STG's

My Time at Portia is an open world game, with crafting at its core, as you are a builder who just came to Portia, an island where you inherited a workshop. I have to say that I never would have gotten this myself, but it came in a bundle, and was so well recommended that I decided to try it. I love it. I don't know exactly why, maybe because of the sense of progression and because there are so many choices in what to do. Graphics are good, in a silly way, as you can see from screenshots (not mine, just in general). Even the monsters are adorable, which I find kind of offputting. Gameplay is really where this shines. It's easily one of my favorite games in a couple of years, in terms of time spent. Tutorials are pretty good, although I think could be better. Luckily the wikis for this game are great, because you will probably want to keep them ready for checks. It would be nice if the game UI could show those, because crafting has a lot of requirements (like tools, mat...

State of Decay: Year One is a re-do of State of Decay with better graphics. It was kind of a rip-off because the first game was relatively new when it was released, and soon the original version stopped working altogether, never to be fixed. Now they gave gift copies to all owners of the first, which I guess is kind of nice, but 4 years after, so not great. It is a zombie survival game, with a nice community/base building angle. I mostly liked the original version, although it had some problems with my computer at the time. I decided to try this one. It aged very poorly. Graphics look acceptable, but old. Worse, no support for QHD. Alt-tab switching makes the game go windowed, and you have to set it to full screen when you go back. Interface is pretty poor, even for the age. No interaction overlays, for example. And stupid stuff like if you want to switch to a bigger bag, you need space on your existing one to take then equip them. Car handling is awful. Fights/search a...

The Quantum Garden, by  Derek Künsken , is the sequel to the Quantum Magician . It follows the consequences of Belisarius' heist in the first book, and what he needs to do to avoid them. I really liked this, although less than the first volume. There is another heist, time travel, and an alien species is introduced. I would have liked an reintroduction to the world (even though it hasn't been so long since I read it, I forgot many of the details already). Without that, I really recommend reading the first book before this one. One interesting thing is how set the characters are in preventing paradoxes. I didn't see any evidence that they know what it'd cause, though... Possibilities for the sequence are certainly interesting, I really want to see where this goes.

Overload is a mech fight game. There are some guns, too, but they appear less than the regular punching. Graphics are nice, but the UI annoyed me in many little ways. For example, the mouse cursor always starts at the top left. In some places, W S A D works and in some it doesn't. It also ignores clicks sometimes. Fighting is OK, but I found it repetitive and mostly boring. Arcade mode does have some clever stuff. You have Mod slots, where you can install stuff you get into missions. You also have research point, for improved mech items, as well as mods and weapons. There are also cosmetic items you get. Overall, it is OK, but if I had bought it I'd be disappointed. As a Humble Bundle item it is pretty much par for the course.

Q.U.B.E. 2 is a puzzle games, which gives me many overtones of Portal. You can control some devices, with different cubes/colors with different types. For example, one is a jumping pad, one just extrudes a plataform and one outputs a cube. You use these to solve puzzles. But it feels a little dry, compared to Portal. It's not bad, and the puzzles are quite clever (but not so much that I can't solve them). But it feels a bit like work so far...

I recently got a Samsung Galaxy Tab S6, and decided to try older games I got on Humble Mobile Bundles. Anomaly Korea is the first. I had already played some of the games in the series on the PC, and they were OK. Anomaly Korea works nicely so far on the Tab S6, which is nice specially given that it is a few years old by now. As the other games, it is a reverse Tower Defense, where you use your units to survive the towers, and usually to achieve an objective. You get an interesting mix of options, including routes, order of your convoy, upgrades, abilities and buying units. Graphics are nice enough, and the gameplay is fun but not great. Overall, worth the time, and even money if you have to buy it.

