Michael

submitted by /u/lawtechie to r/talesfromtechsupport
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Over the past few weeks, we've discussed Nintendo's tortured relationship with fans of its retro offerings. As a starting point, after years of pretty much ignoring the demand for retro games offered for earlier versions of its consoles, Nintendo finally produced an offering for retro consoles loaded with some but not all of the games from the eight and sixteen bit eras. Before this official offering, Nintendo's ignoring the market had for years produced a wide range of websites that allowed gamers to engage in their nostalgia by playing old games no longer available via emulators and ROMs of those games. Nintendo's retro consoles successfully competed with these free games by producing a great product. Despite that success, Nintendo has since gone on a campaign against some of the highest profile ROM sites out there, suing some and allowing that lawsuit to serve as enough of a threat to simply get other sites to voluntarily take Nintendo ROMs down. These sites, which had essentially served to compile and record video game history that Nintendo refused to do itself, suddenly began disappearing.

There was always going to be some kind of a backlash to this. And, now, one site is signaling that its ready to fight Nintendo, going so far as to taunt the company with a forthcoming offering for retro game ROMs.

While these decisions are understandable, not everyone is equally impressed by the show of legal force. The niche pirate site ‘Good Old Downloads,’ for example, sees the ROMs controversy as a good opportunity to expand its catalog. With retro games.

The new section is “coming soon” according to the site’s homepage. While no further details are listed, it is now linked to a Tweet which makes it rather clear what motivated ‘Good Old Downloads’ to add retro-titles. The tweet embeds a video showing recent press coverage of the Nintendo lawsuit and the related shutdowns. Towards the end, it shows a clip from “Age of Ultron” where Thanos’ face is replaced by the site’s logo.

“Fine, I’ll do it myself,” he says.

Now, let's be clear about a couple of things. First, Good Old Downloads is absolutely a site for pirating video games. It's unambiguous in that. Nothing in this post is to suggest that what the site is doing is legal, or even morally okay. It isn't. What should be clear is that the site's move comes as the we're still waiting for a settlement between Nintendo and the ROMs site and in the immediate wake of other sites taking their own ROMs down. In other words, this is the first but almost certainly not the last site to dig its heels in and challenge Nintendo's takedown efforts.

Which is ultimately the point of this post: Nintendo's focus on putting a genie back in the bottle when that will never happen is both futile and pointless. Pointless because Nintendo is already successfully competing with these ROM sites. And futile because these files are still available roughly everywhere on the internet.

That said, ROMs haven’t been particularly hard to find through traditional pirate sources. For example, shortly after Nintendo announced its lawsuit, one Demonoid user uploaded torrents featuring thousands of ROMs to the site, including tiles belonging to the Japanese game giant.

This isn't even whac-a-mole. It's more like trying to fill up the ocean with all the grains of sand on the beach. There's a great deal of work to be done to keep you busy, but you'll never achieve your goal. So why bother?

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submitted by /u/HimynameisFak to r/techsupportgore [link] [comments]

New submitter Zarhan writes: Earlier this summer, European Commission conducted a poll on whether EU citizens would like to abolish adjusting their clocks twice a year. The results are now in: 80% of the respondents want to get rid of the changes every spring and autumn. EU Commission is planning to follow through and abolish the practice. In EU, individual countries decide what timezone they belong in, but the clock adjustment is an EU-level decision. The recommendation for now is to stick to summer time year-round, although individual countries will make those decisions. More from DW. The changes are known to affect sleep patterns and causes loss in productivity and even heart attacks, especially when you lose one hour of sleep during the spring change. "I will recommend to the commission that, if you ask the citizens, then you have to do what the citizens say," said Jean-Claude Juncker, the commission's president. "We will decide on this today, and then it will be the turn of the member states and the European parliament."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

This blog will show how to install the Percona XtraDB Cluster on three CentOS 7.3 servers, using the packages from Percona repositories. This is a step-by-step installation and configuration blog, We recommend Percona XtraDB Cluster for maximum availability / reliability and scale-out READ/WRITE optimally. We are an private-label independent and vendor neutral consulting, support, managed services and education solutions provider for MySQL, MariaDB, Percona Server and ClickHouse with core expertise in performance, scalability, high availability and database reliability engineering. All our blog posts are purely focussed on education and research across open source database systems infrastructure operations. To engage us for building and managing web-scale database infrastructure operations, Please contact us on contact@minervadb.com  

This cluster will be assembled of three servers/nodes:

node #1

hostname: PXC1

IP: 138.197.70.35

node #2

hostname: PXC2

IP: 159.203.118.230

node #3

hostname: PXC3

IP: 138.197.8.226

Prerequisites

• All three nodes have a CentOS 7.3 installation.
• Firewall has been set up to allow connecting to ports 3306, 4444, 4567 and 4568
• SELinux is disabled

Installing from Percona Repository on 138.197.70.35

• Install the Percona repository package:

$ sudo yum install http://www.percona.com/downloads/percona-release/redhat/0.1-4/percona-release-0.1-4.noarch.rpm

• You should see the following if successful:

Installed:

 percona-release.noarch 0:0.1-4

Complete!

