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To help promote their new vacuum cleaner Dyson have created a deviously addictive game where you must navigate a ball through mazes into a hole. The ball moves along at a brisk pace and you just steer it right or left.

Like all great games it is simple to play but hard to master especially if you choose to change the settings for a yet even faster ball.

The Ball Game.

They also produced The Telescope Game, which I became addicted to a year or two ago.

Another of my current internet puzzle game addictions is RayRayParade.

Tags: games

Freeway revolt is a random page from the Wikipedia.

The Freeway Revolt is the name given to public opposition against building freeways through San Francisco, California in the 1950s. It started in 1956 when the San Francisco Chronicle published a map (See image) made in 1947 or 1948 by the San Francisco Planning Department showing possible routes for freeways through the city, and by the construction of the Embarcadero Freeway.

It would have been an excellent name for a rock group in the seventies I think.

Tags: Wikipedia

Magic Missile real life roleplaying goes a little too far.

Tags: games

ID cards are a waste, says security guru

Bruce Schneier tells Computer Weekly why ID cards could exacerbate crime and why the only way to beat ID theft is to make banks responsible for its prevention.

The UK’s plans for biometric identity cards are a waste of money, one of the world’s leading experts on computer security said this week.

In an interview with Computer Weekly, Bruce Schneier, security author and chief technology officer of internet security group Counterpane, said the programme could do more harm than good.

“ID cards are a waste of money. The amount of good they will do is not nearly worth the cost. They will not reduce crime, fraud or illegal immigration,” he said.

The adoption of ID cards would encourage criminals to attempt forgeries, he said, potentially exacerbating crime rather than reducing it.

“Every credential has been forged. As you make a credential more valuable, there is more impetus to forge it. The reason identity theft is so nasty now is that your identity is so much more valuable than it used to be. By putting in the infrastructure, we have made the crime more common. That’s scary.”

He said the UK government, like other governments around the world, was investing in the technology as a form of control but marketing it as better security.

“We are living in a world where governments are looking for more control. They are looking for measures that increase control. It is being sold as security but it is really control,” he said.

Schneier said that the US plans to spend £10bn on a programme to build checkpoints at airports to prevent terrorists boarding planes are a similar waste of money.

“If you had a list of people that were so dangerous you would never let them on an aircraft and £10bn, would you build a series of checkpoints at airports just in case they happened to walk through them, or hire FBI agents to investigate those people?” he said.

“We are building a security system that only works if the terrorist happens to choose the tactic of going on an aircraft, yet we are affecting the privacy of every airline passenger.”

Schneier said ID theft will only be solved when banks are given responsibility to prevent it. “As soon as it becomes the banks’ problem, it will be solved. The entity that is responsible for the risk will mitigate the risk.”

Credit card fraud in the US fell dramatically after the banks become responsible for refunding customers with losses of more than £25 caused by fraud, he said.

Tags: computer security, ID cards, security

I read IGDA Session: Burning Down The House – Game Developers Rant and found myself agreeing with most of what the developers are ranting about particularly the opening gambit of Warren Spector.

OK. I don’t feel very ranty actually. I tried to bail on this panel. But I have to say something so I want to say how this business is hopelessly broken. Haha. We’re doing pretty much everything wrong. This is at the root of much of what you’re gonna hear today. Games cost too much. They take too long to make. The whole concept of word of mouth, remember that? Holy cow it was nice.

I’ve mentioned before of my own disatisfaction with modern video games, now I love Halo 2 as much as the next guy or gal but was it worth the money? I finished the campaign surprisingly quickly in fact it caught me by surprise that I had finished it as the storyline isn’t entirely completed it is left as a cliffhanger and I’m left waiting for the inevitable Halo 3.

But Halo 2 ain’t just about the campaign there’s the multiplayer mode which are fun as hell but are they really any different than in the original Halo, okay so it incorporates Xbox Live so you can play against people on the other side of the world, but is that any better than playing against someone who’s in the same room.

But at least Halo 2 does have the multiplayer option so it has some longevity to it, most games now have adopted the narrative format i.e. you play the part of a character in a story, gameplay has become secondary to the narrative, but the trouble with that sort of game is that once the story is over the game stops being fun.

With the improvement in graphics technology video games have moved more and more towards being interactive films which is apparently what game buyers want or is it? Maybe now that I’ve hit 30 years of age I’ve become a curmudgeon that is out of touch telling the kids that video games were much better in my day even though the graphics were shite and blocky and only two dimensional.

I’m currently seeking video game satisfaction via a regression to my younger self by purchasing via eBay a Nintendo 64 Console and
Mario Kart 64 for a total of £28 including postage which is less than I’d pay for a game for my Xbox and yet hopefully I’d get as many hours of fun from it as I did years back when I played it at a mate’s house. I’ve also considered a further regression by reliving my Sega Megadrive days and Sonic the Hedgehog in the form of the Sonic Mega Collection.

A possible solution to this problem is the MMORPG which allows a player to participate in an unending narrative but I’m even burnt out on this type of game having achieved a relatively high level on Asheron’s Call I lack the motivation to go through virtually the same experience on a newer version or a similar thing like World of Warcraft.

Tags: games

Reuters: Cardinal Urges Catholics to Shun Da Vinci Code

The cardinal leading the Vatican’s charge against The Da Vinci Code urged Catholics on Wednesday to shun it like rotten food and branded the bestseller “a sack full of lies” insulting the Christian faith.

In an interview with Reuters inside the Vatican, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone also said Catholic bookstores should take the thriller off their shelves and accused U.S. author Dan Brown of “deplorable” behavior.

“Don’t buy this. Don’t read this because this is rotten food,” said Bertone, the highest ranking Catholic churchman to speak out against the blockbuster…

The central tenet of the book is that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had children. Christians are taught that Jesus never married, was crucified and rose from the dead.

