competitive

There are people so extremely competitive in ‘Tetris’ that they are literally breaking the game

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He ‘Tetris‘ for NES has been in circulation for 35 years. Most players who try this or any of the other home versions still operate it with their thumbs, like in 1989. But in the competitive scene (where the NES port is the most common version), however, the grip of the Nintendo controller is different. And it continues to evolve: for a few years now a new technique has been making it possible for the game’s classic records to be pulverized one after another. So much so that the first human to “beat” ‘Tetris’ did so with this new technique. ‘Tetris’: The End. The NES ‘Tetris’, released in the United States in 1989, has an ending. More or less: upon reaching level 29, the falling speed of the pieces doubles so abruptly that it is considered impossible to react in time to rotate and move them. The score counter also freezes when it reaches 999,999 (the so-called maxout). It’s not exactly impossible to overcome, but it’s difficult enough that it’s always been considered that way. For years, it was considered the ceiling of the game The best players in the world competed in the annual Classic Tetris World Championship (CTWC) with the goal of accumulating as many points as possible before level 29 stopped them. That was the way to determine a winner: maximum points before level 29. The considered best player in the world was Jonas Neubauer, with seven titles in nine consecutive finals. The controller was held as it has always been done, pressed at the speed that human thumbs would allow, and level 29 was the limit. DAS: the lifelong technique. DAS is the acronym for Delayed Auto Shift and it is the traditional way of playing. This is the standard behavior of the game when the D-pad is held down: although the pieces fall at maximum speed, there is a short delay before the piece begins to move, and that speed is around 10 Hz (ten moves per second). Competitive players who use the DAS technique do not simply hold the button down: they have perfected the pressure times to take advantage of that delay and throw pieces to the side with maximum efficiency. Between 2010 and 2017, the early years of CTWC, DAS players dominated the scene, but the deadly level 29 held everyone back equally. However, as we will see, this form of control has become outdated although today, the tournament has created its own category (the DAS Jonas Cup) to preserve this technique within the official competition. A sign that it is a classic wood technique, but it also indicates to what extent it has been displaced by more modern ones. Hypertapping is coming. This consensus was broken in 2011. Thor Aackerlund demonstrated that level 29 could be overcome with a different technique: instead of holding down the D-pad to take advantage of the delay of each piece, he pressed the controller repetitively and very quickly, pressing the D-pad at full speed. He hypertappingas this technique is known, allows the pieces to move at about 12 Hz, bypassing the DAS delay. Aackerlund thus reached level 30, and the community adopted the technique immediately. Problems and glory of hypertapping. Without a doubt, the big problem with the technique is how physically demanding it is: counterintuitive gripping positions on the controller, continuous muscular effort and, therefore, a real risk of injury. In 2018, 16-year-old Joseph Saelee defeated seven-time world champion Neubauer in the CTWC final using hypertapping. The effect was immediate: in a very short time, the hypertappers They took the records to levels that no one had reached: Saelee reached level 31 in 2018, and for 2020 the best hypertappers They had reached level 38. The ceiling was rising, but it was still a ceiling. The drummer. In November 2020, Christopher Martinez designed a new technique. Instead of pressing one finger on the pad at full speed, he placed one static finger on top of the pad and tapped the back of the controller with the others. When pressing from the bottom up, it was the crosshead that pressed the finger, so to speak. The result was up to 30 beats per second, the technical limit allowed by the framerate 60 Hz of the NES. Or put another way: double what the hypertapping faster. Martinez was inspired by techniques of tapping fast developed by speedrunners. Justin Yu, CTWC 2023 champion, described the principle as “you don’t have to use a single muscle; you use all your fingers to push the controller into your hand.” The ergonomic advantage is important: the hypertapping exhausts, but the rolling It distributes the effort between several fingers, in a way that the players themselves have compared to the way in which pianists and drummers optimize the effort of their arms and hands to reach high speeds. And it’s completely legal in tournaments. Stratospheric levels. The breaking of the invisible ceiling that until the arrival of the hypertapping had been at level 29 moved on. In August 2022, the player EricICX reached level 138, where the colors of the pieces are corrupted due to a bug in the original code: the developers had never planned for anyone to get that far. And then, Willis Gibson, known online as Blue Scuti, only 13 years old and with two years of experience playing ‘Tetris’, reached level 157 in a 38-minute session and the game crashed. He became the first person to “beat” the NES game. The post-rolling era. He rolling It is also changing how competitive players train. Instead of starting from level 1, they work directly from level 29 (which was previously the limit), because if you master the fastest level as your usual starting point, the previous ones lose all difficulty. CTWC co-founder states that, possibly in a few years all the finalists will reach level 28 with the score at the maximum and continue up to 50 without much difficulty. The last frontier. Level 255 was the theoretical … Read more

