MS NewSpeak in Xbox Arcade offer

In my mailbox I saw: "Score 1,200 free (MS) points ... when you download all 5 Summer of Arcade games".


Woo! FREE POINTS just for downloading 5 games!!

...NOT!!

Reading the fine print, I see that Microsoft has apparently redefined the word "download". What MS actually means when they say "download" here is "give us MS points in exchange for the full version of the game". In the language most Xboxers speak, this means "buy".

So this amazing-at-first ad turns out to simply mean, in net effect: "buy these 5 arcade games, get one free". Hardly a deal if you only like 2 or 3 enough to want to buy their full-length version.


"Demo before you download"

This is Microsoft, so it's not surprising that one change leads to a cascade of fail. Look at the above seeming clueless statement, also from that ad. Is this because, having redefined "download", they had no word left to describe the 1GB+ transfer required to play each game's demo version? Actually, probably not. Marketing doesn't like to mention dirty, inconvenient things like long waits, so that concept isn't even there. To them, this NewSpeak simply means "Try before you buy".


Windows über alles

As a non-Windows type person, this made me cringe: They've got a free countdown clock! But it's Windows Vista or 7 only. ... Yeah, the countdown widget, the widget that takes minutes for anyone to create, cross-platform or web-based, or even iPhone or other mobile's app, Microsoft decided on Windows-only.


Caveat Emptor

At the risk of stating the obvious, I must point out that the actual "buy" moment is when the MS points are purchased with good ol', non-virtual money. Microsoft then has your money, and likely doesn't care if you trade these MS points or not (except that if you reduce your points balance to near zero, you're more likely to give Microsoft more real-world money to fill them up again).


Note: I'd link to the ad, but its URL is full of identifying codes. And the pages online actually say "purchase". I guess it's OK in email to be "less precise".

Novel television fulfills starving viewers

No spoilers.

Battlestar Galactica (2003) finished its sparse 6-year span this weekend with the episode "Daybreak, part 3". In our house it was not unlike watching SiL (Babylon 5's goodbye episode) some 10 years earlier. Tears streamed. But why?

Earlier in 2009 I called BSG a "train wreck", and meant it. The story had gone completely "woo-woo". Characters took on completely different motivations. Plot lines were silently abandoned. Contrast to B5 which stuck to and finished its story through its 4 network seasons.*

BSG's "jump the shark" moment for me was at the start of its Season 4 (2008) when it hyped then revealed the "final five Cylon models". (Recall there were 12 models made to look like humans. They were hidden, sleeper agents amongst the humans, multiple copies of each.) Even this turned out to be a bald-faced lie as they were neither "final" nor "models". And worse, Cylon bad guys parroted this "final five" marketing line in their dialog.

This and many more changes grew my anger and disbelief as season 4 wore on, yet I still watched, and at the end I still came to tears.

That good writers can cause such caring and emotional attachment is hardly new. Those of us who read books know this well. A planned story arc that executes to fulfillment is perhaps older than formal language itself. Indeed societies and cultures were built on the more epic of tales.

It should come as no surprise, then, that a when a good story is allowed to develop, people find meaning in it and emotionally attach to its characters. A significant human desire, if not need, is fulfilled.

American television, our modern storyteller of the greater world, fails to grasp this. Instead we get "pitched at". Endless short-sighted series emphasize action over meaning. Titillation and hype drive the soulless push for a nightly maximum of viewers.

And then most series are abandoned even before all completed episodes are shown. Characters and story suddenly vanish. Wiped out. The full tragedy of this is that the viewer gets punished for caring. No closure, grief unresolved, series after series, year after year.

American television needs to commit to showing complete stories. Short stories would work: 3 to 6 hours of a tale, any genre: beginning, middle, end. Perhaps that could serve as a pilot to gauge viewer interest? But also commit to shows with a longer story that fills out a season or seasons of a show. It can work with accomplished writers and good stories. It's been done before. It should be done again. (And often.)

So back to the Galactica finale, I cried because I'm sad. Well-rounded characters I came to know through a story are gone, and I will not see them again. I cried because I'm human, an emotional being. I grieve the loss, and I embrace it fully.

___
* Yes, I know B5 had a 5th season on TNT, but it was like a "bonus" season or sequel, with new story, main characters and feel.

Reflections and Taxes

Yup, this is my first blog. Taking stock of all my past entries (1), I notice several things.

1. A month is a very long time between entries. So much has happened between then and now. I think that was a different person who posted that.
2. Anger is an odd thing to blog about. I remember toning down that entry, but it still has a bitter edge to it. I really am really a nice person.

So one month on, what's up? Well, I've done my taxes: US Taxes.

Yep, US citizens (and US resident aliens) still have to file taxes, on their worldwide income. The good news is that there's an $80,000 foreign earned income exemption, which kicks in after being here a year. But it is more complicated than just that. Tax laws are just like API: Lots and lots of details, but understandable by determined, intelligent people. I read through some of them, but did decide to contact a tax pro. Fortunately ours were simple enough for TurboTax, though next year... ?.

UK Taxes? I'm not there yet. The UK tax year isn't calendar year, and ends April 5. I've read that one strategy is to file an extension on US taxes then do the UK taxes first. I'm expecting my UK taxes to be fairly simple, but then again the family and business have a UK accountant here. (Always work with a net. :-)

In other news... I canceled my AT&T iPhone contract. Guess what? They billed me the early cancel fee, in full. Yes, there's now a proration, but it wasn't in the contract I agreed to on June 29, 2007. AT&T did offer me an out, via fax. But then said, oops, they really require a mailed utility bill showing my new address not served by them. (Insert frustration yell here.)

Utility bill in your name. That's important. Maybe I'll write about that next time. (Want a bank account? You need a proof of address. Even just to get added to an existing account.) We are getting our own BT landline and Internet service, in our own name. Convenient and cheaper than mobile. Lots of things to blog about for next time.

P.S. The canceling of the AT&T iPhone contract coincided with my no longer needing to Jailbreak & unlock my iPhone to use the O2 SIM. Happy to be "legit" again!

Arriving

It's been 3 months since I arrived in the UK. That seems like lots of time to settle in and set up shop, but in some areas I'm still just getting started.

Settling in to our home and the B&B job has gone smoothly enough. Being back to living and working with Joanna has made us both very happy. Plus the in-laws are nice to work with and be around.

The things that made it seem like I wasn't really "here" yet were various delays and red tape. To try to be brief I'll just make a list:

• The belongings I shipped from the US late September arrived only 2 weeks ago.
  
• I received my UK driving licence only last week (and it's provisional). 
  
• Resource contentions getting some things, including my National Insurance Number.
  
• Red tape even just getting added to Joanna's bank account.
  

Dealing with the companies and bureaucracy has been a source of regular frustration these past few months. I wonder if it's the universe training me for more such battles to come. Maybe, "How I learned to stop swallowing anger and really tear into those so deserving of it."? :-)