PotW—Black Mirror

Christmas is upon us, so how better to get your festive cheer than dispiriting, dystopian television? 

Black Mirror is one of the best things on TV in recent history. A 'Twilight Zone for the modern technology era’, it taps into our fears of technology and interpersonal relationships, our ‘technomores’, twisting them into something ugly, scary, and utterly compelling. Each episode takes us on its own journey of discovery and horror with the absurd extension of some very real aspect of now.

The best introduction to the series is ‘The Entire History of You’, the final episode of the first season. A surprisingly clean vision of the future where everyone has adopted implants which record everything they see and hear, the obvious narrative line here is overbearing observation—scrutiny and surveillance, but that’s handwaved away in the first five minutes as we get to the core of the matter—how this fucks with people and their relationships. It turns out that being able to instantly recall and replay any conversation or interaction you’ve ever had leads to unhealthy results when combined with some less-than-perfect personalities.

One caveat—the very first episode, ‘The National Anthem’, is a little left field, even for Black Mirror. There’s no real watching order, so you can start somewhere else. It’s still a deeply smart and horrifying episode, but be willing to stick with it. 

Black Mirror’s first Christmas ‘special’, 'White Christmas’, aired in the UK yesterday, and I’m still trying to recoup my emotional losses. If you, like me, favour the cathartic embrace of the emotional scouring-pad, gaze into the Black Mirror some day soon. You won’t regret it. Well, maybe you will, but you’ll be a better person for it. Well— Just watch it.

PotW—Consider the Fork

I may have found my favourite book this year.  

At Halloween, we found ourselves contemplating forks—just how old are they? Who came up with the idea of eating with these things, and why? We obviously got answers from Wikipedia instantly, but it left me wondering about the culinary tools that we take for granted (except when we are presented with seven wicked-looking objects at the side of our plate. Then we care to the point of panic.). I wanted to learn more. 

Whatever I was expecting, ‘Consider the Fork’ is packed with surprising, and grin-inducing insights. Crucially, the style never lets the subject become dry—it’s a fun journey. I don’t want to ‘spoil’ these revelations for those who might read it, but here are some of my favourites: 

Cooking is one of the things that turned us from jumped-up primates into…well, jumped-up primates with slightly bigger brains. Digesting raw food is hard, and the extra calories freed up by cooking gave us more energy to develop our big ‘ol brains. Introducing meat to fire isn’t too much of a leap. But who thought of boiling food? Fire was a hard-won thing, water its enemy—why bring the two together, especially without the tools to combine heat and water? Someone took a hollowed-out gourd, stone bath, or something and soaked food while heating it. It must have seemed insane, but it rendered inedible forage a feast. More food, more calories, more higher brain function. 

Another example: I love sporks, so I was delighted to read this take: ‘the spork is entirely devoid of culture. It bends itself to the owner, rather than the other way round.’  

Aside from the delightful Harry Potterish aspect to this ('the spork chooses the office worker, Harry’), it’s a generally wonderful notion.  

Our manner of conveying food into our mouths is heavily culturally loaded. Chopsticks, knife and fork, fingers—there’s little functional difference, when you get down to it, but each carries its own cultural history. The spork is a thing born of function, not culture (though they have historical antecedents in terrapin forks and ice-cream spoons (‘runcible spoons’!).  

Fundamentally, it's a book about technology, which is probably why I find it so interesting. The reaction when you tell people you’re reading a book on the history of cooking utensils is worth the price of admission alone. 

The Uber problem

Uber set its lighter to the news touchpaper last week. Thousands of people, me included, began shouting ululations to Zaamun Rul, lord of fiery outrage. This was not solely a reaction to Emil Michael’s unacceptable comments, but the latest page in the ‘Uber is evil’ story.

Whatever your take, Uber has a reputation problem. It seems intent on acting like a villain in an HBO drama. But the reaction to Uber seems increasingly disproportionate.

It’s surprisingly hard to separate truth from distortion. The details of any given ‘kerfuffle’ (he says, avoiding the word ‘gaffe’) are murky—a lot of ‘he said, she said’, but people are quick to buy into the ‘evil’ narrative.

I can't decide whether Uber is very bad or very good at PR. It's probably a mixture. Its handling of recent events doesn't paint a picture of competence and control in dealing with its audience. That said, confusion follows each issue, which could be intentional.

I don't believe 'there's no such thing as bad publicity'. Whatever the true intent behind Emil Michael's comments, I don’t believe they helped Uber (though it’s arguable how much it’s hindered), but it impacts our trust.

An Uber you can get behind.
Image: Scott Schiller cc by-nc 2.0

Over the past few months, we've seen sexism, threats against journalists, irresponsible use of customer information, suspect investment tactics, and reputed exploitation of  drivers. Quite the rap sheet.

Some of these—the French ad campaign, Emil Michael's comments—can be rationalised away as the actions of a few; not representative of whole company. I don't buy that. Yes, individuals can ‘go rogue’ and hurt the company, but that doesn't happen in isolation. There must be an environment in which people think it’s acceptable. Even giving Emil Michael the benefit of the doubt on intent, he should have better judgment than to make cracks about digging up dirt on journalists in front of journalists (especially if your company has a track record of creepy behaviour).

These investment tactics are hardly unique to Uber. That doesn’t make them ethically right, and if someone considers it sufficient reason to ditch the service, I won’t argue, but it's dissonant to do so while not applying the same principles to other services. Targeting Uber on this point demonstrates the willingness to accept this narrative—it’s what we’ve come to expect

Irresponsible use of customer's private information bothers me. 'God View' has a ‘legitimate business purpose’, but access is too broad, the name, understandable in the context of a ‘cool’ tech company, sends the wrong message; using it as a backdrop to a party is downright insane. I think it's more indicative of immaturity than Machiavellian intent, but a cavalier approach to this sort of power does not inspire trust.

Treatment of its drivers is the hardest nut to crack. The majority of the articles I have seen from the drivers’ side have praised the service as an enabler, offering a model differentiated from, restrictive existing systems, potentially benefiting consumers and drivers. I’ve seen plenty of criticism too, but it’s largely anecdotal and unsubstantiated. That’s not to say conditions aren’t bad, but there’s little solid information and a good amount that speaks to its benefits. I simply don’t know.

Image: David Holt cc by-sa 2.0

Is all this criticism just a smokescreen—FUD spread by those with an axe to grind? Clearly not, though I’m sure Uber have ruffled enough feathers that the narrative gets amplified.

