplaying etc. Looking at some of the things people do with the tools available on Facebook or in Second Life could give ideas for what could be built into major timesinks. Customization and crafting are great for giving more life to a world and letting users generate content for each other without breaking game balance.
My reaction as well. My first thought was the neural network was used to learn/predict user actions based on what's on the screen and give sound cues tied to the predicted action. For example, when some critter spawns in front of you, the player usually casts Fireball -> network learns that and shouts "Fireball!" every time a monster spawns.
Obviously I screwed up the link :(
Assuming the site still exists, here's a site explaining what's wrong with the finnish version of this list. I can't check the link for reasons that should be obvious.
Short list of problems:
- 98+% false positives, including the top 7 or 8 google hits for "gay porn"
- Majority of sites are in the EU or US, yet the sites are still up
- The law only allows non-finnish sites to be on that list, yet a finnish site critical of the list is blocked.
Yeah, the first one was scrapped in 1975.
The first I randomly clicked on that list (Orb) has apparently complied with the license. It just hasn't been verified that the source they provide compiles. Isn't it a bit over the top to include projects like that in a Hall of Shame?
Not quite. The skew between points risked and points gained (risk/reward) should be relative to the chance of the outcomes; e.g. A player with a 2000 rating fights a 1600-rated one. There's an 80% chance the first guy wins. If he wins, he gains 4 points and the other loses 4. If he loses, he loses 16 points and the other gains 16. You could conceivably make the system account for things other than rating, such as level, class, buffs etc.
:D
Griefing is minimized if a player with close to 100% chance of win can lose a decent amount of points, but will gain nothing or next to nothing. Rounding could be a problem if the minimum points gain for a win is set to one.
Also, lol @ thinking the points system for chess ranking rewards griefing
Agree with the main point of your post, but I don't see why these things would be Windows-specific rather than basic rules of usability. Having icons that represent what things do rather than an empty command prompt that doesn't show you what the options are is just better for a user that just starts using something rather than look stuff up in a manual.
Assume you buy a new fancy TV. Would you still consider any of the above points to be a Windows vs. Linux issue rather than simply usability?
I can browse a list of movies, pick one to download and start watching an hour later without leaving my house. Compared to buying a physical DVD, this is far better than the way they deliver movies.
Hardly. There is no DRM on pirated media. There is DRM on legally bought media. DRM does not restrict distribution. DRM restricts use. DRM does not reduce the downloading of non-DRM'd media. DRM makes the official, legally bought media a worse product than the illegally downloaded non-DRM'd media.
What people seem to forget in discussions on cloning is that cloned animals/humans are born and grow up just like any child. A cloned neanderthal would have a mother and would grow up with modern humans in our current society. Without knowing in advance that the kid is a Neanderthal, the average guy on the street would just think he/she looks a bit odd but have no clue that the person in front of them "isn't human".
Are we really going to try and force Microsoft to stop including a monitor with the OS? If you have no monitor how are you supposed to go about getting one? Build one from scratch? Conveniently have an old one ready to go?
The answer to this is obviously less important to techies such as ourselves. I can, however, imagine the sad conversation I'd end up having with one of my less savvy peers.
Exhibit A
Exhibit B
There go my mod points, but you raise an interesting point. The Glider case decided that
a) launching the software in an unapproved manner makes the copying from HD to memory an unauthorized copy in violation of the EULA and
b) selling a product that requires the end user to break the EULA of another product to work is tortious interference Apple may actually have a case here, simply because of some WoW bot writer's inept legal defense...
I'd argue that wind power per inhabitant is also wrong, since it doesn't take into account that the average American uses 1,460W while the average German uses only 753W. As a fraction of consumption, Germany has about eight times more wind power. Link
66GW / 500M inhabitants gives about 130W/capita. US has 25GW / 300M inhabitants, which is about 80W/capita. According to this list the US consumes 1460W/capita and the EU 700.
EU 18,5%, the US 5,4%.
Which is completely wrong because "The wind power capacity installed by end 2008 will, in a normal wind year, produce 142 TWh of electricity, equal to about 4.2% of the EU's electricity demand". Sigh. What did I get wrong here?
No. If people sign terms of service anywhere AND break them in any way causing a minimum of $500 damages they have to fear criminal charges for unauthorized access.
intend to mis-represent themselves -> Not limited to that. More generally, break a ToS.
victimise minors to the point of physical/mental harm or death -> Not limited to that. More generally, cause a minimum of $500 damages.
First to make an ASCII image of Xzibit that includes itself wins the Internet!
Something like blogger.com has 23 million. 14k a month is really not a large user base. This is something one single guy does as a hobby, not a large organization of volunteers. Starting over would probably make the user base stabilize at less than half the previous number, even that only with months of hard work.
If we can figure out its point of origin, it can be contained or, if deemed appropriate, destroyed.
Blocking pornography specifically is simply a moral judgment. "Instead of doing their homework" is a flawed argument.
There are loads of things that waste time and are not related to homework. Why single out pornography? Filters meant for pornography routinely block all kinds of non-pornographic content either deemed objectionable by the people maintaining the blacklist or simply containing words often seen on pornographic web sites.
Not all time is used on homework. Why prevent people from using the computer for unrelated things in their free time? What's the point in having to buy another computer for these unrelated things? Why get them these computers in the first place if restrictions make it necessary to get another without restrictions?
What's the point of the filter in the first place if the kids are supposed to have another computer without content filtering?
It's cool because of a few reasons.
* it's overlapping polygons for maximal reuse of corners
* it uses straight edged polygons as opposed to bezier edges, lines are computationally simpler to rasterize
* it's yielding some mad compression
To get a natural looking picture with as little data as possible, shouldn't it skip the straight edged polygons though? I can see how rendering is simpler this way, making for some interesting possibilities with moving / shape changing polygons for ultra-compressed video. However, further evolving it to bezier patches or a gradient mesh would make for some really realistic images, right?
Does anyone know of other projects doing vectorization with genetic algorithms?
As a result, many benchmarking attempts are very misleading, because they are often done by a filesystem developer who consciously or unconsciously, wants their filesystem to come out on top, and there are many ways of manipulating the choice of benchmark or benchmark configuration in order to make sure this happens.
Wouldn't it be logical to assume a filesystem developer has an idea on what the workload and hardware will be like _before_ writing his filesystem, then picking a benchmark that suits his ideas on what a filesystem is supposed to do? No manipulation necessary, intentional or otherwise.
An exemption should be made for copying within a single device (HD to RAM, for example) or between devices owned by the same person. If I can wish for anything here, make an exemption for any copying without distribution.
If you've never heard of Iron Maiden, I think a "These artists must be obscure because I don't recognize them" post loses some credibility...
I have a hard time considering it stealing if it's going in the trash. I assume it's still legally someone's property until the trash has been physically taken away, but morally it can't be considered theft.