Go Compare - Sinning Tenor Advert

It starts as a fairly typical advert. Two blokes talking about insurance. At end of the advert, after the opera singer has come in and everyone in the coffee shop has joined the singing, the only people who look like they won't be calling Go Compare are the two blokes. They look thoroughly turned off the idea.
And you know what? They're not alone...

Uncle Ben Adverts

It occurs to me that the makers of Uncle Ben cooking sauces are on a mission to offend everyone on earth.

Every advert they have features stereotyped characters.  Their Indian curry sauces features people dancing about in a Bollywood musical style and their Chinese sweet and sour sauce advert shows people doing kung fu and air-running.

What's next?  Instant haggis featuring red haired people sayig "Och aye, the noo."???

Big Brother Eviction Advert

Saw an advert asking for phone-in votes to choose who to evict from the Big Brother house. 

As usual, there's a number you call and add a short number to the end.  The ad went as follows:

To evict Marcus add "06".  To evict Halfwit, add "05".


That's a bit harsh isn't it?  Calling the poor fellow names in the eviction advert?

I'm sorry, do you want to wait your bloody turn?

I was playing Battlefield 1943 yesterday, an online first person shooter game.  It's fantastic fun and recently a new mode was unlocked: Air Superiority.  It's a planes only version of the game for the players who like the airplane part of the game.

Each time you respawn, you start on one of two aircraft carriers on your side of the map.  There's no way to get anywhere in the map without a plane.  I spawned after a spectacular crash where I'd ploughed straight into another aircraft (which handily counts as a kill for both of us).  There were no planes available, and two other players waiting for the planes to respawn, of which there are only ever two to use.  Being nice (and British) I waited until the two guys who'd been there earlier than me got their planes and got back into the battle.  Another player spawned behind me after they'd taken off, and immediately starts giving me abuse and shooting me (which, because we're on the same side does no damage).  He then nicked the first plane that spawned and took off.

What a git!

To show that the universe has a sense of fairness, he immediately died in the most spectacular way.  He hadn't even got his wheels off the deck before an enemy plane, fluffing a bombing run on our carrier in the most horrendous way, smashed straight into him head on.

I laughed so hard, I fell off my seat.

Google believe the days of the mobile phone app are numbered

So Google think that apps for mobile phones won't last, that places like Apple's app store are a fad and that the future is in web based applications.

Well, they would wouldn't they? Google's business plan revolves around web applications.

But lets examine the prospect. For web based apps to work on a mobile device you need a good signal all the time, and for s lot of apps you need a 3G signal because if the amount if data involved. 3G coverage is spotty at best in many cities and with increased uptake, speeds drop. A recent survey in London found that day time speeds were rarely above 1Mbps. Service providers are about to start rolling out a 4G service, but they haven't even got a country wide 3G service yet.

To take an example: to do lists. An app sorely missing from the iPhone. There are plenty of web based to do sites, Toddledo fir example. Do you really want to be dependant on a good web connection for something so important? How would you feel if you couldn't get at your to dos because you don't have a data signal where you are?

So I don't think web based apps are going to take off any time soon.

Thank you for missing the point

My official Sony PS3 wireless headset arrived yesterday. I'd had to wait ages for it due to chronic shortages caused, best as I can tell, by Sony themselves packaging all the headsets they were making with games like Socom.
It comes with this great charging cradle that allows it to continue working as a desk mic when charging. It's the reason I wanted this headset specifically.
And what have Sony done? They've packaged it with a charging cable only six inches long.

Fan-bloody-tastic! What a complete waste. It's far too short to be of any use. It's the same problem we saw with the PS3 controller charging cable. It was too short to be useful.

Dreaded RROD

Got the dreaded red ring of death on my 360, so it's off to Microsoft.



Still it's lasted a long time. I've had friends go through five 360s in the time I've had mine.

Too Complex For Kids?

My new Optimus Prime "model" arrived today. By gods, it's complicated to convert it from truck to robot.

I can't see how any kid is going to have the patience to transform it. Took me twenty minutes to figure it out, even with the instructions.

No, I'd Like A Noisy One Please

Had to go shopping for a new power supply unit for my PC today. The old one was overheating due to a busted fan motor, which kept tripping the thermal protection and turning itself off. Luckily there's a Maplin close by, and they had a good selection to choose from, but oddly every single unit on the shelf claimed to be "super quiet".

It's an odd thing to claim. Seems to be related to the development of more efficient components that don't heat up as much, thus negating the requirement for large, fast and above all NOISY fans to keep them cool.

In other words: modern power supply units should almost all be "super quiet".

