Reblogged from Joe Martin Words:

If you have an interest in gaming, particularly PC gaming, my good friend Joe Martin has launched an awesome new podcast where he interviews well-known developers and gaming personalities (crap description, but it'll do). First one is all about Stalker - it's only 10 minutes and it's ace.

I don’t think it’s much of a secret to reveal that email is a leech on productivity – it’s rather like an inquisitive child that’s constantly asking questions, i.e. a little brat. It’s a little brat that needs to seen, not heard and told to wait it’s damn turn.

There’s lots of interesting research to backup this point. A study by Loughborough University found that:

70% of arriving emails were reacted to within 6 seconds. Once the email was addressed, it took an average employee 64 seconds to resume working at the same rate they were before the interruption. (Source via Cruseit.com)

Apply that to every email you get everyday << failure!

Until the likes of Mail Pilot (my one and only Kickstarter thus far) arrives, I don’t think I can banish traditional email from my life. But what I can do is ration it, turning it into a task instead a constant ticking time bomb.

Basically I’ve decided to close Outlook, only checking it every two hours – between 10am and 4pm – replying to anything that needs a response, and scheduling anything that needs further thought. I keep half an eye on my iPad in the intervening periods for urgent items, but it doesn’t suck me in as badly as Outlook’s cluttered crap of an interface does.

I’m also making people aware that if something needs my immediate attention they should call me, or just get up and come talk to me. Once upon a time this was standard practice, but people have become lazy and annoying thanks to email. I’m toying with the idea of using an ‘Out of Office’ for this, but I bet that would annoy people after a while.

My colleague, Rich Parris, is already unconvinced I can stick to this, simply due to the culture where I work. But I’m going bend people to my will or I’m going to die trying damn it!

I’d be interested to hear of anyone who has had success with something similar, or have their own ‘system’ they use.

Apart from enjoying the race immensely, I think this was the race that finally converted me to the merits of DRS. It worked just as advertised – getting people close enough to compete without making it too easy. Given this is the second season of it running, hopefully it will continue like this.

Sky Sports – 90% awesome

By and large Sky didn’t miss a step. I love the iPad app, which gives me live timing without all the fuss. Damon hill is an excellent pundit, and I don’t miss Eddie Jordon’s general insanity – it may be funny sometimes, but the rest of the time its just annoying. David Croft and Brundle are a perfect combo. Anthony Davidson and the whole ‘Sky Pad’ thing worked pretty well, too.

I only had a couple of complaints:

1. Simon Lazenby – I guess it’s just nerves (it was his first GP weekend after all), but he didn’t really click for me. I guess it’s a reflection of how Jake Humphreys had become, but he didn’t quite win me over. I’d add that Georgie Thompson seems kind of pointless – what is she doing, exactly?
2. I want more Ant - Much as I like the Sky Pad stuff, it would be nice to seem more of Davidson. He always has great insight, but he felt like a bit part. Might be good if we saw more of him during the race.

Anyway, overall a great start to the season.

1. The one thing I truly miss(ed) from Windows 7…

In my last post I praised the window management in OS X, but there is one feature that it lacks compared to Windows – Aero Snap. Aero Snap, in case you didn’t know, was introduced in Windows 7 and allows you to ‘snap’ windows to one half of the screen. It’s especially useful for looking at two documents side-by-side, something the 1,440 x 900 display on my Air ought to be perfect for. Mac OS doesn’t have this by default, but luckily there are plenty of apps that replicate it. The simplest, and cheapest, is called Split Screen and it does the job for just 59p. Job done.

2. The Dashboard

It’s not like it’s offensive, but it’s only marginally less pointless than the Sidebar introduced with Windows Vista in so much as it’s not in the way all the time. I’ve downloaded iStat Pro, which is actually a little bit useful, but the rest is just superfluous. Harmless, but superfluous.

3. Not being able to write to NTFS hard drives

I’m not sure if this is a fair complaint or not, but as a former Windows user not being able to write to hard drives with the NTFS file system is a major pain. Of course, Windows has the same problem in the opposite direction, but whichever side of the fence one sits on it’s a problem I could do without. I see creating partitions in my future!

4. iCloud is only half useful

In theory Apple has got a lot right with iCloud, and if all you ever use is Apple products then it’ll probably serve you well. But one thing it doesn’t do well is web access. If I want to access files on iCloud from my prehistoric Windows work PC, I have to use iTunes – I’m not going to do this. Consequently I’m sticking with Dropbox, which suits me just fine. The exception are, of course, Apple’s own iWork apps, but I choose not to use them at present. Apple needs to sort this out before iCloud can be taken seriously.

