Upon closer inspection, this thing is much more impressive than just a paper box with folded valves that make sounds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pf3jnP6AbM0

No it isn't.
It's a small paper box with paper-folded valves that make an engine sound when an exterior energy source is applied.

There's that, too, and that's an elegant solution to the under-inflating problem. But if you look at the initial small bag he inflates (at ~0:46) he basically blows in it and then the end somehow seals itself and he holds it while it stays fully puffed up. There's some type of one-way valve he's created.

Steam link is very interesting to me.

I'm a PC gamer. I don't own any consoles and 99% of the time I'm perfectly happy with that (using a controller for an FPS is sick and wrong!).

But there are some games I would like to play from my couch with a controller (Arkham for instance)

As for the controller itself, it looks ok, but I really don't see any reason to use it over my trusty old 360 pad. As I said, I'll never play an fps with anything other than kbm, so unless it's better for driving or 3rd person, I'm gonna go with meh.

Oh and just in case anyone thinks I'm just hating on Valve, I'm drinking coffee at work from my aperture science mug and I have a signed poster of the TF2 heavy in my house

Your video, Tested Tests Valve's Steam Controller, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

In no way do i wish to devalue the achievement of the video and i enjoyed watching, however the term "made all decisions independently" is very meaningful and probably not what happened. It decided to turn the valve, independently? It decided to drive the car, independently? That implies they left a robot running and were amazed when it decided to steal a car, trespass and turn someone's water supply off.

It probably performed the actions independently of human input, but it must have been programmed to try and learn or in some way want to drive a car, turn a valve, etc. It'd be amazing if i were wrong though, unbelievable almost.

As a low brass player, I'd say a sousaphone is in the tuba family: the lowest common brass instruments, an octave below trombones and baritones/euphoniums.

A sousaphone in particular is a marching tuba (named after composer John Philip Sousa), constructed to wrap around the player and place the load on the shoulder, with the bell projecting the sound forward instead of up.

Another type of marching tuba is a contra, more common in drum and bugle corps. It looks like a normal concert tuba but with a 90-degree twist to the valves and mouthpiece pipe so that it also rests on the shoulder with the bell facing forward.

SpaceX has released footage of the April 14 landing attempt from the CRS-6 First Stage Tracking Cam:



Footage from a tracking camera that followed the first-stage of the Falcon 9 during a landing attempt. The footage starts at about 10 km in altitude. Falcon 9 first stage approached the drone ship “Just Read the Instructions” in the Atlantic Ocean after successfully launching the Dragon spacecraft during the CRS-6 mission to the International Space Station on April 14. More info:

http://www.spacex.com/news/2015/06/24/why-and-how-landing-rockets

Post-launch analysis has confirmed the throttle valve as the sole cause of this hard landing. The team has made changes to help prevent, and be able to rapidly recover from, similar issues for the next attempt, which will be on our next launch—the eighth Falcon 9 and Dragon cargo mission to the space station, currently scheduled for this Sunday.

I was referring specifically to the (fairly) recent experiment/collab between bethesda/valve/modders to allow mods for Skyrim to be bought for real actual dollars through the Steam Workshop. It was an uncharacteristic (at least, imo) misstep by both companies, but they have both been quite candid in their contrition after the inevitable failure.

Personally I'm not a great fan of the Workshop for multiple, complex modifications. More sophisticated third party tools exist for managing mods and all their idiosyncrasy.

At any rate, I think Bethesda were testing the water for Fallout4. I wonder if they've decided not to pursue modding for the moment, or if they're just not ready to announce anything yet.

I was fine with the pay for mods, no issues what so ever. Valve was going to offer tip jars and pay what you want options, and as with all valve things they'd be tweaked after launch... and as always, it was an option, not forced on anyone.

The way it was set up, the mod developer did have the choice whether to charge or not. The final price point was also at the mod developer's discretion.

The 25% figure sounds low, but it's the same cut that developers of hats and skins for TF2 and Dota 2 get for their sold items--and there are people making a living at it.

Also, after Valve's 30% cut, the Bethesda looked at what a fair breakdown of what was left would be. Valve--30 Bethesda--45, and modder--25. If you just look at the portion after Valve takes its cut, Bethesda took 65% of what was left, and the modder took 35%. Which is typically what a development studio gets back from sales from a game publisher.

