It’s not killing people, it’s reading them

Like a lot of people of my generation I have been rather reticent about electronic technology, while my friends got excited about early PCs I was a bit more concerned about what they actually did, rather than the exaggerated promise that excited those early adopters. Twelve  years ago I made a big show of referring to computers as “Instruments of the Devil” and I was dismissive of the information available on the World Wide Web. Then I got my first computer, a second hand 486 and it allowed me to discuss self-sufficiency with others of a like mind. Over the years I have upgraded and replaced the home PC a few times  and now I think that I have a pretty good handle on computers and  this internet thingy. The information potential of the web is still over rated, mainly because there is no quality control or veracity testing of the ever burgeoning content, but it can certainly be a boon to those of us who want more interaction with people than their personal circumstances would otherwise allow.  I see a similar parallel when it comes to Gaming, I was dismissive at first, even hostile, and I could see that what exited people was the potential for the medium. All I could see was unconvincing graphics and very shallow narratives, the character avatars were crude, lacking convincing expression or a realistic presence.   Since we joined the gaming set at Christmas I have played a quite a few different games and not just the ones that have been bought for the children. I spoke earlier about Heavy Rain and Grand Theft Auto I have waxed lyrical about Red Dead Redemption to friends and family and I have suggested that I am excited about the upcoming release of L A Noire at the Sandpit, well now as the release of the game is only thirteen days away its almost like it waiting for Christmas to come when I was a child. I seem to  have caught that same enthusiasm for the potential of the medium that I have so resisted up until now.

I had this sort of grand resolve to keep this enthusiasm too myself but when I saw the piece in today’s Age beating the patriotic drum about the fact that LA Noire  has been made by Team Bondi and they are an Australian crew:

Best of all, it was built right here in Australia.

Two police detectives burst into a filthy apartment. A woman is cowering on the floor amid upturned furniture as a group of hired thugs search every drawer and cupboard. A fist fight ensues, the heavies are dispatched and the officers are left to question the traumatised victim.

How do they start questioning her? How will they know if she’s telling the truth? Well, that’s your problem. You are the cop and this is a whole new type of video game.

LA Noire is the latest offering from Rockstar Games, the notorious publisher of Grand Theft Auto and last year’s brilliant western shooter, Red Dead Redemption. The action takes place in the seamy, crime-sodden LA of the late 40s; the familiar hunting ground of Raymond Chandler, James Ellroy and Dashiell Hammett – all huge influences on the game’s director, Brendan McNamara. The player takes on the role of rookie detective Cole Phelps as he investigates a series of kidnaps and murders, studying crime scenes, talking to witnesses and interrogating suspects. Gamers are able to choose the tone of each Q& A session, playing nice and going in gently, or challenging every word the subject utters. Vitally, progress is made by watching characters as they stutter and squirm, judging whether they’re lying or terrified; it’s not killing people, it’s reading them.

The realism of these virtual humans is incredible. In one scene the gamer has to question an actor who has been drugged, shoved in the back of a car and wheeled down an embankment in a thwarted murder attempt. Her eyes dart about, she shifts uncomfortably, her brows furrow in agitation – she’s hiding something. These aren’t the gross caricatures of facial expressions we’re used to in video games, they are subtle and natural. Later, the gamer talks to a weasely prop house owner who has been caught running a seedy casting coach. He snarls his way through the session, but after a few threats he wilts, his expression droops. At times, it is almost photographic.

What LA Noire represents is a new era for interactive entertainment. Over the past 30 years, games have been based around challenging the player’s hand-eye co-ordination – the ability to react quickly with a controller. But in LA Noire, the main skill is emotional perception, being able to judge body language and facial “tells” – the little nervous tics that betray liars. These are the same skills we use in real life and that allow us to engage with characters in TV and movie dramas. Suddenly then, games are a universal medium.

If you have managed to see the TV series “Lie to me”  you may be a bit more aware of just how facial expressions can be read to test the veracity of witnesses and suspects when crimes are being investigated. The fact that the technology now makes it possible to integrate this into a game is very promising for the future of games  and I really hope that it will mean that we will see more games like this rather than just  the endless shoot em ups (which I admit can be strangely satisfying ) I also hope that the narrative of L A Noire is a bit more open ended than the one in Red Dead Redemption.(I’m already thinking that a sequel to La Noire would be good     ) As much as I love RDR I was a little disappointed about the rather strange decision to kill off John Marsden for no apparent reason that I could detect, unless it was just  to suggest that the US government is innately corrupt. The last part of the game where you play as Jack Marsden is just not up to the standard of the first two thirds of the game.  Sorry that is a small digression, lets get back to LA Noire shall we? Check out how they have managed to capture those all important facial expressions:

That surely has to be the future for game design which will enable deeper and more satisfying story telling that the audience can participate in. Frankly I think that this game may well be the “Jazz Singer” of the medium which will mark the moment when gaming takes a step up from something has been truly limited to something that is as revolutionary as adding sound to the silent films was.

