U.S Presidential Candidates 2008

So next year is a big year for the USA as they vote for a new president. So I had a look earlier at the candidates just to see if there is anybody worse than Bush was running and was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to distinguish the candidates apart.

Now remember that that these guys have several objectives to get people to vote for them. Firstly they are going to appear friendly, trustworthy, strong and then appeal to several core human concepts of Vulnerability (protecting the weak), Injustice (we didn't ask for the war), Distrust (those lying whoever, who's fault it is) and Superiority (we are stronger than them).

• Sam Brownback
  If you watch the video you will see he is just another smiling idiot like Bush is. I don't trust this guy at all because it all feels very fake.
  
  
• Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton
  
  Hillery does ok, but her message feels very coached and empty (Link to Video).
  
  
• Barack Hussein Obama
  
  Barack's sitdown face talking video has Bad Audio so instead I have linked below to the speech he did announcing his race for presidency which I think shows him off well.
  
  Out of the three I like Barack because he doesn't feel like he is putting anything on or using any tricks to get support (which in itself could be seen as a tick). I think he imagines himself to be a natural public speaker like Abraham Lincoln was. So his site has lots of videos with him surrounded by the public in the open air engaging with his audience. He also doesn't make things simple by talking about "You & Him Vs Them" which I always hate because it makes people bipolar and is a distraction from how the world really is (we all breath the same air). Instead he talks about listening to what people want and then giving people what they want by compromising and working for what people want.
  
  And then there are a few other things I like:
  -He doesn't come from a wealthy family as is common for presidents
  -Would be the first black president
  -Is Protestant
  -Has the middle name Hussein
  
  And I like how he leverages his personal experiences to bring people around to his way of thinking, instead of the usual shouting or demanding (like what Hillery does).
  
  

Dance Dance Revolution Universe UK

Looks like Dance Dance Revolution Universe won't be coming to the UK. Usually when I get to ask official people about this they cite that the game would need translating from American-English to English-English. And that really pisses me off. To think I was looking forward to this.

Quick Crackdown Post

Crackdown is a very good game. Some have said the missions are repetitive, I found the game ended before the missions even became repetitive. Still it is probably the closest thing anybody is going to get to a good Matrix game. Enjoying it a lot (except for the high dynamic range lighting that I hate, but that is probably just me) and I much recommended it.

The Post University Job Hunting Post

I was going to write this once I actually got a job myself, but I know what I want to say, so here is some advice that I didn't get.

On Graduate Job Applications
Lots of companies try and recruit graduates directly from university. Most want a 2:1 degree rating or they arten't interested. And the time you are supposed to apply for these positions is the summer holiday before your final year, not after you graduate.

On Agencies
Agencies are designed to match people with jobs. Unfortunately this means some lame stuff happens on the agency's part. When a company phones them and says they want an office junior with no prior experience the agency will by policy always put a requirement of two years office experience on the job description.

On Part Time Work
If you are going to get a part time job to fund a healthy drinking habit while you are at university, get a job in an office or a shop for two years so you can get some experience marked on your CV. Nobody wants to take a chance on somebody who hasn't done the same job they are applying for someplace else.

On Government Benefits
Unless you have a job lined up after you graduate, sign on for benefits early. Don't do what I did and wast months thinking a job would come soon.

Brain Challange

I have seen many wonderful things on the net in the past few weeks since I haven't been posting much, this is all in effort to break my daily RSS addiction and I think I can get my aggrigation addition down to just one four hour session on a sunday. Giving me a nice compromise between keeping up to date with all my RSS subscriptions and not needing to boot the computer up first thing every morning. Anyway I have bought a few games for my mobile phone recently and I thought I would tell you about one.

Brain Challenge by GameLoft is essentially a Brain Age clone, but since I don't have a DS (still not got job) I thought I would give a mobile version a go and it's quite good. The game calculates brain usage by pitting the player against various brain taxing games, if the player beats the level of difficulty that the game is set at then next time they player the difficulty is increased and so on. So you end up with a nice upward curve of performance to start with until you reach your limit at which point playing daily should help you improve and continue increasing the game's difficulty settings. And I think my maths is improving through playing daily, so I am very pleased.

Moral Dilemma

Imagine you are at the opening of an art gallery. To commemorate, the gallery is holding an art competition, there are many great works of art up for a modest prize and you are looking at the exhibits with one of the of the judges. There is some contemporary paintings of landscapes, photographs of old people, a jar of toenail clippings, some models and all attending the viewing seem to be in agreement that it is a wide showing of art.

Then you approach a jar of jam with an airline ticket glued to the side. The tag reads "From Hong Kong, symbolising the absurd distance food travels to get to shops". It is obvious that the airplane ticket is unused and that the jam was bought at the local supermarket. The artist is standing next to the exhibit and the judge you are with starts talking to the artist about the pieces and they both seem to agree that indeed food does travel around the world more than it needs to when local produce is just as good. Then judge turns to you and asks if you are in agreement with the piece as a work of art.

Do you?
1) Politely agree
3) Fain ignorance
3) Politely state why their work doesn't deserve to be there
4) Start ripping into the artist at how lame their work is even though they probably bought the airplane ticket for the exhibition

SideTrack

Every so often something comes along that not just amazes me, but I also wonder why nobody did it before and SideTrack is one of those things.

So you know that video is 24 to 30 frames per second and you know how fast a train travels down a tunnel. So there is the question of, what is someone was to fix 360 posters on the wall of a subway tunnel and flash light on them as the train went by!?

Well the answer is a Full Motion Picture Tunnel and I think it's cool, not cool if they start pumping music into the train to go with the video however.

Japan:


New York:

Calling All Cars Design Document

Not too many game Design Documents have mode their way onto the internet, but David Jaffe (he is a loud drunk) of God of War fame has put up the initial Concept Document of Calling All Cars in His Recent Blog Post. The game isn't a full A retail title, but it has been made into to a game that will be sold on Sony's PS3 download network (or whatever it's called). I was a little surprised to see how many times TBD (To Be Determined) had been written, but still very interesting.

For a little background: A Concept Document is a first stage document that literally just outlines the game to give someone an interest in the concept in ten pages or less.
Then is it is good enough (someone is willing to pay for the game to be made) then there is a real Design Document that outlines all the small stuff like the game's menus, levels, sound, AI and stuff. Then that is turned over to the Production Team who will make the game and over the course of the game's development stuff is added and the Design Document turns into a Production Document or Design Bible. So although people talk about two design documents, it's really three as the Design Document will turn from being under one hundred pages to over two hundred once the game is finished.

Microsoft SoapBox

Got an invight into Microsoft SoapBox (yes yet another Flash Video Site).


Video: Panda sneezing


Video: Dave vs Carl: The T-Shirt


Video: japanese pen spinning


Video: Ghosts in Virtual Earth

The above city is San Francisco, you will need the 3D Add-on for MS Live Maps, but I don't know how to release the ghosts (Something about putting mouse cursor over cathedral and pressing G, but it doesn't work for me).

EDIT: Anonymous commenter points to Here for the whole ghost thing. Didn't know you could make add-ins for Virtual Earth.