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chaoticneurodivergent · 4 months ago

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Ok I'm so pissed at this point that I have to make a Tumblr post about this. Reasons nobody should take IQ seriously (as a measurement of a person's intelligence):

* Warning this will be long because I'm pissed off in 7 dimensions

1. The French

It hasn't always been taken for granted that intelligence can be tested and measured in numerical form. The French are to blame for that (sorry France). In 1904, the Ministry of Public Instruction of France made primary school compulsory. The easiest obvious method for sorting the massive influx of new students into class years was by age. However, prior to 1904, a massive percentage of French children had not been schooled at all or not been consistently schooled, so age was not a reliable predictor of knowledge / education level. So the French government sponsored a man named Alfred Binet, along with his partner, Theodore Simon, to create a test that could sort children based on their school-readiness.

The Binet-Simon scale was not originally designed to assign children an IQ number (with the average being 100), but instead, a mental age. The children would be placed into a school grade corresponding to their mental age, as determined by the "intelligence" test. Now you'd think that it would be obvious to everyone involved that students coming from backgrounds with little to no literacy and education would get lower scores and be placed into lower grades, regardless of how much potential they had at birth. But this was not the case. Many conflated intelligence with performance.

Binet realized that intelligence is complicated and multi-faceted and can't be perfectly studied in a quantitative way. He admitted his tests were limited. Second of all, he realized that environment plays a huge role in intellectual development, and he realized that delays in intellectual development could be repaired (they are not necessarily inherently a part of a person). The goal of his test, after all, was not to score children, but to sort them into the education system. Unfortunately, as the 20th century progressed, eugenics and its array of awful ideas became widely popular, and many successors were more interested in how they could use his test and his ideas to determine people's value and worth than they were in truth.

2. Yes, intelligence is a social construct

We decide what intelligence means. It's based on what our culture values. If we want an IQ test that we are designing to measure intelligence accurately, we first have to decide what is and is not a part of intelligence.

On a wide level, this includes questions like: Should social and emotional skills be measured? (Our culture says no). Should the kind of thinking necessary for motor coordination and quick thinking in athletics be measured? (Our culture says no). How about skills specifically involved in literacy? (Remember, until very recently, the vast majority of humans on earth were not literate, and the vast majority of cultures would not have valued those skills).

On a narrow level, this includes questions like: If we want to test quantitative reasoning (so roughly, math intelligence), should we be testing mental math skills (whether you can do 56 x 17 quickly in your head), or more abstract math skills, like those necessary for understanding a calculus class when you have a calculator in front of you? Should we test general knowledge? (The WAIS, the most common professionally administered IQ test today, does have a general knowledge section, which includes questions such as, who was the president during X war)? If so, how do we account for differences in exposure to information?

There is no such thing as intelligence outside of what we decide it is. There are so many skills we arbitrarily choose to include or not include. And when we measure whether our IQ tests are accurate, we can only do so by comparing those tests to other tests (which probably also come from our culture) or by measuring how well they predict success in some other environment, like school (which isn't a very objective way of measuring intelligence).

3. Neurodiversity and "general" intelligence

Finally, the entire concept of IQ as it exists today centers on a major hypothesis: For most people, there is a general intelligence across all categories that can be summarized with a single number. This is the only way we can justify giving somebody a test that has them identify patterns (for example, the Raven inventory, another highly credited IQ test) and then make a claim about their entire intelligence. We make this assumption because of something called the G factor, which is basically the level of correlation between measured intelligence in one area (using X set of skills) and another area (using Y set of skills). The higher the G factor, the more correlation there is between skill in one area and skill in another area. And there's a lot of research suggesting that in most people, that correlation is pretty high. The problem word here: Most.

Much of psychology focuses on the abnormal (in popular interest as well as in research). When people talk about IQ, they're rarely interested in Suzie who scored a 105. They're interested in those scoring in the margins. They're interested in intellectual disability, learning disabilities, and "giftedness." And while IQ admittedly is a useful tool for identifying certain fringe cases, such as disabilities and those with certain exceptional skills, we quickly run into a problem here.

If you're Autistic there's a decent chance you've heard phrases like "spiky profile," "splinter skills," or "uneven cognitive profile." Essentially, if you're Autistic, there's a pretty high chance all your cognitive skills don't cluster around one measurable number, and IQ tests with massive differences in scores on different sections are pretty common for Autistic people (take me as Exhibit A). And that's just Autism. Take any learning disability and you'll very quickly realize why this is such a problem. If somebody can be in the 99th percentile in one area on a test and the 10th percentile in another, there's not much point in trying to give them a summary intelligence score. Neurodiversity, as a concept, can't really coexist with the idea that each person has an intelligence number that all their skills cluster around.

So yeah, basically IQ, as a way of "objectively" measuring someone's intelligence, is 2 degrees shy of idea mush.

Ok that was long my God if you read this all, I appreciate your patience and have a nice day. Of course this is all my opinion and I'm interested to hear differing ones.

#IQ #Neurodiversity #Psychology #Autism #Long post #Infodump #Actuallyautistic

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existentialcrisis-24-7 · 4 years ago

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I don’t talk about 090 (basically reverse au) enough (it’s quite self-explanatory in fairness) but here’s some random stuff

Bakugo’s parents are still fashion designers so he’s the only one with a fashion sense in the 090 LoV

He has forced Deku into a suit on numerous occasions

I like to think they ended up in the same hideout as the LoV but anything goes really.

Todoroki only joins after Endeavour decided he wanted is socially isolated son to get some real world experience and finds out there’s this up-and-coming villain group making a name for themselves and kicks his son off there.

Later he learns that All Might is the leader of it and tries to get Todoroki to leave but unfortunately everyone’s already adopted him

Toga had a crush on Shigaraki. She has a lot of crushes in fairness and goes through them like my brother does milk

Stain was considered a hero for killing a bunch of villains because “they’ve lost the true meaning of villainy”. People ignore that part though because he’s making the streets safer for others and inadvertently causes a rise in the number of people who want to be heroes

Giran and Mic basically swapped places

Mic and Aizawa are still buddies

Aizawa genuinely wants to train Shinsou and ya know,, be a parent to him

Shinsou wants to be a Quirk Therapist

I don’t know if I mentioned this but Mr Compress is the home room teacher for 1A.

The Sludge villain is the Sludge hero (better name will come soon) and is ranked no.5

Hawks is ranked just under 100

Villains also have a ranking system that is often used by heroes too because it makes it easier to assess the threat and know who to send to deal with it

AFO is a real dad to Shigaraki

Kyudai Garaki is both the school’s nurse and also head of the support department thing. He has two labs: the ones with living things and the ones with things that aren’t living yet.

Mr Compress puts people in a “misbehaviour marble” when they’re messing around in class

Everyone calls it the bad ball

Shinsou has been in it a record number of times

Shinsou is also the coolest guy at UA

The entrance exam is very different. Instead of fighting robots, everyone fights each other for the spots. Each year the location changes. One year it might suit stealthy people, one year it might suit water based quirk.

Iida is in class 1A

There is no 1B due to the lack of interest in heroism and also budget cuts

Nezu is still the principal. It’s a cover though.

Dabi and Shigaraki have sleepovers

Bonus:

The 090 LoV is being referred to as Love Muffin

#bnha #mha #bnha au #mha au #090!au

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trumantomlinson · 3 years ago

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myrandomfandomramblings · 4 years ago

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Arrowverse Science Fair AU

~2004 National Highschool (Gr. 8-12) Science Fair

Projects:

Felicity Smoak (Gr. 9) – Computer software to detect card counters. She may or may not have hacked into online card games to test it (this wasn’t included in/on her project.)

Cisco Ramon (Gr. 8 or 9) – Piano playing robot. He thought it played better than Dante. His parents didn’t agree.

Caitlin Snow (Gr. 9) – Analysis of physiological response to various stimuli. She wanted to find stimuli that would help kids cope with traumatic experiences (say crashing their bike or losing their father.) If she was able to find something that made her mom show some/any emotion that would be a bonus.

Barry Allen (Gr. 9) – Growing crystals (lots of different and cool ones). His project started out as an attempt to make something special for Iris for her birthday but turned into an elaborate project. It ended up being a good choice because 1) it reminded Barry of his parents (the first science experiment they did together was grow Borax crystals on pipecleaner and 2) it followed Joe’s ‘your science fair project must make, not destroy things’ rule instated after Barry’s Gr. 6 project.

Alex (Gr. 9) and Kara (Gr. 8) Danvers – Birds in my Backyard. Eliza had insisted on Alex getting Kara involved in her science fair project this year. Alex was excited to show Kara the science fair experience she enjoyed but wanted to pick a topic she knew more about that Kara (her knowledge of math and science was intimidating enough without the superpowers). Seeing Kara’s interest in birds they decided to study birds in their backyard. With Alex’s design and Kara’s powers they built tall post’s and attached bird houses and feeders with differing properties. They then monitored which kinds of birds built nests and ate from where (with some help from Kara’s flight and X-ray vision). Alex also picked 5 nests from different species to chronicle the embryo and chick development. Kara enjoyed doing the project and learning about birds from Alex. The actual science fairs, not so much but those were Alex’s favourite part. Note: Streaky was locked in the house for the duration of the project so he wouldn’t eat any of the birds.

Winn Schott (Gr. 11) – Pop-up room/ room in a suitcase. Being in the foster system for the last couple years inspired Winn to design a room that collapsed to the size of a suitcase for easy transport but could expand in less than a minute into a nice-sized, fully-furnished, sound-proof room, so no matter how many times a foster kid was moved around they always had their own space and stuff. Also good for camping, travel and special short-term events (like waiting in line at conventions).

Lena Luthor (Gr. 5) – Oxygen absorbing/releasing crystal that could allow breathing underwater. After her Mum drown when Lena was four, she was determined to develop a simple way for people to breath under water. She was able to do just that by synthesizing a substance that absorbed and stored large amounts of oxygen then released it slowly (so if someone held in in their mouth, they could breathe underwater). She was happy and excited that her mom and older brother were interested in her project but a little frustrated and concerned that they were so focused on its ability to absorb all the oxygen from a room (in a big enough amount). Although she supposed it could be used in that capacity to control/extinguish fires. Note: although in elementary school, Lena got to compete against the high schoolers since her project was so advanced for her age.

Sara Lance (Gr. 11) – The Biomechanics of Dance and Martial Arts. As punishment for skipping classes, then sassing her teacher and principal when they tried to discipline her for skipping classes, Sara had to complete a science fair project. To make the best of it Sara chose something that interested her. In hindsight she wished she hadn’t. Her project was so good she was chosen to represent her school at the state and national science fair.

Ronnie Raymond (Gr. 9-12?)- Structural design to minimize Superman related damage in Metropolis. Ronnie was proud of his project and had enjoyed analyzing the powers of Metropolis’ hero, but he lost any chance he had at winning when he decided to leave his project to go flirt with Caitlin. At least Kara, whose project was next to his, seemed interested.

Hartley Rathaway – something to do with sound waves

Lily Stein (Gr. 11) – designing and comparing different miniaturized forms of renewable energy sources. She had some help from her dad.

Patty Spivot – Recreation of crime scene evidence using food models. A bunch of her friends (her whole cabin actually) from her summer camp for those interested in law enforcement came to support her.

- Maggie Sawyer – seemed really interested in the bird project

- Ralph Dibny – found every project that said it was OK to touch. His favourite was slime. To Patty’s surprise he didn’t break anything.

- Dinah Drake – hung out with Patty most of the time. Talked to Hartley, beside her, about his project on sound waves for a bit (seemed kinda interested). Patty joined her when she got into a conversation with Sara, across the way, and Laurel about the implications of her biomechanics project in fighting and self-defence. The rest of the time they talked about that Vince guy from camp Dinah thought was cute.

- Eddie Thawne – he hung out with Patty most of the time too but did do a lap of the fair with Iris, who was there supporting Barry, when she accepted his offer to buy her something at the concession.

