Blogger has a new layout and it's not really that bad. I mean, it's not like Blogger is trying to become the next MySpace and Facebook. Right? Well, let's look at the details.
The over all look is clean. The Dashboard is really well laid out. I can't give enough Thank Yous to Google for making these changes. Quite frankly, I'm impressed. Your blogs are all right there at the top for easy access. You can quickly create a new post in which ever blog you want, by clicking on the big orange Pencil button. That easy. Your Overview, Pages, Comments, Stats, Earnings, Layout, Templates, and Settings are all conveniently located in a Drop Down menu next to the New Post button. You can View your Blog right next to that. It's a very clean feeling. Like someone went through the house and did some spring cleaning.
The Blogs that you follow, are all at the bottom of the page on the left hand side. Their post, are to the right of that. Easy to read, easy to manage and sort through.
Individual Blog dashboards are just as easily navigable. Menu buttons are neatly arranged on the left hand side, while your page views is right dab in the middle. The Blogger official post, are right below that. Blog stats, Blogs of Note, and the Blogger Guide are all on the right side.
Your actual blog layout, stays the same. No changes there, just to the dashboards. I believe that this is a good change. A much needed change. Now, let's hope that Google doesn't become layout happy and start changing things like MySpace and Facebook. One might argue that Blogger is doomed to be the next MySpace or Facebook as far as Layout changes go. Google, take my advice and leave it as it.
All in all, I'd give this update 5 stars. Many people argue that Google can't do anything right. I beg the differ. Blogger is a successful platform and will only grow with these changes. Gmail is a major email system with a wide range of users. Google Plus is gaining ground and gaining quickly. Google a failure? I think not.
Showing posts with label new. Show all posts
Showing posts with label new. Show all posts
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Minecraft - 1.8 Update
So, Notch is going to release an update for Minecraft. When? Right around the time of the Minecon Convention. So, it'll be a couple months yet. At the same time, not everything is really confirmed in the release. What is confirmed? Well, here's a list of things below.
Creative mode and the fact that you'll be able to have every item at your disposal is an awesome feature for Minecraft. No longer will you have a need for the TooManyItems mod. I mean, if you want to go into adventure mode, why do you really need it? This is great for those who want to join the game and just build.
Endermen, I'm not sure how I feel about these at the moment. The fact that they do have a weakness, makes it even more interesting. I just hope I'm not in the middle of a Desert when I run into one of them.
Oceans will be larger and randomly dotted with Islands? This opens up a whole new level of Gameplay. So, who wants to be a Pirate? Anyone? Join my crew?
Rotting Flesh from Zombies? What is that uses for anyway? A mask you can wear in the Nether?
The NPCs feature will be epic. I can see the potential of this now. Lot's of adventures in Minecraft to be had now. As though there wasn't enough to do right? Still, going to be awesome.
Charged Bows and new achievements will bring a slight fun factor to Minecraft. This is going to be interesting. I imagine it being sort of like the Charged Sword attack in Zelda.
New animations for eating? I'm not sure how I feel about this one. I mean, why not leave it the same. Unless Notch wants to make it a little harder to play. Maybe he thinks we have it too easy?
The Dead Mine Shafts will be a site to see. This will add a new scary factor to Minecraft. Yet another way to creep people out. Just make sure you don't get too scared when that Zombie jumps out from around the corner.
XP Bar. While this is an interesting feature, it'll be interesting to see how it plays out. Will there be magical skills that you can purchase as upgrades so to speak? That would be awesome.
This has been my epic review of the Minecraft 1.8 update features. Hope you enjoyed it. There are some things that aren't set in stone yet, but we'll have to wait and see what comes out when it finally comes. There is however going to be a couple of other features, such as Floating Islands and Baby Animals that you can supposedly tame and train. Good luck on your Minecraft Adventures and look toward the future.
- New Biome Code (Confirmed biomes: Large cliffs, Mountains, Islands, Canyons)
- Snow is now covered over the whole cubic block to look more realistic?
- Creative Mode (That mode will allow flying without mods both in SSP and SMP.)
- New Mobs! (Confirmed Mobs: Endermen)
- New lighting system.
- Rivers
- Food eating w/ animation.
