Actually, second-based billing was in place almost everywhere long before the EU standardized it. It sells more, and we don't have three-way shared monopolies and price fixing around here.
That's not a "report" button, its a "customize my results for the future button" and it is really stupid.
Agreed. At least, I never found a use for it anyway. I just don't bother to filter my search results manually, and it's not my job anyway: if it gets too much, I'll give Bing a chance.
People are noticing the quality of their searches declining and there doesn't seem to be much Google can do or is willing to do.
That's because they index everything ("Results 1 - 10 of about 15,280,000,000 for a. (0.07 seconds)") and then they try to rank the crap lower. A much better option would be to create a new search space on top of this one containing only sites recommended by humans, and rank those up automatically, like they did with wikipedia. Of course this would be slow to build up, since all the entries should be added manually by a Google employee, but it would be well worth it: judging content without humans is impossible until we have true AI. PageRank is nice, but like all algorithms, it's vulnerable to tweaked input designed to get a specific (class of) output.
If not, change the visualization so that the user can infer the function of each button and reason over them, or give up and resume doing brute force computation or logic proofs.
They do that. It just takes a while to figure out the rules.
This is one reason why 60Hz refresh displays are unacceptable even for general desktop use.
No, it just irritates the eye.
Every time there's a perceptible delay in the interface it breaks the fast brain link.
And every time a confirmation dialog has more words than " [Delete] [Cancel]". Note it's not a Yes/No option, because you'd have to read too much to know what the buttons do. You already know what you want, and UI designers should respect that.
A simple brute force approach should be able to outperform a human by atleast a factor of millions.
Till level 5, at least, yes. But I imagine that's only the tutorial. As the levels advance, the puzzles get increasingly interconnected, and I imagine it'll take some real intuition to get past the bigger levels.
Brute force definitely won't cut it. The goal here might be to figure out an algorithm that behaves like a skilled human, only millions of times faster.
your statement still means that great programmers give everyone else a hard time
Alright, I'll rephrase: great programmers think they're slightly above average, and they don't understand why other people can't solve problems that easily.
They won't say "use this algorithm because I'm the greatest". They'll say "use this because it's 20% faster and only uses half the memory". And if they're wrong, they're smart enough to realize it.
I think Blizzard is a company that honestly is concerned about people having fun.
No, they're concerned about their shareholders, and they're bound to by law. However, you're right that they don't make more money on a fixed subscription if people play 80 hours a week.
Casual play is a huge money maker for them.
If that was the case, you'd have faster mounts. Instead:
Level 30: so you finally have a mount, eh? Well, now the quests require you to go aaaaaall around both maps. Level 60: so you finally have a fast mount, eh? Well, now here's the next part of the game which is 5 times bigger and 10 times more boring. Level 70: so you finally have a fast flying mount, eh? Well, now here's the next part of the game, and we won't allow you to use it until you bleed from boredom.
On WOW last night i was talking to a friend who was thinking about quitting, but i convinced him to to. however he is no where near a level of addiction the could require consoling
"You know why alcoholics always drink in a group? To make sure nobody quits." -- Mark Cunningham
Marvin stood at the end of the bridge corridor. He was not in fact a particularly small robot. His silver body gleamed in the dusty sunbeams and shook with the continual barrage which the building was still undergoing. He did, however, look pitifully small as the gigantic black tank rolled to a halt in front of him. The tank examined him with a probe. The probe withdrew. Marvin stood there. "Out of my way little robot," growled the tank. "I'm afraid," said Marvin, "that I've been left here to stop you." The probe extended again for a quick recheck. It withdrew again. "You? Stop me?" roared the tank. "Go on!" "No, really I have," said Marvin simply. "What are you armed with?" roared the tank in disbelief. "Guess," said Marvin. The tank's engines rumbled, its gears ground. Molecule-sized electronic relays deep in its micro- brain flipped backwards and forwards in consternation. "Guess?" said the tank.
[...]