Notable events:

- Clark came to see Alex and Kara’s project and brought James and Lois with him. Kara and Clark (very subtly) tested the models on the project beside them that had been abandoned and were said to be superman proof/resistant. They were very impressed to discover the models did indeed stand-up to heat vison, freeze breath and super-strength leading Clark to believe the student had a bright future. James spent most of his time talking to Winn about his pop-up room project because, “Don’t you think these would be way better than cubicles, the Daily Planet should definitely purchase some.”

- Cat Grant, a young reporter from the National City Tribune pushing a stroller, came around and interviewed all the contestants because, “What better place to find the next world changing innovator or innovation” as she put it when she stopped to talk to Clark (more like flirt Kara thought). Alex used Clark distracting Cat as an opportunity to play with the baby in the stroller. This was the only time during the entire science fair Alex was distracted, except maybe when Maggie had come, but they mainly talked about the project like Alex did with everyone, which left Alex wondering why it felt different. During their entire interview Cat called Kara Kira, much to her annoyance. At least the baby seemed to like her. This interview sparked a conversation between Kara, Lois and Clark about journalism which Iris overhead while she was visiting Barry and joined in.

- Graduate students Ray Palmer and Curtis Holt were volunteer judges and ticket takers. Curtis wore a varsity jacket over his shirt and tie which covered his name tag, but at every project he judged he would describe every aspect as terrific, so the contestants started calling him Mr. Terrific. While judging Barry’s project they began a discussion about their favourite elements/minerals/gems. Barry couldn’t decide so joked he liked Barium. Ray shared his love for dwarf star alloy with a ‘quick’ lecture about its rumoured properties and potential uses. Curtis listed at least 10 compounds essential for modern tech as he flip-flopped back and forth trying to decide a favourite and Lex Luthor who was visiting his sister’s project beside them interjected that he favoured kryptonite. While taking tickets Curtis witnessed the following interaction. He asked Damian Darhk, who was carrying baby Nora, what brought him to the science fair. He responded with “These are the brightest young minds in the country and being young means they are malleable. So, there is nowhere better to recruit future talent for my enterprise.” Malcolm Merlyn, who was behind, him added “I know exactly what you mean with what the world’s coming to we’re going to need a bright mind to save it.” This led Tommy, who was accompanying him, to say “I thought we were just here to support the Queen’s.” Then one of the other judges, Dr. Harrison Wells aka Eobard Thawne in disguise, added “No your Dad is right. This world’s next HERO could be in this very room. I’ve already made a list of students to keep my eye on.” He pulled out a small piece of paper from his pocket. On it Curtis saw four names: Hartley Rathaway, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow and Ronnie Raymond. This led to a long conversation between the three men about numerous threats to society, the country and the world and the possible drastic solutions that would need to be employed to stop them. When they left Curtis turned to Ray and asked, “Was it just me or were those Doomsday Dudes really creepy?” “What” Ray replied his attention clearly being pulled from elsewhere. But before Curtis could answer a voice behind him said “Doomsday Dudes is a terrible nickname you should call them the Legion of Doom.” Curtis turned to find Cisco. “Just saying,” he continued, “anyway I heard there’s free Big Belly Burger for the contestants. When’s that coming?” Ray had missed the entire conversation Curtis was asking about because he had been making funny faces at baby Nora the whole time hoping to make her smile or laugh but she had just stared at him with her big blue eyes.

- Queen consolidated gave out a $1500 scholarship and a summer internship at the applied sciences division. This year Moira and Robert had made Oliver come and brought 9-year-old Thea. Oliver was tasked with watching Thea who ran around the entire science fair wanting to look at and touch all the projects even the ones with big ‘Do Not Touch’ signs on them. She spent at least an hour trying to get everybody around the robot pianist to sing and dance with her. Most people ignored her although she was able to get Cisco, Winn, Stein, Joe, Kara (who kept trying to get Alex to join) and to Oliver’s surprise Malcolm Merlyn all to sing with her and they were all surprisingly good. She also got many people to dance including the Lance girls. She even convinced Cisco to make the robot play some of her favourite songs from Disney movies. Barry was very happy that he was able to convince Iris to dance with him for a couple songs with just a little encouragement from Thea and despite Kara’s constant encouragement Alex only agreed to dance when Maggie asked. Oliver had to present his family’s award which went to Felicity. When her name was announced Donna yelled “Woohoo, that’s my daughter! Way to go sweetie!” which earned a whispered “Mom, ssshh” and accompanied eye roll from Felicity as she headed to the stage with her head down and cheeks flushed. When she got onstage Oliver presented her with her award and Felicity began to babble, “Thanks. This is so cool. I’m such a big fan of yours… well not yours… your company… your family’s company. But uh you seem cool too. I could be a fan of yours, but not like a creepy stalker fan just like a normal supportive fan, ya know. I’m sorry, I’m rambling, it’s just, I don’t know what to say. Your very handsome… and I just said that out loud. I’m so sorry.” She stops and whispers “come on Smoak, pull yourself together,” then takes a deep breath before addressing Oliver again, “Thank-you again for the award and I look forward to working with you, or for you. I’m just gonna go now.” Oliver couldn’t help smiling as she left and thinking that just maybe if she had been around when Thea was partnering everyone up to dance he may have just participated.

- Kara quickly got bored of standing by her project and started wandering around to talk to the other contestants. She spent a good chunk of time talking to Barry. Tried to join in on a heated debate between Felicity, Cisco and Winn about the best language to code in but quickly left when she had no idea what they were talking about. She ended up spending most of her time with Lena. They talked about their projects, their lives and interests and about dealing with new and scary situations especially when you feel different from everyone else and learnt that they were both adopted. However, the whole time they were talking Lena’s eyes kept scanning the room as if waiting for something to jump out and scare her. Kara learnt why when a woman Kara thought must be Lena’s mother showed up and menacingly questioned why she was distracting her daughter.

- J’onn came in disguise to check out the Danvers sister’s project

#arrrowverse #this got way out of hand #supergirl #legends of tomorrow #the flash #arrow

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rainofaugustsith · 5 years ago

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Rain Plays SWTOR: SOLO gearing 6.0

In my opinion the SWTOR devs have given solo players a hearty "fuck you" with 6.0, between an insufferably long gearing system, nerfed companions, much higher conquest targets (with solo-friendly activities like galactic rampage now removed) and overtuned content. It's why I'm not paying for a subscription anymore. Damn it, though, I like the game, I like hanging out with Viri and I still have characters who have not finished all the content. Even though I am not subscribed now, I invested in Artifact Authorization for my account so my characters can wear the good stuff.

Despite the fact that the devs seem to be heavily pushing people to group, I decided that my own "fuck you" to them would be getting Viri to 306 without grouping even once. And I did.

Almost. Her gear rating is 304, but hell, she's close, and she already has several 306 pieces. These aren’t the final stats I want for her (as she changes to moddable 306 pieces I’ll be adding back her augments and changing those relics) but she’s a beast again.

The important takeaway from this post:

You do not need to group to get good gear, even at level 75. You do not need to do veteran flashpoints to get good gear. Good gear drops in the solo flashpoints too!

Do you "need" it?

I hate it when other players tell me I "don't need" certain gear, so I won't do that to you. It's a personal choice. The higher levels of gear do seem to compensate for at least some of the currently overtuned parts of the game. In other words even if you are not interested at all in the endgame you may wish to pursue the higher-end gear simply to do the other content more easily.

If you are not playing Onslaught (or not playing it yet) there have been numerous reports of other missions/areas being overtuned, including the Star Fortresses, Bowdaar's recruitment mission, walker combat in KOTET and Iokath, the H4s and some H2s, and better gear could help there.

Onslaught is supposed to be designed so that you gear up as you level up, ending the expansion with a full set of 268 gear and a tactical item. In my own experience going through Onslaught, some of my classes did okay with this system but others did not. All had similar gear ratings (242-252), at least some augments, and at least one or two level 50 influence companions (usually Lana, but also included Vette, Mako or Akaavi for some characters). My Sith Warrior and Jedi Knight were fine. My Smuggler died if an NPC looked at her the wrong way and really struggled to get through. My Bounty Hunter and Lightning Sorcerer had a few hiccups but managed.

My own preference will be to get my characters leveled to 75 and geared before hitting KOTET now. I don't think they all need to be 306. My test subject, canon Viri (who has not done Onslaught) was blazing through content by the time she was a 286. I will likely aim for at least that rating on all characters.

So you want the gear. Now what?

Okay. It's a long, mind-numbingly boring experience to gear up but if you hang onto enough stuff, you might be able to avoid going through this nightmare on more than one character. How can you get gear without grouping?

1. The easiest and most effective way is to run a lot of solo flashpoints. Over and over again (the same way the folks who group are doing with Hammer Station).

The shortest and simplest flashpoint (at least for me) is Korriban Incursion, followed by Depths of Manaan. By the time you hit a gear rating of 286ish, you can chew through either of these alone in less than 20 minutes. Black Talon is next, but one of the bosses only seems to drop crafting material (including those coveted isotopes) and the bonus boss now has a lot of very uncomfortable flashing lights.

I went through several of the longer flashpoints like Copero, False Emperor, Rakata Prime and Boarding Party, too. On Copero I had four gear drops instead of three thanks to the bonus boss, and some random green gear dropped from NPCs, but otherwise the longer flashpoints don't seem to offer any real advantage over the shorter ones. Thus, unless there's something else you want from the flashpoint (like decos or achievements), it seems most prudent to run the ones that will cause you the least trouble. You might get random pieces (usually green 270s) from enemies but overall, usually only three bosses will give you proper drops. There will be a sack of Grade 11 crafting materials, probably a mod or two, and at least one piece of gear. This is RNG. Sometimes you will luck out and get two pieces of gear you can use. Sometimes you will get nothing and will end up deconstructing it all. Viri has received tank gear, things she clearly can't use like blaster barrels, and 274 pieces when she's a 294. As far as I know it happens in the veteran group flashpoints too. Just deconstruct it, or set it aside for another character if you think they will want it.

Once you get past 300, I have noticed you will start getting a lot more mods, enhancements and armor/hilts/barrels. This is a good thing. These are the pieces you can set aside for alts.

2. Conquest.

It's harder to meet this goal now but it may be doable for you on one or two toons. During this exercise Viri reached her conquest goal of 50,000 points just by doing flashpoints and a couple of easy heroics on Tatooine and Korriban. The Conquest gear crates are in my experience good, and I've pulled numerous gold set pieces, so it's worth it to try to aim for the goal, and it can be done solo.

3. Chapters.

I was very surprised to get a gear crate when I finished Shroud of Memory. A character who was just finishing up KOTET received crates for her last two chapters, too. I think this replaces the gear that used to be given for KOTFE/KOTET chapters. It's in line with the other weekly/daily crates.

4. Onderon weekly/daily crates.

If you have a character who has gone through Onslaught, do ten missions for the weekly and six for the daily. There are some simple quests that can be done quickly. In my experience these crates provide little more than deconstruction fodder most of the time. However it's worth it, if only for the tech fragments. Aside from gear, there are some nice decos available at the reputation vendor so raising your Onderon rep isn't pointless.

5. Mek-Sha heroics.

Again, if you have a character who has done Onslaught. Not the best option for the planet - see #11 for an easier one. Both of the Mek-Sha heroics give gear crates and in my limited experience they have been good. However, the heroics are tuned very, very high. Viri's clone (Sith Warrior; Vengeance Juggernaut) with a gear rating of 300 had trouble. The final boss in the Matter of Respect heroic has more HP than many flashpoint bosses, and he's with two silvers. Dying in these heroics is expensive, too: the tune of 20,000 credits per repair bill. I don't think this really is a good option for most solo players, even if you want to run them once for the experience/achievements.

This is the final boss in the second Mek-Sha heroic. No, you’re not reading that HP number wrong.

6. Renown crates.

Instead of Command Levels, there are now Renown levels. It's the same overall concept: gain a level, gain a crate with a piece of gear (the fun stuff like pets and companion gifts are gone). The difference: you're not going to gear up via Renown. For all intents and purposes it's probably best to pretend Renown doesn't exist. It's not like Galactic Command where doing the weekly in Section X or Ziost will at least earn you a crate or two.