5. Mail app isn’t as good as Gmail

As a Gmail user, it’s hard to imagine living without priority inbox. It, combined with the brilliant Other Inbox service, keeps my email clutter to an absolute minimum. This makes the Mail app somewhat redundant, despite he fact using it has nice fringe benefits such as integration with Spotlight search. I don’t suppose Apple will try and support this in future, but an alternative that combines the utility of Gmail with the integration of the Mail app would earn my vote. If you know of such a thing, let me know.

Previous posts in this series…

• Day 1 – Getting started
• 5 things I love so far

It sounds like such a trivial thing, but full-screen apps in Lion are awesome. iA Writer, my chosen writing tool, is a case in point. It’s the perfect, no distractions writing tool and it works all the better thanks to the full-screen mode. It’s the multi-touch gestures that make full-screen mode work, though. They make it practical to use apps entirely in full-screen, safe in knowledge you can get back to the desktop in a swipe or two.

2. AirPlay & Home Sharing

An Apple TV is needed to fully appreciate this point, but streaming music wirelessly is awesome and the Apple TV does it really well. Sure, there are plenty of excellent wireless audio systems (Sonos, Squeezebox, DLNA – take your pick) to choose from, but for my purposes the Apple TV is ideal. It plugs straight into my AV receiver, and therefore my 5.1 system, and I can control it with ease on the TV. It’s just a shame it can’t do the same for Spotify.

3. The glass-touchpad

Of all the design features Apple’s introduced in recent years, the glass-touchpad has to be my favourite. I remember when I first reviewed a MacBook with one – it made Windows laptops feel archaic in comparison. That the likes of HP, Dell and Asus are still struggling to replicate it (see reviews of the HP Envys or Asus UX31 for evidence) just goes to prove it’s no trivial accomplishment.

4. The peace and quiet

The MacBook Air really is epic in its goodness. 90% of the time it’s totally silent and only vaguely warm. Stress it for a while and it will start to gust, but in general use you’d be hard pressed to know anything was going on in there.

5. Mission control

With one small exception, window management on Mac OS is in a completely different league to Windows. I kind of appreciate why Microsoft hasn’t focussed on this, it’s something of a power user’s niche interest. But the combination of Mission Control (Spaces as was), full-screen apps and gestures makes for a far smoother, more pleasant workflow – particularly on a laptop where there’s limited screen real-estate. The exception? I’ll get to that in another post.

The best laptop ever made? Probably.

Mostly painless migration

By and large my migration from PC to Mac has been surprisingly painless. It helped that I’d already got a clear idea of what apps I needed to download before my Air arrived. Seashore for image editing, Reeder for RSS, official Twitter app, Neo Office for productivity, Chrome for web browsing. And, of course, Dropbox – the single most useful app in existence.

My only serious decision was how to transfer all my music. While Apple has a useful migration tool, the idea of transferring 40GB or so of data across a Wi-Fi network seemed foolhardy. Instead I opted for the tried and tested external hard drive backup option.

It’s here I had problems. For reasons unclear transferring my whole music folder just wouldn’t complete without an error. I thought it might be a power saving measure kicking in, but fiddling with those settings didn’t solve the problem. In the end I resorted to copying it across in chunks for 5GB to avoid the problem. A tedious workaround, no doubt, but one I shouldn’t have to repeat.

iTunes is still iTunes

Of course, iTunes being the fussy program that it is (despite its idiosyncrasies I’ve grown to like it), I then had to re-import the whole library in again. I fancy anyone without a little experience would find this process a bit challenging, but I guess that’s why the migration tool exists.

Even with these small challenges any thoughts of installing Windows, something I hadn’t ruled out, have been quickly extinguished. I’ll post some more thoughts in due course.

Tweeted this today, but thought it was worth saving for perpetuity. Much as I like Spotify, I’ve never really got on with its playlist system. I’ve never found the various playlist website much use, as they’re typically chock full of rubbish. Consequently I always wanted to generate playlists based on Last.fm history, and unsurprisingly such a service already exists: Spotibot.

Not only will it generate playlists based on Last.fm, it will also create them based on your favourite artists. You can even edit playlists before you send them to Spotify, which can be done via drag and drop or by copying and pasting to the play queue. It works brilliantly, and is something Spotify ought to look into building into the application in future.