"Yes, go on," said Marvin to the huge battle machine, "you'll never guess." "Errmmm..." said the machine, vibrating with unaccustomed thought, "laser beams?" Marvin shook his head solemnly. "No," muttered the machine in its deep guttural rumble, "Too obvious. Anti-matter ray?" it hazarded. "Far too obvious," admonished Marvin. "Yes," grumbled the machine, somewhat abashed, "Er... how about an electron ram?" This was new to Marvin. "What's that?" he said. "One of these," said the machine with enthusiasm. From its turret emerged a sharp prong which spat a single lethal blaze of light. Behind Marvin a wall roared and collapsed as a heap of dust. The dust billowed briefly, then settled. "No," said Marvin, "not one of those." "Good though, isn't it?" "Very good," agreed Marvin. "I know," said the Frogstar battle machine, after another moment's consideration, "you must have one of those new Xanthic Re-Structron Destabilized Zenon Emitters!"
"Nice, aren't they?" said Marvin. "That's what you've got?" said the machine in considerable awe. "No," said Marvin. "Oh," said the machine, disappointed, "then it must be..." "You're thinking along the wrong lines," said Marvin, "You're failing to take into account something fairly basic in the relationship between men and robots." "Er, I know," said the battle machine, "is it..." it tailed off into thought again. "Just think," urged Marvin, "they left me, an ordinary, menial robot, to stop you, a gigantic heavy- duty battle machine, whilst they ran off to save themselves. What do you think they would leave me with?" "Oooh, er," muttered the machine in alarm, "something pretty damn devastating I should expect." "Expect!" said Marvin, "oh yes, expect. I'll tell you what they gave me to protect myself with shall I?" "Yes, alright," said the battle machine, bracing itself. "Nothing," said Marvin. There was a dangerous pause. "Nothing?" roared the battle machine. "Nothing at all," intoned Marvin dismally, "not an electronic sausage." The machine heaved about with fury. "Well, doesn't that just take the biscuit!" it roared, "Nothing, eh? Just don't think, do they?" "And me," said Marvin in a soft low voice, "with this terrible pain in all the diodes down my left side." "Makes you spit, doesn't it?" "Yes," agreed Marvin with feeling. "Hell that makes me angry," bellowed the machine, "think I'll smash that wall down!" The electron ram stabbed out another searing blaze of light and took out the wall next to the machine. "How do you think I feel?" said Marvin bitterly. "Just ran off and left you, did they?" the machine thundered. "Yes," said Marvin. "I think I'll shoot down their bloody ceiling as well!" raged the tank. It took out the ceiling of the bridge. "That's very impressive," murmured Marvin.
It's not a "problem" that can be "worked on". It's the character of the author. As any decent psychologist will tell you that character is inborn and cannot be changed or "worked on".
Bullshit, for several reasons:
1. The author might realize that was a stupid idea, if only from the flame he gets. 2. "Character" is not inborn, it's merely a set of displayed behavior. You act the same way around your mom you do with your boss or your spouse? Which one of those people is really you? 3. My all time favorite: the project might have a different author altogether. Read up on forking.
I consider the WoW private servers more of a marketing device, rather than threat. They suck so bad some people just give up and go play the real thing.
On the server I play on, half the Northrend quests can't be completed, Skinning never goes above 27, Enchanting is extremely difficult because clams don't drop anything, Death Knights don't get their talent points, and Warlocks don't get their imp because the quest is buggy. The instances aren't better either: Ulduar is completely empty for example.
So I grab GPL code, modify it and upload it to some remote unnamed repository with a license and go about my business releasing it under my own license as a binary on my site? I don't think so.
That's the viral nature of GPL: once they get it, they're stuck with it. They can't put their own license on it, no matter what they do elsewhere.
I think we need a lawsuit to sort this out. And for the patent threats, of course:)
Slashdot Mirror
Seriously, is anyone upset by this? Oh noes, they didn't pay to leave their car somewhere for a limited amount of time!!! Thinkofthechildren!!!
(under Dutch copyright law you cannot offer services that allow third parties to infringe upon the copyrights of others)
In my country, it is illegal for me to read your post, therefore you will be sentenced to death shortly.
This is what happens when your campaigns are privately financed and not on level playing fields (e.g. same budgetary restrictions per candidate).
This is what you get when you let the peasants vote: the one with the bigger campaign wins.
Actually, second-based billing was in place almost everywhere long before the EU standardized it. It sells more, and we don't have three-way shared monopolies and price fixing around here.
Could someone please explain to me what authority a Dutch court has on a Swedish site?
That's not a "report" button, its a "customize my results for the future button" and it is really stupid.
Agreed. At least, I never found a use for it anyway. I just don't bother to filter my search results manually, and it's not my job anyway: if it gets too much, I'll give Bing a chance.
