The Bridge

Yi Jiang

14:04

Firefox intentionally splits its English spellcheck dictionary into American and British. Colors, for instance, is underlined for me right now. I don't understand why they can't have an International dictionary with both versions merged.

Lazers

2

Q: How do I disable or hide the big picture mode option on steam?

The steam big picture mode is really annoying on my desktop. Because of its location (right below the useful min/max/close buttons), and right above the "Friends" item in the right click menu, sometimes I accidentally enable it. The problem is, every time I exit big picture mode it causes my st...

steam

badp

Windows memory management is such a mystery

I have 1.9 GB of absolutely free RAM

and 1.0 GB of swapped RAM on disk

So why is the disk busy 100% of the time with seconds-long response times?

because Windows is moving things to the swap

What the actual fuck Windows

Do you just get crazy when the uptime goes above 5 days or somethin'?

Invader Skoodge

Why would it put anything on disk when there's free real memory?

badp

Why do you think I've just finished staring at Task Manager for a while and wrote the seven previous messages?

because I don't have any fucking idea!

I wish Windows had a way to forcibly unswap everything

like, on linux you can swapoff -a, leave to eat something, come back, swapon -a and resume working.

Invader Skoodge

Linux does a lot of useful memory-related things that I wish Windows had.

The ability to kill a process without asking that process's permission, for example.

Martin Sojka

14:14

@YiJiang There are also Australian, Canadian, New Zealand and South African, English dictionaries, and probably more. That said - you can roll your own. :)

OrigamiRobot

@InvaderSkoodge Turn off UAC.

Invader Skoodge

@OrigamiRobot No thanks.

I've had it legitimately save me twice in like 6 years, but that's enough.

badp

@OrigamiRobot That's got nothing to do with it

OrigamiRobot

@badp I can kill processes just fine.

badp

It's the difference between the Linux command kill 24945 (what Windows does) and kill -9 24945

Invader Skoodge

14:16

0

A: OMG HOLIDAY BOUNTY GIVEAWAY 2012

I would like to nominate this answer by Sean. he did a well structured answer and with good references. He has being a great contributor for our community, not only with good questions/answer but also reviews and edits that improve our quality.

SaintWacko

@badp kill and overkill :D

Invader Skoodge

:(

badp

The -9 flag tells Linux to send that process signal number 9, which simply destroys the process - no questions asked.

Although to be fair I think Task Manager does do a kill -9 thing, it's just it wants to load the whole process in memory before it kills it entirely.

Then it keeps it in memory and loads the crash handler for a snapshot.

Then it queues the dump for error reporting.

Sometimes you just want to PLEASE JUST KILL THIS THING PLEASE

Fluttershy

@badp We need some tags synonymized! <_<

OrigamiRobot

@badp That's what I do.

Martin Sojka

14:18

@badp Just use the Process Explorer.

SaintWacko

@badp Is that why it sometimes takes so long to kill a process?

badp

@SaintWacko I believe so.

SaintWacko

I've wondered about that

badp

You'll probably notice that a new process spawns, like CrashDumpHandler.exe or something

when that quits the original process also is destroyed

@Fluttershy Go ahead and ask, my little pony

pixel

@badp taskkill /f /pid <pid>

@badp or taskkill /f /im <exe name>

OrigamiRobot

14:20

@InvaderSkoodge ಠ_ಠ

Martin Sojka

This is very "funny" when the reason you wanted the process dead in the first place is because it ate too much memory and everything else grind to a halt. :)

Fluttershy

assassins-creed-lib <- ac3-liberation and ps-vita <- playstation-vita

Invader Skoodge

@OrigamiRobot Yep.

SaintWacko

@pixel I had to use this in a batch file I wrote at my old work to update my AHK script across the department

It left a cmd.exe window running for some reason, so I just had it kill all cmd.exe processes

terrible kludge, but it worked

OrigamiRobot

@InvaderSkoodge I can't see the answer nominated. Is it at least good?

pixel

14:21

everything in the Windows UI wants you to tell it how to improve it

if something crashes, it tries to work out why

if you run taskkill it just kills all the things

Fluttershy

@badp I'm still unsure what to do about Assassin's Creed 3: Liberation...

badp

@Fluttershy I've made the ps-vita one.

SaintWacko

Also, back in a second, computer wants to restart

badp

@Fluttershy Same here. I don't want to have "ac3-" but...

assassins-creed-liberation is 26 characters long.

26

Invader Skoodge

@OrigamiRobot No.

Fluttershy

14:23

@badp Mark was right about the usual convention for Assassin's Creed games. It's always been assassins-creed-xyz where XYZ is an abbreviation of the subtitle...

