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Monthly Archives: January 2007

Don’t call U.S., they’ll call you.

So I was on my way to Downing Street to see the prime minister at his behest. [If you’re lost at this point, wandering like child who has slipped the hand of their guardian at the fair ground then you may find it helps to read the first half of this post: Two phone or not two phone, but then again it may not.]

I exited Westminster tube and walked towards Downing Street. I was curious about the possible reason for the call it really was unlike Tony to call on the weekend. I got to the gate and showed my pass to the guard. I used to be allowed to go in without one but with all of the extra security these days the guards don’t know who anyone is anymore.
Henry on the door was still there though. I wondered, at first to myself and then out loud to him if he could possibly work twenty four hours a day seven days a week.

“I’m off when he’s off, ” he shrugged, “I work when he works.”
“Tough gig,” I said.
“It’s the way it’s always been. I get time off when he’s traveling.”

He waved me in and I was in the hall. I waited for Jennifer or somebody to pick me up. I doesn’t do to wander around. The hall was as busy as ever. People in and out of rooms and noises. I’d always found that it was busier in the night or the weekend in the hall. Because in the week day every one is in meetings.

Jennifer poked her head round the door.

“Hello Alex, good to see you.”
“Is he ready for me or should I wait?”
“No, no he’s ready for you now.”

I walked through behind her, through her ante room and stopped behind her while she knocked on the door and heralded me. Tony called, “Yes” and I went in.

“Good morning Mr Blair”.
“Good morning Alex, it’s really good to see you. Sorry to disturb your weekend.”
“Come in sit down.”

I quickly took in the room which was as immaculate as always. I have always wondered if this was always the case. People trust the advice I give them but they don’t always trust me. I deal with many people who would love to get hold of a look at the current papers on Tony Blair’s desk. I however am not one of them. But do they know that? I’m not always sure.

I chose my usual chair and Tony sat back down behind his desk.

“Do you fancy a drink?”
“No I’m fine,” I answered, “But please go ahead, you look like you need one.”
“Thanks,” he said, “you always seem to look calm. How do you do it?”
“Well I’m an advisor, I don’t actually have any responsibility.”
“But… You… You are THE advisor. Everyone listens to you. What you say actually happens. You can even get cross party support for things.”
“It’s not my fault if people do what I say. It’s theirs. And I can get everything done. I can’t change everything can I?”
“You’re going to chide me about Iraq again aren’t you.”
“No. Well… I was just using it to make a point.”

Tony finally stood up and walked over to his drinks cabinet.

“It always happens though doesn’t it. Whenever I think I know better. Whenever I ignore your advice. You are always proved right in the most spectacular ways.”
“Proved right?”
“Don’t read anything into that Alex. I know you want to. But take it from me I still know George and I did the right thing even though it wasn’t the popular thing. You just knew before anyone else that it wasn’t going to be popular.”
“Were you ready for the hanging?” I asked, because I never really liked to talk about how other people thought I worked.

Tony didn’t respond. He took the question as a pause and opened the drinks cabinet. He had to have known I was going to ask about it, so the fake deliberation and thinking face were somewhat lost on me.

“Are you going to have a drink or not?” he asked this as he poured what could only be described as a giant scotch for himself.
“Go on then. I’ll have a Scottish single malt if you have one.”
“You know I had considered buying some just for you. But still I couldn’t bring myself to ask someone to change the order.”
“I’ll have an Irish then – of course.”

In his kitchen in Shoreditch it had always been Scottish, and just after he arrived in Downing Street it all changed. It was the first thing that hinted to the rift. Of course the rift was patched up so many years ago now you would think that he’d go back to the Scottish. But whether it was that he had simply become accustomed to the taste, or if it was all part of his implementation of my strategy – to allow the British public to feel they could vote for Gordon because if Tony hated him and preferred David then it would make people think Gordon must be doing something right – I don’t know. Maybe he was just keeping up the pretence everywhere, just in case.

“So?” I looked up quizzically, as if you say, “you summoned me”, and he got the idea without me actually having to say it.
“It’s this damn investigation. They seem to just keep getting closer and closer.”
“The honours probe?”
“Yes. I mean, everyone knows what happened, everyone understands it. Why can’t we all move on from this.”
“The problem is Tony this is the Police. They work differently than everyone else. You’ve spent your whole political career on the most important thing a politician can ever do, on creating the right impression and now unfortunately you’ve come up against a brick wall. A wall which is looming over you if you can endure the unusual metaphor. In a straight fight between you and any other politician I’ve ever met, I’ve never found somebody as adapt at turning a loosing hand into a winner by pure bluff. It’s the most important skill a politician can have if they want to stay elected. But Iraq and this are different. There are laws here. There are deaths here. The only difference that the anti-war protestors are all dancing around is the fact that you can do what you like when it comes to war, you have ultimate power in this country for war. They can’t really win. But with this honours business, it’s much harsher. The law is simple and unavoidable. You can’t simply deflect it.”
“But every party has always done it. They’ve all done it despite the law, why are they coming after me?”
“Because Tony, people simply don’t like you.”
“But why? I had to make tough choices and I did them for the good of Britain”
“No you didn’t not all of them”
“What are you saying? I knew people, British people, would die in Iraq. But no war is without casualties. And if you’re saying I didn’t know it was going to be unpopular then you’re forgetful. Of course I knew. You sat right there and told me.”
“But you went and did it anyway.”
“That’s right. I had to, it was the right thing to do even if the people didn’t see it.”
“It was the first time that you really showed that you truly were still old Labour.”

I paused to take a sip of the whisky. He didn’t start speaking.

“That ‘mother knows best’ attitude seemed so ill fitting on you that day. You this man who had come from nowhere on a wave of popular opinion. You took the old nanny state mentality and decided on war. It wasn’t your style. Because you know, or at least you used to know, that the popular voice was the thing that got you where you were. That the popular voice was what rules the country. In every previous tough choice situation you had gone out to court the public, to convince them to come along for the ride. And every time it had worked. Why did you do it if when they still said no you you were going to do it anyway?”
“I’ve asked myself this. I really have. I thought I heard yes. I knew it was weak. But I thought it had just tipped towards us. And I thought that every day we were at war the support would grow. Look what happened to Margaret. No one thought she’d do it but it saved her career.”
“But you forgot something.”
“You forgot to tell people what winning looked like. Margaret had a result that everyone could agree on.”
“I know. I know that now.”

He stood up and walked with his empty glass back over to the drinks cabinet. He looked back at me and eyed my near full glass with what looked almost, for a second, contempt. He put his glass down and walked back to his seat.

“But that wasn’t what I was saying,” I said, “I was going to talk about allying your self with Bush. That wasn’t for Britain. That was for you. Clinton was your president. Not Bush.”

Well I was going to say more today, but now I’ll have to wait until some more comes out about Lord Levy. Check back next week for more.

Where do you go to weigh a whale?

A whale weigh station.

Two phone or not two phone

I have two telephones for a variety of reasons. So when the other one rang on Saturday I knew it was important. Only a certain kind of person has that number and they are all under strict instructions not to phone me on the weekend unless it’s really important.

Truth be known I had felt bad having to reiterate the no weekend calling rules but Gordon is such a workaholic he often has no idea what time of the day or night it actually is let alone which day of the week. Add to that that David and he have only been given my number recently and then you’ve got trouble.

Tony was never as bad as these two even at the beginning. They both are desperate to win. My favorite caller is George W. He’s asked me for my number something like fifteen times and every time he thinks he looses it. The problem is he can’t ever remember my name. So the last time I met up with him I took his phone from him and put my number in for him. I made a little joke and said that he’d be able to find me now.

The truth was that I’d put my number in under the entry God. And so now from time to time I get agonized calls from him in the middle of the night. I tried to get some policy shifted initially but frankly he doesn’t remember half of anything I say and he of course isn’t really calling the shots. He’s started wetting the bed again so I try to be some comfort to him. It doesn’t do to kick a man when he’s down.

So who has access to my number? Most of the political leaders obviously. And some of the more likely candidates of the future. The Pope obviously, Bill Gates and Bono (if he leaves another musical voicemail that’s it I’m changing my number). The big corporate heads of course. And a few of the political operators but they know they aren’t supposed to call except in dire circumstances. Rove called during the Libby scandal which was fair enough. But lets just say that Mendelssohn is in Europe for a reason and that reason is waking me up at two in the morning to ask my opinion on a speech. “If the prime minister isn’t dead then you are”, I said to him.

