The Mass Effect Finale
[SPOILER WARNING!] Every thing in this post is under a heavy spoiler warning. I am discussing Mass Effect in its entirety from start to finish but mostly how the trilogy ends. If you ever want to play it with out bias and haven’t yet, close this tab right now. However, if you haven’t played it yet, or just not the third one, there is a suggestion for you at the final paragraph. You should check it out. There was some hubbub on the internet regarding the ending of Mass Effect 3. I haven’t played the game with out the Extended Cut and from this I understand that there were some problems with it. But most of them have been solved to some extent. For me, looking at the endings according to the Extended Cut, I think they were good. There were some problems with them, I didn’t expect the “Fuck You” option to be the “You Lose” option and the added slideshow at the end really seems tacked on but I still thought the ending was epic. Honestly, throughout the second half of the game I was hoping it would get a Star-Control-2-Class ending. And I’m glad to say it did. Really. Beautiful. There were some hitches I can snag on but overall, I liked it. But after you step away with a sweet and sour taste in your mouth, you go online to see discussions of the endings and the entire trilogy and you come across the Indoctrination Theory (The Full Continue Reading →
Posted in Gaming, Reviews, Thinking Out Loud by Eran with 2 comments.
Today’s Lucky Ten Thousand
See first post for explanation. And this is what we have on the table today: The Screen Saver Grace Period – is a setting in the Windows operating system that determines how many seconds you have, after the screen saver starts working, that you can stop it without incurring the penalty of having to log back in again (If you’ve set it to require password). This is located in the Registry at location: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon. It’s a string value called ScreenSaverGracePeriod and it interprets the value in seconds. If it’s not there (like in later versions), just add it exactly as I said. The Heat Sink – is the little piece of metal you find on components that tend to run very hot, like your central or graphics processors in your computer or console. It’s composed of a flat slab, to connect to the heat source, and fins extruding from it, to disperse the heat in a way that will allow maximum contact with the air around it. You blow on this with a fan and you get your basic heat evacuation mechanism. Here are some pictures of it. Also, some folks today are working on a rotating heat sink that dispenses with the use of a fan. Pedestrian Stoplights – are a curious thing. They are designed, at least in Israel, in such a fashion that when they turn red, it takes 3 seconds per lane of the crosswalk before the cars’ stoplight turns green. This is to allow the person who Continue Reading →
Posted in Life Lessons, Memes and Stuff by Eran with comments disabled.
Is Autism a Bad Thing?
Judging from this, autism mostly means a critical failure of communication inherent in the person’s mind. And from another video I saw, it appears there are some other mental symptoms that accompany it but it’s mostly the fact that autistic children perceive the world through a completely different matrix than other people do. And maybe it’s because of that literal, direct-only perception that some can be incredible savants. What Michael Barton says in the article is that with his part of the spectrum comes, with some failure to grasp idioms and analogies, a heightened ability to focus, stick to things and better analytical skills. Which, to some definition, makes him a nerdy super-geek! And my first thought is that sounds cool. Wouldn’t you wish you had the ability to just focus on one task for hours with out a break, to grasp and hold complicated design and mechanics in your head? I think that’s awesome. My second thought is that maybe some of the great minds of history, all the way from Einstein down to Newton and Aristotle, were technically undiagnosed autistic people. That would explain a few things, like Tesla and others tendency to isolate themselves from society to focus on their projects, and then producing leaps and bounds of technological breakthrough. My third thought is that, although it might be cool to have unlimited technical potential, it seems you have to sacrifice some part of the human connection and some artistic understanding. I’m a high tech person, basically Continue Reading →
Posted in Humanity, Less Interesting News, Philosophy, Thinking Out Loud by Eran with comments disabled.
Mass Effect: Books, Gender, Emotions
I’m not gonna write a review for Mass Effect 3. I don’t think I need to. If you care about it in any way, you probably heard all you needed to hear if not already played it yourself. And if not, what will it matter anyway? I do, however, wish to impart some thoughts upon it and the Mass Effect universe in general. So today I will stress three points: The Books, Shepard’s Gender and Why it Matters, and How This Game Triggered Some Serious Emotions. The last part contains what are probably heavy spoilers for the third game and at least minor ones for the second so you can skip it if you don’t want that segment ruined. I am talking about after the second Priority: Citadel. The Mass Effect Books. There are currently three Mass Effect books (The fourth has been pulled for serious inconsistencies): Revelation, Ascension and Retribution. It’s always a problem when you adopt a property from one medium to another. You rarely get it perfectly right. The books do get the benefit of having one of the writers of the game (not the lead one, though) writing them so that is something. And I listened to them – and read the comics – because the universe was so awesome I didn’t want to miss anything. Same reason why I go for every mission I can find in the game. And I was hoping for some extra info on the universe that maybe explains some things that Continue Reading →
Posted in Gaming, Reviews by Eran with comments disabled.
David Chillag R.I.P.
I didn’t really know him except through his video lectures and a few live ones I sat through but he truly was a phenomenon. In the Technion there is a running joke that David Chillag is the king and Eliza Malek is the queen of the Mathematics department. It’s a joke that is filled with truth. And I think the sadder part is that future generations will know what they lost. Because every possible Math course in the Technion’s video library is lectured by David Chillag. And I suspect that won’t change unless the material will have a serious overhaul, which won’t happen any time soon. It’s not easy, especially these days, to find a teacher with such an impact that it colours your studies through and through. But Chillag is one of those people whose kindness, attention, social flow and plain old educational skill couldn’t help but leave a mark on so many students. I really do suspect thousands or maybe even tens of thousands mourn his loss even though maybe a quarter of them actually met him in person. He was like Sagan or Feynman. Even though they are long dead, their teachings and strong drive for education still accompany us today. I’m sure Chillag’s spirit will be with us for a while longer. And in the afterlife halls where you stay until you’re forgotten he’s sitting next to those two right now. Maybe calculating the odds on which of them goes first.
