jean_claude

The core essence of a video game is the game feel (which not everyone likes, because it's ill-defined). How does a player interact with a game? Via game mechanics. No amount of polish is going to make up for horrible game mechanics.

Jan Willem (of Vlambeer), who hates the phrase "game feel", talks about it through a simple iterative process of improving game mechanics. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJdEqssNZ-U

It's about the potential for deadly interactions with police as a consequence of creating new laws for police to enforce. I think the title is slightly obtuse, but it is attention grabbing.

Well, people are often convicted based on circumstantial evidence. That's why there is a jury, to weigh the available evidence. Personally, I wouldn't give this guy any help based on what I've read, and certainly not without reading the entire record of each trial. Also, the prosecutor should have definitely sought a lower charge of manslaughter after the 2nd hung jury.

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/TESTIMONY+IN+2000+SLAYING+CO-W...

Edit: added the following

Yeah, down-voting doesn't invalidate my my feelings on the matter, and looking at the appelate court's decision to uphold the verdict [1] just affirms that I would need a whole lot more convincing this guy is innocent.

[1] http://www.leagle.com/decision/In%20CACO%2020111219009/PEOPL...

>Try changing the identity you are to Google,

Delete cache and cookies, block all analytics through a combination of hosts file, adblocker, ghostery, and noscript, and google in private mode. That should help.

>start using the Tor Browser

...and you'll probably join the NSA's ever growing list. Of course, you're probably on the list for reading anything about Tor, Tails, PGP, or other online privacy or security tools, techniques or news[1]. Remember the saying, "you only worry about privacy if you've got something to hide." I think that's how it goes?

[1] http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/interest-privacy-will-ensure-yo...

Or perhaps many children are raised to conform to particular gender roles that affects their social development, and possibly, just possibly, this might also affect their job opportunities not just by self-selection, but by biases in the interviewer/hiring manager. It seems like a very complicated issue that doesn't have a simplistic answer.

>Well for adult bikes you are pretty much fixed at 700C. If making a bike pedaled contraption not so much.

For racing/road bikes, maybe. You're leaving out the 26" wheel adult bikes (which over time has encompassed 5 different rim diameters[1]) and 24" wheel bikes that are targeted at youth, but smaller adults sometimes prefer (well, those that have been give the option).

My bike pedaled contraption is a rear suspension compact long wheelbase recumbent with two real 20" (406mm rim) tires and they're spectacular.

[1] http://www.sheldonbrown.com/26.html

While there may be some power-mad librarians out there in terms of 'there will be silence in the library!', they curate the library's collection for many reasons: to meet the requirements of stakeholders, to meet the needs and shifting interests of the community, to make room for new material...

Really, there are a whole host of reasons for deaccession of library materials that include financial, space, and other concerns that hit the bottom line.

The great thing about technology is we have the ability to collect, classify, add metadata[1], and make all human knowledge accessible to everyone. If only insanely long copyrights and restrictions on scanning and lending copyrighted works were not in the way.

[1] This is not really something a busy librarian has time for, so other methods, such as user-driven tagging and folksonomies[2] are an interesting solution that is being tried.

[2] http://interactivearchivist.archivists.org/technologies/tagg...

No worries. If you like classical minimalism/ambient music, check out Erik Satie's work, specifically, his three Gymnopédies compositions for piano. If you've played Minecraft, you'll instantly recognize No.1[1].

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-Xm7s9eGxU

It's... nice? to have the option of purchasing a Steambox with SteamOS pre-installed, if you're unable (or unwilling) to build your own PC and install SteamOS or other Linux flavor. The problem I see, apart from having an underpowered PC or over-priced gaming rig, is the fact many popular games are not available on SteamOS. Also, there is the problem that games are optimized for D3D, which puts you in the Windows camp. Yes, you can get better performance out of OpenGL, but if 90% of your market is Windows, why bother? Ported games generally have poorer performance.

I am hoping that the Vulkan API will be adopted by the games industry to act as a bridge between the two (Windows/Mac and Linux) performance-wise. Microsoft's plans to turn the PC into a glorified tablet or console walled garden is annoying enough. Now they're playing the same trick they pulled on XP users to "upgrade" to Vista, by releasing games that are "exclusive" to Windows 10 on their UWP (Universal Windows Platform). So far, it doesn't seem very consumer-friendly[1].

[1] http://www.pcgamer.com/why-pc-games-should-never-become-univ...

>> Certainly, a sentient being can learn new things, but that's a matter of rule-base and memory. No actual intelligence required, IMO. Sentience, to me, goes toward a concept of self. Of being aware that one exists and is responsible for one's own actions.

