Well.
In the course of trying to make an elaborately situationist and intellectual joke in french, I realised that I do not know the French word for toes.
Luckily, in this day and age, the internet will contain this knowledge.
Won't it?
Oh.
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Google Blog Search
...but why would I *want* to search just blogs?
I can't see that 'blogs' are a useful subset of 'the internet' - I do get a feeling that this is more about exploiting the 'claim your blog' ego-boost dynamic to favour static sites over personal opinion pieces in the google index?
I can't see that 'blogs' are a useful subset of 'the internet' - I do get a feeling that this is more about exploiting the 'claim your blog' ego-boost dynamic to favour static sites over personal opinion pieces in the google index?
Thursday, September 08, 2005
So long, Technorati (kottke.org)
So... Technorati is borked beyond hope; well, it's not like we're paying for it.
But anyway - I was interested to read of an alternative on kottke.org - pubsub.com. I had a quick look, found it... somewhat counterintuitive to use, but as I needed to reccomend some ideas for tracking celeb mentions on the web, I pointed a colleague to it.
About ten minutes later she came over and said 'Think you better look at this...'
A search on 'The Queen' had turned up some beautifully lurid blowjob porn.
So... I'll be rethinking that strategy then.
It's an all-to-frequent problem with engineer designed products - they forget the editorial and social buffers they need to impliment to make a product useful, usable, and for that matter, safe for work.
But anyway - I was interested to read of an alternative on kottke.org - pubsub.com. I had a quick look, found it... somewhat counterintuitive to use, but as I needed to reccomend some ideas for tracking celeb mentions on the web, I pointed a colleague to it.
About ten minutes later she came over and said 'Think you better look at this...'
A search on 'The Queen' had turned up some beautifully lurid blowjob porn.
So... I'll be rethinking that strategy then.
It's an all-to-frequent problem with engineer designed products - they forget the editorial and social buffers they need to impliment to make a product useful, usable, and for that matter, safe for work.
Tags: technorati rss blogs
False Positives: Technorati and del.icio.us Tags added with GreaseMonkey for Blogger.com users
False Positives: Technorati and del.icio.us Tags added with GreaseMonkey for Blogger.com users
Wheeeeeeeee! Not currently linking to my profile, but a bit of JS piggeryjokery shuold sort that out.
Oh, I'm all folksonomied up. w00t!
Wheeeeeeeee! Not currently linking to my profile, but a bit of JS piggeryjokery shuold sort that out.
Oh, I'm all folksonomied up. w00t!
The Joy of SSX
Stop sniggering, you at the back there. That was an S in the middle.
The ever-spiffy 'Tips has posted a little heads up about SSX on the PSP. She's also mentioned that SSX is the only game her friend Paula will play, and enjoy.
Now, my ex, Sarah, generally despised computer games; had little interest in them despite being extremely tech literate, and used to get very bored of me playing Sim City, Civ, KOTOR etc for hours on end. To be honest, this played a small part in our eventual break up. I even got her the CSI game, as she was obsessed with the show and loved anything gory or forensic; it held her attention for all of five minutes.
BUT - the one game she would play was SSX. She loved it; we used to sit in bed on saturday mornings playing 'going down the mountain', as it got nicknamed. She had her favourite character (Zoe, in SSX Tricky; she's sassy and a bit punk; perfect) and became incredibly focused about winning tricking medals on each level, to the point of learning controls and mechanisms; she got at least as far as the Alaska level before getting stuck and frustrated.
The frustration set in when the time limits for racing down became too tight - she couldn't get to the next checkpoint in time, let alone fit in enough tricks in the meantime; the game punished her for preferring and developing skills in the freeform trick mode over the focused race mode.
We talked, once, about why this was the only game she liked. I can't remember verbatim what it was she said, but I absolutely remember the gist. It was this:
That she never died. No matter what happened, she *always* got to the bottom of the hill. It didn't matter if she came in last, or didn't win a medal; the fact that she could always 'complete' the level meant that the game didn't make her feel 'bad'. She didn't feel she'd failed.
I think producing games that still give you the feeling of having beaten something *even when you've failed to beat it* might be a key factor in designing games for non-gamers. It could even be the feeling that if you've failed to beat it, it just hasn't worked out right, like patience.
I see it in myself, too; I always play games on the easiest setting, and am a sucker for cheats; I loose interest as soon as the time required to build up skill to play the game is greater than the (usually very tiny) ammount of time I'm prepared to invest in playing. The number of games that are compelling enough to be more fun than work when getting over the difficulty-spikes approaches zero for me; of the 40 or so games stacked up in my living room, I've completed... two? Three? Certainly less than 10%, probably closer to 1% of all of the games I've played in my time.
It's an extension of playing styles, I think. I'd question if the kind of person who tends to develop games is likely to be the kind of person who temperamentally prefers a certain playing style that is at odds with the casual gamer.
Reaching more people through games will be about expanding the types and styles of games, not about agressive marketing or ubiquitous technology. Growth will come from careful thinking about content.
The ever-spiffy 'Tips has posted a little heads up about SSX on the PSP. She's also mentioned that SSX is the only game her friend Paula will play, and enjoy.
Now, my ex, Sarah, generally despised computer games; had little interest in them despite being extremely tech literate, and used to get very bored of me playing Sim City, Civ, KOTOR etc for hours on end. To be honest, this played a small part in our eventual break up. I even got her the CSI game, as she was obsessed with the show and loved anything gory or forensic; it held her attention for all of five minutes.
BUT - the one game she would play was SSX. She loved it; we used to sit in bed on saturday mornings playing 'going down the mountain', as it got nicknamed. She had her favourite character (Zoe, in SSX Tricky; she's sassy and a bit punk; perfect) and became incredibly focused about winning tricking medals on each level, to the point of learning controls and mechanisms; she got at least as far as the Alaska level before getting stuck and frustrated.
The frustration set in when the time limits for racing down became too tight - she couldn't get to the next checkpoint in time, let alone fit in enough tricks in the meantime; the game punished her for preferring and developing skills in the freeform trick mode over the focused race mode.
We talked, once, about why this was the only game she liked. I can't remember verbatim what it was she said, but I absolutely remember the gist. It was this:
That she never died. No matter what happened, she *always* got to the bottom of the hill. It didn't matter if she came in last, or didn't win a medal; the fact that she could always 'complete' the level meant that the game didn't make her feel 'bad'. She didn't feel she'd failed.
I think producing games that still give you the feeling of having beaten something *even when you've failed to beat it* might be a key factor in designing games for non-gamers. It could even be the feeling that if you've failed to beat it, it just hasn't worked out right, like patience.
I see it in myself, too; I always play games on the easiest setting, and am a sucker for cheats; I loose interest as soon as the time required to build up skill to play the game is greater than the (usually very tiny) ammount of time I'm prepared to invest in playing. The number of games that are compelling enough to be more fun than work when getting over the difficulty-spikes approaches zero for me; of the 40 or so games stacked up in my living room, I've completed... two? Three? Certainly less than 10%, probably closer to 1% of all of the games I've played in my time.
It's an extension of playing styles, I think. I'd question if the kind of person who tends to develop games is likely to be the kind of person who temperamentally prefers a certain playing style that is at odds with the casual gamer.
Reaching more people through games will be about expanding the types and styles of games, not about agressive marketing or ubiquitous technology. Growth will come from careful thinking about content.
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
TVShows.org - Download TV Shows, Download Movies and Clips
TVShows.org - Download TV Shows, Download Movies and Clips: "By using this service, you agree to the following conditions: You may not use this service to obtain or distribute software or any other copyrighted material that you do not have the right to. Any violators must leave this site immediately. This site is meant for educational purposes only. You will find a complete online guide and proprietary file sharing software within the member's area. Plus, get access to leading free P2P software, tutorials, tools and music resources. Purchase of a Subscription is not a license to upload or download copyrighted material. We do not condone copyright infringement and urge you to respect the copyright laws of your Country."
Versus the following Google Ad:
Sponsored Links
Missed an Episode?
Download Doctor Who
episodes to watch at any time!
www.TVShows.org
Hmn. How does that work then, that 'not condoning copyright infringement'? Surely advertising that you *can* download a copyright TV show on their service is condoning infringement?
Versus the following Google Ad:
Sponsored Links
Missed an Episode?
Download Doctor Who
episodes to watch at any time!
www.TVShows.org
Hmn. How does that work then, that 'not condoning copyright infringement'? Surely advertising that you *can* download a copyright TV show on their service is condoning infringement?
Friday, September 02, 2005
IfNotThenElse
IfNotThenElse
Wowser.
So, sending out pings to let people know about stuff (or, the email way of keeping in touch with no real effort involved, which I recently seem to remember having seen written up as a fabulously expensive piece of consultant research that we could have told them for free anyway) sometimes pays enormous dividends. On dropping my 'Hey, the husband is on Radio 3' note to a huge tranche of people I should really take more time and effort over, a friend dropped back a 'hey, me too!' note, and pointed me to his most recent musical collaboration.
It's really rather good. It sounds like a cross between the soundtrack to 'Crash' (the JG Ballard one, rather than the one doing the rounds in a cinema near you currently), Aphex Twin, and improvised Jazz.
I reccomend a listen. Oh, and read Mr Nik Newark over on the side bar there; he's teh funneh.
Wowser.
So, sending out pings to let people know about stuff (or, the email way of keeping in touch with no real effort involved, which I recently seem to remember having seen written up as a fabulously expensive piece of consultant research that we could have told them for free anyway) sometimes pays enormous dividends. On dropping my 'Hey, the husband is on Radio 3' note to a huge tranche of people I should really take more time and effort over, a friend dropped back a 'hey, me too!' note, and pointed me to his most recent musical collaboration.
It's really rather good. It sounds like a cross between the soundtrack to 'Crash' (the JG Ballard one, rather than the one doing the rounds in a cinema near you currently), Aphex Twin, and improvised Jazz.
I reccomend a listen. Oh, and read Mr Nik Newark over on the side bar there; he's teh funneh.
Appointment to listen: BBC Radio 3 - Pre-Hear - 3 September 2005
Newsflash!
My husband is a composer. This saturday, one of his pieces is being performed on Radio Three. In the same bill as something by Peter Maxwell Davis.
The show is called PreHear, and is on at 10.40pm on saturday night. Take a transistor radio to the pub and listen to it just before last orders.
He's rather good, and quite listenable. Promise.
My husband is a composer. This saturday, one of his pieces is being performed on Radio Three. In the same bill as something by Peter Maxwell Davis.
The show is called PreHear, and is on at 10.40pm on saturday night. Take a transistor radio to the pub and listen to it just before last orders.
He's rather good, and quite listenable. Promise.
Thursday, September 01, 2005
1,2,3,4 -- I Declare IM War
1,2,3,4 -- I Declare IM War
An interesting write up of the power struggle about to kick off in IM space.
I wonder how much the proprietorial attitude taken by the key players is based on the mindset bought about by the stunted US SMS market?
An interesting write up of the power struggle about to kick off in IM space.
I wonder how much the proprietorial attitude taken by the key players is based on the mindset bought about by the stunted US SMS market?
Eye Crush
I'm weirdly in love with Sam Taylor-Wood's photographs at the moment.
I used to have one of the Five Revolutionary Seconds shots up above my desk; Self Portrait with Single Breasted Suit and Hare is one of my favourite photos. AND she did a jolly good desert island disks, too.
That is all.
I used to have one of the Five Revolutionary Seconds shots up above my desk; Self Portrait with Single Breasted Suit and Hare is one of my favourite photos. AND she did a jolly good desert island disks, too.
That is all.
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
The New Yorker: The Talk of the Town
Lillian Virginia Mountweazel, a fountain designer turned photographer who was celebrated for a collection of photographs of rural American mailboxes titled ?Flags Up!? Mountweazel, the encyclopedia indicates, was born in Bangs, Ohio, in 1942, only to die ?at 31 in an explosion while on assignment for Combustibles magazine.?
A sudden flurry of Nihilartikel related goodness via the marvellous Mr Begbie.
Marvellous. I'd rather like to photograph rural American mailboxes and set up a fake exhibition.
Sunday, August 28, 2005
Life Preserver
There may be an excessive ammount of jam,chutney,preserve and bottling related activity around these parts, imminently. I'm on a promise with my boys to make them marmalade (they tried the pink grapefruit and ginger my ex made, with me helping out...) and possibly jam, too.I however have a yen for chutney; preferring savoury preserves at present.
I've emarked a jam pan. I've got my mother's 1960s MAFF guide to preserving (and will OCR and publish to the web imminently...). Comedy disaster will ensue, but I'll feel like a domestic godess in the process.
Its a side of me that - when discovered - usually surprises people; certainly at work, people are amused to uncover my home-body leanings. It's something that is spectacularly hard to avoid when you're the offspring of a proper, oldskool Home Ec teacher. As I type, her old sewing machine is set up on the dinner table, and I've broken off from taking up a pair of jeans. Badly enough that mum would look down her nose at my shoddy technique, but well enough for me...
Gosh, this is rambly. But it ties up, really it does - with a rather charming new article about some 34 year old chutney that was confirmed edible by some Home Economists.
Conclusive proof that it won't be the cockroaches that take over the world in the event of a nuclear holocaust; it'll be the W.I.
I've emarked a jam pan. I've got my mother's 1960s MAFF guide to preserving (and will OCR and publish to the web imminently...). Comedy disaster will ensue, but I'll feel like a domestic godess in the process.
Its a side of me that - when discovered - usually surprises people; certainly at work, people are amused to uncover my home-body leanings. It's something that is spectacularly hard to avoid when you're the offspring of a proper, oldskool Home Ec teacher. As I type, her old sewing machine is set up on the dinner table, and I've broken off from taking up a pair of jeans. Badly enough that mum would look down her nose at my shoddy technique, but well enough for me...
Gosh, this is rambly. But it ties up, really it does - with a rather charming new article about some 34 year old chutney that was confirmed edible by some Home Economists.
Conclusive proof that it won't be the cockroaches that take over the world in the event of a nuclear holocaust; it'll be the W.I.
Thursday, August 25, 2005
The Casual Passer-By
The Casual Passer-By
Oh, it's Art. I was expecting some kind of Christian evangelism, personally. I'm quite disappointed.
Oh, it's Art. I was expecting some kind of Christian evangelism, personally. I'm quite disappointed.
Punding Beading
Boing Boing: Sheriff: tweakers compulsive seek out ancient indian arrowheads
An ex of mine was a Meth addict.
Her particular thing was beading; she made dresses for drag queens for a living, and used to sit up for nights on end sewing bugle beads on to her creations.
One of her dresses is still worn by a Bette Middler in a Vegas drag show. At the time, my ex was so skinny that the dress actually weighed more than she did when finished.
An ex of mine was a Meth addict.
Her particular thing was beading; she made dresses for drag queens for a living, and used to sit up for nights on end sewing bugle beads on to her creations.
One of her dresses is still worn by a Bette Middler in a Vegas drag show. At the time, my ex was so skinny that the dress actually weighed more than she did when finished.
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Nihilartikel
Boing Boing: BBC punks Wikipedia in game marketing ploy? (UPDATED)
The following is, of course, nothing to do with the views of my employer.
And that's the point - how can my employer have a 'view'? It's an organisation of twenty five thousand people. I have problems getting a meeting of three of them to agree sometimes.
One of the interesting things about the way that people respond to our activities is that 'The BBC' becomes seen as a coordinated individual. A Corporation, in the literal corporal sense of the world - we're embodied. 'The BBC' does this, does that, thinks this. You see it a lot with companies that people have a very strong emotional reaction to, or investment in: other examples would be Apple, Google (Google does no evil you know. Well, appart from contributing to the worlds carbon burden by running so many PCs, or something) or maybe Exxon on the nasty side of the fence.
It's very upsetting, then, when you suddenly become the 'face' of a corporation. I've seen it happen to several of my colleages, and most recently to the lovely Matt. The light of scrutiny swings on to you, and it's not the most comfortable of positions to be in.
