High hopes and low lives...

So another year goes by. It would be a lie to say that I worked hard this year. I am disappointed in myself for not meeting my personal goals, and for not meeting deadlines. I got into a working flow a couple of times only to find myself procrastinating a week later. I don’t know that I have done enough to pass the year but all I can say is that towards the end, I did try. When you find yourself with a heap of work hovering over your shoulders, and you’ve left it too late, you only have yourself to blame for it. The only thing I can do at this stage is apologise. It would be a shame if I did not make it this year, because I have only just found my love for the programs. I have started using Photoshop with great ease and speed. And as for max. The unwrapping and texturing aspects, I have finally got a hold of! So for what I’ve learnt this year; a great deal! Even though it may not have matched the standard of my work. The major area I have failed to meet is that of visual design. Even though my skills at Photoshop have improved allot this year. I haven’t completed enough of my projects. I will be completing the work I have missed now that I am in a working frame of mind, even though it will not boost my grade and even though now, it is too late. Even though I may have failed to meet your expectations this year, I promise that I will not fail myself. I will continue this pursuit of goals until it kills me. I cannot put across to you how determined I actually am! I will be staying in labs until June the 18th because, this blog is just a load of words, it is not actions or finished projects. So all I ask is that you let me prove myself to you and Chris and heather over the summer term. Let me show you how good I can actually be. Here is an example of my Photoshop work.

You have been kicked from the Server by your Government...

The south-Korean government have introduced an online curfew to stop the younger generation in the country from playing online games (whatever next?). The country has an obsession with online games. Professional gamers are treated like rock stars over there. Girls are literally screaming with excitement and men are shouting their names when the gamers turn up for gaming events and such. The popularity behind the gaming culture and the country’s super-fast broadband connection has led to heightened concern about the amount of time players are spending on online games. New rules will come into affect that will see kids at school banned from gaming between 12pm and 8am. Young gamer’s internet connections could be slowed down if they spend too much time online.
I really can’t see this new rule working. It could have the same effect as prohibition did in America. We could see the emergence of pirate broadband companies earning money off providing broadband to kids. Gaming is a huge part of the country’s culture. There is going to be massive opposition to this. On the other hand I have heard horror stories of people spending ages online. There have been horrible cases where obsession has led to injury or death. As long as they keep the curfew to kids I think the country will grow to the concept and run with it. Though I can image funny scenes of swat teams rushing into cybercafés with guns shouting ‘’put the mouse on the ground and keep your hands were we can see them’’ and ‘’he’s reaching for his keyboard OPEN FIRE!!!’’

Afghanistan; a Secure and Democratic State?

Over the Easter break I had a political discussion with my friend who was at the time on leave from the army. He’s been in the Army for 4 years now and will be trotting off to afghan in October. This fact sparked a discussion between me and him about Afghanistan (most of our discussions usually end up with the army, wars or politics). So as this debate of sorts became quite heated we decided to have a cup of tea, and it was lovely.
Whilst he told me about how ‘’our role over there is to bring peace and stability to the region, and to fight against terrorist threats’’ I said what a good idea it would be to jot down some notes about our discussion to formulate a meaningful and educated Blog. So I did. After my friend left my house I converted those notes into a brief and ‘to the point’ essay of sorts to best describe what our influence over there is all about. I thought it came out nicely. The information in there was from him, so I don’t know how accurate it is, but then again I do believe he knows what he’s talking about. So, here we go. Enjoy;
Firstly it is important to identify the two main components that exist within Afghanistan’s political system: the provisional Afghan government (headed by President Karzei) and the traditional Pashtun tribal Hierarchy.
Given that Afghanistan is an undeveloped state and most of the population have limited access to electricity, it is difficult for the Afghan government to have any affect beyond the limits of the capital: Karbul. The majority of Afghanistan’s population have a simpler and more traditional understanding of politics; centred on their ancient tribal Hierarchy. This tribal Hierarchy has its foundations in the ancient traditions of the pastun tribe: village and family elders provide a simple council system to resolve any inter-village or inter-family feuds, usually without hostilities. This system has proven affective for thousands of years, so the majority of Afghans have no interest in the national political system. This negative attitude towards a centralised government in Karbul makes NATO/ISAF’s job far more difficult: in Iraq NATO/ISAF where able to implement national change by manipulating a centralised political system in the capital, Baghdad. Afghanistan is far less developed as a country and there for far harder to affect at a national and political level! NATO/ISAF forces have implemented a ‘hearts and minds’ tactic in Afghanistan: win over the opinion of the people so they will accept our point of view and reject that of the insurgents, this may help the British Army and others in the short to medium term but it will not allow us to build a safe and secure country until they accept. Fin.

