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Losing my sight at the age of 14 and my experiences after.
Hey everybody. I thought I'd finally sit down and write about losing my sight at the age of 14 and what came after. I've spoken to people about this in the past but I don't remember ever putting the whole story down on paper, (well, virtual paper but you get the idea.) A couple of things to get out of the way first... I am not brave, I am not a hero, and I am certainly not an angel. Although having a disability does not define me, it's certainly something I've had no choice but to deal with. One of the less than enjoyable aspects of the human experience I suppose you could say. I am also not a writer although reading this now that I've finished it, I guess it's not awful. One more thing. Please do not copy this text in part or in full and post it various places without my consent. (Feel free to link to this page though;that's fine.) Now that we have that all out of the way... I was born premature and due to some early medical issues and treatment etc, I had no sight in my left eye from infancy due to laser surgery that was not successful. I had halfway decent sight in my right eye although as I grew up, I needed a lot of things in large print and needed to sit pretty close to the tv etc. Because I had no depth perception due to only having one functioning eye, there were certain things I couldn't do. That wasn't really a big deal for me however because I didn't have it from the start so didn't know what I was missing. Up until the age of 14, I did a lot of things that other sighted kids did... I played outside in the woods, rode my bike, played video games, read books, and used the computer although we didn't have the Internet in my house. I'd say my life was pretty close to other kids my age;I was just visually impaired. So one morning during the spring of seventh grade, I woke up to get ready for school like every other day. When I sat up and opened my eyes however, I instantly knew that something was very wrong. Everything looked blurry or out of focus;I'm not quite sure how to put it. In any case, I could barely see what was in front of me. I managed to make it downstairs and told my mom that something was wrong with my vision. My mom and my stepfather thought I was overreacting and as I recall, it took a little while to convince them that I needed to get to an eye doctor as soon as possible. An appointment was made and after looking at my right eye, the doctor said that my retina must have partially detached during the previous night. The only option was to have surgery on my right eye as soon as possible to try and save my vision. Their office referred us to a specialist an hour away and after they had examined my eye, they said that surgery was the only option and while the success rate was good, it wasn't great. We went ahead with it because if it hadn't been done, my retina would just continue to detach. If your retina goes, then your vision goes with it. It was a major operation with general anesthesia and weeks and weeks of pain afterwards. I don't want to go into the specifics at the moment but let's just say that it was far more than mild discomfort. You know what though? It worked! Talk about being pulled back from the lip of the abyss! I was so relieved! Things could finally get back to normal...until it all went to hell one evening. This was a few months later during the summer. I had been driving my dad's four wheeler on this road out in the woods . (No I probably shouldn't have been driving but there wasn't any traffic and he was on the back;I wasn't by myself or anything. Yes, we were both wearing helmets before anybody asks.) It was a nice drive! It was a beautiful day and the sun was setting yada yada yada. I felt good. It was just a normal drive;no accidents, no pot holes or anything that was too jarring. He put the four wheeler back on the trailer and we drove home. Later on that night I sat down at the computer to finish something for school. Things were going fine, I shut my eyes for a second and when I opened them again, I'm sure I shouted or screamed. I couldn't see. The only thing going through my head was "No. Not this again! Noooooo!" So back to the eye surgeon we went and after various tests, he said that the repair to my retina they did just didn't hold. One minute it was fine;the next it wasn't. The only option was...another eye operation but with a slightly different approach. Pain, isolation, depression, and boredom soon followed. They tried again after that second operation failed but luck was not on my side I guess. At a certain point a year later, they finally gave up. At that point, they pretty much said flat out that the success rate of yet another surgery would be quite small and even if it worked initially, there was no guarantee it would hold long term. At that point, it became clear that my life as I had known it was over for good. No more reading print, no more watching movies, no more riding my bike, no more drawing, you get the idea. I was crushed. Imagine starting 8th grade but at the same time, having to relearn pretty much every skill you need for your daily life. That was where I found myself. I had no idea how to read or type Braille, I didn't know how to use a cane, I had no O and M skills, (orientation and mobility), I didn't know how to touch type, and, I had never used a screen reader on the computer before. A lot of people who experience sight loss seem to go through a gradual decline but for me, it happened like flipping a switch. All of the sudden it was "Okay, well, now you need to start from square one...and by the way, get through all your 8th grade schoolwork too." No pressure! It wasn't only those broader skills I had to relearn though... Things like trying to follow a tv show or film by just listening to it, frying an egg, folding laundry, finding the right buttons on the microwave, dialing the phone, navigating places that were once familiar... It really was like starting from scratch! All these basic tasks that we don't even think about all of the sudden become a challenge or a puzzle to figure out. Over time I had lessons from various teachers covering all those things and more. I made a lot of progress but it took a lot of work and some days I was really frustrated! I went back to school later on that year and that was not a positive experience. Even though we're talking about the mid 1990's here, the technology was nowhere near what it is today. E books and digital audio books you can download in a flash, OCR software which allows you to read a scanned print document via text to speech, the iPhone and all of it's amazing Voiceover accessible apps... It wasn't around yet, was in it's early stages, or, if it was available, the schools I attended could not or would not obtain it. I believe the middle schools and high schools I attended had Internet access but I'm not sure because the laptop they did provide me was not connected to the school's network. (No WiFi then kids.) There were books on tape from the library of Congress but those could take weeks to arrive and if one of the tapes happened to be damaged or was eaten by your tape player, you were S.O.L. Learning the computer again was quite difficult for a few reasons... I had started using a Macintosh a couple of years before I lost my sight and it turns out there was a screen reader for the Mac called Outspoken. (This was back in the days of what is now called the Mac classic OS;many years before OSX came to town.) It took quite a while to get used to the synthesized speech and get my touch typing up to scratch but the hardest part was learning the environment with a screen reader as opposed to using the computer with sight. I learned how to use Windows once I went to college as they didn't have Macs. I went through Windows Millennium, XP, 7, and more recently Windows 10 using Jaws and NVDA. While 7 and 10 are steps in the right direction, Mac OS with their built in screen reader, Voiceover, is my preference for the majority of tasks. (I use a dual boot system so I have both operating systems on a single machine which is very useful.) Going back to school was difficult in the academic sense but it was also difficult in the social sense. I quickly learned that I was the odd one out. This didn't get much better as time went on. I had one friend from early childhood that stuck with me through all of this but as far as everyone else, they all disappeared. (Thanks guys.) Life at home wasn't a picnic and when I was in school, I felt invisible. It was a bad time. Sometimes I'd go to bed at night thinking it wouldn't be so bad if I didn't wake up in the morning. I'm not trying to be Mr. Dramatic, I'm just mentioning that because that was part of my reality at the time. It seemed like nobody would understand because nobody gave me the time of day in the first place anyways. All in all, it was pretty miserable. Tight groups of friends? No. Girls? I freaking wished! Getting invited to crazy parties? Nope. There were things that made it bearable though... Audio books by Stephen King and other authors, discovering Rush, Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, and Metallica, watching The Simpson's etc... Playing guitar probably saved my life. My grandfather showed me a few chords and a scale when I was 12/13 and I was self taught for the most part after that although I did take lessons from two very talented guitarists when I was still a teen. When it felt like everything had been ripped away from me, my guitar was there and I took to it like a horse to water! I did not have perfect pitch but my relative pitch was okay as it turns out. That's pretty useful when your only option is to learn by ear but it took years of work. I have played countless gigs with bands, in a duo, and as a solo performer. I've taught guitar at a couple of k-12 schools as well as for two teaching agencies on top of teaching private lessons from home and working for a recording studio etc. There are some logistical issues when you're dealing with rehearsal spaces, bars, clubs etc but more often than not, there is a way to make things work. (As far as working for or working with pricks, that is a whole other matter!) Shortly before I lost my sight, I started really getting into film, animation, video game design, and graphic design etc. I didn't know much about it but I was certainly interested! IF I hadn't lost my sight, I'm pretty sure I would have gone in that direction. When visual arts were no longer an option, it was pretty easy for me to devote myself to music and audio. So, after some college courses followed by a couple years of work as an intern at a school, I applied and was accepted to the music program at a university in NY. My concentration was in studio production but it was a well rounded program. This was good because I'm an instrumentalist first;everything else for me stems from that. College was challenging and there were certainly issues with assistive technology and access to materials from time to time. I had a lot of fun though as well! I had some great professors, there were a bunch of interesting courses, I played some gigs, partied, and yeah, got into my fair share of trouble and sticky situations but that's part of the journey! Eventually I graduated from college, ended up moving to a few different states, finally decided to get a Seeing Eye dog (which was a game changer in many ways), had a few different jobs, and lived in studio/one bedroom apartments that ranged from terrible to acceptable but not great. Moving is a pain for anybody but if you're blind, there is so much you need to deal with from finding a place that will work for you location wise since you can't drive, finding a moving company, packing your stuff, unpacking your stuff, figuring out what's around you and how to get to it, figuring out public transit in your area, (if any), to things like figuring out the thermostat, the stove/oven and other appliances whether they be analog or digital, figuring out how to put some sort of marker on your mailbox so you can find it, learning the layout of your complex/building, the list goes on and on. It's doable but it can drive you nuts sometimes! Your state/county will usually have a person who can get out to you to help with orientation;figuring out where the closest bus stop is for example or how to get to the grocery store etc, or someone who can help you learn your new kitchen or washing machine etc. While these services are very helpful, moving to a new state is difficult because often times it takes time for the office to set you up in their system. every state you move to, you need to start from scratch it seems. It'd be nice if this could be streamlined! As of this writing, I currently work freelance teaching guitar and work on various music/audio projects. My Seeing Eye dog is now retired and enjoys sleeping as well as barking at squirrels. My partner and I have one child with another on the way later this year. My dreams are to someday make enough money to not have to worry about money, own a nice home, have a nice guitar collection, tour with a band internationally, have my original music in a film, and have a pro level home studio. I also would love a self driving car although that may not happen in my lifetime. Thanks for taking the time to read this! Feel free to reply or pm me with any questions or comments.
I Rewrote the FAQ for you guys... &MIRRORED IT TO FANDOM! it's the least I could do I lost my account the way I did. (I saved it just so you know I didn't have to re-write it completely)
Gadgets that help people stay present in the real world, while simultaneously letting them reap the benefits of high-powered, always-connected technology. A combination of everything the world offers, and everything the computing world offers in a way that’s more ambient, more seamlessly integrated, that doesn't take you out of the world.
An easily wearable, lightweight pair of glasses that helps to inform you about the world or change the world around you. It has to be aware of you and the world you inhabit: it has to sense the geometry of objects and understand what these objects are, how they are used, and so on. And it allows digitally generated objects to not only exist in the physical world but actually interact with it.
Image quality: the light field is all of the light bouncing off all of the objects in a world. When you take a picture, you’re capturing a very thin slice of that light field. The eye, however, sees much more of that light field, allowing a person to perceive depth, movement and a lot of other visual subtleties. Light fields contain massive amounts of data but not all of that is used by the brain all the time to generate a model of the world. Therefore a digital light field signal only needs to consist of a portion of the data. Magic Leap’s light-field photonics generate digital light at different depths and blend seamlessly with natural light to produce lifelike digital objects that coexist in the real world.
A label for the concept: Spatial Computing. Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality are unfit because of how they are used for other devices but technically they are not wrong. Virtual Reality, which creates everything you see with computer-generated images, is possible within the supported Field of View of the glasses.
The Spatial Computing interface includes multiple more natural and intuitive input modes including voice, gesture, hand, head pose and eye tracking instead of outdated point and click interfaces.
The glasses would replace or complement smart-phones as an all-day computing device and could potentially replace laptop and desktop computers, TVs, and provide an interface for the Internet of Things.
Another key concept: Magic Leap is trying to make hardware and software that inspires people to be creative and become part of a wider creative community. Every person has creative potential. They want to move people out of being passive consumers.
What is the Time-frame? What has it been like?
In order to achieve the goal, several technological breakthroughs are necessary for miniaturization and power efficiency. Magic Leap is trying to build as much as possible in-house and only for the purpose of their spatial computing platform: from optics and chips to the operating system.