Trash talking on Xbox Live

I just love it when trash talking Americans turn up on Xbox Live. Especially when their side gets a thoroughly good thrashing! It would have to be the only person talking in the H.A.W.X. lobby trying to get a rise out of us that turned out to be rubbish at the game. 25-12 the final score! Normally I'm not one to gloat, but as I said, I just love it when trash talkers get trounced. Sadly H.A.W.X. does not give any visual indicator as to who is talking (one of the MANY flaws in the otherwise excellent multiplayer component), so I could not flag him as offensive language for his swearing. I just knew he wasn't on MY team.

Donnie Darko 2?

So the most obscure film I've ever seen and that had a very definite "no sequel" ending, now has a sequel? A straight to DVD sequel?

Hmm...

Costa Coffee delivery truck

The logo on the side of the truck I saw read “Costa Coffee: Saving the world from mediocre coffee.” What a great endorsement for your company. “Our coffee is better than mediocre.”

Sainsbury’s the next McDonalds?

Is it just me, or does anyone else think that that Sainsbury’s advert where the guy is wandering around thestore trying to get everything to fit in his basket, and keeps spotting bargains like crisps and frozen chips, the guy playing the shopper is a bit on the chubby side?

It’s perhaps not the best image to present…

GTA China Town Wars flops on Nintendo DS

http://videogames.yahoo.com/events/plugged-in/new-gta-a-sales-flop/1306797

Well to be honest, what were they expecting?

It’s not that DS owners don’t want to play a GTA game. It’s more, I think, that people who play GTA games aren’t likely to be DS owners. The overlap isn’t that big.
The game itself is reportedly amazing. It’s been getting great reviews. Even te highly critical and outspoken Yatzee liked it.

The news article also mentions that Mad World, another ‘mature’ game, has flopped on the Wii. It had a lot going for it, a great comic book black and white style, clever controls and innovative gameplay, but it’s on the wrong console. Nintendo have practically advertised the Wii as a family console. They’ve done everything but use sky-writing to get the message across. It’s actually the reason I got rid of my Wii. It’s a great console and has some amazing games. It’s just not the console for me.

It looks like another marketting error on the game makers. “People love GTA, so they’ll love GTA on the DS!”

Skype Being Banned By T-Mobile In Germany

http://www.iphonematters.com/article/skype_being_banned_by_t_mobile_in_germany_992/

Wow. T-Mobile in Germany are actually going as far as cancelling the mobile contracts of customers found to be using the Skype application on their network.

This is despite the fact that Skype on 3G or EDGE will only work as an instant messanger. It needs to be connected to a WiFi spot to make VoIP calls.

The response from Skype is brilliant.

“They pretend that their action has to do with technical concerns: this is baseless. Skype works perfectly well on iPhone, as hundreds of thousands of people globally can already readily attest.”

Do video games cost too much?

Valve’s Gabe Newell gave the keynote address at this year’s Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain (DICE) Summit about the cost of games, the effect of piracy, and how to reach new players. Valve undertook an experiment recently to test how price affected the sales of their popular survival-horror FPS, Left 4 Dead. They Reduced the price by 50% on Steam, which “resulted in a 3000% increase in sales of the game, posting overall sales that beat the title’s original launch performance.” They also tested various other price drops over the holidays, seeing spikes in sales that corresponded well to the size of the discount. This will undoubtedly add to the speculation that game prices have risen too high for the current economic climate. G4TV ran a live blog of Newell’s presentation, providing a few more details.

http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/20/0750203&from=rss

Interesting reading.

New Cadbury’s Dairy Milk Advert

OK the gorilla advert was good, and the airport vehicles one was fun (especially as it explains why our luggage gets lost in transit).

But this is just weird.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=lIx1Hhq7sUc

Thought Crimes

http://www.backlash-uk.org.uk/

OK, let me get this right….

The government’s own report says that what you view doesn’t affect how you act.

And yet….they are banning what they call “extreme pronography” on the basis that we need protecting from it.

It’s a highly subjective law, it shifts responsibility to the owner not the distributor, presumably because it’s too hard to prosecute overseas companies and is going to be damn near impossible to enforce.

Haven’t we got enough laws in this country that don’t work already? We give out ASBOs like sweeties, our prisons are stuffed to the point of being illegally overcrowded and we fail to register citizens returning from overseas prison sentences.

Am I the only one seeing a problem here?

Classified as a freak

Wow. it’s been a while…

Well, it’s official. I am a freak.

I searched everywhere this Saturday. Every shop on the main shopping streets.

Nothing.

Nowhere could I find a pair of trousers that would fit. Is it really too much to have a 34 waist with long legs?

As if it wasn’t bad enough traipsing round every shop, there wasn’t a consistent system. Some shops use an even numbered leg measurement, others use an odd system.