Lies, damn lies, and information on PC hardware boxes

I don't really understand how PC hardware manufacturers get away with writing the rubbish they do on the boxes.

Apparently, according to the box on my new wireless ADSL router, wireless G is only good for Web surfing or email.

If I want to download an MP3, I need wireless G+.

If I want to do online gaming I need wireless G+ MIMO.

Streaming video? My goodness I'll need N1 MIMO.

According to this I shouldn't have bought the router. Completely inaccurate sales spiel on a box that tries to dissuade me from buying it? Why and how do they get away with these lies?

Going to the doctors rarely achieves anything for me

It often takes a lot to get me to go to the doctors. It's not that I'm scared of going to the doctors, or don't like doctors. It just very rarely produces any results for me. Usually I'll go in with something like a weird black mark that didn't use to be there, an ache, maybe problems with stomach pain or general lethargy, and I'll get a big 'ol MEH from the doc.

Today I went to the doctors for a muscle pain in my chest (resulting from buzzcocks gig moshpit) that if anything has been feeling worse rather than better. I've also got a long-running problem with feeling bloated and burping too much. Was told bumps to the chest area often take a while to settle down so it's probably nothing to worry about that it's feeling worse rather than better, oh and try eating slower and see if that sorts out the stomach thing. Not particularly convincing...

When I talk to the doctor I always feel that I get run through the "is it going to kill you" checklist. As soon as the doctor rules out symptoms that might be something dangerous you can see them instantly lose interest. Still eating? Not bleeding anywhere weird? Probably fine then, carry on, see if it changes.

At first this annoyed me and I felt like they weren't giving me proper attention or even being neglectful. Then I came to the realisation... they're tech support. They're tech support for my body and like most tech support and support programmers they don't have time for the small niggly stuff you can work around. They just want to make sure they have the time to debug the bigger problems.

When I came to this way of thinking I kinda had a bit more sympathy for them.... So I'll wait until these low priority bugs persist long enough for the priority to be increased ;)

Doing nothing is underrated

Today I achieved absolutely nothing. Nothing new there you'll all be thinking, but usually I'll get done a couple of jobs I've been planning to do, or enjoy something I've planned to read or watch, or get on the Xbox with something I've been meaning to play.

Today I just didn't really do anything. I listened to what happened to be on the radio. I ate whatever I happened to have in the house. I read whatever articles happened to be in my news reader, but I didn't really do anything in a planned way and it was so damn relaxing.

Not everyone can do that. Some people when they aren't achieving something "worthwhile" start to panic and start planning the next grand ideas. Must build something. Must rewire something. Must bake something. As soon as it gets to a point where nothings left in the task queue they panic. These are also generally speaking the same people that are always complaining about how they're so busy all the time and don't have time to enjoy themselves. *sigh*

I think it comes down to one of two things.

1. People being scared. If they're not constantly doing these projects, they might start to think about things. Might start to think about what they're doing in life, and how they're not entirely happy about it. Rather than confronting these difficult questions they constantly distract themselves from them, needing an insurmountable list of things to do to avoid leaving a gap.

2. Guilt. Some people have it drilled into them if they're not doing something "worthwhile" then they're sinning or at the very least being selfish and decadent. I find this idea rubbish because in the grand scheme of things we're going to all be dust at the end of our lives. Most actions are just as worthwhile as others. Obvious exceptions being noble things like charity work and stuff, but spending time re-organising your books / doing all but the most fundamental of housework is just as worthwhile in the long run as sitting on the toilet doing sudoku. Even if there is a god, I find it hard to believe he's petty enough to care whether you spent that weekend in July building a new section of your garden or watching the clouds go by.

Take a moment. Relax. Realise that doing nothing is fine. It's very liberating. :)

Passage - proof for me that games can be art

Passage is a 5 minute long game (if that) that produced more emotional response from me than 95% of the media I've read, watched, played or listened to.

Firstly go here, download the game, and play it. You might need to press B a few times to reduce (increase?) the resolution of it as today's monitors blow it up a bit too big and make it a little blocky to see whats going on.

After playing it, if you didn't really get it, try playing it again.

Then and only then read what I thought:

This is an incredible piece of art that takes a theme and explores it in a way that wouldn't be possible in any other media. At first it's confusing as the graphical style just looks a mess and you can't tell what's going on. Then you notice it. You see the way the character's position has moved relative to the passage. You notice how the the compression of the pixels has subtly shifted.

Seriously, if you haven't played it yet, play it before you carry on reading this.

At first you start near the left of the screen at the beginning of your journey. Ahead of you is everything you will experience, compressed together in a tight pattern. Gradually as you move through the passage, you encounter these things & events. You might meet someone that will accompany you through this passageway. As time goes by your position on the screen has moved further right, and the things you have encountered have become compressed in a tight pattern behind you.

The passageway represents life. This is you travelling through life. Behind you are your memories, ahead of you is your future.

Eventually you notice the characters starting to age, soon you notice that there are more past events behind you than there are future ones in front of you. That's when I started feeling a little apprehension but there was nothing to do but carry on. Older and older, less and less to encounter ahead. The girl I was travelling through the passage way changes into a gravestone. My character can do nothing but carry on down the passageway, now travelling in a much slower way until he does the same.

I cried. I started crying again when I wrote this. I think I need a drink.