Five years of Google blogging

It's time again for our annual wrap-up of blogging at Google. You may have noticed 2009 marked our fifth year here on the Official Google Blog — our first post was in April 2004 — and it was our busiest year yet. This is our 423rd post of 2009 — a 15 percent increase over last year. We're also pleased to note that a total of 14,493,472 readers stopped by this year, a 21 percent increase. You hail from all over: more than half of visitors are outside of the U.S. The other top countries are (in order) U.K., India, Canada, Germany and France.

What captured your attention this year? Here are the top 10 posts of 2009, by unique pageviews:

1. Introducing the Google Chrome OS - 2,591,794 unique pageviews (more than 12 percent of the year's total). The announcement of our open source operating system received more than 4x the views of any other post.
2. Went Walkabout. Brought back Google Wave - 639,225. Wave-mania struck after we introduced a new product for collaboration and communication at our Google I/O conference.
3. Here comes Google Voice - 357,084. We released a preview of this application to help you better manage your voice communications.
4. "This site may harm your computer" on every search result?!?! - 320,435. A short-lived error affecting Google search results led to confusion and concern; this post cleared it up.
5. Email in Indian languages - 224,052. A transliteration feature in Gmail that makes it easier to type in Indian languages was a hit. More than one million readers of the blog in 2009 were from India — a 53 percent increase over 2008.
6. Releasing the Chromium OS open source project - 217,424. A few months after announcing our operating system project, we open-sourced it as Chromium OS.
7. Now you see it, now you don't - 165,329. We introduced a new, clean version of our classic homepage.
8. Google Apps is out of beta (yes, really) - 164,319. Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and Google Talk all lost their beta tags (in Gmail's case, after five years!).
9. Now S-U-P-E-R-sized! - 155,196. A "small" change increasing the size of the Google search box got a lot of attention.
10. Introducing Google Public DNS - 143,122. We launched our public DNS resolver, which converts domain names into unique Internet Protocol (IP) numbers.

We also developed a few different series of posts this year: one on the power of measurement, for people who want to improve the performance of their websites; a weekly series focused on search; and another on the latest in the world of Google Apps.

As always, we had some fun in 2009, with grass-mowing goats and a panda-obsessed Cognitive Autoheuristic Distributed-Intelligence Entity (CADIE) on April Fools' Day. Our curiosity was piqued by Atlantis (or not) under the sea, constellations in Google Sky Map and a fresnel lens somewhere in between.

Finally, the Google Blog network continues to grow. This year, we welcomed blogs dedicated to Google Wave, Google New Zealand, Data Liberation, Google Voice, Google Arabia, Google Thailand, European Public Policy and Google Chrome — among others — to our blogging family.

Beyond the blogs, in February we jumped head-first into the Twitterverse, starting our @google account with a geeky tweet. Since then, we've tweeted more than 1,000 times, and are grateful to have gathered two million or so followers. That puts us in the company of @algore and @ashsimpsonwentz, and (today, at least) just 65,000 or so followers behind a certain @ladygaga (although we're pretty sure that gap is only going to grow — no way we can compete with her outfits). Around 75 other Google entities and teams have gotten into the Twitter act this year as well, so we built a directory to help you keep up with all the action. Twitter also was our biggest non-Google referrer to the blog in 2009, a clear sign of its rapid growth in popularity.

Thanks for sticking with us through all of our goings-on over the past 12 months. We look forward to having you back for more in 2010. In the meantime, happy New Year!

Posted by Emily Wood and Jordan Newman, Editors, Google Blog Team

Comedy, Tragedy and Tragicomedy

This post is part of a series I am doing on the Shakespearean comedies. The series is purely an exercise in self-indulgence: I want to explore for myself the humanistic and philosophic themes that are illustrated in Shakespeare's comedies. If you want to come along for the ride, feel free.

This introductory post explains the differences between tragedies and comedies and looks at how Shakespeare blends elements of both.

I am basing my comments largely on an essay by Helen Gardner. I found this in the Signet Classic edition of As You Like It.  The Signet editions are my preferred editions of Shakespeare. They provide good introductions, historical background and critical commentary, along with well-annotated texts of the plays themselves.


The Comedy and Tragedy Compared
In the world of medieval drama, a comedy was something distinct from what we might nowadays call a comedy. It is thus useful to distinguish two senses of comedy that were current in the 16th C:

• A play which starts in sadness but ends in happiness.
• A play which imitates or satirises common errors of life.

