Spontaneous Monotony

Sony lost a lot of credibility when its music CDs were found to contain a rootkit virus. Those who purchased Sony’s products legally would have their computers infected, whereas those who downloaded them for free would (as with all DRM) get a better deal than those who paid.

Apparently not content with destroying customers’ computers with music CDs and fire, Sony has managed to arse-up yet another segment of its once-revered product lineup. The MicroVault USB sticks - which justify costing many times more than competitor products with their ‘fingerprint reader’ security - use an incompetent rootkit as part of their security suite. Like XCP, the Micro Vault rootkit could allow malicious hackers easier access to an infected PC. As with the XCP fiasco Sony did not reply to the security researchers who initially informed them privately - as is the ‘done thing’ in these sorts of situations.

Just in case people thought that it might be safe to buy Sony products again - here’s the evidence you were probably hoping didn’t exist.

Crackdown has overcome initial skepticism to become a Grand Theft Auto clone that has everything a comic book lover could want - cel-shaded graphics, superpowers, and very little ‘fluff’ to get in the way of the core gameplay (no ridiculous ambulance minigame required to get 100% completion here).

When Crackdown was released, very little attention was paid to it as a game. Aside from the fact that it was another GTA clone on a console which already had Saints Row and Just Cause, it was the delivery vehicle for the far more anticipated Halo 3 beta. Thousands of fanboys dutifully went out and paid £40 for a game they had no intention of playing just for the ‘privilege’ of acting as unpaid beta testers for Microsoft.

This in mind, prior to release many people were expecting Crackdown to be a real lemon. The logic being that the fanboys would buy any game that the Halo 3 beta was bundle with, and that Microsoft would exploit this in order to shift copies of an underwhelming game. (more…)

Despite being (for the moment) an inferior choice as a games console compared to the Xbox 360, the PS3 looks like making a name for itself as a media hub. Not only the Blu-ray player (the PS3 is currently about £400 cheaper than Play.com’s cheapest standalone player), but now it will also have a digital tv addon and Tivo/Sky+-like recording functions. I think this is actually quite a good idea on Sony’s part - they’ve realised that the Xbox 360 probably has too much of a head start for them to compete on a games-vs-games basis (as with the previous generation, the Xbox was a better console than the PS2 but had poorer games and no momentum), so they now plan to get people to buy them for their media functions. I suspect there are probably more people looking for a Bluray-playing PVR than there are looking for a games console with a lacklustre software library.

Just when you thought that ‘Scottish’ Labour might have finally realised they do not have a divine right to run Scotland, their new leader comes out with this at her coronation:

That’s the road on which I will lead Scottish Labour and it is the road back to power,

Aside from having fewer personality flaws, one thing about the SNP is that they actually care about doing the job, case in point the Crichton Campus

Glasgow Uni: We’re making an 800k loss on the Crichton Campus, we can’t afford that
Labour Executive, pre-election: Tough
SNP Executive: Here’s the necessary money to not only maintain the Crichton, but make it even better.

Let’s hope that nobody actually listens to Wendy Alexander - it’s only when we have a proper government in power that we begin to realise what a complete dog’s mess Labour have been making of our country for the past ten years.

Today sees the launch of Alex Salmond’s campaign for a ‘national conversation’ (Worst. Title. Ever.) on the future of the country. The general idea seems to be that the public will be overwhelmingly convinced by the words of El Salmondo and the naughty unionist parties will see the error of their ways and back a referendum. When you’re finished ducking to avoid airborne pork products, perhaps you might see the reason why a referendum would be a good idea.

As the unionist parties have been crowing for the past few days, a poll conducted for that well-known bastion of objective journalism. the Daily Mail, showed that support for independence had dropped significantly. Leaving aside the strong possibility that this does not reflect the actual responses in the poll, even a well-conducted opinion poll generally proves to be as accurate a reflection of public opinion as if I threw two gerbils in the air and waited to see which landed first. Previous polls have shown a majority support for independence. Remember the poll that predicted an SNP-Green-Socialist majority government? The only way to really find out what the public want is to ask them, in a proper referendum.

This is what leaves me so baffled by the position of the unionist parties. They confidently proclaim that ‘the majority of Scots do not want independence’. So why are they so worried about the prospect of a referendum? The cost of holding one would be about £7m - that’s approximately 2 hours’ worth of Iraq War (based on the total dollar cost of the war to date), or approximately one seven-hundredth of a trident submarine (based on the official estimate of £20bn for 4 new submarines).

I would suggest that the constitutional future of our country is more important than illegal wars or illegal WMD, and I therefore fail to see the disadvantage in asking the question - the ‘independence issue’ would then be settled, one way or the other.

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