Well here’s hoping anyway…

That is the inspiration for me doing something that I once thought I would never do; I have actually pre-ordered the game and can’t wait till the 20th of May…

Cheers Comrades

They begin a whole new round of the spin cycle

Its something that we have seen the Labor party do repeatedly, they decide upon a “reform” don’t really think about what the “knock on” effects will will be, then they go into denial that their reform is the cause of the subsequent problems, finally they realise that they can’t spin their failure as a success so they take a step back to the pre-reform position. Sadly this usually means that the thing that they broke in the first place is still stuffed but then they begin a whole new round of the spin cycle:

As pressure mounts on Labor to deal with the asylum-seeker issue in the wake of a large influx of boats over the past three years and violent riots at detention centres in recent weeks, the Papua New Guinea cabinet is today expected to endorse a proposal submitted by Canberra for a centre to be located in the country.

One of the options is to open a detention centre on Manus Island, the site of the Howard government’s so-called Pacific Solution.

In a clear sign the government’s original proposal for a centre in East Timor has become an embarrassing failure, Immigration Department secretary Andrew Metcalfe and Richard Marles, the Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs, travelled to Port Moresby this week for discussions with PNG officials. The visit followed concerted behind-the-scenes lobbying by Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd, who pointedly refused to take carriage of the ill-fated East Timor solution announced by Julia Gillard in the lead-up to last year’s election.

Of course even if they get this up they will be on a hiding to nothing in the opinion of the public because without the removal of permanent residency the people smugglers will still have a product to sell and the boats will continue to arrive…

Half measures, are not enough…

Cheers Comrades

Natural Justice and arrogant latte-sipping lawyers

It is of course understandable that those in the legal profession would think that justice actually requires the performance in their own  theatre, with appropriate posturing  from their own stars of that stage. They truly think that the courts and the legal profession have an absolute monopoly upon the dispensing of justice. Personally I think that the claim for justice being the exclusive business of lawyers and judges is  flawed. Firstly  I shall give you the  example of   Geoffrey Robertson who says this in the Age and was very quick of the mark at the ABC making essentially  the same argument:

I do not minimise the security problems of holding a trial or overlook the danger of it ending up as a squalid circus like that of Saddam Hussein. But the notion that any legal process would have been too hard must be rejected. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed – also alleged to be an architect of September 11 – will go on trial shortly. Had bin Laden been captured he should have been in the dock alongside him, so that their shared responsibility could have been properly examined.

Bin Laden could not have been tried for the attacks on the twin towers at the International Criminal Court, since its jurisdiction only came into existence nine months later. But the United Nations Security Council could have set up an ad hoc tribunal in The Hague, with international judges (including Muslim jurists), to provide a fair trial and a reasoned verdict that would have convinced the Arab street of his guilt.

This would have been the best way of demystifying this man, debunking his cause and de-brainwashing his followers. In the dock he would have been reduced in stature – never more to be remembered as the tall, soulful figure on the mountain, but as a hateful and hate-filled old man. Since his videos exult in the killing of innocent civilians, any cross-examination would have emphasised his inhumanity. These benefits that flow from real justice have been forgone.

The obsessive belief of the US in capital punishment – alone among advanced nations – is reflected in its rejoicing at the manner of bin Laden’s demise. Barack Obama has most likely secured re-election by approving the execution. This may be welcome, given the alternatives of Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee (who have both urged that Julian Assange be hunted down in similar fashion) or Donald Trump. But it is a sad reflection on the continuing attraction of summary execution.

There seems to be a great deal of post facto suggestions that Bin laden should/could have been taken alive but this is absolutely unrealistic. So many of Bin Laden’s acolytes have been willing to detonate explosives when they faced capture that the police and military just do not give the the benefit of the doubt a head shot is the best way to ensure that a cornered Jihadist is the only one sent to meet their maker, it is only later when they have been neutralised can anyone be sure if they posed a real threat to those sent to capture or kill them. In that very short time between entering the room and firing the fatal shots with a full on adrenaline rush there would have been no scope for the arrest of Bin laden. firing the fatal shots would have been a split second decision and fully consistent with the reputation of the target and the expectations of those commandos that the target would not “come quietly”.  When one side does not acknowledge any limits to their behaviour (as the Jihadists have proven so many times by deliberately  killing innocents) and they think that dying for their cause buys them a place in paradise it is unreasonable to expect that they should be captured as a first preference rather than the safest option of them being killed