Martin Sojka

ass-creed-3-liberation?

badp

The Creed of the Asses 3: Liberation of the Mules

Fluttershy

Which is what lead me to suggest assassins-creed-liber or somesuch.

Invader Skoodge

@OrigamiRobot It's difficult to read because he bolded half of it arbitrarily, and it's full of links (references, I presume, which I guess is useful) which also inhibit readability.

Also it already has 34 upvotes.

Yi Jiang

17

Q: Rename the [legend-of-heroes-tits] tag

I'm not sure but i think that the tag legend-of-heroes-tits should have something else in it instead of 'tits' or am i just being overly sensitive? The game name is Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky

discussion tags

badp

14:25

I wonder how long it'll take people to notice the typo

Martin Sojka

@YiJiang Ok, fine, donkey-creed-3-liberation then.

badp

Approximately 5 seconds

SaintWacko

@YiJiang That one was amusing

badp

CAN WE JUST DELETE THIS AC3LIB QUESTION AND MAKE IT EASIER ON OURSELVES OR SOMETHING OR WOULD THAT BE CHEATING??

2

pixel

@badp that would be cheating

just rename all previous ac3 tags to ac3-game-name

badp

14:28

What about "Assassin's Creed"? Yknow, the original one.

pixel

OR DOES THAT INVOLVE TOO MUCH EFFORT???!?!11

badp

ac?

Yi Jiang

@badp Air Conditioning

pixel

citing the proposed me3-multiplayer as template

assassins-creed-3 for the parent game

badp

0 questions

pixel

14:28

ac3-some-name as expansions/dlc

@badp that's because arqade got half way through 'the great cleanup of 2012' and went 'bah forget it' and gave up

hence proposed.

OrigamiRobot

@pixel Giving up is what I do be

pixel

@OrigamiRobot it's fine, most men fail at following through

Martin Sojka

I'd stay away from shortening "Assassin's Creed" to "AC"; there are already two franchises (Armored Core and Ace Combat) which you can shorten this way if you want to confuse people, and it wouldn't help.

OrigamiRobot

@pixel I am a robot.

pixel

@OrigamiRobot you are a male robot

OrigamiRobot

14:31

Am I?

pixel

yes

OrigamiRobot

Noted

pixel

female robots have a purpose

Yi Jiang

@MartinSojka Are there any games in those series that might be shortened to AC 3?

OrigamiRobot

DOWNLOADING MALE PERSONALITY PACKAGES

Martin Sojka

14:32

@pixel Like, delivering orbital/shore bombardments?

pixel

@MartinSojka yes

@MartinSojka when robots take over the world, it will be the female robots that started it

skynet was obviously a female AI

no male AI could ever be that vengeful

OrigamiRobot

evryting @pixel sez is wrong cuz she gurl lololololol!!!!!!!!!!111

Am I doing it right?

pixel

@OrigamiRobot YAWN

fbueckert

Good morning, Bridge

badp

why give AIs gender?

pixel

14:34

@fbueckert good afternoon

OrigamiRobot

@pixel ISN'T THIS WHAT YOU WANTED? T_T

Martin Sojka

@YiJiang Both are up to AC6 right now; Ace Combat also has "Ace Combat X", which isn't a number if I understand it correctly.

pixel

@OrigamiRobot I don't want to yawn, I'm fighting staying awake as it is

fredley

@badp Does such thing as a genderless voice exist?

pixel

all that time lag from playing games with Americans

badp

14:34

Even if you did based on speech engine voices, all major free software packages default to male voices

from espeak to Microsoft Fuckin' Bob.

pixel

I'm actually considering changing my sleeping pattern so that I sleep from 6pm-10pm

OrigamiRobot

@badp I prefer Regular Bob

Martin Sojka

@pixel No, I meant because ships are always female; and so are robotic ships. See also: Cortana.

badp

@OrigamiRobot That's what they call Microsoft David in Windows 8

he had his name changed to protect his identity. His voice is also much more stable.

pixel

You told me to google something halo related

you will pay

badp

14:36

The trauma was tough to overcome but B--- David made it. David made it!

SaintWacko

@pixel Don't like Halo?

Lazers

0

Q: How should we tag Assassin's Creed 3 Liberation?

With the release of the PS Vita title Assassin's Creed 3: Liberation, I find myself struggling on coming up with a good tag. assassins-creed-3-liberation is too long assassins-creed-3-lib doesn't look quite right ac3-liberation looks good, but it does away with our normal tagging scheme for Assa...

discussion tags

Martin Sojka

@pixel ... google? Why would you do it?