But who was it on Saturday? Well blinking on the display was the word “Tone”. While I never permit myself to be that familiar with my subjects I couldn’t help but allow myself the little run every time I needed to “Ring Tone”. Terrible I know but it’s these small things that keep me amused while dealing with the demands of there incredibly powerful and insecure people.

I spoke briefly to Tony and it was obvious that I needed to go in. Sadly I cannot reveal my conversation with Tony until Wednesday (some things must remain secret even from you my dear readers), so I’m afraid you’ll have to tune back in then if you want to know more.

Bad Design

I went to the design museum yesterday with Katherine to see the Alan Fletcher exhibition (no not the chap that plays Karl Kennedy on Neighbours he’s here)

Afterwards we bought his book and then tried to slip into the design museums bag a Marks and Spencer bag of liquid gravy and a bar of chocolate and look what happened:

Now that’s what I call bad design!

A heavy duty plant vehicle which you’ve borrowed

This is part three of a short story. To get the story so far see part one (Left out in the cold and part two (Outside).

He walked towards the door. He had to see, it could have just blown shut he thought. He walked forwards and pulled the door. He thought he felt it move for just a second but then nothing. It was secured.

He turned away and looked across what he remembered had once been a rose garden but now was just a completely plain white vista that stretched on as far as he could see. The buildings behind him were the only identifiable thing he could see.

He knew exactly where he was and yet he was lost. He wanted to shed a tear but he knew it would instantly freeze and would cause him more troubles than it caused. Instead he gulped down on the air, and regretted it instantly as the freezing vapour entered deep within his lungs.

He looked longingly towards the old school. It looked abandoned rather than thriving with all of the windows boarded up like that. If only there was a way for them to see him he thought.

And then it hit him. In the dining hall there was a giant glass window that was left. Years ago they had seen wildlife despite the snow. Polar bears and rabbits and so on but now even they had migrated further south. The temperatures being too cold even for them. Right now he couldn’t help wondering why hadn’t he.

A stupid thought though. It was still too cold for him to survive down there. It just would have taken longer to die. He had to concentrate. No time for stupid thoughts like that. If he could get to that window he could make it.

He stumbled forward. He hadn’t quite realised how far away the dining hall was from the door but he supposed it was all a question of diameter versus circomfrence. It was very different to be walking inside a shape than all the way around it. He kept his mind active by trying to do the retevent maths in his head.

After twenty minutes he was cold and tired and not nearly far enough around. He was finding it more and more difficult to put one foot in front of the other. Soon enough he stopped. And after a second he fell to the floor.

As he lay there he remembered a common room meeting twenty years ago. There was a big debate and then it was decided that the lock should be removed from the door. There was no point because there were no burglars. But they had worried that somebody might accidentally get locked out. In fact he had recently thought about adding a lock to stop the students from getting out but hadn’t for just this very reason. Such a fool why hadn’t he remembered this before. His left cheek was starting to get wet from the snow he was lying on. So why couldn’t he open the door? They must have been on the other side holding it closed.

What was it? Richeous indignation? Or just having been a teacher this long? Whatever it was the rage that bubbled up inside him, and more than that the desire to tell the students off awoke in him an energy he didn’t know he had.

He leapt off of the ground, dusted himself off and started almost running towards what he now knew was an unlocked door.

He shall from time to time

The president has made a State of the Union address last night.

The thing that is strange about the State of the Union is that the president doesn’t actually have to say anything. It’s all just tradition rather than law. The law says that the president shall from time to time tell congress what’s going on. It doesn’t say how often or when. But tradition states that it will happen once a year. And because it’s basically a copy of the Queen’s Speech it has the same kinds of trappings, for example the President has to be invited to attend and cannot demand an audience. Although I don’t think he’s wearing ermine undies.

There are some strange traditions associated with the evening though. Because of the fact that they have so many of the political elite in the room they have their own political version of the designated driver, they have the designated survivor in case of a disaster. The weird thing is that because the oldest serving member of the Senate (Robert Byrd) doesn’t attend anymore because he is sold old the whole thing is somewhat irrelevant. He can’t be bothered to turn up to the speech because it’s too much effort at his age, but this means because of the political system in America that if a catastrophe occurs he will become the president. A pretty odd state of affairs – even though he’d probably resign immediately.

Anyway all of this talk of designated survivors makes me think of the State of the Union drinking game, hope you all played.

Here’s from me looking forward to
Barack Obama
‘s first State of the Union, now that will be a sight to see.

Two fish are in a tank

and one turns to the other and says, “do you know how to drive this thing”.

Train in Vain

I was sitting in a café in Clapham Junction train station on the first Monday of a month and was noticing the incredibly long queue of people trying to buy their monthly rail tickets. It was completely dire, people must have been waiting over half an hour to get their ticket. And yet nobody was coming to help them. I got up from my seat and went up to the counter to get another coffee, and as I stood there I became the fifth person in the queue for the coffee. Seeing me arrive in the queue the guy serving the first person left his customer for just a second and went into the back room to fetch somebody to come out and help. They started working and suddenly there wasn’t a queue any more and the second guy went back to his break.

That’s what real businesses must do; they must serve their customers because if they don’t then the customers will simply go somewhere else. The closest other coffee shop to this one is one minute walk away. That’s competition. If I didn’t want to wait for my coffee it would have taken less time for me to walk to the other shop than it would to stand in the queue. And that’s what’s not happening in the British railway system and that’s why the system doesn’t work. Despite all of the claims and counter claims there is no real competition in the railway system.

So how can we fix it? It’s simply unmanageable to have lots of competing train services operating on a commuter line, because people will always take the first train anyway. So how can we create competition in the system?

We already have a situation where the lines are run by a non-profit making firm National Rail. This system seems to work well because it provides a way for the government to centrally finance the investment in the system. The biggest problem is that the government seems to be nervous of admitting that these firms need to make profits to return to shareholders. If there are no profits then there will be no companies in the system.

Now you may prefer this method, a nationalised railway system back as it was. But I can remember commuting under British Rail and it was terrible. Trains were delayed all the time and nothing ever seemed to get done. It was like now but worse.

If we leave the system like it is now though firms are basically sinning whenever they make profits. That’s how people see it. How can they make money when the train system has got worse?

Well I have a solution which I think deals with this.

Each firm that runs a train company must set up a non-profit subsidiary which runs the train system. All ticket revenue and government subsidies sit within this subsidiary and all monies go to reinvestment in the train network – not branding, senior management or shareholders. Branding, senior management and the shareholders would sit in the holding company which can be profit or loss making.

Each year in January the government would award or fine the rail company’s profit making division based on the previous year’s performance. This would work by having, for example, five simple categories like: punctuality, reliability, accessibility, customer numbers and customer satisfaction. The last one would be the result of a survey which would take place throughout the year so the companies couldn’t just get better for a bit of the year.

We would then tot up the totals for the whole network. And come up with one single score for the year. Has train transport improved or worsened over the last year? Based on this number we would be able to determine the size of the winnings pot. This too would be very simple we would have different amounts in the pot set for -5% worse, no change, +5% better, +20% etc. Maybe 10 bands with 10 figures. There should be an amount in the pot even if the whole network got worse by more than -20% for reasons that will become obvious in a second.

Then we rank all of the train networks from top to bottom. Any who got worse in the year have a fixed penalty amount. Say for example we set -100% which you could never reach as a fine of £100 million. If you got 15% worse in the year you’d have to pay £15 million fine. The fines would help finance the pot that we’ve set up, and if they exceed the amount set in the pot then the excess money would be secured to help pay for future years when the services might improve.

Any companies that did improve would get a share of the pot calculated in order of performance. So the best company gets the most and the worst (of those who improved) gets the least.*

This is why even if the network did really badly there must be some money in the pot because it would be wrong to not be able to reward the one firm that was working well. But by tying them to the other firms nationally we do have less of a situation of tax payers paying for services they can’t use.

This method seems incredibly simple to me. I’ve explained it here in six paragraphs. But it could be explained even more simply, it is a plan to make train companies compete against each other for profits.

That’s it! And you know I think it might work.

