On content creation and piracy

Response to I Loved the Whole ‘Information Is Free’ Thing. Until It Was My Book Getting Stolen…

I think piracy is a result of a disconnect with the producers of that content. Most people I think we can freely admit have pirated something at some point or another, whether consciously, or just accepting a ripped copy of a friends cd. It’s all the same.

Now immediately I don’t think there is a whole lot wrong with this. You either sit in one of two camps. Piracy is reducing the total amount of revenue going to the creator, or the act itself is morally wrong.

I know there are plenty of opposing studies, but I fall on the side that piracy is not reducing the amount of revenue going to the creator, but is a market correction mechanism. It’s easier and cheaper than ever before to create content, more people are doing it, hence cost falls and thus “should” price.

Is the act morally wrong. Perhaps, but that is neither here nor there. We want content creators to survive. And if the argument that piracy is destroying content creators were true, then we should be seeing the decline of new music, movies etc..but the opposite is true. There is more content than ever thus the value of it falls.

In my mind, this actually presents itself as an opportunity. Being an author used to be about selling books. Yes, those books contained ideas, stories, things of actual intrinsic value. But readers were purchasing the physical object overall. Now publishers find themselves getting burned by their own business model.

Thus I have little sympathy for publishers and less for individuals that thought piracy was cool till they themselves were affected. It doesn’t take a genius to think-ahead or have an ounce of empathy. This author’s only allegiance is to themselves.

Piracy can thrive alongside other business models. Taking the humble indie bundle, this is a selection of games that can be found to download for free, tormented and bought for a cent if you so care. However each bundle pulls in millions of dollars. Despite being possible to widely pirate after purchase. This tells me that a product can be widely pirated and successful. It’s in the modern marketing as opposed to selling the product itself. It’s about social responsibility as well as corporate profits.

Something the dinosaur businesses of the world and up and coming authors and content creators should be wise to accommodate on their rise.

Is Microsoft being too complacent with Surface RT?

When Windows 7 arrived, it was hailed as everything vista should have been. Fast, sleek, compatible, productive. The praise from all corners of the tech world was flattering and Microsoft could quite rightly be proud of this, following the sometimes scathing opinion of Windows Vista. Which in my opinion was a little unfair.

So the expectation is that Windows 8 is another Vista, assuming there is a pattern of bad release following good. Subtract the quality of the operating system however, and the bet Microsoft is making here, is strategically unsound.

Being in one of the worse recessions in the modern era doesn’t seem to dampen the attractiveness of expensive Apple products, despite most households having a falling real disposable income. What Microsoft is hoping here, is by releasing a machine similar in price to the iPad, users will either by association think that it’s in the same league, which it isn’t, or that it’s actually a lot more tablet than the iPad for the same money.

So now Microsoft have released pricing and hardware details, what could possibly prevent success? OEM’s for one. In a need to appease them, Microsoft was forced to price the Surface equal or above their partners offerings to ensure their relationship stayed intact under the guise that the unit has to be profitable. Microsoft would like nothing better to get the Surface in the hands of as many consumers as possible this holiday season, but this compromise ensures that to get anywhere near it’s forecasts for tablets sold, it will be by combining market share for all it’s partners.

Finally onto the dirty word that is Win RT. This will NOT go down well with consumers. Word of mouth is that the Surface is essentially a tablet AND a pc, in one sleek package. Use all your desktop software on a TABLET. Win RT is NOT this and it’s not clear whether Microsoft is highlighting this to consumers. For all intents and purposes, this platform is equal to and should run anything an iPad can given developers support. But the point is you need a USP these days with a tablet, and Apple has the most important one. APPS. Win RT has potential in that department, but you’re taking a risk. That you can be happy with just the Metro interface. That developers will create apps for Windows 8. That Microsoft won’t turn your tablet into a piece of hardware for purchasing content and consuming advertising akin to the Kindle Fire HD 7”- With Special Offers. Where advertising litters the interface like Xbox Live, EVEN for Gold users. It’s a risk, that quite frankly doesn’t appear to pay off in the short term.

So I’m pretty sure Win RT will flop. Consumers don’t know enough about it to purchase one. It’s too expensive to buy as a present for a relative. Availability and retail partners isn’t clear. There is a host of competition at the >£200 price brackets, the latest Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 inch Tablet for instance offers a lot of the same experience that the Surface running RT does, at a lower price point. The real battle will be fought with the Surface running Windows 8 Pro which could see success with the ability to run full blown, unadulterated desktop applications. To pre-order a surface now however is a shot in the dark move. Should the tablet flop however, expect a price drop, the touch cover thrown in as part of the basic package, and a voucher for those that have already pre-purchased

Plus did I mention that Microsoft are also launching the new Windows Phones on the same day? Yup, MS seem to think that because people manage to find and pony up hundreds of dollars on the latest igadgets, they can afford to buy a new OS, tablet and phone in the months leading up to CHRISTMAS. The more I think about it, the more I can’t help thinking this is a terrible strategy.