What interests me the most is how quick we are to grasp the ‘Uber is evil’ angle. Much of what’s happened is typical for other companies. It’s a self-reinforcing effect—stories appear which lead us to distrust Uber; we frame every story that follows in a way that fits our perception.

We’ve seen erstwhile-beloved companies grow up and change the world—Facebook, Google, Twitter, and others—and go from our scrappy tech darlings to figures of suspicion. We saw the flipside to their services at a point when we were over-invested in their infrastructures. Now, the cost of extricating ourselves is too high, and they can act with, if not carte blanche, carte-really-really-light-grey.

In Uber, we see the potential for the same—an ambitious, fast-growing company with a powerful and commanding vision, looking to disrupt the world. But we’ve seen where that path leads, and are far less forgiving. We punish Uber for not only their own missteps, but the sense of violated trust we have built up.

I’m not looking to excuse or forgive Uber (I came to right this post with the opposite intent). We can and should be critical. They provide an amazing service, but we should judge the cost of use in terms of more than the monetary; we should do what we can do avoid being held hostage to a service because we didn’t look at the whole picture. That said, I don’t think the way Uber acts departs much from its peers.

I’m not going to tell you that you should keep using Uber, or if you should deleted it; boycott it; whatever. That’s for you to decide. What I’m telling you is to think critically—weigh it up and reach your own decision. Don’t buy into the ‘Uber is evil’ narrative just because it’s the obvious story that’s presented, but don’t give them a pass either.

That said, our actions matter less and less. Uber’s most recent valuation put them at around 40 billion dollars. I think they’re already past the tipping point, and it would take a pretty huge hit to dent their armour.

A brief history of obsession, in pictures

Going through my iPhoto library, I noticed that (to the surprise of no-one) I had amassed a fairly detailed picture sequence describing the evolution of my desk. It amused me, so I thought I'd share.

A blank canvas.
An excellent desk, by the way—the IKEA Malm with side panel.

Command Centre 1.0, a.k.a. 'humble beginnings.'

Starting to present a workable number of screens. iMac with 19" external monitor. 13" MacBook Air with 24" external monitor.

Sadly, a bad picture. PC tower just visible on the right. 27" and 24" externals to PC and MacBook. iMac present but not visible. Mountain Dew Code Red and Stark Industries wallpaper because: of course.

Command Centre 2.0, a.k.a. 'the tipping point'. PC with 27" and portrait 19" on clamp,  24" freestanding. MacBook Air on Griffin stand. iPad 3 on gooseneck. I still love the shape of this.

Command Centre 3.0, a.k.a. 'panopticon'. 

10 ways to keep your phone charged (that don't work)

1) One word: static. Dress in wool or silk; wear rubber shoes. 

2) Switch off your phone. Turn on only if making or receiving calls. 

3) Alienate your friends and associates. Fewer notifications to drain your power. 

4) Two words: potato batteries. Swap expensive charging gadgets for natural resources and a bit of ingenuity. Four to five potatoes should be good for those ten minutes or so of emergency charge. 

Sustainability AND portability.
Image: Mogans Jaconsen by-nc-nd 2.0

5) Remain within 30ft of a cell tower, so the signal doesn’t have to travel as far. Move in controlled, tactical dashes from tower to tower. 

6) Three words: radioisotope thermoelectric generator. Good enough for NASA; good enough for you. Added bonus: you'll never again be cold (or burdened by a rigid skeleton). 

You won't need to pay for central heating for the next 87.7 years.
Image: Idaho National Laboratory by 2.0

7) Place a ’73%' sticker over the corner of your screen. What the eye can’t see, the mind can't stress over. 

8) Set your brightness to zero. Jab wildly at the screen, and let autocorrect pick up the slack. 

9) Permanently tether your phone to a wall socket; never take it out of the house. It amazes me that no-one’s tried this before. 

10) Buy a Blackberry. You won’t care about your phone. 

PotW—The Wicked + The Divine

It’s rare that read comics when they still being released. I prefer to wait for the trade paperbacks, or read self-contained stories, but The Wicked + The Divine had too many high recommendations to resist.

Every ninety years, twelve gods incarnate as humans. They are loved. They are hated. In two years, they are dead.

The characters, core conceit, and visual style all shine and delivered visceral thrill and gut-punches in a way only comics can. In an odd way, it reminded me of Sandman, but that might only be because there was something goodly Gaimaneque about it. Kieron Gillen and Jamie McElvie have created something to watch. Or read. Keep an eye on.

TW+TD’s first TPB, The Faust Act is out now. Amazon will be releasing it next week, or, support your friendly local comic shop.

More than a shirt

I don't often talk hot-button topics on here (I prefer safe topics, like books. In the whole of human history, I can’t recall one instance where books have ever caused trouble), but something happened this week which stuck in my craw (yes, I have a craw, it's where I store all my repressed rage).

Dr Matt Taylor, part of the Rosetta mission team, was interviewed wearing a shirt that depicted numerous women wearing decidedly un-numerous clothing. This sparked condemnation of the 'sexist' shirt, followed by a predictable counterlash defending Dr Taylor and his choice of shirt and lamenting the 'oversensitive nature' of (variously): social justice warriors, feminists, offence-seekers, and the brigade of political correctionist fun-ruiners.

I have seen three main points of complaint against shirt-based criticism:

1) The backlash and its effect on Taylor (he later apologised in tears) was excessive and overly harsh

2) The shirt is not a big deal—there are more important things to focus on

3) The shirt is not sexist

1) Was the backlash too harsh?

Probably. This big scary beast we call the 'internet' is capable of many beautiful and terrifying things; it speaks with many voices, which sometimes resolve to the buzzing of a thousand angry flies. I don't like the ‘net mob mentality, but the discussion does not end with the condemnation how the criticism was presented. We can condemn his treatment without dismissing the issues raised. This is no longer about Matt Taylor, nor his shirt.

2) ‘The shirt is not a big deal’

This comment is stupid. Whatever the topic, it always appears. 

'Why are people wasting time talking about the shirt? We just landed a robot on a frickin' asteroid.'

'Why are we wasting money landing on a stupid asteroid? We should spending that money to build robots with famine-blasting lasers.' 

'Why are we wasting money on lasers that can only solve world hunger? We should be trying to stop the thing that really matters—the inevitable heat-death of the universe? Why does no-one care about that?'

It’s an inherently pointless argument that gets thrown up all the time (literally regurgitated like the indigestible garbage that it is). It's reductive. If you concede to that logic, you can dismiss anything on the grounds that there's always a bigger fish in need of frying.

