Recently came across Toronto-based software engineer Alex Curelea's blog, in which he describes the psychology behind why Diablo III may not be as satisfying as Diablo II was. It was a good read, and very quick too.
In the analysis, he compares Diablo fans to monkeys who are rewarded with flavored juice when they pull a lever after a specific sequence of shapes is displayed on screen. Eventually, the monkeys begin to associate the reward with the sequence of shapes, and the reward center of their brain becomes stimulated when the sequence appears, rather than when the actual reward is given later.
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Tags:Diablo, Diablo II, Diablo III, Blizzard, Alex Curelea, psychology, Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, Skyrim, Bethesda, From Software, RPG
My dad and I drove up to Utah today (near Zion National Park) to try to get an optimal view of the solar eclipse. And boy did we have a good view!
I managed to snap the following pictures with my cell phone (by holding solar-filtered sunglasses up to the camera lense).
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Full solar eclipse.
One ring to rule them all, One ring to find them,
One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
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After a friend of mine posted a video on Facebook depicting two Cleverbots talking to one another, I decided the check the software out for myself. I had never visited the site before, so I was curious to see how well it measured up.
A full transcript follows:
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When Star Trek was rebooted by J.J. Abrams in 2009 and brought the franchise into mainstream popularity, it was a bitter-sweet moment for many long-time fans. On the one hand, Abrams had made Star Trek "cool" for the first time in the franchise's history and ensured that Star Trek would continue to live on since it's future following the cancelation of Star Trek: Enterprise and the bombing of Star Trek: Nemesis was uncertain. On the other hand, the movie was a reset that took place in a new Star Trek continuity that essentially erased the more than 40 years of Star Trek history. Long-time fans suddenly had to deal with the possibility that the timeline (as it originally existed) was over. There would likely never be any further development of the original Star Trek continuity, since all future projects would probably be based on Abrams' reboot.
Star Trek, as it originally existed, seemed dead.
This meant that the only likely outlets for extension of the original continuity would come from novels, comic books, and the craptacular Star Trek Online MMORPG computer game. And since Star Trek canon generally only includes official, on-screen material, none of those sources would be considered truly canonical.
This would mean that many Trek fans might have some very serious questions about the future of their beloved series go unanswered...
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Tags:Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry, science fiction, CBS, Paramount, David Foster, 1947 Entertainment, Bryan Singer, J.J. Abrams, Roberto Orci, Star Trek Online, Enterprise, Battlestar Galactica
And I missed it...
I thought the shuttle was supposed to be launched at 2 pm eastern time, but when I turned on the television at 10:30 am Pacific time (half an hour before I thought the launch was), I saw that it had already been launched earlier in the morning.
So I missed the launch live.
Fortunately, there are videos and photos of it all over the internet, including this official video from www.Nasa.gov:
Video footage of the launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-135), July 8th, 2011
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