At its heart the notion of justice requires that someone who acts in an unacceptable manner receives a sanction that is an appropriate recompense for their crimes. What we consider to be a crime in the first place is essentially decided by social consensus and we rely upon the same sort  social consensus to decide if someone accused of a crime is guilty by the use of a jury. Thus it is that the courts and Lawyers like Robertson are really just the proxies for  the people. However there are times when we just do not need such proxies. The man was guilty and his death was just, the fact that there was no convoluted legal ritual preceding his well deserved demise is a blessing because we have been spared the same sort of  evil court room grandstanding  we saw when the Bali Bombers were tried and eventually executed. We all think that there is a justice of sorts evident when bad things happen to bad people. There is merit in this belief because we see that sort of happen-stance as a balancing of the books which is after all what we understand justice to be isn’t it?

The arrogance of the legal profession here is breath taking. Is there really any doubt that Bin Laden was guilty of the crimes that he boasted about to the world?  What sentence would Robertson deem appropriate given his oft stated objection to capital punishment? Anyway this raise the question what precisely is Justice and does it require the theatre that made Robertson a star?
So I’ argue that the killing of Bin laden is just, he got what he deserved, and that would have been the judgement of a reasonable court anyway so in terms of natural justice there is no problem here at all.

Cheers Comrades

What do ya think of the Twizy?

This looks interesting on a number of levels it still lacks a range that would would work for many people in this country but it is good to see a major car maker thinking outside the box and producing an electric  machine at a more reasonable price than the alternatives offered so far.

Cheers Comrades

A glimpse of Bess Price’s world

Although I’m just a simple whitefella I am very concerned about the plight of our indigenous people which is why I have written about the topic on a fairly regular basis here at the Sandpit. It is also the reason that I have been rather scathing of the lefties who have done such a great disservice to the most disadvantaged Australians by focusing on a rights agenda rather than seeking good practical outcomes and a real future for the original inhabitants of this wide brown land. This has led me to respect and admire people like Noel Pearson and Bess Price. It is the latter that I want to highlight today.

click for streaming audio

I was lying in bed early this morning listening to Radio National when the repeat of “Background briefing” came on. Please listen at my link or read the transcript for a most sensible argument about what has to be done to give the first people of this country a chance at being part of the future rather than a sad footnote from our past. Clearly its not the rights agenda driven aborigines by choice who are going to provide salvation for those desperate people in remote Australia, its people like Bess Price who understand that not every part of Indigenous culture should be immutable or given undue deference in the face of modernity.

  Much respect Comrades

Sad subbies at Fairfax

As an avid follower of the media, its trends and moods, I of course take an interest in significant developments and here is one that caught my eye yesterday:

Almost 100 sub-editors positions will be cut as part of plans to transform newspaper production by outsourcing the process.

Fairfax Media chief executive Greg Hywood yesterday prompted threats of strike action when he announced the sub-editing of news, sport and business at the flagship mastheads would be moved to Pagemasters, an external company owned by Australian Associated Press.

The “subs” edit stories, check facts, wording and spelling, watch for legal problems, lay out pages as well as write headlines and captions.

Fairfax journalists met yesterday to express concerns that taking this function away from the editorial floor would not only cost jobs but also reduce the quality of finished copy.

Its just that I wonder what an unemployed sub-editor can possibly do next? Maybe they could try writing books, but if they have already had a go at that and they have produced only duds for their publisher that option will not keep them in Chai Lattes, Hmm its a tough one…
But more seriously this issue seems to me to be one of the relentless march of technology making the mechanistic job of sub-editing a newspaper not so much less important but able to be accomplished far less expensively. After all in the age of spell-check does Fairfax really need that expensive  extra layer of scrutiny for their copy? Personally I feel for about  99% of the sub-editors who are about to lose their jobs. It is always tough to have to re-invent your life when its foundations are shaken by events beyond your control, but as scions of “progress” and “progressive thought” they will just have to wear it won’t they? Strangely if they do decide to strike they may just prove that their role is in fact as management clearly thinks it to be, less than necessary these days .

Cheers Comrades

Islamic enough and really much more than the mastermind behind the deaths of so many innocent lives deserved.