Most of all, it bothers me that people think there are a finite amount of fucks we can give, so we better spend them wisely. If that were true (spoiler warning: it isn't), I’d suggest not wasting any listening to people who offer that opinion (incidentally, the same applies for anyone who unironically uses the term 'social justice warrior' or 'feminazi'). We can hold many discordant ideas about many different things at once. It's one of my favourite things about people. Our concern is not zero-sum.

3) ‘The shirt isn't sexist’

This is the roiling meat at the centre of the issue. Much of the commentary on the topic (particularly in the mainstream media) made little attempt to characterise why the shirt is sexist. Even those taking the stance that it is largely focussed on the implications and wider impact—for example, on women in STEM fields. To be clear: that's really bloody important and relevant, but it’s not what this post is about. For me, that narrative skipped a step, which left some people behind.

The shirt is not sexist because it is sexualised. Sexualised imagery is not inherently sexist (though there are many ways in which it can take a flying leap into 'sexist bullshit' territory). The key factor is context, both in terms of placement and the wider social context.

I have no problem with sexualised imagery in and of itself, but I do take issue with people wearing clothing emblazoned with it. That's not a repressed, prudish, 'seeing sexy things in a public place makes me uncomfortable', prurient reservation; it's because putting sexualised imagery into the position of a slogan or decoration is a reduction. It's turning someone (and that someone is usually a woman) into a talisman, a banner.

Even that I do not see as inherently sexist in an abstract sense. Wearing a t-shirt depicting a favourite actor, singer, politician (male or female) is still a reduction of that person by the same definition, but wouldn’t be called sexist. However, when the focus is placed squarely on a woman’s body above all else, it takes on a different character. 

If we lived in a society with more mature attitudes towards sex and gender—one not so rife with sexism (and many other ‘-isms’) on every level (and it really, really is)—if we were healthier in our attitude towards women's bodies in particular, the act of wearing clothing like this wouldn’t be loaded with such a momentously-fucking-heavy context. But we don't, and it is. Women go through life with their worth constantly evaluated in terms of their appearance. That makes all the difference for how we interpret this. It plays into a wider narrative of sexism.

---

Sometimes, reactions can be overzealous or overbearing, but that does not mean that people are simply looking for low-hanging offence fruit so they can feast on its delicious flesh because that's how they feed and grow and incubate their fun-sucking spawn.

We don’t have to condone the way something is expressed to accept the truth behind it. We can totally disagree with the torrent of abuse while accepting that there is a point somewhere in there. We can reach that conclusion on our own, in spite of all the shouting on both sides.

This one thing is not earth-shattering. It’s sadly sidelined a great achievement, but the fact that it has does not magically make the issue cease to exist. It’s not just about the shirt. The shirt is not single-sleevedly widening the gender pay gap or shutting women out of science. It shouldn’t have merited the attention it received, but the tectonic plates of opinion grinding against each other were sufficient to raise an earthquake.

A shirt can’t do that on its own—it’s a thread in a much bigger tapestry.

It’s not just about the shirt.

Disconnection

I have a rocky relationship with Facebook. There are things about it that I loathe. The impenetrablility and whimsy of its privacy policies; its UI and UX; the sometimes overbearing self-reflection. But I've always felt somewhat hostage to it. I've considered leaving, but I know that I would miss the content, the events, the random discussions, the connections to people which is its great redeeming quality.

I think I've found my best way past this. 

A couple of weeks ago, I deleted the Facebook app from my mobile devices. This has several important effects. Firstly, no notifications following you around. If I want Facebook, I have to go to it. It does not seek me out. Secondly, because I don’t log into Facebook on my work machine, this means I generally only check it when I’m at home (or if I’m carrying my personal laptop around, which actually isn’t all that often).

It has surprised me just how much of an effect this has had. At first, I found myself with the impulse to check Facebook when out and about. This quickly dissipated, to the extent that it has now become almost an afterthought. I enjoy using it a lot more, but I don’t feel compelled to check it on any given day (and will now regularly forget to, whereas before I used to sometimes automatically try to open Facebook while I was already on Facebook…).

I wouldn’t go so far as to say that we are slaves to social media, but the feeling has been oddly liberating. Facebook has become more enjoyable as a consequence. The one exception is when I'm travelling for more than a couple of days. If I'm on a different time zone, I like to have an easier connection to people!

The other thing I’ve started doing—or, more properly, stopped doing—is ‘liking’ things on Facebook. Nothing at all. It’s weird what an ingrained, easy reflex this had become. By not ‘liking’ things, I’ve forced myself to be more engaged with content (or not!)—it pushes me towards actually commenting, sharing, or just leaving it be.

Everyone I've spoken to about this—which started as an experiment—has liked the idea, and I've even induced (without much persuasion) some others to try the same thing. I found the whole thing entirely positive. It's made me realise that I'm not 'missing' anything (that can't wait or afford to be missed altogether).

PotW—Some Kind of Fairy Tale

I heard about Graham Joyce in the worst way there is to discover an amazing author—through the sad news of their death. Having heard some personal stories from people who had known or met Graham, I made a note to make a effort to read something of his in the near future. He sounded like a wonderful person. One of the great thing about art is that, even if you hear things which make you wish you had known them only after it’s too late, they have been decent enough to leave a part of themselves behind. 

Last week, I finished Some Kind of Fairy Tale on Audible. A woman returns home after a long, unexplained absence, and her family has to come to terms with this strange reappearance. As much as ‘modern fairytale’ is an overused tag, this truly is that. It enchants, sings; it touches and affects. It sparkles with a glinting light that will not let you be. Read it.

Air travel

What is the future of long-distance transport? I'm particularly interested at this point as I prepare to land back in London, having spectacularly failed to sleep for any appreciable amount of time.

Air travel is captive to the cost concerns of mass transit, making for a singularly uncomfortable environment (unless you're one of a fortunate few), and I don't see any real pressure for that to change.

Planes may evolve, but the drive for economy will always limit the amount of comfortable space for passengers, even as the technology evolves. So, what's the next step in consumer mass transit?

I guess the best hope is for super-fast long-distance air travel, so that, even if the level of discomfort remains, it is fleeting.

My bloodshot eyes look forward to seeing this future. 

Pick of the Week – Mechanical Keyboards

Last year, I had a few ‘App of the week’ posts, designed to be easily-digestable (and easily-producible) pieces of content to keep the blog ticking over. While I’m actually rather light on good app recommendations week over week, I still like the idea. So instead, here’s a ‘pick of the week’: a thing that has caught my interest in some way that merits sharing with you in short form. 

I've become a keyboard snob. For years, an enlightened few whispered to me of the joys of the mechanical keyboard. The consistency of the key-press. The joy of the 'clack' and the 'click'. I held out, disbelieving.   

