Some simple missions

My current agent in EVE Online starts a conversation by saying I won't believe what she's about to tell me. There are furries in an adjacent system. It is good to know that the Minmatar Republic has furries, just as the Caldari State does. I am about to mention the tiger ears and tail I have in my ship when the agent continues with what has turned in to a mission briefing. I am tasked to destroy the furries! Luckily, it turns out that the furries she is referring to are genetically modified creatures that have run amok in a research laboratory and not people who like to dress as cute anthropomorphic animals. Or maybe she really hates furries and doesn't see them as people. Either way, I'd better not wear my tiger ears in this agent's presence.

It doesn't take long to head across a system and destroy the research laboratory, evading the threat of some misguided environmental activists whilst doing so. And by 'evading' I perhaps am better served by the word 'eliminating'. My agent is pleased with the result of the mission and offers the next. My lack of morals regarding the activist apparently encourages her to show me how the Minmatar deal with the homeless population: they ship them out to space. I am a little fuzzy on the details, failing miserably to pay attention to the entire mission briefing, but it seems I am to take some rounded up homeless people to another system and drop them there. It's not quite as bad as it sounds, as I am to drop them in a different space station and not just randomly in the hard vacuum of space, but I am not entirely sure what happens once I drop them off. I will delude myself in to thinking they will be given food, shelter, and jobs and rehabilitated in to society, rather than used as target practice.

Then I get my first storyline mission for the faction! It is almost exciting to carry important documents wrapped in high explosives for the reward of a memory boosting implant. It is more exciting to think of the faction reputation gain garnered by the completion of the mission, so that perhaps I can move on to higher quality agents and level two missions again soon. Of course, if I got myself organised enough I could join the corporation's level four mission running events and gain faction reputation much more quickly. I'll need to put together a decent mission running ship, perhaps another Drake, and try to get more involved.

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Tags: eve online, penny ibramovic

I need to get out more, and other World of Warcraft tales

With Halloween just behind us, the invasion of the Scourge heralding the imminent release of Wrath of the Lich King expansion for World of Warcraft, and Melmoth returning to Azeroth, my gaming time has been spent mostly playing protection warriors. I have woken Tiger, my original warrior, created on the first day of release, and run her through instances with Melmoth's shaman and paladin, as well as gracefully being invited to Karazhan with my old guild for the Scourge invasion quest, getting a pet bat in the process. Sapphire, my US-based warrior, has been rushing to 70th level, partly because the rest of the small guild is pushing to get there because of the new content shortly to be opened.

I doubt I'll be heading in to Northrend too soon, though. I can get frustrated both with selfish players and a natural lack of quest objectives. It will only be made worse with brand new content for everyone being opened and, unless lessons have been learnt from Burning Crusade, Alliance and Horde sharing many of the same objectives.

Sapphire hasn't just been rushing to 70th level for the expansion, it is mostly because levelling in Outlands is really quick post-3.02 patch. There are so many quests and such little experience needed to level now that I have skipped two regions entirely, and not come close to completing the content in three others. The good part is that this means there is still a whole load of content to be enjoyed whilst I hold back from entering Northrend. Even if I wait a short while I doubt my guild will be able to get more than a level ahead of me as the pace is once again returned to normal with the new content. It will be a shame if I don't get to see the high-level Outlands instances again, although at least I was able to experience them fully with my EU-based character.

Even with only two warriors to play on different servers there is still a remarkable amount of content to enjoy before the expansion. Early in the weekend I realised that I probably should not spend my entire time playing World of Warcraft and decided to take a break. When I asked myself what I wanted to do instead I was a bit stumped, though. As I ended up playing some EVE Online I realised that I need to get out more.

Returning later to World of Warcraft my guild are persuaded to try the Old Hillsbrad instance in the Caverns of Time, where we have to rescue Thrall from his capture. One of our group is at work so we find a fifth using the Looking for Group interface, a shaman. This shaman clearly is an alt, a player who has run the content fully before at least once and knows exactly what the instance holds in store. I imagine he is probably twinked, too. Unfortunately for him, my guild group consists mostly of people who only started playing World of Warcraft after the release of Burning Crusade, none of whom have seen any of this content before. We like to take our time and be careful, pay attention to the details of the instance and the quests. This isn't our hundredth time through the dungeon, it is a learning experience. What we don't need is a maverick player pushing the rest of us to play at his pace, particularly if it is at breakneck speed.