You need 1,600,000 points to get one Renown crate. Considering that the weekly areas now award between 7000-28,000 points and a flashpoint awards 2000-3000 (and that is WITH the full 25% boost), it's going to be a while before you earn even one crate. When you do, I might suggest hanging on to them until your rating is high to try to get better gear. In my limited experience (I think my characters combined have earned about ten Renown crates!) I don't think I've ever pulled any sort of useful upgrade out of these crates. Take the item and deconstruct it for tech fragments, don't disintegrate it. Consider anything useful to be a pleasant surprise.

7. Treasure Hunting missions

Level 10 lockbox missions return with gear. It's not highly rated, though. Deconstruct it for the tech fragments.

8. Crafting

From what I have heard this is such a clusterfuck that it's not even worth attempting, with many mats required even for low-level gear. Skip this, I think.

9. LS/DS vendors

Apparently if you are willing to fork over all 100 of your LS or DS coins to the vendor you can get an equipment box. I wouldn't do this because it's now very hard to get LS/DS coins (see Renown). Once you blow them all you're not likely to get so many back. 10. Random drops

NPCs in heroics, flashpoints and open world may occasionally drop random pieces of gear, usually green 270ish stuff that may or may not be for your discipline. It's good to deconstruct.

11. Mek-Sha Tradehouse missions In your faction’s starting point on Mek-Sha, you will find a datapad. Click this to get a short mission to speak to a Nautolan NPC in Huttbreaker’s Compound. The NPC will tell you that you can do short “adventures” around the galaxy to help out Huttbreaker’s auction house. Now check out the small clickable terminal to the left of the NPC. You will get a Weekly - Tradehouse Acquisitions - and a daily mission that will take you to either Rishi, Tatooine, Onderon, Nar Shaddaa or Dantooine. These missions are very simple - usually just gathering some clickable items or scanning several targets with provided macrobinoculars. To complete the Weekly, you need to complete three Tradehouse Missions. You can only do one per day. It will award you a gold gear box, so it’s worth it.

When you get gear:

Use a character that you can devote solely to gearing for a little while. Canon Viri has not done Onslaught, but she's my strongest character and my main, and she has nothing else to do right now. I decided to gear with her.

If a piece of gear is an upgrade, equip it immediately. The higher your overall gear rating, the more likely you are to get upgrades. This will screw with your stats for a while, but you can sort it out when you get to the 300s. If it's not an upgrade deconstruct it for tech fragments - the currency you will use to purchase gear later.

Once you get to the high 290s or 300s you may wish to start setting aside gear pieces for your alts instead of deconstructing them. ETA Gear is now legacy bound, so you can pass it from one character to the next (except for weapons, I found). If you are moving up to a 306 piece, for example, save that 304 for the next toon who might need it, and pass around the gear to everyone’s advantage.

Mods: Viri kept her augmented mainhand and offhand weapons (lightsaber and focus). I ripped out mods/hilts as needed to upgrade those weapons. However, ripping mods is very expensive so you don't want to be doing this for all your right side pieces. Don't worry about mods until you get to the 300s. Just keep using the non-moddable gear as you progress. This includes mods that don't seem to suit your character. If a Barrage or Studious enhancement would take Viri from one gear level to another I used it. Use Takanna: Takanna is the vendor who sells "unidentified" pieces for around 350 tech fragments each. The pieces are supposed to be at least your item rating or higher, and with the exception of left side and mods, are supposed to be for your discipline.

I used Takanna to get over the plateaus that Viri would hit sometimes, when she would reach a certain item rating and would not get anything higher from the flashpoint drops. Buying a higher rated set of boots or bracers (for instance) would sometimes be enough to get her to a higher overall gear rating and break the stalemate. Once you reach your quitting point: You don't want to go all the way to 306? You're fine at 290 or 286 or 300? That's cool. This is where you either decide that you're going to augment the non-moddable gear you have or start playing with mods and those gold set pieces. It is VERY expensive to move around mods and augments, especially after you reach 300 (we're talking 450K to rip three mods, I'm not exaggerating), so I advise that you put them where you want them to stay.

Set bonuses: The old set bonus you had from your GEMINI or Ossus gear vanished when you hit level 75. I don't think the new ones are as good, but in some cases all you need are two pieces to get the bonus. Ostensibly you could therefore have three different set bonuses (2, 2, 2) operating at once.

Tacticals: Viri received two as random drops once she was in the 280s. You also receive one good all-around tactical at the end of Onslaught. I wouldn't be fussed about getting these. If you get one, great. If you have credits to burn check out the vendor on the fleet who sells them. Otherwise wait until you finish Onslaught. Amplifiers: I DGAF about these. Re-rolling the amplifiers is a large credit sink for (IMHO) small boosts. I personally am not bothering with re-rolling anything. Viri has what she has on her gear and I'm not worried about changing what is there.However, re-rolling an amplifier will now give you Conquest points, so you may decide to re-roll one just for that boost. Augments: Viri has kept her 236 and 240 mods. They have been nerfed a little but the Grade 11 augments and kits are really expensive, and IMHO her old augments do fine for her.

Gearing alts: Send your highest-iRated toon shopping for the others. Vendors like Takanna will give you gear that corresponds to your toon’s level. So send your 306 rated character shopping, grab that high-level gear, and leave it in your Legacy hold for your alts. I'm gearing my weakest alts, and those that have a lot of content left to do, first. "Weakest" might mean many things to many people. For me, it's the alt that has the most trouble getting through content and/or the class that I'm the least skilled at playing. I've also geared one of Viri's clones who did do Onslaught so she could do the Mek-Sha and Onderon tasks. Overall, this gear system is no fun. I don’t think it would be quite as bad if there weren’t so many levels, but when you’re going through 19 - 284, 286, 288 and on and on and on - it feels like you’re slowly pulling teeth for every gain. Still, the point was to show that it could be done without the grouping that the devs seem to be trying to force on us. Et voila.

#rain plays swtor #swtor #6.0

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inonefita · 4 years ago

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How to Choose Your Best Home Gym Equipment

A domestic fitness center is a compact unit of system designed to let you carry out many sporting activities at the only station. These also are referred to as multi-gyms or multis. These workstations are designed to match right into a spare room, basement or storage so you can do weight education at domestic.

Exercising at domestic as many advantages. If you make a decision domestic is the fine place (in preference to the fitness center) for you, the subsequent step is to determine what system you need. Before you head out to the closest shop, right here are some matters to don't forget first.

The maximum-famous, mid-variety multi-gyms normally encompass the following:

Adjustable bench for sitting or reclining

Stacked steel weights with pin choice for load

Pulldown bars particularly for the lat pulldown again workout

Press bars for pushing and pulling, for shoulders, fingers, and again

Leg extension gadget for quadriceps muscular tissues of the thigh

Leg curl gadget for exercise the hamstrings behind the thigh

Seated cable row gadget for again and fingers workout

Types of Setups

You have many alternatives for putting in place a domestic fitness center, however the selections for weight education primarily fall into the types below. Aerobic workout system which include treadmills, rowers, and desk bound motorcycles are continually alternatives; however for now, I’ll give attention to electricity education system best treadmill under $1000 .

Combinations of transportable system. Dumbbells, bench, balls, steps, bands, mats, ab employees etc. Nothing too complicated right here, simply primary however extensible system. The Reebok Weight Bench with protected dumbbell set is a famous starter.

Free weight stations. Adjustable benches, energy racks for containing barbells, dumbbells, barbells, and plates (spherical weights). Mostly movable system for extra heavy obligation use.

Multi-gyms primarily based totally on metal or composite bands and cords. The flexing band creates the resistance. Bowflex emblem is fine known, Weider Advantage is an example.

Total Gym concept. This concept makes use of an adjustable height, willing bench and sliding seat platform that makes use of your very own frame weight to growth resistance. Example: Total Gym 1500.

Multi-gyms primarily based totally on stacked weights. This maximum famous configuration makes use of a cable and pulley mechanism with stacked weights. You flow the peg to pick out the weight. Example: Body Solid EXM series.

Multi-gyms with provision without cost weight plates. The spherical weights are manually suited to the barbell extensions. Example: Powertec Workbench. (Note: weights are extra.)

Smith gadget multi combinations. The general Smith gadget makes use of a mechanism that constrains the bar in a single vertical plane, in contrast to free-weight benches and racks. These domestic fitness center multis upload extra attachments to gain a flexible workstation. Example: Mega Smith System.

What Do I Want to Achieve?

To assist you make a decision which manner to go together with fitness center system, you must don't forget what your dreams and dedication are. If you're beginning out with weight education, until you're definitely positive of your necessities and dedication, I might advise you attempt choice '1' withinside the fitness center kind listing due to the fact there's loads of unused, high-priced system languishing in spare rooms due to the fact humans were given tired of it and went right all the way down to the fitness center instead. Now I didn't say 'due to the fact humans gave up' — that's now no longer going to be you, right? Here are some thoughts to don't forget if you make a decision to match out the house fitness center.

Beginners and Light Exercisers

If your dreams are widespread health, weight management, muscle tone and versatility, then a minimal will be an cardio step (like a Reebok step), numerous units of dumbbells — a heavier set for squats and lunges and a lighter set for overhead and facet lifts — an adjustable bench, a health ball and an workout mat. You may want to upload resistance bands and tubes for range and you may have a neat setup so as to come up with range and versatility for numerous hundred dollars.

Some may decide on multi-gyms in which the entirety is compact and to be had on the only gadget and a guidebook describes sporting activities you could do. These variety from under $500 up to $4000 so a extensive variety of choice, quality, flexibility, and the value is to be had. Units around $500 to $one thousand in shape many exercisers however you could get prepared for under $500 with primary however beneficial system. The Body Solid EXM S for under $one thousand and the Weider Advantage for around $500 are examples.

Intermediate Trainers

Into extra critical health, muscle development, and electricity education? One choice you must don't forget is a extra entire set of dumbbells and barbells and plates and an workout bench and barbell rack of precise quality — for under $one thousand.

A extra superior multi-health clubnasium can also hit the spot, possibly withinside the $one thousand-$1500 range, in any other case you may move for the unfastened weights alternative as above and upload a inexpensive multi-health clubnasium just like the Weider or Bowflex band machine or a Total Gym (objects three and four withinside the health clubnasium kinds list). This mixture of unfastened weights and inexpensive multi remains withinside the under $1500 range.

Advanced Trainers

Home device for the extreme weight teacher and bodybuilder is regularly supplementary to health clubnasium periods. Naturally, maximum ordinary health clubnasium running shoes don’t try and mirror what they use in ordinary periods at their downtown gyms, however a few have unfastened-weight bench setups or choose a heavy-responsibility multi to apply at domestic. The Powertec Workbench is an instance on this elegance in which unfastened weights are used, and that you want to shop for as extras.

How Much Can I Afford?

Note my in advance caution approximately spending up large except you're rock stable in dedication and information approximately your dreams and requirements.

To summarize price (in U.S. greenbacks):

A few dumbbells, step, adjustable bench, health ball, workout mat, and bands ought to price much less than $400.

A extra expert set of dumbbells, unfastened weights, and bench and rack ought to are available at under $one thousand however you could pay lots extra for high-give up device.

The Total Gym 1500 willing bench sliding machine is approximately $300.

A Weider Advantage or Bowflex Sport are around $500 and $700.

A price range weight stack domestic health clubnasium multi just like the Body Solid EXM 1500S will price you up to $800.

The higher prepared Body Solid G41 or Body Craft Galena are around $1500.

A first-class unfastened-weight multi just like the Powertec Workbench Leverage for around $800 and some hundred greenbacks extra for the subsequent model.

A multi-station, multi-health clubnasium just like the Body Craft Family Xpress, that could accommodate numerous customers at once, is approximately $3000.

And for desirable measure, a Smith kind multi for much less than $1500 — an instance being the Mega Smith which mixes Smith device kind movement with extra workout attachments.

How Much Space Is Needed?

This is an essential one. I’ve heard of human beings shopping for device unseen, or at the least unmeasured, most effective to discover it'll now no longer suit withinside the area or room provided. Be certain to test this out. You want to discern on the precise outside dimensions of the assembled unit, with all feasible attachments, after which upload any extension that takes place for the duration of workout. If a leg extension or chest fly provides to the room required, it wishes to be factored in while you’re running out the distance you require. Some Body Craft fashions are designed to suit right into a corner. This can assist with area issues.

