Wales, most of the year is a dark, dreary cold place to live, out summers are pleasant but rarely... continental. But every now and again, we break from tradition and have an unexpected hot(ter) spell, and I'm sweating in the middle of one now.
Sadly, the rarity of these blue skied outbursts really goes to peoples heads. Yes, it's warm, but no, man by ponty bus station, nobody wants to see your middle aged gut in a vest and floral shorts, let alone your hairy feet in flip flops, it's just not on. As soon as the sun comes out 45,000 chavs appear with no tops on drinking strongbow in every beer garden for 25 square miles. The very thought that this 2 week period of relative heat may be it for the summer gets these people into such a blind panic that common sense goes straight out the window.
I'm a moderate fan of the heat, but very rarely and in much hotter climates have I ever felt the urge for a bit of public disrobing (Then it was just the shirt). I work in an air-con free office and if you open the window not only is there no wind to speak of to cool you down, but the birds have a habit of shitting on it, it's not an overly comfortable place to be at the moment, but this doesn't mean I'm going to turn up to work with my moobs flopping about the place contained only by a primark vest and my stinking feet on full display.
On route to this bus this morning I have already come across one chav in sunglasses, vest and shorts, it was 7am and cold... Still at least it was excellent golf weather Sunday!
The sensationalist media will probably kick off any moment, half will be proclaiming UK hotter than surface of sun, while half will be predicting all of our deaths via global warming and skin cancer, oh and the sun thanking Simon Cowell for bringing the sun to the UK (as it shines from his backside).
So overall, chavs... keep the top on, it's still March and I've only just eaten.
Wednesday 28 March 2012
Friday 16 March 2012
RIP Game?
Or at least game as we know it now?
I've never really liked game, over the time they've employed enough dodgy practises and sales techniques that I dislike to push them into 'only if I have too' territory. E.g. going to supermarkets and buying their special offers to then sell on in their own store, apparently to give the customers 'choice', I'm pretty sure the customers would rather pay the lower price to be honest...
Buying competitors instead of competing with them, in essence they turned gamestation into a game with a different colour scheme. But left the occasionally questionable for public music.
They're also great users of the sell you extra stuff at checkout and send staff to ambush you in the aisles to offer 'assistance', both piss me off. One visit to the Merthyr Tydfil Retail Park Game resulted in every member of staff bar one in the store approaching me, not a big store. When the last one asked, 'anything in particular you're looking for?' I just shook my head and left.
They can't compete with larger stores (supermarkets, argos etc) on prices and that's not shocking due to the buying power they have. But then mostly miss the chance to offer a specialist service that the supermarket couldn't. Game staff are a split between people who generally think they know all there is to know, and some of them get ratty when you contradict them, e.g. one of them was blabbing about Gears of War and how it was an 360 exclusive, a pointless sale attempt as I had it already! But playing along I pointed out it's not, there's also a windows version at which point I was told in a nicer worded manner, don't be so daft, I work in game so I know. So I wandered over to the PC section, picked it up and showed him...
While some are clueless and they've taken the job as 'shop assistant' and didn't mind where it was. Which is fine, but I do find it quite amusing when they go into pre rehearsed slightly awkward sales patter about games they'll never play.
I've heard them sell over age games to parents of kids as 'all his friends will have it', I've heard them loudly bad mouth other stores, games companies etc loudly in store (Unsurprisingly EA was the latest I heard last weekend where the checkout staff proclaimed, 'No EA are just greedy'. Nothing to do with you're credit rating then and maybe EA realising they may not get paid here? Dick. What's the line now 'EA, Activision, Nintendo, Microsoft, yeah they're all just greedy'?)
They've given me crap deals on trade ins to then resell them at (one extreme) ten times the value. Blockbuster, HMV or CEX are the place to trade.
But they're not all bad, they did have reasonable special offers on times, and I must admit to visiting their 'let's pay the rent' fire sale that's currently going on and when they have an admin stock clearance I'll visit again. Some of the staff are ok, annoying, but that's following orders, plus I'd never wish anyone to lose their job regardless of skill level at it, but administration is looking inevitable.
But going forward, it may become a better shop as a result, Walmart apparently fancy it, with ASDA buying power, it may well be able to complete with the other supermarkets and give itself a chance, even though the ASDA preowned section is rubbish!
I'll miss Game in a way, it was a good place to look at what was out before going to Tesco to get it a fiver cheaper!
