A new low-end bino

My son had a chance to use his Toys R Us "10x40" binoculars for real a few weeks ago. That was when I thought it was time to buy him a real bino. I wanted something light and cheap, so I looked for 8x32 binos.

Browsing TaoBao, I found Leaysoo (雷龙) 8x32, costing just 128 yuan (S$24). I bought it. I didn't check its specs beforehand cos it was meant to replace the TRU bino. Any bino is better than it.

The focuser has this line "316 feet at 1000 yards", which works out to be 6.0°. How can it be so low for an 8x bino? Luckily, it was for the 10x32 model.

The specs are suspect. Some websites show Outland X having angular FOV of 7° and weight of 670g. (Maybe there are two variants?)

6.46° is rather low for an 8x32 bino. Comparing it against Outland X 8x42, it obviously shows more — meaning bigger FoV. Could the linear FoV be 393 feet instead of 339 feet? If so, it would have angular FoV of 7.49°, which is pretty reasonable for a 8x32 bino.

FoV is one thing. It has low optical quality: noticeable CA, blurry edges and veiling flare. This is expected due to its low price. Is it really FMC (Fully Multi-Coated)? I'm doubtful.

Also, comparing against the TRU bino, its magnification is obviously lower. That was when I realized the TRU bino had 10x power — I thought it was 8x.

Update: the Leaysoo bino has highly elliptical exit pupil! I'm not sure what it means. Exit pupil should be circular!

Why should anyone listen to actors?

A bunch of celebrities came out to support Kamala this US election.

I'm not surprised by Taylor Swift. She has always supported Demoncrats.

Two in particular struck out to me: Avengers cast and Harrison Ford.

After the election, it was revealed that Kamala's campaign paid a lot of money for these endorsements.

But I was just wondering why should anyone listen to actors? It's not like they are smarter or more knowledgeable.

Their screen-time persona portrays them as heroes, agents of justice and belonging to the "good side". That's all that is: screen-time. It ends when they get off the screen.

Once upon a time, I was very excited to get 'Behind the scenes' interview with actors on DVDs. I thought they could give further insights into their character.

After watching a few, I realize they didn't know anything about their character at all, nor the character's role in the story. They just act.

For example, suppose a character made a certain choice. I want to know his thought process. What other choices did he consider? Unfortunately, the actor will not be able to answer because he is not the character.

The rough journey of TtR 20th anniversary trains

The lack of bonus set kept nagging me. For a while, I thought they would only be sold in physical shops, as Asmodee's original announcement seemed to imply. If that were the case, then I had to accept it. However, I did a search in mid-Oct and found they were in fact sold in online stores, but had sold out already — with one exception: Recess Games.

They still have the 5 standard sets, plus bonus set, plus Milk Tankers, plus a set of transparent purple trains for US$100! It's a little expensive, but I can bite my teeth one time. But when I clicked on the 'Order' button, I found that they didn't ship to forwarders! :-(

I searched again a few days later and Knight and Day Games turned up. I realized what was happening — the sets were still being shipped to the stores and they only put up the listing when they received it!

KDG had all 7 sets for US$60, plus US$10 shipping. I was on the verge of buying when I googled them and... it seemed they had a bad reputation from last year when they changed ownership and they did not honour prior preorders. Should I take a risk?

Hmm, maybe I should just buy the bonus set separately? There were shops that sold individual sets, but they were all sold out. Finally, I found the bonus set at Spielbound Board Game Cafe, and I ordered it for US$10 plus US$10 shipping. Ouch!

With the bonus set secured, the lack of Milk Tankers now nagged me. Were they really as limited as I thought? Many shops had them as part of the deal. They used to be really limited, but it seemed they were either quietly reprinted or had a stash released.

I kept refreshing two shops: Atlantis Games & Comics and John's Total Entertainment, if for no reason but to convince myself the Milk Tankers were truly out of stock. Both places sold 7 sets for US$70.

A few days later, they came back in stock at both shops! But I had to buy all 7 sets. Argh, should I do it?

I sat on it for a few days and it went OOS at Atlantis, but it remained available at John's. So I bought it for US$70 plus US$5 shipping.

Even now, the sets come in and out of stock. Puddletown Games & Puzzles seemingly have the best deal at US$50 for all 7 sets. But they charge US$20 for shipping, so they aren't much cheaper.

