The Mad Ranter

The Gypsy site situation

2012-02-03T13:48:00.001Z

From the beginning I was opposed to the Gypsy/Traveller/Travelling Showpeople (GTTS) site survey. Sadly the human tendency to think in binary terms meant that for some this automatically placed me on the side of the bigots and racists. However I was never against it because of who it targeted, but because it targeted any one group in the first place and the methods being used to justify it.

Rather than explain that this particular community is unfairly discriminated against our council simply waved the fact that they had to do this by law. A disgusting show of 'We don't want to do this it's the law making us' that is part of the negative discrimination the law is trying to counteract. Worse yet this feeble excuse simply stokes up the ire of those who aren't benefiting from this -' Why should they get special treatment when I don't?' that in turn creates more negative discrimination and ironically reinforces and justifies the need for the law.

However I'd 'come out' on the side of the bigots and another human tendency that once a decision has been made stick with it meant that any arguments along these lines I produced meant I was either trying to weasel my way out of the situation or being an apologist for said bigots.

The next call came when over 50% of the report was essentially ignored by the Cabinet and sites were put forward for public consultation that were predominately skewed towards one town and one area of said town in particular.

I didn't think these particular sites were suitable for any residents; but by this time as soon as anyone attempted to speak out some would pop up to point a finger and shout Bigot or Racist at them. In a misguided attempt to educate I pointed out that some of the statements made were factually true; that simply discounting them and using names were means to shut down rational discourse; and that both sides were using the same methods to fight one another when we (the non-bigots) should be better than that. I turned the arguments around and again misguidedly attempted to show that rather than demand they produce evidence to back up their claims by simply using names or stating they were wrong it placed them in the strong position of being able to state "Prove me wrong then!" which should have been our position.

I'd already been labelled though and so this just reinforced my position as an apologist.

Again I tried to make my position clear - I didn't think sites should be allocated just for the GTTS community, but be open to anyone who lived in a caravan particularly those on the council waiting list for accommodation. I didn't think the sites were suitable for any residential development and not just GTTS sites; but nope I'm a bigot and it seems nothing was going to change some people's minds on that.

So what's been the outcome of all this?

Groups of people have been brought together not to oppose residential development but to specifically oppose GTTS development and thus directly against this community. By opening up a constrained public consultation the council have taken the side of these most vocal groups with the expected benefit of being re-elected next term. By using various excuses the council have reinforced their position that this is somehow distasteful and that the public are right to oppose it.

The only good things that's come out of this is that more people are becoming aware of how heavy-handed the council and in particular the Cabinet have been; and that I've noted a marked tendency for those who commented the most on this to explain and use facts to support their positions. However that's been far overshadowed by the spotlight one single community, who essentially want to be left alone, have been placed under.

Hidden discrimination

2012-02-03T09:44:00.001Z

It was with some disgust that I read the latest piece in the Shuttle regarding the ongoing Gypsy/Traveller/Travelling Showperson site placement. Thanks to the public decision making process we've been left with sites that have received the least complaints and surprise surprise they're all going to end up on the Sandy Lane Industrial Estate in Stourport next to all the existing ones.

So is that the reason for my disgust? No. It's the news that due to this efforts are being taken that should the need arise for new sites Stourport will be exempted.

Yes it has been deemed that Stourport has already taken on more than its fair share of this burden and it's only right that this unpleasantness is shared around the other areas of the district.

Excellent work people. What a perfect way to reinforce the existing idea that locating sites for the GTTS community is some sort of nasty little problem that just won't go away, but still has to be dealt with whether we want to or not.

What a neat method of hiding bigotry by using sort of imaginary quota to determine when it's some other area's turn to have to deal with this problem.

How delightful to keep the cycle running by leaving the final decision to politicians who have to be concerned with being re-elected by an electorate who make their voices heard in a chorus of "Anywhere but here!".

Pathetic!

Slow Internet

2012-02-02T09:41:00.002Z

Sporadic internet connection this morning - it's been a little off for a few days now. I checked around just to make sure it's not just us and others have been in the same boat.

Given that these are several different connections with several different service providers all having similar problems it suggests something at the exchange level; so I called BT.

Excellent they can't do anything as we're not a BT customer we all have to ring our individual line providers/ISPs

The weird thing is how specific it is - Blogger is slow, but obviously working. The Shuttle site is a little sluggish; Orange isn't there at all. Transmission seems to be normal it's the receiving end.

Now I know that BT are working in the area to upgrade the systems to Infinity, but it would be nice if they could tell us this and that this was the cause of the rate drops.

[Update - spoke to our ISP and they tell me there's a national fault that's affecting everyone but they don't know the cause. They'll call me back once they do. Odd that it doesn't appear on the news sites though]

[Update 2 - Turns out that national means national for that ISP in other words it's everyone using PlusNet due to a "problem that has arisen during maintenance of our traffic management platform"]

Etymology of hamster and how misinformation propagates

2012-01-30T19:33:00.005Z

Without getting into too many details I ended up reading a speech that was going to be given by a kid regarding hamsters. One little titbit of information that came out was that the word "hamster" derived from the German "hamstern" which means "to hoard".

Not something I knew and I was ready to add it to my mental database; first though the proof-checking. A quick visit to the Online Oxford Dictionary and their definition includes:

early 17th century: from German, from Old High German hamustro 'corn weevil'

Huh how odd if it was derived from "hamstern" I would expect to see that. Perhaps the German dictionary might offer something else? Nope just the same "hamustro".

Time for a Google search for "hamster hamstern" (no I didn't mean "hamster hamster") and a large number of pages all repeating that hamster derived from hamstern; except one. Much as I hate to have to link to such non-canonical sources this really was the best one. So from the Straight Dope forums and the user Holger:

Although my trusty Kluge etymological dictionary isn't quite explicit in the details, it indicates that the noun came first (describing the animal), and the verb "hamstern" (to hoard) was coined later, alluding to the hamster's behavior

Another quick check back to Duden and "hamstern" is noted as being "umgangssprachlich" or colloquia/everyday language.

In other words it came about the same way people can "squirrel something away" the naming word (noun) was used as an action word (verb) to describe someone/thing acting the same way. In the case of a hamster; its hoarding behaviour probably resulted in people being described as hamsters and thus their actions as the new word hamstern.

So use a dictionary and it'll give you hamustro; check various hamster sites (most likely a lot more popular with kids) and it'll give you hamstern. Which is more likely to continue to be spread about and quoted?

Building works

2012-01-30T08:55:00.001Z

Little birds tweeting in my ear.

Firstly that planning should soon be submitted for the Basin Link on the old Lloyds Garage site - this would explain the surveyors who've been around last week. Said birdy also intimates that the old Hairdresser/current Stourport museum doesn't feature in said plans. As I believe this to be a listed structure that could be interesting. Likewise this seems to be a mixed-use development which suggests residential property sitting above the commercial property that was supposedly planned for this area; this hints that Engine Lane may stay as a vehicular access (unsurprisingly as it leads to various properties) with the pedestrian access we've been led to expect running alongside it.

Secondly little birdies bringing me rumours that with the closure of Tan Lane School behind the current Tesco - the superstore may choose to expand their current location rather than move into the Mitton Street site. After all the fuss and cost to get permission, plus work sunk into the site regarding the road alterations, and with a nagging memory that Cllr Oborski has already stated the site is earmarked for residential property I don't see it happening; but I thought it worth reporting.

On a final note I took a walk around the basin area and the new Tesco site for a closer look (photos to follow). What most caught my eye was the current barricades around the entrance to Severn Road on the bend in Mitton Street. The pavement has been closed off as there's a hole in it, but beyond that both it and the road surface has been laid and is perfectly safe to use (in my non-expert opinion). So why is it still shuttered away? No-one's working on that end of the road and beyond the one hole it all seems finished; removal of the barricades will re-widen that lane and ease the flow around this tight narrow corner. Methinks a chat with the Hub is in order.

Post SOPA and PIPA here comes ACTA

2012-01-27T13:42:00.000Z

With the obvious threats to the internet SOPA and PIPA being shelved, the sneaky one that's being pushed by the WTO and has been already been agreed (but not ratified) by the EU is ACTA. That's the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.

If we use the OED's definition of counterfeit we see

made in exact imitation of something valuable with the intention to deceive or defraud

a fraudulent imitation of something else

ACTA seems fair enough until as with SOPA and PIPA you start reading the actual text and you discover this isn't just about counterfeit goods it's about pirated goods too.

The WTO even acknowledges this on the lead page

ACTA aims to address this by establishing shared international standards on how countries should act against large-scale infringements of intellectual property rights

Except here's the thing - Counterfeiting is fraud; pirating isn't. In order to make a convincing counterfeit then intellectual property would need to be breached as I'd need to label the product with a brand name or logo etc.. However breaching intellectual property itself is not fraud.

So how does this apply to the internet? Well consider a counterfeit to be "an imitation". If I buy a song track from iTunes and then burn it to a CD for a friend is that CD counterfeit? It's not an imitation; I'm not pretending it's a product sold under licence; no fraud has been committed just a breach in copyright.

Again so what? Well ACTA states that the Parties (i.e. the states that sign up to this) shall

provide for criminal procedures and penalties to be applied at least in cases of wilful trademark counterfeiting or copyright or related rights piracy on a commercial scale

A law that is currently a civil matter will through EU legislation become a criminal matter and although there's the current limit imposed by "on a commercial scale" making a copy of a song (even for your own personal use) may become illegal if permission hasn't been granted by the Right Holder.

This takes copyright out of the civil courts. i.e. where the Right Holder accuses someone of copyright violations, and into the criminal courts where is is the state accusing someone of violating the Right Holder's copyright.

The state becomes the enforcers of the Right Holder's intellectual property

CSA reforms

2012-01-25T09:03:00.000Z

The latest wheeze from the government is to charge parents when they turn to the Child Support Agency and ask for it to do its job. In its current government (i.e. taxpayer) funded form it's is there to ensure

"that parents who live apart meet their financial responsibilities to their children by calculating and collecting child maintenance payments."

It seems the Conservatives wish to alter that to just calculating payments with collection becoming a paid-for service. If this went ahead how long would it be before the government pointed out that this 'service' already exists within the private sector in the form of debt collection agencies and therefore is unnecessary and should be removed? Have the calculation handed over to magistrates and they'd be no need for the CSA at all.

Sure collection agencies charge for doing the job, but getting a reduced percentage of a payment is better than not getting any payment at all isn't it? I mean what would the parent do with that money they should have had - spend it on the child it's supposed to be benefiting?

Bias, timing, or simply better PR

2012-01-24T14:20:00.000Z

On the 13th of January Tav over at the WFA published a list of what our County representatives had spent their £10k fund on to help benefit their division. Of the members listed only one, Councillor Clee, had yet to spend anything.

Imagine my surprise therefore when on the 17th the Shuttle decided to dedicate an entire article to all the charities that will "beneft" from his funding; just his funding and no-one else's. Checking the up-to-date register it seems Cllr Clee gave (in the order as presented by the Shuttle) to:

The Chaddesley Corbett Cricket Club on the 10th;

The 9th Kidderminster Scout Group on the 13th;
Night Stop Wyre Forest on the 5th; The Wyre Forest Sports Partnership on the 13th; and
The Wyre Forest Young Voices on the 13th.

Which is interesting as the article also list the Odell Centre; Rushock Village Hall and the Emily Jordan Foundation which aren't listed, but misses out the Wyre Forest Glades Leisure Centre on the 13th and Mentor Link on the 5th which are.

Now perhaps I just missed them, but I don't recall the articles published when Fran or John etc. handed out money from the fund; I also find it interesting that it is not mentioned even in passing that other councillors have these funds and have been using them.

Kingdoms of Amalur PS3 demo review

2012-01-24T13:20:00.013Z

It amused me that on Monday I received an email from EA advertising their new game "Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning" given that I'd downloaded and played the demo over the weekend.

Initial thoughts - it's a tweaked version of Dragon Age. It's the same fantasy setting; the same style of graphics; the same third person viewpoint; there's the same inventory with the same radial wheel and the same stilted conversations. However there were some differences to be found.

The initial character set-up was handled well in the Oblivion style. You start off dead with a sheet covering you and a couple of gnomes registering your details. You therefore get to pick your race; features etc. and then the sheet is removed to reveal your dead body as they gnomes confirm all this.

Within the game so far there have been no companions; depending on how you like AI that may be a blessing or not. Once out of the initial linear tunnel sections the world is much more open with various gates and tunnels leading off to different areas. To match that there seems to be more quests and as such I found it enjoyable to roam. At this point again comparisons with Oblivion sprang to mind.

In terms of gameplay combat was surprising. Different weapons actually behaved in different ways beyond the slow/big damage quick/small damage. Being able to equip both a primary and secondary weapon and flit between the two during combat without pause was enjoyable as was discovering the combo system employed pauses such that Square Square Square produced a different outcome to Square Square [pause] Square. I can see an almost God of War system in place here.

The stealth system worked smoothly if a little unrealistically in that I've had guards walk straight towards me without seeing me.

Inventory management was also surprising and it's obvious they've been taking notes regarding other game's flaws. It's possible to grab everything from looted container in one go; but highlighting each item provides greater flexibility. It can be just be grabbed and filed under the relevant category; it can be moved straight to your junk pile; it can be compared to what is already equipped and then directly equipped. The same holds true at stores with the added option of just selling everything in your junk pile in one lump. Cuts out a lot of menu flicking.

Levelling up was easy and uses a tree structure split into three main branches Might, Finesse, and Sourcery. Weapons skills fit into these three types and other skills also logically follow.

Flaw time and there were a few. I can't locate a lock-on system in combat; this is modified in that the character will always swing a weapon towards an enemy. Except try to hit a barrel with a chicken behind you and you'll charge at the chicken.

As mentioned conversation is a little stilted and the way it's handled is a little messy. An initial conversation produces the same sort of wheel that Mass Effect 2 did so well; but past that it becomes a list you just scroll through resulting in an interrogation by your character.

As always when without a manual weapon and armour bonuses as well as skills have to be figured out by yourself. With the seemingly current penchant for minimal information I hope they don't skimp on this in the full game.

The biggest flaws I found- one was graphical. Shooting boggarts with a ranged ice staff resulted in a polygon corruption of their bodies - they'd suddenly turn into expanding triangles with stretched textures until the character clipped them or they naturally disappeared.

Also at times my character would teleport sideways; not by much, but enough to make me go WTH just happened.

In terms of gameplay spending points in Spot Hidden displays enemies on the mini-map in red; fine except this was occurring at a serious distance away from my character; kind of a spoiler.

Picking locks and wards was also painful - Move the lockpick into the correct position using the right analogue stick then draw the bolt across through the cog mechanism using the left if it's in the wrong place the bolt will catch. Great interaction, poor implementation. There's no indicator of whether the pick is in the right place until you start to draw the bolt and it snaps the pick as soon as it catches - give me Fallout 3's version any time. Wards operate differently in that they're arranged on a circle and you have to hit them as the cursor falls - sounds easy but they recharge and different wards recharge at different rates. Great if you know which are which.

Personally I hope this demo was constructed during the Beta phase; because it looks like it could be some real fun with a little more polish. As is... I'm not sure; might check out if it's rentable first.

The end to the office saga?

2012-01-24T13:14:00.001Z

Huzzah the software has been installed shame it doesn't work correctly.

The good news is that numbers can now be dialled from the computer either from direct typing, Outlook contacts or from a webpage and the internal messaging system works.

The bad news is that it dialling from Outlook means the dialler won't hang up.

The bad news is that the webpage/Internet dialling only seems to be compatible with IE7 and only occasionally highlights numbers.

The bad news is that to inform the dialler which extension you're currently on means digging through the phone settings in Control Panel; fine for a fixed computer, not so good for a laptop that can be moved between offices.

The bad news is that the database isn't compatible with iCloud so all the entries have to be imported using a CSV.

The bad news is that the database only has two fields; so if you have a person's work number; home number and mobile number that means three separate entries.

As a bonus it seems that setting an extension to Do Not Disturb for external calls only (so it will only ring for internal calls) means it's impossible to transfer a call to that extension from another extension. The only way around that is to take them out of the incoming group altogether which is a system change.

So yeah working well.

An end to the office saga

2012-01-23T08:52:00.000Z

As mentioned we were still waiting for the new routers to be installed along with the VPN. Well they didn't turn up when they said they would - they turned up early. In fact they turned up while the engineer was fitting the new switchboard.

"I didn't expect you until later" I said
"Well we thought we'd get it done now" came the reply.

That would be fine except they need to install a router at each end and there wasn't anyone available at the other because it wasn't scheduled for that day.

So one router was installed and the software to hook it to the computers was trial-run on one of our machines. It talked to the phone system without a problem, but it wasn't possible to use the Call Contact facility from within Outlook and our telephone database wasn't imported.

A reschedule and they visited the other site to install the router - no problem; but didn't install the software because it was password protected and they didn't bother to call to gain access.

More calls - we've not got the system fully working and we've had no training on what has been installed. In the meantime I dug about online and found the manual for the switchboard which included a lot of the things I needed to know.

We got the training except it was a little pointless as most of it would have been for the software that we still didn't have up and running.

Supposedly they're coming today to install and import, but I don't know at what time because no-one's said.

SOPA and PIPA

2012-01-18T13:12:00.005Z

Anyone using Wikipedia today will find themselves forwarded to a new page discussing USA legislation that "could fatally damage the free and open Internet".

What's going on? - They're worried about two pieces of legislation known as SOPA and PIPA.

SOPA? PIPA? - The Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect Intellectual Property Act.

Aren't there already anti-piracy laws in place? - Indeed there are.

So why the need for new ones? - Visit the Pirate Bay's legal threats page to see how many US companies threaten a Swedish company with US laws. They're pissed that they have no power over these sites so they've enlisted senators to draft legislation to target foreign sites rather than content.

What's the difference? - If a foreign video service hosted one video out of a million that was deemed to infringe US IP laws the entire site would be removed from US-hosted search engines and blocked by US internet service providers without the need to ever go to trial. [Update - the ISP blocking part has been dropped after it was pointed out that it wouldn't work. Neat trick can we try that tactic with the entirety of the legislation?]

Say what? - The owner of the site may be given a cease and desist order. Upon delivery of such an order rather than upon a verdict the site can then be blocked in the USA in the manner already described.

So the content can be deemed infringing and the entire site blocked without the owner having any opportunity to defend themselves? - Yes. To have the site unblocked it would be up to them to prove otherwise. Oh and of course this would have to be presented in front of a US court (which ironically leaves the owner liable to arrest for IP offences).

But if this only affects foreign sites why are Wikipedia etc. kicking up such a stink? - Because the legislation means that any US company advertising or linking to such a site may become liable themselves. Consider all the external Wikipedia links and Google AdWords that exist and then hold both Wikipedia and Google responsible or ensuring they don't link or appear to 'criminal' sites. There's also concern that this will begin to be applied to domestic sites.

But if this stops piracy isn't a good thing? - Well firstly it's a sledgehammer to crack an egg approach; it's also reminiscent of the Great Firewall of China that prevents citizens from seeing sites deemed 'undesirable' and finally it's unlikely to work as anyone who has tried to remove content from the Internet soon discovers.

If I don't like this what can I do? - If you're a US citizen contact your representatives in the House and Senate and complain. If you're a foreign citizen cross your fingers or write a blog entry in the hopes that US citizens might read it and act. [or visit Stop American Censorship and help point out the hypocrisy of the US State Department condemning internet censorship in other countries but not its own]

The Big Questions - Evidence for God

2012-01-16T18:15:00.001Z

Sadly I only caught the last half-hour of Sunday's "The Big Question" which had atheists and theists discussing the evidence for God. Sad to say most of it was the same back and forth that occurs on any internet forum dealing with the subject though slightly more polite and with the ability to interrupt others, something I noted the theists doing to the atheists more than the other way around.

Important point - I'm not talking about or for all theists or atheists only the ones on this programme and ones I've encountered. Likewise as the programme was about God with the capital I'll also refer to 'it' as capital "H" He.

Argument 1: If there's an effect there must be a cause. The universe is an effect therefore there must be a cause - ergo God.

This argument falls flat when atheists attempt to apply the same argument to God because theists then state the argument that they themselves put forward either doesn't apply to God (apparently because they say so) or that God was self-causing; which is a solution that can answer their own initial question. Secondly this is how some theists hide what they really want to say which is for every cause there must be a reason.

Argument 2: I have experienced God personally - ergo God.

This is the egocentric argument that if I experience something it must be real not just for me, but for everyone. Countered almost instantly by one of the atheists pointing out his post-operation delusions that the nurses were planning on killing him. So his experience was false, however if he'd experienced God then that would have been true.

Hammered home when one of the theists objected to one of the atheists referring to the biblical experiences of God as "fictitious" as they were real to the people who experienced them. So were the delusions of plotting nurses, but the gentleman didn't expect people to take them seriously once they were over.

Other than the subject matter the sole difference was that the atheist realised they weren't real when they stopped, but the theists continued to do so. Amusingly had the gentleman continued to believe the nurses were still plotting and tried to take action about it he'd have probably been recommended therapy; whereas a theist would start a church.

Argument 3: There are things outside the purview of science; God is one of them therefore you cannot apply science to God.

This isn't an argument about the evidence for God it's an argument that there can be no evidence for God within the scientific framework. This often becomes a circular argument. Start with an assumption that God is outside the realms of science then use His existence as prove that there are things outside the realms of science.

Even if this fallacy isn't used and we allow that such matters can exist apart from science this can be used to 'prove' anything. Why not unicorns, elves, leprechauns, magic, psychics, Thor, Vishnu? One the 'outside of science' box is opened anything can come out.