In the 21st C we are most familiar with the second sense of comedy. Watch any stand-up comedian or sitcom and you will usually be watching someone highlighting the absurdities in everyday life. Still we must accept the relevance of the first variety of comedy when it comes to a consideration of Shakespeare.

Is there anything more to be said about the comedic form? Yes, indeed, there is plenty more. But to explore these as yet untapped depths, it becomes useful to contrast the comedy with that other great dramatic form: the tragedy.

The Marks of Comedy
A comedy usually deals, in symbolic form, with humanity's ability to triumph over the disorder, chaos and randomness that populates the universe. The triumph is usually underscored by the play ending in marriage, or at a minimum, with the unification of lovers. The lovers represent the continued cycle of life, and the renewal of opportunities.

Time and plot play interesting roles in the comedy. Interesting mainly because of their almost total absence. The clock is not always ticking in a comedy, nor is there any great concern with plot. It is rare that there are great intrigues to be set up or problems to be resolved. Instead, in the comedic-form, a space or forum is opened up (such as the forests in As You Like It and A Midsummer Night's Dream) in which the characters can explore the perplexities of life and grow into some sort of enlightenment.

The Marks of Tragedy
The tragedy is diametrically opposed to the comedy. There is no triumph over adversity, no renewal, no second chances. In the tragedy, death looms large. A story is told of a character who is destined, due to perhaps their own choices or outside events, for an unhappy end.

Time and plot play crucial roles in the tragedy. The ticking of the clock is ever present: we know that events are unfolding in a logical and deterministic fashion. The plot structures the sequence of events so that we know where they must lead.

The keyword comparisons between comedy and tragedy are illustrated in the table below.

The Tragicomedy
The tragicomedy, obviously, blends elements of both the tragedy and the comedy. The great genius of Shakespeare was his ability to successfully weave tragic and comic elements into nearly all his plays, even the ones that have a predominantly comic form. This has led to many of them being reclassified as "problem plays".

Just consider some examples. As You Like It seems, on the surface, to be a straightforward comedy. Most of the play takes place in a pastoral setting (the Forest of Arden) which provides the stage for the usual comedic events. But Shakespeare places within this environment a cynical character (Jaques) who is willing to point to the cruelty and potential meaninglessness of life. Or take Love's Labour's Lost a play which is dappled with plenty of humorous conversation and witty wordplay, but which does not end with the expected union of lovers.


Personal Opinion
I enjoy the way in which Shakespeare marries elements of comedy and tragedy. But I still prefer the plays in which the comedic form dominates. I suppose we all do. But I prefer them because they accord most closely with my own philosophy of life.

I agree that we live a time-bound existence and that the grim spectre of death is ever-looming. But I do not see this as a tragedy. I see it as a crucial element of the landscape in which comedy can blossom. Death, heartbreak, oppression and adversity, along with love, kindness, friendship and music provide the fuel for ironic enlightenment, which is the ability to step back and laugh when necessary and to re-engage with passion when profitable.

Non RTS strategy games

An update so quickly? Behold the Free Gamer world is coming to an end. :p

So, we mentioned some promising RTS games in the last update. OK, I forgot to mention Spring1944, but I am also a bit reluctant to mention Spring and its mods since it is such a pain in the backside to get it running correctly. :(

Back on topic... there a quite a few really great non RTS FOSS strategy games. I guess I don't really need to mention the classics to the typical reader of this blog, but Wesnoth, FreeCiv, FreeCol and UFO:AI are all very playable and good looking games! However there are others that get less attention and also some that show great promise!

Advanced strategic command

Advanced strategic command is one of those that gets relatively little news coverage, even though it is a really playable game. Granted, its graphics are pretty much the same as its big inspiration, the classic Battle Isle series, but that doesn't necessarily make them bad, right?

A new version was just released a few days ago, which finally also includes a tutorial for those new to this type of game.

Also interesting is the (German) Project: Battle Planets, which could be described as a MMOTBS based on ASC. It is not quite what you would expect from this description as most of the MMO part is done manually by human game moderators, which exchange ASC games states between players (sorry, it is a bit hard to explain exactly ;) ).

A similar game to ASC is Crimson Fields by the way, which has found its way to many mobile platforms.

Widelands

Another often neglected game is Widelands, which is obviously based on the classic game the Settlers (no not the Settlers of Catan, check Pioneers for that).

Widelands game play

The graphics could still be improved a bit, but it is shaping up to be a very faithful and fun re-implementation of that great classic game.