I mention more than once that the shaman needs to slow down and let us stay organised, that he shouldn't be so aggressive because we need time to set up. I know what it's like from both sides: I've done this content loads of times and could blast through it with the right group, but I also know how hollow the experience can feel to be waltzed through an instance I've never seen before with nary a pause. I would rather my guild and I get some natural enjoyment out of the game and not use instances only as stepping stones for experience and loot.

As a group we make use of the raid icons so that everyone knows the kill target, the polymorph target, and the secondary kill target. This helps to ensure that everyone focusses on the right mob at the right time, which greatly helps our priest, as she then only needs to heal the tank. The shaman doesn't listen, doesn't understand, or simply doesn't care. Even after being told that only one person has ever been in the instance before and being politely requested to slow down and control his aggro more than once he insists on pulling targets and attacking whatever he wants to, causing unintended multiple runners who pick up adds and wipe us. I know it may be only a minor delay for a veteran instance runner but it can be disorientating and ultimately demoralising for the casual player to experience this mayhem. I point out that I am happy to mark and tank but that I am not going to waste my time if my efforts are going to be ignored. The shaman replies with 'relax man', which is a spectacularly wrong answer for someone who has already received several warnings. I kick him from the group with no hesitation or explanation.

We are in the tricky situation of trying to complete a fairly difficult instance with only four players, most of whom haven't been here before. With little option of finding a replacement we push on. It isn't smooth from start to finish, but running an instance with mostly first-time players shouldn't be expected to be entirely smooth. Even so, the four of us finally prevail and Thrall is freed!

We run the Old Hillsbrad again the next day, to complete it for our previously missing guild member. Whilst our man is being shown around the Caverns of Time I take the opportunity to explore Hillsbrad of the past. I head in to Southshore where I see Nat Pagle fishing off the dock and overhear Mograine and other leaders of the Scarlet Crusade talking in the inn about the undead threat. It is really quite interesting to be mingling with these people before it all turns sour. Sadly, I can't head far enough north to discover Dalaran.

After Old Hillsbrad we then attempt the Black Morass, sadly not making too much of a dent in the second instance, getting overwhelmed by the fifth portal opening. This is down to some communication problems, overall inexperience, and the swiftness and ease of levelling almost precluding the ability to maintain suitable equipment for character level. It is a good effort to start with, although with Northrend opening this week I doubt we'll enter the Black Morass a second time. However, there will be plenty of new places and monsters to experience for the first time, which will be a whole new learning experience.

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Tags: azeroth, black morass, old hillsbrad, outlands, sapphire, tiger

An MMORPG for a console?

Whilst taking a break from the Eurogamer Expo with a bunch of bloggers and being recorded for some podcast or other the topic of MMORPGs for consoles was raised. Specifically, the question was asked whether there will ever be an MMORPG for a console. The host responded emphatically positive, stating that MMORPGs will come to consoles but only once game designers get rid of the grind and make a game that is essentially fun to play, otherwise the console gamers will not want to play it. I took exception to this and pointed out that if a game could be made that was fun to play and without a grind then it would already exist on desktop computers. I stand by this opinion. I don't think it is possible to wave a magic wand to create the perfect game for consoles that has eluded designers thus far on desktop computers. On reflection, it seems the question of MMORPGs appearing on consoles was sidestepped because of this digression. I'll attempt to examine the question further.

I'm returning to the topic of MMORPGs on consoles if only because further thought on removing the grind from the genre for console play revealed it to be unnecessary to do so. The idea of unlocking content in console games has been around for many years and often takes the form of playing through solo content multiple times with different characters, vehicles, or difficulty settings. Some content can only be unlocked by vastly repetitive gameplay, running through the same tasks hundreds of times only to unlock a feature that lets you do it all again but in a slightly different way. And if you need more convincing about the gameplay grind being present on consoles you need look no further than Pokemon as a shining example. The grind is quite obviously present in console gaming. It may not be present in all console games but it also isn't present in all computer games; the point here is that console gamers will reject a game with grinding and I am claiming evidence exists that shows there is clearly a market for a game with grinding on consoles.

It is interesting to note that most of this grinding is done by solo players for achievements and rewards that will only be shown locally. Consider what would happen if these gamers who play for hours on end to unlock special features were able to preen in front of like gamers, showing off the results of their efforts. Rather than graphical representations of trophies or special weapons and clothing that only you will see on your screen you can strut around other players with these rewards to show just how hardcore a gamer you are. If console gamers already go to great lengths to unlock content just imagine how many more would be tempted given the opportunity equivalent to going AFK at the Ironforge bank whilst wielding the Twin Blades of Azzinoth. Add achievements, titles and other rewards as incentives and you have a recipe for successful MMORPG grinding on a console.

