Quickdraw with Google

Strictly speaking this is not a game, but rather an experiment of machine learning. But well, it's fun. Try it out here.

It's basically playing Pictionary with the computer. After starting the game with the "Let's Draw" button, you'll be prompted to draw an object. While you are drawing, the computer will guess what the object is. It will continue guessing until either it gets the right answer, or the 20 second time limit is up. Then it will proceed to the next drawing. After finishing all six pictures, the game ends and the results will be shown like in figure 1. You may click on each picture to see what the computer thinks the three closest matches are (figure 2) and scroll down to see how the object was drawn by other people. (figure 3)

Figure 1: 5 out of 6 correct guesses, not bad.

Figure 2: How this resembles a penguin is beyond me.

Figure 3: Pliers, lots of pliers.

See this video for an explanation of how this experiment works. Apparently the computer has become so familiar with some objects (for example: sail boat) that it can recognize them after a few strokes. Because the way it recognizes objects is different from how humans do, it leads to some strange and amusing results like thinking the pair of pliers is a penguin as shown above. Also, as it depends solely on the large number of examples it is shown, a sufficient number of determined trolls can convince it to think this is what an elephant looks like.

Another interesting observation is that the more detailed your drawing, the less recognizable it becomes. A simple silhouette of a fish can be recognized easily, but if the computer can’t get it right the first time and you start adding fins, scales, gill etc. It actually makes increasingly ridiculous guesses. Those details might as well be called noises in this case.

Have fun doodling.

Aqours新票選活動: The worldwide poster girl general election

 http://www.lovelive-anime.jp/uranohoshi/worldwide/election01_a.php

投票期間：
2016年11月18日(五)至2016年12月18日(日)

從Aqours成員中各選出一人代表：
澳洲
中國
德國
韓國
新加坡
台灣
泰國
英國
美國

注意：
選擇一位成員代表超過一個國家，系統不會自動攔截，但投票仍然無效

以下開始吐槽：

• 好微妙的選項，LL在使用中、英文的國家和韓國都有一定的人氣，可是在德國和泰國有特別紅嗎？該不會是剛好請到翻譯吧？
• 網頁提供七種語文選擇，可是到今天(11月12日)，除了英文、日文之外都還是coming soon
• 再次證明非洲人沒人權
• ダイヤ不是內定南極洲代表嗎？

個人選擇：
澳洲 - 果南 (潛水勝地嘛)
德國 - ヨハネ　(Deutsch ist für Chuuni.)
泰國 - 梨子 (大象耶)
美國 - 鞠莉 (本來就半個美國人，還用選嗎？)
英國 - ダイヤ (都是表面正經八百，實際上卻…)
新加坡 - 曜 (時代感強，又有活力)
台灣 - 花丸 (餘下的選項就台灣比較文藝一點)
中國 - 千歌 (因為名字是漢字…好吧，這是消去法的結果)
韓國 - ルビィ (消去法大勝利)

Pest Hunter 2 Guide

Pest Hunter 2 is a browser-based shooting game, it can be played on the NotDoppler site.

The control is simple, you move left and right with the A and D on the keyboard and aim with the mouse. But this simplicity doesn’t make it any less enjoyable.

There are 10 weapons and 5 bonuses in the game, each can be upgraded up to 12 times. All weapons and bonuses cost the same to upgrade:

Table 1: upgrade costs

Level	Cost
1	150
2	650
3	1150
4	1650
5	2150
6	2650
7	3150
8	3650
9	4150
10	4650
11	5150
12	5650

Weapons

The pistol is always available, all other weapons are added to your gun when you grab weapon bonuses. All weapons are unlocked by default.

Pistol – The default weapon, it fires fairly fast and does decent damage. Prioritize upgrading it since it’s always available.

Uzi – Fast firing but inaccurate. Somehow it seems to appear less often than most other weapons, so I don’t recommend upgrading it unless you have money to burn.

Shotgun – Fires 3 spread shots each doing the damage listed in table 2. Very powerful when you’re close enough to hit an enemy with all 3 pellets.