* The way I imagine doing this is slightly complicated to explain but here goes: Take 100% and divide by the number of winners. Say 5 for this example, so 20%. Initially assign this 20% to each company. Then select the top company and give it 4% extra because it beat 4 other companies, this 4% gets taken from the 4 companies they beat 1% each. So each is on 19% temporarily. The second company now gets 3% extra because that’s how many it beat taking it to 22% and the 3% comes from the 3 companies below it (leaving them on 18% temporarily) and so on. This would end up with a distribution of 24%, 22%, 20%, 18% and 16%.


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Select any two CPUs for comparison

Gaming Performance Comparison

Recommended System Requirements
Game Celeron G465 1.9GHz Athlon 64 3200+
Cyberpunk 2077 654% 851%
Assassins Creed: Valhalla 914% 1180%
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War 630% 821%
Watch Dogs Legion 914% 1180%
FIFA 21 605% 789%
Microsoft Flight Simulator 754% 977%
Godfall 1355% 1736%
Grand Theft Auto VI 1138% 1463%
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands 1072% 1378%
Genshin Impact 471% 620%

In terms of overall gaming performance, the Intel Celeron G465 1.9GHz is very slightly better than the AMD Athlon 64 3200+ when it comes to running the latest games. This also means it will be less likely to bottleneck more powerful GPUs, allowing them to achieve more of their gaming performance potential.

The Celeron G465 1.9GHz was released over three years more recently than the Athlon 64 3200+, and so the Celeron G465 1.9GHz is likely to have far better levels of support, and will be much more optimized and ultimately superior to the Athlon 64 3200+ when running the latest games.

The Celeron G465 1.9GHz and the Athlon 64 3200+ both have 1 cores, and so are quite likely to struggle with the latest games, or at least bottleneck high-end graphics cards when running them. With a decent accompanying GPU, the Celeron G465 1.9GHz and the Athlon 64 3200+ may still be able to run slightly older games fairly effectively.

More important for gaming than the number of cores and threads is the clock rate. Problematically, unless the two CPUs are from the same family, this can only serve as a general guide and nothing like an exact comparison, because the clock cycles per instruction (CPI) will vary so much.

The Celeron G465 1.9GHz and Athlon 64 3200+ are not from the same family of CPUs, so their clock speeds are by no means directly comparable. Bear in mind, then, that while the Athlon 64 3200+ has a 0.1 GHz faster frequency, this is not always an indicator that it will be superior in performance, despite frequency being crucial when trying to avoid GPU bottlenecking. As such, we need to look elsewhere for more reliable comparisons.

Aside from the clock rate, the next-most important CPU features for PC game performance are L2 and L3 cache size. Faster than RAM, the more cache available, the more data that can be stored for lightning-fast retrieval. L1 Cache is not usually an issue anymore for gaming, with most high-end CPUs eking out about the same L1 performance, and L2 is more important than L3 - but L3 is still important if you want to reach the highest levels of performance. Bear in mind that although it is better to have a larger cache, the larger it is, the higher the latency, so a balance has to be struck.

The Athlon 64 3200+ has a 256 KB bigger L2 cache than the Celeron G465 1.9GHz, and although the Athlon 64 3200+ does not appear to have an L3 cache, its larger L2 cache means that it wins out in this area.

The maximum Thermal Design Power is the power in Watts that the CPU will consume in the worst case scenario. The lithography is the semiconductor manufacturing technology being used to create the CPU - the smaller this is, the more transistors that can be fit into the CPU, and the closer the connections. For both the lithography and the TDP, it is the lower the better, because a lower number means a lower amount of power is necessary to run the CPU, and consequently a lower amount of heat is produced.

The Celeron G465 1.9GHz has a 32 Watt lower Maximum TDP than the Athlon 64 3200+, and was created with a 58 nm smaller manufacturing technology. What this means is the Celeron G465 1.9GHz will consume significantly less power and consequently produce less heat, enabling more prolonged computational tasks with fewer adverse effects. This will lower your yearly electricity bill significantly, as well as prevent you from having to invest in extra cooling mechanisms (unless you overclock).

CPU Core Details

CPU CodenameSandy BridgeVenice
MoBo SocketLGA 1155/Socket H2Socket 939
Notebook CPUnono
Release Date02 Sep 201219 Oct 2004
CPU LinkGD LinkGD Link

CPU Technical Specifications

CPU Cores1vs1
CPU Threads-vs1
Clock Speed1.9 GHzvs2 GHz
Turbo Frequency-vs-
Max TDP35 Wvs67 W
Lithography32 nmvs90 nm
Bit Width-vs64 Bit
Max Temperature-vs65°C
Virtualization Technologynovsno

CPU Cache and Memory

L1 Cache Size64 KBvs128 KB
L2 Cache Size256 KBvs512 KB
L2 Cache Speed-vs-
L3 Cache Size1.5 MBvs-
Memory Channels-vs2
ECC Memory Supportnovsno

CPU Graphics

Base GPU Frequency-vs-
Max GPU Frequency-vs-
Displays Supported-vs-

CPU Package and Version Specifications

Package Size-vs-
PCIe Revision-vs-
PCIe Configurations-vs-

Gaming Performance Value

Performance Value

CPU Mini Review

Mini ReviewSandy Bridge is the codename for a microarchitecture developed by Intel beginning in 2005 for central processing units in computers to replace the Nehalem microarchitecture. Intel demonstrated a Sandy Bridge processor in 2009, and released first products based on the architecture in January 2011 under the Core brand.Athlon 64 3200+ is an entry-level Processor based on the 90nm K8 micro-architecture.

It offers 1 Physical Core (1 Logical), clocked at 2.0GHz and 0.5MB of L2 Cache.
No relevant technologies are activated in a way the processor doesn't even support Virtualization.

The processor DOES NOT integrate any graphics. and has a rated board TDP of 67W.

Its performance is quite poor considering today's standards. Therefore, its sufficient for office tasks only.

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Kids Memory Game: Halloween

Play Now!
Kids Memory Game: Halloween
Game loading..
Kids Memory Game: Halloween

This is a memory game with Halloween theme in which you have to match the cards with the same pictures. The used pictures are cartoon images of Halloween related characters and objects which can make the game more interesting for children. This game has nine difficulties which you can choose from in the start screen and it can be very good for improving the kids’ memory.

Similar Games


text:
As racers have evolved from clunky, sprite-based classics such as Pole Position and Rad Racer, two consistent trends have emerged: one spectrum of racers leans toward exaggerated physics, stunts, and intuitive playability; and the other towards realism, precise physics, and challenging game mechanics. Though both styles of play strive to immerse the player in the nerve-wracking uncertainty of racing, the latter category (a.k.a. "simulators") is distinct in that it attempts to mimic the calculated experience of real-life racing. It is that latter category into which the Gran Turismo series of games fall. Gran Turismo 3: A-spec (GT3) is arguably the epitome of racing simulators. In it, vehicles can be customized and upgraded; cars mimic the physics of their real-life counterparts (if the term physics is too abstract, perhaps a more suitable term would be feel); and graphics and sound are as lifelike as current technology will allow. Why, you can even take your car for a wash and an oil change!

While many of these features have emerged over the past decade in other racing simulators (including, of course, the previous Gran Turismo games), never have they been realized so meticulously or with such accord in a single game. GT3 is not a unique game, nor a particularly original one; as sequels are wont to be, it remains fundamentally unchanged from its predecessors. It is, however, a remarkably refined game, one that successfully attempts to realize the precise, mathematical nature of real-life racing.

True racing skills are not intuitive, but take years of dedication and hard work to achieve. In GT3, players can get an idea just how complex and challenging racing really is. Every car responds differently based on their unique specifications, and there are enough tracks of varying design to allow players to experiment with the strengths and weaknesses of the vehicles. Consequently, racing can be a thumb-taxing challenge. Understeer just a little too much or brake just a little too late, and you could lose seconds off your lap time. The cars may not be precisely representative of their real-life performance, but they need not be. They must only be convincing; convincing enough to provide the sort of suspenseful escapism to which all of the best racers aspire.

