Dumbland

Google recently updated their algorithm (again) in order to devalue content farms. This after Demand Media, shit-squeezers of eHow and Cracked, IPOd in January for $1.3bn. It remains to be seen just how effective this will actually be.

I’m a little curious though, after seeing the now Academy Award-winning Inside Job and the credit rating agencies defending their blatant corruption by claiming “free speech”. Just how long until one of these scummy SEO companies gets enough money together and thus enough political clout to take Google to court over one of these algorithm changes? I wonder if Google will have to pull the same defence in such a case.

I’ve spent 99% of my life in suburban/metropolitan areas. I never get to see things like this in person.

For some unknowable reason there are people who don’t like the way Safari renders text. So for this latest iteration of the site I’ve gone and enabled this little custom css property so that what I see is what all the kilt-wearing arse-baring Freedom™-hugging Chrome users see as well. I suppose there are other browsers available.

I discovered that Just Cause 2 has 747s in it when I crashed a hovercraft onto a runway while said 747 taxied past. So I grappled onto the jet as it was taking off and hijacked it, ultimately using it as a missile to crash into a colonel to demoralise the army.

It’s a fun game.

Adrian Hon, writing for The Telegraph:

There are just two simple reasons why app piracy isn’t common:

1. Most apps are incredibly cheap
2. Buying an app takes about 5 seconds

It’s not because Apple or its developers are sending armies of lawyers around the world chasing down pirates, or because governments have threatened to cut off pirates’ internet connections; it’s because people just can’t be bothered.

Back in 2005 I wrote an essay with a similar thesis for a class on globalisation in cinema. Specifically I was referring to the impact the (then) iTunes Music Store had had on the monetisation of digital music downloads. Sufficient quality and sufficient convenience are rewarded.

It’s a fair enough article, though I’m a bit baffled by the suggestion that nobody ‘knows how’ to pirate iOS apps. Perhaps the environment has changed but the last time I was running a jailbreak about a year ago, there was an entirely “free” equivalent of the App Store which (once set up) made downloading a pirated app almost as simple as downloading a legitimate one.

A palate cleanser of sorts after that last dose of armageddon-worshippers. Their hatred is temporal.

Courtesy of Symphony of Science.

Louis Theroux’s The Most Hated Family in America.

I own this really nice Blu-ray player called the Playstation 3. For some reason it was bundled with something resembling the Xbox 360’s game controller. Since so many PC games now are varying degrees of console port, I’ve finally put this odd lump of plastic to use via some drivers.

This also breathes a little extra life into Freespace 2, since my old USB joystick decided to explore other lifestyle options.

Chris Morris reads a listener request (from 1994).

In CASINO ROYALE, James Bond is the Bond girl. Look at the way they even show him emerging from the ocean like Ursula Andress. Sexual torture, too, if less creepy-glam than being stripped and painted gold. Vesper Lynd is Bond: never not in control, never without a plan, seducing to further her goals. She has to die so Bond can become her.

Sadly, this is Warren Ellis’s entire observation, but it is an intriguing one. More of Ellis’s thoughts on Bond can be found here, though this predates the Daniel Craig regeneration.

I’ve recently been watching the complete series, starting with Dr. No of course. I’ve made it as far as Her Majesty’s Secret Service so far, though I haven’t finished that one yet because it’s pretty dull and Lazenby reminds me too much of Larry Laffer. I’m trying not to pre-judge, but I worry the Moore years are going to feel as long as they were. I mean c’mon, he’s Alan Partridge’s favourite Bond.

Jonathan Blow, developer of Braid, discusses his views on “social games”, i.e. Farmville and the like. He doesn’t much like them.

Designers know what they are doing. They know when they show up in the office - “My goal is to degrade the player’s quality of life”. They probably won’t think about that exact phrase. But [will think], “My goal is to get people to think about my game and to put more money into my game and get other friends to play my game to the exclusion of all other games and all other things that they might do with their free time.” That is the job description of those designers. And that’s evil. It’s not about giving people anything. It’s about taking from people.

His argument is, I believe, well considered and well reasoned. I think it applies to a ton of the crap that shows up on the iTunes Store’s top 50 list, wherein the games are little more than storefronts to the in-app purchases.

Blow also discusses his latest game, The Witness, and its adventure influences.

Steam are having a week-long sale on Square-Enix games, including the complete collection for US$75. Today’s discount is Just Cause 2 (a stupid, fun game) for US$7.50.

Battlestar Galactica Online is now available for play. It’s playable in-browser thanks to its Unity Engine. It’s quite slow however, and incredibly dull. It leaves my desire for space combat so un-sated that I’m seriously contemplating giving Eve Online another go.

Peculiar wording in one of its licensing agreements aside, I am finally a legitimate owner of Freespace 2 thanks to they-of-the-horribly-misguided-marketing-department, Good Old Games. Even before installing the open source enhancements, it remains a remarkably pretty game but perhaps that’s just me. Unfortunately my old USB joystick no longer even registers as a USB device, so I’m relegated to control via the mouse. It would be heresy I know, but I’d love to see a new X-Wing/Freespace 2 style game with the option for Freelancer-style mouse controls.

The BBC announced they’d be deleting a bunch of old, inactive websites. This led to some arguing - and I would agree - that valuable historical information would be lost, and for little financial return. Fortunately some enterprising soul decided to cough up the $3.99 to spider and serve the terminal content, offering up the 2GB archive via BitTorrent.

Actor, writer, director, all-around professional interesting person Crispin Glover on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Kermode and Mayo’s Film Review. The complete interview is available on the week’s podcast. Glover is currently in the UK touring with his film It Is Fine, Everything Is Fine!.

A short animation directed by Ben Hillman. I enjoyed it, and it led to yet another reminder that I need to stop reading the comments on MetaFilter.

Mmm… Crumbly…