• Check that the packages are available:

$ sudo yum list | grep Percona-XtraDB-Cluster-57

Percona-XtraDB-Cluster-57.x86_64          5.7.14-26.17.1.el7         percona-release-x86_64

Percona-XtraDB-Cluster-57-debuginfo.x86_64 5.7.14-26.17.1.el7         percona-release-x86_64

• Install the Percona XtraDB Cluster packages:

$ sudo yum install Percona-XtraDB-Cluster-57

• Start the Percona XtraDB Cluster server:

$ sudo service mysql start

• Copy the automatically generated temporary password for the superuser account:

$ sudo grep 'temporary password' /var/log/mysqld.log

• Use this password to login as root:

$ mysql -u root -p

• Change the password for the superuser account and log out. For example:

mysql> ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'root';

Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> exit

Bye

• Stop the mysql service:

$ sudo service mysql stop

Repeat the same Percona XtraDB Cluster installation process for 159.203.118.230 and 138.197.8.226

Configuring nodes

We have to configure separately the nodes 138.197.70.35, 159.203.118.230 and 138.197.8.226 for successfully implementing an fully operational Percona XtraDB Cluster ecosystem.

Configuring the node 138.197.70.35

Configuration file /etc/my.cnf for the first node should look like:

[mysqld]

datadir=/var/lib/mysql

user=mysql

# Path to Galera library

wsrep_provider=/usr/lib64/libgalera_smm.so

# Cluster connection URL contains the IPs of node#1, node#2 and node#3

wsrep_cluster_address=gcomm://138.197.70.35,159.203.118.230,138.197.8.226

# In order for Galera to work correctly binlog format should be ROW

binlog_format=ROW

# MyISAM storage engine has only experimental support

default_storage_engine=InnoDB

# This changes how InnoDB autoincrement locks are managed and is a requirement for Galera

innodb_autoinc_lock_mode=2

# Node #1 address

wsrep_node_address=138.197.70.35

# SST method

wsrep_sst_method=xtrabackup-v2

# Cluster name

wsrep_cluster_name=pxc_cluster

# Authentication for SST method

wsrep_sst_auth="sstuser:sstuser"

The first node can be started with the following command:

# /etc/init.d/mysql bootstrap-pxc

We are using CentOS 7.3 so systemd bootstrap service should be used:

# systemctl start mysql@bootstrap.service

This command will start the cluster with initial wsrep_cluster_address set to gcomm://. This way the cluster will be bootstrapped and in case the node or MySQL have to be restarted later, there would be no need to change the configuration file.

After the first node has been started, cluster status can be checked by:

mysql> show status like 'wsrep%';

+------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------+

| Variable_name               | Value                                                     |

+------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------+

| wsrep_local_state_uuid      | 5ea977b8-0fc0-11e7-8f73-26f60f083bd5                      |

| wsrep_protocol_version      | 7                                                         |

| wsrep_last_committed        | 8                                                         |

| wsrep_replicated            | 4                                                         |

| wsrep_replicated_bytes      | 906                                                       |

| wsrep_repl_keys             | 4                                                         |

| wsrep_repl_keys_bytes       | 124                                                       |

| wsrep_repl_data_bytes       | 526                                                       |

| wsrep_repl_other_bytes      | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_received              | 9                                                         |

| wsrep_received_bytes        | 1181                                                      |

| wsrep_local_commits         | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_local_cert_failures   | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_local_replays         | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_local_send_queue      | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_local_send_queue_max  | 1                                                         |

| wsrep_local_send_queue_min  | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_local_send_queue_avg  | 0.000000                                                  |

| wsrep_local_recv_queue      | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_local_recv_queue_max  | 2                                                         |

| wsrep_local_recv_queue_min  | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_local_recv_queue_avg  | 0.111111                                                  |

| wsrep_local_cached_downto   | 3                                                         |

| wsrep_flow_control_paused_ns | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_flow_control_paused   | 0.000000                                                  |

| wsrep_flow_control_sent     | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_flow_control_recv     | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_flow_control_interval | [ 28, 28 ]                                                |