Unknown Horizons

While we are at FOSS re-implementations of great games... Unknown Horizons is continuing to become a Anno1602 clone of epic proportions. ;)

UH game play

It is not quite at the point where it could be described as a fully playable game yet, but you can expect it to become one relatively soon, I guess! (Another not quite playable but really promising game worth surely mentioning is FreeOrion by the way).

8Kingdoms

Last but not least, there is 8Kingdoms, which really is one of those games people don't even try after having a short glance at the screenshots. Yes, it's programmers art, albeit one that at least tried to hide it by having a plastic-like style for the figures. ;)

But if you actually try it, you will realize that even though it is a bit rough around the edges (why can't I set a custom wide-screen resolution :( ), the game play and the engine is already quite advanced.

What this game clearly needs is an artist taking over the graphical matters, and then this could quite quickly become one of those true FOSS strategy game gems!

Abortion (Part 1) by Mary Ann Warren

I'm blogging my way through every essay in The Blackwell Companion to Ethics. Today, I deal with the cheery topic of abortion, following the article by Mary Ann Warren.

In Part 1 I look at some background issues, consequentialist arguments in favour of abortion, and arguments based on the right to choose. In Part 2 I will look at the issue of foetal personhood.



Abortion: The Trick is to Ask the Right Question

We've all been there. One moment the dinner party is going well; the guests seem satisfied with the spread; the wine glasses are perpetually full; life is good. But then something terrible happens. The conversation switches from the superficial and light-hearted to the prickly and controversial. You are talking about abortion.

If you ever find yourself in this situation, I recommend you follow Warren's lead: structure the discussion by asking the right questions. The questions can be divided into two main groups (a) the moral group and (b) the legal group.

In the moral group we find questions like the following: should women have the right to abort unwanted pregnancies? Does the foetus have a right to life that should be protected?

In the legal group we find questions like the following: should abortion be made illegal? Should doctors or women who avail of abortion be held liable for murder or for some other offence? Should abortion be made legal? Should the state have an obligation to ensure that women have access to safe abortions?

The groups of questions certainly overlap, but there are important distinctions. Just because we find something to be morally opprobrious does not mean we should bring the full weight of the law to bear on its resolution; and just because we permit something does not mean the state should encourage it. This distinction was at the heart of one of Chris Matthews recent "interviews".


A History Lesson: How the Debate has Changed
Warren begins her article with a brief history lesson on abortion, just to illustrate how the public debate has changed. I have not done any research to verify her historical claims so caution is recommended.

Warren says that abortion was only made into a criminal offence in the latter half of the 19th C in industrialised nations. At that time, proponents of the ban used medical arguments to support their arguments, i.e. they argued that abortion was medically unsafe.

Medical arguments against abortion dissolved in the 20th C when it was turned into a safe medical procedure. As a result, the arguments against abortion shifted away from concerns about the physical safety of women towards the moral status of the foetus.

Those in favour of a right to choose abortion have responded to this shift with three arguments:

1. Abortion should be permitted because prohibition leads to disastrous consequences (disastrous consequences argument).
2. There is a moral right to choose abortion (rights argument).
3. A foetus is not a person and so has no moral status (non-personhood argument).

Warren looks at each of these arguments in turn.


The Disastrous Consequences Argument
This argument has two main components. First, it is argued that a lack of reproductive autonomy is detrimental to women's welfare. In societies where women do not have access to contraception or abortion they are reduced to a form of chattelhood. Second, population control is essential to the future sustainability of biological and social systems.

Now you may say that we have alternative means of contraception available to us (pills, IUDs, condoms and so forth) and that these are preferable to abortion (although some Catholics would disagree). This may be true, but abortion is a fallback if these other methods fail.

The pro-lifers have an obvious riposte to these arguments. They will say that heterosexual sex is a voluntary option. If our goals are birth control and population control, then we can simply ask women to refrain from sexual activity. They can strengthen their argument by pointing out that sex may be physically harmful (cervical cancer, HIV and other STIs) or even psychologically harmful (feelings of guilt, exploitation, worthlessness).

There are obvious pro-choice responses to these arguments. Celibacy is impossible (women are always vulnerable to rape), undesirable (who would want to live a life devoid of sexual pleasure), and psychologically harmful (stunted emotional development etc.).


The Rights Argument
A right is an entitlement or power that is available to a person thanks to a legal document or, more controversially, due to some inherent natural order. The basic moral rights are the right to life, right to self-determination, right to bodily integrity, and right to ownership of property.

A prohibition on abortion infringes women's basic moral rights. First, it infringes their right to life. This is shown by the UN statistics on the number of women who seek out and die from unsafe abortions in countries where abortion is not legalised. Likewise, there are actual deaths resulting from involuntary childbirth.

