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March 24 UPDATE: Sony's TV Give-awayWell it sucks to be me I guess! Sony *did* indeed give free TV's away with the PS3's. TV's that retail for £2000! And it was an on the spot gesture, because the store that did the give-away, which had erected crowd barriers and brought on extra security staff, managed to attract a meagre crowd. The party wasn't all that happening for the size expected and with a crowd that small they figured they could do something crazy to reward these uber loyal fans.
So they did. First 120 got a free TV. My friend Andrew was in line it turns out, and was number 121. Don't feel too bad for him though - he's got over it pretty fast. Something a man with his obscene salary can afford to brush off :-P He prolly already has two of them. __
Phil
Phil and the PhilosophersNo it's not the name of my new band. I refer to my Monday adventure, infiltrating a philosophy conference at LSE University. Carl Baker was giving a paper (I'm so proud, brought a tear to my eye) in the afternoon and he'd stayed over at my place to make the journey on the day less draining (and of course to see me). Being unemployed now as I am, I had the time to go with him for moral support, which I felt I should do given that I'd helped the bright young thing take his own paper completely apart the very night before, and by my very existence, unhinged certain premises on which the simplicity of the philosophy depended. Ah well. He gave the paper in it's current form anyway because someone else had been tasked with responding to him, and this persons' response had been based on the paper and presentation Carl had submitted well in advance. As it turned out, a lot of discussion was generated, and perhaps there was some elements quite water tight when not taken too far. Anyway - It was a good day and while in the moment I decided not to pretend to be a philosophy graduate, and instead admit I was a Computer Science grad sneaking in, I found this was just as much fun, as I tried to turn every philosophy presented into programming and computing terms. It works amazingly well, and perhaps offered a side of thought that would otherwise go unrepresented in that room. While I translated philosophy into strict code, I was struck by the irony of one of the sessions that came up, which centred around the concept that there could be such a thing as an untranslatable language. If the concepts of understanding represented in the language are in no way common - if they're so far apart in style and method, then it could be said that these two languages were untranslatable. I of course, immediately translated this 'analogy driven philosophy paper' into a 'maths represented in regular expressions', and simply by doing so, felt I'd gone a long way to denying the argument it made. But no, I understood that what was being suggested was allowing for languages to be even more dissimilar than this (and indeed philosophy is not really dissimilar from maths when you treat it right), and so I expanded my expressions. Adding the possibility for an infinite combination of language concepts, it all seemed to balance quite nicely and I can translate back into a problem for the theory of an untranslatable language... so I'm still disagreeing with the girl, but it was a really thought provoking one to throw about for a while. I know I haven't gone into enough depth for anyone to follow what was said on the day, or my response, but trust me it went on for quite a long time and I've already managed to use way more words than I needed to just to explain it like this... that's 'Phil hasn't gone to bed all night' bloggin for ya :-P Anyway... I was tempted to enquire about where I'd sign up for an MA (or.. did you know you can do an MSc in philosophy... go figure), but I think I should probably leave that dream alone and ground myself on the practical needs of my immediate career moves first. That and I'd prolly not do enough reading to get through the course :) But I do hope it's not my last philosophy conference - I think I might keep an eye out for them and maybe next time try to infiltrate entirely as a fake philosopher.. oooh... maybe write a paper and try to get invited to present it based on my false university credentials. The game begins. Quickly then - what I took from the conference...