So a console MMORPG won't need to get rid of the grind. There will be plenty of players ready to grind for rare items and casual players can enjoy the game on their own terms, just as MMORPGs function on computers. In that case, what defines an MMORPG? The most simplistic answer is that the game will need to be massively multiplayer and on-line, the former pretty much demanding the latter. Essentially, then, it needs to be determined what elements are necessary in a massively multiplayer game. In doing that, it will be possible to see if a console version is likely to be made.

I would suggest that being able to form groups of players to become more powerful as a collective, either for social or gaming reasons, is the quintessential element of MMORPGs. There is little point in playing a massively multiplayer game if all of the other players are or can be ignored. Of course, this should not deny the value of the content or exploration available to the solo player but if every player is only offered a single-player experience then the very nature of the game being massively multiplayer seems undermined. There needs to be interaction between the players and this needs to be mainly in the form of co-operation, to give a sense of community that brings MMORPG worlds alive.

There needs to be a list of friends or helpful players that a player can maintain to help keep in contact or group up with the other people in the game. Some kind of guild system, which allows larger, permanent groups of like-minded players to keep in close contact, is also becoming a necessary element of any MMORPG. And all of this ideally needs to be able to be performed in-game. Out-of-channel communications are possible but it removes the possbility of spontaneity and the unexpected ad hoc formations that spark the more interesting occasions of on-line gaming. What is needed is a way to group up with players, both locally to your character and possibly remotely, to form a coherent and permanent guild, and a method of keeping track of friends and allies.

With a keyboard this is straightforward, as names can be typed quite easily, but with a console direct input would be more difficult. And this moves the topic along to the subject of communication. A keyboard allows simple and complex sentences to be constructed, either for sharing information about a quest or the tactics to be used during a battle, or simply to engage in smalltalk with a friend whilst killing ten rats. Communication on a console would unlikely be as flexible.

There could be a menu system developed for a console that allows for an option to be invoked to add a friend to a contact list or to invite them to join a group, which then brings up a virtual keyboard to allow name entry. There could even be a more intuitive interface developed that intelligently allows selection of players based on level, class, region, or other factors, although it would need to be quite cleverly implemented in a game where potentially hundreds or thousands of players are on-line at once.

Voice chat could displace written communications in MMORPGs on consoles, particularly with standardised hardware and dedicated headsets. However, whilst voice chat works with small groups of people the general or trade channels would be unfeasible to conduct using voice chat because of the number of people involved, as well as their relative anonymity. Even a moderately sized guild would not want to use voice chat as a substitute for a text-based channel for general communications.

Again, a clever interface could solve these issues. Allowing simple substitute phrases and pre-constructed sentences available for general interactions and progressing to voice chat when in specific groups would allow for most of the acceptable communications seen in-game. The question becomes how to create this new interface for consoles. The number of different attacks, abilities and movements that most MMORPG avatars are expected to perform greatly exceeds the number of buttons available on even the most complex console controller, and these are the functions generally used in battle and exclude the unique actions available to certain equippable items. Being able to create the rich texture of combat using a console controller whilst also context-switching to communication and management functionality promises to be a difficult task.

That's not to say it can't be achieved. Consoles have shown that, despite some people's objections, they are capable of running a competent first-person shooter, holding simplistic conversations, connecting to the internet for on-line games, and other functions once reserved for computers, even if those functions have been simplified. It will only take one clever chap to create a suitably adapted interface for the MMORPG genre to be realised on consoles, and whilst it would likely be simplistic it only needs to be adequate. Then the opportunities to expand on that design would create a growth market for console MMORPGs in much the same way that the building on ideas has seen massive expansion of the genre in the computer market.

Will we see MMORPGs appear on consoles? I think we will, but I also think they will be considerably different in interface design than any current MMORPG, which may influence gameplay in subtle respects.

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Tags: mmorpg

Plain Sight

At the recent Eurogamer Expo 2008, where I met some other splendid chaps who I won't name for fear of missing someone vitally important, I saw a whole bunch of console games and a handful of PC games, even trying a few of the apparently less popular ones that didn't have hour-long queues. One neat little game that caught my attention enough that I went back for a second try was Plain Sight, an independent game involving robots and killing other robots.