Get out of my EYESSSSSSSSSS!!!

This Year at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas it’s all been about showing off the best in new 3-d hardware and software. 2009 was the big year for 3-d Cinema, with films like Final Destination and Avatar Taking full advantage of the power 3-D has to offer. Is 3-D the next big thing or is this just another teenage crush we all have on a fantastic new way of watching films?
Well, 3D’s been around for a while, but until recently it’s been kept in that dark cupboard under the stairs with other failed ideas like ‘smelly-vision’. That’s because it used to be dodgy old horror movies with a few monster awkwardly lumbering around somewhere just off the screen, or the odd dinosaur claw making a delayed, and frankly pathetic, swipe at the front row.
Not anymore! Since some of the big names in the business (like James Cameron) got involved, it’s a completely new beast; films like ‘Avatar’ and ‘Monster and Aliens’ redefined what we call 3D and banished those failed B movies to a well-forgotten memory.

Thanks to a combination of new cameras and the rapid advancements in green/blue screen technology, 3-D films really have become 3 dimensional.
Instead of a few random objects poking out the screen you become part of the action, you feel far more involved with the film. There is a realistic and truly believable depth of field affect in use. Now I’m a traditionalist, there’s something to be said for good old 2-D entertainment, and it’s stood the test of time.
With all the advancements to 2D viewing, with HD TV and Blu-Ray, is there really room for 3-D to muscle its way into our homes? I don’t think so, not yet anyway. I have no doubt that this 3-D revolution in the cinema will continue, I just can’t see myself sitting down with my mates or my family and all of us wearing clumsy glasses every time we ‘fire up the box’. Give it a few more years!
For now 2-D still reigns supreme!!
Now, what about the affect 3-D will have on the gaming world? Game’s including; Batman, Metro 2033, Battlefield Bad Company 2, Biohazard 5, Just Cause 2, and Resident Evil 5 have been released on PC with full NVidia 3-D support. A pair of glasses and a 3-D ready monitor will set you back about £500 pounds. But does 3-D bring a new dimension to game play. I can’t truly say for myself yet because I haven’t tried it. But from what I’ve heard it works really well. It’s one of those things that we have to leave to time until we can make a fair judgement.
Oh year food for thought. What about people who can only see out of one eye. The won’t be able to enjoy 3-d like the rest of us

Nuclear Detterent

Is £100Million per year worth our national security?

After watching the first televised political debate, and listening to the brief period where Cameron and Brown were forced to answer Nick Clegg’s persistent questioning about our country’s nuclear programme, it got me thinking on the subject. Brown and Cameron both believe that getting rid of our nuclear weapons is a bad idea, because it makes us defenceless against emerging and current nuclear powers in the world. Nick Clegg says that if we get rid of them, we will save £100Million per year. So, the Liberal democrats have suggested that we dismantle our trident missile programme as a money saving measure and as part of the solution to our national deficit. The financial problems our country faces appear in the media every day, and are a constant worry to the general public, so it may be relatively easy, to dismiss the trident missile system as something we can do without. However, just because we hear about this every day does not mean it is not providing vital security. The secret service exist and operate around us every day, ensuring our national security. We do not see them, but we would quickly notice the consequences if they were not there! The ‘Trident’ missile system provides us with our nuclear deterrent and there for provides a vital part of our national security.

The people that support the dismantling of a trident will tell you that warfare has changed. That the ‘Cold War’ has ended and that we no longer require a nuclear deterrent. They would say that we are fighting a war on terror, a war against small extremist cells of intelligent but technologically limited people. That may well be the case today, but we all know how rapidly the world we live in can change; while there are unstable and extremist country’s (like Iran and North Korea), who have the technological ability to develop WMD’s, we need a nuclear deterrent; we need the ability to dissuade these countries from attacking us!!!

Just think for a moment here. We haven’t had any major attacks on our country since the Second World War. Sure we have had threats and there have been times when the world leaders had been sitting at their desks with their hand hovering over a big red button, but our Nation hasn’t been threatened directly and our wars abroad have not been challenged directly by other world superpowers. Up until this point we have had the ability to do great damage anywhere in the world; to completely obliterate any country with nuclear weapons. Imagine, that the ability to do this was taken away overnight. Other countries would be free to push us around and do what they want, without the fear of retaliation. Our Nation as a whole would seem weak. Don’t get me wrong, nuclear missile’s are terrible things and should never be used, but just ask yourself; have we reached the point where we can dismantle our Nuclear weapons and feel safe. My answer is no but others will have different opinions.