STG's

 Método Ágil: Scrum, Kanban, outras metodologias e Toolkit é um curso do LIT/Saint Paul. Como diz o nome, ele fala de metodologias ágeis, especialmente do Scrum e do Kanban. Já falei um pouco do LIT no último review de curso, mas achei que esse foi melhor: - vídeos são um pouco melhores, com mais tempo mostrando tela. - tutores interagem mais. - aula foi um pouco mais prática. Eu tinha feito um curso recente de Kanban , e lido sobre o Scrum, mas achei que o enfoque foi interessante e que aprendi bastante coisa. A avaliação final foi um estudo de caso sobre empresas que usaram agile. Meu tempo final foi de cerca de 7h.

 Exploring Lean Principles, by Chris Behrens, is a PluralSight course. It covers a number of lean principles, including their origin, and ways to apply them in coding. Overall, very much worth the hour or so it takes to watch it.

The Bosch is a novella by Neal Asher, that takes place in the Polity, in a post-polity period. I really loved this one. There is a lot of biotech, and the usual weird monster/bioweapons. Obviously, there aren't a lot of character definition, but I came for the tech, and it was totally worth it.

 Sparkle 2 Evo is a creature evolution game, which I see occasionally, specially after Spore. It looks nice, but pretty much everything about it was annoying to me, specially the behavior of the controls. The swim down and up thing, too. Even the tutorial felt annoying, with the huge buttons you had to click.

 Tesla Force is very much like Tesla vs Lovecraft, which I've played a lot of - a run and gun game with tons of weapons, abilities, upgrades, and monsters. However, they tried to make a different game around it by having missions (just like regular levels, except with a silly task), and adding many more elements, including playable characters (which are pretty much the same, play wise). So far, I mostly find it confusing. It isn't at clear to me what elements transfer between the times you are killed and what do not, and a lot more beside... Overall, so far I think it would be better to just get Tesla vs Lovecraft.

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, by Susan Cain, is about the difference between introverts and extroverts. I am an introvert, and I felt it was quite interesting to read about the research into the field, as well as ideas about coping mechanisms, and how companies and schools could improve for them - and given that estimates go to 30-50% of the population, the effects from this could be huge. I imagine this book would be particularly helpful for parents of introvert children - not only to understand them, but to improve how they behave around them and their lives.

 Criatividade, Inovação e Empreendedorismo é um curso do LIT, a plataforma online do Saint Paul. Naturalmente, o post vai ser em português (o que é bem raro nesse blog), por motivos evidentes. Também vai ser um misto de review do curso e do LIT. Em teoria a carga horária é 20h, mas desconfio que fiz em bem menos (desenvolvi meu software em que anoto horas para minha época de consultor - e não adicionei uma categoria para o curso). Porém, a maioria das aulas fica ótima em 1.5x (0.5-2x no software, a extensão que uso para isso também funciona). A qualidade dos vídeos é OK, 360p. Infelizmente, o enfoque da câmera é tipo antigo - professor de corpo inteiro com tela no fundo. Isso significa que parte do tempo ele está apontando para a tela mas não dá para ler direito. Na maioria dos casos tem zoom para tela eventualmente. O curso tem apostilas em PDF, baixáveis. As notas são as seguintes - 20% para os fóruns, 30% para avaliação individual, 50% para avaliação final. As que são manuais de...

 I recently got Sparkle 2 for Android free in Google Play Pass, and I really liked it. So I decided to see how much it was for PC.  It is a Zuma clone (I think it was the first on the game type), and quite similar. Just shoot matching marbles, with cascades and some special powers. Given that it was just about US$2.5 (after currency conversion), I decided to get it. It is, as far as I can tell, exactly the same as the Android version, except that I like using the mouse a lot more (and right-click to switch balls is faster and more intuitive). Graphics are pretty nice, and I really like the songs.

 Swimsanity! is simple side scroller shooter. I really didn't like it. The fact that it insisted on using my controller (to the point of not reacting at all to the keyboard once the game started) really didn't help. Graphics are good enough, but the gameplay and sound made me feel like late 90s.