The Valencian Community has an “anti-AI” plan so that no one cheats on competitive exams

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Much of the success of AI glasseslike the Ray-Ban Metait is precisely that they do not look like a technological device. They look like normal glasses that integrate perfectly into our look. AND that is exactly the problem. There is the issue of recording people without their consent and also using them to cheat on exams. It is precisely what the Generalitat Valenciana wants to avoid. The plan. They count in Lift EMV that the Public Function area of ​​the Ministry of Finance has set its sights on AI glasses, and has already detailed a plan against their use in competitive examinations. The plan is to carry out a physical inspection upon entering the exam that verifies “the absence of electronic components.” To do this, they will provide training to supervisory personnel so that they are able to detect these devices, which, as happens with glasses, go very unnoticed. You will have to look for frames that are thicker than normal and lights that activate when recording. There is more. In addition to the physical inspection, an even more effective option is also being considered: installing frequency inhibitors. With this, if a security guard loses smart glasses or a watch, they should be useless as long as they remain in the range of action. They also highlight that for some time now they have been including complex questions whose answers require analysis and critical thinking, so that AI cannot answer them so easily. The new ‘chop’. Gone are the times when we kept a piece of paper with the lesson up our sleeve, now it is copied with AI glasses and smartwatch. This is what an applicant did in the MIR exam this year in Santiago de Compostela. It has not been revealed what model of glasses and watch he was wearing, nor how he planned to use them, but everything indicates that he read the questions with the glasses and got the answer on the watch. A seamless plan, except that someone noticed and got caught. His grade was a zero. AI so you don’t copy. Paradoxically, there are universities that use AI for precisely the opposite purpose: to prevent students from copying. We recently talked about the VIU, also in Valencia, and how thanks to AI and facial recognition they could control exams remotely. A very complex system that It has cost the university 650,000 euros for violating the General Data Protection Regulation. The problem with AI glasses. That someone can cheat on an exam is wrong, but there are things that are even worse. For example, in Spain we have the case of man who was arrested for recording women without their consent with the Ray-Ban Meta. They have also been made modifications in glasses that allow strangers to be identified on the street and there are more and more places where its use is being restricted. Wearing AI in your eyes can be very useful, but anyone you pass on the street could be recording you is intrusive, and even more so if the person wearing them is in, for example, a gym locker room. Or if it is the person who has to shave your crotch. Even if the LED indicator is off, I don’t think anyone could shake the feeling of being recorded. Image | Xataka, Unsplash In Xataka | When you put on your new Meta glasses something else happens: everything you record is recorded in Kenya to train the AI

Luxury was the last industry where Europe, because it was Europe, had a competitive advantage in China. Until now

