Anyway I’ll be buying this and may let you know how it goes.

You see I’ve had a few people ask me why I deleted my previous Youtube account, and the simple fact was because of these greedy mega corporations making claims to my videos that were totally unwarranted. I was applied to the Youtube partnership during the time when you could only be INVITED and could no longer merely apply willy-nilly (so remember Youtube invited ME to join) a couple of years back but no sooner had I received it my Adsense account was terminated. The reason? It was because I didn’t want adverts on my videos. You see for me, the joy of making videos in the first place was because it gave me an avenue to talk about things I naturally liked to ramble on about anyway. I didn’t need the monetary incentives at all. Now as any aspiring Youtube partner out there will probably tell you, during the course of the their vlogging they will have been inundated with ‘Third Party Matches’ and claims of copyright infringement – some rightfully so and others wrongfully. However there has been a huge shift in recent years with a large proportion of videos now being unlawfully tagged as ‘infringing’ (what are known as Content ID matches) even if the video doesn’t contain anything of the sort. I mean there was a case about Fedflix over at The Guardian, and it really is amusing to say the very least (unless you’re on the receiving end of course).

Now we all know that advertising is a crucial aspect of any business and you’d be a fool to think that the same wouldn’t apply to Youtube. I don’t claim to know much about the intricate relationship between Google and Youtube, but enough to know that a company cannot succeed without any form of advertising (or advertizing for any U.S readers reading this). So surely things couldn’t have gotten this bad (according to the newspaper) that corporations were now intentionally claiming copyright infringements and third party content matches so that they could profit from unsuspecting Youtubers?

I tried it out myself. I recently opened a new account, created a video for which I made absolutely sure that I had every right to use the music contained therein, and that everything I filmed on my DSLR was perfect (or as near enough as I could fathom). The result?

“Your video may include the following copyrighted content:

Disputed claims

“Osvaldo Camahue-Marduk”, sound recording administered by: IODA

Well let me tell you that I had mixed emotions because while I half expected it, I had nevertheless made sure that with respect to law, I had been legally watertight. But the proof was right there for regardless of how much effort I had put into making sure it was all fine, I was nevertheless punished. Punished? What do you mean punished? Well they effectively hold your video to ransom by not only holding potential advertising revenue (stealing it for themselves), but a whole host of other things. To put it blank: they control everything about it, even if you have done ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WRONG! Crazy isn’t it?

Well I thought about it a little bit and an idea popped into my head. It related to the likes of The Piratebay, Mininova versus the software developers. Looking at fairly recent examples there was StarForce protection software that basically made it hellish to install legitimately purchased software (such as The Longest Journey or Dreamfall) on your computer. In actual fact I couldn’t install the latter at all and had to resort to the likes of The Piratebay for a crack. So unbelievably, I was resorting to the very pirates for which the StarForce software was originally ‘created’ to deter.

I complained on the official forums of course but was simply told: “blame the pirates for if it wasn’t for them then the StarForce would never have been made in the first place”. However this is a load of rubbish and if you’re being true to yourself you’d come to the same conclusion, as it presumes that we would all be living in some perfect little society which could never happen.

I think the main underlying point here is that the guys who developed the StarForce software were in fact reaping the rewards of the potential impact for piracy. Now while this is all well and good, they did so at the expense of those (like myself) who bought the software legitimately; thereby indicating that their motive was simply to make money and didn’t have a care in the world for those (also like myself) who had had a great deal of trouble with it. That’s no good is it?

The same is happening to Youtube. The mega corporations are just as guilty as those who they want us to believe are the perpetrators when in reality are themselves not only as bad, but just as guilty.

“Why not just boycott them?”. Yes this may be construed as some pathetic attempt to get my own back but at the end of the day, you have to remember that if those corporations really didn’t care enough about the average Joe then why spend money on advertising at all? Simple answer is they cannot afford it, so boycott them and Youtube by going into your account settings and not allowing adverts to be displayed. Buy add-ons to block Youtube adverts from running on your web browser. Do not click on any of the adverts on Youtube and maybe eventually these ‘mega corporations’ will realise that they will be paying Youtube to display adverts which nobody clicks. Now that is my idea of a perfect little society!

Toops

———————-

Sony by the way own IODA so boycott them for everything its worth. They make people’s lives a misery with having to fight off false claims of third party matches. Playstation 4? Yeah like I give a damn.

DailyMail/F Stop Press (click for link)

I’ll let you in on a family tale from a couple of years back.

