andrewducker

The new Xbox will be out for next Christmas, I'm not sure if microsoft will license their OS, ev en the older ones, to run on anything that is likely to be a competitor for their new console?

(Particularly given a new console launch in this current economic environment has at best a 50/50 chance of succeeding.)

I don't think MS can stop people buying OEM licenses of Windows and putting them onto computers.

I would think the steam console would need to have some version of windows. I know they've been experimenting with Linux. But if they want people to be able to buy the big new releases...

Yes, I agree. But I don't think MS could stop them putting it on there, as I just said!

Tell you what, if they're smart I bet Half Life episode 3 is their launch title for it.

I can't remember where it was, but there was something from Valve that implied they would have a basic spec that you would have to meet in order to release a game on Steam. I can't remember if it was to do with Big Picture mode or if it was talking about hardware. I'm sure the gist was that there would be a lowest common denominator (what I inferred from it was that they would ensure games on Steam would run on whatever hardware they were making, so fancy new games would have to run on presumably lower-end hardware and whatever OS they used.

Re the Indie article on inequality, did you notice that it's 16 years old? I didn't this morning. I dunno what that says, but I thought you'd want to be aware in case you got caught by the 'trending on Facebook' trap as I did.

Oh FFS. Thank you for that, I completely failed to notice.

I didn't think The Independent even _had_ a website back in 1996. I wonder if they're backfilling their archive.

Handy updates since 1996.

Bad news: We've got more unequal since then:
http://economytoday.co.uk/blog/uk-gini-coefficient-past-and-future/

Good news: we're no longer the most unequal nation in the EU.

Bad news: this is mostly due to the expansion of EU member states since 1996 including Latvia, Romania, Lithuania and Bulgaria who are more unequal than us. (Also Greece and Portugal have become more unequal than us.)

Apparently the Steam console is planned to run on Linux.

There are lots of rumours about that for months now, but no official confirmation. And if they're going to make the complete Steam catalogue available then Linux is going to be a tricky proposition!

Dammit, I slipped at the end and only got 27/30. I was also confused because Mountain Goat is, of course, a MtG card, though I can believe there's no D&D monster of that exact name.

Finally the internet has provided a quiz tailored to my areas of expertise!

You and Steer clearly need to run a quiz together!

I have a better idea. Steer: do you want to be the bassist in my new band, Blackwing? That will get me to 28!

27 out of 30 as well.

Remember, many years ago, a friend thinking of calling his band the Type IV Demons.

Can I get bonus points for the fact that Goat is a D&D monster AND an Indie band? (Or at least a band signed to an indie label).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goat_%28band%29

Yes. You get three extra points, which probably pushes you into the next rank!

Ooooh... maybe I'll get an extra skill. I hope it's a more useful one than telling Indie bands from D&D monsters. I don't know why I picked that ability... the tech tree choice is so confusing in real life.

I thought that was a bonus skill for if you bought both Ultra-Nerd and Uber-Hipster?

God, I so should have done it that way. Can I reroll?

I do think it's interesting that the next generation of consoles doesn't feel much like consoles at all. I backed the OUYA Kickstarter because I want it to succeed so badly, and I'd have thought we'd get the Steam console as well if the price is cheap enough. After all, I have a head of steam of perhaps 50 games I own on Steam and have not got round to playing. Part of my 2013 plan is to return our ancient Mac Mini to its original purpose of computer-attached-to-the-TV, now that we have a lovely TV. And I don't know about the Steam console, but both the Mac Mini and the OUYA are pretty open devices.

Oh yes. The next gen are basically computers in handy-dandy bite-sized boxes.

Although the Steam box looks likely to cost a small fortune, judging by equivalent PCs on the manufacturer's site.

Early estimates are that the box Xi3 are showing off at the moment (although specs may change before it becomes the steam box, obviously) will be about $1100: Specs from Eurogamer.

My desktop gaming rig cost less than that and is a lot more powerful.

So 4-6 times more expensive than a 360/PS3.

Yeah, not going for that.

Even allowing for the next generation consoles costing more, I reckon they'll have to at least halve that price to make it a viable competitor.

