Everything posted by alanschu
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Best Police in the World
It's a perspective I can still understand. Few people are ever happy to see the police. Either they are potentially in trouble, or they are victims themselves. And people just hate it when police don't abuse their powers to their own benefit, if they've been victimized.
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Xbox One Reveal
It's great for consumers. I actually don't know if it's good/bad for developers. I have heard arguments on both sides. I think it's great for smaller developers (well, the digital platform in general). I'm curious if there were any changes in purchasing habits for games, because I know some people that have pretty much just sworn off ever buying anything on Day One ever again, and just waiting for steam sales. This would be a case where profits would actually decline, if the person normally would have bought earlier just to ensure picking up the product. Whether or not this outweighs the increased numbers is completely oblivious to me, though I can see the logic that it may make economies of scale that much more important.
- Company of Heroes 2 closed Beta
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The Science of Why We Don't Believe in Science
How does it compare to animal deaths related to dirty energy sources such as oil and coal?
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Company of Heroes 2 closed Beta
Yup, I loved the cover mechanic, although I ended up learning that the 3D aspect of the terrain was just a ruse (You can actually shoot through hills). But the game has specified cover points (soft and strong) and it makes a world of difference to the tactical elements of the game. Some people prefer to less randomized elements that COH has, however (I can't speak for the second I guess), since it removes luck from the equation entirely.
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Best Police in the World
I'm getting the impression from some people that someone, in general, saying they have no beef with police officers, is an implicit consent to the officers that go too far.
- Company of Heroes 2 closed Beta
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Xbox One Reveal
I honestly don't know (my question was genuine). For the PS4, it is a novel thing as the PS3 did not have unified memory. The 360, however, does. I'm curious if there's any knowledge that that PS4 does it in a more magical way than the 360 does, as it was still possible to get the GPU on the 360 to do "non graphics tasks" as well. It was possible on the PS3 too, although much more complicated, requiring some creative memory work.
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Best Police in the World
Lets just take a look at that link. #1: Controversy: Cop stands up against corruption in department #2: A cop pulls over another cop, argument ensues (controversy/drama) #3: Controversy: A cop sides with protesters in Brazil #4: Bizarre event: Monkey attacks a police officer, police officer doesn't over react #5: Former police chief talks down war on drugs (i.e. controversy/drama) #6: Police officer buys a kid a cookie (well that's nice) and is gunned down when leaving the building (well that sort of takes some of the wind out of the sails) #7: Cop saves a fawn after tornados (A feel good story after tragedy? At least this one is one I'm willing to admit is legit. Still has a bizarre/unique element to it) #8: Crying duck looks on as officer saves duckling (although this just appears to be a broken youtube link, not a news article) #9: An anecdote posted directly on Reddit - (not a news article) #10: A youtube video link showing a police officer doing a good thing (not a news article) So 1 of them is a feel good news story. A couple of them are some youtube stuff (one was taken down it seems) and an anecdote. Yes, police officers do good things, and occasionally they will get reported in the news. If you felt like taking my statement at the absolute literal, uncompromising truth (that they will never run a story about a police officer doing something nice - note, however, that this is your interpretation of my words. At best one of the top 10 links on that reddit at the time I wrote this could qualify as "Police officers talk with a man. Officers are polite and cordial and everybody goes about their daily lives afterwards, with no ill feelings towards one another" and it wasn't a news article), then I guess that's your prerogative. My experiences with police officers have never been a negative one, even in the times when something bad could have been done towards me. I'm of the opinion that most police officer exchanges occur like the one in the #10 video. It's not what typically gets reported. And yes, authority figures abusing power should be talked about. I said nothing to the contrary. In fact, I have an implication with my statement that since it's not newsworthy to discuss a police officer being polite, it may be newsworthy in the incidents when a police officer is not being polite.
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Best Police in the World
Nah. It's just not newsworthy to write an article: "Police officers talk with a man. Officers are polite and cordial and everyone goes about their daily lives afterwards, with no ill feelings towards one another."
- Kids master algebra in 40ish minutes through game based learning
- Xbox One Reveal
- Xbox One Reveal
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Kids master algebra in 40ish minutes through game based learning
I remember Oregon Trail too, although it mostly taught me the pioneers hunted a lot.... The article is interesting in that the creator acknowledges that it may just be kids learning the rules, without really fully getting the general problem solving skills, but it's still big on establishing the foundation.
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What are you playing now?
I was reminded of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj_inlzsDhQ
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RANDOM VIDEO GAME NEWS
I actually felt that the article was more about how stuff like MD5 is still used, despite not being very secure. There IS a benefit to the tougher encryption algorithms, in that the number of searches you can make gets slowed drastically, but if the hashing algorithm gets cracked, then the issue become moot. Having said that, the hash function for MD5 encryption given wasn't cracked either (otherwise they'd have had a 100% success rate), and it's a good bet that the ones they aren't able to crack are the good passwords. The tougher hash algorithms keep the less than awesome passwords safer, because it just takes more time to brute force the system.
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RANDOM VIDEO GAME NEWS
You're right it does. The problem, of course, is that by creating weak passwords, it compromises the integrity of better hashing systems, as they now have libraries of commonly used poor passwords that they can brute force attempts with to help crack the hashing algorithm. The best encryption system in the world doesn't save people from using "123456" as their password and having it compromised.
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Kids master algebra in 40ish minutes through game based learning
I found this article interesting http://www.forbes.com/sites/jordanshapiro/2013/07/01/it-only-takes-about-42-minutes-to-learn-algebra-with-video-games/ I know for a fact that turning something into a video game finds that special way to make it extra engaging for me. There's a sense of pride and motivation built into my psyche about mastering video games. How often do you use games to assist teaching, Hurlshot?
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RANDOM VIDEO GAME NEWS
I actually have no clue.
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RANDOM VIDEO GAME NEWS
Chris is leaving BioWare.
- Xbox One Reveal
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Xbox One Reveal
The value consoles tend to provide later in their cycle is that development has matured and there's a good library of games that are now available for it. What you describe happens every console platform, and the consoles still get the big booms in terms of software sold, while the PC tends to keep on chugging along. Yes, you and I can go "hey, the console won't be as powerful in a few years." But I don't think most people care. Whether or not the perception is accurate/fair, consoles tend to push a lot more in sales for this reason and I would contend that it's mostly only the more tech savvy that will even recognize that their PC is more versatile, let alone have the desire to actually set it up in the living room as the multimedia entertainment box.
- Xbox One Reveal
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What are you playing now?
There's one DLC where you're on a film set. Seriously copious amounts of roflcopter during that one hahaha.
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What are you playing now?
Actually a lot of league of legends haha