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For decades, China was known as the country where the world’s luxury products were made, not where they were designed. The “Made in China” lived years associated with mass productionto the workshops that supplied Europe and to the supply chains that kept the pace of the sector alive. The great Western houses dependedand still depend— of its manufacturing capacity. But what almost no one saw coming is that that same country, which built the industrial muscle of global luxury, would begin to develop its own brands capable of not only imitating, but directly competing. A market that no longer responds to the previous rules. According to data published by Bloombergspending on Western brands within China has slowed down in a huge market—around $49 billion—while several local firms are growing with a strength that surprises the industry itself: Laopu Gold, artisanal aesthetic jewelry, has multiplied by ten its online sales in just two years, compared to the 57 million of Van Cleef & Arpels, one of the most recognized names in Western fine jewelry. Songmont, specialized in bags with clean lines and minimalist design, is close to 90% growth in e-commerce. In contrast, Gucci’s drop in the same channel exceeds 50%. Mao Geping—a local brand with a strong Chinese theatrical aesthetic— doubles income by Bobbi Brown on the platform. And all this happens while giants like LVMH or Kering are experiencing sharp declines in the stock market compared to their highs in 2023 and 2021 respectively. As Chosun Biz points outmany consumers who previously reserved their large purchases for foreign brands are now choosing local firms. A simple phrase, but one that reveals a profound cultural change. Luxury is no longer defined only by Europe. The transformation is not explained solely by the economic context, because otherwise the phenomenon would be limited. However, local brands are succeeding because they offer something that the young Chinese consumer recognizes as their own: an aesthetic and a cultural story that does not seek to appear Western. There are different examples, such as Songmont building its brand around “oriental beauty” and designing spaces inspired by calligraphy. To Summer creates fragrances with ingredients that are part of Chinese sensory memory—tea, osmanthus, preserved citrus—and presents them in Jingdezhen porcelainindisputable reference of the country’s ceramics. ICICLE bases its entire design on principles of harmony and simplicity rooted in local philosophy. This approach connects with a generation that no longer considers European logos as automatic symbols of taste. They look for beauty, yes, but a beauty that belongs to their culture. Luxury Society adds that local brands They have become experts in building coherent, deep brand universes full of cultural references that are natural, not forced. Meanwhile, foreign firms have been trying to adapt for years, often with superficial interpretations of Chinese symbolism. The rise of national pride. EITHER guochao, born as a movement roots that vindicate the aesthetics and identity of the Asian giant. A term that has become a purchasing criterion for many young people. It is not about rejecting what is Western, but about valuing what arises in the country’s own companies. Western houses try to adapt. The big foreign brands have begun to react. Digitalizing document a change in the way in which Louis Vuitton, Prada or Loewe relate to Chinese culture: they no longer only launch thematic collections on Lunar New Year, but they open stores that interpret local architectural languages, collaborate with artisans of intangible cultural heritage, produce content about Chinese cities and organize parades in enclaves that dialogue with the country’s history. The reality is that they have to respond to an increasingly demanding market and a consumer who has reduced his enthusiasm for luxury in the midst of an uncertain economic climate, marked by youth unemployment and the fall of confidence. The point is that, although Western localization is increasingly sophisticated, Chinese brands have an advantage because they start from a native understanding of their own aesthetic. They are not imitating the global language of luxury: they are proposing a new one. From followers to creators. The ecosystem is reminiscent of the process that Japan experienced decades ago. As some analyzes showfirst came the fascination with European luxury, then an economic crisis, and finally the rise of local brands that redefined modern Japanese aesthetics. China is going through a similar cycle, but with a level of global ambition that Japan did not have from the beginning. Furthermore, the picture is complicated by another key movement: according to Luxury SocietyChinese luxury spending has not disappeared, but has shifted abroad following the post-pandemic reopening. Japan is now one of the favorite destinations, where up to 80% of customers in some luxury stores are Chinese, it also happens in Singapore and Thailand. This makes the sales decline within China seem more serious than it is. Even so, at home, the preference for local brands is a cultural phenomenon, not a situational one. Can Chinese luxury consolidate itself as a global competitor? The potential is there, but the challenges are great. According to figures cited by Bloombergno Chinese brand in the sector has yet exceeded 0.5% global share or 10 billion yuan in annual revenue. The growth of recent years starts from small bases and there is still no truly global Chinese brand. The economy doesn’t help either. Consumer confidence is fragile and an important part of the local boom depends on a cultural pride that could fluctuate if the domestic situation worsens. The brands themselves recognize, in interviews collected by the same medium, that they need international talent and expansion outside of China to consolidate themselves. However, their advantage is powerful: they dominate the supply chain, manufacturing and, now, increasingly, aesthetics. The case of Shajuanstudied by researchers at Fudan University, shows how vertically integrated brands can control design, production and narrative more effectively than many international firms. A new global aesthetic emerges from China. The Asian giant is no longer just a key market for Western luxury; It is a creator of trends, … Read more

The most obsessively competitive gamers have found a trick to win their rivals: Give Electric Downloads

