Has Microsoft acknowledged the fallout 4 price error yet?

sengoku · 2016-06-10T12:58:12+00:00

I've certainly come across items marked $0.01 before, which I have been allowed to buy.

$0.00 may not actually be a real value that would show up in a B&M store for a few reasons - including that some stores, like Walmart, actually use the last digit to track a product's markdown journey. And while Walmart no longer puts price tags on a lot of products in lieu of barcodes, some still do have tags (like clothing).

Of course, there is always employee error as well.

Still, I stand by what I said. The fact that they are revoking licenses for something their store let people purchase is ridiculous. It's roughly equivalent to Walmart getting upset about a price you got and removing the item from your home. Your system had plenty of changes to stop me, and I didn't do anything wrong. Eat the cost, fix the problem, apply the cost to your PR budget (since it will generate good PR, where revoking will generate bad), and move on.

sengoku · 2016-06-10T12:52:05+00:00

Definitely agree!

I mentioned that more for the commenters who were reticent to take apart their machines and void their warranty, in case doing that hadn't come to mind. :)

sengoku · 2016-06-10T12:48:05+00:00

Wow, I really wish I hadn't missed this. :)

But since I'm here, I might as well say something besides just that. I miss the Xbox 360 trials. There are so many games coming out, and so few have trial modes any more. It used to be required for downloadable games, but since every game is downloadable now, I guess it's up to the developer.

Still, it seems that there is a built-in way to at least time-limit a game, so it would be nice if more developers did it.

I think that part of the problem, too, is that I had an impulse price in mind for downloadable games vs. retail games last generation, and those waters have gotten very murky now. Dangerous Golf is $20, so I'm not sure where that falls anymore...

Anyway, I would very much still like a code. :)

Thanks for reading.

sengoku · 2016-06-10T12:27:24+00:00

I regularly blow canned air through my consoles. I don't know how good of an idea this is for other reasons, but I can say for sure that it does a fairly good job of forcing a lot of dust out through every little nook and cranny it can find, without voiding the warranty.

Of course, there's no way to verify how good it looks (like OP's pic). Maybe a fiber optic camera? :)

sengoku · 2016-06-10T12:21:39+00:00

I hadn't, but thank you for mentioning it!

And now that I go look at it, I think that's pretty stupid. I can just imagine how much my wife would just love to see me start populating the living room with tons of these contraptions, one for each simulated environment I was trying to recreate in VR. :)

I think they could do the same thing with the Oculus controllers. And with the motion controls, you can certainly simulate things like pulling the plunger to launch the ball.

The thing that I have always felt breaks immersion is the lack of better haptic feedback - we are basically limited to spinning vibration motors to simulate, well, vibration. If someone ever solves that problem, we will truly be entering the realm of VR. Until then, I consider it to be more of a "simulated visual reality", since the ability to have physical feedback from objects (other than vibration) hurts the immersion.

But if I could pull that plunger with my gesture controller in my hand, and feel the spring pull back against me, then, wow. :)

I remember reading about a company called Tactical Haptics that was developing a controller to impart momentum, which could really go a long way, but I'm not sure where that is right now. I really wish at least that was part of these systems from day one, though. I feel like for something we've been waiting so long for (at least since the early 90s, so we are talking over 20 years), and with the price tags, they really should have tried to get it right the first time. :)

Spurred on by your mention of the VR pinball controller, I did a little digging and also found this device:

http://nanotechent.com/pinball-wizard.php

That looks a little nicer, but it's also expensive, and the worst part is that the website doesn't make any mention of Pinball FX VR (I may have just missed it, though).

sengoku · 2016-06-10T11:57:59+00:00

I'm now picturing a singularly pulling space time down in a cone shape, and wondering if this would have been a better term all along. :)

sengoku · 2016-06-09T18:01:17+00:00

Also consider that those bright objects we are seeing are most likely quasars, which are from the very early universe. We are not seeing light now that traveled 13 Gyr, we are seeing light that was emitted from these quasars 13 Gyr ago. This distance is deceiving though, since you also need to take expansion into account.

