And here's my two cents about DRM

A couple of days after Spore's release the discussion about the DRM is raging uncontrollably. I've seen and read quite some nice arguments either way at Amazon, and gaming sites like Destructoid:

• ehm... yes. Software and games are inherently licensed for the customer to use: a personal, non-exclusive license to install and use the Software for your personal, non-commercial use... so I agree that I can't actually OWN a game per se. I can however acquire the right to use the Software.
• Spore now uses a DRM which limits someone's installations to three times. Afterwards you have to hope EA's customer service believes the reasons you installed Spore three times already, and gracefully allows you to do it once more. IF they are still around to call... The debate is about this fact. As I see it people are furious that EA has limited their legally acquired right to use a game, and basically put an expiration stamp on a good which previously had none. While you're still paying the same price for the good OR MORE. Yes that tends to ruffle people's feathers. You'd expect this if oil prices would suddenly hit $200 a barrel, or bread prices would rise tenfold.
  
• The funny thing is that protests are definitely noticeable, on forums, in print media, in electronic media and television. But it is also definitely noticeable that EA will try to hide or avoid bad publicity as much as possible. They even delete bad reviews for chrissakes. I'm sure that at some point in the future the sales figures will come out as being satisfactory, even if they are not. Because if the numbers are an EPIC FAILURE and word of this reached popular media, it would also prove the complete and utter uselessness of SecuROM DRM.
• And that's what it boils down to. What is the use of any DRM? Is it an effective deterrent to piracy? I doubt that pirates would even make their opinions heard on the popular forums, rather spending their time to breaking the DRM faster than the other team. So far DRM has proven to be an effective deterrent to SALES. The legitimate customers (or prospective ones) are the ones who hold the discussions, and they are furious.

I see SecuROM DRM as a terrible way of protecting one's property rights. I have always bought games on the pretense that I can use it whenever, even years after. I'm pretty sure I cannot play Spore, or Mass Effect or maybe even Red Alert 3 in ten years time anymore, be it through a lack of online activation, or reinstallation. If I want to play again, I need to buy again. Which means I'm renting a game. And I'm not renting a game that costs 40 to 50 Euros.

In the end, it's all about the money. It's like a mortgage or an insurance, that the bank suddenly decided to raise tenfold, because it was afraid you would lend the money to someone else. And people get awfully defensive when it's about their own money.

Too bad. EA could have used my money. And from many people like me. And now they won't get it.

UPDATE: the Dutch media have finally caught on: [http://www.nu.nl/news/1763713/55/Rechtszaak_tegen_EA_om_DRM_in_spel.html]

Sport on Widescreen

I'm not completely sure that sport actually looks better and is better because of widescreen television. During the Olympics a couple of races, notably the rowing competitions but also the 100m dash, you could see more of the athletes. Especially at the finish line you could see very well how big the difference is between the top spot and the stragglers.

But how wide does the screen need to be? One statement made by a Dutch sports commentator during the rowing events made me rethink the widescreen. He was thinking the Dutch rowers would be just outside the left of the screen, while the leaders were dead centre, heading for the victory. Ehm... how interested are you in being bad? You want to be on screen? Get on the winning side! Lead the race for chrissakes.

Maybe widescreen makes sense for team sports, like football. But for athletic races? I don't think so.

Coincidences

• It's gonna be a busy day at the airport when your friends, your colleagues and your parents are all flying out of the country on the same day. It would be even more of a coincidence if they all ended up - despite making plans independently from each other - in the same plane.
• It's gonna be a busy day at the airport when at least four groups of people - old friends no less - make plans independently from each other and ended up - lo and behold - in the Big Apple roughly the same time.
  

And now some closing statements about the Olympics

• Spain made it a game in the men's basketball final against Team USA. Too bad I couldn't watch it with some good commentators on the line... On the Netherlands channel you've got self-proclaimed basketball guru Mart Smeets (I mean, I know you've played ball, and you probably know more about the game than the average joe, but you don't have to lay it down so thick. That's very condescending. And any run-the-mill American newscaster will blow you out of the water, by the way...), and on the Belgian channel they were quite biased against the Americans (I mean, sure they're arrogant, but at least make some effort to stay a more or less neutral journalist...) I can't judge the German, French, Spanish and Italian channels, because frankly they speak to fast for me to understand.
• So you think that human rights are violated in China? Or that Tibet should be free? Of course, all very important. And probably something to put on someone's agenda. But let me ask you... if you are invited to someone's home do you immediately go out of your way to insult the host? Dare I remind you you're talking to Chinese?
  
