Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Post about Posting this before

Issue 513, 30 January 2006, Giving déjà vu a second look

Have I ever mentioned that occasionally, I get Deja Vu *so* bad that I have to sit down and take a breather? It's usually when I'm very tired or stressed. I can recognise it as Deja vu, but sometimes my brain tells me that no, I've actually recently dreamed this situation. On really bad occasions, I get Deja Vu of having had Deja Vu *in the same situation before*, and of having dreamed the event triggering the previous Deja Vu in the same situation.

Frankly, when I get those, I get nauseous and have to have a cup of tea to recover. It renders me incapable of doing anything but going 'Woh...' (like Neo learning Kung Fu, frankly) and calming my head until it catches up with itself.

I wonder, then, if it's linked to my terrible short term memory?

Post about Posting this before

Issue 513, 30 January 2006, Giving déjà vu a second look

Have I ever mentioned that occasionally, I get Deja Vu *so* bad that I have to sit down and take a breather? It's usually when I'm very tired or stressed. I can recognise it as Deja vu, but sometimes my brain tells me that no, I've actually recently dreamed this situation. On really bad occasions, I get Deja Vu of having had Deja Vu *in the same situation before*, and of having dreamed the event triggering the previous Deja Vu in the same situation.

Frankly, when I get those, I get nauseous and have to have a cup of tea to recover. It renders me incapable of doing anything but going 'Woh...' (like Neo learning Kung Fu, frankly) and calming my head until it catches up with itself.

I wonder, then, if it's linked to my terrible short term memory?

Art Website, Yun Bai Contemporary Art, Yun Bai , Fine Artist , Los Angeles, Conceptual Art, Abstract Paintings, Works on Paper, Installation, Sculptur

Art:Porn interface

From boingboing, chinese enammel work made from cutup wankmags. Rather beautiful, and also SFW!

What Makes It Great? (First Draft) - Joel on Software

What Makes It Great? (First Draft) - Joel on Software

An interesting, if flawed little article. It kind of relates to the 'Lovemarks' concept - some things just attain significance beyond their apparent worth, and people become emotionally attached to them.

But look at Joel's choices for great design - Brad pitt, the ipod, Aeron chairs, Sweet Home Alabama. Yes, all good things, but that choice says more about the 'transcendant factor' in those designs. The key thing is the eye of the beholder.

Joel's choices scream late-20s-early-30s young urban white male, with a techy leaning. They say 'this is my taste'.

What happens when you consider, say, a TG Greens Easimix bowl in that equation? Or a top loading washing machine? Or a traditional wooden spoon?

It's like the 'ugly concrete buildings' argument. Back in the 18th century, people used to look at mediaeval and gothic buildings and go 'ugh, it's so ugly and old fashioned, we must pull it down immediately!'. By today's standards, they were vandals. I remember, when I first found out about this - when I was a teenager, about 15 years ago - I thought 'Hmn. People hate concrete building from the post war to the 70s, and pull it down on site these days. How long til someone decides it has aesthetic value and thinks we're vandals?'. That seems to be happening already...

So, my point is, I think, that any list of 'great' design is about taste. Taste is arbited by the media, and also by what owning one of those 'great designs' says about you as a person. iPods aren't just about looking pretty, they're about being the kind of person who owns an ipod. They're about conspicuous aesthetics, conspicuous consumption, and branding.

It's about fashion.

Monday, January 30, 2006

Surely what Viral Video was invented for?

Smash hits from Guardian Unlimited: Culture Vulture

Man falls down stairs in museum, smashes priceless antique vases. Blames shoelace. All is caught on CCTV.

*offers prayer to gods of Google Video*

Wonderland: Take one IP: should you or should you not turn it into a MMOG?

Wonderland: Take one IP: should you or should you not turn it into a MMOG?

A-Tay is pointing to a discussion about the suitability of known IP for MMORPG worlds.

It occurred to me that the 'Jedi problem' (ie, the Star Wars Galaxies' problem in that most people signing up to live in a Star Wars world are going to want to be the ub3r l33t Jedi, thus throwing the balance of the game right out of whack) - as I was saying, the Jedi problem is almost completely missing from the world of Star Trek. Trek is about regular old human beings, with no special powers, just some sufficiently advanced technology, exploring the universe. Success happens through smarts, organisation, and following 'Star Fleet protocol', or your basic Milk-of-human-kindness thing.

Because the characters are just regular joes, there's no balancing problem. Like the American dream, you succeed by working hard and having a modicum of talent. You don't need to play Kirk, or Picard. Play the game well enough and you start writing your own, new mythology; you become a legendary Star Fleet captain. It's all about the pips.

Sunday, January 29, 2006

Two Slightly Distressing Pieces of Homophobia

Don't be openly accepting of gay sexuality, just in case people get upset with you.