I've never really liked game, over the time they've employed enough dodgy practises and sales techniques that I dislike to push them into 'only if I have too' territory. E.g. going to supermarkets and buying their special offers to then sell on in their own store, apparently to give the customers 'choice', I'm pretty sure the customers would rather pay the lower price to be honest...
Buying competitors instead of competing with them, in essence they turned gamestation into a game with a different colour scheme. But left the occasionally questionable for public music.
They're also great users of the sell you extra stuff at checkout and send staff to ambush you in the aisles to offer 'assistance', both piss me off. One visit to the Merthyr Tydfil Retail Park Game resulted in every member of staff bar one in the store approaching me, not a big store. When the last one asked, 'anything in particular you're looking for?' I just shook my head and left.
They can't compete with larger stores (supermarkets, argos etc) on prices and that's not shocking due to the buying power they have. But then mostly miss the chance to offer a specialist service that the supermarket couldn't. Game staff are a split between people who generally think they know all there is to know, and some of them get ratty when you contradict them, e.g. one of them was blabbing about Gears of War and how it was an 360 exclusive, a pointless sale attempt as I had it already! But playing along I pointed out it's not, there's also a windows version at which point I was told in a nicer worded manner, don't be so daft, I work in game so I know. So I wandered over to the PC section, picked it up and showed him...
While some are clueless and they've taken the job as 'shop assistant' and didn't mind where it was. Which is fine, but I do find it quite amusing when they go into pre rehearsed slightly awkward sales patter about games they'll never play.
I've heard them sell over age games to parents of kids as 'all his friends will have it', I've heard them loudly bad mouth other stores, games companies etc loudly in store (Unsurprisingly EA was the latest I heard last weekend where the checkout staff proclaimed, 'No EA are just greedy'. Nothing to do with you're credit rating then and maybe EA realising they may not get paid here? Dick. What's the line now 'EA, Activision, Nintendo, Microsoft, yeah they're all just greedy'?)
They've given me crap deals on trade ins to then resell them at (one extreme) ten times the value. Blockbuster, HMV or CEX are the place to trade.
But they're not all bad, they did have reasonable special offers on times, and I must admit to visiting their 'let's pay the rent' fire sale that's currently going on and when they have an admin stock clearance I'll visit again. Some of the staff are ok, annoying, but that's following orders, plus I'd never wish anyone to lose their job regardless of skill level at it, but administration is looking inevitable.
But going forward, it may become a better shop as a result, Walmart apparently fancy it, with ASDA buying power, it may well be able to complete with the other supermarkets and give itself a chance, even though the ASDA preowned section is rubbish!
I'll miss Game in a way, it was a good place to look at what was out before going to Tesco to get it a fiver cheaper!
Tuesday 13 March 2012
Three mobile
Three mobile, you are crap it has to be said. Presumably named 3 as that's the percentage of the time you have good signal.My previous dealings with them, particularly trying to cancel my mobile broadband have been documented:
http://andrewdrisc.blogspot.com/2012/02/three-mobile-you-just-made-list.html
Anyway I while back I went with three as I liked the 'all you can eat data' idea for my mobile, doing as much shit as you want seemingly a perfect fit for smart phones, and they (well not they, phones4u who were cracking in this instance!) supplied me with a nice iPhone4. All the normal checks were done and I was informed the signal was good in my area.
For the first 2 maybe 3 months it was, but then particularly at home, it started to get worse, much worse until the most common words on my phone screen were 'No Service' or 'Searching...'. Shit. After a few weeks of this I decided to complain, went to their website and sent an email, after first receiving a standard reply, they did get back to me, in the middle of working hours, so I quickly explained the situation, they said the signal was fine, I disagreed, they said they'd get an engineer to ring me back. Good stuff I thought and asked them to ring me after 6 due to work.
For the next 4 days I received calls at 3pm on the dot, which I of course was unwilling and unable to take. Eventually the first woman I spoke to called me back to see if anything was resolved I said no and that's the last I heard about it.
Months later, I'm still getting shit signal most of the time (it's generally ok in Cardiff), their twitter team confirmed they're doing nothing about the signal in my area, it's highly unlikely I'll be able to finish the contract early without paying through the nose. Their entirely outsourced call centres have no grasp of what I'm saying most of the time. They're a bad bad company and I can't wait to be rid of them. Motherfuckers. Unfortunately that's still some time away, but I would warn anyone away from using three for anything.
Imagine what it's going to be like to cancel, I'm already dreading that call and it's over 12 months away. I'll have a non-uk call centre worker offering me his first born child, an iPhone7, ten grand in cash and a hamster to stay with them, unable to grasp that the phone wont work without signal.