 Sparkle 2 is a Zuma clone - which is basically a line of colored marbles that come out of a hole, and may not reach another. You shoot marbles at them, and when you get a 3-match or more with one color they disappear. You get bonuses for cascades. There are also a bunch of power-ups (such as wild marbles, explosions, etc), as well as unlocking powers, such as faster balls. It isn't great, and so far doesn't seem like much of an advance on Zuma, but it is nice enough, and for me it was included in Google Play Pass, which is a nice bonus. As a side note, it is made by 10Tons. I've been playing Tesla vs Lovecraft for a while now, also by them.

 Optica is a puzzle game. It covers a well-know subgenre - puzzles connecting two sources - but does have its twist by having several "perspectives", which also cause blocks to move. Good graphics and sound, and somewhat entertaining.

 Escape Machine City: Airbone is an escape room game. As you might expect, it has a number of rooms with puzzles that you have to solve to continue. This one was free on Prime Gaming. I tried, and it is nice. Puzzles aren't that hard so far, and there are hints, too. Graphics and sound/music are good enough. Controls are a little mouse centric. I assume a mobile origin.

 Heaven's River, by Dennis E. Taylor, is the latest release in the Bobbiverse series, a series about Bob, who had his head frozen and his mind uploaded into a computer. Then went Von Neumann and, replicated himself, saved what was left of humanity and went about in the universe. At this point of the story, there are a lot of bobs, spread across many light years. They don't have FTL travel, but they do have FTL comms. Bob (the first replicant) decides to look for one Bender, who disappeared years ago. They follow his trail to a star, where they discover a topopolis (a massive structure kind of like ringworld), as well as enemies.  Now they will have to disguise themselves as natives and enter the structure to search for Bender... As always, I really liked the story. It has a lot of things I like - VR, mind uploads, aliens, etc, and I liked the rest of the series, so that was no surprise. Strongly recommended for SF fans, but start at the beginning!

 Wildfire is in an unusual genre - a stealth platformer.  It also has magic elements, including fireballs, which are the biggest thing. You can throw them and burn parts of levels. There are also unlockable powers. So far I really like it.

 Entrepreneur Foundation, by Kim Kaupe, is a course on LinkedIn Learning - which I decided to try out. First of all, LinkedIn Learning - so far it is ok. There are a few annoying UI choices (reviews are stars only, no text, and are not displayed on the main search; it can't remember video speed), but overall it works well, both web and the android app. Selection of courses is pretty OK, covering many fields (programming, graphics, business, etc). Most courses have certificates you can add to LinkedIn profile with a click. Price in Brazil is very, very good - something like US$5 per month, with a discount for annual. About the course - the instructor is very pleasant, and I loved her work in Psych (just kidding, but in some angles she looks a lot like Juliet, and even sounds like her). Since it is an hour long course, there isn't much content. It is more like a long article. Still, well worth the time.

 Beyond Love, by Dominique Lapierre, is a romanticized history of the aids epidemic, and the search for a drug that helps (if not cures). It overs doctors, the feud between Robert Gallo and the french, and the Sisters of Mother Teresa, as they battle against the disease and care for the afflicted. Sadly, the book, like everyone at the time, ends imagining that a vaccine would soon be available. 30 years later, and not yet... I liked it, but I wouldn't go as far as to recommend it. Maybe it is because I read the translated version, but it was pretty much just ok for me.

When I got Lockdown Tales, by Neal Ashes, I thought it would be ok. They are novellas set in the Polity, on the side of the regular stories. What it turned out to be was quite awesome. Asher's latest trilogies are pretty great, but they can also be a little tiresome - there is a lot of descriptions in each scene. I think that the short form limitations worked great for him and made him focus on smaller concepts, and I loved it. Almost every story was great, to the point that I can't even tell which I liked more. Overall, strongly recommended for fans, but I'm not sure if it would very well if you don't already know the concepts behind the events.

Build Your Own CLI Planner App Using Python Abstract Base Classes, by Nicolae Caprarescu, is a project in the Core Python path in PluralSight. There were some things I didn't know about, for sure, including how to force issubclass to see protocols (which, BTW, as a fan of strong typing seem horrifying), and the various weird ways to do abstract classes in Python. The approach of having the whole project in a single block is a little annoying, too, but not a major problem. Time seems wildly wrong here. They predict 3 hours. Took me 50 minutes. And I am not that good in Python. This was the last item on the Core Python path for me.  I also took their SkillIQ test and got 92%, which seems very nice (and very unrealistic).