For a while, I'll be talking like a philosophy student so beware anyone who would try and converse with me. Give it a week or two and I'm sure it'll wear off. I may even blog like one at some point before then... who knows. Thankyou Carl, for a wonderful day in your world, Be good, __ Phil Home is Where the Heart isThere's a McFly song for that title you know. McFly aside for a moment, this post is more about Sony's 'Home'. Sony don't get a good ride in this space very often. They've have a solid year or so of bad bad bad stuff. Exploding batteries, bad products, worse PR events and interviews and all while their cheaper Chinese competitors claw the Consumer Electronics backbone market away from them. And the PS3 so far has been a disaster. I feel I absolutely owe it to them then, to highlight the good they've recently managed to throw out. Yes - they've done something right, and I was in awe when I saw the screen shots for the first time - it is actually breathtakingly good. Momentarily I forgot about all the bad things, suspended my suspicions, and let the dream of their new system captivate my imagination. It is... Home. Home is Sony's answer to X-Box Live. It's free, and will be available to everyone with a PS3 and a Broadband connection to plug it into. It's an online virtual world - very much like second life, but really really good looking. You can have your own place in this new super realistic world, kit it out with your own things, and walk about freely, chatting and interacting with other users. You can check out the public ranking tables of all your favourite games, and shop in the PlayStation Store for games, or the virtual cinema for movies, which when selected, will be downloaded onto you PS3, apparently seamlessly. What's more, you can group together with other members, and launch into multiplayer games from this world, again with no hassle. So basically it's a lobby, with some shops - much like an airport terminal or something, where you hang around until you're going somewhere - but if you get chance, google up some screenshots - I think a lot of people will happily spend all day in this 'lobby' without any intention of going into a game specifically. They will of course be railed for this - there's no restriction on age uses or separation of populations - basically no security to protect teens and kids from the infamous online predators, and this is basically a chat room so this will be made an issue. There's also arguably still the massive issues that... well... there aren't any games to 'launch' into really. I mean.... sure... some... but not many as I've said before, so that kinda sucks at this point - but this product in itself - it's beautiful, and it's really raised the bar on x-box live. Some, seriously, some might even buy the PS3 now just so they can use Home. I think it's not actually out-out until October, and I heard Second life is having it's major upgrade before then that's said will make it actually just as good as Home in a visual sense. X-Box live could also see an upgrade before then though I doubt it's anything like this. What they have done very nicely though is lifted the separation of PC's and X-Boxes - now PC's can go on the Live system too and even go head to head with X-Box users, widening that community dramatically. But upgrade and increase all you like - we are a fickle generation, driven by what is pleasing to our eyes and intuitive to use. Home looks like a real winner to me, it could even bring them back into the game. Following up from this, the PS3 launched 2 days ago here in the UK. Did any notice? Me either. Apparently it didn't sell out (not really a surprise) and in London I heard they were giving away - yes giving away HD TV's with the PS3's. Which sounds insane but I'm annoyed I wasn't there if it's true :-P I mean... it's actually worth the money if they throw in a HD TV too... maybe they should make that a standard! The gossip I hear suggests that they were boosting the sales in a kind of 'on the spot' thinking kind of way, enticing all who had come just for the party and for their fanboy friends sakes to buy one quick for sales to look good in the press... but it's all just gossip. There were no stories of robbery or violence like there was in the US, which may be cos I haven't heard them, or because we're more civil, or perhaps because the London Met told the stores they weren't allowed to all launch at midnight because they wanted t police this all very well - and made each store stagger their launch party so the police presence didn't have to spread thin. We're so sensible... makes me proud :) Finally, 360 fans please note - a new model of the 360 cometh - the 'Elite' I think it's called. It's limited edition, black, and has 120GB HDD and some extra ports on the back.... if patterns follows, the only 'limited edition' part of this will be the colour. A month or two after it's stopped, the current top 360 model will have these upgrades as standard in it's white case and will be their effective 'price cut' as the summer hits... so wait for it if you're about to buy one. Anyway, Wii still in the lead, 360 close behind and arguably going stronger now, and the PS3 hasn't actually had much of a spike yet, but the Home thing could bring developers onside and then the games will come and gamers will.. eventually... follow.. maybe. __ Phil March 09 LondonWas almost sure. A lot of thought’s gone into it, and I was almost sure I wanted to move back to Manchester. There I can get a great place, I’ll hang out with a lot of old friends, and I’m close to my family. The pay and hours are decent, and it’s a really nice city in so many ways.
Last night I was in town. I walked down the river, along the Millennium Bridge, and stopping half way, I looked over the banks at the beautifully lit cityscape and just thought… ‘this is the greatest city in the world, and I live here’. In any number of those offices, the next big thing, movie, market investment, law – they’re being dreamt into existence right here. This is where the world happens, and I’m standing on a bridge looking out across the whole thing. There’s not a feeling to be had like that anywhere else in the country. And just for that night – I didn’t know why I’d ever want to leave.
