"How Difficult Can That Be?" - The Work of Computer and Video Game Localization

En aquest article es plantegen les competències necessàries per a dur a terme la localització de videojocs i de jocs d'ordinador correctament, com ara un bon domini de la informàtica i estratègies de cerca a Internet, coneixement dels gèneres i convencions dels jocs d'ordinador, i expertesa en el temes que tracti cada joc en concret. També es revisa el procés de localització i el treball en equips virtuals en aquest tipus de localització.En este artículo se plantean las competencias necesarias para realizar la localización de videojuegos y de juegos de ordenador correctamente, como, por ejemplo, un buen dominio de la informática y de estrategias de búsqueda en Internet, conocimientos suficientes de los géneros y convenciones de los juegos de ordenador y estar muy familiarizado con los temas que trate cada juego en concreto. También se revisa el proceso de localización y el trabajo en equipos virtuales en este tipo de localización.This article discusses requirements for successful computer/video game localization, such as strong computer and internet research skills, sufficient knowledge of gaming genres and conventions, as well as subject matter expertise relevant to the specific game. It also discusses the localization process and the use of virtual teams for game localization

Towards a sustainable and efficient use of manure in agriculture: The Dutch case

Rapid increases in livestock production in the Netherlands have changed manure from a valuable input into a mere waste product. This is especially true for the southern and eastern parts of the country, where specialized pig and poultry farms have concentrated on sandy soils. As these farms generally own very little land, they largely depend on imported feedstuffs. As a consequence, manure is applied to the land in such large quantities that serious environmental problems have resulted: (1) eutrophication of surface water by phosphate emissions; (2) pollution of groundwater by nitrate emissions; and (3) acidification by ammonia emissions. In the last few years the Dutch government has developed a manure policy to counteract these effects. Our analysis of that policy has revealed at least three fundamental defects, which render the manure policy ineffective and inefficient. In this paper proposals are made to remove the defects in current manure policy. Much attention is paid to the problem of designing a mixture of policy instruments which is both effective as well as efficient in limiting the environmental problems caused by manure. It is shown that the use of financial incentives in regulation can substantially improve the efficiency of the manure policy. Finally, the main economic consequences of the proposed policy are examined for the public sector as well as for the agricultural sector

Optimal climate policy as if the transition matters

The optimal transition to a low-carbon economy must account for adjustment costs in switching from dirty to clean capital, technological progress, and economic and climatic shocks. We study the low-carbon transition using a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model with emissions abatement costs calibrated on a large energy modelling database, solved with recursive methods. We show how capital inertia puts upward pressure on emissions and temperatures in the short run, but that nonetheless it is optimal to actively disinvest from – to ‘strand’ – a significant share of the dirty capital stock. Conversely, clean technological progress, as well as uncertainty about climatic and economic factors, lead to lower emissions and temperatures in the long run. Putting these factors together, we estimate a net premium of 33% on the optimal carbon price today relative to a ‘straw man’ model with perfect capital mobility, fixed abatement costs and no uncertainty

Optimal climate policy under exogenous and endogenous technical change: making sense of the different approaches

Integrated assessment models (IAMs) provide key inputs to decision-makers on economically efficient climate policies, and technical change is one of the key assumptions in any IAM that estimates mitigation costs. We conduct a systematic survey of how technical change is currently represented in the main IAMs and find that a diversity of approaches continues to exist. This makes it important to conduct an up-to-date assessment of what difference technical change makes to IAM results. Here we attempt such an assessment, using an analytical IAM with a reduced-form representation of technical change, which we can calibrate on the relationship between abatement costs and the timing of abatement in 109 IAM scenarios from two major databases. We first show in theory how a range of technical-change mechanisms can be adequately captured in a reduced-form model, in which the key difference is whether technical change is a function of time, i.e., exogenous, or cumulative past emissions abatement, i.e., endogenous. We then derive analytical and quantitative results on the effect of technical change on optimal climate policy, for both cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness policy problems. Under cost-benefit analysis, technical change has a quantitatively large, negative effect on long-run emissions and temperatures. The effect on carbon prices differs markedly depending on whether technical change is exogenous or endogenous, and whether clean technology deployment is incentivised by carbon prices or a dedicated deployment subsidy. Under cost-effectiveness analysis, technical change has a small effect on transient emissions and temperatures, but it has a large, negative effect on carbon prices almost irrespective of the policy instruments available. We make several practical recommendations for how IAMs can better incorporate TC, particularly when facing computational constraints

Optimal climate policy as if the transition matters

The optimal transition to a low-carbon economy must account for adjustment costs in switching from dirty to clean capital, technological progress, and economic and climatic shocks. We study the low-carbon transition using a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model with emissions abatement costs calibrated on a large energy modelling database, solved with recursive methods. We show how capital inertia puts upward pressure on emissions and temperatures in the short run, but that nonetheless it is optimal to actively disinvest from – to ‘strand’ – a significant share of the dirty capital stock. Conversely, clean technological progress, as well as uncertainty about climatic and economic factors, lead to lower emissions and temperatures in the long run. Putting these factors together, we estimate a net premium of 33% on the optimal carbon price today relative to a ‘straw man’ model with perfect capital mobility, fixed abatement costs and no uncertainty

Die #vBIB21 – Weiterbildung auf dem nächsten Level?

Die zweitägige #vBIB21 zum Thema "Digitale Communities" war Weiterbildungsveranstaltung und Experimentierfeld zugleich. Die VeranstalterInnen von BIB und TIB stellten erneut eine voll digitale Veranstaltung auf die Beine, welche den Bibliothekartag in vielerlei Hinsicht ergänzte. Insbesondere die Aufzeichnungen machten aus der Online-Tagung eine wertvolle Ressource

Are economists getting climate dynamics right and does it matter?

We show that economic models of climate change produce climate dynamics inconsistent with current climate science models: (i) the delay between CO2 emissions and warming is much too long and (ii) positive carbon cycle feedbacks are mostly absent. These inconsistencies lead to biased economic policy advice. Controlling for how the economy is represented, different climate models result in significantly different optimal CO2 emissions. A long delay between emissions and warming leads to optimal carbon prices that are too low and attaches too much importance to the discount rate. Similarly we find that omitting positive carbon cycle feedbacks leads to optimal carbon prices that are too low. We conclude it is important for policy purposes to bring economic models in line with the state of the art in climate science and we make practical suggestions for how to do so