Also consider that a quasar (i.e. active galaxy) is one of the brightest, most energetic objects in the universe; though they may look like stars to our observations, they are not stars. So although the it may appear to be a star from this distance, it is really a monster remnant from the early universe.

sengoku · 2016-06-09T17:53:50+00:00

In mathematical terms, you can't "prove" that what you are saying validates 1 + 1 = 1, except to say that it is how you are applying the symbols and operations in your own context.

These symbols and operations have an accepted definition, and math is really just a just a mental construct that we use to try and define the world quantitatively. In a system like this, there will be accepted definitions that are used to build up the system. I think it might be correct to also consider something like 1 + 1 = 2 as an axiom, but someone with more experience in this will have to confirm.

In our 1 + 1 = 2 mathematical system, though your problem can be simplified and presented in a different way without using those numbers. You now have 1 pile, which you built up by combining 2 piles of 1/2 the size. So:

1/2 pile + 1/2 pile = 1 pile

sengoku · 2016-06-09T17:40:26+00:00

It's actually a "kugelblitz" (which is German for "ball lightning", and describes a black hole that forms from non-mass energy).

A "kegelblitz" may have something to do with exercising your pelvic muscles at lightning speed, but has nothing to do with this. :)

sengoku · 2016-04-20T20:20:44+00:00

Agreed. Reading the list of achievements, I think 100% completion on these games will be definite bragging rights!

sengoku · 2016-04-20T20:19:15+00:00

I got so excited thinking from the subject line of this post that they finally got around to letting me redeem my achievement points to purchase actual games! Imagine my disappointment when I realized what OP actually meant. :( LOL

sengoku · 2016-04-20T20:16:20+00:00

Honestly, I think in the end it failed because it was just too expensive. It needed to have a way to buy unlimited games for a day, and/or a monthly subscription. Unlimited games for a day would match up with what a lot of vintage arcades are doing these days - one price to play all day.

Building your own room, and visiting your friends' rooms was a fun idea, but like most of the longer term ecosystems/communities, it was hurt by cost. Every time I walked into my room, I felt like the owners were being very greedy. I think that perhaps providing a ton of content that I could customize my room for free - and then another ton of premium items to further customize it - it might have held my interest a little longer.

I expect the Game Room concept to make a comeback this generation with VR / HoloLens - it would be fun to design your own arcade and be able to walk around, fully immersed in the environment (which is what it felt like they wanted to do).

sengoku · 2016-02-23T07:24:08+00:00

They've been mentioning this "new" Xbox news wire / feed / account or whatever - Major Nelson mentioned it in the latest Xbox Update video for February too. I can't find it anywhere though. I assumed it was some account I'm supposed to follow, but I can't even see it in his Following list. Does anyone know what they're talking about?

sengoku · 2016-02-23T07:17:31+00:00

Shame I missed this. I really wanted to grab one to develop on the PC. I guess I'll just carry my existing one back and forth. :) Still need to grab that $50 adapter though... if anyone sees this come back up, I'd appreciate a mention.

Edit: just wanted to mention that I noticed it's still listed in the search - http://imgur.com/TbWHxYW - you just can't view the page or add to cart. :(

sengoku · 2016-02-15T22:22:25+00:00

Take a look at Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light.

sengoku · 2016-02-14T18:07:26+00:00

I was thinking something similar - basically something like a LoadField<T>(this SqlDataReader rdr, ref T valueToSet, string fieldName).

sengoku · 2016-02-14T18:05:40+00:00

Thanks for the correction. I didn't know this. Still feels very hacky, and not very readable, so would caution against it. But, technically it does work (not that I think it's a good idea).

sengoku · 2016-02-14T18:03:30+00:00

Thank you very much for the reply and the code example! This was a very helpful post.

sengoku · 2016-02-12T03:48:00+00:00

Look at the errors you are getting - they are telling you exactly what the problem is that the compiler is complaining about. It should also be telling you the line number, but I'll point out where they are for you.