Damn bridge.
__
Phil March 08 Celebrations III
We made it - One year of MercyOnMySoul.co.uk (to the day). I could have added a post a few days back when we breached another landmark but I thought I'd hold off and make a double celebration post - for we've smashed through 20'000 hits!
Mel Reynolds has very kindly thrown a party this evening in honour of the prestegous event, so I'm going to Nando's tonight! WooHoo!
Ok ok, Mel's not throwing a party for the site - it's her farewell party as she prepares to leave London to embark on a new chapter of her life in Ireland. New job, new fella... that's about all I know for now but I look forward to hearing more about it this evening :-D But you guys feel free to hold a party in my blogs honour - all the cool kids are doin it :) __ March 06 Bye Bye Blackbird 3/4: Work
Well to cut a long story short, for those who don't yet know, I'm leaving the elucid8 team. So much has changed in my life over the past 3 years and maybe no more than in the last 4 months. Through it all a part of my identity has been in found in my work. For a while, last year especially, it was about all I placed my identity in, so to leave it fills me with a deep sense of loss.
People have asked me about my timing - why leave now? What's changed this month? Etc etc. I think it's probably easier to ask what hasn't changed, but even so, the decision isn't out of the blue - it's been on the cards for a year in a way, and when I had to move from Carshalton my rent went up significantly so it comes to mind with greater frequency. Work aside, It's not been all that well hidden to most that I've felt pretty depressed these last few months. Not without due cause, which I won't go through just here, but yeah - it's been a gauntlet, and I wasn't in a great place at the start. Now we're here, a new year, in the aftermath of my life. It continues to be hard; I can't find energy or passion for my daily tasks, and that impacts my quality and abilities. Right now, elucid8 needs a keen workaholic skilled energetic young programmer with few needs, and I'm not so much that guy. I've also not been immune to seeing friends I shared a graduation year with being promoted and getting on with there careers. It won't be the reason but it adds in. So as much as the flexibility, workmates, and projects have made it worthwhile before, the situation's not going to work for anyone soon enough. The shake needs to happen before e8's losing out and for me, it's now time for many reasons, including lifestyle, money, training, and perhaps something as fickle as my mood and atmosphere.
I'm happy to say the memories I take of e8 are fond and warm. I've been with elucid8 for over two and a half years now. I've had 4 desks, 2 offices, and 5 computers. That means I change stuff more than anyone else in the company, but hey - I like new things :)
It's not always been easy, there's been more than a few late nights and hell, more than a few all-nighters spread over the many months. A lot of people don't really get why I don't mind working in such a way. That's because they don't understand creative work I guess - you get into it, your mind starts seeing the text and code differently - it's like an engrossing story or puzzle, and you can't always switch off and go home when you're pumped on it. It's been a place that at times, I've thrived on the way we work, and that's very rewarding. I'll miss my workmates, and the guys at ALOVE. It's been a privilege to work on projects that go towards making the world a better place, and to make a difference to at least those people that make a difference... If you follow me. I know a few people are even envious of the position I've had here, the work I've done and the contribution it makes. It really has been an honour for all that and I thank the people who gave me this time.
We've laughed, we've cried, we've lost consciousness from prolonged exhaustion. It's been a hoot... Now I gotta be on my way. 'Where am I going?', I'm sure you're eager to know. I have not a clue. Could be anywhere in the world I guess... Footlose and fancy free I think the phrase is. All I can say is watch this space, and think of it as an adventure! __ Phil March 02 Windows Live Messenger campaign
Obviously the gadget doesn't work well with Windows Live Spaces in Internet explorer cos... MS are jst like that. So here's the link: http://im.live.com/Messenger/IM/Home/ And here's the codes: *red+u American Red Cross And I'm not sure how picky they are, but bare in mind it says start with "I'm", not IM or Im. *shrugs* |
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