The computer vision system needs to be optimized for outdoor use and all weather conditions just like self-driving cars. It needs to do tracking, face and object recognition, depth estimation, lighting and so on at the same time all the time - on a mobile device. A solution could be to do all of these things with a single Deep Neural Network.
Other research areas include wave-guide technology for a larger Field of View, more focal planes, variable optics, meta-materials (nonlinear optics), small form-factor fiber displays, spatial-light modulators to control phase properties of light, volumetric video live streams.
There will have to be compromise, in the next five years compared to the goal.
NVIDIA® Parker SOC; 2 Denver 2.0 64-bit cores + 4 ARM Cortex A57 64-bit cores (2 A57’s and 1 Denver accessible to applications)
GPU
NVIDIA Pascal™, 256 CUDA cores; Graphic APIs: OpenGL 4.5, Vulkan, OpenGL ES 3.3+
RAM
8 GB
Storage Capacity
128 GB (actual available storage capacity 95GB)
Power
Built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery. Up to 3 hours continuous use. Battery life can vary based on use cases. Power level will be sustained when connected to an AC outlet. 45-watt USB-C Power Delivery (PD) charger
Connectivity
Bluetooth 4.2, WiFi 802.11ac/b/g/n, USB-C LIGHTWARE
Audio Output
Onboard speakers and 3.5mm jack with audio spatialization processing
Audio Input
Voice (speech to text) + real world audio (ambient) CONTROL
Haptics
LRA Haptic Device
Tracking
6DoF (position and orientation)
Trackpad
Touch sensitive
LEDs
12-LED (RGB) ring with diffuser
Power
Built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery. Up to 7.5 hours continuous use. 15-watt USB-C charger
Other inputs
8-bit resolution Trigger Button; Digital Bumper Button; Digital Home Button Here, let me explain: Well... can I go further in depth?
Niantic| Location-based games | Potential IP: Pokemon, Harry Potter
Warner Bros| Investor | Potential IP: Ready Player One, Harry Potter, The Matrix etc
Madefire| Digital Comic Books including content developed by Magic Leap in-house
Royal Shakespeare Company|Alternative Link| Media Research Limited at Goldsmiths University of London, University of Portsmouth & NESTA | Research for Mixed Reality Theatre
NTT DOCOMO| Invester and partnership to bring Spatial Computing to Japan
AwesomenessTV| And maybe(?) Hulu & ViacomXR & R | Spatial Experience from
Immersion Analytics| Analytics Visualizer. For the first time, you can use Magic Leap One to interact with your data for free-form, multi-dimensional exploration
Out There| Immersive Musical, Only In Mixed Reality
SK Telecom| Creates next-generation immersive media environment utilizing Magic Leap’s devices, such as premier spatial computing platform, the Magic Leap One, and SKT’s 5G network.
mimesysvr, Telepresence Company Partner and acquisition
AR / VR Vergence accommodation forces multiple views as seen onthis photothe Magic Leap One although still highly speculative Some of the first features of the first version of the SDK before shipments rollout (yet still) listedhereby Paul Reynolds, Former Magic Leap employee In 2010 the building of the studio forSparkydog & Friendsand recording of the album led to the formation of Magic Leap Studios, a production company that would focus on cool indie music and animated/CG feature films based on a graphic novel. He traveled to New Zealand to Weta Workshop and struck up a relationship with. Magic Leap was incubated at Weta, Abovitz said.
September 2011, Island Records founder Chris Blackwell invited Abovitz to his GoldenEye resort in Jamaica, the former estate of author Ian Fleming. Abovitz saw people around him looking at their phone screens instead of the stunning natural surroundings. “I thought, ‘I don’t want that anymore.’ And so I realized computing had to change and it had to go inward.” "The world is your new desktop." In May 2014, Alan Eustace, a senior Google computer scientist, visited. Eustace, a University of Central Florida grad, is better known for setting, in 2014, the record for the highest altitude free fall jump from 25.74 miles up in the stratosphere. Abovitz says Eustace sent an “epic email” to important people that Magic Leap had something “insanely awesome.” “He’s why we get funded,” Abovitz says.
What grants were given out? And to Whom?
Wait a minute there were grants!? Yes, sir! Here, they are!
Here is the content of Chris Taylor's IGSE Development Update #3, as found in this Total Annihilation Universe forum post with some reformatting. It seems to have been sent sometime in October 2019. As of this posting, I believe this is the most recent update.
Hello, and Welcome to update #3 of the Kanoogi platform and Intergalactic Space Empire project. If you would like previous issues of this newsletter, please just reply back and let me know which one (there are two before this one). It’s been a few months, so it was definitely time for another update. I got a gentle reminder to write another update, which I appreciate. I will start off by saying, there has been quite a few changes. Some of them are reversals on my previous design, and though this isn’t something I ever think I’ll do, it just happens. I think it’s important to “pivot” as it were, it’s just important to me that these pivots are all within the realm of the original vision… but some do push the envelope a bit. Before I dive into the details, I want to warn you right out of the gate, this is a big update. I will break this update into three sections, the first is a design update, then a technical update, and lastly, I’ll answer the questions that were sent in (most of which are in the order received). Someone suggested a forum or website where I post these publicly, which I agree is a good idea, so I’ll likely do that in the future.
Design Update In my original design, this was a game about spaceships, and for the most part still is, but I imagined that in future versions, I would add units (in the form of built structures) to the surface of asteroids. Well, I received a lot of feedback over the summer, and that feedback made me take a second look at that decision to wait, and I slowly got more excited about the idea of moving ahead into full ‘base building’. However, with these asteroid based units, I pretty much had to make the move from 2D to 3D. However, just because I decided to go 3D, doesn’t make this a crazy, over-the-top, AAA RTS game, as I still have to design within a somewhat minimalist set of constraints. For example, I can’t use a lot of textures, and there can’t be a lot of geometry either, so I had to come up with a system for compressing everything down to the smallest amount of data possible for transmission across the internet, and the units themselves will need to be highly stylized. I can go into that in a technical update, and in fairness, that system is still evolving, so it’s probably good to wait a bit before talking about that in detail. But back to the 3D decision, I have to tell you, I understand that I’m now in dangerous territory of delaying the game, and I accept that, but there are days when I have to ask myself if it was the right choice. What’s interesting is I was testing some very simple geometry on the surface of an enlarged asteroid, and at last count there were over 1100 units on it, but this made me think… can an entire game be played on a single, slightly bigger than usual asteroid? Hmmmm… interesting! OK, so very quickly, let’s talk about asteroids. Besides the fact that I loved playing the original Atari Asteroids game that was released back in 1979, and besides the fact that I was very lucky to acquire an actual original arcade unit back in 2016 from a friend (and it runs great as it surpassed its 40th birthday… which is just absolutely crazy!), I had envisioned asteroids to just be a place to gather resources. So you took your mining ship, and you sort of got into a geosynchronous orbit, and mining lasers would slowly strip away the ore and presto, you had your solid mass for building new units. Well… this latest development has taken the asteroids from a resource component, and brought them onto the main stage. I gotta say, I really love this! I’ve also done a lot more reading and study of asteroids in our system, and the more I read, the better it gets. So now, when I think about the future of space combat, and the complexity of landing ships on large planets (of any sizable mass) and getting them back into space, I realized that asteroids are the perfect thing to support military bases… and the moon is perfect too (conspiracy theories anyone about the renewed race to set up bases on the moon?). In short, because I think it’s possible to talk for an hour about this, asteroids are kinda perfect for a space RTS, and I see this as a pretty important piece of the puzzle. OK, that’s asteroids. The other big thing that is coming up, and maybe keeping me up, is the battle between keyboard/mouse and touchscreen. I’m solving for both at the same time, and though it’s not an insane amount of work, it’s fair to say, it’s not trivial UI design. The problem with it is this… there are 2.4 Billion mobile devices on the planet, and this is a phenomenon that is still growing. Conceivably there will come a day when almost everyone will have one, so let’s call that 6 Billion+ (excluding 1.5 Billion who are too young or too old to use them). These mobile devices keep getting more and more powerful, and as a part of that, we could see a decline in laptop and desktop systems, as well as traditional consoles. Now, I would say, that’s too bad, I will just focus on keyboard/mouse, but the problem with this is, every time… and I mean EVERY time, I’m out talking to a friend at lunch, I’ve got my iPhone out and giving a demo. The demo goes like this… I show them the game on my phone, and then I send them a link, and about 5 seconds later (we’re not on wifi) they have the game running on their phone. And every time I get a little jolt of excitement, like ya, that’s what I’m talking about… but it does come at a cost. So, my question for you is this: How important is it that the game support smart phones? You can just reply back to this email with your answer. And if you have opinions on asteroids, or 3D vs. 2D, or anything else I mentioned above, your thoughts and input are also welcome. Alrighty, that’s the design update for now.
Tech Update This is the first “full on” technical update, so my guess is that it might not be as interesting to most as the design, but hey, it’s here, so you can read or skip, no worries at all. And though we often see the technical aspects of game development as being pretty standard these days, whether it’s a game built on Unreal, Unity or a custom engine, this project is quite a bit different. Let’s dive in. In practical terms, IGSE runs in the cloud… or on a server in a datacenter. At present, I am running the game on the Google Cloud inside a VM that uses Debian Linux. I don’t do anything too fancy with the VM. I have experimented and deployed the game inside a Docker container, for day to day development, I prefer to work on the bare metal. Now, for terminology sake you could call the Game Server Instance (GSI) a server, but it’s important to distinguish between software components and hardware. Let’s walk through all the various systems and talk about what each one does. Main Kanoogi Server
This server is what currently spins the Kanoogi logo and allows people to sign up for the beta. It runs in its own VM. Besides my whacky canvas logo screen, it’s mostly HTML (I whipped this up in a few days, so please don’t hate on it too much).
Login Server
This server does a couple of important things. First, it allows players to login and pick the game they want to play, which then include authentication and authorization. Authentication is where I make sure that you are who you say you are, and then authorization is where I check to see if you have the permissions to access a particular system. This is all pretty standard stuff. Once a player has logged in and been through those systems, they get two keys to proceed with. The first key is the UUID for the game server and then second key which is authorization in the form of a session ID (also a UUID). Each player needs both of those to penetrate through the security systems and gain access to the GSI.
Game Server Manager - The GSM, which I also consider a proxy server, takes the two UUIDS and checks the database for the game, and re-authenticates the player to be playing on that specific game. In doing this, opens a connection to the GSI. This is written today in Node.js but could be written in almost anything. My feeling was to see if this would hold up under stress, but if it didn’t, replace it with Golang, or maybe even custom C code. I learn more and more about GCP (The Google Cloud Platform) every day, and feel more comfortable writing custom high performance interfaces. In game development, performance is pretty darn important, so I’ve always got my eye on it. Google Cloud - The GCP is a huge part of this whole thing, but as the years have gone by, I’ve slowly been learning about Amazon’s AWS and Microsoft's Azure, and they’re all pretty awesome. Google apparently has the fastest backend, where packet transfer times are measured in microseconds (millionths of seconds) instead of milliseconds (thousandths of seconds). Google’s API is thought to be a little more difficult to work with, but I’ve never had a problem with it, and I like the no nonsense aspect to it. GCP Load Balancers
Using the cloud means that load balancing is a snap. If everyone hits the servers at the same time, everything should work as usual, as more capacity is almost instantly available. This just applies to what is called the “front end”, but on the “back end” it’s a different story, and those servers need a system called, “Auto Scaling”.
GCP Autoscaling
Google’s auto scaling systems are completely configurable. When a criteria is met, more Virtual Machines are created to match the load (load can be CPU, memory and bandwidth to name the most common), but this actually takes time, so this autoscaling should pay attention to trends to bias the predictions based on past demands. Suffice to say, if things get crazy, the backend system, one way or the other, will scale up the number of VM’s to meet the demand. It’s worth noting, that auto scaling works in both directions, which is really important, because when demand drops, those VM’s need to shut down to save on operating costs.
GCP Security
The game runs in a browser, so I am using HTTPS, which is now a standard and is pretty must required today on most websites. I use 2048 bit SSL, which if you look at this encryption statistically, is insanely hard to break. I think banks take it a little further, but for a video game, this is plenty of security. Way easier hack with some phishing scheme than to hack this security directly. Anyone who is a security expert and wants to help me test the system, I welcome the support and help.
