Sunday, April 20, 2014

I beg you Bioware, don't give up the romance

There are few games that kept in as long as Dragon Age and Mass Effect have. It wasn't quite like reading a book, watching a movie, or a series. I had something to do, went about and did it. However the stories, characters and details of the series were like nothing I had seen before.

I am looking forward to the next instalment of the Dragon Age series, I was somewhat confused to see headlines which announce the end of the romance in the Bioware games. Sure, including sapient systems that resemble computerized slime mold isn't controversial, but relationships with intimacy?

Certainly, romance scenes in  video game can seem awkward, but even if you are intoxicated and engaging with a real person, intimacy has always been for me an awkward experience. In movies, books, music and historical passages, romance has always been part of humanity.

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Google - There is a need to restore ODF compatibility with your services

I just wanted to have a quick translation of a document, so I went to http://translate.google.com

I uploaded the document and got this :


I thought there might have been a problem with the file. I then selected another file in TXT format : no problem; PDF : no problem. Perhaps my ODT document was too complex. I try a simpler one, still to no avail.

People use LibreOffice, OpenOffice and other products that use the Open Document Format (ODF).

Standards are what allowed the development of languages, tools, culture and the society we know today.

Google, for the love of humanity, please restore ODF compatibility to your services.