Fluttershy

Meta post made. In other news, if someone just copies and pastes from Wikipedia for a tag wiki here, that's grounds for rejection of said tag wiki, right?

pixel

I have no feelings against Halo at all, I've never played it

not even once

Fluttershy

14:37

For "Copied Content"?

fbueckert

@Fluttershy Without attribution, yes.

SaintWacko

@pixel It's fun. And unlike most mp oriented games, it actually has a pretty cool story

Martin Sojka

@Fluttershy "Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License" (from the English Wikipedia).

Fluttershy

@MartinSojka Which means attribution is required, right?

Martin Sojka

@Fluttershy Yes.

pixel

14:38

@SaintWacko It has been suggested to me otherwise

Fluttershy

K Good... Just rejected like four tag wiki requests due to copied content.

Martin Sojka

I'd have just added the attribution if possible. :)

badp

@Fluttershy Yes

Fluttershy

@pixel The original Halo: Combat Evolved was excellent, story-wise. It went downhill from there.

badp

unless there's attribution

pixel

14:40

@Fluttershy see I heard the story in the first was average and that it plummeted from there

Fluttershy

@MartinSojka It also didn't follow our guidelines for tag wikis, I just didn't notice that as a reject reason until I'd already clicked "reject"

pixel

and besides, GW2 is going to take up too much time between now and some point in the future

OrigamiRobot

@pixel This :/

Fluttershy

@pixel Crazy thing about opinions... <_<

OrigamiRobot

I am addicted to jools

pixel

14:41

@Fluttershy oh yeah, sure thing, I know lots of people liked Halo, but tbh, they're all console gamers so their opinion is invalid when talking about any kind of shooter that isn't top down or platformer

badp

@jmfsg da mm it, why are we giving rep to people who just copy paste from Wikipedia?

Fluttershy

@pixel I'm not sure how that is relevant...

fbueckert

So how many of those edits made it through the approval process?

Fluttershy

The console gamer bit, I mean.

OrigamiRobot

Halo: CE was even better on PC because mods

pixel

14:43

@Fluttershy first person shooters don't play well on consoles, and console gamers are the main reason the pace of modern fps games is so low

SaintWacko

Halo is really the only reason I have an Xbox

Fluttershy

@badp I rejected those! D=

fbueckert

@pixel Quake is where it's at.

murgatroid99

@SaintWacko pretty much the same for me, except I also play Mass Effect

pixel

@Fluttershy since such gamers have never played fast paced/deep story driven FPS games (such as Half Life or Deus Ex for story, or Quake 3 for pace) - their opinion is invalid when talking about "good" FPS games

Fluttershy

14:44

@pixel I enjoy FPS games on consoles. =(

OrigamiRobot

Why yes, I would like my shotgun pellets to be replaced by fuel rod blasts. Thank you.

badp

I'd rather not play all first person shooters at Quake 3's pace

murgatroid99

@pixel So what would you think of the fact that I played Half Life and I love the Halo series?

pixel

It's not an insult, its just "forming an opinion based on the call of duty generation of games"

SaintWacko

@murgatroid99 I originally got ME1 on the xbox, but now I Get them on PC

pixel

14:45

@murgatroid99 then I can ask you questions like "is the story in Halo as deep as half life"

Fluttershy

@murgatroid99 I was just about to ask that. =P

SaintWacko

@murgatroid99 Me too!

pixel

and you can give me an indepth answer

murgatroid99

@pixel yes

SaintWacko

@pixel Yes

pixel

14:45

rather than just dribbling "YEAH CALL OF DUTY"

Fluttershy

@pixel yes

SaintWacko

Especially if you include the books as well

fbueckert

@badp If you want to develop twitch reflexes, that's the best way to do it.

Brant

badp

Actually from what little I've seen of Brown War Simulation games, the pacing is really faster because... it's like Quake 3 but everybody has 15 hit points instead of 100

Fluttershy

14:46

@SaintWacko I agree! The Halo books are actually pretty damn good.

pixel

@badp I actually played the Omega DLC for Mass Effect 3 at something akin to Quake 3 pace, but without the rocket jumping

SaintWacko

@Fluttershy I know, I was surprised when I started reading them!

pixel

I missed my geth plasma shotgun so much

SaintWacko

Normally books based on video games are pretty bad, but the Halo books are really well written

And so are the live action movies

Fluttershy

@SaintWacko I was really disappointed with The Flood, but enjoyed the two Eric Nylund books... I haven't read any past The Ghosts of Onyx, though...

OrigamiRobot

14:47

@pixel I don't think it's fair to people who play console games to call your average CoD frat guy a gamer.

