tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37746062024-03-07T03:51:23.669+00:00Burgeoning EgoBeing a general exposition of the happenings, unoccurences, and mental processes of one Daniel C Griliopoulos Esq., MA Hones (sheep). Deposit your felicitations in my happy sack: spamdaniel.griliopoulos@gmail.comGrillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06266295686814157220noreply@blogger.comBlogger995125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774606.post-56628643859349967892010-01-08T13:26:00.000+00:002010-01-08T13:26:55.747+00:00A Moving ExperienceSo, I've been blogging on here for nearly eight years now, from September 2002 to the present day and, it's been fun. However, we've probably all noticed that it's not been happening on here, probably a hangover from those dark days at OXM where I almost got fired for shooting my mouth off about the otherwise-lovely Steve Brown's inability to manage me.<br />
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In attempt to revitalise my flagging enthusiasm, I'm going to be bidding adieu to this place and moving over to my own website, <a href="http://funambulism.com/">Funambulism</a>. At the moment, it's just a Wordpress blog and a few associated elements but I've got a few plans as to what else to do on there. Hopefully, friendly readers, you'll come and join me over there?<br />
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(I am, however, going to see if I can keep auto-updating this blog to reflect what's happening over there - but it would be nice of you to move).Grillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06266295686814157220noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774606.post-20659322079128822382010-01-06T14:14:00.000+00:002010-01-06T14:14:23.825+00:00How can the sky hold so much water?Snowfall dominates the watcher, the Brownian dance of crystalline H20 swept by the winds into crevices and peaks, evanescent but hypnotic and alive in the mind's eye. The UK at the moment is living through its snowiest, and hence whiniest, period for 20 years. The mind is boggled at the immensity of this event - think on this, enough solid material is falling from the sky to cover a whole country to a depth of a foot in one day - and it never looks like it'll ever run out, just that some random temperature shift has chosen to drop a tiny sample of it on your head at that time. That must be a staggering amount of ice particles just floating around the world in the clouds, right?<br />
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Well, it's not. It's a <a href="http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/watercycleatmosphere.html" target="_blank" title="US Govt Water Statistics">fantastically tiny amount of water</a>: 3,100 cubic miles or 12,900 cubic kilometres. That might sound like a lot, but that's only about 0.04% of the total fresh water in the world, which is itself only 2.5% of the world's water. It just looks bigger because ice, and in particular the gloriously space-inefficient snow, takes up a lot more room than liquid water and because us anthropocentric humans have a tendency to focus on the tiny part of the environment we inhabit, the exposed skin of the earth, and forget the ocean's depths.<br />
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This air-borne liquid is a tiny proportion of the world's total water, and an equally tiny element of the world's fresh water (which, incidentally, is going to be a source of conflict in the parched areas of the world over the next decade.) However, land-based fresh water is essentially one giant reservoir - with insufficient top up from this constantly replenished 0.04% of airborne water, it would empty relatively quickly (look at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aral_Sea" target="_blank" title="The Aral Sea">the disappearance of the Aral sea</a>). If this system breaks down, even slightly, we're going to have an unimaginable world drought. And it might be.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lambro/150270799/"><img alt="Ships of the Desert" height="300" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/47/150270799_fa6fd918b7.jpg" title="Camels In The Aral" width="500" /></a><br />
<br />
<div><span style="font-size: small;">J.G. Ballard's The Drought (AKA The Burning World) showed effectively and imaginatively what a world would be like if this tiny amount of Fresh Water vanished. The Drought has several parallels with Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle, the most important of which is a theory of chemical polymerisation of water caused by chemical pollution - in Vonnegut's less-likely theory it's a new type of water molecule that causes a chain reaction in other molecules, like a catalyst or an exponential reaction, but in Ballard's book it's the destruction of the precipitation cycle by industrial waste that stops evaporation. The latter seems equally fantastical but in the last few years 'neustonic plastic islands <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch" target="_blank" title="Great Garbage Patch">have been found</a> covering substantial proportions of the Oceans, including what was once the beautiful Sargasso Sea (a mid-ocean gyre with its own species of seaweed and a key location for ocean-going turtles.)</span><br />
</div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