Posted in Less Interesting News, No Category, School by Eran with comments disabled.
Post-Exam Update (Garlic Butter)
The last exam is finally over. I hope I did well enough because I know it wasn’t great. I ended up not going to reserve service. Hooray for me! Eight more days of actual life. Now I just need to work on my final project for this semester and all will be well. Got three weeks to go, gonna get a read on it this weekend and start in earnest next week. Hopefully, we can be done rather quickly. And just to make it a bit more interesting, here is something Maayan and me started doing because it’s so easy and tasty… Garlic Butter Requirements: 1 Large Israeli Garlic Bulb 150 grams of butter (Roughly, adjust according to taste) Salt One Oven Tin Foil Total Time: Roughly 15 minutes of actual work. About an hour of waiting. Total cost: About 8 Shekels (One garlic bulb costs next to nothing) Proceedings: Take one garlic bulb and wrap it completely in tin foil Warm your oven to 180 degrees with the top section and circulation Shove the garlic in there and wait an hour. This might be a good time to let the butter out to melt. Take out the garlic, unwrap it and empty all the cloves into a bowl. Add the butter and mix vigorously. Add one half teaspoon of salt (also adjust according to taste) and mix again. Don’t over use. :) We like this one because it might be unhealthy (82% fat in the butter) but we love butter Continue Reading →
Posted in Mixing, No Category by Eran with comments disabled.
It’s Finals Time
There should have been an update yesterday but I was too busy with other things to get to it. It’s finals time right now and my last first test is on Tuesday. And I might be headed for reserve service after that. Still uncertain about that. And in addition, there is a job on the horizon that is looking good. Nothing completely solid yet but I have hopes. So, we will see after next week.
Posted in No Category by Eran with comments disabled.
University Sues Student for Graduating Early
This has been sitting in my to read queue for a few days now and I want to say something about it but I don’t know what. It just seems totally weird. So, when you don’t have anything to write, write about not having anything to write. Here’s the deal: A student enrolled in a private business and economics university in Germany. By an act of sheer genius (both for planning and execution) he managed to finish 11 semesters worth of studies in just 3, completing 60 exams in 20 months. If I met the guy, I would probably shake his hand vigorously and then maybe carry him on my shoulder and parade him around the town. The university had other plans; they are demanding 3000 euros as missing fees for his studies. That is, they want him to pay up for the rest of the year even though he only needed half of it. So… The university says the fees are for all the studies, which means they are probably charging all in advance. If not, why say that? If so, why are they only asking now and why only for the remainder of the year? The payment shouldn’t be for studies, the payment should be for access to university property (material, instruments, etc…) and the privilege of taking the tests and passing them, getting a degree. He should only pay for the time he used. The Technion charges per semester, which seems fair to me. But what if Continue Reading →
Posted in Geekdom, Less Interesting News, Weird by Eran with 1 comment.
Review: Brave
It’s a new Pixar movie. Of course we had to go see it. Both of us love Pixar and this one looked especially cute and personally, I always love to see powerful, bad ass women taking on the world their own way. I guess it makes me feel there’s still hope. Before going, I saw two basic reviews of this movie that both said pretty much the same thing: This is a good movie and excellently made and performed but it’s kind of cliche. It’s like a standard Disney movie but we expected more from Pixar. So, go to watch, we did. Maayan’s opinion: It’s awesome. My opinion: I can see what they were talking about. I mean, it’s beautiful. The animation is superb in perfect Pixar quality. And you can especially see the attention to details given to the cloth and hair, Merida’s hair in particular. And the style and the jokes that you’re expecting from Pixar are all there. It’s charming and lovely and touching and cute. But up until about a third of the movie, I kept expecting to be something more, something hidden, some tug at the heartstrings of a touchy subject, anything that will remind me that the guys behind this are the guys who made The Incredibles or Toy Story 3 or Ratatouille. But no. So, like they said and I reiterate: It’s not the new Pixar sensation. It won’t blow you away with a magnificent story (the animation is great, though). But it is charming and cute and probably Continue Reading →
Posted in Reviews and tagged pixar by Eran with 1 comment.
Today’s Lucky Ten Thousand
XKCD rolled out a comic not long ago about something that is very near to me. I know that there are some things that I know and other people don’t. Actually, most people don’t. I hear about it almost every day, practically every week. I know a lot, my T’s head is very wide (I’ll get to that momentarily) but I really try not to make fun of people or condescend the fact that I know stuff. I can also admit that there are things I don’t know or don’t get: Like finance or Computation Theory. But when there comes a time when I know something and other people don’t, I do my best to explain it. Because it’s fun. It’s fun to explain, it’s fun to see understanding and it’s especially fun because it enables more fun when there are more knowledgeable people. So what are we doing today… Heat Death – is one possible scenario for the end of the universe and, in fact, one of the more likely ones and one most touted (claimed to be, spread around, shouted from the roof tops) in science in general. The theory basically states that the universe is expanding and, as there are not other apparent affectors, will continue to expand until all the energy present in the universe will be smooth and spread so thin that everything will achieve a consistent temperature close to absolute zero and thus all thermodynamic activity will cease and not more changes can occur. As the saying goes, Continue Reading →
Posted in Memes and Stuff by Eran with comments disabled.