Gaming has become a reliable source of escape, entertainment, and even income during difficult times for gamers. According to a recent report by , the gaming industry has grown rapidly since the pandemic ignited global social distancing measures in March 2020 -- but the industry continues to grow even as restrictions are lifted (for now). Newzoo The report states that there are 2.8 billion gamers worldwide -- and that the global market will generate $189 billion in 2021 and is on track to pass $200 billion by 2023, with much of that growth centered on ESports and mobile games. The global esports audience will grow to 474 million in 2021, with the largest audience in China and revenues from competitive gaming slightly less than $1.1 billion. Ubiquitous Gaming Even as people blink their eyes and proceed semi-willingly outdoors, they want to keep their games with them. Mobile games are one of the biggest driving forces in the industry and developers are positioning AAA game titles for the mobile market. Cloud gaming and gaming as a service are also growing -- meaning if you are hoping to seamlessly blend networked access between devices to your favorite title, the industry is already working to meet your goals. Supply for new consoles has not caught up with demand. This is unsurprising as much of global manufacturing was shut down in 2020 -- and gamers were stuck at home, with many not feeling particularly prosperous. There is a massive installed player base for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One and the Nintendo Switch continues to perform Global cloud-based gaming is expected to reach $1.2 billion in revenue by the end of 2021. Cyberpunk 2077 -- which was clearly not ready for prime time -- was seen as proof that a cloud-based cinematic title was possible and cloud gaming services like Stadia and GeoForce will be vying to fill that need. Gaming as a platform continues to grow -- from Lil Nas X’s performing in Roblox, to Travis Scott’s Fortnite concert, and many, many personal holidays taking place in Animal Crossing, games are becoming a place to meet for more players every year. Mobile and eSports gaming continues to grow steadily, with league-style gameplay driving much of the new adoption with an increasingly inclusive, demographically diverse audience. People all over the world are devoting more time than ever to screen time -- it’s becoming a place to gather together, play together, enjoy content together, and even earn money competitively and as a team. Who can earn gaming? Certainly, streamers and YouTubers earn the most, taking in the big advertising money which represents about 75% of income for professional gamers of all sorts. eSports gamers are a new breed, making money based on skill from tournaments and sponsorships. But this is a relatively new and emerging type of pro gamer -- only a popular few are making their living this way. But for those of us that don’t have the charisma or inclination toward streaming or the patience for tournament plays -- even if you want to play your console games exactly the way you always have -- there are platforms like Bitspawn. Bitspawn is a relatively new platform that is available as an app for iOS and Android and online. Bitspawn supports about a dozen popular games -- including Call of Duty: Warzone, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Fortnite, FIFA, and League of Legends -- but it’s not a streaming service so much as a platform where gamers can gather to make gaming a little more interesting. You can register for free on the platform, enter your Player ID, and start playing competitively. Bitspawn uses SDKs coming from the console game devs to track your performance while you play, and it can pit you against other players and give out prizes. You can also form your own tournaments with friends and join existing tournaments. Summary We are all spending more screen time at work and play than ever before. Gaming is huge and only continues to grow. The pandemic showed users the reliability of playing in a virtual world, and users are looking to turn to that world not only as a place to escape day-to-day stress but as a place to meet, celebrate, and maybe in some cases even earn a little. During the pandemic, gaming has been one of our most reliable friends. Image by from DavidRockDesign Pixabay

Blink

Nintendo

PlayStation

Roblox

2022 - Best Crypto Journalist

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Blockchain

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Cryptocurrency

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Metaverse

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Nft

I'm open to pitches

Nominated for 2022 - Best Crypto Journalist

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Nft

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Metaverse

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Blockchain

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Cryptocurrency

Gaming Keeps Growing in Summer 2021

For entrepreneurs just starting out with limited budgets, what are the best app analytics tools you use? This Slogging thread by Yuvraj Malik, Akshay M. Bharadwaj, Will Fang, Jiani wei, Evan Leong and Ansley Miller occurred in Product School's official #06_product_tools Slack channel and has been edited for readability. Yuvraj Malik Jul 11, 2021, 3:15 AM For entrepreneurs just starting out with limited budgets, what are the best app analytics tools you use? Akshay M. Bharadwaj Jul 11, 2021, 3:27 AM You can try Google Analytics and Amplitude (Upto 10,000 events). If you want a visual behaviour analytics tool, you could try out FullStory as well. Hope this helps! Will Fang Jul 11, 2021, 5:40 AM For heat maps and screen recordings, check out Microsoft Clarify. It’s similar to FullStory and it’s free. Jiani wei Jul 11, 2021, 5:10 PM Firebase is nice too and free Evan Leong Jul 12, 2021, 4:41 PM Been using it heaps and love it Ansley Miller Jul 13, 2021, 1:36 PM I work for Indicative, which is a product analytics company that connects to your dw as well as CDPs, GA and more. Depending on how you’re tracking your data, Indicative could be a great fit! Did you enjoy this conversation? Join the #1 Slack Community For Product Managers Join our private community to network with over 90,000 PMs. Explore our industry-leading Slack channel, and discover for yourself how it became the most expansive community of Product Management across the world: Weekly AMAs: Every week we host ‘Ask Me Anything’ sessions with top PMs in the industry. This open Q&A forum gives you the most impactful insider access to all your Product questions. Resources: Specific and dedicated channels for all of the most important topics in product: #05_ask-for-help, #07_resume-review, #08_job-portal, #10_feedback-n-surveys, #11_product-launches, and more! Careers: Searching for a career change? Or looking to get your foot in the Product door? Our Slack channel has daily job openings in Product that are posted by Product leaders looking for new qualified PMs to join their teams. Network: Connect and network with Product people from your city or country in our local channels (#local_sanfrancisco, #local_europe, #local_singapore, and more!) Join here https://productschool.com/slack-community/ To learn more about Slogging, or to partner with Hackernoon and add the Slogging Beta app to your Slack community and create beautifully crafted & curated Hackernoon drafts, visit Slogging.com

