Wii – ɔimoɈɒ

Working on reducing numbers (specifically, waist)

Back in December I dragged the Wii Fit out from under the sofa and did the Body Test. Boom. I’d managed to turn into a complete porker again – I put this down to the Honeymoon cruise in August (where we ate rich and wonderful foods constantly) and a general contentment post-wedding due to the … Continue reading “Working on reducing numbers (specifically, waist)”

Back in December I dragged the Wii Fit out from under the sofa and did the Body Test. Boom. I’d managed to turn into a complete porker again – I put this down to the Honeymoon cruise in August (where we ate rich and wonderful foods constantly) and a general contentment post-wedding due to the fact that we’re both foodies (in the sense that we love taste more than presentation).

There was bugger all point starting some sort of weight regime before Christmas as it was setting myself up for a big heap of failure so I put it on the back burner and in mid January I started to examine my eating a bit more.

Temptation is an irresistible force at work on a moveable body.
: H. L. Mencken

The thing about losing weight for me is that I love food. And I dislike denying myself the luxuries. No surprise there. If my friends are over for a game, I’d much prefer to chow down on a take-out meal rather than wolfing down a ‘portioned’ meal (which is a little like trying to stem a flood with a packet of kitchen towels).

Loving the luxuries means having some sort of control elsewhere. So, I reduced my portion sizes across the board. Instead of having two packets of sandwiches every lunchtime, I reduced to one. I’m also using fresh fruit in work for snacking rather than a stock of chocolate (which was how I whiled away my time at $BIG_COMPANY – amazing how much chocolate you can swallow when you’re deeply unhappy about the day job!)

I’d also discovered that I have no idea what it feels like to be “satisfied” when eating. I know what “full” feels like because I could barely move afterwards and I didn’t like that feeling (and feel a little ashamed that I’ve experienced it too). So I spent a little more time examining my timing with meals. I’ve always been a vacuum cleaner for food – even when I was a skinny teen (which was a change from being a chubby toddler) – and the end result was when I hit my mid-20s, I filled out both in build and in bulk. Sorting out portions was therefore important.

I’d considered doing more exercise but that’s a struggle considering that I’m already pushed for time as it is and finding it hard to get to bed before midnight anyway. I followed Nigel’s 30DaysOfFit last year and I think I need to be a bit more serious about it. That’ll be something I look at more seriously after this coming week. I’m off to San Francisco for three days and that means airplane meals, hotel meals, an official dinner and effectively no control over the quality of food I eat. With the other things going on, it’s just too hard to organise eating as well.

So, that was the promise. Reduce my portions. Take my time over meals to rediscover “fullness”. Enjoy my luxuries because Life Is Short.

So, what was the result?

In two months, from around the first half of January, to the first half of March, I managed to lose 17 pounds (1 st, 3 lbs) – which is around 2 lbs a week – a healthy rate. This was calculated by using the Wii Fit – so I’m pretty happy with it’s reliability as it also tracks the last time you were measured and gives helpful and patronising suggestions. I have noticed that the clothes which fit me at my “heaviest weight” are now loose on me which is a real-world result.

I’ve set another goal of another stone by the first week of May. We’ll see how I go.

Control: GamePlay in New Directions

When I started with computer games, you had a paddle with a button. Or a joystick with a button. And it was glorious. We swept through the skies, trundled our tracks upon the ground and raced upon the seas. We fired glowing balls of energy at rainbow walls and sniped at invading aliens who relentless … Continue reading “Control: GamePlay in New Directions”

When I started with computer games, you had a paddle with a button. Or a joystick with a button. And it was glorious. We swept through the skies, trundled our tracks upon the ground and raced upon the seas. We fired glowing balls of energy at rainbow walls and sniped at invading aliens who relentless floated towards our bases. The sky wasn’t even the limit.

With those simple controls we were able to wage our wars and fill our memory with what would now be called nostalgia for 8 bit gaming. These games were quick to start, quick to throw aside (unless your score was such that a personal best could be defeated) and everything was in the gameplay. They were casual games even before the term had been invented.

These days, now I have the opportunity to play more games because I carry around a phone with more processing power than the Dreamcast console and much more than the Nintendo Entertainment System or the Atari 2600 (icons of retro gaming both). I have the opportunity because casual games are quick to launch and quick to drop. It occupies the time in a waiting room (which would previously have been occupied only by uncomfortable silences) and makes sitting in a car while the other half pops into a shop a much more pleasant experience.

Apart from the adding of more buttons, game controls didn’t change that much. They did add force-feedback to game controllers in order to provide some sort of haptic feedback to gamers – and yes, in most cases it enhances the gameplay by involving more senses. But the model stayed the same – buttons, a joystick/D-pad and it didn’t matter if it was wired or wireless.