People are noticing the quality of their searches declining and there doesn't seem to be much Google can do or is willing to do.
That's because they index everything ("Results 1 - 10 of about 15,280,000,000 for a. (0.07 seconds)") and then they try to rank the crap lower. A much better option would be to create a new search space on top of this one containing only sites recommended by humans, and rank those up automatically, like they did with wikipedia. Of course this would be slow to build up, since all the entries should be added manually by a Google employee, but it would be well worth it: judging content without humans is impossible until we have true AI. PageRank is nice, but like all algorithms, it's vulnerable to tweaked input designed to get a specific (class of) output.
If not, change the visualization so that the user can infer the function of each button and reason over them, or give up and resume doing brute force computation or logic proofs.
They do that. It just takes a while to figure out the rules.
This is one reason why 60Hz refresh displays are unacceptable even for general desktop use.
No, it just irritates the eye.
Every time there's a perceptible delay in the interface it breaks the fast brain link.
And every time a confirmation dialog has more words than " [Delete] [Cancel]". Note it's not a Yes/No option, because you'd have to read too much to know what the buttons do. You already know what you want, and UI designers should respect that.
usually it's just a matter of finding out how much you have to bribe someone to say yes...
Small stores don't have enough to bribe with.
Stopped playing at level 10, because of UI issues, and because it takes over half a second to update the screen after each click.
However, this game could be much more interesting if it had a scripting interface.
A simple brute force approach should be able to outperform a human by atleast a factor of millions.
Till level 5, at least, yes. But I imagine that's only the tutorial. As the levels advance, the puzzles get increasingly interconnected, and I imagine it'll take some real intuition to get past the bigger levels.
Brute force definitely won't cut it. The goal here might be to figure out an algorithm that behaves like a skilled human, only millions of times faster.
Unless of course there are small pixie like creatures in cow pat factories making food that the rest of the world is yet to discover.
Bacteria and fungi. HTH. HAND.
Girls do like smart men, just not to the exclusion of other characteristics such as social skills and appearance.
It's hard to like someone you don't even know about because they don't come out of the basement long enough to talk to you.
your statement still means that great programmers give everyone else a hard time
Alright, I'll rephrase: great programmers think they're slightly above average, and they don't understand why other people can't solve problems that easily.
They won't say "use this algorithm because I'm the greatest". They'll say "use this because it's 20% faster and only uses half the memory". And if they're wrong, they're smart enough to realize it.
Bullshit. The best programmers don't know if they're awesome. They just think everyone else is stupid.
I think Blizzard is a company that honestly is concerned about people having fun.
No, they're concerned about their shareholders, and they're bound to by law. However, you're right that they don't make more money on a fixed subscription if people play 80 hours a week.
Casual play is a huge money maker for them.
If that was the case, you'd have faster mounts. Instead:
Level 30: so you finally have a mount, eh? Well, now the quests require you to go aaaaaall around both maps.
Level 60: so you finally have a fast mount, eh? Well, now here's the next part of the game which is 5 times bigger and 10 times more boring.
Level 70: so you finally have a fast flying mount, eh? Well, now here's the next part of the game, and we won't allow you to use it until you bleed from boredom.
Level 2 is not even the Barrens.
On WOW last night i was talking to a friend who was thinking about quitting, but i convinced him to to. however he is no where near a level of addiction the could require consoling
"You know why alcoholics always drink in a group? To make sure nobody quits." -- Mark Cunningham
But that's enought off-topic, baning videogames is pretty stupid and useless.
I'm all for it. But only if they start showing porn instead of action movies, too.
That's part of "best common practices" isn't it?
Two posts up there is someone mentioning a reboot to solve this. Best practices seem like rocket science around here...
Marvin stood at the end of the bridge corridor. He was not in fact a particularly small robot. His
silver body gleamed in the dusty sunbeams and shook with the continual barrage which the building
was still undergoing.
He did, however, look pitifully small as the gigantic black tank rolled to a halt in front of him. The
tank examined him with a probe. The probe withdrew.
Marvin stood there.
"Out of my way little robot," growled the tank.
"I'm afraid," said Marvin, "that I've been left here to stop you."
The probe extended again for a quick recheck. It withdrew again.
"You? Stop me?" roared the tank. "Go on!"
"No, really I have," said Marvin simply.
"What are you armed with?" roared the tank in disbelief.