Aside from the racing itself, a plethora of races and options await in GT3. There are over two-dozen tracks; over 150 cars (incidentally, far less than in the previous Gran Tursimo game) ranging from bargain-bin economy cars to rare, exotic supercars; an arcade mode; and—buckle up—an 80-race simulation mode. Car settings can be altered to your desire via the options menu and, in the simulation mode, upgraded by purchasing an impressive variety of parts. This is definitely not a game you'll cruise through over the weekend. It's a tremendously long, involved game—and that's the beauty of it. GT3 simply offers more to do than any racing game before it. This depth of options and features, combined with the game's responsive physics and well-designed tracks, makes for unprecedented depth of play.

Suffice to say that this is a game that aspires to be thorough, challenging, involved, and impressively realistic. It was because of this otherwise obsessive attention to detail that I found the game's mundane artificial intelligence (AI) to be a rather egregious blunder. In last year's phenomenal simulator, F355 Challenge, opposing cars would tailgate you, deliberately ram you, make mistakes, even run each other off the track. In GT3, none of this technology is implemented. Instead, opposing cars simply drive along a predictable path, remaining relatively unaffected by your actions. In the face of the game's phenomenal, life-like graphics (complete with real-time lighting and reflective surfaces) and its detailed physics model, it seems ironic that the game is populated with lifeless, mechanical AI. Why would the developers go to such great length to create realistic visuals and physics but be content with thoroughly unrealistic artificial intelligence? It only sours an otherwise engaging experience.

Despite the weakness in the AI, I have ultimately found GT3 to be an enjoyable, challenging game. The Simulation mode, which is the meat and potatoes of the game, is exceptionally deep. At the start, you are given 18,000 dollars (or "credits"), which allows you to buy some lower-end cars (Gran Turismo 2 veterans beware: there are no longer used cars in the game). There are some interesting cars here, such as the PT Cruiser and Mazda Miada, but mostly this is the part of the game that is least compelling. After all, what fun is it to play a racing game just to drive cars you may own in real life? Most players will want to sail past the beginning ranks and start driving more exotic cars, but getting to those nice rides is no walk in the park. You are given such a small amount of money to start and such a negligable amount of prize money for winning races that repeating races is necessary to buy the nicer cars. It's not a glaring fault, but frequently repeating the same races, especially the slower beginner's races, can get a little boring. It's a slightly contrived way to slow the progression of the game, but not dramatically so. The GT3 simulation mode isnt flawless, but it's the best of its kind. So many races and options are at your disposal that it could literally take months to finish the game in its entirety.

The arcade mode is a different story altogether. No "credits," no saving up, or suping-up. You are simply given a list of cars, tracks, and a choice of difficulty. At the onset of the game, you are given six tracks from which to choose. Upon completing the first group, you unlock the second, and so on until all the tracks in the game are unlocked. It's not a new concept, but it's done very well in GT3. There are, of course, tons of options and, though you will only be able to access a fraction of the cars available in the game, there is an impressive list of cars at your disposal.

The Rally mode, intertwined with the simulation and arcade modes, is the finest I've played since 1995's Sega Rally Championship. I would go so far as to say that GT3's Rally mode surpasses that modern classic with its realistic physics and well-crafted tracks. The margin of error is significantly greater than on the street tracks, so I found myself feeling a bit more relaxed. Doing powersildes and making impressive jumps at high speed made me feel like I was playing an arcade-style racer, not a simulator. Incidentally, it's interesting to note that there are actually more tracks and far more options in the GT3 Rally mode than in the aforementioned Sega Rally Championship in its entirety. It just goes to show how comprehensive and detailed GT3 really is.

So it is at this point that I cant help but wonder, "what next?" Aside from improving the AI, how could the Gran Turismo series—or any racing simulator for that matter—evolve? As I said earlier, GT3 preserves the Gran Turismo formula fundamentally unchanged, refining rather than creating. In doing so, it has become the most in-depth and complete racer ever. What more could a racing simulator possibly offer? Better graphics? Better physics? More upgrades? More exotic cars? At some point, refinement becomes self-defeating as gamers grow tired of overused concepts. Unfortunately, GT3 simply does not offer anything new or unique. Where will the creative minds of developers take simulators in the future? Despite its strengths, GT3 leaves that question unanswered. Rating: 9 out of 10

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Gloomhaven Perks, Math, and You

This is my first post in what will be a continuing series on math in games – board games, video games, tabletop games… mind games?

I’m very excited about a board game called Gloomhaven. It’s awesome! Buy it. Play it with friends. Seriously.

Gloomhaven! (Isaac Childres)

While Gloomhaven is about your unique story, as your group makes choices and encounters foes of all sorts, the combat (which I also love) that drives the game is based on math. So, we can analyze character options and tricky decisions with numbers! Yay, numbers! I’m a physics person, but I can love math too.

The first major decision you might make is when you either

  • level up, or
  • gain three precious checkmarks

Which perk do I choose?

Ah, so many options! These perks impact your attack modifier deck, which you draw from for each attack. Do you reduce the number of possible bad outcomes? Add one great outcome? What about rolling modifiers?

Cragheart character sheet with perk options in top right (image credit Isaac Childres)

If you suffer from “analysis paralysis” on regular turns, then this may be a nightmare. Luckily, a little number-crunching can go a long way here.

Math time

Let’s assume you start with the standard deck of of 20 cards (because the rules say you do), which looks like this:

Then it’s simple (maybe) to determine the odds of each result and the average damage of your “Attack 3” action.

Here’s the distribution of the standard attack modifier deck:

chart (1)

This shows that your “Attack 3” action has a 7.14% chance of missing, the same chance of getting “x2” and doing 6 damage, but is usually (76.19%) going to fall within the 2-4 damage range.

Whoa, wait. There are 20 cards, and one of those is a miss card. Why isn’t the miss chance 1/20 = 5%… ??? Good question, thoughtful reader! I will leave the mystery of this to be explained in my next post. 🙂

How perks change your damage distribution

Now that we know our initial damage “profile”, we should investigate which perk gives the largest bump up from that starting point.

First, we’ll agree to ignore a few things beyond the scope of our study:

  • Elemental infusions
  • Status effects (e.g. Immobilize, Muddle)
  • Forced movement (e.g. Push)
  • Multiple targets (for now – may look at this in another post)

These can all improve your damage, experience, or survivability. However, it’s hard to quantify and compare these benefits. We will only look at cards that directly and immediately impact the damage of an attack.

Remove four “+0” cardschart (2)

You can see above that removing a bunch of “+0” cards does what you expect. It doesn’t change the average, but it now becomes way less likely that you will simply do your standard damage.

People may choose this if they simply like variance and find “+0” cards boring. Or, later in the game, you may choose this perk to increase the odds of landing those other awesome cards you have been adding.

Replace a “-1” card with a “+1” cardchart (3)

Here’s a more significant change. The previous distributions all centered around 3 damage, but this one increases your average damage, as expected. The new average damage is 3.095. It basically does what you think it would.

Add a “-2” card and two “+2” cardschart (5).png

This also does what you think it would, but what is interesting is that the average damage is 3.083, slightly (very slightly) less than the previous perk. Of course, this deck would have better odds to punch through heavy shielding.

Remove negative item effects

To evaluate this perk, let’s assume you are wearing a fairly standard armor available at the beginning of the game that could add two “-1” cards to your deck. . How much would that hurt you compared to the standard deck?chart (6).png

The average damage in this case is 2.913, so on average you’re losing about 0.087 to gain that armor. Taking this perk would return you to the standard with average damage of 3.

Actually, two other perks would get you the same average damage if you are wearing this armor, so you just have to decide which distribution you like better. Here they are:

chart (7).png

chart (9).png

Same average damage, but still pretty different decks!

This is just one example of how decks should not be compared by simple averages. After all, a deck of all “+0” cards has the same average damage as one an equal number of only “+2” and “-2” cards, but they would play very differently!

Which perk you should choose will depend on which enemies you expect to fight, what goals you have in your attacks, etc. However, some simple math can give you an insight into which deck might suit your play-style best.

This post is just a summary of simple stuff that shouldn’t be too surprising, but may be a good reference. Remember that the results could change if your attack value is less than 3, or if you are engaging shielded enemies, or have advantage… yeah, lots of stuff can change. Hopefully this is a good basic starting point.

Next post I’ll dive into more interesting math, how reshuffling on Miss and x2 cards can impact decks, and discuss the interaction of advantage with our decks in Gloomhaven.