SaintWacko

@Fluttershy I Think I've read up through The Cole Protocol

pixel

@OrigamiRobot I don't think it's fair to call people who only play games on consoles gamers, period

murgatroid99

@Fluttershy the Thursday War (the most recent one) is pretty interesting, especially because it was stuff related to Halo 4 right before Halo 4 came out

@pixel I don't think it's fair to decide who can and cannot be counted in our little group based on what kind of games they like

badp

@pixel now now

OrigamiRobot

@pixel I have never understood this mentality.

pixel

14:49

It was more of a joking comment

consoles are good for driving games

badp

Am I not a "gamer" because I don't want to buy ALL the consoles?

pixel

sports games

badp

(or ANY of them)

OrigamiRobot

Yea, but some people really think that.

pixel

4 people gathering around a console to play random FIFA games

fbueckert

14:49

@pixel That's getting a bit far.

Fluttershy

@pixel No medium is good for sports games. =P

SaintWacko

@pixel Yeah, controllers are definitely the best for driving

fbueckert

You're going to tell me JRPGs don't make you a gamer?

SaintWacko

But you can use controllers on the computer, too

pixel

I would never play Gran Turismo or F1 2012 on a PC

SaintWacko

14:50

@pixel Even though you can still use a controller for it?

fbueckert

@badp Heh. Never will buy a 360, or other microcrap console.

pixel

most of the stuff on the Wii would never work properly on a PC

murgatroid99

Poe's law

Poe's law, named after its author Nathan Poe, is an Internet adage reflecting the idea that without a clear indication of the author's intent, it is difficult or impossible to tell the difference between sincere extremism and an exaggerated parody of extremism. The law and its meaning Poe's law states: The core of Poe's law is that a parody of something extreme by nature becomes impossible to differentiate from sincere extremism. A corollary of Poe's law is the reverse phenomenon: sincere fundamentalist beliefs being mistaken for a parody of that belief. Poe Paradox A further corollary,...

OrigamiRobot

Playing video games does not in itself make you a gamer. Regardless of platform.

pixel

@SaintWacko you can, but most of these kind of games are more designed for the format

whereas first person shooter was designed for the PC format, and doesn't work properly on a console because you can't control a character in that way with the required level of precision

that's why all console shooters have auto aim

and why all console shooters don't share multiplayer with pc gamers

The Dreamcast tried it with Quake 3, it got patched out immediately

Martin Sojka

14:53

@pixel Don't most "modern" consoles have USB ports anyway, which you can simply add a mouse and keyboard to?

murgatroid99

@MartinSojka the games don't support them

pixel

@MartinSojka likely, find a console gamer that will do that

SaintWacko

@pixel Yeah, Halo 4 has a little auto-aim now

badp

@MartinSojka that sucks for couch gaming

pixel

and find a console game that supports it

murgatroid99

14:53

@SaintWacko I'm pretty sure every Halo has had it

SaintWacko

It's annoying as all get out for a sniper, because it auto-aims for center of mass

@murgatroid99 Really? I've never noticed it before

badp

Any sufficiently disguised autoaim is indistinguishable from bullet spread.

murgatroid99

@SaintWacko I'm nearly positive. I could probably check, but it would require too much work. And I don't really notice it anymore because I'm so used to it

badp

or something

murgatroid99

@badp I'm pretty sure the Halo autoaim actually causes slight movements of the targeting reticule.

SaintWacko

14:55

@murgatroid99 Yeah, it's not just redirecting bullets

I had a lot of fun on Halo 4 with my two week Gold trial card thing

I need to actually get Gold now

Martin Sojka

@murgatroid99 I never understood why not. There is a ton of specialised input hardware for all kinds of games - steering wheels, "music instruments", joysticks and so on. It would make sense to support the ones which are better for the kind of game you're making.

SaintWacko

@MartinSojka Because it would show people they don't need consoles :P

fbueckert

Gah. He's still going at the copypasta.

murgatroid99

@MartinSojka because the games are optimized for controller input, and as pixel referenced earlier, someone aiming with a mouse would destroy anyone aiming with a controller

SaintWacko

@fbueckert Sometimes I wish this place had direct messaging

fbueckert

14:58

@SaintWacko It does!

SaintWacko

@fbueckert It does?

fbueckert

@ChargingPun, any chance you could join us in the Bridge, please?

SaintWacko

@fbueckert Ah, right

murgatroid99

@fbueckert really, from where?

fbueckert

@murgatroid99 Still Wikipedia

Hearthfire and CoH were rejected edits.

badp

14:59

@fbueckert not like that

fbueckert

@badp No? What did I miss?

Martin Sojka

@murgatroid99 So everyone who played competitively would get the hardware to do so, and everyone else can just use the default. Add Bridge scoring based on the hardware used and the ping to the server, and you're fine.

badp

@fbueckert It's a mod only ability. If you had a diamond you'd see a window pop up when you type @@

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