Poor lamb. He's going to be notorious for a while. But I'd like him to take comfort in the fact that he's part of a long, long tradition.
It wasn't marketing. Hell, I'm about to take over the marketing role in our department, and I can tell you we ain't that organised. Really.
But think about it - Matt works for a corporation that makes stuff thats so good, he cares enough about it to run with a joke he finds on a collaborative site on the web. So, he's involved enough with web culture that he 'gets' wikipedia. Spend enough time around media folk, and you'll realise that people like him are gold dust. Don't go hard on him - and don't go hard on the BBC. We aren't a faceless organisation; we're a collection of people who care enough about the products, and public service broadcasting, to work at less-than-industry-rates-or-so-I'm-told.
Look at backstage.bbc.co.uk. Look at the creative archive. Come on, guys; we're really trying. And we're not just having to work hard in the public arena to remain clueful; we're fighting these battles on the inside of the organisation too. We need you behind the people who will make the good changes.
Part of me hopes Matt is enjoying his new found notoriety, though. At least he hasn't been rung up by the singing potter from Moffatt.
The following is, of course, nothing to do with the views of my employer.
And that's the point - how can my employer have a 'view'? It's an organisation of twenty five thousand people. I have problems getting a meeting of three of them to agree sometimes.
One of the interesting things about the way that people respond to our activities is that 'The BBC' becomes seen as a coordinated individual. A Corporation, in the literal corporal sense of the world - we're embodied. 'The BBC' does this, does that, thinks this. You see it a lot with companies that people have a very strong emotional reaction to, or investment in: other examples would be Apple, Google (Google does no evil you know. Well, appart from contributing to the worlds carbon burden by running so many PCs, or something) or maybe Exxon on the nasty side of the fence.
It's very upsetting, then, when you suddenly become the 'face' of a corporation. I've seen it happen to several of my colleages, and most recently to the lovely Matt. The light of scrutiny swings on to you, and it's not the most comfortable of positions to be in.
Poor lamb. He's going to be notorious for a while. But I'd like him to take comfort in the fact that he's part of a long, long tradition.
It wasn't marketing. Hell, I'm about to take over the marketing role in our department, and I can tell you we ain't that organised. Really.
But think about it - Matt works for a corporation that makes stuff thats so good, he cares enough about it to run with a joke he finds on a collaborative site on the web. So, he's involved enough with web culture that he 'gets' wikipedia. Spend enough time around media folk, and you'll realise that people like him are gold dust. Don't go hard on him - and don't go hard on the BBC. We aren't a faceless organisation; we're a collection of people who care enough about the products, and public service broadcasting, to work at less-than-industry-rates-or-so-I'm-told.
Look at backstage.bbc.co.uk. Look at the creative archive. Come on, guys; we're really trying. And we're not just having to work hard in the public arena to remain clueful; we're fighting these battles on the inside of the organisation too. We need you behind the people who will make the good changes.
Part of me hopes Matt is enjoying his new found notoriety, though. At least he hasn't been rung up by the singing potter from Moffatt.
All the nice girls love a WREN
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | How the air force kept secret watch to track down lesbians: "A secret 'observation list' of women engaged in 'suspected unnatural female friendships' was maintained for more than 40 years by the Women's Royal Air Force, according to Whitehall files released at the National Archives."
Amusing in retrospect. Particularly the bit about riding britches.
Amusing in retrospect. Particularly the bit about riding britches.
Google Talk
So, it looks like Google are launching their own IM client, with internet telephony combined in to it.
Not at all the most obvious move, but I suppose you can string targetted ads along side the text content. Couple to that the ability to perform speech-to-text on the fly (presumably part of Google Video in the not too distant future) and suddenly, your personal phonecalls become searchable from your desktop.
I find this a strange, yet useful concept, as i am notoriously bad at remembering verbal information, yet spectacularly good at remembering clues from text.
The thing that is beginning to concern me is that there doesn't seem to be a plan behind what google is up to. Do all of these products integrate? Seing as Gmail is only just searchable through their desktop search bar, I'm sensing that maybe the searchmonster is beginning to split into seperate fiefdoms, and develop lots of systems that aren't even loosely joined.
God, that sounds depressingly familiar...
Not at all the most obvious move, but I suppose you can string targetted ads along side the text content. Couple to that the ability to perform speech-to-text on the fly (presumably part of Google Video in the not too distant future) and suddenly, your personal phonecalls become searchable from your desktop.
I find this a strange, yet useful concept, as i am notoriously bad at remembering verbal information, yet spectacularly good at remembering clues from text.
The thing that is beginning to concern me is that there doesn't seem to be a plan behind what google is up to. Do all of these products integrate? Seing as Gmail is only just searchable through their desktop search bar, I'm sensing that maybe the searchmonster is beginning to split into seperate fiefdoms, and develop lots of systems that aren't even loosely joined.
God, that sounds depressingly familiar...
Thursday, August 18, 2005
Horn
A good day.
First - standing up straight lessons. I'm still amazed at the change that Alexander Technique is making to my physical wellbeing. I'm really happy I took the plunge and got on with it.
Then - shopping and a beautiful lunch; vegetarian thali at the indian place in soho - with the most extraordinart vegetarian curry I have ever tasted; beans and greens and banana and gorgeous. Followed a marvellous lunch up with coffee in my favourite cafe; as usual, the eccentrics were in. An elderly gentleman, skewed of trouser and hard of hearing came in asking for apple pie; not something they stock. The proprietrice took him calmly in her stride; being charming and straightforward as he explained the cost and significance of all of his jewelery - worn in the manner of a retired soho spiv, it should be said. He went on to talk about knowing how to say goodbye and thankyou in Spanish and Italian being a vital skill; except ciao came out as 'Cee-Aye". He ambled off, with his potatoes (actually, palmiers) eventually.
One of the things I love about soho are the little pockets of culture that are unchanged since the 50s. In particular, knowing the foibles of these old places amuses me; one should never ask for a pint in the French, nor Cappuccino in Maison Bertaux. Quite how these traditions promulgate I don't know; I feel they're a joke on par with Mornington Crescent, a peculiarly english form of in-the-know humour.
The most marvellous thing, though, was a trip to see the Rebecca Horn show at the Hayward Gallery. Horn really is one of my favourite artists, and whilst this show was a slight dissappointment after the retrospective at the Tate a few years ago, it was still magical and unsettling to see her work again.
The compelling aspect of Horn's work is it's coded sexuality. She is one of the group of artists who rejected the cold calculatedness of minimalism and concepual practice in favour of a personal language, and an exploration of internal myths. Like Beuys, she draws on a personal object code, which is (to me, at least) all but impenetrable. Books, mirrors, reflecting pools, the symbolism of alchemy, eggs, suitcases... all of these appear regularly in her work. For her, they are part of a coherent personal language, which is what I have no access to. But those very objects are also numinous for me; they have a resonance and heft to them that sparks associations, semi-conciously. Her show at the tate was the first time that work has given me a sexual buzz in a gallery situation; her feather masks that enclose the face, and the head of the lover-being-kissed are perverse and beautiful and erotic and disturbing, all at once. Along side that are her twitching objects... that shudder slowly in to life, then so slowly ratchet themselves up to a shuddering release; watching them is like watching the mating dance of violins, or witnessing the erotic reverie of a carving knife. It feels voyeuristic, and intimate, and suffocating. I love it.
I wanted to sit and watch her films - but the sound was terrible. And frankly, they were like watching Fassbinder, and I am not clever enough.
Finally, after Pimms with mr Binding, we finished off the day with a trip to the cinema. UNplanned, so we went to see The island. I don't think I can possibly do the film justice by describing it. Suffice to say that it does away entirely with a second act, instead replacing it with a car chase and a lot of explosions. A LOT of explosions. And a car chase that was obviously conceived by watching the car chase in the second Matrix film, and deciding to piss on its twitching corpse, before packing it with semtex and blowing it up. And then blowing up the scenery. And driving through a building. Which blew up. With a sponsors logo on it. Madness, but enjoyable nonetheless.
Yes, a good day indeed.
First - standing up straight lessons. I'm still amazed at the change that Alexander Technique is making to my physical wellbeing. I'm really happy I took the plunge and got on with it.
Then - shopping and a beautiful lunch; vegetarian thali at the indian place in soho - with the most extraordinart vegetarian curry I have ever tasted; beans and greens and banana and gorgeous. Followed a marvellous lunch up with coffee in my favourite cafe; as usual, the eccentrics were in. An elderly gentleman, skewed of trouser and hard of hearing came in asking for apple pie; not something they stock. The proprietrice took him calmly in her stride; being charming and straightforward as he explained the cost and significance of all of his jewelery - worn in the manner of a retired soho spiv, it should be said. He went on to talk about knowing how to say goodbye and thankyou in Spanish and Italian being a vital skill; except ciao came out as 'Cee-Aye". He ambled off, with his potatoes (actually, palmiers) eventually.
One of the things I love about soho are the little pockets of culture that are unchanged since the 50s. In particular, knowing the foibles of these old places amuses me; one should never ask for a pint in the French, nor Cappuccino in Maison Bertaux. Quite how these traditions promulgate I don't know; I feel they're a joke on par with Mornington Crescent, a peculiarly english form of in-the-know humour.
The most marvellous thing, though, was a trip to see the Rebecca Horn show at the Hayward Gallery. Horn really is one of my favourite artists, and whilst this show was a slight dissappointment after the retrospective at the Tate a few years ago, it was still magical and unsettling to see her work again.
The compelling aspect of Horn's work is it's coded sexuality. She is one of the group of artists who rejected the cold calculatedness of minimalism and concepual practice in favour of a personal language, and an exploration of internal myths. Like Beuys, she draws on a personal object code, which is (to me, at least) all but impenetrable. Books, mirrors, reflecting pools, the symbolism of alchemy, eggs, suitcases... all of these appear regularly in her work. For her, they are part of a coherent personal language, which is what I have no access to. But those very objects are also numinous for me; they have a resonance and heft to them that sparks associations, semi-conciously. Her show at the tate was the first time that work has given me a sexual buzz in a gallery situation; her feather masks that enclose the face, and the head of the lover-being-kissed are perverse and beautiful and erotic and disturbing, all at once. Along side that are her twitching objects... that shudder slowly in to life, then so slowly ratchet themselves up to a shuddering release; watching them is like watching the mating dance of violins, or witnessing the erotic reverie of a carving knife. It feels voyeuristic, and intimate, and suffocating. I love it.
I wanted to sit and watch her films - but the sound was terrible. And frankly, they were like watching Fassbinder, and I am not clever enough.
Finally, after Pimms with mr Binding, we finished off the day with a trip to the cinema. UNplanned, so we went to see The island. I don't think I can possibly do the film justice by describing it. Suffice to say that it does away entirely with a second act, instead replacing it with a car chase and a lot of explosions. A LOT of explosions. And a car chase that was obviously conceived by watching the car chase in the second Matrix film, and deciding to piss on its twitching corpse, before packing it with semtex and blowing it up. And then blowing up the scenery. And driving through a building. Which blew up. With a sponsors logo on it. Madness, but enjoyable nonetheless.
Yes, a good day indeed.
Friday, August 12, 2005
Lost Vagueness
I'm at the end of a week off work - with another to come. Having a fortnight off work is luxury - I've been exceptionally fried recently, so I'm hoping this will get my Foo back. It's maybe not the most relaxing leave ever, as I have a website to build, a strategy document to finish for a friend, and spent the first three days of the week preaching the future to the great and good of UK TV drama.
Well, when I say preaching, I really mean standing in a rather well-appointed diningroom in Soho House, waving small shiny boxes at a variety of TV bigwigs, whilst physically shaking with terror. It didn't help that one of the people I had to convince about the changing way that people consume telly and narrative stories was Gareth Neame, who would last have known me as the slightly mad secretary in the office next door. As it was, he said hello, and then wandered off to talk to someone more interesting; let's hope he doesn't remember. Or was filled with terror that the young turks are at the gate, or something. After all, I had been for a drink with his ex-secretary the previous week, who is now head of development at a film company, completely changing their business practices, and being invited to parties on Paul Allen's yacht at Cannes. Besides which, frankly, mad armwaving girl in Soho House looks like abject failure.
The other of the terrible PA trio is also a head of development, and has just finished her first screenplay.
Must. Try. Harder.
Life does have a way of changing in odd ways though, and I'm hoping an upcoming change of job will also help to blast me out of my rut. As ever, the sides are particularly steep and slippery at the moment, as I find myself in a proper relationship. Does anyne else find that the fact of having another friendly body around the place seems to sap their will to do anything remotely constructive with their time? And just when I was looking forward to a year or two of creative singledom, too.
And so to my current situation. I am sitting in a rather untidy livingroom in a small flat in Brighton. The cricket - the cricket - is burbling away on the tv in the corner, and my boyfriend - my boyfriend - is noodling around sorting out camping equipment somewhere in the environs. We're off to Lost Vagueness, a weekend festival of... well, I'm not sure. But it does involve dressing up, some of my favourite new friends, and dressing up. Ah, the dressing up.
This moring was spent running around Brigton like loons, collecting random items of clothing like power-ups in an early platformer. Our booty consists of:
A Vintage sheepskin Flying Jacket
A pair of beige combat trousers
A pair of Khaki Shorts
A Dinner Jacket
A Tweed Riding Jacket
A German Army Peaked Cap
A Shirt, White, Mens, RN *
A pair of Russian Goggles
A Leather flying Helmet
A Scarlet Bow Tie
A PITH HELMET.
So, yes, the holiday has begun, we're off to endulge our love of dressing up like eeediots in a field (with GIN! Rah!) and I'm very much looking forward to it. Keep your eyes on the flickr stream for pictures of us making tits of ourselves on monday...
* An observation; all military clothing is labelled as if by taxonomists.
Well, when I say preaching, I really mean standing in a rather well-appointed diningroom in Soho House, waving small shiny boxes at a variety of TV bigwigs, whilst physically shaking with terror. It didn't help that one of the people I had to convince about the changing way that people consume telly and narrative stories was Gareth Neame, who would last have known me as the slightly mad secretary in the office next door. As it was, he said hello, and then wandered off to talk to someone more interesting; let's hope he doesn't remember. Or was filled with terror that the young turks are at the gate, or something. After all, I had been for a drink with his ex-secretary the previous week, who is now head of development at a film company, completely changing their business practices, and being invited to parties on Paul Allen's yacht at Cannes. Besides which, frankly, mad armwaving girl in Soho House looks like abject failure.
The other of the terrible PA trio is also a head of development, and has just finished her first screenplay.
Must. Try. Harder.
Life does have a way of changing in odd ways though, and I'm hoping an upcoming change of job will also help to blast me out of my rut. As ever, the sides are particularly steep and slippery at the moment, as I find myself in a proper relationship. Does anyne else find that the fact of having another friendly body around the place seems to sap their will to do anything remotely constructive with their time? And just when I was looking forward to a year or two of creative singledom, too.
And so to my current situation. I am sitting in a rather untidy livingroom in a small flat in Brighton. The cricket - the cricket - is burbling away on the tv in the corner, and my boyfriend - my boyfriend - is noodling around sorting out camping equipment somewhere in the environs. We're off to Lost Vagueness, a weekend festival of... well, I'm not sure. But it does involve dressing up, some of my favourite new friends, and dressing up. Ah, the dressing up.
This moring was spent running around Brigton like loons, collecting random items of clothing like power-ups in an early platformer. Our booty consists of:
A Vintage sheepskin Flying Jacket
A pair of beige combat trousers
A pair of Khaki Shorts
A Dinner Jacket
A Tweed Riding Jacket
A German Army Peaked Cap
A Shirt, White, Mens, RN *
A pair of Russian Goggles
A Leather flying Helmet
A Scarlet Bow Tie
A PITH HELMET.