"Guess," said Marvin.
The tank's engines rumbled, its gears ground. Molecule-sized electronic relays deep in its micro-
brain flipped backwards and forwards in consternation.
"Guess?" said the tank.
[...]
"Yes, go on," said Marvin to the huge battle machine, "you'll never guess." ..." said the machine, vibrating with unaccustomed thought, "laser beams?" ... how about an electron ram?"
"Errmmm
Marvin shook his head solemnly.
"No," muttered the machine in its deep guttural rumble, "Too obvious. Anti-matter ray?" it
hazarded.
"Far too obvious," admonished Marvin.
"Yes," grumbled the machine, somewhat abashed, "Er
This was new to Marvin.
"What's that?" he said.
"One of these," said the machine with enthusiasm.
From its turret emerged a sharp prong which spat a single lethal blaze of light. Behind Marvin a
wall roared and collapsed as a heap of dust. The dust billowed briefly, then settled.
"No," said Marvin, "not one of those."
"Good though, isn't it?"
"Very good," agreed Marvin.
"I know," said the Frogstar battle machine, after another
moment's consideration, "you must have one of those new Xanthic
Re-Structron Destabilized Zenon Emitters!"
"Nice, aren't they?" said Marvin. ..." ..." it tailed off into thought again.
"That's what you've got?" said the machine in considerable awe.
"No," said Marvin.
"Oh," said the machine, disappointed, "then it must be
"You're thinking along the wrong lines," said Marvin, "You're failing to take into account
something fairly basic in the relationship between men and robots."
"Er, I know," said the battle machine, "is it
"Just think," urged Marvin, "they left me, an ordinary, menial robot, to stop you, a gigantic heavy-
duty battle machine, whilst they ran off to save themselves. What do you think they would leave me
with?"
"Oooh, er," muttered the machine in alarm, "something pretty damn devastating I should expect."
"Expect!" said Marvin, "oh yes, expect. I'll tell you what they
gave me to protect myself with shall I?"
"Yes, alright," said the battle machine, bracing itself.
"Nothing," said Marvin.
There was a dangerous pause.
"Nothing?" roared the battle machine.
"Nothing at all," intoned Marvin dismally, "not an electronic sausage."
The machine heaved about with fury.
"Well, doesn't that just take the biscuit!" it roared, "Nothing, eh? Just don't think, do they?"
"And me," said Marvin in a soft low voice, "with this terrible pain in all the diodes down my left
side."
"Makes you spit, doesn't it?"
"Yes," agreed Marvin with feeling.
"Hell that makes me angry," bellowed the machine, "think I'll smash that wall down!"
The electron ram stabbed out another searing blaze of light and took out the wall next to the
machine.
"How do you think I feel?" said Marvin bitterly.
"Just ran off and left you, did they?" the machine thundered.
"Yes," said Marvin.
"I think I'll shoot down their bloody ceiling as well!" raged the tank.
It took out the ceiling of the bridge.
"That's very impressive," murmured Marvin.
It's not a "problem" that can be "worked on". It's the character of the author. As any decent psychologist will tell you that character is inborn and cannot be changed or "worked on".
Bullshit, for several reasons:
1. The author might realize that was a stupid idea, if only from the flame he gets.
2. "Character" is not inborn, it's merely a set of displayed behavior. You act the same way around your mom you do with your boss or your spouse? Which one of those people is really you?
3. My all time favorite: the project might have a different author altogether. Read up on forking.
I can't wait to get my new RGB Laser TV(TM)! Finally all those myths about how you'll go blind from staring at the TV will be reality!
Warning: don't watch TV with remaining eye.
I consider the WoW private servers more of a marketing device, rather than threat. They suck so bad some people just give up and go play the real thing.
On the server I play on, half the Northrend quests can't be completed, Skinning never goes above 27, Enchanting is extremely difficult because clams don't drop anything, Death Knights don't get their talent points, and Warlocks don't get their imp because the quest is buggy. The instances aren't better either: Ulduar is completely empty for example.
So I grab GPL code, modify it and upload it to some remote unnamed repository with a license and go about my business releasing it under my own license as a binary on my site? I don't think so.
That's the viral nature of GPL: once they get it, they're stuck with it. They can't put their own license on it, no matter what they do elsewhere.
I think we need a lawsuit to sort this out. And for the patent threats, of course :)