4 thoughts on “Gloomhaven Perks, Math, and You

  1. This is a wonderful analysis, I love that you’re working in terms of probability distributions instead of simple point values. I see this is part of a larger series that I’m delighted to dive into and I hope you share all the gritty details of how you calculated these. Thanks!

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bookmark_borderDragon Ball Z: Kakarot PC + DLC Crack Game Free Download

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is an action game that plays in PC. This game is straightforward to play Rumors and leaks include hint towards potential articles to the summer growing season pass, downloadable materials, and also the capacity to get Kakarot to develop into a series of game titles. However, out and hard to emphasize. Given this game’s achievement, it’d appear ineffective if it grew and didn’t evolve to savour.

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot PC + DLC Crack Game Free Download

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Dragon Ball Z Kakarot PC Download Review

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot requires us Into the planet made for the show. The protagonist with this release could be that the titular Kakarot, called Goku also even a representative of this Sayan race’s warrior Queen. Fans get the chance not to follow his destiny again but directing him throughout the main events known in the tv show, but in addition to master that about the hitherto not known issues out of his lifetime, and, for that reason to acquire replies to the very intriguing questions.

  • True-to-anime visual Style.
  • Replicates memorable plot traces.
  • Keeps the DBZ zone.

  • Battle and RPG elements.
  • Very few PC-specific settings.

At it is best it a flood of selection That contains more items than the full lineup of platformers of the N64. Food orbs, minerals, animals, and scooped up to the most part by merely flying head into them.The negative assignments in the world that are Great Outdoors provide substantially Significantly more compared to the planet does. With side missions which vary to recreations of show minutes, the earth becomes repopulated after every narrative conflict.

Topics like the source of Senzu Beans into Piccolo and Goku becoming their driver’s permit.These unwanted assignments provide a few of Kakarot’s Best minutes. The fan-service is astonishing. A number of the sidequests are very similar to one another concerning mechanics. However, the pieces of banter, narrative along with lore that calls straight back into the Dragon Ball, are fantastic.

Highspeed Quality

In Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, you can have Through this arc, for example, the sub-stories, in roughly half an hour. The entire year spent training has upward, giving you snippets of the trained of Goku along with Gohan’s transformation at the number of monsters. Kakarot, like a match, knows what you are here for–larger-than-life struggles that are planet-destroying. It gives loads of the while incorporating RPG elements to supply you with an awareness of growth and progress.

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot PC + DLC Crack Gama Free Download

Dragon Ball Z Kakarot System Requirements

  •  Os: Windows 7(64 Bit )
  •  RAM: Want 4 GB RAM
  •  Graphics Card: GeForce GTX 750 Ti
  •  Hard Drive Drive Space: 3-6 GB
  •  Processor: Intel Core I-5

What Is Crack

But, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot still lands a sharp punch Being a Fantastic way to recite the Crux of the Dragon Ball Z world’s narrative. This match is magnificent, reliable, and loyal. Should they tried, Bandai Namco and cyberConnect2 couldn’t reveal. It’s clear from playing with everyone with this particular project.

There is a fabulous and indisputable feeling of Love for your foundation material. The type that you’d need to fight to withstand. I found myself becoming excited about all the ideal places and yelling; I have shouted. The overall game is infectious.

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot PC functionality

You can not correctly alter the settlement You compel the match. As it had been full-screen or borderless, I fell it into 640 x 480, and also the agreement stayed at 1440. I awakened with all the settings, the video game periodically locked in a high-resolution resolution, and maybe perhaps not the actual decision I put it I would need to allow it to be windowed after which borderless windowed to repair it.

There is an intriguing feature in the configurations Which enables you to modify one of Xbox, play station, and Keyboard icon input signals. There’s zero control. You can remap inputs for your keyboard and mouse, but that is about this.

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot PC + DLC Crack Gama Free Download

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  •  4 DLCs comprised and triggered
  • 100 percent Lossless & MD5 Perfect: all files are equal to originals after setup (just when installed using the two Voice-over packs)
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  • Selective Download attribute: you will bypass downloading and installing of English or Japanese Voiceovers
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  • · Setup takes: 25 minutes 8-threads CPU; 50 minutes 4-thread’s CPU

As shortly as the universe of Kakarot opens, you receive Then. To only just an imaginary conflict with Piccolo, it transforms into Gohan and Goku walking to grab a few dinners. I presumed to drift around at the forests was a bit weird in the beginning; however, also the minute the match instructed me to show Gohan to fish using a tail. Bulma made me I knew I’d like this particular adventure.

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A podcast that mines folklore for material for tabletop roleplaying games, particularly Ars Magica 5th edition.

Creature statistics and transcripts are available from the blog which accompanies the podcast.

Dec 18, 2019

A legend of the Isles of Scilly, with a violent miracle by Saint Nicholas.


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Xbox 720 features leaked

Xbox 720 features leaked by  5722 views
The set of mysterious pictures with Xbox 720 logo and encrypted information about the new console appeared in the Network.

Five slides with different colors besides the standard Xbox mark and #xbox2013 hashtag contain strange combination of characters that proved to be a code. Fortunately, there were people, who managed to break the cipher and open information from Microsoft.

• green slide - Storm clouds;
• slide red - More than it is now;
• blue slide - Advanced calculation;
• yellow slide - Petaflops > teraflops.

Most likely, the first image hints at cloud services, the second - at the wide spread of devices that will be associated with the console (phones, tablets, etc.), the third - at the improved hardware, and the fourth is likely to say that Microsoft will try to jump above their heads and outdo Sony this year.

Also it’s worth to pay attention to the icons, the closed sphere - is a constant Internet connection, equalizer and speaker - may be a hint at the own musical portal, camera and sensor means the new controller and improved Kinect, a group of people - is, as always, the ad that promote the console as the product "for the whole family." The meaning of silhouette and the mouse cursor is still unknown.  Maybe it means the console with the OS 8th? Or that each gamer  will receive a girl for Xbox 720 pre-order?

The official Xbox 720 announcement  will be held on May 21, 2013. And are you ready to be surprised or you already choose PS4?

Tags:  News


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Game Reviews / Games / Geek Corner / Reviews

Spinch – Review

Spinch – Review

Spinch is a vibrant, wacky, and challenging platformer that brings a fresh perspective to the genre through its presentation and gameplay elements. Underneath its rainbow facade hides a competent and satisfying experience that doesn’t overstay its welcome. That said, the latter half of the game will absolutely test your aptitude for running and jumping, so don’t let that cute exterior fool you.

Across six different worlds, titular protagonist Spinch must rescue its 12 children who are stranded in four different levels. Retrieving them is somewhat optional; you can find up to three in each level, and the more you have at the end of the world, the better prepared you will be to take on the fifth stage boss fight. There are also bonus stages you can unlock that give you the opportunity to earn bombs to use during the boss stage. Annoyingly, you can only attempt these once, whereas normal stages can be returned to as often as you like. The boss fights involve pressing a switch to load up a cannon with baby Spinches and bombs and then activating another switch to fire them at your target.

Spinch has the ability to run, jump, and dash, and mastering these three basic abilities is necessary to complete the game. The final three worlds offer a much greater challenge than the initial three, but checkpoints in each stage can help to ease the burden, even if they aren’t that frequent. The amazing thing is that almost every stage presents a new set of obstacles to overcome, with each world having its own theme such as ice to slide on or beakers and test tubes to float through. While you only begin with three hearts, you can add to that meter or refill it by picking up hearts you find in the level. The primary collectable comes in the form of white cubes, and upon collecting 50 of them, you gain temporary invincibility. I would have liked to see a more worthwhile reward or even the ability to store the invincibility for use during a particularly difficult section, but the cubes do offer something to draw your attention, nonetheless.

Without question, the most striking element of Spinch is its presentation. Every level is bursting with color and personality. Most of the time, you’ll be running from left to right toward the goal, but a handful of stages are more vertically oriented as you use wall jumping to avoid giant worms and blobs that morph into crocodile-like aliens. Intimidating threats are covered in rainbow-patterns, lending each moment a visual contrast that is both striking and menacing. There are moments where it can be difficult to tell what exactly is going to hurt you or whether an enemy will take away a single heart or knock you out in one hit, but for the most part the visual cacophony works very well. In terms of the music, Spinch’s soundtrack features compositions created using Game Boys, lending it a unique and eclectic sound that suits the game’s wackiness to a tee.