Effectively I think somebody needs to tell MS they aren’t Apple and thus can’t design and price their products as such. <Nice, Paul Thurrot just did> And even Apple knows better than to release every product the company is hinging their relevance on, within a single day week.

Platforms: Can Windows 8 provide a compelling alternative ecosystem?

Windows 8 for a long time in my mind has positioned itself as the holy grail. Whilst I still believe it can achieve that potential, there is doubt in my mind with the imminent retail release that it will be the unifying platform for desktop and tablet users that it wants to be.

To start with Windows 8 has been marketed terribly. Without getting into the extensive list of sources (you’ll find plenty of articles on ArsTechnica among other sites) there has been negative coverage for as long as Windows 8 has been developed. There was the whole javascript debacle. Apps in the metro (no you can’t call it that anymore. But I will) interface  could only be created in this language. Meaning that new apps will run here, but not on the familiar and venerable Windows User Desktop. Leading immediately to complaints that it would lead to a two tier experience. Where apps would be made for either Metro or  desktop but not both. This was dismissed at the time, but it’s looking entirely likely. For instance Office programs won’t work in Metro, only in the Desktop Interface. But then OneNote, Microsoft’s excellent note-taking program will have a Metro app. This is extremely disjointed as a strategy and points to the fundemental flaws in metro apps. E.g. You can only ever be in one app at a time.

This one app at a time business is extremely disconcerting. Windows 7 did great things, in particular furthering the brilliance of jumplists, particularly in the start menu. Having windows you could shake or drag to the edge of the screen to resize. This stuff was productivity wise, some of the greatest underrated features of Windows 7 that users secretly loved and couldn’t imagine living without and were the envy or OSX users that wished they could put two windows side by side to compare two Word documents. 

With Windows 8. All the above is still there, but has been given a seat in the nosebleed section. By proritising the Metro interface, Microsoft is ruining the impression that they are productivity focused. As beta testers have found, dragging a video of document to the side of the screen in Metro is useless. You get an unreadable, unwatchable document or video that wastes a quarter column of your screen. You can’t use it to compare, it’s too narrow to watch anything. It’s just a mess. What was implemented perfectly in the user desktop has been cannibalised in Metro.

What should Microsoft have done? My belief is that there is a gold star waiting for the platform that manages to be everything to both desktop and touch user. Windows 8, Microsoft knows is not it. But that won’t discourage it from improving with the next iteration. I hate people that allude to it, but there is a chance Win8 is another Vista. However in that sense, since Vista was the foundation to everything that makes Win7 great, we must hope that the same is true of Win9.

Heck, it might be as simple a solution as bringing back the Start Menu

Observation: Housemate habits that should be or already are part of WhompComic

Housemates. 

Bad ones in particular have so much going for them in terms of content. Let me share just some of the things that anyone who has lived with family, friends and strangers have probably encountered.

If you don’t recognise most of these, you are probably one of these people. Re-evaluate your behavior immediately.

For the rest, smile to yourself knowing you aren’t part of that crowd and you’ll realise that pity for these lost souls is a much better emotion to hold than Anger or Frustration.

After all, if there isn’t any correlation between a good project manager and the ability to make a tidy bed, I’ll be damned.

ps. If it wasn’t publicly known, I absolutely love WhompComic. And so should you!

You are a bad housemate if:

-You turn the living area into your own bedroom
-Can’t tell whether cardboard goes in the recycling or trash
-Leave makeup stains everywhere except your actual bedroom (of course not excluding the living area)
-Finish a toilet roll in a day. (Yes a WHOLE roll)
-Know what day the rubbish goes out but are never the one taking it out
-Leave dirty cutlery in the sink overnight despite spending hours in the kitchen
-Use a gazillion cups all around the house then complain somebody has stolen them all
-Murder my butter. (That’s my butter. Not yours. Precious…..)
-Not just eat my food, but eat my UNOPENED food. (This should be a capital crime)
-Treat your time as more valuable than anyone elses and make them aware of it
-Expect others to clean up your mess because of the point above
-Give me nightmares about using the toilet
-Try to murder me with slippery suds in the bath
-Leave your dental floss in the wash basin (I hope for your sake you don’t re-use it)
-You’ve just realised you do more than 50% of the above
-You scribbled out the name I wrote in my butter
-Don’t read WhompComic (This can easily be fixed and I will help you)

Opinion: [Article] The Alternative View on Lance Armstrong

Response to “The alternative view on Lance Armstrong: His brand’s not finished yet”

Huh?

