#extraplay

Firelink crew!

You find yourself searching an unfamiliar building. You will need to search every floor. In front of you are two staircases, one headed up, the other going down. Which direction do you go?

I’m less intrigued by this idea than I am that I had this idea -- and that I paid attention to it for much longer than was necessary. It was prompted at the start of Dan Floyd’s Dark Souls II playthrough (#59). What started as a gut instinct led to me questioning why I believed it, prompted a justification based on efficiency. (Eventually you will want to exit the building, and you may as well save the lower-level checking until that time since you will need to head in that direction.)

But of course, efficiency is not always necessary. I could not think of a situation where it would be harmful either, however; a few scenarios came to mind where you would want to check below before above, but they all involved stopping before needing to visit all the floors. Can you dream up one?

Regardless, I was struck by how quickly the impulse came to me, and how I was immediately driven to give an explicit justification. Did this justification exist before I put it into words? Or was it a post-hoc addition to my reasoning mechanism, evoked by a memory systems eager to perpetuate a feeling of rational order for the world? These questions fall into the epistemology of a priori justification, prompted a search which found the appropriately named A Priori Justification by Albert Casullo (Professor of Philosophy at University of Nebraska-Lincoln). Alas, my local library does not hold a copy, but Casullo’s university webpage has a few pdfs on related topics.

In a related thought, the question also prompted a memory from my childhood of the Slylock Fox comic series. One strip had Slylock Fox encounter an office which had been broken into. Desk and chair were askew, and papers stuck out of the open drawers in the file cabinet. It was clear the criminal had been searching for something. I was not able to find this strip, but relying on memory the question Slylock was able to answer might have been “which drawer did the thief search first?” The answer is the bottom drawer. Opening the top drawer obscures the view of the second, so it would have been necessary to open the bottom-most drawer first.

(Aside #1: There’s an illustration there of the Well-ordering principle from set theory. #newmath1960s) (Aside #2: Yes, I learned at a young age the very important lesson that when pursuing corporate espionage one should always start with the lower drawers.)

What’s your reaction? Did I bias you towards instinctively thinking to search upstairs first? Or against that thought? How do you reconcile “random” thoughts with the cause-and-effect nature of our visible world? Do you remember Slylock fox? What do my thoughts prompt for you?

Dark Souls II #59 (YouTube, ExtraPlay): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6OtOuV7UkM

A Priori Justification (WorldCat): http://www.worldcat.org/title/a-priori-justification/oclc/61130511

Epistemological Problems of Memory (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy): http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/memory-episprob/

Slylock Fox (TvTropes(!)): http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ComicStrip/SlylockFox

Well-Ordering Principle (ProofWiki): https://proofwiki.org/wiki/Well-Ordering_Principle

Bus & Cable Sim San Francisco PC DVD ROM

Take a trip to the shores of the mighty Pacific Ocean as you embark on a public transport career in San Francisco surely one of the most beautiful cities in the world! Operate the iconic cable cars and streetcars carefully recreated in exacting 3D detail to provide unprecedented realism as you criss-cross the city and traverse miles of track. Alternatively take control of an ultra-modern articulated electric trolley bus or traditional diesel bus. With 16 vehicles to drive each with their own unique handling style and custom cabs your driving skills will be put to the test. You will need to keep a careful eye on your fleet ensuring that you replace worn components maintaining your vehicles in top notch condition to keep to your timetable. See a faithful rendition of the streets of San Francisco come to life with hundreds of roads including the many gradients historic highways and of course the Golden Gate Bridge so beloved by Hollywood. In addition to geographical challenges the city is populated with pedestrians and vehicles requiring a sharp eye careful navigation and a hand ready on the brake! Can you rise to the challenge of transporting commuters in the City By The Bay?