Way to go, Blizzard. Because the constant gay jokes made by other players in game don't get to me *at all*, oh no, never, no no. And I *never* wish that there were people around who were a bit more mature and welcoming. No, never.

Lowri Turner: Some of my best friends are gay! No, really!

...and I bet they're *really really* pleased with that piece of journalism, Lowri. Careful, or they might not give you their *fabulous* advice about scatter cushions next time you need it.

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Slow Animation

A really cute little online animation maker, based on the simple concept of making a flip book. The interface is lovely - really simple to get the hang of (although the flash is buggy if you run your pen off the edge of the paper...) and the icons are self-explanatory.

In five minutes, I'd made a tiny little animation about a Snail and a Very Loud Noise.

FLIPBOOK! - Snail Tale by Kim

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Dancing Rats

Dancing Rats - this one is for my Dad, really.

But the site is worth looking at - the most astounding selection of soft toy animals, some of them eerily realistic.

But the ratties are Teh Cut3zorr!

Friday, January 20, 2006

Musical Strangeness is Musical Goodness

Chevron - ZeBOX Artist: "Emails + Viruses :: mp3 :: 1.30Mb "

James at work just pointed me at this; a chap called Chevron, who makes... well, kinda early 90s nosjavascript:void(0);
Publish Post talgic electronica. Including one called emails and viruses, which is a combination of text-to-speech virus alerts, and Kate Bush. Oh, and pleasingly vrrwooooompy techno noises.

Brand new, it's retro.

Live Whale!!

Live coverage of the Whale in the Thames, via BBC News Player.

Man, it's why you pay your license fee, isn't it?

Thursday, January 19, 2006

More creative meta-play

One of the (many) things that I failed to get across in my talk this week was the variety of meta-play that goes on in MMORPG worlds. Quite aside from the game world play-narrative, there is the demotic play-narrative; events sparked by the social nature of the worlds that then become folklore. Here's a lovely example - a bunch of players who dressed up as hicks, and went griefing in a lowbie area.

The Daedalus Project: Slideshow

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Leeeeeeeeeeeeeroy!

There's been a fair bit of machinima watching in our house over the last few days, what with giving that presentation n'all.

Most is fart jokes. Or the porn song. Or people who have chicken, of course.

But Intro this guild promotional video is... kinda marvellous. It feels like it might be a rather dreamy pastoral euro-film from the sixties.

And now, I want to remake the scene from Jules et Jim where the threesome run across the bridge, but with Taurens. Oh yes.

It's ALL There, There.

One of the central tennets of Alexander Technique - which I've been doing for about a year now - is being present; remaining aware, and in the moment, and connected to your physical being-in-space.

Now, oddly, I spend most of my waking hours being in not-space - my concentration is out in the no-there of cyberspace, both at work and in my main leisure activity.

It's a strangely disjointed feeling - my life is lived so intently on the other side of a screen, that I often feel slightly disconnected when I'm not drifting in search of information, or following a simple string of challenges in Azeroth.

The great thing about AT is that quite asside from relieving the incredibly painful sympoms of RSI - which, of course, are brought on by hours spent at a computer - is that it resets me - brings head and body back in to the same place. I leave lessons feeling... functional. Rooted. Aware. Whereas I leave the office feeling useless, sleepy and impotent. But anyway.

This virtual double life I lead took me to a strange place yesterday; most specifically, to Sevenoaks.

I was asked by the BBC Writers Room to talk to a group of writers about.. well. Games. The brief was 'to inspire them with my experiences of Games and Online Worlds.' I think I may have reinforced the idea that these places are where geeky people who don't function well in the real world hang out. Oh well. But then again, what kind of psychology does it take to want to sit around writing about the human condition, then watching other people act out those fake emotions? Horses for courses... :-)

Anyway - it was fairly gruelling; three days worth of preperation and rereading source material, putting together a beautiful powerpoint and getting there to find... no projector, so everyone sitting around my laptop. But I was fairly pleased with the ideas that shook out.

I topped off the day with - finally, after having barely logged in for over a week - an evening playing WOW. I hit 50! We killed the farting princess! Go Altus Chillers! etc etc.

There is a strange backdrop to the game at the moment; there are massive 'world events' going on - quests and narrative points that involve every player. Currently, it's preparations for a war; all are gathering resources as fast as possible in order to complete the quests to open the gates to a new world area. It's rather like being in a crowd at an unexpectedly significant event - no-one is quite sure what will happen, rumours are flying around, there's a palpable sense of expectation in the air. Also, the economy has gone completely barmy - with usually cheap resources selling for huge ammounts. I'm reading 'Wartime: Britain 1939-1945' at the moment, and the parallels with the atmosphere during the Phony War and attitudes to Rationing described in the book are... well, maybe it's just me being over excited, but it feels very real.