Of course he’ll be found guilty if the evidence supports that conclusion. With doping, there isn’t really half guilty or mistakes. A positive positive is FACT. People aren’t just stripped of their achievements based on a fancy. The managing bodies for the sport need to publish evidence to support their decision. All that’s happened is that Armstrong has realised that the evidence is probably irrefutable, and hence not challenged it. 

After all, it looks bad if you’re a cheat and didn’t contest the claim against you. It looks multiple times worse if you are accused, fight it publicly and lose. There is absolutely no way of coming out of that without anybody ever wanting to work with you again. He hasn’t helped himself by using “family” as a reason for not contesting the claims.

He’ll still be a pariah in sports circles though, but depending on how he spins this, he’ll be able to make money from it, but not on the sponsorship front I imagine.

If Nike doesn’t cut their losses when Armstrong is formally stripped of his titles it leaves such a bad impression to every other honest athlete they sponsor. Whilst it seems like people are passing judgement too early, cheats in sport are some of the worse people, particularly when they succeed as they demolish what people believe is possible of their idols and themselves…

Film Review: The Dark Knight Rises

Tom Charity from CNN.com hits the mark home with his review of “The Dark Knight Rises”, the final installment of the trilogy starting with “Batman Begins” by director Christopher Nolan  which hit cinemas 20th July 2012.

His final sentence “Nolan’s biggest and worst movie to date” at least to this viewer rings true, but doesn’t accurately portray one of the best directors in the world.

Nolan. Director; whose previous offerings include Inception, The Prestige and Momento has a lot fewer movies in his catalogue than less seasoned directors at 10, but every single one has been critically acclaimed by both critics and users alike. The Dark Knight Rises will without doubt be on the same list by popular movie rating aggregators based on it’s expected audience and potential gross. But somehow it is not in the same league in terms of story telling or a cohesive product.

You can get an impression of the film from the various reviews out there on the net, but this review will focus on the good, bad and the ugly.

Lets start with the Ugly first for a change.

Fight Choreography. This was ugly. Nolan decided to use a panned away from the action approach to this and whilst looking more realistic, the action also looks a lot slower, staged and ironically heavily choreographed. There are plenty of fistfights in this film and the only ones that look any good use camera close ups. Go figure.

Also to note, there is a scene late in the film which is essentially a extra brawl.This ends up looking amateurish and worse than the fighting you see on WWE. It really broke the atmosphere of the movie and what should be a pivotal emotional moment, nearly brought me to laughter. Punches thrown are incredibly weak. Extras look extremely aware of the camera and extras repeat the same choreographed task in a single scene which looks horribly un-natural.

The Bad. 

The Story. Nolan is famous for his twists in every movie. To avoid spoiling every single one of his films you might not have seen, lets just say it’s his signature and leave it at that. The story here is a little weak compared to the others. There is too much overly political. Too much bankers/wall st. subtext. Too many parallels to modern day terrorism. Occupy protests and wealth distribution. It feels a little patronising. I went to see batman kick some butt. I’m not looking for an education. The story of the batman films has never been great compared to Nolan’s originally written stuff, but here, the story feels cheap and “been there” territory. Plus the opening scene was pretty ridiculous, however ingenious it seemed on paper. It also didn’t look very good, as didn’t much of the movie involving vehicles. Nolans’ lack of trust in CGI was heavily exposed here. Say what you want about Michael Bay or to a degree Zach Snyder. They know how to make CGI look good and it wouldn’t have hurt to have fewer vehicles made from paper mache and a little more CGI.

The Good.

Catwoman. It’s a shame Hathaway didn’t get more screentime for a movie lasting 2hrs 40 minutes. She injected the little humour there was throughout the whole movie. Something that was HEAVILY lacking in the effort to make this final film of this trilogy the epic it deserved to be. A mistake in my opinion as the previous film was by miles better and had a mix of humour courtesy of the Ledger, balanced by the serious brooding of Bale.

In all, from the trailers I expected this film to be a must see in the cinema. Whilst the sound is impressive alongside the fantastic soundtrack by Hans Zimmer, the special effects and visuals are sorely limp in comparison.