I recently got a Galaxy Tab S6. I will not do a real review because this is a lot of work, so there are just some notes on the subject. For reference, my previous tablet was an iPad Air. It is crazy thin, and quite a bit slippery. I imagine the cover (specially the cool keyboard cover, which isn't even that pricy) would really help there, but they didn't have it on the Samsung store I went to (and another I asked). Apparently they are a rare item, just as the tablet (which I got notified by the store, that one unit had arrived and that I had to go that day to get it). Hopefully it will be available soon. Borders are really thin. Sometimes I will bump the screen by mistake. Screen proportions are better for watching movies than the iPad - it is very close to a screen aspect ratio. The double-tap on the screen to wake is nice, because you can just double-tap in the fingerprint area and then unlock it (some reviews I read complained that you need to use the power button fi...

I recently tried to get the Amazon AppStore running on my new tablet (for an app I was sure I had there - but didn't). Turns out it was quite complicated because Amazon's detection is broken and it insisted my android tablet was a desktop. Why not offer a download just in case? Good question, sure which they thought of that. The only way I managed to download was going to my android phone, downloading the APK from there, uploading it to Dropbox, and then using Dropbox on the tablet to install it. Seems silly, of course. Specially when I didn't even use anything from the app after all that...

I am playing Just Cause 2 for the first time. Why? There was a sale for Just Cause 4, and several people mentioned that it was much less fun than 3 or 2. Since I really liked Just Cause 3 and already had it (for 9 years!), I checked the store page to see if it still worked well. They said it did, and in my experience so far it really does. Graphics are still OK, although certainly not great. The faces in particular are pretty bad. But so far ($ hours played) I don't really like the gameplay. In particular, the whole using the signal to find the part crates is a bit annoying (just like it was on 3). I didn't much like Just Cause 3 in the beginning, so I'm going to continue for now. But so far it seems that the grappling hook was much more fun in the sequel.

Salvation Lost is the latest book by Peter F. Hamilton, part of the Salvation Sequence, which started with Salvation. The author is one of a few authors that I pre-order books from. I feel no need to wait for reviews because he delivers every time. Now that some people know that the aliens (unnamed to avoid spoilers, but should be very obvious) are trying to take humanity to their god, the fight begins. There is plenty of action, both in the present and in the deep future. And even the regular tech is fun. There is also a new group of criminals in the legion, which mildly tie in with the bigger events, but they are OK, and introduce some new tech. There is a fun twist in the end (on the future) with someone's identity. I can't help but think that the interloper is a bit of a deus ex machina event - something that does happen often with Peter F. Hamilton books. Still, the book was just awesome and I can't wait for the conclusion...

Evergarden might be the weirdest puzzles game I've played in quite a while. Mostly, you combine plants and grow them to combine them into shapes. I am sure there is more to it, but I haven't figure it out yet...

Synthetik is an interesting top view rogue like shooter. There seems to be a lot going on with it, plenty of guns you can get, mastery per gun, gun variants, you can buy guns, there are a lot of modules, etc. There is even research that you can do between games, which I guess is a variant on the unlocks that many rogue-likes have. But frankly, I mostly have no idea what is going on. There is a tutorial but to me it just covered a few of these parts. Looks great, though. One annoying thing is that the cursor can go away from your monitor, and if you click at that point it completely messes up the game.

The sequel to Salvation just came out, so before that I wanted the previous book fresh on my mind, instead of the usual state of things, where I slowly remember important details as they appear on the new book. ( My original review of the book ) I have to say it held very well on the re-read, and I might have enjoyed the tech of the world even more. Portals, widespread AIs, genetic manipulation, etc. I am really looking forward to reading the sequel.

Mindshift is a course by the same author of Learning How to Learn - Barbara Oakley. It is not as good as that one, but there are lots of interesting tidbits to learn. Somewhat entertaining  - even the tests, which as some have said, are mostly there because it is traditional - they are VERY easy and I imagine without watching the course. I really like that the transcripts are great. If you prefer reading to videos, you can just read and occasionally click to watch the video, if the text refers to something in it. It is short enough that it is well worth the time. It is free on Coursera .

