Virginia Tech

19 04 2007

I only caught the last part of the news about the shootings as I came in. At that time there were a suspected 20 casualties, a figure which has now been raised to 32; including the shooter. It looks like the inevitable popular entertainment backlash is already gearing up.

I’m quite astonished at this. I remember when the Columbine shootings were going on, there was a huge (justifiable) uproar. This recent event seems to be an order of magnitude more horrific.

What’s possibly just as sickening to me, is how quickly Mr Jack Thompson, attorney at law, has jumped on this. Smacktard.

This has to be a truly disgusting event for anyone involved in it, and those close to it. All we can do for the time being is offer our condolences, wait for the details, and fend off the backlash.

UPDATE: Kotaku have posted a video of Jack actually being tasked to defend himself, on public TV no less! I’ve not watched it yet, but I’ll have a go as soon as I can.


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Categories : Politics, Rant

SCEE Laying Off Staff

16 04 2007

Can’t help but laugh, eh?

Looks like Sony Europe are cutting 10% of their European games employees.  So close to the release of the PS3, you have to wonder whether the console is severely missing it’s targets or if they planned it? My bet is the former, but I wouldn’t put it past them.

Also, looks like their new DVD DRM tech is b0rking up too.


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Categories : DRM, Rant, Sony

Fingerprint Your Kids: Better Safe Than Sorry

5 03 2007

The Beeb reports that everybody’s favourite government (the UK’s for those not paying attention) is planning to fingerprint children for passports.
What’s next, numbers tatooed into our forearms? Mayhap I’m over reacting, but having a fingerprint database of children just seems all kinds of wrong. They justfy keeping our biometrics for ID cards to ‘prevent terrorism’, so what’s their excuse for kids?
I would really like to know what Labour’s long term plan is. I figure under the skin RFID tags and readers in every lamp post, they already want to tag our cars. Seriously, what is the real reason for all this terrorist scapegoating and sneaking in surveillance measures?


Comments : 2 Comments »

Categories : Politics, Rant

Howto: Effectively Manage Uppity Websites

2 03 2007

This story is really travelling the internet, so it’s high time I chucked my penneth’s worth into the ring.

For those too lazy to read the link, Sony is refusing further exclusive press contact to the gaming blog Kotaku, after they ran a rumour story about their plans to release a hybrid Mii/XBL achievements function to the PS3.

What I would really like to know is how Sony still keeps selling products. Their PR is universally worse than just about any manufacturing company out there (except maybe Cillit Bang). Alongside this new steaming pile, they also got called up for spraying graffiti onto non-consenting buildings, the vomit worthy All I Want for Xmas is a PSP fiasco, giving shite reasons for inflating the UK PS3 price and coming up with possibly the worst DRM implementation ever. That’s not even mentioning them backtracking on the ‘next-gen-ness’ of rumble, expecting customers to get a third mortgage to play Gran Turismo HD and trying to convince us that £425 is ‘cheap’.

Well this is it, Sony can go swing for all I care. I like their hardware, but if they keep throwing their weight behind ventures that show nothing but contempt for their consumers, they can take their PS3 and insert it into their proverbial. I can play most of the games on my 360, and if I want to pay extortionate amounts for an HD DVD player which nobody gives a tin shit about, I have the option to; it doesn’t get forced down my throat. It seems strange that I’m rooting for a Microsoft product here. Sure the 360 is slightly louder than my spin-dryer, and forces me to use Windows Media Centre to play videos on it but at least Microsoft don’t act like all gamers are cattle to the inevitable cull.


Comments : 1 Comment »

Categories : Games, Politics, Rant, Sony

Console Sales Figures

28 02 2007

Not that I’m bitter but these figues don’t look so good.

I’m not sure of the accuracy and I’m far, far too lazy to go and get some corroborating evidence but this seems like a huge discrepency between the 4 million ’shipped’ and the amount in consumers hands.

In the most-expensive-thing-i’ve-considered-buying-that-isn’t-a-new-house-or-car stakes, the PS3 is launching in Norway for 5995 Kroner, which equates to a wallet friendly £499 </sarcasm>. Release price for Israel is 4,500 ILS (Israel New Shekels) which is £554, so I guess I should stop complaining about the price of the console, eh?


