Reuben

Author's details

Name: Reuben Gann
Date registered: 11/30/-0001

Latest posts

  1. An illuminating trip to the Microsoft store — 12/29/2013
  2. Netflix streaming continues to founder as dozens of prominent movies are taken down — 12/28/2013
  3. Saints Row IV is the most fun I've had playing a game — 11/19/2013
  4. Statisticians need to see how experimental science really works, then shut up about it — 11/13/2013
  5. Surface Pro 2: first impressions — 10/24/2013

Author's posts listings

Jul 09 2013

Bioshock Infinite

BioshockInfinite

How much of life can you evoke in a medium where the point of view is confined to that of a man walking around shooting things? Game designer Ken Levine has been trying to answer this questions for many years. The first game of his I was aware of was System Shock 2, where you …

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May 27 2013

When will you come back home?

introtab

As someone who becomes obsessed with things generally, and musical ideas in particular, I have to a large extent inhabited the Ryan Adams song "When will you come back home?" over the past couple weeks. Often, recording a song helps me kick an obsession. Once I've totally dissected a song to its component parts, re-recorded, …

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Mar 05 2013

Georgia drivers die mostly because of yokels

MotorVehicalFatalitiesByLocation

A huge traffic sign adorns the highway near my home, announcing the number of fatalities on Georgia roads this year so far (it's about 150). Moving here from California, knowing this is a small state, that seems like a lot, and it is. Here is the data from 2008 for both states (rates per million …

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Mar 04 2013

Sudoku: advanced techniques

SudokuVeryHard01

Sudoku puzzles are classified according to their difficulty. My old newspaper, the LA Times, did so as Gentle, Moderate, Tough, and Diabolical. Sites like Daily Sudoku have basically the same division, though the names are different (hard and very hard instead of tough and diabolical). Difficulty is determined by the techniques needed to solve the …

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Mar 03 2013

Sudoku: medium difficulty methods

SudokuIndirectTwinsEnum01

A simple elimination algorithm that searches box-by-box, row or column will solve most Gentle and maybe even some Moderate puzzles. The final simple technique knocks out pretty much any remaining Gentle: Technique 4: Enumeration If the previous searches fail, try checking each square on an individual basis to see what numbers it can "see". For …

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