</div><div><span style="font-size: small;">So this is to say: don't whinge about the snow. If it stops, we're dead.</span><br />
</div>Grillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06266295686814157220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774606.post-45466014062716457332009-12-16T18:26:00.000+00:002009-12-16T18:26:31.766+00:00Thoughts On Closed Systems and Video GamesPredictably, Microsoft have just announced the new Games For Windows Live will also support full game downloads. Manufacturers, having taken over all the development studios, and recently the Indie and casual devs too, are now taking over the distribution channels too. It’s likely that we’ll see the first full, true AAA game distributed solely through the Playstation Network in the next year; full games are already available on the PSPGo. Even Nintendo distributes games through its Wii store. These all make it easier for consumers to get access to new and old games. So what's the problem?<br />
<br />
The key issue here is that, like the App store and Xbox Live, these are closed systems which are bad from every angle, except the owners' profit – for example, developers' and third-party publishers' games will be competing against the manufacturer's own products that will be developed, marketed and streamed through the whole system with preferential treatment. Anything that is bad for competition is ultimately bad for the consumer, as it drives up prices.<br />
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For example, if GFW Live is bundled with new computers, that means new audiences will get access to Games On Demand, which is great for them in terms of ease of purchase - however, they won't have access to the range of choice and prices that the internet offers, and through that bundling they'll be tied into the Microsoft rather than the Steam model and network. Once they've emotionally or technically locked you in, they can charge anything they like - look at bank charges on overdraft limits or the premium cost of Xbox Live. Microsoft has done this before with Internet Explorer and used the glacial process of global law to destroy its competitor Netscape before competition authorities could effectively punish it. Their previous experience will hardly be a deterrent.<br />
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In terms of their competitors' disadvantage, manufacturers' ownership of AAA developers means that competitors are excluded from distributing those games, whether that's cross-platform or cross-digital distribution system. It's the same problem that Randy Pitchford raised with regards to Steamworks, but writ large. Gamers want to play on the system that has the widest range of games and features - we don't want yet another clunky downloader insisting on starting itself up as Windows does and swallering resources, just like we don't want to buy several consoles and a PC. To compete with this the other digital distribution companies are going to have to integrate social networks, match-making, remote saves and run endless promotions, just to stay in the running - and even then how can they compete with the big manufacturers' and Valve's AAA games?<br />
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Disentanglement of technology and openness of APIs/development at every level is the only fair option. It’ll be interesting to see if, for example, Sony blocks access to internet-flash games or merely fails to keep the PS3’s Flash software up-to-date, which would have the same effect of stopping indie development on that platform. Or if Microsoft allows indie, community or free games onto Games For Windows Live (I'd love it if they bought Kongregate and integrated that company's excellent flash games API into GFWL.) Or, even, if Valve unbundled Steamworks and its development studios from Steam itself.<br />
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It’s strange than an industry as advanced as games hasn’t distributed games digitally earlier but it's worrying that this vertical integration threatens to fragment the community. Ideally, someone needs to create a Kelkoo or Froogle client for games, that compares prices from other download sites, has the matchmaking/patching elements, and is bundled for free with machines; but only Microsoft could have realistically done that, and they haven't. With developers, third-party publishers and consumers all losing out from vertically-integrated closed-system game publishing, something has to change.Grillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06266295686814157220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774606.post-56339520278829906062009-10-01T10:44:00.001+00:002009-10-01T10:44:45.193+00:00Star Trek Meets Monty Python<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><p><object height='350' width='425'><param value='http://youtube.com/v/luVjkTEIoJc' name='movie'/><embed height='350' width='425' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' src='http://youtube.com/v/luVjkTEIoJc'/></object></p></div>Grillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06266295686814157220noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774606.post-60123661017776638902009-09-21T21:29:00.002+00:002009-09-21T21:31:22.575+00:00A Quick ThanksThis post is just a quicky to thank my excellent and highly