While it doesn’t really do anything earth-shattering in terms of platforming mechanics, Spinch is dripping with vibrancy and features a wide array of levels and obstacles to overcome. The last three worlds will offer seasoned players a significant challenge. As well, an in-game timer for each stage encourages repeated playthroughs, as does a list of over two dozen achievements. It is worth noting that some latency and framerate issues do crop up, in addition to a bug affecting the left stick in docked mode, but the developers have submitted a patch to Nintendo to address these concerns. Platformer fans should definitely keep Spinch on their radar, but even those less familiar with the genre will be eased in during the game’s more accessible first half. If you find yourself longing for that old kaleidoscope toy you enjoyed once upon a time, Spinch’s shotgun blast of color might help you fill that void.

Score – 8/10

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text: Some things seem like mere differences, but some things seem like pretty bad downgrades. The new lighting is pretty disappointing compared to the old one, and the textures in some areas somehow seem more boring.


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600 WGA East Members Sign Petition Calling On Committee For The Protection Of Journalists To Sign Union’s Contract

Staffers at the Committee to Protect Journalists who have been seeking the protection of a WGA East contract have received support from more than 600 of the guild’s members, including Adam McKay, Amy Schumer, and David Simon.

A petition signed by their guild supporters was delivered to CPJ management today in advance of tomorrow’s bargaining session with the guild, which notes that it’s been over a year since it held its first collective bargaining talks with the CPJ, which officially recognized the guild as the collective bargaining representative of its staffers back in July 2019. The CPJ is a nonprofit organization that promotes press freedom worldwide.

See the full petition and all of its signatories here.

“As members of the Writers Guild of America, East, we are proud to stand with our comrades on the staff of the Committee to Protect Journalists in their demand for a fair contract,” the petition states. “The WGA East and CPJ share an institutional commitment to advocating for the safety, security, and freedom of writers. We therefore urge CPJ management to reinforce that commitment by agreeing to a union contract which fosters a more diverse, equitable, and sustainable workplace through increased salary minimums and fair across-the-board pay increases; and demonstrates CPJ’s recognition of – and investment in – their staff’s work by codifying the organization’s health and retirement benefits in the contract. After a year of negotiations, it’s time for a contract at the Committee to Protect Journalists.”

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Posts Tagged ‘looking for ladybirds’

Is it me or are there suddenly a lot of Ladybirds, when I bring in the washing I unknowingly bring in with it a couple of these delightful insects, I also found a Ladybird larvae on the washing machine, they are grey and grub like and not very pretty to look at, they don’t resemble a Ladybird and if you didn’t know what they are you might be tempted to squash them.

Ladybird Larvae

Ladybird larvae

In Britain there are 46 species of Ladybirds, 19 species are dull in appearance and do not look at all like the familiar brightly coloured spotted ones that we all love, the 17 spotted varieties have different colour variations, orange with black spots, black with orange spots, white with black spots, yellow with black spots or brown with white spots and also different numbers of spots 2, 7, 11, 14, 18, 16, 22 and 24.

So why are there suddenly a lot of ladybirds?

They are this years newly hatched Ladybirds, during August they emerge from their pupae and then feed up on lots of aphids to build up their reserves to see them through the Winter months (October-February) when they go into a dormant state. In March-April they will emerge and search for food (aphids), the male and female then mate and the female will lay up to 40 eggs during June-July these are bright yellow and can often be found on the underside of leaves, they hatch within 4-10 days and over the following 3-6 weeks the larvae feed on aphids and grow fast shedding their skin 3 or 4 times before attaching to a stem/leaf and becoming a pupae, during the next two weeks the pupae changes dramatically and emerges as a Ladybird in August.

Ladybird Pupae

Ladybird Pupae

Ladybirds are great for the garden the Seven Spot Ladybird can eat 5,000 aphids in its year-long life span so as well as being beautiful they are a true gardener’s friend and worth looking after, unfortunately some native UK Ladybirds species are in decline. During September Ladybirds are feeding up and looking for a safe, dry place to spend the winter why not put some Ladybird and Insect Towers around your garden, each one has a hollow centre filled with straw which provides insulation and drilled holes to allow the Ladybirds access to the inner chamber, place them somewhere warm and sheltered either amongst the flowers, in a wooded area or even in a planter.

Wildlife World Ladybird and Insect Tower

Ladybird and Insect Tower

The collective name for a group of Ladybirds is a ‘loveliness’, I cannot think of anything more fitting.

Love your environment

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Last week I managed to get on my allotment, it was Mother’s Day to be precise, the weather was glorious and the birds were singing – it was perfect! My first job was to tidy up and weed the beds now that they have dried out sufficiently I was delighted to find lots and lots of Ladybirds which have successfully survived our mild winter this is great news but unfortunately our native Ladybirds are under threat from another Ladybird, it is called the Harlequin Ladybird (Harmonia axyridis) and is the most invasive Ladybird on earth, arriving in Britain in the Summer of 2004, it is originally from Asia and was introduced to North America in 1988 and then Europe as a biological pest control where it has now widespread.

Group of harlequin (succinea) ladybirds

Photograph from the UK Ladybird Survey website showing Harlequin Ladybirds

In Britain we have 46 species of Ladybirds although 19 of these are not recognisable as Ladybirds as they are not bright coloured or Spotty. The Harlequin Ladybird has over 100 different colour pattern variations making it very hard to identify, one of the easiest ways to recognize it is by its size it can measure 5-8mm in length which is larger than most of our native Ladybirds the best way to accurately identify it is to have a good Ladybird guide. The problem with the Harlequin Ladybirds is that instead of producing a single generation of young per year like our native species they can produce two or more, a single female can lay over a thousand eggs. Harlequin Ladybirds have a more varied diet and larger appetite and will eat the eggs and larvae of butterflies and moths, small insects and alarmingly other Ladybirds as well as their staple diet of aphids.

How can we help?

The spread of the Harlequin Ladybird in Britain is being closely monitored through the Harlequin Ladybird Survey www.harlequin-survey.org who would like Schools, Groups and members of the public to send in their sightings of Harlequin Ladybirds, this can be done through their website or by post, there is even an app available to download with a guide to help you to identify Ladybirds and then to report your sightings. If you find any type of Ladybird you can send in your sighting as above to the UK Ladybird Survey www.ladybird-survey.org who will use your information to help the conservation of all our British Ladybirds.

This Easter (and as often as you can) why not go on a Ladybird hunt in your garden, local park, on a walk or on holiday and send in your sightings to www.harlequin-survey.org or www.ladybird-survey.org, you could take a photograph of them or even draw a picture when you get home, everyone loves Ladybirds especially children.

Happy Hunting

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Healthcare you can live with

Scott Morris is a physician. And he is a minister. And he is a classic social entrepreneur, creating and sustaining a unique ministry for a quarter century, The Church Health Center. And he is a one great story teller.

All of these come together in his new book, “Healthcare You Can Live With.” The book is built around Scott’s rich reservoir of stories and the simple, but profound framework of Christian virtues and “model for healthy living.” The Church Health Center builds around the same two frameworks, so it is possible to read the book as a lens through which to focus on health ministry, and just as well, to focus on one’s own health.

The virtues come straight out of the third chapter of Colossians, which I think Scott understands better than Paul. At the very least, Paul would have been surprised to find how smart his simple list actually turned out to be once Scott built a large ministry on them. Clothing oneself with “compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience” is, well, healthy, especially when they are bound together in “perfect unity” in love. Forgiveness and release of grievances is the hub of them all, of course, which Scott unpacks in many richly persuasive narratives. Very healthy.

Scott lays out a nice “model for healthy living” designed to help people develop “smart goals” in the various aspects of health including medical, movement, work, emotional, family and friends, nutrition and faith life. The focus is on what one can do themselves, not on scolding or simply accepting somebody else’s prescription.

Policy makers will be disappointed with all the easy shots at government (You’d never guess Scott voted for a Democrat in his life by reading the book, but I have reason to believe that he has.) Academics would like more footnotes, of course. Some clergy might be hoping for someone to write them a prescription for a healthy congregation. Scott tells stories and, in effect, says to come and look at The Church Health Center. It is a very good idea to do just that (

In the meantime, read the book:

And choose life.

