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1251

Living Room / Re: Blog Essay: The Indie (Game) Bubble Is Popping

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 26, 2014, 12:51 AM »

Do you know of a nice term/phrase to describe this sort of process?  I've been looking for such a thing -- hoping for something as nice as the phrase ...).

-ewemoa (May 25, 2014, 08:50 PM)

Ya know, I felt obliged to remove a certain proper noun inspired term here because the topics are fantastically different, so much so as to poke a stick at that sleeping dog called logical fallacies! (Heh and no I won't get dragged into trying to nail down which one! Let's say if it's not a Red Herring, maybe it's a nice Red Striped Bass with a lemon butter sauce!) 

This is right down the alley of various economic and/or psychological and or philosophical fields. So I'm darn sure there's several related themes that could be honorably applied here with the seriousness the original post implicitly requests.

I'll file your request as a "sleeper" topic on my desk with a printout because it might take me a while before my intuitive but eclectic slow research style comes up with clues. So it might take me a while. But when I do I think I'll have at least 1 cent to contribute on the theory side.

1252

General Software Discussion / Re: Ludum Dare topic for other games

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 25, 2014, 02:40 PM »

Here's a crazy little monster fighting game with hysterical artwork!

Beserker:
http://www.ludumdare...review&uid=24965

You are an angry barbarian who takes power up potions and helicopter swings swords!

I learned about it from the Ludum Dare to Believe game play videos.
http://www.ludumdare...re-to-believe-ep-12/

Here's a truncated clip shot after winning the game (with casualties) -  


I rate the game as Tao Easy-Plus. It's a very short game and I have beaten it a couple of times after a couple of hours of trying. The jump is really generous, without having to be pixel perfect on the distance timing. And there are plenty of potions, so you're not trying too hard to hoard that one crucial resource from way back at the start of the level like some games.

I like the unusual way it handles damage - it is still possible to win missing half hour limbs!
 

A couple of hints to make it even easier to win:
- A slightly slower pace than full steam ahead works well because the collision detection on the swords is pretty good and you can get your three slice hits in from a nice far distance. Adding a bit of a back-forth wiggle worked for me to help separate the monsters to divide and conquer.
- The Ludum Dare to Believe "Button Masher Bros" guys also found the trick where you can (with a bit of work) get your swords facing out in front and slowly skewer the zombies as a second rate attack long enough to get your potions back.
- You can do "anti-gravity jump reversals" aka jump but then you can pull back and still save yourself a lot of times from a mistake.

All in all, right down my alley!

1253

General Software Discussion / Re: Ludum Dare topic for other games

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 25, 2014, 11:59 AM »

Here is a 3 Miner win!



I also have good records on the stats of the progress of the game. I feel I am getting close to the best play on any medium draw of the game. The general strategy was to def rotate categories to gain a couple of extra hit points here and there, really keep the chaos down as much as possible, and then way at the end maneuver for a minimaxed tempo knowing you are gonna sacrificed two miners boosting the other three until you can run out the clock.

You def need some good middlegame draws though, it's frustrating to have a really good opening hand and then in the middle get a terrible run of resources that ruins it!

1254

General Software Discussion / Re: Ludum Dare topic for other games

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 25, 2014, 11:24 AM »

Undermined Tips Cont:

I just realized an important trick I had sorta seen but kinda missed.
When you clear out a category such as the Red Security, the next round it goes *up* by a point! So maybe if you rotate which categories you clear out each round, instead of just leaving them all "slowly depleting" you might want to sit on one and then the next time you clear it out with a "double" you gain back a net point. The math on that gets really fierce!

1255

General Software Discussion / Re: Ludum Dare topic for other games

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 25, 2014, 09:02 AM »

Heh I got a bit back into this again today, and worked on a little more strategy. The more I play the more I think this could be a valid topic for someone's semester paper in things like game theory and AI!

My first couple of spreadsheets blocked out the basic charts that are a snap to just clear out and re-use. But then I started finding that I was losing up to half an hour on some of the calculations!

Whereas the algorithms aren't that tough, it's just laborious to calculate them by hand. With an interface a comp could do it in a snap.

Today's tips:
Check the Miner Preferences early on and ditch the game if for example "no one likes hugs" because that means that all game long every draw of a hug is sub-optimal and therefore the initial tableau *cannot* be optimum for playing (unless you are purposely doing it for the challenge.)

You should also kill a draw when you get three "hate" prefs and three "like" prefs each bunched on a row rather than a 2 2 1.

1256

General Software Discussion / Re: Ludum Dare topic for other games

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 25, 2014, 07:16 AM »

Oh, man. I'm replying real late. Sorry about that, I've been really swamped with finals and the like. Tao, I normally try and stay away from letting others make direct suggestions on mechanical changes that should be made to my games, but you seem to have a much more firm grasp on the game in it's current state than I think most people do, so I'd be glad to send you a tweakable demo and stay in touch to create a more fairly balanced game. Unfortunately, I am still a bit tied up with studying and doing research, so I won't be able to go in and make those changes for another week or so.