savvy driving instructor Shola, who really pulled all the stops out to help me pass my test. He runs an Advanced Driving Instructor's blog over at http://www.ukadi.co.uk/ and if you live in North-West London, I'd heartily recommend him as a calm, safe, flexibly and very experienced instructor.Grillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06266295686814157220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774606.post-30142271510661610222009-09-21T15:34:00.001+00:002009-09-21T15:34:30.950+00:00Monkey Island 2 in 3D using Cryengine<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><p><object height='350' width='425'><param value='http://youtube.com/v/3bInZ7_y4Lw' name='movie'/><embed height='350' width='425' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' src='http://youtube.com/v/3bInZ7_y4Lw'/></object></p><p>Beautiful, though the music convinces you more than the imagery.</p></div>Grillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06266295686814157220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774606.post-75996271820363612632009-09-03T13:40:00.001+00:002009-09-03T13:42:57.980+00:00Science Is Real: They Might Be Giants<embed src="http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/am3/20090812135319945/AMPlayer._V233929472_.swf" flashvars="amazonPort=80&allowFullScreen=true&locale=us&nsPrefix=fp_&canResize=1&logUrl=gp%2Fmpd%2Fl&autoPlay=0&sessionId=179-6861233-8814639&salign=LT&preset=gateway&mediaObjectId=m2ANSDNFKIMUXO&autoPlayTimer=&mediaObjectIDList=m2ANSDNFKIMUXO&permUrl=gp%2Fmpd%2Fpermalink&refUrl=%7Cgp%7Cmpd%7Cpermalink%7Cm2ANSDNFKIMUXO&xmlUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fgp%2Fmpd%2Fgetplaylist-v2%2Fm2ANSDNFKIMUXO%2F179-6861233-8814639&amazonServer=www.amazon.com&scale=noscale" width="368" height="321" name="fp_AMPlayerProd" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" title="Flash Player" allowFullScreen="true" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" salign="LT" allowScriptAccess="always" quality="high" wmode="transparent" /> </embed><br /><br />Science. Is. REAL.Grillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06266295686814157220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774606.post-31227619013912770802009-08-20T12:56:00.004+00:002009-08-20T13:09:13.938+00:00Imagining the Tenth Dimension<object width="480" height="392" data="http://flash.revver.com/player/1.0/player.swf?mediaId=99898" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" id="revvervideoa17743d6aebf486ece24053f35e1aa23"><param name="Movie" value="http://flash.revver.com/player/1.0/player.swf?mediaId=99898"></param><param name="FlashVars" value="allowFullScreen=true"></param><param name="AllowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="AllowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://flash.revver.com/player/1.0/player.swf?mediaId=99898" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" allowScriptAccess="always" flashvars="allowFullScreen=true" allowfullscreen="true" height="261" width="320"></embed></object><br /><br />So the tenth dimension is all the possible timelines from all the possible starting conditions of the universe treated as a point? My. Brain. Hurts.Grillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06266295686814157220noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774606.post-61800608544791569202009-08-13T17:54:00.000+00:002009-08-13T17:56:08.562+00:00Antikythera mechanism Video<object id="flashObj" width="486" height="412" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,47,0"><param name="movie" value="http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9/2227271001?isVid=1&publisherID=981571807"><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF"><param name="flashVars" value="videoId=31092003001&playerID=2227271001&domain=embed&"><param name="base" value="http://admin.brightcove.com"><param name="seamlesstabbing" value="false"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="swLiveConnect" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9/2227271001?isVid=1&publisherID=981571807" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" flashvars="videoId=31092003001&playerID=2227271001&domain=embed&" base="http://admin.brightcove.com" name="flashObj" width="486" height="412" seamlesstabbing="false" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" swliveconnect="true" allowscriptaccess="always" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></embed></object><br /><br />Via Rossignol.Grillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06266295686814157220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774606.post-43829640279549010352009-08-13T15:14:00.003+00:002009-08-13T15:16:34.826+00:00Game Pricing(Some thoughts I supplied for a piece about on a big games website that got spiked because of politics...)<div><br /></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><i>Question 1 (Of 1)</i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i>1. Do you believe that the recently rumoured price-hikes of triple-A games in the UK are justified. If yes, why? If no, why?</i></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Calibri","sans-serif"; font-family:";font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D;">From an economics point of view, it’s entirely rational. If you believe, like a good Ayn Rand pupil should, that businesses do best when unfettered from regulation and morals, and that businesses doing best is best for the rest of us, then companies should be allowed to set their own prices, relative to the rest of the market, and see how the consumers respond to it.