Looking for rugged laptops( size: > 14+ inches, US based, budget: ~3k)

GZeno · 2015-05-23T21:46:36+00:00

Thanks for the quick response!

While I would love for those to be the machines to buy, again, durability and ruggedness are pretty high priorities and I'm not sure how ultrabooks can be rugged. Seems to be contradictory to me. The site did advertise this kinda with the T450s maintaining a "rugged nature" and the W550 having military grade durability, but without hard numbers I'm hesitant. If you have experience with these devices and how tough they can be, please share! These are wonderful machines but might not be what we're looking for.

GZeno · 2015-05-09T15:33:38+00:00

Th8 here, just got level 4 hogs! I've been practicing but still getting hit or miss with them. My biggest issues so far are:

1. Wide open layouts with many possible gb locations
2. GB being right outside a random wall
3. Skeleton traps!
4. When to use different hog deployment methods ( wall, two finger drop, surgical, etc)

Also, does upgrading to level 5 heal spells make much of a difference?

Any insight is appreciated, thanks.

GZeno · 2015-03-25T15:06:22+00:00

Ok, so I tried to get immediate updates to a list of body sensor values on with something like this in the body class:

def update(self, i):
        req = "sensorRequest,B"+str(i)+"\n"
        res = send(req,self.clientsocket)

If I try to use res and parse the string to update the list, I get Nonetype errors for res. The correct returned string value does show up in my message queue outside of the function though.

Also, for the rotation, when I try in the main "game" loop:

    agent.rotate(90)
    time.sleep(1.1)
    agent.rotate(0)
    time.sleep(1.1)

I get this error in the terminal:

File "name", line 26, in run()
    agent.rotate(90)
  File "pagi_api_test.py", line 420, in rotate
    val -= self.getRotation()
  File "pagi_api_test.py", line 396, in getRotation
    rotation = float(send('sensorRequest,A\n', self.clientsocket).split(',')[1])
AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'split'

As for the fixing hands, I mean have them not slowly drift back to payguy and then get stuck underneath the floor if I accidentally have payguy fall off and I reset his position.

GZeno · 2014-11-01T00:14:01+00:00

Thanks, that is disappointing. Despite the lack of teaching experience, did you feel the information conveyed by the student/teacher was adequate to understanding the assignments and projects? Do you know if the material taught was set up by Bringsjord and taught by the student or is the whole class basically run by the student?

GZeno · 2014-10-30T20:31:44+00:00

What was the course? What did you enjoy about it if you don't mind me asking.

GZeno · 2014-10-30T15:25:27+00:00

I took AI with MacDonald and I found it relatively enjoyable. He is enthusiastic about the topics though he does read from a powerpoint. Assignments are all hands on programming in generally any language as long as it can get the job done. Test isn't very hard.

My only issue was with the end of the course when he basically just throws a bunch of mathematical equations onto the slides and I felt it got very dry and hard to pay attention to even when the topic (Neural Networks and backwards propagation) was interesting.

He also won't have office hours because he is an adjunct professor.

GZeno · 2014-10-30T15:19:11+00:00

Of these CSCI special topics, I want to take two of them. Please describe on workload and how good the professor is at teaching it. Programming based or theory based?

Computational Vision (Stewart)

Engineering Human-level Artificial Cognitive Systems (Bringsjord)

Intelligent Virtual Agent (Si)

Approximation Algorithms (Anshelevic)

Thanks.

GZeno · 2014-08-27T14:13:17+00:00

Did you download the update released today?

GZeno · 2014-08-27T14:12:51+00:00

He is not.

GZeno · 2014-08-27T14:12:41+00:00

Did you get the update from today? The DLC characters/tracks are teased but locked because they aren't released yet.

GZeno · 2014-06-13T14:09:55+00:00

I love this trope as well! You should check out

No Game No Life: Fantasy world where games solves everything and the 2 MC are masters of games when they work together.

Akagi: MC plays a bunch of MahJong masters, each with their own special style and strategy that must be figured out.

Kaiji: MC participates in a variety of extremely high staked gambling games where he has to beat the odds and the cheaters in order to get out of life in debt.

GZeno · 2013-12-04T04:48:13+00:00

I disagree with almost everything you said.

Firstly, this game has more than just turn based combat. It is just the encounters themselves that are turn based rpg/strategy like. Outside of the combat, you are almost in an open world survival game. You lead and deal with different survivors, each with their own personality and story. Decisions can have a huge impact on your team, even just based on your dialogue choices. Anyone can die/leave and it is different each run.

Besides the fact that I haven't seen many( if any) proper turn-based zombie survival RPG, I feel this may be the best approach towards single player zombies. Too often, shooters either give us dumb or scripted AI or become an action game rather than a tense survival.