In fact this blog would have been done and out this morning, but do you know why it wasn't? Using my phone as a hotspot and... CRAP SIGNAL. 30 mins and nothing then a little dot. Motherfuckers!
It's easy to offer something like unlimited data when you know people are going to struggle to use much. Take me to an Orange shop someone please!
http://andrewdrisc.blogspot.com/2012/02/three-mobile-you-just-made-list.html
Anyway I while back I went with three as I liked the 'all you can eat data' idea for my mobile, doing as much shit as you want seemingly a perfect fit for smart phones, and they (well not they, phones4u who were cracking in this instance!) supplied me with a nice iPhone4. All the normal checks were done and I was informed the signal was good in my area.
For the first 2 maybe 3 months it was, but then particularly at home, it started to get worse, much worse until the most common words on my phone screen were 'No Service' or 'Searching...'. Shit. After a few weeks of this I decided to complain, went to their website and sent an email, after first receiving a standard reply, they did get back to me, in the middle of working hours, so I quickly explained the situation, they said the signal was fine, I disagreed, they said they'd get an engineer to ring me back. Good stuff I thought and asked them to ring me after 6 due to work.
For the next 4 days I received calls at 3pm on the dot, which I of course was unwilling and unable to take. Eventually the first woman I spoke to called me back to see if anything was resolved I said no and that's the last I heard about it.
Months later, I'm still getting shit signal most of the time (it's generally ok in Cardiff), their twitter team confirmed they're doing nothing about the signal in my area, it's highly unlikely I'll be able to finish the contract early without paying through the nose. Their entirely outsourced call centres have no grasp of what I'm saying most of the time. They're a bad bad company and I can't wait to be rid of them. Motherfuckers. Unfortunately that's still some time away, but I would warn anyone away from using three for anything.
Imagine what it's going to be like to cancel, I'm already dreading that call and it's over 12 months away. I'll have a non-uk call centre worker offering me his first born child, an iPhone7, ten grand in cash and a hamster to stay with them, unable to grasp that the phone wont work without signal.
In fact this blog would have been done and out this morning, but do you know why it wasn't? Using my phone as a hotspot and... CRAP SIGNAL. 30 mins and nothing then a little dot. Motherfuckers!
It's easy to offer something like unlimited data when you know people are going to struggle to use much. Take me to an Orange shop someone please!
Friday 9 March 2012
I love iTunes
What's that iTunes? There's a new version of iOS available for my phone? How exciting! 5.1 you say? Well of course you can download it and update my mobile, what could possibly go wrong there?
This is the general conversation that went through my head as the usual new software popped up after I plugged my phone into the old netbook and iTunes kicked in. I of course allowed it to continue, but what followed turned out to be a pain in the arse!
Software downloads fail all the time, especially from apple, so it wasn't a massive surprise when after 30 or so minutes of downloading and a brief installation attempt it informed me all had indeed gone tits up and it would now be kind enough to restore the phone to what it was, only there was a problem there too. Things not going well, but then the phone starts to come on anyway and everything's fine...or not, I not have a lovely iPhone 4 on factory settings. No apps no nothing.
Swiftly and with the poise of an IT professional (which I'm not) I restore a backup of my phone made not 1 hour earlier, and after several... dozen minutes of waiting, the phone restores the data and to my surprise everything seemingly goes ok, even the in app data is fully restored to it's previous glory. Even my Temple Run high score (2.3m) remains in tact.
But also, the strangest thing, according to iTunes, I now have 5 gig of memory free, when before it was stacked to the rafters. Funny as well as the new found free space was almost exactly the same as the memory taken up by my... cock biscuits.
I quick trip to 'Music' app confirms it, every trace of an mp3 (or equivalent iTunes compatible format) is gone. So while writing this I've also started slowly adding songs to thee phone from my iTunes library. Which itself has presented brand new issues, I'm skipping past most of it thinking... meh, never listened to it anyway.
So far I've managed to add about 9 songs to the phone, but I am still on C for the artist name, so there's some distance to go yet. But nothing in inspiring me, bad times. I think I need some new music, any suggestions feel free, ooh and to anyone who would suggest Beady Eye or High Flying birds, save yourself the keyboard wear and don't.
This is the general conversation that went through my head as the usual new software popped up after I plugged my phone into the old netbook and iTunes kicked in. I of course allowed it to continue, but what followed turned out to be a pain in the arse!
