I remember when I wanted to work in a book store…

 

 

This image is doing the rounds on the internet to be honest most of these grievances are applicable to almost any retail outlet. There was a time when I wanted to work in a bookstore, I was actually very close to applying for a job as a midnight shelf stacker in the Borders in Glasgow before I got my first job as a software developer. I think it was mainly because I hated working in a mobile phone shop, but also because I love books.

I miss Borders, but not because I ever bought any books there (I did occasionally but it was almost always cheaper on Amazon). I think that was their problem, they didn’t seem to care what they didn’t sell to people, they wanted to provide an environment where you could in fact just read the book in the store rather than buy it so that you might buy it half way through. This failed them because I think people just ended up reading the first few chapters in Borders and then ordering off of Amazon to finish the book.

  • We hate when a book becomes popular simply because it was turned into a movie.
  • It confused us when we were asked where the non-fiction section is.
  • Nicholas Sparks is not a good writer … if you like him, fine, but facts are facts.
  • We greatly dislike the phrase “Quick question.” It’s never true. And everyone seems to have one.
  • Your summer reading list was our summer reading NIGHTMARE. Also, it’s called summerreading, not three days before school starts reading.
  • It’s true that we lean to the left and think Glenn Beck is an idiot.
  • We always knew when you were intently reading Better Homes and Gardens, it was really a hidden Playboy.
  • Most of the time when you returned books you read them already — and we were onto you.
  • Limit One Coupon did not mean one for every member of your family — this angered us. Also, we did know what coupons were out.
  • It never bothered us when you threatened to shop at Barnes & Noble. We’d rather you do if you’re putting up a stink.
  • “I was just here last week and saw this book there” meant nothing to us. The store changed once a week.
  • When you walked in and immediately said, “I’m looking for a book,” what you really meant to say is, “I would like you to find me a book.” You never looked. It’s fine, it’s our job — but let’s be correct about what’s really happening here.
  • If you don’t know the author, title, or genre, but you do know the color of the cover, we don’t either. How it was our fault that we couldn’t find it we’ll never understand.
  • We were never a daycare. Letting your children run free and destroy our section destroyed a piece of our souls.
  • Oprah was not the “final say” on what is awesome. We really didn’t care what was on her show or what her latest book club book was. Really.
  • When you returned your SAT books, we knew you used them. We thought it wasn’t fair — seeing that we are not a library.

 

Via Shelf Life

Android Phone Review Template…

I loved this template for an Android phone review that Stephen M. Hackett of 512 Pixels put together, unfortunately it is so true.

I am a big fan of Android but apart from there being more space on the device I don’t see any reason to upgrade my Android phone, the features are creeping in but too slowly for my liking.

  • The screen is better, brighter and bigger than on previous devices.
  • It’s thin, but not iPhone-thin.
  • The OEM’s Android skin isn’t awesome, but in some places, it could be.
  • The new launcher comes with lots of widgets that do things.
  • 4G is cool, unless you like battery life. But damn, those 28 seconds of browsing are fast!
  • The camera software still sucks.
  • Also, FRONT-FACING CAMERA! Note: This can be swapped for “3-D!!!!” if the review requires it.
  • While Android is open, there’s lots of crapware on this phone.Hello, VZContact Manager FREE!
  • This may be the best Android phone yet, but if not, just wait a week or two.
  • The current version of Android lacks some polish, but the next version of Android will be the one to have, we promise. It’s going to rival iOS. Granted, this phone probably won’t ever get to run it.

I’m looking to upgrade soon and to be honest I’m kind of stumped as all the high end Android phones on the Market seem to be exactly the same phone with a slightly different shell…

So much so that I’m debating going on an 18 month fruity holiday to see what it’s like on the other side of the fence and to allow the platform to differentiate it’s self a little…

I think that choice hinges on what Apple announce on the 4th and on what the new Nexus Prime handset has to offer, although I doubt there will much difference between the Nexus Prime and the current Galaxy S II, I do like the idea of having a phone whose name is part Blade Runner and part Transformers.

Metal Gear Solid Risk Board + HD Collection

 

The Metal Gear franchise is one that I will always have a weird feeling about, Metal Gear on the MSX was one of the first games I remember playing, I didn’t actually complete it until a year or so ago though. I’ve never played any of the other Metal Gear games though despite owning/having borrowed them on multiple occasions.

Anyway, I like risk, I like classic risk and I also like the new fangled Risk 2210 and Risk Godstorm games, so there is no reason I won’t like this game. It looks interesting and has artwork by Yoji Shinkawa the art director of the Metal Gear Solid Series.

 

On another note, I just found out that Konami are releasing a Metal Gear Solid HD Collection on the XBOX 360 and PS3. Oddly it only contains MGS 2, MGS 3 and Peace Walker (The PSP game that is supposed to be Metal Gear Solid 5) Why not include the original Metal Gear Solid? Some of us haven’t played that yet!