Google

Microsoft

Slack

Global leader in #ProdMgmt training. 1M+ community. Instructors are top PMs working @ Google, Netflix, Uber & Airbnb

2021 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - SLACK

Become a Certified Product Manager

What are the most essential tools for new tech entrepreneurs?

How do you track your Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) in product management? Read these suggested solutions from experienced product managers. This Slogging thread by Jarrhey, Sten Pittet, Tulika Prasad and Lucas Masuh occurred in Product School's official #06_product_tools Slack channel and has been edited for readability. Jarrhey Jul 11, 2021, 12:52 PM Hi, how do you track your OKRs? I used to see a tool on this channel earlier this year but can't find it now. Sten Pittet Jul 11, 2021, 11:06 PM Hi Jarrhey, not sure if this is the tool you’re looking for, but you can use for OKRs. https://tability.io 🙌 1 Tulika Prasad Jul 12, 2021, 1:14 AM In my company, we have been using Perdoo for OKRs. We have used this tool for one quarter and now we're in another quarter, so far so good and affordable for startups to use. https://www.perdoo.com/ 👍 1 Lucas Masuh Jul 12, 2021, 2:48 PM I personally think that having an ad-hoc tool for OKRs is overkill, so in case you don't use Lattice or 15Five, I used this one in a prev company and it felt pretty straightforward https://www.koan.co/ 💪 1 Jarrhey Jul 13, 2021, 5:18 AM Very helpful! I will explore these. Thanks! Did you enjoy this conversation? Join the #1 Slack Community For Product Managers Join our private community to network with over 90,000 PMs. Explore our industry-leading Slack channel, and discover for yourself how it became the most expansive community of Product Management across the world: Weekly AMAs: Every week we host ‘Ask Me Anything’ sessions with top PMs in the industry. This open Q&A forum gives you the most impactful insider access to all your Product questions. Resources: Specific and dedicated channels for all of the most important topics in product: #05_ask-for-help, #07_resume-review, #08_job-portal, #10_feedback-n-surveys, #11_product-launches, and more! Careers: Searching for a career change? Or looking to get your foot in the Product door? Our Slack channel has daily job openings in Product that are posted by Product leaders looking for new qualified PMs to join their teams. Network: Connect and network with Product people from your city or country in our local channels (#local_sanfrancisco, #local_europe, #local_singapore, and more!) Join here https://productschool.com/slack-community/ To learn more about Slogging, or to partner with Hackenoon and add the Slogging Beta app to your Slack community and create beautifully crafted & curated Hackernoon drafts, visit Slogging.com

How do you track your Product Management OKRs?

Would you recommend Jira Align as a tool for product managers? Experienced product managers discuss the Jira onboarding process and alternatives. This thread by Matt Jastremski and mark occurred in Product School's official #06_product_tools Slack channel and has been edited for readability. Slogging Matt Jastremski Jul 12, 2021, 2:16 AM Does anyone use Jira Align? We're evaluating it but their demo environment is more of a video tour - very hard to get a clear picture of how it works. mark Jul 12, 2021, 10:37 AM I’d suggest also setting up a demo. Matt Jastremski Jul 12, 2021, 10:42 AM That's what I'm saying. We did. They gave us a presentation and then gave us logins... but you can't actually do anything in their demo environment besides follow a guided tour. Can't add or edit records or navigate the tool. It's insane. We've tried a ton of different tools and none of them locks down their trial accounts like this. Super suspect. mark Jul 12, 2021, 2:44 PM Wow that's lame. Did you express that to them? Be like we want to use it as if we bought it. Sales people will do a lot to sell you 😉 Matt Jastremski Jul 12, 2021, 4:41 PM Yeah, no response yet! 😍 1 mark Jul 12, 2021, 4:45 PM Linear.app is amazing. It just doesn’t offer an export function which isn’t fun for SOC2 Did you enjoy this conversation? Join the #1 Slack Community For Product Managers Join our private community to network with over 90,000 PMs. Explore our industry-leading Slack channel, and discover for yourself how it became the most expansive community of Product Management across the world: Weekly AMAs: Every week we host ‘Ask Me Anything’ sessions with top PMs in the industry. This open Q&A forum gives you the most impactful insider access to all your Product questions. Resources: Specific and dedicated channels for all of the most important topics in product: #05_ask-for-help, #07_resume-review, #08_job-portal, #10_feedback-n-surveys, #11_product-launches, and more! Careers: Searching for a career change? Or looking to get your foot in the Product door? Our Slack channel has daily job openings in Product that are posted by Product leaders looking for new qualified PMs to join their teams. Network: Connect and network with Product people from your city or country in our local channels (#local_sanfrancisco, #local_europe, #local_singapore, and more!) Join here https://productschool.com/slack-community/ To learn more about Slogging, or to partner with Hackernoon and add the Slogging Beta app to your Slack community and create beautifully crafted & curated Hackernoon drafts, visit Slogging.com

Super

Is Jira Align worth it? 