Software downloads fail all the time, especially from apple, so it wasn't a massive surprise when after 30 or so minutes of downloading and a brief installation attempt it informed me all had indeed gone tits up and it would now be kind enough to restore the phone to what it was, only there was a problem there too. Things not going well, but then the phone starts to come on anyway and everything's fine...or not, I not have a lovely iPhone 4 on factory settings. No apps no nothing.
Swiftly and with the poise of an IT professional (which I'm not) I restore a backup of my phone made not 1 hour earlier, and after several... dozen minutes of waiting, the phone restores the data and to my surprise everything seemingly goes ok, even the in app data is fully restored to it's previous glory. Even my Temple Run high score (2.3m) remains in tact.
But also, the strangest thing, according to iTunes, I now have 5 gig of memory free, when before it was stacked to the rafters. Funny as well as the new found free space was almost exactly the same as the memory taken up by my... cock biscuits.
I quick trip to 'Music' app confirms it, every trace of an mp3 (or equivalent iTunes compatible format) is gone. So while writing this I've also started slowly adding songs to thee phone from my iTunes library. Which itself has presented brand new issues, I'm skipping past most of it thinking... meh, never listened to it anyway.
So far I've managed to add about 9 songs to the phone, but I am still on C for the artist name, so there's some distance to go yet. But nothing in inspiring me, bad times. I think I need some new music, any suggestions feel free, ooh and to anyone who would suggest Beady Eye or High Flying birds, save yourself the keyboard wear and don't.
Tuesday 6 March 2012
I Am Alive
Many many issues ago GamesTM, a respected games magazine wrote about a game called I Am Alive. Supposedly a big upcoming release, they devoted pages to it, screenshots, interviews, praise, much time was spent and hope was placed on the game. I read it, I looked at the pretty pictures, I liked the idea and I thought, 'Oh yes, it will be mine'
Then it vanished, seemingly cut, gamesTM pick another winner!
Some time later I read something online that vaguely mentions the existence of the game, so hope starts all over again, it turns out that the project had changed development companies and had trimmed itself down to be an XBLA/PSN game, so as a result would at least be cheaper, but with obviously less content.
So this got me thinking, is it worth it? What of the content has been forever lost, what else will suffer? Graphics? I'll chances are now cost a £10 (1200msp?) so it still may be worth a punt but I'm not convinced. Saints Row The Third is very enjoyable at the moment and it wouldn't really manage to get ahead of that anyway.
The game itself seems quite interesting (explaining why I was interested) in that you wander round a smashed up city trying to stay alive and help others. It'd be nice to play a game where you haven't got to shoot EVERYONE for a change.
There are a few big/interesting releases due soon though, FIFA street plays really well in the demo, I like it and that's out next Friday I think. Mass Effect 3 (which I have 0 interest in I'll be honest, so that one is just big) is out this Friday. Silent Hill HD collection is out on the 20th in North America but not quite sure over here, plus Downpour is due soon after. Plus there's always the kinect lightsaber game... I hope that's not awful I really do. Something deep inside is telling me it's going to be more Star Wars milking shit that dirties the good name of the series further so George Lucas can have an another solid gold toilet seat. Just wait til I start about re-releasing the films in 3D - JUST WAIT.
I don't know, I'll watch some gameplay videos and stuff now and make my mind up based on that. If Downpour is as poor as Homecoming I'd rather rent it anyway. Lovefilm, you are awesome!
Oh yeah my XBOX Live Gold is up soon, and not having a previously classic but now tired film series to exploit, I need a cheap place to get a sub, anyone know anywhere? Let me know!
Then it vanished, seemingly cut, gamesTM pick another winner!
Some time later I read something online that vaguely mentions the existence of the game, so hope starts all over again, it turns out that the project had changed development companies and had trimmed itself down to be an XBLA/PSN game, so as a result would at least be cheaper, but with obviously less content.
So this got me thinking, is it worth it? What of the content has been forever lost, what else will suffer? Graphics? I'll chances are now cost a £10 (1200msp?) so it still may be worth a punt but I'm not convinced. Saints Row The Third is very enjoyable at the moment and it wouldn't really manage to get ahead of that anyway.
The game itself seems quite interesting (explaining why I was interested) in that you wander round a smashed up city trying to stay alive and help others. It'd be nice to play a game where you haven't got to shoot EVERYONE for a change.
