Category: General

My Review of Subnautica : Below Zero and the Story Line

Paul
SubNautica: Below Zero

It’s not for the faint of heart

Subnautica even the original isn’t what you would want to give someone who hasn’t ever played the game because there are scare sequences that might not make for the best impression to people who has never played the game.  I’ve played both Subnautica and Below Zero through the whole game and come to realize that that there is something off on the game.   I wanted to talk about it and tell you my thoughts on the whole idea.

The story line

Now Let’s face it if you haven’t played subnautica original or this one and don’t want spoilers, please be warned this is going to have spoilers in it about the story line.

You’ve Been Warned!

The original subnautica, You crash land on the planet in an escape pod.  Then you have to gather resources and get yourself up and about to survive the environment.   Of course you need food and water and even a nice bed to sleep to make it look real and feel like you are actually living it.  The storyline in the game on the original was just really well done and you had to explore and find out how to save yourself from getting even more sick and that didn’t come all at once, you found out over time that you were sick.

Finally once you figured out how to get yourself well you had to help a giant leviathan who was trapped and dying due to be locked up and all she wanted you to do is let her babies go free who will help stop the virus in every plant and fish.   They seem to leak the antidote and it helps to cure  plants and fish.     Finally you do that and the next thing you have to do is create a rocket to launch yourself up and away to go home.     This was the storyline for the original subnautica and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I loved the exploration of it all and being able to go really down deep and to find the resources that I might need to survive.   The Base building was always the fun part, you could make big or small bases when you needed it and also make them however you liked and customized them your way.

Subnautica Below Zero

We find Robin getting off the ship with a drop pod and she wants to find out what happened to her sister(Sam).   The opening sequence was well done but the voice actors were changed, I am not sure why they changed but I was playing this game in beta and I don’t know why they wanted to change the actors but it was really well done.   So we find Robin trying to gather resources first like usual and building a base is something that needs to be done.   You’ll come to a point in the game where you will find a distress call(in morse code)   and find out there is an living entity in a cave who takes over your brain because it needed help to survive.   We’ll come back to him in a second.   You do the things you need to find out what happens to Sam and why she dead.   You explore and find out that Sam has an antidote for the big frozen leviathan and you are to find it and administer it to prevent Alterra from using the Kharaa Bacterium for research or who knows even a weapon.  Along the way you find out what happens to your sister and even some pictures and stuff that helps bond the player to want to know more and more.  Anyway once that storyline is done you have another storyline to complete.

The Talking Entity

So Now you have Alan(or Allen) in your head and there are occasional times where you two are talking to each other.   Either way you develop a need to get him out of your head and put him into a body or container.  He tells you what you might and even shows you where there might be some at.  You’ll definitely need to go deep like the last one.   I figured that I’d need to go deep again, it seems to be a constant with the architects.   They really do love to go deep don’t they.

You’ll get him a body but first you need to build the resources to build be able to build his body.   You’ll want to bring those resources that you gathered with you to the places far down below when you’re ready to make his container or body.   You make his body and he tells you the story of how he got into this predicament.  He tells you he’ll go back to his home world and ask for forgiveness and try to make right what he did wrong.   He offers you to join him and you do since you have no other way off the planet.   I really liked the ending sequence to this because you saw the space outside and it looked really nicely made.

Ending it

I really didn’t like the fact that there were two storylines in the game and the game just felt a little bit off but it might just of been me.   I do hope what we see in the ending sequence is a precursor to another part of Robin’s journey we will get to play.  After all, I am really curious as to what happened to the architects.  Does Robin get to help them or are they dead?  I really think Unknown Worlds is going to continue this game in the coming months.  We’ll probably see another game about the architects and it will hopefully be the one where we are still playing Robin and she has to help this being out to figure out what happened to his people.