Once upon a time, the personal computer stored the user data. Then, the Web came along. What made the Web a mighty force was that it was free. Anyone could access and build applications for the Web. In those days, the Web was . Nobody, not one person, could say they own, control, or switch off the Web. decentralized Then, smartphones came along. Software companies started to have access to users’ data. User data became a currency, so it made sense for software companies to make it as difficult as possible for users to migrate their data to other services. In short, this is the concept of vendor lock-in. Vendor lock-in builds dependency: once you start using a vendor’s services, it becomes harder to move to a concurrent service. For example, if all your family are is on Facebook, you are locked into Facebook. If your family only uses WhatsApp, you are locked into WhatsApp. If your company uses Microsoft Office, you are locked into Microsoft Office. The result is that we moved from the decentralized Web to the centralized Web, where applications own, control, switch off, surveil or censor their ecosystem. . We also moved from the free Web to the “free” Web Unfortunately, in English, there is no distinction between “for free” and “liberty”. Thus, the software community adopted two phrases: “free as in freedom of speech” ( , free software) and “free as in free beer” ( , freeware). Free software or “libre software” (borrowing the French or Spanish word for “free” as in freedom) means that users have the freedom to distribute, copy, change the software that is not necessarily gratis. Gratis software has a price of zero. libre gratis With this distinction in mind, is using social media applications gratis? No, of course not. There is no monetary price to be paid because we pay social media services with our data, time, and attention. Every time we use the Web or mobile applications, we leave a data trail behind, ready to be used, abused, or sold to the highest bidder. Take unroll.me, an email decluttering service that unsubscribes its users from email lists. This service has access to email subscriptions, purchase receipts, travel reservations, or shipping-related emails to know which subscriptions to remove. so that Uber can gain insights about how many of their users were using their competitor, Lyft (remember, unroll.me had access to receipts, including Lyft receipts). Unfortunately, this is only one tiny fragment that we know of from the millions of other user data exploitation. Unroll.me had been selling user data to Uber Occasionally, application or cloud startup services offer their service for free. They try to sign up as many users as possible, hoping for a charge or a subscription later. Be wary when using such a service. Leading companies (Facebook, Apple, Google, Microsoft, etc.) can buy services you are using and shut them down with few chances of recovering your data. If startups go out of business, they can sell their user database to return money to their investors. Unfortunately, paying for a service does not guarantee user data will not be used or sold. As I mentioned earlier, “free” social media applications take hostage not only our data but our attention and time as well. Social media algorithms want us to stay longer and engaged in their ecosystems as these algorithms hoard and exploit additional bits and bytes of our identities in the background. That is why we see content that social media algorithms assume we will click on, share, like, or discuss. What content is guaranteed to always spread like wildfire? Appalling and surprising misinformation (defined by Nina Schick in her book as “bad information with no malicious intent behind it”) and disinformation (information meant to deceive) always gather user traction and engagement. Then, alongside click-baiting titles, our social media history (what content we interacted with in the past) considerably determines what content we will see in the future. Deep Fakes and the Infocalypse Why is that? Whenever we find out a new piece of information, we tend to judge it. If it is consistent with our world model, we are inclined to accept it. If it is inconsistent, then we are tempted to refuse it. The algorithm plays this routine repeatedly, learning about our preferences and keeping us engaged for longer and longer in a walled garden where the stress and unpleasantness of different opinions and mental models are almost non-existent. Enter virtual social bubbles and echo chambers where our biases are distorted and amplified because engaging with social media algorithms is autocatalytic (the process feeds itself). For example, social media can make you feel jealous, angry, hateful even. You start feeling bad about yourself, maybe experiencing a nagging sensation that you are not enough. So, you check more social media to find a tribe where you belong, a community where you feel at peace scattering negative messages about other tribes that made you feel conflicted about yourself. A shift is coming. The inventor of the “ ” and decentralized web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, is currently involved with a new project that aims to change the way applications work today, . Suppose a user keeps their digital data in decentralized servers, called Pods. No organization can longer control their data, but they need to ask for the user permission to access relevant data in a Pod. Another project is , a blockchain-powered Internet in which users have complete control over their digital assets. free as in free beer The Solid Project Elastos Although social media applications were built on top of the free Web, these services didn’t repay the kindness (Wikipedia is the most significant exception). These applications gathered massive and unacceptable control over our lives as algorithms determine the size of our social bubbles, reconstructing a reality based on our preferences, likes, and biases. The Web should become re-decentralized and truly free again, where we own our data, and we control the depth and breadth of our mental models through repeated exposure to news and views from outside our echo chambers. . Previously published at https://www.roxanamurariu.com/the-perils-of-living-inside-the-walled-gardens-of-social-media/