| wsrep_cert_deps_distance    | 1.000000                                                  |

| wsrep_apply_oooe            | 0.000000                                                  |

| wsrep_apply_oool            | 0.000000                                                  |

| wsrep_apply_window          | 1.000000                                                  |

| wsrep_commit_oooe           | 0.000000                                                  |

| wsrep_commit_oool           | 0.000000                                                  |

| wsrep_commit_window         | 1.000000                                                  |

| wsrep_local_state           | 4                                                         |

| wsrep_local_state_comment   | Synced                                                    |

| wsrep_cert_index_size       | 2                                                         |

| wsrep_cert_bucket_count     | 22                                                        |

| wsrep_gcache_pool_size      | 3128                                                      |

| wsrep_causal_reads          | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_cert_interval         | 0.000000                                                  |

| wsrep_incoming_addresses    | 159.203.118.230:3306,138.197.8.226:3306,138.197.70.35:3306 |

| wsrep_desync_count          | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_evs_delayed           |                                                           |

| wsrep_evs_evict_list        |                                                           |

| wsrep_evs_repl_latency      | 0/0/0/0/0                                                 |

| wsrep_evs_state             | OPERATIONAL                                               |

| wsrep_gcomm_uuid            | b79d90df-1077-11e7-9922-3a1b217f7371                      |

| wsrep_cluster_conf_id       | 3                                                         |

| wsrep_cluster_size          | 3                                                         |

| wsrep_cluster_state_uuid    | 5ea977b8-0fc0-11e7-8f73-26f60f083bd5                      |

| wsrep_cluster_status        | Primary                                                   |

| wsrep_connected             | ON                                                        |

| wsrep_local_bf_aborts       | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_local_index           | 2                                                         |

| wsrep_provider_name         | Galera                                                    |

| wsrep_provider_vendor       | Codership Oy <info@codership.com>                         |

| wsrep_provider_version      | 3.20(r7e383f7)                                            |

| wsrep_ready                 | ON                                                        |

+------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------+

60 rows in set (0.01 sec)

This output above shows that the cluster has been successfully bootstrapped.

In order to perform successful State Snapshot Transfer using XtraBackup new user needs to be set up with proper privileges:

mysql@PXC1> CREATE USER 'sstuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'sstuser';

mysql@PXC1> GRANT PROCESS, RELOAD, LOCK TABLES, REPLICATION CLIENT ON *.* TO 'sstuser'@'localhost';

mysql@PXC1> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Configuration file /etc/my.cnf on the second node (PXC2) should look like this:

[mysqld]

datadir=/var/lib/mysql

user=mysql

# Path to Galera library

wsrep_provider=/usr/lib64/libgalera_smm.so

# Cluster connection URL contains the IPs of node#1, node#2 and node#3

wsrep_cluster_address=gcomm://138.197.70.35,159.203.118.230,138.197.8.226

# In order for Galera to work correctly binlog format should be ROW

binlog_format=ROW

# MyISAM storage engine has only experimental support

default_storage_engine=InnoDB

# This changes how InnoDB autoincrement locks are managed and is a requirement for Galera

innodb_autoinc_lock_mode=2

# Node #2 address

wsrep_node_address=159.203.118.230

# SST method

wsrep_sst_method=xtrabackup-v2

# Cluster name

wsrep_cluster_name=pxc_cluster

# Authentication for SST method

wsrep_sst_auth="sstuser:sstuser"

Second node can be started with the following command:

# systemctl start mysql

Cluster status can now be checked on both nodes. This is the example from the second node (PXC2):

mysql> show status like 'wsrep%';

+------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------+

| Variable_name               | Value                                                     |

+------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------+

| wsrep_local_state_uuid      | 5ea977b8-0fc0-11e7-8f73-26f60f083bd5                      |

| wsrep_protocol_version      | 7                                                         |

| wsrep_last_committed        | 8                                                         |

| wsrep_replicated            | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_replicated_bytes      | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_repl_keys             | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_repl_keys_bytes       | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_repl_data_bytes       | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_repl_other_bytes      | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_received              | 10                                                        |

| wsrep_received_bytes        | 1238                                                      |

| wsrep_local_commits         | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_local_cert_failures   | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_local_replays         | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_local_send_queue      | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_local_send_queue_max  | 1                                                         |

| wsrep_local_send_queue_min  | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_local_send_queue_avg  | 0.000000                                                  |

| wsrep_local_recv_queue      | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_local_recv_queue_max  | 1                                                         |

| wsrep_local_recv_queue_min  | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_local_recv_queue_avg  | 0.000000                                                  |