It took place in a wonderful house over in Seaton Delaval in Northumberland. This building could only be leased out and could not be purchased out right, and thus you may come across some former tenants who have similarly rented the property over the years. My sister had been renting the house from Smiths Gore over the course of a few years because of their specialty in dealing with rural locations. Indeed the building is Grade II listed, and is in fact a few hundred meters to the side of astoundingly beautiful Seaton Delaval Hall.

Click on image or see the location on Google maps: http://g.co/maps/rnbz5

Notice the three outlined areas? Well on the left we have Seaton Delaval Hall, the middle we have The Old Vicarage and to the right we have the Mausoleum.

The building in question is known as ‘The Vicarage’ within the above Google map, though it is better known as ‘The Old Vicarage‘ to the locals.

Though my sister had no direct experience with ghosts whilst living there her family however did, as did my other sister who had gone there to visit.

Interestingly there’s a local ghost story that mentions a ‘Lady in Grey’ who has been seen on numerous occasions in and around Seaton Delaval Hall as well as the Mausoleum. Legend has it that the Grey Lady is Lady Hastings, though some also believe that it was the wife of a soldier who had been killed in battle against the Scots. The Mausoleum is located just behind The Old Vicarage and is surrounded by a cluster of trees. Here is the location relative to The Old Vicarage:

http://g.co/maps/8mwn4

I've visited the mausoleum on numerous occasions and it still spooks me out!

Now I was told that the Mausoleum is not only haunted, but that it was never blessed by a priest; hence the reason why none of the family over at the Hall were ever buried there.

In fact while we’re on the topic of the Mausoleum, I’ve found some pictures that some people have already taken. I do not know who owns these pictures, though just leave a message if you are one of the owners and you will be credited/item removed:

Click to view slideshow.

My personal experience whilst staying there was not very eventful I’m afraid and certainly not compared to others as you’ll find out. I had been staying in the bedroom on the first floor (the house only has one floor above the ground floor) that’s closest to the nearby Hall and which overlooks the Mausoleum, when the windows began to rattle about apparently because of the wind. After about five minutes of this incessant rattling,  I decided to look outside for a suitable explanation and soon realised that it wasn’t even a windy night (looking at the nearby row of trees that blocked my view of the Hall itself). It was upon realising this that I began to get creeped out and before I knew it I was sleeping on the couch in the games room two rooms down. You might well be laughing but I can only tell you that once I had exhausted every rational explanation, I was very soon consumed by fear that was further heightened by the knowledge that the building was very old and that the area had been the site of many bloody battles between England and Scotland.

The windows were similar in size to these from Chatsworth House. There were around 2-3 windows per room and they were large.

Prior to me having stayed there no one in my family had told me about these hauntings and it was only after I had informed my sister about the strange occurrence the previous night, that she opened up about what had been happening there.

She would go on to tell me how our younger sister had a frightening experience a few weeks prior in which she had slept in the very same bedroom but with the cat at the foot of the bed and with the door closed. During the night one of the pictures on the dressing table lifted off and smashed onto the floor. The strange thing was that the broken frame was laid out in the centre of the room rather than directly under the dressing table as one would normally expect to happen. The cat was absolutely terrified and had supposedly scratched at her in a desperate bid to have her open the bedroom door. Upon hearing this I felt I had a lucky escape in that haunted room!

She went on to tell me that her husband’s brother would often come up from London to visit over the weekends. This brother had stayed within the very same room that both our younger sister and I would later stay in. She relayed to me that he had actually woken up one morning to see a group of ghostly figures (one of an old man and another appearing to be that of a teenager) peering over him as he lay in bed. He was supposed to be so traumatised by this event that he never stayed in the room again and had recurring nightmares thereafter.

We’ve discussed this as a family and come to the conclusion that because the building undoubtedly had religious ties, the ghosts or spirits (or whatever you want to call them) may not have looked fondly on his sexuality, for he would sometimes bring his boyfriend there to stay as well.

My sister’s daughter who was around 9 at the time also had a strange experience whilst living there. Her bedroom was on the complete opposite side of the house to the haunted room previously mentioned. I’ve recently quizzed her about it and she’s adamant that she heard a blood-curdling disembodied scream from a female voice that apparently came from within the house or gardens. Her grandfather’s office (father of my sister’s husband) was on the ground floor though once again on the complete opposite side of the house and directly underneath the haunted bedroom. She told me that her grandfather believed initially that it was her that had screamed and so had run out of his office to see what the trouble was. Once they both realised that neither of them had been the cause, they began a search of the house and the grounds though found nothing amiss.

