Naked Paul Toast’s Insights

Earlier, I wrote about Conspiracy theorists and the Downraters. Today we’re going to look at a conspiracy theorist and demonstrate that his claims are manufactured, and could not have happened as he alleged it happened.

[EDIT] Links to GMC topic and YoYogames page intentionally removed, see comment for explanation.

The topic started out as a rant about how the game has been on the top page and then because of a downrater dropped into oblivion. The thing is, it absolutely could not have happened like he said it happened. It’s not feasible mathematically, it’s not feasible time wise, and it’s not feasible that a game that has gotten absolutely zero attention, suddenly got huge negative attention, and then all of a sudden get so much positive attention.

It just doesn’t work.

But I just watched it get continually downrated from a 4.0 to a 3.7 (about 20+ votes) within a matter of seconds

The topic states that he just happened to be on YoYoGames and just happened to witness a downrater downrate his game in a matter of seconds. He said it happened 20+ times, later in the topic claimed 25 to 30 times.
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Conspiracy theories (and theorists), the world is absolutely full of them.

JFK assassination, 9/11, moon landing hoax, are probably the most notorious modern day conspiracy theories. They have a lot in common, like most conspiracy theories, they fail Occam’s Razor, they’re not falsifiable, they’re not support by industry experts, they defy logic, they demand too many people stay silent.

They just don’t make sense.
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Often on the GMC, people create topics, wanting to know the best way to automatically update the client for their online game.

It’s a tricky problem. An executable, updating itself is problematic, because while the executable is running, it can’t be overwritten. Suggestions are always cumbersome, awkward and problematic. Typically involving the client downloading the executable, then running another executable, which deletes the original executable, renames the new executable and then runs the freshly updated executable.

Variants of this technique, suggest creating a pause to ensure the original executable has completed before it is deleted, sometimes batch files are involved.
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We all have reputations. I know on the GMC, I certainly have one. Through personal correspondence, responses to my posts, and the occasional comments, I can say with absolute certainty; with some I have an excellent reputation, with others, obnoxious and arrogant, with many an absolute pain in the ass.

The point is; the reputation I’ve garnered, positive and negative, for the most part, is absolutely deserved. The reputation we’ve all garnered, positive and negative, for the most part, is absolutely deserved.

But this topic isn’t about me, it’s about reputations. Specifically, the reputation that one particular member is quickly gaining, one that he probably isn’t aware of, and one that one day he mostly will wish he didn’t have. But, it is one that he deserves. He’s earned it.
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You know it doesn’t exactly scream credibility, when you host and judge a contest, on a domain named bart-teunis.eu, and one of the entrant’s name is Bart Teunis.

On the net, new expressions, words, colloquialisms, often come to life. Out there, somewhere, is the first usage of newbie, a smilie. There’s also the creation of local words, that have meaning to the local group, but never breakout. Chez Watt on Talk Origins, comes to mind.

We might just have captured the birth of new meme!

Or maybe not.

OK, let’s clear some things up right away.

Yes, I am aware that IQs, testing methods, distribution curves are problematic. Especially when IQs are compared between individuals, sexes, cultures and countries. Even with the problems, there are strong correlations between IQs and intelligence, academic performance, income, and other markers.

And yes, I’m also aware that correlation does not necessarily mean causation. Though, often it does.

Lately, I’ve noticed a few members posting their perceived IQs in their signatures.

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An open letter to Connor AKA Dr. Watz0n.

Hi Connor (AKA Dr. Watz0n),

You’re an idiot.

Hugs,
NakedPaulToast

Open Letter
GMC Post
GameMakerBlog reaction

Just discovered SoulScroll, a blog with a lot of Game Maker content.

Created by SoulRed12, AKA gmXpert2000 on the GMC, I was impressed by his SoulHow tutorials and essays. Easy to read, good background information, examples with GML and actions. A good place for the beginner to intermediate.

I’ll link a few, judge for yourself.

• SoulHow to deal with errors
• SoulHow to actually do stuff with GML: Part 1
• SoulHow to actually do stuff with GML: Part 2
• SoulHow to make two health bars

There’s a lot more.

Definitely worth a Blog-roll.

Often on the GMC, a poster is interested in obtaining a random integer within a certain range.

IE.

How can I get a random number in the range 1-10?

Responses, typically will be:

r_number=floor(random(10)) + 1;
or
r_number=ceil(random(10));

The problem is many do not recognise the dangers of using ceil(), in that context.
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