So, yes, the holiday has begun, we're off to endulge our love of dressing up like eeediots in a field (with GIN! Rah!) and I'm very much looking forward to it. Keep your eyes on the flickr stream for pictures of us making tits of ourselves on monday...
* An observation; all military clothing is labelled as if by taxonomists.
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
News Just In - Hell Frozen Over
Apple - Mighty Mouse
Oooh, a two button mouse. From Apple. Well. We live in the end times, apparently.
I'm very, very suspicious of its little nubbin. Looks like RSI hell, to me...
Oooh, a two button mouse. From Apple. Well. We live in the end times, apparently.
I'm very, very suspicious of its little nubbin. Looks like RSI hell, to me...
Monday, August 01, 2005
Bangs head against desk
So the boy and I spend *all* weekend sorting out my parents' new PC.
And then, tonight, this. And my dad just swore at me a lot down the phone. It's bad to hang up on your dad, right?
THey've moved over from Win98 to XP. This should be easier, right? It's the fear of the unknown that seems to get them - and when something untoward happens, they go straight into panic mode, with no way of beginning to diagnose the problem whatsoever.
The last thing I want is to have to spend another weekend sorting out a borked harddrive from powering up and down...
And then, tonight, this. And my dad just swore at me a lot down the phone. It's bad to hang up on your dad, right?
The computer switches it's self on, Found it flashing and whirring , but comlpletely siezed up.( Continued by Ma)......Dad says tha when you left you said - no need to switch off at the wall socket. He then switched off at the extension socket.
Dad continues, but I cannot make head nor tail of it so he says can you get in touch urgently - doesnt matter how late. We are trying to scan the plans dad has drawn for the neighbour!!!
On again showeed a blackand white, Ide check " Master disk check disabled PCI Device 16 !lots data Now responds to mouse, turned off came back showing a bit of XP very dim screen a few random keys showed
THey've moved over from Win98 to XP. This should be easier, right? It's the fear of the unknown that seems to get them - and when something untoward happens, they go straight into panic mode, with no way of beginning to diagnose the problem whatsoever.
The last thing I want is to have to spend another weekend sorting out a borked harddrive from powering up and down...
Just so you know
-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.1
GCA/FA/MC d++(--)@>--- s:+(++)>-- a C++(+++)$>++++ !U P+? L>+ E? !W++(+++)$>- N@ !o K-? w O? M(+)@ V? PS>++ !PE Y+ !PGP- t$@ 5- X$@ R@* tv-$@ b+++ DI D G e+++ h-@ r+++()@* x++**(+++++)@
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------
In advance of the London_Girl_Geek_Dinner I thought it best to lay out my credentials.
Version: 3.1
GCA/FA/MC d++(--)@>--- s:+(++)>-- a C++(+++)$>++++ !U P+? L>+ E? !W++(+++)$>- N@ !o K-? w O? M(+)@ V? PS>++ !PE Y+ !PGP- t$@ 5- X$@ R@* tv-$@ b+++ DI D G e+++ h-@ r+++()@* x++**(+++++)@
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------
In advance of the London_Girl_Geek_Dinner I thought it best to lay out my credentials.
Beau Brownie
Beau Brownie
Oh, wow.
Via boingboing. I saw one of these in Portobello market a few years ago, and have regretted not buying it ever since. So beautiful.
Oh, wow.
Via boingboing. I saw one of these in Portobello market a few years ago, and have regretted not buying it ever since. So beautiful.
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Stories in Urban Spaces
"Walking around I sometimes become aware of men in straw boaters and women in crinoline with parasols walking down the same street as the girl with a pierced navel. A man in knee breeches yells out to man in a fedora carrying a trumpet case."
A lovely little fragment of writing from Paul Ford at Ftrain.com. His is a blog that rarely pops into my RSS reader, but when it does his work is choice and delicate.
The concept of the temporal permeability of space in a city is something I've been thinking about recently. Strangely enough, this comes from hanging about on the backstage.bbc.co.uk mailing list.
Now, as this is a mailing list mostly concerned with APIs and feed hacking, that's quite an unlikely source of inspiration.
The conversations that go on there, though, are primarily about 'Look - here's a cool thing I've done! I've made a prototype that does this cool thing' - at which we all look at the prototype, and agree that it is indeed cool, and full of geek-fu, and give constructive suggestions.
However, the prototypes - because, after all, they are just proofs of concept - tend to be... well, not pointless. But they're things made for the sake of making them - to expose a bit of data, to scratch that tiny geek itch. They're useful for news, and factual services, but few of them have the user-focused thinking that would make them useful to the average joe in the street. A couple even have slightly sinister implications.
One in particular is an absolutely brilliant idea, but doesn't bear thinking about in an editorial way; it's a filter that automatically classifies news as 'Good', 'Bad' or 'Neutral'. cool, smart, neatly done. But... a user option that lets you turn off all 'Bad' news? That's deeply sinister.
The problem being, that - as with all interactive ideas - it's much easier to make interactive products based around objective facts. Making entertainment products seems to be harder; the element of play or fiction is much more elusive, and the entertainment urge is much more difficult to satisfy than the need to seek out (or browse for) information.
The point, I think, where there may be some cross-over lies in real space.
One of the most distinctive advances in special effects over the last few years has been 'Bullet Time' - the frozen moments used in the Matrix. This wasn't originally invented by the Wachowskis, believe it or not; it originated with an english artist, Tim Macmillan, who developed it in the early eighties.
Now, his breakthrough was to realise that film is basically a series of still photographs, arranged sequentially through time, giving the illusion of movement in space. All he did was change that to keep the time aspect constant: take a sequence of photographs at the same time, but with space as a variable. When composited back together, lo and behold you have a 'moving' image of a single moment in time.
So... I have been thinking about entertainment, and specifically interactive narrative. Conventional narrative is (roughly speaking) a series of fictional events occuring in a temporal sequence. In traditional stories you start at time point A, and the plot moves you to time point B in a linear fashion. Some clever types realised that the reader doesn't need to move from point A to point B in the same sequence that the events happen to characters - film picked up on this one too.
Then games came along. Suddenly, the 'reader' was uncovering the plot both by moving from point A to point B in game-time, but also by 'triggering' events in game space. So narrative exposition C would only occur once player had moved to point D, no matter if they'd already uncovered narrative expositions E and F by moving spatially through their trigger locations first. Some really good games - Knights of the Old Republic springs to mind - manage this brilliantly, with alternate storythreads uncovered depending on your virtual movement, and 'narrative zones' (planets) allowing a little more control over the consumption order of the narrative.
What happens, then, if you take the subtle paradigm shift of Time Slicing, and apply it to storytelling in the real world? How can you expose the stories of a city, and tell them throughout the fabric of that city? What happens when you hold up your PDA/Mobile/Tiny exciting video widget on a streetcorner, and it becomes a window into a Victorian melodrama? Or Chaucer's pilgrims suddenly walk across your screen? Or you get a phonecall from a paniced WWII spy? Or a text message from a dystopian future?
How can you follow those threads around the space of a city?
How can you string together temporal cuts of space to tell a story?
What happens when you overlay the works of Dickens on to London?
What might happen if you overlaid the fictional London of Neverwhere on to a tube map?
How are you alerted to the presence of a story in your physical location?
A few tiny glimmers of these located stories are begginning to appear on the web; today's Los Angeles from an Auto historical pictures/map mashup offers a start, as does the Grafeidia project, or the Hand Held History blue plaques project
Anyway. This is the stuff I'm thinking about. And hopefully, my new job will give me the space to be able to develop these in to some kind of practical ideas... Or perhaps I can just rely on Gavin Bell to get there first with the project he's thinking about, and wave that in front of management here...
A lovely little fragment of writing from Paul Ford at Ftrain.com. His is a blog that rarely pops into my RSS reader, but when it does his work is choice and delicate.
The concept of the temporal permeability of space in a city is something I've been thinking about recently. Strangely enough, this comes from hanging about on the backstage.bbc.co.uk mailing list.
Now, as this is a mailing list mostly concerned with APIs and feed hacking, that's quite an unlikely source of inspiration.
The conversations that go on there, though, are primarily about 'Look - here's a cool thing I've done! I've made a prototype that does this cool thing' - at which we all look at the prototype, and agree that it is indeed cool, and full of geek-fu, and give constructive suggestions.
However, the prototypes - because, after all, they are just proofs of concept - tend to be... well, not pointless. But they're things made for the sake of making them - to expose a bit of data, to scratch that tiny geek itch. They're useful for news, and factual services, but few of them have the user-focused thinking that would make them useful to the average joe in the street. A couple even have slightly sinister implications.
One in particular is an absolutely brilliant idea, but doesn't bear thinking about in an editorial way; it's a filter that automatically classifies news as 'Good', 'Bad' or 'Neutral'. cool, smart, neatly done. But... a user option that lets you turn off all 'Bad' news? That's deeply sinister.
The problem being, that - as with all interactive ideas - it's much easier to make interactive products based around objective facts. Making entertainment products seems to be harder; the element of play or fiction is much more elusive, and the entertainment urge is much more difficult to satisfy than the need to seek out (or browse for) information.
The point, I think, where there may be some cross-over lies in real space.
One of the most distinctive advances in special effects over the last few years has been 'Bullet Time' - the frozen moments used in the Matrix. This wasn't originally invented by the Wachowskis, believe it or not; it originated with an english artist, Tim Macmillan, who developed it in the early eighties.
Now, his breakthrough was to realise that film is basically a series of still photographs, arranged sequentially through time, giving the illusion of movement in space. All he did was change that to keep the time aspect constant: take a sequence of photographs at the same time, but with space as a variable. When composited back together, lo and behold you have a 'moving' image of a single moment in time.
So... I have been thinking about entertainment, and specifically interactive narrative. Conventional narrative is (roughly speaking) a series of fictional events occuring in a temporal sequence. In traditional stories you start at time point A, and the plot moves you to time point B in a linear fashion. Some clever types realised that the reader doesn't need to move from point A to point B in the same sequence that the events happen to characters - film picked up on this one too.
Then games came along. Suddenly, the 'reader' was uncovering the plot both by moving from point A to point B in game-time, but also by 'triggering' events in game space. So narrative exposition C would only occur once player had moved to point D, no matter if they'd already uncovered narrative expositions E and F by moving spatially through their trigger locations first. Some really good games - Knights of the Old Republic springs to mind - manage this brilliantly, with alternate storythreads uncovered depending on your virtual movement, and 'narrative zones' (planets) allowing a little more control over the consumption order of the narrative.
What happens, then, if you take the subtle paradigm shift of Time Slicing, and apply it to storytelling in the real world? How can you expose the stories of a city, and tell them throughout the fabric of that city? What happens when you hold up your PDA/Mobile/Tiny exciting video widget on a streetcorner, and it becomes a window into a Victorian melodrama? Or Chaucer's pilgrims suddenly walk across your screen? Or you get a phonecall from a paniced WWII spy? Or a text message from a dystopian future?
How can you follow those threads around the space of a city?
How can you string together temporal cuts of space to tell a story?
What happens when you overlay the works of Dickens on to London?
What might happen if you overlaid the fictional London of Neverwhere on to a tube map?
How are you alerted to the presence of a story in your physical location?
A few tiny glimmers of these located stories are begginning to appear on the web; today's Los Angeles from an Auto historical pictures/map mashup offers a start, as does the Grafeidia project, or the Hand Held History blue plaques project
Anyway. This is the stuff I'm thinking about. And hopefully, my new job will give me the space to be able to develop these in to some kind of practical ideas... Or perhaps I can just rely on Gavin Bell to get there first with the project he's thinking about, and wave that in front of management here...
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Consumer Egg Thesaurus - Thesaurus Instructions
Consumer Egg Thesaurus - Thesaurus Instructions: "This is Module 1A of the Consumer Egg Thesaurus, a prototype of the full thesaurus to be completed in the future. Its eventual goal is to provide a set of terms to index and organize information for a commercial chicken egg consumer library with a significant part of its collection open to the public. In the meanwhile, employees of the Nov Ovolando Egg Marketing Board will use the thesaurus for their information organization and retrieval (particularly for constructing search phrases). As well, the thesaurus will provide a conceptual framework to understanding the consumer perspective of commercial chicken eggs."
Uh....
Uh....
BBC - Comedy - The Mighty Boosh
BBC - Comedy - The Mighty Boosh
I'm weirdly proud of Vicky, a co-worker and friend. She took over the BBc comedy site when I moved on to my current project, and has done absolutely amazing things with it.
And the most recent amazing thing: the ability to watch 'The Mighty Boosh' on broadband. A WEEK BEFORE IT GOES OUT ON THE TELLY.
This is amazing. Really. The rights situation alone must have been a killer to sort out.
So, yay Vicky. You are better than I could ever have hoped to be.
I'm weirdly proud of Vicky, a co-worker and friend. She took over the BBc comedy site when I moved on to my current project, and has done absolutely amazing things with it.
And the most recent amazing thing: the ability to watch 'The Mighty Boosh' on broadband. A WEEK BEFORE IT GOES OUT ON THE TELLY.
This is amazing. Really. The rights situation alone must have been a killer to sort out.
So, yay Vicky. You are better than I could ever have hoped to be.
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Burning the black ICE
You'll all have heard about the ICE scheme. If you're someone on a lot of people's email lists, you'll have heard about it twenty or thirty times now.
Predictably, the first bulk email hoaxes are now doing the rounds - about mobile viruses that allegedly exploit your ICE contacts to promulgate themselves. These are Lies.
What gets me is that otherwise intelligent people forward these warnings on, without bothering to check or verify the contents first. I'm finding this particularly galling because:
1. I work in a department full of on-line journalists, who should really know better. Checking your sources, anyone? Hmn?
2. I'm working from home, and retriving six emails about whether it's a hoax or not wastes my time.
Is it just my longtime net-user status that means I'm familiar and jaded enough with these scams to spot them? Or bother to take a minute to slap a couple of keywords into google?
But anyway - I long ago gave up sending on firm remonstrations about forwarding hoax warnings. The things are designed just to propagate through the email of idiots, so even my firm and reasoned (and admittedly slightly grumpy) rebuttals are adding to the problem.
Which is why the idea behind this site is... maybe a little misguided. Spam harvesting, anyone?
The Hoaxkill service: Let's get rid of hoaxes now!
Predictably, the first bulk email hoaxes are now doing the rounds - about mobile viruses that allegedly exploit your ICE contacts to promulgate themselves. These are Lies.
What gets me is that otherwise intelligent people forward these warnings on, without bothering to check or verify the contents first. I'm finding this particularly galling because:
1. I work in a department full of on-line journalists, who should really know better. Checking your sources, anyone? Hmn?
2. I'm working from home, and retriving six emails about whether it's a hoax or not wastes my time.
Is it just my longtime net-user status that means I'm familiar and jaded enough with these scams to spot them? Or bother to take a minute to slap a couple of keywords into google?
But anyway - I long ago gave up sending on firm remonstrations about forwarding hoax warnings. The things are designed just to propagate through the email of idiots, so even my firm and reasoned (and admittedly slightly grumpy) rebuttals are adding to the problem.
Which is why the idea behind this site is... maybe a little misguided. Spam harvesting, anyone?
The Hoaxkill service: Let's get rid of hoaxes now!
Friday, July 15, 2005
...and Gents
...oh, alright then.
It'll be a dreadful disappointment to you all, I know.
But it's just been pointed out to me that my profile blurb should be ammended to include the fact that I've fallen from the sacred path of Sappho, and happen to be getting my freak on with a big, hairy boy. Among others.
Anyway. A change is as good as a rest.
And, just to head this off at the pass, here are a few choice phrases for you to sprinkle in to your liberal teasing.
Hasbian
Bi For Now
Yestergay
Moved from Automatic to Stickshift
From Bean to Baloney
Using The Other Menu
LUG
... you get the idea.
It'll be a dreadful disappointment to you all, I know.
