"Extra Credits" on gaming Difficulty and Fun

Couple of very good discussions on gaming, IIRC Extra Credits is associated with Penny Arcade, http://penny-arcade.com/, in some fashion.

Direct link for Youtube above http://youtu.be/BWFzFsHc75U
Link for Extra Credits Youtube Channel http://www.youtube.com/user/ExtraCreditz/featured

They do an exceptional job of articulating some of the differences in games and gamers.

Stuff I'd understood, but never heard clearly stated before, I know I much prefer games of Depth, as they term it, big part of the reason I still like Diablo 2 but can't stand Diablo 3.

Or Chess vs Checkers.

Difficulty isn't the motivator, or at least not the sole motivator, I also like Minecraft.

Worth watching if your into gaming, and very worth following IMHO.

Twitter and more info for them is available on their Youtube Channel.




Link for VOD http://youtu.be/ea6UuRTjkKs

TwitchTV status site or "Is TwitchTV down?"

This site isn't part of Twitch, but they monitor Twitch server status

http://twitchstatus.com/

Some of you may already be familiar with it, but probably not everyone.

Cliff's Esport Corner SITREP

As many of you have noticed, I haven't had many posts lately.

IRL stuff, my significant other had some surgery, and needed help 24/7 for some time afterwards.

Very happy to say that everything went very well for her, and that she is recovering quickly, though not quickly enough to make her happy ^_^

Things are to the point where I can start posting regular again, though it will probably start slowly and build back up to normal pace.

I didn't get to follow CES 2014 news very closely, so I would welcome anything of interest or comment about that, either in comment section or on Twitter @CliffsEsport or link https://twitter.com/CliffsEsport

I have been following the Target Credit Card Hack with great interest though, working on blog post about it, but can strongly reccomend Brian Krebs articles on it http://krebsonsecurity.com/2014/01/a-first-look-at-the-target-intrusion-malware/

IIRC Brian was the one that broke the story originally, http://krebsonsecurity.com/2013/12/sources-target-investigating-data-breach/, I remember seeing his Tweet about his Mom being interviewed about it at Target, while my girlfriend was still in the hospital.

Thanks to all my readers!

And a special thanks to everyone who offered good wishes, support, & prayers for my girlfriend's surgery & recovery, it was greatly appreciated by both of us!

Nerd News: Ars is hiring

Ars is hiring:  http://arstechnica.com/staff/2014/01/ars-is-hiring-a-senior-editor-and-two-technology-reportersreviewers/

As much as possible I try to post about job openings that I think Nerds would be interested in, certain many Nerds would like to work at Ars.

Full information at Ars link above, sounds like these are new positions (Ars is expanding their staff) based on response to comments.

GL HF

Nerd News: NSA & GCHQ so BM

"NSA and GCHQ collect gamers' chats and deploy real-life agents into World of Warcraft and Second Life"  ~http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/09/nsa-spies-online-games-world-warcraft-second-life

NSA document [PDF], written in 2008 and titled Exploiting Terrorist Use of Games & Virtual Environments http://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2013/dec/09/nsa-files-games-virtual-environments-paper-pdf

The Guardian broke this story along with NYT & ProPublica:

• http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/10/world/spies-dragnet-reaches-a-playing-field-of-elves-and-trolls.html
• http://www.propublica.org/article/world-of-spycraft-intelligence-agencies-spied-in-online-games

Excellent TEDTalk | Conrad Wolfram: Teaching kids real math with computers

Transcript for those that prefer speed of reading (like me), or have bandwidth issues:  

• HTML/webpage http://computerbasedmath.org/resources/reforming-math-curriculum-with-computers.html
• PDF  http://computerbasedmath.org/resources/Education_talk_transcript.pdf
• Additional information http://computerbasedmath.org/resources.html 

Really good presentation.

He clearly articulates several thoughts I have had about this issue myself, as well as providing some additional insights.

Neat tool: Wolfram Alpha Integral Calculator

http://integrals.wolfram.com/index.jsp

Really slick.

I'll have to play with this some, though I am sure many already know about it, I just discovered it today.

Srinivasa Ramanujan (Mathematical Genius) Random Wikipedia of the Day RWotD

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srinivasa_Ramanujan

Stumbled on this today, really impressive mathematician!

Sad that he died so young.

Random Wikipedia of the Day (RWotD): Church Committee

A lot of people concerned about NSA because of Edward Snowden may not be familiar with the Church Committee, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_Committee.

The Church Committee was a US Senate Committee that looked into illeagal spying by the NSA, FBI, & CIA back in 1975.

I was reminded of it when I read this Gawker article http://gawker.com/after-30-years-of-silence-the-original-nsa-whistleblow-1454865018 on Perry Fellwock (aka Winslow Peck), a former NSA employee turned Whistleblower back in 1971 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Fellwock.

To see more post like this, just click on the Random Wikipedia of the Day RWotD label, more labels can be found in cloud at left side of blog and at bottom left of every post.

Nerd News: TorGuard VPN with Chutzpah

Amusing and interesting article on Ars (though 4chan party van meme is used incorrectly) http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/11/how-one-site-beat-back-botnets-spammers-and-the-4chan-party-van/ about TorGuard, a VPN provider, http://torguard.net/.

Full disclosure:  I have not received any monetary or other compensation from TorGuard, though I am certainly interested in such, since I really admire their Chutzpah!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chutzpah