To step away from what some theists state as puerile ("why not unicorns?") placing God outside science means that God cannot affect the physical world at a macro level otherwise there's a point where God and science has to meet. If God speaks to you he can't be doing so by creating compression waves in the air or altering the flow of neurons in your brain because that means God is doing science. Therefore not only is the argument that God is outside of science, but everything He does is too. So how can He have any effect on us that is both 'real' and unmeasurable by science? At which point the puerile argument can recommence when one can ask how do you know it was God talking to you and not a unicorn?

Argument 4: We don't believe in the God that you think we believe so you're looking in the wrong place for the evidence.

One of the theists stated that he didn't believe God was anthropomorphic; which is odd given that the Bible states that very clearly. He said he didn't believe in an interventionist God hence the lack of evidence. That's fine except for two points. Point one he still believe in prayer. Point two if there is zero evidence for something you discount it as existing or qualify it as being only a personal 'hunch'.

Non-argument 5: One of the audience pointed out how easy it was to classify the atheists as rational and the theists as irrational.

This is a fair point. Theists can often produce logical thought trains that lead to the conclusion that there is a God and within this framework they are acting rationally. The same approach from the others side for atheists. However in both cases each side can put forward arguments that can knock out a block in either's logic. Rationally if that's done then the conclusion should be revised - it is irrational to pretend the logic block still exists or to continue to come to the same conclusion.

So what's my conclusion? As I said at the beginning of this piece no really new arguments just rehashing which is what I'd expect as there are no new arguments that theists can bring forward. They're all based on the assumption that God is real; that in terms of scientific evidence you're looking in the wrong manner; in the wrong direction and for the wrong thing and the fact I have faith is evidence enough. Amazingly enough some theists who say that last part have the courtesy to add "for me" to the end of it and I applaud all who can do that provided they don't expect to be treated as being special just because they think they're special.

Waterstone's or Waterstones?

2012-01-13T13:17:00.001Z

According to BBC Breakfast this morning Waterstone's is planning on dropping its apostrophe. With this in mind they sent a reporter out to discover if people really knew what this meant and illustrated it with a board stating

Breakfast at its best
Breakfast at it's best

and asking which was correct. Quite amusing really as this isn't quite the issue at hand. As the gentleman from the English Spelling Society pointed out the first sentence is the correct one, although there was a little mumbling when he mentioned the apostrophe and being possessive.

So where's the problem with using those sentences as a demonstration regarding the Waterstone's/Waterstones story? Well in the case of "Breakfast at it's best" the apostrophe is used to indicate a contraction, the omission of the letter "i", for Waterstone's the apostrophe indicates a possession "The store belonging to Waterhouse is Waterstone's store". But who cares and why bother? Allow me to demonstrate.

Consider getting breakfast for a dog that would be "The dog's breakfast" so far so simple, but what if there's more than one dog? That would be breakfast for the dogs and thus "The dogs' breakfast". The confusion lies in that speaking either sentence yields identical results.

If the apostrophe is dropped there is no indication of whether it is a singular or plural and the full meaning of the store's name is lost "Waterstone's book store".

It's not difficult -

Are you omitting a letter? - Use an apostrophe to indicate that letter.
Are you indicating that something belongs to something/one? - Use an apostrophe.
Otherwise - Don't use an apostrophe.

If in doubt consider the sentence without omissions or replace the possessive with his/her/its to see if it still makes sense.

"Breakfast at it's best" becomes "Breakfast at it is best - incorrect.
"Dog's breakfast" becomes "His/Her/Its breakfast" - correct.

Small world for tourists

2012-01-12T15:31:00.000Z

Just talking to Orange Customer Support about a simple matter and post-detail giving I received the unusual response of:
"Oh Stourport. I used to go on the little boats with my father"
Turns out his family used to visit when he was young and has often thought of bringing his family down during the summer; so we spent a few minutes discussing the attractions on the riverside etc.

Feels weird to consider someone coming down from Newcastle as a tourist just to visit our town; which in itself is odd given the Brummie Invasion we all have to put up with :-P

Watching those prices

2012-01-12T13:34:00.006Z

I've mentioned in the past those delightful 'buy two singles for less than the price of a double' offers that supermarkets put up and the wonders of increasing a price from say £1 to £2 for a few weeks and then advertising a 25% reduction to 'only' £1.50, but at least what the ticket says is the price you can expect to pay.

Imagine then my surprise when I ventured back to Sendit.com after receiving a "we miss you" email along with a 10% discount code. Flicking through and comparing prices I spotted Capitalism - A Love Story by Michael Moore. Amazon.co.uk has it offered at £4.47 while Sendit.com has it at £3.99; an obvious choice one might think. Pop it into your cart and head for the checkout however and suddenly you're being charged £5.98 - what happened?

This happened -

Due to recent increases in Royal Mail postage charges we’ve changed our P&P structure and will be charging £1.99 per item with immediate effect.

So that's £1.99 per item for any item and not just per delivery or just for some items. So why not just add £1.99 to all the prices? Well some are VATable and some aren't. That £3.99 is really £3.33+66p in VAT that the government wants to grab. Postage & Packing is VAT exempt so to add on that amount would mean the price of £5.98 would appear to be £4.98+£1 VAT equals less profit.

However from a consumer point of view we don't really give a damn about VAT and any reasonably sophisticated software can allocate different VAT rates to different aspects of a transaction in this instance a VAT invoice would appear as:

Capitalism - A Love Story £3.33 20% £0.66
P&P £1.99 0% £0.00
Net total £5.32
VAT £0.66
Total £5.98

Which is the end figure we the consumer wish to see.

Amazon doesn't get off quite so easily as when it comes to its Marketplace it's similar. How much would you say this copy of Dead Space is from Amazon? £14.93? Wrong it's £14.93+£0.95 shipping, which at least it states just above the Add to Basket button; so presumably that's a better price than the £13.73+£2.03 displayed in the "More buying choices"? £15.88 or £15.76 - yeah. At least Amazon is up front with the P&P whereas the first time you'll encounter this with Sendit is at Checkout.

Given the current kerfuffle regarding airlines advertising flights at low prices and then stacking on surcharges at the checkout perhaps an eye should be cast over online retailers too?

Android printing on Canon

2012-01-11T11:57:00.000Z

A need arose to print some photos from an Android phone; as we have a network printer this should just be the case of providing them with access to the network (all the PCs require user credentials to access so no overt security concern), locate the printer, and then print. Should be much easier than an iPhone - hah.

It couldn't locate the printer on a scan; it couldn't locate it when I entered the IP address. A check on Canon's site informed me of the Canon Easyprint Android App. One download later and... it still can't find the printer. Further checks show others having exactly the same problem with this particular model (an MX850).

Of course I wouldn't have downloaded it in the first place if they'd provided a list of compatible printers but Canon don't seem to grasp the connect there as I've encountered the same problem when they happily explained how AirPrint worked with "AirPrint-enabled printer[s]" without bothering to link to any such printer.

Seriously here's the thought - having explained a feature maybe, just maybe, I'd be interested in purchasing one of your products that possesses it and would thus like to see my options to do so.

Addendum - before anyone asks no I couldn't locate a USB micro lead to plug it in directly and when examining the Canon products AirPrint or Easyprint compatible aren't filterable options.

Pre-owned or new games?

2012-01-09T13:15:00.000Z

Saw a couple of games in Smyths going cheap that I fancied; cheaper even than online. Due to the extras that would come with them I checked they were new rather than pre-owned, or as Smyths puts it 'pre-played' and took them to the counter. One came back shrink-wrapped the other with the security seal on it.

Yeah to start, with non-shrink-wrapped games you should give the customer the opportunity to examine the disc before it gets sealed up. I opened up the box and checked the disc and the manual - both were fine.

I got home opened up the shrink-wrapped game and tapped in the code for the extras and to activate the free-multiplayer access. Confirmed and downloaded.

Tapped in the code from the security sealed game and it was rejected. I tried again; rejected. I drove back to Smyths and they found another. I drove back home; tapped it in - rejected. By this time it was getting late so I thought to deal with it in the morning.

Morning came and I thought I'd give Sony Playstation a quick call just to make sure these codes hadn't been removed given that they were supposed to remain valid until 2016. I mean one is a mistake; two is downright odd. The call connected quite quickly and the guy I spoke to stated he himself had bought this game recently and had had no problem.

"Silly question can you check to see if a code's already been used?" I asked
"Yeah sure what's the code?"

I recited it and the reply "That was activated last year" came back.

Another trip to Smyths and another code; they only had two in the pack set aside for this game and when I asked to see the one they hadn't given me would you look at that it was the one I'd returned the day before.

Fortunately third time was the charm and this code worked; however if you're looking to buy a new copy of FEAR3 (F3AR) from Smyths check the code you've been given if it starts 98FM or E244 they might be the ones that have already been used.

The ongoing planning debacle

2012-01-05T13:31:00.002Z

A twofer this week.

The Wyre Forest Crematorium built adjacent to the Firs Industrial Estate on Minster Road apparently needs a roundabout. As I say there, given the level of planning needed by stores when they abut onto major highways why didn't this come to light at the initial application in 2008? Perhaps alternatives may have been available prior to building a slip road that is only really accessible from one direction.

And the second is our old friend the Gypsy/Traveller/Travelling Showpeople (GTTS) in which we learn that district officers are planning on recommended another four sites to the 7-strong shortlist that itself will have four sites removed from it at the non-declared meeting that is allegedly being held on the 16th.

Amazingly enough the three remaining Stourport sites will be joined by four more Stourport sites with the result that six of them will now be in the one locality. But hey at least we the public have had a say in the matter and the fact that not as many people complained about the Sandy Lane sites compared to the other sites obviously means that the 'public' are in favour of this.

I mean ignore the fact that the majority of the site is industrial and therefore did not receive any notices about this or get the Shuttle delivered to them; that the industrial sites although large are relatively low in numbers compared to residential areas; that the majority of actual residents are GTTS already; and that even when the majority of their own experts recommend refusal the council still hands out permission. Then yes ignoring all that the results are clear that everyone wants them to be located on this site.

Oh and of course as these additional sites were asked for by residents I guess there's no need to put them out for public consultation as the 'public' have already spoken.

[Update - according to Fran there will be another "period of consultation". Yay another waste of our money given that these sites should have been on the original Baker's Associate report given that they were recommended by residents and that's a group they should have spoken to]

Once again checking prices

2012-01-04T18:34:00.000Z

Misfits series 3 will be released on Blu-ray on January 12 and Amazon are selling it at £15.93. But wait I could buy all three series for £33.69 or all three individually. Hmmm?

Series 1 £8.99
Series 2 £8.99
Series 3 £15.93
Total £33.91

Series 1 & 2 £12.49
Series 3 £15.93
Total £28.42

Series 1-3 £33.69

So it's only slightly cheaper to buy the pack than to buy them singularly; but it's even cheaper to buy the first pack and the last series by itself. How does this make any sense?

The Fades review

2012-01-04T13:11:00.001Z

First off Happy Arbitrary Point in Time, wasn't there so much good stuff to watch on TV over the holiday period. Well no not really at least from my point of view; still it meant being able to catch up some of the TV series I'd recorded earlier and free up some space on my hard drive.

And so I watched The Fades, that's the TV series and not the rock band, which was broadcast last September/October on BBC3 and was therefore probably watched by about three people. Long story short it wasn't bad, but then again wasn't really that good.

Sadly using what is becoming the standard plot line for children/teens in that an oddball discovers he's odd for a reason coupled with the Harry Potter/Marty Stu Deus ex Machina of having just the right powers to solve the problem of the episode. The main character is slightly too much of a whiner while having very little to actually whine about to make them likeable; with his friend (played by Daniel Kaluuya) being much better realised as a character.

To me a large amount of the flaws stem from trying to cram everything into just six episodes but in such a haphazard manner that while at times things were left unexplained at others the characters casually dropped terms that had never been used before without anyone else batting an eyelid. There was some attempt at characterisation, but in such a forced manner as to make it unpalatable.

Barely a story, hardly a horror and leaving both plotholes and loose threads hanging as large as some they ironically point out exist in movies; extended this could have been pretty good. As is it's as if someone doused a hors d'oeuvre with eighteen different herbs and spices - you can't tell what it's supposed to be and it's simply too much.

Almost ran me off the road

2011-12-31T12:37:00.000Z

I haven't done a name and shame in a while, simply due to the fact if I listed everyone who changed lanes or used an island without indicating; or who cut me off that's all this blog would turn into. However this is a little different.

I'd just done some shopping in Kidderminster and was on my way home I'd proceeded down the right-hand lane of the dual-track towards the bus-station island which as indicated multiple times during the approach is the straight to Stourport rather than the left-turn to Worcester.

I pulled up at the junction alongside another car; then pulled forward; the car next to me did the same a moment later. I started to pass the Worcester exit when that car which was still next to me, but slightly further back, starting indicating to turn right into my lane. As there was nothing behind me I expected them to slow down and pull in behind me. They didn't. They decided to try occupy the same space as me and expect me to slow down to let them in. They finally realised they were running out of room and pulled in behind me; just as they should have done in the first place.

They flashed their lights at me and I gave a non-committal wave to which I received a two fingered salute. They they tail-gated me all the way through to the dual-carriageway and then just before it switches to 70mph pulled out and pulled alongside me; then ahead of me and then almost into me. Seriously this wasn't a case of cutting me up or not seeing me they were running parallel to me and purposefully swerved into my path; back out and then did it again.

So if you see car registration Y598 JFM being driven by some old guy treat them as a psychotic menace on the road.

Stourport still doesn't need a by-pass

2011-12-23T11:55:00.000Z

6 minutes to get from the Kidderminster end of Stourport to over the bridge to drop something off - 30 minutes to get back.

The difference between Santa Claus and Father Christmas

2011-12-23T09:10:00.000Z

As a festive offering I thought I'd post a little information on the Big Guys in Red given that I'd happened to mention this to my father and he responded with "I never knew that".

Santa Claus and Father Christmas are not the same person. Santa is an American derivative of the Dutch figure; Father Christmas is more English/German/pagan. In attitude Santa is the gift-giver while Father Christmas is the merry maker - Santa brings the booze; Father Christmas encourages you to enjoy it ;-)

In appearance Santa Claus wears a short jacket and a hat; Father Christmas wears a robe with a hood. Locally the Three Kings Parade features Father Christmas - the hoodie you do want to hug.

A 'fact' that does need to be scotched is that they both wear red and white due to the Coca Cola adverts - they both wore red but also green or brown prior to Coca Cola; however it could be said that red is now the predominant shade due this public perception.

On an atheistic note if you wish someone Happy Holidays and they get snotty about you not using the C word ask them why they don't consider this time to be a Holy Day which is where the word derives its meaning :-)

And on that note I wish everyone a happy,pleasant and fun holiday. See you in the New Year.

A new Stourport restaurant

2011-12-23T08:53:00.000Z

The signs are up and it seems we have a replacement at the High Street end of Parkes Passage AD Gundum. I only glimpsed it as I drove past so not sure what they do in the way of food or even if I've spelt the name correctly, but at least it's a new business in Stourport that's not a charity.

DC Universe online messes up again

2011-12-19T09:04:00.000Z

As before I happened to be awake early on Sunday morning and thought I'd give the game a quick try once again. Started the game and... yet another patch. 126Mb so okay not too long to wait. Patched and back and would you look at that it's alternating between exhorting me to visit the DCUO site and to buy the latest add-on. Hah yeah not likely let's just play; but first time to download the game assets.

I'm sorry you want to download how much? Over 1Gb? Gee this hasn't got to do with this new add-on does it - I'm not downloading the entire thing am I? Looks like I am.

Okay sure I need the skins and powers etc. but skins are about 100Kb each and this is over 1Gb.

Now the really annoying thing is that even if I forked out to be a Playstation Plus member my PS3 wouldn't wake up at night to download this because it's not a update - that 126Mb was an update. These are in-game assets that require the game to be running. Well I say running I mean displaying a single backdrop while asking you to visit their site or buy the add-on.

Sorry DCUO you've lost a potential customer because I'm not going to sit around for an hour to download the game and then sit in a queue for another hour just to play it.

But the rules don't apply to me!

2011-12-19T08:55:00.000Z

Sharing a road on Saturday morning with an ambulance one of the Land Rover types rather than a van; no emergency or anything just travelling along.

Between the end of High Street and the railway bridge they - twice changed lanes without indicating with one time barging their way into a stream of traffic; exceeded the speed limit four times and halfway through turning left deemed it the right time to indicate they were turning left.

At least it wasn't a police car, but yeesh.

Assassin's Creed: Revelations - review

2011-12-15T13:11:00.000Z

Have you played Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood? If so then congratulations you've played Revelations. There has been some gameplay tweaks and some minor additions, but nothing as major as the shifts between the other games.

Ignoring the setup premise of reliving memories in the first Assassin's Creed you played an assassin who performed tasks for your order mostly following and killing people; to an extent it was an open-world Hitman with Parkour athleticism. You could sneak up on your target and gently kill him or charge screaming and hack at them and the game wouldn't directly penalise you for either approach. Combine that with a tight story and it was no wonder it proved a success. But there were problems. Tasks varied little and took place in cities that you had to ride between, which despite the excellent vistas on offer, soon got boring. Add in that if you moved beyond a snail's pace all the guards in the vicinity would divine you were an assassin and try to introduce you to sharp pieces of metal and things would often get frustrating.

Move to the sequel and the intial premise still held, but the developers had listened to the criticisms and corrected them. Travel was shortened and a fast-travel between cities was introduced; guards would only pay attention if you were doing something noteworthy and tasks became more varied. In addition a money making mechanic was introduced that in turn meant things to spend that money on including armour and weaponry. It was the game that the first one should have been.

For Brotherhood they dropped the city travel and based everything in one city. They introduced the concept of having to take back control of this city and for the largest change added multiplayer and integrated the concept into the single-player experience. You were no longer alone and could recruit, train and call upon other assassins during play.

For Revelations they took Brotherhood and allowed you to control parts of the city and defend against them and concept-wise that was pretty much it.

That's not to say the game isn't any good it is and if you enjoyed Brotherhood you'll enjoy Revelations, but that's mainly because it's the same game. For those joining the series for the first time it would be difficult to catch-up and the PS3 edition adding in the original game certainly doesn't help as they are so vastly different (and they didn't even bother retro-fitting it with trophy support). If you're part of the series already this is fine, but nothing spectacular. If you're new to the series and want to catch up buy the books it'll be much cheaper and less frustrating than playing the games.

Lowering business rates - small business rate relief

2011-12-14T13:48:00.000Z

One of the larger expenditures for any business is the amount of money handed over to the government in the form of rates a figure that, in the Wyre Forest at least, can amount to 40% of the amount that they may pay in actual rent. For a small business this can be a huge overhead. There are ways to lower this amount and the simplest is provided directly from the government in the form of Small Business Rate Relief.

The catch is that the government have no requirement to inform you of it or set it automatically if you qualify - it's something you have to apply for. Dig your way through the Business Link site and you'll hopefully reach the page goes into detail about how SBRR works. The key bits apply to this year Apr-11-Apr12 and part of next year Apr-12-Sep12. Keeping it simple if you are a business occupying a single site you probably qualify for relief.

As an example of the type of savings available consider if a property has a Rateable Value (RV) of £12,000. Without any relief in the Wyre Forest this would be multiplied by the Standard Rating Multiplier of 43.3p and the rates bill would be £5,196. With the SBRR it would be multiplied by the Small Business Multiplier of 42.6p and the rates bill would be £5,112 a saving of £84 per annum; which sounds petty. However if the property has a lower rateable value a sliding scale is introduced.

If the RV is less than £6,000 a relief of 100% is applied - there is no rates bill! Between £6,000 and £11,999 a sliding scale is introduced from 100% to 0%. If the scale is linear (surprisingly there's no information on this) then a RV of £10,000 rather than be the full rates bill of £4,330 would be the small rates bill of £4,260 with perhaps a third off resulting in a rates bill of £2,840.

That's a saving from the full amount of £1,490 per annum! All it takes is filling out one sheet of A4 paper that you can apply for from your local council or possibly even download and fill out.

Better yet although the relief starts from the date of application it can be retrospectively applied to the last six months meaning you could get money back. In the above case paying the full bill monthly over ten months starting Apr11 and having paid the December amount that could be a rebate of £894. Wouldn't that be a nice present :-)

If you're a business owner find your last rates bill and check which multiplier you're on.

Warhammer and painting - why use a RYB colour model?

2011-12-13T18:52:00.000Z

As I've mentioned I did some Christmas shopping for Bratus Minor and I did end up buying him a "How to Paint" book. Prior to wrapping I had a flick through it and found they were using the Red Yellow Blue (RYB) colour model on how to mix paints. This is a popular model that painters use; but why?

As part of an entry on computers images I dealt with colour models, but a quick recap should suffice for this:

If you're reading this on a computer you will already be familiar with one colour model even if you don't realise it. Televisions; computer screens all use the Red Green Blue (RGB) model. This model is known as additive (I think of it as emittive because it emits light). Using this model if none of the three named primary colours emit light we perceive it as black; if all three emit light at the maximum degree we perceive it as white.

Another model will also be familiar to those who use computers particularly printers - the Cyan, Magenta, Yellow (CMY) model. This is known as subtractive (again I think of this as reflective). This is the opposite of the RGB additive model in that with none of the primary colours reflecting light we perceive the colour of the surface (normally white paper); if all three are mixed we perceive it as black.

Dependent on how we are using colour either of these models suffice to present a large range of colours by the careful mixing of any of their three primary colours. Given that why bother with a RYB model at all?

It's all to do with how colours mix. In the RGB model if we emit equal quantities of Red and Green light we perceive Yellow. If we mix equal quantities of Cyan and Magenta we perceive a Blue reflection. So far so easy. However what happens if I add a primary colour to a mix of the other two?

