Happy birthday to me

If I was updating this blog on a regular basis, it would be far to claim that it’s been an ongoing part of the web’s digital fabric for exactly ten years, today. But I haven’t been. So I’m not going to do anything of the sort.

Newest 'Minis' is big on sharing

There have been some great video game rivalries to develop over the years - Ken vs. Ryu, Samus vs. Ridley, Mega Man vs. Dr. Wily, Kratos vs. his smile. The list goes on and on.

RPGCast - Episode 157: "Starring Jackie Chan"

Pan media sensation Jackie Chan headlines this week's fantastic podcast. We also have debut star Roy "Rosestorm" Burnet, who helps us delve into such amazing issues as PlayStation Quests. It's also a big week for MMOs with Blizzard launching a new expansion and Square turning over all the leaders of the FFXIV team.

Buy my e-book and save the police (again!)

Wasting Police Time* is now available on Kindle.

You don't need a Kindle itself to read it - you can download an 'app' onto your iPad/laptop/whatever.

UK readers should click on http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wasting-Police-Time-Crazy-World/dp/B004EHZXFM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=A3TVV12T0I6NSM&qid=1291282918&sr=1-1

Readers from the States, Canada, Australia and everywhere else in the world should click on http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=node%3D1286228011&field-keywords=wasting+police+time&x=0&y=0

* as endorsed by 'MTG'

Embarrassing incidents

This cartoon is by Dave Walker.

You can add this cartoon to your blog, subject to one or two very basic conditions. To do so, either save the cartoon and upload it to your own webspace, or simply copy and past the code below:







Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.





RPGCast - Episode 153: "Happy Fun Time Super Exciting"

It's a slow news week so we have to resort to Playstation Home to bring us some entertainment. But don't worry, Glenn comes on one hour in, so make sure to fast forward to that part.

Update

Little update on the last post I made about a few new buys as I had a couple of emails asking how they are panning out. The catch for £40 free-animations.co.uk did £486 in Oct. 75,000 visitors It’s fairly important to point out this wasn’t just catching an expired domain and parking it, I bought […]

Link building

Found a company doing a novel new trick, well new to me anyway. They scanned my authority website for dead links Then put up some content relative to my dead outbound links on their own site Then email and ask if they can quote my site with link back to me (naturally I agree) When I confirm […]

'Layton' follow-up: More puzzles, less story

For the very first time, I have felt myself getting a little bit smarter. That's probably because I was playing 'Professor Layton: Unwound Future'. It's not something you would play when you want mind-numbing escapism after a hard day's work but it's perfect for when you feel like exercising your brain... and it might require you to pull out the old graph paper and perform some good 'ol fashioned long division. While some children under 12 might find this game of puzzles, problems and riddles a bit too difficult, it truly is a great way to make math and logic fun for young people…and even most adults.

New 'Guitar Hero' out of tune

Polish those picks, tighten those strings and have plenty of Epsom salts and warm water to soak your hands in. Another installment in the 'Guitar Hero' franchise has arrived with all of the fiery finger fretting we have come to enjoy from the rhythm game series.

RPGCast - Episode 150: "Blanca?"

This week we have an update on the Extra Life totals, a recommendation for scary RPGs to play, and some news from Blizzcon. Then we go spend some quid at Game.

NHL 11 continues great play, but changes little

It didn't take very long for me to figure out that NHL 11 really doesn't that much of a step forward from NHL 10 and NHL 09. This year's game looks and feels the same in many ways, but as the old saying goes, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". Instead, the tweaks and refinements thrown in have combined with the core fundamentals to create the premier hockey gaming experience.

RPGCast - Episode 148: "3D Chocobo Breeding"

RPGCast really gets into the thick of it this week. We debate the merits of a FFVII remake, the merits of physical vs. virtual, and the merits of turning into a sheep to fight enemies. Also we've only one week left until Extra Life, get those donations in!

NHL 2K11 falls short on the virtual ice

These aren't the best of times for 2K Sports. Sitting out the season on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, they've instead focused their attention on making a better game for the Wii. With Wii MotionPlus, it stands to reason that virtual hockey on the Wii could actually work much better than it has in previous years, and though there are improvements, some fundamental flaws make it hard to enjoy NHL 2K11.

An acquisition or two

I have been busy looking at existing sites & traffic so taken a break from domain research. Life Insurance Quotes continues to age and is now taking leads, this site is moving forward to the point it’s probably earning just into 4 figures a month, also picked up a couple of other insurance quotes names like travelinsurancequotes.co.uk […]

RPGCast - Episode 146: "Self Absorbed"

Americans are apparently too busy to notice the great things going on around them. So we point out some of the things they may be missing like GOG's hoax, 3DS's specs, Milo's sacking, Nomura's game announcements, and PC digital download sales.

