The Very-Many-Questions-Not-Worth-Their-Own-Thread Thread XLIII

[Samson]

Whether water from police water cannons would increase the risk or actuality of explosions from petrol filled
tyres can be considered by us theorethically, but is only likely to be properly resolved by controlled experimentation.

It was Dublin that made me think of this question. My suspicion is that either it was properly resolved by controlled experimentation before the introduction of water cannons (assuming the petrol fire at a protest has been a thing longer than them) or it was resolved by less controlled experimentation soon after their introduction.

I don't believe the local police should refrain from using water cannons even if the explosion risk increases.

I know what you are saying, but if one lived where there are frequent protests you may vote differently, and you know, democracy and all that.

I am sure we would hear about it if it was a problem, I am sure the police have figured it out one way or another. I just wonder what the answer is.

rioters using petrol filled tyres
as bombs

The idea is not to use tyres as bombs but to protect pedestrians from vehicles.

 

[EnglishEdward]

Understand your first three points, but tyres filled with petrol are not a form of protection.

 

[Samson]

Understand your first three points, but tyres filled with petrol are not a form of protection.

If you put burning tires filled with petrol in the road around the protests people cannot drive into the protestors easily. It is the easiest way to make a road impassable by vehicles.

 

[EnglishEdward]

Making roads impassable to ordinary vehicles may appear to work as a temporary expedient against unprepared
police; but that is only until the authorities lose patience and bring in specialised vehicles or shock troops etc.

Filling tyres with petrol is a dangerous step on the escalation pathway, and not at all a defence.

 

[Takhisis]

Actually, something being a defence does not mean it cannot also be a dangerous step on the escalation pathway. Think, for example, of failed bank robbers taking the place hostage. Or people using caltrops against mounted police.

 

[dusters]

Does any of CFCers have experience with darts on amateur level? When did you start, at what age? How much fun is it? Have you played in team competitions?

I just discovered in recent months that I like darts, I might want to invest in pro equipment (darts board is like 100 euros and 3 darts are like 50 euros) and go play some tournaments for beginners.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I played just casually, as we had a dart board in the basement. It's fun, but you do need to make sure not to hit anyone. I was... about 8? 10, maybe? Anyway, I never got very good at it and never competed. I just counted myself lucky to hit the board instead of the wall.

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

Has anyone here ever made a game in python using pygame?

 

[Kyriakos]

A question for computer tech guys, particularly password/security (so maybe @Samson ?)

Assuming (think of a hypothetical such case) it would be really difficult to break a password (convolutions etc), would (if time/money isn't an issue) it be possible to break into the program/machine/other without having a password? (using hardware or such).

I was thinking of basic ways to make password breaking with brute force virtually impossible (due to being unaware of hidden mechanisms, not just x symbols in progression being the pass). Though still you'd have to type everything in a blank (example: the password was n symbols, but the possible answers aren't just cardinality of the symbols group to the n, because first to commence unlocking you'd had to type something else etc; such can literally go on for hundreds of steps => virtually impossible to brute-force).

 

[r16]

goverments have backdoors to computers even since the day computers were invented . Especially those sold to civilians . Your computer will most probably inform the authorities if you do odd stuff in them .

 

[Kyriakos]

There was an old game (maybe even before the internet) which had for its time a very clever anti-bootleg policy. In the password prompt, you had to type not some specific group of numbers, but those for the hour/day/year in your computer clock.
So such stuff were already done in the past; it's then a question of being able to override the system or not, since brute-force is taken out (though not in the example of the anti-bootleg ploy; that only had the one group of symbols without a previous code/codes steps to activate).

 

[Samson]

Assuming (think of a hypothetical such case) it would be really difficult to break a password (convolutions etc), would (if time/money isn't an issue) it be possible to break into the program/machine/other without having a password? (using hardware or such).

Yes. You need to encrypt the storage, as per this description for example.

 

[Gori the Grey]

Is there a way of knowing how much of a power-demand (don't know the technical term) a particular computer game will put on one's computer?

In a competition on this site, I won a game called "Zor: Pilgrimage of the Slorfs." It was fun but I didn't play it for very long because it tangibly heated up my computer. (It's a Lenovo laptop; I normally don't do much that strains it: word processing, visiting this site, playing Civ V).

Fast forward to now. The Steam winter sale has Skyrim for $8. I loved Morrowind back in the day, and assume I would love Skyrim, too. But not if it's going heat up my computer in the same way as Zor did. And maybe it would, because it's similarly graphics heavy?

So if there is some way of knowing this, could you just tell me where Skyrim falls compared to Civ V (fine) and Zor: Pilgrimage of the Slorfs (Dantean)?

Thank you in advance, you computer-smart people.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Is there a way of knowing how much of a power-demand (don't know the technical term) a particular computer game will put on one's computer?