In the case of RGB, adding Yellow (Red+Green) to Blue should produce White and it does (or at least a grey). In the case of CMY adding Blue (Cyan+Magenta) to Blue should produce black and it does, but only when dealing with pure colours. But pigments aren't pure.

Add all the colours of the CMY model and you don't get black you get a murky brown which is why on printers they add the K or Black. Take into account the pigments found in paints etc. and what would be predicted from the CMY model doesn't always work. So add a Blue pigment to a Yellow pigment and rather than black or even the murky brown you perceive Green. It turns out that the model that works closest with actual paints is the RYB model.

Another trip to Merry Hill

2011-12-12T08:53:00.000Z

A trip out early Saturday morning to Merry Hill to pick up presents for the Bratii to take in on Sunday - left just past 9am and arrived around 9:40 and the car-parks were packed. The counter on the multi-storey was down or switched off and the top open level was blocked off with no warnings. Ended up near the back of the cinema.

Oddly though once in it didn't seem that busy. I hate to think what it's going to be like next weekend.

That EU treaty decision

2011-12-09T13:11:00.000Z

From what I understand the situation ran something like this - the Eurozone countries want to enact tougher fiscal responsibility upon themselves, but want to enact it under the wider EU framework. Which would seem to mean that the EU as a whole would become responsible for monitoring it etc.

As in so much it comes down to differences in emphasis - Although the Euro meltdown is a problem for the EU; it is not the EU's problem. But that is what France and Germany appear to be trying to turn it into while complaining that the UK is interfering with things that aren't its concern.

Yep that's right according to Sarkozy trying to dump the problem from the current Eurozone only ECB system to the wider EU had nothing to do with the other EU members and they should all stay out of it.

Exam cheats

2011-12-08T13:14:00.000Z

It seems to be the week for "well duh!" revelations. Lobbyists boasting about their political connections and showing no scruples over who they work for! Say it ain't so. Then we get to exam cheating - can I call it that? Let's say extreme exam guidance wherein some who work for the private companies that create exams brief the teachers of those subjects on the topics that will arise.

These are businesses whose function it is to make money, serving clients who are ranked by the government by how well they perform on the tests issued by these companies. It's no wonder that some schools will pay these companies extra money to get a leg-up on the competition and it's no wonder that some companies would accept the money. This is simply a logical consequence of the business they're in.

Now in this context it's frowned upon because the exam setters are supposed to be unbiased - except of course they're not - again their function is to make money and they're in competition against others. So if they can 'help' the teachers to get their pupils to pass their tests the schools will continue to pay them. If they 'align' their tests to make them easier or more comprehensible to the pupils the schools will continue to pay for them.

Given that the tests that they produce and that the schools administer are supposed to act as an aid to both higher education and businesses it's monitored by Ofqual. So they're the ones who let these seminars exist, except did they have any power over them in the first place? Does it fall under the purview of "maintaining standards" one would expect it to, which suggests they weren't performing their function correctly.

However all this is likely to do is result in a shake-up of the exam writers etc. perhaps an examination of the exam system is really in order? It is already the case that some universities are ignoring results over personal interviews so perhaps the question of why do we have exams in the first place.

Pre state education in order to pass a student had to demonstrate to the masters that they knew the subject; the masters asked the questions and the pupil responded - in essence the same situation as to the verbal portion of foreign language exams and similar to thesis writing in universities.

With the advent of mass education this one-to-one approach would be unwieldy and therefore the masters wrote down the questions to be presented to the pupils. In order to standardise between educational facilities and remove bias the question writing was outsourced away from an individual school. As (in theory) all states schools were alike and everyone took the same exams it was thus possible to rank schools by their academic achievement.

The situation today is that we have several exam writers and the schools can receive vastly different budgets; yet schools are still being assessed by the same methods. All that leaves is the fundamental point of exams - to test whether a pupil is competent within that subject. Except we can't judge that fairly because the method being used has a bias towards wanting high results from both the testers, the administrators and the pupils.

So do we still need exams? Perhaps, but not in the way they're currently being administered. Many schools already use continuous assessment and these are overseen independently to stop the teachers awarded higher marks than they should - mini-exams covering just that part of the syllabus; with a larger comprehensive exam at the end of each term.

Essentially chop it down into bite-sized chunks that allow the pupils to easily digest the material and repeat tests to ensure retention. Yes in some ways it means more work and cheating can be introduced by having one school do one sections test before another school, but spreading it over time and introducing spot checks should make cheating harder while at the same time putting these back firmly to the task they should be doing - educating the children of this country.

A new office telephone system

2011-12-07T18:46:00.000Z

We were moving offices and as such had a new phone system installed that unlike our current ancient beast would integrate into the computers systems. Long story short we never moved in so we decided to have it moved over.

They came out checked the lines pronounced them okay and scheduled someone to come over and switch them over. This duly happened and as I was looking over the new system asked
"So where does it plug into the network?"
"It doesn't"

Yep turns out the system we had installed and never got to use didn't have the facilities we specifically requested multiple times and in multiple ways in the initial sales pitch.

One more sales pitch later and a new system. With no idea when it's getting installed I call them up and they promise to get back to me. Then later digging through the electronic fax spam I find the installation date - yep they sent it by fax!

Anyway in he came installed the system and the new phones... ah can't connect it to the network as a cable needs to be run to the router. He puts everything else in place and then states someone will come out next week to fit it and the extra bits and bobs.

That week passes with no communication despite me contacting them. Amusingly (or not) they contact me as to schedule training for the system not yet installed. Anyway this morning I give them a call to discover someone's coming out tomorrow; gee thanks for the notice.

I then get a flurry of calls about our broadband situation as a VPN from office to DaBosses house is going to be implemented I get asked what our broadband login details are etc. and I a) ask why they need them and b) refuse to just hand them over on the phone.
"Because of the new routers" I'm told
"But we've already got routers" I reply.

I dig in my heels because I'm already pissed off at this and that results in a call back from their IT Manager. Turns out they don't use a soft VPN it's a hard one so new routers are required to provide a consistent endpoint oh and this isn't the work that's scheduled for tomorrow that's just to hook it up to the local network.

Anyway we had a chuckle over sales staff not knowing what they're selling or why they're asking these questions; he mentions that giving out the broadband login details isn't exactly bad; I agree (they're tied to the line) but that one had to set a principle about handing over login details ("So why can you give out those, but I can't give out these?" is a fair conversation, but only if the other person really wants to know rather than just have an excuse to do it). We agree that due to BT's reluctance to assign static IP addresses to home packages that the office static should work and as always it's nice to converse with someone on the same level.

So one visit tomorrow which should be easy then another visit... some time to install the VPN routers at both ends which will require much better scheduling than has been displayed so far.

A new Warhammer hobbyist

2011-12-06T13:15:00.000Z

As previously mentioned I inadvertently introduced Bratus Minor to Games Workshop, in particular the painting side, with the result of him purchasing a starter set of Warhammer 40k marines and paints. From a phone call last night this has gone down very well with him spending around 4 hours (of being quiet) on them so far and all from a 10 minute lesson at the store. It's so engrossed him that he's shut up about Lego Star Wars which has knocked his upcoming birthday gift list a little askew.

Bratus Pater's initial reaction of thinking of his wallet has subsided since he's been able to compare the prices of this previous interest with this current one. It's cheaper quite a bit cheaper. It's amusing as the two are quite alike - they're both kit pieces that you assemble and then never take apart (yes you can use the themed Lego pieces in other things, but they're designed for one set build). Warhammer models require more work; but they have the advantage that they are far smaller; and you're less likely to lose the bits up the Hoover. Ironically I consider them to be more customisable then the Lego themed kits too.

As I mentioned in the other entry there are some initial costs that can be incurred - a set of 10 paintbrushes or a base set of paints etc. will cost around £35, but brushes last a while and paints need only be topped up when required at the pocket-money friendly price of around £3 a pot. It is really one of those hobbies where the requirements can stack up as high or as low as you want. Sure you can buy the Citadel Paint Station, but you can just use some newspaper and a jam jar of water. You can buy the Citadel Realm of Battle Gameboard; or just drop an old blanket over odd piles of books and use that as terrain with a shoe box as the fortress just like I used to do.Heck you don't even have to paint the models if you don't want to.

So now the question is what do I get him? My parents and I are able to pool monies so we can get something a little meatier, but what would be best? A paint brush set is no use unless he has the paints and vice versa; the black spray is handy but seems miserly despite the £9 price tag. Given what I know he's getting a particular set of paints would be worthwhile perhaps with a couple of brushes.

Hmm a Basecoat Brush for £3.60; a Wash Brush for £4.10; a Medium Dry Brush for £3.10. Some Goblin Green and some Thraka Green at £2.30 each as he'll need those. The Chaos Black Spray for £9.10 would save his proper black paint. Hmm some PVA Glue at £5.10 and some Static Grass at £5.10 for the bases. Possibly some Plastic Glue at £4.10 I'm not sure what he's using at the moment to fix the models.

Possibly drop the base's for some additional and duplicated paints... I'll have a word with his father to see how much he has left of the starter set. Maybe the How to Paint book instead or perhaps for Christmas

DC Universe online quick review

2011-12-05T13:13:00.000Z

As mentioned I managed to download the loader for DC Universe; then the patch; then the entire 15Gb game. I then managed to create a super-villain and finally conked out when I saw the queue to start standing at over 2000. Well I happened to be awake early on Sunday morning and thought "Hey let's give it a whirl".

First things first - amusingly the opening sequence of 'adverts' are all in 1080p resolution; however the game itself switches down to 720p. Oh and it needed yet another 125Mb patch.

Finally I reach the server and the queue is only 800+; that level I'll wait for.... and wait for. I started the clock when it hit 697 and the game finally started just over 16 minutes later. Beyond the ticking down of the counter there is no indication that anything is happening and during this period you can do nothing - absolutely nothing. Sure if you're on a PC you can squeeze the window and check your internet; pull up Solitaire whatever; on a PS3 you can do nothing except sit there and watch it. Oh you can wander off; but the game starts without warning so you can come back to find your character just standing around in an, albeit safe, zone, which isn't a good impression.

The initial level acts as a tutorial and not a very good one. I suspect it's more an aide mémoire to the manual (that downloaders don't get) and indeed there's no menu to pull up to display controls; so, as an aside, it's also not even possible to change them. The interface shows several bars without the tutorial explaining what they are; the enemies drop coloured bubbles that you collect, but again no idea what they are.

While working through this level I hit Start to try and delve into the menu. It's a mess! As an MMO it doesn't pause the game; I'm not going to complain about that (unlike Sacred 2), but again there's no explanation as to how anything works within it. I kept being told I'd received an email yet had no way of reading it until I'd left the level.

Likewise Levelling up I was given points to spend with no information as to what or how this works. Out in the real world I had a task to perform - pick up a mutagen from a van near Metropolis South University - and that's where exactly? There were arrows around the edge of the mini-map; but the location I'm expected to get to doesn't display on the main menu map. At last I realised which arrow to follow and that the area highlights as orange on the mini-map when I reach it.

Getting my arse kicked means having to flee back to the safe zone - very annoying when according to my inventory I have health replenishing items that I can't access. Somehow; don't ask me how; I discovered I could assign these items to a quick-use slot and again no the tutorial makes no mention of this. Much better and the game becomes more enjoyable.

I follow one of the quests and match up against Power-Girl by helping Parasite. When I left I found a Vault ticket that transports me to a Joker Vault packed with goodies and hurty things. I used it and then was suddenly bombarded by information as to how to proceed with the Power-Girl quest "Help Parasite" "Obtain DNA" it told me. Um I've finished it.

So all together I've levelled up; bought items; finished quests; obtained multiple quests and discovered how to pick between them and all with no or seriously minimal help. I've a vague understanding how to communicate with my fellow players, but had little chance to. The NPCs made up for the silence as they happily cycled through their few stock phrases.

I ended the game and later in the day gave it another go - queue length 4000+ yeah no. That's the main problem - I may go into a priority queue if I paid a subscription; but beyond that I see little incentive to pay money for this.

It may seem odd; but the biggest impression this left me with was of the Playstation Home space with super-powers thrown in. If the queue length was shorter I would find this mildly diverting for a quick quest; but having to schedule an hour simply for the privilege of playing the game... no that's not going to happen.

Christmas alcohol sales pricing

2011-12-02T13:17:00.009Z

An email popped up from Saimsbury's about the great savings they're offering for lager and cider; hmmm cider okay I'll bite and take a look.

This cider is reduced in price; this you can buy two of for this price; this you can buy three of for this price and this comes in three different sizes with different prices. So yeah easy to sort out or at least it would be if they displayed the saving and the price per litre. Beyond the extra information why would this be useful?

Consider the Stella Artois offers at the bottom of the page. Buy one 568ml bottle for £1.61 instead of £2.15 they even state it's 25% off. However I could buy eight 568ml for £10 instead of £11.95. Which is the better deal?

1.61/2.15=0.75 That is £1.61 is 75% of £2.15 and therefore is a 25% (1-0.75) saving just as they say.
10/11.98=0.83 That is £10 is 83% of £11.98 and therefore is a 17% (1-0.83) saving.

The single bottle is the largest percentage difference and therefore the better deal... or is it. How much do I actually get?

568ml = 0.568 litres 1.61/0.568 = 2.83. Therefore for the single bottle I would be paying £2.83 per litre. For the eight bottles that would be 10/(0.568*8) = 2.20 or £2.20 per litre.

So despite the single bottle offering the greater percentage off the eight bottle set is the better deal as a price per litre which is really the important thing. The full results are as follows:

[Update - I've altered this since WalkerNo5's comment and then re-altered it since mine own. The columns are as follows - Product; Number of products per unit; Percentage saving from normal price to sales price; Sales price per litre; Percentage of alcohol per product; Sales price per alcohol in litres; Amount of sales price per litre that contributes towards actual alcohol content]

	Number	saving	Sale/l	ABV	price/l alc	Sale/ml alc
Aspall Dry	4	21%	£2.80	7.00%	£39.94	£0.20
Aspall Perronelle	1	20%	£4.10	5.40%	£75.93	£0.22
Babycham	4	47%	£2.50	6.00%	£41.67	£0.15
Bulmers Crisp	1	22%	£2.93	4.50%	£65.21	£0.13
Bulmers No17	1	22%	£2.93	4.00%	£73.36	£0.12
Bulmers Original	4	32%	£1.99	4.50%	£44.19	£0.09
Friels Pure	1	7%	£2.93	4.90%	£59.88	£0.14
Frome Valley	1	16%	£3.33	6.00%	£55.56	£0.20
Henney's Vintage	1	16%	£3.33	6.50%	£51.28	£0.22
Kopparberg	4	20%	£2.25	4.50%	£50.00	£0.10
Magners Irish	1	18%	£2.93	4.50%	£65.21	£0.13
Magners Irish	8	39%	£1.76	4.50%	£39.12	£0.08
Magners Original	4	2%	£3.03	4.50%	£67.34	£0.14
Magners Pear	1	18%	£2.93	4.50%	£65.21	£0.13
Magners Pear	4	12%	£3.03	4.50%	£67.34	£0.14
Magners Pear	8	39%	£1.76	4.50%	£39.12	£0.08
Sainsbury's Vintage	1	18%	£3.33	6.00%	£55.56	£0.20
Savanna Dry	1	16%	£3.33	5.50%	£60.61	£0.18
Stella Artois	1	25%	£2.83	4.50%	£62.99	£0.13
Stella Artois	8	17%	£2.20	4.50%	£48.90	£0.10

Biggest 'bang for your buck' Magners Irish or Pear eight-packs.

This is how planning decisions are made.

2011-12-01T18:35:00.006Z

One of the recent decisions that got made in the November 8th Planning meeting was regarding a temporary change of use on a parcel of land from industrial to residential. The full decision can be found covering pages 27 to 59 in this document.

I'll summarise:

Stourport Town Council - Recommend Refusal
Highway Agency - no comment
Environment Agency - Recommend Refusal
Severn Trent Water - no comment
Planning Policy - Recommend Refusal
Worcestershire Regulatory Services:
(Contaminated land) - it's industrial and as the change is to residential it needs a certificate.
(Noise) - "probably the most environmentally hostile sites within the District" Recommend Refusal.
West Mercia Police - "The area in which this application is proposed has one of the highest rates of burglary in the District." Recommend Refusal
Health and Safety Executive - No hazards
Strategic Housing Services Manager - failed to answer
Worcestershire County Council Gypsy Liaison Officer - The people already living without approval on the site seem fine. Recommend Approval.
Watercourse Officer - Recommend Refusal.
Neighbours: Nine Objections. Recommend Refusal;
Seven signatures Recommend Approval
Officer comments: Recommend Refusal.

So casting your eyes over all the expert opinions the result should be quite obvious - the committee approved it. How did they come to this decision:

However, at the last Planning Committee, Members indicated that they were minded to approve the application on the basis that:

there is an identified need for pitches;
the site is located adjacent to Nunns Corner, a tolerated travellers site within the same floodzone;
there is sufficient early warning of the flooding of the River Severn to allow occupiers to evacuate; and
there are a lack of alternative sites.

Or to rephrase

The pitches are required
Two wrongs make a right
They've got time to pack up and move
For some reason none of the other 15 sites listed by the Baker report count

Seriously read these pages and see how many times this application is recommended for refusal with some arse-grab reason being found to cancel it out which amounts to 'But we really need more pitches'. It's pathetic.

Victory

2011-12-01T14:17:00.000Z

So it's only taken a year, but I note that the entrance to York Street now sports a cross- hatch and lane divider. Sadly it doesn't extend all the way down York Street as it should, but it's a start.

My problem with sandbox games

2011-12-01T13:35:00.000Z

For those who don't know I'll begin with a quick definition of a sand-box game. It is in essence an open-world game one in which the player is free to wander about and perform tasks that have little to nothing to do with the main story-line.

From the point of view of developers a sand-box game is what we the players are constantly demanding - we want choice (or at least the illusion of it). Rather than being dumped at Point A and herded along to Point B so as to be further herded along to Point C we want to stretch, spread out and do something different. One way to look at it is if you consider such types of games as books or films . After all in the majority of such we don't have a say in the actions of the protagonists - we're taken on a journey by the writer. Given that we like these things why shouldn't we like games that emulate that style?

Because games are designed to be interactive; they're designed to be played. As such playing a game that obviously limits the player's choice can be as frustrating as watching a film that requires you to pick up the remote control every five minutes to pick which scene you want to see next. Given that, it seems to make sense to go in the opposite direction and give the players total freedom to do what they want and indeed some games were produced that had no story and just allowed free wandering. In almost all cases they were disasters - in most cases the players simply got bored. In turns out most of us like story and most of us like progression.

At which point we reach the current crop of sand-box games - they have a main storyline, but allow the player to roam off track and perform other actions. With games like Fallout 3 and Red Dead Redemption these should be the ideal games; so why do I have a problem with them?

I think the easiest way to illustrate this is to demonstrate the differences between a game like the latest Assassin's Creed and Red Dead Redemption. They both feature a large area; they both have main story lines to follow and they both allow the player to veer off and just run around and do other things. So why do I prefer the former to the latter?

Because Assassin's Creed tells me what those wanderings can produce whereas the extras in Red Dead Redemption have to be discovered.

It sounds silly, but in AC I know there are shops I can buy and where they are; I know there are viewpoints I've yet to climb and where they are located. Triggered quests appear on my map so I can find them. I don't have to do them in any particular order; I don't have to do them at all, but I know they are there and so if I choose I can plot my own path through the game that takes in as many or as little as these side-quests as I want.

In Red Dead Redemption I don't get that. Sure some quests pop-up; but there's so much going on that doesn't appear until it's found that to an extent I as a player am back to wandering around aimlessly if I want to experience them. Oh sure I don't have to do that I could just stick with the main story line; but how does that make the game any different from the linear herding style ones? Okay it would be my choice to do that; just as it would be my choice to go wandering. But only the former truly produces in me a sense of purpose. Rather than in AC where I'm heading to a location because I know there's a tower to climb; in RDR I'm heading out into the desert to see if there's anything to 'climb' and if there isn't it just seems I've wasted my time.

It's that not knowing that frustrates me. I've played such open world games many times over and often I would stumble on a side-quest and think "Damn I wish I'd known about this before as the reward given makes the other quests much more bearable" I'm not displaying frustration with myself for not finding this quest earlier I'm displaying frustration with the game for not telling me this quest existed in the first place.

Now I'm sure some people just love that sense of discovery and sure so much unknown territory allows each game to be different every time; I understand and accept that. It's just for me I can't get the same sense of completion out of these games as I can out of the others. I would like to be able to choose not to do a quest rather than not do it because I never knew it even existed. For me that's the real level of choice that games should be offering, but that may just be me.

Assassin's Creed: Revelations - Den Defence

2011-11-30T13:13:00.000Z

One of the new additions to the Assassin's Creed series for Revelations is the Den Defence mini game. It's a simple tower defence game wherein enemies attack in waves down a narrow channel and you set up obstacles to keep them back. To put it bluntly - it's not very good, but it's not something that needs to be constantly done. However if you manage to win 3 such games that ticks off one of the items for the Assassin's Guild challenges which leads to a nice upgrade. So what's the problem?

The problem is that if you're playing the game 'properly' you never have to play Den Defence beyond the introduction. The mini-game initiates when the enemy becomes too aware of your presence; their awareness can be lowered by various easy means so there's little excuse for allowing it to escalate. If by some miscalculation it does jump to the point they attack if you've been training up your little assassin band you can appoint one of them as the Den leader and they will play the mini-game for you.

