Another update on the kids

I'm running behind on posting pics of the kids (or at least that's what both my dad and the missus say) so here is another family update for ya.

I love this picture - he looks so happy in it. Its pictures like this that really make me wonder what is going through his head.

Not all smiles though as this next picture shows. The missus took this picture and I wonder if he was thinking "Hey! Why aren't you holding me instead of that shiny thing!".

And with the beautiful mug shot in the last picture, it is only fitting to include a profile shot as well. Now all he needs is a plaque with a number on it...

And lest we forget, here is a picture of Gerry. He is smiling again in this pic despite the fact that his favourite phrase lately is "mama, wo bu happy ah!".

Football Manager

Sometimes, its amazing what will set off your long term memory. Posting about the Championship Manager game on Monday reminded me of Football Manager. Or to be more precise, the original and first Football Manager which came out on the ZX Spectrum in 1982.

Although the game itself came out in 1982, my recollection of this particular event is from sometime post 1985. I know it was after 1985 as the memory was from our new home in the east end of Glasgow. Also, although I'm not sure which year this was, I know the date exactly - April 22. My birthday.

Somehow, my brother and I had managed to get some balloons which was impressive in that we weren't exactly loaded with dosh when I was a kid. Did my granny buy them for us? Or were they purchased using my brother's pocket money? Did my brother even get pocket money in those days or was he already working part time for cash? Anyway, I have no idea where those balloons came from - I only remember that we had an assortment of multicoloured balloons which we blew up and that some of them were classic round balloons while some of them were the longer sausage shaped balloons.

That night, after my grandmother had gone to bed but before our parents came home from work, we setup the ZX Spectrum in the living room. We took out the cassette tape which held the Football Manager game and put it into the cassette player and pressed play. And then we waited. And then we waited some more. And then we reset the tape player and pressed play again as it didn't manage to load properly the first time.

(You see, in those days, before you got to play a game, you needed to load it using a tape player. And, as you can imagine with analog technology being used to transmit digital data, the game didn't always load on the first attempt.)

Eventually, we got the game loaded and ready to play. Obviously, by today's standards, the game is incredibly simplistic. However, to my young mind at the time, this was the best thing since fast cars and toy soldiers. It had real life football clubs that you could become manager of. It had real players (K Keegan for the win!) albeit not in the right teams. You had to worry about the fitness of those players as some of them could get injured. In addition to the league, it also had FA cup matches. It even had a transfer market where you could buy and sell players. Surely the only thing better would be to actually take over a real club in real life!!

The game even had a match engine. After picking your players and starting the match, you would see little stick figures running around with the ball. The attacker would take the ball, run forward a couple of steps and then blast it at the goal while hoping that the opposition defenders didn't manage to get in the way. All very exciting when you're just a bairn.

Our star striker at the time was a player called Bedders who scored most of our goals. The match engine itself didn't differentiate between the player names. However, in our imagination, we always imagined him taking the ball in midfield and running with it down the bottom wing (bottom wing as its easier to score from the bottom of the screen due to the isometric viewpoint of the match engine) before planting the ball beyond the keepers reach in the top corner of the net!

And so a long term love affair with footie management games was born as we took our little team all the way from League 4 to the top of the heights of League 1. We ended up sitting in front of the television into the wee hours of the morning while screaming our lungs out and banging away with the balloons every time one of our players scored.

And we loved every second of it.

Pay what you want for Champ Man 2010

One of the things I talk about a lot on this blog is video games (my fifth most popular topic at this moment in time). One of the reasons for this is because of the interesting stuff that happens in the video game industry as a business. The latest thing worth talking about is that Eidos are effectively giving away Championship Manager 2010 for free.

That's right - up until September 10, you can preorder CM2010 and pay whatever you want (minimum charge of 1 penny plus GBP2.50 transaction fee). And despite the comments in that article, this isn't similar to what some bands tried to do. In any event, I agree with Techdirt that 'Give it away and pray' isn't a business model and doesn't really work.

What Eidos have actually done is a really clever marketing move. And I'm surprised that no-one commented on this in the comments section of the article (is this an indication of the quality of the readers?). To understand why this is a clever move and why it differs from what some bands tried to do, you have to understand a little about the history of Championship Manager.

Not that long ago, the Championship Manager games were developed by sigames and published by Eidos. The game allows you to be the manager of a football club and was highly successful in its day. However, for some reason, sigames and Eidos parted ways. As part of the settlement, Eidos kept the Championship Manager brand name and the look of the User Interface of the game. Meanwhile, sigames kept the fundamental programming and player database and continued developing football management games under a new brand name (Football Manager).

And this is when we get to the key point. The footie management games created by sigames are by far the most detailed and comprehensive simulations of football management that are available in the market. It is definitely NOT for the casual fan and is firmly targeted at the hardcore audience. What happened next was obvious.

When sigames left and created Football Manager, most of their fans ditched Eidos. I don't have any definite numbers but I'm pretty sure the sales of Championship Manager would have plummeted. And again, this should have been obvious to anyone who understood the nature of the games existing hardcore fanbase.