Divi 4.0 has been released . It is a nice WordPress theme that allows you lot of configuration and page building options, and it includes a lot of new features in this release. Personally I never used it other than on a test site, but it looks very good. Price is reasonable, specially if you get it at a discount. I probably wouldn't bother commenting on it normally, but there is a promotion...

A Lei da Atração, by Michael J. Losier is a book about putting "The Secret" to work for you. I got it from Amazon Prime Reading. I found it somewhat interesting. There are some practices that seem helpful, and some, like making a journal of good things that happen to you, has been featured on studies on simple practices to be happier.

Just finished A Sabedoria da Transformação by Monja Coen - which I got from Amazon Prime Read. A lot of interesting tidbits. And for whatever reason, it is a very pleasing read, and gave me a sense of well being and wanting to help more.

Summer Frost is a novella by Blake Crouch, which also did Recursion recently. Very enjoyable, even if it ended the classic way (I am thinking about another AI series, but can't mention it without creating a half spoiler for those who read it). Some topics (such as super intelligence and the goal problem) are nicely close to what is thought about in non fiction about the topic, too. I am specially thinking about Life 3.0 .

Mothergunship is basically, Tower of Guns 2 (even the EXE is named that). So, it is pretty much a bullet hell FPS, but this time you build your guns and upgrades. I don't what about it I specifically don't like, but it feels more like a chore than fun. Graphics and music are OK, if not great. Walking feels a little too smooth, and like I'm sliding. But there is something about the guns and the enemies that just really don't satisfy.

God's Trigger is a top shooter, with some gimmicks. One of the big ones is having two exchangeable characters. This isn't uncommon, and it probably goes as you'd expect - they have complimentary special moves, that are needed in some places. One is an angel and one is a demon, and they are apparently trying to stop the apocalypse. There is also some progression with upgrades, although a bit slower than I'd like. You buy those at every level start with experience, which you get by killing enemies and laying around in boxes on the levels. There is a checkpoint system, which is important as you get killed with one shot (apparently they don't make angels and demons like they used to...) Some can take a couple of minutes, which make for some very annoying replays of rooms. Given this, the levels feel a bit like a puzzle, where you try to figure out a sequence that won't get you killed. There is also a stealth option, but it is a little hard to get away with i...

Ultralearning  by Scott Young is a book that focus on techniques to learn faster. It is probably useful to note his definition of ultralearning - a strategy to acquire skills and knowledge that is both self-directed and intense I was quite familiar with most of what is described in the book, as I have been following his blog for a few years now. Still, it goes into much more detail and is a pleasant read. I haven't tried the techniques yet, but many of them look sound, and I have seen some of them elsewhere. I was aware of a few names of the ultralearners, but I was surprised to see an old ASP (Association of Software Professionals) colleague in there, Steve Pavlina (CS degree in 3 semesters). Overall, worth the time, and I hope I will do a ultralearning project eventually.

I recently got Slay the Spire in the Humble Bundle. It is a deckbuilding roguelike, which I doubt I'd get by myself because I usually don't like either type of game. When I started playing, it felt a little boring. But once I got more cards, relics (objects you get that give an effect and stay you throughout the whole run) and potions, the strategy of the game became more apparent, and I really enjoyed it. There can be a lot of thought on each round, and there are cards that can affect the whole battle. I've played for 80 minutes for now. I am still not sure what happens when I die, but so far I really like the game.

Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari has a very fair title of a Brief History of Mankind. Since I liked Homo Deus and 21 Lessons so much, I fully expected this book to be great. To say that I was not disappointed is a major understatement. There is so much in this book that covers history and culture that I never learned, and that had huge influences on where the world currently stand! I can't possibly recommend this enough.

Peace Force, by Simon Haynes, is self described in many places as a "light sci-fi adventure". Seems pretty fair. It is the first of a series where Harriet Walsh joins the local police, called Peace Force, as its only human member. I probably wouldn't have heard of it, but BookBub.com showed me the offer for US$0 on Amazon. BTW, it is totally worth subscribing to BookBub, as it is free and I get interesting offers for books of very known and occasionally unknown authors. Just pay attention before you pay - I am from Brazil and many of the offers are not available here. Anyway, the book was nice and short, with adequate amounts of action and humor. The twist about the robot was good enough. It was good enough to be enjoyable, but not good enough that I will be buying the sequels.