So the only way to gain this upgrade is to screw things up, which rankles.

A trip to Merry Hill complete with Bratii

2011-11-28T19:09:00.005Z

I had a phone call on Thursday - could I look after the Bratii Saturday morning while their parents do some shopping in Kidderminster on their own. I had no problem with that. Then on Friday I thought "Why not take them up to Merry Hill while the decorations are up, but before it gets really crowded". Bratus Pater was amenable to this and so on Saturday morning they turned up, we transferred them from car to car and off we went.

Five minutes in and I'm startled by beeps emanating from the back seat where Minor was sitting.
"Don't tell me they're calling you already"
"No I'm playing a game"
"Well don't it's distracting"

Another five minutes for Major to work out out to turn the sound off while leaving the ring tone active and Minor decides he doesn't want to play after all. Tcch!

I take the route through Stourbridge and note that the petrol station is 3p cheaper than Stourport £131.9/litre; so with the amount I normally fill up with I'd save the price of about half a litre but use a litre to get there.

By this time Minor has fallen asleep in the back; Major is listening to the music I have on and actually turned up Alice Cooper's Poison as he'd not heard it before.

We reached Merry Hill and Minor spots the Toys R Us
"Toy R Us! Can we visit Toys R Us?"
"I don't see why not when we get round to it"

I gave the multi-storey car-park and headed for the top. It wasn't so full as to make finding a space difficult, but it wasn't so empty that you didn't need to look. This traffic level was borne out when we headed down a shared lift to BHS and saw how crowded it was for that time of day.

We headed over to ModelZone which interested Minor; he was considering a R/C model until he noted they were about twice the price of the static variety. I asked Major if he'd had any contact with Apples (the computers) he answered with a negative so we popped in next door so as to introduce him to them. As he's coming up to college age a MacBook Air though seriously pricey would be ideal if he chose to save up for one. They acclimatised to the control layout and the single mouse button type quickly and were impressed by what they saw particularly the sturdiness and the low weight of the Air.

Back to the other side and
"No we're not going to this McDonalds"
which resulted in anguish from Minor.

A quick dip into Gamestation; where Major listed all the games he'd like, but couldn't afford. Minor scrambled to the pre-owned PS2 section and bombarded me with "Can I get this" etc. I told him we had plenty of time; that we might find it cheaper elsewhere or something better that he'd prefer to spend his money on.

Into Hotel Chocolat which threatened to last all of one minute when Minor declared that we'd "seen everything" and that therefore it was time to go.
"But we haven't seen the other side yet!" I state.
"Buhhhh" he replies
We walk over
"Okay now we've seen everything let's go" he demands
"Oh so you've seen the chocolate reindeers then?"
"Huh" Looks around
"No no" I say turning his head back "We've seen everything let's go"
"But I want to see the reindeers"
"Nope we've seen everything time to go"

We headed out and to the left
"Someone's parked a car in here" points out Major which amuses him.
Minor spots the Santa's Grotto train on the level below, but shows little interest in visiting.

We continue up this leg because I need some items from Sainsbury's. Minor spots "The Entertainer" store and asks if we can visit. I agree and as we continue I point out Burger King and also asked if they've ever visited a Spud U Like; no they hadn't and little interest was shown in jacket potatoes.

Into Sainsbury's where Major spots a book he would like at a reasonable price. I point out we've a WH Smith and a Waterstones to check and he decides to wait. I can't find what I want so back out to stop off at the Entertainer.

The store is labelled up with Girls on the left and Boys on the right and Babies at the back. Minor dives in towards the right and stops to look at the Lego.
"Okay we've seen everything" I state "Time to go"
"No we haven't!" Minor cries

"No no we've seen everything just as you said before in Hotel Chocolat; time to go"
Major's trying not to laugh
"But no; I; no um... can we stay a bit longer please"
I relent.
Looking around I end up next to a mother whose son is trying to persuade her that an electrical moving 'insect' and track is worth the money.
"So what does it do?" She asks him
"You get the track and it moves around the track" he replied
I give a little smile at this and she catches my eye and rolls hers "Oh it does all that does it" She says to both of us
"Hours of entertainment" I join in with
Needless to say he can't persuade her.

We leave shortly after that and head around to the food court in the next leg. There's a fair few people about; but the 'darker' corners of the room are vacant. We discuss what we might want to try as we roam around and by we I mean Major and I; Minor was head-down engrossed in his phone.
"So what do you want?" I ask him
"Chips" he says as we walk past the fish and chip stall
"You're not having just chips" I reply "How about some pizza; we could share a pizza?"
"Sounds okay to me" replies Major
"Muh" replies Minor
"Fair enough"

I point out the sushi
"I like sushi" states Minor"
"Well you can sushi if you want we don't have to have the same things" I tell him
"Muh" he says and goes back to his phone.

Into HMV. Major's looking at the music CDs I try to keep track of Minor as it's busy at this end of the store. Doing this I lose track of Major and am about to ring him when I spot him up at the game end of the store. I keep Minor in tow and check out the PS3 release prices - nothing new; Major agrees. I let Major wander while I keep half an eye on Minor it being much quieter at this end of the store and check out the old releases to see how much certain items are - I can't find them and so go and join Minor who's checking out the children's DVDs. I spot a bunch of cheap Batman animations and mention to him that I might pick it up; he shrugs and disappears into the next aisle. I take a closer look and note that the pack includes a disc I already own making it less of a bargain. I put it back and follow Minor
"I decided not to get it" I tell him as I display empty hands
"Huh?" he replies
"The Batman DVDs I was showing you"
"Huh?" he replies
"Oh I'm sorry I forgot if it's not something that directly affects you then you have no interest in it whatsoever"
"Huh?"
"Forget it"
"Can I play on the big game station?"
I'd seen Major was on it so we headed back and I left him in his care while I briefly scanned through the busier end of the store. Nothing.

Back and Major has a couple of purchases to make I leave him with cash and tell him we'll meet in Games Workshop out and to the left. I leave with Minor in tow.

"I want to have a look for something then we'll head to Waterstones over there and then back to get something to eat" I tell him we head into GW and Minor's jaw drops. Oh he is enamoured of all the figures. I escort him over to the fluff section, nodding to the staff as I go, but I can't resist giving him a quick overview of what he's seeing. He's still goggle eyed and he's watching some of the customers playing and painting.

One of the staff members comes over and asks him if he wants a go at painting I mention the time factor; and Minor seems disappointed.
"I'll tell you what " says the staff member and hauls out a sweet jar "Reach in and grab a model and if you get 10 minutes come back and we'll show you how to paint it"
He reaches in and gets a pre-assembled and pre-foundationed Space Marine. Major joins us and we head over to Waterstones.

Minor can't stop playing with the figure. We do a quick sweep of Waterstones. Minor heads to the children's department downstairs and after Major has a scan volunteers to watch him while I do a sweep; I'm impressed.

Out and I point out the flying anvils. Minor's playing with his phone again.
"What are you doing?" I ask
"I'm phoning dad"
"Why?"
"Because I want to"
"Tsssh Leave him alone"
He puts the phone away.

Out and to the food court which is heaving; no really it's completely full with even more people moving around just getting food.
"Ah yeah I was worried about this" I said.
We headed to the back and the pizza place; still no seats.
"Okay let's try the Pizza Express out the back next to Nandos."
Out the doors and blessed peace - well almost it seems a class/party/group of kids is about to head in. Great! There's one menu outside which makes it difficult to use; but I manage to snag one from the outer tables. Pizza, pizza and more pizza - slightly expensive with no mention of sides, which given Minor's chip addition won't help.

Nando's opposite isn't much better chicken or burgers... and again a little on the pricey side.

"Okay we want chips let's head down to Harry Ramsden's" Back into the food court and passing the pizza stall when Minor tugs at my sleeve and points at a four space empty table
"Go!" and bam Minor sitting down at it with us following.
"You stay; pizza any preference?"
"No mushrooms"
"Drink?"
"Coke"
"Should have known. Right [Major] with me"
We could still see the table so we weren't leaving him totally alone.

We scanned the menu while in the short queue. We could have a whole pizza between us for £6.99 (about the same price as 1 Nando burger!) but the special is a slice a choice of two sides from four and a regular drink for £3.99 each
"Special?" I ask
"Special" confirms Major
They're 11/12" pizzas and you get a quarter as a slice with a chips/garlic bread/coleslaw/salad choice and a 6" tall drink - not bad at all.

Trays loaded and Major's phone starts to ring. Typical. It stops and we get back to the table to find Minor on the phone. Yes it's his father; turns out Minor had rung him back at the anvils; but I'd interrupted him leaving a message so he'd phoned Major to find out why and not getting through to him phoned Minor. Gods.

Food time. No sauce, I go back for ketchup. Minor has two forks, I go back for a knife. Minor eats all his chips; Major eats most of his and I finish mine. Minor starts playing with his Marine rather than eat. I confiscate it. He then starts playing with his phone; I confiscate it. He then starts playing with the ice in his drink.
"Do you want me to take that off you too?"
He starts in on the pizza. I try some too; it's not bad even cold. Trouble is the plates are cold paper-plastic and the table is a plastic-marble slab it just leaches heat. I suppose it encourages people to eat quickly and move on; but it's not good with Minor.

Finally finished and we head slowly back to GW; Major nips off to check on some books in Waterstones he'd forgotten about. Staff member Mike takes charge and asks Minor what colour he wants to paint it
"Purple"
"I don't think I've ever done a purple space marine before" and he heads out back to get some purple paint to add to the existing pots.
A big brush loaded with purple and Minor does well keeping it off the base. Paints the gun silver; the skull backpack silver. Adds red eyes; then a black wash on the silver and a dark purple wash on the armour. With some hot-air drying between time. He's concentrating, he has a steady hand and is enjoying it. Major reappears half-way through and he's watching with some interest too. Finally some glue on the base dip into the grass and the base is complete. It's... pretty good; seriously not bad for a first effort. Moreover Minor's been sitting down and shutting up and concentrating all through it.

"I can show you how the game works if you want" says Mike

"We're looking pushed for time" I say reluctantly "but how much are the starter sets going for now" I ask knowing I'm going to regret this.
A five sprue space marine set with Ultramarine colour paints and a brush £18.99; with more paints glue and base grass etc. an extra £30. Switch out the sprue set for the box set of marines and orks for £65 - total £101.
"Have you got that much on you?" Mike asks Minor with a smile.
He shakes his head sorrowfully
"Well you're not far off having enough for just the beginner's set; if your father allows it"
The phone is pulled out and a conversation is held Minor turns to me "Dad says yes"
"Yeah let me speak to him... hey"
"Hey"
"So [Minor] says yes"
"Yeah yeah that's okay what is it he's buying anyway?"
"Warhammer space marines"
"Uh?"
"You know the stuff I was into when I was his age?"
"Oh god!"
"Oh thanks" I answer mock indignantly
"Oh not not that it's just I can see my wallet emptying"
"It's a starter kit and he's paying for it and it'll keep him quiet and occupied so..."
"Yeah"

So one starter kit purchased. We head downstairs I buy a couple of birthday cards and we head over to WH Smith. While Major looks for a book I check the comics next to them and end up in conversation with a complete stranger who happened to have spotted us in GW. One interesting conversation later and we head out and to the car.

And off upon which time Minor keeps bugging me about his kit while I'm driving
"I'm driving!"... "I'M DRIVING!"... "Look do you want to drive?" He shuts up after that at least most of the way.

So I bought barely anything not that I had much opportunity spent most of my time mentally beating my head against a wall because of Minor's obtuseness and ended up so glad I don't have any of these of my own :-)

Black Friday

2011-11-25T13:16:00.000Z

It's always amusing to see how far the PR campaign works it way into the media. Today is of course Black Friday - or at least it would be if the UK had a Black Friday being defined as the day after Thanksgiving, which we don't have.

Anyway according to the i newspaper Black Friday is so called because it's the first time that the retailers make a profit i.e. use black ink rather than red; according to the BBC it's a tradition in America. Yeah; um no.

It was called Black Friday for the same reason the Euro had Black Wednesday - it was bad; with the first reported use in this context coming from Philadelphia indicating it was a police term used to describe the mass of traffic the city experienced on this day. The positive (?) tone only came about in 1981.

So although the start of the sales may be deemed to have started on the day after Thanksgiving in the USA and been so since the date became fixed in 1863. The tradition of 'Black Friday' in its current manifestation dates from 1981. Whoo-hoo 30 year old tradition.

I'd expect some better fact-checking from the Independent and the BBC

DC Universe online very initial impressions

2011-11-25T08:54:00.009Z

I happened to be flicking through the Playstation store the other night to see what was new and what bargains were available when I spotted DC Universe.

Now previously you had to buy DCU physically with a free 60 (90?) day subscription. To continue required a subscription and handing over yet more money. If you didn't like it; tough you could trade it in but as you'd already used the free subscription code anyone buying it would have to pay again to actually play the game.

For some reason Sony didn't comprehend how truly insane this setup was until the game bombed. As such it's now available for free and to play for free with monies coming in from those who want extra abilities etc. Given its now free nature I thought it might be worth dipping my toe into the waters so I set it to download.

I thought it might take a while so I cued up the first episode of "Death in Paradise" on my DVR so as to finally get around to watching this series. Imagine my surprise when the game turned out to be only 122Mb and downloaded in about 8 minutes. I started it up and it checked for any updates yep update needed - um why? Surely the game I just downloaded should include any updates. Oh well the game exited and went to the standard PS3 game update screen and started to download 125Mb... wait that's larger than the initial game.

Ah well another 8 minutes later and I could start. Flashy title sequence and then the terms and conditions to play. Seriously people need to read these they're hilarious.

To draw attention to certain areas they've used ALL CAPS which means some entire paragraphs are formatted in that manner. One such important point is that virtual items aren't real. As such Sony can make any virtual item better, worse, or remove it entirely and by agreeing to the T&Cs you will take no recourse against Sony for this; that seems to include any items you paid for with real money. To translate into real world that's as if you bought a 52" Plasma screen and a week later they came to take it away and replace it with 24" CRT or just took it away totally.

Also to continue I also needed to be a fully paid up member of the Playstation Network (PSN) slight problem as membership is free. Anyway chuckles aside I hit Agree and gained a static backdrop with a bar below. Bottom left a 0% and bottom right a timer ticking upwards. About the 5 second mark the bar started filling up and completed at about 30 seconds. Yay ready to play

Oh wait another download this time the 0% gains a 15.009Mb next to it. Meh 15Mb isn't much. tick tick tick. Oh that's a comma it's 15,009Mb or 15Gb! Yeah um no. At my current rate that would take 16 hours to download and to add insult to injury it's an in-game process which means I can't set the PS3 to just download it and shutdown as I can with every other download nor can I do anything else with the PS3 while it performs this action.

So I quit the game and watched DiP which was reasonable. I'll try again tonight and see if it starts off from where it left off or whether it has to do it in one large block. If it's the latter then don't expect to see my frolicking in the DC Universe any time soon.

Update - It turns out it does resume so I carried on with the download over a period of time. When it finally finished I created a character tweaked them to my preferences and watched as the game seemed to completely lock up. A reboot later and at least it had saved my character (I'd have given up at that point if it hadn't). This time the game seemed to connect and I was place in a queue to start I was number 2000 and something with it dropping down by about 2-5 players a second so in theory a six-minute wait to even start playing. In theory because I simply wasn't prepared to wait that long twiddling my thumbs and watching the queue screen.

Guys if the wait is going to be that long stick in some sort of mini-game or tutorial that those waiting can engage with; don't expect us to just sit there looking at a static screen.

Dead Island PS3 1.04 patch problems

2011-11-24T13:24:00.001Z

I've already made some changes to my review of Dead Island due to tweaks from the latest patch labelled 1.04 but makes the game 1.3.0 (go figure) most notably that kicking now uses stamina. However it has led to some additional problems; and some still exist. In the order I encountered them:

Problem number 1: The character now seems to strafe like a dump truck. For the first time ever in a PS3 game I had to change the sensitivity of the sticks to get it back the way it was.

Existing problem 1: I mentioned that the re-spawning enemies seemed to have been fixed... I was wrong. In the police station I had enemies spawning directly in front of me - just appearing out of thin air.

Problem number 2: On occasion the quest guideline disappears if I set a custom waypoint and then remove it. Switching to other quests highlights the flag in red; but no guideline. As a bonus though any side-quest has the goal flag showing up on the map - so I'm guessing the game is confused as to which flag it should be pointing to.

Existing problem 2: The guideline (when it works) for the Voice from Above Quest still leads to a impassable wall in the Jungle.

Problem number 3: Disappearing weapons. When upgrading or crafting; the weapon that is being altered can disappear. I first noticed this when modifying the reward from finding the crashed plane. I came out of the menu and found myself holding an invisible weapon. Assuming a one-off glitch later I created some pistol and rifle ammo and found both of these weapons had been removed from my inventory. I had to bomb out of the game rather than exit gracefully as it saves the current state when doing so. As an aside this seems to correspond with the disappearing guideline problem.

Problem number 4: Stacking. Meat-bombs and med-kits now stack to 30... sometimes. I've checked my inventory and found stacks of 30; 6; 5 and 2 Molotovs. Equipping and de-equipping doesn't cause a re-stack only dropping and picking up. Loading again can also re-stack or cause the stacks to separate in the first place.

I've yet to return to co-operative play due to the disappearing weapon glitch - as the game saves from actions of the other player and I really don't want to lose the weapons I've got thank you very much.

Delivery Times

2011-11-23T13:43:00.000Z

Had a parcel delivered the guy told me "You're lucky I was here at half-eight this morning and no-one was here so I came back" What you want a thank-you? We're a business and while some indeed open before 9am I think it's still the case that the majority don't. As such turning up before then and being surprised indicates a poor business model in the same way turning up at 10am at a residential address and finding no-one in.

Seriously how do we let delivery services get away with this?

Pandemic board game review

2011-11-23T13:42:00.000Z

Still with the effort to entertain the Bratii without recourse to video games or the same board games every time I picked up a copy of Pandemic. This is another co-operative game in the spirit of Forbidden Island. In fact Forbidden Island is a simplified version of Pandemic and as such playing that first made for an easier introduction to the more complicated game.

The premise is simple - up to four viruses are infecting cities around the world and the players set out to cure them all. The players move around the board easing the infection rate of cities, building research stations and racing to cure the diseases before it becomes too late.

As mentioned Forbidden Island makes a good introduction - just as in that the players have action points and need to spend them in order to move etc. They collect cards in the same manner as Island's treasure with the occasional nasty card lurking to escalate the problems and they also turn cards that affect the gaming area.

As such it was a case of only having to explain to the Bratii the additions and restrictions on actions that players can perform. For one point a player can move to a connected city; they can remove one block of disease from that city; they can exchange a card with another player in the same location; they can build a research station; or if at such a station they can either hand in five coloured cards and cure that disease or move to another station.

Players also have their own special abilities determined by the role they play so for example the Scientist only needs four cards to cure a disease rather than five.

The complications compared to Island come primarily from the player's cards. unlike that game with treasure cards and special actions these cards correspond to the cities on the board. This allows some alterations to be put into play. Firstly a city card can be discarded to travel directly to that city; if in that city it can be discarded to travel anywhere. Secondly only the matching card of the city the player is in can be transferred to another player and thirdly it's only possible to build a research station if that city card is discarded.

This acts in two conflicting ways firstly it can allow quick travel around the board either via directly playing that card or by travelling between research stations; but at the same time slows down the rate of acquiring cards of the same colour as both players need to move to the same city to hand it over.

While all this moving, building and swapping takes place the viruses are spreading. The four viruses are represented by cubes of one of four colours. Infection cards are drawn at the start of play and these indicate which city and which virus has taken hold of it. During play at the end of each players turn they draw more cards and add blocks to that city.

If adding a block means that city gains more than three blocks of that colour then an outbreak has occurred - every city connected to that one gains a block of that colour and the outbreak meter goes up a space. If that outbreak means it pushes another city above three then another outbreak occurs, the meter increases again, and every city (not already affected by the previous outbreak) gains a block and so on. Get a cluster of three block cities connected and there's a mini-explosion of blocks.

Just as with Island lurking amongst the player cards are Epidemic cards. Take the bottom most card from the pile and add three virus blocks to it; add one to the Infection counter; discard the card; then shuffle the discard pile and place it on top of the draw pile. As drawing player cards comes before drawing the number of infection cards indicating by the meter this means a guarantee of re-infecting cities and leading to outbreaks on that turn.

As a bonus once a disease is cured it only takes one point to remove all the blocks of that colour. Manage to remove all the blocks from the board and the disease is eradicated and any infection cards of that colour drawn can be ignored.

Unlike Forbidden Island I found more attention was being paid to the roles of the players. If someone got the Operations Manager for instance they would quickly try to move across the board to build research stations to allow the other players to move more quickly. The Dispatcher would move the Scientist or the Researcher rather than themselves to allow card swapping as the Scientist only needed four cards rather than five to cure a disease and the Researcher could swap any cards.

Winning means finding all the cures; losing is when you run out of player cards; running out of virus blocks or the outbreak meter reaches the skull and crossbones. So yeah much easier to lose than to win.

We came close to a win managing to cure three diseases before an Epidemic card led to a cascade of Outbreaks.

We played it three times over the space of around 2 and a half hours. I enjoyed the game; Major stated that he enjoyed it more than Forbidden Island as there was "more to do" Minor got a little bored with it. I suspect that the added complications meant each player's turn lasted longer and he got bored waiting.

The artwork between the two doesn't really compare. The board is basic compared to the lush artwork on the Island's tiles. The cards have some geographical data on them which the Bratii liked comparing (almost Top Trump like). The blocks are just that, the research stations are plain wood and the coloured pawns are too big for the board (the extension apparently comes with smaller pawns, but costs almost the same as the full game). It all works, but may seem a little dated compared to the glitz of newer games.

