The Small Rants Thread, Continued...

[StreamOfTheSky]

I hate that people with Masters or higher degrees and/or 5-10 years of experience, can apply for entry level jobs, but those who already have their bachelors degree but no relevant work experience (ie, actual entry level) are not allowed to apply for internships and co-ops.

I hate that my being out of school for several years now basically poisons any chance of actually getting a job in my field, yet the fact I have an engineering degree means I have to explain myself and why I want [whatever job] whenever I apply for a nontechnical job and my degree likely gets most of my resume submissions thrown in the trash.

[X-Codes]

Well, it depends a lot on what it's being used for and what values of t are expected. The deviation starts getting pretty significant for t>100 or so (exp(0.06*100)=403 vs. exp[ln(1.06)*100]=339, relative error ~19%). But again, I've no idea what it's for, so it's hard to tell.

6% Compound interest.  The former is continuously compounded interest, the latter is interest compounded every [time unit].  The latter is also more commonly expressed as...

P(t) = P₀(1+0.06/n)^nt

Where t is the number of years, and n is the number of times per year the interest is compunded (1 for annually, 2 for semi-annually, 4 for quarterly, 12 for monthly).  Although, I don't like this formula because it's specific to finance.  It's useless for stuff like population growth rates.

It gets really freaking absurd when you look at some of the questions.  If you invest money that makes 6% a year, that's the compounded per [time unit] formula.  If you invest money at 6% continuously, that's the continuously compounded formula.

[Tshern]

I am sorry, I am not willing to elaborate on this before I know more, but I need to say this. Fuck.

[SorO_Lost]

Assassin's Creed Revelations.

• Now with 30% more bugs!. Recall the running hidden blade kill at the edge of a building would sometimes glich up and make Ezio kind of rubber band for a split second and fall of the edge? We fixed it, now sometimes you can tackle the guy unto the air and both of you will fall once the animation is over.
• Ezio is an old man and less agile now! Or at least their's our excuse for increasing the delays on some actions.
• Hated the guards from the first game? Awesome, we brought them back. Running past a templar means you piss all of them off.
• Like the notoriety free items you could earn two games ago but didn't put in the next? Yeah this game we made is so buying shops, buying equipment, sending Assassins on missions, and even killing none templar people (there is another guard faction) all increase notoriety. Also no posters, heralds are -25% not -50%, all stab that guy to reduce notoriety people have at least two guards next to them and the system summons new ones for taking longer than two seconds making killing them a worthless loss of time. You're also automatically red for each area to free from templar control, and being red for five minutes forces you to participate in a lame minigame found in at least a half dozen releases on Newgounds and forty or so on Kongregate.
• Our game has bombs, bombs bomb bombs, over 300 bombs in our tagline! PS, either you craft these things or find like the one vendor in the entire city you play in for 60% of the game. Oh, and 300 bombs? More like 10 unless another 290 show up at the end, and you can only carry one type at a time so who the fuck cares.
• Upgrade the engine? Why the hell would we? Intuitive controls are for the people that get pissed as Ezio for jumping from a rooftop to land on a rail and then waste time trying to get down from that only to leap onto something else. We absolutely love to jerk the camera around so forward/up becomes left to flip on a ladder instead of climbing it, hope you're not being chased by the 12 guards we spawned because one seen you run past him ^_^
• Mindsight! D&D players love it, so we gave it to our guards. If you enter a Templar region bent on murdering the leader, simply running into a group of NPCs is enough to make the Templar guy flee and vanish for the next hour. It doesn't matter if you fell or if a guard seen you, the guy is on an auto leave timer the moment you step in.
• Hey you know what's worse than those archers? Guys with guns that deal even more damage, standing behind our highest number of spawned guards per encounter ever. And just for the hell of it, we put some of them in boxes so you can only shoot them back. thanks to our award winning fuck the button you press controls, the only way to walk faster than the guy shooting you is to drop out of combat and you just won't be doing that if you know what I mean.
• Our last improvement was Eagle Vision, now you can see the red line that prespawned guard with preset paths walk on. since we ditched the Triangle = Head concept, we bound it to the very button you mash when you're pissed off at the retard on screen. L3 swaps between the views and it takes a second to load, during which all you have is a black screen and the sound of your ass getting kicked. Of course, being hit in this moment of unexpected blindness forces you out of it so more black screen of fun!
• We did improve our ability to know which button you pressed twelves seconds ago. So if you let go of X to stop free running and Ezio starts running up a wall anyway, pressing O now will be remembered and if you press it again when Ezio is grabbing the wall, he'll let go from the press before and regrab the wall at the next moment he can. Thats right, you're average gamer could probably tap out every button press needed to complete something in a split second, but we're going to ignore them unless it's fucking inconvenient for doing so.

