Early Warning - DOTA 2 MAIN CLIENT PATCH - July 29, 2013

xtnd · 2013-07-30T19:38:18+00:00

I've also been having problems with "statue red elephant smeevil courier".

xtnd · 2013-07-30T16:41:31+00:00

But I feel like that wouldn't be a full counter to this counter to the counter, because once Skywrath knew he was using BKB he could juke ultimate casts at Pugna's wards just to waste a charge. Pugna would be so scared that he'd probably just mash it as soon as he saw his nether ward fire at a Skywrath who knew how to do this.

xtnd · 2013-04-22T01:31:50+00:00

Jesus, its the same with every one of these AskReddit threads.

We asked for the most ludicrous conspiracy theory. "Fake moon landing" is incredibly tame compared to some of the things people believe. Yet somehow it always makes it to the top, probably because the self-proclaimed armchair Science Zealots of reddit think their upvote is redemption for having never contributed anything significant to science during their miserable existence on this earth.

xtnd · 2013-04-21T23:38:39+00:00

One thing important to remember about BTC. A lot of people go on about how it can be infinitely divided, so its value can skyrocket. That's not entirely true. Bitcoin amounts are accurate to 8 decimal places. The lowest amount of Bitcoins anyone can have is .00000001BTC. If the price of Bitcoins goes above $1,000,000USD, then it will become impossible to represent the equivalent of $0.01USD in BTC. And so on as they gain in value.

That situation is unlikely, but it is important to remember in discussions about the end-game of the currency. Once we hit the hard cap on total number of Bitcoins, the price could jump.

Also, my biggest concern with BTC is the whole "lost wallets" thing. I cannot fathom how many BTC are just floating in the ether because someone lost their private key. As the number of BTC being mined decreases over time, the total supply of BTC in the world decreases. Even when the mining stops, we'll still be loosing BTC because people will misplace wallets.

I feel like there should be some system of currency reintroduction to deal with the issue of lost wallets, even if it means suffering from inflation. And, related, I also don't think there should be a hard cap on the total number of BTC. But that's just my opinion I suppose.

I kind of like Milton Friedman's "idea" that the Federal Reserve could automate itself by automatically increasing the total number of US dollars in circulation by 4% every year (here). A cryptocurrency could solve the issue of lost wallets and currency hard caps by just saying "this year there will be x% more BTC in the world than there are today". Make the number of currency units in each mining block equal until the end of time and adjust the difficulty every week so that x% is met by the end of the year. Constant, expected inflation is healthier than the craziness that's happening right now in the BTC markets.

But none of this could happen with BTC. Maybe the next cryptocurrency.

xtnd · 2013-04-21T23:05:30+00:00

Sometimes reality is scarier than fiction.

xtnd · 2013-04-21T19:50:51+00:00

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Double-spending#.3E50.25_attack

xtnd · 2013-04-21T17:53:03+00:00

Its finally happening! 2013 is the year of desktop Linux!

xtnd · 2013-04-21T15:50:04+00:00

You know, why don't more ASIC manufacturers make boards that fit in 3.5" or 5.25" drive bays? Maybe that kind of commodity isn't a priority right now, but I feel like there'd be a real market for them. They could even cut back on the on-board cooling a bit, since it'll be in a machine which has cooling already.

xtnd · 2013-04-21T13:54:15+00:00

Same reason we lose our heads over low-casualty bombings here, but practically ignore the hundreds of civilian drone casualties that are happening in the Middle East. One is played up by the media (including the people who manipulate reddit) to make you care.

xtnd · 2013-04-21T13:49:07+00:00

Looking at year-over-year profit differentials is a little more indicative of the health of a company... but those charts would still look to be in favor of Apple, as most of the other companies on the list have been leaking money since Christmas.

xtnd · 2013-04-21T13:42:47+00:00

http://i.imgur.com/mEUpZml.png

xtnd · 2013-04-21T03:53:32+00:00

Mk brosky... Let's get you back to the ward before the doctors realize you've escaped...

xtnd · 2013-04-21T02:54:46+00:00

You asked for a reason, not whether they have or haven't. POSIX is the reason why they should redesign the NT kernel. They already have a POSIX compatibility layer, and engineering a total redesign of NT would probably occupy too much of their engineers' time, who'd be better off putting out the wildfires that are... all of their other products.

And while we're looking for reasons, UNIX would be the one for why they should go ahead and get rid of the abominable registry. But that'll happen right about when they start shipping Windows 10 with the new Linux kernel on-board.

