Sci-fi Famicom RPG Lagrange Point translated ⊟

I’d never heard of this game until today, but HG101 has a great article on why the Japan-only RPG is notable:

"Lagrange Point is one of the most technically advanced RPGs on the Famicom. Published in 1991, at a point where the system was losing ground to the 16-bit systems, its graphics are a huge step above the likes of Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest, it has a relatively involved sci-fi conspiracy plot that contrasts with the typical medieval fantasy setting, and it’s simply far more densely packed than most other similar titles on the system. Most impressively, it’s the only title to take advantage of Konami’s VRC7 memory management chip, which included an onboard FM synthesis chip and produces a soundtrack completely unlike anything on the system."

And 14 years after work first began on a fan translation for the game, Aeon Genesis has finally put out an English patch (after taking over the project in 2007)! Thanks to Obscure Video Games for pointing out the release.

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MiamiHerald.com

Kenny G doesn't support Hong Kong protesters MiamiHerald.com Smooth jazz star Kenny G insisted Thursday he's not a foreign provocateur supporting Hong Kong's pro-democracy protests, after Beijing signaled its displeasure over his inharmonious visit and repeated concerns about meddling by external forces. and more »

It's easy to make jokes about the Great Pumpkin Riot of 2014. Events in Keene, New Hampshire this past weekend read like an Onion article: The annual Pumpkin Festival in the sleepy college town ended with riot cops and tear gas as young people flipped cars and started fires in the street. But there's good reason to take the riot seriously.

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Read 9 remaining paragraphs | Comments

First time accepted submitter dkatana writes Having some type of fiber or high-speed cable connectivity is normal for many of us, but in most developing countries of the world and many areas of Europe, the US, and other developed countries, access to "super-fast" broadband networks is still a dream. This is creating another "digital divide." Not having the virtually unlimited bandwidth of all-fiber networks means that, for these populations, many activities are simply not possible. For example, broadband provided over all-fiber networks brings education, healthcare, and other social goods into the home through immersive, innovative applications and services that are impossible without it. Alternatives to fiber, such as cable (DOCSYS 3.0), are not enough, and they could be more expensive in the long run. The maximum speed a DOCSYS modem can achieve is 171/122 Mbit/s (using four channels), just a fraction the 273 Gbit/s (per channel) already reached on fiber.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

submitted by Fllicker [link] [33 comments]

The gunman was later identified as Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, 25, in reports by CBS News and CBC News, which confirmed the dead shooting suspect's identity, saying he was a Canadian born in 1982 and that he possessed a criminal record in Quebec "dating back 10 years on some drug-related charges" and a criminal record in B.C. as well. An image of Zehaf-Bibeau was first posted on a Twitter account associated with the Islamic State militant group, but the account has since been suspended. CBC News reports that he had his passport revoked in recent months and that he had been known to authorities.

Freeman said the issue with some players is they seem to think Wilson is “too close to the front office,” and that Wilson “doesn't always take the blame with teammates for mistakes he makes.” Freeman also said, based on several interviews with Seahawks players, “that some of the black players think Wilson isn't black enough," a strange claim that nonetheless paints the Seahawks situation as a little less close than we remember from last season's playoff run. Are the players who don’t like Wilson jealous? If that's the case, it presumably won't get better after Wilson goes from his $662,000 base salary this year to a contract extension that might be about $100 million. Is the "anti-Wilson" group made up of some leaders of the team or is it just fringe guys? Do the players the Bleacher Report story cites represent a significant portion of the locker room or a tiny amount of disgruntled players? Is any of this real, or just perception from some in the locker room? Whatever is actually going on in the locker room, it’s another thing the Seahawks have to deal with during their title defense.

Video footage captured by news organizations showed the man, wearing shorts, on the grass of the White House’s North Lawn. He kicked a police dog who ran at him, and wrestled with a second one before being brought to the ground. Police and security personnel in Washington are on alert following today’s shootout in the legislature in Ottawa and the slaying of a soldier guarding Canada’s war memorial.

misandry-mermaid:

talesofthestarshipregeneration:

silent3:

throwingshadepodcast:

What year is this

x / x

There’s a reason I hated that sappy, watery, pathetic book. Now I know what it is.

well thank god  black kids  are spared this racist ignorant bad writer’s presence and bankrupt philosophy.