In the wake of the execution of the Bali Bombers I was advocating that they should have been denied the rituals and comfort of an Islamic funeral, playing as it were to the religious dogma of the faith that these vile creatures claimed to kill for. I still think that there is merit in playing to the superstitions of those who kill for Allah, by making them believe that we will do everything possible to undermine a glorious reward in the afterlife.
Thus I find it very interesting that the USA have found something of a middle path between undue deference to Islamic dogma and the political necessity that there be no focal point for Jihadist pilgrimage to the tomb of thsi truly evil man:

click for source

I fully expect that the footage and still images of a dead Bin Laden will shortly be released and there is no doubt that some people will not believe it until they see it for themselves. While the apologists for the Jihadists will undoubtedly try to insist that the disposal of this vile man’s corpse is “un-Islamic” the more sensible will realise that it is just Islamic enough and really much more than the mastermind behind the deaths of so many innocent lives deserved.

Cheers Comrades

Osama Bin Laden

There are not words enough

Cheers indeed Comrades!!!!!

Compassion and fairness for asylum seekers

Amanda Vanstone was minister for immigration in the Howard government and  she still knows her onions,  her opinion piece in the Age this morning is succinct and to the point:

When you say yes to someone who has come in with a people smuggler, you are going to have to say no to people waiting in camps for the world to help them. So being nice to one person means you are not being fair to another. Not fair at all.

It’s all too easy to market yourself as compassionate because you take up the cause of asylum seekers who come in the back door. But it is a conveniently conspicuous compassion, and it’s the politics of convenience.

How can letting others with more money buy a place at the front be in any way fair to the refugees in camps? The government needs to bite the bullet and recognise that the people in camps who come in the front door are deserving of priority. That’s what’s fair.

Things have changed, so the policy needs to change. Permanent protection should be saved for the most deserving – those who have spent years in refugee camps with little hope, or those for whom we are the country of first asylum.

For those who force our hand and come in the back door through other countries, we should offer protection – but temporary protection only. No visas to travel the world, and no family reunion.

Its a tough but fair regime that Amanda Vanstone is suggesting here and who could possibly argue with that ? So if  the coalition is the only party prepared to make this sort of reform it is obvious that a change of government is necessary sooner rather than later  if we are going to solve this problem.

Cheers Comrades

“Back in the body of the march will be the politicians, struggling to get noticed.”

I have actually marched in a labour day parade, with the International Socialists no less, but that was when I was young and rather foolish and in the time of Joh it made perfect sense. Now the Labour day march seems is  something of an anachronism. With Union membership in the most serious sort of decline it is probably just a matter of time before the whole event is cancelled lest the unions embarrass themselves by making public their own irrelevance.

So perhaps we should make the effort to go and watch the march because it may be the last one for a very long time when there are members of a Labor Government as part of the parade. Not that they are that welcome this time though , as Dennis Aitkins points out in today’s Courier mail:

ONCE WERE COMRADES: Children marching in the 1950 Labour Day parade. Source: The Courier-Mail

Back in the body of the march, which will assemble Monday morning at the corner of Wharf and Turbot streets, will be the politicians, struggling to get noticed.

While the organisers will say this is about honouring the traditions and history of the rail unions, it’s also about privatisation and the lingering bad blood in the Queensland Labor Party.

But as much as the internal grumblings of Queensland Labor will spill over into the march, those who do gather for the annual trade union jamboree should think about the coming year because it’s not going to get much better.

This time next year the Bligh Government will most likely be consigned to the Opposition benches unless the crazy brave Campbell Newman experiment blows itself up and the federal Labor Government will be struggling.

The outlook for the Gillard Government is bleak.

A primary vote in the low 30s shows no sign of reviving and a trio of diabolical political problems will beset federal Labor for the next year or so.

After the last national public poll was published putting Labor’s support at a 15-year low one senior party figure pondered the ALP’s fortunes.

“I can see a way out of this hole but not for about 18 months,” he said, desolately.

That trio of problems is the perils of pricing carbon, the pervasive influence of the Greens and the persistent presence of Kevin Rudd.

The people are not stupid and there was clearly a time when the union movement had a point but that was before the “common” people were such an important element in the prosperity of our economy. These days it is the consumption of goods by the people who make them that is an essential part of the world’s economy so there is balance to be sought by employers and those who run our industries. If the workers are not paid enough so that they can be effective consumers then the whole world economy will collapse and if they are paid too much then the individual enterprises that make up our economy will fail. There is a clear codependency between  all parties involved here. This is something that I have been watching for years and this has to be recognised by organised labour as much as it has to be recognised by the leaders of industry. I tend to think that viscerally the working public recognise this fact which is why union membership is considered so optional these days.

Anyway lets see what sort of reception the March gets tomorrow, I’m guessing that it will be rather  like the curates egg or maybe a swan song…

Cheers Comrades