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Inter-dependability: A Face of Things to Come

Sun, 20 May 2012 22:20:59 +0100

It's not often that I choose to blog on a serious or in-depth matter in fact one could argue that I have never made a particularly thought provoking statement or argument in any of my blogs. I still don't intend to. Photo-blogging allows one to show only what they want to show and the viewer only has to see what they choose to see, there is no argument or statement just a representation of what was.

It's with this in mind that I decided to express a growing concern I have, and will attempt to use this week's hell raising launch of Diablo 3 as an analogy. Diablo 3 has had its fair share of controversy since its first hints of development, the controversies have not ended but their consequences have now been revealed. Diablo 3 represents a face of things to come, possibly there're already all around us.

No one can exactly complain that World of Warcraft or Guild Wars 2 require an internet connection but then one can't deny that these are both truly online games. However, since playing Diablo 3 I still have yet to join a public game or play with a friend. And since there is currently no PVP, there is room to argue that the game is undoubtedly a single player game. From here one could suggest an internet connection should not be required to play it, or at least an offline part of it.

Diablo 3's launch was not without its problems. But before we dismiss complaints about Diablo 3's launch as entitled whining, one needs to step back, take a good look at what people are complain about, there is a harsh lesson of things to come. Everyone knew about Diablo 3's DRM policy which requires an always on internet connection to play what is in essence a single player game. But this does not soften the disappointment when error 37 arrives or when your $100 fibre optic internet connection decides to go on vacation. It also does not help, as gamers are discovering in droves, that neither will the game work if Blizzard's servers are acting up. This problem is made even more complicated when your geography plays against you. Just about any person living in the Southern hemisphere can testify to this.

Welcome to a world where the product you just purchased is reliant on your geography and connectivity, and for no other reason than corporate insecurities of a supposedly dying PC gaming market: due to piracy. This is not limited to only the gaming world.

This may remind many of the Mass Effect 3 end game controversy, but there was a core difference, the complaints aimed at BioWare where a matter of personal opinion over creative content, Diablo 3 will undoubtedly receive its share of criticism in terms of its creative direction. But in this case things are different. Customers have bought a game which they can't play when they want to play it.

It comes as no surprise that the shining blizzard fan-base "knights" state that the problems are only temporary and that it is simply a case of sheer demand on Blizzards servers which are causing these problems. However, many people struggle to find a couple of hours a week to spend playing their highly anticipated game. If you have set aside this time, spending a couple of hours viewing error messages leaves anybody the right to be upset. And once again this does not help the poor people of "down-under" or when your family decides to visit your grandparent, and you have your trusty laptop with Diablo 3 ready to spend the week in hell, only then to find out an internet connection is not available.

This whole situation leaves me with an uneasy feeling of a self-fulfilling prophesy. Rumours of a market which is slowly dying (which in my opinion is utter rubbish see Riot's prizes) over-hyped issues of piracy and a solution which only ruins the enjoyment of legitimate consumers. Sounds like a recipe that can only result in the destruction of the cook.

Living in an inter-connected world has its advantages; there is no doubt of that. However, along with these advantages comes an increasingly worrying Inter-dependability. The availability and quality of that piece of copper or fibre, is going to start controlling what you can and can't buy. If you live in South Africa don't expect the latest technology trends such as VoD or Spotify any time soon. If you live in rural England don't expect to be cancelling your Sky subscription for IPTV. Finally heaven forbid your internet connection dies or you simply can't get one, though it just might save you from eternal damnation.

Guild Wars 2

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 17:43:43 +0100

This is what landed in the post today.

Looking forward to the 27th which is the First Beta Weekend Event.

Guild Wars 2 is an up-coming mmo which aims to redefine what Massively Multilayer Online Games are. The game will now feature dynamic, ever changing, events. These events will effect the world for everyone, your choices and the choices of those around you will have an impact on the world and is events.