Hope you like our 4th generation games improvements. Another seven more and maybe we'll look at Batman and see what we can learn from it.

[Agita]

Well, it depends a lot on what it's being used for and what values of t are expected. The deviation starts getting pretty significant for t>100 or so (exp(0.06*100)=403 vs. exp[ln(1.06)*100]=339, relative error ~19%). But again, I've no idea what it's for, so it's hard to tell.

6% Compound interest.  The former is continuously compounded interest, the latter is interest compounded every [time unit].  The latter is also more commonly expressed as...

P(t) = P₀(1+0.06/n)^nt

Where t is the number of years, and n is the number of times per year the interest is compunded (1 for annually, 2 for semi-annually, 4 for quarterly, 12 for monthly).  Although, I don't like this formula because it's specific to finance.  It's useless for stuff like population growth rates.

It gets really freaking absurd when you look at some of the questions.  If you invest money that makes 6% a year, that's the compounded per [time unit] formula.  If you invest money at 6% continuously, that's the continuously compounded formula.

Ah, that explains a lot. It's been a while since I had to do compound interest at school, and back then we used the more common formula.
It also explains why a only businessman would come up with that. It's all for money, of course.

[Sinfire Titan]

Assassin's Creed Revelations.

• Now with 30% more bugs!. Recall the running hidden blade kill at the edge of a building would sometimes glich up and make Ezio kind of rubber band for a split second and fall of the edge? We fixed it, now sometimes you can tackle the guy unto the air and both of you will fall once the animation is over.
• Ezio is an old man and less agile now! Or at least their's our excuse for increasing the delays on some actions.
• Hated the guards from the first game? Awesome, we brought them back. Running past a templar means you piss all of them off.
• Like the notoriety free items you could earn two games ago but didn't put in the next? Yeah this game we made is so buying shops, buying equipment, sending Assassins on missions, and even killing none templar people (there is another guard faction) all increase notoriety. Also no posters, heralds are -25% not -50%, all stab that guy to reduce notoriety people have at least two guards next to them and the system summons new ones for taking longer than two seconds making killing them a worthless loss of time. You're also automatically red for each area to free from templar control, and being red for five minutes forces you to participate in a lame minigame found in at least a half dozen releases on Newgounds and forty or so on Kongregate.
• Our game has bombs, bombs bomb bombs, over 300 bombs in our tagline! PS, either you craft these things or find like the one vendor in the entire city you play in for 60% of the game. Oh, and 300 bombs? More like 10 unless another 290 show up at the end, and you can only carry one type at a time so who the fuck cares.
• Upgrade the engine? Why the hell would we? Intuitive controls are for the people that get pissed as Ezio for jumping from a rooftop to land on a rail and then waste time trying to get down from that only to leap onto something else. We absolutely love to jerk the camera around so forward/up becomes left to flip on a ladder instead of climbing it, hope you're not being chased by the 12 guards we spawned because one seen you run past him ^_^
• Mindsight! D&D players love it, so we gave it to our guards. If you enter a Templar region bent on murdering the leader, simply running into a group of NPCs is enough to make the Templar guy flee and vanish for the next hour. It doesn't matter if you fell or if a guard seen you, the guy is on an auto leave timer the moment you step in.
• Hey you know what's worse than those archers? Guys with guns that deal even more damage, standing behind our highest number of spawned guards per encounter ever. And just for the hell of it, we put some of them in boxes so you can only shoot them back. thanks to our award winning fuck the button you press controls, the only way to walk faster than the guy shooting you is to drop out of combat and you just won't be doing that if you know what I mean.
• Our last improvement was Eagle Vision, now you can see the red line that prespawned guard with preset paths walk on. since we ditched the Triangle = Head concept, we bound it to the very button you mash when you're pissed off at the retard on screen. L3 swaps between the views and it takes a second to load, during which all you have is a black screen and the sound of your ass getting kicked. Of course, being hit in this moment of unexpected blindness forces you out of it so more black screen of fun!
• We did improve our ability to know which button you pressed twelves seconds ago. So if you let go of X to stop free running and Ezio starts running up a wall anyway, pressing O now will be remembered and if you press it again when Ezio is grabbing the wall, he'll let go from the press before and regrab the wall at the next moment he can. Thats right, you're average gamer could probably tap out every button press needed to complete something in a split second, but we're going to ignore them unless it's fucking inconvenient for doing so.