The 25% sounds really low if you're not familiar with how this kind of thing usually works, but it's actually about what content creators typically get when they're given a percentage from a publisher. It's a lot higher than some industries--authors usually only get 10-15% royalties on book sales, and even then only after the first 10,000 books sold.

I find it baffling how poorly thought out and executed this was.

Skyrim? Ok, I get that it's got the largest mod scene, but if they'd done their research they'd know that a lot of Skyrim mods have complicated inter-dependencies with script extenders, assets borrowed from other mods, other mod resources such as animation behaviors or skeleton rigs, patches for compatibility, load order management, SkyUI....the list goes on.

The cynical part of me thinks that they knew their micro-transaction model wasn't really a good fit, but they just wanted to see if they could get away with it. Donations or a Patreon type of system would seem to fit modding a lot better, but I don't think Valve or Bethesda can make themselves the middlemen in that arrangement nearly as easily.
The naive part of me thinks that perhaps they just badly misjudged this...I'm not sure that level of incompetency is really better.

I'd love to see some of the more prolific modders able to make it a fulltime profession, if not just so they could hire some decent voice talent...

@ChaosEngine

First world fuckin'.. PROOOBLEMs.

That's my new song. I made it to remind everyone that.

OMFG complaining about the inaccuracy of a parody is pedantic as fuuuck.

But I mean.. that's what the Sift is all about, it seems.

@NaMeCaF I enjoyed the vid. Even tho I already knew about the situation from @EMPIRE's Factual Gamer vid.

But you probably have a problem with all the facts in that vid too. Not factual, enough.

"The performance from the Valve & Bethesda guys IN REAL TIME was WAAAY more factual" right?

Yes, but who's the developer...developer of what? The game, or the mod? If that means the mod developer has the option, that's better.
I read it as 25-30% to Valve/Steam...the remaining 70-75% to be split between the game creator, and the mod creator, on a split to be determined by the game creator, usually giving the mod developer what amounts to 25-30% of the total. That seemed fair to me, since that means the work product is worth 75% of selling price, and the original creator did way more than 2/3 of that work...meaning the mod developer gets a great deal at 25%.
Auto repair is not analogous. Making a replica/kit car is closer, and I believe they do pay royalties...certainly replica car makers do. If the mod makers were fixing the game, that would be different, but they are not. Shelby and Ford had contracts where they shared profits, as do many other professional car modders.
It is a problem if someone takes a game, mods it, then sells the mod as if they created the entire thing...they did not. They used someone's work product to create something else. Without the original program, they would have nothing.
These companies are under no compulsion to allow mods, and if they believe charging for the privilege is a good business model, they have every right to try. I think it's a toss up. People expect them for free at this point, but developers have a right to demand payment for their product...and any new product based on their product.
Really, I have no idea what I'm talking about? I've played many a mod, and 'playable fan fiction' is an apt description to my eyes. (see Blood Dragon) It's taking a known series and skewing it in some way. What you end up with is BASED on the original, is created using the original as a 'template' (and in the case of games using the program itself), is using/riding the popularity of the original to be seen at all, and would not exist without the original. To me that's pretty damn close.
I think it's actually more analogous to plagiarism, which is actionable...or may be condoned and/or licensed....but it's up to the creator of the original to decide that.

What's the first paragraph of the description say?

"...making Workshop mods now have the *option* for the developer to lock them behind a paywall..."

I understood it to be 25% goes to the mod maker and the remaining 75% goes to valve and bethesda (splitting to 30% to valve and 70% to bethesda). But maybe its 30% to valve then 70% to mod maker and bethesda (splitting it into 25% to mod maker and 75% to bethesda)? Either way its stupid.

Do you think auto repair and service centers should pay the car companies a percentage of their profits when they paint your car or make modifications to it?

The fact is modding has been grand for the last 30+ years without anyone doing it for the money. Some have gone on to make full games based on their mods and sold them, and there's no problem with that, because the mod still remains free.

Game companies like Bethesda release mod tools because it is good business for them. It extends the life of their games, grows their community and brings in more people who buy their games FOR the mods. Just go and have a look on the Nexus to see how many mods there are for the Elder Scrolls and Fallout games.

Both Valve and Bethesda are now just in PR mode and trying to put out the fires. Do you think their sole intent was purely for the money to go to the mod makers like they say? Then why is the split so heavily in their favor and the mod makers are getting a pissy 25%. Its contradictory.

And if you think it's "playable fan-fiction" then you obviously have no idea what you're talking about