deanb

Seems like it'll be a bit pants but eh.

I'm quite mixed. I think Capaldi himself is a rather good Doctor, and given his pedigree not surprising. He's playing an "old" Doctor rather than one that's trying to stay forever young. He's reconciled of sorts with his past self, he's sort of got a vague mission in finding Gallifrey n such (though doesn't really act on it much tbh). However the writing has been all over the place. Heaven Sent was a great episode, like up there with Blink n the like. But there's been some total trash too. Clara definitely hung around too long. The Zygon episode was very mixed, it sorta got better but there was some super questionable choices in it. Missy was good. Me was an alright concept as a character though I think Masie Williams was slightly too young to play (also like Clara was around a bit too long). Oh the 2D-3D episode...err I forget the name of the monster but that was pretty cool too. (I googled, they're "Boneless" n the episode is "Flatline") Now Coleman is gone I'm sorta hopeful for the show, she kinda fucked it up a bit by ruining the Xmas episode by changing her mind midway through (the actress not the character). Moffat I think needs to stop being show runner too, which I believe his tenure has ended in that regard.

So apart from minimal pottering around, light tidying up, and some things to keep my mind occupied I've had an otherwise rather uneventful inactive day n yet feel absolutely knackered and drained. Just how do you articulate such anger, despair, confusion and hopelessness with half the population. My only partial solace is I'm in Newcastle, the only spot in N-E where Remain was the majority. - Since the announcement of a leave victory we have Cornwall councils wanting to retain the same funding they've enjoyed from the EU, and I imagine they would also like it if I can't make "Cornish Pastys" up here in Newcastle, or Cornish Clotted Cream. - Farage has washed his hands of the £350million into NHS statements which were a driving pillar of Leave as a "mistake", as well as making rather heartless remark on not needing a "bullet fired" despite the murder of Jo Cox barely over a week ago, oh and "other countries have Independence Days, why can't we", ignore the vast majority are because of us. - Boris Johnson wants us to "not be hasty" however - EU are pushing to make the Article 50 process go ASAP cos they need stability (as well as a cautionary tale) and I fully agree with them on that. If it was any other EU country doing this we'd be demanding it too. - Cameron is resigning by October, which means we might end up with "ignore the experts" Gove, or heck even "BoJo" as PM. Also he won't be the one to put Article 50 into motion, which leaves this all in limbo a fair bit. - A couple Labour MPs are calling for vote of no confidence in Corbyn, which they'll have been chomping on the bit for some reason to do that, though other Labour members have noted it won't do anything cos he'd likely win another leadership contest again. (Unless they can get David Milliband from his self-imposed exile) - Scotland and Northern Ireland have called for Independence referendums, which given the outcome in those two countries makes sense and was sort of inevitable (Scotland had a close run last time, so a second was gonna happen just to make sure it was absolutely one way or other). - Spain is eyeing up Gibraltar, which a non-EU Gibraltar is pretty much fucked. - Wales also voted heavily in Leave despite getting the most EU funds of any UK region. It's a common thread throughout the country unfortunately, I guess most folks aren't fully aware where EU cash goes. - UK science industry don't have any FTSE equivalent but yeah it'd also be in turmoil if it was, out of EU makes it a fair bit harder to share both funds and research materials, lab specialisms etc so we've essentially set our scientific advances back a fair bit too. - There's a bunch of videos circling the web from news programs interviewing Leave voters who are "I wouldn't think we'd actually leave"/"I didn't think my vote would count". These people will be found n nailed to crosses outside polling stations as an example to the rest that political votes and elections aren't fucking jokes like X-Factor n the like. And that's just the news of today. Over the next couple years it's gonna be a fun spiral as the 80,000 separate EU-related pieces of legislation are scoured n rectified, deals made, and UK removed from the EU and losing many of the rights and privileges that entails from individuals, to corporate and country.

