Just finished Bioshock Infinite

I just finished Bioshock Infinite on PC (oh, and also watched Iron Man 3 in 4DX, but that's not the point).
Bioshock Infinite has the greatest story you can imagine for a video game.
There are a few issues and bugs here and there:

• The auto-saving is not always working great, and can be quite frustrating at times because of the total absence of control over saves. 
• Some weird collision issues where your character is blocked seemingly in the middle of nowhere. It happens around the edges and corners of square-shaped elements of decor.
• Found some bug where I would ask Elizabeth to do some lockpicking, then go a few meters away and come back only to find the lock still unpicked but impossible to unlock again.
• Sometimes the combat music would still play while no enemy would appear on screen.

But these issues don't really matter in the end and fortunately don't change the fact that Bioshock Infinite is the Game of the Year so far (yeah, it's still only April) as far as I am concerned.

Shadow Era New Expansion Pre-Order Open

Shadow Era's first expansion "Dark Prophecies" is currently being beta tested. However, you can already order the physical cards on the official site.

Like for the first edition "Call of the Crystals", "Dark Prophecies" will offer backers bonuses at each step of the funding process. The first step is at $50,000 and there are 35 days left to get there and beyond.
As someone who enjoys the game a lot, I can't wait to discover the new cards, which are overdue in my opinion, although I do prefer quality over quantity.
According to Wulven, the cards should ship in April.
This also means that the texts of the cards should be finalized between now and then.

There was quite a delay for the first edition of physical cards. However, Wulven have likely learned from their first experience with a totally new business, so there is hope they can keep their promise this time. In any case, the pre-orders offer quite friendly pricing and include free shipping.

Image credit: Shadow Era website

Flickr Giving Away 3 Months Of Pro Account

Flickr is now giving away 3 months of Flickr Pro to all users as a holiday gift.
If you want to try the Pro features, now is the time. Among other things, the Pro accounts enjoy unlimited uploads of photos and can let you display the files in original size directly on the site.
If you are into photography, the Pro account is actually a good backup solution for your pictures, and if you are worrying about convenience, tools such as Bulkr can allow you to download your picture library in a click.

Facebook Celebrates Lunar Birthdays

Today Facebook proposed me to add my lunar calendar birthday so that my friends can know on which day of the gregorian calendar it falls.

I don't know if I saw this feature because I live in an Asian country, but I found it quite a good idea.
Actually, it could be helpful for many people because the lunar calendar is ever changing in relation to the gregorian calendar. Meaning, you cannot say "my lunar birthday falls on January 12" and be done with it.
It changes every year.
In Korea, people still celebrate their parents birthday based on the lunar calendar, and all I can say is that younger generations find it a bit confusing. So much so that they have to ask their parents "on which day is your birthday this year?".
So basically, if Facebook tells it to you, it might prevent some awkward situations (provided the parents are on Facebook too).

Shadow Era Radio Podcast Episode 1

As you may (or not) know, I am a huge fan of Shadow Era --although I wish I could play more often.
Well, at the moment the first expansion is in preparation, and a few spoilers are already available for you to see on the Shadow Era forum.
Furthermore, if you are interested, you can listen to the first podcast hosted by member of the game design team.

Here is the link to the podcast on the forum:
http://www.shadowera.com/showthread.php?19298-Shadow-Era-Radio-is-Live!

And here is the podcast embedded:

Dinosaurs Were Cold-Blooded Animals, Right? Maybe Not

True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.
SocratesGreek philosopher in Athens (469 BC - 399 BC) 

I thought this Socrate quote applies perfectly to this recent discovery:

Dinosaurs Might Have Had Warm-Blooded Animals' Fast Metabolism 
[Link to article]

It always feels weird when one challenges things you took for granted, but that's the wonder of science.
To me, Dinosaurs being cold-blooded was as natural as 1+1=2, so the simple fact that this alleged fact can be questioned is quite dazzling.

Wall Street Meets Minority Report

This is not a joke: Twitter (among others) is being used to predict fluctuation of stock values.
This is what The Economist [link to original article] recently reported. Since a 2010 study by Indiana University researchers showing strong correlation between tweets and market activity, it has become popular in the Wall Street milieu to factor in "social sentiment" in their prediction models.

Last June 25, Reuters announced the publication of more than 18,000 indices based on the analysis of tens of thousands of news sites as well as 4.5 million social sites (including social media, tweets, blogs).
At $1,000 per month per indice,

The problem, though, is that though indices, although following trends quite closely in general, are not totally trustworthy... so far.
However, it's interesting to see this kind of technology and approach taken so seriously.
It's not like it didn't already fail in the past [link to investmentweek.co.uk], but the idea that one could predict market fluctuation a la Minority Report gives me food for thought.