Nintendo’s ‘revolution’ device which eventually became the critically acclaimed and best selling ‘Wii’ is probably responsible for a lot of recent changes in interface and controller design. It was wireless but that’s not where the innovation lay. It used attitude, pitch and yaw to provide control cues. It transmitted location data via bluetooth and direction data via an infrared sensor. It was, in control terms, a revolution and opened up a whole new world of customers to Nintendo. And with the later addition of the Wii Fit, it showed that a set of pressure-sensitive bluetooth bathroom scales could outsell just about anything from the traditional controller world. Add to that a WiFi card and you’re now networked with millions of other people.

So, what did the other console makers do in response?

They put blue-ray drives into their consoles. And increased the size of the hard drives. And did nothing to address the shortfall in gameplay or game control which they now found themselves in. I presume they must be working on something revolutionary to compete.

Consider then the iPhone. It has accelerometers, proximity sensors, touch screen, GPS – and apply those to a gaming console.

Have a look at Radius (iTunes).

This sort of gameplay is new and exciting. Whether or not Radius itself holds your attention is not relevant – when you consider the possibilities for controlling the games we play, the Wii and the iPhone present some amazing opportunities. And we have but to wait to see what comes out as their successor.

Wii Karting…

I spent a couple of hours last night playing Mario Kart Wii against a few friends – one in Mallusk and two in London. I’ve written it up here on Lategaming. It’s a good game. You should try it. Related posts: Passively Multiplayer – Massively Single Player Nintendo redux: it’s not an either-or De-Makes John … Continue reading “Wii Karting…”

I spent a couple of hours last night playing Mario Kart Wii against a few friends – one in Mallusk and two in London. I’ve written it up here on Lategaming.

It’s a good game. You should try it.

Streaming Video: who pays the cost?

From the BBC: “A row about who should pay for extra network costs incurred by the iPlayer has broken out between internet service providers (ISPs) and the BBC. ISPs say the on-demand TV service is putting strain on their networks, which need to be upgraded to cope.” So, Mr Whiny ISP guy, why not upgrade … Continue reading “Streaming Video: who pays the cost?”

From the BBC:

“A row about who should pay for extra network costs incurred by the iPlayer has broken out between internet service providers (ISPs) and the BBC.

ISPs say the on-demand TV service is putting strain on their networks, which need to be upgraded to cope.”

So, Mr Whiny ISP guy, why not upgrade your network with the cash you’ve been raking in?

The theory is: now we can catch up on Easties if we’ve missed it, the ISPs networks are starting to experience some strain. But, I hear you say, I have a 6 Mbit download from my ISP and the BBC iPlayer only takes up a fraction of that. And yes, that’s true, but the ISPs have been dishonest with us, taking the same backbone and selling it hundreds of times over to us.

For example, an ISP might buy a 100 Mbit link from a backbone vendor and then sell that to a hundred people, offering them speeds ranging from 512 Kbit to 6 Mbit. They oversell the bandwidth they have because they know that not everyone is going to use it.

They’ve benefited from the fact that most of us only send the occasional email and browse the web (and even then only during the daylight hours) a little while taking in subscription fees. They’ve come down hard on people who abuse the network because their advertised “Unlimited” accounts actually have hard limits.

This time I’m siding with the BBC. The ISPs need to suck it in. I’m paying for my 6 Mbit and I demand the right to download whatever legal content I want. This is a cynical attempt by ISPs to get the BBC to foot the bill for their lack of vision and their dishonesty to customers. They already have mechanisms to prevent abuse of their networks via capped limits and small-print fair use policies.

We the consumer are paying for these bandwidth speeds and, presumably, the ability to use them. We can expect that many poorly-run ISPs will quickly raise their prices in order to pay for the backhaul network upgrade.

This comes mere hours after I was pleased to hear that the BBC and Nintendo had inked a deal where iPlayer would be available for the Wii.

Co-Working guidelines.

HiveLogic on getting into The Zone in modern offices: “Thereâ€™s no choice about how or when youâ€™re expected produce, or under what circumstances. Here is your computer, here is your workstation, you have the tools, the florescent lights are turned on, why donâ€™t you go ahead and get to work, thanks, bye.” “In a best … Continue reading “Co-Working guidelines.”

HiveLogic on getting into The Zone in modern offices:

“Thereâ€™s no choice about how or when youâ€™re expected produce, or under what circumstances. Here is your computer, here is your workstation, you have the tools, the florescent lights are turned on, why donâ€™t you go ahead and get to work, thanks, bye.”

“In a best case scenario, they do a mediocre job and feel OK at the end of the day. In the worst case, theyâ€™re miserable.”