Second, it infringes their right to self-determination and bodily integrity. Pregnancy is not simply an inconvenience. It is arduous, potentially risky and disrupts lifestyle choices (work, education etc). Also, as a parent, one has duties to discharge towards the child that last a lifetime. This is only partially relieved by the prospect of giving up the child for adoption.

There is of course a white elephant lurking in the room: the rights of the unborn. Could it be that the foetus has a right to life that trumps the woman's rights? I will look at this in more depth in Part 2 when I cover the whole topic of foetal personhood, but a couple of things can be said about the purported rights of the foetus.

First, there could be an equivalence between the rights of the mother and the rights of the unborn. In such a situation, it is difficult to say who should win out. Second, as pointed out by Judith Jarvis Thomson in her famous 1971 article, just because the foetus has a right to live does not mean the mother should be forced to carry it to term.

Thomsom illustrated this argument with a thought experiment. She asked you to imagine that you woke up one morning to find a famous violinist was "plugged-in" to your body. Doctors inform you that he has some kidney-related disease and is using your kidneys to clean his blood. You are told the arrangement will only last nine months, by then he will be cured.

Thomson argued that such an arrangement would be preposterous, as would be any law that forced you to maintain the surgical link. In no aspect of human life, apart from pregnancy, would we ever force someone else to sacrifice their rights simply to preserve the life of another. But then why should we treat pregnancy any differently?

Lord of The Rings : Conquest Adult Games

Lord of The Rings : Conquest Adult Games

Lord of The Rings : Conquest War Games

Lord of The Rings : Conquest Arms Games

God and Morality (Part 1): Is there a moral argument for God?

Welcome to my series on Nicholas Everitt's book The Non-Existence of God. For an index, see here.

In the next few posts I will be looking at chapter 7 of Everitt's book, which has the deliberately ambiguous title "God and Morality". I say "ambiguous" because Everitt's book is supposed to deal with arguments for the existence of God. The problem is that it is not clear if there is a moral argument for God's existence. That said, people often speak of God and morality in the same breadth.

In this part, I want to explain why there is a problem with the idea of a moral argument, and why God and morality share the same air supply.


What is Morality Anyway?
Morality is primarily about behavioural restrictions; about telling us what we should and should not do. We are all familiar with moral prescriptions, e.g. "you should not profit from the misfortunes of others", "you should not treat others as a means to an end but as an end in themselves", "you should not steal, murder, lie etc.".

When confronted with such moral prescriptions, we have two concerns (see my post on moral realism):

1. Are they objectively true? In other words, are they more than simply the subjective whim or bias of the individual prescribing them?
2. Do they provide me with reasons-for-action? In other words, upon knowing them am I motivated to do otherwise than I might have done?

These two questions provide us with two criteria for moral truth: the objectivity criterion and the motivational criterion. Keep these in mind in the ensuing discussion.


How God and Morality are Usually Connected
Cosmological and teleological arguments usually start from some widely agreed-upon fact and use that to support the claim that God exists. So, for instance, cosmological arguments begin with some general structural feature of the universe (temporality, causality, contingency) that everyone agrees exists. They argue that there cannot be an infinite regress of this feature and that God is needed to halt the long unending march to oblivion.

When it comes to morality there is no such widely-agreed-upon fact with which to begin the argument. For it is not at all clear that there are genuine moral truths. When we look at the moral prescriptions that are accepted by others it is not clear that they are doing anything other than:

• following whatever is congenial to their own subjectivity; 
• uncritically accepting the morality of their family, tribe, sect, or state; or 
• accepting restrictions imposed by others out of fear or some other form of self-interest. 

Furthermore, the diversity of moral opinion around the world should give us pause.


Now, it is certainly true that most people want there to be moral truths. It seems to be a popular craving. But because there are no widely agreed-upon moral truths to anchors our discussion, God's existence is most often used to solidify or justify moral beliefs. In other words, religious believers try to show how God provides us with the objectively morality that we crave. They do not usually argue that because morality exists, so too must God.


Craig's Moral Argument
Despite what has just been said, it is possible to imagine a formal moral argument for the existence of God. William Lane Craig provides one simple example of this (see his website for details). Craig's argument is the following:

P1. If God does not exist, then objective moral values do not exist.
P2. Objective moral values exist.
C1. God exists.

As syllogisms go, this is perfectly valid, but that's not saying much. Craig is trying to make an appeal to everyone's craving for an objective morality in P2 and using this to switch the focus to arguments in favour of P1. It is interesting that he never supports P2 with anything beyond a mere appeal.