Alongside

Apple

Facebook

Lyft

Routine

Uber

2021 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - LIFE

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Life Lessons

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Productivity

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Psychology

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Self Improvement

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Life Lessons

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Productivity

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Psychology

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Self Improvement

The Walled Gardens of Social Media: From the Free Web to the “Free” Web

Cybersecurity is the “practice of protecting critical systems and sensitive information from digital attacks” ( ). The field itself is evolving on a daily basis with advancements in technology and hackers being one step ahead to developing new malware. If you have any interest in security and technology, then this may be the field for you. I will talk about the five best cybersecurity books for beginners to get a better overview of what cybersecurity is all about. These books may help you figure out if this is the career choice for you. IBM List of Cybersecurity Books Covered in This Article Cybersecurity for Beginners Social Engineering: The Science of Human Hacking The Art of Invisibility Hacking for Beginners Blue Team Handbook: Incident Response Edition 1. Cybersecurity for Beginners by Raef Meeuwisse "If you aren’t concerned about Cybersecurity, you don’t know enough about it" This book provides an overview of Cybersecurity where every chapter talks about different topics within the industry. The chapters can be read in any particular order because no knowledge from earlier chapters are needed to understand the later ones. Meeuwisse does a great job with covering the basics of Cybersecurity, making this one of the best cybersecurity books for beginners. He provides definitions for all of the important terms that a reader needs to understand throughout the entire book. Meeuwisse also explains the purpose of having the case study examples in this book. I have listed the topics that are covered in his book below in case you are still hesitant. Topics Covered Skills required to create a Cybersecurity team Basic Cybersecurity concepts A couple case study examples Human involvement Attack and Defense methods Cybersecurity Risks Organization security The Future of Cybersecurity Check out the book . here 2. Social Engineering: The Science of Human Hacking by Christopher Hadnagy Hadnagy provides an overview of different social engineering techniques and explains how and why they work; he also provides real world examples for each technique to help make it easier to understand. Hadnagy believes that anybody who reads this book will have learned something about social engineering. Regardless of your background, this is a great book if you want to learn about Social engineering. Social engineering is a very important topic, in my opinion, and a good place to start. Topics Covered OSINT Advanced communication modeling and profiling tools Pretexting Rapport-building Types of social engineering attacks Check out the book here . 3. The Art of Invisibility by Kevin Mitnick "To be invisible online, you more or less need to create a separate identity, one that is completely unrelated to you. … you must also rigorously defend the separation of your life from that anonymous identity" Kevin Mitnick is considered to be the world’s famous and most wanted hacker and in his book, The Art of Invisibility, he illustrates “what is happening without your knowledge and the ‘art of invisibility’” ( ). mitnicksecurity In this book he provides both “online and real-life tactics and inexpensive methods to protect you and your family, in easy step-by-step instructions” ( ). He discusses various tactics that can protect your privacy and what you can do to leave no digital trace. These are the topics that are covered in Mitnick’s book and also a book review by Scott Schober. mitnicksecurity Topics Covered Encryption Privacy Password WiFi security HTTPS Tracking activity Check out the book here . 4. Hacking for Beginners: A Step by Step Guide for you to Learn the Basics of Cybersecurity and Hacking by Ramon Nastase If you are interested in hacking then this book is perfect for you and another one of the best cybersecurity books for beginners. This book will teach readers how hackers think, why they hack computer systems, and how they do it. This book is geared towards those who have an interest in penetration testing because you will learn about the different attacks that exist and the techniques used to hack into a system. The following list are the topics covered in Nastase’s book. Topics Covered The 5 step process of hacking Installing and using Kali Linux Scanning devices in a network Cyberattacks VPN Firewall Check out the book here . 5. Blue Team Handbook: Incident Response Edition by Don Murdoch If you have an interest in Blue Team - i.e. working in a SOC, incident response, etc. then this book is a good start for you. Murdoch gives an overview of what it is like to be a Cybersecurity incident responder. Murdoch thoroughly explains in detail why and how every tool is used. Being part of the blue team means that you have an inside out view of an organization. Members of the blue team work together to protect the organization against threats and critical assets. Topics Covered Incident response steps/template Understanding the hacker and the tools that they use Host-based analysis Network-based analysis Check out the book here . Final Thoughts on These Cybersecurity Books for Beginners These are the five best cybersecurity books for beginners that I believe you should start with if you want to pursue a career in Cybersecurity. Each one of these books gives a run-through of different aspects within Cybersecurity. If a particular topic within Cybersecurity sparks an interest, then I recommend starting with a book on said topic. Although I have only listed these five books, there are still more that exist in many other areas. There are so many aspects within Cybersecurity to choose from so these books are just the beginning.