As such although I recommend this as an excellent co-operative game players at the lower end of the 10+ age range or who are starting out on board games may prefer the simpler and quicker Forbidden Island.

The Government as mortgage provider

2011-11-22T13:02:00.018Z

The government is now stepping in as a mortgage provider and the taxpayer will be taking the risks of the loans, because we all know how well that worked out in the USA. Ah but this will be different, rather than lending money to those who won't be able to pay it back they'll be using very tough criteria to determine who they lend money to.

So wait, if the government are only going to lend money to those whom they judge will be in a position to pay it back why aren't the banks prepared to lend this money to them? One could argue that the banks are currently being too cautious and having been burned once are reluctant to lend out the percentages needed for first time buyers despite the injection of cash from the government, but this is hardly going to encourage the banks to join in.

As an additional step the government is also looking to subsidise house building on land deemed economically unviable or those struggling to build on land for which they already have permission. In theory it's this latter approach that holds more promise. By building more houses supply will hopefully increase to match demand which will in turn lower house prices. In turn that means the amount the banks are willing to loan out will become a greater percentage of the house price and enable more people to purchase them... which in turn will push up demand, which will increase prices if supply isn't met. Perhaps an answer lies in prefabricated buildings.

It is already (or at least was) the case that the Housing Corporation demanded that 25% of new homes it funds to be prefabs; yet that only accounted for 3% of the total housing being built. Will this new subsidy have the same criteria placed upon it? I doubt it, but this is an excellent chance for the government to get houses built quickly; to create more jobs in prefab factories and as demand will increase (as we're living longer and keeping our housing) these factories will only prosper.

As an aside this could lead to a new way of building houses - no roads. Build the prefabs and connect them with wide pathways (suitable for emergency and delivery vehicles to access with pull-ins to pass). Then off-site attached to the road build a set of garages one for each house capable of holding two cars and build a guest car-park next to it. Ensure it's well-lit, alarmed and the police patrol regularly. As residents are forced outside their homes beyond getting into the car they're more likely to meet and integrate with their neighbours; the kids can play in the green areas without cause for concern from busy roads.

MobileMe Outlook Calendar disappears

2011-11-22T10:20:00.001Z

In combination with the password constantly being denied and having to be reset - the major problem is that every time it happens the calender in Outlook disappears. Annoyingly to integrate the calendar Outlook needs to be shut down and to add insult to injury an Apple support staff member informed me that the MobileMe control panel wasn't even used to sync it just to set it up.

So the password got reset, the calendar disappeared and I went about fixing it. No calendar. I ticked the box; closed the panel waited and returned to find the box had unticked itself. I checked the version of the control panel - latest. I updated iTunes (because the sync notifier is a part of that package and not included in MobileMe download; why?). I restarted the computer. No calendar.

I reset the sync data for the computer - no calendar.

Finally I unregistered the computer and then re-registered it. Closed down MobileMe; restarted it with calendar unticked. Waited half an hour and then ticked it; then waited some more and finally the "Setting up calendars box appeared" and the calendar has reappeared.

It seems patience is required; though why this would be the case for a computer programme is beyond me.

[Update - and despite working it's now decided not to. So long as I keep Outlook open it'll show the calendar; but if I close it down I've got to go through it all again to get it back]

Race relations

2011-11-18T13:03:00.002Z

Still talk on the racist statements made and I still find myself explaining differences. In an attempt to condense everything down here goes.

Responding to a criticism of an ethic minority there can be a difference between "You can't say that because it's racist!" and "You can't say that because it's untrue!" the conditional lies in how a simple question is answered:

If a criticism made about an ethic group is true is it still racist?

If you answered that with "No" then the two responses are equivalent if you answered that with "Yes" then the two responses are different. Who cares, isn't this just hair splitting? Okay a little, but consider what happens when an untrue statement is made and both the Yes and No camps respond with the same "You can't say that because it's racist". Now consider what happens if another, but this time true statement is made and the Yes camp just respond in the same way.

To them all those who point out that the statement is true are agreeing with or placating racists; the facts of the matter don't matter.

What if a statement is made that some in the No camp don't know is true or not? If everyone responds with "That's racist!" are they doing so because they're in the No camp and consider it to be untrue or are they in the Yes camp and don't care?

Those in the No camp can be easily identified as soon as they start asking about facts; a little more tricky to place the Yes camp because although it may be the case they don't care about the facts and keep repeating that "it's racist" they might just be No campers who think the truth/untruth is so obvious it doesn't need spelling out.

Why do I think this is important? Well in the No camp the path taken is "This is racist because it's untrue"; in the Yes camp there's a danger that it could turn into "This is untrue because it's racist". If you can't see why that could be a problem mull it over for a while.

New Tesco will ease traffic in Kidderminster?

2011-11-18T08:53:00.000Z

One of the comments on the WFA entry "Tesco and the Florist" was that the new Stourport Tesco will ease some of the congestion in Kidderminster. Will it? Consider the group of people who shop in Kidderminster:

Those who are there to shop at the supermarkets and then leave.
Those who are there to shop at the supermarkets and then shop in the rest of the town while there.
Those who are there to shop in the town and shop in the supermarkets while there, and
Those who are there to shop in the town and then leave.

Taken in turn for groups 1 and 2 a proportion of those will chose to use the new supermarket and thus not contribute to traffic; those in groups 3 and 4 will still use the town and therefore affect no change. In theory therefore traffic will decrease. No let's consider the rest of the town's shops.

For groups 1, 3 and 4 there will be no change to the town as they'll continue to shop/not shop there. However group 2 are only shopping while there; if there is no reason for them to be there they won't shop. So that's three no changes and one detrimental - the town will lose customers.

Now it's possible that those in group 2 will split and some will fall into group 4; that is shopping in the new Stourport Tesco and then going into Kidderminster; some may split and fall into group 3. Which leaves the customer base for Kidderminster more intact, but does little to alter the traffic volume.

In short a decrease in traffic is likely to lead to a decrease in custom for the town; so not really something that should be looked forward to.

As an aside for group 2 the theory is that the loss of Kidderminster town custom should mean an increase in Stourport custom. And if the situations were identical this would most likely be the case... of course they're not. The types of shops in Stourport don't match those in Kidderminster; neither does pedestrian access. This means people not shopping unless there is something they actually need rather than the browsing type of shopping that is so easily accessible in closely connected shopping systems (such as Merry Hill etc.)

In reality therefore I expect a drop in trade for both Stourport and Kidderminster town centres once the new supermarket opens unless a external factor can encourage shopping in these areas.

A4025 incident

2011-11-17T09:07:00.000Z

Police stopping traffic from using the A4025 early this morning. The "Police Slow" sign is still up; but it's clear now. Still a knock-on effect through town not helped by the fog.

Smoking ban in private vehicles

2011-11-16T08:58:00.005Z

The latest wheeze from the BMA is to call for smoking to be banned in private vehicles. I'd be amused at their naivety that they think Parliament can even do this if it weren't for the way that the previous smoking ban was handled.

The existing legislation wasn't included as part of Health and Safety regulations that businesses have to comply with to operate in this country it was instead tied in to the Health Act 2006. The sting in the tail is comes from sections 4 and 5 whereby:

4 Additional smoke-free places

The appropriate national authority may make regulations designating as smoke-free any place or description of place that is not smoke-free under section 2.
The place, or places falling within the description, need not be enclosed or substantially enclosed.
The appropriate national authority may designate a place or description of place under this section only if in the authority's opinion there is a significant risk that, without a designation, persons present there would be exposed to significant quantities of smoke.
The regulations may provide for such places, or places falling within the description, to be smoke-free only—

in specified circumstances,
at specified times,
if specified conditions are satisfied,
in specified areas,or any combination of those.

5 Vehicles

The appropriate national authority may make regulations providing for vehicles to be smoke-free.
The regulations may in particular make provision—

for the descriptions of vehicle which are to be smoke-free,
for the circumstances in which they are to be smoke-free,
for them to be smoke-free only in specified areas, or except in specified areas,
for exemptions.

The most important point is that the requirement to do so for any "place" includes the need that there be a significant risk whereas there are no requirements for vehicles at all. So a simple Statutory Instrument that can only be approved or rejected by Parliament, and is traditionally given the nod by the House of Lords, is all that is required to ban smoking in every vehicle in this country with no requirement to justify their inclusion.

Stalking as an offence

2011-11-14T13:16:00.000Z

The news is that Stalking is to be made a specific offence. As it stands it's not but every newspaper seems to have cribbed the definition from the Crown Prosecution Service as a

long-term pattern of persistent and repeated contact with, or attempts to contact, a particular victim

which should ring alarm bells for the use of the word victim which is prejudicial. So besides that this is a good thing right? Possibly depending on how well the offence is phrased. Consider for instance a debt collection agency trying to obtain money from a 'victim' on behalf of their client - would their "long term pattern of persistent and repeated contact" be classed as stalking under a new law?

As it stands there is already a Protection from Harassment Act so why does stalking need to be specifically added? In principle it doesn't as the PHA covers stalking simply by being

a course of conduct;
which amounts to harassment of another; and
which the defendant knows, or ought to know amounts to harassment of another.

How is stalking not covered by that? Well what if the person isn't directly contacting them - by stalking the general consensus may be that they're following a person around and spying on them without any direct contact. Is that covered by the PHA? Well yes in two ways it's still a course of conduct which amounts to harassment and may be:

a course of conduct;
which causes another to fear that violence will be used against him; and
which the defendant knows or ought to know will cause another to fear that violence will be used against him; and
the defendant ought to know that his course of conduct will cause another to fear that violence will be used against them if a reasonable person in possession of the same information would think that the course of conduct would cause the other so to fear on that occasion.

So to recap if someone is repeatedly contacting or trying to contact someone - that's harassment and covered by the PHA; if they're simply following them around that could be a "cause to fear [...] violence" and is also harassment.

If they're neither of these things then they're simply being a nuisance from the point of view of the 'victim' and why should the law be getting involved in that if it's not a public nuisance?

There's no need to add new laws and definitions if the existing laws already cover it. In this instance why should stalking be classed as being any different from repeated harassment?

Game Workshop's customer service

2011-11-14T09:04:00.000Z

One of the things I've always liked about Games Workshop is their level of customer service; as someone (I think it was Dan) pointed out they get a lot of their custom from word of mouth rather than scattershot advertising.

I ordered some of their Print on Demand books from the Black Library back in May; now the thing with PoD books is they tend to take a while to be delivered and are often packaged separately. So the books came and I was happy.

I'm now re-reading the Horus Heresy set and during Flight of the Eisenstein looked up some background reference on one of the protagonists. This led to a memory that there had been some books in relation to his future. A trip to the Black Library site and I found the book. It seemed familiar and I went to add it to my wishlist so I wouldn't forget it. "But haven't I already done that?" I thought.

I checked and it wasn't there "But I only remove books from the list when I buy them" this led to me checking my order history. Lo and behold it was one of the books I'd ordered back in May. "But I don't recall reading that" I checked amongst all my GW books and then all the others (which took some time) and couldn't find it. I located the original delivery note and discovered it was supposed to have been packaged up with another book which I did have. But I recalled that when that book had arrived it had done so by itself.

I called Black Library; gave them the order number and they'll get another sent out to me no problem.

Seriously six months after the order and they didn't bat an eyelid.

Discrimination Part 2

2011-11-11T13:46:00.001Z

I've already shared my thoughts on discrimination, how some laws meant to stamp it out may have create more of it or have other harmful effects; and why pointing this out doesn't mean you're on the side of the racists.

However the topic has raised itself once again with a statement made by one of our Councillors and the reply from another. In essence Councillor A said something racist and Councillor B responded with the equivalent of "That's racist!". On the surface that might seem fine, I don't think it is and I find it worrying that people may consider that by itself that this is just fine.

My pointing this out has led to the "biannual spat" between myself and Gobby Robby which as I've said in those comments I welcome because I hope it's making people think about their views (see also my conversations with the Bratii). My first comment on the page was to point out what wasn't said and that was the racist comment was untrue. Now again I think this is an important omission and I've tried to explain why in the comments; but as that's all in spread comment form I'll collect my points here.

I'll start with my main fear and that's displayed by how a simple question is answered - If I make a comment (negative or positive) about an ethnic group that's factual and demonstrably true is it still racist?

If the answer is yes then I consider this to be a problem. Research into various ailments that only effect certain groups may become suspect; anything that asks why certain groups are different from others becomes non-discussable; and unlawful incidents that are prevalent amongst certain groups become unsolvable.

If the answer is no then it's up to the person making the statement to show that what they've said is based on fact. Yet time and again they seem to be let off this task because of what I consider the knee-jerk response of "That's racist". As soon as that gets said first it sets the entire tone of the discussion and results in everything being dealt with at an emotional level. Why do I think this is a problem?

Problem 1: Emotions are easily manipulable.

Get a crowd worked up and they won't stop to think about whether anything they're being told is right or wrong they'll simply go with the flow of their own preconceptions.

When this happens it can do so to both sides of the coin to both those making the racist comments and those opposing them. But stop; we on the opposing side (and yes I include myself) should be better than them. We shouldn't just be firing back the same type of arguments they use we should be using better arguments and to me that means not starting with emotional arguments because:

Problem 2: Emotions are subjective.

That means there is no real right or wrong to them. Without a complete experience swap there's no way of stating that you're wrong in feeling that and I'm right in feeling differently the result is the childish "Are no! Am too!" and that's due to:

Problem 3: Polarisation.

We like binary arguments - simple yes/no's and that lends itself to taking sides. This is where aphorisms such as "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" and "You're either with us or against us" come from.

We insist on an all or nothing approach and as such whenever someone on our 'side' points out problems in what's being done suspicion is levelled at them that they're on the other's 'side' - "If you don't like the way we do things go and join the others". Expressed like that without a context I hope you see how immature that expression is. But it persists because:

Problem 4: We're generally not having an argument to discover what's right or wrong, but to win.

And this is why I despise knee-jerk reactions. Because once they've been uttered the person doing so will do almost anything to justify what they've said. This is what leads to the type of behaviour we see where someone will still proclaim their innocence despite having video evidence of the action and signed confessions from everyone involved because they started out by saying they're innocent and by God they're going to win that argument.

So does cutting out the emotional arguments and dealing only with the facts work? No; we still have all the emotional baggage attached as above - A store keeper who's constantly being robbed by black people complains about all "the black criminals". Tell them that the facts show that there is no discrepancy between the ethic groups committing crimes and they won't believe you because look they're always being robbed by black people. (substitute any racial/ethnic group for the same effect)

What starting from a factual base allows is to point out that this is just an emotional argument. That in this case their argument is based solely on their own personal experience yet they're applying it to everyone as a universal - "I'm being robbed by black people; thus everyone is being robbed by black people"

That's the beauty of doing this. If you start off down this route then those you are arguing against are either forced down the same route or have to try to switch the field to dealing with emotions which in this context hopefully will appear an obvious tactic to those watching.

So why do I try to start out with a factual basis beyond that I consider it to be the most effective method to crush racism? Because once the emotional field is drawn up any attempt to shift over to the factual one leads one to be dismissed as being cold-heartened etc. A shift from a factual basis to an emotional one is obvious and amusingly a detriment to those seen as attempting it as an obvious ploy; a switch from an emotional basis to a factual one is nigh-on impossible.

As a result those who know,or suspect, that the facts aren't on their side will always try to start off with emotional arguments and the sooner an attempt by the opposition is made to shift it to factual the better. If you know the facts support your argument then start with them.

To return to the specific. In the article originally linked to we've had two councillors and two who want to be in power commenting on this and not one of them has stated that the original allegation is untrue. Now as was pointed out by Neil (and applauded by me) why should they have to provide proof that it's untrue shouldn't it be the allegation that needs to be proved. Yes it should be except up to that point no-one asked for it to be or even pointed that out instead it was the simple knee-jerk of the "That's racist!" or "You can't say that!" .

The first thing out of the respondent's mouth should have been a challenge to prove what was said was true. Bam straight onto the factual field and putting the pressure on the person making the allegation. As we all know there are no facts to support this they'd either have to apologise (see Problem 4) try to switch the field (see my point about how we treat that attempt) or try to bend the facts to try to fit their argument (a la Problem 4 with the same results as trying to switch the field) Slam-dunk they're destroyed.

So why didn't this happen?

I laid out some possibilities as to why in the comments. To rehash them.

1. The allegation was so obviously wrong no need to demonstrate its falsehood was required.

Which as a mindset for someone supposed to be representing us (or one who wishes to) I find that very scary. What they may consider obvious we might not, but hey they're not going to explain it because it's obvious.

2. They know the facts, but prefer to argue using on the basis of emotion.

I find this condescending. That somehow we won't be able to understand the facts so there is no point in using them.

3. They don't know the facts.

So what gives them the right to weigh in with a definitive option? If they don't know, find out; they're supposed to be representing us if they don't want to deal in the facts how good at their job are they?

4. They think/know that the facts won't support them so they don't use them.

So they're condescending cowards trying to score cheap political points by going with the consensus.

As always these are my thoughts on the matter and I don't pretend that I'm always right or heck hold firm that my position on the way to argue is the best. I'm presenting my arguments and it's up to you to decide for yourself and/or to present your own arguments for or against me.

Terrorism ban failure

2011-11-11T13:24:00.000Z

Muslims against Crusades became a proscribed group as from midnight last night. This is all part of the attempt to ban groups that glorify terrorism or to be precise that Parliament consider to be glorifying terrorism.

But they were already banned when they called themselves Islam4UK, but they too were already banned back when they were called Al Ghurabaa which in turn was already banned when they were called Al-Muhajiroun.

Oh yes it's good to see that this ban is having such a real effect on stopping these groups.

Windows 7 duplicate running programs

2011-11-10T16:03:00.000Z

So while running Windows 7 on the new computer up popped a message noting that one of the first actions upon starting was to run Outlook 'Would you like me to set it up so this programme starts automatically?' it asked me. "Yeah why not?" I said thinking that it would simply add it to the Startup folder designed specifically for this action. Well it didn't do that, but I don't really care.

So why am I even writing this? Well I've got it set-up to update during lunch rather than 3am so on occasion I'll return to find it's restarted. So far so what? Well it seems that because it's restarted it runs the start-up programmes, which includes Outlook However because it also shut itself down while programmes were running it tries to restore its original state, which includes restarting Outlook.

The result is two copies of Outlook running.

Clever :-)

Rage PS3 Review

2011-11-10T14:40:00.001Z

Once long ago Borderlands was promoted as a realistic shooter before Gearbox decided to go all cel-shadey and throw a ton of fun at it. But consider an alternative universe where they decided to stick with their original plan - and lo we get Rage.

If you played Borderlands but thought "I'd like a bit more meat to this" or if you played Fallout 3 but thought "I'd wish this was a bit simpler" then Rage happily occupies that middle ground. This isn't necessarily a good thing though. If we treat the gaming landscape as Florida then Borderlands is DisneyWorld with al the thrills; and Fallout 3 is the residential homes where you can retire and redecorate your house. Rage is the swamp.

The only thing I can think of is that someone at id, famous for their shooting games, suddenly realised that these sandbox type games were currently in fashion and so had better make one sharpish. As such you get the standard linear levels you'd expect from a shooting game; but this time with 10 minutes of travelling to reach each one. This is a feeling that is reinforced by the quest system and the loading system.

Quests are simple - talk to a person; they'll tell you to do something. At which point it's a case of following the guideline on the mini-map to the destination; completing the task and then following the guideline on the mini-map back. If you decide that you want to return to that area - well I hope you remembered the way because there's no map or signposts. There's no way of selecting a completed quest so as to return to that area. Sure there are some areas to discover and you're always harassed by bandit vehicles so it's not a purely boring slog back and forth, but for me there was always a feeling that unless this was the quest destination I shouldn't be touching it

Loading times are also a discouraging factor -to enter the race or mail delivery challenges requires a load to Wellsprings then a load into the challenge area then a load back out or a load to retry.

For anyone used to the flowing vistas of Arkham, Fallout, or inFamous this is comedical. I essentially raced only when I had to not because I didn't enjoy the races, I did, but because it required such a huge time-investment. When a quest appeared that was going to force me into a race I didn't think "Yippee those are fun!" I thought "Oh that's annoying". Not a thought developers want to hear.

Perhaps the loading screens are justified thanks to the MegaTexture technology which allows huge amounts of detail. And it's fantastic - when you're standing still. In other words it makes for some great captured screen-shots. In motion it's another story. Turn around and the wall you're standing next to is a blur until finally slowly it resolves back; turn away from the wall and back again and it's a blurry mess once more. It says something that when I got to step outside it wasn't the vista in front of me that drew my attention (a la Fallout) it was the textures that were slowly being drawn in. An excellent display of their speed can be seen here.

So it's not sounding too good so far, but redemption lies ahead because id have done well with what id do well - shooting. Once past the travelling and loading it suddenly picks up. The shooting aspect is by far the best I've seen; aim-assist is loose so it's not a case of simply aiming in the right direction and letting the computer adjust; and the weapons feel right. Best of all is the enemy AI.

Enemies react - they'll retreat, regroup; take cover (which incidentally you as a player can't) they'll duck if you throw something; they'll tumble and roll to avoid fire; they'll stumble if you shoot them. They react as you'd expect they should react. It's exhilarating at times.

If id had released this as a set of linear FPS levels in the manner of their previous this would be excellent; but it seems they've tried to embrace the idea of a sandbox without really knowing what one is and it simply lessens the whole thing.

If they patch this to fix the texture streaming and the load times then this is a worthwhile game; as is... not so good.

