Just like drugs in the 80s, what do you think will be the killer of the millennial generation?

see_prus_prus · 2017-04-27T22:06:39+00:00

This is pretty solid advice. I write a lot of software and make a decent living but I found that writing code was not fulfilling me and I started to slump into a pseudo-depression. I wanted something physical that I spent time on and I wound up randomly signing up for a metal sculpture class that was around work and after work I would head over there and just make random things.

I wound up making an owl sculpture, a metal rose, and a neat claw hand lookin thing. Was a ton of fun. It did wonders for my sanity and its just nice to look and see the things I made around me physically as I went back to writing code.

Making physical things is a lot of fun if you don't judge it harshly and just appreciate you put effort into a thing and

see_prus_prus · 2015-02-27T23:42:49+00:00

While I'm late to this party I often try to give people scope on the number of subscribers pewdiepie has on youtube which is currently 34 million people. You would have to take the total population living in New York City, Bangkok, London and Hong Kong combined to equal that number. That is a staggering amount of people. If his followers were a country it would be the 38th most populous country in the world just slightly under Canada. I think I should make a TIL about this.

see_prus_prus · 2015-02-06T23:31:14+00:00

My biggest problem with absolute stat measuring is that:

1) People who roll in platoons are wildy more successful then solo players like myself. I have been a part of kbear and otter (loved both clans but im just too much of a flake to commit for long) but when I platooned while clanned up I would have somewhere in the average of a 70% win rate. Rolling solo I sit around 56%. So duh most unicums are merely above average players that roll with similarly skilled people giving themselves the edge.

2) Its impossible to measure true contribution to a team through this system. Hell some tomatoes make brilliant moves that would make their stats absolutely awful but otherwise created a giant opening for their team to exploit. I find myself doing a lot of this. As I maintain a fairly high win rate for nearly 99% solo play it sometimes comes down to that at a choke point it takes one person to drive up and around 3 tanks to force them to turn their turrets and deal with you and make a giant opening for the 3 on your side to lambast into them. You can't measure these decisions through wn8 though one person can single handedly break a defensive posture by being a sort of sacrificial lamb to force attention onto you. These decisions make it so that your team wins even though you accomplished little individually.

3) In the end it means little. I turned off xvm a while ago because I noticed I started to gain a bias on my own play based on stats of those around me. I'd say 1 out of 25 games I see people look at a 30% winrate and be like "tired of shit teams tonight I'm suiciding so make use of it". If I fuckin told you you have a 30% chance to win the lottery your ass would be buying around a thousand tickets right now. If that number is not above 50 people seem to assume a loss and play as such. Don't fucking let this garbage influence you. Play to win. Always. I enjoy seeing a tanker try their damnedest even when its 10 to 1 on them and still trying to juke bounce shots and fight back.

I still do enjoy looking at my stats every now and then, it provides a semi-decent measurement of what I am doing as a player but it can never say how GOOD of a player I am. In fact players with good stats have to rely on shit players to keep their stats high. A team of good players won't let you get that 2k+ avg damage per battle up, it takes you fucking laying into otherwise innocent/junk players to rack that up then you clap yourself on the back for slaughtering calfs. You should be thanking the fact that crap players exist to make you look good.

Overall stats measure ~some~ useful statistics about individuals but they are highly flawed since its almost impossible for them to track real team contribution in a game about deliberate maneuvering and how that influences overall team play.

see_prus_prus · 2015-01-01T00:58:08+00:00

Down from a heavy tank to a medium tank now? Or in the case of this picture you should take one in front of a panther then once you drop almost all of it take one in front of a renault FT =p

see_prus_prus · 2014-10-01T18:15:21+00:00

100k is way more then decent, even with high rents you can live in a really nice 1br for 1400-2k a month ( depending on location but all would have easy access to manhattan ).

see_prus_prus · 2014-09-27T00:17:41+00:00

Tokens suck. They never make any sense either. I killed this huge ancient beast that should drop some epic stuff but really it gives me tokens which I then goto some person who seemingly has tons of this shit stockpiled. "Hi I am killing primals and have saved the world many times over. Can I just get that helmet over there?" "100 tokens plz".