| wsrep_local_cached_downto   | 6                                                         |

| wsrep_flow_control_paused_ns | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_flow_control_paused   | 0.000000                                                  |

| wsrep_flow_control_sent     | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_flow_control_recv     | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_flow_control_interval | [ 28, 28 ]                                                |

| wsrep_cert_deps_distance    | 1.000000                                                  |

| wsrep_apply_oooe            | 0.000000                                                  |

| wsrep_apply_oool            | 0.000000                                                  |

| wsrep_apply_window          | 1.000000                                                  |

| wsrep_commit_oooe           | 0.000000                                                  |

| wsrep_commit_oool           | 0.000000                                                  |

| wsrep_commit_window         | 1.000000                                                  |

| wsrep_local_state           | 4                                                         |

| wsrep_local_state_comment   | Synced                                                    |

| wsrep_cert_index_size       | 2                                                         |

| wsrep_cert_bucket_count     | 22                                                        |

| wsrep_gcache_pool_size      | 2300                                                      |

| wsrep_causal_reads          | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_cert_interval         | 0.000000                                                  |

| wsrep_incoming_addresses    | 159.203.118.230:3306,138.197.8.226:3306,138.197.70.35:3306 |

| wsrep_desync_count          | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_evs_delayed           |                                                           |

| wsrep_evs_evict_list        |                                                           |

| wsrep_evs_repl_latency      | 0/0/0/0/0                                                 |

| wsrep_evs_state             | OPERATIONAL                                               |

| wsrep_gcomm_uuid            | 248e2782-1078-11e7-a269-4a3ec033a606                      |

| wsrep_cluster_conf_id       | 3                                                         |

| wsrep_cluster_size          | 3                                                         |

| wsrep_cluster_state_uuid    | 5ea977b8-0fc0-11e7-8f73-26f60f083bd5                      |

| wsrep_cluster_status        | Primary                                                   |

| wsrep_connected             | ON                                                        |

| wsrep_local_bf_aborts       | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_local_index           | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_provider_name         | Galera                                                    |

| wsrep_provider_vendor       | Codership Oy <info@codership.com>                         |

| wsrep_provider_version      | 3.20(r7e383f7)                                            |

| wsrep_ready                 | ON                                                        |

+------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------+

60 rows in set (0.00 sec)

This output shows that the new node has been successfully added to the cluster.

MySQL configuration file /etc/my.cnf on the third node (PXC3) should look like this:

[mysqld]

datadir=/var/lib/mysql

user=mysql

# Path to Galera library

wsrep_provider=/usr/lib64/libgalera_smm.so

# Cluster connection URL contains the IPs of node#1, node#2 and node#3

wsrep_cluster_address=gcomm://138.197.70.35,159.203.118.230,138.197.8.226

# In order for Galera to work correctly binlog format should be ROW

binlog_format=ROW

# MyISAM storage engine has only experimental support

default_storage_engine=InnoDB

# This changes how InnoDB autoincrement locks are managed and is a requirement for Galera

innodb_autoinc_lock_mode=2

# Node #3 address

wsrep_node_address=138.197.8.226

# SST method

wsrep_sst_method=xtrabackup-v2

# Cluster name

wsrep_cluster_name=pxc_cluster

# Authentication for SST method

wsrep_sst_auth="sstuser:sstuser"

Third node can now be started with the following command:

# systemctl start mysql

Percona XtraDB Cluster status can now be checked from the third node (PXC3):

mysql> show status like 'wsrep%';

+------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------+

| Variable_name               | Value                                                     |

+------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------+

| wsrep_local_state_uuid      | 5ea977b8-0fc0-11e7-8f73-26f60f083bd5                      |

| wsrep_protocol_version      | 7                                                         |

| wsrep_last_committed        | 8                                                         |

| wsrep_replicated            | 2                                                         |

| wsrep_replicated_bytes      | 396                                                       |

| wsrep_repl_keys             | 2                                                         |

| wsrep_repl_keys_bytes       | 62                                                        |

| wsrep_repl_data_bytes       | 206                                                       |

| wsrep_repl_other_bytes      | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_received              | 4                                                         |

| wsrep_received_bytes        | 529                                                       |

| wsrep_local_commits         | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_local_cert_failures   | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_local_replays         | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_local_send_queue      | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_local_send_queue_max  | 1                                                         |

| wsrep_local_send_queue_min  | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_local_send_queue_avg  | 0.000000                                                  |

| wsrep_local_recv_queue      | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_local_recv_queue_max  | 1                                                         |

| wsrep_local_recv_queue_min  | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_local_recv_queue_avg  | 0.000000                                                  |