Okay, so “got started” is stretching things somewhat – it took what seemed like hours just to setup a game for the first time. It didn’t take long for me to get hooked on CM, though. In the early days (like most novice players) I gravitated towards the likes of Man United, but I soon grew bored of the easy wins and looked for alternative challenges.

Over the years I managed a massive variety of teams, including Auxere (where I played an awesome 5-3-2 formation with a sweeper), Everton (where I discovered the peerless Ibrahima Bakayoko), Leeds, Barcelona, and even more obscure teams like Dumbarton, Leyton Orient and Walsall. At one point I even created a team (using the editor) based on my school team – we were awesome, naturally. I poured hours into all these games, even more so since (somewhat hilariously) it must have been year before I realised you could speed up the commentary by hitting the space bar – up until that point I enjoyed reading the commentary out loud, Motty style!

This love for Championship Manager has been transferred to all the different editions, as well as those under the new Football Manager brand. However it’s now time to stop. My latest stint with the game has been in FM10 – which is excellent btw – and it has been a perfect illustration of: a) why Football Manager is brilliant; and b) why I have to stop playing.

It’s just so stressful!

When things are going well it’s sublime – my first season as Reading saw me getting promoted via the play-offs, winning the final 6-1. It made me feel great. Unsurprisingly, however, the second season (now in the Prem) has been infuriating. I’ve actually be doing quite well, currently sitting in 13th position despite my meagre resources, but by god it’s been hard work! Every game is an emotional rollercoaster. I swear blind when I concede an early goal, which has been happening rather too often of late,  and rant loudly when players make mistakes.

Of course this emotional response is part of what makes ‘Foot Man’ a great game, but I don’t think I can take it any longer. The combination of the time consumed, a perennial Football Manager issue, and the stress it places on me has led to my decision. I’ve taken minnows to the Champions League, won leagues in far flung countries and generally kicked arse wherever I went, but I will never play Football Manager again.

Probably.

Edit: Okay, so this was a total lie. I’m still playing and am currently 17th, six points above Birmingham who are in the first relegation spot. Five games to go!

Trials HD is the kind of game that'll hand your arse back to you say "try harder!"

What is it?

Trials HD is a motocross game which, though rendered in 3D, is essentially a 2D game. You accelerate and brake using the trigger buttons, using the analogue stick to lean your rider forward and backward to navigate the various and imaginative obstacles. There are 50 courses ranging from fairly easy to stupendously difficult. There’s also a selection of mini-games (called Skill Games) and a track editor to occupy you.

How much is it?

1,200 MS Points, which I’m understand to be around £10 – let’s not get started on this silly points system!

How long will it last?

5 to 10 hours depending on how you play and how “into it” you become.

What’s good about it?

In a word: lots. While one never expects graphical wonders from an XBLA game, it looks pretty good and the framerate is silky smooth –  just as well given the frenetic action on offer. In the beginning it is mostly about the speed and sheer thrill seeking of navigating courses, flipping your bike in the air and generally having loads of fun. However, come around halfway through the game, it quickly begins to become more intense and complicated. Fast ramps and jumps are replaced with intricate obstacles, awkward falls and all sorts of dangerous pitfalls, such as explosives and falling platforms. It’s an interesting progression, since until the difficulty ramps up (and it really does), it’s easy to dismiss Trials HD as a fun and inconsequential arcade title.

It’s a lot more than that. For starters it’s one of the hardest games you’re likely to encounter. For me this is a great thing. In fact, I’d sooner describe Trials HD as challenging rather than hard given the negative connotations the latter implies. And with that challenge you get great reward. This might not be a long game – though for the price it offers plenty to get on with – but as you progress in the later stages, every completed stage, every gold or silver medal attained brings with it a great sense of satisfaction. It makes a nice change given modern games, in my opinion, generally sacrifice genuine challenge for spectacle.

What’s bad about it?

Well, if you’re not up for having your arse handed to you frequently, Trials HD probably isn’t for you. As I say above I’d sooner describe it as challenging, but this game can be brutal and will have even the most able gamers tearing their hair out. If you permit an analogy, Trials HD is the kind of game that would happily shoot you in the back and then T-bag your corpse.