GCP Databases
I use two Google databases at present, the first is called Google Datastore, and the other is Google Storage. Google Datastore is a pretty slick indexable database that stores all those mission critical UUIDs. And for big data blobs like save games and scenario data, I use Google Storage.
Data Mirror System
This is is like my own personal Google Drive, where I run a Node.js server that copies those save game files around in the background. I currently save all the game data as a JSON file, which is pretty fluffy and .zip it all up before shoving it up to Google Storage. This service also pulls those same save game files back down, unpacks them, and puts them into the right folders for the game to use. This process is called Hydration and Rehydration by some industry people. This service also keep an eye on the GSI Monitoring system, and reports the health while also restarting it if it fails.
Monitor System
This GSI Monitor primarily makes sure there are enough GSIs running inside a particular VM (the auto-scaler does this job at a regional level). This monitor will start up any additionally needed GSI’s and shut down the unneeded ones, and will also shut down sick or unhealthy instances. It’s important to run as many GSIs on a VM as possible to keep server costs down.
GCP Health Checks - As you can imagine, anything can happen, and for any number of reasons, so it’s important to continuously monitor the health of these systems. The GSI Monitor does this on a VM level, but the Google Health Check system does this on a higher level. This system can simply shut down non-response VM’s or it can engage in a sophisticated auditing process where the VM needs to respond within a certain amount of time to let the Health check know it’s OK. Pretty cool stuff! Wow, that was a lot of stuff, and we haven’t even talked about the client side of things, which includes WebSockets, Javascript and WebGL. We’ll have to save that for next time, but I will tell you, it’s not any less interesting than the cloud part of this, trust me on that!
If you made it through that technical section, let’s get to the last part of this, and answer a few of the questions that have been sent in. And sorry, these are old, but there’s quite a backlog, and I promise to get through them all!
Question: Will this game have story? How about music? Chris
Those people who know me, and know my design history, know that I’m not really much of a story teller. But for this game, I'd like to try and change that, but I know that to do it right will take a lot of time and energy, and right now I’m focused pretty heavily on the tech to power the game and platform. What’s on the table right now is a gameplay mode that does not have a story, and then later, I want to follow up with a big single player campaign that has a big Intergalactic Space Empire story. As for music, I have a completely new idea and approach, which I will talk about in future updates. (and here’s a hint: We all know that hiring a single composer to create a single musical theme is cool, but it’s been done to death, so I want to push the boundaries and come up with a system that allows for composers to create music almost like a spotify system… damn, I think I just gave away the whole idea… lol!!).
Question: Is the “infinite desktop” idea you talked about years ago going to be a part of this Kanoogi system? Chris
Great question and I'm glad you asked. At first I thought it would, but after I started to get into the project, I realized that I would not be able to use the work I did on the Infinite Desktop system. You see, that system is all based around a canvas rendering system, and Kanoogi is mostly in WebGL. It’s not to say that I wasn’t able to use the knowledge I gained, but in terms of code, I pretty much wrote the systems from the ground up.
Question: About the RTS game, will there be totally different asymmetric races like Starcraft or will they be similar, but with some differences like Supreme Commander? Chris
In the first phase, all of the units are the same, and this is due mostly to the fact that I’m an indie developer, and not because of any particular design bias on my part to have only one faction. Because this game will evolve over time, I imagine that it will follow quite naturally that there will be new factions (I call races factions as it's a little nicer sounding) released in the future. That should actually make things interesting, and also allow players to provide some feedback on the core gameplay in the meantime. There is an important point that I almost forgot… at what we think of as Tech Level 3, the player can design and build their own units. So in a sense, the player actually creates their own faction, but only at this higher level. The modules that those units are built from are fairly standardized, whether it’s a weapon system, armor or energy storage module, etc.
Question: Will there be a campaign or is it skirmish only? Will there be a map editor? Chris
The first phase, and definitely for the beta, I will release the skirmish only mode. It’s also planned to not only release a map editor in the future, but an entire game editor, effectively taking the concept of modding to the next level. And because it’s all in the cloud, imagine it will be like Google Docs… you can edit the game’s systems and it’s all automatically saved on the cloud. This alone makes this new system pretty revolutionary.
Question: Will the online nature of the game allow for bigger games? I would love to play an RTS that could include more than 8-10 armies without slowdown or lag. Chris
Yes, absolutely. So one of the tests I want to conduct during the beta is a session where there are dozens of players all playing at once. And I also want to test a gameplay mode where players are free to come and go during the game. Lots of craziness is going to come from that. We need to free ourselves up from the constraints of RTS games of the past and look to the future of wild, crazy and experimental new modes of play!
Question: I am curious about the tradeoffs you mentioned and how they will be made smaller in the coming years. Chris
First off, every year, the internals of the browser become more optimized for graphics, and we’ve seen this with WebGL 1.0, but WebGL 2.0 (which is almost adopted across all browsers) will take that further. Next up, WASM, which is an acronym for Web Assembly, is yet another huge step forward for performance. And there’s more advances that will come from more local storage which can cache assets and more system memory to use for building dynamic and fractally generated textures. I foresee a time that people won’t even blink when they are told the game runs in a browser.
Question: What’s your vision for background? - The rendering of the game - The gameplay itself : Real time strategy game? Similar to TA/SUPCOM/FA gameplay (thinking of resources management)? Chris
The game takes place in space, and from a timeline perspective, it’s looking more and more like the years 2050 - 2150. This is where humans finally start fighting over planets, moons and asteroids in the solar system. The game is rendered in top-down 2D (which is fast becoming 3D like Total Annihilation), so call it 2.9D (this is a bit of a geeky label, as it’s almost 3D, but because the view is isometric, but I digress). And yes, the gameplay shares its roots with RTS, and though I started out trying to do some stuff that was really “out there”, its slowly kinda found more and more of a foundation in traditional RTS. This happened as I got feedback from friends that they just weren’t feeling it with my pure, somewhat avante garde, space RTS. And as a part of that foundational RTS gameplay, the resource model will be very familiar to those who played TA and SupCom.
Question: How many units can you manage simultaneously? Chris
I have over 1100 units rendering on a single asteroid, so based on this (it’s highly efficient to build the game this way), there could easily be 10’s of thousands of structural units in the game at any time, especially when you start to consider multiple star systems (for larger games) and then beyond that, multiple galaxies… which is just ridiculous, but I did build the game to support that. It is important to differentiate between “built structures” as units and ships. Ships are more expensive, both on server resources and client resources (and when I say resources, I mean CPU and network bandwidth, memory isn’t a problem). For ships I think somewhere around 1000 in total is probably doable. What’s interesting is that these ships can get quite large, which the system handles just fine. In the future this number will just go up, so by the year 2025, let’s say, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were over 50,000 structural units and 5000 flying units in the game at any one time… in a browser!
Question: Are you going for a massive scale RTS? Chris
Sadly I wasn’t initially, and then it got out of control, but at that point it was all just math and numbers, so that wasn’t a problem, but now that I’m getting into the specifics of gameplay, I needed to dial it back. That’s why the beta is going to be the skirmish mode, or what I am now calling… wait for it… Rock War. Rock War is the battle over the asteroids that are in a special system that is totally contrived for an RTS. I do have a model of our solar system, but it doesn’t lend itself as well for a nice, balanced RTS game (and we all know how important it is that things are balanced, otherwise there’s not much point in calling it a strategy game). So not to confuse, but this would be called IGSE: Rock War, as each gameplay mode needs its own specific name.
Question: Will this game feature a persistent universe that continues after you log off/go afk or will it be more traditional where you select/generate a "map" and play matches? Chris
Yes, everything is persistent. It doesn’t matter if you are playing for an hour, or a week, everything runs in the cloud, so if you stop playing and everyone else keeps playing, then the game will keep running and you can join in at any time (and in 5 seconds or so). If you happen to be playing a single player PvE game, then the game pauses when you close your browser (or the browser times out which is often the case if you just shove your phone in your pocket, or switch away to another web page). This is something I really love about the architecture, as it makes playing so darn convenient!
Looking for a time sink of a game that runs well on legacy devices.
Hi all. I'm looking for a good, time sink of a game. I know gatcha games are huge grindfests and that's ok. I haven't played a lot of mobile games but I did dabble with Summoner's war a bit, FF Brave Exius and Clash Royale. I liked SW but the game isn't quite what I want. I'm not sure. I did appreciate how well it ran on my device: an aging iPhone 6. What I'm looking for:
RPG-ish where I build and develop units
Turn based not live action
Not heavily gated by energy mechanics - as in if I want to play for a few straight hours I can
But in the same vein must also be convenient enough to let me simply pick it up for a few minutes then put it down when something comes up
Not too data-intensive when played off wifi
Puzzle or battle - I don't care on which.
Can't have over-sexualized big tittied anime girls - I play alot at work and that's just asking for trouble. (Sorry Sdorica sunset or SOul Seekers)
Not overly expensive to enjoy. I don't need a pure f2p experience, but my budget isn't very high for a little while.
I haven't tried any of the puzzle gatcha games yet. I know Dragon and Puzzle is a big one. It looks interesting. I don't know if it's the biggest one or what. I'm not totally trying to get my hand held - I started researching but you guys are the pros and know more than I since I'm not a heavy gamer. I just find a game and make it my home and play it to death. I retired from my last game and need a new home! :) What I've started looking at so far:
Summoners War (It runs great on my old phone but I'm a million years behind everyone else)
Brave Frontier Last Summoner - Similar vein to the final fantasy game I tried but new so I won't be light years behind everyone else
Arcane Straight - I'm a sucker for pixel art
Dragons and Puzzle - puzzle gatcha games are new and weird to me but it looks interesting enough to try. Would consider other, newer, or better ones if you have recommendations
Last requirement - must be available in IOS for Canada. FU Nintendo and Dragalia Lost. ;) Any advice? I'm open minded but wanting something newer, but still runs on old hardware is a tricky compromise to ask for. Thanks!
UPDATE: Drewlist was able to locate my account being sold on a website (thanks for the help!) (http://www.neoseeker.com/forums/76410/t2256801-wtt-wts-mid-end-game-global-acc-double-seara-double-zaiross-friends/) First Post: https://www.reddit.com/summonerswacomments/6lpm6c/never_thought_it_would_happen_to_me_hacked/ Okay I am sorry, I am a bit fired up, its my birthday and I was hacked last Thursday. Today I just revived an emotionless email telling me that I will not get my account back. I have been playing Summoners war for 2 years now (February, 6th 2016), I love it, I spend money on it like its my girlfriend and don't want to quit anytime soon. The reason I am writing this post is because I feel helpless in helping myself and I want someone that can help me. Last Thursday (July 6th, 2017) while I was farming the Dark Rift for crafting materials I received an error notification which then kicked me off of the game and had me re-enter login information. However I was not able to login. I logged into my gmail to find an "E-mail Modification Alert" from HIVE (image below) email! So this is when I started panicking and thinking of all the worst case scenarios, which is what I find myself in right now. I went to submit a HIVE support ticket but because you need to log into a account and since my account email had been changed I had to create a new account to submit my ticket.(Yes I submitted a ticket within two hours of having my account stolen. I would have been faster had I not been at work.) I looked around online to find some help articles to see if anyone else has had the same thing happen to them and their account. I was able to find this article on reddit/summonerswar, which suggested that I gather information to send with my issue to save time.(reddit article link below) (https://www.reddit.com/summonerswacomments/62dpue/well_got_hacked_now_what/) So I did...(Actually I wanted to send a lot more detailed message but the HIVE tickets limit you to 1000 characters and 3 images) I sent all the information I could fit on that 1000 character limit message. I received my first response this Monday (July 10th, 2017), 4 days after my first support ticket(I sent another on Saturday because I thought it was ridiculous that I didn't receive a response when I am a paying customer(yes I was impatient)) : (copy and paste email below.(Screenshot available if you request))
Greetings Summoner, Thank you for contacting Com2us Player Support. We understand that you are inquiring about your Hive account in which you have lost access to. To further assist you on this matter, please provide the following information to the best of your ability regarding >the details of your Hive account so that we can further investigate the matter: Failure to provide all of the information in completeness may affect our ability to properly assist you on this >matter.