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Calibri","sans-serif"; font-family:";font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D;">And games-consumers will buy Modern Warfare 2 for £50+, where they wouldn’t buy Bookworm Adventures for the same price. It’s all about demand curves here; set the price high for Modern Warfare and you won’t cut out that many consumers, as they’ll forgo other pleasures to pay more for this; demand is relatively inflexible. Activision could have set the price at £60 and people would still have bought it in nearly the same numbers. However, try doing that for a weaker license or a first time game, and it won’t sell. Demand is relatively flexible, until the franchise is proved. When a franchise is this strong, you’re getting close to monopsony conditions and the publisher can charge whatever they like.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Calibri","sans-serif"; font-family:";font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Calibri","sans-serif"; font-family:";font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D;">Whether it’s moral; well, publishers aren’t in business to be moral – they’re in business to maximise their revenues and they’re ethically and psychologically closer to venture capitalists than they are to developers, who want their games to have as wide a distribution as possible for fame / their message. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Calibri","sans-serif"; font-family:";font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Calibri","sans-serif"; font-family:";font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D;">This turns hardcore gamers into early adopters. If you want to get the game on the day of release, you have to pay a premium; otherwise, you can wait a week or two and the standard discounting will kick in, and you can get it at the price you would normally have bought it – and you can keep that process going on, until a year down the line the people with lower price expectations scrabbling through second hand stores (if they haven’t already pirated it, which is a threat only to PC games, really). Notably, though, Call of Duty 5 has never been properly discounted and still sells heavily at a premium price – as does the original Modern Warfare – so Activision know that hiking the price of this iteration really isn’t a risk.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div>Grillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06266295686814157220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774606.post-47971815038595017442009-08-10T13:24:00.001+00:002009-08-10T13:24:29.646+00:00You Want To Be My Friend On Facebook?<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><p><object height='350' width='425'><param value='http://youtube.com/v/55I83jEAIhk' name='movie'/><embed height='350' width='425' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' src='http://youtube.com/v/55I83jEAIhk'/></object></p><p>Awesome, painful song. </p></div>Grillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06266295686814157220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774606.post-12006269784967611342009-07-22T15:26:00.003+00:002009-07-22T15:26:51.815+00:00This is Turning into a Video Blog<object width="400" height="225"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=5606758&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=ffffff&fullscreen=1"><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=5606758&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=ffffff&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="225"></embed></object><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/5606758">Kuroshio Sea - 2nd largest aquarium tank in the world (Please don't go by Barcelona)</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/theradblog">Jon Rawlinson</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.</p><p>Bloody Twitter and work are stopping me blogging, grr.</p>Grillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06266295686814157220noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774606.post-62822018323134322112009-07-16T16:55:00.001+00:002009-07-16T16:55:33.592+00:00Blink and you'll miss us.<div><object width="420" height="339"><param name="movie" value="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/x8266a" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><embed src="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/x8266a" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="420" height="339" allowFullScreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always"></embed></object><br /><b><a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/x8266a">650 Million Years In 1:20 Min.