Cruel and cutting, just the way we like it: (Guardian cartoon by Martin Rowson.)
May 2008 Archives
Wow! A rational article about Grand Theft Auto IV, from someone in the media. I particularly enjoyed her closing comments, a warning:
Gamers beware. If there is one thing worse than the middle-aged gaming ignoramus, it will shortly be the middle-aged gaming know-it-all, who's discovered that, misogyny aside, they're really quite an art form.
It's easy to laugh at the excesses of the US legal system, and I often do. Still, I was thinking, it's nice to see when they get it right. This article (in the New York Times), the lead-up to which I've managed to totally miss, was a wonderful surprise. It's about to be made illegal to discriminate against people for health insurance reasons based on the results of genetic testing.
Often I've found myself arguing against blanket-coverage of DNA databases on the basis that it's a wonderful way for insurance firms and other crooks to con people out of insurance they need in an increasingly expensive world.
So initially I was pleased to read that the US are outlawing the use of such databases for insurance use. 'Hooray', said my suddenly and strangely pre-WW2 mind, 'that's one up for the good guys'. In that idiom I might have added, 'that'll fox the blighters'. But I didn't.
I'm quite sceptical that the measure to outlaw discrimination will actually work, but I was thinking that it was a step in the right direction.
And then it dawned on me.
If the primary objection to keeping everyone's DNA databases is removed, suddenly it's much easier to justify having everyone catalogued and tagged. It's like an X-Files plot, only reality and not - supposedly wildly paranoid - science fiction.
I don't want to be in a centrally-held DNA database. I am not a terrorist, and I don't see why my Government should have the right to make me prove it by giving up my genetic blueprints. In the UK, they'd simply love to have a country-wide DNA database. They don't have the right. They don't have the reason. They don't have our trust. They can have my DNA when it's no use to them, when they prise a sample from my cold, dead body.
I used to have a t-shirt with these words of Benjamin Franklin written on the back: "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
In the space of a few minutes I went from pleasure at seeing the denial of a big interest group, to sadness and disgust at the realisation - ok, paranoid suspicion - that the way is being cleared for a country-wide DNA database. As always, I'm sure that we in the UK will be quick to adopt all the worst ideas from across the Pond.
Often I've found myself arguing against blanket-coverage of DNA databases on the basis that it's a wonderful way for insurance firms and other crooks to con people out of insurance they need in an increasingly expensive world.
So initially I was pleased to read that the US are outlawing the use of such databases for insurance use. 'Hooray', said my suddenly and strangely pre-WW2 mind, 'that's one up for the good guys'. In that idiom I might have added, 'that'll fox the blighters'. But I didn't.
I'm quite sceptical that the measure to outlaw discrimination will actually work, but I was thinking that it was a step in the right direction.
And then it dawned on me.
If the primary objection to keeping everyone's DNA databases is removed, suddenly it's much easier to justify having everyone catalogued and tagged. It's like an X-Files plot, only reality and not - supposedly wildly paranoid - science fiction.
I don't want to be in a centrally-held DNA database. I am not a terrorist, and I don't see why my Government should have the right to make me prove it by giving up my genetic blueprints. In the UK, they'd simply love to have a country-wide DNA database. They don't have the right. They don't have the reason. They don't have our trust. They can have my DNA when it's no use to them, when they prise a sample from my cold, dead body.
I used to have a t-shirt with these words of Benjamin Franklin written on the back: "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
In the space of a few minutes I went from pleasure at seeing the denial of a big interest group, to sadness and disgust at the realisation - ok, paranoid suspicion - that the way is being cleared for a country-wide DNA database. As always, I'm sure that we in the UK will be quick to adopt all the worst ideas from across the Pond.
Firstly, let me say this: GTA IV is a spectacular achievement. I'm not a game reviewer, and I've not got far enough into it, and I didn't play - didn't even like - the previous GTA games. It's all new to me, and I love it.
Unfortunately, it's become rather unstable on me all of a sudden. In the mission 'crime and punishment', it fails to even start the game half the time. When it does start, it crashes a few minutes into the game. (Annoyingly, I was about to 'try my luck' again with my in-game girlfriend Michelle, whom I've spend most of the game trying to charm - there's frustration for you.)
The load failures are extremely annoying. I have a day-one UK PS3, the one with a 60GB HDD, all the USB and memory card ports, and half-arsed PS2 emulation. It seems to wedge the machine well enough to require a reboot when I do 'quit game'.
The in-game failures are even worse. After getting over the excitement of getting into the game at all, I get about five minutes in, and then it stops. The radio station keeps playing, but keypresses don't work, and in the end I had to hard power-off the console.
I've had other failures. The strip club seems also to freeze the game at the most inappropriate moments. It's very annoying.
I think I'm going to have to reinstall the game to the hard drive, which takes - as one can read elsewhere - an extraordinarily long time. And I've got GT5 Prologue, which is the old 'takes fucking ages to install' record holder. Sigh. What happened to the old console truth, that above all games absolutely must never, ever crash?
Updated 2008-05-03 19:36 BST: Unplugging the network cable fixes it. Don't know why, don't really care at this point.
Unfortunately, it's become rather unstable on me all of a sudden. In the mission 'crime and punishment', it fails to even start the game half the time. When it does start, it crashes a few minutes into the game. (Annoyingly, I was about to 'try my luck' again with my in-game girlfriend Michelle, whom I've spend most of the game trying to charm - there's frustration for you.)
The load failures are extremely annoying. I have a day-one UK PS3, the one with a 60GB HDD, all the USB and memory card ports, and half-arsed PS2 emulation. It seems to wedge the machine well enough to require a reboot when I do 'quit game'.
The in-game failures are even worse. After getting over the excitement of getting into the game at all, I get about five minutes in, and then it stops. The radio station keeps playing, but keypresses don't work, and in the end I had to hard power-off the console.
I've had other failures. The strip club seems also to freeze the game at the most inappropriate moments. It's very annoying.
I think I'm going to have to reinstall the game to the hard drive, which takes - as one can read elsewhere - an extraordinarily long time. And I've got GT5 Prologue, which is the old 'takes fucking ages to install' record holder. Sigh. What happened to the old console truth, that above all games absolutely must never, ever crash?
Updated 2008-05-03 19:36 BST: Unplugging the network cable fixes it. Don't know why, don't really care at this point.