Still, we have to take the argument as we find it. Most of Everitt's discussion in Chapter 7 concerns P1 and is guided by two questions: (i) Does God's existence actually support an objective morality? and (ii) Is objective morality impossibe without God? Both questions must be answered in the affirmative if P1 is to survive.

Discussing P1 is edifying in itself but bear in mind that without P2 there can really be no moral argument for the existence of God.

Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles Best Shooting Games

Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles Best Shooting Games

Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles CAPCOM Games

Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles Horror Games

Ordinary citizens, extraordinary videos

(Cross-posted from Citizentube and the YouTube Blog)

The images are grainy, often jerky and hard to follow (like most footage shot using hand-held cameras and cellphones), but the message is unmistakable: in the months since the disputed Iranian presidential election in June, the people of Iran have become fluent in the new language of citizen video reporting. What might have seemed an isolated moment immediately following the election, when we watched videos of Iranians marching, battling and even dying on the streets of Tehran, appears to have become an essential part of their struggle.

At YouTube, we have been watching week after week as new videos have appeared on the site within hours of every single protest or similar event reported from Iran in the past six months. Thousands of uploads have brought the fear and tension of these protests to YouTube, inviting millions of views around the world. It is as if the revolts that are taking place could not do so outside the eye of the camera.

Unlike traditional news footage from foreign correspondents (currently prohibited in Iran), these videos are the voice of the people — unfiltered, unedited and with a single, sometimes disturbing point of view. No professional film could capture the one-to-one feeling of watching an ordinary citizen's images of unrest in his or her own country.



We are constantly amazed by the videos our community uploads, whether from their own backyards or the streets of a faraway land. Armed with only a camera and a means to reach the Internet, anyone can ask another to bear witness to their lives. Given the nature of the YouTube videos from Iran, we may want to turn away from some of the images we see, but we keep watching, knowing that we are seeing through the eyes of a people who have discovered the power of information — despite the often extreme measures their government is using to try to stop them.

We will continue to provide the platform for you to see what they see, hear their voices and learn about their struggles. And we encourage you to join the global conversation. Leave a comment, upload your own response video or share a moving moment with someone else.

Posted by Olivia Ma, YouTube News and Politics

Metal Gear Solid: Rising Action Games

Metal Gear Solid: Rising Action Games

Metal Gear Solid: Rising Stealth Action Games

Metal Gear Solid: Rising Stealth Action Video Games

Black Friday Facts! Do you think you know what Black Friday is?

                        
Think you’re an expert on Black Friday? Here are some fun facts you probably didn’t know:
Many people mistakenly believe that the name Black Friday is derived from the fact that it’s the day when most stores’ revenues rise out of the red (net losses for the year) and into the black (net profits). The truth is that the name Black Friday probably comes from a tongue-in-cheek comparison to the chaos and confusion of Black Tuesday (the day the stock market crashed in 1929).

Black Friday is generally considered to be the busiest shopping day of the year, but this is not always the case. The last Saturday before Christmas is usually the busiest shopping day of the year, but Black Friday always ranks among the top five.

Exact figures are hard to determine, but most experts agree that over 150 million shoppers hit the stores on Black Friday weekend and they spend an average of over $300 each.

More and more people are choosing to avoid the lineups on Black Friday and to do their shopping on Cyber Monday, the unofficial start of the online Christmas shopping season. Other opportunities to avoid crack of dawn lineups and still snag a great deal include check out Walmart’s pre-Black Friday sales starting Saturday, November 7 2009. Each week six exclusive items from Blu-Ray Disc players to Xbox 360 consoles are offered at deep discounts in limited quantities.

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Explanations: A Gentle Introduction

Welcome to yet another series! This time out I am going to be covering explanations. The series is going to be quite wide-ranging but will have one question at its core: what makes for a good explanation?

There is a danger here. The form of this question could tempt us into an arcane and esoteric exercise in academic self-indulgence. You know the kind. If we are not careful, we could well spend all our time with sentences like the following: "x is a good expanation iff it has P, Q, and R, and has no S, T or U."

I want to avoid this kind of dry treatment. Explanations are the glue that hold together the fragile and disparate territories of the intellectual commonwealth: understanding their complexities and their simplicities, and their successes and their failures, is essential.

So, in order to give the topic the treatment it deserves, I want to avoid abstract analyses and use instead the medium of practical illustration. In other words, I want to compare and contrast several types of explanations across several different domains: philosophical, historical, scientific and religious.

