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12:00 AM
for better or worse:
3
Q: How do you get past level 72 of Bubble Bobble Neo

tzenesI've had a little trouble at the beginning of level 72 in Bubble Bobble Neo for XBLA. I can't seem to get out of the initial position I am in. I found a video of someone doing it on the original arcade game, but because of the way the Xbox interprets your movement, it seems impossible to orient...

 
I love giving good answers.
 
:)
 
wow, someone got that fast
 
power of community
 
btw, I'm not sure if this should be closed as off topic or not:
16
Q: Why was the gameplay of Super Mario Bros. 2 so different?

Kevin YIn Super Mario Bros. 2, the gameplay mechanics were vastly different from the other 2D side-scrolling Mario games. For example, jumping on enemies didn't kill them; instead, you picked them up. Is there any specific reason that Nintendo decided to take this route with the game, instead of stickin...

Its about the history of a series
 
12:13 AM
seems on topic to me.
doki-doki panic clone :D
 
Yeah
I asked this question back in 1993 to Nintendo Power
and I actually got an answer in the letters to the editor
 
Cool. :)
 
nice, still got that lying around somewhere? would be cool to have as an answer.
 
sadly no
my mother threw away all my nintendo power when she chucked the snes
I think that was 95 or 96
 
D:
 
12:15 AM
google search for Nintendo Power 1993 is "intresting"
 
In difference to my mother, I was being a prick, and corporal punishment wasn't really working anymore
Wow, ever since I got Amazon Prime I've bought so much more stuff
they are making their money off me
 
do you know which issue it was in 1993?
lol
 
ummm
 
oh man
 
12:22 AM
This file is in .CBR/.CBZ Format
You will need Comic Book Reader
installed on your computer to read this file.
D:
 
aww... CBreader -> geocities
geocities == R.I.P.
 
yeah I've had CBR for a long tgime
its basically a rar format
 
download -> PDF version
 
well fuck, maybe it was 94
 
you will find it ;)
it would be a pretty epic answer, referring to a letter you sent and got answered in NP 15 years ago.
 
12:28 AM
Yeah.
 
yes it would
 
If you find it, screen shot it and edit it into your answer. :)
 
would probaly upvoted pretty hard.
 
 
1 hour later…
1:31 AM
hi
Who's here?
:( I'm so lonely. Even the chat room won't talk to me.
 
1:51 AM
... zzz ...
 
2:50 AM
I'm here
was off doing stuff
now I'm back
 
3:12 AM
yay. is a person
 
hey Mech
how's life?
 
not bad
well
scratch that
itunes stole 500 from me
 
hahaha
 
and they refuse to give it back
 
mother fuckers
what douches
 
3:17 AM
so I'm broke
 
I'm sorry :(
 
meh
Im getting paid 2000 here in australia
 
a month?
 
no in total
 
ah
 
3:20 AM
but then I get 2200 month when I get back
 
that's not bad
 
no it isn't
I'm a studen
t
 
Secondary?
 
phd
 
nice
what in?
 
3:22 AM
computer science
 
Fun
What's your thesis on? or do you know yet?
 
no clue
wb u?
 
well I'm sure you'll figure it out
Mine was Adapting Personal Music for Interactive Design
which is another way of saying: Here is what my advisor told me to write
 
lol
gah back to work
Life is so frucking expensive
lol this is annoying
I'm sitting at 972 rep, just under the 1000 barrier :D
btw, where did you do your phd?
 
3:48 AM
University of Victoria
Masters though, never finished the phd
 
Which Victoria?
 