Now I’ve come to some conclusions about this because both of them had been on complete opposite sides of the house meaning that the scream was undoubtedly from within the vicinity for it to have been heard by them both. The building, while not very deep (probably the same depth as a standard semi), was very wide; you may zoom in on the building using Google maps and compare its width with the red car in the drive to see what I mean. The building is also quite isolated from the Hall and from the nearby village, and so the prospect of some lady wandering in from the road or the fields is unlikely – especially because the road leading up to the house (and in fact Seaton Delaval village) is quite a long one.

Note the size of the car compared to the house. I will also mention that you could only ever see just over half of the house from the front because of the orchard walls. It was only when you entered the house that you appreciated its size

The last experience my sister’s family had does in fact involve my sister, though she never saw the apparition. Her husband’s (by the way she was engaged to him at the time) office/playroom was located on the same side of the house as the haunted room, though on the ground floor and at the front of the building (whereas his father’s office was at the same side of the house but was located at the rear of the building overlooking the back garden and Mausoleum).

In fact before we go on I have even gone to the trouble of including a layout from my memory of the house and a picture showing my niece (in the blue dress) with her friends. I hope it gives you some baring as to the next course of events I am about to describe:

Ground Floor The Old Vicarage

First Floor The Old Vicarage

This is a picture showing the rear of the house. Notice its size relative to the windows and door that's ajar. This side faced toward the Mausoleum.

There were two staircases that came down from the first floor landing on either side of the house, though when you first entered the you would appear directly underneath the landing and in a marbled entrance.

Now my sister’s husband had come out of his office (see Blue 1 in layout of Ground Floor) and could see a lady with long dark hair just disappear off from the opposite staircase and into the nearby hallway (that led to the rear of the house and also into the kitchen and pantry area – see Red 1 + 2). He called out to this woman believing it to have been my sister. When he got no response he followed through under the landing and over to where she’d gone (see Blue 2), only for my sister to appear from the top of the landing wondering why he had been calling her name (see Green 3). There was a search of the house to make sure there was no intruder and all the locks and windows were secure, for no one had entered the house. I’ve asked him about what he saw but because he is a man ruled by science and mathematics (and with a Ph.D to prove he’s not a nutcase), he’s not really the type of guy who would divulge though contrary to what I have said in the above floor layout, she did not turn to face him when he had initially called out to her – something he had initially thought odd of my sister to have done.

However the story does not end there. Some local cleaners were employed to clean the house every week or so and I was told by both my niece and her mum that after they had left the house, the cleaners had gone in for a final clean before the new tenants arrived (whenever that was).

Whilst one of the cleaners was working within another part of the house, the other was working in one of the top floor bathrooms. It is here that one of them saw the full bodied apparition of a man. They had been so frightened that they refused to go back in there. Obviously because neither of my family had spoken to the lady, they did not manage to find out any more details about his description.

My niece believes that the spirits had become upset over their moving out, though none of them were in the least bit surprised to hear what had happened to the poor cleaners.

Anyway hope you enjoyed that and feel free to comment if you have any further questions or if you have had any ghostly experiences of your own you wish to share.

Toops

I’m actually talking about the end of the high street videogaming vendor. I don’t know if many of you remember the old days of Electronics Boutique but with recent news that Game is about to go into administration and Electronic Arts’ worrying statement about their views on how Game should proceed, it does appear that videogame vendors will become a thing of the past.

To further compound the situation, Microsoft have recently implied that the next generation of Xbox console will no longer feature an optical disc drive; instead having games downloaded onto some form of portable card.

I have to admit that I have always wondered why the games industry continued to use discs as a format, because they are so easy to break and even easier to scratch. From the Philips CD-i and Sega’s Mega-CD through to the Playstation and so forth, the industry has continued to embrace the format set about by the ‘Compact Disc’. Even Sega’s Dreamcast (which used a proprietary GD-ROM disc format) attempted to create something different, but still nevertheless retained the ‘disc’ as its main format of choice.

The reason why I say this is because I was (and still am) a massive fan of cartridges due mainly to the fact that they had no mechanical nor moving parts, and were merely an extension of the console’s built-in architecture once you slotted them home. Discs were only adopted because they had far greater storage capacity which meant that companies like Squaresoft could populate their worlds with FMV sequences and other lazy drivel. They were also preferred because they were cheaper to produce then cartridges.

However we now seem to have come back full circle for as cheap and as affordable as discs now are to produce, not only do they not have the storage capacity for future generations of game console (Xbox 720 or PS4), but are just too unwieldy and cumbersome for today’s gamers. Strange thing here is that the cards that the next Xbox console will purportedly use will have more than a passing resemblance to the cartridges of old (I’ll let you think about what I mean by that).

