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Showing posts from September, 2014

Games I own and never finished

Many people will play several video games intermittently, and may well leave some of them unfinished (or in a perpetual state of "I'll finish it some day." ) I don't do that. When I start a game, I generally play it through before going to another game (at least on the same system.) I don't like leaving games unfinished. (Also, while I don't outright rush through games, I don't really willingly prolong them for as long as possible either.) Even if a game is bad or boring, I really hate leaving it unfinished, so I generally play it through before uninstalling it and going to the next game. Thus it's quite rare that I leave a game unfinished. There usually has to be a reason for it. Many times it's simply because the game outright bores me out of my skull, but that's not always the reason. Sometimes it isn't even that the game is bad. Just for the fun of it, I'll list here games I have left unfinished (and will probably never finish)

Why net neutrality is crucial

"Net neutrality" means that service providers and other companies who are in the business of transferring internet traffic from one place to another, have a completely neutral stance on what is transferred from where and to where. They do not give special treatment to data coming from or going to specific internet domains. They just transmit data from place A to place B, and that's it. Everybody is treated equally. Why is net neutrality important for end users? There are many reasons, but one of the most important ones is that it keeps prices down. In other words, you, as an end user, end up paying less for online services, such as for example online video rental services. Why? Because net neutrality ensures healthy competition between companies. All companies are on equal footing when it comes to online services. Companies compete with each other with amount and quality of content, rather than the amount of lag that you experience when you access their online service

Buying an unused product from a friend

How many times has this happened to you: You have bought a product, but it turns out you have no use for it after all. Thus you would like to sell it to a friend or acquaintance. The product is completely unused, unopened in its original package, and exactly like new, and you have the receipt and possible warranty papers. Yet no acquaintance is willing to pay the full original price for it. They always want a significant price reduction. But why? This seems to be a very strange instinct that 99% of people have, and I suspect that in one form or another it's something that corporations have in one way or another succeeded in implanting into people's minds. Or, at the very least, are very happy about. For some reason this instinct is so strong, that most people would prefer to buy the product directly from the shop than from a friend, unless they get a price reduction, even though this makes absolutely no logical sense. It doesn't matter if the product is completely u

Gamma correction

In imaging, especially in computer imaging, gamma correction is something that both gets largely ignored, and can be a real nightmare at the same time. In order to fully understand gamma correction, we need to understand how human vision, as well as display devices, work. Our perception of brightness is dependent on the amount of energy carried by light. In other words, the more energetic the light is, the brighter it looks. However, the relationship is not linear. One could hastily think that if we double the amount of energy, it will look twice as bright. However, the human eye doesn't work that way. Doubling the amount of energy does not double the perceived brightness. The actual function is quite complex. Thus we have two different concepts: The absolute amount of energy carried by light. The technical term for this is radiant flux . The perceived brightness of the light. The technical term for this is luminous flux . (Yes, it's confusing.) As said, the relatio