By all means watch this film. It’s a poor film by Nolans standards, but it’s a good film if you were to consider it were made by nearly any other director. The ending in typical Nolan fashion is absolutely %£&$£, considering this is the last in a trilogy of movies. If you’ve seen inception, you’ll know what I mean.

iOS app: Pin Drop

Location checkin apps are all the rage and currently the leader is one every smartphone user is probably familiar with even if they don’t dedicate themselves to checking in like the makers would like is to. By checking in the user increases their reputation within a business or establishment, eventually gaining the kudos to become “mayor” of said place. This is entirely for the obsessive…

In some ways that is entirely the problem. The premise is that the more check-ins one carries out the reward is unlocking a shiny new badge, kudos in the eyes of other foursquare users and little else.

Of course there are some places giving discounts for checking in or special perks for mayors but that is little reward to the time sunk in the app. Reviews are getting useful but there are clearly more authoritative sources to rate places.

Step in Pin Drop. An app with a simple and rewarding premise. You want to remember the best places you’ve visited and this app will help you do that. Based on the “pin” idea of google maps, simply choose a position on a map to add a point of reference. There is no list of businesses and likewise no chance of missing entries that need to be created. This content here is user specific and if you want to tag your face Nando’s as “home” you are welcome to do that.

All these pins can be categorised however you want and so you remember what the place looks like even allows for you to add photo thumbnails. Once you create a free account these ponds can then be synced to an online account to view in. A web browser. A welcome afterthought that many apps forget *cough* *instagram*.

Thus the app ensures you never forget that unique restaurant you tried once and can’t remember the name of.

What’s most exciting though is the potential for the developers once the volumes of data increase. For instance sharing pins with friends to help them find their way to a cinema in an unfamiliar town is probable. Sharing lists of pins e.g “best greasy spoons in Shoreditch” is something that could really elevate the service once privacy issues are thought through.

In essence the developers have created an app that is rewarding to the end user not for trying to spend their time worthlessly checking into venues they’ve been to countless times. It’s about saving time and ensuring that we’ll be able to find our way back to that obscure, hidden gem of a place down some back alley and share it with our friends or revisit it for ourselves.

And you absolutely can’t put a price on that.

A few reasons why Bioshock is such a bad game, but one I continue to “play”

Bioshock.

The good.

Storyline.
Art
Level Design
Characters
Graphics (well the water effects mostly…)
Sound

The bad
Terrible mouse tracking
Weapon mechanics and overly complicated mechanics (ammo type, effect on enemy, switching between plasmids/guns, slow ammo change)
Scarcity of ammo
Graphics (Some are extremely low res and blocky)
Respawning enemies as a result of event trigger
Health system
Plasmid system
Complexity of plasmids
Enemies with pinpoint accuracy

I think the good is self explanatory. The bad however requires a little understanding of gaming mechanics, of which Bioshock manages to make nearly every mistake. It’s as if the game was created, then the gameplay tacked on as an afterthought.

The health system. It’s frustrating dying. It’s even more frustrating when you can die in 2-3 hits UNLESS you can remember to keep and eye on your health bar at the same time as shooting an enemy who is hard to hit due to bad mouse tracking. It’s a stupid mechanic. If you want to give me health. Give me ample health so I don’t need to see the vita chamber multiple times in an hour. There are so many things wrong here it would take all day to talk about. Put simply it’s too complex to look after health when juggling so many other things from plasmids, to reloading, switching weapons, finding cover, scarcity of healthkits at points in the game etc…

Enemies are awful. If they have a clear line of sight to you, each hit will reach you. It’s a very old school mechanic. If you are behind cover, then you become impossible to hit. Mirror this to modern games, where where an enemy shoots you, they have a range of accuracy based on your distance and how exposed you are, whether you are moving etc…With Bioshock it’s 100% accuracy, or 0% if you’re behind cover. Horrible Horrible mechanic.

Scarcity of ammo/adam - There’s not a lot of it, and you’re required at times to buy it. Neither situation is fun. In a game where you collect ammo, there should be a good reason for making it scarce. To make encounters more tense. Or to make you rely upon wits more. Due to the frequency enemies just appear out of thin air, using wits is out. And encounters without ammo don’t become tense. They just become suicidal.

Graphics - Other than the water and 2d artwork, most of flat, dull and blocky. I don’t actually think I’ve seen lower res textures since I played games back in 2003-4. 

The key killer of the game is the complexity from weapons to plasmids and combining items to make other items, etc…It’s just un-neccessary and doesn’t make the game more fun. Bioshock should be a story based cinematic game. It should be a inventory based set up your character game. I’m the sort of person that likes getting every advantage from a game, and so seaching crates for items becomes what Bioshock is about rather than moving through the story. By making this mechanic neccessary, it makes me feel as if I have to search through crates, and strangely puts me off.