But it's just been pointed out to me that my profile blurb should be ammended to include the fact that I've fallen from the sacred path of Sappho, and happen to be getting my freak on with a big, hairy boy. Among others.
Anyway. A change is as good as a rest.
And, just to head this off at the pass, here are a few choice phrases for you to sprinkle in to your liberal teasing.
Hasbian
Bi For Now
Yestergay
Moved from Automatic to Stickshift
From Bean to Baloney
Using The Other Menu
LUG
... you get the idea.
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Shirts for Alice
Combo Clothing
A lovely console tee, that's right up Alice's alley. She's the one that suggested I get the Webmistress shirt, so I feel I should find some kind of excellent sarky comment to make in return.
Pffff. I can't be bothered. Too tired today.
A lovely console tee, that's right up Alice's alley. She's the one that suggested I get the Webmistress shirt, so I feel I should find some kind of excellent sarky comment to make in return.
Pffff. I can't be bothered. Too tired today.
Friday, July 08, 2005
In praise of the stiff upper lip.
A certain man has called us, "of all peoples the wisest in action," but he added, "the stupidest in speech." - Carlyle
So... we knew it was going to happen. It was no surprise.
I have an odd sort of affection for my fellow countrymen in situations like yesterday's bomb attacks. There's a charming national character trait that seems to turn us all into a mix of slightly panicy fishwives 'Oooh, I know, ooh, another one's just gone off... ooh, it'll be *hell* getting home, and what about that Mr Blair? ooh, no, I haven't heard from my friend, and they work right in it...' and the most wonderful, tremendously stoic Matter-of-Life-and-Death heroes.
The thing that I'm left thinking after yesterday, though, was actually, that the attacks were no big deal - a tiny blip on history. This is not to belittle the real suffering that those caught up in events are going through, and my best wishes go to them, and their loved ones.
But... we're used to bombs in this city. Not quite on the scale of Jerusalem, or Bagdhad, but nonetheless there has been a slow and deadly thudding heartbeat to London for as long as I can remember. The Soho Bomb, the Brixton Bomb, the Canary Wharf bomb, an IRA bomb at Victoria in a litterbin I missed by 10 minutes, a bomb in a baracks, police horses dismembered by a nailbomb... and the still-within-living-memory events of the Blitz and V2 bombardment - 168 killed by one bomb on New Cross Woolworths.
We're used to these extraordinary events. We have a shaky moment, check on our loved ones, shrug, and move on. If we're particularly shaken, we have a cuppa, or go for a pint.
If someone we know is directly affected, we rally round, offer more selfless and tender and non-intrusive support than you could imagine - simple kindnesses like tea, blankets, lifts. The 'English reserve' is dropped instantly, making those moments of kindness so much more significant. We try not to make the situation worse, we behave sensibly, and we let the professionals get on with their jobs, pitching in if extra pairs of hands are needed. This is a marvellous, marvellous way to deal with a crisis, however big or small.
I spent yesteday pretty much watching the news - there was no way I could get to work; I was on a bus to Vauxhall when they pulled all busses over and 'checked for suspect packages' - something that involved our driver listlessly walking round the outside of the bus, having a quick peer underneath, shrugging and driving on. I got to Vauxhall; no-one really knew what was going on, no transport was running, so I turned home. You see, that's a dull and unremarkable story; like the six or seven million other Londoners who were only aware of the problems through the media, whose days were just as dull and unremarkable as usual.
But, something about witnessing the events through those news reports is beginning to change the way we behave. It started with Diana's death - only the second time I have seen my father cry, incidentally. Then, having been glued to the 9/11 reports, we all know the media routine of people in deep, deep shock being interviewed by camera crews (for SHAME, camera crews. Can you not see that those people need care and help, not grilling?). We see the same snippets of video repeated again and again - the man being led from an ambulance at St Marys, the phonecam footage of the tunnel, the incident tent being erected at Aldgate, the bus, the bus, the bus, the bloodstained wall at tavistock square. And we absorb these images, and they send us further from our wonderful, calm, brickishness and into a fluttery hen-like panic. We wallow in it, indulging our emotions publicly. We reinforce the stress of events in a shared, bonding experience, because we're starting to enjoy the newly-sanctioned pleasures of public displays of sentimentality.
Once we've absorbed those images, we start to create ourselves as victims; as put upon innocents. We forget that we've been waiting for terrorist attacks forever - since we divided ireland, since we joined an illegal war, since we rolled over to a foreign power. Since we stopped questioning our government too closely, and became content with their construction of the world as a dangerous place, full of imaginary threats from 'others', from which they are protecting us. We fall into jingoism.
The biggest contrast was flicking from BBC reports to ITV reports. The reporting style was so different - the new BBC guidelines emphasise accuracy over speed, and it shows. The news was stately, calm, and focused. The ITV news was breathless, over excited, wildly speculative; sensationalist tabloid disaster porn, feeding the rubbernecking carcrash fetishist in all of us. Channel Four had a Richard and Judy Terrorism special, for christs sake.
Indeed, the stupidest in speech.
Anyway. A very long post on something I was meaning to ignore. And, just in case you were wondering why I feel this is an insignificant event, have a look at these other Deathtolls, and remember that sixty years ago the glorious RAF was responsible for a hundred thousand dead in 14 hours in Dresden.
Yesterday was not a big deal.
Thursday, July 07, 2005
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
del.icio.us direc.tor
del.icio.us direc.tor: Delivering A High-Performance AJAX Web Service Broker :: Johnvey
I'm in awe of the kind of techies who actually build stuff for the web. Stuff that works, and is useful, elegant and clever.
I've never really got past HTML and a smattering of CSS, which is something that makes me sad.
Anyway - this is a very beautiful piece of AJAX work, that scrapes del.icio.us and turns its dry interface into a beautiful card-sorting type system. It lets you drill down through your tags to return bookmarks at tag confluences.
Damn, it's lovely.
Someone should make one that combines del.icio.us, technorati and flickr. And any other tag soup sites out there.
I'm in awe of the kind of techies who actually build stuff for the web. Stuff that works, and is useful, elegant and clever.
I've never really got past HTML and a smattering of CSS, which is something that makes me sad.
Anyway - this is a very beautiful piece of AJAX work, that scrapes del.icio.us and turns its dry interface into a beautiful card-sorting type system. It lets you drill down through your tags to return bookmarks at tag confluences.
Damn, it's lovely.
Someone should make one that combines del.icio.us, technorati and flickr. And any other tag soup sites out there.
Monday, July 04, 2005
Pip Pip, what?
The Greenwich Time Signal
A lovely little history of the Pips.
It makes me sad that they aren't synchronised in these DAB days. And I'm sure I once read that in some cases - such as local radio - they get played out from minidisk.
Shameful.
A lovely little history of the Pips.
It makes me sad that they aren't synchronised in these DAB days. And I'm sure I once read that in some cases - such as local radio - they get played out from minidisk.
Shameful.
Saturday, July 02, 2005
Japanoiserie
Kissui.net: Harajuku Girls by Gwen Stefani and Tokyo Girls by Hellen van Meene - originally from Salon.com, but reproduced without bug-me-ware on that site.
An interesting article about the exploitation of Japanese youth culture, and the way that 'Japanese' is becoming a signifier for 'hip', whilst still being overlaid with pre-existing cultural assumptions and stereotypes.
I'm sort of guilty of the offhanded reduction-to-stereotypes the article describes. Yes, I'm fascinated by Japanese design, and have an over-romanticised idea about how cool the place must be, gleaned from a weird mishmash of bizarro adverts, Lost in Translation, and gaming magazines. So it's good to read a reminder that actually, you're romanticisng an entire culture; one that is not your own, and that you therefore have no pregiven access to the (um, there is a word for this, but I've forgotten it) 'framework-of-assumptions' that actually governs the workings of the culture. You're always an outsider.
Humn, anyway, this isn't particularly focused, but it's sort of a reminder to myself to actually do some background reading about traditional crafts culture in Japan, so at least I have some background knowledge to my Japanophilia. And also, to watch Topsy Turvy again, as it's gentle mockery of the splendidly patronising colonialist obsession with the mysterious orient that so excited the edwardians is a good grounder...
An interesting article about the exploitation of Japanese youth culture, and the way that 'Japanese' is becoming a signifier for 'hip', whilst still being overlaid with pre-existing cultural assumptions and stereotypes.
I'm sort of guilty of the offhanded reduction-to-stereotypes the article describes. Yes, I'm fascinated by Japanese design, and have an over-romanticised idea about how cool the place must be, gleaned from a weird mishmash of bizarro adverts, Lost in Translation, and gaming magazines. So it's good to read a reminder that actually, you're romanticisng an entire culture; one that is not your own, and that you therefore have no pregiven access to the (um, there is a word for this, but I've forgotten it) 'framework-of-assumptions' that actually governs the workings of the culture. You're always an outsider.
Humn, anyway, this isn't particularly focused, but it's sort of a reminder to myself to actually do some background reading about traditional crafts culture in Japan, so at least I have some background knowledge to my Japanophilia. And also, to watch Topsy Turvy again, as it's gentle mockery of the splendidly patronising colonialist obsession with the mysterious orient that so excited the edwardians is a good grounder...
Friday, July 01, 2005
Just in from department of no surprises...
Anesthesia can give rise to sex illusion | www.azstarnet.com ®
I've never experienced them...
But I know folk who buy chloroform from the internet, for shits and giggles of an... adult play variety.
Still, looks like more excuses to sue the medical profession. There were some shameful figures doing the rounds this week about the cost of litigation to the NHS; it's risen from c. £1million in 1995, to c£280million in the last year.
Shameful.
I've never experienced them...
But I know folk who buy chloroform from the internet, for shits and giggles of an... adult play variety.
Still, looks like more excuses to sue the medical profession. There were some shameful figures doing the rounds this week about the cost of litigation to the NHS; it's risen from c. £1million in 1995, to c£280million in the last year.
Shameful.
Bad Alice
Alice - from that Wonderland place - found a T-Shirt she thinks would be just perfect for me.
Oh, dearie me.
She's going to be in so much trouble. I might even have to start keeping a list.
Oh, dearie me.
She's going to be in so much trouble. I might even have to start keeping a list.
Thursday, June 30, 2005
Player-Centred Game Design
Ages ago, I went to GDCE. And I attended a really interesting talk about user-centred design in game mechanics.
User centred design has been adopted by the web industry for a while, so it was a strange experience hearing someone evangelising it to an assembled room full of 'puter game designers. To me, it all seemed obvious, but the tone of the questions at the end indicated that some folk had a Damascene Conversion during the talk.
Anyway - why am I posting my notes now? Well, they've been sitting on an internal wiki at work for ages, unread. I've been having all sorts of discussions about the model for playing styles, with all sorts of folk recently; it's been spurred on by sticking my toes in the water of the MMORPG world, and some chats I've been listening to about humour in games, and how that differs when you have real life people interacting within a game space.
I'll sign off by saying the interesting thing about the social aspects of MMORPGs is that they leak into RL. I greeted someone I've been playing WoW with in the street by doing a little Tauren lady-dance; exactly as I'd greet them in the game. And now, without further ado, I give you:
Player Centric Game Design
Talk given by International Hobo: Ernest Adams and Chris Bateman http://www.ihobo.com/
2004-09-01
EA teaches game design at university and has written a book - Andrew Rawling and Ernest Adam on game design
Types of game
Design Driven
Tend to be the work of an Auteur - in the cinematic sense; someone with a vision who wants to create a whole.
Quality is entireldependentnt on the talent of the Auteur. Good auteur, good game. Bad auteur… well.
Analogous to film director, running a different crew each time - the game designer oversees the crew. The vision to make a game and the talent to oversee the management of the crew is a rare coupling in one person.
This is a good model for art house games, but a poor one for commercial propositions.
Technically Driven Games
Very expensive. ItÂ’s a way of making a game to highlight a cool new piece of tech development.
These games tend not to be big sellers - they make their money by selling on the technology created in the making of the game - e.g. the Quake engine.
Artwork Driven
Rare - the result of the visual design driving the game - an example is myst.
Rarely succeed as artists generally have little game design experience. They tend not to be fun’ to play – the gameplay takes second position.
Myst was at an advantage due to its tech timing -– it took advantage of CD rom tech.
Many Hollywood tie ins tend towards this type. A non interactive medium comes to game designers saying '‘here,– we've got cool stuff -– lets make a game'. They have problems when they'’re asked what the player should _do_.
Cloning
This is hit duplication - this is a good game that is selling, lets make one the same.
This works very well with short development cycles. E.g. is Halo -– a clone of FPS, but tweaked to make it very good.
These tend to be bad when they're licensed products - just attach a licence to a game model with no thought as to whether that ties in with the licence *world*’.
Publishers are often a force in making games like this - they're risk averse.
It's not necessarily bad - borrow what works where you find it!
Kamasutra (www.gamasutra.com) online magazine talks about this - it'’s acceptable to reuse code, but not 'game abstractions'’ such as key assignment screens.
Currently each game reinvents the wheel -– it'’s a pre-Cambrian explosion of design solutions. E.g. each new game has a different controller configuration, a different way of organising your inventory, a different way of saving...
This is because medium is young - no accepted tropes in place, yet.
A better way of designing games could be...
Player centred design
Which puts the needs of the player at the centre of the design process
Problem is, you don'’t know what their needs are. And there'’s a huge variety in the audience so it'’s hard to get a representative sample. This could be considered anti commercial - but ultimately youÂ’re making something that people will want to be playing -– so should sell well.
How do you define players needs?
Listening.
However, be aware that players assumptions are often wrong. Example is Resident Evil - where players asked to be able to drop items anywhere - which was done in a sequel, and really messed up gameplay. It went back to how it was.
You can'’t accurately predict player needs
Madden NFL -– 3 people complaining on a message board was taken as everyone hating it. Complainers often make disproportionate amounts of noise, and you'’re not hearing from those who are happy. Also audience often not aware of issues and decisions behind game design. Everyone wanted to be able to design their own plays in nfl madden -– but it was too easy to design an unstoppable play, hence breaking the game.
Psychology
Look at theory - Flow, personality models, anthropology, game theory, game studies,
Game theory - is mathematical theorem. Bit heavy lifting;
Flow - concept that people are happiest at the level of their challenge -– too easy and they get bored, too hard they get anxious. In the middle is the flow state of complete absorption. Too much challenge is bad -– you'’re making people stressed when they'’re participating in a leisure activity. Some people actively enjoy such hard challenges...…
Using tools to look for behavioural trends can be very useful in game design - but using the models as gospel can be bad.
These models do give you new ways of looking at problems though. Use the models to test your designs after you'’ve created them -– not to design from the ground up.
These give you sets of tools for understanding the results of play testing and– analysing problems. They'’re a guide through the process.
Blind Testing
Videoing people playing games, and talking about what they'’re doing.
Their responses frequently don'’t correspond to their verbal reports afterwards, as people create their own narratives around their experience in the game. Games with steep learning curves particularly prone to this -… player is very frustrated at difficulty at start -– but huge sense of achievement when they master and do well blots out the anger and frustration at the start. (Catalysis model)
Its expensive. 3-5 blind tests at a late stage (when problems are still solvable) is a good idea. You need to harness a wide type of playing styles, and take testers from outside the group of people involved.
Focus groups - tend to be run (and hijacked) by marketing concerns. Frequently the people involved with focus groups tend to be hardcore gamers. And they skew the results accordingly.
Egotism
'I represent the audience'’. The odds that you do match the audience are extremely thin, Too many people are in game development for the love of games. You are atypical of your audience. Many people also work on the 'I wont make anything I wouldn'’t play' But someone has to make Barbie games...
Don't be in a commercial environment if you want to approach this way -– you have to sell your product, or you.ll put yourself out of a job. If you want to make games this way, join the mod community -– but this isn.’t a business model. Some mods may have taken off, but...
How do you grow yourself into unreached markets?
