Time-Wasting Game Of The Week - Desktop Tower Defense

In our sixth form common room, there is a random room next door, containing, amongst other things, two computers for the purpose of looking at online university prospectuses and the UCAS website. Of course, give a bunch of 17-18 year olds access to the internet, in a room very rarely visited by teachers, and what do you get? Hours of time wasted on pointless web pursuits. Of course, there's Facebook, Myspace and the like (not YouTube; it's blocked), but much time is spent on games. There's the old classics of course, but every now and then a new game is discovered, and it launches a miniature craze among the room's regular visitors. This week is Desktop Tower Defense, where you build a load of heavily-armed towers for the purpose of stopping some odd-shaped monsters from getting from one end of the screen to the other. Apparently, it's a remake of an old game. Either way, it's ridiculously addictive; once you've got the hang of it, try the Fun > 10k Gold mode, build up a massive defense, then release a dozen waves of enemies at the same time. Absolute pandemonium ensues. However, no matter how well you think you've built your maze, eventually something will get through, normally a near-indestructable boss, or a weird triangular flying thing that isn't forced  to work it's way through the huge death maze you've just concocted. Once that happens, it's all downhill from there, and everything goes to pot surprisingly quickly.

What will we be playing next week? Who knows...







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Now playing: The Coral - Dreaming of You
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Partial Eclipse of the Moon - February 20/21, 2008

Taken from the NASA website:

A total eclipse of the Moon occurs during the night of Wednesday, February 20/21, 2008. The entire event is visible from South America and most of North America (on Feb. 20) as well as Western Europe, Africa, and western Asia (on Feb. 21). During a total lunar eclipse, the Moon's disk can take on a dramatically colorful appearance from bright orange to blood red to dark brown and (rarely) very dark gray.

An eclipse of the Moon can only take place at Full Moon, and only if the Moon passes through some portion of Earth's shadow. The shadow is actually composed of two cone-shaped parts, one nested inside the other. The outer shadow or penumbra is a zone where Earth blocks some (but not all) of the Sun's rays. In contrast, the inner shadow or umbra is a region where Earth blocks all direct sunlight from reaching the Moon.

If only part of the Moon passes through the umbra, a partial eclipse is seen. However, if the entire Moon passes through the umbral shadow, then a total eclipse of the Moon occurs. For more information on how, what, why, where and when of lunar eclipses, see the special web page lunar eclipses for beginners.

Worth a look, methinks. I'll certainly be up at 3 AM, will you?

To find out when the eclipse will be viewable where you live, look at the page I linked to. You can also view the event listing on Facebook.

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Now playing: Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Turn Into
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The Digital Revolution - has it hit Radio yet?

I just came across this article by Ashley Highfield, the BBC director of Future Media and Technology, on the subject of DAB Radio and Radio in general. It makes for some interesting reading. I quote:

Given that DAB has quality and simplicity sorted, where does it go from here? The biggest benefit of DAB going forward should still be its ease of use, and range of stations, but also its clear benefits over FM. To make the most of these benefits, I want a DAB set with a big touch-screen, with a big on-screen programme guide, showing the stations, the shows on those stations, and the tracks currently playing on those shows. All possible on DAB (and indeed the first big screen DAB sets are starting to come on to the market).

I want this big screen to show me signal strength, news feeds, and the time. I want it to show me programmes coming up, to allow me to bookmark and record programmes, to set up simple searches (scan all stations, and record me any interviews with Goldfrapp, and perhaps provide information about release dates of her upcoming album).

I want DAB to show me weather, traffic and travel information graphically, on the same nice big screen, but unlike IP, reliably, simply, without installation and configuration. It's all possible: I've seen it working from our development teams and research engineers. I want DAB to use its metadata - the information about the programmes - to differentiate itself from FM, which is surely its biggest competitor, rather than from IP. I want DAB to look like a product of the future, not the past.
We can and should do more at the Beeb to work with the industry to innovate around DAB. And like DTT television, it is possible that hybrid boxes (DAB and IP), offering the simplicity and reliability of broadcast with the range and on-demand benefits of IP will become the standard (with the ability to track listening habits and personalise your experience).

Interesting views indeed. And I agree with them, for the most part. We live in an age where there is a great deal of choice; where all music tastes are catered for in some form or another. With Last.fm and Pandora (or a combination of the two) you can pick exactly what you want to listen to. Sounds perfect, right? Well yes, but a major drawback of services such as this is the lack of "human contact" that we get on the Radio. Sure, we can listen to a song and enjoy it, but if there isn't a DJ talking to us about the music (or whatever the hell he feels like) then our enjoyment is lessened. Hence why radio, digital or otherwise, is still so popular today.

However, DAB Radio hasn't been the massive success we thought it would be. In the past few weeks, two UK DAB channels have stepped down. Most notable is theJazz, which was a brilliant concept, but perhaps a bit ahead of its time - it's the kind of thing that I meant to get into, but I never got round to it! The other is Oneword, a (perhaps rather badly named) Radio 4 competitor, which, as you may have heard, was quietly replaced with a looped recording of birdsong - amusingly, listening figures have increased exponentially since then! It would seem that the concept of DAB radio hasn't quite been perfected yet, since without those two the only things that are left (on a national basis) are the BBC offerings and stations that you can already get on FM radio anyway. Not very diverse, is it?

Despite its capabilities, DAB radio is not yet perfect, far from it. First of all, the availability of certain stations is patchy at best. For example, I can only get my favourite radio station on our DAB radio when we move it into certain rooms of the house. Otherwise the radio refuses to acknowledge its existence. Yet on FM radio the station is always there, at a fixed frequency; all I need to do is point the aerial in a specific direction, and I get near perfect signal.

Another less obvious drawback of DAB radios are their relative lack of energy efficiency compared to FM radios. Not really much of an issue if you have a plug-in radio, but the battery life of portable radios of each type simply does not compare.

Personally, I get my radio and streaming music from IP, DAB and FM sources. We have two DAB radios in our house, but just as many FM radios in bedrooms and our main living room. And we don't really listen to any of the BBC's digital-only stations, so the only real reason for having DAB radios is for better reception. Of course, I also listen to FM radio when driving; in all honesty, who has a DAB radio in their car?

As for Internet radio, I can't say I've ever bothered to use it. If I'm not listening to my own music, I'll be listening to a set "station" on Last.fm, normally one which has tastes very similar to my own. Even more of a bonus is that I can now listen to Last.fm from my iPod Touch as well. I used to listen to Pandora as well, but since they've now locked out all non-US users with an IP ban, it really isn't worth the trouble to circumvent this.

In the end, I think Digital Radio will succeed over Analogue. The advantages in terms of variety of content are obvious. But for that to happen, it needs to be just as convenient and widely available as FM/AM radio. DAB has an obvious advantage over Internet radio; it's free and portable. But the lack of variety currently available, and manufacturers' trend of making minimalist, retro devices, is doing the technology a disservice. But will DAB radio be the eventual winner? Only time will tell.

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Now playing: We Are Scientists - Lousy Reputation
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