New Year Countdown Special VII

This is the final countdown special. The actual New Year post will be made at 12:00 1/1/13. Yes, exactly at that time.
Day One: Nothing but pictures!

This post will only have pictures!














 












Signing off!

Images:
1. A mushroom
2. Windows
3. Yay for Google and The Simpsons!
4. Philosoraptor
5. xkcd
6. Calvin and Hobbes
8. Philosoraptor
9. Philosoraptor
10. xkcd
11 – 15. Calvin and Hobbes

New Year Countdown Special VI

This is the second last new year countdown special! This too, like the previous post, will be a multi-category post, found in Windows and Specials.

Day Two: Windows Surface!

Windows Surface is Microsoft’s latest hardware and is shipped with Windows 8 and Internet Explorer 10.0. Its speciality is that it can turn from the sleek touchpad to the elegant laptop.

Surface has released in its RT form, but the Win8 form will only appear at January, perhaps later.
To say about the software, it has mixed reviews. Old Windows users hated the software because of the complete UI change.

It also has a Windows Store, which I think was created due to Linux’s Store, Apple’s ITunes, Windows 8 Phone’s Marketplace, HP WebOS’ HP App Catalogue and the famous Android Store. So Windows must have one of their own.

This post is small, because the Pro has not even been released.
And of course, signing off! 

New Year Countdown Special V

This is the fifth of seven NYC specials. Go check out the last one about Skyrim so you can catch up! Also,  you have to know this is a double label post: It will be found in both Windows and Specials.

Day Three: Xbox 360 720!

Most people who have the Xbox or the Xbox 360 don’t know about Microsoft’s plans for the next one. Wikipedia says that Xbox 720 will come out 2013 – 2015, perhaps later.


The controller will probably look like WiiU’s controller, as shown above, or stay the same, or have more buttons, as shown below.


Or it might be completely different from what we gamers think. I personally liked the latter and the former, but the former more.

Moving on to the console, it has tons of features, and it seems Microsoft is improving with the advent of Windows 8 and the 720.

As you can see, it has wonderful features like hidden USB slots and a sync button right next to the power button. Of course, this may not be the final product, but we must imagine, right?
There will also be Kinect 2.0, but there is little news about it.

So signing off!
All images are copyright of their owners.

What is Minecraft?

Minecraft is more of a video game version of Lego.


A comparison of Lego and Minecraft. Top: Minecraft Bottom: Lego
However, when Lego is more about building, Minecraft combines exploring, mining, crafting and building, with the exception of Minecraft Classic and a game mode called Creative where you get infinite blocks for building.

There are three versions of Minecraft; Minecraft, which is the PC edition, Minecraft: Pocket Edition, available on the iOS and Android, and Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition, available for 1600 Microsoft points on the Xbox Live Marketplace Arcade.


Ah! Get out of there, Cree- BOOOM!

Anyways, Minecraft was developed by Mojang Studios. The gameplay is simple, but a bit complex. Survive the nights, don’t die of starvation, explore the Nether dimension, kill the Ender Dragon in the End dimension, but mostly you need to mine and craft!


I’m mining!

I’m crafting!

There are many creatures who roam the night, who you need to fend off. Some notorious ones are Creepers, who explode when they're near you, Skeletons, who shoot arrows at you, and Spiders, who can climb walls.
There are many more stuff you can do, like make sword and enchant it, ride pigs,…

…shear sheep for wool, shoot arrows at creepers, burn down houses and also even find some diamond while mining!

Thus what you do is, mine so you can craft better tools to fight monsters, craft so you can make better tools for mining!

Minecraft has received good responses from critics. Don’t believe me?

Minecraft generally received favourable responses from critics. The game has been praised for the creative freedom it grants players in-game, as well as the ease of enabling emergent gameplay. Critics have praised Minecraft's complex crafting system, commenting that it is an important aspect of the game's open-ended gameplay. Most publications were impressed by the game's "blocky" graphics, with IGN describing them as "instantly memorable". Reviewers also liked the game's adventure elements, noting that the game creates a good balance between exploring and building. The game's multiplayer feature has been generally received favourably, with IGN commenting that "adventuring is always better with friends."