Hive ID prior to losing access:
Summoner Name prior to losing access:
Server:
Summoners War account creation date(mm/dd/yyyy):
Hive account creation date(mm/dd/yyyy):
Date of login Issue(mm/dd/yyyy):
Original E-mail prior to losing access:
E-mail Verified (Y/N):
Google Play / iTunes E-mail used to make purchases:
Screenshot of the First and Last Purchase made on the account prior to losing access(Only TWO records will >be necessary): Android : Purchase details can be found by going here https://payments.google.com (GPA #, date of purchase >and purchase details must be clearly visible for each screenshot) *Apple : Purchase details can be found by accessing your iTunes account and navigating to your Purchase History >(Order ID must be clearly visible for each screenshot ) *When providing your iTunes Purchase History, please allow Previous Purchases batches to be visible below the >information about the first and most recent purchase in each screenshot. *Please DO NOT provide bank statements, Paypal records, purchase records from your mobile service carrier or >App Store email receipts. *
Device Model of ALL devices used to log into the account before losing access(Galaxy S7, iPhone 7, etc):
Wifi MAC Address of ALL devices used to log into the account before losing access: *Android : Settings -> General -> About Device -> Status -> Wi-Fi MAC address *Apple : Settings -> General -> About -> Wi-Fi Address
DID(Device ID) of ALL devices used to log into the account before losing access: *Open Summoners War or the withHive app -> Select your profile located on the top left -> Under the >\'Account\' tab select ‘Com2uS Hive’ -> Navigate back ( \"<\" icon in the top left corner) -> Open the side menu >bar (\"☰ \" ) -> Scroll to the bottom for the DID number
Login Method (Hive/FB/Google+):
Please note, Com2us is not responsible for the recovery of accounts that are reported as lost, stolen, hacked, or >show a history of usage and exchange between multiple users. However we will do everything within our ability to provide assistance based on the information provided. Thank you for your cooperation on this matter and we hope to hear from you soon. Sincerely Shimmy Accounts Specialist Com2uS Player Support
After reading the email I immediately responded with the same information I had sent before in a slightly different format that was formatted closer to the received email. Today I wake up and its my Birthday, I normally hate my birthday but I was praying and hoping that I would at least receive a response email. Which I did: (copy and paste email below.(Screenshot available if you request))
Greetings Summoner, Thank you for contacting Com2us Player Support. We appreciate you providing the requested information. Upon through investigation, we were unable to rule out of the possibility of account >buying/selling/trading/sharing. As such acts are strictly against our Terms of Service, we will be unable to provide service regarding this matter. Moving forward, please be sure to take all steps necessary to keep your account safe and secure. We highly recommend that you do the following in the future: 1. Verify your E-mail through Hive by accessing your settings. 2. Use a strong password that is unique to your Hive account only. 3. Do NOT share your account credentials with anyone (including friends or family). 4. Be wary of sites that may be trying to steal your information. i.e) Phishing sites, unknown website address, >etc. Thank you very much. Sincerely Shimmy Accounts Specialist Com2uS Player Support
Which is where I am now... I am a very calm person that does not get upset easily. I don't complain about any in-game b.s. (prices/drop rates/summon rates/ect). I don't cheat, steal, or try to use other means to get ahead in the game(except for buying stuff in game). I have never clicked on a link or wanted to visit any website advertised in-game via chat(spam bots) on google(googling stuff). I do not deserve this. I am a good customer that is not happy with the costumer service I have received, and I think if anyone received the email(from above) they would find it unacceptable as well. I want my account back. Side notes: I was the leader of my guild(Gildongers) on Global server. When I got my account stolen I really wanted to talk to all my guild members to warn them and keep an eye on my former account (WildBillBC). I went through all the B.S. of getting to lvl.8 so that I could chat and talk to them when they accepted me back into the guild under my new name(WildBillBC1). I was accepted before I turned lvl.8 and could see messages the whole time. I reached lvl.8 and first thing I say is "I got hacked"(or something along the lines of my account being stolen). Everyone in my guild knows me and how I speech mannerisms so every one was convinced right away without any doubt. The guy who had my account summoned a premium pack and logged off pretty much right away. He came back online the next day or the day after that and summoned some more (summoned a water panda) then left the guild. Luckily since you can only remove 5 friends a day, my friend and guild mate has been able to keep an eye on my account. After he left he had also used my attack homunculus final skill up mats to summon a light homunculus (I was going to make the dark after watching Shredded Puzzles TOAH video). He changed the name of the account(MY ACCOUNT, AHHH! WildBillBC) to Snappy! (yes, "Snappy!"). The thing that bothers me the most is now that I supposedly will not be able to get my account back this guy now gets to keep my account... AND MY FACEBOOK PROFILE PICTURE! This has to be illegal... Is this not identity theft? Can't I go to the police and report this now, because this guy is using my account that is linked to my Facebook and is using my picture? ME: facebook! MY ACCOUNT: My Accounts Changed Name! I have a lot of screenshots as proof that this guy would not be able to provide. I can contact my bank to prove that I have not sold/ traded my account and received any kind of reimbursement. This was my monster box(When I joined the guild on my new account I was able to visit my island and take screenshots of my monsters(photoshoped since each screenshot was only 1 row so I combined them, I can provide the originals)): monster box! I liked my summons but in truth I am more upset about the runes being gone, after all that is where all my 2 years where spent. Grinding dungeons, refreshing, repeating. For anyone that is still reading, I am sorry this turned into a massive rant. I just want my account back and I feel hopeless. If anyone can actually help me, please do. I could not even find the words to describe my happiness if my account was ever restored to me. Thank you, William Matysik
You're coming over from Android, eh? Let's see. First things first, some of the complaints I hear most often from Android users is "There are no widgets!" This is false. Slide down from the top of the screen and you'll see a "Today" view. There is an "add widgets" button at the bottom, and apps with compatible widgets will show up there so that you can access them with a quick slide down. Use Siri! She can be incredibly useful at doing mundane tasks like turning on and off settings. Slide up from the bottom of the screen to access Control Centre to get quick access to airplane mode, wifi, bluetooth, Do Not Disturb, and the flashlight, along with a host of other toggles. Get familiar with the multitasking switcher, accessed by double-clicking the home button. Another neat feature is if you double-tap the home button, it slides the entire screen down to make it easier to reach high elements on the screen with one hand. Did you know that when you get notifications, you can slide down on them to bring up a quick-reply option? It's really handy! Speaking of notifications, you can configure which apps give you notifications in your settings. Proactive is a screen that happens when you slide to the left of your home screen. It shows you contacts you may want to talk with, and the apps it thinks you may want to use at that moment. It's super handy! It also features the universal search bar, which you can use to find things on your phone in multiple apps quickly. For example, if you use Tinder, you can type the name of your contact into the Universal search bar, and you will be able to see their information. It also gives you quick access to the web and wikipedia. Use 3D Touch! You have the new iPhone. You can press harder on the display to preview links, peek at emails, and you can press hard on certain icons to bring up quick actions. Press harder to pop into previewed content. There's no easy way to explain this, so I suggest for the first couple days you just try 3D Touching (pressing with force) on everything until you figure out what it can and cannot be used for. One of my favourite uses is in Instagram and Photos, where I can press deeply on a photo to bring up a preview of it without having to open it up, releasing my finger, and continuing on with scrolling, all without skipping a beat. Also, a little known 3D Touch feature is if you press hard on the left side of the screen while sliding right, it brings up the multitasking switcher where you can close apps or switch apps. And don't ignore the Tips app. There are plenty of great suggestions that can really, really make your iPhone life better in there. Here are some apps to get you going: KEYBOARDS: First of all, if you're unhappy with the default keyboard, iOS, just like Android, supports 3rd Party Keyboards. You can download SwiftKey, Swype, and a whole host of other keyboards from the App Store using your Apple ID. I personally use Nintype, it's pricey but the two-finger swiping thing is pretty awesome. MAPPING: Google Maps (Alternative to Apple Maps), CityMapper (Transit Info), Offline Maps (In case you don't have unlimited data), GasBuddy (Check local gas prices) SOCIAL: Most default apps are good, but if you use Twitter, TweetBot is a good alternative. For Reddit, use Reddit's official App, AlienBlue. Or, for an alternative, use Beam for Reddit, Narwhal, or Milkeddit, which is currently in beta, you'll need to sign up for that. GETTING PRODUCTIVE: Use Pages, Numbers and Keynote for full compatibility with Microsoft Office and syncing across your devices. Alternatively, you can use Google's Suite. If you're a student, you're going to love iStudiez Pro, it's the best app for time schedules and assignments. Working? Hours is a great app for logging your time. Into Journaling? Try Day One. It's pricey, but totally worth every cent. And finally, for sketching things out quickly, you can use the default Notes App, or download Paper, or Evernote. GETTING SERIOUS ABOUT PHOTOS: Apple's Photos app is great for quickly getting that shot, but if you want to take your photography to the next level, consider ProCam or ProShot. They allow you to manually control the shutter speed and ISO of your phone to get that perfect shot. If you love video, you'll love Filmic Pro, which allows you to shoot in a mind-bogglingly high quality 100Mbps bit-rate at full 4K resolution. For editing your photos, try Pixelmator, which is PhotoShop for your phone, pretty much. It's incredibly powerful. And if you really want to take advantage of Live Photos for dynamic wallpapers on your lock screen (activated by force pushing), use the app IntoLive to convert Gifs and video into Live Photos. MUSIC: If you're unhappy with Apple Music, try Cesium. And if you're a musician just wanting to take down quick moments of inspiration, get apple's Music Memos app which not only records your performance, but detects beat and chord changes too! Planning a party or just want a sick mixtape? Get PaceMaker, an app that mixes together your songs like you have your own personal DJ! Want to be your own DJ though? Djay 2 is the app for you. UTILITIES: Get FileApp, it's a file manager, you won't regret it. Also pick up IF, and Workflow, which can automate tasks for you, or give you quick shortcuts. If you own small bluetooth objects, you may also find BLE Scanner useful for finding them! The iPhone has a barometer, and to use it you can download any Barometer app. If you're interested in weather, WeatherUnderground is great for you. And finally, PDF Expert expertly handles your PDF annotation needs. Need extra security? 1Password is a great password manager. HEALTH: Apple is serious about health. Their Health app proves this. To make the most of your health, here are a couple suggestions to get you going. Human is an app that you leave on in the background and it detects all your walking, running, biking and other activity using Low-Power GPS. It's goal is not to be a step-counter, but an incentive to get 30 minutes of activity per day, and it's super effective! MyFitnessPal is the industry standard in tracking food intake. Sleep Cycle can help you go to bed and wake up happier while monitoring your quality of sleep either using the microphone, or your phone's accelerometer. Strava is for dedicated bikers and runners, so if you're into that, get that app! Lark is Siri for health, tell it what you ate, and how you feel each day in simple english and it will help you along with your goals. Interested in your heart health? Use the app called "Heart Rate" which uses the camera and flash on your phone to detect your pulse. Coach me helps you stay on track with your goals, whether they be health oriented or just self-betterment, and gives you a handy way to track your habits. For more health apps, check out the extensive category in the App Store for Health. BUYING THINGS: Start off with your Bank's App, and then from there, download Flipp for getting coupons, StoCard for handling those pesky proprietary store cards, and Amazon for your online purchasing needs. The Apple Store App will also sometimes give away from apps, so it's worth having. GAMING: You have the latest phone from Apple, which means you also have the best mobile gaming device on the planet. Don't take my word for it, all the benchmarks prove this is the fastest phone (Windows, Android, or Apple) on the market! Here are some top titles that compete with consoles in quality. I'll let you look them up, but I'll give you the genres. Lumino City [Adventure 3D], Brothers [Adventure 3D], Lara Croft Go [Puzzler 3D], Shadowmatic [Puzzle 3D], Goat Simulator [Adventure 3D], Modern Combat 5 [First Person Shooter 3D], Infinity Blade 3 [Action/FPS 3D], Asphalt 8 [Racing 3D], Musiverse [Music 3D], NHL 2K [Sports 3D], Crossy Road [Endless Arcade 3D], Monument Vally [Puzzle 3D], Into the Dead [ThrilleEndless Runner 3D], Temple Run [Endless Runner 3D], Geometry Wars 3 [Endless Arcade 3D], Plague Inc [Puzzler 2D], Pivvot [Arcade 2D], Two Dots [Puzzle 2D], Into the Circle [Arcade 2D], Boom Dots [Arcade 2D], Mr Jump [Arcade 2D], A Dark Room [Story 2D Text], Lifeline [Story 2D Text], Hitman Go [Puzzle 3D], Leo's Fortune [Incredible Platformer 3D], Badlands [Even better platformer 3D], The Room [Puzzle 3D], Alto's adventure [Endless runner 2D]. Phew! And that's just a few of them! IMPORTANT OTHERS: Get an adblocker! It's one of iOS's best features. I personally use Crystal, but many find that 1Blocker is more effective. I think it may be too! Pause is a great relaxation app, and it really works, I highly recommend it. For news, I recommend Yahoo News Digest. It does the part beautifully, and it is incredible. WildCard also has a novel approach to news giving. If you're in Canada, the CBC app is beautifully designed from top to bottom, and provides some of the best news in the country. And if you want to learn something new, DuoLingo, KhanAcademy, Udemy and Dictionary.com all have apps for iOS.