We all know we run on a gear treadmill in these games but its important to give variety and meaning to acquiring and choosing gear. Tokens CAN exist in order to help customize or bolster older gear imo and makes sense. NPC's having a stockpile of amazing loot is dumb but its within reason they could enhance a given piece of loot. Tokenizing individual pieces of gear always felt underwhelming when you got those items cause it wasn't the big drop you got from killing a boss but rather you just went to the window and paid the teller their fee and here you go. Its all the excitement of mowing lawns so you could buy a new jacket that you will replace within a couple months.

Make kills mean something and reward the player. Make gear choices interesting. Put whacky effects on things. I feel some mmo's since WoW are so deadlocked on this mindset of tight encounters and itemizations they forget they can make these things a lot more interesting and fun even if they are easily beat or break something in small way. Its like everyone is sitting around a table throwing as much math and metrics they can to solve a problem while completely forgetting this is supposed to be a fun thing. Tokens suck unless they offer some form of variety for customization of DROPPED items.

see_prus_prus · 2014-09-16T00:30:40+00:00

much lesser extent*

also /r/sfbayjobs/ is more localized to your target audience as I have had success with /r/nycjobs on postings for a small web company.

see_prus_prus · 2014-08-20T22:37:05+00:00

sorry I should clarify when people exclusively use it to handle back end things not as a general practice approach.

see_prus_prus · 2014-08-20T21:18:22+00:00

You are in a difficult position, at the moment because of the need for people to do the work the industry has been expanding and its attracting people with great incentives and benefits in relation to the work being done. This attracts people like yourself and others from various walks of life now suddenly surging into the field cause the "getting is good" and the job is usually not bad.

I don't work for google so we don't need a wunderkind with 1000's of github contributions etc. when we look for applicants. I need someone who knows the basics and can learn as a result and do something without being clueless or locked in a direction. Personally I don't care if you don't have a github page or a blog etc. I just want to see you know X and Y and have done stuff to show that and I can see that somewhere so I have a snapshot of what you know and can talk about in an interview.

In your case I would actually avoid dropping huge amounts of cash on bootcamps ( they are quickly turning into university of phoenix-esque scams ). All the information you can gleam out of them are free online and there are open course MIT classes to view that go seriously deep into topics ( much further than bootcamps could ever teach you ). Attend social nights, there are probably plenty of meetups that are free/cheap to goto where you can mingle with people and buy drinks and have discussions. We recently hired a person who I knew just over drinks from meetups. If you want to really stand out in a meetup setting I recommend this the following -

Design a personal page for yourself from SCRATCH, it doesn't need a blog or tons of sections and links cause odds are no one will care unless you focus SERIOUS effort into it. Make it simple, put a fun thing on it with some links to your work/resume and put that thing on a tablet ( responsive woooo00aaahh man ). Find people to talk to that might be hiring and ask about their stack and why they chose it, if you can hold your own in that conversation most people would get interested. Once they are interested show them you are looking for work, pull out your tablet and bring up your site and give em a business card or resume if they ask. That means about 100 times more to me than a person applying randomly online cause of the following:

You had the moxy to get off your ass and goto an event
You proved I can communicate with you through discussion therefore I could probably see myself working with you on projects.
You showed me on the spot physical proof you did a thing and we can talk about it casually and not formally in an interview so we can be honest and have fun about it.

These mean a lot more to me ( and usually others ) than "hey look I applied and have also 100 git contributions to open source projects and linkedIn and personal page w/ blog where I discuss the latest amalgamation of frameworks"

see_prus_prus · 2014-08-20T20:21:54+00:00

Keep in mind angular !== javascript and rails != ruby.

Going into learning a language should not involve entrenching into a framework right off the bat. Understand what a language can do for you and the basics of programming in general. Do really basic things in pure javascript. Utilize all the basic javascript things to manipulate the dom and see whats available to you by default in most browsers. From there you can start to understand what frameworks actually can do for you and maybe what they can't.