In a competition on this site, I won a game called "Zor: Pilgrimage of the Slorfs." It was fun but I didn't play it for very long because it tangibly heated up my computer. (It's a Lenovo laptop; I normally don't do much that strains it: word processing, visiting this site, playing Civ V).

Fast forward to now. The Steam winter sale has Skyrim for $8. I loved Morrowind back in the day, and assume I would love Skyrim, too. But not if it's going heat up my computer in the same way as Zor did. And maybe it would, because it's similarly graphics heavy?

So if there is some way of knowing this, could you just tell me where Skyrim falls compared to Civ V (fine) and Zor: Pilgrimage of the Slorfs (Dantean)?

Thank you in advance, you computer-smart people.

My experience is that it is the ongoing active graphic intensity of a game is what taxes the cooling system. PoE is intense almost all the time and pushes my system hard. Skyrim is a much less intense game. As I recall though the best play does need some use of mods. I would think you would be fine. But I do not know your system.

 

[Synobun]

Is there a way of knowing how much of a power-demand (don't know the technical term) a particular computer game will put on one's computer?

In a competition on this site, I won a game called "Zor: Pilgrimage of the Slorfs." It was fun but I didn't play it for very long because it tangibly heated up my computer. (It's a Lenovo laptop; I normally don't do much that strains it: word processing, visiting this site, playing Civ V).

Fast forward to now. The Steam winter sale has Skyrim for $8. I loved Morrowind back in the day, and assume I would love Skyrim, too. But not if it's going heat up my computer in the same way as Zor did. And maybe it would, because it's similarly graphics heavy?

So if there is some way of knowing this, could you just tell me where Skyrim falls compared to Civ V (fine) and Zor: Pilgrimage of the Slorfs (Dantean)?

Thank you in advance, you computer-smart people.

This is the second time on CFC in the past week where someone thinks their computer heating up is a sign of doom. Although I agree that it happening with a laptop is annoying and disconcerting since it's impossible to cool them effectively, and they are subsequently loud.

Do you know your system specifications? Specifically your RAM, CPU, and GPU? If it can run Civ 5 fine, it will be able to run Skyrim, but whether it will do so without sounding like a jet engine is dependent on specifics. You can see your processor and RAM if you right-click My PC and click Properties, and your GPU if you search Device Manager and then look under "Display adapters."

 

[Gori the Grey]

Processor: 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-1145G7 @ 2.60GHz 2.61 GHz
RAM: 8.00 GB (7.71 GB usable)
GPU: Iris (R) Xe Graphics, 4075MB graphics memory

It does shut itself down due to overheating some times. Noise has never been a problem.

Thanks, Syn. And Bird before.

 

[Synobun]

Processor: 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-1145G7 @ 2.60GHz 2.61 GHz
RAM: 8.00 GB (7.71 GB usable)
GPU: Iris (R) Xe Graphics, 4075MB graphics memory

It does shut itself down due to overheating some times. Noise has never been a problem.

Thanks, Syn. And Bird before.

That GPU and CPU are pretty bad. But on low settings and smaller resolution, it's doable at ~50 FPS. It will heat up, probably to between 80-90 C (so it might throttle).

Here's a video benchmarking it with a slightly worse processor but same GPU:

Skyrim also has a few performance mods available on Nexus Mods that can help improve frames a little. Some of the ones listed in this thread are probably out of date now, but may be worth investigating:

https://www.reddit.com/r/skyrimmods/comments/q4e97h

 

[Gori the Grey]

Thanks, Syn. I'll just pass on it, in that case. I'll wait for a time when I have a device that can run it at normal specs.

I've waited this long, after all.

Frankly, my plan was just to put the difficulty slider on zero and walk around the countryside looking at things. In Morrowind, you could engage in combat through just button mashing, and your character's stats did all the work. In Oblivion, you needed to coordinate a sword and shield, and I have no coordination. I assume Skyrim continues to use player skill for combat. But it looks beautiful enough that I thought for $8, it would be worth it just to walk around.

 

[Synobun]

Thanks, Syn. I'll just pass on it, in that case. I'll wait for a time when I have a device that can run it at normal specs.

I've waited this long, after all.

Frankly, my plan was just to put the difficulty slider on zero and walk around the countryside looking at things. In Morrowind, you could engage in combat through just button mashing, and your character's stats did all the work. In Oblivion, you needed to coordinate a sword and shield, and I have no coordination. I assume Skyrim continues to use player skill for combat. But it looks beautiful enough that I thought for $8, it would be worth it just to walk around.

Skyrim has a console which you can use to activate god mode, therefore taking all skill out of the equation. It's a nice game for just walking around and looking at things, but admittedly, at the settings you'd be using to make the game playable, a lot of the beauty is negated.

 

[Gori the Grey]

Back to Civ V, then! [we need a :ChargeIntoBattle: smiley. Kinda like rotfl and woohoo, which have horizontal motion, but the smiley raises a sword as it moves to the right]