A review of the alpha version, by Scott Munro of the Daily Record, called it "already something special" and urged readers to buy it. In July 2012, PC Gamer listed Minecraft as the fourth-best game to play at work. Jim Rossignol of Rock, Paper, Shotgun also recommended the alpha of the game, calling it "a kind of generative 8-bit Lego Stalker". On September 17, 2010, gaming webcomic began a series of comics and news posts about the addictiveness of the game.
In 2010 and 2011, Minecraft won awards from Good Game, Gamasutra, Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Indie DB, PC Gamer UK, Independent Games Festival, Game Developers Choice Awards and GameCity. On May 5, 2011, Minecraft was selected as one of the 80 games that would be displayed at the Smithsonian American Art Museum as part of "The Art of Video Games" exhibit that opened on March 16, 2012.

The Xbox 360 version was generally received positively by critics, but did not receive as much praise compared to the PC version. Although reviewers noted the lack of features such as mod support and Creative Mode as disappointing, they acclaimed the version's addition of a tutorial and in-game tips and crafting recipes, saying that they make the game more user-friendly. In 2012, Minecraft XBLA was awarded a Golden Joystick Award in the Best Downloadable Game category, and a TIGA Games Industry Award in the Best Arcade Game category.
© Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia.

Now I’m going mining, so signing out!
Oh, here’s a reward for reading this! 

New Year Countdown Special IV

Yay! The fourth countdown special. Three more left! Last time the topic was The Hunger Games and now we got the famous game:

Day Four: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim!

Even though this game was released in 2011, this game is still a great competitor to most other bestselling games, like Batman: Arkham City and the sandbox Minecraft.

Skyrim was released by Bethesda Studios, who also released the four previous TES (The Elder Scrolls). The previous game was called Oblivion, which was first released March 20, 2006.

Skyrim is not exactly a sequel to Oblivion, since it takes place two-hundred years after it, but the gameplay is mostly the same. The game starts with a character race selection, then you are allowed to customize your character.

In combat, you are allowed to wield two weapons, but some weapons are two-handed, which prevents you from wielding another weapon.

Like Minecraft but unlike other TES games, Skyrim has a crafting interface. However, Skyrim’s crafting interface is more like Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition, since you select an item and if you have the correct ingredients, the item is made.

Skyrim and the The Elder Scrolls received positive acclaim, so these five games should be checked out.

So, signing out!

Away with you, YouTube!

Yay! This is the first post in the Windows label! In this post I will talk about two things I hate in YouTube. So let’s start. (YouTube is run by Google, if you don’t know.)
The first thing I hate in YouTube is private videos. Not that I hate the fact of private videos itself, but I hate how YouTube announces it publicly.

Admit it. How many times have you clicked on a video and received the message: This video is private? Many times. So if a video is private, why even show it on the video catalogue itself? Hide it, YouTube, hide it.

Picture below. No, it’s not a video.

Then the second one; removed videos. If a video is removed, why do you still need to keep it in your database? Hide it, YouTube, hide it.

Picture below. No, it’s not a video again.

So, even if Microsoft is a bad competitor, Google itself needs to become better. Not just Google: Even Apple, Sony, Nintendo, Android and Oracle. Nobody is perfect. And thus noware is also perfect.
Also, Google crossed the line twice by changing its bars too. On the side of Google Search results there was a navigation bar. 

(Sorry, no picture found)

And now, that goes on top of the results, making Google Images Search harder. Previously, the search tools was open, which means you could change the parameters in a click. But now, you need to open the Search Tools bar, and then change the options.

And that’s all I can say.
Signing off, hope Google improves and merry Christmas!

New Year Countdown Special III

Welcome to the third of seven countdown specials! The first one was about The Hobbit, second one about Gangnam Style (!) and now this one!

Day Five: The Hunger Games!
'”I’m hungry and I’m playing a game!” The bestselling trilogy (correction: sorry no correction) called the Hunger Games starts with The Hunger Games, then moves on to Catching Fire, and ends with Mockingjay.

First, the Hunger Games.

This book, most people say, is the best book in the series. Why? Because this one is fully devoted to the Games, unlike the next two. It’s about North America, now Panem, which is divided into 12 (13) districts and one Capitol. The Capitol is like Rome: eat and watch the Games.

The Games of this version is called the Hunger Games, where one male and one female from each district (except District 13, see Mockingjay) is chosen randomly (the competitors are called tributes) and sent to the Games, for a fight to the death.

This story is about a girl called Katniss Everdeen, a district 12 girl who volunteers instead of her sister, Primrose Everdeen, to go the Games. The story then moves on to her trip to the Capitol, what happens in the Capitol, and finally the Games. Katniss also meets a few allies and enemies, such as her mentor, Haymitch Abernathy, the District 12 boy, Peeta Mellark and allies and enemies such as Rue, Cato and Foxface.