Which brings us to the current situation and why this is a clever move by Eidos. My guess is that, currently, the Championship Manager franchise is probably in deep trouble. It doesn't have the large dedicated hardcore fanbase that sigames has. Similarly, it probably doesn't have the name recognition that EA has (EA also has a footie manager simulation in the market). However, by effectively offering the latest game for free, Eidos have managed to generate a lot of publicity for their game while also ensuring that lots of people will be able to legitimately play the game at a dirt cheap price this year. And if some of those new players like the game, then Eidos will have a fan available in future years who may be willing to pay full price.

Eidos are only running this promotion up until September 10, at which point the game goes back to normal pricing. This isn't really a 'Give it away and pray' scenario as Eidos, although taking a short term hit, are really doing this for the long term market share and future profits which is a very different business model to what some bands like Radiohead did. Its also worth mentioning that the clever bands don't rely on 'Give it away and pray' either as, whilst effectively giving away their music for free, they also have a business model in place that allows them to generate money from the sale of scarce goods (you can read the Techdirt links above to find out more).

All in all, a great move to try and generate market share at the expense of short term profits.

How not to get a job - update

As you should know if you have followed my blog for a while, I always try to give a measured view when I comment on things. You may recall I recently blogged about the case of the college grad suing her college for her tuition fees back because she couldn't get a job. In the interest of giving both sides of the story, I thought I would direct you to this article defending the student in question.

I actually suspected that an article similar to this one showing that a degree from Monroe College isn't worth the money its printed on (paraphrasing heavily here!) would come out sooner or later. Not because I'm familiar with Monroe College but because I know that no matter what happens, you can guarantee that someone will come up with an opposite viewpoint (and wouldn't the World be boring if everyone agreed with everyone else?). It was for this reason that I specifically added the disclaimer that I didn't know how Monroe College markets itself or what it had agreed with the student.

Given that I was expecting this article, it probably won't surprise you to learn that I stand by the statements I made in my previous blog post. I deliberately worded my comments in the last post so that they would stand regardless of how poor Monroe College actually is (or not - to be fair, I have no idea about the quality of Monroe College).

Anyway, the point of this post isn't to brag about my superior intellect but to give you both sides of the story and to respond to one of the points raised in the article.

The very point of an institution like Monroe is to improve its students' standing in the work force, but the irony is that in comparison with traditional institutions, Monroe seems to do quite badly at helping graduates make a living
How is this relevant? In any ranking of education institutions, you will always have those which aren't doing as good a job as others. The point isn't whether Monroe College is doing a good job (or even if the course there is worth the money) – the point is whether you can get a degree there or not and if yes, whether having a degree will improve your chances of getting a job.

As I mentioned before, all a degree does is give you a chance that you wouldn't have without the degree. Just in case its not clear, I should also add that this statement is just in relation to your chances of getting a job. I know that the process of going to college to get a degree is about much more than just getting a job.

The article makes a big thing about Monroe College being more like a “vocational school” rather than a full blown college. It paints this as a rip-off as, by billing itself as a college, it can charge students higher fees over a period of 4 years as opposed to having shorter courses like other vocational schools. In fact, it seems that Monroe College actually charges higher fees relative to even other colleges.

Again, I don't see how this is relevant. Granted, I agree that Monroe College sounds like a rip-off but so what? I'm assuming the student knew about the fees in advance. From my point of view, it looks like she paid her money, did her work and got her degree. The degree gives her a chance to get jobs which she wouldn't have a chance otherwise – which is apparently what she wanted in the first place. Where is the problem (other than that she doesn't have a job yet!)?


Well, it appears the problem (according to the last paragraph on page 2) is how Monroe College advertises itself. Again, I should stress that I haven't actually seen any ads for Monroe College. However, just from common sense, I can guess that they talk about how good Monroe College is and why you should go there. After all, I don't see them paying money to advertise how bad a college they are. Regardless, unless Monroe College lied in their ads, I really don’t see how this student has a leg to stand on.

Gerry and Gordon (in a rare day out)

In many ways, Gerry is so much luckier compared to his little brother Gordon. When Gerry was little, we pretty much took him everywhere with us. However, with Gordon, we very often leave Gordon at home while we take Gerry out (our reasoning is mainly that taking both out would be very tiring).

Poor Gordon - left at home.

Which isn't to say that we never take him out. Once in a while, we do take him out with us. Naturally, when we do, the camera is out and snapping!


Here you can see us just before lunch. In case you are wondering, Gordon is looking at the TV which the restaurant had turned on.


A rare occurrence - everybody is not only looking at the camera but they are are all smiling too!


A rare family photo. :)


Waaaaahhhhhh!! Extreme closeuuuuup!
Most Excellent!!

And here is Gerry in a rare photo at the swim school. As I said before, we aren't allowed to take photo's so this is actually taken just after he put on his swim suit but before he went poolside. As you can see, he is really looking forward to his lesson...

Update on my views re the iPhone

Back in May, I dedicated an entire blog post to why I wasn't going to buy the iPhone. At the time, I thought that would put an end to the discussion. What a foolish fool of a fool I was.