Machine Gun – Fastest firing rate in the whole game more than makes up for the apparently low damage.

Blaster – Similar to the machine gun, just fires slower but hits harder.

Flamethrower – Short range and the flame often hides incoming bullets. While it can deal continuous damage to whatever it hits, the laser does it better. Easily my least favourite.

Grenade-gun – Hardest hitting weapon in the game, somewhat tricky to aim and slow. It either explodes on impact with an enemy or detonate after some time on the floor. Ideal for ground targets.

Plasma Gun – Powerful shots that travel pretty fast, the firing rate is pretty slow so aim carefully.

Laser – Continuously hits every enemy in its path, it is basically the flamethrower without the drawbacks.

Missiles – Slow, powerful homing missiles that picks their targets automatically.

Table 2: Damage per hit and weapon upgrades

Weapon upgrades	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
Pistol	12	16	21	25	29	33	38	42	46	50	55	59	63
Uzi	17	23	29	35	41	47	53	59	65	71	77	83	89
Shotgun	22	29	36	43	50	57	64	71	78	85	92	99	106
Machine Gun	10	13	16	19	22	25	28	31	34	37	40	43	46
Blaster	20	27	34	41	48	55	62	69	76	83	90	97	104
Flamethrower	7	9	11	13	15	17	19	21	23	25	27	29	31
Grenade-gun	150	200	250	300	350	400	450	500	550	600	650	700	750
Plasma	50	67	84	101	118	135	152	169	186	203	220	237	254
Laser	7	9	11	13	15	17	19	21	23	25	27	29	31
Missiles	90	120	150	180	210	240	270	300	330	360	390	420	450

Bonuses

Shield – Protects you from all damage for a while, best bonus to invest in.

Freeze – Stops every enemy on the screen from moving or shooting. Enemies that enter after it activates are unaffected, though. A potential life-saver.

Double Power – Your weapons hit twice as hard when this is active.

Bomb – Damages all enemies on the screen. Sounds good in theory, but the damage is hardly noticeable.

Medicine Chest – Restores some hit points.

Upgrades

Instead of money, these are improved using stars obtained from leveling up.

Hit points – Increases your max hit point. Upgrade when you find yourself unable to avoid getting hit and die repeatedly.

Earnings – Increase amount of money from killing enemies. Useful, but the other options are just better.

Number of bonuses – It appears that you can only have one bonus active at a time, upgrade after you have enough weapon bonuses.

Number of Weapons – It appears that you can only have three weapons (including the pistol) active at the same time. Upgrade until you reach that point.

Bosses

The boss splits into two browns, then three greens each which in turn splits into three purples each. Also note the uselessness of the flamethrower.

First boss (Wave 20):

Splits into two smaller enemies when it takes enough damage, which could split further into three smaller ones twice. Thus it is possible to have (2 x 3 x 3) = 18 enemies on the screen at the same time. It is easier to kill off some of them before splitting the bigger ones.

Laser hits through the claws like it's nothing. Otherwise you'll have to pull off some tricky shots to damage it with its claws up.

Second boss (Wave 40):

There are few ways to damage the crab with its claws up. Deal with the blue bugs so they don’t pile up and attack the boss when its claws are down.

Go for the eyes!

Third boss (Wave 60):

Shoots from its opened eyes. Stay at the sides as the spread shots from the middle are much harder to dodge. Shoot it in the eyes to damage it, they all share a single hit points bar so it doesn’t matter which eye you hit.

Despite how much I enjoy playing this, there is definitely room for improvement. 

First, there should be a way to pause with the keyboard, having to click on the pause icon when aiming with the mouse is just not excusable. 

Second, endless mode is not really endless. After beating the 3^rd boss in wave 60 it just loops back to wave 1 without raising the difficulty. And the record still says the best I’ve done is beating wave 60. 

Last, it never shows how many hit points you actually have, so you have to guess how many hits can your take before dying. Given how infrequent it is to come across decent browser games these days, it is still a pretty good time-killer.