Then, this year, I caved. My parents presented the amazing gift of a Corsair K70 Cherry Red keyboard. It still brings me utter joy every time I type on it. I feel like I am throwing my fingertips at the keys, rather than making timid little button pushes.

A month later, I ditched my spongy work keyboard as well. I couldn't stand it any more. Its mechanical replacement is not as nice as my Corsair, but it has still made my work typing so much better.

I'm visiting our San Francisco office this week, and I'm using a keyboard so spongy, it should have its own Nickelodeon show. I don't know whether each keystroke will elicit a result on screen or whether I'm just doing finger exercises. It sucks. I miss my stompy keyboard. 

If you type a lot, consider a mechanical keyboard. Sure, they're more expensive, but they should last you longer anyway. Figure out which type of switch is best for your need and typing style and go from there. Many are marketed as gaming keyboards, but don't be deceived. If you're a habitual key-tickler, they're for you.

Long haul flights

Long-haul flights are a curiosity of the modern age. In a time when we're generally over-stimulated, bombarded with media, communications, and distractions every minute of the day, being forced to confront our own sweet selves for upwards of eight hours at a stretch is somewhat of a terrifying anomaly. The fact that it is the only feasible means of long-distance personal travel is the only reason we’re willing to put up with it.

What’s more, we do everything we can to just get it over with. People try their best to sleep through it, or else cram back-to-back movies to pass the time in the least obtrusive way possible. That’s not a criticism; it’s a generally unpleasant environment to be trapped for that length of time, and people will do whatever they need to make it through. It struck me on this trip more than others, though, just how far apart it stands from every other moment of our regular lives. Maybe I’m worse at this than others, but suddenly finding yourself cut off from the ever-flowing stream of information that runs past our finger tips day and night is surprisingly jolting.

This is quite possibly a good thing—I’m not trying to say that being cut off from the internet or live TV for more than a few hours is some crisis of the modern age (it’s something I increasingly relish as a time to read, and occasionally, when there’s space, write). It does, however, throw the incessant nature of our lives (okay, I’m generalising—my life, at least) into sharp relief.

I try hard to cram a great deal of ‘stuff’ into my day-to-day life, and regard time when I’m not, in a broadly identifiable sense, doing something to be partly wasted. While it can be great, I am starting to find this somewhat unhealthy. I beat myself up excessively about downtime which is probably needed and don’t always set aside enough time to just be thinking. 

Long flights represent the best and worst of this—I variably see it as time to be filled as productively as possible (and subsequently curse myself for the amount of time that I could have spent reading, for instance, even though I felt like crap and sleeping was a better idea), or I allow myself that room to breathe. Each flight tends to have one character, though.

You may find all this deeply disinteresting, or, alternatively, intriguingly revealing of a character flaw. It doesn’t really matter. This was written to fill some time on a flight.

10 books that have stayed with me

I know this meme has probably been and gone and had its day in the internet sun (which is like our normal sun, but made of cats), but I thought it would make an interesting enough blog post (read: I’m light on content this week, but still wanted to put something out there). 

Because brevity is the soul of basically tolerable writing, I’ll restrict myself to three sentences on each at most, and not my normal kind of Inspector-Gadget-super-extendy sentences. 

In no particular order:

Ancillary Justice – Ann Leckie
A sci-fi tale told from the perspective of a former ship’s AI, the core conceit and narrative structure make for a very entertaining read as the reader pieces together the context from flashback and wide-reaching senses. Ancillary Justice received a lot of attention (and awards) last year, too much of which focussed on its approach to gender which, while interesting, was not what made the book so good. It surprised me that a character who, on one level, you would expect to be so clinical could be so compelling.

The Secret History – Donna Tartt
My long-time favourite book, despite the fact that I have only read it fully once, and not for some years. Maybe it stuck with me because it was a tale of classicists in a classic ‘greek tragedy’ style ; maybe it just made us seem clever, if not good. Regardless, Donna Tartt spins an intriguing, alluring, and rather distressing tale (as, I gather, many are now finding with The Goldfinch—I am yet to read it) that haunted me for a long time after.

Use of Weapons – Iain M Banks
Not even my favourite Banks book, but, like many others on this list, possessed of a haunting characteristic that won’t quite leave you alone ever again. A rougish type is hired by a highly advanced civilisation to do their dirty work. On one level, it’s a space opera romp where he displays his impressive and devastating capabilities, but it takes you to some dark and unexpectedly revealing places.

On Writing – Stephen King
This is one of the most-recommended texts for writers, but it it was far from what I expected. As time passes and I spend more time trying to improve my writing, the lessons it sets out (plainly and directly) increasingly click into place. The reasons come clear in and of themselves and I suddenly understand the 'why' behind them and wonder why I couldn't just bloody well heed them in the first place—but the points are all the stronger for being learned in this way.

The Left Hand of Darkness – Ursula K Le Guin
Sci-fi that adopts an intricate and interesting stance on gender (Ancillary Justice owes Le Guin more than a little in this regard). Above all else, it was a deeply revealing story about humans and the way we are. I only read it last year, and I long to read it again and again.

Smoke and Mirrors – Neil Gaiman
I can’t pinpoint the exact moment that I fell in love with Neil Gaim—errrr, fell in love with his work *cough*, but it was probably while reading Smoke and Mirrors. A catalogue of wonders and horrors, his spinning of fairytales (both in spirit and more literally) cemented my love of his work and was probably the first time I really saw the beauty of the short story in all of its glory.

Watchmen – Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons
Watchmen felt like the first time I had read a comic in real depth, and I see more each time that I read it again. There were things I encountered before it which merited as close a reading, but it was Watchmen that actually opened my eyes to this. It’s a timeless classic for a reason, and it deserves its place in the literary canon.

The Dark Knight Returns – Frank Miller
Another graphic novel, and one of the greatest Batman stories, despite the fact that exists outside the main canon. Bruce Wayne returns from retirement to save a city sliding into near-future chaos, confronting all the logistical challenges a long retirement from a demanding (*cough*) job brings. An examination of the concept of Batman as a ‘fascist’ vigilante. A classic in narrative and form.

The Neonomicon – Alan Moore, Jacen Burrows
A disturbing, horrible, and horrifying tale that marries the mythos of H P Lovecraft with Alan Moore’s brilliant, twisted storytelling. Dark, really dark, but darkly compelling.