Yoki's Island Express is a pretty bizarre game - a mix of pinball with platforming. You are a beetle that is supposed to go around on deliveries, but so far it has been mostly using fruits you collect to unlock bumpers that allow you to navigate the levels. There are also a number of creatures that can help or hinder you. It is pretty weird, but somewhat entertaining. There are a few stations where you need to get bumpers just right to collect unlocks to leave the area, these feel a little annoying. This is certainly unique, and looks great, but I don't think it is worth the time, as I don't really enjoy the pinball mechanics.

Autonomous, by Annalee Newitz, is a SF novel that takes place more than a century in the future, where bio-tech, autonomous robots with full human rights and 3D/tissue/everything printers are everywhere. And in a pretty common turn of events, evil corporations have taken over the world. Sure, this is overused, but is it hard to see it happening as things are going right now? I really liked the tech on this novel. While most of it isn't really new in SF, it was applied very well, and there was so much of it that the world felt like a nice, integrated dystopian mess. The story was nice, particularly the weird tale of the bot just coming off training and going on its first mission. As silly detail picking, seems pretty bizarre to have all that bio-tech and full AI, and yet not have algorithms for expression detection when those are available right now to a pretty good level... I was a bit surprised that the review ratings weren't higher - but I guess I like weird tech more...

I just recently finished Life 3.0, by Max Tegmark , and Artificial You - by Susan Schneider just happened to pop up on recently added on O'Reilly Safari. It looks like it wasn't released on several other places, so no reviews, which I see as a minor perk. A nice discussion about AIs, consciousness and human enhancement and uploading. Of course, most of it is highly conceptual, but it still quite interesting and somewhat fun in a SF way to talk about. It goes in a different theme than Life 3.0, but still covers much of the same areas. SF fans will see many parallels to new and older books. For example, the issue of duplication is covered in an interesting way in Kiln People, by David Brin. Probes with uploaded minds are covered in some of Charles Stross' work, and he also has AIs based on human uploads. We are legion by Dennis E. Taylor also goes into interstellar probes and mind duplication. I do disagree with some of it (for example, there is much talk about how futu...

Life 3.0, by Max Tegmark, looks into our AI powered future, and how it could be. Several interesting parts, including the views on how an hypothetical Artificial General Intelligence could launch. Other bits felt less interesting and dragged more, for example the theory on how much energy or space could be available for AIs (even if the mechanisms analyzed were sometimes interesting). It also goes a lot into AI safety, which the author cares so much about it that he launched a foundation to study the subject, including grants for researchers and everything. Overall, I felt it was pretty good, but some parts drag it down.

Oracle is a new book by Douglas E. Richards. This one is SF but not a technothriller - it even has aliens. The basis of the stories is that clairvoyants are real, and there are several alien groups in Earth. One of them believe a clairvoyant can win their war. It is a bit hard to write about the book without spoilers, but one thing I feel worth mentioning is how Deus Ex Machina a lot of the book is - in the sense that the rules are specifically made so that anything can happen for the story to work. For example (more spoilers ahead!) - the portals appear on an unknown schedule, possibly controlled by other aliens, and they may or may not let tech pass, depending on the convenience for the story. Same for the visions (although that one is common to pretty much any story that has visions). Overall, good, but feels more contrived than the usual by the author.

Recursion, by Blake Crouch, is a SF novel. I find it a little hard to talk about it without spoiling. What I knew coming in, is that suddenly people started having false memories of whole other lives. A cop starts investigating and discovers it is much more than it seems (which should be obvious to most SF readers, although the particularly mechanism seems novel enough). I pretty much loved it, and it was one of the fastest books I've finished lately. Maybe it is too much of a giveaway, but it strongly reminded me of Ripples in the Dirac Sea,  a short story that won the 1989 Nebule prize, and that is so haunting that I immediately remembered it even though it has been 30 years since I last read it. Overall, strongly recommended to any SF fans.