My only other complaint concerns the track editor and the ability to share tracks. This particular feature should give Trials HD a Trackmania-esque edge to it, but at the moment you can only share tracks among friends, which makes a feature bursting with potential somewhat limited – unless you have a large circle of friends all keen to make their own tracks, the opportunities for sharing will be limited. Opening this up, allowing a community to build around the game, would elevate it to another level.

The Bottom Line

If you fancy an old-school challenge with some next-generation thrills, Trials HD is well worth the download. It delivers plenty of value and provided you have the necessary cojones, will keep you coming back for more punishment.

My Score: 4/5

Anyway, I’m writing this now for two reasons:

1. I’m testing out Office 2010, so decided firing up the new Word was a good idea.
2. England won the second Ashes test at Lords today, so I’m in the mood to write about cricket.

After just two tests this series looks set to emulate the 2005 series in many respects. I dare say the cricket isn’t as high quality as then – there’s no Warne, no McGrath, no Harmison (yet), no Lee (yet, again) and most disappointingly (from an England perspective at least) no Trescothick or Jones. And, as the first two tests have shown, much of the excitement has been generated by the frailties of both sides as much as their excellence.

In the first test England failed to turn up. Picking two spinners turned out to be a mistake. Panesar’s form has been poor and both he and Swann struggled on a pitch lacking pace and bounce, which is far more important to spinners than many appreciate. Likewise, the lack of a fourth seamer put too much pressure on the remaining quicks. Thus, when it didn’t swing for Anderson, didn’t bounce for Flintoff and just didn’t happen at all for Broad, the attack lacked penetration. Australia cashed in and England batted poorly, but so flat was the pitch and determined the batting that England escaped.

Australia’s demeanour post-Cardiff belied their understanding of how big an opportunity they’d missed. As a unit they’re unlikely to bat as well again in the series, while England are unlikely to play as badly. England escaped, Australia missed out and if England do go on to win the series, Anderson and Panesar’s defiance will be remembered ruefully – by Australians at least. Though it hasn’t been mentioned in the mainstream as yet (to my knowledge), it still surprises me that Australia don’t play five bowlers. When they had McGrath and Warne a four man attack worked, but this attack isn’t special enough to do it like they did. Had they played a fifth seamer at Cardiff, the outlook of the series might be quite different now.

At Lords it was a complete role reversal. Australia didn’t turn up, allowing England a buccaneering start. As it turned out England didn’t capitalise fully. No matter the result, after the start England had they should have scored 500+ easily. Onions’ introduction provided more balance to England’s attack, relieving the pressure on Anderson and Flintoff as the primary wicket takers. Onions can blow hot and cold, as evidenced by this second innings performance, but he’s slightly Jones-esque in his direct style and has a happy knack for bowling wicket taking deliveries.

Vitally, England got much the better of the conditions – winning the toss in sunny, fresh conditions and bowling with cloud cover on a pitch that’s known to quicken on the second day. This time Australia batted poorly and England bowled very well, putting the Aussies under pressure for the first time in the series.

Then there’s Flintoff. Watching his spell from the morning, I can’t remember seeing batsmen looking as genuinely scared as the Aussie tailenders. Even Clarke, who played magnificently, looked visibly shaken by Flintoff. He ducked into what was really a short of a length ball, not a bouncer, and afterwards he was lucky not to edge a full ball he went back to. Meanwhile, the tailenders were busy fending the ball as best they could. I’ve never seen a batsman move so quickly as when Siddle knocked the ball wide of mid-on, scampering a single to get away from Freddie. Much credit must go to Swann too, who bowled a brilliant ball to Clarke (not a full toss) to dismiss him and generally bowled aggressively – in so much as one can as a spinner.

Credit too to Strauss, who played to his side’s strength (the bowling ) in not enforcing the follow-on – England would likely have won either way, but given England hasn’t delivered too convincingly with bat so far, chasing 200 or so could have been tricky.

England definitely deserved to win the second test, just as Australia deserved the win the first. One way or another, though, it’s England who have the psychological and literal edge now. What guarantees it’ll go right to the end, though, is that both sides have problems. Australia’s opening partnerships, specifically Hughes with the bat and Johnson with ball, look over-hyped and over pressurised. England meanwhile, have Pietersen and Flintoff’s injuries to concern them, as well as the dilemma of Bopara batting at three and Broad, who to my mind looks mentally tired after his exertions in the Caribbean and perhaps unsure of his role in the team.

I’ve managed to ramble on long enough (I should clearly start a cricket blog), so will leave it at that for now. Depending on how the mood takes me, more Ashes related musings may appear soon.