The thing is, when you spend enough time somwhere else, you invest in that other world, and in some way leave part of yourself there, or take the world with you when you shut off your monitor. And when little reminders pop in to your regular old RL existence they seem... somehow, much more exotic. And you miss the other place in the same way you pine for the holiday beach on your first day back in the office.

Anyway. Look! Tourists in a virtual game! Cool! Medivh Server have done it already!

(I'm incoherrent with tiredness today - can you tell?)

Sunday, January 15, 2006

Secrets of Massively Multiplayer Farming

Secrets of Massively Multiplayer Farming

An interesting article about 'farming' - basically, working in a virtual world to get in-game money to sell for real-world profit.

It's rather thought provoking; particularly the 'your partner can't be trusted'. It feels rather like a cold war spy thriller.

Friday, January 13, 2006

Corporate Objectives

just another post about corporate idiocy; a topic close to my heart after 8 years in a corporation with a tendency towards the encouragement of idiocy.

The frankly shoddy customer support I got from Hewlett Packard led me to try and track down their head of Customer Services; you know, just to let them know that they suck, like you do. Instead, I found this:

About Us: Corporate Objectives:

To provide products, services and solutions of the highest quality and deliver more value to our customers that earns their respect and loyalty.
Underlying beliefs supporting this objective:

  • Our continued success is dependent on increasing the loyalty of our customers.

  • Listening attentively to customers to truly understand their needs, then delivering solutions that translate into customer success is essential to earn customer loyalty.

  • Competitive total cost of ownership, quality, inventiveness, and the way we do business drives customer loyalty.



Well, at least the grammar is better.

Look Around You

So, the lovely Messrs. Popper and Serafinowicz are relasing their new DVD on monday - Look Around You series two. Hurrah.

I mention this because (celebrity name drop! Woo!) Mr. Popper just sent me a link to one of the extras:

Birds of Britain.

Hurrah. It's great.

It's also slightly confusing, as I watched about an hour's worth of Jack Hargreaves' Out of Town the other night, which included a ten minute segment about a man teaching baby kingfishers to catch minnows in his garage. Which was priceless, but not actually a comedy. Cognitive dissonance ahoy...

Anyway - if you've no idea what I'm on about, by the power of internet piracy, you can watch the whole first series on Google Video.

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Thursday, January 12, 2006

The Mayflower Hotel Nottingham can't bring itself to give a fuck at the moment.

My lovely boy bought me an HP Photosmart 330 Printer for Christmas. It's fabulous - it prints beautiful photos, and is generally a lovely thing.

Except I had to install a few hundred megabytes of imaging software on to my PC in order to use it; there are two processes running in my taskbar now, and frankly the software is... well, it's not as elegant as it could be.

I'm a really proficient Photoshop user; I learnt on photoshop 3, back when you set it to run a filter then went off for a cuppa and a fag to let it do it's thing. So, really, all I need from my printing software are a bunch of standard drivers that integrate into windows nicely.

So, yeah, a couple of hundred MB of cruft on my machine, plus the chance to sign up for 'Extended Features' (um, that seems to be lots and lots of special offers, plus software that reports your usage back to HP... Great) isn't quite what I was looking for.

So, anyway. I sent their customer service department an email asking if there was a way to install just the essential drivers without the huge imaging suite.

Here, ladies and gentlemen, is the response I received within sixteen minutes of logging the ticket with HP. That's sixteen minutes of 'massive research on the issue', in case you don't pick that up.




Dear Kim,

Thank you for contacting HP Total Care.

I understand that is there any other way to install just a limited set of drivers for imaging software.

I first appreciate your time for providing us an opportunity to serve you. However,I assure you that there is no need for any concern and I shall be glad to provide you complete assistance.

After massive research on the issue, I am sorry to say that there is no other possible way to install the limited software.
As, all the software program for the drivers is linked with one another.

I am sure this should resolve the issue. However, please reply to this message with the results if it persists. We shall be glad in assisting you further with it.



Sincerely,

HP Total Care.


Dear HP Total Care. Not only are you the patronising face of a company who makes second rate imaging software, but also, your grammar is incomprehensible.

Tomorrow, if I can summon the energy, I'll post customer service emails from the three other companies I'm bashing my head against; including, for your edification, the 'No, we think that book is not yet published, even though we sell it under a slightly different title and you clearly stated that you've seen it in the shops and provided ASIN numbers for both database entries' emails from Amazon, and if you're really lucky, the 'Oh, our updates are buggy. Can we suggest that you uninstall everything, then reinstall our updates one by one, then tell us when the error reoccurs so we can have a conversation with an engineer to find out if this is a known issue, even though it's been reported all over the internet?' tickets from Sony VA customer services.

Is it me, or are the 'expert systems' just destroying these corporations' relationships with their customers?