-Burgerdare (May 18, 2014, 10:38 PM)

Hiya Burgerdare!

Any news on this front?
Ps. gang he has posted a fix to the random number generator. I haven't looked at this in a while, so I am trying a couple of test runs today. I'm also fiddling with a spreadsheet to try to speed up some of the info organization for the strategy calcs.

Just to save people running around, here is the link again to the LD page:
http://www.ludumdare...review&uid=29805

1257

Living Room / Re: Blog Essay: The Indie (Game) Bubble Is Popping

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 25, 2014, 07:07 AM »

Just speaking about quantities vs gamer time to play games, I was noticing a lot of that wandering around the Ludum Dare results. At just under 2500 entries, you have to glance at the thumbnails and make quick judgements. So for example with a very low sets of actual dev time spent, that's a cumulative 100,000 game dev time in total!

1258

General Software Discussion / Re: Free Web Space if you already have free domain?

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 25, 2014, 02:37 AM »

Good enough Miles.

A guy from the other service named Charles Decker posted a note over at FWS, and says you can email him directly if you want to see what he can offer.

Hi Charles,

That potential client says he wants to try to start out simple and needs
ftp site
userid
pw
port#

- can you help?
---End Quote---
Yeah, I can set something up if he's still looking. I can be contacted directly at: [email protected] and we can get started.

1259

Living Room / Re: Everything Is Broken

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 23, 2014, 03:36 PM »

Heh well after watching way too many cop shows, "I can't tell you who" doesn't last seventeen seconds under "You are under oath. Who was it?".

Meanwhile while this one *may* be an urband legend, given enough years with the death of Win XP, I wouldn't put it totally past possibility.

1260

Living Room / Re: When you make your 100'th Post

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 22, 2014, 07:49 PM »

It's been a while since we caught a specific number of posts, but today TaoPhoenix hit 3333:
 (see attachment in previous post)
 

-Ath (May 20, 2014, 08:59 AM)

Haha! Good catch Ath!
<--- Feels the luv

I had forgotten about this thread! : )

1261

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 22, 2014, 07:46 PM »

Try this one Tao...  should be OK - 
...

-crabby3 (May 20, 2014, 10:32 AM)

Pretty good Crabby, I changed it just now.
It's still small because it's a thumbnail, but at least now with a little squinting you can read it!

1262

Living Room / Re: Cheap fountain pen shootout

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 22, 2014, 07:39 PM »

The original article only touched on pens in the $3 - $30 range, but yeah, thousand-dollar fountain pens are surprisingly common. 

-Edvard (May 21, 2014, 09:28 PM)

Heh rich boys and their toys. "My fountain pen cost more than your computer."

1263

Living Room / Re: Chinese Government Rejects Malware

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 20, 2014, 10:38 PM »

I guess I'm a little surprised at this. Chinese IT culture is a little out there - so they say they don't like malware but their censorship policies are pretty fierce.

1264

Living Room / Re: Programmers: What size monitors do you guys prefer?

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 20, 2014, 10:37 PM »

1024X768 was my golden setting for years on older monitors.

These days on my newer (but dying!) 24" I'm at 1280X960, though I think the relative fonts are a hair big due to my less that fantastic vision. The monitor itself can go far higher, I think up to 1600X something, that I use about once a year for some extremely specific use case.

1265

Developer's Corner / Re: Want to make some extra coin? Like a LOT of extra coin? BIG BOUNTY!

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 20, 2014, 06:42 PM »

Hmm, well okay, I'll assume better minds than mine are watching that contest guy, and that your transaction did take place behind the scenes other than that original post.

So presuming someone checked up on that, I do get what escrow does, and then I'll go with your technical side of things.

1266

General Software Discussion / Re: Free Web Space if you already have free domain?

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 20, 2014, 06:43 AM »

Thanks.  I received info an account was set up at SeraphimLabs.  It's been some time since I did anything on the web.  But it seems strange I can't get any ftp or admin access.  If I http using the ip address I get a page saying "It's Alive" but if I use the domain name I get access denied.  Support tells me to put an index.html page on and it will work.  But I have no means to do so.  https to the admin account hangs.  ftp times out.  Really bizarre.  Unless the WiFi I'm using is blocking it.  Which seems unlikely as I would think they would also block if I put the IP address in the browser.

Seems I can't get past go, no $200.  

...
Free or not after 4 replies I can't get a simple 4 lines of information
ftp site
userid
pw
port#

I think I'm done with the guessing game.

-MilesAhead (May 19, 2014, 07:45 AM)

Yikes!

I'm no shill, just hoping it's not as hard as all this!