- Skills
- Experience orbs.
- Hunger
- New HUD. (Whats new: Hunger bar, skill bar)
- Randomly generate mineshafts.
- New title menu background.
- Volcanoes will not be in 1.8, but Notch confirmed they are possible and could be coming in the future.
- Biomes will be much more distinct, and rivers will separate some of them.
- Endermen will have a two block reach and will teleport to attack you when you move your crosshairs off of them. They do, however, have a major weakness: Water. If you can lure them into chasing you into water they die off fairly quickly. They will also collect blocks to make geometric shapes. They are considered rare.
- Silverfish is some sort of new random mob.
- Oceans are much larger and with randomly dotted islands.
- Rain has been improved, “like a thousand times better” according to Notch.
- NPC Villages are ready to go, but not the characters themselves, they will be released down the road. They will be peaceful and leave you alone unless you attack one. Sort of like Zombie Pigmen in the Nether.
- Speaking of the Nether, there will be no updates for the Minecraft underworld just yet, but there will be at some point in the future.
- Lava and torches will have new lighting effects, and in possibly one of the most exciting updates, torches will give off light in your hand while holding it.
- Zombies will now drop rotten flesh as opposed to feathers (which never really made sense, anyway).
- Bows & Arrows have new animations, and charged arrows will have a lot more power and fly further.
- You’ll finally be able to grow pumpkins thanks to seeds.
- Melons have been added and can also be grown in farms.
- You will now have a Hunger Bar on your HUD. The more you sprint, the hungrier you get.
- There is now an animation for eating, and it also takes a few seconds now instead of being instantaneous.
- Tables. Finally … tables. No more just placing a wooden block and making people think it’s a table.
- Glass panes will be super thin glass and you can remove them unlike glass blocks.
- “Dead Mine Shafts” will be randomly generated like Dungeons and will feature rails, torches and wooden pillars.
- New Creative Mode will allow you to fly, hover, instantly destroy blocks – including Bedrock – and spawn items in unlimited numbers.
- You will be able to pull up a menu and just click on the items you wish to create. Admins will be able to turn this on and off.
- Killing animals and mobs will now drop Experience Orbs, and you gain skill points by filling up your XP bar, but you can’t do anything with those points … yet.
- Due to the number of updates, 1.8 updates may come in parts. (i.e. 1.8.1, 1.8.2)
Creative mode and the fact that you'll be able to have every item at your disposal is an awesome feature for Minecraft. No longer will you have a need for the TooManyItems mod. I mean, if you want to go into adventure mode, why do you really need it? This is great for those who want to join the game and just build.
Endermen, I'm not sure how I feel about these at the moment. The fact that they do have a weakness, makes it even more interesting. I just hope I'm not in the middle of a Desert when I run into one of them.
Oceans will be larger and randomly dotted with Islands? This opens up a whole new level of Gameplay. So, who wants to be a Pirate? Anyone? Join my crew?
Rotting Flesh from Zombies? What is that uses for anyway? A mask you can wear in the Nether?
The NPCs feature will be epic. I can see the potential of this now. Lot's of adventures in Minecraft to be had now. As though there wasn't enough to do right? Still, going to be awesome.
Charged Bows and new achievements will bring a slight fun factor to Minecraft. This is going to be interesting. I imagine it being sort of like the Charged Sword attack in Zelda.
New animations for eating? I'm not sure how I feel about this one. I mean, why not leave it the same. Unless Notch wants to make it a little harder to play. Maybe he thinks we have it too easy?
The Dead Mine Shafts will be a site to see. This will add a new scary factor to Minecraft. Yet another way to creep people out. Just make sure you don't get too scared when that Zombie jumps out from around the corner.
XP Bar. While this is an interesting feature, it'll be interesting to see how it plays out. Will there be magical skills that you can purchase as upgrades so to speak? That would be awesome.
This has been my epic review of the Minecraft 1.8 update features. Hope you enjoyed it. There are some things that aren't set in stone yet, but we'll have to wait and see what comes out when it finally comes. There is however going to be a couple of other features, such as Floating Islands and Baby Animals that you can supposedly tame and train. Good luck on your Minecraft Adventures and look toward the future.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
This Tiny World in a Massive Universe
The world as we know it is very small. Sure, it may appear large to many people living here, but compare it to the rest of the Universe. Did you know that you could fit 1300 Earths inside the planet Jupiter? Jupiter is in fact the largest planet in our solar system. But wait, there is a bigger planet than Jupiter.