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Extraplay Fritz 11 PC DVD ROM

For many years now Fritz Chess has fascinated the chess world beating World Champion Vladimir Kramnik 4-2 in Bonn Germany in 2006. Millions of fans follow these amazing duels between man and machine that produces world class games. However the beauty of Fritz is that it can be used at beginners\\\' level or to help you hold your own against a Grandmaster! It explains moves and positions using its sophisticated and numerous coaching functions and it will adjust its playing strength to exactly match the opponent. There are training modules and amusing handicap levels and Fritz is used by club and tournament players in the study of their games. Another feature of Fritz is the Chess Media System bringing the world\\\'s greatest chess players into your living room. You can benefit from instruction from famous chess teachers in subjects such as opening traps middle game strategy and endgame skills. There are many hours of full high-resolution video and sound. Also included is 30 days free subscription to www.play chess.com a one-click connection to the largest chess community in the world.

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Empires Of Steel PC CD ROM

Empires of Steel is a turn-based Wargame. Form alliances capture and trade resources research new technologies and form huge invasion fleets to conquer your opponents! You can play on a global real world map or a specific continent or create a completely planet at the launch of each game using the automated random mapmaker and explore it as you expand your Empire! Research technologies: the extensive technology tree allows you to improve your nation\\\'s capabilities from a simple biplane to advanced UAV Tactical Aircraft from basic artillery guns to nuclear missile launchers. You can play solo against one or multiple computer opponents of varying skill levels or you can play with up to 10 human players on the same map trade resources form alliances or conduct surprise attacks in your hunt for a global Empire!

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Strategic Command WWII Global Conflict PC CD TOM

WWII Global Conflict is the fourth lastest - and biggest yet - game in the award winning Strategic Command series. WWII Global Conflict is a standalone game and does not require any of the previous titles to play. For the first time players will be able to wage World War II across the massive expanse of the entire planet. From battles in Europe and North Africa all the way to Asia and the Pacific WWII Global Conflict features the largest map yet (16896 tiles or 256x64) but in fact it allows players to create maps of up to 131072 (!!) tiles (512x256) in the map editor! Command the forces of 6 major and 58 different minor nations. 20 different unique unit types are portrayed and modelled with up to 30 different characteristics and stats. To add historical flavour and replayability over 200 different in-game events are now depicted as well as over 50 different decision events that guarantee a unique experience each time the game is played. Of course WWII Global Conflict isn\\\'t just bigger its also better! All new gameplay advancements are being included to help model the unique nature of World War II on a global scale. Improvements are being made across the board including an all new War Mobilisation and Belligerence setting that allows WWII Global Conflict to properly model the complex war situations that existed throughout the conflict. Now and for the first time in the series Germany can be at war with all of the Allied powers while Japan may only be at war with China and the UK. Additionally each individual major can control who it declares war upon allowing for historical accuracy such as Japan declaring war on the US only when it is ready to strike at Pearl Harbor and the USSR to declare war on Japan later in the war when it is finally pushing Germany back to Berlin. As with all of the previous Strategic Command games WWII Global Conflict comes with a full Game Editor that allows you to modify or create your own all new scenarios campaigns and maps. To assist with that the full range of terrain tile types and resources are available including Western European Asian Tropical and Pacific Island themed villages cities capitals jungles mountains marsh and hills. When you grow tired of playing against the award winning AI full multiplayer support is included for Hotseat E-Mail and Network play. WWII Global Conflict includes all the other enhancements and gameplay improvements introduced since Strategic Command was originally released including all the road rail weather unit combat and AI enhancements.

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Fritz Chess 13 PC DVD Rom

Even if you are not a great openings expert you can become one using Let\\\'s Check. The entire body of modern openings theory is built into the system and Let\\\'s Check provides you instantly with the latest statistics of any position in the opening: how often did it occur which moves were played with what success. The openings book is updated on a weekly basis and will show you which variations are currently topical and how good they are. It will also reveal which lines are being analysed and debated in the international community and with what conclusions. Using Let\\\'s Check while watching top games live on the Playchess server becomes an experience in itself. Not only do you have the latest openings and statistics at your disposal you can also see the results of the most powerful computers and engines that are logged into the server - total information on any computer in the blink of an eye.