Trace

Interested in security? Follow along for content within Cybersecurity

2021 - Top Security Expert

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Cyber Security Awareness

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Facebook

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Instagram

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Security

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Social Media

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Instagram

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Social Media

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Security

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Cyber Security Awareness

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Facebook

5 Best Cybersecurity Books for Beginners

Getting into DCS World isn’t easy. The tactics, knowledge, and skill to fly the combat flight simulator’s aircraft take commitment and practice to learn. Getting into multiplayer servers might require you to understand military jargon and communication protocol. But before any of that even matters, you still need a module to get started in the game. Picking the right aircraft can be a surprisingly difficult process which this DCS World buyer’s guide might be helpful with. DCS World’s E-Shop and Steam page are both full modules, maps and campaigns, making it difficult to find the simulator’s best modern aircraft. We’ve broken up the fixed-wing jet aircraft into their eras and mission sets to help narrow down the aircraft. We’ve left out the modules made for Flaming Cliffs 3 and the trainer jets as the former aren’t simulated to the same degree as these modules and the latter were never meant to compete with actual fighter jets. DCS World’s Modern Multirole Fighters The modules that easily have the most value-for-money are DCS World’s simulations of modern multirole fighters. Aircraft like the F-16C, F/A-18C, JF-17 and Mirage 2000C fit this bill. These modules, taking after their real-life counterparts, are capable of doing a bit of everything even if they don’t specialise in it. F-16C Fighting Falcon The Fighting Falcon or Viper has been used for everything from Air-to-Air combat, Close Air Support, Precision Attack and Suppression of Enemy Air Defence (SEAD). DCS World recognises this by letting it carry pretty much any weapon that you need it to. It can carry targeting pods for precision-guided weapons, guided and unguided bombs and anti-radar HARMs for attacking ground targets. It can take air-to-air missiles for dogfighting and beyond-visual-range combat. Basically, it’s flexible enough to let you try everything DCS has to offer. The cockpit is one of the most advanced in the simulator, full of displays to sift through. It makes the aircraft as much an exercise in operating electronics as much as it is an exercise in pilot skill. For some, it might be the appeal of the fighter but for those who want a more traditional experience, the added complexity may be a dealbreaker. F/A-18C Hornet The Hornet’s similar to the Viper in that it can do everything the Viper can. It’s got the came capacity for running just about every mission type under the sun thanks to its real-world versatility. It’s got an almost identical array of weapons to attach and the ability to have targeting pods. It’s an older module, letting it have more advanced systems than the Viper, too. What sets it apart from the F-16, though, is its nature as a carrier-borne aircraft. Unlike its Air Force counterpart, the F/A-18 can participate in carrier takeoffs and landings. You get to experience getting shot off the deck on a steam catapult and attempt extremely difficult carrier landings. Like the F-16, the Hornet is one of DCS’ most modern fighters. There’ll be a lot of digging through MFDs and getting settings done just right. JF-17 Thunder This Pakistani jet isn’t the most well-known aircraft in the world but that didn’t stop Deka Ironwork Simulations from making this incredible module. It can do most missions that the two planes above can, just with different weapons with many of the same general methods. There is a lot of fishing around MFDs to properly use its weapons but thanks to its origin as a Pakistani jet, many of the quirks and exact methods are different from its American counterparts. This jet is roughly analogous to the Viper in terms of mission sets and the fact that it cannot conduct carrier operations. Mirage 2000C This multirole delta-wing fighter isn’t as modern as the other fighters in this category. It doesn’t have a targeting pod and doesn’t have a cockpit as awash with MFDs as the others. However, it is highly capable both in an air-to-air role and air-to-ground. One notable aspect that stopped it from being included in the section below is the Mirage’s two 30mm cannons. These weapons grant it a uniquely powerful method of engaging ground targets outside of precision explosives. DCS World’s Late Cold War Air-to-Air fighters Not all of the late Cold War’s fighters got to be modernised with the advanced technology the multirole fighters had. The MiG 29 Fulcrum and F-14 Tomcat are two such examples. These aircraft can use “dumb” bombs for ground attack but aren’t as flexible as their modern counterparts. MiG-29 Fulcrum This Russian-made jet was meant to hold its own against the F-15C Eagle and F-14 Tomcat. It goes fast, sees far with its radar and can use a bunch of different missiles to shoot down enemy aircraft. One of the MiG-29’s unique features is the presence of an Infrared Search and Track system. It’s one of the few aircraft in DCS that uses it which might be appealing to you, if you know how to use it. When it comes to air-to-ground, there’s not much to see. The aircraft provides the pilot with some guidance with using weapons such as HUD modes that help aim the bombs and some options for how to release them but nothing like the aircraft above. F-14 Tomcat The Tomcat might be one of the most famous combat aircraft ever made. Featured heavily in Top Gun, this Navy fighter was designed from the outset to fight aircraft. It goes fast, turns well and carries a lot of missiles, including the then state-of-the-art AIM-54 Phoenix. This module is particularly interesting for two reasons. Like the Hornet, the Tomcat is capable of operating off a carrier with the help of a steam catapult and arresting wires. These are the only two aircraft to allow this kind of operation. The other reason is the presence of a second seat. A Radar Intercept Officer (RIO) sits in the back and is responsible for managing the systems needed to use the Tomcat’s longer-reaching weapons. This translates into the possibility of having a second player in the back and the possibility of using computer-controlled crewmates. Referencing Top Gun, the RIO goes by Jester and the pilot goes by Iceman. The Tomcat is the only fighter to allow this degree of cooperation and the only one to have AI crewmates. DCS World’s Mid Cold War Air-to-Air fighters Flying these jets generally entails a tiny selection of air to air missiles, early and finicky radars and a more traditional cockpit than more modern jets. While the two jets in this category aren’t top of the line fighters, air combat between the two isn’t as technical as BVR between the modern fighters. MiG-21bis Something of a living fossil in the modern age, the MiG-21bis is older than the MiG-29 and has the avionics to match. Its instruments are primitive in comparison and it looks barely out of the Korean War. This aircraft is capable of the same missions as the MiG-29 with the exception that its hardware is older. It can be an interesting module if you want to experience air combat from an older age but the MiG-21bis doesn’t have anything fancy. Except nukes. It comes with simulated nukes, if you want to mess around with those. F-5E Tiger II The F-5E was never the fastest jet of its time nor was it the most heavily armed. Still, it’s a capable fighter that can mount heat-seeking missiles and some early laser-guided bombs. As a module, it lets players experience an older style of air combat and conduct a wide range of missions. DCS World’s Early Cold War Air-to-Air fighters Before pilots focused on Beyond Visual Range combat, they flew by the seat of their pants, struggling to shoot their foes down with guns or took their chances with unreliable missiles. This early era of jet combat exists in DCS thanks to the modules focused on older aircraft like the F-86 Sabre and MiG-15. It’s worth noting that these aircraft don’t have the same variety in mission sets as their more advanced counterparts. By virtue of everything being simpler, these modules offer you less. Still if you want to explore this era of air combat, the highly detailed cockpits and flight models will be more than enough. F-86 Sabre The Sabre is relatively simple, armed with guns and a pair of bombs for ground attack. Like the other modules, it has a well-rendered, fully interactive cockpit and realistic flight. MiG-15bis The MiG-15bis is roughly analogous to the F-86. It’s got about the same features, with combat being based around its guns and the module featuring a great simulation of the aircraft. MiG-19P Farmer The Farmer is like a MiG-15bis except that it’s supersonic, has an enhanced ground-attack capability thanks to its rockets and air-to-air missiles. DCS World’s Air-to-Ground Attackers If flying against another aircraft and pushing the envelope isn’t quite what you want, a dedicated Air-to-Ground aircraft might suit you better. DCS World has plenty of ground targets to blow up from tanks to buildings. Just like in real life, there are aircraft specialised in dropping warheads on foreheads. A-10C II This is the one with the famous gun. You know, the one that the plane was built around. There’s no denying that the A-10 is really good at destroying ground targets, something that this DCS module replicates in great detail. It carries just about every ground attack weapon imaginable and has the systems on board to use them effectively. It’s also got a particularly in-depth simulation of managing its stores, which adds a level of realism absent in the other modules. It also comes with an interactive Forward Air Controller on the radio. It’s not part of the aircraft but FACs are an important part of the A-10’s Close Air Support role as they are responsible for identifying targets for the planes and directing them onto the target if necessary. AV-8B Harrier The Harrier is most famous for being able to take off and land vertically, a feature most definitely included in the DCS module. It’s got a unique control scheme that allows it to hover like a helicopter shortly after flying like a conventional jet. There’s no other aircraft capable of this in DCS. While it is capable of using some air-to-air missiles, it’s mostly focused on being able to blow up ground targets. It’s got a good array of bombs, both of the guided and unguided variety, air-to-ground missiles and rocket pods to help with this. This variant of the Harrier has a number of features intended to help it operate at night which are included in the module, yet another unique feature this module has. AJS-37 Viggen As far as planes go, the Viggen is up there as one of the stranger aircraft. Most aircraft aim to fly high and fast or low and slow. The Viggen, on the other hand, is designed to go low and fast. With a unique mixture of autopilot and ground-following radar, it is designed to fly as little as 10 meters above the ground. It’s the only jet in DCS that flies like that and the only jet that uses its unique arsenal of Swedish weapons which handle differently than conventional weapons. It’s also able to hold its own in air-to-air combat thanks to its speed. If you’re still undecided after finishing this DCS World Buyer’s Guide Each aircraft has its own quirks and characteristics that make them unique. If you don’t know what you want to do but just want to experience DCS, the Hornet will get you through most content. If you want to go in for guns on air targets but use a jet, the Sabre or MiG-15bis will probably suit you best. If you want to blow up ground targets, the A-10 is the one for you. If you can’t decide, go for the coolest looking one and hope for the best. There are also free weekends that let you try out all the modules if you would like a demo. More In Gaming: The Problem With Live Service Games Sword Reverie is a Bright Beginning for VR JRPGs The Best Mass Effect 3 Mods in 2021 Thanks for reading! To keep up to date with all the latest in gaming, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter in the footer below!

BUNCH

Catapult

Target

Read My Stories

Editor

DCS World Buyer’s Guide

Hackers rejoice! Here we are again with the winners for the month of May and June! #Decentralized-Internet writing contest For those who are reading about it for the first time, HackerNoon has built a partnership with (Now Everscale) - a decentralized, community-powered blockchain movement for free internet! We're giving away monthly prizes worth to the best HackerNoon #Decentralized-Internet stories with this partnership. Free Ton $3,500 Here's how you can participate: on HackerNoon Set up an account the Check out Decentralized Internet Writing Competition's rules and submit it with as one of the tags Pen your story #Decentralized-Internet How do we shortlist the best stories? First, we picked all the stories on HackerNoon, published in May and June 2021 - tagged with #Decentralized-Internet This gave us a total of 104 stories. Then we picked the top 15 stories, as we did last time on the same 60:30:10 weightage respectively to: Number of hours read Number of people reached Freshness of the content Here is the list of our top 15 contenders: by Top 6 Crypto Launchpads in 2021 @haroonbaig by BitClout Creator Coins: A Decentralized Way to Engage with Followers @benchi by Future Technology: AI-enabled Blockchain @induction by What are dApps and How Do They Enable a True Free Market? @splyt by The Evolution of Casinos in the Age of Decentralized Internet @falconite by How We're Building an Open-Source Google Photos Alternative with React Native @ehsan6sha by How to Keep Yourself Safe from Filthy, Dirty Coins @demchuk by How NFTs Can Disrupt the Fantasy Sports Industry @Ishan Pandey by When The Dust Settles: Insights For The Future of Crypto & Blockchain @MR_Protocol by How to Model In-Game NFT Token Economics for Digital Games @Ishan Pandey by Top 5 Smart Contract Platforms on Polkadot for building DApps (A Developer's Guide) @haroonbaig by Look out events industry... NFTs are coming! @cennznet by What the Heck is a Numiz? @benjaminbateman by DeFi: It's Time We Really Started Looking At Blockchains Beyond Ethereum @mickey-maler by Why Decentralized Insurance Will Provide Confidence to DeFi Investors @Ishan Pandey Voting time! We created a poll in HackerNoon's writing contest channel and asked the editors to vote. This time, it took us a week to decide on our favorite stories. Results And the are : winners Drumroll The story that got the highest number of votes is " ". Congratulations ! Editors loved your story. You have won $1500  worth of TON crystals. How We're Building an Open-Source Google Photos Alternative with React Native @ehsan6sha On the second position, we have by . Your story has been a massive hit Haroon. Congratulations on gaining 20,000+ views and achieving the second position! You have won 1000 TON crystals. Top 6 Crypto Launchpads in 2021 @haroonbaig scored the third position with the story " ". Yay ! We are looking forward to more stories from you. You have won 700 TON crystals. @mickey-maler DeFi: It's Time We Really Started Looking At Blockchains Beyond Ethereum @mickey-maler On the fourth spot, we have a story on an amalgam of disruptive technologies: by . Congratulations on winning 300 TON crystals. Future Technology: AI-enabled Blockchain @induction Congratulations A huge shoutout to all the winners and participants! We'll be continuing to run this contest through the end of 2021, so you can submit your #decentralized-internet stories to HackerNoon today to have a chance at monthly prizes! That's it! We'll contact winners for the payments. Enjoy! Note: . Free TON has now rebranded as Everscale

Polkadot

Toncoin

Free TON

Learn More About HackerNoon Writing Contests

Decentralized Intenet Writing Contest's Stories

Gaming Metaverse Stories

Sponsor Your Own Writing Contest

Enter The Decentralized Internet Writing Contest With This Prompt

#Decentralized-Internet Writing Contest: May/June Results Announced

You’ve probably heard of the recent Copilot tool by GitHub, which generates code for you. You can see this tool as an auto-complete++ for code. You give it the name of a function along with some additional info, and it generates the code for you quite accurately! But it won’t just autocomplete your function. Rather, it will try to understand what you are trying to do to generate it. It is also able to generate much bigger and more complete functions than classical autocomplete tools. This is because it uses a similar model as GPT-3, an extremely powerful natural language model that you most certainly know. But if you try to generate code with the primary GPT-3 model from the OpenAI’s API, it won’t work. In fact, in their new paper released for GitHub copilot, OpenAI tested GPT-3 without any further training on code, and it solved exactly 0 Python code-writing problems. So how did they took such a powerful language generation model that is completely useless for code generation and transformed it to fit this new task of generating code? Watch the video to learn more! Watch the video ►Read the full article: ►My Newsletter (A new AI application explained weekly to your emails!): ►GitHub Copilot: ►Codex/copilot paper: ►Yannic’s video about GitHub Copilot: References: https://www.louisbouchard.ai/github-copilot/ https://www.louisbouchard.ai/newsletter/ https://copilot.github.com/ https://arxiv.org/pdf/2107.03374.pdf https://youtu.be/TrLrBL1U8z0 Video Transcript 00:00 You've probably heard of the recent Copilot tool by GitHub, which generates code for you. 00:05 You can see this tool as an auto-complete++ for code. 00:09 You give it the name of a function along with some additional info, and it generates the 00:13 code for you quite accurately! 00:15 But it won't just autocomplete your function. 00:18 Rather, it will try to understand what you are trying to do to generate it. 00:21 It is also able to generate much bigger and more complete functions than classical autocomplete 00:27 tools. 00:28 This is because it uses a similar model as GPT-3, an extremely powerful natural language 00:33 model that you most certainly know. 00:36 If you're not sure or do not remember how it works, you should watch the video I made 00:39 a year ago when GPT-3 came out. 00:42 Okay, so as you know, GPT-3 is a language model, so it wasn't trained on code but natural 00:47 human language. 00:49 If you try to generate code with the primary GPT-3 model from the OpenAI's API, it won't 00:54 work. 00:55 In fact, in their new paper released for GitHub copilot, OpenAI tested GPT-3 without any further 01:01 training on code, and it solved exactly 0 Python code-writing problems. 01:06 So how did they took such a powerful language generation model that is completely useless 01:10 for code generation and transformed it to fit this new task of generating code? 01:16 The first part is easy. 01:17 It had to understand what the user wants, which GPT-3 is already pretty good at. 01:21 The second part is hard to achieve since GPT-3 never saw code before, well, not a lot. 01:27 As you know, to be such a powerful language model, GPT-3 was trained on pretty much the 01:32 text from the whole internet. 01:34 And now, OpenAI and GitHub are trying to build a similar model, but for code generation. 01:40 Without entering into all the privacy dilemmas spawned with the Copyright issues of the code 01:44 used for training on GitHub, you clearly cannot be at a better place to do that. 01:49 I will come back to these privacy issues at the end! 01:52 Since GPT-3 is the most powerful language model that currently exists, they started 01:56 from there. 01:58 Using a very similar model, they attacked the second part of the problem, generating 02:02 code, by training this GPT model on billions of lines of publicly available GitHub code 02:08 instead of random text from the internet. 02:11 The power of GPT-3 is pretty much the amount of information it can learn from, so doing 02:15 the same thing but specialized on code would certainly yield some amazing results. 02:20 More precisely, they trained this adapted GPT model on 54 million public software repositories 02:27 hosted on GitHub! 02:28 Now, we have a huge model trained on a lot of code examples. 02:32 The problem is, as you know, a model can only be as good as the data it was trained on. 02:37 So if the data is randomly sampled from GitHub, how can you be sure it works and is well-written? 02:43 You can't really know for sure, and it may cause a lot of issues, 02:46 but a great way they found to improve the coding skills of the model further was to 02:50 fine-tune it on code from competitive programming websites and from repositories with continuous 02:56 integration. 02:57 This means that the code is most likely good and well written but in smaller quantity. 03:01 They fine-tuned the model with this new training dataset in a supervised way. 03:05 This means that they trained the same model a second time on a smaller and more specific 03:09 dataset of curated examples. 03:12 Fine-tuning is a powerful technique often used to improve the results for our specific 03:17 needs instead of starting from nothing. 03:19 A model is often much more powerful when trained with more data even if it is not useful for 03:24 our task and further adapted for our task, instead of training a new model from nothing 03:29 with little curated data. 03:31 When it comes to data and deep learning, it's most often the more, the better. 03:36 The descendants of this model are what's used in GitHub Copilot and the Codex models in 03:41 the OpenAI API. 03:43 Of course, Copilot is not perfect yet and has many limitations. 03:46 It won't replace programmers anytime soon, but it showed amazing results and can speed 03:51 up the work of many programmers for coding simple but tedious functions and classes. 03:57 As I mentioned, they trained the copilot's model on billions of lines of public code, 04:01 but from any licenses, and since it was made in collaboration with OpenAI, they will, of 04:06 course, sell this product. 04:08 It's perfectly cool that they want to make money out of a powerful tool they built, but 04:12 it may have some complications when it was made using your code with restrictive licenses. 04:17 If you would like to hear more about this issue in relation to copyright law, the GPL 04:22 license, and terms of service, I'd strongly recommend you watch the great video Yannic 04:26 Kilcher made a few days ago. 04:28 It is linked in the description. 04:29 Thank you for watching!

Watch more on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/WhatsAI

I explain Artificial Intelligence terms and news to non-experts.

2021 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - FACEBOOK

2022 - Best Data Science Newsletter

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Artificial Intelligence

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Computer Vision

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Data Science

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Google

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Innovation

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Machine Learning

2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Natural Language Processing

2022 - Top Tech Youtuber

2021 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - DEEP-LEARNING

Nominated for 2022 - Best Data Science Newsletter

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Artificial Intelligence

Nominated for 2022 - Top Tech Youtuber

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Innovation

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Data Science

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Natural Language Processing

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Computer Vision

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Google

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Machine Learning

OpenAI's New Code Generator: GitHub Copilot (and Codex)

HackerNoon Tech Stories Archive July 25th, 2021

Gaming Keeps Growing in Summer 2021

@justin-roberti
Justin Roberti

What are the most essential tools for new tech entrepreneurs?

@productschool
Product School

How do you track your Product Management OKRs?

@productschool
Product School

Is Jira Align worth it?

@productschool
Product School

The Walled Gardens of Social Media: From the Free Web to the “Free” Web

@roxanamurariu
Roxana Murariu

5 Best Cybersecurity Books for Beginners

@jtruong
Jessica Truong

DCS World Buyer’s Guide

@nicolasng
Nicolas Ng

#Decentralized-Internet Writing Contest: May/June Results Announced

@hackernooncontests
HackerNoon Writing Contests Announcements

OpenAI's New Code Generator: GitHub Copilot (and Codex)

@whatsai
Louis Bouchard

HackerNoon Tech Stories Archive July 25th, 2021

@justin-robertiJustin Roberti

@productschoolProduct School

@productschoolProduct School

@productschoolProduct School

@roxanamurariuRoxana Murariu

@jtruongJessica Truong

@nicolasngNicolas Ng

@hackernooncontestsHackerNoon Writing Contests Announcements

@whatsaiLouis Bouchard

@justin-roberti
Justin Roberti

@productschool
Product School

@productschool
Product School

@productschool
Product School

@roxanamurariu
Roxana Murariu

@jtruong
Jessica Truong

@nicolasng
Nicolas Ng

@hackernooncontests
HackerNoon Writing Contests Announcements

@whatsai
Louis Bouchard