Hello there Reddit, been a follower of the page, first time poster. My second marriage, my wife's first. My first marriage was 15 years and my ex wife had two kids that I raised from infancy to adulthood, both college age. We're super close and to my kids, I am their biological dad. Their biological dads were just not in the picture. My wife has a son from a past relationship who just turned 14. Dad lives out of state but is pretty active, takes him every other weekend. But his mother has never really had a serious relationship before me, always placing her emphasis on her son (Rightfully so, my wife is a wonderful woman.) I first met her son the night we started hanging out. He was 11 at the time, nice kid, quiet, but after a few weeks I realized after coming over to their house daily that I never saw him anywhere but sitting in front of his xbox. From the time he would come home from school, he would literally dump his backpack at the door and walk into his room, and spend roughly 7 hours a day until bedtime on his xbox. He had his meals brought to him, he would literally change his clothes in front of the television, handing the controller off to the other hand as soon as arm exited a shirt sleeve. Not really my business, I say to myself, people don't always parent like I do. So his mom and I start dating, after several months we're doing great. I live in my apartment, she lives in hers, on the weekends he's at his dads she stays at my place. Within a year she gets pregnant and we decide after a couple of months to move in with each other. I had interacted with her son several times and he always seemed quiet, but his electronic device usage was alarming. At 11 he had a brand new Iphone, and when he wasn't glued to the xbox, he was on that. Sometimes, he would be on his xbox playing, while on his phone, watching videos about playing xbox. A bit redundant. Again, some people raise their kids differently than me. We get married and move in together. My wife didn't have internet in her house, but I required it for work so I had wifi hooked up into the house the day I moved in. So immediately I start to see red flags on his behavior. Being in the home was waaaayyyy different than stopping through. He is glued to an electronic device every second. Giving him the internet just made it worse. Several times I catch him up at 1 or 2 am on a school night, trying to quietly play video games when he had to be up in a handful of hours to go to school. Within two weeks, I walk into his room and catch him looking at porn on the phone, he is twelve at this point. I tell my wife and we have a talk about it. She tells me that he has been caught looking at porn several times on his phone, but always cries and they have a talk and he says he won't do it again. I asked if he had his phone taken away, she says no the talk was good enough. But obviously that's not the case. One day him and I went to get groceries. We had to walk up several flights of stairs to our apartment. We get out of the car he bolts upstairs and waits by the apartment door so he can get in and play xbox, he doesn't offer to help, doesn't open any doors, just sort of dips on me to carry a ton of groceries up the stairs. My keys are hanging off my pinky as all my fingers are interlaced with plastic bags, I hand him the key and tell him to open the door. He looks at me and goes "I don't know how." I gave him a puzzled look, didn't know how to use a key in the door? "Well bud, give it a try." I say, figuring hey this won't be hard, maybe get him a house key and show him how it's done? He looks as me, shrugs, then says "Nah, I just don't know how." So I put the bags down, unlock the door, he walks in the door as I'm picking up the plastic bags and shuts it in my face. I come in and put the groceries down, he's in his room, xbox on, phone on videos. I start to see more behavior. I also start to see my wife enabling his behavior. He is an absolutely relentless negotiator with his mom. He refuses to allow his mother to have say over him unless he has the final say or authorization. Grounded for three days for watching porn on his phone? He sort of laughed at her and said "Nah, that doesn't work for me." Got up, walked out and shut his bedroom door, back to playing xbox. He's 12. I sort of look at my wife like "You gonna let him do that?" She gets up, walks into the bedroom and starts folding laundry, and pretends nothing happened. ummmm okay...... Every time we go to the store, he has to be bought something. He will anxiously harass his mom to let him to go to look at stuff, even if we are stopping to grab one thing like toilet paper, and it never fails, he will come back with something, and if she tells him no, he starts getting pouty and mopey, constantly asking her and interrupting her if the first word out of her mouth isn't "yes." Finally she caves. We've been in the store for 20 minutes to buy toilet paper. This is a repeat performance. Almost immediately, the money I keep in my petty cash box starts coming up short. Within three months, it's 400 bucks gone missing. I keep a ledger so I know my tie amounts (accounting fun for a small business owner) Around this time, my stepson starts to just randomly declare he is gonna buy an xbox because he has 400 dollars. I asked him where he got the money, he says last christmas. It's October. I tell his mom to ask him about it, she says "He wouldn't do that." Winter time, we live in the north. Several feet of snow. He never wears his coat, always wears shorts. His mom says nothing. I pull his mom aside and ask her if she needs me to go buy him a coat, thinking maybe he didn't have one. "No, he just doesn't wear it." It's 15 degrees outside. Finally when it gets down to negative temperatures, he's told to put a coat on. "Nah, I don't need to." Finally his mom responds "Put on the coat now!" I was glad my wife finally stood up to him. We have to walk a half mile from one parking lot to a store. He gets out of the car, hangs the coat off his arms, not really putting it on, and walks by us going "See, I don't need to wear my coat." I turned around and said "Your mother asked you to put on your coat, it's cold enough for you to catch frostbite. Put on the coat." His response? He laughs at me and says "Stop trying to bully me." That was a quiet car ride home. So I begin to realize my wife seems almost terrified of disciplining her son, because he knows if he makes it ultra difficult for her, she will avoid pursuing punishment. So anytime she tries to correct him at all, he will just throw a fit (complete with crying and slamming doors, and on one occasion, laying on the ground kicking and screaming) Mind you there is nothing with this little dude that stands out as an adhd situation or anything like that. He's not autistic, he doesn't have any learning disabilities. Nothing. He just genuinely makes a grand production of defiance and refusal to submit to rules we set down because his mom will cower from him. And she will sumbit to it, every time. So as you could imagine, he gets caught looking at porn again. Except this time he gets caught sexting and snapchatting with some girl in his class. Lude stuff. Real lude. Like way too lude for 12. My wife goes ballistic and grounds him from his phone. I disconnect the wifi. He is furious that she would even consider doing something like that and flips out, leading to this week long time period of him randomly going postal, crying and yelling and laying on the ground kicking and screaming. After sitting down and talking to my wife, she acknowledges that he has an addiction to the internet, and we shut him down for six months. No phone, no internet. Of course, when he goes to his dad's house, he isn't grounded so he makes sure to come back and tell us all about the things he was looking at on the internet, and facebook, asking us if we saw some of the stuff he posted on facebook, literally rubbing it in that he managed to yet again bypass my wife's very few rules. My wife says nothing. At this point, I start to comment on his actions, directly to him and her. I make sure I do it in the most reasonable manner, because I don't want my message to be bogged down in emotional tones that could be misconstrued as me being upset. I just want my wife's few wishes to be respected. During this time of no internet and phone, his attitude starts to improve. Without constant access to the internet, he spends more time with us and our newborn son. We make a rule of us all eating together, things are looking good. Our relationship starts to strengthen because of the lack of deception. So my wife starts to tell me a month in that when her and her son are alone, he asks when is he going to get his phone back. Alot. He tells her he's been doing good and he hasn't gotten in trouble on the internet since he's had it taken away (which is lame because he continues to brag about still using the internet at his dads) and how he's doing good in school. A week later we talk about it, and she is just repeating what he said as her reasoning, so he's getting a new smart phone, and a better one than before. Absolutely incredible. Guess what? He gets the phone, and everything starts all over again. Except this time it's even worse because he now knows he has to make an active effort to hide what he does from us. I put a website monitor into his new phone, he deleted it by resetting the phone. I told him mom, she said nothing. Part of the deal with the new phone was to be honest with it. But yet again you ask to see his phone, he rushes off and starts deleting things on it until you walk up and take it out of his hands. He lies about everything now. In part because his mother never double checks what he says to see if it's true, so now he doesn't want us to know anything about what he does. Now he turned 14 a few months ago, and I'm sort of uncomfortable in my own home. So I find out he's be sex chatting more girls on his phone, again. I take it to her and show her. He's not only talking about that, but he says in one line of texts that he was drunk on a night he was spending the night at a friends house. His mom pulls him aside and asks, and he gets pissed at her and refuses to talk at the table about it, only talking to her in his room without me there. She comes out and says "Oh, he's fine, he wasn't drunk he said he mistexted what he was trying to say to his friends." And basically let him go on the promise he wouldn't do it yet again. I ask her if she was scared of disciplining her son, she got super defensive and called me a shit parent who didn't do right by my first two kids, totally deflecting my comment back onto me. We end up getting into a huge argument about the issue. Afterwards I go to the kitchen, her son walks up to me, looks me straight in the eye, gets a huge grin on his face and chuckles, then walks off. So now since that little talk worked, he refuses to participate in any family discussion, instead demanding his mom go into his room with him, where he chisels her down until she does what he wants. He got a laptop from school to be used to class assignments. I'm sure you can see where I'm gonna go with this. So now I'm starting to get a little frustrated. He's a good big brother, but the sneaking and deception has got to stop, and I don't know how to get his mom to see it. I told her I'm afraid my son is going to think that behavior is acceptable. I would never leave my wife. I will love that woman til my bones turn into dust. But what do I do to prevent my step son from becoming an increasingly deceitful person, what steps should I try to take to curb his obvious internet and pornography habit? Any advice would be awesome.