RPGCast - Episode 145: "Sanders"

Is Sony bringing back backwards compatibility? Is Sega going to get a Phantasy Star Online renaissance with a sequel that's PC only? Do we really need a fourth Disgaea game? All these questions and more on this week's show, which has 100% more British.

JUST BACK

Here are some photos from my hiking trip in Jasper:


We went at the end of August and according to park rangers were only the fifth party up into the area that year. Unfortunately our route changed a little because some of the trail was blocked with deadfall from old forest fires. The guidebook said that the area was 'impassable' but we made some progress. It says something about the size of the country that one of its largest and most popular national parks has areas that are so remote.

Here's the nearest we got to a Grizzly:

Just finished reading See No Evil by Robert Baer about the CIA. Very good, but you get the feeling that he's ranting about his old bosses refusing to take the terrorist threat seriously, by relying too much on satellite photos and not on old fashioned agents.

Just started A Shadow In the Cty by Charles Bowden which, so far, is utter crap.

RPGCast - Episode 144: "PAXCETRA"

RPGamer was at PAX and we tell you everything we saw and loved. We also get into the week's news which seems to be dedicated to games Anna cares about. And to wrap it all up, Sarah Williams has an interview with Tony Oliver, voice director of the US voices of games like Magna Carta 2.

RPGCast - Episode 143: "AlwaysSummer"

Crytpic is giving us another chance to venture into the world of NeverWinter. Meanwhile, Square Enix is confusing the entire internet again. The biggest story of all is that Manny is getting his teeth pulled. These exclusives and more on this week's RPGCast.

'Dragonquest IX' heats up series

'Dragonquest IX'? Where do I begin? Without a doubt, it is an impressive addition to the series. As the game begins, you are a Celestrian Guardian who needs to recover scattered "Fyggs". What are "Fyggs" you may ask? "Fyggs" are fruit from a sacred tree.

'Lost Planet 2' fails big

The tagline for Lost Planet 2 is 'kill big'. Turns out Capcom did a spectacular, monumental, and grandiose job at sabotaging its own game, a game that could have been one of the greatest action titles so far in the 21st century.

ALBERTA OILFIELD TERRORISTS

These pictures were taken in northern Alberta when some oilfield workers showed up one morning. It's not unusual to see elk, moose or deer, but bears are a little uncommon. Apparently these guys were in and around the jobsite for an hour before they finally wandered off into the bush.

THE BANK JOB

Just finished reading Heist by Howard Sounes. In February 2006, a bunch of villains stole 53 million quid from a cash warehouse in Tonbridge, Kent by kidnapping the boss and his family and threatening to kill them unless he helped them steal the money. They also had an inside man.

Kent police were on to them pretty quickly, but not quick enough to let Paul Allen and the ringleader, Lee Murray escape to Morocco. About half the money was found, but the rest is spread between Northern Cyprus, Dubai and somewhere in the Carribean.

The book deals with the actual robbery, the police investigation and the court case. Despite what was printed in the press at the time, the villains weren't criminal masterminds but local buffoons who were incredibly lucky to get away with it (one of the robbers, Lea Rusha, actually had plans to the depot in his house when police raided it). In the end, 'Lightning' Lee Murray was sentenced in Morocco for his part in the heist and Paul Allen pleaded guilty back in the UK.

It's a cracking read (although probably not the best police book you'll ever read) and although it goes into some depth doesn't get bogged down the the details. While most police work in the UK involves petty stuff, it's interesting to see how a major investigation works and the amount of resources that can be devoted to it.

I had a minor role taking statements in the Great Kestrel House Heist of 2006, in the absence of anyone else to deal.

One of the few things I miss are the few remaining traditions of UK policing, like the suit wearing CID, the arcane language ('stolen by means of keys???') and the decent blaggings. We don't get much of that round here, mainly I suspect because all the CIT (Cash in Transit) drivers are armed. Also it's not as if you can do one bank in Calgary, then drive over to say, Winnipeg, and do one the following day because it's just too far.

MAPPED OUT

I'm planning to walk 300 kilometres through the Rocky Mountains from Jasper to Kakwa Lake Provincial Park in a couple of weeks.

Just before I left the UK, I did the Pennine Way, which is just over 400 kilometres but there are some important differences. When I did the Pennine Way, although I took my own tent I could re-stock every couple of days as I went through villages along the way. I could also stop by a pub and have a pint if I felt like it. I stayed in campsites most nights and could have a hot shower.

On this walk, there are two of us going and there's absolutely nothing between where we start and where we finish so we've got to be self-sufficient for the whole journey. The trails aren't especially good either, so there might be a bit of bushwacking. On the upside, the scenery is amazing with big lakes, mountains, glaciers and the like.

The wildlife is pretty scary though, in the sense that on the Pennine Way the biggest aminal you're likely to meet is a deer that will run away as soon as it sees you. Over here, there's every chance you'll see a Grizzly which might not run off. To this end, I'm getting some bear spray and hoping for the best. A firearm is out of the question because part of the route goes through National Parks where they are banned.