[Update - and what a disappointing ending. I get given a big gun which I think "ah-hah there's going to be a big boss so I'll save my ammo for this" go through the level with pop-rockets and dynamite bolts and then... that's it.

Effing MobileMe

2011-11-09T15:06:00.000Z

So as mentioned MobileMe decided not to like one of the passwords. That fixed and everything seemed fine until I noticed there was no icon in the system tray. That's because it had turned off all the synching - which is the entire point of the MobileMe control panel.

So I turned on synching at which point it started to sync the contacts while complaining that it couldn't sync the calendar because the login was incorrect. Um excuse me how can you sync one set of data, but not the other.

I checked the version of the control panel 1.6.6 and checked for the latest version... 1.6.7 ah perhaps that will make a difference. One download later and an attempt to install. Oh I can't install it because it requires the latest version of iTunes. One massive download later and now everything is working again.

So to summarise - it locked out the password without warning, turned off the functionality of the calendar for a previous version with no explanation and then demanded the installation of the latest version of a programme we don't use.

Oh yes Apple are indeed the slickest and most user-friendly of companies.

MobileMe can't sign in

2011-11-09T11:06:00.000Z

Although we're now supposedly into Apple's iCloud it's still technically in Beta and as such we're currently sticking to the proven MobileMe.

Or at least we were until it stopped being able to sign in. Correct Apple ID, correct password what's going on. Having reset the password I can only guess - Apple have changed the criteria for the make-up of the password and the old one didn't correspond in one detail. As such I'm guessing that despite being correct it wasn't passing the parse test and was thus being rejected.

Either that or they're having some fun with migration.

Batman: Arkham City review

2011-11-08T13:48:00.001Z

In short if you enjoyed Arkham Asylum chances are you're going to like this. There are difference though which may put off some or even encourage those who disliked the original to try it.

The first major difference is the scope of the playing area. The majority of Asylum was spent within buildings with the odd venture into the gardens when travelling between them. Now it's as if the gardens are huge... and covered in buildings... and water. There's still a lot of interior work, but transition now integrates better within the game particularly with the side-quests.

Side-quests are the second major difference. In Asylum the story was linear with the only off-piste jaunt being to track down the Riddler Trophies and Puzzle solutions. In City there are multiple side quests that occur within the city itself - some of the prisoners are being assassinated; Zsasz is up to his old tricks; someone's keeping an eye on you etc. None of these have to be done but they're a nice addition that doesn't clutter up the main quest log in the same way that Fallout and Dead Island can. Oh and the Riddler's still up to his old tricks, but he's pulled out all the stops.

Riddler's trophies are the third main difference. His puzzles act in the same way as they did in Asylum, find the incongruous item and snap it, but the trophies have moved away from simply being in hard to spot/reach areas - now you have to work for them. Although some still are left just lying there the majority are protected and only a head-scratching use of the gadgets or moves available will unlock them.

This then leads to the fifth and final main difference the gadgets and moves. The basic combat set hasn't changed and is still a flowing delight, but there additional moves that function against certain new types of enemy; and there are new gadgets (and new functions of old ones) which can be deployed even more smoothly in the heat of combat.

Then there are the small touches. Travelling is much easier with the Grapnel Boost (which has to be earned) that allows a gliding Batman to pull himself up to a ledge and catapult himself off it. The Dive move allows him to pick up speed and pull up both of these allow travel across the entire city without the need to ever land.

The Cryptographic analyser now works with passwords by matching one half of a word to another allowing for multiple attempts. The Riddler doesn't leave Maps around, but you can Interrogate the flunkies who set them up provided you don't knock them unconscious first. Oh and due to the size enemies re-spawn in locations so there's never a case of beating everyone up and then gliding through a ghost town.

In essence Arkham City is Arkham Asylum made better which is pretty amazing given how good the first game was.

Water pipe ownership part 3

2011-11-07T13:12:00.001Z

I did receive a reply to my reminder regarding the transfer of the water pipes. Sadly though it was that sewerage companies already have rights to protect against building near such pipes.

Well yes building near a sewer requires permission from the owner; which previously was often the same as the owner of the land... not any more.

One small benefit was a link to Ofwat I didn't previously have which gives me the information that this is all being done

under the Water Industry Act 1991

and indeed checking on that and digging up the point about adoption of sewers

102 Subject to the following provisions of this section and to sections 103, 105 and 146(3) below, a sewerage undertaker may at any time declare that—
(a)any sewer which is situated within its area or which serves the whole or any part of that area;F1...[F2
(aa)any lateral drain which communicates or is to communicate with a public sewer which—
(i)is so situated or serves the whole or any part of that area; and
(ii)is vested in that undertaker; or]
(b)any sewage disposal works which are so situated or which serve the whole or any part of that area,
shall, as from such date as may be specified in the declaration, become vested in the undertaker.

But that just pushes the question back one Act. The government do not own these pipes and therefore under existing legislation have no right to transfer ownership of them or indeed allow anyone else to claim ownership of them.

I now await another reply

Mark Garnier newsletter

2011-11-02T19:23:00.000Z

It seems posing a question by email to our local MP signs one up to receiving his newsletter. As such the October 2011 appeared in my inbox. I have no problem with this and I can always ask to be removed. So what news does our representative have for us?

Kidderminster is not going to become a site for a British enterprise zone, however we are getting

a planning order signed to encourage a speeding up of the planning process to enable new business to relocate to Kidderminster more quickly.

So is anything to do with the Local Development Order which

would allow the fast tracking of planning processes for future development

and was created by the District Council via an Act under the Labour government in 2004?

The Gypsy etc. sites also make the 'front' page as Mark's received "hundreds of emails and letters". I note he's not challenging the sites that have been chosen for us to choose from merely the number of pitches that Wyre Forest is required to have. At least he makes clear he has no authority in this matter and thus asks that any who contacted him also do so formally to the WFDC site, which incidentally requires you to login to use.

Some pure news in that by next Autumn Kidderminster is looking to get the same ultra-fast broadband that should be going live in Stourport next Spring. Makes sense if they're already adding the infrastructure to Stourport.

On the 'back' page we can read Mark's view on Europe. Pretty much a rehash of Dave's - it's good for us, but parts are bad for us. No mention on the referendum or how he voted and why.

A logical snippet regarding the boundary review and having Hartlebury included within the Wyre Forest district. If we're going that far I'd also like to point out the incongruity of having Astley and Dunley in Malvern.

Finally some pictures of all the things Mark's been doing for us... one quirk of the English language though regarding the Family Intervention Project

which offers vital support to problem families

Is that families who are having problems, families that are causing problems, or a mixture of both?

Greek Bailout Part 3

2011-11-02T19:03:00.002Z

It may be political posturing, but at least Greece's Prime Minster George Papandreou is displaying some backbone. Allegedly his calling for a referendum was never mentioned as part of the bailout deal and has caught out other countries leaders as well as the markets.

Personally I think this says much more about them than they intended. I mean putting this to the public after all the important people have decided the matter already! Who does this guy think he is - some sort of elected official whose power derives from the people and who is supposed to represent their will?

Doesn't he know the public are all drooling idiots who need to be told what's best for them. I mean it's bad enough they get to vote for their leaders, but to let them have a say in what those leaders actually do that could affect the entire country over a long term period is utter madness.

Next thing you know he'll be turning this referendum into a full blown question about staying with the Euro and what sort of example will that set for the much better run countries?

Gang warfare

2011-11-01T08:56:00.000Z

And so I see that it's the turn of this government to tackle 'anti-social behaviour' focussing on gang culture. Apparently this is a move prompted by the riots, which is amusing as the official analysis stated that gangs didn't play a pivotal role in those disturbances.

But hey when have politicians ever let facts get in the way of policy?

However this pressure on gangs introduces an important question - What is a gang? According to the BBC story the government are defining a gang as

loose groupings of young people involved in criminality, defending their "territory" and fighting with other gangs.

So Party MPs then? Perhaps not so young, and their grouping is more formal rather than "loose", but involved in criminality (expense claims?); defending their territory and fighting with other gangs (need I give examples?).

Yup they kind of fit the definition and as such it's important that authorities intervene lest a young member of this society becomes ensnared by these so called 'Parties'.

The EU referendum

2011-10-31T13:58:00.002Z

A little late too the EU referendum party, but so what it deserves to be kept in the spotlight. Not necessarily the 'rebels' in the Conservative Party, but that Nick Clegg stated in 2008 that:

"Nobody in this country under the age of 51 has ever been asked that simple question."

No! No-one in this country has ever been asked that question. The vote in 1975 was whether we wanted to join the Common Market it was about trade and economy not politics. No one in this country has ever voted directly to join the EU.

The second point is to remember the Eire EU Constitution vote. Everyone recall that? It was supposed to take place in 2005 or 2006 but never happened after the French and Dutch public rejected it. As all member countries needed to agree the constitution was dropped never to be heard from again.

Well at least until it was reformed as the Treaty of Lisbon which contained many of the same elements but amended rather than replaced the old treaties.

This time the people of Eire got to vote and rejected it and as again because everyone needed to agree it was dropped never to be heard from again.

Until the next year when they asked the public if they'd changed their minds and this time they voted for it.

Why is this an important thing to know? Because the EU referendum debate was triggered by public petition. So all those who think that the public has the right to decide for itself how and where our laws are implemented should simply ask again. If people still care they'll get enough votes and they can keep on doing this until they don't or the politicians finally accept what democracy means - People Power.

Orange Care

2011-10-28T13:55:00.008+01:00

Letter to the office:

Your mobile phone is currently protected by Orange Care, which means that you can avoid the hassle of replacing it if it's lost, stolen, damaged or develops a fault.

Okay

We wanted to take this opportunity to remind you of the benefits you receive with Orange Care and advise you of some changes to your Orange Care agreement which will come into effect on 5th December 2011.

Ah the old carrot then stick approach. Okay I'll pass on the carrot what's the stick?

The term 'Admin Fee' applicable in the case of a successful claim will now be called an 'Excess'

Presumably because they've had trouble justifying £15 worth of admin fees?

The amount of the 'Excess' that is payable on successful claims will change from £15 to £50

Ah so they definitely can't justify £50 of admin fees. Of course we can just cancel, but woof that's a hell of a jump.in prices.

Foggy

2011-10-28T08:54:00.000+01:00

Visibility down to 200 yards in places and people driving around with no lights on. "Gosh I'm in a Silver/White/Grey car driving through the fog I wonder if people can see me clearly perhaps I should switch on some form of illumination? Nah I'm sure they can see me"

Warhammer 40k: Space Marine review

2011-10-27T13:21:00.009+01:00

I'm a fan of the Warhammer 40k setting and as such there's a lot going on in this game to tickle my fancy; sadly if you're not a fan there's a lot here that just doesn't work.

In concept this is a formulaic shoot/hack third person affair and if you've played one then you've pretty much played this. If things had been left there then that would have been okay; of course they weren't.

Space Marine as a game doesn't seem quite sure what it is. Control-wise on the console it's a standard shooter - left stick to move, right stick to look/turn. Shoulder buttons to fire, reload, aim and throw grenades all the controls to fight based around the positions of the fingers on the controller. As is the norm switching weapons is via the d-pad which means sacrificing a moment of movement; which is fine. The problem lies with the face buttons.

Square to hit; Triangle to stun; Circle to execute and Cross to evade/combat roll - all melee combat. However to use the face buttons means sacrificing turning ability. Again this wouldn't be a problem if melee was an option of last resort - something one finds oneself performing having missed a target with a weapon or having wasted ammunition.

Melee combat is the only method of regaining health.

Against a single enemy - fine; against the group charging towards the player - not so fine. Hit a character on the left and the only way to hit one on the right is to move in that direction - which would be okay if the camera stayed positioned over the shoulder. Except that's what the right stick is for - the one being sacrificed in order to use the face buttons.

As the player will often be facing a crowd of enemies coming from all directions, but also shooters hanging back I found myself often dying from a wound coming from an enemy I didn't know even know was there because I couldn't turn around to see them.

Given the inability to see during melee combat it also grates that it's possible to get stuck on scenery or the non-playable characters. It's easy to be surrounded and stuck in a group that it would be possible to bash one's way out of if it were possible to just face in that direction.

It gets worse with the jet-packs as lift is assigned to the Cross button. Let go and the player starts to fall and can't restart the jets until they land. This means that once in the air it's impossible to turn around and direct movement towards enemies.

On top of that is sheer repetition. Sure later on there's different enemies to shoot, but even then it's the same thing every time - those with weapons hang back and shoot, those without charge.

Annoyingly the game isn't too bad apart from that - atmospherically it matches the setting though why the stick-up-the-arse Ultramarines were chosen as the playable character over more interesting Chapters (the Viking-style Space Wolves, the fire toting Salamanders, the paranoid Dark Angels) I don't know. Weapons have a convincing heft to them and the Space Marines themselves thud convincingly along and even require time to slow down from running. It sounds daft, but after dropping from a ledge it was a pleasant sensation to be able to feel my compatriots dropping down behind me rather than having to turn around to check their positions.

The game engine runs along nicely though I've had a few pauses while it loads up the next area and a couple of clipping errors with enemies getting stuck in scenery. Graphically it's fine, nothing outstanding with textures loading up quickly. One major annoyance is that it has a tendency to reset weapons when reloading from scratch. Die and the game loads up from the last checkpoint with the same weapon-load and ammunition count. Restart and I can find myself with a Chainsword and Melta rather than the Power Axe and Vengeance I last had equipped. Breaks the continuity.

A fan can overlook the flaws because this truly is playing as a Space Marine, something we've wanted to do for so long now; non-fans may wonder what the fuss is about.

All in all this is an unforgiving game where dying is easy and often, but frustrating when the blame for such can often be laid at the feet of the game mechanics.

A near miss

2011-10-27T08:53:00.000+01:00

Nearly rammed the back of a car in Vale Road this morning. Driving along in the third lane with no-one behind me and only the one car ahead. As we approach Mitton Close and the entrance to the car-pack they suddenly hit the brakes and start indicating to turn down it.

As always I'd left enough room to account for such sudden manoeuvres and simply slowed down to give them enough time to turn. At which point they pulled up into the turning blocking half my lane. They had stopped to pick someone up who was standing where so many stand at the entrance to the turn.

Fortunately as mentioned there was no-one behind me and just as fortunately no-one in the second lane.

I swear people don't think. Do the turn and stop a little further on, then turn around in the car-park don't just bloody stop.

The Political climate

2011-10-26T13:22:00.000+01:00

I've mentally noted this before, but there seems to be an attitude amongst some politicians local and national whenever it comes to having to ask the great unwashed public their opinion on something and I'm not just talking about not trusting us to answer 'correctly'.

Yes I know some people hate my analogies/metaphors but tough ;-)

A prisoner has been sentenced to death and is asked how they'd like to be killed - death by stoning or death by oxen (being pulled apart by such). He picks stoning as he thinks it likely to be the quicker and less painful method.

As he's led to the stoning arena he passes what appears to be a hospital room with a single dentists type chair in the middle.

"What's that?" he asks of his guard
"It's the lethal injection room. You get given a dose of poison and just fall asleep and die" his guard replies
"That sounds much better than stoning can I die like that please?" begs the prisoner
"But you chose stoning" states the guard
"But I didn't know that this was an option" cries the prisoner
"That's your problem not mine" states the guard. "You should have asked; or at least researched all the available methods of death before picking one"

Water pipe ownership part 2

2011-10-25T13:27:00.000+01:00

Although I've been updating the original entry as this has been going on for some time I think the latest non-information deserves a new entry.

As a brief recap we'd reached the point where the government is transferring property from one private owner to another and I'd asked exactly what right they had to do that.

I mean if the government was transferring some of its property it would expect to be paid for it; and if the government was taking land it would pay the owners. In this instance property is being transferred and the owner is the one being expected to pay for that privilege.

Given that it's been two months since this was being looked at I popped off an email and very quickly got a response that HM Land Registry have yet to get back with any concrete information.

So yeah the government has enacted legislation which came into force at the beginning of this month without checking first to see if they can actually legally do what the legislation entails.

Good old politics.

Photograph colour casts and perception

2011-10-24T18:13:00.000+01:00

I've covered this briefly before, but having finally managed to watch the Horizon show regarding colours and having to explain the concept to my godparents I think it's worth looking at again.

One of the main problems with digital photography is taking a shot, looking at it and then stating "But why is it so orange/blue/red when it clearly isn't like that when I look at the scene in front of me?" The short answer is - because that really is what the scene looks like and the camera is correctly reproducing it.

If a person was to walk into a room with overly blue lighting they would not be surprising that objects in that room possessed a blue hue; yet take the same person outside and take a photograph underneath the clear blue sky and they'd express surprise that things have an overall blue cast; because, after all, it doesn't look that way to them.

This is due the processing performed by our brains - in the case of the outside our brains know that the light is blue and adjusts our perceptions accordingly to re-balance all the other colours. This happens without our knowledge and so seamlessly we don't even notice.

So take a photo outside and the light is blue and everything acquires a blue cast; take a shot inside and everything may turn orange (or more yellow) because that's what colour light is being thrown out by the lamps. We don't notice it because we've filtered it, but the unprocessed camera just sees what it is there.

As this is a known 'problem' most cameras will try to adjust for lighting conditions; the camera will detect a prevalence of a colour and re-adjust the others to compensate. Sometimes it can do a good job; sometimes it doesn't. When it doesn't it's time to delve into the settings for something called "White Balance".

Most of the time this is set to Auto, but if that worked there would be no need to be looking at these settings. Depending on the camera or just how snooty it is there may be some presets such as Daylight, Tungsten, or Fluorescent or a temperature range using which the user is supposed to assess the temperature of the light (presumably using a temperature reader. Much easier is a custom setting - point the camera at something known as being white and tell the camera "This is white".

To get the best from this it's important to make sure the white object is in the same sort of lighting as the scene you want to take. So not directly under the light source; not in a shadow etc. Do this and the colours of the photo should match the colours as perceived by the filtering software correctly being worked in the human brain.

Now hopefully any reader will spot that the light changes depending on where the photo is being taken so using a white balance as set up inside under artificial lighting can produce quirky results when taking photos outside under natural lights. As such it's important (if a manual one is set) to set the white balance every time the lighting conditions change.

So no blaming the camera, blame your brain.

Tesco shuffle

2011-10-24T13:22:00.005+01:00

Having asked about the Tesco covenant I have been informed that Tesco were restricted to only food stuffs and convenience items however this seems to have been ditched in return for the extra 500 square metres of retail space they 'acquired' in planning in 2009.

So it appears they're not only getting extra space, but are also no longer restricted as to what could be sold in it.

Tesco covenant

2011-10-21T18:16:00.000+01:00

Given that work is under-way at the Carpets of Worth site and Tesco's known propensity to apply for retro-active permission for changes made it's time to make sure all the ducks are in order.

My Tesco tagged articles detail all the planning permissions and site drawings etc. there is however one niggling memory that I can't place.

Someone somewhere (Shuttle/WFA/here!) stated that the new store would be limited in the types of items it could sell - so no clothing section etc. Checking through the documentation and decision notices I can find no such covenants stated.

I cannot locate the originator of this statement; can anyone recall who it was? Was it you? Where did you get this information from?

Batman Arkham City Collector's Edition packaging

2011-10-21T09:01:00.000+01:00

Just out of interest I wonder how many recipients of the Collector's Edition of Batman: Arkham City this morning have already dropped their figurine?

Step 1 - Remove the flimsy plastic film surrounding the transparent obloid box.
Step 2 - Pick up said box
Step 3 - Swear as the contents of said box fall out of the bottom of it.

Yeah it's set up like a display case with the opening flap on the base. If picked up by the sides, like most people would I'm sure, the heavy figurine pops the flap and everything falls out.

Recurrence

2011-10-21T08:56:00.000+01:00

I woke up early this morning to the darkness feeling a little hot and a little thirsty, thought "hum" and closed my eyes. I opened them to find myself standing in a nearby street, but everything was blurry. I realised I wasn't wearing my glasses. Had I slept-walked out the house? I headed back carefully through the blur and avoided the Christmas Carollers at the end of my street. The front door was unlocked and I headed in to the living room where I warned my father about the carollers heading our way and... wait this isn't right.

I woke up.

Still a little hot and thirsty I got up and padded downstairs where my mother had just finished a fruit cake and was insisting I try it as she'd changed the recipe. I said it was very nice but it was difficult to tell because my mouth was so dry and ... wait this isn't right.

I woke up.

Still a little hot and thirsty and in need for a pee I got up and headed to the toilet. Lost in contemplation I reached over to turn on the tap to the sink to run some water for my glass and... wait this isn't right.

I woke up... at least I think I did. That sort of thing really screws up one's notions of reality.

Yappy dog

2011-10-20T15:20:00.000+01:00

Oh for the love of... some bloody yappy dog has started up in a nearby yard sending out a series of yips on a five second on five second off pattern with some odd long pauses to make me think it's finally stopped before it goes off again.

If you know of the toy dogs that yip then backflip then you also now know exactly the sound being made. It's as if this dog was the model for them.

Really doing my head in.

The Subway kiss of life and death

2011-10-20T14:45:00.001+01:00

As I've said before we're pattern seeking creatures in this instance I've noticed that whenever I mention to someone that the Subway in Kidderminster is open it then closes. If I mention that it's closed it re-opens.

Of course there's nothing special about the fact that I'm talking about it, it's a natural progression of a franchise in a new area. Saying that though I now state that it appears open and thus if it suddenly closes again within the week you all know who to blame :-)

Barclay - Joined up banking

2011-10-20T14:41:00.001+01:00

Being an Egg customer my credit card is now being moved over to Barclay. Frankly I wouldn't really care except

a) they've changed my PIN;
b) it now features the VISA contactless system which would allow a thief to buy a slew of £15 products before I noticed it was gone... okay I've just checked it will ask for my PIN "every now and again, for security purposes"; and
c) Along with my card was another missive from Barclay asking if I wanted a Barclay Credit Card.

