Epic Games buys the rest of People Can Fly | Lazygamer .:: Console ...

Epic Games, having owned a large stake of the development studio People Can Fly, has bought the studio completely. People Can Fly, developers of Bulletstorm and Gears of War: Judgment, have worked together with Epic Games on numerous occasions in the last decade, most noticeably on titles such as the PC version of Gears of War.

Along with the acquisition came the news that three key developers: founder and creative director Adrian Chmielarz, lead artist Andrzej Poznansi, and principal artist Michal Kosieradzki have left People Can Fly.

Epic Games vice president Mark Rein however claimed that the departures will not have a significant negative impact on Gears of War: Judgment?s development.

Often when key developers leave studios, games go backwards from there, for example the Final Fantasy games of late after key developers left Square Enix for ventures in other platform markets such as mobile gaming. Let?s hope that it won?t be the case with Gears. Contrary to that, sometimes these departures are hardly even noticed.

Rein had also said the same about Epic Games? director of production, Rod Fergusson who left the studio to help finish Bioshock Infinite at Irrational earlier this month.

Source: http://www.lazygamer.net/xbox-360/epic-games-buys-the-rest-of-people-can-fly/

el debarge portland weather clintonville battlestar galactica blood and chrome my morning jacket roger goodell psychosis

'Expendables 2' Rated R 'From Day One,' Director Says

Simon West shoots down rumors of a PG-13 rating, telling MTV News it's far too 'ruthless' to be anything but R-rated.
By Kevin P. Sullivan

Jean-Claude Van Damme in "The Expendables 2"
Photo: Frank Masi

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1691835/expendables-2-r-rating.jhtml

mennonite smokey robinson smokey robinson pulmonary embolism packages camila alves albrecht durer

Should You Trust Online Reviews?

Should you have listened to that one TripAdvisor review?Photo by Creatas/Thinkstock.

The Internet has fundamentally changed the way that buyers and sellers meet and interact in the marketplace. Online retailers make it cheap and easy to browse, comparison shop, and make purchases with the click of a mouse. The Web can also, in theory, make for better-informed purchases?both online and off?thanks to sites that offer crowdsourced reviews of everything from dog walkers to dentists.

In a Web-enabled world, it should be harder for careless or unscrupulous businesses to exploit consumers. Yet recent studies suggest that online reviewing is hardly a perfect consumer defense system. Researchers at Yale, Dartmouth, and USC have found evidence that hotel owners post fake reviews to boost their ratings on the site?and might even be posting negative reviews of nearby competitors.

The preponderance of online reviews speaks to their basic weakness: Because it?s essentially free to post a review, it?s all too easy to dash off thoughtless praise or criticism, or, worse, to construct deliberately misleading reviews without facing any consequences. It?s what economists (and others) refer to as the cheap-talk problem. The obvious solution is to make it more costly to post a review, but that eliminates one of the main virtues of crowdsourcing: There is much more wisdom in a crowd of millions than in select opinions of a few dozen.

Of course, that wisdom depends on reviewers giving honest feedback. A few well-publicized incidents suggest that?s not always the case. For example, when Amazon?s Canadian site accidentally revealed the identities of anonymous book reviewers in 2004, it became apparent that many reviews came from publishers and from the authors themselves.

Technological idealists, perhaps not surprisingly, see a solution to this problem in cutting-edge computer science. One widely reported study last year showed that a text-analysis algorithm proved remarkably adept at detecting made-up reviews. The researchers instructed freelance writers to put themselves in the role of a hotel marketer who has been tasked by his boss with writing a fake customer review that is flattering to the hotel. They also compiled a set of comparison TripAdvisor reviews that the study?s authors felt were likely to be genuine. Human judges could not distinguish between the real ones and the fakes. But the algorithm correctly identified the reviews as real or phony with 90 percent accuracy by picking up on subtle differences, like whether the review described specific aspects of the hotel room layout (the real ones do) or mentioned matters that were unrelated to the hotel itself, like whether the reviewer was there on vacation or business (a marker of fakes). Great, but in the cat-and-mouse game of fraud vs. fraud detection, phony reviewers can now design feedback that won?t set off any alarm bells.