Hope you like our 4th generation games improvements. Another seven more and maybe we'll look at Batman and see what we can learn from it.

The only thing you listed that actually bothers me is the Eagle Vision changes. It now requires you to stand still in order to start it up.

Everything else was easily ignored.

[veekie]

Well, it depends a lot on what it's being used for and what values of t are expected. The deviation starts getting pretty significant for t>100 or so (exp(0.06*100)=403 vs. exp[ln(1.06)*100]=339, relative error ~19%). But again, I've no idea what it's for, so it's hard to tell.

6% Compound interest.  The former is continuously compounded interest, the latter is interest compounded every [time unit].  The latter is also more commonly expressed as...

P(t) = P₀(1+0.06/n)^nt

Where t is the number of years, and n is the number of times per year the interest is compunded (1 for annually, 2 for semi-annually, 4 for quarterly, 12 for monthly).  Although, I don't like this formula because it's specific to finance.  It's useless for stuff like population growth rates.

It gets really freaking absurd when you look at some of the questions.  If you invest money that makes 6% a year, that's the compounded per [time unit] formula.  If you invest money at 6% continuously, that's the continuously compounded formula.

Ah, that explains a lot. It's been a while since I had to do compound interest at school, and back then we used the more common formula.
It also explains why a only businessman would come up with that. It's all for money, of course.

I actually did something for that while on internship.

Every goddamn bank uses a different rounding method. :<

[Agita]

I actually did something for that while on internship.

Every goddamn bank uses a different rounding method. :<

Geez. See, this is what happens when making money is more important than doing science.

To the mentioned banks: It's called conventions, folks. Look it up.

[veekie]

Try rounding at different parts of the calculation(all of which must be real numbers because real values are being exchanged), different rounding rates for different types of customers, dealing with banks that counts a year as 365.25 days, banks that process the +1 every leap year(which also leads to variant cash totals) and some weirdass one that counts a year as 360 days.

[SorO_Lost]

The only thing you listed that actually bothers me is the Eagle Vision changes. It now requires you to stand still in order to start it up.

Everything else was easily ignored.

Admit ably a huge chunk of it was disappointments. No real engine improvements, part the notary set back seems to be intended as an anti-hide-and-turn-off-the-TV-for-an-hour to break resources so easily (I owned everything sold by the 3rd section ^_^).

300 bombs really amount to distract with sound/smoke/wtf-ever-coal-does, kill with shrapnel/gas, hell there is a triple inflation to the total number of bombs just by offering changes in the explosion radius. You want to snipe someone in AC, you don't throw a tiny explosive, you shoot them in the face. You want bombs to blow the shit out of a group of them. Functionally, most of the bomb types don't matter either. If you toss from stealth the timed ones work fine and after being seen and chased can be dropped at your feet without blowing you up. Really impact is just for mimicing the old smoke bombs which as still way cooler than, say splashing them with blood since it prevents being shot and lasts longer. Also every time you open the craft menu you are given supplies for three smoke bombs so I mean what's it going to be?

They are tossing more guards at you, probably because you can blow them up now. And the newer handling of hostile takeovers doesn't mean to can sit there and pick everyone off like you could before and it's far far far easier just to run as fast as you can to the guy. In fact, the game really is centered on exploiting bombs, just run up to the guy and drop a couple in the area, bam bam everyone is dead but you.

It's just, to summarize. Last two games were all about giving you bonuses, expanding on things, this one trims back and gives you penalties. Like the Altair sections notably strip you of everything you have or could have obtained. At least Arkham City let us upgrade Catwomen.

[Agita]

Try rounding at different parts of the calculation(all of which must be real numbers because real values are being exchanged), different rounding rates for different types of customers, dealing with banks that counts a year as 365.25 days, banks that process the +1 every leap year(which also leads to variant cash totals) and some weirdass one that counts a year as 360 days.

What has finance done to math? My poor, poor math...

