The many questions-not-worth-their-own-thread question thread XVIII

[Tee Kay]

About a week ago, though I believe it was reopened later.

 

[madviking]

I knew that you would ask that question...
For example C.Roland who "disappeared" since 25-10-2010 and cybrxkhan who "disappeared" since 15-02-2012.
It's really sad to see such loss of talent and we will never know why they did not returned (unless they return)

Real life happens.

 

[timtofly]

Can we discuss that?

Technically, this is a question and answer thread, discussions are for other threads. Answering the question is ok. Discussing "why" a thread is locked, is not allowed in any thread.

 

[Skwink]

I tried playing Civ V a few months back with a Nvidia 94000 and 2gb of RAM. It never ran very well, but was somewhat acceptable for most of the game. If I upgraded my RAM would it be any better?

 

[Cutlass]

Probably. But without knowing more there's no way to be certain that that was your problem.

 

[Joecoolyo]

I tried playing Civ V a few months back with a Nvidia 94000 and 2gb of RAM. It never ran very well, but was somewhat acceptable for most of the game. If I upgraded my RAM would it be any better?

Fire it up again, alt-tab out of the game, go the task manager and see how much RAM is being used up. If it's at 100%, upgrading your RAM would probably help. If it isn't, then it may be your video card, or your CPU.

 

[timtofly]

I tried playing Civ V a few months back with a Nvidia 94000 and 2gb of RAM. It never ran very well, but was somewhat acceptable for most of the game. If I upgraded my RAM would it be any better?

Upgrading it would make it run faster in certain areas. When you say most of the game though, it sounds like the end game became a nightmare. The only way to "fix" the end game is to have an i7 with 8 cores and 8gig of ramm under vista or windows 7. That is what worked for me. I have the Nvidea 550M. This is in a laptop and still over heats the GPU, and CPU unless I use a 22 inch fan to cool it down.

Now there may be a lower spec computer that will work, but this is the factual state of things for me, and I do not have the means to test other combinations.

I do know that there are a lot of complaints from people using the Nvidea 560, but not sure why, since no one in the tech section has reported one working and how they fixed it.

If you are not having graphical issues perse, but just slow turn times and after the 60th city even going into the city screens takes major seconds, then the ramm would be the first thing to try. Having a lot of processing power, memory to spare, and decent graphics should provide a decent game for you though.

 

[_random_]

They have been swallowed by CFC and are currently residing in the nethersite.

Apolyton?

 

[Tee Kay]

Now that's a scary fate.

 

[Dreadnought]

For any economists out there,

For the global macroeconomy, does the world's balance of trade equal zero? Conventional logic seems to say "yes", but I was wondering if there's any hidden principles at play.

 

[Flying Pig]

For any economists out there,

For the global macroeconomy, does the world's balance of trade equal zero? Conventional logic seems to say "yes", but I was wondering if there's any hidden principles at play.

Depends what you're measuring - trade is not a zero-sum game, so if you're measuring 'happiness points' (which is in my view the fundamental end of economics, although some people would disagree) the world as a whole is richer through trade. Essentially this comes about through what's called the Consumer Surplus - say you go to buy a pizza priced £10, you might want the pizza enough that it's worth £12 to you, but the shopkeeper might only have paid £5 for it and so it's only worth that much to him. Accordingly when you give him £10 for the pizza, you 'gain' £2 and he 'gains' £5.

 

[Farm Boy]

Well, if you only look at purchase price for your number you figure it might add up to zero. Trade enables wealth creation in further steps though. Say you have a very small, very densely populated urban country. The dollar amount of the food imported may be zero sum inflow/outflow, but the commerce supported by the inhabitants of said country surpasses skews the overall end value. 1 + 1 can = 3 To be layman about it.

 

[madviking]

For any economists out there,

For the global macroeconomy, does the world's balance of trade equal zero? Conventional logic seems to say "yes", but I was wondering if there's any hidden principles at play.

If also look at marginal cost and opportunity costs, stuff like comparative advantage means that -1 + 1 != 0.

 

[Cutlass]

For any economists out there,

For the global macroeconomy, does the world's balance of trade equal zero? Conventional logic seems to say "yes", but I was wondering if there's any hidden principles at play.

The balance of trade is like any accounting ledger. The other guys are talking about the benefits of trade, not the balance. The balance is you spend one dollar on foreign goods, you get one dollar of foreign goods (excluding transportation costs). So yes, in the long run it all balances.

 

[Farm Boy]

Psch. You and correct terminology.

 

[Synobun]

What parts of the world still participate in the caste system? I know a part of India still does but that is about how far my knowledge goes.

Besides the medieval advantage the caste system had, are there any modern advantages or is it pretty much just detrimental to our society at this point?

 

[Traitorfish]

"Advantage"? In what sense?

 

[Farm Boy]

Well, it certainly advantages certain minorities at the top.

 

[madviking]

if you hate freedom, yes.

 

[Synobun]

"Advantage"? In what sense?

I am not in the mood for having a discussion about this. If you feel that you have no answer for my question, do not answer it.