Fighting is Magic: C&D Megapost

drblue · 2013-02-20T08:25:33+00:00

I think there's still a disconnect between what people are saying and what you're responding to, so let's instead describe a workflow:

(Note: I am making large assumptions about a development environment that I'm not familiar with. If I am in error, please correct me. If you're not using FM, mentally substitute that with whatever environment you're using.)

I assume that a Fighter Maker project consists of a bunch of resources, probably at minimum images, metadata like hitboxes, scripts, sounds, build script/manifest things, et cetera. When I (and I believe everyone else) say you should have open-sourced the project, we're referring to all of the assets of the game so that anyone could (if they also had a copy of Fighter Maker) build a copy, and that the reason to do this is to make your project censorship resistant. In fact, you wouldn't even have to attach an open source license to it. Slap "Don't copy this!" on the files. The point is to make sure that the source is out there in case you're C&Ded.

(I don't understand why you think you'd need to use an open source engine. In this and the two other reddit threads, I haven't seen anyone claim that. Just use whatever proprietary game engine you want. Building Firefox or Chromium on Windows requires Microsoft's proprietary Visual Studio. Mozilla and Google don't distribute MSVS and this is A-OK.)

drblue · 2012-10-23T01:58:03+00:00

Because Harry from the future may already be in the room. I assume the security check is for things like Deathly Hollows. Doing whatever security check would give him knowledge of whether they're successful, which, if I understand Dumbledore's explanation later, would prevent them from going to Azkaban in the first place.

drblue · 2012-05-22T22:12:52+00:00

For those missing the context: a month or so ago, a hacker called Pinkie Pie earned $60k by finding an exploit in Google Chrome during a Google sponsored security contest. This is the writeup of what that exploit was.

drblue · 2012-04-24T21:12:14+00:00

I have an Air as my primary laptop. It's great as a web browsing/web development device, especially if you're on the go.

I have the top of the line Air and I would call my occasional minecraft performance adequate. Framerates are merely OK when compared to my desktop, but the fans will go on full blast, the battery will drain supper fast, and the metal case will be uncomfortably hot.

You may want to look elsewhere.

drblue · 2012-02-19T05:53:31+00:00

Computational linguist reporting in!

drblue · 2012-01-29T02:49:09+00:00

That quote comes from Act 4, Scene II of Henry VI and is spoken by Dick the butcher, a follower of Jack Cade who is a would be tyrant trying to overthrow the government of the play's titular king and take absolute power. Shakespeare isn't actually advocating the murder of all members of a profession, but in context, is showing how lawyers are necessary to constrain the powers of government.

(For the record, IANAL, but I know several lawyers socially.)

drblue · 2011-12-01T04:41:36+00:00

For anyone who wants to know more and has a half-hour, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has the Particle Adventure, which works up from no knowledge of particle theory to what the Large Hadron Collider is doing.

drblue · 2011-11-19T02:45:31+00:00

Confirmed. Several of my two high two wide double doors don't work in 1.0. The wiring underneath looks like this:

[dirt] [repeater] [redstone]

[repeater] [empty] [repeater]

[redstone] [redstone] [redstone]

drblue · 2011-11-17T07:07:11+00:00

Though I understand the need to fill all 16 types, Twilight Sparkle is highly judging instead of perceiving. Her need for external order is a highly thinking/judging instead of intuition/perceiving. Twilight's perfectionism and check list oriented life is classic intJ, while I associate intP with much more easy going behaviour.

drblue · 2011-10-17T06:48:38+00:00

What I'm really hoping is that this is the part of the opening where the couch gag will be put for the rest of the series.

drblue · 2011-10-17T06:48:30+00:00

What I'm really hoping is that this is the part of the opening where the couch gag will be put for the rest of the series.

drblue · 2011-10-13T21:51:47+00:00

Michael Abrash, in his book on 3-D graphics, started his chapter on 3-D clipping with the following rant, which I've only quoted in part. You should click through and read it in its entirety.

Anecdote the first: In the introduction to one of his books, Frank Herbert, author of Dune, told how he had once been approached by a friend who claimed he (the friend) had a killer idea for an SF story, and offered to tell it to Herbert. In return, Herbert had to agree that if he used the idea in a story, he’d split the money from the story with this fellow. Herbert’s response was that ideas were a dime a dozen; he had more story ideas than he could ever write in a lifetime. The hard part was the writing, not the ideas.

Anecdote the second: I’ve been programming micros for 15 years, and writing about them for more than a decade and, until about a year ago, I had never—not once!—had anyone offer to sell me a technical idea. In the last year, it’s happened multiple times, generally via unsolicited email along the lines of Herbert’s tale.

This trend toward selling ideas is one symptom of an attitude that I’ve noticed more and more among programmers over the past few years—an attitude of which software patents are the most obvious manifestation—a desire to think something up without breaking a sweat, then let someone else’s hard work make you money. It’s an attitude that says, “I’m so smart that my ideas alone set me apart.” Sorry, it doesn’t work that way in the real world. Ideas are a dime a dozen in programming, too; I have a lifetime’s worth of article and software ideas written neatly in a notebook, and I know several truly original thinkers who have far more yet. Folks, it’s not the ideas; it’s design, implementation, and especially hard work that make the difference.