It means we get to build a hospital every week. Nah. We don't really know. It's a non-binding referendum so if anyone had balls in parliament they can say "fuck it" and pretend nothing happened, also technically the EU under a unanimous vote can also halt our departure too. Should it go through then likely many companies that rely on EU trade, or EU funding, will likely tank in some way. I think people grossly underestimate how much trade we do across seas. I'm pretty sure I can go open my fridge n find a bunch of EU items. Potentially we'll end up deporting a bunch of folks, and importing a bunch of folks too. Travel to EU will cost much more given unlikely to be covered by NHS there anymore, currency exchange will be less in our favour, etc. Less indirectly related we'll see a surge in the far right, essentially xenophobia has been legitimised by vote. Probably gonna have a lot of people confused their vote doesn't mean all the muslims go n likely to react quite negatively on that. There's also the fact that there's a 50:50 chance the folks on the street think extremely different to you too which is gonna have an air of lingering unpleasantness. I think that's gonna be the bigger impact really, as TFG said there's a dark shadow. Politics has always been kinda nasty, especially last few years of tory rule, but was still tinged with a bit of humour in throwing pies and PMs fucking pigs. But now we've outright xenophobia, assassinations, blatant lies, n nothing fun to take the edge off it. It's gross n horrible. Also Cowboy will have a very full house.

NO U!!

So on the Edit 2: I feel like shit. I knew at least half this nation were knobheads, but turns out it's just over half. NI n Scotland calling for independence, Spain eyeing up Gibraltar, Leave already backtracking, Farage being a monumentally inconsiderate prick over Jo Cox. I'm no fan of Cameron, but I'm a fan of the cronies in the shadows waiting to take his place even less. I really hope neither Gove nor Boris get in as PM.

You missed out the bit where I just put "dany" too. I couldn't be arsed to look up the particular spelling. I'm not a huge fan of fantasy writers having this issue with using decent names. I think Jon n Ned are the only two with regular-enough names. Book I'm currently reading has a character called "Kvothe" which it even has a bit describing how to pronounce it, thankfully he normally goes by "Kote", but given "Kvothe" is like "Quoveth" or whatever I'm not sure how if it's "Coat" or "Quote".

It was 52%/48% this morning. It's horribly close. Scotland was kinda fucked up for a while after their in-our referendum. And yes, was the slight point I was getting at, your politics are pretty hairy n it's like that every 4 years (for 2 years at a time!). edit: Oh yes, to amuse here's a brief snippet of exchange between myself and my brother who is currently working in Sweden and potentially in Holland next.

From what I can tell he never got any residuals due to hollywood accounting, I'm not even an actor I know that unless you're hot shit you're unlikely to make any long term gains off the "profits" of a film. Star Wars was famous for just that given Lucas went for the merchandising rights instead. Complaining of being "snubbed" for film that doesn't even feature Darth Vader isn't a great look either. I imagine Kenny Barker n Anthony Daniels were unlikely to make much if any long term income off Star Wars either. Looking into it it turns out he spoiled Empire Strikes Back too which is why Lucas snubbed him for being under the mask and Sebastian Shaw instead. He's had plenty other roles, he's been the Green Cross Code Man, he's been a heavy weight champion, he trained Superman. He has much he could do instead he whines about Star Wars and has "David Prowse @isDarthVader" as his handle. Tying his online identity with a film series he's generally done little but show bitterness towards for the decades.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/36603978/darth-vader-is-set-for-a-star-wars-comeback-in-the-prequel-film-rogue-one James Earl Jones returning as voice of Vader. No word on who'll be the body but I imagine it's unlikely to be Prowse (seems there's a rift between him n Star Wars lot, and given what I've seen how he acts on this Twitter timeline it's probably deserved).

Nah, polls closed at 10pm, it's now 10:30 as of typing this, and it's not gonna be expected until like 4am earliest so I'm gonna catch my forty winks. Likely you Americans will know before most of us. With a general election you can usually get a good idea before all the votes are counted, but with this it's unlikely to be the case with this given the close polls, unless they've massively fucked up again and it turns out one has a decent majority. You can follow the results as they come here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/politics/eu_referendum/results Gonna be fucked up regardless of the outcome, it's been really nasty. Really makes you grateful that the general elections have varied amount of parties that sorta defuse much of the us v them aspects.