Is anyone remotely surprised that the author of the straightest, whitest trashy romance books is a raging racist? No. No one is surprised.

Courtney shared this story from Super Opinionated.

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In case you ever wondered, Quora answers: Who designed the Yelp logo? [Spoiler: Michael Ernst]

The Cowboys running back is making sure he takes care of the men blocking in front of him.

They say a running back is only as good as is offensive line. DeMarco Murray of the Dallas Cowboys agrees.

Smart. MT @clarencehilljr: DeMarco Murray surprised his offensive linemen with $1300 21.5 inch iMacs in their lockers pic.twitter.com/n0BnzLSako

— Don Van Natta Jr. (@DVNJr) October 22, 2014

Murray is having an outstanding season and he's a big part of why the Cowboys are 6-1. He's also a smart guy who apparently realizes it's good to take care of those who are blocking for you.

FBI: Three American Girls May Have Been Trying to Join ISIS NBCNews.com Three American teenagers were detained at an airport in Germany while apparently on their way to join ISIS in Syria. VIDEO TRANSCRIPT. WORLD HEADQUARTERS IN NEW YORK, THIS IS "NBC NIGHTLY NEWS" WITH BRIAN WILLIAMS. >>> GOOD ... and more »

OK, so we don't know exactly what they're saying, though I suspect that at least some of the time they are yelling, "Give me a peanut, human!" But this fantastic video from ornithologist Kevin McGowan helps you recognize the difference between crow and raven calls, as well as what they could mean.

Read more...

miraguey:

fouronthefloor2:

what a time to be alive

Darius Kazemi discussed the lottery of creative success at the 2014 XOXO festival (previously) in Portland, Oregon back in September. The talk starts off as a parody of talks typically given at these kind of festivals before discussing the inherent luck involved. Kazemi creates, in his own words, “Weird Internet Stuff,” and only a select few of his many projects have achieved measurable success despite the relatively similar amount of work put into each.

The end of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell let gays, lesbians, and bisexuals serve openly in the military. But transgender individuals remain excluded. A conference Monday examined that policy.

We will host cats from local shelters and rescues in our Seattle cat café. Our space will be comfortable for cats and humans, so come on in and play with our cats. Feel free to adopt one on the way out, too.

jessicalprice:

All right, ladies (and non-binary folks!): real talk time.

We currently have zero female developers or designers on the Pathfinder RPG staff. (I know, right?) 

EDIT: I made a big stupid mistake. We DO have a female designer, the awesome Tanis O’Connor, on the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. We don’t have any female designers on the RPG. Sorry, Tanis. *blush*

But we have an opportunity to change that. We’re hiring a new developer.

A developer is basically the movie director for their products. They work with the managers and other developers on the production team to come up with ideas for what each book is going to be about and fit it into our overall product array (so, if you’re a campaign setting developer, some of the areas of our world you cover will tie into current adventure paths or modules or hardcovers, while on others, it’s basically carte blanche to do something interesting). Then they outline the book, assign it to freelance writers, work with the art team to figure out what art is going to be in it, and develop the freelancer text to ensure it’s exciting, well-written, and sounds like Pathfinder.

Even junior developers do that — they just may get help from our more senior developers, but it’s still a position where they get to have a direct hand in building our world, writing stuff that’s published in our books, and so on. It’s a creative position with the sort of influence and direct control, at least from my experience in video games, for which you usually have to work for years to get even a small piece of. 

It’s a chance to be at the center of making the best-selling tabletop roleplaying game in the world, on a team of A+ human beings who are wildly creative, funny, and devoted to making great games that welcome everyone into our world. 

I really want to see this position go to someone who’s new and fresh. If you are a strong writer who plays and loves Pathfinder, I want you to apply. Yes, you. I don’t care if you’re just out of college. YOU. 

Now let me talk to you not as a Paizo employee, but as a woman who’s been around the block in games several times. 