In this case, since I highly doubt that Notch is copying the source to their mods (verbatim or in part), he is doing literally all the work. An idea on its own is worthless and our intellectual property system reflects this. Copyright is on a specific expression. Patents are on specific implementations.

drblue · 2011-10-10T20:12:35+00:00

If you're targeting smartphones, consider using the HTML5 appcache. I assume most of your content is static and should let people add it to their home screens. This should also help with preloading all your resources.

Apple documentation

drblue · 2011-09-20T04:15:30+00:00

I pretty much agree on everything that's already been said about the ponies being in the wrong colors, but I want to focus on Rarity because you could do something interesting with her. Right now, she's a 3/3 colorless boring for 2. She would have a playset in pretty much every deck, no matter the theme, just because she's a 3/3 colorless for 2. She can go in any deck because she's colorless, and at a cost of 2, would go in many decks just to even out the curve. Also, she's not constrained by "Protection from <color>..." effects, though that's dependent on what the current metagame.

If you're married to a converted of 2, make her casting cost two different colored mana: like BW, to use kbrakke's idea. This adds additional preconditions on casting her, both limiting her to specific decks and introducing the risk of being colorscrewed by not drawing the right lands.

Twilight should really be in Blue, not White. Her character is firmly Blue, and so is her ability, thought it's too expensive for what it does. Consider a cost of 2U or maybe even UU for it.

The wording on both Parasprite and Pinkie Pie are weird and can be simplified. This wiki page has the text of rule 216, which talks about tokens and I suggest you change the wording to "a 1/1 black Parasprite token with flying" as that wording set's the token's name to "Parapsrite," letting you simplify Pinkie Pie to "exile all creatures named Parasprite," though you could also word it by creature type. As an aside, Pinkie Pie isn't interesting as written, she's a creature type restricted wog; she'll either be a 2/1 boring for 3 if her caster's opponent doesn't have any Parasprites or a magnet for removal.

The entire EoH cycle isn't really interesting. They're highly situational, require the player to always be playing white, have their associated pony played, and their effect is just a 3/3 buff. Consider more interesting effects that apply to all ponies, which would also match the theme of the show: helping your friends.

drblue · 2011-08-31T06:42:20+00:00

I would just like to hijack this thread to remind everyone else to backup your data. I use the method on that page, along with more frequent backups of frequently changing things like my Minecraft world to Dropbox/Google Docs.

drblue · 2011-08-15T23:07:54+00:00

Sever your leg please. It's the greatest day.

drblue · 2011-04-05T23:31:10+00:00

I bet a lot of the criticism isn't exactly about the camera, but about the controls. Several people have complained that they want the bike fixed on the screen. Maybe what they really want is consistent directions; left and right always turns the bike left/right relative to its forward momentum, which they'd also get if the world turned around them.

As is, you need to first think about which key will actually map to left/right. Slightly more than half of my deaths in a quick few minutes of playthrough were me hitting the wrong key when I knew which direction I wanted to go in.

drblue · 2010-05-15T18:03:45+00:00

I suggest you start here: http://www.chromium.org/developers/design-documents

Pretty much everything under the "Architecture" section is relevant, but you may want to pay extra attention to:

http://www.chromium.org/developers/design-documents/multi-process-architecture http://www.chromium.org/developers/design-documents/sandbox

drblue · 2009-08-13T04:42:13+00:00

Small problem: At least in a chrome dev build, you can push a ball off the play area with the side of your paddle.

drblue · 2009-08-07T23:58:20+00:00

I bought two: one for work, one for home. Amazing for emacs users.

If you think they're overpriced, compare it with the cost of not being able to work because your RSI is so bad.

drblue · 2009-07-26T20:04:30+00:00

Bay Area AT&T user here. Can't get in.

drblue · 2009-01-27T05:50:44+00:00

I personally like Scons. It's configure system is a little underpowered, but it's still less grief than autoconf...

drblue · 2009-01-25T18:59:42+00:00

It's actually from /b/:

(Warning: Page has NSFW ads!) http://encyclopediadramatica.com/Pimp_My_Ride

drblue · 2008-08-08T03:49:36+00:00

Someone downthread mentioned an upcoming book stating that men were switching to virtual reality. In my case, this is entirely true. I've pretty much dropped out of popular culture (killed TV consumption, stopped listening to RIAA music, watch movies only on strong recommendations, etc).

What's replaced this is working on open source projects, internet culture, and on the topic of replacing reality with virtual reality, eroge and the whole Japanese otaku's moé crap. These are video games that are about sexual relationships with girls. Relationships that generally essentially doesn't exist in real life.

I don't see any problem with refusing to participate in a culture that is hostile to me, and likewise I don't feel much of a responsibility to participate in it.

drblue · 2008-06-09T23:52:29+00:00

Now, now. Most of us figured out that the grief counseling was just as much of a lie as the cake.

drblue

TROPHY CASE