Apart from the bear deterrent, I'm not taking much else that I didn't take on the Pennine Way. I'm bringing a length of rope for the river crossings, renting a satellite phone and investing in a Clark Jungle Hammock.

I'm looking forward to it and I'm right in the middle of getting the maps ready. Below you can see all my maps on the floor of the basement (which I spent the winter renovating). Looks quite a long way now!

RPGCast - Episode 140: "It's Mortal Kombat"

Cataclysm impressions, Dragon Quest IX multiplayer, and Mortal Kombat highlight this week's show. Mikel also gives you his Pokémon trading rant.

A whole other Metroid universe

So you've put hundreds of hours into the 'Metroid Prime' series and can name off every boss, every weapon, and the placement of every secret powerup without breaking a sweat. You've scanned everything right down to the tiniest plant species and couldn't imagine another Metroid game without a first-person view. Well, if you're looking forward to the newest entry in the series, 'Metroid: Other M', you'd better forget everything you know and love from the 'Prime' series.

Fatal flaw ruins 'UFC Undisputed 2010'

An avid mixed martial arts fan, my expectations of 2009's 'UFC Undisputed' were not great. MMA offered a terrific platform for an immersive sports game but developers would have to deliver the authenticity and nuances of the rapidly-growing combat sport.

BUSY WEEKEND

Here are some pictures I took at the flag football game between the EPS and EFD, in aid of the Stollery Children's Hospital.

Here's a picture of Barney, the EPS mascot:

Just to Barney's left is his bodyguard, an EPS cadet, who makes sure that Barney doesn't trip over his own feet. The lion is the mascot for D.A.R.E. , the popular North American anti-drug education program.

The game was on Saturday, and the police beat the firefighters as normal.

Today, I've been canoeing down the North Saskatchewan river, which runs through Edmonton. Here's a view...

We started at Devon and paddled all the way down to the Valley Zoo in just over four hours. This was taken inside the Edmonton city limits.

RPGCast - Episode 139: "Jumping The Shark"

RPGCast finally jumps the shark when Anna recommends hidden object games. Starcraft II also makes large inroads in the conversation. But don't worry, we also have a long discussion on the history of Shin Megami Tensei games, in order to preserve our street cred.

MOZZIES

A combination of a wet July and now sunshine has brought out a plague of mosquitos. They all seem to have hatched yesterday on the same day.

It's like Hitchcock's 'The Birds' outside the car as we try to keep the windows closed to prevent the blighters from getting in.

Apparently this kind of thing is quite common, but because of the previous two dry years we haven't seen the mosquitos is such numbers.

A thorough application of mosquito repellant is essential and seems to work for the most part.

It's no good complaining though because in a few months the temperature will be below zero.

CAMPING

Just back from camping for the weekend near Boyle, Alberta.

Went for a 8km run, before going for a swim in the lake (pictured below)

I'm getting ready for a 300km hike through the Rockies to the north of Jasper, sometime at the end of August/ beginning of September.

A WARM WELCOME

...to readers of the Sunday Telegraph.

This blog has been resting for a while, but feel free to scroll back through previous posts.

If you want, you can read a free extract from Wasting Police Time here.

You can buy the book here (or at amazon.co.uk, or - in the UK - from most decent bookstores).

RPGCast - Episode 138: "Too Good For Dragon Quest"

Phil tells about why his mad skills are too much for Dragon Quest IX to handle. Lee Gordon joins us once again and let's us know how good PSN's PSX classics are in Europe. Finally, Square Enix had some sort of announcement about Ogres.

Prognosis not good for 'Trauma Team'

The critically-lauded 'Trauma Center' series is four games young with the release of 'Trauma Team'. With it borrowing heavily off of popular hospital-based TV dramas like House, ER, and Grey's Anatomy, one could be forgiven for thinking the franchise is already jumping the shark.

ModNation Racers

Sackboy was a big hit in LittleBigPlanet, but the character's legacy has clearly spread into ModNation Racers, a kart racing game that could be better than a lot of gamers might think.

RPGCast - Episode 131: "E3xpectations"

Reviews from iTunes, disappointing games, and E3 predictions make up the meat of this show. Mmm...meat. I'm hungry, time for a sandwich.

'Alan Wake' takes TV to another level

Although the first season of 'Heroes' was darn close, nothing has ever topped 'Twin Peaks' or 'The X-Files' as two of my favourite television shows of all time, that is, if you discount 'Big Brother', 'Survivor' and 'The Amazing Race'.

'3D Dot Game Heroes' a one-dimensional homage

For those who grew up with a Nintendo Entertainment System and played the original 'Legend of Zelda' in its entirety over and over again, a visit to the original adventure across Hyrule is only a Wii Virtual Console download away.