"Enter the living world of Guild Wars 2 - filled with thousands of dynamic events that ebb and flow through the course of your adventures. One day there may be a thriving village filled with vendors and townspeople, the next day that village may be a smoking ruin overrun by centaurs." - Guild Wars 2

Guild Wars Website

Assembled to Play

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 15:07:22 +0100

The main reason I have not been working on JesarArts recently is due to a project which I have been working on with some friends from back in South Africa.

Ever since I started playing PC games I have wanted to start a PC gaming clan. When I left South Africa one of my friends contacted me with a rather ambitious project which involved the development of a web site. The result of this collaboration was Assembled to Play.

www.assembledtoplay.com

A2P is a group of dedicated PC gamers from South Africa & the UK. The team was founded in 2011 by Marc Berman and currently has members across the globe. Our mission is to provide a competitive environment for PC gamers.

And that's exactly what A2P is, a group of pc gamers from across the globe who enjoy gaming and now have a growing community in which to find fellow gamers.

Our goals for Assembled to Play are to grow the team and hopefully start competing in major league tournaments such as the DGL in South Africa.

As far as the A2P website is concerned there were two major points which had to be addressed. The first being an actual web-presence which was the site and the second being the community engagement portal which would be the forums along with a TeamSpeak server.

Apart from these challenges we had to develop an online awareness for the team. This was achieved through developing an A2P YouTube channel, Twitter account and soon to be developed Facebook Page.

If you are interested in joining us please join our TeamSpeak server on chat.assembledtoplay.com

A Day in London 4

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 14:31:30 +0100

I started the Day in London series as a monthly series. However, this was a little ambitious. During term time I simply run out of time and don't make it into London.

However, in this rather short post I have condensed the last two visits into a single post. In early January whilst my father was still in the UK we visited London on the day he was returning back to South Africa. As a result our time in the London was limited.

The British Library ^^

On the Tube ^^

Forgot where we were headed xD

Later that day we got off at London Bridge Tube station and were greeted by this view of the new London Bridge Shard building by Norman Foster.

Unfortunately it was a very rainy day and was very cold.

Another interesting building right next to the Shard.

Visiting the White Cube Gallery in Bermondsey.

Last week Friday was my next visit to London, the weather has improved and there Spring is almost upon us.

I will leave you with these lovely pictures of St James's Park.

Fortnum and Mason preparing for the Diamond Jubilee.

Canterbury Snow

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 13:05:27 +0100

This is a very late post, which I must apologise for. In the next post I will speak about why I have not posted any content for so long.

I hope you enjoy these photos though.

So these were taken in early February, for a while I was convinced we were not going to have snow this winter. However, as you can see I was mistaken.

This winter started off incredibly mild, hardly hitting below 5degrees C. However, the temperatures plummeted in February and as a result we got some snow. Though as it was not very humid it did not snow for very long.

Skye's first encounter with snow :) He seems to thoroughly enjoy it.

The next day we got considerably more snow, the entire of Canterbury was covered in about 15 - 20cm of it, it looks lovely for the first few days.

Even though we finally got snow, it only actually snowed for about 2 days. I was surprised at how slow it took to melt, was about 3 weeks before it was all gone.

Lumix G3 Test

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 12:45:35 +0100

I have been using a simple Sony DMC-H3 for almost 2 years now and while it has been a fantastic camera I felt it was time to get something a bit more serious so over Christmas I got a new camera. I actually spent a crazy amount of time trying to decide on what would be a good entry point into DSLR or if I should rather go with a compact system camera.

I finally decided to go with a CSC specifically the Panasonic Lumix G3: Link

With 16 Mega-pixels, a 17.3 x 13.0 mm Sensor, interchangeable Micro Four Thirds lenses and a light weight body the Panasonic Lumix G3 was ideal for my use, which involves a lot of street photography. Here is a basic test shot playing around with the shutter speed.

Here is a shot from when we visited Chilham over December.

And here is another ^^

Testing out the Macro Mode on some very early cherry blossoms. ^

Some more macro shots.

Some night shots taken with a prolonged shutter speed.

Recently we went to Whitstable on my Architecture course and there was a really nice sunset.

