Unity+

If you haven't heard, Nevada is beginning to use self-driving cards. Not fully self-driving, but enough to stir some discussion.

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/205160-sign-of-the-apocalypse-as-daimler-unleashes-self-driving-trucks-in-nevada-hardly

Anyways, I think this should begin a discussion about the future of strategy and how self-driving(running) vehicles or units will enter us into a new age of strategy, mainly real-time strategy.

As technology gets perfected and the reliance of human uncertainty will grow nill, real-time strategy simulations will become more realistic due to the certainty of this technology. This means that real-time strategy games will become more useful in the future in regards to growing the next generation into this new mindset of strategy.

Do you think this will be the case?

So, I began working on assignment recently, and it came to me how much information is on Wikipedia. Vast amounts of it are there and viewable by any user. However, the problem I find is there is information, but too much information. I want to find out something about a particular topic and want to see the information that relates to the question I have or simply want to satisfy curiosity.

Another problem is Wikipedia is not always up-to-date. It relies on people being willing to go to the article and edit with proper information.

Therefore, I propose a new type of Wikipedia software that solves those two major problems, in my opinion. The one idea involves using the Tumblr structures, where there are no official blogs, but blogs are are simply home for each blog post. While wikipedia does do this on some level, it does it in a way where it can get messy in what relates to what, so-to-speak.

To solve the second problem, I think we can go to social media to solve this problem. Social media is a fast-moving highway of information, where people display information about current events. If there were a way to get this information to be on the page it relates to, it can provide the user with a more up-to-date understanding of events.

What do you think of the idea? Would it become too complex?

I'd say O(n). The innermost loop only iterates through four values, since k starts at N - 2.

Oops, thank you for catching that. I didn't see that.

Nevermind, it is O(n).

for(int i=0; i<10; i++)
    for(int j=0; j<N; j++)
        for(int k=N-2; k<N+2; k++)
                 sum = sum + k;

which is basically an overcomplicated while loop running sum a set number of times. So an easier way to run this would be.

sum=(N-2)*40*N;

So the number of times your code runs is calculated by 10*N*4

 

There is a difference between the exact run time and worst case scenarios in terms of Big-O notation.

If we remove all constants and replace them with c, we could get the following:

int sum = 0;
for(int i=0; i<10; i++)
    for(int j=0; j<N; j++)
        for(int k=N-2; k<N+2; k++)
                 sum = sum + k;

c+c*N((-N+2)+N+2) + c

And since we are only concerned with N:

c+c*N(4) + c

O(N)

So, this is O(n).

EDIT: Error caught by John, should be O(n).

I know it is a no solution problem, but I was taking a look at it through the use of a limit and wanted to see whether this approach was valid.

Given that [math]\lim_{n\rightarrow \infty }\frac{x+1}{x}[/math].

We can apply this to 1^x = 2, which can be turned into [math]log_{1}(2) = x[/math].

[math]x = \frac{log(2)}{log(1)}[/math]

Now, this is undefined. Therefore, we can take the limit by applying the above together.

[math]x = \lim_{n\rightarrow \infty }\frac{log(2)}{log(\frac{n+1}{n})}[/math]

[math]x = \infty[/math]

Is this math wrong? I am assuming some of it is, though checked wolfram: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=limit+of+x+approaching+infinity+of+log%282%29%2Flog%28%28x%2B1%29%2Fx%29

The reason this would be inconsistent is because you could choose any value for the top logarithm and still get the same answer. Just interested in the meaning of it.

Could you help my solve the following example:

 

a(t)=(1+r^2)^3 (1-t^2)^4 sin^3 t

 

Many Thanks

You are taking the derivative in regards to which variable? If so, is r the constant or simply another variable? We need more information.

Is this pertinent?

 

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

That is mostly, though I don't know if it would apply fully. Probably does.

The idea would be that because each planet(assuming that the aliens that are intelligent think this way) should have a common government, there would need to be a way to merge or develop a new world government in order to join this hypothetical galactic/universal government. Here lies the problem.