RPGCast - Episode 129: "Bear Grylls Sucks"

We learn more about the day to day life of Team Rocket. We figure out how Star Ocean works. We even figure out what makes a collector's edition good. So much learning, it should be a G.I. Joe special.

Independent - update

My last day at Yahoo!

After over four years, spread over several teams and two continents, today will be my last day at Yahoo!

It’s been a pretty extraordinary ride, all things considered. I came into the company at the same time as a whole bunch of extraordinary people, a number of whom I’ve had the honour of working with at some time or another. I’ve met a whole bunch of brilliant, new, amazing people through the company – far too many in fact to list with any degree of comprehensiveness.

I’ve moved halfway across the planet to San Francisco and made a new life for myself, delivered talks on multiple continents, worked on and launched projects and done work that I consider the very best of my career, some in public and much behind the scenes. I’ve got a green card. I’ve filed a few patents with some brilliant people. I’ve seen the absolute best of Yahoo! and a fair amount of its worst. I’ve had some amazing highs and some significant lows. And–with the exception of falling over last year and paralysing my left arm for six months, which I could have done without–I don’t regret a moment of it.

There really is too much to talk about, but there are a few projects in particular that stick in my memory – projects that I’m proud to have been a part of.

The Yahoo! Hack Day programme was started by Chad Dickerson in 2006. He’d started off running them internally – twenty-four hour periods where creative designers and engineers could build and show off new features, technologies and projects to their peers using Yahoo!’s technology. Towards the end of 2006 he’d decided to take it to the next level and put together an amazing Open Hack Day at the Sunnyvale Campus for the general public. The event was an amazing success, loads of people came and produced some amazing stuff. He even managed to get Beck to come and play for everyone.

So when Matt McAlister started talking to me about doing an event like it in London, it sounded like a great idea. And after talking to old colleagues at the BBC, it started to look like a joint event between the two organisations might be even better. But the event really started to come together when Matthew Cashmore from the BBC and Yahoo!’s Anil Patel and Elaine Pearce got involved. Matthew Cashmore really was a force of nature, pushing us continually think bigger and grander and the event genuinely would not have happened without him. He was extraordinary. In fact he’s the main reason, we ended up at Alexandra Palace…

The Hack Day event, which some of you will remember was so awesome that it got struck by lightning represented everything I think is great about our industry – a collaborative, creative, imaginative, productive event, full of passionate, optimistic people. And it would never have happened without all the great volunteers from both Yahoo! and the BBC.

Another project that I think sums up some of these qualities was Brickhouse – a new product development arm that Caterina brought into being at Yahoo in 2007. I was brought over to the US to act as Head of Product for the team, and the following year was one of the most productive and creative of my life. There’s a truism that consolidating your creative work into ‘external innovation units’ is a bad idea, and I tend to agree with that. But Brickhouse wasn’t about consolidating innovation into one part of the company, it was about adding another string to the company’s bow – it was about supplementing the creative work going on around the rest of the company with small (sometimes tiny) groups of creative people developing and launching new ideas that simply wouldn’t get developed elsewhere.

Obviously, not everything about Brickhouse was perfect, but even if I look back just at the things we got out the door in that year, I remain proud of work that was never less than prescient and interesting. Among (much) other work in development, we launched innovative platforms for achievements online, services to open up live broadcast to anyone, open platforms for sharing your location – all ideas to this day I’m quite comfortable standing behind.

It would take too long to list everyone who worked at, passed through, or helped out projects at Brickhouse–and I’d be bound to forget someone in the process–so instead I’m just going to mention (again) what a pleasure it was to work with Salim Ismail, Chad Dickerson and Mike Folgner. I hope I get to work with all of them again at some point.

The last project I want to talk about is Fire Eagle. When I first joined Yahoo! in 2005, Simon Willison and I wrote a list of some areas we thought could be really fascinating to work on, and which could be a really huge deal over the coming years. We’d become really interested in location and had come to the conclusion that every website on the planet could be enhanced in some way if you could add some element of location.

We didn’t work on that idea immediately, but it stuck with us, and a couple of years later we started playing with it more seriously with Paul Hammond and a small team at Yahoo Research Berkeley (whose work had initially inspired us). One thing lead to another, we brought the project into Brickhouse and launched it late in 2008.

I’m incredibly proud of Fire Eagle. The idea was early, perhaps, but clearly in the right direction. We could see location on the near horizon as a really big idea and we could also see some of the problems and worries it might cause. We spent an incredible amount of time thinking about the privacy implications of users sharing their locations. Many other services see privacy as a problem and attempt to gloss over it for their users. We thought of it as an opportunity and made the privacy features the core part of the project. Users could choose where to share, how much to share, hide themselves and change or retract their permissions at any time. I think we progressed the state of the art in that area. Someone once referred to Fire Eagle as the Pixies of the latest batch of Location Services, and if that’s at all true, it may be the biggest compliment I’ve ever received.