A Mighty Fortress, by David Weber, is the 4th book in the SafeHold series. The SafeHold series is about humanity's last world, which was kept in a primitive state with a custom made religion so that aliens could not find their signals. In a way that really resembles the Honor Harrington, the nice nation (the Charisian Empire) is getting attacked unfairly by the bad guys (the Church), who now declared Holy War. Also, research is the only thing keeping the good guys alive as the stakes keep increasing. And there are very careful description of the battles. Just on the sea. Even if it is much like the Honor Harrington series (except that instead of being in space, there are sea battles), it is quite enjoyable. As most Weber books, there is quite a bit of dialog between the battles, which builds the book well even if it really slows down the action. Overall, recommended to fans of the series.

Deception Well, by Linda Nagata is an SF novel that takes place in the same universe as the excellent Bohr Maker. I actually read this way back, in the 90s, before the Bohr Maker. That made a bit of difference in the re-read, but not that much. However, I don't if it is the difference in scope, or in the action, but this one felt way less enjoyable than the Bohr maker, which I really liked. Overall, this one was OK. Some of the ideas were interesting, but the execution wasn't great.

Middle Earth: Shadow of War is a nice update on Shadow of Mordor, and is a third-person view RPG. (yes, I am phoning it in today). It plays mostly the same as that one, with a number of added complications. Since it's been a while, I don't quite recall with any certainty what is new and what is not... Certainly there is a lot of stuff, and it gets a bit more complicated than I'd like (for example, the UI can be a bit confusing sometimes, specially with the many maps now and the bunch of things to do). However, so far I really like it - 6 hours into the game, and certainly there is a lot to do. It is also nice that apparently there was a store component that was removed. One problem I get sometimes is getting trapped at a corner, and being unable to jump. Pretty annoying when you are being chased by a bunch of orcs. Overall, looks pretty good so far, although at times the movement feels a little weird.

The Warship, by Neal Asher, is the second novel in the Rise of the Jain series. On the end of the last book, Orlandine had just dropped a black hole on the accretion disk full of Jain tech. Unfortunately, that is exactly what they wanted... Great battles, great expansion of the tech and the storyline. Very much recommended, if you read the previous book, of course.

Sniper Elite V2 Remastered is a new release of V2 with improved lighting and effects. Is it worth the price? No. Wait for a sale. However, I had V2 (never played it, but loved Sniper Elite 4 and 3), so I got a great upgrade price (US$5 after currency conversion). That seems more than fair. For those unaware of the series, you are a sniper fighting nazis. Most of the time you will want to use either stealth or at least shoot from cover at a distance - you are definitely not a bullet sponge. I hear V1 was a lot less forgiving, but V2 is OK at the normal difficulty. You will die a bit, but load times are very fast. A lot of stuff from 3 and 4 are absent here. The UI is much worse (small details like no mini-map, objective pointers only appear if you are looking in their direction, etc). No gun changes (although this is rather poor in the whole series). No shooting lights for more stealth. I've also heard complaints about super-vision by the enemies - viewing places that they...

The Bohr Maker, by Linda Nagata, is an SF novel with lots of nanotech, which just so happens to be called maker all the time. Funnily enough, I read the sequels way back in the 90s, before I bought books off the internet. Even after all these years, I remembered as particularly good. This book has aged very well, and the tech is very believable. In the world, makers are everywhere - keeping people young (or not, as they please), making the equivalent of brain implants (here called atriums), and allowing for mind uploads, as well as sending your mind to visit someone, enter specially developed animals or even take control (voluntary or not) over people. For obvious reasons, this very well regulated by the police - although a little too much for Nicco, who is a special human adapted to vacuum who only exists by special license. That license is expiring, and so is he. He is desperate for a nanotech super weapon, a full AI (which is also illegal) which can make any nanotech. There is...

