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Comment And the other stats? (Score 1) 57

by NeuroBoy (#48255459) Attached to: Taking the Census, With Cellphones

As one of the co-authors on this paper I appreciate that you actually took the time to understand that we aren't trying to actually represent this as equivalent to a census. But rather we can estimate population density at spatial scales and across shorter temporal scales than one would normally be able to measure.

This represents a significant step forward as input data into a variety of disease transmission, demographic, transportation and other research areas and we are very excited about it. For more information check out our other research efforts: http://www.worldpop.org.uk/

Comment Programming Course Topic (Score 4, Interesting) 167

by NeuroBoy (#46670765) Attached to: A Rock Paper Scissors Brainteaser

I've been having students in my introductory programming courses work on this class of problem for a few years.. They all seem to really enjoy it. I code up bots to play RPS with certain biases just like the OP and they have to program a single player that identifies the bias in an opponent and adjusts its play to give it an advantage. They all routinely can generate solutions that perform far better than random against predictable, dumb bots, but things get very interesting when I throw the students' bots against each other in a throwdown tournament. :)
First Person Shooters (Games)

Gamer Plays Doom For the First Time 362

Posted by Soulskill from the new-is-relative dept.
sfraggle writes "Kotaku has an interesting review of Doom (the original!) by Stephen Totilo, a gamer and FPS player who, until a few days ago, had gone through the game's 17-year history without playing it. He describes some of his first impressions, the surprises that he encountered, and how the game compares to modern FPSes. Quoting: 'Virtual shotgun armed, I was finally going to play Doom for real. A second later, I understood the allure the video game weapon has had. In Doom the shotgun feels mighty, at least partially I believe because they make first-timers like me wait for it. The creators make us sweat until we have it in hand. But once we have the shotgun, its big shots and its slow, fetishized reload are the floored-accelerator-pedal stuff of macho fantasy. The shotgun is, in all senses, instant puberty, which is to say, delicately, that to obtain it is to have the assumed added potency that a boy believes a man possesses vis a vis a world on which he'd like to have some impact. The shotgun is the punch in the face the once-scrawny boy on the beach gives the bully when he returns a muscled linebacker.'"
Image

California Legislature Declares "Cuss-Free" Week 262

Posted by samzenpus from the f#*k-those-f@^king-f%&kers dept.
shewfig writes "The California legislature, which previously tried to ban incandescent light bulbs, just added to the list of banned things ... swear words! Fortunately, the measure only applies for the first week of March, and compliance is voluntary — although, apparently, there will be a 'swear jar' in the Assembly and the Governor's mansion. No word yet on whether the Governator intends to comply."

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"Probably the best operating system in the world is the [operating system] made for the PDP-11 by Bell Laboratories." - Ted Nelson, October 1977

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