In 2006, another planet was discovered in a far away Solar System in the constellation of Hercules. It's actually 1.7 times bigger than Jupiter. Impressive right? How on Earth can a planet even amass that amount of size? That's actually 70% larger than Jupiter.
As if that wasn't enough, Scientist believe they may have actually found a Ninth planet in out solar system. This planet, currently dubbed Tyche, is in the outer reaches of the Ort Cloud that is in our own Solar system. If the data is correct, this planet would dwarf even Jupiter. Tyche, is said to be 4 times larger than Jupiter itself. Still think this is a big planet you're on? Ok, guess I need to do some more convencing.
It's estimated that there are about 2500 stars visible at any given time. On top of that, 5800 - 8000 is the total number of visible stars. If that's not impressive, Science estimates that there are about 200 billion - 400 billion total stars in out very own Milky Way Galaxy. Continue? Okay.
Recent studies have found that about 30 percent of stars actually have planets. A lot more than the previous 7 percent. This increases our odds of finding Earth Like planets. Some solar systems may even contain multiple Earth Like planets.
The Hubble Space Telescope took a picture one day. NASA, decided to zoom in on a spot out in space. They held it there for ten days, letting the light come to them. The end result? An image that capture the light from almost 3000 Galaxies. That's right. Almost 3000. In one little tiny spot in the sky. So, what does this equal out to in ratio number? How about a whopping 1/28,000,000. For those of you that still have your minds spinning, that's about 1 out of 28 million spots in the sky to choose from. Now, take that previous number of 3000 and multiply that by 28 million and you have a huge number. On top of that, that's not catching every inch of space. There are sections in between that would be missed. Not to mention the sections beyond that.
Let's put that in retrospective. If you took that 28 million and multiplied that by 3000, you'd come up with a grand total of 84 billion Galaxies. That are in our current Universe. Which means, if we took that 84 billion Galaxies and multiplied that by an average of 300 billion stars. For those of you who want me to continue with the math, that's 25.2 sextillion stars. In case you don't know what that is, it goes a little something like this, million, billion, trillion, quadrillion, quintillion, sextillion. That's a lot of stars. And 30 percent of those, have planets? That 30 percent equals out to about 7.56 sextillion stars that have planets. And people think we are alone in the Universe. Haha, good luck with that one.
Now, let me ask you a question. If there is life on this planet. Out of those unknown proportions of planets, what makes us think that there isn't life on other planets? Some people refuse to acknowledge the possibility, but the evidence is over whelming. To deny the fact that there might actually be life on other planets, is just stupid. Plain stupid. No other word to describe it. Now, do you still feel that Earth is a big planet?
In 2006, another planet was discovered in a far away Solar System in the constellation of Hercules. It's actually 1.7 times bigger than Jupiter. Impressive right? How on Earth can a planet even amass that amount of size? That's actually 70% larger than Jupiter.
As if that wasn't enough, Scientist believe they may have actually found a Ninth planet in out solar system. This planet, currently dubbed Tyche, is in the outer reaches of the Ort Cloud that is in our own Solar system. If the data is correct, this planet would dwarf even Jupiter. Tyche, is said to be 4 times larger than Jupiter itself. Still think this is a big planet you're on? Ok, guess I need to do some more convencing.
It's estimated that there are about 2500 stars visible at any given time. On top of that, 5800 - 8000 is the total number of visible stars. If that's not impressive, Science estimates that there are about 200 billion - 400 billion total stars in out very own Milky Way Galaxy. Continue? Okay.
Recent studies have found that about 30 percent of stars actually have planets. A lot more than the previous 7 percent. This increases our odds of finding Earth Like planets. Some solar systems may even contain multiple Earth Like planets.