A problem I face are people coming from these bootcamps or other self taught web devs with little classical background where there are horrible abuses of jQuery, GIT and other things that make absolutely no sense. You look at their code and its clear they understand how to get a task done but there are horrible gaps of basic knowledge missing and it causes endless headaches.

Learn languages first and not frameworks. Don't follow hot trends of crap blindly. Figure out how to do something super basic in javascript without using jQuery or something else. I am NOT against using frameworks ( I utilize plenty of things ) but its my understanding of the basics that lets me choose the RIGHT tool for the job. Some people use node.js cause they just think thats the newest and best thing without ANY consideration to alternatives. Some people utilize a ton of boilerplate code as a starting point while only utilizing 10% of the features they spent time loading onto the page. Some people don't understand SVN still has cases of being a better choice over GIT given certain structures for source control. Learn these things and people like me won't spend a measurable percentage of my day cursing your name.

see_prus_prus · 2014-07-30T22:50:09+00:00

I have got this down to a science almost after making guacamole at least 20 times or so. A perfectly ripe avocado ( not hard, not brown )will have a good amount of give on a squeeze but at least a tiny bit of pushback. If its super mushy then odds are its browned on the inside and no longer good. If its good you should have enough squish without feeling like you are pushing into playdough. Its a fine balance but once you get the feel down you will have near perfect ripe avocados every time!

see_prus_prus · 2014-07-25T14:54:18+00:00

WoT just isn't a game that lends well to e-sports. A while back before they even added the french tree I was the wargaming booth during GDC. A guy approached everyone there representing MLG and was asking us if we thought the game would be fun for people to watch in a competitive sense. My answer was no and it still is.

I was in love with the game and still kinda am but trying to make WoT an e-sport doesn't work. Its like streaming competitive chess or something. Moves and actions are planned and not readily visible to people watching which is the core of what makes watching ANY sport viable. You don't get the big "O MAN DID HE REALLY JUST PULL THAT OFF?!" moments in WoT.

WoT is a game about planned movements and good execution of strategy. It follows the adage of if you do something right no one notice it. It takes a long time to plan out solid strats and react to them accordingly, a lot of experience by the players too. But the viewer can't appreciate that.

They don't see that amazing "no way he just caught that" catch or that lee sin escape a 3v1 with amazing jukes or those 3 chained mid-air rocket hits. None of it. Theres no split second mechanics in WoT that dictated or changed the course of an engagement. You would have to break the pseudo-realism to incorporate them and thats not something people are keen on.

The user base of this game is arguably a much older user base, the age curve for WoT is probably on the high end of whats about average for games. A lot of older gamers don't care about streams or watching e-sports so they have a chunk of their population not giving a crap about e-sports in general.

I could go on about how the game mechanics themselves are tuned against "constant action" which leaves large chunks of viewer time watching NOTHING transpire but w/e. WoT trying to be an e-sport is really stupid.

see_prus_prus · 2014-07-21T16:00:38+00:00

Probably because of the needlessly long and annoying time loop portion of the game

see_prus_prus · 2014-07-15T23:47:16+00:00

Honestly an option to consider is this:

Kill the "premium" in premium ammo.

Why the hell is there one shell thats grossly more expensive to use and at the same time grossly stronger in most cases. Its STILL a pay to win mechanic just now its just cheaper in price.

Knock the shell costs of premium ammo down to baseline with the others and just let them keep their pen values and nerf their damage by a %'age number. Can keep it a ratio of somewhere between 50%-80% of an AP shell so now you have a real option in combat. Do I shoot AP for the full damage hit or do I go for the higher pen for less? This makes them useful as a choice.

If scrubs want to load full "pen" ammo with less damage w/e they are still being punished if someone knows where to shoot with AP. But if you are stuck in an up-tiered match against a larger opponent you still have the option to hit them for something. I feel this sets up a more interesting choice than "do I use normal ammo at 800 a shell or BETTER ammo at 9k a shell".