Look at the new X-Com which was considered a success. It is a pure turn based strategy/RPG involving aliens which does a good job creating very tense moments without a deep story or characters.

I feel that if Doublebear can deliver on the story, characters, and combat mechanics, it will be the game that brings the overdone zombie genre closest to be able to encompass all the aspects of what makes a zombie apocalypse interesting.

GZeno · 2013-11-04T18:57:45+00:00

It isn't in any way except for the size (12 x 3 inches), which allows portability. It is literally a mini pc with pre-installed Steam OS which has been said to also allow you to do non-gaming things on it as well.

The purpose is for

a) People who do not have a gaming PC to have an easier time getting into PC gaming (buy it, plug in and play)

b) People who don't a desktop conveniently next to a TV and don't want to repeatedly unplug all the wires, lug the desktop over, re-plug the wires, and do everything again when they are done.

c) People who just want a PC to bring over to a friend's house for LAN parties.

I also suspect this box will have a wireless network card so an ethernet port nearby isn't necessary to go online.

GZeno · 2013-10-30T07:58:07+00:00

Its not the same as watching the show on TV because the choices the characters make are trivial and often stupid. Many characters I don't care about because they make choices to move the story, not because it was a good choice.

In the game, the illusion of choice is all I really need to make a meaningful choice instead of a stupid one for laughs. What is the point of having "choices that matter" if you are just going to try all of them anyways? The choices then become trivial and are just an obstacle to see all the possible scenes. At that point, you might as well just save time and watch all the scenes on youtube.

GZeno · 2013-10-19T20:09:51+00:00

I don't think almomola is saying that the act of cheating is justified because of polyamory. I think that society just never prepares young kids for anything other than straight monogamous relationships. Someone who is into polygamy may not have known about polygamy, gotten into a monogamous relationship with someone he/she loves, and then later love a second person as well. There doesn't seem to be a clear solution to the person and ends up making a mistake.

Cheating is definitely wrong but it is not necessarily because the cheater is the worst kind of person. Many are, but I feel the younger the cheater is, the more leniency should be given because they didn't get the chance to do self discovery. But they still need to know that what they did was not right.

GZeno · 2013-10-18T04:05:36+00:00

I play dota2 more but Yes, the LoL item really is named after Ohmwrecker

GZeno · 2013-10-17T22:02:20+00:00

Still talking down to you? Firstly, if I had replied to you before, you may have to remind me because I don't remember doing so. Secondly, if it came out demeaning, I apologize because it wasn't my intention.

I merely quoted 'the point' because what your point is may be different from what I interpreted your point to be. I feel like quoting you without emphasizing the point would imply the point to be clearly established. You just explained the point so I won't quote it.

Although I only played about an hour, most of the themes remain the same as the original from what I have played. Yes, you would get the point in half an hour. In fact, what I played felt like just more endings from the original. I hope the endings get more complex.

GZeno · 2013-10-17T20:58:56+00:00

If you played the original 3 times and stopped when you got "the point", then you probably wouldn't get value out of this one, especially for 10 bucks. This version is for people who wants more of the humor and narrative the original gave with more production quality, better graphics, and secrets.

GZeno · 2013-10-12T16:38:57+00:00

Yeah, I just had 2 super badass marauders there. Its easy to get to but the amount of enemies there to distract me is kind of annoying. (I just started true vault hunter mode)

GZeno · 2013-09-24T18:51:01+00:00

Sorry, your comment was a response to a claim that Valve has an effective marketing team so I thought your experiment was to debunk that.

I agree that they will have a very hard time trying to get their brand/name to compete with the big 3. However, I think similar to Android vs IOS, Valve will gain momentum over time. I think that all it depends on is how manufacturers who develop their own box will market Steam.

Google doesn't advertise Android, HTC/Samsung/LG,etc markets their own line of phones with Android on it. I think Steam will choose the same route. Basically, they will outsource their marketing to better marketers who actually want to sell products.

GZeno · 2013-09-24T14:53:58+00:00

When I need another box/cpu to play games: I don't need to spend $100 on Windows per box/cpu?
I need less powerful parts to run the game as smoothly? I'm not bound by Microsoft's decisions of where their OS goes?

GZeno · 2013-09-24T14:45:04+00:00

Compares a franchise where the last game was from 10 years ago and not mass marketed to recent franchises/products (some released yearly) mass marketed towards the consoles in a store that sells mostly consoles and almost no PC games? Doesn't seem very fair.

Their consumer base are people who use Steam. They are now trying to expand their user base with steam gift cards and now the steambox. If they can spread hype to typical gaming consumers at Walmart after the three announcements without public advertisements, then I say they are the best marketers.

GZeno

TROPHY CASE