Played on a cube populated with buildings the world is reminiscent of a Super Mario Galaxy level, with it rotating underneath your robot as you run along the different faces and jump up and over the structures. But it's not just your robot; there are others, and they are out to get you. Armed with a sword the objective is to destroy the other robots by charging in to them, which also initiates the attack. If you're quick and accurate enough the other bot will explode, granting you a score. If not, you will either miss or be destroyed yourself. Every time you destroy an enemy bot you gain a point, but you do not score the point until you self-destruct. If you are destroyed before you self-destruct your points are lost.

It may be tempting to run around feeling masterful and invincible, but with the threat of a lucky strike defeating you there is always a need to bank some points through your own destruction. To make it more interesting, when you self-destruct you cause a local explosion that can destroy other nearby bots and if you catch any in the explosion you gain a multiplier to all the points you bank at that time. It's an excellent risk-reward mechanic, as mentioned in Melmoth's review of Plain Sight, encouraging you to stay close in the action to lure others to their untimely demise whilst potentially losing all your own points in the process.

The game is remarkably simple, yet it drew me back and I didn't want to stop playing. The physics of jumping around the small world feel great, and it can be entertaining enough running and jumping from building to building. Maybe I have too much nostalgia for the times of 8-bit games but the double-jumping antics of Plain Sight appealed to me more than what I saw of Mirror's Edge. There is a good balance between the serenity of jumping around casually and the heightened tension of realising an opponent robot is close and switching to attack mode, charging here and there or trying to escape to return from a better vantage point. The action of attacking comes in short bursts and is balanced with relaxing bouncing around.

Some excellent UI design choices help create this balance. The robots all leave a trail behind them as they move, a single line that follows the arc of the robot's travel precisely and fades out over time. Each surface that a robot touchs on its movements lights up, even if landed on for a moment when bouncing around, as if it were touch-sensitive, again fading out gradually. Both of these features could easily be overlooked as simple graphical effects but they add immensely to the action. If you see a highlighted surface nearby it is a sure sign that an opponent is close. You can then keep an eye out for the tell-tale trail that the robots leave, to pin-point his location and charge in with your sword for the kill. They are remarkably simple effects that act as visual clues and add an excellent sense of awareness of your surroundings. If ever a game epitomised the saying 'you can run but you can't hide' Plain Sight is it.

Plain Sight is simple, in design and gameplay, but it is wonderfully enjoyable. I had to be dragged away from the demonstration machines, but not before I got the details of the website so that I could sign up for the beta.

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Tags: plain sight, visual clues

Getting closer to combat

I pop in to New Eden to run a mission or two with my low-standing agent, hoping to boost my standings and wallet a bit so I can find a better quality agent and fund my inevitable loss of ships and equipment when I start engaging in PvP combat. My new corporation welcomes me when I arrive and asks if I have time to get involved with some low-sec hunting. I wasn't expecting to do anything more than mission running but the opportunity to see some action was appealing, so I am happy to say that I have enough time to get in to a skirmish.

Friend Bear, my disruption frigate, is left in the hangar in favour of my Blackbird, christened Bedtime Bear, for its ECM capabilities. All I had done with the Blackbird so far was buy and equip it, breaking in the engines on simple flights to pick up a module here and there. Once back in my current base the Blackbird's fittings were completed and I let her sit, ready to be called on for service. It is quite exciting to request undocking permission encapsulated in the pod of the Blackbird, taking it out on its maiden voyage with almost a promise of becoming embroiled in a life-or-death battle.

A few short hops later, and one awfully long warp, and I'm in low-sec and using the tips picked up on how to fly through low-sec safely, as well as the safe spots I've set-up previously, to hook up with the small corporation fleet. My journey is hastened by intelligence from the fleet about the safety of the systems I have to pass through, enabling me to fly almost directly to them with no trouble.

The fleet is already on the trail of a few ships and is pinning them down to a system and location. As they move they offer advice on how best to use an ECM boat. Cycle through the hostile targets and jam their targeting systems, whilst I stay at maximum range of my systems and always remain aligned with a celestial body so that if I am targeted I can warp out quickly before heading right back in again. I may be a low-priority threat but I am also an easy kill and I need to be cautious of this.

I am in the system with the fleet and am to warp in to them at my optimal range, to keep as much out of harm's way as possible whilst being ready to engage our targets immediately. My warp drive activates and I am flung through space at several AUs per second, feeling anxious about my first live combat. I flick on the tactical overlay and pull my virtual view back enough to show me the entire battlefield when I drop out of warp. I'm ready.