The Gift of Fear – Gavin de Becker
I used to see this book talked about a lot, but it doesn’t seem to be as oft-mentioned these days, but something I think everyone would benefit from reading. The warning signs and precursors to violence, how to recognise them and, hopefully, avoid them. It may help you understand people better.

Atonement – Ian McEwan
A decent if too-long book that, as is the case with most books one studies at school, we did rather over-read. Still, the feelings of anger at injustice that the book inspired are surprisingly strong even now.

The thing that surprised me the most was how many of these are books I first read in the last two years. I am not sure whether that constitutes a better record/memory of what I've been reading, or a better ability to select good books.

What are some of the ones that have stayed with you?

What I wear

Wearables are the next big leap for personal technology. This is not news; anyone who follows technology news will have seen wearables talked about as the ‘next (next) big thing’. While I think that the hype machine is running with full steam and setting unrealistic expectations (I think it’s hovering somewhere around the ’Trough of Disillusionment’ mark on the Gartner Hype Cycle), I do believe that this is the next big area where consumer technology will make a real, positive difference to our everyday lives.

Jeremy Kemp. - Own work. The underlying concept was conceived by Gartner, Inc.
CC-BY-SA-3.0,2.5,2.0,1.0; Released under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Rather than going on at length around my thoughts on wearables in principle (though perhaps that’s something I will share in the future), I thought I’d take you through my own current set up. This year, for the first time, I think we’re seeing the emergence of wearables as truly useful, consumer-ready devices rather than merely interesting oddities, but they still seem to remain in the territory of the early adopter. A practical example of how they have improved (or, at least, changed) my day-to-day life seems more appealing and illustrative than a discussion of the theory.

My ‘personal area network’ is now made up of three wearable devices, slaved to my phone: my Pebble, my Jawbone UP24, and my LG Tone+ Bluetooth headset. This has grown up over the past month or so particularly in response to having a large phone. I’ve been curious to see the amount of interest it’s received, in sum and by parts, and that it has proved far more useful than I had originally envisioned.

The Pebble smart watch was Kickstarted last year and was, by all accounts, pretty good (the total amount raised at that link rather speaks for the demand...), but it only received the software update that really brought it up to spec earlier this year. The basic idea is simple: it’s a watch (with a bunch of changeable digital faces) which receives all the notifications that come to your phone. When a notification hits your phone, the Pebble lights up, vibrates, and shows some or all of whatever message you’ve received. Notably, it’s currently the only smartwatch that works with iPhones (upcoming 2015 products notwithstanding). It offers a lot more than that, including activity tracker displays, Evernote, vibrating alarms, music controls, and, as of last month, even step tracking through UP. It does most of these things very well, but the notifications aspect is where it really shines.

For some people, the idea of receiving notifications directly on their body is some sort of Borg-esque nightmare. Surely it’s invasive; a way of making our over-connected, over-distracted digital chains even more inescapable. I expected a little of that, but have actually found the opposite. While it might seem counter-intuitive, this more personal means of receiving notifications has actually untethered me a little from my phone, which now lives in a state of near-permanent silence and non-vibration.

Such a personal form of notification-delivery is actually, in my experience, less distracting. The act of checking a notification is changed from taking out your phone and looking it over to just glancing at your wrist. You can decide pretty quickly if it’s worth your time at that particular moment and dismiss it, or take action there and then. When in conversation, meetings, or the like, looking at your watch can still be a little rude, but far less so that glancing at your phone. If you’re expecting an important message or phone call, you know you’re not going to miss it, even if your phone is on silent and buried in a bag. In my flat, I can go one or two rooms over before the signal starts to get a little dicey, so even if I forget to bring my phone, I’ll still not miss what’s coming through.

The only downside right now is not being able to reply directly from the watch. That’s something that the Apple Watch will bring next year, but seemingly at the cost of battery life (I’m not sure those two factors are in strict trade-off against one another, but that’s where the Pebble has the edge—it can go a little over a week before needing a recharge).

The next device that you can see me wearing on a day-to-day basis is the LG Tone+ wireless Bluetooth headset. It is great; I was looking for a device to fulfil this function for a while, and I was finally inspired by @scubbo to properly look into one.

The Tone+ sits rests around your neck in a U-shape with slightly widened ends that house the controls and hold the earbuds, held in the tips by magnets. They’re never really invisible, but are at their least obtrusive when you’re wearing a shirt with a collar they can sit under. You can slip out the earbuds and be connected to a paired device in less than ten seconds.

The big thing for me has been having earphones you can quickly put on or take off with a minimum of fuss and cable-tangling. I’m a serial listener, and the ease of donning these has let me take advantage of downtime I wasn’t even fully aware of to press on with audiobooks and podcasts.

Stepping away from your desk to get some water or go to the loo? I would never bother wiring myself in with headphones just to fill those two minutes, but plugging into something that’s already around my neck makes it worthwhile. I can even leave my phone at my desk. Okay, so you’ll only get in a couple of minutes at a time, but if you’re doing that on every occasion, that’s a reasonable dent in what you’re listening to. Since it’s time you’re not using for anything that’s really productive anyway, it’s essentially ‘free’ time you’ve gained. You can even leave your phone on your desk.

The Tone+ is also a wireless headset, so you can take and make phone calls on it without ever taking your phone out of your pocket (the Pebble being a handy way of checking caller ID). If you’re invested enough in your Siri usage (other Personal Digital Assistants are available), you can accomplish all manner of small tasks without burying your head in your phone while out and about.

The last of my wearable devices doesn’t synergise quite so well as the other two, but I find it useful nonetheless.

My Jawbone UP24 tracks my steps and sleep through the day, sending them to my phone via Bluetooth. Honestly, this has less of an impact on my day-to-day, but I’m enough of a nerd to invest time in tracking these alongside my exercise and calorie intake.

I’m not going to argue that it’s a game-changer or worth the time investment if you’re not interested in that sort of thing, but I find that it’s an easy way to effect positive lifestyle changes. It’s certainly true that measuring or monitoring your own behaviour tends to change it, but tracking your food intake at the very least forces you to confront exactly what you’re eating (there’re how many calories in my Whale Lard Flavoured Crisps?!). It is a time investment to track this sort of thing full time, but there are apps and devices that make it easier. If nothing else, tracking these things periodically for two weeks at a time can be useful.

You on UP. Results not guaranteed.
Photo by BMclvr. License: CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

There has been enough convergence in the last year to make dedicated fitness trackers like the Jawbone Up less necessary. Pebble can now track these things, and iPhones can now track your steps as part of iOS8. I stick with my Jawbone, for a few reasons. Firstly, it’s a lot easier to wear all the time than my Pebble or iPhone, so you’re not missing steps because you don't want to carry a bigger device. Secondly, my rationale is that a dedicated device should, in theory, be better at tracking this sort of thing that devices that have had it enabled through software alone. I have no idea if that’s actually true, but it’s good enough for me.