The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Fifth Annual Collection had pretty great stories, as usual. Unfortunately for me, I already read the anthology for fantasy and SF, so there was quite a few stories I already read. Even so, it was totally worth the money and time.

By Heresies Distressed is the third title in the SafeHold series, by David Weber. In this series, human kind got to the brink of extinction because of an alien race hunting us, and hid in a planet far away. The leaders decided to lower the tech level to avoid detection by the aliens, erase everyone's memories and establish a church where they were archangels to keep it this way. In this volume, the war between Charis and the church continues, and now is time to counter-attack Corisande. As usual, plenty of low tech battles, with a little SF added in. There is still a little less action that what I'd like, but I still enjoyed it very much.

Augmented: Life in the Fast Lane, by Bret King, is a book about the future of technology and its influence on our lives. Personally I found it quite enjoyable, and a little SF like. I had heard of most of tech mentioned before, but the analysis of the trends was entertaining.

Far Cry 5 seems mostly like its predecessors, except for small details. At least there was more change than between 3 and 4. I have only played a bit so far, and I like it. One thing I didn't like is the super light UI (apparently can't be turned off). Things like the number of bullets left in the clip are now hard to read graphs, that disappear if you are not switching weapons or firing. Sure, the screen looks better but it is annoying. One thing I like is that you no longer get the gruesome cutting up animals to get important upgrades that requires their skins. Now you use perks instead. As in most of the series, stealth is still an useful option, which I really like (and I really missed in Just Cause 3). Update: The regular captures are SO ANNOYING! And Faith's parts are the worst!

Empower Your Brain With Neurogenesis, by Gregory Caremans, is an interesting course on how to increase neurogenesis (the creation of new cells in your brain). If you think you stop growing brain cells as a child... You were probably taught that in the 80s or before, when that was common sense. In the 90s research proved that is not the case. Anyway, the course was interesting, and while some of what it covered was very obvious, some was not. Good for neurogenesis: Movement (even walking, aerobics are better, dance is better because you have to learn and remember moves) Natural environments Novelty (too much causes stress, though) Meeting People (new or not) Learning instruments or Languages Education in general Massages (giving or receiving, including pets) Hugs/Sex with people you trust/love Meaningful interactions Good relationships Naps/proper sleep Silence - 2 hours a day Omega-3 Blueberries Curcumin Intermittent fasting (this one was a surprise for me, and I...

Star Control: Origins is based/inspired on the Star Control series, from the 80s. I played Star Control II quite a bit, and really enjoyed the battles and the variety of ships. But I found almost nothing to like here. The UI is terrible in many minor ways. Landing on planets by bumping on them seems like a poor choice, and sometimes you will just leave a planet and it will show the land screen again (why not just use the mouse???). You get missions on distant planets. How much fuel will that take? It is a mistery, the UI won't tell you. Have you gone into a planet/moon already? If so you better remember it because the UI will not show you... And more other minor annoyances. The lander part of the game is probably the worse. It is just annoying and time consuming. You mostly just drive around getting resources and occasional interesting stuff, and shooting at rocks for more resources. It's just not fun. Even the battle seems to be less fun than Star Control II. The only ...

Veracity, by Douglas E. Richards is a near future SF thriller. Basically a scientist evolves the perfect AI truth detector, and naturally, some people want it for themselves and won't stop at anything to get it... I usually like his books, but I felt this one could be better. The ending is pretty good, but the middle really dragged for me. As always, props for the author for having an appendix where he discusses all the technology used on the book, and where it is right now.

Bleed 2 is a side-scroll shooter. It is cute, and I do like the graphics, but the gameplay seems to be more on the annoying side for me. I did like the slow time mode (even if the tutorial didn't mention it).

Neurovoider is an interesting procedural run and gun game, with rogue-like and RPG elements. It does sound good in theory, but as most rogue-like I did not like it. There is just something about the battle, plus I find all the management of upgrades, repair, skills, etc a bit of on the annoying side.