The warp engines start to deactivate and several ships zoom in to view as I decelerate heavily out of warp. There is one hostile ship on my overview! I start to acquire a lock on him, almost instinctively, but I seem to have appeared on the opposite extreme of the battlefield to him as he is out of range of my systems. It doesn't matter, though, as a few moments later his ship speeds out of the area, obviously in warp. I now have time to scan the rest of the battlefield more thoroughly and notice two wrecks. They are yellow on my screen which means they don't belong to us: two kills!

The rest of the time is spent waiting for the cool-down timers to expire, before divvying up the loot with the other corporation that was involved and making our way safely back to high-sec space. I still haven't seen any live combat, but I am getting closer all the time. The good part is that I am getting experience of entering and piloting through low-sec so that I won't be worrying about this when I finally get in to a battle, instead being able to concentrate on my role in the fight.

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Tags: blackbird, eve online, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp

Staying safe in low-sec with safe spots

When you are in a low-sec system in EVE Online it is a good idea to have some 'safe spots' prepared. A safe spot is simply a place you can safely sit your ship temporarily with little risk of being accidentally stumbled in to by another, perhaps hostile, pilot. It is worth emphasising both that this is a temporary measure and that there is little risk in being found, as you can still be found by someone actively looking. A golden rule in low-sec is to keep moving. Staying in any one location for too long will get you killed.

Stargates are dangerous places to linger, as without a way of knowing what's on the other side you could quickly find yourself in trouble when a fleet unexpectedly jumps through looking for a fight. Space stations are not safe spots, neither are asteroid fields, planets or moons. For a start, they can all be trivially found and warped to using standard overview settings. Space stations can be risky because there could be hostile pilots inside and out, and without support you won't know if you are undocking in to an ambush. Warping to an asteroid field carries the risk of finding someone ratting or mining, which could mean finding an easy target but just as easily dropping in to a well-guarded mining operation. Either way, they are far from a safe place to hide from other ships. Planets and moons tend not to have much traffic around them, but as they can be found on the overview and warped to easily, as well as being easy places to pause to scan nearby asteroid fields, the chances of a roaming pilot bumping in to you are too high to warrant staying near a planet or moon for long.

To be safe—at least temporarily, and certainly safer than loitering at any of the above places—you need to find and get to an arbitrary point in space. This safe spot is set-up in such a way that it is improbable to the point of being impossible for another pilot to warp in to the same location unless they are specifically scanning for other ships in the area. A Mule in EVE has an excellent post about setting up safe spots, and Mynxee's comment is worth bearing in mind too. The instructions on how to make a safe spot are clear and easy to follow. As they rely on your continually moving in a system to create the bookmarks a safe spot can be made relatively safely as you progress through systems, without first requiring a quiet system. You can jump in, warp to a celestial object, bookmark an arbitrary point along the way, repeat until you have your safe point, and then you can warp to that safe point and assess its suitability. If it could be safer you can start the process again, all the while being relatively safe from aggressors.

Personally, I have been making safe spots in a more efficient and convenient manner. When out roaming with my experienced corporation we often jump in to a low-sec system and warp as a fleet to one of their prepared safe spots. Once there, I bookmark that location. And there you have it: one bookmarked safe spot location. I have created a folder within my 'locations' directory that contains all my safe spots. With this folder ordered on the number of jumps away each bookmark is I can quickly see if I have any safe spots in adjacent systems, which is handy whilst travelling. The safe spots are also labelled appropriately if they are within the ship's scanning range of a stargate, which is about 14.2 AU. I can then easily warp to a safe location from where I can scan the stargate to look for any ships on the gate without having to get close enough to appear on their overview. Whilst I won't be able to tell what is on the other side, it will at least alert me to a threat on the gate or whether there are scouts present that hint at bigger ships on the other side of the gate. Being able to gather this information makes travelling much safer.

I had also best label the safe spots as being made within the corporation, so that if I should leave the corporation for any reason I know to avoid those locations. Or perhaps to seek them. I suppose it will depend on my reasons for leaving.