BC
Canada
 
cool
 
Huh, what exactly did you write about in your thesis @tzenes. That sounds interesting.
 
its really not
I basically took music and pumped it through wavelet analysis
then I used an autocorrilation function to extract bpm
then I used a keylogger to grab user key input
and I piped the music through a phasevocoder to adjust its beat rate to that of the user
 
3:58 AM
That sounds fun :D
Btw, what's this deal with rep on chat?
 
well STFT are awesome
and wavelets are always fun
the rest is just bullshit
 
haha
 
@Mechko its our meta.so rep
 
Well a lot of CS papers are bs
 
actually working out the hetrodyning for a phasevocoder is awesome
but its basically just trying to make up for the fact that an STFT isn't a Wavelet
 
4:00 AM
they seem really really simple but no one has done it yet because cs is still a pretty young field
 
I felt less like I was doing research and more like I was playing with legos
 
haha
 
not that I didn't do some other awesome research, just this got picked as my Thesis
 
haha
is it bad practice to seed answers? I've found a bunch of questions for which tentative answers can easily be pulled from google
 
I prefer not to
but that might be a personal preference
certainly there are people like McKay who do do it
 
4:32 AM
@T
...
@tzenes I think it might be a good idea to do it for 'old' questions that haven't received any answers yet, especially questions by people with low rep. Otherwise they might feel that they're being ignored
 
that's not a bad idea
 
Answer questions using Google is considered seeding the site? I'm guilty of doing that sometimes. D:
 
Actually, I just put the word seeding in there cos I've heard of seeding questions
I think it's most important to make sure questions get answers, even if they are answers like "We don't know, but we gamers would trust this resource that claims to have the answer". I promise that > 50% of the questions that are asked here are definitely lmgtfy material, but people ask them here anyway because they 1) want rep, 2) want to ask stuff here, 3) have the site constantly open and don't want to spend time googling if it's not necessary.
Ah. I have rep, now.
 
haha
 
I know I ask questions here and go on to start googling for them sometimes, just in case people really really like the question and hence give me like +135 rep like one of my cough list<x> questions did
 
4:42 AM
the rep is unimportant
its the question that matters
 
well actually, for me, rep is unimportant above 1000
Also, you don't get rep unless people find what you say to be contributing, so it doesn't really matter. :-p
 
if we want to attract the people with that "tribal knowledge" the people who know how you get the secret weapon on Gears of War 2, level 8. Then we need those questions
no, I mean the rep is meaningless if you gain it or not
your rep only has value to other people
it has no value to you
 
yeah I guess.
 
I know her one thing is magic
but I can't remember if her ult is
 
but it's also important that the people who ask the questions that attract 'tribal knowledge' don't get disheartened by not being answered. I think it's bad to have questions with 0 answers, especially during beta.
 
4:49 AM
I honestly haven't given it much thought
On the one hand, someone with specialized knowledge might be attracted to these questions not being answered (as they feel useful). On the other, they may feel that they'd be the only ones and not want to join
It could go either way, I have no evidence for one or the other
 
@Mechko I agree with what you say about questions with 0 answers; I'm currently going back and trying to answer some of them.
Is there a search term I can use to find only questions with 0 answers? (Unanswered page gives questions with no upvoted answers)
 
answer:0
or maybe answers
 
@Kevin. Yeah. I do that, and then just start looking for the 0 answers manually
 
answers:0 works.
 
answers:0
 
4:54 AM
OMG
 
answers:0 votes:0 is what I'm using . . . don't feel like looking at - vote questions right now. :)
 
P!=NP proof that looks genuine!
 
answers:0 votes:0 closed:0 . . . I'll be searching this for a while.
 
Oh, let's close some of the -vote questions
I guess they're all closed
alright, then I'm off to play Dynasty Warriors, if you have any questions that need help closing, let me know
 
Okay, bye.
 
5:24 AM
I edited the question above, is there another term that sounds better than "spam"?
Never mind, I just changed it to mass produce.
 
5:36 AM
CURSE YOU LU BU
Duplicate question, vote to close
12
Q: What's the best counter for Void Rays?

UltimateBrentAny time I let a Protoss player live to mid-game, I seem to be swarmed by Void Rays, and while I can sort of react, it's generally a 50/50 at that point. Let's say I scout a player with a single Void Ray and plans to build more. What should I do to counter them? As each race preferably, but I ge...

 
Ahh, didn't notice that question. Also voted.
 
it happens
 
Well, I'm going to go. G'night.
 
5:59 AM
night
 
6:09 AM
you still there tzenes?
HI PERSON!
 