Latching onto a couple of your comments:

1. "The Admin Account hangs..."
The address to the admin page is at:
https://airmid.seraphimlabs.net:2083/

I do know he has some glitch that keeps saying "this site is untrusted" but it's fine.

2. Is your location going through a proxy? I do seem to notice it drops if you try to do that.

3. If you can get through, for me at least everything gets loaded through a cPanel interface, so maybe you can use that instead of ftp.

4. "Web creation tool" vs "have no means to produce an index.html page" - I'm not sure what kind of setup you have - are you totally forbidden to create files? (If so, how are you ftp uploading anything?) I just make my pages out of text and then upload them with the cpanel interface.

I want to help not just because helping is nice, but it is kinda like late feedback after I recommended him to you and it makes me sad!

There's still that one other option I know of but he hasn't posted here yet. Maybe he can help.

Calling Seraphim! : )

1267

Developer's Corner / Re: Want to make some extra coin? Like a LOT of extra coin? BIG BOUNTY!

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 20, 2014, 12:03 AM »

"So Ren, if you send me a nice picture of a space alien from DeviantArt, I'll send you a dollar!"  *

*Some conditions apply.

 

-TaoPhoenix (May 18, 2014, 09:31 PM)

...

Thanks! You can send your dollar to me in bitcoins here:

1LoZLVjjzJp6Vt3Q4AaTkVHuM8i3obhw7Y

Well, maybe we're talking about different dictionary definitions of Trust.

I meant at a much more human level of "do you believe this guy will actually shell out the money?"

-TaoPhoenix (May 18, 2014, 09:31 PM)

And that's the point. You don't need to trust anyone as you can eliminate trust through escrow and multi-sig sending.

-Renegade (May 18, 2014, 10:21 PM)

Heh hysterical pic!

But we're still talking about different defs of trust. Even before it gets into escrow, you have to "Trust #2" that it will get into escrow! However, see that Tarot Kickstarter thread, if I say I am too lazy to figure out how to get you your dollar in bitcoin so I won't send it and "Oh look! The Season Finale of Warehouse 13 is on!", ... then you can't "Trust #2" in me no matter how fancy the tech side is.

That's what I was referring to about that contest, it looked like some key info was missing. Maybe I'm blind but I didn't see any proofs that it was all sewn up and ready to go.

1268

Developer's Corner / Re: Want to make some extra coin? Like a LOT of extra coin? BIG BOUNTY!

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 18, 2014, 09:31 PM »

- I'd want a CPA/Other kind of professional to certify this guy. Coming from my position of know-nothing, this could dangerously be copied as text to become Phish V3.0, way nastier than any Nigerian! And even from him, "Hi, I'm running a huge contest, so send me a month's worth of work" leaves a lot of holes. I'd want to see a "contract/bond to pay the prize money already in escrow" for something like this.

-TaoPhoenix (May 18, 2014, 05:39 PM)

There you're missing one of the beauties of cryptocurrency - trustlessness. With multi-sig transactions you can effectively have an escrow and you don't need any certification or trust in the original person paying.

While the mainstream is blathering on about the "next big thing" being "trust" (e.g. web of trust), cryptocurrency is eliminating the need for trust.

-Renegade (May 18, 2014, 08:05 PM)

Well, maybe we're talking about different dictionary definitions of Trust.

I meant at a much more human level of "do you believe this guy will actually shell out the money?"

"So Ren, if you send me a nice picture of a space alien from DeviantArt, I'll send you a dollar!"  *

*Some conditions apply.

 

1269

General Software Discussion / Re: Free Web Space if you already have free domain?

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 18, 2014, 09:26 PM »

Hi Miles,

My other winner from my hosting contest, Charles Decker aka Deeplist just found my note, so I sent him the link to this thread, so we might hear from him soon. Then you can see if either of these guys can help you out! : )

1270

Developer's Corner / Re: Want to make some extra coin? Like a LOT of extra coin? BIG BOUNTY!

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 18, 2014, 05:39 PM »

Even playing it "straight up" there are many other types of problems with this offer not counting tinfoil hats.

- Where is he located and under what fiscal laws govern him? The U. S. Treasury / IRS just ruled that Bitcoin counts a lot like "stocks" so I'd bet $100k is a big enough "public" amount for them to send at least a middle manager around to make sure they got their cut! (So is that $100k raw, meaning the recipient is really only keeping some $55k of it before the state level?

- I'd want a CPA/Other kind of professional to certify this guy. Coming from my position of know-nothing, this could dangerously be copied as text to become Phish V3.0, way nastier than any Nigerian! And even from him, "Hi, I'm running a huge contest, so send me a month's worth of work" leaves a lot of holes. I'd want to see a "contract/bond to pay the prize money already in escrow" for something like this.

- He lists "projects" each of which themselves would cost several millions! This is just for a "platform". Where is all *that*  funding coming from? Him?