You're coming over from Android, eh? Let's see. First things first, some of the complaints I hear most often from Android users is "There are no widgets!" This is false. Slide down from the top of the screen and you'll see a "Today" view. There is an "add widgets" button at the bottom, and apps with compatible widgets will show up there so that you can access them with a quick slide down. Use Siri! She can be incredibly useful at doing mundane tasks like turning on and off settings. Slide up from the bottom of the screen to access Control Centre to get quick access to airplane mode, wifi, bluetooth, Do Not Disturb, and the flashlight, along with a host of other toggles. Get familiar with the multitasking switcher, accessed by double-clicking the home button. Another neat feature is if you double-tap the home button, it slides the entire screen down to make it easier to reach high elements on the screen with one hand. Did you know that when you get notifications, you can slide down on them to bring up a quick-reply option? It's really handy! Speaking of notifications, you can configure which apps give you notifications in your settings. Proactive is a screen that happens when you slide to the left of your home screen. It shows you contacts you may want to talk with, and the apps it thinks you may want to use at that moment. It's super handy! It also features the universal search bar, which you can use to find things on your phone in multiple apps quickly. For example, if you use Tinder, you can type the name of your contact into the Universal search bar, and you will be able to see their information. It also gives you quick access to the web and wikipedia. Use 3D Touch! You have the new iPhone. You can press harder on the display to preview links, peek at emails, and you can press hard on certain icons to bring up quick actions. Press harder to pop into previewed content. There's no easy way to explain this, so I suggest for the first couple days you just try 3D Touching (pressing with force) on everything until you figure out what it can and cannot be used for. One of my favourite uses is in Instagram and Photos, where I can press deeply on a photo to bring up a preview of it without having to open it up, releasing my finger, and continuing on with scrolling, all without skipping a beat. Also, a little known 3D Touch feature is if you press hard on the left side of the screen while sliding right, it brings up the multitasking switcher where you can close apps or switch apps. And don't ignore the Tips app. There are plenty of great suggestions that can really, really make your iPhone life better in there. Here are some apps to get you going: KEYBOARDS: First of all, if you're unhappy with the default keyboard, iOS, just like Android, supports 3rd Party Keyboards. You can download SwiftKey, Swype, and a whole host of other keyboards from the App Store using your Apple ID. I personally use Nintype, it's pricey but the two-finger swiping thing is pretty awesome. MAPPING: Google Maps (Alternative to Apple Maps), CityMapper (Transit Info), Offline Maps (In case you don't have unlimited data), GasBuddy (Check local gas prices) SOCIAL: Most default apps are good, but if you use Twitter, TweetBot is a good alternative. For Reddit, use Reddit's official App, AlienBlue. Or, for an alternative, use Beam for Reddit, Narwhal, or Milkeddit, which is currently in beta, you'll need to sign up for that. GETTING PRODUCTIVE: Use Pages, Numbers and Keynote for full compatibility with Microsoft Office and syncing across your devices. Alternatively, you can use Google's Suite. If you're a student, you're going to love iStudiez Pro, it's the best app for time schedules and assignments. Working? Hours is a great app for logging your time. Into Journaling? Try Day One. It's pricey, but totally worth every cent. And finally, for sketching things out quickly, you can use the default Notes App, or download Paper, or Evernote. GETTING SERIOUS ABOUT PHOTOS: Apple's Photos app is great for quickly getting that shot, but if you want to take your photography to the next level, consider ProCam or ProShot. They allow you to manually control the shutter speed and ISO of your phone to get that perfect shot. If you love video, you'll love Filmic Pro, which allows you to shoot in a mind-bogglingly high quality 100Mbps bit-rate at full 4K resolution. For editing your photos, try Pixelmator, which is PhotoShop for your phone, pretty much. It's incredibly powerful. And if you really want to take advantage of Live Photos for dynamic wallpapers on your lock screen (activated by force pushing), use the app IntoLive to convert Gifs and video into Live Photos. MUSIC: If you're unhappy with Apple Music, try Cesium. And if you're a musician just wanting to take down quick moments of inspiration, get apple's Music Memos app which not only records your performance, but detects beat and chord changes too! Planning a party or just want a sick mixtape? Get PaceMaker, an app that mixes together your songs like you have your own personal DJ! Want to be your own DJ though? Djay 2 is the app for you. UTILITIES: Get FileApp, it's a file manager, you won't regret it. Also pick up IF, and Workflow, which can automate tasks for you, or give you quick shortcuts. If you own small bluetooth objects, you may also find BLE Scanner useful for finding them! The iPhone has a barometer, and to use it you can download any Barometer app. If you're interested in weather, WeatherUnderground is great for you. And finally, PDF Expert expertly handles your PDF annotation needs. Need extra security? 1Password is a great password manager. HEALTH: Apple is serious about health. Their Health app proves this. To make the most of your health, here are a couple suggestions to get you going. Human is an app that you leave on in the background and it detects all your walking, running, biking and other activity using Low-Power GPS. It's goal is not to be a step-counter, but an incentive to get 30 minutes of activity per day, and it's super effective! MyFitnessPal is the industry standard in tracking food intake. Sleep Cycle can help you go to bed and wake up happier while monitoring your quality of sleep either using the microphone, or your phone's accelerometer. Strava is for dedicated bikers and runners, so if you're into that, get that app! Lark is Siri for health, tell it what you ate, and how you feel each day in simple english and it will help you along with your goals. Interested in your heart health? Use the app called "Heart Rate" which uses the camera and flash on your phone to detect your pulse. Coach me helps you stay on track with your goals, whether they be health oriented or just self-betterment, and gives you a handy way to track your habits. For more health apps, check out the extensive category in the App Store for Health. BUYING THINGS: Start off with your Bank's App, and then from there, download Flipp for getting coupons, StoCard for handling those pesky proprietary store cards, and Amazon for your online purchasing needs. The Apple Store App will also sometimes give away from apps, so it's worth having. GAMING: You have the latest phone from Apple, which means you also have the best mobile gaming device on the planet. Don't take my word for it, all the benchmarks prove this is the fastest phone (Windows, Android, or Apple) on the market! Here are some top titles that compete with consoles in quality. I'll let you look them up, but I'll give you the genres. Lumino City [Adventure 3D], Brothers [Adventure 3D], Lara Croft Go [Puzzler 3D], Shadowmatic [Puzzle 3D], Goat Simulator [Adventure 3D], Modern Combat 5 [First Person Shooter 3D], Infinity Blade 3 [Action/FPS 3D], Asphalt 8 [Racing 3D], Musiverse [Music 3D], NHL 2K [Sports 3D], Crossy Road [Endless Arcade 3D], Monument Vally [Puzzle 3D], Into the Dead [ThrilleEndless Runner 3D], Temple Run [Endless Runner 3D], Geometry Wars 3 [Endless Arcade 3D], Plague Inc [Puzzler 2D], Pivvot [Arcade 2D], Two Dots [Puzzle 2D], Into the Circle [Arcade 2D], Boom Dots [Arcade 2D], Mr Jump [Arcade 2D], A Dark Room [Story 2D Text], Lifeline [Story 2D Text], Hitman Go [Puzzle 3D], Leo's Fortune [Incredible Platformer 3D], Badlands [Even better platformer 3D], The Room [Puzzle 3D], Alto's adventure [Endless runner 2D]. Phew! And that's just a few of them! IMPORTANT OTHERS: Get an adblocker! It's one of iOS's best features. I personally use Crystal, but many find that 1Blocker is more effective. I think it may be too! Pause is a great relaxation app, and it really works, I highly recommend it. For news, I recommend Yahoo News Digest. It does the part beautifully, and it is incredible. WildCard also has a novel approach to news giving. If you're in Canada, the CBC app is beautifully designed from top to bottom, and provides some of the best news in the country. And if you want to learn something new, DuoLingo, KhanAcademy, Udemy and Dictionary.com all have apps for iOS.
A quick start guide for new users of the iPhone 6S
You're coming over from Android, eh? Let's see. First things first, some of the complaints I hear most often from Android users is "There are no widgets!" This is false. Slide down from the top of the screen and you'll see a "Today" view. There is an "add widgets" button at the bottom, and apps with compatible widgets will show up there so that you can access them with a quick slide down. Use Siri! She can be incredibly useful at doing mundane tasks like turning on and off settings. Slide up from the bottom of the screen to access Control Centre to get quick access to airplane mode, wifi, bluetooth, Do Not Disturb, and the flashlight, along with a host of other toggles. Get familiar with the multitasking switcher, accessed by double-clicking the home button. Another neat feature is if you double-tap the home button, it slides the entire screen down to make it easier to reach high elements on the screen with one hand. Did you know that when you get notifications, you can slide down on them to bring up a quick-reply option? It's really handy! Speaking of notifications, you can configure which apps give you notifications in your settings. Proactive is a screen that happens when you slide to the left of your home screen. It shows you contacts you may want to talk with, and the apps it thinks you may want to use at that moment. It's super handy! It also features the universal search bar, which you can use to find things on your phone in multiple apps quickly. For example, if you use Tinder, you can type the name of your contact into the Universal search bar, and you will be able to see their information. It also gives you quick access to the web and wikipedia. Use 3D Touch! You have the new iPhone. You can press harder on the display to preview links, peek at emails, and you can press hard on certain icons to bring up quick actions. Press harder to pop into previewed content. There's no easy way to explain this, so I suggest for the first couple days you just try 3D Touching (pressing with force) on everything until you figure out what it can and cannot be used for. One of my favourite uses is in Instagram and Photos, where I can press deeply on a photo to bring up a preview of it without having to open it up, releasing my finger, and continuing on with scrolling, all without skipping a beat. Also, a little known 3D Touch feature is if you press hard on the left side of the screen while sliding right, it brings up the multitasking switcher where you can close apps or switch apps. And don't ignore the Tips app. There are plenty of great suggestions that can really, really make your iPhone life better in there. Here are some apps to get you going: KEYBOARDS: First of all, if you're unhappy with the default keyboard, iOS, just like Android, supports 3rd Party Keyboards. You can download SwiftKey, Swype, and a whole host of other keyboards from the App Store using your Apple ID. I personally use Nintype, it's pricey but the two-finger swiping thing is pretty awesome. MAPPING: Google Maps (Alternative to Apple Maps), CityMapper (Transit Info), Offline Maps (In case you don't have unlimited data), GasBuddy (Check local gas prices) SOCIAL: Most default apps are good, but if you use Twitter, TweetBot is a good alternative. For Reddit, use Reddit's official App, AlienBlue. Or, for an alternative, use Beam for Reddit, Narwhal, or Milkeddit, which is currently in beta, you'll need to sign up for that. GETTING PRODUCTIVE: Use Pages, Numbers and Keynote for full compatibility with Microsoft Office and syncing across your devices. Alternatively, you can use Google's Suite. If you're a student, you're going to love iStudiez Pro, it's the best app for time schedules and assignments. Working? Hours is a great app for logging your time. Into Journaling? Try Day One. It's pricey, but totally worth every cent. And finally, for sketching things out quickly, you can use the default Notes App, or download Paper, or Evernote. GETTING SERIOUS ABOUT PHOTOS: Apple's Photos app is great for quickly getting that shot, but if you want to take your photography to the next level, consider ProCam or ProShot. They allow you to manually control the shutter speed and ISO of your phone to get that perfect shot. If you love video, you'll love Filmic Pro, which allows you to shoot in a mind-bogglingly high quality 100Mbps bit-rate at full 4K resolution. For editing your photos, try Pixelmator, which is PhotoShop for your phone, pretty much. It's incredibly powerful. And if you really want to take advantage of Live Photos for dynamic wallpapers on your lock screen (activated by force pushing), use the app IntoLive to convert Gifs and video into Live Photos. MUSIC: If you're unhappy with Apple Music, try Cesium. And if you're a musician just wanting to take down quick moments of inspiration, get apple's Music Memos app which not only records your performance, but detects beat and chord changes too! Planning a party or just want a sick mixtape? Get PaceMaker, an app that mixes together your songs like you have your own personal DJ! Want to be your own DJ though? Djay 2 is the app for you. UTILITIES: Get FileApp, it's a file manager, you won't regret it. Also pick up IF, and Workflow, which can automate tasks for you, or give you quick shortcuts. If you own small bluetooth objects, you may also find BLE Scanner useful for finding them! The iPhone has a barometer, and to use it you can download any Barometer app. If you're interested in weather, WeatherUnderground is great for you. And finally, PDF Expert expertly handles your PDF annotation needs. Need extra security? 1Password is a great password manager. HEALTH: Apple is serious about health. Their Health app proves this. To make the most of your health, here are a couple suggestions to get you going. Human is an app that you leave on in the background and it detects all your walking, running, biking and other activity using Low-Power GPS. It's goal is not to be a step-counter, but an incentive to get 30 minutes of activity per day, and it's super effective! MyFitnessPal is the industry standard in tracking food intake. Sleep Cycle can help you go to bed and wake up happier while monitoring your quality of sleep either using the microphone, or your phone's accelerometer. Strava is for dedicated bikers and runners, so if you're into that, get that app! Lark is Siri for health, tell it what you ate, and how you feel each day in simple english and it will help you along with your goals. Interested in your heart health? Use the app called "Heart Rate" which uses the camera and flash on your phone to detect your pulse. Coach me helps you stay on track with your goals, whether they be health oriented or just self-betterment, and gives you a handy way to track your habits. For more health apps, check out the extensive category in the App Store for Health. BUYING THINGS: Start off with your Bank's App, and then from there, download Flipp for getting coupons, StoCard for handling those pesky proprietary store cards, and Amazon for your online purchasing needs. The Apple Store App will also sometimes give away from apps, so it's worth having. GAMING: You have the latest phone from Apple, which means you also have the best mobile gaming device on the planet. Don't take my word for it, all the benchmarks prove this is the fastest phone (Windows, Android, or Apple) on the market! Here are some top titles that compete with consoles in quality. I'll let you look them up, but I'll give you the genres. Lumino City [Adventure 3D], Brothers [Adventure 3D], Lara Croft Go [Puzzler 3D], Shadowmatic [Puzzle 3D], Goat Simulator [Adventure 3D], Modern Combat 5 [First Person Shooter 3D], Infinity Blade 3 [Action/FPS 3D], Asphalt 8 [Racing 3D], Musiverse [Music 3D], NHL 2K [Sports 3D], Crossy Road [Endless Arcade 3D], Monument Vally [Puzzle 3D], Into the Dead [ThrilleEndless Runner 3D], Temple Run [Endless Runner 3D], Geometry Wars 3 [Endless Arcade 3D], Plague Inc [Puzzler 2D], Pivvot [Arcade 2D], Two Dots [Puzzle 2D], Into the Circle [Arcade 2D], Boom Dots [Arcade 2D], Mr Jump [Arcade 2D], A Dark Room [Story 2D Text], Lifeline [Story 2D Text], Hitman Go [Puzzle 3D], Leo's Fortune [Incredible Platformer 3D], Badlands [Even better platformer 3D], The Room [Puzzle 3D], Alto's adventure [Endless runner 2D]. Phew! And that's just a few of them! IMPORTANT OTHERS: Get an adblocker! It's one of iOS's best features. I personally use Crystal, but many find that 1Blocker is more effective. I think it may be too! Pause is a great relaxation app, and it really works, I highly recommend it. For news, I recommend Yahoo News Digest. It does the part beautifully, and it is incredible. WildCard also has a novel approach to news giving. If you're in Canada, the CBC app is beautifully designed from top to bottom, and provides some of the best news in the country. And if you want to learn something new, DuoLingo, KhanAcademy, Udemy and Dictionary.com all have apps for iOS.
