This autumn has been full of news about the Finnish labour market turmoils — particularly nurses have protested that they were promised a lot during the parliamentary election campaigns, and then let down in the actual salary solutions. This morning there was this piece of news that also university professionals and other government/civil servants have now the results from the salary negotiations: 11,5 % by the end of 2010. I suppose the solution is pretty much in line with what has been going on in the other negotiations, but the entire salary negotiations roulette leaves bad taste in your mouth. The economists and lawyers disagree with the fundamentals on what the current and future Finnish economy can handle in terms of salary rise, politicians change their views on what they have promised and what not — and the “competitive”, “innovation based” knowledge society refuses to fix the unmotivating and deep gap in the basic funding of Finnish universities. See: YLE uutiset / Kotimaa.
Around View to revolutionise parking?
With all these narrow parking halls, I could definitely make use of something like this system: (link).
Conference in National Museum
Conference in National Museum
Originally uploaded by FransBadger
Today will be spent in Helsinki, in the National Museum where I am presenting a short talk about games, virtual worlds and what these developments in digital culture could matter to museums and other institutions of cultural heritage. Rather than just focusing on ‘canonised culture’ (traditional national treasures and art of the analogue world), I am also calling for initiatives to maintain the digital memories, artifacts and some significant virtual environments for the future generations. (Pictured: some canonised art by Gallen-Kallela in the museum entrance lobby dome.) Link to conference pages: http://www.accessibility2007.info/
FlOwer trailer
Trying to find that elusive paradox, relaxing game. These are some of my favourites: http://www.ferryhalim.com/orisinal/ — and this one: http://intihuatani.usc.edu/cloud/flowing/ In DiGRA2007, people from ThatGameCompany were presenting their next project with a teaser trailer: FlOwer:
Testing Mac Mini with diNovo Edge and Full HD
Testing Mac Mini with diNovo Edge and Full HD
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.
One of my souvenirs from Tokyo was a Mac Mini (one of these new Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.0 GHz models) — my first mac ever. I plugged it in to my Full HD tv in the living room, and to get away of the wires, used Logitech diNovo Edge bluetooth keyboard to interface with it. I must admit I am pretty happy with the combo, even if (with the Netherlands trip and all) I’ve not got so much time to test it in action. It also takes time to troubleshoot the system and hack into it, as a newbie mac user. For example, it appears that when you use DVI-to-HDMI cable to connect Mac Mini, instead of true Full HD (1080p), you get interlaced video (1080i). 1080p is not available in the display menus, and even trying out SwitchResX has not solved this for me so far (see http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5504980). Also, diNovo Edge is great keyboard with lithium-ion rechargeable battery and built-in touch plate to emulate mouse, but it is not officially a Macintosh-compatible device. Almost all of its keys and functions will run just fine in any case. The Front Row media center interface is simple enough, and runs fine (as I finally got it loading, needed to use keyboard shortcut rather than the remote for that, though). Thus, it appears that even if mac is sweet and easy, there is also learning curve and some tweaking required if you really want to experience it in full HTPC glory.
Amsterdam, again
Amsterdam, again
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.
The remaiming PTS2007 schedule was messed up by the chartered bus missing in the morning. I finally joined a group who made it from Haarlem to Amsterdam individually with busses and train. No longer having time to visit the Holland Casino that was in my program, I find myself making it by foot through the Amsterdam centre, towards the Rijksmuseum where our airport return trip should eventually kick off. normally I would love playing the tourist, taking a close look at the historical sights, like the Koninklijk Paleis (pictured). But I am simply tired of all this travelling, homesick to get back to Laura and our baby, and even if the remaining trip goes according to schedule (which I am starting to doubt), it will be something like 3 am in Sunday morning before I am home again. Oh dear. — Oh yes, there also seems to be something wrong with mail-to-Flickr and WordPress integration; my Tokyo and Holland posts have gone missing and I have had to repost them all from a PC. Yes, home would be a great thing.
Addiction seminar in Haarlem
Addiction seminar in Haarlem
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.
The panelists (pictured) discuss social responsibility issues related to alcohol problems in the PTS2007 seminar taking place today in Haarlem, The Netherlands. I find myself in this seminar to discuss the various addiction or control problem issues of digital games, virtual worlds and online gambling. A rather broad and troublesome field, but it is also interesting to test approaching game like it would be a drug, and see what we could then say about the future of ‘ludic society’ if we take games’ holding powers more seriously. And whether they should be taken seriously.
Talks in MindTrek, Lab's 15th Anniversary
Talks in MindTrek, Lab’s 15th Anniversary
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.
Zak Greant from FOO Associates is here presenting a talk in MindTrek conference, drawing broad lines into the history of communication. There is an entire track dedicated to the transformation of games from products into services. Our department, Hypermedia Laboratory is also celebrating today its 15th anniversary. A long career in new media studies. Cheers!
Back home
Back home
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.
Sunday morning, it is raining in Tokyo. It has been great week, but now: it is time to go home.
DiGRA 2007 over
Yesterday evening the third international Digital Games Research Conference closed in Tokyo. Professor Baba, the conference chair, presented some interesting figures; if I got them right from the translation, there had been 178 presentations in the conference, and 355 conference participants. Impressive figures for a conference of an emerging field, organised in (what to a Western-dominated researcher community is) a far-away Japan. There were much discussion about how to improve the conference and about various issues that could have gone a bit better, but the overall impression was that the conference was an obvious success. Continue reading “DiGRA 2007 over”
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