We weren't shouting at all. First up I should probably point out I picked up Guild Wars 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, and Watch_Dgs through G2A. I'm perfectly fine abusing global capitalism to get hold of games for cheap. Which is where most of G2As front of shop stock comes from is through Ukraine n the like. I've a Russian copy of Borderlands 2 sat in my Steam library. I've otherwise had no bother with them or other sites, keys work fine n all that. I also have a game on sale there atm just to trial it a bit n see how it works out. As best I can currently tell, in relation to selling an item, I can't see that you get raw cash out of the system either but G2A funds instead (much like the marketplace on Steam doesn't let you cash out either). But it'll be 14 days until it cashes out, which imo is enough time to have stuff checked over n the transaction cancelled or my account closed. Assuming G2A were to get any info that I was selling a "stolen" key (it's just from the Origin HIB) Anyway first of all I'm strongly of the impression this is all a marketing exercise, we've seen this kind of stuff work before when Game Dev Tycoon was "pirated" and bit of minor investigation found that the only torrents that were on TPB of the game were put up there by the developers and had like 5 seeds. But the media caught onto the story of scrappy indie up against the big bad pirates (who were so gagging for the game they couldn't be arsed to crack and uploaded it themselves) and Game Dev Tycoon then went on to sell reasonably well. Story of how grey market key seller is facilitating credit card fraud and costing them "$450k"(I believe they're using a Leave economist for that one*). And yeah, you do a google for either Tinybuild or G2A n there's plenty articles up there with links to their games (n you know how folks like to show solidarity by buying games to show those bullies). The fact that it's TinyBuild who are pushing all these links to Reddit is kinda leaning on that theory a fair bit more. Secondly TinyBuild are totally fucking up for not being able to identify which keys are with which chargeback. It's through their own damn website. I could understand if it was keys sent out in lump to HIB, or other bundle site, or for give-aways or something but their site doesn't sell in bulk. I also think TinyBuild are also kinda stupid in not having any list of authorised retailers on their site*. Cos surely it'd come across as rather weird if you featured G2A sponsored streamer PewDiePie in one of your games, but then say that G2A are totally nothing to do with you. They literally only list Steam for their games, but you can find their games on IndieGameStand, Humble Bundle, GoG, AllKeysShop* etc. I can take a fair guess that the latter isn't a direct partnership, but then there was a bit of bother a while back between CDProjekt n GMG because GMG, who are generally considered fairly "legit" weren't authorised retailer of Witcher n were getting it through other means. Probably the same means the majority of G2A games comes from (that aren't on the Marketplace). I'm also not keen on their latest suggestion being allowing developers to set minimum sale amounts given that'd amount to price fixing, which is afaik pretty dang illegal. I've plenty spare keys from Humble Bundles, and I generally just give them away, but oh no gotta charge a pretty penny for it now n then throw a few bones at the developer cos right of first sale isn't a thing either. In fact for cases like this where a dev complains at folks selling bundle keys: don't put your game in a super discounted bundle and then folks can't buy it for pennies n sell them on while undercutting your regular amount. Which has also been advice, much like the "list your damn authorised retailers", that's been going around for years. The other alternative is G2A close down the Marketplace n just sell Russian keys(which used to be the old complaint levied at them), and...it'll move elsewhere. The reselling of keys is perfectly legitimate, at least within the EU. The only legal issue here is G2A not verifying if the keys are the result of someone selling keys from doing a chargeback or from folks who bought some stuff on Humble, already own a few of the games, and selling the spare keys on. As it currently stands G2A can invalidate the accounts selling dodgy keys through TinyBuild providing a list of the chargeback keys but TinyBuild refuse, and I think largely cos the above in that they don't much care on resolution for this as it's mainly to get publicity (I imagine getting a public response wasn't really part of the plan). If I walked into CeX and decried them for laundering my stolen property they'd be right to prove that the PS4 they have on the shelf is mine, and if I can they'll work with me on sorting it out. If however I was to be all "no, I am not showing you the receipt for it and my registration for the serial on this and my police case number!" then they'd be right to tell me to get on my bike (unless you're around daniel n that'd be bad idea). TinyBuild clearly aren't going into this with any good faith at all. Also worth noting, as I did on Twitter, G2A have never said that they'd only look into it if Tinybuild became official partners. It's literally: "I would be happy to look into that however I will say this requires TinyBuild to want to work with G2A." in a "you need to work with your therapist to get the most out of it" kind of way doesn't mean I should join them. Chargebacks will happen regardless of G2A existing or not, and that's entirely on TinyBuilds head to deal with. One solution is to bulk up their store infrastructure, especially if they wish to continue their plan of being a publisher, or the other solution is go through likes of Steam n HiB who have the functionality for dealing with that in place already and save yourself a bunch of headaches (which to a degree they have done). Just a few figures myself as well put SpeedRunners, the one with PewDiePie, according to SteamSpy (which is an estimate) at just over a million sales, well beyond the 29K copies sold on G2A Marketplace (which are even further eclipsed by the piracy rater they posted about a few months ago). Yeah it's shitty that TinyBuilds store was used to facilitate credit card fraud, but it's on their head to deal with. They're wanting to play publisher n distributor n go after the bug guys like Steam you need to make sure your solution is somewhat robust. Steam deals with way more purchases than the few thousand TinyBuild had and are quite able to lock off your account if your card issues a chargeback without being "well we don't know whose account this game is with". And if you're concerned with facilitating this as a consumer, then TinyBuilds singular and only legitimate authorised retailer is Steam, so avoid buying a key from HIB/GMG/GOG etc. Devolver Digital, who have waded into this debate with a much more solid head, have this on the footer of their site: http://www.devolverdigital.com/static/vendors/which makes it pretty dang clear n easy to work out (even if it's weird they have Nuuvem on there n a bunch of super-discount bundle sites) *Seriously, they even showed how they twiddled their maths in their own blog article. **To be fair their site is also kinda horrible and all over the place too so I can totally understand why they might not have the means to properly track sales either. ***(These guys came 4 on a search to buy Punch Club, after Steam, Tiny Build, then iTunes, n above GoG, being related to my job n all means I know GoG don't even get a look in here)