Posted in Gaming | 1 Comment »
Tags: eve online, low-sec, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp

The elusive iPod Touch album shuffle

When listening to music I generally listen to whole albums, played start to finish, rather than individual tracks. I find that, unlike for some other media, a great deal of satisfaction in listening to music comes from the expectation and gratification of knowing what is to come, so while random play of single tracks can produce some interesting results the progression of playing through an album appeals to me greatly. Not quite embracing the expanding market of digital downloads and instead sticking to buying CDs, coupled with listening to artists that care to make good albums is further encouragement to listen to whole albums at a time.

iTunes and the older iPod models have a nifty feature where you can turn the shuffle mode to 'album' and hit play, either on a playlist or on the whole stored collection, and a randon album will play from start to finish before jumping to the start of another random album. This is an excellent feature as it enables me to listen to music the way I most enjoy it without burdening me with having to choose what to listen to all the time. I may not have embraced the idea of digital downloads for music but I can certainly appreciate that having my entire music collection available for playback through a single device offers enormous potential for automation, particularly when the device is a programmable computer.

Because of the album shuffle mode being available in previous models of iPod, and still being present in iTunes, it is incredible that the option is not present in the iPod Touch. The Touch only has a simple shuffle mode, one that only distinguishes between single tracks. It is not possible on the iPod Touch to pick a selection of albums, or the entire collection, and set it playing whole albums at a time, with it instead randomly picking music from the selection on a track-by-track basis. Quite why this feature has been removed is a mystery to me. It is possible that the new user interface made it difficult to integrate an album shuffle mode. It is also possible that Apple is embracing the digital download market a little too much, believing that buying and listening to single tracks is what people really want. But surely if anyone can resolve a user interface issue it would be the mighty Apple, and I believe there is the option to buy whole albums at a time on the iTunes Music Store, so there clearly is a demand for albums.

It comes as quite a surprise, as well as a beacon of hope, that a search reveals that there may be an album shuffle for the iPod Touch already programmed, merely disabled in the device. Quite why it is disabled is even more of a mystery, and the problem with enabling the feature is that it requires 'jailbreaking' the device, installing custom firmware. Never the less, the lack of an album shuffle on the iPod Touch has meant that I am listening to my music less whilst on the move, so I took the relatively drastic measure of breaking in to my Touch.

I did some rudimentary research on what is involved in jailbreaking the Touch. After rummaging through various sites I found some instructions to jailbreak an iPod Touch that were straightforward to follow. I only went as far as the third step, as I didn't think I needed the extra source or the functionality it mentioned, but it is a good resource to get the initial jailbreaking step complete. The software was easy to get, although it needs a torrent downloader, and the installation instructions were clear. I soon had Cydia and Installer.app on my iPod Touch.

With the first part done, I then needed to be able to copy files to and from the Touch. For that task I found a page with instructions on how to SSH in to the iPod Touch, which were easy enough to follow and I already had Cyberduck installed. Once done, I had a whole new filetree to explore. I poked around, having a look here and there at what was available, before returning to the original forum post about enabling the hidden album shuffle mode. I copied the Preferences.app folder to my desktop machine, made a copy, and then poked around in the files. I didn't really want any of the other changes, just album shuffle enabled. The files are stored on the Touch in a binary format and the instructions on how to change the files, for localisation but they apply to anyone curious enough too, mentioned a utility to download. The link was dead, but OS X Leopard comes with plutil built in to the command line. All that was needed was to type plutil -convert xml1 <filename> in a terminal window and the file could then be read in TextEdit.

It became clear soon enough that I really didn't know what I was doing, so I instead downloaded the modified Preferences.app folder, with all of the tweaks and changes, and copied that across to my Touch. The changes appeared to be successful! I had an option now available to select between shuffling albums or single tracks, and it seemed that all the work had been worthwhile. Unfortunately, when I tested out the new functionality it didn't seem to work, with the Touch skipping from random track to random track, ignoring album order. It is likely that the changes in firmware since the original post about finding the hidden feature have changed the configuration sufficiently that the hack no longer works.

I couldn't find any other hints on how to get album shuffle enabled on my iPod Touch, with the exception of an ugly workaround for album shuffle that is too much overhead for what should be a simple selectable option. I had a quick look at what else my iPod Touch could do now that I had it jailbroken, but it turned out that there wasn't much else I actually want it to do. It is great to have notes, an e-mail client, a browser, a couple of games, and an EVE Online skill training tracker, but I bought my iPod Touch to play music; everything else is a bonus, not required functionality.

Portable music players are extraordinary devices. All of my music is digitised and stored in a handheld device that I can take with me wherever I go, enabling me to listen to any of the vast number of songs I own whenever I want. The power and miniaturisation of computers also allows for software to be written that can arrange and compile music playlists with amazing flexibility. Because of the potential that has been realised, it is truly disappointing that the iPod Touch will not let me listen to albums without forcing me to make a manual choice each and every time I want to play some music. This is a step backwards in portable music playing technology.