| wsrep_local_cached_downto   | 6                                                         |

| wsrep_flow_control_paused_ns | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_flow_control_paused   | 0.000000                                                  |

| wsrep_flow_control_sent     | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_flow_control_recv     | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_flow_control_interval | [ 28, 28 ]                                                |

| wsrep_cert_deps_distance    | 1.000000                                                  |

| wsrep_apply_oooe            | 0.000000                                                  |

| wsrep_apply_oool            | 0.000000                                                  |

| wsrep_apply_window          | 1.000000                                                  |

| wsrep_commit_oooe           | 0.000000                                                  |

| wsrep_commit_oool           | 0.000000                                                  |

| wsrep_commit_window         | 1.000000                                                  |

| wsrep_local_state           | 4                                                         |

| wsrep_local_state_comment   | Synced                                                    |

| wsrep_cert_index_size       | 2                                                         |

| wsrep_cert_bucket_count     | 22                                                        |

| wsrep_gcache_pool_size      | 2166                                                      |

| wsrep_causal_reads          | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_cert_interval         | 0.000000                                                  |

| wsrep_incoming_addresses    | 159.203.118.230:3306,138.197.8.226:3306,138.197.70.35:3306 |

| wsrep_desync_count          | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_evs_delayed           |                                                           |

| wsrep_evs_evict_list        |                                                           |

| wsrep_evs_repl_latency      | 0/0/0/0/0                                                 |

| wsrep_evs_state             | OPERATIONAL                                               |

| wsrep_gcomm_uuid            | 3f51b20e-1078-11e7-8405-8e9b37a37cb1                      |

| wsrep_cluster_conf_id       | 3                                                         |

| wsrep_cluster_size          | 3                                                         |

| wsrep_cluster_state_uuid    | 5ea977b8-0fc0-11e7-8f73-26f60f083bd5                      |

| wsrep_cluster_status        | Primary                                                   |

| wsrep_connected             | ON                                                        |

| wsrep_local_bf_aborts       | 0                                                         |

| wsrep_local_index           | 1                                                         |

| wsrep_provider_name         | Galera                                                    |

| wsrep_provider_vendor       | Codership Oy <info@codership.com>                         |

| wsrep_provider_version      | 3.20(r7e383f7)                                            |

| wsrep_ready                 | ON                                                        |

+------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------+

60 rows in set (0.03 sec)

This output confirms that the third node has joined the cluster.

Testing Replication

Creating the new database on the PXC1 node:

mysql> create database minervadb;

Query OK, 1 row affected (0.01 sec)

Creating the example table on the PXC2 node:

mysql> use minervadb;

Database changed

mysql> CREATE TABLE example (node_id INT PRIMARY KEY, node_name VARCHAR(30));

Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.01 sec)

Inserting records on the PXC3 node:

mysql> INSERT INTO minervadb.example VALUES (1, 'MinervaDB');

Query OK, 1 row affected (0.07 sec)

Retrieving all the rows from that table on the PXC1 node:

mysql> select * from minervadb.example;

+---------+-----------+

| node_id | node_name |

+---------+-----------+

|      1 | MinervaDB |

+---------+-----------+

1 row in set (0.00 sec)

 

The post Installation and configuration of Percona XtraDB Cluster on CentOS 7.3 appeared first on MySQL Consulting, Support and Remote DBA Services.

This summer, I have been working as an intern at a company called Switch Science in Tokyo, Japan. I am writing about my experience here in the form of blog posts, and you can find my first post here.

On Thursday last week, I was given a thermal camera to work with along with my M5Stack. My goal was to connect them together and display the thermal data in the form of a picture on the M5Stack’s screen. The thermal camera was called the MLX90640 by Melexis. After briefly reading about it, I was confident that I knew where to connect the wires and which I2C address to use, but I quickly realized that the size of the pins on the thermal camera were too small to connect to the wires’ pins. Although I could plug them into each other, the connection would only work properly half of the time. So my coworker Kazunori helped me by cutting the end of the wires and soldering them straight to the camera’s pins. It seemed to connect well, and I continued trying to figure out how to display the data from it.

Then, Monday morning, the camera suddenly stopped connecting. I spent a few hours trying to figure this out on my own before I asked Kazu for help. He suggested we try to connect a different camera, but no cigar. We also tried a different Arduino sketch made by a different person, but it also didn’t work. Eventually, we tried using a different, brand new M5Stack, and it connected!

But then a few minutes later it stopped connecting again.

Due to this issue having already taken a full work day and being pretty inconsistent, I decided to quit the project and start something new.