I've had a look at all the places I can use my wonderful new contactless credit card. At least I tried to look. Using VISA's fantastic map system simply tap in a postcode or town to view such stores.

Excellent except some are in completely the wrong place or have no identifying information and it will only show information within a radius of that location. Tap in "Stourport" and scroll around the map and there are no locations in Kidderminster. Of course there are they just don't get displayed until I tap in "Kidderminster" Gosh yes because I don't travel more than 2 miles away in case I get lost and scared. At least it's easy to see each location oh wait no I have to click on each rather than being able to hover over it.

At least I can use it at "Weavers Wharf Retail Park" which as everyone knows is located on Worcester Road on the way to Hoobrook. Although personally I would prefer to use it at "." in Worcester Street.

Dead Island Tips - Part 5 The Monster List

2011-10-20T10:32:00.002+01:00

It's not all traipsing about the island helping people out and practising skills there are monsters to fight and it always helps to know thy enemy.

Although I've separated them out into types groups can contain a mixture as such it's important to identify the make-up of any group and eliminate the immediate threats first.

[Update - Kicking and lot's of it was a valid tactic; and still can be to get an enemy to back off; however with the latest patch it now costs Stamina to use and thus not as easily spammable]

Walkers

The most ubiquitous of enemies, but don't be fooled by the name Walkers can have a surprisingly turn of speed at times and occasionally even come armed.

Attack Patterns:
Walking towards the player until in range and swinging their arms. Jogging towards the player with an arm back to deliver an overhead swipe. Running towards the player with arms in the air intending to Grapple.
If a Walker remains on the floor and undetected they will grapple when a player draws too close. Armed Walkers will on occasion through their weapon at a player.

Countering:
Kicking, kicking and more kicking. Kicks will interrupt any of their attacks and also cause them to stagger giving time to follow through with a heavier attack. Overhead attacks can be avoided by dodging or stepping back; flailing attacks by dodging. In both cases the Walker will pause after the attack has been played out allowing an easy hit.

Infected

These will be heard more often than before they are seen. Upon spotting a player from rest they will throw back their upper body and scream at the sky.

Attack Patterns:
Sprinting towards the player and knocking into them while flailing their arms.
Warning - Sprinters can often climb over walls and other low obstacles.

Countering:
Timing. A swing of a melee weapon just as an Infected reaches a player will most often take their head clean off in one blow. Kicking will buy time, but Infected recover much faster than Walkers

Thugs

Another that will often be heard before being seen these big Thugs will let out a roar that can be heard from quite a distance

Attack Patterns:
Thugs will slowly move towards the player and produce a mighty swing from either the left or right that can knock a player over in one blow. A faster move is a swipe from left hand, right hand then the left hand again. If both arms are removed a Thug will attempt a head butt.

Countering:
Maintain distance. A Thug is most vulnerable when they roar though their roar is occasionally interrupted by an attack leaving them free to attack quickly in return. Dart in swipe and dart out or simply shoot them in the head. Kicks will only stagger them a little and they quickly recover.

Suiciders

Yet another type that announces their presence with an eerie "Help me".

Attack Patterns:
Just the one - Shuffle towards the player and explode when they get too close most often causing an instant death.

Countering:
Shoot them at a distance or run past them if there's enough room to get clear. The blast from a Suicider will also injure other enemies so taking them out while in a group is beneficial.

Rams

How did they get so large and why are they in straitjackets? Rams will patrol around their patch making grunting noises.

Attack Patterns:
At a distance a Ram will walk towards a player if a clear path exists between a Ram and a player the Ram will let out a short roar and then charge. Connecting will cause the player to fall over. Close up a Ram will lash out with a foot that can also cause the player to fall over.

Countering:
As firearms seem to have little effect; grenades are a distance alternative if they can be caught standing still. If a charging Ram hits an obstacle other than the player it will daze them for a short time leaving them open to a quick attack so standing in front of objects and dodging is a good tactic. Kicking has pretty much zero effect.

Floaters

Found near or in bodies of water floaters are grey and obese. They lurk in silence and keep their distance.

Attack Patterns:
Floaters will shuffle towards a player until within projectile range at which point they'll vomit a flammable blob at the player. Close up they will vomit in a 120 degree arc in front of them. Finally a Floater will take a swing at a player if close enough.

Countering:
Take them out at a distance while dodging the vomit. Otherwise move in close and get behind them while they are arc vomiting and dodge back when they turn for a swing. If a Floater is down when approached running and kicking them will keep them that way to be picked off at leisure otherwise kicking has the same effect as it does on Thugs i.e very little. Floaters are the only type that do not take drowning damage.

Butchers

These death mask creatures seem related to the Infected and will let out a quick screech upon detecting a player.

Attack Patterns:
Like Infected Butchers will sprint towards a player and barge into them while flailing though Butchers are armed [heh] with two sharp bone-sword instead of hands. However close to they will drop back to a Thug like heavier attack of left, right, left and right uppercut.

Countering:
Just as with the Infected a well-timed swipe can cause massive damage to a sprinting Butcher; although not always causing instant death it can at least knock them down. When close dodge their Thug-like attack when they start their sequence and hit them from the rear. Kicking will stagger them but they recover very quickly.

Jason

A hidden Easter-Egg enemy complete with hockey mask.

Attack Patterns:
Sprint at players and hit them with a knife for massive damage.

Countering:
Grenades at a distance. Constant dodging of the swinging weapon and use of Fury. Not to be treated lightly. A worthy candidate for use of the Chainsaw.

Humans

Sadly not all the population has decided to share, with some gangs taking over key installations and attacking any who come near.

Attack patterns:
Humans are always armed some with melee weapons the majority with firearms. Those armed with firearms will slowly advance on a player until taking cover and popping out to take shots. Those with melee weapons will charge at a player and constantly swing their weapon.

Countering:
As they are often encountered in groups and in confined spaces grenades can save a lot of time. Otherwise pick them off at a distance or take cover and then sprint around to smack them down. Kicking has the same effect as on Walkers but they recover slightly faster.

next up weapons and what those modification symbols mean.

Dead Island Tips - Part 4 Advanced tips

2011-10-19T14:49:00.005+01:00

Up to gaining access to the Lifeguard Tower the game covers pretty much all the knowledge needed to complete it, however it does leave a few things either unexplained, with fuzzy definitions; or doesn't mention them until later despite being useful right now.

General tips

If in doubt back-off. Some enemies will lose interest with distance.

Take care of the fastest enemies first. Although a Thug in a group of Walkers may cause the most damage their attacks are often easy to predict or avoid compared to the out of step attacks by the more numerous and nimbler enemies.

On those on which it has an effect Kick Kick and Kick some more. Once down kicking will keep any enemy down and uses no stamina and degrades no weapon. It is quite possible to kick to death a group of 6 Walkers and take no damage in return. [Update - with the latest patch Kicking now uses Stamina; as such it's no longer a spammable attack]

Groups of enemies are obviously susceptible to grenades and Suicider blasts. Less obviously different types are also vulnerable to attacks by other types. For example a Thug or Ram can knock over others and not just the player. Human enemies will also attack non-humans.

Use the environment. Most enemies can't climb, but can still be hit by the player. Check near groups for propane tanks or flammable barrels that can be shot. Lead enemies through infected water or fires, knock them down into water to cause drowning damage; have Rams charge into electrified areas. Dodge behind cans or trees to get a breather and replenish stamina.

Important tips

Don't forget about Fury - use it as often as possible.

Although firearm ammunition becomes more plentiful later in the game firing a weapon will attract the attention of any enemy in the area to the player's location. So only do it when necessary or already surrounded.

Don't use seriously degraded weapons. If no workbench is available switch them out regularly and save the heavy hitters for the tougher enemies.

Heal whenever the opportunity arises.

Combat
All melee weapons wielded have a realistic reach. It is thus possible to hit an enemy at a greater distance with a baseball bat than it is with a short kitchen knife. Distance and timing therefore make a difference.

Blunt weapons can break limbs (and heads). Sharp weapons can amputate them.

Repeated melee attacks build a combo - normally a swing from left to right, a return swing, then an upward swing. Performing such a combo seems to increase damage or critical hit chance with each successful hit.

It is possible to jump sideways to dodge attacks.

It is possible to jump towards an enemy and attack at the same time this includes kicking. Doing so puts more force behind the attack.

It is not possible to kick while ducked, however standing up from such a position will launch a kick that seems lower than normal.

Whilst kicking uses no stamina the special Stomp skill does. [Update - with the latest patch Kicking now also uses Stamina]

No you can't hurt the quest givers no matter how tempting it is after the umpteenth repeated looped dialogue when you pass them.

Exploration

The guide line always shows the shortest navigable path. A shorter path can often be found by jumping over walls etc.

Fences and walls can be stood on and walked along.

Collectables will reappear, crates will refill, locks will re-lock and doors will re-close and jam.

Sadly enemies will also reappear; occasionally right next to where you are standing. [Update - with the latest patch I've not had this happen again]

It is possible to jump off ladders, but it's not recommended as...

A high fall will hurt or kill.

Just because it doesn't appear you can reach the top of something doesn't mean it's not possible.

Some areas will constantly spawn enemies until you leave.

Weapons

Weapons are colour-coded White, Green, Blue, Violet, Orange with orange being the rarest. Despite this a higher-level requirement Violet can outperform an Orange.

An in-game tip is to upgrade weapons before applying any modifications for better performance.

Once a modification is applied it cannot be removed or over-ridden.

Inventory

The player starts with 12 main inventory slots which can be increased to 21 through skill purchases.

Weapons always take up one inventory slot.

Meat bombs always take up one inventory slot.

Alcohol and medi-kits take up one slot but can stack within that slot 10 times; i.e. 12 medi-kits take up two slots one of 10 and one of 2.

Grenades, Deo bombs, and Molotovs take up one slot, but stack up to... more than 10.

Stacking can become a problem, with the inventory showing one stack of 8 and another of 2. Equipping an errant stack and de-equipping it will often fix the problem. Storing items with the character Jin can display this problem as she seems to automatically take the largest amount she can, i.e. having two stacks of 10 and one stack of 3 and trying to store the 3 stack with Jin will lead to the player having one stack of 10 and one stack of 3.

New Game and New Game Plus

A new game can be started at any time by selecting Play and New Game this will save in a new slot.

To switch between games select Play and then the game desired.

Continuing a game that has been finished will place the player at the start of chapter 1 skipping the hotel section. The player will retain their level, skills and weapons as well as collectables and blueprints. Once found Jin will still hold any weapons stored with her

Next up monster types and tactics.

Dead Island Tips - Part 3c The Resort Exploring the Lifeguard Tower

2011-10-18T11:31:00.003+01:00

With everyone safely transported to the Life Guard Tower it's time for a leisurely look around. Talking to Sinamoi sets a new quest - help the others around the station.

Quests

Quests can be seen in the menu screen and come in two main types - at the top in white are the uncompleted quests; at the bottom of the list in grey are the completed quests. Only the white ones are of any real interest and they are split into three types.

The main story quest - Completing this advances the story chapters and can open up new areas.
Side-quests - Not needed to complete the story but can often good rewards for completion
Continuous quests - Never-ending quests. So long as the criteria is met the reward is always on offer.

Marking a quest as active will create a guideline and a goal flag to appear on the maps. Accepting a quest will set it to active; on completion of an active side quest the main story quest will become the active one.

Stuff in the Station

The representation of the station is full of new yellow icons. Once found these will always appear on the main map even when the player is out of range.

Fast Travel

A double arrow. It is possible to travel from any Fast Travel point to other selected Fast Travel points. For example it is possible to travel from the Tunnel FT point to the Life Guard Station, but not from the Life Guard Station FT point to the Tunnel. Fast Travel within the same area is instantaneous; Fast Travel between areas will require the game to load up that area.

Trading

This icon appears to be either a fan-spread of money or cards. Buy or sell items here - it is inadvisable to sell any of the non-weapon pick-ups unless the cash is absolutely necessary as they are used in weapon modifications.

Car

Not appearing yet, but as a reward for completing a quest that can be found in the station, drivable vehicles will appear on the map as a yellow steering wheel. They will reappear eventually at their original pick-up points if abandoned. All cars have at least four spaces - a driver, a side passenger, and two flat-bed passenger spaces as well as four storage spaces. All passengers can use weapons while in the vehicle. Driving comprises of steering, acceleration and barking (check the manual for exact controls). There are no hand-brake turns; reverse or forward motion can continue even if the opposite control is used; the car will stop almost instantly if the driver leaves.

Enemies can be run over and killed although this nets less experience than killing them 'by hand'; hitting enemies or items will fracture the windscreen until it is punched out. Enemies can still injure anyone in the vehicle.

Next entry - advanced bits not covered.

Dead Island Tips - Part 3b The Resort Quest

2011-10-18T10:34:00.006+01:00

Having rescued Sinamoi he now asks if you can get his key card from his bungalow and open up the Lifeguard Tower for them. A Quest and a Guide line now appear.

Exploration

It is possible to just follow the guide line between quests, but this means missing out on some extras. Some areas of the map are unreachable, some will state that "You are now leaving the Playable Area", some areas are one big physical glitch with transparent textures or invisible walls. For now I'll assume following the guide line.

Speeding about

I dealt with running in the Hotel it certainly helps the character get around, but it uses up stamina which is also required to fight with melee weapons - the only ones currently available. As such running everywhere is not advisable.

Back to the quest

Heading to the bungalows listening is an important thing to do as all the enemies will make different sounds when approached or within range. Knowing what and how many of an enemy are nearby allows adequate preparation. I'll detail the enemy types in a separate entry for the time being assume any prone body may be an enemy and kick it to make sure.

Medicine and Health

All these enemies means that at some point your health will take a knock. Health can be refilled using medi-kits using a control key or, more often, by eating or drinking snacks that are lying around. Any item with health benefits will display a med-kit symbol when the crosshair is directed at it.

Back to the game

Following the guide line will mean passing by pools - enemies can drown. Knock them over into water and they will take damage until they regain their feet. Reach the bungalow and a new icon will appear on the mini-map - a red clutching hand. This icon means there is something that can be picked up to fulfil the requirements of a quest. Red means it's required for the active quest; white for a quest not currently being done.

Collect the key-card and follow the guide line back to Sinamoi who will then direct you on to the Lifeguard Tower along the beach where a congregation of enemies await besieging a guy in a car.

Enemies

A new icon appears on the screen - a skull. As with the hand it's white if part of an unactive quest, red for an active one. It denotes a 'special' enemy to kill normally one that will lead to some type of reward. In this instance killing the infected around the car will allow the occupier to lead the player to the nearby hut in which a workbench can be found.

Workbench

Indicated by a crossed hammer and blade the workbench is the icon to keep an eye out for and will be the most used and visited item in the game. At a workbench it is possible, for a price, to repair, upgrade, or modify a weapon.

Repair - a melee weapon degrades as it's used as indicated by the white encircling line around the weapon icon. A damaged weapon starts to lose any bonuses it may have. Cost to repair is exponential it is therefore cheaper to repair a 10% degraded weapon 10 times than a 100% degraded weapon once.
Upgrade - The majority of weapons can be upgraded four times. Doing so increases bonuses to the weapon's attributes.
Modification - Once a blueprint is found or awarded a suitable weapon can be modified using the non-weapon pick-ups found. This can be something as simple as increasing a particular attribute or imparting some new element such as electrocution or poison. Some blueprints also allow the creation of items such as ammunitions or grenades.

Back to the game

Continue on to the Lifeguard Tower and use the control panel next to the gate to unlock it. Another congregation of enemies appears and a hint about some of the objects scattered around.

Throwing items.

It is possible to throw any weapon; this means of course that the player needs to switch to another weapon rather quickly. Much better to throw one of the objects cluttering up the world in this instance a propane tank. At this point the game states that throwing and shooting propane tanks is a good way of clearing out a group of enemies such as being faced now. This is excellent advice or it would be if it were possible (okay likely) that any of the characters (except Puna) have a gun at this point.

Follow the game's advice and it'll just go clonk. If the player had a gun this would have been automatically equipped once the tank has been thrown ready for it to be shot. Manage to hit one of the group with the tank and it will only do minor damage. As it is the group need to be taken out the old fashioned way.

Back to the game.

Enemies outside finished off time to open the door and to welcome a cut-scene and a new enemy type - thug. Again I'll detail him along with the others in a later entry; for the time being keep away when he starts to swing and dart in for a quick hit when he roars.

Head through the station and clear out the rest, then head upwards and to the radio to call in Sinamoi for another cut-scene leading to a liberated station that can be explored.

Daybreak texting

2011-10-18T09:14:00.000+01:00

I'm normally one for small print, but in this instance my attention was drawn by the interjection of Adrian on the Daybreak show. He had just invited viewers to text comments to the show when I imagine a producer bellowed "Terms and conditions" down his ear at which point he hurriedly read out was had just flashed up on the screen that the viewers had to be 18 and over. So what?

Well it means no-one can text in.

It's possible for me to be 18. It's possible for me to be over-18. It's not possible for me to be 18 and over. It seems pedantic after all we all know what they mean, but it's a poor use of the language particularly when the alternative is just as simple. How did this usage come about? It's all about contractions.

I state that it's possible for me to be over-18, but that wording doesn't match the disclaimer. It simply states "over" this is because it's attached to the previous "18", but the entire sentence has also been contracted. In full it should state "You can text us if you are 18 and you can text us if you are over-18". Laid out in full this now makes sense, however in English we like to remove redundancies and in this case as the subject of the sentence has been made clear in the beginning to be about texting there is no requirement to repeat it. Again though so what so long as it's understandable?

Consider if we took this particular "18 and over" context and used it elsewhere. A fairground ride might state that you need to be "over-18 and over 5'6"" does that mean someone under 18 but over 5'6" can use the ride? No-one would interpret that instruction in that way, yet we are expected to do so for "18 and over".

If I wished to travel to Birmingham and not take my car I could state in full that "I can get to Birmingham by bus and I can get to Birmingham by train" thus "I can get to Birmingham by bus and train". What if I needed to get the bus to the station to catch the train? "I can get to the station by bus and the train to Birmingham" doesn't that mean I am getting to Birmingham by using the bus and the train and can state truthfully that "I can get to Birmingham by bus and train"? Isn't that what I just said? No not if I can't get the bus to Birmingham. Adding a simple "or" clears up any confusion "18 or over" "bus or train" or even "bus or bus and train".

The rule is quite simple "and" is an additive; "or" is an alternative. If I need to be or have all requirements use "and" if I need to be or have only one of the requirements use "or".

The world according to the Bratii

2011-10-17T17:00:00.000+01:00

With the Bratii on Sunday and somehow the conversation migrated to world leaders (I honestly don't recall how). Take into consideration that Minor is fast approaching 10 and Major is 15.

The current UK Prime Minister is...
Minor: "Winston Churchill"
Major laughing: "He was PM during the war"
He shoots me a glance to confirm this and I give him a nod of agreement.
Minor: "Um Hitler?"
Major and I: "Same war" I continue "He was head of Germany"
Minor: "Oh... that means he was the head of Spain then"
Major bursts out laughing and I find my jaw hanging. I turn to Major
Me: "How...?"
Major: "I don't know"
I turn back to Minor: "No he wasn't head of Spain. Okay current President of America?"
Minor: "George... Washington"
Major "I thought he was going to say George Bush then"
Me: "So did I, I was going to be vaguely impressed"
Major: "It's Barack Obama"
Minor: "So who's the Queen of Number 10 Downing Street?"
Me: "You mean who's the Prime Minster?"
Minor: "Noooo who's the Queen of it?"
Me: "There isn't a Queen of Downing Street... there's just the Queen but..."
Minor: "Oh you just don't know"
I give up and turn to Major: "Okay can you name the leaders of each major UK Party?"
He looks puzzled for a second and then asks: "You mean like the Conservatives and the Liberals...?"
I nod
Major: "Okay there's David Cameron."
Me: "Who is a...?"
Major: "Conservative?"
I nod: "And then?"
Major: "Nick Clegg" he says with conviction
I nod "And for Labour?"
He looks thoughtful: "I'm not sure is it Ed..... Balls?"
Me: "Close it's Ed Milliband or if you're watching BBC subtitles the 'Ed Miller Band'"
Major laughs

Later I step out and step back in to find Major laughing:
Major: "He [points to Minor] thinks elves have something to do with Elvis and come from Pluto"
Minor: "Well they do"
Major continues laughing. Time for some fun.
I turn to Major: "So where do they come from?"
Major instantly stops laughing and ponders the question: "I... don't know"
Minor: "Hah!"
I shake my head: "That's not the answer I was looking for"
Major: "I don't know"
Me: "No the answer I was looking for was 'There's no such thing as elves'"
Major looks sheepish: "Oh yeah"
Minor addresses me: "So you don't believe in elves"
Me: "No"
Minor: "But they're real and invisible I know because I've seen them"
Major laughs
Me: "So you've seen these invisible elves?"
Minor: "Yeah"
I try again: "So you've seen these invisible elves?"
Minor: "Yeah on YouTube - they were blue and went poof" hand gestures to accompany.
I turn to Major and he states that he hasn't seen the video
Me: "Oh well if you've seen it on YouTube it must be true"
Major can't stop laughing now.

