Miscellany for a Monday Evening

At work I got the bibliographic software Endnote updated on all the desktop Macs. Next comes the laptops, which need new images (replicas of the hard disk of a given make and model of computer). Hopefully I will get the Mac microcosm ready by the time the fall semester starts in mid-August.

I have been trying out the latest version of Minecraft, now at version 1.6.2. This is the so-called Horse Update. Evidently the makers of Minecraft promised themselves that if the game exceeds ten million users, they would add horses. It happened, and they did: Horses and things horse-related such as leads, horse armor and hay bales. (Saddles now also apply to horses as well as to pigs.) There are also donkeys and mules, both of which can tote chests for transporting stuff.

Among other new stuff:

• Carpets for your floor. They are a more efficient (and safer) covering than wool blocks, and can cover wiring.
• Adobe blocks (officially called hardened clay), plain and (pastel) colored. These are fire-resistant and can blunt the force of creeper blasts.
• Coal can now formed into blocks. When used as fuel a coal block can smelt more (80) than the nine coals that make it (72).
• Charcoal now has a different look, like a ball of peat.
• Healing now drains the food/hunger bar.
• Weapons and most tools now have damage ratings.
• In cheats mode, you can turn off the daylight cycle.
• Finally, the launcher, which you will now need in order to run Minecraft.