Archive for April, 2005
I trust I can rely on your vote
I’m voting in the general election today - I was supposed to be in hospital on the day of the election, so I’ve got one of those postal vote thingies that gets English labour councillors so excited. Don’t worry, I’m not going to blah on about the election, but I thought I’d share some useful links.
They Work For You: check the voting record of your current MP and find out their stance on things such as ID cards, gay rights, the war on Iraq and so on.
Who Should You Vote For?: answer a few quick questions on your views, and the site attempts to match you with the appropriate party. It’s pretty simplistic, but reasonably reliable. Except in Northern Ireland, according to Squander Two.
Fact Check: Channel 4’s excellent investigation into the truthfulness or otherwise of each party’s headline claims.
Fat Chicks In Party Hats: because after reading lots of stuff about elections, you deserve a break. Sample quote: “HA HA HA HA HA HA! oh news paper i know where the ham hides!”
Hurrah for the French!
The verdict will no doubt be overturned in a heartbeat, but it’s the right decision and a victory for common sense. I’m almost ready to forgive the French for making Euro-iPods too quiet.
(incidentally, is it just me or is there something a bit odd about wanting to watch Mulholland Drive with your mum? “Hey, ma! Lesbians!”)
Technology should be an enabler
There’s an interesting story on Wired news about assistive technology, the use of technology to make life easier for people with disabilities such as visual impairment. It makes a very good point:
As technology has evolved, it has become lighter, smaller and more portable. For most people, that makes it more convenient. For millions of blind and vision-impaired people, it’s anything but.
…”The biggest barrier for blind people is access to information, and more and more information is being made available through different machines that aren’t designed for people who can’t see,” says Leventhal, editor in chief of AccessWorld: Technology and People with Visual Impairments.
All I want for Christmas is an Xbox 360
Details of the next generation Xbox console are finally emerging, and I want one. In particular, I want the rumoured premium version, which will apparently have a decent removable hard drive and backwards compatibility with first-generation Xbox titles. If it exists.
I’m hoping that Microsoft does the smart thing with Xbox 360 and includes its Media Center software, or at least a version of it. We’ve already seen Windows Media Center Extender for Xbox, which enables you to hook an Xbox up to a Windows Media Center network (either by wires or wirelessly), but Microsoft should go further: a next-gen games console with full, TiVo-style functionality would be fantastic and a no-brainer purchase.
On a related note, discussion of the new Xbox design on various gadget sites has led to a rash of postings from some of the more excitable members of the Apple fan community, who’ve dismissed it on the grounds that as the casing is white, Microsoft is clearly ripping off Apple. Perhaps they should pop over to Comet.co.uk and damn these blatant Apple plagiarists:
OMG WTF they’ve so totally ripped off the iBook!!!!!!!!!
Then again, sometimes they have a point.
Sunday Times readers on downloading
There’s a fascinating article in today’s Sunday Times newspaper about digital music: the paper asked its readers for their views on legal music, DRM, P2P and so on, and they’ve responded in large numbers. It’s interesting that of the replies, 99% of them are scathing about legal downloads and DRM.
The ST summarises the response:
DOWNLOAD SURVEY FINDINGS
£5.48 is the average price Doors readers say an album should cost to download — the current going price is typically £837% of you buy music downloads solely from legal services
54% remain hardened illegal file-sharers, despite the freely acknowledged failings of peer-to-peer networks
9% of respondents have tried both legal and illegal download services but have subsequently decided to use neither
44% have increased their offline music buying, mainly as a result of trying online before they buy
23% buy fewer physical CDs, because they sample music online but then decide not to buy
Eels again
I know, I know, I’ll stop posting about Eels soon; I just wanted to make a quick comment that’s related to my post about the band’s embrace of the net. The latest official email says sure, you’ve downloaded the album, but please buy it too:
We know many of you have been listening to it for some time, and that’s great, but please don’t forget to step up, represent and get the CDs with the beautiful 32 page booklet, as God and the EELS intended it. If you want more EELS in the future, this is the only way it can happen!
“As God and the EELS intended it”. Brilliant.
MP3 worms and tinfoil hats
There’s a new worm spreading around file sharing networks, and it zaps MP3 files.
Now, only a hopeless paranoid would wonder whether there’s any possible connection with the record industry’s funding of various types of destructive software.
‘Street’ hassle
Keith Stuart has written excellent analysis of one of the great mysteries of our time: why is the game FIFA Street topping the charts when all the reviewers reckon it’s a pile of pants? This bit’s priceless:
How videogame reviewers would like people to buy games:
1. Read reviews in dedicated videogame magazine
2. Make informed choice based on considerations of game depth
3. Go to independent game store and buy game
4. Play for many months, determined to wring every ounce out of the experience
How people actually buy games:
1. View a range of brilliantly produced TV adverts, created using jump cuts of pre-rendered footage, perhaps with the odd two or three micro-seconds of gameplay.
2. Choose a game that is attached to the most currently visible brand (at the moment that would be Dr Who, Frank Lampard and the Roman Catholic church)
3. Go into highstreet videogame chainstore where row upon row of shelving, as well as window areas and point-of-sale advertising space, has been bought up by the publisher of the game mentioned above.
4. Play alone for a few hours. Play for a few hours with mates. Consign to shelf, or return to highstreet videogame chainstore along with a couple of other neglected brand games, to trade them in for… FIFA Street.
This ties in nicely with all the guff about “New Games Journalism”, the quest to inject gonzo-style writing into video game magazines. I’m all in favour of better journalism, but NGJ depends on the first scenario - “how videogame reviewers would like people to buy games” - rather than the reality.
Fighting the phone frauds, again
I may be on this morning’s Gary Robertson show (BBC Radio Scotland) to talk about premium rate text messages and SMS scams. If it’s something you’re worried about (the scams I mean, not me being on the radio) then it’s a very good idea to look at Grumbletext. It’s an excellent resource on everything to do with expensive text messages, both legal and illegal.
Surging queues of rabid early adopters
The handheld Gizmondo gadget hopes to take on devices such as the PlayStation Portable, the Nintendo DS and so on, and they’ve even opened a London shop to show it off. Naturally, the sarky sods at UK Resistance had to pay a visit.
Wow. It’s all new and clean. Just like the Apple store, only not selling anything you aspire to own.