The article mentions co-working in passing but I want to focus on the above paragraph. There is an idea that co-working is a “phenomenon” and there are some who think it might be a panacea to their productivity woes.

Looking at the quote above gives one aspect that can’t be ignored. You arrive in $BIG_COMPANY and if their processes are working correctly, you should have a desk, a computer, a phone and it’s just a case of getting your userid for the system, setting your passwords and starting to work (which may or may not include weeks of reading documentation). For some people this will idyllic, for others sufficient and for some of you, it may sound like hell on earth.

So what to do about it? The co-working movement assumes some things.

You are a self-employed knowledge worker with current income (or have a really understanding boss). You can make money at this or this is what you need to do to make money in the future or past.
Ideally you’re not going to need large equipment, a precise (and expensive) model of printer or a lot of space reserved for yourself. This is about sharing. You should provide your own equipment and it should all fit on one desk and use your fair share of power sockets.
If you’re lucky enough to have the capacity for a meeting space in addition to a communal work and break area, then great. If not, it’s perhaps not a great environment to bring customers for face to face meetings.
Working alongside people who are not your colleagues will benefit what you do (via the idea that networking is more valuable to you than teamwork) and you’re not just going to try to turn them into customers.
You have the equipment, data and resources online to help you do your work (or have some storage space at the co-work facility). You’re also pretty good with fixing your own problems. Don’t depend on your co-workers to sort out your issues. Most of them might help but they have their own jobs to do.
These interesting, creative, co-working people you have shacked up with won’t prove to be more of a distraction than your Wii, the postman, two cats and significant other which you’d have to contend with if you just stayed at home. And you’re not going to be a distraction to them either with tales of your last dentist visit or the how well you’re doing on Metroid.
You don’t have too many odious habits, you shower regularly and you know how to use a litter bin. If you smoke, you’ll have the sense to stand outside someone else’s door rather than just outside the co-work space.
If the facility is for more than just bedouin workers who hot-desk from day to day, then respect others personal space and property. Seems obvious but I came into an office a few years back where the keyboard was sticky and the screen was smeared. Apparently another worker had his kids in the office at the weekend.
Co-working is about shared responsibilities. You owe it to the other occupants not to be a prick to them, their colleagues, their customers and, if necessary, their children. Establish the rules early about who does the washing up, who cleans the toilet and who knows how to operate a vacuum cleaner. Remember it’s a co-work facility so it will likely be a good bit more freeform and chaotic than the standard cubicle farm.
Pay your share of the rent and utility bills without complaint. It’s my opinion that the base cost should be your percentages of these plus 10% for eventualities. If this means it’s not economical for you or you can’t pay on time then don’t be surprised when they ask you to leave.

In short, you need to be a good co-working citizen and expect the same from others.

If you are considering a co-working facility, you could do worse than to have a look at David Rice’s blog where these questions are being considered.

In the news…Wii Sports

Wii Sports dominated the BAFTA Video Games Awards in London this year taking home awards in categories such as gameplay, strategy, simulation, innovation and sports. The best game award went to Bioshock but then it’s quite amazing that the Wii did as well considering the bluster about how it’s underpowered compared to the XBOX 360 … Continue reading “In the news…Wii Sports”

Wii Sports dominated the BAFTA Video Games Awards in London this year taking home awards in categories such as gameplay, strategy, simulation, innovation and sports.

The best game award went to Bioshock but then it’s quite amazing that the Wii did as well considering the bluster about how it’s underpowered compared to the XBOX 360 and PS3.

The Wii breaks us away from the small cluster of buttons and joysticks which had become the trademark of consoles for years. Reviewing the innovation present in the Wii, it could only have come from Nintendo, a company with a long history of innovation in gameplay. The XBOX 360 may get some kudos for having Bioshock but really, is the success of that game anything to do with the console? It’s just another FPS to be honest in those terms – the win comes from the design and plot.

Wii delivers on several levels being both broad and deep in its appeal. Even though I barely get time to play these days, it’s the only recent console on the market that is definitely value for money.

John Welch has a Wii

Nice knowing ya John. And do buy the Rayman game. It’s just really stupid. I got mine a month ago and it’s changed my life. I no longer need human companionship. It’ll be even better when they sort out the obvious thing and make the Mii have any relation to multiplayer across the net. Quite … Continue reading “John Welch has a Wii”

Nice knowing ya John. And do buy the Rayman game. It’s just really stupid.

I got mine a month ago and it’s changed my life. I no longer need human companionship. It’ll be even better when they sort out the obvious thing and make the Mii have any relation to multiplayer across the net. Quite fancy a bit of Wii Bowling while not having to entertain 🙂

And yeah, plenty of PS3s and XBOXen here too…