On Tuesday, I got to the office wondering what to work on. I opened my backpack to grab my stuff, and saw both my old M5Stack and my new one from Monday. This gave me the idea to make a game involving both M5Stacks. I decided to create a simple Rock Paper Scissors game where players would each select their option on their M5Stack and then the screen would display who won. Truth be told, I was a bit cocky and thought I could finish this project in just one work day, but this was not the case.

I worked with my M5Stack and my computer’s serial port in order to simulate the other player’s M5Stack because it was easier than continuously uploading new code, unplugging the M5Stack, uploading it to the second M5Stack, unplugging that one, and then plugging them to each other. I’d rather just run it while it was still connected to my computer and then simulate the other M5Stack manually on Arduino’s serial port. Therefore, at the end of the day, when I thought my game was working great, I was a bit surprised to see that when I uploaded the code to both devices and played them against each other, it was an absolute mess.

I honestly cannot describe what the error was that prevented my game from working, as I think there were many. I was overwhelmed to say the least, and the next day I was not very motivated to figure this out. I got a bit of work done, but I was tired and it went slowly. At least I got it from looking like a meme of sorts to being coherent, although still not what I wanted. Some values would persist even after the round ended and all variables were supposed to be reset, but nothing was consistent. For example, sometimes you could choose rock, paper, or scissors, and it would tell you if you won or lost without the opponent even picking their choice yet. Other times, the opponent’s status would read as “READY” from the beginning of the round (it should only turn to “READY” after the opponent makes their choice), and then when you picked your choice it would just continue saying “READY” instead of revealing the opponent’s choice.

Then, this morning, I decided I was going to finish making this game before lunchtime. I did quite a bit of stuff, but by the end, the trick was to make a “value monitor” and add it to my reset function that ran before / after each round.

I was finally able to see that the “oppChoice” integer (if the other player chose rock, paper, or scissors) would continue switching values between your choice and the other players choice after the first round, even when the reset function played. This was because the serial input (“mailbox[0]”) kept on reading these values off when it should not have. I was finally able to acknowledge and fix this issue (it would take another few paragraphs to explain, and I’ll save you that catastrophe) and the game finally WORKED! (See photo at top of this post.)

I am not saying it is perfect, as the player must hold down their choice for a second for it to register and the results are not well centered, but I will continue to fix these issues and get my project to the best state that it can be in, even if it is just Rock Paper Scissors.

I will continue to post about my internship in the near future! Thanks for sticking around.

A team of researchers examined 2,101 commercial experiments facilitated by A/B splitting tools like Google Optimize, Mixpanel, Monetate and Optimizely and used regression analysis to detect whether p-hacking (previously), a statistical cheating technique that makes it look like you've found a valid cause-and-effect relationship when you haven't, had taken place. (more…)

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These putty-colored pumps by Maison Margiela ($825) are described as "cloven toe." I might be 12, but wouldn't a better description be "camel toe"? A similarly racy shoe is available in red for $1080.

Thanks, Caroline B.!

An FBI agent was showing off his dance moves at a Denver bar on Saturday, but when he did a backflip, his gun flew out of his holster. When he grabbed it off the ground, it fired into the crowd that was watching him and hit a patron in the leg.

According to CNN:

One person was struck in the lower leg but is expected to survive, Denver police said.

Authorities have not identified the agent because he was not arrested, Denver police community resource officer Marika Putnam said.

Denver police will continue investigating the incident, and the district attorney's office will determine whether charges will be filed against the agent.

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Spanish politics have been a mess for a decade, since the financial crisis triggered brutal austerity that gutted Spanish services and quality of life to ensure that bondholders did not suffer an interruption in debt service; then came the Catalan independence vote, the violent suppression of same, then Madrid seized control over the autonomous region of Catalonia. (more…)

If you're tired of dropping anchor offshore and having to take a dinghy or worse from your yacht to the beach, the Iguana Yacht may be for you. It has a tank-like continuous track system built into the ship's hull, allowing the operator to go from sea to land without scratching up the bottom of the boat. (more…)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Google is drawing up a set of guidelines that will steer its involvement in developing AI tools for the military, according to a report from The New York Times. What exactly these guidelines will stipulate isn't clear, but Google says they will include a ban on the use of artificial intelligence in weaponry. The principles are expected to be announced in full in the coming weeks. They are a response to the controversy over the company's decision to develop AI tools for the Pentagon that analyze drone surveillance footage. Internal emails obtained by the Times show that Google was aware of the upset this news might cause. Chief scientist at Google Cloud, Fei-Fei Li, told colleagues that they should "avoid at ALL COSTS any mention or implication of AI" when announcing the Pentagon contract. "Weaponized AI is probably one of the most sensitized topics of AI -- if not THE most. This is red meat to the media to find all ways to damage Google," said Li. But Google never ended up making the announcement, and it has since been on the back foot defending its decision. The company says the technology it's helping to build for the Pentagon simply "flags images for human review" and is for "non-offensive uses only." The contract is also small by industry standards -- worth just $9 million to Google, according to the Times.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