How Many Users?

Always preventing with the partner, the kids, the cat, for get right of entry to to the house health clubnasium? Get a multi-station device in order that a couple of character can workout on the identical time. These have a tendency to be high priced at over $2000. Examples are the Body Craft Family Express and the Body Solid EXM-3000LPS.

Can I Install it Myself?

Another essential attention is transport and assembly. For instance, the Total Gym kind structures with the willing platform are definitely one-piece and also you simply stroll them withinside the door and 'begin them up'. Some different kinds most effective require some bits bolted on however others can take hours to assemble. Ask approximately this earlier than you purchase if that is essential to you. Clearly, many multi-gyms, absolutely assembled, will now no longer suit via a doorway, so assume a few installation time and expertise.

Is the Equipment Safe?

First, dumbbells and barbells and plates are heavy. Be cautious lugging them around. If you labored with these things the protection human beings might insist you put on steel-capped boots!

However, past that, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission publishes all times of recollects because of defective or risky device on its website. I be aware that a few Bowflex devices underwent a totally huge bear in mind and Nautilus Bowflex had been fined for now no longer complying with notification regulations. Even so, that doesn't suggest that each one Bowflex device is unreliable, in particular more moderen fashions.

Second-Hand Equipment

If you’re thinking about shopping for second-hand device take a look at first to peer if it become recalled. Several Nautilus Bowflex devices and the Total Gym XL machine had been difficulty to bear in mind in beyond years. In nations apart from the U.S., take a look at with neighborhood purchaser government or the dealers or vendors for in addition information. Models fluctuate from us of a to us of a for a few products.

Home Gym Recommendations

After an in depth review, I can propose seven domestic health clubnasium workstations over a number of charge and practical requirements. This isn't to mention that there aren't different fashions as a way to offer comparable value, however those stand out for me.

#best treadmill under $1000 #best elliptical under $1000 #best home gym #best weightlifting shoes

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bestreviewpro-blog · 4 years ago

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The Best Home Theater Systems in 2020

For some individuals, the best home theater frameworks give an amazing equalization of good quality sound and simple establishment.

In 2020, a top home theater framework can give you an incredible sound encounter to equal an increasingly confounded arrangement. Be that as it may, without the additional difficulty of purchasing singular segments.

This purchasing aide will give you the wretched on all you have to know to get yourself fully operational.

To begin with, I will give you a general diagram of what an across the board framework is, and a portion of the highlights you ought to be paying special mind to.

From that point forward, I will give a short survey of a portion of my top choices models and feature why they may give you an extraordinary cinema involvement with your front room. click here

What is a Home Theater System?

It might appear to be a moronic inquiry, however one of the most troublesome things is to nail down precisely what a home theater framework is.

In straightforward terms, a home auditorium bundle makes it simple to improve the sound in your room. It permits you to kill those awful TV speakers and get a greater and all the more fulfilling sound when viewing a film.

All without requiring a capability in electrical designing!

The issue is, there are various methods of doing this. Along these lines, the term 'home theater framework' may mean something else to various individuals.

No big surprise individuals get confounded when attempting to explore this stuff!

At the point when you scan for the best home theater hardware to get you are generally stood up to with a not insignificant rundown of AV recipients, soundbars, encompass sound speaker bundles and across the board frameworks.

All in all, how would you choose what is best for you? All things considered, how about we return to nuts and bolts and improve this a bit.

Do I Need to Buy an Amplifier or Speakers?

Each total framework will incorporate these.

The principle bit of leeway of an across the board framework is that you will get an enhancer and speakers intended to function admirably together.

You don't have to stress over coordinating the speakers with the intensifier. What's more, you don't should be worried about a large number of the specialized subtleties which befuddle numerous individuals.

A total bundle will as a rule incorporate all the additional items required to get everything going. Like speaker wire, for instance. In any case, you might need to twofold check this, as some may not.

Clearly, on the off chance that you are purchasing a remote framework, at that point speaker wire won't be an issue!

Likewise, be cautious when you are looking for these frameworks. You will discover a wide range of items under this class – including total encompass sound speaker bundles – with no enhancer included.

Numerous individuals get befuddled about this. They can wind up purchasing a speaker bundle without understanding that they will require an intensifier to make everything work.

All the frameworks I notice on this page are finished frameworks with speakers and intensifiers.

What Connection Types Do I Need?

This is the place it can get somewhat precarious. The purpose of improving your sound is with the goal that you can hear the sound from your gadgets.

Things being what they are, would you simply like to hear the sound from your TV?

Or on the other hand, shouldn't something be said about your Blu-beam player as well? A few frameworks permit you to associate your Blu-beam player legitimately. Others don't.

Possibly take into account future buys as well?

You should be clear what you need to have the option to playback through the speakers - and afterward pick the correct framework that permits this.

In any case, a couple of frameworks are restricted in their info associations.

A soundbar particularly may have not many information sources. These are essentially intended to simply play sound from your TV. Be that as it may, a few models do offer more info choices.

The way numerous cutting edge soundbars get the sound from your TV is by means of a HDMI ARC association. HDMI ARC permits the TV to send the sound down the HDMI link into your soundbar.

How Do I Choose a Home Theater System?

Before purchasing a home performance center bundle, consider these issues:

Type: do you need a progressively customary across the board encompass framework - which accompanies an enhancer and home theater speakers - or an increasingly current soundbar framework? Additionally, remember that you could likewise purchase an AV collector and a different encompass sound speaker bundle.

Value: your spending will rapidly limit your decisions. The least expensive home theater framework is a basic sound system soundbar. Encompass sound is better for motion pictures, however you don't must have this. For frameworks with a greater sticker price, at that point you will by and large get more highlights, better form quality and improved sound quality. You simply need to choose what value section will purchase the best home theater framework for your home.

Speakers: what number of speakers do you need? Do you simply need sound system sound? Or on the other hand a sound system 2.1 framework with a subwoofer? From here you can get 3.1, 5.1 encompass sound… or more. Dolby Atmos frameworks have raised channels for vivid 3D sound. These may be 5.1.2 or 7.1.4.

Focus Speaker: Do you need a framework with a devoted focus? This should assist discourse with being more clear. Or on the other hand is sound system enough? Generally across the board frameworks will have committed focuses. Some soundbars have a middle speaker incorporated with the unit alongside the front left and right speakers. Some don't and are sound system only.Surround

Sound: do you need a framework with devoted encompasses that you have to introduce around your parlor? Generally across the board 5.1 frameworks will have this. Most soundbars will have all the speakers contained in the real soundbar itself. However, there are some soundbar frameworks that do consider back mounting encompass speakers.Connections: what outside gadgets would you like to associate with your framework? Or then again, would you simply like to hear the sound from your TV? Would you like to associate a Blu-beam player? Or on the other hand your cell phone through Bluetooth? Likewise, check how the framework associates with your TV. Numerous soundbars use HDMI ARC – so your TV needs to help this.Features: which different alternatives do you need? Bluetooth? Music spilling abilities? Video gushing administrations like Netflix or Spotify? Remote: do you need remote speakers? Some soundbars have a remote subwoofer and alternatives to include remote encompasses. Some across the board encompass sound frameworks will utilize wires to interface the speakers. Some don't.

Do I Need Wired or Wireless Speakers?

A few years ago, you had no choice, but there are now some serious options if you want wireless speakers.

Some people will wonder if you can get the same audio quality as with using a good old cable. Others will care less and can't wait to remove all those annoying speaker cables.

Which are you?

Many soundbars come with wireless subwoofers and surrounds. All-in-one systems are more likely to rely on cables – but not all.

A few years ago, you had no choice, but there are now some serious options if you want wireless speakers.

Some people will wonder if you can get the same audio quality as with using a good old cable. Others will care less and can't wait to remove all those annoying speaker cables.

Do soundbars and budget all-in-ones sound as good as proper hi-fi amplifiers and good-quality tower or bookshelf speakers?

Honestly, no. But it does depend on what you are used to listening to.

If you don't already have a dedicated music system – then a complete system will probably be fine for your music listening needs.

Bigger speaker cabinets and drivers with dedicated hi-fi amplifiers will always sound better than the small speakers you get in soundbars and most all-in-one systems.

But, they cost more too.

How Do I Choose a Home Theater System?

Before buying a home theater package, think about these issues:

Type: do you want a more traditional all-in-one surround system - which comes with an amplifier and home theater speakers - or a more modern soundbar system? Also, don't forget that you could also buy an AV receiver and a separate surround sound speaker package. Price: your budget will quickly narrow down your choices. The cheapest home theater system is a simple stereo soundbar. Surround sound is better for movies, but you don't have to have this. For systems with a bigger price tag, then you will generally get more features, better build quality and improved sound quality. You just need to decide what price bracket will buy the best home theater system for your home. Speakers: how many speakers do you want? Do you just want stereo sound? Or a stereo 2.1 system with a subwoofer? From here you can get 3.1, 5.1 surround sound… or more. Dolby Atmos systems have elevated channels for immersive 3D sound. These might be 5.1.2 or 7.1.4. Center Speaker: Do you want a system with a dedicated center? This should help speech to be clearer. Or is stereo enough? Most all-in-one systems will have dedicated centers. Some soundbars have a center speaker built into the unit along with the front left and right speakers. Some don't and are stereo only. Surround Sound: do you want a system with dedicated surrounds that you need to install around your living room? Most all-in-one 5.1 systems will have this. Most soundbars will have all the speakers contained in the actual soundbar itself. But there are some soundbar systems that do allow for rear-mounting surround speakers. Connections: what external devices do you want to connect to your system? Or, do you just want to hear the sound from your TV? Do you want to connect a Blu-ray player? Or your mobile device via Bluetooth? Also, check how the system connects to your TV. Many soundbars use HDMI ARC – so your TV needs to support this. Features: which other options do you need? Bluetooth? Music streaming capabilities? Video streaming services like Netflix or Spotify? Wireless: do you want wireless speakers? Some soundbars have a wireless subwoofer and options to add wireless surrounds. Many all-in-one surround sound systems will use wires to connect the speakers. Some don't.

Top Home Theater Systems Reviews

When buying home theater equipment, one of the most difficult things is narrowing down your choice. With all the options out there, looking for the best surround sound system can make your head spin.

Hopefully, the points above will have given you a better idea of what you are looking for.

What I will do now is give you a rundown on some of my favorites.

I've tried to include systems at a range of prices, so there should be something for all budgets.

When buying home theater equipment, one of the most difficult things is narrowing down your choice. With all the options out there, looking for the best surround sound system can make your head spin.

I've only included soundbar systems that have dedicated surround sound speakers. If you want to look at a full range of soundbars - from budget to high-end - take a look at my guide to soundbars for your TV and home theater.

1. Yamaha YHT-4950U Home Theater System The home theater speaker package that comes with this system comprises of compact black gloss speakers. The front left and right, center channel and satellite speakers have single 2 ¾" full-range cones.

This smaller size will provide unobtrusive speakers that won’t take over your room.

If you set the crossover frequency at the right point, you can still get a full sound from smaller speakers. The subwoofer will handle the lower frequencies that the small front/surrounds might not do justice to.

To help with that, you can use the supplied microphone and YPAO room optimization software to analyze your room and set the best parameters. It will find the best crossover points and speaker distances automatically.

This is something that most all-in-one systems don't have and so is a good extra for this Yamaha all-in-one.

The subwoofer has an 8" cone and is rated at 50 watts (5 ohms, 100 Hz, 10% THD). This should offer enough bass for movies and music, without taking up too much floor space.

All the speakers are wired - and the speaker cable is included as part of the package. This supports Yamaha's MusicCast Surround system, where you can add wireless speakers around your room.

It also has built-in WiFi for connecting to streaming music services.

However, if you don't want the wireless features, then the YHT-4950U is probably the better value.

The receiver doesn’t have as many input connections as some of Yamaha's higher-end models. But, there are still more than many home theater systems offer.