Do you think they will create another game to continue off where they left or is this just the end of the game series?  Let me know what you think?  I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

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How the IATA travel pass can verify USA or other countries vaccine cards

Paul
Example of a CDC Vaccine Card

Verification of Vaccine Cards

Several countries around the world are wanting people to have a way to verify that people who are coming into their country has gotten the vaccine. There have been a number of news articles of people who have faked the vaccine card for one reason or another usually just because they don’t feel like they need to get the vaccine. Requiring vaccine cards have never been new or original in traveling around the world. There has always been countries that require vaccines like rubella or Hepatitis B vaccine to enter their countries. We’ve seen many countries who would like to proof of vaccine and proven ways to knows that it’s not forged.

Stopping the forgery

Each country is wondering how they can stop the forgeries of vaccine cards. No country wants to have take financial responsibility for someone who might get really sick due to the covid19. This is why countries are really wanting way to provide a way to know that someone has gotten the vaccine. The problem is that some people think they really don’t need the vaccine because of herd immunity, so why are they so worried about it. It’s one way to know that their immune system has been given enough protection from getting the severe version of covid19. I am sure there are other reasons and that is what I always hear.

The IATA Travel Pass Verification

When I say that IATA could verify that each vaccine cards in the USA or other countries to be authentic, is saying something that no other airline could do. If countries are looking to verify that the vaccine cards from countries that don’t want to share their vaccine data due to laws, such as the US. They can at least do some minor things while you register for a vaccine passport on their IATA travel pass app. I’m going to talk in length about this so please be patient and maybe someone will actually implement this in the IATA Travel Pass app.

There are several ways they can verify the picture of the vaccine passport to be authentic. They can have the Iata travel pass do image searches to see if there are images that are unique or close to the same exact type that is being submitted. There are several ways you can do that:

These are only two of several ways they can search the web and find out if it is not authentic or original, from the vaccine card that is being submitted.

Images not on the Internet

What if the criminals are being sneaking and keeping these cards off the internet. What options do the Iata Pass have to verify that it isn’t be used in other countries or accounts on the IATA travel pass? This is where it gets really interesting because there are several ways that can be used to verify that the vaccine card hasn’t been used in the past. They can get the Hash Value of the picture and store it in their servers for later on. Don’t worry, the hash value doesn’t save the picture on the server but keeps a copy of the hash value so they can search for that value and probably even keeps the account that it is associated with it for security reasons.

Imaging Hashing by pyimagesearch

As you can see it’s is really an easy process for phones around the world to hash a picture and send the hash to server to either use it to search for a copy or to record it so no other person can use it. I really suggest you go check out the pyimagesearch site and see all the ways that can be used to search for a duplicate hash. This would be a great resource for people to authenticate if they have a unique vaccine card or not.

Examine the Metadata

Metadata is according to Google “a set of data that describes and gives information about other data.” Basically when you take pictures with your phone, your phone records what type of phone was being used and many different things sometimes including the GPS location of the image being take. So they can examine the metadata and see a lot of stuff from the submitted picture of the vaccine card is coming from and also keep record of that information also in a database for reference for obvious reasons. They can also prevent photos being used if they have been edited before uploaded, for example there is a good little photo editor like Snapseed. It’s a great little app that can be used in Android devices to edit or change a photo.

Once it has been edited the metadata would show that it was edited by snapseed or any other photo editing software and thus should be thrown out for security reasons like that. So if someone is trying to get around the vaccine authentication they probably would have a very hard time in verifying there vaccine card.

This is what I would think should be implemented when making the IATA travel pass to help governments to know that the vaccine cards are as authentic as possible. I won’t say that people will not come up with ways to still submit forgeries, that will always be a problem. It however will make it more difficult for people to do that. It is my hope that we won’t have to use this for very long and this would just be a stop gap way to get travelers back to traveling around the world.

What do you think about this idea? Do you think they did this or do you think they will do this in the future? What’s your experience with the IATA travel pass?

How companies use Big Data and Analytics

Paul

Big data by Nick Youngson
CC BY-SA 3.0
Pix4free

What is Big Data?

