patterns
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Scientists used phone accelerometer data to predict personality traits
Our phones contain a disturbing amount of information about us. While calls, messages, app usage and location logs have all been used to profile users, phone accelerometers contain key information, too. Researchers from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University used the tiny sensors that track phone movement for things like step-counting to predict five key personality traits.
Tubular waves are, like, totally common in space
"Surfer" tube-shaped waves are created when a speedy fluid, like wind, moves over a sluggish one, like water. These so-called Kelvin-Helmholtz waves occur everywhere in the universe, as you can see in the image of Saturn's upper atmosphere, above. They also happen when solar winds strike the Earth's protective magnetosphere, and researchers now believe that they occur much more often there than we thought. Not only that, but they might cause the magnetosphere to be charged with plasma, affecting how it works to protect life on our planet from radiation.
The Nexus Telegraph: Getting the message across in WildStar (before it kills you)
There are no two ways about it: A a lot of WildStar's combat involves getting out of the way of something. Combat telegraphs have been reinforced as a major element of gameplay, and we've seen countless videos explaining how the telegraph system works in varying degrees of depth. And much like pretty much every other element of the game, this is a major issue for some people. I can understand why this provokes a knee-jerk reaction. I mean, now you can see exactly what's going to happen next and where you need to not stand, right? How is that still a challenge? The answer is that there's still a lot of challenge involved, and allowing people to know what's going on around them ahead of time not only preserves the challenge but actually heightens it. And to talk about that, we're going to need to step back and talk about lots of other games and the different sorts of challenge you can face in games.
Linden Lab preps four releases for November
The boys and girls of Linden Lab are expanding their operation. Rapidly expanding, as it turns out. The Second Life studio announced that it has not one, not two, not three, but four titles scheduled for release in November. We've already heard about the first, which is the Minecraft-wannabe Patterns, but the others are just now being revealed. The second is the iPad-only (for now) Creatorverse, which allows users to draw shapes, have them interact via physics, and then share them on the cloud. The final two are Dio, a room creator, and Versu, a storytelling toolset. Linden Lab CEO Rod Humble affirmed that Second Life will remain important to the studio, but it will need to make room for all of the new children coming into the family.
Linden Lab reveals its next game, Patterns
Where does a company like Linden Lab go after Second Life? Obviously any other titles from the studio need to be creative and offer players a wide realm of personalized options... but Second Life is so open that it's difficult to follow up with something that's any more open to player creativity. Nevertheless, the company is certainly aiming for that with its upcoming new title, Patterns. And while the game looks at a glance like Minecraft with triangles, there's more to the concept than that. As explained in the trailer, Patterns is focused on an experience not dissimilar to Minecraft but with a heavier focus on creativity. The game will sport a real-time physics engine as demonstrated in the trailer, giving objects physical properties that come into play as they enter the world. While the game is still in very early development, you can get a sense of what's in the future by glancing at the trailer just past the break.
Exploring the patterns of Diablo 3
After thirty hours of incessantly clicking my mouse, I completed my first run of Diablo 3. Of course, the game could have been finished in far less time – I was constantly going back to explore every area to the fullest. Any dark space on my map, signaling an area I didn't explore, gnawed at my obsessive completionist attitude.But it had me wondering: I know how long it took to get to my final destination and I'm well aware of the spoils obtained along the way, but what had I actually done in those hours? Strip away everything about a game and you may see a simple series of patterns. So when you take the game systems, graphics, and progress out of the equation, what does the pattern of playing Diablo 3 look like and is it ever different?%Gallery-155928%
Daily Mac App and Friday Favorite: CodeRunner
CodeRunner is a text editor for people who write code. It comes with built-in syntax highlighting for AppleScript, C, C++, Java, JavaScript (Node.js), Objective,C, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, or shell scripting. I have been using it for a few months, mostly for writing shell scripts, and love it. The color coding makes it easy to immediately tell when I am missing a quote or some other basic syntax flaw, which means making fewer mistakes. It automatically applies templates (which are editable) to new files, so whenever I start a new shell script, it automatically includes the header lines and some other settings that I always use. In fact, it defaults to using the same template as the last kind of file you saved, so if you tend to write in one language, it will automatically pick that language and template. Otherwise you can choose manually. One of my favorite aspects of it is a built-in terminal console, which lets you test the script without switching over to Terminal or iTerm. A recent update even made it possible to define arguments, compilations flags, or arguments before sending it to the built-in console. The console automatically appears when needed, and can be shown/hidden with a keyboard command. CodeRunner offers "completions" (for example: automatically adding a closing bracket when you open one), but it also lets you turn that off if you don't like it. There are even themes to change the color combinations. I tend to prefer a simple black-on-white, but there are several dark background/light type options as well. In Lion, CodeRunner supports Autosaving, Versions and Fullscreen mode. It also supports "tabs" (multiple documents in one window) if you want to use them, but doesn't require them. Generally I don't like tabs in any apps except web browsers, but it is handy to have the option to keep related files together when working on separate projects. CodeRunner isn't going to replace a complex program like BBEdit with integrated FTP and a multitude of configurable options, but it doesn't need to. I own, use, and love BBEdit, but I use CodeRunner exclusively for writing shell scripts now, and vastly prefer it for that purpose. If you want a lightweight tool for writing scripts, you should definitely check it out on its home page or download it from the Mac App Store for $10. (Also: if you use regular expressions -- especially if you have trouble with them -- be sure to also checkout Patterns, an app by the same developer which makes it much easier to see how they expand. I'll probably review that more fully another day but it's currently on sale for $3 instead of $5, so you might want to check it out soon.)