There are 4 HDMI inputs and 1 HDMI output. All with 4K/60p Ultra HD pass-through and HDCP 2.2 support. HDR pass-through is available for the most common versions. Therefore, you have support for HDR10, Dolby Vision, HLG and BT.2020 out of the box.

On top of that, you have 1 optical audio, 2 coaxial audio, 3 analog audio and 3 composite video inputs. There is also a single composite video output.

If you want to stream audio from your handheld device into the sound system, then this unit has Bluetooth support. And, you aren't limited to just streaming into the receiver.

The YHT-4950U system will also connect to Bluetooth headphones and speakers. Something that not all devices with Bluetooth will do.

Sonos 5.1 Soundbar Surround Set: I thought twice about including this Sonos system here. Nothing to do with the quality, but because it doesn't fit into my traditional thinking on what a home theater system is.

Sonos is a multi-room wireless speaker system for the whole house, isn't it?

There's no receiver (as such). Where do you plug everything in? Where are all the wires? For an old so and so like me, this is waaaaay out there!

However, once I thought about it, I concluded that it fits exactly here. This is the future. Well, part of it at least.

And, it does many of the things any other home theater system does. So, why not?

Anyway, many people don't know that Sonos wireless speakers can double-up as a 5.1 surround sound system. Or, was that just me?

So, let's start again…

Did you know Sonos wireless speakers can double-up as a 5.1 surround sound system? No? Well, they can!

You can get a basic 3.1 setup using either a Playbase, Playbar or Beam which you can pair with a Sonos Sub. The Playbase/Playbar/Beam will act as the center, front left and front right speakers. The Sub will act as the... subwoofer!

Conclusion So, as you can see, buying the best home theater system can be a perfect way for you to get a great surround sound experience.

There are several great home theater packages and soundbars which will provide fantastic sound in any home.

I don't want you relying on the sound from your TV speakers. That's boring!

Get a proper speaker system and really enjoy watching that movie.

As you probably know from reading the rest of this site - you have read every page, haven't you? - I think surround sound is fantastic.

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An all-in-one home-theater-in-a-box or soundbar can be perfect for many home theaters and will give you a setup that you will love.

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kemetic-dreams · 5 years ago

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Ibrahima & Abdoulaye Barry Written by Deborah BachAudio by Sara Lerner

How a new alphabet is helping an ancient people write its own future

When they were 10 and 14, brothers Abdoulaye and Ibrahima Barry set out to invent an alphabet for their native language, Fulfulde, which had been spoken by millions of people for centuries but never had its own writing system. While their friends were out playing in the neighborhood, Ibrahima, the older brother, and Abdoulaye would shut themselves in their room in the family’s house in Nzérékoré, Guinea, close their eyes and draw shapes on paper.

When one of them called stop they’d open their eyes, choose the shapes they liked and decide what sound of the language they matched best. Before long, they’d created a writing system that eventually became known as ADLaM.

The brothers couldn’t have known the challenges that lay ahead. They couldn’t have imagined the decades-long journey to bring their writing system into widespread use, one that would eventually lead them to Microsoft. They wouldn’t have dreamed that the script they invented would change lives and open the door to literacy for millions of people around the world.

They didn’t know any of that back in 1989. They were just two kids with a naïve sense of purpose.

“We just wanted people to be able to write correctly in their own language, but we didn’t know what that meant. We didn’t know how much work it would be,” said Abdoulaye Barry, now 39 and living in Portland, Oregon.

“If we knew everything we would have to go through, I don’t think we would have done it.”

ADLaM is an acronym that translates to 'the alphabet that will prevent a people from being lost.'

A new writing system takes shape

The Fulbhe, or Fulani, people were originally nomadic pastoralists who dispersed across West Africa, settling in countries stretching from Sudan to Senegal and along the coast of the Red Sea. More than 40 million people speak Fulfulde — some estimates put the number at between 50 and 60 million — in around 20 African countries. But the Fulbhe people never developed a script for their language, instead using Arabic and sometimes Latin characters to write in their native tongue, also known as Fulani, Pular and Fula. Many sounds in Fulfulde can’t be represented by either alphabet, so Fulfulde speakers improvised as they wrote, with varying results that often led to muddled communications.

The Barry brothers’ father, Isshaga Barry, who knew Arabic, would decipher letters for friends and family who brought them to the house. When he was busy or tired, young Abdoulaye and Ibrahima would help out.

“They were very hard to read, those letters,” Abdoulaye recalled. “People would use the most approximate Arabic sound to represent a sound that doesn’t exist in Arabic. You had to be somebody who knows how to read Arabic letters well and also knows the Fulfulde language to be able to decipher those letters.”

Abdoulaye asked his father why their people didn’t have their own writing system. Isshaga replied that the only alphabet they had was Arabic, and Abdoulaye promised to create one for Fulfulde.

“At a basic level, that’s how the whole idea of ADLaM started,” Abdoulaye said. “We saw that there was a need for something and we thought maybe we could fix it.”

The brothers developed an alphabet with 28 letters and 10 numerals written right to left, later adding six more letters for other African languages and borrowed words. They first taught it to their younger sister, then began teaching people at local markets, asking each student to teach at least three more people. They transcribed books and produced their own handwritten books and pamphlets in ADLaM, focusing on practical topics such as infant care and water filtration.

While attending university in Conakry, Guinea’s capital city, the brothers started a group called Winden Jangen — Fulfulde for “writing and reading” — and continued developing ADLaM. Abdoulaye left Guinea in 2003, moving to Portland with his wife and studying finance. Ibrahima stayed behind, completing a civil engineering degree, and continued working on ADLaM. He wrote more books and started a newspaper, translating news stories from the radio and television from French to Fulfulde. Isshaga, a shopkeeper, photocopied the newspapers and Ibrahima handed them out to Fulbhe people, who were so grateful they sometimes wept.

But not everyone was pleased by the brothers’ work. Some objected to their efforts to spread ADLaM, saying Fulbhe people should learn French, English or Arabic instead. In 2002, military officers raided a Winden Jangen meeting, arrested Ibrahima and imprisoned him for three months. He was not charged with anything or ever told why he was arrested, Abdoulaye said. Undeterred, Ibrahima moved to Portland in 2007 and continued writing books while studying civil engineering and mathematics.

ADLaM, meanwhile, was spreading beyond Guinea. A palm oil dealer, a woman the brothers’ mother knew, was teaching ADLaM to people in Senegal, Gambia and Sierra Leone. A man from Senegal told Ibrahima that after learning ADLaM, he felt so strongly about the need to share what he’d learned that he left his auto repair business behind and went to Nigeria and Ghana to teach others.

“He said, ‘This is changing people’s lives,’” said Ibrahima, now 43. “We realized this is something people want.”

ADLaM comes online

The brothers also understood that to fully tap ADLaM’s potential, they needed to get it onto computers. They made inquiries about getting ADLaM encoded in Unicode, the global computing industry standard for text, but got no response. After working and saving for close to a year, the brothers had enough money to hire a Seattle company to create a keyboard and font for ADLaM. Since their script wasn’t supported by Unicode, they layered it on top of the Arabic alphabet. But without the encoding, any text they typed just came through as random groupings of Arabic letters unless the recipients had the font installed on their computers.

Following that setback, Ibrahima made a fateful decision. Wanting to refine the letters the Seattle font designer developed, which he wasn’t happy with, he enrolled in a calligraphy class at Portland Community College. The instructor, Rebecca Wild, asked students at the start of each course why they were taking her class. Some needed an art credit; others wanted to decorate cakes or become tattoo artists. The explanation from the quiet African man with the French accent stunned Wild.

“It was mind-blowing when I heard the story of why he was doing this,” said Wild, who lives in Port Townsend, Washington. “It’s so remarkable. I think they deserve a Nobel Peace Prize for what they’re doing. What a difference they’ve made on this planet, and they’re these two humble brothers.”

Wild was struck by Ibrahima’s focus and assiduousness in class. “He was always a star student,” she said. “He had this skill set and unending patience. He worked and worked and worked in class on the assignments, but at the same time, he was taking all this stuff he was learning in class back to ADLaM.”

Wild helped Ibrahima get a scholarship to a calligraphy conference at Reed College in Portland, where he met Randall Hasson, a calligraphy artist and painter. Hasson was seated at a table one afternoon, giving a lettering demonstration with another instructor, and Ibrahima came over. A book about African alphabets rested on the table. Ibrahima picked it up, commented that the scripts in the book weren’t the only African alphabets and offhandedly mentioned that he and his brother had invented an alphabet.

Hasson, who has extensively researched ancient alphabets, assumed Ibrahima meant that he and his brother had somehow modified an alphabet.

“I said, ‘You mean you adapted an alphabet?’” Hasson recalled. “I had to ask him three times to be sure he had actually invented one.”

After hearing Ibrahima’s story, Hasson suggested teaming up for a talk on ADLaM at a calligraphy conference in Colorado the following year. The audience sat rapt as Hasson told Ibrahima’s story, giving him a standing ovation as he walked to the stage. During a break earlier in the day, Ibrahima asked Hasson to come and meet a few people. They were four Fulbhe men who had driven almost 1,800 miles from New York just to hear Ibrahima’s talk, hoping it would finally help get ADLaM the connections they sought.

Hasson was so moved after speaking with them that he walked away, sat down in an empty stairwell and cried.

“At that moment,” he said, “I began to understand how important this talk was to these people.”

Ibrahima made connections at the conference that got him introduced to Michael Everson, one of the editors of the Unicode Standard. It was the break the brothers needed. With help from Everson, Ibrahima and Abdoulaye put together a proposal for ADLaM to be added to Unicode.

Andrew Glass is a senior program manager at Microsoft who works on font and keyboard technology and provides expertise to the Unicode Technical Committee. The ADLaM proposal and the Barry brothers’ pending visit to the Unicode Consortium generated much interest and excitement among Glass and other committee members, most of whom have linguistics backgrounds. Glass’s graduate studies focused on writing systems that are around 2,000 years old, and like other linguists he uses a methodological, technical approach to analyze and understand writing systems.

But here were two brothers with no training in linguistics, who developed an alphabet through a natural, organic approach — and when they were children, no less. New writing systems aren’t created very often, and the chance to actually talk with the inventors of one was rare.

“You come across things in these old writing systems and you wonder why it’s the way it is, and there’s nobody to ask,” Glass said. “This was a unique opportunity to say, ‘Why is it like this? Did they think about doing things differently? Why are the letters ordered this way?’ and things like that.”

Microsoft worked with designers to develop a font for Windows and Office called Ebrima that supports ADLaM and several other African writing systems.

It was during the Unicode process that ADLaM got its new name. The brothers originally called their alphabet Bindi Pular, meaning “Pular script,” but had always wanted a more meaningful name. Some people in Guinea who’d been teaching the script suggested ADLaM, an acronym using the first four letters of the script for a phrase that translates to “the alphabet that will prevent a people from being lost.” The Unicode Technical Committee approved ADLaM in 2014 and the alphabet was included in Unicode 9.0, released in June 2016. The brothers were elated.

“It was very exciting for us,” Abdoulaye said. “Once we got encoded, we thought, ‘This is it.’”

But they soon realized there were other, possibly even more challenging hurdles ahead. For ADLaM to be usable on computers, it had to be supported on desktop and mobile operating systems, and with fonts and keyboards. To make it broadly accessible, it also needed to be integrated on social networking sites.

The brothers’ script found a champion in Glass, who had developed Windows keyboards for several languages and worked on supporting various writing systems in Microsoft technology. Glass told others at Microsoft about ADLaM and helped connect the Barry brothers to the right people at the company. He developed keyboard layouts for ADLaM, initially as a project during Microsoft’s annual companywide employee hackathon.

Judy Safran-Aasen, a program manager for Microsoft’s Windows design group, also saw the importance of incorporating ADLaM into Microsoft products. Safran-Aasen wrote a business plan for adding ADLaM to Windows and pushed the work forward with various Microsoft teams.

“It was a shoestring collaboration of a few people who were really interested in seeing this happen,” she said. “It’s a powerful human interest story, and if you tell the story you can get people onboard.