</a></b><br /><i>by <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/xchristox">xchristox</a></i></div>Grillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06266295686814157220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774606.post-14723556941262921472009-05-20T14:08:00.004+00:002009-05-22T12:16:00.844+00:00Galactic Scale Mindf*ck<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/7158/1193920511635sr7jc4.gif"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 320;" src="http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/7158/1193920511635sr7jc4.gif" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br /><br />Patience... this doesn't happen all at once.Grillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06266295686814157220noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774606.post-9914291175316920852009-05-13T14:13:00.001+00:002009-05-13T14:13:25.614+00:00Herzog's Penguin: Introduction<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><p><object height='350' width='425'><param value='http://youtube.com/v/YTEmyhJiMpY' name='movie'/><embed height='350' width='425' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' src='http://youtube.com/v/YTEmyhJiMpY'/></object></p><p>"Is there... insanity, derangement amongst... penguins?" </p></div>Grillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06266295686814157220noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774606.post-17876640275501223732009-04-22T12:49:00.003+00:002009-04-22T12:54:49.964+00:00Don't Eat The Rich - Bleed Them<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8011321.stm"><blockquote>Alistair Darling has announced a new top tax rate of 50% for those earning more than £150,000 from next April.<br /></blockquote></a><br /><br />Things we value; a stable society that produces the most happiness (freedom from suffering) for the largest number. Agreed? If not, no point talking. If so, read on.<br /><br />Equality of opportunity offers the most likely route for the greatest number to achieve freedom from suffering. Concentration of resources in few hands allows them to manipulate systems that affect us easily, aggregating yet more resources in their hands, disincentivising others to challenge them and closing off opportunities for those who have skills to raise themselves up. Redistribution counteracts these centralising tendencies of certain economic systems and increases equality of opportunity throughout our lives. We want systems to be as open as possible with information on those systems as free as possible to allow the largest number to enter and compete in those systems, to produce in turn the most efficient results - all moves against this, whether oligopolistic or monopolistic, are anti-equality and hence anti-happiness. <br /><br />In the old days, the poor paid taxes to support the rich, who didn't work. Now the middle class support the poor, and the rich dodge taxes. Moreover, the rich (and the middle class) do things that hardly constitute work (gambling with someone else's money) and, at best, do work that is no harder than the work anyone else does. If you argue, as you're likely to, that certain jobs are more _skilled_, I'd argue that it's the luck of the individual involved that they either a) were brought up in a situation that allowed them better education and more schooling or b) they were _genetically_ lucky, in that they had genetic advantages allowing them to prosper better. Neither are virtuous qualities that should be rewarded, but luck. I do believe that mantra "from each according to his means, to each according to his needs."<br /><br />I don't think we should eat the rich - I think we should bleed the endlessly burgeoning fat from them. They'll still be incentivised to work to maintain their way of life, and just removing that money from them, even if it isn't effectively redistributed, is a move towards equality. <a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/money/tax/article1996735.ece">America doesn't do that</a>. The UK tries, but doesn't. I hope this change is a helpful move towards equality of opportunity, if not by redistribution, by sapping the fat of the rich.Grillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06266295686814157220noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774606.post-29710330392487547972009-04-09T17:12:00.005+00:002009-04-09T17:18:56.521+00:00My Recent Photos<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3562/3426289857_01343d8083.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 400px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3562/3426289857_01343d8083.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br /><br /><div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/grill/3426289857/">Recent Images</a>, originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/grill/">Hot Grill</a>.</span></div> <p class="flickr-yourcomment"> </p><br /><br />1. <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/42966467@N00/3421564397/">The White Horse of Billericay</a>, 2. <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/42966467@N00/3421471745/">Too Many Signs</a>, 3. <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/42966467@N00/3421458429/">The Gap</a>, 4. <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/42966467@N00/3402809586/">Beautiful Big-Eared Piggles</a>, 5. <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/42966467@N00/3419565872/">Freaky Teddy Bears & Doll</a>, 6. <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/42966467@N00/3419455648/">170309 105</a>, 7. <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/42966467@N00/3419396828/">Worm</a>, 8. <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/42966467@N00/3402153609/">Mannequin</a>, 9. <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/42966467@N00/3421465923/">The White Horse of Billericay</a>Grillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06266295686814157220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774606.post-31285541849990353282009-04-03T11:49:00.004+00:002009-04-03T13:31:40.455+00:00Oregon Trail iPhone Map<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3383/3409494254_0e0698bf72_o.png"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 500px; height: 202px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3383/3409494254_c5787398b1.