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Today video game developers are really strict in terms of cheating in their creations, with different systems Anti -che that They even affect kernel From our computer as is the case in ‘Valorant‘. But a new generation of Modders It is demonstrating that traps can be done without touching a single line of game code: with electrical discharges. If I can’t hack the game, I’m looking for alternatives. For some people, it is good for it is the same as Apply different tricks to games that they use daily to be able to cross walls, be immortal or have an automatic point when talking about Shooters. But this is something that leaves the rest of the players of a game. Having the player himself. Two Youtubers They have put the solution on the table to skip the barriers that are applied at the hardware level. One of them is ‘Basically Homeless’ that has led the concept of ‘player improvement’ to a new level. And instead of installing software that points for it in Counter-Strike 2, has created a system that electrocutes your arm to react at a superhuman speed. The mechanism is fascinating. An external software analyzes the screen in search of enemies. As soon as one detects one, it sends a signal to a Raspberry Piwhich in turn activates muscle stimulation diodes placed strategically in its forearm and hand. These little cramps force their muscles to get contracting, moving the mouse towards the target and clicking. Surprisingly, it is something that works. The results are very good. The own Youtuber He managed to reduce his reaction time of about 200 milliseconds approximately at only 100 milliseconds. According to its calculations, using an Ethernet cable connection instead of Wi -Fi to communicate the PC with the Raspberry Pi, it could lower this figure to 40 ms, a practically unbeatable speed for a human being. It does not consider it a trap. For this creator this is not something that threatens ethics when playing against other people. It is only a help, or as he calls it, ‘neuromuscular aim assistance’, since it is technically his own body who performs the action, although induced by a machine. Although it remains to be seen what large companies would say if this is popularized. Robotic carpets that point for you. In a similar line, the Modder Kamal Carter has presented another solution of hardware to dominate in Valorant. In his case, the protagonist is not his arm, but a robotic platform located under the mouse mat. And the system is similar. A screen reader identifies the enemy bots in the game’s shooting field in the first place. Next, a program that emulates the techniques of aimed at professional players sends instructions to the platform. This moves with a millimeter accuracy, displacing the mouse to achieve perfect shots. After adding a system that automates the click, Carter achieved almost perfect scores in practical mode. The most advanced anti-cheat systems are weak. “Made the law, made the trap,” says the saying. And in this case it is fulfilled. Large companies no longer know what to do to avoid tricks in their games, coming to ‘invade’ the kernel of our computer with maximum Windows privileges. Something that is designed to detect the use of unauthorized software. And there are many consequences that are being presented by cheating. Valve managed to block 40,000 cheats In ‘Dota 2’ or in ‘Deadlock’ They transformed into frogs to the most cheats to become aware that they should not do that. But also in Warzone they bet on Block the opening of the parachutes with the aim of crashing directly with the ground. But now these new tricks can be more difficult to detect and apply a punishment. In Xataka | Nintendo Switch 2: 17 tricks and tips to squeeze the portable console to the maximum

84% of their children go to academies to be even more competitive

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If you travel to South Korea and take a walk through Seoul either Daejeon A detail is likely to get attention: the posters of their Hagwonthe private academies to which children go to learn English and mathematics or achieve maximum qualification in he Suneungthe exam in which access to the best universities in the country are played. In 2020 there were more than 73,000 academies. The figure hides a crucial challenge for Korea, a nation immersed in a alarming demographic decline and in which to educate children has become a private luxury. There are studies that already point to South Korea as the most expensive nation To raise a child. Interestingly (or not) it is also the country with the lower rate of birth. A demographic contradiction. In the rankings on birth and raising South Korea stands out in two fields that do not fit well with each other. With one fertility rate of 0.72 children For a woman, the Asian Republic is in the tail in birth and faces a situation that the authorities already call “National Emergency”without hot cloths. Its poor birth is such a serious problem that affects its economy, society and even national defense. Demographic ironies, South Korea is also one of the nations in which More expensive Go out to raise a child. A little fortune. This was shown last year a study by the Yuwa Institute. According to the information collected by the South Korean newspaper Chosun Iboraising a rod until age 18 implies a cost equivalent to 7,79 times The GDP per capita, which in counting and sound money translates into about 365 million krw. Or 251,562 euros, to change. Secondly, it placed China, with a cost 6.9 times higher than GDP per capita, followed by Germany (3,6) and France (2,2). To partly alleviate that situation and stop the loss of population suffering from the country, over the last 18 years South Korea has invested 280,000 million of dollars and deployed a range of direct aid, incentives and policies that seek to improve the quality of life of families. Seoul authorities even value delivering families a “Super baby check” of 70,000 euros. Education, a luxury? In that bulky invoice education has a relevant weight. Again according to The data Published by the newspaper Chosun Iboin 2022 the South Koreans spent the whopping of almost 18,000 million euros in private centers for their offspring. The figure is equivalent to more than 361 euros per child. A month. The situation is such that a year ago The Korea Times assured That the families of South Korea dedicate more resources to the private and extracurricular classes of their children than to other fundamental expenses, such as food or housing. Very expensive. To be more precise, he cited data from Statistics Korea that show that in homes with more relieved economies a monthly average of 1.14 million wones, $ 869, to private classes for children between 13 and 18 years are dedicated. The amount It is a noticeable pinch of monthly income and is practically equivalent to the sum of what was spent on food (636,000 wones) and accommodation (539,000). And it is not something exclusive to wealthy households. In the most humble spending on private classes exceeded what is dedicated to housing and food. Record record. Despite the amount of resources dedicated to academies and extracurricular activities, South Korean households do not seem willing to cut their expenditure on private education. This is reflected data of the Ministry of Education and Statistics. Their calculations show that in 2022 the total expenditure on private education amounted to about 19.7 billion dollars, 10.8% more than the previous year, when an annual record had already been broken. Far from slowing down, private education spending experienced another considerable rebound last year. After an interannual increase of 4.5%, the most pronounced in recent years, in 2023 stood at around 20,000 million dollars. And that despite the decrease in the number of primary, secondary and high school students caused by the least birth. The reason: the decision of the government of increase The admission quota in medical schools. A keyword: Hagwon. The phenomenon of private education is not understood in South Korea without a fundamental concept, “Hagwon”which is how the “Intensive schools”academies and private classrooms to which students come to reinforce what they learn in schools, learn extra subjects or prepare for the most important exams, especially Suneungor CSAT, the demanding evidence that gives access to the country’s universities. To the Hagwon Even children come in preschool age and from the hand of their teachers they learn English, mathematics, taekwondo, swimming or how to touch the piano. India magazine Frontline He dedicated a wide report Three years ago in which he explained that the concept already dates back to the end of the 19th century and in 2020 more than 73,000 private tutoring centers were distributed in South Korea, half of which also concentrated in the capital. Time Precise that only in Seoul the 24,000 establishments would be exceeded, the triple that convenience stores. Two data for reflection. A good percentage can say more than a thousand words. And as regards private education and South Korea there are two that are eloquent. In 2017 the Korean Institute for Care and Early Childhood Education published A report which revealed that 35.5% of two -year -old children and 83.6% of those of five attended private academies. And under that concept they included both the Hagwons Conventional such as cultural centers, nurseries, childhood gardens or formations taught in their homes, in person or online. The study is already some years, but it is usually calculated that about 80% of the students of South Korea attend Hagwons or “intensive schools”. The survey The Institute of Early Childhood Education showed that the children dedicate a considerable number of hours to their formations: those of two years participated in 2.6 sessions per week, with an average of 47.6 minutes per class; Those of five years received 5.2 … Read more