But yet again, the most important thing for me with Fire Eagle was the people I got to work with. If I had to say one thing to those who wonder how to make their companies more creative, it would be to hire amazing people. Amazing people are so much more important than ideas, because amazing people are idea factories. And when you find teams of people who can generate good ideas, enjoy working together and are also experts in their craft–and your work is just to support them, help them focus and get problems out of their way–then honestly, you can’t fail.

So I want to personally thank Seth Fitzsimmons, Samantha Tripodi, Jeannie Yang, Chris Martin, Ben Ward, Kevin Ryan, Phil Pearson, Rabble, Arnab Nandi, Simon King, Mor Naaman, Ayman Shamma and everyone else who worked on Fire Eagle at any point in its life. I learned an enormous amount from all of you.

Over the last year, I’ve been working to take some of the ideas that lie behind Fire Eagle and apply them more widely across Yahoo! by looking after the company’s User Location platforms. There’s not a lot more I can say about that at the moment, but I’m sure that you’ll see some of the stuff we’ve been working on over the coming months and years.

So what’s next? Firstly I’m taking a bit of a break. I’m going to be spending the next couple of months relaxing and visiting my friends and family in the UK. I’m looking forward to the opportunity to digest the last few years a bit and maybe do a bit more writing. And I’m already talking to a few people about some interesting new projects for later in the year. If you want to be one of those people, then feel free to contact me at tom [at] plasticbag [dot] org. It’s an exciting time to be stepping out into the industry. Wish me luck!

[Apologies to anyone who is having trouble posting comments. I think a server upgrade a while ago broke some stuff. I’ll try and sort it out once I’ve slept for a couple of days.]

RPGCast - Episode 127: "The Bumpy Trot Posse"

What do Bumpy Trots, posses, Monster Hunters, and Gackt all have in common? They are what we talk about this week. Well that and Mass Effect DLC. You can never have enough $2 weapons for your Mass Effect character, that's what my grandpa always said.

Безымянный

Fans will enjoy 'Settlers' sequel

'The Settlers' is a game cut straight from the cloth of the classic strategy genre. If you're a fan of previous games in the series, you won't be disappointed.

Bungie revamps with 'Reach'

The newest (and possibly last) Halo game from developer Bungie, 'Reach' and its upcoming multiplayer beta is the current talk of the town for players on Halo 3, and like any Halo game, it has latched onto gamers' minds. This series has dominated Xbox Live for years and it all signs point to it continuing that trend with the upcoming Reach beta. Bungie's last two 'beta' projects have probably garnered more chatter than other full retail releases.

RPGCast - Episode 125: "Interview With A Were-Zompire"

Breath of Death VII developer, Robert Boyd, joins us today to discuss his recent Xbox Indie hit. You can also hear as the panel gets addicted to Lord of Ultima (share your usernames in the thread and join our alliance).

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RPGCast - Episode 122: "The RP-ohh-shiny-cast!"

Chris gets distracted by his new iPad (*drink*), Anna is distracted by her roommate's Ditto, Nyx is distracted by her insignificant other, and Manny is wondering why he bothers.

Microsoft launches Game Room on XBLA

Good games never die, they just get reloaded. The good peeps at Microsoft have once again dug into the musty video game vault and rescued some of the coolest, nerdiest, most addictive games with their new Game Room addition to Xbox Live.

INAPPROPRIATE VIDEO ALERT

They won't be showing this on any domestic violence course any time soon. It's still funny though....

FAREWELL THEN DIXON

Interesting article from the BBC about changes in policing in the UK, especially the interview with ACPO President Sir Hugh Orde.

Having worked in the UK at the front line and now working in Canada, I can't believe how complicated things were when I was in the UK. Over the years you get used to the complexity and become an expert in your field; so whether you need a Somali interpreter at ten o'clock on a Saturday night in Kent, or the correct form for a racially motivated domestic assault in Leeds or you need to write off a bit of argy-bargy between two vulnerable adults outside a kebab shop in Cheam, you learn how to get round the problems while keeping just within the rules. When you suddenly find out that it could all be a lot simpler and all the skills that you thought you needed are now redundant, it can come as a bit of a shock. My magic book full of 'police only' phone numbers, obscure forms and logon instructions for rarely used computer applications was suddenly useless.

The other thing Sir Hugh was talking about was how police officers, with all their kit, look a bit like stormtroopers and are less approachable. I'm not sure the kit has got much to do with it really. I carry a gun, a couple of sets of handcuffs, spare ammunition, spray and a knife with a locking blade and people are always coming up to me to say hello, mainly because I've actually got the time to stop and chat

GAS GAS GAS

Just filled the car up at 58 pence per litre.

At that price you'd have to mad to walk anywhere.

Doughnuts all round.

PHRASES YOU OFTEN HEAR

The current fashion for letting people off as long as they promise not to do it again means that one is forever hearing the phrase, "But I've been doing really well.'