I think sentience is somewhat more limited. Most animals are sentient, in that they can feel and perceive and learn from experiences. Few animals besides humans are sapient, in that they can reason about complex and abstract ideas separate from direct experience, have a sense of self, and other criteria.

>>My point is that "Engineer" (software or otherwise) is a legally protected term in many countries (Canada, Switzerland,...)

Actually, you're looking for the term "Professional Engineer" which can only be legally used if you have at least a B.S. or B.Eng. (or local equivalent) in an accredited program, have taken some kind of certifying exam, and may also require a certain number of years working in the field to obtain licensure. In the US, there is a PE certifying exam for ABET accredited Computer Science and Software Engineering program graduates.

Your Wikipedia link had no information about Switzerland, but it did have this interesting bit about the Czech Republic: "In the Czech Republic, the title "engineer" (Ing.) is given to people with a (masters) degree in chemistry, technology or economics for historical and traditional reasons." Every country is different...

I get where the gp is coming from, to me texture is a big issue with foods that I can eat. I'm mostly vegetarian now, (less than half a kilogram of bison a week) but that last step to cutting out beef is difficult, because I just can't stand the texture/flavor of mushrooms, soy or tofu and other 'meat substitutes'.

>>A friend of mine from India once told me "if a mob would burn down your restaurant if you got caught mixing meat and vegetarian, you'd take it seriously too". I still don't if she was joking with me, and if so to what degree.

Yes, that is (unfortunately) a possible outcome, if not outright murder by an angry mob of people who take their religious and societal taboos too seriously[1].

[1] http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/10/ind...

I earned a B.S. in an ABET accredited Computer Science program taught by the College of Science and Mathematics at a state University. Before that, I designed electrical control systems and software for industrial machinery, and I still don't consider myself an engineer.

That said, I think 'Software Engineer' is an acceptable title, and is more representative of the work we do in the profession than simply 'Computer Programmer'.

  > The idea of using special client to connect a server is somewhat alien to the generation that equates the Internet with the Web.

I think the problem wouldn't so much be needing a special client (app) to access a server (walled garden) as having to discover the existence of USENET, select a client, set up the client to point to their ISP's NNTP server (do ISPs even have NNTP servers these days?) or a premium or free 3rd party server, and then find an appropriate newsgroup(s) to follow.

Walled gardens also have the attraction of having a more user-friendly experience that can work across a variety of devices. The last time I was even moderately active on USENET, I was slurping newsgroups via a scheduled job running Souper and reading/writing posts on Yarn, a console mode program for OS/2. I'm fairly sure SLRN is console mode as well... not really a selling point on today's technology, where many people would be using their phone/tablet.

Open plan offices are the bane of work requiring uninterrupted thought. I'd say buy a set of good on- or over-the-ear closed headphones and listen to music or soundscape to drown out the distractions when you really need to concentrate.

>Who writes a linked list in Javascript? Or Python? Or even C++? I haven't had to code a linked list since the 1990s.

Neither have I, but I didn't write that bloody circular queue in SPARC-V9 assembly language for nothing!

But, seriously, so many interviews are full of these sorts of questions. It's almost like they're trying to hire a reference book... or they don't know how to interview and just use the same sort of methods they were exposed to.

I think the takeaway from his statements are that it is virtually impossible to source the necessary raw materials that go into producing modern electronics from any one country.

It isn't just the cost that's an issue, it's the fact that American workers are not as... flexible... on what constitutes an acceptable work/life balance. Would you do what these workers ( http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/business/apple-america-and... ) do if you had any other opportunity at all? Labor laws aside, could they pay you enough to live and work like this and still make an affordable device?

Relevant quote from article:

Apple had redesigned the iPhone’s screen at the last minute, forcing an assembly line overhaul. New screens began arriving at the plant near midnight.

A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company’s dormitories, according to the executive. Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10,000 iPhones a day.

“The speed and flexibility is breathtaking,” the executive said. “There’s no American plant that can match that.”

It's just not always possible to do that. I know it can be frustrating to not have ready access to academic journals, but you can usually find the article one way or another. Many journals are allowing pre-print publications to reside on open-access archives ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_academic_journals_by_p... ), some will allow 'limited' distribution of either pre-print or published papers (generally means you have to ask the author for a PDF directly), and, with apologies to John Gilmore, the internet interprets copyright as damage and routes around it.

Jaguar owners don't care about maintenance costs, anecdotally speaking, of course. Executive VP at an old job had a Jaguar (XJ-12 I think) that would occasionally catch fire and 'need some work'. I swear it spent more time in the shop than on the road, but he loved Jags.

On the one hand, you can't see the piles of human feces[1]. On the other hand, you can't see the piles of human feces. Decisions, decisions...

[1] http://sfist.com/2015/01/15/lets_stop_talking_shit_about_sfs...