You have to think like people who don't play.
Balancing player needs with business needs
Choice of genre
Market stability - if I like platform games, I'’ll buy more of them. It'’s a formula that works,.
A genre game that'’s Rubbish? It'’s a mark against people making the game not the genre itself
Defined functionality. Player know the tropes and genre conventions -– they understand what they'’re getting
Craft vs. Market
Genre - defined by a particular set of challenges -– e.g. driving, rpg -– some users donÂ't enjoy some types of challenge.
Designing with Licensed IP
Bad software is bad software,– even if it has IP licence.
Player advantage -– familiar setting, a world they know, an experience they'’ll want to extend.
Licence implies thereÂ’s a group of people who already understand and enjoy that license setting
Must connect the game model with the license IP setting -– for appropriateness. E.g. the Barbie big tanks game wont sell heaps.
Licence IP - risks limitations for business
Manufacturing mentality among publishers. Must remember this is media, not a factory
Appreciate the IP
Original IP is often just a tweaked version of licensed IP anyway - Lara Croft = Indiana Jones with tits.
Mass Market vs. Niche market
Large cost of development = large audience to reap large profit
Nice markets - smaller costs -– smaller audience
Playing to a niche market on a small budget is ok. But playing to a niche market on a big budget is commercial suicide - you'’re putting your company at risk.
However - likely to be explosive growth in niche games -– over the next 15 years -– as move into under served markets.
Bear In mind all of these models and their limitations
Models used in the industry
EA Games Model
This is a simplification, but is primarily a marketing model - it doesn'’t tell you anything about the types of games that make it to mass market. You have to be making your game accessible or it will never reach the mass market
Audience Model -– DGD1
Demographic Game Design Model 1 - the 1 reminds you that it will be replaced by something better! Based on Myers Briggs Typology. I've posted a diagram over at flickr.
Type 1 Conqueror
Strategic/logistical play
Finds winning pattern and repeats indefinitely
Appeal is Challenge and Fiero (triumph over adversity)
(Fail, repeat, fail, repeat, fail, repeat model)
Type 2 Manager
Strategic Tactical
Likes strategic puzzles and mastery
Enjoys a bit more stress, and feeling of resistance rising to meet them
Likes sim games, strategy games
(Small numbers -– no longer a mass market audience)
Type 3 Wanderer
Diplomatic tactical
Enjoys contact with other characters
Needs an emotional context to their goal
Not a high degree of challenge
Experience and finesse are drivers
Want to do it well, satisfyingly correctly
Involvement and role - will play multiplayer, but not to win
Type 4 Participant
Diplomatic Logistical
Likes creating -– e.g. design of character. Spends a lot of time here
Sims - Photo albums, and stories
Creative aspect is not about gameplay - it'’s about using the game as a creative tool outside its internal mechanics -– is expression in game
Likes customisation
Star wars galaxies - play with character creator for hours and hours
Audience model in MMORPGS
Casual players versus hardcore.
Only high degree of game literacy to be playing them, but allows all playing styles
Conquerors -– finishing quests
Managers -– resources
Wander -– joins conqueror parties, is led
Participant -– is the glue in the internal community
It'’s a limited but lucrative market. If you loose a key player to another game, their entire social network tends to move with them.
(Wikinote: See also the Bartle types - http://www.mud.co.uk/richard/hcds.htm - lots about this in 'Designing Virtual Worlds' IMcD).
Meeting Player Needs
Player's Role
What do they want out of a game? How do they interact with it?
Picking up box in shop, and able to understand the tasks involved in the game -– Who am I going to be?
If the player doesn'’t get it, marketing certainly wont get it.
You're Selling experiences.
Setting
Allows suspension of disbelief
Allows game world abstractions
Doesn'’t break the 4th wall (pulls the player out of the game world)
Simplifies reality to make modelling it manageable-– and learning it's rules manageable
Abstraction of world (Gta vs. The Getaway)
Realism isn'’t a goal in itself -– you'’ll always have abstraction
Internal consistency - not jolted out of world (e.g. encountering walking battle tanks in a WWII game that had been historically consistent until the last level)
Harmony
Gameplay vs. Toyplay
Toyplay - the kind of game that is low stress, where the player sets their own goals e.g. the Sims, animal crossing. High emotional investment - toyplay is its own reward. Creating your own narrative about your experience
Gameplay - Has performance measures and standards to reach. Is goal oriented, with goals being external to the player
Mechanics
Part of game -– e.g. a strategy game where you understand that there are values attached to your character, you build up their stats
Or invisible -– e.g. halo -– just enough to support a fully immersive world
RPGs are schizophrenic,
AD&D -– lots of pencil and paper players who enjoy the manipulation of stats and want that maintained in computerised version
Computer allowed these people to play AD&D without a group of players -– it removed the logistical problems and allowed them to revel in mechanics.
Enjoyment of mechanics is dependant on playstyle
Do you enjoy running rules in your head?
Or do you enjoy story and plot more?
Storytelling
Does it need a story? Cut scenes just get in the way of some games - their only purpose is to give you a breather e.g. Bishi Bashi
RPG with no story would be pointless, though
Again -– depends on player type -– do they need a framework for their activities,
Tetris - no story
Super monkey ball -– shouldn'’t have a story
Could just be abstract weirdness
Aesthetics and style
Form and Function and beauty
Can it be functional, but not beautiful?
Better looking sells better - it piques the interest of the casual viewer more.
Look at things outside the world of games -– e.g., making a game looked at artefacts and craft traditions of tribal cultures from around the world
Learn about real world style and borrow it -– e.g. Grim Fandango
A challenge makes an artist happy
Provide them a framework then let them do something excellent within that framework
Need a strong director
Same visual style in setup screens as in gameplay
Questions
HCI design
Similar problems
Overcoming energy barriers in learning the use -– e.g. a paperclip in an email programme means attach something to your post.
These are also culturally based -– may not translate well.
Field studies -– are very expensive to do, with a reasonable sample size
Game design is one aspect of HCI
Differences -– prototyping -– can't get feedback as early on in the system as you'’d like -– particularly in immersive games, as so much more needs to be finished
Kids
Need stories more in games
Probably not
What happens if you get their motivation wrong?
Pick your primary market. If it happens to export elsewhere, that'’s great
US and UK market - share broadly the same set of cultural assumptions
As they share the same media base.
Is possible to make horrible mistakes -– e.g. the reversed Arabic chants in a Microsoft game
Needs to be sanity checked - are we making inappropriate assumptions
How does a game designer influence the IP owner
Arguments about your specialisation are a risk of working within IP Licence area
Just '‘merchandising' top them
Befriend them. Explain
Detailed communication, early
Mobile devices – does their constrained nature make them more appealing to certain types of gamer?
For the games literate -– don'’t want to play on a mobile as is a step down from usual experience
Majority market - impulse buys when bored on the bus.
Supermarket buying style -– sweets at the checkout
Is predominantly casual. Hardcore gamers need hardcore hardware
Not game literate - tend to be wanderers and participants
Conqueror -– is a console fiend
Manager -– PC based
Growths in niche market
1965 -– 3 networks in US TV
direct Competition
All programming was pitched at the lowest common denominator
Cable arrives -– increased bandwidth -– can super serve that niche audience through narrowcasting
Retail shop shelves are the bandwidth limiter of the games world - just have a few big distributors
Once you have piracy proof high speed distribution you'll be able to do cheap distribution and serve niche audiences better
Also -– put games in front of the casual market in alternate forms -– e.g. as a bundled package with your new TV...
User centred design has been adopted by the web industry for a while, so it was a strange experience hearing someone evangelising it to an assembled room full of 'puter game designers. To me, it all seemed obvious, but the tone of the questions at the end indicated that some folk had a Damascene Conversion during the talk.
Anyway - why am I posting my notes now? Well, they've been sitting on an internal wiki at work for ages, unread. I've been having all sorts of discussions about the model for playing styles, with all sorts of folk recently; it's been spurred on by sticking my toes in the water of the MMORPG world, and some chats I've been listening to about humour in games, and how that differs when you have real life people interacting within a game space.
I'll sign off by saying the interesting thing about the social aspects of MMORPGs is that they leak into RL. I greeted someone I've been playing WoW with in the street by doing a little Tauren lady-dance; exactly as I'd greet them in the game. And now, without further ado, I give you:
Player Centric Game Design
Talk given by International Hobo: Ernest Adams and Chris Bateman http://www.ihobo.com/
2004-09-01
EA teaches game design at university and has written a book - Andrew Rawling and Ernest Adam on game design
Types of game
Design Driven
Tend to be the work of an Auteur - in the cinematic sense; someone with a vision who wants to create a whole.
Quality is entireldependentnt on the talent of the Auteur. Good auteur, good game. Bad auteur… well.
Analogous to film director, running a different crew each time - the game designer oversees the crew. The vision to make a game and the talent to oversee the management of the crew is a rare coupling in one person.
This is a good model for art house games, but a poor one for commercial propositions.
Technically Driven Games
Very expensive. ItÂ’s a way of making a game to highlight a cool new piece of tech development.
These games tend not to be big sellers - they make their money by selling on the technology created in the making of the game - e.g. the Quake engine.
Artwork Driven
Rare - the result of the visual design driving the game - an example is myst.
Rarely succeed as artists generally have little game design experience. They tend not to be fun’ to play – the gameplay takes second position.
Myst was at an advantage due to its tech timing -– it took advantage of CD rom tech.
Many Hollywood tie ins tend towards this type. A non interactive medium comes to game designers saying '‘here,– we've got cool stuff -– lets make a game'. They have problems when they'’re asked what the player should _do_.
Cloning
This is hit duplication - this is a good game that is selling, lets make one the same.
This works very well with short development cycles. E.g. is Halo -– a clone of FPS, but tweaked to make it very good.
These tend to be bad when they're licensed products - just attach a licence to a game model with no thought as to whether that ties in with the licence *world*’.
Publishers are often a force in making games like this - they're risk averse.
It's not necessarily bad - borrow what works where you find it!
Kamasutra (www.gamasutra.com) online magazine talks about this - it'’s acceptable to reuse code, but not 'game abstractions'’ such as key assignment screens.
Currently each game reinvents the wheel -– it'’s a pre-Cambrian explosion of design solutions. E.g. each new game has a different controller configuration, a different way of organising your inventory, a different way of saving...
This is because medium is young - no accepted tropes in place, yet.
A better way of designing games could be...
Player centred design
Which puts the needs of the player at the centre of the design process
Problem is, you don'’t know what their needs are. And there'’s a huge variety in the audience so it'’s hard to get a representative sample. This could be considered anti commercial - but ultimately youÂ’re making something that people will want to be playing -– so should sell well.
How do you define players needs?
Listening.
However, be aware that players assumptions are often wrong. Example is Resident Evil - where players asked to be able to drop items anywhere - which was done in a sequel, and really messed up gameplay. It went back to how it was.
You can'’t accurately predict player needs
Madden NFL -– 3 people complaining on a message board was taken as everyone hating it. Complainers often make disproportionate amounts of noise, and you'’re not hearing from those who are happy. Also audience often not aware of issues and decisions behind game design. Everyone wanted to be able to design their own plays in nfl madden -– but it was too easy to design an unstoppable play, hence breaking the game.
Psychology
Look at theory - Flow, personality models, anthropology, game theory, game studies,
Game theory - is mathematical theorem. Bit heavy lifting;
Flow - concept that people are happiest at the level of their challenge -– too easy and they get bored, too hard they get anxious. In the middle is the flow state of complete absorption. Too much challenge is bad -– you'’re making people stressed when they'’re participating in a leisure activity. Some people actively enjoy such hard challenges...…
Using tools to look for behavioural trends can be very useful in game design - but using the models as gospel can be bad.
These models do give you new ways of looking at problems though. Use the models to test your designs after you'’ve created them -– not to design from the ground up.
These give you sets of tools for understanding the results of play testing and– analysing problems. They'’re a guide through the process.
Blind Testing
Videoing people playing games, and talking about what they'’re doing.
Their responses frequently don'’t correspond to their verbal reports afterwards, as people create their own narratives around their experience in the game. Games with steep learning curves particularly prone to this -… player is very frustrated at difficulty at start -– but huge sense of achievement when they master and do well blots out the anger and frustration at the start. (Catalysis model)
Its expensive. 3-5 blind tests at a late stage (when problems are still solvable) is a good idea. You need to harness a wide type of playing styles, and take testers from outside the group of people involved.
Focus groups - tend to be run (and hijacked) by marketing concerns. Frequently the people involved with focus groups tend to be hardcore gamers. And they skew the results accordingly.
Egotism
'I represent the audience'’. The odds that you do match the audience are extremely thin, Too many people are in game development for the love of games. You are atypical of your audience. Many people also work on the 'I wont make anything I wouldn'’t play' But someone has to make Barbie games...
Don't be in a commercial environment if you want to approach this way -– you have to sell your product, or you.ll put yourself out of a job. If you want to make games this way, join the mod community -– but this isn.’t a business model. Some mods may have taken off, but...
How do you grow yourself into unreached markets?
You have to think like people who don't play.
Balancing player needs with business needs
Choice of genre
Market stability - if I like platform games, I'’ll buy more of them. It'’s a formula that works,.
A genre game that'’s Rubbish? It'’s a mark against people making the game not the genre itself
Defined functionality. Player know the tropes and genre conventions -– they understand what they'’re getting
Craft vs. Market
Genre - defined by a particular set of challenges -– e.g. driving, rpg -– some users donÂ't enjoy some types of challenge.
Designing with Licensed IP
Bad software is bad software,– even if it has IP licence.
Player advantage -– familiar setting, a world they know, an experience they'’ll want to extend.
Licence implies thereÂ’s a group of people who already understand and enjoy that license setting
Must connect the game model with the license IP setting -– for appropriateness. E.g. the Barbie big tanks game wont sell heaps.
Licence IP - risks limitations for business
Manufacturing mentality among publishers. Must remember this is media, not a factory
Appreciate the IP
Original IP is often just a tweaked version of licensed IP anyway - Lara Croft = Indiana Jones with tits.
Mass Market vs. Niche market
Large cost of development = large audience to reap large profit
Nice markets - smaller costs -– smaller audience
Playing to a niche market on a small budget is ok. But playing to a niche market on a big budget is commercial suicide - you'’re putting your company at risk.
However - likely to be explosive growth in niche games -– over the next 15 years -– as move into under served markets.
Bear In mind all of these models and their limitations
Models used in the industry
EA Games Model
|- Hardcore gamer -|
(reads press, plays demos, buys 25+ games / year)
(reads press, plays demos, buys 25+ games / year)
|------- Cool Gamer -------|
(gets info from hardcore mate, buys maybe top 10 games each year)
(gets info from hardcore mate, buys maybe top 10 games each year)
|------------ Mass Market ------------|
(Picks up on games when they'’re being talked about widely - maybe buys only top 3 games each year)
|-- [size of market] --|
(Picks up on games when they'’re being talked about widely - maybe buys only top 3 games each year)
|-- [size of market] --|
This is a simplification, but is primarily a marketing model - it doesn'’t tell you anything about the types of games that make it to mass market. You have to be making your game accessible or it will never reach the mass market
Audience Model -– DGD1
Demographic Game Design Model 1 - the 1 reminds you that it will be replaced by something better! Based on Myers Briggs Typology. I've posted a diagram over at flickr.