Just finished  By Schism Rest Asunder , by David Weber , the second book in the Safehold series. The series are about humanity in a new planet, hiding from an alien species (unknowingly) by using only low tech, enforced by the church. But an android with a downloaded human wants them to know the truth... This was pretty nice. Not sure if I got used to it or if those sections were shorter, but the plotting by everyone and naval terms in battles did not annoy me as in the first book. One trend in Weber series repeats (not sure which was first, though) - a lonely kingdom with a good ruler, hunted by enemies, arise by having better tech and starts forming an empire. Obviously this is an important part of the Honor Harrington series, and so it is here. Overall, I really liked it (more than the first), and I was quite surprised when it ended (I read it in an e-book with 2 other volumes, so I had no indication it was about to end).

Out of Spite, Out of Mind, is the latest book in the Magic 2.0 series, which cover an universe which is computer generated, and the people who have access to a specific file can effectively do magic. In this volume, one of characters (Brit the Elder) gets in trouble after a paradox, and reality gets a bug that the wizards must fix if they don't want the universe to cease existing. This one felt pretty short, and had plenty of funny bits. Enjoyable, as usual, but nothing great.

I had Off Armageddon Reef, by David Weber for a while, but decided to read it (or re-read it - I know I read parts of it before, not sure if got to the end) because I heard that the 10th book in the series was released. The story base is nice - human kind was interstellar, but aliens hunted each planet down and destroyed it. Humanity escapes with enough to make a colony, but tries to do it with low tech because the aliens located other colonies, presumably through tech emissions. One android with a human download survived the crazy church that was established by the colony leaders, and she will have to lead humanity to liberate itself from the church and eventually beat the aliens. Of course, most of the novel is not SF - it takes place in the world where yes, there is an android messing with things, but the tech has to be pretty low. So substantial portions are just conspiracies and politics (which is a common David Weber thing, if you've read the Honor series). There is a l...

I wanted to get a track list from Google Play Music. Unfortunately there is no way I am aware of to just choose your library and export the whole thing to CSV. What can be done is go to Google TakeOut , choose Google Play Music and then wait for it to notify you. For me this took about an hour, to get a 3MB ZIP file (you don't have to wait on their page, though - you can check later or wait for the e-mail). On the ZIP file there is a CSV with data on each track (both on your library and on each playlist, in a folder) and a index.html file. If you need a simple list track title list, this is very easy - just open the index.html file, click to open the playlist you want or just the tracks folder, select all (Ctrl+A) and copy. You will get a list with the track names plus .CSV. Naturally, this is not the best (MANY tracks have the same names but different bands or albums), but it might do for your needs. I'll probably make a simple PC app to go through all CSV files and ex...

Just finished The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume Twelve. I am not going to go through each story and talk about them, but just wanted to mention that it was overall quite good. There were some great stories, some OK ones, and a few that were mostly annoying. Still, very much worth the time.

I've sort of "fixed" my mouse offset problems and cursor exits from Just Cause 3. For whatever reason, both seem to happen sometime, specially if I need to change focus from the game. Sometimes just going to another app and returning solves it, otherwise if I go to Options, Graphics, and turn full screen back on (or turn it off and on again), it seems to get fixed. However, still annoying.

I recently got Just Cause 3 on Humble Bundle Monthly. I remember playing the original, and liking it even though it was a bit repetitive (not unlike most open world games, like the Far Cry series). I tried it, and it is interesting, although it feel wrong in a number of ways - not to mention quite buggy. One example is that just clicking on items on the map is quite buggy, and usually have offsets. I'd think it was an obscure thing just happening to me but it is quite present in forums. I also had problems with the cursor leaving the game area in windowed mode, which is pretty dumb. A small nitpick - why does it use CTRL to go back in menus, when everyone uses ESC??? Also frequently explanations of minor items in play are insufficient. Overall, I wouldn't recommend the game, but I am still going to insist on playing further. Update (26/01/2019): I have continued to play the game. The mouse cursor issue is still a factor, but other than that I really like the gam...