Just how prevalent are fake reviews? A trio of business school professors, Yale?s Judith Chevalier, Yaniv Dover of Dartmouth, and USC?s Dina Mayzlin, have taken a clever approach to inferring an answer by comparing the reviews on two travel sites, TripAdvisor and Expedia. In order to post an Expedia review, a traveler needs to have made her hotel booking through the site. Hence, a hotel looking to inflate its rating or malign a competitor would have to incur the cost of paying itself through the site, accumulating transaction fees and tax liabilities in the process. On TripAdvisor, all you need to post fake reviews are a few phony login names and email addresses.

Differences in the overall ratings on TripAdvisor versus Expedia could simply be the result of a more sympathetic community of reviewers. (In practice, TripAdvisor?s ratings are actually lower on average.) So Mayzlin and her co-authors focus on the places where the gaps between TripAdvisor and Expedia reviews are widest. In their analysis, they looked at hotels that probably appear identical to the average traveler but have different underlying ownership or management. There are, for example, companies that own scores of franchises from hotel chains like Marriott and Hilton. Other hotels operate under these same nameplates but are independently owned. Similarly, many hotels are run on behalf of their owners by large management companies, while others are owner-managed. The average traveler is unlikely to know the difference between a Fairfield Inn owned by, say, the Pillar Hotel Group and one owned and operated by Ray Fisman. The study?s authors argue that the small owners and independents have less to lose by trying to goose their online ratings (or torpedo the ratings of their neighbors), reasoning that larger companies would be more vulnerable to punishment, censure, and loss of business if their shenanigans were uncovered. (The authors give the example of a recent case in which a manager at Ireland?s Clare Inn was caught posting fake reviews. The hotel is part of the Lynch Hotel Group, and in the wake of the fake postings, TripAdvisor removed suspicious reviews from other Lynch hotels, and unflattering media accounts of the episode generated negative PR that was shared across all Lynch properties.)?

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=d434b5a234eac2bb8031c4eaca7f0d29

kim kardashian flour bomb hunger games box office xavier joan crawford joan crawford john goodman kendall marshall

Strategies On How To Get Good Auto Insurance ... - AWOi.com ? car

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Insuring your automobile can be a complicated and frustrating matter. There are so many confusing options and scenarios to consider that you really need some guidance in finding the right coverage for your vehicle and your needs. Read on for some great ideas on how to go about navigating your way through the red tape and paperwork and finding the best auto insurance for you!

Keep your credit in good standing. Many insurance companies will check your credit rating before quoting you on your auto insurance. A bad credit rating will affect how much your premium is and how much you will pay every month for auto insurance. Having good credit will reduce your premium.

If you really want to get the best deal in auto insurance, take good care of your car and keep it for a very long time! A well-cared for older car will serve you well, and your insurance rates will just keep going down. The more often you change cars, the more expense you can expect in everything from insurance, to payments and taxes.

Car Insurance Quotes

Get between 3-5 car insurance quotes before deciding on a company. This will allow you to see what the acceptable range is for the type of policy that you want. You can easily identify if one company is charging too much for their services and also if another is offering you a good deal.

Look at your driving record before you get a car insurance quote. It may be inaccurate and contain old information that does not apply to your current situation. This can lead to elevated car insurance quotes and cost you a substantial amount of money. Make sure that your driving record has correct information.

Insurance Quotes

Before you even buy a vehicle you should get a few insurance quotes so that you know what to expect. It makes no sense to go and get a vehicle and then after you purchase it you have to worry about whether you can afford the monthly insurance payments.

Every year when your automotive insurance is up for renewal, shop around to check that the premium being paid is still market competitive. There are an abundance of internet facilities available where you can enter the vehicle details online and immediately receive insurance quotes from various companies. This will confirm or deny that your current premium is realistic.

Even with exactly the same information about you and your driving history, every insurer looks at you a little differently. Certain insurers place more weight on factors such as your age or the car you drive. You could be just a few quotes away from saving a lot of money on your car insurance.

Auto Insurance

When it?s time for you to renew your auto insurance policy, ask your agent to tell you about any discounts that are offered by the insurer. There might be new discounts available to you at this time, and unless you ask, you might miss the opportunity to take advantage of those cost savings.