We’re doing blind applications-writing/design tests, which means no one is going to know who you are when they review your test. Any unconscious biases anyone might have about your name or your school or your experience or whatever? Not going to be a factor in reviewing your test. (And if you’ve read much about women in predominantly male fields, you’ll probably know that blind applications are one of the single best things for women’s chances of getting hired.)

There’s no embarrassment here if you don’t make it to the round of people who actually get interviews. We’re not going to judge you for applying. You’re not being presumptuous or arrogant by applying. You’re being a badass, like Mythic Kyra up there.  

So put aside your impostor syndrome. Stop telling yourself that you don’t have the experience or the talent or the qualifications — I guarantee you there are a ton of guys who are less qualified than you who aren’t telling themselves that — and stop worrying that we’re going to think you’re presumptuous or silly for applying. We’re not.

And believe me when I tell you this is one of the good ones. You’re not going to make as much as you might in video games — tabletop’s a different industry — but you will have more creative input than you’re likely to get in your first job in video games. You’ll also have Wes Schneider, the single best manager I’ve ever worked with, as a manager. You’ll have a great team around you, full of people who genuinely want to make great games and want to work with you instead of competing with you. You’ll get to work with awesome freelance writers like Amber Scott and Crystal Frasier. You’ll have the chance to hone your craft in a supportive environment. I’ll be there and I’ll have your back. 

You’ll be working for a company with a female CEO. She’s a badass and one of the founders of the entire RPG industry. 

You won’t have to put up with daily sexist microaggressions. You won’t have to be one of the boys to be one of the team. I mean that. 

(Also, you’ll get free copies of everything we make, and yearly bottles of Goblin Fire red wine.)

So. Do you live (or want to live) in the Seattle area? Are you a strong writer? Do you GM Pathfinder and create your own content? Do you have an English degree, or equivalent writing experience?

Apply. Do it now. Yes, there’s a big, scary-looking list of requirements. There is for every job. Do it anyway. Did you answer yes to all the questions above? Then apply. Look up at Mythic Kyra. She believes in you. 

We want you to apply, we want you to be good, and we all had to take leaps of faith at some point and say, “I believe I am good enough to do this.” That’s how we got here. 

Come tell stories and build worlds with us. 

Art: Mythic Kyra by Eric Belisle

HONG KONG—Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement protesters have been demanding that the city’s top official, CY Leung, step down for weeks now. They may soon be joined by many more of the city’s 7 million residents, after a controversial interview last night in which Leung suggested that election reforms sought by the protestors would invite undue influence from the city’s poor.

Speaking at his official residence, a colonial-era mansion set above the city—it’s furnished with crystal chandeliers and guarded by massive stone lions—Leung addressed three foreign newspapers that target Hong Kong’s wealthy international community. Allowing the entire voting population of Hong Kong, some 5 million people, to directly nominate candidates for the city’s top official position would be a mistake, Leung said:

“If it’s entirely a numbers game—numeric representation—then obviously you’d be talking to half the people in Hong Kong [that] earn less than US$1,800 a month. You would end up with that kind of politics and policies.”

Leung gave the interview to the Financial Times, The New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. The three publications frequently keep their content behind a paywall, but their write-ups of the interview were quickly circulated on social media, where information about Hong Kong’s protests has spread quickly:

Not sure who breached paywalls of WSJ/FT/NYT (👎) but here's CY Leung's remarks in joint interview #OccupyCentral http://t.co/Y0GOWhGGtF—
Danny Lee 李嘉洪 (@JournoDannyAsia) October 21, 2014

Economic inequality in Hong Kong is the highest in the developed world, and among the highest in East Asia, as Quartz has reported before. About a third of the population lives in public housing, and one in five lives below the poverty line.

Currently, candidates for Leung’s job are chosen by a 1,200-member nominating committee that is heavily weighted by business interests. While the protests in Hong Kong’s central business district have been mostly student-driven, and spurred by demands for direct nomination, more spontaneous protests have sprung up in the working class neighborhood of Mong Kok, powered in part by dissatisfaction over public housing policies.