China is merging three technologies into a single competitive weapon. In the West we continue to see them as something separate

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In 2007, Steve Jobs announced that he was going to present “three revolutionary devices”: A music player with touch screen. A mobile phone. An Internet browser. Then he revealed that there were not three separate products, but one: the iPhone. China is doing Something similar to its industrial revolution. Why is it important. While Europe and the United States deal with 5G, AI and renewable energies as independent sectors that compete for resources and attention, China has merged them into a general purpose technology capable of promoting productivity in all industries at the same time. The context. The strategy “Made in China 2025“It focused on ten specific priority sectors: from new materials to transport equipment. Ten years later, China is world leader in several fields (high -speed trains, energy infrastructure …), but continues to depend on foreign technology in more sophisticated areas such as aerospace or high performance medical devices. In figures. China has reduced its Technological Import Dependency Americans and European: 351 Product categories in 2000 A 177 in 2022. In parallel, the United States and the European Union now depend on China for 953 categories of products, three times more than at the beginning of the century. What has happened. The approach evolved towards What Xi Jinping calls “new productive forces”concept that put in the center of decisions since 2023. He Third Plenary of the Communist Party in 2024 He stressed the need to integrate AI, new materials and quantum technology. The key: the deployment of advanced technologies generates domestic demand for them, creating a cycle that further enhances industrial competitiveness. Advances in communications, operating systems, clean technologies and biotechnologies improve productivity, safety and quality in other sectors. A virtuous circle. Yes, but. This bet directed by the State is face and risky. The allocation of resources can become less efficient and has obvious side effects. Although economic reforms have improved the standard of living of the middle classes, the model focused on industry and technology has damaged the mood of the consumer and its disposition to spending. The threat. China does not want to rebalance its economy towards consumption and accepts negative – national and international consequences – while pursuing its manufacturing objectives. This includes internal socioeconomic conflicts, commercial surpluses and geopolitical competence by technology. You will have to address these effects at some point, but at the moment its formula works: integrate technologies that others treat separately to create a systemic competitive advantage. In Xataka | China monopolizes rare earths. An enemy has come out of home: the smuggers Outstanding image | Josh withrs, Zbynek Burival and Solen Feyissa in Unspash

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