Ben Boyle lives here!

GTA IV on PC: first impressions

The good

Independence FM. Having your own music just makes the GTA experience that much more what you want it to be. We all have our own favourite driving/party/cranky music, it's nice to finally be able to play it. And commentary that relates to the audio track metadata, nice touch!

Mouse. Nothing beats the mouse. Nice camera control. Nice easy yes/no buttons. Useful for target and attack in combat. Love the mouse.

The bad

Driving with a keyboard — augh! OK, this one is all my fault for not configuring my gamepad — yet. Keyboard control for driving is awful, truly, terribly awful. In any game, this is not a GTA issue.

Antialiasing. Needs to be turned on! Even 2׏ AA would be nice. I guess this is related to …

The ugly

Graphics performance. I look forward to a patch or new nvidia driver (or both) that brings the framerate up. FPS is hovering in the 16–22 mark and that’s noticably poor. Strangely, dropping the resolution and graphics settings down as low as they go doesn’t improve the situation. I mean, it is good I don’t need to run it on low quality. It’s bad I can’t get the framerate up. So, bring on a patch. It seems to be a hot topic on the GTA forums. Glad it’s not just me.

Labels: gaming, GTA, PC

• Post a Comment, 0 is never enough.

Television statistics

Forget ratings. MythTV keeps pretty detailed records of EPG data (TV guide), what you record, when you watch it, all that jazz. Ew. I just remembered I watched some of Chicago this week and I didn't like it. Now I can't say all that jazz. Hmmm.

Stats! Mythweb has a neato stats page that shows some interesting TV viewing habits in this house! We've been with digital TV for quite some time now. We used DNTV Live! on Windows XP for a bit, before I bit the bullet and switched to MythTV on Ubuntu linux.

And just how long have we had MythTV? 2 years 6 days 12 hrs 27 mins. 13% of that time was spent recording TV. Top of the list was Toasted TV with 598 recordings! Good Game just made the top 10 with 62. Neighbours also contributes a lot, which places channel TEN first with 1199 recordings. ABC2 comes in second — for those great kids shows!

In total we have recorded 3 months 5 days 21 hrs 58 mins of television viewing. Which explains the 1.5 TB that we need. I'm certain there is absolutely no way we have watched all that, but we do watch more telly now we can watch what we want when we want.

If you haven't switched to digital TV yet, you really should. But it isn't worth making the switch unless you get a DVR (digital video recorder). There are lots of options. Myth is free and pretty darn good. Of course, you need to build yourself a linux box to get it up and running first … If that sounds daunting, there are TiVo and Foxtel IQ and I dunno what else. Just go get it!

Labels: digital TV, mythtv, observations

• Post a Comment, 0 is never enough.

Easy rounded corners — playing nice with borders in IE6

When a graphic designer gives you a mockup full of rounded corners, you just know you’re in for some pain. Why can’t they be satisifed with Comic Sans fonts instead of delving into techniques that haven’t quite penetrated the user-agent landscape yet. Ah… just jokes of course!

Andrew has published a technique dubbed “cornerise” over at irama, that neatly wraps up what we discovered when implementing rounded corners. As noted, border-radius does all the magic in newer builds of gecko and webkit, but that leaves us with a good chunk of Internet Explorer users needing some love—cornerise is such a technique.

It works by using javascript to insert some tactically placed <span> tags into a document. These spans are positioned in the corners, and background images provide the corners. The overall footprint can be kept lean by utilising css sprites (like this one).

If you happen to be using borders with corners, you have a bit more to do. Firstly, the background images must include a border strip the same size as the border — pixel widths only here. Secondly, the corners need to be positioned on top of the border which means moving them slightly beyond the bounds of the containing box. Thirdly, you will enounter a quirk in IE6 that results in a 1 pixel border on the right or bottom of the box. Try as you might you won’t get rid of it — without compromising the corners in IE7 and IE8 that is! Actually, this quirk presents even without borders.

To solve this quirk, we need to understand it. It is caused by a rounding issue (measurements are rounded to the nearest pixel when a layout is drawn on the screen). It only occurs when the width or height of the box is an odd number of pixels. And it only affects the right or bottom edge, the top and left are always ok. Because this only occurs on an odd number of pixels, you might not even be aware of the issue straightaway. Ah, these are the challenges that web designers live for!