Anyway, the first thing I want to say is that I'm not anti-Apple. To be fair, I can understand why you might think I am considering my comments regarding the hypocrisy of Apple in my previous post (what you wouldn't have known is that I consider most big companies hypocritical). Anyway, I will support Apple products when they come up with a product and business model that I'm happy with hence why I have an iPod Nano (good size, easy to use, stylish - whats not to like?). If I ever boycott Apple products, you will know about it (assuming you read my gaming blog that is - for legacy reasons, my boycott list is posted there but not here).

Similarly, despite the problems I mentioned in my last post, I'm not anti-iPhone. If Apple fixes the problems which I identified in my previous post, then I would consider buying one. And the reality is that some fixes may come sooner than expected as the FCC seem to be investigating how Apple runs the App Store although to be honest, I don't really see anything happening as a result of FCCs investigation. What is more likely is that competition from other phones with more open systems will eventually force Apple's hand in opening up the App Store (unless Apple somehow uses some form of bogus patent/copyright/govt lobbying etc to stifle competition). Ultimately, when it comes to open vs closed systems, I agree with Techdirt.

So what is the point of this post?

Basically, its to make a prediction. I predict that, within a space of 5 years, the Apple iPhone will lose its dominant status in the market unless one of the issues which I highlighted in my previous post changes. You heard it here first!

How not to get a job

By now, you have probably heard about the college grad who couldn't get a job and decided to sue her college to get back tuition fees. The argument being put forth is that the college didn't do enough to assist her in getting a job (and not that the college should have guaranteed her a job after graduation).

Of course, without actually knowing what the college agreed with her or how the college markets itself, its not possible to accurately comment on the complaint. However, looking at her quotes in the CNN article and also at how she completed the court filing does tell us a couple of things.

"any reasonable employer would pounce on an applicant with her academic credentials, which include a 2.7 grade-point average and a solid attendance record."
er ... no.

A 2.7 grade-point average is just that - average. She didn't get particularly good grades, doesn't seem to have any other qualifications worth talking about (at least, the article didn't talk about any other qualifications) and she thinks "any reasonable employer would pounce" on her?

She is dreaming. Even in a good economy (never mind the shitty economy we are in now where people who actually have good grades and other qualifications are having trouble finding jobs), she wouldn't be considered a top catch. She may get a job, but employers would definitely NOT be pouncing on her.

"They're supposed to say, 'I got this student, her attendance is good, her GPA is all right -- can you interview this person?"
Is this meant to be a joke? She seriously thinks that the college should call up all prospective employers in their list and ask them if they want to interview a particular individual with average grades?

The reality is that the college probably isn't even doing this for people with good grades. Logistically, its just not feasible to call up every employer on their list to do this. Bear in mind that if they do it for her, they have to do it for every one of their students.

Also, by mentioning her good attendance first, does this mean that she thinks her key selling point is her attendance? Seriously? You think people should hire you because you will turn up? I can see that going down well in an interview...

"But no more than two employers have responded to her outreach, and those leads have borne no fruit"
In other words, you sent out your CVs and even though two potential employers responded, neither of them thought you were worth hiring.

The only real responsibility of the career advancement office should be to highlight opportunities to students and give advice to students on CV's, interviews etc. I have no idea if she took advantage of the career office other than to locate job openings as the article doesn't mention this. In any event, it looks like she had her chance and blew it.

"It doesn't make any sense: They went to school for four years, and then they come out working at McDonald's and Payless. That's not what they planned."
So? A degree doesn't get you a nice high paying job. All it does is make you comparable to the thousands upon thousands of other people with degrees so that you have a chance of landing a job which, when combined with additional experience and/or other qualifications, will ultimately give you a chance of landing a nice high paying job.

Just because you got a degree doesn't give you the right to anything - not even an interview. All it does is give you a chance that you wouldn't have without the degree.

"did not make sure their monroe e-recruiting clients call the graduates that recently finished college for a interview"
My response to this is similar to the second point above. Why does she expect that the college should guarantee that she gets an interview? This is just ridiculous.

Comment response
Despite the silliness of the complaint as it appears to be, the incredible thing is that there are a lot of comments being posted in various forums in support of her (although, to be fair, the overwhelming majority of comments are people laughing at her). It seems that quite a few people are disenfranchised with how college's in the USA advertise themselves.

Again, to reiterate, I've not seen any of the actual ads myself. However, from a common sense point of view, I just can't believe that these ads are actually giving a guarantee that people who graduate with a degree will get a nice high paying job. The only thing that you can guarantee is that, if you don't get a degree, you will find it unbelievably hard to get a nice high paying job.

My overall view
In case its not clear, I think this is just a waste of time lawsuit brought about by someone with a sad sense of entitlement. Judging from the number of comments in support of her, there are quite a few people with a similar sense of entitlement. Here's a life lesson for you - Get over yourself, the World doesn't owe you a single damn thing! Having said that, it is worth repeating that the overwhelming majority of comments seem to be derisory.

The second point which occurs to me is that, after lodging this lawsuit, does she seriously think that any reasonable employer would ever hire her? If I was the employer, as soon as I saw her application and ran her name in Google and saw this frivolous lawsuit, I wouldn't touch her with a 10 foot bargepole.