The Hubble Space Telescope took a picture one day. NASA, decided to zoom in on a spot out in space. They held it there for ten days, letting the light come to them. The end result? An image that capture the light from almost 3000 Galaxies. That's right. Almost 3000. In one little tiny spot in the sky. So, what does this equal out to in ratio number? How about a whopping 1/28,000,000. For those of you that still have your minds spinning, that's about 1 out of 28 million spots in the sky to choose from. Now, take that previous number of 3000 and multiply that by 28 million and you have a huge number. On top of that, that's not catching every inch of space. There are sections in between that would be missed. Not to mention the sections beyond that.
Let's put that in retrospective. If you took that 28 million and multiplied that by 3000, you'd come up with a grand total of 84 billion Galaxies. That are in our current Universe. Which means, if we took that 84 billion Galaxies and multiplied that by an average of 300 billion stars. For those of you who want me to continue with the math, that's 25.2 sextillion stars. In case you don't know what that is, it goes a little something like this, million, billion, trillion, quadrillion, quintillion, sextillion. That's a lot of stars. And 30 percent of those, have planets? That 30 percent equals out to about 7.56 sextillion stars that have planets. And people think we are alone in the Universe. Haha, good luck with that one.
Now, let me ask you a question. If there is life on this planet. Out of those unknown proportions of planets, what makes us think that there isn't life on other planets? Some people refuse to acknowledge the possibility, but the evidence is over whelming. To deny the fact that there might actually be life on other planets, is just stupid. Plain stupid. No other word to describe it. Now, do you still feel that Earth is a big planet?
Thursday, June 30, 2011
My New Twitter Follow Policy.
I'm changing my twitter follow Policy. Just because your on twitter, doesn't mean I'm going to follow you back. Here is my new policy.
- Do you have anything that interest me? If you are writing about something I'm not interested in, chances are, I'm not going to follow you.
- Do you tweet a lot? If you are posting 5 -10 post every hour and they are meaningless post and I can see any reason why you have 10k+ followers. I'm not following you.
- If you tweet about Tech, chances are, I probably will follow you.
- Do you tweet about Fitness? Chances are, I probably will follow you.
- What about Travel? I'll probably follow you.
- If you're a chef, or tweet about good food, I'll probably follow you.
- If you are a singer or actor/actress that I like, I'll probably follow you.
Why am I making this policy? Well, lately I've been adding a bunch of people. Most of these people don't even tweet anything I"m really that interested in. So, If you don't tweet about anything I'm interested in. Chances are, I might not follow you.
I have other things I'm interested in as well. Culture, Gaming, Photography, Astronomy and Space, etc.
- Do you have anything that interest me? If you are writing about something I'm not interested in, chances are, I'm not going to follow you.
- Do you tweet a lot? If you are posting 5 -10 post every hour and they are meaningless post and I can see any reason why you have 10k+ followers. I'm not following you.
- If you tweet about Tech, chances are, I probably will follow you.
- Do you tweet about Fitness? Chances are, I probably will follow you.
- What about Travel? I'll probably follow you.
- If you're a chef, or tweet about good food, I'll probably follow you.
- If you are a singer or actor/actress that I like, I'll probably follow you.
Why am I making this policy? Well, lately I've been adding a bunch of people. Most of these people don't even tweet anything I"m really that interested in. So, If you don't tweet about anything I'm interested in. Chances are, I might not follow you.
I have other things I'm interested in as well. Culture, Gaming, Photography, Astronomy and Space, etc.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Stupid Things People Do
This post is titled Stupid Things People Do. I'm thinking about making this series of post. In other words, either a daily, or weekly post. Probably daily. There is so much that people do that are just stupid. Here's one of them
So, today's post is about Car Manufactures. When you go to the Car Dealer, to purchase a new car. One might consider asking, if they come with a spare tire. What, seriously?
Yep, today's stupid things is that Car Manufactures are starting to not put Spare tires in cars. Why? What's the method behind the madness? Their point of view is to make the car lighter and more fuel efficient. Seriously? Sense when does taking out a donut tire make the car more fuel efficient?
My point is this. Cars have always come with a spare tire. Why? That adds to the safety features of the car. Maybe not in the minds of the sellers, but in the minds of the consumer. How often have you been down the road and needed a spare tire? Chances are, not very often, yet it's still nice to have that spare. It's a comfort to most people. And people are starting to take note. There are numerous other things you can do to a car to make it more fuel efficient.