The term “big data” refers to data that is so large, fast or complex that it’s difficult or impossible to process using traditional methods. The act of accessing and storing large amounts of information for analytics has been around a long time.— Sas.com (https://www.sas.com/en_us/insights/big-data/what-is-big-data.html)

Even that information is a little more harder to understand than we think.   Big data is the use of servers with massive hard drive space and massive cpu power to use to analyze and look for patterns or maybe it is even simpler it is a bitcoin rig that is trying to find the hash to make a profit out of.   Either way it requires a big amount of data and processing power to find the right hash to unlock bitcoins.   This is what big data is, it has to analyze the hash and find the possible algorithms to for he bitcoin and make money for the user.   It’s really a long process but the idea is simple it requires a lot of data and sending and receive of data to verify if the bitcoin is unlocked or not and each time it uses even more data to check it hashes as it tries to work out the formula for the bitcoin.  This is what big data is about in a fashion.

Data Analytics

When we talk about analytics it can seem strange to say or even think that a company will use it to make a profit.   It however is the thing in today’s market because most of the time, companies are trying to figure out what the user is wanting and leveraging what they want with making money.   So what’s Analytics and why should I need to know about it?

Analytics is simply the process of looking for patterns in users and data to find common paths and understanding why those paths are being used. 

Let’s face it, Companies want that information because they can figure out how to advertise to you or even bring more people to a landing page to convert into you buying their products or services.  If they know 20 year olds like a certain vehicle or likes a movie, they will advertise to these groups of people and make sure their products are seen more widely to them so they can make a profit from these 20 year olds who didn’t know they were being used to make money from.

Websites

Most websites now are getting as much data as they can to find those common paths to help increase their profit and make money off of the web.  It is always going to be that way, after all advertising is a really good commodity for those who can harness the data and leverage advertisements to people who visit their site.  I say that with some understanding of this because I do this from time to time on my site and it isn’t any harder than what most think.   I am constantly looking at what people are doing or where people are going on my site.   This way I can get the advertisers to advertise for me and bring me some money to help support my website and help support my data needs for the site.  I am hopeful that it will bring even more people to my site and bring them into my world and want to be loyal readers but in reality I also know when I have loyal readers they are more likely to support me and keep my site running in many ways.   This is the nature of analytics and that is why it is so widely used.  After Facebook does this and they know you are know it in one way or another.  In truthfulness we really don’t have any more privacy when we are on the web because everyone is going to use that data for one purpose or another.

 

How LDR will change with this Pandemic

Paul

Long distance love

It’s Been over a year Now!

The Pandemic has hit every nation and every country hard the last months.   We’ve seen a new variant to the covid19 and we even seen several companies develop a covid19 vaccine.   It’s been over a year for me personally, it will most likely be 2 years if the Philippines doesn’t open up this fall or winter.  I am in a LDR and I still don’t know what to expect from this government.   Granted I still have to worry about my own government, but it is nothing compared to what I have been seeing from the Philippine government as of late.  I guess this will be a little bit of a rant myself.   I really wish everyone would get there act together and figure out a way for Fiances,GF, or BF to be able to see their loved ones.

Philippines open up already

I suspect that it will eventually open up but it been way to long and way to slow to do what is needed to open up.   I know I am not living in the country or anything like that but I do think I have a right to complain because I have been patiently waiting to see my Fiance for well over a year and half.  There is another petition going around to allow unmarried couples to get into the Philippines to see their loved ones.   I am not against them being cautious or take precautions, in fact they make foreign nationals do a lot of stuff to verify we do not have Covid19.  Let’s just be a little reasonable that’s all I am asking.    We should try to make it where we can have enough time to be with our loved ones.  Some Filipinos can really can get out of country due to family obligations or even because they can’t stop working because there is no way they can take time off.  So I get that and I support them for doing the right thing.