After reading the first book, you then need to read Catching Fire.

Catching Fire is the second part of THG, where Katniss is called to the Games again. Actually, that is not allowed,but since this being the 75th Games, a new rule is temporarily added, and this rule was that tributes may not be chosen randomly, instead previous winners were chosen.

In District 12, only two boys and one girl have won, who are: Peeta, Haymitch and Katniss. The only girl is Katniss, so she is chosen, and as the boy, Peeta volunteers instead of Haymitch.

In this book, Katniss meets more friends like Finnick Odair, but halfway through the book, Katniss breaks the boundaries of the Games, and she along with a few tributes escape into the next book.

The final book is called Mockingjay.

In the last book, Katniss and Peeta find District 13, which was supposedly destroyed. In this, the president and all the members of District 13, which includes Katniss, Peeta, Finnick, Haymitch, Primrose and more plan to rebel against the Capitol and destroy it.

Halfway through the book, a few people are chosen to go to the Capitol and finish them off. Katniss, Peeta, Finnick and a few others.

In the end, Katniss aims her bow at the president of the Capitol, but shoots at the president of District 13, that too on purpose.

There is also an epilogue in this book.
And that’s all I have to say about the three book, so signing off and merry Christmas!

New Year Countdown Special II

Behold the second of seven New Year Countdown Special posts. Last time I talked about The Hobbit, and this time:

Day Six: Gangnam Style!

There are very few of you (correction: none of you) who have not heard of the hit Gangnam style. With over 8 million views on YouTube, it is evident that this song is rock-off-your-seat.

But why does it have 80,000,000+ views? Why is it so popular? An answer to this question can be found in these white words of education.

Humour
Laughter is the best medicine. It is also the best booster. That’s why this is found in GS. There will be no one who has not laughed at least once during the song. 

Easy Moves
Who says moves can’t be groovy and easy to learn at the same time? I don’t, because GS has proved it false. I even found a picture showing all of GS’ moves. Look:

© EverythingConnects.net

And that’s all I have to say about this song, so signing off and merry Christmas!

New Year Countdown Special I

Here is the first of seven New Year Countdown Special posts. These will be posted in a new Special label. Anyways, back to business.

Day Seven: The Hobbit!
Spoiler Alert! You were warned!

All of you (correction: all of you on planet Earth) will be members of the people who talk about The Hobbit. If you don’t know what the aforementioned thing is, its a movie based on the book of the same name. It serves as a prelude to the bestselling Lord of the Rings. See more here.
The protagonist of this story is a merry (no, not Meriadoc, my dear LotR fans) hobbit, called Bilbo Baggins who finds himself taking on an adventures to raid a dragon, along with thirteen dwarves and one wizard.
Now this Bilbo finds the One Ring, which makes him do odd things. Why did he lie to the dwarves? This is a question only Bilbo and Tolkien can answer, one gone and the other deceased.

In the beginning, they go through mountains, meeting friends like Elrond and the eagles, and fighting perils, mostly the infamous Orcs. Soon one of the most important things happen; the finding of the ring. (Read the book/watch the movie to find out more!) After that they reach the dragon’s lair, and fight a battle where Bilbo plays a small part.

Concluding, the book has a good plot, but Tolkien fails to make excitement between it. Many may and will disagree, and I can vouch for them too. However, this becomes better in LotR, and thus he is justified.
And what about the movie? Jackson has directed well, but the biggest mistake he did was to change the storyline. If you do that, the movie becomes worse than the book. A note to directors: A book became bestselling because of its plot and style of writing. The latter does not exist in movie making, but altering the former will ruin the movie. There are exceptions, of course.

Signing off, merry Christmas, and stay tuned for the next special!  

First impression is the best impression

That’s how the quote goes. And this post is designed just to prove this quote true and to introduce myself and my blog. A short sentence/riddle to introduce me: “Someone who has cares of many and fares of few.”

My blog is mostly about math, science and literature (Mushrooms), technology (Windows) and other goodies (Random Stuff). Also expect a tiny fact and a perplexing riddle thrown at random times. (Yes, I use the word random a lot, in this blog at least).

And you’ll detect some doses of humour in the little passages that flow by.

Finally, software used to make this. Blogger to make my blog, which is run by the awesome Google (as if you didn’t know that). And Windows Writer to write the posts.

Credits: My cousin for making another blog like this. The above software programmers for making awesome software (no irony intended) and my father for showing me how to do this!

Signing off and merry Christmas!