Epaga
hi other person
 
sigh
I'm so procrastinating today
 
Epaga
where are you at?
 
Work
In Sydney Australia
 
Epaga
ah
 
6:21 AM
I just submitted my code to my supervisor and now I have to write up documentation and tutorials
 
Epaga
i'm in berlin and the day is just getting started
 
hehe
 
Epaga
so i have an excuse to procrastinate
 
Epaga
just a little bit
 
Epaga
;)
 
6:22 AM
that's one way to look at it. I have just the two pieces to write and then I'm done.
with this job
though I start grad school in 3 weeks
what do you do?
 
Epaga
software dev
 
Epaga
small company
 
Cool. What kinda software?
 
Epaga
reporting
 
Epaga
6:25 AM
this is kinda cool
 
Epaga
i bet half the people will be on SO-chat just to see if Jon Skeet is on.
 
Epaga
:D
 
hehe. It's like people going to church just in case god shows up :D
 
Epaga
well gotta run. beat the inner lazy man and get to work. :)
 
Epaga
lol ^^
 
6:26 AM
good luck with that :D
 
Epaga
see ya
 
7:03 AM
@tzenes people actually do use a lower interp setting as a cheat, which allows you to kill someone right after they pass a corner
 
that's true
well, actually not the way your video showed
since the server makes the calculation not the client
setting a low interpolation coeffecient will allow you to see them pass before they pass
this decreases the delay in your reaction
 
so setting interp higher is the way to 'cheat'?
 
possibly
it has to do with relative interpolation
between the two clients
if two clients use identical interpolation values, then they'll both believe their in the same position
however, if you have different values, then one will believe he is somewhere the other does not
 
aha!
 
you run into relativity very quickly
 
7:06 AM
that makes sense
 
because you can't change where the server thinks the player is
 
but the server will always think the hitboxes are in the same place
 
right
 
so we could use interp settings to travel in time and create an object of infinite mass and watch the world collapse under gravity
 
can't cheat where you are, just perception
 
7:07 AM
SWEET
 
no, and shut up
 
:(
 
it's really only perception, it has nothing to do with where the player actually is
the server keeps track of that, no client can change that
 
Mechko is your MW2 question pc or 360?
 
oh sorry PC
Editing
 
7:08 AM
I didn't know you could host on PC
I thought that was a big criticism
 
you can't voluntarily
a host is picked randomly
 
not randomly. They do some calculation so that the best host is chosen, but 'best host' is very subjective imho
 
they try to find the one with the lowest latency in regards to the other players, but it's mostly random
since a room is usually within 100 ms of each other anyway
 
This is the reading equivilent of watching paint dry
 
but to be honest I'm not sure if anyone other than IW can answer that question
 
7:11 AM
ugh, today has been a bad day for me
 
I can tell.
 
I went up another 300 rep on Raven. God damnit raven, write more answers
there is no reason I should be highest rep on this site
I'm not that good
 
tell me about it
 
we need the Jon Skeet of gaming already
I mean seriously
 
Well, you answered some very popular questions... like the SCII ones
 
7:13 AM
yeah, but I haven't asked any good questiosn
that's the key to a good site: good questions, not good answers
the value of an upvote on questions should increase proportional to the number of votes
 
Yeah, well 4 questions, and 59 answers... as opposed to me with 35 questions and 37 answers, not that my questions are good. The top two got closed :-p
 
that's because they're lists and lists are evil
and because we don't reward upvotes on questions well
it should be 5 for the first 5 and then 10 after that
so that +5 would be worth 25, but +6 would be worth 35
 
or we could give +200 rep bonuses or whatever for badge-worthy questions
anyways. I should have left work 20 minutes ago
tc all
 
later
Speaking of Im' going to bed
night
 
 
4 hours later…
11:44 AM
9
Q: Looking for an MMO which won't empty my wallet and suck out my life.

MechkoI'm looking for an MMO that is relatively cheap or has a single one-time fee/micro transactions which also doesn't run the risk of sucking up my life. To make the question less subjective, I am an addictive person, so if there is any potential to become obsessed with the game, you can be guarant...