Graduation note

So parents were asked to write a graduation note for their kids. I didn't want something generic nor too serious. Was it doable?

I got to admit, the first sentence was combined from two different sources; one serious, one humorous. With that, I knew I had to deliver a serious message in a light-hearted way.

Final Fantasy 7 reviews

There is a ton of videos on why Final Fantasy 7 is popular/good. I like these three the most:

• Why is Final Fantasy 7 so popular? (FF7 Retrospective) by Altercate SC, 2020/6 [31m]
• Why Final Fantasy VII Matters by Mr. Itchy Wrath, 2022/4 [3h15m]
• The Impact of Final Fantasy 7: The Game that Changed Everything by Super Eyepatch Wolf, 2019/12 [49m]

These videos are not spoiler-free, so don't watch if you haven't played the original game and you plan to.

Spoilers for a game? Surprisingly, yes. J-RPGs have stories, and FF7 has a pretty good story for a video game.

(There is a FF7 walkthrough in 'story mode' on YouTube. It skips random battles and finishes boss battles ultra-quickly. It is 14h54m.)

FF7 Remake

There is also a ton of videos why Final Fantasy 7 Remake is good. However, I like ones that criticize it:

• Final Fantasy VII Remake Betrayed Us | 1997 vs. 2020 by JebZone, 2022/8 [1h59m]
• Final Fantasy VII Remake Critique by Orion85, 2020/6 [30m]
• Final Fantasy 7 Remake Critique by NeverKnowsBest, 2020/4 [56m]
• FF7 Remake's Story is Hot Garbage... Here's Why by Big Dan Gaming, 2020/7 [1h27m]
• Final Fantasy VII Remake - Review | One Year Later by Backwards Entertainment, 2021/5 [1h23m]
• Final Fantasy 7 Remake | When Stories Become Too Famous for Their Own Good by Robot Co-Op, 2020/5 [1h17m]
• FF7 Remake's Story is BROKEN - An Author's Take by Imaginator, 2024/10 [16m]
• Final Fantasy VII Remake: The Remake We Never Wanted by That Guy Bis, 2020/5 [22m]
• Don't Call Me A Remake | Where the Final Fantasy 7 Remake Fails by Ryrule, 2020/5 [32m]
• Every Final Fantasy VII Remake argument CRUSHED by Orion85, 2021/10 [44m]
• Final Fantasy VII Remake Review: It's terrible by Risky Bitness, 2020/9 [40m]

None are spoiler-free, but who cares? (Unless you want to play the original game.)

FF7 Rebirth

For Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth:

• Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Critique by Orion85, 2024/4 [57m]
• Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is Severely Overrated | Rayl Deal Review by Rayl Deal Games, 2024/7 [1h08m]
• The FF7 REBIRTH RANT: This Game is NOT a Masterpiece (Critique) by Big Dan Gaming, 2024/3 [26m]
• Final Fantasy VII is Officially Dead... by Snackugo, 2024/9 [2h22m]

None are spoiler-free. Don't watch if you want to play the original game.

Others

Something light-hearted:

• FFVII Remake Is Ruined by That Guy Bis, 2021/3 [14m]
• How Final Fantasy 7 Purists See FF7 Remake by IntroSpecktive, 2020/5 [5m35s]
• Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth - 5 Minute Rant by Roleplay Reviews, 2024/3 [4m23s]
• Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth - Roleplay Reviews by Roleplay Reviews, 2024/6 [7m12s]

US 2024 election turnout

An extra 14 mil voters in 2020? Hmm...

Surprisingly, Trump has higher popular support in 2020 than 2024.

Updated with final count:

Kamala got 71 mil votes, Trump 76 mil. There's still 10 mil missing voters.

A bumpy ride for Ticket-to-Ride 20th anniversary trains

Ordered from Asmodee directly. US$49.95 for a set of 5. No bonus set.

Shops started to take preorders in Sep, but they were based in EU. Finally, I found Asmodee has it in late Sep, but they only have the standard 5 sets, no bonus set. I jumped at it cos it was "limited edition" — no idea how long it would be available.

The sets finally showed up in US shops after 10 Oct, the official release date. Some shops gave the bonus set for free, some you had to pay an additional US$10. And the long elusive #1 set, Milk Tankers, was also available for US$10 to $20.