– Posted on the journey

About garygunderson

Vice President, Faith Health, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, NC. Author, Leading Causes of Life, Deeply Woven Roots, Boundary Leaders and Religion and the Heath of the Public. Secretary, Stakeholder Health (Health Systems Learning Group).
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Cleansing Beam
Community Rating:
Community Rating: 2.113 / 5  (31 votes)
Card Name:
Cleansing Beam
Mana Cost:
Converted Mana Cost:
Card Text:
Radiance — Cleansing Beam deals 2 damage to target creature and each other creature that shares a color with it.
Flavor Text:
"Justice is toothless without punishment. Righteousness cannot succeed without the suffering of the guilty."
—Razia, Boros archangel
All Sets:
Ravnica: City of Guilds (Uncommon)
Magic: The Gathering-Commander (Uncommon)
Commander Anthology (Uncommon)
Card Number:
10/1/2005 All creatures that share a color are affected, even your own.
10/1/2005 A creature “shares a color” with any creature that is at least one of its colors. For example, a green-white creature shares a color with creatures that are green, white, green-white, red-white, black-green, and so on.
10/1/2005 If it targets a colorless creature, it doesn’t affect any other creatures. A colorless creature shares a color with nothing, not even other colorless creatures.
10/1/2005 You check which creatures share a color with the target when the spell resolves.
10/1/2005 Only one creature is targeted. If that creature leaves the battlefield or otherwise becomes an illegal target, the entire spell doesn’t resolve. No other creatures are affected.


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Blog / Business / App Development

How Much Does it Cost to Develop a Social Media App?

  • Rating — 5 (3 votes)
  • by Ksenija Kolomiiets
  • Updated on November 02, 2020
  • Read —
    10-11 minutes

Most people in the modern world cannot imagine life without social networks. After spending time on social media platforms, people satisfy their needs for communication and entertainment. Social networks also help keep in touch with their general circle and stay updated on the latest events.

The world’s current situation can be called suitable for creating social media app because the majority remains in specific isolation due to the pandemic, and traditional personal communication is limited or simply impossible. Some sociologists argue that “the coronavirus has ruined personal communication forever.” Man is a social being and is drawn to communication. Thanks to social networks, we can feel involved in society. The amount of time spent on social networks has increased significantly, as has the number of messages exchanged by users.

Like Facebook or Instagram, social media is a new opportunity for entrepreneurs wondering how to build a social media app and how much it costs. Even without pandemics, social apps are a great business opportunity. You can’t do it without a phone these days. People are using tablets and smartphones more and more, and the volume of mobile traffic is increasing. The most used mobile devices are digital audio, social media, mobile video, games, and messaging.

What do people expect from social media apps?

As with building any application, we want to get the most out of building a social application. Before starting the development of such a digital solution, it is worth conducting research and determining what value it will bring to users in the first place.

Highlight the list of user tasks that the application can solve. Set goals as if you were a user and asked yourself why people would want to use my application. After all, people download apps because of their content, functionality, and ease of use.

Let’s take a look at what people want from a social network. First of all, people are looking for communication, want to share news. They are also interested in statism. There is also a category of users who use social applications as a tool to attract customers.

Social networks provide unlimited opportunities for creating an image that a person has chosen for himself. This is especially true for public figures and business owners. In short, the main functions of a social media application are as follows:

  • Communication.
  • Self-expression and self-realization.
  • The convenience of use.

The cost of developing a simple social media app

All social apps are different and have different goals, but they all share certain features and options. Let’s look at the cost using essential features that no social media app can do without. The price that we end up with is not an exact figure to focus on. Instead, it is the average value of the cost.

Any other specific feature you decide to add will lead to a further increase in the final cost. Still, most social media apps’ necessary infrastructure is similar and will, therefore, be appreciated.

Next, we’ll talk about the following main features and benefits of social media apps:

  • Account authorization
  • Create a profile
  • Message exchange
  • Upload photos and videos
  • Search function
  • Other settings
  • Adding tags (location, friends, etc.)
  • Basic UI / UX

By understanding the essential functions and their cost, you can build your budget.

Remember that for a social network to become a successful project. You must provide your audience with something unusually unique, which will awaken in them the desire to actively use your digital solution and share positive impressions from using it with friends and family.

Recent market research has shown that today a social application can be developed from 23 to 90 thousand dollars. Based on the cost of the projects we have created in this industry, this information is quite relevant.

To make it more transparent for you what the cost consists of and how long it takes to develop each application component, we have created the following list as a guide.

#1 User authorization

Account authorization is an essential foundation for user data and privacy, so consider it a must-have feature of any social application. You should not provide an opportunity to pass authorization in one way. This approach is not convenient and will only alienate the user. Do several ways to log in, for example, using mail, phone number, etc. It is also worth considering how the password reset and recovery, authentication, security measures, among other things, will be carried out.

Estimate: This piece will take about 115 hours to complete, resulting in an average cost of $ 2,900.

#2 Create a profile

The creation and design of a profile are the means through which the user expresses himself. For example, Bestyn apps, which we recently completed. The in-app profile assumes users will be able to enter their own:

  • Name
  • Profile picture
  • Mobile phone
  • The address
  • Email the address
  • Web site
  • Date of Birth
  • Interests, and so on.

Estimate: It usually takes app developers around 250 hours to do this. This adds up to $ 6,300.

#3 Messaging

Communication needs to be ensured on any social media platform, as this dramatically increases engagement. However, some social media apps have specific requirements for direct or personal messaging. Will you allow users to upload photos or videos along with posts? It would be best if you kept this in mind when planning this feature.

Estimate: For most developers, this will take 50-75 hours, so expect an average cost of $ 2,000.

#4 Uploading photos and videos, creating posts

Users should add the photos and videos they want to their page or interest groups and be free to organize their galleries. Also, to increase time in the application and increase engagement, it is worth adding the ability to edit photos and add filters to images and video content before uploading them to the network.

Estimate: With Add, Filters enabled, this should take about 440 hours. Taking into account additional features, the cost can be about $ 12,000.

#5 Search function

When registering, the user will not immediately have contacts and, of course, he would like to find his friends or just people with similar interests there. The user will need to search by friends or, say, by current content in the future. It is desirable that the search can be carried out according to different criteria.

Estimate: The time it takes to add this feature is around 60-80 hours, so the expected costs are up to $ 2,500.

Need help with selecting features that will be a perfect fit for your solution?

#5 Other settings

The ability to set your preferred language, enable or disable push notifications, or change your privacy settings is almost essential for many social media users.

Estimate: This has a wide range of development times – 95-150 hours, which equates to an average cost of $ 4,900.

#6 Adding tags (location, friends, etc.)

Adding tags makes it easy to share content with a specific set of users. It also quickly reveals information (primarily location) to people you want to interact with.

Estimate: it is difficult to talk about the cost since the introduction of tags is a relatively simple thing, but if you need to implement geolocation, then it is already more difficult here and will depend on the API that you plan to connect and the functions that lie on it.

#7 UI / UX

Design is one of the essential parts of an application. Without an attractive appearance, you will not win users over. But besides beauty, the user interface should be intuitive and user-friendly. You can profit in more detail in the article Emotional Design for Social Networks.

Estimate: This will take 120 to 150 hours. That leaves you with an average cost of $ 3,550.

As a reminder, these are just basic features that are found in most social networks. To learn more about what features should be included in your future social media application, we invite you to chat with a Business Analyst.

Social media application technology stack

The larger the project, the larger the technology stack to use. Today, there are many different programming languages, frameworks, and technologies for creating websites and applications. This is due to the development of speeches over the past decade. Each technology is slightly different. Therefore, when choosing the one suitable for a specific project, the main idea is to be guided by objective criteria, taking into account the project’s goals.

WEB iOS Android
GIT Swift Java
Apache 2 Realm Realm
PHP 7.1 AlamofireSDK OKHTTP
Yii2 AlamofireObjectMapping Android Support Design
MySQL 5.7

The technology stack we usually use for web and mobile development

What exactly should be in a social media app?