Needs to go away (sorry Mechko)
 
12:44 PM
2
Q: What's the biggest ZZT map?

sblomI have incredibly fond memories of ZZT from Epic Megagames. One of the neatest things for me was discovering some of the mind-blowingly cool third party maps that fans created. What's the biggest map available?

oh wait... the last guy was here an hour ago... :-p
 
What about it Mechko?
he's still here actually
 
Ah
This question. I believe it's badly phrased, but the underlying question is perfectly legit
would you concur?
 
I read the core question as "What's the biggest map you've seen?" which is awfully subjective
but I admit to being of the "When in doubt, close it" philosophy
 
I read the core question as being "What is the biggest map"
which is very objective
I'm of the "When in doubt, wait to see what happens" philosophy :-p
 
Is that answerable though? Maybe what is the largest map size possible?
 
12:49 PM
Not what is the largest map size possible. What is the largest map made. Even if the best answer is wrong, there will be one superlatively most correct answer at any given time
 
Downvoter
one better question to ask is "what is the value of the question?"
 
there could be infinite maps using the largest map size.
 
Downvoter
The original question was different, and now I feel it was edited just for teh sake of making it objective, but I don't see any value to it
 
No, there will be a finite number, in which case the question has multiple right answers, just like any "how can I fix bug X" questions
 
If it's always going to be changing I don't see the value
 
12:50 PM
@JuanManuel "Change from "best" to "biggest" to make it objective." definitely edited just to make it objective
 
I doubt it's always going to be changing
 
If I create another map using the largest map size tomorrow, there is another map to add... so it is infinite
 
that depends, mechko
if I play the smallest map
then I play a slightly bigger map
that changes my answer
the question is What’s the biggest ZZT map you’ve ever played?
 
Oh no! I mean the question is subjective as is: it needs to be "What is the biggest map", scratching the You've ever seen part
 
Even so, someone could come along and make a bigger map, the same discussion as with the best-selling game
 
12:53 PM
even "what is the biggest map" has infinite answers
 
good comparison Arda Xi
 
What about SCII? It's a pretty new game. I promise strategies are going to change, but I still don't think the annoyingly large number of SCII questions should be closed because the information hasn't been finalized...
11
Q: Protoss: Upgrade shields or armor?

Lotus NotesWhen playing as Protoss, would you recommend upgrading shields or armor first? I know the attack upgrades are more valuable, but the mechanics of the defense ones are a bit vague. Does the armor upgrade have any effect at all if the units shield is still up?

Totally subjective by the general guidelines I've seen questions closed on. As new strategies develop, the answer is going to change and as people learn more about the mechanics, but I think it's still a valid question
 
vald question, as it is basically maths.
"Does the armor upgrade have any effect at all if the units shield is still up?" is perfect.
 
When playing as Protoss, would you recommend upgrading shields or armor first? is totally subjective
 
Downvoter
Answers can include pros and cons on both options
 
Downvoter
1:00 PM
think about the answers rather than the question
 
that is the introduction, and together with the rest of the quesion, acceptable, however standalone, you're right.
 
it's never a good idea to just tell a person what to do strategy-wise, just give the pros cons and a general advice
 
on?
 
voting for/against the pending synonyms
 
1:16 PM
Do we have tracking statistics for traffic and stuff?
Like can we see how many unique hits we get and how many people come back and what the frequency of user activity is and so on?
 
@Jeff probaly has, but afaik, no public stats beside those already displayed on the page -- 1,407 questions - 3,265 answers - 95% answered - 2,504 users - 4,504 views/day -- currently.
 
1:36 PM
Sigh. Another one of my questions heads towards +10 and is gonna be closed as soon as the next 500+ comes online :(
 
1:55 PM
did we just get the 'view total up and down vote counts' thing like in the last 10 minutes?
 
it has a reputation requirement
you broke the 1k rep barrier today.
 
but the rep requirement is 750 which I broke the other day...
 
but you never clicked the count i assume.
 
+1 you're absolutely right. I just noticed :-p
ok off to play mw2 until 1 am. <chat injection attack>Hello World</chat injection attack>
 

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