Canterbury at Night

Sat, 26 Nov 2011 00:14:01 +0100

Last weekend Canterbury City had its Christmas Lights Big Turn On and I decided to go check it out and take a few photos.

This was a good test for my current camera which does not perform very well at night and I thought it would be a good opportunity to get some night time practice before getting my new camera.

Apart from all the Christmas lights there are quite a few market stalls which have opened up for Christmas selling all sorts of goodies, such as Belgian Waffles, sweets, toffees as well as hot dogs :)

As its getting into winter now the sun sets at around 4 o'clock. However, it has been a surprisingly mild Autumn, this time last year there was huge amounts of snow already.

A Week in Paris

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 22:39:29 +0100

Arrived in Paris on Sunday last week, which feels like ages ago already. We were only in Paris for 5 days and thus had a lot to get through each day.

Unfortunately I made some serious misjudgements concerning my camera equipment, including forgetting to find my 4GB memory card and thinking a 512MB would be sufficient. Thus I have no photos of the Euro Star.

Anyways, who cares about that. This my largest post so far and thus has taken ages to upload, edit and document.

After arriving at Gare du Nord, we decided to walk to our hotel as it was only about 15min away.

View Gare du Nord, Paris in a larger map

This turned out to be a fantastic idea as it gave us time to drop our bags off at the hotel and find some good pizzas. Which we sat and ate while watching the rest of our architecture group walk to the hotel about an hour after us.

We also had enough time to find a Metro station and get a pack of 10 Metro Cards for about €12. Would have actually have been a better deal to get a Navigo Pass as this would have covered the entire week for only €18, though some told me they had to pay €22.

Was surprised to learn that the Hotel we were staying in was three stars which turned out to be strange as personally I think it should have only been two, though the breakfasts were pretty good.

I shall now just let the photos do the talking ;)

At about three we met up with our architecture tutor for the trip and caught the Metro to Champs-Elysees, were we walked down towards the Musee du Louvre.

Bubbles^^

Was only around 5 and the light was fading fast.

If there was one thing this trip confirmed for me was my need for a new camera, something on the lines of an EVIL Camera also know as a compact system camera or maybe even a DSLR. Something that can handel night time photography better than my current Sony H3.

Which would you go with the Lumix-HF2 or the Nikon D3100, leave a comment or give me a tweet @JiPaton, esspecially if you think another camera would be better!

Ah, Paris at night...

Finally made it to the Musee du Louvre and it is already almost pitch black.

After heading through the Louvre we walked to the Centre Pompidou, which actually looks quite beautiful all light up.

The following day was one of our best days in terms of weather, cleat skys and warmer.

Today we were headed for the Palace of Versailles.

We needed to catch the RER to Versailles, which we caught at Saint-Michel Notre-Dame.

The train trip was about 40min.

At Versailles there where these gigantic iron archways, which were part of some art installation, which I unfortunately did not find any explanation of. But they did make for some great photography subjects.

Heading towards the gardens, which was one of the main reasons for coming to Versailles.

The Palace and the Kings Room in the center.

One of the largest gardens I have ever seen, it was designed to extend all the way into the horizon which it almost does and stretches on for about 5KM.

More of those mysterious arches.

From this view point the ponds appear to be circles however, in fact this is an illusion and they were designed in ellips forms so as to appear circular at this viewing angle.

They where also filming something today, not sure what it was though.

As its late Autumn the sun is setting early in Europe, which did give me the opportunity to take this lovely sunset shot as well as keep trying my hand at night photography.

Taking the RER back to Paris.

The following day was awful as it rained the entire day and everything was shut because it was a public/bank holiday. However, we did get into Notre-Dame.

After Notre-Dame we had the afternoon free and we decided to head up the Arc De Triomphe.

Now if we could only figure out how to cross the circle.

Turns out there is a tunnel which leads to the island where the arch is located.

Many steps to the top.

PARIS!

Avenue Des Champs Elysees, which goes on forever.

View of Paris's CBD.

Paris is full of these Boulevards, which stretch on for miles, in every direction.

This kid is actually rollerblading down the Palais de Chailot stairs, backwards!

