Weekend Reading: Mass Effect 3 and the Female Shepard Debate

For the first time in the Mass Effect series, the developer, BioWare, has decided to officially promote and market to the world a female version of the protagonist, Commander Shepard, alongside the already famous male version.

As you can imagine, given the wide customization options the studio gave to players, there are a huge number of Shepard variations out there, so deciding on an official look is quite hard. In order to give fans a choice in the matter, last weekend BioWare posted on its Facebook page six different Female Shepard versions, which need to be "Liked" by users of the social network, thus deciding which one of them becomes the official lady Shepard.

As soon as the pixels loaded in the photo album on Facebook, various debates began, over how BioWare forgot about the default preset appearance for Female Shepard from the first two games (my own choice during them) and, as soon as the votes started appearing, why the single blonde choice (number 5) started winning.

While the first matter is entirely up to BioWare, the second thing is quite annoying, especially because of the two main points made by the anti-number 5 people.

First up, they claim that the appearance practically voids any personality that female Shepard might have, seemingly forgetting that it's completely up to the player, and his or her choices, to decide how Shepard acts, no matter the genre of the character.

Mass Effect is about choice and the appearance of the character never changed the way I acted in the game, and it's not going to matter if I might swap my default female with the "official" one.

Secondly, fans of the series claim that BioWare is now just objectifying the female Shepard by giving her the stereotypical blonde with blue eyes look, once again forgetting that the official male Shepard is based on a Dutch model, called Mark Vanderloo.

As such, if the female Shepard will look like a female model, then good for her, because the savior of the Universe isn't rejected because he or she is too pretty and thus distracting.

In the end, no matter the looks, Commander Shepard is who players want him or her to be, so it makes little sense what the "official" version of the hero or heroine looks like. Many loyal players will no doubt carry over their characters from the first two games, while new gamers will be greeted with some good default choices if they don't want to actually customize their own protagonist.

As for my choice, while I would like the default red-headed Shepard from the first two games to be the official Female one, I'm quite pleased with the blonde number 5.

What about you? Share your favorite Commander Shepard version below and don't forget to vote on the Facebook page of Mass Effect. 

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Google Delivers New Search Experience for Honeycomb Tablets

Owners of tablet PCs running under Google's Android 3.1 Honeycomb operating system have now the possibility to enjoy a new experience when accessing Google Search on their devices.

The Mountain View-based Internet giant notes that this change is part of its effort to enhance the experience it offers to all of its users.

On tablet PCs, users will enjoy a new layout of the search results page, as well as increased size for page contents.

“As part of our effort to evolve the Google design and experience, we’ve improved the www.google.com search experience on tablets,” Xiaorui Gan, software engineer, Google, notes in a recent blog post.

“We’ve simplified the layout of search results pages and increased the size of page contents like text, buttons and other touch targets to make it faster and easier to browse and interact with search results in portrait or landscape view.”

The new Google Search experience on Android tablet PCs will provide users with fast access to specific types of results when hitting the search button beneath the search box.

“The search button located below the search box provides quick access to specific types of results like Images, Videos, Places, Shopping and more,” the said blog post continues.

Users will be able to simply tap to open the search menu, and then select one of the available options there to see the results in a specific category.

Xiaorui Gan also explains that Google was focused on making a series of improvements for image searches, so as to enhance the experience users receive when viewing the results page.

For example, the image results page will offer enlarged image previews, along with continuous scroll, as well as faster loading of image thumbnails.

The new improved search experience is available for all tablet PCs that run under the Android 3.1+ operating system, as well as for the Apple iPad. It should become available for all devices in a matter of days, in 36 languages.

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Soulja Boy Gives Himself Best Birthday Present Ever: $55 Million Private Jet

It’s no longer a secret that rapper Soulja Boy likes to treat himself to the finest things in life, starting from his bling down to his cars and, as of late, other means of transportation. For his upcoming birthday, Soulja Boy is giving himself the best birthday present ever.

To celebrate his 21st birthday, the rapper splurged no less than $35 million on his own private jet, TMZ reports.

And that’s not all: he’s also agreed to pay another $20 million to customize the jet because, obviously, he can’t fly around on a plane that no one knows is his.

“A member of Soulja’s management team tells us, the kid bought himself a G5 jet as a birthday present to himself this week,” TMZ writes.

“The jet cost $35 mil but that’s just the beginning. We’re told the birthday boy is dropping an additional $20 million to pimp out his ride with all sorts of cool stuff, like 12 custom Italian leather seats, flat screen TVs, 4 liquor bars, a special travertine tiled floor, and Brazilian hardwood cabinets,” the e-zine adds.

Another customization that Soulja Boy wants on his new toy is that the in-flight lavatory be turned into a giant, luxury bathroom.

He’s also having the jet painted fresh, to include his own logo, the same report notes.

But the surprises Soulja Boy has prepared for himself don’t end here.

