January 2014 – Page 5 – The Oredigger

Music Review: The Ten Most Popular Songs of 2013 (Part One of Two)

In honor of the new year, the Oredigger will be looking back on the most popular songs of 2013. According to the website Spotify, the top ten songs streamed globally last year were:
1. Can’t Hold Us by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
2. Wake Me Up by Avicii
3. Thrift Shop by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
4. Get Lucky by Daft Punk
5. Radioactive by Imagine Dragons
6. Let Her Go by Passenger
7. Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke
8. Just Give Me A Reason by Pink
9. Ho Hey by The Lumineers
10. I Need Your Love by Calvin Harris feat. Ellie Goulding

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Geek of the Week – Matt Buland (Senior, Computer Science)

It is a new semester and a new roster in the never-ending parade of geeks here at the Oredigger. This year, the first geek who consented to an interview is a senior in the Computer Science department who goes by many names, though his friends know him by the moniker of Matt Buland.

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“Okay Glass, you are more than okay”

The challenge of being able to give Google Glass a dispassionate and objective review is a Sisyphean task, as soon as analytical descriptions come to mind, they are instantaneously inflated with florid emotions. As the emotion is removed, what makes Google Glass so special is also removed, so the whole cycle starts over again. When Glass was first demoed in 2012, the hype surrounding the upcoming product was nearly fanatical within tech communities. Like all new technology, dreams of upcoming release dates were broken and anticipated costs kept rising to levels above and beyond the typical cost of anything but the most luxurious budget breaking products. With costs soaring to $1500 by the start of the Glass Explorer program’s commencement, it almost appeared as though, what was viewed as a simple Heads Up Display (HUD), may forever be outside the realm of the normal consumer. Since Glass still remains at this absurd cost, the question of whether or not the technology is worth the cost depends highly on “how much do you have to spend?”

Game Review: Dungeons of Dredmor

In the midst of a gaming world full of multiplayer focused, first-person shooters, foul mouthed twelve year olds, open world role playing games where finding a quest can take hours, and games relying on gimmicks like motion capturing and touch screens instead of gameplay, it can be refreshing to go back to basics. Dungeons of Dredmor is exactly that. The game is a fairly straightforward, Roguelike, dungeon crawling role playing game made up of randomized levels with a single semi-customized character and a very uncomplicated quest in mind. This game heavily invokes Nethack by being an incredibly fun, if on occasion frustratingly difficult game that can be played over and over again because of the randomization of the dungeon and the broad range of ways to actually trudge through the game’s ten to fifteen levels.

Comic Corner – Injustice: Gods Among Us Volume 1

“Injustice: Gods Among Us” is a popular fighting game based on the DC universe released last year. The game takes place in a world where Superman killed the Joker after the Clown Prince of Crime managed to kill Jimmy Olsen and trick the Big Blue Boy Scout into killing Lois Lane and all of Metropolis. These events convince Superman once and for all that he has not been doing enough to protect his adopted planet and he successfully takes over all the world’s governments, establishing himself as ruler in order to maintain peace and safety among Earth’s people. Batman establishes a resistance and heroes choose sides. The player enters the story five years after the death of the Joker. However, given that this is a game based on a comic book world, it seems only natural that expansions to the story in the form of comics would exist and indeed, DC began releasing a series of prequel comics a few months before the game came out. Without further ado, it is time to explore the first volume of comics that made the unthinkable a reality.

Book Review: “William Shakespeare’s Star Wars”

This book is exactly what is on the cover: “Star Wars: A New Hope” written in the style of William Shakespeare, and it is a glorious experience. It imitates the Bard’s style quite well, turning the familiar story of “A New Hope” into a worthy Shakespearean play with dialogue written in iambic pentameter, a list of Dramatis Personae at the beginning, lines for a chorus interspersed throughout the production, and a five act structure with stage directions galore. It even goes so far as to direct interested readers to the publisher’s website using a sonnet at the end of the book. There are a few illustrations scattered about the book showcasing the familiar “Star Wars” characters clothed in a mix of their familiar movie costumes and the capes and frills for which Shakespearean plays are known, which are a lot of fun to run into as the reader makes his or her way through the play.

Book Review – “Divergent” Dystopia Thrills

Everyday people make decisions based on core beliefs. Some value honesty and bravery, others the pursuit of knowledge, but rarely does a person base every single decision throughout their life on one sole value. Veronica Roth’s “Divergent” wields a world in which children are raised by only one virtue—the virtue their parents believe will lead to world harmony. The citizens live in one of five factions in a futuristic society, set where modern-day Chicago currently resides. Each faction values a different ideal: Abnegation, or selflessness; Amenity, peace; Candor, honesty; Dauntless, bravery; Erudite, knowledge. For example, a child raised in Candor would be taught to be brutally honest without regard for anything else, including the feelings of others. A child raised in Abnegation would be raised to be completely selfless, always putting others needs above her own.

Monthly Archives: January 2014