This introductory post has two goals. First, it gets the necessary abstractions out of the way by considering the form that a good explanation should take. Second, it offers a simple example of explanation-in-action by going over one of Sherlock Holmes's fictional cases.

1. Abductive Inference and Explanatory Virtues

When I speak about explanation, I speak in particular about explanations that are arrived at through abductive inference. This was a method first formalised by Charles Sanders Pierce, one of the three great American pragmatists.

An abductive inference looks like this:

D is some collection of data (includes facts, observations, and givens)

H is some hypothesis that would, if true, explain D

No other hypothesis explains D as well as H

Therefore, H is probably true

As can be seen, abductive inference reaches probabilistic conclusions, not definitive conclusions. It also involves the comparison of different hypothesis: weighing their respective merits against one another. Human inquiry always begins in the middle, i.e. with the contradictions and tensions in our present worldview, we must always consider different ways of resolving these tensions and contradiction. We cannot consider one hypothesis in isolation from everything else that we know.

But how can we weigh one explanation against another? How can we know when one explanation is stronger? This is where the idea of explanatory virtues becomes important. The virtues are a set of criteria that can be used to assess explanations. Luke over at commonsenseatheism provides a good list of these virtues here. I can't improve upon it.

The image below summarises the formal aspects of abductive inference and includes a list of the explanatory virtues.

2. Explanation in action: Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Three Students

To ease our way into future practical examples, it will be useful to consider something frothy, frivolous and yet instructive.

Everybody's favourite fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes, is often thought to be the embodiment of abductive reasoning. In solving the cases presented to him by the troubled citizens of London he marshals the evidence, considers the different hypotheses, eliminates the impossible ones and accepts the remaining one, however improbable it may at first appear to be. (This is a paraphrase of one of Holmes's famous sayings, but it is questionable, see here - an improbable answer is more likely to be the result of an improper question).

To show how Holmes uses abduction, I will look at how he solves the case presented in the story "The Adventure of the Three Students". It is one of the more forgettable of Conan Doyle's efforts, but its academic setting appeals to the student in me.

The Problem

The story begins with Holmes and Watson firmly ensconced in one of England's famous university towns (the precise location is never divulged). They are interrupted by one of the professors, a man named Soames, who presents Holmes with a problem befitting his intellect.

Earlier that afternoon, Soames was going over the proofs for the Greek scholarship exams, which are being held the following morning. He had to visit a colleague and so left the proofs on the desk in his room.

When he returned he found that the proofs had been disturbed. They were left in various positions around the room, including one left by the window overlooking the quad. There were other notable disturbances: strange globules of mud were deposited in various locations, and a broken pencil had been left behind. The latter was presumably used by the intruder to copy the proof.

Soames alerted his servant, named Bannister, as soon as he suspected that there had been an intruder. Bannister became quite upset upon hearing this and collapsed into one the chairs in Soames's room. After calming him, Soames walked straight over to Holmes to seek his help.

Soames informs Holmes that the intruder is likely to be one of the three students with whom he shares the building in which he lives. All three are due to sit the exam, so all three have an incentive to cheat.

The student living on the ground floor is a hard-working, scholarly and athletic but disadvantaged youth named Gilchrist. His father had once been rich, but had lost all his money in that all too common vice of the English gent: gambling.

The second floor is occupied by an Indian student named Daulat Ras. He is quiet and intelligent, although Greek is his weakest subject.

The third floor is inhabited by Miles McLaren. He is brilliant but intemperate, wild, and morally circumspect. He has had previous run-ins with the college authorities and was almost expelled on one occasion.

Holmes goes over Soames's room with his usual care, interviews the servant Bannister and visits each of the student's rooms, with the exception of McLaren's who wouldn't let them in. Satisfied with his efforts, he promises Soames that he will resolve the case first thing the following morning (just before the exam is due to start).

The following morning Holmes delivers the goods: Gilchrist is revealed to be the guilty party and, what's more, the servant Bannister is implicated in the events. Gilchrist confesses, withdraws from university and all is right in the world.

How did Holmes manage to correctly identify the intruder?

The Explanation

As noted, all three students had an incentive to cheat on the exam. So we are weighing three hypotheses (i.e. potential explanations of the events) against each other: (i) Gilchrist did it; (ii) Ras did it; or (iii) McLaren.