It’s bound to open up sooner or later

I still think the Philippines will open up later this year maybe November or December.   Although this is all speculation on my part and maybe I’ll be totally wrong.   I do see things heading that way and I’ll keep preaching this until it either happens or it doesn’t happen.  I know most of you have your own theories or maybe even might even see that it might be this year.   I am hopeful just like everyone else but it has to open up with economy being like it is will need to open for there people to survive.

Tickets

I suspect that tickets will start to get more expensive as more countries open up.   I even suspect that when the Philippines open up the air fare will start to go up.   So I will be constantly looking to find those cheap tickets anywhere and everywhere I can think of.  Even then I will probably be paying for the time these airlines are trying to make up for the lost revenue they had before this pandemic even started.   I am sure we will see a steady spike of prices in all international travel as the air fare will be increased.   Some other ways to save money is quite simply knowing when to buy and how to plan your trips.   Even then it will still probably be higher than you used to get them, I can pretty much see that happening.

Finally

When each country starts to open up, you can bet there will be a rush of people to get into the country as quick as they can so they prices for tickets will be increased also.   Higher demand will ultimately increase the price of the tickets on planes.   So once you know, you really shouldn’t wait to find the best tickets but rather buy the cheapest one as quickly as possible or else you might be paying 3 times as much when you finally do decide to buy those plane tickets.

 

The Pagefile.sys and the early years

Paul

technology, electronic device, computer hardware, computer component, electronics, motherboard, personal computer hardware, cpu, computer accessory, Free Images In PxHere

from PxHere

What is the Pagefile.sys

When Microsoft created Windows XP, it became quite apparent that Windows UI couldn’t handle all the desktop users needs. Since this was in the early 2000 when we were still working with a very limited system resources. The systems we had at the time were 16 bit or 32 bit systems. This is where it gets interesting because the maximum you can have on a 16 bit system was 64kb of ram which wasn’t much. However we started with the 32 bit systems that would allow up to 4 gigabytes of memory total. It was quite nice but it still required the system to use the file system to hold or run programs. It would become self evident that the system was so bogged down by processor speed and amount of ram that was available. All the while they were working on the Windows operating system they had to create a way to throw the unimportant programs or sometimes important programs into the background to be able to load other programs. It was really a pain and I should say this isn’t something we have to worry about now.

What does it do?

Well it basically put the program to a mini sleep and throws it onto the hard drive and keeps a record of where and what it had to know in order to start the program back up. It was a way to keep memory space used to a minimum and still be able to have a really nice experience with Windows XP. Microsoft in all it’s wisdom, decided to incorporate this little feature into the Windows vista and other operating systems. I still think it has a use in Windows 10 but I doubt it is being used like was in the early days since most people usually have enough ram to not need to put to sleep any programs in the background to run programs.

Can I delete it?

Like many other experts, I say you shouldn’t even think about it. In the early days, when it was deleted or corrupted you couldn’t even boot your system. There were even cases of BSOD(Blue Screen of Death) and thus it is never recommended to delete or modify your pagefile.sys without fully backing up your system and then maybe. There are several ways you can do it but I won’t talk about that. I however will link to them and let you decide for yourself if you should do it or not.

Does it slow my system down?

In the early days, it would most likely slow it down but since we have so much more system resources than before we shouldn’t need to worry about. I honestly have 32 gigabytes of ram in my system and see no noticeable speed difference than when I had 16 gigabytes. Pagefile.sys shouldn’t be doing anything now but it might if you are using a really big program or game that requires massive amount of memory and if you didn’t have the memory requirements for it but still was able to run it. Then you might be using pagefile.sys to do swapping of programs and free up space for that game or big program that you are trying to run.

Other than when you put your Windows system to sleep, it is what is used to throw everything you have loaded up in your laptop or desktop on to the HDD to save for quick retrieval of the programs to start the laptop or desktop where you left off.   This is the only place that I know of that it is currently still be used but I am sure it is still be used on old systems.

In the long run, the pagefile.sys is still used today and probably for a while. It’s uses can be small at times but it was designed to help you with your computer memory and thus should not be tampered with unless you know what you are doing.