There’s a paradox here—however much time I’m willing to put into experimenting with these sorts of things to make myself more productive, or my day-to-day life easier, the gains are offset by the time investment to get everything working ‘just right’. So, do me a favour, and if any of these things sound good to you, check them out, and let me know how you get on.

Do you use wearables? Does this sound crazy to you, or just crazy brilliant? Questions? Sound off in the comments below.

Pebble (other colours & Steel edition available)
LG Tone+ (other colours available)
Jawbone Up24 (other colours, sizes, and non-wireless edition available)

Fill your ear-holes

One of the things that I like to ask people, particularly when discussing reading or technology—though sometimes just by accosting random strangers on the street—is: what do you listen to (or: WHAT'S THAT IN YOUR EAR-HOLES, PERSON WHO DOESN'T KNOW ME)?

While I'm clearly lying about one part of that, it is something that interests me. I'm pretty much constantly wired in and listen to a whole range of podcasts, audiobooks, and music. When I start looking into something new, one of the first things I do is find some podcasts relevant to that field. But I know that not everyone is such a fan of any or all of those.

So, two things for this post: first—DISCUSSION TOPIC! What do you listen to and when? Walking, working, doing chores; are you into podcasts, audiobooks, just straight-up music? The sweet sound of silence(/the deafening drone of the vacuum cleaner while the cat tries to climb the nearest wall to escape the Evil Beast)? Furthermore: what, specifically? Sound off below.

Second, here are a couple of my favourite podcasts, in no particular order:

TWiT (This Week in Tech)
This is the podcast that basically got me into tech. They have a whole host of shows on the network to suit just about any specific tech-based interest, and I dip in and out of them week to week, but I'm a long-time, habitual listener of their flagship show with the same name as the network. A great roundup and analysis of the week's tech news.

Friday Night Comedy Podcast (BBC Radio 4)
This is the podcast that got me into podcasts (and probably the one that was most decisive in my stopping listening to the radio). I don't think I've missed an episode in...I don't know how long. Six years? Maybe more. It repeats the 1830 comedy slot from BBC Radio 4 (nearly always either The Now Show or The News Quiz, with a few intermittent others) in podcast form.

The Bugle
John Oliver's been getting a lot more attention thanks to his run hosting The Daily Show and now his own HBO show, Last Week Tonight (rightly so—it's bloody fantastic), but The Bugle his long-running podcast with Andy Zaltzman, dispensing a weekly dose of hilarious political satire with a healthy(?) amount of fatuous bullshit on top. Their schedule has been a little patchy over the last six months or so, but can't recommend this one enough.

Värvet International
This is a fairly recent discovery. I don't normally go for interviews in a big way (at least not more than a one-off, or for some very specific people), but what I've heard of this series has been really great so far. Two highlights: Caitlin Moran and David Fincher.

There are more I listen to each week, but these are mostly long-running favourites. The one problem I have with podcasts is I currently subscribe to too many, leaving very little time some weeks to make progress with audiobooks...

Some productive thoughts

I messed up and didn't include the image credit/license for the 'jumping brain' picture in my original posting - sorry folks! (image: Emilio Garcia, cc by-nc 2.0) Also amended below.


I've been thinking a lot about my personal approach to productivity and organisation, recently, and have come across some interesting research and methodologies. While my personal routine hasn't settled back in to accommodate these (and to see which actually stick), I wanted to share some of my what I've been experimenting with. 

Let your brain run free! justdontthinkabouthehorribleconnotationsofthattakentooliterally Free!
(image: Emilio Garcia, cc by-nc 2.0)

As with all this stuff, there's an element of the nebulous - there's only so far we can go with all the theory. At some point it has to boil down to what works for different people. But I think it's important to experiment with different approaches so we can discover what works for us and what doesn't. Sometimes, the very act of innovating or embracing change and the disruption that causes to our routine can be enough to bring about benefit. 

The first thing is something I came across via this Lifehacker article (for the record, if you want ideas about personal productivity or just an interesting read, that 'How I Work' series is fantastic). The basic idea is that our brains operate very differently between more 'day dreaming'/'free associative' modes and focussed, 'executive action' modes. Here is the NYT piece on it.

This is not particularly revolutionary or surprising - it makes complete sense. But seeing it laid out so clearly resonated with what I had been finding recently in terms of two completely opposing mental states.

I don't know many people who still claim that daydreaming is inherently 'bad' (it really isn't), but it's interesting that identifying and harnessing these two modes for different things is so powerful, and that jumping too much between them (or neglecting either) is detrimental.

This dovetailed nicely with something I've been experimenting with for a while, the tried and tested Pomodoro technique. For those not familiar, you break down any task into 25 minute 'chunks' and then run a(n ideally physical) timer for each, focussing singularly on that one task. The idea that singular focus is good for getting stuff done is, again, unsurprising, but the 5 minute interludes built into the technique to give the brains break play to the same ideas as the above research, rather than trying to bang your head against a task for extended, unbroken periods. The 25 minute block is the right length of time for maximum focus. 

The eponymous pomodoro

Changing tack slightly, the other thing I've done recently is rearrange my 'to do' lists. I jump between systems and platforms for this every few months. I've never found something that works reliably and persistently for me.

My latest trick, though, I really like. Using Apple Reminders (the platform here matters less; this is good for me as it syncs across most of my devices, but it really just has to support multiple lists), I've grouped them into lists by rough time required. Currently it's '5 minutes', '10 minutes', '30 minutes' and 'Big stuff' with a couple of overflow lists.

For the first time, I've grouped my work and personal items together. That's a bit of an adjustment, but maintaining two separate lists/systems and keeping them effective has been part of my trouble. For me, one decent to do list takes time to maintain, which is fine, but doubling that up tends to lead to abandoning one or both. 

The basic logic is that now I can approach the list saying 'well, I have five minutes while I'm waiting for this person, what can I tackle?' or 'this communte is about thirty minutes, what can I work on?' There's no reason this wouldn't be possible with a single consolidated list, but it's all too easy to lose things in the mixture. This lets you plan slightly ahead and dip in to match the time you have available, scanning the appropriate list to fill your time.

It's early days, but it's working out well so far. I don't think it's any kind of revolutionary idea, but it's the most pleasing system I've found to date. I'll let you know how it goes. 

