Questions you want answered.

A friend has one of the relatively new oculus standalone units. Is gifting a game to them possible for that? If I don't have an oculus thingo of any kind myself?

Also, on Switch, still no gifting on there, either?

I've been using Animelab because I love how it remembers what episode you are on, and more importantly, where you stopped watching if you close the window before finishing.

Is there a media app that can do that with files on my PC?

Also, on Switch, still no gifting on there, either?

Grumpy about this not being available. At present, the friend's list feels almost useless. I just send people gift card and demand they buy X game

Plex can do that.

Awesome, thanks!

Plex is dangerous. Before you know it you are going to be encoding all of your DVDs and building a $3000 server with 50 TBs of dual redundant storage just so you can have instant access to all of your media from anywhere in your house..... maybe that is just me

Rykin wrote:

Plex is dangerous. Before you know it you are going to be encoding all of your DVDs and building a $3000 server with 50 TBs of dual redundant storage just so you can have instant access to all of your media from anywhere in your house..... maybe that is just me ;)

I purposely do not encode any DVD/Blu-Ray apart from our kid's movies, because I know that once I get that ball rolling I'll be one-click-ordering storage like a chump

(exception being our wedding video, as I was afraid the DVD would not last)

dejanzie wrote:
Rykin wrote:

Plex is dangerous. Before you know it you are going to be encoding all of your DVDs and building a $3000 server with 50 TBs of dual redundant storage just so you can have instant access to all of your media from anywhere in your house..... maybe that is just me ;)

I purposely do not encode any DVD/Blu-Ray apart from our kid's movies, because I know that once I get that ball rolling I'll be one-click-ordering storage like a chump

(exception being our wedding video, as I was afraid the DVD would not last)

Yup. I do have to say though that anytime I watch something on disc now I get mad about all the unskippable trailers or warning or disclaimers or logos. Sometimes it feels like you need to start the movie 10 minutes before you plan to watch it.

Rykin wrote:

Plex is dangerous. Before you know it you are going to be encoding all of your DVDs and building a $3000 server with 50 TBs of dual redundant storage just so you can have instant access to all of your media from anywhere in your house..... maybe that is just me ;)

No, it's not. Although I built a generic 80TB(raw) FreeNAS server. The actual Plex server is separate and has an NFS volume mounted from it. I have other volumes for VM images and backups mounted on other computers. And what do you mean anywhere in the house? I've got gigabit fiber, I watch my Plex media in airports, the gym, etc. Plex is great, but if you go overboard on your hobbies, it can become one of those things.

Here's a random question. Does anyone remember when the current trend of cinematic-esque game trailers started? I'm talking the Assassin's Creed short story style trailers. The earliest one I can remember is the Gears of War Mad World trailer, but that came out in 2006 and I feel like it started before that.

Warcraft III is the first that comes to mind for me if we're talking actual trailers and not cinematic intros. Their trailer was first out in 1999.

I was thinking Blizzard as well. They did a trailer for Warcraft II but it is partially cinematic mixed in with gameplay, so might not be the same thing as you mean.

Cinematic intros were definitely a thing before that, but I'm not sure about trailers.

When did videogame trailers get big? I feel like that was an internet thing. Was it?

Silent Hill 2 from 2001

It’s just short of 6 minutes though. A movie trailer is usually about 90 seconds?

RawkGWJ wrote:

Silent Hill 2 from 2001

It’s just short of 6 minutes though. A movie trailer is usually about 90 seconds?

"I'm not your Mary".

Possibly one of the best trailers ever made.

Gremlin wrote:

Cinematic intros were definitely a thing before that, but I'm not sure about trailers.

When did videogame trailers get big? I feel like that was an internet thing. Was it?

It definitely was, before that they were mainly distributed on the CDs of a different game from the same publisher. There certainly were trailers before the Warcraft 3 one, but most of the ones I found were just cuts of gameplay or random CG bits that didn't form a story (and even saying the Warcraft 3 tells a story is being pretty generous).

Yeah. As far as game trailers that ape movie trailers it seems like Warcraft 3 might have been the earliest one. Can anyone find an earlier example?

Anyone ever bought and or sold with Opendoor?

Final Fantasy VII had cinematic trailers, somewhere 1997-1998. I remember seeing these on TV back then:

Yes, I found a fair number of those. They intersperse cinematic CG clips with in-game clips and more or less just show off the whole game. That's different from telling a self-contained story in their trailer though.

The first Gears of War trailer is probably the most famous TV cinematic trailer. Mad World baaybeee!

Probably mis-remembering, but didn't one of the Wing Commanders have something like that?

That one was similar to the Final Fantasy VII one, with random assortment of cutscenes and gameplay on display. I think Blizzard clinches it with that Warcraft 2 trailer from 1994. It kind of looks like they rehashed it for the Mists of Pandaria trailer. Human and orc fighting each other until a greater threat makes them stop.

Well they made a whole goddamn movie to be Super Mario Bros 3's trailer.

*perhaps more of rant than a question.

Why would someone feel doing math quickly is important? I am tutoring at 5th grader in math and her mom wants her do to 2 digit into 3 or 4 digit division. For example 3456 divided by 23.

I asked if she wanted to keep working on it and she said yes because "She needs to get good and fast at multidigit division. It is the next section at school."

I just said fine because I really don't care what we do but I can't fathom the reason why it is important to be fast at math. From my perspective understanding is a lot more important so you can handle different situations and doing math fast just seems to lead to mistakes to me but is there an actual reason it is important.

farley3k wrote:

*perhaps more of rant than a question.

Why would someone feel doing math quickly is important? I am tutoring at 5th grader in math and her mom wants her do to 2 digit into 3 or 4 digit division. For example 3456 divided by 23.

You have to be good at it to do it fast?

It certainly does seem to be putting the cart before the horse though. If you care, you could point out that it might be a better use of her money and her kid's time to learn more things, instead of get really good at one thing.

The only “fast” math I tried to drill into my kids was (I called them) “5s and 10s” - if I gave them any number 1 through 9 (1-4 for “5s”), what is the complementary number that, when added to the first would equal either 10 or 5? I find that it helps with more day-to-day math - most numbers can be rounded off to a 0 or 10 or 5, so you can do the mental math, then “correct” it to the actual answer. Simple example: 9+8=20-3... that kind of thing. With multiplication - factoring helps break it into more manageable pieces: 358 x 8 = (360 x 2 x 2 x 2) - (2 x 8) = 2864

If you just need rough estimates, for things it’s fantastic. How much more will this cost with tax? How much flooring should I buy to cover this room? Just make sure you’re always rounding up for that

I think they are in the trap of American schools which is about testing. She is probably having some timed standardized tests and her parents are worried she will "fail"

In the end she will be faster if she just does more problems but it won't mean she is good at it unless she understands why it is done a certain way.

farley3k wrote:

I can't fathom the reason why it is important to be fast at math.

To win more at Hearthstone.

Is the Pokemon TV show appropriate viewing for a 5 year old?

Jonman wrote:

Is the Pokemon TV show appropriate viewing for a 5 year old?

I would say yes. There’s friendlies and meanies. Super wholesome content from what I recall. That said, I’m not a fan, so I’m going off of the limited exposure I’ve had to it.