http://i.imgur.com/QH61pcz.gifv

Hola!

The latter being the "basic income" stuff which has to happen some point. It's something mulling on my mind a while cos I'd like to hear some actual political debate around the automation of the workforce, and certainly one that doesn't go "but we invented the freezer n ice delivery men got other jobs!" type responses. Not that much of this will apply to us depending on the trouser leg we end up in on Friday.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/48000/ Limbo is free, unsure if forever or limited deal though (there's no timer on it like most deals)

To be fair I think technically for purpose of ergonomics you're not meant to rest your forearms on the desk, hence the pads n such that raise your wrists up (you're also meant to use your arm to move your mouse not your wrist but I think most of us ignore that bit) Not exactly a purchase, but my brother has thrown his drone my way since he's not getting much use out of it (both cos he can't be arsed, and also cos he's in a different country atm). I'm getting okay at it though I guess like less than an hours flight time so far given it's an hours charge for a few minutes of battery. It has a fair bit of air movement on it, it'll blow open magazines if you pass by them. Yet to take it outside, but I think it will need it some point, it's not quite designed for wholly intricate interior motions. I imagine it has a 120m range for a reason.

Making-of for those interested, and those (such as fred) wanting a dissection. It was bloody intense. And yeah this is the first proper battle we've actually seen on screen on GoT, rest are all of a "and then he got hit with a rock n woke up after it had all happened" style. So definite increase in budget. I'd be curious to know of the inner-industry knock-on effects that GoT is having with the amount of money being pumped into it. I know having Harry Potter over in UK helped pick up chunks all of the place having boosts to likes of Doctor Who n eventually Star Wars. There's definitely a degree of predictability snaking in, and I think some characters are starting to get too strong a plot armour.

This is pretty damn swish if you have a record player.

I'm even more amazed that we've not seen much else in the way of the nemeses system. Thought for certain other devs would be all over that. That's sort of what I was aiming at with the "shadow of mordor-like".

I find that any PDF that's more than a dozen or so pages long tends to start fucking up because they get huge (RPG books are my main sticklers I hit on those). Can't offer recommendations for iPad, though I imagine ComicRack is on iPad*, but for any Android users the PerfectViewer shits all over any Android conventions in design n use but is pretty nice especially as it has a control "overlay" of sorts so you get a full screen experience. Most comic apps will run both so could put both on your system n see which plays best. I imagine PDF is more for portability since it's a pretty common file format. *https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/comicrack/id660025721?mt=8

Showed the trailer for this to my mum since she's a Walkind Dead fan. Didn't recognise the name but once it showed him on the beach (nude in foetal position...) she recognised him. My little sister was intrigued. "Why are there flying people? Where's the baby gone? why are there dead whales?". Latter being the only one I can answer (as covered above).