My big list of Android Apps and Resources, help me expand it!
update: will be adding play/download links today. Some of these need root. All of them are my opinion (handpicked). This list is meant to be as compatible with all devices as possible. Some apps require android 2.3, some require 4.0. First app mentioned is most preferred, followed by second choice and so on. I still have about 100-200 apps to review in my queue, but I'm open to suggestions, I will add/replace for good apps. to run android apps on your pc, try bluestacks. tools: -superuser (don't download from Play, this means root your phone) -droidwall (I didn't like LBE Privacy Guard, it doesn't stop all traffic) -link2sd (freeze/remove apps and bloatware, and integrate updated system apps into system) -history eraser or cachemate -SD Maid or SystemCleanup -keyboard backlight controller -apex launcher or holo launcher or adw launcher -android folder view (http://m.slideme.org/application/afw) -charmap -DiskUsage -carrier name (used to be free) -lock screen -app backup & restore -OI file manager and ES file explorer -sd speed increase -startup manager -titanium backup -websharing (transfer stuff over wifi faster than bluetooth, phone to pc, pc to phone or phone to phone even, thru receiving phone's browser) -archidroid -Bluetooth File Transfer -tTorrent -AdBlock or AdFree -Hexamob Recovery LITE -LCD Density Modder -PdaNet -ROM manager or ROM Toolbox -Nandroid Browser -DroidSheepGuard FREE -Airborne Free useful daily apps: -swipepad (or wavelauncher but that's not free) or swipe switcher -swype or some other swiping keyboard -sysinfo widget or caynax system panel -movietrakt (it has a bug that fills your sd card, but just delete /LazyList/ folder in your sdcard occasionally) -pcm recorder -vplayer or bs player or Super Video, Floating & Popup or mx video player or mobo player or rock player (vlc coming soon too) -write sms by voice or notevoice -Clipper -Image++ (http://slideme.org/application/image) -hovernote (not free!) -No Signal Alert -Market Bookmark useful daily widgets: -blingboard (alternatively tweetdeck, seesmic or sonet) -redditastic -multipic slideshow widget -simpleforecast (alternatively Aix Weather Widget) -assignment planner -vapor ice (clock widget) or clockwidget4ics or digital clock widget -Garbage calendar widget maybe useful apps: -Perfect Task Switcher -SMS Popup -Call Confirm -organizer widget or Recent Contacts Widget -SPEED WARNING -Metal Detector -Vibrometer -wifikill -First Aid -Offline dictionaries -World Factbook Pro -Dangerous Goods Manual -AReader -Prefixer -WiFiKeyboard -Virtual Button Bar (not free!) or Button Savior -Get Altitude -Screencast -Iris or Skyvi or Evi or Synergive Informant -OS Monitor or System Tuner or SysInfoTool -droidWake -Adobe Reader -Text to Speech -BlueputDroid -MetaWidget -WifiWidget -Widgetsoid -MoonPhase -Minimal Reader Pro -EboBirthday -Photo Contact Widget -screenshot -Simple Calendar Widget -Contact2Sim -Handy Scanner Pro: PDF Creator (not free) -Text Scheduler or SMS Scheduler -Contact Remover -15 Color Flashlight -Choose4Me -AppDrawer -Voice Flashlight Free -Voice Camera -Call Recorder -Wifi Browser Login -Lady Melter -Quickdroid or Spiffy Search -Icon Explorer -Search Clear Defaults -DefaultApp Reset -MoreRecent -Calls Blacklist -Total Commander or Ghost Commander + Samba Plugin -jigbrowser+ or zirco browser -brightness rotation -Messaging Metro Beta -QuickPic -exDialer -Quick StatusBar -Friends Monitor -InstaCamera -myChatDroid for Facebook -Winmail.dat Extractor -Save This Page -TraktApp -Reddit Sync -Gigbeat or Songkick -QR Reader -NetCounter -Flipboard -Quick Battery or Circle Battery Widget or Android Battery Dog -Time Runner -GPS Status -Android Lost or Anti Theft Control or Wheres My Droid or Plan B -Carrier IQ Detector -Wifi Radar -YouTube Remote -Font Installer -Embiggen -Roam Control (http://www.roamctrl.com) -Trust Event Logger -Llama Location Profiles developers: -droidedit or Android Web Editor Lite or touchqode -kws (web server) -ninjamorph -analytics (released today, 6/29/2012) -adbwireless -2X Client or Remote Desktop Client -Fing - Network Tools -URL Monitor or Server Monitor -aSQLiteManager -Partition Table -aLogcat -View Web Source -Hacker's Keyboard -http://code.google.com/p/android-apktool/ -http://www.android-x86.org/ -http://blog.softwaredevelopersindia.com/the-best-roms-in-droid-application-development-handpicked/ fun: -SPB TV -Robotic Guitarist or Jimi Guitar (not free!) or Solo Lite -Guitar Chordz 1.1 -DaTuner Lite (robotic guitarist app has one) -Music Memo Pad -eDrums -TouchOSC -Dood's music player or tinyshark -Pocket DJ -CAUSTIC 2 -ReLoop -Multi Audio Player Free -Ringdroid -TubeMate (tubemate.net) -Bartender -PicsArt or MaplePaint -Retro Paint -Stop-Motion - Lite -Exoplanet Explorer Lite -BubbleOnScreen -FPSe or psx4droid -SCUMMVM games (other than PSX/GBA/GBC/SNES/NES emulators): -urth -qb - 3d puzzle game -Landrule Strategy of War -speed forge 3d -Pirate 3D -cs portable -Warmux -Cubik (no longer available, it was tetris) -AnTron -Helidroid 3D -Vector Pinball -Pool Break Lite -Solitaire -My Roulette or Roulette Royale -Slots Royale -Poker or Hold'em Solo (not free!) -Blackjack Mobile 21 -Super Block Dude -My Paper Plane 2 -Bubble Shoot -3D Invaders Beta -Critical Altitude 3D -Newton -TinyFootball -TetroCrate or Tessera 3D -Solid Snake 3D -Minesweeper 3D -Dead Rider Free -Galaxy Conquest -CaveRun3D -BBRallyLite -Squarium wallpapers: -Starfield -WaterWorks Wallpaper -Nexus Revamped -Light Grid -Swirling Ornaments - Free Version -Neon Trails Wallpaper -PhysX Live Wallpaper (http://slideme.org/application/physx-live-wallpaper) -Mystic Halo Live Wallpaper -Morphing Galaxy live wallpaper -Magnetic Pulsator free version -Interdimensional waves free version -Fireworks Live Wallpaper -Hologram (not free!) -Bezier - Live Wallpaper -Electric Plasma Live Wallpaper -Blue Skies Free -Painter Ants Live -Jumpgate Free -Pixel Rain Live Wallpaper -Flames Free -Inferno Galaxy -Crazy Colors -aniBrush Abstract -PlasmaLiveWallpaper google apps: -maps -voice search -youtube -movies -goggles (qr reader, ocr scanner, etc., not offline tho) app markets/finders: -FDroid -appbrain -BravoSE -slideme -getjar -soc.io mall -Appreciate -AppGenius -AppBox (only thru app on Play) -AppAware -Appsfire -Aproov -Best App Finder -http://i.reddit.com/Android -http://www.reddit.com/Android/comments/rdfdn/megapost_of_all_apps_created_by_randroid/ -http://www.DroidGamers.com -http://www.androidpit.com -http://www.androidpolice.com -http://mycolorscreen.com -http://lifehacker.com/android -http://lifehacker.com/homescreenshowcase/forum -http://www.addictivetips.com/category/android/ -http://getandroidstuff.com -http://androidforums.com/android-games/243051-pc-games-android.html -http://www.techcredo.com/category/android -http://atrackdog.a0soft.com/topapps.php -https://twitter.com/newandroidapps (appbrain's twitter) -http://omgdroid.com/category/android/downloads/apps/ -http://androidheadlines.com/category/applications -http://androidniceties.tumblr.com/ -http://www.drmop.com/index.php/2011/10/08/the-big-list-of-android-app-stores-where-to-sell-and-what-to-void/ -http://www.allmyfaves.com/blog/category/apps/ (mostly iphone apps tho) -http://alternativeto.net/software/?platform=android -http://androinica.com/category/android-app-directory/ -http://www.gamespot.com/android/index.html -http://code.google.com/p/imame4all/wiki/GameList -http://download.pandaapp.com/?app=soft&controller=android -http://whitemaskcircus.com/ bookmarks:http://html5.grooveshark.comhttp://i.reddit.comhttp://m.box.comhttp://m.imdb.comhttp://m.google.comhttps://drive.google.com/fe/mhttp://www.google.com/readei/http://wikipedia.orghttp://m.gasbuddy.comhttp://touch.facebook.com/http://www.desktopdungeons.net/HTML5/
Moving phone OSs, any Guidance from Seasoned users?