Minor addresses both of us: "So do you believe in aliens?"
Major: "Define alien"
I mentally applaud him and nod as Minor continues: "From other planets and outer space"
We both pause
Me: "Given the Copernican Principle that we're not special, that the Earth is not special there must be other life-supporting planets out there. Whether they exist at the same time as us and we'll ever get to meet them is a whole other matter as whether we'd even recognise it as life"
Minor: "Like Pluto"
Well life as we know it is damn tenacious so there might be some form of micro-life on Pluto so: "Possibly"
Minor: "Because anyone who lands on Pluto never comes back"
My mouth opens to speak and I turn to Major who gives me a shrug. I turn back, open my mouth again to speak and turn back to Major who gives me a more definite shake of the head. I turn back to Minor: "What?"
Minor: "Everyone who lands on Pluto never returns"
Me: "We've never landed on Pluto. We've not even been remotely near Pluto"
Minor: "Mars?"
Me: "Unmanned probes"
Minor: "I know who was the first person on the Moon"
Me: "Okay"
Minor: "Neil Armstrong"
Me: "Correct and the second man?"
Minor: "Um?"
Major: "Buzz Aldrin"
Me: "Correct and the third person with them?"
Minor and Major: "Um?"
Me: "Yeah I don't know either and I bet most don't" Writing this out I suddenly recall the name of Michael Collins... yeah that's him I was getting IRA tones of the name along with Liam Neeson which was throwing me off.
Minor: "I know who invented the telephone"
Me: "Okay"
Minor: "Bell"
Me: "Yep can you remember the rest of his name?"
Minor thinks for a moment: "Alvin?"
Major laughs but I interject "That's quite close; it's Alexander Graham Bell"
Major begrudging accepts that it was close.
Me: "Strictly speaking he was the one who really perfected it" Check the Reis Telephone
Major: "Oh yeah - who invented it, who perfected it, who stole it - we're doing that at school with the Lightbulb"
Me: "Ah yes Thomas Edison... have you come across Tesla?"
Major with a big grin: "Oh yeah"

Greek Bailout Part 2

2011-10-14T09:07:00.001+01:00

I mentioned that Greece might be able to help itself by cutting import and export taxes or by devaluing its currency (if it were allowed to) and I wake up to find that instead they're increasing internal taxes. This is a short-term solution and not a good one for any country, for Greece it's a joke.

Allegedly tax avoidance/evasion is endemic as such instead of people not paying 20% they'll not be paying 21% instead. To counter this a new property tax will be collected through electricity bills a difficult thing to avoid for property owners. Don't pay the tax on the bill and the power is cut off.

How many will choose to have the power removed and to cook and light their properties with fire? How many businesses that have to use power will simply up and move out of the country? How many illegal splices will be run off the mains cable and the investigators intimidated (or bribed) into ignoring them?

No business is going to start up knowing they're going to facing this tax. No business is going to hire new workers with this overhead.

Greece is just digging a deeper hole for itself.

Christmas

2011-10-13T10:57:00.000+01:00

So I've already noted that Hallowe'en begins on 17th September. I'll now note that Christmas begins on the 1st October.

I'm also glad to note that I'm not the only one seeing this.

Greek bailout

2011-10-13T10:43:00.001+01:00

On the breakfast news this morning a young Greek women stated "We don't want your money we want jobs". Excellent, so you're all willing to work for free then are you?

You see a business can't expand and create new jobs unless they're making enough money to accommodate them. Likewise a new company can't start up and create new jobs unless they know that there are enough people out there willing to pay for their products and/or services.

So if the Greek government wants to encourage new jobs it has only a few options available to it. It can lower taxation on businesses thereby allowing them to retain more money and thus expand their business and hire more people.

Another option is to reduce tariffs on export; make it cheaper to buy from Greece and thus encourage more cash flow into the country.

In both cases the downside is that the government itself loses money from tax revenue and is based on the assumption that the businesses will pump the additional money back into the Greek economy.

A counter would be to increase tariffs on imports. This would have the effect of increasing the price of goods made with imported material; however it could open up new markets within the country itself to provide those goods internally and thus also keep the cash internal too. Due to the low export tariffs such a company may be able to compete more effectively with the external company that used to provide the goods in the first place thus making even more money.

Both of those could work except that Greece is signed up to the Eurozone and thus there is no import duty within the EU. They could create a new tax, but I'd expect them to be reported to the WTO if they tried that.

Instead both these measures could be implemented indirectly by devaluing Greece's currency - as it would no longer be 'worth' as much outside the country imports would be more expensive and exports would be cheaper.

Except it's part of the Euro and thus has no say over its value.

Welcome to the inherent problems of a common currency market.

Oh and before anyone points out that the USA is the same type of system - they have the same problems. Note that Texas received a $1bn agricultural subsidy last year what is that if not a bailout they don't have to pay back?

Pretend each state is its own country that's signed up to a Common Market, Common Currency with Free Trade and movement across borders. Now look at how much each 'country' pays into the system compared to how much they take out.

Knowing the law

2011-10-12T10:44:00.000+01:00

In my entry regarding taking photos Orphi asked

what exactly can members of the public do to avoid being pushed around like this?

I replied that they can stop accepting it by knowing the law; with that in mind here's the basics.

Again first off I Am Not A Lawyer; however the best bit is that no-one needs to be because the basics really are that easy to understand.

The base of law in the UK is that anything and everything is legal unless stated not to be. The law is then split into two main sections - case and statute. Statute law is that enacted by the state, for the UK that would be the Crown via the government; case law is made up of the decisions taken by previous courts.

Both sets of laws can then be dealt with in one of two ways - civil or criminal. Civil is deemed to be between citizens; criminal that between a citizen and the state.

The police can be involved in either types of law, but their powers derive from Statute Law; this defines what they can and cannot do under given circumstances. To take Law A detailing Circumstance A and Law B detailing Circumstance B a police officer cannot use the powers granted by Law A under the circumstances from Law B. In the case of the father taking photos the Prevention of Terrorism Act deals with the circumstances of control orders on specific individuals as this wasn't the case it didn't matter whether the Act gives an officer the power to confiscate property as it did not apply in this instance.

It is also worth remembering that the police are held just as liable under the law as non-police; should the officer in the incident above have taken the phone and/or deleted photos they could be accused of theft and/or criminal damage because they had no right to do so.

Now not everyone can memorise all the laws, however as the police act with powers granted under Statute Law should they wish to exercise such powers a member of the public being confronted with them can ask for the details. The officer is not obliged to provide them, but failing to do so or providing incorrect information could be considered prejudicial to their case

How does this apply to private security? Private security have no additional powers and no additional rights beyond that of the ordinary citizen. They can detain a person if they think they've committed a criminal act, but only temporarily until the police arrive. They can use reasonable force to escort a person from private grounds if they are representing the owner. They can refuse entry to private grounds if they are representing the owner and use reasonable force to prevent such entry. They have no rights to confiscate goods and no rights to search a person or their property.

Quite simple really.

The Wyre Forest Traveller site debacle Part 3

2011-10-11T15:33:00.001+01:00

There seems to be mutterings over the cherry-picking of sites apparently favouring the dominant Conservative council members. To which end I present the five short-listed sites and the ten second-tier sites along with their internal designations and ward locations.

Short-list:

CLO0001 - Yard south of A456 - Clows Top - Rock
FAIR0001 - Land off Lowe Lane - Fairfield - Wolverley
STO0006 - Land off Wilden Top Road - Wilden - Mitton
STO0019 - The Gables Yard - Stourport-on-Severn - Mitton
UUBE - Open land north of Sutton Park Rise - Kidderminster. - Sutton Park

Second-tier sites:

BEW0001 - Land north of Habberley Road - Bewdley - Wribbenhall
BEW0002 - Site at Stourport Road - Bewdley - Wribbenhall
BLA0001 - Former Blakedown Nurseries - Blakedown - Blakedown & Chaddesley
COOK0002 - Land at Lawnswood - Cookley - Cookley
GJAL - Former school site - Kidderminster - Wolverley
KID0011 - Lea Castle hospital site - Kidderminster - Cookley
STO0004 - Land adjacent Nunn's Corner - Stourport-on-Severn - Mitton
STO0018 - Saiwen - Stourport - Mitton
STON0001 - Former depot - Stone - Blakedown & Chaddesley
WR104458 - Redundant farm, St John's Road - Stourport-on-Severn - Lickhill

Selected sites:

BEW0002 - Wribbenhall - Conservative (x2)
GJAL - Wolverley - Conservative (x1)
KID0011 - Cookley - Labour (x1)
STO0004 & STO0018 & STO0019 - Mitton - Conservative (x3)
WR104458 - Lickhill - Independent Health (x3)

As can be seen the selected sites sites 'inconvenience' 6 Conservative councillors (more if we count Mitton three times) and only 4 non-Conservative councillors.

Of the four short-listed that weren't selected the wards and Party distribution is as follows:

CLO0001 - Rock - Conservative (x1)
FAIR0001 - Wolverley - Conservative (x1)
STO0006 - Mitton - Conservative (x3)
UUBE - Sutton Park - Conservative (x3)

of the second-tier not selected:

BEW0001 - Wribbenhall - Conservative (x2)
BLA0001 & STON0001 - Blakedown & Chaddesley - Conservative (x2)
COOK0002 - Cookley - Labour (x1)

So add up all the councillors that had potential sites in their wards counting them only once per area and next to the number of sites.

Short-list:
Conservatives: 8 with 5 sites

Second-tier sites:
Conservatives: 8 with 7 sites
Labour: 1 with 2 sites
ICHC: 3 with 1 site.

All sites:
Conservatives: 12 with 12 sites
Labour: 1 with 2 sites
ICHC: 3 with 1 site

Selected sites:
Conservatives: 6 with 5 sites
Labour: 1 with 1 sites
ICHC: 3 with 1 site

If these sites were being drawn from a hat they'd be 7 Conservative sites listed, but it's not random they've been selected. What is interesting is that of the Conservative dominated short-list only one was selected and of the three non-Conservative second-tier sites two found themselves on the selection list.

Censoring the internet

2011-10-11T09:33:00.000+01:00

Once again we get the message that the government truly doesn't understand the internet with supposed measures about to be introduced to block pornography unless the subscriber "opts-in". This will supposedly be handled at the ISP level. How exactly?

Chances are the ISPs will simply create a black list of sites and prevent content from them. Except that's exactly what the majority of internet-protection software does anyway. Sure one could argue that the parents don't know how to install or configure them, but that's their problem and one they should fix themselves rather than handing off the problem to someone else.

Oh and of course they don't really work. A black list is dependent on being updated and generally gets larger and larger. Blocking an IP address will block any multiple web addressed pointing to it, but providers will switch to dynamic addresses and so both IP addresses and web addresses will need to be maintained which the providers will simply change or forward.

That doesn't even address anonymisers whereby traffic is directed to that site then forwarded on to the requester using the covering address.

Even in a business sense the government appears to be contemplating shutting down this entire branch of software production and potentially putting some companies out of business. After all way would anyone need this type of software when the filtering takes place at the provider's end?

Stamp with FAIL.

Taking photos

2011-10-11T09:22:00.001+01:00

Once again we see the misconceptions over taking photos being applied. This time to the Braehead shopping centre in Glasgow. Sadly like so much it's a case of 'he said, they said' so the exact terms being bandied about cannot be verified, but the context is clear.

Firstly the obvious statement that I Am Not A Lawyer, but the statements I make echo and combine statements made by those who are.

1) "A security guard told him it was illegal to take pictures in the centre" - No it's not. There are certain institutes in which it is a criminal offence to take photographs of (nuclear power stations and the like) shopping centres aren't covered.

The shopping centre is a private building to which the public are invited to enter provided they abide by the terms of the invitation. If a member of the public breaches these terms they can be asked to leave or even banned permanently. In this case it was stated that "there were "clear signs" saying no photographs were allowed.". If this is the case one of the term's was broken.

2) "He said the security guard asked him to delete any photos he had taken from his mobile phone". They can ask, but there is no requirement to comply with the request. If the photographs were taken in breach of terms then no more should be taken, but the ones that have been are the property of the photographer. If photographs were taken of a restricted building deleting them could be considered as removal of evidence.

3) "one officer claimed that under the Prevention of Terrorism Act he was within in his rights to confiscate the mobile phone on which the photos were taken" Incorrect in every shape or form. The PoT Act deals with control orders on individuals; the officer should be quoting from the Terrorism Act which allows an officer to seize and retain any goods "which he reasonably suspects may constitute evidence that the person is a terrorist". In this case that won't apply because the person in question wasn't stopped under a section 44 order which in itself only applies in specifically designated areas.

To summarise - security can ask that photographs not be taken. Anyone who takes or continues to take photographs can be asked to leave the premises. There is no requirement to delete any photographs already taken. Neither security or the police can take any equipment used to take the photographs in these circumstances.

The Wyre Forest Traveller site debacle Part 2

2011-10-10T09:35:00.002+01:00

My father drew attention to something that he read in the Shuttle; not wanting to take either his or their word for it I decided to read the actual Baker Associates Report. Page 28 section 5.16 lists 5

potentially suitable sites for Gypsies and Travellers

these are:

Yard south of A456 - Clows Top
Land off Lowe Lane - Fairfield
Land off Wilden Top Road - Wilden
The Gables Yard - Stourport-on-Severn
Open land north of Sutton Park Rise - Kidderminster.

On page 42 section 8.6 a further 10 sites are added as

having potential constraints, but are considered worthy of further investigation for Gypsy, Traveller and/or Travelling Showpeople either to supplement or replace shortlisted sites in the short to medium term and to provide for long term needs, if required.

They are:

Land north of Habberley Road - Bewdley
Site at Stourport Road - Bewdley
Former Blakedown Nurseries - Blakedown
Land at Lawnswood - Cookley
Former school site - Kidderminster
Lea Castle hospital site - Kidderminster
Land adjacent Nunn's Corner - Stourport-on-Severn
Saiwen - Stourport
Former depot - Stone
Redundant farm, St John's Road - Stourport-on-Severn

As I and others have mentioned of these sites the Cabinet is allowing 7 through for public consultation. They are:

Site at Stourport Road, Bewdley
Former Sion Hill School Site, Kidderminster
Lea Castle Hospital Site, Cookley, Nr Kidderminster
Land adjacent Nunn’s Corner, Stourport-on-Severn
Saiwen, Stourport-on-Severn
The Gables Yard, Stourport-on-Severn
Farm, St John’s Road, Stourport-on-Severn

That is of the 5 sites shortlisted only one is on the public list, the other 6 were listed only for "further investigation" or to replace the shortlisted sites in the "short to medium term". Perhaps any member of the Cabinet would care to make known exactly why four-fifths of the 'proper' list needed to be replaced and given this need what value for money this £17.5k report gave us?

To put it another way either Baker Associates got four of the five main sites wrong for reasons they didn't investigate or they got them wrong for reasons they couldn't know.

Petrol cartel again

2011-10-07T16:00:00.000+01:00

Despite the number of times I and others explain it the price of petrol keeps reappearing in the Letters pages of the Shuttle. So let's try one of the argument again.

Let's assume there is little to no new market in petrol sales. Sure there are those who have just learned to drive, but they're flightly; nice to have but can't be depended on quite yet. Unlike other markets there are few stating "Well I'd buy petrol if only it were a bit cheaper" or "I was planning a long car trip, but what with the price of petrol I won't". As such the core market is relatively static.

With that in mind consider a hypothetical petrol station selling at 135.9p/litre. As we know VAT is 20% and fuel duty is 57.95p/litre the station is getting 55.3p/litre. To make life simple let's consider all of that as profit.

This station sells 2,000 litres of petrol a day and thus makes a profit of £1,106. However a competitor sets up shop and starts selling at 130.9p/litre. The next day our first station realises they're losing 250litres worth of sales per day thus 'only' making £967.75.

Simplistic competition dictates that our first station should lower their prices to match. However customers can be fickle things and in this case doing so would only lure back half the litres lost.

Selling 1750 litres at 135.9p makes a profit of £967.75.
Selling 1875 litres at 130.9p makes a profit of £958.75.

Provided there are no more losses the first station makes more money by keeping the price at the same level and not matching the competition.

The Conservative conference

2011-10-07T14:36:00.000+01:00

I've tried to avoid all thee of them, but the newspapers keep on about them. Once again out of all it what still drives me to a small fury is David Cameron telling the nation that he knows "tough things are". No David you don't "know" you can intuit how tough things are; you can see how tough things are; but you don't know how tough things are. In fact no MP can know how tough things are.

The base salary of an MP is £65,738 per year that's over 2.5 times the median individual full-working wage in this country; using the 2007/08 figures that puts them in the top 5% of tax payers in this country. As Prime Minister there's an extra £132,923 on top of that putting him in the top 1% of this group at £198,661 per year. That's over 7.5 times the median wage.

That doesn't even take into account expense claims.

Stop telling me you know times are tough; you don't.

Tesco

2011-10-06T16:03:00.000+01:00

Okay so I said they had a sign up in Mitton Street stating right hand lane closed and it was the left-hand lane in Severn Road - I was wrong. The lights are on the left, but the actual roadworks are on the right. However all that pales into insignificance because they've now closed off the left-hand lane of Mitton Street in order to demolish the CoW brick wall. There are plenty of signs up though perhaps someone could explain why there need to be ones in the left-hand lane of Gilgal given that this traffic won't be going near them?

Anyway continuance is that the path widening/road narrowing will NOT be happening. However this poses its own interesting question as one of the justifications of Tesco building on this site was due to the link to the town. Now while I'm unsure how dependent this was it's difficult to state that the current connection between the town and the site that was used as a measure of the distance is in any way viable.

So with no route from the town this is going to be mainly car traffic with little to no connect between the two which is pretty much what everyone's been saying. Wow big surprise there.

Dead Island Tips - Part 3a The Resort basics

2011-10-05T14:23:00.003+01:00

Having learnt the basics of the game in the Hotel; it now throws that out of the window. The player revives in a hut with no guide line, no goal flags and no information on what to do next. Experimentation will hopefully lead to trying to leave at which point a new quest point will become available - Find a weapon. Again no guide, no flag. The 'weapon' in question is a paddle by the door.

Weapons

They come in four types - Blunt, Sharp, Firearms and Thown. When looked at each weapon displays a set of statistics applicable to its type. For the Blunt and Sharp that are, or will shortly become, available they are:
Damage - Maximum amount of damage that can be inflicted on an enemy's health.
Force - Maximum amount of damage that can be inflicted on an enemy's stamina.
Durability - Roughly how many times an enemy can be hit before the weapon requires a complete fix.
Handling - The higher the figure the less stamina it takes to use.

As well as this each weapon has a required usage level that the character needs to reach before it can be used. Weapons names may be prefixed with a 'type' such as Flimsy or Strong that indicate bonuses to a particular attribute of that weapon.

In essence the higher the number the better the weapon.

Weapon switching

With more than one 'weapon' it's now possible to switch, in this case between the paddle and fists, using the weapon wheel. Note that use of the weapon wheel does NOT pause the game. The wheel has seven available slots (which become unlocked as the character progresses) and weapons can be equipped into these slots via the Inventory screen.

The Inventory

I mentioned in the Hotel section to grab anything that was found in bags etc because there was no limit to those types of items that could be carried. I made the distinction because there is a limit to the number of usable items that can be carried and that includes weapons.

Once this inventory is full any attempt to pick up an item that requires such space will display a recycle-type circled arrows icon and a "Hold". Doing this will drop the currently equipped item and replace it with the one being picked up. In order to prevent this the player must access the Inventory screen and drop an unwanted item or purchase a skill that provides more inventory slots if such a skill is available at that time.

Back to the game

Weapon found it's now possible to step outside. The character that needs to be rescued is displayed with a circled health bar above their head. If their health drops to zero the quest has failed and needs to be started again. In this instance rescuing this guy means killing those attacking him.

Combat

Point the crosshair at an enemy and use the attack command when they're in range of the weapon. This can be determined by a double horizontal bar appearing above their heads. The red bar indicates their health, the yellow bar their stamina.

If the crosshair is red a weak area (normally the head) is targeted that will result in more damage being inflicted. Repeatedly hitting the attack command while the crosshair is red will build up a combination of attacks that will result in even more damage being inflicted.

Keeping them at bay

A weapon that is always available and doesn't need equipping is the Kick move. Kicking uses no stamina and will cause the enemy targeted to back off slightly. [Update - with the latest patch Kicking now uses stamina, but not as much as swinging a weapon]

A bit too close

If an enemy closes they can grapple. A two part command will appear that requires to be followed in order to push them off.

Hit them while they're down

Once an enemy loses all stamina they will fall over. Hitting them while they are in this position will cause more damage then if they were standing. Hitting any prone enemy will also prevent them from getting up.

Dying

While playing with others it is possible for one of them to revive any other fallen player with no consequence otherwise after roughly 7 seconds the character is respawned at a point close to where they died with a random amount of their money removed.

Back to the game

Person saved it's back to the hut and a new quest to undertake.

The joys of BT

2011-10-05T10:52:00.000+01:00

DaBoss' mother has been getting lousy broadband service; it's not a wireless problem as they've physically plugged it in so at last BT are going to look at the exchange and give her a call today.

I get a phone call from DaBoss; the broadband is still functioning (barely) but the voicelines are dead - no dialtone and ringing in just results in it ringing out as if there's no problem. On it's own this is just a fault to be reported; except for that call which is expected from the exchange engineer.

Now if it's something they're doing at the exchange then it will resolve and they'll be able to call. If it's not they'll call and get no answer and probably file it as such. The logical thing to do therefore would be to contact the engineer and give them another number to use so that if it's not something they're doing at very least one of the faults can get sorted and then we can move on to the next one.

That's not possible. Now I could have the phone line diverted to the mobile; except that won't tell us if the faults fixed and to remove the diversion would require yet another phone call to BT and sitting in yet another queue.

What a mess.