Younger audiences play more freemium games, but 25-34 year-olds pay for them
Flurry's latest post is yet another interesting read on freemium games on the App Store, specifically which age groups are playing them, and which age groups are paying for them. They've used consumer spending data across over 1.4 billion sessions, which means this information is as accurate as you're going to get outside of Apple's own databases. As you can see above, the patterns are interesting. Younger players are the primary users of freemium games, and that's not really surprising -- we've known for a while that the younger generation is downloading and playing more games than anyone else. But that third blue bar is the really interesting one: The people actually paying for freemium games are primarily in the 25-34 age group, right in the middle of the demographics. Sure, they're playing their share of the games, but freemium titles are almost completely funded by that stripe of the age demographic. And when you consider that the average freemium title only really pulls in-app purchases from a small percentage of its audience anyway, that age group becomes even more important. This seems logical, as most successful in-app purchase items are for convenience and time-saving. The 25-34 age group has more money but not as much free time as the younger audience, and thus are willing to shell out for items that help them in the game. But the big question is whether this will change as the years go by. As the younger audience gets older, will they become the main payers for these titles, or just stay the main players? We've only been playing with this model for a few years, and if the younger audience keeps playing without paying, freemium could be a short-lived trend.
Firelands crafting recipe drop rate nerfed
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Basil "Euripides" Berntsen aims to show you how to make money on the auction house. Email Basil with your questions, comments, or hate mail! The recipes that drop from trash in Firelands have had their drop rate nerfed in a recent hotfix: Hot fixes notes The rate at which crafting recipes drop has been greatly reduced. source This makes sense from a design perspective; these patterns take some pretty rare boss drops to be made and produce gear on par with normal mode Firelands boss gear drops. On most realms, everyone who is getting the recipes is trying to sell them -- at first, for a lot; however, I've been picking them up for a tenth of what they were being listed for yesterday. One of the interesting artifacts of this system before the nerf was that the people most likely to get the recipe were people farming reputation by doing trash runs. The people most likely to be able to craft the items were the ones in the more organized and progression-minded raiding groups. Now that the drop rate has been reduced, in a few weeks when more guilds are making it farther into the instance, it's possible that more recipes will drop into the laps of raiding guilds than trash PUGs. Click past the jump for a list of the recipes that are affected.
Study: Android and iPhone users show same usage trends, heavy app usage
A study put together by analytics firms comScore and Compete says that while Android and iPhone users probably aren't the same people, they certainly act like it. Usage patterns line up almost exactly across the board, differing by only a few percentage points in categories from social networking to mobile media to instant messaging. The only place they really differ is in email usage -- 63% of Android users reported that they used their smartphones for email, while 87% of iPhone users said the same. The firms also asked smartphone users how they used apps overall, and it's probably not surprising to find that iPhone users are in apps over half the time they're on their phones, compared to using just the web browser. Android users report figures almost as high, with 44% saying that they use apps more than half the time. With so many developers out there working hard to streamline and improve the user interface in specific apps, it's no wonder native applications are the main reason most people pull out their iPhones. And if you want, this can just add fuel to the fire on the speculation that Apple will release a bigger version of the iPhone designed to just run apps rather than worry about that pesky "calling" feature. [via Mashable]
Breakfast Topic: Your favorite routes
Vince sent us this tip from Just my Two Copper: a quick Cobalt circuit in case you're a high level miner and want to spend a few minutes making some ingame money. Truth is, everyone has this various routes that they take in game, whether they be your recent run of dailies, a gathering run (I used to know the Swamp of Sorrows by heart when I was leveling up Herbalism, and even now I've got my own places to go in Sholazar to pick up as much leather as possible), or even a run around to see if you can find some of the rare spawns (the Time-Lost Proto Drake or maybe the spirit beast).What are some of your favorite, most ingrained (in your mind), or most profitable runs in game? They aren't really a trade secret -- AHs tend to change from server to server, and even if a certain ore or item comes into demand, it's usually because no one wants to farm it, not because it's not out there to find. But we do get set in our patterns -- what are some of yours?