Whatever level of chess you play from beginner to Grand Master Fritz Chess 13 has something for you. Fritz 13 features improved and enhanced database management user interface in Windows Office 2010 standard and the more powerful Fritz 13 engine specially tuned for deep analysis. Fritz 13 offers chess players everything they need to study and train: professional board graphics engine management adjustable playing strength coaching move explanation game analysis and commentary training modules printing of games and diagrams a database of 1.5 million games ten hours of private video instruction by grandmasters. And one month of free premium membership to the world\\\'s largest chess server: Playchess.com. Join the community! \\\'Let\\\'s Check\\\' is a revolutionary new feature of Fritz 13 that will change the chess world*. With it Fritz 13 users can join a world-wide community that will put together a giant knowledge base for chess. Whenever you analyse a position to any meaningful depth with your chess engine Fritz 13 will if you allow it send the main line and evaluation to a central server to be shared by all participating users. Soon you will be able to find deep analysis to almost every position you look at - instantly pre-generated by the finest engines in the world running on the most powerful machines around. Gone are the days where you would have to wait for your computer to reach substantial depth in order to make sure you are not falling into a trap. You will even be able to see the analysis of different chess engines and compare their results - all without a second of wait time. \\\'Discover\\\' a position! It does not matter whether you are a beginner a club player or a Super-GM. If you use a powerful engine to analyse a hitherto unknown position with the Let\\\'s Check function switched on you will be automatically registered as the \\\'discoverer\\\' of that position. \\\'Conquer\\\' chess positions! Let\\\'s Check keeps updating the evaluations to any given position with newer deeper analysis as this becomes available. Using powerful machines and the latest engines allows you to \\\'conquer\\\' positions with your name attached to the newest deepest analysis. You can also add comments to your analysis which other users will see when they encounter the position.

160GB Seagate Sata 2.5" Recertified 5400RPM

The 160-GB Seagate® Momentus® 5400.6 drive offers the best combination of performance, capacity, mobility and durability in a laptop hard drive to meet the demanding requirements of today's notebook multimedia usage models. Able to withstand up to 1000 Gs of shock, this highly reliable 2.5-inch drive is perfect for notebook or external storage applications

Capacity: 160GB

Interface Type: SATA

Form Factor: 2.5"

Buffer Size: 8MB

RPM: 5400RPM

Driver Transfer: 300 MBps (external)

Compliant Standard: Width

Depth: 100mm

Height: 9.5mm

Weight: 94g

Shock: -

Temp: -

Packaging: OEM

Model Number: ST9160314AS

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Excalibur Publishing Extraplay Crane Simulator 2009 PC CD ROM

Crane Simulator 2009 allows you to take a seat in the control cab of some of the most powerful compact and manouverable virtual cranes in the world and then puts you to work at the dizzy heights of the experts! Not for the faint-hearted! Crane Simulator 2009 presents the operator with a variety of challenges. There are all manner of different scenarios to master. You can construct pre-fabricated houses load ships or even attach a bridge. To complete these assignments you must move walls ceilings stairs and steel beams into position load huge containers and carry heavy equipment. You will even need to prove your worth on the night shift! Depending on the level of difficulty you set you will be required to show total precision in placing your load exactly on the spot! The better you do and the faster you are the more points you will earn.

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Excalibur Publishing Stone Quarry Simulator PC CD ROM

Dig deep with your skills as you aim to manage a series of challenging excavations as you embark on a quarrying quest to become a mineral magnate! Utilising numerous vehicles such as wheeled loaders and huge dump trucks in concert with seven accurately reproduced excavation machines you must strive to meet orders from the construction trade. With numerous rocks and minerals including marble limestone and granite in your quarries your services are much in demand. You will need to be an entrepreneurial excavate as you rush to meet delivery deadlines and grow your business often working in harsh weather conditions that push your quarry crew to the limit. Will you use drilling machines and crushers or will risky explosives get the job done? As your business expands you can ease your workload by purchasing new fully drivable vehicles and machines or investing in lucrative quarries. The choices are yours but with a range of challenging missions and a full reward system the fruits of your rocky labour will be recognised! Embark on exciting excavations where only the most enterprising engineer will become king of the quarry!