Posted in Audio, Technical | 2 Comments »
Tags: album shuffle, apple, ipod, jailbreak

Skip to the start of Columbo

There's me whining like a schoolgirl about Columbo showing spoilers at the start of each episode on DVD when I have technology to rescue me! I feel foolish now for turning the sound down and trying to avoid looking at the screen, until the cut-to-black signals the start of the episode proper, when all I have to do it skip the first chapter of each episode. The second DVD chapter marks the start of the episode, allowing the spoilers to be bypassed effortlessly.

It doesn't help that there are no chapter lists in the packaging or on the DVD itself, but it is such a simple and obvious method that I wonder why I didn't simply try it in the first place, as I could always have gone back to the start quickly enough had it not worked. Ah well, I know now, just as I am coming to the end of the seven-series DVD box set, currently working through the seventh series.

Here are a few notes about the series:

• Columbo never mentions his forename and is always referred to as either 'Columbo' or 'lieutenant'. However, his name can be seen during the episode A Matter of Honour, co-starring Ricardo Montalban. Columbo is on holiday in Mexico and is involved in a car accident. His driving licence is requested by the police and when he offers it there is a full-screen shot of the licence, from which Columbo's first name can be read.
• The episode Last Salute to the Commodore, directed by Patrick McGoohan, is nothing more than a standard whodunnit mystery. The murder isn't even witnessed by the viewer and we are left in the detective's shoes trying to deduce who did it. The final staging is slow and awkward, and the murderer's slip-up is unconvincing and obvious. I would recommend avoiding this episode.
• Jamie Lee Curtis appears as a waitress in the episode The Bye-Bye Sky High I.Q. Murder Case, although a bit of checking shows that she also appeared uncredited in an earlier episode. The episode features one of the best moments when the murdered incriminates himself, not so much because of the way Columbo gets him to do this—although it was masterful goading—but because of the glorious extended moment of realisation the murderer experiences as he reveals himself to be the perpetrator of the crime.

The DVD box set also includes a bonus extra in the form of an episode of Mrs Columbo. Frankly, I dare not watch it. In Columbo, Mrs Columbo is a device for the lieutenant to flatter and beguile the main suspect, to convince him that the detective is a simple man, and the constant references serve this purpose wonderfully. I would prefer the lieutenant's wife remain as ambiguous and amorphous as she is represented.

Posted in Video | Comments Off on Skip to the start of Columbo
Tags: columbo, dvd

A month with my new notebook

When I bought my new notebook last month I was fairly certain that Apple were going to update the product line soon afterwards. Nevertheless, I also knew that the notebook had much more capability than I needed, and so was suitable for any task I had planned for it, and that buying so soon before an update would be an opportunity for personal growth by having to deal with having out-of-date hardware so quickly. Sure enough, the notebook update came from Apple and I have had to resist thinking that I had an obsolete chunk of useless metal, which I've done quite well.

It helps that the update was relatively minor, I suppose. It would be interesting to see the quality of the new screens, because the biggest flaw with my Mac Book Pro is its horrible screen. The viewing angle for the LCD is puny, with the possibilty of colours and tones changing when I as little as shift in my chair, and using it standing up to check something quickly whilst passing is terribly disappointing. The screen needs to be tilted far too precisely to get good colour reproduction. The only reason I tolerate it is because my personal use of the notebook doesn't require good colour reproduction and I effectively bought the computer for the operating system.

Apart from the awful screen the only other update to the line that I desire is the new keyboard. I have got quite used to the slim-line desktop keyboard and I nearly bought a standard Mac Book to get something similar. The keyboard on the Pro model is good enough and I allows for quick and easy typing, although it feels rather more flimsy than the slim-line model. What steered me away from a Mac Book towards the Pro were the back-lit keyboard and the mutli-touch touch-pad, which seem like minor features compared to the difference in price. However, having used the notebook for a month now I can safely say that both features are fabulous.

The back-lit keyboard allows for easy use of the computer in low-light conditions without any groping for the right key. It is quite simple and most effective.

The multi-touch track-pad interested me in other ways. I feel I must confess that I hate mouse wheels and almost never use them. It is purely personal taste. I don't like the way they feel, I don't like that they get in the way of a comfortable position when holding a mouse, I don't like the silly noise they make. I just don't like them. The only mouse I have ever owned with a mouse wheel is Apple's Mighty Mouse and only because it came with the machine. It helps that the 'wheel' on it is a fake one, being tiny and easy to ignore. I still rarely use it. However, I find the multi-touch track-pad to be wonderful.