For the most part, the available data is equally well accounted for by each hypotheses. But there are three crucial points at which the Ras- and McLaren-hypotheses break down:

• Holmes reasons that the intruder was likely to have seen the proofs on Soames's desk as they passed his window - to have simply stumbled into the room and find them was too much to ask. Neither Ras, nor McLaren were tall enough to see in the window.
• The strange balls of mud found in the room came from the sandpit over on the long jump practice ground. Gilchrist was a long jumper and had been practicing that afternoon. That's almost a QED right there.
• The other puzzling fact was the behaviour of Bannister. His collapsing into the chair on being told that there may have been an intruder seemed over-the-top to Holmes. He reckoned Bannister was trying to cover up for Gilchrist because Gilchrist was still hiding in the room. After Soames left to see Holmes, Bannister could sneak Gilchrist out. This is revealed to have been true. Indeed, Bannister and Gilchrist were connected because Bannister used to work for his father.

What we have then is a classic example of an abductive inference: three hypotheses are on the table, they are compared on the basis of their explanatory virtues, and one is left standing.

The diagram below illustrates the form and virtue of Holmes's explanation. It fills in some details missing from the summary to this point.

Alas, that brings this post to a close. In future contributions to this series I will look at various scientific, philosophic and religious explanations. All the time adhering to the abductive method.

FOSS RTS games

Hey FreeGamers!

I know, news are a bit slow here lately, but all three of us are a bit busy with real-life issues, I guess. So if you are interested in becoming a contributor to this blog drop us a line in the forum!

We have also recently gotten some readers feedback concerning this blog entry. I have to admit that our background search was a bit short concerning the Hypertension game... and it turned out that this game is surrounded by some controversy concerning the (probably illegal) use of the original Blood art assets (which were only granted by Monolith to the Transfusion project).

Are there any good FOSS RTS?

Well that depends on what you think is good :)
We have had a small discussion in our forums which resulted in a lot of links to all sorts of FOSS RTS. So if you are looking for some obscure (often unmaintained RTS) have a look.

Overall I would say however that currently there is none that can be recommended without doubt. This might change soon however!

0-A.D. Commercial grade FOSS RTS?

We have mentioned this great project before, and especially since they have gone fully open-source earlier this year all eyes of the FOSS community are probably on this gem.
So far a consumer ready release seems to be still distant however, even though some parts of the game look quite playable already:

0-A.D. Gameplay

Development is progressing though and you can have a look at this interview with the current project leader for some background infos and nice new screenshots. Further news can be found on Moddb.com.

Upcoming Warzone2100 developments

Warzone2100 is one of the few really playable FOSS RTS games out there. There are steady improvements and sometimes you can even find someone to play online ;)

With it's Playstation 1 art assets it is quite a chore to look at however. There is light on the horizon though; A new terrain renderer was recently developed for it and is expected to be released with Version 3.0.

New Warzone2100 terrain renderer

Let's hope this will reach us gamers ASAP!

Their forum has also some other nice upcoming features to offer. There are plans to update the GUI, with some really nice mockups.
Furthermore MaNGusT is working on new units:

And there is a nice mod project involving mechs :)

Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut - RIP [174 MB]

Europe-only PC port of Sonic Adventure. Taking place on planet Earth, the evil Dr. Robotnik has returned. He's eager to begin his plans for world domination by creating a twisted Utopian vision of Robotnikland. He has a scheme to use the seven Chaos Emeralds to empower the Chaos monster, which grows each time it consumes one of these magical Emeralds. Sonic becomes entangled in this sinister plot as our Hero must enlist the help of his friends to foil Robotnik's every move. Sonic Adventure DX features six playable characters to choose from, each with their own skills and abilities.

There are 50 massive levels, with bonus round bosses and mini-games. To unlock the mini-games you must either collect all the emblems by completing each main game stage with each character or by completing all 60 missions in the new Mission Mode.

                 

System Requirment

SO: Windows 98/Me/2000(SP2 o superior)/XP

CPU: PentiumIII 600MHz equivalente o superior

RAM: 128MB

Hard Disk: 700MB

Vídeo Card :  16MB







Installation Notes:

1) UnRaR Archive & double Click "Toed.exe"

2) When finished start game with "sonic.exe"

http://uploading.com/files/d34ba576/Sonic_Adventure_DX_Directors_Cut.rar/

No password

Urban Freestyle Soccer - RiP [248 MB]

Developed by Silicon Dreams, Acclaim's Freestyle Street Soccer takes the NBA Street approach to the world's most popular sport, featuring 4-on-4 soccer tournaments without meddling referees or complex rulebooks. Players pick from 40 players -- or rather, thugs from 10 different street gangs -- and compete in eight different game modes, including a smattering of mini-games. Though the game doesn't feature licensed players, it sports a dynamic combo system, edgy character designs, and F20 and Fevernova licensing. While GameCube and Xbox versions were released in the US under the title Freestyle Street Soccer, the PS2 version was only released in Europe.