Contemporary architecture in the middle of Paris which was a bit of a surprise and I actually really like the building, which is The Quai Branly Museum.

Another interesting building.

The Petit Palais ^^

After looking at the Petit Palais and the Grand Palais we headed back to Notre-Dame, where we visited the La Mémorial des Martyrs de La Déportation.

And then we headed up to the Pantheon, in the area I stayed in Paris last year.

The Pantheon^^

The Institut Du Monde Arabe ^^

As well as an interesting structure next to it.

Some more, poor quality, night time shots of the Bibliotheque National De France.

The following day we decided to go up the Eiffel Tower, which presented an opportunity for some fantastic shots of the city along with the Quai Branly Museum.

Its been a very long time since I saw a tram, I am certain this would solve public transport problems in South Africa.

Ah and that was the end of my cameras pathetic 512MB memory.

Windows Phone 7.5

Sat, 29 Oct 2011 18:19:20 +0100

When I first got my HTC HD7 I was a bit sceptical about the fact that it was one of the few devices running the Windows Phone OS.

Though I did enjoy the first incarnation of WP7 I was not thoroughly impressed with it, even though the Metro UI was something new and interesting.

Microsoft spent a good 2 months teasing consumers, like myself, with short videos and reviews of WP7.5 which made the wait feel like eternity. Being able to see just what my phone was capable of, for so long, with a decent version of WP7 was a really annoying experience.

However, the wait has definitely been worth it. I would even dare say that my phone feels like an entirely new phone, like comparing the first iPhone to the iPhone 3Gs.

Windows Phone 7.5 Mango has introduces about 500 new feature to the WP7 OS and has skilfully integrated Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin directly into the OS.

They have also improved the Metro UI experience with what is known as Live tiles. Basically each tile can now display live information in a multitude of different methods, such as flipping the tile to display new content.

There is simply no getting away from, just how much more useful tiles are over icons.

As stated earlier Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin are now integrated into the OS, this provides what is known as the "Me" tile which allows you to post directly to FB and Twitter as well as checking in, checking notifications and seeing what's new.

There is also the People Hub which shows you all your contacts, Twitter & Facebook streams and also allows you to create groups of contacts such as friends, family and colleagues.

Facebook chat has also been integrated into the OS and works particularly well on wi-fi and 3G but not very well if you only have 2G coverage.

Here is an example of a group, each person is represented by a tile which can be pinned to the home screen and also changes to show live information such as tweets or Facebook status updates. The group as a whole can now also be pinned to the home screen as a live tile.

Here you can see the What's new screen in the people hub which can be sorted to show all your accounts streams or just a certain account like Facebook or Twitter.

Holding down on a tile on the home screen will allow you to unpin or move the selected tile.

Live tiles are a great way for news applications to give you breaking news just at a glance, as well as new updates to apps from the market place.

Internet explorer 9 Mobile works very well and displays sites quickly and accurately, unfortunately it is still Internet Explorer which, as a web designer, I can't stand.

Updating the WPCentral app.

Xbox Live Games has also been improved and makes playing games on your phone that much more rewarding.

Another big feature which has been added to WP7 is multitasking which makes switching between running applications much faster, than on the original Windows Phone 7 OS.

Desk Diary 2011/10

Sat, 29 Oct 2011 15:19:49 +0100

The last Desk Diary that I posted was in September and since then I did not get around to uploading Octobers. These photos were taken just as I was starting university, which is actually the reason I have posted so little of late as well as me not feeling so wonderful for the first week of term.

Since starting university we had to get a whole lot of architecture kit, which were finally handed out in the second week of term. The kit consists of a whole bunch of equipment including pencils, rulers, set squares, etc.

We also got given one of these ^^. Which I have actually been meaning to get for a while.

Besides university, Microsoft finally launched the update to Windows Phone 7 named Mango which actually now makes the OS Windows Phone 7.5.

Which I had been eagerly waiting for, for what seemed like an eternity. And I must say that the new OS version is fantastic.

As you can see university is in full swing.

I will review Windows Phone 7.5 in the next post ;)