• Race walking is NOT A SPORT, people. It doesn't even qualify as an art. It looks insipid, it has no practical value, and what are the viewing numbers? Frankly I find it completely ridiculous that it is considered Olympic, when the IOC cut baseball and softball from the list.
• Is it a coincidence that the Russians pulled out from Georgia at the end of the Olympics? I can just imagine what the Russian athletes would say, when they get back to Moscow... "You did what!!?"
  
• The Netherlands women's hockey team should have a sequel to their 2006 DVD documentary "GOUD". It should have more close-up shots of Fatima, and Naomi, and Ellen, and Eefke, and Maartje P., and Eva training... however I can do without the passive aggressive shite of the first DVD. I can also do without the Dr. Phil sessions, the righteous indignation of coach Marc Lammers, and that silly mouth guard of Maartje Goderie. Nobody's buying that fake slit. Especially if you're built like a twig.
• Merel Witteveen has the most dreamy bedroom eyes I have ever seen on pretty much anyone.
• And while this has been going on, football season is starting! Hooray!
  

Hilarity at the Games

• I didn't catch this at first, but the Brazilian beach volleyball players playing for Georgia are called GEOR and GIA. *HILARIOUS*
  
• ...Too bad the Russians don't play ball very well... that would make for a fun match card...
  
• ...Next games in London we should also hire some Brazilians to play our beach volleyball games. We can call them HOL and LAND.
• Usain Bolt won his third gold in the 4x100m relay, he was the third runner after Nesta Carter and Michael Frater, and before Asafa Powell. The Jamaican quartet ran a world record...
  
• ...Bolt was so fast, he finished before the final runner of the Dutch team! *HILARIOUS*
  

More Sport Observations

• Van den Hoogenband would make a very good sports commentator, judging by the reaction he gave at the finish of the 10 km swim event. He is very much in the same league as Jack Van Gelder. Yes, THAT Jack Van Gelder.
• The Olympics track and field competition is becoming a lot like the WWE. Usain Bolt is quite nearly like The Rock. Confident, cocky, entertaining... and absolutely the best at what he does (and again... we'll have to wait until a couple of weeks after the Olympics when he proves clean). If Jacques Rogge thinks it's disrespectful... well... that's very Vince McMahon. You got the heels (Thanou), the divas (the high jumping women), and the tragic faces (Liu Xiang); so it won't be long before we get the same shitty soap operas, like on RAW.
  

The Biggest Star in Beijing: Phelps versus Bolt

It took Michael Phelps two Olympic Games to finally get to his desired goal, win eight gold medals in one Games. In little over a week he showed he could carefully choose his events so that he was always the favoured to win. Despite two close calls Phelps did earn his legendary status...

...but it took Usain Bolt just under ten seconds to achieve his legendary status. He showboated his way to the starting block, and then completely humiliated the rest of the field, pounding his chest and spreading his arms wide. Spectacular 100m world record, and "the Lightning" Bolt even looked like he could go even faster.

Bolt achieved so much more in much less time than Phelps, and unlike Phelps Bolt didn't get to choose between as many events where he could win gold ("let's see, I'm gonna pick several obscure disciplines nobody else wants to do anyway"), and his competition was potentially much better (Gay, Powell). So for me (at least until the doping affair comes out) Bolt is the man of the Olympics up to this point.

Everybody makes mistakes

People think they are entitled to a lot of things. Entitled to get what they want, and that other people understand what they mean, and they will help them with anything and everything. I don't think that's possible.

When you set requirements for the things you want to have or things you want accomplish, and find out you can't do it yourself, you bring people in to help you. You ask them of they can do what you want, and what they want for it in return. They can then do their proposals and ideas.

If you ask several proposals, you're bound to get several different ideas. That's a given, unless you standardize your requirements, and make the granularity of your requirements real detailed, and everybody understands what it all means. Those are a lot of conditions that need to be true.