There are a few big/interesting releases due soon though, FIFA street plays really well in the demo, I like it and that's out next Friday I think. Mass Effect 3 (which I have 0 interest in I'll be honest, so that one is just big) is out this Friday. Silent Hill HD collection is out on the 20th in North America but not quite sure over here, plus Downpour is due soon after. Plus there's always the kinect lightsaber game... I hope that's not awful I really do. Something deep inside is telling me it's going to be more Star Wars milking shit that dirties the good name of the series further so George Lucas can have an another solid gold toilet seat. Just wait til I start about re-releasing the films in 3D - JUST WAIT.
I don't know, I'll watch some gameplay videos and stuff now and make my mind up based on that. If Downpour is as poor as Homecoming I'd rather rent it anyway. Lovefilm, you are awesome!
Oh yeah my XBOX Live Gold is up soon, and not having a previously classic but now tired film series to exploit, I need a cheap place to get a sub, anyone know anywhere? Let me know!
Friday 2 March 2012
Amazon reviews
From time to time, and on a massive total of 32 occasions, I have written reviews for a website some of you may have heard of... amazon.co.uk. I do it for the same reason I write this, none in particular, but it's a nice diversion every now and again and with a bit of luck, the stuff I write does occasionally help somebody decide whether something is worth buying. The whole process is quite basic, but the weird part of it is their rating system.
Well not so much the system itself, but maybe some of the users.
Amazon works on a 'Was this helpful? yes/no' type scenario. But I get the impression a minority, but a vocal minority, of users read this is 'Do you agree? Yes/No', and as a result I do sometimes feel reviews are marked as unhelpful for not giving a popular item 5 stars. Also there's also some cases where people review an item, then mark the other reviews of the same item down, to hopefully push theirs up to the featured review. The Internet is a reasonably twisted place for self promotion.
However most reviews don't get any votes at all, I've only ever received 52 votes over my 32 reviews (40-12, 77% helpful, which is quite shit).
I honestly think this isn't the best way of running a rating system, especially if you're going to run some kind of league table off it to introduce competition. Why have a no button at all? Yes or ignore would be fine and remove the possibility of bitching. Or maybe require some kind of reason or feedback to go along with a negative vote? If people have to back it up...
But hey I'm sure the amazon dudes know what they're doing.
Well this morning I went up 100 or so places to crack the top 10,000 reviewers for the 2nd time (someone marked a review down straight away last time, so I dropped again) at 9,955th. This means nothing of course and I'll probably drop straight back out tomorrow, but for now I have a picture visible and everything. If anyone's interested here's a link to my 'public profile' but I'd imagine after making it this far, you're sick of my attempted wit and typos already:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/pdp/profile/A3SIES8A01NZAN?ie=UTF8&ref_=ya__56
Off topic, well kind of... kindle is amazon, there was just a guy getting off the train, reading his kindle intensely, but the screen saver was on, I could see it from here. It was the picture of John Steinbeck. Some people are weird.
Well not so much the system itself, but maybe some of the users.
Amazon works on a 'Was this helpful? yes/no' type scenario. But I get the impression a minority, but a vocal minority, of users read this is 'Do you agree? Yes/No', and as a result I do sometimes feel reviews are marked as unhelpful for not giving a popular item 5 stars. Also there's also some cases where people review an item, then mark the other reviews of the same item down, to hopefully push theirs up to the featured review. The Internet is a reasonably twisted place for self promotion.
However most reviews don't get any votes at all, I've only ever received 52 votes over my 32 reviews (40-12, 77% helpful, which is quite shit).
I honestly think this isn't the best way of running a rating system, especially if you're going to run some kind of league table off it to introduce competition. Why have a no button at all? Yes or ignore would be fine and remove the possibility of bitching. Or maybe require some kind of reason or feedback to go along with a negative vote? If people have to back it up...
But hey I'm sure the amazon dudes know what they're doing.
Well this morning I went up 100 or so places to crack the top 10,000 reviewers for the 2nd time (someone marked a review down straight away last time, so I dropped again) at 9,955th. This means nothing of course and I'll probably drop straight back out tomorrow, but for now I have a picture visible and everything. If anyone's interested here's a link to my 'public profile' but I'd imagine after making it this far, you're sick of my attempted wit and typos already:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/pdp/profile/A3SIES8A01NZAN?ie=UTF8&ref_=ya__56
Off topic, well kind of... kindle is amazon, there was just a guy getting off the train, reading his kindle intensely, but the screen saver was on, I could see it from here. It was the picture of John Steinbeck. Some people are weird.
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