That's a story for another time. :angry:

Now this is Final Fantasy 7!

I just discovered that it is still possible to play the original Final Fantasy 7 from 1998 on Windows 10!

Although you need a third-party installer (the original one no longer works) and new graphics driver (provided by FFNx).

It is also recommended to update FF7 to 1.02 (released in the early 2000s).

But don't play first. Install 7th Heaven, a mod manager. Then you can choose mods to bring FF7 up to modern standards!

Other than graphical and music enhancements, there are gameplay enhancements, improved translation (the original one had a number of mistranslations) and even full voice-over!

The game itself takes up 1.4 GB (excluding FMVs), the mods I chose took up almost 36 GB!

One thing that amazes me is that the low-res pre-rendered backgrounds are upscaled and extended to 16:10 via AI and manual drawing.

It will be difficult to extend the art to ultrawide (21:9), but it should be doable for battle fields and world map as they are rendered in 3D.

Also, it is Aeris, not Aerith! :-D

(To be pedantic, it is spelt Aerith, but it is pronounced Aeris.)

Best of Final Fantasy OST

Melodies of Life is a vocal track, though.

Final Fantasy 7 does not win the top spots, but it has way more good songs. It takes most of the next ten spots or so. :lol:

The lesson of Final Fantasy 7 Midgar Zolom

On the Overworld for the first time. And hear the main theme for the first time. You'll hear it so often that you associate it with the Overworld.

Final Fantasy Remake and Rebirth got two things wrong here. First, the main theme should not be played in Midgar. Second, Rebirth starts at the town of Kalm, not here.

In Final Fantasy 7, Barret tells you to go north-east to a town called Kalm. You don't have to go there immediately, you can explore around — FF7 is pretty linear, but there is some degree of freedom on the Overworld. The Overworld is such a fresh look that you will wander around to take in the scenery.

It just isn't FF7 if there is no Overworld. It gives a sense of scale. If you can move from location to location on foot, the world feels small.

You'll find two places of interest here: a Chocobo farm and a marsh with a super-strong giant snake that prevents you from entering the cave beyond it. So your only real choice is to enter Kalm.

Or is it?

Midgar Zolom

The giant snake is Midgar Zolom. It has 4,000 HP (vs ~400 for your party) and can do 1,000 damage. It is winnable if you prepare your party beforehand. You want to do so to learn the Beta Enemy Skill early.

There are 4 ways to cross the marsh:

• Capture a Chocobo and ride it across (it can outrun Zolom)
• Run across when Zolom is furthest away
• Run across. Midway, save and reload. Zolom will re-appear far away
• Fight

I like this because there are multiple ways to get around the obstacle.

Sadly, you can't skip Kalm^*, especially the Nibelheim flashback. Otherwise, when you enter Mythril Mine, it tells you to turn back.

^*Kalm skip was discovered in 2021.

You definitely want to go through the flashback on your first playthrough, but subsequent playthroughs? It'll be nice to skip it.

Making sense of Final Fantasy 7 Remake/Rebirth

I watched FF7 Rebirth until Junon (second Open World location). The graphics is gorgeous as expected. Then, I lost interest and went directly to watch critiques of it, especially on the ending.

Open world!

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth does not disappoint. Like Remake, it follows the original plotline (mostly) until the end, then it goes off the rail completely.

But now I understand what the writers are going for.

Aeris died in FF7. Despite fans asking for her to be brought back, the Producer put his foot down and said no. Later, Aeris' boyfriend Zack was fleshed out in a different story, but he also had to die cos that happened in FF7.

Square Enix now has a problem. Both Aeris and Zack are well-loved characters, but because they die, any stories involving them have to be in the past. Square Enix wants to change that.

This is what FF7 Remake/Rebirth is about: creating a way so that Aeris and Zack remain alive. Then Square Enix will be able to use them in new adventures placed in the future.

What? You think it is about pleasing the fans? Sure, fans will be pleased, but it is secondary.

The idea in Rebirth is that there are multiple worlds. Sephiroth wants to create a world where he wins and merge that into "mainline" (where he loses). As for the protagonists, As long as they survive in one world, they will survive when the worlds "compress". (If you survive in two worlds, your experience merge. You don't get two of the same person.)