Next time you go to a dealer. Make sure the car has a spare tire.
So, today's post is about Car Manufactures. When you go to the Car Dealer, to purchase a new car. One might consider asking, if they come with a spare tire. What, seriously?
Yep, today's stupid things is that Car Manufactures are starting to not put Spare tires in cars. Why? What's the method behind the madness? Their point of view is to make the car lighter and more fuel efficient. Seriously? Sense when does taking out a donut tire make the car more fuel efficient?
My point is this. Cars have always come with a spare tire. Why? That adds to the safety features of the car. Maybe not in the minds of the sellers, but in the minds of the consumer. How often have you been down the road and needed a spare tire? Chances are, not very often, yet it's still nice to have that spare. It's a comfort to most people. And people are starting to take note. There are numerous other things you can do to a car to make it more fuel efficient.
Next time you go to a dealer. Make sure the car has a spare tire.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Empire Avenue - Community Updates
So, it's that time again, for an update on Empire Avenue. As I write this. The communities are currently down. Why are they down you ask? Simple. Community Updates. Much needed ones at that. It's been ages sense the last community update, if they've even had one at all.
So, what are they changing? Well, for starters, chat rooms will no longer be on the front page, except for the Help and Special Event chats on the site. Now, chats are going to be run inside of the communities only. This is a big plus. Now, when you log onto Empire Avenue, you won't be bombarded with tons of chat rooms that you don't even want.
Here are some of the other features being added to the chat rooms.
Thumbing up of posts
Favouriting of posts
Searching posts in a Community
Subscribing to individual Communities for notifications
New notification levels
Integration of Communities with Indexes!
If you'd like to see the original article for verification. You can find it on the official blog of Empire Avenue at This Link Here.
So, what are they changing? Well, for starters, chat rooms will no longer be on the front page, except for the Help and Special Event chats on the site. Now, chats are going to be run inside of the communities only. This is a big plus. Now, when you log onto Empire Avenue, you won't be bombarded with tons of chat rooms that you don't even want.
Here are some of the other features being added to the chat rooms.
If you'd like to see the original article for verification. You can find it on the official blog of Empire Avenue at This Link Here.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Mac vs PC
So, I'm just browsing around and watching some videos on Youtube. More specifically, a few videos Chris Pirillo showed on his Youtube Channel. One video that stood out to me, was his Mac OS X Lion features and review video. I'll post it in the blog below if you'd like to watch it. The new Airdrop feature will be a great addition. Being able to send files from one Mac to another Mac easily will be just awesome.
Apparently Macs are great for Screen-casters. People that do a lot of Screen-cast on Youtube would benefit greatly from a Mac. The only downside I could see of this so far? Well, if you're looking at getting ahold of a hard disc copy of Mac OS X. You'll have to wait a while. For now, it's only going to be available for download via the Apple Store. I know. Might be a bad move for Apple. Of course, you can always buy a new Mac, which I will probably end up doing to begin with. It's going to be my first Mac anyway. Going to be excited about using it. I'll include the link so you can look over the Mac OS X yourself and see what all the hype is about. Now, before all you geeks out there start calling it Mac OS x. It's not Mac OS x. It's Mac OS X. As in the roman Numeral X. Number 10. Not as in the letter x. If you're going to be a Geek, at least get it right.
Mac OS X
Apparently Macs are great for Screen-casters. People that do a lot of Screen-cast on Youtube would benefit greatly from a Mac. The only downside I could see of this so far? Well, if you're looking at getting ahold of a hard disc copy of Mac OS X. You'll have to wait a while. For now, it's only going to be available for download via the Apple Store. I know. Might be a bad move for Apple. Of course, you can always buy a new Mac, which I will probably end up doing to begin with. It's going to be my first Mac anyway. Going to be excited about using it. I'll include the link so you can look over the Mac OS X yourself and see what all the hype is about. Now, before all you geeks out there start calling it Mac OS x. It's not Mac OS x. It's Mac OS X. As in the roman Numeral X. Number 10. Not as in the letter x. If you're going to be a Geek, at least get it right.
Mac OS X
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