More than likely thus you're gonna find that the proposals you're getting are not going to be exactly what you want. What I've found is that people become quite emotional in that case: people get insulted that the proposal clearly not understood their needs. And they berate the people behind the proposal.

Now, there's two things happening here. Proposals can be mismatched because the expectations between the two parties client and supplier are fundamentally different. A supplier can also be lazy, but let's keep a good mind about people for once. Proposals can also not match because a client's requirements have changed, have become more detailed. Anyways the proposal itself becomes the basis for discussion, so that more accurate descriptions can be made.

However when the emotion factor kicks in, you get accusations like "Why didn't so-and-so understand my needs? I was clear enough, wasn't I?" or "This guy clearly doesn't know what he wants." Now what I've found in business are the following points:

• a client cannot assume a supplier will surrender all his resources at a moment's notice just to help the client; clients often overestimate their own priorities over that of other clients
  
• clients must ask specifically when they find something lacking; getting angry because someone didn't give you what you wanted, when in fact you didn't ask for it, and you only assumed that people understood, is naive.
• suppliers that don't work like you want them to, should be told as such
  
• everybody makes mistakes
  

My Boy Pieter

Pieter van den Hoogenband (na de halve finale 100 m vrij):

"Ik heb niet meer het lichaam van Sidney."

This weekend's sports observations

• A silver medal winner in swimming called "Silver", a shooting gold medal winner called "Pang". (I'm sure I wasn't the only one who noticed.)
  
• Also, a weightlifting champion called "Jaroenrattanatarakoon"...
• What's worse, she actually wanted to be called like that.
• China is counting the medal table based on the number of gold medals
• USA is counting the medal table based on total number of medals
• Michael Phelps is counting the medal table exactly like the Chinese
• Gullit just quit the L.A. Galaxy. All over the Kalverstraat and PC Hooft in Amsterdam, shops rejoice... Estelle is coming back home!

Declaring the Olympics Open...

Or rather... it doesn't matter how good you are in what you do, China can do it better... and there's more of them than there are of you.

If you watched the opening ceremony you should have noticed that China can coordinate the movements of thousands of people at the same time into an artform. That's communism for you.

Didn't I already say I didn't get money?

Hmm... we actually have an anniversary for a financial event, as if it was a natural disaster, or bombing. Last year around this time banks around the world started feeling the crunch. Suddenly they found out that:

• some people can't actually pay their mortgage anymore
• banks are playing around with money that isn't really theirs
• people make incorrect assumptions, and give trust where it isn't warranted

In poker terms, the blinds went up, and everyone has to go all-in. Except everyone has a dog for a hand.

More iPhone fun

Now that everyone has an iPhone, it's pretty safe to say that what a cell phone should look like is finally standardized. Indeed phones shouldn't need any keypads, but just consist of a screen, one that is sharp enough to browse the internet.

In fact this phone already existed five years ago. The P900 was a phone that for the first time dared to make the keypad obsolete, and the big screen the main feature of the phone. Unfortunately the look didn't catch on, possibly because the P900 was bulky.

No such trouble for the iPhone. Thin and sleek, this is the phone I knew five years ago to be the future... It is the cell phone of all cell phones. Mobile de la tutti Mobiles... and I'm not getting one. The success of the Apple's cell confirms my ideals from half a decade ago. So I have no more points to make. It is already a success...

Now on to the next item. What can I make great next?

iPhone Stuff

Funniest thing heard today between two iPhone owners.

"Oh... you got the old one?"

Also, check out the features that the next generation iPhone must have...

Question for yourselves

Do you make other people look good by example, or do you make other people look good by comparison?

Heroes and idols

You can say about pro wrestling what you may. You may think it's over the top, fake, or violent, but you can't deny pro wrestling knows and respects its past. It respects its heroes. Look no further than Ric Flair at Wrestlemania 24 for the best example of this (out now on DVD and Blu-ray!)

Same feeling is present in baseball, when at last week's All Star game scores of Hall of Famers entered the field, in the most legendary ballpark of all.

See? Sports is not just about competition. It's not even just about glory. Sports is about respecting heroes, idols.