When I was young this meant that you were getting good grades, handing your work in on time, getting into a sports team or whatever. Nowadays it means that you've managed to not get caught committing crime for a while.

RPGCast - Episode 120: "Team Rocket Surgery"

Gotta listen to 'em all! We all gain levels in our pokewalkers while discussing the new Pokémon releases. Mikel gives us the scoop on his new game and Reggie gives us some interesting quotes regarding PlayStation Move.

TOUGH TIMES

Interesting story here in the Daily Mail about how 4,000,000 expats want to come home because life is now too expensive. It's mainly about how people with incomes in sterling are adversely affected by its decline, particularly pensioners.

When we came over a pound bought you about $2.00, but now, a little over 2 years later, a pound will get you only about $1.50. We obviously receive our income in local currency which is good for us when we visit the UK, but means that for family and friends in the UK, holidays in Canada are no longer the bargain they once were.

NEW ARRIVAL

I'm told that my Norinco AR15 should be arriving soon. It's being sold to me on the basis that it's built to military specifications apart from the finish (which can flake off a bit) so it's considerably cheaper than, say, a Bushmaster AR15. I imagine that you can probably spend a lot more money and get a bit better gun, but at some point you have to be sensible and think what else could you spend the money on. Hopefully, with the saving on the gun, I'll be able to buy an Eotech sight as well.

PS Sorry for deleting your comments to the last post, my finger slipped...

MORE POWERS

Imagine if you didn't have to arrest people on the mere suspicion of having committed a criminal offence. OK, so you don't have to arrest people on suspicion but where you've got a named suspect, it's difficult to get the file past the various levels of supervision and audit without interviewing them under caution.

Imagine that rather than arresting them, you could write up a report and say, 'Look there's little or no evidence against person x, there are no independent witnesses and no physical evidence that really corroborates person x's story over person y. I've got no idea where person x lives so I'm saying that he's a suspect and leaving it at that.'

Imagine also that your workload was sufficiently manageable that you could decide for yourself, on the basis of your knowledge and experience as an invesitgator, which suspects were worth interviewing and which were not.

What would happen if you didn't have to interview suspects and they didn't have a right to speak to a solicitor in person? What if you could simply charge them when you thought you had enough evidence and didn't have to refer to anyone else for advice? And what if you could hand out all the paperwork and do all the typing in the car?

How much time would you save? How much less time would you spend in the station? Would this be a charter for lazy coppers or an opportunity to use professional judgement?

RPGCast - Episode 118: "Math Is Hard"

Glenn Wilson is on to discuss Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey. Sony had its own strangeness this week. And even Valve got into strange fun with its images hinting at Steam coming out on the Mac.

'Dante's Inferno' raises hell

'God of War'. 'God of War'. I am tired of the comparisons to 'God of War'. Don't get me wrong. I am a big fan of Kratos and his ancient misadventures as much as the next guy but 'Dante's Inferno' is not 'God of War Jr.', as some have described it. To refer to it as such is an insult to the outstanding work developer Visceral Games put into the title.

CANADA WINS GOLD

Obviously you all know that Canada won gold in the mens hockey in Vancouver on Sunday. I was working and as it was quiet (yes I know, weird eh?) I took some paperwork and polished off a few outstanding reports all while listening to the game on the radio.

By coincidence, one of our local radio stations had a phone-in that morning all about who was the most canadian Canadian, so I took this photo because I thought it all looked rather Canadian: the snow, the gravel road stretching over the horizon, the coffee cup....

THE FRONT FELL OFF

Classic....



but fake.

HOCKEY FOR DUMMIES

For reasons I can't really explain, I think that (ice) hockey means much more to Canadians than soccer (or football if you'd prefer) does to Brits. It might be because there are so many more options open to youngsters than soccer: rugby and cricket to name but two. But it also might be because Britian is much more divided than Canada, and I'm thinking particularly of class. Hockey is an experience shared by almost everyone here and there's a healthy, some might say frantic, extra-curricular tradition of hockey for children of both sexes and almost all ages, where mothers transport their children vast distances, bake huge quantities of cookies and raise enormous sums of money for hockey tournaments.

Anyway, don't take my word for it, have a look at this commercial for Tim Hortons, the popular chain of coffee shops which features the (not exactly world) famous Sidney Crosby.

CANADA FOR DUMMIES

So we may not be doing so well in the Olympics, but it's still not a bad place to live.

'Bayonetta' is wickedly wicked

Not since Lara Croft or Samus Aran has there been a cooler female character to play than Bayonetta, the gun-toting, demon summoning, wickedly wicked witch from the game of the same name. Calm, cool and collected at all times as her, you don't feel guilty at all about chugging and clobbering through Heaven's militia as there seems to be very little separating them from their rivals down South. Bayonetta is all about that grey region between love and hate, good and evil, PC and Macintosh.