If we try to found a new government, there could be two ways we would go: war or peace. War because if there is the development of a common government, there would be conflict with how to develop it, along with other conflicts such as racism and such.

Will this happen, if intelligent life does find us and add us to this hypothetical galactic government? Or would we simply kill ourselves off?

 

 

BTW, how is the MMO element going to be implemented in the game? What is going to be the interaction between players?

Well, the mechanic of breaking into pseudo-websites(which will consist of a community of people) and having people control these websites when they take control of it through the ways I have mentioned will be the MMO aspect. It will pretty much a Command and Conquer type deal.

Sounds quite fun, possibly, but two points here - 1) such a game can be thought as promoting illegal activity and 2) using bugs and errors to access restricted/protected content is not the original meaning of hacking.

1) So does the GTA series, yet it still is a popular series. However, this game is not supposed to promote illegal activity. It educates people about how it is done and the battle between those who fight for a secure Internet access and those who are the black hats.

2) "People committed to circumvention of computer security. This primarily concerns unauthorized remote computer break-ins via communication networks such as the Internet (Black hats), but also includes those who debug or fix security problems (White hats), and the morally ambiguous Grey hats. See Hacker (computer security)."

This game's intention implements this ideal as a game mechanic.

So, the idea comes down to developing an MMORPG that educates people about how hacking really works. It isn't like a regular MMORPG, but it copy's elements in some ways. In this case, the way this "game" works is the world you are navigating in, the webpages, is only explored through by finding bugs within the webpages to get to the next webpage. This could mean breaking into a password-protected admin page or finding ways to exploit the system to get passwords that allow you to access other parts of the website.

The more websites you are able to access, the more "points" you get for doing so. There would also be a ranking system based on how long it takes you to enter an area of "solve a puzzle."

So, what do you people think of the idea?

 

It doesn't seem that practical by itself, but if we were to develop the techniques for capturing man-made space debris, to keep our satellites safer, and the vehicles(?) were already deployed, it might be a nice way to help fund the expeditions. And, as Greg H points out, if you figure out how to use what you capture without bringing it back down to the planet, you could continue to reduce costs.

Hmm, I might do research on this then. Just exploring the idea.

I don't know if this method has ever been thought of or if it would be efficient, but from what I hear there is a lot of space debri that is in space(not man-made) that may be valuable resources. I was thinking maybe there could be a way to gather this space dust and use it as a valuable resource. Is this an idea to investigate?

So, I want to implement some encryption into my webpage in relation to some data pertaining to IP Addresses. I want to use XOR encryption since it seems to be more efficient for smaller strings. However, after researching for a bit, there are apparently ways to crack XOR encryption through pattern recognition. So, is it an encryption method I should use for smaller data?

Wouldn't a dye have worked just as well? I know it works for cut flowers at least.

These flowers change color when they aren't even growing, you are talking about flowers absorbing the coloring from their food. It seems that is what they are going for.

The only seemingly relevant concept that was on Google was super matrices. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermatrix

I think another feature I could add is if an item is referenced once, it is kept in reference until it no longer is needed. For example, have it so the user can request the information once, it is stored, and then the reference can be removed if a condition is met.

SV, which is "database for poor", we also have similar problems.

 

At the beginning we just know file name and path.

 

We have to go through all rows doing f.e. fgets() (which ends reading at EOL),

counting them,

at the same time we can store offsets at which each row is in file,

at the same time we can store offsets at which each column is in row.

And we have index of rows,

and index of columns within rows.

 

Then to read cell at col,row we just have to do something like offset=index[row][col] and read buffer with size=index[row][col+1]-index[row][col]

 

Real database must have such index file already done, to not have to parse entire db each time db is opened.

 

 

The way I am going about storing all the queries and columns is through the linked list method, where each query references the next query within the column. This makes it easier to remove a query from the column, in my opinion. Also, for searching a query, I would be storing the middle query(this is set and changed when a query is added or removed). This way I can perform a modified version of binary search. I also store the last and first queries(head, tail), which can help in the search as well.