[UPDATE] WTB fashion sense
I see a lot of the Professions are getting a lot of love lately. Cooking, specially, has been particularly awesome in Wrath of the Lich King, with cooks able to prepare feasts for raids that give excellent buffs. Engineering has been fun, too, although I have yet to see the schematic for my Harley Softail Hog. I'm curious about one thing, though... where are my shirts? With all the options to customize characters in the game -- I mean, those barbershops are pretty neat -- how come there aren't any new shirt patterns?There are over 50 different shirts in the game, 22 of which are tailored. The rest are uncouth styles that are simply too unfashionable for my needs. I've picked up enough Sleeveless T-Shirts in Alterac Valley to clothe an army. It makes me cringe to see Level 70 characters still sporting their original Thug Shirt. Let's get some style, people! There are a good number of shirts to choose from, but frankly, we need Fall fashions for Wrath of the Lich King. I mean, the last great (and saleable) shirt pattern was the Rich Purple Silk Shirt. And that was from vanilla WoW.Fashion in World of Warcraft has fallen behind. At least, tailor-made ones. Would you believe that there wasn't a single new shirt pattern throughout the whole Burning Crusade? I mean, I know that demons were at our gates and some dude named Illidan was plotting to take over everything we know and love, but come on! Where was my Netherweave shirt? If I'm going to fight a war, I want to fight in style![UPDATE: Phooey. So apparently there are new shirt patterns in Wrath. So the joke's actually on me. So you can choose to look like a 90's Eddie Vedder or Dave Matthews on tour. Uh... thanks, Blizzard.]
The latest blacksmithing patterns from Wrath
Blacksmiths received a happy surprise in the latest beta build that launched tonight in the form of a bunch of new craftable gear, including the ability to add a socket slot to belts, bracers, and gloves and some nice new epic items. So far, we're seeing epic helms and boots of three different playstyles: With defense: Tempered Titansteel Helm, Tempered Titansteel Treads, With crit: Spiked Titansteel Helm, Spiked Titansteel Treads With spell power: Brilliant Titansteel Helm, Brilliant Titansteel Treads The epic weapon options also have good variety, though they're missing an obvious tanking weapon. There's the Titansteel Bonecrusher (a one-hander with stamina and AP), the Titansteel Guardian (a level 80 spell power weapon with less spell power than what I'm wielding at level 70 -- open to guesses on who Blizzard expects to use this one), and the Titansteel Destroyer (the two-hander every Death Knight wants).That's all the epics, but if you want to see all of the recent additions, check them out in our blacksmithing gallery!%Gallery-29308%
New Blacksmithing patterns from the Beta
Elizabeth Harper was able to snap a few screenshots of the new Blacksmithing patterns from the game last night. The items all require at least level 75 and are of superior quality. That's good news for those that are looking to craft gear as they level – which can be a viable alternative to fill in certain missing pieces.You can browse through all the latest patterns below in our gallery. For a quick analysis however, take the piece that is featured in the right hand image of this article. They're tank legplates that have 1661 armor, 57 strength, 84 stamina, and 55 defense. No sockets or anything else like that. Let's compare it to the T6 warrior legs, which have 24 agility, 78 stamina, a red socket, 40 def, 41 parry, and 32 block value.%Gallery-28675%
Preparing for 2.3: Pre-patch farming, part 2
The other day I listed the items that will be used in new recipes after the patch. I did miss a few things, but with your helpful comments, I've updated the original article to be more complete. I'll mention again that it's difficult to make predictions on what will sell the best, but nonetheless I've decided to list some of my thoughts on the subject below.
BulletGBA shoots us in the face
With the World's Greatest Shmup Player Tournament coming up, now is the perfect time to try out Takayama Fumihiko's recently updated BulletGBA. The homebrew shoot 'em up simulator has over 300 bullet patterns picked out from genre favorites that you can test your dodging skills against. BulletGBA's 5.0 release adds some new "stages," a remodeled shooting mode, and music tracks from the chiptune champions, Nullsleep. We've got a video of us attempting to last longer than a few seconds with one of the bullet hell patterns, so jump past the post break for a good laugh.
Holidaying with another self
What do you do when the pressures of endgame all become too much? When the PvP grind gets you down, and raiding just isn't doing it for you any more?Spend some time away from it all, in an exotic location where everything's new again -- make an alt. Preferably a cross-faction alt.It sounds idyllic, in principle. Start life from scratch again, in a town where nobody knows your name. Learn new skills! Have fantastic adventures! Spend four hours killing wolves and only regain a fraction of your former power! (Eh?)
