Ben Boyle lives here!

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.

Pee in store for details

The best typo I have encountered to date was in the Sunday Mail TV Guide today, in the small print of a full page advertisement for Barry's — “Pee in store for details”.

Now you know what to do — hop to it!

Labels: spelling and grammar

• Post a Comment, 0 is never enough.

Public transport dystopia

Welcome to 2008. For public transport in southeast Queensland, it is the dawn of the go card. Note that it is virtually impossible to mention “go card” to people without them hearing “go kart” instead. A go card is apparently a smart card, but you know what they say: Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain.

There is a lot of propaganda around the go card. Here’s my experience:

• You can order online with the Safari web browser (despite claims you cannot), just type junk into the username/password box when ordering.
• If you try to get off a bus and the card reader isn’t working, all kinds of exciting lights and alarms will go off—it is very bracing!
• Forgetting to “touch off” will cost you $5 ($10 from July).
• It is hard to remember to touch off, especially since hardly anyone else has to.
• When more people are using go cards, they’ll touch off and this will help you remember, but there will be more queueing to leave the bus/train station.
• The card readers on buses rely on GPS — no bribing the driver to let you off at your house or flagging them down if you’re not quite at the stop, you cannot touch on/off.
• It costs the same for Monday–Friday commuting — 10 journeys, to and from work per day — as a weekly ticket costs.
• You won’t pay for trips you don’t make — due to illness, public holidays or flex time.
• Travelling 4 days (8 journeys) in a week is cheaper with go card than any alternative because the last 2 journeys will be half price.
• Extra journeys throughout the week (more than the typical 10) — which would be covered by a weekly ticket — will cost you extra.
• … unless you can squeeze these trips into a 3 hour window of opportunity, but this requires math to work out the most cost-effective way to travel, and math is tiring.
• If/when you own a go card, you can still buy other tickets if/when you like — no-one will know or care.
• The fare machines at train stations are atrocious! You can only pay cash for large amounts (over $100 in my experience), EFTPOS for smaller amounts using a pokey pin pad. Terrible machines.

The dystopia, however, stems from a different source. Once upon a time, ticket conductors on Queensland Rail services — we used to call ’em “trains” like in Thomas the Tank Engine, now they’re “services” — would check for your ticket and sell you one if needed. This was a convenient, customer-friendly service. One was especially appreciative if one had arrived late and had to jump on the train without time to buy a ticket. Perhaps if services were more frequent this would be less of a concern.

In recent years, the revenue protection unit has taken over. They now check your ticket and fine you if you don’t have one. This is not a convenient, customer-friendly service! ;) As it turns out, they’ve mostly been issuing warnings. This year they have new warnings, spoken over the public address system in Central Station in a lifeless female monotone… the gist is customers are now advised that travelling without a valid ticket, or valid reason for not having a ticket, will now be fined. Fines will be enforced. Hearing that message really did drive home that the dystopia of cyberpunk imaginings is now my reality. It is exactly like living in Romdo (if you don’t understand this reference, go watch Ergo Proxy).

And what is a “valid reason” anyway? It sounds like stock options. I’d like to purchase a valid reason for not having a ticket today, please.

Labels: public transport

• Post a Comment, 0 is never enough.

I’m green, if I were blue I would die

Oh no, have I mixed up the misheard lyrics to Blue (Da Ba Dee)? According to a true colours exercise I undertook at work, I am “green”. According to facebook, I am a mix of Bigbird and Elmo. Who to believe?

There is a lot of talk about being green, or eco friendly, on the ’net these days. I spend a lot of time online and it's heartening to hear—from the awesome ecogeek blog—that online activity saves energy! We’ve noticed a significant saving by turning PCs off at night, at the back of the box (the IO button) if not at the wall. Only the HTPC is left on, to autoboot at 5 am and start recording. Still better than leaving a VCR on all night I think.

But that’s not what being “green” is all about. It’s about being a scientist. A thinker. Cool. I hope they play The Scientist (by Coldplay) at my funeral. Nothing morbid about it, going to happen one day and should be at least 70 years as I plan to reach 100! Sadly a colleague of mine passed away last week … rest in peace B2.

Labels: eco, personality

•  sushi said:

  Don't sweat it Ben - I'm a green too. Greens have more fun! (or is that blondes?)

•  Inspiral said:

  I'm doing science and I'm still alive.
  
  I'm making a note here -
  HUGE SUCCESS!
  
  I am gold. Which is better than so-so silver and shameful shameful bronze.
  
  So if you are green and I am gold can we sing 'come on aussie come on'?

• Post a Comment, 2 is never enough.