My Top London Lifehack

Tired of not getting a seat on the tube? Read more over on Lifehacker:

http://www.lifehacker.co.uk/2014/10/03/london-underground-tube-hack-will-help-get-seat-rush-hour

Big Deal - the iPhone Six Plus

I've had my iPhone Six Plus for about two weeks now, and while I've been travelling throughout that time, meaning that my usage pattern has been atypical, it's been attracting a lot of attention everywhere I've been. People want to look at it, talk about it, hold it (yes, the phone) and know whether it lives up to the hype and if really is that big. And some smartarses want to know if I've bent it yet (spoiler warning: I haven't). 

So, even if I can't yet speak within the frame of reference of my normal day-to-day use, I have been travelling with it and working, so surely if it is all that unwieldy, that fact will have revealed itself by now. So here are my key takeaways, in brief (okay, so it didn't turn out that brief). 

Battery Life

This was one of the big draws of the Six Plus for me. The bigger physical body of the phone leaves space for a bigger battery, and while some of that extra power is needed to drive the higher resolution display, it is a net improvement over the Six. Having been on a multiple charges a day routine, I can now go the whole day with Bluetooth running and still have up to fifty percent left by the evening, depending on usage. This is how smartphones should be. 

Verdict: Great

Screen

This is, literally, the big one. It's nice, really nice, but it's not best feature of the phone right now. It looks amazing and having all this space on a device that fits in your pocket (and it does) is fantastic.

There are two big problems. The first one is psychological. I still use an iPhone 4s for work. I've never had problems with it before, but now it feels like driving a clown car. I have to hold it right up to my face, and the keyboard feels like garbage. I'm for the first time seriously considering consolidating my work and personal phones. 

The other is one of ecosystem. Because of the big resolution jump, a lot of apps just haven't caught up yet. I'm typing this in Evernote, which has that crisp, correctly sized look. But when I switch over to Google Chrome or a host of other apps, it zooms the screen to compensate for the older app, and it looks horrible. Sure, this will be fixed in time, but it's not nice for an out-of-the-gate experience, and doesn't really sell the larger-screen phone from the get-go.

Nice-looking, correctly-sized Evernote

Overzoomed Google

Verdict: minor gripes, but fundamentally great. 

Size

I hinted at this when talking about the screen. The phone feels big. People notice when you wap it out. At first. After about four days of use, it seemed normal; not uncomfortable to carry, not even noticeable in your pocket. It was a little clumsy to use one handed, but since I put a back case on it that provides more grip, it's much more comfortable (the sleek aluminium build is nice, but feels precariously slippery). 

That said, it's not necessarily for everyone. I have freakishly extensible thumbs and hands big enough to grip the phone and reach most areas. Someone with smaller hands will probably find the Six more suitable.

Verdict: I love it, but your mileage may vary. 

Camera

Awesome. Okay, so it's never going to be perfect in bad lighting, but apart from when I was taking photos at a concert (yeaahhhhh *rock fingers*), they've come out really sharp with very little effort. The Six Plus has Optical Image Stabilization for video, which is a nice plus (hah), but I'm not sure how often I'll find that coming into play. If you're buying a phone primarily for the camera, I'm sure there are better options out there, but this is the best iPhone for that, and a better all-round phone than most comparable ones.

Verdict: a solid improvement on an already decent phone camera.

I basically wanted a chance to use this picture. Shot hastily on the Six Plus

Worse lighting conditions. Decent, but much lower quality picture.

Keyboard

This was the biggest disappointment for me. I was hoping that the landscape keyboard with this big screen would have so much more to offer. As it is, it keeps the keys the same size, but adds a lot of buttons round the periphery. This is fine, in theory, but the layout is changed in some subtle and awkward ways. I feel like I could learn it and get some good use out of it, but I've found myself sticking with the portrait keyboard for the most part, which is really good. 

The introduction of third party keyboards is interesting, but has some issues. I was itching to try SwiftKey, and was determined to stick with it through the learning curve. That part was fine, but there were stability issues and slow loading times to launch the keyboard, which pretty much screws the whole thing when it comes to very short-fire inputs such as such terms. Waiting that extra second for at those times is really jarring. I'll try this approach again in a few months.

Verdict: disappointing 

Bending

This...isn't even a thing. Seriously. Some guy made a video where he really has to straaiiiin to bend it. It takes something like 90 pounds of force to bend these things - there are all sorts of things you can bend with that kind of force...

If your day-to-day activity involves risking that amount of force on your phone, get a rugged case for it, but, honestly, that kind of thing should be beyond regular operating parameters anyway. 

Verdict: seriously? 

The low-down: should you buy it?

If you're due for an upgrade and are after the larger and more powerful experience I've talked about, then sure, go for it! I absolutely love it. I've found myself able to use my phone for so much more (and seriously, typing on this thing is a huge step up). If you're less keen on those features, it's slightly harder. The Six is still a great phone, and that might be better (or you might find either too unwieldy for eat you want in a phone). 

If you're in doubt, I exhort you to go and grab hold of some in an Apple Store and try them out. The overwhelming reaction has been that it's not as big as people were expecting (*cough*), so you might be surprised.

Top 5 Retro Games (that are still good)

Blooooog

*cranks handle*

*content spews forth out of your internet pipes*

Bloooooog

*cups ear* what? 

Oh, it doesn't work that way? I actually have to write things to keep this blog going. Well, okay. 

In case you hadn't picked it up by now (and it's practically painted over this blog on letters exactly 97 feet high), I'm a big gaming fan. Someone magnificent recently posted on Facebook a list of IGN's top modern videogames and suggested that I give my take on it. Well, I'm definitely going to do that, but since I've been on of a nostalgia trip recently (or as I like to call it a DIVNG EXPEDITION THROUGH TIME AND SPACE), I though I'd instead start with my top five classic games.

Now, this would be no fun if I shared all these games and you had no way to experience them for yourselves. You don't want to go diving through Cash Converter's back room to find a 15 year old PC running windows 3.1 that can play these in the original, crisp technicolor fidelity for which they were designed. Nor do you want to spend four hours getting them to run in an emulator only to find they're so horribly dated that you can't get through more than five minutes without your brain sliding out of your right ear. 

So I've limited myself to five games that you can still play and that aren't so antiquated in their design as to be unplayable. Sure, they'll be dated, but many of these are actually better designed than some of the high-budget mass market crap that people spend £40+ on these days (some of it. There's still plenty of quality out there, even in the mega AAA launches). You'll largely be able to pick these up for less than a tenner. Or free! How neat is that?

Okay, so let’s jump in. 