'Mass Effect 2' revolutionizes storytelling

Forza Motorsport 3 does what quite possibly no racing game has done before. It combines the graphics and technical excellence of the best racing simulators with terrific accessibility.

'Serious' action on XBLA

Some things simply get better with age, especially smart-mouthed, trigger happy, die-hard mercenaries like Sam "Serious" Stone.

IPad envy

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Should we encourage self-promotion and lies?

A couple of days ago, Clay Shirky wrote a piece on his blog called A Rant About Women which took as its subject the comparative comfort with which some men are prepared to market themselves, mislead and lie to get ahead compared to women.

I’ve been reading responses to this piece on Twitter and elsewhere, and I’ve become increasingly horrified by what I’ve seen. Generally, it’s being viewed as a call to arms to create a new breed of women who are as self-important, self-promoting, shameless and arrogant as some of the worst (and most celebrated) men in the industry. This attitude is being viewed as the ‘way to get ahead’ for any individual wanting to make their mark in the world.

I’m prepared to accept that there’s a correlation between attitudes to competition and self-promotion and gender. I’m not as prepared to take it as far as Clay seems to, but I’ll go along with its generalised existence.

And clearly, if aggressive self-promotion and pompous self-aggrandizement is what gets people ahead in the world, then at the individual level, it’s better to perform in that kind of way than it is to sit passively and watch yourself get passed over by more clumsy, venal, smug, aggressive, macho idiots.

But at the level of the company, at the level of the community, at the level of the industry – are these attributes in fact in any way desirable? Does self-promotion really lead to great products or projects? Is the ability to lie and mislead really what it takes to achieve?

My experience has been that there’s definitely a role for the arrogant and the pushy in the creation and promotion of a project. It’s also taught me that this skill is a small part of the set of skills necessary to produce something great.

The kinds of things that result in great products are tangible skills, a desire and a pleasure in collaborative building, an aspiration and sense that you’re making something important, a sense of teamwork, room to experiment, the ability to bring out the best in the people around you, a good work ethic.

Alongside that a desire to show-off can be really beneficial, a confidence in your ability is essential, the ability to push yourself into new areas certainly a benefit. But these attributes can also get in the way. There’s something in American culture in particular which values the pushy and the determined, but we’ve all worked with people whose confidence massively outstrips their abilities, who cannot work together with other people because they think they’re superior to everyone else.

And we’ve also met a whole bunch of people in the industry who do nothing but self-promote, working day and night to sell themselves, and achieve positions massively disproportionate to their tangible abilities. There are people in our industry in positions of substantial power whose reputation is built upon the way in which they present themselves as being visionaries and experts. Some of them have found that it’s simply more efficient for them to spend their days building that reputation through PR and self-promotion than it is to demonstrate it through the things that they make, the value that they create.

I’d never argue that we should forcefully reject anyone who manifests confidence, skills in self-promotion or who is cocky enough to sell themselves. But what I want to strongly resist is the idea that it is these attributes that we should be promoting – either in women or in men.

It should be unacceptable for us to say that lying about one’s abilities is something that everyone has to do to get ahead. It should be unacceptable for us to say that arrogance and aggression are to be aspired to.

Instead we should be demonstrating that great projects, like the ones Apple produces, are at least in part based upon trying to produce the best thing possible, feeling the integrity in the product you’re making. Trying to do something good. We should acknowledge the example of Flickr who created an astonishing culture of extremely talented engineers and designers around the very real aspiration to make something beautiful, powerful and good for the world. Or the guys at Twitter who discovered their idea initially by letting small groups experiment in interesting directions rather than dogmatically following the vision of a bold cocksure individual.

Good projects come from good people, good vision, good execution, good collaboration, good insight. And it’s these traits – and the ability to spot them – that we should be encouraging in our colleagues.

The right thing to do is to get it into the heads of our VCs and companies that a hunger to win at any cost is not the main attribute of a creative or productive person. That the ability to be intelligent, think through problems, work with other people, develop ideas effectively – that all of these traits are better indicators of success than how big they tell you their testicles are! That the person who comes to you with the biggest pitch is not necessarily the person you should be listening to.

And while encouraging people to spot the talented and the creative, we should also be considering how we shame those people who self-promote without creating. The financial collapse has taught us that rhetorical bubbles divorced from reality are a danger to us all. We’re already approaching this point – our industry has become venal, insular and dominated by marketing. We have come to value the wrong things. And if we want a continued vigorous, creative, free, open and equal environment, that’s something we have to fix. It’s not something to aspire to.

POLICING IS ROCKET SCIENCE

Professor Lawrence Sherman, the Wolfson Professor of Criminology at Cambridge University's Institute of Criminology no less, says that having bobbies stand in the same place for 12.5 minutes will crack street crime.

He's staging a year-long experiment in Madchester to prove it.

