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[bicilotti]

I am following the vote on military intervention in Syria.
Not being British, there is something that I don't get: how do MPs actually vote on such matters? In an 'overt' way (rising their hands, etc.) or not (casting vote in a ballot box, electronic procedure, etc.).

As the names of the MPs who voted against their party isn't published, I guess the latter. But then, how can @labourwhips say something like this? Guesstimation?

[Matt Frith]

I believe it is a private ballot.  Not sure if it is a ballot box but it is certainly a confidential vote.  For the record, they made the right choice!

[RetroJay]

Hi Peeps.

I need your help.

Just the other night my Nvidia card died on me.
I uninstalled all the drivers and programs that came with it and fitted an ATI Radeon along with all of its programs and drivers.

All seems to be just fine, apart from having to go into safe mode to get rid of the 'NVIDIA Corporation' folder from 'Program Files'.

I am left with one annoying prob.
Within 'Control Panel' I now have 'NVIDIA Control Panel' (This doesn't work anymore and so is a dead shortcut icon I assume).
My question is... How the hell do I get rid of the 'NVIDIA Control Panel' from Windows 7 Control Panel.

I have searched and searched some more on line but can't find an answer.

Yours.
Jay.

[Crimson Wizard]

Maybe this will shed some light: http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000136.htm

To put this simply: all those icons are just files, stored in some of the Windows system folders. If you find where they are, you may literally delete them (assuming you are not restricted by Win security). Can't tell how safe that is though :p

[Radiant]

So I've been using this nifty book-sized Asus EEE for several years now. Like many laptops, it has some special controls like Fn+F2 to toggle WIFI, and Fn+F3 / F4 to decrease or increase screen brightness.

The odd thing is that my F3 key is broken and unresponsive. Does anyone have suggestions for an alternative way to turn my screen brightness down? There doesn't seem to be an option for it in the control panel, and all I've been able to find on google is to look in the control panel...

[Stupot]

You can change it under 'Power Options' in the control panel.
You can set the defaults for when your laptop is plugged on or running on battery.

[Snarky]

You should test whether you can fake a Fn-F3 keystroke with an on-screen keyboard. You can probably also use a scripting utility to tie it to some other key combination.

[Radiant]

You can change it under 'Power Options' in the control panel.
You can set the defaults for when your laptop is plugged on or running on battery.

That only lets me set after how many minutes of inactivity the screen goes blank.

You should test whether you can fake a Fn-F3 keystroke with an on-screen keyboard. You can probably also use a scripting utility to tie it to some other key combination.

That's a good idea, do you have some software to recommend?

[Stupot]

You can change it under 'Power Options' in the control panel.
You can set the defaults for when your laptop is plugged on or running on battery.

That only lets me set after how many minutes of inactivity the screen goes blank.

Ahh. On mine, it lets me change the brightness from Power Options > Edit Plan Settings.  It must not be possible on your system :/

[Snarky]

You should test whether you can fake a Fn-F3 keystroke with an on-screen keyboard. You can probably also use a scripting utility to tie it to some other key combination.

That's a good idea, do you have some software to recommend?

There's an on-screen keyboard built into Windows.

I've used the MS Keyboard Layout Creator to remap my keyboard (in order to type in accents and special character in a Mac-like way); Keyboard Layout Manager looks like another option. I haven't used it, but there's been some talk about AutoHotkey as a Windows scripting solution. Hopefully you could make it work with one of these.

[Atelier]

Not being British, there is something that I don't get: how do MPs actually vote on such matters? In an 'overt' way (rising their hands, etc.) or not (casting vote in a ballot box, electronic procedure, etc.).

It's Westminster, so voting certainly isn't done electronically I went on a tour of the Houses of Parliament a couple of days ago, it's surprising how behind the times and how many old traditions remain.