                                         

Installation Notes:

1). UnRAR

2). Run setup.bat

3). Play game

RapidShare:♥

 http://rapidshare.com/files/68601534/Urban_Free_Soccer_max_grab.part1.rar

 http://rapidshare.com/files/68603877/Urban_Free_Soccer_max_grab.part2.rar

 http://rapidshare.com/files/68605195/Urban_Free_Soccer_max_grab.part3.rar





Megaupload ♥

 http://www.megaupload.com/?d=N1GOGR5L

 http://www.megaupload.com/?d=LECEU020

 http://www.megaupload.com/?d=Y2Y7BA1B





HotFIle♥

http://hotfile.com/dl/34550394/6d62691/Urban_Free_Soccer_max_grab.part1.rar.html

http://hotfile.com/dl/34550516/2ed6ef9/Urban_Free_Soccer_max_grab.part2.rar.html

http://hotfile.com/dl/34550580/dae14cf/Urban_Free_Soccer_max_grab.part3.rar.html

RAR Password:

http://rapidshare.com/files/393519622/Password.txt.html

Tomb Raider Anniversary - RIP [699 MB]

Created with an advanced version of the engine used for Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend, the gameplay mechanics, artificial intelligence and level puzzles of Tomb Raider: Anniversary are now more refined, in-depth and complex. Now fans can explore the original adventure on a much grander scale, while enjoying the elements which made the original such a success.

 

Installation Notes:



1). UnRAR

2). Run setup.bat

3). Play game

4). Say thanks in this thread!

RapidShare:

 http://rapidshare.com/files/382134763/Tomb_Raider_-_Anniversary_hermy1_MSNM.part1.rar

 http://rapidshare.com/files/382139119/Tomb_Raider_-_Anniversary_hermy1_MSNM.part2.rar

 http://rapidshare.com/files/382145441/Tomb_Raider_-_Anniversary_hermy1_MSNM.part3.rar

 http://rapidshare.com/files/382149911/Tomb_Raider_-_Anniversary_hermy1_MSNM.part4.rar

 http://rapidshare.com/files/382319329/Tomb_Raider_-_Anniversary_hermy1_MSNM.part5.rar

 http://rapidshare.com/files/382325938/Tomb_Raider_-_Anniversary_hermy1_MSNM.part6.rar

 http://rapidshare.com/files/382331896/Tomb_Raider_-_Anniversary_hermy1_MSNM.part7.rar

 http://rapidshare.com/files/382337609/Tomb_Raider_-_Anniversary_hermy1_MSNM.part8.rar

Codename Outbreak RIP [176 MB]

During the routine observation of nocturnal sky astronomers have registered a new object in the Ursa Major constellation zone. It was indexed as JK4538-XK. According to observation data, the object was of midsize comet class. The subsequent computations confirmed that the comet was inbound from another galaxy. Such a rare event became a worldwide sensation in the wink of an aye. Moving at a tremendous speed the guest from another galaxy could soon be seen with a naked eye in the sky at night. However, the exultation vanished into thin air as soon as the scientists reported about probabilistic trajectory of the comet: it could collide with the Earth. After verifying the calculations, state authorities began preparing for the possible catastrophe and evacuating the cities. Humans got ready for the worst.

Passing in dangerous proximity to the Earth, the comet scorched the atmosphere and hundreds of meteorites poured their fiery rain down causing death and destruction, evoking tsunamis, hurricanes and earthquakes. When ash and smoke cleared away, the survivors could see the cities lying in ruins and the meteorite-pitted lands. A sluggish reconstruction after the devastation was begun.

Though meteorites lying deep in craters were not exactly dead stones - they gave birth to new life around them. The recently frequent cases of people disappearing served the first foreboding. Some time later the communication with one of the military laboratories researching meteorite samples was lost. The rescue party sent to the lab faced vigorous opposition trying to get inside. The guard killed in the skirmish was partially absorbed by an alien organism, confirming the worst apprehensions of biological contamination

Installation Notes:

1). Unrar

2). Run Setup.bat to decompress gamefiles (this will take a while).

3).. Start the game with Outbreak.exe.

4). You can reselect your hardware with Config.exe.

5). Say thanks in this thread!

http://rapidshare.com/files/179405062/Codename_Out_Break.part1.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/179404985/Codename_Out_Break.part2.rar

or

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=1JOD5O39

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=G1TN3ZNF

no password