This Arduino clone starter kit, at $28.34 on Amazon, is a really good deal. Besides the Arduino Uno clone itself, it has a full size solderless breadboard, a servo motor, a power supply, a distance sensor, a DC motor, jumper wires, a 4-digit 7-segment display, a stepper motor, a joystick, transistors, resistors, and a lot more. It comes in a nice plastic carrying case, too.

Audiofan writes: Will the new YouTube Music streaming service provide the soundtrack to your life? Google believes that its ability to harness the power of artificial intelligence will help the new service catch up to its rivals in the music streaming business. Google's latest attempt to compete with Spotify and Apple Music may finally have what it takes if it doesn't creep users out in the process. While the service officially rolls out on Tuesday, May 22nd, only some users will be able to use it at launch. What separates YouTube's music streaming service from the competition is its catalog of remixes, live versions, and covers of official versions of songs. It also uses the Google Assistant to make music recommendations based on everything it knows (and can learn) about you and your listening habits. "When you arrive at the gym, for example, YouTube Music will offer up a playlist of hard-hitting pump-up jams (if that's your thing)," reports Audioholics. "Late at night, softer tunes will set a more relaxing mood." YouTube Music is free with ads, but will cost $9.99 for ad-free listening. There is also YouTube Premium, which will cost $11.99 per month, and will include both the ad-free music service and the exclusive video content from the now-defunct YouTube Red.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A kindergarten teacher noticed a small plastic bag in one of her student's mouths. The girl was chewing on the bag, thinking the white stuff inside was sugar – but it was actually crack cocaine.

Luckily the teacher, at Mastery Charter Hardy Williams Elementary school in southwest Philadelphia, grabbed the bag before the girl had broken through the plastic. She thought it looked like drugs and called the police. When she asked where the kindergartner got the bag, the girl said she found it in another student's backpack.

According to USA Today:

In a statement, the school, Mastery Charter Hardy Williams Elementary, said both children were taken to the nurse's office "where it was determined there was no evidence either of the students had ingested the substance."

Police said the nurse cleared the children and a school resource officer sent them home. Meanwhile, detectives began to investigate.

The school looked through the belongings of every student in the class but didn't find anything else.

Image: Argv0 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

In this episode of Periodic Videos, professor Sir Martyn Poliakoff from the School of Chemistry at The University of Nottingham describes the process of making a spoon from an alloy that melts in a cup of hot tea. The alloy is called Field's Alloy and it has a melting temperature of 62 °C (144 °F). It was named after its inventor, Simon Quellen Field of SciToys and is made from bismuth, lead, and tin. Here's Simon's article about the alloy.

If you are an oligarch or criminal looking to exfiltrate and launder your money, London property markets have been your go-to asset class: London lux is real-estate that behaves like cash, thanks to the long line of oligarchs and criminals who'll pay cash for your safe-deposit box in the sky on a few hours' notice, should you need to liquidate ahead of a purge or an indictment. (more…)

Investors have sent $1 billion into digital coin projects that flash warning signs for fraud, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. The revelation comes a day after the SEC created its own fake ICO to teach investors a lesson. From a report: In a review of 1,450 digital coin offerings, the Journal said it found 271 bore red flags such as plagiarized documents or fake executive information. Investors have already claimed losses of up to $273 million in these projects, the newspaper said, according to lawsuits and regulatory actions. The coin sales, or "initial coin offerings," give investors the chance to buy into a new digital token while letting developers get easy access to funding. The process may be a little too easy for many projects that are unproven or outright scams. Coin offerings have raised roughly $9.8 billion in the two years through mid-March, according to financial research firm Autonomous Next. The Journal found widespread plagiarism in 111 projects' online whitepapers, including word-for-word copies of marketing plans and technical features.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

I’ve used Finger Pro self-adhering finger tape for several years, but not for its intended purpose. I suffer from dermatillomania which, in layman’s terms, means that I’m a nervous picker. When undergoing stress, I find that I pick at the skin around my fingernails, often to the point of making it bleed. And once it’s picked, it’s harder to stop picking at the skin.

