mrobataille

stop comparing yourself to other people

As a point of reference, the story of North Korean prisoner Shin Dong-hyuk (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lr6Rw0ltFxc) is the single most broken, fucked up, yet amazing thing I have ever heard. Not trying to belittle hosiptal bill fuckery - I just love sharing this story.

Summary: Born in a concentration camp as punishment for family members defecting ("three generations punishment"). Turns in his mother and brother for trying to escape. Witnesses their execution. At age 23, inspired by the idea of being able to eat chicken and pork, he escapes. Manages to reach China with no prior knowledge of the outside world.

Got all 35 - I did brute forcing with a few rules:

1) Don't worry about the colors at all, because you can usually shuffle them around to get the right order.

2) If there's a particularly cute combo, it's probably part of the solution.

3) Work out the most likely last few moves, going backwards from a winning position.

Don't forget the qualifier - "the company will take all profits from the game until the cost of hiring artists for the graphics is payed off".

So, what do they offer?

- Tutorials/community? Ubiquitous and free anyway, no value added.

- Analytics? Useless to everyone not doing highly targeted design (read: social games)

- Art? Well, as per the above, the devs pay for it anyway.

- Fit and finish? Now this is actually worth something. But all game devs should develop this skill anyway, and if you're a teenager learning game development, that's a good time to learn.

- Networking libraries? Could be useful.

The overall package might be worth something, but probably not worth having another finger in the revenue/IP pie. I say IP because, what happens if you publish game XYZ with them, independently iterate on the concept, and self-publish XYZ 2? Better to just own your work outright.

I wonder what your friends would think about you if there were a website exposing inconsistencies between your public and private persona.

Here's a possible solution that doesn't exclude round robin games:

1. Play round robin as usual, but use the results of this to uniquely seed the teams (tiebreak any way you want)

2. In the elimination stage, for every round, assign the highest seed to play lowest seed, 2nd highest vs 2nd lowest, etc.

Open question: can anyone think of a way to game this system?

Wow, nailed it. I totally missed the Washington Post incentive angle.

$1.49 might be a play to attract developers whose revenue is tied to the lowest app store price point.

It's much harder to circumvent the $80, otherwise they would.

So, where's your rules list?

Shut up and deal with it?

I really wonder what this world would be like if everyone who had a career, family, or life to risk over being a whistleblower took the safe, sure path and shut up and dealt with it.

Ah, yes, that's brilliant. I never thought of that one. Continue dealing with a company that will not pay as promised for your previous work.

Can you give an example where this course of action has ever worked out well for the designer?

This is the natural result of a commoditized profession. Talented people will not be rewarded to the extent they deserve, and will leave.

I agree with you completely.

That's my favorite xkcd - so simple, and true.

Ironic side note - I tried to use it as my ESPN.com forum account avatar, and was denied.

Set up a recursion: 1000x - .001 (repeating) = x

The .001 repeating = 1/999, simplify, voila.

Remember the people who thought music piracy was over after Napster got shut down?

Once the masses get used to a certain convenience, and that convenience is taken away, someone will inevitably spring up to provide it again.

So it really doesn't matter what direction ABP takes - just the fact that it set a precedent for an ad-free experience is enough to ensure someone will provide it in the future.

This.

When I went shopping for gifts, it was remarkable how much the Lego section had changed from a decade ago. It was mostly filled with Star Wars sets, which were expensive (relatively) and against the spirit of universality and creativity.

I got lucky and found a pink brick box hidden on the bottom shelf. I bought it.