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    1. What are some bugs/glitches/exploits that have actually made games better?

      Usually bugs, glitches, and exploits degrade the experience of a game, but occasionally they can actually work to a game's benefit. In some cases, they can become significant enough to become part...

      Usually bugs, glitches, and exploits degrade the experience of a game, but occasionally they can actually work to a game's benefit. In some cases, they can become significant enough to become part of a game's identity. In others, they make a broken game worth playing in the first place. Even without such legendary status, a given wrinkle in a game might simply make it more enjoyable or entertaining, or perhaps open up unexpected modes or paths of play.

      What are some examples of these, and how did they improve their associated games?

      29 votes
    2. Which US presidential candidate do you think has the best foreign policy?

      The nice thing about electability being uncertain is that you can choose the candidate you think is best. Unfortunately I have lost faith in my ability to decide that. Studying candidates'...

      The nice thing about electability being uncertain is that you can choose the candidate you think is best.

      Unfortunately I have lost faith in my ability to decide that. Studying candidates' policies seems useless since, after all, Congress makes the laws. We are likely to see either stalemate or centrist legislation regardless.

      Maybe I should decide based on foreign policy instead? Most people don't do that but I don't see why not. Any recommendations for interesting articles to read?

      12 votes
    3. Healthcare rant thread

      So I don't know about all of you, but I'm pretty sick of terrible healthcare in the USA. So I'm starting this thread for all of us to rant about our personal issues with healthcare. I'll be...

      So I don't know about all of you, but I'm pretty sick of terrible healthcare in the USA.

      So I'm starting this thread for all of us to rant about our personal issues with healthcare. I'll be writing my rant into it's own reply later (it's a bit of a long one), but I wanted to start the thread now to give others a chance to start venting.

      Rules of Rant Thread:

      1. Don't argue a rant
      2. Thread is likely going to be incredibly USA-centric. USA healthcare is assumed unless stated otherwise.
      3. Rants should involve people no more than 2 degrees of separation from yourself. This thread is to vent about your personal experiences, not hearsay from total strangers.

      In order to foster further discussion, and include those without a rant: Here are some things I personally would appreciate and expect for replies, but others might not.

      • Explanation of how things would work out for you if you were in a similar situation
      • Advice for dealing with any ongoing or future problems
      33 votes
    4. Real Numbers - Why? Why not computable numbers?

      Do we have any mathematicians in the house? I've been wondering for a while why math is usually focused around real numbers instead of computable numbers - that is the set of numbers that you can...

      Do we have any mathematicians in the house? I've been wondering for a while why math is usually focused around real numbers instead of computable numbers - that is the set of numbers that you can actually be computed to arbitrary, finite precision in finite time. Note that they necessarily include pi, e, sqrt(2) and every number you could ever compute. If you've seen it, it's computable.

      What do we lose, beyond cantor's argument, by restricting math to computable numbers? By corollary of binary files and therefore algorithms being countable, the computable numbers are countable too, different from reals.

      Bonus points if you can name a real, non-computable number. (My partner replied with "a number gained by randomly sampling decimal places ad infinitum" - a reply as cheeky as the question.) Also bonus points for naming further niceness properties we would get by restricting to computables.

      I've read the wikipedia article on computable numbers and a bit beyond.

      10 votes
    5. Do you run your own blog for personal use?

      I know this has been posted before, but I was going through old posts about blogging and at least half the blogs linked in the comments were offline now, so I thought I'd bring this topic back to...

      I know this has been posted before, but I was going through old posts about blogging and at least half the blogs linked in the comments were offline now, so I thought I'd bring this topic back to light.

      Do you run your own personal blog, and if so, could you share some details?

      • Is it self-hosted, or do you rent server space?

      • Do you use Wordpress or another blog platform like that, publish through other means like a flat-file CMS, or did you build it from scratch?

      • What topics do you write about?

      • How consistently do you post; or alternatively, why don't you post as often as you would like to?

      • Do you keep analytics, or do you write regardless of how many clicks you get?

      • Is your site monetized with ads or otherwise?

      • How popular is your blog on average?

      • How do you keep up with other writers' posts?

      I'm bringing this up because it seems like most places around the web centered on blogging are more in it for the money rather than for the content. Places like /r/blogging and the like are all talk about how to maximize views, earn revenue, and find your niche. I'd love to see some discussion more geared towards the content and construction of individual blogs, as opposed to people trying the next "get rich quick" scheme on their lists of passive income opportunities.

      Personally, I have multiple blogs for the sole purpose of giving me a platform to voice my opinions or share things that interest me without being constrained to a centralized platform like Twitter or Medium. I'd love to hear what you have all made and/or shared online, as well as the process behind making it happen.

      27 votes
    6. Let's write some Tom Swifties!

      If you're not familiar with them, a "Tom Swifty" is a punny sentence that involves a quote by a person named Tom which is the setup for landing a pun in the description of the quote's delivery...

      If you're not familiar with them, a "Tom Swifty" is a punny sentence that involves a quote by a person named Tom which is the setup for landing a pun in the description of the quote's delivery (often but not necessarily a single adverb).

      For example:

      "This water is freezing," Tom said icily.

      "I'm going to hit this piñata as hard as I can!" said Tom, bashfully.

      "Nevermore," Tom said ravenously.

      "I like tart fruits," said Tom with aplomb.

      Really good Tom Swifties are often not immediately obvious, have a fantastic setup, or are simply really clever (mine are alright, though it's certainly possible to do far better).

      You can get a more full picture and better examples from Wikipedia, but I encourage you to tread lightly there and in searches because it's way more fun to think of them and share them in threads like these than it is to pull up lists of them online. Just reading previously written ones kind of spoils the fun, IMO.

      Anyway, let's see what great Tom Swities we can write!

      17 votes
    7. Smartphones that make good use of physical buttons

      I miss buttons on devices. They are durable, reliable, repairable and nice to press. I can find their position without looking, and they work more consistently in different apps. I probably don't...

      I miss buttons on devices. They are durable, reliable, repairable and nice to press. I can find their position without looking, and they work more consistently in different apps.

      I probably don't need something with a physical QWERTY keyboard, since screen real state might be an issue. And it would have to be an actually viable smartphone, not something from a bygone era (I don't care about camera). But I want (a lot!) more buttons, preferably configurable, with support for custom keybindings, macros, etc.

      What are some good options?

      15 votes
    8. Calling them groups

      I love this website can’t think of anything bad about it apart from really not liking that communities are called groups, I feel this is due in part to Facebook using it but also it’s such an over...

      I love this website can’t think of anything bad about it apart from really not liking that communities are called groups, I feel this is due in part to Facebook using it but also it’s such an over used term on the internet, could we not think of something more unique for tildes to call it’s communities

      17 votes