You could specify the dimensions of boxes so that they are always an even number of pixels, but that’s a poor compromise. Here’s a simple solution we discovered that allows you to have any size box, and support resizing on the fly (due to viewport or text size changes). It requires a css expression. Yes, expressions only work when javascript is enabled. Since the cornerise technique itself utilises javascript, this is completely suitable. (And it’s not like corners need to be accessible, this is just sugar.)

For corners on the right edge:

_margin-right: expression(this.parentNode.offsetWidth%2==0 ? '0' : '-1px');

For corners on the bottom edge:

_margin-bottom: expression(this.parentNode.offsetHeight%2==0 ? '0' : '-1px');

What does it mean? Well, this will set the right/bottom margin to either 0 or -1px depending on whether the width/height is an odd number of pixels. That’s what the %2 is for. Yes, another use for modulus arithmatic!

Now, as stated, this problem only occurs in IE6. We don’t want this expression interfering with the nice positioning in IE7 and IE8, so we need to hide it from those browsers. You can do this with conditional comments if you like, but if you don’t want to maintain separate stylesheets for individual versions of IE, you have another option: prefix the property name with an underscore. Yep, it is that simple to hide a rule from IE7 and IE8.

True, it's a bit hacky, but you can’t argue with the results!

Labels: web, web standards

• Post a Comment, 0 is never enough.

Conversation breakers from kids

How do you stop another person from parrotting everything you say? The tried and true method was to say the person is “a silly duffer.” Of course, they can’t parrot this or they’ll be admitting it. It’s foolproof. Or it was… 

Me:

“Daniel’s a silly duffer!”

Daniel:

“Daniel’s a silly duffer!” *pause* “Ha ha! I called you Daniel!”

Now what about those neverending yes/no debates. How to diffuse them without the tears? Impossible you say? Emma knows the way.

Daniel:

“Yes!”

Emma:

“No!”

Daniel:

“Yes!”

Emma:

“No!”

Daniel:

“You’re lying!”

Emma:

*pause* “No, I’m Emma.”

Can’t beat that, can you?

Labels: family

•  MuzeKez said:

  Heehee! I told Mum and Dad about these on Saturday night. :) They laughed!

• Post a Comment, 1 is never enough.

Now a Telstra customer

Luckily I never got that 3 Internet key for mobile broadband, nor the $20 Telstra phone plan, because Christine and I have opted for something much more fun: iPhones!

And yes, they are with Telstra, which let's us get Internet access via NextG when VirginBroadband@Home plays up (due to congestion on Optus 3G according to Whirlpool forums). That makes it our third wireless Internet carrier. Third time lucky?

Proof of identity was still a little troublesome, but a birth certificate, 18+ card and credit card got me through. I avoided the Telstra shop and went to NextByte — the friendly local (next door to work) mac experts!

Labels: broadband, gadgets, iphone

•  Andrew said:

  Hmmmm..... gone over to the "Dark" side I see.
  
  You will have to give us a full report ( and demo) when we catch up in a couple of weeks.
  
  What is the phone bill like?

•  Ben said:

  I haven't received a bill yet.
  
  "Dark side" is an interesting comment. I find the poor coverage on other carriers has left me "in the dark" more often ;)

• Post a Comment, 2 is never enough.

Rejoice! GST cancelled!

Today I received the scoop from the ATO (Australian Taxation Office): Notice of cancellation — goods and services tax (GST).

No more GST? You’d think that would be bigger news, but there was nothing on TV. Just this personal letter. Well, not too personal. I was greeted as “Dear Sir/Madam”. But it was addressed to me by name — in fairness, as a sole trader, that may be my “registered business name” which only coincidentally happens to be my real name. Oh wait. I see this cancellation thing only applies to me.

• You are not carrying on an enterprise
• You cannot be registered for GST
• We have cancelled your Australian business number (ABN)
• The cancellation is effective as of 11 August 2008
• If you are not satisfied … you may request a review. A fee will usually be payable. Your application must be in writing, setting out the reasons for your application and be lodged with the AAT within 28 days of the date of receipt of this notice.