Type 1 Conqueror
Strategic/logistical play
Finds winning pattern and repeats indefinitely
Appeal is Challenge and Fiero (triumph over adversity)
(Fail, repeat, fail, repeat, fail, repeat model)
Type 2 Manager
Strategic Tactical
Likes strategic puzzles and mastery
Enjoys a bit more stress, and feeling of resistance rising to meet them
Likes sim games, strategy games
(Small numbers -– no longer a mass market audience)
Type 3 Wanderer
Diplomatic tactical
Enjoys contact with other characters
Needs an emotional context to their goal
Not a high degree of challenge
Experience and finesse are drivers
Want to do it well, satisfyingly correctly
Involvement and role - will play multiplayer, but not to win
Type 4 Participant
Diplomatic Logistical
Likes creating -– e.g. design of character. Spends a lot of time here
Sims - Photo albums, and stories
Creative aspect is not about gameplay - it'’s about using the game as a creative tool outside its internal mechanics -– is expression in game
Likes customisation
Star wars galaxies - play with character creator for hours and hours
Audience model in MMORPGS
Casual players versus hardcore.
Only high degree of game literacy to be playing them, but allows all playing styles
Conquerors -– finishing quests
Managers -– resources
Wander -– joins conqueror parties, is led
Participant -– is the glue in the internal community
It'’s a limited but lucrative market. If you loose a key player to another game, their entire social network tends to move with them.
(Wikinote: See also the Bartle types - http://www.mud.co.uk/richard/hcds.htm - lots about this in 'Designing Virtual Worlds' IMcD).
Meeting Player Needs
Player's Role
What do they want out of a game? How do they interact with it?
Picking up box in shop, and able to understand the tasks involved in the game -– Who am I going to be?
If the player doesn'’t get it, marketing certainly wont get it.
You're Selling experiences.
Setting
Allows suspension of disbelief
Allows game world abstractions
Doesn'’t break the 4th wall (pulls the player out of the game world)
Simplifies reality to make modelling it manageable-– and learning it's rules manageable
Abstraction of world (Gta vs. The Getaway)
Realism isn'’t a goal in itself -– you'’ll always have abstraction
Internal consistency - not jolted out of world (e.g. encountering walking battle tanks in a WWII game that had been historically consistent until the last level)
Harmony
Gameplay vs. Toyplay
Toyplay - the kind of game that is low stress, where the player sets their own goals e.g. the Sims, animal crossing. High emotional investment - toyplay is its own reward. Creating your own narrative about your experience
Gameplay - Has performance measures and standards to reach. Is goal oriented, with goals being external to the player
Mechanics
Part of game -– e.g. a strategy game where you understand that there are values attached to your character, you build up their stats
Or invisible -– e.g. halo -– just enough to support a fully immersive world
RPGs are schizophrenic,
AD&D -– lots of pencil and paper players who enjoy the manipulation of stats and want that maintained in computerised version
Computer allowed these people to play AD&D without a group of players -– it removed the logistical problems and allowed them to revel in mechanics.
Enjoyment of mechanics is dependant on playstyle
Do you enjoy running rules in your head?
Or do you enjoy story and plot more?
Storytelling
Does it need a story? Cut scenes just get in the way of some games - their only purpose is to give you a breather e.g. Bishi Bashi
RPG with no story would be pointless, though
Again -– depends on player type -– do they need a framework for their activities,
Tetris - no story
Super monkey ball -– shouldn'’t have a story
Could just be abstract weirdness
Aesthetics and style
Form and Function and beauty
Can it be functional, but not beautiful?
Better looking sells better - it piques the interest of the casual viewer more.
Look at things outside the world of games -– e.g., making a game looked at artefacts and craft traditions of tribal cultures from around the world
Learn about real world style and borrow it -– e.g. Grim Fandango
A challenge makes an artist happy
Provide them a framework then let them do something excellent within that framework
Need a strong director
Same visual style in setup screens as in gameplay
Questions
HCI design
Similar problems
Overcoming energy barriers in learning the use -– e.g. a paperclip in an email programme means attach something to your post.
These are also culturally based -– may not translate well.
Field studies -– are very expensive to do, with a reasonable sample size
Game design is one aspect of HCI
Differences -– prototyping -– can't get feedback as early on in the system as you'’d like -– particularly in immersive games, as so much more needs to be finished
Kids
Need stories more in games
Probably not
What happens if you get their motivation wrong?
Pick your primary market. If it happens to export elsewhere, that'’s great
US and UK market - share broadly the same set of cultural assumptions
As they share the same media base.
Is possible to make horrible mistakes -– e.g. the reversed Arabic chants in a Microsoft game
Needs to be sanity checked - are we making inappropriate assumptions
How does a game designer influence the IP owner
Arguments about your specialisation are a risk of working within IP Licence area
Just '‘merchandising' top them
Befriend them. Explain
Detailed communication, early
Mobile devices – does their constrained nature make them more appealing to certain types of gamer?
For the games literate -– don'’t want to play on a mobile as is a step down from usual experience
Majority market - impulse buys when bored on the bus.
Supermarket buying style -– sweets at the checkout
Is predominantly casual. Hardcore gamers need hardcore hardware
Not game literate - tend to be wanderers and participants
Conqueror -– is a console fiend
Manager -– PC based
Growths in niche market
1965 -– 3 networks in US TV
direct Competition
All programming was pitched at the lowest common denominator
Cable arrives -– increased bandwidth -– can super serve that niche audience through narrowcasting
Retail shop shelves are the bandwidth limiter of the games world - just have a few big distributors
Once you have piracy proof high speed distribution you'll be able to do cheap distribution and serve niche audiences better
Also -– put games in front of the casual market in alternate forms -– e.g. as a bundled package with your new TV...
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Every object tells a story
Every object tells a story is a great idea for a project - a user generated site designed to capture the social setting of objects.
It's been made by the marvellous Rachel of Own office Joey, who is a marvellous lady. I was - and still am - sickly jealous of the project.
Go Rachel! Go Objects! Rar!
It's been made by the marvellous Rachel of Own office Joey, who is a marvellous lady. I was - and still am - sickly jealous of the project.
Go Rachel! Go Objects! Rar!
Bona Emo Vidiot
The OED Online has published a list of new inclusions in the internet version of the OED.
It's a fascinating slice of zeitgeist - emo gets in, as does FOAF, versioning, caipirinha... and strangely, polari - surely that's been in regular use since the fifties?
It feels oddly like a slice of my head.
There's a search under way for the earliest usage of some common words, too - which made me wonder about the ease of tracing usage in the age of the internet and complete searchability. Once google finishes digitising every book ever, and search engines get stupidly fast, hunting down that rare first attribution will be laughably easy...
It's a fascinating slice of zeitgeist - emo gets in, as does FOAF, versioning, caipirinha... and strangely, polari - surely that's been in regular use since the fifties?
It feels oddly like a slice of my head.
There's a search under way for the earliest usage of some common words, too - which made me wonder about the ease of tracing usage in the age of the internet and complete searchability. Once google finishes digitising every book ever, and search engines get stupidly fast, hunting down that rare first attribution will be laughably easy...
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Open House, Arrive at Four, Tea Will be Served
How marvelous. I've made science.
This is a rather interesting little survey - mostly based around the demographics of social groups that coalesce in the bl*******re (filthy word, but is there a better one?).
From what I could tell of the questions (I didn't read the background, sorry) they're looking at the degrees of social closeness implied by various communication methods, and then the degrees of cross-class/demographic connectivity of online and offline friends. Does anyone else read those foldout questionnaires from magazines, and forensically recreate the dumb questions the marketing arses are trying to answer, by the way? It's a marvelous game.
The realisation for me is that I just don't use the phone any more - maybe one contact in the hundreds I make a day is a phonecall. Usually, I let my phone go to voicemail and pick up messages. Email is my primary conduit, and emailing regularly actually makes me feel closer to those people - they become a constant non-obtrusive presence in my life. Mind you, I'm particularly bad - at any one time I'll have two email clients open (work and social) and I send probably 30 social emails a day - fifty percent of which are idle tittletattle on lists.
The other strange thing is the broad amount of jobtypes I know. I'll admit I start to drop off when you hit unskilled labourers, but I was able to hit most jobtitles across most social demographics. The strange thing is that most of those people I met offline - and many of those through one person, whilst clubbing.
Until this last year, I would never have classed myself as a social animal, but it seems I am, and very acclimatised to that evolutionary niche, too.
I'd hope that this detailed understanding of the sociology of online interaction will help to illuminate the ways that new social contracts are developing around online communication. I've certainly noticed that spam, phishing, IM spam (hello, AOL!) and so forth tend to decrease the politeness and social acceptability boundaries over time; has no-one heard of netiquette these days? But some newer social softwares - Flickr and blogs among those - seem to be actively improving the quality and respect of interaction online. And as a n00b on MMORPGs, the low-level interaction is brilliant - no grief, lots of dancing.
Anyway, as a sign off, I'll point you to Ben Hammersley's marvelous presentation on politeness on t'internets, and again make the plea that someone extends the metaphor of folding down the corner of one's card to imply one is virtually home for visits...
Because I really didn't want a salacious comment on my photos from that boy I viciously took advantage of on the night of my nineteenth birthday. Good lord, has he not got the message by now? One. Night. Stand. Honey. Give. It. Up.
Monday, June 27, 2005
Monday, June 20, 2005
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Jingle
Mobile Ringtones - of Morris Dancing music.
Possibly the most annoying thing in the world?
But bloody brilliant!
Possibly the most annoying thing in the world?
But bloody brilliant!
Thursday, June 09, 2005
Google Sightseeing
Google Sightseeing : The Edison Memorial Tower
There's been a bit of a buzz around the office today about Google Maps. Understandable, of course... but, really - is it just that I'm very ahead of the curve, or get my memes served extra hot?
So, in a 'look at the cool things you can do with it' effort, I pinged round a few mashup services, and stumbled across Google Sightseeing - a site that collects funny or unusual or plain interesting things caught in the satelite scans.
My favourite is the Edison Memorial Tower - not much to look at, but it's topped by the WORLD'S BIGGEST LIGHTBULB.
Presumably, it's the standard by which all other memorials are measured?
There's been a bit of a buzz around the office today about Google Maps. Understandable, of course... but, really - is it just that I'm very ahead of the curve, or get my memes served extra hot?
So, in a 'look at the cool things you can do with it' effort, I pinged round a few mashup services, and stumbled across Google Sightseeing - a site that collects funny or unusual or plain interesting things caught in the satelite scans.
My favourite is the Edison Memorial Tower - not much to look at, but it's topped by the WORLD'S BIGGEST LIGHTBULB.
Presumably, it's the standard by which all other memorials are measured?
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
The Flickrverse
9723603_f910a72200_o.jpg (JPEG Image, 3200x2160 pixels)
Social networking within flickr - a visualisation.
My personal universe is in the top left corner - Zoonie, Spaceboy, TheDaveGreen, Currybet - all clearly visible. Blackbelt Jones and Coates are obviously right in the thick of it...
But... where am I?
Sob
Social networking within flickr - a visualisation.
My personal universe is in the top left corner - Zoonie, Spaceboy, TheDaveGreen, Currybet - all clearly visible. Blackbelt Jones and Coates are obviously right in the thick of it...
But... where am I?
Sob
Friday, May 27, 2005
Welcome to Civilization Anonymous!
Welcome to Civilization Anonymous!
OMG.
Finally, there is an organisation that can help me break my addiciton to conquering the world.
Civilisation is a great, great game, and should be available on prescription; it is one of the best cures for a broken heart that I know. Every major breakup I've been through has been accompanied by a subsequent orgy of 10-hour civ sessions. It truly is the best emotional panacaea available.
OMG.
Finally, there is an organisation that can help me break my addiciton to conquering the world.
Civilisation is a great, great game, and should be available on prescription; it is one of the best cures for a broken heart that I know. Every major breakup I've been through has been accompanied by a subsequent orgy of 10-hour civ sessions. It truly is the best emotional panacaea available.
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Common People
Common People - the Pulp song, as drawn by Jamie 'Tank Girl' Hewlitt.
Wow. Great Jarvis Cocker. And also, knuckles with 'Love' and 'Cake' tatooed on them. Ace.
Wow. Great Jarvis Cocker. And also, knuckles with 'Love' and 'Cake' tatooed on them. Ace.
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
Who is Doctor Who?
Who is Doctor Who?:
"Hey Doc, ever get the feeling you're being watched? If you're everywhere, then so are we.
We've also been sent some fascinating paperwork from Kim Plowright, who used to be a Medical Research Archivist. She's been reminded of events that occured in Albion Hospital during the second world war. She's been able to email me some paperwork and documents about what they referred to as 'Empty Child Syndrome'."
He he. I make it into Who mythology. Rar!
"Hey Doc, ever get the feeling you're being watched? If you're everywhere, then so are we.
We've also been sent some fascinating paperwork from Kim Plowright, who used to be a Medical Research Archivist. She's been reminded of events that occured in Albion Hospital during the second world war. She's been able to email me some paperwork and documents about what they referred to as 'Empty Child Syndrome'."
He he. I make it into Who mythology. Rar!
15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense
15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense
Have I mentioned how alarming I find it that creationism and the argument for design are gaining so much ground in the US?
It is shameful, and ignorant, and will impoverish minds.
Have I mentioned how alarming I find it that creationism and the argument for design are gaining so much ground in the US?
It is shameful, and ignorant, and will impoverish minds.
A change is gonna come
gapingvoid: how to be creative (long version) - via, I think, Gavin.
It's all grist for the mill. I'm very quietly trying to re-steer my life towards having enough of a work-life split to let me go and be creative again. It's going to be like turning an oil tanker mid atlantic, but... well. If I start now, I should be doing something a bit more interesting with my life in four years or so - just in time to hit my breeding deadline.
Hmn. This may require more thought.
It's all grist for the mill. I'm very quietly trying to re-steer my life towards having enough of a work-life split to let me go and be creative again. It's going to be like turning an oil tanker mid atlantic, but... well. If I start now, I should be doing something a bit more interesting with my life in four years or so - just in time to hit my breeding deadline.
Hmn. This may require more thought.
Monday, May 23, 2005
Sakura
Hmn.
Well, I've had a thing about Sakura for a while; something to do with the whole longing-for-spring thing I go through every winter. The first plum and early cherry blossom always gives me that kick to get through to the light evenings. I ususally have a postcard of blossom branches against a shinto temple stuck to my monitor at work, just to remind me.
So anyway, during a long conversation about tattoos yesterday, it occured to me that maybe, just maybe, a traditional sakura design would be a good thing. Not, I hasten to add, that I'm actually going to get a tattoo - I am almost entirely certain that I can take neither the pain nor the possibly resulting parental opprobium - but the idea is interesting.
I've yet to find a good source image of ukiyo-e style cherry blossom that matches up to the idea of the design in my head; or at least, enough so to be adapted. It's going to involve a trip to the V&A to photograph a Kimono I rembember from a visit a long time ago.
But I have found this, which I believe would make the most fantastic wallpaper...
It's available to buy, too...
Well, I've had a thing about Sakura for a while; something to do with the whole longing-for-spring thing I go through every winter. The first plum and early cherry blossom always gives me that kick to get through to the light evenings. I ususally have a postcard of blossom branches against a shinto temple stuck to my monitor at work, just to remind me.
So anyway, during a long conversation about tattoos yesterday, it occured to me that maybe, just maybe, a traditional sakura design would be a good thing. Not, I hasten to add, that I'm actually going to get a tattoo - I am almost entirely certain that I can take neither the pain nor the possibly resulting parental opprobium - but the idea is interesting.
I've yet to find a good source image of ukiyo-e style cherry blossom that matches up to the idea of the design in my head; or at least, enough so to be adapted. It's going to involve a trip to the V&A to photograph a Kimono I rembember from a visit a long time ago.
But I have found this, which I believe would make the most fantastic wallpaper...
It's available to buy, too...
The Oxyrhynchus Papyri
NASA science uncovers texts of Trojan Wars, early Gospel:
Many people have pointed to write ups about the Oxyrhynchus Papyri over the last few weeks - and it is a miraculous thing that these texts are being deciphered. Despite the fact that many of the pieces by the literati of antiquity (antiquitati?) are mere fragments, they represent a huge increase in the available material for these writers.
The thing that got me, though, is the less publicised vernacular writing that has been discovered: the donkey-buying instructions, the erotic musings.