So yes, at the end, everyone will survive. Square Enix is happy. Fans are happy.

But, the story is totally destroyed.

Also, SE botched Aeris' death scene in FF7 Rebirth.

I'll rather the story be played straight as in FF7. There are less convoluted ways to bring Aeris and Zack back.

Here's an idea. Just bring Aeris back. Aeris is an Ancient and can tap into the Lifestream. The Lifestream can revive her.

Who said Zack died? Cloud thought he did in his semi-comotase state. Maybe he didn't. Maybe Zack woke up and went, "Who took my Buster Sword?!"

Remaking Final Fantasy 7

Yes, I'm slow. Final Fantasy VII Remake came out in Apr 2020. It is an reimaging of FF7 from 1997 and covers the first arc of the full story of the original game.

Midgar City

Back in 2020, I downloaded video OSTs of the game from YouTube. These OSTs show the cutscenes as the music play. The music is nice, but I prefer the original — perhaps it is nostagia. After that I forgot about it.

Recently, I listened to the OSTs again. As I watched the videos, I wondered, how come I didn't watch the playthroughs?

Also, the second arc, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth was released in Feb this year!

I don't just want to watch them on YouTube. I want to download them. Just like 4 years ago, 4K videos are still too big for me to store. I had to download 2K version (1440p). I don't remember what codec I chose in the past, but the choices now are VP9 and AV1. I choose VP9.

Audio-wise, it's still 128 kbps Opus. This is the only (free) one that does not have frequency cutoff at 16 kHz.

It is now fashionable to have walkthroughs in a single video — most are over 12 hours! This is not a problem for watching, but makes downloading difficult. I'm old-fashioned and prefer shorter videos — by chapters, if possible.

I also realized there are two kinds of walkthroughs: "uncut" ones that show the entire play, including movement, exploration and battles (that can drag on), and "cut" ones that show dialog scenes only. It's the latter ones that I want.

On the whole, FF7 Remake is more bad than good.

The bad:

• Excessive padding
• Mandatory side quests
• Long battles
• Ghosts changing the "flow" (bad plot device)
• Sephiroth appears too early and way too often
• Ending is too convoluted
• Aeris and Cloud's first meeting is ruined
• Change in the fate of side characters

The Midgar part in the original game takes around 5 hours, maybe 10 if you do all the side quests. Now it is a complete game, so it has to stretch to 30 - 40 hours. See the problem?

If I actually play the game, I think I won't like the Battle system. I don't see the All materia and Summon materias now need to be researched?

I see most combat being physical-based. I don't see Fire used against organic enemies and Lighting used against mechanical ones.

The good:

• Characters stay true to original and are fleshed out
• Recreation of original plots and settings
• Idle chats during movement and sometimes in battle
• Can hear NPC background chatter just walking past them
• Almost seamless transition to/from cutscenes
• Rest by sitting on benches, buy/sell at vending machines outside of towns
• Random items are stored in crates and chests
• Enemies are visible and transit seamlessly into battle

The ghosts, Sephiroth and the ending have to go, totally. Then we can talk about improving the story and gameplay.

The game ends when the party reached the end of the uncompleted highway. Period.

Leaving Midgar City

My FF7 canon:

• Biggs, Wedge and Jessie die
• Barret is not killed and then immediately resurrected (it makes no sense at all)
• Sephiroth never appears in Midgar City at all
• We only see the trail of Sephiroth — he already cleared out Shinra HQ and killed the President (as in original story)
• No alternate timeline. Zack does not appear at this point

Release That Witch webnovel

This is a rare webnovel that transcends webnovels. It is good enough to be considered a real novel. (Most webnovels are very low quality.)

This 7-book hardcopy is supposedly based on official text from 起点中文网. Only the first 96 chapters are free there, though the entire novel (1498 chapters) can be found elsewhere easily — with varying quality (due to censored words).

It does not seem to be an offical copy, though. It does not show 起点中文网 on the book cover, despite appearing in the listing. (The seller told me it was removed after 起点中文网 told the publisher to do so.)

The text is in two columns, so it is easy to read. The last chapter of each book is broken up and continues in the next book.