“This is going to have an impact on literacy throughout that community and enable people to be part of the Windows ecosystem, where before that just wasn’t available to them,” Safran-Aasen said. “I’m really excited that we can make this happen.”

ADLaM creators Ibrahima and Abdoulaye Barry in Portland, Oregon.

Microsoft worked with two type designers in Maine, Mark Jamra and Neil Patel, to develop an ADLaM component for Windows and Office within Microsoft’s existing Ebrima font, which also supports other African writing systems. ADLaM support is included in the Windows 10 May 2019 update, allowing users to type and see ADLaM in Windows, including in Word and other Office apps.

Microsoft’s support for ADLaM, Abdoulaye said, “is going to be a huge jump for us.”

ADLaM is also supported by the Kigelia typeface system developed by Jamra and Patel, which includes eight African scripts and is being added to Office later this year. The designers wanted to create a type system for a region of the world lacking in typeface development, where they say existing fonts tend to be oversimplified and poorly researched. They consulted extensively with Ibrahima and Abdoulaye to refine ADLaM’s forms, painstakingly working to execute on the brothers’ vision within the boundaries of font technology.

“This was their life’s work that they started when they were kids,” Patel said. “To get it right is a big deal.”

And to many Africans, Jamra said, a script is more than just an alphabet. ”These writing systems are cultural icons,” he said. “It’s not like the Latin script. They really are symbols of ethnic identity for many of these communities.”

They’re also a means of preserving and advancing a culture. Without a writing system it’s difficult for people to record their history, to share perspective and knowledge across generations, even to engage in the basic communications that facilitate commerce and daily activities. There is greater interest in recent years in establishing writing systems for languages that didn’t have them, Glass said, to help ensure those languages remain relevant and don’t disappear. He pointed to the Osage script, created by an elder in 2006 to preserve and revitalize the language, as an example.

“There is a big push among language communities to develop writing systems,” Glass said. “And when they get them, they are such a powerful tool to put identity around that community, and also empower that community to learn and become educated.

“I think ADLaM has tremendous potential to change circumstances and improve people’s lives. That’s one of the things that’s really exciting about this.”

Keeping a culture alive

Ibrahima and Abdoulaye don’t know how many people around the world have learned ADLaM. It could be hundreds of thousands, maybe more. As many as 24 countries have been represented at ADLaM’s annual conference in Guinea, and there are ADLaM learning centers in Africa, Europe and the U.S. On a recent trip to Brussels, Ibrahima discovered that four learning centers had opened there and others have started in the Netherlands.

“I was really surprised. I couldn’t imagine that ADLaM has reached so many people outside of Africa,” he said.

Abdoulaye “Bobody” Barry (no relation to ADLaM’s creator) lives in Harlem, New York and is part of Winden Jangen, now a nonprofit organization based in New York City. He learned ADLaM a decade ago and has taught it to hundreds of people, first at mosques and then through messaging applications using an Android app. The script has enabled Fulbhe people, many of whom never learned to read and write in English or French, to connect around the world and has fostered a sense of sense of cultural pride, Barry said.

“This is part of our blood. It came from our culture,” he said. “This is not from the French people or the Arabic people. This is ours. This is our culture. That’s why people get so excited.”

Suwadu Jallow emigrated to the U.S. from Gambia in 2012 and took an ADLaM class the Barry brothers taught at Portland Community College. ADLaM is easy for Fulfulde speakers to learn, she said, and will help sustain the language, particularly among the African diaspora.

“Now I can teach this language to someone and have the sense of my tribe being here for years and years to come without the language dying off,” said Jallow, who lives in Seattle. “Having this writing system, you can teach kids how to speak (Fulfulde) just like you teach them to speak English. It will help preserve the language and let people be creative and innovative.”

Jallow is pursuing a master’s in accounting at the University of Washington and hopes to develop an inventory-tracking system in ADLaM after she graduates. She got the idea after helping out in her mother’s baby clothing shop in Gambia as a child and seeing that her mother, who understood little English and Arabic, could not properly record and track expenses. ADLaM, she said, can empower people like her mother who are fluent in Fulfulde and just need a way to write it.

“It’s going to increase literacy,” she said. “I believe knowledge is power, and if you’re able to read and write, that’s a very powerful tool to have. You can do a lot of things that you weren’t able to do.”

The Fulbhe people in Guinea historically produced a considerable volume of books and manuscripts, Abdoulaye Barry said, using Arabic to write in their language. Most households traditionally had a handwritten personal book detailing the family’s ancestry and the history of the Fulbhe people. But the books weren’t shared outside the home, and Fulbhe people largely stopped writing during French colonization, when the government mandated teaching in French and the use of Arabic was limited primarily to learning the Koran.

“Everything else was basically discounted and no longer had the value that it had before the French came,” Abdoulaye said.

Having ADLaM on phones and computers creates infinite possibilities — Fulbhe people around the world will be able to text each other, surf the internet, produce written materials in their own language. But even before ADLaM’s entry into the digital world, Fulfulde speakers in numerous countries have been using the script to write books. Ibrahima mentions a man in Guinea who never went to school and has written more than 30 books in ADLaM, and a high school girl, also in Guinea, who wrote a book about geography and another about how to succeed on exams. The president of Winden Jangen, Abdoulaye Barry (also no relation to Ibrahima’s brother), said many older Fulbhe people who weren’t formally educated are now writing about Fulbhe history and traditions.

“Now, everybody can read that and understand the culture,” he said. “The only way to keep a culture alive is if you read and write in your own language.”

‘The kids are the future’

Though ADLaM has spread over several continents, Ibrahima and Abdoulaye aren’t slowing down their work. Both spend much of their spare time promoting the script, traveling to conferences and continuing to write. Ibrahima, who sleeps a maximum of four hours a night, recently finished the first book of ADLaM grammar and hopes to build a learning academy in Guinea.

On a chilly recent day in Abdoulaye’s home in Portland, the brothers offer tea and patiently answer questions about ADLaM. They are unfailingly gracious, gamely agreeing to drive to a scenic spot on the Willamette River for photos after a long day of talking. They’re also quick to deflect praise for what they have accomplished. Ibrahima, who sometimes wakes up to hundreds of email and text messages from grateful ADLaM learners, said simply that he’s “very happy” with how the script has progressed. For his brother, the response to ADLaM can be overwhelming.

Having this writing system, you can teach kids how to speak Fulani just like you teach them to speak English. It will help preserve the language and let people be creative and innovative.

“It’s very emotional sometimes,” Abdoulaye said. “I feel like people are grateful beyond what we deserve.”

The brothers want ADLaM to be a tool for combating illiteracy, one as lasting and important to their people as the world’s most well-known alphabets are to cultures that use them. They have a particular goal of ADLaM being used to educate African women, who they said are more impacted by illiteracy than men and are typically the parent who teaches children to read.

“If we educate women we can help a lot of people in the community, because they are the foundation of our community,” Abdoulaye said. “I think ADLaM is the best way to educate people because they don’t need to learn a whole new language that’s only used at school. If we switched to this, it would make education a lot easier.”

That hasn’t happened yet, but ADLaM has fostered a grassroots learning movement fueled largely through social media. There are several ADLaM pages on Facebook, and groups with hundreds of members are learning together on messaging apps. Abdoulaye said he and Ibrahima used to hear mostly about adults learning ADLaM, but increasingly it’s now children. Those children will grow up with ADLaM, using the script Abdoulaye and Ibrahima invented all those years ago in their bedroom.

“That makes us believe ADLaM is going to live,” Abdoulaye said. “It’s now settled into the community because it’s in the kids, and the kids are the future.”

Originally published on 7/29/2019 / Photos by Brian Smale / © Microsoft

#fulani #african writing #african writing systems #abdoulaye #adlam #kemetic dreams

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a-man-for-hire-and-his-archives · 6 years ago

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Ready for lift-off

Espionage thriller Summer of Rockets is the first screen work from acclaimed writer/director Stephen Poliakoff to draw on his own life, set in 1958 at the height of the Cold War. He and executive producer Helen Flint talk to DQ about merging fact and fiction.

As a writer and director for the screen over the past four decades, Stephen Poliakoff has been behind work that has amassed numerous Bafta, Emmy, Golden Globe and Peabody awards. The playwright, who learned his craft in the theatre, counts series and films such as Perfect Strangers, The Lost Prince, Friends & Crocodiles, Gideon’s Daughter, Joe’s Palace and Capturing Mary, as well as recent dramas Dancing on the Edge and Close to the Enemy, among his extensive credits.

Yet for all his fascination with the past – among many examples, Dancing on the Edge trails a black jazz group in 1930s London and Close to the Enemy is set in the aftermath of the Second World War – his latest series is the first to draw on his own family and life experiences.

Written and directed by Poliakoff, Summer of Rockets is a semi-autobiographical drama set during 1958, a year that marked the height of the Cold War as fear and suspicion clashed with the start of the mobile revolution and the Space Race. It was also the last time debutants were presented to the Queen at Buckingham Palace and the year of the Notting Hill riots in West London.

Stephen Poliakoff, writer and director of Summer of Rockets, pictured during filming

Poliakoff says the fact it is partly based on his own life marks Summer of Rockets out as “significantly different” from anything he’s done for the screen before.

“My first real memories are from this time – I was five in 1958 – so I could feel, even as a small child, the apprehension in the air, the feel of nuclear war,” he says. “The Russians were the enemy and yet I was half-Russian, so that made me feel an extraordinary sense isolation as a child. I was also sent to boarding school, as we see in the story, and was the only Jewish boy there. That was why I was drawn to this time.

“There’s a lot of resonance for us now, as Russia again seems to be our enemy and there is also unfortunately, tragically, anti-Semitism in Europe and it’s coming back to the UK. Well, it never goes away. But above all, it was a sense of the absolute epicentre of the Cold War; the fact nobody could be trusted, especially if they were foreigners.”

Another parallel between that period and today, he notes, is the “humiliation” of the Suez Crisis in 1958, which left Britain ��a laughing stock” on the world stage. “Things have happened since I’ve written the piece and we’ve become a laughing stock for very different reasons, with people harking back to a sense of our past glories, which also plays a part in the story,” Poliakoff says. “This is not a story about Brexit or a metaphor for it, but nevertheless there are resonances in the piece.”

Toby Stephens (Black Sails) stars as Samuel Petrukhin, a Russian Jewish émigré modelled on Poliakoff’s father Alexander, an inventor and designer of hearing aids, whose clients include former UK prime minister Winston Churchill. The series also focuses on Samuel’s wife, Miriam (Lucy Cohu), and their children, Hannah (Lily Sacofsky) and Sasha (Toby Woolf). In the show, having developed a new paging system for hospitals, Samuel is is approached by the UK’s domestic intelligence agency MI5 to demonstrate his work.

Set in 1958, the series stars Toby Stephens as Samuel, who is based on Poliakoff’s father

However, it’s not his inventions the agency (led by Mark Bonnar’s mysterious Field) is interested in but his fledging friendship with MP Richard Shaw (Linus Roache) and his wife Kathleen (Keeley Hawes), who also introduce him to Lord Arthur Wellington (Timothy Spall). As Samuel’s life becomes intertwined with his mission, he is left to question how far he is willing to let things unravel for his cause and who he can trust.

It was Poliakoff’s discovery that his father had been suspected of bugging Churchill’s hearing aid, a revelation he first heard when a journalist contacted him about newly released government papers in 2007, that sparked the story behind Summer of Rockets,

“It took me a long time to think about writing it because it meant revisiting my youth and a very traumatic time at boarding school,” he says. “I also tend to write slightly away from my immediate family experience because I find it easier to invent like that. But, after quite a considerable while, because the story kept haunting me, I broached it to the BBC.”

His father’s work, he explains, is truthfully reflected in the story by his hearing aids business, the deaf workers he employs in the factory and his invention of the paging system, which he created for St Thomas’ Hospital in London.

“But I always saw that as a jumping-off point for Keeley’s side of the story,” Poliakoff continues. “My father was besotted with everything English; he was a real anglophile. He was a Russian Jew but he wanted to be an English gentleman, so there’s the story of him being involved in this English upper-class family who have their own darkness and trauma hidden away in a magnificent house. They have charm and grace, they entertain people, but this covers a deep unhappiness.