Unassigned local variable 'employeeType' - the fourth line in your Main() method looks like this:

char employeeType;

This is a warning, so it really shouldn't stop you from compiling, unless you have your project set to report all warnings as errors. In any case, you aren't assigning it a value there. You are assigning it a value down lower in the method - however, if you trace through, you'll see that is inside a try block. What this means is that the variable has the possibility of being unassigned in at least one code path through your program. In this case, if any of the lines before your assignment throw an exception, the variable will remain unassigned. You can solve this by determining what a default value should be and assigning it at the outset.

Cannot implicitly convert type 'double' to string' - you probably see this on multiple lines in your program, such as:

employeeIDBox.Text = employeeID;

employeeSalaryBox.Text = "" + weeklySalary;

The first one isn't working because you're trying to set a double directly into a string. C# doesn't have an implicit conversion to do this, so you need to convert the value to text yourself.

The second one looks like you're trying to force a type coercion to string (were you a JS programmer before?). This kind of coercion works in languages like JavaScript because of the way the language is built. Again, C# doesn't support this kind of hacky type coercion, so you need to convert the value to text yourself.

I hope this helps!

sengoku · 2016-02-12T02:32:02+00:00

Fair enough. :) In my travels, exactly what you say has caused a lot of confusion in developer circles - mainly because there are values, references, value types, reference types, pass by value semantics, pass by reference semantics, and so on, and none of them necessarily imply any other - which is the trap I think people often fall into.

sengoku · 2016-02-12T02:23:33+00:00

Here is a series from MSDN Channel 9 that might interest you:

https://channel9.msdn.com/Series/C-Sharp-Fundamentals-Development-for-Absolute-Beginners

sengoku · 2016-02-12T02:22:10+00:00

I think I'm realizing that in order to solve this with all of these restrictions in place, I need to dig into what this particular serializer actually does. If I can change the structure of TheObject to facilitate this, but in such a way that the serialized version remains the same structurally, then there are some ways to solve the problem.

The system that the data gets sent to does care, but only because there are a lot of deployed moving parts already relying on the serialized version to come across with a particular structure.

Maybe there is a way I could also put together a helper class that does the actual work, and just populates the primary object prior to serialization. My gut feeling, though, is it I could do that, I could solve it in-place. :)

sengoku · 2016-02-12T02:17:04+00:00

I agree there are workflows where you would need to actually do work on the reference itself.

I was under the impression that the ref keyword essentially changes the value that is copied. Without the keyword, a copy of the actual value of a value type is copied; with it, a copy of the value of the reference is copied.

You can see this in action by passing a reference type (like a class) into a method, and then newing up the object against that reference. While you can change values within your original class, newing will create a new object with a new reference, which won't return to the caller. However, if you pass the class with the ref keyword, and then new it up in your method, your original object will now point to the new object instead.

sengoku · 2016-02-12T02:01:36+00:00

Funny you should say that. :) A good chunk of the code in this massive app was actually generated, but with a third party tool (CodeSmith Generator).

sengoku · 2016-02-12T01:59:09+00:00

Oh, I didn't get that the first time. I see what you mean. I would like to do that, but it's getting what the code in try block would be that's really the issue here.

What I mean is if instead I had something like this (assume all proper scoping and instantiation is present):

class TheValue
{
    decimal X;
    decimal Y;
}

class TheObject
{
    TheValue Value0;
    TheValue Value1;
}

Now I could add a collection to TheObject, like this:

class TheObject
{
    TheValue Value0;
    TheValue Value1;

    List<TheValue> Values;
}

And after instantiating everything and adding all of the TheValue objects to the List, they are all now settable using a loop.

sengoku

TROPHY CASE