People write; letters, notes, diaries, and now blogs. And the reason I started - and that I've continued - to write here is that I became fascinated by the views into the private worlds that personal writings afford. I started reading these cross-sections of peoples' lives, and became fascinated - and it started to feel like voyeurism to read other's blogs, without being brave enough to put my own words out there. It is extraordinary - and yet entirely mundane - to think that this instinct that drives so many people to empty their heads through writing has been kicking around for at least the last thousand years.
But what happens to all of our vernacular writing now it exists out on the web? The minute the oil runs out... or the infrastructure collapses, it will be gone. There will be no archaeologists in some undertermined future poring over the telling written miscellanea of our early 21st century lives; it will be just so many magnetic fragments on siezed-up, corroded harddrives.
Even amongst all of the noise, and documenting, we are erasing ourselves from history.
"There also is an abundance of life's everyday stuff and miscellanea--tax records, marriage contracts, horoscopes, erotic musings, advice on how to buy a donkey and advice on how to cast a decent magic spell."
Many people have pointed to write ups about the Oxyrhynchus Papyri over the last few weeks - and it is a miraculous thing that these texts are being deciphered. Despite the fact that many of the pieces by the literati of antiquity (antiquitati?) are mere fragments, they represent a huge increase in the available material for these writers.
The thing that got me, though, is the less publicised vernacular writing that has been discovered: the donkey-buying instructions, the erotic musings.
People write; letters, notes, diaries, and now blogs. And the reason I started - and that I've continued - to write here is that I became fascinated by the views into the private worlds that personal writings afford. I started reading these cross-sections of peoples' lives, and became fascinated - and it started to feel like voyeurism to read other's blogs, without being brave enough to put my own words out there. It is extraordinary - and yet entirely mundane - to think that this instinct that drives so many people to empty their heads through writing has been kicking around for at least the last thousand years.
But what happens to all of our vernacular writing now it exists out on the web? The minute the oil runs out... or the infrastructure collapses, it will be gone. There will be no archaeologists in some undertermined future poring over the telling written miscellanea of our early 21st century lives; it will be just so many magnetic fragments on siezed-up, corroded harddrives.
Even amongst all of the noise, and documenting, we are erasing ourselves from history.
Sunday, May 22, 2005
I swear I don't make this stuff up
So.
I finally scrape myself out of the house. And I go to a party, hosted by a lovely workmate. Which is wonderful.
So, about 10, my phone goes. It's a friend.
Then, later.
A girl. Flirts. With. Me.
At least, I think so. She was wearing some kind of halternecked pinstripe number, with big heavy framed glasses, short black curly hair, vampish make-up*. German. She asked me to come on to a club. I was so confused, I declined. But, hey, it was an indy club, and I might have just been put off by the German thing; it's like chaff for Gaydar.
Then later. A terribly privileged and exclusive conversation in the boudoir of the host. Her housemate popped in.
Then, even later - a whole length of a nightbus route later.
I'm walking down North Street in Clapham, doing my late night minding-my-own-don't-mess-me-about walk. And a voice comes out of a car window.
Well, I'm nothing if not pathetically un-streetwise. i stopped.
I bent forward, looked in the open window.
And then, all of a sudden, the Beastie Boys fought for the right to party on my ipod.
Not a word of a lie.
Who won the Eurovision by the way? I ended up at a straight do...
* For those of you who get the cultural reference, sort of nearly like Jennifer Tilly in Bound, but not quite enough.
I finally scrape myself out of the house. And I go to a party, hosted by a lovely workmate. Which is wonderful.
So, about 10, my phone goes. It's a friend.
'Hey, Kim, we're on our way clubbing. Where's the Cross?'
'Uh... In the goods yards up behind Kings Cross, i think...'
'Yeah, we know that. But where exactly. You're the only person we can think of that might know'
'Err... Well, Um, I've never been. Sorry. But really, don't tell them. You'll ruin my reputation.'
Then, later.
A girl. Flirts. With. Me.
At least, I think so. She was wearing some kind of halternecked pinstripe number, with big heavy framed glasses, short black curly hair, vampish make-up*. German. She asked me to come on to a club. I was so confused, I declined. But, hey, it was an indy club, and I might have just been put off by the German thing; it's like chaff for Gaydar.
Then later. A terribly privileged and exclusive conversation in the boudoir of the host. Her housemate popped in.
'Ehm... was your friend coming on to me? Sorry, I just thought I'd check, I couldn't quite work it out...'
'Ha.. well... um. I suppose you could describe her as bi-curious.'
'Ah. OK. I was just wondering. I didn't like to presume.'
Then, even later - a whole length of a nightbus route later.
I'm walking down North Street in Clapham, doing my late night minding-my-own-don't-mess-me-about walk. And a voice comes out of a car window.
'Err, scuse me miss?'
Well, I'm nothing if not pathetically un-streetwise. i stopped.
'Eh?'
'Um, yeas, sorry - err, do you know the area?'
I bent forward, looked in the open window.
'Um... Well, a bit - I just moved here. What are you after?'
'Yeah, well, um, I'm trying to find - someone told me there was a red light area round here?'
'Uh, sorry?'
'Yeah, is there a red light area round here?'
'Um, what, you're looking for girls?'
'Yeah, yeah, that's right. Red light.'
'Uh... OK. Um, I'm sorry, but... I don't have any idea. I really don't know the area that well.'
'Oh. Ok.'
'Um... But, you know. You and me both. Better luck.'
'Right. Thanks'
And then, all of a sudden, the Beastie Boys fought for the right to party on my ipod.
Not a word of a lie.
Who won the Eurovision by the way? I ended up at a straight do...
* For those of you who get the cultural reference, sort of nearly like Jennifer Tilly in Bound, but not quite enough.
Friday, May 20, 2005
Google, but personalised just for you
Google has launched a personalised homepage. It all feels a bit early yahoo.
I can't help feeling that they're missing the point - I pretty much only access google through the search box in Firefox, these days; and that lovely clean homepage was the radical innovation that made google great - no fuss, no mess, just results.
Mind you, what would make me happy would be Gmail and Bloglines integrated. With some kind of 'here are all your yasns profiles and comments and whatnot, all in one place'.
I should make some wireframes at some point...
I can't help feeling that they're missing the point - I pretty much only access google through the search box in Firefox, these days; and that lovely clean homepage was the radical innovation that made google great - no fuss, no mess, just results.
Mind you, what would make me happy would be Gmail and Bloglines integrated. With some kind of 'here are all your yasns profiles and comments and whatnot, all in one place'.
I should make some wireframes at some point...
Thursday, May 19, 2005
A song for Europe
So... I'll admit now that this is a backdated post. I've been having sex, frequently, and it's stopped me doing anything constructive, like posting here. Yes, I'm a flighty little whore, sorry.
Anyway... The 18th of May.
Part of my 'old me is the new me' regimen, bought on by the now-old-news breakup has been reconnecting with things that interest me. To this end, I received an invitation from the wonderful Clare and Ivor to attend an art event put on by their friend Art. No, that really is his name. He's something terribly dashing in the city, makes oodles of moolah, and chooses to spend it by sponsoring proper art events.
The collective he works with - Measure - put on site-specific works in abandoned buildings around London. This event was part of 'Me and My Shadow: A projection of new sound interventions at Wilton's Music Hall.' The special evening we attended was a premiere of 'Songs for Europe', by Janek Schaefer and Philip Jeck; it was eerie, and beautiful.
Part of the joy of the event was a chance to visit the building itself. Wilton's Music Hall is the last remaining Music Hall in London; semi derelict now, it is a haunted space. The raw matter of the building shows through; crumbling masonry, faded murals. The main auditorium feels like a stage set, and even without the intervention of sound artists has an echo of crowds, and warmth, and old songs about it. One of the side rooms had a recording of people who'd worked and visited the music hall recounting their memories; about crowds, singing, and dumping drunks into a covered culvert underneath the Mahogany Bar, to be washed down to the bank of the Thames.
The performance itself was mesmerising. The musicians had spent time in Istanbul and Athens collecting old records; these were played back, patched together, turned into drones, looped and fed back. The near-eastern harmony and scale made it otherworldly, which made the space much much stranger. Sitting, letting it wash over you, the music became deeply visceral. The smell of old plaster added to that; I spent a happy hour sitting in the darkened room, quiet and out-of-time, letting the music cut together tiny films in my head.
I recommend it.
Anyway... The 18th of May.
Part of my 'old me is the new me' regimen, bought on by the now-old-news breakup has been reconnecting with things that interest me. To this end, I received an invitation from the wonderful Clare and Ivor to attend an art event put on by their friend Art. No, that really is his name. He's something terribly dashing in the city, makes oodles of moolah, and chooses to spend it by sponsoring proper art events.
The collective he works with - Measure - put on site-specific works in abandoned buildings around London. This event was part of 'Me and My Shadow: A projection of new sound interventions at Wilton's Music Hall.' The special evening we attended was a premiere of 'Songs for Europe', by Janek Schaefer and Philip Jeck; it was eerie, and beautiful.
Part of the joy of the event was a chance to visit the building itself. Wilton's Music Hall is the last remaining Music Hall in London; semi derelict now, it is a haunted space. The raw matter of the building shows through; crumbling masonry, faded murals. The main auditorium feels like a stage set, and even without the intervention of sound artists has an echo of crowds, and warmth, and old songs about it. One of the side rooms had a recording of people who'd worked and visited the music hall recounting their memories; about crowds, singing, and dumping drunks into a covered culvert underneath the Mahogany Bar, to be washed down to the bank of the Thames.
The performance itself was mesmerising. The musicians had spent time in Istanbul and Athens collecting old records; these were played back, patched together, turned into drones, looped and fed back. The near-eastern harmony and scale made it otherworldly, which made the space much much stranger. Sitting, letting it wash over you, the music became deeply visceral. The smell of old plaster added to that; I spent a happy hour sitting in the darkened room, quiet and out-of-time, letting the music cut together tiny films in my head.
I recommend it.
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
SIRC Guide to flirting
SIRC Guide to flirting
From the people that brought you the guide to pub ettiquette... a guide to flirting.
It's rather splendidly witty, but actually fantastically accurate. I only worked out the arm-touch trick when shown it in action by someone a couple of years ago. Look, I've never claimed to be the most socially soignée of souls... but really, if the whole flirtation thing leaves you a bit nonplussed, this is the best primer around.
The other thing that surprised me about being 'taught the tricks' a few years ago, incidentally, was that no-one seems to mind if you do them rather deliberately; the whole thing becomes a marvellously arch and slightly camp game.
I do wonder, however, if anyone has studied same-sex flirtations, and how it might differ...
From the people that brought you the guide to pub ettiquette... a guide to flirting.
It's rather splendidly witty, but actually fantastically accurate. I only worked out the arm-touch trick when shown it in action by someone a couple of years ago. Look, I've never claimed to be the most socially soignée of souls... but really, if the whole flirtation thing leaves you a bit nonplussed, this is the best primer around.
The other thing that surprised me about being 'taught the tricks' a few years ago, incidentally, was that no-one seems to mind if you do them rather deliberately; the whole thing becomes a marvellously arch and slightly camp game.
I do wonder, however, if anyone has studied same-sex flirtations, and how it might differ...
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Raised Hides
I've been involved in conversations over the last few days about privacy and decency issues in flickr.
Hence, I give you this terrible pun. From the Alt groups:
Raised Hides
Hence, I give you this terrible pun. From the Alt groups:
Raised Hides
Creativity on a shoestring
I rather like this photo.
I liked it even more after I read how the photographer lit it.
Bloody fantastic.
I liked it even more after I read how the photographer lit it.
Bloody fantastic.
Monday, May 16, 2005
Hypocaust: Much Hot Air
Hmn.
Well. There was a really very entertaining post here, but my computer got tired and decided the world didn't need me being witty tonight. So, second try, but this time, briefer.
I was finally getting round to answering one of those awful blog memes. It's a thing called Caesar's Bath
Actually, I've found myself idly thinking about this in odd moments, so have deemed it worthy of a reply. Well, that and I adore Lee, and he'll be upset if I'm sniffy at him. So, anyway, here we go.
And bloody Morrissey too.
It seems to be compulsory that anyone of my age adore the Smiths; something to do with us all having been sensitive, individualist adolescents at exactly the right moment. And I do have a 'Best of' CD, but purely because I was feeling nostalgic for an ex-girlfriend whilst wandering around HMV sale one day.
The boy can't sing in tune, the lyrics are impenetrable, and the tunes are dirge like and miserablist. Once in a while I might be cheered by the one about the cemetery gates. But mostly, it's like fingers on a blackboard.
Of course, it's the one CD in my huge collection that my housemates are playing to death. That and McAlmont and Bloody Butler.
Maybe I should just expand that to 'Indie Pop'. Nice, nice, not thrilling.
Properly done, makeup is lovely. You know, for models and actresses and photo shoots. But I really don't understand why people want to wear it every day. It requires so much expense and effort, not to mention a three-step skincare routine. One ends up looking like a cheap hooker, and frankly it brings me out in terrible spots. It gets worn only to black tie or black rubber events, in my case.
This thing actually gets extended out to long fingernails, too. I actually really like nail varnish, but anything long enough to drum on table tops... no. I'm sorry, I know exactly what kind of injuries those babies cause, and I don't believe your line about surgical gloves and cotton wool and being careful; keep them away from me.
I hang around with enough gay men and wanton women to hear many exciting stories about the thrill of the random pick-up. Of all the things, actually, this is the one that pains me most; I'd love to be able to do the quick cruise and away. Alas, for me, without a good run up - a week or two of conversation, email exchanges, whatever - it's just so much tedious frottage, frankly.
I want them for their minds.
I just don't get how people can have the instant sexual attraction and not care at all about what comes out of said persons' mouth. There have been moments when I've seen the most beautiful creatures, then discounted them instantly I realised they had an uneducated voice - be it accent or turn of phrase.
I can't get off without that tantalising glimmer of raw intelligence. Anything else is nice, nice, but not thrilling.
Only good as a foundation for art works; give me cold, hard facts, and don't trouble me with your mysterious food supplements, gewgaws, faux mysticism and flummery.
You are on your own. Take responsibility, realise there is nothing 'out there', and get on with living your life as a miracle of provable, scientific nature. I don't begrudge you it, I just don't want you to try and justify your irrationality to me. Be honest about what the irrationality gives you, don't try to pass it off as truth. Woe betide you if you start adversely affecting another's quality of life with your misguided beliefs; I'm looking at you, the Christian Scientists who don't allow their children proper access to medical care.
And yes, this covers a wide spectrum from organised religion through to health foods.
This thing actually started out as 'The Da Vinci Code' - but, as you can see, it diversified. There is a space in life for spirituality, yes; but it is a place for the individual, not the organised or the business opportunity.
Well, yes, this is tantamount to treason. Now, I'm enjoying the new series, yes. And I am fond. But I am surrounded by people for whom it is an organising principal of their life.
The exact moment I realised that I just don't get Doctor Who was the moment that my housemate proudly showed me a copy of Club International that he'd saved since the early 80s because it had a topless picture of Lala Ward in it.
This week's episode was sweet, and entertaining. But, really, you knew Dad was going to pull through with an heroic suicide from a mile off.
Nice, nice, but not thrilling.
You'll understand if I don't send this on; randomly forwarding entertaining email memes very nearly made it into my list. But, dear reader, have a think about your very own Caesar's Baths... and drop me a comment if you decide to write them up. I'm genuinely interested, I just wouldn't dream of inopportuning you.
Actually, the Caesar's Bath attitude is one of which I'm very fond. There is a reason this blog is called Mildly Diverting: it is because as a person I am myself nice, but not thrilling, despite what my publicists would have you believe. I have spent a huge amount of effort even getting to this stage. Once day, I aspire to live up to my other domain name, Hardcore Irony.
But until then, this will do.