Dumb and dumber

A rave has to be a rave: it comes with a certain notoriety. In fact without this hardcore reputation, a rave won't be as popular as it could be.
However what I don't get about Black is this news message.

• "stewards" re-sell tickets for a party which is not sold out? I hope people who bought these paid less than running price, because otherwise who could be as stoned to buy tickets for more!? I mean you could still get official tickets at the entrance, for chrissakes.
• speaking about stoned... 159 arrests for drug possession. I got one thing to say about that, and that is I know pot when I smell it. So either the "stewards" missed a couple of arrests or they allowed a little more than you would expect from the authorities.
  
• Anyway I found the number of arrests a little bit high. It sounds fabricated. ("What sounds good? Yeah, it should be over a hundred fifty, otherwise our reputation is shot.")

In the end a good time was had, but when you've been there you'll see that the hardcore reputation is a bit exaggerated.

The Age of Nostalgia

Yes, we like to think back to the past, when gas was cheap(er), people had more respect for one another (instead of calling me chinese and pulling their eyes - I'M NOT CHINESE YOU IDIOTS), music was better (ehm... Macarena, New Kids), and stuff wasn't so expensive. Tends to happen when you hit a certain milestone age (like 30), and/or when economy seems to take a downturn (or both, like now)

So in the past month people around me have been discussing Transformers, 80/90s parties and music, old tv shows from that time. All the time forgetting that:

• music in the 80s was total and utter crap, several exceptions notwithstanding
  
• when I have to look at the hairstyles people in movies and television had, my eyes hurt.
• information about alternatives wasn't readily available. Now there's internet, e-mail and instant messaging to keep you fully up to date

Despite all this musing about the past, I do however recognize the latest fad: the iPhone 3G, and the fact that thousands of Dutch are willing to spend a night on the street to buy one. So at least some people are thinking about the future. And the future is touchscreen, motion sensing, and stylus-free.

Don't blame me, you wanted emancipation

Yes... dancing, whether it's ballroom or latin or salsa, all depends on the male lead. Women are supposed to follow. If the man leads badly, the woman deserves to dance badly.

However that doesn't give women a free pass to humiliate the man. Man is learning to dance. That's what he is taking classes for. Give him a break.

It's Good To Be Solid

Computer games have come a long way, growing more intelligent and impressive with each title. Metal Gear Solid is one of the forerunners in this growth process, combining a thinking man's game with that of an action hero, while also displaying a lot of humor and philosophy to the minds of gamers.

I did bring MGS2 to one of my philosophy classes, although not to show off the artificial intelligence of the in-game characters per se, rather to illustrate that a game can actually be just as deep and thought-provoking as any form of literature, scientific or fictional or otherwise. MGS2 was a testament to the control of information and how it could shape a society. Stronger still it displayed an uncanny ability to completely manipulate the player and throw him off guard. It's strength lies in making the player believe in the story and to be immersed by it, and then rudely pulling him in all directions, doubting reality and blurring the lines between it and fiction.

In fact MGS4 is probably even worse. Although I must say the philosophical weight is far less than in its predecessors, the story is truly exceptional. It more closely focuses on the main protagonist Solid Snake (now Old Snake), and on the general Metal Gear lore, although mind you, it also is a great running critique on technology, and the risks and benefits associated with it.

The execution of the game is excellent, from both aesthetic and a content perspectives. It is the first game ever that had me going through several emotions, often within a very short lifespan. You care about the characters, actually believing that they are going to cough their lungs to death. You feel their pain when they get a seizure. The hairs on the back of your neck truly stand on end when you fight the Beauties. And you feel a definite sense of accomplishment when you actually work through the game. And you are so excited, and there's so many content left, you want to do it again.

And even when you glance at a spoiler, even when you're quite up to date on the lore and the legend, and are used to Hideo Kojima's jokes, the game still manages to surprise you with a plot twist, or a new reference or a shocking new revelation. And of those MGS4 has plenty. Truly amazing that even when you know something's gonna happen, it does, and you're still in awe.

Finally without a doubt the PS3 finally has it's killer app. This is the game that will put Sony's game console in people's homes... just in time for Final Fantasy XIII and Gran Turismo 5 in the coming two years...