Whew. Some of that was in a second letter. Cancelling my ABN. On my birthday. They only issued the noticed on 5 September and I only received it today. (Perhaps it was nice to not receive this on my birthday?)

Wow. Seems I haven’t worked since June 2006. That’s worked as a sole trader mind you, I’m still happily employed at Smart Service Queensland where I work to make user interfaces — and thus customer experiences — better. Which brings me to Tim Turner’s interesting work on government market segmentation. It describes four different market segments for government organisations. One segment is subject relationships.

The ATO have got this down pat. Australian business and taxation are their jurisdiction. They got the law on their side and they tell you how it is. Even if it is a month after the fact.

If you need to design a “government to subject” user experience, take note:

1. Apply the rules without informing the subject, as is your right.
2. Give the subject a token notification afterwards.
3. Do not address the subject personally: Dear Sir/Madam is appropriate.
4. Tell the subject how to appeal the application of rules, but warn them that they must pay for the privelege! To reiterate: do the thing, and then explain appeals. Don’t ask before doing!
5. Specify a different appeal process per rule applied. All appeals must be in writing, but they can go to different recipients. They are likely to be treated as entirely separate cases.
6. Remind subjects of other (potential) outstanding obligations. This is a blanket warning. Do not personalise to the subject’s circumstances.
7. Use “must” and “have to” a lot.
8. Do not engage in communication with the subject: no email or phone call, use the postal service.
9. Use a separate letter for each rule that has been applied (even rules that flow on from the application of previous rules).
10. Do not put your organisation name on the envelope, only a return address. Let your organisation name be known only when the letter is opened.
11. The letter must be signed (use a photocopied signature) by the highest ranking official within the organisation.

11 techniques to apply! Does this sound tongue-in-cheek? It isn’t supposed to. It's a list of observations from these letters that I feel effectively reinforced the “government to subject” experience.

Given I haven’t worked in 2 years, I really don’t need that ABN. And now I won’t have to fill out quarterly business activity statements. Nor request new digital certificates every time I rebuild my PC at home. And that is all good news! Woot :)

Labels: business, customer service, government, observations

•  Tim said:

  Ok, so the (academic) question here is: to what extent did the 11 things that they did actually differ from your expectations? Sure, on first principles, you might expect them to be more polite, more communicative, and even perhaps less rule-bound. But, really, you're a "subject" (as in 'subject of the crown' for those uninitiated to Ben's and my private wonder), of course they're going to treat you distantly, en-masse, and (in a word) efficiently.
  
  There's no doubt that the communication could be better framed, but wouldn't that just encourage a lot of ultimately useless questioning and hopeless attempts at appeals?
  
  Lovin' your work!
  
  :o)

•  Ben said:

  It absolutely is a subject relationship, so no shaken expectations at all. Maintaining a certain aloofness (perhaps "professional distance" is a better term) from subject seems appropriate. The ATO are at all times very consistent in this.
  
  Right down to the part where I didn't even expect to be hearing from the ATO about anything, yet don't question the appropriateness of such a letter to arrive. Subjects don't question the authority of the government I guess.
  
  Such a letter could not work in other segments. For customers and citizens, it would be unsolicited mail. In an established client relationship, the mail might not be unsolicited, but the contents of that mail - informing of an action without the consumer's prior knowledge and/or approval - that would be surprising. Surprising, as in not meeting expectations.
  
  But for subjects, all ok. Efficient eh?

• Post a Comment, 2 is never enough.

Going incognito doesn't affect the behavior of other people …

“Going incognito doesn’t affect the behavior of other people, servers, or software. Be wary of … People standing behind you”

— Google Chrome

Darn tootin’!

Labels: observations, web

• Post a Comment, 0 is never enough.

Customer service disasters

August has been a busy month for us. Yes, in just one month we have enjoyed all this fun!

• I ordered 3 mobile broadband. I waited at home all day for delivery. Nobody turned up. I rang them and was told I had not supplied enough identification (even though I had filled out their arduous online signup form completely). I could scan and email (or fax) further identification, and then wait at home another whole day for delivery. No thanks.

