Seven years in tibet

People trying out different games at The Arena, Comic-Con, Bengaluru The year 2022 was a weird year for gaming. The industry continued to feel the lingering effects of the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic with slower hardware sales and major delays for upcoming AAA games. Here is a look at some of the gaming highlights of 2022. More buggy launches Unfortunately, major AAA releases continued the trend of messy launches with games like Calisto Protocol or Gotham Knights. The year began with the dullest of thuds in Babylon's Fall, a half-baked unfinished co-op experience that showed Square Enix has learned nothing from its previous live service disasters. What hurt even more is that it was developed by industry darlings Platinum Games. Electronic Arts continued to release yearly installments in the FIFA franchise, and like every year, it was mocked but still sold in the millions. Thankfully, EA no longer holds the license to FIFA anymore. Read More Unfortunately, EA … [Read more...] about Gaming in 2022: A year in review

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin If you’re like many people this time of year, your New Year’s resolutions might have become a distant memory in a little over a month. How many times have you resolved to improve your work habits and set career goals? Or how often have you promised to eat healthier, lose weight or exercise more? Then a month down the road, your vows go down the drain. You’re not alone. It’s easy to let your intentions slide when you have so much on your plate. The Neuroscience Of Reaching Your Goals Neuroscience shows that your brain doesn’t register goals unless it’s clear about what you intend to do. The good news is there’s a tool that can help you stay on track. It’s called the if-then plan —a self-made strategy that keeps you from getting sidetracked by identifying predetermined actions you will take when a specific situation occurs. Making an advanced decision builds habits that help you stick to the action part of a challenging … [Read more...] about Try This When Your New Year’s Career Goals Go Down The Drain

(Image Courtesy: Reuters) Microsoft has entered into a 10-year commitment to bring the gaming title "Call of Duty" to Nintendo platforms, the chief executive officer of Microsoft Gaming, Phil Spencer, said in a post on Twitter on Wednesday. The agreement will bring the popular first-person shooter series from Activision Blizzard to Nintendo game consoles for the first time. Nintendo said the Microsoft announcement was true but declined to comment further. The announcement comes after Microsoft's planned $69 billion acquisition of the "Call of Duty" maker raised concern among regulators that the deal could stifle competition. Microsoft competes with Sony Group Corp and Nintendo in the global video game industry, which saw strong growth in recent years with people spending more time at home because of the coronavirus pandemic. Read More … [Read more...] about Microsoft in 10-year commitment to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Graduating high school students left almost $3.6 billion in Pell Grant funds unclaimed last year because they did not complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). That is the finding of a new report from the National College Attainment Network (NCAN) out this week. The FAFSA is the federal form you must complete to be considered for any financial aid from the federal government, your state, or one of the colleges you hope to attend. FAFSA completion rates are used as an indicator of whether students intend to enroll in college and often provide an early indication of what proportion of recent high school graduates plan on heading to college. FAFSA completion is also strongly associated with college enrollment, so increasing the number of students who complete their aid application may increase the number of students entering higher education. NCAN calculated that 44 percent of the class of 2022 did not … [Read more...] about Students Left $3.6 Billion In Pell Grants Unclaimed Last Year

It wasn't easy for Maura Horton to watch her husband, Don, who suffers from Parkinson's disease, struggle to dress himself. "You can't forget that humbling tone when someone is trying to tell you that they're no longer able to do something," she recalls. That tone became the inspiration for MagnaReady, a clothing startup that makes adaptive dress shirts with magnetic closures. The shirts are designed specifically for people with disabilities that cause them to lose mobility. On Tuesday, the company announced a partnership with PVH Corp., one of the world's largest apparel companies. PVH owns iconic brands like Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, and Van Heusen. Starting this year, MagnaReady's patented technology will replace buttons at some top PVH brands. Although exact terms of the partnership were not disclosed, Horton anticipates that the shirts will soon be available through distributors such as Macy's, JC Penny, and Kohls, likely in time for Father's Day in June. … [Read more...] about How This Adaptive Clothing Startup Scored a Deal With a Billion-Dollar Retailer

President Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general fielded questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee on January 15. A 22-member committee grilled William Barr for over seven hours, asking for his thoughts on a number of issues facing the government. His comments about marijuana during his confirmation hearing caused the ETFMG Alternative Harvest ETF ( MJ ) to fall over 3%. Prominent marijuana producers like Cronos Group Inc. ( CRON ) and Canopy Growth Corp. ( CGC ) ended the day lower. Relief for Marijuana States If Barr is confirmed as the successor to Matthew Whitaker, the former Attorney General to George H.W. Bush said his Justice Department will “not go after” marijuana companies that operate in states where the drug has been legalized. The nominee said he disagreed with former Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ decision to rescind the Cole Memorandum in January 2018. Instead, Barr vowed to uphold the directive issued under the Obama administration that … [Read more...] about What Does Trump Attorney General Nominee William Barr Think of Marijuana?

ChatGPT is better used for playacting than playing at finding facts. (Photo: Pixabay/Pexels) By Jonathan May, University of Southern California It doesn’t take much to get ChatGPT to make a factual mistake. My son is doing a report on U.S. Presidents, so I figured I’d help him out by looking up a few biographies. I tried asking for a list of books about Abraham Lincoln and it did a pretty good job: When I asked ChatGPT if it was sure I was not lying, it claimed that it’s just an “AI language model” and doesn’t have the ability to verify accuracy. However it modified that claim by saying, “I can only provide information based on the training data I have been provided, and it appears that the book ‘William Henry Harrison: His Life and Times’ was written by Paul C. Nagel and published in 1977.” Read More This is not true. Words, not facts It may seem from this interaction that ChatGPT was given a library of facts, including incorrect claims about … [Read more...] about ChatGPT is great – you’re just using it wrong

(Image Courtesy: Microsoft) The European Union (EU) has issued a formal antitrust warning to Microsoft over the $69 billion Activision Blizzard deal. The EU sent Microsoft a "statement of objections" on why the deal could threaten competition in the video games market, US-based Politico has reported. In response, Microsoft said that it was "listening carefully to the European Commission's concerns" and were confident that it could "address them". The Redmond-based technology giant said that it was committed to, "finding a path forward" so that it can close the deal. This is just the latest roadblock in what has been a rocky road for Microsoft to push the deal through. Also Read | Maybe Apple’s weakness isn’t just supply chain woes Read More In December 2022, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a lawsuit against Microsoft to stop the merger. The FTC brought up many of the same objections that the EU was concerned with. The bone of … [Read more...] about EU issues antitrust warning against Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard deal

(Image Courtesy: Activision Blizzard) In an interview with Bloomberg, the head of Microsoft's Xbox division, Phil Spencer, has said that Sony is more interested in talking with regulators than Microsoft over the Activision Blizzard deal. Microsoft announced that it would be buying Activision Blizzard in January of this year, for an unprecedented $68.7 billion dollars, making it one of the most expensive deals in gaming history. Since then, the Redmond giant has faced scrutiny from various watchdogs around the globe. The main point of contention seems to stem from the ownership of the Call of Duty franchise, one of the biggest brands in gaming. The latest release in the franchise, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 earned $1 billion in revenue, just 10 days from launch . The series has historically been multi-platform, appearing on both Sony and Microsoft systems. Sony fears that with the franchise in their control, Microsoft might make it exclusive to Xbox. While their … [Read more...] about Microsoft says Sony not open to dialogue on Activision Blizzard deal

Representative image After years of turning a blind eye, Netflix is starting to get serious about password sharing. In 2016 on the cusp of subscriber growth, Netflix described password sharing as a "positive thing". It reasoned that people you share the password with eventually sign up for accounts. Fast forward to 2023. Netflix reported that its subscriber base has shrunk for the first time in a decade and said that password sharing was part of the problem. It doesn't help that the competition has grown significantly since 2016. In this fight for subscribers, Netflix will do anything to maintain its bottom line. The company said that "widespread account sharing (100M+ households) undermines our long-term ability to invest in and improve Netflix, as well as build our business." Read More Also Read | Netflix slammed for using AI artwork in anime instead of paying an animator Is password sharing illegal? That depends on who you ask. The … [Read more...] about Everything you need to know about Netflix’s password sharing crackdown