A few years back the BBC started a season of speculative fiction called "What If?", and these funny short news reports, purported to be from 2050, were part of that broadcasting.
I think they're rather brilliant. They feel very real (even if, aesthetically, they've already dated), and I can believe the reports coming true at some point in human history. They just ring true, but with a bit of a cheeky wink. Very clever and amusing.
Will they be loosely accurate, or will they say more about today than about 35 years from now? I hope I live to 2050 to find out!
Saturday, 1 August 2015
Wednesday, 29 July 2015
Windows 10: Here's what I see when I see the new Start Menu...
Thankfully someone alerted me to the fact that you can make the Start Menu full screen again :)
Tuesday, 28 July 2015
The voice on the page: Do internet comments ruin everything?
Something has bugged me about internet comments for years, and I've never been able to put my finger on exactly what it was... but I think I've just figured it out.
I saw Jerry Seinfeld talk about the relationship between the comic and the audience, and how critics, no matter how they may try, cannot get in between their bond. The comic has a direct link, artist to audience, that cannot be interfered with. In the moment of the performance, two people are connected.
Charlie Kaufman has talked about the importance of this same connection, about how hearing a voice revealing some shared truth makes us feel less alone. (You might even argue that's the function of art itself.) Stephen King has also written about what he sees as a genuine form of psychic communication, an almost magical connection, between author and audience, that allows for the sending of ideas from one brain to another.
That connection, the one we all feel while experiencing a piece of art that touches us, is sacrosanct. It's important, holy, ancient. It's the deepest parts of two people having a conversation that can't be put into words. At that moment artist and audience are connected.
And then someone forces their way into that conversation, sharing their opinion before you've had time to fully appreciate the experience.
Imagine going on a date with someone. The two of you are hoping to find a deep connection with another. Now imagine having a third-party sat nearby commenting after every sentence. Unless it lead to mutual frustration and the desire to go elsewhere, that person would completely prevent any chance of connection forming, and to me, that's often what internet comments do.
Don't get me wrong, debate is important and it's healthy, but it has its time and place. Do we really need the ability to comment on everything? Do we really want people interfering with our deeper connection to things? I think we need time to find our own thoughts and opinions about what we've just experienced, our own connection with it, and only then can we enter a debate about it -- should we feel the need.
But I worry that all this superficial conversation is just making us more lonely for a deeper connection.
I saw Jerry Seinfeld talk about the relationship between the comic and the audience, and how critics, no matter how they may try, cannot get in between their bond. The comic has a direct link, artist to audience, that cannot be interfered with. In the moment of the performance, two people are connected.
Charlie Kaufman has talked about the importance of this same connection, about how hearing a voice revealing some shared truth makes us feel less alone. (You might even argue that's the function of art itself.) Stephen King has also written about what he sees as a genuine form of psychic communication, an almost magical connection, between author and audience, that allows for the sending of ideas from one brain to another.
That connection, the one we all feel while experiencing a piece of art that touches us, is sacrosanct. It's important, holy, ancient. It's the deepest parts of two people having a conversation that can't be put into words. At that moment artist and audience are connected.
And then someone forces their way into that conversation, sharing their opinion before you've had time to fully appreciate the experience.
Imagine going on a date with someone. The two of you are hoping to find a deep connection with another. Now imagine having a third-party sat nearby commenting after every sentence. Unless it lead to mutual frustration and the desire to go elsewhere, that person would completely prevent any chance of connection forming, and to me, that's often what internet comments do.
Don't get me wrong, debate is important and it's healthy, but it has its time and place. Do we really need the ability to comment on everything? Do we really want people interfering with our deeper connection to things? I think we need time to find our own thoughts and opinions about what we've just experienced, our own connection with it, and only then can we enter a debate about it -- should we feel the need.
But I worry that all this superficial conversation is just making us more lonely for a deeper connection.
Sunday, 19 April 2015
"Grand Theft Auto V has stopped working" - Potential Fix
Like millions of others, I 've recently purchased Grand Theft Auto V for the PC, and unfortunately like many of those the game kept crashing no matter what my settings were. After looking through Windows Event Viewer, at the Application Error list, I saw the following:
After a quick Google I discovered that ICProxy64.dll belonged to a program I'd installed many months prior called "Identity Cloaker".
I never used this program (I can't even remember why I installed it), so I decided to get rid and uninstall it. I then loaded GTA V and reset my graphical settings. The game crashed.
Luckily, it was just a one off. Since removing Identity Cloaker the game has worked flawlessly. If you're having problems playing Grand Theft Auto V (or Grand Theft Auto Online), and have this program installed, you should probably remove it... It may be just the thing that's causing all your problems.
If not, make sure you open a support ticket at Rockstar Games. They should be able to help you, eventually.
Good luck!
Faulting application name: GTA5.exe, version: 1.0.331.1, time stamp: 0x552e6cfd Faulting module name: ICProxy64.dll, version: 2.2.7.7, time stamp: 0x5297da23 Exception code: 0xc0000417 Fault offset: 0x0000000000043430 Faulting process id: 0xfbc Faulting application start time: 0x01d07a1d9a56e133 Faulting application path: X:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Grand Theft Auto V\GTA5.exe Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\system32\ICProxy64.dll Report Id: fc235624-e610-11e4-bfa7-10bf48b8b8dc Faulting package full name: Faulting package-relative application ID:
After a quick Google I discovered that ICProxy64.dll belonged to a program I'd installed many months prior called "Identity Cloaker".
I never used this program (I can't even remember why I installed it), so I decided to get rid and uninstall it. I then loaded GTA V and reset my graphical settings. The game crashed.
Luckily, it was just a one off. Since removing Identity Cloaker the game has worked flawlessly. If you're having problems playing Grand Theft Auto V (or Grand Theft Auto Online), and have this program installed, you should probably remove it... It may be just the thing that's causing all your problems.
If not, make sure you open a support ticket at Rockstar Games. They should be able to help you, eventually.
Good luck!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)