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Categories : Games, Rant, Sony

Murderer’s Parent Speaks Out

22 02 2007

If you read one web article today, read this.

Back on the 19th Penny Arcade’s Gabe posted a comment about parent’s taking responsiblity for the development of their children. Written in PA’s usual tounge in cheek style, it was entertaining to read the gamer’s take on the recent killing of a homeless man, by three teenagers no less. What really makes this worth reading is the reply Gabe got by a person describing themselves as one of the children’s step-parents.

It’s an insightful article that higlights that kids problems just can’t be attributed to a single cause. I work in the Social Services department of a county council, and although I have no direct contact with our service users the stories that I come across as part of my job are sometimes horrifying.

I feel that these kids have been failed. I don’t think that anyone is born broken, but somewhere a bunch of things have gone wrong. Blaming any single cause is asinine and patronising to those involved, realising that these kids need more than just councelling is essential. What is required is a ratified and sensible system for removing them from society and fixing their problems, not just locking them up.


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Categories : Games, Politics, Rant

DRM Petition Update

20 02 2007

The response to my petition to ban DRM came through yesterday. It’s hardly a glowing endorsement of the Anti-DRM movement, but does at least state that the government will allow some exceptions to IP laws when it comes to format shifting. The question is though; will it be legal to break DRM methods for the purposes of moving media to different formats?

My guess is no. I guess until more pressure is applied to those applying the DRM to their product, the practice is going to continue.

I’ve been enjoying the amount of coverage that the DRM backlash has been garnering over the past few weeks, with even Steve Jobs getting behind us (Asine9 even got a mention on ZDNet news; scary!). Still, any movement on the fight to do away with DRM is good despite some music companies burying their heads in the sand.


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Categories : Apple, DRM, Politics, Rant

Shoehorning: or why nobody uses Maya for spreadsheets

10 01 2007

I like my job. I get to do plenty of different things and learn a lot while I do. Sometimes my work is unused and lies dormant, sometimes it’s mission critical. Sometimes I feel like I’m being counter-productive.

I’m currently working on adapting an application to perform a task it was not intended to do. I can’t modify the program, as it’s closed source. While it may be possible to change it’s function, it isn’t easy and more than likely won’t yield very good results. In a perfect world I’d grab the source code and mod it myself, but I haven’t got the option this time.

Lets take for example an application designed to send an email, so your user interface has a button marked ‘Send Email’. An untrained user can rev up your app and know instantly what that button does. Now lets assume that you need this app to instead send a net message, you plug in a new DLL and it now does net sends. That’s great, but that big button still says ‘Send Email’. You see the problem?

I don’t have an issue with getting more value out of a product, but to use it out of context is just confusing for users. It’s much better to use a less specialised application with a customizable interface, than one with the required functionality but the incorrect UI.


Comments : 1 Comment »

Categories : Rant, Software design, UI

Smoke and mirrors

9 01 2007

Good old Linden Labs. Hot on the heels of the shocking(?) news that they were inflating user figures comes the official announcement that Second Life is going open source. What classic political maneuvering they have performed, if only the announcement was worth the virtual ink it’s written in. Whereas my hombres might thing I would be over joyed at this news (and it’s true, more adherents to the GPL the better,) I’m more shocked at the complete lack of excitement this should engender. Unfortunately Mr. Doctorow seemed to get the wrong end of the stick over at Boing Boing. 

Read the press release, and you’ll see that Linden are GPL-ing the client software only. Big whup, it would be nice to see somebody rewrite the frankly nasty 3D engin,e but apart from that how much control will coders get? My guess is minimal.


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Categories : Rant, Second Life

The dangers of celebrity

4 01 2007

Holy florking schnitt, The Face is in the new Celebrity Big Brother. Frankly, I’m horrified.

I don’t have a damn clue as to who the other whorehoppers are but to see Dirk Benedict, nay Starbuck himself prostrate in the slack-jawed public eye makes me feel like Jo Brand has taken a large shit over my childhood. Boo!


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Categories : Rant, TV

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