To get a discount on your auto insurance, take into consideration all of your professional affiliations. Not only do many mass employers like Wal-Mart arrange blanket discounts for their employees, but many educational, charitable, social and religious organizations do too. When applying for or renewing your auto insurance, be sure to list all of your affiliations to qualify for these potential discounts.

To save money on your insurance, clean up your credit report. Most auto insurance companies use FICO scores as an aid in determining your premium. Apparently there is a correlation between low credit scores and traffic violations. Raising your credit score may not improve your driving skills, but it will put more money into your pockets.

The tips that were stated above were written to help you get the right policy as well as the most insurance for your money. You will be wise to take the time revisit this information before you sign up for your car insurance policy. You may end up with significant savings and you can avoid common pitfalls.

Know more about your auto insurance especially the company where you have it and find out if they offer a multi-policy discounts.

Source: http://awoi.com/strategies-on-how-to-get-good-auto-insurance-rates/

how the grinch stole christmas macaroni and cheese festivus festivus

Fastrack 2012 | QUT Economics and Finance Society

Who We Are

The Economics Finance Society informs, inspires and incorporates its members into the real world. Through professional workshops, extensive networking events and seminars conducted, EFS positions its members effectively for future employment. The society?s corporate partners are also given the opportunity to promote their organisation, shape students and recruit new talent.

Source: http://www.qutefs.org/efs/fastrack-2012-2/

marlins new stadium arnold palmer augusta national blake griffin pau gasol marlins park marbury v. madison

window washing solution - Useful Window Cleaning Solutions

Washing and cleaning windows is not that easy as it seems to be. Neglecting to clean the windows can leave water spots and streaks on it. And cleaning windows with wrong solutions may leave even worse streaks. When getting on the task of window washing, consider few of the best cleaning solutions.

Ammonia: Ammonia is present in most of the commercial glass cleaners and when used, it gets rid of stains, water marks and streaks. Mix 1 table spoon of Ammonia in 1 quart of water and transfer it to a spray bottle, so that you can spray the solution on the stains and clean them. Remember not to mix ammonia with Vinegar in any condition.

Vinegar: Vinegar can help to remove strong water spots from the windows as it absorbs hard deposits without leaving any marks or streaks on the windows. Mix 1 table spoon of Vinegar and 1 quart of water in a spray bottle to clean the glasses. Use distilled water for good and effective results. Use Vinegar with less than 5 percent dilution.

Rubbing alcohol: Equal parts of water and rubbing alcohol on the window glass is an effective window cleaning solution that leaves your window glasses free from streaks and stains. To get an instant shine on your window, you can also mix 1 table spoon of vinegar to the solution.

Commercial glass cleaner: If you want to avoid home remedies, purchase a commercial glass cleaner that is specifically designed to clean window glasses. When picking out a commercial glass cleaning product, purchase that product that has Ammonia for effective results.

Dishwashing detergent: Every one of us knows that dishwashing detergent gives shine to plates and glasses; in the same way, it can restore shine to the windows. Mix 1 tbsp of dishwashing detergent and 1 quart of water and put it in a spray bottle. Once the detergent gets dissolved in water, you can use this window washing solution to clean the windows.

This article has been viewed 9 time(s).

It is a violation of our terms and conditions for writers to submit material which they did not write and claim it as their own. If this article infringes on your copyrights, you MUST either call us at 706-866-2295 or send proof of infringement along with the offending article's title, URL, and writer name to

IdeaMarketers.com
Attn: Marnie Pehrson - Copyright Concern
514 Old Hickory Ln
Ringgold GA 30736 USA
If you email us or use our problem submission form, we CANNOT guarantee we'll receive your notice!

Source: http://www.ideamarketers.com/?articleid=3475380

buster posey eric holder eric holder carole king crystal renn matilda cab calloway

Team building | Definition of shrm strategic hr can be defined as the ...

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://www.bidaac.org/definition-of-shrm-strategic-hr-can-be-defined-as-the-combination-of-human-resources.html

march of dimes james randi wargames blake griffin dunk florida primary full force odd fellows