I found two more editions: a 4-book edition and a 10-book edition. One is enough. :lol:

Most online text are based on 校对版 — they are 99.9% identical. AFAIK, 校对版 is the first published edition. However, I've always wondered if the author went back to make corrections after finishing the story. In particular,

• Inconsistent value of gold
• Number of witches in Tilly's group
• Number of ancient witches

That's why I'm interested in 起点中文网's edition. It has user feedback, so mistakes may be corrected.

Macross DYRL 40th anniversary

Dual 4K and Blu-ray release. New remaster. Includes English subtitles!

9,900 yen for the standard release. (The limited 1st edition costing 14,300 yen can only be purchased in Japan.)

It is not known if the blu-ray is improved or the 2016 release.

I am waiting for these 4K releases:

• Castle of Cagliostro
• Cars

Castle of Cagliostro was already released by Discotek Media in 2021. Waiting for it to drop price to US$25. :lol:

For Cars, I'm waiting for a real 4K release.

I'm thinking whether I want any Studio Ghibli releases in 4K. Of the 3 I like, only Princess Mononoke will benefit from 4K.

Ticket-to-Ride 20th anniversary

Wow, has it been so long?

A set of five deluxe train sets, plus one more from "exclusive" game shops.

Speaking of which, I'm still waiting for The Little Plastic Train Company's Deluxe Board Game Train Sets: Wave 2.

It must have gotten on a slow boat from China — despite paying US$34 for shipping!

It is a set of 3 engines and 5 railcars.

At this point, TtR is more about collecting miniature train models!

Transformers 40th Anniversary – SS86 Optimus Prime

SS86-31 Optimus Prime

The highlights for me this year are SS86 Bumblebee and SS86 Optimus Prime.

Bumblebee was a disappointment. It is not G1 enough.

Optimus Prime looks really good. It looks like a cost-down MP-44 — including its giant backpack. Sadly, that means I won't be getting it.

To be released next year are SS86 Megatron and SS86 Constructicons.

Megatron will be a tank, but hopefully its robot mode is on point to G1.

Everyone has the same idea to release Constructicons for 40th anniversary: FansToys, XTB, MMC. This is the third Devastator war!

The Day The World Blue Screened

Happened to me at 12:34 pm. After my notebook power-cycled, a colleague told me his notebook also crashed, but unlike mine, it could not boot. He said it happened to many people in office.

A solution was posted on Reddit very quickly — enter Recovery mode and either delete the offending file or rename the entire CrowdStrike dir.

But there is a gotcha: to enter Recovery mode, you need the Recovery key if your system is encrypted with BitLocker. Who has it written down? Panic is when the server holding the keys is also BSOD. Pray IT has the key to the server offline...

I renamed the CrowdStrike dir and it was gone. I wanted a less intrusive change by using RegEdit to stop the service from running, but I could not do so. I had no admin rights to edit the Registry even in Safe mode.

It struck me I could disable ZScaler the same way... :devil:

In Reddit, there were postings that it affected N-1 and N-2 deployments too. N-1 means one patch earlier, N-2 means two. Generally servers will use N-1. To use N-2 means to be extra-conservative.

The reason this affected all is because the update is "data", and data is rolled out to all immediately. CrowdStrike prides itself having extremely up-to-minute protection. Data is normally considered safe — except when it is corrupted.

The lessons here:

• Input validation!
• Staged rollout (limits damage)
• Roll back on error

Some people will say more testing before release. But we all know how that works. Testing is never comprehensive.

Against Trump no matter the cost

When you can't win legally, you take the other path.

Trump is very lucky to be alive.

TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome) is real. Many people instinctly dislike him because they see him as rich, spoiled, a playboy and is not a career politician.

Let me put it this way. If the State Apparatus dug all the way to 40 years ago and could only bring such insignificant and weak charges against Trump, I'll say he has lived a pretty clean and good life.

And this is why the Deep State is worried... he cannot be blackmailed.

Conspiracy theory time

The gunman was seen climbing up the roof. Several bystanders notified SS (Secret Service) officers, but they were ignored.

The gunman was well within SS "secure" perimeter.

The SS sniper already had the gunman in his sight, but only fired after the gunman fired 8 shots.

The conspiracy theory is: kill the gunman after he kills Trump to leave no living witness. (This is not the first time this has happened, seriously.)