Well. There was a really very entertaining post here, but my computer got tired and decided the world didn't need me being witty tonight. So, second try, but this time, briefer.
I was finally getting round to answering one of those awful blog memes. It's a thing called Caesar's Bath
This meme takes its name from Mel Brooks' A History of the World (Part I), and, upon receiving it, one is supposed to list five things that one's circle of friends or peer group is wild about, but that one can't really understand the fuss over. Quoth Caesar, "Nice. Nice. Not thrilling . . . but nice.
Actually, I've found myself idly thinking about this in odd moments, so have deemed it worthy of a reply. Well, that and I adore Lee, and he'll be upset if I'm sniffy at him. So, anyway, here we go.
Thing one: The Smiths
And bloody Morrissey too.
It seems to be compulsory that anyone of my age adore the Smiths; something to do with us all having been sensitive, individualist adolescents at exactly the right moment. And I do have a 'Best of' CD, but purely because I was feeling nostalgic for an ex-girlfriend whilst wandering around HMV sale one day.
The boy can't sing in tune, the lyrics are impenetrable, and the tunes are dirge like and miserablist. Once in a while I might be cheered by the one about the cemetery gates. But mostly, it's like fingers on a blackboard.
Of course, it's the one CD in my huge collection that my housemates are playing to death. That and McAlmont and Bloody Butler.
Maybe I should just expand that to 'Indie Pop'. Nice, nice, not thrilling.
Thing the Second: Make Up
Properly done, makeup is lovely. You know, for models and actresses and photo shoots. But I really don't understand why people want to wear it every day. It requires so much expense and effort, not to mention a three-step skincare routine. One ends up looking like a cheap hooker, and frankly it brings me out in terrible spots. It gets worn only to black tie or black rubber events, in my case.
This thing actually gets extended out to long fingernails, too. I actually really like nail varnish, but anything long enough to drum on table tops... no. I'm sorry, I know exactly what kind of injuries those babies cause, and I don't believe your line about surgical gloves and cotton wool and being careful; keep them away from me.
Thing the Third: Anonymous Casual Sex
I hang around with enough gay men and wanton women to hear many exciting stories about the thrill of the random pick-up. Of all the things, actually, this is the one that pains me most; I'd love to be able to do the quick cruise and away. Alas, for me, without a good run up - a week or two of conversation, email exchanges, whatever - it's just so much tedious frottage, frankly.
I want them for their minds.
I just don't get how people can have the instant sexual attraction and not care at all about what comes out of said persons' mouth. There have been moments when I've seen the most beautiful creatures, then discounted them instantly I realised they had an uneducated voice - be it accent or turn of phrase.
I can't get off without that tantalising glimmer of raw intelligence. Anything else is nice, nice, but not thrilling.
Thing the Fourth: Spiritual things, New Age things, and Wooly Science
Only good as a foundation for art works; give me cold, hard facts, and don't trouble me with your mysterious food supplements, gewgaws, faux mysticism and flummery.
You are on your own. Take responsibility, realise there is nothing 'out there', and get on with living your life as a miracle of provable, scientific nature. I don't begrudge you it, I just don't want you to try and justify your irrationality to me. Be honest about what the irrationality gives you, don't try to pass it off as truth. Woe betide you if you start adversely affecting another's quality of life with your misguided beliefs; I'm looking at you, the Christian Scientists who don't allow their children proper access to medical care.
And yes, this covers a wide spectrum from organised religion through to health foods.
This thing actually started out as 'The Da Vinci Code' - but, as you can see, it diversified. There is a space in life for spirituality, yes; but it is a place for the individual, not the organised or the business opportunity.
Thing the Fifth: Doctor Who
Well, yes, this is tantamount to treason. Now, I'm enjoying the new series, yes. And I am fond. But I am surrounded by people for whom it is an organising principal of their life.
The exact moment I realised that I just don't get Doctor Who was the moment that my housemate proudly showed me a copy of Club International that he'd saved since the early 80s because it had a topless picture of Lala Ward in it.
This week's episode was sweet, and entertaining. But, really, you knew Dad was going to pull through with an heroic suicide from a mile off.
Nice, nice, but not thrilling.
You'll understand if I don't send this on; randomly forwarding entertaining email memes very nearly made it into my list. But, dear reader, have a think about your very own Caesar's Baths... and drop me a comment if you decide to write them up. I'm genuinely interested, I just wouldn't dream of inopportuning you.
Actually, the Caesar's Bath attitude is one of which I'm very fond. There is a reason this blog is called Mildly Diverting: it is because as a person I am myself nice, but not thrilling, despite what my publicists would have you believe. I have spent a huge amount of effort even getting to this stage. Once day, I aspire to live up to my other domain name, Hardcore Irony.
But until then, this will do.
Heimat
BBC - BBC Four Drama - Heimat
Fantastic.
Die Zweite Heimat had a huge effect on me when I was about 19. I stayed in on saturday nights for weeks to watch it - and it's serious, proper, grown up stuff. At the time I was completely blown away by the way the lives of the characters intersected with history - it's absolutely right to call it epic.
I'm so very excited that it's being re-run.
You should all watch it. Really.
Fantastic.
Die Zweite Heimat had a huge effect on me when I was about 19. I stayed in on saturday nights for weeks to watch it - and it's serious, proper, grown up stuff. At the time I was completely blown away by the way the lives of the characters intersected with history - it's absolutely right to call it epic.
I'm so very excited that it's being re-run.
You should all watch it. Really.
Vegas, LaChapelle, Flickr, Holga
The thing I love most is that flickr has given me the kick up the arse I needed to start with the old creativity again. OK, so I'm only taking snapshots - but there were a couple of pictures of Broadcasting House taken the other night that nearly, nearly make the cut.
It's also got me into playing with toy cameras - Holgas and Lomos, oh my! I've known about the Lomo for years, but never got round to picking one up until recently; it's so diddy, I fell in love with it instantly. I'm getting really overexcited about finishing my first film, and seeing the results - a delayed pleasure of film photography I'd completely forgotten about in this digital age.
So, anyway, I'm rambling. I meant just to put a pointer up to this marvellous set of Holga shots of the current Selfridges windows. Kind of where my head is at currently; shiny and kitsch.
Props to Froupster.
Flickr: froupster's photos tagged with selfridges
It's also got me into playing with toy cameras - Holgas and Lomos, oh my! I've known about the Lomo for years, but never got round to picking one up until recently; it's so diddy, I fell in love with it instantly. I'm getting really overexcited about finishing my first film, and seeing the results - a delayed pleasure of film photography I'd completely forgotten about in this digital age.
So, anyway, I'm rambling. I meant just to put a pointer up to this marvellous set of Holga shots of the current Selfridges windows. Kind of where my head is at currently; shiny and kitsch.
Props to Froupster.
Flickr: froupster's photos tagged with selfridges
Sunday, May 15, 2005
Bring on the Dancing Girls
The problem with Burlesque, I think, was that I knew too much.
I'm by no means an expert, but I've seen a few old Bettie Page films and spent enough time on the internet (bless it, and its huge piles of smut) to have some kind of context around the historical roots of burlesque. Trace it back far enough and you hit Toulouse Lautrec, after all. The visual reference isn't too hard to come by, either: honestly, it's everywhere at the moment; I blame Kylie, and Agent Provocateur.
I've seen the odd bit of burlesque in clubs - including, I think, Immodesty Blaize doing a rather poor fan dance. It's fun - pretty ladies, pretty costumes, a bit of cheekiness. I was expecting the fully staged version to be pretty damn spectacular...
The set was fantastic - fairylights and pink upholstery and chandeliers. Perfect. And the costumes were beautiful; sequined and elegant and ruffled and over the top where necessary. And tassels. Yes.
But. But. Part of it was the strange mixed crowd: a significant proportion of folk had really never seen anything quite so naughty; there was very definitely one rich looking woman in her 50s who found the whole thing quite scandalously cheeky, but rather enjoyable. Then there were the boys behind me who whooped and hollered at the ladies, and made borderline homophobic comments whenever Walter came on. It seemed very strange to be right at the libertine end of the audience; on previous encounters I've been at the shy and retiring end.
There is, I suppose, always the problem of overlaying the images you construct in your head onto the reality of the performance. The only way I can see out of this one would be to direct my own events; I don't think this is a skill I have.
Ultimately, though, the problem is with the star, Ms Blaize. She's fabulous, yes - and how nice to see someone with a good, old fashioned body shape being sexy as hell. But... She doesn't have enough presence to fill a stage that big. The only performer who did was Spike Loons (and his balloons...), and it's sad when the comic relief shows up your star. Maybe it was nerves, maybe it was the non-intimate venue, maybe it was where I was sitting... But it was all too easy to take your eyes off her.
I heard someone - probably scandalised lady - discussing how wonderful her use of her eyes to engage the audience was. Well, yes, but those fluttery looks and pouts are textbook Bettie, my dear. It's all recycled, and terribly, terribly postmodern. Even the nod to mashup culture in the soundtrack was painfully badly done; please, please get one of the gybo boys in to redo the score.
Well, having said that, it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening. The newly minted adage about improving anything by adding tits appears to be holding true, and the Lady Grey Tease dancing girls in their floaty 30s dresses hit all the right Arthur Freed buttons for me. And I now really, really want a new corset, and a bit more glamour in my life. And to find a really good late bar in Soho.
Besides which, the company was delectable.
I'm by no means an expert, but I've seen a few old Bettie Page films and spent enough time on the internet (bless it, and its huge piles of smut) to have some kind of context around the historical roots of burlesque. Trace it back far enough and you hit Toulouse Lautrec, after all. The visual reference isn't too hard to come by, either: honestly, it's everywhere at the moment; I blame Kylie, and Agent Provocateur.
I've seen the odd bit of burlesque in clubs - including, I think, Immodesty Blaize doing a rather poor fan dance. It's fun - pretty ladies, pretty costumes, a bit of cheekiness. I was expecting the fully staged version to be pretty damn spectacular...
The set was fantastic - fairylights and pink upholstery and chandeliers. Perfect. And the costumes were beautiful; sequined and elegant and ruffled and over the top where necessary. And tassels. Yes.
But. But. Part of it was the strange mixed crowd: a significant proportion of folk had really never seen anything quite so naughty; there was very definitely one rich looking woman in her 50s who found the whole thing quite scandalously cheeky, but rather enjoyable. Then there were the boys behind me who whooped and hollered at the ladies, and made borderline homophobic comments whenever Walter came on. It seemed very strange to be right at the libertine end of the audience; on previous encounters I've been at the shy and retiring end.
There is, I suppose, always the problem of overlaying the images you construct in your head onto the reality of the performance. The only way I can see out of this one would be to direct my own events; I don't think this is a skill I have.
Ultimately, though, the problem is with the star, Ms Blaize. She's fabulous, yes - and how nice to see someone with a good, old fashioned body shape being sexy as hell. But... She doesn't have enough presence to fill a stage that big. The only performer who did was Spike Loons (and his balloons...), and it's sad when the comic relief shows up your star. Maybe it was nerves, maybe it was the non-intimate venue, maybe it was where I was sitting... But it was all too easy to take your eyes off her.
I heard someone - probably scandalised lady - discussing how wonderful her use of her eyes to engage the audience was. Well, yes, but those fluttery looks and pouts are textbook Bettie, my dear. It's all recycled, and terribly, terribly postmodern. Even the nod to mashup culture in the soundtrack was painfully badly done; please, please get one of the gybo boys in to redo the score.
Well, having said that, it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening. The newly minted adage about improving anything by adding tits appears to be holding true, and the Lady Grey Tease dancing girls in their floaty 30s dresses hit all the right Arthur Freed buttons for me. And I now really, really want a new corset, and a bit more glamour in my life. And to find a really good late bar in Soho.
Besides which, the company was delectable.
Saturday, May 14, 2005
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
BBC Backstage
BBC Backstage has just launched.
It's a project that lets all the leet hacksaws have a dig around with BBC feeds, and make prototypes based on our stuff.
It's completely groundbreaking for Auntie - you can't believe how much red tape was sliced to get this up and running. But it's the first sign of the wonderful change in attitude inside this place. Roll on public value.
Go. Play. Sign up for the email list.
And when you sign up, give the Mighty Tom Loosemore and the equally Mighty (if smaller in stature) Ben Metcalfe and James Boardwell big props. They have achieved miracles.
And, err, with a toot of my own trumpet, have a look at The People's Weather - which 'won' best idea in the closed internal test of the site. It's made by someone we know...
It's a project that lets all the leet hacksaws have a dig around with BBC feeds, and make prototypes based on our stuff.
It's completely groundbreaking for Auntie - you can't believe how much red tape was sliced to get this up and running. But it's the first sign of the wonderful change in attitude inside this place. Roll on public value.
Go. Play. Sign up for the email list.
And when you sign up, give the Mighty Tom Loosemore and the equally Mighty (if smaller in stature) Ben Metcalfe and James Boardwell big props. They have achieved miracles.
And, err, with a toot of my own trumpet, have a look at The People's Weather - which 'won' best idea in the closed internal test of the site. It's made by someone we know...
Saturday, May 07, 2005
Push the Button
So it's a late night post again - but this time, easy on the vitriol.
I've had a lovely evening. First, invited to see a rather interesting show, with an entirely intriguing lady. Then ego thoroughly stroked by work friends. Then jazz all the way home, then parcels.
Oh, the parcels. Socks and some tiny whisks, via Mother; a Lomo LCA from ebay, and a book of mucky photographs via Amazon. Heaven.
Then I started drawing properly for the first time in years. It was cack handed shit. But I'm drawing again.
Today is nothing short of miraculous.
I've had a lovely evening. First, invited to see a rather interesting show, with an entirely intriguing lady. Then ego thoroughly stroked by work friends. Then jazz all the way home, then parcels.
Oh, the parcels. Socks and some tiny whisks, via Mother; a Lomo LCA from ebay, and a book of mucky photographs via Amazon. Heaven.
Then I started drawing properly for the first time in years. It was cack handed shit. But I'm drawing again.
Today is nothing short of miraculous.
Thursday, May 05, 2005
Statistically Improbable Phrases
"Amazon.com Statistically Improbable Phrases
Amazon.com's Statistically Improbable Phrases, or 'SIPs', are the most distinctive phrases in the text of books in the Search Inside! program. To identify SIPs, our computers scan the text of all books in Search Inside. If they find a phrase that occurs a large number of times in a particular book relative to all Search Inside books, that phrase is a SIP in that book.
SIPs are not necessarily improbable within a particular book, but they are improbable relative to all books in Search Inside. For example, most SIPs for a book on taxes are tax related. But because we display SIPs in order of their improbability score, the first SIPs will be on tax topics that this book mentions more often than other tax books. For works of fiction, SIPs tend to be distinctive word combinations that often hint at important plot elements."
Amazon are just getting better and better. My only gripe is that it takes too darn long for their features to make it over the pond.
Anyway, I came across SIPs following blog linkage; the selection of SIPs for the page I landed on was rather fantastic...
Statistically Improbable in the context of both book and life in general, right now...
Amazon.com's Statistically Improbable Phrases, or 'SIPs', are the most distinctive phrases in the text of books in the Search Inside! program. To identify SIPs, our computers scan the text of all books in Search Inside. If they find a phrase that occurs a large number of times in a particular book relative to all Search Inside books, that phrase is a SIP in that book.
SIPs are not necessarily improbable within a particular book, but they are improbable relative to all books in Search Inside. For example, most SIPs for a book on taxes are tax related. But because we display SIPs in order of their improbability score, the first SIPs will be on tax topics that this book mentions more often than other tax books. For works of fiction, SIPs tend to be distinctive word combinations that often hint at important plot elements."
Amazon are just getting better and better. My only gripe is that it takes too darn long for their features to make it over the pond.
Anyway, I came across SIPs following blog linkage; the selection of SIPs for the page I landed on was rather fantastic...
Statistically Improbable in the context of both book and life in general, right now...
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