Author: iandick

Chancers

Just watched a BBC Scotland documentary called Chancers. The programme follows the Airborne Initiative which tries to help persistent young offenders and change their ways. What struck me was the determination and faith that some of the Airborne workers had and just how difficult their job is. I thought my day-to-day job offers challenges and problems – theirs is an absolute nightmare. Constant abuse, threats of violence, persistent drug-taking and a total lack of discipline and respect yet throughout the course they must show they have belief in the offenders. And looking at the Airborne website I’ve seen the salaries offered – that�s a low wage for the stress they go through.

More desperate are the offenders themselves. Even though they are in last chance saloon they still push their luck taking rules to the extreme. Some of the behaviour……can’t put it into words.

But what�s left me confused is how best to deal with the offenders? Lock up and throw away the key? More initiatives like Airborne? Just don’t know which is why it’s so difficult to fix.

Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy

Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.

This has been doing the rounds via e-mail over the last week – pretty spooky. To make up your own paragraphs, use this word scrambler. If you are really interested in a kind off science geek type way, here an article from Nature that describes the phenomenon.

Colin Mcrae 04

Picked up Colin Mcrae 04 today. First impressions are favourable. Graphics are improved over previous version, handling does feel more weighty – I tried 03 a couple of days ago just to make sure I would notice differences like these.

However there are some usability niggles that should no longer exist in games and smack of lazy programming and/or cash-in of an easy upgrade. Firstly you can’t assign your own controls, with the ability to only choose from one of five pre-defined control settings. This is pretty nasty and while I can find one that almost suits me why couldn’t I assign controls to buttons of my choosing. Allowing the user to map controls to any buttons should be a pre-requisite on all games.

Every time you start the game you have to enter your name – why doesn’t it hold the previous entry? The LIVE scoreboards are a good edition although proper multiplayer is would have been a better option. In fact the LIVE scoreboards seem to load separately meaning you come ‘out’ of the game when accessing them. When you go back to the game it restarts but without the loading intro’s – weird.

Overall a good game, better than the last one but a fairly weak update.

The West Wing

Just watching last weeks episode. And by the way before I start on the praise its a woo-hoo to Graeme for recording it for me and a boo for Channel 4 for dumping the last series in a graveyard shift while at the same time pumping shite like The Games all last week.

Anyway….enough of the digression. The West Wing is the best prog on TV at the moment. Even a poor episode is better than most of the other drivel on at the moment. Its only flaw is that everyone that works in the Whitehouse is good and has no real flaws….apart from lying about their health. Add a few darker characters within the administration and it would be top smart.