“We’re told Soulja’s also spending $300,000 to throw himself a blowout birthday party at a Miami nightclub tonight... and Dwight Howard, Bow Wow, and Sean Kingston are all expected to attend,” TMZ writes.

What’s odd is that, at first glance, Soulja Boy can’t possibly afford such an eccentric present as a $55 million private jet: a simple search on Google says that his net worth is anywhere between $5 million and $23 million.

Then again, as TMZ also puts it, “kids these days.”

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Sneak Peak at Adam Lambert’s VH1 Behind the Music Special

Fans of Adam Lambert are in for a major treat. Next Sunday, on August 7, VH1 airs a Behind the Music special with him, documenting, among other things, Adam’s time on American Idol and his famous coming out in Rolling Stone magazine.

During his time on American Idol, he’d constantly be portrayed as “the guy with the guyliner,” while direct rival Kris Allen would be presented as “the guy next door.”

“The show knew exactly what they were doing, obviously,” Allen, who eventually won, says in the preview clip just released – and that you can also check out below, embedded at the end of the article.

In it, Adam speaks of how being on the show meant he was not at liberty to be himself, even though it provided him with an amazing opportunity in terms of getting his name out there.

Once AI was over, Adam spoke repeatedly about how he was not the type of pop star that usually breaks through in the industry at the end of each season – and he maintains the same in the VH1 special.

He knows he did not correspond to the standards set by the industry and the public, that he didn’t exactly fit the mold for an American idol, but he doesn’t regret being on the show because he got more exposure with it than he could have ever dreamed.

At the same time, he earned lots of fans who knew to appreciate him for his talent, his versatility and even his out of the ordinary, rock’n’roll image – and who have been by his side ever since.

Because he wasn’t allowed to do any solo interviews while on AI, Adam wanted to set the record straight the moment he was off it: hence, the Rolling Stone coming out issue.

The issue in question went on to become the best selling of the year and, while not bringing about a major revelation, it was still an important step he needed to take, Adam says.

“I wouldn’t want to go through my career hiding anything or trying to cover something up,” Adam says in the preview group, adding that he’s proud of being gay and, at the same time, adamant that he wouldn’t be labeled by it.

“I have no hangups. I have no shame, but for me, it’s not about wearing a T-shirt saying, ‘Gay,’ It’s ‘Adam’,” he says.

Check out the video below and make sure you catch the special on VH1 on Sunday, August 7, at 10 p.m.

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Office 2010 Update Fixes Installation Failures of Future Updates for the Productivity Suite

Office 2010 users can come across issues when installing updates for the productivity suite.

Fortunately, they can turn to a download offered free of charge by Microsoft to help them deal with potential issues. The Redmond company is offering an update designed to decrease installation failures of future Office 2010 refreshes.

Update for Microsoft Office 2010 (KB2553092), 32-Bit Edition and update for Microsoft Office 2010 (KB2553092), 64-Bit Edition are both live on the Microsoft Download Center and up for grabs immediately.

Microsoft points users to KB2553092 for additional details on this specific refresh. Unfortunately, the knowledge base article associated with this update is not yet live, so customers won’t be able to access it.

This is bound to be nothing more than a temporary issue, however, and I’m sure that the software giant will have KB2553092 up and running in the next few days at the latest.

To me, KB2553092 for Office 2010 sounds a bit like the System Update Readiness Tool which Microsoft is providing to Windows users.

Various inconsistencies can impact negatively the deployment of updates on Windows as well as on Office, and this is why the Redmond company is providing refreshes designed to fix any problems.

The difference is that while the System Update Readiness Tool plays nice with all supported releases of Windows, including Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1), KB2553092 is tailored to the 32-bit and 64-bit flavors of Office 2010 and nothing else.

Customers experiencing issues with deploying updates for Office 2010 might as well go ahead and download KB2553092 and launch it on their machine without waiting for the knowledge base article.

Here are the download links for the updates:

Update for Microsoft Office 2010 (KB2553092), 32-Bit Edition

Update for Microsoft Office 2010 (KB2553092), 64-Bit Edition

Microsoft Office 2010 (KB2460049) 32-bit Edition Service Pack 1 (SP1) is available for download here.

Microsoft Office 2010 (KB2460049) 64-bit Edition Service Pack 1 (SP1) is available for download here.

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Bulk Image Downloader 4.22.0.1 (Trial)

Bulk Image Downloader automatically downloads and saves images and videos from thumbnailed web galleries, bypassing all annoying popups and adverts. It can also extract image information from regular text files (such as saved html pages or plain text files containing links) and web pages where image links are listed as plain text.

Almost all popular image hosting sites are supported and it's built in image location technology can locate the full sized image in most web pages no matter what the layout or redirection methods used. Original image filenames are extracted where possible, but an option to generate sequential filenames is available for those image hosts that scramble the filenames.

It integrates with Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera and Google Chrome via the right click context menu for even easier downloading. Download thumbnail gallery images interactively or send them to the Queue Manager and have them all downloaded automatically one gallery at a time. 