5 - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

This is undoubtedly a classic. I’m with many people in thinking that the follow-up, Majora’s Mask, is a better all-round game, but Ocarina of Time is the enduring memory. It was one of the first games I played that gave me a sense of open-world adventure, of optional and demanding side-quests that really let you dive deep into the game, and above all, gave me that sense of wonder. I’ll bet most of you have played this one in some form another, but if not, it’s still pretty easy to get hold off, thanks to a number of remakes on just about every system Nintendo’s made over the last tyears. Therein lies the downside, however - Nintendo tends to keep a pretty tight hold of their franchises (which is arguably all they’ve got going on right now chortle chortle) - so if you don’t have one of their consoles, you might struggle a little. That said, it’s very easy to find as an emulator ROM, if that’s your thing.

4 - Monkey Island 2 - LeChuck’s Revenge

Now, this list could have easily been composed entirely of nineties Lucasarts point-and-click adventure games. I’m realising more and more that they are some of the finest games I will ever play. It still amazes me whenever I revisit them and I’m reminded of how instrumental they were in forming my language (and love of it) and humour. Sure, many of them suffer from that totally unfathomable video game logic at times, where you are required to rub together two objects that appear entirely unrelated to achieve a bizarre effect to further your goal, but these games all contain moment after moment of utter joy.

I’ve allowed myself just two of these games on this list. The first is Monkey Island 2. The original Monkey Island game was, unsurprisingly, phenomenal, but I prefer the second in terms of moving ahead with the design and humour of the original.

If you haven’t played this sort of point-and-click adventure game before, I think you’ll find it pretty different from most games on offer these days. There are a few studios trying to do the same sort of thing (the example that sticks out most in my mind being TellTale Games), but I honestly believe you can’t beat the originals.

Gadzooks, how do I play it? 

Another easy one - Lucasarts launched ‘special edition’ versions of Monkey Islands 1 and 2 before the studio was closed down (it’s to my eternal sadness that they never finished the equivalents for some of my other favourites). These rereleases feature enhanced graphics/art, voice acting, and a UI overhaul. The original versions of all of these things are great, but the excellent and faithful paint job does actually add to the experience. The best part is you can switch at any time between the original and enhanced versions.

3 - Oddworld - Abe’s Odyssey

I’m pretty sure this was the first game I owned on the original Playstation (perhaps other than Time Crisis - I forget. But what a great Christmas that was!). Fiendishly difficult, I enjoyed it but struggled immensely with it. Having replied it in the last couple of months, I can see why. It’s a demanding puzzle/platform game in an utterly bizarre universe (it’s called ‘Oddworld’ - I’m not sure what I expected), putting you in control of Abe, a slaughterhouse worker who finds that his people are next on the menu. He has to escape the corporate dystopia, rescue his comrades (or get them killed in interesting and highly amusing ways), and bring down Rupture Farms. 

It is tricky and rewarding. The sequel, Abe’s Exodus, is also excellent, and adds some features to make it more playable, such as quick save, but I think it dilutes the experience a little. If nothing else, it was the first game I played that had a dedicated ‘fart’ button.

Getting strange creatures killed in bizarre and perversely hilarious ways? Sign me up!

The original games are both playable through Steam, and Abe’s Odyssey has just been rereleased in a ‘remastered’ edition - ‘New n Tasty’. It’s not out on all platforms yet, and I haven’t had the chance to play it, but it seems to carry the spirit of the original.

2 - Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis

And here we have the other Lucasarts game. Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis is another game for which I am only just starting to appreciate the excellence of its design. It’s my favourite Indiana Jones adventure over any of the films in the trilogy (yes, trilogy). Dr Jones is set on the trail of the lost city of Atlantis, a global yomp featuring Nazis, mysterious metals, hot air balloons and one of Plato’s lost dialogues. It’s basically everything I want in a game. 

It follows the standard Lucasarts ‘point and click’ formula, with a few variations. There’s less of a focus on the humour (don’t get me wrong, though, it is funny). There’s a (rather clunky) combat mechanic - though you can avoid using it for the most part. In fact, you have a choice how to pursue the bulk of the story - as part of a double act, using Indy’s wits, or relying more on your fists. Each change up the way a good third or more of the game plays out, which is actually really awesome when it comes to replaying it.

It’s a sweet romp of a game that lets you feel like you’re playing out one of the great ‘whip and wonders’ adventures of the big screen. And it’s the game that taught 9-year old me where Algiers was (and presumably still is).

What good’s a whip in this day and age? Who am I kidding, how do I play it?

Sadly, no remastered edition for this one (boo), but you can pick it up on Steam. Old games always tend to have a few compatibility teething issues, but this has always run just fine on my Mac and PC.

Honourable mentions here are Day of the Tentacle and Sam and Max Hit the Road. Beautiful, hilarious, utterly absurd.

1 - Baldur’s Gate II - Shadows of Amn

C’mon, was there ever any doubt?

Anyone who has had the (mis-)fortune to engage me on the topic of video games for any length of time will hear me talk about BGII. It is, in my mind, the paragon of gaming achievement. Sure, there are games that are my new darlings, for a time, occasionally even taking the title of ‘favourite’, but it’s all temporary. It always comes back to BGII.

It’s a proper Dungeons & Dragons RPG game. You pick a class, pick a race, wake up in a prison, and go from there. It’s an adventure that takes you overground, oversea, undersea, and off the Prime Material Plane altogether. Your character is whatever you want them to be, they can end up owning a castle, running a guild of thieves and assassins, or owning a really nifty extraplanar transportation contraption. The characters around you are rich, deep and have real personality. All this with decades-old sprites, text and damn fine voice acting. It’s an epic which still to this day has my finding new little things I never came across before.

Alright, I’m starting to gush. And this is making me really want to play it. That happens a lot.

GIVE IT TO ME NOW

Sure. It’s still possible to find the original (and it works - e.g. on GOG), but the knights in shining armour at Beamdog have done a snazzy Enhanced Edition of both Baldur’s Gate games. Utterly faithful to the original, just packed with more stuff and some playability improvements and bug fixes.

Okay confession time. I’ve never actually finished it. Well, okay, I have, but I’ve never truly, really got to the end, which is to say the concluding chapter of the whole thing - the epic ‘Throne of Baal’ expansion. I’ve got right to it, just ran into stonewalls that sort of...stopped me. What I’d love to do, and hopefully will do if I ever have anything like enough time (and interest), is to stream and/or record it. From the beginning. Start of the original Baldur’s Gate, right the way through.

This time, I might even finish.

What are you top picks for old games, whether they’re still easy to find and get running or not?