 

 

On the plus side it does contain the original MSX games Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2. I might play thought MGS on the Playstation and then get this so I can play the others and maybe finally get round to playing Metal Gear Solid 4 which has been sitting on my shelf for 2 and a bit years…

The HD collection is available to pre-order on Amazon, dunno about Risk… Oddly though the links below look like two PS3 links the first should take you to the XBOX 360 one…

Via Gamefreaks

My Induction to The Kindle World

I recently went on a 2 and a half week holiday, and in the airport I broke and bought an Amazon Kindle

Why did I do this? I’d borrowed my mums Kindle for a week and was really impressed with it, and I was sick an tired of 90% of the weight of my carry on luggage being taken up by dead tree.

Don’t get me wrong I love books, I will never stop reading books but given the option of carrying around this:
My Hardcover Copy of a Dance with Dragons

Or this:

I know which I prefer, I still own a copy of that hard cover but the Kindle was a heck of a lot more comfortable to read on a plane. This, I think, is the key selling point of the Kindle. If you are a daily commuter or a traveler the Kindle is a a lightweight easy way to read, the e-ink is so convincing that I often found myself going to flip the page manually as I would have a book.

I’ve read more since I got my Kindle than I think I would have without it, simply because it was there and easy to get at.

That said the Kindle is not without faults, if I buy a physical book it joins the other books in my library and either I or Annabel can read it. This isn’t really possible with the Kindle, if I buy a book on my Amazon account then I can only read it on my Kindle and vice-versa if she buys it on her Kindle I can’t read it on mine. This issue isn’t just endemic to the Kindle but to any device which allows you to download content to a device, it’s an issue with our X-Boxes (Yes we have one each) it’s an issue with our phones (Both Android) it’s an issue with our iTunes libraries (Annabel buys music on iTunes I refuse to because of this reason) and it would be an issue if I had an iPad to match Annabel’s iPad.

This is the main reason I am reticent about buying digital content, it’s linked to an account and not a household like physical media, there is another blog post in this but it really annoys me that no one has come up with a way of saying these people live together let them all have equal access to this content. This is also the reason that my kindle is currently registered as “Annabel’s 2nd Kindle” she bought a bunch of books that I want to read and I can’t read them unless I pretend to be her.

My second issue with the Kindle is that I like owning physical books, I like buying books, I like reading them, I like seeing them on my book shelf. What I don’t like is having to buy books that I want to own the hard copy of twice. With a CD I have the option of format shifting the CD to MP3 to listen to on my iPod, I don’t really have that option on my Kindle, so if I want to read a book that I have already bought I have to pony up the cash for it again. Why can’t books come with a single use code that allows me to say “Hey I bought this book legitimately from a book store let me have the digital copy for free” I know an awful lot of  technical books are doing this, giving you free access to a pdf or .mobi version of the book which you can download if you have bought the book, why not do this for print?

Better yet since amazon knows what books I’ve bought off of them, why not give me the kindle version of those books for free if I buy the physical book from Amazon. That gives them a competitive advantage over other re-sellers, not only do you get Amazon’s prices and amazing customer service, but you also get the a digital copy of the book for free, I’d buy into that, I’d probably never buy books from anyone else ever again.

Aside from these issues though I’m loving the Kindle, I’ve updated the firmware so that I can put my own wallpapers on it, I’ve even tried to put a Manga on it using Mangle, it was legible but the text was a little too small for my liking, that is down to the Manga and not the Kindle though.

I’ve even signed up for a beta copy of the Kindle Developer Kit, though I’ve not heard back from them about this yet.

If you are thinking of getting a Kindle but have held back because you weren’t sure, go for it, it’s awesome. I held back for while but having tried it I love it.

 

Oh please no…. Square Are Probably Working on Final Fantasy XIII-3

I’m going to cut to the chase, Final Fantasy XIII was rubbish, that isn’t just my opinion but everyone I have spoken to about the game thinks that it was rubbish. I was a little aghast when I found out that Square were making a FFXIII-2 but I saw the business sense in it, they spent a lot of money on the IP for the first game so why not reuse them.

Apparently “Corporation Service Company” who handle domain registration for Square have registered the domain finalfantasyxiii-3.com. This doesn’t mean anything, it could just be a case of them registering it in case they need it or to stop anyone else from buying it, but still the implication is that they want to protect that trademark.

Also I’d not seen this, but there is a trailer for Final Fantasy XIII-2 with commentary from the dev team, I quote from the subtitles:

“In the most exiting of battle moments we have introduced the new element of cinematic action events that require interaction from the player rather than just showing cut scenes”

This is around 2:40 in the video below and guess what form this amazing innovation takes?

QUICK TIME EVENTS!

Seriously Square? I have lost all faith in you

Why can’t Square release a good game based on it’s solid RPG principles, or at least revisit old IP and bring the graphics up to date, I’d pay good money to play this if it were brought up to date:

Or even a version of the fan-boy sweetheart Final Fantasy VII with the graphics from the advent children movie?

Or continue what they started with the Tech Demo for Final Fantasy VIII when they announced the PS2…

But instead they seem to continue to work on mediocre sequels to mediocre games, saving the interesting game ideas like Crisis Core (The Final Fantasy VII prequel, on the PSP) for platforms on which no one is going to play them…

I’m getting sick of ranting about this, it boils down to Square losing touch with their core audience chasing after some mythical casual RPG gamer audience…

Via Geek Native