Leaving home, life was never good to me

It’s nice to see Daniel (5) and Emma (2) playing nicely together. Yes, there are a few tears but on the whole they have worked through them together and I’ve never seen them playing as brother and sister so well. You’d think that would make for a nice weekend—and it is a highlight—but it feels more like one of those grit your teeth and get through it things.

There’s a bit of a cold around the house and Caitlin (4 months) isn’t sleeping so well. She’ll sleep just fine when held—I sat for an impromptu screening of Wings of Honneamise and she slept until 2 am while I did so. Pop her in bed and she wakes to cry in an instant. Yes, there is a bit of a cold and a whole lot of tiredness. Perhaps this is why my wife told me she is waiting for me to “leave”. ’Coz why would anyone put up with this? Her thinking, not mine. I know who, where and why I am.

The whole week has been a bit like that. I did a lot of ironing today.

n.b. the title of this post is from a Jebediah song, not an indication of intent!

Labels: family

• Post a Comment, 0 is never enough.

Friday night bowling

Yesterday I went bowling, ten pin bowling with real — heavy — balls, rather than a Wiimote. First attempt: gutterball. Second attempt: 1 pin. So overall, I’m happy with a final score of 84! 

Hadn’t been bowling in years. Quite fun. It’s much funkier than I remember, what with music videos and UV lighting. Although I feel inclined to mention, if your name is three letters long — like Ben — you’ll get your name up in lights instead of just an initial. Whether that’s cool, or an invasion of privacy, I just don’t know. Like I don’t know if bowling a strike is a bonus, or a cleverly devised way of giving customers one fewer bowls for their money …

•  Andrew said:

  Spoken like a true Wii owner! (who are used to getting their bowling for free :) ).

• Post a Comment, 1 is never enough.

Twin Caitlins

It seems I am very slow in blogging this important news — we have Caitlins!

Specifically, our second daughter, born 25 October 2007, and our first niece, born 16 November 2007. Both doing marvellously well, and balancing out the genders in our families. Look out boys! (Oh wait… that's me!)

Labels: baby, Caitlin, family

• Post a Comment, 0 is never enough.

Sonic, Brawl and Jackets

Nintendo have been busy of late! First, an announcement of free wii remote jackets to improve grip and safety. Today, an update for the Wii that allows a USB keyboard to be used with it (why, I don't know!)—but the news, the BIG news, is (on every blog I am sure) …

Sonic is joining Smash Bros!

Labels: Smash Bros, Wii

• Post a Comment, 0 is never enough.

broadbandy news

This has nothing to do with federal government broadband plans (which I am ignoring for the time being) but my own broadband connection(s) here at home.

I quite like the sound of Virgin Broadband — you get your home phone and Internet bundled for $60/month. Internet runs off the mobile network: 3.5G (HSDPA), 3G (UMTS) or 2.5G (GPRS). We are apparently in the 3G coverage zone so I decided to take advantage of the 30 day trial.

That was Monday. Apparently my existing net connection got wind of this because it up and died that afternoon (it is still down). With anticipation I plugged in my new Virgin modem and got … GPRS. That's the one they say is “slow” like a modem. They aren’t kidding.

Tonight I was in contact with Unisky, my wireless broadband provider. They suspect my radio (modem) is dead and will need replacing as they can’t get a ping from it. However, it’s $110 to have a tech guy come out to confirm this and $550 to replace the equipment — $660. Yikes. I have asked them to outline my options including other technicians, buying my own equipment and/or cancelling the contract.

I like to be eccentric. So I decided to see if we could get a better signal putting the Virgin modem outside. It’s currently sitting outside on the air conditioner fan housing and we’ve had a solid 3–3.5G connection for about an hour. It’s great. And fast!! Now if only we can work out a way to do this and keep the modem inside the house where it belongs … wish me luck, I hope there’s light at the end of this tunnel!

Labels: broadband

• Post a Comment, 0 is never enough.

Ben the BAT

I’ve been in my new job a month now — a BAT (Business Analyst — Technical). Smart Service Queensland is a fun place to work (very busy, but very friendly) and they sure do pile on the training. I’ve been thoroughly inducted and grounded in project management methodologies (PRINCE2) so I now know a whole lot of new jargon like configuration management and product-based planning. What will I do with this knowledge? According to facebook I will gather friends for my army of darkness …

Actually that has nothing to do with work. I will be helping analyse and define technical requirements for services (from agencies) that are integrated into the whole of government approach to customer service through phone, counter and web. The web seems to be a quiet player in this field, it underpins the other channels but people seem to trust that it will “just work” hehe. I’ve worked in web — I wouldn’t be so trusting!

It’s good to be broadening my horizons :)

• Post a Comment, 0 is never enough.