Anyway back to the subject. Game vendors. I remember the old days of going to Electronics Boutique and the day they eventually bought and took over Game – one of their main rivals. Some time later, the owners decided to do away with the EB corporate branding and instead adopted Game as their brand identity. To my knowledge it had something to do with licensing the name of EB (which was a separate U.S company) over here in the UK which had eventually run its course (though correct me if I’m wrong here but I can’t be arsed to search on Wikipedia for the details).

When the original Xbox was released, Microsoft once made a claim that all games would be downloaded thereby making the purchase of discs from high street vendors obsolete. I remember hearing Nintendo’s reaction to this as being one of absurdity, however it seems now like the cogs have already been set in motion. Nintendo already came around to the idea of downloadable content with the Wii, though you’d never hear them admit that Microsoft was correct in its prediction. You have to remember that it was Sega’s Dreamcast that got Microsoft thinking in this way, for the DC was the first mainstream console to have internet connectivity from the word ‘Go’.

Anyway I have to admit that I will not be sad when Game finally gives up the ghost, for they have been a thorn in the side of many developers and publishers over the years. I talk mainly about the fact that vendors like Game would often buy back games from their customers at a fraction of the price, but would sell them on second-hand for much higher. The issue here of course was that none of the money they obtained from the sale of second-hand goods would ever go back to the guys and girls who developed the game, instead going into Game’s coffers. Well that’s Karma for you I guess.

So long!

Game in dire straights: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-03-09-game-has-two-weeks-to-turn-its-fortunes-around

Next Xbox will not have a disc drive: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-03-09-next-xbox-wont-have-a-disc-drive-report

EA’s statement on Game on Feb 2nd 2012: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/gaming/news/a363470/ea-concerned-about-financial-state-of-game.html

What’s surprising is that what precedes WAE is arguably one of the worst reputations for an electronic goods retailer and yet despite this, Mark King from the Guardian seemingly tried to justify the company’s abysmal track record by the following article found here.

Now luckily I have never dealt with the company in person as I always read the reviews and conduct the relevant searches, though I know a few people who have been stung by them in the past (which is kind of inevitable because my photographic hobby has afforded me the opportunity to meet others who have fallen for the ‘too-good-to-be-true’ prices we often come across from WAE).

It’s apparent that due to the current economic climate more people are falling for such ploys as a consequence of the need to cut costs. Let this be a warning to those who read this that regardless of the current situation, you should never let your guard down.

Anyway let’s talk about their methods of service. The story goes that most of the electrical items they sell is brought over from continental Europe (where things can be a lot cheaper than here in the UK), and import them over here depending on the level of demand. The problem is that if the item is not in stock they will attempt to find another source; which invariably leads to more delays and the high possibility of them not actually being able to get hold of the item in question. This is all never the less hearsay, though consumers must take a pro-active stance when dealing with such companies.

Now many of us already know that they should avoid WAE like the plague (remember I am part of a camera club linked to various others national networks and have come across a few people who wanted to buy cheaper cameras from this company), but I want to just provide some advice about how to avoid becoming a victim yourself.

1: Do your own research on the company that’s selling the product. You can use various tools such as Avast’s WebRep or WOT‘s browser add-on which basically shows you the reputation of the company and/or website. What makes these even easier is that they are colour coded from green to red, so if you type a company name into Google and they have a Red marker, you know immediately it’s one to avoid.

Here is an example of WOT at work on Mozilla’s Firefox browser. Notice the huge warning that comes up as soon as you go onto the website:

If people have had a bad experience they are far more likely to complain about it, and thus these are just some of the avenues you can take before you even consider making that purchase.

2: Though this is a separate point, you can access it with ease via the aforementioned WOT tool. It is the ability to find the registered address for the company’s website. Here’s a picture via WOT’s website:

Notice the 'See Owner at Whois Domain tool'

Notice to the left is the link ‘See owner at whois Domain Tools, this will enable you to access their registered address. The common rule of thumb is that you should be very suspicious if they have had their details hidden, have used some form of proxy to hide their true location, or simply haven’t provided a legitimate address and contact telephone number. If you look at it this way: if you ever had a complaint to make, then how could you contact them with no contact details?

3: Take note of your web browser’s use of web security indicators, learn them and take note of them! This is one thing I have seen many people either ignore or have completely forgotten about. It’s the often colour coded icon when you access a webpage (the following example uses Google Chrome):

Amazon:

We Are Electricals:

Notice the difference? Here are the answers:

4: Be mindful of the fact that many companies use what’s known as ‘microworkers’ to artificially raise the profile of web pages. Similar to Amazon Mechanical Turk and Microworkers, companies employ people to do various micro jobs for a few pennies per task. This may include liking someone’s video, clicking on an advert to get money-related clicks or even writing positive reviews on products (the majority of which they won’t even have tested).