“My father would have loved to have been entertained in such a house, so that was what led me from that jumping-off point for the fictitious side of the story, but it’s based on the sort of things my father loved and was attracted to by English life and aspired to. The story curve shows Samuel learning that he doesn’t want to be the perfect English gentleman.”

Bodyguard and The Durrells star Keeley Hawes plays Samuel’s wife, Miriam Richard’s wife, Kathleen

Through the first episode, the story is laid bare against the backdrop of rockets being launched and rising anxiety over what might lie ahead, coupled with the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder that stem from the still-raw fallout of the Second World War. Samuel’s technological achievements also shine a light on how industry was set to move forward rapidly over the next decade.

“When you have six hours of television drama, it’s a big canvas. The joy of longform is that you can build a complex world and you can delve deeper into character than you can in a two-hour movie,” Poliakoff says. “It’s great to try to be ambitious when you’re given that length of screen time.”

Helen Flint, MD of Little Island Productions and Poliakoff’s long-time producing partner, admits the writer’s outlines need very little development as they are often fully formed, “very detailed and very ambitious” by the time she becomes involved.

“The thing is to identify where and how you’re actually going to make it happen,” she says. “Both of us have been around far too long. Therefore, between us and the heads of department, we can work out how to put this on the screen, which is our craft.”

With all of Poliakoff’s work filmed on location, the first task on Summer of Rockets was to find the house belonging to Richard and Kathleen Shaw, which is a constant presence during all six episodes. They eventually settled on Benington Lordship, a grand setting close to Stevenage, 35 miles north of London, which is notable for the Norman keep adjoining the 17th century house and expansive gardens.

Catastrophe’s Mark Bonnar plays the head of MI5

“The other important thing was when to film it, because getting lucky with sunshine in this country is not a given – so the schedule is everything,” Flint says.

Finding London streets that could double for the time period also proved problematic, with the slums of Notting Hill in 1958 far removed from the affluent neighbourhood it is today. Another set piece saw a queue of 1950s cars lined up along The Mall, leading to Buckingham Palace, which was filmed early in the morning to avoid the crowds of tourists usually occupying the area.

“It takes a huge amount of work, more work than anybody would imagine, weeks and weeks, and then huge amounts in post-production just to paint out silly lines and stuff like that,” Flint says of filming in London. “After that, it’s all of the countryside, the driving [scenes] and the minutiae. But because we’ve got a cast that is working all the time, we have to try to jigsaw them all in, which is very complicated at certain points. Once you have those actors, the schedule is dictated by that. Then other problems come to the fore because if they’re not available, you can’t do the locations. London exteriors are the hardest, and then piecing it together is a massive jigsaw.”

In some cases, however, the reality on which some of the series is based was too extreme to be dramatised. Poliakoff decided to tone down scenes where Sasha is at boarding school, as his own experiences at school were too “draconian” to be depicted exactly as he remembered.

Summer of Rockets debuts on BBC2 tomorrow

“When I started writing it, I realised it had to be more interesting and more inventive than the actual thing I experienced, which in reality was relentlessly grim,” he says. “A little bit of that was fine, but I didn’t think an audience would stand for that being repeated in each scene. So, oddly enough, the bit that was closest to reality was the most difficult to write.”

The series sees Poliakoff reunited with Stephens, who starred in his 2001 family reunion drama Perfect Strangers, while this was his first time working with Hawes despite having known her since she was just 19. “She starred in my wife Sandy Welch’s adaptation of Our Mutual Friend 20 years ago,” he recalls of the actor, who has recently starred in Line of Duty, The Durrells and Bodyguard. “I’ve known her for some time and we’ve always wanted to work together. She’s phenomenal in her role, which is a really very juicy role, so I’m thrilled. I think she gives one of her greatest performances.”

Following Summer of Rockets’ launch on UK pubcaster BBC2 tomorrow, all six episodes will be made available on the pubcaster’s VoD platform iPlayer. The drama is distributed internationally by BBC Studios. “‘Bingeable’ is not the prettiest word but, actually, I think my work was born to be binged,” Poliakoff notes. “People over the years have always told me they’ve sat down to watch something like Perfect Strangers, which is only four hours long. They tend to watch the first part and then they’re there four hours later.

“So I very much hope the story has that effect. It does have quite a powerful story that gathers and evolves and changes. It’s great for people to watch it in a linear way or in an immersive way. Either way, I hope people will really get into it.” - Michael Pickard (Drama Quarterly)

#toby stephens #this writer got wrong with kelsey's name #it is kathleen not miriam lol #jeez #summer of rockets #interview

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less-than-hash · 6 years ago

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Endless Night Class

If you’re interested in studying game design, Atlus has provided a rare (possibly unique) opportunity in their Persona Endless Night Collection.

Be warned: I’m about to spend a lot of words advocating that you acquire, play extensively, and critically examine their three Persona dancing games. I’m in no way associated with (and have never been associated with) Atlus. Nor am I an evangelist for any of these three games individually (though I do enjoy them). Taken together, though, I think they prove both fascinating and illuminating, and it’s rare to find a series as odd as this collected like this.

I provide some possible alternatives for similar exercises at the bottom of the post.

For the uninitiated, Atlus released a beatmatch game for the Vita a few years back based on the fourth of their teenage dating-sim slash Jungian dungeon delve Persona games: Persona 4: Dancing All Night. (I’ll be calling this P4D.)

I’m personally a big fan and played the crap out of it for months. Which is not to say that it’s without some pretty significant flaws.

A few weeks ago, they released their follow-up(s), Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight (P3D) and Personal 5: Dancing in Starlight (P5D).

The fact that any of these games exist at all is pretty weird. They’re beatmatch games that serve as spin-offs (and in two out of three cases, sequels) to narrative focused hundred-hour RPGs, each themed around dancing, despite the fact that dancing is in no shape, form, or fashion important to the core games.

Stranger still, the two new releases are essentially the same game from both a systemic and narrative perspective. The characters are different, the music is different, the UI is different, but essentially everything else - the mechanics, the UX, the inciting narrative, the way story content is accessed, the loot - is exactly the same.

Essentially Atlus made two games worth of content for the exact same “engine” and released them at the same time. It’s a little as if Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas had been released on the same day (had New Vegas not made any modifications to Fallout 3′s gameplay systems).

But here’s the kicker: for $100, you can get the “Endless Night Collection,” which contains both of the new releases and a code for the digital version of the original Dancing All Night (for PS4, if you get the PS4 bundle).

In other words, for $100 you get:

A game from mid-2015 developed for the Vita.

A follow-up to that game based on a different property developed for simultaneous release on PS4 and Vita.

A second follow-up to that game based on yet a different property developed for simultaneous release on PS4 and Vita, to be released at the same time as the above.

In addition to which, one of the two new games is a spin-off of a 12 year-old PS2 game while the other is a spin-off of a game that released last year.

That’s a whole lot of design from a whole lot of sources over a pretty long time kind of piled up on top of itself.

To an extent, that’s not wildly different from, say, being able to purchase a Witcher 1, 2, and 3 bundle. But there are a few other things that lend these particular games to study:

There’s minimal change in the basic gameplay systems, allowing you to focus on what things the devs decided to alter between games.

The games can be approached almost entirely non-linearly. You will miss nothing by not playing them in the order they were released. You certainly need not play them in their numeric order. Even within the games, the narrative and songs are released in a fairly non-linear order. (This is less true in P4: Dancing All Night, but that’s part of the point of this exercise.)

The gameplay loop can be approached in chunks as short as five minutes.

Due to the confluence of the above, you can easily and comfortably jump back and forth between all three titles.

These games marry narrative-focused properties to a traditionally narrative-light genre.

All that said, here are a few things to keep in mind:

The games are not wildly accessible to those with difficulty hearing, seeing, or performing quick finger movements.

Having a working knowledge of Persona 3, Persona 4, and Persona 5 will dramatically deepen your experience of the dancing games. If you haven’t played them (which is reasonable - that’s a roughly 300 hour and $120 investment for all three, and Persona 3 has not aged well at all, especially from a systems design perspective), it’s worthwhile to at least familiarize yourself with their plots, themes, characters, art styles, and UI.

Possessing a knowledge of both rhythm games and music will allow you a deeper awareness of some of the gameplay changes that occur between the games.

SO, let’s say I’ve convinced you to acquire a copy of the games. What about them should you be studying as you play them?

What changes did the devs make between 2015′s P4D and the two 2018 games? What does each change accomplish? What need, challenge, or issue do you think the change was in response to?

Some examples:

P4D includes a visual novel-style story mode while P5D and P3D do not. Yet they still contain interactive narrative scenes. What do these two different presentations accomplish? Why do you think Atlus changed their tact in the newer games? For bonus points, compare against the narrative presentation in the Persona 4 Arena fighting games.

It’s not merely the mechanical presentation of the narrative content that changed between the games - the scope, focus, and tone of the two recent games is markedly different from P4D. P4D tells a single, linear narrative, while P3D and P5D seem much more interested in their casts’ varied interpersonal relationships. In the older game, the player encounters a small cast of entirely new characters. In what I’ve played of the newer games, there are no new characters at all. Consider why that is. I'm almost positive that the answers are neither “they’re lazy” or “it was cheaper” (though “the cost didn’t justify the reward” could very well be part of the rationale).

Progression in P4D is wildly different from that in P3D and P5D. Consider how this requires the player to approach the content. Think about why the devs may have decided to change progression in such a radical way.

Item progression, too, is handled entirely differently in P4D than in P3D/P5D. P4D included a currency system that’s entirely gone in the new games. Why do you think that is? Further, what types of items exist in the former that aren’t in the latter? Does the functionality of some of those item types exist elsewhere in the game? Why change that presentation? Some of these changes will feel like cuts, but I promise it would have been cheaper to leave some of these systems as they were. So if the reasoning wasn’t strictly financial, what was it?

There is a single addition to the core mechanics of the game between P4D and the new releases - the double beat. Why do you think it was added?

Compare the background videos during song gameplay in P4D to that in P3D and P5D. You’ll notice that the latter two are significantly less busy from a VFX perspective. (While I haven’t closely studied it, I suspect they’re also less complex in terms of camera cuts and camera angles.) Why do you think that is, especially given that A) games within series strongly tend towards bigger, brighter, and brasher over time; and B) the original Persona 5 possesses a much flashier visual style than Persona 4? Why are the dance sequences in P5D less flashy than those in P4D?

Similarly, passing any song in P4D got you a brief cutscene in which the dancing character summoned their persona. These are absent from the newer games. Consider why that might be. (In this case, the answer “It was cheaper” may have a lot of merit, but that’s probably not the sole reason. How do those little cutscenes at the end of each song impact the way the player interacts with the game? Especially in the common use case of the player wanting to retry the song to improve their score.)

This requires a little more familiarity with music and game design, but try to observe the ways in which the authoring of the beatmatch play changes between P4D and the newer games. The mechanics are exactly the same, but the way the devs present challenges within those mechanics are different. Try to identify how, then consider why. For bonus points, examine this through the lens of questions 4, 5, and 6 in the next section.

Much of the UI art in P4D is a major departure from that of the original Persona 4. On the other hand, P3D and P5D tend to hew much more closely to their sources for their UI art. Why do you think that is? Especially consider what’s accomplished by P3D’s emulation of a 12 year-old PS2 game. (Full disclosure: I hate it.) Strangely and interestingly, though, P3D straight up steals a bit of UI from P5D, which it takes from Persona 5. (Hint: it’s when the player is prompted to speak.) Why do you think this is? (This is a spot where the financials may have played a role. Creating the art asset for P3D to use the same UI in these moments certainly cost more than not having to create that asset. However, that cost may have been significantly cheaper and safer than changing that aspect of the UI’s functionality between the two concurrent games. Is that why it was done? I can’t say. It’s worth thinking about what the decision accomplishes from a non-financial perspective, too.)

A major change between P4D and P3D/P5D’s conversation UI is the discontinued use of character portraits during speech. Those portraits already exist for both Persona 3 and Persona 5, so why not use them?

