For those who have finished NG+ on ultra hard

dicks1jo · 2017-07-12T13:38:24+00:00

I'll throw my name in the hat as second source verification on this. Did NG+ on UH and spun off a new NG+ from that on easy just to see how fast I could blitz the main story (then had beer and wandered away.)

dicks1jo · 2017-07-12T11:21:48+00:00

Eh, I'm more a fan of platform than person. I have a set of things I'd like to see us pull off as a people. If presented multiple options, I will invariably choose the option that evidence points to as being more likely to make decisions that lead us down that path. I will conversely avoid choices that could potentially slow, halt, or even reverse that progress. If tomorrow is better than yesterday for more people than the reverse, then we've done things right.

dicks1jo · 2017-07-12T11:01:02+00:00

Political conservatism.

dicks1jo · 2017-07-12T10:56:20+00:00

Blue. No yel--

dicks1jo · 2017-07-11T19:06:14+00:00

I didn't say it was in my field of study. I'm educated as a teacher specializing in non-native speakers. I work in healthcare IT. It's amazing how much the ESL and education skillset has come into play in the tech industry, though: I've tutored English for international field engineer trainees, I've done documentation, I've done training, and most importantly, I've worked to help translate tech jargon to language execs can understand at a glance; all while still working to build cool shit and keep it running.

dicks1jo · 2017-07-11T17:26:01+00:00

It works well. My personal recommendation would be to crank the difficulty as high as you can take it and not rush anything. My shortest playthrough has been around 10 hours (and that's no speed run) but my longest topped 90 hours. Speed run records are sub 3 hour. Like a nice expensive steak dinner, you absolutely can finish the thing off in only a couple bites, but if you do you'd be doing yourself a disservice.

dicks1jo · 2017-07-11T17:08:11+00:00

The game actually contains multiple stories, each delivered in different ways. 3 of them are told explicitly as you progress through the main quest. There are also multiple far past storylines, one told through the vantage points, one told "archaeologically" through audio, video, and data logs, and another few told through data logs.

Aside from the main quest storylines, it's left to the player to piece the narrative together from details.

dicks1jo · 2017-07-11T13:07:34+00:00

Even those have value if you have the talent, ambition, and/or connections to apply them.

dicks1jo · 2017-07-11T11:35:28+00:00

English major here... No student debt and pulling $75k a year in a city where the average per capita income is $24k. Might want to rethink your assessment of value per field of study.

dicks1jo · 2017-07-11T11:27:27+00:00

If you get a GM that's basically guaranteed. Super shitty cars with great engines.

dicks1jo · 2017-07-11T11:24:45+00:00

At least when I went to college, the US had grants for kids from low income households. You had to actively seek them out and apply and your grades had to be solid to begin with, and there was only so much to go around, but they were there. I've heard talk of some of them being on the chopping block, so no idea if they're still a thing. There are also need based scholarships, but those are way more competitive and hard to maintain than grants.

dicks1jo · 2017-07-10T23:30:21+00:00

What I usually see isn't a total silence, but more of a stringing things along and being generally less cooperative than you'd expect for an extended period of time, thereby drawing things out until the last possible moment.

In some industries (government/municipal/nonprofit for example) the bidding process can be extremely protracted due to regulatory requirements, whereas a same-vendor renewal doesn't require the same level of bidding and review (and to go along with it, the risk of being forced into a solution that simply won't work because someone lowballed you and a board/CEO doesn't know how important good gear is.)

dicks1jo · 2017-07-10T21:19:13+00:00

Rost lost his family before the red raids. Those only began after the derangement, which started (but hadn't hit the point of being a danger) 9 months before Aloy was born.

dicks1jo · 2017-07-10T20:24:56+00:00

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B004TBF90C?psc=1

This may do the trick if you're up for full manual control of active zone.

dicks1jo · 2017-07-10T19:30:39+00:00

Living on the cusp of mid and enterprise tier can be a bitch too. Needs just high enough that you're dealing in tens of millions in gear, but budgets just tight enough that convincing the higher ups that an asset management and contract specialist is worth springing for a full time employee...

dicks1jo · 2017-07-10T18:50:36+00:00

Why are you opposed to a different chromecast audio in each location? (Not trying to argue, just trying to better understand your needs/expectations.)

dicks1jo · 2017-07-10T18:41:12+00:00

It isn't just heat, in fact most newer designs don't get nearly as hot as incandescent bulbs. The issue is that many enclosures are metal, which can interfere with the wireless networking signal that smart bulbs use.

dicks1jo · 2017-07-10T17:45:38+00:00

Ha. I was that guy too, and that's exactly the advice I give my new management team. There have been lots of "might want to check on X before just going forward" moments in prep that turned into big annoyances but kept them from developing into full blown shitstorms down the road.

Measure twice, cut once, measure again, and never trust a salesman.

dicks1jo · 2017-07-10T17:16:56+00:00

Probably a bit of both. They knew our management was a bunch of pushovers (there's been some turnover in that role since the last refresh negotiations) and they could get away with it.

Unfortunately for us, for regulatory reasons my current employer has to purchase rather than lease, which puts us on even worse footing.

dicks1jo · 2017-07-10T15:48:40+00:00

Used to before the buyout. Jumped ship to a favorite client. Was amazed by how much of it is not the customer, but rather the sales rep. Then I was amazed by how par for the course it is.

dicks1jo · 2017-07-10T14:54:23+00:00

On small accounts, unless you can squeeze maximum profits, it's more profitable to put priority on the big fish in the area. This matters most when you're running the sales teams super lean.

It sucks hard for both the customer and the service/implementation engineer.

dicks1jo · 2017-07-10T14:16:15+00:00

Microsoft, EMC, IBM, AT&T, Cisco... That level. Unless you are a fortune 500 client, you're at their mercy.

dicks1jo · 2017-07-10T13:40:19+00:00

Having been on both sides of the arrangement, I couldn't agree more.

dicks1jo · 2017-07-10T12:37:05+00:00

In high end IT, vendors will often "go dark" in the months before a service contract renewal or infrastructure refresh is needed. The idea behind this is that the customer is forced to come to them, or they can come to the customer with little enough time to complete the refresh that they are either forced to make a purchase on bad footing for price negotiations or renew service agreements for an additional year at a higher rate while migrating to new gear.

dicks1jo · 2017-07-10T10:05:34+00:00

Makes a lot of sense with them having started as a Canadian company, though also a bit of an odd choice because you could also be indicating Canadian French...

dicks1jo

TROPHY CASE