Posts by Alex Trenchard 18 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Mar 2009
I can't help but be reminded of Tay, whose dataset was rapidly influenced by the internet - including but not limited to 4chan - and began to reflect back some pretty racist ideas.
Unless Microsoft have done a very serious filtering of the inputs (which given the database size seems improbable) then there's a fair chance that this model has also picked up the internet being... well, the internet.
I've never fully trusted cloud-y things since a previous employer moved everyone to Sharepoint without investing in adequate bandwidth. This was a fairly large premises anyway, but operating at nearly double its initially scoped numbers following multiple rounds of collocations, hot-desking, floorplate adjustments, etc. We had >8,000 people working on a site with an IT backbone scoped for ~4,000 (and that's also 4,000 at the time of build - so far lower planning assumptions than modern services and applications require).
The fact that I'm old-fashioned and non-collaborative, and regularly make locally-saved working versions of documents means I'm actually able to get on with things today, instead of scratching around and asking "well, what do I do now?!"
It's standard practice to have interchange officers from allied armed forces embedded on anything other than nationally-sensitive operations, so I wouldn't be surprised if USCG, USN, and indeed Australian, Canadian, Kiwi, and other navies were lending personnel to the Royal Navy. Of course, we'd probably be lending as many in the other direction, so I'm not convinced that discovering that exchange officer programs exist represents a massive exposé.
>Ives knows how to do pretty
That's a matter of opinion. Ives knows how to do "flat". Flat represents a significant change in direction to what a lot of people were used to, and is, to put things mildly, divisive. That Ives is not prepared to consider alternatives to his chosen dogma makes him limited as a designer.
Why cling to an older version?
For me, it's two things - control, and appearances. Or possibly, the appearance of control, and control of appearance.
Because I'm not enough of a fool to think I'm actually in control of my Windows machine, but at least with Win 7 I understand enough of the workings and have enough clout to make changes. I'm nowhere near to being a power user, but at least I know enough to make my own changes to the hosts file, and to set default file behaviours. Everything I've heard about Win 10 suggests that it's less in the hands of the user, and more centrally administered; with some reports suggesting MS have the ability to override local changes in some cases.
And secondly, Flat Design is - in my opinion - an abomination which should die in a fire. Just my opinion, of course. But I'd like to have a choice of how my desktop looks, rather than having a flat aesthetic forced upon me.
So what I've got is good enough. To me, the 'newest version at all costs' crowd are equally dogmatic as those resisting change.
A sample size of one is of limited use, but I am one such. I have an iPhone4S, still happily running iOS6 (6.1.3, to be specific), because I simply loathe the aesthetic of flat design.
I literally couldn't tell you the last day when I didn't use it to go online, and it regularly also gets plugged into, and synced with, a computer that does include iTunes.
Admittedly, I've lost access to some apps like Facetime; and yes, I'm aware that I'm potentially at risk due to Heartbleed, so I don't use it for anything even remotely sensitive or personal. But I'm stubborn enough that I'd rather wait and upgrade my whole phone to something Android-based than accept iOS7.
My issue, and I'm aware it probably puts me in a minority, is that I just find Win 8 so ugly. Flat, angular tiles really feel like a step back to the days of Windows 3.1, which (as a comparative young whippersnapper, my colleagues like to remind me) was some of my earliest GUI computing experience.
I've no doubt it is faster, and more stable, and many other good things besides, but the supposedly-modern UI just leaves me cold.
When I saw the title "Real-Fake", I was reminded of the markets in Hong Kong, where I used to live.
There was a price difference between a "Genuine Fake", targetted at rich gwailos, and HK-Chinese, and bargain-barrel fakes, mostly aimed at mainland Chinese immigrants. In the latter category you saw a lot of Tommy Hifliger, Quiksliver, etc, but I think my favourite remains the "Bolux" watch...
Text can be worth reading, if it's well written and well delivered. PS:T is a stand-out example, with over 6 million lines of text and a massively compelling story behind it.
Interaction between characters doesn't have to be limited to violence. Conversation - whether for information, persuasion or simple entertainment - remains hugely important, and it's simply not practical to record every line with a voice actor, except for the largest projects. Not to say that high levels of VA can't work well - the Kingdom Hearts series, for example, features voices like Christopher Lee, John Di Maggio and Dan Castellanata. But even read out, rather than written down, dialogue is still key to developing depth and character.
That's not what everyone wants. Lots of people just want to blow stuff up. But I like depth.
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