[RobbyPants]

I have discovered at work that once I say something and my boss responds, she'd done listening to me. I get exactly one chance to plead my case, and if it takes much longer than ten or fifteen seconds, she stops listing.

It looks like I need to break every issue into tiny, discrete chunks.

[Basket Burner]

I have discovered at work that once I say something and my boss responds, she'd done listening to me. I get exactly one chance to plead my case, and if it takes much longer than ten or fifteen seconds, she stops listing.

It looks like I need to break every issue into tiny, discrete chunks.

I don't know you or your boss, but I get annoyed when people take forever to get to the point or keep talking after the point has been made. The matter is done, why are they still talking?

It's possible that she is thinking along the same lines.

[Mooncrow]

I have discovered at work that once I say something and my boss responds, she'd done listening to me. I get exactly one chance to plead my case, and if it takes much longer than ten or fifteen seconds, she stops listing.

It looks like I need to break every issue into tiny, discrete chunks.

Welcome the the "Executive Summary" way of life   You get about 10 seconds of talking or 2 sentences of reading to convince them they should give a shit.  And even if you do convince them to give a shit, you have maybe another 10 seconds/2 sentences to complete the thought, or they're going to be done with it no matter what

[RobbyPants]

I don't know you or your boss, but I get annoyed when people take forever to get to the point or keep talking after the point has been made. The matter is done, why are they still talking?

It's possible that she is thinking along the same lines.

Welcome the the "Executive Summary" way of life   You get about 10 seconds of talking or 2 sentences of reading to convince them they should give a shit.  And even if you do convince them to give a shit, you have maybe another 10 seconds/2 sentences to complete the thought, or they're going to be done with it no matter what

And that's fine. I've learned to be as concise as possible, but that's only part of the problem. What sucks is when I say something and she makes a counter point I don't agree with. Any response I make to that point will pretty much be ignored.

Worse yet is when I feel her response didn't even respond to what I said in the first place. Once that happens, I'm pretty much SOL. I can tell by the tone of her voice and the way she sits there "listening" that she's not going to factor anything I say the second time around into the decision.


A couple of years ago, we were arguing over the best way to do something. She complained how I'd just argued in a circle (which wasn't true; she just stopped listening and was hearing the responses she wanted to hear). So I caved and did it her way. Six months later, she comes to me asking me why we did it that way (and didn't do it my way)!

[Basket Burner]

Those sound like separate problems then.

[sirpercival]

Does her hair look like this?

[Mooncrow]

I don't know you or your boss, but I get annoyed when people take forever to get to the point or keep talking after the point has been made. The matter is done, why are they still talking?

It's possible that she is thinking along the same lines.

Welcome the the "Executive Summary" way of life   You get about 10 seconds of talking or 2 sentences of reading to convince them they should give a shit.  And even if you do convince them to give a shit, you have maybe another 10 seconds/2 sentences to complete the thought, or they're going to be done with it no matter what

And that's fine. I've learned to be as concise as possible, but that's only part of the problem. What sucks is when I say something and she makes a counter point I don't agree with. Any response I make to that point will pretty much be ignored.

Worse yet is when I feel her response didn't even respond to what I said in the first place. Once that happens, I'm pretty much SOL. I can tell by the tone of her voice and the way she sits there "listening" that she's not going to factor anything I say the second time around into the decision.


A couple of years ago, we were arguing over the best way to do something. She complained how I'd just argued in a circle (which wasn't true; she just stopped listening and was hearing the responses she wanted to hear). So I caved and did it her way. Six months later, she comes to me asking me why we did it that way (and didn't do it my way)!

Do more things through email then - CYA is a way of life.

[RobbyPants]

Those sound like separate problems then.

Sort of. They're separate, yet linked. I need to be concise to get her to listen in the first place. Yet, if I don't give enough detail, she won't fully grasp the issue. Once I've made my case, that's it, because once she gives a response, it's all pretty much set in stone.

Do more things through email then - CYA is a way of life.

Yeah, I learned that one a while ago!

[Sinfire Titan]

Ok, new Assassin's Creed complaint: Do not beat Revelations. Doing so will corrupt the save file in such a way that your console will screw up whenever it tries to load a video game. You have to delete the finished save file completely in order to get around this.

Thanks Ubisoft. Thanks a fucking lot. All that effort and entertainment lost.