“We can’t keep quiet about the truth when faced with all the lies and all the inventions in this book,” Bertone said.

Lies and inventions eh? I could be wrong but I’m pretty sure that the book is a work of fiction, albeit one that many readers have taken as being based upon fact. Surely by expressing an opinion officially The Vatican is adding fuel to the fire of the ‘truth’ of the Da Vinci Code.

Sure shun the book but do it because it ain’t a great piece of writing not because it is heretical. It is after all just a story…

or is it.

Tags: books

with a forklift. (movie-wmv)

I laughed so hard at this, it is a brilliantly gory black comedy short.

Tags: humour, video

The traditional 7 spot ladybird is under threat from a foreign invader.

The Harlequin Ladybird

A new ladybird has arrived in Britain. But not just any ladybird: this is the harlequin ladybird, Harmonia axyridis, the most invasive ladybird on Earth.

The harlequin ladybird was introduced to North America in 1988, where it is now the most widespread ladybird species on the continent. It has already invaded much of of northwestern Europe, and arrived in Britain in summer 2004.

The distribution map on the left shows that it has spread rapidly throughout the southeast of England since its first sighting.

There are 46 species of ladybird (Coccinellidae) resident in Britain and the recent arrival of the harlequin ladybird has the potential to jeopardise many of these. The Harlequin Ladybird Survey will monitor its spread across Britain and assess its impact on native ladybirds.

Tags: nature

Thanks to Jason Kottke I happened across the exquisite Japanese woodblock prints produced by David Bull.

Unusually he doesn’t sell individual prints instead he insists that you subscribe to a series of prints which he will the despatch to you on a regular basis throughout the year. He explains why here.

This year’s subscription is
The ‘Hanga Treasure Chest’, a series of 24 smaller prints at what I think is a very reasonable price.

For many years now I have made my new year card prints in the Japanese postcard size. Many of my collectors and fans have urged me to make ‘more’ of this type of print, and I think it’s time to oblige!

The ‘Hanga Treasure Chest’ is a set of 24 woodblock prints of that size and general type which will be issued throughout 2005 at the rate of a new one every two weeks. Subscribers to the set will receive (together with the first print, and at no extra charge) an attractive storage box. The prints are mounted on cards, and enclosed by a paper wrapper that also contains a short descriptive explanatory piece … ready to slip into the box for safe-keeping.

David Bull is not without his detractors though including those who accuse him of grave-robbing for producing prints of classical Japanese artworks.

If you don’t have anything to say to the world as an artist on your own merit then maybe you should wait until you do instead of pawning off beautiful, old prints as your own just because the original artists can’t defend their right to it.

Would the writer of this email accuse the director of a production of Romeo and Juliet or Hamlet of the same crime?
Should Shakespeare’s plays be put aside and left to their own time?

New artistic works are invariably built upon the artistic works of the past in some form or another even if the links are too insubstantial to recognize. In addition if classic works are not republished or reintepreted then they get lost to history and our culture is worse off.

Without David Bull to reproduce these great Japanese works of the past then many would never get to see them.

Tags: art

So the Prevention of Terrorism Bill was finally passed and Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta is looking ever more prescient. The controversy of the Bill is mainly concerned with the Control Orders which would allow suspected terrorists, whether a UK national or a non-UK national to have severe restrictions placed upon under the orders of the Home Secretary without trial.

Thanks to the truly excellent website They Work For You the entire epic commons debate is available in an easily read format with much background information. It is split up into a m umber of segments due to the bill being passed back and forth between the Houses of Commons and Lords as amendments to the Bill were suggested and considered.

9th March debates
Prevention of Terrorism Bill (Programme) (No. 3)
Orders of the Day — Prevention of Terrorism Bill
Clause 1 — Power to Make Control Orders

10th March debates
Prevention of Terrorism Bill Debate
Prevention of Terrorism Bill Debate
Prevention of Terrorism Bill Debate

Finally the Bill was agreed upon and given
Royal Assent.

However both the Government and the Opposition are claiming victory due to the Bill being now greatly diminished from what the government wanted and yet it has now passed into law. Whoever claims rightful victory it would seem to me that it is the British public that have lost.

I have not yet been convinced of the necessity of the Prevention of Terrorism Bill 2005, the government is primarily argued for it’s introduction to counter the threat of the 200 or so terrorists that are loose within our borders.

They fail to mention that of those 200 people most are only suspected of loose affiliation with terrorists i.e. funding or providing safe houses. Intelligence officials have estimated that perhaps only 30-40 individuals would be prepared to kill themselves or others.

In addition it must be said that the police and security services are doing their job in containing these ‘terrorists’. They are clearly known individuals if we have accurate numbers and they are under surveillance. The fact that they have been in the country for years without having been arrested would be an indication that there is no evidence of wrongdoing. They may well have been trained at camps with Al-Qaeda but if they then do nothing at all with that training then they cannot really be considered as terrorists.

The BBC reports that the remaining foreign detainees at Belmarsh were released and that the Home Secretary was issuing control orders under his new powers for each of the former detainees.

The former detainees face bail conditions which include:

* Electronic tagging
* A night-time curfew from 1900 to 0700
* A ban on using mobile phones and the internet
* Obtaining permission from the Home Office if they wish to meet anyone outside their home
* Living at an address notified to the Home Office and police, who can search the property without warning
* No visitors unless the Home Office has been notified in advance, except for under-16s
* Notifying the Home Office of any intended departure from the UK, and the port of embarkation
* Bank account restrictions and sending monthly statements to the Home Office.

And finally at least we are aware that our civil liberties are being eroded unlike the Russian populace, if the newly retired chess genius Garry Kasparov’s assessment is correct.

Tags: security, surveillance, terrorism