Just be wary that some companies use this technique to make themselves appear better than they really are. You might be thinking that “well can’t it work the other way? Companies employing people to give another rival competitor some bad reviews?” I’m sure it takes place, but I am also quite sure that is it does so on a much smaller scale. It also wouldn’t be in the best interests of avenues like Amazon to tolerate such negative behaviour on their website as it would a/ become immediately obvious to the targeted company, b/ would bring about bad press and c/ work against the original concept anyway.

Just be wary of overly positive reviews you may read, because they are probably the work of a microworker (as seen in the countless replies within ‘Yahoo! Answers’ that concentrate more on promoting products and services than answering the questions).

And that’s it for now. Just take this approach and these things will come easier over time. I’ve never been stung by a company like WAE and I don’t plan on changing that any time soon.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/dec/02/we-are-electricals-negative-comments

http://weareelectricals.wordpress.com/

Well here’s some good news to get you in the festive mood. For just a few dollars/pounds/euros you can get 4 delightful games courtesy of Indieroyale.com. Included within the pack are the Blackwell Trilogy Remastered, Dino D-Day, Eets and The Oil Blue.

I’ll just point out that the Blackwell series is worth ten times the minimum amount you’re required to pay in itself. Alternatively you may contribute more than the minimum amount so as in order to support these indie developers.

More information on their website: http://www.indieroyale.com/

Merry Christmas to someone…

Link

My first Bethesda Softworks game was The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind which remains one of my favourite games of all time. However having said that, it was filled with bugs. In fact here’s my youtube retrospective on it:

One infuriating bug was when the game would suddenly have a message appear that seemed to lay blame on the player having a dirty disc. Well sorry Bethesda, but I always keep my discs in immaculate condition so it’s not the disc nor the machine at fault (as all my other games ran perfectly fine).

There was another bug within the game whereby you could create spells that would increase your stats – permanently, as well as creating items that were god-like in status thanks to a bug relating to the use of soul gems (in which you could capture the souls of creatures within a gem to enchant an item). Plus the game would often freeze for no reason whatsoever.

There are many more to add to this but I think you get the point.

Because I hadn’t played any of the others within the series, I asked a friend of mine about his experience with Bethesda’s games and the first thing that came from his mouth was “terribly buggy”. He went on to describe how his experience with the series will always be remembered because of the buggy code and the fact that “they were ambitious in their ideas but their coding was truly awful”.

It seems that my friend is not the only one who thinks of the word ‘bugs’ when talking about Bethesda because on USEP one person implies that their games are ‘accompanied’ by them: “Unfortunately, since the release of Daggerfall there have been a plethora of bugs that accompany it.” (Source).

Well fast forward to 2011 and we find that nothing much has changed. Skyrim for the PS3 has massive frame rate issues which deem the game unplayable (as demonstrated by examples on youtube):

Even after a recent patch it seems that there are still many players who experience the problem:

What’s even more worrying is the notion that this won’t be an issue that’s easy to fix, as it could be something relating to the ‘divided memory pool’ of the PS3 which doesn’t affect the Xbox360 and PC versions – which by the way have no issues.

Strange thing is that Bethesda have again laid blame on something else other than their ability to code games properly. In a recent statement Bethesda seemed to lay blame on the PS3 architecture, though we need to remember that the PS3 is a ‘fixed’ format; users do not have to forego spending extras on upgrading the hardware like PC users do. How then can they do this when it’s easier to create a game for a fixed format than it is for a format that has hundreds of different setups? It doesn’t make sense. Well, it does make sense and I’m back down to earth now – Bethesda’s coding is what makes sense here for it’s crap. Pure and simple.

Before Skyrim was released I asked that same friend whether he would be purchasing the game upon release and at first he again told me that he expected the game to be buggy. However I championed the cause and believed that Bethesda had truly left behind those days where their games were released with bugs and all. Plus you have to remember that for all of Morrowind’s misgivings, it was still one of my favourite games of all time.

I asked him again just before launch if he would buy it and surprisingly, he had had a change of heart and said he was going to buy the game. I’m just glad he purchased it on the 360 for if he’d bought the PS3 version he would probably never talk to me again!

This will probably be the last Elder Scrolls game that I ever buy, but I’m left with the lingering question: Bethesda, when will you learn??

http://www.inentertainment.co.uk/20111205/ps3-users-split-on-skyrim-framerate-issues/

Find out in our forthcoming video!