• Our dishwasher played up. We called Electrolux to come and look. They couldn’t make an appointment time any sooner than two weeks later (two weeks washing dishes, ugh). The service guy got sick so they cancelled the appointment and rebooked for a time an additional two weeks later. We tried another company, Drac Services. They didn’t show up and told my wife she hadn’t been home when she rang to query. Turned out they’d gone to the wrong customer. Booked another time. Finally made it to our house a couple of days later. Five minutes to assess the problem ($70): motor burn out. Said it would be an easy fix, like pick it up and return the next day ($370). Didn’t pick it up until after the weekend. Didn’t return it for another two weeks after we rang to complain (twice). Charged more than $370 when additional GST slipped in there, even though we’d been told it was included in quote — which is their legal obligation. Haven’t paid them yet — hey, it has only been one week!

• Last week, twice the go card readers have flashed red when I ‘touched off’. I interpret this as not working, so I swipe the card again. Both times this has resulted in an extra $5 charge, followed by a call to Translink to get the money credited back to my go card. Which takes 10 working days. Too bloody slow, Translink. I’m still watching my go card account, where is my credit?

• Transferred a mobile phone, still under contract, to my wife. Ticked the boxes to transfer the commitment (new owner continues to pay contract). Billed $112 for “phone payout”. Three phone calls to Virgin Mobile to fix this. Standard answer from call centre staff is “We pass it on to the billing department. Call back in 10 days.” Oh, and of course, “No, you can’t talk to the billing department. We’re not allowed to do that.” On third call, ranted a bit. Threatened TIO and backcharging. Have been told it’s fixed. I am watching activity on my bank account very closely…

• The oyster light was not working in one of our four new ceiling fans. Electrician struggled to install them and recommended using a knife to prise off the glass covers. We couldn’t get the cover off to fix the light ourselves. Went back to Beacon Lighting to complain. Said they’d come check it that week. We called them the following week and they finally came around, and couldn’t remove the light cover without a hammer. Waiting on a replacement oyster light. Have light working with cover removed. Looks ugly.

• Decided to give Telstra a go for wireless broadband. After years of resentment that their landline quality is so poor we get substandard dialup and are blocked from ADSL. Worked out the maths and it is cheaper to bundle with a $20/month phone plan than buy BigPond wireless alone. Went into a Telstra shop yesterday to pick up a $20 plan. Seemed so easy until “We don’t accept 18+ cards as primary identification. We need your passport or birth certificate.” Stunned. Tried online signup for a laugh — where I learned they don’t even accept a birth certificate. It is impossible for me to identify myself adequately to Telstra online. However, I did note Telstra do accept a ‘Shooters License’. Tempting…

• Our washing machine was playing up. Still under (extended) warranty. Rang Horizon (Good Guys) and they can’t find our records. Washing machine broke yesterday — it does not turn on. Washing piling up quickly. You try it with a family of 6 (2 adults, 1 teenager, 3 kiddlies). Can’t call them until Monday. This is going to go well…

Labels: broadband, customer service

•  MuzeKez said:

  Oh bro..! So much bad customer service in so little time. :-( Sorry to hear that everything seems to be breaking / not working / not happening at the same time. I hope that it all gets sorted soon without too much more chasing up on your part. If I lived closer I'd come and pick up all your washing and do it for you!!

•  Ben said:

  Virgin mobile have billed me correctly. A good step.
  Telstra have replied to my complaint apologising for inconvenience (nice), wishing to retain me as a customer (nonsensical, I am not a current customer) and asking me to phone them (irritating).
  
  Mixed results there.

•  judygran said:

  My brother's carer rang me at 7.00am last Tuesday to tell me Robert had to have "all of his teeth removed". Took until Thursday afternoon to clarify with dental practice. Wondered why I was ringing. Said no such thing! This poor service is absolutely everywhere.
  Spent one hour in NAB last Tuesday trying to locate our property deeds. Last known place was with them at a branch they closed. Keep you posted.
  Sorry about the washing machine. Best buy a really big capacity, heavy duty one, and install a large Hills Hoist - the clothing ain't going to get any smaller!
  About the internet and phone - can't help you there.
  About Go Card - it's cheaper to buy an off peak ticket from the bus driver than to use the Go Card for off peak travel.
  Don't even start me about my employment!