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br />I couldn't find a map online for Gameloft's excellent <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=307519882&mt=8">iPhone conversion</a> of the <a href="http://www.mobygames.com/game/oregon-trail">1982 game The Oregon Trail</a>. You control a team of pioneers attempting to make the 5-6 month slog across the West to Oregon, battling bears, flooded rivers, broken waggons and , and meeting great names from the opening up of the west. Here's an in-game map I've stitched together myself; click on it for the original size.</div>Grillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06266295686814157220noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774606.post-74723897311141164222009-03-26T14:34:00.001+00:002009-03-26T14:34:38.742+00:00Newswipe with Charlie Brooker News Clip<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><p><object height='350' width='425'><param value='http://youtube.com/v/l8rMYyegT5Y' name='movie'/><embed height='350' width='425' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' src='http://youtube.com/v/l8rMYyegT5Y'/></object></p><p>The UK news is not only voyeuristic, it's also nationalistic and enormously biased towards the increased value of a white, English middle-class life. I'm rather tired of it.</p></div>Grillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06266295686814157220noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774606.post-72531638275444462782009-03-24T11:50:00.001+00:002009-03-24T11:51:51.597+00:00Beatiful Tilt-Shift Movie<object width="480" height="270"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=3156959&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=ffffff&fullscreen=1"><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=3156959&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=ffffff&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="480" height="270"></embed></object><br /><a href="http://vimeo.com/3156959">Bathtub IV</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/keithloutit">Keith Loutit</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br /><br />These are real people, the video's just been sped-up and tilt-shifted.Grillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06266295686814157220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774606.post-4499852550561584772009-01-15T18:27:00.000+00:002009-01-15T18:27:00.116+00:00McGoohan, McGoohan, McGone.<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><img src='http://fraser.typepad.com/frolix_8/images/prisoner.jpg' style='max-width: 800px;'/><br/><br/>Just remembered that Patrick McGoohan died yesterday. Farewell childhood hero, our rebel without reason (but not without a cause), now you're Number Zero.<br/><br/>I'm currently listening to "I Helped Patrick McGoohan Escape" by The Times. S'alright.<br/><blockquote/></div>Grillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06266295686814157220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774606.post-28562619880867072892008-12-15T11:38:00.000+00:002008-12-15T11:39:31.922+00:00I Won A Book!<a href="http://londonist.com/2008/12/prizewinning_medical_trivia.php"><blockquote>Congratulations to Dan Griliopoulos, winner of our Medical London competition. We asked for a piece of trivia connected with medicine in London, and Dan provided this:</a><br /><br />The premier London medical story has to be that of Samuel Pepys' stone. Not the actual operation - which was long and painful (without anaesthetic) or highly dangerous (without modern medical techniques they had to cut up through the perineum to actually reach the kidneys where the stones were forming) - but his later love for the tennis ball-sized lump of crystalline urine. He'd carry in his pocket everywhere, show it to friends, and once considered spending 24s (a hefty sum) on a display case so he could show it off in his house. He also had yearly dinners to show his appreciation at surviving, where guests would drink and eat themselves into an absolute stupor, pretty much guaranteeing that they too would end up with similar kidney problems to his...<br />So a copy of the much-praised tome Medical London is on the way to him.