An excellent social media app should have the following:

  • Ability to publish and share photos and/or videos.
  • Ease of Use – If you find something simple, make it even more comfortable, or people won’t use your app.
  • Customize your profile to have personality
  • Find friends and follow them or make new ones using names, keywords, or hashtags.
  • Integration with other social platforms. Your application is unlikely to survive on its own. Link it with other social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. Users more trust integrated apps.
  • Privacy and security of user data.
  • Notifications and feeds with news from other users. Some people start social media accounts not to share content, but only to find out what’s new in other people’s lives.
  • Ability to leave comments and send private messages.

Social media app trends

Social media trends are constantly changing, and it is difficult to predict what will happen next. We’ll try to guess what could change the rules of the game in 2021:

Interactive content
91% of users gravitate towards more interactive content. AR / VR, 360-degree video, funs, and more. A fundamental factor in the further development of social media marketing is the introduction of new technologies.
Video content
Video is one of the most engaging forms of content, and it is gaining popularity. Whether it’s short videos like TikTok or Instagram Stories or long videos like YouTube, social media video apps are our present and future.
Social commerce
This is becoming the mainstream of retailing alongside other media such as websites and offline stores. This trend will intensify with the emergence of more and more social media platforms offering new sales features.
Using social media for customer service
This transition was gradual as brands noticed that many customers were trying to reach them through social media. A possible reason is the lack of response on other channels. Or, for some, it’s just the easiest way to get in touch.

To conclude

When deciding on developing a social application, it is essential to choose the right software development company. It is imperative to conduct a discovery phase in order to draw up the correct product concept initially, and then a detailed development plan. You must also understand that the initial estimate of development costs may differ from the final cost, especially if you make any adjustments to the project right at the development stage. Sometimes we are faced with such situations when customers want to add specific functions to their platforms that were not previously agreed upon. That’s why you need to set aside at least an additional budget for this opportunity.

One final tip: Think about the minimum viable product (MVP) development first. This is just a prototype for your application that has all the basic functionality you need. Making it available to your target audience can help you gain valuable user feedback to help you decide if you should add more features or keep developing. Hence, it will also save you a lot of time and money.

Want to develop your unique social media app and enter the market?
Many factors affect the cost. Therefore, the initial estimate is not entirely accurate. It is necessary to draw up a detailed action plan and describe all the future application functions. Also, the cost will be influenced by the team’s experience and skills, the technologies with which the development will be carried out, etc. To get a high-quality rating, talk to the development team. The more detailed the assessment is, the more professional the company’s approach is, and the less likely it is to invest in the budget.
The average development time for a social media app is 4 to 6 months. The development period may be more extended since everything will depend on the digital solution’s functionality, the teams’ professionalism, etc.

Ksenija Kolomiiets Expert & Evangelist in business optimization tools like fintech, logistics, on-demand services apps who will help you to understand the core ideas of the outlined themes by my articles. I also have great expertise in social media and education platforms so let me know "in comments" if you want me to describe a theme you're interested in.

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Super Bowl Gold

*from GingerBreadOfHeaven  Super Bowl 50 was certainly not pretty, and the Superman vs Sheriff showdown proved notably lacklustre compared with the hyperbolic build-up.    “Superman” Cam and failed to find the spark that had characterised the Panthers’ regular season, and it was not veteran Peyton Manning’s leadership that won it for the Broncos. Instead, the Golden Super Bowl […]

Super Bowl 50 Hosts – Levi’s Stadium

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Countdown to the Golden Super Bowl #SB50

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Super Bowl 49 marked the end of a decade-long Championship drought for the New England Patriots, as the Seattle Seahawks squandered their chance to clinch a second successive Super Bowl title. The post-season showdown in Arizona proved to be an all-round explosive extravaganza, as spectators witnessed the score-line see-saw between the East and West coast […]

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FIRST QUARTER – Game Review After all the hype, the so-called clash between the Seattle Seahawks and the Denver Broncos at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on Sunday really should have been billed as the Super-Bad Bowl, as audiences across the globe witnessed wild horses well and truly annihilated by a flock of well-assembled raptors.  It […]

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The sporting spectacle that is the Super Bowl, took place at the Big Easy’s Super Dome on Sunday, and spectators were certainly not going to be disappointed. It was a game of brothers, brawling and blackouts, with the Baltimore Ravens securing an historic victory over the San Francisco 49ers to walk away with the coveted […]

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talking biotech

Talking Biotech: Meet the liquor store owner boycotting Smirnoff’s ‘non-GMO’ vodka

, | November 12, 2018
Kevin Folta: University of Florida plant geneticist Kevin Folta launched Talking Biotech in 2015.    More details

They are farmers. They also own A&C Liquid Assets, a liquor store in Hoxie, Kansas. Allison and Cole Nondorf saw the Smirnoff commercial that proudly proclaimed the company rejects “GMO” seed technology, the same seeds that the Nondorfs and most of their community use on their farms.

A&C Liquid Assets pulled all of Smirnoff’s products off its store shelves, and hopes to bring attention to how companies that support non-scientific, anti-farmer positions need to be called out.

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IT IS COMING. СЕ ГРЯДЁТ. English version

Read AllatRa book on-line

Participants of the programme: Igor Mikhailovich Danilov, Igor Vladimirovich Naumets, Anna Dubrovskaya, Andrei Kovtunov

The inevitability of the serious upcoming climate changes, the global nature, and magnitude of which one can see today over the whole planet, make everyone face the necessity of the personal choice. Already in the nearest future, THIS will concern everyone. The unknown history of the past, knowledge of which gives an understanding of the tomorrow (the cycle is repeating itself).

International initiatives of the “ALLATRA” Public Movement. “THE UNIVERSAL GRAIN” project is a common cause, which continues to unite a lot of people on the planet, regardless of their nationality and religion. Informing people about those upcoming catastrophic natural processes which in the nearest future will become a reality for certain countries and continents.

What have you done today so that you and your near and dear ones have a chance to survive tomorrow?

The report “On the Problems and Consequences of Global Climate Change on Earth. Effective Ways to Solve These Problems”

To download (mp4, HD 720p, 513 Мб)

Rating: 4.8 / 5 from 9

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Michel Waters
Michel Waters #

Regarding the English translation of "ITS COMING" video: the term "consciousness" is used to mean "self-aware consciousness" or "body-mind-identified consciousness" or "separate-ego bound consciousness". However in English "consciousness" is also used to mean "always-already unified awareness" and "emotional awareness" without body-mind identification. That is what the video translates as "LOVE" in English. That can be expanded in English to "The Prior Unified Field of LOVE" per Santosha Ma, or the videos and teachings of Adi Da Shamraj or the core esoteric experience of the ecstatic conscious bright source of existence in all the great spiritual traditions on earth. This can awaken as just "Love" feeling experience in relation to everyone and the whole universe. And, it can expand to outshine all arising experience. There is no substitute for this experience. Therefore i thank you for asking people to let go and relax their fear-based hold on their body-mind self-awareness in order to turn to each other in recognition of the (a-priori) Prior Unified Field of Love we are all arising within. Please add English modifiers of "ego consciousness" or "body-mind Identified consciousness" or 'self-focused consciousness" instead of just "consciousness". And "Love" as consciousness awakened beyond self. Also note the difference between consciousness" and "attention" or the focus-content of consciousness. These are subtle but important differences for translation. I Love what you are doing and keep up operating by people using their own resources. The regenerative principle of living-systems operates by internal self-reliance empowering social mutual support. Swarm intelligence emerges out of social mutual support of group learning to cope with environment. Outside funding interferes with this by imposing agendas that use group for funder's purpose.


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Dementia: Early Signs & Behavior Changes

On January 23, 2014 Georgetown Village's Health Care Advisory Committee organized a lecture on the early signs and behavior changes associated with Dementia.
To view Dr. Parpura's entire lecture click here

This lecture Dementia: Early Signs & Behavior Changes was given by recognized expert in the field of Aging and Dementia Dr. Anya Parpura. Dr. Papura has devoted 15 years to research of gerontological issues such as loneliness, successful ageing, care for Alzheimer's disease, patients etc. She has broad experience in teaching and training and has authored a number of papers and educational materials on these topics.

Facts about Dementia:  Dementia affects 5-8% of people 65 years of age and this prevalence increases with age. Yet, up to 30% of elderly affected by dementia remain un-diagnosed, and only half of those are adequately treated. Many people with dementia experience behavior changes that have negative impacts on their well-being and in turn increases the burden of the caregiver.

Useful links provide by Dr. Parpura: