In Pinball games, a Skill Shot is an optional bonus that the player can earn by performing some particular task when launching (or "plunging") a ball. It typically requires either releasing the ball with a particular strength so the ball goes into a certain region, or shooting a specific target, ramp or loop immediately after the ball is launched. Some games have various levels of skill shots, awarding different bonuses depending on which one is reached.
Not to be confused with the popular terminology for a type of attack in Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas, referring an ability that travels to a location/area (and so requires some prediction to hit an enemy) rather than being Homing Boulders that will always strike something you point and click on.
Examples:
- AC/DC:
- After plunging the ball, hitting any of the lit A-X-E multipliers awards 250,000 points, increases the bonus multiplier, and awards a VIP Pass.
- There's also a Super Skill Shot, which awards 350,000 points, increases the bonus multiplier by 5x, and awards two VIP Passes.
- The Addams Family: Gently plunge the ball so that it lands into Thing's eject saucer for 2 million points, with the value increasing each time.
- Aerosmith has two:
- The "Hidden Skill Shot" (softly plunging into a lock) gives points and a Smart Missile.
- The "Super Skill Shot" requires holding the left flipper, plunging soft enough to get the ball to the right flipper, and shooting whatever shot lights. It awards points and 2 Smart Missiles.
- On each new ball in America's Most Haunted, the display shows a ghost near the pop bumpers, top rollovers, or Stairs passage. Shoot the corresponding location to collect a reward.
- Attack from Mars: Shooting the flashing lane at launch gives extra points and sets the bonus multiplier at 5x (or greater). If you hold the left flipper while launching, the ball will go around to the left flipper for a chance at a Super Skill Shot. You then have a few seconds to hit one of the shots, either any of the two loops or ramps, or any of the Force Field targets. If you hit the shot, it will either complete the requirements for that shot for Total Annihilation, or start an Attack Wave.
- Avengers: Infinity Quest has three skill shots.
- The regular skill shot involves soft plunging to a rollover target, awarding a minimum of 250,000 points and adding 3 seconds of ball saver time.
- The Secret Skill Shot instead requires plunging to the mini-loop, awarding a minimum of one million points, 10 seconds of ball saver, and a lit Portal Lock.
- The Super Skill Shot requires immediately shooting Avengers Tower after launching the ball, awarding a minimum of 500,000 points, 5 seconds of ball saver, and (once per game) a lit Mystery award.
- Baffle Ball was named for its "Baffle Point", an indented saucer at the top of the playfield. Shooting a ball into the Baffle would double the player's score for the entire game.
- Banzai Run: Gently plunge the ball into the Banzai Hill saucer to score the "Super Cycle Stunt" bonus and send the ball up Banzai Hill.
- Baywatch lets the player choose from one of three — the top SPF rollover lanes, the Shark Hole, or the Ironman side ramp. There's also a Secret Skill Shot, where you shoot for the Guard Tower when it's lit for 25 million points.
- The Beatles has several, including soft plunging to the rollover (explicitly labeled as a skill shot on the playfield itself) and plunging to the upper flipper and then shooting the loop for a jackpot.
- Big Bang Bar has a basic skill shot — shoot the ball into the lit rollover lane. Alternately, soft plunge the ball so it rolls back down to the upper flipper, then shoot the left inner orbit for a Secret Skill Shot.
- The skill shot in Big Guns not only scores points, but it also loads the right cannon if the ball isn't locked there.
- At the start of each ball in Black Rose, the torch targets will be flashing in some sequence. Hit the lit target for 500K and an open locker. This Skill Shot has adjustable difficulty settings, too.
- Bone Busters has an unusual one — launch the ball up to the subway station without dropping to the main playfield, then press a Train Switch button on the side of the cabinet to flip the ball directly into the lower-left ball lock.
- In Bram Stoker's Dracula, plunge the ball with the center head (Dracula's head) lit on the three-headed statue yields one million points, and advances V-I-D-E-O.
- Checkpoint: Shoot the ramp within five seconds of plunging the ball for bonus points.
- In Congo, the standard Skill Shot is to hit the lit kickback target for an award. Alternately, soft plunge the ball into the left outlane for 25 million, and try to shoot the Map Saucer for a Kickback Combo.
- Cyclone has a skill shot similar to Bride of Pin*Bot; shooting the middle car (out of five) yields the maximum points.
- Deadpool has no fewer than four of these: the standard lane shot (made a bit harder because you can't change the lane after the ball hits a switch) and three secret ones that require holding the left flipper and making increasingly difficult shots immediately afterwards.
- Demolition Man: After plunging the ball, shoot it up the side ramp with the upper left flipper to score points and to increase the combo value.
- Dialed In! has two:
- Plunge the ball behind the Quantum Theater to score the standard skill shot. The award chosen on the plunger lane varies.
- Shoot either the Sim Card hole or the side ramp to score a Super Skill Shot, which is usually an enhanced version of the award originally collected.
- In Diner, time the launch so the ball lands in the saucer when the desired reward is lit on the jukebox.
- A well-timed launch in Dr. Dude yields the highest score on the "I" Exam.
- Earthshaker!: When putting a ball into play, the ball enters a spiral located in the upper left corner of the playfield. The spiral contains exits for 10K, 25K, 50K, and 100K points. A strong shot from the plunger causes an "overpass", which awards 25K points and 1 mile. The overpass directs the ball to the lower left flipper which allows the player a shot at the center ramp before the 50K timer expires.
- Elvira's House of Horrors awards 250,000 points for making it into the top two lanes, while plunging a bit harder lets you enter the titular mansion's Back Door for 1 million points (and also immediately starts a mode).
- Family Guy:
- The primary skill shot is the "F" in the F-A-R-T drop target bank, complete with a huge "Skill Shot" light pointing to it. It begins at 500,000 points and increases by 250,000 points each time the player can accomplish this per game.
- Alternately shooting the Super Jackpot tunnel immediately scores a "Super Skill Shot".
- Fire!: Plunge the ball up a lane with five rollover switches, and try to reach the second-highest one (worth 100,000 points) without triggering the first one or the target at the end (worth 5,000 and 1,000 points, respectively).
- Fireball requires the player to launch the ball with just enough strength to fall short of the top arc and roll back down the inner ramp for 3,000 points.
- Full Throttle has the player hold down the left flipper to rev the engine, then launch the ball when the tachometer needle is in the red zone.
- In Game of Thrones, plunge into the lit top lane to collect 500,000 points and a bonus multiplier increase.
- Ghostbusters has one of two different skill shots, each with their own method of setup. The left flipper will change one of the lit P-K-E rollover lanes, while the right flipper will change one of the major shots. Each shot/lane has its own specific reward. Making either of these will collect the award, plus 1,000,000 times your ball number, plus 10% of your current score.
- In Gilligan's Island, a soft launch will shoot the ball into the top eject hole for a random reward.
- Gladiators awards one of three bonuses if the player can launch the ball into the Mystery Saucer.
- Guardians of the Galaxy has three: the standard flashing top lane shot, a "hands-free" variant that doubles the reward if you don't use the flipper buttons during it, and a Super Skill Shot accessed by holding the left flipper when launching the ball (which causes one of three shots on the playfield proper to briefly be lit for an extra-large bonus).
- High Roller Casino launches balls into a spinning roulette wheel on the playfield. Depending on which color slot the ball goes down, you receive a different prize: points (black), bonus X (red) or chips (green).
- Hook requires the player to launch the ball into one of three highlighted chutes.
- Hurricane requires the player to launch the ball around the playfield, then immediately shoot the Hurricane ramp.
- Indiana Jones (Stern) has a helpfully labeled one: the display cycles through various rewards, and shooting the ball when the one you want is displayed awards it.
- In Iron Maiden, a soft plunge will launch the ball into the ball walker, either to lock for multiball or to immediately go to the upper playfield.
- Iron Maiden: Legacy of the Beast has a normal one (soft plunging into a specific target, awarding 1 million points, 5 seconds of ball save time, and an EDDIE letter), a Super Skill Shot (hold the left flipper, then shoot a specific shot for 5 million points, 10 seconds of ball save time, and a playfield Score Multiplier), and several Super Secret Skill Shots.
- In Johnny Mnemonic, at the start the middle lane will be flashing; the flippers move the flashing light left and right. If the ball goes through the correct lane, you score 25 million points, multiplied by the number of Skill Shots made, as well as 5 gigabytes.
- Judge Dredd has two:
- Shoot the right outer orbit immediately after launch.
- The "Air Raid" mode diverts the ball back to the plunger, requiring the player to shoot at a specified target for points.
- Jurassic Park (Data East) has the player waiting for a Velociraptor to walk into their crosshairs on the display before shooting the ball.
- Jurassic Park (Stern) has several.
- The standard Skill Shot is to immediately shoot the left ramp (for a minimum of 2 million points), which can be comboed into a Super Skill Shot by shooting the right ramp (doubling the initial point value), a Double Super Skill Shot with the side ramp (quadrupling the value), and finally a Triple Super Skill Shot at the right orbit (sextupling the value).
- There are also several Secret Skill Shots obtained by lightly plunging the ball and immediately hitting one of four shots.
- Furthermore, there's also the MXV Skill Shot (named after Stern employee Mike Vinikour) and the Ultra Super Skill Shot (which starts a hidden feature at the beginning of the game).
- In Last Action Hero, launch the ball to hit the moving C-R-A-N-E light and shoot down a helicopter on the display.
- Lethal Weapon 3 requires the player to hit a moving light across a bank of four targets.
- The Lord of the Rings has no less than three: the Tower Skill Shot, the Flipper Skill Shot, and the Lane Skill Shot.
- The Lost World: Jurassic Park displays an animation of a T-Rex preparing to stomp on some people. Succeeding gives 200,000 points, but a missed one still gives a decent 50,000. Occasionally, a "Super Skill Shot" pops up, with the humans replaced with stranger objects like a shark fin, a grandma, and ET of all things.
- The Machine: Bride of Pin*Bot sends launched balls into one of five slots. The highest value (200,000 points) is right behind the lowest value (25,000), so a slight miscalculation yields the lowest bonus.
- Mary Shelley's Frankenstein has the player throw the Big Electric Switch to collect the currently-flashing reward.
- Maverick The Movie: The plunger can shoot the ball to one of five places. Shooting the ball into the lit hole of the first three gives the current reward for that hold. Going for the fourth hole feeds the ball to the upper right flipper, where the player can take a shot at the captive ball. Or plunge the ball all the way around to the left inlane and scores whatever is lit on the Crystal City ramp.
- Medieval Madness has a set of Skill Shots — shoot the flashing lane at launch for extra points and to set the bonus multiplier at 5x (or greater), or hold the left flipper for a chance at a Super Skill Shot.
- Metallica has several:
- Plunge the ball into the flashing rollover lane to double the bonus multiplier; do it without moving the flashing light to quadruple it.
- Holding down the left flipper button when plunging enables three separate Super Skill Shots.
- Hitting the Piston target enables the Double Playfield Score.
- Shooting a randomly-lit target enables the Coffin Hurry-Up.
- Shooting the right eject hole lights Mystery.
- It is possible to shoot the ball into the Water Works saucer immediately after starting a game of Monopoly. Doing so awards an increasingly large amount of points.
- In Mr. & Mrs. Pac-Man Pinball, launching the ball with the correct amount of force sends it into a saucer for the skill shot. A plunge that was too strong would complete the loop and exit down the lower-left side, while a weak plunge would send the ball short and have it drop out through the bottom.
- The Munsters has two of these on the Pro version and three for the higher-tier editions:
- The normal Skill Shot requires plunging into the right lane (which cannot be changed beforehand).
- The Super Skill Shot requires holding the left flipper button before plunging, then shooting the right ramp right after.
- The Premium and Limited Editions also have a Double Super Skill Shot accessed by holding both left flipper buttons. It requires shooting the scoop, then the saucer on the lower playfield.
- No Good Gofers has two:
- Do a soft plunge at launch to hit the standup targets beneath the middle playfield ramp.
- Alternately, shoot the ball up the ramp, sending the ball to the lower left inlane. This drops the Slam Ramp and gives the player a chance to make the elusive Hole-In-One shot above the main playfield.
- In The Phantom of the Opera, launch the ball into the top flashing lane for a bonus and to open the organ.
- Capcom's Pinball Magic has the player shoot the pinball into a corkscrew spiral, trying to drop the pinball into a magician's hat.
- Pin Bot has the player shoot a ball up a spiral and into one of three scoring holes, with the highest value in the middle.
- Pirates of the Caribbean (Jersey Jack) has three of these.
- Plunging softly into the bumpers awards 1,000 points and increases the Mystery level (increasing the value of what it awards).
- Plunging into the ship popper awards 1,000 points and advances the Black Pearl.
- Plunging to the upper flipper and then shooting the Captain's Quarters awards 2,500 points and activates the map.
- Police Force starts by shooting a ball at a target range spinner, and each turn advances the bonus from 10,000 to 100,000 points.
- Plunging the ball into the top rollover lane in Q*Bert's Quest automatically lights the current pyramid.
- Red & Ted's Road Show:
- Launch the ball into the Blast Hole without hitting anything else to get a free souvenir and a score bonus.
- Alternately, plunge the ball into Bob's Bunker before hitting anything else to get the Secret Skill Shot, "Bob's Lotto".
- Rick and Morty has two: either hitting the Noob Noob target (worth 200,000 points and increasing by 100,000 every time afterwards) or the garage (always worth double the target shot). They also respectively double and triple the ramp values for the rest of the ball. Shooting the side loop will multiply the skill shot's value, too.
- The Skill Shot in Scared Stiff requires gently launching the ball to land in the upper saucer, which causes Elvira to throw a knife at her television set. Since the Skill Shot light is still on for a certain amount time, it is also possible to not gently launch the ball to land in the upper saucer and still get the Skill Shot bonus; getting the ball to the upper saucer quickly enough will net the Skill Shot bonus as long as the Skill Shot light remains on.

- In The Shadow, plunge the ball, then shoot the left ramp for an award determined by the diverters.
- In Silverball Mania, launching the ball down the top center rollover raises the Kicker and scores 5,000 points.
- The Simpsons (Data East) uses the normal "three lanes with one lit for points" shot.
- The Simpsons Pinball Party has three of them. Depending on how strong the ball is launched, it can net you one or more more of them with varying point values (for instance, hitting Comic Book Guy with a careful ball launch starts a "Hurry Up" mode with two targets lit).
- Space Jam: Launch the ball through a basket for 300,000 points, then shoot the left ramp for a Super Skill Shot bonus.
- Spider-Man (Stern):
- The regular Skill Shot involves shooting the flashing top rollover lane at launch.
- Alternately, the Secret Skill Shot requires the player to soft launch the ball so it rolls back down to the upper-right flipper, then hit the left Venom ramp for 500,000 points and a boost to the Venom value.
- In Stargate, soft plunge the ball into the left outlane and enter the Sarcophagus.
- Starship Troopers:
- A magnet catches the ball over the B-U-G rollovers upon launch. Move the flashing rollover light with the flipper buttons so the ball drops in it.
- A Secret Skill Shot is available by holding the left flipper button to disable the magnet and send the ball to the left flipper. Hitting the right ramp will award a 5 million Ramp Skillshot.
- Star Trek: The Next Generation: A Skill Shot is one of the five options available when launching the ball. Choosing that option then requires the player to hit a game-selected target a few seconds after launch.
- Played with in Star Trek (Stern); unlike most modern pinball games, there's no normal Skill Shot available for plunging the ball into a flashing top lane, as designer Steve Ritchie felt there was no actual skill involved. Instead, there are two Secret Skill Shots available by depressing either the "Fire" button or the left flipper when launching a ball.
- In Star Wars (Data East), the player must press the trigger to launch the ball in time to hit an on-screen TIE fighter.
- Star Wars (Stern) has two of these. One involves hitting a specific drop target to receive a bonus. The other involves a trio of targets. When starting a ball, the game moves a bonus target back and forth along this row; shooting the ball out of the plunger lane at the lit target (similar to Terminator 2's "take your best shot" skill shot; both tables have the same designer) will award the player an increase in their shot multiplier.
- Stranger Things has a regular and Super Skill Shot.
- The former works similarly to Terminator 2 or Stern's Star Wars: one of the four drop targets flashes when a ball starts, progressing back and forth. Hitting it scores 500,000 points (with 100,000 more each time it's made).
- The latter entails getting the ball into the left saucer, be it through plunging or immediately after plunging. This is worth a million points, with 250,000 being added for each successive shot.
- Strange Science: Time your launch so it rolls over the Particle Separator switch when the moving light is on the desired reward.
- In Gottlieb's Street Fighter II, one must time the plunger to shoot the ball into Blanka's saucer to set the value, then shoot Chun Li's bracelet to claim it.
- Tales from the Crypt requires the player to time the launch so the ball hits the lit guillotine target as the light moves along.
- Tales of the Arabian Nights:
- The player must shoot the ball into one of three baskets where a snake is hiding to charm it, or else they will get bitten.
- After the Skill Shot, immediately shoot the ball up the ramp for a Super Skill Shot bonus.
- In Taxi, the player shoots the ball into the Spinout saucer, then collects a bonus based on how many revolutions it makes times the current ball number (Extra balls dosen't count as one ball, but counts as one for the multiplier).
- When you plunge a ball into play in Data East's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the left ramp is lit for 250K multiplied by the number of the ball in play. If you successfully shoot it before hitting another playfield target, the right ramp is lit for the same amount.
- Stern's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has either one or two, depending on the version:
- Each of the four turtles has a specific lit shot that must be made after plunging to achieve a Weapon Skill Shot. Achieving it lights the Weapon Hurry-Up.
- Exclusive to the Pro edition is a more traditional skill shot: plunge the ball into the leftmost top lane for points and an increase in bonus multiplier.
- Terminator 2: Judgment Day has the player shoot the ball at the moving target on the Flying-HK five-bank. The value increases for every shot made, but the lights move faster each time.
- Theatre of Magic: Hitting the chest after launch will yield one of three player-selected rewards. At other times in the game, the player must hit the captive ball instead.
- The standard rollover lane skill shot gets a more difficult revamp in Total Nuclear Annihilation: one lane is lit, and plunging the ball into it awards a ball saver level and finishes the grid. The catch is that, while the player can change the lane in question with the flippers, they must do it before plunging the ball. Doing it afterwards downgrades the bonus to just the ball saver level.
- There are up to four Skill Shots available in Transformers, depending on the table version.
- Shoot the flashing rollover lane for a standard Skill Shot.
- The first Secret Skill Shot is to soft plunge the ball into the center lane leading to Megatron.
- The second Secret Skill Shot is to weak plunge the ball so it drops to the right flipper, then shoot the left ramp.
- The third Secret Skill Shot is only available on Limited Edition games. Launch the ball while holding down the left flipper button to send the ball counterclockwise to the left flipper, then shoot the right ramp.
- TRON: Legacy has several, including a soft launch to Flynn's Arcade and a loop to the upper-left flipper for a ramp shot.
- The Twilight Zone: A soft launch will send the ball into a colored zone (red, orange, or yellow), which lights one to three of the jet bumpers. The "Super Skill Shot" mode does something similar, except the awards are either lighting "Battle the Power", lighting the outlanes, or lighting the extra ball shot.
- In Whirlwind, hitting the "Feel", "The", and "Power" drop targets nets 300K, 200K, and 100K points, respectively. Hitting more than one adds their values together.
- White Water: Gently plunge the ball so that it lands next to the upper right flipper, and then shoot Insanity Falls for one million points.
- The Who's Tommy has up to three:
- Soft plunge into the Parachute for a bonus value.
- Launch counterclockwise to the upper left flipper, then shoot the right ramp for a bonus and advances the mystery award.
- If Multiball is ready, launch to the upper left flipper, then hit the Tommy saucer for the "One Way Combo" and start multiball.
- Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory has three of them.
- Soft plunging into the saucer awards points, a W-O-N-K-A letter, and a candy for the Candy Jar.
- Plunging to the upper flipper, then shooting the center ramp adds 5 candies, more points, and a Computer Award.
- The "Super Skill Shot" (holding the left flipper, then performing a combo from the upper flipper) awards even more points, a bonus multiplier, a Computer Award, 10 candies, and furthers every factory tour shots by one.
- The Wizard of Oz:
- Go through lit upper lane to increase the bonus multiplier and collect a bonus.
- Hit the Wicked Witch for a bonus and to start a Witch Hurry Up mode.
- Hit the Jackpot target next to the Haunted Forest to start a Haunted Scoring mode.
- Hit the lit B-A-L-L target to instantly spell BALL for a Crystal Ball mode.
- World Cup Soccer:
- There are three dividers which each have a light near the top of the playfield. When you start, they are all flashing. Falling in one of the flashing ones the first time scores 5 million points, at which point only two remain. Hitting another flashing one scores 10 million, and the last one spots a city for 30 million.
- Before that, there's the less traditional Coin Toss skill shot, requiring you to launch the ball to simulate flipping a coin.
- In WWF Royal Rumble, launch the ball when Hulk Hogan is pointing at a desired bonus to receive it. If you can nudge the ball into the flashing rollover lane, you'll also get a 10 million point bonus.
- In Bally's Xenon, roll over the flashing button switch at launch to score 1,500 points and knock down one of the four side drop targets.
- In Stern Pinball's X-Men, soft plunge the ball to the upper right flipper, then shoot either the Rogue lane or the left ramp for an X-Men cameo (Psylocke and Angel, respectively).
- In 3-D Ultra Pinball: Creep Night, launching a ball softly from the plunger and make it launch from a different hole directly into the main playfield will give a voice message say "Excellent!" and rewards you with 10,000,000 points.
- 3-D Ultra Pinball: Thrill Ride has two, one up the snack shot, and a harder one up the corkscrew coaster.
- In The Pinball of the Dead, press a button at the right time to shoot a zombie with a moving crosshairs.
- Plants vs. Zombies Pinball:
- Soft launch the ball at a snorkeling zombie in the pond for 500,000 points.
- Hit another zombie at the mail ramp after the Skill Shot to score the Super Skill Shot.
- Pro Pinball: Big Race USA has four:
- Shoot the upper-right ramp at launching for the Skill Shot.
- Hit the big loop and then the right ramp in a combo is a Super Skill Shot.
- Using a soft launch, send the ball to the upper-right flipper and then shoot the upper-left ramp for the Secret Skill Shot.
- Use the upper-right flipper to shoot the mini-loop and then the left ramp yields the Super Secret Skill Shot.
- In Pro Pinball: Fantastic Journey, shoot the random flashing drop target after launching the ball for bonus points and to immediately spell GATHER.
- Pro Pinball: Timeshock! lights a lane or ramp at launch, and awards 5 million points for shooting it. If the player presses both flipper buttons before launch, the Secret Skill Shot is activated for 10 million points.
- Pro Pinball: The Web has two: Shoot the Dock ramp after launch for a Skill Shot, or shoot the Loop and then the Dock Ramp for a Super Skill Shot.
- All of the tables in Zen Pinball have some kind of skill shot. The Paranormal table in particular has two skill shots, and one of them can be a double skill shot.


I LOVE TROUBLE A film review by Scott Renshaw Copyright 1994 Scott Renshaw
Starring: Julia Roberts, Nick Nolte, Saul Rubinek, James Rebhorn. Screenplay: Nancy Meyers and Charles Shyer. Director: Charles Shyer.
If you're making a list of movie terms you don't hear all that often, "caper" has to be right up there. It puts me in mind of light-hearted mystery with a generous helping of romance, beautiful people in danger but not hard-core danger; NORTH BY NORTHWEST comes to mind, or the THIN MAN series. I LOVE TROUBLE is an attempt to resurrect the caper, and you've got to hand it to Nancy Meyers and Charles Shyer for trying. They've put two appealing stars with great chemistry in a fast-paced film. They just forgot to give them anything to do. As much as I found myself wanting to enjoy I LOVE TROUBLE, it barely managed to divert me.
Nick Nolte stars as Peter Brackett, a columnist for a Chicago newspaper loved both by readers and by the ladies. Due to a staffing shortage, Brackett is sent out to cover a train derailment. There he meets Sabrina Peterson (Julia Roberts), a young reporter for a rival paper who resists his advances. When Peterson scoops Brackett on a lead, his competitive juices start flowing, and the train story turns into a good-natured game of one-upmanship. However, it soon begins to appear that the train wreck was no accident, and when bullets begin to fly Brackett and Peterson form a reluctant and competitive partnership. Along the way, antagonism naturally turns to attraction.
Shortly after I LOVE TROUBLE started, something began to become clear: there were no characters. Meyers and Shyer had thrown two reporters of opposite genders into a movie without giving them personalities. At least there was an attempt to do something with Brackett; he is shown as a self-plagiarizing narcissist who has forgotten what real reporting is. The problem is that that characterization vanishes after the first fifteen minutes (easily the film's best fifteen minutes). Peterson is written as a good- looking prop, a sparring partner who seems to have been born a minute before the movie started. Nolte and Roberts struggle admirably to generate some kind of life for their characters, but all they can do is flash their thousand watt smiles and hope for the best.  When they smiled, I frequently smiled right along with them.
It sort of makes you wonder what they could have done with a remotely interesting story. The big conspiracy at I LOVE TROUBLE's center is...unique, to say the least, but it's fairly tedious stuff. The identity of the villain is apparent from minute one, and I LOVE TROUBLE takes far too long to get into its main plot. In fact, I might go so far as to say that the plot never gets going, nor is it designed to. It's just a device to take Nolte and Roberts from situation to situation quickly, allow their romance to blossom, and give them a chance to exchange witty banter.
Only there isn't any witty banter. All told, I have to wonder exactly what it is that Meyers and Shyer did to earn their screenwriting paychecks. Their dialogue earns chuckles at best, their sense of pacing is extremely suspect, and their characterizations are wooden. Like their BABY BOOM and FATHER OF THE BRIDE, I LOVE TROUBLE seems designed only to move along affably, without spark or inventiveness of any kind. The fact is, there is nothing truly off-putting about I LOVE TROUBLE. Nolte and Roberts make an appealing tandem, and Roberts' performance in particular is extremely energetic, perhaps her best work to date. But since a movie like I LOVE TROUBLE is inevitable in its outcome--the two reporters *will* end up together--getting there has to be more interesting. Without any excitement in the suspense storyline, and with two bland characters contributing to a singularly vanilla romance, I was left watching two beautiful people be beautiful. It just wasn't enough.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 scoops of vanilla: 4.
-- Scott Renshaw Stanford University Office of the General Counsel
.
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{% load i18n %}
{% blocktrans trimmed %} In review stage 1, you will not see score and comment made by other reviewers, nor the name and background of the speaker. In short, you review based on the talk content itself. {% endblocktrans %}


Garbled Circuits in JavaScript
64-bit Equal to Zero Test (
Circuit
&
Others
)
64-bit Equal to Zero (input 32-bits each)
32-bit Adder
32x32-bit Multiplier
32-bit Signed Less Than Comparison
64-bit Adder
64-bit Subtract
64x64-bit Multiplier
64x64-bit Division
SHA256 (input 256-bits each)
Pick Party Type
Garbler
Evaluator
Enter a string to compute on and the maximum encryptions to run in parallel:
Binary
Hexidecimal
Compute


Watir 6.9.0 is now available on RubyGems! Several minor features and bug fixes from several new committers.
To install:
or in your Gemfile:
Updates
Element#flash
had some browser compatibility issues with white backgrounds that has been fixed- Firefox updated to the latest W3C supported Alert exceptions which Watir did not previously handle
- When working with multi-select lists, #select and #select_all will now accept an array of multiple options:
- The new
Element#set!
method can now handle multiple inputs. Note that the key combinations that are available inElement#set
are still not supported - Mozilla has also implemented a headless mode for Firefox, and it can now be accessed just like Chrome:
- Cookies now now be set by String instead of just by
Time
:
- The generic
Browser#element
andBrowser#elements
methods can now take advantage of the new class locators:
- If an element can not be located, and the page contains IFrames, Watir will append a note to the error message to: “Maybe look in an iframe?”
See the Changelog for the complete history of updates.


--- layout: base-en id: vocabulary title: Vocabulary - Bitcoin ---
Bitcoin provides a new approach to payments and as such, there are some new words that might become a part of your vocabulary. Don't worry, even the humble television created new words!
A Bitcoin address is like a physical address or an email. It is the only information you need to provide for someone to pay you with Bitcoin.
The blockchain is a public record of all Bitcoin transactions, in chronological order. The blockchain is shared between all Bitcoin users. It is used to verify the balance of Bitcoin addresses and to prevent double spending.
A block is a record in the blockchain that contains and confirms many waiting transactions. Roughly every 10 minutes on average, a new block including transactions is appended to the blockchain through mining.
BTC is the unofficial three letter code for Bitcoin. It can be used as an abbreviation, like USD for US dollar.
Confirmation means that a transaction has been verified by the network and is highly unlikely to be reversed. One confirmation is pretty secure. Though for larger amounts ( ex. 1000 $USD and above ), one can wait for a transaction to have more confirmations - 6 is a frequently chosen number. Each new confirmation decreases the risk of a reversal exponentially.
Cryptography is the branch of mathematics that lets us create mathematical proofs that provide high levels of security. Online commerce and banking already uses cryptography. In the case of Bitcoin, cryptography is used to make it impossible for anybody to spend funds from another user's wallet or to corrupt the blockchain. It can also be used to encrypt a wallet, so that it cannot be used without a password.
If a malicious user tries to spend their bitcoins to two different recipients at the same time, this is double spending. Bitcoin mining and the blockchain are there to create a consensus on the network about which of the two transactions will win.
The hash rate is the measuring unit of the processing power of the Bitcoin network. The Bitcoin network must make intensive mathematical operations for security purposes. When the network reaches a hash rate of 10 TH/s, it means it can make ten trillion calculations per second.
Bitcoin mining is the process of making computer hardware do mathematical calculations for the Bitcoin network to confirm transactions and increase security. As a reward for their services, Bitcoin miners can collect transaction fees for the transactions they confirm along with newly created bitcoins. Mining is a specialized and competitive market where the rewards are divided up according to how much calculation is done. Not all Bitcoin users do Bitcoin mining and it is not an easy way to make money.
Peer to peer refers to systems that work like an organized collective by allowing each individual to interact directly with the others. In the case of Bitcoin, the network is built in such a way that each user is broadcasting transactions of other users. And crucially, no bank is required as a third party.
A private key is a secret piece of data that proves your right to spends Bitcoin from a specific Bitcoin address through a cryptographic signature. Each Bitcoin address has its own unique private key. Your private keys are stored in your computer if you use a software wallet while they are stored on some remote servers if you use a web wallet. Private keys must never be revealed as they allow you to spend bitcoins for their respective Bitcoin addresses.
A cryptographic signature is a mathematical mechanism that allows someone to prove ownership. In the case of Bitcoin, a Bitcoin address and its private key are linked by some mathematical magic. When your Bitcoin software signs a transaction with the appropriate private key, the whole network can see that the signature matches the Bitcoin address. However, there is no way for the world to guess your private key to steal your hard-earned bitcoins.
A Bitcoin wallet refers to the equivalent of a physical wallet on the Bitcoin network. Each Bitcoin wallet can show you the total balance of all Bitcoin addresses it contains. Just like you can count the money in your real wallet. And in the same way, a Bitcoin wallet allows you to pay a specific amount to a specific person. This is different to credit cards where you are charged by the merchant.


Welcome to AirMap’s documentation!
Airmap – Airspace Management For Drones.
AirMapSDK is a Python library for interfacing with the Airmap API.
Pre-Requistes:
Airmap developer account
X-API-Key from your account
GPS data (fake gps included)
OAuth token
pip
getAirmap.py (copy to /home/root/installs directory or similar)
AirMapSDK-Embedded is pre-installed
Wi-Fi Connectivity
ifconfig (check for wlan0 or LTE ethX)
cd /etc
sudo wpa_passphrase yourSSID yourPassphrase > wpa-Aero.conf
sudo wpa_supplicant -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa-Aero.conf &
sudo dhclient wlan0
Update AirMapSDK-Embedded
cd /etc/airmap
python getAirmap.py airmap AirMapSDK-Embedded
unzip AirMapSDK-Embedded-master.zip
cd AirMapSDK-Embedded-master
User Example
cd /etc/airmap/AirMapSDK-Embedded
python userapp.py
API Example
(connect) airmap.connect.set_XAPIKey(xapikey) - Set your X-API-Key from your Airmap account
(connect) airmap.connect.get_boardID() - Retrieve CID information
(connect) airmap.connect.connect() - Check internet connection and endpoint status Returns: True if ready
(statusAPI) airmap.statusAPI.get_status(lat,lon,Weather.on) - Given position retreive airspace data
(statusAPI) Parse status information including weather, advisories, and maximum flight bounds (see statusAPI documentation)
(user) Process required notifications if needed
(connect) airmap.connect.get_SecureToken() - get security token
(flightAPI) airmap.flightAPI.create_FlightPoint (flight time,lat,lon,publicflight?,sendnotifications?) - Setup the flight and flight time Returns flightID
(flightAPI) airmap.flightAPI.get_PilotID() - Returns pilotID for this account
(flightAPI) airmap.flightAPI.end_Flight(flightID) - End the flight specified by flight ID
(flightAPI) airmap.flightAPI.delete_Flight(flightID) - Delete flight described by flightID
(flightAPI) airmap.flightAPI.get_FlightList(pilotID) - Get all flights for pilotID
(flightAPI) airmap.flightAPI.cmd_KillFlights(pilotID) - Delete all flights under specified pilotID
Documentation can be found at https://developer.airmap.io
Source code can be found at https://github.com/...
Airmap is a trademark of Airmap, Inc.
Contents:


Radiant Media Player
Samsung Tizen TV Demo App
Select a player
MP4 player
DASH live player
DASH DRM
DASH with video ads
User agent


食事から摂取した脂肪の吸収を
means absorption of fat ingested from meals. Finally a Coke to improve our health.
减肥可乐，喝了可以吸收脂肪，你敢信？反正我是信了。
This page is synchronized from the post: ‘This Coke is obesities savior 减肥可乐’
食事から摂取した脂肪の吸収を
means absorption of fat ingested from meals. Finally a Coke to improve our health.
减肥可乐，喝了可以吸收脂肪，你敢信？反正我是信了。
This page is synchronized from the post: ‘This Coke is obesities savior 减肥可乐’
Hey Japan!
Finally got the chance to visit this amazing country, things got really different compared to the time when I added Trip to Japan in my bucket list. The biggest plot was the rise of cryptocurrency and Japan just happens to be the most crypto-friendly country in the world. And I happens to be a big time crypto fan as well.
Prior to this trip, I did a little research on which cryptocurrency is is widely transacted in the Japanese society but to no avail. Will it be the mainstream BTC or ETH? Or the made-in-Japan Monacoin? We shall see.
Anyhow, I’m not willing to spend my crypto as I still treat them as investment rather than a payment method. So I arrived with a 0 balance crypto wallet in my phone.
Let’s see what you got Japan!
终于抵达了久违的日本！
今日的日本和当初我向往的已经有了很大的不同，最大的原因就是加密货币的崛起。而日本刚巧也是货币的最大拥护者，这对我这种币迷来说简直就是胜地！
不知道这里流行的货币是什么呢？主流的 BTC ETH？还是日本的猫猫币 Monacoin？在网上都找不到答案，就让我们拭目以待吧！
This page is synchronized from the post: ‘Hi the nation of crypto! 拜访加密货币大国’
It is part of my routine making forecast in Cindicator application, just like how I used to post at least one time on Steem. Days ago I was stumbled upon this question in about Bitcoin after a minor slide down to $9000.
Will Bitcoin/USD manage to recover and trade above $17,000 at any time before February 28?
And my prediction at that time was an aggressive 0%.
Good and bad.
Good is I made this prediction just before the major crash for Bitcoin to score a 2018 low record at $6000. And chances are I am likely going to be right on this one.
Bad is having part of my fund invested in Bitcoin, it doesn’t feels good for an investment to stay at red, though it is just a paper loss.
Let’s see what the market has to offer before March.
之前在 Cindicator app 被问到了比特币有没有机会在二月二十八号之前的某一个时间点，突破 $17,000 的交易价？我的预测是狠狠的 0%。
这个预测还是在比特币大跌至 $6,000 之前所做的，现在才恢复到八千左右的水平，离十七千还有一倍的距离啊！看来这次的预测很可能成真了。
喜的是，预测准确可以得到很多分，有利于分红。
悲的是，身为比特币的持有者，看到自己的投资处在亏损阶段也不是很好受。
继续看看市场会再为我们带来什么吧！
This page is synchronized from the post: ‘Will bitcoin trade over $17000 before March? 狠狠的一次预测’
Encountered an interesting question on a forum: Can a loser break the bottleneck in life by ‘all in’ cryptocurrency?
I would not consider myself a loser, but I’m cool if someone regard me as the average or ordinary guy that normally fill up 90% of the street.
As an avearge guy, I have a dream of becoming financially success too. Without any solid idea of how should I achieve that, for the first time I see the light of hope in cryptocurrency.
But not really the same all in philosophy as people might assumed.
Starting from the first day study about Bitcoin and blockchain and much other altcoins, my confidence and interest level grows everyday. There was a sense telling me that this is likely the future, grab it now or grab it later with higher price.
I slowly invested most of my investable money into crypto. Moving other investment asset to crypto. Selling away my index fund stock for the Bitcoin. Invest in ICO using ETH occasionally.
Crypto is now a huge part of my investment portfolio. I know the risk is getting higher with a more centralized profile. But this is the risk that I’m willing to take, and I can only sustain this kind of risk with one condition:
At least finish the whitepaper and take part in active community like Reddit for a particular project is crucial to keep one informed on the latest development or news.
Always invest for long term instead of speculating for short term trading. The time is more well spent on studying projects rather than on frequent buy and sell.
After all, you want to make your ‘all in’ decision as comfortable as possible to stay with. So stop selling the house away for crypto investment.
On the other hand, money is not the only way to all in crypto…
前一阵子在币问遇到个很有趣的问题：
币圈目前这个阶段，屌丝 All in 有机会翻身吗？
我也是屌丝，我也是 All in。但是方法可能跟你理解的有点不同。
我尽可能把不会影响生活的钱，全部投进我觉得有前途的项目中。而不是单一项目，而且只投入我有做过功课并且理解的项目，而不是盲投。
随着我对区块链和各个项目的了解加深，加密货币已经成了我投资账面上最大的一块了。当然这么做的风险也会随之提高，所以基层的知识很信仰会让长期的持有更容易坚持。
最后，而花钱还不是 All in 币圈的唯一门道…
This page is synchronized from the post: ‘My ALL IN story in crypto(part 1) 币圈梭哈(上)’
This is the entry of the “Music Challenge – 7 favorite songs” by @kona. Thanks for the nomination by @ygern.
In this challenge, you have to share your 7 favorite songs. And my first favorite song is Carpenters’s Yesterday Once More.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTaWayUE5XA
Accidentally listened to this song when I was working in the Casino back in 2009. I know this song was released in 1973, how late I was to discover classic song like this one. There was a live performance on the mini stage in the middle of the casino, and I was dealing the Roulette game as usual.
The moment the music started, I was immediately attracted. Could not fully focus on my job but pay a big portion of my attention to enjoy the wonderful rhythm of it. After that shift, I quickly search for this song, download it(illegally, sorry), and loop it all day long.
This was the song that leads me to others great songs by Carpenter as well. Karen Carpenter had the unique tone of voice and that makes her the best to sing this song ever, second to none even after bunches of reproduction by others. This song is simply made for her.
《昨日重现》是当时我在赌场做荷官时无意听到的一首歌，由现场的小乐队所演唱。前奏一响起就完全被吸引了，导致那几分钟有点无心工作。下班后，赶紧找出了这首歌，然后下载（不好意思，非法的）。当天记得就是无限 loop 了。Karen Carpenter 的独特声线简直就是为此歌而生，绝配！
This page is synchronized from the post: ‘Song A: “Yesterday Once More” by Carpenters. Music Challenge - 7 favorite songs｜音樂挑戰 - 七首喜愛歌曲’
Update your browser to view this website correctly. Update my browser now


By Rod Xavier Bondoc / @rodxavier14
University of the Philippines - Diliman | 22 February 2014 | #UPACMBigData
“Big data is a buzzword, or catch-phrase, used to describe a massive volume of both structured and unstructured data that is so large that it's difficult to process using traditional database and software techniques.”
“Big data is the electricity of the 21st century—a new kind of power that transforms everything it touches in business, government, and private life.”
This refers to the size of the data.
The price to store data has dropped over the years.
BUT, we want to store data reliably.
That's why we have Storage Area Networks(SANs)
BUT, SANs can also cause problems.
This refers to the fact that data come from different sources in a variety of formats.
Data come in different formats.
We are working with structured, semi-structured and non-structured data.
We don't want to throw away any data.
This refers to the speed in which the data is created.
An open-source framework for large-scale data storage and data processing.
| Pig | Hive | SELECT * FROM ... | |
| Map Reduce | Impala | HBase | |
| Hadoop Distributed File System(HDFS) |
We'll be using Cloudera's hadoop distribution
Open your VirtualBox and create a new VM.
This is similar to a regular filesystem.
However...
You will notice that most HDFS commands are similar to UNIX commands.
This is a programming model for processing large datasets using parallel and distributed algorithms in a cluster.
A real-world scenario
hadoop jar /usr/lib/hadoop-0.20-mapreduce/contrib/streaming/hadoop-
streaming-2.0.0-mr1-cdh4.1.1.jar -mapper mapper.py -reducer reducer.py
-file mapper.py -file reducer.py -input input -output output
We don't want to test the code on the whole dataset.
Testing our mapper code
cat test.txt | ./mapper.py
Testing our reducer code
cat test.txt | ./mapper.py | sort | ./reducer.py
hs mapper.py reducer.py input output
Wait! There's more...
Hadoop provides a web-based interface for the job tracker. It is running on port 50030.
These are patterns that don't change records.
These are patterns that only get a subset of the data.
These patterns produce a summarized view of the data.
Disclaimer: Not all images and videos are mine. Sources may be found in the github repo.


Ocean [ax69], ocean, in Crystal Sea
Last updated Turn #72
Ocean [ax69], ocean, in Crystal Sea
------------------------------------------------------------------------
3: Orion I [hd3f], ship, 2 hulls, 1 rowing port, 6 sails, 28% damaged,
3: arrived from Ocean [ax70], owner:
3: Phantasm [n4b], Imperial Empire, with 12 sailors
3: It has become quite windy.
4: Orion I [hd3f], ship, 2 hulls, 1 rowing port, 6 sails, 28% damaged,
4: departed for Ocean [ay69].
Routes leaving Ocean:
North, to Ocean [aw69], 6 days
East, to Ocean [ax70], 6 days
South, to Ocean [ay69], 6 days
West, to Ocean [ax68], 6 days
It is raining.
It is windy.


Rstudio and Jupyter Notebooks offer graphical interfaces to facilitate the interaction between a user and an underlying programming language (this is sometimes called IDE, or integrated development environment). They can be very useful when a user is not necessarily proficent with command line-based computing. However, such graphical interfaces are not always able to connect to services such as AWS.
Since most of the preliminary analysis we do is on AWS, we’d like to be able to use Jupyter Notebooks directly on AWS. Here is how we can do!
USER=ec2-user
IP=<IP_ADDRESS>
KEY=~/.ssh/aws.pem
ssh -i ${KEY} ${USER}@${IP} 'jupyter notebook --no-browser --port=8888'
ssh -i ${KEY} -L 8000:localhost:8888 ${USER}@${IP}
Simply go to the following address:
"http://ec2-${IP}.eu-west-3.compute.amazonaws.com:8787"


PERF\-STAT
Section: Misc. Reference Manual Pages (1)Updated: 10/16/2012
Index Return to Main Contents
NAME
perf-stat - Run a command and gather performance counter statisticsSYNOPSIS
perf stat [-e <EVENT> | --event=EVENT] [-a] <command> perf stat [-e <EVENT> | --event=EVENT] [-a] --- <command> [<options>]
DESCRIPTION
This command runs a command and gathers performance counter statistics from it.
OPTIONS
<command>...
- Any command you can specify in a shell.
-e, --event=
- Select the PMU event. Selection can be a symbolic event name (use perf list to list all events) or a raw PMU event (eventsel+umask) in the form of rNNN where NNN is a hexadecimal event descriptor.
-i, --no-inherit
- child tasks do not inherit counters
-p, --pid=<pid>
- stat events on existing process id
-t, --tid=<tid>
- stat events on existing thread id
-a, --all-cpus
- system-wide collection from all CPUs
-c, --scale
- scale/normalize counter values
-r, --repeat=<n>
- repeat command and print average + stddev (max: 100)
-B, --big-num
- print large numbers with thousands' separators according to locale
-C, --cpu=
- Count only on the list of CPUs provided. Multiple CPUs can be provided as a comma-separated list with no space: 0,1. Ranges of CPUs are specified with -: 0-2. In per-thread mode, this option is ignored. The -a option is still necessary to activate system-wide monitoring. Default is to count on all CPUs.
-A, --no-aggr
- Do not aggregate counts across all monitored CPUs in system-wide mode (-a). This option is only valid in system-wide mode.
-n, --null
- null run - doncqt start any counters
-v, --verbose
- be more verbose (show counter open errors, etc)
-x SEP, --field-separator SEP
- print counts using a CSV-style output to make it easy to import directly into spreadsheets. Columns are separated by the string specified in SEP.
-G name, --cgroup name
- monitor only in the container (cgroup) called "name". This option is available only in per-cpu mode. The cgroup filesystem must be mounted. All threads belonging to container "name" are monitored when they run on the monitored CPUs. Multiple cgroups can be provided. Each cgroup is applied to the corresponding event, i.e., first cgroup to first event, second cgroup to second event and so on. It is possible to provide an empty cgroup (monitor all the time) using, e.g., -G foo,,bar. Cgroups must have corresponding events, i.e., they always refer to events defined earlier on the command line.
-o file, --output file
- Print the output into the designated file.
--append
- Append to the output file designated with the -o option. Ignored if -o is not specified.
--log-fd
- Log output to fd, instead of stderr. Complementary to --output, and mutually exclusive with it. --append may be used here. Examples: 3>results perf stat --log-fd 3 --- $cmd 3>>results perf stat --log-fd 3 --append --- $cmd
EXAMPLES
$ perf stat --- make -j
-
Performance counter stats for 'make -j':
-
8117.370256 task clock ticks # 11.281 CPU utilization factor 678 context switches # 0.000 M/sec 133 CPU migrations # 0.000 M/sec 235724 pagefaults # 0.029 M/sec<PHONE_NUMBER>6 CPU cycles # 3057.784 M/sec<PHONE_NUMBER>7 instructions # 2302.138 M/sec 172158895 cache references # 21.209 M/sec 27075259 cache misses # 3.335 M/sec
-
Wall-clock time elapsed: 719.554352 msecs
SEE ALSO
Index
This document was created by man2html, using the manual pages.
Time: 05:29:07 GMT, December 24, 2015