I can’t remember how I discovered Finger Pro, but it’s mainly marketed as a finger protection tape for jewelers who work with files or abrasive wheels. It’s self-adhering, so doesn’t stick to your skin but can be securely wrapped around your digits. It molds to the shape of your fingers and, as long as you don’t wrap it too tight, is comfortable to wear. The tape is woven fabric with a “sticky” element that helps it to adhere to itself, but not other stuff that you touch. Even so, it can also aid with gripping things — tightly-sealed jam jars quiver at the sight of it!

The only downsides I’ve discovered are that Finger Pro is (as far as I can see) only available in green, which makes it a bit obvious when half my fingers are strapped up. A more neutral shade would be preferable. Also, after a few hours of use with my Logitech MX Master 2S mouse (another cool tool!), there can sometimes be a slight sticky residue where the tape has been resting against the rubber of the mouse. But it’s no real bother, you can gently rub it off.

-- Andrew Biddle

Finger Pro Protective Wrap Tape

https://youtu.be/r-3iathMo7o

Unbox Therapy built this intense gaming cockpit around a Xidax PC, LG 42.5" monitors, the Imperator Workstation Game Chair with massage features, and other components totaling around $30,000. I especially appreciate the "snack cart."

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Been wondering what is happening on Filipino television? Wonder no more. They're dressing up pre-pubescent boys to look like The Bee Gees and then having them cover the band's 1979 hit, "Too Much Heaven."

I kid you not. Just look:

This clip is from Your Face Sounds Familiar, a show that features celebrities impersonating singers. When not in disco clothes, the trio of young men -- Francis Concepcion, Mackie Empuerto and Kiefer Sanchez -- are in their own band called the TNT Boys. They recently made an appearance on the UK edition of Little Big Shots.

Incidentally, TNT stands for Tawag ng Tanghalan which is the amateur singing competition show where they were discovered.

Their performance reminded me of this video of Echo, that 7-year-old Filipino boy from a few year's back who sang "More Than a Woman" with his dad.

An organization for sexual enthusiasts called Menage Life is planning to break the record for the world's biggest orgy. The current record was established in 2006 in Tokyo when 500 people congregated to copulate. The Las Vegas orgy will take place at the Embassy Suites on June 2, and Menage Life is aiming for at least 1,000 participants. From Las Vegas Weekly:

Players must purchase an appropriate Sin City 8 pass (for the orgy, couples are $200 and single women are $25) and arrive with a registered partner (no single men are allowed) and photo ID before getting down. And mutual consent will be strictly enforced by onlooking security officers “who are members of the lifestyle,” according to the website. Those making advances without permission or failing to heed the word “no” will be removed from the premises.

Participants will also receive free condoms, lubricants, towels, hand sanitizer and other sex complements, with event organizers promising a clean space with clearly marked and separate receptacles for waste and linen disposal. Menage Life will also distribute masquerade party-style masks for those requiring discretion, setting the stage for a giant, Eyes Wide Shut-like fantasia.

You likely read about "Mad" Mike Hughes in the news last year – you know, when you weren't busy stockpiling canned goods and potassium Iodide tablets to help deal with the existential dread that's currently gripping the planet. Hughes is the flat-earth loving, paradoxical science-hating DIY rocket designer who stated that he'd blast himself into the sky in a steam-powered, homemade rocket to prove that the earth isn't round.

That was a mouthful, but there's a lot going on here.

The first time that Hughes attempted to fire himself into the air in a blaze of Darwinism, the Department of Land Management shut him down, as his flight path would have taken him into the airspace over public lands. So, Hughes scrubbed the launch. Yesterday, he took another go.

According to the Associated Press, Hughes's steam-powered death chair was able to carry him to a distance of 1,875 into the air before he and his capsule floated back to earth, in relative safety, via parachute. When questioned about how he was feeling after surviving his flight, Hughes seemed happy that it was over and done with, citing that his back hurt, but over all he felt relieved that it was over.

No matter what you believe about Hughes' beliefs about the shape of the earth, of the lunacy it takes to strap yourself to the tip of a homemade rocket, you've got to respect that he pulled it off. Maybe he didn't gain as much altitude as he'd wanted. Yes, he failed to prove the earth was flat, round, or any other shape. But dammit, he built a frigging steam-powered rocket, rode it into the sky, and then lived to talk about it. That's one hell of a thing.

It's a little late to get one for this ugly Christmas, but keep this sweater customizer by Ugly Christmas Sweater in mind for all your future ugly holiday needs.

You start by picking out the sweater's color. You have 10 choices ranging from hot pink to black. Then you pick the overall pattern which is mostly trees and snowflakes. After that is when you can add your own creative (and hopefully subversive) touch.

The cost? $67.95 plus shipping.