> The article makes the point that debt is taken on expectations of future growth, and that it is in fact what enables the creation of engines (personal or commercial) to realize that growth. I think that that's a crucial point to make: debt itself is not terrible.

Quite true. Of course, not everyone who receives a good education, even in an in-demand field is guaranteed success. Once you've built up all that nondischargeable debt and real life happens, that rosy outlook may get a bit tarnished for some.

> The author though fails to really explain (beyond a slight waggling of eyebrows and insinuation that it is peoples' own fault) that the future payoffs look worse and worse.

Don't you know that being successful is the highest of virtues, while not succeeding is considered a mortal sin?

It isn't clear from the article whether 'browser history' is being sought or only IP addresses (not that I think that's okay). The only link in the article working for me was to the dishonorable Sen. Cornyn's amendment which would allow warrantless collection of IP addresses in addition to other so-called metadata.

In an article from The Atlantic[1], you can clearly see that total direct federal and state subsidies to higher education in 2014 are about $140 billion with another $20 billion in indirect subsidies. Yes, some of this goes to help offset the cost of attendance through Pell grants and tax credits to the family and shouldn't affect the tuition cost directly.

From the article I linked in the previous message, it does not only address Pell grants:

>>Total federal support to higher education of "nearly $76 billion" with Pell grants being $36 billion and "nearly $25 billion in research funding obligations."

[1] http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/05/the-rea...

It's definitely harder to make friends when you're older outside of work acquaintances (at least I've found it true, YMMV). I'm an introvert, friendly but in no wise would I be called outgoing, and I'm not much of a joiner. These traits are not conducive to making lots of friends. Finding friends is important, but so is connecting with peers. What I really find depressing is the lack of intellectually stimulating conversation at work.

While I'm now in a local job, the department I'm attached to is in a satellite building far enough off campus to make it impossible to just meet up with my peers. My co-workers are nice, but they're not really colleagues or peers in terms of my professional development. I'm a technical person in a functional/business analyst role where I support a group of non-technical users. I almost never have the opportunity to discuss implementation details with the developers and I rarely meet with other analysts face-to-face. Online interactions will have to scratch that itch, for now at least. Though I do fear with the spread of the 'gig' economy, the ease of outsourcing, and increasing availability of remote work, this loneliness is only going to be a growing problem.

Well, as a person who moved to a new state and worked remotely for three years, I can attest that email, texts, and voice chat are no substitute for in-person visits. Just getting out among people or the environment can help. If you stay indoors and just work all the time, you'll get even more depressed and go a bit nutty. I know this from personal experience.

I can't comment on video chat, could never get that working at the other site because their machines were locked down to the point of uselessness without special permission from ITS requiring 5 pints of blood and a signature from god. I'd be interested to see whether actual VR could fill a void.

>Are you seriously saying that foreign students subsidize the education of US citizens? That is one of the most absurd statements I've ever read on HN. US student's educations are paid for by student loans, they fund their own tuitions I can assure you.

The GP is correct, domestic students rarely, if ever, pay the true cost of attendance at colleges and universities (hereafter, called 'schools') [1]. The are taxpayer subsidies such as tax breaks (both the publics and privates benefit) to the schools from local and state governments, as well as annual appropriations for operating costs of public schools. This is especially evident in areas where the cost of attendance is so low to in-state residents, such as the California State school system.

Private schools also subsidise students through merit scholarships, which lower the cost of attendance for foreign and domestic alike, to the tune of anywhere between a few hundred dollars and a free ride.

[1] https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/06/12/study-us-high...

That's interesting. Your comment jogged my memory on a study of how automobile drivers act around bicyclists based on drivers' assumptions about the appearance or perceived level of experience of the cyclist.

According to the research, overtaking vehicles drive closer to better equipped cyclists (wearing a helmet, reflective vest...) than a woman with long hair and no helmet.

Also, the bicyclist with protective gear might be more prone to engage in risky behaviour. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/strange-but-true-h...

"The implication," Walker says, "is that any protection helmets give is canceled out by other mechanisms, such as riders possibly taking more risks and/or changes in how other road users behave towards cyclists."

There are "noseless" saddles and saddles with a channel down the middle that may help protect the sensitive bits. http://www.thebirdwheel.com/noseless-saddles-tested-updated

But my biased opinion is buy a recumbent! Fewer back, neck, and nether region issues, plus, they have comfy seats! http://www.bacchettabikes.com/recumbent-bikes/

VERY comfy seats! http://www.hpvelotechnik.com/produkte/scorpion_plus20/index_...

A long wheelbase (crank behind the front wheel) and a more upright riding position is perfect in city traffic. On my commuter, my eye level is about even with drivers in crossover vehicles.