• Post a Comment, 3 is never enough.

Our consoles days are numbered

Big fans of gaming that we are in this house, we have 2 PCs for gaming, a Wii, PS3 and gamecube. There are more: N64, SNES and even an Atari, but they’re all packed away. Oh, and a handful of DS Lites and Gameboys are floating about. But I wonder about the consoles …

The PS3 exists here for one purpose only: GTA IV. With the announcement that GTA IV will be available for PC in November, will there be any reason to hang on to it? Sure it’s a blueray player, and a fine one at that, but DVD beats it hands down for price and availability and I’m not convinced the quality difference is noticeable (although I did enjoy Die Hard 4.0 — excellent quality. I’ll need to watch the DVD to compare). The games? Nothing has really struck me as “must have” yet. Other than GTA of course. The dualshock 3 controllers are great, and the USB charging is a great idea (that the Wii should borrow asap). They work great on the PC too, and xpadder is awesome at mapping the buttons. It’s a shame their isn’t better native driver support, or they’d be one of the best gamepads available for PC! So I might hang onto my dualshock, but I think the PS3 will be for sale soon. Just as soon as I complete GTA. Have I mentioned how awesome this game is?

What’s wrong with the Wii? Gotta admit I haven’t been playing it much, enjoying BHD on the PC more. But we love our Wii and it will stay. Very irritated at the long delay and inflated price of Super Smash Brothers Brawl here in Australia (and all PAL regions) and that Nintendo have used the Wii system update to block the freeloader that allows NTSC games to be played. Forcing consumers towards the slow and expensive local market for games is very, very disappointing. Of course, faster releases of games at better (internationally comparable) pricing is the real solution to this! For now, we're faced with buying another (local) copy of Brawl, or never updating the Wii system again … Please note I’m talking about purchased games, from overseas stores yes, not pirated copies.

Now when GTA IV is released for PC, in the USA first (followed by Europe), nothing will stop me buying the US version cheap from playasia the day it becomes available. And it will install and run on my PC without an issue. That’s how gaming should be. Go the mighty PC!

Props to Sony for keeping the PS3 game releases region free though. Learn this lesson Nintendo, and learn it fast. Your future revenue (from this household) depends on it.

Despite all this, I still love my games :)

Labels: gaming, PC, PS3, Wii

•  Ben said:

  After trying the PS3 more for DVDs, very happy with its quality as a multimedia player. Upscales grainy 4:3 DVD to pretty darn good looking presentation 16:9 via 1080p HDMI. Keeping it for that.
  
  Shame it's slightly noisier than the macmini we usually use. Maybe the Queensland climate again.

• Post a Comment, 1 is never enough.

Never a better time for gaming …

… and never a worse time to watch TV! Big Brother is back. Not only that, but the finale of Biggest Loser has kicked Smallville from TEN HD for the week and the Logies means waiting an extra week for part 2 of the CSI episode shown last Sunday. TV has never been such a bore!

The gaming scene is alive! Brawl is out (well, we have to import NTSC versions, but it is out), Mario Kart Wii is out, GTA IV is out — I’ll need to buy a playstation 3 for that — and Wii Fit is out next week. Holy how sweet!

If you’re not gaming — what are you waiting for? Get into it!

Labels: games, GTA, Mario Kart, Smash Bros, Wii

•  Andrew said:

  How's the PS3 going then? :)

•  Garth said:

  Don't know if you watch it, but Stargate Atlantis's new season looks promising (at least from the first episode).
  
  Eureka is also coming back. Not that it's a brilliant show, but it does have a charm.
  
  As far as gaming, I'm waiting for: Red Alert 3, Starcraft 2, Diablo 3.
  
  Potentially looking at a console as well, XBOX360 or Wii, but most likely would need to be a Wii to be able to convince my other half it's a good purchase.

•  Andrew said:

  Agreed. Diablo 3 will be worth waiting for!

• Post a Comment, 3 is never enough.

Job security as long as there's stupid design

Hallelujah! See 25 Years in Usability.

• Post a Comment, 0 is never enough.