I used to use plain text files and directories. For instance user is from new york therefore new when the user creates an account it is added to the directory newyork then another directory for their username from within that folder then subsequent directories for their files ie. personal information, images, videos, emails, passwordinformation etc

Using files like this is a very bad idea in regards to security as well as organization. I would rather store the tables as bytes and encrypted. That way I can decrypt the tables and then add them back into the database.

More memory consumption. Type of field attached to every cell. So something like at least 1-4 bytes more per cell *). Which means more I/O data has to be read/written to/from disk.

 

*) variable length string needs 4 bytes for length with 4 GB limit, or 8 bytes for length on 64 bit computer.

Or you need to figure out how to have null terminated cell..

Might be really problematic.

Take for example db with fixed field size: to access row y you just need to calc offset= y*sizeof( row ) and you're done and read/writing whole row with sizeof(row). Extremely simple.

If every row has different length then you need to store these lengths somewhere..

That is a problem I will have to try to solve. I also realized that for array queries, you could also store an theoretical infinite amount of elements, which defeats the purpose of having the column in the first place. Might have to limit the size of the array list within a query.

So, I am currently working on a database project that would improve(or try to) on the current model of database queries and other stuff. One idea I had was to allow a column have multiple types allowed within itself instead of having a fixed type. Would this be a bad idea?

Also, would allowing queries to contain arrays/lists be bad?

If someone has any suggestions on new features for a database to have, that would be fine. I am currently testing out my skills in programming and seeing how far I can go with a project like this.

 

So rather than merely forwarding the packets, the server will accept - reformat - resend?

Have you heard of mobile hotspots such as Mifi?

 

If it's sending the information back through the internet, then why? Is it adding another layer of encryption?

It would send it to the device requesting, not through the internet again through some other process. Bluetooth, maybe?

If people are down voting because of rivalries or personal reasons and it has a larger affect than it should, that would be revealing a problem with the community, not the voting system.

One can argue until cows come home but that is not the intention.

I would like to do that so I can cook my hamburgers. I am really hungry over a pointless debate.

In all seriousness, if you have a problem with the forum and don't like it, move to a different one or start your own and implement your ideas. If it garners more attention(positive) than this one, we could rethink our logic. Until then, the sky is still blue.

So far, so good.

 

 

That would be the worst est implementation of binary search I heard of.

 

Making NEW ARRAY?

 

No.

 

That would be very slow implementation.

 

You should pass original array pointer, and indexes - to the beginning and to the end, or start index, and quantity (at the beginning start=0,quantity = list.length).

 

void binary_search( data *list, int start, int count, data x )

{

data value = list[ start + count / 2 ]; // take element at middle

if( x > value ) binary_search( list, start + count / 2, count / 2, x );

else if( x < value ) binary_search( list, start, count / 2, x );

else { /* found */ }

}

 

(I skipped actual finding code, it's just to give you picture of passing indexes, without creating new array!)

 

I apologize. I meant to say it that way.

lost!

Well, I won't give you the full answer, since I am suspicious that this is homework. However, I will give you tips for it.

If you don't know what binary search is, it is the process of taking the middle element of an array, if it isn't equal to the key then find if the key is bigger or smaller than the selected element, either go left or right(assuming the list is sorted already). After that, select the middle element of the left or right side of the array.

This can easily be done recursively. Since you get an array as an input, simply find the middle element, do all the comparisons, and then create a new array that contains all the proper elements which will be inputed into the function again.

I have no idea what are you talking about.

You can't get source PHP script from any 3rd party website. Only output generated by it.

You can't even be sure whether PHP was used to generate it.

index.php and [file name].php extensions are not obligatory.

I have many files f.e. image.png which are actually PHP scripts generating PNG as output (have to generate HTTP response proper headers)..

Extension is meaningless.

Of course that is true, but then again there are ways around this.