So, when the Speaker calls for a vote, and there is an audible division in opinion (people shout 'aye' and 'no' to the motion), he shouts "clear the lobby". This lobby is the central one connecting the Lords and Commons chambers. It needs to be cleared because this is where those abstaining from the vote can gather, and where everybody eventually passes through. A bell sounds throughout Westminster then MPs have 8 minutes to arrive before the doors are shut and they cannot vote.

The voting MPs file out of the Commons chamber and go down two separate corridors parallel to either side of the Commons: an "aye" corridor and a "no" corridor. The MPs are literally counted by clerks at desks, as they pass through the exit of the corridor. There are three lanes dividing up the alphabet for surnames, to make it easier to count people. I assume their names are taken down for reference but I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't. Either way, the system makes it difficult for votes to be truly confidential.

Then the clerks pass their count to the chamber where it's read out.

My question:

The music video is solely a man reading the lyrics scrolling up on a screen in front of him. The text is mirrored cos he's facing us.. anybody know which song this is?

[Calin Leafshade]

No Surprises by Radiohead

[Atelier]

That's it, thanks Calin !

[InCreator]

There's a question I cannot google answer for:
Why do multiplayer games still have super low player limit? I mean, usually it's 32..64 players for any first person shooter, 8 for strategy games and so on.
Yet MMOs do exist. So what's that different about them, or in other words, why aren't games like Chivalry: Medieval Warfare 5000 vs 5000 player ones and numbers like this pretty much standard by now?

I just want to understand technical side of this. In age of 100Mbps internet speeds, is such amount of players still a problem? Surely amount of polys for so many characters might be, but connection-wise?

[Khris]

I don't think there's a technical reason. It's basically a game design issue.
I don't know Chivalry, but do you really think it's a good idea to play a Counterstrike session with a town-sized map and thousands of people per team...?

Edit: servers only exchange movement data and such, they don't send the position of every single polygon.

[Calin Leafshade]

Latency is the simple answer.

In an MMO you can have latencies of almost a second and it kind of doesnt matter. Thats why MMOs generally have a kind of pseudo turn based combat because it doesnt really matter if your command takes a second to execute.

However, some modern MMOs do have thousands of players. Take a look at Planetside 2 for instance.
However, planetside 2 does require a whole server farm to support. It's not like you can simulate everything for 5000 players on a simple server.

[Anian]

Bigger servers cost more, especially when on pc (where you can buy your server) this really isn't that practical. Plus it's much harder to control gameplay and test it and make maps that such big battles. 32vx32 is rather big and fun enough I think.

[InCreator]

Yes, but I'm wondering about what is physically behind it, why you cannot simulate everything for 5000 players?

Or let me rephrase
Why is Doom II from 1995 more or less at same level from technical standpoint (like number of players) as games in 2013? Why haven't we moved forward? Technology sure has! And enormous maps aren't anything new either, think GTA or ARMA, for example
Sounds like there's some weird limit here technology hasn't passed... for 18 years

I've been thinking about it all day (without doing actual research) and tried to crack this down. Only simple explanation that makes sense me goes like this:
Player 1 shoots a gun
Server relays that information to player 2
Server relays that information to player 3
...

and if relay takes 1ms and there's 5000 players, last player would have 5-second lag. Because software/processor does linear operations which means it cannot relay to everyone at once

How far is that theory from truth? Or is it just reduced by faster server/connections?
I cannot really imagine how fast could a server relay anything, but I guess speed of light should be the top limit (if we'd have directed lasers instead of cables and thus no electric resistance or something)

Design standpoints I know. For example, player models in 3D games tend to take up most of the poly budget. The more players, the heavier drawing gets.
And of course server with 5K players is harder do moderate and whatnot

[m0ds]

I am experiencing "crap mouse" syndrome whereby when I left click once it double clicks. Has anyone a solution for this? Or know why this happens?

It's the mouse doing it not the PC reading it as such. I'm wondering if it's just dirt under the mouse buttons, or if it's me, my wrist, going senile... ?

[Tabata]

Have you checked the mouse properties (including the double-click speed of the keys)?
If you slow down the speed it might stop to define your click as a double-click ~ just a guess