</blockquote>Grillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06266295686814157220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774606.post-36650715973732852182008-12-07T21:15:00.000+00:002008-12-07T21:16:10.328+00:00Stolen From LOL GOD<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img368.imageshack.us/img368/1374/20081205qj7.gif"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 468px; height: 1591px;" src="http://img368.imageshack.us/img368/1374/20081205qj7.gif" border="0" alt="" /></a>Grillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06266295686814157220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774606.post-12851857873803963852008-11-27T18:15:00.000+00:002008-11-27T18:15:01.814+00:00On Dominos<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/1uwelDjPfG0&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/1uwelDjPfG0&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />Clack-clack-clack, the dominoes fall, and not all of them are actually dominoes. Heath Robinson machines (Damn yanks, he predates your plagiarising Rube Goldberg) of this type can take any form and it's always damn fun to trace the threads of seeming causality and see if you can spot an origin. <br /><br />For example, look at Vietnam; the whole reason Kennedy popped all those yanks in there was the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domino_theory">Domino Theory</a>; that the collapse of one country and its turning to Communism, was an infection and that more countries would topple. As Eisenhower said in '54 "You have a row of dominoes set up, you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly. So you could have a beginning of a disintegration that would have the most profound influences." The actual idea behind the fine words being that other local rebel groups would then have the moral and material support to take over <span style="font-style:italic;">their </span>countries.<br /><br />Isn't it nice to see that theory in effect? The domino set that is Modern Afghanistan and the Indian Subcontinent was created by the British Empire in its headlong retreat from its expensive colonies post-1945 and the random borders imposed on it created (like the trisected Kurdistan) a bunch of angry locals (specifically the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pushtun">Pushtun</a>) pissed off at having to have passports to cross imposed borders into ethnically homogenous areas and take their laws from another ethnic nation. The endlessly pissed-off people there, armed by the Brits and Yanks, stopped the Sovs in Afghanistan during the 80s and stopped the communist Dominoes there, like they were in Africa and South America. <br /><br />Except they didn't really, as the dominoes just fell a different way, to nationalist fundamentalism, so they needed another knock. Clack. Which pushed that fundamentalism into the NW frontier province of Pakistan proper, knocking out America's ally in the region, Musharraf. So now, there's no real government in Pakistan, as Bhutto's corrupt widower and an equally corrupt <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nawaz_Sharif">nationalist prick</a> who also happens to be the country's richest man (remind you of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlusconi">anyone</a>?) battle it out for the increasingly wormy soul of the nation, while the once-disciplined army falls apart. Clack.<br /><br />Now it turns out that the terrorists who buggered up Mumbai yesterday were probably <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lashkar-e-Toiba">Lashkar-e-Toiba</a>, a terrorist organisation who've declared Hindus and Jews as enemies of Islam and backed by elements of the Pakistani army, to destabilise India and Afghanistan. (Because Destabilising your neighbours is a damn good idea, right?) These elements only got away with it, because the massive Pakistani army doesn't know what it believes any more and the politicians are too obsessed with power to hold it to account. Meanwhile, now India looks unstable and its Prime Minister looks angry. No-one has time to worry about Thailand, where the army is getting restless and a vocal urban minority is trying to destabilise the democratically-elected (rotten-as-riverwood) government.<br /><br />In fact, the most stable places in the region look to be the autocratic (Burma), communist (China), and the post-communist (Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and the rest.) Once the democrats and fundamentalists have worn themselves out and all the pieces have fallen, they'll still be standing, ready to knock them back the other way.Grillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06266295686814157220noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774606.post-59807207188481223012008-11-24T18:13:00.000+00:002008-11-24T18:13:00.237+00:00Shameless Plug<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><a href='http://www.champions-online.com/which_champion_are_you'>Which Champion Are You? | Champions Online Official Site</a><br/><br/>I'm not handling PR for this particular MMO (though I am for its predecessor, City of Heroes), but I'm interested to see how it goes. They've got a nice What Hero Are You generator on the website, though it seems to have read me rather too well.<br/><br/><blockquote><br/><a href='http://www.champions-online.com/which_champion_are_you'><img src='http://files.champions-online.com/which_champion_are_you/foxbat.jpg'/></a><p>Raised on a steady diet of comic books, you grew up to be an unstable lunatic, whose wacky ambitions are only matched by your delusions of grandeur. You're too crafty to get caught, otherwise you'd certainly be locked away in the loony bin!</p><p><a href='http://www.champions-online.com/which_champion_are_you'>Take the quiz!</a></p></blockquote></div>Grillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06266295686814157220noreply@blogger.com1