Political prisoners are being raped with food intubators to prevent themselves from committing suicide in America's secret torture prison, with the express consent and approval of President Obama, the American Congress, and the numerical majority of the American people.
Tetris requires a properly sized view and clear, effortlessly distinguishable artwork.
MUDs require a quality typeface, proper layout, and appropriate coloring.
Pacman would be nothing without its remarkable low-fi charm.
Letterpress wouldn't have gathered a moment's attention if the tiles weren't immaculate and well rendered.
Graphical quality matters in everything, everything, everything visual. And it's a reasonably reliable proxy for how much effort has been put into the rest of the game.
Ok, nevermind on the siting bit, the paper is drafting on her PHD thesis which presumably supports the argument that these ants mounds correlate with faults.
This overseas reblog of a pop science blog which co-blogged a piece from @beckyoskin working for a blogring does not pass the smell test. At the very least, the headline is garbage.
There is no link to the source (here: http://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/3/1/63/pdf), no supporting material presented, it makes some odd claims starting with "ants prefer to live on active faults" (this paper says nothing about that - it's talking about ants that happen to be found in a geologically interesting faulting area) and ends up with "ants can predict earthquakes". Which then goes up to the headline.
Stop stop stop stop stop.
This paper is a decent exploration of performing day+night video analysis to describe above-ground ant behavior over large periods. The rest of it seems reaching and improbable, but I don't have the background to comment on any of the math or geology presented.
For a tolerant, civil, agreeable collection of intelligent human beings who are interested in perusing anti-global warming literature while taking your throbbing martyr complex into nuanced account at every step of the way, please navigate to about:blank. It loads a hell of a lot faster than HN.
Basically, PCs are dumb, boring work terminals for old people.
Children coming of computing age when the iPhone was released are now 9 years old, perhaps on their second or third portable gaming device, and lobbying their parents for an iPhone.
What on Earth would they possibly want a slow, dirty, heavy keyboard computer for? You can't even take a picture with it unless it's an Apple.
It's rather frustrating when the core functionality for a quarter billion phones stops working on a monthly basis. But at least I can now understand the hot tears generated when BBM would go down; over-the-top messaging with delivery/read/syndication truly is superior to SMS.
Just to put a needle fine point on it: Wal-Mart has "always low prices"... for your area.
Their data mining lets them know exactly what to price Household Paper Products in your zip code so that they're always lower than the surrounding competition while not leaving money on the table. They're not targeting the lowest possible price system-wide.
I dunno. Maybe ten years around Steve Ballmer terminally fucked him up.
The fundamental problem is that his post was targeted at the 10,000 industry and customer elite, none of whom feel like giving the Titan much respect because nobody fundamentally likes the #1 guy.
Who he should have been writing to were the 350M people he claims to support. When you're selling sweet-smelling electronic vapor, you use sweet-smelling words to gently remind people that comparing a videogame developer to ACTUAL HITLER is insane and insulting. That a substantial portion of the market is composed of profound assholes is beyond the point.
You don't play at their level, you don't speak at their level, and you don't engage in CEO Ego-battle 3000X. It's just fucking videogames.
Their true customer is a 15 year old girl playing Simpsons on her Samsung. He should be writing to her.
"An annual web poll shows that once again, Electronic Arts will be named the "Worst Company in America".
We at EA understand that we provide a lightning rod for many in an industry that has undergone massive change and experienced a great deal of consolidation. We've acquired beloved game developers, we've put storied franchises to rest, and we've sheparded evolutions in gameplay and game design that have been met with skepticism and rejection.
But please believe, we're on the player's side.
Tens of thousands of EA employees show up to work every day to create incredible new experiences and polish fantastic new things that the world has never seen.
You, your family, and your friends entrust us with time, attention, and money in return for fantastic experiences with characters you love and places that are realer than real. It's an honor to work in this industry.
We love these shared stories and adventures, and truly understand what makes videogaming special to hundreds of millions of people every day.
That said, we are a business, and all businessess will make mistakes, fail to meet expectations, and poorly communicate. We're no different.
XXX EXAMPLES XXX
Videogames are unique in that the business environment changes more in six months than most other industries change in decades, and we've struggled to adapt to the new realities just like hundreds of other videogame developers.
We feel it's essential that we have an online content distribution system of our own, called Origin. It's clear that we've fallen painfully short of industry standards in terms of technical execution and customer service, and we most certainly are not meeting our own expectations.
XXX INSERT HONEST FIXES HERE XXX
We also feel that we're failing to incorporate our customer's frustrations, concerns, and desires into the development of our franchises. When some player were disappointed with Mass Effect 3, they had nowhere to voice their opinions where they felt they would be heard.
Thus, as of this week we will be employing ombudsmen for each of our major franchises. They'll be superfans who know the games inside and out, and their sole responsibility will be to communicate with you about what's happening with the development and care of your favorite series and franchises.
FIFA - @Matthiew
Mass Effect - @Jennifer
SIMCITY - @Alyssa
XXX ETCETERA XXX
Feel free to vent, praise, be angry, you name it. They'll be listening. But always be respectful. We're here to have a good time together.
Finally, we understand that server shutdowns are a necessary part of the life of any game. No party goes on forever. But we don't want to shut off the lights too early, and we don't want customers to wonder how long the game they've just purchased will be fully functional and connected.
So today we're instituting a 3 year server guarantee on every network-aware and network-based videogame we sell. You can purchase an EA game and rest assured that you'll have friends to go on adventures with for a long long time.
For what we've failed in, we are truly sorry. We strive to delight one and all, but we can never be perfect. For those who feel we can never do right, you'll find dozens of other talented studios who you can have a more fruitful relationship with.
We don't feel there's any shame in being #1, but we do feel there's a great responsibility in it.
Let us bring you the best games on Earth, tell us plainly and clearly when we're not meeting that expectation, and let's all have fun together.
- EA CEO WHATEVER"
I wrote this in literally twelve fucking minutes. What a prick.
Haha, true. But it's a whole lot better than "Buy shitty VM product, then source a retail/whitebox copy of Windows, then Install and Patch, Install and Patch, and set up Dev tools for about $400."
Fuck you, fuck this encroaching Reddit-flavored nonsense, thank you HN, and goodbye HN.