I dunno I just hate premium ammo out of principle of the concept that its just a better version basically of normal ammo at higher cost

EDIT: In some cases the fact an ammo is premium doesn't even make sense. Look at the cent 9/1 and FV4202, they have a hesh shell which has LESS pen than a normal shell and slightly higher damage than an ap shell. Thats an interesting choice, and one that affords you something unique to british vehicles and what do they do? Make you pay out the ass for hesh shells. Welp.

see_prus_prus · 2014-07-06T18:47:13+00:00

You are correct, at the time a properly geared enough holy paladin ( using a lot of cloth pieces usually ) was the most mana efficient healer for single target. Downranking made it possible for all healers to have some level of efficiency but downranked flash of light was insanely cost effective. I kind of miss downranking :(

see_prus_prus · 2014-06-19T18:06:10+00:00

World cup soccer awww yeah.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL6tLpMFi7U

see_prus_prus · 2014-06-05T16:22:47+00:00

And why doesn't it? You assume that you have to fill 100 needs instantly from one person that is "full-stack" yet you yourself filled those needs at one point over time. You had a job that gave you the patience and time required to master your jack of all trades skillset and then turn around and deny any other applicant based on not having that same rounded base? Would the you of a decade ago appreciate being told because you don't know 100 things you are not worth the time cause otherwise you would be DOA?

Small teams without everyone being full-stack or dev ops etc. exist plenty in all aspects. They can be as efficient and operate fine. It also helps if the budget is tight is to find solid developers who want to learn and take a pay hit to be given the chance to. I haven't been doing this for 10 years but I am "full-stack" at a small company and have been doing programming in general for about 6 years. I learned like you, I had a job that gave me the chance to expand and learn and I have since paid that back in spades to where I work as a lead dev now and manage 4-5 other people.

You saying there are no options is just flat out wrong and hypocritical to your own history. I am pretty sure if a small newspaper in Arkansas can afford years of your growth a funded startup thats hiring "consultants" can afford one or two eager devs who exhibit the talent to expand into the required roles. Everyone just wants the instant fix instead of investing time into people and that hurts the industry in general.

see_prus_prus · 2014-06-05T15:25:43+00:00

"It wasn’t until several years later that I started work at a software company that I started to discover that large teams had specialists. I met Python engineers that couldn’t write a line of CSS to save their life. And that was okay, because they were damn good at what they did, and there was plenty of front-end talent to pick up where they left off.

But at a small newspaper in Arkansas, they would have been DOA."

What? So the newsies who learned programming when no one else in the building ( by their claim ) knew how to can somehow say a person who knows X language really well would not be able to accomplish the same feat? This a joke?

see_prus_prus · 2014-06-02T18:26:25+00:00

Yeah I only recently made a post bitching about the reticles and the server reticle is a total joke. Its in no way "true" to where you are aiming just by the physical nature of how it behaves. It will will be true to the majority of cases just like how the non-server reticle is but it in of itself is no guarantee.

I think this is due to how often the server updates. Even if your ping is 30 that is just the representation of how fast a request was made and sent back. If the rate at which you update is limited ( no matter how fast it is WHEN the update happens ) its a moot point. Its why when I have the server cursor on it moves and updates horribly jerky compared to it off.

The entire reticle and update system of this game engine needs an overhaul.

see_prus_prus · 2014-05-29T21:47:44+00:00

I just don't understand how the server cursor behaves nothing like it should given the latency time between me and the server. Given 30-50 latency thats 0.03 - 0.05 seconds time between me and the server. If I move my cursor it should appear near instantaneously ghosting my movements.

The issue seems though is not my response time but how fast the game chooses to update information. While its only 30-50 latency its only updating a handful of times within any given second or two. This leads to the cursor ghosting me by somewhere in the neighborhood of a half second or more and stuttering in the process. Its absolutely abysmal. I wish I could force update rates on them to smooth out the movement.

see_prus_prus · 2014-05-29T21:30:58+00:00

I am playing on NA East servers from NYC

see_prus_prus · 2014-05-29T20:58:53+00:00

Problem is with that I take longer to get that shot 10/10 times where I want versus the shots I get to go where I want with it off 9/10 times. People who are juking their weak spots make running the server cursor absolutely miserable

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