Admittedly PC games tend to be cheaper than console and given the large Steam library I already have there are longer-term savings over a new console so it'd be a nice toy to play with. However, for a few tens of pounds I could hook up the extra video-out from my games PC to the TV two rooms away and use a wireless keyboard and mouse / controller to do the same job.

The next gen of consoles will have a bit of a problem. Xboxes and PS3s are dvds/blu-ray players and are positioned as media/entertainment centres. I know a few people who splashed out on a PS3 over a 360 because they could use it as a blu ray player. Given the cost of new console games over and above PC games (at least in the UK, not sure if other countries are the same), there's going to need to be something that the PS4/Xbox 720 or whatever do over and above what they currently do if they'll cost a chunk more than the current gen did at release and need to appeal to people with current consoles, smart TVs or whatever.

I bought my PS3 because I needed a Blu-Ray player and decided that the PS3 would be a good way of fulfilling that _and_ playing Ico.

The PS3 was a smaller step above the PS2 than the PS2 was above the PS. The PS4 will be able to do...more pixels. Yay?

They've also got a problem that they ditch backwards compatibility, except that people want that. There's no way we're upgrading our Wii to a version that doesn't have Gamecube controllers, for example. This is a bigger problem for dancemat fans than other gamers, but my son also has a pile of Gamecube games he doesn't want to lose the ability to play. And there is a limit to how many consoles I can fit in the stack under the telly, or plug into my amp.

And also, not convinced I get more fun out of playing $50 games when they're new, rather than play the same game three years later for $4.99 without the slight feeling of being ripped off.

That's why I love Steam! Cheap games, 9 months later!

$1100! So not happening. Ok. I was assuming it would be about $299.

Is an MA really needed for a social work job?

If “Caring for others was what she wanted to do,” it makes sense to get a job caring for others, rather than spending a year in expensive full-time education.

You _can_ just tell people to work in the non-accredited parts of the profession if they can't afford to pay for the education, but that tends to lead to effectively leading to said profession only being populated by nice middle class people whose parents could give/lend them the money to get into it.

I suspect in this case that it's a conversion course - which makes me less sympathetic to her particular plight, as she didn't need the course in the first place if she'd decided that she wanted to be a social worker a few years earlier.

Gosh, I had no idea that social work required a degree. But then, I don’t really know what social workers do. I don’t think I’ve ever met one.

But considering how much local councils spend on social work, I suppose there are a lot of them out there. Or a few of them, on very high salaries.

The key thing is to pick the right undergraduate course, as you suggest. I suspect that masters degrees will increasingly become an affectation for those with resources to fund a personal interest, or for those who have saved to support a change of career. Can’t see much of an argument in favour of providing any funding for students to do a masters directly following an undergraduate degree, particularly when all university funding is being squeezed.

According to http://www.acareerchange.co.uk/changing-career-becoming-social-worker.html they earn £20k-£40k, and there's a shortage of social workers.

I have a friend who is one, and they seem to have to work with the police, lawyers, angry parents, and deal with all sorts of stuff you frankly couldn't pay me to do, no matter what.

There's always a desperate shortage. It's complex, skilled, difficult work that requires a ton of education, requires you to always work shifts/ be busiest at holiday times, can be massively unpleasant and stressful, and is uniformly disparaged by society. Can't think why people don't pick it as a career.

I came out of 2011 needing space to look for ideas on what to do next, and the main reason I'm not at Uni doing a tought Masters of some kind is the cost. You have to be very clear on what you want to do and how your £9,000+ is going to pay off before you sign up for that kind of commitment.

It looks from where I sit that social work is a very complex environment with lots of law and practice and dozens of organisations having fingers in the pie - no wonder it needs post-grad qualifications to progress a career.

By the way, did you see this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20937729

"Sleep problems could jeopardise future missions to Mars". I had thought this experiment was a bit gimmicky, but it seems to have produced some interesting results.

I hadn't - so thank you!

Good choice! Type VI would be arrogant, Type V would be sleazy. But Type IV shows class.

Ok, I'm lost. Which bit was that a response to?

Whoops! Sorry - reply to khbrown higher up.

It's clearly too long since you last used a threaded discussion system :->