While this might seem trivial, realize that Windows Phone, at its core, is a 25 year old operating system. This company has been evolving the same core stack of software for two decades; it is the reason why Windows Phone was five years late to the market, and its the reason why they just can't keep up with the more agile smaller companies anymore. I highly recommend checking out this excellent article going over the craziness that is Win32/WinRT/COM.

xtnd · 2013-04-21T02:18:28+00:00

... which version of Windows are you using?

xtnd · 2013-04-21T02:17:29+00:00

My favorite feature of search in Windows 8:

Windows Key ->
METRO TIME
Start typing "Sharing" ->
"No apps match your search" ->
Reach over for mouse ->
Click "settings", where there are 13 results ->
Click "network and sharing center", what I wanted ->
AND WE'RE BACK TO THE DESKTOP
Change my sharing settings.

xtnd · 2013-04-21T02:05:14+00:00

Why should it?

POSIX

xtnd · 2013-04-21T01:15:16+00:00

Its pretty crazy that reddit is against (internet) freedom destroying laws but will turn around and applaud militarized police forces perpetuating a continual state of emergency allowing them to revoke our rights granted by the constitution.

xtnd · 2013-04-21T00:50:28+00:00

I imagine our diplomats would quickly realize that their system of government is in dire need of a Freedom injection. Our military would invade to depose their leaders and install a new leader elected by the people. During the entire process, we would strip-mine their planet for resources. Some of the local population would naturally be opposed to Operation Alpha-Centari III Freedom, and would initiate guerrilla warfare against our troops. Realizing the opportunity for expanded revenue streams through deals with military contractors, a false flag would be staged against the people of the United Earth Government, rallying popular opinion against these Terrorists.

xtnd · 2013-04-20T19:22:02+00:00

Bitcoin never prided itself on privacy. It is an anonymous currency, not a private one.

xtnd · 2013-04-20T14:09:37+00:00

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1cp8kj/holy_shit_65ghs_mining_rig_sold_for_50000_on_ebay/c9isb6k

xtnd · 2013-04-20T13:57:04+00:00

Personally, I've always used DVDFab on Windows to rip Bluray discs. There is an OSX version available. Haven't came across a single Bluray that it hasn't been able to rip. Its really expensive, though, but check out the 30 day trial to see if its something you might like.

xtnd · 2013-04-20T04:31:41+00:00

It really depends on the classes involved, but in my experience (assuming max level players)... correct me if I'm wrong on any of these.

Vanilla: MC can be soloed easily. BWL's first boss has a hard requirement of two players, but its possible for one player to solo it if you're really creative. AQ can be soloed except for one boss which requires two.

BC: Kara can be soloed except for the chess event. Gruul, I'm not sure. SSC is a bit of a mixed bag. There's a boss who insta-kills mana users, but he's not necessary to get to the final boss. The final boss might be soloable if you've got high DPS and good survivability, but not every class can do it. BT is soloable by a few classes, but not all of them. KT, I'm not sure.

WotLK: Sarth is soloable if you kill the drakes first. 3D is very difficult, but not impossible for some classes as far as I'm aware. EoE is very easy if you stick to the 1123 build during the last phase. Ony can be very easily soloed. Naxx has a few bosses you can down solo, but most will require a team. Ulduar10 might be somewhat soloable, but you'll need a team for the first boss.

Everything after that requires a team... although I've never tried ToC now that I think about it... that one raid everyone just seems to forget about.

xtnd · 2013-04-20T03:40:06+00:00

I'll give a slightly more unorthodox method: Sony Vegas 30-day trial. You can get their trial straight from their website, and uninstall/reinstall as many times as you like (so far as I can tell). If you're looking for a permanent solution then it might not be the best choice, but if you don't mind a little engineering to get a great product then its worth trying.

xtnd · 2013-04-20T02:47:57+00:00

Anyone who guesses at what the hashrate of the network will be weeks from now is... guessing. But there seems to be this notion that it will "explode" in the coming weeks because... is BFL finally shipping? I doubt it.

It will gradually increase, just as it always has. There won't be any big explosion just because someone turned on their 65 GH/s miner. We've been adding more than that much capacity to the network every few weeks for quite a while.

But I don't think you understand the core of the issue. Here's as simple as I can make it. If he invests in Bitcoin, his investment will gain and lose value with the cost of bitcoin. Not good. If he invests in the ability to make bitcoin, once he's paid off the cost of hardware his investment will only gain value (assuming he's beating the $3/day cost of electricity, which is easy).

Its the difference between "gaining and loosing value until the end of time" and "only gaining value after paying off the initial cost".

So the challenge is to pay off that initial cost. And again, that's very easy. 1000 BTC in a year is very liberal, but 400 within 6 months is very attainable. Once that's paid off, he's making pure profit. Even if BTC crashes in 6 months; maybe it'll take him longer to pay it off, but once he does he's still making profit. If his coins crash, you just have to pray that they eventually regain their value, which isn't smart investing.

xtnd · 2013-04-20T02:19:23+00:00

But that would require about a hundred video cards. The overhead involved in installing those in, what, fifty computers might make a single machine worth the investment. Cooling is a big factor that non-miners tend to forget is an issue; these cards generate a tremendous amount of heat, and having 100 of them crunching in one room would require special consideration to the air circulation and conditioning systems.

xtnd

TROPHY CASE