It is so convenient to touch a second finger to the track-pad and drag both fingers to scroll a page on-screen that I now occasionally wonder how to scroll a page on my desktop machine, it is just that quick and easy to achieve on the notebook. There are undoubtedly other gestures, like the pinch or rotate, but the ability to scroll effortlessly and without having to change hand positions is an enormous benefit.

I was quite surprised to read along with Steve Jobs's keynote announcement when he said that, paraphrasing, 'we gave you two finger gestures, three fingers gestures, and now we present four finger gestures'. I'm sure there were plenty of people who were already lining up jokes based on razors with ten blades but my reaction was more along the lines of 'there are three finger gestures?' Sure enough, I found that holding three fingers on the track-pad and moving them left and right triggers Safari to go backwards or forwards in the browser's history. That's nifty!

The hardware is pretty cool, then. It also lets me do everything I had hoped and wrote about previously, which is not much of a surprise considering I wanted it to be little more than a glorified typewriter that can connect to the internet. An added bonus is that it is powerful enough to run EVE Online. Whilst I haven't tried playing the game whilst in a fleet roaming low-sec I have performed courier missions, travelling and hauling, and have switched skill training with no problems.

Well, there was that incident when I lost my Drake battlecruiser to a gate camp, and then got podded, after I accidentally entered low-sec space during my relocation to a new region. But even though I made that journey on the Mac Book Pro whilst concentrating on playing World of Warcraft on my desktop I'm pretty sure the notebook wasn't to blame for the loss. In fact, the Mac Book Pro coped with the one-sided battle without a hitch, showing me in splendid detail just how quickly my shields and armour were being depleted, even as I tried futilely to escape.

Changing skill training in EVE Online is hardly a calculation-intensive task, but the ability for the notebook to run the game and switch skills is actually a nifty feature. It means that I don't need to power-up my desktop machine only to change skill training and turn it off again, as the notebook can perform that task with far less time overhead or power consumption. And, when I'm paying attention to what I am doing, the notebook makes travelling or simple missions a more casual event, allowing me to perform the tasks in the comfort of an armchair instead of at the computer desk, should I so desire. Running EVE Online is a drain on the battery and the notebook gets quite hot, but the machine is certainly capable of running the game well.

Posted in Gaming, Personal, Technical | Comments Off on A month with my new notebook
Tags: apple, computers, eve online

Halloween

Halloween is upon us again, as can be told by the Headless Horseman terrorising orphans. Meanwhile, back in the real world I need to work out whether to buy some sweets to hand out to trick-or-treating neighbourhood children. It doesn't sound like a complicated decision to make, but I can turn it in to one.

I know there are children in the neighbourhood, I've met some of them. Others I've seen around, and even more I have hoped wouldn't be malicious enough to kick their football at me as I walk past. I also believe kids still like to go trick-or-treating on Halloween. After all, free sweets! In past years, I didn't want to buy too many sweets because I didn't want the temptation to scoff them all myself afterwards, and I am not going to be the sensible adult and start handing out fruit. That is antithetical to the spirit of Halloween and the trick-or-treat custom. I have to find a balance.

Two years ago I bought a few big bags of sweets and dumped them in to a bowl, ready for any becostumed children turning up on my doorstep. One goup came, I feigned a slight horror, and handed out some sweets to each child. In retrospect, I felt awfully stingy because they were the only group who turned up and I was left with almost all my sweets. I think it will be best to have no sweets left than to have most of them remain.

Last year I bought another batch of sweets ready to hand out, planning to be as generous as possible without bringing glares upon me from the accompanying parents. What I had forgotten was that Halloween fell on my regular D&D night, and I had left my home before any groups had turned up. None of the sweets were taken.

This year I was wondering if it was worth buying another selection of sweets or if I should instead turn the lights off and pretend I'm not home. Bah, the latter option is being mean, so I bought a bucket of sweets. Besides which, I have some young relations who would make good use of any leftover sweets, and the bucket has a decent selection that I can happily send to the contributers to Snacks Across the Pond.

I just hope the Headless Horseman doesn't turn up on my doorstep. What sweeties do you offer a man with no head? Maybe a sugar cube for his horse.

Posted in Personal | 3 Comments »
Tags: halloween, sweets