He says: 'We are trying to treat policing like rocket science, because that's exactly what it is. This is dealing with crime on an incredibly microscopic level.For the first time we are saying go to this street corner and stay there for 12 and a half minutes. It has never been obvious that policing needs to be that local.'

Never?

There's been a terrible mistake, Dixon. Abandon those case files and get yourself down to stand outside the Red Lion.

Having cops on the streets is better than having them inside the nick filling in forms, but does the Prof really think that the standard modern British moron will worry too much about this?

Coppersblog prediction: They'll either move two streets down or just take their chances, on the basis that absolutely sweet f*** all will happen to them if they are nicked anyway, but that the Cambridge Experiment will be written us as an enormous triumph all the same.

Interestingly, the yob who threw bleach into the face of the mother, in front of her family, after she asked him to be quiet in the cinema (repeat that sentence slowly to yourself) received a 12 month detention and training order (he'll do six months inside, playing Grand Theft Auto, posting pictures of himself grinning on facebook and learning lots of exotic new tricks).

This despite this being an appalling and potentially very serious offence AND the fact that he had numerous previous convictions including smashing someone over the head with half a brick.

Forget policing time and motion studies: just lock up serious, nasty recidivists for proper sentences.

Anyhoo, on a lighter note:

G4 Canada's 2009 Game of the Year Awards

When gamers look back and think of 2009, one word will come to mind: mediocrity. Many of the highly-anticipated titles just didn't live up to the hype and left many gamers wanting more. Short single player campaigns and reduced features were the norm as cutbacks and a volatile economy were the boss battles everyone had to fight. Still, there were those developers, publishers who weathered the storm and put out some of their best work to date. Below are our choices for the best and worst of 2009.

GRASS GREENER / SNOW WHITER

Living in the 9th best place to live on the planet, it now seems strange that I used to live on what is now the 25th best place to live. Given that the best place to live in the whole wide world is apparently France, this must be a deeply flawed survey.

I look back fondly to when I lived in the UK. All the bigger issues that one reads about in the papers never seem to make much difference at home: anti-social behaviour, immigration, black-on-black gun crime, knife crime, urban sprawl, poor roads and coastal erosion have very little impact if you ride a bike and live in a small town in the midlands. Perhaps that's the reason why people who are 'fed up with this country' are never really happy anywhere.

One of the nicer aspects of life here (and something that makes life unbearable for some in Britain) is the attitude and demeanour of youngsters. I often get asked why it is that British children are so well behaved. After speaking to them, it's clear that their only experience of Britain is watching Mary Poppins, so I tell them that Canadian children (even the really naughty ones) are mostly better behaved than British specimens. It's not their fault of course, in Britain it's too often the drink that's to blame.

Being a police officer on Britain, 'nuisance youths' and the consequent vandalism, public drunkeness and general screaming and shouting, was a kind of background music to the business of policing, so that wherever one went one met children swaying in the street shouting, 'Pigs innit!' Nowadays, I deal with very few children and the drunk, loud and abusive ones are so rare I'm momentarily shocked.

Even the older ones are reasonable. I once went to break up a party with about 150 teenage guests that had got slightly out of control. Naturally enough I anticipated the worst, but within 10 minutes, everyone had quietly dispersed and the music was turned off. People in nightclubs seem to drink a fraction of what they do in British ones, and afterwards... they get into taxis and go. Of course, at -20 deg C, you don't want to hang around for too long in the open, but even in high summer on a Saturday night, the worst you get is a bit of pushing and shoving.

There must be statistics out there that prove me wrong, that show Canadians to be a nation of violent drunks and their children even worse. If there are, I'm sure you'll let me know.

IF YOU DELIBERATELY BURN A TEENAGE GIRL TO DEATH

...by throwing petrol on her and then setting it alight, and then you shut her in her bedroom so she has no chance of escaping or calling for help, should you ever be allowed to walk the streets again?

Mad Judge Lord Bracadale thinks you should.

Well, it's a point of view!

He's given Stewart Blackburn 21 years for that. Assuming he keeps his nose clean, he'll be under 40 when he is let back out, doubtless with a taxpayer-funded change of identity to assist his reintegration into society.

Jessica McCagh was 17 years old when she died in agony.

We recently discussed the case of Craig Hodson Walker, who was shot dead. His killers will serve a minimum of 34 years.

In the comments, one John B pointed out that 'There's a lot of rot been talked on this (blog) about sentencing and arbitraryness'.

I don't know about John, but on a purely qualitative basis I think most people - if forced to choose - would prefer to be shot than burned alive. There seems to be at least some arbitrariness at work here*.

But that's not the point.

Set someone on fire and let them burn to death: Never See Daylight Again.

Shoot a young man dead during the commission of a robbery: Never See Daylight Again.
Cricket bat and stab your boyfriend to death as he lies in bed: Never See Daylight Again.

*Yes it's Scotland, so what?

FOXY LOXY