I don’t need a gazillion ammo types. I just want a gun with a primary/secondary fire MAX. And a selection of plasmids that are unlocked over time. I DONT want more plasmids than I can carrying, making me regret the times I don’t have one equipped. I don’t want to have to wate ammo testing which is more effective on a particular enemy. I want Bioshock to be more fun. 

Why do I continue. The artwork is amazing, the story brilliant and the characters strangely endearing. Plus it’s gotten so much praise, I wonder if there’s something wrong with myself for not liking the game. After all, I initially hated Amnesia and grew to love it. Perhaps the same can happen with Bioshock despite all it’s flaws.

Oh well, another hour into Rapture it is….

Why iCloud is impossible to use

We all know Apple is self interested. They only do something if it’s profitable for them. On the other hand you have Google who puts the individual interest at the forefront and do things that improve the experience for the user, even if it puts them at a loss e.g. Google Maps.

The reason iCloud is so frustrating and will not take off is due to the Apple lock down on hardware. iCloud is there to shift more hardware primarily, and to backup software.

The key selling features of cloud sync software however is syncing contacts and calendar. The issue with Apple is that they’ll only let you pick one service. It’s Google Sync or iCloud. Don’t even THINK about syncing to Google and having that data backed up by iCloud. It’s not that it’s logistically possible. It’s that doing so would probably cause the ghost of Jobs to re-emerge. 

Some might ask. 

“Why don’t you just completely migrate to iCloud if you care about it that badly”

There are plenty of reasons. iCloud is hardware only. Sure it’s on the Mac, PC and iPhone. Which I have all 3. But by locking down this important information to the hardware level, what happens when I’m abroad without any of these devices and decide I need to look up the contact info of somebody I want to email? Oops, I haven’t updated my Google contacts in yonks. And everything is in iCloud, NOT in the browser where I can actually interact with them.

Secondly, Apple’s record with this sort of stuff is on the scale of extremely unreliable to unreliable. There is nothing stopping them as they’ve done with mobileme of shutting the service down. Apple have in the past even threatened to close the iTunes store if it ever became an unprofitable venture. If the costs outweight the benefits of most of the users, Apple could do the same here. 

Whereas I’m sure that Google is committed to the web and the cloud. I actually feel safe with my data in the cloud knowing its handled by them. Having it to hand EVERYWHERE is something you can’t put value on. It just creates that seamless experience that Apple does with it’s software, but has trouble with when it comes to software+internet. I don’t really care that Apple backs up my apps to iCloud because I can redownload them from the iTunes store whenever I want. It’s as if Apple does not understand that yes, it’s valuable to have software in the cloud, but only if it’s running there.

Until they understand that individuals that use stuff other than Apple want their data accessible everywhere and from any device, iCloud is going to remain actively un-used. 

It seems like Dropbox and Google Sync is the only way to work in the cloud for now. Which is a shame because Apple has everything in place to make itself a contender. But instead limits itself to a locker for you to store paid content…

Theatre Review: The Playboy of the Western World

Venue: The Old Vic

Playboy of the Western World. It doens’t immedietely strike you as a play set in Ireland, but make complete sense when you think of the geography of the world.

Story: Robert Sheehan is a man who has just killed his father. Panicked and worn from his travels, he stops by a tavern and reveals his deed to a group of locals who look at him in awe of the deed and by which he is revered as a strong and corageous individual without any of the connotations that normally follow the idea of a murderer. Ruth Negga is the barhand who happens to give him shelter in exchange for protection but things get complicated when the father who Sheenhan has supposedly killed comes back from the dead for vengeance.

Cast: The actors were superb. I had no idea who any of the cast were, but discovered that many had main experience in television. It didn’t show as the leads absolutely held their own with engaging performances that made the audience laugh throughout. The musical intervals were also well thought, if a little unintelligible due to the heavy irish accents. If english was not your first language, it would be a struggle to capture every word. Negga, was brilliant, but the irish accent she put on slipped at times which was a little funny but well covered for.

Lighting and set: I must laud particular praise on the lighting which was the best I’ve ever seen in theatre. They way it adapted to every single scene, sunrise, sunset, daybreak, indoor, night, mid-morning was perfect. I actually felt I was outside at times the wamth of the sun felt that real. This really helped me feel immersed in the play.

Overall, the play was extremely enjoyable and entertaning. I left feeling like i could have watched it again which is always a good feeling after seeing a play or musical. That there was so much done with the little material on the table, highlights how well written the direction was. This isn’t an A star theatre show, but it’s a solid 3.5/5 for those that use stars as a guide.