Leung himself is the son of a police officer, but the millions he made as a real estate executive earned him the nickname “emperor of the working class.” Already he has been hung in effigy, depicted as Dracula, and openly told to go to hell during the protests in Hong Kong.

Government representatives (but not Leung) and representatives from the protest movement are set to meet today, for the first time since the protests started three weeks ago. Leung said last night that his fellow officials would be “all ears.” They may get an earful on Leung’s latest public pronouncements.

Courtney shared this story from Super Opinionated.

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@TheMarySue please put the best parts on some of those hilarious Madden gifs

— Maud (@AzureDome) October 21, 2014

It started with former NFL player Chris Kluwe’s brilliant, profanity-laden denouncement of all things #GamerGate. But that isn’t where it ended. Oh, no. The above tweet spurred us into action. Maud, you are our muse, our goddess, our guiding light. Hit the jump to see “wargleblarging,” “a debilitating case of genital warts,” and more represented in Giferator form.

Sadly, we had to change some of the wording, as the Giferator likes to keep it classy(ish). I’m impressed with how many of these required no editing at all, though. Creative cursing is a gift to the universe.

Previously in GamerGate

• Adobe, Mercedes-Benz are Latest to Pull Ads at the Behest of GamerGate
• Zoë Quinn Talks #GamerGate On MSNBC
• Joss Whedon, Boston Globe Journalist Smack Down “But GamerGate Is About Journalistic Ethics!” Argument

Are you following The Mary Sue on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, & Google +?

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TIME

Starbucks' New Chestnut Praline Latte Will Save Us From the Pumpkin Spice Latte TIME Your knight in shining armor is the Starbucks' new-nationwide Chestnut Praline Latte, slated for release at Starbucks locations across the country this fall. The impending national release of the Chestnut Praline Latte (from here on out referred to as 'CPL') is ... Move over, Pumpkin Spice. Chestnut Praline Latte coming soon to StarbucksKABC-TV Starbucks Debuting First New Holiday Drink in 5 YearsKSTP.com Starbucks Is Gifting Us Its First New Holiday Drink In Five Years!!PerezHilton.com all 32 news articles »

Excellent, fair review and perspective. The storage section at the end is especially incisive:

Apple should not be selling 16 GB iPads. The starting tier for typical consumers should be 32 GB. There’s just not enough usable space on a 16 GB iOS device to do the things Apple has worked so hard to make easy to do. …

I also understand the product marketing angle. That there are a lot of people who will look at the 16 GB models, see that they can get four times the storage for just $100 more, and buy the 64 GB model instead — when they would’ve bought the base model if it were 32 GB. I get it. There’s no doubt in my mind it’s good short-term business sense to go with a 16/64/128 lineup instead of 32/64/128. But Apple is not a short-term business. They’re a long-term business, built on a relationship of trust with repeat customers. 16 GB iPads work against the foundation of Apple’s brand, which is that they only make good products.

Apple has long used three-tier pricing structures within individual product categories. They often used to label them “Good”, “Better”, and “Best”. Now, with these 16 GB entry-level devices, it’s more like “Are you sure?”, “Better”, and “Best”.

This relates to my argument in last week’s Accidental Tech Podcast that Apple’s high hardware margins are a strategy tax that hinders other important factors within the company.

A balance must be struck between healthy profit margins and making good products. I don’t think Apple has ever only made good products,¹ but the introduction of “Are you sure?” models has only come to iPhones and iPads in recent years — the first few generations of iOS devices (and iPods) were all high-end when they came out.

And until this year, the “Are you sure?” iOS devices were just older models that got pushed down the product line over time with embarrassingly low storage sizes, like 8 GB.² But iOS, cameras, and apps have progressed to the point that even 16 GB devices are now constrained, exacerbated by iOS’ poor user storage management. This is the first year that Apple’s flagship iOS devices are available in sizes that will often result in poor user experiences.

Not long ago, we could just tell our friends and family to buy “an iPhone” or “an iPad”, unqualified. They were all great.

Now, if our parents call us and say, “We just got an iPad!”, we need to think, Oh no, which one did they get? Please don’t be one of the shitty ones…

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