Hey all, looking at upgrading in September, waiting on new tech to come out. Currently moving from iPhone 6 Plus, to Samsung Note (6 or 7 if it is out by then). I had a note 2, 3, and 4 in the past, so I’ve been out of the loop a few years, I wanted some guidance as I know android, and Samsung have both gone under several large updates since then. Is any of this not possible on android? Sorry for the lengthy post, google on some of these was spotty and I wanted to hear from users. Things I do on my phone Browse the web (Use safari on iPhone, however on my Older android phones I used chrome. Is chrome still a battery drainer on android? If so, what’s the best browser you’d recommend? I use Chrome on my mac if that helps.) Text message (Standard flair, I will miss iMessage, but its not the end of the world.) I like messaging people on my mac, via text message. Is there a way to do that on android now? On my iPhone I use the text message forwarding feature. Reminders. I use the stock reminders app on iOS, which works on Mac, Windows (via iCloud) and ios. I want one on android if I move to it, I’m sure there is one, but what is the best third party reminders app that also has desktop versions, like mac and windows, as well as maybe iOS even? So I can stay synced up across devices. Calendar. Same as above, what is a great third party one that works on Mac, and iOS and android. Notes. Same as above, what’s a good third party one? I use this for grocery shopping, so jot stuff down on my mac or iPad as I am working, and then review it on my iPhone later. I don’t mind paying for it, I just don’t want a subscription based one, I prefer buy once and own solutions. I like having the ability to take pics as well and annotate it Handoff. For those not in the apple ecosystem, handoff lets you be blowing a page on your iPhone, and you can, when in wifi range of your mac or iPad, move that work right to it, by clicking a quick link at the bottom of your mac dock. Is there anything like this on android to mac? I know this one may not be possible, but I wanted to ask. Browse Imgur. I use the stock app on iOS, I assume android is no different, if not, let me know a better solution, I am open to any and all ideas. Browse reddit. I use the stock app on iOS, same as above, I assume the other is the same on android, but if you can recommend better I am always open to hear it. Comics. Not as much as it used to be since I work from home, and default to my iPad, however I will be hopefully committing for grad school so it may be bigger for me. On my iPad, I use cloud reader. Easy add your digital comics to it, and use it. I remember suing Komik on android years ago, and never really enjoying it. Anyone use a good reader for that? Take and browse photos. I use Photos on Mac and iOS. But, since Photos isn't on android, if I am not mistaken, Google photos works well, or it did a few years ago. Does anyone have any recommendations on a better cloud storage solution for photos on Mac and android and iOS? Cloud storage. Similar to above really. I use iCloud Drive now, since my work gives me free additional storage. Never been a Dropbox fan, is google drive still good? I used it in my bachelors a ton, and will be starting my masters in the fall hopefully, so I will need it. Is iCloud Drive on android even, if not Google drive? Fingerprint scanner. I had this on the note 4, but hated it and never used it, since I had to drag my finger, rather than press it. I heard it improved in the note 5, is that true? This one is more a convenience thing rather than a must have, but it would be nice. Games. I know iOS has some difference in games, and speed of updates, but this area I’m not really worried about, I had android in the past and was never at a loss of things to play. Now I usually play downwell or some simple puzzle game, this isn’t a big driver for me as I have consoles and PC, but I am open to hear your recommendations of good games I might be missing out on, or your go-tos to kill time in line, or waiting on something iBooks and Kindle. 99% of my books are in Kindle, it’s only the iBook editions of the harry potter books I have in iBook, I assume the kindle app still works well in android as it did years ago, but if I am wrong or need to know of a better alternative, correct me on this. Storage. I use 128GB on my iPhone, and use 110 of it, I'm a big power user. I know the Note 5 isn't upgradable if I am not mistaken, but the S7 and rumored Note 6/7 are to be. Is the S7, so I know that the rumor will likely be true? Siri. I think Ok Google does all this well, just like “Hey set an alarm, Hey set a timer, Hey call a person”. At work I have both hands glued to a keyboard so I use it a lot. Smart watch. I saw someone on here with Pokemon watch faces, on I think it was a Moto 360, or LG watch? Anyone know the best one? I have an apple watch, and wish the battery were longer, so I will be selling it when I get a new phone. The fitness aspect is important to me as well, I’m overweight and have been using it to lose weight, 36 pounds so far, so fitness is a must in whatever I choose. Example of watch faces as I’m a fan: http://i.imgur.com/43ZVK1i.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/0oiQJOl.jpghttps://i.ytimg.com/vi/L9FWHYAEc0M/maxresdefault.jpg
Second phone ever, first phone in ~7 years, first smartphone ever. Recommendations?
Hi all. Just started my first job, now I'm going to try to buy myself a phone. Since I haven't had a phone in forever, I'm not really experienced in this market. I've done a lot of research, and right now I think I'm looking at the Alcatel Idol 3. My dad's going to drive me to the Cricket store later (his carrier) and see what they have. Either I get a phone there, or I order one online and get it later. Price: Trying not to spend too much. Probably <$200, thinking the sweet spot will be around ~$175 or something. Off contract, preferably. Carrier: Cricket, I believe. Country: USA. I live around San Diego, CA. Size Preference: Not exactly sure, here. I think a mid-range sounds good. I have decently large hands (7.25 inches from palm to middle finger tip, about 3.5 inches palm width.) I don't want a huge phone, though. I would prefer to keep it in my front pocket, and I'm a little dude with some little pockets, hah. Girlfriend's got an iPhone 6s, and it seems like a nice size, but I think the around the 5 to 6 inch range might be more comfortable for me. What will it be used for: It needs to run Puzzles and Dragons smoothly. I'll definitely be playing games on it during downtime at work. I'll definitely be doing a lot of messaging. I'll most likely do a fair amount of browsing the internet, lots of reddit. I don't watch too many streams of any kind, be it live-streaming or YT videos. I would be listening to music almost all the time, probably. That would most likely be with some earbuds. A little picture taking. Probably a fair amount of Skype calls or similar. Did I miss anything? Preferred brands: No real experience so no real preference, I guess. I am most likely staying away from Apple due to pricing. I'm not a picky person with branding; don't really care much. Other: I have no idea what NFC is or used for. Seems weird but useful. I really want a microSD slot, or a lot of space. I listen to a huge amount of music, and I would prefer to not have to switch albums and stuff out constantly. I also would be running a fair amount of games, probably, so it'd be a pain to be too restricted. I'd appreciate long battery life, as would anyone, but I can handle it being mid-range/average or even a little on the lower end. I doubt I'd go longer than ~12 hours at a time without being able to charge. I'd probably be trying to root the phone, as I enjoy tweaking things to my preferences. I dislike the idea of being forced to deal with bloatware. I might not even be on a phone plan; it might end up just as a wifi-device. I'm not 100% sure on that yet. The phones I looked at the most were the HTC One M8, different Nexuses, and the Idol 3. They seemed the most cost-efficient. The lack of storage on the Nexuses turned me off. The HTC One M8 sounds like it has a disappointing camera but is otherwise phenomenal. I don't think it'll be at the Cricket store, unfortunately. The Alcatel Idol 3 is the only one that I saw on Cricket's webpage, so it should be there, which is also a plus. The Moto G sounds nice, but I don't think it's in the Cricket store either. I can't see many downsides with it, though, so that's nice. I have heard that the LG G2/G3/G4 can end up a little hot running PAD. Also, I know that PAD can struggle sometimes on Android devices, but I just can't imagine being able to fully appreciate an iPhone. iPhones also don't have expandable storage, right? Any extra questions I can answer. Any extra info I should be able to provide. Thanks in advance. I'll probably be leaving within four hours, so if anyone has the slightest bit of information, I'd appreciate it. Any recommended x-posting is great, too.
So I recently built a gaming rig, and installed Windows 8.1 as the final piece to my puzzle. I cannot connect to the internet on it as it doesn't recognize the existence of any internet connection, thus prompting the "error 651" message if I try and set it up manually. I know it's not an issue with my router, as the wifi works perfectly well on my Windows 7 laptop and my Iphone 5, as well as my friend's gaming rig (that also utilizes Windows 7). Despite knowing that it's not an issue with the router, I have attempted all basic troubleshooting on it. I've restarted it, unplugged it and replugged it, verified the cable works properly, ensured that the connection lights are on, the whole 9 yards. All good on that front. All of the help forums I've looked at seem to focus on a third-party piece of software being the main issue with this. My concern is that I don't HAVE any third-party software installed. The only thing I do have is Windows 8.1. Despite knowing that, I've done all of the applicable basic steps outlined in this guide (I know it says Windows 7, but other guides for Windows 8 copy-pasted various steps from this original guide): [http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-hardware/connection-freezes-after-seconds-error-651/af815085-fc76-458a-8116-98a06be817ea] I know it's not an error in the installation process, as every single other part of Windows 8.1 works properly. Despite knowing that, I have both refreshed and reinstalled Windows 8.1 to no avail. The only thing that fixed was a single dead pixel on my screen. Don't get me wrong; I'm thankful for that! I just would rather have internet over a fixed pixel... I've also attempted to connect my rig to a friend's router to see if that worked. Nothing. I'm honestly out of ideas as to what this could be and how I could resolve it. My rig is this:
ASUS Z-97A Motherboard
MSI GTX 970 Video Card
Windows 8.1 OS
EVGA 1000W Platinum 80+ PSU
Two 1-TB Seagate 3.5" HDDs
One 250 GB Crucial BX100 SDD
Phanteks Enthoo Pro Case
Hyper 212 EVO Fan
There's almost 100% chance that I've omitted some relevant information, so feel free to ask for whatever else you need. I greatly appreciate any/all help, even if it ends up being something ridiculously simple.
Monument Valley 1 & 2. Monument Valley is a puzzle game that uses perspective to create alternate realities. Users create optical illusions to create new paths to guide their character to the end of the puzzle. Both games are puzzle platformers that draw inspiration from M.C. Escher perspective paintings. And for those moments, we have the solution for you: a list of the best offline iOS games you can play without WiFi in 2020. Usually, it’s the premium games (those you have to pay for) that give you the option to play without an internet connection, because they don’t need to rely on microtransactions or ads in order to generate revenue. Best iPhone Games You Can Play Without Wi-Fi or Data: ... this sliding-block puzzle game is a good way to pass the time. ... but they're just as entertaining (and don't need data or Wi-Fi) However, if you are an iOS user and love playing games that do not need WiFi, you’ll certainly like this list of offline games for iPhone. 1. Riptide GP: Renegade. Riptide GP Renegade is not an offline iPhone game to be missed. It has been very popular among both the Android users and iOS users. In these situations, consider a call back to the good ol' days: puzzle games. Many of them don't require Wi-Fi or even a cellular connection, and some you can play with one hand — perfect for ... Baldur’s Gate was a landmark RPG, developed by BioWare in 1998 for Windows and Mac. Upon its release, the game was hailed as single-handedly reviving the market for role-playing games on PC, and now, you can finally play it on your iPhone or iPad in a brand new Enhanced Edition.This new touch-friendly version of Baldur’s Gate helps to improve managing real-time combat, with added gestures ... Temple Run 2, Angry Birds 2, Candy Crush Saga, Plant Vs Zombies 2, Dots & Co, Subway Surfer, Shadow Fight 3, Flow Free, Sudoku, and Asphalt 8: Airborne are the best free “No WiFi games” for iPhone and iPad. However, we also have an extensive list of best offline iPhone games that don’t need WiFi. Mobile games have tried to service every imaginable genre in the gaming-sphere, but puzzle games somehow seem to be the absolute peak of the platform. That isn’t a bad thing, either; rather, it’s an ode to how well puzzle games have adapted to the current ecosystem that it’s so easy to get lost in them for a moment. These are the best iPhone games that don't need WiFi. Temple Run 2 (Action) Temple Run 2 is one of the most popular endless runner games for the iOS. This app will easily keep you entertained on a long trip without an internet connection. Just keep running and watch the time fly! Download Temple Run 2 - Imangi Studios, LLC Angry Birds (Strategy) What do you do with your iPad or iPhone when you have no data or wi-fi? In this article, we have listed the top 35 offline iPhone and iPad games that you should try out in 2021. Your best kill boredom games are on the list including Solitaire and Dream League soccer.
25 Best FREE OFFLINE iPhone & iPad Games of 2018-2019 No ...
Here's list of top 18 Best HD Offline Games for iOS/Android 2018. Let us know about your favorite Android & iOS game in the comment section below. Help Us To Reach 100k SUBS ★Subscribe for more ... The Apple Event announced the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro Max today...but why? 🤑How Apple is TAKING OVER Japan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4up7ZjOAG1cC... New best high graphics offline (play without internet no WiFi needed) games for android & iOS 2018 l VinIsHere Brought y'all some well made beautiful looking offline games on mobile hope you find ... Register now at whatoplay.com: https://bit.ly/2yZFomFhttps://whatoplay.com/ios/free/ - Complete list of all free-to-play iOS games.Our updated ranking of the... I'm back for ROUND 2 with the HOTTEST FREE APPS in 2018! These FREE addicting games will keep you entertained when you're bored or want to have fun! Availabl... You can access Internet for FREE thanks to the crowdsourced network of wifis available in the world! Amazing app when you travel as well!Site: https://www.wi... Top 20 Best iOS Games to get started with 2019. All the games have amazing gameplay and hence we feel these are Must Play games for your iPhones and iPads. T... Ranking of the best free-to-play iOS mobile games that you can play even without an internet connection; the top-rated free offline iPhone, iPad & iPod games... ~ The Penguin Encyclopedia of Card Games, by David Parlett "Few are even aware of the exoteric Tarot, intended only for card play: they conceive 'the Tarot' only in some occultist form."