1271

Living Room / Re: All data services on Android off, still got charged roaming in Italy! Bastards!

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 17, 2014, 07:48 PM »

Wow, that's messed up!

1272

Living Room / Re: Groundhog Day Loops

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 17, 2014, 02:08 AM »

An interesting variation on the theme is the Nicholas Cage movie Next.

Deals with a man who can see a very small number of minutes into his own future, allowing him get repeated - albeit immediate - "do-overs". Sort of like Groundhog Day but on steroids. Clever (and refreshingly original) in that the window to repeat keeps moving forward - so if he hesitates to make a revised move, the window of opportunity closes and he moves forward like everyone else. Think walking backwards on an escalator rather than the 'climb 20 flights of stairs - then take an elevator trip back to the lobby' mechanism Groundhog Day uses.

Hangs together remarkably well and makes me wish I had a gift like that.

-40hz (May 16, 2014, 11:00 AM)

Yeah I just watched this. After getting a bit mean in places, that woman agent does a decent job of "looking sideways" when she starts to really lock into her real mission. An interesting subtheme often explord in the X-Men movies is raw talent vs training. So if you have this freaky ability, that's one thing, but if you have worked on it, you get to do the subtle stuff.

The movie does a good job about an hour and 20 min in showing that Cage's character really spent some time practicing. (Dodging bullets, spawning 50 iterations to sweep the floors, and more.) It's also awesome that he is a trained pseudo-cheesy stage magician, because he pulls a couple of psychological tricks along with his real ability. (Maybe one creates the other - if you drop and look shot dead, that's the way out and then you don't get shot dead!)

1273

Living Room / Re: Plea for help from programmer and blogger Xah Lee

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 17, 2014, 12:07 AM »

Yeah, this is a bit of a tricky call.

I'll take you folks' word if he has provided useful info to the community but there's no way he's gonna make $1600/month payments doing dish washing. And that $1600/month is just gonna stick in my craw because he should have just "rented a room" ages ago.

All McDonalds, lots of Dunkin Donuts, some Burger Kings, etc. have free Wifi which you can get even outside on the sidewalk so if he really wanted to he can do stuff offline and then push it out in range.

Maybe he doesn't have friends but not counting I am across the country, someone like me could probably offer a couch for free.

So a couple puzzle pieces are still missing here.

 

1274

General Software Discussion / Re: Free Web Space if you already have free domain?

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 16, 2014, 09:03 AM »

I appreciate your thoughts.  My idea is to create the page, then it's up to the customer to host it someplace.  Then as long as my html is valid I'm out of the picture and all is between the customer and his hosting provider.  I see ads for up to 3 pages for about $120.  But that supposedly has functionality for business.  I'm looking more to do one off nice looking personal sites relatively cheaply.  More or less "if it works and looks good I'm gone" type of deal.  Of course I would fix some problem in my code etc..  But I don't want somebody to own my attention for years for $75 or whatever ends up being the price.

My older brother was a Senior Software Engineer.  He used to lament that programs never go away.  There's always a new bug to fix.  He wanted to open a restaurant instead.  His business theory being, if they don't get food poisoning, once they use the bathroom, the warranty period is over.  

-MilesAhead (May 16, 2014, 08:31 AM)

Heh well fourth hand I wouldn't recommend anyone go from IT to opening a restaurant!

Back at the Webpages, Free Hosting is about people's little personal pages. Businesses are supposed to make a few bucks and should probably pay for hosting. But for ex if you are just getting started, and the web page client doesn't know what they want, sure. Not that I would imagine your code to "not be valid".

From my layman perspective creating a page is not at all about the 1-off. The managers will have new things to do with it, so it's a far longer term engagement, fees to be negotiated. It's tough news to have a 1-off that no one knows how to add to ever again.

So then off you go to create a page, off someone goes to upload it to Seraphim, and off the site goes into the wide world.

1275

General Software Discussion / Re: Free Web Space if you already have free domain?

« Last post by TaoPhoenix on May 16, 2014, 07:35 AM »

Hi Miles.

I think we might want to separate hosting from tools here. I have no agenda, Seraphim was my final study winner because just like now he jumps in to try to help.

Let's suppose Seraphim's basic hosting plan is 1 Gig of space. Let's say you two hit it off and you spread some good words besides me, he might give you a little more.

As for creating a new page, that's a different service altogether. I have no info on that at all. For ex if you got hold of some new page design you liked and the whole thing was under a Gig, upload it and have at it.

But as for analyzing whatever was weak about your old page and what you want to do with it, is way outside of my range. Seraphim may have a couple of ideas, but even though he offers free hosting if you want hard core web re-work I'd consider dropping him a donation whenever you can manage it. (I know, I saw the other threads, it will be a while, I am just laying out the groundwork!)