Alright, that’s a bunch to chew on solely from the perspective of differences between the games over time.

But it’s also worthwhile to carefully consider the choices that remain consistent across the titles. These are the things the devs felt strongly enough about to hold onto when they could have changed or jettisoned them.

The controls in all three games are exactly the same (though there’s a little fuzziness between platforms where certain inputs don’t map 1 to 1 between them). What do you think the developers consider so successful about these controls that they didn’t adjust them at all in the three years between the release of P4D and the latter titles?

Similarly, consider the control inputs chosen. Identify why d-pad right and Square aren’t used during dance play. Then consider how else the developers could have tried to address that issue. Why do you think they landed on the solution that they did?

Up at the top of this post, I mentioned that despite their overt focus on the idea and act of dancing (and the narrative’s examination of dancing from perspectives social, physical, and cultural), these are not dancing games. So why do you think these games are about dancing at all? The developers could absolutely had the beatmatch play represent something like the characters calling on their personas to battle shadows - or carrying out heists in the case of P5D. Or playing music in a band. So why the focus on dance? How does that interact with the base Persona games? Consider the role that “practice” and “training” play in both the dancing games and the RPGs. How is it reflected in the narrative of the games? How is it reflected in the way the player interacts with the game?

Clearly the player isn’t actually dancing - so what experience do you think are the devs hoping to inspire in the player as they perform each song? How do you think they wanted you to feel while you’re playing?

The audio chosen for the beat match is incredibly specific. Listen to the sound the game makes when you successfully hit a single beat. To the sound the game makes when you hit a linked beat. A sustained beat. Each of these are different, and each is immediately recognizable. Unless I missed something, none of these sounds change between the original P4D and the recent releases. (Though the new games let the player edit the sounds that play for each beat type.) Why do you think the audio team chose those sounds? How do those specific sounds contribute to the player’s experience of the game? Looking back to question 4, how do these sounds make the player feel when their actions evoke them?

Once you’ve got an answer for questions 4 and 5, consider how successful you think the devs were in evoking that experience. Which aspects of the game undermine that experience? Which support it? Are there aspects that undermine it present in P4D that no longer exist in the recent releases?

Play the game on the three basic difficulties. Are your answers to question 6 different on the different levels of difficulty?

Go play (or watch a video of) Guitar Hero, Rock Band, or one of their sequels. What sounds do those games make when the player successfully hits a beat? More interestingly, what’s the audio response to missing a beat in Guitar Hero or Rock Band? Compare that to the audio response for missing a beat in the Persona dancing games. Why do you think those teams chose those dramatically different approaches?

Carefully consider the gameplay goals and how they’re presented to the player. The player is scored numerically, but they also reside on a continuum of “approval” (presented by dancing green alien invader-looking shadows in P4D and by bar meters in the newer releases). The latter of these is given tremendous and repeated audio feedback in the form of barks from the player’s companions. Additionally, the game displays how many successful beats the player has had since they last missed one. (And look at how the game defines this - it isn’t only a Missed beat that breaks a combo, but one rated Good.) Finally, the game assigns a text rating at the end of a performance: Not Cleared Stage Cleared Brilliant King Crazy Consider how all of these forms of feedback relate to one another. Why do all of these exist? Do they need to? What problems do you think they were implemented to solve?

Really think about the numerical score. How do you think it’s calculated? (Hint: the player increases that score over the course of their playthrough - it’s not tabulated at the end based on the report card of information presented about their performance.) Note that I don’t mean the specifics of exactly how many points each beat is worth, because I have no idea what those specifics are. (I could probably Google it, but part of the point of this is to consider what the player’s experiencing is.) What purpose does it serve?

For that matter, look at the elite King Crazy rating. Consider how it’s earned (by hitting every beat in a song, including scratches, with either Perfect or Great precision). Why do you think that’s the goal the developers set for the player? And why call it “King Crazy?” (I don’t think the answer to that question is localization-related or preciousness with the original language. The two recent games are called Persona 3: Dancing Moon Night and Persona 5: Dancing Star Night in Japan. Though I suppose if preciousness preserved the term in P4D, a desire to retain the same scale might result in the persistence of the term.)

I mentioned near the top of this post that these games aren’t wildly accessible. Consider specifically what aspects of the game would make it difficult for different kinds of people to enjoy playing it. If you were the developer, how might you try to address some of these issues?

During narrative segments, P3D and P5D (and to a lesser extent P4D, given its visual novel style) make a marked departure from the RPGs they’re based on in terms of perspective. Neither Persona 3 nor Persona 5 are first-person games, and the dancing segments involving the protagonist in P3D and P5D are similarly third person. Consider the first person perspective of the narrative in P3D and P5D. What does it accomplish? Why do you think the developers chose it?

Whew, that’s a lot. You doing okay?

In the famous words of Douglas Adams’s towel, DON’T WORRY. You don’t need to know the answers to all of those questions. I certainly don’t.

I’ve got pretty strong suspicions about some of them, interpretations or ideas about most of them, and educated guesses about the rest. For some of these questions, the only people who know the answers for sure are those who were in the room when the decision was made. And hell, maybe they’ve forgotten!

The point is that if you’re going to be successful in design, you should be willing to dig deep into what a game’s doing when you experience it. Interrogate the game. Try to suss out the developers’ intentions. Resist the urge to pass judgment on them - to say that their choices are right or wrong, good or bad - but feel free to consider how you might have tried a different approach.

And then consider what obstacles those different approaches might hit.

Personally (get it?), I think that the Endless Night Collection provides a really rare, interesting opportunity to dig into these kinds of questions across multiple related games. If you don’t want to or can’t look at these particular titles, try to find similar opportunities. Search for games that might provide rewarding insights through archaeological examination. Some possibilities:

You a WoW player? Find a vanilla server and take a long, focused look at the way the game’s changed since launch.

The base Mass Effect trilogy was developed over a relatively short period of time (the console life cycle of the 360), but each game plays significantly differently from the one before. Despite the fact that you’re playing the same character (kind of) in each, the stats that represent that character, the way that character moves, and the UI through which you inhabit the character all change dramatically between each title. (My Shepherd in ME1 was spec’d as a healer. Remember when an ME character could be a healer?)

If you’re into Obsidian’s games, play through Baldur’s Gate 2, Pillars of Eternity, and Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire and ask questions like those above of these games. The original PoE essentially sold itself as a modern BG, so in what ways did it actually emulate those old games, and in what ways did the devs decide a different direction was better? What further did they then change for the sequel to their own game?

Find those changes, those differences large and small, give consideration to what the experience accomplishes (or fails to) on either side of the change, and imagine what the devs were trying to accomplish with their adjustments.

Anyway, I should probably sleep at some point, or so Morgana would tell me.

Good luck! <#

#persona 3 #persona 4 #persona 5 #rhythm game #gamedev #gamedesign #atlus

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bennyrosas70-blog · 6 years ago

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wabashmfginc · 2 years ago

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kirkegaardbendtsen14-blog · 6 years ago

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Download and install Nds Child.

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daisyiln2001 · 3 years ago

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Documentation and Discussion of my Identity project

For my final outcome I made assets for a character creation game built on a website called Picrew. Including all the icons and colour variations, over 200 .png files were created for this project.

I started by working on the base figure with some pencil drawings in my sketchbook. Then I brought it into the app Procreate and developed the final lineart. I considered having the pose be at an angle to have it look more dynamic. However I realised if I made it from a front facing angle then i could be more efficient. This meant that i could use the symmetry tool for the majority of the drawing stage.

Base model timelapse (2021)

After that I created a 8 different skin tone swatches, and brought it into picrew. I wanted to test this early on so I could check the progress as i went along. I considered using another website called meikor.io , but picrew was much more accessible to me. Once i familiarized myself with the interface, I got to work on some more assets, and imported them in batches.

Eye colour swatches (2021)

Once i started to implement different colour choices, it was important to be organised. I labelled my layer groups numerically to aid with the upload process. Once I had created all the designs, I would duplicate the file and change the colour of the base layer.

Example of layer management (2021)

At this point I thought more critically about the clothes I wanted to include. In earlier stages of the project I was interested in different cultures, so I wanted to include that to some degree.

To ease myself into it I created a few basic t-shirts. Then researched clothes worn in different cultures around the world. In my project I chose to include the following dresses: a dirndl (Germany), bunad (Norway), sari (India), kimono (Japan), and cheongsam (China).

I was having some difficult on the build of a bunad. I understood what it looked like as a whole, but not in sections. However I found a video about tailoring a bunad (Daisy Viktoria, 2021, 12:16). The section where she showed the blouse off was brief, but helpful enough to make my drawing. It wasn't until later that I realised that the same creator had another video giving a full view of the garments [intext citation]. I would have liked to have rectified it, but I considered it a better use of my time to push on forward.

In my research I also came across the book: Dress in detail from around the world Crill, R. et al. (2002). It had flat illustrations of unique necklines, sleeves, and many other details. Page 192 helped me understand the neckline in a cheongsam dress. As with the previous steps, I then created a few colour swatches.

Finally I created a few extra garments, such as a hijab, bhindi, earrings and glasses. I checked over the layer arrangements in picrew and it was complete!

My project connects to our lectures and indirectly challenges structuralist theories of identity. The ability to mix and match multiple different clothes doesn't work on a binary system. The regional dresses are also representative of class, as a dirndl was worn by common folk, and cheongsam was adapted by educated women.

To take this project further i could add some more clothes, particularly from 20th century fashion trends. In this direction I could comment more about subcultures and the significance of clothing to express identity.

This project was a challenge to make since I changed my idea with only a week left of the project. I am happy I did as I'm pleased with the results and it was very much a labour of love.

Originally I wanted to make something connected to street food, since it was an idea that popped up in the urban project. in connection to this I made an illustration of a bento box which i was pleased with aesthetically, but didn't have much capacity to grow.

Bento box (2021)

After some feedback I decided to work on dumpling illustrations, since they are a form of 'box'. However, their simplicity would've lead to flat looking line drawings, and I struggled to render them.

Dumpling studies (2021)

I had a dress up game in the back of my mind, and I was given the signal to just go for it. In the end, I'm happy that I did.

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Base model timelapse (2021) [Screenshot]. Available at: https://64.media.tumblr.com/3135acc5e349c01ac978a9b234ef9ade/4e6df516793d6008-1b/s500x750/73f391e7f4050bef68e805039cfa5f072526a58d.gifv (Accessed: 28 November 2021).

Bento box (2021) [Screenshot]. Available at: https://64.media.tumblr.com/6affbe46c2d4da922302d6a580e723a8/4e6df516793d6008-bb/s540x810/0645da0b1f4baac2718fd366af34a4700d37cb35.jpg (Accessed: 28 November 2021).

Crill, R. et al. (2002) Dress in detail from around the world . London: V&A.

Daisy Viktoria (2021) HISTORICALLY ACCURATE ELSA || I Made an 1840s Norwegian Bunad. 15th January Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m78xSpsZ9JU (Accessed: 25th November 2021).

Daisy Viktoria (2021) What Would Elsa ACTUALLY Wear? Getting Dressed in 1840s Norwegian Bunad | Historically Accurate GRWM. 22 January. Available at: URL (Accessed: 28 November 2021).

Dumpling studies (2021) [Screenshot]. Available at: https://64.media.tumblr.com/b2a62068edd10ab64abff504415fa81a/4e6df516793d6008-7b/s500x750/35621ee54ebfa97453b5af9644db89cb4073d136.jpg (Accessed: 28 November 2021).

Example of layer management (2021) [Screenshot]. Available at: https://64.media.tumblr.com/5ab815bf9222e1c9f4ca45ed9ba5d527/4e6df516793d6008-ca/s500x750/3c3a0b606809faf45ad4e0565955edc86b242607.png (Accessed: 28 November 2021).

Eye colour swatches (2021) [Screenshot]. Available at: https://64.media.tumblr.com/2ae666223cb5b328a5b2b283bb23360a/4e6df516793d6008-1c/s500x750/437e38392d9a6fb71411b795b3cb7f9d27f2287a.png (Accessed: 28 November 2021).

#identity

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