In addition, the items that fail to be grabbed within a certain batch will be automatically placed in the new "retry" batches which you can later requeue for download. Use the BID Link Explorer to quickly extract multiple gallery links from gallery "index" pages (pages listing multiple galleries) and quickly queue them for download.

Most popular image hosts are supported, including flickr, imagevenue, imagefap, imagereverb, imagebam, imageshack, and too many others to list here.

How to use it

Simply copy the URL of the web page containing the images (such as a a thumbnail gallery) and paste it into the "URL to page containing links" edit box. Click on "Scan URL for images" to bring up a list of images that B.I.D. is capable of downloading. Select a download folder and then click on "Download files" to begin downloading the images. Try enabling the "Try to download from unsupported hosts" if no images are found.

If you like you can also click on "Save Batch" to save the download links to a text file. These ".bidlist" saved files can be loaded into B.I.D. by clicking on the "Load Batch/Scan links from file" button.

To create a list from multiple sources check the "Append to existing links" checkbox. Links will now be appended to the list instead of replacing the existing list when a URL is scanned or a file is loaded.

Some image hosts scramble the image filenames. In such a case you can select the "Generate Filenames" checkbox and type in an image prefix. Images will be saved as "PREFIXnnn.jpg" where nnn is the image's sequence number on the list.

The "Thumbnails" checkbox toggles the display of image thumbnails within the list.

If "Close when download complete" is selected, B.I.D. will close automatically after the last image in the list has been downloaded.

NOTE:
Bulk Image Downloader may provide access to adult material, therefore by pressing the Download button you acknowledge that you are at least 18 years old.

Here are some key features of "Bulk Image Downloader":

· Downloads entire image galleries automatically (no more endless right clicking to "save image as...")
· Integrates with IE, FireFox and Opera. Just right click on a gallery page or gallery link and select "Download with Bulk Image Downloader"
· Download from video sites like Google Video, DailyMotion, MetaCafe, MegaVideo
· Downloads thumbnailed video files (.mpg, .avi. .mov, etc)
· No complicated configuration or project files needed - it just works
· Works on sites that the other image downloaders don't
· Automatically locates and downloads images that have had their true locations hidden by redirection "services" such as usercash, linkbucks, etc.

· Saves time - galleries are downloaded as fast as your connection will allow
· Saves bandwidth - adverts and popups are not downloaded, just the images
· Validates and automatically retries partial or corrupt images, resuming downloads where possible
· Automatically detects and downloads from most multi page forum threads and galleries
· Downloads vbulletin forum attached images
· Multiple gallery download jobs can be queued and downloaded at a later time via the integrated Queue Manager

Limitations:

· 30 days trial
· BID will now continue working after the 30 day trial period but with the following limitations:
· a maximum of 100 images per batch
· a maximum of 2 videos per batch
· no more than 2 instances of BID may be active
· no more than 2 jobs in the Queue Manager
· no more than 2 simultaneous downloads
· reminders to register will appear periodically

What's New in This Release: [ read full changelog ]

· picasa update
· youtube video update
· improved https support

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Brad Pitt Got Jonah Hill to Lose Weight, Claims Report

Two weeks ago, actor Jonah Hill wowed the world when he walked the red carpet at the ESPY Awards 40 pounds less the man he used to be. A new report suggests his time with Brad Pitt may have had a lot to do with his decision to lose weight.

As we also noted at the time, upon “unveiling” his slimmer, healthier physique, Hill told reporters that he just decided, one day, to live a healthier life because continuing the one he had simply wouldn’t do anymore.

So, he started eating healthier, cut out junk food and all bad treats, and, of course, began exercising as well.

The latest print issue of Star magazine (story via here) offers another explanation for the amazing weight loss: Brad Pitt motivated Hill into getting in shape.

The two worked together on “Moneyball,” which comes out in the US this September, and Pitt got Hill to see that he was putting himself at risk by being so unhealthy.

At first, he would just joke about Jonah’s weight, calling him by the nickname he gave him, “Fat Man,” but, as they grew closer, he started taking matters into his own hands, says the report.

Soon, “Brad started lecturing Jonah about taking care of his body, eating healthy and getting regular exercise,” an unnamed source tells the tab.

In almost no time, Brad’s preaching was showing results.

“Jonah started avoiding ‘fried, fatty food and desserts at the crafts services table,’ the source explains. But he struggled, so Brad invited him to early morning baseball practice. ‘They were exercising by 6 a.m.,’ the source added,” Star writes.

This was just the beginning: Brad had made Jonah understand that something needed to be done and, most importantly, he was doing it.

“Eventually, Brad not only hired a personal trainer but ‘also bough Jonah more than $1,500 in new, casual clothes as an incentive after Jonah shed the first 15 lbs.’,” Star claims.

“Now 40 lbs. lighter, ‘Jonah says he’s forever indebted to Brad for helping him,’ the source explains,” writes the tab. 

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